Hmm... seeking a platform for higher office, Doug? A Deadly Ingredient in a Chicken Dinner

Most people don't know that the chicken they eat is laced with arsenic. The ice water or coffee they enjoy with their chicken may also be infused with arsenic. If they live on or near a farm, the air they breathe may be infected with arsenic dust as well. (Douglas Gansler, Washington Post)

 

Reuters distributes chemophobic propaganda: Why the Adage 'the Dose Makes the Poison' Can Be Toxic to Corporate Chemicals Policy

There probably are lots of senior execs who've been comforted when their chief scientist or toxicologist has told them that since "the dose makes the poison," they shouldn't sweat some new study about a chemical found in small amounts in their products. Unfortunately, this maxim, which has been around for about 500 years, is somewhat misleading; taking it at face value may be toxic to your company's reputation. (Richard Liroff, Reuters)

 

A Genetic Link Between Anorexia and Autism?

At the Eating Disorders Unit at the Maudsley Hospital in London, anorexia is not seen as a social disorder — or even primarily a psychological one. While most American treatment providers blame perfection-seeking parents and the media's idealization of hollow-cheeked actresses for eating disorders (among other dysfunctional behaviors), researchers at Maudsley believe the root cause has little to do with social pressure. Rather, they think anorexia is better explained by heredity — perhaps by some of the same genes associated with autism. (Maia Szalavitz, Time)

 

The Figure-Flaw Paradox: Does it really matter how your body measures up? Part 2

The “figure flaw paradox” is really a retake on the obesity paradox. As obesity has proven to be a poor measure of health or mortality risk, new renditions are being proposed. But the fallacies are the same. (Junkfood Science)

 

Real life evidence — government funded healthcare

Yesterday’s news provided updates on two healthcare stories we’ve been following, so here’s a quick update. (Junkfood Science)

 

Comparative effective research — what it means for us

This past week, when speaking to doctors about healthcare reform and the steps needed to reduce healthcare spending, the President answered a rhetorical question recently posed here about comparative effective research. JFS readers may find his answers interesting. His speech, however, didn’t receive widespread mainstream media coverage, at least in a form we would recognize. Before we look at what he said, it might be helpful to sort through some popular misconceptions about what comparative effectiveness research is and isn’t. (Junkfood Science)

 

The importance of sound data — managing your healthcare costs

This week, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that Health Net, Inc., a managed care company covering more than two million Californians and nearly a quarter million New Yorkers, had agreed to end its relationship with Ingenix and pay $1.6 million towards the creation of an independent database. This was Cuomo’s twelfth settlement against a network of health insurers across the country (including Aetna, MVP Health Care, Cigna, Wellpoint and Excellus Health Plan) using the Ingenix database, which he charged was a “conflict-of-interest-ridden system” with manipulated data and behind industry-wide consumer fraud and corrupt out-of-network reimbursement schemes. (Junkfood Science)

 

Green Ad Scams

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates claims made in advertisements for all products and services -- including environmental (green) advertising. Yet, the FTC has taken little enforcement action in the exploding area of false or misleading environmental claims. Green, and all manner of eco-friendly, ads are supposed to comply with guidelines issued by the FTC in 1992. The FTC can take companies that ignore their "Green Guidelines" to court and seek fines to reimburse consumers. The FTC acknowledges less enforcement of environmental ad guidelines in recent years, citing a lack of resources. The 2009 budget for the FTC, which also regulates identity theft, credit fraud and monopolies, is $259 million.

There has been a massive global expansion in green marketing. Surveys last year of large US retailers found more than 1,700 products boasting of green credentials or environmental benefits. Green marketers have developed slick schemes to sell an avalanche of eco-friendly and green products. These marketing tactics emphasize an immediate and emotionally-compelling environmental benefit -- often when the claimed benefit is unproven. They also deploy ad messages through highly-leveraged partnerships with other products, institutions and media that are already a part of the consumer’s media. (Paul Taylor, LA Ecopolitics Examiner)

 

Pastor Urges His Flock to Bring Guns to Church

In Louisville, Ky., a sign that American gun culture is thriving despite, or perhaps because of, President Obama. (NYT)

 

Human Nature Today

Evolutionary psychology has had a good run. But now there is growing pushback. Critics say the theory is being used to try to explain more than it can bear. (NYT)

 

UN Seeks to Avert Half of Natural Disaster Deaths

GENEVA - The United Nations called on Friday for more aid funds to help countries prepare for - instead of respond to - natural disasters, saying simple steps could halve the number of deaths they cause. (Reuters)

Then they've got a really stupid way of going about it.  The UN's favorite 'crisis' is gorebull warming and efforts to 'address' that phantom menace are doing more harm to vulnerable peoples than anything else. Why? because these people are vulnerable specifically due to poverty and the cure for poverty is development and trade, the very things gorebull warmers are trying not merely to limit but actively undo.

 

EU States Near Acid Pollution Deal

BRUSSELS - European environment ministers could agree to tighten up widely flouted acid pollution laws this week after rapid progress in recent negotiations over industrial emissions brought a compromise within reach.

"There has been significant progress in recent weeks, and member states are taking a cooperative approach," Jos Delbeke, number two at the European Commission's environment unit, told Reuters. "It is possible there will be a deal on Thursday."

The complex Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) weaves together seven existing air quality laws, including the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control directive (IPPC) and the Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD).

These seven existing laws contain so many opt-outs that many of the 52,000 relevant European installations have managed to avoid cleaning up acidifying pollutants, such as sulphur and nitrogen oxides, that damage human health, soil and water quality. (Reuters)

 

Love and hate by the five-cent bagful - Three testy weeks into Toronto's new regime: fear, love and loathing

Small changes in our mundane lives can stimulate a surprising array of emotions – love, anger, defiance, even shame. Take the five cents it now costs Torontonians to take home anything they buy – books, fresh fish, running shoes – in a plastic bag.

"I hate those guys," says a man in a grey T-shirt charging out of the Loblaws grocery store on Dupont St. with a jar of mayonnaise in one hand, paper products in the other. Those guys?

He waves vaguely to the store. "Charging five cents!" (Leslie Scrivener, Toronto Star)

 

EU To Extend Checks On Food From Chernobyl Area

BRUSSELS - The European Union plans to extend strict radioactivity checks by 10 years on food imports from areas affected by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster due to continuing nuclear contamination, a document showed on Monday.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, first restricted imports just days after the accident in April 1986, with laws that have been successively updated since then. The current legislation runs out on March 31, 2010. (Reuters)

 

Monsanto, Dole To Try To Build Better Veggies

CHICAGO - Monsanto Co and Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc are formalizing a partnership to breed broccoli, spinach and other vegetables that would be more attractive to consumers.

The five-year collaboration, announced on Tuesday, will focus on creating variations of broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and spinach, the companies said in a statement.

The focus of their efforts is to breed more colorful, tastier vegetables that are less susceptible to bruising and have a longer shelf-life. (Reuters)

 

Might as well face it, you're addicted to phosphorus

According to new research published in the journal Global Environmental Change, we're running out of phosphate rock, a crucial ingredient of the fertilisers that farmers currently lavish on their crops to keep them bursting with food.

Phosphate rock can only be mined in a handful of countries such as the US, China and Morocco - and we may run out of it 50-100 years from now, according to a joint study by Linkoping University and the Institute for Sustainable Futures.

Great news for the climate, some would say. (Fertiliser production pumps 410m tonnes of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere every year, according to Greenpeace's 2008 report, 'Cool Farming', out-emitting farm machinery by a factor of two.)

Not such good news, however, for the two billion peckish new mouths that will need feeding by 2050, warns the study's chief author, Dana Cordell. 'Acquiring enough phosphorus to grow food will be a significant challenge for humanity in the future', she concludes. (Blog of Bloom)

 

Canadian Farmers Opposed To GM Wheat: Survey

SASKATOON - Canadian farmers oppose the introduction of genetically modified wheat until market conditions change, a Canadian Wheat Board survey has found.

In the CWB's annual survey of 1,300 Western Canadian farmers, only 9 percent said GMO wheat should be grown as soon as it's available, with the majority saying it shouldn't be grown until conditions are met such as proving benefits to farmers and demonstrating market demand. Nineteen percent said it should not be grown in Canada.

Farmers were close to evenly split when asked how interested they are in growing GM wheat. Fifty-one percent said they're not interested, with 46 percent very or somewhat interested. (Reuters)

 

Overheated Whitehouse Campaigns

CHURCHVILLE, VA—It was only a matter of time before First Lady Michelle Obama sprang to the wall of the White House Organic Garden and demanded more organic food—a heartfelt campaign fully as sincere as her husband’s ongoing demand that the affluent countries fight off man-made global warming by taxing away most of their energy. However, both the First Lady’s and the President’s campaigns share the same problem: Both are based on politically-correct illusions. (Dennis T. Avery, CGFI)

 

Giant prehistoric kangaroos wiped out by hungry Ice Age hunters

It stood tall at 6’5, weighed over 500lbs, had the face of a koala and the body of a sturdy kangaroo. And apparently it was delicious.

Scientists think they have discovered the reason behind the demise of the prehistoric Australian marsupial Procoptodon goliah – better known as the giant, short-snouted kangaroo. They say it was not climate change, as has always been assumed, but hungry Ice Age hunters. (The Times)

 

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Still really busy. Regular posting some time after Independence Day.

 

Stupid is as stupid does... House Passes Bill to Address Threat of Climate Change

The 219-212 vote marked the first time that either house of Congress has approved a bill aimed at curbing the heat-trapping gases scientists have linked to climate change, and it could lead to sweeping changes in the economy. (NYT)

 

Boehner: Climate bill a 'pile of s--t'

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) had a few choice words about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) landmark climate-change bill after its passage Friday.

When asked why he read portions of the cap-and-trade bill on the floor Friday night, Boehner told The Hill, "Hey, people deserve to know what's in this pile of s--t."

Using his privilege as leader to speak for an unlimited time on the House floor, Boehner spent an hour reading from the 1200-plus page bill that was amended 20 hours before the lower chamber voted 219-212 to approve it.

Eight Republicans voted with Democrats to pass the bill; 44 House Democrats voted against it. (Molly K. Hooper, The Hill)

 

Kucinich: “Passing a weak bill today gives us weak environmental policy tomorrow”

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today issued the following statement after voting against H.R. 2454, The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009:

“I oppose H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. The reason is simple. It won’t address the problem. In fact, it might make the problem worse. (kucinich.house.gov)

 

Climate Depot Editorial: Climate Bill's Passage Represents 'nothing more than unrestrained exercise of raw political power, arm-twisting and intimidation'

No detectable climate impact: 'If we actually faced a man-made 'climate crisis', we would all be doomed'

The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed global warming bill (219-212 vote) will no doubt be hailed by many as “historic” or “landmark” or “The Bill of the Century.”

This passage of this bill does not signify any great “green revolution” or “growing” climate “awareness” on the part of Congress. Instead, the methods and manner that the Pelosi led House achieved final passage, represents nothing more than unrestrained exercise of raw political power, arm-twisting, intimidation and special interest handouts.

The House of Representatives passed a bill it did not read, did not understand. A bill that is based on crumbling scientific claims and a bill that will have no detectable climate impact (assuming climate fear promoters are correct on the science and the bill is fully implemented – both implausible assumptions). (Marc Morano, Climate Depot)

 

Possible Plan for Tariffs on Imports From China Remains Alive in House Climate Bill

A House committee working on sweeping energy legislation seems determined to make sure that the United States will tax China and other carbon polluters, potentially disrupting an already-sensitive climate change debate in Congress. (ClimateWire)

 

Cap-and-Trade-War

Despite indications that much of President Obama’s agenda is meeting intra-party skepticism all over Capitol Hill, there is one policy nexus where congressional leaders are still doggedly determined to move the country left: energy and the environment. Speaker Pelosi will reportedly allow a vote on the controversial Waxman-Markey “cap-and-trade” legislation at the end of this week.

And it gets even better. Not content to tempt political fate by imposing huge carbon taxes on the American middle class, Democrats have added a provision which imposes stiff tariffs on our trading partners if they don’t adopt aggressive carbon restrictions of their own.

You heard correctly: progressives have authored a bill that earns the mortal enmity of domestic energy consumers and our most crucial trading partners at the same time. Economy-killing climate policies and a trade war — together at last! (Patrick J. Michaels & Sallie James, Planet Gore)

 

The Climate Change Climate Change - The number of skeptics is swelling everywhere.

Steve Fielding recently asked the Obama administration to reassure him on the science of man-made global warming. When the administration proved unhelpful, Mr. Fielding decided to vote against climate-change legislation.

If you haven't heard of this politician, it's because he's a member of the Australian Senate. As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to pass a climate-change bill, the Australian Parliament is preparing to kill its own country's carbon-emissions scheme. Why? A growing number of Australian politicians, scientists and citizens once again doubt the science of human-caused global warming.

Among the many reasons President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority are so intent on quickly jamming a cap-and-trade system through Congress is because the global warming tide is again shifting. It turns out Al Gore and the United Nations (with an assist from the media), did a little too vociferous a job smearing anyone who disagreed with them as "deniers." The backlash has brought the scientific debate roaring back to life in Australia, Europe, Japan and even, if less reported, the U.S. (WSJ)

 

Reason clouded by carbon obsession

ALTHOUGH there are many doubters of man-made climate change, I am not yet one of them. But I remain unconvinced that carbon dioxide is the sole bete noire. Two decades ago, I pored over the spectral properties of the infra-red radiation of this gas, which is essential to plant life, and found that it was almost completely overshadowed by the radiative properties of water vapour, which is vital to all forms of life on earth. (Peter Schwerdtfeger, The Australian)

 

Climate Change Regime is Immoral

To inflict intense pain for no environmental gain is immoral. To ram such legislation through with backroom deals and no substantive debate – and unleash bureaucrats to control our energy use and lives – is dictatorial and un-American. When The People finally catch on, it won’t be a pretty sight. (Paul Driessen, SPPI)

 

The value of Senates: Australian Carbon Plan Hits Political Roadblock

CANBERRA - Australia's landmark carbon trade scheme, being watched around the world in the lead up to global climate talks in December, hit a political roadblock on Thursday when parliament delayed a vote on the plan until August.

The decision by the upper house Senate scuttled government hopes of passing its carbon trade laws in this parliamentary session, prolonging uncertainty for major polluters and the stalled carbon trade market. (Reuters)

 

Could Australia Blow Apart the Great Global Warming Scare?

As the US Congress considers the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, the Australian Senate is on the verge of rejecting its own version of cap-and-trade. The story of this legislation's collapse offers advance notice for what might happen to similar legislation in the US—and to the whole global warming hysteria.

Since the Australian government first introduced its Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) legislation—the Australian version of cap-and-trade energy rationing—there has been a sharp shift in public opinion and political momentum against the global warming crusade. This is a story that offers hope to defenders of industrial civilization—and a warning to American environmentalists that the climate change they should be afraid of just might be a shift in the intellectual climate. (Robert Tracinski and Tom Minchin, Real Clear Politics)

 

U.S. Resists EU Climate Target For G8 Summit

OSLO - The United States has been resisting European calls for industrialized nations to target an upper limit for global warming of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), according to a draft summit text.

Two degrees is seen by the European Union and many developing countries as the threshold beyond which climate change will reach danger levels, with rising seas and more heatwaves, floods and droughts. (Reuters)

 

Russia Says No to Climate Controls

As China announced just days ago, Russia has confirmed that it will not participate in any international greenhouse gas reduction plans advanced to replace the 2012 expiration of the Kyoto Protocol. Moreover, Russia actually plans to increase air pollution emissions. Russian President Medvedev has announced that Russia will increase the country’s emissions 30% by 2020. Russia is the third biggest global air polluter – China first, US second.

Russia estimates the 30 percent increase in emissions would put his country 10 to 15 percent behind its 1990 emissions levels. This, based upon the decades of conversion from polluting heavy industry to cleaner industries in the digital age. Many of the former communist block countries may now make the same industrial conversion offset claim to avoid the costs of carbon controls. Like China, Russia recognizes that mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases will reduce GDP and punish long-term economic prosperity.

The rejection by China and Russia of international initiatives to control global warming will reduce the likelihood that Obama’s cap-and-trade carbon taxes will be adopted. Without controls on all global greenhouse gas emitters, nothing the US does in the way of costly greenhouse gas reductions will impact climates. (Paul Taylor, Examiner)

 

Twisted Science, Crooked Policy

The White House weather forecast is not the last word on climate: it marks the last stand of the ‘global warming’ profiteers, and the last gasp of the scientific-technological elite.  (Christopher Monckton, SPPI)

 

<chuckle> More nonsense ingredients in the gorebull warming witches' brew... "Climate refugees" gatecrash the agenda

JOHANNESBURG, 25 June 2009 - The debate on providing protection to possibly several million "climate refugees" displaced by the vagaries of nature is heating up. (IRIN)

... and the more nonsense mixed in the quicker the brew spoils.

 

Meanwhile: Climate refugees will not flood rich nations-study

LONDON, June 24 - Migrants uprooted by climate change in the poorest parts of the world are likely to only move locally, contrary to predictions that hundreds of millions will descend on rich countries, a study said on Wednesday.

The research from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), a non-profit London-based think tank, challenges the common perception in the developed world that waves of refugees will try to move there permanently to escape the impact of global warming. (Reuters)

 

The Global Warming Sideshow: Why the Environmentalist Scare Tactics May Render Real Climate Research

As the scientific community debates the probable impact of human industry on the Earth’s climate, many in the environmental lobby, determined to dominate the political debate, wage an effective public relations campaign in the public arena. Believing fervently in their version of the facts, they cleverly tailor their rhetoric to have the strongest possible impact on the political process, without regard for the ongoing scientific debate. It is quite ironic that, while those who argue that we face a “climate crisis” like to think of themselves as the advocates for science and reason, their tactics and rhetoric are often reminiscent of a sideshow, relying on hype and fear to capture the public’s imagination. (Matthew Woessner, SPPI)

 

Polar bear expert barred by global warmists - Mitchell Taylor, who has studied the animals for 30 years, was told his views 'are extremely unhelpful’, reveals Christopher Booker.

Over the coming days a curiously revealing event will be taking place in Copenhagen. Top of the agenda at a meeting of the Polar Bear Specialist Group (set up under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature/Species Survival Commission) will be the need to produce a suitably scary report on how polar bears are being threatened with extinction by man-made global warming.

This is one of a steady drizzle of events planned to stoke up alarm in the run-up to the UN's major conference on climate change in Copenhagen next December. But one of the world's leading experts on polar bears has been told to stay away from this week's meeting, specifically because his views on global warming do not accord with those of the rest of the group.

Dr Mitchell Taylor has been researching the status and management of polar bears in Canada and around the Arctic Circle for 30 years, as both an academic and a government employee. More than once since 2006 he has made headlines by insisting that polar bear numbers, far from decreasing, are much higher than they were 30 years ago. Of the 19 different bear populations, almost all are increasing or at optimum levels, only two have for local reasons modestly declined. (Christopher Booker, Daily Telegraph)

 

In fact it's scientists that endanger polar bears: Scientist kills polar bear during first field experience

Bob McNabb, 23, is just beginning what may be a long career studying glaciers. No matter how many seasons he spends on ice, he will probably never have a field experience like his first.

In May, McNabb shot and killed a polar bear that was charging him outside a research station in Svalbard. The doctoral student observing an extremely far-north glacier in the Norwegian territory spoke about his experience when he returned to Fairbanks, where he studies at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. (Alaska Dispatch)

 

There goes another excuse for the 'missing' warming: Global Warming Braked Less Than Expected by Haze

OSLO - Air pollution, dust and other tiny particles that can bounce sunlight back into space are braking global warming less than previously believed, a Norwegian study said.

The report, which helps understand how climate change works, said scientific estimates of light-reflecting airborne particles had underestimated a fast build-up of black airborne soot, which has the opposite effect by soaking up heat.

"The black carbon, or soot, emissions have increased fastest," said Gunnar Myhre of the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, Oslo (Cicero) of the report in Friday's edition of the journal Science. (Reuters)

One less reason for the modelers' marvelous magical multipliers, eh? Not that there were any realistic ones to begin with...

 

Scientists: Mediterranean Sea “Not Warming” - (via Piero Vietti’s Cambi di Stagione. My translation of course)

17 JUN 2009 From the ongoing OGS conference on Observational Oceanography in Trieste, Italy – Rome, 17 June (Apcom) – No water warming processes are likely to be undergoing in the Mediterranean. It’s one of the preliminary results obtained under MedArgo, the “sister project”, coordinated by OGS [the Italian National Institute on Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics].

MedArgo deals specifically with the Mediterranean Sea and surrounding countries and is part of EuroArgo, the European component of the international Argo project. (OmniClimate)

 

Shock: Global temperatures driven by US Postal Charges

he rise in global temperatures since 1880 closely correlates with increases in postal charges, sparking alarm that CO2 has been usurped as the main driver of climate change. (Jo Nova)

 

EPA Endangerment Finding: My Submitted Comments

Roy W. Spencer

 

News: EPA Quashed Report Skeptical of Global Warming

theodp writes

"CNET reports that less than two weeks before the EPA formally submitted its pro-carbon dioxide regulation recommendation to the White House, an EPA center director quashed a 98-page report that warned against making hasty 'decisions based on a scientific hypothesis that does not appear to explain most of the available data.' In an e-mail message (pdf) to a staff researcher on March 17, the EPA official wrote: 'The administrator and the administration has decided to move forward...and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision.' The employee was also ordered not to 'have any direct communication' with anyone outside his small group at EPA on the topic of climate change, and was informed his report would not be shared with the agency group working on the topic. In a statement, the EPA took aim at the credentials of the report's author, Alan Carlin (BS Physics-Caltech, PhD Econ-MIT), describing him as 'not a scientist.' BTW, the official who chastised Carlin also found himself caught up in a 2005 brouhaha over mercury emissions after top EPA officials ordered the findings of a Harvard University study stripped from public records." (slashdot)

 

Australia’s EPA was negligent

Excerpts from the document available here [PDF, 101 KB]

“Australia’s EPA (Environmental Protection Authority) has been negligent in listing carbon dioxide (CO2) as a pollutant without conducting an independent public review of the scientific evidence to support that decision…

“Now a critical draft report has emerged from inside the US EPA. It was written by very competent EPA staff, warning that organisation that their classification of CO2 as a pollutant was too heavily based on the latest IPCC report “which is at best three years out of date in a rapidly changing field.” This EPA report has been suppressed for months…

“The best evidence before us now, supported completely by this in-house thinking in the US EPA, is that Australia’s EPA was hasty and negligent in classing CO2, the valuable and harmless Gas of Life, as a pollutant.” (Carbon Sense Coalition)

 

The Wong-Fielding Meeting on Global Warming

Senator Fielding holds a crucial vote on the proposed Emissions Trading Legislation. Fielding and four independent scientists faced the Minister for the Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong , The Chief Scientist, Penny Sackett, and Professor Will Steffan, director of the Climate Change Institute at the Australian National University. Read what happened from someone who was there. (David Evans, SPPI)

 

British Climate Change Act doomed to failure

The UK Climate Change Act of 2008 recommends reducing carbon emissions by at least 80% by 2050 and 34% by 2022 but these goals are just too ambitious according to a new study. The Act is also "fundamentally flawed" and would require decarbonization rates that are simply unrealistic. (ERL)

 

Mystic Met Office predicts neighbourhood Thermageddon - Modelling 'totally inadequate' last year - why trust it now?

On Thursday, the Met Office launched its new report on global warming: UK Climate Projections 2009, otherwise known as UKCP09. This is based on the output of Hadley Centre climate models that predict temperature increases of up to 6°C with wetter winters, dryer summers, more heatwaves, rising sea levels, more floods and all the other catastrophes that one would expect from similar exercises in alarmism.

What makes this report different from any of its predecessors is the resolution of the predictions that the Met Office is making. They are not just presenting a general impression of what might happen globally during this century, or even how climate change could affect the UK as a whole. They are claiming that they can predict what will happen in individual regions of the country - down to a 25km square. You can enter your postcode and find out how your street will be affected by global warming in 2040 or 2080.

All this is rather unexpected. In May last year, I posted here and here about a world summit of climate modellers that took place at Reading University. On the agenda was one very important problem for them; even the most powerful super-computers that have been developed so far are not capable of running the kind of high resolution models that they claim would allow them to reduce the degree of uncertainty in their predictions, and also make detailed regional predictions that policy makers would like to have so that they can build climate change into infrastructure planning. (Tony Newbery, The Register)

 

Skeptical Inquirer Abandons Reason, Embraces Global Warming

For many years the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly CSICOP) has published the Skeptical Inquirer, a magazine dedicated to rational thought and a scientific view of the world around us. Mostly concerned with debunking pseudoscience and mystical beliefs, its articles mostly concerned UFOs, bigfoot sightings, psychic spoon benders and spirit mediums. Now, unfortunately, it seems they have allied this previously skeptical magazine with one of the biggest scientific scams of our time, anthropogenic global warming. (Doug L. Hoffman, The Resilient Earth)

 

Potential Climatic Impacts Of Vegetation Change: A Regional Modeling Study By Copeland Et Al 1996

This paper documents that landscape change is a regional first oder climate forcing in the United States. For more recent studies on this subject from our research group (see).

Copeland, J.H., R.A. Pielke, and T.G.F. Kittel, 1996: Potential climatic impacts of vegetation change: A regional modeling study. J. Geophys. Res., 101, 7409-7418. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

 

Evidence That Local Land Use Practices Influence Regional Climate And Vegetation Patterns In Adjacent Natural Areas By Stohlgren Et Al. 1998

This paper provides observational examples of the interaction between the atmosphere and the landscape which was discussed in yesterday’s weblog.

Stohlgren, T.J., T.N. Chase, R.A. Pielke, T.G.F. Kittel, and J. Baron, 1998: Evidence that local land use practices influence regional climate and vegetation patterns in adjacent natural areas. Global Change Biology, 4, 495-504. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

 

Interactions Between The Atmosphere And Terrestrial Ecosystems: Influence On Weather And Climate By Pielke et al. 1998

Today’s weblog reviews how the atmosphere and landscape are coupled together, and that the climate system is an interactive nonlinear system.

Pielke, R.A., R. Avissar, M. Raupach, H. Dolman, X. Zeng, and S. Denning, 1998: Interactions between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems: Influence on weather and climate. Global Change Biology, 4, 461-475. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

 

On The Impact Of Snow Cover on Daytime Pollution Dispersion By Segal Et Al. 1991

Yesterday’s paper discussed how adjacent snow and snow free areas could generate mesoscale circulations. Today’s post (and yesterday’s as well) shows that not only does this affect air quality, but temperatures near the ground (such as used to monitor long term temperature trends) are very significantly affected. Even if the atmosphere above was not warming over time, a series of winters with less snow in a region would report higher surface air temperatures.

Segal, M., J.R. Garratt, R.A. Pielke, P. Hildebrand, F.A. Rogers, and J. Cramer, 1991: On the impact of snow cover on daytime pollution dispersion. Atmos. Environ., 25B, 177-192. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

 

Observational Evaluation Of The Snow Breeze By Segal et al. 1991

Today’s weblog documents that the areas of snow and adjacent snow free areas can result in signifcant mesoscale circulations. This is yet another example of a the role of landscape within the climate system.

Segal, M., J.H. Cramer, R.A. Pielke, J.R. Garratt, and P. Hildebrand, 1991: Observational evaluation of the snow-breeze. Mon. Wea. Rev., 119, 412-424. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

 

Ice Ages & CO2, Part II – Rising Sea-levels in Tahiti

Having reported that scientists did not find CO2 responsible for a change in the duration of ice age glacial periods 700,00 years ago, another new report takes a look at the conditions around the last interglacial warm period and our own Holocene warming. Using corals from the south seas paradise of Tahiti to track sea-level changes, researchers probed the mechanisms driving Earth's climate between glacial and interglacial states. Almost as an after thought they added that there is no longer any doubt: changes in sea-level drive changes in CO2, not the other way around. (Doug L. Hoffman, The Resilient Earth)

 

CO₂ Science Volume 12 Number 25: 24 June 2009

Editorial:
Rice Production in China: What is its current status? ... what are the challenges it faces? ... and how will these challenges be met?

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week:
Was there a Medieval Warm Period? YES, according to data published by 713 individual scientists from 416 separate research institutions in 41 different countries ... and counting! This issue's Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from Skagerrak, Northeast North Sea. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period Project's database, click here.

Subject Index Summary:
Range Expansion (Butterflies): Contrary to climate-alarmist claims, earth's butterflies will likely do just fine in the face of any global warming that may occur in the future.

Plant Growth Data:
This week we add new results of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Bald Cypress (Llorens et al., 2009), Coastal Redwood (Llorens et al., 2009), Dawn Redwood (Llorens et al., 2009), and Maidenhair Tree (Llorens et al., 2009).

Journal Reviews:
New England Flood Risk: Is it rising or falling? ... and why?

The Rising Cost of European Floods: Has global warming increased the economic cost of European floods over the past few decades? ... or have the monetary losses been driven more by socio-economic factors?

Extreme Autumn and Winter Storms of the British Isles: How did they vary over the last eight decades of the 20th century?

Effects of Warming on Alpine Grassland Plants: Does it help or harm them?

Potato Response to Water Stress: How is it affected by atmospheric CO2 enrichment? ... and what do the results portend about potato production in the drier parts of a CO2-enriched world? (co2science.org)

 

Galactic link to climate change in doubt

Some physicists believe that changes to the Earth’s climate can be explained in large part by variations in the flux of cosmic rays reaching the Earth. These occur as the solar system pass in and out of our galaxy’s spiral arms — passages that seem to correlate closely with the timing of ice ages. However, new research based on a recent model of the structure and motion of the spiral arms finds there is no such correlation.

In 2003 physicists Nir Shaviv and Ján Veizer reported a close correlation between the motion of the solar system through the Milky Way and changes to the Earth’s climate. They found that the solar system passes through one of the galaxy’s four spiral arms about once every 140 million years, and these intersections correspond with both the peaks of successive ice ages and fluctuations in the abundance of oxygen-18 in fossils — which is related to temperature. Both climatic variables also vary with a period of about 140 million years. (physicsworld.com)

 

Africa Needs Compensation For Climate Change - Meles

ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has demanded that the rich world compensate Africa for global warming and said pollution in the northern hemisphere may have caused his country's ruinous 1980s famines. (Reuters)

Africa has been desiccating for millennia but now it's the fault of the Industrial Revolution ;-)

 

International Trade Is Now Causing Global Warming

The folks at the United Nations are at it again, this time along with the World Trade Organization. Last time it was their idiotic report about how cows and other forms of livestock are contributing so much to global warming (now calling it climate change which I believe happens naturally every year). This time they’ve moved a step ahead to try and link global climate change to trade. Give me a break. Here’s an excerpt from the WTO press release. (AgWired)

 

Climate change horror: the UK will be like Provence

A UK government report unwittingly reveals that we should not be cutting carbon use but investing in Mediterranean-style cooling measures. (Rob Lyons, sp!ked)

 

British Columbia's forests to be 'marched' north?

Unless they're starring in the closing scenes of Macbeth, groves aren't famous for moving. But entire forests may be 'marched' to cooler climes to protect them from climate change if the government of British Columbia gets its way, writes Emma Marris in the journal Nature.

Scientists worry that British Columbia's rapidly warming climate (the region has already warmed 0.7C in the decade leading up to 2006 - nearly as much as the world has warmed in the last century) will trigger outbreaks of heat-loving pests and drought, wiping out the province's lucrative forests.

With so much at stake (stuff made of wood accounts for about half of the province's exports), it's no surprise that the British Columbia Ministry of Forests has already launched a project to see how seedlings fare after they've been dug up and transplanted to cooler environments in the north.

The 'Assisted Migration Adaptation Trial,' is uprooting seedlings from 40 spots in British Columbia, Washington State, Oregon and Idaho and replanting them in new environments to see if they flourish or fail. (Blog of Bloom)

 

Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, June 26th 2009

Al Gore rallied the troops for some Waxman-Malarkey and the Big O issued a report full of global warming doom and gloom, but cheer up, it’s not all bad. (Daily Bayonet)

 

Polish union warns of EU climate-law job cuts

Some 800,000 jobs across Europe will be wiped out following the adoption of EU climate change legislation last year, warned Poland's Solidarność trade union.

Jarosław Grzesik, deputy head of energy at Solidarność, said Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic would suffer most because of their reliance on coal for electricity production. (EurActiv)

 

Don't do it, ever. Atmospheric CO₂ is a resource: AEP Sees Carbon Capture From Coal Ready By 2015

SAN FRANCISCO - Technology to capture carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants and store them underground will be ready by 2015 and could be in wide use in the United States by 2020, according to the top executive at American Electric Power Co Inc. (Reuters)

 

EU To Help China Bury Carbon In Climate Fight

LUXEMBOURG - Europe has started moves to help China develop technology to trap and bury carbon dioxide (CO2) underground in the fight against global warming. (Reuters)

 

Green Group Asks U.S. To Bar Canada Oil Sands

WASHINGTON - An environmental group on Wednesday asked U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to deny permits for pipelines that would bring oil from Canada's oil sands to the United States. (Reuters)

 

Iraqi oil contracts to be auctioned in live TV 'game show'

More than 30 energy companies, including BP, Shell and ExxonMobil will be forced to tussle for contracts worth billions. (Daily Telegraph)

 

Ice on fire: The next fossil fuel

DEEP in the Arctic Circle, in the Messoyakha gas field of western Siberia, lies a mystery. Back in 1970, Russian engineers began pumping natural gas from beneath the permafrost and piping it east across the tundra to the Norilsk metal smelter, the biggest industrial enterprise in the Arctic.

By the late 70s, they were on the brink of winding down the operation. According to their surveys, they had sapped nearly all the methane from the deposit. But despite their estimates, the gas just kept on coming. The field continues to power Norilsk today.

Where is this methane coming from? The Soviet geologists initially thought it was leaking from another deposit hidden beneath the first. But their experiments revealed the opposite - the mystery methane is seeping into the well from the icy permafrost above. (New Scientist)

 

Be skeptical of new “smart meters”

Last week, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) announced their plans to install 620,000 “smart meters” over the next two years in order to upgrade the aging electrical system in the Sacramento Area.

“Instead of today's ‘dumb’ odometer-style counters, the devices will be brainy hubs in a new electrical nervous system that promises to save money and power and foster the next tech boom,” according to the Sacramento Bee.

The renovations are being spun as positives for the utility’s customers, no more monthly visits from the meter reader and quicker repairs are both becoming popular sales pitches for the new “smart meters.” “A home's power usage will be beamed straight to the utility, eliminating the meter-reader's monthly visit. If your power goes out, the meter will tell SMUD instantly (now, the utility usually learns of outages when customers call),” the Bee further reports.

While technological innovation almost always means that consumers of a particular product or service will benefit, there are several problems with these electrical grid renovations that should concern everyone. (Cameron English, Examiner)

 

Hello! Where were you? Calm Days, Clouds Could Stymie Solar, Wind Future

SAN FRANCISCO - Maybe the future of climate friendly energy won't have as much to do with wind and solar energy as current booms in those technologies suggest.

Clouds and calm days could make the alternative energy stars bit players in a clean power future where round-the-clock dependability is critical.

That was one message from Microsoft Corp's deep thinker, Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie, whose view stirred controversy among energy executives.

"We should undoubtedly increase research and investment in alternative and renewable energy resources such as wind and solar but equally we need to be clear, at least in my mind, that I don't think these are ever likely to be a substitute for today's primary resources, particularly if world demand at least doubles over the next 20 years," Mundie said in a speech to utility executives this week. (Reuters)

 

Tilting at Green Windmills

The Spanish professor is puzzled. Why, Gabriel Calzada wonders, is the U.S. president recommending that America emulate the Spanish model for creating "green jobs" in "alternative energy" even though Spain's unemployment rate is 18.1 percent -- more than double the European Union average -- partly because of spending on such jobs? (George F. Will, Washington Post)

 

Green Jobs a Cost, Not Benefit, to the National Economy

BOSTON, MA – Recent studies forecasting the potential economic benefits of government green job programs are critically flawed and erroneously promote these jobs as a benefit, according to a report released today by The Beacon Hill Institute (BHI) at Suffolk University.

The economic analysis reviewed the primary claims of three of the most influential green jobs studies and found serious economic flaws in each.

“Contrary to the claims made in these studies, we found that the green job initiatives reviewed in each actually causes greater harm than good to the American economy and will cause growth to slow,” reported Paul Bachman, Director of Research at the Beacon Hill Institute, one of the report’s authors. (Beacon Hill Institute)

 

This eye-roller, again: Climate change to hit energy projects?

The use of nuclear power and/or renewable energy is seen as part of the response to climate change, but climate change may have a negative impact on some of these energy sources, limiting the contribution they can make. (ERL)

 

Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake Fears

AltaRock Energy will drill ground laced with fault lines using a method that has caused earthquakes elsewhere. (NYT)

 

Pimp My Ride DC Style

In a Freudian slip, "Cash for Clunkers" is the latest Washington brainstorm to goose car sales while striking a fashion pose of being green. "Pimp my ride" would be more accurate. The legislation, which is passed and awaiting President Obama's signature this next week, offers up to $4,500 in vouchers to purchase a new car if it gets between 2 and 10 mpg more than the old car it replaces.

The industry, led by Undead Motors (formerly GM) and Zombie Motors (formerly Chrysler), is more than willing to grab a free lunch at our expense. Along for the ride are the Japanese car makers, the UAW, and everyone else dining off the US taxpayers' carcass. With apologies to the Eagles' Lyin Eyes, has Congress ever wondered how it got this crazy? ( Eric Singer, American Thinker)

 

Rules May Limit Cash for Clunkers Program

While the U.S. law may help raise demand for new cars, it is more restrictive than a similar law that proved popular in Germany.  (NYT)

 

Car Makers Fight EU Ban On Climate Change Chemicals

BRUSSELS - Car makers are lobbying the European Union to delay an agreed 2011 ban on climate-damaging chemicals in car air conditioners, a letter from auto industry group ACEA shows.

The move has aroused strong opposition from environmentalists and suppliers of greener engineering systems. (Reuters)

 

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