Archives - February 2002

February 28, 2002

Slowly catching up with the real world: "Scientists back off on Agent Orange-cancer link" - "WASHINGTON - The U.S. National Academy of Sciences is retracting its conclusion from last year that Agent Orange increases the risk of cancer in children. The Institute of Medicine said Wednesday there is not enough evidence to link exposure to the herbicide with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Last April, the institute said the available data led them to conclude children of veterans exposed to Agent Orange had a greater than average change of developing AML. Now, it says an error in one of the original studies "led its authors to incorrectly conclude that these children faced significantly greater risk of AML than the general population." (CBC) | Institute of Medicine backs away from Agent Orange conclusion | Panel: Agent Orange Finding Flawed (AP)

"Pollution fears of animal pyres" - "Long-term pollution may have been caused by the burial and mass burning of slaughtered animals during the foot-and-mouth crisis, the Environment Agency has warned. In a report published on Wednesday the agency said it was concerned about the effect on groundwater." (BBC Online)

From the anti-nuke corner: "France hushed up Chernobyl risks - research centre" - "VALENCE - An independent research centre accused the French government this week of hushing up risks to public health after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. France's Independent Commission on Research and Information on Radioactivity (CRIIRAD), which is filing a civil complaint against President Jacques Chirac's government for involuntary physical injury, said there had been a government cover-up. It said the government was aware that radioactive fallout from the world's worst nuclear disaster could harm the public but deliberately failed to warn them. "Why these blatant lies? These obvious errors? This silence from official and even scientific bodies?" CRIIRAD director Corinne Castanier told a news conference." (Reuters)

Perhaps because there was never valid reason for the hysteria to begin with?

"NB Power seeks OK for Pt Lepreau nuke refurbishment" - "NEW YORK - NB Power asked New Brunswick to approve of the proposed C$845 million plan to refurbish the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant, the provincially owned energy company said in a statement. "Point Lepreau is our main base load generator with fuel costs that are a fraction of any thermal power plants," said Ken Little, NB Power vice president of regulatory affairs." (Reuters)

"UPDATE - Brit Energy, BNFL look at replacing nuke reactors" - "LONDON - Britain's two main nuclear power companies agreed to study a new generation of reactors but said building new nuclear plants would be too expensive at current wholesale power prices." (Reuters)

"The Seattle Times: Editorials & Opinion: Restoring credibility to government science" - "Biofraud" is one word being used to describe a recent incident in which federal and state agency wildlife scientists are accused of manipulating Canada lynx field surveys by submitting phony samples for testing. It's a case where scientists who are supposed to be committed to the rules of science are willing to violate them when facts contradict what they want to happen."

"Environmental Skeptic New Danish Green Group Chief" - "COPENHAGEN - A man who believes global warming is a minor affair has been named to head a new Danish independent environmental institute." (Reuters)

Uh-huh... "Arctic meltdown" - "Within a decade, the Arctic could be open to ordinary commercial shipping and open up new fisheries. If the Arctic ice cap melts at the rate predicted, it could open up new routes between Europe and East Asia. But according to a report from the US Navy, these new routes will be extremely difficult to police and could start fishing conflicts." (New Scientist)

"Politics, not the environment, drives Kyoto" - "The only winners in the increasingly heated debate over global warming are the boffins in Ottawa. A couple of weeks ago, the federal government distributed a colourful announcement in newspapers across the land proclaiming that "the Earth is getting warmer" and that implementing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, on the targeted reduction of so-called greenhouse gases, would fix things." (Barry Cooper and David Bercuson, Calgary Herald)

"Kyoto cost pegged at 450,000 jobs" - "OTTAWA - The Kyoto Protocol would wipe out 450,000 manufacturing jobs in Canada, cost the economy up to $40-billion and force a radical lifestyle change on people, according to a report by the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters. David Anderson, the Environment Minister, acknowledged yesterday the government has still to forecast the economic impact of the treaty. The release of the 20-page report -- Pain Without Gain: Canada and the Kyoto Protocol -- follows Jean Chrétien's affirmation yesterday of his government's intention to ratify the international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." (National Post)

"PM rejects claim Kyoto will destroy jobs; Ignoring global warming has costs, he tells Commons" - "OTTAWA - Prime Minister Jean Chretien says he doesn't believe claims by opposition critics that complying with the Kyoto climate treaty will cost 450,000 jobs. "I do not accept these figures," Chretien told acting Canadian Alliance Leader John Reynolds in the Commons today. He said critics are ignoring the cost of doing nothing about global warming. "There is the reality, too, that climate change is causing a lot of problems. The farmers might have to pay a price if we don't do anything about it. So we have to look at both sides of the problem." (CP)

And these would be: reduced heating costs from less-cold winters; longer growing seasons and increased yields; improved road safety, transport reliability... Those the kind of problems you're worried about Jean?

"Our climate change strategy must reflect Canadian realities" - "While manufacturing production has increased by more than 32% since 1990, Canada's manufacturers have reduced their greenhouse gas emissions to 2% below 1990 levels by voluntarily improving energy efficiency and switching to less carbon-intensive fuels. Their efforts represent a 35% reduction in the amount of greenhouse gases emitted for every product they produce.

Nevertheless, the Kyoto Protocol still presents a daunting challenge. Under Kyoto, Canada would have to reduce total emissions to 6% below 1990 levels by 2010. Based on current trends in population growth, economic development, transportation and energy consumption, Canada will overshoot our emissions target by about 240 million metric tons, or 40%." (Perrin Beatty, National Post)

"Klein on cutting smog: Just 'quit breathing'" - "EDMONTON -- Frustrated by suggestions that the Kyoto Protocol should be ratified despite the costs, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein pointed out yesterday that breathing also contributes to global warming. Oil-rich Alberta, which leads the country in emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases, is demanding that the federal government put the brakes on ratifying the accord because it could cripple the province's economy." (Globe and Mail)

Quick, call 'Ozone Al'! "Chilean Links Ozone Loss to Skin Ailments" - "PUNTA ARENAS, Chile -- Jaime Abarca works alone at the end of the world. He is the only dermatologist in Patagonian Chile, a wind-swept landscape where trees grow sideways and penguins frolic in icy waters." (LA Times)

Still making free with everyone else's money: "Clinton to dedicate life to redistributing world's wealth" - "Former US president Bill Clinton today vowed to dedicate the rest of his life to helping redistribute the world's wealth. At his fourth Australian speaking engagement, Mr Clinton said prosperous nations including Australia and the United States held the key to the world's future. He said it would cost America $US2.5 billion ($A4.87 billion) to meet UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's request for an extra $US10 billion ($A19.47 billion) to fight AIDS and other infections diseases. "For us, you know what that is?" he asked the $1,100-a-head charity dinner in Melbourne for the Microsurgery Foundation. "Two-and-a-half months of the Afghan war, and about one tenth of one per cent of the federal budget. That's it." (AAP)

"New Front on Ecoterror?" - "Feb. 26 — Some congressmen and industry advocates want the federal government to take a hard look at some well-known animal rights and environmental groups, and maybe shut them down as supporters of terrorism." (ABCNews.com)

From the wacky world: "GE Free Market Coalition Announces Launch of National Supermarket Campaign" - "National Days of Action will take place March 12-14" (Organic Consumers Association)

"Biotech regulators should become people-friendly" - "These days one hears cries of "superweeds" and doomsday scenarios about bioengineered crops. Protesters chain themselves to laboratories, or worse, they burn the laboratories. Concerned about the controversy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one of three agencies regulating biotechnology, asked the National Academy of Sciences to undertake a critical review of the agency's efforts." (Bruce M. Chassy, Chicago Tribune)

February 27, 2002

?!! "Teens Drink Quarter of All Alcohol Consumed in U.S." - "WASHINGTON - Teen tipplers drink a quarter of all alcohol consumed in the United States, encouraged by television ads and parents who see underage drinking as a rite of passage, researchers said on Tuesday." (Reuters) | Underage Drinking Is on the Rise (AP) | Alcohol is US Teens' Drug of Choice, Findings Show (Reuters Health) | Study: Underage drinkers starting at earlier age (CNN) | Teen drinking a U.S. epidemic, study says; Under-21s account for 25% of alcohol consumption (San Francisco Chronicle)

All that fuss - based on: America's Underage Drinking Epidemic | Full report [PDF format] (CASA) - what a shame CASA's calculations aren't worth a damn.

"CASA STUDY IS BLATANTLY FLAWED ON UNDERAGE DRINKING" - "WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Distilled Spirits Council today challenged a National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) report on teenage drinking, calling CASA’s analysis of government data “flat out wrong.”

“Under CASA’s flawed interpretation, each American teenager and young adult who illegally drinks alcohol would have to consume 120 drinks per month, a massive error in fact and the wrong conclusion,” said DSC senior vice president Frank Coleman." (DSC release) | STATEMENT BY THE SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ADMINISTRATION ON CASA REPORT ON UNDERAGE DRINKING (SAMHSA release)

"Report fuels teen drinking debate" - "Feb. 26 — A major substance abuse think tank on Tuesday made the alarming claim that youths ages 12 to 20 consume 25 percent of all alcohol in the United States, but a federal agency whose survey was used for the report agreed with the alcohol industry that the calculation was flawed. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse stood by its report, which also estimated that 31 percent of high school students binge drink.

At MSNBC.com’s request, the federal agency that conducts the annual survey reviewed the claims and said the correct figure for underage consumption is 11.4 percent, not 25 percent." (MSNBC) | Beer Institute Statement: Casa Study Ignores Positive Trends in Reducing Underage Drinking (U.S. Newswire)

"Disturbing Finding on Young Drinkers Proves to Be Wrong" - "After several news organizations reported a finding that under-age drinkers consumed a quarter of the nation's alcohol, the widely respected antidrinking organization that issued the finding acknowledged that it had not applied the usual statistical techniques in deriving that number, which would then have been far smaller." (New York Times)

And another junk 'study' crashes and burns - in probably record short-time, too.

"Antimicrobial/Antibacterial Products: Is Cleaner Really Safer?" - "Nearly a hundred and fifty products making antimicrobial/antibacterial claims had found their way into the consumer market since 1996 (the terms antimicrobial and antibacterial are often used interchangeably, technically antimicrobials fight a variety of organisms while antibacterials target bacteria). Today, there are over seven hundred such products on the market. From toys and food preparation items to health and beauty aids, manufacturers have convinced consumers that the use of products embedded with triclosan (a broad spectrum germicide) or other active antimicrobial/antibacterial ingredients will lower the risk of infection." (HealthFactsAndFears.com)

"The Latest Mammogram Report" - "There was no doubting the sincerity of Tommy Thompson, the health and human services secretary, when he urged all women 40 and older last week to get regular mammograms. His own wife had breast cancer, and Mr. Thompson believes that mammography "may well have saved her life." But in releasing a task force report that endorses regular mammograms and in putting the imprimatur of his office behind it, Mr. Thompson was acting precipitately. He was announcing his verdict before the evidence on which the task force relied is even available for public scrutiny." (New York Times)

"Obesity growing threat to world health" - "KINGSTON, R.I. -- The world is round and so are a growing number of its inhabitants. In fact, obesity is spreading at an alarming rate, not just in industrialized countries but in developing countries, where obesity often sits next to malnutrition." (University of Rhode Island)

Yeah... things were so much better when the world was flat.

On the synthetic crime front: "Govt to investigate CFC12 smuggling" - "The government is considering measures to prevent the import and use of CFC12, a banned ozone-depleting refrigerant, after several smuggling operations were discovered since last summer, sources said Monday. An estimated 500,000 cans, or 150,000 kilograms of dichlorodifluoromethane, known as CFC12, are believed to have been either imported into the country or stopped at customs since last summer, the sources said." (Yomiuri Shimbun)

"Forth coast study could turn the tide for Venice" - "A STUDY of erosion in the Forth estuary could help to prevent Venice from disappearing into the sea. Scientists from St Andrews University have joined an international taskforce to understand better how tides damage coasts. The £1 million project will examine the Forth, Morecambe Bay in Lancashire and the Venice lagoon in an effort to find new ways of protecting threatened sites, such as the historic Italian city. Venice is at risk from rising sea levels caused by global warming, which have increased the flooding of tourist areas such as St Mark’s Square to 80 times a year." (The Scotsman)

And it has nothing to do with increased subsidence rate due to over-extraction of groundwater - it's global warming that threatens Venice, of course.

"Making Biospheric Mountains Out of Laboratory Mole Hills" - "Summary: Climate alarmists are always on the lookout for anything they can twist, unduly amplify or falsely generalize to cast the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 content in an unfavorable light. A paper appearing in the 5 February 2002 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - the authors of which also engage in a bit of spin-doctoring - gave them a wonderful pretense to do it again." (co2science.org)

"Abrupt Climate Warming: A Characteristic of Glacial Periods" - "Summary: It has been known for some time that glacial periods experience much greater variations in climate than interglacials, including large and abrupt warmings that are foreign to the interglacial in which we currently live. Now comes a climate model that purports to tell us why. Science 295: 1489-1493." (co2science.org)

"More Warmth Means a More Stable Climate" - "Summary: One can learn a lot from an otolith. Science 295: 1508-1511." (co2science.org)

"Earth's Thermohaline Circulation and Abrupt Climate Change" - "Summary: A review of our current understanding of these phenomena, their possible interaction, and how well the climate modeling community can reproduce their past behavior lends credence to our conclusion that we will never experience abrupt global warming of the type climate alarmists often invoke in trying to scare people into taking unwarranted actions aimed at reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Nature 415: 863-869." (co2science.org)

"U.S.-Japan climate talks set for March" - "Japan and the United States will hold a ministerial-level meeting in Tokyo, most likely on March 24, to discuss cooperation on fighting global warming, government sources said Tuesday." (Japan Times)

"Japan to urge Canada to ratify Kyoto Protocol" - "TOKYO, Feb. 26 - Japan will call on Canada to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on curbing global warming when the Group of Eight (G-8) environment ministers meet in Canada in April, Environment Minister Hiroshi Oki said Tuesday." (Kyodo)

"Provinces will have Kyoto input, Ottawa says" - "VICTORIA - The federal government yesterday agreed to consult the provinces about how to meet its commitment to ratify the Kyoto agreement on climate change. "We don't intend to make a decision on ratification until we have in place a plan which indicates that no region of the country would have an unfair or unreasonable burden," said David Anderson, Minister of the Environment." (John Greenwood and Carla Wilson, National Post; Victoria Times-Colonist)

"Kyoto's real cost" - "While there is little chance the Kyoto Protocol will improve the environment, it will definitely hurt the economy, possibly even triggering another recession." (Ross McKitrick, National Post)

"Australia scientists urge caution on El Nino fears" - "SYDNEY - Australia's inland farmers are looking skywards hoping for rain, but weather scientists say it is too early to confirm a return of the feared El Nino weather pattern, with the odds still 50/50." (Reuters)

Even the LA Times has noted: "El Nino Is Relatively Recent, Fossils Show" - "El Nino, the periodic warming of Pacific Ocean waters that affects the weather worldwide, started about 6,000 years ago, according to a study of ancient fish bones. Georgia researchers reported in the Feb. 22 issue of Science that fish bones from refuse left about 6,000 years ago by ancient peoples in Peru show that ocean catfish lived in water that averaged 6 degrees to 7 degrees warmer than now and that there was little variation in the temperature." (LA Times)

"Forces of faith enter fray over energy policy" - "The biblical declaration about God's lifting of darkness as part of creation is not typically thought of as a political pronouncement. But when a congressional staffer recently expressed surprise that the faith community had anything to say about federal energy policy, Paul Gorman, executive director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment in New York, replied straight from the Old Testament: "Genesis, first chapter, third verse - 'Let there be light.'"

As the Senate this week takes up major proposals on energy generation and conservation, the leaders of major religious groups around the country are looking over congressional shoulders, hoping to generate a little political heat while spreading some theological light.

Yesterday, in a letter to every member of the US Senate, more than 1,200 religious leaders reminded lawmakers of the "moral obligations" involved in deciding energy policy initiatives. Signers include high-ranking figures in Jewish, Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox denominations." (The Christian Science Monitor)

Hmm... wonder when they'll figure out that 'global warming' and 'conservation' are actually competing theologies.

"UPDATE - GM holds rallies to protest fuel standard proposal" - "PONTIAC - General Motors Corp. and union workers held rallies at plants in three Midwestern states Monday warning that the U.S. automotive industry would lose more than 100,000 jobs if the Senate passed a proposal to raise fuel economy standards." (Reuters)

"New mandates for gas mileage would risk lives" - "ARLINGTON, Va. - Politicians in our nation's capital are taking steps that will almost inevitably increase fatalities on our nation's roads. Their reason is as straightforward as it is frightening: to curry favor with environmental special interest groups in an election year." (Nancy Mitchell Pfotenhauer, The Baltimore Sun)

"Poll Says Americans Choose Auto Safety Over Fuel Economy" - "Capitol Hill - A poll released Monday by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) shows that Americans, once informed about the safety drawbacks of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, choose auto safety over fuel economy by a significant margin. The poll is being released as the Senate is set to debate a proposal by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to increase the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards." (CNSNews.com)

"Statoil set to develop Arctic's sleeping beauty" - "HAMMERFEST, Norway - Norwegian energy group Statoil is set to pursue its Snoehvit - Snow White - gas field development in the Barents Sea as local support eclipses the green lobby that wants this Arctic sleeping beauty to stay that way." (Reuters)

"Voodoo environmentalism" - "DEKALB, ILL. - When President Bush recently presented his new climate-change policy, he argued that economic growth is the key to environmental progress. Economic growth, he suggested, provides us the means to develop and invest in cleaner technologies. Mr. Bush's father once referred to Ronald Reagan's trickle-down economics as voodoo economics. I would assert that growth-induced conservation is a case of voodoo environmentalism." (says William G. Moseley, in The Christian Science Monitor)

"A Rich U.S. Has Cleaner Air" - "Environmental alarmists fail to appreciate a fundamental truth: richer nations, including the U.S., have the resources to avoid or clean up environmental pollution. Poorer nations such as China or Ghana, which must devote a much larger portion of their resources just to subsistence, don't have that luxury. Imposing expensive environmental mandates like the Kyoto treaty on American industries will only make us poorer -- and reduce our ability to control pollution." (National Center for Policy Analysis)

"Judge Overturns 'Critical Habitat' of 2 Species" - "A new analysis of the economic effects of setting aside more than 500,000 acres to protect the threatened gnatcatcher and fairy shrimp is ordered." (LA Times)

A rational act? What's going on?

"Swedish Greens may fail next election threshold" - "STOCKHOLM - Sweden's Green Party, on which the minority Social Democratic government currently relies for support, risks dropping out of parliament in the next election in September, political analysts said this week." (Reuters)

"Father of Green Revolution Supports Transgenic Crops" - "SAN JOSE, Feb 26 - Genetically modified food crops are a valid option for fighting global hunger, says U.S. scientist Norman Borlaug, winner of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize and father of the "green revolution", which transformed farming worldwide in the 1950s and 1960s. "Biotechnology is a continuation of the green revolution," Borlaug, 88, told IPS. Some experts credit the elderly scientist with saving the most human lives in world history, thanks to the increase in crop productivity achieved as a result of his research." (IPS)

"U.S. Position on Biotech Labeling" - "The Codex Steering Committees have agreed upon a U.S. position on the Proposed Draft Recommendations for the Labelling of Foods Obtained through Certain Techniques of Genetic Modification/Genetic Engineering (Proposed Draft Amendments to the General Standard for the Labelling of Prepackaged Foods). This position will be put forward by the U.S. Delegate at the Codex Committee on Food Labelling session meeting in Halifax, Canada, May 6-10, 2002." (FSIS Codex Alimentarius Commission release)

"Majority of Aussies would eat GM food - survey" - "A recent survey shows a majority of Australian consumers are willing to eat genetically modified foods although they are still concerned about them. This is one of the findings of a survey into community attitudes towards biotechnology, conducted for the Commonwealth Government Agency Biotechnology Australia, in January this year. The survey, conducted by Quantum Market Research, involved over 500 telephone interviews, and replicated a survey conducted in May 2000, to measure areas of change." (Biotechnology Australia release)

"Australia canola exporters wary of China GM system" - "SYDNEY - China and international canola exporters are locked in a documentation duel which is grinding trade to a halt as a complicated new approval system nears for Chinese imports of genetically modified (GM) foods." (Reuters)

"Brazilian Courts Working on Biotech Regulatory Process" - "Brazil may be getting a small step closer to determining how best to implement a regulatory process for oversight and approval of biotechnology-enhanced crops. On February 25, the Brazilian appellate court reconvened to announce their decision on whether or not they would lift an injunction that, to date, has prevented the Brazilian government from granting commercial approval of agricultural biotechnology crops. To date, the government's executive branch has been supportive of the technology, and appears to be committed to providing Brazilian growers the opportunity to plant biotech crops." (AgWeb.com)

February 26, 2002

"Organic Milk Shakedown: A Recipe with a Bad Aftertaste" - "Start with one large, well-known company which prides and markets itself on a record of corporate responsibility and environmental stewardship. Add a dose of false and misleading health claims, a dash of fear and a healthy serving of threats. Shake (down) vigorously. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat..." (Steven Milloy, JunkScience.com)

"Warning: Starbucks Protestors Spread False Fears About Safe Foods" - "Misleading attacks on milk and safe foods cause unnecessary concerns for parents and consumers." (ACSH) | Letter to Members of the Board of Starbucks Coffee Company (CFIS)

"Health Panel Evaluates Evidence on Risk Factors for Prostate Cancer: Finds None That Can Be Modified" - "New York, NY—February 2002. Despite media reports to the contrary, claims that lifestyle and dietary factors affect a man's chance of developing prostate cancer are scientifically unproven, according to scientists associated with the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH)." (ACSH)

"It's the Treatment, Stupid" - "Not long ago, many biologists could get by on two rules of thumb. On the one hand, it was said, "the first time your experiment works, it's a mistake; the second time, it's an artifact; the third time, it's a finding." On the other hand, "if you need to use statistics to prove something, it's not worth proving." (Dr. Charles Murtaugh, TCS)

"Overweight girls aged five are in diabetes danger" - "A THIRD of five-year-old girls are overweight and showing early signs that they may develop a type of diabetes leading to strokes and heart disease in later life, according to the largest study of its kind. It follows concern that a young generation of “couch potatoes” is showing early warning signs of the illness. The new study of more than 300 primary school children in Plymouth is trying to identify the “fuse” that has caused a big increase in type II diabetes in the industrialised world." (The Times)

"Dubious Data Awards" - "Every year there is a struggle between science and journalism that science normally loses. That's why the Statistical Assessment Service gives out Dubious Data awards to journalists who mangled statistics and subverted science in the way they reported stories." (Iain Murray, TCS)

"Angelos, industry to spar in court" - "WASHINGTON-The wireless industry is set to square off with high-powered lawyer Peter Angelos in Baltimore federal court today for the start of an unprecedented, week-long hearing on scientific evidence in an $800 million lawsuit that alleges cell-phone use caused the brain cancer of 42-year-old neurologist Christopher Newman. The stakes have never been higher for the mobile-phone industry, which already is on shaky financial ground and can ill afford to have health questions factored into the risk equation on Wall Street. "If a judge rules there is evidence of a health risk from mobile phones, there could be an avalanche of lawsuits," said David Freedman, a wireless industry analyst at Bear Stearns." (RCRNews)

"Warmest Winter Record Will Likely Be Set On Thursday" - "If current trends continue for the Northeast through Thursday, then the meteorological winter of 2001-02 will be the region's warmest on record, with an average temperature above freezing for the first time in 107 years of official record-keeping, say Cornell University climatologists. (Winter is defined meteorologically as Dec. 1 through Feb. 28 or Feb. 29.) The Northeast's previous warmest winter was recorded 70 years ago with an average 32 degrees Fahrenheit between Dec. 1, 1931, and Feb. 29, 1932. The region's second-warmest winter, in 1997-98, had an average of 30.8 degrees." (UniSci)

"Science Junk Hits the Washington Fan" - "Back in December 2000, President Clinton and Vice President Gore were busy fellows -- what with dishes to pack, furniture to ship and an election to contest. So busy were they that they neglected to read some of the fine print in a cascade of administration-ending paperwork. One of these was an obscure item called the "Federal Data Quality Act" (FDQA), which was dutifully signed by the president. Put simply, the FDQA prohibits the use of junky science in the promulgation of federal regulations and laws. And, now that the new hats are in town, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that the FDQA is being turned against the "science" of the Clinton-Gore team, particularly concerning the global environment." (Patrick J. Michaels, Cato Institute)

"The growing season is growing as warming trend persists" - "Winter is scheduled to make a guest appearance this week, but if recent years are any barometer, the region's backyard gardeners will be getting down and dirty before they know it. It may or may not be related to a larger pattern, but something quite remarkable has happened around here since 1991: The growing season has grown." (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

"Science Notebook: What catfish tell us about climate change" - "Scientists say El Nino, the Pacific Ocean phenomenon that's again starting to stir weather patterns across the globe, first surfaced in its present form due to a climate change about 5,000 years ago, according to temperature records stored in Peruvian fish bones.

A study published Friday in the journal Science relies on a record of seawater temperatures captured via oxygen molecules in a tiny bone, called an otolith, found in the inner ears of sea catfish that live along Peru's coast.

"This is more evidence that climate change is the norm, and climate stability is the exception in Earth's history, even in relatively recent times," said lead author C. Fred Andrus, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Georgia." (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

"Climate Plan Is Criticized as Optimistic" - "The White House statement on climate change read: "President Bush announced today that the United States has agreed with other industrialized nations that stabilization of carbon dioxide emissions should be achieved as soon as possible. The United States also agreed that it is timely to investigate quantitative targets to limit or reduce carbon dioxide emissions."

That was Nov. 7, 1989, one year after a global heat wave made the environment a top political issue and raised the prospect that people might be affecting the climate by adding carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases to the air, warming the planet as if it were inside a greenhouse.

Twelve years later, under a new President Bush, the urgency has evaporated. On Feb. 14 the president articulated a new approach to what has become a lingering, complicated, politically charged scientific issue. It relies on voluntary efforts to slow, but not halt, the growth in emissions of greenhouse gases. Progress is to be measured by tracking the growth of emissions relative to the growth of the economy." (New York Times)

"Clear Skies, murky benefits" - "President George W. Bush's plan to curb global warming is flawed, but not fatally. At least it takes wobbly steps toward tamping down dangerous gases spewed by industry and vehicles." (The Plain Dealer)

"Global coolness" - "AFTER ENDURING harsh criticism by the rest of the world for summarily rejecting the global warming pact known as the Kyoto Protocol, President Bush finally offered his own plan earlier this month. What a disappointment." (The Bergen Record)

"EDITORIAL: Room for more action" - "Our position: President Bush's greenhouse-gases proposal is a small step in the right direction." (Orlando Sentinel)

"Round Two set to begin in Kyoto squabble" - "OTTAWA - A simmering dispute between Ottawa and the provinces over the Kyoto Agreement on climate change moves to its next level as consultations between the sides begin today in Victoria, B.C. David Anderson, the Environment Minister, has promised Canada won't sign the treaty without consulting the provinces and the private sector. But he has also said Ottawa will ratify the treaty, as early as June, even if a number of provinces remain opposed. "We do not expect to proceed without full consultations with the provinces. That's been promised by the Prime Minister and we're continuing that process [today and tomorrow] at the joint ministerial meeting in Victoria," Mr. Anderson said. He and Herb Dhaliwal, the Natural Resources Minister, will outline the options that Ottawa is considering to implement Kyoto." (Financial Post)

"Anderson signals Canadian consensus on Kyoto treaty needs more work" - "VICTORIA -- The provinces and Ottawa need to do more work before reaching a Canadian consensus on the Kyoto protocol to curb greenhouse gas emissions, federal Environment Minister David Anderson said Monday." (CP)

"Environment ministers meet to talk Kyoto" - "VICTORIA - Environmentalists are pushing for Canada to sign the Kyoto Protocol, but as provincial and federal ministers begin meeting in Victoria, it seems more dithering lies ahead." (CBC)

"FP CEO POLL: Kyoto poses problems to economy; 'Agreement flawed'" - "OTTAWA - Global warming is a serious problem but signing the Kyoto Agreement on climate change will put Canada at a competitive disadvantage with the U.S., the latest Financial Post/COMPAS Inc. poll of business leaders says. "[Business leaders] think something needs to be done but they think the agreement is flawed," said Conrad Winn, president of COMPAS. "They have huge concerns [Kyoto] would do huge harm to the Canadian economy." (Financial Post)

"CHOGM climate anger" - "THE Federal Government has been warned of mounting anger from island nations ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) because of its approach to climate change. Climate experts will gather in Brisbane tomorrow just days before CHOGM begins to discuss the Commonwealth's approach to climate change and Australia's approach to the problem." (AAP)

"Legacy of foot-and-mouth threatens rare species" - "One of Britain's most beautiful beetles is among several wildlife species facing extinction in the wake of foot-and-mouth disease. The problem for the blue ground beetle, Carabus intricatus, and other insects is that they depend on farm livestock to maintain the habitats vital to their existence in south-west England. The crisis that devastated the sheep and cattle industry is threatening to shatter that delicate relationship. Many farmers are considering pulling out of livestock, and conservationists fear that biodiversity action plans (Baps) to safeguard a range of rarities could founder if this essential element is missing or in severe decline." (Independent)

Isn't it fascinating how farming is an 'essential element' - but only when people aren't the beneficiaries.

February 25, 2002

"Milking the public's food fears; Protesting Starbucks -- Coffee, Tea or rbST?" - "Don't expect Starbucks' founder Howard Schultz to show up anytime soon in a "Got Milk?" commercial. His company, accused of spiking lattes with "tainted" milk, faces a nasty spectacle at its coming shareholder meeting. Demonstrations are planned Feb. 26 at more than 400 Starbucks in six countries, with San Francisco and Seattle as major targets. At issue: the company's milk policy.

... Whether fears fueling this controversy are more foam than substance, all sides agree that how Starbucks navigates the genetic engineering debate will have considerable effect on the American dairy and agriculture industries. Let's hope that Schultz and company recognize that acting responsibly means rejecting extortionist threats and, once and for all, rejecting hysteria as the measure of corporate social responsibility." (Jon Entine, San Francisco Chronicle)

Hmm... "BBC News | UK | 'No BSE risk' to newborn calves" - "New research suggests it is highly unlikely BSE is passed down from one generation of cows to the next, a senior scientist has told the BBC. Professor John Wilesmith, one of the government's top advisers on the disease, has led experiments which eliminate the possibility of BSE being passed from an infected cow to her calf. Professor Wilesmith, from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, told BBC Radio 4's Farming Today programme he was convinced that the only way cows get the disease is through feed contaminated with meat and bone meal." (BBC Online)

It'd be a lot more compelling if anyone could actually demonstrate livestock infection from consumption of said 'contaminated' foodstuffs. As things stand the MBM/BSE link remains hypothetical.

Way to go, Alex Kirby! "Sceptics denounce climate science 'lie'" - "A group of scientists in the US and the UK says the accepted wisdom on climate change remains unproved. They say rising greenhouse gas emissions may not be the main factor in global warming. They argue that temperature rise projections this century are "unknown and unknowable". They claim it is "a media myth" to suppose that only a few scientists share their scepticism. The scientists, a group convened by the American George C. Marshall Institute, first published their report in the US. It has been republished in the UK by the European Science and Environment Forum (Esef), entitled Climate Science and Policy: Making the Connection." (BBC Online) | Press Release | Climate Change and Policy: Making the Connection [PDF] (ESEF)

New items posted on Still Waiting For Greenhouse

• Another Blow to IPCC's `Hockey Stick'

• Malaria and Climate Change

• Canada's Kyoto Crisis

"Kyoto cost will hit us hardest" - "The Kyoto Protocol imposes heavier burdens on New Zealand than on other developed countries, says the Institute of Economic Research. In a report commissioned by the Climate Change Pan Industry Group, a coalition of business groups opposing early ratification, the institute analyses Kyoto's economic impact, focusing on international competitiveness. It argues that there are factors peculiar to the New Zealand economy that would make the costs of adjustment disproportionately high." (New Zealand Herald) | Competitiveness Risks Demand Caution On Kyoto (Press Release: Pan Industry Group On Kyoto)

"Bush Renews Campaign For Arctic Oil" - "WASHINGTON - President Bush on Saturday renewed his campaign to open an Arctic refuge to oil exploration, contending that drilling is essential to national security and job creation. Bush, in his weekly radio address, said that plan is vital to his goal of making the United States less dependent on foreign energy sources. He also wants to promote energy efficiency, develop wind and solar power, build fuel-efficient vehicles and combat pollution." (AP)

"Dems play up their 'green' card" - "WASHINGTON - Most Americans may picture George W. Bush in a Texas-size SUV or a presidential limo. But today, he'll be presenting a decidedly greener image, displaying fuel-cell and hybrid cars on the lawn of the White House. As the Senate returns to a bruising debate on a new US energy policy, the environment is suddenly emerging as a key political issue - and one where Democrats see President Bush as vulnerable." (Christian Science Monitor)

Still trying to get their hands in everyone else's pockets:  "Road tolls could cut congestion and pollution" - "Tolls on Britain's roads could cut congestion by 44 per cent and significantly reduce pollution levels, according to a new report by an influential Government commission. The Commission for Integrated Transport's (CfIT) report, published tomorrow, proposes a shift from general tax paid to the Government towards a direct charge to use the road network – but only during peak traffic times." (Independent)

Ol' Lester - has he ever been right? "World: Environmentalist Predicts Economic Collapse If Trends Continue" - "In order to survive, the global economy must undergo a shift as groundbreaking as the Copernican revolution in astronomy in the 16th century, which recognized that the Earth revolves around the sun, rather than vice versa. This is the message being taken to political and business leaders all over the world by noted U.S. environmentalist Lester Brown, who says they need to recognize that the economy should be considered secondary to ecological concerns. To do the reverse -- treat the environment as of lesser importance than the economy -- spells certain disaster, warns Brown, who last week was in Brussels and spoke to RFE/RL correspondent Ahto Lobjakas." (Radio Free Europe)

"Biotech soybeans help soil quality, industry says" - "NASHVILLE - Genetically modified soybeans are promoting soil conservation by allowing farmers to plow less, a biotechnology industry group said. "Biotech is allowing farmers to practice more conservation tillage," Linda Thrane, executive director of the Council for Biotechnology Information, told reporters at the Commodity Classic, the annual joint convention of the American Soybean Association and the National Corn Growers Association. With conservation tillage, farmers leave the plant residues from harvested crops on the surface of the soil before planting again, rather than plowing them under. The decaying organic matter puts nutrients back in the soil and acts as a sponge for water, reducing runoff from heavy rains and preserving moisture during drought." (Reuters)

Some readers asked for more info on Charlie Benbrook's latest biotech-bashing foray - here you go: Press release: Premium Price for GMO Bt Corn Costs Farmers, Boosts Biotech Firms; New Report Traces Impact of Additional Costs for GMO Bt Corn | Report [PDF] (Genetically Engineered Food Alert)

February 24, 2002

PCBS of the moment: "Obese flyers get extra seat" - "MONTREAL: Obese people may get an extra seat free when they catch a flight in Canada following an unprecedented legal ruling that is rattling the airline industry. The ruling stems from a complaint brought by a woman who had to pay 50 per cent more for a first-class seat to accommodate her girth on an Air Canada flight between Ottawa and Calgary in 1997. Linda McKay-Panos brought a discrimination suit before the Canadian Transportation Agency tribunal, which ruled she had the same rights as a disabled person." (Sydney Daily Telegraph)

And being unable to pack to suit airline luggage weight limits is a disability from which my wife suffers, so she should get a disability allowance for the extra mass she wants transported too, eh? That may not apply since she may be in London while her weight problem is in Cleveland but it would seem the same principle. Since when did gluttony entitle anyone to anything at everyone else's expense? Every traveller will have to pay more for this sort of parasitism. What's next, fatsos suing for disabled parks and/ or disability pensions? Sheesh!

"Restrained and unrestrained eating behaviors affect risk for adult-onset obesity" - "In an article published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Weinsier et al. compared the total energy expenditures of normal weight women who had either maintained or gained weight over the year prior to the study. The most important factor that distinguished those who were successful from those who were unsuccessful at maintaining their weight loss was their level of physical activity." (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)

"Fat Canadians imperil health care: McLellan" - "OTTAWA - Canada is becoming a nation of fat people and the medicare system could become unaffordable unless citizens take more responsibility for their health, says Anne McLellan.

Nearly half of Canadian adults are overweight. Ms. McLellan said governments must put more emphasis on convincing people to take charge of their health by losing weight, watching their diet and stopping smoking. (Ottawa Citizen)

You want an economy with that? "Arise, Ye Prisoners of Starvation" - "One way to measure Russia's slow recovery from the 70-year coma of Communism is to count lobster tanks and sushi bars. Old Russia hands like me, who remember when a banana was more wondrous than a Fabergé egg, swoon at the profusion of delicacies available these days in the bright showcase cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg. My own crude index of the economic condition, however, is the brazen yellow M that now seems to illuminate every other corner of this winter- gray city." (Bill Keller, New York Times)

"Don't blame it on the Accutane" - "When 15-year-old Charles Bishop crashed a plane into an office building in Florida on 5 January 2002, the media wondered whether he was emulating the 11 September terrorists. A few days later, when the acne drug Accutane was discovered in his room, the question changed: did Accutane make him do it? 'Teen pilot may have been taking acne drug linked to suicide', screamed the front page of USA Today on 10 January." (Howard Fienberg, sp!ked)

"UT Southwestern study links asthma and pneumonia" - "Long-term infection with a bacteria that causes pneumonia could lead to chronic asthma, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas researchers report in the February issue of Infection and Immunity." (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas)

Oh, this one's a gem: "Docs often fail to diagnose kids' asthma correctly" - "NEW YORK, Feb 22 - Children with asthma are not likely to be diagnosed accurately and, as a result, may miss out on treatments to help control the condition, according to a new study. Asthma is the most common chronic illness among children in the US, affecting as many as 8.6 million people under the age of 18, according to the American Lung Association.

Government health experts recommend that children with mild to severe persistent asthma use maintenance medications daily to control their illness. But one recent study found 74% of US children with asthma were receiving inadequate maintenance therapy, Dr. Jill S. Halterman of the University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York and colleagues note in the February issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

To investigate, Halterman's team interviewed 90 children aged 4 to 6 with mild to severe chronic asthma, as defined by their parents. The researchers also interviewed the children's parents and their primary care physician. Only 40% of the children were described accurately by their healthcare provider as having mild persistent to severe persistent asthma, and just half had been prescribed maintenance medications, the report indicates." (Reuters Health)

Parents' diagnosis differs from physicians' diagnosis therefore physicians are misdiagnosing? Makes you wonder why we have physicians at all if parents naturally have superior medical ability and without any of those bothersome years of training.

"Jury still out on estrogen-like chemicals, cancer" - "NEW YORK, Feb 22 - While studies of a link between exposure to chemicals with estrogen-like effects and cancer in women have had murky results, current research methods may simply be too crude to detect any relationship, some experts on the issue believe." (Reuters Health)

Still fishing for 'subtle' (read: 'imaginary') effects that massive data-dredges and elaborate statistical torture has failed to provide. All together now: 'More study required.' (Also known as 'scaring up a lucrative job'.)

"Pesticides, asbestos slated for trade controls - 2 22 2002 - ENN.com" - "GENEVA — Potentially dangerous pesticides and asbestos are set to be subject to trade controls under a treaty that aims to protect workers in poor countries from hazardous exports, the United Nations said Thursday. The U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) said that an experts' committee had recommended three pesticides, including one widely used in Asia for insect control, and five forms of asbestos be added to a list of 31 chemicals whose import can be "legitimately and unilaterally banned."

"Ontario testing fish for PCBs" - "Ontario's Ministry of Environment says it hopes to know by next month whether fish from the Speed River in Guelph have been contaminated by PCBs from a former General Electric transformer manufacturing plant in the city. Fish were taken last fall from a number of sites, both upstream and downstream from the factory. Samples are being analyzed. "These studies that we're doing now are the most detailed studies we can possibly do to determine if anything is going off site," said Alan Hayton, who heads the province's program for detecting contaminants in fish." (Globe and Mail)

"Alabama Jury Says Monsanto Polluted Town" - "ATLANTA, Feb. 22 — A jury decided today that the Monsanto Company, which made toxic chemicals in Anniston, Ala., for 40 years, was responsible for polluting the town. Although the state jury in the nearby city of Gadsden did not determine the amount of damages the company would have to pay, the verdict opens the door for millions of dollars of claims by Anniston residents that they were harmed by the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCB's, in the soil around the city." (New York Times)

"Monsanto Held Liable For PCB Dumping" - "An Alabama jury yesterday found that Monsanto Co. engaged in "outrageous" behavior by releasing tons of PCBs into the city of Anniston and covering up its actions for decades, handing 3,500 local residents a huge victory in a landmark environmental lawsuit." (Washington Post)

"Bush Proposing to Shift Burden of Toxic Cleanups to Taxpayers" - "The Bush administration has decided to designate fewer Superfund sites and to shift the bulk of cleanup costs from industry to taxpayers." (New York Times)

Hmm... "Web Site Helped Change Farm Policy" - "WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 — Throughout the angry Senate debate about whether to limit subsidies to wealthy farmers, lawmakers kept referring to "the Web site" to make their points.

It is www.ewg.org, operated by the Environmental Working Group, a small nonprofit organization with the simple idea that the taxpayers who underwrite $20 billion a year in farm subsidies have the right to know who gets the money." (New York Times)

So, just how solid is the information being used to 'change farm policy'? Our friendly neighbourhood computer security specialist and valued correspondent notes the following anomalies:

Apparently 827 "farmers" in the program received checks for $0.00 and 35,041 "farmers" actually paid the government money (difficult to believe) under the program up to a debt maximum of $-947,191.20 for Hilltop Dairy in Preston, ID.

• "First Payment Of $49,055,516.45 At Record No. 1"
• "Start Of Zero Payments At Record No. 2,375,639"
• "End Of Zero Payments At Record No. 2,376,465"
• "Last Negative Payment Of $-947,191.20 At Record No. 2,411,506"

Farm 'policy' is a dodgy name for pork barrelling and now seems to be influenced by dodgy databases as well.

Hot on the heels of last week's now obligatory 'warmest whatever' announcements and:

"Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | The darling buds of February" - "A bitter wind may be blowing across Britain this weekend, but do not be fooled. The evidence of the past five weeks suggests that this has been one of the warmest starts to a year since records began more than 300 years ago." | Telltale signs that spring has sprung

comes, in the very same issue:

"Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Storms and snow return to the north" - "After the warmth that has had daffodils blooming early, winter returned with a vengeance yesterday. Gales, hail, sleet, and snow swept across Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England."

and, in the same vain:

"Arctic Chill is coming!" - "This winter appears to be yet another exclamation point for global warming, but there have been 3 pronounced cold periods thus far that have penetrated significantly into the Lower 48. The first came just before Christmas and lasted into early January, producing record lake effect snows in Buffalo and snow across the Deep South. The second occurred just past mid January and culminated in a snow event for the Northeast. The third came in late January and the first few days of February, leading to a devastating ice storm and substantial snow storm from the south-central Plains to the Great Lakes. Now, arctic air is once again on the move from western Canada into the United States. Most of the country will have well below average temperatures by Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The forecast models are indicating a strengthening southern and East Coast storm late in the coming week. Stay tuned!" (James Wilson, Senior Meteorologist, Weather.com)

"Britain back in winter's grip" - "Heavy snowfalls driven by fierce winds are ensuring there is no end of winter in sight for large parts of the UK." | Snow brings chaos to travellers | Drivers warned over dangerous conditions (BBC Online)

The Med. on Liverpool? The Brits could wish!

"NGOs request Bush attend environment summit" - "WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 - Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and research institutions in the United States on Friday issued a request to President George W. Bush to attend the U.N. environment summit in Johannesburg in August and to rejoin the Kyoto Protocol to prevent global warming." (Kyodo)

"Gov't to solicit public opinion on environment summit" - "TOKYO, Feb. 22 - The Japanese government will solicit public opinion on a paper by the chairman of the preparatory talks for an upcoming U.N. environment summit in Johannesburg, said Environment Minister Hiroshi Oki on Friday. At a news conference, Oki said the government is open to people's opinions on the paper which will serve as the basis for an action plan to be adopted by the summit. He said the opinions will be reflected in talks at the third preparatory committee session for the World Summit on Sustainable Development from March 25 in New York." (Kyodo)

"Blame It On Rio" - "It was ten years ago this spring that President George H.W. Bush took a step that began a slide down the long path toward energy rationing. It was barely ten days ago that his son, President George W. Bush, took an equally large stride in that unfortunate direction.

During the heat of the 1992 political campaign, an ambitious Senator from Tennessee traveled to the World Environment Summit in Rio de Janeiro, demanding to know "Where's George?!" There the world had gathered to moralize against the usual suspects, such as too many (other) people using too many resources.

At this conference, numerous feel-good but dangerous agreements emerged, including "Agenda 21", which, despite some humanist rhetoric, was about as anti-people as we're likely to see in the light of day. But possibly the worst such frivolity was the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -- UNFCCC, or the "Rio treaty." (Chris Horner, TCS)

"The Politics of Electoral Destruction" - "When the President's brilliant Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, R. Glenn Hubbard, took to the pages of the New York Times to argue for the administration's new proposal on climate change, he wrote of an initiative he felt was "likely to move us, at last, beyond arguments at the extremes and toward real action against climate change." (Nick Schulz, TCS)

"Scientists and journalists with an agenda on global warming" - "'[W]e are not just scientists but human beings as well. And like most people, we'd like to see the world a better place. ... To do that we need to get some broad-based support, to capture the public's imagination. That, of course, entails getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we have. ... Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest."

Those were the words of Stephen Schneider – environmental scientist, global-warming crusader. They were recently republished by The Economist, having first appeared in Discover magazine (way back in 1989).

I give Schneider credit. The Stanford University professor of biological sciences was honest enough to admit that he and other politically motivated scientists are not above using hyperbole to gin up headlines.

Of course, to scare the bejeebers out of the unsuspecting public – about global warming or any other putative threat to humanity – Schneider and his fellow crusading scientists must enlist the aid of pliant journalists.

Which brings me to Keay Davidson, science writer for the reflexively liberal San Francisco Chronicle." (Joseph Perkins, Union-Tribune)

"New research in Australia disputes the theory of global warming" - "A study by Australian National University student Erica Hendy in collaboration with the Institute of Marine Sciences, has found ocean temperatures in the tropical western Pacific have remained relatively constant over the past 500 years. Using corals growing since 1565 in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, they've produced one of the first records of ocean temperatures in the southern hemisphere during the so-called little ice age." (Radio Australia)

"Lashing out at ungrateful Quebec" - "A nasty spat between Quebec and Alberta over the Kyoto climate change accord grew even nastier Thursday, as Alberta Environment Minister Lorne Taylor accused Quebec of trying to beggar the West to meet Kyoto's terms." (Edmonton Journal)

This is cute: "How all of Canada can embrace Kyoto" - "Alberta Premier Ralph Klein has a stellar reputation as a progressive politician in his home province. He led the country in slimming down government, cutting taxes and expanding the role of the private sector in health care. On climate change, he is putting that reputation at risk. He would rather sell Albertans on fear than forward thinking. Witness the scaremongering approach yesterday by Lorne Taylor, Alberta's Environment Minister. If Canada ratifies the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to cut the carbon emissions linked to global warming, the cost to the national economy will be as much as $40-billion each year, he prophesied. That's 2.5 per cent of the country's gross domestic product, a doomsday scenario that surely even Alberta doesn't believe." (Globe Technology)

Positing the cost of yielding to scaremongers makes Klein... a scaremonger? Pot calling Kettle - come in Kettle...

"Provinces can't stop Kyoto, Anderson says" - "OTTAWA - David Anderson, the Minister of the Environment, said yesterday Ottawa is prepared to ratify the Kyoto Agreement over objections by the provinces. "The issue, technically, is that international relations fall within the purview of the federal government. And it can act unilaterally," Anderson said at a conference on global warming in Ottawa." (National Post)

"Anderson pushed to table Kyoto figures" - "Opposition patience is wearing thin for Environment Minister David Anderson to table the implementation plan and the costs of ratifying the Kyoto agreement on greenhouse gasses. During Question Period Friday, opposition MPs repeatedly asked Mr. Anderson to provide Canadians with clear cost estimates of complying with greenhouse gas reductions. But Mr. Anderson remained unmoved, saying more talks need to take place with provinces, industry leaders, and Canadians. "We will have more consultation with all sectors involved and we will do this before making the final decision on ratification. That said, our aim is to ratify and we will ratify." (Globe and Mail)

"Rival Energy Plans Face Senate Debate (washingtonpost.com)" - "Torn by rival strategies for reducing the nation's reliance on foreign oil, the Senate is gearing up for a long battle over energy initiatives affecting nearly all aspects of American life -- from the family car to the kitchen refrigerator to the Alaskan wilderness."

"The Nando Times: Deal continues 'megatons to megawatts' program with Russia" - "WASHINGTON (February 22, 2002 8:31 p.m. EST) - Russia will resume shipping nuclear fuel from old Soviet bombs under an agreement reached this week with an American company that buys the fuel to sell to U.S. utilities."

"Kyoto sparks Alberta-Quebec energy feud" - "OTTAWA - The war of words over greenhouse gas emissions heated up on Parliament Hill yesterday as an Alberta MP accused the federal government of ignoring western concerns over the Kyoto agreement in order to curry favour in Quebec." (Elizabeth Thompson, The Gazette)

"Big utilities champion 'green' power" - "OTTAWA -- Two of Canada's largest hydro companies are pushing to have electricity megaprojects -- which flood thousands of acres of land, but provide virtually air-pollution free energy -- accepted as "green power." (Kate Jaimet, Vancouver Sun)

"Independent News - More spending needed on 'green' energy sources" - "The Government must spend more money to find new "green" sources of energy and non-polluting cars, according to its chief scientist. In a direct criticism of past spending on environment-friendly technology, Professor David King has urged Tony Blair to spend up to £400m more each year on finding new forms of "green" energy and transport to help to tackle climate change. Prof King revealed that a national energy research centre is to be founded to lead Britain's efforts to develop hydrogen-fuelled and electric cars, effective solar, tidal and wave energy technologies, and even ways of pumping CO₂ from power stations into disused oil and gas fields. He indicated that economists and sociologists would also be commissioned to study radical plans to replace all petrol and diesel-fuelled vehicles with "green" cars that have been pioneered by California and Lombardy in Italy."

"Sp!ked debate: How will we meet our energy needs in the future?"

• Split over the atom : Malcolm Grimston, senior research fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs
  'Nuclear power has advantages and drawbacks. The only rational approach is to keep as many options open as possible.'
• Oil for all time? : Tom Kearney, vice president, external affairs at Shell Renewables
  'We appear to be entering a particularly innovative period, with more than one path to a sustainable energy system.'
• No shortcut to sustainable energy : John Lawton, chief executive, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
  'Solutions do not lie in tinkering with the system, fiddling while Earth burns. Big issues demand big solutions.'
• Raise the horizons : Joe Kaplinsky, science writer
  'Our aversion to risk limits the development of energy solutions.'

Environment & Climate News, February 2002 (Heartland Institute)

"New York Times Feature Was Fiction" - "A moving, richly detailed New York Times Magazine profile of a boy who became an Ivory Coast laborer turns out to have been a fabrication. The Times acknowledged in an editor's note yesterday that Youssouf Male, the teenager described as living an impoverished existence, hacking weeds on a cocoa plantation for mere pennies, was a composite. The paper said it has fired the author, Michael Finkel, a contributing writer to the magazine." (Washington Post)

"No Evidence of Biotech Danger Prompts Tougher Monitoring" - "There is no evidence that genetically engineered crops have harmed the environment, but the government should do a better job of monitoring crops after they are approved for commercial use, a National Academy of Sciences report concluded yesterday, according to The Washington Post.

The USDA, which requested the study after critics accused it of lax regulation, is supposed to ensure that hardier, gene-altered crops don't develop into superweeds or endanger insects and other animals.

In the Regulation Magazine article, "Food Risks and Labeling Controversies," Henry I. Miller and Peter VanDoren explore market-based alternatives to more government regulation of foods.

In "Taco Terrorism," Steven Milloy dismisses concerns that the genetically engineered corn is dangerous. He argues that some groups have created a scare from the "firm possibility of a definite maybe." The accused protein, CRY9C, "isn't derived from a source containing any known allergens, its protein sequence does not resemble other known allergens and none of the other biotech corn proteins are allergens," he writes.

Steve Milloy is the author of the Cato book "Junk Science Judo: Self-Defense Against Health Scares and Scams." (Cato Institute)

"Wheat may prevent colon cancer" - "Wheat may be a vital weapon in the fight against cancer and other diseases, according to experts. Whole grain wheat contains powerful antioxidants which may help to prevent colon cancer and possibly diabetes and heart disease. Biochemists at Kansas State University, who carried out the research, say the findings may enable them to create modified wheat strains with high levels of cancer-fighting chemicals. Dr Dolores Takemoto, who co-ordinated the study, said: "We hope we will be able to create a genetically modified plant. "We won't be modifying it to adapt to its environment, like most genetically modified plants, but we will be modifying it to produce more of its own cancer-fighting chemicals." (BBC Online)

Hmm... Charlie Benbrook, again: "South Bend, Ind., Farmers Not Sold on Genetically Engineered Corn" - "Feb. 23--Corn farmers in Indiana and Michigan are not sold on seed corn that has been bioengineered to include an insecticide. But they may be paying for research and development costs for those genetically engineered products just the same, according to a report written by Charles Benbrook, a consultant and former director of the National Academy of Science's Board of Agriculture." (Knight Ridder/Tribune)

February 22, 2002

"New Nutrition Book Choking on Bad Science" - "The food industry laughs all the way to the bank as it manipulates the system to make us fat and unhealthy. That’s Marion Nestle’s junk science-fueled message in her new book, Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health." (Steve Milloy, FoxNews.com)

"New Rules Halt Gun Sales" - "Gun sales across the country were hampered this week after the federal authorities failed to provide gun dealers with new forms to run background checks, according to The New York Times.

In "Trust the People: The Case Against Gun Control," David Kopel writes that the gun control debate comes down to the basic question: "Who is more trustworthy, the government or the people?" In "Gun Policy in the Aftermath of Littleton," Cato Fellow Doug Bandow writes that gun control is misguided and that studies show that guns are used five times as often to prevent as to commit crimes." (Cato Institute)

"Town's curb on BB guns becomes a clash of values" - "ALPHARETTA, GA. - Once an icon of Rockwellian America, the lone boy toting a Daisy BB gun as he wanders the woods has a new reputation - that of an outlaw. In the boldest of a growing ledger of laws across the country aimed at gradeschool "gunslingers," a new ordinance here makes it a crime to let children under 16 use a BB gun - or its modern cousin, the paintball gun - without parental supervision." (Christian Science Monitor)

"Eating fish 'cuts early birth risk'" - "WOMEN who eat fish early in their pregnancies can reduce the risk of a premature birth and of their babies being underweight, according to researchers. A study of more than 8,700 women found that premature deliveries fell from 7.1 per cent in women who ate no fish at all to 1.9 per cent in the group who had eaten even small amounts of fish at least once a week." (Telegraph)

Uh-huh... "Study links more frequent fish intake with asthma" - "NEW YORK, Feb 21 - Japanese youth who eat fish once or twice per week or more may be more likely to have asthma than their peers who consume fish less often, new study results show. "The results indicated that frequency of fish intake was positively related to the prevalence of asthma," lead study author Dr. Yousuke Takemura, of Mie University School of Medicine in Japan, and colleagues write. "This result might have important implications for health." (Reuters Health)

"UK patients group hits back at anti-vivisectionists" - "A UK patients’ advocate group has attacked anti-vivisection activists, alleging-in a report published last week-that they mislead the public and fail to invest in research designed to find alternatives to animal research.

The report, Anti-vivisection Unmasked, was published by the UK charity Seriously Ill for Medical Research. Its membership includes patients-many of whom are seriously ill with a range of conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis-and their relatives and carers. The charity’s medical panel comprises several leading researchers including Professor Roy Calne and Professor Robert Winston." (British Medical Journal News Roundup)

"Animal activists target wildlife trust over fox cull" - "A CONSERVATION trust that has banned hunting has become the target of furious protests by animal rights activists for ordering a cull of a booming fox population at one of its reserves. The Essex Wildlife Trust has been under attack from animal groups and even from some of its own members since the decision to bring in a marksman to cull the foxes plaguing the 600-acre Tollesbury Wick reserve." (Telegraph)

"Mexican Butterfly Death Raises Questions on Numbers" - "SIERRA CHINCUA SANCTUARY, Mexico - Millions of dead butterflies crunch underfoot, oozing a rotting smell after a severe cold snap a month ago devastated the monarch butterflies that spend winter in central Mexico.

But while the ground is a cemetery, the air is vibrant with butterflies, millions of them painting the trees orange, the combined force of their wings making a windy sound.

The huge numbers of dead and of survivors have awakened a big question among scientists: Just how many butterflies come each year to the pine-covered mountains of Michoacan, Mexico?" (Reuters)

"Battle looms over a Noah's Ark law" - "ASHLAND, ORE. - Scientists, lawmakers, and advocates are set to wrangle over the most profound and controversial federal environmental law ever passed - the federal Endangered Species Act. Lawsuits have been filed, and a slew of proposals on Capitol Hill could significantly change what plants and animals qualify for protection." (Christian Science Monitor)

First step should be to call it what it is: the Misanthropy Act.

Grief! "Bank pays up for nature" - "One of the world's largest financial services organisations, HSBC, is giving almost $50 million (£35m) to three environment charities. It is funding the global environment campaign WWF, Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), and Earthwatch." (BBC Online)

"Norton touts 'new environmentalism'" - "Thursday, February 21, 2002 - WASHINGTON - Interior Secretary Gale Norton called Wednesday for a "new environmentalism," saying that today's problems require a more cooperative approach than in the past. In what aides billed as Norton's first major environmental address of the year, Norton said the battles over life-threatening pollution in the air and water in the 1960s and '70s were resolved with intense regulation. The remaining issues are more subtle and complex and require a different approach, she said." (Denver Post)

"Green with Rage" - "Sheer panic. That's the only way to describe the reaction of green activists to a fact-filled 515-page book by a young Danish statistician, published in English late last year by Cambridge University Press. The statistician, a slim, laid-back former Greenpeace member named Bjorn Lomborg, dared to question the conventional wisdom of the alarmists who dominate the fund-raising arm of the environmental movement: that the world is going to hell in a handbasket." (James K. Glassman, TCS)

"The profits of doom" - "Matt Ridley celebrates Bjorn Lomborg, the environmentalist brave enough to tell the truth — that the end is not nigh" (The Spectator)

Gasp! "NOVEMBER 2001 - JANUARY 2002 WARMEST ON RECORD IN U.S.; GLOBAL TEMPERATURES WARMEST ON RECORD IN JANUARY" - "February 21, 2002 — The contiguous United States experienced record warmth during the November 2001 through January 2002 three-month period, scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., said today. The January global temperature was the warmest in the 123-year surface record. Using the world's largest weather database, NOAA scientists calculated conditions for the past three months." (NOAA News)

The surface temperature amalgam continues to produce 'records,' cluck, cluck!

"The cold snap that civilised the world" - "A SUDDEN drop in temperatures 5,000 years ago ushered in the modern climate and may have encouraged the development of complex civilisations around the world. Researchers studying ancient fish bones off the coast of Peru say the temperature fall heralded El Nino, the periodical warming of the Pacific which brings unusual weather patterns every two to seven years." (Telegraph) | Otolith ¹⁸O Record of Mid-Holocene Sea Surface Temperatures in Peru [PDF] (Science)

That noise you hear is the combined howls of anguish coming from those who hitched their wagons to the global warming express and who have belatedly realised its derailment is inevitable.

Observe, with amusement, the attempts by the hand-wringing crowd to either bury or ignore yet further records demonstrating that a warmer world does not equate to more frequent, more severe El Niño events (flooding, disaster, sundry mayhem...), that warming is either unprecedented or undesirable or that warming would severely harm corals - it seems, if the following conclusions are correct, that the Great Barrier reef has seen it all before and quite recently.

"Abrupt Decrease in Tropical Pacific Sea Surface Salinity at End of Little Ice Age" [PDF] - "A 420-year history of strontium/calcium, uranium/calcium, and oxygen isotope ratios in eight coral cores from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, indicates that sea surface temperature and salinity were higher in the 18th century than in the 20th century. An abrupt freshening after 1870 occurred simultaneously throughout the southwestern Pacific, coinciding with cooling tropical temperatures. Higher salinities between 1565 and 1870 are best explained by a combination of advection and wind-induced evaporation resulting from a strong latitudinal temperature gradient and intensified circulation. The global Little Ice Age glacial expansion may have been driven, in part, by greater poleward transport of water vapor from the tropical Pacific." (Science)

"Kyoto losses forecast at $40B; Ottawa backs off ratification" - "Ratifying the Kyoto accord will cost the Canadian economy as much as $40 billion annually, Alberta Environment Minister Lorne Taylor will argue today at a conference on global climate change." (Calgary Herald)

"Greenhouse office cries for cash" - "Australia's efforts to curb global warming are at risk, with the government agency empowered to lead the charge to cut greenhouse gases strapped for cash. A government-commissioned report publicised by Labor showed the Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO) would be unable to properly work on curbing emissions unless funding was bolstered. The report on output pricing review 2000-01 recommended ministers note that lapsed funding meant AGO outputs would fall by 45 per cent for the current financial year. "Without additional funding, AGO will be unable to deliver on its executive agency charter and will have to significantly contract functions and staff," the report said." (AAP)

Don't forget to turn out the lights when you leave...

"ANALYSIS - Emissions trading systems developing as patchwork" - "AMSTERDAM - Emissions trading systems are popping up around the globe, but without clear international standards companies will have to navigate a maze of different rules designed to cut carbon pollution." (Reuters)

"Herald Sun: Air pollution puts 1000 in hospital [22feb02]" - "BAD air is putting about 1000 people a year in hospital in Melbourne. A three-year EPA study has linked air pollution statistics and hospital admissions. EPA policy manager Dr Lynette Denison said children with asthma, elderly people with respiratory disease and cardio-vascular patients of all ages were the worst hit by air pollution. "They're actually being admitted, these aren't casualty attendances, these are actual admissions into hospital, so they're quite severe health impacts," Dr Denison said. "It's not causing the disease but it is aggravating pre-existing conditions."

"Finnish media slams minister for nuke disloyalty" - "HELSINKI - Finnish newspapers this week lashed out at Environment Minister Satu Hassi, labelling her disloyal to the cabinet after earlier this week she went against the government's stance in favour of more nuclear power." (Reuters)

"Delayed World Food Summit booked for June" - "The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) will soon host a global meeting to review progress towards ending hunger. The meeting, the ‘World Food Summit: five years later’ aims to track progress achieved since the 1996 World Food Summit and consider ways to accelerate the process. The summit was originally scheduled for 5-9 November but has been delayed in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks in the United States." (FoodNavigator)

"ICAR submits report on BT cotton" - "NEW DELHI: The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has sent its report on trials on the genetically modified BT cotton to the environment ministry, which is to take a final decision on its large scale introduction in the country. (The Times of India)

February 21, 2002

"Nation's future lard fannies can't blame school vending machines" - "ARLINGTON--A General Assembly panel has shelved Sen. Madison Marye's bill to force all Virginia schools to banish vending machines that dispense soft drinks and snacks. However, the issue appears to have plenty of shelf-life.

Armed with reports like the Surgeon General's recent finding that obesity is a major health threat, the Food Police are demanding across the nation that schools ban such vending machines. They seek laws declaring schools to be commercial-free zones, an action that would negate profit-sharing partnerships between public schools and private companies." (Robert Holland, Free Lance-Star)

"Feeling poorly? Go out and mow that lawn" - "Pottering in the garden has long been regarded as good for the soul. As far back as the Middle Ages, gardening was recognised for its therapeutic effects. Now researchers have won £322,526 from the National Lottery Community Fund to assess whether gardening is so beneficial it should be prescribed by doctors." (Independent)

This'll be good!

Dateline: London - Medical malpractice insurance rates soar as the number of suits, brought by couch potatoes prescribed gardening and who claim they suffered muscle strains, bad backs and a host of other injuries as a result of their therapy, literally explode.

"Obese adolescent children hit by 'adult' diabetes" - "The first cases of adult diabetes, a disease linked with obesity, have been found in white children, providing fresh evidence that Britain is facing an epidemic of the condition. Experts say a "diabetes time bomb" is ticking, with the 1.4 million cases diagnosed expected to double in the next decade. Diabetics have to follow a strict diet, take medication and may suffer complications including eye, kidney and circulatory diseases." (Independent)

According to Kellogg's "New research reveals that fibre can improve mood" - "Professor Andrew Smith of Cardiff University's School of Psychology, tested a group of volunteers over a four week period. Measures taken at baseline showed that those that regularly consumed a high-fibre diet were less emotionally distressed; had fewer cognitive difficulties; had a more positive mood; had less difficulty falling asleep and had lower depression scores than those people who ate a low-fibre diet." (Cardiff University)

Gasp! "Cellphone shields are useless: U.S. federal agency" - "WASHINGTON - American authorities say cellphone shields that claim to protect consumers against radiation don't work and some actually cause the phone to emit more energy than usual. The Federal Trade Commission says it has filed charges against two companies promoting the shields. The companies claim they prevent "electromagnetic waves from penetrating the brain" and block "up to 99 per cent of the radiation." "There is no scientific evidence that their products work as they claim," said Howard Beales, the FTC's director of consumer protection. "These companies are using a shield of misrepresentation to block consumers from the facts." (CBC)

"Common chemical affects growth of frogs: Canadian research" - "OTTAWA - Byproducts of a chemical used in household cleaners and shaving cream could be affecting the growth of turtles and frogs, Canadian researchers say. The chemical mimics the hormone estrogen and can disrupt the growth of leopard frog tadpoles and snapping turtle hatchlings, says Vance Trudeau of the University of Ottawa." (CBC)

The moral being: don't give your pollywogs shaving cream if you're going to zap them with UV lights for 10 days.

The chemical assault continues: "EU proposes curbs on toxic chemicals by 2003" - "BRUSSELS, Feb 20 - The European Commission approved plans on Wednesday to restrict by 2003 the public use of 43 chemicals that are believed to cause cancer, damage reproduction or pose a danger to human genes. The substances in question are used in special paints, printing inks, varnishes and adhesives, the EU's executive Commission said in a statement." (Reuters)

"Bush administration asks judge to dismiss GE suit challenging Superfund law" - "The Bush administration asked a federal judge this week to dismiss a lawsuit by General Electric Co. and uphold the Superfund toxic waste cleanup law." (AP)

"Grizzly dilemma -- The Washington Times" - "Forest managers are finding themselves in grizzly dilemmas thanks to forest fire management and the Endangered Species Act (ESA)."

"No tree-free paper in green group ad -- The Washington Times" - "An environmental group's fund-raising letter to protect the rain forests claimed to use tree-free paper but was actually made from tree products, laboratory tests show. The Rainforest Action Network asked recipients of the letter to dig into their pockets and "help compensate for the extra cost of using tree-free paper." California resident John Campbell questioned the claim's validity and paid an independent laboratory $100 to conduct the fiber analysis. Yesterday, Mr. Campbell asked the U.S. Postal Inspector to investigate the group's fund-raising activities.

"These pulp fibers appear to be from North American tree species," said the report authored by Walter J. Rantanen, supervisor of the fiber science group. Integrated Paper Services Inc. is an independent testing and research lab in Wisconsin that performs quality control testing for the pulp and paper industry, said Mr. Rantanen, who confirmed that his company produced the report. Each page of RAN's fund-raising letter was labeled at the bottom: "Printed on 100 percent tree-free paper with soy-based ink."

"Parliament 'misled in fridge row'" - "THE Tories yesterday demanded the resignation of Michael Meacher, the environment secretary, after documents suggested that he misled the House of Commons by blaming Brussels for the thousands of refrigerators piling up across Britain." (Telegraph)

"Canada edges further away from Kyoto ratification" - "The Canadian government, under pressure from energy producers worried about the costs of the Kyoto climate change protocol, gave its clearest sign yet Wednesday that it might not ratify the treaty designed to cut emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming." (Reuters)

"Make Alberta pay for Kyoto, Bloc urges" - "OTTAWA -- Oil-rich Alberta, Canada's No. 1 emitter of climate-changing greenhouse gases, should bear the lion's share of costs for complying with the Kyoto accord, the Bloc Québécois said yesterday. "That is the principle of polluter pay, and a principle the federal government refuses to apply in Canada," Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe said in the House of Commons. Mr. Duceppe brandished an unpublished Environment Canada paper that shows, using the government's latest available numbers, that Alberta leads the pack with 29 per cent of national emissions. It's not fair that all provinces must equally bear the costs of Kyoto, Bloc MPs said." (Globe and Mail)

Ah, so voices of moderation are scaremongers - at least, according to The Star: "Ralph Klein is part of a scare campaign" - "ALBERTA PREMIER Ralph Klein may have thought he was being quite the clever fellow when he publicly insulted Prime Minister Jean Chrétien while on a Team Canada mission in Moscow. With a smirk on his face, Klein interrupted a news conference to read a letter to Chrétien, allegedly from nine provincial premiers, arguing that Canada should not ratify the Kyoto treaty on climate change unless the United States did so. Since U.S. President George W. Bush has already thumbed his nose at the global community by saying he will never sign, Klein was actually demanding that Canada not sign either." | Why is Harris against Kyoto now? (The Toronto Star)

"U.S. Needs Firm Curbs on Carbon Dioxide Emissions" - "President George W. Bush was right when he rejected the Kyoto Protocol's stiff limits on carbon dioxide emissions last year as too damaging to the U.S. economy. But the alternative he has come up with goes in the opposite direction: It gives too much weight to economic concerns and not enough to environmental ones." (Newsday)

"Three-conjecture strategy on global warming" - "The Bush administration is doing its best to address the so-called global warming "problem" without creating unnecessarily harmful side effects. The president should be applauded for rejecting the Kyoto Treaty, which would have disrupted the world's economy and cost hundreds of billions of dollars in lost output and millions of lost jobs, particularly in the Third World. By proposing a voluntary, market-based trading system for greenhouse-gas-emissions-reduction credits, the administration, to its own credit, is striving to "address" global warming without falling into the trap set by the eco-opportunists who seek more to cool economic activity than the Earth's atmosphere.

Which brings us to the heart of the matter. Global warming is not about sound science or saving the planet from overheating so much as it obstructs the spread of entrepreneurial capitalism and will radically stunt global economic growth. The politics of global warming are clear: Well-intentioned voters, frightened by some not-so-well intentioned agitators, have convinced elected officials to "address" the global-warming "problem." (Jack Kemp, Copley News Service)

"London's burning (2100)" - "IT is the year 2100 and Britain is sweltering under a scorching sun. Sharks and dolphins bask in our seas and exotic birds fly overhead. Margate and Bognor Regis have the holiday temperatures we now expect from Malaga and Barcelona. Vineyards and lemon groves make the South Downs resemble the rolling hills of Tuscany in Italy. Palm trees line the streets of London and camels wander past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament." (The Sun)

The Sun's been in the sun much too long - pretty graphics though

While we're covering rubber-room fantasies: "Federal report sees huge increase in deaths because of climate change" - "OTTAWA -- A federal report projects a 15-fold increase in heat-related deaths in Toronto by 2010 if current global warming continues. The toll could rise from the current level of 19 deaths a year to 289 deaths a year in 2010, and to 563 by 2050, says the Third National Report on Climate Change, released quietly this week. The report, required under the Kyoto climate treaty, predicts flooding on all three coasts, especially in central and northern Prince Edward Island, where sea levels are already rising "with demonstrable impacts." It says the impact of global warming could lead to forced migrations within Canada." (CP)

"Global warming sinking us too, Tuvalu" - "TO PARAPHRASE Abraham Lincoln, the world will little note nor long remember the inhabitants of the Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu. But these 11,000 people, who live on nine coral atolls a few hundred miles northwest of American Samoa, have earned a distinction, however dubious. They inhabit perhaps the first country to pay the ultimate price for a changing climate: national extinction. Rising sea levels are gradually inundating Tuvalu." (Joshua S. Reichert, Boston Globe)

This is fast going from silly fallacy to blatant lie. Last November, Simon Houpt produced a nicely balanced piece gathering together some pertinent facts in the Globe and Mail. Here's some extracts from that piece:

"From 1978 to 1999, the [Tuvalu-] relative sea-level rise was 0.07 millimetres a year [about one-quarter of one inch per century] -- "minuscule," [Dr. Wolfgang Scherer, director of the National Tidal Facility at the Flinders University of South Australia in Adelaide] says. Since his facility has been gathering data, in the past eight years, the average increase in relative sea level is 0.0 millimetres."

"Some Tuvaluans wish that the environmentalists would stop trying to do them any favours. Elisala Pita, the assistant cabinet secretary at the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Environment, says his country isn't sinking. Reached this week at his office on the main island of Funafuti, he lashes out at those who say they are trying to help Tuvalu in the name of environmentalism. "Things are getting out of hand," he fumes. "Tuvalu is being used for the issue of climate change. There is a lot of misleading information. People are writing books or articles saying Farewell to Tuvalu, saying Tuvalu is sinking, telling all these lies, just using Tuvalu to prove their point. As a Tuvaluan, I am extremely disappointed and deeply hurt because those are not facts. No island is sinking. Tuvalu is not sinking. It is still floating."

Pita continues, "Climate change is important to us, but it's not an issue we would use to justify our policies on migration or foreign aid. That's totally not right, it's unjustified and scientifically not based on findings. There is vulnerability to climate change everywhere. In India, the problem is on a much bigger scale. There are coastal erosions on Tuvalu, of course, but that doesn't mean the island is sinking. This erosion is caused by man-made infrastructure." Beachhead erosion has been increasing for years because the Tuvaluans use sand -- one of the only natural resources they have -- for construction materials. Pita pleads for the truth to be heard around the world. "I'm sorry, my friend, I can't help you," he says. "We do not entertain people doing news based on rumours."

"Greenhouse quotas at risk: report" - "AUSTRALIA'S efforts to curb global warming are at risk, with the government agency empowered to lead the charge to cut greenhouse gases strapped for cash. A government-commissioned report publicised by Labor today showed the Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO) would be unable to properly work on curbing emissions unless funding was bolstered." (Herald Sun)

The Office of Hot air is going bust? Everyone say "Oh..." - then scrap the foolish damn thing.

"English echoes call for caution on Kyoto Protocol" - "The National Party is lining up alongside business over the issue of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Leader Bill English said yesterday that the party opposed ratification ahead of trading partners such as Australia and Japan and before anyone knew the impact of the protocol on New Zealand's interests. His caution on Kyoto was reflected by a diverse grouping of Maori, union, farm and business representatives at the Employers and Manufacturers Association's conference on the issue in Auckland." (New Zealand Herald)

"Africa's malaria resurgence isn't down to global warming" - "Climate change cannot explain the growth of malaria in the highlands of East Africa, say researchers. Drawing simplistic links between global warming and local disease patterns could lead to mistaken policy decisions, they warn. Drug resistance, or the failure of the health-care system to keep pace with population growth, are more likely culprits for malaria's rise, say Simon Hay, of the University of Oxford, and his colleagues. These should be the focus of public-health efforts, they urge. Malaria kills between one million and two million Africans each year." (NSU)

"A current controversy: Is Europe about to freeze?" - "One of the odd possibilities that could emerge from global warming is that much of Europe, robbed of the ocean current patterns that help keep it warm, could rather abruptly enter a deep freeze and have a climate that more closely resembles Alaska than the modest temperatures it now enjoys. Scientists at Oregon State University say even the possibility that climatic changes of this magnitude and speed may come to pass are a cause for serious concern." (OSU)

"Increased water vapor in stratosphere possibly caused by tropical biomass burning" - "The doubling of the moisture content in the stratosphere over the last 50 years was caused, at least in part, by tropical biomass burning, a Yale researcher has concluded from examining satellite weather data." (Yale)

"Exhausts can slow global warming" - "COMPUTER climate models could be overestimating the likely effects of global warming because they do not take sufficient account of cooling caused by tiny pollutant particles in the atmosphere, researchers said yesterday.

Particles known as aerosols, which measure several thousandths of millimetres across, are causing a cooling effect in many parts of the world and may be helping to offset warming caused by greenhouse gases, the conference was told.

Aerosol emissions, which come from car exhausts and industry, and from natural processes such as volcanic eruptions and forest fires, have increased by about a third over the past two decades, according to Ran Ramanathan, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in La Jolla, California." (The Times)

"Hawaiian Ridge HOME to efforts to understand deep-ocean mixing" - "With waves – some 300 to 1,000 feet tall – traveling beneath the surface, internal tides at the Hawaiian Ridge and other such spots around the world may help scientists discover what causes 90 percent of the mixing in the world’s ocean. University of Washington researchers have made the first-ever direct measurements of the energy flux of the "internal" tide along the ridge." (UW)

"In polar waters, a surge in temperatures takes scientists by surprise" - "A new study using seven decades of temperature data shows that mid-depth water around Antarctica has warmed nearly twice as much as the world ocean as a whole. That wasn't supposed to happen." (Christian Science Monitor)

Mmmaybe... see Still Waiting For Greenhouse commentary

"Green Alert; February 19, 2002 Vol. 1, No. 19" - "Tidal marshes typically exhibit high rates of productivity. By way of example, in the southern coastal region of North America the net primary production of tidal marsh ecosystems annually averages approximately 8000 grams per square meter (gm^-2 yr^-1), according to Mitsch and Gosselink in 1993. These tidal marshes also exhibit low rates of organic matter decomposition because the anaerobic decomposers in that sort of oxygen-depleted environment operate at slower rates than do their aerobic counterparts in terrestrial environments (Humphrey and Pluth, 1996; Amador and Jones, 1997). As sea level rises and salt water encroaches upon the land, the rates of carbon sequestration in coastal marsh soils rise in tandem with sea level. How significant is this phenomenon?" (GES)

"Cold blow" - "For some, they are blights on a glorious landscape; for others, they mean clean energy and economic lifelines for rural communities. John Vidal looks at the battle over windfarms in mid-Wales." (Guardian)

"Conservationists fight £6m plan to dam trout lochs" - "PLANS for an "environmentally friendly" hydro scheme on a remote estate have divided a community over fears that the project will tarnish one of Britain's most scenic areas. The scheme - which would contribute to the Government's targets for renewable energy - would involve dams being built on four Highland trout lochs previously untouched by industrial development." (Telegraph)

"BBC News | WALES | Lord Haskins on world food debate" - "For centuries the prophets of doom have had a field day - forgive the pun - about the future of food and agriculture. The 18th Century British political economist Malthus forecast that the world would not be able to feed its growing population. In those days the world's population was probably no more than 500m, yet today we have the capacity to feed 6bn people, showing that food shortages and starvation are driven by political not a