His Winter of Discontent - Al Gore braved a midwinter snowstorm yesterday to tell a Senate committee that the world is heating up and the only thing that can save us is "conservation and renewables." (William Tucker, American Spectator)

With Al Due Respect, We're Doomed - The lawmakers gazed in awe at the figure before them. The Goracle had seen the future, and he had come to tell them about it.

What the Goracle saw in the future was not good: temperature changes that "would bring a screeching halt to human civilization and threaten the fabric of life everywhere on the Earth -- and this is within this century, if we don't change."

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry (D-Mass.), appealed to hear more of the Goracle's premonitions. "Share with us, if you would, sort of the immediate vision that you see in this transformative process as we move to this new economy," he beseeched.

"Geothermal energy," the Goracle prophesied. "This has great potential; it is not very far off."

Another lawmaker asked about the future of nuclear power. "I have grown skeptical about the degree to which it will expand," the Goracle spoke.

A third asked the legislative future -- and here the Goracle spoke in riddle. "The road to Copenhagen has three steps to it," he said. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post)

Dennis Miller: Al Gore Is a Doofus Hogging The Thermostat - While the rest of the climate alarmists in the media gushed and fawned over Nobel Laureate Al Gore's testimony on Capitol Hill Wednesday, at least Americans had Dennis Miller to offer some sanity to the global warming absurdity: (News Busters)

Al Gore, The Lobbyist - In a letter dated January 26th, 2009 Al Gore’s company Generation Investment Management sent a coalition letter along with other institutional investors representing $1.7 trillion in assets to Senate Majority leader Harry Reid. The letter asked for: (Julie Walsh, Open Market)

Does Gore Gain from Green Policies He Also Advocates? - Gore’s company, Generation Investment Management, states that its investment strategy, in part, is to “find, fund and accelerate green business.” The companies targeted by renewable energy subsidies, grants and other federal spending are the same ones Gore and his partners are betting on to turn large profits. There’s nothing wrong with making a profit, but doing so at taxpayer expense rather than in a competitive marketplace is generally considered cynical and greedy – far from the disinterested environmental activist image that Gore presents to the world. (Richard Morrison, CEI)

Obama's snow jibe meets icy rebuff in Washington - Shivering Washington residents gave a chilly reception Thursday to a sarcastic dig from President Barack Obama over their inability to cope with wintry weather.

Obama got an icy blast from the Washington Post after the city's most famous incomer expressed disbelief that his daughters' school had shut down Wednesday -- in line with schools in the city's suburbs -- because of "some ice."

"Mr Obama can make pronouncements from inside his well-shoveled bubble, but we can report that it was pretty treacherous out there in the real world," the Post wrote in an editorial after a number of road accidents. (AFP)

No! Some of Earth's climate troubles should face burial at sea, scientists say - Making bales with 30 percent of global crop residues - the stalks and such left after harvesting - and then sinking the bales into the deep ocean could reduce the build up of global carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by up to 15 percent a year, according to just published calculations.

That is a significant amount of carbon, the process can be accomplished with existing technology and it can be done year after year, according to Stuart Strand, a University of Washington research professor. Further the technique would sequester - or lock up - the carbon in seafloor sediments and deep ocean waters for thousands of years, he says.

All these things cannot be said for other proposed solutions for taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, methods such as ocean fertilisation, growing new forests or using crop residues in other ways, says Strand, who is lead author of a paper on the subject in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, published by the American Chemical Society. (Science Centric)

We absolutely do not need or want to deny the biosphere one of its most prized resources. We are carbon-based life forms, we use it to construct our own bodies and we specifically combine it with oxygen to release the energy bound within when its bonds with oxygen were broken by photosynthesizing plants harvesting it from the atmosphere. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is good -- it is specifically life-friendly.

Put your hands in the air and step away from the carbon controls!

The Amazing Story Behind The Global Warming Scam - The key players are now all in place in Washington and in state governments across America to officially label carbon dioxide as a pollutant and enact laws that tax we citizens for our carbon footprints. Only two details stand in the way, the faltering economic times and a dramatic turn toward a colder climate. The last two bitter winters have lead to a rise in public awareness that CO2 is not a pollutant and is not a significant greenhouse gas that is triggering runaway global warming.

How did we ever get to this point where bad science is driving big government we have to struggle so to stop it? (John Coleman, KUSI)

Science Group Erred Giving Hansen Top Honor - It normally does not make news when the American Meteorological Society (AMS) gives out awards at its annual meetings, but this year is an exception. At their 2009 meeting in Phoenix earlier this month, the AMS bestowed its highest honor, the "Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal," to James (Jim) E. Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Hansen is arguably the country's (if not the world's) most prominent climate scientist, but he also is a well-known climate activist who has been pushing for significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Keep reading for more on Hansen, and why AMS was mistaken in granting him its top honor... (Washington Post Capital Weather Gang)

Murdock: Even left now laughing at Global Warming - So-called "global warming" has shrunk from problem to punch line. And now, Leftists are laughing, too. It's hard not to chuckle at the idea of Earth boiling in a carbon cauldron when the news won't cooperate: (Scripps Howard News Service)

Teach-In, turn out, cool off - By now the practice of educational indoctrination by environmental extremists is well known, from public school showings of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” to widespread emphasis every year on Earth Day, to daily guilt trips thrown at students by eco-conscious teachers.

The latest scheme in the enviros’ toolbox arrives next week with the National Teach-In on Global Warming. Scheduled for Feb. 5, the collaborating educators endeavor to “engage over a million Americans in solutions-driven dialogue.”

You might ask, “solutions to what” – the devastatingly decreasing global surface temperatures over the last 10 years? The catastrophically cooling oceans? The awful all-time record extent of Antarctic ice?

No, those actual, observed phenomena are not what these panickers will screech and teach. Contrarily, they instead harp about the predictions churned out in their Carnackian computer models that have for years foretold of massive global temperature increase because of burned fossil fuels that release heat-trapping gasses into the atmosphere. The temperature data show otherwise, but that doesn’t stop their schtick: (Paul Chesser, DC Examiner)

Climate Change Guru May Be Special ‘Envoy of Disappointment,’ Critic Charges - Todd Stern was named Special Envoy for Climate Change on Monday by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (Courtesy of Center for American Progress)

 – Signaling a departure from the Bush administration’s environmental policies, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has named Todd Stern as special envoy for climate change and vowed that America will “vigorously pursue negotiations, those sponsored by the United Nations, and those at sub-global, regional, and bilateral level that can lead to binding international climate agreements.”

In his acceptance speech on Monday, Stern, a veteran of the Clinton administration, also foreshadowed the United States signing on to international environmental treaties, including the Kyoto Protocol.

“The time for denial, delay, and dispute is over,” Stern said. “The time for the United States to take up its rightful place at the table is here.”

But William Yeatman, an energy policy analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market group, said Stern and the State Department cannot act unilaterally to approve global agreements. (CNSNews.com)

So far, coal winning out over nuclear - Initially, the confirmation of Energy Secretary Steven Chu seemed to have brightened the future of both nuclear power and clean coal — two controversial energy lobbies vying for green stimulus funding. But for now, coal is emerging as the favorite.

The most recent version of the House economic stimulus package, set for a floor vote on Wednesday, allots $2.4 billion for carbon capture technology but nothing for nuclear power. (Politico)

$2,400,000,000 to do explicit harm to the biosphere by denying it an essential resource... what a crime.

Remembering to visit harm on poor people, too: Europe tells poor nations to curb emissions - The European Union made its opening gambit in negotiations for a global framework on climate change on Wednesday with proposals that developing nations curb the growth of their greenhouse gas emissions.

Rich countries, including those in the EU as well as the US, are adamant that poor countries must take on such obligations if negotiations this year on a successor to the Kyoto protocol – the main provisions of which expire in 2012 – are to be successful.

The proposal, tabled by the European Commission, said developing countries should curb emissions by 15-30 per cent of their projected growth by 2020. (Financial Times)

Climate change: Commission sets out proposals for global pact on climate change at Copenhagen - The European Commission today set out its proposals for a comprehensive and ambitious new global agreement to tackle climate change and how it could be financed. The new pact is due to be concluded at the Copenhagen UN climate conference in December. In order to keep temperature increase below 2°C, developing countries will require substantially higher funding from the developed world and multilateral institutions to help them shoulder their contribution to addressing climate change. The Commission’s proposals include the creation of an OECD-wide carbon market by 2015 and of innovative international funding sources based on countries' emissions and ability to pay. (Press Release)

EUROPE: No Money on the Table Yet - BRUSSELS, Jan 29 - Figures indicating how much the European Union should give to poor countries affected by climate change have been removed at the last minute from a new environmental blueprint published in Brussels Jan. 28.

As part of preparations for a crucial round of talks due to culminate at a United Nations conference in Copenhagen in late 2009, the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, has presented a new paper urging greater international coordination against global warming.

But while a draft of the plan suggested that up to 30 billion euros (39.7 billion dollars) should be made available to help poor countries adapt to water shortages and other effects of climate change, the figure has been erased from the final version.

Stavros Dimas, Europe's environment commissioner, said that firm financing pledges will be vital in order to clinch an agreement on fighting climate change in Copenhagen. "No money, no deal," he added.

Still, the lack of specific recommendations on funding in Dimas's plan has angered green and anti-poverty campaigners. (IPS)

Real Climate Suffers from Foggy Perception by Henk Tennekes - Roger Pielke Sr. has graciously invited me to add my perspective to his discussion with Gavin Schmidt at RealClimate. If this were not such a serious matter, I would have been amused by Gavin’s lack of knowledge of the differences between weather models and climate models. As it stands, I am appalled. Back to graduate school, Gavin! (Climate Science)

Follow Up To Henk Tennekes’s Guest Weblog - In response to today’s weblog Real Climate Suffers from Foggy Perception by Henk Tennekes, Gavin Schmidt and I have e-mailed to each other several times today. He is offended by the weblog and stated that it inaccurately reported on his professional credentials. Thus I invited him to write a response as a guest weblog on Climate Science to refute the claims make in the weblog from earlier today. Hopefully, he will accept. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

More slurs from realclimate.org - Realclimate.org continues with its same line of attack. Wishfulclimate.org writers try again and again to concoct what appears to be deep critiques against skeptic arguments, but end up doing a very shallow job. All in the name of saving the world. How gallant of them.

A recap. According to realclimate.org, everything my "skeptic" friends and I say about the effect of cosmic rays and climate is wrong. In particular, all the evidence summarized in the box below is, well, a figment in the wild imagination of my colleagues and I. The truth is that the many arguments trying to discredit this evidence simply don't hold water. The main motivation of these attacks is simply to oppose the theory which would remove the gist out of the arguments of the greenhouse gas global warming protagonists. Since there is no evidence which proves that 20th century warming is human in origin, the only logically possible way to convict humanity is to prove that there is no alternative explanation to the warming (e.g., see here). My motivation (as is the motivation of my serious colleagues) is simply to do the science as good as I can. (Nir Shaviv, Science Bits)

Another NASA Defection to the Skeptics’ Camp - Something about retirement apparently frees people up to say what they really believe. I retired early from NASA over seven years ago to have more freedom to speak my mind on global warming.

You might recall that after Dr. Joanne Simpson retired from NASA she  admitted to a long-held skepticism regarding the role of mankind in global warming.

And who can forget NASA’s Administrator, Michael Griffin, admitting that he was skeptical of the urgency of the global warming problem? After the outrage that ensued, I suspect he wishes he had never brought it up.

And now my old boss when I was at NASA (as well as James Hansen’s old boss), John Theon, has stated very clearly that he doesn’t believe global warming is manmade…and adding “climate models are useless” for good measure. Even I wouldn’t go quite that far, since I use simple ones in my published research. (Roy W. Spencer)

No Reporting of Slowing Greenland Glaciers: Shame on the MSM - SUCH has been the fear of Greenland’s melting glaciers that well known Australian science journalist Robyn Williams has claimed sea levels could rise by 100 metres within the next 100 years. Mr Williams, and other journalists, have been quick to report on what has become known as the “Greenland Ice Armageddon”.

Last Friday there was an article in one of the most read science journals, Science, entitled “Galloping Glaciers of Greenland have Reined Themselves In” by Richard A. Kerr.

Yes, as the title suggests, the article explains that a wide-ranging survey of glacier conditions across south eastern Greenland, indicates that glacier melt has slowed significantly and that it would be wrong to attribute the higher rates of melt prior to 2005 to global warming or to extrapolate the higher melt rates of a few years ago into the future.

Mr Kerr was reporting on a presentation by glaciologist Tavi Murray at the American Geophysical Union Conference in San Francisco last December. The paper by Dr Murray was co-authored by many other members of the group at Swansea University in the UK, a team often quoted by Al Gore and others.

When I read the article last Friday I wondered how Robyn “100 metres” Williams and other journalists in the mainstream media (MSM) might report the story. To my amazement they have simply ignored it. (Jennifer Marohasy)

Australian Heatwave Sign Of Climate Change - SYDNEY - A heatwave scorching southern Australia, causing transport chaos by buckling rail lines and leaving more than 140,000 homes without power, is a sign of climate change, the government said on Thursday.

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a total of six days of 40-plus Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) temperatures for southern Australia, which would equal the worst heatwave in 100 years. (Reuters)

So, the reappearance of summers 'like we used to have' is yet another sign of 'climate change'? Funny that, despite a century of population growth and urbanization the forecast 'could equal' the 'worst heatwave' in 100 years, no? So much for allegedly increasing frequency of hot weather events then.

BELLAMY/DUCHAMP: World is getting colder - It's the sun, not CO2, that's to blame

After the wet and cold centuries of the Little Ice Age (around 1550-1850 A.D.), the world's climate recuperated some warmth, but did not replicate the balmy period known as the Middle Age Warm Period (around 800-1300 A.D.), when the margins of Greenland were green and England had vineyards.

Climate began to cool again after World War II, for about 30 years. This is undisputed. The cooling occurred at a time when emissions of C02 were rising sharply from the reconstruction effort and from unprecedented development. It is important to realize that.

By 1978 it had started to warm again, to everybody's relief. But two decades later, after the temperature peaked in 1998 under the influence of El Nino, climate stopped warming for eight years; and in 2007 entered a cooling phase marked by lower solar radiation and a reversal of the cycles of warm ocean temperature in the Atlantic and the Pacific. And here again, it is important to note that this new cooling period is occurring concurrently with an acceleration in CO2 emissions, caused by the emergence of two industrial giants: China and India.

To anyone analyzing this data with common sense, it is obvious that factors other than CO2 emissions are ruling the climate. And the same applies to other periods of the planet's history. Al Gore, in his famous movie "The Inconvenient Truth," had simply omitted to say that for the past 420,000 years that he cited as an example, rises in CO2 levels in the atmosphere always followed increases in global temperature by at least 800 years. It means that CO2 can't possibly be the cause of the warming cycles.

So, if it's not CO2, what is it that makes the world's temperature periodically rise and fall? The obvious answer is the sun, and sea currents in a subsidiary manner. (David J. Bellamy and Mark Duchamp, Washington Times)

Video: Global Warming - Global Warming is a "hot" topic. This video looks at the evidence and focuses on these two questions; Is the Earth getting warmer? and What ARE the effects of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere? Check it out, the answers may surprise you. (cassiopeiaproject)

Climate change: Scientists doubt claims over sea 'fertilisation' - Proposals to combat global warming by sowing the sea with iron to promote carbon-gobbling plankton may be badly overblown, according to a study published on Wednesday.

Ocean "fertilisation" has ignited fierce scientific controversy, with supporters saying these schemes could stave off damaging climate change and critics warning that swathes of ocean may turn stagnant or acidic. (AFP)

Putin’s Grasp of Energy Drives Russian Agenda - In the past year, Russia has formed a cartel-like group with Middle Eastern nations with the goal of dampening global competition in natural gas, sewn up sources of supply in Central Asia and North Africa with long-term contracts to thwart competitors and used its military to occupy an important pipeline route in Georgia.

And this broader struggle extends over a dozen countries from Azerbaijan to Austria. In its sprawl and slow pace, it is often compared to the 19th-century struggle for colonial possession in Central Asia known as the Great Game. In the modern variant, Mr. Putin, a master strategist, has proved far more effective than his European counterparts.

“He has been thinking for some time, ‘What are the means and tools at Russia’s disposal, to make Russia great?’ ” said Lilia Shevtsova, a researcher at the Carnegie Moscow Center. In the post-Soviet world, she said, Mr. Putin concluded that “military power would no longer be sufficient.”

A spokesman for Mr. Putin, Dmitri S. Peskov, said that the energy market “was, is and will remain a strategic sphere for Russia” and that government leaders in Moscow should be versed in the topic. Mr. Peskov denied the Kremlin used exports for political purposes. Of Mr. Putin’s deep personal knowledge of the business, he said the prime minister showed a similar attention to detail in other matters, too.

In this contest, Russia’s overarching goal is to prevent the West from breaking a monopoly on natural gas pipelines from Asia to Europe. Boris E. Nemtsov, a former Russian first deputy prime minister who is now in the opposition, said: “It is the typical behavior of the monopolist. The monopolist fears competition.” (New York Times)

Scepticism grows over the viability of green projects - Lord Turner of Ecchinswell is to investigate the collapse of funding for renewable energy projects in Britain after the recent exit of a string of companies, including BP and Shell.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and of the Government’s Committee on Climate Change, said that the study was a response to mounting scepticism over the Government’s plans for a huge expansion of wind and tidal power.

He said he was concerned that a number of key projects had been thrown into jeopardy, including London Array, a £3 billion scheme to build the world’s largest offshore wind park in the Thames Estuary. “We have to make sure that the present climate does not set back our plans,” he said. (The Times)

BP's Hayward Says World Needs A Carbon Price - DAVOS - The world must establish a price for carbon emissions as part of the drive to ensure diverse and secure energy supplies, BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward said on Thursday.

"We need the world to put a price on carbon," he told the World Economic Forum.

Carbon pricing involves penalizing every ton of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, whether using a carbon tax or a carbon market which allocates a fixed quota of emissions permits which countries or companies must redeem permits for every ton of emissions.

The idea is to tilt competitiveness in favor of clean energy compared to carbon-emitting fossil fuels. (Reuters)

Researchers define challenging carbon-emissions targets for U.S. auto industry -- U.S. automakers must achieve an eightfold reduction in automobile-related carbon emissions to help stabilize the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere by 2050, according to University of Michigan researchers. (PhysOrg.com)

Study: Learning Science Facts Doesn't Boost Science Reasoning -- A study of college freshmen in the United States and in China found that Chinese students know more science facts than their American counterparts -- but both groups are nearly identical when it comes to their ability to do scientific reasoning. (PhysOrg.com)

Efforts to preserve health care in the Southwest continue - New Mexico is following in Arizona’s footsteps. NM Senator William E. Sharer has introduced Senate bill SJR 1, patterned after Arizona’s “Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act” (Proposition 101), that would ensure the freedom of New Mexico residents to purchase private health insurance and to pay directly for lawful medical care. It would make it unconstitutional to penalize or fine someone for choosing to get or decline healthcare coverage or to participate in a particular healthcare system or plan. (Junkfood Science)

Nutritionist sceptical of sausage-leukaemia link - Children who regularly eat cured and processed meat may be at a greater risk of leukaemia, a study suggests, but an Australian nutritionist says parents need not panic if their children have been tucking into hot dogs and salami. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Cleaning your home may worsen your asthma - NEW YORK - Scrubbing the kitchen floor or doing other cleaning chores around the home may trigger a spike in breathing problems in women with asthma, Ohio-based doctors warn in a report published this month.

"We certainly know that cleaning as an occupation and cleaning agent exposures are major risks for asthma and asthma exacerbations," Dr. Jonathan A. Bernstein, of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, told Reuters Health. "So we wanted to see what was going on in the general population (because) obviously people clean their homes." (Reuters Health)

Wonder how the rates would compare with people who don't clean their homes?

Hair dyes not linked to multiple myeloma risk - NEW YORK - Women who've used hair dyes, even for decades, do not seem to have an elevated risk of multiple myeloma, a cancer in which malignant plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow, a new U.S. study suggests.

In recent years, some studies have linked the use of hair dyes -- in particular, older formulations used before the 1980s -- to an elevated risk of certain cancers, including lymphoma, (lymph cell cancer) and leukemia (blood cell cancer).

A few risk factors for multiple myeloma have been established, such as older age and African-American background, but some studies have suggested that hairdressers and cosmetologists may also have a higher-than-normal risk. (Reuters Health)

"Cello scrotum" -- the truth at last - LONDON - "Cello scrotum," a nasty ailment allegedly suffered by musicians, does not exist and the condition was just a hoax, a senior British doctor has admitted.

Back in 1974, in a letter to the British Medical Journal, Elaine Murphy reported that cellists suffered from the painful complaint caused by their instrument repeatedly rubbing against their body.

The claim had been inspired by reports in the BMJ about the alleged condition guitar nipple, caused by irritation when the guitar was pressed against the chest.

But Murphy, now a Baroness and a former Professor of Psychiatry of Old Age at Guy's Hospital in London, has admitted her supposed medical complaint was a spoof.

"Perhaps after 34 years it's time for us to confess we invented cello scrotum," she wrote with her husband John, who had signed the original letter, which was published in the BMJ Wednesday.

"Anyone who has ever watched a cello being played would realize the physical impossibility of our claim."

Murphy, who said the couple had been "dining out" on their story ever since they made it up, said they had decided to reveal the hoax after it was referred to in a recent BMJ article on health problems associated with making music.

She also said she suspected "guitar nipple" had been a joke. (Reuters)

More evidence pre-term birth tied to autism: study - WASHINGTON - A U.S. study looking at children born more than three months prematurely provided fresh evidence on Thursday linking pre-term birth and autism.

These children were about two to three times as likely to show signs of autism at age 2 as measured in a standard screening tool compared to other children, the researchers wrote in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Autism refers to a group of developmental problems known as autism spectrum disorders that appear in early childhood and harm one's ability to communicate and interact with others.

Its causes remain unclear, and experts have pointed to possible genetic and environmental factors. (Reuters)

Analysis shows exposure to ash from TVA spill could have 'severe health implications' -- A report by Duke University scientists who analyzed water and ash samples from last month’s coal sludge spill in eastern Tennessee concludes that “exposure to radium- and arsenic-containing particulates in the ash could have severe health implications” in the affected areas. (PhysOrg.com)

She's doing her job as Governor? Imagine that... Suing the Belugas - In October, while Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska was campaigning to be vice president, the federal government added the beluga whales in the state’s Cook Inlet to the endangered species list. At the time, Governor Palin opposed the listing, saying it would be “premature.” (She said the same thing about protecting polar bears.) Now Ms. Palin has announced that she will sue to remove the whales from the protection of the Endangered Species Act.

In Governor Palin’s view, what is really endangered is Alaska’s economic growth. Cook Inlet, the long arm of water that reaches toward Anchorage from the Gulf of Alaska, is one of the busiest and fastest-developing regions in the state. There are plans for gas and oil development, an expansion of the Port of Anchorage, as well as a possible new bridge. (New York Times)

Snow Study Shows California Faces Historic Drought - SAN FRANCISCO - A new survey of California winter snows on Thursday showed the most populous state is facing one of the worst droughts in its history, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said.

The state, which produces about half the United States' vegetables and fruit, is in its third year of drought and its main system supplying water to cities and farms may only be able to fulfill 15 percent of requests, scientists said.

The snowpack on California's mountains is carrying only 61 percent of the water of normal years, according to the survey by the state Department of Water Resources. Last year the snowpack held 111 percent of the normal amount of water, but spring was the driest ever recorded. (Reuters)

Scientists examine effect of wolves' absence and see an ecosystem 'unraveling' - No trace remains of the wolves whose howls ricocheted for millennia down the lush valleys of the Olympic Peninsula. Settlers and trappers killed them all in little more than three decades.

But the loss of the stealthy predators in the early 1900s left a hole in the landscape that scientists say they are just beginning to grasp. The ripples extend throughout what is now Olympic National Park, leading to a boom in elk populations, overbrowsing of shrubs and trees, and erosion so severe it has altered the very nature of the rivers, says a team of Oregon State University biologists. The result, they argue, is an environment that is less rich, less resilient and - perhaps - in peril.

"We think this ecosystem is unraveling in the absence of wolves," said OSU ecologist William Ripple.

Everything from salmon to songbirds could feel the fallout from the missing predators, the scientists say.

It sounds hard to believe, but the research adds to growing evidence that key predators do more than simply keep prey species in check. Most famously, Ripple and his OSU colleague Robert Beschta showed that within three years after wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and elk populations fell, pockets of trees and shrubs began rebounding. Beavers returned, coyote numbers dropped and habitat flourished for fish and birds.

It was an "explosive" discovery, said David Graber, regional chief scientist for the National Park Service. "The whole ecosystem re-sorted itself after those wolf populations got large enough." (Seattle Times)

What we don’t know still hurts us, environmental researchers warn - Knowledge gaps continue to hobble scientists' assessments of the environment, a Michigan State University researcher and colleagues warn. Their warning follows sobering conclusions drawn from what they do know and could help set the global agenda for research funding in the years to come. (Michigan State University)

Translation: we want more money to run ridiculous environmental scares.

Blood test may screen for mad cow disease - WASHINGTON - Researchers at the University of Calgary have developed a blood test that can diagnose fatal chronic wasting disease in elk, and believe it may provide a cheap way to screen cattle for mad cow disease.

The test looks for signs of damaged cells in the blood, they reported in the journal Nucleic Acids Research. It may also offer a way to diagnose people with a related disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD, they said on Thursday. (Reuters)

Liberian Army Worms Threaten W. Africa Plague: FAO - LIBERIA - A plague of hungry caterpillars known as army worms has eaten crops and plants in 100 Liberian villages and may spread across West Africa if left unchecked, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said on Thursday.

Liberia, ravaged by a 14-year civil war that ended in 2003, declared a national state of emergency this week due to the army worms, a type of moth caterpillar which grows to 5 cm (2 inches) long and can swarm to destroy large swathes of vegetation.

Millions of the caterpillars have stripped fields and polluted wells and streams with their excrement in Bong County, northeast of Liberia's capital Monrovia.

The Rome-based FAO said six communities across the border in neighboring Guinea had already been hit by the army worms.

Large tracts of West Africa were at risk, it said, particularly when the caterpillars, now burrowing underground to form cocoons, emerged as adult moths. (Reuters)

January 29, 2009

Obama's Oval Office Hypocrisy - The New York Times reported this morning that,

The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

"He's from Hawaii, O.K.?" said Mr. Obama's senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. "He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there."

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times... and then just expect that other countries are going to say "OK"... That's not leadership. That's not going to happen."

While Bambi is warm-and-toasty in the Oval Office, is he considering the plight of Michigan's Marvin Schur, a 93-year World War II veteran, who was recently found frozen to death courtesy of a malfunctioning electricity "limiter" device installed by his power company?

Change has come to Washington. Elitism is dead. Long live elitism.

What do you believe? We've Arrived at a Moment of Decision - We are here today to talk about how we as Americans and how the United States of America as part of the global community should address the dangerous and growing threat of the climate crisis.

We have arrived at a moment of decision. Our home - Earth - is in grave danger. What is at risk of being destroyed is not the planet itself, of course, but the conditions that have made it hospitable for human beings.

Moreover, we must face up to this urgent and unprecedented threat to the existence of our civilization at a time when our country must simultaneously solve two other worsening crises. Our economy is in its deepest recession since the 1930s. And our national security is endangered by a vicious terrorist network and the complex challenge of ending the war in Iraq honorably while winning the military and political struggle in Afghanistan.

As we search for solutions to all three of these challenges, it is becoming clearer that they are linked by a common thread - our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels. (Al Gore)

Hands up those who think Al actually believes this crap. Now how many think he shovels this purely as part of a personal enrichment scheme?

No Scientific Forecasts to Support Global Warming - YESTERDAY, a former chief at NASA, Dr John S. Theon, slammed the computer models used to determine future climate claiming they are not scientific in part because the modellers have “resisted making their work transparent so that it can be replicated independently by other scientists”.

Today, a founder of the International Journal of Forecasting, Journal of Forecasting, International Institute of Forecasters, and International Symposium on Forecasting, and the author of Long-range Forecasting (1978, 1985), the Principles of Forecasting Handbook, and over 70 papers on forecasting, Dr J. Scott Armstrong, tabled a statement declaring that the forecasting process used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) lacks a scientific basis. [2]

What these two authorities, Drs Theon and Armstrong, are independently and explicitly stating is that the computer models underpinning the work of many scientific institutions concerned with global warming, including Australia’s CSIRO, are fundamentally flawed. (Jennifer Marohasy)

Here's a really good question:
Frederick T. Dykes
##### Richland Valley Drive
Great Falls, Virginia 22066-1411
Phone: ### ###-####, Email: *******@*****.***

January 28, 2009


The Honorable Lisa Jackson
Administrator
Environmental Protection Agency
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20460


RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUEST

Dear Ms. Jackson:

Pursuant to the rights granted under the Freedom of Information Act, Title 5 of the United State Code section 552 (“FOIA”), I hereby request the following information:

Evidence that carbon dioxide (CO2) is harmful to the environment and that carbon dioxide is the predominant driver of climate change. Following this paragraph, I present reasons why I do not think that carbon dioxide is harmful to our environment and is not the predominant driver of climate change. I request evidence that disproves each of these statements. “Evidence” does not include computer models that try to forecast temperatures for years, decades or a century into the future.

Our computer models do not model impacts on the climate by thunderstorms, volcanos, or impacts by meteorites and cannot forecast temperatures to within 1degree Fahrenheit for one month into the future and certainly not for a century into the future.

I hereby request evidence disproving the following statements that I believe to be true:

1. Water vapor is the prevailing greenhouse gas and retains heat more than all other gasses combined. Without the greenhouse effect, the average temperature of Planet Earth would be below zero.

2. Plants need CO2 to grow. Wood charcoal is mainly carbon that trees extracted from carbon dioxide in the air. CO2 is what actually greens Planet Earth.

3. Plants grow faster in higher concentrations of CO2 and extract more CO2 from the air. Many operators of commercial greenhouses add CO2 to the ambient air which increases plant growth.

4. Man generates 3 billion tons of CO2 annually while plants absorb 75 billion tons of CO2 annually. Plants need all the anthropogenic (man-generated) CO2 plus an additional 72 billion tons of CO2 from natural sources including the oceans

5. The oceans hold 39,000 billion tons of CO2. In high latitudes, cold water adsorbs more CO2 than it expels. In low latitudes, warm water expels more CO2 that it adsorbs.

6. If the oceans release just .000077 of their CO2, that is more than all man-generated CO2.

7. NASA found that the atmosphere of Mars is 95% CO2 and is not effective at retaining heat from the Sun. If an atmosphere of 95% CO2 on Mars is not an effective greenhouse gas, why would less than ½ of 1 percent of CO2 on Earth be an effective greenhouse gas and be the controlling factor for climate change?

8. Some people who claim that CO2 causes global warming use a graph that shows correlation between global temperature and the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere over thousands of years. The point they miss is that the warming occurred hundreds of years before the increase of CO2. Increased CO2 did not cause warming that occurred hundreds of years earlier.

I agree to pay processing fees for this request up to $ 100.00. If there are additional costs, please notify me and get my agreement to pay before incurring such costs.

If you need additional information about the requested items, please contact me at the above address Also, I ask that if for any reason you deny my request or withhold certain information, that you:
1. Provide a list of the denied or withheld materials,

2. Justify these deletions and withholdings by referencing specific exemption in the FOIA, and

3. Release all parts of the withheld material that are not exempt and can be released under the FOIA.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this request.

Respectfully,

Frederick T. Dykes

Copies to: President Obama; all U.S. Senators; all Members of the House of Representatives; The Democratic National Committee; the Republican National Committee; Association of International Automobile Manufacturers; Ford Motor Company; General Motors Corp; Chrysler Corp; Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post; Peter Baker, The New York Times; The Washington Times; Kimberley Strassel, The Wall Street Journal; National Review; The Weekly Standard; ABC; CBS; NBC; Fox News; Glen Beck; Monica Crowley; Sean Hannity.

Recycling 'could be adding to global warming' - Recycling could be adding to global warming rather than reducing it, a key government adviser on waste management has said.

Peter Jones suggested that much of the country's waste should simply be burnt to generate electricity Photo: PA

Peter Jones suggested that an "urgent" review of Labour's policy on recycling was needed to make sure the collection, transportation and processing of recyclable material was not causing a net increase in greenhouse gases.

Mr Jones, a former director of the waste firm Biffa and now an adviser to environment ministers and the London Mayor, Boris Johnson, also dismissed kerbside recycling collections in many areas as "stupid" because they mixed together different materials, rendering them useless for recycling.

He suggested that much of the country's waste should simply be burnt to generate electricity.

"It might be that the global warming impact of putting material through an incinerator five miles down the road is actually less than recycling it 3,000 miles away," he said. (Daily Telegraph)

He's quite right about the majority of recycling being a stupid waste of everyone's time and effort, not to mention energy but worrying over gorebull warming is the wrong justification for anything.

Britain's big polluters accused of abusing EU's carbon trading scheme - Smoke from a factory chimney. Carbon trading is leading to the use of more polluting fossil fuels. Photograph: Joel W. Rogers/Corbis

Britain's biggest polluting companies are abusing a European emissions trading scheme (ETS) designed to tackle global warming by cashing in their carbon credits in order to bolster ailing balance sheets.

The sell-off has helped trigger a collapse in the price of carbon, making it cheaper to burn high-carbon fossil fuels and leading to a fall in the number of clean energy projects. The moves were seized on by environmentalists and other critics who have previously criticised the European Union's ETS for delivering more windfall profits for business than climate change. (The Guardian)

Success! Europe proposes global carbon market - The European Commission, the governing body of the European Union, has proposed the creation of a global carbon market and called for more vigorous carbon reduction targets, leaving Canada’s reduction target behind.

The Commission set out its environmental objectives yesterday, urging developed countries to cut carbon emissions by 30% from 1990 levels by 2020 to limit global warming to 2°C. The target is a step ahead of Canada’s plan to reduce emissions by 20% of 1990 levels by the same time. However, Canada’s goals remain in line with the EC’s longer-term objective to cut emissions by 50% by 2050. (Financial Post)

Given that humans cannot raise the planet's temperature by 2 °C through emission of any amount of carbon dioxide the proposed limits have succeeded even prior to imposition. How good are they?

Europe to U.S.: You’re a Big Polluter - Now that George W. Bush has left the White House, European Union leaders are piling pressure on President Barack Obama to adopt regulations on climate change.

The ideal scenario for Europe would be for the United States quickly to establish a system to cap and trade carbon dioxide, and then pledge to put pressure on other rich countries to do the same thing.

The European Union already has adopted potentially costly policies that could hurt the trade bloc’s industrial competitiveness. If the United States resists that model, or delays action, Europe’s policies could lose their legitimacy.

Another consideration for Europe is to break free of the relative isolation it experienced in international negotiations during the Bush years. Many European leaders want to go to the next round of talks in Copenhagen ten months from now working in tandem with the Americans to push other nations to cut emissions. (James Kanter, New York Times)

Geography Is Dividing Democrats Over Energy - WASHINGTON — President Obama is moving quickly to act on the environmental promises that were a centerpiece of his campaign. But tackling global warming will be far more difficult — and more costly — than the new emissions standards for automobiles he ordered with the stroke of a pen on Monday.

Already, the Congressional Democrats Mr. Obama will need to carry out his mandate are feuding with one another.

By coincidence or design, most of the policy makers on Capitol Hill and in the administration charged with shaping legislation to address global warming come from California or the East Coast, regions that lead the country in environmental regulation and the push for renewable energy sources.

That is a problem, says a group of Democratic lawmakers from the Midwest and Plains States, which are heavily dependent on coal and manufacturing. The lawmakers have banded together to fight legislation they think might further damage their economies.

“There’s a bias in our Congress and government against manufacturing, or at least indifference to us, especially on the coasts,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio. “It’s up to those of us in the Midwest to show how important manufacturing is. If we pass a climate bill the wrong way, it will hurt American jobs and the American economy, as more and more production jobs go to places like China, where it’s cheaper.”

This brown state-green state clash is likely to encumber any effort to set a mandatory ceiling on the carbon dioxide emissions blamed as the biggest contributor to global warming, something Mr. Obama has declared to be one of his highest priorities. Mr. Obama has said he intends to press ahead on such an initiative, despite opposition within his own party in Congress and divisions among some of his advisers over the timing, scope and cost of legislation to curb carbon emissions. (New York Times)

Submitted Paper “Assessment Of Temperature Trends In The Troposphere Deduced From Thermal Winds By Pielke Sr. Et Al - Yesterday, Climate Audit announced the submission of a paper on tropospheric temperature trends (see).

We have also submitted a paper which relates to his study. It is Pielke Sr., R.A., T.N. Chase, J.R. Christy, B. Herman, and J.J. Hnilo, 2009: Assessment of temperature trends in the troposphere deduced from thermal winds. Int. J. Climatol., submitted

“Recent work has concluded that there has been significant warming in the tropical upper troposphere using the thermal wind equation to diagnose temperature trends from observed winds; a result which diverges from all other observational data. In our paper we examine evidence for this conclusion from a variety of directions and find that evidence for a significant tropical tropospheric warming is weak. In support of this conclusion we provide evidence that, for the period 1979-2007, except for the highest latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, both the thermal wind, as estimated by the zonal averaged 200 hPa wind and the tropospheric layer-averaged temperature, are consistent with each other, and show no statistically significant trends.” (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Oh dear... New Paper on the Economics of Air Capture - I have a paper in press on the economics of the air capture of carbon dioxide. Here are the details:

Pielke, Jr. R. A. 2009 (in press). An Idealized Assessment of the Economics of Air Capture of Carbon Dioxide in Mitigation Policy, Environmental Science & Policy.

Abstract

This paper discusses the technology of direct capture of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere called air capture. It develops a simple arithmetic description of the magnitude of the challenge of stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide as a cumulative allocation over the 21st century. This approach, consistent with and based on the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, sets the stage for an analysis of the average costs of air capture over the 21st century under the assumption that technologies available today are used to fully offset net human emissions of carbon dioxide. The simple assessment finds that even at a relatively high cost per ton of carbon, the costs of air capture are directly comparable to the costs of stabilization using other means as presented by recent reports of the IPCC and the Stern Review Report.

For a pre-publication copy when proofs arrive (I expect them next week) please contact pielke@colorado.edu. (Roger Pielke, Jr., Prometheus)

... we are prepared to bet this operates under the mistaken premise there is some advantage in reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide (aCO₂) levels rather than recognizing aCO₂ as a major resource and its accidental increase a significant benefit. In fact, from a biosphere perspective any loss (sequestration) of carbon from the active cycle is a cost to be avoided and any addition (restoration) to the available pool is a profit.

Now Revkin is a Denier - Maybe Joe Romm’s employers over at the Center for American Progress have a vision for how his tantrums and fits serve their interests on advancing climate policy. I certainly can’t see how his antics do anything more than paint the CAP as a hotbed for intolerance and ignorance. In Joe’s latest rant he calls the NYTs Andy Revkin a climate denier, or I think he does, as Joe speaks a language unto himself. Here is an excerpt (emphasis added): (Roger Pielke, Jr., Prometheus)

Oops! Columbia struck a more skeptical response than they expected: Cool on Global Warming - The Fall issue of Columbia prompted dozens of letters disputing the cover article’s central premise — that climate scientists agree the earth’s atmosphere is warming because of human activity. Many readers proposed instead that natural factors, such as sunspots or variations in the earth’s orbit, are warming the atmosphere. (Columbia Magazine)

The turning point—it’s becoming chic to be a skeptic - This must be it, surely, the point where being a skeptic has more scientific cachet than being a believer. The trickle is becoming a flood. We are reaching the stage where independent scientists will want to make sure they are known to be on the skeptical side of the fence. (Joanne Nova)

What is Science’s Rightful Place? - ScienceBlogs wants to answer the above question in light of the following phrase from the President’s inaugural address:

“We will restore science to its rightful place”

Never mind that the phrasing suggests this rightful place existed at some time in the past, the folks at Scienceblogs and SEED Magazine are soliciting contributions of what is the rightful place for science. Watch the wishful thinking take flight. (David Bruggeman, Prometheus)

Government officials were overruled by UN on CCS - British government fought to have Carbon Capture and Storage included in clean development mechanism

British government officials pushed heavily for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology to be included in the clean development mechanism (CDM) at recent climate change talks in Poznan, but were overruled by the United Nations.

The CDM allows developed countries to invest in an emissions reduction scheme in the developing world in return for carbon credits that count towards emissions targets.

Bronwen Northmore, director of the cleaner fossil fuels policy group within the Department of Energy and Climate Change, said that the developing world needed a mechanism to finance CCS projects – which take carbon emissions from dirty power stations and stores them underground – as they couldn't afford to develop the technology themselves.

"We fought to get CCS included in the CDM but unfortunately weren't successful," she said in a speech to the World Future Energy Summit last week.

"We need a robust financing mechanism for CCS in developing countries, whether it is the CDM or something else." (Tom Young, BusinessGreen)

No, that's wrong. We don't need or want CCS, ever. What carbon capture and storage (sequestration) really is is the waste of a magnificent resource and who wants to do that, especially as that waste involves a massive squandering of energy to achieve in the first place? Plain bad idea, no matter how it's viewed.

How Kyoto credit scams work - When it comes to throwing people in the Third World off their land, nothing works better than building hydro dams -- dams have displaced several million in the last decade alone, typically without fairly compensating its victims. And when it comes to financing hydro dams, nothing these days works better than carbon credits, the mechanism of choice for many who want to counter climate change. (Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post)

Not stuck, just can't move: Trapped with icebreaker, cruise passengers party - Coast Guard downplays its vessel's problems, but passenger says the Terry Fox not up to the job

MONTREAL–It wasn't something they had expected, getting stuck in the thick ice of the St. Lawrence River. Nor did the 300 guests aboard the Vacancier cruise ship expect the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker that came to get them out would suffer the same fate.

But the Canadian Coast Guard ship Terry Fox, considered one of Canada's two "heavy" icebreakers, did get caught in the ice, leading some to wonder whether the Coast Guard has adequate icebreaking capabilities, given that Canada is an Arctic country. (Toronto Star)

Interior Secretary Says Open To New Offshore Drilling - WASHINGTON - U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Wednesday the Obama administration was open to oil drilling in new offshore areas as part of a comprehensive plan to overhaul U.S. energy policy.

But he would not specify which tracts could be opened to energy exploration.

"As we move forward with the development of our oil and gas resources, both on-shore and off-shore, they have to be part of a set of a comprehensive energy program," Salazar told reporters at the White House.

"There are places where it is appropriate to explore and to develop oil and gas resources, and there are places that are not appropriate," Salazar said. (Reuters)

Car industry to fight Barack Obama's green proposals - Car industry groups are gearing up for a long fight and the likelihood of legal action against proposals by President Barack Obama to allow California and other states to set their own regulations on greenhouse gas emission from vehicles. (Daily Telegraph)

California Takes Aim At Big, Energy-Hungry TVs - LOS ANGELES - California may be still waiting for the go-ahead to force higher fuel economy in its cars, but the Golden State is moving to crack down on a less obvious energy glutton -- the television set.

As television screens grow steadily in size and numbers, sucking more juice from the U.S. power grid, California regulators has crafted the nation's first mandatory energy curbs on TVs -- and meeting resistance from the industry that makes them.

Having pioneered energy-efficiency rules over the past 30 years for appliances and gadgets ranging from refrigerators to cell-phone chargers, the California Energy Commission has now turned to TVs, which account for 10 percent of home electric bills in the state. (Reuters)

Coal: China’s Energy Pillar - China has experienced huge change over the past 30 years. But even amidst that change, coal has been the pillar of the country’s energy sector and its dominance will likely continue for the next 30 years. And that will be true even though coal is exacting a heavy toll in terms of pollution, land destruction, and human health.

Ever since 1978, when Deng Xiaoping launched the economic reforms, coal has been dominant. Without it, Chinese industry would literally grind to a halt. This year, coal will account for about 75 percent of industrial fuel use, 76 percent of electricity generation, 80 percent of civil and commercial energy, and 60 percent of chemical feedstock. (Lee Geng and Michael J. Economides, Energy Tribune)

Europe's Pipeline War - The most recent conflict between Moscow and Kiev over natural gas supplies has reignited the controversy over new transit routes. Europe could get its future gas from the highly controversial Nord Stream pipeline to the north, or via the Nabucco pipeline to the south. But will either ever get built? (Der Spiegel)

Severn Barrage is environmental balancing act - Whichever, if any, tidal scheme is built on the Severn, it is sure to anger some environmentalists. Being a renewable source of electricity, tidal generators might be assumed to be popular with the green lobby. Yet there are serious reservations over the environmental costs of a barrage or lagoon in the estuary — and they have split the environmentalist movement.

On the one hand there is the appeal of doing something positive about climate change by turning to a renewable, rather than burnable, source of energy. Environmental activists have been urging governments, power companies and the public to embrace renewable energy because it is cleaner than fossil fuels and nuclear power.

On the other hand, thousands of hectares of shoreline will be destroyed as a feeding ground for birds — an internationally important feeding ground, no less.

There are also deep concerns about the impact on the fish and invertebrates in the Severn. Barrages and, to a lesser extent, lagoons form a physical barrier to species such as salmon and eels as they migrate. (The Times)

Third Heathrow runway would scupper Stansted and Glasgow expansion - A new runway at Heathrow would result in every other British airport having to abandon expansion plans to meet the Government’s climate change target, a study has suggested.

The increase in carbon dioxide emissions from an enlarged Heathrow would be so great that other airports might be forced to cut thousands of flights a year to avoid a breach of the target. That could mean scrapping new runways at Stansted and in Scotland. (The Times)

It won't but it just might help bring down the carbon dioxide farce.

Plans for thousands of wind turbines and tidal barrage threatened by costs - Ambitious plans to build thousands of wind turbines off the coast of Britain and a controversial tidal barrage may never be realised due to environmental concerns and spiralling costs, according to energy experts. (Daily Telegraph)

Chill wind as companies pull out of projects - The UK is losing its attraction for renewable energy generators, putting future energy security and the government's climate change targets in jeopardy, Lord Smith has told the Financial Times in an interview.

The chairman of the Environment Agency said he was concerned about several recent announcements from big energy companies that they were reconsidering plans for offshore wind farms.

"I'm very worried by the fact that a number of companies have said they are no longer actively considering major schemes in the UK," he said. (Financial Times)

Studies Find Mercury In Much U.S. Corn Syrup - WASHINGTON - Many common foods made using commercial high fructose corn syrup contain mercury as well, researchers reported on Tuesday, while another study suggested the corn syrup itself is contaminated.

Food processors and the corn syrup industry group attacked the findings as flawed and outdated, but the researchers said it was important for people to know about any potential sources of the toxic metal in their food. (Reuters)

The latest Scare du Jour: mercury in HFCS - Our bodies are designed and have adapted to thrive on the planet earth. As such, our bodies naturally detoxify and can deal with elements, minerals, chemicals and even bugs, found naturally in our foods and environment. We’re made of tough stuff and not nearly as wimpy and vulnerable as some want us to fear. That resilience is a good thing for the survival of the human species!

There will always be people who try to scare us about some food (it’s always something they don’t think we should eat) by telling us a small amount of some “toxin” — or “neurotoxin” (that sounds even scarier) — has been detected. This is our heads up that we are being manipulated and someone’s trying to take advantage of the fact a lot of people think a chemical or toxin means danger. (Junkfood Science)

Still not rating season? Cured meats tied to childhood leukemia risk - NEW YORK - Children who regularly eat cured meats like bacon and hot dogs may have a heightened risk of leukemia, while vegetables and soy products may help protect against cancer, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among 515 Taiwanese children and teenagers with and without acute leukemia, those who ate cured meats and fish more than once a week had a 74 percent higher risk of leukemia than those who rarely ate these foods.

On the other hand, kids who often ate vegetables and soy products, like tofu, had about half the leukemia risk of their peers who shunned vegetables and soy.

The findings, reported in the online journal BMC Cancer, point to an association between these foods and leukemia risk - but do not prove cause-and-effect. (Reuters Health)

Or, even more likely, these 'results' point to the outcome desired by the anti-meat mobs who fund this kind of dredge.

Want to get healthy? Exercise 7 minutes a week - LONDON - Rigorous workouts lasting as little as three minutes may help prevent diabetes by helping control blood sugar, British researchers said on Wednesday.

The findings published in the journal BioMed Central Endocrine Disorders suggest that people unable to meet government guidelines calling for moderate to vigorous exercise several hours per week can still benefit from exercise.

"This is such a brief amount of exercise you can do it without breaking a sweat," said James Timmons, an exercise biologist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, who led the study.

"You can make just as big as an effect doing this as you can by doing hours and hours of endurance training each week." (Reuters)

Plastic chemical may stay in body longer: study - WASHINGTON - A controversial chemical used in many plastic products may remain in the body longer than previously thought, and people may be ingesting it from sources other than food, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December said it planned more research into the safety of bisphenol A, or BPA, but the agency indicated no immediate plans to curb the chemical, found in baby bottles and other products. (Reuters)

Reminding us intimidation attempts extend far beyond gorebull warming: Scientists threatened with prosecution (Google translated page) - Two Swedish researchers are threatened with prosecution after they published a scientific article that condemns the use of lie detectors. The company Nemesysco, which manufactures detectors, writes in a letter to the researchers publishers that they can be sued for libel if the writing on the subject again. (STHLM) -- h/t Niclas S. Engberg

Science News: Super Mario Gravity, inter alia, from slate V:

Anti-capitalist Sachs is at it again: Rewriting the rulebook for 21st-century capitalism - Technology is at the core of Obama's plans for a sustainable future. In this new era of public action, the US is back in the lead

One of President Barack Obama's historic contributions will be a grand act of policy jujitsu - turning the crushing economic crisis into the launch of a new age of sustainable development. His macroeconomic stimulus may or may not cushion the recession, and bitter partisan fights over priorities no doubt lie ahead. But Obama is already setting a new historic course by reorienting the economy from private consumption to public investments directed at the great challenges of energy, climate, food production, water and biodiversity. (Jeffrey Sachs, The Guardian)

Senator Warns White House Will 'Create Crisis' and 'Panic' to Push Stimulus - Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., criticizes mainstream media for not reporting loads of pork in proposed legislation.

Is the new Obama administration taking cues from the Bush administration to get Congress to act? It certainly seemed that way to, South Carolina’s junior Republican senator, Jim DeMint.

DeMint, speaking Jan. 27 at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., explained the Obama administration will “create crisis and widespread panic” just like its predecessor in order to get Congress to act expeditiously.

“I’ve been around long enough to know whenever someone tells me I have to make a decision right now, my response is no,” DeMint said. “That clears it up right away and I think more and more the Bush administration and now this administration knows that they’re not going to get a quick reaction out of Congress unless they create crisis and widespread panic. And that’s going to be their M.O. to get Congress to act.” (Jeff Poor, Business & Media Institute)

Ireland faces fines if food waste not recycled, EPA warns - Diverting food waste from landfill must become the main waste management priority if Ireland is to avoid EU sanctions, the Environmental Protection Agency has said.

In a new report today, the environmental watchdog said the amount of biodegradable municipal waste disposed of to landfill increased by 5 per cent to 1,485,968 tonnes in 2007, leaving Ireland in “danger” of missing its EU targets.

According to the agency, the increase in food waste is moving Ireland further from the first Landfill Directive target of less than one million tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste to be landfilled in 2010.

Under the 1999 EU landfill directive, Ireland will be fined if it fails to meet the target, and at present, 50 per cent more biodegradable waste, including food and garden waste, paper, cardboard, wood and textiles, is being sent to landfill than the target level for 2010. (Irish Times)

Where do they get this nonsense? CLIMATE CHANGE: Tropical Forests Fight for Survival - UXBRIDGE, Canada, Jan 28 - Current rates of deforestation suggest there will hardly be any tropical forests left in 20 years. Sixty percent of the rainforests, which survived for 50 million consecutive years, are already gone. (IPS)

Where tropical forests now stand mostly dry savannah existed just 12,000 years ago, where would forests have existed for 50 million consecutive years and still exist today? Certainly they can't be talking about northern boreal forests, they were under a mile of ice for much of the last 100,000 years. Granted Antarctica once had rainforests but that's going back a few million years and people can't really be blamed for their loss either.

Moreover, as anyone who has tried to wrest a living by clearing land for agriculture knows, forests are resilient, constantly infiltrating and reclaiming cleared areas. The only way we could get rid of tropical forests in 20 years would be to nuke the damn things, something neither likely nor recommended.

Exceptionally absurd piece, even for Stephen Leahy.

Key Food, Biofuel Crop Sorghum's Genome Deciphered - WASHINGTON - Scientists have deciphered the genetic make-up of sorghum, a drought-tolerant crop and important food and biofuel source, and said the breakthrough could help develop better crops for arid regions.

Sorghum is one of the world's leading cereals, along with corn, wheat, oats and barley, and can thrive in hot, dry conditions other crops cannot tolerate.

An international scientific team, writing in the journal Nature on Wednesday, mapped the genome which includes about 30,000 genes.

They said this new understanding could point to ways of creating even more drought-tolerant types while providing a blueprint for developing, through breeding or genetic engineering, improved forms of other crops such as corn. (Reuters)

January 28, 2009

James Hansen’s Former NASA Supervisor Declares Himself a Skeptic - Says Hansen ‘Embarrassed NASA’ & ‘Was Never Muzzled’

Washington DC: NASA warming scientist James Hansen, one of former Vice-President Al Gore’s closest allies in the promotion of man-made global warming fears, is being publicly rebuked by his former supervisor at NASA.

Retired senior NASA atmospheric scientist, Dr. John S. Theon, the former supervisor of James Hansen, NASA’s vocal man-made global warming fear soothsayer, has now publicly declared himself a skeptic and declared that Hansen “embarrassed NASA” with his alarming climate claims and said Hansen was “was never muzzled.” Theon joins the rapidly growing ranks of international scientists abandoning the promotion of man-made global warming fears. (E&PW)

Breakthrough!

By Sir Hugh Jerrors, Professor of Modelling Those Little Fluffy Bits Round The Edges Of Clouds at the Metropolitan University of Nether Wallop

What splendid news that President Obama is to give $140,000,000 to the climate modelling industry. That a man who has shown such wisdom throughout his presidency should recognise the importance of this vital economic activity must be a blow to the two or three remaining denialists, who are able to make so much noise thanks to heavy funding from the fossil fuel industry.

Climate modelling has provided employment to hundreds of highly-skilled workers. They, in turn, by their purchasing power provide stimulus to strained local economies in areas such as East Anglia . Also, they will inspire a new stream of university graduates, all highly skilled additions to the new industrial scene, thereby reducing unemployment. They will certainly deserve the large bonuses that are no doubt in the offing. Doubters might think the move is unnecessary, as we all know what the outcome of the modelling will be, but it is not just enough to know that catastrophe is on the way unless we dismantle most of our existing industries. The extent of the catastrophe has to be known to greater and greater precision. As humankind advances towards a new dawn of zero-energy economics, it is the modellers who are in the van.

Climate modelling is the ideal industry for the modern world. Admittedly, its super-computers are responsible for certain carbon emissions, but these are easily offset by purchasing credits from Mr Gore. It is an industry that creates no waste, noise or even products, to sully our planet, which it is destined to save. It does not clog up the transport systems with the unpleasant consequences of trade. It is clean, green and inoffensive.

Let us hope that other nations, and particularly the UK , will seek to emulate the foresight of the American taxpayers, who have willingly made this generous investment in the future. How grateful their grandchildren will be, when they are able to see the outputs of the models during climate change lessons!

This is the start of a brave new world, in which national economies are decoupled from the sordid activities of manufacture and trade. Let us go forward, hand in hand, towards that Promised Land. (Number Watch)

activism.plc@gov.ac.uk - At the risk of getting all Exxon-Secrets ‘on yo asses’… Thanks to the reader who let us know about Bob Ward’s latest career move. Ward, if you remember, left his post of director of communications at the Royal Society to join global risk analysis firm RMS as Director of Global Science Networks. It was a perfectly natural progression that allowed him to continue both his pseudo-scientific catastrophe-mongering and his crusade against Exxon and Martin Durkin. Which he did. (Climate Resistance)

The Green Stimulus - The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday voted for $20 billion in tax breaks for wind and solar power and energy-efficiency improvements. Since loans for new windmills have dried up, the bill tries to spur investment by allowing an immediate 30% investment tax credit in place of the current production tax credit taken over ten years. According to a Reuters story, Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, today unveiled his version of the $275 billion tax cuts that are part of the stimulus package. It includes “about $30 billion in tax breaks and incentives aimed at creating energy jobs.” We’ll have to wait to see how many green jobs they claim will be created by the House and Senate tax provisions. (Myron Ebell, Cooler Heads Digest)

Obama's Expensive Energy Medicine Is Wrong for Ailing Economy - Perhaps Obama's team of the best and the brightest can make sense of it, but I, for one, am very confused: How does expensive energy stimulate the economy? (William Yeatman, Cooler Heads Digest)

Kerry Seeks Action on Climate Pact - WASHINGTON -- Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said Tuesday that it was "not critical" for the U.S. to begin regulating power-plant emissions in advance of renewed talks toward a global climate-change treaty.

The Massachusetts Democrat will be an influential player in efforts to forge such a treaty and reshape U.S. policy on climate issues.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Sen. Kerry said that an $825 billion economic-stimulus bill making its way through Congress should include more money for low-carbon technologies and less for "nontargeted tax cuts" that would, he said, do little to create jobs quickly. "We're staring at an incredible economic opportunity," he said of the stimulus bill, "let's spend it on the right things." (Wall Street Journal)

If you say it quickly enough... Spend a trillion a year to save planet: report - TACKLING climate change will be much cheaper than most governments expect, according to a major report by global consultancy McKinsey.

Nearly $1 trillion a year would need to be invested in clean power, energy efficiency and forestry around the world by 2030 - a huge sum but less than most governments have predicted and much less than the expected damage bill should climate change go unaddressed. (Sydney Morning Herald)

New Method For Estimating The Impact Of Heterogeneous Forcing On Atmospheric Circulations by Vukicevic et al. 2009 - Our research has shown that the forcing of weather systems from diabatic heating by the human input of aerosols is on the order of 60 times that of the forcing from the diabatic heating due to the human addition of well-mixed greenhouse gases (with the dominate gas being CO2); i.e. see Matsui, T., and R.A. Pielke Sr., 2006: Measurement-based estimation of the spatial gradient of aerosol radiative forcing. Geophys. Res. Letts., 33, L11813, doi:10.1029/2006GL025974.

We now have a new paper that presents a quantitative methodology to assess the importance of this type of climate forcing. It is Vukicevic, T., R. A. Pielke Sr., and A. Beltran-Przekurat, 2009: New Method For Estimating The Impact Of Heterogeneous Forcing On Atmospheric Circulations. J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1029/2008JD010418, in press. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Just reread that: diabatic heating by the human input of aerosols is on the order of 60 times that of the forcing from the diabatic heating due to the human addition of well-mixed greenhouse gases (with the dominate gas being CO2)

With carbon dioxide then accounting for perhaps 1.5% of atmospheric warming just what does anyone expect to achieve by devastating the global energy supply in an effort to control its emission? And why would anyone believe climate model prognostication of massive global warming due to carbon dioxide-driven enhanced greenhouse when carbon dioxide is such a trivial bit player in the global climate play?

Horse feathers! Emperor penguin 'marching to extinction by end of the century' - The Emperor penguin is marching towards extinction because the Antarctic sea ice on which it depends for survival is shrinking at a faster rate than the bird is able evolve if it is to avoid disaster, a study has found.

By the end of the century there could be just 400 breeding pairs of Emperor penguins left standing, a dramatic decline from the population about about 6,000 breeding pairs that existed in the 1960s, scientists estimated. (Steve Connor, The Independent)

According to Antarctic Connection's "Wildlife of Antarctica" the Emperors must have had something of a population explosion: Quick facts: Population: 200,000 pairs.

That and the fact that Antarctic sea ice is increasing and has been doing for as long as we have had satellites observing it kind of tells you all you need to know about The Indy and its 'science editor'.

If things were different they could be, different... or not: Climate change’s impact on invasive plants in Western US may create restoration opportunities - Princeton, NJ – January 27, 2009 – A new study by researchers at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs has found that global climate change may lead to the retreat of some invasive plant species in the western United States, which could create unprecedented ecological restoration opportunities across millions of acres throughout America. At the same time, global warming may enable other invasive plants to spread more widely. (ScienceMode)

“Houston Chronicle” Editorial: A Global-Warming Scare Story - Wow. Could the Houston Chronicle have fit more distortions about climate change into a 420-word editorial than it managed to do in its January 25th piece, “The heat is on: New data debunk claims that global warming is hype”? It’s hard to figure out how. (Chip Knappenberger, Master Resource)

Meteorologists know nothing about climate change - A pretty interesting headline isn’t that? I admit that is probably a bit more sensationalistic than what is really called for. However, that would seem to be one of the conclusions from the author and analyst of a recent survey. (Tony Hake, Denver Weather Examiner)

Runaway Climate Concerns: Man-made global warming has become an ex cathedra doctrine that can be challenged only at great risk - For evidence of the inertia of bureaucracy, look no further than the UN climate conference in Poznan that concluded recently. Like a meeting in Bali last year and another in Copenhagen in December, the aim is to go beyond the Kyoto Protocol to try to halt global warming. This is serious stuff, since implementing the Kyoto Protocol could possibly cost up to $180 billion annually.

These meetings and Kyoto reflect an underlying premise promoted by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). For its part, IPCC lives and dies by the hypothesis that human contributions to greenhouse gases are the primary cause of climate change.
Man-made global warming has become what scientists call an ex cathedra doctrine that, like a superstition, can be challenged at great risk to reputation or financial support. (Christopher Lingle, Live Mint)

Germany OKs Atlantic global warming experiment - Germany dropped its opposition Monday to a controversial experiment to dump iron sulphate in the South Atlantic to see if it can absorb greenhouse gases and possibly help to halt global warming. (AFP)

Indian scientists conduct anti-warming experiment in Antarctic Ocean - Indian and German scientists began strewing iron powder on hundreds of square kilometres of the Antarctic ocean in a momentous experiment that may yield a solution to the global warming crisis.

Some environmentalists have opposed the work of Indian and German scientists aboard the Polarstern, a German research icebreaker, but Berlin ruled Monday the project is safe and breaks no laws. (DPA)

?!! Comet impact theory disproved - New data, published today, disproves the recent theory that a large comet exploded over North America 12,900 years ago, causing a shock wave that travelled across North America at hundreds of kilometres per hour and triggering continent-wide wildfires.

Dr Sandy Harrison from the University of Bristol and colleagues tested the theory by examining charcoal and pollen records to assess how fire regimes in North America changed between 15 and 10,000 years ago, a time of large and rapid climate changes.

Their results provide no evidence for continental-scale fires, but support the fact that the increase in large-scale wildfires in all regions of the world during the past decade is related to an increase in global warming. (University of Bristol)

Al Gore’s Propaganda - The methods used by global warming alarmists to convince you that more carbon dioxide is going to ruin the Earth are increasingly laced with insults and attacks directed toward anyone who might disagree with them. For instance, one of the many intellectually lazy (& false) claims is that I am paid by Big Oil.

Mr. Gore’s tactics have been a little more subtle, and reminiscent of propaganda methods which have proved to be effective throughout history at influencing public opinion. One should keep in mind that his main scientific adviser, NASA’s James Hansen, has the most extreme views of any climate researcher when it comes to predicting a global warming induced Armageddon.

Listed below are ten propaganda techniques I have excerpted from Wikipedia. Beneath each are one or more examples of Mr. Gore’s rhetoric as he has attempted to goad the rest of us into reducing our CO2 emissions. Except where indicated, most quotes are from his testimony before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, March 21, 2007. (Mr. Gore is scheduled to testify again tomorrow, January 28, 2009, before the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee…if the cold and snowy weather doesn’t cause them to reschedule.) (Roy W. Spencer)

Obama, Fight The Green Agenda - In his remarkable rise to power, President Barack Obama has overcome some of the country's most formidable politicians--from the Bushes and the Clintons to John McCain. But he may have more trouble coping with a colleague he professes to admire: former Vice President Al Gore.

To date, motivations from sweet reason to hard-headed accommodation have defined Obama's Cabinet choices, most notably in such areas as defense and finance. Oddly enough, though, his choices on the environmental front are almost entirely Gore-ite in nature. Obama's green team, for example, includes longtime Gore acolyte Carol Browner as climate and energy czar, physicist Steven Chu as energy secretary and, perhaps most alarmingly, John Holdren as science adviser.

These individuals are not old-style conservationists focused on cleaning up the air and water, or protecting and expanding natural areas. They represent a more authoritarian and apocalyptic strain of true believers who see in environmental issues--mainly, global warming--a license to push a radical agenda irrespective of its effects on our economy, our society or even our dependence on foreign energy.

We should not underestimate the power of these extreme greens. They can count on the media to cover climate and other green issues with all the impartiality of the Soviet-era Pravda. Stories that buttress the notion of man-made global warming--like reports of long-term warming in Antarctica--receive lavish attention in The New York Times and on Yahoo!. (Joel Kotkin, Forbes)

Philadelphia’s Climate in the Early Days - Guest Post by Steven Goddard

January, 1790 was a remarkable year in the northeastern US for several reasons. It was less than one year into George Washington’s first term, and it was one of the warmest winter months on record. Fortunately for science, a diligent Philadelphia resident named Charles Pierce kept a detailed record of the monthly weather from 1790 through 1847, and his record is archived by Google Books. Below is his monthly report from that book. (Watts Up With That?)

The UK Climate Impact Programme Forecasting Scoresheet - Guest Post by Steven Goddard

The UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) is a government funded organization with the following scientifically neutral mission statement on their home page “The UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) helps organisations to adapt to inevitable climate change. While it’s essential to reduce future greenhouse gas emissions, the effects of past emissions will continue to be felt for decades.“

On their headline messages page they have a list of global warming predictions and supporting evidence. In this article we will examine some of their claims and evidence. (Watts Up With That?)

Humans adapting to climate change help mosquitoes spread disease - Humans adjusting to water shortages caused by global warming could help a dengue fever-carrying mosquito expand into new parts of Australia, according to a study released Tuesday. (AFP) | Hoarding rainwater could 'dramatically' expand range of dengue-fever mosquito (Wiley)

Actually rainwater storage tanks were once ubiquitous in Australia but had been discouraged in favor of decent water reticulation. Fashionable gorebull warming hysteria and misguided government policy has seen a return of these neglected water stores but that is their only connection to "global warming".

From CO₂ Science this week:
Editorial:
Super Rice to Match Super Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations: In the not-too-distant future, we will need crops that can take fullest advantage of the yield-enhancing benefits of the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 content. What is the outlook for rice in this regard?

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week:
Was there a Medieval Warm Period? YES, according to data published by 658 individual scientists from 385 separate research institutions in 40 different countries ... and counting! This issue's Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from Owens Valley, White Mountains, California, USA. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period Project's database, click here.

Subject Index Summary:
Herbivory (General): How might it differ from what it is now in a CO2-enriched and warmer world of the future?

Plant Growth Data:
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Kentucky Bluegrass, Little Bluestem, Sundial Lupine, and Thale Cress.

Journal Reviews:
Global Warming and Atlantic Hurricane Intensity: Does the former promote the latter?

Tropical Cyclones Off the Northwestern Coast of Australia: How did their intensities vary over the period 1968/69 to 2000/01?

The World's Water Tower: What is it? Where is it? Why is it? And how has it responded to the past half-century of global warming?

The Progressive Nitrogen Limitation Hypothesis Takes Another Hit: A scrub-oak ecosystem finds the nitrogen it needs for its growth to continue responding to atmospheric CO2 enrichment.

Amphibian Population Declines: Are they caused by global warming?

CO2 Truth-Alert: Elevated CO2: How Sweet it is ... for Sugarcane! (co2science.org)

New science could help solve climate crisis - LONDON: A new science that seeks to fight climate change using methods like giant space mirrors might not work on its own, but when combined with cuts in greenhouse gases it may help reverse global warming, a research report said.

In the report published on Wednesday, researchers at Britain's University of East Anglia assessed the climate cooling potential of "geoengineering" schemes that also include pumping aerosol into the atmosphere and fertilizing the oceans with nutrients.

"We found that some geoengineering options could usefully complement mitigation, and together they could cool the climate, but geoengineering alone cannot solve the climate problem," said Professor Tim Lenton, the report's lead author.

Geoengineering involves large-scale manipulation of the environment in an attempt to combat the potentially devastating effects of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. (Reuters)

Except that improvements in the levels of magnificent resource and essential trace gas carbon dioxide is all gain for no pain. The biggest problem the world faces today is people wanting to "do something about" carbon dioxide.

Nuclear Fusion-Fission Hybrid Could Destroy Nuclear Waste And Contribute to Carbon-Free Energy Future - AUSTIN, Texas — Physicists at The University of Texas at Austin have designed a new system that, when fully developed, would use fusion to eliminate most of the transuranic waste produced by nuclear power plants.

The invention could help combat global warming by making nuclear power cleaner and thus a more viable replacement of carbon-heavy energy sources, such as coal. (Insciences)

I'm all for viable energy sources but the carbon fixation and reach for gorebull warming as a justification for development costs is always cause for great suspicion.

Britain Starts Search For New Nuclear Build Sites - LONDON - Budding nuclear power plant builders have two months to nominate sites for the next generation of nuclear power stations in Britain, the government said on Tuesday.

Europe's biggest utilities, which have been clubbing together this month in readiness to build the nuclear power plants Britain hopes will replace an aging fleet of state built reactors, have until March 31 to submit their site proposals.

"The industry continues to gear up to invest and we are on course to see new nuclear feeding into the grid by 2018," Britain's Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told the Nuclear Development Forum on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Senators Debate Alternative Energy Tax Breaks - WASHINGTON - The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday began debating some $31 billion in tax credits and financial incentives to boost alternative energy supplies and promote energy-savings steps as part of the Obama administration's much bigger U.S. economic recovery plan.

The tax breaks being considered would, in part, help wind power and solar energy companies that are having a difficult time getting financing because of tight credit conditions. The incentives also come at time that sharply lower petroleum prices have made alternative energy projects less cost competitive. (Reuters)

RINO rampage: U.S. Should Adopt California Car Rules: Schwarzenegger - SAN FRANCISCO - California on Monday hailed President Barack Obama's move toward letting it and other states regulate greenhouse gases from cars as an "historic win" for clean air and said the federal government should adopt similar national standards.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former Hollywood actor now a champion of the environmental movement, said it would be a great idea for the entire United States to follow California's lead on rules for more efficient cars that would cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2016. (Reuters)

A bariatric patient wants other women to know… - A young nursing assistant had sought help for a back injury five years ago, and her doctor recommended bariatric surgery. She lost 120-pounds, but it has not been a happy ending. Looking shockingly decades older than her real age, malnutrition has cost her her health, her job, and most of her hair and teeth. She and other women around Modesto believe that more attention deserves to be given to the long-term complications of bariatric surgeries and bravely shared their stories with the Modesto Bee this weekend.

These are the truer pictures of the pain and complications of bariatric surgeries that those of us who’ve cared for these women see more often than those glowing before-and-after stories in the media.

These women showed tremendous courage in opening their hearts and going public, hoping to help other women. Their stories deserve to be heard. Please be sure to watch Sandi’s touching video interview [halfway down the page]. As reporter Ken Carlson wrote: (Junkfood Science)

Money For Nothin' - California's politicians have played Russian roulette with the state's future, nearly bankrupting it in the process. Now, it looks like they might get bailed out from the problems they created.

The Golden State expects a record $42 billion deficit over the next year and a half, the largest pool of red ink ever in a state. Can it plug such a big fiscal hole? Maybe.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pushed a wide range of new taxes — excuse us, "fees" — on everything from golfers and car repairs to veterinary care and tickets to sporting events. And now, the $825 billion stimulus bill may bring billions more to California.

The stimulus will dole out about $200 billion to the states to help shore up their budgets. California is slated to get $22 billion of that.

Is that a good thing? Probably not. It's not aid, per se; it's a bailout. Basically, California's irresponsible, Democrat-dominated legislature has spent the state into near fiscal oblivion. Now it will get bailed out by its big-spending friends in Washington.

So expect more fiscal irresponsibility in California, not less. (IBD)

Real Power In Washington Resides In Person Of Environmental Chief - Think the most powerful person in the U.S. government is President Obama? Think again. It reality it may be Environmental Protection Agency Chief Lisa Jackson.

In the race for action on climate change and to curb man-made greenhouse gases that moves swifter than the pace of legislative change, many are turning to the EPA and the Clean Air Act, which empowered the federal government to enforce clean air standards to improve human health and living conditions.

If President Obama moves to classify carbon dioxide as a dangerous pollutant to be regulated by the EPA, as he pledged during the campaign, the change in policy could significantly alter the lives of Americans.

While the Clean Air Act has been legitimately and usefully used to combat ozone depletion, acid rain, pollution and smog, using it to curb greenhouse gases is about as good an idea as using a power drill to do brain surgery. (Margo Thorning, IBD)

UN Chief Warns More Could Go Hungry In Crisis Year - MADRID - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Tuesday said rich nations had to do more to prevent the economic crisis from adding to an already intolerable 1 billion people going hungry in the world.

Food prices had come down for the time being but the number of hungry people was set to rise again, Ban told the High Level Meeting on Food Security for All in Madrid.

"Continuing hunger is a deep stain on our world. The time has come to remove it forever. We have the wealth and know-how to do so," Ban said.

Apparently they can recognize a real problem when they see, so what's with all this gorebull warming hysteria nonsense that can only make everything much worse?

Mapping the Zone: Improving Flood Map Accuracy - Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps portray the height and extent to which flooding is expected to occur, and they form the basis for setting flood insurance premiums and regulating development in the floodplain. As such, they are an important tool for individuals, businesses, communities, and government agencies to understand and deal with flood hazard and flood risk. Improving map accuracy is therefore not an academic question--better maps help everyone.

Making and maintaining an accurate flood map is neither simple nor inexpensive. Even after an investment of more than $1 billion to take flood maps into the digital world, only 21 percent of the population has maps that meet or exceed national flood hazard data quality thresholds. Even when floodplains are mapped with high accuracy, land development and natural changes to the landscape or hydrologic systems create the need for continuous map maintenance and updates.

Mapping the Zone examines the factors that affect flood map accuracy, assesses the benefits and costs of more accurate flood maps, and recommends ways to improve flood mapping, communication, and management of flood-related data. (NAP)

January 27, 2009

Obama's Inaugural Address - President Barack Obama in his brief inaugural address on Tuesday mentioned energy and global warming several times, but gave no specifics. He vowed to “restore science to its rightful place,” yet has nominated Dr. John P. Holdren to the post of White House Science Adviser. He later faintly echoed Holdren’s Malthusianism when he said, “…[N]or can we consume the world’s resources without regard to the effect.” The effect of consuming the world’s resources has been unprecedented prosperity and well-being and an expanding abundance of those resources. (Myron Ebell, Cooler Heads Digest)

Holdren all wrong - At the end of “Science and Government,” his Godkin Lectures at Harvard nearly a half-century ago that revealed some disastrous wartime scientific misjudgments of the British government, Sir Charles P. Snow offered one reason why it is important to have scientists in government: They have something to give that “our kind of existential society is desperately short of: That is foresight.”

It is because he so demonstrably lacks foresight that John P. Holdren, professor of environmental policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School, should not be confirmed as President Obama’s science adviser.

William Yeatman, an analyst for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, has done a service by examining Holdren’s record of bad predictions. (Boston Herald)

Climate: Change You Can't Believe In - Barack Obama campaigned for the White House on a promise he'd deliver "change you can believe in." And the popular totals suggest that 52% of voters believed indeed. But according to a recent Rasmussen Poll, there's one change that only 41% of Americans can believe in - manmade climate change. That's down from 47% just nine months ago, and before moving the country down an unpopular green-paved road to disaster, the "unity" promising freshman president would be well advised to understand why. (Marc Sheppard, American Thinker)

Europe to Ask Wealthy Nations to Adopt Carbon Trading System - BRUSSELS — The European Commission was preparing an appeal on Friday to wealthy countries — and to the United States in particular — to adopt carbon trading as one of the main mechanisms for curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Europeans are drafting their proposal as the United States enters a period of intense debate over the wisdom of adopting such market-based systems following the inauguration of President Obama.

Mr. Obama endorsed a similar system to cap and trade carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, during his election campaign. That system sets a limit on emissions, and those who exceed it must buy or trade permits to meet it.

The main alternative to a cap-and-trade system is a tax on emissions. Many analysts say that would be a more straightforward way of limiting planet-warming gases from industry. (New York Times)

Clinton climate change envoy vows 'dramatic diplomacy' - WASHINGTON, Jan 26 - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named a special envoy on Monday to lead U.S. efforts to fight global warming and forge new international accords on reducing carbon emissions and developing clean energy.

The appointment -- which accompanied other energy policy steps announced by President Barack Obama -- signaled a break from the Bush administration's climate policies, and Clinton's pick promised "vigorous, dramatic diplomacy."

Todd Stern, a senior White House official under former President Bill Clinton, will be the administration's principal adviser on international climate policy and strategy and its chief climate negotiator.

"With the appointment today of a special envoy we are sending an unequivocal message that the United States will be energetic, focused, strategic and serious about addressing global climate change and the corollary issue of clean energy," Clinton said at a State Department ceremony. (Reuters)

Senate calls for more Gore - Former Vice President Al Gore returns to Capitol Hill Wednesday to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Sen. John Kerry, who chairs the committee, had kind words for his fellow former Democratic presidential nominee: "Al Gore has been sounding the alarm on climate change for over three decades, and he understands the urgent need for American engagement and leadership on this issue."

Mr. Gore, who has opted to stay in private life rather than return with the Democratic administration, still has easy access with President Obama's team. (Washington Times)

China dams reveal flaws in climate-change weapon - The hydroelectric dam, a low wall of concrete slicing across an old farming valley, is supposed to help a power company in distant Germany contribute to saving the climate - while putting lucrative "carbon credits" into the pockets of Chinese developers.

But in the end the new Xiaoxi dam may do nothing to lower global-warming emissions as advertised. And many of the 7,500 people displaced by the project still seethe over losing their homes and farmland. (Associated Press)

Fast Action Needed To Avoid Climate Chaos: Study - BRUSSELS - Global temperature rises due to climate change could be kept below the critical 2 degree mark by fast international action to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent by 2030, a report said on Monday.

Scientists say that if temperatures increase beyond 2 degrees, humanity faces severe environmental fallout, such as melting polar ice caps and rising sealevels.

Increasing numbers of scientists and politicians question whether the 2 degrees goal is achievable, given the slow progress of international negotiations so far. (Reuters)

Bloody idiots! We couldn't warm the planet 2 °C even if we wanted to.

Don't use air conditioners, state told - THE South Australian Government is urging people not to use their air conditioners as the state swelters in three days of 40C-plus temperatures.

Citing the community's environmental responsibilities, the State Government today put our a press release saying there were many alternatives to using air conditioners, urging South Australians to instead insulate ceilings and use external blinds or a pergola to shade windows, AdelaideNow reports.

The Transport, Energy and Infrastructure Department's energy division's press release said residents should close curtains and use portable and ceiling fans instead of air conditioners. (The Advertiser)

Yeah? How about not voting such idiot politicians back into office?

Solar industry cash dries up - AUSTRALIA is forfeiting billions of dollars in investment and thousands of jobs through its lack of support for solar energy, according to European companies that have shunned the sunburnt country.

An Age investigation has found that potential investors courted by federal and state governments have rejected Australia, the world's sunniest continent, citing a lack of business incentives such as tax breaks and the nation's unwillingness to regulate in favour of renewable energy. (The Age)

What, I'm supposed to be disappointed not to be paying vastly more for energy and more taxes just to provide these twits with profits? Get a life, you dopey buggers! Australia has coal to burn for literally millennia, which we will do until something cheaper and more convenient comes along and that for sure is not intermittent, inadequate, inefficient and woefully unreliable surface-level sunlight harvesting.

Lomborg repeats many of his common errors but still makes sense: The climate change safari park - Barack Obama in his inaugural speech promised to “roll back the spectre of a warming planet.” In this context, it is worth contemplating a passage from his book Dreams from My Father. It reveals a lot about the way we view the world’s problems.

Obama is in Kenya and wants to go on a safari. His Kenyan sister Auma chides him for behaving like a neo-colonialist. “Why should all that land be set aside for tourists when it could be used for farming? These wazungu care more about one dead elephant than they do for a hundred black children.” Although he ends up going on safari, Obama has no answer to her question. That anecdote has parallels with the current preoccupation with global warming. Many people — including America’s new President — believe that global warming is the pre-eminent issue of our time, and that cutting CO2 emissions is one of the most virtuous things we can do.

To stretch the metaphor a little, this seems like building ever-larger safari parks instead of creating more farms to feed the hungry.

Make no mistake: global warming is real, and it is caused by manmade CO2 emissions. The problem is that even global, draconian, and hugely costly CO2 reductions will have virtually no impact on the temperature by mid-century. Instead of ineffective and costly cuts, we should focus much more of our good climate intentions on dramatic increases in R&D for zero-carbon energy, which would fix the climate towards mid-century at low cost. But, more importantly for most of the planet’s citizens, global warming simply exacerbates existing problems.

Consider malaria. Models shows global warming will increase the incidence of malaria by about 3% by the end of the century, because mosquitoes are more likely to survive when the world gets hotter. But malaria is much more strongly related to health infrastructure and general wealth than it is to temperature. Rich people rarely contract malaria or die from it; poor people do.

Strong carbon cuts could avert about 0.2% of the malaria incidence in a hundred years. The other option is simply to prioritise eradication of malaria today. It would be relatively cheap and simple, involving expanded distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, more preventive treatment for pregnant women, increased use of the maligned pesticide DDT, and support for poor nations that cannot afford the best new therapies.

Tackling nearly 100% of today’s malaria problem would cost just one-sixtieth of the price of the Kyoto Protocol. Put another way, for each person saved from malaria by cutting CO2 emissions, direct malaria policies could have saved 36,000. Of course, carbon cuts are not designed only to tackle malaria. But, for every problem that global warming will exacerbate — hurricanes, hunger, flooding — we could achieve tremendously more through cheaper, direct policies today. (Bjorn Lomborg, Economic Times)

How anyone can do the math, recognize real problems and still think gorebull warming is real remains a mystery and yet this is what Lomborg claims to do. Perhaps he's just playing the ratbags at their own game.

Report: Cost of rapid CO2 cuts "manageable" - Rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade to curb global warming could cost less than 1 percent of world gross domestic product by 2030, a report from management consultants McKinsey & Co said Monday. (Associated Press)

A single dollar spent on doing nothing but harm is unaffordable and there is nothing but harm to come from attempts to constrain emission of an essential trace gas.

Apparently not a joke: Meat to be removed from hospital menus as NHS tells patients to ring GPs to cut carbon emissions - Patients should phone their GP rather than drive in for a visit, according to National Health Service guidelines unveiled today.

Ministers want family doctors to hold more 'phone-in' surgeries to help the environment by cutting carbon emissions from cars.

They also want hospitals to achieve their green targets by reducing the amount of meat they serve to patients in wards. (Daily Mail)

NZCPR Weekly: The Cold Winds of 2008 - This week's NZCPR Weekly examines how global warming mania has been able to establish such a stronghold in New Zealand, the NZCPR Guest Commentary by Lord Christopher Monckton questions pronouncements by the global warming guru Al Gore, and the poll asks whether NZ's emissions trading scheme should be put on hold - permanently! (NZ Centre For Political Debate)

Stimulus Plan: Non-Existent Unemployed Climate Modelers Get $140 Million - President Barack Obama’s trillion dollar stimulus plan, has morphed into an appropriations bill devoid of debate. The process forgoes any pretense of targeting unemployed people and resources.

For instance, the bill reads “Provided further, That not less than $140,000,000 shall be available for climate data modeling.” This raises the question of how many unemployed climate modelers are out there pounding the pavement. (The Foundry)

Oh Susan... New Study Shows Climate Change Largely Irreversible - A new scientific study led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reaches a powerful conclusion about the climate change caused by future increases of carbon dioxide: to a large extent, there’s no going back.

The pioneering study, led by NOAA senior scientist Susan Solomon, shows how changes in surface temperature, rainfall, and sea level are largely irreversible for more than 1,000 years after carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are completely stopped. The findings appear during the week of January 26 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (NOAA)

1,000-year forecasts? Do you suppose she really believes PlayStation® Climatology has value over even 1,000 days? At present models can't even agree on the likely state of the El Niño Southern Oscillation 1,000 hours hence and that's a relatively simple and moderately well-understood cycle.

Funny, peculiar variety: Global warming impacting monsoon trend in India: study - Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Increasing global warming has had an adverse impact on the monsoon activity over peninsular India in the last five decades resulting in decline in number of monsoon depressions and weakening of the monsoon current, according to a senior meteorologist.

The strength of low level monsoon winds through the region had decreased by about 20 per cent during the last 50 years, P V Joseph, a former director of India Meteorological Department (IMD), said.

The finding was that the sea surface temperature of the equatorial central Indian Ocean has increased by about 1.5 degree Celsius, which was much higher than anywhere else in the global tropics, he said.

"This phenomenon is feared to have had an adverse impact on the Indian monsoon by creating an area of increasing rainfall near the equator which would weaken the monsoon heat engine (the vertical Monsoon Hadley Cell that drives the monsoon circulation over the subcontinent)," Joseph said in a paper presented at the 'National Workshop on Global Warming and its effect on Kerala" here last week.

All-India average air temperature had also increased by 0.6 degree Celsius in the last century. This was comparable to the global average.

The observed change in climate has been two ways -- decadal change (a few decades of increase followed by a few decades of decrease) and long term trends, either decreasing or increasing.

The annual number of monsoon depressions and the monsoon rainfall of south Kerala had witnessed strong decreasing trends. However, reason for this had to be studied in depth, the paper said.

The sea surface temperatures over both the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal had increased during the last 50 years.

Monsoon dates in Kerala and the number of tropical cyclones in a year in the Indian seas did not have any long term trend but had long period oscillations in the last 100 years, he said. (The Hindu)

Other researchers blame the Asian Brown Cloud (by way of cooling the equatorial central Indian Ocean) for a reduction in Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall and yet these guys suggest the ECIO SST has increased by 2-3 times the global average. It can't have done both over the same period in the same region fellas.

Advocacy Threatens Scientific Integrity - Physicists, as well as the entire scientific community, should be concerned about the harm that advocacy is doing to scientific integrity. Certain aspects of the current discourse on climate change exemplify this harm. (Robert E. Levine, Forum on Physics & Society)

"Warming freezes the Southern Ocean," Another Mann-made Climate Change - In late January 2009, the once-respected “science” journal Nature published the results of a computer model apparently showing that nearly all of the Antarctic continent had not cooled over the past 50 years, as the real-world observational data showed, but had warmed instead. The newly-created “warming” was achieved not by direct observation, which has long produced inconvenient cooling, but by “statistical climate-field-reconstruction techniques to obtain a 50-year-long, spatially complete estimate of monthly Antarctic temperature anomalies.” (Christopher Monckton, SPPI)

Spinning furiously: Professor takes part in landmark climate change study - Scott Rutherford, an assistant professor in the department of environmental science at Roger Williams University, is co-author of a scientific paper that made international news last week with its findings of warming in Antarctica, where earlier studies had tracked more cooling.

The paper in the journal Nature was picked up in hundreds of publications and Web sites as far away as Australia and South Africa.

“It’s kind of neat,” Rutherford said last week of all of the attention.

Rutherford had studied with one of the key authors, Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University, a speaker at last fall’s Honors Colloquium on Climate Change at the University of Rhode Island. Other co-authors in the study represent prestigious institutions around the country such as the University of Washington, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. (Providence Island Journal)

Possible natural explanation found for West Antarctica's warming - South Pole - In 2008, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey reported a layer of volcanic ash and glass shards frozen within an ice sheet in western Antarctica [the same place the one degree Fahrenheit warming has been reported]. The volcano beneath the ice sheet "punched a hole right through" due to its heat and force. This geologic event (a volcano) may prove to be the source of the recent warming seen in West Antarctica in what has otherwise been reported as a 50-year cooling trend seen in East Antarctica. (TGDaily)

Eye-roller: Antarctic sea creatures hypersensitive to warming - ROTHERA BASE, Antarctica - Thriving only in near-freezing waters, creatures such as Antarctic sea spiders, limpets or sea urchins may be among the most vulnerable on the planet to global warming, as the Southern Ocean heats up.

Isolated for millions of years by the chill currents, exotic animals on the seabed around Antarctica -- including giant marine woodlice and sea lemons, a sort of bright yellow slug -- are among the least studied in the world.

Now scientists on the Antarctic Peninsula are finding worrying signs that they can only tolerate a very narrow temperature band -- and the waters have already warmed by about 1 Celsius (1.6 Fahrenheit) in the past 50 years.

"Because this is one of the most rapidly warming areas on the planet and because the animals are so temperature sensitive...this marine ecosystem is at higher risk than almost anywhere else on the planet," said Simon Morley, a marine biologist at the British Antarctic Survey at Rothera.

"A temperature rise of only 2-3 degrees (Celsius) above current temperatures could cause these animals to lose vital functions," he said. (Reuters)

Alaska Climate Change - The climate of Alaska has changed considerably over the past 50-plus years. However, human emissions of greenhouse gases are not the primary reason.

Instead, the timing of the swings of a periodic, natural cycle-the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)-has made a strong imprint on the observed climate of Alaska since the mid-20th century. Despite its established existence and influence, this natural cycle is often overlooked or ignored in zealous attempts to paint the current climate of Alaska as being one primarily molded by the emissions from anthropogenic industrial activities. In truth, the climate of Alaska and the ecosystems influenced by it have been subject to the cycles of the PDO and other natural variations since the end of the last ice age (some 12,000 years ago) and likely for eons prior. It is primarily these natural cycles that are currently shaping Alaska's long-term climate and weather fluctuations. (SPPI)

United States and Global Data Integrity Issues - Issues with the United States and especially the global data bases make them inadequate to use for trend analysis and thus any important policy decisions based on climate change. These issues include inadequate adjustments for urban data, bad instrument siting, use of instruments with proven biases that are not adjusted for, major global station dropout., an increase in missing monthly data and questionable adjustment practices. (Joe D’Aleo, SPPI)

Vote of no confidence for temperature charts - part 2 - ... He [Hansen] actually says, in the second paragraph, “The hardest part is trying to influence the nature of the measurements obtained, so that the key information can be obtained.”

To me this sounds like spin for “The hardest part is making the numbers show what I want them to”. Let’s see how long it takes for that sentence in the NASA GISS website to get changed. (Read N Say)

The other global warming - Even if we contain the greenhouse effect, says a Tufts astrophysicist, we'll have another heat problem on our hands

Human civilization will heat up the planet; the glaciers will melt and the seas will rise. It's a familiar refrain by now, with a familiar solution: stop pumping out the greenhouse gases that trap the sun's heat.

But even if we bring the greenhouse effect under control, says a Tufts astrophysicist, the earth will warm up anyway, thanks to a completely different source of heat that we create ourselves.

Over the next 250 years, calculates Eric J. Chaisson in a recent paper, the earth's population will start generating so much of its own heat - chiefly wasted from energy use - that it will warm the earth even without a rise in greenhouse gases. The only way to avoid it, he says, is to rethink how we generate energy. (Bina Venkataraman, Boston Globe)

And atmospheric motion will defeat that, just as it does 'enhanced greenhouse'.

More fun with 'puter games: Global warming could unleash ocean 'dead zones': study - Global warming may create "dead zones" in the ocean that would be devoid of fish and seafood and endure for up to two millennia, according to a study published on Sunday.

Its authors say deep cuts in the world's carbon emissions are needed to brake a trend capable of wrecking the marine ecosystem and depriving future generations of the harvest of the seas.

In a study published online by the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists in Denmark built a computer model to simulate climate change over the next 100,000 years. (AFP)

German coalition at loggerheads over global warming test - Germany's coalition government on Monday was at loggerheads over plans to dump iron sulphate in the South Atlantic to see if it can absorb greenhouse gases and help stop global warming.

Research Minister Annette Schavan, who is a member of the CDU, gave the test the green light Monday saying "after a study of expert reports, I am convinced there are no scientific or legal objections against the... ocean research experiment LOHAFEX."

However, a spokesman for the environment ministry, whose head Sigmar Gabriel is a member of the SDP, later said in the statement that the ministry "regrets the decision" to approve the LOHAFEX test.

An expedition set sail from Cape Town in South Africa on January 7 and is poised to drop six tonnes of the dissolved iron over 300 square kilometres (115 square miles) of ocean. (Agence France Presse)

Antarctica research suspended - Scientists have been ordered to suspend their controversial Antarctica 'ocean fertilization' experiment. Science correspondent Julian Rush reports.

Scientists on board a German polar research ship off Antarctica have been ordered by the German government to suspend their controversial "ocean fertilisation" experiment - because it may be in breach of an international treaty.

A British team is part of the joint Indian-German expedition in the Southern ocean. The researchers want to drop iron into the sea to create a bloom of plankton some 300 square km in size to see if it might one day be a way to reduce global warming. (Channel 4 News)

New Weblog By Bruce Hall On “Decadal Occurrences Of Maximum Statewide Temperature Records” - A very informative weblog has been posted today by Bruce Hall on the “Decadal Occurrences Of Maximum Statewide Temperature Records“. This is a valuable contribution to the analysis of long term climate extremes. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

A New Paper From Model Based Parameterizations To Lookup Tables: An EOF Approach By Leoncini et al paper 2008 - We have a new research paper that has been published. This paper applies a new methodology that we reported on in Pielke Sr., R.A., T. Matsui, G. Leoncini, T. Nobis, U. Nair, E. Lu, J. Eastman, S. Kumar, C. Peters-Lidard, Y. Tian, and R. Walko, 2006: A new paradigm for parameterizations in numerical weather prediction and other atmospheric models. National Wea. Digest, 30, 93-99. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Still confusing essential trace gas with atmospheric pollution: Satellites to study atmospheric CO2 - Scientists said they will look at how to reduce global warming with help from two new satellites.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh will study data from the instruments that will measure CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere.

The satellites are being launched by NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, and give region-by-region accounts of Earth's carbon emissions and also highlight areas of the planet which are absorbing the most CO2.

The vessels, known as The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) and The Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT), will provide fresh information on surface emissions and absorption of CO2.

They will take in remote regions such as the Amazon basin, Siberian taiga, Alaskan tundra and African forests. (Press Association)

Europe wants Obama to give your money to China, India: EU to pressure US, emerging countries on climate change - BRUSSELS — Eager to take the lead on climate change, the European Union aims to pile pressure on the United States and big emerging countries to sign up to an ambitious strategy to reduce greenhouse gases.

Last month European leaders approved an ambitious climate change action plan which the 27-nation bloc hopes will become a model for international negotiations in Copenhagen in December.

"We will do everything to make (Copehagen) a success," European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters on Friday. "The problem is to know whether the others are ready to do what we have been doing." (AFP)

Recycling Climate Change for Profit - Albert Schweitzer said, “As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious.” Public knowledge of climate and climate change is growing slowly every day, but as Schweitzer anticipated it is creating more mystery.

Most people, including most scientists recently involved in the subject, are not even at the point climate science was 30 years ago.

The major cause of this lag is the excessive focus on CO2, an infinitesimal part of a vast and complex system. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports are primarily responsible as they convinced the world of global warming due to CO2, while effectively ignoring major components such as the sun. I have said the IPCC focus on CO2 is akin to saying my car is not running well and I am going to determine the cause by ignoring the engine (sun), the transmission (water vapor), and most other mechanical parts and focus on one nut (CO2) on the right rear wheel. Worse, they only look at one thread of the nut, the human portion of CO2. The ease with which they have achieved this degree of focus is frightening, but understandable because it was premeditated. (Tim Ball, CFP)

Obama’s Order Is Likely to Tighten Auto Standards - WASHINGTON — President Obama will direct federal regulators on Monday to move swiftly on an application by California and 13 other states to set strict automobile emission and fuel efficiency standards, two administration officials said Sunday.

The directive makes good on an Obama campaign pledge and signifies a sharp reversal of Bush administration policy. Granting California and the other states the right to regulate tailpipe emissions would be one of the most emphatic actions Mr. Obama could take to quickly put his stamp on environmental policy.

Mr. Obama’s presidential memorandum will order the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider the Bush administration’s past rejection of the California application. While it stops short of flatly ordering the Bush decision reversed, the agency’s regulators are now widely expected to do so after completing a formal review process.

Once they act, automobile manufacturers will quickly have to retool to begin producing and selling cars and trucks that get higher mileage than the national standard, and on a faster phase-in schedule. The auto companies have lobbied hard against the regulations and challenged them in court. (New York Times)

Allowing states to set individual standards for national products makes about as much sense as allowing states to set railway gauges, electrical appliance voltage or international treaties. In short, it's a total nonsense. Someone is not thinking.

Timing of stricter U.S. standards worries automakers - DETROIT: Automakers said Monday that they were working toward President Barack Obama's goal of reducing fuel consumption, but rapid installation of stricter emissions standards could force them to drastically cut production of larger, more profitable vehicles in a time of severe financial duress.

Obama ordered the government on Monday to reconsider whether California and other states could regulate vehicle emissions and help control greenhouse gas emissions, a reversal of a position taken by the Bush administration.

The announcement came as General Motors and Chrysler are borrowing billions of dollars from the government to avoid bankruptcy, and as Toyota prepares to report its first operating loss in 70 years. Shortly after the president spoke, GM said it would cut 2,000 jobs at plants in Michigan and Ohio because of slow sales. (Nick Bunkley, IHT)

Facing the Oil Problem - A call for an energy policy that would spark outside-the-box basic research, end dependence on foreign oil, and reduce death and destruction on the nation's highways. (Charles F. Doran, Johns Hopkins Magazine)

A nice old dust up? - On Thursday, German economy minister Michael Glos was expressing "serious misgivings" about the EU's emissions trading scheme, complaining that it could cost jobs if it went ahead in its current form. His own scientific advisory board is urging the repeal of strict limits for CO2 emissions, and an easing of the system in order to stabilise the price of permits.

This may or may not be connected with an announcement yesterday that the German energy giant RWE has decided to build no more new power plants in western Europe, as the EU's emissions trading scheme has rendered new projects "unprofitable". (EU Referendum)

Please keep your babies safe — new vaccine information for parents - If only it was possible to help every new parent understand and trust doctors on this one.

For those of us healthcare professionals who were practicing as recently as the 1970s and early 1980s, the latest news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) went right through our hearts. The CDC just reported that a 7-month old infant died, and another four became seriously ill from Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) last year in Minnesota (which tracks illnesses more closely than many states). (Junkfood Science)

Obesity 'can be caught - just like a cold' - OBESITY can be "caught" from another individual in the same way as a cold with the virus spread by dirty hands, scientists suggest.

The condition has been linked to a highly-infectious virus that causes sniffles and sore throats. (Courier-Mail)

Apparently infects dogs, too: Fat dogs seized by RSPCA - The RSPCA has seized two dogs from their owner after she was accused of feeding them too much. (Daily Telegraph)

And the RSPCA is severely infected by the fat police. I don't give them money to harass people for pampering pooches, no matter how misguided said pamperers might be -- they've had their last donation from me.

Zealots rampant - No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power. -- P. J. O'Rourke (1992) (Number Watch)

'Walking and talking' may put kids at risk - NEW YORK - Children who walk while talking on their cell phone may be too distracted to cross the street safely, a new study suggests.

In tests that had 10- and 11-year-olds walk in a simulated "virtual" neighborhood, researchers found that when the children talked on a cell phone as they traveled, they paid less attention to traffic and were more likely to step into the path of a virtual car.

The effects were seen regardless of how much experience a child had in using a cell phone or in being pedestrian, according to Despina Stavrinos and colleagues at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

"Cell phones are not necessarily bad for children to carry and use," the researchers write in the journal Pediatrics. "However," they add, "our results suggest that just as drivers should limit cell phone use while driving, pedestrians -- and especially child pedestrians -- should limit cell phone use while crossing streets." (Reuters Health)

Greens' War Against All Chemicals Will Do Little To Reduce Our Risks - A report from a panel appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says that California should expand pollution prevention initiatives, add "green chemistry" to public school curricula and offer public access to comprehensive information about the chemicals in consumer products.

The report, part of a plan by the California Environmental Protection Agency to eliminate many supposedly toxic materials, is more appropriate for a wish list sent to Santa Claus than an attempt at serious public policy.

It recalls H.L. Mencken's observation that for every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.

For starters, the governor and members of his panel seem oblivious to the fact that we live in a sea of chemicals — and that, in fact, our bodies are actually comprised of them — and also to the toxicologists' credo, "the dose makes the poison."

Many of the alarms raised recently about chemicals, from those in rubber duckies and plastic bottles to pesticides used in agriculture, are completely bogus, while most of the others represent only negligible risks.

Pseudo-scares and the wrongheaded (and often very costly) responses to them — as in these latest recommendations from the governor's panel — are wasteful, if not actually harmful. (Henry I Miller, IBD)

January 26, 2009

BBC Newsnight - Warming up President Obama’s inaugural speech? - What should the BBC do if the new US President’s references to global warming in his inaugural speech don’t quite come up to expectations? (Harmless Sky)

Cut and Paste Journalism - BBC bosses today tried to make excuses for the cut-and-paste job by BBC science journalist, Susan Watts, as discovered by Tony at Harmless Sky recently. Answering criticism on Watts’ blog, Newsnight Editor Peter Rippon said:

We did edit sections of the speech to reflect the elements in it that referred to Science. The aim was to give people an impression or montage of what Obama said about science in his inauguration speech. This was signposted to audiences with fades between each point. It in no way altered the meaning or misrepresented what the President was saying. You can look for yourself above.

If this is true, it means that the editorial team at BBC Newsnight are shockingly naive. If that is true, then we would like to know, what are they doing producing the networks flagship current affairs magazine programme?

Even if we give them the benefit of the doubt with respect to their editorial oversight, by which we mean that we accept that they are naive, the feature drips with the kind of ideological prejudice that any run-of-the-mill eco-warrior can muster. This is not news, nor is it analysis. It is projection. (Climate Resistance)

Global Cooling Under-reported, Says SPPI - WASHINGTON -- The Earth has shown an under-reported cooling trend for eight straight years, raising serious questions about the accuracy of the UN’s climate projections, since not one of the computer models on which it relies had predicted so long and steep a cooling, says a new review paper -- Temperature Change and CO2 Change – A Scientific Briefing --from the Science and Public Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank. (BUSINESS WIRE)

If Michael Mann had been a corporate accountant . . . - ... he would have been in jail by now. (Australian Climate Madness)

Oh my... O'Malley Tries Again On Global Warming - Gov. Martin O'Malley will sponsor legislation to commit Maryland to a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

...

"It's really a kumbaya moment." (WBAL Radio) [em added] | O'Malley to push bill to reduce state's production of climate-warming pollution (Baltimore Sun)

Refusing to Feel Europe's Pain - A policy colleague from Washington state just left me a message to let me know a state official there just publicly insisted that Europe had actually suffered no costs from its failed experiment with cap-and-trade. Let's leave it to the natives to have some fun with it, but while keeping an eye peeled for the fallout, because that's a . . . what's the word I'm look- . . . oh, right, a lie. (Chris Horner, Planet Gore)

Shocked, Shocked at the New York Times - Well this one caused a quick double-take this morning. NYT writer and Dot Earth blogger Andy Revkin complains in the paper today, just like Sens. Olympia Snowe (R., ME) and Jay Rockefeller (D., WV) before him, that people speaking out are getting in the way of efforts to impose a particular agenda on you:

Mr. Obama's political foes have already seized on the cooling of public concern. Marc Morano, the communications director for the Republican minority on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has been sending out e-mail alerts, sometimes several a day, highlighting stories on winter weather and other surveys suggesting a shift in public attitudes.

Yeah. How dare he. English-to-English translation: hey, we’re working that corner! Such distaste is awfully rich for anyone from Team Alarmist given how that’s “what they do.” (Chris Horner, Planet Gore)

Indoctrination online: Worldwatch Climate Symposium online - On January 15, leading thinkers, scientists, and policymakers convened in Washington, D.C. to discuss the significance of 2009 for the Earth's climate. Authors of State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World engaged an audience of more than 150 people on the state of the science, the gaps between science and policy, and practical solutions to help avert the worst effects of climate change -- all in advance of critical climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009. (Environmental Law Prof Blog)

Stephen Schneider’s sea level alarm without scientific merit, reports SPPI - WASHINGTON -- Claims by Stephen Schneider, a biologist, that melting Greenland ice will drown today’s coastlines and trigger a worldwide belief in the need for action to combat imagined “catastrophic global warming” are scientifically-unjustified and unjustifiable, says the Science and Public Policy Institute – a Washington, D.C. research organization. (BUSINESS WIRE)

Are climate change investors living in a fool’s paradise?

fool’s par·a·dise: “a state of happiness that is temporary and insubstantial because it is based on illusions or unrealistic hopes” - Encarta® World English Dictionary [North American Edition] © 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

I am struck by the diversity of risk analyses being carried out by investors in today’s climate change market place. Whether it’s ‘carbon’* market conferences and publications, ‘ethical investments’, insurance company projects or the activities of financial, legal and engineering institutions, it seems at first glance that they have it all covered. Many financial, political, procedural, legal and technical issues are addressed. Anything that might pose a risk to the market and the hundreds of billions of dollars being poured into one of the greatest enterprises in human history – ‘fighting’ global climate change – appears to be examined.

It looks on the surface like an investment and legislative dream come true, combining the public’s desire to ‘save the planet’ and compensate for recent stock market losses with helping corporations fulfill their ‘corporate social responsibilities’. It even satisfies the natural desire of politicians to be seen to be leading their nations to safety and a supposedly green, prosperous future.

On closer examination however, one notices something remarkable. Practically without exception, all of these organizations, many of them among the most successful and respected in the world, completely ignore the risk that the very foundation of all of these activities might be shown to be faulty. Like many of those who were caught off guard by the subprime mortgage crisis, those involved in the rapidly expanding climate change industry are not asking the most fundamental of questions:

• What if the science that supposedly backs concerns over carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions cannot be justified?

And, even more important to the investment, legal and political community:

• What if the public at large come to believe that the whole thing is a gigantic scam? What if it becomes common knowledge that we can’t stop climate change and all of the great and glorious plans to restrict CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions are seen as a complete waste? (Tom Harris, CFP)

Climate Modelers Gone Wild - Roger Pielke Jr, however, is a scientist. And over at his blog, Prometheus, he is making some global climate modelers look silly. In yesterday’s post, Pielke commented on a new study in the journal Nature, which suggests that Antarctica is in fact warming, whereas before the icy continent was thought to be cooling. (William Yeatman, Cooler Heads Digest)

About that: Using Red again - The Antarctic visibly warms up - John Brignell has several times, including recently, pointed out the use of red in charts and maps for heightened propaganda, here is another excellent example from the Antarctic:

Richard Black back on the case

The continent of Antarctica is warming up in step with the rest of the world, according to a new analysis. Scientists say data from satellites and weather stations indicate a warming of about 0.6C over the last 50 years.

Writing in the journal Nature, they say the trend is "difficult to explain" without the effect of rising greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere.

In the new analysis, a team of US scientists combined data from land stations with satellite readings "We have at least 25 years of data from satellites, and satellites have the huge advantage that they can see the whole continent," said Eric Steig from the University of Washington in Seattle. "But the [land] stations have the advantage that they go back much further in time.

"So we combined the two; and what we found, in a nutshell, is that there is warming across the whole continent, it's stronger in winter and spring but it is there in all seasons."

Voila! Case proven!

Or is it?

Here is what Ellen and Lonnie Thompson said about Antarctic Temperature records in 2003:

ICE CORE PALEOCLIMATE HISTORIES FROM THE ANTARCTIC PENINSULA: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Ellen Mosley-Thompson, Lonnie G. Thompson, Byrd Polar Research Center, Department of Geological Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

It is essential to determine whether the strong 20th century warming in the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) reflects, in part, a response to anthropogenically driven, globally averaged warming or if it is consistent with past climate variability in the region. The necessary time perspective may be reconstructed from chemical and physical properties preserved in the regional ice cover and ocean sediments. Only three multi-century climate histories derived from ice cores in the AP region have been annually dated with good precision (± 2 years per century). The longest record contains only 1200 years and the three histories do not provide a coherent picture of 20th century climate variability.

Temperature records for Antarctica are sparse and short with few extending prior to the International Geophysical Year (1957-58).

This is particularly true for the continental interior. The longest and most dense net­work of meteorological records is in the Antarctic Peninsula region where the temperature record at Orcadas (South Orkney Islands) extends to 1903.

King et al. [this volume] review the surface temperature records in the Peninsula that extend to the late 1940s and the upper air measurements that began in 1956. Their analy­ses demonstrate marked differences between the temper­ature trends in the AP and the rest of the continent (East and West Antarctica).

Jones et al. [1993] also noted that temperature variations in the AP region are poorly correlated with those on the main part of the continent and concluded that extending the Antarctic temperature record by using the longer temperature histories from the Peninsula would be inappropriate.

"The Plateau Remote (PR) record contains some longer-term (~century scale) oscillations with a brief (~3 decades), but strong cooling in the early 17th century.

Conditions remain at or above the long-term mean from 1660 to 1780 after which a gradual cooling trend persists until 1870 after which conditions warm rapidly, peaking at the turn of the 20th century. Since that time the δ¹⁸O record indicates a cooling trend to the present.

The PR δ¹⁸O record, like those from South Pole, does not show 20th century ¹⁸O enrichment (warming), [Mosley-Thompson, unpublished data]. Similarly, the recently published isotopic record from Berkner Island [Mulvaney et al., 2002] also does not show a 20th century warming.

Domack et al. [this volume] report their cores contain a Medieval Warm Period (1.15 ka to 0.7 ka), a Little Ice Age signal (0.7 ka to ~0.15 ka) and 200-year oscillations in the regional climate/oceanographic conditions."

(Isn't it strange then that we are told the LIA and MWP were confined to the N. Hemisphere and even disposed of altogether by Mann et al)

The pdf can be downloaded from this link.

I don't think anyone could say the Thompsons are "deniers"....

Regards
Dennis Ambler.

This could get entertaining... The Orbiting Carbon Observatory and the Mystery of the Missing Sinks - Picture a tree in the forest. The tree "inhales" carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, transforming that greenhouse gas into the building materials and energy it needs to grow its branches and leaves.

By removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the tree serves as an indispensable "sink," or warehouse, for carbon that, in tandem with Earth's other trees, plants and the ocean, helps reduce rising levels of carbon dioxide in the air that contribute to global warming.

Each year, humans release more than 30-billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels for powering vehicles, generating electricity and manufacturing products. Up to five-and-a-half additional tons of carbon dioxide are released each year by biomass burning, forest fires and land-use practices such as slash-and-burn agriculture. Between 40 and 50 percent of that amount remains in the atmosphere, according to measurements by about 100 ground-based carbon dioxide monitoring stations scattered across the globe. Another estimated 30 percent is dissolved into the ocean, the world's largest sink.

But what about the rest? The math doesn't add up. For years, scientists have sought to find the answer to this mystery. Though scientists agree the remaining carbon dioxide is also "inhaled" by Earth, they have been unable to precisely determine where it is going, what processes are involved, and whether Earth will continue to absorb it in the future. A new NASA satellite scheduled to launch in February 2009 is poised to shed a very bright light on these "missing" sinks: the Orbiting Carbon Observatory. (NASA News)

... as previous estimates are exposed as the wild guesses they are.

Slow news day? NASA study links severe storm increases, global warming - The frequency of extremely high clouds in Earth's tropics - the type associated with severe storms and rainfall - is increasing as a result of global warming, according to a study by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge. (Pasadena Star-News)

They are talking about this month-old dubious release. Now, we have no doubt there are both seasonal and cyclical changes in deep convective cloud formation but 5 years of data isn't much to hang your hat on, much less claim gorebull warming associations.

AB32 cripples state’s ability to compete in global economy - As a new member of the California State Assembly, I have introduced my first bill to suspend AB32 — the so-called California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.

In 2006, on a party-line vote, legislative Democrats passed AB32 over the objections of Republicans. Authored by then-Assembly Speaker Fabien Núñez, ostensibly to combat the effects of global warming, AB32 forces businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020.

Appealing to the politically correct crowd of 2006, AB32 was hailed far and wide by left-leaning political elites. They could not have envisioned our economic downturn or the devastating effects of AB32 on California’s economy and it’s environment — or could they?

There have been economic slumps in past decades and subsequent recoveries. But there are major differences between then and now. (The Union)

Jym Ganahl and Bob Wagner post presentation interview - Ridin the Wave with Dave has a post presentation interview of the recent Global Warming Presentation. It is nice to see people in the media are finally starting to take on this issue, and address the real science. If you are a member of a civic organization, Jym has a great presentation debunking GW, and of course I am always willing to give my presentation as well. For those of you who don't know who Jym Ganahl is, he is the Channel 4 Meteorologist. (The Internet Skeptic)

Global warming skeptics on video discussing how they have been vilified - Below is a report from 20/20 about credible scientists who debate Global Warming. John Stossel discusses the professional and personal attack on these educated men who dared to stick with their research and beliefs. There is a lot of debate in the scientific community, but many scientists have been silenced out of fear. (Baltimore Weather Examiner)

Industry heat on Rudd ETS stance - The introduction of emissions trading ahead of our major trading competitors will make life more difficult for our mining industry and its workers.

LAST Wednesday will be remembered as the day the world-wide economic meltdown hit our shores.

Yes, there have been the obvious signs of stock exchanges plunging, banks being rescued and superannuation dwindling before our eyes but this time it was something more tangible - jobs.

Thousands of jobs were slashed from the workforce. Employees, without warning, were called in and told to pack up and leave. The layoffs were across the board _ manufacturing, retail sales, media, banking and, perhaps most significantly, mining.

Geelong suffered with CSR Viridian closing down and shedding 80 jobs and work on our tallest building, WaterMarque, being put on hold indefinitely.


The mining boom is, for now, over. The Chinese juggernaut which has driven the fortunes of our mining industry for the past few years has slowed with the inevitable results - mines closed and miners sacked. (Geelong Advertiser)

Glacier Slowdown in Greenland: How Inconvenient - In this week’s Science magazine, science writer Richard Kerr reports on some of the goings-on at this past December’s annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

While he didn’t cover our presentation at the meeting in which we described our efforts at creating a reconstruction of ice melt across Greenland dating back into the late 1700s (we found that the greatest period of ice melt occurred in the decades around the 1930s), Kerr did cover some other recent findings concerning the workings of Greenland’s cryosphere in his article titled “Galloping Glaciers of Greenland Have Reined Themselves In.” (WCR)

Reply By Pielke Et Al To The Comment By Parker Et Al. On Our 2007 JGR paper “Unresolved Issues With The Assessment Of Multi-Decadal Global Land Surface Temperature Trends” - In 2007, we published the paper Pielke Sr., R.A., C. Davey, D. Niyogi, S. Fall, J. Steinweg-Woods, K. Hubbard, X. Lin, M. Cai, Y.-K. Lim, H. Li, J. Nielsen-Gammon, K. Gallo, R. Hale, R. Mahmood, S. Foster, R.T. McNider, and P. Blanken, 2007: Unresolved issues with the assessment of multi-decadal global land surface temperature trends. J. Geophys. Res., 112, D24S08, doi:10.1029/2006JD008229.

The is a Comment by Parker et al in press in JGR-Atmospheres on our 2007 paper. It is Parker, D. E., P. Jones, T. C. Peterson, and J. Kennedy (2009), Comment on ‘Unresolved Issues with the Assessment of Multi-Decadal Global Land Surface Temperature Trends’ by Roger A. Pielke, Sr. et al., J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1029/2008JD010450, in press. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

The Origin of Increasing Atmospheric CO2 - a Response from Ferdinand Engelbeen - After yesterday’s post about manmade vs. natural sources of CO2, I received the following e-mail from Ferdinand Engelbeen. I’ve reproduced that e-mail below, and made a couple of comments (also in italics)….I’m at a conference, so I posted this quickly…sorry for any typos… and thanks to Ferdinand for taking the time to respond. - Roy (Roy W. Spencer)

Correlation demonstrated between cosmic rays and temperature of the stratosphere - This offers renewed hope for Svensmark’s theory of cosmic ray modulation of earth’s cloud cover. Here is an interesting correlation published just yesterday in GRL. (Watts Up With That?)

"Renewed hope"? I must admit that seems a very strange way of putting it. The Svensmark Effect exists or it does not. It is significant or it is not. Either way it will be confirmed or not in time but it has little (nothing) to do with "hope".

Despite the hot air, the Antarctic is not warming up - A deeply flawed new report will be cited ad nauseam by everyone from the BBC to Al Gore, says

The measures being proposed to meet what President Obama last week called the need to "roll back the spectre of a warming planet" threaten to land us with the most colossal bill mankind has ever faced. It might therefore seem peculiarly important that we can trust the science on which all the alarm over global warming is based, But nothing has been more disconcerting in this respect than the methods used by promoters of the warming cause over the years to plug some of the glaring holes in their scientific argument.

Another example last week was the much-publicised claim, contradicting all previous evidence, that Antarctica, the world's coldest continent, is in fact warming up, Antarctica has long been a major embarrassment to the warmists. Al Gore and co may have wanted to scare us that the continent which contains 90 per cent of all the ice on the planet is heating up, because that would be the source of all the meltwater which they claim will raise sea levels by 20 feet.

However, to provide all their pictures of ice-shelves "the size of Texas" calving off into the sea, they have had to draw on one tiny region of the continent, the Antarctic Peninsula – the only part that has been warming. The vast mass of Antarctica, all satellite evidence has shown, has been getting colder over the past 30 years. Last year's sea-ice cover was 30 per cent above average. (Christopher Booker, Daily Telegraph)

More on Antarctica and “Consistent With” - (Roger Pielke, Jr., Prometheus)

Funny to see them reaching for facts: Steve Connor: Sceptics, scientists and global warming - The cable news network CNN has sacked its science team, and one of the consequences has been a number of embarrassing programmes about how the exceptionally cold weather in North America this winter contradicts global warming and supports the idea that we are actually due for or a period of global cooling, if not a full-blown ice age. (The Independent)

As it happens they are right (for once), there is no proof of long-term cooling to be had from recent weather events (nor of gorebull warming from any weather events either). Sadly this new-found desire for facts will likely last only until summer.

Turnbull's climate gamble - THE battle over climate change policy is set to escalate dramatically, with the Opposition Leader to outline an alternative method of reducing greenhouse gases the Coalition claims will not threaten jobs or business.

The move comes as the Government forges ahead today with its emissions trading scheme in spite of the global financial crisis.

The Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, will announce a three-pronged policy of greenhouse gas reduction that will impose no direct costs on businesses or homes and require no behavioural change, and aims to eradicate divisions in the Coalition over climate change. It will also enable the Coalition to oppose Labor's scheme as economically damaging during the financial downturn. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Federal battle over economy, environment - BOTH sides of politics were yesterday grappling for control of the economic and environmental high ground amid pessimism about the outlook for employment and financial markets.

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull abandoned any earlier pretence that the economic crisis would be tackled in a bipartisan way, declaring the Rudd Government's $4 billion partnership with the big four banks to fund commercial property projects would merely pad the banks' balance sheets without saving a single job. (Canberra Times)

Rudd's economic disaster - DESPITE the international fiscal crisis, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is still hell-bent on pursuing anti-business policies that he and senior ministers well know will cost even more Australians their jobs. (Piers Akerman, Daily Telegraph)

After the Age of Oil - On top of the other problems plaguing the world, such as global warming and the current financial meltdown, there's a third pressing issue that threatens to bring the good life to an end: The world is fast running out of oil.

Given that crude oil makes up 36.4 per cent of the world's energy consumption, the seriousness of shortages cannot be underplayed. Our reliance on oil is almost total. It fuels 100 per cent of air and sea transport and most of our land transport. Without oil there is no petrochemical industry. Agriculture, manufacturing, building materials, the clothes we wear, the food we eat and the medicines we take depend on oil.

Running out of oil is a question of when -- not if. (Montreal Gazette)

To some extent they are right -- about 'conventional' oil. Fortunately this is largely irrelevant as we have centuries worth of readily accessible carbon supplies in coal alone and it is not too difficult to create liquid fuels from these. Then there's shale, methane hydrates... the age of carbon has really only just begun, which is why misanthropic greenies are so desperate to paint carbon as pollution rather than the globe's life support system.

Not Driving Drives Oil Prices Downward - If you are looking for a reason why oil demand and oil prices are so lackluster, consider this: US drivers are staying home, and they are doing so in record numbers.

According to the latest data from the Federal Highway Administration, the number of miles traveled in November 2008 fell by 5.3 percent compared to the year-earlier month. As noted by blogger Mark J. Perry this is the thirteenth consecutive month that traffic volume has declined. And Perry notes, this change “represents one of the most significant adjustments to driving behavior in American history.” Furthermore, the decline in traffic volume over the 12-month period ending November 2008, is the biggest annual decline recorded since the federal government began collecting data in 1971. (Robert Bryce)

How about the decline in Chinese demand? China is undergoing a rapid slowdown which is reflected in the inflow of resources. Even the previously bullet-proof Australian mining sector is laying off workers and closing mines due to reduced Chinese demand so why should oil demand be any different? Sorry, not convinced American drivers control global oil demand.

Idiots: Environmentalists Hail Pushback Of South Dakota Power Plant - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed objections to an air quality permit a South Dakota state agency had granted for a large coal-fired power plant, a move environmentalists hailed as the beginning of a new era on coal powered plants.

“This is a signal that the Obama administration is taking a much harder look at coal power from the previous administration,” Darrell Gerber, a program coordinator for the group Clean Water Action, told the New York Times.

"EPA is signaling that it is back to enforcing long-standing legal requirements fairly and consistently nationwide," said Bruce Nilles, head of the Sierra Club's initiative to block coal power plants, told Reuters.

Navajo Nation Steps Up to Supply America's Energy Needs - Greenwire has a long lead story (subscription required) in today's edition by Daniel Cusick about the plans of the Navajo Nation to build three huge new coal-fired power plants totaling 5,300 megawatts in order to exploit their enormous coal resources. These new plants could supply enough electricity for approximately four million homes in the rapidly growing cities of the Southwest. (Myron Ebell, CEI)

A Better Shade of Green - DURING Senate hearings on his nomination as secretary of energy, Steven Chu, the Nobel laureate physicist, reiterated his and President Obama’s support for a cap-and-trade program as a cost-effective method to address climate change. Under such a program, a limit is set on emissions, and polluters can emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases only by obtaining permits.

That’s good policy. However, Dr. Chu may find the path to cap and trade made more difficult by the well-intentioned advocates of a national “renewable portfolio standard,” which would require energy companies to produce specific amounts of electricity largely from wind, solar and geothermal energy.

A renewable portfolio standard is said to be needed for creating and improving renewable energy technologies. In practice, however, it does little to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and makes energy production excessively expensive.

Coal-fired power plants produce more than 83 percent of the electricity sector’s carbon dioxide emissions. But because coal is cheaper than natural gas or oil, it is the least likely to be displaced by solar or wind power.

Natural gas has a relatively low carbon content. But it is likely to be the first to be displaced by renewable sources of energy because it is more expensive than coal. That means that even a renewable portfolio standard as high as 20 percent would reduce emissions by only a small fraction of what is needed to lower the risk of catastrophic climate change. (New York Times)

Eliminate DOE for Deficit Reduction - Thirty one years ago the Department of Energy (DOE) was established during the Carter Administration. They currently have 16,000 federal employees, and approximately 100,000 contract employees. Their proposed budget is up 4.7% from 2008. No one seems to know why the DOE was founded. The reason given 31 years ago was “to lessen our dependence on foreign oil”. Instituted on 8/4/77, the DOE is asking for 25.2 billion in discretionary funding in the US annual budget for 2009.


Certainly our dependence on foreign oil wasn’t 65 % thirty-one years ago. And thirty-one years from now, unless we’re allowed to drill in the US, our dependence will be much higher than 65 %. Currently, OPEC owns well over 70 % of existing oil producers. There is no agency controlling what OPEC can charge for a barrel of oil. There is no entity that can stop OPEC from gouging at will if it deems it is the most profitable route.


Drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) of the US, as well as the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) will significantly reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The DOE is unnecessary for elimination of that dependence. Right now, OPEC controls how much a barrel of oil will cost, and how much we will pay at the pump.

Elimination of 25.2 billion/yr will push America towards a balanced budget. In fact, if one looks at the current Executive Departments (15), many can be axed from the list, especially the DOE. Necessary departments such as Defense, Treasury, Security, Justice, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services should stay. Most others add huge amounts of government jobs which produce nothing, and could at least have their expenditures whittled down. (Kevin Roeten, Opinion Editorials)

Emissions Fight Squeezes Obama - WASHINGTON -- The state of California and the automobile industry are pressing the Obama administration to decide whether states may impose their own limits on autos' greenhouse-gas emissions, an issue that pits President Barack Obama's allies in the labor and environmental movements against one another. (Wall Street Journal)

NADA complains of double-regulation of fuel economy - The patchwork would exist in thirteen states, Washington, D.C., and Bernalillo County , NM , which account for over 40% of the nation's new car market. Pennsylvania would not be part of the patchwork because it bases compliance on complying in California .

An automaker could comply in California and offer the exact same choice of vehicles in another CARB state, and yet still not be in compliance, solely due to differing consumer demand for different types of vehicles.

If the patchwork were to take effect in all 50 states, it would result in a 50-state patchwork, as an automaker would still have to manage 50 unique state fleets to individually meet CARB's standard 50 times.

The patchwork would create the "cross border sales loophole," as CARB's regulation does not regulate cars imported from non-CARB states that are registered in CARB states.

The patchwork reopens the SUV loophole; and

Several automakers and potentially new entrants from China and India would be exempt from CARB's regulation until 2016, provided they limit their sales in California. (National Automobile Dealers Association)

Brown welcomes announcement of new nuclear sites - Prime minister claims: "Nuclear is crucial to our low carbon future"

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) today announced that it is willing to provide land for new nuclear plants at Sellafield, Wylfa, Oldbury and Bradwell, removing another of the potential barriers to government plans for a new fleet of nuclear reactors.

Speaking on a visit to the Sellafield plant in west Cumbria, prime minister Gordon Brown welcomed the NDA's decision arguing that a new generation of nuclear plants would provide a multi-billion pound boost to the UK economy while also helping to cut carbon emissions.

"Nuclear is crucial to our low carbon future; it is crucial to our energy security and at the same time it represents a massive opportunity for the UK economy and jobs," he said. "Industry are investing billions into the UK economy, jobs are being created and supply chain opportunities are developing." (James Murray, BusinessGreen)

Cape Wind and Its Discontents - The lead editorial in the Wall Street Journal today, entitled “Blowhards” and excerpted below, is a heartwarming tale of green hypocrisy and aggrieved NIMBYism. It details the efforts of some of our favorite environmentally holier-than-thou Democrats to prevent a wind farm in Nantucket Sound. (Edward John Craig, Planet Gore)

OMGBUGZINMAIFOODZ! YUCK! - Bug Girl called it. When the Scientific American piled on with alarm about cochineal, she called them on it. As a professor of entomology, she knows her bugs. She’s probably heard every scare there is about perfectly harmless little bugs. People are squeamish and easily grossed out by creepy things they don’t understand and the thought of eating bugs… “OMGBUGZ!” (Junkfood Science)

Lunch box police - Well, it’s happened. School principals in Australia want teachers to have the power to police lunch boxes from home to remove any offending cookies or chips that are deemed by the State Government as unhealthy. Victorian Principals Association chief Fred Ackerman has backed the move, according to the Herald Sun, saying teachers need the authority to enforce ‘healthy eating’ habits. (Junkfood Science)

National Patient Registry - The push to create a nationalized electronic medical records system has been stepped up with a massive influx of another $20 billion in government funding and new mandates. Independent studies estimate the real costs to taxpayers will run at least $75 billion to $100 billion over the next ten years, as CNN Money just reported. The goal is to put the health records of all citizens into a government computer network within the next five years. The medical records from every doctor office, clinic, hospital, laboratory, pharmacy and diagnostic facility in the country would be interconnected “to ensure the uninhibited flow of health data” among all stakeholders and federal agencies, according to the Department of Health and Human Services Department. (Junkfood Science)

Um, no: Recommended cholesterol level may be too high - NEW YORK - Many patients who suffer a heart attack have levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol well below recommended limits, supporting efforts to revise current guidelines to include lower target levels, new research shows. (Reuters Health)

What it really means is that attempting to use cholesterol levels as an indicator is and always has been a nonsense.

Pilots' radiation exposure may damage genes - NEW YORK - Airline pilots' exposure to radiation because of the long periods they spend at high altitudes may raise their odds of developing genetic abnormalities that could contribute to cancer, a new study suggests.

A number of studies have looked at whether airline crews are at increased risk of various cancers because of frequent exposure to cosmic radiation -- radiation that is mostly blocked by the earth's atmosphere but exists at higher levels at high altitudes. Those studies have come to conflicting results, however.

This latest study, published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, looked at whether airline pilots tend to have a higher rate of genetic abnormalities known as chromosome translocations. These genetic alterations naturally become more common as people age, but they also arise from exposure to radiation, which can lead to cancerous changes in body cells.

Researchers led by Dr. Lee C. Yong, of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, analyzed blood samples from 89 airline pilots and a comparison group of 50 university professors of the same age.

They found that, overall, chromosome translocations were not more common among the pilots. (Reuters Health)

So either professors fly as much as commercial pilots or there is nothing to this, is there. That didn't stop them trying to make something of a flying-radiation damage correlation though.

Finally, a silver lining: Bond money crunch freezes out environmental nonprofits - California's ocean of red ink is threatening its pursuit of a green future.

When the state froze bond money spending last month, most of the public attention focused on roads, levees and other public works projects that were put on hold. But the freeze also devastated conservation groups in the region that were counting on bond money to build trails, plant trees, clean waterways and close land deals.

Not only is the loss of this money shutting down projects, it's forcing many environmental nonprofit groups to lay off staff or close. Those that spent their own money and were awaiting state reimbursement have been particularly hard-hit. (Sacramento Bee)

Federal agents investigate fertilizer producers for Calif. organic farms - SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Federal agents this week searched a major producer of fertilizer for California's organic farmers, widening concern about the use of synthetic chemicals in the industry.

The raid Thursday targeted Port Organic Products Ltd. of Bakersfield, Calif. Industry sources estimate the company produced up to half of the liquid fertilizer used on the state's organic farms in recent years.

The Bee reported in December on a state investigation that caught another large organic fertilizer maker spiking its product with synthetic nitrogen, which is cheap, difficult to detect - and banned from organic farms.

Since then, the organic industry and state officials have taken several steps to catch violators in California, which produces nearly 60 percent of the U.S. harvest of organic fruits, nuts and vegetables.

California Certified Organic Farmers, the state's top organic certifier, last week mandated inspections of fertilizer makers that sell to its clients. Meanwhile, Earthbound Farm, the nation's largest producer of organic greens, is stepping up a new testing program for the chemicals its farmers use. In addition, state fertilizer inspectors may get additional auditing powers and the state Senate Food and Agriculture Committee has scheduled a hearing on the issue Feb. 3.

As Thursday's raid indicates, work remains to improve a patchwork regulatory system that presumes manufacturers tell the truth about their products. On Thursday at the Eco-Farm conference in Monterey, frustrated farmers and fertilizer makers alike called for stronger oversight. (McClatchy Newspapers)

Synthetic nitrogen? Never mind...

January 23, 2009

Zero-Calorie Sin? - If you thought the food nannies’ appetite for dictating what beverages you may enjoy would be satisfied by their crusade against regular, sugar-sweetened soda, think again. Their new battle cry is shaping up to be, “None of the calories but all of the sin.” (Steven Milloy, FoxNews.com)

Climate Confusion - As a new president takes office and elevates global warming alarmism to official federal policy, much of America is experiencing record low temperatures. While the deep freeze amounts to little more than irony, Americans should nevertheless take what could well be a last opportunity to reconsider the cliff off which Barack Obama, Al Gore and the rest of the global warming industry want us to jump. (Steven Milloy, FrontPageMagazine.com)

Profiles in Cowardice - The intimidation tactics and belittling words of those in global warming alarmism are only a means to cloak the weaknesses of their arguments, especially now that the scientific and economic evidence has found a broader, more receptive audience -- check the latest poll results if you don't believe me. (Paul Chesser, American Spectator)

Of 20 options gorebull warming ranks dead last: Economy, Jobs Trump All Other Policy Priorities In 2009 - As Barack Obama takes office, the public’s focus is overwhelmingly on domestic policy concerns – particularly the economy. Strengthening the nation’s economy and improving the job situation stand at the top of the public’s list of domestic priorities for 2009. Meanwhile, the priority placed on issues such as the environment, crime, illegal immigration and even reducing health care costs has fallen off from a year ago. (PEW)

Dumb arithmetic of the moment: How Green Is My Orange? - BRADENTON, Fla. — How much does your morning glass of orange juice contribute to global warming?

PepsiCo, which owns the Tropicana brand, decided to try to answer that question. It figured that as public concern grows about the fate of the planet, companies will find themselves under pressure to perform such calculations. Orange juice seemed like a good case study.

PepsiCo hired experts to do the math, measuring the emissions from such energy-intensive tasks as running a factory and transporting heavy juice cartons. But it turned out that the biggest single source of emissions was simply growing oranges. Citrus groves use a lot of nitrogen fertilizer, which requires natural gas to make and can turn into a potent greenhouse gas when it is spread on fields.

PepsiCo finally came up with a number: the equivalent of 3.75 pounds of carbon dioxide are emitted to the atmosphere for each half-gallon carton of orange juice. But the company is still debating how to use that information. Should it cite the number in its marketing, and would consumers have a clue what to make of it?

PepsiCo’s experience is a harbinger of the complexities other companies may face as they come under pressure to calculate their emission of carbon dioxide, a number known as a carbon footprint, and eventually to lower it. (New York Times)

Bottom line is: who cares? There is no need for anyone to even be interested in how much gorebull warming potential exists since it is an entirely fictitious construct with no real world application. The only reason this exists is to provide a cudgel with which misanthropists might beat humanity. Flip 'em the bird and get on with life.

What a crock! Increasing weather losses: proof of climate change or not? - The string of natural catastrophes that wreaked havoc in 2008, costing the global economy $225 billion and leaving insurers with their second costliest year in history, graphically highlights the increasing risks to businesses of extreme weather events.

Many companies are now grappling with the consequences of more frequent and more intense extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and rainstorms.

January saw the heaviest rainfall in nearly a century to hit Queensland, Australia. The resulting heavy flooding to major coalmines disrupted production for months, pushed up the global price for coking coal and cost insurers billions of dollars. (Lloyd's)

Unfortunately for them I live in Queensland and tend to take note of what happens in my state -- recent storms, for example, were pretty ordinary early monsoon storms (we just haven't had a lot of them in the last decade or so). As a result of greenie policies restricting bush clearing and opening decent residential land to accommodate the literal millions of people moving to this state over the same period of unusually quiet storm seasons we have a lot of very poorly sited housing now -- some of that got clobbered as the inevitable storms returned and plenty more will do so in the near future. If a return to 'normal' seasonal storm activity is 'climate change' then it's a really good thing since we get our water supply from these very events and water storage infrastructure hasn't kept up with population influx (greenies, again).

Parenthetically, mines are laying off workers due to the global economic downturn and a current oversupply of resources, including coal -- there is no flooding-induced shortage pushing up prices.

Tropical cyclone activity has been so sparse we now have a large population base with no experience of the power of these tropical storms, when we do get hit south of the Tropic again, as we inevitably will, it is going to hurt and hurt big. It will not have anything to do with gorebull warming.

Nude Socialist: One last chance to save mankind - With his 90th birthday in July, a trip into space scheduled for later in the year and a new book out next month, 2009 promises to be an exciting time for James Lovelock. But the originator of the Gaia theory, which describes Earth as a self-regulating planet, has a stark view of the future of humanity. He tells Gaia Vince we have one last chance to save ourselves - and it has nothing to do with nuclear power

Your work on atmospheric chlorofluorocarbons led eventually to a global CFC ban that saved us from ozone-layer depletion. Do we have time to do a similar thing with carbon emissions to save ourselves from climate change?

Not a hope in hell. Most of the "green" stuff is verging on a gigantic scam. Carbon trading, with its huge government subsidies, is just what finance and industry wanted. It's not going to do a damn thing about climate change, but it'll make a lot of money for a lot of people and postpone the moment of reckoning. I am not against renewable energy, but to spoil all the decent countryside in the UK with wind farms is driving me mad. It's absolutely unnecessary, and it takes 2500 square kilometres to produce a gigawatt - that's an awful lot of countryside.

What about work to sequester carbon dioxide?

That is a waste of time. It's a crazy idea - and dangerous. It would take so long and use so much energy that it will not be done.

Do you still advocate nuclear power as a solution to climate change?

It is a way for the UK to solve its energy problems, but it is not a global cure for climate change. It is too late for emissions reduction measures. (New Scientist)

D'oh! Energy Neglect Hurting Poverty Fight: U.N. Climate Chief - NEW DELHI - Giving energy to the poor should have been a Millennium Development Goal and a "glaring neglect" of the sector is holding back the world's fight against poverty, the head of the U.N. climate panel said on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Hello! Where were you? We've been pointing out for years how the absurd climate boogeyman and Western ecochondria have been harming the poor. Get out of the way and get affordable energy to everyone!

Wood And Dung Fires Feed Asia's Brown Cloud - LONDON - Wood and dung burned for home heating and cooking makes up most of a huge brown cloud of pollution that hangs over South Asia and the Indian Ocean during the winter months, researchers said on Thursday.

The study in the journal Science solves the mystery of what makes up the soot in the brown haze linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths -- mainly from lung and heart disease -- each year in the region, they said.

"Doing something about this brown cloud has been difficult because the sources are poorly understood," said Orjan Gustafsson, a biogeochemist at Stockholm University.

Gustafsson led a Swedish and Indian team that used a newly developed radiocarbon technique to measure atmospheric soot particles collected from a mountaintop in western India and on the Maldives.

They found that two-thirds of the particles in the cloud was made up of so-called biomass, or organic matter like wood or dung, and the rest from fossil fuels.

The effects of the cloud, which towers up to 5 km above the ground, on regional climate warming were significant, Gustaffson said. (Reuters)

Testimony instead of votes on global warming - At last Wednesday’s meeting of the Joint Committee on Energy at the state Capitol, lawmakers heard expert testimony from scientists and policy experts who challenged conventional views on global warming and the real-world experience of global warming policies.

But, the day before the hearing, the newly ensconced Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives tried to shut it down, citing an alleged rules violation in how the meeting was originally scheduled. But after some consultation with state Senate President Bob Johnson and other senators, Speaker Robbie Wills allowed the hearing to proceed but with limitations: it would only be a “informational meeting” for members; no votes would be recorded.

Dr. Richard Ford, an environmental economist at UALR and member of the Governor’s Commission on Global Warming, had originally requested the hearing. He and several other members of the GCGW opposed several of the recommendations in the Commission’s recently released policy report. In it, the Commission recommended that Arkansas lawmakers support a carbon tax, a regional “cap-and-trade” scheme, and renewable energy portfolio mandates for Arkansas utilities, along with other tax increases.

When the GCGW began its work, it did so with one major assumption: Global warming is man-made. Consequently Ford and other like-minded commission members were not allowed to debate the science of global warming.

In his opening remarks, Ford told lawmakers the Commission hadn’t followed the intent of it statutory charter, which required it to “study the scientific data, literature and research on global warming to determine whether global warming is an immediate threat to the citizens in the state of Arkansas.” For Ford it was simple: In order to get the policies right, the group had to get the science right. He also explained that none of the 54 policy recommendations in the report included a cost-benefit analysis. (David J. Sanders, Arkansas News)

EU Climate Cash Windfall For Industry In Downturn - LONDON - European factories are cashing in on an unexpected benefit from wilting output, selling surplus carbon emissions permits worth about 1 billion euros ($1.29 billion) to raise funds on the carbon market.

A recession in Europe will dent industrial output this year and this will sap energy demand and carbon emissions, leading to a surplus of permits among big polluters including steel and cement makers.

Companies from some of the European Union's most polluting industries are now raising funds on the carbon market to help them weather the credit crisis. (Reuters)

Consistent With Chronicles, Antarctic Edition - A new paper is out in Nature that argues that the Antarctic continent has been warming. In an AP news story, two of its authors (one is Michael Mann from the Real Climate blog) argue that this refutes the skeptics and is “consistent with” greenhouse warming: (Roger Pielke, Jr., Prometheus)

Scientists, Data Challenge New Antarctic ‘Warming’ Study - ‘It is hard to make data where none exist’

Comprehensive Data Round Up Debunks New Antarctic ‘Estimate of Temperature Trends’

Washington, DC: A new study on Antarctic temperatures – which is contrary to the findings of multiple previous studies - claims "that since 1957, the annual temperature for the entire continent of Antarctica has warmed by about 1 degree Fahrenheit, but still is 50 degrees below zero.”

Despite the fact that the study was immediately viewed with major skepticism by scientists who are not skeptical of anthropogenic global warming claims, many in the media pounced on the study as a chance to attack those skeptical of man-made climate doom. According to the release of the study, “The researchers devised a statistical technique that uses data from satellites and from Antarctic weather stations to make a new estimate of temperature trends. […] The scientists found temperature measurements from weather stations corresponded closely with satellite data for overlapping time periods. That allowed them to use the satellite data as a guide to deduce temperatures in areas of the continent without weather stations.” (EPW)

Modeling Aerosol-Radiation-Cloud And Precipitation Processes In The Mediterranean Region By Kallos Et Al. 2008 - One of my colleagues, who I have the highest respect for, Professor George Kallos of the University of Athens, has another excellent study of a weather and climate issue, which is reported on below. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Weblogs By My Coauthors Of Our Rejected EOS Forum Article - There are weblogs by my co-authors on our rejected submission to EOS which Climate Science weblogged on yesterday; see An Obvious Double Standard Adopted By The AGU Publication EOS

Their weblogs are “of consensus and consistency“ by Fergus Brown and ”Your opinions, please” by James Annan. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Real Climate [Gavin Schmidt] Response To The Climate Science Post “Comments On Real Climate’s Post “FAQ on climate models: Part II” - Further Reply By Gavin Schmidt to this Climate Science posting [his reply to my comment #150]. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

I'm not sure whether to commend Roger's attempts to bring science to a propaganda site or wonder at his naivety in trying to do so...

Calendar-date stress kills trees? Old-Growth Forests Dying Off in U.S. West - Tree deaths have doubled, and global warming may be the cause, experts say

THURSDAY, Jan. 22 -- Trees in old-growth forests in the Western United States are dying at twice the rate they were a few decades ago, and experts suspect regional warming is to blame.

The report, led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), found that the increase in tree deaths has included trees in a variety of forests, elevations and sizes. Species have included pine, fir, hemlock and other coniferous trees. In addition, the rate of new tree growth has not changed, according to the report in the Jan. 23 issue of Science. (HealthDay News)

Seasons now arrive two days earlier than they used to, one study from scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University concluded. Not only have average worldwide temperatures been rising for the last 50 years, according to the report, but the hottest day of the year has shifted to almost two days earlier.

Really? According to that 'study' all seasons are arriving 2 days earlier -- i.e. there is absolutely no change in season length or order, merely that the day of year, an entirely human construct to begin with, has drifted slightly. Are we now to believe trees obsess over human's time concept and are dying of stress induced by calendar dates? Puh-lease!

<chuckle> Must be running out of things to worry about: Spring Arriving Earlier, Study Finds - WASHINGTON - Looking forward to spring? The good news is that it is coming two days earlier on average, but so are summer, autumn and winter, researchers said on Wednesday.

They found that on average, the hottest day of the year in temperate regions has moved forward by just under two days, and so has the coldest day of the year.

While the consequences of this shift are not clear, it is worrying, Alexander Stine of the University of California, Berkeley and colleagues said. (Reuters) [em added]

Hollywood Henry Waxman Promises Cap and Trade by Memorial Day - If Hollywood Henry Waxman has his way, we might have to cancel the Indianapolis 500 this year. At least, he claims to be racing to adopt a “cap and trade” anti-global warming bill through his committee by the time the engines rev on Memorial Day. (Christopher C. Horner, Human Events)

Socialists just can't get away from wealth transfer schemes: EU To Propose $200 Billion Climate Tax On Rich Nations - BRUSSELS/LONDON - Rich nations could raise $200 billion in climate funds through a levy on their greenhouse gases from 2013-2020 to help poor countries prepare for global warming, the European Union will say next week.

The plan is set out in an EU paper outlining the bloc's position ahead of U.N.-led climate talks in Copenhagen in December, meant to agree a new, global climate treaty.

The fund-raising idea is the most specific yet from any rich country or bloc on how to persuade developing nations to agree binding, concrete steps to slow their greenhouse gas emissions -- one of the key obstacles in climate talks so far.

The draft paper to be published next week, and seen by Reuters, calls on rich countries to pay for developing countries to cut their greenhouse gases, called mitigation, and prepare for unavoidable warming, called adaptation. (Reuters)

Until relatively recently Americans at least knew that the path to social justice and equality is paved with wealth generation (even in parlance Americans spoke of "making a dollar", not "redistributing" [read: stealing] someone else's). Sadly even the US appears infected with the disease of socialism and without rapid and radical course correction faces inevitable decline and decay.

Offshore Drilling Plan To Go Ahead: Interior Dept - WASHINGTON - A proposal issued in the final days of the Bush administration to expand offshore drilling in previously banned areas will move forward under the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, an Interior Department spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Lights Out: Playing Energy Politics Will Backfire on JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon - BusinessWeek named Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, as one of the "Best Managers of 2008" for steering the bank clear of most of the subprime mortgage icebergs that wrecked many of his competitors.

Unfortunately, the managerial skills that enabled Dimon to avoid the worst of the subprime mess are completely missing when it comes to energy policy.

Expressing frustration about U.S. energy policy and its dependence on foreign oil at the Yale University CEO Summit last December, Dimon said, “We need a real energy policy and it’s going to have to include taxing people on energy so that energy costs stay up and people buy smaller cars and smaller homes.”


Speaking on a leadership panel at the Centennial Global Business Summit last October at Harvard University, Dimon also called for higher taxes on energy. He criticized political leaders for lack of leadership “we don’t have the fortitude to tax oil, or to tax BTUs” and he proposed “taxing oil as it's pumped from the ground, rather than simply taxing gasoline at the pump.”

By calling for tax increases on traditional energy sources, Dimon is joining the war against fossil fuels while displaying a textbook description of a limousine liberal.

Most troubling, however, is this: Dimon is using the vast political and financial resources of JPMorgan to bring his energy policy vision to reality. (Tom Borelli, Townhall)

British government schemes to undermine European emissions law - UK officials want to weaken European proposed laws that would limit the UK's emissions – but which they say will boost bills and cut supplies

The UK government is lobbying to water down proposed EU legislation to impose tough new emission limits on power plants in order to guarantee Britain's energy security and keep down electricity prices.

Whitehall is warning, according a briefing document leaked to green campaigners and seen by the Guardian, that electricity prices would increase by 20% if the proposed legislation isn't changed. It is also concerned that the new rules would threaten the security of the UK's electricity supply. (The Guardian)

Coal Will Still Be King - But can capturing and storing it make it climate friendly? - "Coal plants are factories of death," declared NASA climate modeler James Hansen in a letter to President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. Last year, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), now chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, introduced the "Moratorium on Uncontrolled Power Plants Act of 2008." That bill would have placed a moratorium on issuing permits for new coal-fired power plants that don't have the ability to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions. Since that technology is still being tested, it means that no new coal-fired power plants would have been permitted. In early 2008, Obama told the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle, "If somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."

Why the opposition to coal? After all, the U.S. is energy independent with respect to this resource, with 275 billion tons in proven reserves, which is more than enough to meet our energy needs for hundreds of years. The chief problem is that burning coal produces carbon dioxide emissions which are warming the planet. Burning coal emits 10 percent more carbon dioxide than oil and 60 percent more than natural gas. (Ronald Bailey, Reason)

The 'it' of which Bailey writes is carbon dioxide, which renders the entire question moot -- there is simply nothing climate unfriendly about carbon dioxide. This is such a stupid game.

The cost of the biofuel boom on Indonesia's forests - The clearing of Indonesia's rainforest for palm oil plantations is having profound effects – threatening endangered species, upending the lives of indigenous people, and releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide, writes Tom Knudson from Yale Environment 360, part of the Guardian Environment Network

Helping peanut butter heads prevail - Hopefully we won’t have a repeat of the tomato hysteria of 2008. Not only did widespread misinformation and continuation of media scares cause a nationwide panic that devastated the country’s farmers and tomato industry, countless people needlessly feared a “tomato death.” Many people may still feel a bit of trepidation about enjoying a tomato salad.

This month, the media hasn’t missed an opportunity to continue to heighten scares over “tainted” peanut butter. Few consumers have heard that the source of this outbreak of salmonella (salmonella typhimurium) has already been traced by epidemiologists at state health departments, the CDC and FDA to a single food plant in Blakeley, Georgia (Peanut Corporation of America), which supplies bulk peanut butter ONLY to food manufacturers and commercial institutions. This plant does not sell consumer products, like jars of peanut butter.

No national brand of peanut butter is affected. “There is no indication that any national name brand jars of peanut butter sold in retail stores are linked to the PCA recall,” states the FDA.

Those jars of peanut butter in your pantry and peanut butter cookies and PB&Js your mother makes have not been linked in any way to this outbreak. (Junkfood Science)

Want to lose weight? Don't count on pills - CHICAGO - Users of Alli, the first weight-loss drug approved for sale over-the-counter in the United States, are finding what they likely suspected all along: pills are no magic substitute for diet and exercise.

Yet as Americans engage in the New Year's tradition of resolving to shed pounds, the market for diet aids is expected to remain firm, even as the economy is mired in recession. (Reuters)

Obesity epidemic shows perils to health reform - CHICAGO - For years, Bob Clegg's insurance company paid out some $3,000 a month for doctor visits, drugs and medical devices to treat the health problems caused by his obesity.

In September 2007, when his weight peaked at 380 pounds (172 kg), he had gastric bypass surgery, and now his health issues -- joint pain, sleep apnea and esophageal problems -- have vanished, and so have the medical bills.

But even though the surgery -- in which the stomach is made smaller and part of the intestine is bypassed -- has saved his insurance company money, Clegg, who now weighs 240 pounds (108 kg), had to pay the $20,000 cost out of his own pocket.

"It wasn't until the doctor said my sleep apnea was at a point where we seriously had to consider a tracheotomy that we talked about gastric bypass," said Clegg, 54. "The irony is that insurance would pay for the tracheotomy, but not the surgery." (Reuters)

Reforms unlikely to defeat obesity - CHICAGO - Even as the Obama administration recognizes obesity as one of the nation's top health threats, any efforts to reform the U.S. healthcare system will likely not go far enough to combat the condition.

"Obesity is one of many competing demands placed on the healthcare system. It has got our attention, but there just aren't great ideas about what to do about it," said Eric Finkelstein, a health economist at RTI International and author of "The Fattening of America: How the Economy Makes Us Fat."

"It's individual behavioral changes that are needed and that's difficult to deal with on a federal level," he said. (Reuters)

Trials for Parents Who Chose Faith Over Medicine - WESTON, Wis. — Kara Neumann, 11, had grown so weak that she could not walk or speak. Her parents, who believe that God alone has the ability to heal the sick, prayed for her recovery but did not take her to a doctor.

After an aunt from California called the sheriff’s department here, frantically pleading that the sick child be rescued, an ambulance arrived at the Neumann’s rural home on the outskirts of Wausau and rushed Kara to the hospital. She was pronounced dead on arrival.

The county coroner ruled that she had died from diabetic ketoacidosis resulting from undiagnosed and untreated juvenile diabetes. The condition occurs when the body fails to produce insulin, which leads to severe dehydration and impairment of muscle, lung and heart function.

“Basically everything stops,” said Dr. Louis Philipson, who directs the diabetes center at the University of Chicago Medical Center, explaining what occurs in patients who do not know or “are in denial that they have diabetes.”

About a month after Kara’s death last March, the Marathon County state attorney, Jill Falstad, brought charges of reckless endangerment against her parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann. Despite the Neumanns’ claim that the charges violated their constitutional right to religious freedom, Judge Vincent Howard of Marathon County Circuit Court ordered Ms. Neumann to stand trial on May 14, and Mr. Neumann on June 23. If convicted, each faces up to 25 years in prison.

“The free exercise clause of the First Amendment protects religious belief,” the judge wrote in his ruling, “but not necessarily conduct.” (New York Times)

Sigh... The fate of Canada's unicorns of the sea - What narwhals can teach us about the climate change tipping point.

TORONTO — In these heady days of hope and audacity, the fate of some 600 narwhals in Canada’s Arctic has the makings of a cautionary tale.

These unicorns of the northern seas, creatures of legend and imagination, regularly feed around Baffin Island in Canada’s high north. In late September they migrate to open waters to escape the encroaching ice.

Last fall, the ice was late in forming so the whales lingered. Then it formed in a flash, trapping them by late November in rapidly shrinking breathing holes. Video images showed narwhals jostling to gasp for air, their spiral tusks jutting out like exhausted pleas for help.

Canadian fisheries officials, convinced the whales were doomed to drown or die of starvation, allowed the local Inuit to “harvest” the trapped narwhals. They were shot, harpooned and dragged from the water in a bloody ritual that lasted days. The meat and muktuk was a boon for the 1,300 Inuit living in Pond Inlet, for whom hunger is a too-common reality.

Animal welfare groups, meanwhile, denounced the slaughter, insisting the government should have tried to free the whales with an icebreaker. But the incident’s lessons run deeper.

Canadian officials chalked it up to a “misfortune of nature.”

But Inuit hunters, noting that the last mass trapping of narwhals occurred 75 years ago, blamed global warming. Arctic ice, as numerous scientific studies tell us, is melting at an accelerated rate. Freezing comes later, and suddenly. (Sandro Contenta, GlobalPost)

... the last time anyone noticed a mass trapping of narwhals was 75 years ago, so this must be gorebull warming at work.

Early 19th Century British “Environmentalism” - Environmentalism is the social movement of the “landed interest” – an interest parallel to that of neither business nor labour. “Environmentalism” is readily identifiable in early 19th century Britain. This essay draws from the best-known writings of the era’s three most influential intellectuals for a portrait of an anti-democratic, anti-liberal social movement based in the aristocracy but claiming to represent the masses; a movement permeated with the ideas of over-population theorist T. Malthus; a movement benefitting from restricting land supply and suffering from advancing agricultural technology; that fought a cultural civil war using literary Romanticism and monkish asceticism; that was militantly protectionist regarding agriculture; that constrained industrial progress and spread fear of catastrophe. (William Walter Kay, Environmentalism is Fascism)

Only Four Years Left to Save Environmentalism - Another sure sign that environmentalists are struggling to sustain a rational basis for their influence emerged last week. The pages of the Observer featured the opinion of NASA activist/scientist James Hansen in two articles [1 , 2] and an editorial.

Barack Obama has only four years to save the world. That is the stark assessment of Nasa scientist and leading climate expert Jim Hansen who last week warned only urgent action by the new president could halt the devastating climate change that now threatens Earth. Crucially, that action will have to be taken within Obama’s first administration, he added.

Of all the hopes pinned on Obama, ’saving the world’ has to be the most revealing of the hoper, be it the Observer Journalist, the Observer, or Hansen.

As we pointed out last Thursday, the environmental movement’s only leverage is the prospect of catastrophe. It has no popular appeal in any real sense. So when it appears that governments are ‘on-message’, or in any way sympathetic to its concerns, the only way to sustain its undemocratic and unaccountable influence is to escalate the sense of urgency, or their function will become redundant. (Climate Resistance)

Australian Beef Association is Totally Opposed to any form of Emissions Trading - The Concept is Similar to a Gambling Casino Based on Hot Air

ABA Chairman, Brad Bellinger said, “The ABA Board had met last week and decided to oppose any form of Emissions Trading. He said that the Australian Government will be acting like speculative fools, if it goes down a path of trading something that cannot be accurately measured.”

He continued, “Since the 1997 Kyoto Summit, we have seen the UN try to run a Clean Development Mechanism, - with no success. We have seen the European Commission try Carbon Permits. They got their sums wrong and the large power and oil companies made fortunes at governments’ expense. The people are taxed - as they will be in Australia if we go down this mad path.”

“We have seen the World’s bankers make complete fools of themselves and bankrupt millions, as they trade in derivatives, which they haven’t completely understood. Now, Emissions Trading will be even worse, as people trade an unmeasurable commodity, as if in a gambling casino run by the unknowing. To see it even considered as the recession deepens; - makes one wonder,” Mr Bellinger said. (Carbon Sense Coalition)

January 22, 2009

High Noon Passes: Global Warming Didn’t Show Up at the Inaugural - Well, the noon temperature in Washington DC at the President Obama’s swearing-in was 28 degrees F., eight degrees colder than when Bush was sworn in eight years ago. (Sam Kazman, Cooler Heads)

Ambition redefined by financial wreckage - Every now and then something unexpected transforms the political environment. For George W. Bush it was the September 11 terrorist attacks. For Barack Obama it took place even before he was sworn in. And it came from an unlikely quarter.

Last week’s report by the normally sub-radar Congressional Budget Office projecting a $1,200bn deficit for 2009 and $1,000bn fiscal deficits as far as the eye can see, sent shock waves through Washington, which look set to redefine what is possible for most of Mr Obama’s first term.

Just a few weeks earlier – and even amid the growing wreckage of the deepening US recession – Mr Obama’s transition team still felt confident enough to signal that they saw the financial meltdown as an opportunity to push through a “big bang” package of election promises.

These included a decisive move towards universal healthcare, enactment of a “cap and trade” system to tackle global warming and big new investments in education, infrastructure, scientific research, and expanding the size of the US military. Then the CBO dropped its fiscal bombshell.

Suddenly the crisis threatened to overwhelm everything. “Do not underestimate the deep psychological impact the CBO numbers have had on Washington,” says Bill Galston, a leading scholar of US politics and former Clinton White House official. “All of a sudden, it has become the gatekeeper of what is possible. If something fails the fiscal test, then it doesn’t look very possible any more.” (Edward Luce, Financial Times)

Obama demands action to tackle "a warming planet" - "We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories"

President Obama delivered some broad promises for environmentalists and green businesses in his inauguration speech yesterday, referring to the challenge presented by global warming and explicitly highlighting renewable energy as one of the key components of his administration's economic stimulus package.

In a speech heavy on symbolism, President Obama focused on the hard road ahead for both America and the wider world. He committed to "roll back the spectre of a warming planet," striking a strong contrast with his predecessor, whose administration repeatedly quashed reports confirming global warming fears, worked to stop regulators from using existing legislation to combat climate change, and refused to sign up to international agreements to curb carbon emissions. (Danny Bradbury and Tom Young, BusinessGreen)

President Obama Already Addressing Global Warming - Anyone who lives in the nation’s capital knows that it has been FREEZING, with well below average temperatures. Even today, inauguration day, started out with the wind chill in single digits. It’s good to know that the president already is seeking to fulfill his promise to halt global warming. After all, as candidate Barack Obama told us in his June speech celebrating having locked up the Democratic Party nomination. (Doug Bandow, CEI Open Market)

Beyond Belief - Despite years of media bombardment about the imminent dangers of global warming, the alarmists are losing ground. Fewer Americans are buying into the myth. (IBD)

Anxiety Grows in Global Warming Alarmist Camp - Heartland Institute media monitors have noted on several occasions that climate-change alarmists are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their position that human activity has warmed Earth to crisis proportions.

Polar bears keep growing in numbers, Antarctic ice keeps expanding, deserts keep receding, temperatures keep easing, the ranks of science skeptics keep multiplying. It's tough to scare people with that kind of sound-science evidence.

Now the folk at DeSmogblog - created like so many alarmist sites for the sole purpose of attacking conservatives, libertarians and global warming skeptics - is getting really worried. (Heartland Institute)

An Obvious Double Standard Adopted By The AGU Publication EOS - In the January 20, 2009 issue of the AGU publication EOS, there is Feature article by P.T. Doran and M. K. Zimmerman titled “Examining the Scientific Consensus on Climate Change”. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Predicted Climate Cooling - Another Example Of Overstating Our Understanding Of Climate Science - There have been claims that the Earth is entering period of strong climate cooling; e.g. see Earth on the Brink of an Ice Age

Such predictions of cooling, however, are no more substantiated by skillful validated predictions of this cooling, than are the IPCC predictions of more-or-less uniform global warming. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

We've already warned everyone to treat the Pravda item with extreme caution - this is what we said 10 days ago:

This item was also submitted to JunkScience.com by Fegel, an author unknown to us but apparently from Portland, Oregon. He appears to be a frequent contributor to Pravda and has anti-American, anti-Israeli rants scattered about the web, sometimes under the handle "cloudmessenger". His scientific credentials, if any, are unknown.

Predictions are very hard to make -- especially about the future, as Yogi Berra is reported to have said. This is particularly true where climate is concerned and we can not predict future temperature trends.

Increasing Atmospheric CO2: Manmade…or Natural? - I’ve usually accepted the premise that increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are due to the burning of fossil fuels by humans. After all, human emissions average around twice that which is needed to explain the observed rate of increase in the atmosphere. In other words, mankind emits more than enough CO2 to explain the observed increase in the atmosphere.

Furthermore, the ratio of the C13 isotope of carbon to the normal C12 form in atmospheric CO2 has been observed to be decreasing at the same time CO2 has been increasing. Since CO2 produced by fossil fuel burning is depleted in C13 (so the argument goes) this also suggests a manmade source.

But when we start examining the details, an anthropogenic explanation for increasing atmospheric CO2 becomes less obvious. (Roy W. Spencer)

Blair calls for 2020 carbon targets for developed world - Former prime minister argues that setting "interim targets" for 2020 at Copenhagen later this year would show emerging economies the West is serious about cutting emissions

Former prime minister Tony Blair today closed the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi by calling on the developed world to agree to tough "interim" carbon emission targets for 2020 at climate change talks in Copenhagen later this year.

Blair said that while all countries the bulk of the obligation for ensuring that target is met should fall on developed economies, and as such they should demonstrate their commitment to tackling climate change by signing up to a separate interim target for 2020.

He argued that "an interim target for the developed world would send a clear signal" to emerging economies that the West is willing to invest in cutting emissions, making it easier for negotiators to convince large emerging economies such as China and India to sign up to the agreement.

Blair did not say at what level the interim targets should be set, but any discussion on the topic that does take place in Copenhagen is likely to be based on the EU's commitment to cut emissions by 20 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020. (Tom Young, BusinessGreen)

Sell-off forces EU carbon to record lows - EUAs hits record low of €11.60 as watchers warn market has "detached" from oil prices

The price of carbon credits in the EU's emissions trading scheme reached a record low for the current phase of the scheme of just €11.60 as many of the large scale emitters covered by the scheme continued to offload their EUA carbon credits.

The price of EUAs has been on a steady slide since the start of the year when they stood just shy of €16 a tonne and market watchers are concerned that the price of carbon is no longer tracking oil prices.

Rising oil prices typically lead to an increase in the price of carbon, as they tend to result in energy producers switching from gas to more carbon intensive coal – a scenario that leads to increased demand for carbon credits.

However, the price of carbon has failed to track recent fluctuations in the oil price, prompting fears that any increase in demand for credits from energy companies arising from changes in the oil price is being outweighed by the on-going sell off of credits amongst heavy industries fearful that the recession will lead to reduced production levels. (James Murray, BusinessGreen)

Khosla shuns CCS in favour of coal-to-cement - Leading Silicon Valley venture capitalist touts new technology capable of turning waste CO2 into building cement

A new breed of carbon capture technologies capable of turning CO2 emissions into cement could soon provide a cost effective alternative to high profile, but as yet unproven, carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems, according to one of the world's leading clean tech venture capitalist.

Speaking at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi today, Vinod Khosla, a leading silicon valley venture capitalist who in recent years has become a major investor in clean technologies, said that CCS technologies were simply too expensive to achieve mainstream adoption and as such more cost effective alternatives are required.

"I believe CCS is too expensive and so we are looking at a technology that turns CO2 into cement building materials," he said, adding that he had invested an undisclosed sum in California-based Calera, a company that pioneers CO2-to-cement technology.

Calera has been in stealth mode for a number of years, its website stating only that it is "dedicated to reversing global warming and ocean acidification by trapping the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, in the built environment".

However, the company has now provided fresh details of its plan to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and sequester it in cement that can be used as a building material. (Tom Young, BusinessGreen)

Almost funny: Warming in Antarctica Looks Certain - Antarctica is warming.

That is the conclusion of scientists analyzing half a century of temperatures on the continent, and the findings may help resolve a climate enigma at the bottom of the planet.

Some regions of Antarctica, particularly the peninsula that stretches toward South America, have warmed rapidly in recent years, contributing to the disintegration of ice shelves and accelerating the sliding of glaciers. But weather stations in other locations, including the one at the South Pole, have recorded a cooling trend. That ran counter to the forecasts of computer climate models, and global warming skeptics have pointed to Antarctica in questioning the reliability of the models.

In the new study, scientists took into account satellite measurements to interpolate temperatures in the vast areas between the sparse weather stations.

“We now see warming is taking place on all seven of the earth’s continents in accord with what models predict as a response to greenhouse gases,” said Eric J. Steig, a professor of earth and space sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, who is the lead author of a paper to be published Thursday in the journal Nature. (New York Times)

This is the lower-troposphere time series for the southern polar region and this is the mid-troposphere. Warming is conspicuous by its absence.

And this tells you pretty much all you need to know about the 'study':

In this Letter, we use statistical climate-field-reconstruction techniques to obtain a 50-year-long, spatially complete estimate of monthly Antarctic temperature anomalies. In essence, we use the spatial covariance structure of the surface temperature field to guide interpolation of the sparse but reliable 50-year-long records of 2-m temperature from occupied weather stations. Although it has been suggested that such interpolation is unreliable owing to the distances involved, large spatial scales are not inherently problematic if there is high spatial coherence, as is the case in continental Antarctica.

From this (and a couple of dozen mostly coastal measuring sites) they claim they have teased out a West Antarctic warming of approximately one one-hundredth of one degree per year. Most impressive is that Nature felt it worth publishing. Speaks volumes, really.

Follow Up On Today’s AP Article By Seth Borenstein Entitled “Study: Antarctica Joins Rest Of Globe In Warming” - An AP article was released today which reports on a Nature paper on a finding of warming over much of Antarctica. I was asked by Seth Borenstein to comment on the paper (which he sent to me). I have been critical of his reporting in the past, but except for the title of the article (which as I understand is created by others), he presented a balanced summary of the study. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Termite Insecticide Found to be Potent Greenhouse Gas - An insecticide used to fumigate termite-infested buildings is a strong greenhouse gas that lives in the atmosphere nearly 10 times longer than previously thought, UC Irvine research has found.

Sulfuryl fluoride, UCI chemists discovered, stays in the atmosphere at least 30-40 years and perhaps as long as 100 years. Prior studies estimated its atmospheric lifetime at as low as five years, grossly underestimating the global warming potential.

The fact that sulfuryl fluoride exists for decades – coupled with evidence that levels have nearly doubled in the last six years – concerns study authors Mads Sulbaek Andersen, Donald Blake and Nobel Laureate F. Sherwood Rowland, who discovered that chlorofluorocarbons in aerosol cans and other products damage the ozone layer. That finding led to a worldwide ban on CFCs. (A to Z of Clean Technology)

If we were them we wouldn't remind anyone about the CFC farce, since it's about as bad as 'science' gets.

Do More Greenhouse Gases Raise The Earth’s Temperature? - "Do More Greenhouse Gases Raise The Earth’s Temperature? That is the critical climate question and the one that I have agonised over most because even if human CO2 only increased the global air temperature permanently by a small amount then over a long enough period of time the effect would accumulate and could be dangerous." (Stephen Wilde, Co2sceptic)

Blame Corn Harvesters For The Crash Of Flight 1549 - CHURCHVILLE VA—Did global warming dump U.S. Airways flight 1549 into the Hudson River by attracting more geese to New York airports? Time Magazine says yes. Time notes a four-fold increase in airplane bird strikes since 1990, and blames global warming and destruction of wild bird habitat for the increased collisions.

Time reached the wrong conclusion. Research indicates we should blame the prosaic corn harvester—and perhaps our attempt to expand corn production for biofuels. Canada geese numbers have increased five-fold since 1970 for one overwhelming reason —farmers’ expanding use of those big corn picker-shellers. The big bright-colored harvesters now roar across the fields every autumn, picking the ears and shelling the corn kernels. With millions of tons of loose corn, some inevitably trickles to the ground, where the geese cheerfully snack it up. (Dennis T. Avery, CGFI)

Green energy tariffs to get cheaper - Good Energy announces it is to cut green tariff by 7.5 per cent on back of falling wholesale electricity prices

One of the UK's leading providers of green energy has today announced that it is to cut its tariffs and predicted that other providers could soon follow suit.

Good Energy said that will cut its standard electricity and gas tariffs for both business and domestic customers by 7.5 per cent from the end of this month. The company said that the move would save the average domestic dual fuel customer £62 a year.

Juliet Davenport, chief executive of Good Energy, said that the company was due to start paying less for its renewable power in 2009 and was now looking to pass that saving on to customers.

The drop in renewable energy prices has been prompted by cuts in wholesale electricity prices, which have fallen around 40 per cent from last year's peaks as a result of plummeting oil and gas prices. (James Murray, BusinessGreen)

Britain under fire for failing to join renewable energy league - Britain's attempts to position itself as a centre for the green power industry suffered a blow today when it emerged that ministers have refused to commit the country to a new international body set up to promote renewable power.

The German environment secretary, who came up with the idea for the International Renewable Energy Agency, said he was disappointed countries such as the UK and America were dragging their feet. (The Guardian)

UN-backed body confirms plans for global aviation emissions cap - Top International Civil Aviation Organisation official says inclusion of aviation in European emissions trading scheme will not affect plans for global cap-and-trade scheme

The UN-backed International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) last week confirmed it is pressing ahead with plans for an international carbon emissions cap-and-trade scheme for the aviation industry, despite the emergence of a growing number of potentially rival regional schemes.

Speaking at a meeting of global transport ministers in Tokyo, Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez, president of the ICAO's Council, told news agency Reuters that EU proposals to include aviation in its regional emissions trading scheme (ETS) would not derail the organisation's plans to build a framework that could underpin a global scheme.

The EU's plans have attracted plenty of criticism from the aviation industry, which fears that the potential inclusion of airlines in regional trading schemes, such as the EU scheme and planned similar initiatives in Australia, South Korea and the US, would increase costs and create a skewed competitive landscape that penalises those airlines operating in certain territories.

US airlines have already threatened to take legal action against the EU scheme, while The Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines has also voiced concerns over a scheme it believes would adversely affect long-haul flights from Asia. (James Murray, BusinessGreen)

Exclusive: UK government poised to set out CCS rules - Top official reveals definition on what constitutes a "carbon capture ready" power station is just weeks away

The UK government will make an announcement in the next few weeks on what power companies must do to ensure their plants are ready to be fitted with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in the future, completing the groundwork for the long-anticipated decision on whether to approve plans for a new generation of coal-fired power stations.

Speaking to BusinessGreen.com on the sidelines of the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, Bronwen Northmore, director of cleaner fossil fuels policy in the UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change, said that a decision on what constitutes a "carbon capture ready" plant was in the pipeline.

"We've been consulting on capture readiness in the past few months and we'll be making a policy announcement in the next few weeks," she said.

The government has said previously that it will only grant approval for new coal-fired power plants, including the proposed plant at Kingsnorth Kent if they are "carbon capture ready". (Tom Young, BusinessGreen)

Why it's time to throw some light on the energy efficient lighting row - With the Daily Mail attempting to whip up opposition to energy saving light bulbs, many businesses would be forgiven for asking if green bulbs really are such a good idea. BusinessGreen.com trains its spotlight on a surprisingly complex debate

The Daily Mail campaign against the removal of incandescent bulbs from UK shops earlier this month ricocheted through the media, generating comments and criticisms from all sides of the debate and leaving consumers and businesses in a state of confusion as to where the truth lies in this complex topic.

After all, as The Guardian pointed out with glee, only a year ago The Mail had been running enthusiastic free giveaways of the very bulbs they were now criticising.

So where does the truth really lie? Are energy efficient Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) a cost-saving no brainer, or as The Mail claims are they an inferior product to traditional alternatives with added health risks thrown in?

Let's start with the big picture. (John May, BusinessGreen)

Struggling Schwarzenegger eyes enviro rule roll back - California governor angers environmental groups with proposal to ditch green planning rules in order to accelerate job-creating infrastructure projects

Tensions are rising between environmental groups and California's Governor Schwarzenegger as he seeks to rein in environmental protection measures in an attempt to kickstart the economy.

Schwarzenegger has built himself a reputation as a world leader on tackling climate change and has imposed some of the most stringent green regulations anywhere in the US since he took office.

However, his state's budget crisis is now so severe that some reports claim the government will run out of money next month - a scenario that prompted Schwarzenegger to write to President-Elect Obama earlier this month, asking him to "Waive or greatly streamline National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) requirements consistent with our statutory proposals to modify the California Environment Quality Act (CEQA) for transportation projects".

CEQA demands that an environmental review is undertaken before any project requiring Government approval can go ahead.

The move was seized upon by green groups as evidence that the Governor was seeking to roll back important environmental protections in an attempt to accelerate state capital investment projects. (Danny Bradbury, BusinessGreen)

Industry Scrambling to Comply with Child Safety Act - The children’s book industry is currently dealing with a new and pressing challenge that is threatening publishers, bookstores, libraries and schools. It’s not the economy or school spending or reading rates—it is a recent act of Congress, which has blindsided the industry with the implementation of stiff safety standards on all children’s products, and whose application to books is vague. It has left many publishers, retailers and industry groups scrambling to interpret the law and determine what kinds of compliance will be required, and at what cost. (Karen Raugust, Publishers Weekly)

Government scientific adviser: GM may help feed growing population - Bob Watson to argue research is needed to determine whether GM crops can help feed growing population in world affected by climate change

One of the government's chief scientific advisers will wade into the debate on genetically modified (GM) foods later today, by arguing that they could make a valuable contribution to feeding the growing global population as the climate continues to change.

Speaking as part of a debate on the role of GM to mark the opening of the Science Museum's new Future Foods exhibition, Bob Watson, chief scientific adviser at Defra, will make the case for further scientific trials to gauge the risks and benefits GM crops could deliver.

"People are asking how we will be able to feed the world’s growing population during a time of dangerous climate change," he will say. "While GM food is clearly not the whole answer, it may contribute through improved crop traits such as temperature, drought, pest and salinity tolerance. Hence additional scientific studies will allow us to assess the risks and benefits."

The comments will be roundly condemned by many green groups which have long opposed so-called "frankenfoods" and in some cases even taken direct action to disrupt scientific trials for GM crops.

However, advocates of GM are increasingly arguing that modified crops with improved yields may represent one of the most effective means of feeding a growing population, avoiding the need to resort to yet more intensive agricultural techniques and further deforestation. (James Murray, BusinessGreen)

January 21, 2009

Oh dear... 9 Ways NASA Can Tackle Climate Change - Scientists tell Pres. Barack Obama how the space agency could help solve the world's number one problem

NASA could be one of the nation's most potent weapons in battling climate change. The space agency has conducted decades of research into weather, life-support systems and the atmospheres of other planets providing it with unique skills to address this problem.

It would be easy for policymakers to overlook NASA as they map out a strategy for solving Earth's biggest environmental woes. But here are some important reasons why they shouldn't. (SciAm)

... gathering data from space is a worthwhile enterprise only if you do something useful with it. That does not include proliferating hysterical nonsense about gorebull warming.

Bizarrely, NASA's GISS does not use satellite data to guesstimate global temperature but prefers to perform voodoo incantations over appallingly corrupt near-surface amalgams.

One should wonder why a space agency declines to use data sourced at least partly from its own satellites, data virtually free of urban heat island contamination and with the greatest and most uniform global coverage by far, while promoting its space-borne observation platforms as a solution to a problem like enhanced greenhouse when its space-borne platforms demonstrate observed atmospheric trends can not possibly be due to enhanced greenhouse in the first place.

Met Office forecasts a supercomputer embarrassment - A new £33m machine purchased to calculate how climate change will affect Britain, has a giant carbon footprint of its own

For the Met Office the forecast is considerable embarrassment. It has spent £33m on a new supercomputer to calculate how climate change will affect Britain – only to find the new machine has a giant carbon footprint of its own.

“The new supercomputer, which will become operational later this year, will emit 14,400 tonnes of CO2 a year,” said Dave Britton, the Met Office’s chief press officer. This is equivalent to the CO2 emitted by 2,400 homes – generating an average of six tonnes each a year. (The Times)

What happened to the climate consensus? - CAN we all agree – yet – that the issue is settled?

Scientists DON’T all agree the planet is warming precipitously, or that humans are responsible for that supposed warming. In fact, more and more experts in a number of fields have been speaking up to challenge the supposed scientific "consensus" on climate change.

As the headlines scream out the latest sensational warning – a NASA scientist now predicts U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has just four years to save the planet – let’s not forget that last month, more than 650 international scientists went on record as dissenting from the man-made global warming findings of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (Chronicle Herald)

Lawrence Solomon: Obama’s America — a denier nation - Americans will have two messages for Barack Obama at his inauguration today: We love you but don’t blame us for climate change.

In a national survey released on the eve of Obama’s inauguration by Rasmussen Reports, the U.S. polling company, a majority of Americans — 51% — now believe that humans are not the predominant cause of climate change. Only 41% blame humans and 9% aren’t sure. Just one month ago, the same pollster found that just 43% of Americans let us humans off the hook while 46% blamed humans and 11% were not sure. Last July, fully 50% blamed humans. (Financial Post)

Certainly worth featuring again: The Contradictions of the Garnaut Report - The present world financial crisis has seen the great economist John Maynard Keynes making a comeback, with even a fiscal conservative like Kevin Rudd espousing Keynesian deficit finance. Keynes is also remembered for his remark that “madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back”. That is an apt description of the climate change mantras that led to the appointment of the Garnaut Review, and the Review’s Final Report itself exhibits frenzy distilled from not a few scribblers of the past, including Malthus, Jevons and Arrhenius of the nineteenth century, Paul Ehrlich, the Club of Rome and the IPCC’s John Houghton of the last century, not forgetting James Hansen (of the Goddard Institute of Space Studies) and his acolyte Al Gore.

Ehrlich and the Club of Rome confidently predicted exhaustion of all mineral resources by 2000 if not before, and the Garnaut Report merely extends the final date to 2100. Malthus earned fame with his theory that while population grows “geometrically”, for example by doubling every twenty-five years (we would say exponentially) food production grows only “arithmetically”, that is, by the same absolute amount in every time period.

Arrhenius took over this formulation in his celebrated paper of 1896 that remains the cornerstone of the anthropogenic global warming (or climate change) movement, by asserting that while atmospheric carbon dioxide “increases in geometric progression, augmentation of the temperature will increase in nearly arithmetic progression”. Arrhenius won a real Nobel for proceeding to calculate that if carbon dioxide increased by 50 per cent from the level in 1896, global average temperature would increase by between 2.9 and 3.7 degrees, depending on season, latitude and hemisphere, with a global annual mean of 3.42 degrees. The level of carbon dioxide has nearly increased by 50 per cent since 1896—faster it is true than Arrhenius expected—but global temperature according to the Goddard Institute has increased by just 0.73 degrees. (Tim Curtin, Quadrant)

You Say It Best When You Say Nothing at All - Before Seth Borenstein tells the woolly kids at SEJ how to spin this claim, take a quick look at what it does and does not say.

While the harsh winter pounding many areas of North America and Europe seemingly contradicts the fact that global warming continues unabated, a new survey finds consensus among scientists about the reality of climate change and its likely cause. A group of 3,146 earth scientists surveyed around the world overwhelmingly agree that in the past 200-plus years, mean global temperatures have been rising, and that human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures. . . .

In trying to overcome criticism of earlier attempts to gauge the view of earth scientists on global warming and the human impact factor, Doran and Kendall Zimmerman sought the opinion of the most complete list of earth scientists they could find, contacting more than 10,200 experts around the world listed in the 2007 edition of the American Geological Institute's Directory of Geoscience Departments. Experts in academia and government research centers were e-mailed invitations to participate in the on-line poll conducted by the website questionpro.com. Only those invited could participate and computer IP addresses of participants were recorded and used to prevent repeat voting. Questions used were reviewed by a polling expert who checked for bias in phrasing, such as suggesting an answer by the way a question was worded. . . .

Two questions were key: have mean global temperatures risen compared to pre-1800s levels, and has human activity been a significant factor in changing mean global temperatures. About 90 percent of the scientists agreed with the first question and 82 percent the second. In analyzing responses by sub-groups, Doran found that climatologists who are active in research showed the strongest consensus on the causes of global warming, with 97 percent agreeing humans play a role. Petroleum geologists and meteorologists were among the biggest doubters, with only 47 and 64 percent respectively believing in human involvement.

Any details about what was actually asked would be enlightening, because, at least as reported, the prompt-and-response prima facie actually say nothing (“human activity,” “a role,” “involvement”), and are already being spun as saying everything (that the very authors find this necessary tells you what you need to know about the results’ worth). Despite much pre-buttal in the release about the integrity of the questions, the actual questions were not provided. Surely they will be in the journal article when published. (Chris Horner, Planet Gore)

Comments On Real Climate’s Post “FAQ on climate models: Part II” - Real Climate has a weblog titled “FAQ on climate models: Part II”.

Climate Science has a response to several of the questions that are posed there as well as questions for Gavin Schmidt [who wrote the Real Climate Q&A]. Climate Science has already posted on Part I of the Real Climate FAQs; see Real Climate Misunderstanding Of Climate Models, which Gavin has either not seen, or cared to respond to. In either case, he continues to incorrectly communicate important aspects of modeling on Real Climate. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

The Politics of Big Science - As the federal government has inserted itself into the sciences, the underlying principles of science research and conduct have been damaged. The conduct of science, the conduct of many scientists, and the standards of evidence in science, has declined over decades. It is not limited to the ongoing global warming scandal but certainly includes it. (Michael R. Fox, Hawaii Reporter)

What the Solar Cycle 24 ramp up could look like - Guest post by David Archibald

With respect to the month of minimum, it is very likely that Solar Cycle 24 has started simply because Solar Cycle 23 has run out. Most solar cycles stop producing spots at about nineteen years after solar maximum of the previous cycle. Solar Cycle 23 had its genesis with the magnetic reversal at the Solar Cycle 22 maximum. As the graph above shows, Solar Cycle 23 is now 19 years old. Only 9% of the named solar cycles produced spots after this. (Watts Up with That?)

Jones et al 2009: Studies Not "Independent" - One of the ongoing Team mantras has been that the Mann hockey stick has been supported by a "dozen independent studies". Obviously, I've disputed the claim that these studies are "independent" in any non-cargo cult use of the term "independent". A new article by Jones and multiple coauthors (Holocene 2009) comments on this issue. (Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit)

realclimate and Disinformation on UHI - In a recent CNN interview discussed at RC here, Joe D'Aleo said:

Those global data sets are contaminated by the fact that two-thirds of the globe's stations dropped out in 1990. Most of them rural and they performed no urban adjustment. And, Lou, you know, and the people in your studio know that if they live in the suburbs of New York City, it's a lot colder in rural areas than in the city. Now we have more urban effect in those numbers reflecting — that show up in that enhanced or exaggerated warming in the global data set.

Gavin Schmidt excoriated this claim as follows:

D'Aleo is misdirecting through his teeth here. … he also knows that urban heat island effects are corrected for in the surface records, and he also knows that this doesn't effect ocean temperatures, and that the station dropping out doesn't affect the trends at all (you can do the same analysis with only stations that remained and it makes no difference). Pure disinformation. (Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit)

New CO2 Truth-Alert: Elevated CO2: How Sweet it is ... for Sugarcane!

New Major Report
CO2, Global Warming and Coral Reefs: Prospects for the Future: The ongoing rise in the air's CO2 content has been predicted to play havoc with earth's coral reefs in two different ways: (1) by stimulating global warming, which has been predicted to dramatically enhance coral bleaching, and (2) by lowering the calcium carbonate saturation state of seawater, which has been predicted to reduce coral calcification rates. We evaluate the likelihood of such claims in a new major review paper.

Editorial
Coral Reefs and Climate Change: Unproved Assumptions: What are they? ... and what do they suggest about climate-alarmist claims relating to the future of earth's corals?

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week
Was there a Medieval Warm Period? YES, according to data published by 657 individual scientists from 384 separate research institutions in 40 different countries ... and counting! This issue's Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from New Zealand's Western South Island. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period Project's database, click here.

Subject Index Summary
Temperature (Urbanization Effects - North America): What have we learned about the urban heat island effect from data obtained in North America?

Plant Growth Data
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Corn, Epilithic Lichen, Petunia, and Sugar Maple/Quaking Aspen.

Journal Reviews
Floods of the Mississippi River System: What has caused the majority of them in modern times?

High-Flow and Flood Trends of UK Rivers: Are their magnitudes increasing, as climate alarmists suggest they should be?

Erosive Rainfall Anomalies of Southern Italy: How have they responded to earth's "unprecedented" modern warmth?

A Century of Parana River Streamflow Data: To the beat of what drummer does the river's flow rate rise and fall?

Soil Microbial Respiration: How does it respond to rising temperatures? (co2science.org)

Oil Prices and Oil Demand: The Need For Stable Prices - In reality, we can recognize peaks and valleys only after the fact. For example, looking back we can see the “dot com” bubble, or spike, that occurred in the year 2000. The NASDAQ, currently at about 1,500, reached 5,000, a level that will probably not be seen again for decades, if ever.

Similarly, due to the recent rapid price decline, we can now look back at the oil price bubble, or spike. Between early 2007 and late 2008, oil futures rose from about $50 per barrel to about $150 per bbl and then fell to less than $50. This brief duration of high prices appears more like a spike than a bubble.

The brief duration of the spike gives us an unusual opportunity to learn something of the lag time that exists between a change in price and the resulting impact on demand. While no rigorous study of the lag time is possible because of the dynamic nature of the various economic factors at work, we can get some sense of this element by comparing the demand data with the price performance. This comparison is shown in the following graph. (William R. Edwards, Energy Tribune)

Oil Price Over $100, in a Blink - The Cassandras are out in force these days. Some are true believers. Others are masochistic oil men. They claim that the recent price of oil -- at almost $150 -- was a “spike” fomented by speculators. And now that the oil price is down, it will never go over $100 again, it may even go down to $10 or it will stay at $30, forever.

Some of these analysts have written for this publication. How US-based speculators, as blamed by a recent TV show, can cause the wild ride towards $150 oil, is mystifying. This was supposed to happen while world oil consumption was more than four times that of the US. Big, bad oil is no longer blamed for the price hike?

The analysts are right on one thing. There was never really a rational reason for $150 oil. Headlines ruled and speculators did ride them. But oil at $40 is also irrational, fed by headlines about the economic crisis.

There are three main reasons why oil cannot stay at $40 or even $70. (Michael J. Economides, Energy Tribune)

Coal industry 'at risk with no cash support' under carbon reduction scheme - THE $60 billion coal industry is at risk without greater support for clean coal, the Opposition warned yesterday after the nation's only commercial project in the field said it would be unviable under the proposed emissions trading scheme.

The Australian revealed yesterday that ZeroGen had warned Resources Minister Martin Ferguson that the Rudd Government's carbon pollution reduction scheme would be a "significant barrier" to the development of clean coal.

ZeroGen is understood to have laid off or redeployed staff from its corporate division recently. The company would not comment yesterday, but said in a statement there had been "no reductions from project staffing, and none are planned".

Gas suppliers say they can provide cleaner energy than conventional coal-fired electricity for less than renewables if clean coal is delayed.

Coal industry sources warned of a bleak future without greater support for clean coal research. (The Australian)

Abu Dhabi has second thoughts about London Array and wind power - Fresh doubts have emerged over Britain’s plans for a huge expansion of offshore wind power after Abu Dhabi said yesterday that it was reconsidering the viability of a £3 billion scheme to build the world’s largest offshore wind park in the Thames Estuary.

The London Array project, a plan to build 341 turbines with the capacity to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity – more than that produced by most of the nuclear reactors in Britain – has been in trouble since last May, when Shell pulled out of the project, citing spiralling costs. (The Times)

Give them money to employ people to do nothing useful? Wind Power Jobs To Double In EU By 2020 - BRUSSELS - Employment in the wind power industry will more than double in the European Union to around 330,000 in 2020, according to a report issued on Tuesday.

The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) also called for greater investment in the renewable energy sector as governments seek to stimulate economic recovery.

"Wind power not only has the potential to satisfy the increasing electricity demand in a sustainable manner, it is also a significant and vital stimulus to economies," EWEA Chief Executive Christian Kjaer said. (Reuters)

Electric cars will need lots of financial support - report - Electric cars have a big role to play in reducing the world's greenhouse gas emissions, but it's going to cost a lot, according to a new report. It could even push automakers into further trouble.

For electric and hybrid vehicles to achieve their environmental potential, the world's governments will need to step in with high levels of financial support for consumers and industry, according to a report by the Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting firm. And the cost savings in fuel won't be nearly enough to provide the incentive without that government cash.

Electric vehicles could realistically make up a significant fraction of the world's car market in the foreseeable future, but not nearly a majority, according to BCG. "The costs of creating an automotive market dominated by electric and hybrid cars are prohibitively high," said the report. (CNNMoney.com)

We are all now abnormal and all shall have a pill - No, it’s not your imagination. They really said that.

As news media reported (verbatim from the press release), a new study published in the American Heart Journal found that nearly two-thirds of patients admitted to hospitals for heart attacks and cardiovascular events had low LDL-cholesterol levels, indicating they were not at high risk for heart problems. Yet — in another extraordinary example of ad-hoc reasoning — the authors concluded that since most heart attacks are occurring in people with low cholesterol levels, that this provided support for lowering the LDL-cholesterol goals even further. (Junkfood Science)

Inaugural edition of Grand Rounds - Grand Rounds, a weekly gathering of the best medical blog articles hosted by a different blogger every Tuesday, is now up at MedPageToday. In this issue, medical bloggers writing “from the trenches” submitted a wide range of ideas for healthcare reform. They've been compiled into the top ten suggestions to policy makers in Washington. (Junkfood Science)

From mad to worse - Christopher Booker reports yet another case of hapless toilers, who have had their livelihoods taken from them by bureaucratic theft, and then been turned into criminals for trying to carry on their forefathers’ trade of centuries. What they did was perfectly reasonable to an unbiased observer. They caught hake, which were plentiful, and sold them for food. Remarkably, in fact, it is not even a crime any more. They were forced by poverty into trying to disguise the fact that they were carrying out what has always been perfectly legitimate trade. And what about that judge? The judiciary sit on their large stipends and more than comfortable pensions, telling people on the breadline, who have had their livings taken by legitimised theft, that they are acting out of greed. And can it really be true that the fishermen themselves “were not permitted to speak in their own defence.” Is this what has become of British justice, to say nothing of natural justice? (John Brignell, Number Watch)

January 20, 2009

Interesting... 44% Say Global Warming Due To Planetary Trends, Not People - Al Gore’s side may be coming to power in Washington, but they appear to be losing the battle on the idea that humans are to blame for global warming.

Forty-four percent (44%) of U.S. voters now say long-term planetary trends are the cause of global warming, compared to 41% who blame it on human activity.

Seven percent (7%) attribute global warming to some other reason, and nine percent (9%) are unsure in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Democrats blame global warming on human activity, compared to 21% percent of Republicans. Two-thirds of GOP voters (67%) see long-term planetary trends as the cause versus 23% of Democrats. Voters not affiliated with either party by eight points put the blame on planetary trends.

In July 2006, 46% of voters said global warming is caused primarily by human activities, while 35% said it is due to long-term planetary trends.

In April of last year, 47% of Americans blamed human activity versus 34% who viewed long-term planetary trends as the culprit. But the numbers have been moving in the direction of planetary trends since then. (Rasmussen Reports)

Al got a Nobel for "efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change" and Jimmy has just been honored by the AMS for "clear communication of climate science in the public arena" -- while public skepticism increases. Who knew those two were doing such a great job? Certainly they are having a much more positive effect than I gave them credit for.

IPCC Teams Up with WorldWatch to Attack Obama - The “policy neutral” IPCC is once again making a mockery of its role of an arbiter of scientific information, in favor of all out political advocacy. EurActiv reports the details: (Roger Pielke, Jr., Prometheus)

Questions for Obama's science guy - IN NOMINATING John Holdren to be director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy -- the position known informally as White House science adviser -- President-elect Barack Obama has enlisted an undisputed Big Name among academic environmentalists, one "with a resume longer than your arm," as Newsweek's Sharon Begley exulted when the announcement was made. Holdren is a physicist, a professor of environmental policy at Harvard, a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the director of the Woods Hole Research Center, and the author or co-author of many papers and books.

He is also a doom-and-gloomer with a trail of erroneous apocalyptic forecasts dating back nearly 40 years -- and a decided lack of tolerance for environmental opinions that conflict with his.

The position of science adviser requires Senate confirmation. Holdren's nomination is likely to sail through, but conscientious senators might wish to ask him some questions. Here are eight: (Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe)

How the world was bullied into silence - One of the most disturbing aspects of the global warming scam is the number of prominent people and entire segments of society bullied into silence. Consider the case of Dr. Joanne Simpson described as follows. “the first woman in the world to receive a PhD in meteorology, and formerly of NASA, who has authored more than 190 studies and has been called “among the most preeminent scientists of the last 100 years.” Then consider her statement. “Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receiving any funding, I can speak quite frankly….As a scientist I remain skeptical...

The main basis of the claim that man’s release of greenhouse gases is the cause of the warming is based almost entirely upon climate models. We all know the frailty of models concerning the air-surface system.” No, we don’t all know the frailty of the models! Certainly most of the media and thereby the public and politicians don’t know, otherwise the latter would not be planning completely unnecessary, incredibly expensive and society altering policies. But the opening comment is actually frightening and speaks to why the scam has progressed so far. “Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receive any funding, I can speak quite frankly.”

Undoubtedly, there are positions and times when people are muzzled; national security is a good example. I sympathize with young people starting out on careers. I understand the pressure of maintaining a family and paying mortgages. But none of this should apply to science. It’s a measure of the degree to which climate change has become political. It’s also a measure of the degree of bullying that has occurred. Why would a scientist in an organization directly involved in climate science not feel free to speak out? But they are not the only ones who have kept quiet. Entire segments of society have either remained silent or taken evasive action. Few had the courage to even ask for a full and open debate. Now everything is changing as the claims of warming are offset by the realities of cooling. (Tim Ball, CFP)

Struggle over climate change on the horizon - Wasn’t all that warm fuzziness over the election of Obama just so... so... warm and fuzzy?

Now for cold and hard-edged. That describes the emotions over the intragovernmental fights that get going in earnest this week. The most immediate are over the nature of the economic stimulus, or who has the longest reach. When that is settled within the next couple of months, the struggle moves on to harder issues, such as the massive rework of environmental law and regulation.

The most serious struggle will be over climate change, or the regulation of carbon emissions. You can forget all the chit chat about finding a consensus on this one: the coal people and the enviros are in this match until one side is carried out.

For now, it appears that most of the enviros working within the legislative process intend to use a cap-and-trade programme to reduce carbon emissions. That is, large carbon dioxide emitters such as coal-based utilities will be able to buy the right to produce CO2. Those who, one way or another, are deemed to have reduced carbon emissions can sell emission rights to the emitters. The programme would be designed so that over time the supply of carbon rights becomes tighter, the price higher, and the incentive to reduce carbon emissions even greater. Climate change moderates, polar bears have more ice, and so on.

Wall Street and Chicago always like the creation of trading markets for new assets, especially if they can be inefficiently priced by the professionals. So while the coal people hate climate legislation, a lot of traders see an opportunity. (Financial Times)

Weather and climate: noise and timescales - A few days ago, an alarmist nicknamed Tamino (Grant Foster) wrote a shallow posting about the extrapolation of trends: What if?

Foster argues that one can't blindly extrapolate trends, especially not the cooling ones. Well, I agree with the first part of the sentence but unlike Foster, I think that one should blindly extrapolate neither cooling nor warming trends. I agree that the absence of a warming trend since 1998 (and the fact that 2008 was the coolest year since 2000; and it was also cooler than 1998, of course) doesn't mean that we know that there won't be any warming in the next 50 years. But in the same way, the existence of some warming in the last 100 years doesn't mean that there will be the same - or even much larger - warming in the 21st century. (The Reference Frame)

Facts debunk global warming alarmism - THE National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that October in the US was marked by 63 record snowfalls and 115 lowest-ever temperatures.

Over the past few years, similar signs of colder than usual weather have been recorded all over the world, causing many people to question the still fashionable, but now long outdated, global warming alarmism. Yet individual weather events or spells, whether warmings or coolings, tell us nothing necessarily about true climate change.

Nonetheless, by coincidence, growing recognition of a threat of climatic cooling is correct, because since the turn of the 21st century all real world, long-term climate indicators have turned downwards. Global atmospheric temperature reached a peak in 1998, has not warmed since 1995 and, has been cooling since 2002. Some people, still under the thrall of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change's disproved projections of warming, seem surprised by this cooling trend, even to the point of denying it. But why? (Bob Carter, The Australian)

Another deceptive and largely irrelevant Antarctic Peninsula piece: Antarctic ice shelf set to collapse - WILKINS ICE SHELF - A huge Antarctic ice shelf is on the brink of collapse with just a sliver of ice holding it in place, the latest victim of global warming that is altering maps of the frozen continent.

"We've come to the Wilkins Ice Shelf to see its final death throes," David Vaughan, a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), told Reuters after the first — and probably last — plane landed near the narrowest part of the ice.

The flat-topped shelf has an area of thousands of square kilometres (miles), jutting 20 metres (65 ft) out of the sea off the Antarctic Peninsula. (Reuters)

The Wilkins has persisted a little longer into the Holocene than might have been expected because it lies between Alexander, Charcot, and Latady islands. The region shows no discernable atmospheric temperature trend over the last 30 years. Basically the southern hemisphere is cool to neutral, the tropics are pretty ordinary while there has been slight warming in the northern temperate grading to interesting warming in the northern frigid zone. Of course we hear a lot about the 5-10% of the globe behaving at least partially as climate models suggest it should but about 10% kind of right always used to be read as ~90% dead wrong -- I believe "epic fail" is how my son would term it.

Runway-Loving Birds Are Risk To Planes In Antarctica - Air traffic experts are seeking ways to scare off the south polar skuas, a large and aggressive brown seabird, but without harming them. The birds are protected by the 47-nation Antarctic Treaty, which declares the frozen continent a nature reserve.

At the British Rothera research station on the Antarctic Peninsula, about 100 skuas often sit on the 900 meter (3,000 ft) gravel runway. The odd penguin or seals can also be hazards. (Reuters)

Imagine that -- even Polar critters like to be warm...

“Hudson air crash caused by ‘global warming’” - The scare: In late January 2008, Time magazine blamed the bird-strike that brought down an Airbus passenger aircraft in the Hudson River, New York, on “global warming”. This was the latest in a long series of articles in scientifically-unaware mainstream news media, blaming real or imagined climate events on “global warming”. Such alarmism defies Occam’s razor, the philosophical principle by which the simplest explanation of an event is nearly always the true explanation. The Time article said that “Wildlife mitigation” was the official term for avoiding bird strikes. A report published in June 1988 by the Federal Aviation Administration had found that since 1990 the number of bird strikes had quadrupled, from 1,759 in 1990 to a record 7,666 in 2007. According to Time, “Officials cite a number of possible causes for the increase”, including “habitat destruction and climate change”, which “have disrupted migratory patterns”. Time adds, “Al Gore should be very proud of himself.” (Christopher Monckton, SPPI)

Oh boy... Global warming may cut protein in plants - Plants may give us fewer of the nutrients we need to survive if global warming is not controlled, a visiting expert says.

Fossil expert Dr Scott Wing, who was in New Zealand to speak at the Greenhouse Earth Symposium at Te Papa last week, said a study suggested ancient plants may have made less protein as CO2 levels rose.

If the theory is correct, insects were left hungrier when plants made less of the protein they needed to live.

The phenomenon could affect humans if plants begin cutting protein again.

Fossil records show insects began eating more plants about 55 million years ago, when the planet suddenly warmed up.

Dr Wing, who is the curator of fossil plants at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, acknowledged there may have been more insects around to eat the plants. (New Zealand Herald)

... this guy sees an upswing in the number of fossilized insect-damaged leaves from a period of higher atmospheric CO₂ and assumes this means the same number of insects had to eat more to consume sufficient protein. Most biologists equate such signs with increased biological activity in a life-friendly period.

Here's one for interpretation: Survey: Scientists agree human-induced global warming is real - While the harsh winter pounding many areas of North America and Europe seemingly contradicts the fact that global warming continues unabated, a new survey finds consensus among scientists about the reality of climate change and its likely cause. (University of Illinois at Chicago)

It's time to pray for global warming, says Flint Journal columnist John Tomlinson - If you're wondering why North America is starting to resemble nuclear winter, then you missed the news.

At December's U.N. Global Warming conference in Poznan, Poland, 650 of the world's top climatologists stood up and said man-made global warming is a media generated myth without basis. Said climatologist Dr. David Gee, Chairman of the International Geological Congress, "For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming?"

I asked myself, why would such obviously smart guy say such a ridiculous thing? But it turns out he's right. (Flint Journal)

Indonesia Delays Forest-Carbon Rules - SINGAPORE - Indonesia has delayed releasing complete regulations on using carbon credits to protect rainforests, preferring to fine-tune rules that could earn the country billions of dollars and curb the pace of climate change. (Reuters)

Record Temperature Data At The Weblog Hall Of Record - Bruce Hall has an excellent presentation of temperature records in the United States on his weblog “Updating Statewide Monthly Temperature Extremes”.

Among his valuable comments, he writes

“The U.S. analysis showed that the late 1990s were indeed hot and had a greater than normal expected level of statewide monthly records. What it also showed, however, was that the 1930s had a much higher frequency of those records. Finally, it showed a sharp tailing off of such extremes beginning with the new century.

I have completed the review of the high temperature extremes through 2008 and there were no additional statewide month high temperature records. An analysis of the 2005 - 2008 data for minimum temperature records will be started shortly.”

His entire posting is worth reading. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Spinning furiously: CLIMATE CHANGE: Don't Be Fooled by Europe's Arctic Winter - BERLIN, Jan 19 - "Where is global warming, now that we need it?" a comedian asked on German public television ARD. And across Europe people have been asking the same question: if the globe is getting warmer, why is Europe freezing?

But the question really is whether recent winters taken together have been too warm. Yes, say climate researchers, they have.

"There is a cognitive problem among the public," Mojib Latif, climate researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Ocean Sciences at the University of Kiel, some 300 km west of Berlin, told IPS. "Because winters over the past 20 years have been warmer than the older average, many now believe that this winter is particularly cold. But it is not."

"Of course it is really cold right now," Fortunat Joos, professor of climate and environmental physics at the University of Bern in Switzerland told IPS. "But present temperatures represent only a fluctuation in the trend of the past 20 years. In general, the earth is getting warmer. (IPS)

Tibetan Glacial Shrink To Cut Water Supply By 2050 - NEW YORK - Nearly 2 billion people in Asia, from coastal city dwellers to yak-herding nomads, will begin suffering water shortages in coming decades as global warming shrinks glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau, experts said.

The plateau has more than 45,000 glaciers that build up during the snowy season and then drain to the major rivers in Asia, including the Yangtze, Yellow, Brahmanputra and Mekong.

Temperatures in the plateau, which some scientists call the "Third Pole" for its massive glacial ice sheets, are rising twice as fast as other parts of the world, said Lonnie Thompson, a glaciologist at Ohio State University, who has collected ice cores from glaciers around the world for decades. (Reuters)

Lonnie should know better than that. Glaciers grow and shrink through precipitation rather than having significant direct correlation with temperature.

Eye roller: Rising Sea Levels Threaten East Coast - WASHINGTON - Sea levels on the United States' mid-Atlantic coast are rising faster than the global average because of global warming, threatening the future of coastal communities, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday.

Coastal waters from New York to North Carolina have crept up by an average of 2.4 to 4.4 millimeters (0.09 to 0.17 inches) a year, compared with an average global increase of 1.7 millimeters (0.07 inches) a year, the EPA said in a report. (Reuters)

Dead On Arrival: EPA/CCSP Sea Level Rise Report Already Outdated - On Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a report on the implications of future sea level rise on the mid-Atlantic coast (from North Carolina to New York). The report was one of the series of 21-reports commissioned by the U.S. Climate Change Research Program (recall our less than favorable reviews of another recent CCSP product). As with most climate change “assessment reports” from large government and intergovernmental efforts, the science in the report is stale and out-of-date by the time the report is finally published (the EPA’s recent documents in support of its “Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions under the Clean Air Act” is a prime example). (WCR)

The Movement Movement - One of the most toxic effects of environmentalism’s tendency to reduce human needs and wants to problems that need to be contained and controlled is found in the debate over transport policy. Movement itself is threatened by demands that we reduce our ‘impact’ on the world. We are urged not to take ‘unnecessary’ journeys and to take them in the least carbon-intensive ways, or the carbon calculator will be used to prove our guilt. (Climate Resistance)

Another Crone article of faith: Energy Inefficient - From plug-in cars to carbon capture to wind farms linked to “intelligent” power grids, many of the solutions pitched to restructure the country’s energy system and confront global warming rely on a faith in high tech: we expect, or at least hope, that an Apollo project, the energy equivalent of the dot.com revolution or some other burst of creative genius will engineer the problem away.

Obviously, game-changing technologies will play a big role in cutting America’s consumption of fossil fuels. They will also be essential to achieving the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that most scientists think will be necessary to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. But as it frames its strategy to deal with both problems, the Obama administration cannot overlook the low-hanging fruit — the gains to be had from making existing technologies more efficient. (New York Times)

How could The Crone get it so wrong and how fitting they should bring up the dot.bomb era, since such a debacle is all too likely in the current scam-rich environment. NYT's stupidity notwithstanding we do not have a carbon crisis to deal with -- carbon is the stuff of life and returning some to the atmosphere from whence it came is probably the best thing humans have done and ever will do for the biosphere.

Massive Confusion in the New York Times - Today’s New York Times has an editorial in which it claims that:

The plain truth is that the United States is an inefficient user of energy. For each dollar of economic product, the United States spews more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than 75 of 107 countries tracked in the indicators of the International Energy Agency. Those doing better include not only cutting-edge nations like Japan but low-tech countries like Thailand and Mexico.

The first problem with this set of claims is that the New York Times confuses energy efficiency with carbon dioxide intensity of the economy. The second error is that the New York Times uses market exchange rates as the basis for evaluating U.S. carbon dioxide per dollar of GDP against other countries, rather than the more appropriate metric of international GDP comparisons using purchasing power parities.

So the New York Times makes a muddle of reality when it suggests that the United States is an “inefficient user of energy” suggesting that 70% of all contries are more efficient than the United States.

This is just wrong. (Roger Pielke, Jr., Prometheus)

Just say no to oil revenues? - Petroleum production bans cost us billions that could pay for stimulus plans and renewables

Plummeting stock and housing prices have triggered a painful recession, America’s worst job losses since 1945, and trillions in lost national wealth.

California is grappling with a $42-billion budget deficit. That’s more than the GDP of 112 countries. Maryland, Virginia, New York and other states likewise face billion-dollar budget shortfalls.

Congress and the White House want a $1-trillion “stimulus” for the banking, auto and steel industries, roads, bridges and ports, and “worthy” projects like water parks, parking garages and fitness centers.

They also support expanded renewable energy programs that will require tens of billions in subsidies and tax breaks – but provide intermittent electricity and deliver only 5-15% of their “rated capacity” during peak summer demand periods.

Many states have oil, gas, coal uranium and other energy and mineral resources, within their borders or off their coasts. Development would produce critically needed energy, reduce oil and gas imports, create millions of jobs, buttress our national security, and generate trillions of dollars in lease bonus, rent, royalty and tax revenues, to help pay these bills.

California could nearly double its offshore oil production within 12-18 months, without installing a single new platform, by using directional drilling technology to bore more wells from existing platforms. (Paul Driessen, CFP)

Moronic Environmentalists cheer shelving of Enbridge oilsands pipeline - CALGARY - Environmental groups say they will keep leaning on Ontario to curb its reliance on oilsands crude, even though Calgary-based pipeline company Enbridge Inc. is shelving a project that would have brought more of that oil into the province.

A report by Environmental Defence and Forest Ethics Monday said Enbridge's $346-million Trailbreaker project would have effectively choked off Ontario's supply of light sweet crude oil from overseas, which they believe has fewer environmental impacts than oilsands crude. (CP)

Brazil Landless Peasants Aim To Extend Fight To Oil - SAO PAULO - Brazil's Landless Workers' Movement marked its 25th anniversary on Monday by pledging to extend its fight against capitalism to ensuring the country's new oil wealth remains in state hands.

Since state energy company Petrobras announced in 2007 it had discovered massive light oil reserves off Brazil's southern coast, talk has swirled that the government would take greater control over the oil wealth.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is considering whether to create a new state-run oil company to manage oil production from new "subsalt" reserves, but foreign oil firms like Royal Dutch Shell Plc will still have a major role in production.

"The MST is ready to do what is needed to guarantee that Brazil's oil, especially the subsalt discovery, won't be privatized. This means battles, marches, occupations, public campaigns -- a series of actions," Joao Paulo Rodrigues, one of the movement's leaders, told a news conference in Sao Paulo.

The movement, probably the world's largest land reform group, is known as the MST.

Rodrigues denied that the movement's new focus was a reaction to a loss of supporters in the countryside, where its campaign has struggled in the face of an agriculture boom and a lack of help from the Lula government. (Reuters)

King coal is on the rise once again - SCOTTISH Coal, the UK's largest open-cast coal mining group, is back in the black and has revealed plans to reopen old sites and bring new sites into production to meet increased demand. (The Scotsman)

Clean coal plan dirtied by ETS - THE Rudd Government's climate change strategy has been thrown into disarray by a warning that clean coal will not be viable under the proposed emissions trading scheme.

Clean coal is crucial to the Government's plans to tackle climate change, but the chief executive of the flagship ZeroGen project has told Resources Minister Martin Ferguson the carbon pollution reduction scheme will be a "significant barrier" to the development of clean coal technology.

"Australia's 5 per cent carbon reduction target accompanied by a weak carbon price will be nowhere near sufficient to generate the scale of investment needed to make clean coal technologies economically viable," Anthony Tarr warns Mr Ferguson in a letter obtained by The Australian.

More German Biodiesel Plants Face Closure In 2009 - BERLIN - More German biodiesel plants face closure in 2009 following government's decision to raise taxes on green fuels and to scale back an increase in biofuel blending in fossil fuels, a biofuels industry leader said on Monday.

Germany's biodiesel industry, Europe's largest, was working at considerably under 60 percent of its five million-ton annual capacity, Johannes Lackmann, chief executive of German biofuels industry association VDB, said.

"Many medium and small size plants will have little chance of survival this year," he told Reuters at the Green Week food trade fair in Berlin. "I think more will close."

Germany increased taxes on biodiesel on Jan 1 this year which hit demand in the country's domestic market. A series of biodiesel plants closed last year, largely because taxes on green fuels had cut sales. (Reuters)

What do healthy eating and lifestyles have in common with woo? - A courageous article appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Wednesday. It was momentous because it may be the first article in a mainstream medical journal to expose the similarities between the promotion of healthy diet and lifestyle modifications for the prevention of heart disease and premature death, and pseudoscience and alternative modalities.

This is one medical article we won’t see reported by the media. (Junkfood Science)

Research Exposes the Risk to Infants from the Chemicals Used in Liquid Medicines -- A team of medical scientists from the University of Leicester has published research which looks into the harmful substances in liquid medicines that premature babies are being exposed to.

Research published today (Jan 20) ahead of print in the Fetal & Neonatal Edition of Archives of Disease in Childhood documents the non-drug ingredients (excipients) present in liquid medicines given to premature infants as part of their medical care. (PhysOrg.com)

Surprising new health and environmental concerns about tungsten - In the article, C&EN Associate Editor Rachel Petkewich notes that scientists have long held that tungsten is relatively insoluble in water and nontoxic. As a result, the U.S. military developed in the mid 1990s so-called "green bullets" that contain tungsten as a more environmentally-friendly alternative to lead-based ammunition.

But studies now show that tungsten, which is also used in welding, metal cutting, and other applications, is not as chemically inert as previously thought. Some forms of tungsten can move readily though soil and groundwater under certain environmental conditions. Both the U.S. Department of Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency now classify the element as an "emerging contaminant" of concern. (ACS)

MPs may be denied vote on £100 bin tax - THE GOVERNMENT has quietly adopted powers enabling it to introduce national pay-as-you-throw rubbish taxes of up to £100 without a vote in parliament.

The move, which was confirmed this weekend by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), will allow councils across the country to impose extra charges on householders who leave out too much non-recyclable waste.

The fact that ministers have adopted powers to impose the taxes on millions of households without a vote in the Commons will shock MPs. They always believed they would be able to veto the unpopular move following trials in five pilot areas.

Last week the government also sidelined parliament to move ahead with plans to introduce a controversial third runway at Heathrow airport.

The Tories discovered the bin tax measure in a little-noticed clause of the Climate Change Act.

“New taxes are being imposed by arrogant and out-of-touch rulers, showing contempt for the democratic process. The imposition of extra-parliamentary taxation is a constitutional outrage,” said Eric Pickles, shadow communities and local government secretary.”

Internal Whitehall documents released last year showed the government is planning for at least two-thirds of all homes to be hit by the bin taxes. (Sunday Times)

Nile Delta fishery grows dramatically thanks to run-off of sewage, fertilizers - While many of the world's fisheries are in serious decline, the coastal Mediterranean fishery off the Nile Delta has expanded dramatically since the 1980s.

The surprising cause of this expansion, which followed a collapse of the fishery after completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1965, is run-off of fertilizers and sewage discharges in the region, according to a researcher at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography.

Autumn Oczkowski, a URI doctoral student, used stable isotopes of nitrogen to demonstrate that 60 to 100 percent of the current fishery production is supported by nutrients from fertilizer and sewage. Her research will be reported in the Jan. 21 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This is really a story about how people unintentionally impact ecosystems," Oczkowski said.

Historically, the Nile would flood the delta every fall, irrigate nearby agricultural land, and flow out to the Mediterranean, carrying with it nutrients to support a large and productive fishery. Construction of the dam stopped the flooding, and the fishery collapsed.

"That's when fertilizer consumption in the country skyrocketed," said Oczkowski. "The Egyptians were fertilizing the land, and then fertilizing the sea with the run-off. It also corresponded with a population boom and the expansion of the public water and sewer systems."

As a result, landings of fish in coastal and offshore waters are more than three times pre-dam levels. While increased fishing effort in recent years may have played some role in the recovery, Oczkowski's findings indicate that anthropogenic nutrient sources have now more than replaced the fertility carried by the historical flooding. (University of Rhode Island)

Army Worms Decimate Crops In Liberia - MONROVIA - Swarms of army worms have attacked crops in a food-producing district of Liberia, forcing the West African state to declare a state of emergency in the area at the weekend, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Monday.

Army worms, which can grow to around 5 centimeters (two inches) in length, are moth caterpillars and when present in large numbers can destroy swathes of vegetation and crops. (Reuters)

EU Fails To Approve GM Rapeseed, Carnation Imports - BRUSSELS - EU ministers failed to reach a majority on Monday to approve applications for importing a genetically modified rapeseed and carnation flower, paving the way for a default approval by the EU executive, officials said.

The rapeseed, developed by Germany's Bayer CropScience to resist certain glufosinate-ammonium herbicides and known by its codename T25, was discontinued from commercial planting after the 2005 season.

Only a small stock of the rapeseed remains, in Canada, and could be exported to EU markets if approval is granted.

Bayer's application for EU approval is for use in food and feed, not for cultivation in Europe's fields. It will now return to the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, most probably for a default approval in the coming weeks. (Reuters)

Chemists engineer plants to produce new compounds -- In work that could expand the frontiers of genetic engineering, MIT chemists have, for the first time, genetically altered a plant to produce entirely new compounds, some of which could be used as drugs against cancer and other diseases.

The researchers, led by Sarah O'Connor of the Department of Chemistry, produced the new compounds by manipulating the complex biosynthetic pathways of the periwinkle plant. This sort of manipulation, which O'Connor and her graduate student, Weerawat Runguphan, report in the Jan. 18 issue of Nature Chemical Biology, offers a new way to tweak potential drugs to make them less toxic (and/or more effective). (PhysOrg.com)

January 19, 2009

I lost the bet: Geese Pose Big Risk at Airports in Region - For years, airport officials have removed shrubs and trees that attract birds. They have tried to scare them away with music, pyrotechnics and cannons. They have even raided birds’ nests and culled the adults with shotguns.

Still, birds, often geese, sometimes end up in plane engines, causing inconvenience, or worse: They are a leading suspect in the nearly disastrous ditching of a US Airways jet on Thursday.

...

Nevertheless, the danger of bird strikes “is an ongoing problem, and it will always be a problem,” said Steven D. Garber, a biologist who was a consultant to the Port Authority in the 1990s.

And it may become more so — despite efforts at mitigation. “There is evidence both in North America and in Europe that birds are shifting their territories,” said Joel L. Cracraft, curator in charge of the department of ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History. “And that has been correlated with global warming.” (New York Times) [em added]

On Thursday I was rash enough to claim even The Crone was unlikely to be stupid enough to try to associate a plane ditching in the frigid Hudson with gorebull warming... It isn't the first time I have been accused of irrepressible optimism.

The Flight 1549 blame game (updated) - It didn't take long for the warmists to blame the US Airways crash on global warming, which is, after all, deemed responsible for anything bad. Time Magazine, which was once widely read, sprang into action:

While officials use radar and radio collars to track bird populations, habitat destruction and climate change have disrupted migratory patterns. Moreover, the populations of certain species of birds are increasing at rapid rates, thanks to changes in food supply. The Canada-goose population, for example, has grown 7.3% annually from 1980 to 2006.

Rush Limbaugh may have been the first person to point out that greenies have made the protection of birds (especially waterfowl) a major priority, and an increase in bird population is a goal they have achieved -- that may deserve blame for the crash, if anything is to be blamed other than an Act of God. (Thomas Lifson, American Thinker)

Hmm... 27 years with an annual increase of 7.3% is almost a 7-fold increase in the number of geese. Even the revised "The Canada-goose population, for example, increased 4-fold from about 1 million birds in 1990 to 3.9 million in 2008, according to Richard Dolbeer, one of the report's co-authors." indicates roughly a 6% annual increment in the number of geese. So either gorebull warming is very good for wildlife (which would be true if gorebull warming actually existed) or someone is deliberately encouraging an increase in hazardous critters.

Jimmy's slipped right off his trolley: President 'has four years to save Earth' - US must take the lead to avert eco-disaster

Barack Obama has only four years to save the world. That is the stark assessment of Nasa scientist and leading climate expert Jim Hansen who last week warned only urgent action by the new president could halt the devastating climate change that now threatens Earth. Crucially, that action will have to be taken within Obama's first administration, he added. (Robin McKie, The Observer) | Read the full interview with James Hansen here

The ultimate for ecochondriacs: Emission Impossible? - 'Carbon Coach' Dave Hampton Helps Homeowners Fight Global Warming

World-wide concern about global warming is hitting home as more and more people try to make their houses and businesses eco-friendly and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.

With the European Union estimating that commercial and residential buildings are responsible for 40% of the EU's total CO2 emissions, governments around the continent have turned to homes to help achieve Europe's goals of reducing 60% to 80% of CO2 emissions by 2050.

In the U.K., the government has adopted the Code for Sustainable Homes, which aims at ensuring that all new homes built in the county be "zero-carbon" by 2016. The Code assesses the sustainability of a house on a six-point scale, with six being a "zero-carbon" home, meaning its usage of energy from renewable sources offsets its carbon emissions. The EU has yet to adopt specific regulations for low-carbon housing.

For Dave Hampton, a Cambridge-educated engineer and self-described "carbon coach," the new emphasis on emissions cuts represents a business opportunity. After working on energy efficiency for over 20 years for numerous firms, including British Gas, engineering consultants WS Atkins, Building Research Establishment and ABS Consulting, Mr. Hampton set himself up in business as a consultant who specializes in helping individuals reduce their carbon footprint. "My aim is to show people they can halve their carbon shadow just by making simple changes," he says. (Wall Street Journal)

Green Jobs: Fact or Fiction? - An Assessment of the Literature

Introduction and Executive Summary
I. Green Recovery, Center for American Progress
II. Job Opportunities for the Green Economy, Political Economy Research Institute
III. Current and Potential Green Jobs in the U.S. Economy, Global Insight
IV. Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, American Solar Energy Society (Robert Michaels and Robert P. Murphy, Institute for Energy Research)

Does Nature’s Thermostat Exist? A Global Warming Debate Challenge - Scientific disagreements over just how much mankind’s carbon dioxide emissions will warm the planet can be described with the analogy of the thermostat in your home. You set the thermostat to a certain temperature, and if it senses (for example) that the temperature is rising too much above that preset level, a cooling mechanism (air conditioning) kicks in and works to push the temperature back down.

I, and a number of other scientists, believe that nature has a thermostatic control mechanism that “pushes back” against a warming influence, such as the relatively weak warming from more atmospheric carbon dioxide. (The direct warming effect of more CO2 would amount to little more than 1 deg. F by late in this century, and is generally not the subject of debate.)

In climate research (and engineering, and physics) a thermostatic control mechanism is called ‘negative feedback’, and as discussed elsewhere on my web site there are a number of studies that suggest it really does exist in the climate system. At this point my own research suggests that the natural cooling mechanism is most likely due to the response of clouds to warming. While it is a bit technical, the issue is introduced in this peer-reviewed publication. (Roy W. Spencer)

Hmm... Clearer skies over Europe as fog halved in 30 years - Scientists discover 'massive decline' in fog, mist and haze as air quality improves, but it may accelerate global warming

Europe has become less foggy over the past three decades, according to scientists who have examined weather records across the continent. Fog, mist and haze have become less frequent and have contributed, they calculate, to between 10% and 20% of the warming trend during that period. The change is down to reduced air pollution, the scientists think.

Robert Vautard at the Atomic Energy Commission in Gif sur Yvette, France, and colleagues, looked at the number of "low-visibility" events, where visibility fell to under 8km. They found a 50% drop since the 1970s, which they call a "massive decline". (David Adam, The Guardian)

Perhaps they are looking at a real-world example of the Svensmark Effect. Remember that conversion of water vapor to droplets (clouds and fog) has two effects: firstly it reduces the most prolific greenhouse gas (and hence greenhouse effect) and secondly it increases albedo (thus reducing net surface insolation). You get a lot of 'bang for your buck' with fog and bright cloud temperature effects.

Interesting too, how all these researchers come up with their own angles each amounting to 'only' 10-20% of guesstimated warming (a bit for solar irradiance, some more for reduced sulfate emissions, here a bit for reduced cloudiness, there a bit for land use change, add a dash for soot and mix in urban heat island...). Seems to me we are running kind of short of 10-20%s of estimated atmospheric warming to leave any room for an effect from increased atmospheric carbon dioxide, no? Makes it all the harder to understand how the antis manage to keep the carbon con going, doesn't it?

Dumb beat up of the moment: Arctic warming pattern 'highly unusual': Report - ... "The current rate of human-influenced Arctic warming is comparable to peak natural rates documented by reconstructions of past climates. However, some projections of future human-induced change exceed documented natural variability," the scientists conclude. (Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service)

Wow! Some virtual-world fantasies exceed documented natural variability. Scary...

Stop it Al! Americans suffer record cold as temperatures plunge to -40C - Americans were today shivering as bitter arctic winds caused temperatures to plunge to record-breaking levels in many parts of the vast country.

There are even fears that crowds planning to watch Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration next week could suffer hypothermia and frostbite in sub-zero conditions.

This winter has been one of the toughest in decades with temperatures today reaching as low as -38C in large areas of the Midwest and -40C in the coldest place. (Daily Mail)

Blasted Gore-effect is really going to hurt someone at this rate.

Gore’s church losing followers - In 1971, perhaps entertaining thoughts of entering the full-time ministry, Al Gore, raised in and baptized into the Southern Baptist Church, entered the Vanderbilt Divinity School.

His sojourn was relatively brief. In three semesters, he enrolled in eight classes. He received an “F” as his grade in five of those classes. So, having failed out of school, he entered the family business, which was politics. But he apparently never lost his desire to enter a ministry, and since he couldn’t make the grade in the conventional sense, he did the next best thing. He started his own religion.

The result was the Church of Global Warming. With Gore as its high priest, the church was not long in establishing tenets of faith, nor in immediately branding those who refused to worship there as apostate.

The tragedy is that Gore, in his tenure in the family business, learned well how to work the political system, and when he turned to evangelizing for his new church, he was able to effectively use what he learned as a politician to grant government sanction to that church, sanction that would have been vehemently opposed had he attempted to grant government sanction to the church in which he grew up. (Dan Sernoffsky, Lebanon Daily News)

See larger image here.

Examination of the record shows a change in character in 2001. Prior to that year, global temperatures tended to rise in a narrow band for a couple of years then have a relatively rapid fall. After 2001, temperatures tended to peak in January and then have a much wider annual range than previously. This is shown in the following graph:

See larger image here.

The above graph overlays the month to month results for the period 2002 to 2008, a total of seven years. The larger blue line is the average. For the last seven years, global temperature has tended to fall 0.3 of a degree between January and May, and then rise again to December. Departures from this are caused by El Nino and La Nina events. Just as the 2007 El Nino added 0.2C to the January 2007 result, the 2008 La Nina reduced temperatures in the first half of 2008 by 0.3C. The following figure shows the strength of the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) which drives the formation of El Nino and La Nina events.

See larger image here.

Another large La Nina formed in late 2008. The combination of the annual pattern of temperature change and the current La Nina enables a short term forecast of the UAH MSU result to be made. The combination of a 0.3c response to the current La Nina and the usual 0.3C decline from January to May will result in a 0.6C decline to May 2009 to a result of -0.4C (0.4C below the long term average). See PDF here.

Let’s see if David can do better than the UKMO has done in recent years. UKMO is already talking a top 5 warmest 2009. (David Archibald, Icecap)

Divergence Between GISS and UAH since 1980 - Guest post by Steven Goddard

The GISS website shows the graph below, which indicates a steady, steep warming trend over the last 30 years. The monthly average anomaly for 2008 (0.44) is 0.26 degrees warmer than the monthly average anomaly for 1980 (0.18.) (Watts Up With That?)

GISS Divergence with satellite temperatures since the start of 2003 - By Steve Goddard and Anthony Watts

Some of the excellent readers of the last piece we posted on WUWT gave me an idea, which we are following up on here. The exercise here is to compare GISS and satellite data (UAH and RSS) since the start of 2003, and then propose one possible source of divergence between the GISS and satellite data. The reason that the start of 2003 was chosen, is because satellite data shows a rapid decline in temperatures starting then, and GISS data does not. The only exception to the downward trend was an El Nino at the start of 2007, which caused a short but steep spike. Remembering back a couple of years, Dr. Hansen had in fact suggested that El Nino might turn into a “Super El Nino” which would cause 2007 to be the “hottest year ever.”

The last six years (2003-2008) show a steep temperature drop in the satellite record, which is not present in the GISS data. Prior to 2003, the three trends were all close enough to be considered reasonably consistent, but over the last six years is when a large divergence has become very apparent both visually and mathematically. (Watts Up With That?)

Long-Range Transport of Anthropogenically and Naturally Produced Particulate Matter in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic: Current State of Knowledge by Kallos et al. 2007 - There is a valuable research paper that documents the important role of aerosols on weather and climate, with an emphasis on their transport across long distances. The paper, by an outstanding scientist at the University of Athens, is Kallos, G., M. Astitha, P. Katsafados, and C. Spyrou, 2007: Long-Range Transport of Anthropogenically and Naturally Produced Particulate Matter in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic: Current State of Knowledge. J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 46, 1230–1251. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Debate flares over how to cut greenhouse gases - Attacking climate change through a complex greenhouse gas trading system is a centerpiece of the incoming Obama administration’s energy policy.

But economists and energy analysts of all ideological stripes are saying a better approach to getting a cleaner atmosphere might involve a political dirty word — tax. (Houston Chronicle)

Imaginary effects of imaginary warming... Slight changes in climate may trigger abrupt ecosystem responses - Some of these responses, including insect outbreaks, wildfire, and forest dieback, may adversely affect people as well as ecosystems and their plants and animals.

The U.S. Geological Survey led a new assessment of the implications of a warming world on "ecological thresholds" in North America. The report, which was commissioned by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and authored by a team of federal and academic climate scientists, is based on a synthesis of published scientific literature and addresses what research and steps are needed to help mitigate resulting effects.

An ecological threshold is the point at which there is an abrupt change in an ecosystem that produces large, persistent and potentially irreversible changes. (USGS)

Report calls aerosol research key to improving climate predictions - Scientists need a more detailed understanding of how human-produced atmospheric particles, called aerosols, affect climate in order to produce better predictions of Earth's future climate, according to a NASA-led report issued by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program on Friday.

"Atmospheric Aerosol Properties and Climate Impacts," is the latest in a series of Climate Change Science Program reports that addresses various aspects of the country's highest priority climate research, observation and decision-support needs. The study's authors include scientists from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Energy.

"The influence of aerosols on climate is not yet adequately taken into account in our computer predictions of climate," said Mian Chin, report coordinating lead author from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "An improved representation of aerosols in climate models is essential to more accurately predict the climate changes." (NASA/GSFC)

Poor Freddy... Greenwash: Tesco and its bizarre carbon accountancy - 'Carbon intensity' is the new gambit for companies trying to spruce up their green images

How can Tesco increase its carbon dioxide emissions by almost 400,000 tonnes, as it did in 2007, and still claim to be "setting an example" on climate change? Easy. By coming up with a bizarre test to demonstrate its carbon virtue.

The latest corporate responsibility report from Britain's biggest retailer admits to an 8.6% increase in its emissions in a single year, but says that it increased its "floor space" by 14%, so actually its carbon intensity "per square foot of net sales area" was down by 4.7%.

How does it get away with such a formulation? This is not, you will notice, carbon emissions per tonne of groceries sold, or even emissions per pound of our money handed over at the till. Just floor space. Why not "per Bangladeshi sweatshop worker" or "per migrant vegetable-picker working in Lincolnshire fields"? It would make about as much sense. (Fred Pearce, The Guardian)

... actually expects a nonsense like 'carbon accounting' to make sense. Bottom line, Freddy: the whole carbon freak show is a nonsense, with no relevance to anything but misanthropy.

George’s Aga Ga-Ga and the Heathrow Hoo-Haa - George Monbiot is a very confused man. A few days ago, he announced his campaign against the Aga cooker (because it uses lots of energy). This, he said ‘is indeed a class war’ - the Aga is an expensive piece of kit, and therefore, you have to be rather wealthy to own one. We thought he wasn’t entirely serious about this campaign, it was just a rather childish attempt to prove to his detractors at Spiked-Online that the Green movement wasn’t dominated by the upper classes. He might just as well have shot himself in the foot to prove that he wasn’t lame. (Climate Resistance)

Transcript available: Once Again Climate Debate Skeptics Sway Undecided Voters in Leading Debate Forum

NEW YORK, January 14, 2009— Intelligence Squared U.S., the Oxford style debate series sponsored by The Rosenkranz Foundation, announced the results of its first debate of the Spring 2009 season, "Major reductions in carbon emissions are not worth the money." In a dramatic shift, 25% of the undecided vote sided with the motion by the end of the debate. In the final tally at the conclusion of the debate, a sold out audience at Symphony Space, New York City voted 42% for the motion and 48% against. Ten percent remained undecided.

Prior to the debate, the audience at Symphony Space, New York City voted 16% for the motion and 49% against. 35% were undecided.

The results echoed a similar outcome on the proposition, "Global warming is not a crisis," an Intelligence Squared US debate held on March 14, 2007. The Global Warming debate produced an initial vote tally of 29% for the motion and 57% against. At the conclusion of the debate, the vote margins had reversed with 46% for the motion and 42% against.

The "Major reductions in carbon emissions are not worth the money" debate will air on BBC World News March 7 and 8, 2009. The debate can be heard on NPR beginning January 21, 2009.

Speaking for the motion were Peter Huber, author of The Bottomless Well, Bjorn Lomborg, author of Cool It and The Skeptical Environmentalist, and scientist and Emeritus Professor from the University of London, Philip Stott.

L. Hunter Lovins, president of Natural Capitalism Solutions, Oliver Tickell, author of Kyoto2 and Adam Werbach, global chief executive officer at Saatchi & Saatchi S spoke against the motion.

John Donvan, correspondent for ABC News Nightline, moderated. (iq²)

Download transcript (.pdf) The "Major reductions in carbon emissions are not worth the money" debate will air on BBC World News March 7 and 8, 2009. The debate can be heard on NPR beginning January 21, 2009.

Mike Smith: Global Warming Doom, Gloom Haven't Occurred - For more than 20 years, we have been hearing doomsday predictions about global warming's effects on Kansas and across the world. Locally, during the hot Kansas summer of 2006, forecasts were issued and media articles written tying that hot, dry weather to global warming, and forecasting more extreme heat in the future.

According to one scientist with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global warming in 2006 was already "kicking the heat up a notch."

But the weather has refused to cooperate with those forecasts.

More drought? The reality: 2007 and 2008 were the two wettest years in the history of Wichita. No area of Kansas is experiencing drought at the present time, in spite of all that hand-wringing just two years ago.

Extreme heat? The reality: The past two years, combined, had 21 fewer days than average with 90-degree or higher temperatures. Since 1990, there has been a downward trend in 100-degree or warmer temperatures in Wichita. (Wichita Eagle)

Perhaps we should ban it: Revealed: The cement that eats carbon dioxide - Cement, a vast source of planet-warming carbon dioxide, could be transformed into a means of stripping the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, thanks to an innovation from British engineers.

The new environmentally friendly formulation means the cement industry could change from being a "significant emitter to a significant absorber of CO2," says Nikolaos Vlasopoulos, chief scientist at London-based Novacem, whose invention has garnered support and funding from industry and environmentalists. (Alok Jha, The Guardian)

If this rotten product is going to steal the stuff of life from the atmosphere, that precious resource, carbon dioxide, perhaps we should impose international bans for the good of life everywhere.

New Ice Age maps point to climate change patterns - New climate maps of the Earth’s surface during the height of the last Ice Age support predictions that northern Australia will become wetter and southern Australia drier due to climate change.

An international consortium of scientists from 11 countries has produced the maps, which appear in this week’s issue of Nature Geoscience.

Dr Timothy Barrows of the Research School of Earth Sciences at The Australian National University was responsible for the Australian sector of the reconstruction.

“During the last Ice Age – around 20,000 years ago – sea surface temperature was as much as 10 degrees colder than present and icebergs would have been regular visitors to the southern coastline of Australia,” Dr Barrows said.

The temperature was estimated by measuring changes in abundance of tiny plankton fossils preserved on the sea floor, together with chemical analyses of the sediment itself.

“One of our major findings was that the continent’s mid latitudes (Canberra, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney) are very sensitive and experience the greatest climate change in and out of Ice Ages. This is where we should focus monitoring and look at past impacts of climate change.

“In contrast, the tropical areas (north of Brisbane) change very little, mostly less than 2 degrees.” (ANU)

Couple of points:

Firstly, yet again we see how ridiculous are claims of extreme tropical warming potential when the change from ice age to current interglacial involves a mere 2 kelvins change in the tropics -- the big change in 'warming' is really 'less-colding' as tropical and temperate zones expand polewards while ice ages involve frigid zones expanding toward the equator. There simply is no huge equatorial warming potential.

Secondly, note that the change from glacial to interglacial with its net 6-9 kelvins temperature change was concurrent with atmospheric carbon dioxide changes estimated as 200-280 ppmv. Under the IPCC's global warming potential formula that is virtually identical forcing (280-385 ppmv CO₂ plus other gases, both pre and post Industrial Revolution changes equating to an additional forcing of ~1.8 Wm^-2) for less than one-tenth the warming (0.4-0.8 kelvins since the Industrial Revolution). Even if atmospheric carbon dioxide is responsible for the temperature changes it is obvious the effect is almost exhausted and no great changes can be anticipated regardless of how much carbon dioxide might be added in the future.

This carbon dioxide thing is such a stupid game.

Sadly demonstrating what moonbats the Tories have become: Powering ahead: How the Tories have stolen a march on Labour with new energy policy - The Tories' new energy policies leave Labour looking like the Luddites they are – but there is still much to improve

You have to pinch yourself. Three years ago, when my book Heat was published, critics lined up to tell me that the plans it contained were "unfeasible", "unviable", "too expensive" and "politically impossible". Now these ideas, none of which were mine alone – such as a smart grid used to transmit information between appliances and electricity suppliers, offshore energy parks connected to the grid with high-voltage DC cables, universal grants for insulation, a low-carbon heat grid – have become so mainstream that they've been adopted as policy by the Conservative party. The theory of energy provision has changed beyond recognition since 2006. The practice is still stuck in the dark ages.

That the Conservatives, following the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, can outflank Labour so easily on this issue shows how attached the governing party has become to "sunk costs". By this I mean the lobbying power of companies which have already made their investments and want to squeeze every last drop out of them before they expire. (George Monbiot, The Guardian)

What an interesting world it is when the UK Socialists are more in touch with reality than are their Conservatives, who have been infected with the putrefaction of greenery and are rapidly decaying into the madness of ecotheism.

Government accused of "blackmailing" firms over emissions trading scheme - A number of the UK's leading firms have accused the government of blackmailing them into accepting conditions within the forthcoming Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) carbon trading scheme that will effectively punish those firms that procure green energy.

A BusinessGreen.com investigation has learned that a number of the UK's most high-profile firms, including Asda, BT, B&Q, the Co-operative Group and Morrisons, are concerned about rules introduced as part of the CRC that will ensure that much of the renewable energy they use will be measured as having the same carbon footprint as electricity from the national grid.

They argue that consequently firms that procure energy from many renewable sources will not see the investment recognised through the carbon trading scheme, which is to come into full effect from next year and affect about 5,000 firms. (Tom Young, BusinessGreen)

'Get a grip, Geoff': Emma Thompson hits back at Hoon after he labels her Heathrow protest hypocritical - Emma Thompson has hit back at transport secretary Geoff Hoon today after he stuck the knife into the hypocrisy of celebrities who campaigned against the third runway at Heathrow.

The actress joined a motley crew of green activists in buying a patch of land next to the proposed runway, which will see an entire village wiped off the map.

But the straight-talking minister suggested that double Oscar-winner Miss Thompson, who jets to America for her acting work, had to examine her own behaviour. (Daily Mail)

"It's not against flying -- just a third runway in the face of climate change..."

Dumb as it gets: Clearing the air - Our addiction to cheap coal is under pressure as the climate debate rages and business tries to profit from alternatives.

WHEN Sydneysiders flick on the power, there's every chance some of the electricity has come from a couple of coal-guzzling power plants in the Hunter Valley.

Eraring power station's 200-metre-high chimneys tower over Lake Macquarie, while further west, the Bayswater station is set against beef and dairy country near Muswellbrook.

Drawing on the region's vast coal fields, these state-government owned giants share the title of biggest stations in the country, and supply about half the power in NSW.

They also have the dubious distinction of being among the country's biggest polluters, and are a hot spot for environmental protesters. After entering service in the 1980s, their drab grey chimneys spew out more than 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. That's equal to the emissions of 4.6 million cars. A US study last year said they were among the world's 100 biggest polluters, in a survey of some 50,000 stations.

Amid the growing concerns over climate change, one might assume these plants were fast becoming industrial relics from a bygone era. But just last year the State Government approved an expansion of the Eraring plant to shore up its dwindling power supply, further inflaming environmental tensions. (Clancy Yeates, Sydney Morning Herald)

Carbon dioxide is not an atmospheric pollutant. It is an essential trace gas and magnificent resource. Most of the surface life in this planet is dependent on carbon dioxide's presence in the atmosphere. Alleged Greens want to restrict that essential resource and throttle life on Earth. So-called Greens are not life-friendly and they most certainly are not people-friendly, so why do well-meaning people fall for the misanthropists' propaganda?

Putin: Chevron's Man of the Year? - I don’t know what the situation is in other areas, but Chevron’s use-less-energy ads, launched last fall, are still thick and heavy in the DC area. Its campaign, dubbed “Will You Join Us?”, shows people promising to use their cars less and “unplug things more.” (Sam Kazman, CEI)

Moscow and Kiev strike fresh deal on gas - Russia and Ukraine on Sunday said that a resumption of gas supplies to Europe was imminent after they agreed the outline of a gas supply deal for this year.

The agreement, struck by Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, and Yulia Tymoshenko, his Ukrainian counterpart, calls for both sides to compromise on gas prices and transit tariffs, ending a bitter dispute that has caused severe gas supply disruptions in Europe for 12 days.

The European Union gave the deal a wary reception, underscoring the damage inflicted by the dispute on Russia’s reputation as an energy supplier and Ukraine’s reliability as a transit route. (Financial Times)

CHAD: Panic, outcry at government charcoal ban - N'DJAMENA, 16 January 2009 - A government ban on charcoal in the Chadian capital N’djamena has created what one observer called “explosive” conditions as families desperately seek the means to cook.

“As we speak women and children are on the outskirts of N’djamena scavenging for dead branches, cow dung or the occasional scrap of charcoal,” Merlin Totinon Nguébétan of the UN Human Settlements Programme (HABITAT) in Chad, told IRIN from the capital. “People cannot cook.”

“Women giving birth cannot even find a bit of charcoal to heat water for washing,” Céline Narmadji, with the Association of Women for Development in Chad, told IRIN.

Unions and other civil society groups say the government failed to prepare the population or make alternative household fuels available when it halted all transport of charcoal and cooking wood into the capital in December in a move, officials said, to protect the environment.

Charcoal is the sole source of household fuel for about 99 percent of Chadians, N’djamena residents told IRIN. (IRIN)

Coal’s Newest Friend - Yesterday I commented with a slightly raised eyebrow at comments made by Steven Chu, President-elect Obama’s choice to head DOE, on the future of coal. Dr. Chu’s comments seemed to reflect a much more conciliatory tone toward coal as a key part of America’s energy future. Today’s raised eyebrow comes after reading some comments by Henery Waxman, (D-CA), new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as reported in the E&E ClimateWire: (Roger Pielke, Jr., Prometheus)

Crunching the Data: The Ten Most Coal-Reliant Countries - It’s easy to malign coal. And over the past few weeks, the news has been bad. A few days before Christmas, at a power plant operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, a huge holding pond failed. The resulting spill flooded some 300 acres with coal ash contaminated with a variety of heavy metals including arsenic, lead, barium, chromium and manganese. On December 29, James Hansen, the high-profile NASA scientist who is closely aligned with former vice president Al Gore on the issue of global warming, sent an open letter to President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, in which he called coal-fired power plants “factories of death.”

While there’s no question that other sources of energy -- particularly nuclear and natural gas -- can provide large amounts of electric power and do so with far less carbon dioxide emissions and pollutants than coal, the problem remains one of scale. (Renewables are fine, but they cannot provide the baseload power and large quantities of power needed in the near term.) But there are significant financial, political, and structural constraints on those alternatives to coal. And those obstacles take us back to a familiar question: If not coal, then what?

A bit of data crunching from the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy yields a list of the most coal-reliant countries. And that list provides some hints as to why achieving a global carbon emissions reduction plan will be so difficult. (Robert Bryce, Energy Tribune)

WWF launches push to ban oil exploration in Norway's Arctic - The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and other environmental organisations on Saturday launched a campaign to ban oil exploration in the Lofoten Islands, a picturesque archipelago in Norway's Arctic.

"This campaign is aimed at telling the Norwegian government that it is not acceptable to open up this area to oil exploration," WWF spokesman Clive Tesar told AFP.

Norway is the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter, but it has seen its production decline since peaking in 2001 and no major discoveries have been made in recent years. (AFP)

Video: The 2012 Pelosi GTxi SS/RT Sport Edition (Iowahawk)

But Who Will Drive Them? - The cornucopia of hybrid and electric vehicles showcased at the North American International Auto Show this week suggests that the nation’s automakers — domestic and transplanted — have finally acknowledged the need to deliver the fuel-efficient cars and trucks for a future of expensive gas and increasing environmental pressures.

But a big obstacle remains to the greening of American drivers: the price tag. With gas prices likely to remain low as consumers grapple with recession, drivers are going to need extra motivation to swap their gas gluttons for the novel, environmentally friendly cars and trucks. If the incoming Obama administration is serious about its commitment to boost the fuel efficiency of the American fleet, it must put in place a mix of policies, beyond tightening fuel-economy standards for carmakers, to steer drivers to the new cars. (New York Times)

On the  other hand they could do something sensible and leave it up to consumers to drive the market buy buying vehicles that suit the consumers needs rather than watermelons' fantasies.

Wind Farm Off Cape Cod Clears Hurdle - BOSTON — A federal agency said Friday that the nation’s first offshore wind farm, proposed for the waters off Cape Cod, posed no serious environmental threat, bringing it a major step closer to fruition.

Homeowners and boaters on the cape, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, have fought the project for eight years, saying it would hurt wildlife, fishing and tourism and spoil the beauty of Nantucket Sound.

Opponents have sued to stop the project, known as Cape Wind, and more challenges are certain, keeping the path to construction bumpy despite what supporters on Friday called a crucial victory.

The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, a group formed to fight the project, suggested that the Bush administration had unscrupulously rushed to approve it before President-elect Barack Obama takes office next week.

“They wanted some kind of a legacy,” said Audra Parker, the group’s executive director. “Cape Wind is far from a done deal, despite this favorable report.” (New York Times)

Congratulations to Winners of the 2008 Weblog Awards - BASED on 933,022 votes cast in 48 categories over seven days of voting winners of The 2008 Weblog Awards have now been announced.

Veteran political blogger, columnist and author, Andrew Sullivan, won the best blog beating the Huffington Post and others. Mr Sullivan’s blogs is hosted by the Atlantic magazine.

Climate change sceptic, Anthony Watts, won best Science blog. Mr Watts, and his team, focus on climate change issues and have a project auditing US weather stations which makes for great visuals and amazing reading.

I would also like to particularly congratulate Lubos Motl for winning best European blog and Tim Blair for winning best Australian blog. (Jennifer Marohasy)

Congratulations To Anthony Watts For His Well Deserved Recognition! - Anthony Watts has won the best science weblog for 2008; see The 2008 Weblog Awards Winners.

This is an appropriate and well deserved recognition of the importance of Anthony’s weblog Watts Up With That, which is providing a much needed discussion of climate science. We all should look forward to another year of accomplishments and issues from this outstanding website! (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

When employers determine fitness — fireman fired for diet failure - Remember the 280-pound fireman who was fired last summer because his bosses said his weight made him “unfit” for duty? The world’s strongest and fittest Olympic athletes proved that weight is no measure of fitness, making it clear to the world what his firing was really about. (Junkfood Science)

Government health officials decide it’s acceptable to bully fat children - A sickening development of the Department of Health’s Change4Life campaign to eradicate obesity and create a "lifestyle revolution" occurred this week. When public health officials learned that this misguided campaign was, not surprisingly, resulting in children being bullied, they decided that it was okay for the fat children to be bullied... (Junkfood Science)

What doctors are talking about with healthcare reform

If medicine becomes, as Nazi medicine did, the handmaiden of economics, politics or any force other than one that promotes the good of the patient, it loses its soul and becomes an instrument that justifies oppression and the violation of human rights. — Dr. Edmund D. Pelligrino, M.D., “The Nazi doctors and Nuremberg: Some moral lessons revisited,” 1997.

When it comes to the future of our healthcare, having both eyes open is especially critical. It’s easy to believe that the solutions to our anxieties about medical care are simple. It’s even easier to miss the profound unintended consequences for us when we look to solutions in the wrong places. (Junkfood Science)

My father's obesity made me into an anorexic: How a daughter's worry turned into an eating disorder - Emma adored her father but his constant gorging drove her to stop eating - and nearly killed her. (Daily Mail)

The things you can perk up with a cup of coffee - 'Danger from just seven cups of coffee a day," said the Daily Express on Wednesday. "Too much coffee can make you hallucinate and sense dead people, say sleep experts. The equivalent of just seven cups of instant coffee a day is enough to trigger the weird responses." The story appeared in almost every national newspaper.

This was weak observational data. That's just the start of our story, but you should know exactly what the researchers did. They sent an email inviting students to fill out an online survey, and 219 agreed. (Ben Goldacre, The Guardian)

Players love the game not the gore - The next time a loved one brandishes a virtual shotgun in their favorite video game, take heart. That look of glee, says a new study, likely stems from the healthy pleasure of mastering a challenge rather than from a disturbing craving for carnage.

Research to be published online January 16 in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin shows that, contrary to popular belief, violence does not make video games more enjoyable. The study by investigators at the University of Rochester and Immersyve Inc., a player-experience research firm, found that for many people, gore actually detracts from a game's "fun factor," decreasing players' interest and desire to purchase a game. When designing the next generation of video games, added the authors, developers should remember: blood does not help the bottom line. (University of Rochester)

The Films Are Green, but Is Sundance? - PARK CITY, Utah — If it were possible to cleanse the planet by watching a movie, this would be the place to do it.

IStill, a stroll here this week down Main Street — where a dozen idling trucks were unloading supplies and equipment, while an oversize band bus, with trailer in tow, spewed fumes outside a soon-to-be-busy party site — framed the obvious quandary: how can you cram some 46,000 people, roughly equivalent to a fifth of Hollywood’s total work force, into a pretty little mountain town without contributing mightily to the problems your films hope to solve?

The airlift alone should give pause to the likes of Mr. Udall, or to the makers of “No Impact Man,” a documentary about the effort by a New Yorker, Colin Beavan, and his family to live for a year without making a net environmental impact. (New York Times)

Torn Between Green Galas? At Least They’re a Walk Apart - IN Washington on Monday night, the giants of the environment and conservation movements will gather to celebrate the inauguration, but they will do it at two very different galas — with very different philosophies. (New York Times)

Passing The Torch Of National Safety - George W. Bush's administration achieved what few believed possible after 9/11 — a perfect record of keeping America safe. Will President Obama keep the streak going? (IBD)

Obama’s Green Team - We can expect a proliferation of new regulations that will reach into every area of American life and commerce.

What do President-elect Barack Obama’s leadership picks tell us about the kinds of energy and environmental policies we can expect in the next four to eight years? On balance, they suggest we are in for a radical shift away from George W. Bush’s pro-market policies and back to the aggressive regulatory approach favored by the Clinton administration. Let’s take a look at Obama’s prospective appointees. (Kenneth P. Green, The American)

More Than An Empty Suit? - CHURCHVILLE, VA—We elected a President we hardly knew. Barack Obama’s campaign team—and the mainstream press—told us only that we should feel “hopeful.”

Now we seem to be relying on this man to rebuild the U.S. economy almost from scratch. That’s highly unlikely. My former boss, Gary Seevers, was on Nixon’s Council of Economic Advisors, and before that a top official in Nixon’s wage-and-price-control effort. He told me that “neither the CEA nor government price-fixing ever had a chance to succeed. The economic data was too late and too weak, and the tools too flimsy.” Seevers ultimately put his faith in good incentives.

Obama himself was blind-sided by the sub-prime mortgage collapse, and his response was that he’d save the economy with a replay of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal public works projects. That meant he had no real rescue ideas. After all, U.S. unemployment was nearly 25 percent when Roosevelt was elected, and was still at 19 percent in 1938, after six years of Roosevelt’s “pump-priming.” Many of the public works weren’t badly needed, and they all took a long time to plan and pay out. Not until World War II did America finally rise out of the Depression.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still guaranteeing high-risk mortgages for poorly-qualified buyers, applauded by Barney Frank and the hard-left Democrats. Investment does not mean buying a house the buyer can’t afford. Investment means putting capital into your trucking firm or computer service company and then buying the big house after the business starts to earn income for you. Investment first, rewards second. (Dennis T. Avery, CGFI)

Organic food tied to Puna Rat Lungworm outbreak -- more cases reported - Another case or Rat Lungworm disease has been diagnosed in the Kapoho-Kalapana area of Puna and more unreported cases have been revealed. The outbreak has been tied to organic farming. (Andrew Walden, Hawai`i Free Press)

January 16, 2009

Browner: Redder Than Obama Knows - Incoming White House energy-environment czar Carol Browner was recently discovered to be a commissioner in Socialist International. While that revelation has been ignored by the mainstream media and blithely dismissed by her supporters, you may soon be paying the cost of Browner’s political beliefs in your electricity bill. (Steven Millioy, FoxNews.com)

Obama’s anti-oil team - The president-elect is poised to hand environmental policy to people who want to punish petroleum

The environmental lobby is positively rapturous over Barack Obama’s new “Green Dream Team,” appointed to stomp out our carbon footprint. In sharp contrast to the president-elect’s relatively moderate — if not downright stale — picks for other cabinet posts, the green teamers are widely regarded as unwavering in their devotion to more stringent regulations and steeper taxes. To the extent they accomplish their goals, Canada will suffer as America’s foremost petroleum supplier and leading trading partner. (Diane Katz, Financial Post)

As part of our "looking at loonies" series: Dr. John P. Holdren

John P. Holdren is Professor of Environmental Policy at the Kennedy School of Government and in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. He is the director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Research Center and board chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He will serve as the President’s science adviser as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology.

The videos are from a conference at the Kennedy School of Government in 2007. The title of the lecture is “Global Climate Disruption: What Do We Know, What Should We Do?” (By The Fault)

Jackson indicates resolve to move forward on carbon emission rules - President-elect Obama’s nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, said Wednesday that she would work alongside Congress in developing a plan to regulate carbon dioxide emissions but that the process of combating global climate change could start at EPA.

The issue of EPA regulating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is a sensitive topic on Capitol Hill. Members of both parties have expressed nervousness at the prospect of being left out of a decision that will affect such a large swath of the economy, particularly during a downturn.

The U.S. Supreme Court found in Massachusetts v. EPA that the agency did have the power, under the Clean Air Act, to regulate carbon dioxide if it so chooses. A decision that finds carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions to be a danger to the environment will “trigger the beginning of regulation in this country on CO2,” Jackson told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee at her confirmation hearing.

That effort will require “extraordinary communication” between the administration and Congress on how to proceed, Jackson said.

Jackson said her initial priorities would be determined largely by court cases, like Massachusetts v. EPA, that have directed EPA to act. Other court rulings require action to cut sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury emissions from power plants. (The Hill)

Inclusive Science - Because their specialized knowledge confers authority, climate scientists should make every effort to be accurate and complete when communicating to the public about the politically divisive issue of climate change. Unfortunately, there are several points where Alexander Bedritsky's thought-provoking article "Meteorology and the War on Climate Change" (Summer 2008) fails to do this.

Bedritsky states that "human activities are altering the climate at an increasingly alarming rate." However, according to data from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the rate of planetary warming that was established in the mid-1970s has been remarkably constant, varying only slightly from 0.17°C per decade. (Patrick J. Michaels, Harvard International Review Fall 2008)

Go make money instead of looking for handouts ya lazy beggars! Companies Lay Out Wishes For U.S. Carbon Law - WASHINGTON/NEW YORK - A group of large U.S. companies, including the troubled Big Three automakers, on Thursday offered Congress a blueprint for greenhouse gas regulation with looser limits than President-elect Barack Obama has called for.

The U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a group of 26 big companies and several environmental organizations, proposed reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 2005 levels by 2050 through an economy-wide cap-and-trade program.

"It will not be cheap and it will not be easy," said Jim Rogers, chief executive of electricity supplier Duke Energy Corp, the third-largest U.S. consumer of coal.

But Rogers and other CEOs from the group urged Congress to pass a new law this year, saying delays will cost the battered economy more in the long-term. (Reuters)

Sheesh! How did we decline to the point where captains of industry have been replaced by the foot soldiers of Socialism? Once American companies knew how it was done and that money was there for the making but this lot seem to be infected with European socialism and simply want to transfer wealth (from your pockets to theirs).

PIERS AKERMAN: Cold comfort - THE rift between members of the federal National Party and the federal Liberal Party over strategy to deal with the Rudd Labor Government's global warming policy should not be allowed to destroy the coalition's electoral hopes.

Senator Barnaby Joyce, who is openly derisive of the Ruddites embrace of the theory of human-induced global warming, is an absolutist. With good reason, he sees the government's planned emissions trading scheme as socialism run wild, as a new tax, and as a protectionist mechanism offered to those businesses who scramble to take up the offer of free emissions permits now.

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull, who opts for the "insurance'' approach to the theory of global warming advocated several years ago by global publisher Rupert Murdoch, believes it is prudent to give the planet "the benefit of the doubt''.

Nevertheless, he remains committed to the view that it is not smart for Australia to lock in a design for an emissions

trading system now, when the new US administration of Barack Obama has yet to be sworn in and before the major nations meet in Copenhagen to further debate the issue. He also has an eye on the big businesses most affected, mining and energy, which are agitating, as always, for some certainty - and for a chance to grab free permits now and lock out possible future competitors.

It's a pity big business doesn't have the same sympathy for the concerns of the conservative side of politics. It is sheer lunacy for Australia, which produces such a minuscule volume of so-called greenhouse gases to consider introducing a regimen which has been universally acknowledged as having absolutely no effect on even the theoretical effects of supposed global warming.

It is just as insane for Australia to propose a universal model for an ETS when it is a certainty that the incoming Obama administration, loaded as it is with environmental activists who have proclaimed strong positions on a cap-and-trade emissions scheme, will wish to play a lead role in the global development of an ETS. (Geelong Advertiser)

Junk Science on the Internet - A reporter just wrote me to ask for reactions to this new “analysis” by the good folks at DeSmogBlog, which reports that from 2007 to 2008 blog mentions of combinations of “global warming” plus terms like “hoax” and “lie” and “skeptic” have doubled, suggesting, according to DeSmogBlog,

a very significant upswing in online activity. This trend should be troubling to US policymakers and campaigners wanting to implement new greenhouse gas reduction strategies.

Here is my response:

I just searched “global warming” + pizza and came up with the following:

2007 — 11,168
2008 — 24,907

Maybe there is a connection with secret Domino’s funding? ;-)

Social science this is not.

All the best,

Roger

There is indeed a lot of junk on the internet. Be careful out there. (Roger Pielke, Jr., Prometheus)

Record-breaking years in autocorrelated series - As Rafa has pointed out, E. Zorita, T. Stocker, and H. von Storch have a paper in Geophysical Research Letters,

How unusual is the recent series of warm years? (full text, PDF; see also abstract),

in which they claim that even if we consider temperature to be an autocorrelated function of time with sensible parameters, there is only 0.1% probability that the 13 hottest years in the list of 127 years (since 1880) appear in the most recent 17 years, much like they do in reality according to HadCRUT3/GISS stations.

If we add a non-autocorrelated noise, typical for local temperature data, the temperature readings become more random and a similar clustering of records becomes even less likely because the autocorrelation that keeps the probability of clustered records from becoming insanely low is suppressed. This matches the reality, too, because local weather records usually don't have that many record-breakers in the recent two decades.

What percentage of civilized planets shoot An Inconvenient Truth?

But after detailed simulations, I am confident that the main statement of their paper about the probability in the global context - 0.1% (that would strongly indicate that the recent warm years are unlikely to be due to chance) - is completely wrong. (The Reference Frame)

Hillary adopts W's climate policy? 'India need to be part of climate change agreement' - WASHINGTON: The US Secretary of State-designate, Hillary Clinton, has said countries including India must be made part of any agreement on climate change and announced that the Obama Administration would appoint a Climate Change Envoy for the purpose.

"As we move toward Copenhagen and attempt to craft a climate change agreement, all the major nations must be part of it. You know, China, India, Russia, and others, they have to be part of whatever agreement we put forth," Clinton said during the course of her nomination hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday. (Economic Times)

Actually what she's saying is there will be no climate agreement since India has already categorically refused to limit per capita emissions below that of Western nations (i.e., a many-times GHG emission increase).

Bush’s Climate Negotiator Joins House Republicans -- Harlan Watson, President George W. Bush’s chief negotiator on a global climate-change treaty, will join the Republican staff of a House committee on energy independence and global warming.

Watson, who works for the State Department, led the U.S. delegation’s discussions in Poland last year on a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, which called for industrial nations to curb greenhouse-gas emissions 5 percent from 1990 levels. The Bush administration opposed the treaty because it didn’t include emissions limits for developing nations such as China and India. (Bloomberg)

Interest in global warming cooling off - It looks a lot like someone hit the snooze button on North American action to address climate change. (Barbara Yaffe, Vancouver Sun)

Back in Fantasia: Sun-Reflecting Crops Could Ease Global Warming - LONDON - Farmers could help produce cooler temperatures and limit global warming if they grow crop varieties that reflect more sunlight into space, British researchers said on Thursday.

Using a global climate model, they found this strategy could cool much of Europe, North America and parts of North Asia by up to one degree Celsius during the summer growing season, enough to make a difference in easing heat waves and drought.

It would also translate into a 20 percent reduction in a predicted five degree Celsius temperature rise for the region by the end of the century, Andy Ridgwell and colleagues said in the journal Current Biology. (Reuters)

By the way Andy, there is no "predicted five degree Celsius temperature rise", that's merely an extreme scenario generated by a computer model (the most extreme of the IPCC's infamous 'storylines').

Coalition to lay out greenhouse-gas plan today - The most detailed proposal yet by industry and environmentalists to reduce U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions will call for raising the costs of new coal plants and rewarding nations for protecting forests.

Rio Tinto Group, General Electric Co. and U.S. power producers will present the plan today to a congressional committee and recommend “urgent” action, according to a copy of the report by the 32-member coalition obtained by Bloomberg News.

CO2 Emissions From IT Sector A Growing Concern - As global warming concerns move beyond conventional targets such as aviation, heavy industry and coal plants, the computing sector is falling under growing scrutiny over total energy consumption and CO2 emissions from data centers.

Indeed, analysts say the information and communication technology (ICT) now contributes 2 percent of global carbon emissions, and has grown to rival aviation in its contribution to global warming.

"(The computing) industry has been profligate in electrical activity. No one cared about CO2 over the last 10 years. Suddenly people care about it, the availability of electricity is now a limiting factor," said Simon Mingay, a chief analyst at Gartner Inc., during an interview with Reuters.

Analysts project the ICT sector will grow its carbon emissions by 6 percent annually, twice the 3 percent growth seen in the aviation sector, according to a 2008 International Air Transport Association (IATA) report. The ICT sector growth is being driven by insatiable demand for computing hardware, software and services. (redOrbit)

Shame on you, Discover Magazine - Discover magazine’s January “The Year In Science” issue contains an interview with Robert Proctor, a professor or history at Stanford University. The Author is Michael Abrams. Proctor’s new specialty is “agnotology,” a term he coined for “the study of the politics of ignorance.” This is all well and fine - he has a lot of raw material to work with since there is an abundance of ignorance to be studied in this world.

In a previous incarnation Professor Proctor gained fame as the first historian to testify against the tobacco industry. As a student of the history of science, Proctor should know something about the relationship between philosophy, logic and science. He should know something about the logical fallacy commonly known as “hasty generalization.” But he engages in an egregious example of this when he says:

“…in terms of sowing doubt, certainly global warming in a famous one. You know, the global warming denialists who for years have managed to say ‘Well, the cause is not proven. We need more research.’ And what’s interesting is that a lot of the people working on that were also the people working on Big Tobacco.” (Climate Sanity)

Guest Weblog By Madhav Khandekar - There is an article in Science [H/T to W. F. Lenihan!] Historical Warnings of Future Food Insecurity with Unprecedented Seasonal Heat David. S. Battisti and Rosamond L. Naylor Science 9 January 2009: 240-244.

The abstract of this article reads: “Higher growing season temperatures can have dramatic impacts on agricultural productivity, farm incomes, and food security. We used observational data and output from 23 global climate models to show a high probability (>90%) that growing season temperatures in the tropics and subtropics by the end of the 21st century will exceed the most extreme seasonal temperatures recorded from 1900 to 2006. In temperate regions, the hottest seasons on record will represent the future norm in many locations. We used historical examples to illustrate the magnitude of damage to food systems caused by extreme seasonal heat and show that these short-run events could become long-term trends without sufficient investments in adaptation.”

An excellent weblog by Pat Michaels on this Science paper is also worth reading (see).

Madhav Khandekar has e-mailed me on this article, and graciously accepted my invitation to post as a guest weblog his insightful comments on this paper. Dr. Khandekar is an Environmental Consultant (extreme weather events) and worked for 25 years with Environment Canada in Meteorology. His weblog follows. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Fish poop helps balance ocean's acid levels - The ocean's delicate acid balance may be getting help from an unexpected source, fish poop.

The increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere not only drives global warming, but also raises the amount of CO2 dissolved in ocean water, tending to make it more acid, potentially a threat to sea life.

Alkaline chemicals like calcium carbonate can help balance this acid. Scientists had thought the main source for this balancing chemical was the shells of marine plankton, but they were puzzled by the higher-than-expected amounts of carbonate in the top levels of the water.

Now researchers led by Rod W. Wilson of the University of Exeter in England report in the journal Science that marine fish contribute between 3 percent and 15 percent of total carbonate.

And the contribution may be even higher than that, say the researchers from the U.S., Canada and England. (Associated Press)

Pick a Number - Any Number - Worldwatch, which aims to ‘empower decision makers to build an ecologically sustainable society that meets human needs’ have upped the stakes:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - To avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change, world carbon emissions will have to drop to near zero by 2050…

The increase now being demanded by Worldwatch pretends to have a rational, scientific basis… (Climate Resistance)

Depressed Carbon Prices To Have Ripple Effects - LONDON - Tumbling prices for emissions permits may have knock-on effects on the world's $120 billion carbon market, including a slowing of U.N. offset supplies and a shake out in green project developers.

Carbon offsets traded under the Kyoto Protocol and used by European industry to meet carbon caps, representing a $32 billion market last year, have not escaped the global economic downturn, more than halving 2-year highs hit last summer.

That came on the back of weak energy prices, increased selling of credits by cash-strapped firms and an anticipated drop in emissions from muted European industrial production. (Reuters)

Given that they are worth exactly nothing...

Schwarzenegger's bid to suspend environmental rules in budget talks irks longtime allies - SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Like any head of state managing a severe budget crisis, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has withstood criticism from all the usual suspects — lawmakers from both parties, anti-tax groups, advocates for the poor.

Now he's feeling heat from a group that has been among his staunchest allies: environmentalists.

As Schwarzenegger and lawmakers struggle to contain a ballooning deficit, he has insisted that any budget deal include a provision suspending state environmental review for certain public works projects.

The governor said that would fast-track infrastructure projects and put Californians back to work quickly. He said his proposal would accelerate construction on 10 road projects around the state, noting at a recent news conference: "It's about jobs, jobs, jobs."

His demand has been one of the main sticking points in budget negotiations that so far have failed to produce a solution to the state's deficit, despite three special legislative sessions. California's shortfall is expected to reach nearly $42 billion by June 2010 unless lawmakers act to close it.

Last week, Schwarzenegger vetoed a Democratic budget proposal, in part because it lacked the environmental rollbacks he and many in the business community desire. (Associated Press)

As if you hadn't been warned not to ever let this nonsense creep into the books even when times are good and it can be viewed as a tolerable waste cost. Don't do it because it is very hard to get rid of when sacrificial surplus is not available. Misanthropic environmentalism is a luxury good and must be expunged from the legislature.

Transport Can Help Propel World To Greener Future - TOKYO - Shipping, airlines and road transport need to clean up their emissions and help drive governments toward policies to fight global warming, a top U.N. official said on Thursday.

The transport sector accounts for more than 20 percent of mankind's carbon dioxide emissions, and further growth is likely given rising demand for cars, goods and travel in developing countries.

Transport will also be a key part of a broader U.N. climate pact about 190 nations will try to agree on at the end of the year during talks on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. (Reuters)

Paulson on Energy Rationing - Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson took time out of his busy schedule wasting 700 billion dollars of taxpayer money (and thereby turning a credit crisis into a depression) to speak at Resources for the Future on Monday afternoon on the subject of how markets can address climate change and other environmental problems. (Myron Ebell, CEI)

Energy Bubble, Anyone? - Henry Waxman Gives Public a Look at the Corporate-Congressional Alliance that Threatens to Raise Energy Prices in Pursuit of Private Profit

Washington, DC - Thursday’s first hearing of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee since Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) ousted Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) as chairman is drawing criticism from the National Center for Public Policy Research, which says the hearing illustrates how powerful corporate interests are working with influential special interests and with the liberal majority in Congress to use government to enhance private profits at great cost to economic growth and liberty. (National Center)

Groups sue BLM over oil and gas leases - ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A coalition of environmental groups is suing the Bureau of Land Management.

They claim the agency violated several federal laws and policies in granting oil and gas leases on more than 68,000 acres of public land in New Mexico.

The lawsuit was filed today in federal court by the Western Environmental Law Center, which filed a similar lawsuit in Montana last month. (Associated Press)

Coal Industry Digs Itself Out of a Hole in the Capitol - Support From EPA, Energy Nominees Signals Obama Team Headed Toward Center on Matter of Fossil Fuels and Carbon Emissions

WASHINGTON -- Big Coal is on a roll in the nation's capital, winning early rounds this week in what promises to be a long fight over fossil fuels and climate change.

Despite a well-funded ad campaign by environmentalists attacking the industry, and a huge coal-ash spill in Tennessee that has led to calls for more regulation, the industry has received positive assurances this week from President-elect Barack Obama's nominees that the new administration is committed to keeping coal a big part of the nation's energy source.

On Wednesday, Mr. Obama's choice to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, described coal to a Senate panel as "a vital resource" for the country. A day earlier, Mr. Obama's nominee to run the Energy Department, physicist Steven Chu, referred to coal as a "great natural resource." Two years ago, he called the expansion of coal-fired power plants his "worst nightmare." (Wall Street Journal)

Eastern Europe Faces Freezing Temperatures and Russian Gas Cut-Off - With freezing temperatures across most of Europe, there was heated anger, especially in Eastern Europe on Wednesday, about the suspension in natural gas deliveries from Russia through Ukraine. The gas crisis comes at a difficult time for leading politicians, especially in Bulgaria, where some 2,000 people demanded the government's resignation on Wednesday over allegations of corruption.

The shortages of natural gas from Russia added to anger of protesters who braved the cold in Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, to demand the resignation of the country's Socialist-led government. (VOA)

Gas Shutdown Shows Need for Europe Energy Cartel: Matthew Lynn -- It is a freezing winter. Temperatures have dropped right across Europe. Even Madrid’s Barajas Airport was plunged into chaos by snowfalls, the first flakes the Spanish capital has had for four years.

In the midst of that, Russian energy company OAO Gazprom is playing politics with the continent’s gas supplies.

For the past week, a dispute with Ukraine over the shipment of gas through its pipelines has threatened energy shortages in Europe. The European Union managed to negotiate a compromise that got the power flowing again yesterday. Even so, Russia’s ability to turn the power on and off has been demonstrated again. (Bloomberg)

Russia divides Europe with gas crisis summit - Russia has called a gas crisis summit that will cut out the European Union.

Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian President, has invited countries hit by the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute to a meeting planned for Saturday. But he conspicuously failed to mention the EU. (Daily Telegraph)

The Nuclear Option: European Gas Dispute Gives Nukes Fresh Legs - Just when it seemed the Russia-Ukraine natural-gas dispute was solved, tempers flared again Wednesday. Europe is still the big loser, as Russian gas still isn’t flowing across Ukraine and to the West. The big winner? Nuclear power. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Germans to invest £20bn in new UK nuclear plants - Germany's two largest power companies joined forces yesterday and announced an ambitious plan to build at least four nuclear reactors in the UK at an estimated cost of £20 billion. (The Times)

Michael McCarthy: Gordon Brown doesn't get climate change - At a stroke Gordon Brown destroys his environmental credibility and that of his Government. His sanctioning of Heathrow's third runway with the huge leap in the UK's greenhouse gas emissions that will be consequent upon it will be seen as one of his premiership-defining decisions, on a par with his failure to call an election in October 2007. It will come back to haunt him.

It is very likely that in pushing this through, Mr Brown has been strongly influenced by his New Best Friend, the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, whom he brought back into the Cabinet, and who is strongly aligned with the business case for expanding Heathrow and the aviation sector as a boost to Britain's future economic performance.

But the Prime Minister of course has a mind of his own, and he would not have agreed to such a controversial measure if he did not at heart agree with it himself. And what his decision now proves beyond doubt is what many environmentalists and not a few politicians (including some of those close to him) have long suspected – that Mr Brown does not really "get" climate change, in the way that, for example, Tony Blair clearly did. (The Independent)

Heathrow gets third runway and sixth terminal in £9bn deal - The biggest airport expansion for 60 years will be approved today when the Government gives the go-ahead to a £9 billion third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow.

Ministers will attempt to appease environmental groups by pledging that the extra runway capacity will be linked to tough new emissions standards for aircraft. Only airlines that buy the most fuel-efficient aircraft will be granted additional slots.

However, the aviation industry is already committed to introducing more efficient aircraft and the runway is likely to be heavily used as soon as it opens in 2019 or 2020. An extra 600 flights a day will pass over London and tens of thousands of extra cars will add to congestion on roads near the airport, including the M4 and M25. (The Times)

Biofuel carbon footprint not as big as feared, research says - Publications ranging from the journal Science to Time magazine have blasted biofuels for significantly contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, calling into question the environmental benefits of making fuel from plant material. But a new analysis by Michigan State University scientists says these dire predictions are based on a set of assumptions that may not be correct. (Michigan State University)

Scientists find clean method of making fuel from manure - A university professor and a corporate research group have jointly developed technology to produce hydrogen for use in fuel cells from cattle dung and urine for the first time in the world.

The new technology used by Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine Prof. Junichi Takahashi and Sumitomo Corp.'s research group also can be applied to human waste and allows the production of hydrogen without producing unwanted carbon dioxide.

The research may pave the way for the eventual development of household "toilet generators."

In the process, cattle dung and urine first need to be fermented under oxygen-free conditions to extract ammonia, which is then electrolyzed into hydrogen and nitrogen. The hydrogen is then fed into a fuel cell along with oxygen, where the two react to produce electricity.

Takahashi and the group spent about 2 million yen to build an experimental apparatus, which measures 2 meters by 1 meter, that produces hydrogen from fermented animal waste. Using the device in conjunction with a fuel cell, they successfully produced 0.2 watt of electricity from about 20 kilograms of cattle waste. (Yomiuri Shimbun)

That's 1kW/100mt cattle waste... I'm not sure what the dry weight of 100 metric tons of cattle waste would be but I strongly suspect burning it would yield something rather more than 1 kilowatt.

Unsettling observation - Remember how that fictitious claim of an epidemic of type 2 diabetes in children that had been published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, went uncontested for years? In fact, four years later, the journal has yet to issue a correction or publish a letter pointing out the glaring methodological flaws in that paper.

...

It’s hard to know what is most troubling: the fact these articles are being published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, or that licensed medical professionals caring for children haven’t noticed anything amiss with the science. (Junkfood Science)

Children are not ferrets and other fallacies of logic - If you are a ferret, sticking your nose into a jar of Vicks VapoRub might make your nose run a little and irritate your sinuses.

At least that’s what we can safely conclude from a recent study on 15 ferrets. The ferrets were anesthetized and intubated. Some Vicks VapoRub had been put on the end of their endotracheal tube. Their mucociliary function was measured and found to be decreased 35% over controls and the mucous secretions increased 14% in the healthy ferrets and 8% in the ones who had their tracheas artificially inflamed. The ointment did not lead to any increase in lung congestion.

This study was conducted by pediatricians at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was published, not in a veterinary journal, but in Chest, the journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.

While few people have ferrets and children are not ferrets, why is this study being mentioned at all? It has been used to support hundreds of news stories this week scaring parents that VapoRub is dangerous and could hurt their kids. (Yes, there was a press release.) At MSNBC, for instance, readers don’t learn until eleven paragraphs into the story that “the new study” behind the “warning issued for parents” was done on ferrets. (Junkfood Science)

A look to the future of obesity and wellness care in the news - Transitions can be unsettling when we don’t know what to expect, but the picture for public health is becoming clearer with the latest news.

Health and Human Services Secretary-Designate Tom Daschle spoke to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions last week, outlining the public health priorities for the upcoming Administration. Tim Foley at Healthcare Change Organization summarized his key goals for reform: change the focus to preventive wellness; establish a national health electronic database and interoperable health IT system; and fund a National Health Services Corp to mobilize all healthcare professionals (“all hands on deck”). Daschle ended his talk with a battle cry calling to make wellness part of the culture in everything from education to health, saying: “We need to make wellness cool, and prevention hot.” (Junkfood Science)

Zealots advancing on all fronts - The striking figure in Sandy’s analysis of the Third Hand Smoking myth is that within a week half a million stories appeared around the globe reporting as a scientific fact something that had simply been invented, without any attempt at producing scientific evidence: indeed, something that is contrary to the very laws of science. In a cooling world, despite huge amounts of contrary evidence, the imagined evils of carbon are propagated with ever increasing ferocity. The crescendo in the suppression-of-alcohol campaign continues unabated and as fast as junk statistics are debunked they are reinvented. The obesity brigade is as ruthless as any of them in fabricating stories with no scientific basis; frightening people into conformity. (Number Watch)

Sometimes NYT still gets it right: Where Sweatshops Are a Dream - Before Barack Obama and his team act on their talk about “labor standards,” I’d like to offer them a tour of the vast garbage dump here in Phnom Penh.

This is a Dante-like vision of hell. It’s a mountain of festering refuse, a half-hour hike across, emitting clouds of smoke from subterranean fires.

The miasma of toxic stink leaves you gasping, breezes batter you with filth, and even the rats look forlorn. Then the smoke parts and you come across a child ambling barefoot, searching for old plastic cups that recyclers will buy for five cents a pound. Many families actually live in shacks on this smoking garbage.

Mr. Obama and the Democrats who favor labor standards in trade agreements mean well, for they intend to fight back at oppressive sweatshops abroad. But while it shocks Americans to hear it, the central challenge in the poorest countries is not that sweatshops exploit too many people, but that they don’t exploit enough.

Talk to these families in the dump, and a job in a sweatshop is a cherished dream, an escalator out of poverty, the kind of gauzy if probably unrealistic ambition that parents everywhere often have for their children. (Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times)

Zealots advancing on all fronts - The striking figure in Sandy’s analysis of the Third Hand Smoking myth is that within a week half a million stories appeared around the globe reporting as a scientific fact something that had simply been invented, without any attempt at producing scientific evidence: indeed, something that is contrary to the very laws of science. In a cooling world, despite huge amounts of contrary evidence, the imagined evils of carbon are propagated with ever increasing ferocity. The crescendo in the suppression-of-alcohol campaign continues unabated and as fast as junk statistics are debunked they are reinvented. The obesity brigade is as ruthless as any of them in fabricating stories with no scientific basis; frightening people into conformity. (Number Watch)

Sometimes NYT still gets it right: Where Sweatshops Are a Dream - Before Barack Obama and his team act on their talk about “labor standards,” I’d like to offer them a tour of the vast garbage dump here in Phnom Penh.

This is a Dante-like vision of hell. It’s a mountain of festering refuse, a half-hour hike across, emitting clouds of smoke from subterranean fires.

The miasma of toxic stink leaves you gasping, breezes batter you with filth, and even the rats look forlorn. Then the smoke parts and you come across a child ambling barefoot, searching for old plastic cups that recyclers will buy for five cents a pound. Many families actually live in shacks on this smoking garbage.

Mr. Obama and the Democrats who favor labor standards in trade agreements mean well, for they intend to fight back at oppressive sweatshops abroad. But while it shocks Americans to hear it, the central challenge in the poorest countries is not that sweatshops exploit too many people, but that they don’t exploit enough.

Talk to these families in the dump, and a job in a sweatshop is a cherished dream, an escalator out of poverty, the kind of gauzy if probably unrealistic ambition that parents everywhere often have for their children. (Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times)

USDA unable to weed out unapproved modified foods - WASHINGTON - The U.S. food supply is at risk of being invaded by unapproved imports of genetically modified crops and livestock, a USDA internal audit report released Wednesday said.

The report, released by the U.S. Agriculture Department's Office of Inspector General, said the USDA does not have an import control policy to regulate imported GMO animals.

Its policy for GMO crops, though adequate now, could become outdated as other nations boost production of their own GMO crops, the report added. (Reuters)

Free-range chickens are more prone to disease - Chickens kept in litter-based housing systems, including free-range chickens, are more prone to disease than chickens kept in cages, according to a study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica. (BioMed Central)

January 15, 2009

All In - It is a bit early in the year to staking out a position in the race for boneheaded move of the year in the climate wars, but NASA GISS has done just that but doubling down on its prediction that 2009 or 2010 will be the warmest on record. One might think that the surprising 2008 global temperatures (i.e., surprising to folks making short-term predictions at least) would motivate some greater appreciation for uncertainty. Not so. Here is what NASA GISS says:

. . . in response to popular demand, we comment on the likelihood of a near-term global temperature record. Specifically, the question has been asked whether the relatively cool 2008 alters the expectation we expressed in last year’s summary that a new global record was likely within the next 2-3 years (now the next 1-2 years). . . Given our expectation of the next El Niño beginning in 2009 or 2010, it still seems likely that a new global temperature record will be set within the next 1-2 years, despite the moderate negative effect of the reduced solar irradiance. (Roger Pielke, Jr., Prometheus)

New fraud detection website (Niche Modeling)

Final digit and the possibility of a cheating GISS - David Stockwell has analyzed the frequency of the final digits in the temperature data by NASA's GISS led by James Hansen, and he claims that the unequal distribution of the individual digits strongly suggests that the data have been modified by a human hand.

With Mathematica 7, such hypotheses take a few minutes to be tested. And remarkably enough, I must confirm Stockwell's bold assertion although - obviously - this kind of statistical evidence is never quite perfect and the surprising results may always be due to "bad luck" or other explanations mentioned at the end of this article.

Update: Steve McIntyre disagrees with David and myself and thinks that there's nothing remarkable in the statistics. I confirm that if the absolute values are included, if their central value is carefully normalized, and the anomalies are distributed over just a couple of multiples of 0.1 °C, there's roughly a 3% variation in the frequency of different digits which is enough to explain the non-uniformities below. However, one simply obtains a monotonically decreasing concentration of different digits and I feel that they have a different fingerprint than the NASA data below. But this might be too fine an analysis for such a relatively small statistical ensemble.

This page shows the global temperature anomalies as collected by GISS. It indicates that the year 2008 (J-D) was the coldest year in the 21st century so far, even according to James Hansen et al., a fact you won't hear from them. But we will look at some numerology instead. (The Reference Frame)

Is the GISS temperature index fraudulent? (Bishop Hill)

Distribution analysis suggests GISS final temperature data is hand edited - or not (Watts Up With That?)

Should RSS correct their lower troposphere satellite data? - Dr Fred Singer’s, SEPP Science Editorial (copied below) #1-09 (1/3/09) in “The Week That Was” (TWTW), address’s the issue of the difference between University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) [Christy and Norris, 2006] and Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) (Mears and Wentz 2005) MSU lower troposphere (LT) temperature data[1979-2007].

Dr Singer refers to the Heartland Institute publication which he edited, “Nature Not Human Activity Rules the Climate”, where Fig’s 9a and 9b seen below, indicate the effect of the hypothetical correction that is required in the RSS data. (Warwick Hughes)

Critique of Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) article in “The Age” newspaper, Melbourne 6th October 2008, titled “Our hot, dry future” - My main criticism of the article is that the BoM relies on Melbourne CBD rain data to back up their regional conclusions regarding “climate change” and drought, while the rainfall history is in fact affected by the growing urban heat island. Melbourne Regional Office 86071 (MRO), a weather station in Melbourne’s CBD is (a) excluded from their own High Quality (HQ) dataset and (b) shows a negative trend of 90mm (a stunning 13% of mean annual rain) over the last 153 years when compared to the nearest HQ station, Yan Yean 35 km NNW. So much of what they say in “Our hot, dry future”, is slanted by this amount, no wonder I am critical of much that the BoM publishes. (Warwick Hughes)

Climate Debate Skeptics Once Again Sway Undecided Vote in Leading Debate Forum

NEW YORK, NY -- 01/14/09 -- Intelligence Squared U.S., the Oxford style debate series sponsored by The Rosenkranz Foundation, announced the results of its first debate of the Spring 2009 season, "Major reductions in carbon emissions are not worth the money." In a dramatic shift, 25% of the undecided vote sided with the motion by the end of the debate. In the final tally at the conclusion of the debate, a sold out audience at Symphony Space, New York City, voted 42% for the motion and 48% against. Ten percent remained undecided.

Prior to the debate, the audience at Symphony Space, New York City, voted 16% for the motion and 49% against. 35% were undecided.

The results echoed a similar outcome on the proposition, "Global warming is not a crisis," an Intelligence Squared U.S. debate held on March 14, 2007. The Global Warming debate produced an initial vote tally of 29% for the motion and 57% against. At the conclusion of the debate, the vote margins had reversed with 46% for the motion and 42% against.

The "Major reductions in carbon emissions are not worth the money" debate will air on BBC World News March 7 and 8, 2009. The debate can be heard on NPR beginning January 21, 2009.

Speaking for the motion were Peter Huber, author of "The Bottomless Well," Bjorn Lomborg, author of "Cool It" and "The Skeptical Environmentalist," and scientist and Emeritus Professor from the University of London, Philip Stott.

L. Hunter Lovins, president of Natural Capitalism Solutions, Oliver Tickell, author of "Kyoto2," and Adam Werbach, global chief executive officer at Saatchi & Saatchi S, spoke against the motion.

John Donvan, correspondent for ABC News' "Nightline," moderated. (Marketwire)

No CFLs in Sweden? Sweden to ban mercury - Mercury is to be banned in Sweden starting June 1st, environment minister Andreas Carlgren has announced.

The ban prohibits products containing the heavy metal from being brought to market in Sweden.

“Mercury is now dead and buried,” Carlgren said.

The actual decision is set to be taken by the government when it meets on Thursday.

In addition to a ban on products containing mercury, the prohibition also means the substance can no longer be used in manufacturing or dentistry. (The Local)

Letter of the moment: Global government - I was in the room in The Hague in November 2000 when then-French President Jacques Chirac hailed the Kyoto Protocol, or "global warming" treaty, as "the first component of an authentic global governance." Then-European Union Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom seconded the sentiment when she told London's Independent that Kyoto was "not about whether scientists agree" but instead "about leveling the playing field for big businesses worldwide."

In truth, and as Europe is proving, its rhetorical bluster notwithstanding, no free society would do to itself what the Kyoto agenda requires. Hence the increased claims that this issue "is too important to be left to democracy." Once a group of our betters is empowered to determine our energy - and therefore economic, sovereignty and national security - concerns, this crowd get its way.

Kyoto, of course, was negotiated while Carol M. Browner led the Environmental Protection Agency - and with her participation despite unanimous Senate instruction against doing so. Her position with Socialist International reminds us precisely why a radical like Mrs. Browner has had a position created for her, so as to avoid disclosure and Senate scrutiny, to lord over actual, Senate-confirmed Cabinet officials. Taxpayer representatives should not approve funds for such a position unless and until they receive an honest accounting of the agenda and its champions' activities.
CHRIS HORNER
Senior fellow
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Washington (Washington Times)

Political Climate - Incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tells the Senate that global warming "threatens our very existence" and she'll shape a foreign policy to fight it. Pardon us, but remember Iran and the nukes?

Clinton pledged during her confirmation hearing Tuesday that reaching another deal like the 1997 Kyoto Accord would be one of her highest priorities.

"America must be a leader in developing and implementing a global and coordinated response to climate change," she told the Senate Foreign Relations panel, even as conflict continues in Gaza, war rages in Afghanistan and the nuclear clock ticks in Tehran.

She praised the incoming chairman, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., as "among the very first in a growing chorus from both parties to recognize that climate change is an unambiguous security threat."

"At the extreme it (climate change) threatens our very existence. But well before that point, it could well incite new wars of an old kind over basic resources — like food, water and arable land," she said.

But the real likely result of a warmer planet would be increased plant life from more CO2 — the basis of all life on earth — and longer growing seasons.

Ironically, it is environmentalists, with their passion for biofuels, who insist on using food in our gas tanks, raising food prices, consuming arable land, polluting our water through farm runoff and promoting world hunger.

Even so, Kerry told her, "The resounding message from the recent climate change conference in Poland was that the global community is looking overwhelmingly to our leadership."

Clinton's sense of urgency on climate change wasn't so apparent during the 1990s, when she was arguably President Clinton's top adviser. Even with Al Gore warning that Earth hung in the balance, Clinton never submitted the original Kyoto pact for ratification by the Senate. (IBD)

Obama to give extra push to climate talks: U.N. official - TOKYO - Barack Obama will give fresh momentum to talks for a new global pact to fight global warming, although countries still need to clear up issues such as funding for developing nations, a top U.N. official said on Wednesday. (Reuters)

And we believe he should give them a huge push... right off a cliff.

Obama's green inaugural footprint - ... Not everyone's buying it, though.

"We've had the Christmas season, and it appears we're entering the silly season with efforts by many to look as if they're saving the environment when they're really not doing anything but engaging in feel-good politics," said Brian Darling of the conservative Heritage Foundation. "In reality, this whole inaugural is going to have a massive carbon footprint."

Darling expects to see far more gas-guzzling SUVs than bikes as people head to inaugural balls. (WGNO)

Diplomat: Continuity, not change, will shape Obama's foreign policy - Brussels - Europe should expect continuity, rather than change, from president-elect Barack Obama on key foreign-policy issues such as Iran, the Middle East and missile defence, the United States' outgoing ambassador to the European Union said Tuesday. And on climate change, one of the most crucial issues on this year's global agenda, Obama will likely echo his predecessor's insistence that any deal should also include India, Brazil and China, Ambassador Kristen Silverberg said. (DPA)

Japanese Report Disputes Human Cause for Global Warming - Researchers debate each other in new study; most disagree greenhouse gases are the cause. (Michael Asher, Daily Tech)

Expert: Seas to rise at varying rates under global warming - Sea levels will rise at varying rates around the world because of a quirk of the earth's gravity linked to global warming, according to a latest study by David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey as quoted by media reports Wednesday.

"Everyone thinks sea level rises the same around the world," David Vaughan, a leading glaciologist, said at the Rothera Base on the Antarctic Peninsula. "But it doesn't".

Rises could vary by tens of centimetres from region to region if seas gain by an average of one metre by 2100 as temperatures rise, he said. (Xinhua)

The Ice Age Cometh: Experts Warn of Global Cooling - 'Lou Dobbs Tonight' segment dismisses manmade global warming theory -- 'effects of greenhouse gas have a small impact on climate change.' (Jeff Poor, Business & Media Institute)

What a crime! Carbon capture put to the test in NSW - NSW is about to find out whether it will be able to capture greenhouse gas emissions from its coal-fired power stations and store them underground.

Drilling began on Monday to see if the rock 800 metres under the Central Coast can handle having thousands of tonnes of liquefied carbon dioxide pumped into it each week.

It is yet to be proved that carbon capture and storage, in which carbon dioxide fumes from power stations are compressed and cooled on-site before being buried, will work on a large scale in Australia. Most environmental groups and some in the coal industry think it will not become effective in time to help slow climate change. (Sydney Morning Herald)

A huge waste of energy to deny the biosphere the stuff of life. How stupid does it get?

Oh boy... The Human Factor: Understanding the Sources of Rising Carbon Dioxide -- Every time we get into our car, turn the key and drive somewhere, we burn gasoline, a fossil fuel derived from crude oil. The burning of the organic materials in fossil fuels produces energy and releases carbon dioxide and other compounds into Earth's atmosphere. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide trap heat in our atmosphere, warming it and disturbing Earth's climate. (PhysOrg.com)

Green panic? Plant life not a villain in methane emissions debate -- A comprehensive investigation of plant emissions led by University of South Australia molecular biologist Dr Ellen Nisbet has put pay to the assertion that plants are producing and releasing large quantities of methane into the environment. (PhysOrg.com)

What a bizarre write up. Does it matter whether it is the tropical forests or the wetlands beneath them that create the methane subsequently released to the atmosphere? Or whether plants are the source or merely the agent transferring methane to atmosphere?

“At a time when people are so concerned about the environment and the problem of global warming, any assertion that plants could be responsible for an increase in methane was really alarming,” Dr Nesbit said. Why? Overgrown weeds need to be protected from bad press to avoid harm to their self esteem? Weird.

Nations that sow food crops for biofuels may reap less than previously thought - Global yields of most biofuels crops, including corn, rapeseed and wheat, have been overestimated by 100 to 150 percent or more, suggesting many countries need to reset their expectations of agricultural biofuels to a more realistic level.

That's according to a study led by Matt Johnston and Tracey Holloway of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and Jon Foley of University of Minnesota, which drew on actual agricultural data from nearly 240 countries to calculate the potential yields of 20 different biofuels worldwide.

The analysis, publishing today (Jan. 13) in the open-access journal Environmental Research Letters, indicates the biofuels production potential in both developing and developed countries has often been exaggerated. Why? Because current yield estimates, most of which are based on data from the United States and Europe, don╒t account for local differences in climate, soils, technology and other factors that influence agricultural outputs. (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Wrong question, as always: Is combating climate change worth the cost? - It's a topic that is likely to come up more and more after President-elect Barack Obama moves into the White House next week. Obama has said that preventing and reversing global warming will be a top priority in his administration—a change from the previous administration's stance that voluntary efforts would be enough—likely through a mandatory cap-and-trade scheme.

Under that type of program, the government sets a cap or overall level for pollution and polluters can trade licenses to pollute to keep within their levels. But opponents of such a scheme note that such a move would ultimately drive up energy costs, because power plant owners will pass along to consumers the costs of staying within the mandatory limits.

So is preventing climate change worth that price, estimated by some to be as much as 1 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP)? (David Biello, SciAm)

While framing the question wrongly there is no hope of ever getting the right answer. The actual question is: is it worth throwing any money at all at the totally unachievable?

Now, before anyone starts on pie-in-the-sky claims about climate sensitivity and our ability to influence climate this is all entirely irrelevant. Why? Because we will never get any agreement over what constitutes the "correct" climate even if we could change it. There is no universally optimal climate, one which meets everyone's preferences and requirements. Who gets to determine how much precipitation falls where and when? Does the flood encouraging native fish to breed trump the people's crops that will be damaged? How about setting conditions encouraging one nation's crops but which hamper another's? Who gets to pull the levers and twiddle the knobs on the great climate control machine, even if we could build it?

Meteorologists: Global Warming and Cold Weather Go Hand-In-Hand - The World Meteorological Organization says cold weather does not mean that global warming has abated. WMO says people should not confuse weather with climate.

People in Europe are shivering, while people in North Asia and parts of Australia are sweltering. Scientists say these weather extremes are to be expected and neither phenomenon can be used as a case for or against global warming.

Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, Michel Jarraud, says people should not confuse local weather variability with climate change. (VOA)

Does this mean they'll stop interpreting every Summers day as a sign of gorebull warming?

Can El Nino Events Explain All of the Global Warming Since 1976? – Part 2 - Guest post by Bob Tisdale

INTRODUCTION

The first part of this post, Can El Nino Events Explain All of the Global Warming Since 1976? – Part 1, should be read prior to this the second part. Part 1 gives an overview of the datasets used in the following, illustrates the processes that take place during an El Nino event, and discusses the primary reasons for the step changes in global SST anomalies that result from significant El Nino events–those El Nino events that are not influenced by volcanic eruptions.

In the following, the periods from January 1981 to December 1995 and from January 1976 to December 1981 are examined. (Watts Up With That?)

How did the El Chichón and Pinatubo volcanic eruptions affect global temperature records? - The UAH Satellite Temperature Record With Volcanic Noise Outliers Filtered Out

A guest post by Steven Goddard

I’ve often wondered what the UAH global temperature record would look like if the cooling effects of the eruptions of El Chichón in April, 1982 and Mount Pinatubo in June, 1991 were removed. Large volcanic eruptions shoot fine ash up to very high altitudes, which makes the upper atmosphere less transparent, allowing less sunlight (SW radiation) to reach the lower atmosphere. This has a noticeable cooling effect on the lower atmosphere and the earth’s surface which can last for years, as can be seen in the figures below. Note how the lower troposphere temperatures were depressed during periods when the atmospheric transmission was also depressed. (Watts Up With That?)

Obama's energy pick endorses nukes, clean coal - WASHINGTON--Energy Secretary nominee Steven Chu was greeted with warm approval from a congressional committee during his confirmation hearing Tuesday, at which he acknowledged the need to pursue nuclear and clean-coal energy but promoted energy efficiency as the best means of addressing the nation's energy challenges in the face of a dour economy.

"I feel very strongly what the American family does not want is to pay an increasing fraction of their budget on energy costs," Chu said before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "That we do the best we can on energy efficiency--that, in my mind, remains the lowest hanging fruit."

Working toward producing more efficient cars and tightly sealed homes will bring down energy consumption and costs, he said. (CNET News)

"Energy efficient cars and tightly sealed homes" means respectively less-safe vehicles and poorly ventilated (read: sickness-inducing) housing. It's already time to kick this twit and find someone who cares more about people.

Parenthetically, here's the inevitable result of the EU's ecotheology:

Woman, 91, dies 'after becoming stressed over £16,000 council bill to make her home eco-friendly' - A family have expressed their fury after the death of their disabled 91-year-old mother who 'was forced to take out a second mortgage to foot an unnecessary £16,000 council bill' .

The family of bed-ridden grandmother Dorothy Hacking blame Thanet Council for 'disgusting treatment' after the pensioner became overstretched trying to pay for work to meet government regulations to reduce CO2 emissions.

They say she was beset by stress and health problems after being left with no option but to take out a second mortgage for the stone-cladding repairs to make her home compliant with the Home Energy Conservation Act in Ramsgate, Kent.

The law requires councils to reduce their CO2 emissions by almost a third within the next decade. (Daily Mail)

Why Energy R&D Spending by Government Cannot Succeed - Dr. Stephen Chu, President-elect Barack Obama's selection to head the Department of Energy, is a vocal proponent of wasting taxpayer money on research & development for alternative energy. Dr. Chu prefers to think of state r&d as an "investment," but "waste" is the appropriate terminology. (William Yeatman, Cooler Heads Digest)

Canada to talk about oil sands with Obama - TORONTO -- Canada's prime minister said Tuesday that energy and the environmental impact of Alberta's massive oil sands operations will be priorities when Barack Obama visits Canada on his first foreign trip as U.S. president.

The timing of the trip has not been announced but Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a Calgary radio station he's been in touch with members of Obama's incoming government as the president-elect prepares to officially take office Tuesday.

"We want to work together with the United States on environmental and energy issues," Harper said.

"To be frank on the oil sands, we've got to do a better job environmentally," Harper said. "At the same time, the development of these things is pretty important, in our judgment, to North American energy security." (Associated Press)

Hmm... Geothermal Future - To most people the word “geothermal” means hot springs and geysers — like parts of Iceland or Yellowstone National Park where water is heated by the presence of magma near the surface of the earth. But the earth’s heat lies below everywhere, and it offers a virtually untapped energy reserve of enormous potential with a very short list of drawbacks.

In 2006, a panel led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology surveyed the prospects for electricity production from enhanced geothermal systems. Its conclusions were conservative but very optimistic. The panel suggested that with modest federal support, geothermal power could play a critical role in America’s energy future, adding substantially to the nation’s store of renewable energy and more than making up for coal-burning power plants that would have to be retired.

Following up on the M.I.T. study and a separate survey of its own, the Bureau of Land Management issued a decision last month that would open up as many as 190 million acres to leases for geothermal exploration and development. These lands are mostly in the West, where hot rock lies closer to the surface than it generally does in the East. (New York Times)

While I tend to agree that geothermal power has promise I am concerned abut the bizarre mindset of these guys. Grievous environmental harm from coal burning? Give it a rest, the biosphere loves previously sequestered carbon being returned to the atmosphere, something from which the living environment profits enormously. If the living environment were sentient it would want humans to burn all the coal we can get our hands on.

'Clean coal': Law could open door to new generation of coal-burning power plants - As President-elect Barack Obama vows to curb pollution linked to global climate change, Illinois is moving closer to building a new power plant that could be a showcase for burning dirty-but-plentiful coal more cleanly.

Under legislation Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed into law Monday, the state will provide $18 million for studies that would lay the groundwork for the plant, proposed for a site near Downstate Taylorville.

The plant, to be built by Tenaska Inc. and MDL Holding Co. about 25 miles southeast of Springfield, would be the nation's first large-scale test of technology that captures heat-trapping carbon dioxide. Half of its emissions would either be injected deep underground or piped to oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. (Chicago Tribune)

Hilarious Tale of Eco-Idiocy - To this list of eco-ironies, we can add New York Representative Eric Massa’s failed fuel cell road trip. According to Jason Chen at Gizmodo, Massa “tried to drive a fuel cell car from NY to DC to make an environmental point and to show how great fuel cell cars are.” (William Yeatman, Cooler Heads Digest)

Peter Foster: Detroit’s hybrid nightmare - Today’s alternative vehicles are all profit graveyards or subsidy pits

The emphasis at the Detroit auto show previews this week has been on “alternative” vehicles such as the third-generation Toyota Prius, the almost-there Chevy Volt and other new gasoline-electric hybrids. In fact, with gasoline prices having plummeted and U.S. (and Canadian) consumers both cash-strapped and job-threatened, there could hardly be a worse time to be offering vehicles that are both more expensive than, and technically inferior to, gasoline-powered cars. But then we live in a wacky world in which big auto bailouts are linked both to the climate change policy juggernaut and continued reflexive calls for U.S. energy independence. (Peter Foster, Financial Post)

The Gas Hostages - The drama being played out by Russia and Ukraine has been full of sudden reversals. Germans commentators argue that Europe must take its energy security more seriously in order to avoid an encore performance of this hostage drama. (Der Spiegel)

Europe baffled by broken promises - The bitter gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine descended into near-chaos yesterday, leaving European Union diplomats baffled as promises to restart supplies fully were broken and Moscow suggested that the US had meddled in the affair.

In a potentially alarming twist last night, Gazprom, the Russian gas company, said it was unable to meet its legal commitments to supply European countries with gas because Ukraine was allegedly blocking the flow across its territory.

Russia and Ukraine both defied terms of a contract agreed last weekend with the EU to allow an EU-backed monitoring mission to observe gas transit, leaving people in 18 countries across the continent with supply disruptions. (Financial Times)

Eastern Europe Threatens to Reopen Nuclear Plants - Bulgaria, one of the countries hardest hit by the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute, is threatening to restart two nuclear reactors that were shut down over safety concerns two year ago. Slovakia has threatened to do the same at its Bohunice power plant if gas flows don’t resume soon.

The push by Bulgaria and Slovakia highlights the EU’s need to diversify its gas supply routes. “Preparations … must begin immediately,” said Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov shortly after Russia cut supplies to Europe. He was referring to reactors three and four of the Kozloduy power plant. The closure of the reactors was a prerequisite to Bulgaria’s entry into the EU.

Puranov recently said that under the treaty that allowed Bulgaria to join the EU, his country has “the right to resume the operation of the two reactors in a critical situation, and a more critical situation is hardly possible,” he was quoted as saying by the semi-official Bulgarian News Agency. “If the situation does not normalize,” he added referring to Russian gas cuts, “I expect our European partners to show understanding and not to object to such a move," Purvanov said. (Andres Cala, Energy Tribune)

Russian Security Plan Prompts Fears Over Future Energy Wars - The EU's diplomatic efforts in the Russia-Ukraine crisis may have focused on restoring the flow of gas but could it also have been trying to avoid a more ominous escalation as predicted by a Russian security document? (Deutsche Welle)

E.On Gets Approval For Onshore Windfarm In Scotland - LONDON - E.ON, headquartered in Germany, has won approval after four years to build its biggest onshore wind farm in Camster in northern Scotland, which could power up to 35,000 homes, the company said on Wednesday. (Reuters)

What the news should have reported: No link between fat and risks for ovarian cancer - Science by press release is increasingly becoming the news of the day. A press release is sent out six weeks before a study is actually published in a medical journal, guaranteeing reporters will jump on a juicy story, but medical professionals won’t have had an opportunity to read it or comment with critical analyses.

When we see this marketing tactic employed, it’s our heads up — our baloney alert, if you will — that the science wasn’t credible in the first place. Someone is trying to sell us something and compromise the integrity of medical research and the peer review process.

An unpardonable example of brazen misrepresentation of a medical “study” came out this past week when the media, in lockstep, reported from a press release. This press release had been issued six weeks before the study is to be published on February 15th in Cancer, the journal of the American Cancer Society. It headlined: “Study links obesity to elevated risk of ovarian cancer.” (Junkfood Science)

Getting the Bed Bugs Out - Complaints about bed bugs in New York City are rising steadily. As any health official can attest, the only good thing about these nighttime pests is that they don’t seem to cause disease. That doesn’t count panic attacks and the outsize frustration for residents who try to get help from a maze of local and state bureaucracies.

There are a lot of agencies that do a little about bed bugs, but nobody that can help with the whole shebang. The city health department has some information. The housing people can come take a look. The state controls the pesticides, although not well enough to advise homeowners what works and who exterminates carefully.

Gale Brewer, a member of City Council, has been trying for years to get help for any family under attack. After sleepless nights and days spent covered in calamine lotion, these exhausted people need a one-stop link or telephone line to guide them, she rightly argues. (New York Times)

Agency can't link Great Lakes pollution, illness - TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Wrapping up an eight-year investigation of possible links between industrial pollution and health risks in the Great Lakes region, federal researchers said information was too sketchy and called for more study. (Associated Press)

Recycling a 'waste of time' unless more treatment centres are built - PEOPLE recycling their waste could be doing so in vain because it could still end up in landfill sites, a new report warns today.

The National Audit Office accused the Government of failing to build enough large-scale recycling centres or incinerators to meet a 2013 EU target to cut the amount put in landfill sites. (Evening Standard)

The International Criminal Court's Dream of Global Justice - The International Criminal Court in The Hague is supposed to bring war criminals to justice, but it has yet to deliver a single verdict. Can international law bring peace to war-torn regions -- or does it actually hinder the peace process? (Der Spiegel)

Ha! Obama's EPA Pick Must Restore Integrity: Senators - WASHINGTON - Lisa Jackson, President-elect Barack Obama's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, needs to restore integrity to a department that fallen into disrepute, Democratic senators said on Wednesday. (Retuers)

Only way to make the EPA any real value is eliminate it completely with legal barriers to ensure such misanthropic nonsense never again contaminates human affairs.

The End of Natural History, Tears for Its Passing - Someday natural history will start again and the people then will see the T-Rex and the so smooth mammoth tusk and the wonderful minerals again. They will shake their heads and ask, “What was wrong with those people back then?” “They forgot to look up at the stars in wonder and they forgot to teach their children the joy that is this planet. They stole the gift of imagination from them with boring words on plaques and a big wire antenna to stop them from thinking inside this great glass and steel post office.”

How sad. It is enough to make you cry. (shootyoureyeout.net)

Extinct Tasmanian "Tiger" DNA Has Clues To Demise - WASHINGTON - DNA taken from the hair of two extinct Tasmanian "tigers" suggests the Australian marsupials last seen 70 years ago may have become too inbred to survive as a species, researchers reported on Monday.

The researchers used the method they used to study the DNA from extinct woolly mammoths' hair to get a good comparison of the gene sequences from Tasmanian tigers, formally known as thylacines, and said they hope to study other extinct animals -- and