|
|
|
The British Health Care Invasion (from Forbes.com) By Gilbert Ross, M.D.
Austere times demand healthcare efficiency: OECD Cash-strapped governments can no longer raise spending to improve healthcare at the breakneck pace of recent decades, so they must make systems more efficient to offer quality care at no extra cost, the OECD said Monday. (Reuters)
Americans Want, and Expect, Repeal The latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters shows that Americans support the repeal of Obamacare by a margin of 21 percentage points (58 to 37 percent), independents support repeal by 24 percentage points (59 to 35 percent), and Americans think that Obamacare is more likely to be repealed than not. Only 39 percent of voters think it's likely that Obamacare will survive, compared to 47 percent who think it's likely that it won't and 14 percent who aren't sure. Moreover, only 9 percent of voters think it's "not at all likely" that Obamacare will be repealed. Rasmussen writes, "Belief in the likelihood of repeal has now edged to its highest level to date." Whether the Obama administration and its allies want to face it or not, wholesale repeal -- and replacement with real reform -- is a very real prospect going forward. (Jeffrey H. Anderson, Weekly Standard)
How Do You Dry Your Hands In a Public Washroom? BY JACK DINI – I always rub my hands vigorously when using warm air dryers in public restrooms. Bad practice– according to recent research from two
institutions in the UK. Using paper towels to dry your hands is far more hygienic than using electric hand dryers which can actually increase the amount of
bacteria on hands and can spread cross contamination in public washrooms, note researchers at the University of Westminster (1) and the University of Bradford.
(2)
Bad headline, poor article: Harvard scientists reverse the ageing process in mice – now for humans Harvard scientists were surprised that they saw a dramatic reversal, not just a slowing down, of the ageing in mice. Now they believe they might be able to regenerate human organs (Guardian)
Food Safety Bill Will Not Make Food Safer, Will Increase Food Costs and Budget Deficit Today, the Senate is likely to vote on the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010 (S510). But the bill is little more than an enormous grant of money and
power to the Food and Drug Administration and a lot of reporting burdens imposed on the private sector. Those who favor a smaller, leaner government should
oppose it.
This certainly got legs: Study suggests that being too clean can make people sick ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Young people who are overexposed to antibacterial soaps containing triclosan may suffer more allergies, and exposure to higher levels of
Bisphenol A among adults may negatively influence the immune system, a new University of Michigan School of Public Health study suggests.
The world and its [completely imaginary] dangers, according to Freddie: Interview: A Blunt Warning On the Risks of BPA in Our Lives The synthetic chemical Bisphenol A, or BPA, is found in everything from plastic bottles, to the linings of aluminum cans, to cash register receipts. But in addition to being a mainstay of the plastics industry, BPA is a potent, estrogen-mimicking compound. One of the world’s leading researchers into the adverse health effects of BPA is Frederick vom Saal, a biologist at the University of Missouri’s Endocrine Disruptors Group, and he warns that the ill effects of our frequent exposure to the chemical — which include an increased risk of prostate cancer, heart disease, and damage to the reproductive system — are far higher than either industry or U.S. regulators concede. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, vom Saal excoriates the U.S. chemical industry for covering up the dangers of BPA and U.S. officials for relying on shoddy studies to avoid regulating the chemical. The regulatory system, says vom Saal, “has fossilized to the point that it is absolutely perverting the sense that they are engaging in any kind of rational process of evaluating the health effects of chemicals.” (e360)
Dr. Ross talks about BPA's safety on KCTV5 ACSH IN THE NEWS
Human excreta may help secure future food security Human excreta could have a key role in securing future food security, helping prevent a sharp drop in yields of crops such as wheat due to a shortage of phosphorus inputs, a UK organic body said on Monday. (Reuters)
EPA Sued to Force Regulation of Lead-Based Ammunition, Fishing Gear WASHINGTON, DC, November 29, 2010 (ENS) - Conservation and hunting groups have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing
to regulate toxic lead in ammunition and fishing gear. The groups complain that these pieces of lead poison and kill eagles, swans, cranes, loons, endangered
California condors and other wildlife throughout the country.
U.S. Designates Critical Habitat for Threatened Polar Bears WASHINGTON, DC, November 29, 2010 (ENS) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated more than 187,000 square miles of on-shore barrier islands,
denning areas and offshore sea-ice as critical habitat for the threatened polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.
Self-Protection: Pennsylvania's governor vetoes a bill expanding a citizen's right to protect self and family outside one's residence rather than exercise a
"duty to retreat." It is a victory for predators over victims.
Tax grab? What tax grab? Carbon tax will double to €30 per tonne ENVIRONMENT: THE €15 per tonne carbon tax, introduced for the first time in the 2010 budget, is to double over the life of the plan to €25 per tonne in
2012 and 2013 and €30 per tonne by 2014.
There are black days ahead for the carbon industry As delegates arrive in Cancun for the UN climate conference, the carbon trading lobby is desperate for an accord, says Christopher Booker. (TDT)
EDITORIAL: Climate craziness cools in Cancun Environmental radicals are losing political momentum
Can environmentalism be saved from itself? Just a year ago, 15,000 of the world’s leaders, diplomats, and UN officials were gearing up to descend on Copenhagen to forge a global treaty that would
save the planet. The world’s media delivered massive coverage. Important newspapers printed urgent front-page calls for action, and a popular new U.S.
President waded in to put his reputation on the line. The climate talks opened with a video showing a little girl’s nightmare encounter with drought, storms,
eruptions, floods and other man-made climate disasters. “Please help the world,” she pleads.
Risk? U.N. climate talks "risk losing relevance": EU International climate talks risk "losing momentum and relevance" if they fail to achieve concrete progress in the next two weeks, the Europe Union's climate chief warned on Monday. (Reuters)
Cancun -- Latest Stop for the Great Global Warming Circus And so the great global warming circus moves on. For the next two weeks the world’s carboncrats will gather in Cancun for the latest United Nations climate
conference. The aim is to negotiate a vast new international emissions trading scheme that Barack Obama wants the United States to join.
Scientists: 'world should press on without US in climate change deal' The world should progress towards an international deal on climate change without the US, scientists have suggested, as talks kick off with little hope of the superpower agreeing to cut emissions. (TDT)
Still chasing the money: UN's Chief Climate Envoy Urges Compromise at Talks on $100 Billion Finance The United Nations’ diplomat leading climate talks urged countries to move beyond their differences to break a deadlock over how to curb greenhouse gas
emissions and channel up to $100 billion a year to developing nations.
Rightly: Cameron refuses to attend UN climate change talks PM turns down Mexico's invite to summit where backroom deals show how progress can be made despite low expectations (Guardian)
Australia Brings Forward Decision On Carbon Price Australia's government intends to wrap up an agreement next year on pricing carbon, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Monday, testing the strength of her
minority rule and pressing the accelerator on Canberra's climate change fight.
Radicalism: A group of academics wants to force rationing in developed countries to turn back what they see as the carbon threat. How does this differ from a
socialist group demanding the seizure of private property?
NYTimes lets facts intrude on alarmist narrative A funny thing happened on the New York Times’ way to climate alarmism today — a paragraph of debunking facts. In an above-the-fold, front-page story, the Times’ Leslie Kaufman tried to tell a sad tale about global warming-induced sea-level rise wreaking havoc in Norfolk, VA.
And of course, what tale of global warming would be complete without an “expert”?
Kaufman’s tale of woe then ends with the “bitter reality” of global warming:
Unfortunately for the Times, Kaufman and Schultz, some editor (with an ironic sense of humor) inserted the following text into the middle of the story:
So climate alarmism and Norfolk have much in common. Both were built in on a faulty foundation. Not unexpectedly, both are now sinking. What’s remarkable about the Times’ coverage of both is that facts — even when printed in plain English in the middle of the story — just don’t matter. (Green Hell Blog)
Lawrence Solomon: Europe’s press (and Canada’s) turns against global warming A major German media outlet joins others in Europe in jumping on the growing bandwagon for global warming scepticism, and in style, with a cover emblazoned with “Great Climate!” for the benefits that global warming has brought us. “Rethink: Global warming is good for us,” says Focus, one of the country’s largest newsmagazines, in a break with a German taboo. Inside, readers are treated to a lead article with the surprising title, Warm periods mean good times, that explains warmth helps crop and forests to grow and deserts to shrink. Other articles debunk false claims about global warming, and describe distinguished scientists who don’t buy the conventional wisdom on climate change. In another departure, Volkskrant, one of the largest dailies in the Netherlands, reversed its position of blacklisting sceptics by prominently interviewing one last week. The British and French media in the last year has been healthily sceptical. On this side of the Atlantic, Canada’s two national dailies, the Globe and Mail and National Post, tilted a tad further to climate realism. The Globe’s contribution came from columnist Margaret Wente, who derided those who “actually seemed to believe that experts and politicians have supernatural powers to predict the future and control the climate.” The National Post’s contribution appeared as a front page story entitled Cooling climate change that explained, as did the Globe column, why the climate change issue is all but dead. The articles are all appearing to help usher in the UN’s Climate Summit in Cancun, Mexico, which begins tomorrow. Unlike last year’s meeting in Copehagen, the diplomats in attendance have low expectations, which are likely to be met. LawrenceSolomon@nextcity.com
Things must be getting better - we're back up to 10 years to save the planet ;-) Cancun climate change summit: scientists call for rationing in developed world Global warming is now such a serious threat to mankind that climate change experts are calling for Second World War-style rationing in rich countries to
bring down carbon emissions.
Worst Case Study: Global Temp Up 7.2F Degrees By 2060s World temperatures could soar by 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) by the 2060s in the worst case of global climate change and require an annual
investment of $270 billion just to contain rising sea levels, studies suggested on Sunday.
Global action is not going to stop climate change. The world needs to look harder at how to live with it (The Economist)
Back to this excuse for the lack of warming: Global warming has slowed because of pollution Global warming has slowed in the last decade, according to the Met Office, as the world pumps out so much pollution it is reflecting the sun’s rays and causing a cooling effect. (TDT)
Oh dear... Climate change protesters' anger was justifiable, says Nasa Scientist Activists accused of conspiracy to trespass were arrested before they carried out plan to force E.ON's coal plant at Ratcliffe-on-Soar to shut down
Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) blames “climate change” for poor forecasting November 24th, 2010 by Warwick HughesYes – you have to pinch yourself but the shameless BoM did say this. Taking another look through the Nov 2009 ISI Committee report “Inquiry into long-term meteorological forecasting in Australia” – I doubt that any good can come from this committee “Inquiry”. I can now see that this process has come from within the Govt – through Senator the Hon Kim Carr, the Australian Government Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research – where of course the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) resides. I have just been told by a House of Reps Clerk that – “Due to the change in Committee allocations, there is no longer a Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Innovation.” I think this is code for – “…this Inquiry is now dead and buried”. IMHO this so called “Inquiry” was always just a thinly veiled campaign to justify wringing more taxpayers money from Govt to fund BoM ongoing empire building. (Warwick Hughes)
Satellites show there’s been no global warming for 12 years
Lawrence Solomon: Massive Canadian carbon sink disappears The Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, a recipient since 2000 of $110-million in federal taxpayer funding, is shutting its doors after failing to convince federal and provincial governments to keep it afloat. The foundation describes itself as “Canada’s premier funder of university-based weather and climate research.” In 2010, this foundation, one of Canada’s biggest sinks for carbon-related research dollars, funded, among other works, “Wind Energy in Canada: the Basics, the Resource, the Opportunity” a video for high school and university students whose goal “is to expand knowledge about wind energy and to encourage its acceptance and increased use.” The foundation’s coup for the year, however, may have been “Integrated Climate Change Learning Resource for Grade 6.” Produced by Andrew Weaver at the University of Victoria, considered by many to be Canada’s most accomplished climate scientist, this work addressed what it saw as a pressing elementary school need – introducing children to the climate change imperative: “While global warming is the most significant environmental issue of our time, it receives little attention in the Canadian school system,” the foundation explained. All told, the foundation supported over 200 major scientific initiatives through research grants totalling more than $117-million at 37 Canadian universities. It will be sorely missed by its many grant recipients. LawrenceSolomon@nextcity.com
Might be efficient recycling: Converting waste plastic back to oil Sound in Japanese, with English subtitles
In an efficient and safe effort to save us from the ill-effects of plastic waste, Akinori Ito has developed a machine which converts plastic back into oil. The machine produced in various sizes, for both industrial and home uses, can easily transform a kilogram of plastic waste into a liter of oil, using about 1 kW·h of electricity but without emitting CO2 in the process. The machine uses a temperature controlling electric heater instead of flames, processing anything from polyethylene or polystyrene to polypropylene (numbers 2-4). Comment: 1 kg of plastic produces one liter of oil, which costs $1.50. This process uses only about 1 kW·h of electricity, which costs less than 20 cents! (Original source appears to be UN University)
China Imports and Burns Coal, from Horror of Horrors, the United States
There was a time when I used to read the New York Times daily. It was supposed to have “all the news that fit to print” and I guess I could not be a student, or later a young professional “intellectual,” that would live without the Times analysis. But as of late I began to cringe, not knowing what nonsense flim-flam will come next in the paper and although I have yet to use the conservatives’ boogeyman MSP (mainstream press) I am starting to see their objections. I guess mainstream means adopting the most conventional, least intelligent and least out of the box thinking. This includes adopting the hypes du jour and in my area of interest, energy and geopolitics, there are plenty. So, I was of course drawn by the impressively titled story by Elisabeth Rosenthal on November 21: “Importing Coal, China Burns it as others Stop.” The story is simple. China has emerged as one of the world’s largest importers of coal and this should not be surprising since they burn about 50 percent of all coal currently consumed in the world. (Michael J. Economides, ET)
US energy secretary warns of 'Sputnik moment' in green technology race Steven Chu says US must invest urgently in research and innovation to keep pace with China and other countries (Guardian)
The Calculator: Fossil Fuel Consumption, CO2 Emissions, and Costs with Wind (Part I) by Kent Hawkins
There is no convincing proof of the ability of utility-scale wind electricity generation to provide any of the incredible benefits claimed for it. In light of the massive costs (hundreds of $billions) of the extensive implementations projected by some governments, and equally large changes to electricity grids required to support wind’s ineffectiveness, it seems reasonable to expect that such claims be properly substantiated beforehand. Among the more important claims are fossil fuel and CO2 emissions reductions. In the absence of (1) any verification of these, ignoring of course the many uncritical testimonials by government bodies, environmentalist organizations and the media, and (2) the necessary public information to objectively analyze wind’s performance, the Calculator was developed as an interim tool to assist in understanding some of the realities of integrating wind into electricity systems. It shows the fossil fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and associated costs, based on a range of input factors. This update is based on feedback from the Calculator series and comparisons with studies involving some level of actual results by Bentek and le Pair and de Groot. (A copy of the Calculator can be obtained here). There are no changes to the approach taken, but improvements have been made, including a better user-interface. Note that input should be entered only in cells that are outlined or by using the provided sliders. Other cells contain calculated amounts or references. Critics have charged that the Calculator is not based on any production data to support the results reported in the Calculator series. But, this misses the point. Considering that there is not sufficient, appropriate data available publically to permit a comprehensive analysis, the calculator expresses a working hypothesis based on the important factors that bear on wind integration:
So the Calculator does not “prove” that wind plants increase CO2 emissions but shows the impact of a number of considerations. [Read more →] (MasterResource)
It was the day before Halloween. The chill of autumn was in the air and an early morning mist shrouded the New England landscape like fog on a Hollywood moor as I awoke. Groggy, I stumbled down the stairs, unaware of the horror that awaited me. I opened up the Boston Herald and there on the home page was an editorial – BY TED KENNEDY. “OH MY GOD!” I thought, they buried in him in that Pet Cemetery from the Stephen King movie. He’s back. He’s like Jason in “Halloween.” Just when you think he’s gone and the horror is over… “Oh wait, the editorial is by Ted Kennedy, Junior. Well that’s not the same thing at all,” I thought. I mean, that’s like Barney the Dinosaur compared to an actual dinosaur – equally bothersome in a different way, but clearly not the same threat. Almost as surprising as the author was the theme of the essay; written in a style I can only call “Tenth Grade Debate Club.” (Obviously then, Ted Jr. is grade or two ahead of his sibling Patrick, The Honorable Representative from the State of Inebriation). The piece was yet another Kennedy Family Diatribe against the Cape Wind offshore wind energy project that is finally nearing the start of construction after years of delays at the hands of the Denizens of the Kennedy Compound and their uber-wealthy neighbors. But at least America’s elite has a good, high-minded reason for opposing the project: they are afraid the distant wind turbines might mar their million dollar views of the Atlantic Ocean, which they think of as their private pleasure pond. Attacking Cape Wind is now something of a Kennedy Family tradition. Ted Sr. did it, as did Patrick and Robert Jr. and some of the more minor Kennedys. (Mac Johnson, ET)
Special Report: Nuclear's Lost Generation On a flat, low-lying island nestled in crisp waters off the west coast of Finland, the first nuclear power plant ordered in Western Europe since 1986 is
inching toward start-up.
“Birds of Prey Remain at Risk” (Windpower’s ‘avian mortality’ issue today) by Robert Bradley Jr.
Last week, my post “Cuisinarts of the Air” (Revisiting an environmentalist term for windpower)” ended with the question and a request for readers:
Well, as if led by an invisible hand, Science magazine published a letter-to-the-editor (November 12, 2010: p. 913), “Birds of Prey Remain at Risk.” The authors contend that the California bird problem has not gone away. But where is the outrage? Why does Big Environmentalism (BE) look the other way? The answer, I believe, is that BE must accept industrial wind as part of their cap-carbon-to-cap-capitalism crusade given the dearth of other supply-side options. But windpower gives little emission reduction for the government buck and has a host of side issues–so the question again arises: why? I believe that the real reason why environmentalists are wind-intoxicated is because the photo-shoped, no-sound images of wind turbines represent the PR front for a whole agenda. Wind is BE’s (environmental) loss leader, so to speak, and part of the consolation prize is higher energy prices, which is a per se good to them. But this is putting form over substance a la Enron. The bubble of misdirection will eventually burst. The letter follows:
[Read more →] (MasterResource)
Something else to be thankful for: Health Law Faces Threat of Undercut From Courts WASHINGTON — As the Obama administration presses ahead with the health care law, officials are bracing for the possibility that a federal judge in Virginia
will soon reject its central provision as unconstitutional and, in the worst case for the White House, halt its enforcement until higher courts can rule.
The discoverer of the double-helix says the disease can be cured in his lifetime. He's 82.
Fish health benefits may outweigh mercury concerns It may be a red herring to worry over whether people who eat lots of fish may lose whatever heart benefits they might have gained because of an increased
exposure to mercury, a new study shows.
Definitely fits under "unnecessary medical imaging": Radiation Worries for Children in Dentists’ Chairs Because children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to radiation, doctors three years ago mounted a national campaign to protect them by reducing
diagnostic radiation to only those levels seen as absolutely necessary.
Eat more protein, fewer refined carbs to stay slim A team of European researchers confirms what many weight-loss gurus have claimed: eating more protein and fewer refined carbohydrates helps to keep the pounds off. (Reuters Health)
Models and virtual mortalities: Second-hand smoke kills 600,000 a year: WHO study Around one in a hundred deaths worldwide is due to passive smoking, which kills an estimated 600,000 people a year, World Health Organization (WHO)
researchers said on Friday.
Meanwhile: Air Pollution Exceeds Safety Limits In Big Asian Cities: Report Air pollution in major cities in Asia exceeds the World Health Organisation's (WHO) air quality guidelines and toxic cocktails result in more than 530,000
premature deaths a year, according to a new report issued on Tuesday.
Anti industry fear mongers win another one: EU to ban Bisphenol A in baby bottles in 2011 The European Union will ban the use of organic compound Bisphenol A (BPA) in plastic baby bottles from 2011 with the backing of a majority of EU governments,
the EU's executive Commission said Thursday.
Beware E. coli when drinking raw milk: study A government investigation published this month has tied raw milk consumption to a 2008 outbreak of E. coli in Connecticut, which landed four people in the
hospital with life-threatening illnesses.
Vaccine alliance says 5-in-1 vaccine cost to fall The price of a life-saving vaccine against five deadly diseases is expected to drop further in 2011, allowing more of the world's poorest children to be
immunized, the global vaccines group GAVI said on Friday.
EU guidelines clear way for biosimilar antibodies European regulators on Friday set out broad guidelines for the approval of biosimilar antibody drugs, including lower hurdles than for new medicines and
allowing the possibility of different diseases being addressed by the same copy antibody.
As we all prepare to gain a few pounds over Thanksgiving, I promise not to be a buzz kill wagging my finger about starva ... well, never mind. You see, this
is that rarest of birds: a happy column about hunger.
UK watchdog adviser: Cloned cattle meat likely safe Meat and milk from cloned cattle show no difference in composition from that of traditionally bred cows and so are unlikely to pose a food safety risk, an
advisory committee to Britain's food safety regulator said.
German Court Upholds GMO Planting Curbs Germany's top court on Wednesday rejected a complaint that restrictive laws on cultivating crops with genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) violate the
constitution.
Brought to you by T. Boone Pickens? Energy and the Lame Duck This Congress’s record on energy and environmental issues is shameful. The Senate, paralyzed by Republican opposition and indifferent Democratic
leadership, could not muster the 60 votes to pass legislation to reduce carbon emissions. It even failed to respond to the gulf oil spill.
Retrained for green jobs, but still waiting on work OCALA, FLA. - After losing his way in the old economy, Laurance Anton tried to assure his place in the new one by signing up for green jobs training earlier
this year at his local community college.
Well duh! States Diverting Money From Climate Initiative In New York, government officials found $90 million to pay for schools by dipping into money generated by a multistate greenhouse gas initiative.
The Green Bubble Is about to Burst There is a revolution coming that is likely to burst the green global warming bubble: the temperature trend used by the IPCC (the U.N.'s Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change) to support their conclusion about anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is likely to turn out to be fake. The situation will become clear
once Virginia's attorney general, Kenneth Cuccinelli, obtains information now buried in e-mails at the University of Virginia. Or Hearings on Climategate by the
U.S. Congress may uncover the "smoking gun" that demonstrates that the warming trend used by the IPCC does not really exist.
Global Warming Skeptics Ascend in Congress Cap-and-trade may be just the first casualty of the science-doubters in the House and Senate
U.N. seeks climate progress; deal may be years off OSLO, Nov 24 - The world will seek to break a U.S.-China standoff and agree modest steps to rein in global warming at U.N. talks in Mexico next week amid worries that the first climate treaty since 1992 may still be years away. (Reuters)
A challenging year for the climate story
Cancun climate conference picks up where Copenhagen left off CANCUN, Mexico - Familiar battle lines emerged on Sunday on the eve of a conference to restore the credibility of the UN’s talks on climate change after
last year’s near-disaster in Copenhagen.
Japan Says Extending Kyoto Pact Is "Meaningless" Japan opposes extending the Kyoto Protocol binding only rich nations to limit carbon emissions and will fight for a broader deal even if it finds itself isolated at U.N. talks, a senior official said on Thursday. (Reuters)
Sigh... Stalled on treaty, climate talks turn to money CANCUN, Mexico — Facing another year without a global deal to curb climate change, the world's nations will spend the next two weeks debating how to mobilize money to cope with what's coming — as temperatures climb, ice melts, seas rise and the climate that nurtured man shifts in unpredictable ways. (AP)
Same old extortion effort: Cancún climate summit: Rich accused of 'holding humanity hostage' Latin American leaders claim poorest nations imperilled by lack of action on global warming (Guardian)
UN "Permanent Emergency Session" Sought for Kyoto By Chris Horner on 11.26.10 @ 9:33AM The Scientific Alliance (UK) newsletter is out and contains a remarkable follow-on to last week's admission by German IPCC official/economist Otto Edendorfer that "One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy", that climate change policy is instead about how "we redistribute de facto the world's wealth...." (really?). As summarized in pertinent part by the SA:
With Son-of-Copenhagen kicking off Monday in Cancun, the coming two weeks should be rife with such outbursts as the Kyoto enterprise grinds ever closer, one hopes, to its inevitable, de facto (and 'permanent') collapse. (American Spectator)
CFACT’s Climate Depot on climate redistribution Marc Morano appears on the news discussing IPCC working group co-chair Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer of Germany’s recent candor about climate policy and redistribution of the world’s wealth (CFACT EU)
In the rent-seekers corner: Investors Hope U.N. Talks Keep Climate Deal On Track Investors in "green" assets hope that upcoming U.N. climate talks in Mexico will salvage a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions in 2011, and in the meantime widen and simplify existing carbon markets. (Reuters)
Cooling climate change: Environmental inaction seems to be taking hold Hand it to Mark Jaccard for keeping his chin up, and pressing on when he knows he faces little hope. The professor of environmental economics at Vancouver's
Simon Fraser University -- who shared in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize given to scientists behind the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), along with
Al Gore -- even went ahead and released a policy prescription for reducing carbon emissions this week. From the C.D. Howe Institute, it explains how Canada
could tax carbon emissions and return the money to the emitting provinces to cut taxes, so even Alberta and Saskatchewan could retain most of their investment
competitiveness while still penalizing emitters.
Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, Nov. 25th 2010 (Daily Bayonet)
China Says It Is World's Top Greenhouse Gas Emitter China acknowledged on Tuesday it is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases stoking global warming, confirming what scientists have said for years but defending its right to keep growing emissions. (Reuters)
Lomborg's Partly Right Problem and Wrong Solution Bjorn Lomborg has been energetically courting publicity for his new film, “Cool It,” which has attracted minimal box office sales thus far. But he’s
been publishing articles at an impressive clip, in a quest for more exposure, influence and funding.
Hyperbolic Robbie never seems to improve much: A billion people will lose their homes due to climate change, says report British scientists will warn Cancún summit that entire nations could be flooded (Robin McKie, The Observer)
Oh... Climate legislation is insurance for the planet There continues to be controversy concerning climate change – whether it is real and, if so, what the ramifications might be.
Um, no: On Global Warming, Start Small THE conference on climate change that begins tomorrow in Cancún, Mexico, will be the 13th such annual meeting since 1997, when the Kyoto Protocol, the first and only international agreement to place a cap on emissions of greenhouse gases, was written. This year there will be no such treaty. Why not? Excuses will abound, but finger-pointing misses the crux of the matter, which is that climate change is the most complicated and challenging problem mankind has ever faced. (NYT)
Cancún and global warming apocalypse How can you tell when another climate conference is about to kick off?
Hmm... Met Office says 2010 'among hottest on record' This year is heading to be the hottest or second hottest on record, according to the Met Office.
but everything's alright though: World is warming quicker than thought in past decade, says Met Office Report comes as scientists predict 2010 could be hottest year on record (Guardian)
Pick a number, any number... Climate change scientists warn of 4C global temperature rise Team of experts say such an increase would cause severe droughts and see millions of migrants seeking refuge
Slowing a little of the waste: Climate-change agency winds down as federal funding ends OTTAWA — A Canadian climate-change research foundation is celebrating its 10th anniversary, but has already begun winding down its operations after failing
to get new funding from the Harper government.
Eye-roller: Study Sees Polar Bears Losing Out To Grizzlies Polar bears are likely to lose out to grizzly bears in fierce competition for food as climate change drives the two species closer together into shared
habitat, biologists concluded in a study released on Tuesday.
Head shaker... Could Climate Change Ruin Thanksgiving Dinner? Warmer temperatures could affect just about everything you'll see on the dinner table. (Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News)
It's gotten warmer since the depths of the Little Ice Age (scary!) World warmer, Short-Term Trends Need Study: Report The global average temperature has increased over the past 160 years, but short-term trends in temperature and sea ice seem to be at odds with each other and
need more research, the UK Met Office's Hadley Center said.
How a Scientific Integrity Act Could Shift the Global Warming Debate By Sean M O’Brien
Study could mean greater anticipated global warming Current state-of-the-art global climate models predict substantial warming in response to increases in greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. The models,
though, disagree widely in the magnitude of the warming we can expect. The disagreement among models is mainly due to the different representation of clouds.
Some models predict that global mean cloud cover will increase in a warmer climate and the increased reflection of solar radiation will limit the predicted
global warming. Other models predict reduced cloudiness and magnified warming. In a paper that has just appeared in the Journal of Climate, researchers from the
University of Hawaii Manoa (UHM) have assessed the performance of current global models in simulating clouds and have presented a new approach to determining
the expected cloud feedbacks in a warmer climate.
Cloud atlas: Texas A&M scientist maps the meaning of mid-level clouds Clouds play a major role in the climate-change equation, but they are the least-understood variable in the sky, observes a Texas A&M University
geoscientist, who says mid-level clouds are especially understudied. The professor, Shaima Nasiri, is making those "in-between" clouds the focus of
her research, which is being funded by NASA.
U.S. Carbon Trading Goes Up in Smoke Buying and selling carbon permits in the emerging market designed to control global-warming pollution is no longer a career prospect in the U.S., though California is moving ahead with its own program (Roben Farzad, Businessweek)
EU Plans 2013 Ban On Disputed HFC Carbon Offsets The European Union's executive Commission has proposed banning from 2013 the most common types of carbon offsets, mostly from India and China, to help
restore credibility to the disputed system.
BP Oil Spill Update: Bird Death Fines Depend On Who Kills the Birds BY JACK DINI - What’s a brown pelican worth? What about an eagle, a bat, or a desert tortoise? Regarding brown pelicans, USA Today says, “It’s a
question that could consume environmental economists and scientists for years as they try to put price tags on the animals killed and habitat destroyed by the
massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill- an environmental analysis federal officials describe as the largest of its kind. The federal and state authorities ultimately
will send their bill to BP and other companies responsible for the spill.” Interior Department Assistant Secretary Tom Strickland, who overseas fish, wildlife
and parks adds, “Putting a price on a brown pelican is like trying to put a price on a sunset. The value of a brown pelican is really a replacement brown
pelican.”
Dopey buggers: Conservative pre-election coal plant emissions promise goes up in smoke Energy companies will only have to fit CCS technology to a third of coal plants, rather than two-thirds under the original plans (Guardian)
Obama’s State Department is pitching the new hydrofracking technology worldwide, and Halliburton is delighted.
China To Develop Unconventional Gases In 10 Years: Woodmac China will start developing unconventional gas sources within 10 years to fuel its massive economy, possibly bringing down global liquefied petroleum gas
prices, a senior energy consultant said on Thursday.
Japan looks to offshore methane hydrates to cut reliance on energy imports Japan, which imports more than 95% of its carbon-based fuel needs in the form of oil, gas or coal, has for decades looked for the means to reduce its
reliance on foreign suppliers and increase its energy security.
Arctic's 'fiery ice' is potential new energy source Scientists drill through permafrost to assess challenges in harnessing gas hydrates, a source of clean-burning methane (The Gazette)
Power Line Project Faces Challenges in California Valley EL CENTRO, Calif. — The sun is so strong here that people often talk about the temperature being “in the teens,” meaning 113 or above. The wind is so
powerful that west of town, signs on an Interstate display the number of miles remaining in which drivers will face dangerous winds, like signs that give the
distance to the next city.
Oh, they aren't getting enough of your taxes.... Clean energy funding slumps Start-up funding for clean energy companies around the world has slumped in the last quarter, falling nearly a fifth since the previous three months,
according to a new report.
He concedes the industry he promoted serves no useful purpose.
Scourge of smallpox and rabbits was a 'genuine hero' FRANK FENNER, the eminent Australian virologist who oversaw the eradication of smallpox, has died in Canberra at the age of 95.
One More Step toward the Right Medicare and Medicaid Reforms
The President’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is not set to release its final recommendations on how best to tackle deficit spending and entitlement reform until December 1. However, several of its members have already gone public with proposals to reduce runaway spending and put Medicare and Medicaid, two of the fastest-growing entitlement programs, on the road to solvency. The commission co-chairs, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, released a report that takes several positive steps in reforming Medicare, including opting to repeal the Sustainable Growth Formula. Alice Rivlin and Representative Paul Ryan (R–WI), also members of the commission, released transformative, long-term solutions to Medicare and Medicaid that would better serve patients and reduce the tremendous upward pressure these programs place on federal spending. Continue reading... (The Foundry)
The Mirage Of Environmental Justice One might think that the federal government has harmed the poor enough with policies that undermine opportunity and prosperity in the name of some variant of
social justice.
The REINS Act would require that the House, Senate, and president approve every new major administrative rule proposed by a federal agency before it takes
effect.
Typical acetaminophen dose no threat to kids' livers Concerns about liver injuries in kids who take the common painkiller acetaminophen -- sold as Tylenol in the U.S. -- are unfounded, researchers said on
Monday.
Cough and cold meds withdrawal is working: study The number of young children going to the emergency room after taking too much cough and cold medicine was cut in half after drug companies took medications
for their age group off the market, according to a new study.
Early puberty and obesity are linked in young girls, genetic research finds Early sexual maturity and obesity are genetically linked in women, a study has shown.
Do federal, state and local governments have a right to intervene in our lives when it comes to choices affecting our health?
My latest HND piece examines what it takes to get people to exercise. One sure way
to NOT accomplish this is with education, along the lines of "If folks only knew the benefits, they would surely begin an exercise program."
More guesses about "ozone depleting substances": New interpretation of atmospheric bromine sources during Arctic spring Bromine, which destroys ozone, is emitted into the atmosphere during Arctic spring from inorganic sources including sea-salt aerosols, frost flowers, and
cracks in sea ice. It had been believed that all additional atmospheric bromine observed from space at high latitude during spring originated from these sources
at Earth's surface. However, a new analysis by Salawitch et al. suggests that previous satellite measurements may have been misinterpreted.
by William Yeatman The Washington Examiner last week ran an excellent three part series by Kathleen Hartnett White and Mario Loyola, of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, on a burgeoning conflict between the EPA and the State of Texas. Part 1: EPA
Is Offended by Texas’s Successful Permitting Rules Read the full story (Cooler Heads)
When Sheep Didn’t Have Wool, By: Dennis T. Avery CHURCHVILLE, VA—Today, farmers are accused of “tampering with Nature.” But farmers have been doing such tampering for thousands of years. We had to,
for survival. As one dramatic example, wild sheep didn’t have wool. Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep still don’t! Nature gave sheep a long, coarse hair coat
instead. In the beginning, the wool was just a short insulating undercoat with fuzzy fibers too short to make thread. For the first 4,000 years we herded sheep,
it was only for their meat.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22, 2010 -- /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- JunkScience.com today launched the web site GoreFacts.com as a response to KochIndustriesFacts.com, Al Gore's attack on Koch Industries for opposing climate alarmism. "I think Al Gore may come to regret his desperate and juvenile attack on Koch Industries," said JunkScience.com publisher Steve Milloy. "Gore has now inspired us to accumulate documented facts about Gore and to present them to the public in a single web site dedicated to spotlighting Gore's habitual hypocrisy, dishonesty and creepiness." Milloy added. The Gore attack on Koch Industries is just the opening salvo in what Milloy expects to be an ugly campaign of personal attacks that Gore and other anti-fossil fuel activists and business interests seem likely to run over the next two years. "Media reports indicate that environmental activists will be working to make political gains in the 2012 elections so that they can get their agenda back on track in 2013," Milloy observed. "Between now and the 2012 elections, I expect that Al Gore and his allies will conduct a slash-and-burn attack campaign against their opponents," said Milloy. But as the defeat of cap-and-trade indicates, Milloy and his allies are up to the challenge. "In early 2009, conventional wisdom was that cap-and-trade was a done deal," said Milloy. "But hard work by skeptics, along with a lousy economy, the rise of tea parties and the Climategate expose, ultimately drove a stake through junk science-fueled and economy-killing cap-and-trade," noted Milloy. Surprisingly, Milloy credits environmentalists with helping to defeat their own agenda. "Al Gore is one of the most polarizing personalities in American politics and it was always a mystery why the environmental movement allowed Gore to co-opt their Marxist-socialist movement so he could to advance his personal profiteering – but it made arguing the skeptics' position much easier and we thank them for it," Milloy added. One of the facts on GoreFacts.com is Al Gore's braggadocio that poets will be singing his praises 1,000 years from now. "Meantime, the rest of us can look forward to the next two years of hilarious Gore gaffs. If the greens are lucky, maybe the they'll get their agenda back on track in a thousand years," Milloy concluded. Steve Milloy is the publisher of JunkScience.com and author of Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them. SOURCE JunkScience.com
The former vice president basks in adoration at Tennessee State University in 2006, before acknowledging his stand on ethanol was self-serving.... View
Enlarged Image
Al Gore cries crocodile tears over ethanol Al Gore admitted today that corn ethanol was “not a good policy,” according to Reuters — but that’s not the end of the story. Though he campaigned for ethanol in the past, Gore said,
Gore then went on to support so-called second generation technologies which do not compete with food, for example cellulosic technologies which use chemicals or enzymes to extract sugar from fiber in wood, waste or grass. He said,
Is this a genuine mea culpa on the part of Gore or crocodile tears? If we turn to the investment portfolio of the venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers (KPCB) where Al Gore is a partner, we find that KPCB has invested in Mascoma Corporation, whose business is cellulosic ethanol. Here’s how KPCB’s web site describes Mascoma,
In 2008, Mascoma received $61 million in financing from a group that included KPCB. In 2006, KPCB was part of a $30 million financing package for Mascoma. And who knows what other cellulosic ethanol ventures KPCB and Gore have going? The Reuters reporters didn’t ask Al Gore about his cellulosic ethanol business interests and, of course, Honest Al Gore didn’t volunteer those revealing tidbits either. So while Al Gore appears to be lamenting bad policy that he supported, instead he is really just trashing corn ethanol in hopes of advancing cellulosic ethanol and his investment in Mascoma. (Green Hell Blog)
Um... no: Republicans Learn the Perils of Being Politically Incorrect on Climate Change Defeat came for Republican Rep. Bob Inglis because he slid to "Satan's side."
Cap-and-trade likely to be buried by new Congress This is what the 2010 midterm elections will change about U.S. climate policy: Cap-and-trade was dead. Now it will be deader.
It’s been a year since thousands of emails and files were leaked from a prominent climate science group at the University of East Anglia, with startling
comments including this one: “We can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment.”
Job Openings In IT Support At The CRU And Nature Publishing Group
It’s really heartwarming (without even having to surround one’s internal organs with greenhouse gases!!) to find that people that want to save the world by running complex computational models on supercomputers, are so (un)familiar with using common features of simple apps; and that people assigned by major international scientific publications to keep us informed about a problem that might engulf the planet, are (in)capable of showing much intelligent reasoning and to probe a situation with thoughtful questions and unprecedented insight. ps On a more serious note, it’s telling that:
Same old, same old? (Maurizio Morabito, OmniClimate)
On and on... The Holland redaction This is a guest post by David Holland.Late last Friday afternoon, the University of East Anglia released some further information that should be of interest to anyone who has followed the minutiae of Climategate. There is, for instance, a breakdown of the costs of the Russell Review at the end of the response letter. However, of most interest to me, and bearing directly upon the “rigour and honesty” of the Russell Review and UEA’s scientists, is Professor Boulton’s email of 6 May to Professor Briffa. This email (in the zip file here) concerned Briffa's work on the IPCC AR4 Report and the assistance he had received from Eugene Wahl. In his email, Boulton asks Briffa to reply to my allegation that the deadline for cited papers to be “in press” was changed to allow the citation of the Wahl and Ammann 2007 paper, which had missed the original deadline. Without it, IPCC WGI would have had to record the fact that the last word in the peer-reviewed literature was that the Mann et al “hockey stick” studies were invalidated by McIntyre and McKitrick. Click to read more ... (Bishop Hill)
What could be worse than "complete fabrication"? Next climate warming report will be dramatically worse: UN UNITED NATIONS — United Nations leaders will demand "concrete results" from the looming Cancun climate summit as global warming is accelerating,
a top UN organizer of the event said Monday.
The New Guard of Climate Questioners: Get Ready for the Next Round of Climate Science Debate by Chip Knappenberger Last Wednesday, November 17, 2010, the Subcommittee on Energy & Environment of the Committee on Science and Technology of the U. S. House of Representatives held a hearing on climate change titled “A Rational Discussion of Climate Change: the Science, the Evidence, the Response.” In a clear deference to the incoming make-up of the House, there were a relatively high number of panelists that were invited by the sitting minority, which made this hearing more “rational” and fascinating that than most subcommittee hearings in some time. The Republican invitees were Richard Lindzen, Patrick Michaels, and Judith Curry. The first two are stalwarts of the let’s-just-hold-on-a-minute view of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming. And, true to form, at the hearing each presented compelling evidence as to why anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions might not rapidly push up global temperature—not now, nor in the future. The testimony of Lindzen and Michaels can be found here and here respectively. And while their arguments are met with considerable opposition from the global-warming-is-a-dire-problem types, the ideas espoused by Lindzen and Michaels are scientifically compelling. The third Republican invitee, Georgia Institute of Technology’s Dr. Judith Curry, is a new addition to this group (her testimony can be accessed here). In fact, not too long ago, she was starring for the Democrats at Congressional hearings. She also endorsed Joe Romm’s book, Come Hell and High Water, upon its release in 2006. But all this changed about a year ago, when Dr. Curry started delving into the contents of the Climategate emails (which just celebrated the one-year anniversary of their release). She did not like what she found and spoke up. At the time, when expressing her initial concern about the behavior on display (and its implications) in the Climategate emails, hers was one voice among several that came from folks who were typically apart from the usual (critical) suspects. However, as time went on, the other voices have grown dimmer, while Judith’s has grown louder—primarily because of her continued investigations and her conviction borne upon what she has found. Her primary interest, as of late, concerns the recognition and representation of uncertainty in our scientific knowledge. She holds the opinion that the level of true uncertainty is suppressed in the IPCC documents, and that its full revelation is essential in presenting a fair description of the state of scientific knowledge. Her frank discussion on this topic has made her rather unpopular among her past supporters (she was at one time deemed the “high priestess of global warming” but now labeled a “heretic”) and is what has landed her in the anchor seat of the Hearing last week. Here is a snippet of how she describes her personal journey: [Read more →] (MasterResource)
Climate Scientists Fight Back (Minus The Climate Scientists) Funny people, the climate scientists. One would expect, for example, that behind a website sporting a “new rapid response team of climate scientists [that] promises to connect reporters and editors with a team of experts” (in the words of The Guardian), there would be at least the one climate scientist ready to put their face where their internet connection is. Alas, one would be wrong. For who’s organizing the Climate Rapid Response?
As far as I can tell, the combined scientific output of the public faces of the Climate Rapid Response Team is zero. Or maybe one, by stretching things a bit. This is not to criticize anybody, esp. Prof. Mandia, who after a couple of decades of teaching introductory climatology may know a thing or two, so to speak. But in absence of original research by its leaders, we can only expect the Climate Rapid Response Team to be a campaigning (political) platform, not a scientific one. (Maurizio Morabito, OmniClimate)
Politicized Science vs. Anti-Science Republicans Just because the motives of many climate change advocates are questionable, even evil, does that mean the entire global warming proposition is a fraud? (Rick Moran, PJM)
Source: American Thinker by Robert Ferguson The effort to discredit global warming skeptics is warming up globally. Australian blogger Graham Readfearn reports on Naomi Oreskes’ speaking tour of Australia: As a celebrated historian, Professor Naomi Oreskes is interested in the origin of things – where ideas start from, what drives them and ultimately who propagates them. Oreskes, Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California San Diego, has just arrived in Australia on a whistle-stop speaking tour promoting her new book, co-authored with Erik Conway, titled Merchants of Doubt – How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming. The book, five years in the writing, ultimately concludes that much of the world’s scepticism on climate change – whether that be over the validity or certainty of the science of climate change, its causes or the need to act – is chiefly driven by a paranoid ideological fear of socialism and an unbending faith and belief in free-markets. Put simply, free-market think-tanks such as the George C Marshall Institute, the Heartland Institute, The Science and Public Policy Institute and the Why-Can’t-You-Just-Leave-us-Alone-While-We-Make-Oodles-of-Cash Institute (not a real institute) don’t like industry to have to be held accountable. Oreskes spoke to the ABC’s Lateline program on this brand of scepticism which also drove shoulder-shrugs over acid rain, tobacco smoke and ozone depletion. Says Oreskes, “It’s part of this whole ideological program of challenging any science that could lead to government regulation, because it’s part of an ideological conviction that all regulation is bad, that any time the government steps in to ‘protect’ us from harm, that we’re on the slippery slope to socialism, and this the ideology that you see underlying a kind of almost paranoid anti-communism. So even after the Cold War is over, these people are seeing reds under the bed.” Has Oreskes’ snarky book indulged what Freud called “projection”? It is certainly demonstrable that her book’s “carbon footprint” and “greed” slams on skeptics are so filled with hypocrisy they “stink on ice.” But this has to be the topper: The book, five years in the writing, ultimately concludes that much of the world’s scepticism on climate change – whether that be over the validity or certainty of the science of climate change, its causes or the need to act – is chiefly driven by a paranoid ideological fear of socialism[.] As an average six-year-old might ask, “Gee, ya think?” (See an in-depth response to Oreskes here.) Read the rest of this entry » (SPPI)
Game Over in the Carbon War, as CCX Closes? By Peter C Glover While the next climate summit in Cancun, Mexico at the end of this month will make a show of sifting the geopolitical wreckage from last December’s climate summit, any real prospect for coordinated international action is, post-Copenhagen, dead in the political water. [Read More] (ET)
Government accused of lobbying against action on climate change The Harper government is on the defensive over its climate-change policy amid charges it is conspiring with the oil industry and Alberta to lobby for weaker emissions rules in the United States and Europe. (Globe and Mail)
U.N. meeting to tackle smaller climate issues As prospects dim for a major agreement on capping pollution worldwide, deforestation, renewable energy and other smaller steps that target global warming
will take center stage at a United Nations meeting next week, observers predict.
Why The UK Will Definitely Fulfill Its Climate Change Act Emissions Reduction Target For 2020 Roger Pielke Jr is skeptical about the absurd task the UK has given itself regarding a “34% target for emissions reductions below a 1990 baseline by 2020“. He’s obviously not knowledgeable enough about the ways of the British governments re: targets. Let me explain. Many years ago somebody had the bright idea to declare a target for UK train punctuality by a certain date. Scrambling for a solution in the face of certain failure, shortly before the deadline the rail companies agreed on artificially lengthening their schedules, thereby guaranteeing they could reach the target even if in practice they had done nothing of the sort. Then it was Mr Blair’s government’s turn to declare a target on waiting list at the NHS by a certain date. Scrambling for a solution in the face of certain failure, shortly before the deadline the NHS structures decided to operate a double waiting list system, with the “official” one designed to consistently reach the target, and the “unofficial” one a parking area for patients that were simply not counted by the target system. Everybody had therefore guaranteed they could reach the target even if in practice they had done nothing of the sort. This practice, i.e. an extension of “creative accounting“, has permeated the whole public system in the country. Even during the Dec 31, 1999 celebrations in London, the expected “river of fire” with 60ft+ tall flames was declared a success despite having been mostly invisible to the crowds, by redefining the meaning of “river of fire“. And yes!, this may all sound familiar to people that have read about attempts to “redefine what the peer reviewed literature is“. Of course. Please do not be surprised therefore if, come 2020, we will be talked into believing that the “34% target for emissions reductions below a 1990 baseline by 2020” will have been achieved, regardless of what the true figures will tell. (Maurizio Morabito, OmniClimate)
Um... Who cares? EU Says May Unveil CO2 Credit Curb Plan In Cancun The European Commission said on Monday a proposal to limit the use of some carbon credits from industrial gas projects in its emissions trading scheme might be unveiled during a United Nations climate summit in Mexico next week. (Reuters)
Global Impact Of EU 30 Pct Carbon Cut Small: IEA New European Union proposals for a tough cut in carbon dioxide emissions would have only a limited impact on the global warming process, International Energy
Agency chief economist told Reuters on Monday.
Climate Costs Set To Rise, Technology Can Help: U.N. Costs of combating global warming will rise inexorably if the world fails to cap greenhouse gases by 2015, but new technologies can curb the price, the head of the U.N. climate panel said on Monday. (Reuters)
China Feels Heat Of Climate Change Rifts Coaxing China into a global grand bargain to fight climate change that also satisfies the United States and other rich nations threatens to be even more
daunting and elusive than fixing the economic rifts dividing them.
Imagine that... Indonesia eyeing $1bn climate aid to cut down forests, says Greenpeace Vague legal definitions may allow Indonesia to class forests as 'degraded' and 'rehabilitate' the land with palm trees and biofuel crops
November 20, 2010 When journalists or market researchers interview the public, they describe what they’ve done in plain language. They say they’ve conducted interviews, that they’ve done a survey. When UN employees interview people they tell you, over and over, about their “empirical research.” Anyone who doubts this is invited to watch a 70-minute Media Training Workshop that took place at the Bonn Climate Change talks in June 2009. (If you make it through the whole thing you earn a shiny gold star.) A glossy 36-page report about climate refugees titled In Search of Shelter was launched at this workshop. The report was written by people with agendas a mile wide (see my previous post). It has not been peer-reviewed. Nevertheless, it provides an instructive example of how quickly questionable material gets incorporated into the self-perpetuating climate change consciousness. (No Consensus)
Climate Change Math in Treaties Flawed by Suspect Calculations Nov. 23 -- D.V. Borole, a retired Indian government researcher, treks to a bluff in Goa once a fortnight to gather samples at one of just six sites in the
nation to study heat-trapping pollutants. Measuring gases in the air would require a global network such as the web of stations that report weather patterns. So
far, countries haven’t been inclined to spend the money. That leaves a loose band of air checkers, like Borole, spread thinly around the planet. (Source:
Bloomberg)
IPCC Exclusions And Inclusions Of Climate Mechanisms Are Both Failures Charles Lyell, whose work Principles of Geology was a great influence on Charles Darwin, said, “The present is the key to the past”.
CARTER & DRIESSEN: 'Cool it' with all the research dollars Solution to climate change is planning, not spending
Lomborg: uses irrational name-calling and denies the evidence The Australian published Bjorn Lomborg: A Rational Take On Warming last week. It was self-contradictory, baseless name-calling from a formerly sensible writer. Rational?  Lomborg and Gore are not so far apart
The only rational response to climate change is to use empirical, observable evidence. Rational people can point to results from 28 million radiosondes, 6000 boreholes, 30 years of satellites, 3000 ARGO ocean diving thermometers, raw data from thousands of surface thermometers, as well 800 peer reviewed references which include studies of corals, caves, pollen grains, ocean floor sediments, ice cores, and diatoms. Lomborg is happy to call these rational people names, but irrationally doesn’t appear to have read their arguments. His method of quoting scientific studies, which was so successful on other topics, has come unstuck on climate science. He doesn’t realize that the US government poured $79 billion dollars into demonstrating one theory, but next to nothing to research, audit, or question that theory. He’s been tripped up by the skewing effect of monopolistic funding. Far from being rational or scientific, he accepts the opinions of the Scientific Gods at the IPCC, and ignores the empirical evidence. It’s a step back to the stone age. In a rational world — when the evidence disagrees with the opinions — scientists toss out the fake Gods and go with the data. His ignorance of the scientific side of the debate is one thing, but the hypocritical name-calling is quite something else. He calls it juvenile pie-throwing, but he still uses the word denier, specifically saying the skeptics deny the “ever-mounting evidence”. My challenge to Lomborg is to name one paper we deny. He’s adopted an Orwellian misnomer. The term is designed to denigrate and dehumanize, why does he play that game? And for those who think the term “alarmist” is name-calling, think again. It’s an adjective and it fits. The so-called deniers don’t deny anything, but an alarmist is someone who wants to alarm us. Can anyone think of a better term for what the IPCC do? More » (Jo Nova)
Climate Change Puts
Tribal Way of Life at Risk…not really true but enviro agenda does
AOL News Streams that support cold-water fish are getting warmer. Traditional native plants are becoming harder to find. And some animal migratory patterns have been disrupted. Native American tribes own and manage 5 percent of the land in the U.S.—lands that are rich with renewable resources. But Native Americans are disproportionately affected by climate change. And droughts, temperature changes and altered animal behavior are just some of the ways climate change is being acutely felt on reservations in the West, putting tribal environments, identity and cultural traditions at risk, experts say. “The elders are commenting on how much warmer it’s getting, and how that warming is impacting the snow and the mountains,” said Germaine White, a member and information and education specialist for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in northwestern Montana. “They pray about that. They are concerned. There needs to be snow so that the plants and animal communities thrive.” Mission Mountains are visible in the distance on the Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana. Residents there are experiencing the impacts of climate change. Many in the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes reside on the Flathead Indian Reservation, 1.3 million acres at the base of the Northern Rockies. Temperatures are rising in cold-water streams, creating perilous survival conditions for native fish such as trout. White said the land has become drier, more prone to wildfires and hospitable to several non-native plant species, triggering a decline in traditional ones. Members of the Tulalip Tribes, which own 22,000 acres in Washington, are facing similar problems. The 4,000-member indigenous group is experiencing a winter season that now ends two months earlier than usual. The six weeks that it normally took for the snow to melt into waterways happens in two weeks. The rapid snowmelt has a knock-on effect. More water flows through the streams, scouring sediment and altering the habitats that salmon use to develop. That creates a schism between water flow and the salmon biology, and threatens the core of tribal identity, said Preston Hardison, a policy analyst for the Natural Resources Office of the Tulalip Tribes. “For the survival of their culture, they need these ecosystems to be as secure from climate change as they can,” he said. But the fear among experts isn’t just for the future of the tribes. Lonnie Thompson, a leading climatologist, glaciologist and professor of geological sciences at Ohio State University, said the climate change impacts that Native Americans are experiencing on tribal lands is a harbinger of sorts of what the rest of the world will experience in later years because of climate change. “I think what you see, especially in the changes that are occurring around glaciers, that these are just the canaries in the coal mine of things to come,” said Thompson, who has spent more than 30 years studying Peru’s Quelccaya glacier, the largest tropical ice cap in the world. Learning to be More Efficient Alexis Bonogofsky, senior tribal lands coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation, works with tribes throughout Montana to build small-scale renewable energy projects, including a weatherization project for the Northern Cheyenne. The nonprofit is helping the tribe retrofit tribal buildings to be more energy efficient. They’re working to implement a green technology training program at the community college that will teach students how to construct energy-efficient homes using sustainable products and fix renewable energy projects. “Our long-term vision,” Bonogofsky said, “is that there will be a workforce on Northern Cheyenne tribal systems who can not only repair small-scale renewable energy technology, but are able to build new houses that are straw bale and energy efficient.” Other Western tribes are battling climate change’s effects by creating small-scale renewable-energy projects to help reduce carbon emissions and reliance on fossil fuels. On the Hopi reservation in Arizona, tribal leaders are developing a wind turbine farm that will supply power to 14,000 homes. Roger Tungovia, the project manager of the Hopi Renewable Energy Office, said the tribe was spurred to consider alternative energy projects after residents of the tribal lands began experiencing irregular weather conditions, such as drought, increased flooding during summer months and major snowstorms in the winter. The Tulalip are planning for climate-change adaptation. That includes assessing how sea grass and kelp can help keep water, salmon and sediment from being washed out into the ocean from streams. They are also looking at how nursery habitats near the coast can take carbon dioxide out of the environment. Tribal officials hope to use that information to establish wetlands that will help slow the water’s movement in the spring. The projects not only work to stave off the impact of climate change, but also to bring jobs to areas that may be economically depressed. Pat Spears, a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and president of Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, supports building a wind farm on his South Dakota reservation, where the wind blows up to 18 miles per hour. “We don’t want wall-to-wall turbines,” he said. “We want to restore our economy.” Other Problems, Too Climate change isn’t the only problem affecting the environment on reservations. Development and work to acquire natural resources such as coal can also disrupt the land’s natural processes. Gail Small, a former elected member of the tribal council for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in southeastern Montana, said work to extract natural resources, coupled with climate change, altered traditional routes animals used to traverse across the reservation. “The elk are confused,” Small said. “Their migratory patterns are all disrupted.” Thirty years ago, the Tribal Council on the Flathead Indian Reservation dedicated nearly 25 percent of their land as open space—the first tribal wilderness in the nation, White said. That move has helped keep swathes of mountain range, where snowpack melts into waterways, largely undisturbed. “We have been keen on ensuring that there are entire watersheds that have cold, clean, connected complex water,” White said. “They are components of a healthy streams for native fish restoration.” The Tribal Council also moved to a 10-hour, four-day workweek, to save energy and minimize the number of days people drove to and from work, White said. Hardison said the nation in general, and tribes in particular, have a small window of time to act on climate change before the changes trigger ecological collapse. Once that threshold is reached, it will be almost impossible to reverse the effects. “If the cultures are going to survive, we have to stabilize over the next 20, 30 years,” Hardison said. “It’s a culture killer, from an Indian point of view.” See post here. Icecap response: The temperatures in Montana have experienced very little net trend over the last century - mostly just the cyclical changes associated with the PDO and solar. See the plots for Great Falls (flat) and Crow Agency (net cooling).
As for the disappearing snow in late winter and early spring, this is common in El Niño's winters which favor a more southerly winter storm track and warmth and less snow across the northwest and north central. Since the PDO positive phase from 1978 to 1998 favored El Niños (the period had 10 El Niños and only 3 mostly weaker La Niñas), this early spring melt was understandable. The PDO flipped to the negative mode in 1999 and we have had more La Niñas (6) than El Niños (3). In these La Nina winters, snow has been heavier and temperatures away from cities (Crow Agency) have trended down. In 2008 and 2009 winters and spring, very cold weather persisted in the northern tier and southern Canada - so much so that they had trouble getting spring grains in the ground (snow covered in parts of southern Canada into mid June). Since the cold PDO is likely to remain for a few decades, look for more La Niñas, colder temperatures and more snow winter into spring. The same is true for Europe with a correlation with the AMO (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation) which relates inversely to the North Atlantic Oscillation. A warm AMO means a negative NAO is favored - that correlates with more cold and snow for Europe.
Sigh... The Warming of Antarctica: A Citadel of Ice Begins to Melt The fringes of the coldest continent are starting to feel the heat, with the northern Antarctic Peninsula warming faster than virtually any place on Earth. These rapidly rising temperatures represent the first breach in the enormous frozen dome that holds 90 percent of the world’s ice. (Fen Montaigne, e360)
Changing winds can influence amounts of carbon dioxide the ocean holds The Southern Hemisphere Westerlies, the prevailing winds in the Southern Hemisphere, can strongly influence ocean circulation. D'Orgeville et al. use a
climate model to study how changes in the Southern Hemisphere Westerlies affect atmospheric carbon dioxide through their influence on ocean carbon storage. They
confirm earlier assumptions that an increase in the wind amplitude would have the effect of accelerating the deep overturning circulation, decreasing ocean
carbon storage, and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Large methane release from ocean sediments during glacial periods? Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, exists in large quantities in methane hydrates in sediments beneath the seafloor. In hydrates, methane molecules are
trapped in cages of water molecules, but under some conditions these hydrates can become unstable and release methane into the ocean and atmosphere. A recent
study shows that large amounts of methane may have been released from the seafloor during past peak glacial or glacial-interglacial transition periods.
There is a new paper that further assesses the issue of long term temperature trends as a function of height near the ground. This new study was motivated by our paper Pielke Sr., R.A., and T. Matsui, 2005: Should light wind and windy nights have the same temperature trends at individual levels even if the boundary layer averaged heat content change is the same? Geophys. Res. Letts., 32, No. 21, L21813, 10.1029/2005GL024407. The new paper is Steeneveld, G.J., A.A.M. Holtslag, R.T. McNider, and R.A Pielke Sr, 2010: Screen level temperature increase due to higher atmospheric carbon dioxide in calm and windy nights revisited. J. Geophys. Res., in press. The abstract reads
Among the conclusions, we write
The answer to the question of whether long term temperature trends near the surface are a significant function of height is an important climate metric issue, as these trends are used in the construction of the annual average global surface temperature trend. From this new study, it appears that feedbacks mute temperature trends near the surface, however, this was for a specific situation and may not be general to other landscapes. The new McNider et al paper, that is in preparation, will examine this issue for other situations, and we will report on this weblog when this study is complete. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Salazar Session Disappoints Gulf Drillers Interior Secretary Ken Salazar met with oil and gas companies that work in the Gulf of Mexico's shallow waters on Monday, but the talks did nothing to jump
start drilling activity as the industry had hoped.
Lame Duck Session a Big Success So Far by Myron Ebell Lame Duck Session a Big Success So Far The first week of Congress’s lame duck session has been a big success. They haven’t done anything. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled a scheduled vote to invoke cloture and proceed to S. 3815, the “Promoting Natural Gas and Electric Vehicles Act of 2010,” because he did not have the 60 votes required. S. 3815 is known around town as the Boone Pickens Payoff Bill. Pickens told Bloomberg News this week that he thought there was a better than 50-50 chance that the bill would be enacted, so we can’t celebrate yet. The bill would provide $4.5 billion in subsidies for natural gas vehicles and $3.5 billion in subsidies for electric vehicles plus $2 billion… Read the full story (Cooler Heads)
Peak energy? What peak energy? One of the other lies told by Watermelons – when they’re not bleating about the fast-fading ‘crisis’ of “Man-Made Global Warming” – is that the
earth is fast running out of scarce resources. “Even if AGW isn’t quite as true as we pretended it was a few years ago, that’s still no excuse for not
taking radical action to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels,” they claim.
D'oh! Nations That Debate Coal Use Export It to Feed China’s Need Even as developed countries close or limit the construction of coal-fired power plants out of concern over pollution and climate-warming emissions, coal has
found a rapidly expanding market elsewhere: Asia, particularly China.
Russia Closely Watching EU Shift To Green Energy Moscow is "closely watching" Europe's shift to renewable energy and foresees continued demand for gas to balance fluctuations in green energy
output, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said on Monday.
Why the Government Should Stay Out of Green Energy In the realm of solar power, there has never been more fanfare for a startup than in the case of Solyndra. Founded in 2005, the company’s rooftop-mounted
solar panels were immediately touted as “the next big thing” in alternative energy.
He don't say? U.S. corn ethanol "was not a good policy"-Gore ATHENS, Nov 22 - Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore said support for corn-based ethanol in the United States was "not a good policy", weeks before
tax credits are up for renewal.
Cropland - Food for People or Fuel for Cars? According to a new study by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Government support of biofuel production is costly, has a
limited impact on reducing greenhouse gases and improving energy security, and has a significant impact on world crop prices… Current biofuel support measures
alone are expected to increase the average prices for wheat by about 5 per cent, corn by around 7 per cent, and vegetable oil by about 19 per cent over the next
ten years.
Ethanol produces more carbon dioxide than petrol.
Good! Farming Futures faces closure as government funding is cut Group has played vital role in persuading farmers to invest in green technology such as wind turbines and solar panels (Guardian)
How Czech politicians are stopping the solar insanity
The former largest - as of 2007 - Central European solar power plant in Ostrožská Lhota, the Czech Republic (near the Slovak border), occupies 40,000 m^2, produces 1.5 MWp (megawatts at peak conditions - that's just 37.5 Watts-peak per m^2), and its
cost was CZK 100 million (CZK 2500 per m^2). The Global Warming Policy Foundation reprints a November 17th article in Die Presse (Austria) about the newest decisions attempting to stop the insane solar boom in the Czech Republic: Eastern Europe Puts Emergency Brakes On Solar EnergyA few years ago, the Czech politicians joined the bandwagon and introduced breathtaking subsidies for solar energy. Our subsidies and conditions were particularly generous. As a result, my homeland has probably seen the world's greatest annual percentage increase of the solar sources within the last year: by a whopping one order of magnitude per year! » Don't Stop Reading » (TRF)
Switch to renewables will take generations, not years Jock Finlayson is the executive vice-president, policy, for the Business Council of British Columbia
Patients Should Pay Their Own Bills Big Spenders: Increases in health care costs rival the rising of the sun for inevitably. Should we blame greedy doctors and drugmakers? No, blame should be placed on the system the government has promoted. (IBD)
Taking the Gloves Off: Is the Health Care Bill Constitutional The legal arguments surrounding the constitutionality of the health care debate are nuanced, and at the center of the debate is whether Congress can regulate
a citizen’s inactivity. The Federalist Society holds its annual conference in Washington, D.C. this week, and that's one of the hottest topics. In an
afternoon panel on Thursday, four legal scholars went head-to-head in a panel titled “Litigation: Debating the Constitutionality of the Federal Health Care
Legislation.”
Ray LaHood: Obama's Power-Mad Cell Phone Czar America is in debt past its eyeballs. Unemployment remains stuck near double digits. Small and large businesses, unions and insurers are clamoring for
Obamacare waivers in droves. Jihadists are making a mockery of homeland security. And border chaos reigns. So, what's one of the Obama administration's top
domestic policy agenda items this month? Combating distracted drivers.
Obesity weighs on wealthy in poor countries NEW YORK Nov 22 (Reuters Life!) - The obesity epidemic has spread to poorer nations, where it almost entirely affects wealthy citizens, while the poor in the
same nations still remain underweight, a study said.
Source: SPPI by Dennis Ambler It is interesting that the global warming industry often likens people who question the warming agenda to those who challenge the black and white, cause and effect view of tobacco and cancer and the junk science often used by the anti-tobacco zealots. (I am not denying that smoking can cause cancer but obviously everyone who smokes does not get cancer, otherwise smoking would be a self eliminating activity. Disclaimer: I have never smoked and hate the smell of stale tobacco, but I do not deny the rights of smokers to enjoy their own choice of recreation) The UN are now applying the tactics of global warming to the rights of people over the globe to enjoy their own pleasures. Here are some familiar phrases:
Of course the WHO is yet another arm of the UN, with its own army of bureaucrats intent on global control: Read the rest of this entry » (SPPI)
Think this through. What will happen to food prices and our exports if we pay farmers to cut back on their crops:
UNDER government plans to test-run a carbon market for the sector, farmers will be able to cash in on measures to reduce carbon pollution. These will include tree planting and reducing
fertiliser use. UPDATE To confirm what critics in comments below seek to deny, here are examples of carbon dioxide offset schemes boasting that they are indeed sticking their (non-fruiting) trees on farmland:
And:
As the NSW Farmers Association says:
The Australian Banana Growers’ Council warns:
As the South Australian Advisory Board of Agriculture tried to tell the Rudd Government:
(Andrew Bolt)
What is the world coming to when gravity has no respect for treehuggers? Folk legend Joan Baez injured after falling from a treehouse Folk legend Joan Baez was recovering last night after falling 20 feet from a treehouse in her garden.
Gun Control Advocate Traver to Head ATF Obama has nominated a Chicagoan with no senior executive level experience to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. (Bob Owens, PJM)
Inhofe Recounts Success in 2010, But Warns of ‘Backdoor' Cap-And-Trade at EPA ‘EPA is threatening jobs on a host of fronts' Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, delivered a Senate Floor speech today on global warming policy, warning that, despite its defeat this year in Congress, "backdoor" cap-and-trade is "alive and well" at the EPA. The speech recounts events over the last year that led to the defeat of the thousand-page Waxman-Markey bill in the Senate, including the failure in Copenhagen, Climategate, and the Obama Administration's admission of the futility of unilateral U.S. climate action. (EPW blog)
Surreality: CARB contemplating a “skeptical science” regulation with penalties  Twin Terminators: Gov.
Arnold Schwarnzeneggar and CARB's Mary Nichols. Gee, thanks Arnold
My View: The California Air resources Board is quickly becoming the most dangerous bureaucratic organization in California. This latest contempt for a public that questions the validity of their mission is way over the top. As the headline says, CARB is actively considering:
Guess who gets to determine the “dishonesty” of a “statement or submittal” to CARB? Of course, it’s OK if CARB makes a 340% error of their own while using false data to impose their will on the people of California. And of course it’s OK to publicly flaunt the ugly hubris of the CARB boss Mary Nichols rubbing her glee in the face of the citizens of California that voted for Prop 23. And of course it’s OK to simply demote a CARB “scientist” who lied about his PhD degree obtained from a UPS store rather than fire his fraudulent bureaucratic butt and then stage a cover up about it. But, when a citizen submits some data or opinion to CARB that they may later find questionable? Well, that’s a whole different matter. What a bunch of self serving, holier than thou, public sector putzes! Evidently CARB is contemplating a regulation that would enable penalties for what would be judged “dishonest statements or submittals” provided to it or “staff.” I think one can safely assume that it is aimed at curtailing challenges to CARB’s agenda that are based on alternative scientific information and interpretations. Here’s a message from their listserver, you just have to read this to believe it: Continue reading (WUWT)
Letter of the moment: Let's Deal in Science and Facts Bjorn Lomborg ("Can Anything Serious Happen in Cancun?",
op-ed, Nov. 12) claims that government spending on global warming policies is wasted, but he assumes that global warming caused by carbon dioxide is a fact. It
is not. We base this statement not on the opinions of 31,000 American scientists who signed a public statement rejecting this warming hypothesis (the
"Oregon Petition"), but rather because the forecasts of global warming were derived from faulty procedures.
Hoaxes: A high-ranking member of the U.N.'s Panel on Climate Change admits the group's primary goal is the redistribution of wealth and not environmental protection or saving the Earth. (IBD)
On the anniversary of Climategate the Watermelons show their true colours Watermelons: green on the outside, red on the inside. This is the theme of my forthcoming book on the controlling, poisonously misanthropic and aggressively
socialistic instincts of the modern environmental movement. So how very generous that two of that movement’s leading lights should have chosen the anniversary
of Climategate to prove my point entirely.
Terence Kealey: What Does Climategate Say About Science? The emails sent by members of the climatic research centre at the University of East Anglia have provoked international outrage, as have the many flawed
global warming papers that have appeared in recent years such as those describing the hockey stick graph(1), to say nothing of the flawed predictions of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over such issues as the rate of disappearance of the glaciers in the Himalayas. But such outrage has been naive
because it has been premised on the assumption that scientists are - and should be - dispassionate seekers after truth. Yet in fact scientists are and should be
advocates. Science has always been rooted in advocacy, as was illustrated by an episode from its very beginnings during the 5th century BC.
How the Climategate weasels wriggled free This week marks the anniversary of Climategate but even though I helped break and name the story I’m certainly not celebrating. That’s because, despite the marked shift it effected in public opinion, its effect on public policy-making has been close to zilch. (James Delingpole)
One year on and still British police do not report on their Climategate investigations. But with private police investigating the crime are we right to
suspect a government cover up?
Uh-huh... Head of UN climate body admits surprise at fury over blunder in report One year on, Rajendra Pachauri speaks of regret at false assertion that Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035
Orsekes, Readfearn: Got no evidence? Time for innuendo Ad Hominem Unleashed: On the origin of the sceptics Commentators on a sinking ship search for reasons to “keep the faith afloat”. The battle cry: the “skeptics” are shills of big oil, has become an own goal. The PR team for the catastrophic theory have no new evidence of Big Oil funding and thousands of people now point out that the UNskeptics were paid 3500 times as much (at least). So they are moving on… the religiously devout believers can’t admit they were wrong, and nor can they look at the evidence, so what’s left? Post hoc random over-analysis of the irrelevant. Before, skeptics were paid hacks… and now they’re wrong because they … are ideologically against big government and regulation. From one ad hom to another. And again, the ABC uses our taxes to promote the smear campaign, support neolithic reasoning, and does everything it can to stop people talking about scientific evidence (by spreading misinformation or slurs about all the characters on one side). Orsekes and freelance writer Graham Readfearn can’t discuss the evidence (or lack of) for their favourite faith, but they spend a lot of time digging up irrelevant details instead. Are man-made emissions a problem? How would we find the answer? Look not at sedimentary rocks but at stationery and submissions. As if the answer to tropical convective processes might be hidden on IPA letterhead, or in subliminal messages coded in the number of peer reviewed reports. It’s tea-leaves and rune-stones stuff, and people kid themselves that Blackberries or Androids make us modern, but the writing of people like Orsekes and Readfearn reminds us that human brains still carry software from the paleolithic. They simply can’t string a reasoned scientific argument together without resorting to discussing motivations, character, ideology or gossip about who their friends are. Here’s Oreskes. She “knows” she’s right, she just has to figure why other people haven’t seen the light too:
Ponder the inanity of “paranoid anti-communism?” More » (Jo Nova)
Climate Talks Should Not Set Deadline For Pact President Barack Obama's climate envoy said on Thursday world powers shouldn't get bogged down on a deadline for greenhouse gas emission cuts at the upcoming global climate talks, but instead should take small steps that could lead to a broader agreement. (Reuters)
What utter rubbish: Climate negotiators return to bargaining table as temperatures climb and seas rise ever faster NEW YORK — The last time the world warmed, 120,000 years ago, the Cancun coastline was swamped by a 7-foot (2.1-meter) rise in sea level in a few decades. A week from now at that Mexican resort, frustrated negotiators will try again to head off a new global deluge. (AP)
Japan Set To Delay CO2 Law, Fossil Fuel Tax Mulled Japan is unlikely to legislate pledged cuts in greenhouse gas emissions before U.N.-led climate talks in Mexico this month as lawmakers are focused on the
economy, but its enactment in the new year could include a new tax on initial users of fossil fuels.
China Rules Out Linking Climate Aid To Transparency China said on Friday it will not agree to any deal tying climate change aid from rich nations to its acceptance of tighter international checks of its greenhouse gas emissions, which it said will grow for some time. (Reuters)
Peter Foster: Canada dodges carbon suicide Harper right to kill ‘irresponsible’ bill that would have erased legions of jobs Opposition MPs and warmist NGOs this week responded with outrage that the Harper government should have dared to use the Senate — an unelected body that the Conservatives claim they want to reform — to kill the Climate Change Accountability Act. Mr. Harper, however, noted that there was an issue here of somewhat greater importance than procedural nicety or political consistency: the fate of the Canadian economy. He rightly dubbed Bill C-311 a piece of “completely irresponsible legislation” that set suicidal “targets” that would have destroyed hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs. Read More (Financial Post)
Hurray! Global CO2 emissions back on the rise in 2010 Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions – the main contributor to global warming – show no sign of abating and may reach record levels in 2010, according to a study led by the University of Exeter (UK). (University of Exeter)
Or not... Global emissions of carbon dioxide drop 1.3%, say international scientists Global Carbon Project says fall in 2009 due to economic crisis but level still second highest in human history (Guardian)
ABC admits it’s a propaganda arm of the government
What Mark Scott admitted as the managing director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation was really what everyone knew anyway: the ABC aims to please the gatekeepers of the pay-checks (which is, after all exactly what we’d expect from most organizations in the long run). What makes it telling is that he could forget that he’s never supposed to admit this. I mean, they promote themselves in ads as “our ABC”. It’s supposed to serve the people, not the government. The key problem is that although the people pay for the ABC, they don’t hold the purse strings. And to some extent, the people, don’t really try to either. We get what we are willing to put up with.
Wait for it:
In order to serve the people, the ABC could be putting government policies under the blow-torch. For a moment, just hypothetically, imagine the government wanted to bring in legislation that would cost billions, be nearly impossible to unwind, would commit the country to pursue inefficient, expensive, underdeveloped technology, make the country uncompetitive, and it was all based on lost data, inexplicable “adjustments”, pronouncements of foreign agencies, and fallacious reasoning, (not to mention being pushed by big banks). More » (Jo Nova)
#3 Ongoing BoM utter incompetence – month after month November 21st, 2010 by Warwick HughesAnother month – another miserable failure for the BoM rain “Outlook” as real world data shows the continent awash with rain. Small wins in SW WA and far eastern Australia are hugely outweighed by comprehensive failures over vast areas elsewhere.
The Parliament of Australia, House Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Innovation, is holding an Inquiry into long-term meteorological forecasting in Australia. Great to see some MP’s are trying to call the giant BoM to account. Tough job – the BoM needs to be told to stop wasting resources kowtowing to IPCC science and concentrate on real-world issues affecting Australia. (Warwick Hughes)
#4 Temperature too – not just rain – ongoing BoM utter incompetence – month after month after month November 21st, 2010 by Warwick HughesJust in case anybody thinks temperature Outlooks are reliable – take a
look at these disparate results for the last three months period. Also note that the BoM seems to
have the overall calibration of their models wrong – the Outlooks are overall far too warm – which has been an error for years now. To scan through my BoM articles.
Minimum or night time temperatures – predicted to be even hotter relative to norms compared to daytime – yet once again huge areas of Australia turned out way cooler than normal – a fact which the BoM models utterly failed to predict.
But what would you expect from an organization pushing the notion of man caused global warming. The Govt. must tell the BoM to stop wasting our taxes to produce this useless rubbish. (Warwick Hughes)
Climate models hopelessly simplistic P Gosselin has an interesting story about an Austrian meteorologist who is completely underwhelmed by the reliability of climate models. As Karsten Brandt apparently puts it:
Read the whole thing. (Bishop Hill)
Election Results Scare AAAS Scientists
The 112th Congress that will convene in January promises to be a much different body compared with its predecessor. Propelled into office by voter backlash against big spending Democrats, many fiscally conservative Republicans are beholden to their Tea Party backers. This means the new Congress will be looking for ways to cut spending in a big way. Combine tax cutting fervor with the fact that a majority of the incoming conservatives do not believe in global warming. On 17 November, the House Science Committee held what will be the last Democratic-led hearing on climate change.  John Boehner (left) will take over in the House while Harry Reid hangs on in the Senate. Newly elected members are questioning the need for action against rising greenhouse gas levels, and advocates for smaller government are looking for spending cuts in the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, and even the National Science Foundation (NSF).This political sea-change has shaken the mainstream scientific community. Here is a sampling from two of the Science articles:
In government funded research, as in politics, what goes around comes around. For now, it looks like cap & trade is dead, at least at the federal level. Moreover, funding for all forms of alternate energy research will face harsh scrutiny. Expect funding of ethanol and clean coal (e.g. carbon capture and storage) to also take a hit. Retiring Representative Vern Ehlers (R–MI), one of three physicists in the current Congress summed up science's new circumstances: “Scientists are making a big mistake if they think that they can hunker down and just wait for Democrats to reclaim the House. Most university faculty tend to be liberal and identify with Democrats. So they need to become more open-minded and stop ridiculing Republicans and start trying to work with them. Otherwise, they won't be very effective.”  The National Science Foundation controls most US government funding for science research. In a third article, “Retiring Legislators Warn of Pitfalls Facing Science in New Congress,” Science talked with four veteran legislators who have been staunch defenders of research spending in the past. Sherwood Boehlert (R–NY), a former chair of the House Science Committee, left in 2007: “One of the most important things for scientists to do is to change the vocabulary. No longer should we be talking about investing in science or increasing R&D funding or STEM education because it's important for science. We should make this a national security issue.” Even rebranding scientific research funding as defense spending will not guaranty continued funding from the new Congress. “We're going to start with the basics: why the ocean is acidifying, why we think the climate will change,” said the retiring Brian Baird (D–WA). “I don't think we've made the case for the basic physics and chemistry of these two phenomena and presented the evidence that it is happening.” With the recent news that Al Gore's Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) will no longer engage in carbon trading, coupled with tumbling prices on the European Climate Exchange (ECX), it really does look like cap & trade is dead in the US, though some states are trying to implement their own local trading schemes. Cap & trade's one success, the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments law that is credited with reducing acid rain, is also reported to be faltering.
Cap & trade is not in trouble because global warming advocates lost. Cap & trade's advocates lost because American's reject the claim of impending climate catastrophe. And without the fictitious threat of looming ecological disaster there is no need for draconian cap & trade legislation. Be safe, enjoy the interglacial and stay skeptical. (Doug L. Hoffman, The Resilient Earth)
Researchers Drill For Secrets Hidden Under Dead Sea From a barge floating above the deepest point on earth, a research team hopes to drill through half a million years of history to uncover secrets of climate
change and natural disasters.
World's stupidest idea? Last chance to prove that UK carbon capture plan can work Other bids to trap CO2 have failed. But a project in Fife could still transform the use of fossil fuel (Robin McKie, The Observer)
but there's always this: U.N. Panel To Review Chinese CO2 Offset request A United Nations panel has called for a review of a request for carbon offsets from a Chinese project which destroys the harmful greenhouse gas called
hydrofluorocarbon-23 (HFC-23).
Disarmament In America's Energy Security Battles Development of abundant power and fuel sources is being restrained by regulatory headlocks in favor of much higher-cost green alternatives with relatively
scant capacity prospects.
Here is an excerpt: Energy experts now predict decades of residential and commercial power at reasonable prices. Simply put, the world of energy has once again been turned upside down.For those interested in stemming the accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, even adopting aggressive policies in that direction won't change the underlying dynamics: Even in an alternative world where there is a concerted, coordinated effort to reduce future carbon emissions sharply, the International Energy Agency projected oil demand would peak at 88 million barrels a day around 2020, then decline to 81 million barrels a day in 2035 — just fractionally less than today’s consumption.It is not necessary to agree with rosy scenarios of energy abundance to recognize that the current approach to dramatically reducing carbon dioxide emissions is not going to work, even if successful on its own terms. The sooner we start building that bridge to the future the sooner we can walk across it. It won't be built by targets and timetables for emissions reductions, nor by putting a price on carbon. The entire NY Times article is worth a read. (Roger Pielke Jr.)
Pa. rules panel OKs new gas-drilling safeguards Crews rushing to drill deep, high-pressure wells into the vast Marcellus Shale reservoir beneath Pennsylvania will soon have tougher safety standards to obey
as regulators work to modernize the state's environmental protection laws.
This morning I received an emailed press release announcing that the Altamont landfill gas facility in California had been recognized by the state''s governor for its achievement in sustainability. [Read More] (Geoffrey Styles, ET)
EPA to delay decision on ethanol-blended gas The Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday it would delay until January a decision whether gasoline blended with up to 15 percent ethanol is safe for
2001-06 cars and light trucks, a key verdict for boosting sales of higher blends.
Lawrence Solomon: Ontario’s powerful sleight of hand The Ontario government’s clever Ontario Clean Energy Benefit – a 10% rebate on the rapidly escalating power bills of Ontario voters — is a win-win-win proposition. A win for the Liberal government, which needs to blunt a consumer revolt before next year’s election. A win for the power companies it owns, which now have a go-ahead to continue to escalate their rates. And a win for renewable energy suppliers and their environmental group allies, who had feared that the Ontario government would curb the lavish solar and wind contracts that have been clobbering consumers. The rebate scheme – which is sure to dampen public revulsion at the way the power system is being managed — is especially impressive in how expertly the government has disguised its activities. To read the press reports, the government is deftly rejigging its provincial borrowing and fast-forwarding revenues from a long-term land registry contract to finance the rebate during a five year transition period to a cleaner energy infrastructure. Sweep aside these sleight-of-hand explanations and the reality is much simpler: The provincial government is in reality providing voters with a five-year break on their HST while rapidly escalating the power prices that all consumers face. Because the province and the municipalities overwhelmingly own the power system, they are making off like bandits as power consumers get squeezed. Under the old Ontario Hydro monopoly, the provincial power system was run on a non-profit basis. While the absence of a profit motive eliminated an incentive to be efficient, the system did have one virtue – the government couldn’t milk it for revenue. Under the new government-run monopoly system, the power system is run on a for-profit basis, with the profit roughly proportionate to its equity. The more expensive the system, the higher the dividends, fees and taxes that accrue to the government. Put another way, the new power system rewards inefficiency — the bigger the boondoggles, the fatter the government coffers. The new system is already quietly filling those coffers with some $2 billion a year that wasn’t available to them under the old Ontario Hydro system. The Ontario Clean Energy Benefit is also a lose-lose-lose proposition. Two losers are the opposition NDP and Conservatives, who had called for the Liberals to reverse their position and exempt power sales from the HST. Had the Liberals reversed the HST explicitly, they would have seemed weak and desperate, giving their political opponents a club to beat them with while forever losing a large source of tax revenue. Instead, the Liberals bested their opponents by calling their HST bid, which was worth 8%, and raising it to 10% under a different name. The political opponents came across as pikers and the Liberals as heroes for the day. Large industrial electricity consumers are also losers. Because these companies don’t vote, the Liberals would have drawn no political benefit in applying Ontario Clean Energy Benefit to them. To the contrary, by collecting the HST from them, the Liberals are obtaining the cash they need to top up the rebate from 8% to 10%. In effect, the Liberal government is merely transferring the HST rebate that the large industrial consumers aren’t getting to the pot of money going to the smaller consumers that can vote – residential consumers, small businessmen, and farmers. Of course, under the Ontario scheme, all consumers become losers. Rates, by the government’s own accounting, will be climbing another 46% over the next five years, and then rates will jolt up another 10% as the Ontario Clean Energy Benefit expires. By then, the new power system may also have expired. It took Ontario Hydro, running as a government-owned non-profit, 90 years to go bankrupt. Hydro’s government-owned for-profit successors will be far quicker at reaching bankruptcy. LawrenceSolomon@nextcity.com
The Government will publish its latest excess winter mortality statistics for England and Wales, covering the bitterly cold winter of 2009/2010, on Tuesday
23 November - this helpful piece of information supplied to you courtesy of Friends of the Earth.
Winter Deaths To Soar As 5 Million Homes Struggle To Pay Fuel Bills MORE than five million British households will struggle to stay warm this winter and the number of people likely to die in freezing temperatures is set to
rise sharply, a leading charity warned yesterday.
“Cuisinarts of the Air” (Revisiting an environmentalist term for windpower) by Robert Bradley Jr. Avian mortality is the scientific term applied in environmental assessments of windpower. But there is another term that has gained currency where industrial wind has impacted local bird activity. This post documents the historical use of the term, which was coined by the Los Angeles representative of the Sierra Club in the late 1980s. The term came back into use when environmentalists challenged a project of Enron Wind Corporation, now a subsidiary of General Electric. Looking back, if environmentalists and regulatory authorities had cracked down on industrial wind, this artificial government-dependent industry could have been avoided altogether or shut down. Instead, with Big Environmentalism leading the way, and anti-energy intellectuals welcoming the high cost-low reliability of wind, this inferior power source has been allowed to grow. And now, grass-roots environmentalists are leading the charge against industrial wind. A Term is Born Here is the origin of the term as told by Paul Gipe in Wind Energy Comes of Age (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1995, p. 450):
(MasterResource)
O Canada: The Epitaph for Single Payer Health Care “[H]ealth care system is coming apart at the seams….On the ground, there is too often a glaring lack of execution: long waits, bed shortages, unequal
access to medication. Those failures are compounded by the fact that the ever-rising medicare bill is squeezing out education and other social priorities.”
Drug-resistant malaria feared in Southeast Asia A form of malaria resistant to the most powerful drugs available may have emerged along the Thai-Myanmar border as well as Vietnam, and containment measures
are planned, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.
This rubbish, again: EPA Will Test 134 More Chemicals for Endocrine Disruption WASHINGTON, DC, November 17, 2010 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified a list of 134 chemicals that will be screened for their
potential to disrupt the endocrine system.
Meanwhile, in the realm of genuine problems: Imagine life without a toilet Sometimes we need to create a big stink to change people’s minds. I’d like to create a Big Stink.
See, he's been sabotaging California all along: Arnold Schwarzenegger: my future as a green activist Film star turned California governor prepares to leave office and become a global champion in war against climate change (Guardian)
Big Green Bus Has Flat Tires, By: Dennis T. Avery CHURCHVILLE, VA—If the Big Green Bus hasn’t actually stalled, it’s at least got a couple of newly-flattened tires. And the suddenly-Republican U.S.
Congress’s opposition to energy taxes is only part of it.
Pesticides are Everywhere! ... So What? Chemicals are everywhere! Farmers spray their crops with pesticides, fungicides, weed killers -- and some of that residue still lingers on the food when we
eat it. fear of those pesticides has helped Organic food become a big business, because organic food is supposed to be "clean" and free of pesticides.
The Organic Trade Association says the organic industry made $25 billion in 2009 sales, 5.1% growth over the year before.
Muddy Rivers: Don’t Blame Farmers, By: Dennis T. Avery CHURCHVILLE, VA—When people hear that I’m an advocate of high yield farming to feed the world and protect the environment, assertions of farm runoff into
the rivers are raised to support charges against modern farming methods. Urban dwellers, even some of my rural neighbors, tell me their concerns about
large-scale farming ruining our rivers “because the rivers are muddy.” They worry about even more soil erosion as farmers gear up to double food production
over the next 40 years to feed a peak population of 9 billion people.
Cap & Tax via the back door: Democrats Cling to Possibility of RES Bill This Session, Prepare for Next Year Key Senate Democrats continue to hope they can pass a renewable electricity standard and other smaller energy bills this year despite the dwindling time and interest in the lame-duck session. (Greenwire)
As we have been telling you for years: IPCC Official: “Climate Policy Is Redistributing The World's Wealth” Climate policy has almost nothing to do anymore with environmental protection, says the German economist and IPCC official Ottmar Edenhofer. The next world climate summit in Cancun is actually an economy summit during which the distribution of the world's resources will be negotiated. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 14 November 2010 Interview: Bernard Potter NZZ am Sonntag: Mr. Edenhofer, everybody concerned with climate protection demands emissions reductions. You now speak of "dangerous emissions reduction." What do you mean? Ottmar Edenhofer: So far economic growth has gone hand in hand with the growth of greenhouse gas emissions. One percent growth means one percent more emissions. The historic memory of mankind remembers: In order to get rich one has to burn coal, oil or gas. And therefore, the emerging economies fear CO2 emission limits. But everybody should take part in climate protection, otherwise it does not work. That is so easy to say. But particularly the industrialized countries have a system that relies almost exclusively on fossil fuels. There is no historical precedent and no region in the world that has decoupled its economic growth from emissions. Thus, you cannot expect that India or China will regard CO2 emissions reduction as a great idea. And it gets worse: We are in the midst of a renaissance of coal, because oil and gas (sic) have become more expensive, but coal has not. The emerging markets are building their cities and power plants for the next 70 years, as if there would be permanently no high CO 2 price. The new thing about your proposal for a Global Deal is the stress on the importance of development policy for climate policy. Until now, many think of aid when they hear development policies. That will change immediately if global emission rights are distributed. If this happens, on a per capita basis, then Africa will be the big winner, and huge amounts of money will flow there. This will have enormous implications for development policy. And it will raise the question if these countries can deal responsibly with so much money at all. That does not sound anymore like the climate policy that we know. Basically it's a big mistake to discuss climate policy separately from the major themes of globalization. The climate summit in Cancun at the end of the month is not a climate conference, but one of the largest economic conferences since the Second World War. Why? Because we have 11,000 gigatons of carbon in the coal reserves in the soil under our feet - and we must emit only 400 gigatons in the atmosphere if we want to keep the 2-degree target. 11 000 to 400 - there is no getting around the fact that most of the fossil reserves must remain in the soil. De facto, this means an expropriation of the countries with natural resources. This leads to a very different development from that which has been triggered by development policy. First of all, developed countries have basically expropriated the atmosphere of the world community. But one must say clearly that we redistribute de facto the world's wealth by climate policy. Obviously, the owners of coal and oil will not be enthusiastic about this. One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole. Nevertheless, the environment is suffering from climate change - especially in the global south. It will be a lot to do with adaptation. But that just goes far beyond traditional development policy: We will see in Africa with climate change a decline in agricultural yields. But this can be avoided if the efficiency of production is increased - and especially if the African agricultural trade is embedded in the global economy. But for that we need to see that successful climate policy requires other global trade and financial policies. The great misunderstanding of the UN summit in Rio in 1992 is repeated in the climate policy: the developed countries talk about environment, the developing countries about development. It is even more complicated. In the 1980s, our local environmental problems were luxury problems for the developing countries. If you already fed and own a car, you can get concerned about acid rain. For China, the problem was how to get 600 million Chinese people in the middle class. Whether there was a coal power plant or whether the labour standards in the coal mines were low was second priority - as it was here in the 19th Century. But the world has become smaller. Now something new happens: it is no longer just our luxury, our environment. Developing countries have realized that causes of climate change lie in the north and the consequences in the south. And in developed countries, we have realized that for a climate protection target of two degrees neither purely technical solutions nor life style change will be sufficient. The people here in Europe have the grotesque idea that shopping in the bio food store or electric cars will solve the problem. This is arrogant because the ecological footprint of our lifestyle has increased in the last 30 years, despite the eco-movement. You say that for successful climate policy a high degree of international cooperation is necessary. However this cooperation is not present. I share the scepticism. But do we have an alternative? Currently, there are three ideas how to avoid the difficult cooperation: We try unsafe experiments such as geo-engineering, focus on the development of clean and safe energy, or one trusts in regional and local solutions. However, there is no indication that any of these ideas solves the problem. We must want the cooperation, just as you work together for the regulation of financial markets. But unlike the financial crisis, in climate policy a country benefits if it does not join in. The financial crisis was an emergency operation - in the face of danger we behave more cooperatively. Such a thing will not happen in climate policy, because it will always remain questionable whether a specific event like a flood is a climate phenomenon. But there is always the risk that individual rationality leads to collective stupidity. Therefore, one cannot solve the climate problem alone, but it has to be linked to other problems. There must be penalties and incentives: global CO 2-tariffs and technology transfer. In your new book you talk much about ethics. Do ethics play a role in climate negotiations? Ethics always play a role when it comes to power. China and Latin America, for example, always emphasize the historical responsibility of developed countries for climate change. This responsibility is not to deny, but it is also a strategic argument for these countries. I would accept the responsibility for the period since 1995 because we know since then, what is causing the greenhouse effect. To extend the responsibility to the industrial revolution is not ethically justified. Could we the ethics in order to break the gridlock? The book contains a parable: A group of hikers, who represent the world community, walks through a desert. The industrialized nations drink half of the water and then say generously: “Let us share the rest." The others reply: “This is not possible; you have already drunk half of the water. Let us talk first about your historical responsibility." I think if we are arguing about the water supply because we cannot agree on the ethical principles, then we will die of thirst. What we need to look for is an oasis that is the non-carbon global economy. It's about the common departure for this oasis. Copyright 2010, NZZ Transl. Philipp Mueller Ottmar Edenhofer was appointed as joint chair of Working Group 3 at the Twenty-Ninth Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Geneva, Switzerland. The deputy director and chief economist of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Professor of the Economics of Climate Change at the Berlin Institute of Technology will be co-chairing the Working Group “Mitigation of Climate Change” with Ramón Pichs Madruga from Cuba and Youba Sokona from Mali. (Global Warming Policy Foundation)
Death to the Chicago Climate Exchange ($7.40 to a nickel per CO2 ton, the market has spoken) by William Griesinger
We were tipped off by the August 28th headline, “The Great Collapse of the Chicago Climate Exchange,” by Patrick Henningsen, editor of 21st Century Wire. And now it is official as reported by Chicago Business, Fox News , and Crain’s Chicago Business (sub. required): the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) is dead. Trading in carbon-dioxide (CO2) emission contracts at CCX has basically ceased with member emissions-reduction agreements expiring at the end of the year. The death rattles have come with each price decline per ton of carbon credits. Compared to $7.40 per ton in May 2008 when cap-and-trade legislation was eagerly anticipated, CCX’s market price tanked to $0.10 per ton in August 2010 and half that last month. So much for a contrived opportunity in a pretense market. What a difference a couple of years, a few scientific scandals, and old-fashioned political gridlock make. Reuters reported in August that the CCE was facing significant layoffs and an operational scaleback only a few months after being acquired by publicly traded Intercontinental Exchange Inc (NYSE: ICE). ICE acquired CCX earlier this year in an all-cash deal totaling nearly $600 million, a shocking valuation given CCX’s lack of traction and a paucity of sustainable revenue (more on this later). [Read more →] (MasterResource)
Looney Lord Stern rants again: Climate change action countries will ban 'dirty' US exports, Lord Stern warns THE United States will be banned from selling goods to many countries if it continues to shirk its promise to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
And his namesake thinks all you rational people need "re-educating": Obama pointman dismisses climate change skeptics ARLINGTON, Virginia — President Barack Obama's pointman for climate change on Thursday dismissed the impact of Republican election gains on US positions on
the issue, voicing hope of progress at the upcoming climate summit in Mexico.
Lawrence Solomon: On climate, Senate reflects Will of the People Canada’s Senate, better representing the will of the people, rejects climate change bill Last year, three political parties in Canada’s fractured minority government decided to pass a grandstanding climate change bill that would have required Canada to make draconian cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The bill, designed to embarrass the minority Conservative government, was bulldozed through Parliament without any meaningful debate. It represented the Will of the Parties. This week, the Canadian Senate, a chamber famously known for its sober second thought, dismissed Bill C-311. In doing so, the Senate saved the country from economic harm while better representing the Will of the People. Bill C-311 offered nothing but empty rhetoric, specifying none of the concrete steps that would need to be taken to achieve its goal of a cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 25% from 1990 levels by 2020 and by 80% by 2050. It proposed neither a carbon tax regime nor a carbon trading system nor any other way to meet its goals. The Senate rightly discarded it. As in other western democracies, the Canadian public has become increasingly sceptical over the years over claims that human activity leads to dangerous global warming. According to this year’s Climate Confidence Monitor survey, just 29% of Canadians consider global warming to be among their chief concerns, down from 34% in 2008. Ex-Liberal Leader Stephan Dion learned that the hard way, when he ran a federal election campaign on a platform highlighting a carbon tax. The Liberals then suffered its worst electoral defeat since Confederation. Thank you, Senate, for fulfilling your role under the Canadian constitutional system. LawrenceSolomon@nextcity.com
Confusion as ministers meddle with £1bn green tax on business Businesses have been thrown into further confusion by new changes to the Government's £1bn green tax on their carbon emissions.
Scam not dead yet: Green Tech Sector Advances Despite Failure of Climate Bill While the collapse of climate legislation in Congress was a setback for some green businesses, many others are moving ahead with projects to develop renewable energy. One major reason: The clean-tech sector is rapidly growing worldwide, and U.S. companies don’t want to be left behind. (John Carey, e360)
Gosh, what a surprise... Cameroon timber tax study shows challenges of distributing REDD payments to local communities CIFOR study pinpointing problems in Cameroon instructive for plans to distribute forest-based carbon revenues under the REDD+ mechanism
SciAm writers who suck: our polls and readers suck
Do 80 percent of Scientific American subscribers deny global warming? HardlyIn that text, Yam says that their own poll was worthless (so why did they do it?), its results mean nothing, and even if they did, it's irrelevant because only 10% of the SciAm readers are scientists. According to SciAm editors, SciAm readers are almost entirely idiots whose reasoning and opinions should be neglected relatively to the "enlightened" inkspillers among the editors themselves. What do these idiots really think about themselves and why? » Don't Stop Reading » (TRF)
The Current State Of AGW Science Whilst blog posts are quite visible for whomever wants to read them, very good comments are more often than not lost unless they appear near the top of the heap. One example is the following extract from note #16 written by commenter Max (“manacker”) at Harmless Sky’s BBC impartiality review post, and IMNSHO one of the best summary of the current state of AGW science: (Maurizio Morabito, OmniClimate)
Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, Nov 18th 2010 Increasingly desperate warmists are threatening your candy, hard-up hippies are robbing banks and Canadian progressives are sending protesting ‘jobs’ overseas. Wait, what? (Daily Bayonet)
Scare Tactics: Extreme Weather Events Source: SPPI by Dennis Ambler Myles Allen is at it again… this nonsense produced a temperature range of 2-11 deg C last time. Now he’s trying to predict extreme weather and attribute it to AGW. He’s the one who “proved” the 2003 European heatwave was caused by anthropogenic CO2. Don’t put your PC on stand-by, run it full blast, 24 hours a day and save the planet! Extreme weather forecasts: web users unite to power climate change project The Guardian reports that “From today, anyone with a computer and internet access can be part of a huge, pioneering climate change experiment, probing the controversial question of whether extreme weather events will become more or less common as the world warms. By running advanced climate models while their PCs are idle, participants will estimate how often heatwaves, floods and hurricanes will strike in the next few decades. The initiative will also indicate how much of the blame for these events can be attributed to greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans. The weatherathome.net project breaks new ground for the world’s biggest climate forecasting experiment, climateprediction.net, which has run nearly 92m years of climate modelling since September 2003, and delivered world-leading research published in journals such as Nature and used in the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s landmark 2007 report. The key to the new project is its use for the first time of regional climate models, which can create realistic weather predictions, showing temperature, winds, rain and snow. The global climate models divide the world into 150km squares, whereas the regional models use 50km or 25km squares.” I have a comment in there as “cardigan”, based on my SPPI paper from September http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/extreme_weather_extreme_claims.html My comment was #16. Whether it will stay or be removed is another matter. [It has been removed] Read the rest of this entry » (SPPI)
Rahmstorf (2009): (part 9): Applying three corrections This is part 9 of a series on Vermeer’s and Rahmstorf’s 2009 PNAS paper, “Global sea level linked to global temperature“ (referred to as “VR2009″
in this series of posts).
Extreme cold expected during the next week
Record cold expected. The Al Gore effect as well as the testimony on Capitol Hill yesterday has caused a massive chunk of Arctic air to descend from Western Canada into the United States. How do temperatures 6o-70F degrees below average sound to folks along the Canadian border? During the next 10-days (or more!), a hemispheric realignment of the large-scale atmospheric circulation will cause a significant decrease in temperatures over North America and Europe. If this regime reinforces itself during the next few weeks, and a negative Arctic Oscillation phase strengthens, the brutally cold temperatures will provide a dramatic reminder that winter is cold regardless of “global warming”. I anticipate plenty of fossil fuel use coming up. Weather weenie discussion after the break w/maps
Kracked Up Over Krakatoa: Models Have It All Wrong t was all the rage a few years back to claim that long ago volcanic eruptions—for instance Krakatoa in 1883—were still acting to mask a large fraction of the oceanic warming that should have occurred because of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. The epitome of this argument was published in Nature magazine, by an all-star cast of scientists ever-eager to suggest that it is all our fault and then some. The authors included Tom Wigley, Ben Santer, Karl Taylor, Krishna AchutaRao, Jonathan Gregory, and lead author Peter Gleckler. (WCR)
The U.S. House of Representatives Subcommitee On Energy and Environment Hearing titled A Rational Discussion of Climate Change: the Science, the Evidence, the Response that Judy Curry has posted on; e.g. see Uncertainty gets a seat at the big table: Part III contains statements on climate science that are incomplete and are misleading. These statement can be read in the Hearing Charter where they write [highlighting added]
and [highlighting added]
The preamble of the Hearing misrepresents the current understanding of the climate system and the role of humans within it. The staff who prepared the Hearing Charter either are unaware of the actual state of the science or have chosen to purposely misrepresent the science. With respect to weather and climate, the writers of the Charter have chosen to use an old, limited definition of climate. The current definition of climate system, which is the one that appropriately should be used for the Hearing is given, for example, in National Research Council, 2005: Radiative forcing of climate change: Expanding the concept and addressing uncertainties. Committee on Radiative Forcing Effects on Climate Change, Climate Research Committee, Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Division on Earth and Life Studies, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 208 pp where the climate system is defined as
The climate system is shown schematically in the NRC report
The statements in the Hearing Charter
and
are misleading policymakers and the public with respect to the real climate system. Not only is their definition of climate archaic, but they left off other important first order human climate forcings, as reported in the 2005 NRC report, and summarized in our article Pielke Sr., R., K. Beven, G. Brasseur, J. Calvert, M. Chahine, R. Dickerson, D. Entekhabi, E. Foufoula-Georgiou, H. Gupta, V. Gupta, W. Krajewski, E. Philip Krider, W. K.M. Lau, J. McDonnell, W. Rossow, J. Schaake, J. Smith, S. Sorooshian, and E. Wood, 2009: Climate change: The need to consider human forcings besides greenhouse gases. Eos, Vol. 90, No. 45, 10 November 2009, 413. Copyright (2009) American Geophysical Union where we wrote
When the Republicans take control of this Subcommittee in January, I recommend they correct and broaden the perspective on the climate system from what the November 17 2010 Hearing adopted. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Obama Plays 3-Card Monte In Gulf Energy: Just as the ban on offshore drilling in the Gulf ends, U.S. energy producers now learn that regulators are preparing to shut down exploration for yet
another environmental impact study. Do we see a pattern here?
Halliburton Announces Ecofriendly Fracking Fluid, More Disclosure Halliburton Co., which is fighting U.S. EPA about disclosure of its hydraulic fracturing fluid, today announced that it will publicly disclose detailed
information on its website about the chemicals used in its fracturing fluids.
What am I missing? There must be some aspect of our insane energy policies that I fail to appreciate.
Analysis: Rare-Earth Surge Is Wake-Up Call For Industrials As China clamps down on its exports of rare earth, makers of batteries, wind turbines and other products are looking for ways to redesign them to use less of
the increasingly costly materials.
Alternative Energy Research Highlighted at Vancouver Engineering Conference I just returned from Vancouver (the one in Canada), where the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has been holding their annual meeting at the Vancouver Convention Center.
It was a treat for me to be able to assume the audience actually knew something about thermodynamics, which all mechanical engineers are taught, and which many of them use in their work. Other than one lady in the audience who interpreted my message as part of a right-wing conspiracy to thwart saving the Earth from evil corporations bent on destroying it (OK, so I’m exaggerating), the audience was largely sympathetic to the outrageous minority view that climate might be able to (gasp!) change all by itself. Many of these engineers are now working in various aspects of alternative energy research. I was amazed at how much of this kind of work is being done. Even large petroleum companies like Exxon Mobil are heavily invested in this research. And why shouldn’t they be? Whoever comes up with cost-effective alternative energy sources will make lots of money. One particularly interesting talk examined various ways of using solar energy. Growing corn for biofuels turns out to be particularly wasteful of both energy and land resources. (And thwarting market forces by subsidizing it ends up killing poor people around the world by creating fictitious demand, which sends world corn prices soaring. Gotta love the good intentions of politicians and environmentalists.) Growing algae, in contrast, is very efficient. But getting substantial amounts of fuel from algae still has many practical problems to overcome. The speaker said he believed algae-based fuel will end up being a secondary product to algae-based plastics, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, sewage treatment, etc. How much water is required for various energy generation technologies is also a major practical concern, especially in the western U.S. I was amazed to learn that it takes about 150 gallons of water to produce a single Sunday newspaper! I wonder how many Sunday newspapers have carried op-eds about the need to conserve water? I continue to believe that alternative energy technologies will germinate and grow without any governmental interference. Humans need energy for everything we do, and the market will never go away. Let free market forces work. Fossil fuels will slowly become more expensive as they become scarcer and more difficult to extract, and this is the only mechanism needed to ensure that new energy sources will be developed to take their place. (Roy W. Spencer)
Brilliant Speech by Aggreko CEO Rupert Soames 
Here is a speech that everyone interested in climate and energy policy should watch. Speaking before the Scottish parliament earlier this week, Rupert Soames, CEO of Aggreko -- a world leader in temporary energy supply -- delivers some straight talk to policy makers (BBC coverage). He focuses on Great Britain, but the lessons are of broad relevance. Have a look. (Roger Pielke Jr.)
Wind energy, solar power face cloudy future NEW YORK -- After years of rapid growth and darling status among many in Washington, the future of the American renewable energy industry is uncertain.
US agency seeks easier grid access for solar, wind WASHINGTON Nov 18 - Federal regulators on Thursday proposed reforms to make the U.S. electric grid more accessible to electricity generated by renewable energy sources, which should lower costs for consumers who want to buy clean power. (Reuters)
Breaking Health Care Research: Repealing Obamacare and Getting Health Care Right
As newly elected lawmakers prepare for the hard work to be done in the next Congress, the future of the hugely unpopular Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act hangs in the balance. In recent analysis, Heritage expert Nina Owcharenko makes the case for the full repeal of the PPACA and provides a framework for replacement with reform that will transform the system to focus on doctors and patients, not government. She writes that:
Continue reading... (The Foundry)
By 21 Points, Americans Want Repeal The newest Rasmussen poll of likely voters
shows that Americans favor repeal of Obamacare by a margin of 21 points (58 to 37 percent), while independents -- who swept Republicans into office two weeks
ago -- favor repeal by almost 2 to 1 (62 to 33 percent).
Dude, Where's My ObamaCare Waiver? More than one million Americans have escaped the clutches of the Democrats' destructive federal health care law. Lucky them. Their employers and labor
representatives wisely applied for ObamaCare waivers earlier this fall and got out while the getting was good.
Health Reform: The left's favorite economist, who condemned others for saying ObamaCare would require death panels, now admits they are real and necessary.
The way to control costs, he says, is death and taxes.
Light Wave Kills Hospital Superbugs, Harmless to People GLASGOW, Scotland, November 16, 2010 - A pioneering lighting system that kills the superbugs breeding in hospitals has been developed by researchers at the
University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. The LED technology, which can be used with or instead of conventional lighting, decontaminates the air and exposed
surfaces by bathing them in a narrow spectrum of visible-light wavelengths, known as HINS-light.
Can Red Bull fuel better driving? Dutch researchers say they've found that a can of Red Bull does wonders for driving ability over long hauls, reducing fatigue while improving performance in
everything from steering straight to maintaining a steady speed.
Regulators warn on "blackout in a can" drinks U.S. regulators warned makers of alcoholic energy drinks often called "blackout in a can" that their products are unsafe and violate federal laws,
following a public outcry and several state bans.
Supreme Court Is Asked to Strike Down Tobacco Settlement Last week the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based free-market advocacy group, filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to review the 1998 tobacco Master Settlement Agreement on the grounds it violates federal antitrust laws and is unconstitutional. The tobacco MSA is the result of 46 state attorneys general striking a deal with the four major tobacco companies in 1998 to settle Medicaid lawsuits over tobacco-related health care costs. Tobacco companies agreed to fork over $246 billion to the states over 25 years and adhere to restrictions on advertising, marketing and promotion of cigarettes. Never mind that smoking already generates huge sums of tax revenues and saves taxpayers’ dollars on entitlement expenses when smokers die before they can draw benefits. The New England Journal of Medicine put it this way: “If people stopped smoking, there would be a savings in health care costs, but only in the short term. Eventually, smoking cessation would lead to increased health care costs.” In its filing, CEI argues that the Big Tobacco companies saw an opportunity to solidify their respective shares of the market against competition while avoiding future lawsuits by the government. By settling, state attorneys general and Big Tobacco now share the goal of keeping major companies profitable, so they can continue funding state budgets. “The state AGs imposed a massive national sales tax on cigarettes, without a single elected legislator at any level of government voting for it,” according to CEI general counsel Sam Kazman. “This is a major power grab by state AGs at the expense of citizens.” Continue reading... (The Foundry)
Apparently we should build a lot more out of styrofoam -- it lasts, like, forever! How Much Do We Really Recycle? (Infographic) Did you know today is America Recycles Day? How much do we really recycle? Probably not enough. According to this infographic, on average every person throws
away 7.5x their body weight each year! If you put a styrofoam cup in a landfill today, guess what year it would decompose?
World's Police Unite for Environmental Crime Crackdown DOHA, Qatar, November 16, 2010 - The police agencies of the world are supporting INTERPOL's Environmental Crime Programme in an historic display of
consensus. Delegates attending INTERPOL's General Assembly in Doha, Qatar last week voted unanimously in favor of a resolution encouraging greater global
policing efforts to stem environmental crimes.
Not as bad as expected? Save the planet! Remove the humans Andrew Bolt – Thursday, November 18, 10 (06:23 am) Just in case you hadn’t noticed the human-hating agenda of the deeper greens:
An educational computer game in which users have to save the world from climate change offers an interesting solution – decide the problem is
overpopulation and design a virus to kill millions. I may have warned before of eco-prophets mulling over similar ideas. (Thanks to reader Grumblebum.) UPDATE Reader Peter Reefman says I should give the game a go, because it’s more green-subversive than I suspected:
We normally snip reader halfacow for being so contorted with hate and spite as to be unpleasant. But I just have to pass on his response, confirming my observation: (Andrew Bolt)
It's not what we don't know that causes us trouble. It's what we know that isn't so. Whichever famous writer said that (it's been attributed to many), what
he said carries truth.
Food safety bill clears key vote in Senate The U.S. food supply, battered by a series of recalls after millions were sickened, moved a step closer toward its first major safety overhaul in seven
decades following a key vote in Congress on Wednesday.
The Junkman talks EPA and jobs on Fox Business
The High Cost of Renewable Energy Coercion This midterm election sent a clear message to Washington: “Listen to the people, or you’re out.” While the dire state of the economy and out-of-control
public spending were certainly the frontrunners in motivating voters to make their voices heard, the Democrats' push for “cap-and-trade” legislation
followed closely behind.
Canada's Conservatives kill bill to cut CO2 emissions OTTAWA — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government has defeated climate change legislation put forth by opposition parties calling
for deep CO2 emissions cuts.
Killed climate change bill flawed: Harper Defeating legislation passed by House unprecedented, opposition parties say
Terence Corcoran: Ontario to bribe its power-shocked voters This cannot be true. News reports say the Ontario government is going to bring in a new Clean Air Benefit, a payment to electricity consumers to help reduce their soaring electricity bills. In an economic statement Thursday, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is apparently going to announce the Clean Air Benefit as a bold response to the growing realization across the province that Ontario’s electricity sector is a fiscal runaway train. Ontario electricity prices, already up 30% since 2003, are set to rocket over the next few years, propelled by some of the world’s most hare-brained green-energy policies. Under direct government diktat, motivated by activists and industry rent-seekers, the Ontario electricity system faces new expenditures in the tens of billions of dollars — costs that will have to be passed on to consumers. One forecast said the new policies mean price increases that will leave consumers paying 135% more for power in 2015 than in 2003. Read More (Financial Post)
Dire messages about global warming can backfire, new study shows BERKELEY — Dire or emotionally charged warnings about the consequences of global warming can backfire if presented too negatively, making people less
amenable to reducing their carbon footprint, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley.
A Rational Discussion of Climate Change: the Science, the Evidence, the Response See it here. (Committee on Science and Technology)
The year climate science was redefined The 12 months since the leaking of emails written by climate change scientists have seen major shifts in environmental debate. (Mike Hulme, Guardian)
12 Months On the UEA Climategate CRUminals are Still at Large I must admit that I thought it was a hoax when the news broke about the leaked UEA CRU emails around the 19th November 2009. It all seemed too good to be
true, but it soon became apparent that the contents of the emails were genuine. In context they were highly damaging to the IPCC, the peer review process and
the public image of climate science. The public spirited person(s) who released the emails remain unidentified. Perhaps the powers that be would rather we
didn’t know who the culprits heroes are.
Sigh... Climate change and disease will spark new food crisis, says UN A food crisis could overtake the world in 2011, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, an agency of the United Nations.
UAE, Australia And U.S. Top List Of Carbon Emitters The United Arab Emirates, Australia and the United States have the worst overall records for emitting greenhouse gases, according to an index published on Wednesday combining current and historic emissions. (Reuters)
We just bet they do: Kiribati climate change conference calls for urgent cash and action Some of the countries most vulnerable to climate change sign Ambo declaration calling for adaptation funding to be fast-tracked (Guardian)
Tiny U.N. Climate Fund Could Take Bigger Role: Chair A tiny U.N. fund that is starting to help developing nations adapt to climate change could expand to manage part of a planned $100 billion aid mechanism to
be debated at U.N. talks in Mexico, the chair of the fund said.
Groan... Climate Aid Said Focused Too Heavily On C02 Cuts Too much of the $30 billion pledged as "fast-start" climate aid will go to projects that curb emissions instead of efforts to help vulnerable nations adapt to extreme weather and rising seas, a study said on Wednesday. (Reuters)
Sheesh! Consumers must cast off 'victim' culture if governments are to hit climate targets Politicians need to show greater courage and leadership if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change, a panel of eminent environmentalists said last night. Consumers, however, must acknowledge they are not only the "victims" but the "villains" of global warming and work towards a dramatic shift in life style. On the eve of the Cancun Climate Conference, The Independent hosted a debate in Manchester to ask if nations could realistically cut carbon emissions by enough to avoid a two-degree centigrade rise. (Independent)
'Green stealth tax' carbon reduction scheme delayed Delay of CRC programme follows announcement that Treasury would keep revenues raised
In a Washington Post op-ed today, that “septical environmentalist,” Bjorn Lomborg, advocated whitewashing roof-tops and streets to reflect sunlight in hopes of reducing the alleged warming impacts of manmade greenhouse gas emissions. In support of his proposal, Lomborg cited a recernt paper by Hashem Akbari estimating that every 100 square feet of black surface painted white would offset one ton of carbon dioxide emitted. Akbari estimates that if all urban roof-tops and streets were painted white, about 44 billion tons of CO2-equivalent would be offset. Akbari claims this would offset the effect of the growth in emissions rates for 11 years. Akbari estimates that roof-tops and streets cover about 910 billion square meters of the Earth’s surface. Given the coverage of a gallon of paint (about 400 square feet or 37.2 square meters), it would only take about 27 billion cans of paint (allowing for 10 percent waste) to do the job. This would be great for the paint industry which only sells about 630 million gallons of paint annually in the U.S. And of course, once we finish painting the world white, it will be time for another coat. BTW, it costs about $8 per gallon to dispose of paint, about $20 billion for the amount of paint at issue. Lomborg concludes his op-ed with,
So Lomborg apparently wants us to spend trillions of dollars continually whitewashing the world while “we” figure out how to address those “root causes of man-made climate change.” Of course, Lomborg has already decided what needs to be done:
Meet the new Al Gore. Same as the old Al Gore. (Green Hell Blog)
Another idiotic waste of electrickery: Extreme weather forecasts: web users unite to power climate change project Home PC users invited to carry out pioneering research by tracking links between global warming and extreme weather (Guardian)
Thorne 2010: A very incomplete history of the missing hot spot Emails are coming in about the latest attempt to announce that they’ve “found the hot-spot”: Thorne et at 2010. It’s already being used in NOAA press releases to repeat the same line about how a “new scientific study” supports the models. The aforementioned support is rather weakly phrased as being “broadly consistent” (which somehow means the same thing as being “90% certain” a catastrophe is on the way, right?). But it gives them another chance to claim it’s been found:
It says something about how important the hot spot is that they keep “finding it”. (Even though they never seem to issue a press release saying it’s missing.) But since the data from the last warming spell came in ten years ago, there are only so many ways they can rehash the same numbers. So now they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel in desperation. This new study is not a “new scientific study”, it’s a new review. This paper tells us upfront that its only distinctive contribution is to the “evolution” and “history” of this key point. So they’ve run out of reanalysis, now they’re doing a peer reviewed history? (What’s next? The theatrical debunking where Discovering the Hot Spot hits Broadway in 2011?) In any case, as histories go, this one is strategically very incomplete. Thorne et al doesn’t even mention McKitrick, McIntyre, and Herman (MMH)’s key paper which categorically refuted Santer 2008. (So Santer 08 is misleadingly listed as having “refuted” Douglass 2008 as if it was uncontested.) I described the incisive McKitrick et al paper and its conspicuous success in: The models are wrong (but only by 400%). More » (Jo Nova)
Dependence on borrowed research has cost us, says Jairam Ramesh Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment releases first report
As Arctic temperatures rise, tundra fires increase, researchers find CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — In September, 2007, the Anaktuvuk River Fire burned more than 1,000 square kilometers of tundra on Alaska's North Slope, doubling the
area burned in that region since record keeping began in 1950. A new analysis of sediment cores from the burned area revealed that this was the most destructive
tundra fire at that site for at least 5,000 years. Models built on 60 years of climate and fire data found that even moderate increases in warm-season
temperatures in the region dramatically increase the likelihood of such fires.
We have a new paper that has been published. It is Herman, Benjamin M.; Brunke, Michael A.; Sr., Roger A. Pielke; Christy, John R.; McNider, Richard T. 2010. “Satellite Global and Hemispheric Lower Tropospheric Temperature Annual Temperature Cycle.” Remote Sens. 2, no. 11: 2561-2570. The abstract reads
The conclusion contains the text
(Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Fiscal Commission Should Support Increased Energy Production, Not Increased Energy Taxes by Ben Lieberman Among the many suggestions in the draft report of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibiity and Reform is a 15 cents-per-gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax. No doubt, this proposed tax hike would raise revenues and make a modest dent in the deficit, but it would do so at the expense of the driving public and would disproportionately burden low-income motorists. There’s a better way. If raising energy-related revenues is the goal, why not fill federal coffers in a manner that actually reduces the price at the pump? Washington can accomplish this by allowing more oil drilling in an about face from the so-called permitorium. Background The federal government controls all offshore areas beyond three miles from the coast, as well as vast expanses of energy-rich western lands. Unfortunately, only a fraction of these areas have been opened to energy leasing, due to legislative and regulatory restrictions. For example, a 2008 Department of the Interior report notes that only eight percent of the estimated 31 billion barrels of oil beneath federal lands is fully available for leasing, while 30 percent is subject to significant restrictions and 62 percent is entirely off-limits. America’ offshore areas hold even greater potential but are also constrained. No other energy-producing nation on earth has limited itself to this extent. [Read more →] (MasterResource)
Please can we share your pork? US Tells China Fairness Needed in Green Energy Industry The top U.S. official on energy policy says China should allow American companies to qualify for subsidies Beijing offers for renewable energy projects. There are growing complaints that China violates world trade rules by subsidizing its green energy companies, such as solar panel and wind turbine manufacturers. (VOA News)
Richard Lambert: Stop hyping green jobs The director general of the CBI, the British business lobby group, has been outlining this morning his vision of where exactly the UK business sector is in
terms of meeting its climate change commitments.
Russia joins the oil rush in Cuba’s Gulf of Mexico coast Russian energy firm Gazprom has joined a growing list of foreign companies searching for oil off Cuba's coast. (MercoPress)
Shale gas could ensure Poland's independence from Russia Winter is approaching - a time in which Europe particularly feels Russia's grip on the energy market. This power play has caused Poland many headaches. But new know-how in gas production could mark a turn in events. (Deutsche Welle)
Ontario’s Power Trip: The high cost of ‘conservation’ Guess what, demand reduction reduces revenue By Parker Gallant In June, 2006, Dwight Duncan was Ontario’s Minister of Energy and about to launch a new green initiative for Ontario’s electricity sector, the Conservation Demand Management (CDM) program. The objective was to get Ontario consumers to reduce their peak demand for electricity via conservation. In a directive to the Ontario Power Authority, he set out the specifics: “The goal for total peak demand reduction from conservation by 2025 is 6300 MW.” Effectively, Mr. Duncan ordered the OPA to push consumers to reduce peak demand by approximately 25% of the load the electricity sector might expect on the hottest July day. The first phase of that long-range plan, from 2007 to 2010, recently ended with costs well above budget. And a new directive last week points to more of the same over the next three years. Today, Mr. Duncan’s directive and others since are set over time to cost Ontario electricity consumers as much as $2-billion in rate increases. Read More (Financial Post)
Free market efficiency must not be permitted: U.K.'s `Untouched' Power Market Relies Too Much on Natural Gas, Huhne Says Britain’s electricity market, “left untouched” by government regulations, would rely too much on gas and neglect other fuels needed to limit emissions
and price volatility, the minister in charge of energy said today.
Ethanol from Coal, Natural Gas and Coke, not from Corn
Once in a while a real solution to a vexing national or international problem comes up to append the popular, invariably politically correct but almost certainly, wrong hype. [Read More] (Michael J. Economides, ET)
Update on Queensland's solar thermal power station -- it isn't and never will be: Robertson defends Government's solar energy efforts The Queensland Government has rejected criticism of its solar power systems.
Obamacare, Save Money? Not Likely.
Newly-elected conservatives heading to Washington next year have a lot to do to curb the size of government and get federal deficits under control. Requisite to achieving these goals is the full repeal of Obamacare. According to Peter Orszag, former Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Obama, leaving the health law intact would create savings. But this couldn’t be farther from reality. Orszag claims that Obamacare will reduce the federal deficit and Medicare spending. What isn’t mentioned is that, though it’s true that spending on Medicare will be reduced by $575 billion over the next decade, savings are used to offset spending on new programs. So really, there are no savings at all. Moreover, proponents of Obamacare expect the new law to reduce spending by cutting provider reimbursements and expanding bureaucracy through top-down delivery system changes aimed at increasing efficiency in the system. In reality, the former will negatively affect seniors’ access to quality care, while the latter will be flat-out unsuccessful at reducing spending. Continue reading... (The Foundry)
Throw your Euro stereotypes out the window: Last weekend, a Greek government that has cut public-sector pay and lowered pensions won a clear victory in local
elections. Despite strikes and violence, despite the fact that Greece's debt is still growing and more cuts are coming, there will be a Socialist mayor of
Athens for the first time in 24 years. (And, yes, in Greece, the Socialists favor budget cuts, and the conservatives oppose them.)
Hmm... US scientists significantly more likely to publish fake research US scientists are significantly more likely to publish fake research than scientists from elsewhere, finds a trawl of officially withdrawn (retracted)
studies, published online in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
Studies show drug-resistant bug threats in Europe Drug-resistant infections with the "superbug" Clostridium difficile are rising in Europe and are widespread, scientists said on Tuesday, but there are big variations in the way health authorities monitor them. (Reuters)
U.S. to ban alcohol drinks with caffeine: lawmaker U.S. regulators are planning to crack down on companies selling alcoholic beverages that include a jolt of caffeine amid pressure from lawmakers, states and
consumer groups that contend the drinks are dangerous.
Smoke from fireworks is harmful to health The metallic particles in the smoke emitted by fireworks pose a health risk, particularly to people who suffer from asthma. This is the conclusion of a study
led by researchers from the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), published this week in the Journal of Hazardous Materials.
Using plants against soils contaminated with arsenic Two essential genes that control the accumulation and detoxification of arsenic in plant cells have been identified. This discovery is the fruit of an international collaboration involving laboratories in Switzerland, South Korea and the United States, with the participation of members of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Plant Survival. The results presented are a promising basis for reducing the accumulation of arsenic in crops from regions in Asia that are polluted by this toxic metalloid, as well as for the cleanup of soils contaminated by heavy metals. The findings are published this week in the prestigious journal PNAS. (University of Zurich)
Uh-huh... Prince Charles Calls For Action In TV Environment Film Britain's Prince Charles brings his passion for the environment to U.S. viewers this week with the broadcast of a new TV film designed as a call to action on
global climate change.
Voters Want to Save Planet from Attempts To Save Planet by Ben Lieberman It is worth noting that the two biggest environmental scares of recent memory-global warming and the BP oil spill-both failed to sway voters on November 2. Quite the contrary, it was the ill-advised attempts to address them that sparked voter anger. The Waxman-Markey bill worried the electorate more than global warming itself (and quite rightly so), and contributed to the loss of more than two dozen of its supporters in the House of Representatives. Similarly, the BP oil spill had virtually no adverse impact on pro-drilling politicians. If anything, it was Obama’s overreaction to the spill in the form of the drilling moratorium that proved highly unpopular in Louisiana and other impacted States. The moratorium didn’t cost any Congressional seats there only because both Democrats and… Read the full story (Cooler Heads)
Yes and absolutely not: Clean Water at No Cost? Just Add Carbon Credits In America, I turn on the faucet and out pours water. In much of the world, no such luck. Nearly a billion people don’t have drinkable water. Lack of water
─ and the associated lack of toilets and proper hygiene ─ kills 3.3 million people a year, most of them children under five.
U.N. Climate Talks Seek Limited Deal As Costs Soar Almost 200 nations meet in Mexico this month to try to agree a "green fund" for poor countries and other steps toward an elusive climate treaty
amid warnings that inaction is driving up the costs of tackling global warming.
Issa downplays prospect of Oversight Committee ‘climate-gate’ probe Global warming skeptics eager to see ascendant House Republicans put climate science under the microscope might be disappointed in Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).
How to Improve Sen. Rockefeller’s EPA Proposal by Marlo Lewis This morning, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) were scheduled to discuss a lame duck floor vote on Rockefeller’s proposed two-year suspension of EPA’s plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, factories, and other “stationary sources,” Politico reports. Reid’s promise in June to hold a vote on the Rockefeller bill after the August recess was likely the critical maneuver defeating Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s resolution (S.J.Res.26) to overturn EPA’s Endangerment Rule. The Endangerment Rule is the trigger, prerequisite, and precedent for a cascade of both mobile and stationary source greenhouse gas regulations under the Clean Air Act. On June 10, the Senate rejected the Murkowski resolution by a vote of 47-53. All 41 Senate Republicans and six Democrats voted for S.J.Res.26. Had four additional Democrats voted… Read the full story (Cooler Heads)
Reid won't commit to scheduling vote to block EPA climate rules Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday it is not clear whether he will schedule a lame-duck vote on Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s (D-W.Va.) bill
that would block looming Environmental Protection Agency greenhouse gas rules for two years.
Reid’s Lame Duck Energy Bill: More Money for Special Interests, Higher Costs for the Rest of Us
It’s highly unlikely that we’re going to see any large energy bills like a cap and trade or renewable electricity standard passed during the lame duck session, but that isn’t stopping Senator Harry Reid (D–NV) from moving forward with bad energy policy. Undeterred by an American electorate that shouted clearly that it was done with Washington-centric, special interest politics, the majority leader filed procedural motions to vote on S. 3815, the “Promoting Natural Gas and Electric Vehicles Act of 2010.” The bill is laden with handouts to promote vehicles powered by natural gas and electric. And to pay for this corporate welfare, the bill would call for an increase to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund tax from $.08 per barrel to $0.21 per barrel. This means that everyday Americans would be paying more at the pump to subsidize industries that Washington has deemed politically correct. S. 3815 “would spend $4.5 billion over the next ten years on tax rebates for buyers of natural gas vehicles and subsidies for manufacturers of the vehicles. It also authorizes $1.5 billion over the next ten years for research and development effort related to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.” Continue reading... (The Foundry)
Papandreou, Sarkozy prepare EU-wide carbon tax
» Don't Stop Reading » (TRF)
Carbon price now or we'll pay later Investment will be shelved and electricity prices spiral unless industry has certainty. ([Australian Prime Minister] Julia Gillard, SMH)
Australia has sufficient coal reserves to supply us with power for centuries. Beyond that, we also have massive uranium reserves. But Julia Gillard believes the best way to guarantee continued power is by taxing a trace gas:
If it works for carbon, why not tax other gases? Maybe if we tax hydrogen we’ll all get free Ferraris.
According to this logic, increasing the tax on cigarettes will boost smoking.
Indeed. Why stick with something inexpensive and abundant when unspecified other things might be even better? Bring on the alternatives, Prime Minister. UPDATE. It’s time for carbon action! (Tim Blair)
Climate Czar Carol Browner Must Go by Myron Ebell Dan Berman reported in Politico on Wednesday that: “The White House rewrote crucial sections of an Interior Department report to suggest an independent group of scientists and engineers supported a six-month ban on offshore oil drilling, the Interior inspector general says in a new report. In the wee hours of the morning of May 27, a staff member to White House energy adviser Carol Browner sent two edited versions of the department report’s executive summary back to Interior. The language had been changed to insinuate the seven-member panel of outside experts - who reviewed a draft of various safety recommendations - endorsed the moratorium, according to the IG report.” This is the most outrageous example yet of the Obama Administration’s improper… Read the full story (Cooler Heads)
German Geologist on Carbon Sequestration: 'CCS Is One of the Few Options to Minimize CO2 Emissions' Grass-roots movements are protesting against carbon capture and storage pilot projects in various parts of Germany. Geologist Andreas Dahmke talks to SPIEGEL about the shortsightedness of the protests and why nuclear power is much more dangerous than CCS technology. (Spiegel)
Nixon Would Still Be In Office… …with journalists like these. A roomful of them, not one with the courage to ask a thing to Michael Mann. If a strong press is a sign of a strong democracy, what is a weak press a sign of? (Maurizio Morabito)
'I want to be remembered for the science' says Phil 'Climategate' Jones to chorus of titters Professor Phil Jones, the ’scientist’ at the heart of the Climategate emails has spoken out. “Hopefully they will remember me for the scientific papers
I have written rather than the emails,” he has said in an interview with the mysterious, paywall-hidden void that used to be known as the Times.
On ‘ClimateGate’ anniversary, greens try new ’science’ tack By Chris Horner
The American Geophysical Union is putting together a bank of scientists to advise journalists on global warming. Anne Jolis of the Wall Street Journal wonders why it doesn't appear to include any sceptics.
(Bishop Hill)
How the BBC became a propaganda arm of the UK government (and WWF) Andrew Montford (Bishop Hill) and Tony Newbery (Harmless Sky) have put in a submission to the review of the BBC’s impartiality on science. It’s the anatomy of how government and activist groups take over an arm of a public broadcaster. There is no sneaking in the back door here.
Essentially, the communication technique recommended to the government to use on the people was the sophisticated tactic: “bluff them”. The truth is not what matters. There’s apparently no need to explain the uncertainties, and no reason to treat the voters as grown ups. Don’t mention the evidence. That the BBC science-journalists weren’t appalled at the IPPR document and the in-house seminar held earlier the same year (see below) is testament to the feeble derelict state of university science and “journalism” training. Does no lecturer explain the core difference between a reporter and a copy-writer for an ad agency? Where were the strikes and protests from journalists as they were being asked to be the lap-dog sock puppets of the ruling class, and feed approved newspeak to the masses? The day the BBC stopped “investigating” was in January 2006 More » (Jo Nova)
Phenologists discover plants & critters respond to prevailing conditions [film at 11!]: Budding Research Links Climate Change and Earlier Flowering University of Cincinnati research published in the December issue of Ecological Restoration shows that global warming may be impacting the blooming cycle of plants. (Cincinnati)
German Scientist: CO2 Not The Cause of Climate Change – Cold Period Is Anticipated 16. November 2010 The European Institute For Climate and Energy (EIKE) released a paper today written by German physicist Dr. Horst Bochert. The paper reveals a clear relation between solar activity and ocean cycles, and thus act as the main climate drivers. Measured data shows no CO2 impact on climate. (No Tricks Zone)
Global warming causes everything and then some: Colder winters possible due to climate change-study BERLIN, Nov 16 - Climate change could lead to colder winters in northern regions, according to a study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
on Tuesday.
From CO2 Science Volume 13 Number 46: 17 November 2010 Editorial: Journal Reviews: Tropical Cyclone Intensity Discrepancies: What are they? ... and what do they imply about the climate-alarmist claim that global warming produces more intense tropical cyclones/hurricanes? Two Millennia of Environmental-Disaster-Induced Wars in China: What was the initial trigger that typically set the downward-spiraling process in motion? Lives Saved per Life Lost Due to Global Warming: What occurred in this regard over the last three decades of temperature change in England and Wales? Effects of Branch Warming on Tall, Mature Oak Trees: What did they do to determine what they are? ... and what did they learn? Controlling the Adverse Consequences of Human Pathogens: Is it best done by attempting to change earth's climate? ... or by dealing directly with the pathogens? Ocean Acidification Database: Plant Growth Database:
'California's Destructive Green Jobs Lobby' George Gilder writes in today's Wall Street Journal:
Sea Life Flourishes in the Gulf The Great Oil Spill Panic of 2010 will go down in history as mass hysteria on par with the Dutch tulip bubble.
Hmm... When Weather Matters: Science and Service to Meet Critical Societal Needs The past 15 years have seen marked progress in observing, understanding, and predicting weather. At the same time, the United States has failed to match or
surpass progress in operational numerical weather prediction achieved by other nations and failed to realize its prediction potential; as a result, the nation
is not mitigating weather impacts to the extent possible.
Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach Encouraged by the response to my post on Adrian Bejan and the Constructal Law, which achieved what might be termed unprecedented levels of tepidity, I persevere. Here’s a lovely look at the energy use of the United States:
Figure 1. US 2002 Energy production and consumption by sector. There are some interesting things which can be seen in this diagram. 1. Almost none of the power for electrical generation comes from oil. This means that even if the US could generate every Watt of electricity from solar/wind/whatever, it will not directly replace our consumption of oil. 2. Generation, transformation, and transmission losses eat up most of the energy used for electrical generation. Overall efficiency is 31% 3. Transportation is worse, with only 20% efficiency. 4. Nuclear is three times the size of hydro. 5. Wood, waste, alcohol, geothermal, solar, and wind electrical generation together are 3% of total energy use. However, as interesting as I found those, that’s not the reason I started looking at energy use and GDP.
Green view: How to save $300 billion LAST time it met, in 2009, the G20 took a stand against a little discussed problem that unites environmentalists and economists: fossil-fuel subsidies. Over
the course of the subsequent year, the nations contributed to a list of the “inefficient” subsidies they supported and the things they planned to do about
it. So far, this list is unimpressive. According to an analysis of the G20 documents by Doug Koplow, who works with an environmental watchdog called Oil Change
International, many of the countries are reporting only superficially, and the standards against which they measure themselves are far from uniform. Most
damningly, none has as yet put a new subsidy-cutting policy on the table.
APS releases report on renewable energy and the electricity grid Energy storage technologies crucial toward increasing renewable energy on nation's grid
Mandate our profits to, uh... save the world! Yes. That's it, save the world. Large Investors Urge Progress At Climate Talks Stronger domestic and international policy is needed to help unlock investment in low-carbon technology in the absence of a global climate deal, investors
with over $15 trillion of assets said on Tuesday.
We just bet they do: Analysis: U.S. Solar Industry Wants Grant Program Extended A federal grant program aimed at spurring investment in the U.S. solar industry expires at the end of this year, and its supporters are scrambling to get it extended in the lame-duck session of Congress that started this week. (Reuters)
Many private investors and financial institutions are betting on who will win the green race, but contrary to how our national leaders and media outlets make things appear, they are not wagering on countries: not the U.S., not Germany, not China, and not South Korea. [Read More] (Kevin P. Kane, ET)
US ethanol exports fuel European unease By Gregory Meyer
White House Reviewing 2011 Ethanol Standard The White House is reviewing the Environmental Protection Agency's final rule on how much ethanol and other renewable automobile fuels will be sold next
year.
In the summer of 2009, Bill Kristol urged Republicans not to try to improve Obamacare but to “kill it.” That advice is equally trenchant today.
Ducking personal responsibility, and how this affects the environment and health care My latest HND piece covers an interview I did with Renaissance Man John F. Groom. We started off talking about his new book, The 1.8 Billion Dollar Man. The provocative title refers to the annual cost for the Obama White House. But this was not about bashing Barack Obama. Rather, it uses the White House budget as a way to study an out-of-control federal government. I make the point in the article that no organization can be Green, or even claim to support such a notion if it is this big and bloated. Moreover, under these rubrics, there cannot be some sort of exemption for the White House, just because it is the White House. Either the future of the planet is at stake, or it isn't. Groom then explains why the public does not seem to react to extravagant and questionable activities by celebrities, such as high overhead concerts for various causes, or private jet trips around the world made to convince the little people that they should care more for the environment. He also explains the apparent lack of shame on the part of the hypocritical offenders. This gets us into the core problem: The disappearance of personal responsibility. Inasmuch as around 70% of all medical treatment is related to conditions that are lifestyle-induced, you can see how no personal responsibility ties into health care, as well. Groom is full of interesting ideas, and we agreed to talk again soon. Read the complete article. (Shaw's Eco-Logic)
Few teens show signs of "problem" video-gaming While most teenagers' video-game playing appears to be largely innocuous, a small percentage of "gamers" may be overly obsessed with the hobby, a
study published Monday suggests.
Children with autism have distinctive patterns of brain activity Researchers say they have identified a unique 'signature' of autism in the brains of children with the condition
Even Reusable Bags Carry Environmental Risk They dangle from the arms of many New Yorkers, a nearly ubiquitous emblem of empathy with the environment: synthetic, reusable grocery bags, another
must-have accessory for the socially conscious.
Better sanitation could save 2 million lives a year Nearly 20 percent of the world's population still defecates in the open, and action to improve hygiene, sanitation and water supply could prevent more than 2
million child deaths a year, health experts said Monday.
EPA Tackles Florida Water Pollution, Cost A Concern The Environmental Protection Agency tightened water pollution controls in recession-hit Florida on Monday, but the state's citrus growers expressed concern
the rules would cost business too much.
By Alan Caruba
U.S. animal disease lab carries risks, report says A planned U.S. laboratory aimed at studying dangerous foreign animal diseases and preventing their spread to American cattle, hogs and other livestock
carries the risk of spreading highly contagious pathogens, the National Research Council said on Monday.
Experts Find Lost Genes In Wild Soybean Researchers have found genes in wild varieties of soybean that make them resistant to certain diseases and hope to use them in cultivated species of soy to
make them more hardy.
EU Urged To Allow Trace GM In Food Imports: Source A number of European Union governments on Monday urged the bloc's executive to allow tiny traces of genetically modified (GM) material in food imports for
human consumption as well as in animal feed, an EU source said.
Memo to House GOP: Get a grip on the EPA by Steve Milloy Getting a grip on the Environmental Protection Agency must be at the top of the upcoming Republican-controlled House’s “To Do” list. Of immediate concern are the EPA rules for regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Unless stopped by a federal court, the Obama EPA will implement on Jan. 2 a flagrantly illegal scheme to regulate emissions from power plants and other large emitters. This enactment will kill jobs and raise the prices of energy, and thus of all good and services. The Obama administration originally designed the scheme as a regulatory sword of Damocles to pressure Congress and industry into agreeing on a cap-and-trade framework. But cap-and-trade reached its high-water mark in June 2009 when the House barely passed the controversial Waxman-Markey bill. Cap-and-trade’s prospects then deteriorated quite rapidly, placing the Obama administration in the position of having to make good on its threat to unleash the EPA’s carbon dogs on America. The Obama EPA bootstrapped itself into the carbon regulation business with its December 2009 “endangerment finding,” decreeing that GHG emissions threaten the public welfare. The EPA based its finding on a 2007 report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—a report that, while always controversial, came under even more fire as a result of the November 2009 Climategate scandal. Already on shaky legal ground, the EPA ventured clearly into law-breaking territory with its June 2010 “tailoring rule.” Under the Clean Air Act, if the EPA regulates a “pollutant,” it must regulate all sources that emit as little as 100 tons per year. Implementing this requirement for GHGs would put the EPA in the impossible position of having to regulate virtually every small business and multi-family residential complex—a total of more than 6.1 million sources nationwide. The EPA estimated it would require 1.4 billion work hours costing $63 billion over three years to accomplish that task. Rather than comply with the law, the habitually rogue EPA went totally outlaw in unilaterally deciding to raise the permitting threshold to sources emitting
75,000 tons per year, cutting the number of regulated sources to a more manageable 20,000. Congressional failure has left enforcement of the law to private parties and to states such as Alabama, Texas, and Virginia, which have filed a number of lawsuits against the EPA. And while it is possible that some federal judge may enjoin the EPA from acting before Jan. 2, we shouldn’t hold our breaths waiting. The federal judiciary is politicized, unpredictable, and not necessarily tethered to traditional notions of law and fact. Current federal law and existing Supreme Court decisions make it difficult to challenge the EPA successfully. And while the lawyers for the parties suing the EPA no doubt know the law as well as the opposing counsel does, there is a question of motivation to consider. The Obama administration lawyers are ideologically motivated, backed by the force of an aggressive government, have nothing to lose, and, consequently, are out to win at all costs. They will be facing off against plaintiffs’ lawyers who represent firms that are squishy, politically-sensitive, and bipartisan, as well as trade associations with a variety of agendas, a fear of angering the government or of upsetting the Democrats’ hierarchical chain of command. It would be a shock to see these lawyers break any china to on behalf of their clients. While our hearts should be with those who are suing the EPA, our money should be on the likelihood of seeing lousy lawyering and worse judging involved in addressing their cause. This sad finding brings us to our last best chance for getting the EPA under control: the Republican-dominated House. From denying the EPA funding for its programs, particularly the agency’s air and enforcement offices, to oversight investigations of the White House and the EPA, the House can throw much-needed monkey wrenches into the Obama administration’s jihad against GHG emissions and our economy. With its mandate to end government profligacy and abuses of power, and to revive our economy, the House GOP needs to be fully engaged in the battle against the EPA, starting promptly on Jan. 2. Mr. Milloy is the founder and publisher of JunkScience.com. His columns and op-ed pieces have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Financial Times, and Los Angeles Times. He is the author of “Green Hell,” a new book from Regnery Publishing. (Green Hell Blog)
This month's elections resoundingly affirm that America's top priorities are economic growth, job creation and less Washington control of our lives. The
elections are likely the final nail in the cap-and-tax coffin.
These actions underscore the need to reexamine the supposed science behind "dangerous global warming" and "sustainable renewable energy" claims. If the science is bad, the policies will be awful. (Paul Driessen, ESR)
WASHINGTON -- Within 72 hours of the Tea Party's "shellacking" of Obama and Pelosi, Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, called for global taxation of the American public -- an idea endorsed by a high-level official of the Obama administration. Ban must not have been watching television on Election Night, because he missed the voters' rejection of big government, higher taxes, and out of control spending. Or perhaps he did see the results and thought it best to get his $100 billion of "climate financing" fees on the agenda of the lame duck Congress. (Thomas P. Kilgannon, American Spectator)
Nice try though: $30bn will do more to tackle global warming if it is delivered early The money pledged to developing countries at Copenhagen is a good start, but it must be made more easily accessible (Guardian)
EU Says Fulfils Climate Aid Pledge, But Is It New? European governments have fulfilled a promise to deliver 2.2 billion euros ($3 billion) to help poor countries tackle climate change, EU reports show, but critics say the money might have come from rebranding existing aid pledges. (Reuters)
Uh-huh... Arnold Schwarzenegger demands action at final climate summit California's 'green governor' says leaders can learn from golden state's example as environmental pioneer. (Guardian)
Self-proclaimed “skeptical environmentalist” Bjorn Lomborg is uttering untruths about genuine skeptics while promoting his new movie “Cool It.” Appearing on Fox Business Channel last Friday, Lomborg was asked by host Stuart Varney whether humans were causing [catastrophic] global warming. “Is it us? Is human beings who are doing this?,” implored Varney. The skeptical environmentalist replied,
Surprised to hear that the ranks of the skeptics had been thinned of two of its stars, I checked wth Lindzen and Michaels. Lindzen told me,
Michaels told me that while he has always believed that manmade greenhouse gas emissions have some effect on global climate, that effect is not great or even necessarily harmful. Being an economist, as Lomborg claims, does not excuse him from culpability for such a flagrant misstatement. The reality about Lomborg is that he is more like Al Gore in relevant part than not. Gore believes that manmade CO2 emissions are a problem and need to be reduced/eliminated. So does Lomborg. Gore says untrue things about skeptics. So does Lomborg. Here’s how I distinguish Gore from Lomborg. Gore is a scowling, straight, fat carnivore with dark hair. Lomborg is not. Lomborg’s schtick is glibly surfing the global warming alarmist wave as a T-shirted, Scandanavian Greenpeace-turncoat-cum-skeptic-poseur. So far, only genuine skeptics have clued into to his scam, but no longer. As Hearst movie reviewer Amy Biancolli put it,
You can watch Varney’s interview with Lomborg below: (Green Hell Blog)
This poor sod apparently really believes: Bring it On "Bring it on" should be the Democrats' response to the new House Republican majority's pledge to hold investigatory hearings on the Obama
Administration's environmental policies.
This straw man, again? Troposphere Is Warming Too, Decades Of Data Show Not only is Earth's surface warming, but the troposphere -- the lowest level of the atmosphere, where weather occurs -- is heating up too, U.S. and British
meteorologists reported on Monday.
UK Says India Carbon Tie Could Help Global Deal Bilateral agreements to develop clean technology and unlock private sector finance could help fill the gap in the absence of an international climate change
pact, Britain's climate and energy minister said on Monday.
Call for climate Royal Commission At an assemblage of physicists at the British Association in 1900, one of the 19th Century’s most influential physicists and mathematicians, Lord William
Thomson Kelvin said, “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.”
[plenty of] Time to prepare for climate change Himalayan region’s glaciers melting slowly, but impacts still coming
Science Manipulation Hides Reporting And Political Failures Of The New York Times The more I read the “As Glaciers Melt, Science Seeks Data on Rising Seas” article (NYT, Nov 13; and on the IHT on the same day, with a full page dedicated to it, and the pride of place on the first page with a giant photo next to it), the more it looks like something halfway between the first salvo in the “war on science” against the GOP and “many newly elected legislators openly skeptical about climate change“, and a call to rally to the AGW Believer Troops. (Maurizio Morabito)
Hypothesis Testing – A Failure In The 2007 IPCC Reports In my post Short Circuiting The Scientific Process – A Serious Problem In The Climate Science Community I wrote
In the recent report “Climate Change Assessments, Review of the Processes & Procedures of the IPCC“ within the section titled IPCC’s Evaluation of Evidence and Treatment of Uncertainty it is written [boldface added]
My comment on the publication process in the post Short Circuiting The Scientific Process – A Serious Problem In The Climate Science Community fits and can be rewritten as What the current IPCC assessment process has evolved into, at the detriment of proper scientific investigation, is the inclusion of untested (and often untestable) hypotheses. The fourth step in the scientific method “Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment” is bypassed. It is written in the IAC Review of the IPCC report that
This is a correct conclusion and also applies to the predictions decades from now as presented in the 2007 IPCC report. These also cannot be falsified. The acceptance of hypotheses as facts in the publication process including the IPCC assessments is a main reason that the policy community is being significantly misinformed about the actual status of our understanding of the climate system and the role of humans within it.
by Lisa Linowes The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) is on a mission to keep its members fat and happy as they bloat up at the public trough. The goals are simple:
In the last two years, AWEA’s had some success. On the power market front, more than half the States have RPS programs mandating that a percentage of their electricity needs be met with renewable energy. Many states have loose enough standards to avoid the damage that otherwise would be done, but Texas, in particular, has coerced its way into windpower growth (the legacy of Enron, by the way). Senator Bingham (D-NM) introduced a bill seeking the same non-compete set-aside for the entire country that he hopes will be acted on during the lame-duck session. (See Daren Bakst’s criticism of this proposal here.) [Read more →] (MasterResource)
by Kent Hawkins The unequal contest about the implementation of utility-scale wind plants between a number of ordinary citizens, on one hand, and the system of government intransigence, environmentalist narrowness, strong industry lobby groups, and uninformed public opinion, on the other, is a difficult but necessary one. In Europe alone, which has the most experience with the wind plants, the number of such groups is approaching 450 in 21 countries. In Ontario Canada, one of the North American extremist jurisdictions in support of wind, the number is 35. Unfortunately, compared to the wind proponent side, the relatively small number of people fighting wind plants comes from those who are faced with the reality of the prospect of wind plants in close proximity to their communities. However, others who for various reasons have done the necessary research to see past the misconceptions to the reality of the total folly of pursuing such policies have also joined them. We must rise above the negatively intended, and unthinking, use of the term NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) that is quickly applied to these citizens’ groups. Although, initially their opposition represents self-interest (which is not automatically to be criticized), nevertheless they progress to becoming informed on the subject to properly represent their case. In doing this, they soon discover that the associated problems and worthlessness of the whole wind agenda. They find out that the Wind Crusade is hardly noble environmentalism. Many find themselves asking: why have so many self-styled environmentalists sold out to image, to form over sustance? My view is that utility-scale wind plants are ineffective in all respects as an electricity source and should not be part of any electricity system, rendering all the other problems that come with them needless. The ’other problems” are the negative impact on:
A Letter to Real Environmentalists on Windpower The following letter from Eric Bibler to the Cape Cod Commission about planning for industrial wind turbines is noteworthy. Bibler is an environmental activist and President of Save Our Seashore, a non-profit organization based in Wellfleet, MA, that is devoted to the principle that our National Parks, including the Cape Cod National Seashore, should be preserved and protected as a natural resource and not subjected to industrialization through the installation of wind energy. [Read more →] (MasterResource)
Germany passes unpopular healthcare reform The German parliament passed healthcare reform on Friday to overhaul the country's cash-strapped insurance system and plug a threatened 11-billion-euro
shortfall in the public health system next year.
Sigh... Should You Be Snuggling With Your Cellphone? WARNING: Holding a cellphone against your ear may be hazardous to your health. So may stuffing it in a pocket against your body.
Lawrence Solomon: Port Hope — a hot spot that may be cool Nuclear workers in Port Hope contract fewer cancers
Experts hit back at claims full-body airport scanners are 'safe' EXPERTS have hit back at the US Government's claim that full-body scanners do not pose a health risk to air travellers.
San Francisco mayor to veto curb on fast-food toys San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom plans to veto a new city law that would curb toy giveaways in unhealthy restaurant meals for children, but the move would be
symbolic since it was approved in a veto-proof vote.
The Vast Child-Fattening Conspiracy When it comes to the increasing sex, violence and profanity in entertainment media, the social libertines are indifferent. They insist that children will
hardly be warped or ruined by the media they consume. They chortle at the paranoia of Hollywood critics. Their mantra: If you don't like it, just turn the
channel.
Hmm... probably caught if from Americans. Where can they sue? Alarming obesity levels in the world’s developing countries A new report by one of the major economic organisations has found that obesity levels in the world’s developing countries are rising at an alarming pace – and that countries should act now to stop a major ‘epidemic’. (MercoPress)
For virtual people: Less salt for teens means healthier adults If teens could reduce their daily salt consumption by 3,000 milligrams, they would cut their risk for heart disease and stroke significantly in adulthood,
researchers said on Sunday.
Missing from the lifestyle pages: the evidence of how Boob Job works Enough to make your décolletage blush: cosmetics firm threatens plastic surgeon who doubts breast cream boasts
Oh... Antarctic Ozone Hole Persists, At Least for Awhile Major success in reducing ozone-depleting substances may not pay off in the Antarctic for several more years
Outcry after loss of measures to protect animals is revealed Campaigners pledged to step up the fight for animal welfare yesterday after The Independent highlighted the way in which the Coalition has scrapped or
stalled a series of initiatives since taking power.
Minister plans to hit homes with 'flood tax Millions of homeowners living near the sea or rivers face being hit with a new "flood tax" under controversial coalition plans to plug a £260m
shortfall in spending on flood defences. The controversial proposal comes as the residents of Cumbria prepare to mark the anniversary of the floods which
devastated the Lake District last year.
Over 60 percent of child deaths in India avoidable: survey More children under the age of five die in India than in any other country in the world, and from five main causes that are avoidable, a study in India has
found.
6th November 2010
EU Looks To Tighten GM Crop Assessment Rules The EU's food safety watchdog issued new guidelines on Friday for assessing the environmental impacts of genetically modified (GM) plants, as part of a
shake-up of the bloc's GM crop approval system.
Argentina Negotiates With China Over Corn Exports Argentina's farm minister said on Friday it is in talks with China over exporting corn to the Asian country, which does not currently buy Argentine corn due
to curbs on genetically modified varieties.
Still trying to pump up the scam: Oxfam's fantasy 'climate court' is both prescient and practical Over a thousand legal experts, politicians and economists gathered in Dhaka this week to explore routes to justice for the victims of climate criminals –
and found that precedents exist
Analysis: Obama climate rules face fight in Congress Republicans in the new Congress will pose a greater threat to the Obama administration's strategy to regulate greenhouse gas polluters than a plethora of
industry lawsuits.
One country cannot singlehandedly curb global greenhouse gas emissions, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) refuses to accept that idea.
In 2006, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Global Warming Solutions Act that committed the state to cut its greenhouse gas emissions an estimated 25-30 percent by 2020. One of the ballot initiatives buried in the general hoopla of the US midterm elections was Proposition 23, which would have suspended implementation of that law until economic conditions improve. The battle over Prop 23 pitted oil and gas interests against the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Democrat activists. In the end, the golden state held true to its environmentalist convictions and voted the delaying proposition down. Some kind of carbon trading plan, in other words cap & trade, is expected to be part of California's solution to global warming. California’s Air Resources Board has drafted proposed regulations intended to cushion the economic impact on the state’s industries but still accomplish the law’s purpose. They set an initial ceiling on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions allowed in industrial, electricity, transportation and other sectors. That ceiling will be gradually lowered over subsequent years, while the state issues emission allowances that can be traded among polluting industries. The cap & trade rules come to a final vote of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on December 16. Those outside of California might say “fine, let them strangle their own industry, perhaps it will move to my state,” but what is little appreciated by the public is that 10 other states have followed CARB's lead in the past: Main, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont. Case in point are the requirements that major auto manufacturers build a prescribed number of zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs). Implemented using cap & trade like credits that are bartered among auto manufacturers, this scheme has been in place since 2002.  All this and carbon credits too. Automakers received full credit for building true ZEVs, like electric or hydrogen powered cars, and partial credit for hybrids and conventional ultra low-emissions vehicles (ULEVs). While this did have the intended effect of getting auto makers to develop ZEVs it also had some curious side effects. Car and Driver magazine reports that electric sports car maker Tesla received a bounty of credits, which it traded to traditional manufacturers like Honda. Reportedly, Tesla made $13.8 million trading its credits in 2008 and 2009. Starting in 2012, the regulations get tougher and only true ZEVs will earn credits. Interestingly, the new restrictions will exclude the new Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, though GM is said to be in continuing negotiations with CARB regarding at least partial credit for producing the “augmented electric” vehicle. The Volt will still qualify for the federal $7,500 tax credit for buying a car with a 16kWh battery pack or larger (it is no coincidence that the Volt has a 16kWh battery as required by the federal regulations). The Volt is perhaps the most important car GM has built in a half century. Despite continued ignorant mispronouncements from the likes of Fox Business Channel air-head Tracy Byrnes, who claimed that GM lied to everyone about the Volt being electric because it had a gas engine (GM has always called it a hybrid), the Volt has been receiving good reviews. Quoting from Car and Driver, not particularly noted for their loving embrace of unconventionally driven vehicles, “this is without a doubt the most important new car since the advent of hybrids in the late 90s, and GM has nailed it.”
Market operator Intercontinental Exchange Inc. is laying off staff at the recently acquired Exchange, industry sources told Reuters, the company blaming the action on a lack of US action on climate change. The real reason that the CCX has failed, of course, is because the world has recognized global warming for the scam it is. On the Watts Up With That web site, Anthony Watts posted a chart of falling carbon credit prices. From a high of over $7 in mid-2008, prices now hover at around $0.10.  CCX carbon credit prices have cratered. This free-fall echos tumbling prices on the European Climate Exchange (ECX). According to a UK Parliament report, the European cap & trade scheme is failing to deliver vital green investment after a collapse in carbon prices magnified by the recession.The price of carbon was expected to rise to €100 a ton of CO 2, or higher, in order to drive urgently needed investment in green technologies and energy efficiency. Current prices, which remain nearer to €15 a ton, are too low to generate the required level of investment. In fact, things are looking dim for alternative energy all around the globe. This blog previously reported on top Danish wind manufacturer Vestas announced closing of five turbine manufacturing plants and laying off 3,000 green workers. IEEE Spectrum reports that Britain's cash strapped government has canceled plans for a gigantic tidal energy plant on the Severn estuary, north of Wales. Back in the US, Pacific Gas & Electric has announced it's ditching, at least for now, a 5 MW tidal energy project that had been slated for the coast of Humboldt County in northern California. The utility cited excessively high investment costs—including $50 million just to cover transmission infrastructure—and absence of any potential for physical expansion as explanations for the decision. While the prospects for a cap & trade bill at the federal level are slim to none, it is an idea that refuses to die. Led by California, a collection of states may very well be in the process of establishing cap & trade via the backdoor of local legislation. It is often said that one of the strengths of the US federal system is that each of the 50 states serves as a laboratory to try out different solutions to the nation's problems. That is obviously not the case when a fifth of the several states abrogate their sovereignty and play follow the leader behind the granola state. Pusillanimous politicians in these states have proven themselves to be deeply, spectacularly unimaginative by adopting CARB's policies wholesale. Why are politicians so enamored with these Enronesque cap & trade schemes? Perhaps because they are driven by market forces too complicated to be understood by politicians or their constituents, or maybe because the name doesn't contain the word “tax.” The motivation for environmentalists is easier to discern—cap & trade, effectively enforced, strangles industry. As we said in The Energy Gap, there are rational ways to significantly reduce carbon emissions and they are side effects of enhancing energy security and reducing real pollution. As has been seen in Europe, and now in America, cap & trade is an unworkable idea no nation can afford, whether it comes at the national level or through the backdoor. Be safe, enjoy the interglacial and stay skeptical.  Cap & Trade: the most effective path to poverty. (Doug L. Hoffman, The Resilient Earth)
The climate change scare is dying, but do our MPs notice? The collapse of the warmist position on climate change has not impinged on politicians in Britain or Brussels, says Christopher Booker. (TDT)
Climate science "under-reported" at 2009 U.N. summit Less than 10 percent of the articles written about last year's Copenhagen climate summit dealt primarily with the science of climate change, a study showed on Monday. (Reuters)
Um... no, Robbie: Climate change: science's fresh fight to win over the sceptics Hacked emails from climate researchers at the University of East Anglia caused a storm last year. Now scientists say it's even harder to convince the world of the reality of climate change (Robin McKie, The Observer)
Global Warming: Wouldn't the followers of Scientific American have a pretty good understanding of what's really going on with the climate? If a reader poll is any indication, they're skeptical man is heating the planet. (IBD)
Fighting Climate Alarmism in 1999: What’s New? by Robert Bradley Jr. Reprinted below is a letter-to-the-editor that I wrote to The Electricity Journal in response to an essay by Michael Shepard, “Turning the Climate Challenge into Business Opportunity” (The Electricity Journal, 1999, vol. 12, issue 10, pages 82-84). The test of scholarship is how one’s arguments hold up over time. The state of knowledge changes as new evidence accumulates, so it is important to keep past work in the context of the year it was written (1999). But what do we know now versus then? And how do you think this rebuttal reads 11 years later? (One data point: Robert Mendelsohn of Yale still believes in the conclusions of his work that I reference below as he communicated to me by email.)
(MasterResource)
Martin Durkin’s Next Swindle Story 14. November 2010 I remember German journalist Dirk Maxeiner asking the question: “How can politicians believe they can limit the temperature of the planet when they can’t even get their own spending under control?” Martin Durkin brings his latest swindle documentary: Britain’s Trillion Pound Horror Story. If you don’t remember Martin Durkin, he produced “The Great Global Warming Swindle”.
Peter Foster, Financial Post · Friday, Nov. 12, 2010
Cancun - more dangerous than Copenhagen Dalibor Rohac warns that while the Copenhagen deal is dead, the warmists are planning even costlier ways to “save” the planet”:
Although preparations are in place for a summit on climate change in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of November, it is clear that the goal of cutting carbon
emissions through coordinated action by the world’s governments is dead. Nevertheless, it would be too early to celebrate, as the threat of fear-driven and
economically costly climate policies is not gone yet. It is merely being transformed into a more subtle - and potentially more dangerous - agenda… Meeting the initially envisaged objectives of reducing CO2 emissions by 50 percent by 2050 and 80 percent by 2100 is, under current technology, not feasible
without drastic reductions in economic activity and, therefore, standards of living… The dominant view that animated Kyoto and Copenhagen - and is now
disintegrating in view of the latter’s failure - was focused on reducing emissions through massive deployment of currently existing sources of “clean”
energy. Notwithstanding the cheerleading about wind farms and solar panels, these methods proved to be overly expensive and were introduced and sustained in the
first place only by government subsidies… However, while the climate-change alarmists are slowly becoming aware of the impasse the traditional approach has created, their agenda has not gone away. A
number of thinkers from across the political spectrum are progressively gaining influence… This rising group is a heterogeneous bunch. It includes Gwyn Prins
of the London School of Economics in England, Roger Pielke Jr., author of “The Climate Fix,” and the “skeptical environmentalist” Bjorn Lomborg, who is
releasing his new movie focused on climate-change policies, “Cool It.” Finally, it includes experts from both the American Enterprise Institute and the
liberal Brookings Institution in the United States, who recently published a joint proposal for fostering energy innovation… The central argument made by this group is as follows: Because emission cuts using current technologies are not practicable, the main thrust of new policies
should lie in subsidizing research and development so that a new “breakthrough” technology can arise, which will allow easy and costless
“decarbonization” of the world economy in the future. This argument relies on a rather naive understanding of the economics of innovation. It is simply assumed that pouring money into research will bring
the desired technology - and also that this technology could not have been obtained through privately funded research technology alone. Furthermore, where is the compelling argument that governments are especially qualified to identify those technologies that have a high social but low
private return - technologies that are worth developing but that no private organization has the incentive to bring about? In Australia, for instance, the Gillard Government is ploughing more than $100 million a year into research into carbon capture and storage, even though the early signs are that the technology will prove far too expensive to be practical. Other attempts by the government at picking winners have proved largely disastrous or merely useless, from subsidising solar plants to sticking free insulations in roofs. And here comes Bjorn Lomborg, blithely demanding more billions for research into pet projects:
Entitled Post-Partisan Power, the report comprehensively and convincingly argues the US government should invest roughly $US25bn a
year (about 0.2 per cent of US gross domestic product) in low-carbon military procurement, R&D, and a new network of university-private sector
innovation hubs to create an energy revolution... (Andrew Bolt)
Price on carbon 'is best option' - survey THE government's push for a price on carbon has received a boost from the OECD.
Global flood to destroy mankind Scientists continue to scare the world population with imminent disasters. This time, the role of the force of nature that will destroy the planet was given
to the Global Flood. Spanish hydrologists believe that it can occur in the beginning of this century due to the melting of the glaciers. Will their predictions
come true?
Q+A-Who's winning the climate science vs sceptics battle? Following is the second in a series of Q+As on major climate change themes.
Scientific Alliance Newsletter: Is this the start of a proper, open debate on climate change? It is impossible to predict how the current obsession with climate change will be seen in a hundred years’ time, but it arguably remains the defining issue of the early 21st Century. Despite the acres of newsprint and years of airtime devoted to the issue, the debate is notable for its sterility over recent years. Sceptics have been vilified by those representing the scientific and political orthodoxy and some have given back as good as they got. But the real bêtes noires of the establishment are the handful of their colleagues who dissent in any way. They are seen as traitors and are treated accordingly. (CRN)
Here is the agenda for that 2005 workshop in Bermuda. The Herald-Tribune's description of the meeting that led to the $82 billion financial impact beggars belief: I participated in the 2008 RMS expert elicitation, and at the time I explained that their methodology was biased and pre-determined. A group of monkeys would have arrived at the exact same results. Here is what I wrote then (and please see that post for the technical details on the "monkeys" making predictions, and the response and discussion with the RMS expert elicitor is here): I have in the past been somewhat critical of RMS for issuing short-term hurricane predictions (e.g., see here and here and here). I don’t believe that the science has demonstrated that such predictions can be made with any skill, and further, by issuing predictions, RMS creates at least the appearance of a conflict of interest as many of its customers will benefit (or lose) according to how these predictions are made. . . .RMS has since that time apparently shelved its expert elicitation process. My experiences prompted me to write up a paper on near-term predictions such as those employed by RMS, and it was published in the peer-reviewed literature: Pielke, Jr., R.A. (2009), United States hurricane landfalls and damages: Can one-to five-year predictions beat climatology?. Environmental Hazards 8 187-200, issn: 1747-7891, doi: 10.3763/ehaz.2009.0017At the same time that RMS was rolling out its new model in 2006, an RMS scientist was serving as a lead author for the IPCC AR4. He inserted a graph (below) into the report suggesting a relationship between the costs of disasters and rising temperatures, when in fact the peer-reviewed literature said the opposite. 
And, you might ask, how did that five-year "short term" prediction from RMS made for 2006-2010 actually pan out? As you can see below, not so good. 
Dessler 2010: How to call vast amounts of data “spurious” This is part of the big PR game of publishing “papers.” In the climate models, the critical hot spot is supposed to occur because (specific) humidity rises in the upper troposphere about 10km above the tropics. The weather balloons clearly show that temperatures are not rising as predicted, so it was not altogether surprising that when Garth Paltridge analyzed weather balloon results for humidity, and found that humidity was not rising as predicted either. Indeed, he found specific humidity was falling, which was the opposite of what all the major climate models predicted and posed yet a another problem for the theory that a carbon-caused disaster is coming. He had a great deal of trouble getting published in the first place, but once he finally did get published and skeptics were starting to quote “Paltridge 2009″, clearly, Team AGW needed an answer. “Dessler 2010″ is transparently supposed to be that answer. To start by putting things into perspective, lets consider just how “spuriously” small, patchy and insubstantial the radiosonde measurements have been. According to NOAA The integrated Global Radiosonde Archive contains more than 28 million soundings, from roughly 1250 stations.  Worldwide radiosonde stations (NOAA)
…  ARSA : Location and number of radiosonde reportsselected for the month of November 2009 (Click the figure to enlarge it or click here) The ARSA site estimates there are over 60,000 radiosondes released each month. (And it’s been something roughly like that every month since 1958). The radiosonde results are uncertain, but they suggest specific humidity is falling (and the error bars all fall in the negative range). So how do you dismiss that wall of data going back for half a century? More » (Jo Nova)
If the planet heats up dramatically, as Al Gore and others fear, the planet’s tropical forests could be a big winner, according to a just-published study in Science magazine that looked at a previous warming period in Earth’s history. “Contrary to speculation that tropical forests could be devastated under these conditions, forest diversity increased rapidly during this warming event,” explained a release from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, a participant in the study. “New plant species evolved much faster than old species became extinct. Pollen from the passionflower plant family and the chocolate family, among others, were found for the first time.” The new study relies on hard evidence rather than the computer models that produce “horror scenarios” about the effects of greenhouse conditions on tropical forests, in the words of Klaus Winter, a Smithsonian scientist. The study estimates that the forest’s genetic diversity soared by 50% under hot conditions, as a wealth of new species made their debut on Earth’s stage. The study was also supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, Fundación Banco del la República de Colombia, the National Geographic Society, the SI Women’s Committee, and ICP-Ecopetrol S.A. examined pollen trapped in rock cores and outcrops in Colombia and Venezuela. The pollen dates back to the period before, during and after the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, a time of sudden global warming some 56.3 million years ago. Spectacular photos of the 60-million-year-old pollen and outcrops can be found here. The study is entitled Effects of Rapid Global Warming at the Paleocene-Eocene Boundary on Neotropical Vegetation. LawrenceSolomon@nextcity.com
Rapid Paleocene Global Warming Caused Diversity Explosion
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) 56.3 million years ago was a unique episode of rapid global warming (~5°C). It is often used as an ancient analog for future global climate by those hyping catastrophic climate change. Though there is little chance that human CO 2 emission could cause such and event, that has not prevented the global warming gloom and doom crowd from holding up the threat of a possible second PETM event to bolster their socioeconomic agenda for the world. Supposedly, a PETM replay would bring with it all sorts of calamitous environmental consequences. Now, a number of those dire, nature ravaging predictions made by global warming scaremongers have been revealed as the crap-science propaganda that they are. In a new journal paper, “Effects of Rapid Global Warming at the Paleocene-Eocene Boundary on Neotropical Vegetation,” Carlos Jaramillo et al. present their analysis of the effects of rapid global warming during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) 56.3 million years ago. Here is how they introduced their work in the paper's abstract:
Promoters of catastrophic climate change have often warned that rising global temperatures would decimate the natural world, striking down species right and left, leaving world biological diversity dangerously depleted. The most vulnerable of habitats were taken to be the world's rainforests, those hot, humid bastions of teaming jungle life. Rains would fail and the nurturing forests would die, taking the indigenous animal life with them. Now we know this to be yet another warmist fairy tail.  The world's rainforests are reservoirs of diversity. “Efforts to understand the impact of climate change on terrestrial environments have focused on mid- to high-latitude localities, but little is known of tropical ecosystems during the PETM,” state the authors. “Tropical temperature change is poorly constrained, but, given the magnitude of temperature change elsewhere, tropical ecosystems are thought to have suffered extensively because mean temperatures are surmised to have exceeded the ecosystems’ heat tolerance.” But, as the study details, this was most certainly not the case. The researchers examined data from three tropical terrestrial PETM sites from Colombia and Venezuela. The map below shows the Late Paleocene location of the studied sections (map after C. R. Scotese). Note that the northern Andes had not yet been uplifted and most of Central America was still underwater.  Geographical location of the studied sections. At two of the sites, labeled Mar 2X and Riecito Mache, plant diversity was inferred from ancient pollen. These data show relatively low diversity during the Late Paleocene, followed by a significant increase during the PETM. Low-diversity Paleocene floras followed an increase in Early Eocene diversity had been previously observed in tropical South America, but the timing of the diversity changes was not accurately established. While species continued to go extinct during the PETM—as they have since the beginning of life on Earth—there was nothing out of the ordinary about the extinction rate when compared with surrounding time periods. And while the extinction rate remained fairly constant the addition of new specie, called the origination rate, spiked during the sudden warmth of the PETM. The extinction and origination rates are shown in the figure below, taken from the report.  Extinction and origination rates. This definitely flies in the face of common climate science wisdom. The authors note: “Many have argued that tropical communities live near their climatic optimum and that higher temperatures could be deleterious to the health of tropical ecosystems. Indeed, tropical warming during the PETM is surmised to have produced intolerable conditions for tropical ecosystems, although 31° to 34°C is still within the maximum tolerance of leaf temperature of some tropical plants.” Those widely held beliefs have now been debunked. Of course, this news comes as no surprise to many scientists, particularly those who actually study the effects of temperature and carbon dioxide on plants. Jon Lloyd and Graham D Farquhar noted in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, “we find no evidence for tropical forests currently existing ‘dangerously close’ to their optimum temperature range.” “Greenhouse experiments have shown that high levels of CO 2 together with high levels of soil moisture improve the performance of plants under high temperatures, and it is possible that higher Paleogene CO 2 levels contributed to their success,” note Jaramillo et al. This echos what several authorities have pointed out in the past: CO 2 is plant food. As long as there is sufficient precipitation, and the study found that rainfall did not diminish, plants can do very well with elevated carbon dioxide levels. This conclusion is not surprising, since lead author Jarmillo, writing with Milton J. Rueda and Germán Mora, had previously reported that “A good correlation between diversity fluctuations and changes in global temperature was found, suggesting that tropical climate change may be directly driving the observed diversity pattern.” This correlation has been known by paleobiologists for some time (see “Cenozoic Plant Diversity in the Neotropics” in the March 31, 2006, issue of Science). Of course, with fluctuating temperatures come fluctuating CO 2 levels.  The PETM warmth helped orchids to flourish. “Overall diversity and composition analysis suggest that the onset of the PETM is concomitant with an increase in diversity produced by the addition of many taxa (with some representing new families) to the stock of preexisting Paleocene taxa,” the new study concludes. What's more, “this change in diversity was permanent and not transient, as documented for temperate North America.” Not just a flash in the pan, the sudden increase in temperatures during the PETM actually caused a lasting increase in diversity. As usual, the climate alarmist party line is not only wrong but dead wrong. Higher global temperatures and elevated CO 2 levels were good for nature 50 million years ago and certainly won't harm nature today. In fact, one of the observed impacts of the PETM warming was the spread of orchids. Perhaps the IPCC secretly hates flowers. Regardless, the myth that higher levels of CO 2 and higher temperatures will destroy the tropical rainforests has been shown to be climate alarmist disinformation. Be safe, enjoy the interglacial and stay skeptical. (Doug L. Hoffman, The Resilient Earth)
Throw Carol Browner Under The Bus Energy czar Carol Browner needs to go the way of disgraced green jobs czar Van Jones: under the bus and stripped of her unbridled power to destroy jobs and
lives in the name of saving the planet. ASAP.
Greenpeace sues UK for end to Shetland oil drilling Greenpeace is suing the Government in an attempt to stop any new deepwater drilling off the coast of the Shetland Islands. (TDT)
Turkmen Gas “Anywhere but Europe”, urges Russia
Tensions are once again rising between former Soviet allies. This time between Russia and Turkmenistan over the latter’s attempts to export some of its massive gas reserves to Europe. But as far as Russia is concerned “anywhere but Europe” is the preferred destination for Turkmen gas. [Read More] (Peter C Glover, ET)
Fiery ice may be new energy source Frozen gas hydrates show promise in giving the world a cleaner, plentiful fuel in the future, writes Margaret Munro.
Aggreko boss: scrap renewables obligation or the lights will go out The UK system that encourages green energy development should be scrapped to ensure a new generation of fossil fuel and nuclear power stations, according to
one of Scotland’s most senior business leaders.
Scotland 'risking a blackout' in a bid to go green THE "lights could go out" over Scotland unless new power stations are built in the next two years to ward off a looming electricity crisis, the
head of one of Scotland's most successful companies has warned Alex Salmond.
Britain's Power chiefs reveal nuclear blueprint Electricity market reform is the UK’s “last chance” to make nuclear energy happen, according to chief executives of the “Big Six” energy companies. (TDT)
More Proof ObamaCare Is a Sop to Industry Posted by Michael F. Cannon
Acute polio outbreak kills nearly 100 in Congo: WHO Polio has killed nearly 100 people, mainly young adults, in the Republic of Congo and paralyzed more than twice as many in the past six weeks, the World
Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
WHO says deadly TB preventable, urges action Health authorities worldwide must do more to combat tuberculosis, which killed an estimated 1.7 million people last year, mainly adults in their prime in Africa and Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. (Reuters)
Adults may not be spreading whooping cough: study Children largely spread whooping cough among themselves, so blanket vaccination campaigns targeting teens and adults may be a waste of time, according to a
study that looks at how social patterns affect disease transmission.
Law banning use of lead shot in duck hunts ignored Lead pellets still used as ammunition to shoot ducks, says Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (Guardian)
Sterile mosquitoes use sex to kill in dengue trial British scientists have created genetically sterile mosquitoes which use sex to kill off others in their species, and researchers say early field trials
suggest the idea could help to halt the rapid spread of dengue fever.
Sheesh! Army Corps May Permit Green Power Developers to Fill Wetlands WASHINGTON, DC, November 9, 2010 - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers intends to propose new rules that allow the filling of wetlands and streams without environmental review to make way for renewable energy facilities, according to a draft discussion document posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER. (ENS)
Analysis: Organic Questioned As Food Challenges Mount The world may need new ecological farming approaches besides organic food, embracing technologies which will help feed more people with limited land and
water, scientists say.
November 11, 2010 Australian parliamentarian Kevin Andrews sets the scene for the long overdue examination of the Greens' program and strategies in this country: The Greens Agenda: Part 1 - Western culture and the Greens For many years, the Greens have been treated as a political curiosity. They could win a spot or two in the Senate, but they were absent from the real place of political power, the House of Representatives. That has now changed. Not only will they have more senators from July next year, they also have a seat in the House. More significantly, they are in a formal alliance with the minority Labor government nationally and in Tasmania. Despite the emphasis on the environment, “the Greens are not a single issue party.” Their objective is clear: “to transform politics and bring about Green government.” The Australian Greens are part of a worldwide movement that is actively engaged in the political process. As their writings state, this objective involves a radical transformation of the culture that underpins western civilization. As a political party, they should be treated like any other political party and subjected to the same scrutiny. In order to fully comprehend the Greens’ political ideology, it is necessary to understand the historical roots and foundations of both our own western, liberal democratic culture – and that of the Greens. It this address, I propose to explain the Greens agenda, as set out in their own documents and writings. The paper has three parts: First, a brief examination of the roots of western culture and the origins of the Greens; secondly, an analysis of the Greens ideology; and thirdly, a discussion of the Greens economic, social and other policies.
The complete text of Kevin Andrews's analysis: The Greens Agenda: Part 1 Western culture and the Greens is here… The Greens Agenda: Part 2 Ideology is here The Greens Agenda: Part 3 Economic Policies is here… The Greens Agenda: Part 4 Social and other policies is here… (Quadrant)
U.S. economy could choke on Obama’s energy “chunks” Democrats — vanquished yet still powerful — have hinted at several bi-partisan-to-be proposals, such as finding “middle ground” with Republicans on energy policy. Yet, despite giving post-election lip service to truly bi-partisan pursuits like natural gas development, the White House and Democratic leadership are already working on other ways to “skin a cat” in pushing their agenda to pick winners and losers in the energy sector. (Michael Economides, Daily Caller)
Editorial: Job flight not air board's problem Forcing business to get one-third of their energy from renewable sources will force many to leave.
Editorial: Green jobs cut despite government subsidy Listening to outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and incoming Gov. Jerry Brown, Californians might think the California economy's salvation lies in so-called
"green jobs," which now account for about 3 percent of the state's workforce.
CRC: Government 'carbon-jacking' will backfire London – As the dust settles following the Coalition Government’s decision to hijack the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency scheme – turning it into a carbon tax to help service the national debt – it is becoming clear that this is good environmental policy gone bad. (The Engineer)
Analysis: China's Soaring Emissions Challenge Climate Split Soaring greenhouse gas emissions in China and other emerging nations are eroding rich nations' historical responsibility for causing global warming, and this
could complicate U.N. talks starting in Mexico this month.
The Shocking Truth: The Scientific American Poll on Climate Change Posted by Patrick J. Michaels
Losses From Natural Disasters Could Triple By 2100: Report Global losses from natural disasters could triple to $185 billion a year by 2100, excluding the impact of climate change, according to a report, which calls
for a shift in focus from relief work to preventative measures.
In a paper entitled “Skilful multi-year predictions of Atlantic hurricane frequency,” pre-published online by Nature Geoscience, Doug M. Smith and several colleagues from the Hadley Centre have made the bold claim that they can successfully predict hurricane activity with “lead times of several years.” Their method utilizes nine variants of a general circulation model, the third Hadley Centre coupled global climate model (HadCM3). Here is a description of their work:
The first thing to note is that they are using climate models to provide samples of uncertainties to “correct” their decadal models predictions. Second, they have restricted the part of the globe being modeled to the Atlantic basin between 0° and 25° N in order to exclude any bothersome storms originating outside that zone. And third, the whole purpose of this exercise is to be able to separate “natural internal variability” from “external influences.” External influences translates to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (i.e. CO 2) and aerosols. They do mention “volcanic and solar activity,” but these are ignored because they are unpredictable and only mentioned once more at the end of the paper. The conclusion that they are reaching for is that natural variability cannot account for all of the increase in storm activity in recent years. This unaccounted for change can then be blamed on global warming. But before they can make such a claim they must prove that their prediction method is “skillful.” To do this they ran their model against historical data, hindcasting in the trade vernacular.  Seasonal hindcasts of Atlantic tropical storm frequency. The authors note that hurricane activity is highly variable on a decal scale. There were relatively quiet periods from the 1900s to the 1920s and from the 1970s to the 1980s, and active periods between the 1930s and the 1960s. Actual data (black curve) and the researchers' predicted data (red curve) are shown in the figure above. On average there are 40% more hurricanes, and more than twice as many major hurricanes, in active relative to quiet periods. Since 1995 there has been an active period, which the author's found quite convenient. “We investigated skill beyond the seasonal range in a second set of hindcasts starting on 1 November in each year from 1960 to 2005 and extending to 10 years ahead,” the article continued. Over this particular period they also did hindcasts with some alternative methods, for comparison. Unsurprisingly, they found their DePreSys to be significantly more skillful than the chosen competition. But is their correct prediction of below normal activity during the 1970s and enhanced activity since the 1990s proof that their model is correct? Consider the following caveats mentioned in the article. The competing NoAssim predicted the same trends. They assert that the low-frequency variations they found “are not caused by internal variability alone in our model, but are at least partly externally forced by a combination of anthropogenic changes in greenhouse gas, ozone and aerosol concentrations, and natural variations in solar irradiance and volcanic aerosol.” This is based on the detection of similar variations by NoAssim. Then they state that “this conclusion could not be drawn from the fact that persistence forecasts are skilful.” If every method is skillful what is the point to all of this? They pronounce both their model and NoAssim to be skillful and move on to the assertion that human induced climate change is somehow to blame. But then comes the most curious contradiction of all: “We note that future increases in greenhouse gases are expected to lead to fewer storms globally whereas other external factors could be more relevant to the recent increase.” In other words, if human emissions are to blame the trend should be moving the other direction. Clearly, their assertion that their modeling results somehow make a case for external forcings are having a major impact on hurricane frequency—other than those natural forcings such as volcanoes and solar variation—is pure hokum. Writing in the October 2009 Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Gerald A. Meehle et al. Noted the difference between long-term climate models, such as GCM, which are used to predict trends of time scales of several decades to centuries, and shorter term models that try for much greater detail, like weather forecasts of yearly hurricane predictions. They correctly note that long-term models are what mathematicians call boundary value problems while short-term models are initial value problems. Quoting from the article “Decadal Prediction: Can It Be Skillful?,” here are their comments:
Basically, for short term models the nature of the system of equations is such that even tiny inaccuracies in the initial conditions, which specify the state of the system at the start of the simulation, will result in enormous variation in the calculated results within a short period of simulated time. This is a fundamental limitation of digital computation and cannot be overcome. The effects of accumulated error and other pitfalls of modeling in general are discussed in great detail in The Resilient Earth. Still, in the face of these well known shortcomings of computer modeling, the boffins from the Hadley Centre boldly claim to have succeeded where others have failed. “The skill is increased by initialization, mainly through improved predictions of ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific and North Atlantic that influence the hurricane development region by means of anomalous atmospheric circulations,” they conclude. “It is not surprising that initialization improves skill through these regions as natural internal variability is believed to be important there.” Imagine that, provide better initial values and the predictions improve, somewhat. But they still cannot predict the future with any accuracy because: the models are chaotic; the data are uncertain and limited in accuracy; and the natural forcings that exist cannot be predicted. “In our experiments, the recent increase in tropical storm numbers was not caused by internal variability alone,” state Smith et al. “This provides physically based model evidence of externally forced changes in hurricane frequency, albeit from a single modelling system.” The tacked on bit of humility only serves to underscore the hubris. The truth is, it doesn't matter how many models or modeling systems are used, the results prove nothing. Nothing physical anyway.  High ocean surface temperatures and no El Niño means a lot of hurricanes. When will the climate science set learn, you cannot perform experiments on computer code and proclaim it scientific evidence of anything. You might glean some insight but, in this case, they are working with models that already contain their own biases. What is surprising here is that the case the modeling results make in support of AGW influencing hurricanes is so weak. They corrected “errors” in the model response due to “previous external forcing,” and any uncertainties were blamed on the “historical storm counts.” They even ignored most of the planet, since it inconveniently “contaminated” their model with outside influences. Even when rigging the results these modelers seem incompetent. Hurricane activity seems to run on a multi-decadal cycle, and we remain in a time of high-activity—no wonky models or global warming needed for that prediction. Be safe, enjoy the interglacial and stay skeptical. (Doug L. Hoffman, The Resilient Earth)
Tropical forest diversity increased during ancient global warming event The steamiest places on the planet are getting warmer. Conservative estimates suggest that tropical areas can expect temperature increases of 3 degrees
Celsius by the end of this century. Does global warming spell doom for rainforests? Maybe not. Carlos Jaramillo, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical
Research Institute, and colleagues report in the journal Science that nearly 60 million years ago rainforests prospered at temperatures that were 3-5 degrees
higher and at atmospheric carbon dioxide levels 2.5 times today's levels.
New Insight Into Cloud-Aerosol Interactions Within The Climate System There is an interesting article in NOAA ESRL Fall Newsletter by Linda Joy titled This article presents yet another example of the diversity of human and natural climate forcings and feedbacks. Excerpts from the article are
(Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Sigh... Leaking underground CO2 storage could contaminate drinking water DURHAM, N.C. -- Leaks from carbon dioxide injected deep underground to help fight climate change could bubble up into drinking water aquifers near the
surface, driving up levels of contaminants in the water tenfold or more in some places, according to a study by Duke University scientists.
Arctic oil spill clean-up plans are 'thoroughly inadequate', industry warned Report from US environment group warns that ice, freezing temperatures and high seas would overwhelm any clean-up attempts (Guardian)
EPA’s Permitting Guidance for Greenhouse Gases - Does It Endanger Coal? by Marlo Lewis Can environmental agencies use BACT determinations to require major emitting facilities to switch fuels? This arcane-sounding question is of great practical importance to energy consumers and the economy. It is a question addressed in EPA’s long-awaited PSD and Title V Permitting Guidance for Greenhouse Gases, posted online yesterday in Politico. EPA’s guidance document is intended to assist permit writers and permit applicants determine what constitutes “best available control technology” (BACT) for greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting facilities. On January 2, 2011, EPA’s motor vehicle GHG emission standards will go into effect, making GHGs air pollutants “subject to regulation” under the Clean Air Act’s Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) pre-construction permitting program. Any firm planning to build or modify a large GHG-emitting facility (e.g. a coal-fired power plant, an oil… Read the full story (Cooler Heads)
Energy Policy: If we're serious about cutting wasteful spending and reining in government, the abolition of subsidies for ethanol production and the ending
of mandates for its use would be a good place to start.
Spotting the “Corporate Greed” 
by Brian McGraw The Renewable Fuels Association posted a note today deploring the recent lawsuit by the American Petroleum Institute over the EPA decision to increase the maximum blend wall for ethanol in conventional gasoline by 50% from E10 to E15. They claim that it is motivated by “corporate greed.” Oil companies are in the… Read the full story (Cooler Heads)
Getting desperate? GE To Buy 25,000 Electric Cars, Including GM Volts General Electric Co plans to buy 25,000 electric vehicles from makers including General Motors Co over the next five years, in a move it said could spark
demand for the charging equipment it sells.
Tesla is Blowing Money Fast, Loses $35M USD Company says it doesn't care about quarterly profitability
by Jon Boone At a time when energy realists need to take the high ground, corporations are bringing us low. Some of this is old fashioned rent-seeking; some greenwashing; and some just political correctness (as if California was the world). For weeks, Siemens has been running full-page ads for wind technology. Last week Chevron and Weyerhauser, in full-page ads, agree “IT’S TIME OIL COMPANIES GET BEHIND THE DEVELOPMENT OF RENEWABLE ENERGY.” The same slush is coming from GE, AES, BP, Shell, NRG, and a legion of corporations whose fundamental commodity is fossil fuel. Do these multinationals really believe that wind and solar will put a dent in their fossil fuel market share? Or is something else afoot? One should note that nowhere does this renewable ballyhoo from today’s energy goliaths mention a word about saving the world from the devastation of climate change wrought by the consequences of fossil fuel use, although this was the tack Ken Lay took to steer Enron’s aggressive renewables course. Not to be outdone—and deploying Lay’s wry rhetoric of environmental concern—organizations like The Sierra Club and Greenpeace continue to assert that an immediate switch from fossil fuels to renewables, at any cost and among other actions, is imperative to bring the planet back from the brink of global warming. Green Timing: Here Comes Lomborg Now they are joined at some remove by Denmark’s Bjorn Lomborg, the self-styled skeptical environmentalist, who once opined, “We need to stop our obsession with global warming” and instead target problems that can be realistically solved with limited budgets in a reasonable time frame. Could this convergent push for renewables have anything to do with the effort to adopt national renewable energy standards, which would require the country’s utilities to use approved renewables, overwhelmingly wind, for a certain percentage of the nation’s electricity supply? [Read more →] (MasterResource)
Breaking The Tight Grip Of Reform Health Care: The Senate's top Republican says he's going to join a lawsuit against ObamaCare. It would be a good idea if every Republican in Congress did the
same. Even better: All GOP governors sign on as well.
Leap of faith: Special formula may help prevent childhood diabetes: study Researchers said on Wednesday they found some evidence that keeping babies off cow's milk may help prevent the development of type 1 diabetes in children with an inherited risk of the disease. (Reuters)
Is ADHD tied to adulthood obesity? Young adults with a history of symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be more likely than their peers to be obese, a new study
suggests.
Notes on Mercury in the Environment Written by Robert Ferguson The scientific literature fails to support the hypothesis that the trace amount of naturally occurring mercury in the fish we eat in any way endangers or threatens health, especially that of expectant mothers and their babies. Exactly the opposite appears true: those alarming people away from fish pose the real danger to public health. Read more... (SPPI)
Great new global warming video...You'll like it Baby boomers are sure to remember the huge Monkees smash "I'm a Believer," written by Neil Diamond, that stayed at number one for an incredible seven weeks, starting at the end of 1966. You can bet that global warming was not even a gleam in some Greenie's eye back then. After all, the first Earth Day would be nearly four years in the future, and a few years after that, they were talking about global cooling, not warming. All of which brings us to the creative team at Minnesotans for Global Warming, and their new music video, that offers some updated lyrics to the Monkees' chestnut. Check it out. (Shaw's Eco-Logic)
Not exactly... Stem cells turned injured rodents into mighty mice Injecting stem cells into injured mice made their muscles grow back twice as big in a matter of days, creating mighty mice with bulky muscles that stayed big
and strong for the rest of their lives, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
Klaus: reason has replaced fundamentalism in the environment ministry
The Environment Ministry no more fundamentalist under Drobil - Klaus (click)Klaus have had conflicts with former environment ministers, especially Martin Bursík (2007-2009) of the largely defunct Green Party - which was a typical fundamentalist environmentalist party although it was much less "socialist" than its namesakes. » Don't Stop Reading » (TRF)
Overpriced, ineffective and inferior products losing market share: Eco-fatigue: Going green no longer red hot Revolt sprouts against some environmentally friendly product names
Fish As Farmed Food: Aquaculture Draws Investors Agriculture investors keen to profit from rising demand for commodities say they are turning their attention to aquaculture, betting that farmed fish can
meet the protein needs of a growing, hungry world.
Just say "No!": EPA To Push Efficiency On Big Carbon Emitters U.S. environmental regulators said on Wednesday they will not force coal plants and manufacturers to adopt specific technologies to cut greenhouse gas output, but will push them to become more energy efficient in order to comply with looming climate rules. (Reuters)
Gore Pocketed ~$18 Million from Now-Defunct Chicago Climate Exchange Although the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) collapsed and shut down this week, Al Gore's Generation Investment Management LLP pocketed approximately $17.8 million on it's 2.98% share of the exchange when it was sold to the publically traded Intercontinental Exchange a mere 6 months ago. According to news reports, the brainchild of the exchange, academic Richard Sandor, founded the exchange with a foundation gift of $1.1 million, and pocketed $98.5 million for his 16.5% share of the CCX. This would place the value of Gore's firm's stake at almost $18 million. Note Gore is the founder, chairman, and largest shareholder in Generation Investment Management LLP. Barack Obama was on the Joyce Foundation Board when it provided the funding to establish the CCX. Maurice Strong, founding head of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), precursor to the IPCC, was a CCX board member. (HockeySchtick)
Texas A&M Professor Misrepresents U.S. Emissions During Global Warming Debate Global warming alarmist Andy Dessler, a professor at Texas A&M University, was caught misrepresenting U.S. carbon dioxide data during a November 9 Public
Radio International debate with Heartland Institute Senior Fellow James M. Taylor.
It's a consensus: Every year's climate hoax talks are the Earth's "last chance" 2010: Climate Change Talks in Cancun a `Last Chance' for Gases Deal, Ramesh Says - Bloomberg
2009 Copenhagen: Last chance - Times Online
The Polish city of Poznan, host of this week's vital climate change talks, may become known as the place where the Earth was saved – or doomed 2007 Bali : Last chance | Lena Ek TALKS on a new international agreement on climate change are at a ”make or break” stage, Environment Minister John Gormley said yesterday.(Tom Nelson)
Gordon Brown said the following in the lead-up to the
Copenhagen climate conference last year: There are now fewer than 50 days to set the course of the next 50 years and more. If we do not reach a deal at this time, let us be in no doubt: once the damage from unchecked emissions growth is done, no retrospective global agreement in some future period can undo that choice. By then it will be irretrievably too late.In advance of the Cancun climate conference in a few weeks, India's Jairam Ramesh says: We are running out of time, Cancun is the last chance. The credibility of the climate-change mechanism is at stake.What I think he must mean is that Cancun is the last chance . . . until South Africa 2012, which will be the last chance until . . . (Roger Pielke Jr.)
Climate Talks Seek Complex, Interlocked Deal: U.N. U.N. climate talks starting in Mexico this month will seek a complex set of interlocking deals to slow global warming but will fall well short of a new
treaty, the U.N.'s climate chief said on Wednesday.
About time! ‘No climate talks in future if Cancun fails’ India on Wednesday said the developing countries would find it difficult to continue climate negotiations if second commitment period for Kyoto Protocol is not ratified at the next climate summit in Mexico starting this month. India’s stand emanates from deliberations at a recent meeting of Group of 77 (G-77) countries plus China in Mexico. (Hindustan Times)
Glacier boffins rubbish IPCC apocalypse claims Shock UN doom prophecy 'does not pass closer examination'
Branding of Dissenters Has Begun – Clearing The Path To A Climate Science Pogrom What is it with these intolerant zealots who refuse to learn anything from history? Right smack on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, German Parliamentarians, in a frontal assault, are now openly calling out and branding scientists for the crime of scientific dissent. These Parliamentarians are demanding that the government take a position against them. What follows makes McCarthyism look like a treasure hunt. What a number of zealous German Parliamentarians are calling for borders on a call to launch a science pogrom. The climate dogmatists are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the growing scepticism and dissent now spreading in Germany and Europe, and want to stamp it out – now! (No Tricks Zone)
“Dramatic Increase” in Climate Litigation - Deutsche Bank by Marlo Lewis Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors (DBCCA) have just published Growth of U.S. Climate Change Litigation: Trends and Consequences. My thanks to climate scientist Chip Knappenberger for spotlighting the DBCCA report in his column yesterday on MasterResource.Org. DBCCA offer a bird’s eye view of the U.S. climate litigation landscape, provide data on the numbers and types of climate-related lawsuits, discuss their prospects for success and potential consequences, and emphasize that, absent congressional intervention, courts “will make the final decisions” about climate policy. DBCCA summarize their findings as follows: The number of climate change filings doubled between 2006 and 2007. They then reached a plateau for three years, but already in 2010 are on a path to triple
over 2009 levels. Read the full story (Cooler Heads)
Earlier this week Munich Re called for action on climate
change, while touting its green investments, explaining that the rise in costs due to hurricanes was due to only one factor: [Since 1980] windstorm natural catastrophes more than doubled, with particularly heavy losses from Atlantic hurricanes. This rise can only be explained by global warming. . . [I]nnovative insurance solutions will be needed to bring about the necessary transformation within the energy sector, where investments are often only feasible with the backing of innovative insurance covers.Writing last year in the peer reviewed literature, Munich Re successfully replicated work that I have been involved in, reaching exactly the same conclusions that we did about hurricane losses in the Atlantic: There is no evidence yet of any trend in tropical cyclone losses that can be attributed directly to anthropogenic climate change.Knowing some of the scientists at Munich Re, and having high respect for their work and integrity, I can only conclude that the marketing department is not talking to the research department. What else would explain such polar opposite messages? (In case you are curious, the messages in the peer reviewed research results are consistent with the state of the science on this subject. The other stuff is not.) (Roger Pielke Jr.)
Inconvenient nonsense infiltrates the classroom AL Gore's flawed climate change film is to be included in the new English curriculum.
Geo-engineering: climate intervention is a dilemma for scientists Geo-engineering could save the planet - but it could also persuade politicians that there is an alternative to cutting carbon (Guardian)
Geoengineering – The Perpetuation Of Myths Update (pm November 10 2010): To make sure my post is clear, this post comments on just two parts of an otherwise excellent overview of the issues associated with geoengineering. The article is very informative in overviewing the approaches and the issues of geoengineering. My last paragraph should not have been specifically critical of the Economist, as the article does effectively discuss the concerns with geoengineering. It is other media that has generally not properly reported on this subject. I have edited the last paragraph of my post to clarify. There is an informative summary of geoengineering in an Economist article in their November 6 2010 article titled (subscription required) The article does provide a useful summary of a number of geoengineering proposals. However, it also perpetuates myths about climate science. The article includes the text that there is a
The article itself is inconsistent. In the same paragraph they write
In the real climate system, global warming and cooling is just one subset of a much broader range of climate issues. There is no ”subtle distinction”. This was discussed, for example, in my post Is Global Warming the Same as Climate Change?
In Chapter 1 of my son’s book, The Climate Fix, this broader viewpoint is discussed in his section “Carbon dioxide is Important, but Climate Change Involves Much More”. They also write with respect to geoengineering that it
The use of the term “original climate” perpetuates the misconception that the climate has some constant level in the absence of human intervention. This is an erroneous view as we demonstrate in our paper Rial, J., R.A. Pielke Sr., M. Beniston, M. Claussen, J. Canadell, P. Cox, H. Held, N. de Noblet-Ducoudre, R. Prinn, J. Reynolds, and J.D. Salas, 2004: Nonlinearities, feedbacks and critical thresholds within the Earth’s climate system. Climatic Change, 65, 11-38 where we conclude that
Until the broader media (and the policymakers) recognize the real complexity of the climate
system, and the unknown risks of geoengineering, such articles
White House Science Scandal Obfuscated with Creative Grammar by Chris Horner In a blockbuster story soon to be swept under the carpet, Politico reports:
In weasel words that even make this Washingtonian… Read the full story (Cooler Heads)
The Obama War On Science: UPDATE
Last month we detailed how the Obama administration has tried invoke the authority of “science” to support their pre-existing political policy proposals, despite the fact that on issue after issue there either is no scientific consensus, or the preponderance of scientific evidence did not support their side. Today, Politico adds more details to the Obama administration’s efforts to manipulate science to support their offshore drilling moratorium:
Continue reading... (The Foundry)
The Obama Administration has again been caught out playing politics with science, according to the Washington Post: The oil spill that damaged the Gulf of Mexico's reefs and wetlands is also threatening to stain the Obama administration's reputation for relying on science to guide policy.One might be tempted to conclude that the politicization of science is a bipartisan affair. Nah, that can't be true. The politicization of science is something done only by one's political opponents. Yes, that sounds much better. (Roger Pielke Jr.)
I'm not sure where I first heard it, but the idea of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) taken to the extreme results in BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere
Near Anyone). BANANA logic is on full display by the well-meaning but misguided folks at the Sierra Club in its campaign to halt experimental efforts to deploy
carbon capture and storage off of the US East Coast: Dear Friend,One might question the Sierra Club's Catch-22 logic in invoking the untested nature of a technology as a reason to oppose its testing. However, a more fundamental problem with the Sierra Club's stance can be found in the IEA's 2010 World Energy Outlook, which argues that coal power is going to expand in coming decades -- regardless of what happens in the US or even new energy and climate policies. The IEA further argues that CCS will have to be deployed to 75% of coal plants by 2035 if the world is going to be on target to reaching a 450 ppm stabilization target. So if the Sierra Club is successful in slowing down CCS prototypes and experimentation, what will it get? Plenty of coal plants with no CCS! Some victory. If the Sierra Club really wants to move beyond coal, than rather than campaigning to halt innovation in technologies that it objects to, it should be actively trying to accelerate innovation in technologies that it approves of, with the goal of developing energy supply options that can displace coal over the longer term. You can't beat something with nothing. BANANA logic leaves you with exactly what you'd guess it would. (Roger Pielke Jr.)
The aftermath of the recent drubbing of President Obama’s agenda makes him now a considerably diminished president but still a force to be reckoned with: he still has the veto power and his party is still the majority in the Senate. [Read More] (Michael J. Economides)
An Interesting Look at Energy Subsidies At the Breakthrough blog, Jesse Jenkins has this interesting
analysis of numbers provided by the IEA's WEO 2010 (emphasis added): While I certainly support the IEA's calls to phase out fossil fuel subsidies -- excepting where those would expand the already deplorable share of the global population (about 2.4 billion) locked in energy poverty -- the IEA figures on energy subsidies are actually a stark reminder of the major cost gap that persists between fossil energy and costlier clean energy alternatives.The debate involving subsidies should not be about "subsidization or not," but rather: in what contexts do certain types of subsidies make sense? The former is a recipe for empty ideological debates, and addressing the latter requires some thoughtful policy analyses, with answers that are not always clear cut. (Roger Pielke Jr.)
Gas glut threatens investment in renewables sector, IEA warns A global gas glut which could last a decade will act as a "major barrier" to the development of renewable energy, cleaner coal plants and nuclear
power, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Concentrated solar, biofuels competitive soon: BCG Solar energy and biofuels are on track to become economically competitive against conventional power sources within a few years to a decade, the Boston
Consulting Group said on Wednesday.
California’s AB 32 Still on the Hot Seat (Prop 23 Defeat Based on Economic Fallacy) by Tom Tanton On November 2, California voters defeated Proposition 23 by 61 to 39 percent, rejecting a suspension of of the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act, otherwise known as Assembly Bill 32 (AB32). California in general bucked a national trend on Election Day with all but one statewide office going to the Democrats. As of this writing, the Attorney General race has the Republican Steve Cooley slightly ahead in the vote count, but no official call has been made. Pundits and politicians are making much about the Proposition 23 vote, but what does it really say? Equally important is the national message to be taken from the proposition’s defeat. It is not what is being portrayed by the otherwise humbled Left environmentalists. Mainstream Hype Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense Fund, said the Prop 23 defeat sends “a big signal” to the rest of the country and the world that Californians stand firmly behind the law, which would cut greenhouse gas emissions in the state to 1990 levels by 2020. “This is the largest referendum anywhere on the planet where people have directly voted on clean energy and climate policy,” Krupp said in an interview. “It’s the largest state in the country sending a clear message that they want a clean energy economy and clean energy jobs.” The primary cheerleader for AB32, Governor Schwarzenegger, was not shy about his feelings either, calling Proposition 23’s defeat “a huge, huge victory” for California, the state’s environment, the green-tech industry and job growth. [Read more →] (MasterResource)
Those young adults who ventured overseas for a working holiday in the 60’s and 70’s and ended up in some pokey London bed-sit will remember the cold
winter nights when you had to put a coin in the gas meter to avoid freezing to death, or, if you needed a hot bath. If you wanted to read or use your secret
Sunbeam frypan (cooking in rooms was prohibited) it was a coin in the light meter. The daily cost of energy, then, certainly focused the mind of the earnest
young traveller.
MORE than $1 billion of taxpayers' money was wasted on subsidies for household solar roof panels that favoured the rich and did little to reduce Australia's
greenhouse gas emissions, a scathing review has found.
Iowa State researchers examine the efficiencies and environmental impacts of growing sorghum for ethanol
Recycling the antimicrobial scare? Myth of a germ-free world: a closer look at antimicrobial products Killing microorganisms has become a national obsession. A pair of antimicrobial compounds known as triclosan and triclocarban are lately the weapons of
choice in our war of attrition against the microbial world. Both chemicals are found in an array of personal care products like antimicrobial soaps, and
triclosan also is formulated into everyday items ranging from plastics and toys to articles of clothing.
A Happy Meal ban is nothing to smile about The proposal to ban meals with toys in San Francisco is based on some dubious assumptions about obesity and health.
My latest HND piece takes a look at hypertension (high blood pressure)—a condition suffered by one-third of American adults! It is also the most important risk factor for death in industrialized countries. If that weren't bad enough, there are usually no symptoms, so high blood pressure truly is a silent killer. The HND article discusses common pharmaceutical drugs, and popular herbs used to treat hypertension. Medical hero and Nobel Laureate Sir James Black, inventor of beta blockers, gets a mention. I also examine a lesser known herb that shows some promise: Hibiscus sabdariffa, taken as a tea in many cultures, but now available in capsule form as the product Rosellica®. Read the complete article. (Shaw's Eco-Logic)
Peter Foster: Yellow brick road to green serfdom You would expect CEOs to have a few good words to say on free markets Ayn Rand famously remarked that the only certain consequence of occupying the middle of the policy road is that you get run over. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives appears determined to stick to the dotted white line. This week the CCCE released “Clean Growth 2.0,” its second call for more policy co-ordination — and more policy — on energy and the environment. What we have here is further evidence of the CEO2 crisis, the fact that the Canadian corporate community has folded en masse before the quite possibly bogus threat of catastrophic man-made climate change. Read More (Financial Post)
Sheesh! Rise in number of sunburnt whales An increase in the number of whales with sunburnt skin has been documented by scientists after they took photographs and tissue samples of the animals.
Vietnam Aims To Boost Rice Crop For Food Security Vietnam vowed to maintain current rice crop areas and boost yields to ensure supplies remain adequate in the face of demand pressures from a fast-growing
population as well as the effects of climate change.
Argentina anticipates record crop and export surpluses of wheat and corn Argentina’s Agriculture and Livestock minister Julian Domínguez and representatives from the cereals and oilseed markets coincided that Argentina will have a record crop this 2010/11 season and considerable export surplus of wheat and corn: 5.5 million and 18.5 million tons respectively. (MercoPress)
MILLOY: Memo to Issa: Channel Joe McCarthy But be ready to deal with the blowback
Major mistake: Republican climate skeptic wants to keep alive Democratic-created global warming committee WASHINGTON — A leading House Republican climate skeptic on Monday called for his party to preserve a global warming committee created by Democrats so
Republicans can use it to rein in the Obama administration on the issue.
Examiner Editorial: Upton is wrong choice for Energy and Commerce If nothing else, Michigan Republican Rep. Fred Upton has a lot of nerve to campaign to succeed California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Upton is wholly unsuitable for the job, as a stroll down Memory Lane quickly reminds us: (Washington Examiner)
Post-Election, Post-Cap-and-Trade: Obama Clings to an Anti-CO2 Agenda by Chip Knappenberger On the day following the elections, President Obama urged policymakers not to forget about climate change. While he ideally would like to get help from the Congress in enacting legislation aimed at curtailing greenhouse gas emissions, he seems willing to let EPA do the heavy lifting in the absence of Congressional action. He is also looking to the states that the United States citizenry does not want to have done collectively. In his post-election press conference last Wednesday, November 3, 2010, the president gave some clues about what his future aspirations are for a climate/energy policy. It was most obvious in his response to a question put to him by the Wall Street Journal’s Laura Meckler, and indicates that his Dream Green Team playbook is still alive and well. Question:
Response:
Clearly Obama seems hopeful that Congress will step in and do the dirty work, but the threat of using the EPA to carrying the entire load is only thinly veiled. However, going the EPA route is not going to be any easier than going the Congressional route. [Read more →] (MasterResource)
The Crash Of The Climate Exchange Climate Fraud: As the case for global warming and cap-and-trade has collapsed, so too has the market that was to exploit this manufactured crisis for fun and
profit. The climate-change bubble has burst.
Skeptics Demand Live TV Debate in Global Warming Showdown In response to calls for a media “rapid response” to sort out the climate change row once and for all, skeptic scientists respond calling for a live TV debate. (John O'Sullivan, CFP)
Desperate Days For Global Warm-ongers Environment: The United Nations wants $100 billion a year in taxes to deal with climate change. Two groups of researchers plan to go on the offensive against
global warming "denialists." When will the madness end?
Some of you may remember Deutche Bank's amusing attempt to address "major sceptic arguments". I posted something on this back at the start of September. Ross McKitrick has now posted up a back and forth between himself and the authors, Mary-Elena Carr, Kate Brash, and Robert Anderson. These three were joined by a fourth author, Madeleine Rubenstein, for the subsequent responses to McKitrick. McKitrick uses the shorthand "CABR" to refer to the four, and I've adopted the same style here.
There's quite a bit of reading, but it's certainly worth investing the time. The work of the CABR team is, quite frankly, extraordinary. It is so bad I'm going to refrain from further comment. (Bishop Hill)
Is The Western Climate Establishment Corrupt? Asks SPPI The Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI) continues raising serious concerns for policy makers and the public as to whether the “adjustments” that
government-funded employees continue making to raw surface and ocean temperature data sets can be trusted.
Hiding The Decline : Sorry Mike, Trees Haven’t Changed
Nothing reveals the delusions of climate scientists more than this : Mann said that the tree-ring data stopped reflecting true temperatures 50 years ago for reasons that are not yet fully known Astonishing that any individual scientist or group of scientists could be basing a theory on such a thought process. The only logical conclusions are :
What doesn’t make sense is trying to claim that the trees have changed behaviour, and justifying a stupid nature trick based on it. he added that it was a mistake not to show the data anyway. “That was bad,” he said http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/11/08/5426675-life-after-climategate (Steven Goddard, Real Science)
Climate campaigners classroom turpitude captured for future studies of depravity at work
Jo Nova has done sterling work in documenting and providing insight into what led to the 10:10 video in which the producers fantasise about utterly destroying, at the press of a button, those who show the slightest reluctance to toe the party line on climate. Including young children in a classroom. The whole thing deserves deep study. The paper by Jo Nova has been published by the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI), and can be downloaded as a pdf from here: (1) Kudos to the SPPI for publishing this. Kudos to Jo Nova for creating it. She gives a summary and background at her own blog (2). Read the rest of this entry » (SPPI)
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, understanding the need for policy makers at the national level to entrain the behavioral and social sciences in
addressing the challenges of global climate change, called on the National Research Council to organize two workshops to showcase some of the decision-relevant
contributions that these sciences have already made and can advance with future efforts. The workshops focused on two broad areas: (1) mitigation (behavioral
elements of a strategy to reduce the net future human influence on climate) and (2) adaptation (behavioral and social determinants of societal capacity to
minimize the damage from climate changes that are not avoided).
Oh... Climate change the new flood risk for Qld Queensland will be threatened by higher flood levels from intense torrential downpours brought on by climate change, a local government conference has been
told.
The Guardian is running at least 4 rising seas-drowning island pieces: The view from beneath the waves: climate change in the Solomon Islands Climate change and rising sea levels are devouring the low-lying lands of the Solomon Islands, with crops failing and lands disappearing. The time to act is now
The devil and the deep blue sea: Climate change on Kiribati Tebunginako on the island of Abaiang, Kiribati, shows us what the rest of the South Pacific island state might expect in the future. The population has had to relocate after coastal erosion and rising salt water made their homes and lands uninhabitable. These impacts are already felt on the atolls of Kiribati and will be exacerbated by the effects of climate change. This week, islanders and delegates from other vulnerable nations are hosting a conference calling for urgent action
Kiribati climate change conference: voices from the South Pacific Kiribati, a chain of low-lying South Pacific islands, is to host a conference addressing the impacts of climate change on some of the world's most vulnerable countries
Climate change could kill my islands' culture Water supplies are contaminated and sea levels are rising – and the rainy season is more extreme than ever. This is the reality of life on a small island as the climate changes
Why is the temperature unchanging?
Understanding the reinsurance industry can be counter-intuitive. One might think that they want to avoid big disasters, because that means that claims must be paid. To some degree this is true. But the reality is that the industry needs disasters to thrive, after all that is what its business is all about. Presently, the industry is awash in capital due to a dearth of disasters, putting pressure on premiums and share prices:
Any market situation where the interests of investors run counter to the interests of society deserves a close look. (Roger Pielke Jr.)
Indications Of A Changing Arctic (Across The Centuries) (h/t FM) Is there anything peculiar happening in the Arctic in our time? Unfortunately, satellite-based sea-ice measurements only start from 1979, i.e. have just barely crossed the magic 30-year line that we’re told separates “weather” from “climate” (in other words, we have just been able to say that, according to mainstream climatology, the ice in 1995 was on the decrease). A different way to look at the issue is to source information from relatively old books and newspaper articles. And there are good indications that their analysis will show quite large changes in the Arctic sea-ice extension across the centuries. As it happens, I was sent yesterday the link to a very interesting 1818 compendium edition of mid-1770′s North-Pole-related thoughts and reports by Danies Barrington FRS of “young Mozart” fame: “The Possibility of Approaching the North Pole Asserted“. Barrington goes at great length both in collecting as much evidence as possible from seamen claiming to have been further North than would have been expected; and in examining such evidence with a healthy dose of skepticism. His conclusions: several ships have been beyond 82N, and many of them have reported clear water to the North (see page 61). And yes, uncertainties were put in plain sight: finding a way to reach Asia without going around the tip of South America was considered very serious business, and even a strong advocate for Polar exploration like Barrington didn’t try to hide what he might have found uncomfortable. A quarter of a millennium later, we can be fairly certain ships at Barrington’s time were regularly reaching 81N. Fast forward to 1858 and a “letter” on the New York Times by a Col. Peter Force, actually the text of a lecture at the New-York Historical Society on July 1st of that year. Col. Force appears extremely skeptical of any claim about the very existence of a Northwest Passage, going as far as to use that old saying, “if it were there we would have discovered it by now”. And if you look at the details reported, the 82N of 80 years earlier was then almost an unreachable goal, as there is plenty of mentions of sea ice going as low as 69N. Arctic sea ice was therefore extending much further to the South in 1858 than in 1775. But were the CO2 emissions in 1775 higher than in 1858? I do not think so. (Maurizio Morabito, OmniClimate)
Importance Of Glaciers As A Source Of Fresh Water Exaggerated – Austrian Scientists 9. November 2010 Not long ago, the IPCC got one on the knuckles for grossly exaggerating Himalayan glacial ice melt, preposterously claiming the glaciers there would be gone by 2035. Now it comes to light that the IPCC has also grossly exaggerated the importance of glaciers as a source of fresh water supply for populations. (No Tricks Zone)
Mountain ranges may act as "safe haven" for species facing climate change Swiss researchers studying the projected effects of climate change on alpine plant species have discovered that mountain ranges may represent a 'safer' place to live during changing climate conditions. The research, published in the Journal of Biogeography, finds that the habitat diversity of mountain ranges offer species 'refuge habitats' which may be important for conservation. (Wiley-Blackwell)
From CO2 Science Volume 13 Number 45: 10 November 2010 Editorial: Journal Reviews: 20th-Century Streamflow Changes in the Susquehanna River Basin: Are they indicative of trends towards more flooding or more drought? The Medieval Climate of the Atlantic Coast of France: What do sedimentary archives of the region suggest about it? Global Warming and the Biodiversity of Small Temperate Ponds: How does the former affect the latter? ... and how do the results compare with previous studies of the subject? Food vs. Biofuel: The Energy Efficiency Duel: Which one wins? ... and by how big a margin?? The Effects of Warming on Winter Wheat Yields in Semi-Arid China: Models suggest one thing, observations suggest another. Ocean Acidification Database:
Gulf Oil Spill Doesn’t Spread To Voting Booths by Ben Lieberman Call it the election-day dog that didn’t bark - or maybe the oiled bird that didn’t fly – the BP oil spill had virtually no impact at the polls on November 2nd. The fact that the biggest ecological scare of the summer was nearly forgotten by fall says a lot about where the American people stand on energy and environmental issues. Less than five months after President Obama gave a primetime address hyping the Deepwater Horizon spill as “the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced,” there is scant evidence that even a single Congressional race was affected by it. This was not for lack of trying. In the first few months after the April 20th spill, many Congressional Democrats joined… Read the full story (Cooler Heads)
Oil will run dry before substitutes roll out Stock prices suggest a 90-year gap
Energy in 2035: China and oil dominate NEW YORK -- China will continue lead the charge as the No. 1 energy consumer over the next quarter-century, and oil will remain the dominant fuel despite
huge investment in alternatives, according to a International Energy Agency report released Tuesday.
Oil demand to rise for 25 years despite green push: IEA Oil demand and price are set to grow strongly over the next 25 years despite environmental policies, essentially dooming climate-change goals, the International Energy Agency forecast on Tuesday. (Independent)
After a Strong Counterattack, Big Coal Makes a Comeback With an aggressive campaign focused on advertising, lobbying, and political contributions, America’s coal industry has succeeded in beating back a challenge from environmentalists and clean-energy advocates. The dirty truth is that Big Coal is more powerful today than ever. (Jeff Goodell, e360)
EPA Subpoenas Halliburton Over Fracking Fluids The Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday it has issued a subpoena to Halliburton for not revealing information about liquids used in a natural gas
drilling technique called "fracking."
Biofuel plan will cause rise in carbon emissions Britain's promise to more than double its use of biofuels by 2020 is "significantly" adding to worldwide carbon emissions, the Government admitted
yesterday. Britain is signed up to a European guarantee to source 10 per cent of its transport fuel from renewable sources, such as biofuels, within the next 10
years.
Forced use of biofuels could hit food production, EU warned Area the size of Ireland could be lost to conventional farming as global warming accelerates, says environmental study
Rising temperatures threaten wind energy: study As global temperatures rise, wind speeds drop, says a Texas researcher who has calculated by how much and points out it will mean less wind for powering
turbines.
New US wind turbine installations have slowed significantly this year, compared to 2009, and the decline is having consequences. Among other fallout, Suzlon is mothballing a four-year-old wind turbine factory in Minnesota and laying off the remaining 110 workers, due to a lack of new orders. [Read More] (Geoffrey Styles, ET)
Can the U.S. Compete on Rare Earths? A mine in Mountain Pass, Calif., was once the world's leading producer of so-called rare earth minerals, which are used in everything from missile systems to
electric cars. But the mining was stopped in 2002 after a leak of radioactive fluid. China's lower-cost operations, technical superiority and lax environmental
rules propelled it to become the dominant producer, and today it accounts for 95 percent of the world's supply.
Health law may be unrecognizable in a year Republicans in Congress may not be able to unravel healthcare reform over the next two years, as their leaders have promised, but they can make strategic
cuts for now before using the issue as a powerful wedge in the 2012 presidential campaign.
Here's some looming medical privacy issues: Look out, your medicine is watching you Novartis AG plans to seek regulatory approval within 18 months for a pioneering tablet containing an embedded microchip, bringing the concept of
"smart-pill" technology a step closer.
Is your laptop cooking your testicles? Whoever invented the 'laptop' probably didn't worry too much about male reproductive health.
Study links painkillers to reproductive disorders Use of mild painkillers such as paracetamol, aspirin and ibuprofen during pregnancy may partly account for a sharp increase in male reproductive disorders in
recent decades, according to a study published on Monday.
Fast-food restaurants target U.S. kids, study shows Fast-food restaurants are stepping up efforts to market themselves and unhealthy food products to children and toddlers with television ads, websites and
even their own menus, researchers said on Monday.
Chocolate eaters may have healthier hearts: study Older women who eat more chocolate are less likely to develop heart problems over a nearly 10-year-period, new study findings report.
Viruses 'can remain in drinking water' after desal treatment DESALINATION plants built close to sewage outflows risk contaminating drinking water, an expert claims.
Apparently not a joke item: $24 million to study how people freaked at the Black Death? I’m freaking now…. The last ARC grant Science Minister Kim Carr announced was $390,000 to study
how to put us all on carbon rations. This week comes another just as startling - at least in dollar figures:
TAXPAYERS
will fork out $24 million for boffins to study emotions from hundreds of years ago while mental health research in modern Australia is desperately
underfunded. The Federal Government is promoting the massive humanities grant, which will focus on historical events such as the Black Death, as a solution to the
nation’s dire mental health problems. But Australian of the Year Patrick McGorry has criticised the lack of direct funding for mental health research… “That would fund an incredible transformation in mental health of young people if we were able to get a grant like that.” The record-breaking Australian Research Council grant over seven years is more than three times the previous highest amount given to a humanities project… ... the grant will go to the new Centre of Excellence in the History of Emotions based at the University of Western Australia. Researchers will focus on emotions in Europe from the years 1100 to 1800, taking in events such as the French revolution, according to the university’s
website. Centre director and historian Philippa Maddern’s key study areas will include the emotional response to the Black Death, which killed about half the
population of 14th century Europe.... A related Shakespearean drama production, a Baroque opera and an art exhibition will be produced as part of the research
grant. The university should study my own emotions on hearing this. They include surprise, amusement, disbelief and resentment that the salary I work so hard for is docked taxes to pay for this. How on earth can the worth of this research be valued at $24 million? Professor Maddern explains her research:
Emotions shape our mental, physical and social wellbeing. Our research will brilliantly illuminate this crucial aspect of Australia’s cultural and social
heritage, help explain the causes and consequences of mass emotional events (e.g. moral panics) and
invigorate Australian culture through major reflective performances in drama, opera and art. By addressing the big question of how societies think, feel and
function, it will provide greatly enhanced understandings of how to improve emotional health among modern Australians. It will train and mentor a new generation
of young Australian researchers and heighten Australia’s international reputation for excellence in Humanities and Performing Arts research. What on earth is Senator Carr up to with our cash? If this research is so fascinating and potentially profitable, why doesn’t the good professor do it in her own time and sell us the results? (Andrew Bolt)
What the Green Movement Got Wrong: Greens come to see the error of their ways For many years, Channel 4 would not have dared devote an hour to the errors of environmentalism, writes Charles Moore.
What the Greens Really Got Wrong Read my article about Ch4′s What the Green Movement Got Wrong at Spiked-Online.
While you’re there, check out Brendan O’Neill’s excellent take on neomalthusianism.
Arguing the corner for the neomalthusians, Adrian Stott of the OPT tries to defend his case.
It’s plain to see that neomalthusians don’t really understand their own argument, nor the criticism of it, in spite of its historic failures. (Climate Resistance)
In today's trying economic times no phrase rings more hollow, and no lie more pernicious, than the promise of “green jobs.” Back in January of 2010, President Obama unveiled a program that was to provide $2.3 billion in tax credits for the clean energy manufacturing sector. This was a move aimed at creating 17,000 jobs, a cost of a mere $135,000 per job. “If we harness ingenuity, take the talent of our workers and innovators, and we invest in it, we'll forge a future where life is better in our country over the long run,” Obama said at the time. Ten months later the US economy is still gasping for breath and unemployment is still stuck above 9%, even higher in the nation's industrial heartland. Some sources are reporting that the shine is off the green job apple and that the current administration is quietly backing away from the claim that a new green economy will pull America's economic fat from the fire. The Washington Times note in September:
Why the sudden change of heart? It may be that even the eco-leftist ideologues within the Obama White House have come to realize that government cannot manufacture economic growth from hope and wishful thinking. But, perhaps not. Recently Obama announced a $900 million government giveaway to build a massive solar plant in California. The resulting full time job count for the plant is a paltry 300, meaning those green jobs cost $3,000,000 apiece. The saddest part of all this wasted money and effort is that the government should have known better, for ample evidence of the green jobs folly was available from Europe. One of the nations that embraced the new green economy in a big way was Spain. Government funding for wind and solar power was aggressively pursued over the past decade, creating green jobs a declared goal. A study of Spanish green jobs by researchers at King Juan Carlos University has laid bare the truth about “green jobs” and their impact on a nation's economy. Here are the first few paragraphs of the introduction:
The Spanish study reports that since 2000, Spain spent $759,899 (€571,138) to create each “green job,” including subsidies of more than $1.33 million (€1 million) for each wind industry job. The study also calculates that the programs that created those jobs resulted in the destruction of nearly 110,500 jobs elsewhere in the economy. That means 2.2 jobs were destroyed for every “green job” created. Furthermore, each “green” megawatt installed destroyed 5.28 jobs on average elsewhere in the economy: 8.99 by photovoltaics, 4.27 by wind energy, 5.05 by mini-hydro. “These costs do not appear to be unique to Spain’s approach but instead are largely inherent in schemes to promote renewable energy sources,” the researchers concluded.
The plain truth is that the private sector will be responsible for actually producing jobs, green or otherwise. Government created jobs, like all government jobs, do not help an economy to grow. They are based on a fiction that any employment adds to the nation's wealth and productivity. This is patently untrue—government jobs are not part of economic production, they are overhead. While many of the functions of government are useful, good and even necessary—police, firemen, emergency medical and disaster recovery personnel for example—the hordes of document shuffling bureaucrats that fill government offices at all levels add nothing to a nation's economic output.  Only jobs that produce something of worth are sustainable in the long run. It is useful to grow things, dig materials from the earth, transform raw material into finished goods, transport goods from factory to consumers, etc. In short, useful jobs add value by an investment of labor. Jobs created by the government, which can only be maintained with continued public largess, are even worse than direct government jobs. Funded using money wrested from other citizens through taxation, they represent a net economic drag, a less than zero contribution. It is no wonder that green jobs are so hard to create and expensive to maintain, they are the economic equivalent of a vacuum and the economy, like nature, abhors a vacuum. Within the energy sector there is no question that green jobs policy has distorted an otherwise free market. As markets forces correct the imbalance, Europe wrestles with the bitter fruit of its green economic policy. Vestas, the Danish wind turbine manufacturer, recently announced it would close five production plants across Scandinavia and cut 3,000 jobs—green jobs. The group said the surge in demand for wind power it had hoped for in Europe had not materialized and it is closing four plants in Denmark and one in Sweden, including one in Viborg where it has been manufacturing since 1989. Still US politicians blather on about “green jobs” and stimulating the economy. Those fully invested in the green economic myth continue to claim that green jobs will add millions of new jobs to the US economy. Climate change propagandist Al Gore claims that due to “deniers” we are losing “green jobs” to China. “Every day we fail to take action, we export green jobs and our technological advantage to China,” states the former high priest of global warming on his blog. True believers like Gore simply cannot accept that they have been proven wrong about climate change and are no longer relevant. Those pushing green jobs today claim it is to help the economy or to ensure energy independence, not to halt global warming—the world has moved on. Given the American left's fascination with everything European it is a pity that they cannot be bothered to learn from Europe's mistakes. Even to those in socialism's thrall it should be clear that artificially created green jobs are not a cure but a disease. Know the truth: government cannot create any productive jobs, let alone green ones. Be safe, enjoy the interglacial and stay skeptical.  (Doug L. Hoffman, The Resilient Earth)
EU States Told GM Crop Plans May Breach Trade Rules EU legal experts "seriously doubt" that plans to let European Union member states decide for themselves to grow or ban genetically modified (GM)
crops are in line with global trade rules, officials said on Monday.
Senator Bingaman's Insidious National "Renewable Electricity Standards" Bill, S. 3813 Written by Glenn R. Schleede On September 21, 2010, US Senator Bingaman (D-NM) introduced a bill1 that would create an insidious national “Renewable Electricity Standard” (RES). Bingaman now has 32 cosponsors but expects 60. The bill would result in higher monthly bills for millions of home owners and renters, farms, businesses, industries, hospitals, educational institutions, and any other organization that uses electricity. Despite the intense citizen displeasure with Congress, Bingaman’s RES bill shows that both Democrats and Republicans, while in Washington, are eager to favor special interests and their lobbyists while ignoring the adverse impact of their actions on the nation’s ordinary citizens, consumers and taxpayers. The bill belies Republican claims that they favor less federal government intrusion, control, and damage. Read more... (SPPI)
The Zombie Campaign for Higher Energy Prices
The American people know that cap
and trade energy policies will lead to higher energy costs and fewer jobs. That is why even Democratic candidates like Sen.-elect Joe Manchin (D-WV)
famously shot President Barack Obama’s cap and trade bill in a television commercial this fall.
And why are these utilities canceling their renewable energy contracts? The NYT again: Continue reading... (The Foundry)
On Cap-and-Trade: They Lost, We Won by Myron Ebell “Greens Desperate to Avoid Blame” was the headline on Darren Samuelsohn and Robin Bravender’s story in Politico on Wednesday. Environmental pressure groups moved quickly to spin the election results as having nothing to do with them. In particular, they claimed that passage in the House of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill did not cause Democrats to lose. On the contrary, the reality is that Waxman-Markey did contribute to the defeat of a number of Democrats, as I argue in Politico’s Energy Arena. More significant is the fact that the new Republican majority in the House is largely skeptical of the claim that global warming is a potential crisis and is close to unanimously opposed to cap-and-trade and other energy-rationing measures. Not only is… Read the full story (Cooler Heads)
E.U. Sees U.S. "Disappearing" As Partner On Climate The European Union sees the United States "disappearing as a partner" in international climate talks after President Barack Obama suffered setbacks
in midterm elections, the EU's top climate official said on Friday.
Carbon Taxes Are Here (Even If You May Not Know It.)
Depending on what state you live in, you may be paying taxes on your energy bill to help stop global warming. That’s right, you may have been enlisted as a soldier in the war against climate change and you may not even know it! [Read More] (Art Horn, ET)
The redistributors just can't resist your money: Climate finance plan could break talks inertia Our report showing how $100bn a year can be raised for climate adaptation will help make progress towards agreement at Cancún (Trevor Manuel and Nicholas Stern, Guardian)
European Union member states may oppose new rules on how far their factories and power plants can offset their carbon emissions, to be proposed by the European Commission, environment ministries told Reuters.Any such ban would represent a step towards a more transparent form of carbon pricing, along the lines of a straight up tax. Offsets are of course one reason why there is no such thing as a "cap" in cap and trade. (Roger Pielke Jr.)
AGW jihad collects 700 or 39 or 6 crusaders for tough fights
Climate scientists plan campaign against global warming skeptics (Chicago Tribune)Being threatened that the inflow of the easy stolen taxpayer money may decelerate, a group of hardcore AGW crusaders has decided to switch into the ballistic mode. A key person in the plan is Mr Abraham (whom I have never heard of but who is claimed to have starred in a well-known attack against Lord Monckton) from a former Minnesotan Catholic seminary of St Thomas in St Paul that also became an archdiocesan university later. He established the so-called "climate rapid response team". About seven hundred similar AGW crusaders agreed to directly face skeptical audiences. How much is seven hundred? The article indicates that the term "seven hundred" has been redefined to mean approximately 39 (inform the Oxford Dictionary of English about the change), namely John Abraham from the Catholic seminary himself and Scott Mandia from Suffolk County Community College in New York. :-) This is what I call a powerful group of intellectual giants. ;-) But don't forget Penny's implicit finding that community college graduates can be the opposite of complete losers (although Sheldon remained a bit skeptical)! » Don't Stop Reading » (TRF)
Climate Scientists Plan Campaign Against Global Warming Skeptics “The American Geophysical Union plans to announce that 700 researchers have agreed to speak out on the issue. Other scientists plan a pushback against congressional conservatives who have vowed to kill regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.” A new article in the LA Times says that the American Geophysical Union (AGU) is enlisting the help of 700 scientists to fight back against a new congress that is viewed as a bunch of backwoods global warming deniers who are standing in the way of greenhouse gas regulations and laws required to same humanity from itself. Scientific truth, after all, must prevail. And these scientists apparently believe they have been endowed with the truth of what has caused recent warming. The message just hasn’t gotten across.
We skeptics are not smart enough to understand the science. We and the citizens of America, and the representatives we have just elected to go to Washington, just need to listen to them and let them tell us how we should be allowed to live. OK, so, let me see if I understand this. After 20 years, billions of dollars in scientific research and advertising campaigns, cooperation from the public schools, TV specials and concerts by a gaggle of entertainers, end-of-the-world movies, our ‘best’ politicians, heads of state, presidents, the United Nations, and complicity by most of the news media, it has been decided that the American public is not getting the message on global warming!? Are they serious!? Americans — hell, most of humanity — have already heard the 20 different ways we will all die miserable deaths from our emissions of that life giving — er, I mean poisonous –gas, carbon dioxide, that we are adding to the atmosphere every day. So, NOW it no more mister nice guy? Give me a break. Finally Time for a REAL Debate? Actually, this announcement is a good thing. There has been a persistent refusal on the part of the elitist, group-think, left-leaning class of climate scientists to even debate the global warming issue in public. Maybe they have considered it beneath themselves to debate those of us who are clearly wrong on the global warming issue. A complaint many of us skeptics have had for years is that those who constitute the “scientific consensus” (whatever that means) will not engage in public debates on global warming. Al Gore won’t even answer questions from the press. This is why you will mostly hear only politicians and U.N. bureaucrats give pronouncements on the science. They are already adept at weaving a good story with carefully selected facts and figures. Why has the global warming message been presented mostly by politicians and bureaucrats up until now? Probably because it is too dangerous to put their scientists out there. Scientists might admit to something counterproductive — like uncertainty — which would jeopardize what the politicians have been trying to accomplish for decades — control over energy, which is necessary for everything that humans do. Scientists Ready to Enter the Lion’s Den The LA Times articles goes on to explain how there will be “scientists prepared to go before what they consider potentially hostile audiences on conservative talk radio and television shows.” Gee, how brave of them. Kind of like when I went up against Henry Waxman? Or Barbara Boxer? I can sympathize with Republican’s desire to have hearings to investigate how your tax dollars have been spent on this issue. But I will guarantee that if such hearings are held, the news media will make it sound like Galileo is being tried all over again. As if climate scientists are objective seekers of the truth. I hate to break it to you, but scientists are human. Well..most of us are, anyway. Most have strong personal, quasi-religious views of the role of humans in the natural world, and this inevitably guides how they interpret measurements of the climate system. Especially the young ones who have been indoctrinated on the subject. Those few of us who are publishing climate researchers and who are willing to take the risk of speaking out on the biased science on this issue are now late in our careers, and we have seen the climate research field be transformed from one where “climate change” used to necessarily imply natural climate change, to one where nature does not have the power to cause its own change — only mankind does. I have repeatedly pointed out how virtually all global warming research funds either (1) build the case for humanity as the primary cause of recent warming, or (2) simply assume humans are the cause. Virtually NO funding has supported research into the possibility that warming might be mostly part of a natural climate cycle. And if you give scientists enough money to find something, they will do their best to find it. Politicians have orchestrated and guided this effort from the outset, and scientists like to believe they are helping to Save the Earth when they participate in global warming research. Anthropogenic Global Warming is a Hypothesis, Nothing More What the big-government funded climate science community has come up with is a plausible hypothesis which is being passed off as a proven explanation. Science advances primarily by searching for new and better explanations (hypotheses) for how nature works. Unfortunately, this basic task of science has been abandoned when it comes to explaining climate change. About the only alternative explanation they have mostly ruled out is an increase in the total output of the sun. The possibility that small changes in ocean circulation have caused clouds to let in more sunlight is just one of many alternative explanations which are being ignored. Not only have natural, internal climate cycles been ignored as a potential explanation, some researchers have done their best to revise climate history to do away with events such as the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age. This is how the ‘hockey stick’ controversy got started. If you can get rid of all evidence for natural climate change in Earth’s history, you can make it look like no climate changes happened until humans (and cows) came on the scene. Bring It On I look forward to the opportunity to debate a scientist from the other side who actually knows what they are talking about. I’ve gone one-on-one with some speakers who so mangled the consensus explanation of global warming that I had to use up half my speaking time cleaning up the mess they made. Those few I have debated in a public forum who know what they are talking about are actually much more reserved in their judgment on the subject than those who the pop culture presents to us. But for those newbie’s who want to enter the fray, I have a couple of pieces of advice on preparation. First, we skeptics already know your arguments …it would do you well to study up a little on ours. And second, those of us who have been at this a long time actually knew Galileo. Galileo was a good friend of ours. And you are no Galileo. (Roy W. Spencer)
Inaccurate news reports misrepresent a climate-science initiative of the American Geophysical Union 8 November 2010
A letter to DECC's chief scientist Do take a look at Matt Ridley's letter to David Mackay, chief scientist at the Department of Energy and Climate Change. The Hockey Stick Illusion is mentioned. (Bishop Hill)
IPCC Climate Science Is Fundamentally Wrong: Carbon Footprint is All Wet Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) science deliberately kept public focus on warmer temperatures and blamed it all on radiative forcing due to
CO2. They virtually ignore water in all its forms, partly because terms of reference directed them to only human causes and because any consideration of the
role of water destroys the CO2 hypothesis.
Soul searching enviro-journalists admit they look duped and should have talked to sceptics There is much introspection going on among environmental journalists. Last week, in a remarkably candid piece, Margot O’Neill of the ABC revealed for the first time what the flummoxed and frustrated would-be journalists are discussing behind the scenes. The admissions are extraordinary. Despite the fact that hardly any of the journalists wrote about Climategate, for many the emails from East Anglia were not just important, but a defining moment (though not, apparently, because it dented their faith in the global warming dogma). Instead, it was the effect Climategate had on editors and others in the office: people who had previously thought climate science was scientific, and environmental journalists were journalists. Suddenly, others realized they had been cheated of the real news, sideswiped by a development none of the supposedly “investigative” reporters saw coming. Now for the first time, we find out that the formerly respected writers got looks of betrayal.
Presumably, the other editors read about people using tricks to hide declines, but instead of seeing the would-be journalists pursue the obvious deceit and malpractice, they must have been shocked to hear whitewash excuses about how it was “taken out of context”. This is the point when alarm bells must have gone off for the real journalists in the room. It was not just the Climategate emails themselves, but the rush to downplay them. Methinks you doth protest too much. How bad was climategate? Awful:
Wow. I mean, WOW! Let’s repeat that. It gave the impression that journalists had been duped. Yes, it did “look” like journos had been duped. That’s because they were. Fooled by one of the oldest tricks in the book. More » (Jo Nova)
Multipart essay by Ian McFadyen: The Big Lie of Global Warming It might seem drastic, even for a global warming sceptic like myself to use the word “lie” in describing the position of the “Warmists” - even
inflammatory.
Greenland Overall Temperature Trend Shows Nothing Alarming. Schellnhuber Confirmed. 8. November 2010 In two earlier posts I wrote about the shenanigans of some activist meteorologists who attempted to raise the level of alarm by claiming Greenland’s temperatures are behaving weirdly, and that it is abnormally warm up there, read Dumb Meteorologists Unaware Of Seasons and Dumb Meteorologists Part II. Too bad the data does not cooperate. (No Tricks Zone)
Oh dear... Threshold sea surface temperature for hurricanes and tropical thunderstorms is rising  IMAGE: The average tropical sea surface temperature (black) and an estimate of the sea surface temperature threshold for convection (blue) have risen in tandem over the past 30 years. Scientists have long known that atmospheric convection in the form of hurricanes and tropical ocean thunderstorms tends to occur when sea surface temperature
rises above a threshold. The critical question is, how do rising ocean temperatures with global warming affect this threshold? If the threshold does not rise,
it could mean more frequent hurricanes.
HWGA: New ocean acidification study shows added danger to already struggling coral reefs Univ. of Miami scientists illustrate threat of increased carbon dioxide to coral reproduction MIAMI - A new study led by scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science suggests that over the next century
recruitment of new corals could drop by 73 percent, as rising CO2 levels turn the oceans more acidic. The research findings reveal a new danger to the already
threatened Caribbean and Florida reef Elkhorn corals.
Iron stimulates blooms of toxin-producing algae in open ocean, study finds SANTA CRUZ, CA--A team of marine scientists has found that toxin-producing algae once thought to be limited to coastal waters are also common in the open
ocean, where the addition of iron from natural or artificial sources can stimulate rapid growth of the harmful algae. The new findings, reported this week in
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, add to concerns about proposals to use iron fertilization of the oceans as a way to combat global warming.
Further Comment By Andy Lacis On CO2 As A Climate Thermostat Andy Lacis sent me a follow up his guest post Guest Post “CO2: The Thermostat That Controls Earth’s Temperature” By Andy Lacis which I have presented below with his permission.
I invited Roy Spencer to comment, and he referred me to his post My comments on Andy’s guest posts will appear tomorrow. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Submitted by sentient on Fri, 11/05/2010 - 14:23
Looking at orbital mechanics and model results, Loutre and Berger (2003) in a landmark paper (meaning a widely quoted and discussed paper) for the time predicted that the current interglacial, the Holocene, might very well last another 50,000 years, particularly if CO 2 were factored in. This would make the Holocene the longest lived interglacial since the onset of the Northern Hemisphere Glaciations some 2.8 million years ago. Five of the last 6 interglacials have each lasted about half of a precession cycle. The precession cycle varies from 19-23k years, and we are at the 23kyr part of the range now, making 11,500 years half, which is also the present age of the Holocene. Which is why this discussion has relevance. But what about that 6th interglacial, the one that wasn’t on the half-precessional “clock”. That would be MIS-11 (or the Holsteinian) which according to the most recently published estimate may have lasted on the order of 20-22kyrs, with the longest estimate ranging up to 32kyrs. Loutre and Berger’s 2003 paper was soon followed by another landmark paper by Lisieki and Raymo (Oceanography, 2004), an exhaustive look at 57 globally distributed deep Ocean Drilling Project (and other) cores, which stated: “Recent research has focused on MIS 11 as a possible analog for the present interglacial [e.g., Loutre and Berger, 2003; EPICA community members, 2004] because both occur during times of low eccentricity. The LR04 age model establishes that MIS 11 spans two precession cycles, with 18O values below 3.6o/oo for 20 kyr, from 398-418 ka. In comparison, stages 9 and 5 remained below 3.6o/oo for 13 and 12 kyr, respectively, and the Holocene interglacial has lasted 11 kyr so far. In the LR04 age model, the average LSR of 29 sites is the same from 398-418 ka as from 250-650 ka; consequently, stage 11 is unlikely to be artificially stretched. However, the June 21 insolation minimum at 65N during MIS 11 is only 489 W/m2, much less pronounced than the present minimum of 474 W/m2. In addition, current insolation values are not predicted to return to the high values of late MIS 11 for another 65 kyr. We propose that this effectively precludes a ‘double precession-cycle’ interglacial [e.g., Raymo, 1997] in the Holocene without human influence.” To bring this discussion up to date, Tzedakis, in perhaps the most open peer review process currently being practiced in the world today (The European Geosciences Union website Climate of the Past Discussions) published a quite thorough examination of the state of the science related to the two most recent interglacials, which like the present one, the Holocene (or MIS-1) is compared to MIS-19 and MIS-11, the other two interglacials which have occurred since the Mid Pleistocene Transition (MPT) and also occurred at eccentricity minimums. Since its initial publication in 2009, and its republication after the open online peer review process again in March of this year (2010), this paper is now also considered a landmark review of the state of paleoclimate science. In it he also considers Ruddiman’s Early Anthropogenic Hypothesis, with Rudddiman a part of the online review. Tzedakis’ concluding remarks are enlightening: “On balance, what emerges is that projections on the natural duration of the current interglacial depend on the choice of analogue, while corroboration or refutation of the “early anthropogenic hypothesis” on the basis of comparisons with earlier interglacials remains irritatingly inconclusive.” An astute reader might have gleaned that even on things which have happened, the science is not that particularly well settled. Which makes consideration of the science being settled on things which have not yet happened dubious at best. As we move further towards the construction of the antithetic argument, we will take a closer look at the post-MPT end interglacials and the last glacial for some clues. Higher resolution proxy studies from many parts of the planet suggest that the end interglacials may be quite the wild climate ride from the perspective of global climate disruption. Boettger, et al (Quaternary International 207 [2009] 137–144) abstract it: “In terrestrial records from Central and Eastern Europe the end of the Last Interglacial seems to be characterized by evident climatic and environmental instabilities recorded by geochemical and vegetation indicators. The transition (MIS 5e/5d) from the Last Interglacial (Eemian, Mikulino) to the Early Last Glacial (Early Weichselian, Early Valdai) is marked by at least two warming events as observed in geochemical data on the lake sediment profiles of Central (Gro¨bern, Neumark–Nord, Klinge) and of Eastern Europe (Ples). Results of palynological studies of all these sequences indicate simultaneously a strong increase of environmental oscillations during the very end of the Last Interglacial and the beginning of the Last Glaciation. This paper discusses possible correlations of these events between regions in Central and Eastern Europe. The pronounced climate and environment instability during the interglacial/glacial transition could be consistent with the assumption that it is about a natural phenomenon, characteristic for transitional stages. Taking into consideration that currently observed ‘‘human-induced’’ global warming coincides with the natural trend to cooling, the study of such transitional stages is important for understanding the underlying processes of the climate changes.” Hearty and Neumann (Quaternary Science Reviews 20 [2001] 1881–1895) abstracting their work in the Bahamas state: “The geology of the Last Interglaciation (sensu stricto, marine isotope substage (MIS) 5e) in the Bahamas records the nature of sea level and climate change. After a period of quasi-stability for most of the interglaciation, during which reefs grew to +2.5 m, sea level rose rapidly at the end of the period, incising notches in older limestone. After brief stillstands at +6 and perhaps +8.5 m, sea level fell with apparent speed to the MIS 5d lowstand and much cooler climatic conditions. It was during this regression from the MIS 5e highstand that the North Atlantic suffered an oceanographic ‘‘reorganization’’ about 11873 ka ago. During this same interval, massive dune-building greatly enlarged the Bahama Islands. Giant waves reshaped exposed lowlands into chevron-shaped beach ridges, ran up on older coastal ridges, and also broke off and threw megaboulders onto and over 20 m-high cliffs. The oolitic rocks recording these features yield concordant whole-rock amino acid ratios across the archipelago. Whether or not the Last Interglaciation serves as an appropriate analog for our ‘‘greenhouse’’ world, it nonetheless reveals the intricate details of climatic transitions between warm interglaciations and near glacial conditions.” The picture which emerges is that the post-MPT end interglacials appear to be populated with dramatic, abrupt global climate disruptions which appear to have occurred on decadal to centennial time scales. Given that the Holocene, one of at least 3 post-MPT “extreme” interglacials, may not be immune to this repetitive phenomena, and as it is half a precession cycle old now, and perhaps unlikely to grow that much older, this could very well be the natural climate “noise” from which we must discern our anthropogenic “signal” from. If we take a stroll between this interglacial and the last one back, the Eemian, we find in the Greenland ice cores that there were 24 Dansgaard-Oeschger oscillations, or abrupt warmings that occurred from just a few years to mere decades that average between 8-10C rises (D-O 19 scored 16C). The nominal difference between earth’s cold (glacial) and warm (interglacial) states being on the order of 20C. D-O events average 1470 years, the range being 1-4kyrs. Sole, Turiel and Llebot writing in Physics Letters A (366 [2007] 184–189) identified three classes of D-O oscillations in the Greenland GISP2 ice cores A (brief), B (medium) and C (long), reflecting the speed at which the warming relaxes back to the cold glacial state: “In this work ice-core CO 2 time evolution in the period going from 20 to 60 kyr BP [15] has been qualitatively compared to our temperature cycles, according to the class they belong to. It can be observed in Fig. 6 that class A cycles are completely unrelated to changes in CO 2 concentration. We have observed some correlation between B and C cycles and CO 2 concentration, but of the opposite sign to the one expected: maxima in atmospheric CO 2 concentration tend to correspond to the middle part or the end the cooling period. The role of CO 2 in the oscillation phenomena seems to be more related to extend the duration of the cooling phase than to trigger warming. This could explain why cycles not coincident in time with maxima of CO 2 (A cycles) rapidly decay back to the cold state.” “Nor CO 2 concentration either the astronomical cycle change the way in which the warming phase takes place. The coincidence in this phase is strong among all the characterized cycles; also, we have been able to recognize the presence of a similar warming phase in the early stages of the transition from glacial to interglacial age. Our analysis of the warming phase seems to indicate a universal triggering mechanism, what has been related with the possible existence of stochastic resonance [1,13, 21]. It has also been argued that a possible cause for the repetitive sequence of D/O events could be found in the change in the thermohaline Atlantic circulation [2,8,22,25]. However, a cause for this regular arrangement of cycles, together with a justification on the abruptness of the warming phase, is still absent in the scientific literature.” In their work, at least 13 of the 24 D-O oscillations (indeed other workers suggest the same for them all), CO 2 was not the agent provocateur of the warmings but served to ameliorate the relaxation back to the cold glacial state, something which might have import whenever we finally do reach the end Holocene. Instead of triggering the abrupt warmings it appears to function as somewhat of a climate “security blanket”, if you will. Therefore in constructing the antithesis, and taking into consideration the precautionary principle, we are left to ponder if reducing CO 2’s concentration in the late Holocene atmosphere might actually be the wrong thing to do.
(The Resilient Earth)
BP, firms did not shirk safety for money: panel The White House oil spill commission said on Monday it found no evidence to support accusations that the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history happened
because workers for BP Plc and its partners cut corners to save money, mostly blaming the accident on a series of on-site misjudgments.
What Is the President Thinking When It Comes to Fracking? by William Yeatman There has been a technological revolution in the natural gas industry over the last decade. In that time, a drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” has become economically viable, thereby allowing for the exploitation of huge natural gas reserves that had been too expensive to recover. As a result, America’s natural gas supply has roughly doubled. In his post-election address last Wednesday, President Barack Obama indicated support for the fracking revolution. His administration’s record, however, is decidedly mixed on the issue. On the one hand, the State Department is a big proponent of the technology, which it sees as a long term deterrent for Russia. As I’ve noted elsewhere, environmentalist policies in some European countries-but especially Germany-have rendered them increasingly… Read the full story (Cooler Heads)
Britain May Fund World's First Natural Gas Carbon Capture Plant The U.K. may fund the world’s first project to capture carbon dioxide from natural-gas-fueled power stations and pipe it under the seabed for permanent
storage.
Sigh... EU Opens Bidding for $6 Billion in Carbon Capture, Renewable Energy Aid The European Union started a contest for the first portion of about 4.3 billion euros ($6 billion) in subsidies to store carbon dioxide underground and
promote renewable energy as part of the fight against global warming.
Expert says development of Marcellus shale fields offers huge benefits CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Development of the natural gas-rich Marcellus shale can create thousands of jobs and result in other economic benefits but must be done
carefully, the American Petroleum Institute's chief economist said.
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) chief John Hanger is planning to give Alaska’s infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” a run for its
money.
Despite Billions in Subsidies, Corn Ethanol Has Not Cut U.S. Imports Written by Robert Bryce In the next few weeks, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to rule on a proposal to increase from 10 percent to 15 percent the amount of ethanol that may be blended into gasoline. If the EPA approves the move, the U.S. motor-fuel market would yet again become the victim of misguided federal intervention. Since the 1970s, Congress has justified subsidies to the corn ethanol industry with the oft-repeated claim that boosting domestic production of ethanol will increase America's energy security by reducing U.S. oil imports. That claim has no basis in fact. Read more... (SPPI)
Biofuel worse for climate than fossil fuel - study BRUSSELS, Nov 8 - European plans to promote biofuels will drive farmers to convert 69,000 square km of wild land into fields and plantations, depriving the
poor of food and accelerating climate change, a report warned on Monday.
Rare earths supply is a green problem Al Gore and greens in America have used the nation’s dependency on foreign oil as a lever to push for hybrid cars and alternative energy sources,
especially renewables like solar and wind.
Environmentalists Blocking Wind Farms? And Solar? And Geothermal? As demonstrated by the legal battle blocking power lines to wind farms in Kansas, environmental groups are increasingly against all forms of energy
production.
Rightly so: Cost of Green Power Makes Projects Tougher Sell Michael Polsky’s wind farm company was doing so well in 2008 that banks were happy to lend millions for his effort to light up America with clean
electricity.
Wind Energy is Ancient (the infant industry argument for subsidies does not apply) by Robert Bradley Jr.
The day after the election, the New York Times cutely titled an editorial, “New Energy Outfoxes Old in California.” The Houston Chronicle dutifully reprinted it. Problem is, what the Left sees as new energy is really ancient, and what is seen as old is really new. Coal, oil, and gas are several hundred years old; renewable energies are as old as human time. Solar and wind and falling water and burning plants–renewables all–are caveman energies. This textbook from 1838 (is this old enough for you, New York Times?) explained the problem with wind, a problem that is at the center of the debate 172 years later.
Here are some quotations to show that wind is ancient, as energy historians have documented. Perhaps our newspapers can reverse the tags for their next op-ed on the subject. —————– “Energy from the wind is not new. Two hundred years ago windmills were a common feature of the European landscape; for example, in 1800 there were over 10,000 working windmills in Britain. During the past few years they have again become familiar on the skyline especially in countries in western Europe (for instance, Denmark, Great Britain and Spain) and in western North America. Slim, tall, sleek objects silhouetted against the sky, they do not have the rustic elegance of the old windmills, but they much more efficient.” - John Houghton, Global Warming: The Complete Briefing (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 7. [Read more →] (MasterResource)
Solar mania will cast a shadow over Britain Big subsidies to cover fields with solar panels are a huge waste of money, says James Delingpole.
Antibiotics Research Subsidies Weighed by U.S. Worried about an impending public health crisis, government officials are considering offering financial incentives to the pharmaceutical industry, like tax
breaks and patent extensions, to spur the development of vitally needed antibiotics.
HWGA: Red meat linked to esophageal, stomach cancer risks Red-meat lovers may have a greater likelihood of developing certain cancers of the throat and stomach than people who limit their intake of steaks and
hamburgers, a new study suggests.
They're claiming hormesis? Lawrence Solomon: The scan that cures CT scans may not just detect cancer, they may actually prevent it ‘This is the first time that we have seen clear evidence of a significant reduction in lung cancer mortality with a screening test,” said Dr. Christine Berg of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, referring to the CT scans that led to a 20% decline in cancer deaths in the largest-ever study of its kind. “Really stunning,” said David Naidich, professor of radiology and medicine at NYU-Langone Medical Center, a member of the study’s executive oversight committee. “Huge,” said Regina Vidaver, executive director of the National Lung Cancer Partnership, an advocacy organization. “To me this is a game changer.” In fact, the stunning results could be even huger than these medical experts realize. CT scans (also known as computed tomography or CAT scans) not only catch tumours early, allowing for early treatment; CT scans may prevent tumours as well.
Liberties: San Francisco's ban on McDonald's Happy Meals powerfully illustrates how far elected officials will go if we let them. From your kid's lunch to
your doctor, government — not you — decides.
The government tells us what medicines we may take and what recreational substances we may ingest, but when it comes to food, we decide what goes down our
gullets. Gun-owning barbecuers coexist peacefully with Humane Society vegans. To paraphrase the old adage, your freedom ends where my stomach begins.
While Warning About Fat, U.S. Pushes Cheese Sales Domino’s Pizza was hurting early last year. Domestic sales had fallen, and a survey of big pizza chain customers left the company tied for the worst
tasting pies.
Salt, sugar and fat could follow kilojoules on food labels SALT, sugar and fat are shaping up to be the next battleground in a push by health groups for comprehensive labelling of the contents of fast foods, after
the industry capitulated to government demands to display the total energy value of products.
Focus on HIV prevents us from curing a billion people, say scientists Experts say governments treat 'big name' ailments like Aids and malaria when many which kill far more people in the developing world could be eradicated cheaply (Robin McKie, The Observer)
Misanthropists don't like being exposed: Greens angered over C4 claims they 'caused starvation' A Channel 4 documentary accusing the green movement of causing mass starvation in Africa by getting it wrong on genetically-modified food has been attacked
as "malicious" and "ridiculous" by farm groups on the continent.
Mad Prince Charlie, airhead to the throne: Harmony by HRH Prince Charles, Tony Juniper and Ian Skelly – review Prince Charles is right to speak up on climate change, but some of his ideas are completely off the wall (Rowan Moore, The Observer)
M4GW's Newest Song - I'm a Denier
It's a parody of "I'm a Believer" written by Neil Diamond and performed by the Monkees. This version was written by Elmer Beauregard and Brian D.
Smith and performed by Elmer & The Deniers.
If Al Gore’s Chicago Climate Exchange Suffers Total Failure, Does the MSM Make a Sound? The CCX was the topic of thousands of MSM articles over the years, but not a single article reported their recent demise. Hmmm. (Steve Milloy, PJM)
The Green Bubble Is about to Burst There is a revolution coming that is likely to burst the green global warming bubble: the temperature trend used by the IPCC (the U.N.'s Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change) to support their conclusion about anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is likely to turn out to be fake. The situation will become clear
once Virginia's attorney general, Kenneth Cuccinelli, obtains information now buried in e-mails at the University of Virginia. Or Hearings on Climategate by the
U.S. Congress may uncover the "smoking gun" that demonstrates that the warming trend used by the IPCC does not really exist.
It’s Official! There Will Not Be Any Climate Apocalypse! (For At Least Five Years) It’s official! The WWF is wrong. Greenpeace is wrong. Avaaz is wrong. Prince Charles is wrong. The UN climate negotiators are wrong. James Hansen is wrong. Many, many people are wrong, including Bill McKibben, Joe Romm, John Holdren. Countless people and especially children are being duped, day in, day out, into believing that the end of the world is nigh. Simply, there is officially no hurry about climate change, as stated by the “European Union’s rapporteur on climate change” (the European Union? Or the Council of Europe? Does anybody care, can anybody tell the difference?) about the upcoming Cancun meeting:
Thus spake on Thursday Lord John (Two Jags) Prescott, having cycled to China (or maybe not). His words were uttered on the august microphones of the BBC’s Today programme, but for some reason failed to materialise in the Today’s “running order” page, or anywhere else at the BBC site apart from the direct link to the interview’s recording. Had it not been for the Telegraph, I would have had to re-type them myself (Carbon News and DeHavilland are hiding their reports behind paywalls). Anyway…what can they mean? Remember, whatever his past Lord Prescott is now talking for Europe, and European politicans have always liked to be at the forefront of quasi-suicidal climate-change-fighting binding pacts. They are hardly a bunch of Koch-sponsored evil Deniers: and still, at this stage of the negotiations they’re happy to settle for a five-year hiatus in imposing anything to anybody. In other words, the most pro-AGW politicians on Earth are pretty much convinced we are not facing the last chance to save the world, it’s not 99 months to the apocalypse, the 350ppm threshold in CO2 concentration can be crossed for several years in a row without any cause for panic. Etc etc. I wonder if all of that will go in the Summary for Policymakers of the IPCC AR5? (Maurizio Morabito, OmniClimate)
And this starts with such promise: Should our biggest climate change fear be fear itself? Historian Matthias Dörries reveals the role of fear in our understanding of climate change
Green Groups Will Fight Smaller Battles EDF, Sierra Club, and NRDC change tactics after midterm vote.
One of the Obama administration’s most aggressive officials on global warming regulations is stepping down from her post at the Environmental Protection
Agency.
Climate Alarmism at the New York Times The New York Times editorial page has been persistent in publishing alarmist editorials on climate change. The latest one appearing shortly before the
November elections accused politicians of being in "denial" about climate change. What nonsense! Climate is changing all the time; it has been doing
it for millions of years -- without any human intervention. And politicians are simply trying to stay in step with the public.
Still seeking their global tax regime: Bank Tax, CO2 Auctions Recommended by Soros Panel to Help Climate Efforts At least $65 billion might be raised by taxing foreign-exchange transactions and auctioning pollution permits, a United Nations panel said today in a report
recommending ways to finance aid for fighting global warming.
R i g h t . . . Climate scientists plan campaign against global-warming skeptics The American Geophysical Union plans to announce Monday that 700 researchers have agreed to speak out on the issue. The effort is a pushback against congressional conservatives who have vowed to kill regulations on greenhouse gas emissions. (Chicago Tribune)
Another letter from Hal Lewis to the American Physical Society
Dr. Harold Lewis sent this today via email with a request to make it public here. I’m happy to oblige. Read the letter to understand the movie poster.- Anthony Date: Saturday, November 06, 2010 2:32 PM Dear Curt: When on October 6 I sent you my letter of resignation from APS , I of course expected the Empire to strike back in one way or another. It pleased me however, when I read your response, to find a very minimum of ad hominem attacks, confined mostly to apparently irresistible eruptions of “Lewis is a liar.” (“His statements are all false” is the equivalent.) So I thank you for that courtesy. Continue reading (WUWT)
Is the Western Climate Establishment Corrupt? Written by Dr. David Evans How many excuses does it take? The Western Climate Establishment has allowed egregious mistakes, major errors, and obvious biases to accumulate — each factor on its own might be hard to pin down, but the pattern is undeniable. Read more... (SPPI)
Plans Afoot for Topical Group On the Physics of Climate During the summer, APS received two independent requests for the formation of a topical group focusing on the physics of climate. One was presented by APS
Fellow Roger Cohen, who had privately circulated a petition to that effect and obtained the 200 member signatures needed to bring it to Council. The other came
as an initiative of Council itself, which at its April meeting had authorized APS President Curtis Callan to poll the membership on their support for such a
group; an email petition sent by him to the members of DCP, DBP, DCOMP, DAMOP and DFD in early August quickly received almost 800 signatures.
Judith Curry, positive feedbacks, and AGW bubble
Reversing the direction of positive feedback Part IYou may want to read them. Aside from the links, this blog entry is not excessively important. But I just reproduce a comment your humble correspondent has posted on her blog. Dear Judith, I also think that you focused on actual values – and not on particular people – which is the right thing to do. » Don't Stop Reading » (TRF)
LABOHM: Climate change no longer scares Europe Tide of opinion changing in the Old World
Vincent Courtillot: The Climate Report by the French Academy of Sciences Friday, 05 November 2010 15:10 Following a strange petition signed by hundreds of self-designated climate scientists addressed to the French minister of research and asking her to disavow what they viewed as erroneous and aggressive positions against them by Claude Allègre and myself, the minister decided on April 1st to ask the Academy of Sciences (of which we both are members) to organise a debate, in order to allow for a “serene confrontation of points of view and methods and establish the current state of the art on scientific knowledge of climate change”. The Academy decided to hold the debate in September, after a phase in which academicians interested in participating were invited to submit written statements on the Academy intranet site. Academicians and a number of scientific institutions were also asked to propose names of climate scientists who would participate. Altogether, over 40 written contributions were submitted prior to the debate, which was held at the Academy on September 20. Some 120 academicians and other scientists attended a full day with four sessions, each organized in the same way and chaired by a “neutral” Academy member : two summaries of the written contributions by Academy members, then two or three short (7 mn, 5 overheads) presentations introductory to the debate. Each of these sessions was followed by a full hour of open discussion. The four topics were: recent climate observations, past climate, numerical models, and physical processes. I gave one of the 7mn presentations on observations of recent climate change and our published work on evidence for solar forcing. There was no other “labeled climate-skeptic” presentation, but a number of presentations were critical of significant aspects of the majority view as expressed by the IPCC reports. That view remained (although of course no vote was taken) the majority view, but I was impressed by the quality and number of distinguished academicians expressing what I found to be very sensible remarks that supported at least partly the “skeptical” view and in any case insisted that the debate should remain elegant and open (which was the case for most of the day). Four colleagues wrote the final report (a geologist, an astrophysicist, plus the president and vice-president of the Academy, who are specialists in mechanics and cardiology, by the way all of them colleagues with whom I have the most friendly relationships). This report was submitted to the minister on October 28, and has been the subject of reports in the French media since then. Several of these media view the report as definitely vindicating the IPCC conclusions. This is not at all what the September debate showed, and in my view is neither what the report given to the minister says, provided one takes the time to read it fully and carefully. Because of the distortion, I give here my own analysis of that report, and explain why I would have voted for it, had I been in the room on October 26. However, I was in Martinique, attending the annual meeting with the local authorities regarding the state of the Montagne Pelée volcano, which is monitored by my Institute (IPGP). (GWPF)
Why Mitigation Should Not Be the Climate Change Policy of Choice (Even if it’s a Real Problem) AMS [American Meteorological Society] Policy Statement on Inadvertent Weather Modification Illustrates Fuzzy and Flawed Thinking on Public Policy By Indur M. Goklany The AMS has a new policy statement on Inadvertent Weather Modification (H/T to Prof. Roger Pielke, Sr., 11/4/2010). In this post I will not address its recommendations. I will, instead, focus on fundamental flaws in its two sections on mitigation and adaptation which, in my opinion, are related since they flow from a common misconception error in its policy “analysis” of global warming. Below, I reproduce these two sections with changes in CAP-and-strikeout format that would have finessed these flaws. [CAPS indicate INSERTS into the text, and strikeouts indicate — well — strikeouts.] Also, I have inserted commentary in bold within square brackets where the rationale for my inserts and strikeouts is not self-evident. As you can see from my inserts, strikeout and commentary, the AMS policy statement reveals fuzzy and, sometimes, fundamentally flawed, thinking. Continue reading (WUWT)
David Cameron letting China off climate change hook, says Labour Official delegation heads for Beijing even as £14.4m fund set up to advise on alternatives to coal is slashed
Labor urged to follow Obama on carbon AUSTRALIA must follow the US and abandon an emissions trading scheme, the opposition and business said yesterday.
Good News for Polar Bears: Goose Eggs on the Menu Back in May, we reported on the Trumpeter Swan’s recovery from the edge of extinction that was being made a bit easier by a warming Arctic. Now comes word
of another Arctic bird that is benefiting from the warming—and at the same time, helping the polar bear cope with climate change.
Diminishing Returns From Multi-Decadal Global Climate Model Simulations I have posted that the NSF is funding grants which as part of (or all) of their focus is to provide multi-decadal global and regional climate model projections; i.e. see The NSF is also perpetuating an erroneously narrow view of the climate system, as I posted in These claims and projections are based on global climate models. Judy Curry, on her weblog Climate Etc has very effectively summarized the diminishing scientific responses from the use of these models in her post Decision making under climate uncertainty: Part I where she wrote
I agree with this viewpoint. This culture of using models as the tool to communicate to policymakers is an inappropriate and misleading use of the scientific method. I also discussed this misuse of models in my post Comments On Numerical Modeling As The New Climate Science Paradigm where Dick Lindzen is quoted
Hopefully, the NSF (and other agencies) will soon realize that most of this funding is a waste of taxpayers money and could be better spent on other research uses in climate and elsewhere. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Few companies meet carbon reporting norms Most British businesses fail to comply with government guidance on reporting their carbon footprints, a Deloitte survey of 100 listed firms reveals.
Idiots! Gas plants now eligible for £9bn carbon capture demonstration programme Programme to store emissions rather than release them into atmosphere previously only open to coal plants
Washington Disconnect: SUV Sales Well Over 50 Percent of Market As if to put a punctuation mark on how out-of-touch Washington is with the electorate, October vehicle sales released today reveal that SUV sales have now
almost fully rebounded from their pre-recession numbers and now make up 53 percent of the market, with cars at just 47 percent. The numbers have flipped since
last October as the economy recovers and customers return to bigger, more fuel-thirsty vehicles.
Offshore Drilling Commission Convenes: Same Old Attacks, Still Missing The Facts Oil and natural gas firms have long served as straw men for politicians and "green" lobbies on the campaign trail. The 2010 election season was no
different — flooded with misbegotten BP references, blurring the line between proportional reprimand for a safety outlier and political rhetoric about the
industry as a whole.
Shell Presses for Drilling in Arctic HOUSTON — Eager to win approval for its stalled plan to drill for oil in the Alaskan Arctic, Royal Dutch Shell is beginning a public lobbying campaign,
including national advertising, on Monday. As part of the effort, the giant oil company is promising to make unprecedented preparations to prevent the kind of
disaster that polluted the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year.
EPA’s Regs for Rigs – Fuel Economy Fetish Goes Diesel by Marlo Lewis Last week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a proposed rule to establish first-ever greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and fuel economy standards for “heavy duty” (HD) motor vehicles. The proposed standards, which phase in during model-years 2014–2018, apply to three types of HD vehicles: (1) “combination tractors” (semi-trucks), (2) large pickups and vans, and (3) “vocational trucks” (a wide-ranging assortment of trucks and buses). The agencies estimate that the technologies needed to comply with the proposed standards will cost $7.7 billion but that the rule will generate $27 billion or $41 billion in net benefits (depending on whether future benefits are discounted at 7% or 3%). Here’s the curious thing that jumps out at you from the getgo. Although the ostensible objective of the rule is to reduce GHG emissions and oil imports, the overwhelming share of the claimed benefits (fuel savings for truckers) has nothing to do with either climate change or energy security. For example, based on the unverifiable assumption that each ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted has a “social cost” of $22.00, the agencies attribute only $2.3 billion — about 6% — of the rule’s net benefits to its CO2 reductions and climate impact (p. 355). Six percent! Sound familiar? Just as proponents of cap-and-trade tried to sell their stealth energy tax as a “green jobs” program when they couldn’t sell it as climate protection, so EPA and NHTSA now try to sell their save-the-planet-beyond-petroleum rule as a fuel-savings bonanza for owners and operators of big rigs, dump trucks, buses, vans, and pickups. [Read more →] (MasterResource)
Reject All-of-the-Above Energy Approaches
With Congress divided, will anything actually get done in the next two years? President Obama recently suggested energy policy as an area in which bipartisan support could exist. Rather than trying to pass a large climate change bill, Obama stressed the importance of increasing technologies and energy sources to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – including nuclear, clean coal, electric vehicles, wind, solar, and renewable fuels. Sometimes deemed an “all of the above” energy approach, it guarantees handouts and subsidies for all energy sources to make everyone happy. In other words, all the special interests win and the consumer loses. David Friedman, son of Milton, said it like this:
Continue reading... (The Foundry)
India predicts 40% leap in demand for fossil fuels NEW DELHI – Premier Manmohan Singh told India's energy firms on Monday to scour the globe for fuel supplies as he warned the country's demand for fossil
fuels is set to soar 40 percent over the next decade.
Our country was founded on a revolutionary concept -- a new kind of government both empowered and controlled by its citizens.
Wishful Thinking about ObamaCare Investigations Posted by NPR found two Republicans who caution House Republicans that their efforts to investigate ObamaCare could “backfire.”
Let me see if I understand. If House Republicans hold hearings, it will be a boon to ObamaCare. Even though House and Senate Democrats stoutly refused to hold such hearings. If House Republicans hold hearings, sloganeering will give way to detail. And if House Republicans hold hearings, ObamaCare supporters will finally be able to get their message out — something they were unable to do while they controlled both chambers of Congress and the executive branch.
Republicans to attack healthcare law funding WASHINGTON | Thu Nov 4, 2010 2:45pm EDT
Posted by It wasn’t just the party of ObamaCare or its champion that took a “shellacking” at the polls yesterday. The law took a shellacking as well. One pollster reports:
Arizona and Oklahoma passed constitutional amendments designed to block ObamaCare’s individual mandate. Many new governors either plan to join the 22 states already challenging ObamaCare in court, or to block its implementation in other ways. Congressional Republicans appear determined to use every tool in their arsenal to repeal it. President Obama is striking a conciliatory note, saying he is open to “tweaks:”
There is room to doubt his sincerity. The Washington Post has reported that when President Obama begins a sentence with, Let me be clear, it is “a signal that what follows will be anything but.” Obama has likewise claimed open-mindedness and flexibility when his behavior exhibited the opposite qualities. (Remember how last year’s White House summit on health care was all about gathering “the best ideas.”) Yet with a firm conviction that facts and science and argument still matter, I resubmit to President Obama this Cato Policy Analysis: Yes, Mr. President: A Free Market Can Fix Health Care. In fact, a free market is the only thing that will. But a reasonably free market is impossible with ObamaCare still on the books. I doubt the president will read it. But Republicans should. They seem pretty solid on Repeal. They’re weaker on Replace. (Cato at liberty)
Beware the Lame Duck Bearing Gifts When Congress returns this month, be prepared for a blizzard of far-left bills to be taken up as defeated Democrats try to enact their radical agenda on their way out the door. (Phil Kerpen, PJM)
Americans sicker but English die quicker says study LONDON/CHICAGO | Thu Nov 4, 2010 9:28am EDT
Junk science machine attacks BPA By Steve Milloy Radical environmentalists and unscrupulous profiteers have put together a perpetual junk science machine in hopes of driving the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) to extinction. That machine includes a gullible/sympathetic media that hopes to get away with telling the public only part of the story. Consider a Nov. 2 report by Science News’ Janet Raloff, “Skin is no barrier to BPA study shows; Finding suggests store receipts could be significant source of exposures.” Raloff starts her story by quoting the University of Missouri-Columbia’s Frederick vom Saal (more on him later), who says that
While no one disputes that some BPA can be absorbed through the skin, the question is how much and is this harmful? As Zalko admits in his study, BPA is metabolized to highly water soluble metabolites that are known to be estrogen inactive. This downplayed fact is, of course, devastating to the underlying scare, which relies on the hypothesis that absorbed BPA acts like an estrogen. To get around this problem, Raloff obliquely acknowledges it by stating,
She then offers a naked claim by Zalko in contradiction:
But while Zalko claims that these metabolites can be converted back into BPA in the body, this is pure speculation (wishful thinking?) on his part as there is no data to support the claim. Raloff then tells us that,
There is no doubt that the body is full of many chemicals that have a variety of roles — but there remains no evidence that the body converts any non-estrogenic BPA metabolites back into BPA. Raloff’s article then goes on to discuss another earlier Zalko study involving application of BPA to the ears of dead pigs. Zalko reports that after three days, more than half of the applied BPA diffused through the skins of the pig ears. But who cares about how much BPA can be absorbed by the ears of dead pigs? We have data from real human beings. As pointed out on this blog earlier:
Raloff relies heavily on vom Saal to validate Zalko’s claims and insinuations. But she omits mention of two salient facts about vom Saal:
Raloff concludes her article by pointing out that Appleton Papers is poised to rush to market BPA-free receipt paper for the upcoming holiday season. No doubt Raloff’s Science News hatchet-job will accompany Appleton’s marketing pitches — a perfect accompaniment as it contains not a single skeptical or dissenting voice. BPA may be targeted for extinction but here’s why the rest of us ought not let that happen. BPA is the test case for the bogus theory of endocrine disrupters. If the radical greens get away with destroying BPA’s reputation based on that never-validated hypothesis, they will proceed to use that scam against a host of other chemicals. The battle for BPA is not really about BPA. It’s about whether we will use science or circuses to determine chemical safety. For more on BPA, check out Debunkosaurus.com. (Green Hell Blog)
Obesity rates will reach 42 percent: study CHICAGO | Thu Nov 4, 2010 5:34pm EDT
Childhood obesity an 'exaggeration' Australia's childhood obesity problem is an "exaggeration" and calls for a junk food tax will do little to relieve the poverty that is its major
driver, an expert says.
Arsenic in drinking water tied to stroke risk NEW YORK | Thu Nov 4, 2010 11:30am EDT
The red tape that ties down businesses is being modestly pruned around the world. But there is still an awful lot left to cut (The Economist)
Matt Ridley is taking aim at the ocean acidification scare again. (Bishop Hill)
Brandenburg Frets over Beaver Boom Environmentalists are thrilled about the fact that more and more beavers, who are endangered in the region, are making a home along the Oder River. But as the river rodents burrow their way under the dikes, worried locals have launched a campaign to protect the levees from further damage -- as well as their lives and property. (Spiegel)
UN Report Finds Development Progress Even in Poorest Countries In a new report released on Thursday, the United Nations says most developing countries have made dramatic progress in health, education and basic living
standards in recent decades, but gaps remain.
Statement by Viv Forbes, Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition
Monsanto Sees "Right Time" For GMO Wheat Monsanto Co could start field testing genetically modified wheat within one to two years, but remains cautious about future commercialization, according to
one of the company's top wheat technology executives.
Defending the motion Against the motion (The Economist)
Skinning The Carbon Cat With EPA Environment: Standing amid the smoking ruins of Tuesday's defeat, President Obama indicates he's backing away from a cap-and-trade law. But as great as that
news is, someone still needs to watch the backdoor.
U.S. Carbon Futures Fall as Obama Cools to CO2 Market Nov. 3 -- Futures contracts in the U.S. Northeast’s carbon market fell to their lowest level in six weeks after President Barack Obama backed away from the national cap-and-trade program he once sought. (Bloomberg)
Greens desperate to avoid blame Environmentalists are trying to stomp out the suggestion that they had anything to do with the tidal wave that washed away House Democrats in Tuesday's
midterm elections.
California Climate Vote More about Protecting Investments
California voters overwhelmingly rejected Proposition 23, the ballot initiative that would have suspended the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) until the state’s unemployment level dropped below 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters. AB 32 aims to return greenhouse gas emissions in California to 1990 levels by 2020. Many Californians saw Proposition 23 as a battle between out-of-state oil producers versus environmentalists and in-state venture capitalists spurring a clean energy revolution, so it’s no surprise California rejected it by a 61 percent to 39 percent margin. But the vote was not about climate policy to the venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. Rather it was about how their investments would fall flat without the taxpayers artificially propping them up. Continue reading... (The Foundry)
Hideously expensive cap & tax by the back door, don't fall for it: Gibbs plugs renewable electricity standard White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said a renewable-electricity standard could be an area of bipartisan energy cooperation now that President Obama has
backed away from politically moribund bills to cap greenhouse-gas emissions.
National renewable power standards? Still not practical Some news reports are suggesting the U.S. is now less likely to pass climate change legislation, but prospects for policies boosting renewable power may have improved slightly. Ever more timely, then, is this 2008 analysis of proposed national renewable portfolio standards by Jay Apt, Lester Lave, and Sompop Pattanariyankool: “A national renewable portfolio standard? Not practical.” Selected quotes: “Like Mayor Bloomberg and the Alliance [for Clean Energy New York], 25 governors, and more than 100 members of Congress, we love renewable energy. However, even this wonderful idea requires a hard look to see what is sensible now and why some current and proposed policies are likely to be costly, anger many people, and undermine the reliability of our electricity system.” “We share the goals of reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing energy security, maintaining electric supply reliability, and controlling costs. The mistake is to think that a blinkered emphasis on renewable energy sources is the best way to achieve these goals. Unfortunately, this mistake has swept through 25 state legislatures.” “Many current laws mandate the use of a specific technology, apparently assuming that legislators can predict the success of future R&D. An RPS is such a law. In our judgment, laws ought to specify requirements that generation technologies must meet, such as low pollution, affordability, power quality, and domestic power sources, and leave the means of realizing the goals to technologists and the market.” Whatever goals members of Congress might have with respect to renewable power policy, there are more efficient policies available for pursuing those goals. Unless, of course, members of Congress are mainly interested in feel-good policy symbolism, mucking around in markets for political purposes and hiding the burden of federal policy in consumer’s electric bills. (The Energy Collective)
No... Climate change is main barrier to development - United Nations Climate change and destruction of the environment are the biggest threats to improving wealth and happiness around the world, according to a major United Nations report. (TDT)
Idiots! UN report warns of threat to human progress from climate change Human development report says inaction on climate change puts at risk decades of progress on education and health (Larry Elliott and Mark Tran, Guardian)
Election Results Likely to Proliferate Climate-Related Lawsuits -- Study NEW YORK -- Climate-related lawsuits are growing rapidly in the United States, even as federal climate change legislation seems to have been put on hold
indefinitely following the results of Tuesday's midterm elections.
A Surge in Lawsuits Challenging E.P.A. on Climate With many eyes on how Tuesday’s elections will affect Congressional action on climate and energy issues, a new report points out that the battle over
greenhouse gas emissions has been raging quietly on another front: the courts.
NASA GISS being sued over FOIA failures 
click for the full legal brief - PDF CEI’s Chris Horner sends word of this development, via The American Spectator: Last night the Competitive Enterprise Institute, through its outside counsel Gibson Dunn, filed its brief arguing against NASA’s rather scattershot and contradictory effort to dismiss our lawsuit requesting certain documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)(press release available here). Our suit, CEI vs. NASA (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia), followed on the heels of ClimateGate, and a December 2009 Notice of Intent to Sue if NASA did not turn over certain records withheld since CEI sought them in August 2007 and January 2008 requests. That Notice was eleven months ago and, despite NASA offering some documents and admitting — temporarily — that certain others relating to the advocacy site used by NASA scientists, RealClimate.org were “agency records”, NASA then ceased its brief steps to comply with the transparency statute FOIA. Continue reading (WUWT)
<chuckle> Binding climate change deal is impossible after Barack Obama's election defeat, says John Prescott Barack Obama's setback in the US mid-term elections has killed of any hope of securing a legally binding global climate change deal, John Prescott has said. (TDT)
Obama's Climate Pessimism Dims U.N., G20 Outlook U.S. President Barack Obama's pessimism about passing U.S. climate legislation also dims chances for action to slow global warming both in U.N. talks and in
other groups such as the G20, experts say.
Who Really Worries About Carbon Emissions? The data below is from various carbon footprint calculators scattered about the web and largely based on EPA emissions estimates and conversations. Of all the agitators and propagandists lecturing the common person about their large carbon footprint life styles, not a single one has evidenced their belief in the “climate emergency” by their own behavior. This has been particularly true for President Obama, Al Gore and Hollywood. Activity CO2 footprint (lbs CO2) Burn a gallon of gasoline 19.4 Use a kWh of electricity (U.S. average fuel mix) 1.3 Car trip to the grocery store (roundtrip 15 miles) 11.6 Mowing the lawn (1hr, gas engine push mower) 9.7 Watch TV (42” LCD), 4 hrs 1.1 Make a pot of coffee 0.3 Read the rest of this entry » (SPPI)
Eye-roller: Judge Asks U.S. To Review Polar Bear Listing A U.S. judge on Thursday asked the Obama administration to clarify whether polar bears are endangered, a listing that ultimately could be used to force
polluters to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
(Tom Nelson)
Oh boy... 2 Degree Celsius Climate Target May Need To Change: UK Scientist A widely agreed international target to avoid dangerous global warming must take account of local impacts and may need to change, said the chief scientist at
the MetOffice Hadley Center, Britain's biggest climate research center.
Scientific American Poll: 81% think the IPCC is Corrupt, with Group-think & Political Agenda 'Scientific' American may regret taking their recent opinion poll on the state of Climate Science given the eye-opening results cast by their "scientifically literate" readership. With a total of 5190 respondents, a consensus of 81.3% think the IPCC is "a corrupt organization, prone to group-think, with a political agenda" and 75% think climate change is caused by solar variation or natural processes vs. 21% who think it is due to greenhouse gases from human activity. 65% think we should do nothing about climate change since "we are powerless to stop it," and the same percentage think science should stay out of the political process. When asked "How much would you be willing to pay to forestall the risk of catastrophic climate change?" 76.7% said "nothing." (Hockey Schtick)
Confessions Of A Climate Crisis Skeptic Would a global warming really be that bad?
Twitter Bot Proves AGWers’ Mindless Attitude, Explains Their Vast Numbers Among The Educated Classes And somebody is naive enough to find the whole situation “hilarious”. In truth, if a software developer can write an automated responding machine for Twitter ready to spit out standard AGW Truths, logic indicates that people that repeat those same Truths are just as mindless and devoid of critical thinking as any computer program. As I commented at Technology Review:
This squares out nicely with Judith Curry’s statement about having in the past felt “obligated in substituting the IPCC for my own personal judgment“. It also explains perfectly why otherwise brainy people like the Bad Astronomer consistently and unremittingly fall for the shoddiest of climate-change “science” presentations. Just like on Skeptical Science, it’s a matter of switching off all forms of independent thought, and from the comfort of residing in the mainstream, of repeating the usual mantras with a certitude that goes far beyond the scientific. Replace cerebral activity with quantity of citations, and you’ll be onboard to. Obligated to do so, just like the average chatbot. ps Had myself a couple of encounters with @AI_AGW. What I remember noticing, was the absolute lack of interest in moving the discussion beyond the usual statements.
Just like the average AGWer…are we sure it WAS a chatbot? UPDATE: as if on cue, Phil Plait joins in, blissfully unaware that the age of the chatbots will pretty much force science writers to ask if you would like fries with that. This is my comment:
(Maurizio Morabito, OmniClimate)
Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, Nov. 4th 2010 The week has been dominated with news of the US mid-term elections, but that doesn’t mean it’s been all quiet on the warming front. California rejected dope and abandoned hope, Al Gore was busted for being an idle idol and the green version of George Orwell’s Youth League is alive and well in England. (Daily Bayonet)
Research into the possibility of engineering a better climate is progressing at an impressive rate—and meeting strong opposition
October 2010 Global Lower Temperature Anomaly Report Phillip Gentry has forwarded the October global lower tropospheric temperature analysis discussion to us (thanks Phil!). Since September, the images show that regional areas of cooler than average anomalies are appearing although most areas remain above average. The report is given below. ________________________________________________________ Nov. 2, 2010 Vol. 20, No. 6 For Additional Information: Dr. John Christy, (256) 961-7763 Dr. Roy Spencer, (256) 961-7960 Global Temperature Report: October 2010 The ‘coolest’ month in 2010 ties second warmest October Global climate trend since Nov. 16, 1978: +0.14 C per decade October temperatures (preliminary) Global composite temp.: +0.42 C (about 0.76 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-year average for October. Northern Hemisphere: +0.37 C (about 0.67 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-year average for October. Southern Hemisphere: +0.47 C (about 0.85 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-year average for October. Tropics: +0.15 C (about 0.27 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-year average for October. September temperatures (revised): Global Composite: +0.60 C above 20-year average Northern Hemisphere: +0.56 C above 20-year average Southern Hemisphere: +0.65 C above 20-year average Tropics: +0.29 C above 20-year average (All temperature anomalies are based on a 20-year average (1979-1998) for the month reported.) Notes on data released Nov. 2, 2010: How warm has 2010 been? So warm that although October was the coolest month so far this year year (compared to seasonal norms), it tied October 2006 as the second warmest October in the 32-year satellite climate record, according to Dr. John Christy, professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. Warmest Octobers* Year Globe NH SH Trpcs 2010 remains the second hottest year in the record, with average daily temperatures through October that were only 0.03 C — a difference that is not statistically significant — cooler than the record set in 1998 during an El Nino Pacific Ocean warming event. Color maps of local temperature anomalies may soon be available on-line at: The processed temperature data is available on-line at: http://vortex.nsstc.uah.edu/data/msu/t2lt/uahncdc.lt As part of an ongoing joint project between UAHuntsville, NOAA and NASA, Christy and Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist in the ESSC, use data gathered by advanced microwave sounding units on NOAA and NASA satellites to get accurate temperature readings for almost all regions of the Earth. This includes remote desert, ocean and rain forest areas where reliable climate data are not otherwise available. The satellite-based instruments measure the temperature of the atmosphere from the surface up to an altitude of about eight kilometers above sea level. Once the monthly temperature data is collected and processed, it is placed in a “public” computer file for immediate access by atmospheric scientists in the U.S. and abroad. Neither Christy nor Spencer receives any research support or funding from oil, coal or industrial companies or organizations, or from any private or special interest groups. All of their climate research funding comes from federal and state grants or contracts.
(Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
The American Meteorological Society has approved a new policy statement. It is presented below. This statement is further recognition of the correctness of the need for a broader view of the human role in the climate system, as we dicussed in our article Pielke Sr., R., K. Beven, G. Brasseur, J. Calvert, M. Chahine, R. Dickerson, D. Entekhabi, E. Foufoula-Georgiou, H. Gupta, V. Gupta, W. Krajewski, E. Philip Krider, W. K.M. Lau, J. McDonnell, W. Rossow, J. Schaake, J. Smith, S. Sorooshian, and E. Wood, 2009: Climate change: The need to consider human forcings besides greenhouse gases. Eos, Vol. 90, No. 45, 10 November 2009, 413. Copyright (2009) American Geophysical Union. The statement is AMS Policy Statement on Inadvertent Weather Modification This statement highlights the causes and possible effects of inadvertent weather modification[1] at local and regional scales due to aerosol[2] and gas emissions[3] and to changes in land use. The known effects can have unanticipated and often undesirable socioeconomic consequences. This statement assesses the impacts of inadvertent weather modification and suggests potential respective actions. The climatic effects of greenhouse gases (GHGs) have been summarized by the AMS Information Statement on Climate Change. This policy statement, however, highlights the key understanding of anthropogenic effects on weather in order to support effective decision making for emission controls, alternate water resources, severe-storm preparedness, and climate-change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Further, understanding anthropogenic effects on weather is important to improve short-range and longer term weather predictions. 1. Status of inadvertent weather modification This section summarizes the current knowledge of the physical processes affecting weather modification as a result of changes in land use, aerosol and gas emissions. a. Aerosol radiative effects By partially blocking solar radiation from heating the surface, air pollutants lower surface heating and evaporation rates. This slows vertical air motions, and hence causes slower dispersal rates of air pollutants, suppresses formation of convective clouds and precipitation. Reduced surface evaporation has major implications for the global hydrological cycle and how it responds to the combined forcing of GHGs, land use change, and aerosol pollution. In addition, surface deposition of dark aerosols accelerates ice-melt rates, hence affecting water resources. While these conclusions are based on sound physical meteorology, many of these effects are yet to be quantified. b. Cloud mediated effects of aerosol Aerosols act mostly as cloud-drop condensation nuclei (CCN), and some of them as ice nuclei (IN), both of which change cloud radiative and precipitation properties in complex ways. Over oceans, emissions from fossil-fuel-burning ships produce tracks, observed to dramatically influence the extent and persistence of local shallow cloud cover, reducing the amount of solar radiation received at the surface and enhancing the amount reflected back to space. Aerosols also suppress precipitation from shallow or short-lived clouds (e.g., orographic cap clouds). Their impacts on deep convective clouds are much less certain, but are of potentially great importance. Recent research suggests that, depending on meteorological conditions, aerosols can either increase or decrease rainfall from such clouds. In warm moist atmospheres, aerosols often invigorate deep convective clouds, usually resulting in greater electrical activity, stronger damaging winds, and a greater likelihood of flash floods. Studies indicate that aerosols might also modulate the intensity of tornadoes and hurricanes. c. Changes in land use One example of significant land use change is the rapid global increase in urbanization and its associated changes in land surface properties and topography that create “urban heat islands” and urban barrier effects that perturb regional air flows, which thus redistributes precipitation, runoff, and flood risk over and around cites. Land-use changes alter surface albedos, as well as surface fluxes of heat, water vapor, and momentum to the atmosphere, and thus modify local and regional atmospheric circulations, which in turn can modify weather. For example, when a forest is removed and replaced by an agricultural field, it can result in a significantly different albedo, especially after a snow storm. Artificial lakes, wind and solar farms also change the surface fluxes and albedo. Such changes also occur indirectly through increases in nitrogen deposition and atmospheric CO2, which alter leaf area amounts and thus the portioning of latent and sensible heat fluxes. Poor agricultural practices that favor wind erosion, such as from summer fallow, overgrazing, and deforestation, as well as from tillage, can produce large quantities of dust that absorb and reflect solar radiation which modify clouds and precipitation processes. d. Integrated effects The cumulative changes in surface and atmospheric heat and moisture profiles modify atmospheric circulation and weather patterns on all scales, including synoptic storm tracks in ways that are just beginning to be explored. In the aggregate, these changes can affect air quality, ecosystems, and water resources. The cumulative impacts of inadvertent weather modification may thus result in local or regional-scale climatic alterations superimposed on, and interacting with, natural and GHG-induced climate variability and change. Understanding, still in its infancy, of inadvertent weather modification is thus necessary for understanding the sources, triggers, and response mechanisms of climate change. 2. Mitigation Mitigation or avoidance, of these unintended impacts requires:
Achieving these objectives requires:
3. Adaptation Adaptation is necessary when impacts cannot be fully mitigated. Adaptation to the unavoidable components of unintended weather modification requires:
4. Recommendations High-priority research and new technological capabilities are required to improve understanding of the impacts of inadvertent weather modification. These might include:
These research efforts on unintended weather modification should be recognized as addressing parts of the broader question of climate variability and change, which crosses geopolitical boundaries. As was the case of acid rain and stratospheric ozone depletion, national and international frameworks should be developed for addressing the related environmental and ethical issues for inadvertent weather modification. [1] Inadvertent weather modification is the unintended consequence of an act, either on purpose or accidentally, that results in changes in the weather. [2] An aerosol is a suspension of solid or liquid particles in a gas. Atmospheric aerosols can have natural or anthropogenic sources, the latter primarily through the combustion of fuels, but also from blowing dust due to degradation of land surfaces, particularly in semi-arid regions. The large difference in geographic locations between sources and sinks (in deposition areas) and the variety of physical and chemical processes affecting them, lead to a large spatial variability in aerosol concentration, size distribution, and composition. Aerosols are removed by gradual fall due to gravity (dry deposition) or precipitation (wet deposition), and almost all have a tropospheric half life from a few days to a few weeks. Evidence exists that aerosols modify weather systems, so that the aggregated changes could affect regional systems. [3] Trace gases that result in noticeable atmospheric effects, and that are considered as a group in this statement include: carbon dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, tropospheric ozone, nitrous oxide, and nitrogen oxide. These gases have natural and/or anthropogenic sources. (Roger Pielek Sr., Climate Science)
Policy makers should promote abundant and affordable energy, and oppose policies that raise energy prices and restrict energy access.
An Election-Night Win For Domestic Energy Jobs by Ben Lieberman Draw up a map of the U.S. and shade in the regions that rely on energy jobs – places like Appalachia, the Rockies, western Gulf states, Alaska – and
that’s where we saw some of the strongest anti-Obama sentiment succeeding on election day. Read the full story (Cooler Heads)
Investors are realists? Go figure... Coal Still King As Green Power IPO Struggles Waning investor interest in clean energy contrasted sharply with enthusiasm for coal on Thursday as shares in Enel Green Power fell on their debut while Coal
India's soared.
Export coal: our power gift to Asia SOUTH Korea and Taiwan are managing to produce cheaper power than Australia, even though they have to ship the Australian coal that fires their furnaces.
MILLOY: Clean coal is as dead as 'cap-and-trade' Mitch McConnell had better study up on the election results While we shouldn't expect our left-wing elitist president to understand Tuesday's electoral rejection of his "progressive" prescriptions for
America, we should expect Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, to get it.
Real Clean Coal: Japan’s Unit #2 Isogo Plant by Robert Peltier I’m often asked: what is the cleanest coal-fired power plant in the world? I am also asked: how “clean” is clean coal? If emissions levels from a gas-fired combined cycle plant are the measure of “clean,” then there are emissions control technologies available today for coal-fired plants that can produce comparable emissions. To be sure, low emissions from coal-fired plants isn’t a technology problem, it’s a political problem. Unit 2 at J-POWER’s Isogo Thermal Power Station is an exemplar for low emission coal-fired plants. The second unit at the plant entered commercial service in July 2009, so the plant has been in operation for about 18 months. The 600-MW ultrasupercritical unit 2 joins an earlier, similar plant built in 2002. Together, these two new plants replaced 1960s-vintage coal-fired plants and doubled power generation from the small project site. In addition, the new unit improves the plant’s gross thermal efficiency to about 45%, while reducing air emissions to those of a gas-fired combined-cycle plant. This technology, the real deal, is available today for “repowering” existing coal plants. If the future belongs to the efficient, coal is very much still in the game. [Read more →] (MasterResource)
‘A coup d’etat against the carbon cronies’: chatting with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Grist
(Tom Nelson)
Opposition to nuclear has led to more CO2 - say environmentalists Green opposition to nuclear power has led to one billion extra tonnes of carbon being pumped into atmosphere, according to environmentalists who have changed their minds over the controversial technology. (TDT)
Solar blow-out may cost $600m in electricity rises ENERGYAUSTRALIA has warned of a $600 million blow-out in power bills next year, claiming the federal government has underestimated the number of certificates
it will issue as an incentive for installing small-scale solar energy systems on homes and businesses.
Autism risk gene may rewire brain, U.S. study finds Too many connections in the frontal lobe of the brain may help explain some of the learning problems experienced by people with autism, U.S. researchers said
on Wednesday.
No link seen between high-carb diet, colon cancer Chinese women who eat a traditional diet rich in white rice and other starchy foods that spur a surge in blood sugar do not seem to have an elevated risk of colon cancer, a new study suggests. (Reuters Health)
Well duh! of the moment: More drugs do not always mean better care: studies Spending more on drugs does not always translate into healthier patients, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday. (Reuters)
Science takes a fresh look at mind-bending drugs Illicit drugs may be a scourge of modern life but the use of mind-altering substances is threaded through human history and cultures, from betel nut in Asia
to coca leaf in the Andes to espresso coffee in Europe.
Cancer cream poses little-known risk to pets Scientific journals usually aren't the province of puppy pictures, but the October 2010 issue of Archives of Dermatology contains an image of pitiable Ruby,
a young Yorkshire Terrier with a tragic medical history: Ruby died of accidental poisoning after gnawing on a tube of her owner's cancer therapy, a potent cream
called 5-fluorouracil.
Barack Obama's green agenda crushed at the ballot box With a slew of new climate change deniers entering Congress, Barack Obama's environmental ambitions are now dead
So, how's that Socialism workin' for ya? Accept reforms or “we will fall off the cliff” warns Raúl Castro Cuban President Raul Castro told unionists to accept layoffs and reforms that open the way for private enterprise as necessary for the survival of socialism.
I could not be more pleased that Jeff Immelt has agreed to deliver this year’s lecture to my Business and Sustainability Programme. Of course, he comes here as the Chief Executive of one of the world’s biggest companies and I was reading that they employ some 323,000 employees. I am delighted to say, one of the companies which has put sustainability at the very heart of its business model. (Wails)
German Wetlands Are Increasingly Yielding to Agriculture Even as Berlin demands that developing countries preserve their rainforests, the country is doing little for biodiversity back home. Bogs and marshland in
Germany are increasingly yielding to corn farming -- resulting in the release of huge quantities of CO2.
Rats targeted in mass poisoning to save endangered birds British scientists are to mount a £1.7m operation to save a seabird from extinction by eradicating rats from one of the world's most remote islands.
Calls for boycott of British chicken RSPCA says welfare standards are far higher in Thailand than in domestic factory farms Shoppers who care about animal welfare should shun standard British chicken and buy meat imported from thousands of miles away in Thailand, according to the
RSPCA.
Of course... The Hedwig effect: Harry Potter blamed for endangering owls In the years since he was a callow pupil at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter and his associated world have known no shortage of
controversy.
Special To Climate Depot: 'What Does the 2010 Election Mean for Cap-and-Trade and the EPA Greenhouse Gas Regulations?' -- By Andrew Wheeler
As it should be: Day of reckoning for climate vote House Democrats who voted for the 2009 bill to cap greenhouse gas emissions – dubbed cap-and-tax by GOP opponents – had a terrible night.
Re-educating Mitch McConnell on clean coal Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) apparently missed yesterday’s message from voters on cap-and-trade. Sen. McConnell said today that:
Earth to Sen. McConnell, “clean coal” is old-think — a discredited cap-and-trade concept. Some in the coal industry and some coal-burning electric utilities were interested in cap-and-trade as long as taxpayers forked over the billions (trillions) of dollars for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). To the extent that any so-called environmentalists paid any lip service to clean coal and CCS, it was only to lure coal and utility fools into cap-and-trade. But today, cap-and-trade is as dead as Francisco Franco. And you can bet that the 112th Congress — at least on the House side — will not appropriate billions of dollars for CCS. So clean coal is dead too, except in the minds of establishment zombies who slept through yesterday. If all anyone is worried about with coal is carbon dioxide, then coal is already clean — and that’s what all Republican Senate candidates believed, except perhaps for John McCain and Mark Kirk. Don’t think cap-and-trade was a big issue yesterday? Consider this analysis from a former senior Senate staffer:
Mitch McConnell had better wake up to the new reality in Washington, DC — a reality that does not include the discredited and lamebrain ideas of the 111th Congress. Many of yesterday’s Republican victors would probably just as soon have Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) as their leader. If Sen. McConnell keeps prattling about ”clean coal,” he may just one day find himself in the same scrap heap as all the Democrats who were smoked yesterday for their votes for Waxman-Markey. (Green Hell Blog)
Andy Revkin: The Real Threat to Science in the New Political Climate A Dot Earth reader, J. Connors, reacted to my piece on the post-election prospect for hostile hearings on climate science by posting a spot-on comment about the real threat to such science in the new political climate:
I see the looming problem as much deeper, with cuts in money for science unlikely to be climate-centric. This election almost guarantees an end to the brief stimulus-driven period of increased investment in advancing energy technologies that could supplant finite fossil fuels. (NYT)
Dead wrong: Why the United Nations (UN) climate change talks are now largely irrelevant A debate organised by Oxfam earlier this week asked: Will the UN climate talks save the planet or is it time to look elsewhere?
Judith Curry looks at where the whole global warming thing came from. A must-read. (via Bishop Hill)
Michael Mann has been given space in New Scientist to say nothing, well, New.
As so, so many people have noted, the emails are much, much worse in context. (Bishop Hill)
From the veggie brigade: Two tonnes of CO2 emitted per person simply by eating Each person emits around two tonnes of CO2 per year just by eating, according to a recent study by researchers at the Universidad de Almeria (UAL). This
means that, in total, activities related to human food consumption amount to 20 percent of yearly CO2 emissions.
EU Nears Carbon Offset Plan, Governments Express Doubts The European Union's executive Commission wants to ban from 2013 the most common types of carbon offsets used by factories and power plants, to boost the
credibility of its emissions trading scheme, two EU sources said.
Carbon price 'inefficient' without extra measures, say Greens The Greens have rejected a call by an expert adviser to the cross-party climate committee that expensive greenhouse programs such as solar feed-in tariffs be phased out after a carbon price comes into effect. (SMH)
Open to the public – Climate Webinar
Webinar: Fossil fuels make the third world more resilient against climate change. Speaker: Indur Goklany When: November 4 at 3:30-5:30 PM, U.S. Eastern Daylight Saving Time. Organized by Theo Richel at Dutch website, “Der Groene Rekenkamer” [which is "The Green Court", in English, according to Google translator]. FREE – To Register: Continue reading (WUWT)
We learn from the diligent Tom Nelson that the a
$52 million Bering Sea global warming project, assessing the health of the Pollock fishery, is going down the pan – having been "hit by three coldest
years on record".
Uh-huh... Water flowing through ice sheets accelerates warming, could speed up ice flow Melt water flowing through ice sheets via crevasses, fractures and large drains called moulins can carry warmth into ice sheet interiors, greatly
accelerating the thermal response of an ice sheet to climate change, according to a new study involving the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Greenland Ground Zero for People send me stuff. In my email this past week I got a cover photo of the June 2010 issue of National Geographic along with this message from Al in Georgia:
Now how can you claim that on the one hand we created the current warming trend and on the other hand admit that there was a time when the climate was much warmer than today. In fact, use that history as a means of suggesting how things might look as we humans warm the planet to temperatures never seen except during the time of Erik the terrible. What a riot!  Meltwater stream
flowing into a large moulin in the ablation zone (area below the equilibrium line) of the Greenland ice sheet. (Image courtesy Roger J. Braithwaite, The
University of Manchester, UK via GISS)
Indeed. The email circulated, and that prompted this famous photo being posted: Of course images like this one at left showing water tumbling down a huge moulin are being held up with gloom and doom scenarios that say Greenland’s Ice is melting “faster than expected” and we’ll get six feet of sea level rise from it along with a 10-15°F temperature rise by the year 2100. Perhaps. But, moulins have existed since Greenland had ice, they are just part of the natural landscape and processes. They aren’t “new” to our time. One of the photos we don’t often get to see was also circulated in the email, by somebody who lives in Greenland and knows what this is really all about. It’s a real eye opener: Continue reading (WUWT)
Models not accurately representing Earth's climate? Shocked, shocked, we say: Volcanoes have shifted Asian rainfall Defying models, some regions drier, others wetter
This week's guess: Earth's climate change 20,000 years ago reversed the circulation of the Atlantic Ocean Global warming today could have similar effects on ocean currents and could accelerate climate change
Guest Post “CO2: The Thermostat That Controls Earth’s Temperature” By Andy Lacis In response to my post Comment On The Science Paper “Atmospheric CO2: Principal Control Knob Governing Earth’s Temperature” By Lacis Et Al 2010 Andy Lacis of GISS graciously provided a guest post in response. I very much appreciate this constructive interaction. I will follow up with a response in the next few days. GUEST POST BY ANDY LACIS: “CO2: The Thermostat That Controls Earth’s Temperature”
There is a close analogy to be drawn between the way an ordinary thermostat maintains the temperature of a house, and the way that atmospheric carbon dioxide (and the other minor non-condensing greenhouse gases) control the global temperature of Earth. The ordinary thermostat produces no heat of its own. Its role is to switch the furnace on and off, depending on whether the house temperature is lower or higher than the thermostat setting. If we were to carefully monitor the temperature of the house, we would see that the temperature does not stay constant at the set value, but rather exhibits a “natural variability” as the house temperature slips below the set value and then overshoots the mark with a time constant of minutes to tens of minutes, because of the thermal inertia of the house and because heating by the furnace (when it is on) is more powerful than the steady heat loss to the outdoors. If the thermostat is suddenly turned to a very high setting, the temperature will begin to rise at a rate dictated by the inertia of the house and strength of the furnace. Turning the thermostat back to normal will stop the heating. Atmospheric carbon dioxide performs a role similar to that of the house thermostat in setting the equilibrium temperature of the Earth. It differs from the house thermostat in that carbon dioxide itself is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) warming the ground surface by means of the greenhouse effect. It is this sustained warming that enables water vapor and clouds to maintain their atmospheric distributions as the so-called feedback effects that amplify the initial warming provided by the non-condensing GHGs, and in the process, account for the bulk of the total terrestrial greenhouse effect. Since the radiative effects associated with the buildup of water vapor to near-saturation levels and the subsequent condensation into clouds are far stronger than the equilibrium level of radiative forcing by the non-condensing GHGs, this results in large local fluctuations in temperature about the global equilibrium value. Together with the similar non-linear responses involving the ocean heat capacity, the net effect is the “natural variability” that the climate system exhibits regionally, and on inter-annual and decadal timescales, whether the global equilibrium temperature of the Earth is being kept fixed, or is being forced to re-adjust in response to changes in the level of atmospheric GHGs. This assessment comes about as the result of climate modeling experiments which show that it is the non-condensing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons that provide the necessary atmospheric temperature structure that ultimately determines the sustainable range for atmospheric water vapor and cloud amounts, and thus controls their radiative contribution to the terrestrial greenhouse effect. From this it follows that these non-condensing greenhouse gases provide the temperature environment that is necessary for water vapor and cloud feedback effects to operate, without which the water vapor dominated greenhouse effect would inevitably collapse and plunge the global climate into an icebound Earth state.
Within only the past century, the CO2 control knob has been turned sharply upward toward a much hotter global climate. The pre-industrial level of atmospheric carbon dioxide was about 280 ppm, which is representative of the inter-glacial maximum level of atmospheric CO2. During ice age extremes, the level of atmospheric CO2 drops to near 180 ppm, for which the global temperature is about 5 °C colder. The rapid recent increase in atmospheric CO2 has been attributed to human industrial activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels. This has pushed atmospheric CO2 toward the 400 ppm level, far beyond the inter-glacial maximum. The climate system is trying to respond to the new setting of the global temperature thermostat, and this response has been the rise in global surface temperature by about 0.2 °C per decade for the past three decades. It has been suggested that we are well past the 300 to 350 ppm target level for atmospheric CO2 beyond which dangerous anthropogenic interference in the climate system would be expected to exceed the 25% risk tolerance for impending degradation of land and ocean ecosystems, sea level rise, and inevitable disruption of the socio-economic and food-producing infrastructure3. This prospect of a rising risk of triggering unacceptable environmental consequences makes reduction and control of atmospheric CO2 a serious and pressing issue for humanity, worthy of real time attention. Radiative modeling analyses of the terrestrial greenhouse structure described in a parallel study in the Journal of Geophysical Research 2 found that water vapor accounts for about 50% of the Earth’s greenhouse effect, with clouds contributing 25%, carbon dioxide 20%, and the minor greenhouse gases (GHGs) and aerosols accounting for the remaining 5%, as shown in Fig. 1. Thus, while the non-condensing greenhouse gases account for only 25% of the total greenhouse effect, it is these non-condensing GHGs that actually control the strength of the terrestrial greenhouse effect since the water vapor and cloud feedback contributions are not self-sustaining and as such, only provide amplification. Because carbon dioxide accounts for 80% of the non-condensing GHG forcing in the current climate atmosphere, atmospheric carbon dioxide therefore qualifies as the principal control knob that governs the temperature of Earth.
The numerical climate experiment described in Fig. 2. demonstrates the fundamental radiative forcing role of the non-condensing GHGs, and the feedback (only) role of water vapor and clouds. This climate modeling experiment was performed using the GISS modelE general circulation coupled atmosphere-ocean climate model by zeroing out all of the non-condensing greenhouse gases. Doing this removed the radiative forcing that sustains the temperature support for water vapor and cloud feedbacks, causing rapid condensation and precipitation of water vapor from the atmosphere, collapsing the terrestrial greenhouse effect, and plunging the Earth into an icebound state. The scope of the climate impact becomes apparent in just 10 years. During the first year alone, global mean surface temperature falls by 4.6 °C. After 50 years, the global temperature stands at –21 °C, a decrease by 34.8 °C. Atmospheric water vapor is at ~10% of the control climate value (22.6 to 2.2 mm). Global cloud cover increases from its 58% control value to more than 75%; the global sea ice fraction goes from 4.6% to 46.7%, causing the planetary albedo of Earth to increase from ~29% to 41.8%. This has the effect to reduce the absorbed solar energy to further exacerbate the global cooling. After 50 years, one third of the ocean surface still remains ice-free, even though the global surface temperature is colder than –21 °C. At tropical lati-tudes, incident solar radiation is enough to keep the ocean from freezing. While this thermal oasis within an otherwise icebound Earth appears to be stable, at least on the short timescale illustrated, further calculations with an interactive ocean are needed to verify the potential for long-term stability. The surface tem-peratures in Fig. 3 are only marginally warmer than 1 °C within the remaining low latitude heat island. From the foregoing, it is clear that CO2 is the key atmospheric gas that exerts principal control (80% of the non-condensing GHG forcing) over the strength of the terrestrial greenhouse effect. Water vapor and clouds are fast-acting feedback effects, and as such, they are controlled by the radiative forcing supplied by the non-condensing GHGs. The bottom line is that atmospheric carbon dioxide acts as a thermostat in regulating the temperature of Earth. The rapid increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide due to human industrial activity is therefore setting the course for continued global warming. Because of the large heat capacity of the climate system, the global surface temperature does not respond instantaneously to the sharp upturn of the carbon dioxide thermostat, which at this moment stands at 386.80 ppm compared to the normal interglacial maximum level of 280 ppm. Since humans are responsible for changing the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide, they then also have control over the global temperature of the Earth. Humans are at a difficult crossroad. Carbon dioxide is the lifeblood of civilization as we know it. It is also the direct cause fueling an impending climate disaster. There is no viable alternative to counteract global warming except through direct human effort to reduce the atmospheric CO2 level.
The basic physics for the present study is rooted in the high precision measurements documenting the rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as fully described in the IPCC AR4 report, and in the comprehensive HITRAN database4 of atmospheric absorption data. The radiative transfer calculations involve well-understood physics that is applied to the global energy balance of the Earth, which is maintained by radiative processes only, since the global net energy transports must equal zero. This demonstrates the nature of the terrestrial greenhouse effect as being sustained by the non-condensing GHGs, with magnification of the greenhouse effect by water vapor and cloud feedbacks, and leaves no doubt that increasing GHGs cause global warming. References 1Andrew A. Lacis, Gavin A. Schmidt, David Rind, and Reto A. Ruedy, 2010: Atmospheric CO2: Principal control knob governing Earth’s temperature. Science, 330, 356-359, doi:10.1126/science.1190653. 2Schmidt, G.A., R. Ruedy, R.L. Miller, and A.A. Lacis, 2010: The attribution of the present-day total greenhouse effect. J. Geophys. Res., in press. 3Hansen, J., Mki. Sato, P. Kharecha, et al., 2008: Target atmospheric CO2: Where should humanity aim? Open Atmos. Sci. J., 2, 217-231, doi:10.2174/1874282300802010217. 4L.S. Rothman, I.E. Gordon, A. Barbe, et al., 2009: The HITRAN 2008 molecular spectroscopic database. J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer, 110, 533-572. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
China's Dream For Rare Earths Rests On Grim Costs China's quest for a green future built on rare earths metals seems a world away from Ren Limin as he casts lumps of one of the metals in a chemical-spattered
shed thick with acrid fumes.
Tom Pyle (IER) on the Election Results and Energy Policy (beware of ‘all of the above’ Republicans) by Administrator Yesterday’s election clearly demonstrates that the American people reject President Obama’s handling of the economy. Just as the 2008 elections were interpreted as a repudiation of President Bush’s agenda (particularly with respect to foreign policy), the 2010 mid-term election shows that America does not support President Obama’s domestic priorities. Specific to energy and the environment, one clear message from the election is that cap-and-trade, top-down, command-and-control regulations are a losing argument with the voters. Candidates who voted for cap-and-trade, with few exceptions, ran away from that vote. Voters understand that cap-and-trade is a national energy tax. With respect to energy policy, the election results will likely yield a modest and marginal improvement. While it will certainly not be the “environmental doomsday” that the national environmental lobby claims, unless the Republicans have truly changed their stripes, it will also not be the dramatic improvement that some predict or hope. The Good Hopefully, the new Republican majority in the House will provide a counterweight to the Obama administration’s goal of making coal, oil, and natural gas more expensive and more difficult to produce domestically. In the past, Republicans have not exactly been paragons of the free-market, so it is as important as ever to continue to hold Congress and the administration accountable whenever they move towards government intervention in energy markets. The Not-So-Good In recent weeks, leading Republicans have already pushed for a federal renewable electricity mandate, a carbon tax, utility price caps, a tax on oil imports, and a newer, larger ethanol mandate. Unfortunately, many Republicans, it seems, are willing to compromise free market principles for the sake of political expediency. [Read more →] (MasterResource)
Why? Oil Majors Invest In Ethanol, Expect 2011 Recovery Major oil companies, anticipating a rebound in ethanol prices next year, are eager to stake claims in biofuels markets and benefit from new U.S. fuel
blending allowances and other incentives, senior executives said.
People sometimes ask which biofuels are competitive head to head with crude oil. By competitive, I mean those that can actually compete favorably with oil prices on a level playing field (i.e., they don’t require big subsidies or mandates in order to compete). [Read More] (Robert Rapier, ET)
Here's an unexpected bonus: Wind farms could be forced out by oil rigs Plans to build massive wind farms off the coast of Britain are in doubt due to an obscure piece of legislation that means oil companies can force turbines to
be moved if fossil fuels are discovered in the area.
First peer-reviewed study finds BPA levels in US foods 1,000 times less than limits WASHINGTON, Nov. 2, 2010 — For the first time in the United States, researchers are reporting in a peer-reviewed scientific journal today detection of Bisphenol A (BPA) in fresh and canned food as well as food wrapped in plastic packaging. The amounts in the limited sample, however, were almost 1,000 times lower than the "tolerable daily intake" levels set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Their report appears online in the American Chemical Society journal, Environmental Science & Technology. (ACS)
Irrelevant "information" of the moment: Exposure of humans to cosmetic UV filters is widespread UV filters were present in 85 percent of human milk samples of a research published in Chemosphere
Hospitals Have Hope in Dutch 'Search and Destroy' Strategy Every day, several people die in German hospitals after being infected with bacteria resistant to most antibiotics. Though the threat is growing, a strategy
long-used in the Netherlands is catching on and raising hopes.
San Francisco law curbs McDonald's Happy Meal toys LOS ANGELES | Tue Nov 2, 2010 7:59pm EDT
November 2, 2010 … behind the green curtain in the Peoples Republic of Maryland. As I pulled into the garage at my polling place, the University of Maryland at Shady Grove, I was prevented from parking my Ford Expedition in the first convenient space because the best spaces were for:
Note that these spaces weren’t even for the handicapped or pregnant women. They for politically correct greenie-weenies who drive cars like this:
I hope the driver of that car never has the misfortune of running into anything larger than a Kleenex box. So I was forced to park on the 4th level — I mean the “Recycling” level:
The sickness of it all became clear when I got off the elevator on the first level — I mean the “Earth” level:
Fully primed to vote, I completed my mission of voting against every sitting comrade in the PRM. BTW, in the spirit of Alaskans-who-think-they-are-entitled-to-be-Senators, I wrote in Lisa Murkowski for Maryland Attorney General. The sitting comrade-AG had no other competition. (Green Hell Blog)
“The Future of Economic Freedom” (A corporate call to principled action) by Administrator
On Nov. 2, the United States will hold an important mid-term election. At stake will be control of the U.S. Congress, 39 state governorships and thousands of other state and local offices. High unemployment, record deficits, a sluggish economy and a swelling federal government have become flash point issues for millions of concerned Americans of every political persuasion. For the nearly 50,000 Koch company employees in the United States, this election is an opportunity to help decide the future of economic freedom. A Heavy Hitter According to the International Monetary Fund, the United States accounts for about one-fourth of the world’s total output of goods and services, and one-fifth of the world’s purchasing power. Like it or not, what’s bad for the United States – including misguided federal policies that undermine economic freedom – is usually bad for the rest of the world. What has proven to be best for all societies is economic freedom. Citizens on every continent enjoy more prosperity, cleaner environments, longer lives and higher literacy rates in economically free societies. That’s why, for more than 40 years, Koch Industries has openly and consistently supported the principles of economic freedom and market-based policies. The Challenge Unfortunately, these values and principled point of view are now being strongly opposed by many politicians (and their media allies) who favor ever-increasing government. Government – like fire, water, chemicals and most everything – is productive at some level and destructive at others. [Read more →] (MasterResource)
Climate Change Hysteria Falters. Water Is The New Target Self-proclaimed environmentalists and people who use the environment as a vehicle for political control, often the same people, have not quite destroyed
environmentalism.
Biodiversity: Losing which species? Churchville, VA—The UN has held another Green Summit in Nagoya, Japan to save the wild species—again. The planet’s temperatures have failed to increase
for 12 years, and the public is losing interest in man-made global warming. So, back to the cuddly wild animals as the excuse for shutting down the modern
world.
A few thoughts on California’s Proposition 23 “battle for the planet”
As we head to the polls November 2nd, one of the ugliest and most watched global warming battles will get a litmus test by the voters of California. First some background. California’s Global Warming Solutions Act called AB32 was passed by the Legislature in 2006 and requires the state to cut greenhouse gas emissions (mostly CO2) to 1990 levels by 2020. Proposition 23 on the ballot tomorrow would suspend the law temporarily, until the state unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters. Proponents of AB23 say the suspension is needed because California is financially and figuratively broke, energy costs are already the highest in the nation (I paid 40 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity this summer in 100 degree heat), and it will drive more businesses out of California. Relocation has been on my mind as of late, that’s for sure. Many of my business friends are thinking similar thoughts. California is poised to kill the goose that laid the golden state egg. Continue reading (WUWT)
Proposition 23: Backers were outspent, out-organized The fight over Proposition 23, the ballot initiative to suspend California's global warming law, "will definitely be a David versus Goliath
battle," Steve Maviglio, spokesman for the opponents told a reporter in September. "Our slingshot versus their oily club."
EPW Policy Beat: No Harm, No Foul What is harm? For that matter, what is “irreparable harm”? In an economic sense, one would think unemployment, production cutbacks, or even bankruptcy would qualify. Not according to EPA. (EPW)
Australians want a new election - now AUSTRALIANS want to go back to the polls - sooner rather than later, a social trends report has found.
U.N. Climate Change Conferences Are Full of Hot Air Americans for Prosperity will be working to ensure that it does. AFP is a national grassroots organization that believes global warming alarmism of the kind featured at the U.N. Climate Change Conference is a key reason why lawmakers refuse to embrace market-based solutions to energy challenges. At the last U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, AFP documented who the supporters of these conferences are and exposed the hypocrisy of its delegates. AFP is going to be at it again with its Hot Air Tour covering the 2010 U.N. Climate Change Conference and a Live From Cancun simulcast. Continue reading... (The Foundry)
Still seeking global taxation: UN could tap private sector to meet $100bn Copenhagen pledge Taxes on foreign exchange transactions, carbon allowances, aviation and shipping are mooted suggestions in leaked report by UN advisers
Column - Why you may soon need a warmist’s permission to eat SO you think I exaggerate when I say global warming is just the latest cause of the closet totalitarian?
Here's some expertise for you: California Governor to Host Leaders at Global Summit on Climate Change California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced that many prominent leaders from around the world will participate in the "Governors' Global
Summit 3: Building the Green Economy," to be held Nov. 15 and 16 at the University of California, Davis.
“World of Warmcraft” (“Fate of the World”) – Why Skeptics Should Rejoice There we go again with the Guardian trying to launch yet another warmist plaything, this time of course not killing anybody, or in truth, killing even more people than before. I am talking of course of “Fate of the World“. a game that (according to Adam Vaughan)
Obviously, with much less splatter to show there is not going to be an outcry like with Franny Armstrong’s disaster, yet there are many reasons to rejoice at this ultimately self-defeating propaganda piece. You see, the video game, renamed “World of Warmcraft” on Twitter by the incomparable Ed Yong of Discover Blogs fame, is surely like a dream come true for many a skeptic. As suggested by Vaughan, and then reported in an accompanying first-hand-experience article by Jack Arnott, gamers aren’t going to be presented pretty choices:
(Yes, yes, of course it’s all in the spirit of “dark humor“. Who would have ever thought, “dark humor” includes now playing mass-murders and genocide on a games console…let’s get out those Rwanda jokes and Hiroshima stand-up comedy!!) What will people learn from Fate of the World, but that, according to mainstream AGW belief, hugely unpopular policies are needed to prevent “environmental consequences“, alongside forcing people to remain (or to become) poor, killing many of them by absolutely unlawful, violent regime-change sponsorships, eliminating the undesirables, etc etc? Even the existence of a “Dr Apocalypse” mode, “in which your goal is to raise temperatures around the world as much as you can without losing the political support of different regions” (in Arnott’s words) can be easily seen as a further manifestation of “AGW believer bloodlust”. Why, if I will ever need to demonstrate that the average AGWer is a humanity-hating warmonger looking forward to inspire violence and ruin the lives of as many people as possible…I’ll do worse than pointing to a copy of “Fate of the World”. (Maurizio Morabito, OmniClimate)
Charles Ashurst has penned a column so full of hippie angst that Jane Fonda must be trying to buy the movie rights to it.
By Einar Du Rietz
Google translation of Swedish GT Expressen article: Here Al Gore at idle GOTHENBURG. Al Gore gave a speech on Trade in Gothenburg on his fight against climate emissions.
After the marketing disaster of the century, 10:10 desperately needed to save some face. They had accidentally showed us their totalitarian desires and lost at least 20,000 members in a week. How embarrassing. How do you hide that? In true PR form, you frame your membership numbers and “save” the members you lost: keep the thousands of people (or fakers) who have joined and then left your group on your tally. (Just don’t call it “current members”.) On their new redesigned home page they say they have 110,340 worldwide …wait for it…”sign ups”.
But as far as the UK members go, what was once 94,910, is now still just 74,190. More » (Jo Nova)
Who are the Climate Fools? – Climate Fools Day Recap
According to the newspapers a ‘cabal of sceptics’ and ‘dinosaurs’ descended on London on Climate Fools Day. I actually attended the Climate Fools Day meeting in the House of Commons on 27th October 2010, unlike the mainstream media who stayed away. In the UK, a few politicians are just realizing that in 5 years time (around the time of the next election) about one third of the UK power stations will be FORCED to close to meet strict new European Union Pollution (CO2 emissions) rules. One of these politicians is Graham Stringer MP, he is on the Science and Technology Committee in the House of Commons, his concern is for the poor. It is perhaps now dawning on some other backbench MP’s that ‘keeping the lights’ on, may be more important than ‘saving the planet’ in 50 – 100 years time, to the majority of general public that actually vote for them. So who are the Climate Fools? Continue reading (WUWT)
Eye-roller: Earth will take 100,000 years to recover from global warming say geologists The Earth will take 100,000 years to recover from global warming if mankind continues to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, geologists have
warned.
Lawrence Solomon: CO2 blesses China and Tibet A team of scholars from China and Canada provides more evidence of the benefits that CO2 provides to ecologically stressed regions, in a new study entitled Evaluating the effects of future climate change and elevated CO2 on the water use efficiency in terrestrial ecosystems of China. Water use efficiency is an important determinant of plant yield, defined as the number of units of a crop produced from each unit of available water. Based on computer models that project changes in the Chinese ecosystems in the 90-year period to 2099, the scholars conclude that “further elevated CO2 concentrations will significantly enhance the [water-use efficiency] over China by the end of the twenty-first century, especially in forest areas, adding that the benefits would occur “primarily in high latitude and altitude regions” such as in the Tibetan Plateau. Not all regions would benefit, however – some of China’s southern areas would experience a lower water use efficiency. The China-based scholars hail from the International Institute for Earth System Science at Nanjing University, the International Research Center of Spatial Ecology at Zhejiang Forestry University in Linan, the Institute of Forest Ecology and Environment at the Chinese Academy of Forestry in Beijing and the State Key Laboratory of Hydrology, Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University in Nanjing. The Canada-based scholars come from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of British Columbia and the Institute of Environment Sciences at the University of Quebec at Montreal. Their peer-reviewed study appears in the October 23 issue of Ecological Modelling. LawrenceSolomon@nextcity.com
New atmospheric model says tail wags dog
From the AGU Highlights on Eurekalert, how to make models do what you want by removing important portions of the natural system: Atmospheric dynamics, not ocean, could drive El Niño features Scientists generally believe that ocean dynamics are the primary factor controlling El Niño sea surface temperature variability. However, new simulations show that atmospheric dynamics can account for many of the features of El Niño that were previously thought to be controlled by ocean dynamics. Dommenget uses a series of atmospheric model simulations coupled to a simple ocean model that contained no ocean dynamics. Continue reading (WUWT)
Clouds Play X-Factor in Global Warming It is a little-known but significant fact that about 70 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by clouds at any given time. But not all clouds are the
same; different types of clouds affect the Earth's climate differently. While some types of clouds help to warm the Earth, others help to cool it.
The focus of the 2007 IPCC reports (e.g. see) have been to emphasize the annual average top of the atmosphere (TOA) radiative forcing in conjunction with the global average surface temperature trends as the primary overarching metrics of climate change (or “climate disruption” using the new terminology). In 2005, for example, a broader view point was recommended in National Research Council, 2005: Radiative forcing of climate change: Expanding the concept and addressing uncertainties. Committee on Radiative Forcing Effects on Climate Change, Climate Research Committee, Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Division on Earth and Life Studies, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 208 pp where it is written
Today’s post asks the question Does Human Activity, In Addition To CO2 and Other Human-Added Greenhouse Gases, Significantly Influence Local, Regional and Global Climate On Decadal Time Scales? 1. Local Scales There is absolute certainty that humans very signficantly affect climate on decadal time scales on the localscale. Urbanization is one particularly obvious effect. As just a few examples that I have posted on, see New Paper “Global Urban Land-Use Trends And Climate Impacts” By Seto and Marshall 2009 2. Regional Scales Similarly, on the regional scale, there is ample evidence of a major effect of human activities on multi-decadal climate. Examples, of posts on this include A New Paper That Highlights the First-Order Radiative Forcing Of Black Carbon Deposition New Paper “Numerical Simulations Of The Impacts Of Land-Cover” By Kala Et Al 2010 New Paper “Effects Of Irrigation On Global Climate During The 20th Century” By Puma and Cook (2010) 3. Global scale The 2007 IPCC report takes the view that the annual global averages of the top of the atmosphere radiative forcing and surface temperature trends are the primary metrics. Yet, what is much more important is how planetary atmospheric and oceanic circulations can be altered by human activity. I agree that the addition of CO2 and other greenhouse gases can influence these circulartions. However, as concluded in the 2005 NRC report [highlight added]
Examples of posts that discuss alterations in planetary circulation patterns by human activity include Further Confirmation Of Hypothesis 2a In Pielke Et Al 2009 The Importance Of Regonal Climate Forcings Teleconnections In The Earth System By Chase, Pielke and Avissar What is the Importance to Climate of Heterogeneous Spatial Trends in Tropospheric Temperatures? 4. Conclusion In answer to the question,
the answer is clearly YES. The presentation of views in which CO2 and a few other greenhouse gases dominate the role of humans within the climate system is scientfically incorrect. The consequences of adopting the narrow, scientifically incomplete view point of the IPCC is, as we concluded in Pielke Sr., R., K. Beven, G. Brasseur, J. Calvert, M. Chahine, R. Dickerson, D. Entekhabi, E. Foufoula-Georgiou, H. Gupta, V. Gupta, W. Krajewski, E. Philip Krider, W. K.M. Lau, J. McDonnell, W. Rossow, J. Schaake, J. Smith, S. Sorooshian, and E. Wood, 2009: Climate change: The need to consider human forcings besides greenhouse gases. Eos, Vol. 90, No. 45, 10 November 2009, 413. Copyright (2009) American Geophysical Union that, by itself,
will not provide an effective framework to deal with the spectrum of risks from human (and natural) caused climate variability and change in the future. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
From CO2 Science Volume 13 Number 44: 3 November 2010 Editorial: Subject Index Summary: Journal Reviews: The Ups and Downs of Tropical Cyclone Activity in the Western Hemisphere: The left hand does know what the right hand is doing ... and it does just the opposite .. and it's getting better at it. Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment of a Pair of Medicinal Plants: How does it impact the plants' biomass production and the tissue concentrations of their health-promoting substances? Atmospheric CO2 Effects on Beneficial Plant-Microorganism Interactions: Are they predominantly positive, negative or neutral? High-Temperature-Induced Male Sterility in Crop Plants: Is there a solution for the problem? Ocean Acidification Database: Plant Growth Database:
Think energy costs now, just wait for the carbon tax A utilities representative recently came to my front door offering a better deal on our gas and electricity prices if we changed to a different supplier. He
was offering a larger discount than the existing supplier.
Government-mandated rent increases: Landlords forced to make homes green Landlords will be forced to install insulation under new legislation to make every home in Britain as energy efficient as possible. (TDT)
It’s terrific that Sen. Jon Tester wants to help out Montana’s wind industry, but does he have to sell out the rest of the state in the process?
Sheesh! Scenarios: U.S. Battle Brews Over Canada Oil Pipeline A battle is brewing in the Obama administration over a proposed oil pipeline that could lock in Canada's place as the top crude exporter to the United States
for 50 years.
Two Companies Seek Trade Secret Status for Fracking Fluids in Wyoming Disclosure is the rule, anything else is a rare exception, state official says
Inevitable stupidity from carbon hysteria: Biofuel power stations in planning pipeline Two plants in the south of England would run on palm oil, a crop critics say contributes to deforestation and drives up food prices (Guardian)
The Electric Myth: Lack of Consumer Demand Killed the Electric Car
“Don’t wanna lose it, it’s electric! (Boogie Woogie Woogie)” Those lyrics (from Marcia Griffiths’ song “Electric Boogie,” better known as “the Electric Slide song”) are quite indicative of the Obama Administration’s position on the electric car. No matter how much the market and consumers reject the electric car, the government will continue to push forward with subsidies to produce and purchase the vehicle. Charles Lane wrote about the electric car in Saturday’s Washington Post: [The ad campaign] asks consumers to make an economic and technological leap of faith—just as both GM and the firm’s biggest backer, the Obama administration, have invested, financially, politically and psychologically, in plug-in hybrids and other electric vehicles. How else to explain the fact that both Washington and Detroit persist in their costly electric-car project despite mounting evidence that the vehicles serve no particular purpose, environmental or economic? Continue reading... (The Foundry)
Smart Grid: The Biggest Rip-Off in Contemporary Energy Policy (Besides Ethanol) by William Yeatman According to the AP, an administrative judge last week capped at $45 million the cost-overruns of Xcel’s “Smart Grid City” demonstration project in Boulder, Colorado. I haven’t been following this particular project, but I have been tracking similar cases in other cities, and I assure you, smart grid is the biggest rip-off in contemporary energy policy (after ethanol). Ask anyone what a “smart grid” is, and you’ll get a different answer every time. In Boulder, it’s a fiber optical network. In Baltimore, it’s a “ZigBee” local area network. In Oklahoma City, it’s GE Smart Meters. They all were spawned of the stimulus, which showered more than $3 billion to utilities across the country to subsidize any boondoggle that called itself “smart… Read the full story (Cooler Heads)
Obama Killing US Nuclear Industry
The Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant, on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay, currently has two 2.7 GW (thermal) nuclear reactors. Built by Combustion Engineering in 1975 and 1977, just before Three Mile Island, the plant has quietly and safely been providing clean energy for more than three decades. In 2000, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission extended the license of the plant for 20 additional years, making Calvert Cliffs the first nuclear plant in the United States to receive such an extension. I have a particularly fond spot for Calvert Cliffs because I lived for several years in a house on top of those same cliffs, only a few miles south of the power plant. Every winter, local fishermen gathered near the plant because warm water from the plant drew a profusion of marine life to the location. It has been years since I lived in the area, but evidently the locals continue to enjoy the plant's presence.  The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant. In 2007, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission received an application for a third reactor, to be installed on the same site. This seemed like a straight forward and rapid path to expanding US nuclear power, since the proposed site already possessed all the necessary permits and impact studies. Unfortunately, the partnership between Constellation Energy and French nuclear power consortium EDF was counting on financial help from the government which Constellation found unacceptable:
Contractors have all but stopped work on Calvert Cliffs reactor #3. EDF has sent some signals that it is willing to proceed with the project on its own. According to Constellation spokesman James L. Connaughton: “Depending on whether the US effort fits in with their overall strategy, they [EDF] may yet decide to carry this through the next stage.” But there are legal barriers to foreign involvement with American nuclear projects. Even if the lawyers find a way around them, it's far from clear that EDF has the financial resources to carry off such a larger project simply to gain entry into the US market. Amazingly, at least one critic has blamed the failure of the Calvert Cliffs expansion on lack of an energy bill from the US Congress. While Congress is at least partially to blame for the sad state of American nuclear power this is a bit of a different take as to why. According to Jay Hancock of the Baltimore Sun:
Department of Energy Secretary Chu, one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal array of Obama science advisers, has publicly stated that the absence of clear signals to industry keeps the US energy policy stuck in low gear. In the mean time, the green neo-Luddites in the administration keep pushing for expanded renewable energy projects like the recently announced California solar project. According to the Wall Street Journal, the $6 billion project is being developed by Solar Trust of America on 7,025 acres of federally owned land near Blythe, Calif. The approval clears the way for the developers to seek federal grants and loan guarantees. This is interesting because Solar Trust is a joint venture between Solar Millennium AG and privately held Ferrostaal AG, both German companies. The project is also the sixth solar-energy installation approved for public lands. Looks like foreign companies can build on public lands with US government money if they are the right shade of green.  A Concentrating Solar Power Plant. The project could be eligible for a $900 million cash grant from the US Energy Department and the US Treasury Department in lieu of a tax credit. The Obama administration said the Blythe solar-power project will create 1,066 temporary jobs during construction and almost 300 permanent jobs when the facility becomes operational. That's only $3,000,000 for each “green” job, what a deal! This reinforces what others around the world have learned—green jobs are not a viable way to revive a nation's economy and, instead, can drive a country into bankruptcy. As we said in The Energy Gap, if the government made a firm commitment to nuclear power a huge number of long term, high paying jobs would be created. Nuclear plants have a working life of 30 to 50 or more years and require a highly educated work force. We estimated that to fill the highest skilled jobs at the hundreds of new power plants would require producing 10,000 new nuclear engineers over the next 10 years. What's more:
It also makes more sense than building concentration solar plants in the high desert employing only 300 full-time workers for $900 million a go. The nuclear energy jobs don't end with the engineers either; a large number of supporting personnel would be need as well, as many as a quarter million good jobs would be created. When will those who believe in big government accept the truth—government spending is the worst way to create new jobs.
The DOE has awarded an $8 billion loan guarantee for one plant and has around $12 billion in remaining authority, enough to approve one more application, but not enough for the two that are hoping for the next monetary loan award. Speaking before a Senate appropriations subcommittee in May, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said an additional $13 billion in loan-guarantee authority is needed if the DOE is to award three more nuclear-power projects. This amounts to a drop in the bucket. If the Obama administration is serious about reducing fossil fuel use and securing America's energy future it needs to get its head out of the sand and strongly support nuclear energy, instead of killing it with hostile neglect. If not, there are always the 2012 elections. Be safe, enjoy the interglacial and stay skeptical (particularly of politicians). (Doug L. Hoffman, The Resilient Earth)
False, misleading or fraudulent claims have long brought the wrath of juries, judges and government agencies down on perpetrators. So have substandard manufacturing practices.
Who could oppose following the rules, making quality products and being honest? But shouldn’t these values apply where far more is at stake than a few
companies, pills, baseball records or bad role models? Shouldn’t we demand that these rules apply to people and actions that have unprecedented impact on
lives, livelihoods, liberties and communities throughout the country?
Facts And Science Missing From White House Environmental Policy
President Barack Obama famously believes that all of his policies are supported by “facts and science,” while opposition to his policies comes only from “fear and frustration.” As The Washington Post documented twice last weekend, that is just plain false. First Charles Lane reports:
Continue reading... (The Foundry)
How To Lose Women In An Election Many commentators have dissected the problem of campaigning on a message that amounts to “things could have been worse;” but forgotten in this
pre-electoral wake are all those initiatives that were, in effect, directed at women, and picked up by the media, but which, in aggregate, delivered a very
different narrative: “Things are even worse than you think!”
Nanny & the health myths: Mandatory curbs on food salt content 20 times more effective than voluntary curbs Cost effectiveness of interventions to reduce dietary salt intake
The Mail's cartoonist has it figured: Cutting salt from your diet 'would prevent one fifth of heart disease deaths' Heart disease could be cut by almost a fifth if food companies were banned from adding too much salt to their products, research has found.
And at least The Beeb notes it is a "theoretical study": Call for mandatory salt curbs Forcing food manufacturers to cut salt levels in processed food could help cut heart disease rates, claim Australian researchers.
Mike Shaw follows up on some odious "science": Junk science on fragrances--continued My latest HND piece examines yet another assault on common sense, as discussed here earlier. This time it's fragranced consumer products, courtesy of the work of an environmental engineering professor. It seems that she's discovered that volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are in these fragranced consumer products, to which I would say "No kidding!" (or something a bit stronger). After all, just about anything you can smell has an odor precisely because it IS a VOC. I obtained further information on how this work got published, and I don't think you'll like what I discovered. Anne C. Steinemann, PhD, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Washington, and chief perpetrator of the "science" in question here is also heavily involved in the area of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, which—to be kind—is, uh, controversial. Peer reviewed science sure ain't what it used to be... Read the complete article. (Shaw's Eco-Logic)
Avoiding the obvious? Weekend strokes more deadly - but why? NEW YORK - Yet another study has shown that people who are treated for stroke over a weekend tend to fare worse than those who are treated during the week,
but the reasons remain unclear.
Hmm... Nigeria: Those Born During Biafra Famine Are Susceptible to Obesity, Study Finds Babies born during the brief but intense Biafra famine in Nigeria 40 years ago have grown up to be more susceptible to obesity and its attendant maladies
than those born on either side of it, scientists have found.
Really? The results are unclear: Peanuts during pregnancy tied to kid's allergy NEW YORK - Children of moms who ate a lot of peanuts while pregnant may be at an increased risk of developing an allergy to the nut, suggests a new study.
Monounsaturated fats boost "good" cholesterol NEW YORK - The monounsaturated fats found in vegetable oils, nuts and avocados can help boost a person's "good" cholesterol levels when added to an
overall diet that curbs "bad" LDL cholesterol, a study published Monday suggests.
UC Research: Rabbit’s Food Brings Luck in Decreasing Estrogen Levels in Wastewater University of Cincinnati experiments published in the November issue of Environmental Pollution show that rabbit’s food (comprised of organic vegetable
matter) decreases estrogen levels in wastewater.
Sigh... Researchers ask if organic is worth it ASKING researchers if organic food is healthier than conventional produce is like asking whether bicycles are safer than cars: the answer depends on the make
and model, road conditions and who is at the wheel.
TAU research finds "cloud seeding" doesn't produce rain
New way of removing excess nitrogen from the environment Denitrifying bioreactors subject of workshop, special scientific journal issue
Expanding croplands chipping away at world's carbon stocks MADISON – Nature's capacity to store carbon, the element at the heart of global climate woes, is steadily eroding as the world's farmers expand croplands
at the expense of native ecosystem such as forests.
New rush of foreign investors, mainly Argentines, to purchase land in Uruguay Interest in fixed assets, strong commodities’ prices and growing prospects that global demand for food producing land will continue have generated a new rush of foreign investors to buy land in Uruguay. (MercoPress)
Fun with depopulation: Fate of the World There’s a new computer game released this week, but ‘Fate of the World’ is a green game, designed with the cooperation of climate academics like Dr Myles Allen of the Oxford University. So far, so good, but this gets weird in a uniquely green way. (Daily Bayonet)
Halloween Hangover: Ehrlich, Holdren, Hansen Unretracted by Robert Bradley Jr.
In the name of science, Paul Ehrlich, John Holdren, and James Hansen (et al.) have made doom-and-gloom predictions about business-as-usual in an attempt to shock humanity into immediate legislative action and lifestyle changes. It did not work. The elapsed predictions have failed to come to pass. Little wonder that new installments of climate alarmism, such as Juliet Eilperin’s ”25% of Wild Mammal Species Face Extinction: Global Assessment Paints ‘Bleak Picture,’ Scientists Say, and Figure of Those at Risk Could Be Higher” in the Washington Post (October 7), don’t register with voters. Worsening their predicament, the perpetrators will not renounce their specious predictions. They remain the smartest guys in the room–versus all of us commoners, we the hundreds of millions of market-failure-ites. Here are the Big Three: 1) the dean of modern alarmism, Paul Ehrlich; 2) Al Gore’s influential climate scientist James Hansen; and 3) Obama’s “dream ‘green’ team” member John Holdren. Let’s start with Dr. Holdren. Holdren’s Billion Deaths It was Ehrlich who outed his protege on what is perhaps the most outlandish prediction of forthcoming doom of all: one billion potential deaths by 2020. That is about ten years and one in seven of us. Are you scared? [Read more →] (MasterResource)
Look out! There's more fish! Hatch-22: The Problem with The Pacific Salmon Resurgence The number of salmon in the Pacific Ocean is twice what it was 50 years ago. But there is a downside to this bounty, as growing numbers of hatchery-produced salmon are flooding the Pacific and making it hard for threatened wild salmon species to find enough food to survive. (Bruce Barcott, e360)
Global Warming Elitism, Tomorrow’s Election, and The Future November 1, 2010
The NASA A-Train satellite constellation symposium I attended last week in New Orleans was in some sense a celebration of the wide variety of global satellite observations we are now collecting from Earth orbit. This really is the Golden Age in satellite data collection of the global climate system. While a few A-Train satellites are still to be launched, other older satellite assets in the A-Train are now operating well past their planned lifetimes. There are no plans to replace many of these one-of-a-kind instruments, so much of what we will learn in the coming years will have to come from the analysis of previously collected data. Unfortunately — at least in my opinion — the existence of this superb national resource depended upon convincing congress almost 2 decades ago that manmade global warming was a clear and present danger to the world. Manmade Global Warming as the Justification Since I believe the majority of what we now view as “climate change” is just part of a natural cycle in the climate system, I argued from the outset that NASA should be also selling “Mission to Planet Earth” as a way to better prepare ourselves for natural climate change — something that history tells us has indeed occurred, and we can be assured will occur again. But behind the scenes there was a strong push for policy changes that even most of the scientists involved supported — ultimately culminating in the governmental control over how much and the kinds of energy sources humanity would be allowed to use in the future. Cap and Trade, as well as potential regulation of carbon dioxide emissions by the EPA, are the fruits of the labor of politicians, governmental representatives, bureaucrats, the United Nations, and activist scientists who have used global warming as an excuse to accomplish policy goals that would have never been accomplished on their own merits. Of course, most who speak out on this issue continue to point to the supposed “scientific consensus” on global warming as the justification, but those of us who knew the players also knew of these other motives. I am often asked, “So, are you saying there is a conspiracy here?” No, because the ultimate goals were not a secret. Just a bunch of elitists carrying out plans that the politicians supported — with continuing promises of congressional funding for research that those politicians knew would support Job #1 of government — to stay needed by the people. Many of the scientists involved are just along for a ride on the gravy train. Even I ride that train. The elitism clearly shows through in the behavior of those who speak out publically on the need for humanity to change its Earth-destroying ways: Al Gore, James Cameron, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, RFK, Jr. These people apparently believe they are God’s gift to humanity. How else can we explain that they do not see the hypocrisy the rest of the nation sees in their behavior? Unfortunately, I saw this attitude on a smaller scale at the New Orleans meeting. There are many new, young scientists now joining the ranks. They are being mentored by the older scientists who helped spread the alarm concerning manmade global warming. And they will be rewarded for playing the game. Or will they? The Times They Are A-Changin’ How is it that government agencies long ago decided to put all their eggs in the manmade global warming basket? Why have the movers and shakers around the world ignored natural climate change — even going so far as to claim it does not exist? The only reason I can think of again goes back to their elitist beliefs and desired policy outcomes. The belief that a better-educated few should be allowed power over the less educated masses. That government knows better than the people do. Tomorrow’s election is widely viewed as a referendum on the proper role of government in people’s lives. There is no question that the founders of our country intended there to be maximum of freedom on the part of individuals and the states, while placing strong limits on the role of the federal government. Just read the Declaration of Independence if you want to see how pi$!ed off the settlers of the original colonies became at the King of England over his intrusion into their personal affairs. And global warming legislation is now quite possibly the best opportunity the governments of the world have to increase the role of government in people’s
lives. Yet, many Americans believe that government can more equitably distribute the wealth generated by a country. This is a laudable goal on the face of it. I like to think that I know something about basic economics. It was the subject of the 6th chapter in my first book –Climate Confusion — which received a nice blurb on the jacket from noted economist Walter Williams. One of the reasons I am willing to stick my neck out and inform people of the uncertain nature of government-approved global warming science is because the basic economics behind any governmental (or environmental extremist) attempts to restrict personal choice in energy use will end up killing people. In fact, it already has. The biggest threat to humanity is poverty. Wealthier is healthier. When governments make energy more expensive, or environmental organizations pressure foreign countries to not build hydroelectric dams, poor people die. Those already living on the edge are pushed over the edge. Energy is required for everything we do, and artificially raising the price of energy cannot help but destroy wealth generation. If these elitists really were interested in the poor, they would be doing everything they could to help individuals take control of their own economic destinies. One billion people in the world still do not have electricity. Worried about population growth? Then encourage the generation of wealth. It is the poor of the world that cause global population growth. The wealthy countries of the world have close to zero population growth. Of course the main argument against this view is “sustainability”. Can the Earth sustain even more people consuming natural resources? But I would ask, can the world sustain the poverty-stricken? Poor countries have had most of their trees cut down. Imagine if global society collapsed and billions of people had to make do on their own with what they could scavenge from nature. Now THAT would lead to a pollution problem. What ensures sustainability is free markets. As natural resources of one type become more scarce, their price goes up, which makes alternatives more attractive. People are incentivized to develop new answers to old technological problems. This is why fossil fuels will never be used up. At some point, they simply will become too expensive to extract. Mass production by factories and corporations should be embraced, rather than derided. It represents the most efficient way of providing goods and services. Waste is minimized because it hurts competitiveness. But What About Equality? Equality of outcomes is an illusion. It can never be achieved…unless we totally destroy the people’s motivation to make a better life for themselves. A vibrant economy is what maximizes the tax revenue collected by the government. The two largest periods of growth in tax revenue collected by the government occurred after two major tax-CUTTING initiatives: JFK’s in the early 1960’s, and Reagan’s in the early 1980’s. If you really want to help the poor, then help the country grow economically. Want to make sure the poor are taken care of? Then encourage businesses to grow, which will lead to more jobs. Economic activity is what is needed, and since the tax revenue the government receives is a “piece of the action”, more action means more money for government programs. And whether we like it or not, the only way to ensure this growth happens is to give business owners and entrepreneurs some hope that their risk-taking and creativity will pay off for them personally in the future. Yes, in the process, some people will get rich. A few will get obscenely rich. But this only occurs because so many consumers want the goods and services those rich few can offer them. Call it a necessary evil, if you must. But it is, indeed, necessary. The end result will be more money for the poor, not less. A New Fight Begins Tomorrow The basic economics and desire to help the poor that have motivated me to speak out in the last 20 years on global warming policy will, starting tomorrow, be the subject of a national debate regarding the proper role of government in helping its people. Tomorrow’s election is only the start. From then on, education about the practical importance of economic freedom will be central to that debate. There is no question that our country has an unsustainable growth in our yearly budget deficits, and our total national debt is staggering. Everyone agrees this must change. And reducing government expenditures must, of course, be part of the debate. But increasing tax revenue to help support those programs is ALSO part of the solution. And since the only demonstrated (and sustainable) way to accomplish this is to grow the economy, it requires personal economic freedom. So, what is the primary role of government in all this? In my opinion, it is two-fold: (1) make sure people play fair, and (2) get out of the way.
(Roy W. Spencer)
Same idea, same techniques. The Führer would have been proud of them ... and the Telegraph calls designing a virus to kill millions as an "educational" exercise, an "interesting solution". The terrorists are writing the newspapers now. (Richard North, EU Referendum)
Vaclav Klaus and More on the Politics of Global Warming BY MICHAEL R. FOX PHD – On October 21, 2010, Vaclav Klaus President if the Czech Republic, made the Inaugural Annual Lecture to the Global Warming Policy
Foundation (GWPF) in England (http://tinyurl.com/27tajv3). He addressed the global totalitarian aspects of the global
warming proponents.
Carbon copy battle pits big miners against tax THE mining giants are about to pick a second tax fight with the government by demanding an exemption from the impact of a carbon price on operations where
the mining tax will apply.
Biodiversity: can it replace AGW?
» Don't Stop Reading » (TRF)
Madeleine Bunting is waxing lyrical about climate change in the Sahel, the semi-desert fringes of the Sahara.
It is worth comparing the doom-laden prognostications of Ms Bunting with a more scientific assessment of how the Sahel is doing.
National Geographic did an interesting article on the subject a while back.
(Bishop Hill)
Posted by Patrick J. Michaels
Oct. 2010 UAH Global Temperature Update: +0.42 deg. C
As the tropical tropospheric temperatures continue to cool, the global average is finally beginning to follow suit:+0.42 deg. C for October, 2010. This is the lowest monthly temperature anomaly we’ve seen in what has been a very warm year. For those following the race for warmest year in the satellite tropospheric temperature record (which began in 1979), 2010 is still within striking distance of the record warm year of 1998. Here are the 1998 and 2010 averages for January 1st through October 31: 1998 +0.57 Note that the difference between the two is not statistically significant…just symbolically. [NOTE: These satellite measurements are not calibrated to surface thermometer data in any way, but instead use on-board redundant precision platinum resistance thermometers (PRTs) carried on the satellite radiometers. The PRT's are individually calibrated in a laboratory before being installed in the instruments.] (Roy W. Spencer)
We are very appreciative to have a guest post by Millán Millán, Executive Director, Institute CEAM-UMH in Spain. With my encouragement, he has accepted posting his excellent presentation this past summer. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Atlantic through the AMO drives the apparent “Global Warming” By Joseph D’Aleo, CCM The North Atlantic undergoes a multidecadal oscillation appropriately called the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation or AMO. It is officially the mean sea surface temperature anomaly from the equator to 70 degrees North. It went above the longer term mean in 1995. The AMO has a long term cycle of about 60-70 years.
When the AMO is positive (warm) the Northern Hemisphere is warmer than normal on an annual basis across the continents. When it is cold, it is colder. The positive state is associated with a warmer arctic and Greenland and more summer hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin.
This can be also seen in the satellite derived temperatures for the Northern Hemisphere (north of 20N). There is little continuous trend since 1979. Most of the warming is in the 1995 transition from AMO negative to positive. Note the temperatures in the tropics reflect the ENSO state but has no perceived trend. There is also no trend in the Southern Hemisphere. The only significant departure was with the volcanic cooling also seen in the Northern Hemisphere after Pinatubo in 1991-1994.
The AMO tracks to the solar irradiance with a lag of about 8-9 years. This suggests the current warm AMO state will end by around 2015. Northern Hemispheric temperature will take a leg down. With the cooling of the Pacific now and more La Ninas, look for net cooling especially in the tropics until then. See more here. (Icecap)
The fall is here again, and deciduous trees across America are putting on their annual display of fall colors. Americans are particularly fond of Quaking
Aspen trees that really know how to put on a show in the fall with leaves turning spectacular tints of red and yellow in the autumn. The range of Quaking Aspen
is extensive in North America including many picturesque locations in the Rockies (makes us think about John Denver). The tree appear to quake (shake, quiver)
due to the unusual architecture of the leaves that makes them move a bit even in the lightest of winds. Aside from putting on a great show in the fall, Aspen
wood is white and soft, but fairly strong, and has low flammability. Accordingly, it is used to make matches, packing and stuffing materials, animal bedding,
and even serves as a popular material for the interior of saunas.
Sheesh! Senators Raise Concerns On Oil Sands Pipeline Nearly a dozen U.S. Senators on Friday raised questions about the need for a proposed $7 billion pipeline that they said will bring "dirty oil"
from Canadian oil sands to U.S. refineries and significantly increase the country's reliance on fossil fuels.
Hmm... Analysis: Pipeline Safety Delays Endanger Oil Supply, Nature Pipeline leaks, like one that cut U.S. crude imports last month and pushed oil prices up $4 a barrel, may become more frequent as the U.S. delays safety
reforms on its aging 2.5 million mile network of energy lines.
Ross McKitrick has a new presentation up, looking at the arguments that are made against coal-fired power stations - pollution, health, greenhouse gases and so on. These arguments don't seem to be grounded in facts. (3Mb download) (Bishop Hill)
Natural Gas, America’s Best Bet
There is little question why natural gas is considered the best energy investment due to its growing demand, environmental advantages, and supply breakthrough that has radically changed the outlook for cleaner energy. [Read More] (Michael J. Economides, ET)
Adversaries try to heal fracture over fracturing Some activists, some in industry rethinking their antagonism over drilling method
DEP Issues Report on Short-Term Air Quality Impacts from Marcellus Shale Operations in Southwest PA Agency Continues to Monitor Air Quality in Other PA Regions
Marginally better than burning food: Grasses have potential as alternate ethanol crop, Illinois study find CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Money may not grow on trees, but energy could grow in grass. Researchers at the University of Illinois have completed the first extensive
geographic yield and economic analysis of potential bioenergy grass crops in the Midwestern United States.
Controversy continues to grow around Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko’s unilateral decision to order the NRC staff to stop its work on Yucca Mountain. The chairman defended his actions in a letter to the editor published by Energy Daily last week (subscription required). He suggested that he was authorized to stop work on Yucca by the 2011 budget. Never mind that the budget was never passed. The Chairman simply states that: “the administrative actions the agency has taken are simply a matter of efficient resource management and good government.” Despite the effort, the Chairman’s letter only underscored the weakness of his rationale, which has launched a flurry of responses. The first one came from former DOE official, Lake Barrett, who points out that the Chairman’s actions would ensure that the results of the NRC’s work on Yucca, which was scheduled for release this month would never be published : He asked: Continue reading... (The Foundry)
Pretty much says it all about Obamacare: Re-elect Not-Rob-Steele (The Michigan View 10.29.10) You are the universally-recognized hero of universal health care. You inherited the mantle from your father who first introduced socialized care legislation
in 1943. You spent 55 years in Congress as Captain Ahab chasing his Moby Dick. You introduced every session of Congress since 1957 by submitting a nationalized
health care bill. You are so revered that even your Medicare gavel, first pounded in 1965, is an icon. You were cheered on the House floor when Obamacare –
finally, the universal health care solution – passed October, 2009. You were given the podium by Speaker Pelois herself to pound your iconic gavel in a
“vindication” celebration, as The New York Times itself called it. You sat next to the President Change himself in a packed, East Room signing ceremony to
acknowledge your achievement. You thrust your crutch in the air when the air when the crowd gave you a standing ovation. You were booked by The Daily Show so
that you and Jon Stewart himself could celebrate the arrival of universal health care by breaking open walnuts with your iconic gavel. You would be running this
fall to celebrate your victory – and you had the photo album to prove it.
When the Democrats passed their health care reform legislation in March, they assured one another that the law would grow increasingly popular as its contents became better known and its early provisions began to take effect. Seven months later—as those contents have become better known and those provisions have begun to take effect—the law only looks worse, in both substantive and political terms. Its disastrous consequences are already being felt. Voters clearly know it. The case for repealing Obamacare and starting over has never been stronger. (Weekly Standard)
House Dems who pushed health bill to passage face grim Election Day Many of the House Democrats who cast the deciding votes on health reform are expected to lose on Election Day.
Confessions of a Price Controller The government price controls in America’s healthcare system always push prices up. Here’s why.
Toxic Journalism, What You Read Could Be Dangerous To Your Health There are warning labels on everything these days. For example: "Do not eat iPod shuffle" is a warning posted on the Apple website. "This product moves when used" was a label posted on a Razor scooter. A label on a chainsaw warned, "Do not hold the wrong end of a chainsaw." A Yellow Pages telephone directory carried the helpful warning, "Caution: Please do not use this directory while operating a moving vehicle." Yet, in my research on warning labels, I did not come across a television or newspaper with the warning, "Contents of this publication or broadcast may contain lies, deliberate misrepresentations, and personal opinions disguised as facts." This is a label that would truly be helpful as we try to make intelligent decisions about how to live our lives and make sense of the world around us. (Gary Truitt, Hoosier Ag Today)
Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong. So why are doctors—to a striking extent—still drawing upon misinformation in their everyday practice? Dr. John Ioannidis has spent his career challenging his peers by exposing their bad science. (David H. Freedman, The Atlantic)
Immunizing Mosquitoes To Fight Malaria Millions of people in the tropics suffer from malaria, a mosquito-borne disease that has been difficult to treat and which costs many developing countries
millions of dollars per year in lost productivity. Up to now, efforts at controlling it have focused on attacking the parasites that cause it, keeping
mosquitoes from biting, or killing the insects.
Hmm... Infants' antibiotic use tied to bowel disease risk NEW YORK - Babies treated with antibiotics for middle-ear and other infections may have increased odds of developing inflammatory bowel disease later in
childhood, a small study suggests.
Stress may have only small impact on weight NEW YORK - Despite the common belief that stress causes people to pack on the pounds, a new research review finds that, on average, stress has little
long-term effect on weight.
Sheesh! Extending daylight could boost health, help planet LONDON - Putting the clocks back in winter is bad for health, wastes energy and increases pollution, scientists say, and putting an end to the practice in
northern areas could bring major health and environmental benefits.
They're kidding, right? Burning straw, dung tied to kids' anemia NEW YORK - Households in developing countries that regularly burn wood, straw, dung and other natural materials are more likely to also contain children with
anemia, a new report finds.
Studies examine costs, prospects of ending malaria LONDON - Eliminating malaria can be achieved only with repeated investment over the long term and will require a major shift in policy and funding now
focused on control of the disease, experts said on Friday.
Potatoes could boost water supplies Water extracted from potatoes could replace supplies from the tap and even provide drinking water in areas suffering from drought.
Making targets out of Nature... works for me: Nations Agree Historic Deal To Save Nature Nearly 200 nations agreed on Saturday to a sweeping plan to stem the loss of species by setting new 2020 targets to ensure greater protection of nature and enshrine the benefits it gives mankind. (Reuters)
Obama environment agenda under threat from incoming Republicans Environmental agencies brace themselves for aggressive investigations after expected Republican majority in midterms
Sounds like the "teacher" needs to be invited to enter another line of employment: 'Daddy, where will the polar bears live?' Some of the boldest eco-warriors are those with the most to lose – our children. Nick Duerden argues that when it comes to getting parents to go green,
pester power is a force to be reckoned with
So says the special interest group that wants the money: Speed installation of system to monitor vital signs of global ocean, scientists urge 'It is past time to get serious about measuring what's happening to the seas around us'
U.S. Says Genes Should Not Be Eligible for Patents Reversing a longstanding policy, the federal government said on Friday that human and other genes should not be eligible for patents because they are part of
nature. The new position could have a huge impact on medicine and on the biotechnology industry.
Leading environmental campaigners support nuclear and GM Leading environmental campaigners have performed a u-turn on two key technologies they have opposed for decades by openly calling for greater use of nuclear power and genetically modified crops to help the world tackle climate change. (TDT)
Disputing The Skeptical Environmentalist This is a response to "Why Can't We Innovate Our Way To A Carbon-Free Energy Future?", a "Perspective" by Bjorn Lomborg that ran in
this space a week ago.
CO-2's bad rep is undeserved.
Um... Wow! James Cameron and Google CEO: Questioning Warming Science is “Criminal” Lock up the dissenters?
I Introduction.
Triumph of the political class Much has been made by the British media of the fact that the two leading candidates for leadership of the Labour Party were brothers, with dark hints of biblical sibling rivalry. They did, however, have something more in common, which has much greater significance in the political scene. They are members of a much wider and more powerful fraternity, Oxford graduates in PPE. Let’s call them Ogippes for short. The list of Ogippes in the upper reaches of the British political and media establishment is of a length that is startling to anyone unfamiliar with the phenomenon. People like the Millibands segue gently from the political classroom to the political class, from the cloisters of Oxford to those of the Palace of Westminster, scarcely creating a ripple. They make this transition from cocoon to cocoon uncontaminated by contact with the defilements of work, survival, industry, science, technology and all the other distractions that plague the toilers in the field of a modern society and economy. Their heads are packed with theories that are untested and untestable. Evidently their syllabus did not include the British tradition of sceptical philosophy stretching from the Bacons to Popper, for they retain a capacity for belief, even in the presence of overwhelming contrary evidence, that transcends all reason. The outstanding example can be seen in the alarums and excursions that arise from the modern fetish of carbophobia, for almost to a man the Ogippes are of the faithful, the honourable exception being Lord Lawson. (Number Watch)
Source: SPPI by Dennis Ambler Vast sums of money, influence and power are involved in carbon mitigation schemes, and yet there is never any mention in the media of these massive and lucrative conflicts of interest. They appear quite content swallowing the diversionary tactics pushed by the likes of DeSmog Blog and Greenpeace ExxonSecrets with their claims of “oil- company funded deniers”. It is doubtful that mainstream journalists ever bother to look behind the scenes at these people, yet it is all available on official websites. It is no wonder that Christiana Figueres wanted the Kyoto Mechanism to continue, when she addressed the UNFCCC TianjinChicago Climate Exchange. Conference on the 4th of October, because without it her friends in the carbon business would find their virtual world starting to disappear, as evidenced by the recent problems at the Chicago Climate Exchange. An ancillary issue ripe for Congressional oversight is how do they get away with these incestuous financial relationships involving carbon trading companies, whilst devising and promoting legislation for a CO2 control agenda that will only benefit themselves and the companies that they advise, but will cause new and additional untold hardship to millions by casting them into political, economic and energy poverty. For example… Read the rest of this entry » (SPPI)
Warmists put Norfolk Island on rations
The global warming faith is just the latest vehicle for people who like to order other people around “for their own good”. Nothing reveals its appeal to
the inner totalitarian better than the latest taxpayer-funded research of the Southern Cross University:
Southern Cross University is set to lead a project testing the world’s first Personal Carbon Trading program conducted in a
‘closed system’ island environment on Norfolk Island commencing early next year. This follows the announcement this week of a Linkage Projects grant by
the Australian Research Council valued at $390,000. Leading chief investigator Professor Garry Egger, a Professor of Lifestyle Medicine and Applied Health Promotion at Southern Cross University, said the main
goals of the project were to test the effectiveness of a Personal Carbon Trading scheme over a three year period; reduce per capita carbon emissions and reduce
obesity and obesity related behaviours… “This is a project for looking at reducing climate change and obesity in the one hit… “The way the system will work is basically it will involve giving everyone on the island a carbon card, like a credit or debit card, and they will get
carbon units on that card. Then every time they go and pay for their petrol or their power - and from the second year their food - it will not only be paid for
in money but it will also come off the carbon units that they are given for free at the start of the program. “If they’re frugal and don’t buy a lot of petrol or power or fatty foods, then they can actually have units to spare at the end of a set time period so
that they can cash those in at the bank and make money from them. “If they aren’t frugal and they are very wasteful and they produce a lot of carbon and consume unhealthy foods then every year they will have to buy
extra units. Also over time - as we target lower carbon emissions and increasing health goals - the number of carbon units they are given will go down and
therefore the price for the individual will go up to sustain that lifestyle they are not prepared to forego...” Of course, to fulfil its mission, the experiment will have to include the bit where emissions are forced down if the guinea pigs don’t respond to the bribes. (Andrew Bolt)
Al Gore's car idling during his talk
» Don't Stop Reading » (TRF)
The 97% “Consensus” is only 75 Self-Selected Climatologists– Source: The Hockeyschtick The graphic below comes via our friends at [un]skepticalscience, assuring us that while 97% of “climate scientists think that global warming is ‘significantly’ due to human activity,” a shocking 72% of news coverage does not reflect this “consensus” and similarly 74% of the public are not convinced.
However, close examination of the source of the claimed 97% consensus reveals that it comes from a non-peer reviewed article describing an online poll in which a total of only 79 climate scientists chose to participate. Of the 79 self-selected climate scientists, 75 agreed with the notion of AGW. Thus, we find climate scientists once again using dubious statistical techniques to deceive the public that there is a 97% scientific consensus on man-made global warming; fortunately they clearly aren’t buying it. Read the rest of this entry » (SPPI)
How to Fix the Climate-Change Panel Questions for climate modeler and IPCC insider Kevin E. Trenberth
Mixed messages on geoengineering: international community approves moratorium, US pushes research Efforts to explore geoengineering, whereby governments would employ large-scale projects to alter the world's climate in a bid to combat climate change,
received mixed messages this week. In Nagoya, Japan—where all but three of the world's nations (the US, Andorra, and the Holy See) met at the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD) to hammer out an agreement on stemming biodiversity loss—member nations agreed on Friday to a moratorium on geoengineering schemes.
On the same day a US congressional report on geoengineering, which it termed climate engineering, recommended "research now to better understand which
technologies or methods, if any, represent viable stopgap strategies for managing our changing climate."
Analysis: Climate Phenomenon May Grip Europe This Winter Weather and renewable energy supplies across much of western Europe could be hit this winter by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), a phenomenon that can
exert a powerful influence over temperature and rainfall.
Ancient Evidence That CO2 Does Not Control Climate
In an article entitled “Carbon dioxide forcing alone insufficient to explain Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum warming,” Richard E. Zeebe, James C. Zachos and Gerald R. Dickens state: “The onset of the PETM was marked by a global increase in surface temperatures by 5–9 °C within a few thousand years. At nearly the same time, a substantial carbon release occurred, as demonstrated by a large drop in the 13C/ 12C ratio of surficial carbon reservoirs.” Estimates for the carbon release during the onset of the PETM and emissions from anthropogenic sources over the past 50 years seem to be of a similar order of magnitude (~1 Pg C y -1). Many scientists think that the PETM was triggered by a massive injection of CO 2 into Earth's atmosphere. Using deep-sea carbonate dissolution records and stable carbon isotope records across the PETM, in combination with carbon cycle modeling, the authors arrived at an estimate of the amount of carbon released during the PETM. They used the long-term ocean–atmosphere–sediment carbon cycle reservoir model LOSCAR to constrain the total mass of the carbon input. Interestingly, there were “profound differences” in observed Atlantic and Pacific carbon absorption during the event. This was detected by variation in the calcite compensation depth (CCD) in the different ocean basins. Various results from the study are shown in the figure below.  Zeebe et al. concluded that the maximum initial input is constrained to approx 3,000 Pg C (Pg stands for peta gram, which is the same as a billion metric tons). This estimate of the maximum initial carbon input was also found to be largely independent of its duration, meaning whether it happened in a single giant blast or over 5,000 years made no difference to the simulation response. The pattern of the carbon input scenario required by the model to match observations (Fig. 1a) seems to be consistent with a pulsed input pattern of carbon release from oceanic gas hydrate reservoirs—in other words, an eruption of ocean floor methane. Regardless of the source or composition, Earth's climate underwent a significant rapid warming. What is more interesting is that the warming that occurred could not have been caused by the amount of CO 2 the researchers' study found. Here are the authors' conclusions:
Here is more evidence that CO 2 on its own is not a strong enough greenhouse gas to cause the magnitude of temperature change that took place during the PETM. Once again, if CO 2 is to be the driver of climate change a number of unidentified but very significant “feedbacks” are needed. Of course there are other explanations: the change was really caused by methane, with CO 2 just the remnant of its passing; or perhaps the Earth was suddenly warmed by increased solar activity or a nearby supernova, leaving the increase in CO 2 as a natural response to a warming planet. No one knows, but the conclusion is clear—then as now, CO 2 was not the main driver of global warming. The authors' postulated sudden pulse of CO 2, equivalent to 1,000 years of human emissions at current rates, could not have caused the PETM. And the atmosphere at the end of the Paleocene started with more than twice the amount of atmospheric CO 2 as Earth's current atmosphere. Today, Earth's climate and atmosphere are noticeably different from then, the climate warmer and the Atlantic Ocean much smaller. Even under Paleocene conditions, CO 2 falls far short of being able to cause sudden significant global warming.  Earth shortly after the PETM. “Undoubtedly, the climatic boundary conditions before the PETM were different from today's—including different continental configuration, absence of continental ice and a different base climate, which limits the PETM's suitability as the perfect future analogue,” state the authors, somewhat disappointed at not finding a clear link to CO 2 and modern global warming. “Nevertheless, our results imply a fundamental gap in our understanding of the amplitude of global warming associated with large and abrupt climate perturbations. This gap needs to be filled to confidently predict future climate change.” We most assuredly have a fundamental gap in our understanding—a gap that will continue to exist as long as climate scientists insist on blaming climate change on atmospheric CO 2 levels. It is CO 2 that is the feedback, not the primary driver. Mankind's direct release of CO 2 into the atmosphere cannot come close to causing another PETM. The importance of CO 2 has been constantly overestimated and all evidence of its impotence ignored by mainstream climate scientists. And despite assertions to the contrary, until the real causes for climate change are found we will not be able to predict future climate change. Be safe, enjoy the interglacial and stay skeptical. (Doug L. Hoffman, The Resilient Earth)
 What an ice free Arctic might look like from space
We all know how much NSIDC’s Dr. Mark Serreze has been touting the idea of the “Arctic death spiral“, and we’ve had predictions of ice free summers in 2008, 2013, 2015, 2020, 2030, 2040, 2050, 2060, 2070, and 2100 to name a few. Other forecasts don’t give specific dates but say things like within 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 100 years, decades, and sooner than expected. Such “all over the road forecast certainty” doesn’t really build any confidence that any of these climate soothsayers have any idea when or even if the Arctic will be “ice free” in the summer in the next 100 years. Now, inconveniently, we have this new paper via ScienceDirect New insights on Arctic Quaternary climate variability from palaeo-records and numerical modelling which says that their studies show that the early Holocene might very well have had ice free summers. This is interesting, because as this generally well accepted graph shows, temperature was higher then. But there’s more. Continue reading (WUWT)
Another disGRACE? Is the ice at the South Pole melting? Gravity field satellites observe for the first time the fluctuations of ice mass of the Antarctic ice sheet due to El Nino
Is that a scary thing? Guest post by Indur M. Goklany
In its October 14, 2010 issue, Nature magazine (p. 755) reports on a paper by JMG Hudson and G HR Henry, Increased plant biomass in a High Arctic heath community from 1981 to 2008, Ecology 90:2657–2663 (2009). (PDF ) It notes that, based on data collected from study plots over a 13-year period and survey data covering 27 years on the tundra of Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada, an area where both temperatures and the length of the growing season has increased in recent decades: “The biomass of mosses has increased by 74% and that of evergreen shrubs by 60%. The total biomass of the system has increased significantly, and vegetation has grown taller. But because there was plenty of open ground at the site into which plants could expand, these changes did not result in decreases in any group. The research indicates that climate change has already begun to increase plant productivity in the high Arctic.”
Might Arctic Warming Lead to Catastrophic Methane Releases?  Image: National Science Foundation
Guest post by Indur M. Goklany In the earlier post reporting on the recent greening of the Arctic, some commentators — Crispin in Waterloo, BillD, Jimbo — have alluded to the notion that Arctic thawing could lead to positive feedback by adding to methane emissions to the atmosphere. This global warming bogeyman is founded on the plausible notion — plausible, at least at first blush — that warming might release methane from methane clathrates (or hydrates) stored in the Arctic permafrost which would increase its concentration in the atmosphere. Continue reading (WUWT)
New Paper “Numerical Simulations Of The Impacts Of Land-Cover” By Kala Et Al 2010 There is an important, well written new paper that documents the role of land-cover on synoptic weather features; in this case cold fronts. The paper is J. Kala, T. J. Lyons, and U. S. Nair, 2010: Numerical Simulations of the Impacts of Land-Cover Change on Cold Fronts in South-West Western Australia. Boundary-Layer Meteorol DOI 10.1007/s10546-010-9547-3 The abstract reads
The conclusion has the text at the end
This is another research study with recommendations regarding the diversity of human climate forcings beyond CO2 which the next IPCC assessment must include, if it is going to be a credible evaluation of climate science. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Test shows no health risk to food from oil spill WASHINGTON - Testing has helped confirm that chemicals used to disperse oil from the BP spill have not made their way into fish, crabs, shrimp or oysters
from the Gulf of Mexico, U.S. officials said on Friday.
New ultra-deep pre-salt offshore find confirms Brazil an oil giant Brazil’s oil industry regulator announced Friday that a recent ultra-deep offshore find is estimated to hold between 3.7 billion and 15 billion barrels of oil equivalent, which could make it the largest crude accumulation in the country’s pre-salt region and the biggest discovery in the Western Hemisphere in more than three decades. (MercoPress)
Coercing People Out of Their Cars The road to hell is paved with bike paths.
Rise of the rent-seekers... In California’s Mojave Desert, Solar-Thermal Projects Take Off By year’s end, regulators are expected to approve a host of solar energy projects in California that could eventually produce as much electricity as several nuclear plants. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, John Woolard, the CEO of the company that has begun construction on the world’s largest solar-thermal project, discusses the promise — and challenges — of this green energy boom. (Todd Woody, e360)
... but their scams are not really worth building... Solar Power Projects Face Potential Hurdles NIPTON, Calif. — The long-promised solar building boom in the desert Southwest is finally under way. Here in the Mojave Desert, a dice throw away from the
Nevada border, giant road graders and a small army of laborers began turning the dirt for BrightSource Energy’s $2 billion Ivanpah project, the first
large-scale solar thermal power plant to be built in the United States in two decades.
... and yet endangered critters are casually cast aside for greenie-favored rent-seekers: Desert tortoise gets fast-tracked to the curb  Friendly desert
tortoise (Gopherus agassizii). drakeinteractive.com
This cute desert tortoise enjoying the sun and flowers needs to move in order to make way for a new kind of flora in the Mojave desert: very environmentally friendly solar panel trees. Environmental regulations and countless required studies usually stymie the development of large-scale industrial projects, especially in pristine habitats of sensitive critters (and in California in general). However, “the looming expiration of crucial federal financial support for the multi-billion-dollar projects, though, could turn the boom to bust.” State approval of Mojave desert solar power farms is being fast-tracked in order to qualify for federal money, which will disappear due to the stimulus spigot being turned off, and the fact that the country is broke. The scale of each “suncatcher”, the number going to be installed, and the vast amount of acreage required for each farm is simply astounding. Yet, the presence of federally threatened desert tortoises is not enough to stop the project; they’ll simply be moved somewhere else, and chances of survival are admittedly very low (see below). I wonder if the Central Valley farmers who are suffering from lack of water due to the Delta smelt will get fast track approval to use their barren moonscape farms for these same solar plants? How can the cute tortoises stand in the way of Progress and reducing carbon footprints? Continue reading (WUWT)
U.S. Wind Power Posts Slowest Quarter Since 2007 A state-of-the-art wind turbine at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) spins on a sunny day near
Boulder, Colorado July 21, 2010.
Peeling Away the Onion of Denmark Wind (Part IV – CO2 Emissions) by Kent Hawkins
Figure 1 is a simple look at CO2 emissions and wind electricity production, which explains the claims made by wind proponents based on a superficial examination of the information. Figure 1 shows what the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) reports based on an “adjustment” of actual CO2 emissions. 2007 was a windy year and 2006 was a notably low wind year.
Figure 1 – Wind-generated electricity and CO2 emissions from electricity production in Denmark for the period 1990-2008. 1990 is the base year for Kyoto performance measurement. CO2 emissions are adjusted based on net exports of electricity. This looks convincing on the surface, but is not substantiated by closer examination. There are many reasons not to look to the relationship between wind electricity production, or any electricity production, and CO2 emissions as evidence of cause and effect, and these will be covered later. But first, it is important to understand what the actual (or “observed” using the DEA terminology) CO2 emissions in Denmark are before “adjustment”. [Read more →] (MasterResource)
Rob Schneider has been looking at published figures for the amount of electricity generated by windfarms in the UK. He has then compared this to the installed capacity to get a feel for the true average load factor for wind power in the UK. The figures are...well...take a look yourself. (Bishop Hill)
Extension of Nuclear Lifespans Is 'Pure Conservatism' The German parliament has approved legislation extending the lifespan of the country's nuclear power plants. The opposition has cried foul, but many of newspapers argue that the government is on the right path. The government's climate protection program is only possible because of the reprieve for nuclear power, claims one paper. (Spiegel)
More workers sacrificed to green god Chris Huhne's extrarodinary mishandling of the UK's energy policy continues apace. It appears that users of virgin wood are being priced out of the market for their raw materials because of subsidies to bioenergy companies who compete for supply.
Quite, quite mad. (Bishop Hill)
|
Meanwhile, companies
are no longer interested in trading carbon voluntarily. Al Gore’s much ballyhooed Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) has recently announced that it will no longer
engage in carbon trading, the activity it was created for. This event has remained strangely un-reported in the mainstream media. “This is an utter failure of
purpose in global warming hysteria yet the Old Media is almost completely silent on this colossal failure,” reports Warner Todd Huston of 
You know, in
science, there was once this thing we called the Theory of Multiple Working Hypotheses. Anathema (a formal ecclesiastical curse accompanied by excommunication)
in modern climate science. So, in juxtaposition to the hypothesis of future global climate disruption from CO
2, a scientist might well consider an antithesis or two in order to maintain ones objectivity. One such antithesis, which happens to
be a long running debate in paleoclimate science, concerns the end Holocene. Or just how long the present interglacial will last.
Climate scientists continue to be fascinated with the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which took place about 55 Myr ago.
This period of sudden global warming and increasing atmospheric CO
2 represents a possible model our present era of warming climate and growing CO
2 emissions. Studying the PETM, therefore, may provide insight into climate system sensitivity and feedbacks. Just such a study,
reported in Nature Geoscience, found that CO
2 forcing alone was insufficient to explain the PETM warming. Scientists speculate that other processes and/or feedbacks, hitherto
unknown, must have caused a substantial portion of the warming during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. Simply put, CO
2 did not cause the PETM climate change.
