ReliefWeb » Document » Thaialnd: Surin to compensate people dying from cold weather

Source: Royal Thai Goverment

Date: 17 Jan 2009

The Provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office in Surin assures residents of the province that the government is prepared to provided needed care to impoverished people during the ongoing cold spell with 20,000 baht of aid money to anyone who perishes due to the weather.

Head of the Surin Provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office Umnuay Chantharat informed that he has received an urgent order from the Ministry of Interior to expedite aid to citizens stricken by the ongoing cold weather with an emphasis on people living under the poverty line. His office has been instructed to issue 20,000 baht to victims of the cold and 40,000 baht if the victims are heads of family.

Twitter users weigh in: "global warming my" - Twitter Search

[sample] tonyseomusic: 4 F degrees with -10 F wind chills...global warming my arse!

Beat this, Shelbyville: Springfield reports power consumption record -- chicagotribune.com

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The recent blast of subzero winter weather is causing record power consumption in Springfield.

Springfield, City Water, Light and Power says the state's capital set an all-time winter peak of power consumption at 325 megawatts earlier this week.

The previous record for the company was 15 years ago on Jan. 18, 1994. That's when the number was 311 megawatts.

Newark logs record at -20 degrees

NEWARK — Bone-chilling temperatures in the area from late Friday into early Saturday accomplished more than forcing residents to add a few extra layers of clothing: The day set a new record low temperature of -20.

Florida: Rare wind chill advisory

The weather service said a wind chill advisory will remain in effect until 10 a.m. today in Alachua, Marion and most other North Florida counties. According to the weather service, a wind chill advisory means “very cold air and strong winds will combine to generate low wind chills. This will result in frostbite and lead to hypothermia if precautions are not taken. If you must venture outdoors, make sure you wear a hat and gloves.”

During the advisory, actual low temperatures are forecast to fall into the mid- to upper 20s inland and low 30s along the coastlines, while a 10 to 15 mph north wind will create a wind chill as low as 15 degrees inland and near 20 degrees in coastal areas.

The forecast for sub-freezing temperatures prompted Gov. Charlie Crist to issue a state of emergency so that some highway restrictions around Florida could be lifted. Easing restrictions on truck heights and weights are expected to make it easier to harvest and transport crops that could be damaged by the freezing weather.

Hansen: 'We Have Only Four Years Left to Act on Climate Change - America Has to Lead'

"I have been described as the grandfather of climate change. In fact, I am just a grandfather and I do not want my grandchildren to say that grandpa understood what was happening but didn't make it clear," Hansen said last week. Hence his warning to Barack Obama, who will be inaugurated as US president on Tuesday. His four-year administration offers the world a last chance to get things right, Hansen said. If it fails, global disaster - melted sea caps, flooded cities, species extinctions and spreading deserts - awaits mankind.
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The issue was simple, said Hansen: would each annual increase of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere produce a simple proportional increase in temperature or would its heating start to accelerate?

He firmly believes the latter. As the Arctic's sea-ice cover decreases, less and less sunlight will be reflected back into space. And as tundras heat up, more and more of their carbon dioxide and methane content will be released into the atmosphere. Thus each added tonne of carbon will trigger greater rises in temperature as the years progress. The result will be massive ice cap melting and sea-level rises of several meters: enough to devastate most of the world's major cities.

Will MSM Report Inauguration Day 'Gore Effect?' | NewsBusters.org

So has Obama learned his lesson from his Philadelphia Gore Effect fiasco? Or will he tempt the fates by again referring to Global Warming this Tuesday? In any event, it will be interesting to see if the mainstream media will report on the irony of Obama warning of Global Warming to a freezing crowd.

Oh, and one final piece of advice, Mr. President-elect. Spare yourself even more humiliation by keeping Al Gore well away from the podium. Should his face appear in the crowd of dignitaries the Gore Effect is sure to send the temperatures plummeting even more than is already predicted.

Did cold weather affect Obama's crowd size today in Baltimore?

Barack Obama summons America's ideals on journey to the White House - Telegraph

In Baltimore, more than 100,000 were expected to turn out to hear Mr Obama speak at city hall, his final public appearance before arriving, relatively incognito at the neo-classical splendour of Washington's Union Station in the early evening.

Obama whistle stop tour reaches D.C.

Reminding a crowd estimated at 35,000 to 40,000 at Baltimore's War Memorial Plaza of the city's heritage as the birthplace of "The Star-Spangled Banner," Obama said the American Revolution "did not end when British guns fell silent."

Barack Obama In Baltimore

Tough day at the office today. I was up at 5:00 a.m. and in Baltimore, Maryland by 8:00. The temperature was 12′. I was 300th in line to witness the historic visit of President Elect Barack Obama as he made his way by train to Washington, DC. He was scheduled to arrive at 4:15 in the afternoon. This made for some creative use of hand warmers. I taped them to my D300 battery grip in order to keep the camera running. While planning/packing for this shoot, I had several built in parameters: the cold, the wait, the security and the crowd.

I wore three layers of pants, three layers of wool socks, five layers on my upper body, two layers of gloves, face mask and two layers of hats. I still froze. Do the math for the wait time.
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The crowd was very good natured. They sang songs and there was a very celebratory mood. Fun. The plaza were Barack spoke held 30,000.

January 16: Cold weather warning issued for Obama event Saturday -- baltimoresun.com

The city today issued a cold weather warning for tomorrow and recommended that people younger than 6 and older than 65 avoid President-elect Barack Obama's afternoon speech in Baltimore.

Can Oregon's climate change plan survive a down economy?: Let them build solar-powered steel plants

Putting a gradually tightening cap on emissions is the smartest way to wean the economy off fossil fuel, volatile in price, questionable in source and diminishing in quantity, said Eric de Place, senior researcher with the Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based environmental think tank.

"It is not a winning strategy to need huge amounts of energy to generate a buck," de Place said. "If an Oregon steel plant uses a ton of power, the best strategy to protect those jobs is to make it the cleanest, meanest, most efficient steel plant there is."

Al Kleinke of Nevis mocks Gore and Oberstar: Here’s a global warming update | Park Rapids, Minnesota

Regrettably, neither Al nor Jim were aware that Nimrod’s global warming conference had to be cancelled, for the second year in a row, due to severe cold weather. As a good will gesture Menahga’s City Council invited honest Al to be a judge for the upcoming ice fishing contest on Spirit Lake. In light of his recent frostbite experience, Al declined, citing lack of confidence in future weather predictions. Also, without being able to speak Finnish, he expressed concern about obtaining help in the event his limo hit the ditch again.

Gore mocked in New York: Record Cold Chills North Country

WARREN COUNTY—Although residents in the North Country are pretty hardy, the cold temperatures of the last week are starting to make even the hardiest winter weary.

Mention Al Gore and his global warming spiel to them and they’ll likely chuckle and wink, suggest that the man may be “one fry short of a Happy Meal” and needs to visit the North Country.

Dead batteries, frozen fuel lines, frozen water pipes and furnaces struggling to keep up have been the norm over the last three or four days...

A New Mommy's Blog: Global Warming?

Apparently there's a cold snap.
A snap that's so cold everyone's having trouble with their pipes freezing. I just looked at my site meter, and of the last 100 views, only 5 weren't from people who had found it by Google-ing help for frozen pipes. From Ohio to Massachusetts to Georgia, and every state in between, it must be cold.

Handbasket: Global Warming Makes Me Mad

No, not global warming itself, but the myth of global warming. And all the hype and talk about it. The climate change missionaries operate on the theory that if you cram it down peoples' throats long enough they'll eventually accept it as fact. I sat in my doctor's waiting room a week ago, gritting my teeth as the wall-mounted TV broadcast a canned "documentary" on the horrible effects our modern way of life is having on whales and penguins and other darling little animals. You just can't get away from it.

But what makes me the most angry is the systematic brainwashing of our children in schools, in books, and even on TV. Using classic thought control techniques, these people introduce the theme into children's stories, television cartoons, commercials, and even in church lessons. The "good" kids in these stories and cartoons preach global warming, and evil factories and cars make cute little animals sick. It doesn't take long to make youngsters feel a sense of guilt or shame, even though they know nothing of the quack science behind the message they're getting.
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If you imagine our atmosphere is a sports stadium with 10,000 seats, CO2 ... the evil "greenhouse gas" ... occupies only 4 of those seats. The global warming nuts want to impose stringent rules on the other 9,996 seats in the stadium in order to regulate those 4 seats. Does that make sense to you?

Let's take care of Mother Earth, but let's not revert to the Stone Age to do it.

American Thinker Blog: Obama Talks Global Warming to Shivering Crowd

In the first speech of his "whistle-stop" tour to Washington, Barack Obama talked global warming to a crowd of shivering Philadelphians who braved 18 degree (sub 10 degree wind-chill) temperatures on their journey to the 30th Street Train Station.
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...you'd think that -- given the extraordinarily glacial locale -- the supposedly brilliant future leader of the free world would have appreciated the hysterical disconnect in his words.

Not to mention the tough road ahead in selling his plan to legislate commerce-and-lifestyle-altering sacrifice to confront an unproven crisis with wholly hypothetical remedies to a cash-strapped and freezing populace.

If climate change is supposed to be The Most Important Issue Ever, why can't I find any mention of it here?

CBS News/New York Times Polls On Obama, Economy

About 7 in 10 express confidence that he’ll make the right decisions in dealing with the nation’s top problems – the economy, Iraq, the situation in the Mideast and the threat of terrorism.

Lots of snicker-worthy stuff here

Comedian Alistair McGowan fights Heathrow expansion plans - Times Online

“We are not saying no one should fly, ever,” he says patiently, as if to a child. “Flying is an inevitable part of modern life. But the government has said it wants to reduce carbon emissions. And if the government is going to meet its targets, it cannot expand the aviation industry.”

As far as he is concerned, we should all sit down and watch An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s award-winning polemic about climate change. Under compulsion, if necessary. “I would make people watch it in a Big Brother way. Orwellian, not Davina McCall,” he says, helpfully ironing out any possible misunderstanding. “Gore’s film should be watched at the same time by everyone around the world. It’s the truth!”
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This may account for the loftiness with which he dismisses the employment opportunities arising from the proposed Heathrow extension. “When people go on about the creation of jobs, the 25,000 which will be created [actually, the stated number of new jobs is 65,000], well, they might as well give those people a gun each and take them to the Arctic and let them shoot every polar bear in the head.”

Does he think polar bears are more important than people’s livelihoods? “Yes, I do.” He glares at me. “If we lose polar bears, it is because the icecaps are melting. If that happens, and sea levels rise, we will lose all the islands and beaches that people want to fly to for their holidays anyway. Gone. By 2030.

“Huge areas of our land which provide food for our country will disappear. The same will happen across the world. We will all end up on a tiny hill somewhere, living off what? Walkers crisps!”

All time low temperature record for Illinois called into question by NWS citing lack of confidence in equipment is misguided « Watts Up With That?

With recent reports and concerns about global warming, it is of note that this comparison of “unofficial” data to the official observations show that instrumentation located only a couple hundred yards apart can give a notable temperature discrepance.

Heliogenic Climate Change: Democrat introduces bill to allow California and other states to set their own vehicle emission limits

The Big Three are already suffering from the unprofitable federally mandated CAFE standards which require them to make cars nobody wants and now if this becomes law they will be forced to make even smaller, more unsafe eco-box vehicles that no one will want or buy. This is ecotheist insanity. What happened to separation of church and state?

Wind Watch: Energy Is Now A Life & Death Matter

Imagine this scenario: pharmaceutical companies selling any drug they feel like, having no scientific testing to support their drug’s efficacy, making any claim that’s in their financial interest, and having no federal or state oversight (e.g. FDA) regarding any of these matters.

Would that make any sense at all? Would we consumers be healthier under that setup? Would you be surprised if bogus products proliferated? And despite platitudes like “consumer beware,” exactly how would citizens possibly be able to assess the merits of these specious claims in the highly technical area of modern medicines?

Well that is EXACTLY the absurd situation we currently have with electrical energy.

As Obama arrives to save us from alleged overheating, some notes from Maryland

AFP: Crowds in Baltimore brave cold for Obama's train tour

BALTIMORE (AFP) — For the tens of thousands gathering Saturday to see president-elect Barack Obama at a pre-inaugural rally here, the mood was buoyant despite a long wait in bitter cold.

Flooding Conditions Persist - 2 More Pipe Failures Reported - Southern Maryland News

This just in: Two more pipe failures with flooding have been reported. One is again in the Valley Lane area of Lexington Park at 46563 and the second is the Brinsfield-Echols Funeral Home at 30195 Three Notch Road in Charlotte Hall.

More pipe failures are expected. Motorists are cautioned to drive carefully in the flooded areas.

Southern Maryland residents are cautioned to check all plumbing fixtures, especially those exposed to the outside air against the possibility of freezing and bursting.

Four such failures have occurred in St. Mary’s County with more expected this evening as the bitter cold arctic air continues to stall over the area.

Step right up and buy your indulgences: 2009 Green Inaugural Ball Selects NativeEnergy As Sole Carbon Offset Provider

With many new renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects across the country, Native Energy is providing the event with high-quality offsets from a portfolio of its projects, including: The KILI Radio tribal-owned wind project on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and the Mains Family Dairy Farm methane energy project in Pennsylvania. The 80-foot KILI wind turbine at the station’s headquarters replaces grid-linked electricity (mostly coal) with renewable energy. The Mains Family Dairy project includes a new anaerobic digester, which generates methane/carbon emission reductions as well as electricity to power the farm's operations.

Solar Power, Suffering in the Recession, Needs a Bailout Too - TIME

The bad economy is clearly the main culprit — with houses and jobs at risk, fewer consumers are willing to make a long-term bet on a solar system — but so have ebbing subsidies for solar in Europe, where manufacturers in the U.S. still send most of their product abroad. Without Spain and Germany — leaders in European solar — soaking up systems, the research firm New Energy Finance estimates an oversupply in the industry of nearly 4 gigawatts in 2009. "There's real concern about the policy risks in Europe," says Christopher O'Brien, the head of North American market development for Oerlikon Solar.

But did they order him to freeze?: Deputies apprehend man nearly frozen

A Milwaukee teen fleeing law enforcement in a snowstorm Monday was apprehended before he froze to death.

Staff at St. Joseph Hospital in West Bend stated had the man not been apprehended by the officers when he did, exposure to the cold weather would have caused permanent injuries or even death, according to a press release from the Wisconsin State Patrol.

But of course

Geese Pose Big Risk at Airports in Region - NYTimes.com

Nevertheless, the danger of bird strikes “is an ongoing problem, and it will always be a problem,” said Steven D. Garber, a biologist who was a consultant to the Port Authority in the 1990s.

And it may become more so — despite efforts at mitigation. “There is evidence both in North America and in Europe that birds are shifting their territories,” said Joel L. Cracraft, curator in charge of the department of ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History. “And that has been correlated with global warming.”

Divergence Between GISS and UAH since 1980 « Watts Up With That?

This 1980-2008 discrepancy between GISS and UAH is important, as it is nearly equal to the claimed warming trend since 1980.

American Thinker Blog: The Flight 1549 blame game (updated)

It didn't take long for the warmists to blame the US Airways crash on global warming, which is, after all, deemed responsible for anything bad. Time Magazine, which was once widely read, sprang into action...

Transition to Power: Obama invokes Lincoln to begin journey to D.C.

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) — President-elect Barack Obama implored Americans Saturday to commit to a new declaration of independence — rejecting ideology and bigotry — as he acknowledged the nation faces severe challenges.

"Only a handful of times in our history has a generation been confronted with challenges so vast," he said at a town hall meeting in Philadelphia's 30th Street Station.

"An economy that is faltering. Two wars, one that needs to be ended responsibly, one that needs to be waged wisely. A planet that is warming from our unsustainable dependence on oil."

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Weather Underground says the morning low of 8F tied a record

Aloha spirit to warm event - News - Starbulletin.com

Hundreds From Hawaii Flock To DC For Inauguration

St. Francis Xavier cuts off electricity, immerses kids in lesson

As part of a Green Day at the Fort Myers school, the "blackout" from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. was a primary element in lessons about conservation and waste reduction.
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"It's a great idea to be eco-friendly," said eighth-grader Matthew Reilly, 13, who was outside in a polo shirt and shorts after forgetting his jacket on the 54-degree morning with a brisk wind. "I learned that it's a lot warmer in the sun compared to the shade or even when the sun is behind a cloud. I also know I won't forget my jacket again."

Cold snap causes iguanas to fall from trees in Naples | news-press.com | The News-Press

NAPLES — The chilly weather in southern Florida this week was cold enough to force some iguanas to fall from trees.

Experts say the cold-blooded reptiles go into a deep sleep when the temperature falls into the 40s. Their bodies basically shut off and they lose their grip on the tree.

Global Warming Brings Down US Air Flight 1549 - Right Mind

[Time] While officials use radar and radio collars to track bird populations, habitat destruction and climate change have disrupted migratory patterns.

Temperatures take dive - Bangor Daily News

There were unofficial reports of temperatures plummeting to 50 below zero in Big Black River in the northwest corner of the state, and as low as 56 below in the St. John Valley.

Rich Norton, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Caribou, said Friday afternoon that if certified, the unofficial temperature in Big Black River would be a new record low temperature for Maine.

Maine’s all-time record low was minus 48 in Van Buren on Jan. 19, 1925, according to Victor Nouhan of the NWS.

Carbon credit windfall for Eastern Europe

Thanks to Kyoto emission levels pegged to 1990, when pollution was worse, former Eastern Bloc countries now sell carbon credits to Japan.

In an odd twist on market economics, Europe's ex-communist states are starting to exploit a new market. Thanks to the Kyoto climate-change agreement, they can, in effect, now make money off the pollution their onetime central planners were willing to tolerate as the price for rapid industrialization and universal employment.
Ukraine, Hungary, the Czech Republic and other countries of the region not exactly renowned for clean air have made or are close to signing deals to sell the rights to emit greenhouse gases, and their main customer is environmentally friendly Japan.

This carbon windfall dropped into Central and East Europe's lap because the Kyoto Protocol sets 1990 as the reference year for future reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The socialist states at that time were producing gargantuan amounts of CO2 and other gases implicated in global warming from unfiltered coal-fired power plants and factories; when those unprofitable industries withered, countless thousands of workers went on the dole - but the air got cleaner. In the coming years, in line with European Union mandates, would-be members gradually adopted better environmental policies. It's the difference between the often unspeakably bad air of 1990 and the comparatively clean air of today that allows them to sell "carbon credits" potentially worth billions of euros.

Stalled Minnesota school buses fuel biodiesel mandate debate

Much of the diesel fuel sold in Minnesota contains 2 percent biodiesel fuel, under legislation enacted in 2002 but that didn't essentially take effect until 2005 because of a production lag.

The requirement was adopted after a tough fight at the Legislature, with soybean farmers pushing for the mandate and trucking and other transportation industry groups in opposition, citing concerns about costs and performance of biodiesel.

The state has mandated the biodiesel blend increase to 5 percent starting this spring. Minnesota is one of three states, besides Oregon and Washington, that have biodiesel mandates.
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"We didn't have this problem due to a few reasons, but one of them is luck," said Joe Raasch, deputy chief of operations for St. Paul Public Schools. "In extreme weather like this, sometimes we'll keep buses running all night."
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"It's a really confounding problem but if fuel were perfect it would still gel if it gets cold enough," said John Hausladen, president of the nonprofit trade association. "The problem with biodiesel is that it raises the temperature at which it does freeze."

No consensus at Canadian polar bear summit - Science - redOrbit

Canada is home to about 15,000 polar bears, about two-thirds of the world population, in 13 distinct areas. While the United States declared the bears an endangered species in May 2008, Gabriel Nirlungayuk, director of Wildlife for Nunavut Tunngavik said the bears are actually more prolific now.

"Forty or 50 years ago, our camping areas were not invaded by these animals," he said Friday. "The current population is stable. It is not constructive to exaggerate that situation."

Harry Flaherty, chair of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, agreed and said scientists were politicizing the bears' status.

"They are using the polar bear as a tool, a tool to fight climate change," Flaherty said. "[Th]ey shouldn't do that. The polar bear will survive. It has been surviving for thousands of years."

EMMA THOMPSON - THOMPSON TELLS HEATHROW MINISTER TO "GET A GRIP"

Thompson is among a group of celebrities outspokenly critical of the government's approval of a third runway at the airport.

In an interview with the Guardian on Saturday, transport secretary Geoff Hoon singled out the Sense and Sensibility star for opposing expansion but flying around the globe to promote her green cause.

Boy do other people have their biases

Now, to be fair, some of the deniers rattling on about the cold weather are simply mocking Elizabeth May and company. But it's clear that many really do think this cold confounds Al Gore.

By election day 2012, what percentage of American electricity will be generated by wind and sun?

[Obama] I want to start by thanking the folks here at Cardinal Fastener for the tour you just gave me. The story of this company – which began building wind turbine parts just two years ago, and is now poised to make half its earnings that way – is that a renewable energy economy isn’t some pie-in-the-sky, far-off future. It’s happening all across America right now. It’s providing alternatives to foreign oil now. It can create millions of additional jobs and entire new industries if we act right now.
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We’re looking to create good jobs that pay well and won’t be shipped overseas. Jobs that don’t just put people to work in the short-term, but position our economy to be on the cutting edge in the long-term.

That starts with new, clean sources of energy. We know that the possibilities here are limitless. Here in Ohio and across America, we’ve seen old factories become new clean energy producers. We’ve seen entrepreneurs turning solar energy into electricity, and corn and soybeans into bio-fuels. Our scientists and engineers are hard at work developing cars that use less gas, homes and appliances that require less energy, schools and offices that are greener and more efficient than ever before.

The Reference Frame: Arctic global warming reaches the CSA

The American South is usually thought to be a hot place. However, Alabama is now colder than Alaska.

YouTube - Hal Lindsey on the Global Warming Scam, Socialist World Government, the Super Volcano & Bible Prophecy

This guy devastates the global warming religion in the first half of the video, then promotes a different religion in the second half.

Wind, ethanol cloud our difficult energy choices | Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota

The assumption that wind and ethanol will make a major contribution to our energy supply is a delusion, distracting us from hard choices involving aggressive conservation and lifestyle changes.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration is forecasting that U.S. wind turbines will supply 101 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in the year 2020. That would be just 2.14 percent of the total projected U.S. electric power supply.

Browner: Redder Than Obama Knows

Incoming White House energy-environment czar Carol Browner was recently discovered to be a commissioner in Socialist International. While that revelation has been ignored by the mainstream media and blithely dismissed by her supporters, you may soon be paying the cost of Browner’s political beliefs in your electricity bill.

"EPA says seas could destroy New Jersey coast"

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday released its report on sea-level rise in the Mid-Atlantic region, where coastlines face significant changes and degradation due to a sea-level rise whose rate is expected to increase.
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Studies show the pace of sea-level rise could be increasing. Last month, the White House released data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey that estimated sea-level rise at 1.64 to 4.59 feet by 2100. That is nearly triple what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found just two years ago.

Bush legacy recapped

Bush came into office by making clear his dislike of government-imposed pollution limits to combat climate change, and particularly the emission cuts required under the Kyoto Protocol. And he was determined to overhaul environmental regulations, especially clean air rules, to make them less onerous to business.

Bush stopped in its tracks further consideration of the Kyoto agreement and successfully fought any attempts in Congress to impose mandatory caps on carbon dioxide, the leading pollutant linked to climate change.

483 Diggs so far - Is There "Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years" ?

dailygalaxy.com — Last year, a week after the Harvard Crimson published a shocking editorial chiding Nobel Laureate Al Gore, Stanford University held a luncheon entitled "Is Global Warming a Myth?"

How Green Is Your Washington Inauguration Gala? - NYTimes.com

The second gala is being held by the International Conservation Caucus Foundation, comprising the goliaths of international and animal wildlife conservation like the Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Federation.

Their event, at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, is blocks away from the Gore gala and is admittedly more resplendent than reflective. Roses will be flown in from Ecuador. Marinated beef is being flown in from Texas to Virginia, where it will be grilled and then trucked to the auditorium.

The organizers recruited the Boys Choir of Kenya to serenade the guests.
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And, Mr. Barron said, “One tenth of the members of Congress will be having dinner with us.”

Cleaning Up the Sundance Festival’s Act, Fitfully - NYTimes.com

Still, a stroll here this week down Main Street — where a dozen idling trucks were unloading supplies and equipment, while an oversize band bus, with trailer in tow, spewed fumes outside a soon-to-be-busy party site — framed the obvious quandary: how can you cram some 46,000 people, roughly equivalent to a fifth of Hollywood’s total work force, into a pretty little mountain town without contributing mightily to the problems your films hope to solve?
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Los Angeles to Park City is about 692 miles by the old wagon route, though most visitors seem to come by air through Salt Lake City — many by private jet. According to a report last year by Flight Options, a transit firm based in Cleveland, the Sundance festival helped make Salt Lake City the nation’s No. 2 destination for fuel-guzzling private flights, behind West Palm Beach, Fla.
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...Fiji Water was offering its conventional bottles of water at one of the many promotional boutiques on Main.

A new concept car from Honda — a hydrogen-powered vehicle — sat inside the walls of a just-completed plexiglass tent at the corner of Seventh and Main Streets in the heart of downtown Park City, promoting the green pleasures of its energy conservation. Also inside, a young woman was asked how she was able to keep warm in the frigid mountain air.

“We have heaters,” she said. “Big, electric heaters blowing some heat in here.”

Fiji Water: Information from Answers.com

Even Desperate Housewives drink Fiji Water. Sourced and bottled on Viti Levu, the largest of the Republic of Fiji's islands, the water garnered the attention of celebrity chefs and also made its way to the set of NBC's Friends and Just Shoot Me, as well as the movie DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story.

Australia: Record cool and wet over north « Where’s my Global Warming Dude? By Global Freeze

Burketown is averaging at 29 degrees - the coldest start to a year in at least 29 years.

Mt Isa, Comooweal, Winton and even locations as far south as Boulia are averaging more than 7 degrees below average - the coldest start to the year in decades.

December 2008 Update on Sunspot stats « Digital Diatribes

We are truly in a remarkable time as it relates to the current solar cycle. By a number of measures, we are witnessing a once-in-a-lifetime event… maybe.

'Environmental revolution' promised by David Cameron - Telegraph

An "environmental revolution" in energy policy under a Conservative government would save the average household £160 a year from the cost of electricity and gas, David Cameron has promised.

Errors in IPCC climate science » Blog Archive » David Archibald predicts the May 2009 UAH MSU Global Temperature Result

The combination of a 0.3° response to the current La Nina and the usual 0.3° decline from January to May will result in a 0.6° decline to May 2009 to a result of -0.4° (0.4° below the long term average).

David Archibald
12th January, 2009

climate science: TAX-FUNDED PROPAGANDA

Someone sent me this course for climate change enthusiasts. Presumably it is being sent to all councils and many companies and charities. At £250 for a one day course, it looks like a nice little earner, and we are all paying for it. And so the band-waggon keeps rolling on.

Fish die, monkeys suffer, blankets distributed as cold weather envelops Thailand

BANGKOK, Jan 17 (TNA) - Small fish raised in a river in northeastern Thailand have died, monkeys in the South have lost interest in eating food, rice plants which are begun to bear fruits died prematurely as severe cold spell hit almost the entire country and temperatures fell in recent days.

Presidential Inauguration: A chance to stand around for 6 hours in freezing temperatures

First, it was cold (I think mid-20s). Second, you had to arrive early if you wanted a good spot (that is, a ‘good spot’ in a bad location, a pre-assigned roped off section, indicated by your Inauguration card). So, there at 7:30 am in the morning, and you’re on your feet for the next 6 hours....Just know that the people down there will be excited to be there. And they will have serious nose-drip and watery eyes from the cold weather, and their feet will be freezing, and all the Starbucks coffee the world won’t make it any more comfortable.

Cold weather caused pelican deaths, officials say - San Jose Mercury News

A rash of brown pelican deaths and illnesses was probably caused by a severe mid-December storm in the Pacific Northwest, state wildlife officials believe.

Claude McIntosh fails to drink the Kool-Aid

* With most of central Canada locked in a deep freeze, the global-warming pitch has stalled.

It's so cold in some parts of the West, the Dr. David Suzuki climate change awareness bus is running 24/7.

Minnesota's difficult winter stresses deer

Further complicating the deer-management picture is the difficult winter the state is experiencing. Deer in many parts of the state already are stressed, and if the remainder of the winter brings continued cold and more snow, animal losses will mount.

Climate Observations: El Ninos Create Step Changes in TLT of the Northern Hemisphere Mid Latitudes

As noted earlier, climate models, the few that attempt to model El Nino events, do not simulate their historical amplitude, frequency, or processes well. Without this ability, their use as a tool to predict or project future climate on a global or regional level is severely limited.

Jennifer Marohasy » Australia Lacks Capacity to Meet Carbon Reduction Targets

In a A$6 billion plea for new research development and demonstration on new power generation technologies, the Academy explain in a 42-page report entitled ‘Energy Technology for Climate Change – Accelerating the Technology Response’ that we do not currently have the technology to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions [1].

Wind Watch: Campaigners’ ‘delight’ after wind farm plan blown away

Campaigners packed a committee meeting to hear controversial plans to construct three 390ft wind turbines in leafy Hertfordshire will not go ahead.

Wind Watch: Wind isn’t the answer to our energy crisis

I have no objection to the installation of a wind mill on private property (depending on the acceptance of the neighbors of course), but in the absence of adequate technology to store excess energy when generated, for those times where there is no wind, there is not much hope that wind generators alone would provide enough energy to get you off the grid.

Cartoons: If Global Warming Is Real Then Why Is It Cold

From the state that Hillary Clinton represents: Record low for the North Country

PLATTSBURGH — Wondering just how cold it was early Friday?

Well, it busted a record low that had held since 1957.
...
The bitter cold caused cancellation of classes at Saranac Central School.

"Most of the buses wouldn't start," said Linda Tedford, who is secretary to the superintendent.

"Some of them started, but they wouldn't stay running. We didn't want to put the kids on them."

Global cooling leaves U.N. with snow on its face

I don't view my children as "environmental disasters." You and I, and all our children have as much right to this planet's resources as beavers, spotted owls, and the "developing" world. And I am certainly not willing to cripple what's left of American industry, double my gasoline and electricity costs, and pay a tax on the carbon dioxide I exhale every day on the basis of a demonstrably fraudulent myth called global warming.

Keister is a former U.S. Navy Intelligence Specialist and an 18-year veteran of the New York State Police. He lives in the Town of Binghamton.

Fifteen thousand people to take fossil-fueled trips to Abu Dhabi to discuss using less fossil fuel

CANBERRA—Governor-General Quentin Bryce is jetting to the Middle East to address a major conference on renewable energy.

Ms Bryce will speak on Australia's efforts to develop clean energy at the World Future Energy Summit, in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

Fifteen thousand people are expected to attend the summit in the oil-rich emirate, which borders on the Persian Gulf.
...
Ms Bryce will rub shoulders with British climate adviser Lord Stern, former British prime minister Tony Blair and Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

It's time to get past alleged 'urgency denial'

In 2008, the media and the public finally acknowledged that climate change is a serious problem, but now "urgency denial" is setting in. The gap between scientific and public understanding of the central aspects of the crisis actually widened last year. A Gallup poll showed that fewer Americans, 37 percent, were concerned about climate change than in 2007.

This is largely due to a lack of U.S. news coverage of a series of alarming scientific reports that support the argument by NASA expert James Hansen that, "We are running out of time" for correcting this accelerating planetary emergency.
...
Rep. Ed Markey, the chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said, "There is no safe haven. There is no place you can live that won't suffer the consequences of global warming.… People have been watching huge floods, droughts, storms that are otherwise unaccountable and historic in their nature."

Power outages reported in Pell City

Hundreds of Alabama residents were without power Friday morning, after the frigid weather affected power lines.

High school students figure out ethanol is a waste, get published in peer-reviewed journal

Four high school students managed to put together a paper arguing that ethanol is bad from an economic, social, and environmental perspective. They then submitted the paper to a prestigious peer-reviewed journal, and got accepted for publication (PDF version of their paper here). High school students. Of course, the government can't figure that out, which is why it's busy subsidizing ethanol production on the grounds that it's good from an economic, social, and environmental perspective.
...
When high school kids can smell a rat, it's time for the rest of us dupes to take off our blinders and see the ethanol business for what it is -- a giant tax-money sucking scam.

Canada: The bitter truth about the bitter cold.  Can you really convince these people to spend trillions trying to make the Earth very slightly colder?

Our favourite winter pastime, complaining about the weather, is getting a lot of attention this week as temperatures dropped to -30 - not including the windchill.

It is extraordinarily cold.

And yes, we grumble and complain, whine and curse, and swear that future winters will be spent somewhere far south of here.

We are powerless to do anything about the weather, but we can put it in perspective.

Carbon storage bills advance quickly - Wyoming

CHEYENNE -- A series of bills aimed at protecting the state's coal and encouraging a carbon storage industry in Wyoming are off to a quick start in the Legislature.
...
Officials hope that by capturing and storing CO2 underground, major power consumers such as California will continue to buy power generated with Wyoming coal.

Also, geologic structures such as the Rock Springs uplift are thought to be good candidates for CO2 storage sites, and could spark a lucrative carbon storage industry in Wyoming.

Arctic sea ice has been building rapidly

The latest value : 13,338,281 km2 (January 16, 2009)

Woman fails to enjoy Earth Hours: 'My body just doesn't produce enough heat'

Christina Nowak sat hunched in her chair staring straight ahead at a darkened television set, wearing a white tuque, gloves and sweater, and shivering under a blanket. She'd been in the same position for hours, ever since she woke to find the lights and heat had gone off in her building.

"I'm cold and hungry," she said. "My body just doesn't produce enough heat."

Frail and alone at 89, Ms. Novak was among the most vulnerable of the 250,000 people affected by the power outage that swept across west Toronto Thursday night after a broken pipe caused a flood at a hydro station....
By late yesterday afternoon, the lights in Ms. Nowak's apartment had come back on, and she stood by the stove warming herself, relieved that her ordeal was near an end. She said she was surprised to still be alive.

Spokesman.com | Moose crashes into N. Spokane basement bedroom

A north Spokane couple that’s expecting a baby got an early arrival Thursday evening when a moose calf dropped into a bedroom through a basement window.

Tony Mantese reported the moose-entry incident around 4:30 p.m. from his home on Stevens Street just north of Francis Avenue. The moose apparently had been taking advantage of the shallower snow around the neighborhood buildings when it fell into a deep window well. As is struggled to get out and rejoin its mother and sibling, it kicked through the window and fell into the house.
...
•The number of moose, deer and elk being killed in collisions on railways and roads appears to be soaring, area wildlife biologists say.

“Tough winters will force wildlife into places where we don’t normally seem them,” said Chip Corsi, Idaho Fish and Game Department Panhandle Region manager.

MPR: Updraft: Climate change update [from alarmist Paul Huttner]

5) Urban heat island effects are accounted for, and though a few stations may be marginally effected by their location they are such a small part of the record as to be insignificant. The vast majority of data on climate change comes from ice cores, tree rings, deep lake sediments and other sources independent of our surface based temperature network.

6) CO2 has always varied naturally, but the rate of increase in the past 50-100 years is far higher than at any time in the past. That's the human "fingerprint" on global atmospheric changes.

There really is no debate that the planet is getting dramatically warmer.

Hoon and Emma Thompson exchange flak over flights

The cabinet minister who is pushing through the expansion of Heathrow last night hit out at celebrity environmentalists who talk green politics while flying across the globe.

Canal ice helps Dutch rediscover national identity - International Herald Tribune

NIEUWERKERK AAN DEN IJSSEL, Netherlands: For the first time in 12 years, the Netherlands' canals froze this month, bringing the Dutch, who like their tulips in neat rows, a heady mix of pandemonium and euphoria.

Hundreds of thousands of skaters, their cheeks as red as apples in the freezing temperatures, took to the ice, and hospital wards were filled with dozens of people with fractured arms, sprained ankles and broken legs.

"Global Warming" update

Slowly but surely, in most places except centers of government and the dominant liberal media, the hoax of man-made global warming, now called "climate change" because the planet is cooling, is being laid open for all to view...

Hansen comes clean at last?

Maybe the attack on his numbers by Lubos Motl and others was the last straw. I am advised by email that NASA's Hansen has at last released his "data adjustment" computer code to Steve McIntyre -- after a lot of pressure from Steve to do just that. I assume it is FORTRAN code -- a la Michael Mann. It would be a lot simpler if Hansen had just released his algorithms but the FORTRAN code should eventually reveal what they were/are. As I know from experience, backtracking through someone else's FORTRAN code is very difficult at any time, however, and I hear that Hansen's code is far from elegant, so it will be some time before we know much.

I think there is a strong possibility that Hansen has simply adjusted his code from time to time in an ad hoc way rather than setting up a systematic theory first -- and there is much potential for cumulative errors in doing that. I don't envy Steve his disentangling task. Hansen may be relying on it being impossible.

The one who has not released his methods is Phil Jones of CRU.

Meteorologist in Senate 650 plus report fights back at smear merchants

Jules' klimaatblog: Inhofe's 650 : on Hajo Smit

Hi, I'm Hajo Smit and true I'm not all that important. Our precious world and society is however and the AGW-alarmists are not doing the planet a great service. In 1991 I graduated with distinction at Wageningen Univesity in the field of Environmental Sciences. I majored in meteorology and climate science. I spent 3 months studying in Mainz Max Planck Insitute of Atmospheric Chemistry under nobel laureate Paul Crutzen's guidance and spent 11 months studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana Chamaign at the Atmospheric Sciences departmant doing climate modelling under Michael Schlesinger. After graduating I left climate science only to start studying the literature intensly again around 2006. I'm listed as an expert on icecap.us. I'm also listed on Inhofe's list and correctly so. If I'm not qualified to speak on these matters who is? Currently I'm working as a journalist/meteorologist on my own website www.sneeuwverwachting.nl which caters exclusively to the wintersports crowd in the Netherlands. Thanks for looking into my files.... the publications you mention are polemic blog postings and not scientific literature. Since when a former scientist is not allowed to turn to journalism and free writing styles to give his opinions with the best interest of nature and mankind in mind? That sounds a lot like censorship. [Via Marc Morano]

And yet he doesn't LOOK insane

YouTube - Steven Chu Reacts to the Citizen's Briefing Book

Within the first four minutes, he talks about microbes waking up, chewing on carbon, and creating runaway global warming.

Cold Weather Creates TVA Winter Record

Jan. 16--Today's frigid temperatures pushed electricity demand to a record wintertime high in the Tennessee Valley, officials said today.

But of course: Climate Change Recalculated Talk with Saul Griffith

"It is not accurate to say we can still stop climate change," says Saul Griffith, the Bay Area inventor who received a MacArthur "genius" award in 2007. "We are now working to stop worse climate change or much-worse-than-worse climate change."

Griffith has done the research and the math to figure out exactly what it will take for humanity to soften the impact of climate change in the next 25 years, and he lays it out in a dazzling presentation. It is horrifying news. The politics and technologies we have now are not up to the task.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Heathrow's protesters bridge the class divide - Telegraph

At 23, [Jen Hill] seems to have emerged from a classic “protester” mould. Indeed, as an English literature graduate from Cambridge, she has. (“It sometimes seems that everybody has gone to Cambridge,” one eco-suffragette confesses later).

Record Breaking Cold Hits America While Obama Plans Fight Against Global Warming | All American Blogger

Obama, however, like all Democrats, won’t let a little thing like facts get in the way of ideology. He’s still pushing forward with his green initiatives. Meaning that at the beginning of what could be global cooling, he’s going to make energy prices necessarily skyrocket. Now you know why they switched from “global warming” to “climate change.” They were hedging their bets.

The sad thing is, if McCain had won, he’d be doing the same thing.

3 day workshop on 'global warming and Kerala' from Monday

Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): In a bid to find local solutions to global environment problems, the state forest department will conduct a three-day workshop here on `Global warming and Kerala' from January 19, forests minister Binoy Viswam said here on Friday.

Speaking to reporters here, he said that emission of greenhouse gases and tree-felling were the main causes of global warming. Research, mitigation and adaptation were needed to check this, he said.

Claiming that Kerala was the first state to organise such a workshop, he said the department was striving to create an awareness among people that planting of trees was the answer to halt global warming. A total of 51 lakh saplings had been planted in Kerala in the last two years, he said.

Waller Blog | Blue Jobs

Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital Blog mentions a new buzz word in energy policy discussions—blue jobs—jobs associated with oil and natural gas industries. The industry is pushing to keep the oil and natural gas energy relevant in America’s discussion of energy policy to force policy makers to keep them in mind in the formulating of new policies and programs. The gas lobby wants to keep “blue jobs” in demand, jobs that total 5.8 million nationwide—in both direct and (sometimes very) indirect jobs that the gas lobby says are dependent on natural-gas related activities.

Heliogenic Climate Change: Chicken Little Holdren

Homeless man, 40, found dead in Chillum, just miles from the National Mall

A homeless man was found dead Friday morning in a wooded area in Chillum and paramedics believe cold weather contributed to his death.

Someone called the paramedics on a cell phone at about 8 a.m. The paramedics found the 40-year-old man in the 6300 block of Ager Road, where he had likely been dead for several hours, said Mark Brady, a Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department spokesman. The man apparently had nothing on him, like blankets or a sleeping bag, to protect him from the night's freezing temperatures.

Wisconsin: Frigid weather good news for long underwear retailer

There's nothing like dangerous cold to make at least one shop in Madison a hot destination.

Business has been steady at WinterSilks at 224 State St., which makes sense as the retailer specializes in long underwear.

"In a sad way, it kind of works out because it's so cold," said sales associate Kate Knudsen.
...
The bump in business is nice, Knudsen said, but it still doesn't make the staff fans of the bitter cold.

"Our manager is in Florida right now," Knudsen said. "So I don't think she's that thrilled."

Arctic weather hits Alabama

Forecasts called for temperatures ranging from 10 to 15 degrees, but some northern counties saw temperatures in the single digits.

CHAD: Panic, outcry at government charcoal ban

N'DJAMENA, 16 January 2009 (IRIN) - A government ban on charcoal in the Chadian capital N’djamena has created what one observer called “explosive” conditions as families desperately seek the means to cook.

“As we speak women and children are on the outskirts of N’djamena scavenging for dead branches, cow dung or the occasional scrap of charcoal,” Merlin Totinon Nguébétan, head of the UN Human Settlements Programme (HABITAT) in Chad, told IRIN from the capital. “People cannot cook.”

“Women giving birth cannot even find a bit of charcoal to heat water for washing,” Céline Narmadji, with the Association of Women for Development in Chad, told IRIN.
...
“Chadians must find other ways to cook and forget about charcoal and wood as fuel,” Environment Minister Ali Souleyman Dabye recently told the media in N’djamena. “Cooking is of course a fundamental necessity for every household. On the other hand...with climate change every citizen must protect his environment.”

YouTube - Global warming/Climate change/Al Gore my hero

War against Earth's Core.

Tens of thousands faced more involuntary Earth Hours in Toronto

There are probably 100,000 stories describing the problems people dealt with during the power outage in Toronto - more if you include the hundreds of thousands of commuters who were incovenienced by the disruptions to public transit, street lights and those who lost a day of work.

Lake forms in downtown Montreal after 118-year-old pipe bursts - AOL News Canada

City officials are asking Montrealers to avoid several blocks around Peel Street in the south end of downtown Montreal as crews repair a massive water main break and try to stop the water from spreading.
...
The break at Peel and St-Jacques was the 19th in as many days in Montreal.

Aging pipes have been giving way as temperatures drop to lows between -20 C and -35 C, levels Montrealers rarely see even in the coldest of winter months.

"The temperature we are experiencing is exceptional for us," said Sammy Forcillo, the city's executive committee member in charge of infrastructure.

Forcillo said the recent rash of water main breaks in Montreal should be a reminder to the federal government of the pressing need to help municipalities repair aging infrastructure.

American Thinker Blog: Martian Methane Suggest Solar-Induced Global Warming

If Martian global warming and the release of methane is driven by solar activity rather than human industrial emissions, doesn`t this argue for similar effects on the Earth, which is much closer to the sun than Mars, after all? Do we take make the enormous investments to reduce our industrial emissions if the cause of the Earth`s warming is outside of our control? But then, we wouldn`t need a worldwide socialist system, now would we!

YouTube - CO2-hysteric Nike/WWF video

Nike commercial for WWF. Highlighting the effects of Climate Change and what we can do to help. Support WWF in the Nike+Human Race on August 31, 2008

Cold weather melts ice at Pettit center - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

Here's a little bit of irony: It's so cold outside that some of the ice at the Pettit National Ice Center has melted.

The reason: the cold temperature overnight froze an ammonia tank that the center uses to make ice and to maintain the refrigeration system for the ice rinks, said Pettit center spokesman Rob Multerer. Without it, some of the ice melted, so two hockey rinks and the Olympic Oval are not in skating condition as of the lunch hour.

"We've never had this issue before," Multerer said.

A [$1 Billion Federal] Stimulus for Global Warming Research » The Foundry

If the tide on global warming is beginning to shift, and climate scientists who believe global warming is a serious threat are looking for a job, look no further...

Climate Progress » Should Obama push a climate bill in 2009 or 2010? Part I, Does a serious bill need action from China?

The international negotiation process that led to the Kyoto Protocol and that is supposed to culminate in another deal in Copenhagen at the end of this year is for all intents and purposes in a deep coma, even if most of the participants don’t realize that (see “Obama can’t get a global climate treaty ratified, so what should he do instead? Part 1“). Indeed, the only thing that could possibly revive it is China agreeing to a cap by no later than 2020. That alone means Obama’s top international priority this year must not be Copenhagen, but rather China. Whether or not Obama needs some action by China to get a U.S. bill passed, his entire presidency and the fate of the planet rest on whether he can in fact get a China deal (see “What will make Obama a great president, Part 2: A climate deal with China“).
...
Based on my conversations with Hill staffers and others — and the not-so-subtle tea leaves being published in the media — I doubt there will be a US climate bill passed in 2009. Personally, I now think 2010 may be a better idea anyway, but only if the Obama administration takes a variety of specific actions in 2009.

If I ever get outta here, I'm going to Katmandu: Nepal turns back on hydropower

Just when switching over to clean energy to fight climate change has become a global mantra, water-rich Nepal appears to be heading in the opposite direction, changing from renewable to dirty energy.

To deal with crippling power cuts that last two thirds of a day, the government has declared a national power crisis, and announced a plan to install a series of generators of up to 200 megawatts (MW).

They will run on diesel, a fossil fuel that emits the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
...
However, the nation - until now - has stuck to hydropower over the years, maintaining a clean energy track record.

In 2007, it won the prestigious Ashden Award for replacing diesel powered mills with water-powered ones.

Two years earlier, it won another Ashden Award for a scheme that used cow dung to generate electricity.

The bio-gas project had even been able to sell surplus carbon credits to the World Bank under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the UN's Kyoto Protocol.

Toronto | Cold snap wreaking frosty havoc

Cold "snap" is an appropriate term: when the temperature dips this low, things tend to break.

Take, for instance, Toronto's water mains. As of noon yesterday, at least eight had burst in North York and Scarborough alone.

Massive Blackout Hits Toronto During One Of Coldest Nights Of The Year | AHN | January 16, 2009

Toronto, Ottawa (AHN) - A broken water main inundated a power station of Toronto Hydro, which caused massive brownouts in Toronto on Thursday night. The power outage hit the city at about 10 p.m. during one of the coldest nights of the year.

Cold wave grips parts of Burma

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The weather is getting cold these days and in some States and Divisions, it is colder than previous years, local people said.

In Myitkyina in Kachin State, the northern tip of Burma, Loi Lem in Shan State, eastern Burma, some cities in southeastern parts, Mogoke and Pyinmana in central Burma are significantly colder, it is learnt.

"It is extremely cold this year. Even those who like cold weather cannot bear it," a resident from Myitkyina said.

"It's much colder than previous years, especially these days. The more the sunrises the colder it gets. We cannot take off the warm clothes all day. But so far, we do not yet heard of any deaths related to the cold wave," he added.

Breaking: New Study Validates Natural Cork’s Green Credentials

SANTA MARIA DE LAMAS, Portugal - (Business Wire) Corticeira Amorim, the world’s leading producer of natural cork wine stoppers, recently issued the results of an independent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The study clearly shows the environmental superiority of natural cork stoppers over alternative wine closures.

The year-long study found that CO2 emissions — a key factor in global warming — resulting from the life cycle of a screwcap are 24 times higher than those from a natural cork stopper, while a plastic stopper is responsible for 10 times more CO2 than a natural cork.

Climate researchers take advantage of fossil-fueled Antarctic hot tub

“One of the traditions here at Palmer Station is to do the ‘polar plunge.’ This means some of us that are crazy enough, jump into the freezing water,” she wrote in one post. “Alex and I both jumped and quickly got ourselves out of the water and into the hot tub. There is no way I would have jumped without the hot tub.”

Palmer Station is located on Anvers Island, next to the Antarctic Peninsula. The facility includes sleeping and living quarters, a gym, lounge, as well as scientific laboratories and monitoring equipment. Up to 46 people can stay there at one time.

The station is serviced by the Antarctic Research and Supply Vessel L.M. Gould. The ship shuttles personnel, equipment and supplies back and forth between the station and Punta Arenas, Chile.

It will also be the team’s “home away from home” for a month-long research cruise, scheduled for January.

Al Fin: A Freezing Earth Eyes Nuclear Energy

Under the new energy starvation reich of Obama / Pelosi, there will be precious little new energy development, with the threat of much old energy being shut down out of faux-environmental concerns -- carbon hysteria. A surfeit of governmental and non-governmental "environmental" lawyers will be in full control, and they intend to create a type of havoc for ordinary persons previously unknown.

How do you plan to stay warm as the planet cools?

Big Stone approval has strings attached

Goodpaster, the attorney opposed to the project, said Minnesota faces an additional 4 million tons of carbon dioxide annually even as scientists advocate reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

“That means more global warming, which will further alter Minnesota’s climate, pushing the state further toward the demise of its moose population, more drought and the movement of the pine forests farther north.”

RightMichigan.com || Friday in the Sphere: Global Warming Edition

American Princess: Worst.  Environmentally-Conscious Inauguration.  Ever.

Blog of Bodnar: So Warm its Cold

Crippy's World: Global Warming Update

Hall of Record: Statewide Monthly Temperature Extremes

LifeBeat: Podcasting From the LifeTraining Institute

2007: YouTube - John Stossel vs Robert Kennedy on Global Warming

Interview with Neil Cavuto, Robert F Kennedy Jr., and John Stossel

RFK calls Stossel a liar and Stossel responds, in his own style. RFK explains why it's OK to control dissenting opinions. RFK also spews a bunch of nonsensical Global climate Crisis gibberish as well.

Global Warming Skepticism Panic Attack at Huffington Post | NewsBusters.org

Gasp! How dare people search for global warming information on their own outside of the reliable mainstream media which continues to support this climatic notion despite evidence to the contrary! Grandia concludes that in order to combat the growing global warming skepticism, more propaganda is going to have to shoved down the throat of the public...

South Dakota: Now that's cold

-42 record for day, lowest Aberdeen reading in 15 years

Montgomery County invests in a scam

In a time of deepening recessions and spiraling budget deficits, a Montgomery County working group unveiled on Thursday a 58-point climate protection plan that it said will help save the county money in the long run.

Dubuque equals cold-weather record

Dubuque tied the record for coldest morning low today.

The temperature sank to minus-30 degrees Fahrenheit at 7 a.m., equaling the temperature set back in 1888 — coincidentally on the same date, Jan. 16.

Death of a fad over 13 months: Videos and photos show fading global warming hysteria

YouTube - Dec '07 CCAN Keep Winter Cold! Polar Bear Plunge

Hundreds gather for the Third Annual: Keep Winter Cold - Polar Bear Plunge in the Chesapeake Bay. Put on by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network this event was the largest global warming rally in Maryland history.

Jan '09: CCAN Blog » Polar Bears Spotted in the Chesapeake!

Last Saturday, activists, politicians, dogs and musicians alike took the 4th annual Polar Bear Plunge in Annapolis. I woke up on Sunday morning with a great laugh when I saw this video of all of all of us screaming and running into the Bay (you can see more of the fun in these photos). Many thanks to everyone who participated–despite dire weather warnings–and made donations.

Philippines: Cold spell hits vegetables of Nueva Vizcaya farmers

Vegetable farmers in Nueva Vizcaya are getting hit by the current cold spell.

Before, Mang Adriano said he can harvest more than 2,000 kilos of vegetables from his one-hectare land in Sitio Lingay in Barangay Bonfal. Because of the cold spell these past few weeks however, he said he is only able to harvest half of that.

He said that his eggplants, which are in their flowering stage, died because of the cold weather while the leaves of the ampalayas that he planted last December also withered. “It this weather continues, we will really get affected badly,” said Adriano.

Another vegetable farmer is also complaining.

David Almerol said he might not be able to recover his expenses. He said he is only able to harvest 100 kilos of vegetable from his farm, where before his production is more than 400 kilos.

Of 192 UN countries, why did only 23 send representatives?

15 January 2009: In a speech delivered at the Ministerial Conference on Global Environment and Energy in Transport, which took place in Tokyo, Japan, from 14-16 January 2009, Yvo de Boer, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, stressed that a global deal on transport and climate change should be an integral part of the UNFCCC process.

He underlined that the meeting provided an “ideal forum for building consensus among the 23 countries represented,” and noted that the sector will undoubtedly come under intense pressure and will have to “dramatically change direction."

No Promises We Won't Go Dark - Chris Horner - Planet Gore on National Review Online

My caution at the time was that the greens have long mouthed the same things they told him—about anything they know you want and they don’t—when trying to get you to agree to their particular agenda, only to then dedicate every fiber of their being to blocking that which they assured you “has an important role” from attaining said important role. To wit, nuclear power. Now, many of the greens say the same thing about carbon capture and storage, and most anything that would allow us to use our most abundant resources.

Still, as a colleague of mine recently noted about Interior Secretary-designate Ken Salazar (but applicable to this discussion), they support oil shale, nuclear, coal . . . just ask them . . . but they can’t find their way to support any particular shale, coal, or nuclear project.

Saskatchewan poll: as usual, global warming hysteria utterly fails to resonate with the public

The poll found that 34.8 per cent of respondents felt the economy/recession was the most import issue facing Saskatchewan. Other top concerns included: health care (10.9%), jobs/unemployment (7.7%), housing/affordable housing (6.2%), plus environment/climate change (3.2%).

The video says the petition contained about 42,500 names, so they must have used a real big font - Mile Long Petition

Five anti-coal coalition partners joined to gather enough signatures to present a mile long petition to the Dominion Virginia Power company encouraging them to stop their plans to build a new coal-fired power plant in southwest Virginia and invest in alternative sources of energy instead.

Wouldn't it have been more environmentally friendly to deliver this electronically, rather than printing the whole thing out?

Open notebook: Tips for reporters on the coming climate wars :: CEJournal

Editor’s note: This is the fifth installment in my open notebook project. (The previous posting was a Q&A with Roger Pielke, Jr.) As I mentioned in my first post, I’ve been commissioned to write about the future of the climate change story. As I do my reporting, I will post updates about my interviews, and whenever possible, some multimedia content. The idea is to share my reporting process as I go along. If you have any thoughts about what’s important here, and what I ought to emphasize in my story, please leave me a comment.
...
For scientists, the focus in coming years will be on identifying the thresholds of danger as quickly as possible, so politicians can decide what risks are acceptable. Schneider said that won’t be solved any time soon, “but we will be working our butts off on it.”

Ice age report heats up queries on electric cars

Sure it's cold enough for politicians to have their hands in their own pockets.

But I suppose we'd better get used to it, especially on the heels of another report -- this one out of Russia -- cautioning that the Earth has entered another ice age because of a cyclical reduction in solar activity. As usual with climate change, man can do nothing to stop it.

Cold, Hard Truth Will Hurt - washingtonpost.com

It is bitter cold in Washington in January. And now the news: The coldest weather in more than a decade is going to continue until the full spectrum of synonyms for "bitter" is exhausted.
...
The current cold weather will cause consternation about the fate of millions expected to turn out for the presidential inauguration Tuesday. It is safe to predict that they will be cold but that they will survive if they take all of the necessary precautions. The usual list of recommendations has been trundled out, but it boils down to this: Dress warmly.

Biodiesel fuel woes close Bloomington schools

All schools in the Bloomington School District will be closed today after state-required biodiesel fuel clogged in school buses Thursday morning and left dozens of students stranded in frigid weather, the district said late Thursday.

Rick Kaufman, the district's spokesman, said elements in the biodiesel fuel that turn into a gel-like substance at temperatures below 10 degrees clogged about a dozen district buses Thursday morning. Some buses weren't able to operate at all and others experienced problems while picking up students, he said.
...
In 2005, a new requirement went into effect that all diesel fuel sold in Minnesota had to contain 2 percent biodiesel. Kaufman said that some school districts keep their buses in temperature-controlled garages, and that the First Student bus service, which contracts with several metro-area school districts, keeps its buses in garages or idles them through the night.

Dry humor - Global warming proof

Bitter cold stops biodiesel buses in Bloomington - Fort Mill, SC

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — The Bloomington School District is closing schools Friday, after extremely cold temperatures caused the biodiesel fuel in school buses to clog.

The problem left dozens of students stranded Thursday - some for up to 30 minutes in the dangerous cold.

Elements in biodiesel fuel turn into a gel-like substance at temperatures below 10 degrees. District spokesman Rick Kaufman said some buses couldn't operate at all and others stalled while picking up students.

Adam Curry now posting on climate realism

CURRY.COM » Climate Change Debunk From CNN

Bless the makers of this piece. “Media is a business, fear sells.” Al Gore Exaggerated. Lies, damn lies and statistics. Where’s the hockeystick???

CURRY.COM » “Global Warming Disproved” - Telegraph

A very important headline out of mainstream press in the UK yesterday:
2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved

Adam Curry: Biography from Answers.com

Best Known As: 1980s MTV host and influential podcaster

Television audiences know big-haired "video jockey" (VJ) Adam Curry as the host of the 1980s' "Top 20 Countdown" on MTV, and Internet users know him as one of the first celebrities to emerge on the World Wide Web.

Central Planning's New Plan - Henry Payne - Planet Gore on National Review Online

Presto, Chango.With a wave of its wand, Washington creates an electric-car revolution. Only in Washington can a lawyer-turned-one-term-senator from South Chicago walk into the room, propose to remake the entire auto market, and get $11 billion in investment thrown at him.

Did anyone see his business plan?

We’ve seen this game before. Just one year ago, automakers at the very same auto show delivered a promise of millions of flex-fuel, ethanol-capable cars. Central Planning dutifully mandated the production of ethanol fuel, and—presto!—the biofuel revolution almost immediately derailed as food prices soared even as consumers ignored E85 ethanol as an alternative for their cars.

What is a “necessary step for the wide scale adoption of electric vehicles” is that they outperform gas-powered vehicles. Until then, Washington’s billions is just new money following bad.

In the voting for Best Science Blog, climate realist blogs fared very well

Note that Climate Audit and Watts Up With That garnered a total of over 18,000 votes, while alarmist RealClimate received less than 1,500 votes.

House Bill To Include Billions In Grants For Wind Projects

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- House lawmakers are proposing to give solar and wind energy producers billions in government grants instead of tax credits to build renewable energy capacity, potentially transforming the way renewable energy projects have been financed for years.
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Obama will give a speech on economic recovery Friday at a wind-turbine manufacturing plant in Ohio.
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Large financial firms, including American International Group Inc. (AIG), Citigroup Inc. (C) and Wachovia Bank, historically have been the biggest users of the tax credits. But with the collapse of the banking sector and financial profits, banks no longer had enough tax liability to use the credits, putting new renewable power projects in jeopardy.

Wind Watch: Failed sensor caused ice shards

The failure of a sensor to halt a giant wind turbine when temperatures fall is blamed for shards of ice crashing into nearby homes in Cambridgeshire.

The Cornwall Light and Power 80m (262ft) turbine was put up in August, near an industrial estate and close to homes in King’s Dyke, Whittlesey.

On 29 November chunks of ice started crashing into gardens.

An investigation revealed a sensor had failed. Now the turbines will shut down if temperatures drop below 4ºC (38ºF).

If you're not going to run wind turbines under 38 F, what does that mean for wind power in the northern US? - Minnesota facts & figures

Fall - Average Fall Temperature Map
38 F north
46 F south

Winter - Average Winter Temperature Map
6 F north
16 F south