Never mind "Warming relative to when?" for this alleged "compelling and alarming new evidence" (and just what evidence that would be remains a mystery), let's just try to specify which pre-industrial temperature Dimas finds so alluring. Does he wish to benchmark from the apparent unusual cold in which our thermometric series are founded? If so, why? Such an "increase" would see the world around the temperatures of the Medieval Climate Optimum (our bad, mustn't call it "optimum" anymore, now the Medieval Warm Period). Perhaps he means warmer than the average of the last couple of thousand years... which would then be like the Holocene Climatic Optimum (about 5,000-3,000 BC) of a degree or two warmer than today. During the Climatic Optimum, many of the Earth's great ancient civilizations began and flourished. In Africa, the Nile River had three times its present volume, indicating a much larger tropical region. Gee, that'd be a worry, eh?

The UK ‘Global Warming’ Racket - Despite the hysteria over ‘global warming’ in the UK, the British Isles are probably one of the worst places on Earth to try to ascertain long-term climate trends from extreme weather events.

Britain’s weather is a constant battleground between competing air masses, from the Sahara and the Azores to the icy Arctic; from the moisture-laden Atlantic Ocean to freezing-dry Russia. Above all, our weather depends on which air mass happens to gain ascendancy at any one time. If we have an air mass from the Sahara, our cars are encrusted with rusty-red sand; if we have a north wind from the Arctic, we need the antifreeze.

Nevertheless, especially for politicians and some churchmen, like ‘The Druid’ (aka the Archbishop of Canterbury), whatever the weather, come rain or shine, it just has to be ‘global warming’.

Last year, when London’s Hyde Park looked like the Sahara Desert, it was, of course, ‘global warming’. This year, when Yorkshire has morphed into Bangladesh, it is again ‘global warming’. Such explanations are simplistic nonsense. (Global Warming Politics)

"Cooler assessment of climate obsession" - "OVER the past half-century we have become used to planetary scares of one kind or another. But the latest such scare - global warming - has engaged the political and opinion-forming classes to a greater extent than anything since, a little over 200 years ago, Malthus warned that, unless radical measures were taken to limit population growth, the world would run up against the limits of subsistence, leading inevitably to war, pestilence and famine.

This is partly perhaps because, at least in the richer countries of the world, we have rightly become more concerned with environmental issues. But that is no excuse for abandoning reason. It is time to take a cool look at global warming." (Nigel Lawson, The Australian)

"Everything is Caused by Global Warming (600+ links)" - "Dr. John Brignell, a British engineering professor, runs a website called numberwatch. He has compiled what has to be the most complete collection of links to media stories ascribing the cause of everything under the sun to global warming. He has already posted more than six-hundred links." (Christopher Alleva, American Thinker)

SciAm letter of the moment: "Atmosphere of Uncertainty?" - "To support the conclusion of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that current warming is anthropogenic, William Collins, Robert Colman, James Haywood, Martin R. Manning and Philip Mote assert in “The Physical Science behind Climate Change” that the mismatch between surface and tropospheric warming rates has now been resolved. This claim is not supported by actual observations. According to the April 2006 Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) report, considerable disparity exists between the observed warming-rate patterns and those calculated by greenhouse models. Although the models predict that temperature trends will increase with altitude by 200 to 300 percent, the data from both weather balloons and satellites show the opposite. This result does not deny the existence of a greenhouse effect from the considerable increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gases. But it does suggest that present models greatly overestimate the effect’s magnitude and significance." (S. Fred Singer, University of Virginia)

"Carbon Emissions Don’t Cause Global Warming" - "Our scientific understanding of global warming has gone through three stages:

1. 1985 – 2003. Old ice core data led us strongly suspect that CO2 causes global warming.
2. 2003 – 2007. New ice core data eliminated previous reason for suspecting CO2. No evidence to suspect or exonerate CO2.
3. From Aug 2007: Know for sure that greenhouse is not causing global warming. CO2 no longer a suspect.

The paper discusses how the ice core changes, missing greenhouse signature in the real data and the recent waning of the warming all suggest that carbon emissions are not behind the changes we have experienced in recent decades." (Guest Blog by David Evans, Science Speak)

"How not to measure temperature, part 40" - "Rounding out a review of California weather stations this week we visit Gilroy, CA, the garlic capital. This COOP station has an MMTS temperature sensor on a pole just a few feet from a concrete slab. We’ve seen a lot of that lately. But look closely - roasted garlic anyone?" (Watts Up With That?)

<chuckle> "EU Forests Expand, Could Aid Climate Goals - Study" - "OSLO - Forests in the European Union are expanding surprisingly fast and could be enlisted to help the EU achieve goals for fighting climate change, researchers said on Thursday." (Reuters)

Bit of sad news for you guys, low latitude forests might have a net cooling effect but mid- to high-latitude forests are believed to be net warmers through loss of albedo and hence increased absorption of solar radiation.

"Recipe for a storm: The ingredients for more powerful Atlantic hurricanes" - "As the world warms, the interaction between the Atlantic Ocean and atmosphere may be the recipe for stronger, more frequent hurricanes." (UW-Madison)

Well, atmospheric carbon dioxide certainly hasn't gone down any, so gorebull warming theory means we should be experiencing maximum toasting now, right? Odd that global ACE was higher in the period '88-'97 than it has been for the period '98-'07, no? In fact, the last time it was lower than the season just closing was back in the near-inactive PDO phase-shift year of '77 when global cooling stopped and the recent warming kicked off. Funny that...

"Loss Of Herb Saffir - A Pioneer In Communicating Hurricane Risk To The Public and Policymakers" - "As many of you have read in the news, Herb Saffir has died (see). Herb Saffir, along with Robert H. Simpson, is a developer of the famous categories 1 through 5 of hurricane intensity." (Climate Science)

"Study finds seasonal seas save corals with 'tough love'" - "Finally, some good news about the prospects of coral reefs in the age of climate change. According to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society, corals may actually survive rising ocean temperatures in ‘tough love’ seas with wide-ranging temperatures." (WCS)

Oh dear... it was only ever the hysterics who didn't realize corals are quite temperature robust and under no "warming" threat.

"Unnatural History" - "Hurricane Katrina -- a very big storm by any measure -- has now been called the "largest ecological disaster in U.S. history," according to the Christian Science Monitor, because it "killed or damaged about 320 million trees." Moreover, Katrina was a double ecological whammy, as the downed trees will eventually rot or burn, releasing another increment (probably too small to detect) of dreaded carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas. The Monitor's report was based upon an analysis of satellite imagery conducted by scientists at the University of New Hampshire.

Wait a minute. Hurricanes have been a fact of life for the forests of southeastern North America ever since there were forests, and that's a pretty long time." (Patrick J. Michaels, American Spectator)

Uh-huh... "U.S. lifestyle won't have to change in CO2 cut: report" - "NEW YORK - U.S. citizens will not have to drive less or read in the dark to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but they will have to buy more efficient cars and appliances, a report from two business groups said on Thursday." (Reuters)

Hey lookit! A buncha Charlies: "Business Leaders Seek Action on Warming" - "WASHINGTON - Some of the world's top business leaders are demanding that international diplomats meeting next week come up with drastic and urgent measures to cut greenhouse gas pollution at least in half by 2050.

Officials from more than 150 global companies - worth nearly $4 trillion in market capitalization - have signed a petition urging "strong, early action on climate change" when political leaders meet in Indonesia.

The hastily prepared petition drive, coordinated through the environmental office of Britain's Prince Charles, is signed by leaders from mainstream powerhouse companies such as Shell UK, GE International, Coca-Cola Co. (KO, News), Dupont Co., United Technologies Corp. (UTX, News), Rolls Royce, Nestle SA, Unilever, British Airways and Volkswagen AG." (AP)

"A Fifth of UN Carbon Credits May be Bogus - WWF" - "LONDON - One in five carbon credits issued by the United Nations are going to support clean energy projects that may in fact have helped to increase greenhouse gas emissions, environmental group WWF said on Thursday." (Reuters)

Don't sweat it fellas, all "carbon credits" are bogus anyway.

A suite of gibbering nitwittery from The Groaniad: "Bali: now the rich must pay" - "A fair and global effort to tackle climate change needs wealthy states to take the lead in CO2 cuts" (Nicholas Stern, The Guardian)

"Climate chief calls for 80% cuts in greenhouse gas" - "Sir Nicholas Stern, the government adviser on the economics of climate change and development, has urged nations to agree on ambitious reductions in greenhouse gas emissions or face the "destructive" consequences of global warming." (David Adam, The Guardian)

"Stern: Climate change a 'market failure'" - "Climate change is a result of the greatest market failure that the world has seen, Sir Nicholas Stern, whose review last year warned of the economic and social costs of climate change, said tonight." (Alison Benjamin, Guardian Unlimited)

"Forget the green technology - the hot money is in guns" - "Far from saving us from catastrophe, the market is developing fortresses to shield the haves from the victims of the future." (Naomi Klein, The Guardian)

Questions is: Where would these alleged scientists be trying to lead us? "Leading Scientists Urge EPA to Find that Global Warming Pollution Endangers Human Health and Welfare" - "WASHINGTON, DC - November 28 - Citing extensive scientific evidence that climate change constitutes a severe threat to human health and welfare, 23 leading scientists and physicians submitted a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson asking him to follow science in regulating global warming pollution under the Clean Air Act. EPA is preparing to announce its proposed response to the April 2nd Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, a decision rejecting EPA’s claim that it lacked authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act." (Press release)

"Study Details How U.S. Could Cut 28% of Greenhouse Gases" - "A new report says the country is brimming with opportunities to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, while saving money at the same time." (New York Times)

If there's money in it then capitalism will ensure its use, otherwise, take a hike, Chucky.

An Inconvenient Fact - The Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, DC, yesterday released the following information (November 28): ‘U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Declined 1.5 Percent in 2006’.

How pleased environmentalists should be that the U.S. has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. In stark contrast, emissions continue to rise in most of the countries that so self-righteously did. (Global Warming Politics)

Japan dumps Kyoto? Wise move: "Japan to propose new climate forum" - "TOKYO - Japan wants to involve China and the United States in talks over a new pact on climate change by launching a working group that will bring together all countries, including the major emitters that oppose existing plans." (Reuters)

"China Wary on International Climate Goals - Official" - "BEIJING - Beijing is reluctant to set itself international targets to fight climate change without financial assistance from industrialised countries, a senior climate change official, Gao Guangsheng, said on Thursday." (Reuters)

Chinese rope-a-dope: "China Says Will Curb Emissions if Gets Tech Help" - "BEIJING - China would "definitely do more" to cut its contribution to climate change if rich nations were willing to share clean energy technologies, its chief climate negotiator Yu Qingtai told Reuters on Thursday." (Reuters)

"EIB Hopes Climate Loan Will Spur Change in China" - "BEIJING - The European Investment Bank hopes its loan to China to help it fight climate change will have a "demonstration effect" that could spur more greenhouse gas-reducing projects, the bank's president said on Thursday." (Reuters)

"Planned UK Biofuel Plant Seen Risky as Wheat Soars" - "LONDON - Plans by BP Plc, British Sugar and DuPont to build a bioethanol plant in northeast England could be risky if wheat prices keep rising, but the market for the biofuel is growing, analysts said on Thursday." (Reuters)

No? Duh! "Retailers Keep 'Green' Behind Scenes This Holiday" - "COLUMBIA, Md. - US retailers may be touting their environmental-friendliness this year, but just about the only "green" in evidence for the holidays is in the usual Christmas decorations.

Thick catalogs continue to clog mailboxes, store personnel keep handing out free gift boxes, and plastic bags are everywhere.

There is little to no signage in stores emphasizing eco-friendly products, beyond those at select chains known for their environmental thrust." (Reuters)

"Corn syrup may not boost appetite, food intake" - "NEW YORK - Though some have blamed the U.S. obesity problem on the corn syrup ubiquitous in processed foods, a new study casts some doubt on this idea.

Researchers found that high-fructose corn syrup did not differ from regular table sugar in its effects on people's appetite and food intake later in the day. They say the findings counter the argument that high-fructose corn syrup is contributing to the rise of obesity and type 2 diabetes." (Reuters Health)

"CDC admits there is no obesity epidemic!" - "Well, sort of. They appear to be doing their darndest to not let you know what they’ve known for years." (Junkfood Science)

Uh-oh... redefinition in the wind: "U.S. obesity rates level off: government study" - "CHICAGO - After 25 years of successive increases, obesity rates in the United States are holding steady, government health officials said on Wednesday.

But Americans are still plenty fat, with more than a third of U.S. adults found to be obese in 2005-2006, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." (Reuters)

"Kids' food choices don't match nutrition knowledge" - "NEW YORK - Kindergartners have a fairly good idea of which foods are good for them, but they often prefer less healthy choices, researchers from Israel have found." (Reuters Health)

"Starting them young... on the road to eating disorders?" - "A new board game for preschoolers has come out just in time for Christmas gift giving. It’s a toy being marketed for 2 to 4-year olds to teach kids ‘healthy eating’ and exercise. Instead, it is one of the most troubling examples of educational toys to address 'childhood obesity.' Not only does it reinforce with little ones prejudicial stereotypes of fat children, it shows them how to think like anorectics and compulsive exercisers.

Players come away learning that foods, especially “bad” foods, make them fat. The message being illustrated is that when a food is eaten, they must purge by expending a certain number of calories in exercise to avoid getting fat. Calorie counting before they can count." (Junkfood Science)

"Andrew Bolt: They're trying to scare you" - "THE campaigners warning us we might end up with two heads after eating GM foods are ignoring the science that says it's good for you." (Herald Sun)

"Australian scientists identify crucial barley gene" - "Adelaide scientists have identified the major gene responsible for boron toxicity tolerance in barley, allowing breeders to select with 100% accuracy barley varieties that are tolerant to boron. The findings have today been published in the journal, Science." (University of Adelaide)

November 29, 2007

"Hurricane Season - Mild for US But Not the Rest" - "MIAMI - For a second year in a row, the United States has escaped a severe hurricane hit, pushing memories of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans another notch into the past." (Reuters)

Hmm... the count was only "average" because virtually every zephyr was included, whether tropical or not.

Newsflash: November 29, 2007

The 2007 Atlantic Hurricane season did not meet the hyperactive expectations of the storm pontificators. This is good news, just like it was last year. With the breathless media coverage prior to the 2006 and 2007 seasons predicting a catastrophic swarm of hurricanes potentially enhanced by global warming a la Katrina, there is currently plenty of twisting in the wind to explain away the hyperbolic projections. The predominant refrain mentions something about "being lucky" and having "escaped" the storms, and "just wait for next year".

Before we prepare for the obvious impending onslaught of the next "above-average" hurricane season, let's review some very positive aspects of what 2007 offered: (Ryan N. Maue, COAPS)

What? "Venus inferno due to 'runaway greenhouse effect', say scientists" - "Once styled as Earth's twin, Venus was transformed from a haven for water to a fiery hell by an unstoppable greenhouse effect, according to an investigation by the first space probe to visit our closest neighbour in more than a decade. (AFP)

Try this: "Caught in the wind from the Sun" - "Venus Express has exposed the true extent to which the Sun strips away the atmosphere of Venus. This process could be an important contribution to the way the planet has evolved to become so different from the Earth.

The Sun has probably been stripping away the Venus’ atmosphere throughout the planet’s four-thousand million-year history. Unlike Earth, Venus does not possess an intrinsic magnetic field to protect its atmosphere from the solar wind, a constant stream of electrically charged particles emitted by the Sun. Instead, the solar wind interacts directly with the upper atmosphere of Venus.

“The solar wind interaction is important because it defines the conditions at the boundary of the atmosphere with space and it is a very active boundary,” says Stanislav Barabash at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna, Sweden.

In particular, the interaction causes Venus’s atmosphere to lose its gases in the form of ionized particles. The Analyzer of Space Plasmas and Energetic Atoms (ASPERA) on Venus Express has been studying this interaction and has revealed, for the first time, the composition of the escaping particles. They are predominantly hydrogen, oxygen and helium ions.

The first two components of the escaping ions are highly important because they are the chemical constituents of water." (ESA) [em added]

"Ancient Greenland mystery has a simple answer, it seems" - "Did the Norse colonists starve? Were they wiped out by the Inuit – or did they intermarry? No. Things got colder and they left." (The Christian Science Monitor)

"A tsunami of nonsense" - "When disaster strikes, it's only human to attribute blame. In the middle of the last millennium, the pope blamed witches for the "little Ice Age" that was giving Europe a chilly embrace.

Thanks to his no doubt well-meaning concern, a brutal witch-hunt was unleashed. As temperatures dropped, trials of witches increased.

Five centuries later, the world's climate is changing again. Witches are still blamed in Tanzania and individuals are persecuted. In the developed world, we no longer believe in witches. But hyperbole and blame remain an integral part of climate debate." (Bjorn Lomborg, Vancouver Sun)

"Upcoming Climate Science Papers" - "In the coming weeks and months, Climate Science will post information on several new papers from our research group. We have been busy with research studies while Climate Science was not actively updated. Among the research findings of our papers are:" (Climate Science)

"Paintings used in climate change tracking" - "London - The vivid sunsets painted by JMW Turner are revered for their use of colour and light and for their influence on the Impressionists. But could they also help global warming experts track climate change?" (Sapa-AP)

"Global Temperatures are Uncorrelated with Carbon Dioxide Trends This Last Decade" - "Temperature peaked in 1998 and have shown no warming for a decade now. Many scientists have been remarking about this trend for several years but no one takes heed, preferring to believe models than actual data. Here is the satellite derived global temperature trend since 1979. Note the cooling globally near the volcanically active periods of the early 1980s and 1990s. Note also the warm spike associated with the super El Nino that seemingly marked the beginning of the end of the warm Pacific trend that began in 1978." (Joseph D’Aleo, CCM)

"How not to measure temperature, part 39" - "One of the most surprising things I’ve learned from the surfacestations.org project is that for some odd reason, there are a number of climate monitoring stations of record in the USA at sewage treatment plants. If you’ve ever driven by one of these in the wintertime, they tend to look like steam saunas. They are localized heat bubbles from the waste-water processing." (Watts Up With That?)

"Terminating Warming? A Look at California" - "With so much focus on California’s fight against global warming, we were drawn to a very interesting article in a recent issue of Climate Research. Scientists from California State University, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories, and the University of Utah examined temperature trends from 1950 to 2000 for hundreds of stations in Governor Schwarzenegger’s California. They calculated the trend in the mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures, and their results are really not all that surprising. As seen in Figure 1 below, California seems to have warmed at a rate of 0.13°C per decade over the past half century. But no Ph.D. in urban climate is required to immediately see that many rural locations are barely warming, not warming, or even cooling, while the heavily urbanized stations in the Bay Area and Southern California are warming at a significant rate. LaDochy et al. showed that the “urban” stations warmed at a rate of 0.20°C per decade while the “non-urban” stations warmed only 0.08°C per decade. Furthermore, they state that “Large urban sites showed rates over twice those for the state, for the mean maximum temperatures, and over 5 times the state’s mean rate for the minimum temperatures.” The research team concludes that “Some of the largest temperature increases occur in the vicinity of urban centers, particularly for minimum temperatures. Few rural stations show significant increases in minimum or maximum temperatures.” We have covered this topic time and time again, and many of the greenhouse advocates absolutely dismiss the obvious implications of this research. Many websites claim that California is warming at an alarming rate, and depending on how one defines “alarming,” there could be validity to the claim. However, LaDochy et al. show that the warming is strangely confined to the growing urban areas, and they find little to no warming in the rural stations. Heaven forbid, but 41% of the stations had no significant warming and 6% actually had cooling. Despite the undisputed buildup of greenhouse gases from 1950 to 2000, almost half of the stations in California showed no significant warming!" (WCR)

"Thomas Ring: 'We should not fear global warming'" - "SUPERVISOR Charles McGlashan, in the Sept. 26 IJ, said "the county's growth policies have to take global warming seriously. We are fighting a race against potential extinction."

His reference was to the nonscientific consensus that man-made CO2 is causing catastrophic global warming.

Over many millennia, the Earth's average temperature has cycled between about 54 Fahrenheit and 72 Fahrenheit. It now is about 60 degrees.

Prior to about 1850, we have only proxy information about the Earth's temperature, but we know it was warm in Roman times (about 600 BC) and around 1000 (when grapes grew in the United Kingdom and Greenland was rich in vegetation). These warmer periods occurred in the absence of man-made CO2." (Thomas Ring, Marin Independent Journal)

Hansen apologizes... kind of: "‘Averting Our Eyes’: James Hansen’s New Call for Climate Action" - "James E. Hansen of NASA has elaborated on what he meant when he recently described continued coal burning as akin to sending untold species to their destruction in “death trains” and crematoria." (New York Times)

"Survival of the Stupidest" - "Hey, did you hear the one about the woman who aborted her kid so she could save the planet?

That's no joke, but Darwin must be chuckling somewhere.

Toni Vernelli was one of two women recently featured in a London Daily Mail story about environmentalists who take their carbon footprint very, very seriously.

So seriously, in fact, that Vernelli aborted a pregnancy and, by age 27, had herself sterilized. Baby-making, she says, is "selfish" and "all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet."

Because Toni and her husband, Ed, are childless and vegan, they say they can justify one long-haul airplane trip per year and still remain carbon neutral.

Sarah Irving is another like-minded nature-nurturer. She and fiance Mark Hudson decided on him having a vasectomy to prevent the possibility of an inconvenient life interfering with their carbon-perfect ones.

Those of us who have managed to see a pregnancy through to birth recognize the irony of these tales.

If we're not saving the planet for our kids, for whom are we saving it? After we're all sterilized and aborted, who's going to appreciate the fact that global warming is, by golly, under control? Who's going to live to tell the tale?

Tell me: When was the last time you read a good book by a polar bear?" (Kathleen Parker, Real Clear Politics)

"Italian outbreak of rare African disease linked to globalization, climate change" - "LONDON: An obscure disease from Africa broke out in Europe for the first time this past summer, raising concerns that globalization and climate change were combining to pose a major health threat to developed Western nations." (Associated Press)

Oh... "Climate change may cost Florida $345 billion a year: study" - "TALLAHASSEE, Florida - If nothing is done to combat global warming, two of Florida's nuclear power plants, three of its prisons and 1,362 hotels, motels and inns will be under water by 2100, a study released on Wednesday said.

In all, Florida could stand to lose $345 billion a year in projected economic activity by 2100 if nothing is done to reduce emissions that are viewed as the main human contribution to rising global temperatures, according to the Tufts University study.

That equals about 5 percent of what economists project the state's gross domestic product will be by the end of the century." (Reuters)

"Brazil Rejects Emission Targets for Poor Nations" - "BRASILIA - Brazil reiterated its opposition on Wednesday to imposing targets on developing countries' carbon emissions, days before a major international conference on climate change." (Reuters)

"Climate change will cost 1.6% of global GDP, says UN report" - "BRASILIA: Climate change could have apocalyptic consequences for the world's poor and tackling it will require cuts in greenhouse gases costing 1.6% of global annual GDP, the UN Development Program said on Tuesday." (AFP)

"EU Sees Carbon Capture in Trade Scheme - Draft" - "BRUSSELS - Companies should get credit under the European Union's emissions trading scheme for capturing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of releasing it into the atmosphere, the European Commission will propose." (Reuters)

"Chief Scientist to tackle climate change" - "A new Oxford University institute that will search for private solutions to global warming and other environmental problems is to be led by Sir David King when he steps down as the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser.

Gordon Brown's chief scientist will take up the role of Director of the newly formed Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford next January, where he will lead research with industry to help validate green technologies, test green financial instruments such as carbon credits, and study ways to inform consumers of the green credentials of cars and other consumer products.

The institute will also introduce environmental issues across the university, putting environmental study as part of mainstream degree programmes, teaching students of core disciplines such as business, economics, politics, law, PPE, geography that environmental problems are relevant." (London Telegraph)

"Climate change policies attacked" - "OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper's climate change policies came under attack from two new international sources on Tuesday, including a United Nations report warning that Canada would lose its credibility on environmental issues if it does nothing to boost its fight against global warming.

"Canada has a long history of global leadership on global atmospheric environmental issues, from acid rain to ozone depletion and climate change," said the UN's Human Development Report. "Maintaining this tradition will require tough decisions." (Mike De Souza, CanWest News Service)

"Brown praises Rudd's effort on climate change" - "MELBOURNE: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday congratulated Australia's Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd for winning the election and praising his efforts on climate change said talks with him next month will be very important for the future." (PTI)

That's nice... what efforts would they be? Rudd has been Australia's Opposition Leader for about a year and has promised to sign Kyoto as Prime Minister (he's a bit late, Australia has been a signatory nation since 1998). Apart from that, what?

"Kyoto shift welcome at Bali" - "KEVIN Rudd's embrace of the Kyoto Protocol will "absolutely change the dynamic" of the UN conference on climate change in Bali next week, one of the world body's top officials in Jakarta said yesterday.

Indonesian director for the UN Development Program, Hakan Bjorkman, said that "in purely climate change terms" the federal election result was a "big step" towards addressing global warming.

"For any country to decide to join the multilateral effort to sign and ratify is great news," he said. "It will help change the dynamic of Bali."

Indonesia has rushed through a request for UN rules to be bent so Australia can sit at the negotiating table for a successor agreement to Kyoto, the greenhouse emissions reduction protocol that expires in 2012." (The Australian)

Interesting, Rudd might manage to get Kyoto ratified in mid-2008 (although there is no guarantee) but making the right noises is enough to buy a seat at the carbon scammers table? Silly game...

The reality: "Ratifying Kyoto 'difficult': expert" - "The act of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol may create headaches for the incoming Labor government, an international law expert says.

Without domestic legislation in place the new government could be in breach of its international legal obligations.

Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd has said he will ratify the global greenhouse gas reduction agreement when he attends a meeting of world leaders in Bali next month.

Australia is a signatory to the protocol but the Howard government refused to ratify the deal.

Donald Rothwell, professor of international law at the Australian National University College of Law, said the normal method for ratifying treaties was not a speedy process and it was highly improbable it could be achieved by the end of the year.

The process involves preparing a national impact analysis, conducting a parliamentary inquiry and enacting new laws, he said.

"The simple act of ratifying Kyoto may create the first set of headaches for the new government," Professor Rothwell said in a statement." (AAP)

"More Than 1 Billion Trees Planted in 2007 - UN" - "OSLO - The world has surpassed a UN goal of planting 1 billion trees in 2007 to help slow climate change, led by huge forestry projects in Ethiopia and Mexico, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Wednesday." (Reuters) [/woohoo]

"Indonesia to plant 79 million trees ahead of climate change conference" - "Indonesian forests are destroyed faster than in any other country. So, the government started a campaign to plant 79 million trees ahead of forthcoming critical climate change conference on the island of Bali." (AP)

"Climate Change Deals Another Blow to Orangutans" - "JAKARTA - Climate change will hurt Indonesia's orangutan population, already under threat from the rapid rate of deforestation, by reducing their food stock, a leading conservation group said on Wednesday." (Reuters)

"Lack of development: that’s the real disaster" - "An Oxfam report suggests climate change has led to a quadrupling of weather-related disasters. It pays to interrogate such heated claims." (Rob Lyons, sp!ked)

"Countries Urged to Create Disaster Warning Systems" - "GENEVA - Governments in rich and poor countries should focus more on investing in early warning systems that can save lives in natural disasters, a United Nations expert said on Wednesday." (Reuters)

And don't forget the infrastructure to move people out of immediate danger -- real development and the wealth generation required to finance it, in other words, the very things AGW hysterics want to suppress.

"Global System Could Cut Disaster Toll by 2018" - "CAPE TOWN - A global satellite system should come on line next decade, potentially saving billions of dollars and thousands of lives by boosting preparedness for natural disasters, a top scientist said on Wednesday." (Reuters)

"Is it ethical to force people to be green?" - "Our ethical columnist explains what we really need to do to stop climate change." (Ethan Greenhart, sp!ked)

"U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Declined 1.5 Percent in 2006" - "Total U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were 7,075.6 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) in 2006, a decrease of 1.5 percent from the 2005 level according to Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2006, a report released today by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Since 1990, U.S. GHG emissions have grown at an average annual rate of 0.9 percent. The 2006 emissions decrease is only the third decline in annual emissions since 1990.

U.S. GHG emissions per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or “U.S. GHG-intensity,” fell from 653 metric tons per million 2000 constant dollars of GDP (MTCO2e/$Million GDP) in 2005 to 625 MTCO2e /$Million GDP in 2006, a decline of 4.2 percent. Since 1990, the annual average decline in GHG-intensity has been 2.0 percent." (EIA)

"Energy Efficiency Fails to Cut Consumption - Study" - "TORONTO - American consumers are driving bigger gas-guzzling cars and buying more air conditioners and refrigerators as the overall energy efficiency of such products improves, a report released on Tuesday found.

In what the study calls "the efficiency paradox," consumers have taken money saved from greater energy efficiency and spent it on more and bigger appliances and vehicles, consuming even more energy in the process.

"While seemingly perverse, improvements in energy efficiency result in more of the good being consumed -- not less," said Jeff Rubin, chief economist and chief strategist at CIBC World Markets, which conducted the study." (Reuters)

"Clear Thinking Endangered" - "A political appointee had the brass to question recommendations made on protected species habitats and gets the business from a Democratic congressman and the eco-left. How much room does a toad need anyway?" (IBD)

"The good-bad salt debate gets a hearing at the FDA" - "The FDA is convening a public hearing tomorrow to decide if salt should be regulated as a potentially dangerous food additive and whether to revoke salt’s status as “generally recognized as safe.” Is this a sign that we should be concerned? Is this hearing in response to troubling new science showing that the population is at risk from salt, necessitating government intervention? Has evidence come out showing that salt reductions would benefit everyone?

No, no and no." (Junkfood Science)

"Poison or Medicine—Toxin or Drug?" - “Poison surrounds us. It’s not just too much of a bad thing like arsenic that can cause trouble, it’s too much of nearly anything. Too much vitamin A, hypervitaminosis A, can cause liver damage. Too much vitamin D can damage the kidneys. Too much water can result in hyponatremia, a dilution of the blood’s salt content, which disrupts brain, heart, and muscle function,” reports Cathy Newman. (1)

However, more and more research studies are revealing that a little bit of some poisons can be quite helpful to human health. Examples include botulinum, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, and epibatidine, the toxic that native Indians use to make poison darts." (Jack W. Dini)

"Obesity Rates Are Leveling Off" - "Obesity rates in American women have stayed steady since 1999, and there are hints that obesity rates may be leveling off for men, too." (Gina Kolata, New York Times)

"Role models of positive body images for young women?" - "Two articles this week have alerted readers to risks associated with pro-anorexia websites. One investigative report by People UK revealed to parents the alarming extremes of starvation encouraged by troubled young women on these unmoderated sites, the “thinspiration” photos they post of themselves and celebrities they are emulating, and life-threatening weight loss ideas they share. Included in the undercover dossier was one girl who slashed her wrists on a livejournal pro-ana chatroom and no one tried to get help for her as she bled to unconsciousness. People UK contacted livejournal.com and gave them detailed documentation of what was going on and urging them to discontinue the pro-anorexia forums. There was no response. The livejournal mission statement, according to the report, says it believes “in letting users create their own content with complete freedom of expression.” This is not to advocate to censorship, but to serve as an added warning to family and young people about things on the internet that can be harmful.

The second article by Mama Vision warned girls of the dangers of posting their photos online at pro-ana sites, jeopardizing their futures in ways they might never have imagined." (Junkfood Science)

"Drop Down and Give Me a Handstand" - "Health clubs are playing to worries about childhood obesity while tapping into yet another source of revenue, which explains the rise of group exercise at gyms for children 5 and under." (New York Times)

"Report Links Increased Cancer Risk to CT Scans" - "In a few decades, as many as 2 percent of all cancers in the United States may be due to radiation from CT scans given now." (New York Times)

November 28, 2007

"The Lowdown on Doomsday: Why the public shrugs at global warming." - "The secretary-general of the United Nations, upon issuing yet another global-warming report a couple of weeks ago, announced that "we are on the verge of a catastrophe." Kevin Rudd, Australia's just-elected prime minister, has said that fighting global warming will be his "number one" priority. And Al Gore, propelled by his Nobel Prize, still travels the world to warn of doom. His latest stop was the Caribbean, where earlier this month he told a gathering of the region's environmental officials that rising seas, the result of melting polar icecaps, would threaten their island paradise.

And yet the public does not seem to feel all that heatedly about the warming of the planet. In survey after survey, American voters say that they care about global warming, but the subject ranks quite low when compared with other concerns (e.g., the economy, health care, the war on terror). Even when Mr. Gore's Oscar-winning film, "An Inconvenient Truth," was at the height of its popularity, it did not increase the importance of global warming in the public mind or mobilize greater support for Mr. Gore's favored remedies--e.g., reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by government fiat. Mr. Gore may seek to make environmental protection civilization's "central organizing principle," as he puts it, but there is no constituency for such a regime. Hence even the Democratic Party's presidential candidates, in their debates, give global warming only cursory treatment, with lofty rhetoric and vague policy proposals.

There is a reason for this political freeze-up. In "Break Through," Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger argue that Mr. Gore and the broader environmental movement--in which Mr. Gore plays an almost messianic part--remain wedded to an outmoded vision, seeing global warming as "a problem of pollution to be fixed by a politics of limits." Such a vision may have worked in the early days of environmentalism, when the first clear-air and clean-water regulations were pushed through Congress, but today it cannot mobilize enough public support for dramatic political change.

What is to be done? Messrs. Nordhaus and Shellenberger want to replace the pollution paradigm with a progressive one. They broached this idea in "The Death of Environmentalism," a controversial 2004 monograph that ricocheted around the Internet. "Break Through" gives the idea a fuller exposition and even greater urgency. The authors contend that the environmental movement must throw out its "unexamined assumptions, outdated concepts, and exhausted strategies" in favor of something "imaginative, aspirational, and future-oriented." (Jonathan H. Adler, Opinion Journal)

The Nuclear And GM Litmus Tests - Although ‘The Great Global Warming Myth’ is, in the long-run, potentially dangerous both politically and economically, in the short-term it can be used politically to achieve certain beneficial developments. The three most important of these in the UK are undoubtedly a new generation of nuclear power stations; the acceptance of GM technology; and, a degree of energy efficiency.

Just like Mrs. Thatcher before him, Tony Blair employed the supposed threat of ‘global warming’ to initiate a move towards a resurgence of clean nuclear power in Britain. It now appears that his successor, Gordon Brown, plans to follow the same route. In his speech to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) yesterday (see: ‘Don’t Ask Me About My Business’, November 26), Brown reiterated his enthusiasm for nuclear power, stating: “New nuclear power stations potentially have a role to play in tackling climate change and improving energy security.” (Global Warming Politics)

Civil Society Report Rejects “Kyoto 2”; says climate policy should focus on removing barriers to adaptation - A new Report* produced by a coalition of over 40 prominent civil society organisations from 33 countries says that governments should reject calls for a post-Kyoto treaty (“Kyoto 2”) with binding limits on carbon emissions. The report says a better strategy would be to focus on removing barriers to adaptation, such as subsidies, taxes and regulations that hinder technological innovation and economic growth.

From 3-14 December, government officials will be in Bali, Indonesia, for climate talks. They are set to discuss the establishment of a new treaty, dubbed “Kyoto 2”, which would require all countries to limit emissions of greenhouse gases.

The Civil Society Report on Climate Change concludes that such emissions caps would be counterproductive: they would undermine economic development, harm the poor, and would be unlikely to address the problem of climate change in a meaningful way. (Press Release) | Full Report | Summary and Policy Recommendations | "Human Ecology and Human Behavior: Climate change and health in perspective" By Paul Reiter | "Death and Death Rates due to Extreme Weather Events: Global and U.S. Trends, 1990-2006" By Indur M. Goklany | "Weathering Global Warming in Agriculture and Forestry: It can be done with free markets" By Douglas Southgate and Brent Sohngen | "The Political Economy of Global Warming, Rent Seeking and Freedom" By Wolfgang Kasper

"Good News! Pielke is blogging again!" - "Dr. Roger Pielke Sr. has started up his Climate Science blog again, sans comments, as an informational source only. This is some very good news. See his post below.

November 27, 2007: Climate Science Is Relaunching As An Information Source" (Watts Up With That?)

"U.S. Key to Balanced Carbon Budget, UN Says" - "UNITED NATIONS - Calls for profound change in the environmental behaviour of the United States are on the rise as world leaders prepare to attend a major summit on climate change in Bali, Indonesia next month." (IPS)

To a limited extent that's true, although not for any reason these guys are concerned with. The biosphere is currently running in carbon deficit, the result of many millennia's biological sequestration depleting atmospheric carbon dioxide far below most plants' photosynthetic optimum. The US, as one of the major industrial economies, is definitely helping restore some of that previously inaccessible carbon to the biosphere, something for which we should all be grateful.

Oh dear... "Climate expert Running offers dim forecast in UM talk" - "The list of good things caused by global warming is pretty short.

In western Montana, we'll have a longer growing season and a little earlier green-up.

For those of you who don't like snow, well, if you hang around another 50 years, Missoula just might not have any.

That's about the end of the list. And the fact is, even the changes that might be spun positively are still negative." (Missoulian) | Nobel Winner Lectures on ‘The Five Stages of Climate Grief’ (New West)

Assume, for a moment, that the supposition increases in the atmospheric trace gas carbon dioxide will lead to measurable global mean temperature increase is true, does that guarantee bad things will happen? Only if you believe what is good for humans and life in general is necessarily bad. Look at your history, great civilizations rose in warm periods and declined with temperature. When giants trod the Earth it is believed to have been about 10 kelvins warmer than contemporary measures with the tropics reaching to mid latitudes and the temperate zones reaching the poles -- and the biosphere was booming. That was under conditions that would require almost twice the IPCC's most hysterical "storyline" warming. Cooling, however, is not such a pretty picture.

Really? "Trees giving bizarre clues to climate change" - "CARSON, Skamania County — Suspended 20 stories in the air, Ken Bible looks down on the crown of a 500-year-old Douglas fir and ponders a mystery.

It's not the obvious one: How does a man without superpowers hover above the treetops?

That's easy. The University of Washington forest ecologist rose to his lofty perch in a metal gondola hoisted by a 285-foot-tall construction crane.

The vantage point allows Bible to study the upper reaches of this old-growth forest, where a reproductive orgy is under way.

"We've never seen anything like this here," he says, reaching over the edge of the open-air gondola to grasp a limb laden with cones.

He counts at least 30.

"Normally, a branch like this would have about three," he says. "Why so many this year? We really don't know."

Maybe global warming nudged the trees to procreate. Perhaps it's a natural cycle." (Seattle Times)

Not that there's any real reason to associate this higher productivity with "climate change" but would it be a problem if the forests are more productive?

"Batten down the hatches – Climate fear-mongering to get worse" - "The Commonwealth conference just completed in Uganda provides a preview of the rhetoric we can expect from delegates at next week’s United Nations Climate Change Conference on the island of Bali, Indonesia.

Britain’s Prince Charles, now a devoted climate campaigner, told the Commonwealth conference, “Climate change has become the greatest challenge facing mankind… It has become a question literally of survival for Commonwealth members like Tuvalu and Kiribati.”

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon of New Zealand assured attendees: “One way or another, climate change is happening. To all of us.” McKinnon seems to think climate change is a new phenomenon and that climate was constant in the past, an assertion that would fail a grade school student." (Tom Harris: Dr. Richard S. Courtney, CFP)

"Average Atlantic hurricane season draws to an end" - "Residents of hurricane-prone areas heaved a sigh of relief as this year's Atlantic tropical storm season drew to an end, while experts wondered why forecasts for above-average activity have been so wrong.

A total of 14 named storms, including six hurricanes developed in 2007, making it an average season.

Forecasters had initially expected at least 17 named storms, nine of them hurricanes to form during the six-month Atlantic season that officially ends on November 30.

"The reasons for this year's average season are challenging to explain," said Phil Klotzbach of the prominent Colorado State University hurricane forecast team.

"It is impossible to understand how all these processes interact with each other to 100-percent certainty," Klotzbach said in a report published on Tuesday, which looked at vertical wind sheer, sea surface temperatures and other elements that affect the formation of hurricanes.

Last year also had been quieter than initially feared, in sharp contrast with the record-setting 2005 Atlantic hurricane season when Katrina devastated New Orleans and part of the US Gulf coast.

"The seasonal hurricane forecasters certainly have a lot of explaining to do," said Max Mayfield, former director of the National Hurricane Center.

"The last couple of years have humbled the seasonal hurricane forecasters and pointed out that we have a lot more to learn before we can do accurate seasonal forecasts," he told The Miami Herald." (AFP)

"Scafetta & West: Climate phenomenology" - "In this weekly dose of the peer-reviewed skeptical literature about the climate, we look into Journal of Geophysical Research:" (The Reference Frame)

"Arctic Tundra Shrub Invasion And Soot Deposition: Consequences For Spring Snowmelt And Near-surface Air Temperatures" - "This paper has already been discussed on Watts Up With That but I want to further emphasize that this research demonstrates not only the role of shrubs on spring snow melt in the Arctic, but also the significant role of black carbon deposition. This issue was identified in the 2005 National Research Council report as being a major climate forcing, but its importance was not adequately discussed in the 2007 IPCC report. As a result, policymakers are attributing a larger fraction of recent near-surface arctic warming to the radiative effect of added CO2, rather than from soot." (Climate Science)

"ABC: Global warming puts fish stocks at risk" - "While trawling for high-resolution ocean sediment cores, I noticed an interesting core offshore Morocco, reported by McGregor et al (Science 2007) earlier this year. This study was released just prior to IPCC complete with press release. Can’t we all think back to a quieter time when a scientist having labored to produce a detailed analysis of ocean sediments or tree cores would merely publish his study in an academic journal? When I first became familiar with the climate field, I was astonished at the idea of scientists issuing press releases that would make mining promoters cringe. This study is an interesting example of the counterplay between the fine print of the academic article and the promotion in the newspaper." (Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit)

"World Must Fix Climate in Less Than 10 Years - UNDP" - "BRASILIA - Unless the international community agrees to cut carbon emissions by half over the next generation, climate change is likely to cause large-scale human and economic setbacks and irreversible ecological catastrophes, a United Nations report says on Tuesday." (Reuters)

"Crops hit, more water shortages, higher sea levels, bigger disease risk" - "Saving the world's poorest people from the effects of runaway climate change will require the west to cut carbon emissions by four-fifths." (The Guardian)

Oh... "Today, the Poor - Tomorrow, the Next Generation" - "GENEVA - Although climate change threatens the international community as a whole, the heaviest human costs are borne by the poor, who have contributed least to the problem, according to the United Nations." (IPS)

"Andrew Bolt: Cool it! You can give birth" - "GOOD news! Kevin Rudd will next month stop global warming, so you won't have to cull your children, too." (Herald Sun)

Just gets worse and worse: "A change in climate for developers" - "GOVERNMENTS will be forced to consider how climate change and rising sea levels will affect all future urban developments after a ruling in the Land and Environment Court yesterday.

Justice Peter Biscoe overturned a decision by the Planning Minister, Frank Sartor, to allow the property developer Stockland to build up to 285 homes and an aged-care facility at beachside Sandon Point, 14 kilometres north of Wollongong.

Justice Biscoe found Mr Sartor had failed to consider "whether changed weather patterns would lead to an increased flood risk in connection with the proposed development in circumstances where flooding was identified as a major constraint on development of the site".

The case was brought by a Sandon Point resident, Jill Walker, who lodged her last-minute case against the minister even before she had found a lawyer. Ms Walker argued the developer had failed to conduct thorough flood-risk mapping of the site. Stockland's plan to "re-engineer" creeks would lead to increased flood risk when sea levels rose and weather patterns became more unpredictable because of global warming, she said." (Sydney Morning Herald)

but: "Global warming sends salamanders packing" - "A genetic study of the salamander family that encompasses two-thirds of the world's salamander species shows that periods of global warming helped the amphibians diversify and expand their range from North America into Europe and Asia, where pockets of them are still found today." (UC Berkeley)

"Need a legacy? Al's got a hot one" - "All the wiseheads keep telling us that Climate is headed south, but Weather keeps getting in the way.

Global warming is scheduled to kill us all before next Christmas, but since Christmas is going the way of the hula hoop to avoid offending Osama bin Laden, the ACLU and assorted grinches, we might yet muddle on.

The United Nations sponsored a session for wiseheads the other day in Valencia, where they dined in expensive Spanish restaurants, basked in luxury hotels and took the waters on a government dime, obligated only to listen to each other talk about the coming death in the afternoon for those who don't die first of bird flu, AIDS, staph infections and other plagues that were supposed to dispose of us by now." (Wesley Pruden, Washington Times)

"Global Warming Shakedown Begins" - "Al Gore was smiling like the proverbial cat that ate the canary following his 45-minute talk Monday with President Bush. Does he know something about U.S. global warming policy we don't?" (IBD)

"Climate change: the (Groucho) Marxist approach" - "Why should I do anything for posterity? What has posterity ever done for me?

Groucho Marx describes one end of a spectrum of opinion. The only obligation we owe to future generations is to sell them assets to pay our pensions. Sir Nicholas Stern’s climate change report takes an opposite view. Governments must value the welfare of all present and future citizens equally and give no special preference to current voters. The issue at the climate change summit in Bali, of how governments should balance the claims of present and future generations, is fundamental to all discussion.

Economists frame the question in terms of the social time preference rate: what number should policymakers use to discount future costs and benefits? The power of compound interest is such that the answer makes a large difference. At a rate of 5 per cent, which most investors would think disappointing, a cent today would be worth more than a dollar a century from now. The choice of a social time preference rate is relevant not just to environmental choices, but to the design of fiscal policy, the shape of pension provision and the appropriate level of public and private investment.

If Groucho’s position is morally indefensible, Sir Nicholas’s is operationally impossible. The problem of weighting the present and the future equally is that there is a lot of future. The number of future generations is potentially so large that small but permanent benefit to them would justify great sacrifice now. If we were to use this criterion to appraise all long-term investment, the volume of such investment would impoverish the current population. No government advocating it would ever be elected. The burden of caring for all humanity, present and future, is greater than even the best-intentioned of us can bear." (John Kay, Financial Times)

The only thing we need to hand off to future generations is the strongest possible economy so they can then do any they require.

"CEOs call for climate action" - "Canada is suffering from "policy chaos" on the issue of climate change and desperately needs a national action plan that pulls together the common interests of consumers, industry and all levels of government, according to a group representing the country's highest-profile chief executives." (Toronto Star)

Partly right. What everyone needs is a strong and honest leader to admit gorebull warming is a complete fabrication and that we need to stop all associated policy, dismantle the massive misanthropic industry constructed on a flimsy scare and really get down to addressing genuine problems. Any takers?

The world could benefit from many more such "failures": "Harper fails on world stage" - "Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems quite pleased with himself after almost single-handedly leading the drive to water down a proposed action plan by Commonwealth countries to seriously tackle global warming. Instead of an aggressive statement by the 52-member organization at its meeting in Uganda that would have called for binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions on major developed countries, the group issued a tepid communiqué that simply urged all nations to work toward undefined goals of reducing such emissions.

Commonwealth officials pointed the finger of blame for blocking the original plan straight at Harper." (Toronto Star)

Well done, Stephen Harper!

"Lieberman-Warner Climate Bill 'Running into Resistance'" - "The Lieberman-Warner global warming cap-and-trade bill continues to meet growing opposition. In a November 19 article, Bloomberg News called efforts to promote the bill a "vain pursuit," and weighed in with a breakdown of the growing "resistance" the bill faces. (EPW)

"How not to measure temperature, part 38" - "In our last episode, we looked at a COOP station on a roof of a fire station operated by the NWS in San Diego. Moving north, we have another COOP station operated by the San Francisco/Monterey Weather Service office that is also on a rooftop. You can see the MMTS sensor in the photo provided.

This station, COOP number 04-1838 is in Cloverdale, CA is just a few feet away from a chimney flue and an exhaust stack of a diesel generator. Note also the rain gauge placement. This station, while not a USHCN station, is part of the “A” network, which does report climate for NCDC." (Watts Up With That?)

GUFFAW! "Australia Unlikely to Sign Kyoto by Bali: Analysts" - "CANBERRA - Australia's new government is unlikely to sign the Kyoto pact in time for a UN climate summit in Bali, but will be welcomed next week as part of the Kyoto family, environment and legal experts said on Tuesday.

Labor Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd hopes parliament will ratify the Kyoto Protocol as soon as possible and is seeking advice on whether he can hand documents to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the Bali summit." (Reuters)

Australia is already a Kyoto signatory nation, it simply has not ratified said Protocol. Under Commonwealth Power to Make and Implement Treaties, "Urgent Treaties" (15.11-15.14) Rudd could present an instrument of ratification (assuming he can make the subsequent case for urgency, some chance) but then faces the impossible task of having the Senate approve that ratification within 15 days even though the incoming Kyoto-friendly senators do not take their seats until the middle of 2008. This would leave Kevni in the unenviable position of being Australia's first Prime Minister ever to have to withdraw from a treaty he had no authority to attempt to ratify in the first place. All this "I'll immediately sign Kyoto" has always been empty rhetoric, which an unfortunate number of frightened and gullible Australian voters swallowed, hook, line and sinker.

Gosh, what could be their motivation? "Arizona university presidents: Global warming real" - "The presidents of Arizona's three state universities told an audience of 200 academic, business, media and public officials Monday that not only is global warming real, but it must be addressed beyond the laboratory.

...

"In the future, what I want to see is a small tax on every kilowatt of electricity drawn in Arizona to go back into the university system for further research," he said. "It's just like they do in Texas (with oil)." (Phoenix Business Journal)

"UN Coming After Your Wallet to Solve Global Warming" - "As NewsBusters has been reporting for many months, one of the key elements to the advancement of global warming hysteria is money, in particular, taking it from those that have to give to those that don't.

Of course, during this time, the media have been less than forthcoming concerning this inconvenient truth.

A fine example of where all this alarm is heading was surprisingly reported by the Associated Press Tuesday.

In a piece hysterically titled "Poor in Need of Help From Global Warming," AP author John Heilprin exposed - with tugs at the heartstrings, of course - the real modus operandi behind the hysteria." (News Busters)

"UN attacks British blueprint to tackle climate change" - "Global temperatures would rise by up to 5C and dangerous climate change would be inevitable if other developed countries followed Britain's flawed blueprint for reducing its carbon footprint, the United Nations warned yesterday in its annual flagship report on global development.

Calling for urgent action on a post-Kyoto agreement to reduce greenhouse gases, the UN accused the government of a lack of ambition." (The Guardian)

"EU president backs Brown over CO2 target" - "Portugal, the current EU president, is urging Europe to adopt the ultra-ambitious targets of Gordon Brown for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and to lead the world in developing clean, low-cost energy." (The Guardian)

"Sarkozy Urges China to Act on Climate Change" - "BEIJING - French President Nicolas Sarkozy challenged China on Tuesday to play its part in averting climate catastrophe, winding up a state visit in which he repeatedly urged Beijing to shoulder its responsibilities as a global power." (Reuters)

"Rich Nations Should Do More on Climate Change - China" - "BEIJING - Rich countries responsible for most of the world's greenhouse gas emissions should take the lead on climate change, a commentary in China's state media said on Tuesday, a week before the opening of global talks on the issue." (Reuters)

"India slams new UN recommendation on carbon cuts" - "NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday slammed a recommendation in a new report from the UN Development Programme that urges developing countries to cut carbon emissions by 20 per cent over three decades starting in 2020.

The report released in Brazil on Tuesday on fighting climate change said global warming could have apocalyptic consequences for the world's poor and also said richer countries need to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050." (Times of India)

"Report sets out blueprint for 80% home carbon cuts" - "A new report today sets out how Britain's household carbon emissions could be slashed by 80% by 2050, but says these cuts can only be achieved with a huge increase in political commitment and financial support from the government." (The Guardian)

And the gummint gets its money from... ?

"The Carbon Tax Poverty Effect" - "Imagine carbon taxes so high that people can't afford to heat their homes in the winter.

Think this could never happen?

Think again.

It's happening right now in the UK and could happen here too if the current climate change hysteria allows government to carry through with similar measures.

The UK government imposes three measures that significantly increase the cost of electricity to residential consumers: the Climate Change Levy, the Renewables Obligation, and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme." (Maureen Bader, Westcoaster)

"UK companies need to 'take the challenge of climate change seriously'" - "Business must take the challenge of climate change seriously if the battle is to be won, environment secretary Hilary Benn told the CBI annual conference today." (The Guardian)

"EU Says Must Do More to Meet Kyoto Targets" - "BRUSSELS - European Union nations must step up efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions if the bloc is to meet its Kyoto Protocol targets on fighting climate change, the EU executive said on Tuesday." (Reuters)

D'oh! "EU industry warns about carbon trading and renewables" - "The industry lobby group BusinessEurope has warned that the EU must focus more on energy efficiency, rather than renewable energies and emissions trading, if it wants to prevent energy-intensive industries such as chemicals and steel-making from taking their operations elsewhere." (EurActiv)

"Voluntary carbon projects lose credits under Kyoto" - "Enthusiasm for carbon credits reached such a fever pitch when Meridian Energy listed wind farm credits on Trade Me earlier this year that one 1000-unit parcel sold for the dizzying sum of $19,262.

But companies wanting to emulate the utility's success will be hard-pressed to claim voluntary carbon credits from next year (let alone match those prices).

New Zealand Carbon Exchange (NZCX) director Karen Price said she had had many enquiries from forestry and technology investors about how they could claim carbon credits.

"There's a lot of people out there that assume that if they go and do a wind farm they will get credits for it," she said.

But that's not the case." (NBR)

"World to Seek Broader Climate Deal by 2009" - "OSLO - The world is to start a 2-year drive next month to bind outsiders led by the United States and China into a UN-led fight against climate change with the United Nations rating failure to act "almost inconceivable". (Reuters)

Because you asked us to run it again: "EU trading scheme slammed for 'double counting' carbon credits" - "New report accuses EU's emissions trading scheme of lack of transparency over practice that allows different firms to reuse the same carbon allowances" (James Murray, BusinessGreen) | EU Claims Perfect Accounting (Whatever Its Auditors Might Say) (Chris Horner, CEI)

From CO₂ Science this week:
Editorial
Isoprene Emissions from Vegetation in a CO2-Acreting Atmosphere: Observations vs. Models: How does the modeling of the phenomenon compare with what observations reveal about reality?

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week
This issue's Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from the Pinder Valley, Kumaon Higher Himalaya of India. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period Project's database, click here.

Subject Index Summary
Precipitation (Solar Influence): How strong are the data linking precipitation cycles around the world with similar-scale cycles of solar activity?

Plant Growth Data
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Bull Kelp, Eastern Cottonwood, Faba Bean, and Wheat.

Journal Reviews
Fifty Years of Temperature Change in California, USA: What do the data reveal about the relative strength of CO2-induced warming and temperature increases caused by human-induced changes to the landscape?

Late Holocene Climatic History: Southeastern Shelf of the Laptev Sea: How does it jibe with what James Hansen and others claim about the relative uniqueness of earth's current mean global temperature?

Response of a C3 Forb to Elevated Atmospheric CO2 and Nocturnal Air Temperature: Is the response what might have been expected?

Elevated CO2 and Transgenic Cotton: A Double Whammy for Cotton Bollworms: And what's bad for bollworms is fantastic for farmers.

Down Regulation of White Birch Photosynthesis vs. Soil Nitrogen Content: How serious a problem is the phenomenon?

Temperature Record of the Week
This issue's Temperature Record of the Week is from Hobart, IN. During the period of most significant greenhouse gas buildup over the past century, i.e., 1930 and onward, Hobart's mean annual temperature has cooled by 0.37 degrees Fahrenheit. Not much global warming here! (co2science.org)

"BRAZIL: Auction of Oil Blocks in the Crossfire" - "RIO DE JANEIRO - Foreign and national companies bid Tuesday for oil exploration rights in Brazil in an auction opposed by social movements, which are demanding the reinstatement of the state-run Petrobras’s monopoly over the country’s oil and natural gas reserves." (IPS)

"Germany to Speed Up Cuts in Solar Power Support" - "BERLIN - The German government plans to speed up its planned cuts in support for rooftop photovoltaic energy from 2009 and again from 2011, but will also substantially increase overall support for renewable energy." (Reuters)

"Palm Oil Not Green For Asia - UN Report" - "BANGKOK - European Union (EU) demand for supposedly green-friendly fuels, such as palm oil, is coming at a high social and environmental cost in Asia, warns a new report released Tuesday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)." (IPS)

"Britain's Nuclear Sites Safe From Rising Sea - Study" - "LONDON - All of Britain's existing nuclear power plants could be shielded from the worst expected effects of climate change for the next 100 years using technology available now, according to research published on Tuesday." (Reuters)

"Nuclear Desalination: Could Nuclear Power Be The Answer To Fresh Water?" - "New solutions to the ancient problem of maintaining a fresh water supply is discussed in a special issue of the Inderscience publication International Journal of Nuclear Desalination. With predictions that more than 3.5 billion people will live in areas facing severe water shortages by the year 2025, the challenge is to find an environmentally benign way to remove salt from seawater.

Global climate change, desertification, and over-population are already taking their toll on fresh water supplies. In coming years, fresh water could become a rare and expensive commodity. In the latest issue of the journal IJND, research results presented at the Trombay Symposium on Desalination and Water Reuse offer a new perspective on desalination and describe alternatives to the current expensive and inefficient methods." (Water Online)

Stupid... "Two newts given £140,000 new home" - "A house builder spent £140,000 on a special new habitat for newts - then discovered there were only two on site.

Anwyl Construction, based in Rhyl, Denbighshire, was forced to create a habitat because great crested newts are protected under European law." (BBC)

... meanwhile, in the land of socialized medicine, people pull out their own teeth for want of access to a dentist.

"Drive to Increase DDT Use in Malaria War Has Stalled" - "It is one drug that has raised hue and cry just as much as it has saved lives. DDT, which is the short form of Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane has been used continually in public health programmes over the past 60 years. It has saved millions of lives from diseases such as malaria, typhus and yellow fever. Despite a public backlash in the 1960s, mainstream scientific and public health communities continued to recognise its utility and safety.

DDT's delisting for various uses in the United States in 1972 was a political, not scientific, judgement. After decades of extensive study and use, DDT has not been proven to be harmful to humans.

By 1997, its future looked bleak. Environmentalists were pushing for it to be banned worldwide, and its most articulate champion, the South African Department of Health, stopped using it. Surprisingly, DDT recovered its reputation, and last year the World Health Organisation (WHO) championed it again.
When used in malaria control, DDT has three separate mechanisms: repellancy, irritancy, and toxicity, which together are remarkably successful at halting the spread of the disease.


But the celebrations have been short-lived. The momentum to increase DDT use has stalled for lack of increased political and financial support. The first attempt to eradicate malaria in 1950s relied almost solely on the chemical DDT; the latest attempt probably will not. But until a cheap and effectual vaccine is available, DDT will still have a crucial role to play." (Roger Bate, The Standard)

"Chuck out these green myths" - "Recycling isn't anything like as eco-friendly as its propagandists would have us believe." (Ross Clark, London Times)

"Even gold can be tarnished" - "A riveting pharmaceutical clinical trial melodrama has been playing this past week. It’s a story filled with conspiracy theories of cover-ups and secret manipulations of clinical trial data and clinical trial design that’s leaving cardiologists and medical ethicists rankled. Most consumers are unaware of these debates, however, as there’s not been a peep on network news or in our local newspapers. But this incredible tale gives us a glimpse as to why even published clinical trials, the gold standard of research, deserve close scrutiny." (Junkfood Science)

"Avian Flu Is Coming: Hide the Chickens" - "It’s time to quit playing the “organic and free-range” poultry game. Organic and free range birds carry higher bacterial risks—and now we know they could spread a deadly human flu pandemic." (CGFI)

"New research to decode the genetic secrets of prolific potato pest" - "The full weight of a consortium of world-leading scientists – including those who helped decode the entire human genome – is being thrown at a parasitic worm less than 1mm long." (University of Leeds)

"GM food safer than normal food, government adviser says" - "Genetically modified foods are likely to be safer to eat than conventionally produced crops, the government's outgoing chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, said today.

Reaffirming his long-term support for GM, King said that many of the reservations and concerns about the controversial technology have proved to be "unreal".

With the world's population rising and climate change likely to affect crop yields, GM technology provided a "sophisticated" solution to future demands for food, he said." (The Guardian)

November 27, 2007

Emotional... and wrong: "Briegleb: Global-warming evidence supports CO2 theory" - "This is in response to Don Lloyd's essay titled "The economic side of climate-change initiative," published on Nov. 11. Lloyd states that any actions taken to "prevent global warming" are a "real threat to the American economy." To support his arguments against any actions to halt global warming, he called into question the science of climate and climate change. (Daily Camera)

Um... no. Carefully ignored in all the claims of evidentiary support are a couple of crucial elements:

1. For enhanced greenhouse to warm the troposphere by capturing outgoing longwave radiation there must be a corresponding cooling of the stratosphere, where there has been no trend evident for at least a decade.
2. Climate models insist an anthropogenic greenhouse signature must show greater tropical mid-troposheric warming than surface warming (the tropospheric "hot spot" or "bullseye", AR4 Chapter 9 (p675)), of which no trace can be found.

There is nothing unusual or unreasonable in these expectations. Unless you add energy to a system then the net sum must remain the same, so warming down low should lead to cooling up high. Secondly, greenhouse is a lossy system since greenhouse molecules radiate to all points rather than "targeting" Earth, which means you need more radiators in the mid-troposphere for a given surface feedback to allow for this loss by radiation away from Earth. The absence of either of these "tells" is sufficient to invalidate the hypothesis of enhanced greenhouse as a major driver of global mean temperature and subsequently, climate. Taken together they tell us enhanced greenhouse is a very minor player on the climate stage.

The use of emotional appeal such as:

If Lloyd's claims, supported by many references in the above Web site and by many global-warming skeptics, are true, then we know next to nothing about climate and what causes its past and recent changes. Further, the long painstaking effort by many great scientists for nearly two centuries to find out the causes of climate and climate change has been worthless.

is clearly invalid. While it is definitely true that many great scientists have devoted long, painstaking effort in the last few centuries to begin to unravel the complexities of climate, the mere fact of recognizing the invalidity of enhanced greenhouse hysteria most assuredly does not devalue or diminish the work of said great scientists. Moreover, it is clear that we do know next to nothing about this globe's complex climate system and metaphorically sticking our fingers in our ears and shouting "La, la, la, we know everything and we won't hear questions" is hardly the way to address that lack, is it.

For "an associate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research with more than 30 years experience in climate modeling" Briegleb displays a worrying lack of curiosity and truly appalling hubris.

Correspondence: DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN - International Herald Tribune 22 November: The Chinese Foreign Ministry representative Song Dong is singing the same song we heard about CFCs. China (and India) said you have received the benefits of CFCs with a 30% reduction in food loss through refrigeration. Now you are telling us that this chemical is destroying the ozone and we should therefore forego the benefits you have already obtained. The proposal was the West reduce their CFCs and allow China and developing nations to increase theirs. We said no. They said fine, then we won't sign the Montreal Protocol.

I appeared before a Canadian Parliamentary Committee on the ozone issue and raised questions about this unilateral application problem. The aide to the Chair scurried out and returned 10 minutes later with the information that China and India were only producing 5% of the world's CFC production. I replied, yes, now, but if China and India increase their production to provide refrigeration for over 2 billion consumers how was our objective obtained? They changed the subject.

There never was a single piece of scientific evidence of CFCs affecting ozone in the ozone layer, no more than there is for CO2 and climate change except in computer models. Later, the IPCC TAR report identified changes in solar radiation as the most likely cause of ozone variations. This is isn't surprising because as I told the Committee and anyone else who would listen that ozone is created  by sunlight or at least the ultraviolet portion. At that time climate science was still locked into the concept of a solar constant even though solar physicists were describing it as a variable star.

This mentality carried over into climate studies and still predominates today as two of the major changes in solar activity (Milankovitch Effect and the relationship between solar magnetism and cosmic radiation) that affect climate are ignored. As environmental activists have cynically understood, once politicians have something in their heads facts and logic are redundant. They are doing the same thing with CO2 - the parallels between CFCs and CO2 are amazing and the only difference is the magnitude of impact on western economies are profound." (Tim Ball, CCNet)

"2007 WILL NOT Rank as Warmest Year for the Northern Hemisphere" - "A USATODAY story today claimed that the temperatures for 2007 for the Northern Hemisphere may be the warmest on record. Satellite and hemispheric station and ocean data from the Hadley center updated through October 2007 say that has not been the case, and given the very cold weather in the cards for at least the first half of December (despite the warm NOAA December forecast), that will not change before the New Year. You can see that clearly by looking at the plotted monthly satellite lower tropospheric and UK Hadley Center Northern Hemispheric anomalies." (Icecap)

"Chris de Freitas: Don't blame me for the heat" - "Greenpeace spokeswoman Susannah Bailey's attack on branches of the New Zealand business sector, which she accuses of continuing to plead grey on global warming, misses the key point.

Political action on climate change is not a game to be played and won or lost, and Greenpeace does us a disservice by encouraging that view. Little does the public realise the debate over climate change usually conflates issues of science and politics.

The robustness or otherwise of the science underpinning the role of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is the key to assessing the risk from human induced climate change issue. But seldom if ever are the uncertainties of the science discussed.

Seldom if ever is the question asked: Where is the evidence for catastrophic climate change from human action?" (New Zealand Herald)

"NRSP launches ‘Unreliable Sources’ initiative: CBC climate science coverage first under the microscope" - "Ottawa , Canada , November 26, 2007 – The Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP) announces the launch of its ‘Unreliable Sources’ initiative to help counter the steady stream of climate science misinformation emanating from mass media, politicians, lobby groups and industry." (Press Release)

"Climate, Coal, and Crematoria" - "For two decades, scientists and environmental campaigners have been on an ongoing quest for imagery and analogies sufficiently jarring to focus public attention on global warming and motivate a climate-friendly change in how we get and use energy.

In 1988, James E. Hansen, the NASA climate scientist who, through much of his career, has pressed elected officials to limit greenhouse gas emissions, constructed “loaded” cardboard dice for a Senate hearing, to illustrate that we were, in essence, tipping the climate system toward ever higher odds of unpleasant events like droughts and flooding rains.

Last month he went a lot farther, directly invoking imagery from the Holocaust in discussing how warming would cause a mass of biological extinctions." (Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times)

"A Summary of My Position on AGW" - "In response to the many comments I have received recently questioning my position on global warming, I’d like to offer this summary." (Craig James, WOOD TV)

‘Global Warming’ Less Than Nothing - Even among Democratic voters, ‘global warming’ is less than nothing politically. I thought you all might delight in seeing the revealing results of this ‘Washington Post-ABC News Poll’ (Question 9), which was conducted by telephone between November 14-18, 2007, among a random sample of 500 Iowans likely to vote in the Democratic caucuses (the results have a four percentage point margin of sampling error, and the percentages are rounded, thus giving slightly higher than 100%). (Global Warming Politics)

"Harper defiant on climate change" - "PM insists all nations, not just developed ones, must work together to reduce gas emissions." (Toronto Star)

"Can You Trust the World's Thermometer?" - "Greenwire reports today, “As global monitoring expands, questions about U.S. satellites linger” (password required). Yes. Of course. Questions will continue to linger about these temperature measurements unless and until they conform to the idea that appreciable warming is taking place, which they continue to refuse to do, notwithstanding claims that by narrowing the disagreement between surface and atmospheric readings the disagreement thereby no longer exists. It does (see, e.g., Christy, J.R. and R.W. Spencer, 2005: Correcting temperature data sets. Science, 310, 972)." (Chris Horner, CEI)

"How not to measure temperature, part 37" - "The National Weather Service office in San Diego, CA operates a cooperative observer network of weather stations, as do all NWS offices. The station in Coronado, CA, is particularly interesting since it is located on the roof of the Fire Station there.

Given that the MMTS sensor shown below is only about 2 feet above the tar and pea gravel roof, which is known to be a hot environment during the day, and a source for re-radiated heat at night, you have to wonder: “What were they thinking?” (Watts Up With That?)

More Play Station® climatology: "Accuracy of past hurricane counts good" - "Counting tropical storms that occurred before the advent of aircraft and satellites relies on ships logs and hurricane landfalls, making many believe that the numbers of historic tropical storms in the Atlantic are seriously undercounted. However, a statistical model based on the climate factors that influence Atlantic tropical storm activity shows that the estimates currently used are only slightly below modeled numbers and indicate that the numbers of tropical storms in the recent past are increasing, according to researchers." (Penn State)

"Ozone key to link between heat and increased cardiovascular death risk" - "Ozone may prove the key to the link between high temperature and the increased risk of death from heart disease or stroke, suggests research published ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine." (BMJ)

"The heat was on" - "Re-reading the article I wrote for the November/ December 1988 issue of World Watch was startling- and discouraging.

The article, titled "The Heat Is On," was written just a few months after NASA scientist James Hansen testified before the U.S. Senate, reporting that for the first time there was clear scientific evidence of global warming- and that it was most likely caused by human activity.

I wrote at the time, "Only rarely are public policy turning points so clearly marked. Scientists had accumulated empirical evidence for a phenomenon with the potential to fundamentally alter life on Earth." I devoted much of the remainder of the article to laying out a strategy for dealing with climate change.

Twenty years later, Hansen's testimony still looks like a turning point for climate science, but not the kind of turning point for climate policy that I anticipated. In the years since, there's been a lot of heat-but sadly, not a lot of action." (Christopher Flavin, New Nation)

Never mind Chris, the way the sun's going in a few years you'll be able to write yet more hysterical rubbish about a looming ice age.

Recycled BS: "Polar bear population on thin ice" - "Climate change blamed for decline of carnivores in some of their habitats." (Toronto Star)

Doesn't seem to matter how often they are shown to be wrong these same claims are repeatedly printed.

"Environmental exodus" - "Climate change is the largest environmental change expected this century. It is likely to intensify droughts, storms and floods, which will undoubtedly lead to environmental migrations and potential conflicts in the areas migrated to." (Springer)

Oh boy... "London Organisers Promise Low-Carbon Flame" - "LONDON - The flame burning over the 2012 London Olympic Stadium will use a low-carbon fuel, organisers said on Monday.

"It's early days but it will happen," a spokesman for French energy company EDF, London 2012's sustainability partner, told reporters after a series of environmental targets were announced.

"We are working with the organising committee (LOCOG) and we will see what options there are for a low carbon fuel for the cauldron. It's a challenge because a 'clean' flame would be invisible and that would not be ideal."

A spokesman for the LOCOG said they were looking into alternative fuels but added it was important for the flame to still be visible day and night.

"We are looking for a flame of the right quality but with a low carbon footprint," he said." (Reuters)

Indoctrination works... kind of: "FTSE 500 Back Carbon Cuts, Unclear on Nuclear - Poll" - "LONDON - Almost all big British businesses think cutting their carbon emissions is important and that switching to cleaner energy is a good way to do it, a survey showed.

But 40 percent of the 500 largest companies in Britain, surveyed over the last month, do not regard nuclear power as low carbon even though some of the biggest have said in a separate report that they wanted more reactors to be built soon." (Reuters)

"EU Firms Oppose Auctioning in Carbon Scheme Review" - "BRUSSELS - The European Union's main business lobby, BusinessEurope, urged EU regulators on Monday not to change the bloc's emissions trading scheme to require that companies buy carbon permits upfront rather than get them for free." (Reuters)

Don’t Ask Me About My Business - “I first heard about carbon trading at a conference more than 10 years ago. I got up and said ‘If I was the financial adviser to the Mafia, I would advise them to get into carbon trading.’ Nothing that has happened since then changes my opinion - rather the reverse..."

The words are those of Auckland energy consultant, Bryan Leyland, who is Chairman of the Economic Panel of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition [as reported by: ‘Carbon Trading Open Invitation To Fraud’, Scoop, November 22].

You can just imagine the scene, can’t you (‘The Godfather Part IV’)? (Global Warming Politics)

"Planting carbon deep in the earth -- rather than the greenhouse" - "Storing carbon dioxide deep below the earth’s surface could be a safe, long-term solution to one of the planet’s major contributors to climate change." (University of Leeds)

What I really want to see is people stop trying to fix what isn't broken until it is.

"Dunes, climate models don't match up with paleomagnetic records" - "For a quarter-century or more, the prevailing view among geoscientists has been that the portion of the ancient supercontinent of Pangea that is now the Colorado Plateau in southern Utah shifted more than 1,300 miles north during a 100-million year span that ended about 200 million years ago in the early Jurassic Period, when Pangea began to break up." (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

Best line: Loope is also a paleoclimatologist (who studies ancient climates), as are Rowe and Oglesby, who also have expertise in climate modeling. The three geoscientists began working together, trying to find a computerized climate model that would explain the discrepancy, but they couldn't find any that worked.

"New oil refineries needed" - "Holiday travel season is now upon us, and as if just on cue, gas prices spike and hit the headlines. Consumers complain about the prices at the pump, while politicians complain about the increasing U.S. dependence on foreign sources of oil.

Obviously, there is a lot of pressure to do something. So what can and will Congress do? Apparently, faced with calls to reduce dependence on foreign oil and cut pump prices, Congress will do the opposite.

A recent report shows the energy bill being negotiated between the House and the Senate would dramatically increase energy (including gasoline) prices. Economic research firm CRA International found that congressional proposals would more than double the cost of petroleum products — if you don't like oil at $100 per barrel you will really hate it at $200 per barrel.

It should come as no surprise that Congress would make matters worse. After all, they are partly to blame for our current situation. Building new oil refineries or expanding existing ones is among the most affordable, effective and reliable ways to increase supplies and lower prices. Yet emissions controls and mandates for specific gasoline blends have forced many refineries to close and made building new oil refineries very difficult. In fact, no new ones have been built in the U.S. for nearly 30 years." (H. Sterling Burnett, Washington Times)

"Brown: Britain's prosperity depends on airport expansion" - "Gordon Brown today gave his unequivocal support for a third runway at Heathrow in an address to a conference of business leaders.

Speaking at the annual Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference, the prime minister said that business was right to call for airport expansion and that Britain's prosperity depended on it.

"Even as we place strict local environmental limits on noise and air pollution and ensure that aviation pays its carbon costs, we have to respond to a clear business imperative and increase capacity at our airports," Brown said.

"Our prosperity depends on it: Britain as a world financial centre must be readily accessible from around the world." (The Guardian)

"Gordon Brown backs nuclear power stations" - "The Prime Minister has signalled his backing for new nuclear power stations in the face of continued opposition from campaign groups." (London Telegraph)

"Families face energy bill rise in climate fight" - "Every household in Britain will have to pay at least £100 a year more for energy within the next two decades if the Government is to meet its failed promises to tackle climate change, a Confederation of British Industry task force warns today." (London Telegraph)

"Biofuel and diet sow seeds of farm crunch" - "Malthus may have been right after all, though two centuries early and a crank. Mankind is outrunning its food supplies. Hunger - if not yet famine - is a looming danger for a long list of countries that are both poor and heavily reliant on farm imports, according to the Food Outlook of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The farm crunch has been creeping up on the world for 20 years. Food output has risen at 1.3pc a year: the number of mouths at 1.35pc.

What has abruptly changed is the twin revolution of biofuel politics and Asia's switch to an animal-protein diet. Together, they have shattered the fragile equilibrium." (London Telegraph)

No, Malthus was definitely a crackpot and the "farm crunch" lies squarely at the door of the "Green Church". Greenie hysteria is effectively delaying the next truly green revolution with biotechnology available to deliver much, much more from less (exactly what the greens profess to want) while more greenie hysteria is driving the push for "biofuels". Hungry? Eat your greens!

"Scientists tout success with drought-resistant plants: study" - "With arid zones expanding worldwide, scientists have created transgenic plants able to survive extreme drought and thrive on far less water in an encouraging potential boon to food production, new research shows Monday." (AFP)

"The Environmental Safety and Benefits of Growth Enhancing Pharmaceutical Technologies in Beef Production" - "Growth promoting hormones are a key component of North American beef production. Their use over the past 50+ years (since 1956) has proven beneficial not only to beef producers, but to consumers and the environment, who benefit from lower costs and more efficient use of scarce natural resources. In short, they allow us to achieve the old Yankee maxim of producing more from less." (Alex Avery And Dennis Avery, Hudson Institute Center For Global Food Issues)

"Green Group Wary of Plans for 'Eco-Friendly' Palm" - "KUALA LUMPUR - An environmental group has threatened to withdraw its support for a plan to certify "eco-friendly" palm oil, accusing the world's two biggest producers of cynically exploiting the initiative." (Reuters)

"Scientists Mystified by Jellyfish Attacks on Fish Farm" - "A mass of poisonous jellyfish devastated stocks of organic farmed salmon off the coast of Northern Ireland -- not once, but twice. Is it a sign of global warming, overfishing or just the natural motion of tides?" (Der Spiegel)

Making forests less flammable? "The proof is in the tree bark" - "A study by Indiana University researchers found the chlorinated flame retardant Dechlorane Plus in the bark of trees across the northeastern US, with by far the highest concentrations measured near the Niagara Falls, N.Y., factory where this chemical is produced." (Indiana University)

"Too little milk, exercise hurts kids' bones" - "WASHINGTON: Too little milk, sunshine and exercise: It's an anti-bone trifecta. And for some kids, shockingly, it's leading to rickets, the soft-bone scourge of the 19th century." (AP)

"Low cholesterol levels and premature babies" - "Amidst all the media attention on keeping our cholesterol levels low and the promotions for widespread use of statins — leading many to believe they’re as safe as aspirin — we seldom hear about studies suggesting risks associated with low cholesterol. A study published last month in the journal Pediatrics highlighted a special concern for girls and women of childbearing age and for the health of newborn babies." (Junkfood Science)

"France, Germany Seek to Break Deadlock on GMO Foods" - "BRUSSELS - Agricultural powerhouses France and Germany sought on Monday to break the deadlock that has kept genetically modified crops out of most of Europe, saying rules must be changed to ease their approval." (Reuters)

"Round 2 for Biotech Beets" - "Sensing that concerns over genetically engineered foods are subsiding, beet producers have cleared their growers to start planting biotech beets next spring." (New York Times)

"NSW, Vic lift GM bans in landmark moves" - "The Victorian and New South Wales governments have become the first in Australia to allow farmers to grow genetically-modified (GM) food crops.

NSW Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald has announced the state is ending its four-year moratorium on GM canola crops, despite a last-minute plea from Western Australia and Tasmania to maintain the ban.

Mr Macdonald says the move will put NSW farmers on a level playing field with overseas farmers because GM canola now accounts for 70 per cent of the global canola market.

Victorian Premier John Brumby agrees there are great economic benefits." (Australian Broadcasting Corp.)

November 26, 2007

Book review: Our Gadarene generation - Scared to Death by Christopher Booker and Richard North, Continuum UK, 2007, ISBN 0 8264 8614 2.

First, a declaration of interest: this reviewer has in recent years published two books, one of which contains a chapter on “scares” and the other has “scares” in the subtitle. Even worse: he holds these two authors in high regard as heroes of the resistance, who cheerfully accept the obloquy that accompanies that role.

Their latest production is a typically detailed examination of the phenomenon that characterises our age more than any other, and one that returns us to the primitive state of our superstitious ancestors with their witch hunts, the global scare. (Number Watch)

"Is Atomic Radiation as Dangerous as We Thought?" - "A mounting number of studies are coming to some surprising conclusions about the dangers of nuclear radiation. It might not be as deadly as is widely believed." (Der Spiegel)

"How Brussels Regulates our Daily Lives" - "The European Commission in Brussels wants to protect European citizens even more effectively against danger and disease. Soon there will be a well-intended -- but mostly completely unnecessary -- regulation for every aspect of life." (Der Spiegel)

"WHO: Poor hygiene costs hundreds of thousands of lives" - "SEOUL - A senior UN health official said Thursday that better sanitation and hygiene could save hundreds of thousands of children's lives a year at a cost equal to what Europe spends annually on ice cream." (Agence France Presse)

Observing CATastrophe? - Now here is something to put worries about ‘global warming’ right back in the box. Have we, simply by observing dark energy, pushed the universe towards a speedier end? (‘Has observing the universe hastened its end?’ New Scientist, 2631, November 22; see also: ‘Mankind “shortening the universe’s life”’, The Daily Telegraph, November 21). (Global Warming Politics)

Environmentally friendly bird killer: "Emory building draped in black to save birds" - "It is one of Emory University's most environmentally friendly buildings, a hallmark of the institution's efforts to "go green." To hear John Wegner describe it, it's also a slaughterhouse." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

I abhor eugenics... "Meet the women who won't have babies - because they're not eco friendly" - "Had Toni Vernelli gone ahead with her pregnancy ten years ago, she would know at first hand what it is like to cradle her own baby, to have a pair of innocent eyes gazing up at her with unconditional love, to feel a little hand slipping into hers - and a voice calling her Mummy.

But the very thought makes her shudder with horror.

Because when Toni terminated her pregnancy, she did so in the firm belief she was helping to save the planet.

Incredibly, so determined was she that the terrible "mistake" of pregnancy should never happen again, that she begged the doctor who performed the abortion to sterilise her at the same time.

He refused, but Toni - who works for an environmental charity - "relentlessly hunted down a doctor who would perform the irreversible surgery.

Finally, eight years ago, Toni got her way.

At the age of 27 this young woman at the height of her reproductive years was sterilised to "protect the planet". (Daily Mail)

... although breeding fewer misanthropic twits just might be very good for the planet.

"Environmentalism's Outer Limits" - "Enviro-fanatics are sterilizing themselves to reduce their "carbon footprint." We dread where their nihilistic ideology — that mankind is an evil planetary force — will lead next." (IBD)

Uninformed or just anti-American? "EDITORIAL: U.S. must lead global warming battle" - "Americans like to think of the United States as a world leader. And, in most realms over the past century, it has been.

Not so when it comes to the environment.

The United States is among the world’s worst polluters. Worse yet, we’re arrogant about it. The U.S. thumbed its nose several years ago at the Kyoto Protocol, a blueprint for sharply reducing worldwide carbon emissions by 2012. The protocol was created based on research by many of the world’s foremost environmental experts, as well as some of the world’s most prominent statesmen." (Herald Bulletin)

Actually, America has done more than just about everybody when it comes to environmental clean up and protection but this lot see the US economic engine liberating previously sequestered carbon for and on behalf of the world and confuses that with "pollution" -- go figure!

"How not to measure temperature, part 36" - "Surfacestations.org volunteer surveyor Russ Steele brings us this gem of a climate monitoring station from Panguitch, UT. I’ve seen stations over asphalt, such as the University of Arizona station in Tucson, but this one has a special feature; they made a concrete traffic island especially for the station so that it wouldn’t get collided with by nearby parked vehicles. How’s that for diligence?" (Watts Up With That?)

"Scientists Urge US$2-3 Billion Study of Ocean Health" - "OSLO - Marine scientists called on Sunday for a US$2-3 billion study of threats such as overfishing and climate change to the oceans, saying they were as little understood as the Moon." (Reuters)

As little understood as the moon? So's climate change...

"Carbon Dioxide at Record High, Stoking Warming - WMO" - "OSLO - Levels of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas emitted by burning fossil fuels, hit a record high in the atmosphere in 2006, accelerating global warming, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday.

But concentrations of methane, the number two heat-trapping gas, flattened out in a hint that Siberian permafrost is staying frozen despite some scientists' fears that rising temperatures might trigger a runaway thaw." (Reuters)

"CLIMATE CHANGE: A Natural Hazard" - "Abstract: The impacts of weather and climate extremes (floods, storms, drought,) have historically set back development and will continue to do so into the future, especially in developing countries. It is essential to understand how future climate change will be manifest as weather and climate extremes in order to implement policies of sustainable development. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that natural processes have caused the climate to change and it is unlikely that human influences will dominate the natural processes. Any suggestion that implementation of the Kyoto Protocol will avoid future infrastructure damage, environmental degradation and loss of life from weather and climate extremes is a grand delusion." (William Kininmonth, Australasian Climate Research)

"Dominic Lawson: Fight climate change? Or stay competitive? I'm afraid these two aims are incompatible" - "Isn't politics wonderful? Within days of Gordon Brown's address to the conservation group WWF, in which he pledged eye-wateringly tough reductions in British emissions of Co2, the Government has announced its support for the construction of a third runway at Heathrow Airport. "This time he really gets it," Greenpeace's executive director had enthused after the Prime Minister's "Let's save the polar bear" speech. Yesterday, following the Transport Secretary's endorsement of BAA's expansion plans, Greenpeace was back to its default position, spitting ecological tacks." (London Independent)

"Global Mitigation or Adaptation" - "The fourth and final report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was released this week. Speaking at the launch, the Secretary General of the United Nations stated that climate change is putting the world on the edge of a global “catastrophe”.

Such scaremongering over climate change appears to be par for the course. Without a doubt, the media love a good scare story: in 1924 the New York Times warned readers that an ice age was coming, but by 1933 rising temperatures were the problem. By 1975 fears of a major cooling had surfaced again, only to be followed by the current panic over global warming." (New Zealand Centre for Political Research)

"Paint it white" - "Amid all the talk of cutting carbon emissions, we never hear about the simple solutions that can make a vast difference to temperatures." (Björn Lomborg, The Guardian)

"Global Warming May Trigger Rise in Heart Deaths" - "WEDNESDAY, Nov. 21 -- Soaring temperatures and high ozone levels work together to boost death risks from heart disease and stroke, researchers report.

They believe that global warming -- which brings more heat and more ozone -- may further increase the number of people who die of cardiovascular events." (HealthDay News)

Time Magazine on Drought, 2007 Versus 1974 (News Busters)

Oh... "Natural disasters have quadrupled in two decades: study" - "More than four times the number of natural disasters are occurring now than did two decades ago, British charity Oxfam said in a study Sunday that largely blamed global warming." (AFP)

"Time for some real skepticism about climate change" - "In his latest piece, Webdiarist and contributing author Malcolm B Duncan presents his critical analysis of Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis Summary for Policy Makers released by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change, and Webdiary demonstrates that it is a broad church. Now, where have I heard that expression before?" (Web Diary)

"Australia to sign Kyoto...again" - "The Associated Press’s Man in Sydney, announcing John Howard’s defeat at the polls reveals a fairly typical understanding of the politics of global warming that it is fair to predict we will more of on our own shores soon, as the cries of our purportedly "rogue" global warming stance increase:

"Australia’s SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Conservative Prime Minister John Howard suffered a humiliating defeat Saturday at the hands of the left-leaning opposition, whose leader has promised to immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and withdraw Australia's combat troops from Iraq.

Labor Party head Kevin Rudd's pledges on global warming and Iraq move Australia sharply away from policies that had made Howard one of President Bush's staunchest allies.

Rudd has named global warming as his top priority, and his signing of the Kyoto Protocol will leave the U.S. as the only industrialized country not to have joined it."

Oddly, Australia’s government admits that it already signed Kyoto, in 1998, though its Parliament has yet to ratify it, just as the U.S. Senate has yet to vote on the duly signed pact (November 12, 1998, previously posted here though something to which our own government seems disinterested in admitting further as the announcement no longer appears in any form on State's website)." (CHB)

"Reality check for climate change plans" - "CAMPAIGN Kevin07's multi-billion-dollar program on climate change and water faces extensive modifications in the upgraded version, Kevin08, to be installed over the coming year.

The next few months are likely to reveal important differences between outlining a reform agenda on the environment in campaign mode and actually implementing it in government.

First and most symbolic of these is ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. As soon as his government is formed, probably next week, PM-elect Kevin Rudd will be able to dispatch Australia's notice of ratification to the UN headquarters in New York.

But Article 25 of the Protocol says this will only come into force 90 days later, meaning Rudd will attend the UN climate change negotiations in Bali next month still officially as an observer under Kyoto.

Despite the campaign rhetoric, Australia will technically not have a "vote" until March next year. It will make little difference on the floor of the meeting, where consensus guides decisions anyway and Rudd's visit will be seen as delivering welcome momentum for accelerated reform." (The Australian)

"Climate accord watered down" - "Canada instrumental in Commonwealth dropping reference to binding targets" (Toronto Star)

"Harper dubs Kyoto accord a mistake at end of Commonwealth summit" - "KAMPALA, Uganda - Stephen Harper concluded a Commonwealth summit Sunday by bluntly describing the Kyoto accord as a mistake the world must never repeat." (CP)

"Canada not isolated on climate change: Harper" - "KAMPALA, Uganda -- A defiant Stephen Harper attacked Liberal accusations that he embarrassed Canada on the world stage in Commonwealth climate change talks, vowing to push all countries for binding restrictions to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

"I've seen reports that suggest Canada was isolated in this position. That's not remotely true," the prime minister said as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting wrapped here Sunday in the Ugandan capital." (CanWest News Service)

"Opposition steams at exclusion from global warming summit" - "OTTAWA -- Opposition parties are accusing the Harper government of excluding them from participating at next month's United Nations climate change summit to muzzle any criticism about its environmental policies.

Environment Minister John Baird is expected to negotiate with elected officials from around the world at the conference in Bali, Indonesia, to establish a framework for a new international climate change treaty. The new deal, expected to be finalized by 2009, would be designed to respond to the latest scientific evidence about the impact of human activity and rising greenhouse gas emissions on global warming.

But opposition parties say Baird's decision to keep them out of Canada's official delegation would muzzle the opinion of a majority of Canadians who want the government to respect its binding targets under the Kyoto Protocol and adopt stronger policies to crack down on industrial pollution." (CanWest News Service)

"China wants rich nations to take lead in climate talks" - "BEIJING - China wants next month's international talks on global warming to focus on future greenhouse gas cuts by rich countries and moving more "clean" technology to poor countries, an official said on Thursday.

China is emerging as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from factories, farms and vehicles that traps more heat in the atmosphere, threatening to bring dangerous, even catastrophic, climate change." (Reuters)

Green gummints can't be trusted? Imagine that... "Rich nations fail to honour climate pledge" - "A group of rich countries including Britain has broken a promise to pay more than a billion dollars to help the developing world cope with the effects of climate change. The group agreed in 2001 to pay $1.2bn (£600m) to help poor and vulnerable countries predict and plan for the effects of global warming, as well as fund flood defences, conservation and thousands of other projects. But new figures show less than £90m of the promised money has been delivered. Britain has so far paid just £10m.

The disclosure comes after Gordon Brown said this week that industrialised countries must do more to help the developing world adapt to a changed climate, and two weeks before countries meet in Bali to begin negotiations on a new global deal to regulate emissions which is expected to stress the need for all countries to adapt." (The Guardian)

"Battle of the Nobel climate horror disaster movies" - "So here's our ethical predicament for today: Is it wrong to be a shouting scaremonger in a crowded movie theatre full of shouting scaremongers? And, one might ask, what happens when a scaremonger shouts fire in a theatre full of people shouting fire?

The answer to the second question is easy: Nothing. That's what happened last Saturday, when the Nobel Prizewinning United Nations panel on climate change, in another of its patented panic-inducing document dumps, told the world that the end is near. Unless we all rush for the exits and bring on a massive expansion of government planning and intervention to control carbon emissions, disaster looms. "The time for doubt has passed," said IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri. "The IPCC has unequivocally affirmed the warming of our climate system, and linked it directly to human activity."

Chief fire alarmist at the meeting, in Valencia, Spain, was UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who said the latest report on climate change described scenes that "are as frightening as a science-fiction movie. But they are even more terrifying, because they are real." (Terence Corcoran, Financial Post)

"Robert Redford Bashes Al Gore as Greedy Opportunist" - "As irrefutable evidence mounts that Nobel Laureate Al Gore's climate alarmism is about nothing other than lining his supposedly green pockets with green currency, manmade global warming skeptics around the world wonder when the former vice president's house of cards will collapse.

Without question, if Gore were to lose the support of almost universally adoring Hollywoodans, the scam would implode quicker than a Democrat demanding a recount after losing a close election.

As such, the following comments by actor and environmentalist Robert Redford, reported by the New Statesman last week, should bring hope to folks not buying the snake oil Gore is selling." (News Busters)

"Gore’s Inconvenient Tax Hypocrisy" - "As NewsBusters has been reporting, Nobel Laureate Al Gore's recent employment by a Silicon Valley venture capital firm puts him in a fabulous position to turn his estimated $100 million net worth into billions.

Upon further examination of the particulars, Gore's fortunes might rest on the defeat of tax law changes currently proposed by Democrats.

Maybe more delicious, as a former congressman whose voting record shows a proclivity towards higher taxes, this could pit Gore's future earnings potential against his legislative history, especially if he ends up not supporting Democrat efforts to close a tax loophole enjoyed by hedge funds and venture capital firms." (News Busters)

"Bush, Iraq, and Global Warming at Center of Bangladesh Cyclone" - "On Monday, NewsBusters asked, "How soon before someone in the media blames the cyclone in Bangladesh on global warming, the war in Iraq, President Bush, or all of the above?"

On Saturday, the Boston Globe's Derrick Z. Jackson came very close.

In his column entitled "Hesitance on the Warming Front," Jackson was quick to blame everything but nature for the planet's most recent natural disaster" (News Busters)

Oh my... Hansen: power plants = extermination camps (The Reference Frame)

More lunacy: "POLAR BEARS FOR THE SOUTH POLE? Biologists Debate Relocating Imperiled Species" - "As global warming changes the face of habitats around the world, scientists are asking if humans can help save species from extinction by moving them to cooler climes. But before polar bear resettlement and tiger transports begin, is it time to take a look at easier alternatives?" (Der Spiegel)

"Politicized Science and the IPCC" - "Just in time for Thanksgiving, the IPCC has delivered another warning of impending doom. This time, it has to do with the world's oceans' ability to absorb carbon dioxide. While I am not qualified to get into the science of this, I think it is instructive to dissect how the message is being delivered to the masses. For this, I'll use the Drudge-linked article from The Independent, a newspaper from the UK." (Bob Myer, American Thinker)

"Is The United Nations Always Right?" - "Last week, the secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, issued a new warning on global warming that began with this sentence: "We all agree. Climate change is real, and we humans are its chief cause ... we are on the verge of a catastrophe if we do not act."

Just a few days later the United Nations released a new report in which it confessed its previous estimate of AIDS cases worldwide was inflated by more than 6 million sick people. In India alone, the number of AIDS patients estimated by the United Nations dropped by more than half, from 6 million to 3 million." (Yahoo! News)

"UN climate panel co-head pessimistic about progress in Bali" - "HYDERABAD, India — The co-head of the UN climate-change panel that shared this year's Nobel Peace Prize said Thursday he was pessimistic about progress at next month's global environmental summit in Bali.

The world may have to wait until the Copenhagen summit two years later before governments summon the political will to budge, said Martin Parry, co-chair of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." (AFP)

Bali Hoo Is Calling - As you will no doubt all know by now, the U.N. Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be descending on the lovely (and normally peaceful) island of Bali from December 3-14. It is estimated that up to 15,000 (some say 20,000) delegates and camp followers will jet into the small Indonesian island. 7,000 Indonesian armed troops, complemented by UN Forces, will be on duty to protect the jet-setting hordes. (Global Warming Politics)

"UN climate circus rolls in on CO2 cloud" - "IT HAS been billed as the summit that could help save the planet, but the latest United Nations climate change conference on the paradise island of Bali has itself become a major contributor to global warming." (London Times)

"Global Warming Trumps Critical Issues" - "Al Gore's winning of a Nobel Peace Prize, shared with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for its leadership in global-warming issues, has given new impetus to the debate." (E. Ralph Hostetter, NewsMax)

"The Big Secret: Climate Bills Result in No Meaningful Impact on Global Temperature" - "Three bills have been introduced to Congress which have as a goal to slow the rate of global temperature rise, and in doing so, avert some type of putative global climate catastrophe. They propose to do so by reducing U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases.

At the requst of Senators Bingaman and Spector, the EPA has analyzed the effectiveness these bills as measured by the net impact each will have ameliorating the rise of global atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations (and thus global climate change) by the end of this century. What they found was certainly not encouraging, at least for anyone who thinks that the U.S. alone can have any impact on global climate via new regulation of emissions." (WCR)

"Carbon Price Vital But Inadequate in Climate Crisis" - "LONDON - Achieving a high and stable price for carbon is vital but inadequate on its own in the bid to beat climate change, British business leaders said in a far reaching report published on Monday." (Reuters)

A high price for carbon is vital only for the scammers, it has no environmental positive.

"Carbon Trading Open Invitation To Fraud" - "Carbon trading is an open invitation to fraud, in the opinion of Auckland energy consultant Bryan Leyland, who is chairman of the economic panel of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition.

"I first heard about carbon trading at a conference more than 10 years ago. I got up and said 'If I was the financial adviser to the Mafia, I would advise them to get into carbon trading.' Nothing that has happened since then changes my opinion - rather the reverse," said Mr Leyland." (New Zealand Climate Science Coalition)

D'oh! "Up to 18 million EUAs may have been double counted: report" - "As many as 18 million European CO2 allowances may have been double counted in the EU emissions trading scheme in 2005 and 2006, as identical allowances have been surrendered several times, consultancy E3 International said today." (Point Carbon)

"Industry can generate carbon credits of 417 million tonnes" - "NEW DELHI: Indian industry has potential to generate carbon credits of around 417 million tonnes by 2012 when the first commitment period of Kyoto Protocol ends, Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday." (Economic Times)

What can you say? "Horses pitched as alternative transport for France" - "PARIS - French towns worried about fuel prices, pollution and striking transport workers need look no further than the horse.

Horses are a possible alternative for vehicles such as school buses and refuse trucks, say groups eager to pick up on global concerns about eco-friendly transport." (Reuters)

"EU Swerves Away From Taxing Car Pollution" - "BRUSSELS, Nov 23 - European Union governments look set to reject calls for taxing cars based on their contribution to climate change." (IPS)

From the rubber room: "Green MEP condemns Heathrow decision as 'Climate Vandalism'" - "Government in denial over climate change!" says Caroline Lucas

Ruth Kelly’s announcement in favour of further expansion at Heathrow Airport has been condemned by Green Party Principal Speaker and MEP Caroline Lucas as an act of "climate vandalism", and she accused the government of being "in denial" over climate change.

"How it can be possible for the Prime Minister, just a few short days ago, to say that climate change was ‘an immense challenge to the world’, to which he promised to give utmost priority, in his first major speech on climate change since becoming Prime Minister - and now just a few days later, to give the green light to a major expansion of aviation, the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions?

“Such behaviour isn't just pathological, it demonstrates a monumental failure of political leadership." (eGov)

"IATA slams Europe's emissions trading scheme" - "A European emissions trading scheme for airlines is a non-starter, according to the International Air Transport Association, which threatens the scheme will be mired in legal challenges.

IATA chief executive Giovanni Bisignani said at the weekend: "Regional trading schemes will not work - 170 countries will challenge Europe." (Travel Weekly)

"Should fireplace fires be banned?" - "Under the auspices of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, "public hearings" are being held to determine the fate of the family hearth.

Those of us who live in rural areas have a pretty good idea what the outcome is going to be.

Still, in the interest of basic fairness, we'd at least like the decision-makers to employ the rudiments of the scientific method, rather than riding the winds of energy dependence and global warming hysteria, before coming to a final decision." (Jeffrey Earl Warren, SF Chronicle)

November 22, 2007

UN Climate Distractions - The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just issued the final installment of its year-long scare-the-pants-off-the public assessment of global warming. (Steve Milloy, FoxNews.com)

November 21, 2007

It's that time of year again (no, I mean Thanksgiving -- every day is ridiculous scare day in these bizarre times). This year I'll be taking a break from the incessant baseless cries of doom and gloom and enjoying time with family and friends -- hoping you'll do the same.

Steve Milloy will still be presenting a column (the man is indefatigable!), which JunkScience Junkies will be able to find here by Friday, and the whole gang of merry debunkers will be back at work next week. Meanwhile, Happy Thanksgiving! Ed.

"The Desolate Wilderness" - "Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford, sometime governor thereof:

So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits.

When they came to Delfs-Haven they found the ship and all things ready, and such of their friends as could not come with them followed after them, and sundry came from Amsterdam to see them shipt, and to take their leaves of them. One night was spent with little sleep with the most, but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse, and other real expressions of true Christian love.

The next day they went on board, and their friends with them, where truly doleful was the sight of that sad and mournful parting, to hear what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound amongst them; what tears did gush from every eye, and pithy speeches pierced each other's heart, that sundry of the Dutch strangers that stood on the Key as spectators could not refrain from tears. But the tide (which stays for no man) calling them away, that were thus loath to depart, their Reverend Pastor, falling down on his knees, and they all with him, with watery cheeks commended them with the most fervent prayers unto the Lord and His blessing; and then with mutual embraces and many tears they took their leaves one of another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them.

Being now passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before them in expectations, they had now no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain or refresh them, no houses, or much less towns, to repair unto to seek for succour; and for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search unknown coasts.

Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men? and what multitudes of them there were, they then knew not: for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward object; for summer being ended, all things stand in appearance with a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hew.

If they looked behind them, there was a mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar or gulph to separate them from all the civil parts of the world." (Wall Street Journal)

"Editorial: D.C. gun ban gives the criminals the upper hand" - "WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court has still not decided whether to hear the District’s appeal to reinstate its 31-year-old gun ban, which was overturned by a three-judge panel in March on grounds it violated the Second Amendment. Unfortunately, the ban remains in effect until the high court acts, so D.C. residents will continue to fall victim to gun-toting criminals who find them easy prey.

After a four-year decline, homicides in D.C. are again on the rise. At 169, this year’s body count has already equaled all of 2006 and, with six weeks left to the year, will almost certainly surpass that mark. The gun ban was supposed to prevent such carnage by making the possession of firearms illegal — even for self-defense. In reality, it has done little more than render law-abiding residents completely defenseless." (Washington DC Examiner)

"Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Gun Control Case" - "WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 — The Supreme Court announced today that it would l decide whether the Constitution grants individuals the right to keep guns in their homes for private use, plunging the justices headlong into a divisive and long-running debate over how to interpret the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the “right of the people to keep and bear arms.” (New York Times)

"Fat for purpose" - "Even though they're ridiculed and discriminated against, not all overweight people want to conform to the notion that thin is beautiful." (The Guardian)

"Good news on today’s childhoods" - "How often do we hear good news about our lives and health nowadays? Like, almost never! Parents are so surrounded by nonstop frightening news about their children, that they must find it hard to feel anything but worry for them." (Junkfood Science)

"Economists’ weight loss plans" - "What do car mechanics and doctors have in common? They know that the very first step in deciding the best way to fix something is to make sure from the get go that they’ve correctly diagnosed the problem and its cause. While the steps they take in the course of their work may be similar, professional car mechanics would never profess to have the expertise to practice medicine, and vice versa.

Few of us would think to go to our car mechanic for medical advise, either, any more than we would go to our accountant. So why do public health officials and the media look to economics majors for medical information and health policy solutions?" (Junkfood Science)

No! "Proposal: Suck Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air" - "Emerging technologies could pull carbon dioxide straight from the air to potentially attack global warming directly.

Carbon dioxide traps heat from the sun, and humanity generates roughly 27 billion metric tons of the gas per year. To address concerns regarding global warming, inventors in recent decades have devised carbon dioxide scrubbers that absorb the gas from power plant exhausts, which account for half of all carbon dioxide emissions.

But how technology might take care of the other half—which spews from tailpipes, homes and other sources—remains an open question. Some approaches contemplate modifying the oceans to make them capture the global warming gas.

Increasingly, research now suggests devices could literally suck carbon dioxide straight from the atmosphere." (LiveScience)

What's the matter with everyone? The planet's biosphere thrives on atmospheric carbon dioxide at levels 3-5 times currently available. Since no one in their right mind could conceivably want to suppress the biosphere then the anti-carbon crowd must not be of sound mind, right?

"Global warming is not about to unleash hell on us" - "Long-time British chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson, addressing the New Zealand Business Round Table

AS it is, the temperature projections (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) does come up with in its fourth and latest report range from a rise in the global average temperature by the year 2100 of 1.8C for its lowest emissions scenario to one of 4C for its highest emissions scenario, with a mean increase of slightly under 3C. The average annual temperature in Helsinki is less than 5C. That in Singapore is in excess of 27C, a difference of more than 22C. If man can cope with that, it is not immediately apparent why he should not be able to adapt to a change of 3C when he is given 100 years in which to do so." (The Australian)

"Gore urges TV professionals to spread climate message as British dominate International Emmys" - "NEW YORK — Former Vice President Al Gore called on television executives, producers and performers to help warn viewers about global warming as he accepted a special honor Monday at the 35th International Emmy Awards." (AP)

"IPCC, the UN and Alarmism" - "Some of you may have noticed over the past few days the UN’s multi-tiered alarmism road show to push the “new” scary IPCC report. This actually happens to be a summary of the three summaries released in staggered, media savvy fashion over the past ten months, the window for work to be considered having closed well over a year ago. As such, it inherently cannot contain anything new or newsworthy without running afoul of the IPCC’s claim that the underlying work and claims made in the summaries has been “peer reviewed” (now proven to be an unsupportable claim, if one that's still made today)." (Chris Horner, Cooler Heads Blog)

Right... "Kyoto does work, says UN chief" - "THE head of the United Nation's climate change watchdog insists the Kyoto protocol is working, despite greenhouse gas emissions spewed out from countries including Australia hitting near record levels." (AAP)

Doh! "Kyoto targets flouted" - "GREENHOUSE gas emissions from the world's industrialised countries are again on the rise and closing in on record levels, despite most having signed the Kyoto Protocol.

UN figures released last night - just weeks ahead of a key meeting to start brokering a new global deal to cut emissions - show greenhouse gases from Kyoto's 41 industrialised and transition countries approaching "an all-time high"." (The Australian)

"Baby, it's so cold outside" - "GLOBAL warming alarmist Dr Graeme Pearman tells you to look out of your window for proof that warming is wrecking our world.

Or, as the CSIRO's former head of atmospheric research put it in his best booga-booga voice: "They talk about climate change being on the radar. But it's not. It's right outside the window."

What? The monster is outside my window? Right now?

Stopping only to grab a golf club, I fling open my curtains and see ... gasp! A typical spring day, with warm wind and a garden still green from the welcome recent rain. No hurricanes. No fireballs. No bloated hailstones the size of Al Gore's head.

Of course, other scaremongers will say I'm just looking out of the wrong window. Devastating man-made global warming is here, they insist, and causing terrible, terrible suffering.

They sound so very sure of it that you'd think they could pick, ooh, dozens of examples of this present cataclysm that are so obvious, so incontrovertible, that sceptics like me will slink back into our irresponsibly airconditioned homes, flushed from shame and an eerily hot sun." (Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun)

Place your bets for SC24 - NASA is in two minds about the next solar cycle, and so it’s time to place your bets: (Solar Physics)

"Climate Bill Proving Vain Pursuit as Lobbies Roil U.S. Congress" - "Nov. 19 -- When Senate Environment Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, Republican Senator John Warner, the nation's largest environmental groups and General Electric Co. join forces to push a U.S. cap on global-warming emissions, it should be an unbeatable team. Not in the 110th Congress.

The alliance is running into resistance from an unlikely collection of environmental activists, big oil and coal companies, labor unions and Congress's sole socialist. Some opponents say the measure doesn't go far enough; others say complying with it would cost too much and put U.S. businesses at a competitive disadvantage.

The fight threatens to scuttle the first legislation mandating emissions cuts to be approved by a congressional subcommittee. The bill backed by California Democrat Boxer, 67, would create a potential $300 billion carbon-trading market and press the Bush administration to soften its opposition to stricter emission rules at global climate-treaty talks in Indonesia next month." (Bloomberg)

"The Big Secret: Climate Bills Result in No Meaningful Impact on Global Temperature" - "Three bills have been introduced to Congress which have as a goal to slow the rate of global temperature rise, and in doing so, avert some type of putative global climate catastrophe. They propose to do so by reducing U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases." (WCR)

Just gets worse: "How not to measure temperature, part 35" - "One of the emerging patterns that I see again and again as the volunteers and I survey the USHCN climate stations of record around the USA is that many of them have been relegated to back lots with an “out of sight, out of mind” attitude. At California Polytechnic Institute, San Luis Obispo, that attitude seems obvious." (Watts Up with That?)

"Global warming swindle" - "What is even scarier than seeing how easily the public, the media, and the politicians have been manipulated and stampeded, is discovering how much effort has been put into silencing scientists who dare to say that the emperor has no clothes." (Thomas Sowell, Spero News)

"Editorial: Maryland’s climate of secrecy" - "Annapolis - Imagine the uproar if Maryland’s previous governor, Republican Bob Ehrlich, signed an executive order creating a commission to develop policy recommendations on business taxation and appointed its key members. Imagine further that Ehrlich’s commission then brought in a secretive corporate lobbying group based in another state to manage the panel’s deliberations and shape its policy recommendations. Finally, imagine that state officials refused to answer media questions about the work of the lobbying group or its relationship with the Ehrlich commission. No doubt Democrats in the legislature would be apoplectic. Everybody would wonder why the governor turned state policy over to a special interest group that possibly stood to benefit from the result.

Now, change the scenario to Ehrlich’s successor, Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley. Switch the focus of the commission created by the Maryland chief executive to global warming policy, and make the secretive lobbying group the Pennsylvania-based Center for Climate Strategies (CCS). The Ehrlich scenario is imaginary. But, as editorial contributor Paul Chesser reports, the O’Malley scenario is all too real." (Baltimore Examiner)

"Waving The Flag Of Fear" - "One day after the United Nations issued a doomsday report on global warming, it admits it has grossly exaggerated the seriousness of the AIDS problem. The cycle of fear-mongering at the U.N. continues." (IBD)

"UN Cuts AIDS Estimates, Will Global Warming Projections Follow?" - "As NewsBusters readers are aware, one of the positions of those not buying into the manmade global warming hysteria is that the United Nations -- whose Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a large part of the alarmism -- is an organization that has seen more than its share of malfeasance and corruption.

The recent scandal surrounding the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food program is one example, with problems that eventually plagued UNICEF another.

Now, it has been revealed that the U.N. has been exaggerating the AIDS epidemic for many years." (News Busters)

Look out, George, you've got competition from Ban Ki Moonbat: "A Climate Culprit In Darfur" - "Just over a week ago, leaders of the world's industrialized nations met in Heiligendamm, Germany, for their annual summit. Our modest goal: to win a breakthrough on climate change. And we got it -- an agreement to cut greenhouse gases by 50 percent before 2050. Especially gratifying for me is that the methods will be negotiated via the United Nations, better ensuring that our efforts will be mutually reinforcing.

Amid the diverse social and political causes, the Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change.

Two decades ago, the rains in southern Sudan began to fail. According to U.N. statistics, average precipitation has declined some 40 percent since the early 1980s. Scientists at first considered this to be an unfortunate quirk of nature. But subsequent investigation found that it coincided with a rise in temperatures of the Indian Ocean, disrupting seasonal monsoons. This suggests that the drying of sub-Saharan Africa derives, to some degree, from man-made global warming." (Ban Ki Moon, Washington Post)

No sense of history? The Sahel had a period of increased rainfall following the mid-20^th Century warmth (when people were actually encouraged to move north into the arid zone), followed by devastating drought with the cooling period of the '60s and '70s (as occurred with the cool period in the early 20^th century, but who's counting?). How does this possibly concur with Ban Ki Moonbat's anthropogenic-warming-causes-Darfur-genocide fantasy? These guys aren't just ignorant, they're dangerously deluded.

When Junk Science collides with Deference to Authority (An Englishman's Castle)

"US At Higher Risk of Hurricanes in Next 5 Yrs - RMS" - "LONDON - The United States, which has escaped hurricanes for the past two years, faces a high risk of major storms over the next five years, a respected catastrophe forecaster said on Tuesday." (Reuters)

From CO₂ Science this week:
Editorial:
Concerning the Current Consensus on Climate Change: Finding room for a vast array of informed opinions on anthropogenic CO2 emissions and global climate change: is the goal really achievable?

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week:
This issue's Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau, China. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period Project's database, click here.

Subject Index Summary:
FACE Experiments (Desert Species): What have we learned by way of Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) technology about the likely responses of desert plants to the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 content?

Plant Growth Data:
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Black Spruce, Jack Pine, Paper Birch, and White Spruce.

Journal Reviews:
Storms of New York: How have they varied over the past century and a half?

Holocene Climatic Oscillations of the USA's Mid-Atlantic Region: What were they like? ... and what likely caused them?

Coral Bleaching in the South China Sea: Has it historically been more common than we have supposed?

Recovery of Palau's Coral Reefs After the ENSO-Induced Bleaching Event of 1998: How fast or slow has it been?

Do Terrestrial Plants Emit Methane Under Normal Aerobic Conditions?: A recent study suggested they do. New evidence suggests otherwise.

Temperature Record of the Week:
This issue's Temperature Record of the Week is from Fort Scott, KS. During the period of most significant greenhouse gas buildup over the past century, i.e., 1930 and onward, Fort Scott's mean annual temperature has cooled by 0.82 degrees Fahrenheit. Not much global warming here! (co2science.org)

"Auto industry asks court to slam brakes on state's tough emission standards" - "The legal battle over global warming moved Monday to the Central Valley, where the auto industry tried to convince a federal judge that California's attempt to limit car emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases is beyond its authority.

Lawyers for car manufacturers, dealers and trade associations said California's 2002 law, the model for statutes in 11 other states, amounted to a requirement for higher gas mileage, a subject that only the federal government can regulate.

Although federal law allows California to take a lead role in reducing air pollution, Congress never "intended a single state to have such sweeping authority to unilaterally set national fuel economy policy ... and profoundly affect a vital national industry," said Raymond Ludwiszewski, lawyer for a trade group of international automakers.

But U.S. District Judge Anthony Ishii suggested that the industry's argument had been undercut by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in April upholding the federal government's authority to limit emissions of greenhouse gases." (SF Chronicle)

"Flying In The Face Of Reality" - "Today, I feel I must continue the theme of rhetoric over reality, or, more appropriately perhaps, the Johnsonian triumph of hope over experience, among the ‘global warming’ sorority" (Global Warming Politics)

"We'll fight you all the way, airlines warn EU over carbon-trading plans" - "British and other European governments face a long diplomatic battle if they push ahead with plans to include airlines in a European emissions trading scheme, the global aviation body has warned." (The Guardian)

"UK steelmakers lobby for opt out on tougher emission limits" - "Britain's steelmakers are lobbying the government and the European commission for the industry to be given special treatment within the European Union's emissions trading scheme (ETS).

They are concerned that an increase in the cost of carbon permits within the scheme could raise the marginal cost of production, undermining competitiveness and triggering "carbon leakage" as buyers switch to countries where environmental controls are not as tough." (The Guardian)

"SE Asian leaders back nuclear energy" - "Southeast Asian leaders offered their backing Tuesday for the use of nuclear energy despite concerns over safety in a region prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions." (AFP)

Gasp! "An inconvenient, dirty truth" - "ROME — If you want to make money and don't mind spitting up black phlegm and destroying the planet, buy coal. While the energy markets and the media are obsessed with rising oil prices, the developing world is quietly gearing up for a coal development and consumption spree of astounding proportions. The energy markets of tomorrow are not about oil and hydrogen and wind turbines spinning lazily on ridges. They're about coal, which is cheap and plentiful but also the worst news for the environment that you could imagine in the post-Al Gore world.

The investor case for coal is hard to beat. The price increases have trailed demand. Demand is about to soar and the price will catch up. Data compiled by Bloomberg shows that U.S. coal prices are equal to $1.98 (U.S.) per million British thermal units (Btus) of energy, compared with $12.51 for fuel oil and $6.91 for natural gas. Oil prices have almost tripled since 2002. Coal prices on the American East Coast have gone up only about 70 per cent in the same period. Coal is so cheap that the shipping costs across the Atlantic can be more expensive than the commodity itself." (Eric Reguly, Globe and Mail)

"Near Zero Emissions Coal study launched in Beijing" - "China’s CO2 emissions from using coal are set to double by 2030, the scale of which is significant in the context of mitigating global climate change. In view of the essential role of coal in China’s energy system, it is vital to minimise emissions where coal is used." (British Geological Survey)

"Autumn Rain Down 90 Percent in China Rice Belt" - "BEIJING - Large areas of south China are suffering from serious drought, with water levels on two major rivers in rice-growing provinces dropping to historic lows, state media said on Tuesday." (Reuters)

"Nuclear desalination: Could nuclear power by the answer to fresh water?" - "New solutions to the ancient problem of maintaining a fresh water supply is discussed in a special issue of the Inderscience publication International Journal of Nuclear Desalination. With predictions that more than 3.5 billion people will live in areas facing severe water shortages by the year 2025, the challenge is to find an environmentally benign way to remove salt from seawater." (Inderscience Publishers)

November 20, 2007

Shriek! "Katrina rated largest U.S. ecodisaster" - "The hurricane destroyed or damaged about 320 million trees across the South." (The Christian Science Monitor)

'Ecodisaster', ecotheism and econonsense: it's all the same with the meaningless touchy-feely 'eco' appended much as 'e' was to eSales or whatever. 'Eco' doesn't really add up to anything other than an affluent Western guilt trip.

Parenthetically, 'environment' is just what happens to surround you and it is irrelevant whether that happens to be a built environment to shelter you from the elements, with or without climate control, or whether it happens to be undeveloped (and likely hostile) 'natural' -- it's still your environment and there's little doubt which one you'll have by choice. The wealthier we are the 'nicer' we can afford to have our environment, including maintaining green spaces and wildlife habitat. So, if you really want to be environmentally friendly then maximize wealth generation and productivity and you will achieve what the anti-[any and everything good for people] brigade profess to want -- with the added bonus of helping underdeveloped regions out of poverty and improving the lives of people and critters. For goodness sake think about what is actually good for people and wildlife rather than blindly following misguided misanthropists like a bunch of sheeple.

Not pro-planet, just anti-Christian: "The grinch who stole Christmas cards" - "Primary school pupils in Wales have been banned from exchanging cards in the name of saving the planet and its ‘wretched’ Africans." (Lee Jones, sp!ked)

May's misanthropy: "Top ex-pat scientist urges population curbs" - "HALTING population growth in developing countries should be part of a global strategy to reduce mankind's impact on the environment, according to an eminent expatriate Australian scientist.

Immediate past president of the Royal Society, Professor Lord Robert May said that, given the threat of climate change, a declining global population was "a prerequisite" if humanity was to achieve a sustainable ecological footprint in the future." (The Australian)

Actually, if solar cycle 24 is as weak as feared, these may become mandatory as we struggle to maintain food production in a world with less solar energy input and shorter growing seasons.

As clueless as ever... "The Scientists Speak" - "The world’s scientists have done their job on global warming. Now it’s time for world leaders, starting with President Bush, to do theirs." (New York Times)

... the senescent Crone has no idea how this process works, failing to realize the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a purely political entity whose very existence and gravy train depends on hyping the scare.

"IPCC: separating fact from fright" - "Today’s alarmist claims about the planet ‘spinning into a troubling void’ are not backed up by the findings of the latest IPCC report." (Rob Lyons, sp!ked)

"Climate Science Anything but 'Clear', Mr. Baird" - "UN Climate Agency’s implication that 2,500 scientist reviewers agree with its report is a deception" (NRSP)

"IPCC report: The green iron triangle" - "The Greens-Government-Media Complex – the new Iron Triangle – was on full display this weekend as the U.N. tried to muster a frightening dossier of intelligence to convince the international community to fight a pre-emptive war on global warming." (Henry Payne, Planet Gore)

"Brown Least Mad On Climate" - "Well, UK PM, Gordon, has at last shared with us his thoughts on climate change: ‘PM outlines climate action plan’ (BBC Online Politics News, November 19). One doesn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. It is truly pathetic. I, for once, feel quite sorry (crocodile tears, of course) for those who genuinely fear ‘global warming’ - Brown’s words are full of waffling warmth, while the proposed action is either ludicrous or non-existent:" (Global Warming Politics)

"The Bali Protocol? Warnings get more extreme before conference." - "Let's hope they come up with a more inventive name. Maybe the Economic Suicide Accord. Anyway, the big news in Anthropomorphic Global Warming is this new report from every environmentalist favorite acronym, the IPCC. This report, which is really nothing new it all, takes a more alarmist approach to the predictions. Higher seas, less ice, longer droughts, more starving, less animal species, you know, the usual but just worse. And "Only urgent, global action will do," says the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon(bat)." (The Denier's Diary)n Brown, has at last shared with us his thoughts on climate change: ‘PM outlines climate action plan’ (BBC Online Politics News, November 19). One doesn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. It is truly pathetic. I, for once, feel quite sorry (crocodile tears, of course) for those who genuinely fear ‘global warming’ - Brown’s words are full of waffling warmth, while the proposed action is either ludicrous or non-existent:" (Global Warming Politics)

Following on from yesterday's NOAA comment about their failing to update their websites we've had correspondence regarding their continued use of the flawed "hockey stick" temperature reconstruction (note the accompanying text:

The idea of a global or hemispheric "Medieval Warm Period" that was warmer than today however, has turned out to be incorrect.

Um, no, actually it's the hokey "hockey stick" that is incorrect, being an artifact of Mannian 'statistics' and dodgy data. Craig Loehle has just published a reconstruction restoring the Medieval Warm and suggesting our thermometric records are based in the coldest period of the last 2,000 years (relative to which we are fortunately warming -- does anyone really want to go back to the privations of the Little Ice Age?). Having diverse subsets of proxies deliver similar results suggests the reconstruction to be quite robust while the "hockey stick" version fails without the inclusion of bristlecone pine tree ring series.

"How not to measure temperature, part 34" - "I recently made a trip into Oregon to survey several USHCN stations there, including Klamath Falls, Crater Lake, Bly, and Lakeview. I also made a stop at another remote USHCN station in Cedarville, California.

Klamath Falls was one of those places where you have to wonder “what were they thinking?” when they placed a climate monitoring station. Imagine measuring the temperature in the middle of acres of asphalt combined with huge amounts of waste heat from electric power conversion. That’s’ Klamath Falls USHCN official climate station of record." (Watts Up with That?)

This nonsense gets far too much attention already: "Activists struggle to get climate change on political front burner" - "WASHINGTON -- Environmental activists are frustrated. They can't get the issue of global warming into the presidential campaign.

So a coalition of environmental groups, led by online magazine Grist.org and Public Radio International's "Living on Earth,'' held the first-ever presidential forum on global warming in Los Angeles on Saturday.

They invited 17 presidential candidates. Three Democrats showed up -- Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

They spoke passionately about the crisis." (CNN)

"Global Warming, Or Global Con?" - "A U.N. that can't save the world from war, famine, disease and pestilence now releases a report saying global warming will cause all of the above — and it's your SUV that's doing it." (IBD)

"Was Gore Hired as Venture Capitalist or Venture Lobbyist?" - "As NewsBusters readers are well aware, we have for months been chronicling Nobel Laureate Al Gore's profit motive concerning the advancement of climate change hysteria.

Last Monday, it was announced that the Global Warmingist-in-Chief had been hired by Silicon Valley's most prestigious venture capital firm.

At the time, the implication was that Gore would assist Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in finding new, unknown eco-friendly companies to invest in.

According to Fox News's "The Journal Editorial Report," Gore's position with Kleiner Perkins may be to get a currently stalled energy bill through Congress that would end up helping companies the VC group has already invested in." (News Busters)

"Global Warming, Inc." - "Al Gore no longer needs to make claims about creating the Internet, because the former Vice President deserves much of the credit for creating an entire new industry -- the global warming business.

And like the energy barons of an earlier age, Mr. Gore has the chance to achieve enormous wealth after being named last week as a new partner at the famously successful venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. No fewer than three of his new colleagues sit on the Forbes list of wealthiest Americans. If Mr. Gore can develop market-based solutions to environmental challenges, we will cheer the well-deserved riches flowing his way. On the other hand, if he monetizes his Nobel Peace Prize by securing permanent government subsidies for nonmarket science projects, he'll have earned a different judgment." (Wall Street Journal)

"Global Warming Hysteria Could Make Gore Richest VP in History" - "Is the press beginning to see through Al Gore's global warming scam?

A brief article posted at Newsweek's website offers hope that the media might finally be recognizing the former Vice President could be this decade's Ken Lay.

For those that have forgotten, Lay was the CEO of Enron." (News Busters)

"Climate report revives "dangerous" change dispute" - "OSLO - Governments have promised to try to avert "dangerous" climate change expected to bring about rising seas, droughts and floods, but have yet to agree on a common definition of where the danger starts.

The controversy surfaced after the unveiling of a U.N. report in Spain on Saturday that had stoked controversy about whether the world is set for "dangerous" climate change." (Reuters)

"BBC HARDtalk with Václav Klaus" - "You can guess whether the BBC journalist and the Czech president agreed about every word or not. ;-)

I find the approach of the journalist somewhat incredible. It's the same kind of guys who like to say that George Bush is unprecedentedly stupid. But he finds it sensible to take the opinions of the same George Bush and other similar people and accuse Prof Václav Klaus of "plain arrogance" just because he doesn't agree with those fashionable talking points by all these lesser minds. It is apparently not "plain arrogance" to treat a European president in this way.

Their behavior is just an amazing combination of stupidity, intimidation, and hypocrisy.

After the second part of the video, Klaus answers that he has grandchildren. They won't know about the global warming debate in 30 years because it will be forgotten. But if they find something about it, they will just say that their granddad was right." (The Reference Frame)

"Changes in European Storminess?" - "One of the popular tenets of the greenhouse scare is that storms will become more fierce and more common in the future due to global warming. Whether we are looking at tropical storms (hurricanes) or extra-tropical storms, anything and everything should be blamed on the ongoing build-up of greenhouse gases. Given that the global weather system produces tropical and extra-tropical storms every single day, there is no end of fresh material needed to keep the greenhouse story alive and well.

However, a recent article will soon appear in Climate Dynamics, and we suspect it will not be carried by any news service. The international team of scientists is from the Climate Research Division of Environment Canada, the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics in Austria, the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, and the Institute for Coastal Research in Germany. The Matulla et al. group begin by noting “Severe storms can do widespread damage to ecosystems, property and society. Inland areas are affected by wind-throw uprooting trees, soil erosion and damage to construction. Coastal regions are not only exposed to the wind force but to storm surges and wind waves in the wake of storms as well. Due to its impact on socioeconomic structures storm-climate naturally attracts public attention. In the North–East Atlantic and the North Sea a roughening storminess was perceived and public concern was raised in the early 1990s.” Of course, the early 1990s was also the time when the global warming scare was launched and thrown into high gear, and we suspect that Europeans made the link between global warming and their perceived increase in storminess." (WCR)

"Sunbathing tree frogs' future under a cloud" - "Animal conservationists in Manchester are turning to physics to investigate whether global warming is responsible for killing sun-loving South American tree frogs." (University of Manchester)

You're wrong -- their hypothesis is that the frogs aren't getting enough sunlight.

"War has historic links to global climate change" - "Climate change and conflict have gone hand-in-hand for the past 500 years, a study reveals.

It is the first time that a clear link between war and changing global temperatures has been identified in historical data, according to the researchers involved. The results are also significant because some experts predict that current and future climate change may result in widespread global unrest and conflict." (NewScientist.com news service)

Stop! Thief! "Oceans could slurp up carbon dioxide to fight global warming" - "Researchers in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania are proposing a new method for reducing global warming that involves building a series of water treatment plants that enhance the ability of the ocean to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. About 100 such plants — which essentially use the ocean as “a giant carbon dioxide collector” — could cause a 15 percent reduction in emissions over many years, they say. About 700 plants could offset all CO2 emissions. Their study is scheduled to appear in the Dec. 15 issue of ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology." (ACS)

... where are the carbon cops when the carbon thieves are about? Atmospheric CO₂ is the foundation for almost all life on Earth and these dipsticks want to lock it away again? Help! Thief! What's the number for those darn carbon cops?

"Iron Is a Tonic For Climate-Saving Plankton" - "MIAMI - From the deck of the research ship Weatherbird II, a California company hopes to prove a controversial theory that putting iron dust in the ocean can produce enough plankton to help save the Earth." (Reuters)

Climate-saving plankton? Oh puh-lease!

"Climate Change Bill Proceeds in Congress" - "The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held two more hearings this week on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, S. 2191. Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has announced that she wants to mark up the bill in full committee on December 5th. Greenwire’s Darren Samuelsohn reported that Boxer said she had “some terrific ideas” for improving the bill, but wasn’t sure how many she could get adopted in committee. As far as I can tell, most of her ideas would raise the targets that must be achieved by the cap-and-trade scheme that is the centerpiece of the bill." (Myron Ebell, Cooler Heads Blog)

"CLIMATE CHANGE-ICELAND: Emissions Quota Debate Heats Up" - "REYKJAVIK - "I am of the opinion that Iceland should not ask for a repeat of the Iceland Provision in the upcoming climate change negotiations," says Iceland's environment minister Thorunn Sveinbjarnardottir." (IPS)

Imagine that... "NZ Climate Change Policy a Headache for Cenbank" - "WELLINGTON - New Zealand policies aimed at tackling global warming from next year could become another headache for the central bank, with higher energy costs threatening to heat up inflation pressures." (Reuters)

"Britain to Study Carbon Cuts as Deep as 80 Percent" - "LONDON - Britain will study whether it can commit to cutting its carbon emissions by as much as 80 percent by 2050, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday in his first major speech on the environment since taking office this year." (Reuters)

"Germany at Odds With UK on Renewable Goals" - "LONDON - Germany wants European states to meet their own renewable energy targets as much as possible, rather than pay other countries to do it for them, deputy environment minister Matthias Machnig said." (Reuters)

"Big energy users eager to invest in nuclear stations" - "Big British energy users, including manufacturers and transport groups, are so concerned by the threat of rising electricity prices that they are considering investing in new nuclear power stations, The Times has learnt." (London Times)

"Report finds increased domestic production won't make US self-sufficient in natural gas" - "A new report by the Energy Forum at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy finds that the United States will continue to rely on imported natural gas even if areas that are currently restricted are opened up to drilling." (Rice University)

"The Grayness of green marketing." - "The Evolution of Green Marketing and how "being green" means almost nothing these days." (The Denier's Diary)

Oops! Again... "Nitrite/nitrate-rich food may protect the heart" - "NEW YORK - Nitrites and nitrates -- compounds that previously gave cured meats a bad rap -- may not be so bad after all, as new research suggests nitrites and nitrates may protect the heart." (Reuters Health)

"A kind of magic?" - "Time after time, properly conducted scientific studies have proved that homeopathic remedies work no better than simple placebos. So why do so many sensible people swear by them? And why do homeopaths believe they are victims of a smear campaign? Ben Goldacre follows a trail of fudged statistics, bogus surveys and widespread self-deception" (Ben Goldacre, The Guardian)

"How we know what will kill or cure us" - "With the upcoming conference on the use of homeopathy for HIV/AIDS just weeks away, the homeopathy debate is heating up among the medical and scientific community. As JFS readers will remember, this conference is sponsored by the Society of Homeopaths and its promotional literature claims that with homeopathy, “the AIDS epidemic can be called to a halt.” The current issue of the British medical journal, The Lancet, focuses on this issue. The discussions, however, bring into focus much larger ethical issues about public-funded healthcare." (Junkfood Science)

"‘60 Minutes’: Obesity Epidemic Requires Obese Government" - "On Sunday’s CBS "60 Minutes," anchor Lesley Stahl began a segment on calorie labeling for fast food by making this alarmist proclamation: "Obesity rates continue to spiral out of control in this country and nutritionists say one main reason is how dependent we've become on eating out." Enter the big government hero:" (News Busters)

"Doubled calorie intake from beverages likely contributes to adult obesity" - "It’s not just sugary sodas that are adding to the obesity crisis – it’s fruit drinks, alcohol and a combination of other high-calorie beverages, say University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health researchers. And during the holidays, when eggnog, cocktails and spiced cider are abundant, the problem can be even more apparent." (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Adding calories likely contributes eh? How do they do it...

"Dare to be different — Costs of competitive dieting" - "Regardless of where you work or go to school, you’re more likely than ever to encounter pressures to participate in a Biggest Loser-style competition. Dieting appears to have become the latest national sport. But not only is the science behind these contests lacking, they can come with serious consequences that are not healthful, helpful or wise." (Junkfood Science)

"The Environmental Safety and Benefits of Growth Enhancing Pharmaceutical Technologies in Beef Production" - "Growth promoting hormones are a key component of North American beef production. Their use over the past 50+ years (since 1956) has proven beneficial not only to beef producers, but to consumers and the environment, who benefit from lower costs and more efficient use of scarce natural resources. In short, they allow us to achieve the old Yankee maxim of producing more from less." (Alex Avery And Dennis Avery, Hudson Institute Center For Global Food Issues)

November 19, 2007

Oh boy... what we are now calling the dire climate change report has been made available and is it ever dire. It is surely a much worse effort than the AR4 upon which it is allegedly based.

"Hunting The Climate Change Snark" - "Our post-modern period of climate change angst can probably be traced back to the late-1960s, if not earlier. By 1973, and the ‘global cooling’ scare, it was in full swing, with predictions of the imminent collapse of the world within ten to twenty years, exacerbated by the impacts of a nuclear winter. Environmentalists were warning that, by the year 2000, the population of the US would have fallen to only 22 million [the 2007 population estimate is 302,824,000] and the average intake of the average American would be a mere 2,400 calories (would that it were!)." (Global Warming Politics)

Oh... "Climate Change as Frightening as Science Fiction Movie" - "Proof of humans' impact on warming the earth's atmosphere is unequivocal, and the world faces a moral obligation to fight climate change, according to the final report by the United Nations' leading climate council." (Deutsche Welle)

"Reality, Rhetoric, And Risk" - "On the very day that the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, issues its latest, and 4th, Draft Report (.pdf), and Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, employs his rhetoric to pressurize states to act on climate change before the Bali talks about the UN climate convention and the Kyoto Protocol, which open on December 3, the hard reality of climate-change economics and politics strikes in the heart of London" (Global Warming Politics)

Actually JunkScience staff wasted some time on the synthesis report trying to find something (anything) with evidentiary support only to give up in disgust on a speculative disaster script supported only by conjecture, anecdote and selective short-term data, extrapolated to extreme. Our first impression is that the synthesis represents the worst of AR4. Meanwhile November has seen just one brief sunspot, reminding us that lack of solar energy and decline in biological activity (think: reduced crop yield) is the omnipresent real world concern. How concerned will we be about the phantom menace when more of the world is hungry? How much habitat will we set aside from cropping to save the Slightly Rusty VeeDub Beetle or any other critter not essential to the immediate sustenance of Humanity as temperatures fall, growing seasons shorten and shortages increase? What a stupid game this all is.

Meanwhile, from non-'treemometers': "A 2000-Year Global Temperature Reconstruction Based on Non-Treering Proxies" - "Historical data provide a baseline for judging how anomalous recent temperature changes are and for assessing the degree to which organisms are likely to be adversely affected by current or future warming. Climate histories are commonly reconstructed from a variety of sources, including ice cores, tree rings, and sediment. Tree-ring data, being the most abundant for recent centuries, tend to dominate reconstructions. There are reasons to believe that tree ring data may not properly capture long-term climate changes. In this study, eighteen 2000-year-long series were obtained that were not based on tree ring data. Data in each series were smoothed with a 30-year running mean. All data were then converted to anomalies by subtracting the mean of each series from that series. The overall mean series was then computed by simple averaging. The mean time series shows quite coherent structure. The mean series shows the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and Little Ice Age (LIA) quite clearly, with the MWP being approximately 0.3°C warmer than 20th century values at these eighteen sites." (Loehle, C. 2007. Energy & Environment 18(7-8): 1049-1058.)

but, from fruitloop central: "Alarming UN report on climate change is too rosy, many say" - "VALENCIA, Spain: The blunt and alarming final report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released here by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, may well underplay the problem of climate change, many experts and even the report's authors admit." (IHT)

"How Volcanism Affects Climate" - "Climatologists may disagree on how much the recent global warming is natural or manmade but there is general agreement that volcanism constitutes a wildcard in climate, producing significant global scale cooling for at least a few years following a major eruption. However, there are some interesting seasonal and regional variations of the effects. Robock (2003) and others have shown that major volcanic eruptions seem to have their greatest widespread cooling effect in the summer months. In the winters, the latitude location of the volcano determines whether the winters are colder or warmer over large parts of North America and Eurasia." (Joseph D’Aleo, Icecap)

Look at the aerosols charts and note the last decade of low stratospheric aerosols. Now look at these time series and decide whether the aerosol charts or this is likely to yield a better correlation with temperatures.

Dou you suppose... "UN scientists urge carbon tax to fight global warming" - "All sources of carbon pollution - from flights to inefficient light bulbs - must become more expensive if the world is to tackle global warming, an influential panel of scientists and government officials will say today." (The Guardian)

... they think people won't notice a slight incongruity between fanciful statements about how cheap it'll be to "fight global warming" and yet how desperate they are to add the worst of progressive taxes -- on energy, which will compound with every action from resource extraction, transport, refining, transport, manufacture, transport, wholesaling, transport, sale, transport, use... and these progressive taxes apply to the food you eat, the shoes you wear out walking to the employment center, your children's textbooks and pencils, everything...

"We behave as if there is no penalty for our luxurious consumption" - "Climate scientists are warned to avoid words like 'disaster' - they lead to apathy and fatalism" (Ian Jack, The Guardian)

Actually they lead to vast quantities of media rhetoric but little else, fortunately.

"What about the poles?" - "The relentless grip of the Arctic Ocean that defied man for centuries is melting away," warned Doug Struck in the Washington Post. "The sea ice reaches only half as far as it did 50 years ago. In the summer of 2006, it shrank to a record low. This summer, the ice pulled back even more, by an area nearly the size of Alaska."

NASA's James Hansen keeps claiming that CO2 is "pushing the climate past its tipping point."

British banks are sending "volunteers" to the Arctic to see for themselves the loss of sea ice, and to view the "endangered" polar bears—whose numbers have tripled in recent years.

Ho hum. Just another day at the scare factory." (Dennis T. Avery, ESR)

"Climate scientists want war on warming" - "Climate scientists believe global warming is accelerating and in a landmark report, out today, they lay out the case for global action to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

"What we need is comparable to the mobilization for World War Two," says Danny Harvey, a climate specialist at the University of Toronto, and one of many Canadian contributors to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC.

Scientists say aggressive programs are now needed to both slash emissions and prepare for the inevitable change." (CanWest News Service)

Climate change is always inevitable, so they got that part right but their conclusion is hopelessly flawed. Slashing emissions and genuinely preparing for inevitable change are mutually exclusive acts (slashing emissions depresses the economy and reduces wealth generation and development, which are the two things required to prepare for climate change while actually preparing of necessity increases emissions...).

"US delegates say dangers of climate change unclear" - "WASHINGTON — The United States believes there is no clear scientific definition of the dangers of climate change although it recognizes urgent action is needed, a US conference delegation said.

"The scientific definition of that is lacking, and so we are operating within the construct of, again, strong agreement among world leaders that urgent action is warranted," said Jim Connaughton, chairman of the Council of Environmental Quality." (AFP)

"Kentucky, climate, and intimidation" - "If you want to see how intimidation by the climate change movement looks like, look at this story. There are hundreds of such stories every day but we have to pick an example. A Kentucky legislative committee had a hearing dedicated to climate change on Wednesday:" (The Reference Frame)

"Do Global Warming Policies Help the Poor?" - "Invoking the allegedly catastrophic impacts of future global warming on developing countries, Yvo de Boer, the U.N.’s top climate official, warned that, “Failing to recognize the urgency of this message and act upon it would be nothing less than criminally responsible.”

But is it responsible for policymakers to leap before they look? A report by the Boston-based Clean Air Task Force finds that deforestation in tropical Asia, spurred by one of Europe’s global warming policies—its Bio-fuel Directive—is releasing billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. This and other reports (see here and here) leave no doubt that some “urgent action” on climate change contributes to global warming!" (Marlo Lewis, Cooler Heads Blog)

Flimflam Man: "Q&A: ''We Need to Be Living in a De-Carbonised Economy in Four Decades'': Interview with Tim Flannery, Australian scientist" - "MELBOURNE - With the ‘Synthesis Report’ of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be released this weekend, scientist, environmental activist and 2007 ‘Australian of the Year’, Prof. Tim Flannery, warns that action must be taken to avoid the worst of global warming." (IPS)

"Mike Rosen, Al Gore And The Missing Debate On Global Warming" - "On October 19, 2007, the Rocky Mountain News ran an op-ed piece entitled “Al Gore’s ignoble Nobel,” by Denver talkshow host Mike Rosen. Five days after that, a rebuttal appeared.

This rebuttal, “Mostly wrong on warming,” was written by a scientist named Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.

In turn, Dr. Trenberth’s article was rebutted by a man named Christopher Monckton, third viscount of Benchley and former advisor to Margaret Thatcher. Mr. Trenberth’s article did not appear in the Rocky Mountain News; it was published on the Science and Public Policy website: http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/monckton/23errors.html.

Mr. Monckton, who, like Mike Rosen, is not a scientist, then appeared as a guest on Mike Rosen’s radio show, to discuss in greater detail what he calls the “swindle” of global warming.

It should also be noted that Dr. Trenberth was invited on the program to debate the issue with Mr. Monckton, but, as you might suspect, Trenberth declined – and did so, according to Mike Rosen’s producers, none too politely." (Ray Harvey, Forum)

Everyone wants to get into the act... "Was Noah’s flood a sign of climate change devastation to come?" - "Noah’s flood may have been responsible for the birth of modern civilisation across Western Europe, according to research.

A deluge 8,000 years ago in what are now the Balkans is believed by some to have given rise to the biblical story. It is being seen as a model for the social upheaval that may result from sea-level rises caused by climate change." (The Times)

Reports of death of snow skiing greatly exaggerated: "Swiss Snow Makes 50-year Record" - "Swiss ski resorts are expecting a record season after promising early snowfall, it has been reported.

According to the report, Switzerland has not received such a strong start to its winter ski season since 1952, with the amount of snow being swept to the southern areas by the wind cited as a particularly interesting feature of the weather.

Resorts are said to be anticipating a busy ski season, with many readying themselves for a rush of bookings as reports of the good weather disseminate." (Fast Track)

• Snow, ice cause accidents in west Hungary (MTI)
• Heavy snow strands more than 100 tourists in SW China (Xinhua)
• Roads cleared after snow flurry (BBC)
• Ski areas rejoicing with weekend snow (AP)
• Wyoming: Snow quenches skiers’ thirst; more in forecast (Jackson Hole Daily)
• Oregon Cascades Under Snow Advisory (Salem-News.com)
• ...

The odds against a London White Christmas are shortening, too -- 5/1 at last look.

Oh dear! From correspondence received we have a classic example of people of people not looking, or deliberately cherry picking data to "prove" global warming. Citing apparent decline in the Porcupine Caribou Herd from here we are told this shows how caribou are being decimated -- what a pity they didn't follow the provided source links where they would have found, yes, the PC herd had a poor calving season in '05 but an average one the following year and a good calving rate this year. Parenthetically, the Porcupine herd increased through the '80s, when there was less snow, and declined through the 90s, when heavy snow and short summer conditions were a problem for them.

Side note to NOAA, how about updating your pages to avoid giving these false impressions?

Uh-huh... the return to unprecedented conditions... "The new Arctic cold war" - "Ed Struzik, this year's Atkinson Fellow, travelled the remote region to explore how Canadians can adapt to and even exploit a precarious return to warmer times." (Toronto Star)

"Green hero slammed as climate heretic" - "Prof. David Bellamy is Great Britain's best-known environmentalist, and has been for most of the last four decades." (Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post)

"USHCN in the 'ass end of nowhere'” - "Aplogist Eli Rabett (Joshua Halpern) recently lamented that in order for dendrochronologists to update tree ring studies used in MBH98/99 (aka Mann’s Hockey Stick) that they “have to drive out to the ass end of nowhere”. It’s such an inconvenience for those that just perform data wrangling in the office, instead of going out to get their hands dirty, that a study used as the basis for legislation hasn’t had its data updated in almost 10 years!

Thanks to Mr. Pete and Steve McIntyre, a recent outing in Colorado to get updated core samples from the very same trees used in Mann’s study proved that it’s not so hard after all. In fact they were able to have a Starbucks in the morning, do the field work, and were back home in time for a late dinner. No futzing with grant proposals, no elaborate plans submitted for approval, just basic honest field science. The samples they collected are in a dendrochronology lab undergoing analysis.

In that same spirit, I decided to survey one of the hottest and most remote USHCN weather stations in the USA, Death Valley. I was able to have a Starbucks’s coffee that morning, complete the work, survey an additional station, and an oddball station and head off to dinner and my next destination all in the same day." (Watts Up With That?)

"ABC: Accept Global Warming or Violate 'Moral Imperative'" - "If you don't buy into a Goresque view of global warming, you're not just wrong -- you're immoral. That was ABC's implication this morning.

The notion came from Good Morning America co-anchor Bill Weir at the end of his interview of Jim Gooch. The Dem state representative from Kentucky recently had the audacity to hold hearings with witnesses who cast doubt on global warming theories." (News Busters)

"Daily Doom Doesn’t Sell" - "The Independent, the ‘compact’ UK newspaper known as the Indie (the Independent on Sunday being the Sindie), which is infamous for its doom-laden front pages on ‘global warming’ (and many other PC topics), is clearly in trouble. I have just been trawling through a few interesting reports and facts: (Global Warming Politics)

But it doesn't stop them trying: "A world dying, but can we unite to save it?" - "Pollution in the seas is now speeding global warming, says a devastating new climate report. 'IoS' Environment Editor Geoffrey Lean reports from Valencia" (Sindie)

What a crock!

"New green law could ration flights and raise fuel prices" - "Britons face a future of green taxes, higher fuel prices and even flight rationing under anti-pollution laws unveiled yesterday.

A Climate Change Bill would make the UK the only country with legally binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions." (Daily Mail)

"BRAZIL: Awash With Oil - Good for Revenues, Bad for Climate Change?" - "RIO DE JANEIRO - The discovery of a huge oilfield 250 kilometres off the southeastern coast of Brazil will not have an immediate effect on world crude markets, but it opens up future prospects of a new oil frontier in the South Atlantic which may deter the pursuit of clean energy sources, experts say." (IPS)

"Antarctica, the new hot real estate" - "There's oil and gas in the Antarctic, too, which global warming may open up. But as the U.K. and others stake claims, scientists wonder what it would cost environments there, and ultimately the planet." (Toronto Star)

Waiting for the lights to go out: "Regulatory Uncertainty Ends Plan For Fla 'Clean Coal' Plant" - "NEW YORK -- Citing uncertainty surrounding future greenhouse gas rules in the U.S., a consortium of power companies on Wednesday canceled plans to build an advanced coal-burning power plant near Orlando, Fla.

The announcement is the latest in a string of aborted attempts to build an advanced coal plant that uses so-called integrated gasification and combined cycle, or IGCC, technology, which transforms coal into a synthetic gas before running it through generation turbines. The process allows carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas, to be captured before it's released into the atmosphere.

Executive orders signed by Florida's Republican Gov. Charlie Crist earlier this year set statewide greenhouse gas caps for the power sector and require increased investments in energy efficiency and clean energy technology. Such regulations are usually put in place to create financial incentives for cleaner forms of power generation, such as IGCC. But in this case, the policies caused the utilities to cancel the project at the Stanton Energy Center.

"The orders created long-term uncertainty, and they created risk," said Mike Tyndall, spokesman for Southern Co. (SO), the giant utility holding company that was one of the partners in the project.

Other firms have recently canceled their IGCC projects. TECO Inc. (TE) recently said it would cancel a planned $2 billion IGCC plant in Florida, also due to uncertainty created by Crist's new executive orders. Southwestern Power Group recently canceled plans to build an IGCC plant in Bowie, Ariz., because of the project's high cost and uncertainty surrounding federal greenhouse gas regulations." (Dow Jones)

"Judicial Overreach" - "The often-loopy 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is now giving orders to the White House. A three-judge panel ruled Thursday that federal fuel-economy standards for light trucks and SUVs must be tougher." (IBD)

"Clean Coal Test Traps 95 Pct Carbon - Norway Firm" - "OSLO - Tests of a new technology for capturing greenhouse gases from coal-fired power plants have achieved 95 percent cuts in a step towards new ways to fight climate change, a Norwegian company said on Friday." (Reuters)

"Biofuels bonanza facing 'crash'" - "The biofuels bonanza will crash unless producers can guarantee their crops have been produced responsibly, the UN's environment agency chief has said." (BBC)

"SOUTH AFRICA: DDT finds favour in fight against malaria" - "TZANEEN , 16 November 2007 - After years of resistance, people living in the rural areas of South Africa are beginning to embrace the use of DDT as an effective agent in the fight against malaria-carrying mosquitoes." (IRIN)

"An Open Letter to Warren Buffett" - "Recently Warren Buffett issued a challenge to the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest people to examine their conscience as to whether or not they were paying a larger percentage of their income in taxes compared with their receptionists. Mr. Buffett also said he believed that the estate tax should not be repealed." (Frank Ryan, IBD)

"New Zealand bars British man's 'fat' wife" - "A British man who moved to New Zealand has been told by officials that his wife is too fat to join him." (London Telegraph)

BMIs keep them apart (Junkfood Science)

"One more time: fatness not linked to overall cancer risks" - "Readers may have overdosed on the fat and cancer stories over recent weeks, so we’ll make this brief. Despite attempts to make things sound confusing or complicated, and convince us that the science is contradictory concerning a link between fatness and cancers, all of the major, long-awaited papers that have been released this month have found the same thing: nothing." (Junkfood Science)

"Name that Drug" - "Doctor Wes (Dr. Westby G. Fisher, MD, FACC) has posted the results of last week’s reader challenge, along with some astounding facts. It’s obvious to everyone, and frequently covered here, that medical news has become little more than paid advertising - from the program sponsors." (Junkfood Science)

"Internet trolling can turn deadly" - "Many people believe that the only dangers on the internet are the predators preying on children on online communities and chatrooms, like MySpace and Livejournal. While they are most certainly a critical reason to take safeguards, the internet has other far reaching hazards." (Junkfood Science)

"Local sources major cause of US near-ground aerosol pollution" - "A new NASA study estimates that most ground-level particulate pollution in the United States stems from regional sources in North America and only a small amount is brought to the country from other parts of the world.

Researchers using an innovative global aerosol tracking model have for the first time produced a global estimate of sources and movements of aerosols near the ground where they can affect human health and run afoul of environmental regulations. Previously, researchers studying aerosols moving between continents focused primarily on tracking a single type of aerosol, such as dust or black carbon, or measuring their quantities throughout the atmosphere. This left gaps in understanding where ground-level particulate pollution comes from." (NASA/GSFC)

"Too few women scientists achieving academic leadership positions" - "New Rochelle, November 16, 2007 – As the U.S. continues to fall behind countries such as China and India in producing high-level scientists, one immediate and obvious solution would be to take advantage of the many women who have obtained doctoral degrees in science but have been passed over in their attempts to rise to the position of tenured professor, according to a provocative editorial in the November 2007 issue (Volume 26, Number 11) of DNA and Cell Biology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The editorial is available free online." (Genetic Engineering News)

"Long-term pharmacotherapy for obesity and overweight: updated meta-analysis" - "Patients taking antiobesity drugs will only see 'modest' weight loss and many will remain significantly obese or overweight, according to a study published online today." (BMJ)

November 16, 2007

"Global Warming's Bottom Line" - "Sen. Hillary Clinton last week proposed to require that publicly-owned companies disclose to shareholders the financial impacts of global warming. Financial reality, however, is already overtaking the financial fantasy of climate alarmists." (Steven Milloy, FoxNews.com)

"Linzen Says Chill Out: Global Warming Skeptic Speaks at Colgate" - "Students and faculty crowded into the Henshaw Lecture Room in Lathrop Hall on Thursday afternoon to hear a controversial lecture by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology Richard Lindzen. Colgate Professor of Political Science, Presidential Scholar and Director of the Center for Freedom and Western Civilization Robert Kraynak, who introduced Lindzen, explained that the original title of the lecture had been "Global Warming: Science and Moral Responsibility" but that he and Lindzen had come up with a better one: "Global Warming: Who's to Blame, Human Activities or Natural Causes?" (Colgate Maroon-News)

"Speaker slams global warming" - "Researcher argues warming is due to cyclical heating and cooling." (Stanford Daily)

Moralistic Neo-Colonialism - Every now and again one reads something that just makes one’s blood boil. There are phrases in this comment by Willy De Backer, ‘A moral right to help kill the planet? The climate change-poverty conundrum’ (3E Intelligence, November 14), which encapsulate everything I loathe about Northern neo-colonial arrogance and ‘The Great Global Warming Scare’: (Global Warming Politics)

In a nut shell rather than a nut job: "Most people don't feel that global warming will affect them - but they are wrong" - "The study found that poorer people are less concerned about climate change than wealthier people – not surprisingly, as, for them, the daily imperatives of poverty, a lack of jobs and poor service delivery leading to disgraceful living conditions dominate their lives." (TNS Research Surveys)

Pretty much says it all really. Only wealthy ecochondriacs can afford the time and effort to fabricate 'problems' like gorebull warming while the impoverished, who will suffer most from wealthy-world hysteria, must devote their effort to real-world considerations. Perhaps that's why they reckon you can't buy happiness...

Stop, for a moment, and consider:

• people inhabit regions on Earth where temperatures regularly reach -40 °C to those where temperatures regularly exceed +50 °C. Critters inhabit more extreme regions.
• people live and work in regions where the annual temperature range exceeds 50 °C. Critters tolerate wider ranges.
• people fly from sub-zero winters to Mediterranean or tropical holidays -- where they toast themselves in the sunshine. Birds and mammals migrate from polar to tropical regions and back again every year.
• people and animals then tolerate huge changes in temperature and generally seek warmth.

These things you can see and, if you can afford, probably do. Now, why are you frightened of the unfortunately slight possibility you won't have to spend so much keeping warm?

Peiser Versus Norgaard  - So now, back to gloom and doom, but, somewhat encouragingly, to another interesting debate on the BBC Online News Website, this time with respect to climate catastrophism. (Global Warming Politics)

"Understanding the climate ostrich" - "Why do people find it hard to accept the increasingly firm messages that climate change is a real and significant threat to livelihoods? Here, a sociologist unravels some of the issues that may lie behind climate scepticism." (Kari Marie Norgaard, BBC)

"Existential risk and democratic peace" - "Has climate change become a stark catastrophist vision of global doom? Here, a social anthropologist argues that it is something to be managed, not scared of." (Benny Peiser, BBC)

"Theory On Thin Ice" - "Global warming alarmists have made a big deal out of North Pole ice melting and polar bears suffering due to climate change. Before they mouth off again, they should look at a new NASA study." (IBD)

"Getting the message, at last" - "Congress is now taking climate change fairly seriously." (The Economist)

And how stupid and out of step with the populace is that? Check out The Economist's latest poll and note that The Economy is the screaming frontrunner in people's concerns (p4, "Which of these is the most important issue for you?"), followed by Iraq, Immigration, Terrorism and Health Care while, languishing far down the list is "Global Warming" at just 3%, behind Education, Social Security, Environment, Gay Rights and Housing Costs and just edging out Unemployment (2%) and Gun Control (1%).

"A climate conference" - "Czech President Václav Klaus (whose book "Blue not Green Planet" was just published in German) and Petr Mach, the boss of the libertarian CEP think tank, have organized a pretty cool climate conference in Prague, showing seven scholars who can be counted as climate skeptics." (The Reference Frame)

"Climate theory like Da Vinci Code, says sceptic" - "Investing in sea and flood defences is a more sensible reaction to possible global warming than trying to cool the planet, a former British Cabinet minister told the Business Roundtable in Auckland yesterday." (New Zealand Herald)

"VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: Who cares about cause? Something must be done!" - "For more than a thousand years, Christian doctrine had prescribed harsh punishment for anyone who made a false accusation of witchcraft. Since for obvious reasons it was pretty hard to actually prove your neighbor had made your cow go dry by hexing it with the evil eye, or that she flew around at night on a broomstick, this kept false accusations to a minimum.

But in the 1480s the interestingly named Pope Innocent III changed all that with his bull "Summis Desideratis"; a couple of German shopkeepers published their Malleus Maleficarum -- the "Hammer of Witches" -- and the witch-hunts were on." (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

"Another College Paper Shocker: Global Warming is Killing Us…Not!" - "The more college newspapers I look at, the more I wonder if Nobel Laureate Al Gore and his global warming sycophants in the press have overplayed their climate alarmism.

First there was an editorial in the Harvard Crimson bashing Gore, then a positive article at the Stanford Daily concerning a luncheon address by global warming skeptic S. Fred Singer, followed by a marvelous piece at San Diego State's The Daily Aztec seemingly mocking those that believe we're all going to die because temperatures are rising." (News Busters)

You couldn't make this stuff up: "Hurricane Katrina Boosted Greenhouse Gases - Report" - "WASHINGTON - Hurricane Katrina left a big "carbon footprint" along the US Gulf Coast, where the destruction of large trees cut into the amount of greenhouse gases the area can absorb, researchers reported on Thursday." (Reuters)

"Cloudy Days on the Global Warming Front" - "Advocates of anthropogenic global warming want you to believe that the science is settled and there is nothing left to debate. But this is the opposite of the truth; in fact, climate science is in its infancy and virtually every proposition relating to it is controversial." (Power Line News)

"Gore's Deceptive Rolling Stone Interview" - "In case any doubt remains as to who deserves the title of undisputed Globaloney Champion of the World, Al Gore's Rolling Stone interview should put the question to rest." (Marc Sheppard, American Thinker)

"Emission impossible: Why Hollywood is one of the worst polluters" - "Hollywood is very good at sanctimonious environmental-disaster movies like The Day After Tomorrow. But, says Kaleem Aftab, it is one of the worst polluters." (London Independent)

No limit to human gullibility? "Students try to make internet carbon neutral" - "Two students have launched an ambitious attempt to make the internet carbon neutral.

Tim Sullivan and Alex Wissner-Gross are offering a free device to measure the carbon footprint of a website or even a blog.

It works by measuring the time spent on the site and the amount of energy used which can then be offset." (London Telegraph)

What next in the descent to ecotheology and the carbophobic society? Forgive me Al, for I have blogged. It has been two days since my last offset...

"The Great Pacific Climate Shift II?" - "Back in 1977, the Pacific Ocean underwent a major transformation that was called the Great Pacific Climate Shift. Suddenly warm water replaced cold water that had dominated for most of the prior three decades near the west coast of North America and along the equatorial eastern Pacific. In 1997, researchers at the University of Washington in a paper in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society discovered a multidecadal oscillation in Pacific sea surface temperature and pressure while trying to explain decadal changes in salmon fishery production. They called it the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. They noted that major shift that had taken place in 1977 was a change in the PDO from what they termed the cold phase to the warm phase." (Joseph D’Aleo, CCM)

"Science vs. Expert Opinion: Did the Bush Administration Really Censor Science?" - "Once again, the press is in a tizzy over the Bush Administration’s “censoring of science.” The case against the Bush Administration this time is that it edited testimony presented to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) by Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The testimony, originally 14 pages, was cut to six.

However, the narrative of a scientific cover-up is overwrought to say the least. The hearing was on the potential impact of global warming on human health, an exercise in speculation. It appears, if press accounts are correct, that what the Bush Administration cut from the director’s testimony was more speculation than settled science.

When judging scientific statements, one must distinguish between statements of what has happened or is happening and those about what might happen in the future. The first is derived from observation, an important component of the scientific method. The second is derived from expert opinion, a far less reliable source of knowledge, and one only tenuously linked to actual science." (Paul Georgia, CSPP)

"Worldwide atmospheric measurements will determine the role of atmospheric fine particles" - "The Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki, Finland, will host the first annual meeting of the European Integrated Project on Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality Interactions, EUCAARI, headed by Academy Professor Markku Kulmala, on 19–22 November 2007. The purpose of EUCAARI is to significantly improve current knowledge of the impact of fine particles in the atmosphere on climate and air quality. The first year of the project was dedicated to developing state-of-the-art aerosol measuring equipment, establishing a global network of measuring stations, and planning. The measuring period, beginning next spring, will collect data on European air through both ground-based and airborne measurements simultaneously." (University of Helsinki)

Well, it will provide more data, at least. Unfortunately, simply gathering the data doesn't mean we'll understand it or draw the correct conclusions from what we see.

Audio comment: "World greenhouse gas emissions rising faster" - "WORLD greenhouse gas emissions are rising faster and impacts on oceans and the atmosphere are worse than scientists thought." (Courier-Mail)

Another one: "Napolitano: Global warming real, caused by humans" - "Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano says global warming is a real threat being caused by "human activities" and could result in Dust Bowl-type droughts in Western states.

Napolitano spoke about climate change and energy issues Wednesday testifying before the U.S. House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

"Scientific evidence makes clear that global warming is real and that human activities are contributing significantly to the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that is warming our planet," said Napolitano in her testimony." (Phoenix Business Journal)

"Media, Global Warming and Junkscience" - "I am always amazed that in a nation of high technology and science the media are so spectacularly and relentlessly ignorant of the scientific processes. Worse many interest groups exploit this to their own advantage and agendas. Over the years the media have lost their curiosity and the willingness to do their own homework." (Michael R. Fox, Hawaii Reporter)

"Dire climate warning linked to China and India" - "ROME: The average global temperature will rise to a devastating level by 2030 if China and India do not begin curbing energy use and carbon emissions immediately, officials of the International Energy Agency predicted Wednesday." (Elisabeth Rosenthal, IHT)

"Report warns US emissions could soar" - "Sobering research from MIT suggests that far from tackling climate change, technological advances could result in higher greenhouse gas emissions" (BusinessGreen)

"Boxer's Rejection of More Time for Climate Bill Rings False" - "WASHINGTON, DC - At today's Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, several Senators called for more time to review and analyze the economic impacts of the Lieberman-Warner global warming cap-and-trade bill. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the chair of EPW, rejected such calls saying no more time or analysis was needed to mark up the bill (S.2191). (EPW)

"Act now on climate change, says UN official" - "The United Nations' top climate change official warned yesterday that the world was in "deep trouble" if it failed to reach agreement at next month's UN ministerial conference in Bali." (The Guardian)

Get a life, says real world.

"Kyoto Protocol 'Much Ado About Nothing' - Enel CEO" - "ROME - The Kyoto Protocol that obliges rich countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions is not efficient, the chief executive of Italy's biggest utility Enel said on Thursday, urging all nations to join in fighting global warming." (Reuters)

No? Duh! Not that it's really a problem since gorebull warming is also much ado about nothing.

"Coffee, tea… eco-guilt?" - "Virgin Atlantic's attempt to shame its passengers into onboard eco-penance is the latest flight of fancy from a guilt-ridden aviation industry." (Nathalie Rothschild, sp!ked)

<chuckle> "OPEC told to tackle climate change" - "RIYADH: OPEC oil exporters must take climate change seriously at their summit meeting this week, ahead of a key meeting to tackle global warming in Bali next month, a leading UN climate change official said on Thursday.

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, told an OPEC forum in the Saudi capital he hoped the exporter group’s leaders would discuss proposals for funding research into reducing levels of carbon in the atmosphere.

“I encourage OPEC to contribute to climate change abatement and to play an important role in history to drive forward sound solutions to a global problem,” he said, adding “They should continue to take climate change seriously.” He was speaking of heads of state from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, who are due to meet in Riyadh on Saturday and Sunday.

OPEC includes many of the world’s top oil producers, whose economies are booming as energy prices soar to record levels." (Reuters)

"Canada Regulator Says Oil Sands Rush May Slow" - "CALGARY, Alberta - Rising costs will temper production growth from Canada's vast oil sands, the country's national energy regulator forecast on Thursday, as it detailed its expectations for Canadian energy production over the next two decades." (Reuters)

"Coal power: Still going strong" - "Efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions have yet to dent enthusiasm for coal." (The Economist)

"Court Rejects Fuel Standards on Trucks" - "A federal appeals court today said that new fuel-economy standards for light trucks, including S.U.V.’s, didn’t thoroughly assess the impact of greenhouse gases." (New York Times) Text of the Decision (pdf)

"German Carmakers Lag France, Italy in CO2 Cuts- Group" - "STRASBOURG, France - Average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new cars made by German manufacturers rose in 2006, while French and Italian producers cut pollution from their vehicles, data showed on Thursday." (Reuters)

"Greenpeace Blocks Shipment of Indonesian Palm Oil" - "JAKARTA - Greenpeace has blocked a tanker carrying more than 30,000 tonnes of palm oil from leaving an Indonesian port to protest against forest destruction blamed on plantations, the environmental group said on Thursday." (Reuters)

But there wouldn't be the same demand for palm oil if it were not for groups like... greenpeace.

"China Leads Weather Control Race" - "Not content to push the edge in cloning, architecture and geological engineering, China's also leaving the rest of the world behind when it comes to controlling the weather." (Wired)

Oh boy... "Ozone hole shrinking - scientists" - "THE ozone layer is on track to a full recovery, with the latest sets of satellite images showing the hole is shrinking, scientists say." (AAP)

How they figure that is a mystery since it was never broken to start with.

Just burn it: "Recycling plastic is not as green as you think" - "FOR many, plastic is one of humanity's greatest sins against the environment, a wrong for which only recycling can atone. In the past five years, recycling rates have soared as greater awareness of the harm plastic causes has spread." (The Scotsman)

Uh-oh! Here's another one: "Obesity paradox seen in people with heart disease" - "NEW YORK - The "obesity paradox" -- an unexpected decrease in illness and death with increasing body weight or BMI, which has been described in people with heart failure and in patients having angioplasty -- exists in people with high blood pressure and diseased heart arteries as well, new study findings show.

In the study, researchers found that overweight and obese adults with high blood pressure and coronary artery disease had a lower risk of heart attack, stroke or death, compared with their normal-weight counterparts." (Reuters Health)

"British parents are calling for an end to “crazy” school curriculums" - "The top private schools in Britain, driven by parents’ concerns, are fighting back and boycotting the government’s national curriculum of health and social causes, including childhood obesity, that’s taking up a quarter of school time. Instead, they’re returning to educating children the core disciplines like language, math, science and history." (Junkfood Science)

"Bad bad food education" - "Last year, to combat childhood obesity British school cafeterias revamped to “healthy” foods and the government removed “fattening” foods. The London Times was reporting that schools were monitoring each child’s food intake, using computers, and including dietary assessments on children’s report cards; and mothers were finding the lunches they’d packed for their kids inspected and any offending cookies removed. Kids responded by boycotting the school canteen and turned to food from vendors outside the school wall. Some were joking that the only way to get kids to abide by the government’s rigid new ideas of healthy eating would be to lock them up and force them to eat what government officials say.

It’s happened." (Junkfood Science)

"Is this a “healthy” lifestyle?" - "Lifestyles Month. Among its efforts to build healthy families and teach parents about nutrition and physical activity, the PTA is distributing PTA Healthy Lifestyles: A Parent's Guide. It’s described as a parents’ manual for “doing the right things to cultivate lifelong healthy habits” in their children. See if you agree." (Junkfood Science)

November 15, 2007

"Sun and global warming: A cosmic connection?" - "In February 2007, depending on what newspaper you read, you might have seen an article detailing a "controversial new theory" of global warming.

The idea was that variations in cosmic rays penetrating the Earth's atmosphere would change the amount of cloud cover, in turn changing our planet's reflectivity, and so the temperature at its surface.

This, it was said, could be the reason why temperatures have been seen to be varying so much over the Earth's history, and why they are rising now." (Richard Black, BBC)

Maybe (and snazzy graphic on the "web of theory" with this piece Richard, by the way, our compliments to the art department). We have discussed this cosmic ray effect before, here, so we won't go into detail again. A few critical points, however:

Buried within this piece is a notation from Giles Harrison regarding change in cloud cover being "small but significant" at 2%. Big note here -- this equates to an increase in surface warming of 1.2 Wm^-2 from incident radiation, which, in turn, equates to two-thirds of the IPCC's estimated total net radiative forcing from human activities from 1750-2005. We would have to agree that is "significant" (suit yourself whether that means anthropogenic forcing is overestimated, climate sensitivity is or some mixture of the two). We do find the Svensmark Effect hypothesis attractive in that it does go much closer to explaining both positive and negative feedback mechanisms for solar amplification.

The biggest caveat, however, is that no one has proffered any mechanism by which additional greenhouse gases could inhibit atmospheric motion (convective towers carrying latent and sensible heat upwards and large scale circulation carrying it both upwards and polewards). There is a very simple piece on thermals here and a cool thermal bubble simulation here. The unaddressed disparity is that it takes a great deal of additional carbon dioxide to increase atmospheric temperature noticeably while it takes a trivial increase in atmospheric motion to circumvent that effect. The bottom line is that until someone comes up with a plausible mechanism by which greenhouse gases can (and will) prevent increase in convective towers carrying latent and sensible heat beyond the point at which the atmosphere's infrared optical depth is 1 (beyond which it radiates to space) then we really have no reason to suspect we can significantly increase net greenhouse effect, do we?

"Is there a consensus among skeptics?" - "Richard Black at BBC asks the question whether the climate skeptics have unified opinions about detailed questions about the climate.

I think that the correct answer is obviously "No". But unlike Richard Black, I don't think that it is a disadvantage or counter-argument of any kind. The differences between the skeptics pretty much reflect the amount of uncertainty about individual questions. If Richard Black or someone else believes that those 100% unified committees of communist parties or the unified body of believers in Al Qaeda make the opinions of these groups more likely, I beg to differ.

Not only skeptics have different opinions about detailed questions but individual skeptics are uncertain about individual questions themselves." (The Reference Frame)

"A Scientific Basis for Doubting Man-made Global Warming" - "The scientific basis for challenging the theory of man-made global warming is large and expanding. Entire books are being written summarizing the many weaknesses. However, for an excellent 12 page summary of some of these weaknesses a recent paper by Willie Soon, Art Robinson, and Noah Robinson, (SRR) is difficult to match." (Michael R. Fox, Hawaii Reporter)

Oh boy... "UN panel in 'difficult' debate over global warming paper" - "VALENCIA, Spain — UN climate experts wrangled here Tuesday over a landmark document on global warming amid criticism that the draft report was bland and some of its findings out of date.

One negotiator described the talks among the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as "difficult".

The source said there had been by sharp exchanges over what the document should include and whether it should reflect findings published after a cut-off date for new material.

The document, to be published on Saturday, will distil the IPCC's 2,500-page, three-volume assessment on climate change -- issued earlier this year -- into a 25-page synthesis for policymakers.

Over the next five years, the report is to function as an informed, neutral guide for decision-makers who face policy choices on climate change." (AFP)

... what they really need to do is watch what the sun does. The November sunspot count is currently, um... zero, isn't it? If cycle 24 turns out quiet as some contend then the estimated warming of the 20^th Century will not be retained for long and a climate cooling is not a fun prospect.

Well might he wonder: "Bloomfield man concerned about the sun's future" - "Each morning I turn on my computer and check to see how the sun is doing. Lately I am greeted with the message "The sun is blank - no sunspots."

We are at the verge of the next sunspot cycle, solar cycle 24. How intense will this cycle be? Why is this question important? Because the sun is a major force controlling natural climate change on Earth." (Daily World)

"Climate panel argues over words and phrases in key draft document" - "VALENCIA, Spain: A U.N. climate change conference argued over words and phrases Wednesday in drafting a scientific report that will guide governments for years to come on their global warming policies.

One dispute involving the U.S. delegation centered on whether human activity could lead to "abrupt or irreversible" effects on the Earth's climate, said participants in the meeting.

Another focused on India's concerns over "adaptation" to global warming, a notion that implies greater financial aid to developing countries, participants said on condition of anonymity since the talks were confidential.

They were just two of many unresolved issues raised during the third day of talks among delegations from more than 140 countries, advised by the scientists who drew up the text.

Negotiators described the talks as moving "very slowly." Disputes were moved into small working groups to expedite their resolution." (Associated Press)

"Skeptics of global warming address legislative committee" - "FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A state legislative committee heard from skeptics Wednesday seeking to debunk the notion that global warming is a looming threat to the planet.

Many people are familiar with the theory that humans are responsible for global warming that "Hollywood and the news media" have put out, said state Rep. Jim Gooch, D-Providence. Not so much with the opposing view point, he said.

"Is this science or hysteria? Is this an environmental fad or do the scaremongers stand to profit from the millions of dollars that are involved?" said Gooch, who is vice president of a steel company.

But as lawmakers prepare to deal with energy issues that could come before the General Assembly, it was important to hear the other side, Gooch said." (Associated Press)

"Climate change to take just years" - "AUSTRALIANS will begin to see the stark effects of climate change within the next few years, not the next decades, a leading Australian scientist has warned.

Graeme Pearman, the former head of CSIRO's atmospheric research unit, yesterday released a report showing that evidence of global warming has dramatically increased in the past 12 months." (Sydney Morning Herald)

Hmm... Pearman has always been somewhat excitable and completely unrealistic about AGW, obviously that hasn't changed. What will he claim as providing "a sign" over the next year or so, we wonder, given that La Niña is here and this typically results in drought-breaking rains, an up tick in tropical cyclone activity and generally cooler conditions both in Australia and globally. Wouldn't be trying to stampede the herd before these expectations become reality, would you Graeme?

"RESORT OWNERS AFFECTED" - “How Do You Ski if There Is No Snow?” asks the New York Times, warning that “resort owners and tour operators will be directly and strongly affected by climate change.” The question turns out to be largely hypothetical:

Resorts in both Europe and North America are opening ahead of schedule thanks to heavy snowfall ...

More than 80 cm of fresh snow in Austria’s Kitzbuhel has prompted a historically early opening date of Saturday November 10th, while Lech received 20 cm of the white stuff on Wednesday November 7th and is all set to open for ski breaks on December 1st.

It’s less a matter of “how do you ski” than “where would you like to ski”:

Heavy snowfalls over the past week — with more forecast for the next few days — mean that dozens of resorts are now enjoying their best start to the season in decades ...

Much of the French, Swiss and Italian Alps saw their first snow at the weekend. Verbier is reported to have half a metre of fresh powder snow. Resorts in Sweden and Germany have also opened.

Similar deal in Australia earlier this year. It’s probably warm snow. (Tim Blair)

"Flocks of 'lost' auks spark climate change fears" - "Record-breaking sightings of vast flocks of little auks in Britain have prompted new concerns over the impact of climate change on the migration patterns of bird species.

The record for the size of flock has been broken twice in four days, according to the National Trust, with 18,000 of the tiny black-and-white seabirds recorded around the Farne Islands off Northumberland last week – 7,000 more than the previous record set off Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire, in 1995.

But even this vast gathering was dwarfed by the flock spotted there on Sunday when 29,000 little auks were seen.

Thousands of the birds were recorded battling last week's gales from watchpointss along the north-east coast but little auks have been seen as far south as East Sussex and Kent, hundreds of miles south of their normal territories.

The "mass displacement" of the flocks may show the unpredictable effects that climate change will have on wildlife with, in this case, a traditionally cold weather bird moving in to warmer climes, most likely in search of food. But they may simply have been blown off course by the gales that caused last week's tidal surge off East Anglia." (London Telegraph)

Sigh... "Greenhouse gases: we are among worst polluters" - "AUSTRALIA'S contribution to global warming may be much greater than first thought. New research shows our power stations are the world's highest per capita producers of carbon dioxide." (Sydney Morning Herald)

... again with the essential trace gas equals atmospheric pollution nonsense.

"EU Commissioner speaks out on 'investment in knowledge'" - "Stavros Dimas, Member of the European Commission, responsible for environment spoke on the subject of Investing in knowledge: Investing in the future at the Word Science Forum on 10th November 2007. This is what he said:

'As the theme of this World Science Forum tells us, investment in knowledge is investment in the future.

There can be few better examples to illustrate the truth of this than the remarkable Fourth Assessment Report produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change with the involvement of more than 1000 leading scientists from around the world. The award of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC and to Al Gore reflects the growing recognition that climate change will pose a serious threat to international stability in the medium to long term if left unchecked.

The Fourth Assessment Report gives us knowledge with which we can quite literally shape the future of this planet.'" (Public Technology)

AR4 gives us knowledge? Get a life! At best AR4 tones down a few of the worst excesses of a computer game-driven scare.

"CBO Warns that Cap-And-Trade Approach Could Create ‘Windfall' Profits & Harm Poor" - "The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) director, Peter Orszag, testified before the House of Representatives on November 1 and cautioned that giving emission allowances away to companies under a cap-and-trade system "could create 'windfall' profits for those firms."

The CBO also warned that "price increases would disproportionately affect people at the lower end of the income scale" and said a tax on emissions "is generally the more efficient approach" than a cap-and-trade system." (EPW)

"Bangladesh delta is key buffer against global warming, says study" - "The Bay of Bengal is an unexpected weapon against global warming as it helps store vast quantities of terrestrial carbon brought down by the Ganges-Brahmaputra river systems, a study says.

Rivers bring down to the sea carbon in the form of soil and vegetal debris, washed down from slopes, fields and banks. But little is known about what happens to this carbon-rich sediment once it reaches the river's mouth.

Some research -- conducted in the churning waters of the Amazon basin -- has suggested that 70 percent of this river-borne organic carbon returns to the atmosphere as gas, thus adding to the greenhouse effect from fossil fuels.

But research published on Thursday in the British science journal Nature says the picture is more complex." (AFP)

"Boxer agrees to slow down global warming legislation" - "WASHINGTON - Sen. Barbara Boxer agreed on Tuesday to take more time to work through complex global warming legislation amid concerns over the possible economic impact of mandating sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions." (Mercury News)

Did the Bush Administration Really Censor Science? (Paul Georgia, Cooler Heads Blog)

Here's a new one for the list: "Uganda: Climate Change Increases Early Marriages - Report" - "CLIMATE change has been blamed for increasing social problems such as early marriages, a report has stated." (New Vision)

"China Power Plant Emissions to Rise 60 Pct by 2017" - "WASHINGTON - Climate-warming emissions from China's power plants -- already among the world's worst greenhouse polluters -- will rise by some 60 percent in the next decade, a new global database showed on Wednesday." (Reuters)

"India needs to check carbon emissions: International Energy Agency" - "NEW DELHI: India will become the third largest carbon-dioxide emitter by 2015 after China and the United States if it does not step up efforts to curb emissions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday.

Presently, India is the sixth largest green house gas emitter in the world." (Times of India)

"Energy: World's energy demand set to double by 2050" - "Global energy demand is set to double by 2050 according to a study presented by the World Energy Council (WEC) at the 20th World Energy Congress on Monday in the Italian capital, Rome." (AKI)

"Welcome to a world of runaway energy demand" - “The increase in China’s energy demand between 2002 and 2005 was equivalent to Japan’s current annual energy use.” This nugget of information, buried in the International Energy Agency’s latest World Energy Outlook, tells one almost all one needs to know about what is happening to the world’s energy economy." (Martin Wolf, Financial Times)

"Emphasis On Energies Of Future Threatens The Supplies Of Today" - "With oil prices soaring to record highs, currently over $90 per barrel, and Americans increasingly feeling the impact, Congress can choose to magnify the problem or be part of the solution.

In response to skyrocketing energy prices, caused largely by greater worldwide demand and static supply, new energy legislation passed in each house of Congress is, in fact, bereft of real energy. It would jeopardize our national security, threaten our economic stability, and indeed raise the very obstacles to which Yergin alludes.

The only way to address our national crisis is to increase the supply of energy. However, legislation proposed in Congress would actually lead to reductions in energy supply and target the oil and gas industry with $16 billion in new taxes.

The assumption is that American consumers will not be affected by increased corporate taxes. In reality, punitive tax hikes will lower exploration and production and increase prices. Therefore, Congress' "solution" will lead us into a greater crisis." (IBD)

"British Energy set for new nuclear plants" - "Bill Coley, the chief executive of British Energy, expects to announce by the end of the year the industrial partners with whom he will bid to build two of the UK's next generation of nuclear power plants.

The head of the country's largest electricity provider gave his bullish outlook on the same day that investors again punished the company for its inability to provide any clarity on when four of its oft-troubled nuclear reactors – shut down in recent weeks due to corrosion on the boilers – will come back on line. "We have been in discussion with more than 10 entities about possible partnerships, and we'll be able to give an indication of the nature of one, possibly two, by next month," he said." (London Independent)

Happy Birthday Junkfood Science! "A cupcake for each of you" - "It’s Junkfood Science’s first birthday. While I can only share a cyber-cupcake with each of you in celebration, it comes with thanks and a note to let you know how terrific you all are! Readers have grown in numbers, without hit gimmicks or paid media connections, to nearly 1 million. We’re mere days away to the millionth reader." (Junkfood Science)

"Math phobia — Is that evidence for real?" - "One of the most important scientific and medical research discussions in recent history has been taking place in the British Medical Journal this year. Yet, despite how much the information could help consumers, it has received no media attention. The topic: the misuse and misinterpretation of studies and the adoption of new, more reliable criteria for showing true results. Far too many studies are acted upon and reacted to — by public health officials, medical practitioners and consumers — when credible evidence has not been demonstrated." (Junkfood Science)

"Greenwashing – Consumers getting wise" - "Huge publicity has accompanied the green pledges of some major firms. But has all the fanfare impressed consumers?" (EthicalCorp.)

Well it shouldn't since 'green' pledges simply mask cost increases and do absolutely zip for the planet (not companies' role anyway) or shareholders. Reducing profits is actually detrimental to both consumers and the environment and must be avoided.

"Africa: Continent Warms Up to Biotechnology" - "Much of the debate about biotechnology in Africa assumes that African countries are only being asked to accept products developed elsewhere. To the contrary, Freedom to Innovate: Biotechnology in Africa's Development shows that extensive biotechnology research is under way in Africa.

Africa's governments, its industry and its research institutions are well aware of the potential that agricultural biotechnology holds if applied in other ways and to indigenous crops." (Business Daily)

November 14, 2007

"Fighting a Disease of Logistics, He Means Business" - "WHEN Lance Laifer, a hedge fund manager in New Jersey and former Internet entrepreneur, started researching malaria two and a half years ago, a prominent professor with a medical background told him that doctors were not drawn to malaria research because it was a disease of logistics. “Doctors don’t do logistics,” Mr. Laifer recalls that he said. “Business does logistics.”

So started Mr. Laifer’s journey to make malaria — a treatable and preventable disease that kills 3,000 children a day in Africa — a screaming priority for hedge funds, businesses, governments and individuals." (New York Times)

Christy Versus Parry - At last, the BBC Online News Website is providing some belated balance in the ‘global warming’ debate.

Today, it hosts two contrasting viewpoints on the work of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). I recommend that you read them both (makes a change from worrying about spoofs). (Global Warming Politics)

No consensus on IPCC's level of ignorance (John Christy, BBC)

The IPCC: As good as it gets (Martin Parry, BBC)

EDITORIAL: IPCC: THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN? - During the last decade, climate experts and government officials from more than 100 countries have unanimously agreed the key findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC’s analysis, its review of scientific literature and its predictions have been carefully scrutinised by governments and generally accepted. The unanimous political support the IPCC has obtained from the international community represents a comprehensive consensus on the science and economics of climate change.

Despite this globally sanctioned agreement, there have been serious reservations about the way the IPCC works and how it produces its conclusions. Two years ago, the Economic Affairs Committee of Britain’s House of Lords concluded that there are concerns about the objectivity of the IPCC process, and the influence of political considerations in its findings." (Benny Peiser, Energy and Environment)

"Climate change panel esteemed but flawed" - "VALENCIA, Spain - They are seen as the gurus of global warming, and their reports are accepted almost as the gospel of climate science. Esteem for the panel of scientists was immortalized when it shared this year's Nobel Peace prize.

But experts and the scientists themselves acknowledge the reports are conservative and have a poor track record of predictions.

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meets in this Mediterranean coastal city to finish its fourth report in two decades, it must decide whether it will produce a fifth.

"Next year would complete 20 years of the IPCC," said chairman Rajendra Pachauri. "That clearly is a point where we should carry out deep and detailed introspection on what we have achieved, what we could have achieved further, and how we might be able to ensure achievement in the future." (Associated Press)

The most useful thing they could do for people and the planet is disband but we can't see any numbers getting off the gravy train anytime soon.

"Irving C. Sheldon Jr.: Science vs politics: Challenging the global-warming hysteria" - "LAST MONTH, Prof. Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology spoke to the 350 students at St. Marks School on the science of global warming." (Providence Journal)

"Climate Change Threatens Human Rights - Small Island States" - "MALE - Representatives of 26 of the world's small island states met in the Maldives capital Male on Tuesday to draft a resolution identifying climate change as a threat to human rights.

The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), concerned about rising sea levels, wants to present the resolution at a UN climate change conference in Bali next month.

"It is time to put people back at the heart of climate change diplomacy," Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom told the conference." (Reuters)

That last part is easy -- climate change hysteria is misanthropy in a 'green' cloak, can the crap about catastrophic warming and people everywhere benefit immediately.

"The High Cost of the Global Warming Scam" - "Coleman is the latest expert to declare that global warming is a hoax, yet its advocates in Congress and among Democratic candidates for their party's presidential nomination are promising to saddle the American people with laws designed to stop something that is not happening: laws that will have many of us in the poor house.

Says astronomer Dr. Ian Wilson after reviewing a new study: “Heat Capacity, Time Constant, and Sensitivity of Earth’s Climate System,” authored by Brookhaven National Lab scientist Stephen Schwartz: “Anthropogenic [man-made] global warming bites the dust.” Another scientist said the study overturned “in one fell swoop” the climate fears promoted by the United Nations and former Vice President Al Gore.

“Effectively, this [new study] means that the global economy will spend trillions of dollars trying to avoid a warming of [about] 1 kelvin by 2100 A.D.” Dr. Wilson wrote in a note to the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee in August.

Wilson, a former operations astronomer at the Hubble Space Telescope Institute in Baltimore , was referring to the trillions of dollars that would be spent under such international global warming treaties like the Kyoto Protocol.

If the global warming fanatics have their way, you'll be paying a lot to finance a hoax, a scam, and a covert scheme to impose socialism on the U.S. and the rest of the world." (Phil Brennan, NewsMax)

Lookout! CO₂ good for plants! "Changing face of autumn as pollution keeps leaves green" - "Pollution from cars and power stations is changing the face of autumn, according to research by British scientists.

Leaves are turning brown later in the year than they once did because of rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, the new study from researchers at the University of Southampton found.

The increase in CO2 levels allows leaves to continue for longer the process of photosynthesis – where they use CO2, water, and sunlight to produce nutrients and oxygen. This allows leaves to delay when they start to change colour and, eventually, fall.

Over the past 30 years, this ageing process, known as autumnal senescence, has got later in Europe by between 1.2 and 1.8 days per decade. It is paralleled by the earlier appearance of spring, with buds bursting on oak trees, for example, up to 10 days earlier than they once did.

Until now it has been thought that both phenomena were triggered by rising temperatures. While it has already been established that there is a strong correlation between higher temperatures and earlier springs, analysis of autumnal senescence in 14 European countries shows there is only a weak correlation between temperature trends and the timing of the changes in leaves' colour and their fall. The new research shows it is the increasing CO2 which is slowing down the trees' ageing processes." (London Independent)

Do you suppose The Indy even noticed their catastrophic 'pollution' piece is actually about reduced stress and increased water efficiency of plants in a CO₂-enhanced world? Early senescence is a stress response, a coping mechanism for plants struggling to survive low CO₂ levels since they actually evolved to suit much higher levels than today's. Did these guys notice it is not even about temperature? Apparently not, as they cry "pollution!" What an utterly stupid game this has become.

"Weather Channel Founder Discusses Global Warming Myth With Beck" - "As NewsBusters reported last Wednesday, The Weather Channel founder John Coleman published an op-ed at ICECAP in which he called "global warming the greatest scam in history."

Although this was prominently featured at the Drudge Report for almost 36 hours, the major television news media completely ignored Coleman's words with the exception of CNN and Fox News.

Really taking the lead on this matter was CNN Headline News's Glenn Beck who invited Coleman on his program Monday evening to discuss what led him to write this article, and to elaborate on the global warming myth." (News Busters)

Several people have raised this item: "Shrinking ice means Greenland is rising fast" - "Greenland appears to be floating upwards – its landmass is rising up to 4 centimetres each year, scientists reveal.

And the large country's new-found buoyancy is a symptom of Greenland's shrinking ice cap, they add.

"The Earth is elastic and if you put a load on top of it, then the surface will move down; if you remove the load, then the surface will start rising again," explains Shfaqat Khan of the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen.

In the case of Greenland, the "load" is its ice cap, he says." (NewScientist.com news service)

So, what does it mean? Actually, not very much, despite the inevitable gorebull warming spin. To begin with Greenland is not rising, just the southeastern tip is apparently doing so and the reasons are currently unclear. It could be isostatic rebound (IR) but the rate is suspiciously high (the Yellowstone Caldera is rising faster although that is not IR but magma displacement). If it is plastic deformation of the crust then it is more likely to be the result of increased pressure over much of the Greenland Plateau (from ice gains) causing the nearest weak spot in the crust to rise in response. Whatever it is it's far too short a time series to establish a trend and it is certainly not an indicator of loss of the Greenland ice cap.

"What About the Poles?" - "The global warming alarmists are at it again, shrieking about “ice melt at the Poles.”

“The relentless grip of the Arctic Ocean that defied man for centuries is melting away,” warned Doug Struck in the Washington Post. “The sea ice reaches only half as far as it did 50 years ago. In the summer of 2006, it shrank to a record low. This summer, the ice pulled back even more, by an area nearly the size of Alaska.”

NASA’s James Hansen keeps claiming that CO2 is “pushing the climate past its tipping point.”

British banks are sending “volunteers” to the Arctic to see for themselves the loss of sea ice, and to view the “endangered” polar bears—whose numbers have tripled in recent years.

Ho hum. Just another day at the scare factory." (CGFI)

"Centuries of Yellow River Climate" - "According to 1,000s of websites trumpeting the horrors of global warming, we find countless claims that the ongoing build-up of greenhouse gases is causing droughts and floods all over the world. Hardly a week goes by nowadays without a front page news story about some weather or climate calamity occurring somewhere on the planet, and global warming is repeatedly claimed to be the cause. Turn the radio to NPR for an hour or so, and you will certainly be told how the failure of the United States to sign the Kyoto Protocol has caused some disastrous flood or drought." (WCR)

"Mind Games of the Big Green Scare Machine" - "With each passing day, Americans are increasingly behaving as though Al Gore's mantra "the debate [over man-made global warming] is over" were true. Warming folklore is deserving of incredulity as the extreme left's latest armament in its ongoing battle against capitalism and globalization. But instead it has found insinuation into virtually every corner of our culture." (Marc Sheppard, American Thinker)

Whoa! "Global Warming caused fundamentally from a negative consciousness rather than Greenhouse gases" - "Redressing the Global Warming catastrophe, requires humanity to appreciate critically the root cause of Global Warming. Unfortunately, environmental activists and other concerned human beings have absorbed apparent "half-truths" on Global Warming. As a result, human beings who are critically concerned about Global Warming, and who want to save our planet Earth from destruction, do not have the kind off overall appreciation of the Global Warming problem, that is required to do something about it.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his leadership on Global Warming in association with his film "An Inconvenient Truth". The film presented great detail about the mechanistic context between the environment and industrial related human instigation that has brought about Global Warming. However, the problem is that the film has sidetracked humanity's focus on a solution to the Global Warming crisis." (Peter Tremblay, The Canadian)

"SanFran Chronicle: Only The 'Informed' Believe in Global Warming" - "The San Francisco Chronicle decided to pat Californians on the back last week for how much "better informed" Golden Staters are on the supposed dire threat of global warming. With their headline joyously proclaiming, "Californians better informed on global warming threat, poll finds," the SF Chron handed out the party hats, blew their celebratory horns and lined up little Al Gore statuettes to hand out at the awards banquet. And how is it that their poll "found" this startling fact? Why it's because our friends in California believe, man! It's not because Californians are any better informed, that they know all the facts, it's just that they accept Al Gore's claim that the "debate is over" despite any evidence or lack thereof. They really, really believe man." (News Busters)

Um, no... "Climate to create huge job shift" - "The environment and clean energy fields are forecast to become a boom employment area in the coming decades generating millions of jobs in new technologies and greenhouse mitigation activity. This will occur at the same time as jobs are lost in great numbers in industries hit by the impacts of a changing climate." (Carbon Positive)

... climate hysteria will and the result will not be pretty.

"Climate Changes" - "As a U.N. panel presents its fourth and final report on climate change, a key member rejects his Nobel Prize and the founder of the Weather Channel calls its doomsday scenarios a fantasy." (IBD)

Oh... "UN chief flies to Spain as 'messenger' on climate change" - "UN chief Ban Ki-moon was due to arrive in Spain Wednesday after a week-long tour of South America and the Antarctic that he said has made him an informed "messenger" on the problem of climate change." (AFP)

... a week-long holiday was all it took? Why are we paying all these billions for Play Station® climate 'studies' then?

Whoops! "Ban: Warm Antarctica temps show eco-issues" - "U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said warmer temperatures in Antarctica highlight the dangers of climate change and the need to address them." (UPI)

Only the Antarctic Peninsula (not actually within the Antarctic Circle) has shown a warming trend while Antarctica proper has shown a cooling trend since the 1950s, although the satellite measures are only half the decadal trend strength at -0.07 °C/Decade compared with the global trend of +0.14 °C/Decade (which is the result of a step warming observed following the '97/98 El Niño).

"Study sees potential for acceleration in U.S. emissions" - "U.S. greenhouse gas emissions could grow more quickly in the next 50 years than in the previous half-century, even with technological advances and current energy-saving efforts, according to a new study by MIT's Richard Eckaus, the Ford International Professor of Economics, emeritus, and his co-author, Ian Sue Wing (Ph.D. 2001)." (MIT)

Again, so what if they do? What everyone seems to overlook (or bury) in their rush to garner a few of the global warming dollars being merrily thrown around is that each additional CO₂ molecule has less effect than the preceding and this diminishing effect is rendered trivial by physical transport (convective towers carrying latent and sensible heat upwards and large scale circulation carrying it both upwards and polewards). Enhanced greenhouse is the threat that never was.

"IPCC Head Should Practice What He Preaches" - "The International Panel on Climate Change is holding a conference to draft a report on global warming and what can be done to stop it. In an apparent dig at diplomats who might try to influence the report’s conclusions, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, said that scientists were determined to “adhere to standards of quality.”

So the head of the Nobel-winning IPCC wants to cut out the politicians’ influence, eh?

Apparently the U.N.’s top climate official, Yvo de Boer, didn’t get the message. He opened up the conference with a warning to scientists and policy makers responsible for drafting the report. Boer told them that their failure to conclude that climate change threatens the existence of poor peoples would be “criminally irresponsible,” and an attack upon the impoverished of the world.

As of this posting, I am still waiting for Pachauri to reprimand Boer for attempting to influence the proceedings." (William Yeatman, Cooler Heads Blog)

"Brazil Seeks Aid From UN Chief to Protect Amazon" - "BELEM, Brazil - Beneath a towering canopy in the heat of the Amazon jungle, Brazilian Indians and officials urged UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday to rally international support to protect the world's largest rain forest.

"We need the Secretary to help convert international good will into concrete mechanisms that benefit the residents of the Amazon," Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva told Ban under a century-old Samauma tree 30 minutes upriver from Belem, the Amazon's largest city.

Ban was on the last stop of a South American tour that focused on the potential impact of global warming and included a visit to Antarctica last week." (Reuters)

"EU's Barroso calls on developing nations to reduce carbon emissions" - "ROME: Developing countries with booming economies and a growing contribution to climate change must accept flexible and fair commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the European Commission president said Monday.

While countries like China and India cannot be asked to make the same commitments as developed nations, they must still pitch in to global efforts to reduce carbon emissions, Jose Manuel Barroso said in a speech at the World Energy Conference in Rome.

The fight against climate change requires "new, flexible and fair commitments from developing countries, to reduce the greenhouse gas emission intensity of their economic development," said Barroso, the president of the European Union's executive body.

China is about to overtake the United States as the world's top greenhouse-gas producer and Beijing has indicated it will reject binding caps on greenhouse gas emissions at a global meeting next month in Bali, Indonesia." (Associated Press)

"China 'will agree to cut its carbon emissions'" - "China, now the world's biggest greenhouse-gas emitter, will eventually agree to cut its soaring carbon dioxide emissions, one of the country's leading environmentalists forecast yesterday – but only on the basis of a deal with the United States and the rest of the developed world.

The Chinese would be very unlikely to set their own unilateral target for reducing CO2, said Professor C S Kiang, the founding dean of the College of Environmental Science at the University of Beijing. But they would join in the next, post-2012 stage of the Kyoto protocol, the international climate change treaty, and seek to reduce their emissions to a definite figure, as long as this was part of a global agreement that involved all countries acting together – including the US – and the transfer to China of modern energy technology, he said.

However, no agreement was likely at next month's major international meeting in Bali, Indonesia, of the parties to the protocol, which will seek to define the way forward in the treaty, said Professor Kiang, who is in London to give a speech at the Be The Change environmental conference from Thursday to Saturday. The professor, a former atmospheric scientist in the US, has close connections to the Chinese leadership, but was talking to The Independent on a personal basis." (London Independent)

"China: poverty reduction, energy security more important than capping emissions" - "People in the wealthy post-industrialised world tend to forget that for developing nations access to abundant and cheap energy resources is crucial in the fight against poverty. Westerners often hope these countries can somehow skip the polluting fossil fuel path which turned Europe, the US and Japan into prosperous regions, 'leapfrog' into a greener, far more efficient and low carbon future, and fight poverty in the process. But is this is a highly idealistic, very tall order indeed." (BioPact)

"Saudi Arabia seeks positive role in tackling climate change" - "Saudi Arabia insisted yesterday that it wanted to play a positive role in tackling global warming but this should be done with new technology, not 'discriminatory' taxes against oil and petroleum." (The Guardian)

Uh-huh... "No patenting of clean technology, please" - "Rich nations should set individual targets and transfer clean technology while the poor should take the lead in design and have sector-specific benchmarks." (Economic Times)

"Boxer has tricky road on global warming bill" - "WASHINGTON – It became increasingly evident at a hearing today that Sen. Barbara Boxer will have to carefully steer her committee to even get a global warming bill to the Senate floor this year, as senators and witnesses from business, labor and the environment picked apart pieces of the legislation that's now on the table." (Orange County Register)

"Satellite shows regional variation in warming from sun during solar cycle" - "A NASA satellite designed, built and controlled by the University of Colorado at Boulder is expected to help scientists resolve wide-ranging predictions about the coming solar cycle peak in 2012 and its influence on Earth's warming climate, according to the chief scientist on the project." (University of Colorado at Boulder)

"NASA Sees Arctic Ocean Circulation Do an About-Face" - "A team of NASA and university scientists has detected an ongoing reversal in Arctic Ocean circulation triggered by atmospheric circulation changes that vary on decade-long time scales. The results suggest not all the large changes seen in Arctic climate in recent years are a result of long-term trends associated with global warming." (NASA)

Dopey beggar... "The road to enlightenment" - "It is now known that 70% of cuts in emissions will need to be made at local level. Have councils woken up to the challenges ahead?" (John Vidal, The Guardian)

"It is now known," John? By whom, we might ask, since we don't even know the current mean temperature of the planet, nor is there any agreement on precisely what it is we are trying to measure when we do talk about it. Why not 112%, -400%  or 796%? There is no known value in any reduction or adjustment in so-called greenhouse emissions and anyone claiming otherwise is as fullofit as Vidal.

From CO₂ Science this week:
Editorial:
Rising CO2 Concentrations and Global Freshwater Resources: How is the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 content likely to impact humanity's access to critical freshwater resources throughout the world?

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week:
This issue's Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from the Western Liaohe River Basin, Inner Mongolia, Northeastern China. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period Project's database, click here.

Subject Index Summary:
Hurricanes (Global and/or General): What is the relationship between hurricanes and global warming on a planet-wide scale?

Plant Growth Data:
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Peanut, Quaking Aspen, Sugar Kelp, and Tomato.

Journal Reviews:
A Warning Sign of Cooler Times to Come?: Is the earth inching ever closer to another ice age?

The Permafrost History of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: What does it tell us about the nature of today's warmth?

Temperature, Precipitation and Vegetative Productivity on the Tibetan Plateau: How is the vitality of the region's plant life influenced by the two climatic parameters?

Future Rice Yields in India: What can we expect for various possible increases in air temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration?

Microevolutionary Responses to Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment: Do microevolutionary responses in plants enable them to take "enhanced advantage" of the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 content?

Temperature Record of the Week:
This issue's Temperature Record of the Week is from Covington, LA. During the period of most significant greenhouse gas buildup over the past century, i.e., 1930 and onward, Covington's mean annual temperature has cooled by 0.73 degrees Fahrenheit. Not much global warming here! (co2science.org)

"Wind turbines hazardous to birds, bats" - "Wind energy, a fast-growing sector of the U.S. energy industry, is taking a toll on nocturnal wildlife caught in the turbines, officials said." (UPI)

"More Turbulence for Wind Energy" - "A couple of weeks back (10/30/07) I noted that dreams of wind power's unlimited potential was running into the reality: the nightmare of unreliability of the technology (the tendency of wind turbines to breakdown in spectacular — potentially dangerous — fashion). As a result it was no surprise when The Herald of Glasgow, Scotland reported yesterday that three windfarms were being shutdown after one turbine bent in half during heavy winds. They aren't even sure if the turbine was turning or operating at the time. Three entire farms are being shut down while they inspect the other turbines to determine the risk of similar collapse. As I mentioned before, this could the a portent of the future in the U.S.

In addition, further proof that wind power doesn't pay its own way despite generous subsidies and state mandates in the form of renewable portfolio standards comes out of Kansas. It seems that thirteen potential wind farm projects are endangered, get this, because state regulators rejected plans to build two new coal fired power plants in Western Kansas." (Sterling Burnett, Planet Gore)

"EU Parliament Tightens Airline Emissions Rules" - "STRASBOURG, France - All airlines should join the European Union's emissions trading system in 2011 and face tighter pollution caps than first proposed, the European Parliament voted on Tuesday." (Reuters)

"Save planet and car industry, says Jones" - "The trade and investment minister Lord Jones yesterday urged Britain's motor industry to play its part in the battle against climate change and warned that "demonising" carmakers could drive them out of the country." (Mark Milner, The Guardian)

"No More German Biodiesel Plants Likely to be Built" - "HANNOVER - A new round of tax increases planned on German biofuels means no more biodiesel plants are likely to be built in the country, the chairman of German oilseeds industry association UFOP said on Tuesday." (Reuters)

UCS? Who cares? "Alternative fuels may boost pollution: report" - "Some alternative vehicle fuels such as liquid coal can cause more harmful greenhouse gas emissions than polluters such as petrol or diesel, scientists warned in a US study released Tuesday.

"Liquid coal, for example, can produce 80 percent more global warming pollution than gasoline," said the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit environmental group, in a statement introducing its study." (AFP)

"Danson: I Lied, Oceans Didn't Die" - "BEGIN TRANSCRIPT - RUSH: Remember back in 1988 when this program debuted, Ted Danson predicted that we only had ten years to live because the oceans were going to be dead and, if the oceans died, then we would soon follow? He made a big deal out of this, one of the early environmental alarmists, the brilliant oceanologist, Ted Danson. Back in 1993, on my television show, I implored the Drive-By Media to ask Ted Danson where he got his information on the oceans having ten years left." (Rush Limbaugh Show)

"Communism, capitalism, and environment" - "An anonymous Marxist third-world commenter mentioned - incredibly - that he or she thinks that the environmental situation in post-socialist Europe became worse after the fall of communism. I just can't believe that someone would buy such a thing because it is crazier than any propaganda I have heard during communism.

The improvements are manifest and sometimes breathable throughout post-socialist Europe but I will choose the best example, the Czech Republic, for both obvious as well as less obvious reasons." (The Reference Frame)

"Vaccines cut disease deaths by 99 percent-US study" - "WASHINGTON - Vaccines have cut deaths from the diseases they prevent by 99 percent, U.S. government researchers reported on Tuesday.

They looked at the rates of both disease and deaths for 13 illnesses prevented by vaccines, most given in infancy and childhood, and found they have worked as intended.

"The number of cases of most vaccine-preventable diseases is at an all-time low; hospitalizations and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases have also shown striking decreases," the researchers wrote in their report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association." (Reuters)

"It's time for all-out war on malaria" - "Bed-nets are not going to be enough if we're serious about eradicating a disease that kills a million Africans a year." (Paul Driessen, sp!ked)

"Never too young?" - "Yes, this news story is for real. (Although it may be taken from a marketing piece, but what media story isn’t?) Four month old babies are being enrolled in special gyms to “get them in the habit of exercise” as part of efforts to prevent childhood obesity. The gym talks of the need to build their “core” — before they start crawling!" (Junkfood Science)

"Little evidence that binge drinking while pregnant seriously harms fetus" - "There is little substantive evidence that binge drinking while pregnant seriously harms the developing fetus, finds a study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Consistently heavy drinking throughout pregnancy has been associated with birth defects and subsequent neurological problems. But it is not known what impact binge drinking, in the absence of regular heavy drinking, might have. And this drinking pattern is becoming increasingly common, particularly among women, say the authors.

Their findings are based on a comprehensive review of published research on binge drinking and women who were either pregnant or trying to conceive." (BMJ-British Medical Journal)

"Researchers explore how violent video games are exemplary aggression teachers" - "AMES, Iowa – Like other fathers and sons, Douglas Gentile and his father have spent many hours arguing about video games. What makes them different is that Douglas, an Iowa State University assistant professor of psychology, is one of the country's top researchers on the effects of media on children. His father, J. Ronald Gentile, is a leading researcher on effective teaching and a distinguished teaching professor emeritus of educational psychology at the University of Buffalo, State University of New York.

Through their discussions, they realized that video games use the same techniques that really great teachers use.

"That realization prompted us to ask the question, 'Should we therefore be surprised that violent video games could teach aggression to players?'" said Doug Gentile, who is also director of research for the National Institute on Media and the Family, and co-author of the book "Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy" (2007, Oxford University Press).

The Gentiles decided to test that hypothesis. Through a study of nearly 2,500 youths, they found that video games are indeed effective teaching tools. Students who played multiple violent video games actually learned through those games to produce greater hostile actions and aggressive behaviors over a span of six months." (Iowa State University)

"‘Luddite views’ on GM crops waning, says Lord Haskin" - "Food inflation is beginning to worry some governments and it threatens to slow the global economy. That could lead to a rethink on renewable energy policies that are diverting increasing areas of land from food production to energy crops." (The Herald)

November 13, 2007

"Frightened to death: Why it's the scare stories that are the REAL menace" - "Do you remember that day in 1996 when a Tory health minister stood up in the House of Commons to announce that there might after all be a link between BSE, "mad cow disease", and what seemed to be a new form of the human brain disease, CJD?" (Christopher Booker, Daily Mail)

"Climate scepticism: The top 10" - "What are some of the reasons why "climate sceptics" dispute the evidence that human activities such as industrial emissions of greenhouse gases and deforestation are bringing potentially dangerous changes to the Earth's climate?

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finalises its landmark report for 2007, we look at 10 of the arguments most often made against the IPCC consensus, and some of the counter-arguments made by scientists who agree with the IPCC." (BBC)

"What do 'climate sceptics' believe?" - "You might think that you know the answer, having heard, seen and read numerous counter-blasts aimed at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over the course of this year, as the three components of its landmark climate assessment were published.

Despite having reported on climate change for more than a decade, I realised at the beginning of the year that I was not entirely sure." (Richard Black, BBC)

Richard isn't too good at this, is he? There's never any doubt about climate change, that's the normal state of a affairs -- it's "catastrophic anthropogenic global warming" that is a crock.

"Climate Realist, 'GW' Sceptic" - "Richard Black, Environment Correspondent at the BBC News Website, is this week putting his keyboard to the task of ‘Unravelling the sceptics’ (BBC Science/Nature Online News, starting on November 12). Richard asks: “What do ‘climate sceptics’ believe?”

In case Richard’s analysis does not reflect the position of a number of critics, including yours truly, who make a clear distinction between the science of climate change and the grand narrative of ‘global warming’, I thought it might be helpful to spell out my own views on this blog. Putting it simply, I am a climate-change realist, but a passionate ‘global warming’ sceptic." (Global Warming Politics)

"Challenges to Both Left and Right on Global Warming" - "For many years, the battle over what to think and do about human-caused climate change and fossil fuels has been waged mostly as a yelling match between the political and environmental left and the right.

The left says global warming is a real-time crisis requiring swift curbs on smokestack and tailpipe gases that trap heat, and that big oil, big coal and antiregulatory conservatives are trashing the planet.

The right says global warming is somewhere between a hoax and a minor irritant, and argues that liberals’ thirst for top-down regulations will drive American wealth to developing countries and turn off the fossil-fueled engine powering the economy." (Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times)

Andy doesn't get it either -- those of us who bother with the real world and are concerned with people will not accept moves to limit human development and well-being based on the illusion of climate control, which is what gorebull warming is all about. The great warming scam in its totality is bad for people and the planet, it has exactly no upside. There is no compromise, there is no way to predict future climate, there is no guarantee of any further warming or even that estimated contemporary warming is real and there is no gain for people or planet in giving money to the current crop of scam artists. There is no middle ground, it is a case of scrap this nonsense and get on with real problems, period!

"Cry wolf, but gently" - "Hyperbole has weakened the argument on climate change. But Aesop has a salutary lobbyist's tale." (Leo Hickman, The Guardian)

"Hoax-To Hoax-The Hoaxers" - "Oh dear! I gather from my good pal, Barry Hearn, over at JunkScience that not all of you are quite as familiar with A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh, and his forest friends as perhaps you should be. I am deeply sorry if you have had a deprived childhood in this respect.

I now understand that my little ‘hoax-to hoax-the hoaxers’ on the day of hoaxes (‘Mammoth Change’, November 8) caused consternation among the virtual masses, especially as there appear to have been other likely ‘hoax-the-hoaxer’ spoofs in the ether too (e.g., ‘Big Oil’ on November 9)." (Global Warming Politics)

"Well, Well, Well" - "Thanks to alert reader Cedric, we now have a confession form David Thorpe that he was, indeed, the person who intentionally put up the fraudulent GEOCLIMATICSTUDIES.INFO website, that he did so with the intent of trying to discredit people he disagrees with and one other very, very important thing for the media to remember.

He lies to reporters. Intentionally and directly to their faces." (Blue Crab Boulevard)

Seems a lot of trouble to go to for a nonsense that, according to Andy Revkin, lasted about 70 minutes:

The Life and Death of a Climate Hoax - The “death of manmade global warming theory” lasted 70 minutes last week, showing the amazing power of the Web to amplify, and then dismantle, fictions at light speed. (Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times)

So, skeptics shredded a fraud in a lot less time than it would have taken to write, makes you wonder why gorebull warming persists, doesn't it? See also: NICE TRY (Tim Blair); Global warming bacteria hoaxer owns up (Alister Doyle, Reuters)

More digital nonsense: "Spain shown perils of climate change" - "It's an apocalyptic view of the future, a stark warning to Spain of what the country could look like if action is not taken to reduce the effects of climate change.

The warning comes in a book, Photoclima, launched this week by Greenpeace in which images of some of Spain's most emblematic places have been altered to show what they could look like in the future. Using statistics from the UN panel on climate change and a touch of digital makeup Greenpeace hopes to scare Spain into taking action." (The Guardian)

"DPA: Klaus criticises Gore, environmentalists" - "Prague, Nov 9 - Czech President Vaclav Klaus again sharply criticised former U.S. vice-president Albert Gore and other "environmental dictators" in an interview for the dpa German news agency Friday, on the occasion of the upcoming edition of his book "Blue, Not Green Planet" in German.

Klaus also criticised the German government's decision to gradually abandon nuclear energy." (CTK) | Klaus: Merkel is the new 5-year planner (The Reference Frame)

"Will Gore Be Time’s ‘Person of the Year?’" - "How could Global Warmingist-in-Chief Al Gore best finish a year in which he won an Academy Award, an Emmy, and a Nobel Peace Prize?

How about being named Time magazine's "Person of the Year?" (News Busters)

"Carbon Offset Credits: Caveat Emptor" - "As concerns about climate change heat up, more people are buying carbon credits. Are they paying too much, and where is the money really going?" (Mark Scott, Business Week)

"Global Warming Plot Thickens: Gore Joins Venture Capital Group" - "The financial scam involved in advancing climate alarmism got even more obvious Monday - to folks outside of the media, that is! - when Nobel Laureate Al Gore joined "Silicon Valley's most prestigious venture capital firm to guide investments that help combat global warming." (News Busters)

"Climate change by Jupiter" - "The alignment of the planets, and especially that of Jupiter and Saturn, control the climate on Earth.

So explained Rhodes Fairbridge of Columbia University, a giant in science over much of the last century whose accomplishments are perhaps unsurpassed for their breadth, depth, and volume. This one man authored or co-authored 100 scientific books and more than 1,000 scientific papers, he edited the Benchmarks in Geology series (more than 90 volumes in print) and was general editor of the Encyclopaedias of the Earth Sciences. He edited eight major encyclopedias of specialized scientific papers in the atmospheric sciences and astrogeology; geomorphology; geochemistry and the earth sciences; geology, sedimentology, paleontology, oceanography and, not least, climatology.

Changes in sunspots and other solar activity, scientists have realized for more than two centuries, correlate closely with the climate of Earth, explaining the ice ages and periods of great warming. But what, Dr. Fairbridge wondered, causes these changes in our sun?" (Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post)

"Polar bears in danger? Is this some kind of joke?" - "Why don’t polar bears eat penguins? Because their paws are too big to get the wrappers off, obviously. It’s not a joke you hear so often these days, though, because polar bears are now a serious business. They’re the standard-bearers of a tear-jerking propaganda campaign to persuade us all that, if we don’t act soon on climate change, the only thing that will remain of our snowy-furred ursine chums will be the picture on a pack of Fox’s glacier mints.

First there came the computer-generated polar bear in Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth; then that heartrending photo, syndicated everywhere, of the bears apparently stranded on a melting ice floe; then the story of those four polar bears drowned by global warming (actually, they’d perished in a storm).

Now, in a new cinema release called Earth – a magnificent, feature-length nature documentary from the makers of the BBC’s Planet Earth series – comes the most sob-inducing “evidence” of all: a poor male polar bear filmed starving to death as a result, the quaveringly emotional Patrick Stewart voiceover suggests, of global warming." (James Delingpole, London Times)

Chuckle... "World body warns over ocean 'fertilisation' to fix climate change" - "LONDON - Countries gathered under an international accord on maritime pollution have warned against offbeat experiments to tackle climate change by sowing the sea with chemicals to help soak up airborne carbon dioxide (CO2).

Parties to the London Convention and London Protocol declared that they hold authority over such experiments, and "large-scale operations" of this kind "are currently not justified," according to a statement issued on Monday." (AFP) [em added]

... a CO₂ 'turf war'? And if this kind of experiment is "currently not justified" then everyone must assume cries of "emergency" and "last chance" are similarly unjustified? (We know they are but it doesn't hurt to point out the logical inconsistencies from time to time.)

Oh boy... "Scientists Strive for Pinpoint Warming Forecasts" - "OSLO - Moving on from the risk of global warming, scientists are now looking for ways to pinpoint the areas set to be affected by climate change, to help countries plan everything from new crops to hydropower dams." (Reuters)

"Are the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets in Danger of Collapse?" - "Much has been made of a possible precipitous collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets due to manmade climate change and the catastrophic sea level rise if such a collapse were to occur.

Recently, my attention was drawn to a Working Paper by Alan Carlin (2007), which was basically about how emissions reductions may be a dangerous strategy to avoid climate change. Carlin sounds the alarm about climate change, claiming that, “The long standing concern about dangerous climate changes is that there may be a ‘tipping point’ where a continued rise in global temperatures will trigger non-linear, self-reinforcing further warming or other dangerous environmental effects beyond those resulting immediately from the temperature rise itself.”

Carlin argues that the collapse of the major ice sheets is one of the most serious threats we face. He bases his discussion of this perceived threat on papers by Hansen (2007) and others who propose rapid melting of the Greenland and West Antarctica (henceforth Antarctica) Ice Sheets that would lead to a sea level rise of five meters or more. Carlin notes that, “Hansen et al. believe that the most likely and most critical of these dangerous effects is the possibility of substantial sea level rise due to the breakup of parts or all of the ice sheets covering Greenland and West Antarctica.”

Hansen’s scenario is not reasonable. Indeed, it is not even possible. Hansen’s seeming ignorance of the mechanism by which glaciers flow leads him into major errors. In this paper, I will describe glacier dynamics, such as the glacier budget, how glaciers flow (through a process known as “creep”), how creep is related to temperature and stress, and how the simple rules of creep allow us to understand some observations of glaciers." (Cliff D. Ollier, Frontiers of Freedom)

"Trillions for CO2 regulation & propagation of guilt" - "Two years ago, some people criticized the Kyoto counter in the sidebar because it assumes that the Kyoto protocol costs USD 150 billion per year which seemed too high to the champions of CO2 regulation. Well, times are changing. Almost no one would raise such a childish criticism today because most people realize that the actual costs of CO2 regulation are much higher." (The Reference Frame)

"Is the Media More Liberal Than the United Nations?" - "The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is meeting this week in Valencia, Spain, to adopt and approve the contents of its Fourth Assessment Report first released in February.

If expectations for the proceedings pan out, it seems quite likely that media will change their view of this organization, and begin attacking it as too conservative. In fact, in anticipation of this gathering, Agence France-Presse has already done so." (News Busters)

"CLIMATE CHANGE: The Worst Can Still Be Avoided" - "MADRID - Climate change is not inexorable, if measures are adopted immediately, said scientists and government officials as the 27th session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began Monday in Spain." (IPS)

Oh yes it is, climate change will occur no matter what -- it's gorebull warming that will not, in fact can not occur.

"A Global Temperature Chart Not in Gore’s Movie" - "So, you think today's temperatures are out of the ordinary?

Nobel Laureate Al Gore does, and strongly made the case in his schlockumentary "An Inconvenient Truth" with all kinds of neat slides and graphs.

Of course, despite incessant claims of a consensus concerning this premise, not everyone agrees." (News Busters)

"Kyoto critic comes to town" - "Forget about reducing emissions, just adapt to climate change, says Nigel Lawson." (Sunday Star Times)

"Rich West 'must set example' to protect Asian development from climate change catastrophe" - "Asia will be hit especially hard by climate change, from China and India to tiny Pacific islands, and decades of human development across the continent will be pushed into reverse, a powerful coalition of aid and green groups reports today.

With more than 60 per cent of the world's population, Asia is where the human drama of global warming will be played out, according to the report from the alliance of 23 of Britain's leading poverty and environmental campaigning groups, from Oxfam to Friends of the Earth." (London Independent)

"Why China Could Blame Its CO2 on West" - "To understand the deadlock in the debate on global climate change, take a look at your iPod.

The vast majority of the world's MP3 players are made in China, where the main power source is coal. Manufacturing a single MP3 player releases about 17 pounds of planet-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

IPods, along with thousands of other goods churned out by Chinese factories, from toys to rolled steel, pose a question that is becoming an issue in the climate-change debate. If a gadget is made in China by an American company and exported and used by consumers from Stockholm to São Paulo, Brazil, should the Chinese government be held responsible for the carbon released in manufacturing it?

Next month, world leaders will gather in Bali to begin hammering out a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty to combat global warming that expires in 2012. China and the U.S., the world's two largest carbon emitters, are facing mounting international pressure to participate in the new deal. But as the bill for unchecked emissions comes due, a battle is brewing over who should pay for it." (Wall Street Journal)

Yet another silly facet in a really silly game. Australia produces much of its emissions extracting resources for offshore consumers, thus its emissions are largely for and on behalf of others, the US has long been the world's economic engine, so their emissions should be distributed across beneficiaries... Meanwhile, the solar "all quiet alert" is just ending although there are still no sunspots - not a promising sign for the global warming industry.

"UN panel to set new path on climate at meeting" - "PARIS: Delegations and scientists from about 140 nations meet Monday in Valencia, Spain, and are expected to draft a report that could increase pressure on countries like the United States and China to make binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions." (James Kanter, IHT)

Really bad idea: "UN Panel's Global Warming Report May Win U.S. Support" - "American officials are planning to back a new United Nations document that says governments and businesses will have to spend billions of dollars a year to reduce global warming and adapt to its effects.

The report will be discussed this week at a meeting of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, the group of scientists producing the most detailed study yet of global warming. The group's recommendation will guide talks in Bali, Indonesia next month of the UN body charged with writing a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, an international accord that set carbon gas emission limits for some countries.

By agreeing with the draft document, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg, the U.S. is indicating a need for faster action to slow climate change. As the largest emitter of gases blamed for global warming, the U.S. is seen by other nations as critical to the creation of a new worldwide response when the Kyoto agreement expires in 2012." (Bloomberg)

"Hillary will Save Us" - "Senator Hillary Clinton says that if elected president she will promptly commit the United States to a Kyoto Protocol “Round II”. She would strike a deal in 2010, which she says, somehow accelerates global salvation because, though Kyoto expires at the end of 2012, “we cannot afford to wait two more years.” (Christopher C. Horner, Human Events)

"Lloyd: The economic side of climate-change initiative" - "If you've wondered why there is an increasing opposition to the whole popular notion of global warming, simply examine the actions being proposed and actually taken to "prevent global warming." Consider what those actions really have become and how effective they might be in actually achieving the intended change." (Don Lloyd, Daily Camera)

"A Better Way to Go Green" - "Next month, the world will get a chance to enjoy some brazen hypocrisy. Former Vice President Al Gore will speak in Oslo as he accepts his Nobel Peace Prize. No doubt he’ll offer plenty of hot rhetoric about the dangers of global warming, and warn listeners they need to act -- right now -- to save our fragile planet.

But how will Gore get to Norway? Maybe he’ll take a wind-powered Clipper ship and then climb aboard a dogsled to go the rest of the way. But if that’s the case, he’d better leave immediately." (Rich Tucker, Townhall)

"EU Court Rejects Polish Call for Carbon Cut Delay" - "BRUSSELS - A European Union court has rejected Poland's request for a temporary suspension of a cut, set by the bloc, in the country's carbon dioxide emission limits, the court said on Monday." (Reuters)

"Ocean robots network achieves universal coverage" - "Scientist’s efforts to fathom how the oceans influence climate and fisheries productivity enter a new era this month with the milestone establishment of a network of 3,000 futuristic, 1.5-metre tall ocean robots operating simultaneously throughout the world’s oceans." (CSIRO)

"Government health officials’ newest initiative: combat obesity and climate change in just 30 minutes!" - "According to Dr. Howard Frumkin, director of the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health, the CDC is considering a public promotional campaign to fight two deadly public health crises — global warming and obesity — at the same time. Their simple solution, they say, will cut calories and carbon dioxide in one. What is their proposal?" (Junkfood Science)

"Ethanol Backlash" - "Like water seeping out of the giant High Plains Ogallala aquifer, support for corn ethanol seems to be ebbing in Congress. As political news goes, this is of the miracle variety, but apparently the market distortions caused by ethanol mandates are finally having an impact.

"We're in a strong position," says Senator John Cornyn, the Texas Republican who is blocking a conference on the energy bill because the House version contains billions in new oil taxes to be spent on ethanol subsidies. Meanwhile, in the House, there's opposition to the Senate's mandate to increase ethanol production by 30 billion gallons annually by 2022." (Wall Street Journal)

"Strategic Reserves That Go Undrilled" - "Hillary Clinton wants to tap the U.S. petroleum stockpile to increase supply and lower the price. Brazil has found a better way — drill for more. And what about that strategic reserve her husband vetoed — ANWR?" (IBD)

"Sell the Petroleum Reserve" - "For quite a while now, the spot price of oil -- that is, the price at which you can buy or sell oil for delivery today -- has been well above the futures price. The futures price is the price at which you can buy or sell oil for delivery at a specified time in the future. For example, on Friday, Nov. 9, the price on the New York Mercantile Exchange of light sweet crude oil for December delivery was $96.32 a barrel and the futures price for delivery in December 2008 was $87.60 -- $8.72 a barrel lower. This relatively unusual time structure of oil prices is called "backwardation."

The more-normal pattern of oil prices is the reverse, in which the spot price now is below the futures price by an amount that is just enough to cover interest, insurance and storage. If the difference were any more than that, arbitrageurs would quickly bring the difference down by buying on the spot market and simultaneously selling in the futures market. Competition among arbitrageurs assures this result. It's too bad that we can't reverse arbitrage, buying oil from the future and selling it today because, by definition, oil in the future is not available today.

Or can we? You can't, I can't, and oil companies can't, but there is one entity that, in a sense, can reverse arbitrage. That entity is the U.S. government. Why? Because the U.S. government is sitting on a large reserve of oil, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which now holds about 700 million barrels of oil. This is enough oil to provide about 10% of daily U.S. oil consumption for a year. And if the U.S. government got smart about selling the oil -- a big if -- it would make money for the Treasury and help consumers by bringing oil prices down. Moreover, the government could make even more money, with minimal risk to the economy, by selling the SPR oil altogether." (David R. Henderson, Wall Street Journal)

"Oil, yet more oil" - "For those who wish to believe that the days of oil are soon numbered, three FT commentaries provide a salutary, if not a slick, riposte." (Global Warming Politics)

"N.Y. needs power plants, energy groups warn" - "Montgomery — How's this for an inconvenient truth: Someday soon, when you flip the light switch, the power might not come on.

That's where we're headed if public and political attitudes toward power plants and transmission lines don't change, according to energy industry types gathered yesterday at the Orange County Chamber of Commerce's headquarters.

"We are in serious energy trouble," said Jerry Kremer, chairman of the New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance, a trade association.

Without additions to the power supply, New York state's power grid won't meet federal reliability criteria by 2011 or 2012, according to the New York Independent System Operator, which runs New York's grid." (Times Herald-Record)

Unep & mercury mania: "UN Wants Global Action on Mercury Threat" - "NAIROBI - Countries must speed up collective efforts to phase out the use of deadly mercury, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Monday." (Reuters)

Basically just another attack on industrialization and energy generation.

"Fat and long life — The “obesity” crisis is crumbling" - "The latest study from CDC senior research scientists at the National Center for Health Statistics on the associations between various body weights and deaths has been in the news this week. The media has been giving us bits and pieces of the story and various angles, but not all of it accurate or complete. With no clear overview, it’s been virtually impossible for most of us to figure out what the study actually showed or to understand what it means for us. In fact, the study findings we haven’t heard are some of the most important parts." (Junkfood Science)

"The Hollywood Diet" - "A writer in New York Times Magazine points out the absurdity of today’s food aversions and beliefs. Refusing to eat and enjoy food has become a way to project discipline and power, she writes. Not wanting to be “out-restrained” by someone appearing to be eating more virtuously than themselves, diners are taking eating fears to ridiculous heights." (Junkfood Science)

"What doctors are really discussing?" - "Only 37%? Doctors actually participated in a poll asking them if they thought scaring fat people with threats of cancer would work to incentivize them into losing weight. The MedPage Today poll results were reported on Friday, along with an uncritical synopsis for its clinician readers on the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research report. This provides a disturbing example of the medical literature available to healthcare providers and of their grasp of these issues." (Junkfood Science)

"Tears won’t change a thing, but words can" - "Harriet Brown has written a thoughtful piece calling for compassion and science to bring understanding and support for these young people and their families, rather than brand them with devastating stigma. There are doctors and nurses in her community, she writes, who still blame the families or think that it’s a lifestyle choice...." (Junkfood Science)

"Wellness can be a state of mind" - "Today’s article in the Daily Mail illustrates the heartbreaking distress that comes to young people from being surrounded by today’s nonstop health news and pervasive preoccupation with health and “wellness.” (Junkfood Science)

"Beyond cute and cuddly" - "Conservationists are questioning the value of protecting 'celebrity animals' such as pandas and tigers, reports Europe correspondent Peter Wilson." (The Australian)

"New public-private hybrid rice group aims to raise rice yields in the tropics" - "Manila – A new international research initiative, linking the private and public sectors for the first time and launched on November 9 at the 2007 Asian Seed Congress, aims to boost the research and development of hybrid rice for the tropics.

The Hybrid Rice Research and Development Consortium (HRDC), established by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), will strengthen public–private sector partnership in hybrid rice, a technology that can raise the yield of rice and thus overall rice productivity and profitability in Asia.

Hybrid rice takes advantage of the phenomenon of hybrid vigor—known as heterosis—to achieve yields 15–20% higher than nonhybrid (inbred) varieties. Over the past three decades, the technology has helped China achieve food security, but has not yet reached its potential in the tropics." (International Rice Research Institute)

"Sow technologies, reap benefits" - "Widespread use of the technology together with intensive or high input cultivation has resulted in a rapid increase in yields of major crops and in lowering production cost." (G. Chandrashekhar, Hindu Business Line)

"Food giant enters fight to keep GM bans" - "ONE of Australia's largest food companies has joined consumers in urging the State Government not to lift bans on genetically modified crops when it considers the issue this week." (The Age)

November 12, 2007

Has Big Oil been caught in a new global warming disinformation funding scheme? Big Oil Paying Off Climate Scientists: An Insider's Story - (Katy, TX - Nov. 11) Many environmentalists have long suspected that "Big Oil" pays a small cadre of climate scientists to perform and publish bogus research, as well as spread disinformation regarding the state of the science of global warming and climate change.

But according to one administrative assistant who was recently let go from her employer, what is already known by watchdog groups like Greenpeace and ExxonSecrets.org might be just the tip of the iceberg. (The ecoEnquirer)

Eco-Fatigue - Writing in today’s The Guardian, Leo Hickman employs a marvellous neologism, and then (for it is The Guardian after all) laments its onset: “eco-fatigue” [see: ‘Cry wolf, but gently’]: (Global Warming Politics)

"UN's Ban Says Global Warming is 'An Emergency'" - "EDUARDO FREI BASE, Antarctica - With prehistoric Antarctic ice sheets melting beneath his feet, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for urgent political action to tackle global warming.

The Antarctic Peninsula has warmed faster than anywhere else on Earth in the last 50 years, making the continent a fitting destination for Ban, who has made climate change a priority since he took office earlier this year. (Reuters)

Only partly true. While there has indeed been some measured warming in the Antarctic Peninsula it is not even really in the Antarctic, protruding north of the Antarctic Circle. From what we can tell the Antarctic has actually been cooling since measures began in the 1950s. Moreover, it is unclear why the Peninsula appears to be warming but so localized an effect suggests a small change in ocean currents to be a likely candidate.

Mammoth Change - Coniglio Kaninchen, Jr. 2007. “Faunistic adaptation during the ‘Forest Period’ in southern England: a textual analysis of sudden short-term climate change.” Journal of Deconstructed and Hybrid Climates, Vol. 27(1), 2007, pp. 234-57|DOI: X1.2067/0432156376p2987xpoohb.

Here are full details of an important new study recording the natural variability of climate over short periods of time. Sadly, it appears that there have been considerable, and quite disgraceful, attempts made to prevent the publication of this paper because it raises serious questions about current ideas on ‘global warming’. Now that it has been bravely published, it should prove to be a seminal work. It will, I think, once and for all, establish the inherent natural variability of climate, and it exposes any oxymora of ‘climate stability’, even over short time-scales. Here is the Long Abstract: (Global Warming Politics)

"Czech Leader Raises New Doubts on Climate Change" - "BERLIN - Czech President Vaclav Klaus has criticised Chancellor Angela Merkel for her efforts to fight climate change, saying politicians, journalists and scientists are exploiting an unproven issue for their own advantage." (Reuters)

Darfur - I must commend this truly outstanding letter from Mike Hulme (University of East Anglia and founding Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research) in issue 2629 of the New Scientist, November 10, 2007, page 26:

“Curtis Abraham is spot on in warning against the fashionable claim that the Darfur conflict is a consequence of climate change (20 October, p 24).

... in the context of Darfur it is a distraction, as it diverts attention from the deeper, political factors driving the conflict there.

Abraham points to a line of reasoning that was all too common in the 1970s and 1980s, when some found it convenient to blame climate change for desertification. This drew attention away from the poor development practice, inept governance and political ideologies that were the real reasons for land degradation.

Now, 25 years on, the new fetish for framing climate change as a security issue seems to be putting us back where we started.”

Absolutely. And a letter that carries great weight. Bravely done. (Global Warming Politics)

"Why the IPCC should be disbanded" - "The common perception of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is one of an impartial organization that thoroughly reviews the state of climate science and produces reports which are clear, accurate, comprehensive, well substantiated and without bias." (John McLean, SPPI)

"Bias And Concealment In The IPCC Process: The “Hockey-Stick” Affair And Its Implications" - "ABSTRACT: The climatic “hockey stick” hypothesis has systemic problems. I review how the IPCC came to adopt the “hockey stick” as scientific evidence of human interference with the climate. I report also on independent peer reviewed studies of the “hockey stick” that were instigated by the US House of Representatives in 2006, and which comprehensively invalidated it. The “divergence” problem and the selective and unreliable nature of tree ring reconstructions are discussed, as is the unsatisfactory review process of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report that ignored the invalidation of the “hockey stick”. The error found recently in the GISS temperature series is also noted. It is concluded that the IPCC has neither the structure nor the necessary independence and supervision of its processes to be acceptable as the monopoly authority on climate science. Suggestions are made as to how the IPCC could improve its procedures towards producing reports and recommendations that are more scientifically sound." (David Holland, Energy & Environment)

"UN climate report: already out of date?" - "PARIS -- Fresh from winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the UN's top scientific panel on climate change will meet in the Spanish port city of Valencia Monday to finalize a landmark report on global warming and how to avoid its worst ravages.

But beneath its newly-won fame, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is under intensifying scrutiny about some of its key processes.

Some voices, including from within the IPCC itself, fear the panel's grand report will be badly out of date before it is even printed. Others quietly criticize the organization as being too conservative in its appreciation of the climate threat." (Agence France-Presse)

Definitely not that Mann: Global Temperatures - 2500 B.C. to 2007 A.D. (Long Range Weather)

"Seas to Absorb Greenhouse Gas, But Food Chain Hit" - "OSLO - Tiny ocean plankton can reduce global warming by soaking up unexpectedly large amounts of carbon dioxide but their carbon-bloated cells might damage marine food chains, scientists said on Sunday." (Reuters)

"Outspoken ASU prof draws ire" - "Arizona State University climatologist Robert Balling attended the premiere of Al Gore's global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

He served on the United Nations' climate-change panel and studies how drought and warmer temperatures will affect the West.

He bikes to work and eats organic food.

But environmentalists hate him." (The Arizona Republic)

Is it us or is this a singularly uninformative article?

"Despite predictions, sky is not falling" - "Reading about the recent global warming rally at Kincaid Park, I wondered if the participants would be relieved if man's activities were proved not responsible for Alaska's warming weather. An intriguing question." (Paula Easley, ADN)

"A Global Warming Debate" - "As many of you already know, Katie and a film crew visited Duquesne University in Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago for the global warming debate featuring Dr. Charles Keller and noted skeptic Dr. Fred Singer. In this video, Katie shows you some clips from the debate. In her next video, she personally interviews both Dr. Singer and Dr. Keller and presents them with many of the questions that we received from you on the commentary part of this blog." (AccuWeather)

"UK Court Hearing Record" - "Complete hearing record for the UK Court case in which the judge ruled that Al Gore's film may not be distributed by the UK Govt. to UK schools unless a disclaimer of 9 science errors should be read first to the children." (Robert Ferguson, SPPI)

"Chilling Uncertainties about Global Warming" - "The Emmy, Oscar, and Nobel Peace Prize committees all seem to agree: global warming exists, humans cause it, and without Al Gore, we'd all be doomed.

Dissenters from the commonly-accepted view are met with scorn and derision, and the views of Gore and friends are accepted without question by the public, the media, and most politicians. But the global warming question demands open debate—unsettled issues are contested even among the Gore-ites.

Political consensus is a precursor to public action. Righteous climate-saving politicians and their supportive industries know this, and know that they cannot afford to tolerate dissent. Dissent weakens and dilutes the message of doom without which the public consciousness cannot be raised. Global warming theology, like other theories cloaked in science's garb, aims to give people cold (or, as it were, wet) feet about the future. Exaggeration is the essential weapon of the global warming camp. That may be good politics, but it's bad science-and therein lies the danger." (Claremont Institute)

"Local Meteorologists Debate Global Warming" - "It's a movement that's gained momentum and has become mainstream, especially in political and media circles. Even major television networks these days are promoting Going Green, to stop Global Warming. One of the things you're not hearing in the national media is a voice like John Coleman, founder of The Weather Channel. In a recent article, Coleman calls Global Warming the greatest scam in history." (KLTV)

Video: A Critique of Catastrophic Man-Made Global Warming Theory (Coyote Blog)

"Ignore Al Gore - but not his Nobel friends" - "This week, the United Nations' climate scientists will release a major report synthesising the world's best global warming research. It will be the first time we've heard from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since its scientists won the Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice-president Al Gore.

The IPCC's Assessment Report will tell policy-makers what to expect from man-made climate change. It is the result of rigorous and painstaking labour: more than can be said for the other Nobel Prize winner. The difference between Gore's claims and IPCC research is instructive.

While Gore was creating alarm with his belief that a 20-foot-high wall of water would inundate low-lying cities, the IPCC showed us we should realistically prepare for a rise of one foot or so by the end of the century. Beyond the dramatic difference, it is also worth putting that one foot in perspective. Over the last 150 years, sea levels rose about one foot - yet, did we notice?

Most tellingly, while Gore was raising fears about the Gulf Stream halting and a new Ice Age starting, the scientists discounted the prospect entirely." (Bjorn Lomborg, London Telegraph)

"Flood alert: the aftermath" - "East Anglia escaped serious flooding by a “knife edge” yesterday despite the storm surge being on the same scale as that which caused devastation in 1953.

Meticulous emergency planning, better sea defences and a little help from Mother Nature spared the coastline any major damage, according to experts.

But just 20cms was the difference between relatively minor breaches and what could have been mass flooding.

People, including the thousands who had been evacuated on Friday night as a precaution after the biggest flooding alert for decades, were able to return to something like normality yesterday as the threat passed.

The Environment Agency gave the all clear for the majority of the coast by lunchtime yesterday and the rest in Suffolk followed later in the day - though some warnings were still in place inland, particularly along the river Yare.

There had been fears that waters would rise by 9ft (2.75m), making it the highest tidal surge since the floods of 1953 in which more than 300 people in coastal towns were killed.

In the event, water levels peaked around 8in (20cm) below that figure, ranking this surge behind the 8.7ft (2.65m) tides seen in 1953." (EDP24)

So, a half-century of allegedly dramatic warming and "rising sea levels" and the result is... the same as before. What has changed is that development and wealth creation have meant better defenses against the sea, better transport infrastructure, better forewarning and much reduced risk to life. Tell us again why industrialization and energy use is such a problem.

"Climate History and Climate Changes in Georgia" - "The observations we have detailed herein illustrate that climate variability from year-to-year and decade-to-decade plays a greater role in Georgia’s climate than any long-term trends. Such short-term variability will continue dominating Georgia’s climate into the future." (Robert Ferguson, SPPI)

"Kentucky Climate Profile" - "The observations detailed herein illustrate that climate variability from year-to-year and decade-to-decade plays a greater role in Kentucky’s climate than any long-term trends. Such short-term variability will continue dominate Kentucky’s climate into the future. At the century timescale, Kentucky’s climate shows no statically significant trend in statewide average annual temperature, and a weak tendency towards increasing statewide total annual precipitation and decreases in the frequency and/or severity of droughts." (Robert Ferguson, SPPI)

I wonder if poor Mark actually believes any of this pap? "How to stop climate change: the easy way" - "We have about 100 months left. If global greenhouse gas emissions have not begun to decline by the end of 2015, then our chances of restraining climate change to within the two degrees "safety line" - the level of warming below which the impacts are severe but tolerable - diminish day by day thereafter. This is what the latest science now demands: the peaking of emissions within eight years, worldwide cuts of 60 per cent by 2030, and 80 per cent or more by 2050. Above two degrees, our chances of crossing "tipping points" in the earth's system - such as the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, or the release of methane from thawing Siberian permafrost - is much higher." (Mark Lynas, New Statesman)

"Fighting Fat and Climate Change" - "WASHINGTON — America's obesity epidemic and global warming might not seem to have much in common. But public health experts suggest people can attack them both by cutting calories and carbon dioxide at the same time." (AP)

"Rich Must Bear Climate Change Costs - Report" - "LONDON - The rich caused the problem and must therefore pay the price of fixing the global climate change crisis, a new report said on Monday." (Reuters)

"Experts Discuss Engineering Feats, Like Space Mirrors, to Slow Climate Change" - "CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 9 — There is now “no doubt” that some of the effects of human-induced climate change could be offset with engineering fixes, according to David Keith, an expert on climate and energy at the University of Calgary.

But what action should be taken, based on this knowledge? That was one of the knotty questions he and other experts wrestled with at a two-day conference that ended here on Friday. (New York Times)

"Globaloney" - "A misguided environmental-policy bill meandering through the Senate would slap U.S. businesses with pie-in-the-sky requirements for cutting greenhouse gases by unattainable amounts." (Washington Times)

"Republicans Urge Slowdown on US Carbon-Cap Bill" - "WASHINGTON - US Republican senators on Thursday urged a Democratic-led Senate committee to slow its work on a bill to cap climate-warming carbon emissions, arguing that debate is being rushed." (Reuters)

"A green policy takes flight: Schwarzenegger's air travel, and its emissions impact, questioned." - "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger crisscrosses the globe in a private Gulfstream 400 jet, advocating environmental virtues after signing a significant global warming reduction bill last year. He says he offsets his plane's greenhouse gas damage by financing projects that reduce carbon emissions elsewhere.

But the governor refuses to reveal how much money he has spent on emissions credits, making it impossible to determine how much he has reduced his carbon footprint. The governor also refuses to say how many hours he has flown." (Sacramento Bee)

"China Emission-Cutting Fund to Reap up to US$3 Bln" - "BEIJING - China could have as much as US$3 billion coming to a state-owned fund that supports emissions-reducing ventures, if a slate of projects on its books win UN approval, the Finance Ministry said on Friday." (Reuters)

"Australia Faces Worst Cyclone Season in Yrs - Study" - "LONDON - Australia should brace itself for the worst tropical cyclone season since 1998/1999, a leading catastrophe forecaster warned on Friday." (Reuters)

It's to be hoped so, anyway. Why? Because Australia's interior is a desert except when tropical cyclones deliver flooding rains and water storages are currently quite low.

Business-As-Usual - For ten years, I have been pointing out that fossil fuels are not going to go away, and that coal, in particular, is about to experience a mighty resurgence. As three stories today underline, my predictions are already on the way to being fulfilled. (Global Warming Politics)

"China Blocks River to Build Second Largest Dam" - "BEIJING - China has blocked the flow of the country's longest river to build its second-largest hydropower project, state media reported on Friday." (Reuters)

"How China is eating the world" - "China's remarkable economic growth is powering the global economy, but can the world afford to keep on supplying its ever-growing demands for food and raw materials? By Sean O'Grady" (London Independent)

"New Biofuel Crops Pose Risks to Farms, Ecosystems" - "NEW YORK - New plants the biofuels industry has touted as potential sources of green domestic fuels pose risks as aggressive weeds that could damage farms and other ecosystems." (Reuters)

"Demand for palm oil 'is damaging the planet'" - "Growing demand for Asian palm oil by some of the world's largest companies, such as Unilever, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble, is now one of the principal drivers of climate change, the environmental pressure group Greenpeace says." (London Independent)

November 9, 2007

"Global Warming's Senseless Consensus" - "Is there a “consensus” on global warming among the scientists participating in the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)? To find out, I conducted the first-ever survey of scientists participating in the most recent IPCC report." (Steven Milloy, FoxNews.com)

"Survey of IPCC Climate Experts" - "Introduction: Many claim that there is a consensus among scientists that manmade emissions of greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide(CO2), are harming global climate. To test the nature of this consensus, we surveyed the U.S. contributors to, and reviewers of the most recent scientific assessment by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." (DemandDebate.com)

• Media release

Update: There's been some predictable griping about this survey and not only from the fear profiteers but researchers and AGW believers too. That's fair enough, we encourage skepticism. Before applying an ideological filter to the results, however, why not give some thought to what you would ask and how? Remember that your proposed survey questions must be brief enough to encourage participation by busy people, sufficiently defined yet broadly encompassing enough to allow most people to choose an answer that applies to them and finally that give some means of distinguishing between career-preserving "correct" answers and genuine opinion. Then review what you have written to remove any leading from the questions (e.g., do you agree with the settled science that...) and see what you are left with.

As expected, most respondents gave fairly stock responses to people being very strongly associated with climate change, carbon dioxide is the biggest cog in the climate machine [!] and limiting anthropogenic carbon emissions would have a strong impact [!!]. We didn't provide a timescale for temperature precedent just to see whether respondents would toe the line with contemporary temperatures being or approaching planetary range extreme or whether they think in geo-scales -- with the result that most respondents are anthrocentric, considering only the last few centuries. Then it gets really interesting as almost half give the stock response that a one-degree warming is undesirable although three-fifths then don't believe there is an ideal climate and just one-eighth think cooler is better.

Why did we flag the stock CO₂ responses with exclamations above? Easy, the tropospheric measures encompassing most of the post-cooling period (from the 1940s the PDO phase change of 1976) do show a slight blip with the new millennium (although temperatures have returned to near-average for the period now) and this despite steadily increasing anthropogenic emissions during the period. Moreover, what warming there has been is apparent only in the Northern Hemisphere with none in the Southern, a pattern which does not fit with the well-mixed nature of atmospheric CO₂ (even the South Pole measures remain within 1-2 ppmv of the Northern hemisphere). Further contradicting the enhanced greenhouse hypothesis mid-troposphere temperature change is minuscule compared to that of the near-surface, where is the mid-troposphere "hot spot" models insist must occur? Finally, if more energy is being retained at lower levels by increased greenhouse effect then there should be a matching cooling in the stratosphere, which has been without trend for a decade or so, despite measured increase in atmospheric CO₂. With the world failing to produce the hypothesized results we do find the apparent expectation of large response to limiting anthropogenic emission quite troubling (we can't find the result of applying this forcing but there will be a large result from not applying further forcing?).

Curious internal inconsistencies in these survey results, wouldn't you say?

PC nonsense: "Health toll of climate change seen as ethical crisis" - "MADISON -- The public health costs of global climate change are likely to be the greatest in those parts of the world that have contributed least to the problem, posing a significant ethical dilemma for the developed world, according to a new study.

In a paper to be published the week of Nov. 12, 2007, in the journal EcoHealth, a team of researchers led by environmental public health authority Jonathan Patz of the University of Wisconsin-Madison reports that the health burden of climate change will rest disproportionately on the world's poor." (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Health care in impoverished sub-Saharan Africa is a basket case due to climate? For that to be true then colonial Australia, whose climate is akin to that of Namibia complete with Skeleton Coast and vast waterless expanses, should feature prominently amongst the world's sickest peoples, right? Except that newly wealthy Australia has a booming economy, has life expectancies among the longest in the world with a generally very healthy population and some of the world's most affordable care despite socialised medicine ("universal care" is its one great flaw but one it has managed to survive nonetheless, at least for now).

The health care costs of climate change hysteria are horrendous by virtue of dampening development and reducing wealth creation but the much touted "global warming" is of no significance beyond that hysteria.

From the other side of the Atlantic, the other side of “global warming” - Viscount Monckton of Brenchley to visit NY November 16-26: available for political interviews and talk-show appearances.

"What is Wrong with the IPCC?" - "In the international discussion about climate change, which is now going on for almost twenty years, the IPCC has played a questionable role. From its inception, is has almost exclusively focused on the AGW hypothesis, while systematically ignoring alternative hypotheses." (Hans Labohm, SPPI)

"Warming to debate the art of hypocrisy" - "THE telling thing about the global warming faith is that it's preached almost entirely by hypocrites. As you're about to see in tropical technicolour next month." (Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun)

"Snow and Ice Surprises" - "A recent headline carried around the world certainly caught our eye as it proclaimed “Mont Blanc Growing Due to Global Warming.” When we first saw the piece, we fully expected to read about a process called isostatic rebound. If you are rusty in basic earth science principles, isostatic rebound occurs when weight is reduced from the earth’s crust (as is the case when a substantial amount of ice disappears from a region), the crust rebounds upward, and the land surface increases its elevation with respect to sea level. Oppositely, when ice accumulates over a region (e.g., Greenland, Antarctica), the crust is depressed, sometimes well below sea level. So when we first saw the piece about Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps, we assumed the article would be about how melting of the mountain glaciers has now led to crustal rebounding and a higher summit. However, we were in for a huge surprise." (WCR)

Really? "Hoax Bacteria Study Tricks Climate Sceptics" - "OSLO - A hoax scientific study pointing to ocean bacteria as the overwhelming cause of global warming fooled some sceptics on Thursday who doubt growing evidence that human activities are to blame.

Laden with scientific jargon and published online in the previously unknown "Journal of Geoclimatic Studies" based in Japan, the report suggested the findings could be "the death of manmade global warming theory".

Sceptics jumped on the report. A British scientist e-mailed the report to 2,000 colleagues before spotting it was a spoof. Another from the US called it a "blockbuster". (Reuters Life!)

It lasted maybe an hour in some (rare) quarters after Google's listing brought it to attention before being shredded as a nonsense (by, um... climate skeptics, actually). Compare that with the way the hokey "hockey stick" temperature history still has large numbers of AGW advocates on the hook. Interestingly Google has apparently since purged its listing of this "paper".

Now available from DemandDebate.com! A Primer on CO₂ and Climate

Man's additions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere are receiving blame in the popular press for the warming of the earth that has occurred during the last century. All of the hype is based on over-ambitious computer programs with a severe under-representation of data. There are major flaws in the climate models, not to mention that the correct scientific foundation cannot even be represented on the wide grids used by climate modelers. (from Amazon.com) Get your copy from the DemandDebate.com Store!

"California to sue US government over greenhouse gases" - "California on Thursday said it was suing the United States government to secure approval for the state's tough new proposals aimed at slashing vehicle greenhouse gas emissions." (AFP)

"US, not China, main obstacle in climate change talks - EU delegation" - "BEIJING - The US, and not China, is the main hurdle to a new climate change deal, a European parliament delegate said in Beijing.

Although there are 'differences of opinion' between Europe and China on the issue of mandatory emission cuts, which China rejects, both sides have a common awareness of the need to reduce greenhouse emissions, Guido Sacconi told reporters." (XFN-ASIA)

"UN climate change chief impressed by China" - "China is taking all the necessary steps to tackle the adverse impacts of climate change, chairman of the UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Rajendra Pachauri has said.

At a media workshop organized by the UN Development Programme in Delhi last week, Pacahuri said he was impressed by what Chinese scientists and meteorologists had done to fight climate change." (China Daily)

Which part would that be, their refusal to contemplate emission reductions (good for them) or their agreement with the EU that everything is America's fault?

"EU Parliament to Tighten Airline Emissions Rules" - "BRUSSELS - The European Parliament next week will set stricter rules for airlines entering Europe's emissions trading scheme, establishing an earlier start date and tighter pollution limits than first proposed, a lawmaker said." (Reuters)

"China Environment Woes Blamed on Lack of Planning" - "BEIJING - Lack of central planning, ministerial infighting and a pervasive get-rich-quick attitude mean China's environmental problems are not going away any time soon, a state newspaper on Thursday quoted an official as saying." (Reuters)

No, no, no, no... don't these guys listen to the infomercials? It's gorebull warming what done it!

"An Energy Crisis Of Our Own Making" - "As oil climbs toward an unprecedented $100 a barrel, we can only blame ourselves. By falsely demonizing oil in the debate over global warming, we assure an energy-impoverished future." (IBD)

"Rising Demand for Oil Provoking a New Energy Crisis" - "Unlike past oil shocks caused by interruptions in exports, this time prices are being driven by rapidly growing demand, partly from developing economies." (New York Times)

"Brazil discovers huge oil reserves" - "BRAZIL has discovered huge new petroleum reserves in its south that could turn the country into one of the biggest oil producers in the world, the government and its state-controlled oil company has announced." (Agence France-Presse)

"CA Paper: Want a New Gas Tax? Call it a 'Fee' to Fool Voters" - "The Contra Costa Times has given us an interesting new angle to fool the voters into voting for a new gasoline tax in an article titled, "Calling gas tax a 'fee' may help at ballot." In an opinion laced article, the CCTimes is advising politicians to call the tax hike a "fee" instead of a tax to fool the voters into accepting it at the ballot box." (News Busters)

Of course they do: "Being fat is still unhealthy, experts warn" - "CHICAGO - Being overweight may not kill you, but it could lead to obesity, U.S. health experts cautioned on Wednesday in response to research suggesting that being a bit heavy does not raise the risk of death.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that being overweight did not increase the risk of dying from heart disease and cancer.

It also was linked with a significantly decreased rate of death from non-cancer and non-heart related causes, such as accidents or diseases like Alzheimer's." (Reuters)

"Oh I’m so fat" - "Julianna Backer, a journalism student at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, wrote an unusually perceptive article on the war on fat for the Pine Log, the student newspaper. She dedicated her article to young women who are finding it hard to be happy with their weight in this country. As she concluded, “one day, we’ll all look at ourselves and worry about something other than how fat we are.”

It takes courage to speak out on this issue today, especially with such compassion and understanding. This deserves a read." (Junkfood Science)

"Flabby government can't make thinner children: We have frittered away £1 billion on tackling obesity" - "Twenty months ago the Audit Commission gave warning that the Government's plans to stop the rise in child obesity by 2010 were flabby and in poor shape. The recent announcement, then, that the Government will be moving the target to 2020 was an unfortunate vindication of our findings." (Steve Bundred, London Times)

"Forced to be 'fit'" - "Part one of Katie Couric’s CBS news special this week, “Forced to be Fit,” profiled employers mandating that their employees “get healthy or else.” Employees at Benton Company (home to Walmart) who refuse to submit to health screening and are unable to pass certain health indices are charged higher health insurance premiums. “Being fat is going to cost,” she reported. Smokers, the fat, and “unfit” are having to paying $2,000 higher deductibles." (Junkfood Science)

"Counterfeit drugs and supplements" - "U.S. Pharmatechnologist just reported on a small, but growing, number of counterfeit drugs, both pharmaceutical and alternatives, that are finding their way into our medicine cabinets. Writing of a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, it highlighted the obesity drug Rimonabant (Acomplia), which was falsely advertised for sale over the internet before it had even received EU marketing approval. As previously reviewed here, even look-alikes have become part of the Wild West of online drugs." (Junkfood Science)

"Britain 'to be growing GM crops by 2009'" - "Ministers are set to push ahead with plans to introduce genetically-modified crops across Britain, despite widespread public opposition." (London Telegraph)

November 8, 2007

"Survey of IPCC Climate Experts" - "Introduction: Many claim that there is a consensus among scientists that manmade emissions of greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide(CO2), are harming global climate. To test the nature of this consensus, we surveyed the U.S. contributors to, and reviewers of the most recent scientific assessment by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." (DemandDebate.com)

What? Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria: the death of manmade global warming theory? (Journal of Geoclimatic Studies (2007) 13:3. 223-231)

Presumably this is someone's idea of a joke. We have no record of a Journal of Geoclimatic Studies (after supposedly 13 volumes someone should have heard of it) and the listed authors appear to belong to non-existent institution departments.

Update: we are not the only ones seeking information about this alleged study and its publishers:

"Journal of Geoclimatic Studies"

Something interesting just happened on the net. In an article that got quickly deleted, Ronald Bailey of Reason Magazine linked to this "study", supposedly by researchers from the University of Arizona and the University of Goteborg in Sweden, claiming to have found an exact correlation between global temperatures and CO2 emissions caused by ocean bacteria. I searched the net for other references to this site, but the only other one I could find had also been just recently posted and deleted. The website of the "Journal of Geoclimatic Studies" curiously lists only one issue on its website - which website was curiously registered just a few days ago on November 2 - and of the several "articles" listed for that "issue", the one about benthic bacteria is the only one available for reading. Meanwhile, John Fleck comments that "the University of Arizona doesn't really have a 'Department of Climatology'" as referred to in the "study".

Looks like a prank. :-)

The exact match in the graphs alone should be a dead ringer - it's very implausibly convenient.

But isn't April 1 the traditional time for elaborate pranks of this kind? (Denis Bider)

HOAX WARNING

RE:  Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria: the death of manmade global warming theory?
        Journal of Geoclimatic Studies (2007) 13:3. 223-231
        http://www.geoclimaticstudies.info/benthic_bacteria.htm <https://webmail.ljmu.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.geoclimaticstudies.info/benthic_bacteria.htm>

There is no Department of Climatology at the University of Arizona, nor is there a Daniel Klein or Mandeep Gupta in the U of A directory. Neither is there an Institute of Geoclimatic Studies. The whole things looks like a nice hoax.

Benny Peiser (CCNet)

Benthic Bacteria Emit Noxious Gases (Hoax Warning)

November 7, 2007

There's a hoax going round, with a very convincing "study" that claims not only to find a link between "benthic bacteria" and temperature increases, but also has the authors say that they were intimidated into not publishing their findings. You can see this clever piece of inventiveness here. The author(s) have even made up past contents for the fake journal. There is no Department of Climatology at the University of Arizona, nor is there a Daniel Klein or Mandeep Gupta in the U of A directory. Neither is there an Institute of Geoclimatic Studies.

A quick whois lookup indicates that the site is registered to one David Thorpe of Powys, Wales, in the UK. There is a David Thorpe who claims to be a "prize-winning novelist and environmental journalist" there and who runs the company to whom the site is registered. He blogs as The Low Carbon Kid.

Congratulations to Mr Thorpe on his eye for detail and the work that must have gone in to producing such a convincing-looking study at first sight. I'm sure he'll fool lots of people who will find the "findings" extremely attractive, but globalwarming.org is not one of them. We are skeptics, after all... (Iain Murray, Cooler Heads Blog)

Nude Socialist... "Are men to blame for global warming?" - "EVEN climate change cannot escape the gender wars. Now Swedish men are being blamed for having a disproportionately large impact on global warming.

The finger is squarely pointed at men in "A study on gender equality as a prerequisite for sustainable development" by Gerd Johnsson-Latham of the Swedish Ministry of Sustainable Development. She concludes: "The fact that women travel less than men, measured in person-kilometres per car, plane, boat and motorcycle - means that women cause considerably fewer carbon dioxide emissions than men, and thus considerably less climate change." She notes that 60 per cent of car emissions are created by the 10 per cent of drivers who use roads the most, and that men account for three-quarters of car driving in Sweden.

Women do not escape censure, however. The report notes that in Sweden, women spend four times as much as men on consumer goods and - in a further dig at men, albeit unintended - 20 times as much on hygiene products." (New Scientist)

"Population 7 billion a sign of success, say authors" - "Global warming is prompting some environmentalists to reframe their approach on how to help stabilize Earth’s climate.

Ted Nordhaus is co-author of the book, Breakthrough: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility. He disagrees with the idea that humans have fallen from nature, that humans’ efforts to control nature are the source of our problems." (Earth & Sky)

"The fraud allegation against some climatic research of Wei-Chyung Wang", Energy & Environment, 18: 985–995 (2007).  Remarks. (Douglas J. Keenan, Informath)

"Global warming 'not linked' to typhoons" - "A study of intense typhoons in the Pacific has failed to show a link with global warming, instead revealing that their number waxes and wanes naturally over the decades." (Roger Highfield, London Telegraph)

"Southeast drought culprit: Not enough hurricanes?" - "Headlines trumpeting a drought crisis in the southeast United States this fall expose the absurdities of global warming paranoia. Green hysteria that blames every weather event on global warming has become commonplace, and journalists from The New York Times to the Augusta Chronicle have blamed the Southeast’s woes on man-made carbon dioxide." (Henry Payne, Planet Gore)

"The Science and Politics of Climate Change" - "The Science and Politics of Climate Change at the 2007 Battle of Ideas conference hosted by the Institute of Ideas. Panelists include Mike Hulme, Chris Rapley, Hans von Storch and Joe Kaplinsky. The panel is moderated by Tony Gillard." (Institute of Ideas)

"Comments About Global Warming" - "I was privileged to work with John Coleman, the founder of The Weather Channel in the year before it became a reality and then for the first of the 6 years I was fortunate to be the Director of Meteorology. No one worked harder than John to make The Weather Channel a reality and to make sure the staffing, the information and technology was the very best possible at that time. John currently works with KUSI in San Diego. He posts regularly. I am very pleased to present his latest insightful post." (Icecap)

"Global warming? Bring it on" - "WHY DO we believe the Earth's climate was at its optimum at the start of the 20th century?" (Gregory J Rummo, The Record)

"John Stossel: ‘Don’t Look to Government to Cool Down the Planet’" - "As NewsBusters reported, ABC's John Stossel bravely presented a skeptical view of manmade global warming on the October 19 installment of "20/20."

As a follow-up, Stossel published an op-ed at Townhall Tuesday that should be must-reading for alarmist media members and policy makers around the country." (News Busters)

What a sad piece of indoctrination... "Elementary school students join fight against global warming" - "Third-grade teacher Debbie Robles made her acting debut before a packed auditorium of youngsters at Rancho Elementary School in Novato. She bombed.

Playing the villain in a school assembly Wednesday aimed at educating the students about global warming, Robles - dressed in a witch's black attire and prancing around the auditorium as "Queen Carbon" - drew the biggest response from more than 500 students who attended two "Curb Your Carbon" assemblies." (Marin Independent Journal)

"Prince 'alarm' at climate change" - "Prince Charles has warned that climate change is the biggest challenge facing society." (BBC)

Long may She reign...

"UN Climate Panel to Discuss Global Warming at Tropical Resort" - "Here's an amazingly inconvenient truth: the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference is being held at the Bali International Convention Centre, "a truly beautiful tropical island paradise...home to the island's most luxurious hotel and resort."

If these folks hate hot temperatures so much, why aren't they meeting somewhere in Greenland where the bogeyman known as manmade global warming can supposedly best be observed?

As this event - scheduled for almost a full two weeks between December third and fourteenth - nears, it seems a metaphysical certitude media won't be discussing the hypocrisy involved in the marvelous climate to be enjoyed by the participants." (News Busters)

"Lieberman-Warner will lead to ‘higher energy prices, lost jobs and reduced GDP'" - "A new analysis of the Lieberman-Warner global warming cap-and-trade bill (S.2191) by the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF) finds the bill will lead "to higher energy prices, lost jobs and reduced GDP (gross domestic product)." (EPW)

"EU Court Says States May Adjust '05-'07 CO2 Plans" - "BRUSSELS/LUXEMBOURG - European Union states may make changes to their carbon emissions plans for 2005-2007, an EU court ruled on Wednesday, dealing a blow to the key regulator of the bloc's emissions trading system." (Reuters)

"China to Reject Binding Emissions Caps, Europe Says" - "BEIJING - China will not accept binding emissions caps in any pact to tackle global warming, a European Parliament team said on Wednesday, but added the bigger obstacle was those countries who might refuse to join the fight at all." (Reuters)

Inter alia: "Carbon tax could pose inflation headache" - "The potential inflationary effect of climate change costs on power and petrol could be a major headache for the Reserve Bank in future, Westpac economists said today." (NZPA)

"Enviros Challenge Dumping Urea in Ocean to Sink Carbon" - "An Australian company is injecting urea into the ocean, hoping to sequester greenhouse-gas pollution and cash in on carbon credits.

If all goes according to plan, oceanic plankton will thrive on the nitrogen-rich urea broth and absorb carbon dioxide. When the plankton die, they'll sink to the bottom of the sea taking the carbon dioxide with them. The business plan: Companies licensing the technology can sell carbon offsets.

But some scientists worry the technique hasn't been rigorously studied. The nitrogen injections, they say, could feed toxic algae, disrupt poorly understood ecosystems and ultimately release more carbon dioxide than is deep-sixed.

"If we're going to entertain such massive measures, they need to be informed by scientific fact and experimentation, and less by opinion and profit motivations," said ocean fertilization researcher Kenneth Coale, director of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in California." (Wired)

To some extent we agree with those against techno-fixes... although our objection is more fundamental. Before engaging is such geoengineering schemes we think there should be a real problem they are designed to address, something which is not true for AGW.

This old chestnut, again... "Maldives Warns Global Warming Threatening Islands" - "LISBON - The President of the Maldives on Wednesday called for urgent global action against climate change, saying rising sea levels are threatening the survival of his country's low-lying islands." (Reuters)

"Climate risk – Acts of God on the books" - "Some investors want US companies to treat climate change as a financial risk in their annual reports. But it is not as simple as it may sound." (EthicalCorp)

The only real risk faced by corporations is climate hysteria -- and this should never get on the books.

"Carbon Neutral Government Act of 2007" - "U. of Illinois lawprof Andrew P. Morriss calls it a "astounding invitation to interest groups and lawyers to help themselves to taxpayers' money" (Point of Law)

"Gore Nightmare Wins as Europe Pays to Ship U.S. Coal" - "Now that the price of coal is at a historic low relative to oil, there's no stopping consumers and producers alike from embracing Al Gore's nightmare.

A ton of U.S. coal is so cheap at about $47 that European utilities will pay $50 to ship it across the Atlantic, according to Galbraith's Ltd., a 263-year-old London shipbroker. While oil and coal cost the same as recently as 1998, West Texas Intermediate crude is five times more expensive after climbing to a record $96.24 on Nov. 1.

Peabody Energy Corp., Consol Energy Inc. and Arch Coal Inc., the three biggest U.S. coal companies, forecast the largest increase in exports in 20 years, degrading the call for a moratorium on coal plants by former U.S. Vice President and this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore. Coal use worldwide has grown 27 percent since 2002, three times faster than crude, said BP Plc. U.S. East Coast coal has risen 71 percent, while oil tripled on the New York Mercantile Exchange." (Bloomberg)

"World to Stay Hooked on Fossil Fuels - IEA" - "LONDON - The world will stay hooked on fossil fuels up to 2030, although oil's share of global energy demand will fall slightly, while coal use rises, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday.

In its annual World Energy Outlook, the IEA predicted fossil fuels would account for 84 percent of the overall increase in energy demand between 2005 and 2030 when consumption will reach 17.7 billion tonnes of oil equivalent (toe), up from 11.4 billion toe in 2005." (Reuters)

Hmm, someone's not too good at these calculations... "Global-warming gases set to rise by 57 percent by 2030: IEA" - "Emissions of greenhouse gases will rise by 57 percent by 2030 compared to current levels, leading to a rise in Earth's surface temperature of at least three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit), the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday.

In its annual report on global energy needs, the Paris-based agency projected greenhouse-gas pollution would rise by 1.8 percent annually by 2030 on the basis of projected energy use and current efforts to mitigate emissions." (AFP)

Keeling has been right so far and the Keeling Curve puts atmospheric carbon dioxide at about 413 ppmv in 22 years time. Even using the IPCC's inflated forcing and sensitivity values that would be about +0.4 Wm^-2 forcing resulting in 0.2-0.4 K warming rather than this report's absurd +3 K, while a realistic value would be around 0.04 K.

Assuming we could somehow leap from the current 0.38% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide to their emission increase estimate of 1.8% (i.e., no loss to previously active sequestration mechanisms) then the expected atmospheric concentration would be ~560 or +2 Wm^-2 for an IPCC guesstimated range of 1-2 K, making an impossible to achieve emission accumulation still short even by massively inflated climate sensitivity calculations. Real world values, however, show that even if we could attain 560 ppmv by 2030 we are still only looking at about 0.1-0.2 K potential warming.

The above numbers naturally assume the sun will actually deliver at least an "average" intensity cycle but, should cycle 24 turn out as quiet as some fear, then cooling should be anticipated instead.

"China to Topple US as Top Energy User After 2010 - IEA" - "LONDON - China is set to dislodge the United States as the world's top energy consumer soon after 2010, as scorching growth there and in India reshape the global energy order, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday." (Reuters)

"Exxon Sees Rising CO2 Emissions Despite More Renewable Fuels" - "SAN FRANCISCO -- It's hardly surprising that Exxon Mobil forecasts continued steady growth in petroleum demand for decades to come.

But the oil giant also sees alternative sources of energy rapidly expanding their share of the market, even if they require a big push in the form of government subsidies and legislation.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) , in a report released Monday looking at the future of its own industry through the year 2030, predicted energy demand worldwide will grow on average 1.3%, or roughly one-third again what is used today, to the equivalent of 325 million barrels of oil a day.

The biggest surge in demand will be seen in developing nations, which Exxon predicts will hit an annual growth pace of 2%, or four times that of the rest of the world.

Exxon's forecast sees hydrocarbons - oil, natural gas and coal - still answering about 80% of the world's energy demand in 2030.

But it also predicts demand for renewable sources of energy such as wind, solar, and biofuels will accelerate at a rapid clip of about 9% a year. But that is still a drop in the bucket. While alternative fuels currently account for about 0.5% of the world's energy demand, they will likely rise to only 2% by 2030, the oil company said." (Dow Jones)

"Big food companies accused of risking climate catastrophe" - "The rush to palm oil and biofuels threatens to release 14 billion tonnes of carbon from Indonesia's peatlands." (The Guardian)

And who is driving the rush to these products? Activists of varied ilk? Imagine that...

"Business body makes climate change plea" - "Business think tank Environment Business Australia (EBA) has written an open letter to both the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party, calling for bipartisan support on climate change action." (AAP)

Are these guys an enviro front or a front for businesses hoping to divert our tax dollars into their pockets?

Uh-huh... "Ship Emissions Causing 60,000 Deaths a Year - Study" - "BEIJING - Emissions from ocean-going ships are responsible for about 60,000 deaths a year from heart and lung-related cancers, according to research published on Wednesday that calls for tougher fuel standards." (Reuters)

"Bad Science Journalism" - "Sometimes Bad Science Journalism is viewed as a tautology. There is no subject journalists seem to understand as poorly as science. This Reuters article by Michael Kahn illustrates why. There is no link to the actual underlying study (a common failing in science journalism) so it’s hard to tell how much fault lies with Mr. Kahn or with the study authors. But I have my suspicions." (Jeff Bohren)

NFI Challenges USA TODAY - The American public deserves accurate, balanced information about fish consumption which public health experts widely agree is a vital part of our diet. USA TODAY instead relied on agenda-driven activists, erroneous data and one-sided reporting in its October 30 cover story. We have requested that USA TODAY address these inaccuracies and will hold USA TODAY publicly accountable. (National Fisheries Institute) | Gannett News Service offers limited response

"Go ahead, have pie (or gravy) during holidays, expert says" - "A Purdue University expert says people who try to deprive themselves of their favorite foods during the holiday season to avoid weight gain are setting themselves up for failure." (Purdue University)

"Now doctors say it's good to be fat" - "After years of anti-obesity public health advice, a major new study causes an outcry by concluding that the overweight live longer." | Jeremy Laurance: This research may bring sanity to the weight debate (London Independent)

"A few extra pounds may save your life" - "Latest research indicates being a little overweight can reduce death risk." (Sacramento Bee)

"Flabby claims about food and cancer" - "Professor Patrick Basham and Dr John Luik, authors of Diet Nation: Exposing the Obesity Crusade, pick apart a shocking report on food and cancer that hit the headlines around the world last week." (sp!ked)

"Is a high-fat diet the answer to the obesity problem?" - "Scientific theories are set up to be toppled. Remember Galileo? How about Darwin or Pasteur?

If history proves him to be correct, Gary Taubes may one day be in their company. In his controversial new book, “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” Taubes challenges current public health approaches to solving the obesity problem. He argues that foods often promoted as good for us are really bad and foods that are considered prohibited are actually good." (Suzanne Saunders, The Examiner)

"Adult Supervision" - "We're already paying the price for the epidemic of overprotectiveness. Congress has appropriated more than $600 million to encourage kids to walk or bike to school. An entire generation of kids now rides in minivans to schools where they aren't allowed to chase one another, swing on swings or play dodgeball. And we wonder why we have an obesity problem.

The Duke of Wellington once said (perhaps apocryphally) that "the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton" -- reflecting his view that competitive sports shape a nation's character. At this point we had better hope that's not true about America, unless we plan on going to war against an enemy who also values non-competitive, risk-free, self-esteem-building play activities for its young." (Charles Sykes, Wall Street Journal)

"Old McDonald Had a Phytochemical" - "Forget the moo-moo here and quack-quack there. Farmers may find phytochemicals to be the barnyard bonanza." (Texas A&M)

November 7, 2007

"Dominic Lawson: A retort to the population control freaks" - "Enoch was right," said Mr Nigel Hastilow, and within 24 hours of uttering those words the speaker found that he was no longer the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Halesowen and Rowley Regis.

Mr Hastilow, you see, had reacted in a completely unacceptable fashion to the Office for National Statistics' report that the population of this country would, largely as a result of net immigration, rise to 71 million in 25 years' time.

Respectable opinion offers a different response to this alleged problem. Thus, on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, Sir Crispin Tickell GCMG, KCVO said that we should be pursuing policies that would reduce our population to 20 million – a third of its current level. Meanwhile, a columnist on The Times, Melanie Reid, argued that we should look to the People's Republic of China for appropriate remedies. Referring to China's "one child" policy, Ms Reid wrote that: "I rather admire the Chinese. They recognised a huge problem and did something about it. It was dreadfully crude but it has prevented the births of 400 million people."

As that great student of Communist China, Jonathan Mirsky, retorted: "The male-female birth rate in China now is between 115 and 118 males to 100 women. The results? Rape, abduction (of females for brides) and female infanticide. Why would anyone admire this, crude or not?" (London Independent)

"Attack of the Killer Mattresses – Coming to TV News Near You!" - "How did a new fire safety standard designed to save hundreds of lives a year get twisted into a health hazard? Who is behind “People for Clean Beds,” and why are journalists turning to a group which claims fire retardants will kill more people than the Black Death and AIDS combined?" (Trevor Butterworth, STATS)

"Rudy Is Right In Data Duel About Cancer" - "My chance of surviving prostate cancer — and thank God I was cured of it — in the United States? Eighty-two percent," says Rudy Giuliani in a new radio ad. "My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England? Only 44%, under socialized medicine."

Critics have attacked his numbers, which he drew from an essay that I wrote for City Journal.

In the New York Times, Paul Krugman declared the stats "bogus numbers wrapped in an invalid comparison embedded in a smear," and added that the 44% figure was wrong, citing a British government stat of 74%. The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson wrote that "the tough-talking former mayor is growing estranged from empirical fact." Bloggers used harsher words.

Let me respond: The mayor is right." (David Gratzer, IBD)

"Causes of Death Are Linked to a Person’s Weight" - "A group of federal researchers report that overweight people are much less likely to die from a grab bag of diseases that includes Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, infections and lung disease." (Gina Kolata, New York Times)

"Universal child care — Are our children better parented by the government?" - "Judy Aron at Consent of the Governed has been discussing thought-provoking issues in her series on growing efforts to create universal government preschools. State-run preschools have already been introduced in a number of states across the country. Promoters for institutionalizing 3, 4 and 5 year olds, she writes, believe parents are incapable of raising their own children without the government’s help. Not only that, but the belief that it gives kids a vital head start in academic success has not been shown to be true in sound research." (Junkfood Science)

"A Research Revolution" - "In a Newsweek article this week, Sharon Begley reported that during the time Andrew S. Grove spent at Intel, the computer chip company he co-founded, the number of transistors on a chip went from about 1,000 to almost 10 billion. Over that same period, the standard treatment for Parkinson’s disease went from L-dopa to . . . L-dopa. Grove (who beat prostate cancer 12 years ago and now suffers from Parkinson’s) thinks there is something deeply wrong with this picture, and he is letting the pharmaceutical industry, the National Institutes of Health and academic biomedicine have it.

What stands in the way of more and faster success in getting cures to patients? “The peer review system in grant making and in academic advancement has the major disadvantage of creating conformity of thoughts and values.” Grove said." (Joseph D’Aleo, CCM)

"Climate Bills Will 'Require a Wholesale Transformation of the Nation's Economy and Society'" - "A Washington Post article today stated that the Democrats' current global warming proposals "will require a wholesale transformation of the nation's economy and society." The article by Post staff writer Juliet Eilperin noted that Democrat presidential candidates' climate proposals would "cost billions of dollars," and detailed exactly what the American people will face when it comes to cap-and-trade proposals." (EPW)

"The opinion polls aren't settled either" - "The BBC is trumpeting the results of a poll it commissioned, which, it claims, shows that "most people are ready to make personal sacrifices to address climate change". (The Monkey Tennis Centre)

Why? "Legal framework for carbon emission cuts" - "Britain will become the first country in the world to introduce legally binding targets to reduce carbon emissions in a bill announced in the Queen's speech today.

The climate change bill would create a long-term legal framework to reduce the UK's C02 emissions up until 2050." (Guardian Unlimited)

"Climate Change Bill promises 60% cuts" - "The Climate Change Bill is claimed to be the first in the world to set a nation on a path towards legally binding cuts of 60 per cent in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050." (London Telegraph)

That Climate Change Bill... - Today is the Queen’s Speech opening Parliament. Here are the full details of the Government’s ‘Climate Change Bill’ as laid out in the Speech [and as as reported by the Rt. Hon. Sir Gullible Green]: (Global Warming Politics)

Emission Impossible - Yet again we see what an abject waste of time the Kyoto Protocol has become. When will politicians face reality? Surprise, surprise. As London’s Metro newspaper vividly reports: ‘Greenhouse gas emissions at “record high”’: (Global Warming Politics)

"More evidence of sun induced Global Warming" - "If CO2 emissions were the major cause of global warming then we would see constant increases in temperature across the day and night as the CO2 blanket keeps the heat inside our atmosphere. Scientific research has shown that this has occurred with both minimum and maximum temperature increasing.

We have pointed out time and time again how minimum temperatures are not a good indication of night time warming, especially when it rarely occurs at night.

But what about the rate of change of temperature anomalies between neighboring times? If CO2 was the major cause of global warming then we would see no significant difference in rate of change of temperature anomalies, in other words, all temperatures should increase equally. If the sun was a major cause of global warming then we would see no or limited changes at night, an increase int he rate of change approaching the middle of the day, and then a decreasing rate of change of temperature anomalies when the sun starts to lose its daytime strength.

So what do we find when looking at the data?" (Gust of Hot Air)

"CBC’s continuing denial of the climate science debate" - "Like the network itself, The Fifth Estate has violated its own mandate with ‘The Denial Machine’

The CBC television programme, “The Fifth Estate”, describes its raison d’ etre as follows:

“to challenge assumptions and question conventional wisdom, and most importantly to give voice to victims of injustice who deserve to be heard but have been silenced.”

But what if The Fifth Estate itself is the perpetrator of the injustice? What if it is their own network that has ignored and mistreated those who disagree with “conventional wisdom” on an issue of national importance? Will the programme then “challenge assumptions” on which fashionable views are based? Or will they simply parrot political correctness, carefully ignoring, or denigrating the opinions of those who spend their lives studying the field?" | Part II: CBC’s denial of the climate science debate (Dr. Tim Ball & Tom Harris, CFP)

"How Green Is NBC?" - "NBC is going green all week long! What does this mean? The peacock logo that perches (rather annoyingly) in the corner of the screen during shows is green. Sometimes, a lil’ green feather detaches and sets up a green tip. Did you know you should buy a power strip to plug all your stuff into, and then turn the strip off, because when electric devices are plugged into the wall, they still use up electricity? I’m unplugging my refrigerator right now!" (Pop Omnivore)

"Green Weak At NBC" - "Environment: A lot of carbon was emitted flying Matt Lauer to the Arctic, Ann Curry to Antarctica and Al Roker to the equator. Want to save energy and the planet? Turn off NBC." (IBD)

Oh boy... "Green with Energy?" - "Energy demands at odds with global warming and health as well as environmental concerns." (MMP)

... affordable energy is one of the key reasons lifespans have risen so much over the past century, increased energy supply equals better health and is most definitely not "at odds with".

What? "Antarctic odyssey documents alarming retreat of the sea ice" - "When the renowned wildlife photographers Jonathan and Angie Scott first visited the Antarctic 15 years ago, at the beginning of the continent's summer in early November, they could see the pack ice from their expedition ship.

But when they returned in later years they had to arrive ever earlier to see the ice. And on their last visit, in 2006, the only way they could get up close was to board a Russian icebreaker. In a lecture to the Royal Geographical Society tonight, Jonathan Scott, who with his wife has spent years capturing the beauty of the Antarctic on camera for a book, Antarctica: Exploring a Fragile Eden, will warn of the devastation man is wreaking on this most remote, inhospitable and awe-inspiring of continents." (London Independent)

Wonder if these dopey beggars were even in the right hemisphere? The only way they could have had trouble seeing Antarctica is because they couldn't get through increasing sea ice:

"Alaska warming from Arctic tundra shrub invasion and soot deposition?" - "Dr. Roger Pielke forwarded me his latest paper published in the JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, for release. It has quite a different take on the issue of regional warming in Alaska. Given the emotional testimony given in congress this week by Cheryl Charlee Lockwood, who is a recent high school graduate and works in the Alaska Youth for Environmental Action program, before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, this study seemed relevant to current events." (Watts Up With That?)

"Understanding global warming" - "You've seen a lot of news stories on it and perhaps you have seen Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." While scientists agree global warming is real and happening now, they disagree over what's causing it." (Jim Kambrich, WNYT-TV)

"Why So Hot Under The Collar?" - "RALEIGH, NC - A journalist friend of mine asked me the other day why my colleagues and I at the John Locke Foundation have so closely followed -- and criticized -- the workings of two state global-warming panels. The answer is simple: there are few issues of greater significance to the future of North Carolina than getting our energy policies right.

Climate-change alarmists believe that energy prices are too low. Most of their policies either would raise utility and gasoline bills directly or are contingent on future energy-price increases that the activists expect and welcome. Few North Carolinians would agree that the electricity and motor fuels they buy are underpriced. That’s why those formulating global-warming action plans prefer to keep the details and cost-benefit projections fuzzy. Close public scrutiny is not their friend.

Well, no one ever said doing the right thing will win you only friends. Sometimes it wins you foes, albeit the right ones.

What North Carolina’s Climate Action Plan Advisory Group (CAPAG) wants state government to do is adopt new taxes, regulations, and subsidy programs that will raise the cost of virtually every trip you take and good or service you buy. Recent increases in energy prices have already translated into price spikes for milk, eggs, and other groceries, because energy costs are a large percentage of the cost of producing and transporting them. The same goes for the cost of housing materials, clothing, appliances, and medical products. The regulators and activists want to see still-higher prices.

Not used to hearing these global-warming policies described as energy-price hikes? That’s because of a successful propaganda campaign to convince policymakers, reporters, and the general public that raising prices will lower prices, that increasing the cost of doing business will create jobs, and other such self-contradictory nonsense. CAPAG has made no use whatsoever of legitimate economic analysis of the proposed global-warming policies, preferring instead to hire consultants without the relevant expertise who are guilty of pervasive errors of logic and computation." (John Hood, Hawaii Reporter)

That virtual world taking a hiding again: "Climate change could diminish drinking water more than expected" - "As sea levels rise, coastal communities could lose up to 50 percent more of their fresh water supplies than previously thought, according to a new study from Ohio State University." (AP)

"UN Climate Chief Confident on Bali Progress" - "SINGAPORE - The UN's top climate change official said on Tuesday he was confident world governments meeting in Bali next month would finally begin negotiations on mapping out a second plan to fight global warming." (Reuters)

Real climate studies at work: "Climate Experts to Help Fight Africa's Meningitis" - "OSLO - Climate and health experts are teaming up to combat meningitis in Africa, fearing that creeping desertification and dust storms will aid a disease that thrives where people suffer from sore throats.

The novel partnership aims to map areas south of the Sahara most vulnerable to droughts and storms, to guide a 10-year UN-backed meningitis vaccination drive due to start in 2008 to protect 350 million people from Ethiopia to Senegal." (Reuters)

"NASA technology helps predict and prevent future pandemic outbreaks" - "With the help of 14 satellites currently in orbit and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Applied Sciences Program, scientists have been able to observe the Earth’s environment to help predict and prevent infectious disease outbreaks around the world. The use of remote sensing technology aids specialists in predicting the outbreak of some of the most common and deadly infectious diseases today such as Ebola, West Nile virus and Rift Valley Fever." (American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene)

That's great fellas... "Scientists enhance Mother Nature's carbon handling mechanism" - "Taking a page from Nature herself, a team of researchers developed a method to enhance removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and place it in the Earth's oceans for storage.

Unlike other proposed ocean sequestration processes, the new technology does not make the oceans more acid and may be beneficial to coral reefs. The process is a manipulation of the natural weathering of volcanic silicate rocks. Reporting in today's (Nov. 7) issue of Environmental Science and Technology, the Harvard and Penn State team explained their method.

"The technology involves selectively removing acid from the ocean in a way that might enable us to turn back the clock on global warming," says Kurt Zenz House, graduate student in Earth and planetary sciences, Harvard University. "Essentially, our technology dramatically accelerates a cleaning process that Nature herself uses for greenhouse gas accumulation." (Penn State)

... and if we ever manage to figure out whether atmospheric carbon dioxide constitutes an actual, real-world problem, we'll be sure to give you a call, alright?

From CO₂ Science this week:
Editorial:
20th-Century and Medieval Droughts: Differences, Similarities and Implications: An important new study ties together some significant loose ends that cut right to the heart of the CO2-climate debate.

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week:
This issue's Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from Nansen Fjord, Eastern Greenland. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period Project's database, click here.

Subject Index Summary:
Growth Response to CO2 with Other Variables (Disease): Can the ongoing rise in the atmosphere's CO2 concentration do anything to ameliorate the negative consequences of the various diseases that afflict the world's plants, including those maladies that weaken and kill the crops upon which we depend for our sustenance?

Plant Growth Data:
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: American Pokeweed, Erect Brome, Heath Sedge, and Paper Birch.

Journal Reviews:
The 1680-2003 Fire History of Southeastern Quebec, Canada: Have forest fires in this part of the world intensified or become more subdued in response to post-Little Ice Age warming?

A Six-Century Streamflow Reconstruction for China's Yellow River: What does it suggest about the river's major "dry-ups" of the late 1990s?

Plant Stomatal Response to Volcanogenic SO2: What is it? ... and what is its primary significance?

Effects of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment on Vegetative Productivity: Have they been over-estimated by enclosure studies?

Herbivores vs. Oak Trees in a CO2-Enriched Atmosphere: Which receives the advantage compared to the situation that prevails in ambient air?

Temperature Record of the Week:
This issue's Temperature Record of the Week is from Coldwater, MI. During the period of most significant greenhouse gas buildup over the past century, i.e., 1930 and onward, Coldwater's mean annual temperature has cooled by 2.46 degrees Fahrenheit. Not much global warming here! (co2science.org)

"Yet Another Energy Revolution (Yawn)" - "The New Age of Energy" trumpets the cover story in U.S. News and World Report this week. Illustrating the revolution is a photo of what looks like a carpenter's level stuck in the ground after just arriving from outer space." (William Tucker, American Spectator)

"EU Executive Faces Blow to Car Pollution Tax Plan" - "BRUSSELS - Several European Union states oppose replacing their car registration tax with a levy based on how much a car pollutes, an EU document showed, in a big setback to the bloc's executive." (Reuters)

You have to be impressed by the success the antis have enjoyed in creating the illusion an essential trace gas is "pollution" with politicians, media and people on the street now apparently comfortable with that misappellation.

"Shell rapped over CO2 advert" - "A Shell advert featuring a drawing of flower heads emerging from refinery chimneys, implying the oil company used its waste carbon dioxide to grow flowers, broke industry rules, a watchdog ruled today." (The Guardian)

Whether Shell deliberately grows flowers with emitted CO₂ is probably irrelevant. Returning that carbon to atmospheric availability (after significant sequestration times) certainly assists in the growth of flowers, trees, crops, rainforests, plankton, um... pretty much all life on Earth, actually.

"Diesel exhaust associated with higher heart attack, stroke risk in men" - "Increased roadway pollution produced by diesel fuel in vehicles is leading to a cascade of conditions that could result in heart attack or stroke, researchers suggested in the report of a small study presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2007." (American Heart Association)

Interesting that absurdly risk-averse Europeans are diesel mad (for environment-friendly reasons, we are assured) and that said Europeans are pressing the US to encourage more diesel-powered passenger vehicles "to reduce greenhouse gas emissions". Killing people OK but assisting a potential 0.35% increase (from 287 to 288 K) in mean global temperature is not?

Uncommon sense: "Record profit and green raspberry from Ryanair" - "Michael O'Leary dismissed the climate change debate as a "middle-class mid-life crisis" as he announced that Ryanair's half-year profits had soared by 24% to record levels and raised the firm's target for the full year.

Mr O'Leary, Ryanair's chief executive, said he was more confident than ever that the no-frills airline could double passenger numbers from 40 million last year to more than 80 million within five years after a strong start to 2007 in which passenger flights rose by 20% to 26.6m.

Rejecting the idea that concerns over climate change could affect passenger numbers he said it was "complete bloody nonsense" for western governments to worry about aviation when it produced only 2% of the world's carbon emissions while shipping and the power industry produced much more.

"China and India are laughing at us while they build more coal-fired power stations. The European middle classes are having a mid-life crisis and the sooner we wake up and say so the better." (The Guardian)

"World Action on Carbon Capture Said Inadequate" - "LONDON - Capturing carbon emissions from power stations and burying them could be a major weapon in the fight against global warming, but to date there has been little sense of urgency anywhere, a leading geologist said on Tuesday." (Reuters)

Woohoo! "Eat More Chocolate and Help the Environment" - "LONDON - Chocoholics can assuage any guilt they may feel after a new process was developed that turns the by-products of making chocolate into a biofuel -- meaning you can eat your chocolate and be eco-friendly." (Reuters)

November 6, 2007

"Curing the Diseases of Poverty" - "ACCRA, Ghana -- The World Health Organization will discuss this week the problems facing the world's poor. Many of the technocrats gathering in Geneva for the Intergovernmental Working Group on public health, innovation and property rights believe that eliminating drug patents will usher in a new era of global health and prosperity. They blame intellectual property laws for high drug prices and limited research and development into cures for the "diseases of poverty" -- illnesses that disproportionally affect the poor, such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Unfortunately for us in the poorest nations, these health activists are missing the forest for the trees. Inadequate infrastructure, not price, is the chief obstacle blocking access of high-quality medicine to poor countries.

Imported drugs often sit for months in Africa's dirty, non-air-conditioned storage facilities -- either losing quality or expiring before reaching patients. Hospitals lack doctors, nurses, equipment and sometimes even electricity to effectively administer available medication. Roads are often in disrepair, making it particularly difficult to reach rural populations, where disease rates are the highest." (Franklin Cudjoe, Wall Street Journal) | For the access impaired

"The Case for DDT" - "Malaria is as old as mankind and still going strong, infecting hundreds of millions (and killing between one and three million) each year. A cure was known in 17th-century Europe. But because it was brought to the continent by Catholic missionaries (who actually learned of it from South American natives), many malaria sufferers, included Oliver Cromwell, thought the medicine was part of a "Popish plot" and refused to take it. Cromwell died of the disease in 1658. It took his death, and the subsequent curing of King Charles II, to shift public opinion in favor of "quinine," as the anti-malaria agent is now called.

A similar situation confronts us today. Mankind now has all the scientific and economic tools to virtually eradicate malaria. But some influential groups are refusing to sanction one of the most effective prevention measures. Here's the twist: in 17th-century Europe, those who rejected quinine sacrificed their own lives. Today, those who block the proven anti-malaria insecticide DDT are mainly condemning poor children in Africa.

It is unfortunate that DDT has become so politicized. Indeed, it is now associated with "right-wing" politics, largely because it has been demonized by environmental activists on the left. Over the past few years, malaria bureaucracies and aid agencies have been harried by American conservatives to account for their reluctance to use DDT. At more than one Senate hearing, Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn has asked why DDT was not being purchased with U.S. tax dollars, given its demonstrated efficacy. Conservative talk-radio hosts, notably Rush Limbaugh, have helped create a groundswell of support for DDT across the country, which has prodded the Bush administration to change its policies.

Mosquito control is a smallish market; but for those selling products in it, DDT can create quite a crimp. The German pharmaceutical giant Bayer was embarrassed a couple of years ago when The Financial Times reported that it was arguing against the use of DDT while trying to sell competitor products. At the time, Bayer actually had a representative sitting on a United Nations anti-malaria committee. Still, its decision to oppose DDT was consistent with corporate self-interest." (Roger Bate, American.com)

Support the campaign against DDT scaremongering with a DDT T-shirt!
Only available from the JunkScience.com Store.

"The Rise, Fall, Rise, and Imminent Fall of DDT" - "DDT is probably the single most valuable chemical ever synthesized to prevent disease. It has been used continually in public health programs over the past sixty years and has saved millions from diseases like malaria, typhus, and yellow fever. Despite a public backlash in the 1960s, mainstream scientific and public health communities continue to recognize its utility and safety. DDT's delisting for various uses in the United States in 1972 was a political, not a scientific, judgment. After decades of extensive study and use, DDT has not been proven to be harmful to humans. But by 1997, its future looked bleak. Environmentalists were pushing for it to be banned worldwide, and its most articulate champion, the South African Department of Health, stopped using it. Surprisingly, DDT recovered its reputation, and in 2006 the World Health Organization (WHO) championed it again. But celebrations have been short-lived. The momentum to increase DDT use has stalled for lack of increased political and financial support." (Roger Bate, AEI)

"Young hunter hypothesis: Why gaining weight with age increases longevity" - "The Daily Mail UK recently reported on a paper published in the journal Medical Hypotheses. Endocrinologists from Israel proposed an interesting hypotheses that JFS readers may find intriguing. Called the 'young hunter hypothesis,' it is supported by the clinical research to date on set-point and the natural weight gain during healthy aging seen among humans throughout history. As the researchers explain, the weight and fat gained in adulthood, particularly around the abdomen, has evolutionary roots and is a major driving force behind human survival and longevity." (Junkfood Science)

Someone's green slip is showing: "WTF? Jennifer Lopez’s New Album Gets Rare Wood USB Key" - "Someone over at SONY BMG Music thought it would be a great idea to team up with the Adam & Eve brand and create a flash USB key made from the threatened wood of a tree in Africa. How they managed to get the product out the door without Lopez suggesting a gift bag made from the skins of puppies is beyond me.

This new USB flash drive — containing the entirety of Jennifer Lopez’s new album Brave — is made from African Blackwood. According to Wikipedia, the tree is severely threatened in Kenya and needing attention in Tanzania and Mozambique. Not only are they being harvested at an increasing rate, but their slow growth of over 60 years to maturity means they are incredibly susceptible to unsustainable management.

SONY should be embarrassed for agreeing to create such a worthless and wasteful music tie-in. We can’t truly fault Lopez, since she’s probably out trapping foxes and tearing the skin from pythons — but we’re pretty sure she’d have the power to do something if she cared. Fortunately, with a price tag of $70 for the key and J Lo’s new album, sales of this item will probably do little damage. Let’s just hope Beyonce doesn’t decide to follow suit." (ecorazzi)

"Fizzling 2007 hurricane season stokes warming debate" - "With less than a month left in the hurricane season, and the remnants of Hurricane Noel dissipating off the New England coastline, it appears this season could end up as something of a bust." (Houston Chronicle)

"Gore, TODAY spread green message" - "Nobel Prize winner says global warming finally getting serious attention" (Mike Celizic, TODAYShow.com)

"Al Gore, Comedian: Media's Global-Warming Coverage Too Balanced" - "Did Al Gore win his Nobel for "peace," or did it perhaps come in a new category: comedy? I ask in the wake of his rib-tickling routine on this morning's "Today." Al, that inveterate card, actually claimed that the MSM's coverage of global warming is . . . too balanced." (News Busters)

"Global Warming: Are You a Whiner or a Viking?" - “Global Warming” has replaced “The Sky is Falling” or “The End is Near” as the doomsday mythology of our (pseudo-scientific) time. Doomsday mythologies are necessary psychological props for the weak minded, nervous Nellie whiners of this and all human generations who justify their wilted flower humanity by arrogantly proclaiming that the worst is inevitable.

The only inevitable is change and the constant challenge of change. Nature abhors not only a vacuum but stasis. Stasis is the goal of the Al Gore whiners of the world who believe, contrary to all evidence, that a perfect world can be created out of the chaos of the natural one–if only we follow them, obey them, and give all our money to them." (Roger Hedgecock, The Southern Ledger)

ANALYSIS OF UNIPCC 4AR DISPELS MYTH OF "THOUSANDS" OF SCIENTISTS

Analysis shows just 5 reviewers, none with impeccable credibility, explicitly endorsed the critical Chapter 9 or WG1 of UNIPCC's 4th Assessment Report which claims that humans have a significant influence on climate. (Climate Science NZ) link to download pdf

"Freeman Dyson on Heretical Thoughts and Climate Change" - "Previously I wrote about Camille Paglia’s view of “fancy-pants, speculative, climate models”. Like Paglia, Freeman Dyson is listed as one of the top 100 intellectuals in the world today, rated at number 25." (Watts Up With That?)

"Proliferation of Climate Scepticism in Europe" - "Climate scepticism has now gained a firm foothold in various European countries." (Hans H.J. Labohm, TCS Daily)

"Cirrus Disappearance: Warming Might Thin Heat-trapping Clouds" - "(Nov. 5, 2007) — The widely accepted (albeit unproven) theory that manmade global warming will accelerate itself by creating more heat-trapping clouds is challenged this month in new research from The University of Alabama in Huntsville." (ScienceDaily)

"Climate change: Rising tides" - "Britain will spend billions to defend against rising tides over the coming decades, but experts are sharply divided as to how far and fast the waters will rise, reveals Roger Highfield" (London Telegraph)

Following on from this item yesterday: "The shape of things to come?" - "A leading climate change scientist gives his prediction of what living with the effects of climate change could be like within 50 years" (Neil Adgar, The Guardian)

correspondent Nigel S. points out the featured town of Happisburgh is no stranger to coastal erosion with their home page opening with the bold text "The wooden sea defences built in the late '50s at Happisburgh, North Norfolk have been failing over the last few years, and large chunks of the sandy cliffs are regularly falling into the sea." under the heading "Help Save Happisburgh". Given they were already building defenses against the sea at the beginning of the Little Cooling (from the 1940s through 1970s) it is a long stretch of the imagination (perhaps it's ecomagination?) to blame gorebull warming.

As an aside on sea level rise and glacial retreat, reader Michael Z. raises the issue of ground water extraction for irrigation and town supply and wonders how the volumes compare. Interesting point. At this time no one has managed to identify any increase in rate of sea level rise although people are certainly transferring significant volumes of water from aquifers to oceans via irrigation schemes and effluent drainage. Where is the 'extra' water going? Are glaciers not really in general retreat after all? Has aquifer recharge increased so there is little net depletion? Are high latitude land borne ice sheets actually gaining mass to make up the difference? Al's simplistic CO₂ emission = warming = sea level rise looks more naïve by the minute, doesn't it?

"Greenland Climate: Now vs. Then, Part II. Record Greenland Melt Area?" - "Recently the press was more ablaze than California with NASA proclamations that the surface area of Greenland had melted in 2007 at a record-high rate. This is true, if the record only extends back only 20 years or so—which is the case of the NASA dataset. If you could peer back a bit further into the past, say back into the 1950s, it is quite likely that the melt area in Greenland then was about the same as it is now, effectively rendering the 2007 melt area hardly newsworthy. Just another NASA climate-change exaggeration?" (WCR)

"Joe Bastardi Interview Part II" - "Katie Fehlinger brings you part two of her interview with our hurricane and long range expert Joe Bastardi. You do not want to miss this one." (AccuWeather)

"Global Warming Causes Carbon Dioxide" - "Erroneous Scientific consensus stifles progress" (Tom Scheffelin, California Air Resources Board -- Design News)

"Myths, Lies and Deceptions of Climate Change Part 1: The Arctic" - "It seems we are bombarded daily with news of the looming catastrophe from climate change. You can’t turn on the news these days without some anchor telling us that we are facing certain doom if we don’t take drastic measures to stop climate change. But are these reports accurate?" (GloWarming Skeptics)

The Cause of Global Warming—Are We Facing Global Catastrophe in the Coming Century?

GLOBAL SEA-LEVEL RISE: SHOULD I SELL MY SHORE HOUSE?: MILLER, Kenneth G. Sr¹, SUGARMAN, Peter J.², and BROWNING, James V.¹, (1) Dept. of Geological Sci, Rutgers University, 610 Taylor Rd, Piscataway, NJ, (2) New Jersey Geol Survey, P.O. Box 427, Trenton, NJ
Rising sea level poses a threat to coastal communities, yet the extent of this threat is often exaggerated in the media, from an “Inconvenient Truth” to the New York Times, scaring citizens into thoughts of a real estate exodus. Recent studies have documented that sea level is rising today at 3.3±0.4 mm/y, accelerating from a 20th century rise of 1.8±0.3 mm/y. We show that the maximum global rate of rise prior to 1850 was 0.5-1.0 mm/y and thus can attribute <<30% of the modern rise to natural causes. By 2100, the IPPC best estimate is that global sea level will rise by at least 40 cm (1.2 ft). However, this is not a reason to flee the beaches in panic; Atlantic City saw 40 cm of rise in the 20th century. Most regions will also see additional relative rise due to subsidence, ranging from 10-20 cm along the U.S. east coast to over a meter in southern Louisiana and Bangladesh. In the latter cases, regionally high subsidence rates are the prime concern, not global rise due to warming. The most important effects of sea-level rise in the next century will continue to be its exacerbating influence on coastal storms, the loss of marshlands, and the continued costs to fight the inexorable march back of the beaches. But we note the following concern: Rahmsdorf et al. (2007) show that we are tracking at the high end of the IPCC estimates and conclude that 80 cm (2.4 ft) is the most likely global rise by 2100. This higher rate of rise is a major concern: it will result in loss of land (1-3% of the U.S. east coast), loss of marshland, higher beach erosion, and high costs to society. A major unknown is that the upper limit of 80 cm of rise by 2100 is not well constrained. If the rate of Greenland melting continues to increase, it is possible that the global rise by 2100 will exceed 80 cm. In that case, higher ground is preferred.

LATE-19TH CENTURY TO EARLY 21ST CENTURY BEHAVIOR OF SOUTHERN ALASKAN GLACIERS: MOLNIA, Bruce Franklin, USGS, 926A National Center, Reston, VA
One of the most significant indicators that southern Alaska regional climate has been changing during the period from the late-19th to early-21st century has been a comprehensive photographic record documenting variations in the distribution and extent of the region's glaciers. Historical photography of many of these glaciers began in the mid-1880s, resulting in a visual record that depicts characteristics of many Coast, St. Elias, Chugach, and Kenai Mountains glaciers for at least half of the post-Little-Ice-Age period. By 1920, photographs of more than 200 southern Alaskan glaciers existed. By the late 1940s, all had been photographed.

Weather station observations have documented that mean annual temperatures throughout Alaska have increased an average of ~2.0o C during the past six decades. However, the photographic record shows that long before an instrumental record was available, nearly all of the larger valley glaciers throughout this region were thinning and retreating. Their response, with loss of length, area, and volume began in some regions as early as the mid-18th century. These observations suggest that a significant temperature increase began to impact glacier health much earlier. Other data that reinforce this observation include early maps depicting glacier extent, historical naratives, and vegetation analysis.

In most areas analyzed, every glacier that descends below an elevation of ~1,500 m is currently thinning and/or retreating. Many glaciers have an uninterrupted history of continuous post-Little-Ice-Age retreat and thinning that spans more than 250 years. Other glaciers are characterized by multiple late-19th to early-21st century fluctuations. Today, more than 98% of the glaciers examined are thinning and/or retreating.

In southern Alaska, only about a dozen lower elevation glaciers are currently advancing and thickening. Many of these advancing glaciers are or formerly were tidewater glaciers. Several of these glaciers have been advancing and thickening for more than two centuries. This presentation documents the post-Little-Ice-Age behavior and variability of the response of many southern Alaskan glaciers to changing regional climate.

CORRELATION OF GLACIAL SEQUENCES TO UNRAVEL PATTERNS OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE: WHAT RESOLUTION IS NEEDED?: LOWELL, Thomas V., Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
The growth and decay of glacier systems are a sensitive indicator of past and present climate changes. The challenge to sort out the significance of these paleoclimate indicators perhaps lies not in the sensitivity of the glacier system (< 1°C) but rather on assignment of timing to the glacial events. For example, an apparent reported offset of a few hundred years, the length of the present global warming trend, between glacial systems in different polar hemispheres might be taken as either a synchronous event, which could reflect a change in the global energy balance, or out of phase relationship which might be taken as a regional redistribution of heat. Unless any systematic offset in the dating assignment is less than the response time of the glacier system, a robust conclusion about the climate phasing across different spatial areas is unlikely. A part of the challenge may be that dating glacial expansions require somewhat atypical geologic settings and thus can be done in relatively few areas. Glacial retreats provide a wider range of settings for dating, but often times the “date” assigned reflects geologic processes other than the initiation of ablation from climate warming. Suspect conclusions can arise if a maximum age from one area is compared to a minimum age from another area. In cases where both maximum and minimum dates are available on the same glacial event, a typical offset is some ~600 cal years reflecting the duration of glacier cover and any offset from the stratigraphic context.

Although glacier systems can respond on decade time scales to climate, the filtering effect of the geological record (the temporal sum of the resolution of the dating tool, the duration of glacier expansion, and the sedimentary record) currently seems to require that events have durations > 600 cal yr before firm phasing relationships can be ascertained. Efforts must be made to reduce this before the full value of glacial records can contribute to the understanding of climate change.

GEOLOGIC EVIDENCE OF RECURRING CLIMATE CYCLES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CAUSE OF GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGES IN THE COMING CENTURY: EASTERBROOK, Don J., Dept. of Geology, Western Washington Univ, Bellingham, WA
Synchronous, interhemispheric, Holocene and late Pleistocene climate changes are recorded by glacier fluctuations, oxygen isotope ratios, CO2, and dust in ice cores, historic observations, and tree rings. Recurring cycles of global climate change are apparent in these records over the past several centuries and millennia and clearly show that natural climatic warming and cooling have occurred many times, long before anthropogenic CO2 emissions raised atmospheric CO2 levels. In addition to showing that climate changes can occur without human CO2 emissions, past climate changes follow cyclic decadal patterns that can be traced for 400–1000 years.

The Earth is now near the end of a 30–year warm cycle, which coincidently corresponds to high atmospheric CO2 levels. However, the preceding 30–year global cooling cycle (1945-1977) occurred despite the dramatic rise in CO2 emissions that began about 1945, and about half of the global warming of the past century occurred before 1945. Because ~80% of manmade CO2 emissions occurred after 1945, increased atmospheric CO2 clearly did not control climate in either case.

Similar warming and cooling cycles that have occurred over the past 400 to 1000 years have implications for understanding present–day global warming. The only time that global warming coincided with high atmospheric CO2 was from 1977 to 2007, but the present warm cycle is just what would be expected from the pattern of past cycles. If the cyclic pattern continues, the present warm cycle should soon end and global cooling should begin and continue until about 2040. The succeeding warm period (2040-2070) may be somewhat warmer than the present one, but well below temperatures predicted by the IPCC. The projected cool cycle from 2070 to 2100 would cool climates slightly, so by 2100, the temperature increase above the present would amount to only ~0.5 C (1° F), compared to as much as 6° C (10° F) predicted by the IPCC.

The predicted IPCC temperature increase by 2011 is 1° F greater than that predicted by extrapolation of the climatic cycles and nearly 2° F greater by 2030. These differences are greater than warming of the entire past century, so should be easily detectible. Thus, the next few years may tell us whether we're heading for the global catastrophe predicted by IPCC or minor warming predicted by climate cycles.

VARIATIONS OF TOTAL SOLAR IRRADIANCE AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE: WILLSON, Richard, Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University, 12 Bahama Bend, Coronado, CA
Contiguous Total solar irradiance (TSI) observations have been made by overlapping satellite experiments since 1978 during solar activity cycles 21 - 23. A TSI composite time series constructed from these results demonstrates a 0.04 percent per decade upward trend between the minima during cycles 21 to 23. As the next solar minimum approaches it appears the trend will be smaller between solar cycles 21 and 24. Yet even a smaller trend, sustained over climate time scales, could be a significant climate forcing. While the sensitivity of climate change to TSI variation has yet to be established quantitatively, recent phenomenological modeling has shown that TSI variation could have provided a significant component of the climate change during the industrial era and was the driving force behind the medeival climate optimum and the ensuing little ice age.

EXAGGERATION OF HUMAN-INDUCED GLOBAL WARMING PREDICATIONS: GRAY, William M., Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
The role of anthropogenic CO2 as a causal mechanism of the observed global warming over the past 30 years and last century has been exaggerated. Most of this warming is due to natural climatic cycles driven by changes in the mean rate of the ocean's meridional overturning circulation (MOC). The numerical GCM simulations of the influence of human-induced greenhouse gases are flawed due to their inability to realistically model upper-level water vapor. Most GCM's are programmed to cause increases in upper-level water vapor as global precipitation increases. However, observations over the last 40-50 years indicate that there has been a small decrease in upper-level water vapor associated with increased precipitation and global warming. Evidence will be presented to show that global atmospheric temperature warming over the last 30 years (and the last century) is primarily due to natural changes in salinity-driven deep ocean circulation. Atmospheric and oceanic proxies for the mean rate of meridional ocean circulation (MOC) will be presented that link variations in the mean rate of MOC (with a multi-year lag) to periods of global warming and cooling.

A discussion of the Atlantic and global variations of tropical cyclone activities over the last 50 years will also be presented. Evidence does not support an anthropogenic component. (2007 Geological Society of America Denver Annual Meeting (28–31 October 2007))

"Alps tourism anticipates climate change" - "INNSBRUCK, Austria - Climate change in the Alps may not be all bad.

For many Alpine ski resorts, the prospect of sparse snowfall in a warming world could be a chance to spice up their selling points and come up with new, creative ways to entice tourists.

Think of it as a mountain makeover with an educational edge." (AP)

Flashback: "Green Alps instead of perpetual ice" - "Glaciers are widely considered as indicators for global warming. Several glacier and climate experts now present new studies with astonishing results. The current decline of the glaciers, according to these studies is not unique. Far from it: over the past 10,000 years these slopes of the Alps have been green more than once." (Michael Breu, ETH Life)

"Proposal to fix Pacific with 'urea' dump" - "Proposals to dump large quantities of nitrogen-rich chemical in the Pacific as a quick fix for climate change have emerged at a UN treaty meeting in London." (London Telegraph)

"Lieberman-Warner climate bill: reactions" - "U.S. Senators Lieberman and Warner are proposing a new bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." (The Reference Frame)

Ooh! Doesn't authority get grumpy when politicians won't keep giving it vast amounts of our money? "Nobel scientists slam Tories for cuts to climate-change research" - "Canadian winners of the Nobel Prize say the Harper government is failing to protect the country from the dangers of global warming because it has shut down a federal climate-change research network and blocked new studies on the impact of rising greenhouse-gas emissions in the atmosphere." (Mike De Souza, CanWest News Service)

Proving you can fool most of the people some of the time? "Canadians would accept personal sacrifices to curb climate change: poll" - "PARIS -- Canadians are among the world's leaders in being prepared to accept potential lifestyle changes and higher taxes in order to address climate change, according to a new poll released Monday." (CanWest News Service)

He's still at it: "Rich nations must bear bulk of carbon adjustment costs: Stern" - "MUMBAI: ”Most of the greenhouse gases are emitted by the rich countries and they should bear the bulk of the carbon adjustment,” says professor Nicholas Stern, the chairperson of the Stern Committee on Climate Change." (Economic Times)

Using Stern's BS models: "UK can meet an 80 per cent CO2 target" - "The UK can cut its CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 according to a new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), WWF and the RSPB published today (Monday). The report says that the Government’s current target of 60 per cent cuts in CO2 emissions by 2050 is inadequate because it is based on out-dated science and excludes the UK’s share of emissions from international aviation." (Press release)

More wannabe social engineers: "Q&A: 'The UN does not expect India to reduce emissions'" - "The UN Human Development Report's core message is that climate change could cause reversal of human development in the 21st century, particularly in developing countries. Lead author Kevin Watkins tells Narayani Ganesh that rich countries ought to take drastic, mandatory action to prevent global catastrophe." (Times of India)

"Warning of 'crisis of inequality'" - "Poor most at risk as countries lack means to tackle problem: UNDP" (The Nation)

And the answer is development of underdeveloped nations, not impoverishing already developed ones.

"European Climate Change Committee visits China to discuss Kyoto talks" - "China is reluctant to accept mandatory emission cuts, saying that as a developing country, it cannot yet afford to make such an undertaking.

It has also repeatedly argued that a significant proportion of its greenhouse gases arises from its growing role as the supplier of manufactured goods to the international economy.

However, Europe is thought to be pressing for at least a symbolic commitment to cuts on the part of the Chinese government in order to help persuade the US to join any post-Kyoto regime." (XFN-ASIA)

"Blair calls on US, Europe to engage with China on climate change, global issues" - "HONG KONG - The United States and Europe need to engage with China and other countries if they want to tackle global issues such as climate change, terrorism and free trade, Britain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday." (AP)

Oops... "Japan's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rise 6.4% From 1990 Levels" - "Nov. 5 -- Japan's greenhouse gas emissions rose 6.4 percent in the year ended March from 1990 levels, forcing the government to quicken measures to ensure the country meets its Kyoto Protocol target." (Bloomberg)

"Rich Nations' Climate Emissions Up, Near Record" - "OSLO - Rich nations' greenhouse gas emissions rose near to an all-time high in 2005, led by US and Russian gains despite curbs meant to slow global warming, UN data showed." (Reuters)

"EU leaders will fly across Europe just to sign treaty" - "The European Union opened itself up to criticism from eurosceptics and environmentalists yesterday after agreeing to split next month's summit of 27 heads of state and government between Lisbon and Brussels. Barring a last-minute change of heart, 26 presidents and prime ministers will fly by private jet to Lisbon, swiftly sign the contentious new EU treaty and hop back onto their planes, returning to Brussels for the normal sumptuous summit dinner and discussions about climate change, the Middle East crisis and the credit crunch." (The Guardian)

"Climate change needs to be fought like 'World War Three'" - "The fight against climate change has to be fought like "World War Three", the head of the Environment Agency warned today." (Daily Mail)

Meaning, like, with tactical nukes or something?

"Florida Gov. to Lobby for Ethanol on US Congress" - "SAO PAULO - Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said on Monday he will encourage US Congress members to lobby for more ethanol use and a reduction in the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on Brazilian imports of the biofuel." (Reuters)

Another misguided moonbat missive: "The western appetite for biofuels is causing starvation in the poor world" - "Developing nations are being pushed to grow crops for ethanol, rather than food - all thanks to political expediency" (George Monbiot, The Guardian)

Actually George, they are being pushed into such a bizarrely distorted market by subsidies extorted by special interest lobbies wielding global warming hysteria -- which you also promote in order to profit from book sales. George, you are a large part of the problem here, mate.

"Solar-Power Fever May Not Last - Japan's Tokuyama" - "TOKYO - The world's current fever for solar power may not be sustainable and could be a bubble, an executive at Japanese silicon maker Tokuyama Corp said on Monday." (Reuters)

"Socialist oil death spiral" - "Socialism always plants the seeds of its own destruction, and state-owned oil is no exception. Most people do not realize that about 90 percent of the world's liquid oil reserves are controlled by governments or state-owned companies. Exxon Mobil, the world's largest privately owned oil company, owns only 1.08 percent of the world's oil reserves, and the five largest private global oil companies together own only about 4 percent of the world's oil reserves.

There is enough liquid oil in the ground to last generations; and when oil sands and oil shale are included, there is enough oil to last centuries. If there were a truly free market in oil, with both the reserves and production owned and controlled by many competitive companies, the price of oil would be a fraction of today's price.

The high price of oil is a direct consequence of artificial supply constraints imposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other countries, including the United States, and the incompetence and mismanagement found in most state-owned oil companies. OPEC is an international government cartel made up of Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Angola, Algeria, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. These nations control about 77 percent of the world's known liquid crude oil reserves.

Most of these countries and other major oil producers that rely on mainly state-owned companies, such as Russia, have underinvested in exploration and development of new production facilities and mismanaged the ones they have. (If politicians understood the facts and were truthful, they would rant against "greedy" socialists rather than private oil companies.)" (Richard W. Rahn, Washington Times)

Bull spit! "Time to clean up our energy" - "IN just one day the future for Australian jobs and the economy looks a whole lot brighter.

With the ALP announcement last Tuesday of a 20 per cent renewable energy target by 2020, the bar has been raised on the Coalition's 15 per cent-by-2020 plan. Politicians are finally taking the issue seriously." (Herald Sun)

Written by the CEO of the peak industry body of the subsidy harvesters...

Wonder if this means Europe is catching up to North American reforestation? "Europe's forests flourishing, but fire remain a threat: study" - "Fires pose a major threat to Europe's woodlands, but the continent remains the world's only area where forest ecosystems are undergoing a revival, an international study said Monday." (AFP)

"Devgen, Monsanto Develop In-Seed Crop Protection" - "BRUSSELS - Belgian biotech group Devgen said it had developed together with US agricultural products company Monsanto Co an insect-protection approach for crops that can be built into the seeds." (Reuters)

"France Casts Doubts on Timing of GMO Evaluation" - "PARIS - It may take longer than expected to assess pest-resistant genetically modified (GMO) crops for use in France, the agriculture minister said in remarks published on Monday." (Reuters)

November 5, 2007

"A Long Range Forecast" - "It was already late fall and the Indians on a remote reservation in South Dakota asked their new chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a chief now in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky, he couldn’t tell what the winter was going to be like." (Icecap)

How naïve can you get? "Solutions v sophistry" - "The IPCC, an independent, global panel of scientists, has now clearly shown the causes and effects of climate change. Will the world listen?" (David Adam, The Guardian)

"Living on the edge?" - "SINCE the Industrial Revolution, which led to Wales producing steel and coal for a lucrative global market, concentrations of the principal greenhouse gas – carbon dioxide – have risen by a third.

Sir John Houghton, former co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who lives in Aberdovey, Gwynedd, said Wales and the UK grew rich from using cheap energy from coal, oil and gas for more than 200 years.

He said, “It is only recently that we have realised the damage we are causing and that the damage falls disproportionately on poorer nations." (Sally Williams, Western Mail)

Really? Well let's just have a look at some of the IPCC numbers and icons, shall we? Everyone remembers the hokey Hockey Stick graphic so utilized by the IPCC to popularize dramatic warming. This graphic representing Mann's recent climate reconstruction suggests temperature was all but flat from the Maunder Minimum to the latter 19^th Century, when it began to rise dramatically.

Lean's solar irradiance reconstruction suggests Sol has been contributing about an extra 3 Wm^-2 since the Maunder quiet time. The IPCC's WG1 AR4 (Ch 2, p136) puts human contribution at about 1.6 Wm^-2 (about the same as increment in atmospheric CO₂ when +ve and -ve forcings are taken into account). So, we have positive forcings roughly estimated at 3 + 1.5 = 4.5 Wm^-2 and warming estimated at 0.65 ± 0.2 K, two-thirds solar and one-third anthropogenic.

Whichever way you look at the IPCC's numbers we don't have a problem as advertised. Why not? Because a doubling of atmospheric CO₂ can deliver (at most) 3.7 Wm^-2 and we have already experienced more than that without seeing anything like the absurd model-generated 5 or 6 kelvins warming. What we have seen is well under one-third of one kelvin warming from increased atmospheric carbon dioxide and that's almost half the warming possible from doubling pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

"The deceit behind global warming" - "No one can deny that in recent years the need to "save the planet" from global warming has become one of the most pervasive issues of our time. As Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, claimed in 2004, it poses "a far greater threat to the world than international terrorism", warning that by the end of this century the only habitable continent left will be Antarctica.

Inevitably, many people have been bemused by this somewhat one-sided debate, imagining that if so many experts are agreed, then there must be something in it. But if we set the story of how this fear was promoted in the context of other scares before it, the parallels which emerge might leave any honest believer in global warming feeling uncomfortable." (Christopher Booker and Richard North, London Telegraph)

"If not in atmosphere, where does carbon go?" - "A prominent atmospheric scientist Monday (Oct. 29) called for more research into natural carbon “sinks,” which today absorb almost half of man-made carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere and which will play a large role in determining the extent of future global warming. (Harvard University)

"Ocean carbon sink & Henry's law" - "David Archer at RealClimate.org is promoting a new kind of climate catastrophe. The ocean is already getting "fed up" with absorbing man-made carbon dioxide, he says. The ocean will get so upset that it may start to emit CO2 instead, we learn. A usual discussion about positive feedbacks and tipping points follows." (The Reference Frame)

"Le Chatelier's principle and nature's adaptation" - "The discussion about the ocean carbon sink and Henry's law inevitably evolved into chemistry, especially the question how various concentrations in the equilibrium respond to external changes. I would like to say a few words about an important principle that is respected by all these processes, namely Le Chatelier's principle." (The Reference Frame)

"Commerce Department Study Finds 'Unprecedented' Arctic Melting" - "Washington, D.C., November 2, 2007—The story is ominous, chronicling the melting of glaciers, the disappearance of Arctic sea ice, and the eradication of seal habitat. It could have been written yesterday, but it was actually written 85 years ago today." (CEI)

Partly right... "Climate shift 'poles apart'" - "The Antarctic will be spared the worst of global warming and its ice mass could even grow, but the Arctic will be devastated by rising temperatures, a major new scientific report will claim.

In contrast to earlier fears that ice around the South Pole will suffer widespread melting, the United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change says that Antarctica's ice sheets will remain too cold for widespread melting before the end of the century and are expected to get bigger as more snow falls.

The Arctic, by comparison, will suffer widespread loss of sea ice while the Greenland ice sheet will have almost completely disappeared by the end of the century. Up to half of the Arctic tundra will be replaced by forests as temperatures rise by 4degC." (Richard Gray, London Telegraph)

There is no risk of Antarctic meltdown, either this century or this millennium, so that part is correctly reported. On the other hand, there is no risk of Greenland's ice sheet doing so either (like Iceland, most of Greenland's icy interior drains by a kind of "saucer overflow" and it would require sustained warming of >5 °C for about 3,000 years to melt it down).

We don't know whether the above absurd claim of loss of the Greenland ice sheet in a mere century is a misprint, journalist error or deliberate misinformation but it surely does nothing for scientific credibility.

"Traversing the Arctic" - "As darkness overtakes the very Far North, and the wintry plunge in temperatures starts to rebuild the depleted Arctic Ocean floes, several newsbits offer harbingers of hot change in 2008 and beyond." (Alaska Report)

"Polar bear pandering" - "Sen. Barbara Boxer of California delivered a speech in the Senate last week in which she linked global warming to the San Diego wildfires, Darfur, the imminent loss of the world's polar bears and even a poor 14-year-old boy who died from "an infection caused after swimming in Lake Havasu," because its water is warmer. Forget arson. Forget genocide. Forget nature. There is no tragedy that cannot be placed at the doorstep of global-warming skeptics.

Oh, and there's no need to acknowledge that the regulations or taxes necessary to curb emissions by a substantial degree might damage economic growth. According to Boxer, laws to curb greenhouse gases - this country would have to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half over 12 years to meet the latest international community goals - will do good things for the American economy and create lots of jobs. It's Nostradamus Science wedded to Santa Claus economics. (Debra J. Saunders, SF Chronicle)

"Guest Weblog: CO2 variation by Jim Goodridge, former California State Climatologist" - "Moderator's note: This is reposted from an essay that Jim sent to me. Jim was the State Climatologist for California for many years, and still does consulting work for the California Dept. of Water Resources on rainfall studies. Jim has a command of simplicity in presentation, as you’ll read below. Jim’s presentation lends some insight into why CO2 increases lag temperature in historical and proxy climate records. Jim has also done another essay I’ve posted which relates The Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Sunspots, and Length of Day variances to rainfall patterns in California which you can read here." (Watts Up With That?)

"Bicycles & Bear Skins" - "Global warming alarmists are so confident they've conditioned the masses that they're now moving ahead with their ideas for mandatory lifestyle changes — their goal all along." (IBD)

"Former 'Hurricane' Noel Heads for Eastern New England" - "In a May 18, 2007 blog entitled ”Could this Year Be the Northeast’s Hurricane Year?” we noted “History tells us during the warm Atlantic (phase), New York and New England is also more vulnerable to a direct hit. History also tells us this is more likely during La Nina summers. In fact in the 11 La Nina summers when the Atlantic was warm since the middle 1930s, there was at least one landfalling storm from the east coast of Florida to New England in every year with a total of 15 storms, 9 of the storms affected the northeast directly or indirectly.” (Icecap)

What? "Politics has failed" - "The World Health Organisation talks of 150,000 people dying each year from climate change. In 2007 some 66 million people were made home- less by exceptional floods in Asia. I am writing this in Melbourne where the drought has lasted eight years and shows no sign of abating. Last month a million people were evacuated from fires in California. It is difficult to image what kind of catastrophe we are trying to avoid that is not already happening. And it will, of course, get worse and worse, every year, for all our lifetimes.

Some people say such talk is environmental alarmism. But whatever the talk is, climate change has risen as a political issue in almost every country. Citizens are demanding action. When something is true in reality, they figure, it must also be true in theory." (Paul Dickinson, The Guardian) [em added]

Eye-roller: "Two panels warn climate change could pose huge security challenge" - "AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Climate change could be one of the greatest national security challenges ever faced by U.S. policy makers, according to a new joint study by two U.S. think tanks.

The report, to be released Monday, raises the threat of dramatic population migrations, wars over water and resources, and a realignment of power among nations.

During the last two decades, climate scientists have underestimated how quickly the Earth is changing — perhaps to avoid being branded as “alarmists,” the study said. But policy planners should count on climate-induced instability in critical parts of the world within 30 years." (Associated Press)

"Climate wars threaten billions" - "More than 100 countries face political chaos and mass migration in global warming catastrophe." (Robin McKie, The Observer)

"Global Warming Compared to Nuclear Holocaust -- Again?" - "It's always eyebrow-raising to see liberals denounce Team Bush for blatant "fear-mongering" about the terror threat from al-Qaeda or Iran, then watch them turn around and do blatant "fear-mongering" about global warming. A new report from Arthur Max of the Associated Press helpfully relays a crystal-ball report from several think tanks:" (News Busters)

"Fires Contribute to Global Warming?" - "The recent wildfires in California have certainly provided an opportunity for the greenhouse crusade to further claim that global warming is already increasing fire frequency, duration, and intensity all over the planet. In the midst of the disaster in California, Nevada Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters that “One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming.” However, when pressed by astonished reporters on whether he really believed global warming caused the fires, he appeared to back away from his comments, saying there are many factors that contributed to the disaster. Since then, literally hundreds of newspaper articles appeared throughout the country reinforcing the idea that emissions of greenhouse gases have warmed the earth, dried the forests, and made fires a lot worse." (WCR)

"Circumcision on Decline in Africa Due to Global Warming" - "Maybe the finest example of Global Warming Derangement Syndrome to date is the claim by an Australian mammologist and paleontologist that climate change has reduced circumcision rates in Africa.

I kid you not." (News Busters)

"Global Warming Tutorial Media Should be Required to Watch" - "While media members fawn over Hollywood productions about manmade global warming such as Al Gore's schlockumentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and Leonardo DiCaprio's box office disaster "The Eleventh Hour," they should take time out of their busy propagandist schedules to view a lecture that Australian research professor Bob Carter recently gave." (News Busters)

Doh! "Most Britons Aware But Unwilling on Climate Change" - "LONDON - Warnings about the effects of climate change have made most Britons aware of the crisis, but few are willing to make major changes to the way they live, a survey showed on Friday." (Reuters)

"Surplus to requirements?" - "Emissions trading is the market's solution to carbon reductions, but the scheme has already hit snags. And does it really make a difference?" (David Deans, The Guardian)

Nope! Nor can it ever because anthropogenic carbon emissions don't constitute any meaningful problem.

Oh Neil... "The shape of things to come?" - "A leading climate change scientist gives his prediction of what living with the effects of climate change could be like within 50 years" (Neil Adgar, The Guardian)

... this is fine as far as it goes but adapting virtual worlds to virtual climate change is actually quite painless (denizens of virtual worlds haven't been programmed to feel pain, after all). The real problem is that all these adaptation scenarios are built on the guesstimates of Play Station® climatology, that is, a few modelers produce ridiculous scares from fantasy scenarios and environment scientists try to find mitigation strategies as though it was a real-world problem.

Oh Michael... "New York set to tax carbon emissions" - "New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a national "pollution pricing" plan that would tax companies directly for the greenhouse gases they release." (AP)

... water vapor and carbon dioxide are not atmospheric pollutants, although they are greenhouse gases. As it happens life on Earth depends on them, absolutely.

"Mayor Bloomberg to Attend U.N. Meeting on Climate Change" - "Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is once again getting ready to pack up his plane and head overseas, this time to the island of Bali for a United Nations meeting on climate change next month, he said yesterday.

Details are not yet worked out, aides said, but the mayor said during a speech in Seattle that he would travel to the meeting, joining representatives of some 180 nations, as a guest participant. Mr. Bloomberg, who has been working of late to build his stature as an advocate for the environment, said he would go to the meeting on the Indonesian island because it was important for mayors to help devise an international strategy to combat global warming." (New York Times)

"Warming scaremongers lap up the cash" - "People who reached adulthood in the 1960s were greeted with the growing notion that a "population explosion" would wreak havoc upon civilization. In his 1968 book, "The Population Bomb," Paul R. Erlich predicted that:

In the 1970s and 1980s, hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.

CBS television produced a special program based on his writing to scare the pants off an unsuspecting generation. The media jumped on this new, "enlightened," progressive revelation by this Stanford University butterfly expert, and for years, nations set out to prevent this certain disaster.

It didn't happen, of course." (Henry Lamb, WND)

Very disappointing... "Half of UK's top firms fail to publish plans to cut carbon emissions" - "Only 48 of the top 100 companies trading on the UK stock exchange have published a plan to address and reduce their carbon emissions and a significant minority refuse even to reveal their carbon footprint, a Guardian survey shows." (Murray Armstrong and David Adam, The Guardian)

... because none of them should be wasting shareholders' time and effort like that. They should stop pandering to this greenie nonsense immediately.

"Counting carbon" - "What happened when the Guardian and the CDP asked 1,300 major firms to disclose their emissions?" (Murray Armstrong, The Guardian)

What should have happened is exactly nothing. File all such requests in the virtual waste paper basket and get on with something useful.

"Climate change: we have the power"  -"There are pale greens and dark greens. Often they don’t see eye to eye. But there is no shortage of technologies to tackle global warming. We listen to the visionaries of change" | Climate change: the visionaries creating a greener future (Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times)

"Heading for trouble" - "Can the government be serious about reducing emissions and promoting public transport if it also plans to expand road and air travel? Zara Maung reports" (The Guardian)

Well, no and nor should it be.

"World's Coal Dependency Hits Environment" - "Cheap and abundant, coal has become the fuel of choice in much of the world, powering economic booms in China and India that have lifted millions of people out of poverty. Worldwide demand is projected to rise by about 60 percent through 2030 to 6.9 billion tons a year, most of it going to electrical power plants." (AP)

Obviously worried about CO₂ emissions... "China's Yanzhou Plans to Double Coal Output by 2012" - "ZOUCHENG, China - Yanzhou Coal Mining Co Ltd China's third-largest coal producer by market value, plans to double its annual output to roughly 70 million tonnes by around 2012, with aggressive expansion offsetting lower production at its old mines." (Reuters)

"Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages bite" - "Soaring crop prices and demand for biofuels raise fears of political instability." (John Vidal, The Guardian)

Nice picture, John, choose it yourself? With the caption: "Algae stained mud carpets the drought ravaged Gayngaru wetlands of Arnhem Land in Australia's Northern Territory. Photograph Torsten Blackwood/AFP" it gives the impression of unusual, devastating drought. Slight problem though, the region is monsoonal and this picture would appear to be at or near the end of the long dry season, an annual state of affairs alleviated by "The Wet" when rain teams down and the landscape floods.

"Shrinking ice cap, growing crisis" - "Impact of melting Arctic sea ice seen in drier California winters" (Sacramento Bee)

Except there has been no exceptional drought compared with the the last thousand years' reconstructed data, with the last few hundred exceptional only in how benign they have been.

"Lake Huron water levels spell deep trouble" - "The lake has dropped a metre in last decade and theories abound about the cause." (Toronto Star)

"China blames warming for growing water shortages" - "BEIJING, Nov 5 - China suffers a water shortage of nearly 40 billion cubic metres a year which Water Resources Minister Chen Lei blamed largely on global warming, state media reported on Monday." (Reuters)

"Nature's Assassin" - "It has laid waste to armies, brought empires to their knees and killed half the humans who walked this planet. photojournalist John Stanmeyer travelled the world to document the terrible power of mosquito-borne malaria." (Sunday Herald)

"Last Chance for DDT" - "Thanks to the pragmatism of African health officials and the efforts of some in the U.S. government, the insecticide DDT is still repelling and killing mosquitoes in Africa nations, saving thousands of people from malaria and other infectious diseases each year. But its days may be numbered. While the Bush administration and the World Health Organization have argued articulately in favor of DDT over the past two years, so-called environmentalists and those companies selling alternatives to DDT are pushing to prevent it from being deployed." (Roger Bate, Wall Street Journal) | For the access-impaired

Support the campaign against DDT scaremongering with a DDT T-shirt!
Only available from the JunkScience.com Store.

"Sick and deadly double standards" - "If “corporate social responsibility” is to be more than a brilliant strategy for compelling companies to follow the dictates of “progressive” pressure groups, it must apply defensible ethical principles to all organizations. That is not now the case." (Paul Driessen, Townhall)

"Why the Left Seems Right" - "We laugh at phony predictions made by psychics and fortune tellers, but there is a large group of people that makes predictions on a daily basis – but when they’re wrong, we don’t call them on it. Why not? FSM Contributing Editor Bob Parks delves into a strange phenomenon where the Left always seems as though it’s right." (Bob Parks, The Family Security Foundation, Inc.)

"Fire and Rain" - "When the FBI transferred me to Los Angeles in 1970, I saw every nook and cranny of LA County, including some neighborhoods recently ravaged by fire. On a muddy hillside there was a scorched foundation, and a hand painted sign lamenting, “We’ve seen fire and we’ve seen rain.” For as long as there has been recorded history, the hills surrounding LA burn annually, and this year is no exception." (Gary Aldrich, Townhall)

"Staged marketing event reported as a real story" - "What’s on the news isn’t always real. Last month some marketing agency goofed and forgot the name of the medical organization that had been created to market for the diet drug industry. Not only that, but their press release was again reported on news across the country as if it was a real story. Oops!" (Junkfood Science)

"Blame it on the bacon" - "The latest commotion over diet and cancer suggests the hysteria bug has now infected doctors" (Mark Lawson, The Guardian)

"Living size acceptance" - "Another living example of accepting bodies of all shapes and sizes comes from someone whose TV character was once associated with being without feelings. Mr. Leonard Nimoy, who most remember as Mr. Spock on Star Trek, is not only an actor and director, but a noted photographer and poet with passion and compassion. He has photographed bodies of all sizes, but his latest project is the topic of a recent indepth interview with the Jewish Chronicle. Reporter Simon Round writes:" (Junkfood Science)

"McDonalds in plan to help Amazon forests" - "McDonalds has joined forces with US grain buyer Cargill and environmental group The Nature Conservancy for a strategy that could serve as a model for Brazilian soy farming." (London Telegraph)

EU butterflies 'dire' (London Telegraph)

Well yes, they are but there's no need to be rude about it. Anyway, if the world does warm up a bit some more interesting butterflies might move in :-)

Yomping* The Organic Brigade - I had missed this glorious piece in Tuesday’s Daily Mail by the one-and-only Max Hastings, the ‘liberator’ of the famous Upland (organic?) Goose on the Falkland Islands: ‘Overpriced and over-hyped, don’t believe all you read about organic food’. Now Max was never one to take prisoners: (Global Warming Politics)

"North Sacramento-based Ventria Sowing a storm with altered rice" - "In a little town in Kansas, Sacramento's Ventria Bioscience is about to turn one of the biotechnology industry's long-held dreams – and one of its critics' nightmares – into reality.

For 14 years, Ventria has inched toward its vision of growing fields of genetically modified rice plants that would serve as cheap factories for medicine.

Next year, promises Chief Executive Scott Deeter, Ventria finally will release a mass-market product: an over-the-counter rehydration solution fortified with two anti-bacterial ingredients of human breast milk that grow in the company's proprietary rice." (Sacramento Bee)

"Frankenpolitics" - "It's three strikes and you're out -- except in Europe, where Austria is still illegally trying to ban genetically modified plants and the EU is still letting Vienna get away with it.

Environment ministers from the EU's 27 member states last week deadlocked over a proposal to force Austria to lift its ban on two types of genetically modified corn. This is at least the third time in the past decade that the ministers have failed to force Austria to comply with EU and World Trade Organization rules on genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.

Both the EU and the WTO say that biotech goods can be blocked only for reasons of sound science, not fearmongering about "frankenfoods." Since 1998, the European Food Safety Authority on three occasions has declared these two insect-resistant corns to be unharmful to humans, animals and the environment. The Food Safety Authority's most recent decisions, in 2004 and 2006, should have been the last word.

The European Commission was required to ask member states to go along with a proposal to strike down the Austrian ban. Yet each time the members have chosen to ignore the law rather than offend a fellow government's sensibilities." (Wall Street Journal)

November 2, 2007

"Food Nannies' Halloween Cancer Scare" - "The latest food scare was announced, appropriately enough, on Halloween. But the science behind the scare is about as believable as are ghosts and goblins." (Steve Milloy, FoxNews.com)

Junk à la carte (Number Watch)

"JFS Exclusive: What’s the evidence cancers are our own fault?" - "We haven’t been able to turn on the television or radio or open a newspaper without being hit with news of the Second Expert Report just issued by the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research. The Report is called “Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective,” and is said to have found the most convincing evidence yet that being fat causes six cancers. Cancers, we’re told, “are mostly preventable” by following their diet and lifestyle recommendations." (Junkfood Science)

"The real problem is we're living too long" - "Jeff Randall wonders what Churchill would have made of today's unholy alliance of puritans, health fascists and nanny-state control freaks." (London Daily Telegraph)

"Is Nutrition Science Not Really Science?" - "I was hoping to slow the ban-trans-fat cascade by wondering if it would lead to bans of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup — but some readers liked the idea of outlawing those sweeteners. Well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. But before we pass any more laws on what to eat, I wish we’d take a harder look at how often the supposed experts in nutrition have been wrong before." (John Tierney, New York Times)

"Frog killer fungus 'breakthrough'" - "New Zealand scientists have found what appears to be a cure for the disease that is responsible for wiping out many of the world's frog populations." (BBC via Greenie Watch)

"Effort to Save Everglades Falters as Funds Dwindle" - "Seven years into an $8 billion effort to rescue the Florida Everglades, federal financing has slowed to a trickle." (New York Times)

"Even Harvard Finds The Media Biased" - "The debate is over. A consensus has been reached. On global warming? No, on how Democrats are favored on television, radio and in the newspapers." (IBD)

BS du jour: "Parent sue over bisphenol A in bottles" - "A group of California parents has filed a class-action lawsuit against manufacturers and sellers of baby bottles containing bisphenol A." (UPI)

"World domination" - "JFS readers likely found humorous Medscape’s choice of a title for an article describing the new definition of myocardial infarction: “New Definition of "MI" Poised for World Domination.” Calling the new consensus statement “a bold move,” today’s issue explained that the task force behind the new mandate justified the change by saying it will standardize the definition so that hospitals around the world will be on the same page. The parallel to recent changes in other health definitions is striking, as standardization was the very same rationale used to change the definition of ‘overweight.’" (Junkfood Science)

Why we need broad spectrum insecticides: "Bed bugs: Awake to the growing problem" - "Bed bugs have taken up residence in urban areas across the country, and the infestation may only get worse, said a Penn State entomologist.

Why the dramatic increase? Bed bugs were once a common pest, but were mostly eradicated by older types of insecticides in the last half of the century. According to Steve Jacobs, extension entomologist at Penn State, the spread of bed bugs may be attributed to more people traveling, improved treatment methods that specifically target other pests and lack of public awareness." (Penn State)

"Green Self-Fulfilling Prophecies" - "There is little more annoying for a policy analyst than when two types of wrong-headedness conspire to undermine his case. Such is the case for policies driven by the pursuit of a pesticide free -- or at least pesticide diminished -- future, which will cause an increase in insect-borne disease. When this happens, as it surely will, climate alarmists will claim it's due to your greenhouse gas emissions, not their policies, and will press for more stringent controls." (Roger Bate, TCS Daily)

Now available from DemandDebate.com! A Primer on CO₂ and Climate

Man's additions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere are receiving blame in the popular press for the warming of the earth that has occurred during the last century. All of the hype is based on over-ambitious computer programs with a severe under-representation of data. There are major flaws in the climate models, not to mention that the correct scientific foundation cannot even be represented on the wide grids used by climate modelers. (from Amazon.com) Get your copy from the DemandDebate.com Store!

Neo-Fascism - Today, I should like to commend an interesting article by James Delingpole writing in The Spectator (October 31): ‘Might I be a Marxist?’

In this piece, Delingpole, who is, in essence, right wing politically, wonders why he now seems to share so many viewpoints with Claire Fox, who still describes herself as a Marxist, and who, for 20 years, was a core activist of the Revolutionary Communist Party and associated with the magazine, Living Marxism.

Delingpole observes tellingly:

“Far more important is the way that global capitalism has won the political argument, rendering the old distinction between left and right almost meaningless. Today, the divisions that count are the ones between libertarianism and statism; between the hard-headed empiricism of the Enlightenment and the (currently more fashionable) touchy-feely romanticism of the New Age.”

I could not agree more. This web site stands firmly on the side of libertarianism and the Enlightenment against the authoritarianism and Utopian romanticism of ‘the state’, both of Old Communism and of Fascism. What Delingpole is really concerned about is a resurgent Neo-Fascism, especially with respect to Islamism and “eco-fascist hysteria”, among other issues. (Global Warming Politics)

"'Global Warming' as Pathological Science" - "Trofimko Lysenko is not a household name; but it should be, because he was the model for all the Politically Correct "science" in the last hundred years. Lysenko was Stalin's favorite agricultural "scientist," peddling the myth that crops could be just trained into growing bigger and better. You didn't have to breed better plants over generations, as farmers have been doing for ages. It was a fantasy of the all-powerful Soviet State. Lysenko sold Stalin on that fraud in plant genetics, and Stalin told Soviet scientists to fall into line --- in spite of the fact that nobody really believed it. Hundreds of thousands of peasants starved during Stalin's famines, in good part because of fraudulent science.

There is such a thing as pathological science. Science becomes unhealthy when its only real question --- "what is true?" --- is sabotaged by vested interests, by ideological Commissars, or even by grant-swinging scientists. Today's Global Warming campaign is endangering real, honest science. Global Warming superstition has become an international power grab, and good science suffers as a result." (James Lewis, American Thinker)

"NASA Data May Help Improve Estimates of a Hurricane's Punch" - "As Tropical Storm Noel churns off Florida's east coast, NASA and university scientists have announced they have developed a promising new technique for estimating the intensity of tropical cyclones from space. The method could one day supplement existing techniques, assist in designing future tropical cyclone satellite observing systems, and improve disaster preparedness and recovery efforts." (NASA)

"Palin says polar bear protection as endangered is unjustified" - "Unfazed by new studies predicting the disappearance of polar bears from Alaska, Gov. Sarah Palin is repeating her opposition to listing the bears as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

There's still too much uncertainty about the future melting of the polar ice cap to justify such a listing, Palin told the federal government last week. And declaring any species "threatened" because of possible global warming effects would "open the floodgates" for petitions affecting thousands of other species, she said.

Palin said the polar bear has become "a metaphor in the highly charged climate change debate." Those petitioning for protection are using the bears to affect national policy on such distant issues as carbon emissions, which should be addressed in other ways, she said." ADN)

"New global warming villain fingered: Trees" - "Forests have long been thought of as an ally in the fight against global warming, but a new study suggests that Canada's boreal forest may in fact be releasing more greenhouse gases than it absorbs.

“The boreal forest, at least in the north-central part of Manitoba, has gone from a weak carbon sink to a weak carbon source,” said Dr. Tom Gower of the University of Wisconsin, whose paper is being published Thursday in the journal Nature. “It is now contributing to atmospheric (carbon dioxide) concentration.”

Dr. Gower and his fellow researchers studied a million-square-kilometre stretch of forest around Thompson, Man. The team took field measurements of how carbon moved between the forest and the atmosphere and then used computer modelling and forestry records to suggest how that cycle has changed since the 1950s.

Trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they burn or decompose." (Canadian Press)

Funny how tree romantics never actually understand carbon cycling. Young, vigorously growing forests lay down new timber composed partly of carbon captured from the atmosphere while old forests are decaying at rates akin to growth. If you want trees to remove carbon from the system then the way to do it is harvest them before they rot, putting them to long-term use as buildings or furniture, for example and replace them with new, vigorously growing young trees. Mature canopies are, at best, carbon neutral (until they inevitably burn or rot).

"US fires release large amounts of carbon dioxide" - "Large-scale fires in a western or southeastern state can pump as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in a few weeks as the state's entire motor vehicle traffic does in a year, according to newly published research by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado at Boulder." (NCAR)

It's supposed to be a nice holiday... "The icy road to Bali" - "The UN's quiet new boss is hoping that his eco-tour of the southern hemisphere will concentrate minds on the planet's travails." (The Economist)

Time it actually did something useful, like closing its doors permanently: "A UN agency struggles with climate change" - "NAIROBI is the third base of operations for the United Nations, after Geneva and New York. It is home to two UN agencies: Habitat, which deals with urban planning, and the United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP, which has had a mandate to “save the environment” since its inception in 1972." (The Economist)

Should've expected this: "Britain's colossal food waste is stoking climate change" - "Britons must swap their wasteful habits with food for the thrifty approach of previous generations by buying less and eating leftovers if the UK is to play its part in averting climate change, shoppers were warned yesterday.

The call for a "cultural" move against overshopping was made by Joan Ruddock, the Environment minister, after research showed Britons threw away one third of their food, at an enormous hidden financial and environmental cost.

Annually, the UK dumps 6.7 million tonnes, meaning each household jettisons between £250 and £400 worth of food each year. Most of the waste – which nationally costs £8bn – is sent to landfill where it rots, emitting the potent climate- change gas methane." (London Independent)

"Campaign launched to reduce UK's £8bn food waste mountain" - "British households are in effect throwing away every third shopping bag of food they buy, most of it ending up in landfill at huge environmental and financial cost, according to research." (The Guardian)

More Krupp: "A Lid On Warming: Lieberman Bill To Cap Emissions On Track" - "When it comes to climate change, words are almost as plentiful as greenhouse gases. Speeches, rallies and campaign promises have raised public awareness, but while the rest of the developed world has moved forward, the United States government has been notably short on real action. With scientific evidence mounting that we are fast approaching a dangerous tipping point beyond which climate change will accelerate rapidly, we urgently need Congress to produce results." (Hartford Courant)

"Climate Bill Will Cost ‘Hundreds of Billions of Dollars' - Lieberman Concedes" - "The Lieberman-Warner global warming cap-and-trade bill (S2191) would cost "hundreds of billions of dollars" to the electrical and industrial sectors of the economy, Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) conceded today. Senator Lieberman made the remarks during today's Environment & Public Works (EPW) subcommittee markup on the bill." (EPW)

"Greenhouse gases: Demand control policies, supply and the time path of carbon prices" - "EU leaders don’t determine the pace of climate change. Demand reduction by some consumers only lowers fossil fuel consumption to the degree that resource owners decide to curtail their supply. Ultimately, the volume of fossil fuel burnt globally depends upon the rate of extraction and this is in the hands of oil producers who care about carbon’s intertemporal price path. Policies aimed at lowering carbon demand without concern for the price path of carbon may backfire." (Hans-Werner Sinn, VoxEU)

"Doublethinking PM: Orwell, it could always be worse when it comes to politics" - "To understand Prime Minister Stephen Harper's policy on global warming, you have to appreciate the concept of doublethink from George Orwell's great political satire, 1984." (Edmonton Sun)

Correspondence received: Dedidici Astra Quom Asini Gubernatus - My state's motto Ad Astra Per Aspera, (To The Stars With Difficulty), needs to be modified whenever a liberal such as Governor Sebelius is elected from now on. I rather like Dedidici Astra Quom Asini Gubernatus, or Forget The Stars When Donkeys Rule. For this life long Kansan, it's starting to feel a bit like I'm living on the left coast, and not just the left coast but the Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco über left coast. We've actually gone even farther than them in one respect. We are the very first state in our blessed Nation to reject a clean burning, job boosting, economy growing, coal fired power plant because of concerns that it will harm the environment by releasing carbon dioxide! We used to just be famous for wheat production, pheasant hunting and the world's largest ball of twine, but our dear Governor saw fit to make us the first state sanctioned victim of Al Gore's carbon scam. Maybe she did it as an honorarium in recognition of his Nobel Prize for fiction, or was it the Nobel Prize for the promotion of socialism? I forget.

When Al can explain to me how the earth ever emerged from an ice age without wooly mammoths driving giant SUVs, I'll believe him. When he can address the fact (not consensus) that carbon dioxide levels in ancient strata came AFTER not before global temperature increases, I'll be a believer. If he can explain away the impact of the sun's variance in solar output on historically recorded temperatures that show a DIRECT link between sun spots and temperatures, I'll become a dupus of Gorical too. Until then, I'll just live my life for God and family, and let the wretched God players twist in the winds of prima facia idiocy and increasing irrelevance. Hang in there, Sunflower Electric, I have a feeling that the Democrat Party in this state has jumped the shark with this monument to colossal ignorance. The adults in our state will be back in charge soon, so don't worry too much. I would encourage the Governor to take James Carville's compliment to heart and run with Hillary if asked. Hillary will be defeated, and if she could take down our good Governor's political career with her, it would be that much sweeter. Senator Sebelius?, I think not! (Tim Schieferecke, Kansas)

Utility seeks to reverse coal ruling

Sunflower Electric Power Corp. formally asked Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby on Thursday to reconsider his rejection of plans to build a 1,400-megawatt coal-fired power plant in western Kansas. Bremby rejected the plans last month, citing global warming concerns. Sunflower is seeking a reversal of the decision and an administrative hearing before regulators.

"Fixing Leaky Gas Pipes Seen as Next CO2 Grab" - "NEW YORK - Plugging leaky natural gas pipelines in Eastern Europe could be the next big business opportunity in reducing climate changing emissions, the freshly selected chair of a global greenhouse gas business group said." (Reuters)

"Airline emissions: Europe’s winners and losers" - "Budget airlines are best placed to deal with the aviation industry’s entry into the EU carbon-trading scheme, writes Mike Scott (CCC Newsdesk)

Oh boy... "Power from the final frontier" - "Giant collectors in space that beam solar energy back to Earth could soon be a reality. And, as James Bloom reports, it could be a bigger moneyspinner than space tourism" (James Bloom, The Guardian)

... wouldn't the EMF panic-merchants have a happening over microwave transmission on this scale :)

"Energy Legislation" - "While it seems some leaders in Congress are willing to compromise with the White House on an energy bill, back-door wrangling could grind the measure to a halt, a prospect many conservatives and business groups wouldn't mind in the least.

The pending bills, approved with significant differences between the House and Senate, would put in place a number of unsavory regulatory measures that the White House has indicated the president would veto.

Particularly repugnant is a proposal passed by the House that would impose billions in new taxes on the oil and gas industry all in the name of developing more eco-friendly renewable energy resources. This harmful measure would repeal $16 billion in tax breaks for U.S. oil companies over 10 years, a move that will further drive up the cost of gasoline. While Democrats claim to support reducing U.S. reliance on foreign oil production, this proposal would handicap U.S. domestic companies against their foreign competitors by essentially double-taxing them beyond the substantial foreign taxes they already pay." (Washington Times)

"Biologists for Agency Endorse Dams Plan" - "Federal wildlife officials in Seattle said the plan, with minor modifications, does not jeopardize the survival of 13 stocks of endangered fish." (New York Times)

"Biofuel rush harmful, Oxfam warns" - "The rush for biofuels could harm the world's poorest people, Oxfam has said. In a new report, the UK aid charity appears to be joining a growing chorus of concern about the side-effects of Europe's drive to get fuel from plants." (BBC)

"Asia Energy Keen for Bangladesh Nod on Coal Mine" - "DHAKA - London-based miner Asia Energy hopes Bangladesh will soon agree a coal policy that will give the company the green light for a US$3 billion investment in a major coal mine project, and it defended the planned open pit mine against criticism from environmentalists." (Reuters)

"Sweet potato shines as new promise for small enterprise and hunger relief in developing countries" - "Sweetpotatoes, often misunderstood and underrated, are receiving new attention as a life-saving food crop in developing countries." (American Society for Horticultural Science)

"New designer toxins kill Bt-resistant insect pests" - "A new way to combat resistant pests stems from discovering how the widely used natural insecticide Bt kills insects. Figuring out how Bt toxins punch holes in the cells of an insect's gut was the key to designing the new toxins, according to a Mexico-U.S. research team." (University of Arizona)

November 1, 2007

Another Halloween feature? Nature's fury: climate change - a special report
Week one of four: how the world works: what have we done and can we put it right?

The time for talking is over. Climate change is with us and now we must all live with the consequences. Forget the gloom, let's get on with it.

Over 22 pages this weekend, The Sunday Times Magazine will publish its special report on climate change. From the smallest algae to the most visionary architects, they will bring you answers to the biggest challenges of our time.

Also this Sunday, start collecting the first of a series of four dramatic wall posters offering a definitive guide to global warming. The first poster entitled 'how the world works' sorts out the facts from the fiction: what we can do and what we need to prove.

You will also receive a free DVD compiled by The Sunday Times in conjunction with The Discovery Channel and detailing extreme weather, hurricanes, floods and other global catastrophes. (The Sunday Times)

"My Nobel Moment" - "I've had a lot of fun recently with my tiny (and unofficial) slice of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But, though I was one of thousands of IPCC participants, I don't think I will add "0.0001 Nobel Laureate" to my resume.

The other half of the prize was awarded to former Vice President Al Gore, whose carbon footprint would stomp my neighborhood flat. But that's another story.

Both halves of the award honor promoting the message that Earth's temperature is rising due to human-based emissions of greenhouse gases. The Nobel committee praises Mr. Gore and the IPCC for alerting us to a potential catastrophe and for spurring us to a carbonless economy.

I'm sure the majority (but not all) of my IPCC colleagues cringe when I say this, but I see neither the developing catastrophe nor the smoking gun proving that human activity is to blame for most of the warming we see. Rather, I see a reliance on climate models (useful but never "proof") and the coincidence that changes in carbon dioxide and global temperatures have loose similarity over time." (John R Christy, Wall Street Journal) | For the access-challenged

Even more hypocritical than Al? "A Nobel cricketer" - "RK Pachauri heads the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for informing the world about the dangers of climate change. What you may not know about him is that he is a cricket fanatic and plays regularly, even at the age of 67. He captains the Tata Energy Research Institute in Delhi's corporate league, in which he has taken 345 wickets. The Indian Express reports that Pachauri once "took a break during a seminar in New York and flew to Delhi over the weekend to attend a practice session for a match before flying back. Again, he flew in for a day, just to play that match."

Wonder what Gore, who in his film An Inconvenient Truth urges people to cut down on air travel (because travellers foregoing even two flights per year will significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, apparently) would think of that?" (Cricinfo)

"The Environmentalist Fires" - "Last week, CNN delayed for a few hours the scheduled Tuesday night broadcast debut of its much-hyped documentary series "Planet in Peril" due to live coverage of the tragic wildfires that have displaced more than 500,000 people in Southern California. But that didn't keep CNN "golden boy" reporter Anderson Cooper from using the tragedy to tout the program he starred in as much as he could.

Cooper constantly claimed during the week that the fires provided further confirmation of the documentary's prediction of an eco-catastrophe. Cooper said that higher temperature due to global warming may have been a factor. It was a "timely documentary," Cooper said last Tuesday on CNN's "Larry King Live", because "California certainly seems to be in peril."

But ironically, much of the reason California is in peril is due not to climate change, but to the very environmental policies championed by Cooper's documentary and our new Nobel laureate, Al Gore. While, in its statement praising Gore, the Nobel Committee said that global warming may "threaten the living conditions of much of mankind," the current wildfires show that the more immediate threat to man comes from the champions of the gnatcatcher, kangaroo rat, and the Delhi Sands Flower-Loving fly.

Environmental mandates have made fire safety for humans take a back seat to the well-being of the aforementioned California creatures, as well as that of every bug and rat lucky enough to be listed as an "endangered species" under federal and state law. For over a decade, environmentalists have hamstrung Californians in their efforts to clear the dry brush that is providing the fuel for this massive fire. If any of these endangered or even "threatened" species are found in shrubs or bushes on public or private property, it becomes very difficult to give this vegetation even the slightest haircut. This is true even if city codes require firebreaks to be built." (John Berlau, American Thinker)

"Using Fires To Sell Global Warming" - " We don't know which is weirder — Dennis Kucinich's belief in UFOs or the House holding hearings on Harry Reid's claim that global warming caused California's wildfires. The "scientific link" doesn't exist." (IBD)

Virtually: "Wildfire drives carbon levels in northern forests" - "Far removed from streams of gas-thirsty cars and pollution-belching factories lies another key player in global climate change. Circling the northern hemisphere, the conifer-dominated boreal forests - one of the largest ecosystems on earth - act as a vast natural regulator of atmospheric carbon levels." (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Wonder how they established their burn area likelihood given the wide variation displayed in Alaskan burn statistics -- more than 3 million acres in 1990 but only about one-quarter million in 2006*. Under their scenario the "dramatic warming" from the "hottest decade of the hottest century" caused a reduction in burn area ('99 was down to about 1 million acres while 2000 just three-fourths that).

* These figures simply represent the first and last available entries in the statistics page and are neither the highest nor lowest values. It is mere happy coincidence that they are also the Kyoto base year and the latest full year's numbers.

"Wildfires Release as Much CO2 as Cars" - "Large wildfires in the Western United States can pump as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in just a few weeks as cars do in those areas in an entire year, a new study suggests.

As forest fires devour trees and other plants, they release the carbon stored in the vegetation into the atmosphere.

Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Science (NCAR) and the University of California used satellite observations of fires and a computer model to estimate just how much carbon dioxide is released based on the amount of vegetation that is burned. The results of the study are detailed in the online journal Carbon Balance and Management." (LiveScience)

The Greenland-Antarctica Melting Problem Does Not Exist

My attention was drawn to a Working Paper by Alan Carlin, which was basically about how emissions reductions may be a dangerous strategy to avoid climate change. Much of his perceived threat is based on papers by Hansen (2007) and others who propose rapid melting of the Greenland and West Antarctica (henceforth Antarctica) Ice Sheets that causes a sea level rise of 5 m or more.

Rapid Melting Of The Greenland And Antarctic Ice Sheets Is Impossible!

Hansen is a modeller, and his scenario for the collapse of the ice sheets is based on a false model.

Hansen has a model of an ice sheet sliding along an inclined plane, lubricated by meltwater, which is itself increasing because of global warming. The same model is adopted in many copy-cat papers. Christoffersen and Hambrey (2006) and Bamber et al. (2007). are typical papers, a popular article based on the same flawed model appeared in the June 2007 issue of National Geographic, and the idea is present in textbooks such as The Great Ice Age (2000) by R.C.L. Wilson et al.

Hanson’s model, unfortunately, includes neither the main form of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets, nor an understanding of how glaciers flow. The predicted behaviour of the ice sheets is based on melting and accumulation rates at the present day, and on the concept of an ice sheet sliding down an inclined plane on a base lubricated by meltwater, which is itself increasing because of global warming. The idea of a glacier sliding downhill on a base lubricated by meltwater seemed a good idea when first presented by de Saussure in 1779, but a lot has been learned since then.

It is not enough to think that present climate over a few decades can affect the flow of ice sheets. Ice sheets do not simply grow and melt in response to average global temperature. Anyone with this naïve view would have difficulty in explaining why glaciation has been present in the southern hemisphere for about 30 million years, and in the northern hemisphere for only 3 million years.

To understand what is possible it is necessary to know something about the physics of glacier flow, which explains a few things not accounted for in the Hansen model, including:... (Cliff Ollier, School of Earth and Geographical Sciences, The University of Western Australia)

"Climate Change and the ‘Politics of Fear’" - "Is the environmental movement, like the war on terror, premised on a “politics of fear”? In other words, does it try to unify people by scaring them with threats to their basic survival?" (Sewell Chan, New York Times)

"Bjorn Lomborg: Hotter weather, fewer deaths" - "What will happen over the coming century, with temperatures rising? The standard story is that our world will become a very unpleasant one. Famously, the chief scientific advisor to the British government, Sir David King, even envisions that an ice-free "Antarctica is likely to be the world's only habitable continent by the end of this century if global warming remains unchecked." (National Post)

"The Global-Warming Neurosis" - "As the California fires continue to play themselves out – albeit at great distances from where we live – invisible quantities of ash and other byproducts of the conflagration permeate the air. Our dog – accustomed to drinking from her pan outside the back door – sniffed, but refused to drink, the water, apparently noticing an unwelcome substance or odor. Only after my wife refilled the pan from inside the house would our dog drink.

This, along with the continuing video-footage of raging fires, provide snapshots of the consequences – inconvenient though they often are – of residing on a living planet. Such problems do not present themselves either in a static lunar environment, nor on such planets as Mars, Venus, or Mercury. Life is turbulent, uncertain, often chaotic, forcing us to constantly adapt ourselves to ever-changing conditions over which we have little control." (Butler Shaffer, Lew Rockwell)

"Monkey Sighting Stirs Climate Fears in Kenya" - "NAIROBI - The discovery in Kenya of a new population of monkeys far from their normal habitat is a sign of how climate change may already be changing Africa's ecology, a leading conservationist said on Wednesday." (Reuters)

"Lake Superior called 'early victim of climate change'" - "DULUTH - Like ice sheets melting in the Arctic, Lake Superior has begun showing some of the world's most tangible evidence of global warming, according to scientists gathered in Duluth this week.

The lake's average winter ice cover is 50 percent smaller than it was 100 years ago, a study found. Since 1980, the water on average in summer has warmed almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, which is twice as fast as the air has warmed. During that time, wind speeds in the middle of the giant lake also have risen steadily." (Star Tribune)

"Nordic Nations Sound Alarm Over Melting Arctic" - "OSLO - Nordic nations sounded the alarm on Wednesday about a quickening melt of Arctic ice and said the thaw might soon prove irreversible because of global warming." (Reuters)

"Northern Pebbles New Pawns in Arctic Chess Game" - "PARIS - A tiny speck of pebbles found off the northern coast of Greenland could open up a new front in the looming battle for control of the Arctic and the North Pole." (Reuters)

Good luck with that fellas, while Old Sol was something of a merry (and active) soul through the 20^th Century he's ominously quiescent lately, with an "All Quiet Alert" in effect. Enhanced greenhouse hysteria notwithstanding, another Maunder-style Minimum will mean we are in for uncomfortably chilly times.

The sun is blank--no sunspots.
Credit: SOHO/MDI

Click the thumbnail to see larger image.

Images courtesy Space Weather.

"Japan Greenhouse Emissions Fell 1.3 Pct Last Yr - Paper" - "TOKYO - Japan's greenhouse gas emissions fell 1.3 percent in the year ended in March partly due to a warm winter, a newspaper reported on Wednesday, but a rebound this year threatens to make Tokyo's Kyoto goal still harder to reach." (Reuters)

"Japan Needs Measures to Avert $10.5 Billion Carbon Credit Cost" - "Japan needs to implement measures to lower greenhouse gas emissions and avoid a bill of as much as 1.2 trillion yen ($10.5 billion) to buy carbon credits in global markets, a government report says.

Japan may fail to cut emissions and meet the target set out in the Kyoto Protocol, forcing the government to increase spending on credits to offset higher industrial pollution, the report by the finance ministry's fiscal system council said. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's government is reviewing plans to achieve the nation's goal under the United Nations treaty.

``Our tax payers won't accept the financial strain,'' the finance ministry panel said in the report." (Bloomberg)

"Climate change and the right to develop" - "At the 15th Economic Leaders' Informal Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) held in Sydney last month, President Hu Jintao made proposals for tackling climate change, including ways to strengthen cooperation, pursue sustainable development and promote scientific and technological innovation. He stressed that "climate change is ultimately a development issue and it can only be addressed in the course of sustainable development".

Hu's speech was echoed and supported by developing countries in Southeast Asia." (China Daily)

"Dead treaty, but Labor's flogging it" - "It was hilarious seeing Kevin Rudd give a press conference on renewable energy at a Townsville school on Tuesday, when the wind and solar batteries failed and plunged the room into darkness. The media questioning continued, but under the thin light of the battery-operated TV cameras.

Rudd had the wit to laugh about the mishap but it is an omen of things to come if climate-change hysteria continues and the desire to drastically slash carbon emissions overrides reality.

In their rush to embarrass the Prime Minister, John Howard, over his refusal to ratify the Kyoto treaty to cut global carbon emissions, Rudd and his environment spokesman, Peter Garrett, this week revealed the shallowness of their thinking on climate change." (Miranda Devine, Sydney Morning Herald)

"US Pension Fund Urges More Climate Risk Disclosure" - "WASHINGTON - Calpers, the biggest US pension fund, said Wednesday it could not assess companies thoroughly unless they detail potential exposure to climate change-related risks and benefits." (Reuters)

The greatest climate risk faced by corporations is hysteria, which Calpers is helping to foment.

"Senate Banking Committee takes up corporate disclosure of financial" - "Several Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee today said they may push for greater disclosure from companies about the financial risk they face from climate change.

The hearing was largely the byproduct of a petition sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission last month. That petition wanted the SEC to require companies to spell out material losses from climate change, such as the impact of new fuel regulations on automakers." (Financial Week)

Well, duh! "Government 'puts the economy before the environment' with transport plan" - "Ministers were accused of downgrading the drive to cut carbon emissions from Britain's transport network after revealing a long-term strategy for increased road, rail and air travel." (London Independent)

"Energy-saving moves could add to emissions" - "Initiatives aimed at saving energy and reducing CO2 emissions could end up damaging the Government's climate policy instead, a new study claims.

Scientists have found that new technologies designed to cut energy use could actually result in an increase.

As an example they say a more fuel-efficient car which is cheaper to run can lead to the driver using it more often or on longer journeys.

Or a householder looking for a new fridge might buy a bigger model because it is more energy efficient.

In both cases some of the energy being saved is lost as a direct consequence of what is known as a 'rebound effect'." (London Telegraph)

"Rising fear of energy crisis this winter" - "Electricity shortages and gas supply problems predicted to push bills up" (The Guardian)

"Climate Change Obsessed Media Boycott Looming Energy Crisis" - "Coal-fired electric power plants might be in danger of extinction at the hands of global warming alarmists, possibly setting the nation up for a looming energy crisis like none it's ever experienced." (News Busters)

"Sweden Wants More Eco-Studies of Baltic Gas Link" - "OSLO - Sweden demanded on Wednesday more studies on the environmental impact of a planned US$7 billion gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea, throwing up a new obstacle to the strategic Russian-German project." (Reuters)

"Researchers warn Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone' could grow" - "The New Jersey-size Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" will likely grow in coming years unless federal policies to control it change, in part because the demand for corn-based ethanol fuel will worsen the problem, University of Michigan scientists say." (University of Michigan)

"La Nina to Persist into 2008 - UN Weather Agency" - "GENEVA - A "La Nina" cooling of sea temperatures is under way in the Pacific Ocean and the phenomenon is likely to persist into next year, the United Nations weather agency said on Wednesday.

La Nina, or 'Little Girl' in Spanish, is an unusual cooling pattern that usually brings rain to eastern and northern Australia and to Southeast Asia, a major producing region of coffee, cocoa, rubber, sugar, palm oil and rice.

In its latest update, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said the sea surface was about 1.5 degrees Celsius colder than normal across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific.

"We expect that these conditions will continue until the first quarter of 2008," WMO scientific officer Leslie Malone told a news conference in Geneva.

The current event has strayed from normal trends, and has not brought rainfall to the region, Malone said, attributing this to cool sea temperatures across the north of Australia to the Indian Ocean, which had altered expected weather patterns." (Reuters) | La Nina anomaly behind Australian drought: UN weather agency (AFP)

So, it's cooler than normal seas causing our lack of rain... wonder how gorebull warming caused that? Actually what it shows is how poorly we understand even well-studied phenomenon like the ENSO.

"'Fit towns' plan to tackle child obesity" - "The government is planning to tackle the growing obesity epidemic in Britain by broadening its plans for eco towns and turning them into healthy or fit towns, the Guardian can reveal.

The health secretary, Alan Johnson, is convinced that two great challenges facing Britain - climate change and obesity - are linked." (The Guardian)

"Did Diet Politics Corrupt World Cancer Research Fund Recommendations?" - "One of the World Cancer Research Fund's key recommendations on how to avoid cancer may be flawed because of what was not included in the survey." (Trevor Butterworth, STATS)

You’re fine just how you are

A picture is worth a thousand words. This T-shirt graphic was designed by Allan Faustino and has become the topic of the day because it powerfully illustrates the futility and heartbreak of trying to become something you were never naturally meant to be. Just as this adorable little rhino can never become a unicorn — which is a fictitious, unattainable figure, anyway — a genetically fat person can’t just become a thin one." (Junkfood Science)

"Brussels to Have Last Word on GMO Corn" - "The deadlocked EU debate on Austria's ban on genetically modified corn will be sent to the EC for a decision." (EUobserver)