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GLOBAL WARMING - WAS IT EVER REALLY A CRISIS? THE 2009 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE March 8-10, New York, New York Sponsored by The Heartland Institute and the George C. Marshall Institute

Time for a Surgeon General-ectomy? - President-elect Obama has reportedly chosen Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent and one of People magazine’s “sexiest men alive,” for the post of surgeon general. Those aren’t the only reasons that the surgeon general’s position ought to be abolished. (Steven Milloy, FoxNews.com)

OH CAROL, WHAT'S WRONG WITH BEING A SOCIALIST? Social International Scrubs Obama Energy/Environment Czar from Web Site -- Socialist International (yes, it is what it sounds like) has scrubbed from its web site the fact that President-elect Obama's energy/environment czar Carol Browner is/was an official with SI.

JunkScience reported on January 2 that Browner was a member of SI's Commission for a Sustainable World Society. Click here for a multiple-page PDF of the Committee's web page featuring Browner's photo and bio. (Note: This page is also currently available by Googling "Socialist International" and "Browner" and clicking on the cached version of the web page.)

JunkScience now reports that Browner's photo and bio have been removed from the Committee's web page. Click here for a multiple-page PDF of the Committee's web page made on January 8.)

If there's nothing wrong with an acknowledged socialist being a top Obama administration official, then what's up with the mysterious and Stalinist-like disappearance of Browner from SI's web site?

BTW, SI wasn't entirely successful in scrubbing its web site. If you to a site search on "Browner" you'll get (at least for now) a vestigal page indicating her attendance at a November 19, 2008 meeting in London.

Browner is an environmental radical – and a socialist (seriously) - No, it’s not the President-elect, at least not explicitly. Conservatives are often accused of scaremongering when they claim left-wing environmentalists are actually socialists hiding behind green disguises. But with Carol Browner, incoming President Barack Obama’s freshly appointed Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change – the so-called White House “Climate Czar” - there is no question about the socialism. Browner is a member of the Commission for a Sustainable World Society (CSWS), which is a formal organ of the Socialist International. Oddly enough, the group’s web site was recently scrubbed to remove Browner’s picture and biography, but her name is still listed next to the photo-biographies of her 14 colleagues on the commission. The Socialist International is no group of woolly-headed idealists. It is an influential assembly of officials from across the international community whose official Statement of Principles describes an agenda of gaining and exercising government power based on socialist concepts. (DC Examiner)

‘Consensus’ in Freefall: Inhofe Global Warming Speech - Senator Presents Groundbreaking Senate Minority Report of More Than 650 Scientists Dissenting from Climate Fears - Profiles Left of Center Scientists & Environmental Activists Who Are Now Skeptics

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, today delivered a global warming speech entitled: "Global Warming ‘Consensus’ in Freefall: More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims." Inhofe presented his ground breaking new global warming report detailing the More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims to Congress on the Senate Floor.

Inhofe also detailed the growing number of left of center scientists and environmental activists who are speaking out to reject man-made climate fears. (EPW Press Release)

It's Cold Out There - WASHINGTON -- If you are going out anytime over the next few months, may I suggest that you wear a hat? You might even buy earmuffs. We are experiencing yet another cold winter. Al Gore may believe in global warming, but I suggest that he have a word with his fellow environmental catastrophists at the UK's Hadley Centre for Climate Predictions. Since the end of 1998 global warming has ceased. In fact, it is getting colder out there. Two thousand eight was possibly the coldest year of this young century. Over the last two years temperatures have dropped by more than 0.5 degrees Celsius -- brrrr.

The reason I mention Al's co-religionists at the Hadley Centre is that they have come to realize that computer projections of global warming have been wrong. Carbon dioxide levels have indeed increased but not temperatures. So bundle up, Al. Last year, in many parts of the world, snowfalls reached levels not seen in decades. The Associated Press recently shrieked that global warming "is a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can't avoid," but the facts are otherwise. The computer models that have predicted global warming have failed just as the computer models that predicted very few financial losses for the insurance industry from credit default swaps (CDSs) failed. (R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., American Spectator)

From the department of ridiculous guesstimates: Sea level rise of 1 meter within 100 years - New research indicates that the ocean could rise in the next 100 years to a meter higher than the current sea level - which is three times higher than predictions from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC. The groundbreaking new results from an international collaboration between researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, England and Finland are published in the scientific journal Climate Dynamics. (University of Copenhagen)

More virtual-world twaddle: Floods to become commonplace by 2080 - Flooding like that which devastated the North of England last year is set to become a common event across the UK in the next 75 years, new research has shown.

A study by Dr Hayley Fowler, of Newcastle University, predicts that severe storms - the likes of which currently occur every five to 25 years across the UK - will become more common and more severe in a matter of decades.

Looking at 'extreme rainfall events' - where rain falls steadily and heavily for between one and five days - the study predicts how the intensity of these storms may change in the future.

Dr Fowler found that across the UK, the amount of rain falling during one of these extreme events was likely to increase by up to 30 per cent by 2080. This increase is most likely to occur in autumn, winter and spring when the ground is already saturated, posing the biggest threat of flooding. (Newcastle University)

Peter Foster: Climate rains on Aussie drought - Tim Flannery’s apocalyptic global warming projections have proved way off

There are signs that some climate change skepticism — or at least greater objectivity — is at last stirring within the CBC, although the corporation still has a long way to go.

On Monday and Tuesday, as part of its “Watershed” series, CBC Radio’s The Current aired two documentaries, one on the decade-long Australian drought, “the Big Dry,” and the other on the alleged plight of the Pacific islands of Vanuatu, which might be dubbed “the Big Wet.”

The Australian segment gave a good deal of airtime to Down Under’s foremost alarmist, Tim Flannery, author of the best-selling Weather Makers and 2008 “Australian of the Year.” It suggested that the current drought, unlike many previous ones, “doesn’t seem to be ending.” Professor Flannery indicted government inertia and even suggested analogies with Alberta, where the locals were allegedly proving slow to realize they shouldn’t be digging up the tar sands.

All depressingly typical so far. But then, yesterday, The Current returned to the issue after a correspondent informed them that many parts of Australia had recently, and joyfully, been inundated with rain! Meanwhile, the program also acknowledged a recent column titled “Top 10 dud predictions,” by an Australian journalist, Andrew Bolt, which pointed out that Professor Flannery’s apocalyptic projections had proved way, way, off. (Peter Foster, Financial Post)

Continuing setbacks for NOAA / NASA solar cycle 24 prediction - Updating my 30 October post. “Hard lesson about solar realities for NOAA / NASA”

December provisional RI sunspot number from the Belgian group SIDC (World Data Center for the Sunspot Index) has come in at 0.8. (Warwick Hughes)

The new NASA solar goalpost: Cycle 24, maybe not so big - A few days ago I wrote in State of the Sun for year end 2008: all’s quiet on the solar front - too quiet that “No new cycle 24 predictions have been issued by any solar group (that I am aware of ) in the last couple of months.” Coincidentally and shortly after that, NASA’s David Hathaway updated his solar prediction page here. He’s made a significant backtrack over previous predictions, and now for the first time he is claiming cycle 24 will be less than cycle 23, not greater. (Watts Up With That?)

UAH is out, like RSS it is down a bit - Although the webserver file for the UAH dataset has not been updated yet, the man who is “in the know” because he’s a major part of the process has released the December UAH global lower troposphere temperature anomaly value. It is 0.18°C down from .254°C the previous month. (Watts Up With That?)

Climate Deniers Gin Up Unscrupulous Science - Climate deniers are out in force. (Bob Doppelt, Statesman Journal)

Translation: some people have noticed it's cold.

An Inconvenient HuffPo Item - A reader writes to note that, after yesterday’s outrage of a voice of reason — er, “rambling . . . denial” — gracing its pages, the Huffington Post “could NOT allow Mr. Ambler to go on so (so, they had to denigrate HIM),” citing this example of HuffPo siccing someone else to go after the gent, and quite personally. (Chris Horner, Planet Gore)

Melting Greenland ice “will drown coastlines” - The scare: In early January 2008, Stephen Schneider, a biologist turned climatologist, put up a blog posting to say that “We cannot pin down whether sea levels will rise a few feet or a few meters in the next century or two”; that there is a “potential for up to 7 meters of sea-level rise stored as ice on Greenland”; that “Greenland is apparently melting at an unprecedented rate, and way faster than any of our theories or models predicted”; that “mounting evidence from ice cores says probably there is unprecedented melting going on right now”; that “another decade or two of such scientifically-documented acceleration of melting could indeed imply we will get ... meters of sea-level rise”; that “another 5 meters of potential sea level rise lurks ... in West Antarctica”; and that “this is a gamble with Laboratory Earth that we can’t afford to lose.” (Christopher Monckton, SPPI)

Global warming: Al Gore's convenient untruth freezes over - You have to wrap up well against this global warming. Over the past 48 hours the temperature has fallen as low as -12C in Dorset, with the sea at Poole Harbour frozen up to 20 yards from shore, and parts of Britain colder than Greenland. Phew, what a scorcher! Might be a good idea to start up the car (if it will start) and pump some more CO2 into the atmosphere before we freeze to death. What did the media warn us about climate change?

"There is very important climatic change going on right now, and it's not merely something of academic interest. It is something that, if it continues, will affect the whole human occupation of the earth - like a billion people starving. The effects are already showing up in a rather drastic way."

That apocalyptic warning came from Fortune magazine - in 1974, when it was alerting readers to an imminent new Ice Age. By 2006 it had conformed to the latest fashion and had revised its doomsday scenario to: "The media agrees with the majority of scientists: global warming is here. Now, what to do about it?" So much for the media as climatic arbiter. (Gerald Warner, Daily Telegraph)

Global Warming Horror Flick Put on Ice - How embarrassing is it when you produce a horror movie based on global warming and when the time comes to release it, the planet is experiencing some of the coldest weather in decades? Such is the case with The Thaw starring Val Kilmer. Filmed in Canada last summer, it should be ready for release by now but even though the trailer has been produced, no specific release date has been announced. Perhaps the producers realize how much of a laughingstock this movie would become if a movie based on the premise of global warming were released when their potential audience is freezing. (NewsBusters)

Sticker Shock - California is now requiring all cars sold in the state to display a sticker listing its greenhouse gas rating. Calculated by magic, it's supposed to fight global warming. Did they see the snow in Malibu?

Forget about considering a car's MPG rating in deciding which one to buy. Next to it will be a new and (in some eyes) far more important sticker providing the car's GHG rating, an arbitrarily concocted measure of its greenhouse gas contribution to climate change.

Assembly Bill 1228 requires a sticker displaying a rank comparing "the emissions of global warming gases from all vehicles of the same model year sold in the state" be affixed to all vehicles. As if Detroit didn't have enough to worry about.

The rankings are on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a beast on wheels emitting an excess of 520 "CO2-equivalent grams per mile" and 10 given to those vehicles that emit less than 200. What is a "CO2-equivalent gram," you ask? We're not sure either. (IBD)

Far too much hot air - Green rhetoric is irrelevant to addressing global warming

ON this midsummer morning, it is easy to assume facts in the climate change debate are as obscure as shimmering objects in a heat haze. Last month, environmental activists denounced the Rudd Government's greenhouse gas reduction targets as a defeat for the environment and a win for anti-earth industries. A guaranteed 5 per cent emissions cut by 2020 was not enough, they said, and the plan to issue free emission trading scheme permits to industries only licensed the worst polluters. They were backed up yesterday by NASA scientist James Hansen, who called conventional coal-fired power plants "factories of death" and condemned the coal export industry. For good measure, he warned that Australia's emission targets were far too low and our reliance on the mineral guaranteed destruction of much of the life on the planet. But according to Brendan Pearson from the Minerals Council of Australia, what Professor Hansen missed is that in a global context, Australia's emissions are marginal compared to what China pumps into the atmosphere. And writing in The Australian this morning Mr Pearson also argues that the Rudd Government's ETS and emissions target will be bad both for business and the economy in general. (The Australian)

ETS bites off more than we can chew - "More than at any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other to total extinction. Let's pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."

FOR some observers, this extract from Woody Allen's "Speech to the graduates", first published in The New York Times in 1979, might sum up the debate over the white paper on an emissions trading scheme.

On the one hand, the white paper has been widely condemned by environmental NGOs well-practised in hyperbole and ambit claims. On the other, business groups, including my own, have warned that the ETS, in the form proposed in the white paper, will cost jobs, investment and competitiveness. Some have been tempted to surmise that this means the Government has charted an appropriate middle path.

But this is a lazy and cartoonish view of the challenges of sensible policymaking. Leadership and sound policymaking takes more than running a figurative tape measure between the two poles of a policy debate.

That is especially the case where one end of the spectrum is populated by a cheer squad of enthusiasts whose analysis is uninhibited by economic and practical realities, including the impact on the living standards of average Australians.

The truth is that the proposed ETS is neither cautious nor a middle path. (Brendan Pearson, The Australian)

Tim Curtin shafts the Garnaut Report - You can go to the Quadrant front page and read Tim’s dissection of Garnaut.

The contradictions of the Garnaut Report - Tim Curtin, January-February 2008

The Report makes many dire projections for the future, including the claim that without drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, chiefly carbon dioxide, there will by 2100 be major declines in gross domestic product (GDP) across the globe … The Report offers no evidence for such effects having already become apparent despite the warming temperatures experienced globally and in Australia since 1976. On the contrary, that whole period has seen the fastest economic growth ever recorded across almost the whole globe, and Australia is no exception.

If his main article should go offline, I have archived it here. (Warwick Hughes)

China aims to increase coal production by 30pc by 2015 - CHINA is aiming to increase its coal production by about 30 per cent by 2015 to meet its energy needs, the Government has announced, in a move likely to fuel concerns over global warming.

Beijing plans to increase annual output to more than 3.3 billion tonnes by 2015, said Hu Cunzhi, chief planner of the land and resources ministry.

That is up from the 2.54 billion tonnes in produced 2007, according to the ministry.

Figures for 2008 have not yet been released. (Agence France-Presse)

Oh dear... Half of world's population could face climate-induced food crisis by 2100 - Rapidly warming climate is likely to seriously alter crop yields in the tropics and subtropics by the end of this century and, without adaptation, will leave half the world's population facing serious food shortages, new research shows.

To compound matters, the population of this equatorial belt - from about 35 degrees north latitude to 35 degrees south latitude - is among the poorest on Earth and is growing faster than anywhere else.

"The stresses on global food production from temperature alone are going to be huge, and that doesn't take into account water supplies stressed by the higher temperatures," said David Battisti, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor.

Battisti is lead author of the study in the Jan. 9 edition of Science. He collaborated with Rosamond Naylor, director of Stanford University's Program on Food Security and the Environment, to examine the impact of climate change on the world's food security. (University of Washington)

Science Fiction Down on the Farm - The January 9th, 2008 issue of Science, the official publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, contains a remarkable article by University of Washington atmospheric scientist David Battisti and Stanford co-author Rosamond Naylor. Science reputedly is the world’s most prestigious refereed science journal in the world. (WCR)

National Phenology Network - An Update January 2009 - I was pleased to be involved with a small role in the establishment of the National Phenology Network (e.g. see and see). The father of the Network is the internationally very well-respected scientist Joseph M. Caprio of Montana State University who initiated lilac phenological research in the USA (for more on the history of this Network, see).

This is a very important addition to the monitoring of the climate system. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Eye-roller: Can Nitrogen Be Used to Combat Climate Change? - Excess nitrogen mitigates carbon dioxide's effects--but with considerable risk, scientists say

LANSING, Mich.—After more than a decade of research, a team of scientists has found that by releasing one pollutant into the environment, we might help capture another. Findings from one of the National Science Foundation's longest-running studies show that adding nitrogen to soil prompts northern hardwood forests to absorb more heat-trapping carbon dioxide.

As the atmosphere's most abundant element, nitrogen plays a significant role in ecosystems, and one to which scientists and policymakers are paying greater attention. Growing evidence suggests that as humanity pumps more nitrogen into the environment, forests could become bigger carbon sinks and help mitigate climate change. But experts warn that it's a dangerous experiment that could have serious consequences. (SciAm)

Atmospheric carbon dioxide is not a pollutant but an essential trace gas, regardless of the nonsense espoused by Al Gore and his backing band of gorebull warming hysterics.

Faster nitrogen cycling may alter vegetation - One of the lesser known consequences of global warming is an increased rate of nitrogen cycling. New research shows that this imbalance may cause a dramatic change in the vegetation of sub-Arctic environments, with deciduous trees such as birch replacing evergreen trees.

In some areas this change is already visible. "We have seen this in Alaska over the last 30 years, where there are lots more deciduous trees and fewer evergreen," Rien Aerts, from the Free University of Amsterdam, told environmentalresearchweb. "I’m convinced that this is due to warming." (ERL)

Obama's green energy plans build hopes, skepticism - WASHINGTON - Proponents of alternative energy and energy efficiency were elated on Thursday by President-elect Barack Obama's economic stimulus speech, but some analysts warned his energy agenda could hit turbulence in Congress or from the slow economy.

Obama asked Congress "to act without delay" to pass legislation that included doubling alternative energy production in the next three years and building a new electricity "smart grid."

He said he also planned to modernize 75 percent of federal buildings and improve energy efficiency in 2 million homes to save consumers billions of dollars on energy bills. (Reuters)

A $2 trillion bet on powering America - The stimulus plan might jump-start new energy investments, which could drastically change how we use electricity. (Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com)

Exxon CEO Doubts Obama's Alternative Energy Goal - WASHINGTON - Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson said on Thursday it would be difficult to meet President-elect Barack Obama's goal to significantly boost U.S. alternative energy production.

In a speech at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, Obama said he wanted the United States to double its output of alternative energy sources during the next three years as part of his plan to revive the American economy.

"I think that's going to be very challenging to do," Tillerson told reporters following a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

He said the United States will not be able to double biofuels output during that period and there was not enough manufacturing capacity to build the wind turbines needed to meet Obama's goal. (Reuters)

ExxonMobil: Global energy demand to rise 1.2%/year to 2030 - HOUSTON, Jan. 7 -- ExxonMobil Corp. expects global energy demand to increase by an average 1.2%/year during 2005-30, even assuming major energy efficiency gains.

Driven by growing populations and expanding economies, global demand is expected to increase to 310 million b/d of oil in 2030 from the equivalent of 229 million b/d in 2005.

ExxonMobil's latest annual "Outlook for Energy: A View to 2030" was expanded to include an examination of improved energy efficiency, development of all viable forms of energy, climate risk technology, and public policy. (Oil & Gas Journal)

D'oh! It just gets worse and worse: Waxman Cleaning House in Energy Committee - It was no mystery that Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Cal.) was intent on making environment-friendly changes when he swept the chairmanship of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee from beneath auto-friendly Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) in November. And this week, that house-cleaning began in earnest.

In a reshuffling that will remove several Dingell allies from key environmentally sensitive posts, Waxman melded two E&C subcommittees — the Energy & Air Quality panel and the Environment & Hazardous Materials panel — to form the Energy and Environment subcommittee, of which Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) will be the chairman, the Boston Globe reported today.

Markey, who also heads the House committee on energy independence and global warming, has long been among the most fervent congressional environmentalists, pushing for increased fuel efficiency standards and protection of the Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, among a long list of pet causes. (Washington Independent)

Group asks coal officials to clear air - FAIRBANKS - An environmental group is asking for greater transparency in discussions between a state authority and two electric utilities on the future of the Healy Clean Coal Plant.

Trustees for Alaska, a nonprofit public interest law firm that takes on environmental issues, sent a letter to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority on Jan. 2 on behalf of the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Sierra Club Alaska Chapter and Homer Electric Members Forum. (Daily News-Miner)

States of emergency declared across Europe over gas - Governments across Europe declared states of emergency and ordered factories to close as Russia cut all gas supplies through Ukraine yesterday in their worsening dispute over unpaid bills.

José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, accused the two countries of taking the EU’s energy supply “hostage” amid a cold snap across the Continent, and urged them to reopen the pipelines immediately.

Schools and factories were closed and trees were felled to keep home fires burning after Russia turned off the gas taps to more than a dozen countries. It was a clear demonstration of the dependence of the Continent on Russian gas supplies.

Despite temperatures as low as minus 27C and the threat of heating cuts to millions of households, Moscow said that it had no choice but to cease supplies because Ukraine, the country through which 80 per cent of Russian gas bound for Europe flows, had closed its pipelines. The claim was denied by Kiev. (The Times)

Gas 'secure' but prices increase - Energy Minister Ed Miliband has said UK gas supplies are secure despite the continuing gas wrangle between Russia and Ukraine reducing supply to Europe. But he told the BBC the longer the dispute lasted, the greater the risk that prices would continue to rise. (BBC)

WWF Turns Against Natural Gas Amid Russia-Ukraine Crisis - Earlier this week I posted a comment on the implications for environmental policy stemming from the dispute between Russia and Ukraine that has halted gas deliveries to Europe.

I said the dispute – which worsened Wednesday – would give policymakers and environmental campaigners more ammunition to speed up the transformation away from fossil fuels of any kind, including cleaner burning ones like natural gas.

Sure enough, on Wednesday, the prominent environmental group WWF issued a statement from its European Policy Office that retracted much of its previous support for natural gas as a fuel of choice for industrial countries making a transition to a low-carbon economy. (James Kanter, New York Times)

Gas Row May Trigger New Look At German Nuclear - FRANKFURT - Germany must reassess its nuclear phase out plan as this week's Russian gas supply crisis has highlighted the need for a fresh look at all its energy options, analysts say.

Fresh doubts over the reliability of its mighty energy partner, Russia, will force Europe's biggest economy to try to reduce its future exposure to spats between Russia and Ukraine over transits, which are causing disruptions to European supply.

German decision makers, who are usually faithful energy partners to Russia, need to present more independent scenarios including a reconsideration of plans to shut nuclear reactors. (Reuters)

Squaring off over proposed nuclear power plants - COLUMBIA — Conservationists and business leaders are taking sides as the state’s utilities pitch several new power plants, both coal- and nuclear-powered.

Some business officials support all efforts to increase electricity production in the state, which one industry expert says could need to be tripled in the next 10 years.

Others, however, favor the nuclear option over the $1.25 billion coal-fired plant state-owned utility Santee Cooper wants to build in Florence County.

Some environmentalists are opposing both, saying South Carolina utilities have not scratched the surface of conservation and alternative energy methods that could reduce the need for another generating plant. Some conservation groups oppose the coal plant, but not the nuclear plant. (Associated Press)

Kyushu Electric to Spend $5.9 Billion on New Reactor -- Kyushu Electric Power Co., the monopoly power supplier to Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu, will spend 540 billion yen ($5.9 billion) to build a third nuclear reactor at its Sendai station.

The Fukuoka City-based utility today submitted a proposal to the governments of Satsuma Sendai City and Kagoshima Prefecture, the company said in a statement filed to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Construction of the 1,590-megawatt reactor is slated to begin in 2013 and operations will start by March 2020.

Kyushu Electric wants nuclear power to account for about half of its output, compared with 41 percent in the year ended March 2008. Japan, the world's third-biggest oil consumer, is boosting nuclear power generation to strengthen security of energy supplies and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. (Bloomberg)

Geothermal project finds new potential energy source - A routine drilling operation for a geothermal power plant on Big Island, Hawaii encountered dacite magma at a depth of 2.5 km. This is the first contact with magma beneath the surface of the Earth – the finding could ultimately lead to the exploitation of the molten rock as an energy source. (ERL)

Even ET hates the rotten things, eh? UFO hits wind turbine - A WIND turbine stood wrecked yesterday with one of its giant 65ft blades torn off — after it was hit by a UFO. (The Sun)

Actually this has to take the cake as far as excuses for wind failing to deliver electrickery goes.

Crist's energy policy for Florida is made of pixie dust - In 2001, Dick Cheney met with the dark lords of fossil fuel to concoct an energy policy.

In 2006, Charlie Crist met the enlightened greenies of global warming to concoct an energy policy.

I don't know which is worse.

One relies on dirty dead dinosaurs and the other on magic pixie dust.

Alas, it is very expensive pixie dust.

But the greenies don't care because they are on a mission to save the planet, and how can you put a price tag on that?

And now they have a governor who, recognizing the political payoff in battling carbon, is one with them.

They collaborated with his Action Team on Energy and Climate Change to produce a glowing report on Crist's energy policies. These include a goal of getting 20 percent of our energy from renewable sources by 2020.

20 percent by 2020.

Our energy policy is based on a slogan.

It certainly isn't based on reality. Neither is the action team's calculation that the policy somehow would save the state $28 billion.

The staff of the Public Service Commission has taken a more serious look at the fiscal impact. And it says we could be paying surcharges of 10 percent or more on our electric bills in the next decade.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm a longtime greenie who often has supported plundering your wallet to make this world a better place.

But doing so has to make sense. And this does not. (Mike Thomas, Orlando Sentinel)

EEA: Soaring transport demand holds back low-carbon economy - Transport's carbon footprint is hampering the development of a low-carbon economy, according to the European Environment Agency (EEA), which wants political action to be taken to address soaring demand for transport spurred by sectors as diverse as food and education as well as business and leisure travel.

Despite scientific advances in alternative fuels and energy efficiency, CO2 emissions for the European transport sector are continuing to increase and remain a key challenge in creating a low-carbon economy, found an EEA reportPdf external on the external drivers of transport demand. (EurActiv)

Color prejudice rears its ugly head: No tax for green cars - TOKYO, JAPAN - TOKYO'S local government, seeking to fight global warming, said on Thursday it planned to exempt taxes on next-generation green vehicles such as electric cars and plug-in hybrids once they hit the market.

Japanese automakers are aiming to put out electric cars - which emit no carbon blamed for global warming - as early as this year despite the global slowdown that has battered the auto industry.

Some automakers are also working on plug-in hybrid cars powered by petrol and electricity and are rechargeable at a power outlet at home, letting motorists drive longer distances. (AFP)

As seen on TV — our new Surgeon General

The Surgeon General serves as America’s chief health educator by providing Americans the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce the risk of illness and injury. — Office of the Surgeon General website

The Nation’s new Surgeon General appears to have been selected. He has been told that wellness, fitness and obesity will be the top priorities for the next four years, according to CNN. Nothing better illustrates the wisdom of politicians making healthcare decisions on our behalf than this appointment.

The Wall Street Journal blog downplayed the significance of this appointment, saying the Surgeon General is “largely a talking head” whose real job is to travel around the country, “using the title as a bully pulpit to advance a public health agenda.” If the writer was mocking the credibility of the office and the public health agenda, it was lost on most WSJ readers. So was, it seems, the science. But among all the commentary, no one has mentioned the science… (Junkfood Science)

Cleansing diet to better health and slimness? - Can you lose custody of your children by packing an “unhealthy” lunch or giving them junkfood? Can a detox diet help make us slim like Gywneth? Do herbal teas, sea algae wraps from France, and those foot detox patches clear the toxins from our bodies and keep us healthier? These stories in the news may seem to have nothing to do with each other, but they have everything in common. The connection is the DHMO phenomenon.

Before we put the pieces together with a just-released investigation by scientists in the UK, let’s look at these news stories. (Junkfood Science)

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Study shows California's autism increase not due to better counting, diagnosis - A study by researchers at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute has found that the seven- to eight-fold increase in the number children born in California with autism since 1990 cannot be explained by either changes in how the condition is diagnosed or counted — and the trend shows no sign of abating.

Published in the January 2009 issue of the journal Epidemiology, results from the study also suggest that research should shift from genetics to the host of chemicals and infectious microbes in the environment that are likely at the root of changes in the neurodevelopment of California's children. (University of California - Davis)

Well, if you believe their trends assertions then removing traces of mercury preservatives from vaccines had absolutely no effect. Bet it doesn't kill off the vaccine myth though.

Researcher finds link between age, birth order and autism - MILWAUKEE - In the largest study of its kind, researchers have shown that the risk of autism increases for firstborn children and children of older parents.

The risk of a firstborn with an autism spectrum disorder triples after a mother turns 35 and a father reaches 40. (Boston Herald)

Eurosocialists insulted by common sense - By the way, a good news in the journalistic world. The Wall Street Journal becomes the first important newspaper that praises Czechia for A Prague Spring for Political Honesty.

The European socialists have read the refreshing if not brilliant essay by the Czech president in the Financial Times,

Do not tie the markets: free them.

Václav Klaus explains that all moments could be called "exceptional" but this adjective is usually used in order to manipulate with the people. And he argues that Europe should weaken if not repeal various environmental, social, health, and other regulations and "standards".

How did the socialists react? Well, you can guess! ;-) They went ballistic:

Eurosocialists angrily rejected Klaus' calls. (The Reference Frame)

Tax reforms target fatty foods, smokers and drinkers - THE man reshaping the taxation system has been encouraged to help keep the nation healthy by making consumption bad habits more expensive.

Treasury Secretary Ken Henry will be targeting fatty foods, smokers and alcohol drinkers.

He is under pressure to address the "flawed" alcohol excise and create a fat tax when he releases his discussion paper on the nation's future tax system in July.

The Rudd Government's taskforce charged with developing the National Preventative Health Strategy has urged the review to force people to live better lives by making vices too expensive. (Courier-Mail)

Childhood obesity epidemic a myth, says research - THE rise in childhood obesity has halted, defying warnings that it is an "epidemic" that is out of control.

Obesity rates among children levelled off around 1998 and have remained steady ever since, exploding the myth that children are becoming more overweight than ever before.

Research by the University of South Australia found the alarming rise in the percentage of children who were overweight or obese recorded through the 1980s and much of the 1990s had stalled. (The Australian)

How Bed Bugs Outsmart the Chemicals Designed to Control Them -- Bed bugs, once nearly eradicated in the built environment, have made a big comeback recently, especially in urban centers such as New York City. In the first study to explain the failure to control certain bed bug populations, toxicologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Korea’s Seoul National University show that some of these nocturnal blood suckers have developed resistance to pyrethroid insecticides, in particular deltamethrin, that attack their nervous systems. (PhysOrg.com)

DDT, however, is quite effective...

A loony new year - This time last year, we disposed of our refuse weekly in a modest plastic bag. Now, behind our little house we have this:

There are three bins and a crate. The total volume of these is at least fifteen times that of our previous plastic bag. For the green one (garden refuse) we have to pay extra and sign a multi-clause contract that basically asserts that we have no rights. There are now four different refuse trucks belching out the dreaded carbon dioxide, as well as real pollution. They all come at different times according to a schedule that makes the ecclesiastic calendars look like the times-two table.

Elderly and disabled people find it a total nightmare. They live in fear of getting a criminal record if they do it wrong. Little old ladies are trying to master shunting theory and going out in the dark and at sub-zero temperatures, hoping to get the right bin out on the right time of the right day. In preparation they are carefully washing out cans, bottles etc. hoping they will put them in the right bin before the snoopers come. This is now the Wiltshire Experience.

It is all compulsory religious observance and sacrifice. Just to rub in, we now find that the material is not being recycled at all. (Number Watch)

…Unless You’re Filthy Stinking Rich - You can just imagine the editorial meetings that led up to BBC2 commissioning It’s Not Easy Being Green:

BBC executives: This grass-roots environmental movement is all very well, but we’re never going to save the planet if the middle classes don’t join the revolution. We need to make environmentalism inclusive.

So they hire Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Francis “Dick” Strawbridge MBE and his awfully nice family to host the show and give it some grass-roots street-cred by hiring rock-chick Lauren Laverne (who has come a long way since she described the Spice Girls as ‘Tory scum’) to present a weekly feature investigating ‘the posh end of the green market’. In this first episode she explores how to build an eco-friendly swimming pool for a mere £100k. (Climate Resistance)

Of winds and waves - As Category 4 Tropical Cyclone Olivia tracked across Australia’s North West Shelf in April 1996, a wave-measuring buoy recorded a 22-metre monster passing Woodside Energy’s North Rankin A gas platform.

It is a long way from the North West Shelf to the shallow expanse of Lake George, north of Canberra, and windspeeds and wave heights are much more modest. Yet it is here that Swinburne University of Technology physicist Associate Professor Alex Babanin and his colleagues are investigating the powerful but elusive forces that make and break waves in the open ocean.

Dr Babanin and Swinburne colleague Professor Ian Young are collaborating on the research with physicist Professor Mark Donelan of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami, climate modeller Dr Andrey Ganopolski of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and metocean engineer Jason McConochie of Woodside.

Funded by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant, the wave project is developing a mathematical model of the forces involved in transferring energy from the atmosphere to the ocean – one that should illuminate how extreme winds spawn waves such as Olivia’s behemoth progeny. (ScienceAlert)

Environmental group backs canal for Calif. delta -- A national environmental group recommended Wednesday that California overhaul its water-delivery system by building a canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

A report by The Nature Conservancy endorsed piping Sacramento River water around the delta, which is suffering from degraded water quality and declining fish populations. The conservancy said a canal could help restore the region's natural habitat.

It's the first endorsement of the canal by a major environmental group and provides a boost to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's argument that there might be a better way to send water from Northern California to two-thirds of the state residents. (Associated Press)

Displacing petroleum-derived butanol with plants - As a chemical for industrial processes, butanol is used in everything from brake fluid, to paint thinners, to plastics. According to a University of Illinois researcher, butanol made from plant material could displace butanol made from petroleum, just not at the fuel pump. (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

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