March 31, 2009
BOOKS:
'Green Hell'
John R. Coyne Jr.
GREEN HELL: HOW ENVIRONMENTALISTS PLAN TO CONTROL YOUR LIFE AND WHAT YOU
CAN DO TO STOP THEM
By Steve Milloy
Regnery, $27.95
REVIEWED BY JOHN R. COYNE JR.
The Wilderness Act, signed into law by President Johnson in 1964,
represented nearly a century's worth of effort and activity by old-school
conservationists like John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club. In lyrical
language — odd for a bill written by bureaucrats — the act defined
wilderness as "an area where the earth and its community of life are
untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not
remain."
For some conservationists, this was a culmination. For others, it
represented a beginning, with the language laying down a foundation upon
which to build today's green movement. And that striking image of man as
an unwelcome visitor to planet Earth is what animates much of what today's
neo-romantic green movement has grown into.
In this strongly written and well-documented book, Steve Milloy introduces
us to many such groups, among them the Voluntary Human Extinction
Movement, that carry the thought to its logical conclusion: "[The]
hopeful alternative to the extinction of millions of species of plants and
animals is the voluntary extinction of one species: Homo sapiens —
us." Others, Mr. Milloy writes, "advocate more coercive
policies" based on China's child-rationing program, which, as one
green thinker puts it, are necessary to protect "environmental
rights, which are potentially infringed by the addition of each new human
being." (Washington Times)
EDITORIAL:
Protect us from the EPA - One man's meat may be another man's poison,
but the Environmental Protection Agency has taken the idea to an
absurdity. EPA has just sent a proposal to the White House that would
classify carbon dioxide as a health hazard.
But if there wasn't carbon dioxide around, there would be no plants. And,
for that matter, neither would there be any people or pets if we weren't
allowed to exhale. The claimed "health hazard" from carbon
dioxide is, of course, global warming, yet the data we have seen, such as
Stanford economist Thomas Gale Moore's work, show that warmer temperatures
and higher incomes are associated with healthier, longer-living people. In
case environmentalists haven't noticed, bio-diversity is also much greater
when temperatures are higher.
Over history, human civilizations have expanded during warmer periods but
declined when it got cold. For a history lesson, we recommend University
of California Professor Brian Fagan's excellent book, "The Little Ice
Age: How Climate Made History."
Obviously, higher temperatures support more plant life, and that in turn
supplies the food for more animals. If you want more plants, animals, and
healthier people, more carbon dioxide and higher temperatures are
beneficial and certainly not "hazardous to health." (Washington
Times)
Oh my... Obama
envoy: US to make up time on climate change - BONN, Germany - Once
booed at international climate talks, the United States won sustained
applause when President Barack Obama's envoy pledged to "make up for
lost time" in reaching a global agreement on climate change.
Todd Stern also praised efforts by countries like China to rein in their
carbon emissions, but said global warming "requires a global
response" and that rapidly developing economies like China "must
join together" with the industrial world to solve the problem.
The debut of Obama's climate change team on Sunday was widely anticipated
after eight years of obdurate participation in UN climate talks by the
previous Bush administration.
"We are very glad to be back. We want to make up for lost time, and
we are seized with the urgency of the task before us," Stern said to
loud applause from the 2,600 delegates to the UN negotiations.
They clapped again when Stern said the US recognised "our unique
responsibility ... as the largest historic emitter of greenhouse
gases", which has created a problem threatening the entire world.
(Associated Press)
America
‘can’t wave magic wand’ on climate change - The US 'needs more
time' to get up to speed on cutting emissions
Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter, Bonn
Expectations of what can be achieved by the United States in fighting
global warming are unrealistic, climate change negotiators from more than
170 countries have been told.
Hopes raised by a new willingness in the White House to take action to
control climate change must be balanced by a realisation that there are
limits to what the US can do, they were told.
Todd Stern, President Obama’s special envoy on climate change, moved to
play down hopes as the US joined UN talks on global warming in Bonn. These
are designed to smooth the path to a summit in Copenhagen in December when
it is hoped that international agreement on cutting greenhouse gas
emissions can be reached. (The Times)
Climate Change
Reality - President Obama says that "few challenges facing
America and the world are more urgent than fighting climate change. The
science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear." In fact, many
scientists disagree with the "facts," their certainty, and their
interpretation. Over 100 of them have signed the statement that appears in
the Cato Institute's newspaper ad.
Like a chance to influence content selection on JunkScience.com?
Over on the forum member Wes asks: "Does
JunkScience.com Spend Too Much Time on Global Warming?"
Well, what do you think?
To control spam users must self-register prior to being able to vote or
post items but once you've done that you are good to go. So, vote in the
associated poll, offer suggestions on where you'd like to see effort
concentrated and, better yet, post items of interest for discussion and
investigation.
The forum is there for you to
use.
Lindzen
on negative climate feedback - Guest Post by Richard Lindzen, PhD.
This essay is from an email list that I subscribe to. Dr. Lindzen has sent
this along as an addendum to his address made at ICCC 2009 in New York
City. I present it here for consideration. - Anthony (Watts Up With That?)
He's back! Crunch
Time for 'Global Warming' - Yesterday, a mere 35,000 protesters [by
contrast, between 60,000 and 80,000 folk participated in the Peterloo
protests of August 16, 1819] took to the streets of London to shout about
- er, well - everything, from evil bankers to ‘global warming’ and the
urgent need to support motor-car manufacturing. To say that the protest
was both inchoate and incoherent would be to understate its naivety.
Moreover, it took no fewer than 150 separate organisations, from trade
unions to charities, to muster the 35,000 souls. Meanwhile, some 70,000
diehards trekked to Wembley to watch a fairly boring friendly match
between England and Slovakia (at least England won 4-0). By contrast, in
2002, the Countryside Alliance persuaded over 400,000 people to march in
defence of hunting the fox and country living, a figure confirmed by the
Metropolitan Police; and just think of those 1819 Peterloo statistics when
adjusted for relative population size. Moreover, the ‘global warming’
contingent yesterday was, as usual, a small, if rather noisy, runt. As
ever, it was a case of empty vessels making the most sound. (The Clamour
Of The Times)
Set
Phasers on Stun - I’ve been receiving a steady stream of e-mails
asking when our latest work on feedbacks in the climate system will be
published. Since I’ve been trying to fit the material from three
(previously rejected) papers into one unified paper, it has taken a bit
longer than expected…but we are now very close to submission.
We’ve tentatively decided to submit to Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR)
rather than any of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) journals.
This is because it appears that JGR editors are somewhat less concerned
about a paper’s scientific conclusions supporting the policy goals of
the IPCC — regulating greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, JGR’s
instructions to reviewers is to not reject a paper simply because the
reviewer does not agree with the paper’s scientific conclusions. More on
that later.
As those who have been following our work already know, our main
conclusion is that climate sensitivity has been grossly overestimated due
to a mix up between cause and effect when researchers have observed how
global cloud cover varies with temperature. (Roy W. Spencer)
Hour
of no power increases emissions - THIS Saturday, the World Wildlife
Fund wants everybody on the planet to switch off their lights for an hour
in a "global election between Earth and global warming", where
switching off the lights "is a vote for Earth".
In Australia, where Earth Hour started, it evidently enjoys strong support
from politicians, celebrities, corporate backers and the public. The
efforts this Saturday certainly will be well-intentioned. Many of us worry
about global warming and would like to be part of the solution.
Unfortunately, this event - as with many public proposals on climate
change - is an entirely symbolic gesture that creates the mistaken
impression that there are easy, quick fixes to climate change. One
provincial British newspaper wrote this week: "Saving the planet
could be as easy as switching off the lights in South Tyneside, green
campaigners say."
It will take more than the metropolitan borough of South Tyneside,
population 152,000, to solve global warming. Even if a billion people turn
off their lights this Saturday, the entire event will be equivalent to
switching off China's emissions for six short seconds. In economic terms,
the environmental and humanitarian benefits from the efforts of the entire
developed world would add up to just $21,000.
The campaign doesn't ask anybody to do anything difficult, such as coping
without heating, airconditioning, telephones, the internet, hot food or
cold drinks. Conceivably, if you or I sat in our houses watching
television, with the heater and computer running, we could claim we're
part of an answer to global warming, so long as the lights are switched
off. The symbolism is almost perverse.
In Australia last year, Earth Hour's organisers required participating
businesses to pledge to reduce their emissions by 5 per cent during the
following year. This year, that requirement has been dropped. "We
decided we'd actually downplay (concrete cuts) this time," the chief
executive of WWF Australia told The Sunday Age. There apparently has been
no accounting of whether last year's sponsors lived up to their pledge.
The Sunday Age reported last week: "An analysis of the key sponsors
of Earth Hour reveals that most have reported increased emissions in their
most recent figures." (Bjorn Lomborg, The Australian)
Bogeymen of
the C02 hoax losing ground - You can discover what your enemy fears
most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. Eric Hoffer
James Hansen, head of NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS), and
Andrew Weaver, lead author of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) Reports, made statements clearly designed to frighten
people.
Both men are politically active in climate change and at the forefront of
the attempt to convince the world that CO2 is a problem. Their remarks are
intended to scare people by threatening impending doom – nothing new -
except there is increasing urgency and fear because their message is
failing. As Andrew Weaver summarized, ”All those fossil fuel emissions
need to be eliminated. And we must do so quickly if we are to have any
chance of stabilizing the climate and maintaining human civilization as we
know it.” (Tim Ball, CFP)
Obama's hard
trip to Europe - US President Barack Obama's visit to Europe is all
about leadership - the expectations and perhaps the limitations of it as
he seeks to fashion a new American role in the post-Bush era.
There are no real answers yet but the questions he faces are what kind of
leadership he can offer and what kind of co-operation he will receive.
The new president might find that his honeymoon with Europe is about to
bump up against the realities of day-to-day life. (BBC News)
Bumpy
ride ahead for UN climate talks - As hundreds of delegates gathered in
Bonn on Sunday (29 March) for the first official round of UN talks in view
of preparing the ground for a post-Kyoto climate deal in December, most
experts concurred that a detailed agreement is unlikely to emerge by the
end of the year. (EurActiv)
EU's
climate change policies under attack - WWF accuses EU leaders of
breaking international agreement; Environment commissioner defends
targets.
Stavros Dimas, the European commissioner for the environment, insisted
that Europe was still a global leader on climate change after a stinging
attack on the EU by the campaign group World Wildlife Fund for Nature
(WWF) at the European Business Summit in Brussels today (27 March).
In a testy exchange, Dimas defended EU policy after WWF said that Europe
had broken its promise to developing countries and weakened its own carbon
reduction targets. (Jennifer Rankin, European Voice)
Cap
and Trade War - Team Obama floats a carbon tariff.
One of President Obama's applause lines is that his climate tax policies
will create new green jobs "that can't be outsourced." But if
that's true, why is his main energy adviser floating a new carbon tariff
on imports? Welcome to the coming cap and trade war.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu made the protectionist point during an
underreported House hearing this month, when he said tariffs and other
trade barriers could be used as a "weapon" to force countries
like China and India into cutting their own CO2 emissions. "If other
countries don't impose a cost on carbon, then we will be at a
disadvantage," he said. So a cap-and-trade policy won't be cost-free
after all. Apparently Mr. Chu did not get the White House memo about
obfuscating the impact of the Administration's anticarbon policies. (Wall
Street Journal)
Something to
ponder about cap and trade - Question: Who decided to pay farmers to
destroy ten million acres of crops and kill six million farm animals?
If you answered FDR, then you would be correct. But, why did he do it and
what was the end result?
The markets were keeping food prices too low for farmers to make enough
money for a profit, thus FDR promoted higher food prices by paying farmers
to plow under some 10 million acres of crops and slaughter and discard
some six million farm animals, because it primarily benefited big farmers
due to the fact that they had more food crops to destroy than small farms.
The end result of this policy and later programs was the victimization of
millions of already starving Americans. (Steve LeMaster, Global Warming
Skeptics)
The worry is she may really be this stupid: Delaying
climate change action 'will cost jobs' says Penny Wong - THE global
financial crisis must not be used as an excuse to delay action on global
warming, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says.
Addressing an environmental think-tank in Washington, Senator Wong said
while economic conditions made tackling climate change more difficult,
failure to act would only increase investment uncertainty and jeopardise
jobs.
Instead, an emissions trading program like the government's proposed
Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) would disengage emissions growth
from economic growth and transform Australia's economy for the better, she
said.
"Our government's view is that we cannot allow the global financial
crisis to weaken our determination to address the very real and long-term
threat that climate change poses,'' Senator Wong told the Pew Centre for
Global Climate Change on Monday in the United States. (The Australian)
Cap-n-Tax
will eat the heart out of Australia - The Carbon Sense Coalition today
claimed that the Emissions Trading Scheme would eat the heart out of
regional Australia by destroying jobs in mining, processing, construction,
farming, forestry, transport and tourism.
In a submission to the Australian Senate Economics Committee, the Chairman
of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that the mis-named “Carbon
Pollution Reduction Scheme” had nothing to do with carbon or pollution -
“it is essentially a cap and a tax on carbon dioxide, the harmless,
colourless natural gas that sustains all life on earth”.
“To cut man’s emissions of carbon dioxide, we need to curb electricity
generation, cement manufacture, mining, smelting, refining, all forms of
transport, farm and earth moving machinery, all farmed animals, forestry
and construction. In return they would have us believe that the inland
will survive when these once vibrant industries are replaced by feral
forests feeding on carbon credits, vast mobs of kangaroos, regiments of
becalmed wind towers, treeless tracts of ethanol crops and deserts of
solar panels.
“California and Spain have proved that the war on carbon dioxide will
kill real jobs faster than fake green jobs can be created. At the same
time, the silly claims that alternate energy can provide continuous,
economical and reliable power will encourage neglect of Australia’s key
reliable low cost electricity source - coal power.
“When the lights go out, industry migrates to Asia and our power bills
soar, it will be too late to prevent great harm to our economy, our jobs
and our life style. (Viv Forbes, CFP)
Cooler
Heads Digest 27 March 2009
Kyoto's
costly sequel - In a week when world heads of state are meeting in
London at the G20 Economic Summit on the global economic crisis, a less
heralded but ultimately more consequential gathering In Bonn, Germany is
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Some
190 nations will launch a marathon of meetings designed to culminate in
Copenhagen in December with a new pact for curbing greenhouse gases beyond
2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires. The conventioneers are “true
believers” that global warming is settled science, and that it should be
a top-priority problem for government solution. (Paul Taylor, LA
Ecopolitics Examiner)
Leaders
to meet in summer for special climate change talks - The new summit
– which is being called on the initiative of President Barack Obama as
part of a US drive to get a new international agreement on tackling global
warming – is to take place alongside the annual G8 gathering of world
leaders on the island of La Maddalena off Sardinia.
Scientists and environmentalists will hope that it will make up for a
failure by the leaders at this week's meeting to do more than agree warm
words about the need for a "green new deal" and the importance
of building low-carbon economies. Every nation attending has flatly
refused to discuss any commitment to devote an agreed percentage of its
financial stimulus package to green measures, insisting instead on
focusing on relatively short-term measures to tackle the immediate
financial crisis.
News of the summit comes as governments gather in Bonn today to start
eight months of negotiations on an agreement to replace the Kyoto
Protocol, which are to climax at a conference in Copenhagen in December.
The conference is widely seen as the world's last chance of getting global
warming under control before it precipitates disastrous climate change.
(The Independent)
Synchronized buffing: INTERVIEW
- US Praises China's Climate Efforts; Urges More - BONN - The United
States gave rare praise to China's efforts to curb emissions of greenhouse
gases on Sunday but said Beijing must do "a lot more" under a
planned new UN treaty to fight climate change.
Todd Stern, US special envoy for climate change, told Reuters on his debut
at 175-nation UN climate talks in Bonn that all major emitters had to step
up action despite recession under a UN climate pact due to be agreed in
December.
"The Chinese are doing a lot already," he said. China has
recently overtaken the United States as top emitter of heat-trapping
gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, blamed for global warming.
(Reuters)
II: China Hails US
Climate Pledges, OPEC Fears For Oil - BONN - China and other nations
hailed US pledges to do more to fight global warming on Monday but OPEC
dampened celebrations by predicting that a planned UN climate treaty would
damage the economies of oil exporters.
"We welcome this positive change in attitude and approach by
President (Barack) Obama and his team," China's climate ambassador,
Yu Qingtai, told reporters at UN climate talks in Bonn attended by 175
nations.
The Obama administration made its UN climate debut at the start of the
11-day meeting on Sunday, promising to cut US emissions of greenhouse
gases by between 16 and 17 percent, or back to 1990 levels, by 2020 -- far
more ambitious than goals set by former President George W. Bush.
(Reuters)
Earth
Hour in California - Success or Bust? The CAISO Power graph tells the
story - Guest post by Russ Steele, NCWatch
At our house we set the timer to remind us to turn on all the visible out
side lights. We have multiple security lights on the garage and the barn
that come on when the sun goes down. My friend George Rebane has evidence
that he turned on his lights for Earth Hour at Ruminations. I should have
done the same, but was working on a sea level issue in R and forgot. I am
glad I set the timer to remind me to turn off the outside house lights at
9:30.
The real question is did it Earth Hour make a difference one way or the
other? (Watts Up With That?)
Good grief! 'Low
carbon diet' a healthy option for Earth - A hungry student at the
University of San Francisco earlier this month couldn't find a few college
staples at the campus eatery -- a juicy hamburger and a cheesy slice of
pizza.
March 10 was "Low Carbon Diet Day," and beef and cheese were off
the menu.
With 18 percent of the world's greenhouse gases emitted by livestock
raised for meat and dairy products -- more than cars, trucks, ships and
planes combined, according to a United Nations report -- more food
purveyors are launching initiatives to lower their "food carbon
footprint."
Bon Appetit, a food service company in Palo Alto, Calif., that runs the
USF cafeteria and 400 other institutional cafes, is leading the charge.
It's set a goal of reducing its meat and cheese offerings by 25 percent.
(Contra Costa Times)
Auntie’s
Tall Tale Of Daddy Long Legs - It’s always fun to trace the chain of
Chinese whispers between primary research and scary news stories about the
ravages of climate change. Many BBC science stories are particularly easy
to trace back to source, based as they are on a single scientific paper,
from which they are separated by only a single press release. But even
when the whisper chain is a short one, there is plenty of room for the
distortion of sobre science to alarmist headline, especially when the
press release contains everything you need for the job. So it was with the
BBC’s ‘Bid to aid daddy longlegs numbers’ published on Thursday:
(Climate Resistance)
Antarctic Dust Layers May Give
Climate Hints - BONN - South American glaciers are a source of
puzzling layers of dust in Antarctic ice, according to a study published
on Sunday in Nature Geoscience that might help improve climate change
forecasting.
Scientists have long thought that dust entombed in the ice was a sign that
the world went through drier or windier periods during the past 70,000
years. But they could find no evidence in other parts of the world to back
up that theory -- until now.
"What we've done is pin down where the dust comes from -- it comes
from Patagonia" at the tip of South America, the lead author David
Sugden of the University of Edinburgh told Reuters.
Hurricanes not
likely to disrupt ocean carbon balance -- Hurricanes are well known
for the trail of damage and debris they can leave on land, but less known
for the invisible trail left over the ocean by their gale-force winds —
a trail of carbon dioxide.
Observations in Bermuda and the Caribbean in the 1990s noted that
hurricanes' powerful winds and the resultant water mixing can trigger
enhanced carbon dioxide release from the ocean into the air. Large-scale
extrapolations of these observations suggested that increasing numbers of
hurricanes could significantly alter the overall carbon balance of the
ocean and atmosphere.
However, a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison indicates
that storm-induced carbon release is local and temporary and does not seem
to affect the long-term ability of the tropical Atlantic to absorb
atmospheric carbon dioxide. The study has been accepted to publish in an
upcoming issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters. (PhysOrg.com)
What idiot thought it might reduce carbon sequestration? Haven't they
seen the increased eutrophication that results from windfall and heavy
rains associated with landfalling hurricanes? Don't they realize this
results in plumes of carbon-rich sediment from both immediate burial of
organic content and an additional seafloor "rain" of organic
detritus as excessive algal blooms nourished by flood-enriched waters
die off and sink to become part of oceanic sediment? Don't they read
anyone else's work, in which case they would have seen exactly those
results written up from studies of Japanese and Taiwanese landfalling
typhoons?
New
Paper In Press “Intercomparison, Interpretation, and Assessment Of
Spring Phenology In North America Estimated From Remote Sensing For 1982
To 2006″ By White et al.2009 - There is a very interesting paper
in press that updates our understanding of spring pheonology in North
America. There have been statements that spring leaf out has become
earlier in recent years (e.g. see page 77 in CCSP, 2009). This claim
appears to be incorrect. The paper is White, M.A., K.M. de Beurs, K. Didan,
D.W. Inouye, A.D. Richardson, O.P. Jensen, J. O’Keefe, G. Zhang, R.R.
Nemani, W.J.D. van Leeuwen, J.F. Brown, A. de Wit, M. Schaepman, X. Lin,
M. Dettinger, A. Bailey, J. Kimball, M.D. Schwartz, D.D. Baldocchi, J.T.
Lee, W.K. Lauenroth. Intercomparison, interpretation, and assessment of
spring phenology in North America estimated from remote sensing for 1982
to 2006. Global Change Biology (in press). (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate
Science)
Nitrate stimulates
greenhouse gas production in small streams - Nitrous oxide is a potent
greenhouse gas that has been accumulating in the atmosphere since the
industrial revolution. It is well known that fertilizer can stimulate
nitrous oxide production in soils, but less is known about nitrous oxide
production in small streams which drain agricultural landscapes. Much of
the cropland in the agricultural Midwest is drained by an extensive
subsurface drainage network which delivers soil-derived nitrate to small
streams where it may be converted to nitrous oxide. Given the large
quantities of nitrogen that leach from agricultural soils and the
predominance of small streams in Midwestern agricultural landscapes, small
streams may an important source of nitrous oxide. (Soil Science Society of
America)
Obama
just plain wrong about North Dakota floods.- Scientific American
continues to embarrass itself with its online reporting of President
Obama’s insights concerning flooding of the Red River in North Dakota.
They report “President Obama says potentially historic flood levels in
North Dakota are a clear example of why steps need to be taken to stop
global warming….” and quote the President as saying in his usual
articulate way: (Climate Sanity)
Sea
No Consistency, Hear No Consistency - Christopher Booker has a
typically entertaining and informative item in the Saturday Telegraph
detailing the nonsense underlying climate alarmists' claims about rapidly
rising oceans levels — and particularly those of the poster children for
those claims, the archipelago nations of the Maldives and Tuvalu.
The piece reminded me of something I was told back when I spent time
commuting fairly regularly to Brussels about a big lobbying campaign there
on behalf of the Maldives — by (if memory serves) Hill & Knowlton
— for what I was told was about $400,000 USD per year in lobbying fees.
I wrote this in the EU Reporter, and heard nothing back challenging the
claim.
What did the Maldives want? Millions in EU development funds to build
beachfront resort hotels, all while demanding at least as much to
compensate them for supposedly rapidly rising sea levels which — if true
— would rather obviate the utility of such investments. Possibly the
Maldives government had an internal failure to communicate about such
matters.
Not that the global-warming industry has earned our expectation of
consistency or (since this episode certainly raises the question) of
honesty. Still, if the hyper-alarmist EU Commission did throw taxpayer
money down that particular hole all while engaging in its global warming
dance, well, that would be a good story. Possibly Christopher will look
into that.
Regardless of whether the EU saw the inconsistency and didn’t spend
money that way, the Maldives’. . . opportunism . . . is a useful
anecdote for the global-warming discussion. (Chris Horner, Planet Gore)
Bangladesh
needs the West's help, but isn't waiting for it - The fifth in a
series of stories on Bangladesh and climate migration.
DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Bangladesh may be Mother Nature's punching bag, but
in the battle for survival against climate change, this tiny, riverine
nation isn't going down without a fight.
Already, Bangladesh has invested 10 million taka, the equivalent of about
$150,000, to build cyclone shelters and create a storm early-warning
system. Earlier this year, it allocated another $50 million to the
country's agriculture and health budgets to help "climate-proof"
certain development sectors. The nation's agricultural research centers
are devising salinity-resistant strains of rice. And the South Asian
nation was one of first to deliver to the United Nations a strategy
outlining what it needs in order to cope with the worst effects of climate
change.
"They're not waiting," said Saleem Huq, lead author of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's most recent report on
sustainability. (ClimateWire)
Andy gets tipsy: ‘Tipping
Points’ and the Climate Challenge - In early assessments of global
warming, most curves were smooth. Rising concentrations of greenhouse
gases would raise temperatures. Then glaciologists started finding
evidence of extraordinarily abrupt jumps in regional temperatures. Other
evidence revealed past eras when seas rose precipitously. The possible
shutdown of important Atlantic Ocean currents added to the sense of
nonlinear and disruptive risk. A certain best seller propelled the phrase
“tipping point” deep into popular discourse. Add that all together and
what do you get? The prospect that human-driven warming is poised to push
Earth past dangerous tipping points is now a cornerstone of many
environmental campaigns.
But what tipping points are well established and which ones remain what
Stephen W. Pacala of Princeton University has called “the monsters
behind the door”? I have a piece in the Week in Review section exploring
these concerns. Given the limits on space in print, I thought it
worthwhile to add some additional voices here and encourage further
discussion. The bottom line? A growing effort to clarify such risks has
yielded what amounts to the same message climate experts have been
conveying for more than two decades: More emissions of greenhouse gases
raise the odds of trouble. The conclusion is similar to that in the
“burning embers” diagrams from the third Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change report and a recent paper. (Andrew C. Revkin, New York
Times)
Email
from the deluded Jim Hansen - ...I looked up Freeman Dyson on
Wikipedia, which describes his views on "global warming" as
below. If that is an accurate description of what he is saying now, it is
actually quite reasonable (I had heard that he is just another
contrarian). However, this also indicates that he is under the mistaken
impression that concern about global warming is based on climate models,
which in reality play little role in our understanding -- our
understanding is based mainly on how the Earth responded to changes of
boundary conditions in the past and on how it is responding to on-going
changes.
If this Wikipedia information is an accurate description of his position,
then the only thing that I would like to say about him is that he should
be careful not to offer public opinions about global warming unless he is
willing to first take a serious look at the science. His philosophy of
science is spot-on, the open-mindedness, consistent with that of Feynman
and the other greats, but if he is going to wander into something with
major consequences for humanity and other life on the planet, then he
should first do his homework -- which he obviously has not done on global
warming. My concern is that the public may assume that he has -- and,
because of his other accomplishments, give his opinion more weight than it
deserves.
Jim Hansen (Tom Nelson)
Wrong religion? Damnation:
The ultimate, eternal global warming - We may all be damned -- in this
world and the next -- by our environmental misdeeds and heedlessness,
according to a stern warning from the head of the worldwide Anglican
Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, last week.
Mankind is rebuffing the divine love of God and, by its refusal to face
"doomsday" environmental damage, it is choking, drowning and
starving God's creation, Williams said. (USA TODAY)
If Williams wants to preach ecotheism he should not do so from an
Anglican pulpit.
Ooh Nick! That's a big one! The
point of no return - In an exclusive extract from his new book,
Nicholas Stern argues that the time for debate on climate change is well
and truly over
How is it that, in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, there are
still some who would deny the dangers of climate change? Not surprisingly,
the loudest voices are not scientific, and it is remarkable how many
economists, lawyers, journalists and politicians set themselves up as
experts on the science. It is absolutely right that those who discuss
policy should interrogate the science, because the implications for action
are radical. However, they should also take the scientific evidence
seriously and recognise the limitations on their own abilities to assess
the science.
Contrary to the narrative that some have tried to impose on the debate,
climate change is not a theory struggling to maintain itself in the face
of problematic evidence. The opposite is true: as new information comes
in, it reinforces our understanding across a whole spectrum of indicators.
The subject is full of uncertainty, but there is no serious doubt that
emissions are growing as a result of human activity and that more
greenhouse gases will lead to further warming. (Nicholas Stern, The
Guardian)
Santa's going to leave coal in your stocking this year...
Likely to upset greenies: Fish
oil in cow's diet could help clear the air - Farting cows, their diets
and its impact on global warming may make most people chuckle, but it
isn't a laughing matter for an Irish researcher studying how to reduce
those emissions.
Since 2007, Lorraine Lillis, a researcher from University College Dublin
in Ireland, has focused on the benefits of adding fish oil to cows' diet.
While the oil helps the heart and circulatory system, and improves meat
quality, she has also found that it reduces methane emissions.
Farm animals are thought to produce up to a quarter of all methane
emissions for which man is responsible worldwide.
A part of that problem is a bacteria living in the digestive system of
cows. (Vanessa Burka, Canwest News Service)
with this collateral damage: Not
enough fish to meet health advisories - TORONTO, March 17 -- If
everyone increased their fish consumption 2 to 3 times as recommended for
health benefits, the world would run out of fish, Canadian researchers
said.
Dr. David Jenkins of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and colleagues said
that recommendations to increase fish consumption because of health
benefits may not be environmentally sustainable and more research is
needed to clarify the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. In 2004, the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration gave "qualified health claim"
status to omega−3 fatty acids, stating that "supportive but not
conclusive research shows that consumption fatty acids may reduce the risk
of coronary heart disease."
The study authors point out that even at current fish consumption levels,
global fisheries are in severe crisis as demand outstrips supply and
declining stocks are being diverted from local markets to affluent
markets, with serious consequences for the food security of poorer
countries and coastal communities.
Global stocks have been declining since the late 1980s and there have been
more than 100 cases of marine extinctions, Jenkins said.
"These trends imply the collapse of all commercially exploited stocks
by mid-century," the study authors said in a statement. "Yet the
dire status of fisheries resources is largely unrecognized by the public,
who are both encouraged to eat more fish and are misled into believing we
live in a sea of plenty." (UPI)
Ooh! Ooh! We want money, too! Climate
change and its adverse effects on health needs more research funding -
Climate change will seriously impact public health, but the United States
has yet to allocate adequate research funding to understand and prepare
for these impacts, according to a report published in Environmental Health
Perspectives, the journal of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences. (News-Medical)
Ceding still more authority? US
Asks UN To Help Cut Ship Emissions Near Coasts - NEWARK - The United
States has asked the United Nation's International Maritime Organization
to create a buffer zone around America's coastline to cut pollution from
ocean-going ships that harms human health, the Environmental Protection
Agency said Monday.
"This is an important and long overdue step in our efforts to protect
the air and the water along our shores and the health of the people in our
coastal communities," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.
Under the proposal, which was also submitted to the IMO by Canada, big
vessels like oil tankers and cargo ships that operate in a 230-mile
"emissions control area" extending from two countries'
coastlines, would face stricter smog and particulate pollution standards
to reduce the threats the emissions pose to humans and the environment.
The United States asked the IMO to create the boundaries because some 90
percent of the ship calls on US ports are made by foreign-flagged vessels.
(Reuters)
Climate
lobbying in D.C. attracts Texans - Employment surges in area where
state’s energy industry has a huge stake
WASHINGTON — The nation’s economy is in the tank, and companies in
Houston and elsewhere have been shedding jobs. But in Washington,
there’s a growth industry that’s putting some Texans to work: climate
change lobbying.
The climate change business has spiked in the last year, especially after
Barack Obama was elected president as a strong supporter of legislation to
drastically reduce fossil fuel emissions. Roughly 2,340 lobbyists dealing
with climate issues were hired in 2008, according to a Center for Public
Integrity analysis of Senate lobbying disclosure forms.
The climate lobbyists now outnumber members of Congress by a margin of
more than 4 to 1 and span the political spectrum — from Hollywood stars
on the left to conservatives who argue global warming is a hoax. But one
of the most active players in the debate has been a mainstay of the Texas
economy: the energy industry.
“Everyone has a stake in any final legislation,” said Rep. Gene Green,
D-Houston, “and interest groups from all viewpoints —
environmentalists, consumer protection organizations, and business
interests — have been increasingly requesting meetings with members (of
Congress) and staff to relay their concerns.” (Houston Chronicle)
ANALYSIS - US Power Use
Tumbling With Recession - NEW YORK/HOUSTON - US electricity demand
will continue to shrink in 2009 as the economic meltdown hits industrial
power consumption, but a rebound could come in 2010.
Bigger houses, a myriad of electric devices and an expanding economy have
kept US power use on a nearly uninterrupted climb for 25 years - until the
recession put the brakes on industrial demand in 2008.
Electricity sales to industrial customers are expected to shrink 6.4
percent this year, leading to an expected 1.7 percent drop in overall
power consumption in 2009, the US Energy Information Administration said
in its most recent outlook.
EIA, which provides data and analysis for the US Department of Energy,
said in another report industrial consumers bought 11.4 percent less power
in January 2009 compared with the same time last year. (Reuters)
James
Lovelock attacks climate change minister's 'preaching' on wind power -
Gaia theorist says Ed Miliband's moral stance on wind turbine opposition
is erosion of freedom and close to fascism
The scientist and veteran environmental campaigner James Lovelock has
launched a blistering riposte to the UK climate change minister's
suggestion that opposing wind farms should become as socially unacceptable
as failing to wear a seatbelt.
In a piece entitled fascism in the wind, Lovelock described Ed Miliband's
pronouncement as "hectoring" and an attempt to use "the
social rejection of political correctness" to remove democratic
rights from those who oppose wind turbines. (The Guardian)
Ministerial
hectoring on green energy is fascism in the wind - A campaign is being
fought that uses social rejection to make us accept industrial-scale wind
energy stations across the UK
In Prague Castle at a Forum 2000 conference hosted by President Vaclav
Havel, I heard the distinguished novelist and freedom fighter Wole Soyinka
say with great passion that political correctness is evil. He argued that
while brute force is one way to take away our democratic rights, they can
be lost as easily by the social rejection of political correctness.
It seems we are now subject to a campaign that uses social rejection as a
force to make us accept industrial-scale wind energy stations across the
UK; to call them windfarms is disingenuous. (James Lovelock, The Guardian)
Cost
Works Against Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources in Time of
Recession - WASHINGTON — Windmills and solar panel arrays have
become symbols of America’s growing interest in alternative energy. Yet
as Congress begins debating new rules to restrict carbon dioxide emissions
and promote electricity produced from renewable sources, an underlying
question is how much more Americans will be willing to pay to harness the
wind and the sun.
Curbing carbon dioxide emissions — a central part of tackling climate
change — will almost certainly raise electricity prices, experts say.
And increasing the nation’s reliance on renewable energy will in itself
raise costs.
Fifteen months into a recession, that prospect does not sit well in some
quarters. (New York Times)
Desert damage: the
dark side of solar power? - Thousands of acres of solar panels could
spring up across California's Mojave Desert like a crop of crystal
mushrooms -- a new kind of gold rush meant to bring powerful environmental
benefits.
Cutting such a wide swath, however, might also disrupt desert ecosystems
and the fragile plants that thrive there.
It's a concern expressed by some policymakers and scientists, including
Darren Sandquist, a Cal State Fullerton biologist with a perspective all
his own. (Orange County Register)
The
Cellulosic Ethanol Mirage: Verenium and Aventine Are Circling the Drain
- For years, ethanol boosters have promised Americans that
“cellulosic” ethanol lurks just ahead, right past the nearest service
station. Once it becomes viable, this magic elixir -- made from grass,
wood chips, sawdust, or some other plant material -- will deliver us from
the evil clutches of foreign oil and make the U.S. “energy
independent” while enriching farmers and strengthening small towns
across the country.
Consider this claim: “From our cellulose waste products on the farm such
as straw, corn-stalks, corn cobs and all similar sorts of material we
throw away, we can get, by present known methods, enough alcohol to run
our automotive equipment in the United States.”
That sounds like something you’ve heard recently, right? Well, fasten
your seatbelt because that claim was made way back in 1921. That’s when
American inventor Thomas Midgley proclaimed the wonders of cellulosic
ethanol to the Society of Automotive Engineers in Indianapolis. And while
Midgley was excited about the prospect of cellulosic ethanol, he admitted
that there was a significant hurdle to his concept: producing the fuel
would cost about $2 per gallon. That’s about $20 per gallon in current
money.
Alas, what’s old is new again. (Robert Bryce, Energy Tribune)
More
Reindeer Games - Nearly 3,000 news stories this past week jumped on
the bandwagon to report that a new study had found that red meat may be
deadly. This is another flagrant illustration that we’d all be a lot
healthier if we just stopped reading medical news stories. Not one health
journalist reported the study accurately, truthfully or responsibly. As a
result, countless people have been needlessly frightened about their food
and health and are being led to make health decisions or support policies
that have no grounds in sound science.
This was not a clinical study at all. Not a single person was ever
examined. It turned out to be another computer data dredge of those AARP
member mail-in questionnaires from 14 years ago. It was unable to find a
single tenable correlation between meat consumption and premature death
— in fact, it not only failed to find an association between meat and
higher incidences of cancer or premature deaths, but if you want to split
hairs, it found the opposite of many of the claims in the news this week.
Before revealing what didn't make the news, let’s take a quick look at
how they did it. (Junkfood Science)
The
silence of evidence - The reality of nationalized electronic medical
records is recognized among most medical professionals, who know that the
claims of saving money and lives are not supported by the preponderance of
credible evidence and that improving health care isn’t about having
everyone’s medical records in a federal database for governmental
oversight. But the general public has largely been kept in the dark about
the controversies surrounding electronic medical records. One reason for
this disconnect and why the full story isn't reaching consumers was
explained in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
(Junkfood Science)
Brought
to you by Google - Remember Google Health? That story and the
follow-up ones gave us cause to pause before downloading our private
medical records for safekeeping with Google. This month, the industry
giant made the news for failing to protect the privacy and security of
user data stored on Google Docs, and for its latest move to collect, track
and store users’ online behaviors. But how many Americans have heard
that the government has recently tasked Google to track most government
data, as well as the online political-related activities of citizens to
profile them? (Junkfood Science)
FDA
Should Not Exert Jurisdiction over Electronic Cigarettes; Instead, FTC
Should Ensure that Advertising Claims are Supported - I reported last
week that Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has announced that he wants the
FDA to immediately take electronic cigarettes -- which deliver essentially
pure nicotine (with no tar or other tobacco constituents) -- off the
market. I argued that although there are potentially serious health
effects of nicotine, especially with regards to heart disease, there are
no other toxic chemicals and no carcinogens, so there is no risk of cancer
or chronic obstructive lung disease. Thus, the introduction of electronic
cigarettes into the U.S. market is a potentially life-saving intervention.
There is initial evidence that many smokers have found the e-cigarette to
be an effective method for smoking cessation. Moreover, it makes sense
that smokers would find it more attractive to use an e-cigarette than a
nicotine patch. It is quite plausible that many smokers would find the
e-cigarette to be an alternative to smoking and it may actually be more
successful in keeping them off cigarettes. If true, this would save
countless lives, because many smokers would be greatly reducing their
health risks by switching to a much safer alternative type of cigarette.
(Michael Siegel, Tobacco Analysis)
Tired
of the treadmill? Get out and play instead - NEW YORK - Tired of the
same old exercise routine? Get out and play instead, suggests a fitness
expert who spoke at the American College of Sports Medicine's (ACSM)
Annual Health and Fitness Summit in Atlanta.
Play is "the perfect anecdote for when your exercise routine starts
to feel like more of a chore than an activity of enjoyment," health
scientist from Bethesda, Maryland, and ACSM faculty member Dr. Carol E.
Torgan noted in a statement from the meeting. It's good for the body, mind
and soul.
"Think about activities you loved to do as a child and incorporate
those into your routine (and) include your family," Torgan added in
comments to Reuters Health. (Reuters Health)
Study
finds fatter women over 40 look younger - THINK all that sweating at
the gym is making you look younger? Think again.
A new study has found that people aged over 40 look younger when their
faces are fatter.
The study, published on the Plastic and reconstructive surgery website
compared 186 pairs of identical twins and found that dropping one dress
size could age a woman by an average of four years. (NEWS.com.au)
Bailout
Boundary Dispute - WASHINGTON -- It is high time Americans heard an
argument that might turn a vague national uneasiness into a vivid
awareness of something going very wrong. The argument is that the
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) is unconstitutional.
By enacting it, Congress did not in any meaningful sense make a law.
Rather, it made executive branch officials into legislators. Congress said
to the executive branch, in effect: "Here is $700 billion. You say
you will use some of it to buy up banks' 'troubled assets.' But if you
prefer to do anything else with the money -- even, say, subsidize
automobile companies -- well, whatever."
FreedomWorks, a Washington-based libertarian advocacy organization, argues
that EESA violates "the nondelegation doctrine." Although the
text does not spell it out, the Constitution's logic and structure --
particularly the separation of powers -- imply limits on the size and kind
of discretion that Congress may confer on the executive branch. (George
Will, Townhall)
Obama
takes step over the line that separates government from private industry
- His automaker bailout plan wades into 'industrial policy,' in which
government officials, not business executives or the free market, decide
what products a firm makes and how it charts its future.
Reporting from Washington -- President Obama's plan to save failing U.S.
automakers -- and make them the instruments for creating a cleaner,
greener transportation system -- marked a major step across the line that
traditionally separates government from private industry.
His announcement Monday of a new position on bailing out Detroit went
beyond a desire to be sure tax dollars were not wasted in bailing out
struggling companies. It put the Obama administration squarely in the
position of adopting a so-called industrial policy, in which government
officials, not business executives or the free market, decided what kinds
of products a company would make and how it would chart its future. (Peter
Wallsten and Jim Tankersley, Los Angeles Times)
Terence
Corcoran: Obama takes over General Motors - Obama’s commitments
imply extensive government control
Of all the economic teams beavering away in Washington, any ranking of the
least likely to produce credible results would have put the Presidential
Task Force on the Auto Industry high on the list. Headed by a former
journalist turned investment whiz, the task force also includes a union
industrial strategist, three climate change experts, a smattering of
economists and a former legislative assistant to Hillary Clinton. None
knew anything about the auto industry before their appointments on Feb.
20, suggesting the task force was destined to become a central planning
nightmare, ground down by its own ignorance and the bureaucratic futility
of it all.
That might still prove to be true, but for now the task force’s first
report stands as a seemingly sound analysis of General Motors and
Chrysler’s restructuring plans. The overall prognosis, five months after
the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress began dickering with
auto industry bailout scenarios: bankruptcy, or something close to it.
According to the task force, GM’s survival plan is not viable, the Chevy
Volt electric car is too expensive and won’t sell, and Chrysler “at a
minimum will require extinguishing the vast majority of Chrysler’s
outstanding secured debt and all of its unsecured debt and equity, other
than trade creditors providing normal trade terms.” The only hope for
Chrysler is a Fiat takeover, the task force said. (Terence Corcoran,
Financial Post)
Meet
The New Boss - The U.S. government dictating a major corporation's
merger partner and who its CEO should be was unimaginable a year ago. Has
industry sold America's free-market soul for bailout money?
A president of the United States orders the chief executive officer of
General Motors to resign. The same president is further ordering Chrysler
to merge with Fiat, the Italian firm specializing in flimsy cardboard
boxes on wheels.
This new reality should send a chill down the spines of all Americans. The
federal government has begun to run U.S. companies. (IBD)
Lawrence
Solomon — Green economics: It just doesn’t add up - A Spanish
study found that every green job kills 2.2 jobs elsewhere
Green jobs will grow the unemployment rolls, concludes a study at Juan
Carlos University in Madrid. Every green job created ploughs under 2.2
jobs elsewhere in the economy, and that doesn’t account for the indirect
job losses to come of the higher energy prices that accompany green energy
technologies: Companies can be counted on to flee this green, or should we
say gangrene, economy.
The author of the study, economist Gabriel Calzada, has rich data to mine:
Spain has few equals in trying to coerce renewable technologies into the
energy marketplace. To bring these immature technologies to market, for
example, Spanish regulators lavish Spanish renewable energy producers with
payments that can be 11 times greater than those who produce conventional
power. (Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post)
Comment from The Chilling
Effect:
Obama
may find Europe reticent on some US goals - WASHINGTON — President
Barack Obama's first European trip could dampen his hopes that a new
diplomatic style will convert once-reluctant allies into cooperative
global partners.
From taking in Guantanamo Bay prisoners to sending more troops into
Afghanistan's most difficult regions and spending their way out of
economic crisis, European nations remain reticent about some of the
toughest U.S. priorities.
Obama jets across the Atlantic on Tuesday on an eight-day, five-country
trip that will be dizzying even by the usual peripatetic standards of
presidential foreign travel. (Associated Press)
Enough,
population doom merchants - As the world’s leaders put the finishing
touches to their proposals for restoring growth to the global economy
ahead of this week’s London meeting of the G20, there is one official
body that wishes them only failure in their endeavours. The UK’s
Sustainable Development Commission publishes a report tomorrow –
Prosperity without Growth? — arguing that “the pursuit of growth has
had disastrous environmental consequences. In the last quarter of a
century, while the global economy has doubled, the increase in resource
consumption has degraded an estimated 60% of the world’s ecosystems and
led to the threat of catastrophic climate change”.
In that familiar melange of hyperbole, manufactured statistics and
prognostications of the end of the world as we know it, we might spy the
handiwork of Sir Jonathon Porritt, Bt, chairman of the Sustainable
Development Commission. I suspect, however, that Porritt would have
preferred something even more radical. The report appears not to mention
at all what he considers the chief cause of “excessive economic
growth” – humanity’s perverse desire to propagate. (Dominic Lawson,
Sunday Times)
Oh... Australia Wants
Forest CO2 Trade In Copenhagen Pact - NEW YORK - Australia has
submitted a proposal to UN climate negotiators that outlines a scheme to
use carbon credits to protect rain forests, Climate Change Minister Penny
Wong said on Friday.
The submission will be circulated to negotiators meeting next week in
Bonn, Germany, to discuss a new UN climate treaty that world leaders hope
to agree to in Copenhagen in December 2009.
"We think a post-2012 agreement will need to include forests in some
way," Wong told Reuters in an interview in New York after addressing
UN diplomats at the International Peace Institute, a think tank devoted to
peace and security.
"Currently too many developing nations have an economic imperative to
cut down forests. What we need to put in place is a mechanism that means
instead of an economic imperative to cut down forests, we have an economic
imperative to protect them." (Reuters)
Forests Could Undermine Carbon
Market - Greenpeace - BONN - Carbon market prices could tumble by 75
percent if credits for safeguarding forests are added to markets for
industrial emissions, environmental group Greenpeace said on Monday.
A report issued on the sidelines of UN talks in Bonn working on a climate
treaty said that a flood of forest carbon credits could also slow the
fight against global warming and divert billions of dollars from
investments in clean technology.
"Cheap forest credits sound attractive but a closer examination shows
they are a dangerous option," Roman Czebiniak, Greenpeace
International political adviser on forests, said of estimates by Kea 3
economic modelling group in New Zealand. (Reuters)
Obama Signs Landmark US
Conservation Bill - WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama signed
sweeping land and water conservation rules into law on Monday, setting
aside millions of acres as protected areas and delighting
environmentalists.
The measure, a package of more than 160 bills, would designate about 2
million acres (809,400 hectares) -- parks, rivers, streams, desert, forest
and trails -- in nine states as new wilderness and render them off limits
to oil and gas drilling and other development.
The House of Representatives approved the measure on a vote of 285-140 a
week after it cleared the Senate, capping years of wrangling and
procedural roadblocks.
Opponents, most of them Republicans, complained the legislation would deny
access for oil and gas drilling and said House Democrats refused to
consider changes. (Reuters)
Loggers
Try to Adapt to Greener Economy - LOWELL, Ore. — Booming timber
towns with three-shift lumber mills are a distant memory in the densely
forested Northwest. Now, with the housing market and the economy in
crisis, some rural areas have never been more raw. Mills keep closing.
People keep leaving. Unemployment in some counties is near 20 percent.
Yet in parts of the region, the decline is being met by an unlikely
optimism. Some people who have long fought to clear-cut the region’s
verdant slopes are trying to reposition themselves for a more
environmentally friendly economy, motivated by changing political
interests, the federal stimulus package and sheer desperation.
Some mills that once sought the oldest, tallest evergreens are now
producing alternative energy from wood byproducts like bark or brush.
Unemployed loggers are looking for work thinning federal forests, a task
for which the stimulus package devotes $500 million; the goal is to make
forests more resistant to wildfires and disease. Some local officials are
betting there is revenue in a forest resource that few appreciated before:
the ability of trees to absorb carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas that
can contribute to global warming.
Pragmatism drives the shifting thinking, but a critical question remains:
can people really make a long-term living off the forest without cutting
it down? (New York Times)
Scientist
tips more meat eating during climate change - A CSIRO scientist
predicts we could be eating more red meat from our pastoral regions as
climate change becomes more apparent.
Dr Mark Stafford Smith says the nations driest areas are already drought
resilient and will cope better with the wetter-wets and drier-dries.
He says it could even lead to an increase in pastoralism.
"It's my judgement that over the next couple of decades we will see
increasing pressure on the rangelands around the world, in fact to produce
meat again," he says.
"One of the big challenges will be, can we do that in a really good
and sustainable way? I think here in Australia we have got the potential
to lead in that sort of approach with these sort of ideas such as
precision pastoralism that people have been talking about."
(Australian Broadcasting Corp.)
March 30, 2009
Dearth Hour update: The question has been raised about how many
people might have been injured in falls (or any other means) in the dark
as they tried to comply with the absurd calls for an hour of primitive
conditions for the sake of anti-technological mythology.
How about fires from candles used instead of safe electric lighting?
Let us know about any such anecdotes over on the forum, preferably in
replies to Environmentalists
hail Earth Hour as a big success -- it's a self-register arrangement
so just register, sign in and post away, if you haven't already done so.
Thanks -- :end update.
And there's a problem with this why? State
board's global warming standards irk environmentalists - Textbook
requirements question whether it exists but also push students to explore
its implications.
The State Board of Education on Friday adopted standards on the teaching
of global warming that appear to both question its existence and prod
students to explore its implications.
Standards are used to guide textbook makers and teachers.
Language that instructed students to "analyze and evaluate different
views on the existence of global warming," which had been offered as
an amendment and was adopted unanimously in an initial vote Thursday, led
to outrage among environmental groups.
"In a last-minute assault on science and sensibility, the board
appears to be supporting its own ideological views rather than those of
proven science," said Ramon Alvarez, a senior scientist with
Environmental Defense Fund.
The chairman of the state board, Don McLeroy, called the standards
"perfectly good."
"Conservatives like me think the evidence (for human contributions to
global warming) is a bunch of hooey," McLeroy said.
But the state board approved standards that engage some of the underlying
causes and effects of global warming, including one that calls on students
to "analyze the empirical relationship between the emissions of
carbon dioxide, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, and the average global
temperature trends over the past 150 years" and another to
"describe the effect of pollution on global warming, glacial and ice
cap melting, greenhouse effect, ozone layer, and aquatic viability."
The current standards, which were adopted about a decade ago, barely touch
on climate change.
"Asking students to independently discover the relationship between
ice melting and global warming is important," said James Canup,
executive director of the Texas League of Conservation Voters. "But
the main message coming out of there is that Texas is setting a bad
standard by putting question marks next to global warming in the
textbooks." (American-Statesman)
Sheesh! Gore
Visits ETSU to State Case for Action on Climate - JOHNSON CITY, Tenn.
– Copernicus. Galileo. Al Gore?
The former vice president might never make a revolutionary discovery, but
he will likely go down in history for his relentless emphasis on what
already is known.
“I think he’s managed to move mountains,” said Natalie Honeycutt, a
50-year-old Elizabethton resident and one of 4,000 people at East
Tennessee State University on Thursday to hear Gore speak. “Others that
have tried to do what he’s doing – to raise awareness about the
affects of climate change and get things moving to change it – most
others, for the most part, have failed.”
Gore, 60, perhaps the most recognizable environmental activist on the
globe, visited the university and delivered a passionate plea to halt
man-made global warming in his lecture “Health Threats and the Climate
Crisis.” (Bristol Herald Courier)
Copenhagen:
Environmental Munich - Czech President Vaclav Klaus once called global
warming a new religion, a Trojan horse for imposing a global tyranny worse
than communism. Details about the Copenhagen Conference prove how right he
was.
The first of three marathon negotiating sessions designed to hammer out
the details of the Copenhagen Accord on climate change to be signed in
December began on Sunday, March 29, in Bonn, Germany. From what we know,
it will be a surrender to tyranny as significant as another negotiated 71
years ago.
A 16-page informational note obtained by Fox News outlines the goals and
agenda of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),
a body paving the way to Copenhagen with good intentions. Behind this
alphabet soup is a list of ideas and talking points for what the U.N.
calls an "ambitious and effective international response to climate
change."
We're not sure how effective it will be, but it's certainly ambitious as
it seeks to reorder the world economy in a de facto repeal of the
Industrial Revolution. Under the supervision of the U.N., free trade would
die, industries that survived could be relocated across borders, and we
would have mandatory carbon offsets and cap-and-trade imposed on a global
scale. (IBD)
The
Greatest Scam in History - Are you one of the victims of the
"greatest scam in history"? I'm not referring to the scam
conducted by Bernie Mad[e]off. I'm referring to what veteran meteorologist
John Coleman calls the "greatest scam in history".
The victims of Mad[e]off's scam are typical of scam victims. They allowed
their greed to override their common sense. They failed to consider the
advice of the police that if some opportunity sounds too good to be true,
it probably is.
Victims of the global warming scam have done nothing to make themselves
victims, particularly those who are unemployed through no actions they
have taken.
Those who could have been employed constructing clean coal powered
electric plants are unemployed because the perpetrators of the global
warming scam have stopped construction of those plants. The need to supply
equipment for such plants and goods and services to construction workers
would have created more jobs.
According to the perpetrators of the global warming scam, there is
supposed to be a total consensus that what they call "global
warming" is a major threat to earth's future. Coleman is one of many
meteorlogists who disagree with some or all of their claims. S. Fred
Singer is another who questions such claims. The two of them together have
over 100 years of experience studying weather. Coleman founded the Weather
Channel. Singer was the first head of the National Weather Satellite
Service. (ReasonMcLucus)
Yes, and no. Hasn't quite understood the significance of Wood's
greenhouse demonstration but not the worst miscomprehension around by
far.
Cool
to the warming idea - For some people the global warming debate has
gone as cold as these late March days; there isn’t one anymore. But for
two scientists scheduled to speak in Racine next week, it might as well be
the heat of August.
Willie Soon, a physicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics, and David Legates, an associate professor of climatology at
the University of Delaware, don’t buy into the prevailing hypothesis
that all the carbon dioxide we’re adding to the atmosphere will in just
a few decades warm the earth and cause drastic changes in the weather.
(David Steinkraus, Journal Times)
Obama
calls major economies climate change meeting - U.S. President Barack
Obama is launching a "Major Economies Forum on Energy and
Climate" to help facilitate a U.N. agreement on global warming, the
White House said on Saturday.
Leaders from 16 major economies have been invited to a preparatory session
on April 27 and 28 in Washington to "help generate the political
leadership necessary" to achieve an international pact to cut
greenhouse gas emissions later this year, it said in a statement.
It said the meeting would spur dialogue among developed and developing
countries about the issue, "and advance the exploration of concrete
initiatives and joint ventures that increase the supply of clean energy
while cutting greenhouse gas emissions."
The major economies include: Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China,
the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan,
Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States. (Reuters)
Climate
Talks Look to U.S. Role - When the Obama administration makes its
debut in the international climate-change debate at talks next week,
expectations will be high: Europe hopes the U.S. can help end a standoff
between rich and poor countries over how to share the burden of cutting
carbon emissions.
"The arrival of the new U.S. administration will have a huge and
positive effect on the negotiations," said Yvo de Boer, head of the
United Nations Climate Change Secretariat, which is overseeing the talks.
"This will be the first opportunity for the Obama administration to
state what it expects and wants."
The summit in Bonn from March 29 to April 8, is one of several meetings
this year aimed at drafting a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. That treaty
committed 183 signatories to collectively reduce their emissions 5% from
1990 levels by 2012.
The aim is to agree on a new global treaty that would include the world's
biggest emitters -- the U.S. and China -- by mid-December. The U.S., under
the Bush administration, didn't ratify the Kyoto treaty, and China and
other developing countries such as India and Brazil aren't obligated under
the treaty to restrict emissions of greenhouse gases, which are believed
to contribute to climate change.
The thorniest issue in the talks is deciding how much aid rich countries
will give poorer countries to help them limit emissions and cope with the
effects of rising temperatures. Another challenge will be agreeing on how
deeply and quickly rich countries will cut emissions. (Wall Street
Journal)
¡Empleos
Verdes Matar Empleos! - This is going to cause some discomfort among
the Enron-successors of the world.
I've gotten my hands on the study. Here are some highlights (largely in my
words):
Based upon the Spanish experience that President Oprompter expressly cited
as a model, if he succeeded in his (oddly floating) promise to further
intervene in the economy to create 3 million (or is it 5 million?)
"green jobs," the U.S. should expect to directly kill by the
same programs at least 6.6 million (or as many as 11 million) jobs
elsewhere in the economy.
That is because green jobs schemes in Spain killed 2.2 jobs per job
created, or about 9 existing jobs — I'll call them "real" jobs
— lost for every 4 that are created. The latter, the study shows, then
become wards of the state, dependent on the continuation of the mandates
and subsidies, subject to the ritual boom and bust of artificially
concocted jobs (read: ethanol).
This does not include jobs lost due to redirection of resources, but are
only the jobs directly killed by the scheme.
The study calculates that since 2000, Spain spent €571,138 to create
each “green job,” including subsidies of more than €1 million per
wind-industry job.
Each “green” megawatt installed destroys 5.39 jobs on average
elsewhere in the economy: 8.99 by photovoltaics, 4.32 by wind energy, 5.84
by mini-hydro.
What's Spanish for "food taster" and "car-starter"?
(Chris Horner, Planet Gore)
<chuckle> Blame Bush still rules! Don't
hold the US to climate standards it cannot achieve - By trying to
impose unrealistic obligations on the US, Europe risks undermining
international progress on global warming
Europe is inadvertently undermining President Obama on global warming,
with potentially damaging consequences for climate co-operation and
transatlantic relations.
Consider these troubling developments. First, many European policymakers
have unrealistic expectations about how quickly Obama can reduce US
emissions. Europe expects all developed countries to cut their emissions
to 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020. This may be reasonable for Europe,
which expects to be 8% below 1990 levels by 2012, but it's unfeasible for
the United States, whose emissions are 17% above 1990 levels today.
It is unfortunate that the United States is getting started late, but it
is wrong to hold Obama accountable for the sins of George W Bush. Obama
has already done more to address climate change than his predecessors. He
has called on Congress to adopt strict emission controls, allowed
California to move ahead more quickly, secured the single largest increase
in US funding for low-carbon technologies, and staked the credibility of
his first budget on revenue from climate levies. (Nigel Purvis, The
Guardian)
Cap
and Trade: A Huge, Regressive Tax - Those unfamiliar with the term
"cap and trade" and the tremendous economic burden this program
would place on society if implemented may first want to consider a couple
definitions. (Warren Mass, New American)
Fighting
words on carbon from our friends to the south - How Obama's
cap-and-trade scheme could create a trade war between Canada and the U.S.
Can Barack Obama save the planet and his country's beleaguered economy at
the same time? That's the hope of those in his administration supporting
carbon trading, the mechanism designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
that are warming up the Earth's atmosphere.
For Canada, though, the more pertinent question is whether we might be
carbon roadkill in that complex financial and environmental instrument
designed to try to stop global warming. There is, in fact, the very real
possibility that we might find ourselves in a carbon trade war with our
biggest trading partner. (Miro Cernetig, Vancouver Sun)
Policymakers’
letter asks tough questions re carbon tariffs - Yesterday Ranking
Members of both two House committees and two subcommittees wrote to the
new U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and asked him to clarify the
Administration’s position on the issue of carbon tariffs. The letter was
sparked by recent remarks of Energy Secretary Steven Chu that the U.S. was
considering levying tariffs against countries that haven’t taken steps
to reduce carbon emissions. (Fran Smith, Cooler Heads)
Dead wrong, again: It
should be the environment and the economy, stupid - In the last part
of our series on fixing the financial crisis, we look at how green policy
can save the planet as well as economies
Hopes that Gordon Brown and other world leaders would solve the financial
crisis and global warming through a series of "green New Deals"
are fading faster than solar power on a rainy day.
The vast bulk of new public spending announced in global economic stimuli
seems largely "business as usual", with major cash injections
being directed towards banks and car companies rather than renewable
energy firms.
Some countries - notably the US and China - have been more adventurous,
while wind energy and other sustainable technologies certainly stand to
gain from wider ministerial efforts to unlock financial lending. But the
air in recent weeks has been thick with the sound of "green"
schemes dropping off the corporate agenda at top firms, such as Shell,
rather than the gentle hum of increased activity. (Terry Macalister, The
Guardian)
Bottom line is that even the most trivial distraction from the
economy is bad for the environment (in fact it is probably most accurate
to state that only a booming economy is good for the environment,
making so-called 'environmentalism' very bad for its stated purpose).
Joe Romm: the entirely
dispensable censor - Follow the bolded words below to see what passes
for intelligent discourse on Climate Progress, Joe Romm’s allegedly
“indispensable blog” (as Tom Friedman inexplicably put it several
weeks back): (Tom Yulsman, Center for Environmental Journalism)
St.
Andrews University: Global Warming Loses in Formal Debate - AGW
supporters could not argue facts, had to insult instead — as usual
I write to report on a debate that defeated the motion “This House
Believes Global Warming is a Global Crisis” during a meeting of the St
Andrews University Debating Society [in Scotland]. It is difficult to
arrange a debate of anthropogenic (that is, man-made) global warming (AGW)
because few proponents of AGW are willing to face such debate. They know
from past experience that they always lose such debates because there is
no evidence that AGW exists and much evidence that it does not.
However, on Wednesday 4 March 2009, the St Andrews University Debating
Society held their debate of the motion, “This House Believes Global
Warming is a Global Crisis” in the Old Parliament Building, St Andrews.
The debate was organized and presided over with exemplary efficiency and
professionalism by the Speaker of the Society, Ms Jessica Siegel. It was
conducted with all the pomp and ceremony that could be expected of an
ancient society of so ancient and prestigious a university.
And the debate was lively, informative and entertaining. It got emotional
at times. Some of the contributions from the floor were of exceptionally
high quality. But, it was somewhat spoiled by the weakness of the
proponents of the motion. (I have good reason to suspect this weakness is
because stronger speakers could not be obtained to propose the motion. If
so, then it is yet another example of leading proponents of AGW fearing to
face their critics in open debate). (Richard Courtney)
An
Example Of The Misuse Of The Publication Process “Model Ensemble
Estimates of Climate Change Impacts on UK Seasonal Precipitation
Extremes” by Fowler and Ekström 2009 - There is a new paper that
illustrates (as just one example) the recent approach of publishing papers
in the peer reviewed literature in which the results cannot be verified.
This is not science, but is presented to policymakers as if it is. The
paper is H. J. Fowler, M. Ekström (2009). Multi-model ensemble estimates
of climate change impacts on UK seasonal precipitation extremes.
International Journal of Climatology DOI: 10.1002/joc.1827 (Roger Pielke
Sr., Climate Science)
Rise
of sea levels is 'the greatest lie ever told' - The uncompromising
verdict of Dr Mörner is that all this talk about the sea rising is
nothing but a colossal scare story, writes Christopher Booker.
If one thing more than any other is used to justify proposals that the
world must spend tens of trillions of dollars on combating global warming,
it is the belief that we face a disastrous rise in sea levels. The
Antarctic and Greenland ice caps will melt, we are told, warming oceans
will expand, and the result will be catastrophe.
Although the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) only
predicts a sea level rise of 59cm (17 inches) by 2100, Al Gore in his
Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth went much further, talking of 20
feet, and showing computer graphics of cities such as Shanghai and San
Francisco half under water. We all know the graphic showing central London
in similar plight. As for tiny island nations such as the Maldives and
Tuvalu, as Prince Charles likes to tell us and the Archbishop of
Canterbury was again parroting last week, they are due to vanish.
But if there is one scientist who knows more about sea levels than anyone
else in the world it is the Swedish geologist and physicist Nils-Axel Mörner,
formerly chairman of the INQUA International Commission on Sea Level
Change. And the uncompromising verdict of Dr Mörner, who for 35 years has
been using every known scientific method to study sea levels all over the
globe, is that all this talk about the sea rising is nothing but a
colossal scare story.
Despite fluctuations down as well as up, "the sea is not
rising," he says. "It hasn't risen in 50 years." If there
is any rise this century it will "not be more than 10cm (four
inches), with an uncertainty of plus or minus 10cm". And quite apart
from examining the hard evidence, he says, the elementary laws of physics
(latent heat needed to melt ice) tell us that the apocalypse conjured up
by Al Gore and Co could not possibly come about. (Christopher Booker,
Daily Telegraph)
Eye-roller: A
green future where you can borrow cars and drink rainwater - A
low-carbon economy will be the culmination of thousands of decisions by
governments, businesses and individuals about how we choose to balance
environment and economy. There isn't one correct future but many, with
each detail in each country dependent on the will of its people.
One thing is certain, though. Anyone concerned about having to give up
their modern lifestyle for an austere existence can rest easy. The big
differences between now and the low-carbon future will not be the way the
world looks or what we will be able to do in it, but how it is arranged. (Alok
Jha, The Guardian)
Economists
and Climate Science: A Critique by David Henderson - David
Henderson’s paper entitled ‘Economists and Climate Science: A
Critique’ is due to appear in the coming issue (Volume 10 Number 1) of
World Economics.
This article presents a critique of the characteristic treatment by
economists of issues relating to climate science, which appears as
uncritical and over-presumptive. I draw on a range of illustrative cases,
with the main focus on six recent and important contributions. I argue
that the authors and sources concerned, along with other economists, have
(1) accepted too readily the idea that received opinion on global warming
is firmly grounded on scientific findings which can no longer be seriously
questioned, (2) placed unwarranted trust in the official advisory process
that governments have created and rely on in this area, and (3)
disregarded evidence which puts that process in question. Hence there is a
missing dimension in their treatment of policy aspects: they have not
caught on to the need to strengthen the basis of policy, by making the
advisory process more objective and professionally watertight.
The paper concludes:
Among economists today, both within and outside official circles, it is
widely believed, or just presumed, first, that prevailing scientific
opinion as to the reality and threat of AGW can no longer be seriously
questioned, and second, that the established official advisory process
from which that opinion chiefly emerges is objective and authoritative.
This is not the right point of departure. In the handling of climate
change issues generally, by economists among many others, an alternative
framework is needed – less presumptive, more inclusive, more
professionally watertight, and more attuned to the huge uncertainties that
remain. A leading task of policy, currently unrecognised as such by many
economists, should be to establish such a framework and procedures that
give effect to it. Until the case for precautionary action on these lines
is more widely recognised within the profession, the contribution of
economists to the climate change debate will fall well short of what it
could be.
David Henderson was formerly Head of the Economics and Statistics
Department of the OECD, and is currently a Visiting Professor at the
Westminster Business School, London. (Climate Research News)
Some early contact
with bias and mythology in the Australian Bureau of Meteorology BoM near
two decades ago - I first got to know the BoM in 1991 when GW was in
its infancy and was surprised at the extent to which PC myths coloured
peoples thinking.
I noted very early on that many long term small town sites were as warm in
the 1880’s as they were in the 1980’s and when I asked about this -
BoM sages wisely told me, “Ah yes, that is due to the introduction of
the Stevenson screen thermometer enclosure into Australia in 1907 when the
BoM was formed.” It was explained that older more primitive exposures
could cause the higher readings. Nobody espoused an alternative view, it
was group-think.
Ferreting in their very good library I came across proceedings from a
number of Intercolonial Conferences from the 19C which referred to the
Stevenson screen. I wrote up a draft paper trying to put the references
into perspective and circulated it around including the BoM. A response
came back from the BoM pointing out the multiple errors of my ways and I
gave up any idea of publishing a paper. The story continues a few years
later and I explain how I came to publish my paper as a Comment in The
International Journal of Climatology in 1995, the 4 pages are scanned.
(Warwick Hughes)
An
inconvenient economic truth - Observations on carbon trading
Britain’s faith in carbon trading as a way of reducing greenhouse gases
could be dangerously misplaced, according to an independent academic
working with the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
Dr Chris Hope of the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School has
been commissioned by the government to calculate how much environmental
polluters would have to be charged for emitting CO2 to make it worthwhile
for them to cut back. However, his research, due to be delivered to the
government later this year, has led him to a far wider conclusion: that
the current European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is deeply flawed and
should be replaced – or at least augmented – with a green tax.
Under the ETS, companies or countries are given quotas for their annual
carbon emissions. If they exceed the quota, they have to buy extra from
others who have undershot their limit. However, if they become more
efficient, and so generate less CO2 than their quota, they can sell the
surplus and make a profit. This raises a vital question: how much should
energy users be charged for each tonne of CO2 they emit? For the ETS to
work, the price has to be set at a level that makes it worthwhile for
consumers to cut their energy use.
According to Hope’s research, the minimum price needed is about £85 per
tonne, rising at roughly 2 to 3 per cent a year. What’s more, this price
needs to show long-term stability. After all, the whole point of putting a
price on carbon emissions is to place a financial burden on heavy
environmental polluters. If carbon prices fell, then that burden would
shrink and there would be little incentive to improve efficiency.
So far, so simple – but Hope has reached a second, personal and, for the
government, far more embarrassing conclusion. He believes a market-based
trading system such as the ETS is very unlikely to generate consistent
high prices, and this instability could undermine the whole point of the
scheme. The heart of the issue is a problem we are all sadly familiar
with: financial markets are highly variable, with prices liable to surge
and collapse. Hope says that the first two phases of the ETS have
illustrated the problem: the prices of CO2 emissions quotas fell so low as
to be almost worthless. Prices now stand at roughly £9.50 per tonne of
CO2 – less than 12 per cent of what Hope’s calculations show is
needed. (Tricia Holly Davis and Jonathan Leake, New Statesman)
U.N.
to Save $81,000 during Earth Hour, Sell Brooklyn Bridge - Yes. The
U.N. claimed it was using $81,000 worth of electricity per hour to light
its Gotham headquarters. (Greg Pollowitz, Planet Gore)
Rising
Fear of a Future Oil Shock - Sharp reductions in investments and low
oil prices could curb future supplies by almost eight million barrels a
day within the next five years, according to a study scheduled for release
Friday, the latest warning that the world could face a new energy shock
when the economy picks up.
The report by Cambridge Energy Research Associates, an oil consulting
firm, said that the potential drop in production capacity is a “powerful
and long-lasting aftershock following the oil price collapse.”
The global slowdown has forced oil companies to slash their investments,
postpone or cancel expansion plans, or delay drilling in many corners of
the world. While some of the biggest companies, like Exxon Mobil and Royal
Dutch Shell, say they will keep their investments unchanged this year,
many other producers are curbing investments because of the crisis.
The report says about 7.6 million barrels a day of future supplies are
“at risk” of being deferred or canceled, like heavy oil or deepwater
projects, and which could bring total supplies to 101.4 million barrels a
day by 2014. Last year, the group projected that capacity would rise to
109 million barrels a day by then.
“Seven consecutive years of rising oil prices — unprecedented in the
history of the oil industry — have come crashing down, thus burying the
notion that the commodity price cycle was a historical relic,” said the
report, a field-by-field study of production trends. (New York Times)
Bad
News: Scientists Make Cheap Gas from Coal - This funny headline is the
title of a column in the March 26 issue of Wired Science.
“Scientists have devised a new way to transform coal into gas for your
car using far less energy than the current [Fisher-Tropsche] process,”
Wired reports. “The advance makes scaling up the environmentally
unfriendly fuel more economical than greener alternatives.”
Now, you might think that inexpensive motor fuel is a good thing,
especially in these times of financial peril, fiscal chaos, and high
unemployment. In addition, since America is the “Saudi Arabia of
coal,” conversion of coal to motor fuel, provided it is economical and
market-driven, could enhance U.S. energy security.
So why is this “bad news”? Because coal-derived fuel “could produce
twice as much CO2 [carbon dioxide] as traditional petroleum fuels and at
best will still emit at least as much of the greenhouse gas.”
Consequently, what these scientists are proposing to do “is simply not
allowable if we want to avoid the perils of unconstrained anthropogenic
climate change,” declares Pushker Karecha of NASA’s Goddard Institute
for Space Studies. (Marlo Lewis, Cooler Heads)
Choking
on Hypocritical "Green" Legislation - WASHINGTON --
President Obama's anti-oil cap-and-trade legislation that will effectively
levy a carbon-emissions tax on businesses and on all Americans will likely
be one of the first casualties of his liberal agenda.
But its Republican opponents won't kill it. A growing army of Democratic
lawmakers, largely from the Midwest where that segment of the economy is
heavily dependent on coal-fired power plants and factories, are turning
against it -- perhaps enough to prevent his climate-change plan from even
reaching a vote in Congress.
"It is gradually dawning on Washington that cap-and-trade legislation
won't pass anytime soon -- certainly not this year, and probably not next
year either," writes William Galston, former chief domestic policy
adviser in the Clinton White House. (Donald Lambro, Townhall)
Gov. Daniels proud
that Indiana has stepped up and passed historic coal legislation -
Gov. Mitch Daniels said in a Friday morning stop in Linton that he is
proud that the state has stepped up and passed historic coal legislation
that he says is good news for the economy in Greene, Sullivan and other
southern Indiana communities.
Daniels signed a bill into law Tuesday that allows the state's finance
authority to negotiate long-term contracts to buy and sell synthetic
natural gas from a planned southern Indiana coal-gasification plant.
The governor said the law will save Indiana's natural gas users billions
of dollars by ensuring a steady supply of synthetic natural gas free of
the price fluctuations of the natural gas market.
Under the bill, the Indiana Finance Authority would act as an intermediary
contracting partner between the state's gas utilities and the developer of
a coal-gasification plant near the Ohio River town of Rockport in Spencer
County.
The law allows the finance authority to negotiate 30-year supply contracts
with the plant's developer for the gas, which the utilities would pipe to
their customers. (Greene County Daily World)
Iran
Shifting Role of Asia and Europe in LNG Plans - Iran has the world’s
second-largest (behind Russia) natural gas reserves. And yet, when it
comes to exporting that gas by turning it into LNG, the Iranians have only
been able to produce press releases.
Whether that has now changed remains to be seen. Earlier this month,
Iranian authorities announced that they had signed a $3.5 billion deal
with a consortium of Chinese companies to build liquefaction trains for a
project known as Iran LNG. The trains will have capacity of 10.5 million
tons. Iran LNG is one of five different LNG projects that have been
announced by the Iranians over the past few years and the country is
hoping to have capacity of some 80 million tons by 2020, with most of the
gas supply coming from the giant South Pars field. But the status of those
projects remains unclear and it’s not yet clear if any of them will
actually produce LNG on the schedules that have been announced. (Andres
Cala, Energy Tribune)
Government
Should Compel Consumers to Use Alternative Energy, Congressman Says -
Government policy should be crafted to raise the price of carbon-emitting
energy sources so consumers are compelled to choose alternative energy,
House Democratic Conference Chairman John Larson (D-Conn.) told
CNSNews.com on Thursday.
Larson agreed that such a policy would likely result in higher electricity
prices for consumers but said this is needed to protect the environment
from the possible “catastrophic results” of not implementing a
pro-green energy policy.
Some Republicans who spoke with CNSNews.com at the Capitol agreed that
electricity prices would go up, and they dismissed President Barack
Obama’s cap-and-trade plan as little more than a large tax on energy
producers, the cost of which is passed onto consumers. (Josiah Ryan,
CNSNews.com)
What’s
behind Oz - A writer at the New York Times is finally beginning to get
that those health risk assessments that ask about our lifestyle and health
history are really fronts to sell drugs. One of the largest and most
popular ones — that’s convinced more than 27 million consumers to fill
out detailed questionnaires about their health and private lifestyle
habits — is RealAge. As Stephanie Clifford writes, “while RealAge
promotes better living through nonmedical solutions, the site makes its
money by selling better living through drugs.” Pharmaceutical companies
pay RealAge for the names of people revealing certain “health risk
factors,” she found, for targeted marketing. (Junkfood Science)
Mr.
Greenjeans does science - Imagine if Mr. Greenjeans* decided to write
a recommendation that every adult who was over 5 feet tall needed to take
one of his green pills every day to be healthy. He then conducted a study
in which he totaled the number of adults in the United States who was over
5 feet tall and found that his recommendation would apply to nearly all
adults.
● Did Mr. Greenjeans just prove that most everyone “should” be
taking his green pills?
● Did he just prove that his green pills are effective in making
people healthy?
● Did he just prove that most adults are deficient in green pills?
LOL! Of course not. No one would fall for this fallacy of logic, right?
Mr. Greenjeans didn’t do any science, nor a lick of research to test his
green pills. Yet, incredibly, this is exactly what every mainstream
publication today is reporting. (Junkfood Science)
Aha! Hormone-mimics
in plastic water bottles -- just the tip of the iceberg? - In an
analysis of commercially available mineral waters, the researchers found
evidence of estrogenic compounds leaching out of the plastic packaging
into the water. What's more, these chemicals are potent in vivo and result
in an increased development of embryos in the New Zealand mud snail. These
findings, which show for the first time that substances leaching out of
plastic food packaging materials act as functional estrogens, are
published in Springer's journal Environmental Science and Pollution
Research.
So, if you are a New Zealand mud snail and you want bigger embryos,
you should live in a plastic water bottle! Aside from that... nothing,
actually.
People want products that work? Go figure... Spokane
residents smuggle suds over green brands - SPOKANE, Wash. – The
quest for squeaky-clean dishes has turned some law-abiding people in
Spokane into dishwater-detergent smugglers. They are bringing Cascade or
Electrasol in from out of state because the eco-friendly varieties
required under Washington state law don't work as well. Spokane County
became the launch pad last July for the nation's strictest ban on
dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, a measure aimed at reducing
water pollution. The ban will be expanded statewide in July 2010, the same
time similar laws take effect in several other states.
But it's not easy to get sparkling dishes when you go green.
Many people were shocked to find that products like Seventh Generation,
Ecover and Trader Joe's left their dishes encrusted with food, smeared
with grease and too gross to use without rewashing them by hand. The
culprit was hard water, which is mineral-rich and resistant to soap.
As a result, there has been a quiet rush of Spokane-area shoppers heading
east on Interstate 90 into Idaho in search of old-school suds. (Associated
Press)
U.S.
Expected to Give More Money to Automakers - DETROIT — The Obama
administration will probably extend more short-term aid to General Motors
and Chrysler on Monday, but will impose a strict deadline for bondholders
and union workers to make concessions that would help the ailing
automakers become viable businesses and avert bankruptcy.
President Obama’s auto task force is expected to say that despite its
recommendation of more federal assistance for G.M. and Chrysler,
bankruptcy could still be a possibility for either company, according to
people close to the discussions.
The task force was in its final stages Friday of determining how to keep
the two Detroit companies afloat. Meanwhile, the automakers were
negotiating retiree health care costs with the United Automobile Workers
union, and their debt burden with bondholders and lenders. (New York
Times)
Why not
let them go broke? is the topic over at the JunkScience.com
Forum. Got an opinion? Share it with others. If you haven't already
done so just register a user identity online and you are good to go.
Detroit
Faces Its Critics With Anger and Tears - DETROIT — Just across the
city line, AJ’s Music Cafe is hosting a 10-day marathon of live music
called the Assembly Line Concert, meant to both help auto workers and set
a world record for an uninterrupted performance.
Among the dozens of bands performing this week under banners for the
United Automobile Workers union is the unfortunately named “National
Ghost.”
It is a label that Detroit and its auto industry are trying to fend off as
they rally support for a lifeline from the Obama administration, which
appears to be willing to provide more short-term help to General Motors
and Chrysler, but is still not ruling out the possibility of letting the
companies go bankrupt. (New York Times)
Obama
Soaks the Rich: Churches, Day Care, Homeless Shelters, Soup Kitchens -
President Obama's glib assertion that his reduction in tax deductions will
not reduce donations is absurd. His pathetic defense at his press
conference -- that he would still give a $100 dollar check even if he got
$11 less of tax deduction from it was both disingenuous and beside the
point.
And his comment that his reduced deduction would only affect 1 percent or
2 percent of the nation misses the point that it is these folks who are
doing almost half of the donating.
In 2006, the most recent year for which data is available, 4 million
taxpayers had adjusted gross incomes of $200,000 or more. They comprised 3
percent of the tax returns, made 31 percent of the income, but donated 44
percent of all charitable contributions. Together, they provided charity
with $81 billion in that year. (Dick Morris and Eileen McGann, Townhall)
The
American Counter-Revolution - The question posed by social scientist
Charles Murray at the American Enterprise Institute's annual dinner this
month could hardly have been simpler: Do Americans want the United States
to be like Europe?
He asked as someone who likes and admirers Europe and Europeans. He asked
also because it is becoming increasingly apparent that re-structuring the
U.S. along the lines of the European social democratic model is the change
many in the new administration -- perhaps including President Obama
himself -- believe in. Such a re-direction surely deserves consideration.
Murray is convinced that Europeanizing America is a bad idea, and not only
because the European model creates chronically "sclerotic
economies." More significant, he says, is the fact that embracing the
European model means discarding the Founders' revolutionary re-invention
of government, and of the relationship between the state and the citizen.
Murray argues this would inevitably "enfeeble" the habits and
institutions that have been singularly responsible for making America
"robust and vital" -- an "exceptional" nation. (Cliff
May, Townhall)
Budget
Smoke and Mirrors: Where's the Outrage? - There has doubtlessly been
great anxiety about the economy, but I think even greater anxiety exists
over what President Barack Obama is doing and planning to do to this
country. We've always had economic downturns, and we've always recovered,
but we've never deliberately planned to spend ourselves into bankruptcy,
from which we may not be able to recover.
True, our smorgasbord of entitlements has threatened our long-term
solvency for some time, and reckless politicians have been negligent in
refusing to reform them and, instead, have just created more. But Obama
takes profligate spending to entirely new levels while pretending to be a
fiscal hawk.
With all due respect to Mr. Obama, I don't recall ever seeing another
president whine so much about the mess his predecessor left him,
disgracing the motto of former Democratic President Harry Truman that
"the buck stops here." Though childish and unpresidential, the
worst part about it is that he's using it as a bogus justification to do
much worse. (David Limbaugh, Townhall)
Not
Yet Ready for a Welfare State - Roadblocks. That's what Barack Obama
has been encountering on the audacious path toward a European-style
welfare state he has set out in his budget and other proposals.
He continues to insist that America cannot enjoy real prosperity again
without higher taxes on high earners, a government health insurance
program, a cap-and-trade program that amounts to a tax on energy and the
effective abolition of secret ballots in unionization elections. The fact
that there are large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress made
it seem that the path was open. But roadblocks have started to appear.
(Michael Barone, Townhall)
The
Loyal Opposition - Shocking many of its listeners, the left-leaning
National Public Radio recently ran a commentary pointing out that Fox News
Channel, which NPR considers to be very conservative, is amassing record
ratings in the wake of the Democratic takeover in Washington.
All things considered, that was not great news for some NPR folks.
The reason that FNC is doing so well while some committed-left media
operations are failing is what I call the remorse factor. (Bill O'Reilly,
Townhall)
The
New Vigilantes and their Unaccountable Enablers - If you think there
are no consequences to hysterical, anti-corporate grandstanding in
Washington, pay attention to what's happening across the pond: "This
is just the beginning."
So warned a public letter signed this week by a vigilante group called
"Bank Bosses are Criminals." The thugs claimed responsibility
for vandalizing a former financial executive's home and car in Edinburgh,
Scotland. The bank official, Sir Fred Goodwin, was excoriated by U.K.
politicians for refusing to give up company pension benefits dubbed
"obscene," "grotesque," "unjustifiable and
unacceptable." The vigilantes were stoked by a former newspaper
editor, one Max Hastings, who wrote a diatribe exhorting citizens to
violence:
"The time has come to address the entire robber banker culture.
Investment banks have been run not for the benefit of society, customers
or even shareholders, but exclusively for the advantage of the bankers
themselves. … This is why we must stand outside their homes throwing
rocks through the windows until they do."
This is no marginal movement. Some 3,000 protesters from around the world
are expected to wreak havoc on the G20 summit next week in London. What
happened at Sir Fred's house is a mere dress rehearsal. Bankers are being
told to dress down to disguise themselves and avoid becoming riot targets.
(Michelle Malkin, Townhall)
da Silva trying to open European purses: Green
aims in the Amazon - Brazil is showing how developing countries can
complement the rich in tackling climate change
No country has a larger stake in reversing the impact of global warming
than Brazil. That is why it is at the forefront of efforts to come up with
solutions that preserve our common future, without jeopardising the
livelihood of millions of impoverished people who live off the land.
Brazil has policies aimed at conserving the Amazon forest and its
priceless natural heritage. But the forest is also home to a culturally
diverse population of 25 million, including some 170 indigenous peoples,
along with hundreds of communities of rubber tappers, hunters and
gatherers, and riverbank dwellers.
Preservationist approaches alone are ineffective in tackling
deforestation, a factor causing global warming. We need to find enduring
solutions. This is why we are investing in sustainable management of the
forest that will provide a decent living for its inhabitants. (Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva, The Guardian)
He's at least partly right -- preservationist approaches discriminate
against impoverished peoples and are mere tools of misanthropists, never
to be contemplated under any circumstance.
Big
global wheat supplies to buffer U.S. flood threat - CHICAGO - The
threat of severe flooding in the upper reaches of the United States
cutting spring wheat plantings by 500,000 acres will be overwhelmed by
plentiful global supplies that will keep the pressure on prices.
The Red River Valley, a top spring wheat growing area stretching from
western Minnesota to eastern North Dakota and north into Manitoba, Canada,
is braced for flooding as the Red River rose to its highest level in 112
years.
"Wheat is a world production," said Shawn McCambridge, grain
market analyst with Prudential Bache Commodities. "There are a lot of
places that grow wheat. You have to have (problems in) more than one
region to really affect the balance sheet. There is a good production
elsewhere." (Reuters)
Forging
a Hot Link to the Farmer Who Grows the Food - America, meet your
farmer.
The maker of Stone-Buhr flour, a popular brand in the western United
States, is encouraging its customers to reconnect with their lost agrarian
past, from the comfort of their computer screens. Its Find the Farmer Web
site and special labels on the packages let buyers learn about and even
contact the farmers who produced the wheat that went into their bag of
flour.
The underlying idea, broadly called traceability, is in fashion in many
food circles these days. Makers of bananas, chocolates and other foods are
also using the Internet to create relationships between consumers and
farmers, mimicking the once-close ties that were broken long ago by
industrialized food manufacturing.
Traceability can be good for more than just soothing the culinary
consciences of foodies. Congress is also studying the possibility of some
kind of traceability measure as a way to minimize the impact of food
scares like the recent peanut salmonella crisis.
The theory: if food producers know they’re being watched, they’ll be
more careful. The Stone-Buhr flour company, a 100-year-old brand based in
San Francisco, is giving the buy-local food movement its latest upgrade.
Beginning this month, customers who buy its all-purpose whole wheat flour
in some Wal-Mart, Safeway and other grocery chains can go to
findthefarmer.com, enter the lot code printed on the side of the bag, and
visit with the company’s farmers and even ask them questions. (New York
Times)
Why
are these vegans sent to plague us? - QUESTION: what do you get when
you cross moral snobbery with a lack of taste? Answer: a vegan.
This may be tough on a group of people who want nothing more than to live
a life free of cruelty. But, while there are many things in the world that
are worse than evangelical vegetarianism — pre-season football and
question time spring to mind — there are few that are more joyless and
depressing.
Vegans, you see, exist so that others may feel guilt about something
completely normal: the desire to eat food that is tasty, nourishing and
appropriate to our physical specifications. (Michael Coulter, The Age)
March 27, 2009
Consensus
or Censorship? - The Environmental Protection Agency has submitted a
"finding" to the White House Office of Management and Budget
that will force the Obama administration to decide whether to limit
greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. If adopted, new laws and
regulations will likely follow that have the potential to change our
lifestyles and limit our freedoms. None of these laws and regulations will
be preceded by debate, they will be imposed on us by fundamentalist
politicians and scientists who have swallowed the Kool-Aid and declared
global warming as fact; end of discussion.
On the Discovery Channel last week, Tom Brokaw hosted a special called
"Global Warming: The New Challenge." While promoting the piece,
Brokaw declared, "there is a growing consensus that global warming is
real and getting worse." Actually, there is a growing body of opinion
that global warming is a fraud perpetrated by liberal politicians and
their scientific acolytes who want more control over our lives.
Whenever politicians declare a crisis, or an emergency, watch out. Chances
are this means they want to impose something before the public discovers
the truth. (Cal Thomas, Townhall)
Economy
vs. Environment - The week before last, twenty-five hundred delegates,
from more than seventy countries, met in Copenhagen to prepare for the
United Nations Climate Change Conference, which will take place there in
December and will produce a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which was
adopted in 1992 and will expire in 2012. The speakers in Copenhagen were
united by a sense of urgency—and for good reason, given the poor record
of most participating countries in meeting their Kyoto targets for
reducing the emission of greenhouse gases.
So far, the most effective way for a Kyoto signatory to cut its carbon
output has been to suffer a well-timed industrial implosion, as Russia did
after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1991. The Kyoto benchmark year
is 1990, when the smokestacks of the Soviet military-industrial complex
were still blackening the skies, so when Vladimir Putin ratified the
protocol, in 2004, Russia was already certain to meet its goal for 2012.
The countries with the best emissions-reduction records—Ukraine, Latvia,
Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and the
Czech Republic—were all parts of the Soviet empire and therefore look
good for the same reason.
The United States didn’t ratify the Kyoto Protocol, but Canada did, and
its experience is suggestive because its economy and per-capita oil
consumption are similar to ours. Its Kyoto target is a six-per-cent
reduction from 1990 levels. By 2006, however, despite the expenditure of
billions of dollars on climate initiatives, its greenhouse-gas output had
increased to a hundred and twenty-two per cent of the goal, and the
environment minister described the Kyoto target as “impossible.”
The explanation for Canada’s difficulties isn’t complicated: the
world’s principal source of man-made greenhouse gases has always been
prosperity. The recession makes that relationship easy to see: shuttered
factories don’t spew carbon dioxide; the unemployed drive fewer miles
and turn down their furnaces, air-conditioners, and swimming-pool heaters;
struggling corporations and families cut back on air travel; even affluent
people buy less throwaway junk. Gasoline consumption in the United States
fell almost six per cent in 2008. That was the result not of a sudden
greening of the American consciousness but of the rapid rise in the price
of oil during the first half of the year, followed by the full
efflorescence of the current economic mess. (David Owen, New Yorker)
Rising
Levels of Disgust - Scientific American's commenting
readers are underwhelmed by President Obama's ridiculous reprisal of
then-vice president Al Gore's claim — in what would become his usual
practice of capitalizing on others' misfortune for his own political
(and now financial) gain — that Spring floods in North Dakota are
the result of global warming. (Chris Horner, Planet Gore)
Climate
change debunkers take stage in US Congress - WASHINGTON: As President
Barack Obama tries to green the United States by slapping limits on carbon
emissions, Congress on Wednesday was told to ignore his plan because
climate change does not exist.
“The right response to the non-problem of global warming is to have the
courage to do nothing,” said British aristocrat Lord Christopher Walter
Monckton, a leading proponent of the “climate change is myth”
movement.
The Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, who was an advisor to former
British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, argued before the Energy and
Environment Subcommittee that for 14 years, contrary to broadly accepted
scientific beliefs, “there has been no statistically significant global
warming.”
The House hearing, titled “Adaptation Policies in Climate
Legislation,” discussed ways to address President Barack Obama’s
cap-and-trade proposal in his 3.55-trillion-dollar budget plan, presented
to Congress in February.
Obama’s proposal would limit emissions of greenhouse gases for
manufacturers, and permit companies to trade the right to pollute to other
firms — a similar cap-and-trade system to the European model.
The moves are now subject of intense political opposition in Congress,
notably from lawmakers representing US states heavily invested in energy
production through fossil fuels.
“Adaptation is at present unnecessary,” said Lord Monckton at the
hearing. “Mitigation is always unnecessary.
It is also disproportionately expensive. “Green jobs are the new
euphemism for mass unemployment,” he added. (The News International)
Gimme
a BEE, Gimme a TEE, Gimme a YOU! - Possibly the voices of sanity
on Capitol Hill are finding their legs. If many more exchanges like this
one between Rep. Dave Camp (R., Mich.) and CBO's David Elmendorf, from a
Ways and Means Committee hearing, get out to the public history might not
repeat itself.
It could be that President Oprompter won't even have to ask the House to
go out on a limb so the Senate solons can saw it off (as happened with
Clinton and the BTU tax), but that instead, they look to save some of the
jobs that cap-and-trade would eliminate — starting with their own:
(Chris Horner, Planet Gore)
G20 Summit Will Test Resolve
On Greener Economy - LONDON - A G20 summit next week will test leading
countries' appetite to fight climate change after spending trillions
bailing out banks and shoring up the global economy.
The April 2 meeting in London of leaders of major developed and emerging
economies aims to battle a financial crisis.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, hosting the meeting, also wants to
coordinate economic stimulus spending on a global response to climate
change.
If the summit fails to widen its agenda to green spending that would be
seen at best as a wasted chance, and at worst evidence of waning
enthusiasm to sign this year an ambitious pact to replace the Kyoto
Protocol after 2012. (Reuters)
Copenhagen
Crock - Mike Hulme, of the University of East Anglia (UEA) and
founding director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, wades
through the bilge that poured forth from last week’s hysteria-fest in
Copenhagen. It is impossible to fail to discern a growing fear among the
global-warming industry that soon this golden goose may stop cranking out
so many eggs, and the related agenda is flagging. (Chris Horner, Planet
Gore)
At
peace with global warming - I've so far only cherry-picked this long
article on eminent physicist Freeman Dyson, a brilliant man who happens to
be at peace with global warming.
As the article's author puts it, this is "something far more
formidable than just the latest peevish right-wing climate-change
denier".
Most of Dyson's views seem to have already been aired in some form by
others; for instance, that more carbon dioxide will fuel more plant
growth, to the benefit of plant-dependent humanity.
But these opinions carry extra potency when they come from one of the
world's leading physicists (or, as his critics suggest, former leading
physicists).
For me, though, the article's stand-out sentence is this:
"…Dyson has said that it all boils down to 'a deeper disagreement
about values' between those who think 'nature knows best' and that 'any
gross human disruption of the natural environment is evil', and
'humanists', like himself, who contend that protecting the existing
biosphere is not as important as fighting more repugnant evils like war,
poverty and unemployment."
On the surface, the global warming debate is about science.
What fuels the debate isn't zeal for scientific logic, though.
It's complex and intangible human things like identity, attachment to
ideas, and pride. (Farm Weekly)
Fran
Pavley back on greenhouse gas patrol - The author of California’s
landmark law to curb greenhouse gas emissions has launched a two-year
effort to expand the law’s reach into other operations, including
logging, and shape the market place governing potentially billions of
dollars worth of emissions credits.
As the Legislature turns its focus from the state budget to legislation,
dozens of ambitious new environmental proposals are emerging. But a bill
by Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, could be among the biggest pieces of
environmental legislation this year.
Pavley is best known as the author of AB 32, California Global Warming
Solutions Act of 2006. Pavley, who authored the bill during her time in
the Assembly, is back after a two-year hiatus due to term limits. But she
seems to be picking up right where she left off. (Malcolm Maclachlan,
Capitol Weekly)
Farmers Face Growing Climate
Change Dilemma: Scientist - SINGAPORE - Farmers of the future will
have to use cattle and sheep that belch less methane, crops that emit far
less planet-warming nitrous oxide and become experts in reporting their
greenhouse gas emissions to the government.
Agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gases and globally that share
will rise as demand for food from growing human populations also
increases, scientist Richard John Eckard of the University of Melbourne
said on Thursday.
But farmers are facing a near-impossible challenge: feeding the world
while trying to trim emissions and adapt to greater extremes of droughts
and floods because of global warming, he said. (Reuters)
CO2 Treaty Must Not spark
"Trade War": U.S. Lawmaker - NEW YORK - As the world tries
to forge a new treaty to slow global warming, care must be taken not to
spark trade conflicts between rich and developing countries, a key U.S.
lawmaker said on Thursday.
"We clearly we do not want to trigger a trade war," Ed Markey, a
Democrat who heads the House climate change committee, told reporters in a
teleconference.
Already a trade spat has been brewing between interests in China and the
United States, the world's two biggest emitters of heat-trapping gases
that scientists warn will lead to more deadly droughts, heat waves, and
floods.
Representatives from nearly 200 countries will meet in Bonn starting on
Sunday for climate talks leading to a conference in Copenhagen in December
at which they hope to agree a treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol on
global warming.
Rich countries have said they will lead the way in making emissions cuts.
But how the burden will be divided between rich and poor is unresolved.
Developing countries such as China and India have resisted committing to
deep cuts, arguing rich countries caused global warming in the first
place. (Reuters)
Too funny: We
saved the ozone layer; now it's time to save the climate - When I was
growing up in the 1980s the environmental issue of the day was the hole in
the ozone layer. At first people reacted with cynicism when earnest
scientists claimed the chlorofluorocarbons - CFCs - used in hairspray cans
were eating away the sky and letting in too much ultraviolet radiation.
The idea just seemed silly.
But the science was right, and a global deal called the Montreal Protocol
saw dangerous fluorocarbons phased out remarkably quickly.
An interesting study by a NASA scientist now shows how close we came to
real trouble. The world would be a very different place this century if
political leaders had not listened to scientists and taken decisive action
22 years ago. (Ben Cubby, Sydney Morning Herald)
No Ben, the
science was dead wrong and the
idea was just plain silly -- it still is.
Galactic
Cosmic Rays May Be Responsible For The Antarctic Ozone Hole - The
Antarctic Ozone Hole is said to be caused only by Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s).
According to this new study, perhaps not. (h/t to John F. Hultquist)
Here is a new paper of interest just published in Physical Review Letters.
Correlation between Cosmic Rays and Ozone Depletion
Q.-B. Lu
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON,
N2L 3G1, Canada
Abstract: This Letter reports reliable satellite data in the period of
1980–2007 covering two full 11-yr cosmic ray (CR) cycles, clearly
showing the correlation between CRs and ozone depletion, especially the
polar ozone loss (hole) over Antarctica. The results provide strong
evidence of the physical mechanism that the CR driven electron-induced
reaction of halogenated molecules plays the dominant role in causing the
ozone hole. Moreover, this mechanism predicts one of the severest ozone
losses in 2008–2009 and probably another large hole around 2019–2020,
according to the 11-yr CR cycle. (Watts Up With That?)
A
New Paper “Climate, Hydrology, Energy, Water: Recognizing Uncertainty
And Seeking Sustainability” by Koutsoyiannis Et Al. 2009 - There is
a new important paper that recognizes that a multi-dimensional approach to
addressing the human disturbance of the environment (including the
climate) is needed. It is
Koutsoyiannis, D., Makropoulos, C., Langousis, A., Baki, S., Efstratiadis,
A., Christofides, A., Karavokiros, G., and Mamassis, N.: HESS Opinions:
“Climate, hydrology, energy, water: recognizing uncertainty and seeking
sustainability“, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 13, 247-257, 2009. (Roger
Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Oops! Once again small changes in albedo prove stronger determinant
than atmospheric carbon dioxide: Less
Dusty Air Warms Atlantic, May Spur Hurricanes - OSLO - A decline in
sun-dimming airborne dust has caused a fast warming of the tropical North
Atlantic in recent decades, according to a study that might help predict
hurricanes on the other side of the ocean.
About 70 percent of the warming of the Atlantic since the early 1980s was
caused by less dust, blown from Saharan sandstorms or caused by volcanic
eruptions, U.S.-based scientists wrote in the journal Science.
Clouds of dust can be blown thousands of kilometers (miles) and reflect
some of the sun's rays back into space. (Reuters)
Dust plays larger
than expected role in determining Atlantic temperature -- The recent
warming trend in the Atlantic Ocean is largely due to reductions in
airborne dust and volcanic emissions during the past 30 years, according
to a new study. (PhysOrg.com)
Africa:
Greening of the Sahara - In many classical considerations about
climate, its interaction with the biosphere played a dominant role. For
example, Köppen (1936) described vegetation as “crystallized, visible
climate” and referred to it as an indicator of climate much more
accurate than our instruments. (doXtop)
Summit
on America's Climate choices - The National Academies is hosting a
Summit on America's Climate Choices on March 30 and 31, 2009, to develop
the groundwork for a national response to climate change. America's
Climate Choices is a congressionally requested suite of studies that will
produce five expert consensus reports to be released in late 2009 and
2010.
How can YOU be involved?
Climate change aims
need to be better integrated - Specific measures to tackle climate
change, such as emissions trading, will only be successful if they are
coherently supported by other government policies addressing economic and
social issues, says a report published today by the Partnership for
European Environmental Research (PEER). PEER membership is formed from
seven of the biggest European environmental research institutes.
(Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres)
Presumably this moron will be removed from the education system
forthwith! Rise
of the carbon cops - The planet will be in safer hands if today's crop
of young activists is anything to go by, Linda Doherty reports.
Andy Best threw out a challenge to his students to save electricity around
the school, promising he would plough any savings into the school's Eco
Kids organisation.
"And why don't you be a light monitor at home and ask Mum and Dad for
a raise in your pocket money if you save money on power?" the school
principal added for good measure.
"The next day a parent stopped me and said, `Last night we were only
allowed to have one light on at home because of you,' " Best says.
This sort of pester power marks this generation of students as more
environmentally aware than their parents - and more determined to save the
planet as they are bombarded with information about global warming and
climate change from the media, schools, the internet and television.
(Sydney Morning Herald)
Poor gullible little green shirts...
Oh... Canada Offers To
Fund Carbon-Capture Projects - CALGARY - Eight carbon capture and
storage projects in Western Canada will share C$140 million ($114 million)
in funding from the Canadian government, Natural Resources Minister Lisa
Raitt said on Thursday.
The projects, whose backers include TransCanada Corp Spectra Energy,
TransAlta Corp, Husky Energy Inc, Enbridge Inc and others, will cut
emissions of carbon dioxide from electricity and oil and gas production
The eight proposals are early stage projects that will reduce emissions
into the atmosphere and store the carbon dioxide underground or put it to
use in other industries. (Reuters)
... but carbon dioxide is about as green as it gets, literally
responsible for greening the Earth.
Katey's shocked: Arctic
meltdown is a threat to humanity - I AM shocked, truly shocked,"
says Katey Walter, an ecologist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.
"I was in Siberia a few weeks ago, and I am now just back in from the
field in Alaska. The permafrost is melting fast all over the Arctic, lakes
are forming everywhere and methane is bubbling up out of them."
Back in 2006, in a paper in Nature, Walter warned that as the permafrost
in Siberia melted, growing methane emissions could accelerate climate
change. But even she was not expecting such a rapid change. "Lakes in
Siberia are five times bigger than when I measured them in 2006. It's
unprecedented. This is a global event now, and the inertia for more
permafrost melt is increasing." (Fred Pearce, New Scientist)
Russia Says Won't Stand Still
In Race For Arctic - MOSCOW - Russia will not allow itself to be left
behind in the race to exploit the resources of the Arctic now being opened
up by global warming, the Kremlin's special representative for the region
said in an interview.
Scientists say the ice is receding so fast that drilling for oil and gas
high in the Arctic will soon become routine and cargo ships could sail
between the Atlantic and Pacific along a new shipping lane much shorter
than the routes used now.
Those lucrative prospects have unleashed fierce competition between
nations with Arctic coastlines -- led by the United States and Russia --
to assert their influence. (Reuters)
The
Nabucco Conspiracy - The $10 billion Nabucco pipeline story reads like
a Bourne-style political thriller. Since its conception in the early 1990s
the project’s narrative has been full of international intrigue geared
to helping Europe plot its escape from the ‘tyranny’ of Russian energy
supremacy. But almost two decades on we are still not at chapter one and
the future remains uncertain, spawned in intrigue, in no small part due to
the sabotaging efforts of the EU’s anti-Nabucco “fifth column”:
Germany.
The recent EU economic crisis summit (held in Brussels March 19 and 20)
first removed, then reinstated, Nabucco on its “priority” energy
project list. And construction is still scheduled to begin in 2011.
Although German objections to Nabucco’s inclusion in the EU’s €5
billion “anti-crisis” energy stimulus package were overcome, the
summit allotted €200 million, €50 million less than originally
planned. But while Nabucco has survived, its troubles are far from over.
Envisioned to transport natural gas from Central Asia to Europe without
crossing Russian territory, Nabucco is perceived by the EU as essential to
weaning Europe of its Russian oil and gas dependency. But the addiction is
proving hard to kick, with problems over viable sources of gas plaguing
Nabucco from the start. Turkmenistan’s enormous reserves are considered
one option. But Turkmenistan’s natural gas distribution operation is
largely managed by Russia’s Gazprom. Whether the country’s latest
massive gas discovery at the South Yolotan-Osman field will come under
Russian management too, or whether the gas will eventually head west or
east – Turkmenistan is developing growing links with China – is still
unclear. For the gas to head west, an additional trans-Caspian link will
be needed. Then there are the security problems associated with running
the pipeline through transit nations, especially Turkey and Georgia.
Iran has more than enough gas to keep Nabucco busy and Tehran, with the
world’s second largest reserves of natural gas, is keen to buy into the
lucrative European market. But Nabucco badly needs a reliable provider,
and Iran’s notoriously unreliable production track record and the
uncertain geopolitical situation over its nuclear intentions are barriers
to new investment. With its European aspirations stuck in the geopolitical
mud for the foreseeable future, Iran, too, has turned its eyes east, and
is currently cutting energy deals with Beijing. (Peter C Glover, Energy
Tribune)
The Dirt on
Clean Coal - The coal industry presents itself as committed to
environmental sustainability--but is it?
In 1955 the Tennessee Valley Authority built what was at the time the
world's largest coal plant, near Kingston, Tennessee. More than fifty
years later, the Kingston Fossil Plant produces enough electricity to
power 670,000 homes and emits nearly 11 million tons of carbon
dioxide--the greenhouse gas most responsible for global warming--each
year. On December 22 a dike broke at the plant, sending more than a
billion gallons of toxic black sludge downhill into the ground, water and
homes of eastern Tennessee. The infected area was some forty times larger
than the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and became known as the
"nightmare before Christmas."
The spill underscored the negative images the word "coal" often
conjures up--battered communities in Appalachia, underground explosions,
exploited miners, brutal strikes and black lung. Yet the American coal
industry, which pumps 2 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year
and contributes more than one-third of the nation's overall greenhouse gas
emissions, is nothing if not resilient. Despite rising public concern
about global warming and a growing awareness that coal is an irrevocably
dirty business, the industry is spending millions of dollars on a slick
messaging campaign stressing its "commitment to clean."
Critics argue that "clean coal" means anything the industry
wants it to, pointing out that of the country's 616 coal plants, none are
carbon-free or close to it. The viability of an environmentally
sustainable future for coal is questionable, and so is the industry's
commitment to cleaning itself up. The Center for American Progress
recently released a report showing that the country's biggest coal
companies have spent only a fraction of their multibillion-dollar profits
developing technologies to curb carbon emissions from coal-fired power
plants. "The ads and other public clean coal activities are merely
designed to delay global warming solutions without suffering a public
relations black eye," the CAP report stated. (Ari Berman, The Nation)
Global
warming giving nuclear new claim to clean - MIDDLETOWN, Pa. -- The
nation's worst nuclear power plant accident was unfolding on
Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island when an industry economist took the
rostrum at a nearby business luncheon.
It did not go well.
Those in the standing-room-only crowd listened to economist Doug Biden's
thoughts about cheap, reliable nuclear power, but Biden could not calm
their nerves or answer their pointed questions: Should they join the tens
of thousands of people fleeing south-central Pennsylvania? Should they let
their children drink local milk?
Three decades later, fears of an atomic catastrophe have been largely
supplanted by fears about global warming, easing nuclear energy into the
same sentence as wind and solar power. Dogged by price spikes and an
environmental assault on carbon dioxide emissions, fossil fuels are the
new clean-energy pariah.
"There's a lot of support for nuclear now, and most of that support
is borne out of a concern for the desire to have emissions-free energy
sources," said Biden, who still advocates for power companies as the
president of Electric Power Generation Association in Pennsylvania.
(Associated Press)
Iberdrola
to slash UK wind investment 40 per cent - Spanish energy giant latest
to scale back UK investment amid concerns over project's economic
viability
The government's wind energy plans have received a major blow after the
world's biggest investor in wind power, Spanish energy giant Iberdrola,
announced it was to cut its investment in the UK by £300m.
According to The Times reports, the company is to cut its budget in the UK
by 40 per cent, equivalent to the investment required to build a wind farm
capable of powering 200,000 homes. (BusinessGreen)
New
Poll Finds Majority of American Voters Don’t Fault U.S. Gun Laws for
Mexican Drug Violence (.pdf) - Washington, D.C. — U.S. Attorney
General Eric Holder has stated that the Obama administration would like to
resurrect the Clinton ban on semi-automatic firearms, as well as other gun
control laws.
One of the reasons for bringing back these unpopular laws, according to
Holder, is that Mexican drug cartels are becoming increasingly violent and
warring with Mexican government troops. Holder says that some of the guns
being used by the Mexican drug mafia are being obtained illegally from the
United States.
Mexico is a country with a reputation for political corruption and a
healthy disregard for the individual rights of its citizens. Still, Holder
and the Obama administration think that limiting the Second Amendment
rights of U.S. citizens is a cure for drug violence in Mexico.
However, according to a recent poll conducted by The O’Leary Report and
Zogby International, a vast majority of the American voting public
disagrees. (O'Leary Report)
Fast-food
diners don't check calorie content - NEW YORK - Ever wonder how often
people take time to find out how many calories are in their large order of
fries?
Almost never.
Out of 4311 people buying food at McDonalds, Burger King, Au Bon Pain, or
Starbucks, Christina A. Roberto and her colleagues from Yale University in
New Haven, Connecticut found that just six looked at the nutrition
information the restaurants provided, or one-tenth of one percent.
The findings show "you've got to have this information in a really
highly visible place, like on a menu board," Roberto told Reuters
Health. "The way it's offered now is just not an effective way to
disseminate that kind of information to the public." (Reuters Health)
Uh, no. What it shows is that people basically couldn't care less and
that there is really no point in providing the information in any
format.
Where's
the Beef? - Americans awakened this week to a new warning (rehashed
and reissued every few years, actually) that eating cheeseburgers will
send them to the grave sooner rather than later.
Hours before, yours truly wolfed down not one, but two cheeseburgers at
the dinner table of my almost 92-year-old father, "Bob," a
retired FBI agent who I've watched consume every cut of meat (is cow's
tongue a meat?) in the same home for more than 50 years.
Dad for dinner ate two cheeseburgers and a hot dog (and more than his
share of curly fries, I observed), and he was still eyeing the serving
tray. Step into his smoky kitchen any morning of the week and you'll find
him grilling bologna in the iron skillet alongside his runny eggs.
But I digress. The American Meat Institute (AMI) was quick to respond to
this newest red-meat study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, saying it
"tries to predict the future risk of death by relying on notoriously
unreliable self-reporting about what was eaten in the preceding five
years.
"This imprecise approach is like relying on consumers' personal
characterization of their driving habits in prior years in determining
their likelihood of having an accident in the future," says the AMI,
which insists meat products are part of a healthy, balanced diet that
actually can help control a person's weight. (John McCaslin, Townhall)
Same old same old... Americans
eat too much salt, CDC says - CHICAGO - People in the United States
consume more than twice the recommended amount of salt, raising their risk
for high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes, government health
experts said on Thursday.
They found nearly 70 percent of U.S. adults are in high-risk groups that
would benefit from a lower-salt diet of no more than 1,500 mg per day, yet
most consume closer to 3,500 mg per day.
"It's important for people to eat less salt. People who adopt a
heart-healthy eating pattern that includes a diet low in sodium and rich
in potassium and calcium can improve their blood pressure," Dr.
Darwin Labarthe of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in
a statement.
"People need to know their recommended daily sodium limit and take
action to reduce sodium intake," Labarthe said. (Reuters)
... and still devoid of any evidentiary support.
The
Freedom of Charity - The National Committee for Responsive
Philanthropy just finished a two-day lobbying spree on Capitol Hill,
waging another small battle in the growing war over the dwindling charity
dollars available to America’s nonprofits.
At stake is the freedom of donors to choose who is on the receiving end of
their generosity. A highly-publicized paper released this month by the
NCRP detailed criteria for the “best” form of philanthropy, which
amounts to the NCRP determining which groups of people are best suited to
receive money or services from an organization.
“There's a trend toward regulation that's overreaching,” said Sue
Santa, Senior Vice President for Public Policy at the Philanthropy
Roundtable, which among other objectives, safeguards “the freedom of the
sector to carry out diverse charitable goals and missions.” (Jillian
Bandes, Townhall)
Eau
dear: Party turns flat for French bottled water - PARIS - The land
that gave the world Perrier, Evian and Vittel is turning its back on
bottled water, preferring instead to get the stuff from the tap.
Cost-cutting at a time of austerity but also the successful efforts of
campaign groups about the snobbery and environmental cost of bottled water
are hitting sales.
Sales of bottled water in France fell in volume by 7.5 per cent to 5.2
billion litres in 2008 over 2007, and retreated in value by 4.6 per cent
to 1.6 billion ($3 billion), according to market monitor ACNielsen. (New
Zealand Herald)
Water
Pollution Americans’ Top Green Concern - Worry about environmental
problems has edged up since 2004
PRINCETON, NJ -- The folks behind World Water Day -- a largely
U.N.-sponsored effort to focus attention on freshwater resource
management, observed this past Sunday -- may be on to something. Pollution
of drinking water is Americans' No. 1 environmental concern, with 59%
saying they worry "a great deal" about the issue. That exceeds
the 45% worried about air pollution, the 42% worried about the loss of
tropical rain forests, and lower levels worried about extinction of
species and global warming. (Gallup)
Actually the poll seems to indicate people are worrying less about
pollution but more about potable water availability. Over on the
forum we wonder if this might not be the result of greenies and
their anti-dam activities.
Lawsuit
by a father in Indiana targets polluters - INDIANAPOLIS—Ron Kurth,
who grew up in Gary and worked in the steel mills, raised his family in
the region near the outskirts of Chicago. He always wondered about the
smoke and smog that overcast the Lake Michigan shoreline.
"It's just a horrible atmosphere," he said.
Kurth, who has a 16-year-old daughter attending school in the Lake County
city of Crown Point, decided someone ought to do something about the
pollution. On Wednesday, he did.
He filed a lawsuit on behalf of his daughter against 11 northwest Indiana
industries, including U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal, claiming the air
pollution they emit from their smokestacks endangers the long-term health
of Lake County children. The lawsuit seeks class action status on behalf
of thousands of the county's schoolchildren.
The complaint cites a study that appeared in USA Today earlier this year
that reported children in the heavily industrialized county are exposed to
higher levels of airborne toxins than elsewhere in the United States,
based on EPA data on air quality outside 127,800 schools nationwide.
(Associated Press)
Congress Approves Landmark
Conservation Bill - WASHINGTON - The Democratic-led U.S. Congress gave
final approval on Wednesday to sweeping land and water conservation
legislation that environmental groups praised as one of the most
significant in U.S. history.
The measure, a package of more than 160 bills, would set aside about 2
million acres -- parks, rivers, streams, desert, forest and trails -- in
nine states as new wilderness and render them off limits to oil and gas
drilling and other development.
The House of Representatives approved the measure on a vote of 285-140 a
week after it cleared the Senate, capping years of wrangling and
procedural roadblocks.
It now goes to President Barack Obama to sign into law, which he is
expected to do swiftly. (Reuters)
Can Ecotourism
Be More Than an Illusion? - QUEBEC CITY, Mar 24 - More than ever
before, global tourism must play its part in sustainable development and
poverty alleviation, stated experts at an international symposium in this
Canadian city.
But others wonder if tourism can be truly sustainable when it involves
flying thousands of kilometres to reach some "carbon-neutral"
eco-lodge in the jungle.
Climate change is a major concern and air transport makes a significant
contribution, sustainable tourism expert Costas Christ told more than 500
attendees of the International Symposium on Sustainable Tourism
Development, Mar. 16-19.
However, Christ said, it is also important to tell the public that
international tourism has played a major role in preserving biodiversity
and in conservation in general. (Tierramérica)
Study assesses
impact of fish stocking on aquatic insects - The impact fish stocking
has on aquatic insects in mountain lakes can be rapidly reversed by
removing non-native trout, according to a study completed by U.S. Forest
Service and University of California, Davis, scientists. (US Forest
Service)
Ecopolitics
Primer - Ecopolitics is the politics of the green movement
(environmentalism) and governmental responses to environmental issues.
Environmentalism, and its environmentalist believers, didn’t become a
potent political movement until the 1960s and 70s in the US when college
campuses, brimming with idealistic baby boomers, were determined to make
every new emotional twitch a political movement – a cause for
revolution. This is when political movements, valid or not, became
television news programming assets, and when anti-establishment and
counter cultural influences became media partners in a way that is largely
taken for granted today. Today, news and entertainment mass media have
become indistinguishable, and readily exploitable as the propaganda
vehicle for ecopolitics. (Paul Taylor, LA Ecopolitics Examiner)
Obama Nominee For Deputy EPA
Chief Withdraws - WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's nominee for
the No. 2 position at the Environmental Protection Agency, Jon Cannon,
removed himself from consideration on Wednesday, the latest in a string of
withdrawals among nominees for administration posts.
Cannon said he was removing his name from consideration to be EPA deputy
administrator because of scrutiny of America's Clean Water Foundation,
where he once served on the board of directors.
"While my service on the board of that now-dissolved organization is
not the subject of the scrutiny, I believe the energy and environmental
challenges facing our nation are too great to delay confirmation for this
position, and I do not wish to present any distraction to the
agency," Cannon said in a statement released by the EPA.
The EPA Inspector General's Office found in 2007 that the Clean Water
foundation mismanaged more than $25 million in EPA grants, The Washington
Post reported. The foundation disbanded in 2006.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the administration would move quickly
to identify a new candidate. (Reuters)
Norman Borlaug,
Happy 95th Birthday! - One of the true giants of our time, plant
breeder and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Norman Borlaug turns 95 today.
Borlaug is the person who has saved more human lives than anyone in
history. How? He was the father of the "Green Revolution" that
more than doubled crop productivity in the 1960s and 1970s thus averting
the massive global famines predicted by many doomsayers. I had the honor
of interviewing Borlaug nine years ago for Reason. Below are just a couple
of his answers from that interview: (Ronald Bailey, Reason)
March 26, 2009
‘Green
Hell’ Coming Soon to a Life Like Yours - Don’t say you were not
warned. A new book has debuted just in time to help save the humans from
the “save” the Earth crowd. The book serves as a chilling warning to
modern society.
Be prepared the next time your child comes home from school with some nice
“green” project or attempts to lecture you about how you “should”
be doing more “sustainable” activities to “save” the Earth. You
will be ready to confront teachers, political leaders, neighbors, and
annoying aunts with the astounding new book by Steve Milloy titled Green
Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do
to Stop Them.
Milloy, the publisher of the daily must read JunkScience.com, has issued
the most startling warning to human civilization: that the “green”
agenda is in reality an anti-human agenda. The book serves as a
comprehensive detailed guide to the command and control agenda of the
environmental movement. (Marc Morano, Human Events)
U.N. Plans Guide To Fighting
Climate-Change Disasters - OSLO - A proposed U.N. study of climate
extremes will be a practical guide for tackling natural disasters and fill
a gap in past reports focused on the gradual effects of global warming,
experts said.
Floods, mudslides, droughts, heatwaves or storms are often the main causes
of destruction and human suffering tied to climate change, rather than the
creeping rise in average temperatures blamed on a build-up of greenhouse
gases.
"We are saying a lot about changes in mean temperatures but the
impacts on real people, real companies, are taking place at the
extremes," said Chris Field, a co-chair of a group in the U.N.'s
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (Reuters)
Really? People might be a lot better off with a plan to fight the
UN...
One upset greenie: Response:
The Czech president's climate change denial is irrelevant - His words
are a sideshow; our EU presidency will tackle this global emergency, says
Martin Bursík
Your leader column expressed widely held views towards climate change
deniers, but made the mistake of believing that the extreme personal
opinions of the Czech president, Václav Klaus, are relevant to the
official views of the Czech Republic or its current presidency of the EU
council (Václav Klaus: The dud Czech, 10 March).
It is true that, "faced with growing evidence that scientists have
understated climate change, Mr Klaus told a conference of climate change
deniers at the weekend that Europe was being too alarmist". In fact
during his time in office he has declared as "enemies of
freedom" not just those of us who believe that there is a climate
emergency but also NGOs, supporters of civil partnerships, the EU and just
about anyone who disagrees with him on any matter.
But while he holds a very important office, it is nonetheless a
non-executive and non-accountable office elected by parliament, not
directly by the people. His views are headline-catching because they are
designed to be, and the only way he could be more transparent would be to
wear the logo of Luxoil (a major sponsor of his book) on his shirt.
(Martin Bursík, The Guardian)
Why
the Copenhagen climate change cliffhanger could drag on a little longer
- Wrangling between China and US threatens to put back December deadline
After nearly a decade of George Bush's denial and obstruction, Barack
Obama could hold the key to a new global deal to tackle global warming.
Which is why anyone who knows anything about climate change has been
waiting for 2009 for a long time.
Obama, as they see it, has arrived in the nick of time. The UN
negotiations most likely to broker an international treaty have crawled
into the home straight and the finishing line is in sight.
A deadline of December has been set, when the eyes of the world will be on
environment ministers from some 190 countries as they search for a deal at
talks in Copenhagen. If they emerge without the obligatory smiles and
handshakes, then they will spoil Christmas for a great many people who
care for the fate of the planet. (The Guardian)
Barack
Obama may delay signing up to Copenhagen climate change deal - Barack
Obama may be forced to delay signing up to a new international agreement
on climate change in Copenhagen at the end of the year because of the
scale of opposition in the US Congress, it emerged today.
Senior figures in the Obama administration have been warning Labour
counterparts that the president may need at least another six months to
win domestic support for any proposal.
Such a delay could derail the securing of a tough global agreement in time
for countries and markets to adopt it before the Kyoto treaty runs out in
2012.
American officials would prefer to have the approval of Congress for any
international agreement and fear that if the US signed up without it there
would be a serious domestic backlash. (The Guardian)
Cap
and trade program could cost western jobs, report says - A carbon
cap-and-trade plan proposed by the Western Governors Association would
cost the West hundreds of thousands of jobs, slow down investment and cut
personal income for millions of people, a new study said.
The study claims the Western Climate Initiative would require Western
states to increase the number of government employees. Idaho was not
included in the study and Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has not supported the
proposal. (Idaho Statesman)
Cap-and-Trade
Could Cost Washington as Many as 18,292 Net Jobs, $5.7 Billion in Personal
Income - Economic research institute finds deficiencies in Western
Climate Initiative’s analysis of impacts from recommendations
Seattle — Specific proposals that several Western states would implement
to comply with a proposed cap-and-trade carbon emissions control pact
would destroy jobs and erode income, according to a report co-released by
a national economics institute and the Washington Policy Center.
In a thorough review of the claims made by the Western Climate Initiative
(WCI), the Beacon Hill Institute (BHI) at Suffolk University identified
several flaws made by the seven state consortium, calling into question
so-called cost savings ranging between $11.4 billion and $23.5 billion.
These flaws render WCI’s projections useless in determining the WCI’s
cost to state economies.
The authors of the report write, “Using the Western Climate
Initiative’s own projections of increases in fuel costs, BHI finds that
the policies will decrease employment, investment, personal income and
disposable income. While WCI claims the ‘design is also intended to
mitigate economic impacts, including impacts on consumers, income, and
employment,’ they fail to quantify the impacts.” (Washington Policy
Cetner)
Obama
Says ‘Cap and Trade’ Must Protect Against Cost Spikes -- President
Barack Obama said a proposed emissions-trading plan aimed at tackling
climate change and moving the U.S. toward a new energy economy must take
into account regional differences and “huge spikes” in costs.
Obama, speaking in a White House news conference tonight, defended the
“cap-and-trade” plan outlined in his federal budget. (Bloomberg)
KERPEN:
Cap-and-trade for AIG? - When the good folks at Enron first cooked up
the idea for a cap-and-trade scheme, the appeal was that they could make a
fortune running the financial markets to trade the emissions permits and
the huge variety of exotic derivatives that would grow up around them.
So it should be no surprise that Wall Street's foremost wizards jumped on
board the effort, including the American International Group Inc. AIG's
then-Chief Executive Martin Sullivan was reported by Reuters as saying in
2007 that AIG "can help shape a broad-based cap-and-trade legislative
proposal, bringing to this critical endeavor a unique business perspective
on the business opportunities and risks that climate change poses for our
industry." Translation: We're going to get rich on this.
As if the current bonus scandal isn't bad enough for a company that lost
hundreds of billions of dollars writing credit-default swaps that it had
no ability to pay, the great hope of cap-and-trade is that a massive new
financial-products bonanza will grow in the carbon markets to replace the
one left behind by the housing collapse. Unfortunately, this new market
will be an even more perilous bubble than the last one because, although
home prices can crash by 50 percent or more, they won't go to zero.
Emissions permits, which derive their value only from the coercive power
of government, have an intrinsic value of zero and will, when the
inevitable crash comes, converge on that value. (Phil Kerpen, Washington
Times)
US
Lawmakers, Fearing CO2 Market Crisis, Drafting Tough Rules -
WASHINGTON -- Fearing another financial meltdown under a proposed
multi-trillion-dollar greenhouse gas trading program, U.S. lawmakers are
drafting legislation for strict regulation of the nascent market.
Wall Street banks, hedge funds and institutional investors are under a
rain of public indignation and regulatory scrutiny for their role in the
current financial crisis. Many legislators are concerned that creating a
carbon market may simply give the same players a new opportunity for
manipulation and hazardous trading.
"This is a disaster in the making," warned Rep. Greg Walden,
R-Ore., ranking member of the House energy subcommittee on oversight and
investigations. "If you like the bubbles of the technology market and
the housing market, I predict you'll love the bubble that will come from
the cap-and-trade market." (Dow Jones)
Is
This Happening in Your State? - Last fall my Carolina Journal
colleague David Bass reported about how North Carolina’s Division of Air
Quality (and their counterparts in other states) recruited companies they
regulate to “voluntarily” become members of the nonprofit Climate
Registry, and pay for the privilege of reporting their greenhouse gas
emissions (again, no pressure!). Brock Nicholson, NCDAQ’s deputy
director at the time, helped launch the Registry, joined its board, got
NCDAQ to pay $100,000 for it, traveled on its behalf, and recruited other
states to join — all on the North Carolina taxpayers’ dime.
Last month David explained in more detail Nicholson’s activities on
behalf of the Registry.
Today his latest story is posted, in which David explains how half of
North Carolina’s contribution to the Registry was paid for out of state
gas tax revenues: (Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch)
Because everyone needs a laugh: Last
chance for a slow dance? - All the world fiddles as we near global
warming’s point of no return
No one was advertising for an angry prophet when Jere Locke returned to
Texas last year. But thanks to mainstream environmentalism’s aversion to
the gloomiest — and, unfortunately, more accurate — messages from the
climate frontier, the position was open.
It wouldn’t pay much. In fact, Locke would have to fund it himself. That
was fine. The son of a wealthy Houston cotton trader, Locke didn’t need
a high-figure salary. Most importantly, he believed.
Locke was living in Thailand in 2006 when Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth
was released in the United States. Bilingual and politically connected,
Locke was tapped to help edit a version for Asian audiences. After
repeated viewings, the film became just troubling enough to inspire the
64-year-old to start looking for more information. As it turned out, the
United Nations was prepping the streets of Bali for a highly charged
international climate congress. “Sixteen months ago, I didn’t know
squat,” Locke says. “I just kind of wandered into Bali,
essentially.”
In December 2007, he joined other activists camped outside the United
Nations Climate Change Conference to witness an exercise in futility. With
signs of warming now undeniable, the European Union was anxious to meet
the recommendations of the International Panel on Climate Change by
reducing greenhouse-gas emissions 3o percent before 2020. Cutting global
emissions that quickly should keep the planet under a 3.6-degree
temperature increase over pre-industrial averages, the level at which a
majority of climate scientists believe global warming may become
unforgivably destructive. (San Antonio Current)
Is
This Science? EPA’s Plan To Regulate CO2 Claiming It Endangers The
Public’s Health and Welfare - The Washington Post published an
article on March 24 2009 by Juliet Eilperin entitled
“EPA Presses Obama To Regulate Warming Under Clean Air Act” in
which is is written
“The Environmental Protection Agency’s new leadership, in a
step toward confronting global warming, submitted a finding that will
force the White House to decide whether to limit greenhouse gas emissions
under the nearly 40-year-old Clean Air Act. Under that law, EPA’s
conclusion — that such emissions are pollutants that endanger the
public’s health and welfare — could trigger a broad regulatory process
affecting much of the U.S. economy as well as the nation’s future
environmental trajectory.”
While the added greenhouse gas emissions (does the EPA also
include water vapor?) are a climate forcing, the news article
specifically refers to public health. This is an absurd claim, as none of
the well-mixed greenhouse gases are threats to health at the
concentrations that are in the atmosphere or will be in the
atmosphere far into the future.
If the EPA wants to seek to regulate climate, let them be honest and
discuss all of the human climate forcings, as discussed, 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.
Another excerpt from the Washington Post article reads
“Daniel J. Weiss, a senior fellow at the Center for American
Progress, a liberal think tank, said the EPA’s proposal would allow the
administration to tackle climate change if Congress does not limit carbon
emissions through legislation. He added that even if the EPA were forced
to regulate greenhouse gases, it would target emissions from coal-fired
power plants and then vehicles — which combined account for about half
of the nation’s global-warming pollution — before requiring smaller
operations to apply for new emissions permits.”
The statement “smaller operations” could include almost all
activities that humans do; e.g. see A
Carbon Tax For Animal Emissions - More Unintended Consequences Of Carbon
Policy In The Guise Of Climate Policy. The EPA’s plan “to regulate
warming” is a circumvention of science in order to promote a
political agenda. Serious negative environmental, economic and social
effects are going to occur as a result of the inappropriately narrow
and ineffective EPA focus on greenhouse gas emissions as the
currency for a wide range of climate effects. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate
Science)
I wonder if even he believes it? 37%... Global
Warming 37 Percent To Blame For Droughts: Scientist - SINGAPORE -
Global warming is more than a third to blame for a major drop in rainfall
that includes a decade-long drought in Australia and a lengthy dry spell
in the United States, a scientist said on Wednesday.
Peter Baines of Melbourne University in Australia analyzed global rainfall
observations, sea surface temperature data as well as a reconstruction of
how the atmosphere has behaved over the past 50 years to reveal rainfall
winners and losers.
What he found was an underlying trend where rainfall over the past 15
years or so has been steadily decreasing, with global warming 37 percent
responsible for the drop. (Reuters)
Maps
to be redrawn as borders melt away - ROME - Global warming is
dissolving the Alpine glaciers so rapidly that Italy and Switzerland have
decided they must redraw their national border to take account of the new
realities.
The border has been fixed since 1861, when Italy became a unified state.
But for the past century the surface area of the "cryosphere",
the zone of glaciers, permanent snow cover and permafrost, has been
shrinking steadily, with dramatic acceleration in the past five years.
This is the area over which the national frontier passes and the two
countries have now agreed to have their experts sit down together and hash
out where it ought to run now. (Independent)
The
Civil Heretic - FOR MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY the eminent physicist
Freeman Dyson has quietly resided in Princeton, N.J., on the wooded former
farmland that is home to his employer, the Institute for Advanced Study,
this country’s most rarefied community of scholars. Lately, however,
since coming “out of the closet as far as global warming is
concerned,” as Dyson sometimes puts it, there has been noise all around
him. Chat rooms, Web threads, editors’ letter boxes and Dyson’s own
e-mail queue resonate with a thermal current of invective in which Dyson
has discovered himself variously described as “a pompous twit,” “a
blowhard,” “a cesspool of misinformation,” “an old coot riding
into the sunset” and, perhaps inevitably, “a mad scientist.” Dyson
had proposed that whatever inflammations the climate was experiencing
might be a good thing because carbon dioxide helps plants of all kinds
grow. Then he added the caveat that if CO2 levels soared too high, they
could be soothed by the mass cultivation of specially bred
“carbon-eating trees,” whereupon the University of Chicago law
professor Eric Posner looked through the thick grove of honorary degrees
Dyson has been awarded — there are 21 from universities like Georgetown,
Princeton and Oxford — and suggested that “perhaps trees can also be
designed so that they can give directions to lost hikers.” Dyson’s
son, George, a technology historian, says his father’s views have cooled
friendships, while many others have concluded that time has cost Dyson
something else. There is the suspicion that, at age 85, a great scientist
of the 20th century is no longer just far out, he is far gone — out of
his beautiful mind.
But in the considered opinion of the neurologist Oliver Sacks, Dyson’s
friend and fellow English expatriate, this is far from the case. “His
mind is still so open and flexible,” Sacks says. Which makes Dyson
something far more formidable than just the latest peevish right-wing
climate-change denier. Dyson is a scientist whose intelligence is revered
by other scientists — William Press, former deputy director of the Los
Alamos National Laboratory and now a professor of computer science at the
University of Texas, calls him “infinitely smart.” Dyson — a
mathematics prodigy who came to this country at 23 and right away
contributed seminal work to physics by unifying quantum and electrodynamic
theory — not only did path-breaking science of his own; he also
witnessed the development of modern physics, thinking alongside most of
the luminous figures of the age, including Einstein, Richard Feynman,
Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi, Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, J. Robert Oppenheimer
and Edward Witten, the “high priest of string theory” whose office at
the institute is just across the hall from Dyson’s. Yet instead of
hewing to that fundamental field, Dyson chose to pursue broader and more
unusual pursuits than most physicists — and has lived a more original
life. (New York Times Magazine)
Democrats
see drawbacks to proposed oil fees - WASHINGTON — More than a dozen
House Democrats on Tuesday warned that President Barack Obama’s proposal
to raise taxes and levy new fees on the oil and gas industry could curb
domestic energy production.
The group, led by Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, and including fellow Texas
Democratic Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, Al Green, Charlie Gonzalez and Henry
Cuellar, made their pitch late Tuesday, a day before the House Budget
Committee was set to take the first steps in considering the Obama
administration’s $3.6 trillion budget proposal.
In a letter to Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt, D-S.C., the group
warned that proposals in the budget to slash tax incentives used by oil
and natural gas developers could increase the costs of energy production
and reduce energy supplies. (Houston Chronicle)
US
carbon cap to raise power prices-Moody's - LOS ANGELES, March 24 -
U.S. electricity prices are likely to rise 15 to 30 percent if a national
cap on carbon dioxide emissions is instituted, according to a report by
Moody's Investors Service.
And "the vast majority" of the burden of those higher costs will
be borne by residents as large industrial users are likely to be
successful in lobbying U.S. lawmakers for special rates and tariffs, the
report dated March showed.
If carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are priced at $20 per metric ton, it
would add about $48 billion in costs for the electric utility sector,
Moody's said. (Reuters)
Fallout
from The Energy Policy Act of 2005 Revisited - Part I: Electrical Grid
in Critical Condition
Acclamations for energy independence from foreign sources have been
oft-repeated rallying cries resounding throughout the halls of Capitol
Hill, as well as echoed by its environmental lobbyists, most predominantly
over the past 4 years. But rarely is it ever pointed out how energy
independence from foreign sources is an incongruous notion with respect to
United States energy policy. Moreover, it becomes ever more vulnerable
yearly; not just as the result of its failing infrastructure, but from
misguided public policy decisions. (Diane M. Grassi, NewMediaJournal.us)
Creating green employment... in china: China
takes on America in electric car race - China is taking on America in
the race to develop cheaper low-emission cars, with a £1.5 billion boost
for Chinese electric cars over the next three years. (Daily Telegraph)
EU Moves To Straighten Air
Routes, Cut Fuel Burn - STRASBOURG - European lawmakers approved a
plan on Wednesday aimed at straightening commercial air routes to cut fuel
costs and carbon dioxide emissions growth from increasing numbers of
aircraft.
Airlines, which contribute about 3 percent of Europe's CO2 output, waste
millions of tonnes of fuel as they zig-zag between national airspaces in
the 27-country European Union.
The Single European Sky II plan could cut billions of euros from airlines'
annual costs as they head into a recession that industry bodies say could
cut traffic by 5 percent this year.
"These proposals lead to a modernization of air traffic management
which will render air transport more feasible, more sustainable and
safer," European Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said.
(Reuters)
California
‘Cool’ Paints Initiative Ugly, Lazy - If California regulators get
their way, auto makers may soon be forced to rewrite a cliché from the
Ford Model T era and start telling customers they can have any color they
want as long as it isn’t black.
Some darker hues will be available in place of black, but right now they
are indentified internally at paint suppliers with names such as
“mud-puddle brown” and are truly ugly substitutes for today’s rich
ebony hues.
So buy a black car now, because soon they won’t be available or will
look so putrid you won’t want one. And that’s too bad, because paint
suppliers say black is the second- or third-most popular vehicle color
around the world.
The problem stems from a new “cool paints” initiative from the
California Air Resources Board. CARB wants to mandate the phase-in of
heat-reflecting paints on vehicle exteriors beginning with the ’12 model
year, with all colors meeting a 20% reflectivity requirement by the ’16
model year.
Because about 17 other states tend to follow California’s regulatory
lead, as many as 40% of the vehicles sold in the U.S. could be impacted by
the proposed directive, suppliers say.
The measure is aimed at reducing carbon-dioxide emissions and improving
fuel economy by keeping vehicles cooler on sunny days and decreasing the
amount of time drivers use their air conditioners. (Drew Winter,
WardsAuto.com)
Opposing
wind farms should be socially taboo, says Ed Miliband - Opposition to
wind farms should become as socially unacceptable as failing to wear a
seatbelt, Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary, has said.
Speaking at a screening in London of the climate change documentary The
Age of Stupid, Miliband said the government needed to be stronger in
facing down local opposition to wind farms.
He said: "The government needs to be saying, 'It is socially
unacceptable to be against wind turbines in your area - like not wearing
your seatbelt or driving past a zebra crossing'." (The Guardian)
Butt
Out, Feds - Authorities raided Charlie Lynch's California home.
"They say, 'Search warrant! Open the door, or we're gonna tear it
down!" Lynch told me for my ABC special "Bailouts and
Bull".
"I opened the door, and about 10 to 15 agents with shields,
bulletproof vests, guns, masks. [They] threw me on the ground and ... had
a gun to the back of my head."
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seized 30 pounds of
marijuana. Sheriff Pat Hedges said the facts were clear, "Charlie
Lynch was making a profit off of selling marijuana."
It wasn't hard for the authorities to locate Lynch's marijuana operation.
They were probably tipped off by the public ribbon-cutting ceremony Lynch
held -- the one that the mayor of his town attended, along with city
councilmen and the president of the Chamber of Commerce. The police were
invited, too.
You see, Lynch sold medical marijuana, which has been declared legal by
California and 12 other states. California says if a doctor recommends
that you use the drug, it's perfectly legal. (John Stossel, Townhall)
The
End of Hysteria and the Last Man - Last week, Attorney General Eric
Holder said the federal government would stop prosecuting medical
marijuana distributors who comply with state law. Drug policy reformers
immediately wondered how the change would affect Charlie Lynch, who last
year was convicted of five felonies for helping California patients
alleviate their suffering with marijuana. Evidently the judge charged with
sentencing Lynch is wondering the same thing.
On Monday, when Lynch was scheduled to be sentenced, U.S. District Judge
George Wu said he needed more time to consider the meaning of the Justice
Department's new policy. Now that the Obama administration has promised to
respect state medical marijuana laws and leave people like Lynch alone,
the injustice of sending him to prison is even more glaring. (Jacob Sullum,
Townhall)
Eye-roller: Bushfire
pollution deaths to rise - BUSHFIRES worsening in south-eastern
Australia due to climate change will cause more deaths and illness through
air pollution, a CSIRO study has shown.
Mick Myers and a team from the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate
Research examined air quality data from monitoring stations in Melbourne
during the 2006 bushfires and found a big jump in air pollution. On
several days it was "going through the roof", Dr Myers told the
Herald at the Greenhouse 2009 conference.
"In Melbourne you are probably taking about 20-30 additional deaths
because of that pollution," he said. "It's actually becoming a
sizeable source of pollution for the urban community". (Sydney
Morning Herald)
Obama's
rescue plan is 'road to hell', claims EU president - Czech prime
minister Mirek Topolanek adds to transatlantic friction over plan for
global economic recovery
The scale of transatlantic friction over a concerted plan for global
economic recovery was exposed today when the current European Union
president branded Barack Obama administration's programme as a "road
to hell" and said European leaders were "quite alarmed" at
the White House's policies.
Mirek Topolanek, the Czech prime minister, revealed that last week's
Brussels summit - which exposed differences between Gordon Brown and
Germany's Angela Merkel - heard strong criticism of the US recovery
programme.
The incendiary comments were made in Topolanek's report to MEPs at the
European parliament in Strasbourg on last week's EU summit. They came only
a week before Obama arrives in Europe for the first time for the G20
summit, hosted by Brown in London, aimed at outlining global action to
tackle recession.
Topolanek's criticism flatly contradicted Brown's comments, delivered in
his first speech to the European parliament on Tuesday, in which the prime
minister talked of a "new era" of transatlantic cooperation on
the financial crisis. (The Guardian)
Idled U.S. Farmland May Be
Large Carbon Sink: USDA - WASHINGTON - The Conservation Reserve, which
pays owners to idle fragile U.S. farmland, could become one of the largest
carbon sequestration programs on private land, an Agriculture Department
official said on Wednesday.
Some farm-state lawmakers say efforts to reduce greenhouse gases could
result in a pay-off in rural America because some agricultural practices,
such as reduced tillage, can lock carbon into the soil.
USDA official Robert Stephenson pointed during a U.S. House of
Representatives Agriculture subcommittee hearing to the benefits of
programs that reduce soil erosion.
"Land enrolled in the (Conservation) Reserve will also reduce soil
erosion by 400 million tons each year and has the potential to be one of
the nation's largest carbon sequestration programs on private lands,"
said Stephenson, acting deputy administrator of USDA's Farm Service
Agency. (Reuters)
Polluters,
Beware: These Eco-Police Officers Are for Real - As a member of a
small force of police officers whose sole focus is enforcing environmental
laws, Officer Stevens carries a gun and handcuffs and can haul a suspect
off to jail. These environmental conservation officers number barely 20 in
New York City, out of about 300 around the state, but issue about 2,000
summonses for violations and criminal charges annually. (New York Times)
China's
government scatters abortion pills to cut gerbil population - BEIJING
— Chinese state media reports forestry officials in far western China
have resorted to scattering abortion pills near gerbil burrows in a bid to
halt a rodent plague threatening the desert region's ecosystem.
Xinhua News Agency says the pellets have "little effect on other
animals," but can prevent pregnancy in gerbils and also induce
abortion in already pregnant females.
In 2003, officials installed hundreds of perches for owls and eagles
hoping the birds would cut back the rodent population but gerbils have
continued to be a problem.
Xinhua says gerbils use too much of the area's limited grass to make their
burrows and damage plant roots with their underground digging.
Desertification is a major concern for China. (Canadian Press)
March 25, 2009
Democrats
to shelve fast-track process on climate bill, for now - Capitol Hill
Democrats are expected to bypass the fast-track budget process for global
warming legislation but plan to keep the option open later this year if
they cannot win bipartisan support on one of President Obama's signature
agenda items.
White House officials and some Democratic leaders first floated the idea
last month of folding cap-and-trade legislation into a budget
reconciliation bill because they remain short of the 60 votes needed to
break a Senate Republican filibuster on the controversial legislation.
But a collection of moderate House and Senate Democrats and Republicans
have pushed back against that approach and persuaded leadership to shelve
the strategy -- for now. (ClimateWire)
Playing
Chicken - Today's Wall Street Journal — the news section — covers
the political game of hot potato over who gets the blame for making
everything you buy more expensive: (Chris Horner, Planet Gore)
CO2
Rules: The Anti-Stimulus - The EPA has prepared a finding for review
that global warming is a public health threat, the first step toward
regulating the American economy down to your lawn mower. (IBD)
The
Available Evidence Does Not Support Fossil Fuels as the Source of
Increasing Concentrations of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (Part 1) -
BECAUSE the increase in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide
has correlated with an increase in the use of fossil fuels, causation has
been assumed.
Tom Quirk has tested this assumption including through an analysis of the
time delay between northern and southern hemisphere variations in carbon
dioxide. In a new paper in the journal Energy and Environment he writes:
(Jennifer Marohasy)
He could be right, for one reason... Suffocated
by smog and heat - DEATHS from heat stress among the elderly are
likely to double in Sydney by the middle of the century because of climate
change, and the number of people hospitalised because of air pollution is
likely to treble, scientists from the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology
are predicting.
Modelling by Dr Martin Cope and his team has confirmed reports that
heat-related deaths in Sydney will increase significantly, rising from
about 150 to 200 to between 300 and 400 by 2060. (Sydney Morning Herald)
... he neglects to mention -- there is potential for a doubling of
age-related heat stress mortalities in Sydney by 2060 because... there
are expected to be more than twice as many elderly people in Sydney by
then. So, all other things being equal (unlikely, we should have more
air conditioning for elderly people, for example) then we anticipate a
doubling of heat stress mortality in the larger pool of aged people.
Stupid report but then, it is by Marian Wilkinson and so idiot claims
are the expected norm.
Climate Pact Needs Flexible
Deadline - Agency Chief - LONDON - The deadline for a new global
accord on climate change should be extended if Washington is not ready to
make commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions by December, the head
of a major environmental funding agency said on Monday. (Reuters)
World Wants Tough 2050 Climate
Cuts, Split On Path - OSLO - Governments broadly support tough 2050
goals for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions but are split on how to share
out the reductions, according to a new guide to negotiators of a new UN
climate pact.
A document to be presented to UN climate talks in Bonn from March 29-April
8 narrows down a list of ideas for fighting global warming in a new treaty
due to be agreed in December to about 30 pages from 120 in a text late
last year.
"It shows that there's an awful lot still to be done. And it also
shows what needs to be done," Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate
Change Secretariat, told Reuters on Monday of the text by Michael Zammit
Cutajar, chairman of a UN negotiating group. (Reuters)
Enviros want to pack you like sardines: City-Dwellers
Emit Less CO2 Than Countryfolk - Study - LONDON - Major cities are
getting a bad rap for the disproportionately high greenhouse gases they
emit even though their per capita emissions are often a fraction of the
national average, a new report said on Monday.
Published by the International Institute for Environment and Development,
the report found that urban residents generate substantially lower
greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists blame for global warming, than
people elsewhere in the country.
"Although the concentration of people, enterprises, vehicles and
waste in cities is often seen as a 'problem', high densities and large
population concentrations can also bring a variety of advantages for ...
environmental management," said the report. (Reuters)
So, tell us, how much food do city dwellers produce for themselves
and export? No, do a lot of mining perhaps? Forestry? No? Hmm...
US Big Steel Pushes For Carbon
Fees On China - NEW YORK - China's steel industry should face fees on
its exports into the United States if Washington adopts greenhouse gas
cuts and Beijing does not, US steel industry officials and advocates said.
As President Barack Obama begins to form plants to regulate greenhouse
gases, US steelmakers are nervous they will lose market share if rapidly
developing steelmaking countries, like China and India, do not commit to
similar emissions goals.
US steelmakers say they have already invested far more in pollution
control on pollutants like particulates and components of acid rain,
sharply boosting production costs.
"Chinese steelmakers enjoy an unfair advantage in global trade due to
the lack of enforcement of exceptionally weak pollution standards,"
Scott Paul, the executive director of the Alliance for American
Manufacturing, told reporters in a teleconference. (Reuters)
U.S. Manufacturers Seek
Protection From Climate Bill - WASHINGTON - Production of steel,
cement, chemicals and other energy-intensive products could move overseas
unless a proposed bill to fight global warming gives U.S. manufacturers
tax breaks or other subsidies, an industry coalition told lawmakers on
Tuesday.
"If the U.S. enacts tough global warming regulation but other key
manufacturing nations do not, production of energy-intensive goods may
well shift to the unregulated countries," said John McMackin on
behalf of the Energy-Intensive Manufacturers' Working Group.
The coalition includes steel companies US Steel and Nucor, paper producer
NewPage Corp_, aluminum manufacturer Alcoa and chemicals giant Dow.
McMackin testified at a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives to
examine the trade implications of proposed legislation to fight global
warming by restricting carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions.
(Reuters)
Scrap the
Cap-n-Tax Scheme - The Carbon Sense Coalition has forwarded a
submission to the Australian Senate Standing Committee on Economics in
response to the Exposure Draft of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
Bill 2009. The introduction states:
“This enquiry is focussed on The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill
2009. The name itself is a deliberate deception – the only truthful word
is “Scheme” which the Oxford Pocket Dictionary defines as “artful or
underhand design”. It is not about carbon or about pollution - it is
“The Carbon Dioxide Cap, Trade and Tax Scheme Bill” (referred to
hereafter as “The Cap-n-Tax Scheme” or “The Scheme” for short).
“There is substantial doubt on the science on which this Scheme is
justified. The chief justification is scare forecasts based on complex
computerised climate models that few people believe and even fewer people
understand.” (Carbon Sense Coalition)
Rising CO2 Prices Boost
Project Developers' Shares - LONDON - Rising carbon prices are helping
boost shares in clean energy project developers, weeks after bearish
sentiment in the carbon market forced them to record lows. UK-based
project developers EcoSecurities and Camco have seen their shares more
than double in the past six weeks, supported also by increased
institutional investment and favourable analyst recommendations.
"Elements of optimism are creeping in," said Gus Hochschild,
equity analyst at Mirabaud Securities. (Reuters)
Looks more like Mirabaud are trying to talk up moribund
investments...
Climate
scientists admit defeat in ocean experiment - Indian and German
scientists have said that a controversial experiment has "dampened
hopes" that dumping hundreds of tonnes of dissolved iron in the
Southern Ocean can lessen global warming.
The experiment involved "fertilising" a 300-square-kilometre
(115-sqare-mile) area of ocean inside the core of an eddy -- an immense
rotating column of water -- with six tonnes of dissolved iron.
As expected, this stimulated growth of tiny planktonic algae or
phytoplankton, which it was hoped would take out of the atmosphere carbon
dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas blamed for climate change, and
absorb it.
However, the scientists from India's National Institute of Oceanography (NIO)
and Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) did not count on these
phytoplankton being eaten by tiny crustacean zooplankton. (AFP)
Democracy
causes global warming - There are many culprits that were
"shown" to cause global warming, including Michael Moore, Jane
Fonda, homework problems for kids, and dark matter.
However, in an interview for The Guardian, NASA's climate chief has found
the main culprit: democracy causes global warming. The democratic process
is deficient because it prevents James Hansen from stopping the global
economy and from saving the world. (The Reference Frame)
Hansen
On ‘Democracy’ - Our last post was about Guardian journalist,
David Adam, and his inability to reflect critically and impartially on the
climate debate. That’s not to say he’s biased… That would miss the
point. Which is precisely what Adam does. Adam believes that ‘the
science’ is instructive – it tells us what to do. (Climate Resistance)
Joseph
Stefan: anniversary - Jožef Stefan was born on March 24th, 1835, in
Austrian Carinthia, near the Slovenian borders, to Slovene parents: Aleš
Stefan (*1905) was a milling assistant while Marija Startinik (*1915) was
a maidservant.
You could be surprised by these jobs but they were somewhat typical for
the ethnic Slavs in the Austrian empire.
As we know today, this background didn't hurt the boy much. Jožef started
as the best student in the class. In his college years, he wrote many
poems in Slovenian: he is included among his nation's poets. Pretty
quickly, he began to teach in Vienna. Among other topics, he studied
interfaces of phases in phase transitions.
The Stefan-Boltzmann law is the most famous discovery that originated in
his head and we will discuss it in some detail. (The Reference Frame)
Global
Warming Is Running Out of Hot Air - The coldest winter in a decade in
many places, with snow in unlikely cities such as New Orleans, has
deflated some of the hot air in global warming. And a heavy snowfall that
paralyzed Washington, D.C., upstaged a mass demonstration scheduled to
promote global warming.
Nevertheless, according to Al Gore and the mainstream media, "the
debate is over" proving that global warming exists, that humans are
causing it and that "science is settled." (Phyllis Schlafly,
Townhall)
'We have
hours' to prevent climate disaster - Green party leader says Earth
Hour a good way to begin to reverse damage from greenhouse gases. (Toronto
Star)
Obama: North
Dakota Flooding Is Because Of Global Warming - Here in North Dakota, a
state where coal and oil are very important, is concerned about cap and
trade. For obvious reasons. Obama himself has said that cap and trade
could bankrupt the coal industry, and the program (which amounts to a
massive tax on the energy industry in general) would result in a
significant downturn in fossil fuel production in general. Which would be
devastating for the state’s economy.
Now, North Dakota’s Senator Kent Conrad has been working with Obama to
sneak cap and trade legislation through Congress. So obviously, he’s
under fire for supporting a policy that runs contrary to the interests of
his own state.
But here comes Barack Obama to the rescue, saying that the flooding Grand
Forks, Fargo and other communities in the Red River valley are facing
right now is the result of (drum roll please) global warming! (KXMB)
NASA struggling to
play catchup with stunning facts of a very quiet sun, which is of course
bad news for the IPCC - NASA’s Spaceweather.com has a small article
on March 22 2009, thanks to Bob Foster for the heads-up.
DEEP SOLAR MINIMUM: Where have all the sunspots gone? As of yesterday,
March 21st, the sun has been blank on 85% of the days of 2009. If this
rate of spotlessness continues through the end of the year, 2009 will
match 1913 as the blankest year of the past century. A flurry of new-cycle
sunspots in Oct. 2008 prompted some observers to declare that solar
minimum was ending, but since then the calm has returned. We are still in
the pits of a deep solar minimum. (Warwick Hughes)
New
Paper On Ocean Heat Content Changes By Craig Loehle - There is a new
paper titled “Cooling
of the global ocean since 2003″ by Craig Loehle which has
appeared in Energy &
Environment Vol. 20, No. 1&2, 2009.
The abstract reads “Ocean heat content data from 2003 to 2008
(4.5 years) were evaluated for trend. A trend plus periodic (annual cycle)
model fit with R**2 = 0.85. The linear component of the model showed a
trend of -0.35 (±0.2) x 10**22 Joules per year. The result is consistent
with other data showing a lack of warming over the past few years.”
This paper, which was completed independently of my paper Pielke Sr.,
R.A., 2008: A
broader view of the role of humans in the climate system. Physics
Today, 61, Vol. 11, 54-55 further confirms the lack of upper ocean warming
that has occurred in recent years.
While the analysis presented in my paper, that was completed by Josh
Willis, indicates the uncertainties are too large to definitively conclude
that there has been cooling, the lack of warming in both papers are in
conflict with the predictions of the global climate models as reported,
for example, in the Climate Science weblog Update
On A Comparison Of Upper Ocean Heat Content Changes With The GISS Model
Predictions (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Cold
winters may be new trend - After enduring the coldest winter in 16
years and now persistent below-normal temperatures that are chilling what
should be spring, Lower Mainlanders can be excused for asking what gives.
They may not like the answer.
Meteorologists suspect coastal B.C. is now being nipped by a trend of
colder than normal winter temperatures that could last a decade. Or two.
Or three.
The Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) is a phenomenon of alternating
phases in which offshore ocean temperatures tend to run warmer and then
colder – for 20 to 30 years at a stretch.
"There's some debate as to whether we've slipped into a cold phase or
not," said Environment Canada meteorologist Gabor Fricska. "It
may be too early to say definitively." (Surrey North Delta Leader)
El
Nino study challenges global warming intensity link - SINGAPORE -
Research showing an El Nino event in 1918 was far stronger than previously
thought is challenging the notion climate change is making El Nino
episodes more intense, a U.S. scientist said on Tuesday.
El Nino causes global climate chaos such as droughts and floods. The
events of 1982/83 and 1997/98 were the strongest of the 20th Century,
causing loss of life and economic havoc through lost crops and damage to
infrastructure.
But Ben Giese of Texas A&M University said complex computer modelling
showed the 1918 El Nino event was almost as strong and occurred before
there was much global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels or
widespread deforestation.
The outcome of the research was valuable for several reasons, Giese told
Reuters from Perth in Western Australia.
"It questions the notion that El Ninos have been getting stronger
because of global warming," he said ahead of a presentation of his
team's research at a major climate change conference in Perth.
The 1918 event also co-incided with one of India's worst droughts of the
20th century.
"We know that El Ninos and drought in India are often related to each
other," he said. (Reuters)
A
Book Review: Red Hot Lies - 'How Global Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud,
and Deception to Keep You Misinformed' by Christopher C. Horner
Red Hot Lies is a tremendous addition to the list of books to study and
research if one is to learn about the other side of global warming, namely
the dominating and nasty politics of global warming lobby. The politics of
the global warming issues completely dominate whatever residue of science
that is involved. (Michael R. Fox, Hawaii Reporter)
From CO2 Science this week:
Editorial:
Global Warming
and Ecosystem Species Richness: Will rising temperatures decimate
earth's biosphere?
Medieval
Warm Period Record of the Week:
Was there a Medieval Warm Period? YES, according to data
published by 686
individual scientists from 401
separate research institutions in 40
different countries ... and counting! This issue's Medieval Warm
Period Record of the Week comes from the Northeastern
Caribbean Sea, South of Puerto Rico. To access the entire Medieval
Warm Period Project's database, click
here.
Subject Index Summary:
Coral
Reefs (Bleaching - Responses: Symbiont Shuffling): Climate alarmists
typically decry the bleaching of corals that often follows periods of
anomalous warmth at various places around the globe. In doing so, however,
they malign the very phenomenon that enables corals to
"reinvent" themselves and adapt to global warming.
Plant Growth Data:
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses
to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from
experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Oilseed
Rape, Rice,
Silver
Dollar Gum, and Sour
Orange Tree.
Journal Reviews:
Millennial-Scale
Cycling of Climate, Southeast Scotland: What does it imply about the
planet's current climatic status?
Gullies Galore
in Slovakia: From whence and when did they come?
The Little
Medieval Warm Period in Northeastern China: How did its warmth compare
with that of the late 20th century?
Grassland
Species Richness and Soil Carbon Sequestration: How does ecosystem
biodiversity impact the rate at which carbon is removed from the
atmosphere and sequestered in the soils of grasslands?
Red Wines of
the Future: Will their character be impacted by rising atmospheric CO2
concentrations? (co2science.org)
Missouri utilities
seek lawsuit cap on waste storage - JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri
lawmakers are proposing to restrict lawsuits over potential problems
caused by utilities that store carbon dioxide underground.
A Springfield utility is experimenting with storing the carbon dioxide
emissions from power plants 2,000 feet below ground in porous sandstone
rock. The pilot project is designed to determine if carbon dioxide - a
greenhouse gas blamed by many for contributing to global warming - can be
quarantined and prevented from entering the atmosphere.
Supporters of the project said Tuesday that some utilities are skittish
about using techniques that are developed through that research because of
uncertainty over the potential liability.
Gary Pendergrass, the project manager for City Utilities of Springfield,
told the House Energy and Environment Committee that storing carbon
dioxide underground is safe, calling the most severe potential problem a
gradual trickling of the gas up through the rock.
But "no risk doesn't mean no lawsuits," Pendergrass said.
(Associated Press)
Granted, they shouldn't face penalties for doing what legislators
force them to do (although that didn't help say, tobacco companies
penalized for flogging reduced tar cigarettes in accordance with
government directives nor stop car companies from building too-small and
fragile vehicles to meet fleet fuel mandates). Then again, they
shouldn't be wasting a magnificent biosphere resource by locking it out
of the carbon cycle in the first place.
The Future
of the Brazilian Pre-Salt Oil Reserves - Ed note: Luiz Antonio Maia
Espínola de Lemos works on oil and gas issues at TozziniFreire,
Brazil’s largest law firm. Prior to joining the firm, he worked as a
lawyer at Petrobras, where he was general counsel for one of the
company’s subsidiaries. Lemos has written extensively on oil and gas
regulation in Brazil. Parts of this article were published earlier this
month on PRWeb.com. Given the importance of the Brazilian oil and gas
business to the Western hemisphere, we asked Lemos’ public relations
firm to expand on some of his comments. We have edited his comments for
clarity and style. (Luiz Lemos, Energy Tribune)
UK Nat Grid To Cut Carbon
Emissions 45 Pct By 2020 - LONDON - UK network operator National Grid
said on Monday it planned to cut carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2020,
and called on the government and industry to develop a route map for a low
carbon economy.
"Despite the challenging economic conditions, we must not take our
eye off the ball in tackling climate change," Chief Executive Steve
Holliday said in a statement.
"We need a masterplan, with government, industry and consumer
collaboration, to determine the route map for meeting government
targets." (Reuters)
U.S. Interior Chief Touts
Renewable Energy Zones - WASHINGTON - The Obama Administration is
carving out renewable energy zones across the country and offshore, and is
preparing to work with critics who object to wind turbines or solar farms
near wilderness or tourist areas, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on
Tuesday.
"You have a map that starts out as a very huge map that shows you
have the huge potential for solar energy in the Southwest but then you
have to overlay that with areas such as national parks and national
monuments, where we won't allow any development of renewable energy
facilities," Salazar said.
He said planners also will figure out ways to obtain alternative energy
while still protecting endangered species. (Reuters)
Where's
the Transparency? - Energy Secretary Chu is on a roll and giving out
millions as if he were the banker in Monopoly. The latest is $535 million
in the form of a loan guarantee to solar company Solyndra, a deal that
could be exposed to a little more sunlight, if you ask me. (Greg Pollowitz,
Planet Gore)
Chicago's
'green' promise fades - Chicago taxpayers on hook for carbon credits
that do little to fight global warming
Mayor Richard Daley promised long ago that his administration would start
fighting global warming by buying 20 percent of its electricity from wind
farms and other sources of green energy.
But more than two years after the deadline he set, the city continues to
get nearly all of its power from coal, natural gas and nuclear plants,
according to records obtained by the Tribune.
Daley administration officials contend they have kept the mayor's promise
by buying carbon credits, a controversial way of offsetting pollution by
paying money to producers of green energy. The credits are supposed to
lower the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide sent into the atmosphere.
But most of the credits Chicago has bought over the last two years didn't
reduce carbon emissions at all, energy experts and the city's own broker
on the deal said. (Chicago Tribune)
Eye-roller: RSPB
changes direction with call for more wind power - The RSPB fears that
Britain may not meet its targets on renewable energy unless it builds more
wind turbine farms
Conservationists who have been among the most vociferous opponents of wind
power have called for more turbine farms to be built in the countryside.
Ornithologists at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds have
backed a report that is demanding a rapid increase in the number of wind
turbines being built.
They are concerned that unless construction is speeded up there will be
little chance of Britain meeting its 2020 targets on renewable energy and
carbon reduction.
Britain is legally committed to increasing its use of renewables to 15 per
cent of energy consumption by 2020, from about 3 per cent today, and
cutting greenhouse gas emissions by more than 20 per cent based on 1990
levels.
The RSPB, which led the campaign to prevent the construction of a huge
wind farm on the Isle of Lewis, is deeply worried by the damage that
climate change is likely to wreak on wildlife habitats.
Rising temperatures caused by greenhouse gas emissions, especially of
carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, are expected to drive many birds
and other wildlife away from the areas where they are found today. (The
Times) | The Beeb's
version
Getting pretty slippery, this slope: U.S.
Seeks Expanded Power to Seize Firms - Goal Is to Limit Risk to Broader
Economy
The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the
Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of
non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and
hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, according to
an administration document.
The government at present has the authority to seize only banks.
(Washington Post)
Senate
Democrats to scrap Obama's $400 tax credit - WASHINGTON --A top
Democrat in the Senate announced a budget blueprint Tuesday that would
scrap Barack Obama's signature tax cut after 2010 and blends sleight of
hand with modest restraint on domestic programs to cut the deficit to
sustainable levels.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., promises to reduce
the deficit from a projected $1.7 trillion this year to a still-high $508
billion in 2014. But to do so, he assumes Congress will let Obama's
"Making Work Pay" tax credit delivering $400 tax cuts to most
workers and $800 to couples will expire at the end of next year. Those tax
cuts were included in Obama's stimulus package.
Conrad, D-N.D., who has for decades sought to highlight the dangers of
permanent deficits and rising government debt, produced a budget plan
bristling with both -- even after proposing to require wealthier taxpayers
to pay higher rates income and capital gains.
But Democrats point out that Obama inherited an unprecedented fiscal mess
caused by the recession and the taxpayer-financed bailout of Wall St.
Rather than retrenching, however, they still promise to award big budget
increases to education and clean energy programs, while assuming Obama's
plans to overhaul the U.S. health care system advance. (Associated Press)
National
Service Corps Bill Clears Senate Hurdle - Following overwhelming House
passage last week, the Senate tonight voted 74 to 14 on a procedural move
that essentially guarantees a major expansion of a national service corps,
a cornerstone of volunteerism that dates back to the era of President
Kennedy. It’s akin to a call to arms by President Obama, who has
harkened back to those early days to demand giving back by those who voted
for him.
In fact, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the senior Democrat from Massachusetts
whose battle with brain cancer has oft kept him absent from the Senate
these days, appeared on the floor to welcomes all around as he cast his
approving vote as a co-sponsor.
From President Kennedy’s days to the creation of Americorps by then
President Bill Clinton, the notion of public service has become a rallying
cry. Tonight’s vote, propelled by President Obama’s urging of an
expansion, would mean a growth in such work from 75,000 community service
jobs to 250,000.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the cost of the Senate bill
at least would be an outlay for the fiscal year 2010 of $418 million to
about $5.7 billion from 2010 through 2014. (New York Times)
Pleased to hear it: No
problems with Nano, says UN climate change boss - LONDON: A key UN
climate change official said on Monday Indians have the right to aspire to
own cars - just as people in wealthy countries.
Speaking a day after the launch of the Tata Nano, the world's cheapest
car, Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), however said automobile makers
should use more green technologies in order to meet the challenges of
global warming.
"I am not concerned about it (the Tata Nano) because people in India
have the same aspirational rights to own cars as people elsewhere in the
world," de Boer told IANS at a press conference. (Economic Times)
Political theater reported as science: Australians
Face Climate Change Relocation - Senior government officials in
Victoria are warning residents of towns on the Murray River that they
could become the first Australians to be displaced by climate change. The
region has suffered at the hands of a long-running drought that many
scientists and politicians have blamed on global warming. The very dry
conditions have restricted the flow of water into a river that is part of
the Murray-Darling Basin, which provides much of Australia's food,
prompting dire warnings about the future. (VOA News)
Scientists find new
solutions for the arsenic-poisoning crisis in Asia -- Every day, more
than 140 million people in southern Asia drink groundwater contaminated
with arsenic. Thousands of people in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Myanmar
and Vietnam die of cancer each year from chronic exposure to arsenic,
according to the World Health Organization. Some health experts call it
the biggest mass poisoning in history. (PhysOrg.com)
March 24, 2009
Quick! Need a reason to charge more in a down-turn! Good ol' climate
change... Climate-change
damage may double cost of insurance - Weather-related problems have
been underestimated by scientists
INSURANCE companies are set to raise their estimates for future premiums
because of the effects of climate change.
Firms that operate in areas where floods and storms cause a growing amount
of damage are likely to see the cost of cover rise by as much as 100% in
the next 10 years.
The findings by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) reflect a
growing belief in the industry that the consequences of changes in weather
patterns have been underestimated. (Sunday Times)
ANALYSIS - US States Anxious
As Obama Shapes Climate Policy - SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK - US states
have spearheaded moves to curb global warming and are not ready to pass
the leadership baton to President Barack Obama.
Regional markets to trade air pollution credits, aimed at cutting
emissions that heat the planet, could be overshadowed by a federal system
Obama sees as central to his environmental policy.
But states plan to proceed with their own emission control programs until
the White House and Congress pass a credible federal market mechanism such
as "cap-and-trade" to meet Obama's targets for greenhouse gas
cuts.
State officials say the federal program might never happen, or be too weak
to help reduce the chances of catastrophic droughts, floods and heat waves
from global warming. (Reuters)
We have no reason whatsoever to believe that adjusting human
emissions of carbon dioxide to atmosphere will affect catastrophic
droughts, floods or heatwaves.
When misanthropists come out to play: UK
population must fall to 30m, says Porritt - JONATHON PORRITT, one of
Gordon Brown’s leading green advisers, is to warn that Britain must
drastically reduce its population if it is to build a sustainable society.
Porritt’s call will come at this week’s annual conference of the
Optimum Population Trust (OPT), of which he is patron.
The trust will release research suggesting UK population must be cut to
30m if the country wants to feed itself sustainably.
Porritt said: “Population growth, plus economic growth, is putting the
world under terrible pressure.
“Each person in Britain has far more impact on the environment than
those in developing countries so cutting our population is one way to
reduce that impact.”
Population growth is one of the most politically sensitive environmental
problems. The issues it raises, including religion, culture and
immigration policy, have proved too toxic for most green groups.
However, Porritt is winning scientific backing. Professor Chris Rapley,
director of the Science Museum, will use the OPT conference, to be held at
the Royal Statistical Society, to warn that population growth could help
derail attempts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. (Sunday Times)
People
still being sacrificed to climate god - Back in 1500, we learn from a
Princeton professor, the Aztecs figured the climate debate was over, and
that if you wanted rain or sunshine, it was simple enough what you had to
do - sacrifice 20,000 lives a year to the right gods.
In 2009, it’s an equally sure thing in the minds of some that carbon in
the air is going to fry us unless we put the welfare of millions on the
line, and here is the latest on President Obama’s plan - it could cost
industry $2 trillion over eight years.
That hefty sum to be paid out to a cap-and-trade carbon tax would snatch
money from consumers far more than rising oil prices did, hinder economic
growth and in still other ways generate human misery, and all in the name
of what? Computer models that can’t get anything right, that’s what.
Scientists feed tons of data into these simulating computers, and - given
the doomsday theory animating the enterprise - it shouldn’t surprise
anyone that catastrophic warming is a calculation that then emerges. The
problem is that all kinds of stuff is left out because there is a lot we
do not know.
“Over the past 10 years there has been no global warming, and in fact a
slight cooling,” physicist William Happer recently told the Senate.
“This is not at all what was predicted by the IPCC models,” he said,
referring to the conclusions of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change. (Jay Ambrose, Boston Herald)
AP
source: EPA says global warming a public danger - WASHINGTON - The
White House is reviewing a proposed finding by the U.S. environmental
agency that global warming is a threat to public health and welfare.
Such a declaration by the Environmental Protection Agency would be the
first step to regulating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases under
the U.S. Clean Air Act law and could have broad economic and environmental
ramifications. It also would likely spur action by Congress to address
climate change more broadly.
The White House acknowledged Monday that the EPA had transmitted its
proposed finding on global warming to the Office of Management and Budget,
but provided no details. It also cautioned that the Obama administration,
which sees responding to climate change a top priority, nevertheless is
ready to move cautiously when it comes to actually regulating greenhouse
gases, preferring to have Congress act on the matter. (AP)
The
Coming Green Burden - What one hand giveth, the other taketh away. The
federal stimulus bill will reportedly net the average American $13 a week.
Today, Michigan’s two major utilities announced that federal green
emissions mandates will in part necessitate an 11 percent electric rate
hike this year — or approximately $10 a month to the average
Michigander.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the bills that are coming due
on the “greening of America. (Henry Payne, Planet Gore)
Thatcher’s
Science Adviser To GOP: Fighting Global Warming Is Winning Issue -
“Connecting with ordinary people as opposed to the chattering classes,
and standing up to the Goebbels-like persistent noise from the liberal
media on global warming is imperative for Republicans. If they can do this
and make the case that environmental regulation dealing with this issue
will hurt the middle-class and the poor, then they can win [in 2010].”
That was the message Lord Chrisopher Monckton -- the man who was science
adviser to Great Britain’s Margaret Thatcher -- delivered last week to
Republican Members of Congress and several prominent U.S. conservatives
last week.
Lord Monckton made his case that global warming is grossly exaggerated by
liberal academics and politicians. Moreover, the forthcoming Treaty of
Copenhagen -- successor to the Kyoto Protocols Al Gore made famous -- will
mean dramatic losses of sovereignty and jobs for nations like Britain and
the U.S.. (John Gizzi, Human Events)
Warning! Plants grow well with warmth and carbon dioxide! Scientists
find climate change to have paradoxical effects in coastal wetlands -
Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide is largely responsible for recent global
warming and the rise in sea levels. However, a team of scientists,
including two Smithsonian ecologists, have found that this same increase
in CO2 may ironically counterbalance some of its negative effects on one
of the planet's most valuable ecosystems—wetlands. The team's findings
are being published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
the week of March 23. (Smithsonian)
We just don't know how they do it...
Boston
Underwater? - Boston, you have been warned. Sea levels are rising ,
and if one of the IPCC’s five scenarios is correct, the world’s oceans
will rise somewhere between 18 and 59 cm (7 to 23 inches) by 2100. If that
isn’t terrifying enough for the people living on the New England coast,
the Boston Globe now tells us that the ocean near Boston will rise 8
inches more than the world average. How will the hapless rubes of Boston
cope with this onslaught of Atlantic water?
I wouldn’t lose too much sleep worrying about the folks in Boston when
it comes to pushing back against the ocean. (Climate Sanity)
The
incredible shrinking polar bear? - Commentary follows the article
below
Polar bears are shrinking, along with the ice on which they live – and
are turning to cannibalism – as global warming increasingly stops them
getting enough to eat. Scientists say the animals are now only two-thirds
as big as they were 30 years ago as melting ice makes it harder for them
to catch seals, and that they have begun to hunt each other instead.
(Greenie Watch)
Carbon
trading 'undermined by boom and bust' - A shake-up in the way the
"boom and bust" carbon markets are working in Europe is being
urged ahead of tomorrow's auction of new emission certificates by the UK
government.
The Carbon Trust, which is funded by government money, and the consultancy
PricewaterhouseCoopers argue that some kind of floor price or carbon tax
might have to be put in place to prevent the EU's emissions trading scheme
(ETS) being discredited by a further collapse in prices, which have
already slumped from €30 per tonne to just over €10.
As ministers prepare to raise money by selling off more carbon
certificates to –polluting companies, Michael Grubb, economist at the
Carbon Trust, said the ETS was being badly undermined by volatility and
uncertainty as the financial crisis ate into a scheme that was meant to
fight global warming.
"Very low carbon prices could wreak much damage on the credibility of
emissions trading and undermine the EU's attempts to form a platform of
leadership in the [forthcoming] Copenhagen [climate change]
negotiations," Grubb said. (The Guardian)
What credibility?
EU Urges Swifter Action On
Climate, Pledges Funds - BRUSSELS - The European Union will surmount
internal disputes and honour pledges to help poor states tackle climate
change, the bloc's environment chief said on Friday, urging other rich
regions to make clear their goals.
The call by Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas echoed a warning this
week by United Nations climate chief Yvo de Boer, who expressed concern
over the slow progress being made before climate talks in Copenhagen in
December.
Success at the meeting hinges on whether rich nations can agree a fund
worth tens of billions of dollars annually to persuade poor countries to
tackle the problem. (Reuters)
Nations
Start to Agree on Paying for Climate Pledges - March 23 -- Nations are
starting to agree on how rich countries could help pay for greenhouse-gas
reduction and climate-change adaptation in developing markets, the United
Nations said.
A proposed registry would list “nationally appropriate mitigation
actions” by developing countries such as China and India and match them
with pledges of financial and technological support by developed nations,
the UN said in a document on the Web site of the UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change. (Bloomberg)
Third world must commit to
reductions to get EU climate cash - BRUSSELS - European Union leaders
are adamant that the developing world must commit to carbon reductions if
the EU is to stump up cash for making the adaptation measures to deal with
climate change, the Danish prime minister said on Thursday (19 March). (EUobserver)
EU
Backtracks from Climate Change Aid, Looks to US for Greater Contribution
- After committing to the formation of a climate change fund for the poor
countries at the 2007 Bali conference, the European Union is finding
itself in a fix over how to raise the billions needed to assist the poor
countries acquire the new cleaner technology from the developed nations.
(Red Green and Blue)
Cooler
Heads Digest 20 March 2009
Alarmists
turn blind eye to global warming benefits–again - [Today], the House
Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on the national security
threats from melting Arctic ice. Greenwire (subscription required), the
Online environmental news service, explains the rationale for the hearing:
In a report last year, the European Commission warned that the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization must be prepared for an intensified
“scramble for resources” as melting glaciers and sea ice open up
previously inaccessible areas to exploitation. The report explicitly
expressed concerns over “long term relations with Russia,” (ClimateWire,
April 2, 2008).
Now, opening up ”previously inaccessible” areas to oil and gas
development could also be a font of economic and national security
benefits. One thing we know for sure about Arctic mineral resources–they
aren’t owned by Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Venezuela, and never will be
controlled by OPEC.
Yes, there will be competition for those resources, but since when is
competition an automatic negative for the USA? (Marlo Lewis, Cooler Heads)
New
Sun-Watching Instrument To Monitor Sunlight Fluctuations - During the
Maunder Minimum, a period of diminished solar activity between 1645 and
1715, sunspots were rare on the face of the sun, sometimes disappearing
entirely for months to years. At the same time, Earth experienced a bitter
cold period known as the "Little Ice Age."
Were the events connected? Scientists cannot say for sure, but it's quite
likely. Slowdowns in solar activity - evidenced by reductions in sunspot
numbers - are known to coincide with decreases in the amount of energy
discharged by the sun.
During the Little Ice Age, though, few would have thought to track total
solar irradiance (TSI), the amount of solar energy striking Earth's upper
atmosphere. In fact, the scientific instrument needed to make such
measurements - a spaceborne radiometer - was still three centuries into
the future.
Modern scientists have several tools for studying TSI. Since the 1970s,
scientists have relied upon a collection of radiometers on American and
European spacecraft to keep a close eye on solar fluctuations from above
the atmosphere, which intercepts much of the sun's radiation.
When NASA launches the Glory satellite this fall (no earlier than October
2009), researchers will have a more accurate instrument for measuring TSI
than they've ever had before. (SPX)
Interesting but TSI is far from the whole story. Check the little
energy balance model in this
page to see how small differences in TOA irradiance make little
difference to global mean temperature calculations (Lean et al
suggest a mere 3 Wm-2 difference). Small changes in albedo
from increased cloudiness and more persistent snow & ice fields,
however, coupled with a small reduction in greenhouse effect from
reduced evaporation and an increase in atmospheric moisture flocculating
to droplets (thus increasing clear sky transmission of OLR) do make an
obvious difference. This is why the Svensmark
Effect is so important.
Aussie climate indoctrination campaign: $20m
climate change project announced - A $20 million science program will
help Australia's neighbours understand the impacts of climate change on
the region, Minister Penny Wong says. (AAP)
Scientists
drill deep into Greenland ice for global warming clues from Eemian Period
- Scientists are to dig up ice dating back more than 100,000 years in an
attempt to shed light on how global warming will change the world over the
next century.
The ice, at the bottom of the Greenland ice sheet, was laid down at a time
when temperatures were 3C (5.4F) to 5C warmer than they are today.
With temperatures forecast to rise by up to 7C in the next 100 years, the
ice more than 8,000ft (2,400m) below the surface is thought by researchers
to hold valuable clues to how much of the ice sheet will melt.
Drilling will start in northern Greenland during the summer in an
international project involving researchers from 18 countries to extract
ice cores covering the Eemian Period.
The Eemian began 130,000 years ago, ending 15,000 years later, and is the
most recent time in the Earth's past when temperatures resembled those
that can be expected if greenhouse gas emissions are not brought under
control.
Carbon dioxide, methane and other chemicals trapped in the ice can provide
a detailed picture of the atmosphere and the climate thousands of years
ago.
Fragments of organic matter can offer details about animals and plants
alive when the ice formed, while particles of dirt can indicate forest
fires, tundra fires and volcanic activity.
Analysis of the ice should provide the first measurement of CO2 levels
over Greenland during the Eemian and the most detailed analysis yet
achieved of climate indicators from the period. (The Times)
With temperatures forecast to rise by up to 7C in the next 100 years?
Sheesh!
New
Report Predicts "New Global Ice Age" - ROCKVILLE, MD--Mar
23, 2009 -- MarketResearch.com has announced the addition of Unit
Economics' new report "The New Global Ice Age," to their
collection of Energy/Environment market reports. For more
information.
Abstract of Unit Economics' Report: "New Global Ice Age"
"At first glance, a research piece predicting significantly colder
weather seems rather bold. In reality, we're very confident about this
report. That's because we are not so much predicting colder weather, but
are instead observing it. More important, we're attempting to coax our
readers to view recent weather data and trends with a neutral perspective
-- unbiased by the constant barrage of misinformation about global
warming. We assure you, based on the accuracy of climatologists' long-term
(and short-term!) forecasts, you would not even hire them!
"For example, in 1923 a Chicago Tribune headline proclaimed:
'Scientist says arctic ice will wipe out Canada.' By 1952, the New York
Times declared 'Melting glaciers are the trump card of global warming.' In
1974, Time Magazine ran a feature article predicting 'Another Ice Age,'
echoed in a Newsweek article the following year. Clearly, the recent
history of climate prediction inspires little confidence -- despite its
shrillness. Why, then, accept the global warming thesis at face value?
Merely because it is so pervasive?
"Unfettered by the Gore-Tex straitjacket of global warming dogma, one
might ask some obvious questions. Why, in 2008, did Toronto, the Midwest
United States, India, China, the United Kingdom and several areas of
Europe all break summer rainfall records? Why was South Africa converted
into a 'winter wonderland' this past September? Why did Alaska record its
coldest summer this year -- cold enough for ice packs and glaciers to grow
for the first time in measured history? Why has sea ice achieved record
levels in recent months? Lastly, why did a rare October snow fall on
London, on the 29th, as British Parliament debated -- appropriately enough
-- a climate bill? If you don't believe that 2008 has been particularly
wet and cold, you've most likely contracted typhoid or you haven't been
paying attention.
"The reality is that there are forces at work, already affecting the
weather for the past two years, that will make the next twelve years
significantly cooler than anything we have seen in past decades. This
report explores these forces and provides a roadmap of what to expect as
the new ice age unfolds." (MARKET WIRE)
Linking Climate
Change in Siberia and Britain -- Scientists have for first time
demonstrated a critical link between the Siberian climate and the
circulation of the major current system which gives us our mild winters
here in the UK. This new understanding of what is happening, made by
Bangor University scientists working on a Natural Environment Research
Council research programme led by University College London, is explained
in the prestigious American journal, Geophysical Research Letters. (PhysOrg.com)
Shocker:
'Global warming' simply no longer happening - Temperatures dropping,
fewer hurricanes, arctic ice growing, polar bear population up
WASHINGTON – This may come as bad news for Al Gore.
The modest global warming trend has stopped – maybe even reversed
itself.
And it's not just the record low temperatures experienced in much of the
world this winter.
For at least the last five years, global temperatures have been falling,
according to tracking performed by Roy Spencer, the climatologist formerly
of NASA.
"Global warming" was going to bring more and more horrific
hurricanes, climate change scientists and the politicians who subscribed
to their theories said. But since 2005, only one major hurricane has
struck North America. (WorldNetDaily)
Hmm... Lessons
of the Exxon Valdez - Tuesday marks the 20th anniversary of one of
this country’s great ecological disasters. The Exxon Valdez slammed into
Bligh Reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, spilling 11 million gallons
of crude oil, damaging 1,300 miles of shoreline, disrupting the
livelihoods of thousands of Americans and fouling one of the country’s
richest fishing grounds.
More than $2 billion has been spent on cleanup and recovery. Exxon has
paid at least $1 billion in damages. Supertankers have been made safer
with double hulls, emergency teams given better equipment. Some fish
species, though not all, have recovered.
Yet the Exxon Valdez still sends a powerful cautionary message: oil
development, however necessary, is an inherently risky, dirty business —
especially so in the forbidding waters of the Arctic.
The White House should keep that in mind as it maps out its energy
strategy. While rightly emphasizing conservation, efficiency and renewable
energy, President Obama has said that oil and gas drilling in America’s
coastal waters will be part of the mix. The challenge is to do it right,
and do it carefully. (New York Times)
... the big lesson would seem to be that more damage was done by the
panicked 'clean-up' than by the oil. Which is the more dangerous,
leakage of a natural compound or the enviros' response to it?
Governor
goes for the green - Gov. David Paterson has now alienated every major
constituency in New York politics. Given his low public approval rate, the
latest misstep—angering environmentalists — is especially notable.
The New York Times reported on March 5 that the governor cut a secret deal
with dirty electricity producers last autumn. The governor reportedly
agreed to increase the number of free global warming pollution allowances
granted power generators under the terms of the Regional Greenhouse Gas
Initiative, known as RGGI. This 10-state compact is designed to moderately
lower emissions over time from fossil fuel-fired power plants through a
cap-and-trade arrangement. The ceiling on emissions is translated into a
fixed number of permits to pollute (the cap), known as allowances. Each
allowance authorizes a dirty power plant to emit one ton of carbon dioxide
(CO2), the most common greenhouse gas. The invention and auctioning of
these allowances created a market, where allowances are bought and sold
(the trade).
RGGI is seen by many as a precursor to a national, comprehensive cap and
trade system. It took years of delicate negotiations, compromises and much
hard work for the 10 states to bring RGGI into being on Jan. 1. Paterson's
apparent decision invites similar tinkering from the other states, thus
endangering the overall program. (Times-Union)
INTERVIEW - Pennsylvania Says
Natgas Drilling Risks Inevitable - PHILADELPHIA - Pennsylvania's top
environmental official said Friday that a natural gas drilling boom would
inevitably result in some environmental damage including possible
contamination of water supplies.
Responding to concerns that drilling in some areas has caused toxic
chemicals to pollute drinking water, John Hanger said the value of the gas
underlying Pennsylvania and parts of surrounding states outweighed damage
drilling may cause.
"You can't do a large amount of drilling and have zero impact,"
Hanger, acting secretary of the state's Department of Environmental
Protection, told Reuters. "There's going to be a lot of good that
comes from drilling in Pennsylvania, but there are also going to be some
problems." (Reuters)
Coal
— our first and last choice? - Alaskans face trouble with natural
gas, oil
Two important energy anniversaries stand out for Alaskans this year. One
celebrates Colonel Edwin Drake’s first extraction of crude oil from
underground reservoirs 150 years ago in Titusville, Penn. And 300 years
ago, British inventor Abraham Darby invented the process to make coke, a
charcoal-like fuel made from coal, which is used to make steel. Darby’s
invention was instrumental in the Industrial Revolution.
Thus Drake’s oil technology and Darby’s coal technology influence
Alaska’s energy-based economy to this day, though most people looking at
the pace of technological progress in the 20th century would never have
dreamed that those inventions still would be so important. You’d think
nuclear fusion or some sort of high-tech energy field that could fuel
flying cars and propel spacecraft to the stars would have superseded these
antiquated processes by now.
On these 300th and 150th anniversaries, the world faces an energy dilemma:
Should the global economy try to substitute natural gas and nuclear power
for oil, or simply use coal? Similarly, Fairbanks faces its own dilemma:
Should Interior Alaskans wait for natural gas to arrive in Fairbanks or
just switch from fuel oil to coal? (Doug Reynolds, News-Miner)
The
Solar and Renewable Utopia - “We know the right thing to do,” said
President Barack Obama at his press conference on energy this afternoon.
“We’ve known the right choice for a generation. The time has come to
make that choice and act on what we know. . . . We have achieved more in
two months for a clean energy economy than we have done in perhaps 30
years.”
Thirty years, that would be . . . hmmm . . . 1979, right? Wasn’t that
the year — yes, it was. That was the date when Jimmy Carter finally got
his Grand Energy Plan through Congress, setting us the road to corn
ethanol, the Synthetic Fuels Corporation, and a host of other harebrained
schemes.
Carter Redux, that’s the only way to put it. After 30 years out of
power, the purveyors of the Solar and Renewable Utopia are back. We’re
going to develop windmills, make solar panels affordable, and redesign
buildings so they use only half as much energy — in theory, at least.
The subtext, of course, is this — we won’t have to deal with coal,
nuclear, or any of those other nasty technologies that aren’t “clean
and renewable.”
So what’s wrong with this picture? Well, the problem is that 30 years
hasn’t changed the physics of things like the intensity of sunlight or
wind power. Nuclear power has 2 million times the energy density of fossil
fuels. Fossil fuels are again about ten times as dense as wind and solar.
Multiply it out and that comes to a factor of 20 million. How does this
manifest itself? Well, in the amount of land that will be required to
collect all that solar and wind energy before we can begin using it.
(William Tucker, Planet Gore)
A genuinely admirable 'Swedish model'? Sweden
Says No to Saving Saab - TROLLHATTAN, Sweden — Saab Automobile may
be just another crisis-ridden car company in an industry full of them. But
just as the fortunes of Flint, Mich., are permanently entangled with
General Motors, so it is impossible to find anyone in this city in
southwest Sweden who is not somehow connected to Saab.
Which makes it all the more wrenching that the Swedish government has
responded to Saab’s desperate financial situation by saying,
essentially, tough luck. Or, as the enterprise minister, Maud Olofsson,
put it recently, “The Swedish state is not prepared to own car
factories.”
Such a view might seem jarring, coming as it does from a country with a
reputation for a paternalistic view of workers and companies. The
“Swedish model” for dealing with a banking crisis — nationalizing
the banks, recapitalizing them and selling them — has been much debated
lately in the United States, with free-market defenders warning of a
slippery slope of Nordic socialism.
But Sweden has a right-leaning government, elected in 2006 after a long
period of Social Democratic rule, that prefers market forces to state
intervention and ownership. (New York Times)
Lignol's Ethanol Ambitions
Fuelled By Fresh Funding - OTTAWA - Lignol Energy has scored a fresh
round of government funding that the tiny company hopes will advance its
big ambition of making fuel and valuable chemicals from forest and farm
waste.
Lignol will use the C$1.8 million (US$1.4 million) to fine tune its
biorefinery in Vancouver, British Columbia, and further test its
technology, which produces both cellulosic ethanol and chemicals from
biomass.
Cellulosic ethanol is produced from such feedstock as wood or corn stalks,
as opposed to traditional ethanol made from the starch in corn, wheat or
other grains.
It is more challenging and time-consuming to make cellulosic ethanol, says
the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, but studies indicate it is more
effective in reducing greenhouse gas than traditional ethanol. (Reuters)
Reuters Summit - Economic
Recovery May Rekindle Food/Fuel Debate - CHICAGO - The steep drop in
energy prices from last year's peaks has cooled the food-versus-fuel
debate for the moment, but the battle may be rekindled by an eventual
global economic recovery or energy price rebound.
The push to produce more biofuels like corn-based ethanol or biodiesel
made from soybean oil or palm oil helped drive prices of raw food
commodities to record highs last year, prompting double-digit food price
inflation in some countries.
It also set off a debate over the morality of using food crops to make
fuel while millions around the world go hungry. (Reuters)
Indonesia's Sinar Mas Defends
Palm Oil Expansion - JAKARTA - Sinar Mas Group, one of Indonesia's top
palm oil growers, denied on Friday accusations that its activities were
damaging the environment and said it would stick to plans to expand its
plantations.
Greenpeace activists have targeted Sinar Mas in a recent campaign for
contributing to deforestation in Indonesia, which is blamed as a key
source greenhouse gas emissions in the Southeast Asian country. (Reuters)
Defective
premises tend to recur in new settings” - A new experimental program
at a nonconventional “lifestyle medicine” center is targeting pregnant
women who are Black and Hispanic minority, poor and fat. These women are
being enrolled into a free health program which tells them it will benefit
them and their unborn babies and make their babies healthier.
No mention is made in the patient literature that, by the soundest
clinical evidence to date, compared to the standard of care, the
program’s alternative interventions have been shown to lead to poorer
chances of survival for babies, higher rates of spontaneous preterm
births, and to put babies at greater risk for serious physical and
neurological health problems and learning disabilities. There is no
indication that these underprivileged minority women are giving their
informed consent or are aware they are participants in human experiments
that could endanger their unborn babies.
Why has no one cared to notice? The answer to that question is even more
disquieting…. (Junkfood Science)
New
analysis confirms vitamin D bone benefits - NEW YORK - Older people
can prevent fractures by taking vitamin D supplements, a new study
confirms, as long as they use a high enough dose-and keep taking it.
"Everyone age 65 and older should take vitamin D in a dose close to
800 IU per day, best as vitamin D3, and with good adherence," Dr.
Heike A. Bischoff-Ferrari of the University of Zurich, one of the
researchers on the study, told Reuters Health. And it wouldn't be a bad
idea for younger adults to follow this recommendation too, she added.
"I think if you are young and want to do something early for your
bone health that's something to think about."
Recent studies had called into question the benefit of vitamin D for bone
health, Bischoff-Ferrari and her team note in the Archives of Internal
Medicine, but some of these investigations had not accounted for adherence
to supplement use. In one of the studies, the researcher pointed out in an
interview, less than half of the people randomized to take vitamin D were
actually doing so 2 years later. (Reuters Health)
Vitamin
D insufficiency on the rise in US - NEW YORK - More than three out of
four Americans aren't getting enough vitamin D, a new study in the
Archives of Internal Medicine shows, which could be boosting their risk of
cancer, cardiovascular disease, and early death.
While evidence for the importance of vitamin D for many aspects of health
has been piling up over the past few years, vitamin D insufficiency has
actually become more common, Dr. Adit A. Ginde of the University of
Colorado Denver School of Medicine in Aurora and his colleagues found.
(Reuters Health)
Oh my... Study
Finds Eating Red Meat Contributes to Risk of Early Death - Eating red
meat increases the chances of dying prematurely, according to a large
federal study that offers powerful new evidence that a diet that regularly
includes steaks, burgers and pork chops is hazardous to your health.
The study of more than 500,000 middle-age and elderly Americans found that
those who consumed the equivalent of about a small hamburger every day
were more than 30 percent more likely to die during the 10 years they were
followed, mostly from heart disease and cancer. Sausage, cold cuts and
other processed meats also increased the risk.
Previous research had found a link between red meat and an increased risk
of heart disease and cancer, particularly colorectal cancer, but the new
study is the first large examination of the relationship between eating
meat and overall mortality. (Rob Stein, Washington Post)
... leaving aside the quaintness of assessing elderly Americans for
their risk of 'early death'[!] we... Nah, I can't... What constitutes
'early death' in an elderly person? How is that quantified? Never
mind...
They claim to have found 10-year mortality RR1.3 (so what?)
associated with a diet containing red meat but what does that tell us?
Actually nothing -- it could be that people needing more iron in their
diet and thus exhibiting a preference for red meat don't live quite as
long as people who don't. Would I trade steaks for a trivially reduced
mortality risk in my twilight years? No chance!
European Lab Accidents Raise
Biosecurity Concerns - GENEVA/CHICAGO - Lab accidents involving bird
flu and Ebola viruses have increased biosecurity fears in Europe, where
public health experts say research on dangerous pathogens needs to be more
strictly monitored.
A scientist in Germany last week pricked herself with a needle that was
believed to be contaminated with a strain of the Ebola haemorrhagic virus
with a mortality rate of around 90 percent. She is still under observation
in hospital.
That accident added to public health concerns following the recent
disclosure that deadly H5N1 bird flu virus samples were mixed with
seasonal flu samples at a Baxter International contracted laboratory in
Austria.
Health authorities and industry groups reviewing European lab safety
standards concluded in a new report that scientists and managers needed to
be better trained in ways to prevent, handle and report such incidents.
(Reuters)
Lethal air
pollution booms in emerging nations - International experts are
warning that potentially lethal air pollution has boomed in fast-growing
big cities in Asia and South America in recent decades.
While Europe has managed to drastically cut some, but not all, of the most
noxious pollutants over the past 20 years, emerging nations experienced
the opposite trend with their fast economic growth, scientists at the UN's
meteorological agency said.
Their comments came ahead of World Meteorological Day on Monday, which
this year has the theme "The Air We Breathe". (AFP)
Deadly Nerve Toxin Affecting
Deep Ocean Creatures - CHICAGO - A nerve toxin produced by marine
algae off California appears to affect creatures in the deep ocean, posing
a greater threat that previously thought, US researchers said on Sunday.
Surface blooms of the algae known as Pseudo-nitzschia can generate
dangerously high levels of domoic acid, a neurotoxin blamed for bizarre
bird attacks dramatized in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film "The
Birds."
"It's a natural neurotoxin. It is produced by a diatom, which is a
phytoplankton. As other animals eat this phytoplankton, like sardines or
anchovies, this toxin can be transferred up the food chain," said
Emily Sekula-Wood, a doctoral student at the University of South Carolina
whose study appears in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Domoic acid has been linked to deaths of sea lions, whales and other
marine animals and people who eat large quantities of shellfish. (Reuters)
U.S.
Chamber unveils NIMBY Watch Web site - Last week, the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce unveiled a NIMBY-Watch Web site called Project
No Project .
With case studies from more than 30 states, Project No Project chronicles
how NIMBY (”not in my backyard”) activists “block energy projects by
organizing local opposition, changing zoning laws, opposing permits,
filing lawsuits, and bleeding projects dry of their financing.” Many of
the projects blocked are not coal plants but alternative energy projects
or infrastructure often touted as “green.”
The site invites readers to provide examples from their own locales of
NIMBY efforts to block or stall energy-related projects.
Proponents of “green jobs” should be concerned as much as free-market
and property-rights advocates, because ”stimulus” projects are
vulnerable to the same NIMBY tactics that, for example, have immobilized
the Cape Wind Project in Nantucket, Mass. (Marlo Lewis, Cooler Heads)
Academic
Study Challenges Projections of Green Jobs - New Analysis Calls Into
Question Widespread Claims on Potential Economic, Employment and
Environmental Benefits Promoted by Special Interest Groups, Industry
Associations and International Organizations
CHAMPAIGN, Ill., March 16 -- Academics and researchers from four U.S.
universities (biographies below) today released a joint study, Seven Myths
About Green Jobs, that analyzes the assumptions, findings and
methodologies of green jobs projections and benefits put forth in reports
issued by several special interest groups, industry associations and
international organizations which have subsequently been widely referenced
by government officials, policymakers and the media. (PRNewswire)
It won't all be wasted then: Stimulus
Ideals Conflict on the Texas Prairie - WALLER, Tex. — Over the years
the Katy Prairie has survived the cattle ranchers who tamed its fields,
the rice farmers who cleared its wildflowers and tall grasses, and even
the encroachment of Houston, some 30 miles to the east, whose spiraling
outward growth turned most of the formerly lonesome prairie into
subdivisions and strip malls.
Now the prairie is facing a new threat: the federal stimulus law.
Texas plans to spend $181 million of its federal stimulus money on
building a 15-mile, four-lane toll road — from Interstate 10 to Highway
290 and right through the prairie — that will eventually form part of an
outer beltway around greater Houston called the Grand Parkway.
The road exemplifies an unintended effect of the stimulus law: an
administration that opposes suburban sprawl is giving money to states for
projects that are almost certain to exacerbate it. (New York Times)
Trade
Barriers Rise as Slump Tightens Grip - WASHINGTON — After repeated
pledges by world leaders to avoid erecting trade barriers, protectionism
is on the march, provoking nasty trade disputes and undermining efforts to
plot a coordinated response to the deepest global economic downturn since
World War II.
From a looming battle with China over tariffs on carbon-intensive goods to
a spat over Mexican trucks using American roads, barriers are going up
around the world. As the recession’s grip tightens, these pressures are
likely to intensify, several experts said. (New York Times)
As Climate Changes, Is Water
The New Oil? - WASHINGTON - If water is the new oil, is blue the new
green?
Translation: if water is now the kind of precious commodity that oil
became in the 20th century, should delivery of clean water be the same
sort of powerful political force as the environmental movement in an age
of climate change?
And, in another sense of green, is there money to be made in a time of
water scarcity?
The answer to both questions, according to environmental activists
watching a global forum on water, is yes. (Reuters)
Sin
aqua non - Dams are making a comeback
IT WAS political theatre as usual. Two demonstrators from a
non-governmental organisation (NGO) called International Rivers disrupted
the opening ceremony of the fifth World Water Forum, a week-long gathering
in Istanbul of the great and good who work on matters watery which
concludes on Sunday March 22nd. The demonstrators unfurled a banner saying
“No Risky Dams” in metre-high letters. They were detained and thrown
out of the country.
It might have happened at any international gathering any time in the past
ten years. Yet this time, the demonstration was misleading. Behind the
scenes at the forum opposition was ebbing: dams are making a come back.
“We need the water-storage capacity,” says Olcay Ünver, the co-ordinator
of this year’s “Water Development Report”, a flagship publication of
the conference. “We need more dams.”
Dam has been a dirty word for years. In 1994, 2,000 NGOs signed the
Manibeli declaration calling for a moratorium on dam-building by the World
Bank, then the largest financier of barrages. By the time of the Kyoto
Protocol on climate change in 1997, the damning of dams was almost
complete. The bank and big donors such as Britain’s Department for
International Development scaled back support for dams; in that year, the
World Commission on Dams was set up which attempted to impose severe
constraints on dam-builders. The International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD)
says the number of dams completed annually fell by more than half between
1980 and 2000, to just over 200. (The Economist)
INTERVIEW - Germany Considers
Local Bans On GMO Crops - Minister - BERLIN - Germany is considering
permitting regional bans on cultivation of crops with genetically modified
organisms (GMOs), Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said on Friday.
GMO crops approved as safe by the European Union can be cultivated
anywhere in the bloc.
But Aigner signalled that Germany might join several other EU member
states which have imposed controversial GMO cultivation bans in the face
of EU approvals.
"In the long term I do not believe that a national ban on cultivation
is the correct route," she told Reuters. "Opinions in the
federal republic (of Germany) differ greatly about this."
"I believe it would be more sensible to transfer the decision about
the cultivation of genetically modified organisms to the regions."
(Reuters)
March 23, 2009
Sad day for science, America and the world: Senate
confirms two climate experts - WASHINGTON - The Senate confirmed on
Thursday two leading experts on climate change to represent top scientific
positions in the government.
John Holdren became the president's science adviser as director of the
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Jane Lubchenco
will lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Both have advocated sharp government action on climate change policy and
are former presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, the nation's largest science organization. (Associated Press)
Welcome
to Green Hell, Where You’re All a Bunch of Slaves - If you thought
the global warming climate clowns were bad before Obama ascended to the
throne, you ain’t seen nothing yet with our new chartreuse Commander in
Chief. Of course Barack, personally or professionally, won’t go green
because it’s too “inconvenient” and way too expensive for his gig,
but for us serfs schlepping in Obamaland we will have to worship the turf
because, you see, we’re murdering the earth. Quit laughing. This is
serious. I said quit laughing. The earth is dying, and it ain’t funny.
(Doug Giles, Townhall)
VIDEO:
Inhofe Explains Cap and Trade on Fox News - The day after delivering
a floor speech on the economic dangers of the Administration's cap and
trade program, Senator Inhofe appeared on Fox News to reveal the projected
costs. (EPW)
ABC's
Stephanopoulos Declares Cap and Trade Dead for 2009 - If you needed
some good news to brighten your Saturday evening, this could be it: ABC's
George Stephanopoulos believes Democrats have abandoned their goal of
enacting a carbon cap and trade program this year.
For those unfamiliar, this is a scheme backed by global warming alarmists
such as Nobel Laureate Al Gore designed to place prohibitive taxes on
emitters of that dastardly carbon dioxide.
Most rational economists not under Gore's influence believe such a plan
would have a devastating effect on our economy, and would likely force
companies to continue exporting manufacturing jobs to countries like China
and India which don't have such business unfriendly practices.
Fortunately, according to Stephanopoulos, this idea has been scrapped for
the time being. (NewsBusters)
Carbon-Market
Backers Split Over Obama Climate Plan - March 19 -- Barack Obama’s
proposal to charge billions of dollars for pollution permits has divided
businesses, environmentalists and Democrats all needed to help pass a U.S.
law to limit climate damage from greenhouse gases.
The president, top members of his party, some Republicans, and
corporations such as General Electric Co. and Duke Energy Corp. all
support fighting global warming through setting up a European-style market
for trading permits to release carbon dioxide. They disagree on whether
companies should have to buy the government-issued allowances or, at least
at first, get them for free in the proposed cap-and-trade system.
(Bloomberg)
Senators
may block Obama on emissions - WASHINGTON -- Michigan's senators,
reliable allies of President Barack Obama, are emerging as potential
obstacles to one of his top budget priorities.
Both have raised major questions about a cap-and-trade system to limit
carbon emissions. Last week, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, joined a handful
of more moderate Senate Democrats in opposing a procedural move that could
make it easier for such a system to become law.
And Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Lansing criticized the administration for
tying new money for energy research -- some of which could help the auto
industry -- to passage of a cap-and-trade plan.
The issue once again puts Michigan lawmakers who are generally friendly
toward the party's priorities closer to the party's moderates, and even
Republicans, on a debate affecting Michigan and the auto industry.
(Detroit News)
The
Challenge Ahead: More than a Third of Senate Now "Swing" Vote on
Climate - A high hurdle: of the 36 Senators identified as swing votes,
all but seven must be convinced to vote "Yes" in order to secure
passage of any climate policy in the U.S. Senate. (Breakthrough Institute)
Think we should encourage Senators to hold the line? Have your say
and register your vote here.
Regarding
the Economics of Environmentalism, A Response to CAP’s Brad Johnson -
Over at the Center for American Progress, Brad Johnson, my sometimes
interlocutor, takes issue with a recent Gallup poll for giving a “false
choice between environmental protection and economic growth.” The
subject of Johnson’s analysis is a report on the Gallup website that
says,
“For the first time in Gallup’s 25-year history of asking Americans
about the trade-off between environmental protection and economic growth,
a majority of Americans say economic growth should be given the
priority”
Mr. Johnson asserts that the Gallup’s poll is flawed because the
question is inaccurate. According to Mr. Johnson, there is no trade-off
between economic growth and environmental protection. We can have our cake
and eat it, too, implies Mr. Johnson, and he cites two studies to prove
his point.
His evidence, however, is far from convincing. (William Yeatman, Cooler
Heads)
Oh dear... Cash
shortage hinders climate battle - At the end of their two-day summit
in Brussels last week, European leaders pledged to pay a “fair share”
to developing nations to help them fight global warming and adapt to its
consequences. Yet they failed to deliver the one thing that
environmentalists most desired: money.
The omission of a specific contribution, as well as unresolved questions
about how the EU would pay for it, has become the latest stumbling block
along the path to a global climate deal that world leaders will try to
negotiate at Copenhagen in December. “The risk is that with the delay,
the negotiations will not make significant progress. The developing
nations are only willing to take further steps when there is money on the
table,” said Joris den Blanken, a policy analyst at Greenpeace.
The money issue, Mr den Blanken said, had overshadowed other elements of
the meeting’s final communiqué that environmentalists should applaud
– including a commitment to create a global carbon trading market.
(Financial Times)
... FT doesn't get it at all. It is true there are a few
loopies who genuinely believe carbon constitutes a threat to
carbon-based life forms (don't ask) but the bottom line for most of
those involved in the great carbon scam is exactly that -- the bottom
line, or how much they can get out of it.
Something else he misunderstands: Prince
Charles says climate change is a bigger issue than the global financial
crisis - PRINCE Charles said he finds it "depressing" that
his frequent warnings over climate change have not been heeded.
The Prince of Wales added, though, that he was "delighted'' that it
seemed people had begun to realise that he had in fact been ringing the
alarm over a serious issue and not "complete nonsense''. (Agence
France-Presse)
AGW
Ignorance Depresses Prince Charles - Last week Prince Charles said
that our current financial crisis was “nothing ” compared to the
horrors of global warming. This week he says it is “depressing” that
his ravings about climate change have not been heeded.
Prince Charles is flying around South America in a private jet and giving
speeches about being depressed about global warming. Yes he is. Really. (Larrey
Anderson, American Thinker)
The
Malthusian question - Spring, the season of fertility, began
yesterday, yet it is warnings of scarcity that are notably abundant. John
Beddington, the government's chief scientific adviser, warned this week of
a "perfect storm", with food, water and energy all dangerously
depleted by 2030, thanks to population growth and rising prosperity. Next
week the Optimum Population Trust will hold a conference at the Royal
Statistical Society, arguing that the planet has room for 5 billion people
at the most, and that the United Kingdom should be home to no more than
about 18 million.
Such figures are unhelpful: they describe an alternative planet with an
entirely notional history. Thomas Malthus, who warned that population
growth would outstrip food supply, has been dismissed because food
production has more or less kept up with population growth. That is one
reason why we are all here, and why some are clinically obese.
But the Malthusian question has stimulated argument about the Earth's
carrying capacity, which depends as much on human optimism as on
ingenuity. "If the world's population had the productivity of the
Swiss, the consumption habits of the Chinese, the egalitarian instincts of
the Swedes, and the social discipline of the Japanese, then the planet
could support many times its current population without privation for
anyone," wrote Lester C Thurow in the very different world of 1986.
(The Guardian)
Global
Warming Alarmists Propose Limiting Population ... to the Point of
Extinction - In a statistical study entitled “Reproduction and the
Carbon Legacies of Individuals,” published in Global Environmental
Change by Murtaugh and Shlax of Oregon State University, and again
published here , the authors propose that the potential savings from
reduced reproduction rates among humans are some 20 times more effective
than the savings wrought by life style changes. (Gregory Young, American
Thinker)
Britain
set to become most populous country in EU - Soaring population will
force millions to flee water shortages in search of refuge - and,
according to new figures, Britain will be one of the world's 'lifeboats'.
On the eve of a major population conference, Science Editor Robin McKie
asks: could the UK cope?
Britain will become one of the world's major destinations for immigrants
as the world heats up and populations continue to soar. Statistics from
the United Nations show that, on average, every year more than 174,000
people will be added to the numbers in the UK and that this trend will
continue for the next four decades.
By then, only the United States and Canada will be receiving more overseas
settlers, says the UN. This increase in British numbers is likely to put
considerable strain on the country's transport, energy and housing,
experts warned last week. (Robin McKie, The Observer)
Earth
Hour sponsors admit they’re hypocrites - Earth Hour next Saturday
will see hypocrites turn off their lights for just an hour to show they
care about global warming - which actually halted a decade ago, and which
we can’t stop even if it really was bad.
The Sunday Age won’t admit these last two facts in its
coverage, but is this year is not so deep
in cahoots with green propagandists that it can’t admit to that
hypocrisy:
Aware of the criticism, Earth Hour’s organisers last year
countered it with something concrete: businesses that signed up would
need to pledge to reduce their emissions over the following year by 5
per cent. But this year, even that requirement has been dropped, and
there has been no accounting of whether last year’s sponsors lived up
to their pledge.
“We decided we’d actually downplay (concrete cuts) this time,”
says Greg Bourne, chief executive of Earth Hour’s organiser, WWF
Australia.
An analysis of the key sponsors of Earth Hour (among them Fairfax
Media, owner of The Sunday Age) reveals that most
have reported increased emissions in their most recent figures.
UPDATE
What a farce. Of all the companies to
sponsor a switch-off-the-lights campaign. What next: butchers for
vegetariansim? (Andrew Bolt blog)
The
incredible shrinking polar bear - Animals lose weight and size as
melting ice limits hunting - Polar bears are shrinking, along with the ice
on which they live – and are turning to cannibalism – as global
warming increasingly stops them getting enough to eat.
Scientists say the animals are now only two-thirds as big as they were 30
years ago as melting ice makes it harder for them to catch seals, and that
they have begun to hunt each other instead.
The news comes as Arctic nations agreed at a special summit in Norway last
week to draw up an action plan to try to save the highly endangered
species. (Geoffrey Lean, The Independent)
Don’t reporters check anything anymore? - How hard would it have
been for the reporter to plug in a simple search (like "’polar
bear’ +cannibalism", maybe?) and then up would pop items like:
Factors affecting the survival of polar bear cubs (Ursus maritimus)
are poorly understood (Derocher and Stirling, 1996). Low food
availability and accidents on the sea ice may be the main sources of cub
mortality (Uspenski and Kistchinski, 1972; Larsen, 1986; Derocher and
Stirling, 1996). Intraspecific predation, infanticide, and cannibalism
have been reported in polar bears (Belikov et al., 1977; Hansson and
Thomassen, 1983; Larsen, 1985; Lunn and Stenhouse, 1985; Taylor et al.,
1985). However, some of the instances have followed human activities
such as harvest or immobilization (Taylor et al., 1985). Regardless,
intraspecific predation has been suggested as a regulating feature of
ursid populations (e.g., McCullough, 1981; Young and Ruff, 1982; Larsen
and Kjos-Hanssen, 1983; Stringham, 1983; Taylor et al., 1985). (Infanticide
and Cannibalism of Juvenile Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) in Svalbard,
ARCTIC, VOL. 52, NO. 3 (SEPTEMBER 1999) P. 307–310)
Wouldn’t they then have wondered about the list of references
1977-1985 specifically on intraspecific predation (in case reporters
don’t know, intraspecific means existing or occurring within
a species — in this case bears eating each other or practicing cannibalism),
infanticide, and cannibalism (a term some references used rather than
the cumbersome intraspecific predation)?
So which is it? Were ice conditions similar 20-30 years ago or do
bears simply act this way normally? Either way there doesn’t seem to
be anything new here, does there? In fact there has been a veritable
explosion in the number of polar bears over the period, perhaps this is
a food availability/population pressure thing. Sheesh! What a lot of
nonsense about bears you see printed lately: Beaufort
Sea polar bears starving to death, scientist finds - Desperate
animals resorting to cannibalism, wandering south to find food (CBC
News) Perhaps they are, maybe the population has simply maxed out for
the available habitat and food resource. Perhaps mechanical transport
and more efficient hunting methods are selectively culling the biggest
bears and leading to reduced average mass as happens in other wild
species harvested by people.
Whatever the case, people's fixation with climate is hardly likely to
help the bears any.
Nations
declare climate change the biggest threat to polar bears - NEW YORK:
Five countries that created a treaty nearly four decades ago to protect
polar bears through controlled hunting issued a statement that called
climate change "the most important long-term threat" to the
bears.
The statement came in Tromso, Norway, on Thursday at the end of a
three-day meeting of scientists and officials from Canada, Denmark,
Norway, Russia and the United States, all with territory abutting the
Arctic Ocean that serves as habitat for the bears. (Denmark was
represented through Greenland, which is moving toward becoming an
independent country.)
Polar bear experts at the meeting said the treaty parties were committed
to collaborating on programs aimed at limiting direct threats to bear
populations from tourism, shipping and oil and gas drilling in the warming
region.
But they said the countries bound by the 1973 bear agreement would be
unable, without worldwide cooperation, to address the looming risk to the
species: the prospect that global warming from accumulating emissions of
greenhouse gases would continue to erode the sheath of Arctic sea ice that
the half-ton bears roam in pursuit of seals. (Andrew C. Revkin, IHT)
Oh... Warming
to force retreat from coast - THE top government scientist leading
Australia's efforts to adapt to climate change has warned that some
coastal communities will have to be abandoned in a "planned
retreat" because of global warming.
Dr Andrew Ash, who directs the CSIRO's Climate Adaptation Flagship
program, said while some vulnerable coastal communities could be protected
by sea walls and levees, "there are going to be areas where that is
not physically possible, or it's not cost effective to introduce any
engineering solution and planned retreat becomes the only option".
Warning that climate change was accelerating at a much faster rate than
predicted, Dr Ash said state and local governments urgently need to
identify coastal land unsuitable for new residential development, because
rising sea levels together with bigger, more frequent storms would flood
them with sea water. (The Age)
State
emission cuts 'futile' and would aid polluters - VICTORIA'S climate
policies will make no difference to achieving Australia's greenhouse
emissions targets and will simply subsidise big industrial polluters,
according to a State Government assessment.
A high-level ministerial brief, obtained by The Age, advises the Brumby
Government to rethink policies and programs, including subsidies for solar
farms and panels and a shift to a hybrid car fleet, arguing that they will
not contribute to any additional greenhouse gas cuts under Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd's proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).
The leaked brief reignites debate over the environmental benefits of
billions of dollars in green outlays by households and government, from an
individual choosing to spend more for an energy-efficient refrigerator,
through to Mr Rudd's $3.9 billion for insulating homes as part of his
economic stimulus package.
It adds weight to warnings by some economists and environmentalists that
voluntary green actions outside the limited industrial scope of the CPRS
will simply ease the pressure on big polluters to cut emissions, and save
them money. (The Age)
Despite
popular opinion and calls to action, the Maldives are not being overrun by
sea level rise - When somebody mentions “Maldives”, the image
above of a tropical paradise often springs to mind. Andy Revkin wrote a
story recently about the Maldives on his NYT Dot Earth blog that provoked
quite an email exchange that I was privy to today. Here are some
highlights. First the article: (Watts Up With That?)
Recent
Ocean Heat and MLO CO2 Trends - One of the great things about running
this blog is that people send me things to look at. Sometimes I see
connections between two things that were initially unrelated by the
original messages. This is one of those cases. (Watts Up With That?)
The
Sun: double blankety blank quiet - Usually, and that means in the past
year, when you look at the false color MDI image from SOHO, you can look
at the corresponding magnetogram and see some sort of disturbance going
on, even it it is not visible as a sunspot, sunspeck, or plage area.
(Watts Up With That?)
How
not to measure temperature, part 84: “Pristine” Mohonk Lake USHCN
station revisited - As WUWT readers may recall back in September of
2008, the New York Times ran an extensive first hand account of the Mohonk
Lake, NY USHCN climate station of record. The Mohonk article was covered
by WUWT guest contributors Dee Norris here and John Goetz here. Goetz
shows that even the “pristine” station data gets adjusted by NASA GISS
in their GISTEMP program. (Watts Up With That?)
Natural
Drivers of Weather and Climate - Note: The full PDF of this author
manuscript was sent to me via an email contact of the author, Bob Foster.
He says it has been published in E&E. Energy & Environment · Vol.
20, No. 1&2, 2009. Online now here and now in print.- Anthony (Watts
Up With That?)
The
'Global Warming Three' are on thin ice - The only problem with a
project to prove that Arctic ice is disappearing is the fact that it is
actually getting thicker, says Christopher Booker. (Daily Telegraph)
Eye-roller: It's
time to clear the air - To cut carbon emissions, we must switch to
renewable energy sources – and get polluting industries to foot the bill
George Monbiot is correct in asserting that "If we behave as though
it is too late, then our prophecy is bound to come true." But it's
not, so let's not. (Tina Davy, The Guardian)
Emissions
trading at centre of high-stakes game - "NO JOBS on a dead
planet." Those words used to adorn a smokestack on the Lonsdale
Street power station. They appeared in 2003, spray-painted on by
environmental activists. The best place to have seen them from was from a
train heading into Southern Cross Station from Melbourne's north or west.
The power plant is no more. It lay dormant and asbestos-ridden for 25
years, and has been slowly demolished from 2007 for redevelopment.
Those words weren't lost, reappearing last week, but not on a piece of
archaic industrial architecture; instead they were spoken by ACTU
president Sharan Burrow.
Burrow, many of whose union constituents work in the areas in the front
line of affected industries, are the very people who opponents of
emissions trading say could lose their jobs unless more compensation is
paid to their industries. Industries such as coal. (The Age)
C'mon, is the
planet really warming? - An invitation to global warming alarmists:
"Please offer objective scientific proof of man's influence on global
warming."
Never mind. There is none because true scientific debate has never
occurred among experts; Al Gore wisely refuses to publically debate his
biased creed.
Activists ignore declining solar irradiance, volcanic eruptions and other
major factors that have bearing on climate change.
Unless we wake up to the fact that the global warming train is fueled
mostly by calamitous opinions based on selective, self-supportive data,
the world's economy will be fractured by the huge regulatory costs
inflicted by draconian ecologists. (Alan E. Deegan, Denver Post)
Global
Warming – the Short Version of Why the Anthropogenic CO2 Theory is
Wrong (Alan Cheetham, Global Warming Science)
Receding
Glacier Park Ice Not Due to Global Warming - I recently received a
letter from reader Jane Rectenwald in Missoula, Montana asking a good
question: What do the melting glaciers in Glacier Park indicate about
global warming?
Rectenwald had heard me speaking on a local radio station after she read
quite a long article in a recent issue of the Missoulian showing pictures
of the glaciers.
I’m glad she asked the question. Receding glaciers in Glacier National
Park are not necessarily evidence of a global warming crisis—or of
anything other than natural fluctuations. Glaciers advance and recede for
many reasons, of which temperature change is just one. (James M. Taylor,
Environment & Climate News)
Cameron
fury at 'climate change Taliban' jibe - David Cameron yesterday
slapped down a senior Tory who compared climate change activists to the
Taliban, as he continued his attempt to green his party, despite the
recession and opposition from sceptics.
Sources close to the Conservative leader described as
"inappropriate" a website entry by Roger Evans, a London
Assembly member, describing anti-airport campaigners as "the climate
change Taliban". (The Independent)
Survey:
NZ cooler on global warming - Most New Zealanders believe the time has
passed for arguing about whether people are to blame for climate change -
but our enthusiasm for leading the world in the fight against it has
waned.
A ShapeNZ survey issued today by the Sustainable Business Council shows
the number of New Zealanders who want to outpace the rest of the world has
fallen by a third since 2007.
The online survey of 2851 people found 87 per cent thought New Zealand
should take steps to manage climate change "very soon" or
"in coming years".
Asked how quickly New Zealand should respond compared to other countries,
42 per cent of those surveyed wanted to lead global efforts, down from 63
per cent in June 2007. The number who wanted to move at the same pace as
other countries was up from 27 per cent in 2007 to 39 per cent. (New
Zealand Herald)
Guilt-trippin' hand-wringer: Cat
Got Your Fish? - MY cat Coco died recently. Actually we euthanized him
to alleviate his suffering from cancer. And while this was a sad moment,
it was made less sad because Coco’s death also alleviated ever so
slightly the suffering of the sea.
Coco, like most American cats, ate fish. And a great deal of them — more
in a year than the average African human, according to Jason Clay at the
World Wildlife Fund. And unlike the chicken or beef Coco also gobbled up,
all those fish were wild animals, scooped out of the sea and flown
thousands of carbon-belching miles to reach his little blue bowl.
The use of wild fish in animal feed is a serious problem for the world’s
food systems. Around a third of all wild fish caught are “reduced”
into fish meal and fish oil. And yet most of the outrage about this is
focused not on land-based animals like Coco but on other fish — namely
farm-raised fish.
This is understandable. Ever since the Stanford economist Rosamond Naylor
concluded in a 2000 paper in the journal Nature that it took three pounds
of wild fish to provide enough food to grow one pound of farmed salmon,
environmentalists have been apoplectic. They argue that the removal of
wild “forage” fish threatens to starve whales, seals and other
predators; that anchovies, mackerel and other “pelagic forage fish”
should be used to feed humans; and that feed made from wild fish can give
farm-raised fish higher levels of contaminants. As a result of all these
issues, ocean preservationists have focused their ire on salmon farming.
But in doing so they diverted attention from another problem of equal
importance: the role played by those land-based creatures that also put
their muzzles in the fish meal trough. (Paul Greenberg, New York Times)
Is
a Food Revolution Now in Season? - AS tens of thousands of people
recently strolled among booths of the nation’s largest organic and
natural foods show here, munching on fair-trade chocolate and sipping
organic wine, a few dozen pioneers of the industry sneaked off to an
out-of-the-way conference room.
Although unit sales of organic food have leveled off and even declined
lately, versus a year earlier, the mood among those crowded into the
conference room was upbeat as they awaited a private screening of a
documentary called “Food Inc.” — a withering critique of
agribusiness and industrially produced food.
They also gathered to relish their changing political fortunes, courtesy
of the Obama administration.
“This has never been just about business,” said Gary Hirshberg, chief
executive of Stonyfield Farm, the maker of organic yogurt. “We are here
to change the world. We dreamt for decades of having this moment.”
(Andrew Martin, New York Times)
The next contrived crisis: World
Water Forum pledges action - A SEVEN-day focus on the world's water
crunch has ended with a pledge by more than 100 countries to strive for
clean water and sanitation for billions in need.
But some countries criticised the cornerstone outcome of the fifth World
Water Forum as flawed while activists dismissed the event itself as a
"trade show".
The declaration, coinciding with World Water Day, was issued yesterday at
the end of a three-day ministerial meeting, climaxing the biggest-ever
conference on the planet's freshwater crisis.
"The world is facing rapid and unprecedented global changes,
including population growth, migration, urbanisation, climate change,
desertification, drought, degradation and land use, economic and diet
changes," the statement said. (Weekly Times)
Natural
Gas, Suddenly Abundant, Is Cheaper - HOUSTON — The decline in crude
oil prices gets all the headlines, but the first globalized natural gas
glut in history is driving an even more drastic collapse in the cost of
gas that cooks food, heats homes and runs factories in the United States
and many other countries.
Six giant plants capable of cooling and liquefying gas for export are due
to come on line this year just as the economies of the Asian and European
countries that import the most gas to run their industries are slowing.
Energy experts and company executives say that means loads of gas from
Qatar, Egypt, Nigeria and Algeria that otherwise would be going to Japan,
Korea, Taiwan and Spain are beginning to arrive in supertankers in the
United States, even though there is a gas glut here, too.
With industrial and utility use of natural gas declining, gas prices in
the United States have already declined by two-thirds since the summer.
Prices are not likely to go down much more, experts say, but an increase
in imports is likely to keep them low until the global economy recovers
and drives demand back up.
That is good news for American consumers and many businesses, since gas
provides about a fifth of the power generated by electric utilities and is
a vital component for fertilizers, plastics and other industrial products.
But it is bad news for proponents of energy independence, who cheered the
boom in domestic gas drilling and production over the last four years.
(New York Times)
WE Energy's CEO:
Carbon capture technology a decade away - Wisconsin Energy Corp. CEO
Gale Klappa told CNBC’s Jim Cramer this afternoon that he believes it
will be another 10 to 12 years before technology to capture carbon from
old coal-fired power plants will be available on a widespread scale.
Cramer invited Klappa on his "Mad Money" show after a Wall
Street Journal column this morning that described the company’s
carbon-capture experiment at the state’s largest coal plant in Pleasant
Prairie.
That catch-and-release plan, launched in February 2008, is testing the use
of chilled ammonia to remove carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas,
from the power plant smokestack.
Weighing in on the cap-and-trade proposal that is being sought by the
Obama administration, Klappa said the industry would need more time to
convert to low-carbon energy sources such as nuclear and coal-fired power
plants that incorporate burying carbon dioxide released by the plants
underground. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
The
Aga saga: George Monbiot v William McGrath - When Guardian commentator
George Monbiot took Aga to task over its environmental impact, its chief
executive William McGrath accused him of a 'class war attack'. Now, as
sales of the cookers continue to fall, the two men meet. Can they settle
their differences? (The Guardian)
Audio: George
Monbiot v Aga: 'It's still a woefully inefficient use of fuel' -
George Monbiot debates the green credentials of Aga cookers with William
McGrath, the chief executive of Aga Rangemaster
Correction: In this interview, William McGrath says 15 tonnes of
CO2 are produced in the manufacture of an Aga. He has since corrected this
figure, saying the amount of carbon produced in making an Aga is in fact
1.5 tonnes. "Still staggering," said George Monbiot.
"That's the amount used in the manufacture of two cars." (The
Guardian)
The
Aga subtext: They say homeliness and tradition. But there's more to it
than that - I think we're all clear that the struggle between the
Aga-owners and the anti-Aga-owners is about more than carbon dioxide: if
we were all robots, the Monbiotbot might say, "These are uneconomical
with resources," and the Agabot would reply, "You are right,
stand aside while I smelt it down and dispense with it." Sadly, we
pulse with these unbidden emotions: loyalty, tribalism, idealism,
nostalgia. We cannot look at these things rationally; we're not machines.
So we know what the anti-Agas are about: objecting to more than
profligacy, they revile the high-handed, self-interested, sheer poshness
of the Aga purchase. Nicely represented in the Telegraph by Gill Hornby,
the pro-line goes "Of course, it's not just an oven - it heats the
water, warms the house, dries the dog, keeps you cheerful." It's a
post-carbon-age version of "Let them eat cake" - a kind of
"Tra la la! Isn't life nice when you have all the money in the world
as well as some scones; what do you mean, we're staring into the mouth of
the apocalypse? Whenever I think about armageddon, I give the dog a good
pat and find that shifts it." (Zoe Williams, The Guardian)
FACT
CHECK: Obama’s gas-mileage claim sputters - What’s more
fuel-efficient, a Ford Model T or a modern-day sport utility vehicle?
President Barack Obama says the Model T, but his comparison is a stretch.
Obama, touring a California electric car plant on Thursday, said, “The
1908 Model T — think about this — the 1908 Model T earned better gas
mileage than the typical SUV in 2008.”
“Think about that: 100 years later, and we’re getting worse gas
mileage, not better, on SUVs,” Obama said.
Ford’s own Web site says the Model T’s mileage ranged from 13 to 21
miles per gallon. Some Tin Lizzie enthusiasts who still drive the vehicles
report numbers closer to the bottom end of that range. A typical SUV sold
in 2008 gets 18.7 miles per gallon.
But even comparing vehicles that are so different is misleading, say auto
industry officials and fans of Henry Ford’s pioneering car. (Associated
Press)
Sen.
Feinstein seeks monument status to keep solar, wind projects off 500,000
Mojave acres - WASHINGTON - California's Mojave Desert may seem
ideally suited for solar energy production, but concern over what several
proposed projects might do to the aesthetics of the region and its
tortoise population is setting up a potential clash between
conservationists and companies seeking to develop renewable energy.
Nineteen companies have submitted applications to build solar or wind
facilities on a parcel of 500,000 desert acres, but Sen. Dianne Feinstein
said Friday such development would violate the spirit of what
conservationists had intended when they donated much of the land to the
public.
Feinstein said Friday she intends to push legislation that would turn the
land into a national monument, which would allow for existing uses to
continue while preventing future development. (Associated Press)
Warning
over renewables as economic crisis leaves funding gap - Scant aid, too
much hype and unrealistic targets threaten climate-change pledges
Green power companies are heading for "crisis" and Britain
should no longer rely on them to meet its energy security and climate
change obligations, some industry experts are warning.
The difficulties - triggered by the credit crunch, recession and a
collapse in the carbon price - have led to new demands this weekend to
ministers from companies warning that their renewables schemes are at risk
without more financial aid.
Over the past week alone, the previously fast-growing renewable energy
sector has seen Shell decide to stop building wind and solar schemes
worldwide, the wave company Pelamis hit by technical and financial
troubles, and EDF Energy warn that UK renewables targets would not be
realised and should be scaled back to achievable levels.
In addition, a group of more than 40 businesses has taken the unique step
of writing collectively to Joan Ruddock, the energy and climate change
minister, warning her of the threats to a host of projects unless
something is done. (The Guardian)
Projected
to fail: the schemes that fell short of the dreams - The renewable
power sector has seen share prices hit much harder than others because it
is still seen as relatively risky and speculative. Wind and solar projects
still rely on government subsidies to keep afloat but the credit crunch
and recession have made a difficult situation much worse. Some companies
are in trouble, while others are postponing projects, saying they need
more subsidies or other changes in legislation to make them more viable.
(The Guardian)
June
must mark the start of a new offensive - or the revolution is over -
It was always going to be a big ask for Britain to meet its European
target of generating 15% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. And
despite official optimism, government insiders privately admit that the
task is hopeless.
Britain's initial response to the proposed European targets, after all,
was repeated attempts in Brussels to water them down. Civil servants from
three government departments briefed journalists the day before the plan
was announced with little enthusiasm. The government's own clean-energy
advisers have warned that Britain could spend £100bn over the next decade
and still not hit the target.
Not so, say ministers. Britain will lead a green energy revolution, Gordon
Brown promised last year when he unveiled the government's proposals to
meet the target, which will be confirmed in a new strategy to be announced
in June. (The Guardian)
A
Dangerous European Export - Several European nations are turning away
from vaccination and are now spreading disease.
Steadily weakening vaccination coverage in Britain and four other
countries is undermining efforts to eradicate measles across Europe and
increasing the threat to the United States. An unfounded fear that the
measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is causing autism is making
rising numbers of people sick.
For example, British measles infections are rising rapidly today. In the
United States, in the first seven months of last year, 89 percent of the
131 cases of measles reported “were imported from or associated with
importations from other countries, particularly countries in Europe, where
several outbreaks are ongoing,” according to the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control. “Measles is one of the first diseases to reappear when
vaccination coverage rates fall,” CDC noted.
EUVac, a European network for tracking vaccine-preventable diseases, found
Europeans have also taken measles to South America, which was previously
free of the disease. EUVac blamed Britain, Germany, Romania, Switzerland,
and Italy.
The MMR vaccine has cut death from measles worldwide from roughly 750,000
in 2000 to 197,000 in 2007, according to the World Health Organization.
Two-thirds of the reduction was in Africa, where deaths dropped by 89
percent. In rich countries, measles is often viewed as a
nuisance—indeed, there were only seven deaths in Europe out of 12,132
cases in 2006 and 2007, according to EUVac. However, such a statistic
hides the long-term consequences of the disease and the suffering it
creates. Even if measles does not kill you, it can cause pneumonia and
miscarriage. Rubella can cause miscarriage or stillbirth and can leave
surviving children with heart defects, deaf-blindness, and other organ
damage. Before the introduction of the MMR vaccine in 1969, mumps was the
most common cause of viral meningitis. Mumps can also cause encephalitis
in children and young adults and can sterilize men.
Despite the importance of vaccination to healthy children and adults, the
commitment to vaccination in the West is weakening. Why? A connection
between the MMR vaccine and autism was first claimed in 1998, in a
controversial study led by British scientist Andrew Wakefield. Numerous
flaws—including a small sample (12 children), no control group, and
unresolved reverse causality (the vaccine is given around the same age
that autism is generally diagnosed)—led 10 of the study’s 12 authors
to recant in 2004, saying “no causal link was established between MMR
vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient.” (Roger Bate, The
American)
Discuss this and vote on whether parents should be able to opt out of
vaccinating their children here.
The
magical fruit - Spanish Ministry for Health announced a government
plan to reduce the “epidemic of obesity.” Health Minister, Bernat
Soria, introduced a plan to give free fruit to school children as part of
the European School Fruit Scheme. Italian Minister, Luca Zaia, followed
suit. In fact, this week, the European Commission endorsed the
implementation policies for the European School Fruit Scheme by the Member
States, opening the door for this obesity initiative to be funded across
Europe beginning in September. Member States are signing up.
If the School Fruit Scheme sounds familiar, that’s because Europe and
the United States have already tried these massive and expensive
programs… and they’ve failed. But when it comes to public health
policies: politics and lobbying trump scientific evidence every time.
(Junkfood Science)
Little
change in survival rates despite cancer spending plan - Cash injection
has failed to have impact, study shows
The government's national cancer plan, backed by a massive injection of
cash for cancer services in England, has failed to boost survival rates
substantially, a major study shows today.
The findings will dismay government ministers, who have secured a tripling
of spending on cancer over the last decade with the ambition of bringing
the UK from among the worst countries up to the standard of the best in
Europe. But the authoritative study, from a team led by Professor Michel
Coleman at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, shows that
survival rates have barely shifted since the cancer plan was launched in
2000. (The Guardian)
Sugar
Is Back on Food Labels, This Time as a Selling Point - Sugar, the
nutritional pariah that dentists and dietitians have long reviled, is
enjoying a second act, dressed up as a natural, healthful ingredient.
From the tomato sauce on a Pizza Hut pie called “The Natural,” to the
just-released soda Pepsi Natural, some of the biggest players in the
American food business have started, in the last few months, replacing
high-fructose corn syrup with old-fashioned sugar.
ConAgra uses only sugar or honey in its new Healthy Choice All Natural
frozen entrees. Kraft Foods recently removed the corn sweetener from its
salad dressings, and is working on its Lunchables line of portable meals
and snacks.
The turnaround comes after three decades during which high-fructose corn
syrup had been gaining on sugar in the American diet. Consumption of the
two finally drew even in 2003, according to the Department of Agriculture.
Recently, though, the trend has reversed. Per capita, American adults ate
about 44 pounds of sugar in 2007, compared with about 40 pounds of
high-fructose corn syrup.
“Sugar was the old devil, and high-fructose corn syrup is the new
devil,” said Marcia Mogelonsky, a senior analyst at Mintel
International, a market-research company. (New York Times)
$1
trillion deficits seen for next 10 years - WASHINGTON — Despite new
estimates that say President Barack Obama's budget would generate
unsustainable large deficits averaging almost $1 trillion a year, the
White House insisted Friday that the flood of red ink won't swamp its
costly agenda.
The Congressional Budget Office figures released Friday predict Obama's
budget will produce $9.3 trillion worth of red ink over 2010-2019. That's
$2.3 trillion worse than the administration predicted in its budget just
last month.
Worst of all, CBO says the deficit under Obama's policies would never go
below 4 percent of the size of the economy, figures that economists agree
are unsustainable. By the end of the decade, the deficit would exceed 5
percent of gross domestic product, a dangerously high level.
The latest figures throw a major monkey wrench into efforts to enact
Obama's budget, which promises universal health care for all and higher
spending for domestic programs like education and research into renewable
energy.
The dismal deficit figures, if they prove to be accurate, inevitably raise
the prospect that Obama and his allies controlling Congress would have to
consider raising taxes after the recession ends or else pare back his
agenda. (AP)
The
EU Says 'Enough' - The European Union deserves praise for demanding
limits on the vast stimulus packages presented elsewhere as economic
cure-alls. The Obama administration should dial in for a clue.
On Friday, the EU resisted pressure — from the pork-happy U.S. — to
pump more cash into its recession-hit economies. It had already shoveled
out a $270 billion stimulus package of its own, and came up with a $67
billion bailout fund for Eastern Europe. With all that done, the EU wanted
to end it.
"You can't think you can solve everything with taxpayers' money.
Stimulus packages are already in place and taking us through this
challenging time," said Fredrik Reinfeldt, the prime minister of,
brace yourself, Sweden.
"There is no alternative to globalization as a motor for growth and
employment, thus fostering prosperity worldwide," wrote German
Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende in
Der Spiegel on March 19, arguing against spending for its own sake.
They're right, you know. And these comments show there are still certain
things Europe can teach the U.S., though not the things the fashionably
far-left chardonnay crowd in San Francisco thinks. (IBD)
Some
Forgotten Presidents Shouldn't Be - On August 2, 1927, President
Calvin Coolidge had breakfast in the White House residence with his wife,
Grace, and remarked to her “I have been president four years today.”
It was one of those quick, concise, directly-to-the-point sentences she
had been used to hearing since they met in 1905. It was also something the
American people were familiar with, having nicknamed the 30th president
“Silent Cal.” (David R. Stokes, Townhall)
Congress
Betrays Ideals of America's Founding - New York, NY - Legislation to
specifically target AIG employees with a 90 percent tax on retention
bonuses directly conflicts with the founding principles of the United
States, Project 21 Fellow Deneen Borelli charged today on the Fox News
program "Strategy Room."
Saying Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution prohibits the
government from passing laws "impairing the obligation of
contracts," Borelli says the AIG bonus controversy is a creation of
the lawmakers who rushed bailout legislation earlier this year without due
consideration. These are the same lawmakers who now seek to hide their
mistakes by pushing this new and selective tax.
"Politicians need to be reminded that we are a nation of laws. To
impose a hastily-concocted tax as a means of rectifying a problem that the
government itself created and mismanaged calls their ability to lead into
question," says Borelli. "To suddenly enact a new tax to punish
a few dozen people for something that was legal at the time is ludicrous,
and it smacks of the British treatment of the colonists that provoked the
revolt that created the United States. Have we come full circle
already?"
Borelli says the selective and punitive tax proposed for these AIG
executives harkens back to taxes imposed on the American colonies under
British rule during the 1700s. (National Center)
Congress,
Overtax Thyself - There is no group more dangerous than one with some
power, no scruples and leaders who think that they are really smart and
that everyone else is really, really stupid. That description sadly fits
not only the Wall Street swells whose credit default swaps toppled U.S.
financial markets but also Congress. (Debra J. Saunders, Townhall)
BOOKS:
'Cato Handbook for Policymakers: 7th Edition' - In the introduction to
the "Cato Handbook for Policymakers," Cato libertarian executive
vice president David Boaz hails the breakage of another glass ceiling in
the election of President Obama. But neither President Obama nor his
immediate predecessor, President Bush, are spared from censure here for
engaging in entrenched state interventionism in a plethora of formats.
Nor, for that matter, are previous presidents and Congresses lured by
political power.
Mr. Boaz reminds his readers that Cato stands firmly on the principles of
the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, "on the bedrock
American values of individual liberty, limited government, free markets,
and peace." He rejects the idea of "convergence" of some
sort of half-capitalist, half-socialist Third Way model as a wave of the
future. He invites comparison of the two systems involved in East and West
Germany, North and South Korea, Hong Kong-Taiwan and China, and the United
States and the Soviet Union. (William H. Peterson, Washington Times)
Countryside
braced for revolt over new regime - A radical policy shift later this
year will prompt opposition, writes Peter Hetherington
Countryside campaigners are preparing for action. Friends of the Earth (FoE)
and other environmental groups have warned of the potential for civil
disobedience. So far, England is largely unaware of a new planning regime
which kicks in later this year. Arguably, it's the most radical policy
shift since the ground-breaking 1947 Town and Country Planning Act and
associated legislation brought a sense of order to the country, creating
national parks, rights of way, green belts and much else.
But according to FoE, the new regime will force moderate environmental
opinion to choose between legal challenges and direct action. "And
the act will generate both on an unprecedented scale," FoE's planning
adviser, Hugh Ellis, has warned.
The local government minister, John Healey, who steered the 2008 Planning
Act through the Commons, insists the new system will be clearer and less
complex, "more open and, we would argue, fairer because it builds in
a requirement for the promoters of a project to consult widely even before
they submit an application".
More light will be shed on these projects later this year when Whitehall
departments publish major policy statements under the all-embracing
infrastructure label, ranging from new runways to nuclear power stations,
wind farms, major road schemes and much else.
Alongside this process is a parallel, more contentious exercise, involving
the creation of a powerful quango called the Infrastructure Planning
Commission, or IPC. It will begin functioning later this year. (The
Guardian)
Polar
bear hunt sparks outrage - As Arctic nations debate whether to
increase protection for polar bears, a group of hunters has sparked
international outrage by continuing to hunt the animals for sport in
Canada.
A Friday story in the British newspaper the Independent caused a flurry of
angry comments after it quoted a hunter who owns a business in Yellowknife
called Adventure Northwest and is taking customers to hunt polar bears.
Owner Boyd Warner told the newspaper a group of hunters left earlier this
week for Pond Inlet, Nunavut, where they will track and kill up to six
bears.
"Barbaric, despicable, wrong, wrong, wrong," wrote one
respondent to the British article, while another wrote: "As a
Canadian, I am ashamed and appalled that this occurs."
On Friday, Boyd told Canwest News Service he had received threatening
e-mails over the article and wanted Canadians to know he represents Inuit
people who are trying to earn a living with their resource. (Canwest News
Service)
Why should this 'spark outrage'? Greenies are always encouraging
indigenous peoples to engage in sustainable harvest of renewable
resources rather than develop and profit from extractive or
manufacturing industries and these are doing so. That the hunting level
is sustainable is quite apparent from the booming bear numbers, a 5-fold
increase in as many decades. Would the greenies prefer the Inuit ignored
the bears and made a living from oil and mining royalties instead?
Chimps
are like humans? Stop monkeying around - This week it was revealed
that chimps use sticks to smash open beehives. But there’s nothing
remotely ‘human-like’ in such behaviour.
Recent ‘revelations’ about chimp behaviours are forcing us to
reconsider whether human beings are unique. Or so we are told.
This week, BBC News reported on a study published in the International
Journal of Primatology, which uncovered novel tool-using abilities among
wild chimpanzees in central Africa: ‘Cameras have revealed how
“armed” chimpanzees raid beehives to gorge on sweet honey’, the BBC
reported (1). Scientists found that the primates ‘crafted large clubs
from branches to pound the nests until they broke open’ (2).
A few days earlier, the Guardian reported on ‘the loutish behaviour of a
stone-throwing chimpanzee at a zoo near the Arctic circle’, which also
apparently challenges scientists’ belief that humans are unique; you
see, chimps can be yobs, too (3). The discovery that the aggressive chimp
had gathered stones over a period of time, in order to throw them later on
at unsuspecting spectators – implying some kind of forethought and
planning – astounded many scientists. (Helene Guldberg, sp!ked)
Heck, anyone who has kept mammals knows they are capable of learned
behavior -- just because dairy cows line up to be milked doesn't make
them 'human-like'. Who hasn't had a pet dog or cat that learnt to
manipulate its surrounds (doesn't take them long to train humans to open
doors for them, does it)? Just because some vultures have learned to
drop marrow bones onto rocks far below to break them open to access the
nutrition within does not make them people or even intelligent, merely
capable of repeating an action from which they profit. Granted, some
people are not too flash in the learning stakes but that doesn't mean
they are not people either.
Vote
may change milk labels - TOPEKA - A bill imposing stricter
requirements on producers who label their milk as hormone-free won House
approval Friday.
The 75-44 vote sent the measure to the Senate.
The bill would require those producers to include a disclaimer on their
labels beginning in 2011 saying the federal government has found no
substantial difference in milk from cows that have been given
production-boosting hormones and cows that have not.
And starting July 1, producers will have to document hormone-free claims
for the state Department of Agriculture.
Supporters argue that the bill prevents consumers from being misled into
thinking the cow hormones are dangerous. Backers included agribusiness
retailers, the Kansas Dairy Association and the Kansas Farm Bureau.
"It corrects a perception that some milk is better than others,"
said House Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Powell, R-Garden City.
"Milk is highly regulated and tested before it is sold."
Critics of the bill included advocates of organic farming, the Sierra Club
and the Kansas Farmers Union. They argued it will hurt mostly small
dairies trying to find a niche in the market.
"They're not labeling anything to hide any flaw in the milk,"
said Rep. Joshua Svaty of Ellsworth, the ranking Democrat on the
Agriculture Committee. "They are hardly infringing on the main milk
market." (Associated Press)
March 20, 2009
Planet
is warming but nobody can pick the point of no return, expert says -
To ask if the science of climate change is "settled" is a stupid
question, says Stanford University climatologist Professor Stephen
Schneider.
It never will be, he insists.
Appearing before the emissions trading scheme review select committee
yesterday, he said climate science dealt with a very complex system. (New
Zealand Herald)
CO2 Regulation under the
Clean Air Act: Economic Train Wreck, Constitutional Crisis, Legislative
Thuggery - Call it an economic train wreck, a constitutional crisis,
or legslative thuggery. Litigation-driven regulation of carbon dioxide
(CO2) under the Clean Air Act (CAA) is all of the above.
The Supreme Court case of Massachusetts v. EPA (April 2, 2007) has set the
stage for a policy disaster. Mass v. EPA’s second anniversary rapidly
approaches, and in a Power Point presentation leaked to Greenwire last
week, EPA reveals how it plans to respond to the Court. But first, some
background on the case and the Pandora’s Box it has created. (Marlo
Lewis, MasterResource)
Show
Your Work! - Fiona Harvey of the FT is one of the better journalists
covering the environmental beat, but I’m afraid that is a bit like
saying that someone is one of the better members of Congress. In this blog
entry on green jobs she commendably raises some objections to the idea
that “green jobs” can be a panacea, but then shows her own biases with
an unsupportable assertion: (Iain Murray, Cooler Heads)
A
Global Green New Deal - What Could Possibly Go Wrong? - Showing that
he believes Al Gore’s typical misunderstanding that the Chinese word for
crisis is made up of the characters for threat and opportunity (it
isn’t), Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Program, has said that
the global financial crisis provides an opportunity for a global green new
deal: (Iain Murray, Cooler Heads)
UN
fears Brussels rewriting emissions deal - European Union leaders could
scupper progress in the fight against global warming if they fail on
Wednesday to agree financing for emissions cuts in the developing world,
the United Nation’s top climate change official said.
Speaking before the EU’s annual spring council meeting, Yvo de Boer told
the Financial Times he feared the EU was backsliding on its promises and
rewriting an agreement made in 2007 in Bali. The bloc, he said, was in
danger of widening the rift between rich and poor countries on the issue
of climate change. (Financial Times)
EU
and US diverge on 2020 carbon reduction goals - The EU’s suggestion
that developed nations should cut their emissions by 30 per cent below
1990 levels by 2020 is asking too much of the US, American policymakers
told their European counterparts during bilateral talks this week.
More talks are needed to define the “fair” and “comparable”
contribution of each industrialised country to medium-term emission cuts,
EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas told a press conference in
Washington on Tuesday. (Carbon Offsets Daily)
EU plans puts climate finance at risk: industry - COPENHAGEN - European
Union plans to re-write the rules of a $6 billion scheme that pays
developing nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions risks stalling climate
investment, policymakers and industry leaders said on Wednesday.
The EU's executive Commission this week detailed plans to force industry
in advanced emerging economies such as China to meet efficiency or other
standards before they qualify for carbon offsets from cutting carbon
emissions.
Commission officials want the new rules agreed at a major U.N.-led climate
meeting this December in Copenhagen, meant to thrash out a new climate
treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. (Reuters)
EU
to dodge climate funding decision until summer - The spring EU summit
starting tomorrow (19 March) in Brussels had been expected to reach
agreement on the EU's position for global climate negotiations in
December. But European leaders are now planning to postpone a decision on
funding for developing countries until the next summit in June, according
to draft conclusions seen by EurActiv.
Polluters
could shift greenhouse burden to poor countries, say critics -
AUSTRALIA'S biggest greenhouse polluters will be given carte blanche to
shift the burden of cutting their emissions to poorer countries under the
Federal Government's proposed climate change laws.
Lawyers examining the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme say it allows any
big Australian polluter to buy unlimited "offset" pollution
credits in developing countries under a United Nations scheme, the Clean
Development Mechanism, which encourages rich nations to invest in clean
energy in poorer nations. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Carbon dioxide is not an atmospheric pollutant...
Govt
urged to take its time on climate - The Government should not
implement any measures on climate change until it is clear a sustainable
economic recovery is firmly in train, the Business Roundtable says. (New
Zealand Herald)
Hmm... Scientists:
Sea levels could rise 1 metre as Antarctic ice melts - Wellington - A
large amount of permanent Antarctic ice could melt in the next 100 years,
raising sea levels around the world by up to 1 metre as the earth's
climate warms, a New Zealand scientist said Thursday.
'If you live in Bangladesh, New Orleans, Miami or Wellington, this is a
significant issue in terms of timing and adapting to the change in
climate,' Professor Tim Naish, director of Victoria University's Antarctic
Research Centre, told Radio New Zealand.
He was commenting on new research by a team of 50 scientists showing that
only a slight rise in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere
could affect the stability of the West Antarctic ice sheet with disastrous
consequences for low-lying population centres around the world. (DPA)
... they still can't seem to get over atmospheric carbon dioxide
levels as a driver, can they? Why did the CO2 levels rise?
Because the seas warmed, ice sheets retreated and there was an increase
in oceanic outgassing, they reply. Why did the seas warm and ice sheets
retreat? Because there was an outgassing of oceanic CO2, they
reply...
Undersea
Volcanic Eruption In Tonga - Guest post by Steven Goddard
The Washington Post reports today:
An undersea volcano erupts off the coast of Tonga, tossing clouds of
smoke, steam and ash thousands of feet (meters) into the sky above the
South Pacific ocean, Tuesday, March 17, 2009. The eruption was at sea
about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the southwest coast of the main island
of Tongatapu an area where up to 36 undersea volcanoes are clustered
Besides the unusual feet to meters conversion in the quote above, I found
it interesting because the SST maps show a warm anomaly in that region,
and extending off to the east. Is that anomaly a result or coincidence?
(Watts Up With That?)
The
Bleak Winter's Behind Us, but What's Ahead? - WASHINGTON -- Thank God
winter is almost over. It has been another cold one. I hope Al Gore wore
his hat and brought along his galoshes whenever he made an appearance
against global warming. Better yet, I hope he scheduled his jeremiads in
warmer climes, say, Miami Beach or Antigua. As I reported a while back,
scientists have not been able to measure any increase in global warming
since the end of 1998. That, despite their lunkheaded computers
forecasting the opposite. During the past two years, temperatures have
actually dropped by more than 0.5 degrees Celsius. Button up!
I mention all this because 1) it is always amusing to kid Mr. Gore and 2)
the price tag for Prophet Obama's climate plan has just jumped to $2
trillion. That is three times the White House's initial estimate for its
cap and trade monstrosity. It is also a huge tax on corporations and
consumers at a time when both are in recession. Only government thrives.
Given the fact that it is increasingly unclear that there is such a thing
as global warming and the fact that cap and trade is an expensive and
dubious remedy for it, might not the Prophet Obama hold back? He has
plenty else to do. (Emmett Tyrrell, Townhall)
Global
Warming: The Backlash Begins - Environmentalists and their allies in
the Administration were stunned by the news last week that skepticism
about the effects of global warming is growing. With complete domination
of both the mainstream media and the political institutions by true
believers in global warming, the news from Gallup that 44 percent of
Americans believe that global warming has been exaggerated must have come
as a shock. Yet last week’s news contained two good examples of why this
should be, and why the debate that Al Gore claims is over may only just be
starting. (Iain Murray, DC Examiner)
The
Green Lobby - Of late, we’ve become all too painfully aware of
political lobbyists involvement in the investment, industrial, social and
health policies and legislation of our government. And we’ve all heard
about the insidious lobbyist influences for political special interests
such as unions, minorities, banking, transports, and state and local
governments. Less well understood is the “green” environmental lobby
that operates from the more than 4,000 eco-groups who protest and litigate
for environmental regulations at local, state and federal government --
both here and abroad. (Paul Taylor, LA Ecopolitics Examiner)
How
Can Greens Make Themselves Less White? - A few days after Barack
Obama's inauguration, the newly appointed head of the Environmental
Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, gave an interview to Essence magazine.
Ms. Jackson explained that she planned to "elevate the issue" of
"environmental justice" during her tenure. For those who are
unfamiliar with the term, environmental justice is the sweet spot where
the green movement meets the racial grievance industry. As the Essence
interviewer put it: "The practice of locating polluting industries in
minority communities -- and the consequent health impacts -- is well
documented. African Americans are almost 80 percent more likely than White
Americans to live in neighborhoods near hazardous industrial pollution
sites."
The concept of environmental justice can be traced back to the early '80s,
according to Robert Bullard, the director of the Environmental Justice
Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. He cites a 1982 fight over a
landfill in Warren County, N.C. Since then, the movement has blamed
industrial plants across the country for skyrocketing asthma rates among
inner-city blacks. But Mr. Bullard believes that environmental justice
should also include a concern about the lack of public parks in inner
cities and high childhood obesity rates among blacks (stemming from fewer
supermarkets in their neighborhoods). He refers to those fights as
"parks justice" and "food justice." Talk about
defining justice down. (Naomi Schaefer Riley, Wall Street Journal)
Leading
climate scientist: 'democratic process isn't working' - Protest and
direct action could be the only way to tackle soaring carbon emissions, a
leading climate scientist has said.
James Hansen, a climate modeller with Nasa, told the Guardian today that
corporate lobbying has undermined democratic attempts to curb carbon
pollution. "The democratic process doesn't quite seem to be
working," he said.
Speaking on the eve of joining a protest against the headquarters of power
firm E.ON in Coventry, Hansen said: "The first action that people
should take is to use the democratic process. What is frustrating people,
me included, is that democratic action affects elections but what we get
then from political leaders is greenwash.
"The democratic process is supposed to be one person one vote, but it
turns out that money is talking louder than the votes. So, I'm not
surprised that people are getting frustrated. I think that peaceful
demonstration is not out of order, because we're running out of
time." (The Guardian)
Society
Insults Members by Honoring Hansen - James Hansen, director of
NASA’s Goddard Institute, has been chosen as this year’s recipient of
the American Meteorological Society’s highest award, the Rossby Research
Medal.
I am appalled at this decision, which was announced January 14. Hansen has
not been trained as a meteorologist—his formal education was in
astronomy—and his long record of faulty global climate predictions and
alarmist public pronouncements has become increasingly hollow and at odds
with reality. (Bill Gray, Environment & Climate News)
Column
- Feeling cold, thinking hot - THREE shivering global warming
activists, stuck on an ice floe in the Arctic, are helping to tear up the
psychology textbooks.
In 1956, US psychologist Leon Festinger became instantly famous for giving
us “cognitive dissonance”—the theory that humans couldn’t tolerate
two conflicting perceptions. One would have to go.
Ha! It’s taken half a century, but warming believers are now making a
monkey of old Festinger.
As proof, here are three recent news items about the latest pilgrimage to
the North Pole of three scientists, all hot gospellers of our new faith
and all convinced the ice cap is barely there. (Andrew Bolt Blog)
How
it got so hot or not - IPCC reviewer Steve McIntyre gives a brilliant
discussion, with graphs, of how the infamous “hockey stick” became a
poster-child of the global warming believers - and why it is not to be
trusted. (Andrew Bolt Blog)
Remarks
for The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Dirksen Senate
Office Building, Washington, DC, March 17, 2009
Last week, I was invited to testify before the Senate Energy Committee.
Given that I have far too many opinions to keep them all to myself, I
agreed. Here’s the text of my remarks. (Robert Bryce, Energy Tribune)
A
Modest Proposal to Prevent the Pernicious Warming of our Fair Globe
A Modest Proposal to Prevent the Pernicious Warming of our Fair Globe
Whilst Enriching the Treasury of the Realm and Avoiding All Inconvenience
to Ladies and Gentlemen of Refinement Who Otherwise Might Suffer Severe
Annoyance From Such Climatory Consequences Were the Situation Left
Unremedied
It is melancholy to contemplate the disastrous effects that global warming
must have on this, our once splendid planet, should the horrific trend now
underway be allowed to continue unabated. In this, I am not speaking of
the increase of the oceans, as, with a current rise rate of one inch per
decade, the expected inundations must perforce come in a time so afar and
away into the future so as to expose he who would raise alarm thereby to
ridicule, a result which would defeat my purpose. No, it is rather the
consequences already apparent here and now that must draw our attention
and inspire us with a due sense of alacrity to immediate and forceful
countermeasures.
Let us consider: As a consequence of global warming, in nearly all places
on our planet the last killing frost of the spring is occurring earlier,
and the first killing frost of the fall happening later, than was
customary in the past. This lengthened season of growing, combined with a
general increase in rainfall, and an over abundance of carbonation within
the air, has so encouraged and expanded the growth of plants as to fill
the stalls of grocers everywhere with such an abundance of fruits and
vegetables that must perforce have the most unfortunate results — to wit
the gestation of further multitudes of unwashed, uncouth, and ill-mannered
hordes of noisy unwanted and unnecessary personages to infest our world
with their brutish countenances, bestial customs, and unattractive
complexions. Furthermore, even were it possible to stem such unfortunate
propagation of rabble by other means, it would still be the case that the
excessive flourishing of wild botanicals induced by global warming would
threaten to fill the world with so much banal greenery as to leave the
desert-craving visual palette of the refined sort so impoverished as to
make life hardly worth living for those who truly deserve to live.
It is to staunch these already ongoing disasters that I, and certainly all
other people of proper opinions, insist on action appropriate to the level
of the threat. However, while some good ideas have been offered from
various quarters, these have been so confused and mixed together with
counterproductive suggestions that, up until now, no comprehensive policy
sufficient to meet the challenge has been fully enunciated. It is to
remedy this distressing deficiency that the present report has been
prepared. (Pajamas Media)
Latest side-splitter from Seth Boringtheme: NASA:
Environmental disaster avoided on ozone loss - Here's rare good news
about an environmental crisis: We dodged disaster with the ozone layer.
A NASA study about ozone-munching chemicals from aerosol sprays and
refrigeration used a computer model to play a game of what-if. What if the
world 22 years ago didn't agree to cut back on chlorofluorocarbons which
cause a seasonal ozone hole to form near the South Pole?
NASA atmospheric scientist Paul Newman said the answer is a "bizarre
world."
By 2065, two-thirds of the protective ozone layer would have vanished and
"the ozone hole covers the Earth." And the CFCs, which are
long-lived potent greenhouse gases, would have pushed the world's
temperature up an extra 4 degrees.
In mid-latitudes, DNA-damaging ultraviolet radiation would have increased
more than sixfold. Just 5 minutes in the summer sunshine would have caused
a sunburn, instead of 15. Typical midsummer UV levels, now around 10 or
11, would have soared to 30. Summer thunderstorms in the Northern
Hemisphere would have been much stronger.
"It is a real horrible place," Newman told The Associated Press.
See this
for a reality check.
Oh boy... McKnight
to join international battle on climate change - The McKnight
Foundation is announcing today that it will spend an unprecedented $100
million over the next five years to attack global warming worldwide.
The state's largest private foundation, McKnight is joining forces with
other large U.S. foundations, including the William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, in pledging more
than $1 billion to prevent climate change.
McKnight's President Kate Wolford said the highly coordinated strategy
among foundations is unique, but that's what is needed.
She called climate change an "extraordinary challenge" that must
be addressed within the next decade to prevent irrevocable harm to the
planet. "Without immediate action, climate change will put at risk
all those served by our programs," she said. (Star Tribune)
Health
Benefits Of Air Quality Control Should Never Be Sacrificed By Delaying The
Clean-Up Of Aerosol Emissions For Climate Reasons - There have rather
puzzling recommendations made recently in which improvements in air
quality are recommended as being delayed in order to retain the radiative
cooling effect of certain aerosols, particularly sulphates. Examples of
such a recommendation are reported in the Climate Science weblogs
A
Excellent Seminar At The University of Colorado at Boulder “What Goes
Around Comes Around” By Gregory R. Carmichael
Further
Comments on the Question “Can The Climate System ‘Mask’ Heat?”
Misconception
And Oversimplification Of the Concept Of Global Warming By V. Ramanthan
and Y. Feng
This recommendation is made despite evidence presented in the first
weblog listed above, for example, that “350,000 excess deaths
per year in India and China due to outdoor exposure risk for each 20mg/m3
(of fine aerosols of less than 2,5 microns).” Such a
recommendation applies to all types of aerosols which includes aerosols
that contribute to radiative cooling (e.g. see
Chapter 2 in the 2007 IPCC report and Chapter
2 in the 2005 NRC report for reviews of these negative
radiative forcings). (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Part I in an Occasional
Series Challenging Ultra-skeptic Climate Claims - In the realm of
climate science, as in most topics, there exists a range of ideas as to
what is going on, and what it means for the future. At the risk of
generalizing, the gamut looks something like this: Ultra-alarmists think
that human greenhouse-gas-producing activities will vastly change the face
of the planet and make the earth inhospitable for humans; they therefore
demand large and immediate action to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.
Alarmists understand that human activities are changing the earth’s
climate and think that the potential changes are sufficient to warrant
some pre-emptive action to try to mitigate them. Skeptics think that
humans activities are changing the earth’s climate but, by and large,
they think that the changes are not likely to be terribly disruptive (and
even could be, in net, positive) and that drastic action to curtail
greenhouse gas emissions is unnecessary, difficult, and ineffective.
Ultra-skeptics think that human greenhouse gas-producing activities are
impacting the earth’s climate in no way whatsoever. (Chip Knappenberger,
MasterResource)
Energy
Chief Says U.S. Is Open to Carbon Tariff - WASHINGTON -- Energy
Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday advocated adjusting trade duties as a
"weapon" to protect U.S. manufacturing, just a day after one of
China's top climate envoys warned of a trade war if developed countries
impose tariffs on carbon-intensive imports.
Mr. Chu, speaking before a House science panel, said establishing a carbon
tariff would help "level the playing field" if other countries
haven't imposed greenhouse-gas-reduction mandates similar to the one
President Barack Obama plans to implement over the next couple of years.
It is the first time the Obama administration has made public its view on
the issue.
"If other countries don't impose a cost on carbon, then we will be at
a disadvantage...[and] we would look at considering perhaps duties that
would offset that cost," Mr. Chu said. (Wall Street Journal)
Peter
Foster: Climate protectionism - In terms of world trade, U.S. global
warming policy and its eco-tariffs are Smoot-Hawley on steroids
Canada’s Minister of State for Science and Technology, Gary Goodyear,
became the centre of a media kerfuffle this week over whether being an
Evangelical Christian — and whether or not he believed in evolution —
made him a threat to Canadian science policy. In fact, the story, which
started as an ambush by The Globe and Mail, seemed to have been engineered
by those with a fundamentalist faith in government funding.
Coincidentally, however, evidence that shining scientific credentials can
accompany outright policy lunacy was appearing south of the border in a
much more substantive issue. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel
Prize-winning physicist, speaking before a House science panel, suggested
that trade duties might be imposed as a “weapon” to protect U.S.
manufacturing from the United States’ own climate policies!
Under the perverse logic of global warming policy — which is being
doggedly pursued despite the disappearance of global warming — economic
self-mutilation inevitably leads to demands that others self-mutilate too.
“If other countries don’t impose a cost on carbon,” said Mr. Chu,
“then we will be at a disadvantage ... [and] we would look at
considering perhaps duties that would offset that cost.” (Financial
Post)
European
utility CEOs aim for carbon-neutral power by 2050 - Europe's leading
electricity trade association agrees to support EU in efforts to deliver
carbon neutral power by mid-century
Sixty European electricity company chief executives have handed over a
declaration to EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs in which they pledge
to supply carbon-neutral power by 2050.
The declaration also commits to an integrated European electricity market
and the promotion of energy efficiency technologies. The chief executives
represent power companies in 27 countries, jointly producing 2,500TWh
electricity per year, equivalent to more than 70 per cent of total
European power generation. (BusinessGreen)
Action On Climate
To Harm Gulf Economies: Saudi Official - VIENNA - Strict measures
across the world to act against climate change could seriously affect the
economies of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations, a Saudi official said on
Thursday.
"Countries talking about reducing dependence on oil could impact our
economy," Mohammad al-Sabban of the Saudi ministry of petroleum told
an OPEC energy conference.
OPEC has committed to reducing harmful emissions and Saudi Arabia has
invested in carbon capture and storage technology which is designed to do
so.
But the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries stresses that
others should also take their share in managing the use of fossil fuels.
(Reuters)
Report:
Alternative energy quest endangering birds - WASHINGTON - As the Obama
administration pursues more homegrown energy sources, a new government
report faults energy production of all types _ wind, ethanol and
mountaintop coal mining _ for contributing to steep drops in bird
populations.
The first-of-its-kind government report chronicles a four-decade decline
in many of the country's bird populations and provides many reasons for
it, from suburban sprawl to the spread of exotic species to global
warming.
In almost every case, energy production is also playing a role.
"Energy development has significant negative effects on birds in
North America," the report concludes.
Birds can collide with wind turbines and oil and gas wells, and studies
have shown that some species, such as Prairie-chickens and sage grouse,
will avoid nesting near the structures.
Ponds created during the extraction of coalbed methane gas breed
mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus, leading to more bird deaths.
Transmission lines, roads to access energy fields and mountaintop removal
to harvest coal can destroy and fragment birds' living spaces.
Environmentalists and scientists say the report should signal to the Obama
administration to act cautiously as it seeks to expand renewable energy
production and the electricity grid on public lands and tries to harness
wind energy along the nation's coastlines. (AP)
Biomass
plant decision could be headed to High Court - CARMARTHENSHIRE COUNTY,
WALES: An extraordinary U-turn by planning officers could lead to a High
Court challenge if plans for a "climate change-busting" power
station are turned down.
Only weeks ago, planning officers at Carmarthenshire County Council were
recommending approval for a biomass plant at Coedbach, near Kidwelly.
But a furious row has now erupted after the officers changed their minds
and said planning permission should be rejected. (Energy Current)
Why
you probably have an above-average number of feet - Looking at three
kinds of averages
The average kid on the block might have a lot of trouble understanding
what an average is. Every time Garrison Keillor signs off his “News from
Lake Wobegon,” as a place “where all the women are strong, all the men
are good-looking, and all the children are above average,” he gets a
laugh. But the mathematical meaning of average is not always the same as
the colloquial meaning – and even within math, there are three different
kinds of “averaging” that are commonly referred to. (Rebecca Goldin,
STATS)
Canary
in the mine? - After receiving nearly a dozen alerts of
extraordinarily high rates of patient deaths, the Healthcare Commission
launched an independent investigation of Stafford Hospital. It just
released the report of its findings. It and the reports from thousands of
patients and families in UK paint a disturbing picture of what is being
described as “Third World” conditions in the hospital. (Junkfood
Science)
Prostate
Test Found to Save Few Lives - The PSA blood test, used to screen for
prostate cancer, saves few lives and leads to risky and unnecessary
treatments for large numbers of men, two large studies have found.
The findings, the first based on rigorous, randomized studies, confirm
some longstanding concerns about the wisdom of widespread prostate cancer
screening. Although the studies are continuing, results so far are
considered significant and the most definitive to date.
The PSA test, which measures a protein released by prostate cells, does
what it is supposed to do — indicates a cancer might be present, leading
to biopsies to determine if there is a tumor. But it has been difficult to
know whether finding prostate cancer early saves lives. Most of the
cancers tend to grow very slowly and are never a threat and, with the
faster-growing ones, even early diagnosis might be too late. (Gina Kolata,
New York Times)
Well, yes, actually this does fit under 'religion and belief': Tim
Nicholson: A green martyr - Sacked executive can argue he was
discriminated against because of his belief in climate change, judge rules
An executive sacked from a giant property company can claim he was
unfairly dismissed because of his "philosophical belief in climate
change", a judge ruled yesterday.
In the first case of its kind, employment judge David Sneath said Tim
Nicholson, a former environmental policy officer, could invoke employment
law for protection from discrimination against him for his conviction that
climate change was the world's most important environmental problem.
That conviction amounted to a philosophical belief under the Employment
Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations, 2003, the judge ruled on a
point of law at a pre-hearing review of an employment tribunal in London.
(The Independent)
Americans:
Economy Takes Precedence Over Environment - First time majority has
supported economy in 25 years of asking question
PRINCETON, NJ -- For the first time in Gallup's 25-year history of asking
Americans about the trade-off between environmental protection and
economic growth, a majority of Americans say economic growth should be
given the priority, even if the environment suffers to some extent.
(Gallup)
A
Small and Dangerous Spat - President Obama has been warning that
tit-for-tat protectionism could drive the world into an even worse
economic slump than it is already in. He is right. Unfortunately, Congress
doesn’t seem to be listening.
The $410 billion spending bill that Mr. Obama signed into law last week
cuts off financing for a pilot program that allows Mexican trucks to
deliver goods across the United States. The move clearly violates the
North American Free Trade Agreement, which promised — starting in 2000
— to open cargo transport throughout the United States, Mexico and
Canada to carriers from all three countries. This week, Mexico retaliated,
leveling tariffs against $2.4 billion worth of American imports.
Both the United States and Mexico must be careful. A full-fledged fight
could threaten more than $350 billion in annual commerce between the two
countries. That is clearly in nobody’s interest. (New York Times)
Oh... Fed
Plans to Inject Another $1 Trillion to Aid the Economy - WASHINGTON
— The Federal Reserve sharply stepped up its efforts to bolster the
economy on Wednesday, announcing that it would pump an extra $1 trillion
into the financial system by purchasing Treasury bonds and mortgage
securities.
Having already reduced the key interest rate it controls nearly to zero,
the central bank has increasingly turned to alternatives like buying
securities as a way of getting more dollars into the economy, a tactic
that amounts to creating vast new sums of money out of thin air. But the
moves on Wednesday were its biggest yet, almost doubling all of the
Fed’s measures in the last year.
The action makes the Fed a buyer of long-term government bonds rather than
the short-term debt that it typically buys and sells to help control the
money supply. (New York Times)
Ben's
$1.2 Trillion Bet - The Federal Reserve's plan to create $1.2 trillion
out of thin air to buy Treasuries is a risky move, to say the least. If it
doesn't boost output by an equal amount, the certain result will be
inflation. (IBD)
White
House Can't Get Prognosis Right, Let Alone Prescription For The Problem
- When it comes to our complex economy, President Obama would do well to
heed the physician's ancient commandment to first "do no harm."
Instead, Obama's administration has been prescribing all sorts of
multibillion-dollar borrowing remedies without any consistent diagnosis of
what is exactly wrong with the weak economy or even how bad things
actually are. (Victor Davis Hanson, IBD)
Terence
Corcoran: Is this the end of America? - U.S. law-making is riddled
with slapdash, incompetence and gamesmanship
Helicopter Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve is dropping trillions of fresh
paper dollars on the world economy, the President of the United States is
cracking jokes on late night comedy shows, his energy minister is
threatening a trade war over carbon emissions, his treasury secretary is
dithering over a banking reform program amid rising concerns over his
competence and a monumentally dysfunctional U.S. Congress is launching
another public jihad against corporations and bankers.
As an aghast world — from China to Chicago and Chihuahua — watches,
the circus-like U.S. political system seems to be declining into near
chaos. Through it all, stock and financial markets are paralyzed. The more
the policy regime does, the worse the outlook gets. The multi-ringed
spectacle raises a disturbing question in many minds: Is this the end of
America? (Financial Post)
Is
Socialism Overtaking Capitalism In The Way Schumpeter Foresaw? - In
his 1942 book, "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy," Joseph
Schumpeter asked the essential question: "Can capitalism
survive?"
His unsettling answer was, "No. I do not think it can."
Schumpeter's words were in no way meant to denigrate capitalism. Instead,
he felt "its very success undermines the social institutions which
protect it." History in many ways proved his views prophetic.
The success of capitalism means that many are allowed to do things that
have nothing to do with productivity. And from government and academic
elites that frequently seek to undermine the very system that enabled
their cushy jobs, to foundations created by capitalist profits that often
dismiss same, the commercial success wrought by the pursuit of profit has
created an unproductive elite that lives off the very business profits
that it regularly casts a skeptical eye on.
Schumpeter was of course talking about a United States that he envisioned
post-World War II, but his fears then don't stray too far from the
concerns of many today.
Indeed, he worried that as wars usually accrue to the power of the state,
that heavy government spending "would likely evolve into total
government control over investment."
So far we've got the stratospheric spending to the tune of a $3.6 trillion
budget, and from planned investment in everything from green energy to
mortgage securities to autos, it seems that the alleged good that comes
with government largesse will morph into the bad of government-directed
investment. (John Tamny, IBD)
Anticapitalists left & right... Values
for a Sustainable World Economy - The current global financial crisis
embodies a chance for a new economic order, argue German Chancellor Angela
Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. That idea should be
the guiding principle for the upcoming G-20 summit in London. (Angela
Merkel and Jan Peter Balkenende, Der Spiegel)
This
blissful life
Where ignorance is bliss ‘tis folly to be wise
Gray
After the conservation laws, the most fundamental laws of physics are
the related continuity laws. The people who have hijacked control of
science openly display their ignorance of such matters, while hurling
abuse at those know better. A classic example occurred back in
September 2003. That was when the notorious Hockey Stick was going
through the triumphal stages of Langmuir’s
Laws of Bad Science before it met its inevitable demise under law six.
The ad hoc explanation for the
freezing of the Thames during the “non-existent” Little Ice Age was
that the structure of London Bridge reduced the flow rate.
It is not as though the continuity law is counter-intuitive. If water
is arriving at a point in a channel, it will still arrive at the same rate
after you have inserted an obstruction. One of two things must happen:
either the water overflows the channel walls or the difference in head
rises to accommodate the same rate of flow. There is nowhere else for it
to go. Not, as they say, rocket science.
Now a professor, no less, has
stated that beavers by building dams will “slow rivers and control
flooding”. Well, if a professor says it, it must be right. Best for
those of us who are so old that we studied physics at school to stay shtum:
otherwise we might be likened to those who deny the holocaust and be cast
in to the outer darkness, instead of being allowed to exist in the
comfortable world of the BBC and the like. (Number Watch)
Coping in a
World of "Peak Water" - UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 - As more
than 20,000 people meet in Istanbul for a major week-long conference on
future management of the world's water supplies, women's groups are
working to ensure that policy decisions about this critical natural
resource take their concerns into account.
About a billion people currently lack safe drinking water, and another two
and a half billion have no access to sanitation. (IPS)
The Red Sea Might
Save The Dead Sea - JERUSALEM - Abundant water from the Red Sea could
replenish the shrinking Dead Sea if Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians
decide to commission a tunnel north through the Jordanian desert from the
Gulf of Aqaba.
The Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance project would supply the biggest
desalination plant in the world, running on its own hydro-electric power
and providing Jordan with enough water for the next 40-50 years. Israel
and the Palestinian West Bank would also benefit.
A decision on whether to go ahead could come by the end of next year and
the likely cost would be in the region of 7 billion dollars. (Reuters)
Actually, global cooling could precipitate these problems: Chief
scientist warns of "perfect storm" for resource shortages by
2030 - Food, energy and water supplies all under threat from
combination of climate change and growing population
The UK's chief scientist will today warn that political and business
leaders have just 20 years to prepare for a "perfect storm" of
climate change-related impacts on food, water and energy supplies or risk
public unrest, conflict and mass migration.
In a major speech to the Sustainable Development UK 09 conference,
Professor John Beddington will warn that the combination of climate
change, a growing global population and changing dietary habits will
result in a surge in demand for food, water and energy by 2030 that will
drive up prices and could lead to widespread shortages.
According to Beddington, demand for food and energy will increase 50 per
cent by 2030, while demand for fresh water will rise 30 per cent as the
population grows to top 8.3 billion.
At the same time, climate change is expected to result in falling levels
of agricultural productivity and water shortages across many hot regions,
leading to mass migration and increased risks of cross-border conflict.
(James Murray, BusinessGreen)
March 19, 2009
To give Andy his due, he does admit some rational items: Study:
West Antarctic Melt a Slow Affair - How many times have you seen the
word “collapse” used lately to describe what could unfold should
human-caused global warming, and more particularly warming seas, erode the
West Antarctic Ice Sheet? (One metric: A Google search for “West
Antarctic Ice Sheet” and “collapse” gets 29,800 hits.)
The word is used again in the headline on one of two new papers in the
journal Nature focusing on past comings and goings of that huge expanse of
ice. But this paper, by David Pollard at Penn State and Robert M. DeConto
of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, provides an estimated time
frame for the loss of ice that its authors say should be of some comfort.
(If the sheet melted entirely, sea levels worldwide would rise more than
15 feet.)
Dr. Pollard and Dr. DeConto ran a five-million-year computer simulation of
the ice sheet’s comings and goings, using data on past actual climate
and ocean conditions gleaned from seabed samples (the subject of the other
paper) to validate the resulting patterns.
The bottom line? In this simulation, the ice sheet does collapse when
waters beneath fringing ice shelves warm 7 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit or so,
but the process — at its fastest — takes thousands of years. Over all,
the pace of sea-level rise from the resulting ice loss doesn’t go beyond
about 1.5 feet per century, Dr. Pollard said in an interview, a far cry
from what was thought possible a couple of decades ago. He, Dr. DeConto
and other experts on climate and polar ice stressed that when
Greenland’s possible contribution to the sea level is added, there’s
plenty for coastal cities to consider. But for Greenland, too, some
influential recent studies have cut against the idea that momentous
coastal retreats are likely anytime soon.
Over all, the loss of the West Antarctic ice from warming is appearing
“more likely a definite thing to worry about on a thousand-year time
scale but not a hundred years,” Dr. Pollard said. (Andrew C. Revkin, New
York Times)
Al
Gore vs. The Aristotelian Method - or The Moral Irrationality Of Climate
Scaremongering - The following is my translation of a talk given by
Prof Luigi Mariani of the Agrometeorological Research Group, Dept. of Crop
Science, University of Milan after a public screening of Al Gore’s “An
Inconvenient Truth”, on 23 January in Comano, Italy. (The Unbearable
Nakedness of Climate Change)
Complex Path For Climate Bills
In Congress - Congress is expected to tackle climate change this year
with bills aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions and encouraging
cleaner alternative energy and more efficient delivery of electricity.
Climate change legislation is complicated and so is the path it could take
in the Democratic-controlled Congress. Here is a rundown of key committees
that would have a say in shaping the bills: (Reuters)
7
Green Jobs Myths - Kermit the Frog summed it up best, “It’s not
easy being green.” Today, academics and researchers from four U.S.
universities today released a joint study, Seven Myths About Green Jobs.
The analysis takes an in depth look at widespread claims of green jobs and
the new green economy and their potential impact on the economy,
employment and the environment. Here’s a taste… (Chilling Effect)
Dubious claim of the moment: Climate
Stimulus: A New Green Deal? - President Roosevelt’s New Deal
transformed Depression-era America into the wealthiest nation the world
has ever known. Economic and civic experts met at the forum of the Allianz
Cultural Foundation to discuss if a New Green Deal could work similar
wonders for climate protection and economic recovery. (Allianz)
Insurers
Must Disclose Climate-Change Exposure - Insurance companies must start
disclosing how climate change is likely to affect their businesses, state
insurance regulators decided Tuesday.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners voted to require
insurers to submit annual "climate-risk" reports, an unusually
aggressive stance on the environmental issue from industry regulators.
The officials acted after concluding that climate change threatens
insurers in two ways. It increases the risk of extreme weather events such
as floods and wildfires, which would boost claims. And it is prompting
governments to cap industrial carbon emissions that contribute to global
warming -- a move threatens the profits of companies such as coal-fired
utilities in which insurers commonly invest. (Wall Street Journal)
A new Government
Publication to help you, just in case you find "Climate Change"
difficult to understand! - Please read the following report from the
AP New government brochure explains climate science. If you are unable to
understand the very complicated power of CO2 on the Earth's climate, the
Government have now decided to issue the public a FREE booklet to help. If
anyone can spot the solar effect on the Earth's climate in this
publication please let the Government know and they will remove it. This
current publication will NOT explain why you have more CO2 and cooler
temperatures, that question will be answered in 2020 when the power of CO2
will need explaining again! (Climate Realists)
A
Dozen Reasons Why a Former CNN Executive Producer for Science Doesn’t
Understand Doubters of Manmade Global Warming - The following
editorial appeared on the Huffington Post website today (italicized
entries, below)…and I couldn’t help but give the writer some of his
own medicine (my responses not italicized, & in parentheses). (Roy W.
Spencer)
Cyclical
Climate Changes
By L.B. Klyashtorin, A.A. Lyubushin English Version Edited by Dr.
Gary Sharp
Icecap Note: My
presentation at the ICCC 2009 conference related to both data
integrity and the cycles (averaging around 60 years) of the sun and oceans
which fit like a glove with temperatures. I had to leave out the Arctic
which exhibits the identical behavior because of time limitations.
Here is a larger graph.
I received a copy of this PDF from the authors of a book that
discovered a 60 year cycle and a strong relationship with fish
productivity, after they saw the presentation on-line and how well it fit
with their book “Climate Changes and Fish Productivity”. Here are some
relevant excerpts of their excellent book (PDF
here): (Icecap)
Melting
Antarctic Ice Part of Natural Cycle - Historical records for the
western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) show that it is particularly prone to
rapid climate change—change that occurs in cycles of ~200 years and
~2500 years. By studying major transitions in plankton productivity in the
western Antarctic, scientists have shown that “spectacular” ice-cover
losses have happened many times in the past. In other words, the
“unprecedented rapid loss of ice” from parts of Antarctica that global
warming alarmists make so much of are a normal part of nature's cycles.
According to the latest report in the journal Science, this is how it
works: Less ice in the northern zone causes more cloud cover, reducing the
amount of light reaching the plankton. A loss of light, together with less
ice-melt freshwater and stronger winds means fewer large plankton blooms.
By contrast, in the south, the skies stay cloudless for longer and the
Antarctic current increases its flow rate, pulling up more nutrients. Both
factors contribute to greater primary productivity. These physical changes
explain the striking shifts recently observed in krill and the vertebrate
communities of the western Antarctic. (Doug L. Hoffman, The Resilient
Earth)
Arctic
Ice Thickness Measured From Buoys - Guest Post by Steven Goddard
The Catlin Arctic Survey has generated quite a bit of discussion, more
because of the difficulties they have faced than because of the scientific
merit of their expedition. Their home page is covered with testimonials
about the importance of measuring “ice decline” and raising “climate
change awareness.” (Watts Up With That?)
Time
For Some Climate Realism - We try to stay informed, read the
newspapers, watch the news on TV, and still we missed a major event that
affects our future and our pocketbooks. 700 scientists, economists, and
public policy experts from 20 countries met in New York City in early
March of this year. They concluded that global warming, if it is occurring
at all, is probably natural rather than man-made.
The message from 700 of our best and brightest scientists who studied this
issue, based on science and observation, was very different from Al Gore's
message and President Obama's message. Gore claims that there is a crisis
in our atmosphere, that a calamity is occurring, and in ten years the
atmosphere may suffer irreversible harm. Gore and Obama offer their
solution: cap the production of energy from fossil fuels, tax carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions, create a "cap and tax" bureaucracy,
make most forms of energy very expensive, and transfer our personal wealth
to government wealth all to perform an absolutely worthless and
unnecessary task.
The Gore-Obama plan is to collect CO2 from the atmosphere and store it
underground forever, spending trillions of dollars doing it. In return, we
get nothing, unless you count the $645 billion in additional taxes,
something that all Americans will pay every time they buy a product or
fill up the tank of their car or truck. (Rep. Carl Gatto, Sit News)
Words fail... PHOTOS:
Five Global Warming "Tipping Points" (National Geographic
News)
Climate
science, Garbage in, Garbage out - Statistics in modern society - Most
people know about Disraeli’s comment, “There are three kinds of lies:
lies, damn lies and statistics”, but few understand how the application
of statistics has affected our lives or how it developed and evolved. We
sense it when everything sort of fits everyone, but doesn’t precisely
fit anyone. (Tim Ball, CFP)
Global Carbon Price Unlikely
For 10-15 Years: Analysts - COPENHAGEN - A single global price for
carbon emissions is not likely for another 10 to 15 years because
governments are dragging their heels on legislation, market analysts said
on Wednesday.
"By 2025, we could have one single currency," orbeo carbon
analyst Emmanuel Fages said at a Point Carbon emissions trading conference
in Copenhagen.
The European Union's executive Commission hopes to have a global carbon
market in which emissions trading schemes are linked by 2020. It wants to
see national schemes in all OECD countries by 2013 and for those to be
linked by 2015.
Cap-and-trade schemes force participants, often energy-intensive
industries, to buy permits to emit greenhouse gases such as carbon
dioxide, which is produced from burning fossil fuels.
Analysts said a global carbon market would help achieve real emissions
cuts in planet-warming greenhouse gases, but the EU's goals were too
ambitious and a global price for carbon would only emerge in 2015-20.
(Reuters)
Obama
climate plan could cost $2 trillion - President Obama's climate plan
could cost industry close to $2 trillion, nearly three times the White
House's initial estimate of the so-called "cap-and-trade"
legislation, according to Senate staffers who were briefed by the White
House. (Tom LoBianco, Washington Times)
Carbon
tariffs quid pro quo? - Just as the World Bank put out a report on
increased trade protectionism in the world, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven
Chu came out in favor of using carbon tariffs as a “weapon” against
countries that aren’t taking steps to reduce their carbon emissions and
as a way to protect U.S. manufacturers.
He seemed not to notice that the day before China’s top climate change
official Li Gao had warned that carbon tariffs imposed on developing
countries would be a “disaster” and perhaps start a trade war. (Fran
Smith, Cooler Heads)
More
on carbon tariffs - For more on the insanity of carbon tariffs,
there’s an excellent 2008 article by the National Post’s Terence
Corcoran appropriately titled “Blowing up the WTO.” Here’s what he
says: (Fran Smith, Cooler Heads)
Carbon
mitigation schemes are inherently protectionist - Thanks, Fran, for
blogging on the carbon tariff threat to the peace and prosperity of the
world.
We should all remember that carbon tariffs are no mere quirk of this or
that administration, political party, or government agency. Protectionism
is an inherent feature of carbon suppression policies, for three reasons:
(Marlo Lewis, Cooler Heads)
Say what? Asia Climate
Policy On Track - NEW DELHI - Asia's biggest carbon emitters face dual
challenges this year that risk undermining their fight against climate
change -- a global recession that's crippling domestic business and
elections in a pivotal year.
For the moment, however, there is little to suggest they've lost their
pace in the drive to embrace cleaner energy policies, or a souring of
goodwill toward achieving a broader climate pact at the end of the year to
replace the Kyoto Protocol.
Even in Australia, where growing political opposition is threatening the
world's most sweeping cap-and-trade system, the government has staked its
reputation on getting the scheme through parliament in coming months.
Elsewhere in Asia, the drive toward clean energy seems just as strong.
(Reuters)
Pardon our ignorance but what, exactly, is the reputation of the
K.Rudd government in Australia? Anybody? Other world leaders have
learned Kevni is an untrustworthy big-noting blabbermouth but, beyond
that... what? Just what reputation has K.Rudd and his freshly minted
(and rapidly failing) government staked on getting this absurd economic
suicide pact through parliament?
No
way we’ll move millions to green jobs - Keith Orchison is rightly
sceptical of airy green claims that slashing emissions won’t hurt
because we can just move workers from gassy jobs to green ones: (Andrew
Bolt Blog)
Oz's
greens want import limits on CO2 offsets - CANBERRA: Australia's
influential Greens will demand stringent caps on how many carbon offsets
can be bought from developing countries as the price of support for the
government's emissions trade scheme, the party said on Wednesday.
Greens Deputy Leader Christine Milne said she feared the scheme outlined
in draft laws this month could see Australia achieve deep emissions cuts
by buying carbon abatement credits offshore.
"It would be immoral if there was not a cap on the amount of offsets
that developed economies could buy to try to meet their own domestic
targets," Milne told Reuters.
"It is a carbon imperialism which says we will take from you your
cheapest carbon mitigation measures, as in buying the offsets from
protecting forests, and we will use those to offset our emissions,"
she said.
Support from Milne's party will be crucial in passing the emissions
trading scheme (ETS) laws in the upper house Senate, which is dominated by
government opponents and swing voters. (Economic Times)
A
Set Of Presentations On Video - “Climate Science Seminar: Climate Change
And Its Causes: A Discussion About Some Key Issues” - There was an
interesting diverse viewpoint set of talks on February 26, 2009 at EPA’s
National Center for Environmental Economics titled “Climate
Science Seminar: Climate Change and Its Causes: A Discussion about Some
Key Issues“.
The presentations are by Nicola Scafetta, Judith Lean, Richard Lindzen
and Karl Wunsch.
We need more such meetings where alternative viewpoints on
climate science are presented. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate
Science)
Clouding Up
Man-Made Global Warming - Final dispatch from the International
Conference on Climate Change in New York - March 9, New York—The
participants at the final lunch of the International Climate Change
Conference in New York were in a celebratory and pugnacious mood. On the
one hand, these skeptics feel beleaguered—who would not?—from their
antagonists constantly comparing them to Holocaust "deniers" and
calling for them to be tried for "high crimes against humanity and
nature." On the other hand, they are cheered by recent polls
indicating public skepticism of the claims of imminent catastrophe made by
climate "alarmists." In a January Pew Research Center poll,
global warming came in dead last on a list of issues of concern to
Americans.
At the luncheon, retired NASA climatologist John Theon rose to lament the
fact that he hadn't fired James Hansen, the head of NASA's Goddard
Institute for Space Studies and an ardent advocate of the idea that
man-made global warming is a catastrophe in the making. The audience burst
into applause when Theon called Hansen an "embarrassment." In
1988, Hansen launched global warming as a public policy issue in his
testimony before a congressional committee. Theon admitted that he
actually couldn't have fired Hansen, who had powerful political
protectors, most notably then-Senator and later Vice President Al Gore. So
had Theon tried to do it, it's much more likely that he himself would have
been out on the street rather than Hansen.
Theon told the audience that while he remained silent on the issue of
global warming when he retired from NASA, he now felt he needed to speak
out. "This whole thing is a fraud," said Theon. "We need to
educate the public about what we're going to get into unless we stop this
nonsense." The nonsense being the deleterious effect that carbon
rationing would have on economic growth and jobs. (Ronald Bailey)
Steve
McIntyre’s ICCC09 presentation with notes - I sat next to Steve on
the Climatology Panel at ICCC09 and thought he did a fine job of
summarizing the Mannian methodology and the Bristlecone Pine issues for
the general public. Jeff Id invited me to repost this from his blog, the
Air Vent, and am more than happy to oblige so that it gets the widest
possible exposure. Note, unlike at the Air Vent, this thread will be TCO
free since we don’t allow cussing here. ;-) - Anthony (Watts Up With
That?)
Heck yes, although it's only a tiny start: Drivers
wants cyclists to carry licences - MOST drivers believe cyclists
should be licensed and they won't get any argument from lobby group
Bicycle Queensland.
Licensing of cyclists would make them accountable for breaking road rules,
ensure they helped pay for road infrastructure and serve identification
and insurance purposes. (The Advertiser)
Road lice are complete parasites on the transport system, paying
nothing and occupying a disproportionate space. Worse, they increase
both environmental and driving costs for real users. How much should
they pay for registration? 100 times that of a medium car? 1,000?
Consider how just one road louse causes hundreds or thousands of cars
and trucks to slow, reducing fuel efficiency and increasing emissions of
pollutants (and greenhouse gases, for those who worry about
irrelevancies), note the bottlenecks they create as people commute too
and from jobs and it's even worse for those on the school run. Each and
every cyclist intruding on the transport system has an environmental
footprint completely disproportionate to their conveyance value (it's a
wonder enviros haven't come up with an emotive connotation, naming them
a Cyclo Valdez or something).
We probably need to start small, say a medium car registration fee
per cycle and an annual riders license at the same cost as a driver's
license. Then we can start upping the anti until we recover a reasonable
cost or get rid of road lice altogether.
I'm thinking a lot a greenies and anti internal combustion engine
types are likely to be a little miffed at me but get real guys, either
you care about the environment, in which case you have to hate bicycles
for the pollution and congestion problems they cause, or you just hate
people travelling efficiently and couldn't care less about the planet.
Which is it?
What
a waste! Department for Energy and Climate Change slammed by environmental
inspector - The headquarters of the Whitehall department responsible
for tackling climate change was given a scathing assessment by a
Government energy efficiency inspector, it emerged last night.
The Department for Energy and Climate Change's office in Westminster was
given the worst possible rating following a visit by an official assessor.
The energy assessor's official report, released to MPs in response to a
parliamentary question, also revealed no renewable fuels were used to
provide heat or electricity in the building. (Daily Mail)
So what? The whole department is a waste of oxygen.
They keep coming... Global
Governance of Science - The European Commission has just released a
new report titled, The Global Governance of Science. It is available here
in PDF. Here is the abstract:
This report is the product of an expert group acting under a mandate
from the European Commission Directorate General for Research to which
legal scholars, sociologists, philosophers and political scientists from
Europe, the United States of America, China and South-Africa have
contributed. This report seeks to advance a vision of global governance
for the common good that invokes European principles of good governance
and fundamental rights. It is our belief that the European Union as a
political entity situated between the national and global levels, with its
principles of good governance, its charter of fundamental rights and
commitments to a European Research Area, is ideally placed to encourage
critical reflection and undertake practical leadership in relation to the
global governance of science and innovation. Our recommendations are
addressed not only to policymakers in the European Commission and the
Member States of the EU, but equally to those organisations worldwide
operating within and around science. (Roger Pielke, Jr., Prometheus)
UN accuses EU
over climate change - The UN's climate change chief has accused
Europe's politicians of shifting the goalposts in global talks on climate
change.
The EU agreed at the Bali climate summit last December to bankroll clean
technology in developing countries if they agreed to take appropriate
actions to curb emissions growth.
The fragile deal was reached after marathon talks.
But EU politicians are now asking for more action for their money. They
want developing countries to produce plans to cut emissions across their
entire economy before getting cash help from the EU. (BBC)
EU Plans Puts Climate Finance
At Risk: Industry - COPENHAGEN - European Union plans to re-write the
rules of a $6 billion scheme that pays developing nations to cut
greenhouse gas emissions risks stalling climate investment, policymakers
and industry leaders said on Wednesday.
The EU's executive Commission this week detailed plans to force industry
in advanced emerging economies such as China to meet efficiency or other
standards before they qualify for carbon offsets from cutting carbon
emissions.
Commission officials want the new rules agreed at a major U.N.-led climate
meeting this December in Copenhagen, meant to thrash out a new climate
treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
"We should agree by the end of this year the basic
architecture," EU Commission official Peter Zapfel said on Wednesday.
"We're talking about a mechanism we want up and running by
2013," he added, speaking at a carbon market conference also held in
Copenhagen. (Reuters)
A Development
Mechanism That Cleans Little - BERLIN, Mar 18 - The clean development
mechanism, the Kyoto Protocol instrument that allows industries in rich
countries to earn emission reduction credits by financing
environment-friendly projects in developing countries, is a perverse but
at the moment necessary tool to fight global warming, says a German
environmental expert.
Lambert Schneider, expert on climate change policies at the German
Institute for Applied Ecology, and who has been researching the impact of
CDM since its inception, says that the mechanism must be radically
reformed or supplanted by more efficient instruments.
"CDM has raised awareness in developing countries and among investors
of the urgent need of reducing greenhouse gases emissions (GHG) such as
carbon dioxide (CO2) to stop global warming," Schneider told IPS.
But at the same time, the huge business opportunities associated with CDM
have led to a massive abuse of the tool, "through the non-compliance
of numerous international agreed environmental and development standards
of the projects in emerging countries such as China and India," said
Schneider. (IPS)
Manufacturing
inefficiency - Study sees 'alarming' use of energy, materials in newer
manufacturing processes
Modern manufacturing methods are spectacularly inefficient in their use of
energy and materials, according to a detailed MIT analysis of the energy
use of 20 major manufacturing processes.
Overall, new manufacturing systems are anywhere from 1,000 to one million
times bigger consumers of energy, per pound of output, than more
traditional industries. In short, pound for pound, making microchips uses
up orders of magnitude more energy than making manhole covers.
At first glance, it may seem strange to make comparisons between such
widely disparate processes as metal casting and chip making. But Professor
Timothy Gutowski of MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering, who led
the analysis, explains that such a broad comparison of energy efficiency
is an essential first step toward optimizing these newer manufacturing
methods as they gear up for ever-larger production. (David Chandler, MIT
News)
NRC Expects Requests For 7 New
Nuclear Reactors - WASHINGTON - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has
received 17 applications to build 26 new U.S. nuclear reactors and could
get five more applications for seven reactors by the end of next year, the
agency's chairman told Congress on Wednesday.
"We are actively reviewing those applications as we speak," NRC
Chairman Dale Klein told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
at a hearing on the state of the U.S. nuclear industry.
The industry sees building more nuclear power plants as key to meeting
America's growing electricity demand and also helping the United States
reduce its greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.
(Reuters)
India
Continuing Nuclear Push - On March 3, the International Atomic Energy
Agency approved a measure allowing increased inspection of India’s
nuclear facilities, a move that paves the way for India to invest some
$100 billion over the next decade in its nuclear power sector.
The deal with the IAEA, under negotiation since late 2007, is the latest
move in a long and tortuous path to the removal of the three and a half
decade international nuclear trade embargo on India. The removal of the
embargo began in July 2005 when India and the US signed a nuclear
cooperation agreement.
Though nuclear power contributes only 2.5 % of India’s electricity, that
percentage will likely rise. India is planning to import at least eight
new nuclear reactors by 2012. The state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of
India Limited (NPCIL), that oversees all nuclear power production in India
today, now operates 17 reactors, and it is building five new nuclear
plants and has plans to open four more.
All told, NPCIL has plans to add 16 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity to
the existing capacity of 4 GW (now operating at just 40% of capacity due
to inadequate fuel) by 2020. (Priyanka Bhardwaj, Energy Tribune)
Bipartisan
Senate bill seeks lower tariffs on ethanol imports - A bipartisan
group of senators is seeking to lower U.S. tariffs on ethanol imports to
achieve "parity" with the blender's credit, which was reduced in
last year's farm bill.
The farm bill knocked the blender's credit from 51 cents per gallon to 45
cents per gallon. A new Senate measure (pdf) is aimed at knocking down the
54-cent-per-gallon import tariff and the 2.5 percent ad valorem tariff to
achieve "parity" with the lowered blender's tax credit. (Greenwire)
EU action on biofuel
imports - Brussels has acted to stop a so-called 'splash and dash'
operation in which the US dumped biodiesel on Europe.
The move comes after around one million tonnes of US-produced biodiesel
entered the EU in 2007 alone.
A Commission investigation has confirmed claims brought by the European
biodiesel industry and has introduced temporary anti-dumping and
anti-subsidy duties on the imports.
The duties, which started from Friday, vary depending on the company, but
range from €260 up to €410 per tonne. They will remain in place for up
to six months when the member states must vote on whether to propose
'definitive' duties, which normally last for five years.
News of the anti-dumping duties has led to traders predicting the price of
European biodiesel will firm up.
NFU combinable crops board chairman Ian Backhouse said: "For the past
20 years subsidised US soybean products have been seriously undermining
our biofuel markets here and in Europe. (NFU)
Bar-code
healthcare? - For years, JFS has been warning about plans being made
for nationalized electronic medical records, the doublespeak being used to
sell them to an unsuspecting public, and their real purposes. While the
reality is well-known among medical professionals, the public has been
largely kept in the dark, wooed by political and special interest claims
and promises. That is beginning to change.
The Wall Street Journal published a hard-hitting Op-Ed by two Harvard
Medical School physicians that called out the government for acting the
opposite of its promises to the American people to base all policies on
rigorous scientific evidence of benefit. (Junkfood Science)
Feds
undercut ammo supply - But Defense policy reversed after intervention
by 2 Montana senators
Responding to two Democratic senators representing outraged private gun
owners, the Department of Defense announced last night it has scrapped a
new policy that would deplete the supply of ammunition by requiring
destruction of fired military cartridge brass.
The policy already had taken a bite out of the nation's stressed
ammunition supply, leaving arms dealers scrambling to find ammo for
private gun owners. (WorldNetDaily)
Internet
could become environmental watchdog-study - OSLO, March 19 - The
Internet could provide an early warning system for environmental damage,
imitating an online watchdog that gives alerts about outbreaks of disease,
scientists said on Thursday.
An automated trawl of blogs, videos, online news and other sources could
yield bits of information to fill in a bigger picture of problems such as
global warming, pollution, deforestation or over-fishing, they said.
(Reuters)
Beavers 'could
thrive in England' - Beavers could be successfully reintroduced in
many parts of England, a conservation body has argued.
Natural England says a study has shown beavers, already set for
reintroduction in Scotland, could boost wildlife and reduce flooding,
among other benefits.
It is now up to wildlife charities and other groups to decide whether they
would like to embark on such a scheme.
Farmers say landowners' concerns must be taken into account. Beavers were
hunted to extinction in the 1500s. (BBC)
Soil
neglected asset in greenhouse gas fight - BEDFORD, England - John
Ibbett and pigs go back a long way. "The pig manager pushed me round
in a pram," recalls Ibbett, whose family have been farming on the
same site since 1939.
Now he's proud his family farm can turn muck into electricity, using new
technology paid for by a multi-million pound windfall. His Bedfordia Group
is one of only a handful of companies with farm-based biogas plants in
Britain.
Scientists complain that the world has so far failed to support
agriculture in the fight against climate change, focusing instead on more
visible emissions from factories and power plants.
Ibbett raised part of the cash for his multi-million, three-year-old
venture from a property sale far beyond the reach of most family-owned
farms. Although his is a rarity in Britain, more biogas plants are being
established in Denmark, Germany and developing countries.
That momentum could be a precursor for much bigger climate benefits, from
changing farming methods to use the soil's capacity to store vast amounts
of carbon. Experts say this is an area so far almost entirely ignored by
policymakers.
Soils as well as trees can suck carbon out of the air, boosting what
experts call terrestrial carbon. Farmers can nurture carbon underground as
well as crops above by using longer rotations, not over-grazing pasture
and plowing less. (Reuters)
Building soil fertility is good. Depleting atmospheric fertility is
not. Bottom line is that we do not want to stop atmospheric carbon
dioxide recovery -- the biosphere just loves it and so should we.
Will
Success Kill the Pangasius? - The Pangasius, or striped catfish, began
taking the European fish market by storm a few years ago. It satisfied a
voracious appetite for inexpensive white fish. But its success may become
its downfall. (Der Spiegel)
Government
launches bid to allay fears over GM food - PM hopes to gather enough
evidence to prove genetically modified crops are safe
The Government has asked its top scientist to investigate the merits of
genetically modified food in the hope that his verdict will allay public
fears about so-called "Frankenstein foods".
Officially, Gordon Brown and his ministers remain neutral on the issue of
GM because of public hostility, saying that they will be "guided by
the science". But they have quietly ordered a major research project,
which they hope will provide the launchpad for a campaign to persuade
people that GM food is safe.
The study will be led by Professor John Beddington, the Government's Chief
Scientific Officer, and carried out by the Foresight Institute, a science
and technology think-tank that looks into long-term issues for the
Government.
The group's remit – how to feed a world population which could rise to
nine billion by 2050 – makes no mention of the GM issue. But Jane
Kennedy, the minister for Farming and the Environment, told The
Independent yesterday that the group's work would include the potential
for GM crops and food. (The Independent)
March 18, 2009
Hysteria alert: Tom
Brokaw's New Global Warming Documentary - For someone who supposedly
"retired" in 2004, Tom Brokaw has kept plenty busy. He filled in
as moderator of Meet the Press after the death of Tim Russert, pitched in
on campaign coverage for NBC and completed a documentary on global warming
in 2006. Covering the environment isn't a fad for Brokaw — the South
Dakota native is a longtime outdoorsman, often fly-fishing near his home
in Montana and hiking with green friends like Patagonia founder Yvon
Chouinard. The former NBC Nightly News anchor just finished a new climate
change documentary — Global Warming: The New Challenge with Tom Brokaw
— which airs on the Discovery Channel on Mar. 18. Brokaw spoke to TIME
in New York shortly after his return from a biking trip to Africa.
Apparently semi-retirement isn't so bad. (Bryan Walsh, Time)
NASA
scientist to lead British climate change protest - In another example
of scientists politicizing the climate change debate, Dr. James Hansen,
head of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, will lead a protest
in Britain in an attempt to put pressure of the nation’s government to
fight manmade climate change. The event Thursday, called the Climate
Change Day of Action, will be led by Dr. Hansen to the doorstep of British
power company E.ON who is planning a new coal-fired power station.
Hansen, who has recently taken the leap from scientist to activist, is
among the more controversial figures in the debate over anthropogenic
global warming (AGW) and has become known for his harsh commentary on the
subject. He has urged scientists to become political activists to drive
home their concerns about manmade climate change and the dangers they feel
it presents.
The event, a follow-up to last week’s International Scientific Congress
on Climate Change in Copenhagen brings Hansen together with his British
counterparts. Also taking part in the event will be Professor Kevin
Anderson, director of the Tyndall Centre, the British government’s
largest global warming research center and Dr. Simon Lewis, a Royal
Society research fellow, at the Earth and Biosphere Institute at Leeds
University. (Tony Hake, Denver Weather Examiner)
NASA’s
chief climate scientist called out for civil disobedience - NASA’s
chief climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen, is blowing more than hot air
about climate change. Some of his colleagues are calling his participation
in a global warming protest at the Capitol Power Plant in Washington D.C.
on March 2nd inappropriate.
It was the largest public protest of global warming ever in the United
States, with more than 2,500 former coal miners, ministers, mothers,
students, and climate activists, representing over 40 states, gathering to
block all five entrances to the Capitol Power Plant for nearly four hours.
On the website capitolclimateaction.org, which posted videos of the
protest, Dr. Hansen can be spotted on the front lines and speaking to the
crowd.
Critics say Hansen’s participation blurs the line between astronomer and
activist and may violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees
from participating in partisan political activity. (OhMyGov.com)
Wrong:
World Health Organization claims that health goes down as carbon goes up
- Does health go down as carbon goes up, and vice versa, per the World
Health Organization’s claim?
Guest post by: Indur M. Goklany
A World Health Organization (WHO) communiqué to an International congress
on climate change in Copenhagen designed to sound the alarm on climate
change, states that it estimates “around 150,000 deaths now occur in
low-income countries each year due to climate change from four
climate-sensitive health outcomes - crop failure and malnutrition,
diarrhoeal disease, malaria and flooding.” [To get an inkling of the
quality of these estimates, which are based on modeling studies, see
here.] Then, citing “increased risks of extreme weather events, to
effects on infectious disease dynamics and sea level rise,” the
comminiqué declares that “as carbon goes up health goes down.” It
then claims that “a large part of the current burden of disease is
linked to energy consumption and transport systems. Changing these systems
to reduce climate change would have the added benefit of addressing some
major public health issues, including outdoor air pollution (800 000
annual global deaths); traffic accidents (1.2 million annual deaths);
physical inactivity (1.9 million deaths); and indoor air pollution (1.5
million annual deaths).” Accordingly it argues, “Reducing green house
gases [sic] emissions can be beneficial to health: as carbon goes down
health goes up.”
But what do empirical data show? (Watts Up With That?)
The
2nd International Conference on Global Warming: An Intellectual Feast
- The Second Annual International Conference on Global Warming was held
March 8-10 in New York City. It featured more than 700 scientists,
economists, geologists, biologists, and writers.
There were more than 80 speakers from 14 different countries extending
from Sweden and Norway to Australia and New Zealand. This was a meeting of
climate realists, who view the climate issues with the simple basics of
hard nosed science.
The current international exaggerations on global warming are surprisingly
popular yet empty of supporting evidence. All too few ask for the evidence
when told of scare stories of rising tides, dying polar bears, stronger
hurricanes and mosquitoes moving North, while any supporting evidence is
notably absent. (Michael R. Fox, Hawaii Reporter)
What
message, and whose, from Copenhagen? - Last week's climate science
conference in Copenhagen concluded with a declaration saying that the most
serious warnings on climate change were coming true, and calling for
immediate "action". But, argues Mike Hulme in the Green Room, it
is not clear what action was being called for, nor precisely who was
calling for it. (Mike Hulme, BBC)
The Arctic has cold and nasty weather? Go figure... North
Pole team on half rations in bad weather - MONTREAL — Three British
explorers trying to ski to the North Pole to measure the thickness of sea
ice only have one day's food left as bad weather hampers supply flights,
the mission said Tuesday.
Project director and ice team leader Pen Hadow and his colleagues Martin
Hartley and Ann Daniels are now down to half rations and fighting to
survive in brutal sub-zero weather conditions.
"We're hungry, the cold is relentless, our sleeping bags are full of
ice and, because we're not moving, the colder we get," Hadow said
Tuesday in a statement from the London headquarters of the Catlin Arctic
Survey.
"Waiting is almost the worst part of an expedition as we're in the
lap of the weather gods. This is basic survival." (AFP)
<chuckle> Submarine
makes climate change discoveries - A robot submarine has found clues
to rising world sea levels by making trips deep beneath an ice shelf in
Antarctica, scientists say.
The 7-metre submarine was making the first inspection of the underside of
the shelf off the Pine Island glacier, in a US-British mission.
"Because so little is known about ice sheet behaviour, this research
will take us a step further in understanding how ice sheets will
contribute to sea level rise," Stan Jacobs, the US lead scientist
from Columbia University, said in a statement. (Reuters)
Actually they do get around to admitting this is merely a tiny data
snapshot and not any sort of gorebull warming discovery -- not that
headline browsers will ever know..
History
made as Jones et al 2008 paper admits huge urban warming in IPCC flagship
CRUT3 gridded data over China - So sceptics have been correct for
decades.
Yes you have to pinch yourself, the old canard so long clung to by the
IPCC, that the urban influence in large area gridded data is “an order
of magnitude less than the warming seen on a century timescale” is now
severely compromised.
The IPCC drew that conclusion from the Jones
et al 1990 Letter to Nature which examined temperature data from
regions in Eastern Australia, Western USSR and Eastern China, to conclude
that “In none of the three regions studied is there any indication of
significant urban influence..” That has led to the IPCC claim that for
decades, urban warming is less than 0.05 per century.
Now Jones
et al 2008 are saying in their Abstract, “Urban-related warming over
China is shown to be about 0.1 degree per decade, hey that equates
to a degree per century. Huge. (Warwick Hughes)
Europe,
US to work together on global warming - Top environmental officials
from Europe say they are encouraged by the United States' new stance on
climate change.
After spending years encouraging the Bush administration to take action,
three European environmental ministers said Tuesday that the U.S. appears
ready to work with them on a new international agreement to curb the
emissions blamed for global warming.
The officials were in Washington to meet with members of the Obama
administration and Congress in preparation for negotiations on a new
global treaty, which are scheduled for Copenhagen, Denmark in December.
The Europeans also offered to work closely with the U.S. on climate change
matters.
"We've been waiting for eight years," said Martin Bursik, the
Czech Republic's environment minister at a briefing Tuesday. (Associated
Press)
but: UN
climate chief hustles on global warming deal - COPENHAGEN, Mar 17 -
Big gaps remain in a new U.N. deal on global warming meant to be agreed in
December and time is running worryingly short with just 265 days left, the
U.N. climate chief said on Tuesday.
Yvo de Boer criticised a meeting of European Union finance ministers last
week, which he said put conditions on financial help for climate action in
developing countries, contrary to promises at the launch of the two-year
climate talks in Bali in 2007.
The talks are meant to conclude in Copenhagen in December with a new
climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol after 2012. One battleground
is between industrialised and developing countries on how to split the
cost of curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
"How are things looking in terms of that agreement? Worrying,"
he told reporters on the sidelines of a carbon trading conference in
Copenhagen.
"Countries have not come forward with specific proposals on how
aspects of the Copenhagen agreement can work in practice," he told
Reuters, referring to "gaps" in a document meant to form the
basis of a legal text. (Reuters)
White House
may seek to bypass filibuster rule in Senate - WASHINGTON — A top
White House official threatened Tuesday to use a congressional rule to
force some controversial proposals through the Senate by eliminating the
Republicans' power to block legislation.
Peter Orszag, the director of the White House Office of Management and
Budget, said the Obama administration would prefer not to use the budget
"reconciliation" process that allows measures to pass the Senate
on simple majority votes.
Orszag said he wouldn't rule it out, however. The legislative tactic is
being considered to push through Obama's global warming and health care
programs, and perhaps his proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy.
"We'd like to avoid it if possible," Orszag told reporters at a
luncheon in Washington. "But we're not taking it off the table."
(McClatchy Newspapers)
India
hits out at developed nations on climate change - Action on climate
change mechanisms cannot be based on conditions, says Shyam Saran,
India’s special envoy on climate change
New Delhi: India on Monday strongly hit out at developed nations for
putting “conditions” and “adding dimensions” such as carbon tariff
and trade competitiveness for action on climate change.
“Action on climate change cannot be based on conditions. Once we start
going in that directions than it means we start going for protectionism
under green label and it is harmful to India’s interest seeking
sustainable development,” said Shyam Saran, India’s special envoy on
climate change. (PTI)
Narrow
Thinking In A New PNAS Paper ”Irreversible Climate Change Due To Carbon
Dioxide Emissions” By Solomon Et Al 2009 - There is a new paper in
the Proceedings of the National Academy. It is Susan Solomon, Gian-Kasper
Plattner, Reto Knutti, and Pierre Friedlingstein, 2009: “Irreversible
climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions“. www.pnas.org
cgi.doi10.1073pnas.0812721106.
This paper has a number of issues with its scientific robustness, however,
this weblog will focus on just one. It is the continued inappropriately
too narrow view of how humans are altering the climate system. (Roger
Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Beryllium
10 and climate - Quick primer:
Beryllium-10 is an isotope that is a proxy for the sun’s activity. Be10
is produced in the atmosphere by cosmic ray collisions with atoms of
oxygen and nitrogen. Beryllium 10 concentrations are linked to cosmic ray
intensity which can be a proxy for solar strength.
One way to capture earth’s record of that proxy data is to drill deep
ice cores. Greenland, due to having a large and relatively stable deep ice
sheet is often the target for drilling ice cores.
Isotopic analysis of the ice in the core can be linked to temperature and
global sea level variations. Analysis of the air contained in bubbles in
the ice can reveal the palaeocomposition of the atmosphere, in particular
CO2 variations. Volcanic eruptions leave identifiable ash layers.
While it sounds simple to analyze, there are issues of ice compression,
flow, and other factors that must be taken into consideration when doing
reconstructions from such data. I attended a talk at ICCC 09 that showed
one of the ice core operations had procedures that left significant
contamination issues for CO2. But since Beryllium is rather rare, it
doesn’t seem to have the same contamination issues attached. - Anthony
(Watts Up With That?)
Oh dear... Informing
Decisions in a Changing Climate - Climate change will create a novel
and dynamic decision environment that cannot be envisioned from past
experience. Moreover, climatic changes will be superimposed on social and
economic changes that are altering the climate vulnerability of different
regions and sectors of society, as well as their ability to cope. Decision
makers will need new kinds of information and new ways of thinking and
learning to function effectively in a changing climate.
Climate change also poses challenges for federal agencies and for the
scientific community. Scientific priorities and practices need to change
so that the scientific community can provide better support to decision
makers in managing emerging climate risks. The information that is needed
is not only about climate, but also about changes in social and economic
conditions that interact with climate change.
Informing Decisions in a Changing Climate provides a framework and a set
of strategies and methods for organizing and evaluating decision support
activities related to climate change. Based on basic knowledge of decision
making; past experiences in other fields; experience with early efforts in
the climate arena; and input from a range of decision makers, the book
identifies six principles of effective decision support and recommends a
strategy for implementing them in a national initiative to inform
climate-related decisions. (NAP)
Fit for
purpose? - An attempt to write a piece involving comparisons of data
for predicted and actual temperatures prompted a search for illustrations.
It was rather disturbing to find how many of these were based on linear
trend lines only, without inclusion of the original data. We have
discussed elsewhere some of the problems associated with linear trends,
but perhaps a cruder illustration, provided by a couple of minutes with
Excel, will serve to underline a cause for concern. (Number Watch)
From CO2 Science this week:
Video Editorial: Your
"Carbon Legacy"
A new study signals what may be on the legislative horizon if proponents
of large CO2 emission reductions (Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack
Obama) have their way with the USA. And what it is may surprise if not
shock you.
Click here
to read the text of this Editorial. Click
here to watch other short videos on various global warming topics and
to embed any of our videos on your own web page or to watch them on
YouTube in a higher resolution.
Medieval
Warm Period Record of the Week
Was there a Medieval Warm Period? YES, according to data
published by 684
individual scientists from 400
separate research institutions in 40
different countries ... and counting! This issue's Medieval Warm
Period Record of the Week comes from Lake
Chen Co, Southern Tibet, China. To access the entire Medieval Warm
Period Project's database, click
here.
Subject Index Summary
Solar
Influence on Climate (Irradiance Measurements): How good is the
evidence for variable solar activity being the primary determinant of
earth's ever-changing climate?
Plant Growth Data
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses
to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the
peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Eldarica
Pine, Rice,
Silver
Dollar Gum, and Whiteflower
Kurrajong.
Journal Reviews
Climatic
Conditions in the Fjord Area of Southern Chile: How have they varied
over the past eighteen centuries?
Tree-Trunk
Tombs Tell Tales of Temperatures Past: What do they reveal about the
Medieval Warm Period in China?
The Impact of
Urbanization on the Surface Carbon Balance: Is it positive or
negative?
Cash-Crop
Halophytes in a CO2-Enriched World: Will there be a place for them?
In Vitro
and Ex Vitro Growth of an Epiphytic CAM Orchid: How is it
impacted by atmospheric CO2 enrichment? (co2science.org)
Salwan:
Global warming may affect dog's health - Global warming has been
blamed for everything from an increase in hurricanes to rising sea levels
and polar glacial activity. Could it also be affecting the health and
well-being of your dog? (The Argus)
White
House open to directional drilling in ANWR - WASHINGTON -- Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday he would consider tapping oil from
Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by drilling outside its
boundaries if it can be shown that the refuge's wildlife and environment
will remain undisturbed. But Salazar emphasized that the Obama
administration stands firm that the Alaska refuge, known as ANWR, "is
a very special place" that must be protected and that he is not yet
convinced directional drilling would meet that test. (Associated Press)
Energy
executive: Va. should drill offshore - Virginia and the federal
government need to get behind offshore drilling to bring money and jobs to
the state, an energy company executive says.
"We have the [energy] resources," said the executive, J. Larry
Nichols. "We just don't yet have the will to go develop them."
Nichols is chairman and CEO of Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp., one
of the country's largest independent oil and natural-gas exploration and
production companies. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Don't these idiots know anything at all? Loophole
Gives Fodder To Offshore Drilling Foes - WASHINGTON - Oil and gas
companies that have leased millions of offshore federal acres are not
required to produce the energy supplies those tracts may hold, the
Interior Department's Inspector General told Congress on Tuesday.
The IG's finding could help support the argument made by environmental
groups and many U.S. lawmakers that the government should not open new
offshore areas to drilling when companies are not using some 68 million
acres they have already leased.
"With respect to nonproducing leases, we found that oil and gas
companies that own federal drilling leases have little obligation to
actually produce," IG Mary Kendall told a House subcommittee
conducting a hearing on the issue. "The Department has no formal
policy to compel companies to bring these leases into production."
Kendall said existing regulations and policies promote energy exploration,
but production activities are not required to occur during the life of the
leases. (Reuters)
What do they think, that oil extraction is as simple as sticking a
straw in the planet? Only a small fraction of leases contain currently
economically-recoverable oil reserves and even then they may have to
wait until there is suitable infrastructure to handle the extracted
product. This is not a case of just sail up and suck it out. Dopey
buggers!
Sentiment Toward Nuclear Power
Improving: Study - HOUSTON - Consumers around the world, worried about
reliable energy supplies and pollution, said their countries should use
less oil, natural gas and coal to make electricity and use more nuclear
and renewable power, according to a 20-country survey by Accenture.
In Accenture's Multinational Nuclear Power Survey, 88 percent of the more
than 10,500 respondents said reducing reliance on fossil-fueled power
generation was "important" or "very important" to
improve energy security and trim emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse
gas blamed for climate change. (Reuters)
Shell Goes Cold On Wind,
Solar, Hydrogen Energy - LONDON - Oil Major Royal Dutch Shell Plc
doesn't plan to make any more large investments in wind and solar energy
in the future and does not expect hydrogen to play an important role in
energy supply for some time.
"We do not expect material amounts of investment in those areas going
forward," Linda Cook, head of Shell's gas and power unit told
reporters at a press conference on Tuesday.
"They continue to struggle to compete with the other investment
opportunities we have in our portfolio," Cook said of solar and wind.
Shell's future involvement in renewables will be principally limited to
biofuels, which the world's second-largest non- government-controlled oil
company by market value believes is a better fit with its core oil and gas
operations. (Reuters)
Anger
after government halts solar energy grant programme - The government
ran into a storm of criticism yesterday after quietly closing its grant
programme for solar energy last week, which campaigners said made a
mockery of its commitment to build a low-carbon economy.
The controversial low-carbon buildings programme is a grant system aimed
at boosting renewable energies including wind, biomass and solar. It was
due to close this summer but last week the Department of Energy and
Climate Change (DECC) put an announcement on its website saying that
applications for solar photovoltaic (PV) projects on public buildings such
as schools and hospitals were running at such high levels that they had
used up their allocated share of half of the £50m grant pot ahead of
time. (The Guardian)
Labor's
conflict of interest blows ill wind - IT'S the green mafia at work.
The Brumby Government forces you to pay extra to prop up wind farms owned
mostly by union-backed funds.
Next it could force you to pay even more to prop up a $3.1 billion
desalination plant financed mostly by another union-backed super fund.
This Labor-union link in "green" projects is a conflict of
interest that could cost us millions - and stop Labor from giving us the
dam we badly need. (Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun)
Near
miss, but no threat - Asteroid in close pass was smaller than thought,
astronomer shows
On March 2, an asteroid whizzed past the Earth at a distance of just
41,000 miles -- a near miss by cosmic standards (most communications
satellites orbit at a distance of about 22,300 miles from Earth).
Headlines around the world proclaimed that Earth had dodged a bullet, and
many mentioned that if the space rock had hit our planet, it might have
packed a punch comparable to the Tunguska impact in 1908 that flattened
trees over an 800-square-mile area in Siberia.
But some fast-tracking observations by MIT Professor of Planetary Sciences
Richard Binzel proved that this rock was actually much smaller than that.
Likely just 19 meters (about 60 feet) across, it would probably have
disintegrated high in the atmosphere, with only a few small fragments
making it to the ground. (David Chandler, MIT News)
Peter
Foster: Comrade Manning, science guru - Preston Manning’s
recommendations are based on the deeply flawed notion that scientific
innovation requires government funding. (National Post)
Plastic people sure think they know a lot about everything, don't
they? Sammy
Wilson is a flat earther, fumes eco-film maker - Northern Ireland’s
environment minister has come under fire once again for his controversial
views on global warming, this time from the director of a major new movie
on the subject.
Sammy Wilson — who controversially believes that climate change is not
man made — has already said he will not be going to see environmental
docu-drama The Age of Stupid, which opens in Belfast later this month.
The film, which is set 50 years in the future, stars Pete Postlethwaite as
an old man looking back at archive footage from 2008 and asking why more
was not done to stop climate change. (Belfast Telegraph)
Funny, if they'd actually done something useful as far as education
goes, rather than learning to formally play games of make-believe, they
would probably know enough to shut up about things they plainly don't
understand.
How
Elite Environmentalists Impoverish Blue-Collar Americans - The great
Central Valley of California has never been an easy place. Dry and almost
uninhabitable by nature, the state's engineering marvels brought water
down from the north and the high Sierra, turning semi-desert into some of
the richest farmland in the world.
Yet today, amid drought conditions, large parcels of the
valley--particularly on its west side--are returning to desert; and in the
process, an entire economy based on large-scale, high-tech agriculture is
being brought to its knees. You can see this reality in the increasingly
impoverished rural towns scattered along this region, places like Mendota
and Avenal, Coalinga and Lost Hills.
In some towns, unemployment is now running close to 40%. Overall, the
water-related farming cutbacks could affect up to 300,000 acres and could
cost up to 80,000 jobs.
However, the depression conditions in the great valley reflect more than a
mere water shortage. They are the direct result of conscious actions by
environmental activists to usher in a new era of scarcity. (Joel Kotkin,
Forbes)
March 17, 2009
This utter rubbish, again: Drowning
islands warn of future perils for 'environmental refugees' -- There is
one holiday destination that should shake the faith of even the most
vehement climate change skeptic: the Carteret Islands, part of Papua New
Guinea, located northeast of Bougainville.
The Carteret Islands are just one of a number of places already feeling
the effects of climate change.
The palm trees sway gently under a balmy sun, the beaches are perfect, and
stretched out as far as the eye can see is the wide blue of the Pacific
Ocean.
The only problem with this idyllic scene is that the water is getting
closer; slowly but surely, as global warming bites and sea levels rise,
the islands are being swallowed up, leaving the few hundred inhabitants
pondering an uncertain future. (CNN)
Guess what? Relative sea levels are rising around these islands but
this is not because the sea is getting taller, nor does it have anything
to do with greenhouse gas or global temperature. The Carteret Islands
are sinking due to tectonic
activity and associated volcanism because the Pacific Plate is
sliding into the Bismarck and Solomon Plates, some of the islands in the
associated Duke of York group are sinking 30 centimetres (11.8 inches) a
year.
Arctic
states gather to try to save polar bear from global warming - Towering
at the top of the food chain, the polar bear need not worry about
predators but nonetheless faces a daunting enemy: climate change, which is
jeopardising the very survival of the species. (AFP)
Actually they do have predators -- people and each other (bears'
biggest worry beyond finding enough to eat are bigger bears or younger,
stronger bears). Modern transport and hunting weapons saw a significant
decline in bear populations and hunting controls have seen a huge
increase in populations, which suggests the bears do fine so long as not
too many are blown away for food and/or trophies. Polar bears survived
the Holocene Climate Optimum, when temperatures were warmer and Arctic
sea ice significantly less so we have no realistic reason to suppose
they are at risk from any warming which might occur.
Hunters
under fire in battle to save polar bear from extinction - Summit to
discuss limits on hunting as starvation hits numbers of Arctic predators
A limit on the hunting of polar bears by sportsmen and native Arctic
people will top the agenda at an international summit in Norway tomorrow,
seen as vital to the survival of the predator. Although few people outside
the Arctic realise it, there is still a major legal hunt for the animals
in four out of the five states that host the bears: Canada, Greenland,
Alaska in the US, and Russia. In Norway, stalking is banned. (The
Independent)
Wouldn't the press be in a frenzy if buds burst 2 weeks early? Crops
Behind Schedule - RICHLAND-- Mother Nature has decided that
Washington's famous fruit baskets may come a little late this year.
Farmers say apples, cherries and peaches are about two weeks behind
schedule.
Usually, the trees would be blooming at this time of year, but orchardist
Jeff Rippon says he hasn't even seen any buds yet.
"They just are sitting here shivering like the people, wondering,
'Where is global warming?'" he said with a laugh.
Rippon says the late season is not necessarily a bad thing. Farmers don't
have to worry about the usual money and headache of protecting their crops
from frost damage. (KEPRTV)
Update:
More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global
Warming Claims - Outpouring of Skeptical Scientists Continues as 59
Scientists Added to Senate Report - ‘The science has, quite simply,
gone awry’
Washington DC: Fifty nine additional scientists from around the world have
been added to the U.S. Senate Minority Report of dissenting scientists,
pushing the total to over 700 skeptical international scientists – a
dramatic increase from the original 650 scientists featured in the initial
December 11, 2008 release. The 59 additional scientists added to the
255-page Senate Minority report since the initial release 13 ½ weeks ago
represents an average of over four skeptical scientists a week. This
updated report – which includes yet another former UN IPCC scientist –
represents an additional 300 (and growing) scientists and climate
researchers since the initial report’s release in December 2007. (EPW)
If
You Can’t Explain It, You Can’t Model It - Guest Post by Steven
Goddard
Global Climate Models (GCM’s) are very complex computer models
containing millions of lines of code, which attempt to model cosmic,
atmospheric and oceanic processes that affect the earth’s climate. This
have been built over the last few decades by groups of very bright
scientists, including many of the top climate scientists in the world.
(Watts Up With That?)
Version 4: Falsification
Of The Atmospheric CO2 Greenhouse Effects Within The Frame Of Physics
- Abstract: The atmospheric greenhouse effect, an idea that many authors
trace back to the traditional works of Fourier (1824), Tyndall (1861), and
Arrhenius (1896), and which is still supported in global climatology,
essentially describes a fictitious mechanism, in which a planetary
atmosphere acts as a heat pump driven by an environment that is
radiatively interacting with but radiatively equilibrated to the
atmospheric system. According to the second law of thermodynamics such a
planetary machine can never exist. Nevertheless, in almost all texts of
global climatology and in a widespread secondary literature it is taken
for granted that such mechanism is real and stands on a firm scientific
foundation. In this paper the popular conjecture is analyzed and the
underlying physical principles are clarified. By showing that (a) there
are no common physical laws between the warming phenomenon in glass houses
and the fictitious atmospheric greenhouse effects, (b) there are no
calculations to determine an average surface temperature of a planet, (c)
the frequently mentioned difference of 33 degrees Celsius is a meaningless
number calculated wrongly, (d) the formulas of cavity radiation are used
inappropriately, (e) the assumption of a radiative balance is unphysical,
(f) thermal conductivity and friction must not be set to zero, the
atmospheric greenhouse conjecture is falsified. (Gerhard Gerlich and Ralf
D. Tscheuschner, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics)
Global
warming's no longer happening - So why are eco types moaning about
record highs while ignoring record lows?
So far this month, at least 14 major weather stations in Alberta have
recorded their lowest-ever March temperatures. I'm not talking about daily
records; I mean they've recorded the lowest temperatures they've ever seen
in the entire month of March since temperatures began being recorded in
Alberta in the 1880s. (Lorne Gunter, The Edmonton Journal)
In the virtual realm: New
York Flood Risk to Grow as Weaker Currents Raise Sea Level - March 16
-- The Big Apple faces a greater flood risk over the next century as
weaker Atlantic currents raise sea levels on the U.S. East Coast by more
than in London or Tokyo.
Global warming will alter Atlantic Ocean circulation in a way that will
move more water to New York by 2100, Florida State University-led
scientists said in a study in Nature Geoscience today. Including the
expansion of water as it warms, the total gain may be 51 centimeters (20
inches), they said, not counting effects of melting ice sheets in
Greenland and Antarctica. (Bloomberg)
U.S.,
China, Europe should tax CO2 - NASA expert - OSLO, March 16 - U.S.
President Barack Obama should seek an alliance with China and Europe to
tax greenhouse gas emissions and abandon his plans for carbon trading, a
leading U.S. scientist said on Monday.
James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said
the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol had exposed flaws in a cap-and-trade plan
favoured by Obama for fighting climate change.
An international tax of perhaps $1 per gallon (3.8 litres) of gasoline, he
said, was simpler and better. (Reuters)
8
Dems oppose quick debate on global warming bill - WASHINGTON -- Eight
Senate Democrats are opposing speedy action on President Barack Obama's
bill to combat global warming, complicating prospects for the legislation
and creating problems for their party's leaders.
The eight Democrats disapprove of using the annual budget debate to pass
Obama's "cap and trade" bill to fight greenhouse gas emissions,
a measure that divides lawmakers, environmentalists and businesses. The
lawmakers' opposition makes it more difficult for Democratic leaders to
move the bill without a threat of a Republican filibuster.
The budget debate is the only way to circumvent Senate rules that allow a
unified GOP to stop a bill through filibusters. (Associated Press)
ANALYSIS - Obama Compromise On
Carbon Could Cut Revenues - NEW YORK - If the United States gives
industry too many permits to emit greenhouse gases in a future climate
regulation plan, it could cut revenues that had been expected to fund tax
breaks and clean energy development.
President Barack Obama indicated to the Business Roundtable on Thursday he
had some flexibility in making carbon emitters -- like coal-fired power
plants, cement makers and oil refineries -- buy all of the permits in any
cap-and-trade emissions plan
"If it's so onerous that people can't meet it, then it defeats the
purpose and politically we can't get it done anyway, so we're going to
have to find a structure that arrives at that right balance," Obama
said late Thursday.
Giving any permits away, instead of selling them all to industry in an
auction, would represent a shift in Obama's carbon regulation policy.
(Reuters)
Cap-and-trade:
Obama's 'economic dagger' - Prospects for passage of President Barack
Obama’s cap-and-trade solution for global warming have become decidedly
chillier since the idea was first proposed in 2002. Obama wants to cut CO2
emissions 80 percent by 2050. He’s got his work cut out for him. Not
only are hundreds of credible climate scientists now publicly debunking
former vice-president Al Gore’s claims of apocalyptic environmental
disaster, a new Gallup poll reveals that 41 percent of Americans believe
such alarms are “exaggerated.” Most significantly, more than 650
prominent international scientists now oppose the findings of the U.N.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC)., which are the basis
of the Obama proposal. By our math, the 52 authors of the IPCC report who
are climate scientists are out-numbered 12-to-1 by their scientific
critics.
Former Senate Environmental Committee chairman James Inhofe, R-OK, insists
that the IPCC report, funded by government grants and liberal-leaning
foundations, was written by “bought and paid for” scientists with a
pre-determined agenda. Inhofe has opposed the cap-and-trade concept ever
since the original McCain-Lieberman bill was introduced in the
Republican-controlled Senate. Only two of his Senate colleagues offered to
join Inhofe then. Now, more than two dozen have joined the growing ranks
committed to defeating the identical Warner-Lieberman bill. (Examiner
Editorial)
Hmm... not too sure about the "bought and paid for" line,
we suspect it's more a case of ideologues than paid shills but it is
certainly true that there are grants for warmists but not for those who
would check their homework.
US Cap/Trade Bill May Not Pass
This Year - Senator - WASHINGTON - Congress will not be able to pass
legislation capping carbon emissions in 2009 if the economy continues its
downward slide, a key Republican senator said Monday.
"If the economy is still where we are right now, I would suggest to
you it's not happening this year," Senator Lisa Murkowski told
reporters at a Platts Energy Podium.
Murkowski, ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee, said she did not think lawmakers would burden consumers with
the higher energy costs associated with a cap and trade system during a
significant recession. (Reuters)
Lawmakers
thwart Gregoire's cap-and-trade plan on climate - Gov. Chris
Gregoire's attempt to push Washington to the forefront of climate-change
regulation appears dead — mortally wounded in the state Legislature by
fears it could hurt the economy and be vulnerable to rip-offs.
Both the state House and Senate have balked at adopting the so-called
"cap-and-trade" system that would have forced industries to cut
greenhouse-gas emissions to fall below a cap or buy extra permits in
something resembling a stock market. (Seattle Times)
U.S., China
worlds apart on climate change curbs - WASHINGTON — China's top
climate negotiator's visit to Washington on Monday sent a fresh signal
that the two countries, which account for about half the world's
greenhouse gas emissions, have a long way to go to reach a common
agreement on how to cut emissions to prevent serious climate change.
(McClatchy Newspapers)
China:
Importers need to share blame for emissions - Countries importing
Chinese goods should be responsible for the heat-trapping gases released
when the products are manufactured, a top Chinese official said Monday.
Li Gao, China's top climate negotiator, said that any fair international
agreement to curb the gases blamed for global warming would not require
China to reduce emissions caused by other countries' demand.
China has surpassed the U.S. as the world's largest emitter of greenhouse
gases. But 15-25 percent of its emissions are generated by manufacturing
goods for export, Gao said.
"As one of the developing countries, we are at the low end of the
production line for the global economy. We produce products and these
products are consumed by other countries...this share of emissions should
be taken by the consumers, but not the producers," said Gao, who
directs the climate change department at the National Development and
Reform Commission. Gao made the comments at a briefing Monday at the U.S.
Capitol's visitor center.
China's stance could be one of the stumbling blocks facing the U.S.,
China's largest trading partner, when negotiations to broker a new
international treaty begin in Copenhagen, Denmark in December. Gao said
China was not alone in thinking that emissions generated by the production
of exports should be dealt with by importing countries. (Associated Press)
A fair enough position, too. The EU will hate it, of course, since
they are driving this nonsense not out of concern over greenhouse gases
but as a means to leverage advantage for their overpriced and
inefficient industry. Fortunately carbon dioxide emissions are basically
all upside feeding the biosphere with no known negative effects.
‘Green
New Deal’ Fails to Get Funding in Britain, Lawmakers Say - March 16
-- Britain’s spending on public transportation and home insulation falls
short of a “Green New Deal” needed to forge environmentally friendly
growth, a committee of lawmakers said.
A 535-million-pound ($750 million) “green stimulus” announced by
Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling in November includes only 100
million pounds of new funds, the Environmental Audit Committee said in a
report today critical of the plan. Most of the funds are merely
accelerated spending on railways and energy efficiency already pledged in
future budgets.
“Taking money out of a budget two years down the road and bringing it
forward to this year doesn’t really count as a ‘green new deal’ at
all,” said committee Chairman Tim Yeo, in an interview. “That’s very
disappointing.” (Bloomberg)
D'oh! UK
government carbon targets 'too weak' to prevent dangerous climate change,
scientists say - Official advice being used to set Britain's first
carbon budget is "naïvely optimistic" and will not stop
dangerous climate change, experts from the Tyndall Centre for Climate
Change Research say
Proposed government carbon targets are too weak to prevent dangerous
levels of global warming, according to a new analysis by leading
scientists. Ministers are poised to introduce strict limits on UK carbon
pollution when they announce Britain's first carbon budget next month. But
experts from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research warn today
that official advice used to set the budget is "naïvely
optimistic" and will not stop dangerous climate change.
It comes after scientists at a global warming conference in Copenhagen
last week warned that emissions are rising faster than expected, and that
climate change could strike harder and faster than predicted. (The
Guardian)
Dopey blighters! Doesn't matter whether people stop emitting carbon
dioxide altogether we still can't knowingly and predictably affect the
world's climate.
Why
should we pay for the beliefs of others? - Christopher Booker is
bemused that more that 5,000 UK companies are having to spend millions on
"carbon credits".
I was intrigued to note when I bought a £216 air ticket to New York that
an additional £80 was charged in tax introduced to combat global warming,
When I got home it was reported that 5,000 more UK companies, from banks
to hotels, are faced with a yearly cost of £660 million to buy
"carbon credits" under the EU's "emissions trading
scheme" (ETS). (Daily Telegraph)
The
Unwisdom of Solomon, Bad Logic, Bad Science and Bad Policies - Early
in 2009, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published
“Irreversible climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions,” by
Susan Solomon of NOAA and three colleagues. This lurid paper said that
“the severity of damaging, human-induced climate change depends not only
on the magnitude of the change but also on the potential for
irreversibility,” and that “the climate change that takes place due to
increases in CO2 concentration is largely irreversible for 1000 years
after emissions stop.”
The Solomon paper talks of “irreversible impacts,” such as dry-season
reductions in rainfall leading to “dustbowl” conditions in several
regions, and “inexorable sea-level rise” of “several meters.”
However, the paper is entirely predicated on two implicit but false
assumptions: that the computer modeling on which all of its conclusions
are based is competent to predict the state of the climate a millennium or
more in the future; and that the effect of atmospheric carbon-dioxide
enrichment on global mean surface temperatures will be substantial.
This collection of essays is in direct response to, and sound refutation
of, the Susan Solomon paper. It is intended for state and federal policy
makers and the public which elects them. No public policy, regardless of
how small or large in scope, could wisely be based on the Solomon paper,
or any similarly speculative claims. (SPPI)
Kafka
at Albany - Last June I reported on the allegations of academic fraud
levelled by a British mathematician, Doug Keenan, against Professor
Wei-Chyung Wang of New York State University at Albany.
Dr Keenan alleged that in work that has come to be widely cited in climate
studies, work that included the collation of data from temperature
measuring stations in China, Professor Wang made statements that
"cannot be true and could not be in error by accident. The statements
are fabricated."
In August 2007, Dr Keenan submitted a report (pdf) of his allegations to
the Vice President for Research at Wang's university and an inquiry was
initiated. In February 2008 this was escalated into a full investigation
by the Inquiry Committee.
All this was summarised in my earlier post, together with quotations from
Dr Keenan's allegation.
So far, things had run as might be expected. A fraud had been alleged, the
University at Albany looked into it and decided to hold a formal
investigation. Dr Keenan waited to be contacted by the investigation and
asked to put his case, in line with the university's Policy and Procedures
on Misconduct in Research and Scholarship (.doc). The relevant section of
this document runs as follows (emphasis added): (Freeborn John)
Labor
heartland turns on ETS as modelling shows greater regional impact -
THE mayors of three of the nation's biggest mining cities have demanded
Kevin Rudd delay introducing carbon emissions trading, warning it will
smash jobs and seriously damage key regional areas.
The mayors of the traditional Labor strongholds of Newcastle, Gladstone
and Mount Isa have called for the emissions trading scheme to be put off.
And the managing director of Frontier Economics, Danny Price, who
conducted still-secret modelling for the NSW Treasury on the Rudd
Government's plan, said the impact of the scheme across industrial
regions, including central Queensland, the Hunter and Illawarra in NSW and
Victoria's Gippsland, would be "very high" and "very
severe". (The Australian)
An
ETS won't cut it in this climate - EVERYONE knows that theoretically a
carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme can deliver the same emissions
reduction and price of carbon. One does so by putting a price on carbon
(and forcing a reduction in emissions); the other by limiting the supply
of permits to emit, raising the price for permits. In principle, either
approach could work.
But Fairfax columnist Ross Gittins claims most economists favour a carbon
tax because "they believe it would be easier politically".
Really? Most economists understand politicians hate new taxes because
voters hate all taxes and politicians fear being punished at the polls.
Most economists understand the carbon pollution reduction scheme, with
permits issued mainly high up the supply chain, is easier politically. It
panders to the public's misapprehension that nasty big polluters will pay
and blurs the reality that increased costs will flow to consumers.
Most economists also understand that the CPRS is likely to be inefficient,
consuming excessive resources.
Most economists agree that there's not a lot of political courage about.
Europe's ETS experience shows it hasn't had the courage to limit permits
enough. European Kyoto targets have been more honoured in the breach than
in the observance. The carbon price has tanked as permits are flogged by
cash-strapped companies during the global financial crisis. Indeed,
European permits are a new sub-prime asset.
Gittins has lazily bought the Government's line that trading in permits
via the CPRS "fits in better with what other countries are
doing", but what are they doing? (Geoff Carmody, The Australian)
Opposition Grows To
Australia's CO2 Trade Scheme - CANBERRA - Major political opponents to
Australia's carbon trading plans hardened their stance on Monday, adding
pressure on the government to make radical changes to get the scheme
passed by parliament.
The ruling Labor party needs either the support of two independent and
five Greens senators or the main opposition Liberal party to pass the
emissions trading laws in the Senate.
But all three have stepped up their opposition, saying it cannot be passed
by parliament in its current form. The government unveiled the draft
emissions trading laws last week.
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon, one of the seven swing-vote senators
the government needs to support the laws, said the emissions trading
scheme (ETS) had no backing outside Labor.
"It should be pretty clear to the government now that in its current
form this legislation won't pass the Senate," Xenophon told
reporters. (Reuters)
Emissions
trading scheme hits brick wall - Plans for emissions trading have hit
a brick wall after a majority of senators said they would vote against the
government's scheme. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Stupid,
feckless, greedy: that’s you that is - spiked reports from the
premiere of The Age of Stupid, a cretinous film that unwittingly exposes
the elitism and dodgy science of the green lobby.
Imagine a film in which an Asian businessman who spoke loftily of
‘eradicating poverty’ was cast as the villain, while an insufferably
middle-class wind-turbine developer from Cornwall was held up as the hero.
Imagine a film in which the audience was encouraged to giggle at the sight
of the wealthy Asian using a red carpet to board his plane - ha ha, who do
these foreigners think they are! - and was then cajoled into crying when
the wind-turbine developer phoned his mum to break the news that Bedford
Council refused him permission to build 10 new windmills. Imagine a film
which played so promiscuously fast and loose with the ‘scientific
facts’ that it strongly implied that the Asian businessman’s penchant
for flying was responsible for fatal rainstorms in Mumbai, and that
Bedford Council’s rejection of our heroic wind-turbine developer’s
planning application led to Bedford’s ‘worst ever floods’ in 2007.
No one would make such a morally warped film, right? (Brendan O’Neill,
sp!ked)
At least the
picture is attractive:) Ten
Studies On Meat & Global Warming - Ten Popular Studies on Meat
& Global Warming contains all you need to understand the carbon
footprint of meat. Do you like exotic food? Know a Prius or SUV owner?
Don’t plan on going vegetarian anytime soon? Hopefully, at least one of
these ten studies will help you, or someone you know, to consider eating
less meat. (Michael Kwan, Green Muze)
Publication
Of The Comment/Reply On Our 2007 JGR Paper Which Raises Serious Questions
On The Robustness of The Assessment Of Global Warming Using The Global
Average Surface Temperature Trend - The Comment on our paper
Pielke Sr., R.A., C. Davey, D. Niyogi, S. Fall, J. Steinweg-Woods, K.
Hubbard, X. Lin, M. Cai, Y.-K. Lim, H. Li, J. Nielsen-Gammon, K. Gallo, R.
Hale, R. Mahmood, S. Foster, R.T. McNider, and P. Blanken, 2007:
Unresolved issues with the assessment of multi-decadal global land surface
temperature trends. J. Geophys. Res., 112, D24S08,
doi:10.1029/2006JD008229.
has appeared
Parker, D. E., P. Jones, T. C. Peterson, and J. Kennedy, 2009: Comment on
Unresolved issues with the assessment of multidecadal global land surface
temperature trends. by Roger A. Pielke Sr. et al.,J. Geophys. Res., 114,
D05104, doi:10.1029/2008JD010450.
along with our Reply,
Pielke Sr., R.A., C. Davey, D. Niyogi, S. Fall, J. Steinweg-Woods, K.
Hubbard, X. Lin, M. Cai, Y.-K. Lim, H. Li, J. Nielsen-Gammon, K. Gallo, R.
Hale, R. Mahmood, S. Foster, R.T. McNider, and P. Blanken, 2009: Reply to
comment by David E. Parker, Phil Jones, Thomas C. Peterson, and John
Kennedy on “Unresolved issues with the assessment of multi-decadal
global land surface temperature trends. J. Geophys. Res., 114, D05105,
doi:10.1029/2008JD010938. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
New
PNAS paper: Experts surveyed on the probability of climate “tipping
points” - A survey of climate scientists reveals uncertainty in
their predictions of changes to the global climate, yet finds that they
believe there is a real chance of passing a “tipping point” that could
result in large socio-economic impacts in the next two centuries. The
expert elicitation was conducted between October 2005 and April 2006 with
a computer-based interactive questionnaire completed individually by
participants. A total of 52 experts participated in the elicitation (see
Table S2 in the PDF below for names and affiliations). The questionnaire
included 7 events of crossing a tipping point. Elmar Kriegler and
colleagues asked the climate experts to estimate the likelihood of impacts
to components of the climate system under different warming scenarios.
(Watts Up With That?)
An
Interview with Roger Pielke, Jr., Center for Science and Technology Policy
Research - In May 2007, I did a Q&A with Roger Pielke, Sr. a
professor emeritus of meteorology at Colorado State University who is now
a senior scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Pielke has
become one of the best-known critics of the approach taken by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Through his blog, Climate
Science, Pielke has also made it clear that he stands apart from other
scientists on the issue of carbon dioxide. “I don’t mean that carbon
dioxide isn’t a problem. What I mean is that, unfortunately, it may not
be our worst problem.”
Pielke’s son, Roger Pielke Jr., is also a noted scholar. He’s a
professor in the environmental studies program at the University of
Colorado and the director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy
Research. Through his blog, Prometheus, the younger Pielke focuses on
science policy, and his work has attracted a lot of attention. His book,
The Honest Broker was the focus of a recent column by John Tierney of the
New York Times. Tierney sums up Pielke’s book as “arguing that most
scientists are fundamentally mistaken about their role in political
debates. As a result, he says, they’re jeopardizing their credibility
while impeding solutions to problems like global warming.”
With regard to climate change, Pielke argues that more attention must be
paid to adaptation. Instead, nearly all of the focus has been on trying to
reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In 2006, in testimony before the House
Committee on Government Reform, Pielke said “even if society takes
immediate and drastic action on emissions, there can be no scientifically
valid argument that such actions will lead to a perceptibly better climate
in the coming decades. For the foreseeable future the most effective
policy responses to climate-related impacts (e.g., such as hurricanes and
other disasters or diseases such as malaria) will necessarily be
adaptive.”
The younger Pielke has been on the faculty at the University of Colorado
since 2001. Prior to that he was a staff scientist at the National Center
for Atmospheric Research. A graduate of the University of Colorado with
degrees in mathematics, public policy, and political science, he lives in
Boulder. (Robert Bryce, Energy Tribune)
UW-Milwaukee
Study Could Realign Climate Change Theory - Scientists Claim Earth Is
Undergoing Natural Climate Shift
MILWAUKEE -- The bitter cold and record snowfalls from two wicked winters
are causing people to ask if the global climate is truly changing.
The climate is known to be variable and, in recent years, more scientific
thought and research has been focused on the global temperature and how
humanity might be influencing it.
However, a new study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee could turn
the climate change world upside down. (WISN)
Hmm... Mighty diatoms:
Global climate feedback from microscopic algae - EAST LANSING, Mich.
— Tiny creatures at the bottom of the food chain called diatoms suck up
nearly a quarter of the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide, yet research by
Michigan State University scientists suggests they could become less able
to “sequester” that greenhouse gas as the climate warms. The
microscopic algae are a major component of plankton living in puddles,
lakes and oceans.
Zoology professor Elena Litchman, with MSU colleague Christopher
Klausmeier and Kohei Yoshiyama of the University of Tokyo, explored how
nutrient limitation affects the evolution of the size of diatoms in
different environments. Their findings underscore potential consequences
for aquatic food webs and climate shifts.
“They are globally important since they ‘fix’ a significant amount
of carbon,” Litchman explained of the single-cell diatoms. “When they
die in the ocean, they sink to the bottom carrying the carbon from the
atmosphere with them. They perform a tremendous service to the
environment.” (MSU)
... not that just about every researcher trying to get funding for
their work isn't trying to hitch their wagon to the gorebull warming
star but that doesn't make it a good idea. Statements like "Carbon
dioxide buildup, due to a significant extent to burning fossil fuels and
deforestation, is identified as the leading cause of climate change."
are completely unsupportable -- try the simply form in this
page for a demonstration of how absurd are modeled climate forcing
and sensitivity estimates. For a simple energy balance model, refined to
just 3 adjustable parameters, go
here, where you can tweak Earth's greenhouse effect, albedo and
incoming solar radiation to see the effect on global mean temperature
(not that we have any reason to believe that's such a whiz-bang metric
to begin with, but that's yet another story).
Oh... Greenland thaw
among feared climate shifts by 2200 - OSLO - A drastic climate shift
such as a thaw of Greenland's ice or death of the Amazon forest is more
than 50 percent likely by the year 2200 in cases of strong global warming,
according to a survey of experts.
The poll of 52 scientists, looking 100 years beyond most forecasts, also
revealed worries that long-term warming would trigger radical changes such
as the disintegration of the ice sheet in West Antarctica, raising world
sea levels. (Reuters)
... we can't forecast 200 hours but 200 years, that's safe to do
(because we'll be long gone by the time we are proven wrong).
Hmm... Musical
prof a mouthpiece for eco-propaganda - She should know the jury's
still out on climate change
What set my teeth on edge last week was not the chilly weather, though
Wednesday was the coldest March 11 on record. It was a University of B.C.
professor's claim that global warming is largely responsible for the fact
folks can no longer make the heavenly-sounding violins they used to
hundreds of years ago.
Not that I should be surprised: Global warming gets fingered for virtually
everything these days, especially at our eco-infatuated universities. For
these grant-hungry institutions, the fashionable notion that humans are
mainly to blame for warming the planet is a godsend. It opens up so many
fields of study where taxpayer funding can be justified on the grounds of
saving Mother Earth and everything on it, including fabulous old fiddles,
from climactic Armageddon. (Jon Ferry, The Province)
... actually there is a plausible hypothesis that the
growth-unfriendly Little Ice Age conditions contributed to denser wood
and that this affected the tone of instruments constructed from it.
Letter of the moment: Our
future winters may be colder - It was the year 1799, during the
"Dalton Minimum" when the sun was quiet that George Frederick
Bollinger led a group of early pioneers from North Carolina to establish
early settlements in Missouri. They hoped to cross their largest obstacle,
the Mississippi River, on the ice, frozen solid in mid-winter. (James A.
Marusek, Greene County Daily World)
People haters... Children
come with a high carbon cost - WHAT is your carbon legacy - not the
emissions you are personally liable for, but those of your descendants?
Ask Paul Murtaugh, a statistician at Oregon State University in Corvallis.
If you have a child, he says, you and you partner are each responsible for
half its emissions. If that child has kids, one-quarter of their emissions
are down to you, and so on. How it adds up depends on population trends
and emission changes in the future. (Nude Socialist New
Scientist)
Revkin's Dot
Earth Blog: Scientist: Warming Could Cut Population to 1 Billion -
Richard Courtney has commented on the following DotEarth Blog Scientist:
Warming Could Cut Population to 1 Billion. (Climate Realists)
Given their hatred of people and stated desire to reduce the human
population you'd think they'd be happy about gorebull warming (if they
really believed in it) and its alleged beneficial byproduct of
decimating human populations. So which is it? They don't believe in
gorebull warming or they don't believe it'll be bad for people? After
all, if they really believed what they claim then it would be in their
interests to keep quiet about gorebull warming and let industrial
society reduce humanity's numbers without any effort on their part,
wouldn't it?
“‘Global
warming’ will kill 6 billon” - The scare: In March 2009,
Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber, director of a grand-sounding pressure-group
called the “Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research”, said that
“global warming” of 7 Fahrenheit degrees would wipe out all but 1
billion of Earth’s 7 billion human population.
Mr. Schellnhuber said, “In a very cynical way, it’s a triumph for
science, because at last we have stabilized something – namely the
estimate of the carrying capacity of the planet – fewer than 1 billion
people.” The planet, of course, is somehow currently carrying seven
times that number. The previous month, Dr. James Hansen of NASA had
predicted that “global warming” would raise sea level by 75 meters –
equivalent to 246 feet.
The truth: In every respect, Mr. Schellnhuber’s outlandish prediction is
as absurd as that of Dr. Hansen. It lacks any credible scientific
foundation. We may dispose of Dr. Hansen’s prediction in the single,
withering sentence of Mr. Justice Burton in the High Court of England and
Wales in October 2007, condemning Al Gore’s suggestion that sea level
would imminently rise by less than one-twelfth of Dr. Hansen’s flagrant
prediction – “The Armageddon scenario that he depicts is not based on
any scientific view.”
Global temperature will not rise over the coming century by as much as 7
Fahrenheit degrees: or, if it were to do so, humankind would have had
little or nothing to do with it. For the following reasons, it is now
known, and is well established in the peer-reviewed scientific literature,
that the UN’s climate panel has greatly exaggerated not only climate
sensitivity – the effect of increased atmospheric CO2 concentration on
global temperature – but also the rate at which CO2 is accumulating in
the atmosphere. (Christopher Monckton, SPPI)
Architects
to Push Green Building on St. Patrick's Day - Dozens of architects
plant to gather at the Indiana Statehouse on St. Patrick's Day to support
a proposal to build or renovate state-owned buildings using green
standards. Members of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) will meet
with legislators to highlight some of the state's most successful
"green" projects. The AIA says a bill at the Statehouse would
require government buildings to be designed and constructed to achieve or
exceed the energy-efficiency levels required under certain rating systems.
(Inside INdiana Business)
Climate
change makes us boiled frogs, says Prince Charles - PRINCE Charles has
compared human inactivity over climate change to frogs being boiled alive,
and says we can't see the way the environment is changing because we're
too close to it.
British tabloid The Sun reports the heir to the throne made his comments
in the Amazon while on a tour of South America to raise awareness of
climate change.
“The trouble is it's the old boiled frog syndrome," he said.
"You can’t tell if you are in the water that it is gradually
heating up. You just get used to the heat and you don’t notice until
suddenly it reaches boiling point and it’s too late to do anything about
it.”
Boiled frog syndrome refers to the idea that if you put a frog into
boiling water it will jump out, but if you put it in cold water and slowly
raise the temperature, it will be boiled alive. It isn’t true – when
the water gets hot the frog will jump out, but it does make a nice
metaphor. (NEWS.com.au)
Actually it's a really stupid metaphor -- frogs are exothermic and
when they warm up they get both hungry and very lively, no way they are
going to just sit and boil, they go looking for a feed. Also, we are
spending literal billions monitoring global temperature so serious
warming cannot go unnoticed (should it ever occur).
Climate
change posers - One of the stranger spectacles of the climate change
debate was the sight, earlier this month, of NASA climate scientist Jim
Hansen marching hand-in-hand with Hollywood actress Darryl Hannah outside
the Capitol Coal Power Plant in Washington, DC.
Hansen promised to brave arrest at what was billed as the world’s
largest direct-action climate change protest. Instead, the worst snowstorm
in three years reduced the size of the crowd, prevented special guests
from arriving, and hindered efforts to use a solar panel to light up a
protest billboard. The police reportedly told the crowd that they didn’t
want to arrest anybody who didn’t want to be arrested, and nobody was.
That didn’t stop the protesters from proclaiming the event a success.
But if stopping global warming were this easy, I — and everybody I know
— would be painting placards for the next round of direct action.
Hansen condemns coal-fired power plants as “death factories,” and his
belief that coal is evil is widely shared. It is also obviously wrong. If
we were to stop using coal tomorrow, we would discover that it remains a
vital source of life. (Bjorn Lomborg, Economic Times)
Their scam is falling apart and we are supposed to feel for them: Climate
change blues: how scientists cope - COPENHAGEN: Being a climate
scientists these days is not for the faint of heart.
Arguably no other area of research yields a sharper contrast between a
steady stream of "eureka!" moments, and the sometimes terrifying
implications of those discoveries for the future of the planet.
"Science is exciting when you make such findings," said Konrad
Steffen, who heads the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental
Sciences (CIRES) in Boulder, Colorado.
"But if you stop and look at the implications of what is coming down
the road for humanity, it is rather scary. I have kids in college -- what
do they have to look forward to in 50 years?"
And that's not the worst of it, said top researchers gathered here last
week for a climate change conference which heard, among other bits of bad
news, that global sea levels are set to rise at least twice as fast over
the next century as previously thought, putting hundreds of millions of
people at risk.
What haunts scientists most, many said, is the feeling that -- despite an
overwhelming consensus on the science -- they are not able to convey to a
wider public just how close Earth is to climate catastrophe. (AFP) 'Frozen
in fear over climate change' (Agence France-Presse)
What has apparently not occurred to these guys is the reason people
are so hard to motivate with these scare stories is that there is
absolutely no evidence to back their case. Their models do not reflect
the real world and no one lives in the model worlds -- so no one really
cares.
As
Oil and Gas Prices Plunge, Drilling Frenzy Ends - FORT WORTH — The
great American drilling boom is over.
The number of oil and gas rigs deployed to tap new energy supplies across
the country has plunged to less than 1,200 from 2,400 last summer, and
energy executives say the drop is accelerating further.
Lower prices are bringing to an end an ambitious effort to squeeze more
oil from aging fields and to tap new sources of natural gas. For the last
four years, companies here drilled below airports, golf courses, churches
and playgrounds in a frantic search for energy. They scoured the Rocky
Mountains, the Great Plains, the Gulf of Mexico and Appalachia.
But the economic downturn has cut into demand. Global oil prices and
American natural gas prices have plummeted two-thirds since last summer.
Not even an unseasonably cold winter drove down unusually high inventories
of natural gas.
The drop has been good news for American consumers, with gasoline now
selling for $1.92 a gallon, on average, down from a high of $4.11 in July.
But the result for companies is that it is becoming unprofitable to drill.
(New York Times)
Oh, this is well thought out... Solar
Panels in the Sahara Could Meet All Europe’s Energy Needs - Experts
say only a fraction of the Sahara, probably the size of a small country,
would need to be covered to produce enough energy to supply the whole of
Europe. Written by David Adam at the Guardian.
... except for keeping solar panels clean in a desert, overcoming
scour from wind-driven sand...
Harnessing
the Sun, With Help From Cities - PALM DESERT, Calif. — Rick
Clark’s garage is loaded with fast toys for playing in the sun. He has a
buggy for racing on sand dunes, two sleek power boats for pulling water
skiers, and a new favorite: 48 solar panels that send his energy meter
whirring backward.
Bronzed and deeply lined from decades of life in the desert sun, Mr. Clark
is not one to worry about global warming. He suspects that if the
planet’s climate is getting hotter, it is part of a natural cycle and
will probably correct itself. “Experts have been wrong before,” he
said.
But late last year, Mr. Clark decided to install a $62,000 solar power
system because of a new municipal financing program that lent him the
money and allows him to pay it back with interest over 20 years as part of
his property taxes. In so doing, he joined the vanguard of a social
experiment that is blossoming in California and a dozen other states.
The goal behind municipal financing is to eliminate perhaps the largest
disincentive to installing solar power systems: the enormous initial cost.
Although private financing is available through solar companies,
homeowners often balk because they worry that they will not stay in the
house long enough to have the investment — which runs about $48,000 for
an average home and tens of thousands of dollars more for a larger home in
a hot climate — pay off.
But cities like Palm Desert lobbied to change state laws so that solar
power systems could be financed like gas lines or water lines, covered by
a loan from the city and secured by property taxes. The advantage of this
system over private borrowing is that any local homeowners are eligible
(not just those with good credit), and the obligation to pay the loan
attaches to the house and would pass to any future buyers. (New York
Times)
And when the systems inevitably fail before being paid for?
Crisis Hampers EU Wind Power
In Short-Term - Lobby - MARSEILLE - The economic downturn is delaying
wind power projects in the European Union but the negative impact will not
last because of strong sector fundamentals, a European wind power lobby
said on Monday.
"There is a slowdown in the sector, we are seeing some signs, but
much less than in other sectors," Arthouros Zervos, president of the
European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), told Reuters on the sidelines of
a wind conference.
"The impact will be short term because the fundamentals are still
there for wind development," he said. (Reuters)
Everyone
Hates Ethanol - These days, it's routine for businesses to fail, get
rescued by the government, and then continue to fail. But ethanol, which
survives only because of its iron lung of subsidies and mandates, is a
special case. Naturally, the industry is demanding even more government
life support.
Corn ethanol producers -- led by Wesley Clark, the retired general turned
chairman of a new biofuels lobbying outfit called Growth Energy -- want
the Obama Administration to make their guaranteed market even larger.
Recall that the 2007 energy bill requires refiners to mix 36 billion
gallons into the gasoline supply by 2022. The quotas, which ratchet up
each year, are arbitrary, but evidently no one in Congress wondered what
might happen if the economy didn't cooperate.
Now the recession is hammering demand for gas. The Energy Information
Administration notes that U.S. consumption fell nearly 7% in 2008 and
expects another 2.2% drop this year. That comes as great news for
President Obama, who is achieving his carbon-reduction goals even without
a new carbon tax, but the irony is that the ethanol industry is part of
the wider collateral damage.
Americans are unlikely to use enough gas next year to absorb the 13
billion gallons of ethanol that Congress mandated, because current
regulations limit the ethanol content in each gallon of gas at 10%. The
industry is asking that this cap be lifted to 15% or even 20%. That way,
more ethanol can be mixed with less gas, and producers won't end up with a
glut that the government does not require anyone to buy.
The ethanol boosters aren't troubled that only a fraction of the 240
million cars and trucks on the road today can run with ethanol blends
higher than 10%. It can damage engines and corrode automotive pipes, as
well as impair some safety features, especially in older vehicles. It can
also overwhelm pollution control systems like catalytic converters. The
malfunctions multiply in other products that use gas, such as boats,
snowmobiles, lawnmowers, chainsaws, etc. (Wall Street Journal)
Indonesia Must Boost Palm
Yields To Save Forests - JAKARTA - Indonesia needs to squeeze far
higher yields from existing palm oil plantations rather than open up more
land in a country with some of the world's swiftest deforestation, a
Greenpeace official said on Monday.
Indonesia, the world's top palm oil producer, yields only about 2 tonnes
per hectare from its plantations, or just a third of the 6 to 7 tonnes in
countries such as Malaysia with better estate management practices, said
Annette Cotter, campaign manager for the forests campaign in Greenpeace
Southeast Asia. (Reuters)
Australia
'not serious about climate' - The federal government's prohibitive
nuclear power policy shows Australia isn't serious about reducing global
warming, an industry advocate says.
While acknowledging nuclear power isn't the "silver bullet" to
tackle global warming, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology
Organisation chairman Ziggy Switkowski says the technology could
considerably reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (AAP)
One
of the biggest cases of academic fraud in medical history - One of the
largest known cases of academic fraud and misconduct made the news this
week when Anesthesiology News reported that a leading medical researcher
was found to have fabricated much, if not all, of the data in his
research.
Scott S. Reuben, M.D., of Baystate Medical Center in Springfield,
Massachusetts, is said to have made up and falsified data in at least 21,
and perhaps many more, studies published at least since 1996, according to
the results of a year-long investigation by Baystate Medical Center. Jane
Albert, a spokeswoman for Baystate, said that the fraud was spotted after
questions were raised about two studies for which Dr. Reuben had not even
received approval to conduct human research. (Junkfood Science)
Another
case of human experimentation - One year ago this month, a JFS Special
report described the first human experimentation on a fat man who was
surgically implanted with electrodes inside his brain and exposed to
electrical currents trying to make him lose weight. Fifteen months after
the procedure, the man weighed more.
Last week, ABC News Nightline aired the exclusive testimonial from the
second person in the United States to under go deep brain stimulation for
weight loss. It was one of the clearest examples of media participating in
the marketing of medical devices for off-label, non-approved uses.
What viewers didn’t hear was the full story. When it comes to health
news, and especially obesity, failing to provide balance has sadly become
all too common. But people’s lives should matter more than ratings or
profits and the public deserves the rest of the story. (Junkfood Science)
We
Go Together Like Salt And Activism - For such an innocuous seasoning,
salt made big headlines this week. Some say it’s a natural
antidepressant, others say we’re addicted to it, and still others claim
it’s a poison. Suffice to say that some of these stories are
overreacting to a vital substance that is on every dinner table in the
world. (Center for Consumer Freedom)
Acrylamide
not linked to endometrial cancer - NEW YORK - Seven years ago, alarms
were sounded that acrylamide, a compound found in foods heated at high
temperatures, could cause cancer. However, studies have not uncovered
links to colon cancer or breast cancer, and now comes word from a Swedish
study indicating that long-term intake of acrylamide does not raise the
risk of endometrial cancer. (Reuters Health)
Punishing
us for that packet of Maltesers - The proposal that officials should
tax chocolate is further evidence of the moralism driving the ‘war on
obesity’.
It was perfect phone-in show fodder. Last week, a doctor proposed a motion
at the British Medical Association conference in Scotland: that a tax
should be imposed on chocolate. Amazingly, this speculative idea at an
event that no one pays attention to inspired a kingsize selection box of
comment.
Dr David Walker proposed that a 20 per cent tax be levied on chocolate,
arguing that a 225g bag of chocolate sweets could contain 1,200 calories
– that is, half or more of a person’s daily recommended calorie
intake. And the concentrated nature of the calories in chocolate means
that this huge calorie rush can be wolfed down in no time at all. ‘What
I’m trying to get across is that chocolate is sneaking under the radar
of unhealthy foods’, said Dr Walker (1).
It’s hard to take Dr Walker’s proposal seriously. Would a person
inclined to demolish a half-pound bag of chocolates in a single sitting
really be deterred because the bag costs £2.40 instead of £2? Meanwhile,
everyone else who enjoys a bar of chocolate – costing roughly 50 pence
and containing a mere 250 calories – would be penalised for no good
reason. Even if the tax did lead to a small reduction in chocolate
consumption, it seems unlikely that it would have any impact on people’s
waistlines. It is by no means obvious that going large on confectionery is
a major cause of obesity. (Rob Lyons, sp!ked)
Flies Plus Chicken Droppings
Spread "Superbugs" - WASHINGTON - Flies, already blamed for
spreading disease, may help spread drug-resistant superbugs from chicken
droppings, researchers reported on Monday.
They matched antibiotic-resistant enterococci and staphylococci bacteria
from houseflies and the litter found in intensive poultry-farming barns in
the Delmarva Peninsula region of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
The findings, reported in the journal Science of the Total Environment,
may help explain some of the spread of drug-resistant bacteria. (Reuters)
EU Calls On Farmers To Start
Adapting To Climate - BRUSSELS - Europe's farmers must think how to
adapt to climate change in coming decades, altering their practices to cut
greenhouse gas emissions, make agriculture more resilient and keep land in
use, a European Commission paper said.
The uneven effects of climatic change were likely to widen regional
differences across the European Union's farmland and increase economic
disparities between rural areas, the Commission said in the draft paper
seen by Reuters on Monday.
"In the long run, climatic pressures may lead to further
marginalisation of agriculture or even to the abandonment of agricultural
land in parts of the EU," the paper said. (Reuters)
MEXICO: Cradle
of Maize Rocked by Transgenics - MEXICO CITY, Mar 16 - Mexico has
lifted the ban on experimental cultivation of transgenic maize imposed in
1999 in this country where the crop was first domesticated and shaped
human culture. Biotech giants have put forward two dozen projects for
approval and have announced investments of 382 million dollars up to 2012.
The green light given by the government of conservative President Felipe
Calderón to the trials, by means of an executive decree which came into
force early this month, has provoked the indignation of activists and
campesinos (small farmers) opposed to genetically modified (GM) maize.
GM maize seeds have been subjected to recombinant DNA techniques in the
laboratory, to introduce one or more genes from other species which confer
desirable properties such as higher yields or resistance to herbicides or
disease.
The groups opposing the measure warn that it will consolidate domination
of the global market of GM seeds by transnational corporations and
jeopardise the rich genetic diversity of native maize, domesticated in
this country over 9,000 years ago and regarded as sacred by campesinos and
indigenous people.
"The activists wanted to reject experimental cultivation of
transgenic maize on behalf of all Mexican farmers, but reason won
out," Fabrice Salamanca, head of Agrobio México, told IPS. Agrobio
represents the transnational biotech corporations based in this country:
Bayer, DuPont, Monsanto, Syngenta and Dow.
According to Salamanca, these companies are poised to invest in
experimental cultivation, related research and infrastructure. "We
hope that approval for the first field trials will be given in
August," he said. (IPS)
Heat
Resistance in Plants Found - Researchers are claiming advancement in
the genetic engineering of plants to improve heat tolerance, which is
increasingly critical in the global efforts to combat desertification.
In a study published by peer-review journal Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a team led by Gyeongsang National University
scientist Lee Sang-yeol found that controlling the expression of AtTDX, a
plant-specific protein, may provide a key in genetically-engineering plans
against high-temperature stress. (Korea Times)
March 16, 2009
Richard
Lindzen's talk in New York - Richard said a few inconvenient things -
like his opinion that most of the best atmospheric physicists do endorse
the warming alarm (for the sake of convenience) but the reason to respect
them is very different than a work on AGW.
Later, he discussed the dynamically awkward nature of positive feedbacks
and the scientifically grotesque one-dimensional simplifications of the
climate promoted by the AGW movement. As a path to victory over AGW, which
he believes has to occur at some point in the future, he recommends mass
resignations from various scientific societies. (The Reference Frame)
Climate
sceptics fight tide of alarmism - As the Rudd Government's job-killing
carbon emissions trading plans come under fire, a conference of sceptical
scientists met in New York this week to discuss developments bolstering
the case against human-caused global warming.
A disproportionate number of Australian scientists who lead the charge
against climate alarmism spoke at the conference organised by the
Heartland Institute, a US free-market think tank. (Miranda Devine, Sydney
Morning Herald)
Nobody
listens to the real climate change experts - The minds of world
leaders are firmly shut to anything but the fantasies of the scaremongers,
says Christopher Booker.
Considering how the fear of global warming is inspiring the world's
politicians to put forward the most costly and economically damaging
package of measures ever imposed on mankind, it is obviously important
that we can trust the basis on which all this is being proposed. Last week
two international conferences addressed this issue and the contrast
between them could not have been starker.
The first in Copenhagen, billed as "an emergency summit on climate
change" and attracting acres of worldwide media coverage, was
explicitly designed to stoke up the fear of global warming to an
unprecedented pitch. As one of the organisers put it, "this is not a
regular scientific conference: this is a deliberate attempt to influence
policy".
What worries them are all the signs that when the world's politicians
converge on Copenhagen in December to discuss a successor to the Kyoto
Protocol, under the guidance of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), there will be so much disagreement that they may not get
the much more drastic measures to cut carbon emissions that the alarmists
are calling for.
Thus the name of the game last week, as we see from a sample of
quotations, was to win headlines by claiming that everything is far worse
than previously supposed. Sea level rises by 2100 could be "much
greater than the 59cm predicted by the last IPCC report". Global
warming could kill off 85 per cent of the Amazon rainforest, "much
more than previously predicted". The ice caps in Greenland and
Antarctica are melting "much faster than predicted". The number
of people dying from heat could be "twice as many as previously
predicted".
None of the government-funded scientists making these claims were
particularly distinguished, but they succeeded in their object, as the
media cheerfully recycled all this wild scaremongering without bothering
to check the scientific facts. (Christopher Booker, Daily Telegraph)
Who
makes up the IPCC? - Guest post by Steven Goddard
Suzanne Goldenberg recently complained in the UK Guardian about the ICCC
(International Conference on Climate Change) global warming “deniers”
:
The 600 attendees (by the organisers’ count) are almost entirely
white males, and many, if not most, are past retirement age. Only two
women and one African-American man figure on the programme of more than
70 speakers.
In the UK, profiling like that might be considered a hate crime if it
were about any other group other than the one she described. But that
isn’t the point. Below is a photo of the vaunted IPCC (Intergovernmental
Panel On Climate Change) taken at their last meeting. The spitting image
of her description of the ICCC. No doubt Ms. Goldenberg considers the
adult white men in the IPCC to be great visionaries, leading the noble
fight against climate Armageddon. (Watts Up With That?)
Possibly explaining how whackos manage to run scares... Even
Basic Science Is a Mystery to Most Americans - Most of the general
population cannot pass basic tests
According to a series of recent surveys among the general population, most
US citizens seem to be unable to pass even the most basic science literacy
test, a trend that has got experts very concerned. Because individuals
lack this ability, they may find it very difficult to interpret scientific
articles, and some may even misconstrue presented pieces of evidence and
turn them into something they are not, like in the case of global warming.
As people miss even the most basic background in science, they cannot
actually emit an informed opinion, and the trend is growing with each
passing year, experts note.
The California Academy of Sciences (CAS) has commissioned Harris
Interactive to conduct the new research, which has revealed that only 53
percent of US adults know how much it takes for the Earth to revolve once
around the Sun, while just some 60 percent are aware of the fact that the
earliest humans and the dinosaurs didn't actually live at the same time,
and that they were separated by millions of years and two extinction
events.
Only 47 percent of all respondents are in the know of how much of our
planet's surface is covered by oceans, with scientists considering the
answer to this question correct if questionnaire responders stated
anything between 65 and 75 percent. What's even more concerning is the
fact that only 21 percent of the people who have replied to these three
questions have got all the answers right. The new investigation comes
amidst growing pressure on the scientific community to promote innovation
in the increasing economic downturn, where science is considered to be the
only way out. (Softpedia)
...and why we need your support to keep addressing the nonsense.
Misguided, to say the least: Area
Churches Join Lenten Trend: Cutting Out Carbons - Instead of giving up
chocolate for Lent this year, members of several local churches are
cutting back on other luxuries: water, light bulbs and plastic bags.
"What we're doing is taking traditional Lenten practices and applying
them to being caretakers of God's creation," said the Rev. Roy
Howard, pastor of Saint Mark Presbyterian Church in Rockville. (Washington
Post)
Since when does "creation care" mean starving the natural
world of an essential trace gas? Returning previously lost carbon to
biospheric availability is the best thing humans have done and continue
to do for life on Earth. Restricting such emissions, or worse, actively
removing this marvelous resource from the atmosphere is a crime against
all life ultimately dependent on photosynthesis (i.e., plants and
everything thing that eats plants and/or plant eaters). Sounds more like
creation assault to me.
Environmental
catastrophism - The concept of original sin is alive and well and
being nurtured by the green movement. Climate change (meaning the manmade
variety) is the latest in a long line of impending disasters for which our
species is being blamed. It seems more than coincidental that the rise of
environmentalism has been at a time when there has been a big drop in
religious adherence; the guilt which was felt by previous generations for
their imperfection and general unworthiness has now been transferred to
our species' impact on Nature (or Gaia, for those who want to make it more
personal).
From DDT to GM crops, nuclear power to Brent Spar, there have always been
one or more campaigns which the activists have focussed on, generally with
great success. But the crucial difference between these issues and climate
change is that this time mainstream scientists are allies and, in turn,
the political class has been brought on board. It has also seen the
evolution of the scientist as activist, a hybrid which has never before
wielded such influence. We might expect that, given such a broad
coalition, the pressure for action would be irresistible and, indeed, this
seems to be true. Until now. (Scientific Alliance)
The
Psychology of the Psychology of Denial - Last week, we mentioned an
academic conference at the University of the West of England about the
psychology of climate change denial, which appeared to be rather lacking
on the academic front. It was a gathering of a handful of higher beings -
Jungian analysts, climate activists and eco-psychologists - who, having
shrugged off the shackles of the human condition, are now able to diagnose
what is wrong with the rest of us. (Climate Resistance)
Recession
Cools Climate? - UK researchers at the Hadley Centre are reporting a
correlation between reduced prosperity and reduced greenhouse gas
emissions associated with global warming. They report that since 2000
global greenhouse gases have risen by 2 to 3 percent each year, which is
consistent with the global rise in world gross domestic product (GDP).
Since then, they conclude that the ½ percent reduction in GDP has led to
a comparable ½ percent reduction in greenhouse gases.
Both inherent and disturbing in this research is the recognition that
reductions in greenhouse gases will reduce GDP and punish economic
prosperity. President Obama’s $410 billion Omnibus Spending Bill
projects government receipts of $646 billion from a new national carbon
trading system to mitigate greenhouse gases. Such “cap and trade”
systems have been tried in the European Union since 2005, and have failed
both market and environmental goals. (Paul Taylor, LA Ecopolitics
Examiner)
Save
Us From "Save Our Planet" - The call “Save Our Planet”
was heard in the halls of Congress on the occasion of President Obama's
first speech to a joint session of Congress on February 5. Fulfilling a
campaign promise, the president topped the agenda of his new
administration with this call to Congress.
In his speech the president declared that truly to transform our economy,
to protect our security and to save our planet from the ravages of climate
change - formerly known as global warming - we need to make clean
renewable energy a profitable kind of energy. President Obama went on to
suggest a "cap-and-trade" bill that would address climate change
and energy initiatives.
A cap-and-trade bill is fully described by defining each part separately.
The Center for American Progress, a think tank led by John Podesta, former
Chief of Staff to President Clinton and co-chairman of the Obama-Biden
transition team, explains: (E. Ralph Hostetter, FrontPageMagazine.com)
Audio and transcript: Political
Will and the Climate Change Bill - Congress is girding for a bruising
political battle over global warming. But the toughest fight might not be
between Democrats and Republicans but rather between Democrats and
Democrats. Living on Earth's Jeff Young tells us why some centrist
Democrats from the heartland have problems with President Obama's call for
action on climate change. (Living on Earth)
Has
Obama Killed Carbon Cap and Trade? - President Obama has driven a
stake in the heart of his carbon cap-and-trade program. By transforming it
from a relatively cost-effective environmental program into a cash cow to
finance his ambitious health and social welfare agenda, he has encumbered
it with very expensive baggage. Blue Dog Democrats and conservation-minded
Republicans will gag on its cost to an economy now racked by recession.
In broadening the goal of cap-and-trade legislation from the paramount
goal of reducing Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), primarily carbon, and mitigating
climate change, to that of raising, conservatively, well over $600 billion
in revenue for his social programs, the President has raised the ante on
this ambitious proposal. He has guaranteed a contentious fight in
Congress, strong Democratic majorities notwithstanding. (G. Tracy Mehan,
III, American Spectator)
Libs
in luck as White House guru backs carbon delay - THE Coalition and
business groups have received unexpected backing for their argument that a
recession is no time to introduce emissions trading -- from US President
Barack Obama's top economics guru.
In a previously unreported academic paper posted on the Harvard University
website last August, Lawrence Summers argues that "expenditures for
climate change will be far easier to make in economies where per-capita
income is growing".
Mr Summers, a former president of Harvard and treasury secretary under
former US president Bill Clinton, is currently head of Mr Obama's National
Economic Council and works in the White House.
His argument chimes with the position put by Opposition emissions trading
spokesman Andrew Robb and Australian Industry Group chief Heather Ridout.
However, it is starkly at odds with the determination of Kevin Rudd and
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong to have an emissions trading scheme in
place by next year, despite the downturn.
Mr Summers urges policymakers to create "reference points" for
the beginning of the economic losses caused by emissions trading, not just
for greenhouse levels themselves. (Imre Salusinszky, The Australian)
Let's
see climate change as an opportunity - If we continue to pollute the
planet at our current rate, terrible consequences will follow. The
evidence is there. But our leaders cannot find the will to do anything
about it.
No wonder the scientists are frustrated. At a meeting in Copenhagen last
week, leading researchers called explicitly for more government action,
breaking the taboo that has traditionally held scientific inquiry above
the political fray.
The purpose of the conference was to gather the latest data and present it
to political leaders who will meet at the end of the year, also in
Copenhagen. That summit is meant to begin negotiation on a successor
treaty to Kyoto - the 1997 UN agreement that first obliged industrialised
countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions. (The Observer)
How about we recognize gorebull warming for what it really is, an
artificial construct of no consequence whatsoever? Unless you live at
"Globally Averaged" then a globally averaged temperature is of
no value to anyone. People live from hot arid regions to wetlands, from
the tropics to high latitudes, from sea level to mountain top and
everywhere in between. We, and wildlife, cope with relatively large
temperature variations by hour of day and by season and these changes
dwarf anything physically possible from increasing atmospheric trace
gas. Carbon dioxide is simply not a harmful byproduct of industrial
civilization.
Doesn't get dumber than this. Stealing an essential resource from
the biosphere: 'Biochar'
goes industrial with giant microwaves to lock carbon in charcoal -
Climate expert claims to have developed cleanest way of fixing CO2 in
'biochar' for burial on an industrial scale
Giant microwave ovens that can "cook" wood into charcoal could
become our best tool in the fight against global warming, according to a
leading British climate scientist.
Chris Turney, a professor of geography at the University of Exeter, said
that by burying the charcoal produced from microwaved wood, the carbon
dioxide absorbed by a tree as it grows can remain safely locked away for
thousands of years. The technique could take out billions of tonnes of CO2
from the atmosphere every year.
Fast-growing trees such as pine could be "farmed" to act
specifically as carbon traps — microwaved, buried and replaced with a
fresh crop to do the same thing again. (The Guardian)
Oh... Artificial
trees and brightened clouds may help to cool us down - Techniques for
geo-engineering are coming under serious scrutiny as temperatures and CO2
emissions continue to rise
THE threat of devastating climate change is now so great that some
scientists say it is time to investigate a Plan B - geo-engineering on a
planetary scale.
Such methods of altering the world’s climate may become necessary, they
say, unless emissions of greenhouse gases fall within five years. (Sunday
Times)
Uh-huh... Torrential
rain and flooding to get worse in Britain - Torrential rain and flash
flooding is to grow more severe across Britain by the end of the century,
according to new research.
Scientists predict that warmer air caused by climate change will lead to
rain storms becoming more intense and more frequent during autumn, winter
and spring.
The quantity of rain which falls during extreme downpours will increase by
up to 30 per cent by 2070. For some parts of the country this could mean
up to 3.2 inches of rain falling in a day – nearly an inch more than the
average rain fall currently experienced in severe storms.
The researchers fear that severe flooding, similar to that which hit much
of England during the summer of 2007, will become far more common. (Daily
Telegraph)
... "climate change will lead to rain storms becoming more
intense and more frequent during autumn, winter and spring"
which they compare to events "during the summer of 2007".
Right...
But wait! It's even worse: Scientists
are grim, economists more optimistic about climate change's effects -
COPENHAGEN -- Scientists are gloomy; economists are more upbeat. Such was
the bottom line of an epic, three-day international congress of climate
change experts that ended here yesterday.
At the congress, it seemed that all the scientists had to share with their
peers was bad news, but a number of economists saw the climate crisis
rather as an historic opportunity to reorganize the world economy and
develop new, clean and job-creating activities.
At the opening of yesterday's session, Lord Nicholas Stern, former chief
economist for the World Bank, added his own dose of gloom by saying that
his now-famous report on the risks of global warming, written for the
British government in 2006, had underestimated them. "The reason is
that emissions are growing faster than we thought, the absorption capacity
of the planet is less than we thought, the probability of high
temperatures is likely higher than we thought, and some of the effects are
coming faster than we thought," he explained. (ClimateWire)
They
Think You're Stupid - Yesterday, the BBC ran an article with the
headline “Earth warming faster than thought.” Yet, as we increasingly
see in this context — and as damningly portrayed in Chapter 1 of Red Hot
Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to
Keep You Misinformed, as the media's stock-in-trade, using headlines to
lie to the folks who will never read the full article — the piece itself
offers no evidence of any such thing. It merely reveals claims of impacts
that modelers project would result from a large warming — impacts
greater than previously asserted by others, as is how things work when it
comes to global warming. (Chris Horner, Planet Gore)
Sail, schmail: Scientists
plan to drive the Northwest Passage - VANCOUVER, British Columbia -
Scientists preparing for the exploration of Mars are planning history's
first car drive through the fabled Northwest Passage, a trip they said on
Friday will provide data on global warming and man's potential impact on
other planets.
The trip using a modified armored Humvee vehicle will provide
comprehensive data about the thickness of winter ice in the waterway
through Canada's high Arctic, said Pascal Lee, chairman of Mars Institute
and leader of the expedition.
The scientists also hope to learn more about what happens to the microbes
left behind by humans as they explore remote areas, amid concerns from
some scientists about the detrimental impact of such journeys in space.
"It's not just about protecting men from Mars. It's also about
protecting Mars from men," Lee said in an interview. (Reuters)
A
Excellent Seminar At The University of Colorado at Boulder “What Goes
Around Comes Around” By Gregory R. Carmichael - On Friday, March 6
2009, Professor Gregory R. Carmichael of the Department of Chemical &
Biochemical Engineering at The University of Iowa presented one the most
insightful talks I have ever attended. The title of this talk was “What
Goes Around Comes Around”.
There were several very important findings that were presented, which
include: (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Hmm... the health claims are actually kind of dubious but the global
nature of pollution is true enough.
Japanese
scientists cool on theories - THREE senior Japanese scientists
separately engaged in climate-change research have strongly questioned the
validity of the man-made global-warming model that underpins the drive by
the UN and most developed-nation governments to curb greenhouse gas
emissions.
"I believe the anthropogenic (man-made) effect for climate change is
still only one of the hypotheses to explain the variability of
climate," Kanya Kusano told The Weekend Australian.
It could take 10 to 20 years more research to prove or disprove the theory
of anthropogenic climate change, said Dr Kusano, a research group leader
with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science's Earth Simulator project.
"Before anyone noticed, this hypothesis has been substituted for
truth," writes Shunichi Akasofu, founding director of the University
of Alaska's International Arctic Research Centre.
Dr Kusano, Dr Akasofu and Tokyo Institute of Technology geology professor
Shigenori Maruyama are highly critical of the UN Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change's acceptance that hazardous global warming results
mainly from man-made gas emissions.
On the scientific evidence so far, according to Dr Kusano, the IPCC
assertion that atmospheric temperatures are likely to increase
continuously and steadily "should be perceived as an unprovable
hypothesis".
Dr Maruyama said yesterday there was widespread scepticism among his
colleagues about the IPCC's fourth and latest assessment report that most
of the observed global temperature increase since the mid-20th century
"is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic
greenhouse gas concentrations".
When this question was raised at a Japan Geoscience Union symposium last
year, he said, "the result showed 90 per cent of the participants do
not believe the IPCC report". (The Australian)
Eye-roller: Scientists
claim global warming ‘can be controlled’ - Amid all the forecasts
and warnings of doom and disaster issued by climate scientists there is
the hidden message that all is not yet lost.
Ice sheets are melting and ocean acidity is rising, yet most scientists
still believe that global warming can be controlled.
Climate researchers are clear that since the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change reported in 2007 the problem of global warming has
deepened.
Talk has moved on from looking at probable rises over the next century of
2C or 3C, which would pose problems but be bearable, to increases of 4C or
5C, which would have devastating consequences.
Scientists are under no illusion about the scale of the task, yet most
still speak of what can and should be done to prevent temperatures rising.
(The Times)
Battle
of the climate scientists redux – Gray and Theon fire at Hansen -
James Hansen, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies and
global warming champion came under fire again in recent days from familiar
sources. At the International Conference on Climate Change in New York,
Dr. William Gray, famed hurricane forecaster, and John Theon, Hansen’s
former supervisor, launched attacks on Hansen not only for his
controversial outspokenness but also for the science on which he bases his
theories. (Tony Hake, Denver Weather Examiner)
Adaptation
has its limits - The mercury is rising and, whether we like it or not,
the world's climate is going to change significantly over the coming
decades. For some people this will mean suffering frequent summer
heat-waves, for others it will be coping with floods, or an increased
likelihood of tropical storms.
One way of mitigating climate change is to accept that it is going to
happen and help people to adapt – a philosophy that current policy
makers are considering. However, in a paper published in Climatic Change,
Neil Adger from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the
University of East Anglia, UK, and colleagues argue that there are limits
to adaptation and that we would be unwise to rely solely on adaptation as
a mitigation measure. (Environmental Research Web)
Oddly enough, so has "change".
Pikas,
penguins and polar bears - KEYSTONE — Pikas in Summit County’s
alpine zone, penguins in Antarctica and polar bears don’t have much in
common at first glance, but all three animals are losing ground to a
changing climate.
As a result, the federal government will have to consider how agency
actions affect those species when they permit power plants or set new
standards for automobile fuel efficiency, panelists at a Keystone
environmental law conference said Friday.
The challenge for officials is how to quantify the impacts of local
actions in a global context, said Federico Cheever, director of the
environmental and natural resources law program at the University of
Denver.
And the Endangered Species Act might not be the best tool for addressing
climate change impacts to threatened plants and animals, according to
Michael Bogert, former counsel to Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne
under the Bush administration. (Summit Daily News)
Um, they've been having to adapt to changing conditions for at least
20,000 years because that's how long Earth has been thawing from the
depths of the last major glaciation. Some of their current range was
buried under ice not that long ago and cold-loving critters had
different ranges throughout the period of that thaw -- a period that
will continue at varying pace until the onset of the next great
glaciation.
What did they expect? Arctic
diary: Explorers' ice quest - A team of polar explorers has travelled
to the Arctic in a bid to discover how quickly the sea-ice is melting and
how long it might take for the ocean to become ice-free in summers.
Pen Hadow, Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley will be using a mobile radar
unit to record an accurate measurement of ice thickness as they trek to
the North Pole.
The trio will be sending in regular diary entries, videos and photographs
to BBC News throughout their expedition.
The Catlin Arctic Survey team started its gruelling trek on 28 February.
(BBC)
"Conditions have been hard. We have been battered by wind,
bitten by frost and bruised from falls on the ice... The wind chill
today will slice us up - it's taking the temperature down to below -50C,
so we have decided to take a day's rest to recharge our batteries and
soothe the aches and pains."
'So
long and thanks for all the plankton,' say Antarctic whales - The
flagship German research vessel of the European Union and her science crew
of 50 scientists from Germany, India, and around the world have just
finished a controversial project to give iron to the Antarctic Ocean,
which they claim has been depleted from the world's oceans by CO2
emissions. Here they tell the story.
The Polarstern departed from its Southern Ocean pasture a day or so ago.
The ship and her dedicated scientists had prescribed and on January 27th
administered 10 tonnes of iron to a several hundred sq. kilometer patch of
ocean.
The iron was just the tonic the ocean needed and within days a verdant
ocean pasture began to bloom. Ocean satellites picked up an image of the
bloom on Valentines Day, what better gift for Mother Earth, than her ocean
restored and growing nutritious plankton for every form of sea life from
tiny krill to the great whales and everything in between fish, penguins,
seals, and seabirds.
The project, years in planning, had run into a brief tempest and delays
whipped up by the spin of dark green organizations as it was about to
begin.
Claims that the work would be in violation of some mysterious laws, were
quickly proven to be false. Those spinning the claims were the same dark
greens who in many statements have declared that they are against
mitigation of climate changing CO2 that involves the production of carbon
offset credits.
As EU president Vaclav Klaus stated earlier this week, environmentalists
are less concerned about any crisis posed by global warming than they are
eager to command human behavior and restrict economic activity. (Sail
World)
The
Great Danish Pastry Swindle - The climate conference in Copenhagen
that ended this week produced a barrage of startling headlines, many of
them from just one man. (Climate Resistance)
The Guardian doing their best to further Al's scam: We
will create green new deal, says Gore - Global campaigner and
investment sidekick call for 'sustainable capitalism'
For a man with the very survival of human civilisation weighing heavily on
his broad shoulders, Al Gore cuts a surprisingly relaxed figure. With a
Diet Coke in hand, and chewing gum rolling around inside his mouth, one of
the great "what ifs" of modern political history strolls into
the boardroom of his London-based asset management firm, located in one of
the city's "most environmentally friendly buildings".
Gore is in the capital, as he is every few months, to spend a couple of
days meeting with his partners at Generation Investment Management, the
"sustainability-driven" asset management firm he set up in 2004
with David Blood, who, as the former chief executive of Goldman Sachs
Asset Management, once managed investments worth $325bn (£232bn). As is
the case everywhere, the numbers are somewhat smaller these days, but the
firm they both wanted to call Blood and Gore (sadly, it was overruled by
the rest of the board) still manages a pot of investments worth billions,
according to Blood.
As chairman, Gore, 61, says he spends about "one day a week"
working for Generation, but his press handlers won't expand on what
investments he holds or remuneration he receives, other than to say he
initially used his own money to "experiment with" in trial
investments during the two-year period when the company's "structure
and philosophy" was being established ahead of any outside investors
being invited to join them. It is tempting to see Gore's role at
Generation as the day job, allowing him the time and financial security to
spend the rest of the working week on his three-decade-long quest to warn
the world about the perils of climate change. But he insists that his role
at Generation is as important as any of his other high-profile projects.
(Leo Hickman, The Guardian)
World
will agree new climate deal, says Al Gore - Al Gore, the former US
vice-president, delivers an upbeat assessment of the global response to
climate change today, saying he believes a "political tipping
point" has been reached which will enable leaders to avert
environmental catastrophe.
In his first newspaper interview since the US election, the Nobel peace
prize winner tells the Guardian that Barack Obama's arrival in the White
House, combined with a growing realisation of the problem among business
leaders, means there is now enough political momentum to tackle the
world's greatest environmental threat.
He believes a global climate deal will be agreed at the UN-brokered
climate talks scheduled in Copenhagen for December.
"There is a very impressive consensus now emerging around the world
that the solutions to the economic crisis are also the solutions to the
climate crisis," he says. "I actually think we will get an
agreement at Copenhagen." (Leo Hickman, The Guardian)
The
real 'deniers' - William Happer is hardly a climate change
"denier." A physics professor at Princeton, he is a former
director of energy research for the U. S. Department of Energy, where he
supervised work on climate change between 1990 and 1993. He is also one of
the world's leading experts on "the interactions of visible and
infrared radiation with gases," and on carbon dioxide and the
greenhouse effect. Two weeks ago, he told the U. S. Congress, "I
believe the increase of CO2 (in the atmosphere) is not a cause for
alarm."
Claims that an increase of atmospheric CO2 will lead to catastrophic
warming "are wildly exaggerated," according to Prof. Happer.
While a doubling (we have seen about a 35% rise since the beginning of the
Industrial Revolution) might lead to a 0.6C rise in global temperature, he
told Congress, "additional increments of CO2 will cause relatively
less direct warming because we already have so much CO2 ... that it has
blocked most of the infrared radiation that it can."
Prof. Happer added that while CO2 concentrations have risen steadily for
more than 100 years, warming began before that -- 200 years ago -- and
even during the time when temperatures and carbon concentrations have
risen together, the link has hardly been consistent. For instance, while
CO2 was rising rapidly from 1950 to 1970, temperatures were going through
an especially cold period.
Over the past decade, while carbon dioxide concentrations have continued
to grow, there has been "a slight cooling," according to the
Princeton physicist. Any warming in recent decades, then, "seems to
be due mostly to natural causes, not to increasing levels of carbon
dioxide." (Lorne Gunter, National Post)
Wood is a fossil fuel now? A
burning question: Why not use wood stoves? - OTTAWA -- Continuing with
our discussion of advanced-technology wood stoves, the question arises:
What's not to like? You can now buy wood fireplaces or wood stoves that
burn with 95 per cent efficiency and transfer heat with 70 to 80 per cent
efficiency - making them competitive with oil and gas furnaces, the other
fossil fuel heating options. You can integrate them with your central-heat
duct work and regulate the fire with your thermostat. You can rig them so
that residual heat runs your furnace fan, ensuring a warm house if you
lose electricity for a few weeks in the next Ice Storm.
In the meantime, you can mesmerize yourself with such exuberant flame
patterns that Natural Resources Canada describes them - these are
scientists speaking - as "entrancing and irresistible."
These energy-efficient fireplaces or stoves emit zero pollutants into your
living space, zero visible smoke from your chimney and low emissions of
any kind. Environment Canada says they cut emissions by as much as 98 per
cent compared with conventional stoves - and use 30 per cent less wood in
the process. Natural Resources says they enable Canadians to rekindle
their traditional love affair with fireplaces - absent the guilt
associated with conventional fireplaces.
As for the cutting down of trees for firewood, what's not to like? Wood
differs fundamentally from the other fossil fuels... (Neil Reynolds, Globe
and Mail)
Pushing
the Gas Pedal: Tehran Makes NGVs Top Priority - Iran is aggressively
tackling pollution, costly fuel import dependence and international
political pressure by increasing its fleet of natural gas-fueled vehicles
(NGVs). In less than two years, the number of cars able to run on
compressed natural gas (CNG) has increased more than five-fold, a move
that has allowed it to replace about 10% of its aging fuel-guzzling
vehicle fleet.
But the government, which owns huge stakes in the country’s auto
industry, is not stopping there. It has told manufacturers that at least
40 percent of the vehicles made every year must be NGVs. Service stations
with natural gas refueling capability are spreading rapidly and mass
transportation is being transformed at a record speed.
Over the next five years, Iran plans to have one-third of its vehicles
running on natural gas. If the country achieves that goal, it will have
about 3.5 million NGVs, which would make it the world’s leader both in
overall numbers and as a percentage of the total fleet. The country hopes
that the shift to NGVs will allow it to boost its energy exports. (Andres
Cala, Energy Tribune)
Stop
Stansted Expansion group loses legal battle - Department for Transport
welcomes decision to allow additional 10m passengers a year, saying runway
capacity is scarce
Campaigners have lost their legal battle to block the expansion of
Stansted airport.
The Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) group opposed proposals for an
additional 10 million passengers a year to use the single, existing runway
at Britain's third largest airport. The group's lawyers accused the
government of unlawfully "steamrollering these plans every step of
the way".
But a high court judge, Sir Thayne Forbes, dismissed the legal challenge
today and said criticisms of the way the matter had been handled were
"unjustified and without substance". (The Guardian)
Plan
B: scientists get radical in bid to halt global warming ‘catastrophe’
- THE director of a Nasa space laboratory will this week lead thousands of
climate change campaigners through Coventry in an extraordinary
intervention in British politics.
James Hansen plans to use Thursday’s Climate Change Day of Action to put
pressure on Gordon Brown to wake up to the threat of climate change - by
halting the construction of new power stations and the expansion of
airports, with schemes such as the third runway at Heathrow.
The move by a leading American researcher is the highest-profile example
to date of the way climate change is politicising scientists.
It follows last week’s climate science summit in Copenhagen where 2,500
leading climate scientists issued a stark warning to politicians that
unless they took drastic action to cut carbon emissions, the world would
face “irreversible shifts in climate”. (Sunday Times)
Truly
Green Energy - Local company out to turn algae into fuel of future
The coffee pot was broken at Stellarwind BioEnergy. It was probably just
as well, since most of the liquid percolating at its home—in the former
Hoosier Orchid Co.—is green and algae-ridden.
It’s in water-cooler jugs and 64-ounce Coke bottles backlit by
fluorescent tubes, back in the lab. But the main act at Stellarwind is
“the reactor,” a long row of 55 transparent tubes soaring to the
ceiling of a greenhouse and bubbling with green glow that would scare the
living Hölle out of Dr. Frankenstein.
“About every 52 hours, this stuff doubles. It’s so prolific in
nature,” said Keith Masavage, executive vice president of the startup,
which took over Hoosier Orchid’s location on Indianapolis’ northwest
side early this year.
Welcome to the future of oil production in the United States—or another
remake of the 1958 horror film “The Blob”.
Stellarwind is believed to be the first algae-oil company in Indiana and
among dozens of others around the country at the forefront of what’s
being called the third wave of biofuels production.
To this point, neither ethanol made from corn kernels nor a second
generation made from corn stalks and grasses has yet to achieve the
seemingly unattainable cost triumph over fossil fuels. (Indianapolis
Business Journal)
Lowly
maggot to boost income, cut pollution - MARSEILLE, France -- Dirt poor
peasants in the tropics could be thrown an economic lifeline after a lucky
discovery by French scientists involving a useless palm oil by-product and
the lowly maggot.
The synergy of two otherwise nuisance agents produced a virtually
cost-free feed for farmed fish while reducing a pungent source of
pollution -- a potential boon in countries like Indonesia, one of the
world's largest palm oil producers.
"This process will allow us to recycle palm oil refinery waste and
turn it into cheap food for fish farms and to produce 'green'
fertilizer," Saurin Hem, a researcher at the Institute for Research
and Development (IRD) in the southern French port of Marseille, told AFP.
After an IRD team stumbled onto the discovery they perfected the technique
with partners from Indonesia, which churns out almost 2.3 million tons of
palm oil a year.
Jakarta is set to start using the method this year at a refinery on the
western island of Sumatra, IRD said. (Agence France-Presse)
Update:
Chocolate tax melted - The British Medical Association’s Scottish
local medical committee voted today on Dr. David Walker’s proposal to
tax chocolate in order to fight obesity and the “diabetic time bomb.”
[Covered here.]
The British Medical Association is a professional association with a
membership of more than two-thirds of UK doctors. The medical
professionals voted the idea down — by a mere two votes, according to UK
news reports. (Junkfood Science)
Babies,
Bathtime, and Cancer? - An alarming new report by the Campaign for
Safe Cosmetics claims bath products for babies contain carcinogens, but by
the standards it used to measure risk from formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane
shouldn't we be even more worried about bathwater, tomatoes and fried
chicken? And did the activist group actually measure exposure?
The Campaign For Safe Cosmetics (CSC), a coalition of activist groups that
have been campaigning for years about chemical exposure in personal care
products has released a new report – No More Toxic Tub – on the
apparent cancer risks from baby bath products.
The study was dutifully transcribed by news media outlets, including USA
Today, which headlined the piece “Group finds carcinogens in kids bath
products.” (Trevor Butterworth, STATS)
Just what no one needs, more chemical hysteria: Bills
Would Ban BPA From Food and Drink Containers - Leaders from the House
and Senate introduced legislation yesterday that would establish a federal
ban on bisphenol A in all food and beverage containers.
The bills, introduced by Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Sens. Dianne
Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), would greatly expand
efforts to limit the chemical from products for young children.
The move came a day after Sunoco, the gas and chemical company, sent word
to investors that it is now refusing to sell bisphenol A, known as BPA, to
companies for use in food and water containers for children younger than
3. The company told investors that it cannot be certain of the chemical
compound's safety. Last week, six baby-bottle manufacturers, including
Playtex and Gerber, announced that they will stop using BPA in bottles.
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Interesting, Begley seems to have got the facts straight here... Anatomy
of a Scare - When one study linked childhood vaccines to autism, it
set off a panic. The research didn't hold up, but some wounded families
can't move on.
Like many people in London on that bleak February day in 1998, biochemist
Nicholas Chadwick was eager to hear what the scientists would say. The
Royal Free Hospital, where he was a graduate student in the lab of
gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, had called a press conference to
unveil the results of a new study. With flashbulbs popping, Wakefield
stepped up to the bank of microphones: he and his colleagues, he said, had
discovered a new syndrome that they believed was triggered by the MMR
(measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine. In eight of the 12 children in their
study, being published that day in the respected journal The Lancet, they
had found severe intestinal inflammation, with the symptoms striking six
days, on average, after the children received the MMR. But hospitals don't
hold elaborate press conferences for studies of gut problems. The reason
for all the hoopla was that nine of the children in the study also had
autism, and the tragic disease had seized them between one and 14 days
after their MMR jab. The vaccine, Wakefield suggested, had damaged the
intestine—in particular, the measles part had caused serious
inflammation—allowing harmful proteins to leak from the gut into the
bloodstream and from there to the brain, where they damaged neurons in a
way that triggered autism. Although in their paper the scientists noted
that "we did not prove an association" between the MMR and
autism, Wakefield was adamant. "It's a moral issue for me," he
said, "and I can't support the continued use of [the MMR] until this
issue has been resolved."
That's strange, thought Chadwick. For months he had been extracting
genetic material from children's gut biopsies, looking for evidence of
measles from the MMR. That was the crucial first link in the chain of
argument connecting the MMR to autism: the measles virus infects the gut,
causing inflammation and leakage, then gut leakage lets neurotoxic
compounds into the blood and brain. Yet Chadwick kept coming up
empty-handed. "There were a few cases of false positives, [but]
essentially all the samples tested were negative," he later told a
judicial hearing. When he explained the negative results, he told
NEWSWEEK, Wakefield "tended to shrug his shoulders. Even in lab
meetings he would only talk about data that supported his hypothesis. Once
he had his theory, he stuck to it no matter what." Chadwick was more
disappointed than upset, figuring little would come from the Lancet study.
"Not many people thought [Wakefield] would be taken that
seriously," Chadwick recalls. "We thought most people would see
the Lancet paper for what it was—a very preliminary collection of [only
12] case reports. How wrong we were." (Sharon Begley, NEWSWEEK)
... so why is she such an idiot over, inter alia, gorebull warming?
Medical
scumbag's masterclass in fraud - Like you, I've developed a sneaking
respect for all the fun and interesting tricks a person can use to distort
the scientific evidence, so Dr Scott S Reuben, an anaesthesiologist in
Bayside Medical Centre in Massachusetts, is a double scumbag: this week,
in the biggest fraud case from recent medical history, he has been caught
out, rather unimaginatively, just fabricating his data.
How did he get away with it?
Firstly, if you're planning a career in scientific fraud, then medicine is
an excellent place to start.
Findings in complex biological systems - like "people" - are
often contradictory and difficult to replicate, so you could easily
advance your career and never get caught.
And fraud is not so unusual, depending on where you draw the line. In 2005
the journal Nature published an anonymous survey of 3,247 scientists: 0.3%
admitted they had falsified research data at some point in their careers,
in acts of outright fraud; but more interestingly, 6% admitted failing to
present data if it contradicted their previous research. (Ben Goldacre,
The Guardian)
Food
nutrition programs don't lead to obesity: USDA - WASHINGTON - Food
stamps, school lunch and other public nutrition programs do not contribute
to an obesity epidemic affecting millions of children and adults, despite
blame levied by critics, U.S. and academic officials said on Thursday.
The Agriculture Department programs will cost about $73 billion in fiscal
2009. They range from school milk to food stamps and the Women, Infants
and Children food program.
The large price tag has prompted some critics to point to research blaming
the programs as a factor in a global obesity crisis. (Reuters)
Portugal
aims to cut stroke deaths by curbing salt - LISBON - Alarmed by high
death rates from strokes in Portugal, deputies from the ruling Socialist
party submitted a bill to parliament Friday to slash the use of salt in
bread, blamed for many blood pressure problems.
The country's key dietary staple -- dried salted cod that is rehydrated
and cooked in many different ways -- has made the Portuguese accustomed to
using more salt in food than other nations, and bakers add generous
amounts to their dough.
Bread is one of the main sources of salt intake and many Portuguese eat it
with every meal. (Reuters)
So, because people eat salted fish these guys want to make bread
bland and unpalatable to the Portuguese...
Low-energy
light bulbs can cause rashes and swelling to sensitive skin, warn experts
- The phasing out of traditional light bulbs could cause misery for
thousands who have light-sensitive skin disorders, medical experts warned
yesterday.
Dr Robert Sarkany said some low-energy bulbs gave vulnerable people
painful rashes and swelling.
He backed calls by patient groups for the Government to give medical
exemptions for those at risk.
The warning comes as British shops start to clear their shelves of
traditional bulbs, which are being replaced by more energy-efficient
versions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (David Derbyshire, Daily
Mail)
Hitler
took over Czech lands 70 years ago - On March 14th, 1939, the Second
Republic of Czechoslovakia disintegrated when Slovakia became an
independent satellite of the Third Reich: their alternative was to face an
occupation by Hungary in a few days. At least, that's what Hitler told
them. The Parliament voted for the independence unanimously.
See what The
Telegraph wrote 70 years ago.
One day later, on March 15th, Hitler occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia,
creating the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The foreign policy and
security was transferred to the Reich. Currency and tariffs were unified
with Germany. German citizens of the Protectorate became the citizens of
the Reich while the Czech citizens either became obedient servants of the
new, politically correct regime or were executed.
This is what Václav Klaus wrote about the event today: (The Reference
Frame)
The
Price Of Pivoting To A Nanny State - The new buzzword in Washington is
"pivot," used to describe a fundamental change in public policy.
Team Obama has done a lot of pivoting — on issues both foreign and
domestic. Nowhere has it pivoted more, though, than on the economic front.
Clearly, it has turned away from free markets. And while it's not always
clear exactly where they are turning to — leading some pundits to
suggest they are simply "making it up as they go along" — the
general approach is one more commonly seen in Europe.
It assumes that only government can solve key social and economic
problems. And it has few qualms about manipulating markets, bypassing
institutions of civil society and shouldering aside the private sector to
get where it wants to go.
There's a downside to this approach. It directly increases dependency on
government and slows economic activity. (William Beach, IBD)
Knock,
knock: it’s the council bin snoops - Householders face
're-education' visits for producing too much rubbish after microchipping
of two million bins
HOUSEHOLDERS are facing “re-education” home visits for producing too
much rubbish after figures released under freedom of information laws
revealed that councils have quietly microchipped 2m bins.
The chips can be used to record the amount of rubbish families are
throwing away. Those recycling too little will be sent warning leaflets,
then visited by council officials who will advise on cutting waste.
Details of the scheme resurrect the long-term prospect of a
pay-as-you-throw bin tax, which many thought had died when councils failed
to take part in government trials. (Sunday Times)
Mosquito
laser gun offers new hope on malaria - AMERICAN scientists are making
a ray gun to kill mosquitoes. Using technology developed under the Star
Wars anti-missile programme, the zapper is being built in Seattle where
astrophysicists have created a laser that locks onto airborne insects.
Scientists have speculated for years that lasers might be used against
mosquitoes, which kill nearly 1m people a year through malaria.
The laser – dubbed a weapon of mosquito destruction (WMD) – has been
designed with the help of Lowell Wood, one of the astrophysicists who
worked on the original Star Wars plan to shield America from nuclear
attack. (Sunday Times)
Surging
global population adds to water crisis warns UN - The surging growth
in global population, climate change, widespread mismanagement and
increasing demand for energy have tightened the grip on the world’s
evaporating water supplies, warned a new United Nations report released
today. (MercoPress)
Liquid water is not in short supply on this planet -- we just need to
get potable water to people.
March 13, 2009
Inhofe
Speech: ‘Consensus’ Continues Freefall - Why Americans Are Growing
More Skeptical
‘High school kids watching Gore’s movie today will be nearing AARP’s
retirement age by the time warming allegedly resumes in 30 years’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member
of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, today delivered a
floor speech on the latest global warming poll data and the continuing
inconvenient science developments refuting man-made climate fears. See:
Inhofe: ‘Consensus’ Continues Freefall: Science and Scientists
Challenge Man-Made Global Warming Fears & Inhofe Speech: "Gallup
Poll: Record-High 41% of Americans Now Say Global Warming is
Exaggerated" (EPW)
Diversity
Abounds at New York City Climate Conference - The Second International
Conference on Climate Change, held March 8-10 in New York City, was a
great success, with considerably greater attendance than the first
conference. Keynote speakers included President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech
Republic, Prof. Dick Lindzen, Gov. John Sununu, Harrison Schmitt (last man
to walk on the moon), Lord Monckton, and several others. A total of
approximately 80 speakers packed a series of four parallel sessions
throughout the 2 days of talks.
As was the case last year, several lines of evidence were presented in
support of the two most important scientific objections to the currently
popular view that humans now rule the climate system: (1) climate
sensitivity is much lower than the United Nations claims it is; and (2)
nature, not humans, dominate climate change. (Roy Spencer)
Heartland-2 climate conference reports: Heartland-2:
session three - John Sunumu: Nature will respond to climate change
in the future in a self-stabilising way, as it always has in the past.
Willie Soon: The first order of business is that the null hypothesis
is that the climate change we observe is due to natural variability.
Bob Carter: IPCC climate policy (Plan A) – to prevent hypothetical
human-caused climate change by reducing CO2 emissions - hasn’t worked
and won’t work. Policy Plan B needs to be that countries develop their
own capacity to prepare for and adapt to real, natural climate change;
they will then be well positioned to cope with hypothetical (human-caused)
climate change, should any eventuate.
Lord Christopher Monckton: There was no climate crisis, there
is no climate crisis and there will be no climate crisis. The
correct solution to global warming is to have the courage to do nothing.
(Bob Carter)
Background to Heartland-2 here
Heartland-2: session one here
Heartland-2: session two here
U.S.
Deadbeats? - United Nations: It takes some gall to grumble about
getting billions in U.S. taxpayer handouts. Does U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon expect spend-happy Uncle Sam to give the corrupt U.N. its own
stimulus?
It wasn't the way to win friends and influence people in the U.S. Congress
— even this spendthrift band of power-drunk lawmakers. (IBD)
UN chief
seeks to smooth over 'deadbeat' comment - UNITED NATIONS:
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon tried Thursday to smooth over his criticism
of the United States after the White House objected to his description of
the country as a "deadbeat" because of its late U.N. payments.
"My point was simply that the United Nations needs the fullest
support of its members, and never more so than in these very demanding
times," Ban told reporters at U.N. headquarters.
Ban used the word "deadbeat" Wednesday during a private meeting
with lawmakers at the Capitol, one day after he met with President Barack
Obama in the Oval Office.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Ban's "word choice was
unfortunate," given that the U.S. is the world body's largest
contributor.
The United States pays 22 percent of the organization's nearly $5 billion
operating budget, but is perennially late paying its dues in part because
of its budget calendar, but also over political issues. (Associated Press)
Time to boot the parasitic kleptocrats and dictators back where they
came from. Can anyone think of a single useful thing achieved by the UN
in the last 5 decades?
Activists
arrested as ministers fail to decide on climate funding - Economic and
finance ministers meeting in Brussels yesterday (10 March) failed to put
figures on the table to finance climate change in the midst of global
negotiations, despite the calls of over 300 protesters arrested for
blocking the entrance of the Council building.
Greenpeace activists from twenty European countries urged ministers not to
exit the building without putting money on the table to help developing
countries, but little was decided. The Economic and Financial Affairs
Council, however, only reiterated the EU's readiness to "contribute
its fair share".
Concerns have been raised that the conspicuous absence of formal EU
proposals on climate financing show lack of commitment on behalf of the
bloc's governments to reaching an ambitious new international climate
agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol. The Netherlands called on the
ministers to set a deadline for July, but did not receive enough backing
for the move. All eyes are now on next week's European summit. (EurActiv)
China's
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Threaten to Double - Can a climate
catastrophe still be averted? Scientists voice pessimism in a new study,
which concludes that no matter what the Western industrialized nations do,
China's greenhouse emissions will be hard to stop.
It sounds like wishful thinking: The United States, under new President
Barack Obama, forges an alliance with China to combat emissions. The
world's two largest sources of carbon dioxide finally face the problem.
The treaty crowns the United Nations Climate Change Conference in
Copenhagen at the end of 2009, when a successor agreement to the Kyoto
Protocol -- which, as everyone knows, the United States never ratified --
will be adopted. Third World countries and emerging economies never had to
do it, but in Copenhagen rising economic powers like China make a binding
commitment to curb their emissions.
It probably is wishful thinking. It has almost nothing to do with reality.
"Many Western industrialized nations want China to commit to reducing
its CO2 emissions," says Dabo Guan of the Electricity Policy Research
Group at the University of Cambridge in England. "But the country
will not even be capable of doing so." (Der Spiegel)
Discussion
of Andy Revkin's climate reporting
We'll
Pry Global Warming From Their Cold, Dead Hearts - This is the winter
of environmentalists’ discontent. They desperately want the earth to be
warming to prove Al Gore’s truth inviolate and they are going to make
you pay thousands of dollars for it no matter whether it’s true or not.
But the weather has been inconveniently cold. Thirty-two states have
experienced record or near-record lows this winter – poking holes in the
predictions of imminent fiery doom. Just ask the diehard global warming
activists who showed up in Washington last week to protest the nation’s
use of coal. Their event was hampered by nearly a foot of snow in the
nation’s capital – enough to freeze out luminaries like Speaker of the
House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). (Dan Gainor, Townhall)
Remembering the Old James
Hansen (give him some credit) - I have previously posted on NASA
scientist and leading climate alarmist James Hansen as a “scientist
behaving strangely.” His mixing of politics and science–controversial
science at that–has raised eyebrows among friend and foe.
But then there is the old, more moderate Jim Hansen. Below, I offer some
quotations for the historical record. There are undoubtedly other
quotations that can be added–and should be in the “comments”
section, whether by Hansen or by colleagues of Hansen.
Perhaps Dr. Hansen can say that his thinking has evolved toward greater
alarm. But if so, with temperatures little or no higher today than when he
wrote a decade or more ago, the question must be asked: why has his
alarm gone up rather than down? (Robert Bradley, Master Resource)
Still misreporting: Buoyed
by US, UN chief sees climate deal this year - The U.N. chief is
predicting that a new global climate deal - with U.S. backing - will be
reached this year.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that the United Nations
"can and will reach a climate deal that all nations can embrace"
at a planned conference in Copenhagen in December.
Ban's comments to reporters followed his meetings with President Barack
Obama and congressional leaders this week. Ban said he came away
encouraged by new U.S. approaches to global warming.
The administration of Obama's predecessor, President George W. Bush,
pulled out of the last global climate treaty, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol,
citing potential economic harm and lack of participation by developing
countries. (Associated Press)
They just can't get past the fact Slick Willy never sent the signed
article to the Senate for ratification, knowing full well it should
never have been signed in contravention of Senate Resolution 98 (a.k.a.
Byrd-Hagel). Dubya merely stopped paying lip service to an irrelevant
appendage to a stupid document signed by the 41st President,
G.H.W. Bush, in 1992. As far as presidents go, 41 advanced this
nonsense, 42 killed it and 43 basically dealt with the reality of the
situation that America had not ratified and in fact could not ratify Kyoto.
The Clinton-gore Administration engaged in hollow political theater to
titillate their green constituents with no risk of actually taking
action. Do they understand now?
We
Don’ Need No Stinkin’ Treaty! - At Heartland’s International
Climate Change Conference in New York this week, I gave a talk addressing
the argument made by Brookings’s Nigel Purvis that, when it comes to
roping the U.S. into Kyoto’s successor, we need to recognize that “The
United States should classify new international treaties to protect the
Earth’s climate system as executive agreements rather than treaties,”
because “The treaty clause has never worked as the framers of the
Constitution intended.”
By that he means, upon clarification, that “The treaty process created
by the framers of the Constitution requires an exceptional degree of
national consensus that is no longer reasonable given the frequency and
importance of international cooperation today,” meaning that which was
intended to keep us from doing something too promiscuously has been
overtaken by the practice of doing it too promiscuously and must be thrown
overboard. (Chris Horner, Planet Gore)
You suppose he believes any of this? Nicholas
Stern: politicians have no idea of the impact of climate change -
Politicians had yet to grasp how devastating climate change would be to
society in this century, a leading economist said yesterday.
Wars, famines, floods and hurricanes would wreak havoc unless greenhouse
gas emissions were controlled, Professor Nicholas Stern told scientists at
the conference.
Another speaker warned that Britain could expect severe droughts and that
much of southern Europe would be turned into semi-desert, capable of
supporting only a fraction of its current population.
Lord Stern, who wrote the highly influential Stern report, which in 2006
alerted the world to the financial costs of climate change, said that not
only was the threat underplayed by politicians but that they did not even
understand the extent of the problem.
“Do the politicians understand just how difficult it could be, just how
devastating four, five, six degrees centigrade would be? I think, not
yet,” he said. (The Times)
Senator
says Obama driven on climate - One of the US Senate's top campaigners
against global warming on Wednesday sought to ease international concerns,
vowing President Barack Obama was committed to action on climate change.
Some European nations have voiced uncertainty about whether Obama and the
US Congress can follow through on promises to force sharp reductions in
carbon emissions due to the terrible state of the US economy.
But Senator Bernie Sanders said tens of billions of dollars would go to
action on climate change as part of Obama's package to stimulate the
world's largest economy. (AFP)
True, after a fashion: America
unprepared for climate change, say policy advisers - National Research
Council claims US agencies and political leaders not getting the right
information or guidance
America is woefully unprepared for climate change, and the government
agencies charged with delivering the latest science to decision makers are
not up to the task, a new report said today.
The National Research Council, a policy advice centre that is part of the
US National Academy of Sciences, said that government agencies and
political leaders, concerned more than ever about climate change, were not
getting the information or the guidance they needed. (The Guardian)
Political leaders are most assuredly not getting the right
information and as a consequence are misdirecting effort to guard
against a situation which cannot possibly occur. Fortunately some seem
to be working this out for themselves:
In
Hot Pursuit Of CO2 - Climate Change: Washington is about to crack down
on carbon dioxide emissions. It had better hurry because it won't have
much time before the backlash strikes. The public is losing its faith in
the global warming religion.
The Environmental Protection Agency, under new management, wants to
regulate emissions of CO2, as well as other greenhouse gases, as part of
its campaign against global warming.
The next step is to establish a reporting system, which was proposed
Tuesday, so the government can monitor private activity and eventually tax
carbon emissions. (IBD)
US
senators attack cap-and-trade for climate change - WASHINGTON — The
United States should not impose a cap-and-trade system to battle climate
change this year because it amounts to a painful tax during a deep
recession, senators argued Wednesday.
"Now is not the time to put a national sales tax on every electric
bill and every gasoline purchase," Republican Senator Lamar
Alexander, who sits on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee,
told reporters.
"I'm open, as are several Republicans, to cap-and-trade, but it's
getting increasingly difficult to think about it in the middle of a
recession," said Alexander, who represents Tennessee.
US President Barack Obama favors the approach, which sets a cap on the
total pollutants companies can emit and then forces heavy polluters to buy
credits from entities that pollute less -- creating financial incentives
to fight global warming.
Cap-and-trade, already in practice in the European Union, is likely to be
reinforced at UN climate talks in Copenhagen this December as the
preferred strategy for slashing "greenhouse gases" blamed for
climate change. (AFP)
Obama
budget lacks votes - President Obama’s budget doesn’t have enough
support from lawmakers to pass, the Senate Budget Committee chairman said
Tuesday.
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said he has spoken to enough colleagues about
several different provisions in the budget request to make him think
Congress won’t pass it.
Conrad urged White House budget director Peter Orszag not to “draw lines
in the sand” with lawmakers, most notably on Obama’s plan for a
cap-and-trade system to curb carbon emissions. (Walter Alarkon, The Hill)
Senate
budget leaders warn against using spending bill to move climate plan -
The leaders of the Senate Budget Committee yesterday warned the Obama
administration against pursuing the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation
measure as a strategy for moving climate change legislation.
Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) did not explicitly say that using
reconciliation is not an option for moving cap-and-trade legislation. But
he warned White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter
Orszag that such a path contained several pitfalls.
One of those, Conrad said, is the so-called Byrd rule, which prohibits the
Senate from using reconciliation to move "extraneous" matters.
"We've been told by parliamentary experts that if one tried to write
comprehensive legislation using reconciliation, the legislation, once the
Byrd rule had been applied, would look like Swiss cheese," Conrad
said.
The "extraneous matters" are defined under the Budget Act, but
its practical implementation remains the subject of interpretation by the
presiding officer of the Senate with consultation from the
parliamentarian. Any senator can raise a point of order against a
provision if he believes it violates the Byrd rule, which can then only be
waived by a 60 vote majority.
From a political standpoint, Conrad indicated that a number of senators
who are on the fence or close to it when it comes to climate change
legislation may jump ship if they stand to lose the opportunity to
influence the legislation. "There an awful lot of senators who are on
the margins of this issue who would be very concerned if their leverage
was reduced by that mechanism," Conrad said.
Conrad's warnings were echoed by Budget Committee ranking member Judd
Gregg (R-N.H.), who said many lawmakers would be uncomfortable with moving
such sweeping legislation by using the budget process. (Alex Kaplun,
ClimateWire)
AUST ENVIRONMENT FOUNDATION SPELLS OUT
THE COST OF AN ETS - The chair of the Australian
Environment Foundation, Dr Jennifer Marohasy today spelt out the costs
of an Emissions Trading Scheme to ordinary Australians and their jobs to
Jason Morrison of Radio 2GB. Listen to the interview at this LINK
and visit the website she mentions www.ListenToUs.org.au
to do something about telling the government what you think. (Australian
Climate Science Coalition)
Incessant screeching of the apocalypse: Climate
scientists warn of "devastating" five-degree world - Latest
science shows world is currently on track for catastrophic temperature
increases that would cut global population to just one billion people
Climate scientists gathering in Copenhagen today attempted to hammer home
the full scale of the threat posed by global warming, warning that we are
currently on track for a "five-degree world" where the global
population would be slashed from an expected nine billion in 2050 to just
one billion people by the end of the century.
Opening the final day of the Climate Congress meeting was Professor John
Schellnuber of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and one
of the world's leading climate scientists. He said the evidence gathered
since the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change "closed
the books" on its report four years ago confirmed the outlook was far
more bleak than previously thought.
He said that he had recently updated German chancellor Angela Merkel on
research that revealed that even if the world achieves the EU target of
limiting warming to two degrees above pre-industrial levels, the climate
impacts will be far more severe than previously thought. (BusinessGreen)
And who will save us from these guys? Six
ways to save the world: scientists compile list of climate change
clinchers - Scientists at this week's conference in Copenhagen
summarise findings for policy makers to discuss at UN summit in December
Scientists at the international congress in Copenhagen have prepared a
summary statement of their findings for policy makers. This was handed
today to the Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Ahead of the UN
Climate Change Conference in December he will formally hand this statement
over to officials and heads of state at the conference. The full
conclusions from the 2,500 scientific delegates from 80 countries that
have attended the three-day meeting this week will be published in full in
June 2009. The congress was conceived as an update of the science of
global warming ahead of the UN summit in December. The most recent
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report published in 2007 is now
three to four years out of date. (The Guardian)
More virtual world nonsense: Global
warming to carry big costs for California - SACRAMENTO, California -
From agricultural losses to devastation wrought by wildfires, California's
economy is expected to see significant costs resulting from global warming
in the decades ahead, according to a new report.
Global warming could translate into annual costs and revenue losses
throughout the economy of between $2.5 billion and $15 billion by 2050,
according to a summary of cost analyses of America's most populous state,
which is also the eighth-largest economy in the world. The summary was
presented Wednesday to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's climate advisers.
Property damage caused by more devastating wildfires and sea level rise
— estimated $100 billion in property loss by the end of the century —
could push the costs far higher. (Associated Press)
Nude Socialist: Climate
change already shaping society - Human society is already, in small
but significant ways, being shaped by global warming. So said a
climatologist at the climate change congress in Copenhagen, Denmark, on
Thursday.
Jean Palutikof of the University of East Anglia, UK, pointed to numerous
studies warning that climate change is going to deeply transform our
society, by increasing the death rate, for example, or changing the way we
grow food. If you look in the right places, says Palutikof, it is already
possible to see our behaviour changing.
Models and observations tell us which parts of the planet are most likely
to feel the heat of climate change – so these "hotspots" are a
good place to start looking for such changes. Palutikof focused on two
locations: the maize fields of the US Midwest, and south-east Australia.
(New Scienctist)
Yes, some part of Australia is always in drought. No, the geological
record tells us there is nothing noteworthy about recent dry events (in
fact the last few hundred years have been unusually benign as far as
rainfall goes).
Great Depression! Global
hurricane activity reaches new lows. - Global hurricane activity has
decreased to the lowest level in 30 years.
As previously reported here and here at Climate Audit, and chronicled at
my Florida State Global Hurricane Update page, both Northern Hemisphere
and overall Global hurricane activity has continued to sink to levels not
seen since the 1970s. Even more astounding, when the Southern Hemisphere
hurricane data is analyzed to create a global value, we see that Global
Hurricane Energy has sunk to 30-year lows, at the least. Since hurricane
intensity and detection data is problematic as one goes back in time, when
reporting and observing practices were different than today, it is
possible that we underestimated global hurricane energy during the 1970s.
See notes at bottom to avoid terminology discombobulation. (Ryan N. Maue,
Florida State University COAPS)
Famed
Hurricane Forecaster William Gray Rips AMS, NASA's Hansen; Calls Media
'Sycophantic Followers' - Prominent hurricane forecaster Dr. William
M. Gray, a professor at Colorado State University, appeared at The
Heartland Institute's 2009 International Conference on Climate Change
(ICCC) in New York on March 11 to elaborate on his theory that a natural
cycle of ocean water temperatures related to the salinity (the amount of
salt) in ocean water was responsible for some global warming that has
taken place.
Gray also distributed a document containing a scathing critique of Dr.
James Hansen, the head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who
is widely known for his outspokenness on the issue of manmade global
warming. Gray's document criticized the American Meteorological Society
(AMS), an organization that issues a "seal of approval" to
broadcast meteorologists, for awarding Hansen the 2009 Carl-Gustaf Rossby
Research Medal. (Jeff Poor, NewsBusters)
Oh... "Mad"
microplants show Antarctic climate change - WASHINGTON - You just
don't want to make phytoplankton mad.
These microscopic sea plants are at the bottom of the food chain in the
waters that surround the Antarctic peninsula, and when they're unhappy,
everything that depends on them suffers, including fish, penguins and
possibly, eventually, people.
A new study published on Thursday in the journal Science indicates that
some of these Antarctic phytoplankton have become increasingly grumpy over
the last 30 years.
Like most plants, phytoplankton need food and sunlight to survive. For
some that live off the west coast of the Antarctic peninsula, getting
these essentials has been an increasing challenge, with a 12 percent
decrease in phytoplankton populations seen in the last three decades.
(Reuters)
... there's been an increase in winter cloud along the northern
section of the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula (and a decrease in
the southern part, so winter clouds might have shifted a little further
north in the southern hemisphere -- or not) and this makes phytoplankton
pull on their cranky-pants in one region but take them off in another...
Just think, hard working taxpayers probably funded this, uh... study.
Carbon
tax only way to keep planet cool: Hansen - Greenhouse gas emissions
must be cut more quickly and deeply than thought only two years ago to
avoid dire consequences, and a straight-up carbon tax is the only
realistic way to do it, top climate scientist James Hansen said in an
interview.
New research paints an even gloomier picture of global warming than the
already grim report put out in early 2007 by the UN's Nobel-winning
scientific panel, he told AFP at the margins of a major climate
conference. (AFP)
EPA
set to raise prices on everything, control your life - "The Obama
administration is fast-tracking its response to the Supreme Court's 2007
climate decision with plans to issue a mid-April finding that global
warming threatens both public health and welfare, according to an internal
U.S. EPA document (pdf) obtained by Greenwire. (Heliogenic Climate Change)
Assisted
Economic Suicide - Climate Change: Sen. John Kerry warns that
deferring cap-and-trade in a recession is a "mutual suicide
pact." In an effort to keep the glaciers from melting, he proposes
putting the American economy in the deep freeze.
"You don't enter a mutual suicide pact because the economy is having
a hard time right now," the failed presidential hopeful and noted
climatologist said Wednesday. "Climate change is not governed by a
recession."
But trying to prevent a bogus apocalypse can drive one into a depression.
Kerry ignores the growing body of evidence presented by reputable
scientists and including satellite observations, not computer models, that
the earth has been cooling demonstrably since 1998 due to declining solar
activity and other natural factors.
He also ignores the warnings of cap-and-trade's economic consequences.
(IBD)
Cap
and Trade Primer: Eight reasons why cap and trade harms the economy and
reduces jobs - The most popular way to regulate carbon dioxide
emissions is through a cap and trade program. President Obama and many
policymakers support some form of this regulatory policy. Cap and trade
aims to cap emissions of carbon dioxide at a politically-determined level
and then have the users and producers of oil, coal, and natural gas buy,
sell, and trade their allowance to emit a given amount of carbon dioxide.
Cap and trade will increase the price of oil, coal, and natural gas in an
effort to force users to switch to other, less reliable, more expensive
forms of energy.
These proposals are very, very costly and economically damaging. If
enacted, last year’s flagship cap and trade proposal, the
Lieberman-Warner bill, would increase the cost of gasoline by anywhere
from 60 percent to 144 percent and increase the cost of electricity by 77
to 129 percent.
Up to four million Americans would lose their jobs under the program,
which amounts to a $4,022 to $6,752 loss in disposable income per
household. In return, we could have expected a 63 percent emissions cut.
President Obama’s budget proposes to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 83
percent. If successful, it’s reasonable to conclude it would lead to
even greater economic hardship than envisioned under Lieberman-Warner.
Other problems inherent in cap and trade exist, and they are manifold.
What follows is a brief explanation of some of the most glaring: (IER)
A
NASA Press Release “Drought, Urbanization Were Ingredients for
Atlanta’s Perfect Storm” - There is a very interesting news
release on March 11 2009 by NASA that documents yet another major
influence of land surface processes on weather and climate. (Roger Pielke
Sr., Climate Science)
Climate
Change Congress: threshold for Greenland melt could be double previous
figure - Once an ice sheet starts to melt, the surface of the ice
gradually decreases in altitude and becomes warmer, leading to yet more
melting in a positive feedback effect. According to Jonathan Bamber of the
University of Bristol, UK, speaking at the Copenhagen session on tipping
points, that makes the process pretty much irreversible once it’s
started in earnest - you’d need a very substantial cooling for the ice
sheet to return.
The complete collapse of the Greenland ice sheet would lead to around 6.5
m of sea level rise. So scientists are keen to know at what temperature
melting of the ice sheet is likely to become irreversible. A few years ago
Jonathan Gregory calculated this threshold at 3 degrees of temperature
rise but Bamber says there are two lines of evidence that suggest this is
wrong - the past and the modelling future. “I think there are other
processes in there that may be important,” he said. In the Eemian
Greenland was about 5 degrees warmer than today, considerably above
Gregory’s threshold, but there was still an ice sheet present (although
probably about half its present volume) and it remained in place for
20,000 years. (Environmental Research Web)
Not that well ever know because there is no such foreseeable
temperature rise. Even if we go by Charnock & Shine's absurdly
hypersensitive estimate and managed to increase atmospheric carbon
dioxide to 1,200 ppmv (roughly 4 times the 1950 level) that still only
equates to a clear sky forcing of less than 3 °C -- less than 2 °C
when calculated with Earth's ~40% cloud cover. That's why grant (or
otherwise) motivated modelers employ the marvelous magical multipliers
of "positive feedback" -- enhanced greenhouse is simply not
that interesting without these mystical fear-inducing magnifiers.
Heir to George
III's legacy? Prince
Charles: world must act now to save planet - Britain's Prince Charles
warned on Thursday that mankind has 100 months or less to save the planet
from a climate-caused disaster.
Charles told some 150 business leaders in Rio de Janeiro that "the
best projections tell us that we have less than 100 months to alter our
behavior before we risk catastrophic climate change and the unimaginable
horrors that this would bring."
"Any difficulties which the world faces today will be nothing
compared to the full effects which global warming will have on the
worldwide economy," he said. "It will result in vast movements
of people escaping either flooding or droughts, in uncertain production of
foods and lack of water and, of course, increasing social instability and
potential conflict."
"It will affect the well-being of every man, woman and child on our
planet," the prince added, calling for urgent steps to curb
deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. (Associated Press)
Climate
Change Congress: Raj Pachauri heads to Yale - Raj Pachauri, chairman
of the IPCC, is to take up a half-time position as director of a new
climate and energy institute at Yale University, US, starting in the
autumn. The announcement came at the Copenhagen Climate Congress.
(Environmental Research Web)
Statement
of National Center for Public Policy Research Senior Fellow R.J. Smith on
the Defeat of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act (S. 22) on the House
Floor Wednesday
"The Democrat leadership's omnibus land lock-up bill to shut down
oil, gas and coal exploration and production in the midst of a recession
and a domestic energy shortage -- and to prevent the public from using
their lands by placing tens of million more acres in restrictive non-use
categories -- was narrowly defeated Wednesday by a bipartisan group of 141
Republicans and three heroic Democrats.
We are still finding out how bad the Omnibus is. We knew the section of
the Omnibus with the prohibition on gathering fossils gave the federal
government the authority to seize people's vehicles and equipment, but the
Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences believes the language
actually gives the federal government the authority to seize private lands
as well. So if you had some pretty pieces of petrified wood or a few
trilobites or a tiny fish skeleton on your fireplace mantle -- the federal
government might be able to seize your ranch or farm or home.
And yet there were 282 votes for this monstrosity. One of the real dangers
of rolling 170+ individual bills into one 1,294-page, 9-inch thick
omnibus. I would bet NO ONE ever read it all. Who knew what evils lurked
in there? One would hope if there had been hearings and mark-ups and
committee votes on all the individual components, plus full debate on the
House floor -- that far fewer Congressmen would have voted for such a
destructive draconian piece of legislation. (Press Release)
The
World Wildlife Fund's Polar Bear Lies - No doubt you’ve seen the
ads: The music is dramatic. The scene is tragic. The message emotional.
Polar Bears, holding on for dear life to bits of ice, their artic habitat
destroyed by Global Warming. And the narration tells you of the tragic
fate of the bears, all because of man and his selfish destruction of the
earth. Of course, the ad ends with a plea for funds to help the World
Wildlife Fund (WWF) protect the bears and stop Global Warming. Cute, fuzzy
animals always do the trick. (Tom DeWeese, Townhall)
More: Atmospheric
'sunshade' could reduce solar power generation - The concept of
delaying global warming by adding particles into the upper atmosphere to
cool the climate could unintentionally reduce peak electricity generated
by large solar power plants by as much as one-fifth, according to a new
NOAA study. The findings appear in this week's issue of Environmental
Science and Technology. (NOAA)
Readers supplied these clip links: South
Park; Simpsons
Chicken
manure sorts out oil spills - Bacterial degradation of oil is under
investigation as a more environmentally friendly means of cleaning up
after spills. Other schemes that use chemicals such as detergents can in
turn pollute the area themselves.
Often the bacteria used in such bioremediation require the addition of
nitrogen and phosphorus to act as nutrients and promote their growth.
Whilst researching the enrichment of microbial cultures at Wuhan
University, China, Bello Yakubu found that adding chicken manure as a
nutrient source also decreased the content of hydrocarbons in the soil.
(Environmental Research Web)
Scientists
claim first-generation biofuels here to stay - Experts predict
first-generation biofuels will be with us for several decades and call on
biofuel industry to focus on improving agricultural yields as best means
of limiting impact on food prices. (BusinessGreen)
Obese
people respond differently to food, study shows - Obese people overeat
because the food reward centre in their brain is so sluggish, it takes
more food to feel satisfied, new research suggests.
In a study of young girls and women, scientists tested the brain’s
response to a “highly palatable food” - chocolate milkshakes. They
found that the part of the brain that releases the feel-good chemical
dopamine in response to eating is less active in the obese. (Sharon
Kirkey, Canwest News Service)
Ozone
danger called grave - Ozone pollution increases the yearly risk of
death from respiratory diseases by 40 percent to 50 percent in heavily
polluted cities like Los Angeles and by about 25 percent throughout the
rest of the country, researchers reported Thursday.
Environmental scientists already knew that dramatic increases in ozone
during periods of heavy pollution cause short-term effects, such as asthma
attacks, more hospitalizations and deaths from heart attacks.
But the 18-year study of nearly a half-million people, reported in the New
England Journal of Medicine, is the first to show that long-term,
low-level exposure to the pollutant also can be lethal.
The findings come as the Obama administration hints that it will revisit
new limits on ground-level ozone, or smog, that were set last year by the
Bush administration. (Los Angeles Times)
There is no doubt lower atmosphere ozone is an irritant, which is one
of the reasons we originally disputed the absurd EPA 'benefits' of the
Montreal Protocol on 'ozone depleting substances'. According to the EPA
protecting ozone would deliver multitrillion-dollar health benefits and,
by their bizarre accounting, all ozone is of near-infinite value (it
matters not if an ozone molecule is 2 meters or 20,000 over your head,
if it intercepts UVB [and UVB actually turns out to be harmful, as De
Fabo et al contend, links here]
then it has 'protected' you).
Bush
limits on toxic reports removed - WASHINGTON - The $410 billion
spending bill that President Barack Obama signed Wednesday will reinstate
detailed toxic chemical reporting at more than 3,500 facilities
nationwide.
The Bush administration in 2006 reduced the amount of information that
facilities storing and releasing smaller amounts of toxic chemicals had to
submit to the federal government. Companies using less than 5,000 pounds
of toxic chemicals, or releasing less than 2,000 pounds, could use
shorter, less detailed forms. Congressional auditors said the change would
have cut by a quarter the number of emissions reports the government
receives each year.
A provision in the spending bill eliminates the Bush change, which was
pushed by the White House to reduce the regulatory burden on industry.
Democratic lawmakers have criticized the regulation, and a dozen states
have sued the Environmental Protection Agency arguing it reduces the
information available to the public about chemical hazards in their
communities. (AP)
Realistically all this does is increase pointless hysteria and
industry bashing. Just another facet of the antimodernists increasing
your costs to reduce your discretionary spending and hence consumption
to 'save' Gaia (from you).
Peter
Foster: Let the auto companies fail - Mixed economies guarantee
systemic failure, just like government-controlled ones. The only
difference is it takes longer
Chrysler this week threatened to pull out of Canada unless it gets union
concessions, government loan/handouts, and a favourable tax ruling in an
ongoing case with Revenue Canada. The union is crying “blackmail,”
while Ottawa — which has already promised US$2.3-billion to the company
— waffles on about negotiating with Washington over industrial
salvation.
The Post’s Don Martin suggested yesterday that “[T]here’s no
political way to sacrifice tens of thousands of General Motors [and
presumably Chrysler] jobs on the altar of ideology.”
But what “ideology” would that be? The pursuit of economic reality?
(Peter Foster, Financial Post)
Our
Pigs, Our Food, Our Health - The late Tom Anderson, the family doctor
in this little farm town in northwestern Indiana, at first was puzzled,
then frightened.
He began seeing strange rashes on his patients, starting more than a year
ago. They began as innocuous bumps — “pimples from hell,” he called
them — and quickly became lesions as big as saucers, fiery red and
agonizing to touch.
They could be anywhere, but were most common on the face, armpits, knees
and buttocks. Dr. Anderson took cultures and sent them off to a lab, which
reported that they were MRSA, or staph infections that are resistant to
antibiotics.
MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) sometimes arouses
terrifying headlines as a “superbug” or “flesh-eating bacteria.”
The best-known strain is found in hospitals, where it has been seen
regularly since the 1990s, but more recently different strains also have
been passed among high school and college athletes. The federal Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention reported that by 2005, MRSA was killing
more than 18,000 Americans a year, more than AIDS.
Dr. Anderson at first couldn’t figure out why he was seeing patient
after patient with MRSA in a small Indiana town. And then he began to
wonder about all the hog farms outside of town. Could the pigs be
incubating and spreading the disease? (Nicholas D. Kristof, New York
Times)
Another
Green Revolution - Genetically modified food offers hope for the
world’s malnourished.
Shortly after the Second World War, a “Green Revolution” began to
transform agriculture around the globe, allowing food production to keep
pace with worldwide population growth. By means of irrigation, fertilizer,
pesticides, and plant breeding, the Green Revolution increased world grain
production by an astonishing 250 percent between 1950 and 1984, raising
the calorie intake of the world’s poorest people and averting serious
famines. The revolution’s benefits have tapered off, however, as the
number of mouths to feed has grown ever larger and as conventional
breeding of new plant varieties has produced diminishing returns. What’s
needed is a new revolution. Luckily, most agricultural scientists believe
that the planet’s requirements for agricultural production could be met
through genetic modification (GM)—if environmental activists don’t
keep it from happening. (Bjørn Lomborg, City Journal)
March 12, 2009
After all the money spent on indoctrination campaigns: Increased
Number Think Global Warming Is “Exaggerated” - Most believe global
warming is happening, but urgency has stalled
PRINCETON, NJ -- Although a majority of Americans believe the seriousness
of global warming is either correctly portrayed in the news or
underestimated, a record-high 41% now say it is exaggerated. This
represents the highest level of public skepticism about mainstream
reporting on global warming seen in more than a decade of Gallup polling
on the subject. (Gallup)
UN
climate chief: US carbon cuts could spark 'revolution' - The head of
the UN body charged with leading the fight against climate change has
conceded that Barack Obama will face a "revolution" if he
commits the US to the deep carbon cuts that scientists and campaigners say
are needed.
Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), said domestic political constraints made it impossible for the US
president to announce ambitious short-term climate targets similar to
those set by Europe. And he questioned the value of a new global climate
deal without such a US pledge.
His words come as scientists at the Copenhagen conference said that modest
IPCC estimates of likely sea level rise this century need to be increased.
Extra melting in Greenland could drive sea levels to more than a metre
higher than today by 2100, they said. (The Guardian)
No
Progress in the Climate Change Debate - When preparing my today’s
remarks, I took into my hands – looking for an inspiration – my last
year’s speech here, at the Heartland Institute’s Conference. It did
not help much. It is evident that the climate change debate has not made
any detectable progress and that the much needed, long overdue exchange of
views has not yet started. All we see and hear are uninspiring monologues.
It reminds me of the frustration people like me felt in the communist era.
Whatever you said, any convincing and well prepared arguments you used,
any relevant data you assembled, no reaction. It all fell into emptiness.
Nobody listened, especially “they” did not listen. They didn’t even
try to argue back. They considered you a naive, uninformed and confused
person, an eccentric, a complainer, someone not able to accept their only
truth. It is very similar now. (Václav Klaus)
Warming
to Cockburn and Vice Versa - In visiting the Heartland Institute's
second International Conference on Climate Change, which concluded
yesterday in New York, one couldn't help but be impressed by the change in
mood among the 800 global warming skeptics gathered there.
Many of the scientists present felt that the intellectual tide had finally
started to turn away from the conclusions of the United Nations'
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. That panel concluded global
temperatures may already have reached crisis levels, and that human
release of carbon emissions into the atmosphere was a major factor.
While it was fascinating to interview noted scientists who have renounced
some of their earlier support for global warming theory, my most memorable
exchange was with Alexander Cockburn, the left-wing columnist for the Los
Angeles Times and the Nation magazine. Mr. Cockburn has undergone
blistering attacks since he first dissented from the global warming
"consensus" in 2007. "I've felt like the object of a witch
hunt," he says. "One former Sierra Club board member suggested I
should be criminally prosecuted."
Mr. Cockburn was at the conference collecting material for his forthcoming
book "A Short History of Fear," in which he will explore the
link between fear-mongering and climate catastrophe proponents. "No
one on the left is comfortable talking about science," he told me.
"They don't feel they can easily get their arms around it, so they
don't think about it much. As a result, they are prone to any peddler of
ideas that reinforce their pre-existing prejudices. One would be that
there is a population explosion that must be dealt with by slowing down
economies."
I asked him how he felt hanging around with so many people who have a more
conservative viewpoint than he does. "It's been good fun and I've
learned a lot," he told me. "I think what they are saying on
this topic is looking better and better." (John H. Fund, Hawaii
Reporter)
What Planetary
Emergency? - Dispatch from day two of the International Conference on
Climate Change in New York - March 9, New York—Assume that man-made
global warming exists. So what? That was the premise of a fascinating
presentation by Indur Goklany during the second day of sessions at the
International Conference on Climate Change. Goklany, who works in the
Office of Policy Analysis of the U.S. Department of the Interior and is
the author of The Improving State of the World: Why We're Living Longer,
Healthier, More Comfortable Lives on a Cleaner Planet, made it clear that
he was not speaking on behalf of the federal government. (Ronald Bailey,
Reason)
Gore
Ducks Debate... Again - Quixotic climate crusader, Oscar and Nobel
Prize winner Al Gore has again declined a direct challenge from noted
environmental skeptic Bjorn Lomborg to debate the issues of global climate
change. In last week’s Wall Street Journal economics conference in
California, Gore indignantly replied: “it’s kind of silly to keep
debating the science.” Gore went on with his melodramatic claims of a
universal scientific consensus for an imminent global warming disaster,
with calls for radical government actions to control climate change. (Paul
Taylor, LA Ecopolitics Examiner)
Global
Warming ‘Realists’ Meet in New York - We’ve all heard about
carbon dioxide and its effect on temperature world-wide. But have you
heard that temperature increases first, then hundreds or more years later
carbon dioxide levels rise? My guess is probably not. A children’s book
with a mislabeled graph shows temperature following carbon dioxide; a
leading science journal took over ten years to set the record straight; Al
Gore blames carbon dioxide. Yet, there has been no temperature increase in
the last nine years in spite of increasing carbon dioxide levels. Clearly,
we need to find another culprit. (Jack Dini, Hawaii Reporter)
Heartland
Meeting of Climate “Realists” a Huge Success - Over 800 scientists
and economists from 24 countries were in attendance this week at the
Second Annual ICCC in New York City organized by the Heartland and with 60
co-sponsoring organizations including Icecap. They heard talks by 80
scientists from 14 countries. The presentations of the keynote speakers
which included Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic and the
European Union, Dr. Richard Lindzen, Astronaut Harrison Schmidt, former
Hansen boss Dr. John Theon, Former Governor Dr. John Sununu, Dr. Arthur
Robinson, Dr. Bob Carter, Lord Monckton, and Dr. Willie Soon will soon be
all available on the Heartland ICCC 2009 web site. The others were all
videotaped and will be made available over upcoming weeks. Sections from
the talks will be combined into other videos that tell the real climate
story and distributed to decision makers and schools and groups that care
about the truth or wish to hear both sides of the story. (Joseph D’Aleo,
Icecap)
Astronaut
Harrison Schmitt: Climate change alarmists ‘intentionally mislead’
- Last month Apollo 17 astronaut and moonwalker Harrison Schmitt added his
voice to the growing chorus of scientists speaking out against the
anthropogenic [manmade] global warming (AGW) theory. In strongly worded
comments he said the theory was a ‘political tool.’ Now, in a speech
at the International Conference on Climate Change he outlined his argument
in great detail saying, “the science of climate change and its causes is
not settled.” (Tony Hake, Denver Weather Examiner)
Former
Hansen Supervisor Calls for the Global Warming Alarmist's Dismissal -
Retired NASA atmospheric scientist John Theon tells ICCC that Hatch Act is
grounds for media darling's firing.
Is it possible that one of the most outspoken figures of the global
warming alarmist movement has violated ethical, if not legal boundaries in
his job? John Theon, a retired senior NASA atmospheric scientist said he
believed so.
Theon an audience at The Heartland Institute’s 2009 International
Conference on Climate Change (ICCC) in New York on March 11 that the head
of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, James Hansen, should be
fired. Hansen is widely known for his outspokenness on the issue of
manmade global warming.
“I have publicly said I thought Jim Hansen should be fired,” Theon
said. “But, my opinion doesn’t count much, particularly when he is
empowered by people like the current president of the United States. I’m
not sure what we can do to have him get off of the public payroll and
continue with the campaign or crusade. I think the man is sincere, but he
is suffering from a bad case of megalomania.”
In 2001, Hansen received a $250,000 Heinz Environment Award for his
research on global warming, an award named for deceased Sen. John Heinz,
R-Pa. His widow, Teresa Heinz Kerry is now married to Sen. John Kerry,
D-Mass., who ran for president in 2004. Hansen later publicly endorsed
Kerry for the presidency and according to Theon, that’s a problem for
Hansen.
“Yes, that is absolutely illegal,” Theon said. “There is a law
called the Hatch Act, which prevents any civil servant, including Jim
Hansen from endorsing any political cause publicly and he certainly did
that. That alone is grounds for firing, and if not imprisonment or
fine.” (Jeff Poor, Business & Media Institute)
Oh... Recession
byproduct - a cut in emissions - But low level may hurt cap and trade
program - New figures being released today show the recession helped drive
down global warming emissions from Northeast power plants last year to
their lowest levels in at least nine years.
Northeast power plant emissions dropped about 9 percent last year from
2007, according to preliminary projections by Point Carbon, a consulting
and research firm. The Norway-based company attributed the drop to the
economic slowdown, combined with the fact that power plants are burning
cleaner natural gas.
The drop in emissions may be good for the environment, but was not seen as
reason for celebration. "What does this say about the state of the
economy?" said Robert Rio, senior vice president of Associated
Industries of Massachusetts "We could get 100 percent below the cap
if we shut every business and moved them out of state."
The reduction in emissions came with another drawback: It has the
unintended effect of delaying a longer-term and potentially more important
effort to reduce greenhouse gases over the next decade. (Beth Daley,
Boston Globe)
And if you believe this they'll tell you another (they probably
will anyway): Some
good news on climate change - At last, there is some good news on
climate change.
Thousands of the world's climate experts have gathered in Denmark to hear
the latest on global warming.
The news on the science is bad: climate change is happening faster than
was thought only a few years ago.
But conference participant and Australian National University (ANU)
academic Will Steffen says there is a glimmer of hope.
Experts are reporting the success of energy efficiency measures, which are
slashing greenhouse gas emissions "at absolutely no impact on
lifestyles or economies". (AAP)
Video: Harold Ambler (author of
the infamous HuffPo climate skeptic column) appears on Fox News
Channel’s Red Eye - Harold Ambler, a self-described liberal,
achieved instant climate skeptic hero status in January when he somehow
managed to get his column, “Mr. Gore: Apology Accepted” printed in the
Huffington Post. Ambler recently appeared on the Fox News Channel’s Red
Eye program. (Gore Lied)
If only this were true: Climate
change - is it all the climate scientists fault? - Chastising a
scientist for not being a great orator is a bit like moaning at a
footballer for not giving enlightening post-[match] interviews - it's not
really their job.
Inherently, scientists don't do rhetoric. They do facts, cold hard facts
that can be tested, re-tested and tested again, and what's more we would
not have it any other way. It is only through the rigourous application of
scientific processes, of hypotheses proposed, tested and refined, that we
end up with reliable, accurate evidence from which to make decisions.
Bold predictions, made without a correct assessment of variability and
uncertainty are anathema to this process, handing easy wins to those who
for whatever reason wish to discredit your research.
And yet, when the research you are undertaking points to a planetary
emergency is there not an obligation to frame it in the manner that
garners the most attention?
This, in a nutshell, was the argument made yesterday by John Ashton,
climate change special envoy to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
who warned that if we are to ensure carbon emissions peak within the next
six years then there "has to be much better communication between the
world of science and politics". (BusinessGreen)
Unfortunately, so-called climate scientists, at least those found in
the media, don't do facts but are quite adept at the rhetoric thing.
Environmentalist
desperation? - Winter 2009 should have been the winter that cooled
environmentalist’s planetary doom and gloom, yet there they were, morons
standing in a foot of snow and frigid temperatures in Washington DC,
chanting and beating the drum of dire consequences of anthropogenic global
warming. The weather was so bad that Pelosi herself had to cancel a flight
on her carbon emitting chariot.
One would think that there was a rational mind in that crowd of idiots.
But alas, this was not the case. Indeed, even that scientist
extraordinaire, James Hansen was there chanting along with his
environmentalist brethren; and he expects us to listen and believe his
apocalyptic message. Yeah, right…here’s a bit of news for your Hansen,
it gets cold in the winter and warm in the summer and it’s been doing
this since time immemorial.
Now, why do you think that these environmentalists and the erudite, James
Hansen were out there in frigid weather yelping about global warming?
(Steve LeMaster, Global Warming Skeptics)
Climate change
means bigger medical, council and property bills - Climate change
concerns like melting icecaps, increased desertification, loss of coral
reefs and the extinction of species like polar bears can seem a distant
concern in our everyday lives. Little attention, however, has been paid to
the likelihood of increased bills, through tax and insurance charges, that
will be incurred as the UK climate changes. (Institute of Physics)
Especially if (when) it gets colder...
Media
Blackout - At the Second Annual International Conference on Climate
Change this week, Harvard University astrophysicist and geophysicist
Willie Soon lamented that the few scientists who wrote the IPCC reports
have captured the scientific process and framed the narrative that Earth
faces a global warming crisis.
But I would give the mainstream media equal culpability in covering up
scientific evidence, as well as championing such flawed green leaders as
James Hansen and Al Gore. (Henry Payne, Planet Gore)
A
New Paper On Solar Climate Forcing “ACRIM-Gap And TSI Trend Issue
Resolved Using A Surface Magnetic Flux TSI Proxy Model By Scafetta Et Al
2009 - At the December 2008 NRC meeting “Detection and Attribution
of Solar Forcing on Climate” [see] there was extensive criticism by
Gavin Schmidt and others on the research of Nicola Scafetta with respect
to solar climate forcings. She was not, however, invited to that December
meeting.
There is now a new paper that she has published that needs to be refuted
or supported by other peer reviewed literature (rather than comments in a
closed NRC meeting in which the presentors would not share their
powerpoint talks).
The new paper is Scafetta N., R. C. Willson (2009), ACRIM-gap and TSI
trend issue resolved using a surface magnetic flux TSI proxy model,
Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L05701, doi:10.1029/2008GL036307. (Roger Pielke
Sr., Climate Science)
New
Paper Demonstrates Anthropogenic Contribution to Global Warming
Overestimated, Solar Contribution Underestimated - A new paper has
been published in GRL by Scafetta and Willson entitled: ‘ACRIM-gap and
TSI trend issue resolved using a surface magnetic flux TSI proxy model’
The Abstract states: “The ACRIM-gap (1989.5-1991.75) continuity dilemma
for satellite TSI observations is resolved by bridging the satellite TSI
monitoring gap between ACRIM1 and ACRIM2 results with TSI derived from
Krivova et al.’s (2007) proxy model based on variations of the surface
distribution of solar magnetic flux. ‘Mixed’ versions of ACRIM and
PMOD TSI composites are constructed with their composites’ original
values except for the ACRIM gap, where Krivova modeled TSI is used to
connect ACRIM1 and ACRIM2 results. Both ‘mixed’ composites demonstrate
a significant TSI increase of 0.033%/decade between the solar activity
minima of 1986 and 1996, comparable to the 0.037% found in the ACRIM
composite. The finding supports the contention of Willson (1997) that the
ERBS/ERBE results are flawed by uncorrected degradation during the ACRIM
gap and refutes the Nimbus7/ERB ACRIM gap adjustment Fröhlich and Lean
(1998) employed in constructing the PMOD.” (Climate Research News)
A
NATURAL LIMIT TO ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING - March 11th 2009:
Science advisor to the ACSC, William Kininmonth presented the following
paper, which counters the 'runaway global warming' argument, at the
International Climate Conference in New York on March 9th. (Australian
Climate Science Coalition)
Negotiators
urged to ditch "reckless" cap-and-trade gamble - Leading US
economist argues carbon tax offers proven and more effective means of
putting a price on carbon
One of the top economists in the US has today urged political leaders to
abandon the "reckless gamble" of the Kyoto Protocol's approach
to carbon trading and instead adopt carbon taxation as a proven and more
effective means of putting a price on carbon.
Professor William D Nordhaus of Yale University is one of the first
economists to study the impacts of climate change and an advisor to the US
government on the Congressional Budget Office Panel of Economic Experts.
He said that carbon taxes would provide greater price certainty to
businesses, make it easier to encourage emerging countries to enter into
an international deal on climate change and would be less susceptible to
corruption than alternative cap-and-trade measures.
"Tax systems may be hated," he admitted. "But they are
tried and tested in every country."
He argued that conversely the current fixation with cap-and-trade and the
carbon trading mechanisms set out under the Kyoto Agreement were largely
untested and "inherently" resulted in price volatility.
"To bet the world climate system on an untested approach with such
clear flaws is, in fact, a reckless gamble," he warned. "It
would be better to recognise this failure and act now."
(BusinessGreen)
Correct other than being completely wrong. Not about the Kyoto system
being inherently flawed, it is, rather it's wrong about atmospheric
carbon dioxide being anything but an asset.
Accelerated
sea-level rise? - I mentioned a few days ago a report that sea levels
are rising faster than predicted by the IPCC. There is another such report
just out here.
Below is an email on the subject from Professor Dr. Nils-Axel Morner, a
leading world authority on sea levels and coastal erosion who headed the
Department of Paleogeophysics &Geodynamics at Stockholm University:
(Greenie Watch)
Another eye-roller: Amazon
could shrink by 85% due to climate change, scientists say
• Scientists say 4C rise would kill 85% of the Amazon rainforest
• Even modest temperature rise would see 20-40% loss within 100 years
Global warming will wreck attempts to save the Amazon rainforest,
according to a devastating new study which predicts that one-third of its
trees will be killed by even modest temperature rises.
The research, by some of Britain's leading experts on climate change,
shows that even severe cuts in deforestation and carbon emissions will
fail to save the emblematic South American jungle, the destruction of
which has become a powerful symbol of human impact on the planet. Up to
85% of the forest could be lost if spiralling greenhouse gas emissions are
not brought under control, the experts said. But even under the most
optimistic climate change scenarios, the destruction of large parts of the
forest is "irreversible".
Vicky Pope, of the Met Office's Hadley Centre, which carried out the
study, said: "The impacts of climate change on the Amazon are much
worse than we thought. As temperatures rise quickly over the coming
century the damage to the forest won't be obvious straight away, but we
could be storing up trouble for the future." (The Guardian)
Apart from convective activity making tropical temperatures very
difficult to raise what makes them think tropical forests would be
troubled anyway? Anyone who has stood under the tropical sun knows that
direct exposure is impressive even though air temperatures are
relatively low and that while shade temperatures might be around 26 °C
the canopy might easily be experiencing direct insolation temperatures
twice that. That will not increase with enhanced greenhouse even if the
shade temperature were to rise. Since the tropical lower atmosphere is
already infrared opaque and tropical heat is lost through transport
higher in the atmosphere or polewards in both the atmosphere and oceans
there is no serious expectation of significant tropical near-surface
warming through enhanced greenhouse to begin with.
Climate
change transforming rainforests into major carbon emitters, warn
scientists - Although carbon dioxide encourages growth trees die
younger, claims researcher
Drought, rising temperatures and deforestation are causing tropical
forests to change from carbon sinks into a major carbon emitter, warn
scientists from the UK and Australia.
Climate modellers had assumed, the scientists said, that rising levels of
CO2 in the atmosphere would increase the growth of trees because CO2 can
encourage plants to grow, and in turn absorb more of the greenhouse gas.
However, the models are said to have left out one key factor: trees also
die younger as their metabolic rate is increased. (The Guardian)
Farming
part of the carbon solution - Scientists worldwide recognise the very
real opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere
through storing carbon in biological systems.
The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, Professor Ross Garnaut (in
his report on Climate Change) and, indeed, the Australian Government have
all confirmed carbon capture including through soils, crops and pastures
is a reality.
One problem is realising the potential. How do we monitor, measure and
evaluate the net emissions and/or storage of carbon, let alone, across
Australia's 155,000 farms?
Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke recently announced $32 million to
study the role soil plays in storing greenhouse gases. (Canberra Times)
Why is a more productive biosphere viewed as a problem?
Warning
flaw in carbon scheme helps polluters - The Rudd Government has not
fixed a critical flaw in its carbon trading scheme that allows big
polluters to reap benefits from community actions to cut emissions, a
leading Australian economist says.
The warning comes as a series of United Nations climate change reports has
urged Australia to improve its greenhouse emissions accounting methods to
meet Kyoto protocol standards.
British economist Lord Nicholas Stern has also called for a global
emissions trading scheme with a ''common carbon price'' and global
sanctions against ''dirty countries'' persisting with high-carbon growth.
(Canberra Times)
Greening
America – At What Cost? - The President’s budget aims at
restructuring American energy production to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. His primary policy vehicle for achieving
this is a “cap-and-trade” scheme that will essentially tax greenhouse
gas emissions, making energy that generates them more expensive. However,
the program is so ambitious as to stretch the bounds of plausibility. If
America is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially, prolonged
recession may be the only way to do it. (Iain Murray, DC Examiner)
"Use
less energy" campaign: Vladimir Putin - Standard Oil of
California (1879), renamed to Chevron Corporation in 1984, is doing the
most logical thing that a sane petrochemical company should do for itself
and its consumers. In a new ads campaign, it's begging you to use less
energy so that they have lower profits and everyone is happier. The
campaign shows a few average-level personalities who promise that they
will use less energy, too. (The Reference Frame)
All this to waste a marvelous resource: Chu:
FutureGen price tag may be $2.3 billion - WASHINGTON — The price tag
for a futuristic coal-burning power plant that President Barack Obama is
thinking of reviving seems to still be going up, though a congressional
report Wednesday said the Bush administration overstated the cost when it
canceled the project last year.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu acknowledged that when the plant was canceled
a faulty cost analysis put the price of the proposed FutureGen project in
central Illinois higher than it should have been — at as much as $1.8
billion.
While disavowing any responsibility for the mistake, Chu said now that
even the $1.8 billion figure may be low. "The current price as I
understand it is still very high," he told senators when asked about
the Government Accountability Office's report.
Later Chu told reporters that because of commodity costs and other
factors, some estimates now put the price of the plant at $2.3 billion.
(Associated Press)
Atmospheric
'sunshade' could reduce solar power generation - The concept of
delaying global warming by adding particles into the upper atmosphere to
cool the climate could unintentionally reduce peak electricity generated
by large solar power plants by as much as one-fifth, according to a new
NOAA study. The findings appear in this week's issue of Environmental
Science and Technology.
Not to mention damping the biosphere's power supply...
Wind
energy just 15 years from grid cost parity - Study finds renewables
could provide 40 per cent of global electricity by 2050
Renewable energy technologies could meet 40 per cent of global electricity
demand by 2050 as long as governments show the sector the same degree of
support they provide the nuclear and traditional fossil fuel industries.
That is the conclusion of new research from the Helsinki University of
Technology unveiled at the Climate Congress conference in Copenhagen,
which estimated that financial support of just €10bn (£9.3bn) to
€20bn a year – a fraction of recent stimulus packages – would
establish wind and solar energy as mainstream technologies over the coming
decades.
"If wind and solar are treated as favourably as nuclear was in the
1970s and 80s and there is the necessary financial support then wind will
break even [with the cost of grid electricity] by 2020-2025 and solar by
2030," said Peter Lund of the Helsinki University of Technology's
Advanced Energy System Department.
He added that both sectors were currently 30 to 50 per cent more expensive
than fossil fuel power and needed subsidies to cover this gap, but
predicted that this gap would close as the industries scale up.
(BusinessGreen)
There's a major difference (no, we don't mean 'renewables' have
already had many decades of support without useful result) -- fossil and
fission provide useful baseload power virtually on demand and wind does
not, even solar is limited to diurnal input.
Aid Needed To
Boost World's "Green" Energy - COPENHAGEN - Wind and solar
power could produce 40 percent of the world's electricity by 2050, but
only if government subsidies are secured for the next two decades,
scientists said on Wednesday.
The technologies will each need global support totaling 10 billion to 20
billion euros ($12.76 billion to $25.51 billion) per year, said Peter
Lund, professor in advanced energy systems at Helsinki University of
Technology.
Without financial and political support, he said wind and solar power
would only account for less than 15 percent of the world's energy output.
(Reuters)
Government
study reveals US will miss biofuel targets - Department of Energy
research finds that based on current policies, US will miss goal of 36bn
gallons of biofuel a year (BusinessGreen)
A Time For
Shared Sacrifice? - According to Barack Obama, our current economic
downturn is a time for shared sacrifice. We will all have to sacrifice in
the form of higher taxes on the economy to pay for a continuing series of
bailouts and stimulus plans. We will all have to sacrifice in the form of
higher energy costs to pay for environmental initiatives designed to fight
forecasted warming. We will all have to sacrifice (especially future
generations) to repay the exponentially escalating debt obligations that
are being daily auctioned by the Treasury to finance the expansion of a
government that we already cannot afford. Businesses will have to
sacrifice freedoms. Healthcare companies will have to sacrifice profits.
Consumers will have to sacrifice choices.
And if you believe Obama, even he is joining in the sacrifice. But seeing
as his inaugural budget proposal is a record-smashing $3.6 trillion
behemoth, I’m not sure what of his ambitions he’s sacrificing. This
budget is so large and so unbalanced that it will more than double the
entire national debt of the United States.
In his first 100 days in office, Obama will commit to borrow more money
than every President before him combined. There are, apparently, very few
“worthy priorities” for which Obama cannot find dollars – be they
taxed, borrowed or newly printed. And it is not just the scale of the
budget that is striking, but its composition. In one of the most
remarkable coincidences in all of human history, it turns out that the
solution for our current financial crisis is – to do everything that
Obama wanted to do before the crisis even existed. (Mac Johnson, Energy
Tribune)
Queen
Nancy: Fly as I Say, Not as I Fly - Democratic Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi is the Jennifer Lopez of congressional travel—fickle,
demanding and notoriously insensitive to the time, costs and energy needed
to accommodate her endless demands. On Tuesday, the indispensable
government watchdog Judicial Watch released a trove of public records
through the Freedom of Information Act on Pelosi’s travel arrangements
with the U.S. military.
As speaker of the House, Pelosi is entitled to a reasonable level of
military protection and transport. But it’s the size of the planes, the
frequency of requests and last-minute cancellations, and the political
nature of many of her trips that scream out for accountability.
And, of course, it’s the double-barreled hypocrisy. There’s the
eco-hypocrisy of the Democratic leader who wags her finger at the rest of
us for our too-big carbon footprints, and crusades for massive taxes and
regulation to reduce global warming. Then there’s the Bay Area hypocrisy
of the woman who represents one of the most anti-military areas of the
country soaking up military resources to shuttle her (and her many family
members) across the country almost every weekend. (Michelle Malkin,
CNSNews)
Ten
wasted years: UN drug strategy a failure, reveals damning report - The
UN strategy on drugs over the past decade has been a failure, a European
commission report claimed yesterday on the eve of the international
conference in Vienna that will set future policy for the next 10 years.
The report came amid growing dissent among delegates arriving at the
meeting to finalise a UN declaration of intent.
Referring to the UN's existing strategy, the authors declared that they
had found "no evidence that the global drug problem was
reduced". They wrote: "Broadly speaking, the situation has
improved a little in some of the richer countries while for others it
worsened, and for some it worsened sharply and substantially, among them a
few large developing or transitional countries."
The policy had merely shifted the problem geographically, they said.
"Production and trafficking controls only redistributed activities.
Enforcement against local markets failed in most countries." (The
Guardian)
Red
List of endangered species 'inaccurate' claim conservationists - A
high-profile list of endangered species is inaccurate and could be
hampering efforts to protect other animals, conservationists have warned.
The annual Red List is wrongly directing time and money to save
"safe" species, while others move towards extinction, they
claim.
"The Red List should be a high standard, scientifically based,
transparent system, but in reality it hasn't been," Matthew Godfrey,
of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission in Beaufort, told New
Scientist magazine. Species are placed "at risk" if their
numbers fall below set thresholds. But these can throw up inconsistencies
and some conservationists claim they are biased towards mammals.
Scientists also condemned the "precaution principle" encouraged
by the Red List. This results in groups demanding stronger proof that
species numbers have risen than fallen, potentially exaggerating
extinction risks. "There is a tension between following scientific
principles or precautionary conservation principles", said Grahame
Webb of Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Australia.
The Red List, which covers 45,000 species, raises millions of pounds to
protect wildlife across the world. (Daily Telegraph)
March 11, 2009
EPA
May Require Factories to Report Warming Emissions - March 10 --
Chemical, steel, automobile and other energy-intensive factories would
have to submit annual reports to the federal government on their
greenhouse gas emissions under a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
proposal that lays a foundation for fighting global warming.
About 13,000 facilities that account for as much as 90 percent of
greenhouse gas emissions would have to comply, the EPA said in a statement
today. The first reports would be submitted in 2011 and cover emissions in
2010, according to the proposal. Car and engine makers would begin their
reports for 2011 models.
The agency’s action follows a directive passed by Congress in 2007 for a
detailed inventory of the emissions that scientists say contribute to
global warming. A lack of emissions data set back the European Union’s
efforts at the start of its carbon market in 2005, Representative Edward
Markey said. (Bloomberg)
Sillier and sillier: 'More
bad news' on climate change - More bad news on climate change is
expected as more than 2,000 climate scientists gather in Copenhagen.
They will be trying to pull together the latest research on global warming
ahead of political negotiations later in the year.
The scientists are concerned that the 2007 reports of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are already out of date.
Their data suggests greater rises in sea levels this century. (BBC)
As Nils-Axel Mörner has already pointed out (GPC 62 (2008) 219-220),
there is no such trend in the satellite altimetry data so a
"personal correction" (fabrication?) has been applied to fit
IPCC projections. "Their data" (above) is the correct term
because it was not empirically measured but synthetically created.
Increasingly hysterical (and desperate?): Stern:
Climate change deniers are 'flat-earthers' - Economist Nicholas Stern
warns of 'absolute lunacy' of do-nothing approach of Czech president Václav
Klaus and fellow climate change sceptics
Climate change deniers are "ridiculous" and akin to
"flat-earthers", according to Sir Nicholas Stern, who advised
the government about the economic threat posed by global warming. The
respected economist compared climate naysayers to those who deny the link
between smoking and cancer or HIV and Aids in the face of mounting
scientific evidence. (The Guardian)
Top
scientist: don't trust politicians on climate change - Politicians
were willfully ignoring and misunderstanding the science of global
warming, a government adviser said today.
John Ashton, who is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's special
representative on climate change, warned scientists that they could not
trust in the honesty of politicians.
Speaking at the start of the climate change conference in Copenhagen,
Denmark, Mr Ashton said that the truth could be lost to political
expediency or mischief and urged scientists to couch their conclusions in
terms that could not be misunderstood or go unheard. (The Times)
NOAA
Meteorologist Claims 'Gross, Blatant Censorship' for Speaking Out Against
Climate Change Alarmism - You often hear scientists who promote the
theory of man-made global warming allege they are victims of censorship.
But when it is the other way around – that scientists who dispute that
claim are victims of the same thing, you never hear a peep.
That’s what Stanley Goldenberg, a meteorologist with the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Atlantic Oceanographic
and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) Hurricane Research Division, told an
audience at the The Heartland Institute’s 2009 International Conference
on Climate Change (ICCC) in New York on March 9. Voices that counter
global warming alarmism are often subject to censorship, he said. (Jeff
Poor, Business & Media Institute)
Peter
Foster: The crumbling case for global warming - Voters should ask
politicians one simple question: ‘Why do you want to raise my energy
prices?’
One young radical turned up at the Heartland Institute’s climate change
skeptics’ conference in New York this week to declare that he had never
witnessed so much hypocrisy. How, he asked the panelists of a session on
European policy, could they sleep at night? Clearly puzzled, one of the
panelists asked him with which parts of their presentations he disagreed.
“Oh,” he said “I didn’t come here to listen to the
presentations.”
The conference — titled “Global Warming: Was it ever really a
crisis?” — attracted close to 700 participants. Most of those I met
displayed almost joy at being among people who dared to stand up to the
mindless climate “consensus” and the refusal to debate, or even look
at, the facts, as typified by that righteous young radical.
President Obama is considering a cap-and-trade system with which Canada
would be forced to co-ordinate its own policies. The conference made clear
how damaging and pointless such a policy would be. (Peter Foster,
Financial Post)
Has
the canary in the coal mine died--of frostbite? - Nenana Ice Classic:
Ice now 60% thicker than it was five years ago. (Tom Nelson)
Eye-roller du jour: Climate
change deaths could soar - The number of people dying from the effects
of heat in cities because of climate change by the end of the century
could be twice as many as previously estimated, scientists have warned.
Research being presented to a scientific conference on climate change in
Copenhagen showed the number of people dying in London could increase from
a current average of 120 each summer to nearly 500 people by the 2080s.
The researchers took into account the likely increase in the number of
extremely hot days as well as warmer average temperatures expected as a
result of climate change.
Simon Gosling, of the Walker Institute at the University of Reading, said
previous studies which ignored the effect of increased variability in
day-to-day temperatures are likely to have underestimated the number of
deaths by about a half.
He said: "We can expect a lot more extreme temperatures. It's
generally going to be warmer but there will also be more days when it's
really hot.
"The frequency of hot days is going to increase as well as average
temperatures." (PA News)
Killer
whales benefit from global warming: Researchers - WINNIPEG —
Scientists fear melting sea ice could one day make killer whales the
Hudson Bay's top predator, a startling ecosystem shift and a blow for
Inuit populations already reeling from dwindling polar bear numbers.
After four years of studying the Arctic's little-known orcas, or killer
whales, researchers have more evidence that their numbers have gone up in
recent decades, a change that's particularly noticeable in the western
Hudson Bay bordering Manitoba. (Winnipeg Free Press)
Critters exploit every available niche? Who knew... No surprise its
allegedly bad though :)
Controlling
Carbon a Bureaucrat’s Dream - “Bureaucracy, the rule of no one,
has become the modern form of despotism.” Mary McCarthy.
In the battle for proper climate science free from politics there are two
levels at which bureaucracy is a modern form of despotism. In most
countries it is in departments of meteorology, weather, climate or
environment. At the global level it is in the United Nations. Regardless
of location it is essentially unaccountable and represents the enemy
within.
Instead of working for the people by being apolitical and identifying all
sides of an issue so people and politicians can make informed decisions,
they have pushed an unproven hypothesis and defended it in the face of
contradictory evidence. As a result governments everywhere are introducing
or entertaining completely wrong policies. Although the issue is weather
and climate the implications are much wider because the position taken in
the officially responsible departments influences policy in most other
departments including energy, agriculture, construction, transport and so
on. For example, if the weather and climate departments say warming is the
only future then all other government departments will use that as the
base for their planning. A perfect example of the pervasiveness of
climate-based policy across all parts of a society is cap and trade in the
Obama stimulus package and budget. (Tim Ball, CFP)
Green Protest At EU HQ, 350
Arrested - BRUSSELS - Green protesters demanding more money to tackle
climate change blocked the main entrance to European Union headquarters in
Brussels on Tuesday and Belgian police said they arrested more than 350 of
them.
"Save the climate, bail out the planet," chanted the group of
Greenpeace activists, who chained themselves to the gates outside the EU
Council, where ministers were discussing how much the bloc should
contribute to a climate change fund.
The United Nations plans to meet in December to find a successor to the
Kyoto protocol, the main U.N. tool against global warming, and success
could hinge on finding cash for the fund to persuade poor nations to help
tackle the problem.
Belgian police spokesman Christian De Coninck said police arrested over
350 demonstrators. All would go free on Tuesday but could be prosecuted
for taking part in an unauthorized demonstration, he added. (Reuters)
Possibly the most inept argument ever mounted: Carbon
regulation - it's only natural - I have just listened to the most
eloquent and convincing defence of the case for carbon regulation that I
have yet heard.
It was delivered by Professor Katherine Richardson of the University of
Copenhagen at the opening of the International Association of Research
University's Climate Congress, and it goes, in abbreviated form, like
this.
When mankind first worked out that it could grown and harvest crops it did
so wherever it liked in an entirely subsistence manner. At this point it
was impossible for our ancestors to conceive that at some point this
activity might have to be managed and regulated. (BusinessGreen)
People have competed over prime agricultural land and decaying refuse
has been a health hazard so an essential trace gas must be limited?
Sheesh!
The
carbon cult's death wish - "The Carbon Sense Coalition today
called on all parties in the looming [Australian] state election to make a
clear statement on their policies regarding Emissions Trading and Carbon
Taxes.
The Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition, Mr Viv Forbes, said that
politicians in a state so overwhelmingly dependent on carbon energy,
carbon food and taxes on carbon products can no longer hide behind
hypothetical anti-carbon scare stories based on dubious climate forecasts
for 100 years ahead.
“We have a real present emergency with growing fear among investors and
shareholders in anything associated with mining, power generation, tourism
and farming – the backbone industries of Queensland.”
“Much of this fear is generated by an insane campaign to demonise carbon
dioxide, the natural atmospheric gas on which all life depends.” (Viv
Forbes, Carbon Sense Coalition)
New
Paper “Amplification Of The North American ‘Dust Bowl’ Drought
Through Human Induced Land Degradation” By Cook Et Al - There is a
new paper that is in press in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. It is “Amplification of the North American ‘Dust Bowl’
drought through human induced land degradation By B. I. Cook, R. L. Miller
and R. Seager.
This paper was also presented on Monday, March 9 2009 at the University of
Colorado in Boulder at INSTARR. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Chinese climate
scientists tactfully tell the IPCC that surface air temperature (SAT)
trends over north China include a large component of urban warming -
Ren et al 2008 measure urban warming in a north China grid box 33 to 43
degrees North and 108 to 120 degrees East by comparing temperature trends
in groups of stations of different population size for the period
1961-2000. For a concise summary of the Ren et al 2008 paper, Urbanization
Effects on Observed Surface Air Temperature Trends in North China.
(Warwick Hughes)
More
Notes From Heartland’s Climate Change Conference - Some more odds
and ends from excellent speeches at the conference we’ve been covering:
Barun Mitra gave an interesting argument on ethical economics — and
their polar opposite. His fundamental point is that efforts to cap carbon
have the practical effect of stunting economic growth and opportunity for
developing countries and their peoples.
Mitra pointed out that the U.S. actually has a much better ratio of energy
use per GDP than countries like India and China, which would not be
subject to most international plans to cap carbon.
One key takeaway: “poverty can be a pollutant” in that if countries
are not allowed to grow their economies by using cost-efficient energy
they will have fewer resources to clean up major environmental problems.
Christopher Booker (whom we’ve interviewed for The Chilling Effect) gave
a compelling history of the international alarmist machine. Each time they
come up with a new scare, it’s “the same age-old pattern” he said.
Yaron Brook from the Ayn Rand Institute made the case that
“environmentalism preys on our unease” and our moral system
(essentially that we are guilted into something that is not rational).
He noted that if you look at the environmental movement the way an
investor considers allocating money, enviros wouldn’t be a good bet
because “time and time again told us stuff that turns out to be
false”. (Chilling Effect)
From CO2 Science this week:
Editorial:
Irreversible CO2-Induced
Global Warming?: Not on this planet!
Medieval
Warm Period Record of the Week:
Was there a Medieval Warm Period? YES, according to data
published by 679
individual scientists from 398
separate research institutions in 40
different countries ... and counting! This issue's Medieval Warm
Period Record of the Week comes from North
American Great Plains, USA. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period
Project's database, click
here.
Subject Index Summary:
Coral
Reefs (Responses to Temperature Stress): Corals possess the capacity
to respond to the challenge of global warming via adaptive measures that
enable them to accommodate rising water temperatures.
Plant Growth Data:
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses
to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from
experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Coolibah
Tree, Night-flowering
Catchfly, Rice,
and White
Potato.
Journal Reviews:
Severe Storms of
Sub-Mediterranean Slovenia: How have they changed over the past six
centuries?
Chinese Dust
Storms: How are they related to global warming?
Global Warming
and Tornadoes: Do rising temperatures increase the frequency or
intensity of the dangerous storms?
Selecting Rice
Varieties of the Future: How Asia, Africa and Latin America intend to
benefit from the ongoing rise in the air's CO2
content.
Defense-Related
Flavonoids of Soybeans: How are they affected by atmospheric CO2
enrichment? (co2science.org)
Australia Faces Growing
Opposition To Carbon Trade Law - CANBERRA - Australia's government
faced new objections to its pioneering carbon trading scheme from both
ends of the political opposition on Tuesday, just as it unveiled the
legislation it hopes to pass by the middle of this year.
The draft laws contained few changes to what could be the most sweeping
cap-and-trade system in the world, including a commitment to cut emissions
by 5 percent of 2000 levels by 2020.
Instead, lawmakers from the Greens and the conservative opposition banded
together to establish a two-month inquiry, saying they will not support
the scheme without major changes.
Greens politicians want tougher targets and conservative opposition
parties want the scheme delayed to soften the blow for businesses that
will shoulder higher costs during a recession.
"This scheme, in its current form, cannot get through,"
Opposition spokesman Andrew Robb told reporters. (Reuters)
Big Oil,
Big Taxes - Ed. Note: This piece appeared yesterday on Carpe Diem, the
blog of Mark J. Perry, a professor of economics and finance at the Flint
campus of the University of Michigan. While the graphic explains itself,
it’s worth noting that amid all the talk about “green jobs” and a
“green collar economy” the oil and gas companies are paying an
enormous amount of taxes. That’s not a message heard much in the
mainstream media. (Mark J. Perry, Energy Tribune)
Well, Duh
- Today’s News & Observer of Raleigh (one of McClatchy’s tanking
newspapers) reports that one of North Carolina’s two investor-owned
utilities, Progress Energy (Duke Energy is the other major one), has
announced that it will not be able to meet renewable portfolio standard
mandates enacted by the state a couple of years ago: (Paul Chesser,
Climate Strategies Watch)
March 10, 2009
Pronouncement
of Global Warming’s Demise On Thin Ice - What’s up with global
warming? Has it given way to global cooling, as some are suggesting?
Let’s take a look. By Dr. Bill Chameides
PopSci.com welcomes back Dr. Bill Chameides, dean of Duke’s Nicholas
School of the Environment. Dr. Chameides blogs at The Green Grok to spark
lively discussions about environmental science, keeping you in the know on
what the scientific world is discovering and how it affects you – all in
plain language and, hopefully, with a bit of fun. Now, PopSci.com partners
with The Green Grok to bring you exclusive new blog posts a week before
they hit the Grok's blog. Give it a read and get in on the discussion!
Hey, how about we ask a way more important question? We know the
near-surface amalgam is fraught with issues of urban heat islands,
discontinuity, poor spatial distribution etc. and we know we have a
pretty good satellite-era coverage of the mid troposphere, where
enhanced greenhouse theory insists we should observe the strongest
warming signal. Here's
the simultaneous plot of both the UAH and RSS interpretations of that
data. We see no warming trend prior to the El Niño "blip" of
97/98 and maybe a warm anomaly 2001-2005. So, the question is, since
humans are supposed to drive carbon dioxide levels and carbon dioxide
levels are supposed to drive enhanced greenhouse, why don't we see a
mid-troposphere temperature track consistent with the enhanced
greenhouse hypothesis?
Heartland-2:
session one
President Vaclav Klaus reports latest poll from the Czech Republic: only
11% of people believe that man has a significant influence in warming the
climate.
West Australian Joanne Nova’s Climate Skeptics Handbook launched, and a
150,000 print run announced.
“We will win this debate”, says Dr Richard Lindzen, “for we are
right and they are wrong”.
The opening session of the Heartland-2 Conference opened with a bang here
in Manhatten tonight [Sunday evening March 8, 2009]. With registrations of
around 700 persons, the conference is almost twice the size of its
predecessor last year. The audience for the two opening plenary talks,
held over dinner, included an eclectic mixture of scientists, engineers,
economists, policy specialists, government representatives and media
reporters. (Bob Carter, Quadrant)
New
York Times Wishful Thinking - The NYT is allegedly covering the
Heartland conference with a variety of speakers pointing out the numerous
problems with global warming hysteria. Of course in one of the very few
events of its kind, the NYT spends more than half the article refuting the
claims by those presenting. When you get sick of the NYT, Anthony Watts
has a nice post on the first day of presentations HERE. (The Air Vent)
Czech
president gives keynote address to climate change doubters - Vaclav
Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, addressed an audience of doubters
of the manmade climate change theory at the second International
Conference on Climate Change yesterday. The two-and-a-half day conference
titled, "Global warming: Was it ever really a crisis?” features a
number of speakers from the political and scientific communities and is
billed as ‘the world’s largest-ever gathering of global warming
skeptics.’ See the organization's video below for more on the event.
(Tony Hake, Denver Weather Examiner)
Heartland
ICCC conference II - This Heartland conference is very interesting and
there are many friends and soulmates over there but I won't cover it
because I don't have access to any information that would significantly
exceed what you can read elsewhere, e.g.: (The Reference Frame)
The 'NRDC
Mafia' Hunkering Down in D.C.? - Although I've seen more interesting
stories about former Bush Administration officials who are
"burrowing" into civil-sector jobs in D.C., I couldn't resist
the headline of an article in the Greenwire this morning (reprinted and
publicly available on NYTimes.com): "'NRDC mafia' finding homes on
Hill, in EPA." (Matthew Wheeland, GreenBiz)
Waxman
makes climate-change mark - On Capitol Hill, whole careers can be
defined by the names on a bill.
McCain-Feingold, Gramm-Rudman, Sarbanes-Oxley.
The race is on to see which names will brand a landmark climate-change
measure. But at this rate, “Waxman” is a leading contender for naming
rights.
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman, a longtime champion of
more stringent environmental standards, is quietly dominating the climate
debate even though there are other chairmen with skin in the game.
Waxman kicked off his chairmanship earlier this year with a hearing on the
issue, and he now plans to hold at least two hearings a week until he
rolls out a comprehensive overhaul of the country’s environmental policy
before the Memorial Day weekend. (Patrick O'Connor, Politico)
Who
Pays for Cap and Trade? Hint: They were promised a tax cut during the
Obama campaign.
Cap and trade is the tax that dare not speak its name, and Democrats are
hoping in particular that no one notices who would pay for their climate
ambitions. With President Obama depending on vast new carbon revenues in
his budget and Congress promising a bill by May, perhaps Americans would
like to know the deeply unequal ways that climate costs would be
distributed across regions and income groups.
Politicians love cap and trade because they can claim to be taxing
"polluters," not workers. Hardly. Once the government creates a
scarce new commodity -- in this case the right to emit carbon -- and then
mandates that businesses buy it, the costs would inevitably be passed on
to all consumers in the form of higher prices. Stating the obvious, Peter
Orszag -- now Mr. Obama's budget director -- told Congress last year that
"Those price increases are essential to the success of a
cap-and-trade program."
Hit hardest would be the "95% of working families" Mr. Obama
keeps mentioning, usually omitting that his no-new-taxes pledge comes with
the caveat "unless you use energy." Putting a price on carbon is
regressive by definition because poor and middle-income households spend
more of their paychecks on things like gas to drive to work, groceries or
home heating.
The Congressional Budget Office -- Mr. Orszag's former roost -- estimates
that the price hikes from a 15% cut in emissions would cost the average
household in the bottom-income quintile about 3.3% of its after-tax income
every year. That's about $680, not including the costs of reduced
employment and output. The three middle quintiles would see their
paychecks cut between $880 and $1,500, or 2.9% to 2.7% of income. The rich
would pay 1.7%. Cap and trade is the ideal policy for every Beltway
analyst who thinks the tax code is too progressive (all five of them).
But the greatest inequities are geographic and would be imposed on the
parts of the U.S. that rely most on manufacturing or fossil fuels --
particularly coal, which generates most power in the Midwest, Southern and
Plains states. It's no coincidence that the liberals most invested in cap
and trade -- Barbara Boxer, Henry Waxman, Ed Markey -- come from
California or the Northeast. (Wall Street Journal)
A
great American tradition - When the pioneers opened up the West, in
their trail were hosts of others of only a slightly less pioneering spirit
– whores, lawyers, gamblers, bankers, real estate agents etc. Among them
were a group we celebrate today, the snake oil salesmen. (Number Watch)
Emissions
trading scheme laws set to miss deadline - CLIMATE Change Minister
Penny Wong has conceded that the Rudd Government's emissions trading
scheme might not become law by its June deadline, as the Coalition and the
Greens set up a two-month Senate committee to canvass the scheme's flaws
and alternative approaches. (The Australian)
Hopes
of climate change accord 'are sinking' - Two leading climate
scientists have broken ranks with their peers to declare that hopes of
getting a meaningful deal on halting global warming this year are already
lost.
Professor Kevin Anderson, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate
Change Research, and Professor Trevor Davies, one of the centre's
founders, told The Times that it was time to start looking for
alternatives to an international deal. (The Times)
That's good because a 'climate deal' is about the last thing we want.
Obama's
shaky trust in science - On stem cells, he's for the science. But not
on climate change – unless the EPA acts.
In stem cell research, President Obama plans to keep the politics out of
the science. But not so for global warming. He's ignoring key advice from
most climate scientists that developed countries must act quickly to
reduce carbon emissions. To Mr. Obama, the politics of avoiding a public
backlash against tough curbs on CO2 trumps the science.
The evidence for early and drastic action is clear to the body set up by
the UN to develop a scientific consensus on global warming. (Christian
Science Monitor)
Silly blighters -- IPCC stands for Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change and is by definition political.
Climate
change decisions should be based on science, not political activism -
Bjørn Lomborg: Stefan Rahmstorf is a respected climate change scientist
but by labelling me a 'spin doctor' who 'fools the public' he shows
weakness in his argument on sea level rises (Bjørn Lomborg, The Guardian)
The Prince of
Precaution - Big Tim's little monster - New book from geologist Marc
Hendrickx that explains the precautionary principal to little skeptics and
their parents alike.
The Prince of Precaution: Big Tim's Little Monster available from Little
Skeptics Press. For copies email details to littleskepticspress@gmail.com.
(Marc Hendrickx)
Recycling this nonsense, again: Carbon
emissions creating acidic oceans not seen since dinosaurs - Chemical
change placing 'unprecedented' pressure on marine life and could cause
widespread extinctions, warn scientists. (The Guardian)
Before getting excited about this nonsense people should look at the
geological evidence -- life thrived in the oceans when Earth had
atmospheric carbon dioxide levels 10-20 times those of today. Another
little point they omit is that the reason mollusk shells tend to be
thicker when the globe is cooler is that cold water absorbs more CO2
than warm, meaning there's more available material which which to
construct calcium carbonate shells.
Coral reefs may
start dissolving when atmospheric CO2 doubles - Rising carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere and the resulting effects on ocean water are making it
increasingly difficult for coral reefs to grow, say scientists. A study to
be published online March 13, 2009 in Geophysical Research Letters by
researchers at the Carnegie Institution and the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem warns that if carbon dioxide reaches double pre-industrial
levels, coral reefs can be expected to not just stop growing, but also to
begin dissolving all over the world. (Carnegie Institution)
Corals evolved in the Ordovician, when atmospheric carbon dioxide
levels ranged between 4,000 and 5,000 parts per million -- i.e., in
excess of 10 times what they are now. Either these guys know this, which
makes their claims knowingly false, or they don't, in which case they
appear unqualified to make any claims to begin with.
Further
Comments Regarding The Concept “Heating In The Pipeline” - Climate
Science has shown why there is, at present, no “heat in the pipeline”
[or an equivalent term "unrealized heat"]; e.g. see
Is There Climate Heating In “The Pipeline”?
Can The Climate System “Mask” Heat?
We were alerted to two weblogs that incorrectly discuss this issue and
further illustrate why this concept is being misinterpreted. These weblogs
are here
and here.
The 2008 bravenewclimate weblog includes the text
“In brief then, we are NOT currently feeling the impact of 450 ppm
CO2-e. Because of aerosols and other cooling factors, we are most probably
experiencing the partial result of the extra energy being trapped by about
375 ppm CO2-e. Indeed, we are not even feeling all of that, at least in
terms of changes in air temperature, because so much energy is currently
going into heating large bodies of water and melting huge chunks of
ice.”
The writer of this weblog is in error as, since mid-2003, there has not
been heating of large bodies of water, and the amount of melting of ice,
in term of Joules, is quite small (see Table 1 in this paper). (Roger
Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Huge Urban Heat
Island UHI contamination in Hadley Centre-Jones-IPCC CRUT3 land
temperature data over Eastern China - Now that the NASA-UAH satellite
temperature data extends over a clear 30 years 1979-2008, this is a timely
opportunity to check again the old IPCC canard that the various global
temperature datasets are in agreement. In this case I compare the Hadley
Centre CRUT3 land only data 1979-2008 with the NASA MSU LT data from
University of Alabama at Huntsville, all data downloaded from the KNMI
Climate Explorer.
For this grid-box over Eastern China 110 to 120 degrees East and 20 to 40
degrees North, satellites show the lower troposphere warms at 0.20 degrees
per decade while the Hadley Centre land data warms at 0.46 degrees per
decade. This suggests that there is 0.26 degrees per decade of urban
warming in the Hadley Centre-IPCC data. A rate equivalent to 2.6 degrees
per century.
This is twenty years after the UHI contamination in these Jones et al
datasets was brought to the authors attention by Dr Fred Wood. (Warwick
Hughes)
New thread started at SolarCycle24.com: Causes
and Consequences of the Minimum of SC23
Oh dear... Human,
animal breath creates 50% of GHGs, pessimist warns Other Opinion -
Early in the Second World War, a bright young kid named James Lovelock was
a chemistry student at Manchester University in England. He was accused of
cheating on his exams for getting perfect marks.
But he proved to be the real thing and later put in 20 years in medical
research, invented a few hush-hush items for Britain's spy agency, and
worked on the nascent NASA space program, eventually looking for ways to
detect life on other planets. Few will likely remember him for those
accomplishments.
But Lovelock, now in his 90s, will be forever remembered for developing
the Gaia concept, which holds that Earth acts like a complex, living,
self-regulating organism. His thoughts made him the unwilling father of a
quasi-religious cult.
A couple weeks ago, he all but repudiated his Gaia worshippers,
proclaiming that it's too late to save Earth, that we were never capable
of saving Earth in the first place, and that if Gaia exists at all, she is
already rendering Earth unfit for widespread human habitation.
... Just the breath of seven billion humans adds 23 per cent of all the
carbon emissions going into the Earth's atmosphere, he says.
Add in all our pets and farm animals, and the total ramps up to more than
50 per cent. That's more than 10 times the amount of all airline traffic
in the world.
"Just cutting back on fossil-fuel burning, energy use and the
destruction of natural forests will not be a sufficient answer to global
heating," he wrote, "not least because it seems climate change
can happen faster that we can respond to it and may be irreversible."
(Canadian Press)
... no one should laugh at senile old men but we do need to point out
that mammalian respiration has no effect on net atmospheric greenhouse
gas levels. The reason is simple, our food (source of the carbon
component of exhaled CO2) is constructed from carbon drawn
from the air during photosynthesis either directly by plants we eat or
by plants eaten by animals we eat and we recycle it back to the air for
a net addition of exactly nothing. If anything animals delay the return
of carbon to the atmosphere by retaining it as body mass while we live.
Cold
reality of climate change - I have terrific news that should help you
take your mind off the fact that you are broke and jobless.
You will be thrilled to know that our efforts to fight global warming are
already paying huge dividends. According to Environment Canada this winter
has been colder than normal across Canada except in parts of Atlantic
Canada.
I'm sure like me you are especially jealous of the good people of Manitoba
and Saskatchewan where they have had one of their coldest winters in
decades. What a special moment to be standing in the parking lot outside
of the curling rink in Rosetown, Sask., at 11 p.m. in -40 C weather
knowing that as a nation we have sent global warming packing.
What fun to see your sigh of relief instantly crystallize and turn into a
small snow flurry.
Personally I think the Liberal Party's Green Shift has had more than a
little to do with all of this. Sure they weren't actually able to
implement it, but just the thought of it leaves me cold and makes me
shiver. See what I mean! (Monte Solberg, Edmonton Sun)
Browne
backtracks on carbon trading - Lord John Browne, the former chief
executive of BP and one of the earliest proponents of carbon trading to
tackle climate change, has conceded his enthusiasm was misplaced.
In an interview given at the British Government's low carbon industrial
strategy summit last week, he said: "My view has shifted over time.
Pinning all your hopes on the European Union ETS [emissions trading
scheme] and carbon trading is wrong."
Until recently, energy companies and governments all around the world -
particularly Britain's - argued that carbon trading was the best way of
reducing global emissions. Under the EU scheme - the first of its kind in
the world - companies are awarded carbon credits. If they pollute more
than their allocation allows, they have to buy extra credits on the
market.
But the scheme has been dogged by controversy. In the first phase,
starting in 2005, companies were given too many credits, allowing them to
bank billions of pounds of credits without having to clean up their act.
Now, the price of carbon is so low that it provides little incentive for
companies to cut their emissions. In the next phase, companies will have
to buy more of their credits, rather than receive them all for free. (Tim
Webb and Terry Macalister, The Observer)
US
Mitigation Math - The mathematics of United States carbon dioxide
emissions are not actually that complicated. The figure below from the
U.S. Energy Information Agency shows that the 5,991 million metric tonnes
(MMt) of carbon dioxide emitted by the U.S. came from 3 sources: coal,
natural gas, and petroleum (see three inputs in the upper left of the
graph). (Roger Pielke, Jr., Prometheus)
US
biofuel industry calls for rise in ethanol ceiling - Having signalled
his support for biofuels, Obama now faces calls to increase amount of
ethanol that can be blended with conventional fuels (BusinessGreen)
Higher
Ethanol Blends? The Answer Should be No - Within the next few months
the EPA may face a decision on whether it should allow higher levels of
ethanol in gasoline. The biofuel lobby is already working to push its
agenda. Yesterday, representatives from the biofuel industry testified
before Congress asking for an extension of its already substantial
government subsidies and tax incentives. Before taking any action, agency
officials should first review two recently-released studies on biofuels.
(Michael Economides, Energy Tribune)
Australia's Queensland State
May Drop Uranium Ban - SYDNEY - Australia's resource-rich Queensland
state may drop its ban on uranium mining and join other states in
producing more of the nuclear fuel if conservatives win office at
Queensland elections this month.
Lawrence Springborg, whose opposition party is rated a strong chance to
win the state election due on March 21, told reporters in a mining town on
Monday that Queensland was losing job opportunities because of the current
government's stand.
"I see absolutely no sense in cutting off job opportunities for
Queenslanders when just across the border in the Northern Territory, in
South Australia, in Western Australia, thousands of Australians are being
employed in the uranium industry...," Springborg was quoted as saying
by Australian Associated Press. (Reuters)
A Lesson
in Scale And Why We’re Going to Need Nuclear, Renewables, Hydrocarbons,
and Everything Else - Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal published my
piece “Let’s Get Real About Renewable Energy.” The piece used basic
arithmetic to show that solar power and wind power – while growing
dramatically – are not going to replace hydrocarbons any time soon.
Without sounding like a braggart, I have to say that the response to the
article has been remarkable. It has been one of the most e-mailed articles
on WSJ.com. And I have been getting dozens of emails and lots of phone
calls – nearly all of them positive. (One negative call came from a
long-time solar power booster here in Austin who insisted my math was
wrong.)
The response to the article, while flattering, leads me to two additional
points: People are eager for information that helps them understand the
problems of scale in any energy transition; and second, when it comes to
future energy sources, we are going to need them all. (Robert Bryce,
Energy Tribune)
Canada's ground
temperatures rising, study finds - Scientists aim to estimate potential
for geothermal power - Global warming has caused ground temperatures
across the country to rise over the past few decades, in some cases by as
much as a few degrees, according to the first comprehensive assessment of
Canada's shallow geothermal resources.
The study suggests that some of that thermal energy can be harvested with
geo-exchange technologies and used for heating homes and buildings during
the winter.
"There was this realization that we had a heat pulse going into the
ground and it was a function of climate warming. It's really one of the
best records of climate warming there is in Canada," said study
co-author Stephen Grasby, a research scientist at the Geological Survey of
Canada. "Depending on where you are ground temperature has increased
by a few degrees." (Tyler Hamilton, Toronto Star)
The
Stem Cell Decision — Don’t Expect a Breakthrough Soon - No doubt
when President Obama lifts the Bush administration limits on federal
funding of embryonic stem cell research today he will hail the moment as
providing new hopes for cures for diseases such as Parkinsons, cancer and
diabetes.
But seven years after President Bush restricted federal funding on moral
grounds, it has become clearer than ever that such research is likely to
deliver far less than hoped for, if it delivers anything at all. (Steven
Milloy)
Bailing
Out Bad Science - Bioethics: The president keeps a promise by lifting
restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research — what
he calls "the gold standard" of such research. Judging by
results, fool's gold is more like it.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, then-Sen. Barack Obama said:
"I believe that the restrictions that President Bush has placed on
funding of human embryonic stem cell research have handcuffed our
scientists and hindered our ability to compete with other nations."
With all due respect, that is nonsense. With Obama lifting the
restrictions on Monday, we will now be federally funding research that has
yet to produce a single therapy or a single treatment of an actual human
being, at least one that works. It has generated a lot of hope but very
little change. It is he who is putting ideology over science.
What has handcuffed our scientists is the difficulty of controlling
embryonic stem cells and what they develop into. They're called
pluripotent because they can develop into any type of human tissue,
sometimes all at once.
Embryonic stem cells have a tendency to develop into one of the most
primitive and terrifying forms of cancer, a tumor called a teratoma. Adult
stem cells don't have that problem. (IBD)
Australians
refused insurance because of poor genes - AUSTRALIANS have been
refused insurance protection because of their genetic make-up, researchers
have shown in the first study in the world to provide proof of genetic
discrimination.
Most cases were found to relate to life insurance. In one instance, a man
with a faulty gene linked to a greater risk of breast and prostate cancer
was denied income protection and trauma insurance that would have let him
claim if he developed other forms of cancer.
The findings have led to renewed calls by experts for policies to ensure
the appropriate use of genetic test results by the insurance industry.
The director of the Centre for Genetics Education at Royal North Shore
Hospital, Kristine Barlow-Stewart, said the research also showed consumers
needed to be better informed about their rights. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Salt, Sugar And Water Avert
Diarrhoea Deaths - WHO - GENEVA - A pinch of salt, a handful of sugar
and some clean water is all that is needed to save up to two million
children who die each year from diarrhoea, the World Health Organisation
(WHO) said on Tuesday.
Children in poor countries suffer the dehydrating condition on average
about four times a year, according to the United Nations agency.
Instead of focusing on ways to stop diarrhoea from striking, the WHO said
health authorities ought to ensure care-givers know how to use the
rehydrating recipe, which can be home-made.
"Given the consequences of the disease in terms of persisting child
mortality, the level of urgency in dealing with this problem is very
different than for other chronic diseases," the authors of a study in
the PLOS Medicine (Public Library of Science) journal said.
"This should be reflected in health research policies and investment
strategies of the major donors."
Four children die every minute from diarrhoea, which causes one-fifth of
all child deaths worldwide, with most concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa
and Southeast Asia. (Reuters)
Warm Weather Could Cause
Migraines, Study Finds - LONDON - Warmer weather and changes in
atmospheric pressure may trigger headaches and migraines, rather than
pollution, researchers said on Monday.
A US research team showed that each temperature increase of 5 degrees
Celsius -- about 9 degrees Fahrenheit -- appeared to increase the risk of
severe headaches by nearly 8 percent compared to days when the weather was
cooler.
Air temperature, humidity and barometric pressure are often cited as a
reason for headaches but until now there has been little concrete evidence
to back this, Kenneth Mukamal of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in
Boston and colleagues said. (Reuters)
Uh-huh... what about cold weather-induced headaches?
Terence
Corcoran: The Future of Big Government - New Financial Times series
delights in the ‘end of capitalism’
The end of capitalism is near. Nay, it has arrived, officially proclaimed
yesterday by the world’s leading media panjandrum of economic doom. In a
staggeringly glib, sensationalistic and over-the-top 2,000-word rantorama,
Financial Times’ economics columnist Martin Wolf yesterday launched what
the Times calls its major new series, The Future of Capitalism.
That’s the official title, which unfortunately has nothing to do with
the actual content of the series. It’s really about the Future of Big
Government, and why we need Big Government and why it’s inevitable
because there’s no alternative. The pink pages of the FT have been
waging war on free markets for decades, pandering instead to its global
readership among hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats in government
offices, the IMF, the OECD and other breeding grounds of global statism.
(Terence Corcoran, Financial Post)
Something
To Fear - Politics: This administration continues to express its
desire to take advantage of the economy's downturn. It's now clearer than
ever what President Obama meant when he talked about "change" on
the campaign trail.
In his Saturday radio address, the president declared our "great
crisis" to be a "great opportunity," indicating, as two
members of his administration already had, that this White House is not
above exploiting public anxiety to press an extremist agenda.
"We've experienced great trials before," Obama said. "And
with every test, each generation has found the capacity to not only
endure, but to prosper — to discover great opportunity in the midst of
great crisis."
Taken alone at a time of uncertainty, the president's words should be
reassuring and inspirational. But in this case, considering this
administration's eagerness to radically alter America's social and
political landscape, unnerving is more like it. (IBD)
The
Administration’s Threat to Philanthropy - The Obama plan would
reduce charitable giving by $4 billion—the equivalent of closing the
Gates Foundation.
The unveiling of President Barack Obama’s first budget has prompted a
mixed reaction in the philanthropic world. On the one hand, it marks a
clear shift toward increased spending on the kinds of initiatives
nonprofit groups have long favored, especially in education and health. On
the other, it would reduce the incentive for the rich to give by
curtailing the value of their charitable tax deductions. As a result,
leaders in the nonprofit sector are being confronted with a tough choice:
Do they favor greater public spending or increased charitable giving? A
recent statement signed by many such leaders suggests that if they cannot
have both, they would prefer a more active government. That would be a
mistake. (Leslie Lenkowsky, The American)
This what happens when you don't keep up with useful pesticide
development and use: Bedbugs
return to British hotels - The voracious Cimex lectularius, scourge of
sleepers for centuries, has returned to Britain's hotels. Martin Hickman
reports on a plague in a mattress near you
They are reddish brown, most active in the hour before dawn and making a
comeback in a hotel near you. Bedbugs, the scourge of the night for many
Britons before being substantially eliminated in the second half of the
20th century, have become resurgent in the hospitality industry.
Environmental health officers have discovered the nocturnal blood-sucking
insects at hotels and hostels costing up to £270-a-night across the UK,
some inflicting more than 100 bites on guests. London is particularly
badly hit, with more than a dozen confirmed infestations, but bedbugs were
also found last year at hotels in Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield,
Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow. (The Independent)
Monsanto Submits
Drought-Tolerant Corn To USDA - KANSAS CITY - Monsanto Co said on
Monday it was closer to releasing what could be the world's first
drought-tolerant biotech corn by completing regulatory submissions in the
United States and Canada.
St. Louis, Mo.-based Monsanto, a global leader in development of
genetically modified crops, said it applied for approval of its new corn
with the US Department of Agriculture and various Canadian agencies. The
company in December made a regulatory submission to the US Food and Drug
Administration.
Monsanto is collaborating with Germany's BASF in development of the
drought-tolerant corn. The companies hope to launch the product in 2012.
Monsanto has said that bringing drought-tolerant crops to market is among
its top priorities.
"Water availability, water usage, is one of the key limiting factors
when it comes to crop production around the world," Mark Lawson,
Monsanto's yield and stress platform lead executive, said in a recent
interview. Lawson estimates two-thirds of yield losses farmers experience
are due to drought. (Reuters)
March 9, 2009
Climate
Change Forecasts Are Useless - New Policies Ruin America - Even as we
struggle with serious global financial and economic difficulties, some
people believe manmade global warming is a real problem of urgent concern.
Perhaps this is because, almost every day, media outlets quote
"experts" who predict that soaring temperatures, rising sea
levels, increasing storms, prolonged droughts and other disasters will
result from human activity.
NASA scientist James Hansen claims "death trains" carrying coal
are putting our planet "in peril." If we continue using
hydrocarbon energy, he predicts, "...one ecological collapse will
lead to another, in amplifying feedbacks." He further forecasts that
only by eliminating coal-fired power plants and other sources of carbon
dioxide can we prevent the collapse.
The situation recalls a 1974 CIA report that concluded there was
"growing consensus among leading climatologists that the world is
undergoing a cooling trend"... one likely to cause a food production
crisis. Dr. Hansen would probably appreciate the frustration those CIA
experts must have felt when Congress ignored their forecasts and
recommendations.
If it makes sense to enact measures to reduce CO2 emissions when experts
forecast warming, then surely it also makes sense to emit extra CO2 when
experts forecast cooling. Or perhaps not.
Perhaps any link between climate change and carbon dioxide is not so
strong or important. Consider the historical record. (Kesten C. Green, J.
Scott Armstrong, and Willie Soon, Post Chronicle)
Where's
global warming? - SUPPOSE the climate landscape in recent weeks looked
something like this:
Half the country was experiencing its mildest winter in years, with no
sign of snow in many Northern states. Most of the Great Lakes were
ice-free. Not a single Canadian province had had a white Christmas. There
was a new study discussing a mysterious surge in global temperatures - a
warming trend more intense than computer models had predicted. Other
scientists admitted that, because of a bug in satellite sensors, they had
been vastly overestimating the extent of Arctic sea ice.
If all that were happening on the climate-change front, do you think you'd
be hearing about it on the news? Seeing it on Page 1 of your daily paper?
Would politicians be exclaiming that global warming was even more of a
crisis than they'd thought? Would environmentalists be skewering
global-warming "deniers" for clinging to their skepticism
despite the growing case against it?
No doubt.
But it isn't such hints of a planetary warming trend that have been piling
up in profusion lately. Just the opposite. (Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe)
Whadda Charlie... Prince
to warn: 100 months to save world - A DIRE climate-change warning will
be issued by the Prince of Wales when he tells the world we have
"less than 100 months to act" before the damage caused by global
warming becomes irreversible.
The Prince will repeat the prediction made by experts that there are
around eight years in which to make further cuts to CO2 emissions, halt
deforestation and take other measures to stave off a permanent problem.
The comments will form part of a speech titled 'Less Than 100 Months to
Act' made to business leaders in Rio de Janeiro this week as the Prince
tours South America with the Duchess of Cornwall. (The Scotsman)
Czech
leader joins meeting of climate change deniers - It is billed as the
largest ever gathering of climate change deniers, a convention that kicked
off last night with a title suggesting global warming is a thing of the
past, and a guest list that includes a hurricane forecaster, a retired
astronaut and a sitting European president.
Entitled Global Warming: Was It Ever Really a Crisis? and featuring some
of the most prominent naysayers in the climate change debate, this week's
conference in New York sets out to escalate its confrontation with the
scientific establishment, the vast majority of whose members subscribe to
the view that humans are the principal cause of climate change.
Conference organisers were celebrating something of a coup in securing as
a keynote speaker the Czech president, Václav Klaus, at a time when his
country holds the rotating presidency of the EU. Klaus, a Eurosceptic,
believes that efforts to protect the world from the impact of climate
change are an assault on freedom.
In his remarks last night, Klaus accused European governments of being
"alarmist" on the subject of climate change and in thrall to
radical environmentalists.
"They probably do not want to reveal their true plans and ambitions
to stop economic development and return mankind several centuries
back," he said.
He received a standing ovation. But Klaus admitted that his position was a
lonely one. (The Guardian)
Always with the "deniers" thing. Do we actually know the
globally averaged temperature and do we even care since no one is known
to live at "globally averaged"?
What?
There's no such place?
Then what's the value of having its temperature even if we can get
it?
Two
Days of Climate Realism in NYC - Many of us are off to NYC this coming
week for the 2nd International Conference on Climate Change, being held on
Monday and Tuesday, March 9 and 10 at the Marriott Marquis-Times Square.
I like to call this event the “skeptics conference”, but only because
that rolls off the tongue easily. I suspect some don’t appreciate that
label since it makes it sound like we don’t believe in global
warming…which, of course, is wrong. We just don’t believe that mankind
is responsible for global warming…or at least not very much of it.
Personally, I think the first place we should look for causes of climate
variability is Mother Nature, not in the tailpipe of an SUV.
Those of us who were lucky enough to be asked to speak at the conference
will present a wide variety of views on all things related to global
warming…er…I mean climate change: the latest science, politics,
economics, etc.
Of course, I’m most interested in the science…and there are a number
of different opinions on what controls changes in the climate system. For
instance, I now believe that most of the warming in the last 100 years was
due to natural cloud variations caused by the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.
I will be presenting evidence for that on Tuesday morning, along with new
evidence that the climate system is much less sensitive than the alarmists
claim it is. (Roy W. Spencer)
Climate
'denial' is now a mental disorder - Christopher Booker is bemused by
the wild rhetoric of the climate change lobby. (Daily Telegraph)
Natural
Global Warmings Have Become More Moderate - This week, at the 2nd
international conference of man-made warming skeptics sponsored by the
Heartland Institute in New York, I’ll predict the earth’s
warming/cooling trends for the 21st century.
I will be among splendid company such as John Coleman, founder of the
weather channel, Ross McKitrick, who debunked the “hockey stick”
study, physicist Willie Soon, and many other presenters with brilliant
credentials. A thousand scientists, economists, and skeptics from every
walk of life will meet to discuss the current climate indicators. (Dennis
Avery, CFP)
Global
warming is for sissies, here's a macho problem - We have gone through
a cold spell in Britain, with heavy snowfalls in many parts of the
country. I knew, then, that it was coming and it did come - right on the
first day: a newspaper article reassuring us that these fluctuations in
weather conditions are no more than noise and do not affect the
well-established existence of man-made global warming.
I will not discuss this or similar articles because it is evident that a
local short-term temperature change is meaningless against the long-term
pattern. I am, though, interested in the predictability of the appearance
of these stories in the media. The campaign on global warming is on and it
has to be more explicit in moments like this when our subconscious may
make us waver just so faintly. Lest we forget.
The article in the Daily Telegraph said that this spell of bad weather was
not simply irrelevant, but was yet another confirmation of global warming.
Curiously, it is a feature of man-made global warming that every fact
confirms it: rising temperatures or decreasing temperatures, drought or
torrential rain, tornadoes and hurricanes or changes in the habits of
migratory birds. No matter what the weather, some model of global warming
offers a watertight explanation. (Javier Cuadros, Mercatornet.com)
Anti-CO2
Campaign Like An Atom Bomb On U.S. Economy - The CO2 wars have begun.
Presumably following White House directions, the EPA is ready to issue an
"Endangerment Finding" on carbon dioxide, paving the way for
regulations to control CO2 emissions. But with over one million
"major stationary sources," a full-blown application of the
Clean Air Act would be the equivalent of an atomic bomb directed at the US
economy — all without any scientific justification. Hence there is
speculation that the White House strategy is to use the threat of EPA
regulation to force Congress to take action. (S Fred Singer, IBD)
Cap
and Trade: Wall Street's Latest Scheme - One sector is immune from the
economic downturn: global warming lobbyists. A new report by the Center
for Public Integrity (CPI) finds that over 2,000 lobbyists have wielded
their influence to affect the outcome of the debate over the costly
federal regulation of greenhouse gases. Included in the lobbying ranks
were Wall Street firms that were bailed out by the American taxpayer.
According to the CPI study, lobbyists for Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase
were involved, and, in total, "the finance industry has as large a
lobbying force on climate as the alternative energy industry, with about
130 reps working the issue last year..."
JPMorgan got $25 billion in TARP money last fall while Goldman obtained
$10 billion. The stated purpose of the cash infusion was to recapitalize
the banks so they could resume consumer lending.
It can be assumed that this lobbying bonanza will only increase in scope
since President Obama, in his February 24 speech to Congress, asked for
“…legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and
drives the production of more renewable energy in America." (Tom
Borelli, Townhall)
Obama
Administration Breaks with IPCC, Focuses on Art of the Possible - Todd
Stern, chief US climate negotiator in the State Department, gave a speech
two days ago in which he laid out some of the principles that will guide
the Obama Administration’s approach to climate policy. In it he
recognizes that what is politically possible will be the most important
factor guiding the pace of policy implementation. He says the following:
(Roger Pielke, Jr., Prometheus)
Hint
of US delay for emissions trading gives Rudd breather - A hint in the
past week from President Barack Obama that there may be a delay to
emissions trading in the US was more than likely a source of comfort for
the Rudd government.
A delay to the end of the year or into 2010 would give the Obama
administration time to calibrate its emissions trading scheme in the wake
of the UN climate change meeting in Copenhagen in December.
It would also give some breathing space to a traumatised US economy caught
in its worst downturn since the great depression.
In Australia, the Opposition's argument for a delay to emissions trading
until after the UN summit has attracted growing support among business.
(Independent Weekly)
They still don't know what happened... Could
climate prove a change too far for Obama? - European enthusiasm for
President Barack Obama's ambitious programme of US renewal does not hide
deep uncertainty over the likelihood of his delivering on measures to
combat climate change.
Nine months from UN talks in Denmark, where world leaders will try to wrap
up agreement on a new global climate change treaty to succeed the Kyoto
Protocol that expires in 2012, there are real fears that events may
conspire against Obama.
The depth of the disaster that has befallen the US economy in particular
-- witness Friday's announcement of over 650,000 jobs lost in February
alone -- and the difficulties Obama has faced getting Congress to
greenlight his rescue plans underscore significant obstacles ahead.
Besides, given the US failure to meet its Kyoto commitments -- the
protocol was signed by Bill Clinton's administration in 1997 but
subsequently rejected by Senate -- European partners retain bitter
memories of promises broken. (AFP)
... in fact the Senate voted prior to Kyoto that they would not
accept any appendage to the Rio Treaty in the form that Al subsequently
signed, so Slick Willy never sent it to the Senate at all. It was always
a bit of empty theater by Clinton and Gore, never meant for action.
Stupid or cynical? EU
finance chiefs to tap industry for climate fund
* Industry should supply most of climate fund for poor -draft
* Draft says any new mechanism should be carefully assessed
BRUSSELS, March 5 - Industry should be the main source of money for a
climate fund to coax the world's poorest nations into a global deal to
tackle climate change in December, a draft report for a European finance
ministers meeting said.
The draft report for the meeting on March 10 also warned against creating
new mechanisms to deal with the climate issue, alarming environmentalists
who say fresh tools are vital.
Success at the Copenhagen talks to find a successor to the Kyoto protocol
-- the U.N.'s main tool against global warming -- will largely hinge on
whether funding can be found to persuade poor nations to help tackle the
problem.
They blame rich countries for causing climate change and say they do not
do enough to help the poor adapt to its impacts, by means such as creating
crops that are resistant to drought or floods and helping build barriers
to rising sea levels.
Europe and the United States are seen as the main donors, and the EU is
now debating the size and source of its share.
"The Council recognises that international financial support is
crucial for reaching an ambitious agreement in Copenhagen," said the
draft, seen by Reuters on Thursday.
"The Council underlines that for financing mitigation and adaptation
actions... private funding will be, via appropriate policy frameworks, the
main source of the necessary investments," added the draft, which may
change during the ministerial meeting.
That would imply that the EU is moving towards funding poorer nations
through a scheme linked to carbon markets, like the EU's Emissions Trading
Scheme, rather than contributions from governments mulled by environment
ministers on Monday. (Reuters)
So, do the socialist intelligentsia of Europe really believe
cash-strapped industry will meekly underwrite their proposed wealth
transfer to the developing world while going bankrupt or are they fully
aware industry cannot and are just setting up industry as the fall guy
for inevitable failure? Honest, we would have saved the world but those
nasty capitalists blocked us at every turn...
China's
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Threaten to Double - Can a climate
catastrophe still be averted? Scientists voice pessimism in a new study,
which concludes that no matter what the Western industrialized nations do,
China's greenhouse emissions will be hard to stop.
It sounds like wishful thinking: The United States, under new President
Barack Obama, forges an alliance with China to combat emissions. The
world's two largest sources of carbon dioxide finally face the problem.
The treaty crowns the United Nations Climate Change Conference in
Copenhagen at the end of 2009, when a successor agreement to the Kyoto
Protocol -- which, as everyone knows, the United States never ratified --
will be adopted. Third World countries and emerging economies never had to
do it, but in Copenhagen rising economic powers like China make a binding
commitment to curb their emissions.
It probably is wishful thinking. It has almost nothing to do with reality.
"Many Western industrialized nations want China to commit to reducing
its CO2 emissions," says Dabo Guan of the Electricity Policy Research
Group at the University of Cambridge in England. "But the country
will not even be capable of doing so." (Der Spiegel)
CLIMATE
CHANGE POLICIES BASED ON 'UNCRITICAL & OVER-PRESUMPTIVE' PROCESSES
- An incisive analysis of serious deficiencies in the responses by
governments to unsettled science about causes and effects of climate
change, by Professor David Henderson, of the University of Westminster,
and former Head of the Department of Economics and Statistics of OECD. In
a paper to be published in World Economics (Vol 10, No 1) he begins:
"In this paper I question the characteristic treatment of climate
change issues by fellow-economists, as seen in recent articles, books and
reports. The focus of the paper, however, is not on economics. My main
theme is what I see as the uncritical and over-presumptive way in which
these various sources have dealt with the scientific aspects of the
subject." (New Zealand Climate Science)
Sustaining
Idiocy - Former National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) lobbyist
Richard Cizik lost his job late last year after telling National Public
Radio (NPR) that he supports same-sex unions. But Cizik is more renowned
as an enthusiastic Global Warming alarmist. Not surprisingly, Cizik is now
a senior fellow at the Ted Turner-funded United Nations Foundation.
In 2007, Cizik created the Scientists and Evangelicals Initiative with
leftist Harvard biochemist Eric Chivian, best remembered for his 1980’s
activism with International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.
The activist physicians, which included Soviet doctors presumably acting
at the behest of their regime, agitated for the Soviet-backed, failed
nuclear freeze movement. For their dubious efforts to disarm the West and
enshrine Soviet strategic superiority, they naturally received the 1985
Nobel Peace Prize.
Flaking for Soviet-backed “peace” initiatives is now passé. So
Chivian moved on to Global Warming as his next cause, founding Harvard’s
Center for Health and the Global Environment with other like minds who saw
“global and environmental changes as Armageddon in slow motion.” Cizik
and other evangelicals anxious for the New York Times' approval embraced
climate activism as a cause that would elevate them above unsavory
religious conservatives in the public consciousness. For a time, the
strategy worked. Last year, Time magazine hailed Cizik and Chivian as
among the world’s 100 most important people. Although now no longer
affiliated with NAE, Cizik recently appeared at Harvard with Chivian on
Charles Darwin’s birthday to tout their mutual goals of spreading
climate alarmism. (Mark D. Tooley, FrontPageMagazine.com)
Global
warming "Bait-And-Switch" Scientific "consensus" -
Shady Tactics - Fred Schwindel's TV City ad promises 40" flat
screen televisions for $200. You rush to his store, to learn he's
"fresh out" – but has some 42" models for $1000.
That's "bait-and-switch," and Fred could be prosecuted for
consumer fraud.
In the political arena, however, bait-and-switch is often rewarded, not
punished – especially in the case of global warming alarmism. Instead of
fines or jail time, politicos get committee chairs, presidencies, speaking
fees and Nobel Prizes. Scientists and bureaucrats receive paychecks,
research grants and travel stipends for Bali. Activists get secretive
government payments for "public education" campaigns. Companies
get government contracts, subsidies and seats at the bargaining table. And
all are lionized or canonized for supporting Climageddon theories and
policies.
Global warming bait-and-switch starts with simple statements that few
would contest – then shifts seamlessly to claims that are hotly disputed
and supported by little or no evidence. (Paul Driessen, Post Chronicle)
Will
on warming: The cold facts - After George F. Will wrote a column last
month questioning the faulty premises and apocalyptic predictions of
global-warming alarmists, he caught holy heck from America's
"eco-pessimists." He and his editors at The Washington Post were
blasted with thousands of angry e-mails, most of which challenged Will's
assertion that global sea ice levels have not been dramatically reduced by
man-made global warming, as environmentalists claim, but are essentially
the same as they were in 1979. Will, who had used data from the Arctic
Climate Research Center as his source, also was accused of multiple
inaccuracies by The New York Times' Andrew Revkin. Will wrote a second
column defending his data and returning fire at Revkin.
All is calm now and Will is getting ready for the start of his favorite
season -- baseball season. I talked to him by phone on Thursday from his
office in Washington. (Bill Steigerwald, Tribune-Review)
New
Report On The Lack Of Recent Global Warming - There is an interesting
article on at MSNBC from the Discovery Channel titled “Warming
might be on hold, study finds Authors sense hibernation, but warn of
‘explosive’ rise later” by Michael Reilly.
This article finally (although implicitly) acknowledges in the media
that there a substantive issue with the predictions of the IPCC and CCSP
models.
It includes the revealing comments that “according to a new
study, global warming may have hit a speed bump and could go into hiding
for decades.” and ”It is possible that a fraction of
the most recent rapid warming since the 1970’s was due to a free
variation in climate,” Isaac Held of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration in Princeton, New Jersey wrote in an email to
Discovery News. “Suggesting that the warming might possibly slow down or
even stagnate for a few years before rapid warming commences again.”
Swanson thinks the trend could continue for up to 30 years. But he
warned that it’s just a hiccup, and that humans’ penchant for spewing
greenhouse gases will certainly come back to haunt us.
“When the climate kicks back out of this state, we’ll have
explosive warming,” Swanson said. “Thirty years of greenhouse gas
radiative forcing will still be there and then bang, the warming will
return and be very aggressive.”
First, these statements clearly indicate that the IPCC and
CCSP global model predictions (which are being used as the basis for
making expensive and difficult to implement government policies) are
seriously flawed.
Second, the authors are inaccurately reporting on climate physics,
as they claim that “Thirty years of greenhouse gas radiative
forcing will still be there and then bang, the warming will return and be
very aggressive”. This statement, unfortunately, incorrectly assumes
that the heat for these 30 years would accumulate in a hidden location
(i.e. “unrealized heat) and then suddenly reappear after this
time period.
As was discussed yesterday on Climate Science in the weblog Is
There Climate Heating In “The Pipeline”? , however, this is
an inaccurate statement on how the climate system actually works. If the
heating were to suspend for 30 years, and then recommenced, the rate of
heating would be determined by the radiative imbalance at that time.
Finally, if the global heating continues to remain suspended
(for whatever reason) in the coming years, it will seriously damage the
credibility of the climate science community as represented by IPCC and
CCSP assessments. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
Oh dear... Former
VP Gore to Receive Scripps Oceanography Prize - Scripps Institution of
Oceanography is awarding its first-even Roger Revelle Prize to former Vice
President Al Gore. Gore will be in La Jolla Friday evening to receive the
award. The award will be given out during a dinner marking the 100th
birthday of the institution's late former director. UCSD said Gore was
selected for his efforts to raise awareness of global warming. (CBS)
Gore's
Gruesome New Prize - To celebrate the 100th birthday of the late Dr.
Roger Revelle, the oceanography institute he once directed is today
presenting an award in his name to his most famous disciple – Al Gore.
And, while this charlatan should never seriously be considered for any
scientific tribute, the specific intent of this one makes Gore a
particularly unworthy maiden recipient, and he knows it. (Marc Sheppard,
American Thinker)
Roger
Revelle & Al Gore: Coleman's Video Report - Revelle was a powerful
man, a noteworthy scientist and a significant force in San Diego in the
1950s. There is no doubt he is largely responsible for the respect given
Scripps Institute of Oceanography and for locating the University of
California at San Diego, UCSD, in La Jolla.
While serving as Director of Scripps, Revelle and one of his researchers
wrote the first modern scientific paper that linked carbon dioxide
released into the air from the burning of fossil fuels and the greenhouse
effect and the warming of temperatures. This triggered an avalanche of
research that eventually became the impetus behind the United Nations
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the entire global warming
movement.
In the 1960s Revelle moved to Harvard to establish a Center for Population
Studies. There is where Professor Revelle encounter student Albert Gore.
He involved Gore and his class mates in tabulating the data from a carbon
dioxide study. Gore was so impressed he wrote about it in his 1992 book,
" Earth in the Balance ". That became the story for the movie
"an Inconvenient Truth". The Oscar and Nobel Peace Prize and
some people say 100 million dollars came from that effort. There is no
doubt Roger Revelle had a major impact on Vice President Gore's life.
But there is a twist. In 1988 Roger Revelle was having major second
thoughts about whether carbon dioxide was a significant greenhouse gas. He
wrote letters to two Congressmen about it. And in 1991 he co-authored a
report for the new science magazine Cosmos in which he expressed his
strong doubts about global warming and urged more research before any
remedial action was taken.
At that point Mr. Gore pronounced Revelle as senile and refused to debate
global warming. He continues to refuse to debate today. Many offers of 10s
of thousands of dollars have been made such a debate. Today Gore
sequestered the media at this event and set forth rules, no questions, no
interviews.
I have learned that in 1991 Roger Revelle made a speech at the high
powered, very private Summer enclave of powerful men and politicians at
the Bohemian Grove in Northern California, where he apologized that his
research sent so many people in the wrong direction on global warming.
He worried about the political fallout from the UN IPCC and Al Gore. A man
named Donn Michael Schmidtman who lives in the San Francisco area was
there that day and remembers the Revelle speech very well. He has told
about it in some detail.
So think of the irony. Today Al Gore received the first Roger Revelle
award, an honor named after the man who sent Gore on his global warming
campaign.
But the truth is; Revelle realized that it was a false alarm and the
science was flawed before he died.
Revelle died of a heart attack in 1991.
It would be interesting to know if Revelle had lived whether he would have
approved of this award tonight or perhaps be joining me at the
International conference of global warming skeptics in New York next week.
(Coleman's Corner, KUSI News)
Carbon
cuts 'only give 50/50 chance of saving planet' - As states negotiate
Kyoto's successor, simulations show catastrophe just years away
The world's best efforts at combating climate change are likely to offer
no more than a 50-50 chance of keeping temperature rises below the
threshold of disaster, according to research from the UK Met Office.
The key aim of holding the expected increase to 2C, beyond which damage to
the natural world and to human society is likely to be catastrophic, is
far from assured, the research suggests, even if all countries engage
forthwith in a radical and enormous crash programme to slash greenhouse
gas emissions – something which itself is by no means guaranteed.
The chilling forecast from the supercomputer climate model of the Met
Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research will provide a
sobering wake-up call for governments around the world, who will begin
formally negotiating three weeks today the new international treaty on
tackling global warming, which is due to be signed in Copenhagen in
December. (Michael McCarthy, The Independent)
Uh, Michael? Climate models don't and can't produce
"predictions" mate but they are getting quicker at churning
out garbage, gotta give 'em that...
Further from reality every day: Scientists
to issue stark warning over dramatic new sea level figures - Rising
sea levels pose a far bigger eco threat than previously thought. This
week's climate change conference in Copenhagen will sound an alarm over
new floodings - enough to swamp Bangladesh, Florida, the Norfolk Broads
and the Thames estuary (Robin McKie, The Observer)
Climate
change - it's part of natural cycle - A carbon tax is unnecessary and
will ruin the Australian economy, a leading academic has warned.
With an arm-long list of achievements, Adelaide University geology
Professor Ian Plimer told the PGA Convention that there were fundamental
problems in the science being put forward in favour of climate change.
"An emission trading scheme is based on flawed science and its
constraints will destroy the agricultural industry," Prof Plimer
said.
"And the interesting thing about ruminants, which is a main argument
for climate change, is that there are more of them on earth now than there
were 20 years ago, however the methane deposit is going down; so how do we
explain that? (Farm Weekly)
The
Incurious Case of the Carbon Alarmists - A popular blog aiming to
discredit "climate skeptics" is the epitome of the alarmist
movement’s anti-intellectual approach.
Question global warming theory by commenting on an alarmist-based site and
a reply will likely direct you to the writings of blogger Coby Beck. A
self-described software developer specializing in “artificial
intelligence,” Mr. Beck is the author of “How to Talk to a Climate
Skeptic” — a series of phenomenally popular blog posts seen as
unassailable dogma among his fellow believers.
Had it been his intent, Beck could not possibly have forwarded more solid
grounds for delegitimizing his movement. “Climate Skeptic” is a mash
of remarkably cursory, blinkered responses, leaving unanswered questions
readily apparent to the cold, scientific observer. Yet Beck’s charges
seem quite willing to battle with his tinfoil-and-cardboard, Hanukkah-play
weaponry, swinging madly and wondering why the supposed faith-based and
unenlightened are so slow to die or convert. (David Steinberg, Pajamas
Media)
Obama's
Global Warming Straddle - Lord, make me carbon neutral . . . but not
yet.
In his February 24 address to Congress, President Obama asked for
"legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon
pollution." But don't assume that this administration, in contrast to
its predecessor, is overly concerned about the threat to humanity from
global warming.
When the president unveiled his budget later that week, it became clear
that even if so-called cap-and-trade legislation is passed this year, the
administration has no plans to start taxing emissions until 2012. A
president who warned of catastrophe should Congress delay implementing his
economic agenda seems in no particular rush to cut down on greenhouse
emissions. No doubt he has been quietly briefed on just how devastating
his cap-and-trade regime would be to a fragile economy.
So it's a hollow victory for climate alarmists. As it happens, besides
being an election year, 2012 is also supposed to be the point of no return
for action on climate change. Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and co-recipient with Al Gore of
the Nobel Peace Prize, warned after collecting his prize in Norway that
"if there's no action before 2012, that's too late."
Last year Gore himself opined that "we have less than 10 years to
make dramatic changes in our global warming pollution lest we lose our
ability to ever recover from this environmental crisis." Such
warnings have become routine--20 years ago, in 1989, the head of the New
York office of the United Nations Environment Program, Noel Brown, issued
the same dire prediction, claiming that there was a "10-year window
of opportunity" to stop the runaway train of global warming. (Michael
Goldfarb, Weekly Standard)
Coal
plants checked by enviro campaigns, costs - Beneath the frozen plains
of eastern Montana and Wyoming lie the largest coal deposits in the world
- enough to last the United States more than a century at the nation's
current burn rate.
The fuel literally spills from the ground where streambanks cut into the
earth, hinting at reserves estimated at 180 billion tons. But even here
lawsuits over global warming and the changing political landscape in
Washington are pummeling an industry that has long been the backbone of
America's power supply.
In recent weeks, a group of rural Montana electric co-ops abandoned a
partially built 250-megawatt coal plant, ending a four-year legal campaign
by environmentalists to stop the project. The co-ops plan to instead get
their electricity from a natural gas plant - more expensive for customers
but also more likely to get built.
A few miles away, the U.S. Air Force dropped plans for a major coal-to-jet
fuel plant once touted as the harbinger of a new market for coal. There
are no signs it will be revived.
Other plants are moving forward in Montana and at least a dozen other
states, but the exodus from coal has hit every corner of the country. On
Thursday, two more were shelved - plants in Iowa and Nevada that would
have generated enough power for 1.6 million homes. (Associated Press)
Calif.
says carmakers can meet strict limits - Industry disagrees on proposed
new emission rules
LOS ANGELES - California officials told the Environmental Protection
Agency yesterday that major automakers are already on track to meet the
state's strict proposed limits on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.
Auto industry supporters disagreed, however, at a daylong hearing over
whether the EPA should grant California's request to allow it and 13 other
states, including Maryland, to set their own emissions standards.
Automakers and dealers raised concerns over several points of California's
plan and said they would welcome a nationwide standard for emissions
limits. State officials said they wouldn't accept any national standard
that fell short of their own. (Los Angeles Times)
Levin
protests California fuel rules, seeks U.S. standard - ARLINGTON, Va.
-- Michigan Sen. Carl Levin asked the Obama administration Thursday to
deny California's attempt to limit global-warming emissions from cars and
trucks, saying the country needed a nationwide rule.
Levin's testimony to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hearing
followed California officials who contended the state had met the legal
burden to prove it could set such limits, and that global warming was
worsening the state's pollution problems.
"Global warming is not unique to California, and to suggest that it
is actually undermines the argument that it is a global threat that knows
no boundaries," Levin said.
The EPA hearing comes after President Barack Obama ordered the agency to
revisit the Bush administration's decision blocking a waiver that would
have allowed California's rules to take effect. The waiver also would
allow other states to adopt California's rules; 13 other states and the
District of Columbia already have done so, while four more are moving
toward them.
As a candidate, Obama had vowed to allow California's rules to take
effect. But the president has said he favors a national standard for
greenhouse gas limits, and his administration has begun crafting new rules
for vehicles that would likely supplant California's law if the EPA lets
it proceed as expected. (Free Press)
Lawrence
Solomon: Gangreen energy act - Ontario’s new energy plan heavily
subsidizes green energy projects at the expense of conservation (Financial
Post)
A
Need to Clear the Air - Gov. David Paterson of New York, whose list of
friends in the political world seems to be growing shorter by the week,
could soon be forced to cross off another group: the environmental
community.
Environmentalists — and for that matter anyone who worries about climate
change — were disturbed to learn on Friday that Mr. Paterson had agreed
in a closed-door meeting with energy executives last fall to reopen rules
governing New York’s participation in a landmark pact to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.
The news followed other setbacks, including proposed budget cuts that
seemed to environmentalists to disproportionately impoverish the
Environmental Protection Fund, which finances critical open-space
projects. The governor has promised to refill the fund with a new and more
ambitious bottle redemption program. But the new bottle bill is hardly a
sure thing, and the beverage industry has hired some of Albany’s most
powerful lobbyists to beat it. (New York Times)
Little
Impact Is Foreseen Over Change for Emissions - A move by Gov. David A.
Paterson to increase the free allowances for carbon-dioxide emissions that
New York gives power plants is unlikely to undermine efforts by nine other
states that signed a landmark pact to reduce global warming, officials
said on Friday.
Last fall, 10 states from Maryland to Maine agreed to cap the emissions
from hundreds of power plants and to make them pay for polluting. Under
this carbon-trading pact, known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative,
each state issues its own tradable permits, or allowances, for each ton of
carbon-dioxide pollution.
States auction most of the allowances, but many power producers have
complained about being forced to pay for them.
Mr. Paterson’s willingness to increase free allowances angered
environmentalists and surprised officials in the other states. They
reacted by reaffirming their commitment to the current carbon-trading
pact.
“We think it’s a New York issue, and we don’t see it having any
impact in other states, including New Jersey’s program,” said Jeanne
Herb, the policy director for New Jersey’s Department of Environmental
Protection, in a widely echoed sentiment. “Nor do we envision that it
will have any real impact on the auction prices.”
Officials in Massachusetts and Rhode Island said they expected little
impact in their states. (New York Times)
What part of "No" don't they understand? Carbon
capture and storage - Capturing carbon dioxide emissions from power
plants and storing it underground is seen as a crucial technology to
reduce the global warming impact of fossil fuels such as coal and gas, on
which the world will continue to rely for decades. (EurActiv)
Obama's
Nuclear Freeze - President Obama seems to have followed through with
another one of his campaign promises. While throwing unprecedented
billions at progressive social programs, he wants to slash the budgets of
the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the national nuclear waste
facility at Yucca Mountain Nevada. These cuts will impair the maintenance
and expansion of clean, safe, reliable, carbon-neutral electric power from
our 104 nuclear power plants. These nuclear plants now supply 20% of our
power; and therefore have mitigated the release of 8.7 trillion tons of
the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide that would have been emitted from
conventional coal-fired power over the last 15 years. As many as 30 to 50
new nuclear plants will be needed this century to accommodate future
demands. (Paul Taylor, LA Ecopolitics Examiner)
Nuclear
sunrise - STOCKHOLM: Exactly 11 days from now, Sweden will turn into
law one of the most significant policy U-turns for a warming planet. The
government will introduce a bill in parliament to allow modern new nuclear
power plants to be built on existing sites. The change in policy is
significant because Sweden was one of the pioneers of the global
anti-nuclear campaign in the wake of the Three Mile Island accident in the
US in 1979.
Sweden may be showing the way forward to other nations who want to reduce
greenhouse emissions even as they meet their people's energy needs.
The Swedish about-turn is seen to be a particular surprise because the
Centre Party, which is part of the governing Alliance, fought the 2006
elections on the anti-nuclear plank. But now, Sweden's leading politicians
clearly feel the popular view of nuclear power has changed enough for them
to propose building replacement reactors at 10 sites, while phasing out
the old ones.
Observers say Sweden's change of heart isn't surprising. The country is
aiming for zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and this can only happen
if carbon dioxide-producing fossil fuels, such as coal are phased out.
(Times of India)
Friday
funny: A bad hair day - Laughing while you’re driving is now against
the law in the police state. As Nigel Bunyan from the Telegraph reports:
(Junkfood Science)
Grading
compliance — the information free for all begins - As predicted,
private electronic medical records of consumers are being freely accessed,
exchanged and used to document and grade doctors and hospitals according
to their compliance with performance measures set by the state. The
nation’s first such statewide program has just been launched in Georgia.
(Junkfood Science)
Dr.
Computer - In a perfectly titled Op-ed, “The computer will see you
now,” Dr. Anne Armstrong-Coben, a pediatrician and assistant professor
of pediatrics at Columbia, shared the reality of adopting electronic
medical records. She highlighted the greatest thing we’ll sacrifice…
The loss of humanness of medicine and the private and personal
relationships built between patients and their doctors. (Junkfood Science)
Victims
Of Socialism - Deadly Rationing: The gatekeeper for Great Britain's
national health care system is denying cancer patients drugs that would
extend their lives. Why? Because the medication is considered too
expensive.
What's a life worth? Apparently not much in Great Britain.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the government
agency that decides which treatments the National Health Service will pay
for, has effectively banned Lapatinib, a drug that was shown to slow the
progression of breast cancer, and Sutent, which is the only medicine that
can prolong the lives of some stomach cancer patients.
Banning beneficial drugs due to cost is nothing new in Britain. NICE,
which has to be one of history's most ironic acronyms, forbade the use of
Tarceva, a lung cancer drug proven to extend patients' lives, and
Abatacept, even though it's one of the only drugs that has been shown in
clinical testing to improve severe rheumatoid arthritis.
Once again, we have to ask: Do we really want to use the British system as
the model for a U.S. health care regime? (IBD)
Now here's a message for you: hey kids, drink coke, it's better for
the planet than nasty fruit drinks :) Questions
over ratings as Coke publishes carbon footprint - One is a fruit drink
made by a boutique company with a clutch of foodie awards and an
impeccable ethical brand, which even boasts a halo on its logo. The other
is a fizzy pop, famous for rotting teeth, made by a corporate giant almost
synonymous with globalisation.
But when it comes to the environmental issue of the moment - the carbon
footprint of their products - the bottle of Innocent smoothie comes off
worse than a can of Coke. At least at first glance.
Coca-Cola today becomes the biggest global brand to publish the greenhouse
gases produced by making, packaging, transporting, chilling, and disposing
of their most popular products. The study, done with the government-funded
Carbon Trust, shows a standard 330ml can of Coke embodies the equivalent
of 170g of carbon dioxide (CO2e), and the same sized Diet Coke or Coke
Zero 150g.
Coke's UK business follows Innocent, which helped the Carbon Trust pioneer
its footprinting, and whose 250ml bottle of mango and passion fruit
smoothie has a carbon footprint of 209g.
Innocent's co-founder, Richard Reed, questions whether it is fair to
compare a bottle of crushed fruit and something largely made of water.
Reed's defence highlights a wider issue: how to balance the importance of
global warming with other attributes of a product - nutrition, helping
poor farmers, careful nurturing of soil, or the welfare of animals.
Innocent, for example, donates 10% of profits to charity. "The
classical economic response is you implicitly reduce them to a common
currency, which leads to money; but my view is these things are just not
comparable," said Mike Mason, founder of carbon offset company
ClimateCare. (The Guardian)
When
Barack Obama and Gordon Brown see 'opportunity', we really do have a
crisis - The Left is threatening our freedom by using the downturn to
bolster the power of the state, says Janet Daley.
The story so far: some capitalists behaved very badly. While this was
going on, the socialists didn't ask questions because they were too busy
spending the receipts that flowed from that behaviour. Now, the socialists
– who were happy to look the other way during the good times or even to
delude themselves into thinking that they were responsible for them –
want to use the ignominy of the capitalists to seize the kind of power
they thought they had lost forever.
You may quibble at my use of the word "socialist" to describe
people who generally present themselves as friends of the free market, and
who have repudiated full-scale nationalisation (even of the banks at a
moment when that option might have appeared irresistible). So, as someone
who spent her formative years on the Left, let me make clear that I am
using the word to designate those who accept the primary tenet of Marxist
ideology: that the economy can and should be controlled by the state.
In the hard version of this creed, it is acceptable for government to
become totalitarian in order to accomplish such control. The softer
version – which prevailed in much of Western Europe and Britain – was
committed to achieving this through democratic means. By the end of the
1980s, the hard version had collapsed and the soft version was
discredited.
Then, suddenly – a miracle! Free-market economics, which seemed to have
won the historical argument hands down, is imploding. Now the very people
who had embraced it as, at the very least, a milch cow for public-spending
adventurism, can see an "opportunity". Yes, that is the word
that both Gordon Brown and Barack Obama have taken to using to describe
the current economic apocalypse. (Daily Telegraph)
Why
Obama Wants America to Fail - "Not letting a good crisis go to
waste."
This idea popped up multiple times in the past seven days as multiple
members of Obama's administration seemed to be in total agreement. Their
conclusion: by not quickly solving the crisis of the American economy, we
can create drastic social and structural change. Not surprisingly, this is
the path even President Obama alluded to in his Saturday address to the
nation.
On Saturday the President challenged his country to see its hard times as
a chance to "discover great opportunity in the midst of great
crisis."
"That is what we can do and must do today. And I am absolutely
confident that is what we will do," Obama said in his address.
But is that what "we the people" hired him to do? To use
"great opportunities" to change the face and fabric of the
nation? (Kevin McCullough, Townhall)
The Crone never met an activist court it didn't like, until
perhaps now: Clean
Slate on Clean Air - In a series of major decisions, the federal
courts have effectively done away with nearly all of the Bush
administration’s clean-air regulations — most of them wrongheaded.
That gives President Obama a clear shot at fashioning a new and
coordinated attack on pollutants like smog, soot and mercury.
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
recently struck down as inadequate national air-quality standards for fine
particulates — small particles of soot from power plants and diesel
engines that have been linked to heart and lung diseases.
And the Supreme Court let stand a 2008 ruling from the same appeals court
striking down — as not only inadequate but illegal — Bush rules
governing mercury emissions from power plants. These two rulings clear the
way for Mr. Obama’s team to come up with more robust regulations on fine
particles and on mercury.
Mr. Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency must also deal with a third
ruling from the D.C. Circuit that, confusingly enough, invalidated a
genuinely worthy Bush initiative — a market-based emissions trading
program that sought to curb pollution from power plants east of the
Mississippi. In that case, the court said the E.P.A. had exceeded its
authority under the Clean Air Act, a rare complaint against an
administration that usually did too little. (New York Times)
Federation
of Canadian Municipalities asks members to ban bottled water - The
Federation of Canadian Municipalities has asked Canadian cities and towns
to phase out the sale and purchase of bottled water on municipal property.
The federation board of directors passed the anti-bottle resolution at a
meeting in Victoria on Saturday.
The move carries no legal weight and aims simply to encourage
municipalities to speak out against bottled water and avoid distributing
it when possible. (CBC News)
Darn
your socks to help save planet, says minister - SCOTS should be
darning their socks and looking to their grandparents for advice in order
to lead greener lifestyles, according to the new environment minister.
Roseanna Cunningham's advice came as a survey revealed that people in
Scotland saw the environment as a global issue rather than a local one.
The results of the Ipsos Mori survey of more than 3,000 Scots showed an
equal number of people – 35 per cent – believed the economy and the
environment were among the most important issues facing the world today.
However, just 12 per cent thought the environment was one of the most
important issues facing Scotland. (The Scotsman)
Dopey woman. Her grandparents did things that way because a) they had
no choice and b) they were thrifty because they were impoverished
(has she no idea about post war austerity?).
Don't
feel guilty: Use soft toilet paper on your derriere - Arguments about
'virgin fibre' nonsense, environmentalist says
Greenpeace, with strong support from the Natural Resources Defense
Council, has come out against the sale of soft toilet tissue made with
"virgin" fibre. It claims that using trees to make toilet paper
is worse for the environment than driving Hummers or building McMansions.
My old organization wants Canadians to use recycled paper for TP and it's
targeting Kimberly-Clark, Procter and Gamble, and other large tissue
producers. Apparently hair shirts aren't sufficient, now we must wipe with
scratchy paper to rid ourselves of eco-guilt.
It makes a good story and news outlets around the world have dutifully
picked it up. But it is absolute nonsense, for a number of reasons.
(Patrick Moore, Vancouver Sun)
Saint
Bob and Bono's halos slip - Finally somebody has shown the chutzpah to
say "enough already" to those wealthy world-weary worrywarts
Bono and Bob Geldof. Sydney-bound Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian-born economist,
says the singers have glamorised aid to Africa to such an extent that it
is damaging the very people it is supposed to help.
Moyo's book Dead Aid has received huge publicity in the US and Europe, not
least because she is been bold enough to speak out against the beatific
Bono and the sainted Sir Bob and such feel-good moments as the Live Aid
concert of 1985. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Corn-Fed
Nation - WASHINGTON -- Tom Vilsack, Iowa's former governor, calls his
"the most important department in government," noting that the
Agriculture Department serves education through school nutrition programs
and serves diplomacy by trying to wean Afghanistan from a poppy-based
(meaning heroin-based) economy. But Vilsack's department matters most
because of the health costs of the American diet. If Michael Pollan is
right, the problem is rooted in politics and, in a sense, Iowa.
Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense
of Food," says that after World War II the government had a huge
surplus of ammonium nitrate, an ingredient of explosives -- and
fertilizer. Furthermore, pesticides could be made from ingredients of
poison gases. Since 1945, the food supply has increased faster than
America's population -- faster even than Americans can increase their
feasting.
Agricultural commodity prices generally fall. But when a rare surge in
food prices gave the Nixon administration a political scare, government
policy, expressed in commodity subsidies, has been, Pollan writes, to sell
"large quantities of calories as cheaply as possible,"
especially calories coming from corn. (George Will, Townhall)
March 6, 2009
Hilarious: Speaker
says Gore is wrong: Climate change is even worse - MUNCIE -- Global
warming is one of the top five problems facing humankind, according to
Thomas Friedman, a New York Times journalist and three-time winner of the
Pulitzer Prize.
Friedman spoke Wednesday at Ball State University.
Mother Nature is a lot like us, he said. If your temperature rises just a
few degrees, you get sick. If it rises a few more degrees, you go to the
hospital. (Star Press)
This is a continuation of the "humans are a disease"
metaphor so beloved by the green whackos. If humans are an Earth Mother
pathogen then the disease for which we are responsible would have to be
"life" since the biosphere quite literally booms under
conditions of higher atmospheric carbon dioxide, particularly in
conjunction with less-cold temperatures and human activity both restores
previously lost carbon to the cycle and causes at least local warming.
It seems greens would prefer the Earth as a sterile ball of rock and ice
-- at least it wouldn't have a fever :)
Who knew greenies hate all life and not just humans?
Washington
new center of global warming battle - European ministers are flocking
to Washington drawn by the new administration's pledge to help lead the
fight against climate change, an issue largely put on ice for eight years
here.
Ministers from across Europe as well as Canada are taking part in a whirl
of meetings here this week to gauge prospects of Congress adopting key
climate-change legislation ahead of a major UN climate conference in
December. (AFP)
Obama
Climate Envoy: Bush Approach Too Ambitious - I'd say you can't make
this stuff up — what, it only gets a headline in a WSJ blog, not the
NYT? — but I did, or at least predicted the blistering double-standard
that being applied to Presidents Obama and Bush when it comes to all
things Kyoto.
Obama "climate envoy" Todd Stern "said the road map of
greenhouse-gas emission reductions laid out at a 2007 summit in Bali was
simply too ambitious. 'We need to be very mindful of what the dictates of
science are, and of the art of the possible,' he said. The Bali targets
— a 25% to 40% cut by industrialized nations by 2020 – were simply too
ambitious. 'It’s not possible to get that kind of number. It’s not
going to happen'.” (Chris Horner, Planet Gore)
Not
all senators warming to Obama cap-and-trade emissions proposal -
President Obama’s cap-and-trade plan to reduce carbon emissions hasn’t
swayed key senators who blocked a similar bill last year.
The president’s plan, outlined in his budget blueprint, would set new
limits on carbon emissions and require companies to purchase pollution
credits in an auction.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who opposed cap-and-trade last June, said
that Obama’s plan would lead to an increase in energy costs and would
drive American firms abroad.
“It really does say to manufacturing, ‘Go to China, where they have
weaker environmental standards,’” Brown told The Hill. “And that’s
a very bad message in bad economic times — in any economic times.”
Brown added that he hasn’t seen any improvements in Obama’s plan over
last year’s bill.
That legislation was sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and
championed by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and then-Sen. John Warner
(R-Va.), but it still fell far short of the necessary 60 votes. The 48
senators who voted to move the bill ahead included most of the Democratic
Conference and a handful of centrist Republicans. More senators, however,
either voted against it or didn’t vote at all. (Walter Alarkon, The
Hill)
Certain
Rocks Found to Pull CO2 From the Air and Lock It Away Like Trees Do -
To slow global warming, scientists are exploring ways to pull carbon
dioxide from the air and safely lock it away. Trees already do this
naturally through photosynthesis; now, in a new report, geologists have
mapped large rock formations in the United States that can also absorb
CO2, which they say might be artificially harnessed to do the task at a
vastly increased pace.
The report, by scientists at Columbia University's Earth Institute and the
U.S. Geological Survey, shows 6,000 square miles of ultramafic rocks at or
near the surface. Originating deep in the earth, these rocks contain
minerals that react naturally with carbon dioxide to form solid minerals.
Earth Institute scientists are experimenting with ways to speed this
natural process, called mineral carbonation. If the technology takes off,
geologic formations around the world could provide a vast sink for
heat-trapping carbon dioxide released by humans. (CleanTech)
But we don't want to lose the resource...
Stop them! They're stealing our CO2! Massive
algae bloom swirls off coast - Scientists are worried that global
warming might have contributed to creating an algae bloom off the west
coast of Vancouver Island that is so big it can be seen from space.
At the Institute of Ocean Sciences in North Saanich, researchers are
tracking the swirling mass that runs the length of the Island's west
coast. They believe it consists mainly of coccolithophore, a naturally
occurring, single-cell phytoplankton.
It's the biggest algae bloom institute physicist Jim Gowen has seen.
"The bloom is good in that it means there are lots of nutrients out
there for things to grow," he said. "But what we're worried
about is that if global warming is going to really kick in and start
warming everything up, then the prediction has to be that we'll see more
of these things more often. It's certainly worrying when you see the
biggest one, because you think that it's a sign things are getting
worse." (Times Colonist)
Gosh darn coccolithophores, busily building their shells from
carbonate which will sink to the sea floor and be lost to the biosphere!
Now we'll have to mine and liberate more carbon to make up for it...
Right... Amazon's
2005 Drought Created Huge CO2 Emissions - OSLO - A 2005 drought in the
Amazon rainforest killed trees and released more greenhouse gas than the
annual emissions of Europe and Japan, an international study showed on
Thursday.
The report said rainforests from Africa to Latin America may speed up
global warming if the climate becomes drier this century. Plants soak up
heat-trapping carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they die and
rot.
... Paradoxically, the forest's accumulation of carbon before 2005 may
have been aided by global warming, which improved plant growth. (Reuters)
U.S. Energy
Secretary Pledges To Fight Global Warming - WASHINGTON - U.S. energy
secretary Steven Chu on Thursday pledged to work with Congress to pass
legislation that would impose a cap-and-trade system to curb greenhouse
gas emissions and fight global warming.
"Such legislation will provide the framework for transforming our
energy system to make our economy less carbon-intensive, and less
dependent on foreign oil," Chu said at a Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee hearing.
The Obama administration wants to cap carbon emissions from U.S. power
plants, oil refineries and other industrial sites, then auction permits to
exceed those limits. Plants that then lower their emissions could in turn
sell their permits to other facilities that pollute more. (Reuters)
Capping
Economic Growth - President Obama sends his emissaries to Congress to
explain why an economy-killing tax on energy — a tax all Americans will
pay in all aspects of their lives — is necessary to save the Earth.
(IBD)
Total-Auction
U.S. Climate Bill Unlikely: Lawmaker - WASHINGTON - Any climate bill
that passes the Senate is unlikely to adhere to an Obama administration
plan that the government auction all of the permits to emit greenhouse
gases because it would be too harsh on big industry, a key democratic
lawmaker said on Thursday.
Instead, Senator Jeff Bingaman said any system capping and trading
emissions developed by Congress will likely include a mix of carbon
allowances that are given to polluters -- like cement factories and
coal-burning power plants -- and the sale of permits. (Reuters)
Climate
change committee chief signals support for carbon "floor price"
- Lord Adair Turner urges government to consider imposing a floor price on
EU carbon allowances
Calls for a "floor price" on carbon allowances received
influential backing yesterday when Lord Turner, the chairman of the
government's Committee on Climate Change, signalled he would support such
a move.
The price of carbon credits under the EU emission trading scheme (ETS) has
collapsed from €31 last summer to about €8 last month, prompting calls
for a " floor price" to be imposed that would provide firms with
greater confidence that investments in low carbon infrastructure will
deliver long term returns.
Jonathon Porritt, chair of the Sustainable Development Commission, said
recently he would like to see a "floor price" imposed on carbon
that would effectively combine the flexibility of a market-based approach
to driving down emissions with the certainty offered by a carbon tax.
Speaking yesterday, Lord Adair Turner told MPs on the energy and climate
change select committee that the EU should give serious consideration to
the proposal, arguing that if the price of EU allowances (EUAs) remain at
their current level it will remove the incentive for firms to invest in
low carbon technologies. (BusinessGreen)
Low Prices,
Downturn Could Alter Aussie CO2 Scheme - LONDON/SINGAPORE - Low
international carbon prices and a global recession might force Australia
to change its planned 2010 emissions trading scheme days before the
government releases draft legislation.
Some analysts also question if low prices will drive Australian firms to
clean up their operations or buy cheap U.N. carbon offsets under the Kyoto
Protocol to meet their obligations.
The draft legislation is to be released on March 10 and is expected to
enshrine the target of cutting emissions by least 5 percent by 2020 from
2000 levels.
The Australian government already faces intense pressure to change, delay
or scrap its carbon scheme, with business groups saying a recession is the
wrong time to introduce it. Greens want the scheme hardened to meet
tougher emissions targets. (Reuters)
Emissions
plans still up in the air - Industrial emitters are caught in a
triangle of uncertainty.
On one side is the law, in the form of the emissions trading scheme (ETS)
legislation passed in the dying days of the previous Parliament, under
which they will be bound by the ETS and accountable for their emissions
from next year.
They will receive an allocation of free units, at the taxpayer's expense,
to cover 90 per cent of their collective emissions at first. But how they
will be allocated and how quickly or slowly the allocation will be phased
out remain up in the air.
The second side of the triangle is the Government's desire to align the
New Zealand scheme - assuming there will still be one - with Australia's.
The third side is the review of the ETS by a special parliamentary select
committee set up under National's government-forming agreement with the
Act Party. Its terms of reference are extremely broad and pursued
thoroughly it could take years. It has received 276 submissions. (New
Zealand Herald)
Green
Energy and Jobs: Proceed With Caution - The creation of
“green-collar” jobs is a major component of President Obama’s energy
and economic strategy. Opportunities for achieving realistic goals should
certainly be pursued, and many “green” projects do represent sound
economics.
“Smart meters” and better attic, wall and window insulation reduce
energy expenditures, and quickly pay back investments. Better sequencing
of traffic lights speeds commuters to workplaces, saves gasoline, cuts
pollution, and reduces accidents. Telecommuting also saves energy.
New technologies enable smelters and factories to recycle waste heat, to
power turbines and generate electricity. Energy-efficient computers and
servers mean big savings in power-hungry data centers that facilitate
banking, Internet searches, modern business operations and YouTube.
Such initiatives also create “green” jobs. Renewable energy and energy
efficiency industries already generate 8.5 million such jobs in the United
States, claims a 2007 report from the American Solar Energy Society, and
could create “as many as 40 million” by 2030.
However, numerous other green initiatives would not survive without
mandates, renewable energy standards, tariffs and taxpayer-financed
subsidies that borrow money or take funds from one economic sector and
transfer it to another. (Paul Driessen, Townhall)
U.S.
steel firms eye China fix in climate bill - WASHINGTON, March 5 - U.S.
legislation to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions
should include protections to keep U.S. steel industry jobs from moving to
China and other developing countries, a top U.S. steel industry official
said.
"There's going to be a lot of steel demand in this new green economy
and it ought to be made here, which is the most efficient and the most
environmentally-protected place in the world to make the steel," Tom
Gibson, president of the American Iron and Steel Institute, told Reuters.
The push to pass U.S. climate change legislation comes as countries are
aiming to reach an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions by the end of the year. (Reuters)
Environmental
doublespeak - As global warming threatens the world's most vulnerable
people, EU leaders can only spout empty rhetoric
Political language, George Orwell wrote nearly 60 years ago, is
"designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to
give an appearance of solidity to pure wind".
It is a pity that Orwell won't be around over the next few weeks to
deconstruct the double-speak that passes for the European Union's official
discourse on climate change.
Whereas the magic of nature was celebrated at spring festivals in Pagan
times, an annual gathering of presidents and prime ministers in March is
dedicated to crafting an illusion. Our leaders seek to convey the
impression that they are as concerned about the environment as the
crustiest tree-hugger, while subtly embracing policies that accelerate the
planet's destruction.
Angela Merkel is one of the worst culprits. In 2007, the German chancellor
used the occasion to warn: "It's not five minutes to midnight. It's
five minutes after midnight." Since then, she has been doing
everything possible to wreck the green agenda so that a cabal of
industrialists who view it is as too costly (in the short-term, needless
to say) can be appeased.
The preparations for this year's summit indicate that this pattern of
duplicity will continue. (David Cronin, The Guardian)
I'd have titled it "Environmental gibberish" as rather more
fitting...
Poor dears seem a bit miffed now they've figured out people actually
only make soothing sounds to them while getting on with real life, don't
they?
Tropical
Cyclone Activity [still] Lowest in 30-years - Tropical cyclone (TC)
activity worldwide has completely and utterly collapsed during the past 2
to 3 years with TC energy levels sinking to levels not seen since the late
1970s. This should not be a surprise to scientists since the natural
variability in climate dominates any detectable or perceived global
warming impact when it comes to measuring yearly integrated tropical
cyclone activity. With the continuation (persistence) of colder Pacific
tropical sea-surface temperatures associated with the effects of La Nina,
the upcoming 2009 Atlantic hurricane season should be above average, as we
saw in 2008. Nevertheless, since the Atlantic only makes up 10-15% of
overall global TC activity each year (climatological average during the
past 30 years), continued Northern Hemispheric and global TC inactivity as
a whole likely will continue. (Climate Research News)
U.S.
Life Expectancy in an Era of Death Trains and Death Factories - Guest
post by Indur M. Goklany
In a recent op-ed in the Guardian that WUWT commented on, James Hansen of
global warming fame, argued for closing coal fired power plants asserting
that “The trains carrying coal to power plants are death trains.
Coal-fired power plants are factories of death.”
So what’s happened to US life expectancy as the number of coal fired
death factories have multiplied and as the climate has gotten warmer?
(Watts Up With That?)
Is
There Climate Heating In “The Pipeline”? - A new paper has
appeared Urban, Nathan M., and Klaus Keller, 2009. Complementary
observational constraints on climate sensitivity. Geophys. Res. Lett., 36,
L04708, doi:10.1029/2008GL036457, February 25, 2009. in press, which
provides further discussion of this question. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate
Science)
Short answer? No.
SPPI
Monthly CO2 Report: February
The ultimate in wishful thinking: Arctic
Summer Ice Could Vanish By 2013: Expert - OTTAWA - The Arctic is
warming up so quickly that the region's sea ice cover in summer could
vanish as early as 2013, decades earlier than some had predicted, a
leading polar expert said on Thursday.
Warwick Vincent, director of the Center for Northern Studies at Laval
University in Quebec, said recent data on the ice cover "appear to be
tracking the most pessimistic of the models", which call for an ice
free summer in 2013.
The year "2013 is starting to look as though it is a lot more
reasonable as a prediction. But each year we've been wrong -- each year
we're finding that it's a little bit faster than expected," he told
Reuters.
The Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world and the
sea ice cover shrank to a record low in 2007 before growing slightly in
2008. (Reuters)
While an ice-free Arctic would be really handy from a resource
extraction perspective (and would certainly drown fewer narwhals) it is
highly unlikely, especially given the Sun's current funk.
Looking
at thermometer placement and heat in the infrared - Google can be a
great aid to serendipity. Doing some Googling the other day I was
surprised to find a couple of my images from How not to measure
temperature, Part 42 being used by a company that sells thermal imaging
equipment. The company, Thermographix, wrote quite a long essay claiming
that the IPCC missed a component of global warming in their reports by not
addressing the heat from buildings and land use change on surface
temperatures. (Watts Up With That?)
Obama's
endangered species ruling could allow climate legal action - President
Obama orders review of Bush-era changes to the Endangered Species Act
designed to head off legal action against carbon-intensive industries
President Obama took another step towards regulating carbon this week,
calling on agency officials to review changes to the Endangered Species
Act imposed during the last months of the Bush adminstration that limit
the prospect of climate change-related legal action against
carbon-intensive projects.
Rule 50 CR Part 402 eliminated a requirement under the Endangered Species
Act for agencies to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) or
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). These agencies, which fall under
the Department of the Interior, are responsible for ensuring that the Act
is upheld. (James Murray, BusinessGreen)
Something
New for Climate Doomsters to Fear: Political Backlash - Global warming
used to be such fun for eco-activists and their political allies when it
was a stick they could use to beat George W. Bush. For years, the Left
milked global warming as a political-theater platform for partisan attack,
direct-mail fundraising, and endless moral posturing. But now that
they’re running the show in Washington, D.C., climate doomsters know
they’ll be blamed if their policies de-stimulate our ailing economy. On
two key battlefronts, these vociferous advocates of urgent action are now
proceeding with caution. (Marlo Lewis, Planet Gore)
Terence
Corcoran: Ontario’s war on carbon - The province's green energy plan
is turning Ontario into a green police state
This is our third day with Ontario’s new Green Energy Act (GEA), a
likely model for similar policy moves across Canada. We begin with a brief
look at the latest in green police-state thinking. It’s modelled on the
war on tobacco and the war on drugs: the war on carbon. (Terence Corcoran,
Financial Post)
Do
C.F.L.’s Increase Greenhouse Gases? - A Canadian utility claimed
that widespread use of the cooler-burning fluorescent bulbs (center) were
causing chilly customers to turn up the heat to compensate.
For those wondering if the benefits of the increasingly ubiquitous compact
fluorescent lightbulb have been overstated, a report last night from the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation offers a little something to chew on.
The report suggested that the energy savings associated with the bulbs —
which use far less electricity than their incandescent predecessors —
may be offset by higher heating bills, and more greenhouse emissions.
CBC News has found that in some cases compact fluorescent bulbs
(C.F.L.’s) can have the adverse effect of increasing greenhouse gas
emissions, depending on how consumers heat their homes.
Physics professor Peter Blunden at the University of Manitoba said C.F.L.
bulbs are certainly more energy efficient than older incandescent bulbs.
But in cold-weather climates such as Canada’s, Blunden said older
incandescent bulbs do more than just light our homes. During the long
winter months, they also generate heat. The new C.F.L. bulbs, on the other
hand, produce minimal heat so the loss has to be made up by fossil-fuel
burning gas, oil or wood to heat your home.
“To some extent, the case [in favor of C.F.L.'s] has been oversold”
because of the offset in higher heating costs, he said.
This curious side effect of the efficient bulb received official
acknowledgment in a recent filing by B.C. Hydro, the third largest utility
in Canada, before the British Columbia Utilities Commission, which
regulates energy rates. (Green Inc.)
The antis will go nuts over this but it's true enough. It's the same
reason we have always pointed out the absurdity of exhorting people not
to boil "too much" water for their pot of tea (a very English
hand-wringer) because it "wastes energy" -- not. The simple
fact is people seek hot drinks when they are cold and "boiling the
billy" helps heat their dwelling and helps up the humidity too, a
win, win situation in chilly climates. Pushing CFLs is no more and no
less than an assault on consumer spending power -- the loonies want to
deplete your discretionary spending power and hence your consumption to
"save Gaia" from those awful people critters.
Bad
Information Breeds Harmful Legislation - As Congress continues to
deliberate energy and global warming bills, President Bush’s new climate
initiative has altered the debate, at least at the international level.
Clearheaded analysis and accurate information is essential – or narrow
political and economic interests could run roughshod over consumers.
The recent “Coal is filthy” ad campaign underscores this danger.
Featuring misleading claims about pollution from coal-fired electrical
generating plants, it urged citizens to tell government officials, “No
more filthy coal plants.”
But the Coalition wasn’t another gaggle of environmental pressure
groups, like those listed on its CleanSkyCoalition.com website. It was a
cabal of natural gas companies, led by Chesapeake Energy of Oklahoma.
Their goal wasn’t helping Americans get “clean skies” and “live
longer.” It was fattening corporate wallets.
The cabal hoped new laws would make it harder to build more coal plants,
or retrofit old ones to meet tougher air quality standards. Utilities
would have to switch to natural gas, supplies would tighten, prices would
surge, and Coalition partners would get rich. (Paul Driessen, Townhall)
Costs To keep
U.S. Carbon Storage From Coal Elusive - NEW YORK/HOUSTON - Capturing
carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, the biggest U.S. source of
the main greenhouse gas, is unlikely to play a big role in President
Barack Obama's immediate plans to slow global warming, despite billions of
dollars in incentives.
Obama's economic stimulus package contained $3.4 billion for the
Department of Energy's office of fossil fuel, much of which is slated for
development of carbon capture and storage, the fancy name for trying to
store emissions of carbon dioxide permanently underground.
And he wants to join the country with the rest of the developed world in
setting mandatory carbon limits. His short-term goal would cut emissions
to 1990 levels by 2020.
But many experts say burying carbon from coal-fired power plants will
still be in its infancy for years beyond 2020. (Reuters)
It's also a criminal waste of a magnificent resource -- get it out
into the biosphere where it can do some major good!
Alliant Cancels
Iowa Sutherland Coal Power Project - NEW YORK - Alliant Energy Corp's
Interstate Power and Light Co on Thursday said it canceled plans to
construct the proposed 649-megawatt Sutherland 4 coal-fired power plant in
Iowa.
The company said in a release it canceled the project based on several
factors including, the current economic and financial climate, increasing
uncertainty regarding regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and the terms
placed on the plant by regulators. (Reuters)
Green
energy police: Is that a beer fridge in your basement? - Ontario’s
Green Energy Act, as proposed by the McGuinty government, would give the
province new powers of search and seizure. Under a section dealing with
“Mandatory conservation and energy efficiency practices,” the act aims
to enforce energy- and water-use efficiency standards. To aid enforcement,
a section of the act deals with the methods to be used. Here are some
excerpts: (Financial Post)
EU Worried By
Russian Threat To Cut Ukraine Gas - BRUSSELS - The European Union said
on Thursday it was concerned about Russia's warning that it could again
halt gas deliveries to Ukraine -- and possibly to Europe -- over a payment
dispute.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the 27-nation EU's
relations with the two countries could suffer if their dispute cut
supplies of Russia's natural gas to the bloc, as they did at the beginning
of the year.
"We are very concerned with the latest news from Ukraine and comments
of (Russian) Prime Minister (Vladimir) Putin," Barroso told a news
conference. (Reuters)
UN
calls on global car industry to halve emissions - Coalition of
international agencies sets out road map for auto industry to deliver 50
per cent improvement in fuel efficiency using existing technologies
(BusinessGreen)
Schwarzenegger
reiterates commitment to tougher gas emissions standards - LOS
ANGELES, March 5 -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday
reiterated his commitment to moving forward to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions from passenger vehicles.
He made the statement after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
began hearing to reconsider a 38-month old waiver request to enforce
California's greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and light trucks.
"Today marks renewed hope that California and a growing number of
states will finally get to move forward with a commonsense policy to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles," the
governor said." California's standard is the equivalent of taking 6.5
million cars off the road and will make our air cleaner, save drivers
money at the pump and reduce our nation's dependence on imported
oil."
Schwarzenegger said that with nearly 40 percent of California's greenhouse
gas emissions coming from transportation, "putting cleaner cars on
the road is critically important to meeting California's environmental
goals." (Xinhua)
U.S. Looking At
Interim Options For Nuclear Waste - WASHINGTON - U.S. Energy Secretary
Steven Chu said on Thursday that his department is now considering
short-term options for storage of nuclear waste since President Obama does
not support moving forward with the planned nuclear waste dump at Yucca
Mountain.
The department will consider solidifying liquid radioactive waste that is
currently held at 121 locations across the nation, as the government works
to develop a permanent solution for safe nuclear waste disposal. Chu said
the department could solidify waste at current sites without environmental
risk.
"The interim storage of waste with solidification is something we can
do today," Chu told lawmakers at a hearing before the Senate Energy
and Natural Resources Committee. (Reuters)
The
nuclear option - Clean energy and new technologies to produce
environmentally-friendly products will play a major part in Ontario’s
economic renewal program. Given its ability to produce reliable,
emission-free, base load electricity, Ontario’s nuclear industry can and
should play a central role in the creation of a stronger and more
sustainable provincial economy. (Armand Laferrère, Financial Post)
Hmm... ARGENTINA:
Countryside No Longer Synonymous with Healthy Living - BUENOS AIRES,
Mar 4 - Once a serene refuge from urban pollution and chaos, the Argentine
countryside has now become a place fraught with risks for many local
residents. The massive use of pesticides on fields of soy, the country’s
top export, is creating a "health catastrophe" in the rural
sector, environmentalists warn. (IPS)
... apart from the fact the rural poor have traditionally much worse
health (and health care) than urbanites, what is their basis for
claiming harm from glyphosate overspray? I can recall a crush injury to
a worker injured by a pallet loaded with glyphosate but that's about it.
Anyone know of a confirmed case of harm from this compound? Seriously,
we are not talking about Ms Brundtland suffering a headache because
someone telephoned her from a call box next to some weeds that had been
sprayed but an actual demonstrated case of harm from exposure to
glyphosate, does anyone know of one? Let
me know.
Probing Question:
How does antibiotic resistance happen? - Before Alexander Fleming's
discovery of penicillin in 1928, there were any number of unpleasant ways
that bacteria could kill you. Countless women died from infection after
childbirth, and a simple chest cold could turn into deadly pneumonia.
Need surgery? Not so fast—without antibiotics, the risk of sepsis was
dangerously high. In fact, any injury that broke the skin was potentially
fatal: Lord Carnarvon, the discoverer of King Tut’s tomb, died in 1923
from an infected shaving cut. It's no wonder that penicillin—the name
for a class of antibiotics developed from Penicillium fungi—was hailed
as a miracle drug and earned Fleming a Nobel Prize.
Today, our ability to treat infection is threatened by the evolution of
new strains of bacteria that have proven themselves resistant to
antibiotics. As of 1994, strains have been identified that are resistant
to all currently available antibiotic drugs. Are we headed back to the
days of life-threatening shaving accidents? (Penn State)
Low
vitamin D may be a bigger problem than thought - NEW YORK - Many U.S.
teenagers -- including half of African Americans -- would be considered
vitamin D-deficient if the definition of deficiency were changed to what
many experts recommend, a new study finds.
Right now, people are considered to have an overt deficiency in vitamin D
when blood levels drop below 11 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL), but
there is debate over how the optimal vitamin D level should be defined.
Some experts consider a level of 30 ng/mL or higher to be desirable for
overall health, and many argue that the cutoff for deficiency should be 20
ng/mL.
In the new study, published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers found
that adopting the 20 ng/mL standard would push many more U.S. teenagers
into the vitamin D-deficient category.
Using data from a government health survey of nearly 3,000 12- to 19-
year-olds, they found that 14 percent would be deficient in vitamin D --
compared with 2 percent when the current standard was applied.
What's more, 50 percent of black teenagers would be considered vitamin
D-deficient, up from 11 percent under the current definition. (Reuters
Health)
Senate
puts off vote on huge spending bill - Senate Republicans, demanding
the right to try to change a huge spending bill, forced Democrats on
Thursday night to put off a final vote on the measure until next week.
The surprise development will force Congress to pass a stopgap funding
bill to avoid a partial shutdown of the government.
Republicans have blasted the $410 billion measure as too costly. But the
reason for GOP unity in advance of a key procedural vote was that
Democrats had not allowed them enough opportunities to offer amendments.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., canceled the vote, saying he was one
vote short of the 60 needed to close debate and free the bill for
President Barack Obama's signature. (Associated Press)
Ehrlich revisited, rise of the misanthropists: Population
explosion 'heralds disaster' - THE world is overpopulating itself to a
catastrophic future of terrorism and climatic disaster, according to a
Melbourne University professor of reproductive biology.
Professor Roger Short will tell an international conference in Sydney
today that for the first time in history, human activity is outstripping
the natural world's ability to cope. The reason, he says, is exploding and
uncontrolled population growth.
He is calling for a vast increase in the availability and use of
contraception to slow the birthrate worldwide, and says only one country
— China, through its one-child policy — has shown the way to future
stability and sustainable environmental and economic growth. (The Age)
China
to plough extra 20% into agricultural production amid fears that climate
change will spark food crisis - Wen Jiabao announces extra money to
boost farm yields, raise rural incomes and invest in renewable energy
China will increase spending on agricultural production by 20% this year
amid warnings that climate change could spark a future food crisis .
Prime minister Wen Jiabao's announcement of an extra 121 billion yuan (£13bn)
to boost farm yields and raise rural incomes was a central part of his
annual budget speech at the Great Hall of the People.
The government's spending pledge also included extra money for renewable
energy and improved power efficiency, but these environmental benefits
were outweighed by moves to boost overall domestic consumption and a
likely emphasis on intensive agriculture. (The Guardian)
Hey lookit! They've discovered aerial fertilization with CO2:
Wheat
crop produces more in climate change test - Most news we hear about
climate change is bad news for agriculture - but here's something a bit
more positive.
Research carried out by the Department of Primary Industries in Victoria
has shown that wheat crop yields could jump by up to 20 per cent under
global warming.
The trial pumped more carbon dioxide into the air around the wheat, to the
level that's expected in 2050.
Glenn Fitzgerald, from the DPI, says that it's not all good news though.
"The caveat there is that that assumes sufficient water and
nitrogen," he says.
"We're looking at basically how the fertilisation effect of C02 can
offset some of the reductions in water that we know are coming."
(Australian Broadcasting Corp.)
Really? And what "reductions in water" do we "know are
coming"?
Food, Farms The
New Target For Venezuela's Chavez - CARACAS - Venezuela's President
Hugo Chavez has put food and farms at the center of his socialist
revolution, tightening the government's grip on supplies of staples in a
strategy that risks sparking social unrest.
Chavez nationalized a local unit of U.S. food giant Cargill on Wednesday
and threatened to take over the South American country's top food
producer, Empresas Polar.
Since winning a referendum vote three weeks ago that allows him to run
again for re-election in 2012, Chavez has moved against food companies,
imposing output quotas and sending troops to grain mills.
Chavez risks disrupting the supply chain with the aggressive steps, but
the former paratrooper is gambling he can rein in soaring prices for
staples and at the same time maintain production with a renewed focus on
farming.
If he fails, he will anger Venezuelans. Sporadic food shortages in the
past dented his popularity and attempts to boost farm output via land
reform led to rural violence.
This week, he imposed tough new quotas forcing companies to direct most of
their output to products with price caps. He took over Cargill's rice
plant for producing only parboiled rice, which is exempt from the price
controls. (Reuters)
Monsanto's
Uphill Battle in Germany - Business is booming worldwide for US
biotech giant Monsanto but in Germany the company has encountered fierce
resistance. A colorful alliance of beekeepers, anti-capitalism protestors
and conservative politicians are in the process of chasing the global
market leader out of the country. (Der Spiegel)
March 5, 2009
Make up your mind, dopey! US
urged to take lead against recession - Gordon Brown on Wednesday
pleaded with Congress to avoid pressures to turn inwards on America and to
"seize the moment" to lead the world in the fight against
recession, global warming and protectionism. (George Parker, Financial
Times)
Does he want to fight recession or aid misanthropic warmists? These
are mutually exclusive aims.
Oh dear... Keynote
Remarks at U.S. Climate Action Symposium - Thank you, Lord Stern.
Thank you Jonathan Lash and WRI; Fred Bergsten and the Peterson Institute;
and Nancy Birdsall and the Center for Global Development. You and your
colleagues have done so much to ensure the right response to the climate
crisis, and we all deeply appreciate that. And today, you’ve brought us
together for a very important discussion. (Todd Stern, Special Envoy for
Climate Change)
Northwest
Scientists Testify To Congress On Warming - Conservation leaders from
the Northwest are finding themselves in high demand from Congress as
majority Democrats plot their climate change strategy.
Two environmental scientists from the Rogue Valley and a Nisqually Indian
leader testified at the nation’s capital this week.
Oregon State University professor Mark Harmon also testified. He told
lawmakers they need to set up a national system to verify that the
“carbon credits” companies buy and sell really do offset pollution.
(OPB)
Statement
to the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming -
Rising amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere pose worrisome
challenges. There are many obstacles, however, impeding the process of
forming climate policy that can successfully address these challenges.
Nonetheless, the United States can make substantial progress in climate
policy if it acknowledges three key considerations: a seeming global
consensus on the need to halt rising greenhouse gas levels masks a lack of
consensus on willingness to pay the required costs; the U.S. alone cannot
create global consensus where none exists; and the needed global consensus
on greenhouse gas curbs will be long in coming. Given these
considerations, expanding research and development directed at adaptation
to climate change would prove quite useful in the long-term. (Lee Lane,
AEI)
Industry leaders better informed than UK's 'science minister': Industry
leaders denying climate change, says UK science minister - Lord
Drayson says there is an urgent need to restate the scientific evidence
for global warming and calls for companies to focus on their environmental
obligations
Senior figures in the manufacturing industry do not accept that human
activities are driving global warming or that action needs to be taken to
prepare for its effects, the UK government's science minister said today.
Lord Drayson said recent discussions with leaders in the car industry and
other businesses had left him "shocked" at the number of climate
change deniers among senior industrialists. Of those who acknowledged that
global temperatures were rising, many blamed it on variations in the sun's
activity. (The Guardian)
What utter rubbish: Thatcher
saw climate threat - Now is as good a time as any to tackle global
warming, as a former British PM knew
IN 1990, way before climate change became an issue fought from behind
fixed lines, a government leader made a plea for action.
"The danger of global warming is as yet unseen but real enough for us
to make changes and sacrifices, so that we do not live at the expense of
future generations," she said.
She argued there was a clear case for precautionary international action,
action that would be sensible in any event if it improved energy
efficiency, developed alternative and sustainable sources of energy and
replanted forests.
Margaret Thatcher's interest in global warming dates back to earlier in
her prime ministership. Unlike most politicians, she had some professional
acquaintance with the area, graduating in chemistry from Oxford University
and working for a period as a research scientist. (Mike Steketee, The
Australian)
It has always been a farce driven by Crispen Tickell under the guise
of giving light-weight and highly unpopular Education Secretary
"Milk-snatcher Thatcher" the illusion of substance. See "Global
Warming: How It All Began" by Richard Courtney.
Senators
Debate Global Warming Policy Despite Global Cooling Evidence -
Democratic senators told CNSNews.com on Tuesday that despite a recent
study that shows global temperatures have been dropping since 2001 and
that projects the globe will continue to cool for the next several
decades, they think the United States should continue to push forward with
aggressive action to curb climate change.
Two Republicans, however, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Sen. John McCain
(R-Ariz.) warned that while some action is necessary, lawmakers must act
in a deliberate and fiscally responsible manner.
The study, released on Jan. 28 by Kyle L. Swanson and Anastasios A.
Tsonis, who are professors in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at
the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, found that the Earth has been
cooling since 2001 and projected that due to “global variation” the
climate would continue to cool for the next 20 to 30 years.
Democratic senators told CNSNews.com that despite new studies and reports
of variations in global temperatures, the federal government should move
quickly to implement policies because they believe the debate over global
warming is over. (CNSNews.com)
It’s
not the end of the world as we know it - Hysterical claims that we
have only 93 months to ‘save our climate’ are based on ignorance of
human ingenuity.
Did you know that we have only 93 months to ‘save the world’?
According to the 100 Months Project, a collection of green groups and
charities based in Britain and beyond, in around seven or eight years’
time we will reach the climate’s ‘tipping point’ after which there
will be ‘no return’. Unless we severely slash our carbon-use now, and
lower our horizons, the world will effectively end. The 100 Months website
comes complete with a big red ticking clock counting down the seconds,
minutes, hours, days and months to the point of ‘no return’. At the
time of writing, there are 93 months, or 2,737 days or 65,688 hours, to
save our planet.
It is a powerful illustration of the end-of-world fantasies of many in the
green movement and at the top of society. Behind all the PC and seemingly
reasonable talk of ‘tipping points’, ‘scientific findings’ and
‘carbon calculating’, this is a modern-day, secular version of the
countdown to the End of Days that gripped earlier apocalyptic movements in
human history. Yet if we are going to have a serious debate about the
environmental issues facing our society, and the political challenges
associated with them, then we need to state one simple but currently
heretical idea: the end of the world is not nigh and, more to the point,
humans are the potential makers of history, not merely its unwitting
victims. (Robin Walsh, sp!ked)
Following
California -- off the cliff - "Despite consistently describing
the economic situation as being dire, President Barack Obama is rapidly
moving forward with policies that have the potential to seriously harm
American industry. He has tasked Vice President Biden to promote the
cap-and-trade program that the envirolobby has been seeking after for over
a decade. (Heliogenic Climate Change)
Labouring
with Labels - It’s often hard to have a discussion about the climate
change debate without recourse to language about ’sides’.
We are certainly not the only ones to have argued that the conventional
portrayal of the debate as a polarised one between warmers/alarmists and
sceptics/deniers is counter-productive. Not only does it too easily
translate into a battle between good and evil, but it is a misleading
description of climate change debates.
Moreover, while such debates are principally about what to do - the
politics - the existing categories relate to what is believed about the
material reality - ‘the science’. For instance you could attract the
label ‘denier’ (and many do) by arguing that there’s no urgent need
for ‘drastic action’ to avoid climate change in spite of holding that
CO2 is influencing the climate, and will cause problems, and that it would
be a good idea to cut emissions in the longer term.
The polarisation of the political debate using scientific terms is an
impediment to understanding the actual arguments being made. An
individual’s views on the science aren’t always sufficient to explain
the ’side’ he ends up on, or which label is applied to him. To label
someone in a way that relates to ’science’ when their views are
essentially political is like determining what football team someone
supports according to how they dance. It might work in some more extreme
cases if you’re armed with some cultural knowledge, but broadly
speaking, it’s just silly.
How then, should we sensibly identify ’sides’ in the debate? We think
we have the germ of an answer. (Climate Resistance)
Why
Alarmism? - When it comes to global warming, dire predictions seem to
be all we see or hear. But is the alarmism justified?
In today’s Cato Daily Podcast, climatologists Patrick Michaels explains
why the news and information we receive about global warming have become
so apocalyptic. According to Michaels, a Cato senior fellow in
environmental studies, science itself has become increasingly biased, with
warnings of extreme consequences from global warming becoming the norm.
That bias is then communicated through the media, who focus on only
extreme predictions.
Click here
to listen to this insightful commentary. It is likely to change the way
you perceive the media’s portrayal of global warming. (William Yeatman,
Cooler Heads)
Media
Myth: Networks Stick to Warming Theme Despite Avalanche of Chilling News
- Alarmists get snowed in for Washington, D.C. rally; networks mostly
ignore signs of cooling temps, 'record' cold.
Temperatures have plummeted to record or near-record lows in 32 states
this winter. On March 2, a global warming protest in Washington, D.C. was
buried by nearly a foot of snow. And a new study warns that the Earth
could be in for a 30-year cooling trend. Reality is not cooperating with
the network news’ global warming theme, yet reporters are unwilling to
even discuss the possibility that the Earth is cooling.
Global warming alarmists repeatedly link weather phenomena like tornadoes,
hurricanes, ice melt, droughts and wildfires with global warming and the
media embrace the stories. Yet, when cities or regions are buried in snow
like the city of Chenzhou, China was in February 2008 there wasn’t a
word about climate change in the cooling direction. (Julia A. Seymour,
Business & Media Institute)
The ever-moving target: Rich
Nations Revise Up Greenhouse Gas Problem - OSLO - Industrialized
nations have added greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the annual
totals of France or Australia to a 1990 baseline against which cuts
required by U.N. climate treaties are measured.
Emissions reported by 34 nations for the 1990 base year that underpins
U.N. efforts to rein in global warming have risen 3.5 percent overall to
17.6 billion tons in the most recent annual data from 17.0 billion in the
first U.N. compilation in 1996, a Reuters survey showed on Wednesday.
That difference -- adding about 600 million tons of gases emitted mainly
by burning fossil fuels to the problem -- is more than the current annual
emissions of countries such as Italy, Australia or France.
The biggest rises have been by the United States and Russia.
Governments refine their emissions counts year by year, in some cases
adding new gas sources. In many cases revisions to the 1990 baseline also
add to emissions in subsequent years, swelling totals that are
contributing to warm the planet.
"One possible reason for a small upward trend could be the permanent
improvement in the completeness of national greenhouse gas
inventories," said Sergey Kononov, head of the unit at the U.N.
Climate Change Secretariat that compiles emissions data. (Reuters)
Ludicrous: EU Carbon
Scheme Not Hurt By Low Prices, Yet - LONDON - Falling carbon prices
have raised questions about the credibility of the European Union's
flagship trading scheme as the bloc's main weapon to fight global warming.
But traders and analysts insist the scheme is working as a market
mechanism should and concerns over persistent low prices detract from what
the scheme was intended for.
Since 2005, the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme has imposed a cap on carbon
emissions from factories and power plants in the 27-nation bloc using a
fixed quota of emissions permits, called EU Allowances.
Since the economic slowdown, cash-strapped firms have been selling their
permits to raise funds, causing prices to hit a low of 8.05 euros ($10.18)
in February from nearly 31 euros last July.
The scheme was designed to cap emissions, which it is achieving. As
industrial output declines due to the recession, there are less emissions
which means companies have less demand for permits, meaning they should
meet the cap. (Reuters)
Working how? Governments swamped the markets lavishing vast
oversupply of free certificates to ensure their own industries were not
disadvantaged and the excess is being dumped. How is that capping
anything?
Emissions Exchange Trading
Volumes Soar In 2009 - LONDON - Exchange-traded volumes for European
Union emissions permits and Kyoto Protocol carbon offsets traded so far in
2009 are double last year's average, data from the exchanges showed.
Nearly 700 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), or more than the annual
CO2 emissions of Canada, were traded over six European exchanges in
February, according to the data.
At a weighted average price of 9.68 euros per metric ton, this represents
a trade value of 6.71 billion euros ($8.49 billion). (Reuters)
They just forgot to mention this is because companies are cashing out
every tradable asset (including these government gifts) in an effort to
remain viable in a recession.
Libs
owe Nelson an apology - Liberals must admit their former leader's
stand on climate change was right, contends Tom Switzer | March 04, 2009
IN the past fortnight, the politics of climate change has changed
dramatically. What only six months ago was the conventional wisdom -- that
Australia should lead the world on combating global warming and make deep
cuts to carbon emissions via a cap-and-trade model -- has been turned on
its head.
Today, Kevin Rudd is isolated on his Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and
climate change has turned into his perfect storm. Meanwhile, business
leaders such as Heather Ridout and Don Argus support either a time-out of
two years or a carbon tax to replace emissions trading. And more and more
Liberal and Nationals MPs and senators want the Opposition to sharpen the
difference with Labor, even before the Government releases the draft
legislation next week. Someone should apologise to Brendan Nelson. (The
Australian)
Large
Uncertainty In The Simulation Of The Global Average Surface Temperature By
The IPCC Models - A Study Reported On The Weblog “The Blackboard”
- There is an excellent and very informative weblog at the website The
Blackboard: Where Climate Talk Gets Hot!
It is Fact
6A: Model Simulations Don’t Match the Average Surface Temperature of the
Earth.
There is a figure titled “Figure 1: IPCC Model Simulations Prediction
of Earth Surface Temperature” which documents the large variations of
the IPCC model predicted surface temperatures. This weblog clearly documents
an issue with the use of the global average surface temperature as the
primary metric to diagnose and predict climate change. We discussed the
definition of a global average surface temperature (see
Section 2) and other issues in our paper
Pielke Sr., R.A., C. Davey, D. Niyogi, S. Fall, J. Steinweg-Woods, K.
Hubbard, X. Lin, M. Cai, Y.-K. Lim, H. Li, J. Nielsen-Gammon, K. Gallo, R.
Hale, R. Mahmood, S. Foster, R.T. McNider, and P. Blanken, 2007: Unresolved
issues with the assessment of multi-decadal global land surface
temperature trends. J. Geophys. Res., 112, D24S08,
doi:10.1029/2006JD008229.
The differences in the model results are several degrees
Celsius as presented in the figure presented on The
Blackboard. Since the outgoing long wave radiation to space is
proportional to T**4, these differences among the models is significant. These
differences from the observations cannot be ignored, even though the IPCC
focuses on the changes (trends) of these temperatures over time.
We look forward to the appearance of Lucia’s outstanding evaluations
of the IPCC model skill in the peer reviewed literature, and will report
on Climate Science when it does. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
South East
Australian heatwave in January 2009 is not detectable in “global
warming” data - Increasingly, we are hearing in the media that the
January-February south east Australian heatwave and disastrous bushfires
in Victoria that have killed over 200 people are the result of climate
change or global warming. (Warwick Hughes)
Did
the Climate ‘Shift’ in 2001/02? - Kyle Swanson and Anastasios
Tsonis have a new GRL paper ‘in press’ entitled: ‘Has the climate
recently shifted?’ (Climate Research News)
A Peek behind the Curtain
- On Feb 26, Garth Paltridge, Alan Arking and Michael Pook's report on a
re-examination of NCEP reanalysis data on upper tropospheric humidity was
published online by Theoretical and Applied Climatology. Upper
tropospheric humidity is a critical topic in assessing the strength of
water vapor feedbacks - knowledge that is essential to understand just how
much temperature increase can be expected from doubled CO2. Paltridge and
Arking are both senior climate scientists with lengthy and distinguished
publication records. They reported: (Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit)
Big problems
need big solutions - Climate change is a massive problem that needs
big and bold solutions, says Professor Tim Lenton. In this week's Green
Room, he outlines the reasons why "geo-engineering" projects,
such as reflecting sunlight back into space, could help win the battle
against dangerous climate change. (Tim Lenton, BBC)
Perhaps if we type it slower they'll understand. W e d o
n o t w a n t t o c o o l t h e p l a n e
t ! Sheesh!
It's
the New BTU Review, Coming Right at You - As I have written here previously,
Obama's global warming tax is an even bigger, and therefore riskier, stab
at the politically disastrous BTU tax that failed in the last Democratic
president's first budget. Back then, Democrats held healthy majorities in
both houses of Congress — majorities that were wiped out the next year,
thanks — according to Al Gore — to the BTU debacle. As I have also
written, it will be Democrats, not Republicans, who kill this most recent
iteration.
Monday's Congressional Quarterly has an
article (h/t Benny Peiser) presaging this familiar outcome, which is
about as unpredictable as professional wrestling, so long as business does
not succumb to the administration's effort
to sell them window insurance as a threat to some holdouts (the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business, the
National Association of Manufacturers) to spare the administration the
political fight over trying to impose it.
Just as the Democrats have telegraphed their (rightful) fear over such a
fight, they are also terrified of being tagged with having imposed an even
bigger disaster through an EPA rulemaking. It's still theirs. Why do you
think they labored so hard to get Bush to take ownership before he left
office? Hold your position, lads, they're trying to tell you something,
and it's that they don't have what it takes to make this happen. (Chris
Horner, Planet Gore)
Real greenhouse effect: This
is Thanet Earth - cucumbers in February that will cut food miles - It
is not quite spring and temperatures are barely above freezing, but the
summery taste of home-grown cucumbers is with us already.
The first batch of cucumbers grown in Britain’s biggest greenhouse has
gone on sale.
They will soon be followed by crops of tomatoes and peppers in a
development intended to cut agricultural energy consumption and greenhouse
gas emissions.
The Thanet Earth complex in Kent is expected to boost British production
of salad vegetables by 15 per cent, as well as cutting food miles and
keeping the lights on in 25,000 homes. When the complex is complete, its
seven enormous greenhouses will be linked to 14 combined heat and power
generators that keep the buildings warm and will also provide electricity
for thousands of homes.
Tomatoes grown there should result in fewer greenhouse gas emissions than
those flown in from Spain. Peppers and cucumbers are expected to have a
smaller carbon footprint than any others for sale in Britain.
Researchers addressing the issue of food miles said that it appeared that
the complex, which currently has three greenhouses and five generators in
operation, succeeds in offering year-round vegetable production with a
comparatively small carbon footprint. (The Times)
A controlled (and necessarily contained) environment with added heat
and carbon dioxide (how lovely for the plants and workers within).
Back in the virtual realm: Mediterranean
Sea level could rise by 61 cm - A Spanish-British research project has
come up with three future scenarios for the effects of climate change on
the Mediterranean over the next 90 years, using global models from the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The conclusions show
that ocean temperatures in this area will increase, along with sea levels.
In order to understand and correctly predict risks for the Mediterranean
coast, researchers from the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies
(IMEDEA, a joint centre run by the University of the Balearic Islands
(UIB) and the Spanish National Research Council, CSIC) and the National
Oceanography Centre of Southampton in the United Kingdom have analysed
simulations based on three scenarios related to climate change and the
rise in greenhouse gases. Their goal was to predict the temperature, sea
level and salinity of the Mediterranean in the 21st Century.
(Plataforma SINC, Spain)
Another bizarre Rahmsdorf rant: We
must shake off this inertia to keep sea level rises to a minimum - Björn
Lomborg's claim that sea levels are not rising faster than predicted are
unfounded and used by those wanting to downplay climate change
Global sea level is rising, and faster than expected. We need to honestly
discuss this risk rather than trying to play it down. (The Guardian)
Rahmsdorf claims sea levels have risen by about 8" over the last
130 years (possible), which is about the estimated rate per century for
the last few millennia. We're shocked, shocked, we say.
Peter
Foster: Pew’s long trip from oil scion to climate shill - Sun Oil
money is now being used to lobby for a Kyoto Treaty whose primary victims
will be America’s energy companies
Environment Minister Jim Prentice faced some influential big money
opposition when selling the merits of the oil sands this week in
Washington. One of the more ironic sources is the Philadelphia-based Pew
Charitable Trusts. That’s because the foundation was started by the
family that first commercialized the oil sands. Great Canadian Oil Sands
was the vision and creation of J. Howard Pew, son of the founder of Sun
Oil, and forms the basis of Suncor.
Responding to a recent Post article citing Pew as part of the “Anti-Oil
Sands industry,” Steve Kallick, director of Pew’s International Boreal
Conservation Campaign, admitted that “We anchor an international
partnership of First Nations, scientists, corporations and environmental
groups working to protect one of the Earth’s most valuable natural
systems: Canada’s Boreal Forest.” But the oil sands are also in the
foundation’s sights because of its strong support for draconian climate
change legislation.
Pew — whose endowment stands at around US$4-billion and which gave out
US$213-million in its latest financial year — is far from the only
charitable foundation that has pursued interests at odds with those of its
founders. The capitalist wealth behind foundations with names such as
Rockefeller, Ford, Carnegie and McArthur has frequently wound up promoting
big government. Nevertheless, Pew is claimed to stand out. Martin Morse
Wooster, an expert on trusts and their deviation from founders’ intent,
has cited Pew as “perhaps the most egregious violation of donor intent
in existence.” (Peter Foster, Financial Post)
Santos
Halts $450 Million Moomba Carbon-Storage Plan -- Santos Ltd.,
Australia’s third- biggest oil and gas producer, suspended its Moomba
carbon- storage project, a victim of weak government support and plunging
prices for permits to release greenhouse gases.
Credit prices to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere are too low to
underpin the investment planned for central Australia’s Cooper Basin,
Matthew Doman, a spokesman at Adelaide-based Santos said today. Santos has
estimated the project would cost more than A$700 million ($450 million).
Governments and energy companies worldwide are revising plans to build
underground storage for carbon dioxide, the main gas blamed for global
warming, because stalled economies and lower permit prices are making them
less attractive. (Bloomberg)
That and the fact they are a stupid idea to begin with...
Shale Gas:
The Black Swan in the Gas Patch
Editor’s Note: H. deForest Ralph has been working in the US energy
business for more than four decades. He recently sent me this piece on
shale gas, which first appeared in The Gas Price Report. It’s a succinct
analysis of the US gas business.
A Black Swan has landed in the North American natural gas business. A
“Black Swan Event” as put forth by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his recent
book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, is an event
that was unexpected; has a major, even disruptive, impact; and is then
“explained” by hindsight. The Black Swan that has landed in the gas
patch is shale.
The numerous shale plays (Barnett, Haynesville, Marcellus, etc.) are
disrupting the conventional thinking, and planning, that the industry has
relied upon for years. The accepted wisdom was that natural gas supply in
the contiguous 48 US states was on a treadmill and losing ground and that
external supplies would have to be ever increasing. Thus, there was
planning for Alaska gas, LNG import terminals, more gas from Canada, maybe
even (shades of the 1970s) syn-fuels. Forget about all that now, and maybe
for decades. The new paradigm is that US production will be limited to
market demand and that we won’t need massive imports. We will have all
the domestic supply we need. The reason – the shale resources are large,
pervasive, and can now be made highly productive at reasonable cost. The
first glimmers of what is happening began to show up last year, when
domestic supply increased and new well productivity increased.
The implications, at least to this humble observer, are huge. Imports will
be at the margins of the US and not essential to meet demand. The LNG
imports that come will only be sent to the US when they have nowhere else
to go, and they will be at distressed prices. There will be little need
for a pipeline from Alaska, particularly if the upper Midwest is served by
gas from shale plays in Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The price of
natural gas will most likely be set by the dynamics of the well costs for
shale wells and the marginal costs of production, as the animal spirits of
producers will most likely create a constant state of excess supply
potential. In short, the shale plays are a major disruptive force in the
US natural gas industry and the future will be unlike the past. (H.
deForest Ralph, Jr., Energy Tribune)
Energy
audits a waste of energy - Forcing energy audits on sellers is both
inefficient and problematic
To many people, the Ontario government’s recent announcement that all
homes must have an energy audit before being sold must sound like a good
idea. In fact, the legislation states that an energy audit is required
prior to all real property transactions, including leases. So much the
better, some may say.
The legislation does not actually specify that an independent audit is
required. That intention was announced by the government, and would have
to be spelled out in regulations. The legislation actually specifies that
sellers must provide “information, reports or ratings” on “energy
consumption and efficiency.” The government says the audits should cost
about $300. However, a province-wide audit infrastructure does not yet
exist so the market price for audits once they are in demand is yet to be
determined.
There are certainly positive aspects to mandatory audits. Everyone who
buys a home will get some information on the energy efficiency of the home
(property) they are buying. It will increase consumers’ awareness about
this aspect of real estate. And it will incent some potential sellers to
take steps to improve the energy efficiency of their properties. (Vince
Brescia, Financial Post)
Pathologising
dissent? Now that’s Orwellian - Ahead of a conference on the
psychology of climate change denial, Brendan O’Neill says green
authoritarians are treating debate as a disorder.
A few months ago, for a joke, I set up a Facebook group called ‘Climate
change denial is a mental disorder’. It’s a satirical campaigning hub
for people who think that climate change denial should be recognised as a
mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association, and that its
sufferers – who probably engage in ‘regular chanting and intensive
brainwashing sessions in cult-like surroundings’ – should be offered
‘eco-lobotomies’ to remove ‘the denying part of their brain’. The
group now has 42 members. Yes, some have signed up because they get the
joke, but others are serious subscribers to the denial-as-insanity idea.
‘Thank God I’ve found this group’, says one new member, who is sick
of other Facebook groups being ‘hijacked’ by unhinged eco-sceptics.
The idea that ‘climate change denial’ is a psychological disorder –
the product of a spiteful, wilful or simply in-built neural inability to
face up to the catastrophe of global warming – is becoming more and more
popular amongst green-leaning activists and academics. And nothing better
sums up the elitism and authoritarianism of the environmentalist lobby
than its psychologisation of dissent. The labelling of any criticism of
the politics of global warming, first as ‘denial’, and now as evidence
of mass psychological instability, is an attempt to write off all critics
and sceptics as deranged, and to lay the ground for inevitable
authoritarian solutions to the problem of climate change. Historically,
only the most illiberal and misanthropic regimes have treated disagreement
and debate as signs of mental ill-health.
This weekend, the University of West England is hosting a major conference
on climate change denial. Strikingly, it’s being organised by the
university’s Centre for Psycho-Social Studies. It will be a gathering of
those from the top of society – ‘psychotherapists, social researchers,
climate change activists, eco-psychologists’ – who will analyse those
at the bottom of society, as if we were so many flitting, irrational
amoeba under an eco-microscope. The organisers say the conference will
explore how ‘denial’ is a product of both ‘addiction and
consumption’ and is the ‘consequence of living in a perverse culture
which encourages collusion, complacency and irresponsibility’. It is a
testament to the dumbed-down, debate-phobic nature of the modern academy
that a conference is being held not to explore ideas – to interrogate,
analyse and fight over them – but to tag them as perverse. (Brendan
O’Neill, sp!ked)
March 4, 2009
A world of interesting perspectives: A
Conversation with a Climate Scientist
[UPDATE: Michael Tobis responds and clarifies in the comments, be sure to
read these remarks as well.]
I am beginning to get a better understanding why some scientists react so
strongly to some of the things we write here at Prometheus. For instance,
one climate scientist suggests that my calling out Al Gore for
misrepresenting the science of disasters and climate change (as well as
Andy Revkin’s comparison of that to George Will’s misrepresentations)
to be morally comparable to killing 1,000 people. I kid you not. I wonder
how many climate scientists share this perspective. (Roger Pielke, Jr.,
Prometheus)
How anyone claiming to be a scientist can even try to defend the
utter rubbish espoused by Al Gore is a mystery to me.
Hansen
belittles models, carbon trading, Kyoto; calls for coal-destroying carbon
tax - Last week’s House Ways & Means Committee hearing on
“scientific objectives for climate change legislation” contained much
grist for skeptical mills. Dr. James Hansen did not challenge any of Dr.
John Christy’s specific arguments that UN climate models overestimate
climate sensitivity. Instead, he advised Congress to ask the National
Academy of Sciences for an “authoritative” assessment, because the
science is “crystal clear.” Hansen was quite harsh in criticizing
Kyoto (an “abject failure”) and carbon trading (a politically
unsustainable hidden tax for the benefit of special interests). He
outlined a proposal for what he calls carbon “Tax & Dividend,”
whereby 100% of the revenues would be refunded to the American people via
monthly deposits to their bank accounts. As I discuss here, Hansen’s
beguiling proposal could decimate coal-based power in a decade or two,
pushing electricity prices up faster than dividend payments increase, and
saddling the economy with a growth-chilling energy crisis. (Marlo Lewis,
Cooler Heads)
‘Stimulating’
Scientists Into Proving Global Warming - The trillion-dollar plus
porkapalooza Wreak-America Bill just passed by Congress will throw a huge
amount of money into scientific research. This will be a good thing for
certain scientists, but a very, very bad thing for science.
Young scientists do most of the great science. Einstein was 26 when he
published his relativity theory. In 1980, when I got my first government
research grant at the age of 33, some 22 percent of National Institute of
Health (NIH) [1] grants were given to scientists under the age of 35. In
2005, only three percent of NIH grants went to those under 35, while the
percentage given to those over 45 increased from 22 to 77.
Increasingly, government grants are used to defend dogma, not discover new
truth: 28 percent of the scientists supported by NIH admitted recently to
cooking data to support establishment theory, and 66 percent admitted to
cutting corners to achieve the same end. I myself no longer trust the data
claims appearing in the leading science journals. (Frank J. Tipler,
Pajamas Media)
Global
Warming Teach-In - Global warming is not a crisis, but it may be
creating a crisis of intellectual integrity.
Last month, college campuses held a “National Teach-in on Global Warming
Solutions.” The thrust of the message was that there is a crisis because
global temperatures are rising, endangering the world’s future, and
humans are to blame.
I agree that there may be a crisis, but I don’t believe that it is a
crisis of impending heat; it is, rather, a crisis of intellectual
integrity.
First, let me point out something that most people may not realize. Since
1998, there has been no trend in world temperatures, neither up nor down,
in spite of population growth, greater resource use, and lots of carbon
dioxide production. True, 1998, was the warmest year on record, and we are
still in a warm period, but world temperatures are no higher than when
today’s college seniors began middle school. The likelihood of the
catastrophic effects that gave Al Gore a Nobel Peace Prize is weak.
The crisis that concerns me stems from the way that scientists are
addressing the issue. Ever since 1988, when James Hansen, head of NASA’s
Goddard Institute for Space Studies, alerted a congressional committee to
global warming, climate change has been a political issue.
Methods and standards that have stood the test of time since the
Enlightenment have been shunted aside in order to promote a political
objective. Climate experts are no longer expected to create hypotheses and
test them but to assume that global warming threatens the planet and to
use their expertise to justify this claim. Scientists who question aspects
of the orthodoxy have been silenced or fired. (Jane S. Shaw, Pope Center)
Climate
change double-think - The Earth has been cooling for a decade. While
it may be true (or not, depending on whose figures one uses) that 1998 was
the second-warmest year on record, and that seven or eight of the years
since were in the top 10, no year since has been warmer than 1998 and
nearly every one has been cooler than the one before it.
The trend is decidedly downward. Indeed, the drop in temperatures since
late-2007 has been so precipitous --nearly a full degree Celsius-- that
almost all of the global warming that has occurred since the late-1970s
has disappeared.
One of the criticisms of global warming predictions is that models cannot
even reproduce climate for which we already have detailed records. So last
spring, when climate scientists at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Science
and the Max Planck Institute of Meteorology managed -- finally -- to use
their supercomputer to recreate the climate of the past half-century,
there was much anticipation of what their predictions would be for the
next half. What they said was that global temperatures would continue to
fall for at least another decade, perhaps longer.
When I wrote last year that this 20-year intermission in upward
temperature trends bruised the credibility of global warming scientists
and alarmist environmentalists, several of them wrote me to say they had
never predicted steadily rising temperatures. No, no, they insisted, all
along they had expected periods -- even some long ones -- in which
temperatures would retreat before surging ahead again. So the currently
cooling fit right in with what they had been predicting all along.
This, of course, was revisionist hogwash -- if only because the 2007
report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claimed
there was no doubt that disastrous manmade warming was already upon us.
The IPCC further predicted temperatures this decade would rise 0.3C and by
similar amounts every decade through 2100. (Lorne Gunter, National Post)
In
global warming we trust - Today, we are urged to believe that within
the next few decades the globe will become intolerably warmer. The world
as we know it will be drastically altered unless we act now to reverse our
wayward lifestyles, especially our wasteful energy practices.
But wait. Aren't we all just essentially being pressured to believe in a
long-range climate forecast? And isn't this pressure largely being applied
by politicians and political organizations no less? Who today would bet
serious money on a weather prediction made a month in advance let alone
decades ahead? Yet the developed nations of the world are under the gun to
invest hundreds of billions of dollars on a climate prophecy when
worldwide financial stability is tottering. Doesn't President Barack Obama
have enough global headaches to buffer to worry about a trillion-dollar
climate prescription? (Anthony Sadar and Susan Cammarata, Washington
Times)
The
Prince of Precaution: big Tim's little monster
The much anticipated book by geologist Marc Hendrickx is now in pre-press!
ISBN 978-0-9805943-2-4
Big Tim is the Prince of Precaution. He has seen an Angry Green Warty
monster in the cave off Mint Fry Lane. He rushes back to town to warn
everyone. After hearing Prince Tim's hair raising description the
townsfolk drop everything to help rid the kingdom of the beast. They
prepare for the battle through the harsh winter and eventually they are
ready. As they approach the cave to confront the beast they realise it's
not quite what they expect it to be. It seems that Big Tim has some
explaining to do. (The Little Skeptic)
Obama’s
'Cap and Trade' Plan Imposes Huge Tax - In his February 24 speech,
President Obama asked Congress to send him “…legislation that places a
market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more
renewable energy in America.” But by “market-based cap” he means
that the government would mandate carbon dioxide emission permits –
which are essentially permits to use energy – that companies would then
be able to sell among themselves.
His budget assumes a staggering $650 billion in revenue from this scheme.
But who picks up the tab? Who ultimately pays the cost of buying these
slices of global warming baloney, and why would industry support such a
scheme?
The answer is that you and I do, as does everyone who buys anything
requiring energy, just like we pay the cost of all the other taxes paid by
manufacturers. It’s a tax, folks. Plain and simple, Obama’s
“market-based cap” plan is a tax on American business. (Christopher C.
Horner, Human Events)
The Cost of
Climate Regulation for American Households - On March 2, 2009, the
George C. Marshall Institute released The Cost of Climate Regulation for
American Households which documents the economic burdens a cap-and-trade
program to control greenhouse gas emissions will impose on American
households.
"As the nation’s policy makers consider caps on greenhouse gas
emissions, taxes on carbon dioxide, or other measures to control
greenhouse gas emissions, namely energy use, they will regulate economic
activity and personal behavior with the real costs being borne by the
already stressed families of the United States," Institute President
Jeff Kueter said. "Policy proposals that would drastically alter our
energy system or confront the climate change risk must be considered in
light of turbulent and uncertain economic circumstances. President Obama
and the Congressional leadership have signaled their support for
cap-and-trade. The Cost of Climate Regulation for American Households
ought to temper the enthusiasm for this approach and encourage our leaders
to examine other alternatives."
Authored by Bryan Buckley and Sergey Mityakov of Clemson University, the
study discusses the burdens that could be placed on families throughout
the United States. Using the popular cap-and-trade proposal discussed in
the U.S. Senate last year as a point of reference, the study examines the
likely impact of that system on personal consumption and welfare, national
economic growth, employment, and the price paid for energy (electricity,
natural gas, and gasoline). (Bryan Buckley and Dr. Sergey Mityakov,
Marshall Institute)
Perhaps
Obama can convince the holdouts - Polling before the US presidential
election showed that Australians supported Barack Obama over John McCain
by a margin of about 5 to 1.
Among environmental and green groups the support was even stronger. Obama
was the green candidate in that election who strongly supported carbon
reduction and an emissions trading system. So perhaps it is timely to see
where the Obama Administration is going on this issue.
In a televised address in November to a bipartisan summit of US governors
organised by California's Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Obama pledged
"a new chapter in America's leadership on climate change". He
pledged to introduce a federal cap and trade system with annual targets to
"reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020".
That is one way of putting it. Another way of explaining that target is to
say that by 2020 the US aims to make no reduction in the levels of
emission measured against 1990. That's right, Obama's 2020 target is a
reduction of zero per cent. (Peter Costello, Sydney Morning Herald)
Check out the nonsense these guys read: ‘‘Climate
Change Does Not Wait For Recessions’’ - KAMPALA, Mar 3 - Lack of
money and technical know-how makes it difficult for poor farmers to
participate in the Kyoto Protocol’s carbon trading mechanism aimed at
reversing global warming. Meanwhile, the global economic crisis may
further undermine investment in carbon trade in African countries.
The Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997, allows for carbon trade which involves
industrialised countries lowering their greenhouse gas emissions by
financing emission reduction projects in developing countries where
investment is cheaper. This is called the clean development mechanism
(CDM).
The protocol requires that industrialised countries reduce their
greenhouse gas emissions between the years 2008 and 2012 to levels that
are 5.2 percent lower than those of 1990.
The global carbon market was worth around 116 billion dollars at the end
2008, rising 84 percent from the previous year due to higher trading
volumes and prices.
Research by New Carbon Finance predicted that the market's value could
rise to 150 billion dollars in 2009, in spite of the gloomy backdrop of a
global recession, and to 550 billion dollars by 2012. New Carbon Finance
is a company providing services for investors in the renewable energy and
low-carbon sectors. (IPS)
Meanwhile: Low
carbon prices give EU jitters - As the price of EU emission allowances
(EUAs) remains under €10, Ed Miliband, the UK's energy and climate
change secretary, last week joined those demanding EU measures to prop up
the market. Many experts, however, have warned against such intervention.
Carbon prices have collapsed amidst the economic downturn due to reduced
demand for energy. The falling prices have raised concerns that the market
mechanism does not guarantee high enough prices to give adequate impetus
for industries to switch to cleaner sources of energy or retrofit their
coal plants with carbon capture and storage technology.
"A trading scheme is the right way to go, but it is challenging when
prices fall to eight euros," Miliband told a parliamentary committee
on 25 February. "We need to structure it as best we can to have a
proper carbon price," he said.
In the meantime, Deutsche Bank released a new report calling for action
from EU policymakers if EUA price weaknesses were to intensify ahead of UN
talks on a succesor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change in Copenhagen.
"With so much political capital invested by the EU in establishing a
global carbon market, a very weak EUA price and potentially significantly
reduced activity in new CDM origination in the months leading up to
Copenhagen would in our view be very difficult for the EU to sustain
politically," the report said. (EurActiv)
Idiot. the "proper carbon price" for CO2
emissions is exactly nothing.
Obama's
cap, trade irk some in party - Senate Democrats are breaking with
President Obama over his plan for sweeping new climate-change laws that he
says will rake in billions of dollars to help offset massive budget
deficits.
The dissenters, mostly Democrats from Rust Belt states likely to be hit
hardest by the proposed environmental rules, question the economic impact
of the program that would cap carbon-dioxide emissions and then sell to
businesses the right to emit that carbon dioxide.
The senators also want their states to get a chunk of the windfall from
selling the credits - $646 billion over 10 years by Mr. Obama's estimate.
(S.A. Miller, Washington Times)
The
Heat Is On True Believers - A Sunday New York Times story described an
expected sea change in international global warming policy. The story
noted that President George W. Bush, "pressed by the Senate,
rejected" the Kyoto global warming protocol in 2001, but now
President Obama is eager to negotiate a robust international global
warming treaty to be signed in Copenhagen in December.
Prominently missing from the 1,584-word story was any mention of President
Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. That's a surprising omission
considering that Gore negotiated the treaty for Clinton in 1997, and that
Clinton never asked the Senate to ratify the pact, which mandated that the
United States reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent below 1990
levels by 2012.
Then again, Clinton knew that the Senate would not ratify the pact. Before
Gore flew to Kyoto, the Senate had voted 95-0 in favor of a resolution
that declared that Washington should not be a signatory to any protocol
that exempted developing nations, like India and China.
Wrongly, Gore nonetheless agreed to a pact that set no limits on nations
like China and India. And all those geniuses in the -- all bow --
international community agreed to a pact that the U.S. Senate had opposed
unanimously. They were so dazzled by their good intentions that they
botched their entire mission. (Debra Saunders Real, ClearPolitics)
Financial
gloom buys time for climate fight: Garnaut - THE Rudd Government's
handpicked climate change adviser believes the economic downturn sparked
by the global financial crisis has bought Australia at least two years of
"breathing space" in the fight against climate change.
In comments that will be leapt on by business groups pushing for the Rudd
Government's emissions trading scheme to be delayed, Professor Garnaut
said yesterday the economic crisis had clamped down on industrial
production, which had put a lid on greenhouse gas emissions.
"At this stage it looks like we've transferred two years ... it might
turn out to be longer than that if this turns out to be an even worse
economic crisis," Professor Garnaut said. "But we need it,
because the world's a long way behind where it needs to be."
Professor Garnaut did not comment on the emerging debate about the timing
of the introduction of the emissions trading scheme.
The Rudd Government has been facing growing pressure to delay the scheme
until the worst effects of the global financial crisis have passed. (The
Australian)
Cooler
Heads Digest, 27 February 2009
Ironic
Snowfall for Resource-Rich Greenies - Environmentalists characterize
themselves as petite Davids battling gargantuan corporate Goliaths in
order to grab media attention. But hundreds of green activists
demonstrated today to raise awareness of global warming and against coal
production in front of the Capital Power Plant in southeast Washington
D.C. The group had plenty of resources ranging from a raised stage with
microphones, to trucks loaded with food and coffee, to green plastic
helmets, all the way down to fluorescent caps and fancy colored
anti-industry signs. (Silvia Santacruz, Cooler Heads)
The
Gore Effect - Driving snow froze the hopes of organizers of "the
biggest global warming protest in history" Monday in Washington. With
the government on a two-hour snow delay and the speaker of the House
unable to attend because her flight was grounded by inclement weather,
shivering protestors gathered on the west front of the Capitol, the latest
victims of a climatological phenomenon known by the scientific community
as the Gore Effect.
The Gore Effect was first noticed during a January 2004 global warming
rally in New York City, held during one of the coldest days in the city's
history. Since then, evidence has mounted of a correlation between global
warming activism and severely cold weather.
A year ago a congressional media briefing on the Bingaman/Specter Climate
Bill was cancelled due to a cold snap. In October 2008 London saw the
first snow since 1922 while the House of Commons debated the Climate
Change Bill. That same month Al Gore's appearance at Harvard University
coincided with low temperatures that challenged 125-year records.
Tellingly, the average global temperature for each of the 366 days in 2008
was below the average for Jan. 24, 2006, the date Gore's "An
Inconvenient Truth" was released at the Sundance Film Festival.
(Washington Times)
New
Book “Climate Of Extremes” By Patrick J. Michaels and Robert C.
Balling Jr.
There is a new book on climate that should be a must read
regardless of your perspective on the role of humans in the climate
system.
It is Climate
of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don’t Want You to Know by
Patrick J. Michaels and Robert C. Balling Jr.
Both of these peer reviewed published climate scientists have been
active in seeking to promote a wider discussion on the science of the
climate system. The authors select a set of climate metrics and show that
the reality is quite a bit more complex and often at variance with that
reported in the IPCC and CCSP reports. Their chapter 7 also effectively
documents a significant bias in the reporting of climate change by
the media, which has misled the public and policymakers on the real world
behaviour of the climate and the role of humans within it.
This book is a challenge to the IPCC and CCSP editors and lead authors.
If they disagree with the conclusions in this book, they should report on
this with scientific documentation. If they are silent and ignore the
book, however, this will, by itself, help further document the bias
that Michaels and Balling discuss in their book.
I highly recommend this book by two very qualified climate
scientist for everyone who is open-minded about climate science, and want
to learn that there are scientifically supported perspectives which are
not being reported by the media and the IPCC and CCSP assessments.
(Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)
The Arctic wasn't quite so cold and: Sweden's
ozone layer thickest in decades: institute - The ozone layer over
Sweden was thicker in February than it has been in decades, the Swedish
meteorological institute SMHI said on Tuesday.
Measurements taken at SMHI's station in Norrkoeping, just south of
Stockholm, showed the ozone layer was at its thickest in February since
recordings there began in 1988, with a measurement of 426 Dobson units
(DU).
At the Vindeln station in northern Sweden, where measurements started in
1991, a record high of 437 DU was recorded.
"We have to go as far back to the measurements taken in Uppsala
between 1951 and 1966" to find levels that high, SMHI said in a
statement.
There, the highest level for February was in 1957, when a value of 439 DU
was recorded.
The circumpolar whirl over the Arctic -- a polar high pressure system
formed of a distinct column of cold air that develops during the long
polar night -- disappeared very quickly in mid-January, and the
stratosphere warmed up quickly in the space of a few days, SMHI explained.
As a result, "the low temperatures that usually cause rapid depletion
of the ozone layer did not take place," it said.
The institute, which only a year ago recorded the second-thinnest levels
of ozone ever, said it was too early to tell whether the ozone layer was
improving in general. (AFP)
This is a really stupid
game.
Speaking of stupid games: Preparing
to confront the unknowable - Any way you look at it, the numbers on
climate migration are staggering. The problem is, there are a lot of ways
to look at it.
One study says 100 million people will be displaced by global warming.
Another puts it at 250 million. Meanwhile, a sweeping report from
Christian Aid warns that 1 billion people, an almost unthinkable crush of
humanity, could be forced from their homes by midcentury because of
climate change and the increase in natural disasters, which will
exacerbate regional conflicts.
How can the numbers be so wildly disparate? The truth is, researchers
acknowledge, that though climate migration may be the defining issue of
the century, it is calculated with fuzzy math.
"The most widely accepted estimate, and it's really a guesstimate, of
how many people could be on the move because of environmentally related
factors, including climate change, is an extra 200 million," said
Koko Warner, who heads the U.N. University's migration section within the
Institute for Environment and Human Security in Bonn, Germany.
"You could see maybe a doubling. Maybe more. But we don't know.
There's so much we don't know about climate change," she said.
(ClimateWire)
Any way you look at it the numbers are completely fabricated.
Climate
hockey stick is broken (Google translation from original Danish) - It
has been shown in many contexts and has been the icon of where things have
gone wrong with the climate since the pre-industrial times. This is known
as the Mann curve or 'hockey stick' curve that shows the development of
the Northern Hemisphere surface temperature over the last 600 years. A new
Danish study breaking foundation of the curve.
"Hockey stick curve does not," says klimaforsker Bo Christiansen
from Denmark's Climate Center and add. "That does not mean that we
cancel the anthropogenic greenhouse effect, but the foundation has become
more nuanced."
It caused great sensation, as Michael Mann and several others in 1998
published a curve of temperature evolution over the last 600 years in the
northern hemisphere. The curve shows a steady, almost constant temperature
of the first five centuries, interrupted by a sharp increase after 1900.
It can be interpreted as if the natural variations are small compared to
the anthropogenic warming. There followed a heated debate both inside and
outside professional circles - a debate that will run yet.
Researchers at DMI now shows that the mathematical methods that are used
for climate recontruction, has serious limitations.
"Popular, one could say that the flat piece of hockey stick is too
flat. The earlier reconstructions underestimate the potency of the natural
climate variability," says Bo Christiansen and add. "In
addition, this method a large element of chance." (Danish
Meteorological Institute)
From CO2 Science this week:
Editorial:
Tree-Based
Climate Reconstructions in CO2-Accreting Air:
How good are they when they don't account for physiological effects of the
historical increase in the atmosphere's CO2
concentration?
Medieval
Warm Period Record of the Week:
Was there a Medieval Warm Period? YES, according to data
published by 675
individual scientists from 394
separate research institutions in 40
different countries ... and counting! This issue's Medieval Warm
Period Record of the Week comes from Finland's
Southern Boreal Forest, near Savonlinna, Finland. To access the entire
Medieval Warm Period Project's database, click
here.
Subject Index Summary:
Arctic
Temperature Variability (Last Several Interglacials): How do Arctic
temperatures of the current interglacial period compare with those of
prior interglacials?
Plant Growth Data:
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses
to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from
experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: American
Pokeweed, Night-flowering
Catchfly, Rice,
and Shortgrass
Steppe in NE Colorado.
Journal Reviews:
Sea Level at Port
Arthur, Tasmania: How much did it rise between 1841 and 2002?
An Environmental
History of Yellowstone National Park: How does the Park's climate of
the past 150 years compare with that of the prior two and a half
millennia?
Birds and
Climate: How well do the presumed relationships between the two
reflect reality?
Cold-Related
Mortality in Europe: What is its deadliest defining characteristic?
Salinity Stress
in Barley: How is it impacted by rising atmospheric CO2
concentrations? (co2science.org)
News Update
- At last the tide seems to be turning. Businesses and consumers are
coming to realize that the whole Emissions Industry is designed to deliver
money and power to the government. There is nothing in it for taxpayers,
consumers or the climate. Even some in the media are becoming sceptics.
(Carbon Sense Coalition)
Why
Is the Chicago Tribune in Bed with T Boone Pickens? - Why is the
Chicago Tribune again allowing its editorial page to shill for T Boone
Pickens? For the second time in 5 months, the Tribune has published a
self-serving opinion piece by Mr. Pickens (Our Energy Future, 16 November
2008; Solving Our Nation’s Energy Predicament, 24 February 2009). Remove
the rhetoric, and T Boone’s plan is quite simple. He wants the
government to (1) force taxpayers to subsidize his wind power; (2) force
taxpayers to pay for the transmission lines to deliver his wind power; (3)
force consumers to buy his wind power; (4) force consumers to buy T
Boone’s natural gas “saved” by using his wind power to power their
cars. America gets expensive energy and T Boone Pickens gets rich. As
CEI’s Marlo Lewis artfully put it: “This T Boone-doggle Pickens your
pocket.” (William Yeatman, Cooler Heads)
U.S.
ties economy to carbon-free energy - WASHINGTON, March 2 -- U.S.
President Barack Obama stressed energy as one of his top three priorities
during his first address to Congress.
"It begins with energy," he said. "We know the country that
harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st
century." (UPI)
Obama’s
Stumble: Wind Power - I like Barack Obama but I have doubts about his
presidency when I hear him saying that the US will “double the amount of
energy that comes from renewable sources by the end of my first
term." He should know that that’s not possible. But instead, during
his State of the Union speech, he proclaimed that we’ll reach that goal
in three years, not four.
Most anyone who has studied the energy situation must wonder about
Obama's, or his advisors', energy experience. Presented with the numbers
from the table (see below) he would realize that the majority of the
renewable power comes from hydro and from wood, about 154 gigawatts.
Readily available data show that the 6 percent for hydro and bio is pretty
much all we can hope for. Trying to increase those yields we would have to
ask: Where shall we find the extra rivers to dam? Lease the Amazon? And
where do we find the extra land to double the wood and corn production?
Annex Canada? Ukraine?
Understanding those limitations, Obama apparently relies on direct solar,
wind, and geothermal energy growth. All three sources are presently
producing about 19 GW. To reach the goal of generating 2 x (154 + 19) =
346 GW by 2012 (or 2011), the output of the three sources would have to
increase nine-fold. That implies building many times more wind mills,
solar plants, and geothermal stations in three years than have been
installed in the previous decades. (Stan Jakuba, Energy Tribune)
Green's
true cost - Economic efficiency is the first casualty of Ontario’s
‘