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August 2007 Archives

Global Warming Consensus Nothing But Hot Air, Says NCPA - Literature Review Reveals Changing Viewpoints, Little Agreement, Says NCPA's Burnett - DALLAS, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Only seven percent of published papers on climate change agree with the "consensus view" that humans were having some effect on global climate change. In an updated study of peer-reviewed works published between 2004 and 2007, 48 percent of the papers were classified as "neutral," or refusing to agree or disagree with the consensus. This lack of agreement falls in line with previous polls that showed a similar reluctance to point the finger at humans, according to H. Sterling Burnett, senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA). "I've always argued that 'consensus' is limited to a narrow scope," said Burnett. "The only agreement is that the Earth is getting warmer." (08/31/07)

The Spoof
Study Reveals Consensus on Lack of Global Warming Consensus - Experts agree that they do not agree that global warming is mostly caused by humans. HAMBURG, GERMANY (AP Newsliar) A recent survey conducted to gage the opinions of climate researchers reveals there is now consensus on the fact that there is no consensus on the question of whether global warming is predominantly caused by human activity. (08/31/07)

New from the JunkMan
Runaway Climate Captured? - By Steven Milloy - Runaway global warming, the climate alarmist fantasy let loose on the public, has not yet been captured, but it certainly appears to have at least been cornered by new data from researchers at the University of Alabama-Huntsville (UAH). In a study published in the American Geophysical Union's Geophysical Research Letters on Aug. 9, the UAH researchers provide more real-world evidence of the atmosphere's self-regulating nature. If this particular self-regulatory mechanism is confirmed by additional research, it will represent yet another deal-breaker for the scientific hypothesis that has propped up climate alarmism thus far. (08/31/07)

Commentary: Who is really warming the planet? - By Alice Larsen, For Record Gazette - The eyes in the sky (satellites) do not see the so-called greenhouse effect on global warming. They can see fires, hurricanes and other disturbances on earth but they do not reveal evidence of problems related to greenhouse gases. If green house gases were responsible for global warming, some scientists say, there should be a marked increase in CO2 in high latitudes, especially in the Artic and Antarctic. "But satellites have measured temperatures up there and they don't see anything," says NASA scientist Robert Jastrow. "So greenhouse effect for some reason is missing. And then the question arises, Okay, what did cause global warming? ("Show ME God" by Fred Heeren) (08/31/07)

Boo Hoo for the Global Warming Fairy Tale - By Dinesh D'Souza - NASA gave a big boost to the global warming paranoia-mongers by declaring that most of the hottest years on record occurred between 1990 and 2007. Then a math major from Canada, Stephen MacIntyre, showed on his blog that NASA's calculations were wrong. NASA hemmed and hawed, but finally admitted that four of the hottest years on record were in the 1930s: 1934, 1931, 1938, and 1939. Turns out only three of the top 10 heat waves occurred in the last decade and a half: 1998, 2006 and 1999. Several years that had been given heat records by NASA, such as 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 fell way down the list. Still, why should we let a few facts get in the way of today's Great Liberal Scare? Pied Piper Al Gore, not previously known for his climatological expertise, and his great following of Hollywood imbeciles, had such a simple and beautiful story to tell. It summarized American history over the past century in three words: "Cool, Warm, Hot." Unfortunately this Canadian fellow has completely spoiled the fairy tale. Now the U.S. temperatures must be read this way, "Hot, Cool, Warm." Somehow the urgency is gone when you put it that way. (08/31/07)

E-mail heating up over global warming - By Randy Scholfield - Whew. It's getting hot in here. My column last week asking why people still question global warming brought a flood of response, some of it heated, from people denying human-caused climate change is occurring. Lots of folks, I discovered, are all too eager to hold forth on why they aren't buying warming. And everyone, it seems, is a climate scientist. Mostly, the responses only reinforced the points in my column about why people deny the overwhelming science: Some dismissed it for transparently political reasons -- anything Al Gore advocates they're against. (Never mind President Bush, who recently accepted the reality of human-caused climate change.) Others sent links to arguments "proving" global warming is a hoax. Most of these arguments were familiar. As I said in the column, most have been convincingly refuted by scientists. But they keep circulating, like urban myths. Here are a few of the more common denial talking points I received, along with some rebuttals I've read from climate scientists: (08/31/07)

Let's talk about global warming - By: The Mississauga News - Mississauga collective Youth Troopers for Global Awareness (YTGA) are presenting a series of short plays tomorrow that explore the multi-faceted and fascinating lives of complex characters dealing with a variety of social and political issues. Called No Man's Land, the plays are designed to initiate dialogue on issues around global warming. "(The show's) absolutely hilarious but addresses serious conflict to establish a channel of communication," said YTGA founder Zehra Abbas. "We have really let the creative juices flow and have come up with an abstract form of political theatre. Expect to also meet phenomenal guest speakers from Amnesty International and Sleeping Children Around The World that will be joining us." The two-hour show happens at Streetsville Memorial Park. Show time is 5:30 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, e-mail zehra@ytga.com. (08/31/07)

Movies...

Global Warming: Not So Hot - By Karlyn Bowman Special to washingtonpost.com's Think Tank Town - Americans think global warming is real and serious. Poll after poll shows that there are not many climate skeptics left. The issue has received an enormous amount of media attention over the past several years, but it still doesn't rank at or near the top of issues people want the president and Congress to address. [..] The power of DiCaprio, one of the film's producers, has drawn a sizable array of experts, from physicist Stephen Hawking to Kenyan activist (and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner) Wangari Maathai. These talking heads tackle the subject from every angle - scientific, political, economic and social. They make the compelling and convincing case that if we human beings don't change our ways soon, we're doomed. As George Carlin once said, decrying the arrogance of the environmentalists' motto "Save the Planet," "the planet isn't going anywhere - we are." OK, I'm a liberal who agrees with everything being said here. So why am I not moved by "The 11th Hour"? Part of it is I'm not the audience that needs to be convinced. But mostly it's because the movie is presenting its case in such a uniformly insistent tone, as the directors pile on one voice of doom after another. (08/31/07)

Review: '11th Hour' force-feeds us facts on global warming - By Sean P. Means - The Salt Lake Tribune The environmental documentary "The 11th Hour" presents the dangers of global climate change like so much cinematic oatmeal: nutritional, to be sure, but none too exciting to consume - even with that dreamy Leonardo DiCaprio popping up looking all dreamy and concerned. Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen, the sisters who directed the film, begin with the assumption that we've all seen Al Gore in "An Inconvenient Truth." We need no more convincing that global warming is real (anyone who thinks otherwise is either dumb or on the oil industry's payroll), but "The 11th Hour" is determined to tell us how bad things are. (08/30/07)

MarVista wraps global warming doc - MarVista Entertainment in Los Angeles has wrapped production on a new one-hour documentary to be sold at Mipcom. "Global Warming: Our Searing Earth" was directed by Richard Bluth of Bluth Enterprises and looks for the truth behind the controversy, examining the current and future effects of global warming on the planet. The one-off doc sets out to find the people who are fighting global warming, exploring solutions raised by new scientific evidence and advice proffered by leading experts. "Global warming has become such a politically charged topic. What we hope to show is the truth behind global warming - without the politics," said Bluth. Antony Reeve-Crook 31 Aug 2007 © C21 Media 2007 (08/31/07)

A GWHYPE reader e-mail response to the Steve Outing article from H W Maier Lynden WA
TO: Steve Outing, columnist @ E&P
RE: "Climate Change: Get Over Objectivity, Newspapers" - Your referenced column is full of more holes than a really bad slice of Swiss cheese. It is hard to believe that someone would actually admit to such an abomination as using the Main Stream Media as a propaganda mechanism. It is bad enough that the MSM already has a 90% liberal bias in its news coverage. The greater the bias the greater the denial has been my experience over the past 40 years. You, personally, must be a very left wing liberal, based on what you wrote in this article as well as how you wrote it. Your bias is very obvious. You most certainly should not have your extreme position on AGW based on your admitted "I am thinking a lot about Global Warming ...". A rational opinion should be based on extensive study of Paleoclimatology; of which, I have been a student for the past 30 years. AGW is basically a technical subject, but Al Gore and the rest of the alarmists have turned AGW is a political and even a religious matter. If AGW "evidence is so overwhelming" then you should have provided some of that evidence in your hit piece. There is no such evidence and that is why you NEVER encounter any such evidence in ANY article or opinion piece on Global Warming nor Climate Change. Consensus (see article copied below) is not scientific evidence. All pro AGW is based on the most basic instinct of humans; and that is FEAR. Every article covers this or that disaster and always attribute it to Global Warming, when in fact, they are really talking about weather extremes. Mans knowledge and exposure to weather extremes is very, very limited in geological time. Besides, there now are millions of humans where there were none before. That alone will create disasters of monumental proportions. You really need to educate yourself on this subject. CO2 caused global warming is the ONLY issue at stake here. There is NO possibility of any human control over natural climate periods/cycles. ~ H W Maier Lynden WA (08/30/07)

TODAY'S LETTERS: Readers Respond to Outing's on Climate Change -- And a Note from Whittaker Chambers' Grandson - By E&P Staff - NEW YORK A recent column by Steve Outing about how newspapers can address climate change sparked heated letters that criticized newspaper objectivity and questioned the concept of global warming. (08/30/07)

Deferred Forecasts Of Global Warming - An Example Of The Misuse of Science - A blatant example of masking an untested hypothesis as a scientific paper has been published in Science. The paper is "Improved Surface Temperature Prediction for the Coming Decade from a Global Climate Model" Doug M. Smith, Stephen Cusack, Andrew W. Colman, Chris K. Folland, Glen R. Harris, and James M. Murphy (10 August 2007) Science 317 (5839), 796. [DOI: 10.1126/science.1139540]. The abstract reads, "Previous climate model projections of climate change accounted for external forcing from natural and anthropogenic sources but did not attempt to predict internally generated natural variability. We present a new modeling system that predicts both internal variability and externally forced changes and hence forecasts surface temperature with substantially improved skill throughout a decade, both globally and in many regions. Our system predicts that internal variability will partially offset the anthropogenic global warming signal for the next few years. However, climate will continue to warm, with at least half of the years after 2009 predicted to exceed the warmest year currently on record." (08/30/07)

2007 Hurricane Season: In Like a Lamb, Out Like a Lion? - Husband David Ridenour examines the 2007 hurricane season in light of environmentalist claims about a link between hurricanes and global warming: Environmentalists can't be very happy with the 2007 Atlantic Hurricane season so far. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had predicted an "above normal" hurricane season, but as we approach the season's halfway mark, the hurricane season looks more like a lamb than a lion. The Greens love to draw attention to hurricanes because weather-related disasters make effective props for their campaign to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. As Hurricane Dean was making its way toward the Gulf Coast earlier this month, for example, Amanda Staudt of the National Wildlife Federation wrote: "The big picture is that global warming is putting hurricanes on steroids." Perhaps she's right, if she was referring to one of the side effects of long-term steroid use... impotency. Last year, we had just five Atlantic hurricanes - 17% less than normal. So far this year, there's been just one Atlantic hurricane. Since 1944, there's been an average of two hurricanes by this stage of the season (August 30). That's right: We're at 50% the norm so far. (08/30/07)

Yet this very same day we have this nonsense from the propeller-heads and their computer models...
NASA study predicts more severe storms with global warming - NASA scientists have developed a new climate model that indicates that the most violent severe storms and tornadoes may become more common as Earth's climate warms. Previous climate model studies have shown that heavy rainstorms will be more common in a warmer climate, but few global models have attempted to simulate the strength of updrafts in these storms. The model developed at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies by researchers Tony Del Genio, Mao-Sung Yao, and Jeff Jonas is the first to successfully simulate the observed difference in strength between land and ocean storms and is the first to estimate how the strength will change in a warming climate, including "severe thunderstorms" that also occur with significant wind shear and produce damaging winds at the ground. This information can be derived from the temperatures and humidities predicted by a climate computer model, according to the new study published on August 17 in the American Geophysical Union's Geophysical Research Letters. It predicts that in a warmer climate, stronger and more severe storms can be expected, but with fewer storms overall. (08/30/07)

More Than Half of Analyzed Weather Stations Don't Meet Federal Guidelines - By Noel Sheppard - As members of Congress debate sweeping legislation to address climate change, shouldn't it be newsworthy that of the roughly 25 percent of the weather stations analyzed by independent, non-government volunteers, more than half appear to not meet federal guidelines involving their placement? Well, meteorologist Anthony Watts, the owner of Watts Up With That, speaking at a climate conference in Boulder, Colorado, on Tuesday, presented his findings concerning the examination of some of the weather stations across America that monitor the nation's temperatures, and the news was quite disturbing. Yet, from what I can tell, outside of a newspaper in Northern California, even as global warming matters are highlighted on a daily basis by a sycophantic press, not one major media outlet thought this was newsworthy. (08/30/07)

More rubbish from the science of speculation crowd...
Global Warming Might Spur Earthquakes and Volcanoes - By Andrea Thompson, LiveScience Staff Writer - Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and landslides are some of the additional catastrophes that climate change and its rising sea levels and melting glaciers could bring, a geologist says. (08/30/07)

Consensus Alert!
Survey: Less Than Half of all Published Scientists Endorse Global Warming Theory - By Michael Asher - IPCC co-chairs for Netherlands and Sierra Leone debate changes to the Report Summary. Comprehensive survey of published climate research reveals changing viewpoints. In 2004, history professor Naomi Oreskes performed a survey of research papers on climate change. Examining peer-reviewed papers published on the ISI Web of Science database from 1993 to 2003, she found a majority supported the "consensus view," defined as humans were having at least some effect on global climate change. Oreskes' work has been repeatedly cited, but as some of its data is now nearly 15 years old, its conclusions are becoming somewhat dated. Medical researcher Dr. Klaus-Martin Schulte recently updated this research. Using the same database and search terms as Oreskes, he examined all papers published from 2004 to February 2007. The results have been submitted to the journal Energy and Environment, of which DailyTech has obtained a pre-publication copy. The figures are surprising. Of 528 total papers on climate change, only 38 (7%) gave an explicit endorsement of the consensus. If one considers "implicit" endorsement (accepting the consensus without explicit statement), the figure rises to 45%. However, while only 32 papers (6%) reject the consensus outright, the largest category (48%) are neutral papers, refusing to either accept or reject the hypothesis. This is no "consensus." (08/29/07)

Democrat Bill In House: Anyone ?Harmed? By Global Warming Can Sue The Federal Government - And then they can get their attorney fees paid for even if they don't win. One of the key issues that Congress will need to address when it returns in September is legislation to restrict energy production in the U.S. It's not framed that way, of course. The legislation being considered is ostensibly supposed to help produce more energy, but that's not the effect it will have. Among the myriad problems with the House bill for example, is that it allows anyone "harmed" by global warming to bring suit against any federal agency that fails to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions as required in the legislation. Plaintiffs are specifically authorized to recover $1.5 million, and to be compensated for legal fees win or lose, as long as the court determines it to be "appropriate." (08/29/07)

New Peer-Reviewed Scientific Studies Chill Global Warming Fears - By Marc Morano - Washington DC -- An abundance of new peer-reviewed studies, analysis, and data error discoveries in the last several months has prompted scientists to declare that fear of catastrophic man-made global warming "bites the dust" and the scientific underpinnings for alarm may be "falling apart." The latest study to cast doubt on climate fears finds that even a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide would not have the previously predicted dire impacts on global temperatures. This new study is not unique, as a host of recent peer-reviewed studies have cast a chill on global warming fears. "Anthropogenic (man-made) global warming bites the dust," declared astronomer Dr. Ian Wilson after reviewing the new study which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Another scientist said the peer-reviewed study overturned "in one fell swoop" the climate fears promoted by the UN and former Vice President Al Gore. The study entitled "Heat Capacity, Time Constant, and Sensitivity of Earth's Climate System," was authored by Brookhaven National Lab scientist Stephen Schwartz. (08/29/07)

Trying to Connect the Dinner Plate to Climate Change - By CLAUDIA H. DEUTSCH - EVER since "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore has been the darling of environmentalists, but that movie hardly endeared him to the animal rights folks. According to them, the most inconvenient truth of all is that raising animals for meat contributes more to global warming than all the sport utility vehicles combined. (08/29/07)

Melting glaciers do not prove global warming claims - By: Chuck Armstrong - It has been really hot these past few weeks. Some believe it is hot because the climate fluctuates throughout the year - hotter during the summer, colder during the winter. However, many individuals believe the cause of this extreme heat we are experiencing can be summed up in two words: global warming. One problem with the latter argument is global warming actually is not global at all. According to a study by Lubos Motl, a Harvard physicist, global warming is not affecting the whole world. The study showed the southern hemisphere has been warming 0.05 degrees Celsius a decade since 1970. The physicist has stated the measuring station at the South Pole actually has shown a distinctive cooling trend in temperatures. Even with that fact presented, many people who believe in the man-made myth that is global warming still argue the temperatures we are experiencing are all-time highs. (08/29/07)

Not So Hot - The latest twist in the global warming saga is the revision in data at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, indicating that the warmest year on record for the U.S. was not 1998, but rather 1934 (by 0.02 of a degree Celsius). (08/29/07)

LMAO!
Climate change could be causing cougar attacks: expert - CanWest News Service - A combination of warm winters and Alberta's population boom is causing a recent jump in cougar attacks, says a spokesman for the government agency that collects cougar-related data. The province's cougar population has jumped this year because recent warm winters have pushed up the population of deer, elk and moose -- the cougars' natural prey, said Darcy Whiteside with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development. "These are natural fluctuations," Whiteside said on Wednesday. "But they're compounded by the fact that municipalities are expanding into natural areas. A lot more people are living, camping and hiking in those areas, too." (08/29/07)

Era of global warming - ...For years, sceptics dismissed warnings of global warming as scaremongering speculation - the sport of doomsayers. Well, it appears these Cassandra voices were more or less on target and we are moving into a new phase in which we are no longer dealing with prognostications of future climate change but with empirical evidence. Really? It should be noted that this entire letter did not cite one single piece of "evidence." (08/29/07)

Oh yes, please run Al! And run on your greenie global warming alarmist platform. I dare ya.
Earth to Al Gore.... - by Jay Esbe - [Get your ass into the race for the democratic nomination and then, take the Presidency.] Dear Al, I believe in global warming. I believe we are either causing it, or at the very least, contributing to it. We are already witnessing the effects. Virtually anyone capable of logically processing the widely available and voluminous information on the subject also believes this. And this is the point: The people who do not believe it; They're never going to be convinced of man's role in global warming. They're never going to be convinced because like the people who believe the earth is only 6,000 years old, and that Barney Rubble really lived with dinosaurs, these people do not want to be convinced. These people do not achieve reality for a reason Al. In fact, they're almost always the same people. They "fail" because they and their "values" and beliefs are wholly incompatible with what sane people consider "reality". They are simply not educable. So here's the question: Are you? (08/29/07)

Climate change can't bog down APEC - By Alan Wood, economics editor - A leaked draft of the Sydney Declaration to be released at the end of next week's APEC meeting speaks only of a long-term aspirational target for emissions reductions. So presumably one of the early actions of a Rudd government will be to withdraw from APEC, an institution with little future. Or is Rudd just bluffing? His speech implies a readiness to compromise his policy ideals. After all, as he says, a Labor government helped create APEC. The ambiguity is typical of the approach to climate change by all governments, for which we may be duly grateful when it becomes apparent the planet isn't on the brink of becoming uninhabitable without immediate, drastic action to stop global warming. The European Union and the G8, Rudd's exemplars of climate action, fall decidedly short when it comes to meeting commitments they have undertaken, notably in the Kyoto treaty (the US, of course, never ratified it). And several of the new eastern European members of the EU are refusing to accept emissions caps imposed by Brussels, for the same reason China and India don't want a bar of them: they inhibit economic and social development. Yet on Monday, Rudd repeated that one of his first acts if he becomes prime minister will be to ratify Kyoto. This is just one more illustration of the fact that when deliberately created global warming hysteria takes hold, silliness isn't far behind. Kyoto is dead. It was never going to make any real difference to global warming anyway, and its most vociferous supporters will miss their emissions reduction targets, or meet them by fraud. (08/29/07)

Global Warming, Engineers and "Moral Crusades" - If you've ever suspected that the global warming news in the big newsweeklies has a bias, then you need to see Robert J. Samuelson's recent column on the topic. In an article titled, "Greenhouse Simplicities," Samuelson attacks a recent Newsweek cover story on global warming as "fundamentally misleading." He goes on to slam it as "peripheral and highly contrived," adding that "self-righteous indignation can undermine good journalism." So why is this unusual? Because Samuelson is a contributing editor for Newsweek. What we have here is a valued member of the Newsweek family biting a hand that feeds him. And Samuelson isn't simply disagreeing with another editor's opinion; he's attacking the truthfulness of the magazine's news. But, first, for those who haven't seen the original Newsweek cover story, let's stop here and explain. The original Newsweek cover was billed as "The truth about denial." It described a so-called "denial machine," reportedly funded by industry, trying to obstruct those who are battling the global warming threat. The article was an unveiled attempt to discredit certain scientists who don't view global warming as a crisis. (08/28/07)

ABC Weatherman Touts Rambling Tennis Star's Concern Over "Green Noise" - By Scott Whitlock - On Tuesday's "Good Morning America," weatherman and liberal global warming activist Sam Champion featured tennis star Billie Jean King in his latest attempt to hype the danger of climate change. In a new segment entitled, "Just One Person," King vaguely described her new environmental charity, GreenSlam, in such a way that it appeared to confuse GMA audience members standing behind her. At Champion's prompting, she bemoaned all the "green noise," a term she never explained, in today's society. Equally confusing were her constant references to "green collar studies." Most bizarre, however, was when the tennis star appeared to be distracted, much in the way a five-year old would be upon seeing a butterfly. King noticed a tennis ball wedged in an adjacent camera and fixated on it as an example of recycling (as seen above). Apparently bewildering even Champion, she rambled, "We want to use things again. Okay? You see this tennis ball? You have one on your camera over there so that you don't whack somebody. It's protection. There's one at the end of, there's one at the end of the camera there. That's reusable. [Points to GMA camera.] All these little things we can do. I'm taking shorter showers. I'm worrying about the plastic bags now." (08/28/07)

Just as I predicted in my comments preceding the article below, I was only a matter of minutes before Noel Sheppard picked up this one and ran with it. He brilliantly illustrates the stark contrast in philosophies regarding the objectivity (or lack thereof) in the media today when it comes to the myth of global warming.
Are Media Reporting Global Warming Too Objectively or Inhibiting Free Speech? - By Noel Sheppard - n the past couple of days, there have been two articles written about how the media are covering global warming. In one, the author contended that the press are acting to inhibit free speech by exclusively reporting one side of the climate change issue as they castigate skeptics as deniers and operatives of the oil industry. By contrast, another article suggested that the press in their attempts to appear objective are not doing a good enough job stressing the dire nature of global warming, and should be taking a much stronger position as advocate for the supposed consensus. (08/28/07)

The following article is a must read. I have included a brief response at the right but I am not going to include it on the blog since I suspect it will be blogged elsewhere to death, as it should! If you would like to write your own rebuttal to this and e-mail it to me I would be happy to publish it for you here.

Climate Change: Get Over Objectivity, Newspapers - By Steve Outing - NEW YORK (August 28, 2007) -- I've been thinking a lot about climate change (aka, global warming) a lot lately. (Haven't you?) Having kids, I'm concerned about what kind of world my generation is leaving them, of course. And I'm mulling over what I can do, to "do my part" (ride my bike to work more; my family bought a hybrid car; teach my kids green habits; etc.). I've also been thinking about the newspaper industry and global warming. And frankly, I don't think newspapers are doing enough. Indeed, newspapers' fabled commitment to "objectivity" has been a detriment to efforts to combat global warming. The industry still has a lot of power to influence people. How about if newspapers abandon their old way of doing things when it comes to the issue of global warming, and turn their influence to good? It just might be that through this issue alone, newspapers revive themselves to some extent. Editors are shirking their responsibility to improve our world, in my view, so let's change that. A Return to Advocacy In recent decades, "advocacy journalism" has been relegated to the alternative press, or in the mainstream press on editorial or op-ed pages (and perhaps blogs, too). The news sections of mainstream newspapers are still the realm of "objective journalism," where reporters hide (or purport to) their personal opinions and biases, and try to present a balanced view of any issue. Advocacy does not make it to the front page. I have no quibble with the status quo when it comes to controversial issues where there is a significant split of opinion. Outside of the opinion section, most newspapers are not going to allow writers and editors to express an opinion on hot debates like the right to abortion, or public funding for stem cell research. There are sizable groups of people lining up on both sides of those issues (not to mention those who fall in between). It would be journalistic suicide to take a mainstream paper and go on an advocacy tear about abortion, for example. But advocacy in terms of encouraging people to act to alleviate climate change is really a wholly different issue. There's clearly scientific consensus that humans are altering the planet's climate, and that the effect is accelerating. Stronger hurricanes, melting glaciers and sea ice, worse wildfires and longer fire seasons, more severe droughts and flooding, and more frequent bizarre weather events overall. The few critics of the consensus are a small and shrinking group, who to most observers seem irrelevant. To the mainstream, they may as well be flat-earthers. Why is it, then, that mainstream coverage of climate change is still mired, too often, in he-said, she-said reporting where both "sides" get their time? When the evidence is so overwhelming to support the idea that humans are changing the climate, why should the news industry give the tiny number of skeptics a higher percentage of time within a news report on their viewpoint than they deserve? It's probably not a perfect analogy, but with a tiny number of people in the U.S. supporting polygamy (estimated at 37,000 living in the Western U.S.), news organizations don't tend to give a lot of space to polygamists explaining why their lifestyle is a good thing and should be allowed. (Though polygamists have gotten more press lately, since the hit HBO show "Big Love." The Salt Lake Tribune even has a full-time reporter on the polygamy beat.) At this point, global warming skeptics have little credibility. [...] The Origins of Objectivity The problem with that kind of coverage is that it doesn't permit journalists to find the truth in an issue, like global warming. Jay Rosen, associate professor of journalism at New York University and a respected new media observer, points out that journalistic objectivity first arose in the 1920s and '30s -- following a period of sensational, "muckraking" reporting by newspapers. "Part of the problem is that journalists don't realize what objectivity was in the first place," says Rosen. "From the beginning it was a way of limiting liability, and allowing journalists to take a pass when it's hard to figure out who's right and what's really going on. From the beginning it was meant to dull the knife edge of the press. It was meant to 'de-voice' or defang the individual journalist, so that more people would be comfortable with the product. But the costs of that system have built up over time... Read the entire article. (08/28/07)

Columnist Steve Outing Photo - www.editorandpublisher.com Unfortunately this is the view of many elites in the media who think that the role of newspapers is to persuade the public, rather than to inform it. The liberal elites believe that they know what is best for us and that the ends justify the means, even at the expense of objectivity. The views in this article are really not all that shocking, but the fact that Outing feels emboldened enough to write it is. The arrogance of this man is apparent throughout this piece. Again we read the constant drumbeat that there is no debate in regards to the human cause of global warming which is nothing more than an attempt to silence opposing views. The fact remains carbon dioxide produced by humans is an insignificant source of global warming. But advocates like Outing would have us believe that the scientific community is in unison as to the cause of global warming being man-made CO2. These people should be seen as what they are, advocates for their cause, not journalists. Newspapers should continue to report the news as responsibly and objectively as possible. The front page is no place for opinion. Outing says "the few critics of the consensus are a small and shrinking group, who to most observers seem irrelevant. To the mainstream, they may as well be flat-earthers." Even if it was true, which it's not, would that be justification for major newspapers to abandon objectivity for advocacy? Outing also claims that it would be "journalistic suicide" to take on an issue like "the right to abortion" but advocacy in terms of encouraging people to act to alleviate climate change is really a wholly different issue. Different issue? How? If journalism were to abandon objectivity for advocacy, who would decide what issue(s) to advocate, and which side deserves advocacy and which side deserves to be silenced (censored)? The left always trumpets free speech except when it poses a threat to their agenda. I don't know about you but I'm tired of these self-absorbed yuppie ex-hippie baby-boomer mother-fuckers that think they know what's best for everyone. Just continue to write your op-eds and leave the rest of us, and the news alone. ~ DEK

Shipp: Global warming 'debunked,' and a hot time at Leebern's birthday - By Bill Shipp - This is a true story. Listen closely: In a mechanically cooled conference room located about 100 miles north of the Fall Line, a group of distinguished Georgia lawmakers sat down with a group of "scientists" in August 2007 and decided global warming was mostly bunk. They also determined they and their fellow humans weren't responsible for fouling the atmosphere. (08/28/07)

Cellular and wireless industry linked to Global Warming - Turning off Climate Change - by John Staples, New Brunswick Editorialist - One day while at the movies someone started shouting "Global Warming", "Climate Changing", "Carbon Build-up", "Ice Caps Melting"and "Oceans Rising". Well just about everyone panicked and started running for the exits, people got stepped on, knocked over, even hurt and authorities had no idea what to do about it. [...] We all need to take a long hard look at how important wireless technology is and how dangerous it is to use. I think Mr. Staples should be more concerned about that tin-foil hat of his! (08/28/07)

Professor Singer Takes on Al Gore and Global Warming Alarmism - By Noel Sheppard - For those that aren't familiar, S. Fred Singer is professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, a research professor at George Mason University, and president of the Science and Environmental Policy Project. He is also one of the world's leading anthropogenic global warming skeptics. With that in mind, he gave a lecture concerning climate change at Hillsdale College on June 30 which has been adapted as an article at the Hillsdale Imprimis (h/t Marc Morano). (08/28/07)

Proposal's message is clear Put up or shut up, Democrats - By H. Sterling Burnett - WASHINGTON -- In a shot across the bow of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, senior House member John Dingell, D-Mich., has proposed a bold plan to fight global warming: an across-the-board carbon tax -- better known as a universal energy tax. (08/28/07)

Taming the Hurricane - By Patrick J. Michaels - SO WHY IS IT THAT PEOPLE are wringing their hands about global warming causing more severe hurricanes and deaths? The best computer estimate for future hurricanes was published by Tom Knutson and Robert Tuleya in the Journal of Climate in 2004. They calculated that maximum winds should increase by about 6% over the next 75 years. Even this may be an overestimate because the method used assumes carbon dioxide -- the main global warming emission -- is increasing in the atmosphere about twice as fast as it actually is. (08/28/07)

Excellent!
Leonardo DiCaprio is depressed about global warming - Leonardo DiCaprio is depressed and believes the planet is doomed, which was exactly how I felt after witnessing his accent destroy 'Gangs of New York'. "We find ourselves on the brink," he told The Ecologist magazine, which now clearly has to resort to interviewing celebrities to sell copies. "We face a very bleak future, and to avoid it we need dramatic worldwide change." DiCaprio has produced a documentary a mere two years after Al Gore first thought of the idea and 'The Eleventh Hour', written and narrated by the actor, will highlight environmental issues. So fret no more, the world is saved. Carbon footprints will be reduced as people stay home in their droves, desperately trying to do something other than be lectured to another twat of an actor. You gotta love British Bluntness. (08/28/07)

Global Warming, Atmospheric CO2 Increase, and Northeast China's Forest Carbon Stocks - ...During a period of time when the "twin evils" of the radical environmentalist movement - atmospheric temperature and CO2 concentration - rose by amounts the world's climate alarmists claim were unprecedented over the past thousand to a million or more years, respectively, forest C stocks in northeast China rose ever higher with each passing year. Clearly, something is drastically wrong with this picture ... and it's not the real-world data. (08/28/07)

A Denier's Confession - By BRET STEPHENS - The recent discovery by a retired businessman and climate kibitzer named Stephen McIntyre that 1934 -- and not 1998 or 2006 -- was the hottest year on record in the U.S. could not have been better timed. August is the month when temperatures are high and the news cycle is slow, leading, inevitably, to profound meditations on global warming. Newsweek performed its journalistic duty two weeks ago with an exposé on what it calls the global warming "denial machine." I hereby perform mine with a denier's confession. I confess: I am prepared to acknowledge that Mr. McIntyre's discovery amounts to what a New York Times reporter calls a "statistically meaningless" rearrangement of data. But just how "meaningless" would this have seemed had it yielded the opposite result? (08/28/07)

More absurdity...
For 20 bucks, combat global warming - ASPEN -- The city of Aspen, through its Canary Initiative, will launch the first carbon-offsets program of its kind in the country. The Canary Tag program, unveiled by Mayor Mick Ireland during Saturday's ARE Day - American Renewable Energy Day - gives both citizens and visitors a chance to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions. Aspen is the first city in the country to offer such a program, according to Ireland. Canary Tags are available for sale online at www.aspenzgreen.com and are specifically to offset greenhouse gas emissions from home energy use, driving and air travel. The purchase of one Canary Tag for $20 offsets one ton of greenhouse gases, according to a city press release. (08/28/07)

Expo focuses on dangers of global warming - Hyderabad, August 28: The Students of Gitanjali Devshalala organised an exhibition recently to highlight the serious issue of "global warming". Eminent scientist and former Director of National Remote Sensing Agency Padmasri B. L. Deekshitulu congratulated the students for choosing a theme relevant to the times and incorporating simple solutions in their day-to-day life to combat global warming. The students displayed working models, presentations and skits depicting the causes, effects and solutions for global warming like green house effect, ocean warming, depletion of ozone layer, energy conservation, toxic effect of chemicals in day to day life. Alternatives to minimise Global warming were also highlighted. (08/28/07)

Global Warming at Church: Religious Leaders Spread Word of the Gore - By Noel Sheppard - There are many climate change skeptics around the world who have suggested that global warming is a new religion being spread by hysterical zealots like soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore. (08/28/07)

Global Warming Noticed in Heartland? Hardly! - By Gary Benoit - "Has global warming visited Iowa?" That was a question posed by National Wildlife Federation activists - a month before NASA reported that the hottest year on record in America is no longer 1998 but 1934. (08/28/07)

Intolerance mars climate change debate - By CHRISTOPHER LINGLE, Special to The Japan Times - NEW DELHI - What's up with journalists in the mainstream media? In most cases, they tend to be unconditional supporters of free expression and strive to report on controversial views. However, reporting on issues relating to global warming has become strikingly one-sided. With no need to persuade using rational argument, a new conventional wisdom is being formulated that is beyond challenge by "sensible" people. Creating group-think and mass behavior should be anathema to honest journalists. Otherwise, reporters become opinion makers rather than neutral observers. Along these lines, there are signs of a growing intolerance in the debate on global climate change. Climate-change denial has become a taboo that invites a sense of moral repugnance toward deniers. (08/27/07)

New Climate Change-Friendly Dish Introduced Called "The Al Gore" - By Noel Sheppard - Better get all fluids away from your computer, because a pair of caterers in Australia have created a new climate change-friendly dish they call "The Al Gore" which is "an organic mix of chunked mutton and aromatic root vegetables." (08/27/07)

Laurie David Continues Her Global Warming Chicken Little Act - By P.J. Gladnick - Storms! Floods! Riots! Looting! Blackouts! These are all the things that Laurie David is back to warning us about in her latest Huffington Post blog, "This is the Face of Global Warming": (08/27/07)

IPCC Member: NASA's Hansen Moving 'Dangerously Away From Scientific Discourse to Advocacy' - By Noel Sheppard - NASA's James Hansen, whose work is continually exposed as shoddy while he refuses to share data gathering techniques and computer codes used for such things with others, has been criticized by a contributing scientist to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as moving "dangerously away from scientific discourse to advocacy." What has drawn the ire of Andrew Weaver, a physicist at the University of Victoria who works on the dynamics of the polar ice caps, are recent statements by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies chief that oceans could rise as much as 82 feet in the next hundred years due to global warming. Bear in mind that the IPCC's most recent report downgraded its expectations for such sea level increases to less than two feet. (08/27/07)

Letters: Too much political rhetoric about global warming issue - I read with interest the column by Cal Thomas in the Aug. 19 Sheboygan Press, "Global warming is about really hot air." Finally someone discusses and publishes a fair statement about the facts and reasons behind the argument. I have been an Earth scientist for over 30 years and am fully aware of climate changes that have occurred in the geologic and historic past. It is very frustrating to hear people discuss "global warming" as if it is a human inflicted one-time event that we can change. These cycles have been repeated for eons, and are going to continue as long as the planet is in existence. (08/27/07)

Too bad. I was kind of rooting for this one to help illustrate the idiocy here in Schwartzefornia.
Property value worries sink Santa Barbara art project - A plan to paint waves at intersections to show where global warming could push the sea level raises fears that the 'stigma' could affect real estate sales.
By Steve Chawkins, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer - SANTA BARBARA -- Call it the Santa Barbara meltdown. Two of the city's great preoccupations -- progressive politics and sky-high real estate values -- have collided over the last couple of months, yielding high drama over an art project that was to denote land imperiled by global warming with blue waves painted on downtown intersections. "The community conversation turned into a frenzy," said Mayor Marty Blum, one of the idea's supporters. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like it." Last week, the activist behind the city-backed wave project withdrew his plan, abandoning for now the idea of vividly charting just what would happen in Santa Barbara if Greenland's ice sheets turn to slush. Opponents, who believed that the aptly named "lightblueline" project would sink property values on the wrong side of the line, claimed victory. "If you're below the line, there's a stigma," said Jerry Beaver, a real estate developer who owns a warehouse and other property that would be swamped if, as lightblueline predicts, the oceans rise 23 feet over the course of time. Beaver, a self-described rabble-rouser, said he had been preparing to sue the city over its approval of the project, which would have spanned 68 blocks. (08/27/07)

The real threat of global warming - By Walter Starck - Over the past century CO2 in the atmosphere may have increased from around 3/100 of 1 per cent to about 4/100 of 1 per cent and average global temperature may have increased by about 0.6C. I say "may have" because both figures are derived from complex statistical treatment of thousands to millions of individual measurements which are subject to both high levels of natural variation and a variety of errors. (08/27/07)

What's Really Heating Up the Planet? - Coal-mine fires in China and India could be huge culprits in global warming. In China alone, up to 200 million tons of coal go up in flames each year - which may be equivalent to America's total carbon-dioxide emissions from gasoline. India's mine fires waste up to 10 million tons of coal annually. The pollution has made land in both countries uninhabitable. And the problem is expected to worsen. Now experts are asking if controlling mine fires in Asia might be a key to reducing global warming. Economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth, for one, argues that it would likely be more efficient than offsets like planting trees or cleaning the ocean. So, what can be done? One possible remedy being developed in the U.S. is a nitrogen-laced foam. It was used recently to put out a mine fire in West Virginia. (Emissions from coal-mine fires in the U.S. are a fraction of Asia's.) Deploying such a successful foam in China and India - both of which would like help - could drastically reduce damage from long-burning fires, which are very difficult to extinguish fully. (08/26/07)

Global Warming Ads From Al Gore Coming Soon - By Noel Sheppard - I guess we should have expected this: Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Change is about to spend $100 million a year advertising global warming alarmism. I'm thanking God right now for a wonderful invention called the DVR. How 'bout you? (08/26/07)

Begin "Looney Tunes" cartoon music...
AT WAR: FACING GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AS SECURITY THREAT - New efforts are being encouraged to recategorize climate change, shifting public focus away from science and shedding light on its vital importance by comparing global warming to a global security threat. According to British climate change ambassador John Ashton, there is a need to approach global warming from a war stance. We are in a war, and our soldiers - people, plants, animals, the very Earth itself - are down for the count. War? Climate Change Ambassador? The Brits have lost all sense of sanity. Isn't it the socialist left that repeatedly accuses the right of "manufacturing" the war on terror. Ironically, it's the left that has manufactured the "war on climate change." (08/26/07)

Ignore The Global Warming Wackos - I always find it difficult to understand why some fall for the hoax concerning the global warming. Then they state for a fact that we are responsible for it and we can somehow stop it from occurring. (08/26/07)

Green party sees red - By DALE BASS - Controversial movies about global warming enter schools - Adriane Carr, deputy leader of the federal Green party, is perplexed as to why the Kamloops-Thompson school district plans to show its secondary school students The Great Global Warming Swindle. The documentary was made by Mark Durkin in response to An Inconvenient Truth by former U.S. vice-president Al Gore. In it, Durkin talks with groups and scientists who question the validity of global warming. "Why confuse our youth with this, instead of teaching them ways of finding concentrated ways to help solve the crisis?" Carr asked while visiting Kamloops Thursday. "Why not solve the crisis rather than debate the crisis?" Terry Sullivan, School District 73 superintendent, said educators have a duty to present all sides of controversial issues. While both documentaries are available, it will be up to teachers to decide if they show one, both or neither. Sullivan said teachers are being encouraged to show both films. However, parents will be advised and can have their students excused for either film. "The best of public education is when we look at a particular issue and explore all sides of that issue," Sullivan said, noting global warming remains a controversial topic... We salute Superintendent Terry Sullivan for showing both films. Obviously Sullivan believes that children should see both sides of the story and trusts they are capable of deciding for themselves wheather the man-made CO2 theory is just a bunch of gas. (08/26/07)

EXCELLENT!
The liberals' war against liberalism: What is so scary about free thought? - FRANK MIELE - Whatever happened to liberals? One thing I have learned by writing columns on global warming the past two weeks is that liberals are less interested in free expression of ideas than in total compliance with their ideas, less interested in critical thinking than in being critical, and less interested in the truth than in their truth. It wasn't always so. [...] What I believe in is looking at the evidence for myself, weighing it with the scales of logic and reason, and then making up my own mind. I have been studying the evidence on global warming for more than two years, and for all the reasons already listed the past two weeks I am convinced that this is a manufactured crisis. (08/26/07)

Investors pouring billions into green stocks - BY FRANK NORTON - Green is good. At least that's the bet of an increasing number of investment fund managers, retirees and armchair stock pickers who are pouring billions into so-called green stocks, and not necessarily for the love of nature. They're chasing lucrative returns from companies that promise new ways to recycle, power automobiles and harness the wind and sun. Many have had success. Green investment funds that have been around for at least a year report double-digit gains for the past 12 months. The KDL Global Climate 100 Index, which tracks companies working to offset global warming or its effects, is up nearly 25 percent. (08/26/07)

Thou shalt honor the green? - By Bronislaus B. Kush - Very soon, Vatican City will officially become the world's first "carbon-neutral" sovereign state. On behalf of the Holy See, an eco-restoration company based in San Francisco, Planktos/KlimaFa, will begin creating a "climate forest" in Hungary's Bükk National Park that will eventually offset carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles traversing the busy 0.17-square-mile area that makes up the seat of the Roman Catholic Church. Trees capture carbon dioxide from the air through photosynthesis and store it in tissue matter. "Not only is the Vatican steadily reducing its carbon footprint with energy efficiency and solar power, its choice of new mixed-growth forests to offset the balance of its emissions shows a deep commitment to planetary stewardship as well," said Russ George, Planktos' chief executive officer. "It eloquently makes the point that eco-restoration is a fitting climate change solution for a culture of life." (08/26/07)

Global Warming or Global Governance? (DVD) The Truth About Global Warming - What you don't hear in the media! - The debate is still raging within the scientific community. Sovereignty International has put together interviews of climate scientists and biologists from numerous sources who explain, step by step, why Al Gore and the global warming alarmists are incorrect. In some cases, blatantly so. It also provides evidence that the global warming agenda is being funded with tens of billions of dollars as a mechanism to create global governance. (08/26/07)

Czech Republic: President Says Freedom is Endangered, Not Climate - ...RFE/RL: Thanks partly to your latest book "A Blue, Not A Green Planet" you've become well-known abroad for your opinions on global warming. Was this your intention, do you welcome this? Do you want to be an "anti"-Al Gore?
Klaus: This issue has concerned me tremendously for a long time. I met Al Gore in a television debate about this issue in New York some 15 years ago, so it's not a new thing that I've just discovered. I consider it one of the most serious threats to freedom in the world, one of the most serious threats to the normal development of humanity. Of course not global warming itself, but the opinions that are being smuggled in to us, thanks to the false threat of global warming, by people like Al Gore and many others. The hysteria around this in Western Europe and the U.S. is ridiculous and undignified and there's no doubt that people in a few years' or decades' time will laugh at us and wonder if we went mad in the first decade of the 21st century by betting on this card. I think we should use all possible ways to break this hysteria and one way of doing so is writing this book and traveling around the world and giving lectures, talks, and interviews. I'm ready to go at the end of September to New York, where the UN secretary-general is organizing, a day before the General Assembly, a specific conference on global warming, where it will be a gathering of all the "Gore-ites". They have, "by mistake", invited also me. And I'm going to have to give a very tough speech. (08/26/07)

Global warming just another scare tactic - By Brent Wheat - In the last hour, the weather has been hot, cold, sunny, cloudy, raining, humid, dry and wet. The crazy climate of today puts me in mind to step onto the soapbox and discuss my current "conservation" hot button issue: global warming. I find myself launching into a tirade anytime there is a nearby comment about the impending doom of global warming. After this brief written opinion, I'm sure my e-mail box will overflow with vehement diatribes from hysterical "greenies" who believe what they want to hear. I nearly burst an artery at the recent Global Warming Issue of Backpacker magazine. Instead of gear tips and where-to-go articles, it was filled with hand wringing about how everything we know and love about the outdoors will be changed and destroyed because of our ridiculous demands for televisions, hair care products and healthy, inexpensive food. (08/26/07)

On FNC, AccuWeather's Bastardi Argues Against Blaming Global Warming for Hurricanes - By Brad Wilmouth - On the Tuesday August 21 The O'Reilly Factor on FNC, AccuWeather senior meteorologist Joe Bastardi poured water on claims that a global warming trend has been the cause of hurricanes of increased intensity as he contended that the Northern Hemisphere similarly saw periods of increased hurricane activity in past decades, going back to the 1890s. Bastardi: "We're back in the '30's, '40's and 50's. This back and forth cycle that occurs, we saw it in the 1890s to 1910. ... And people are just getting carried away and fascinated when, if they go back and look at what happened before, you can see the similarities." (08/26/07)

Falsification Of The Atmospheric Co2 Green house Effects Within The Frame Of Physics - Gerlich, a proffessor of mathematical physics at the Technical University Carolo-Wilhelmina in Germany and his colleague proffessor, Ralf D. Tscheuschner, examined the so-called "greenhouse effect" and found it to be pure fiction as an instrument of alledged global warming. In 114 pages laden with complicated equations, citations from the scientific literature, examinations of various experiments and conclusions based on physics and the laws of physics, the researchers expose the fraudulent grounds upon which the global warming theory rests. "It is shown that this effect neither has experimental nor theoretical foundations and must be considered as fictitious," the report states, adding that "the claim that Co2 emissions give rise to anthropogenic { manmade} climate changes has no physical basis." View the actual report. (08/25/07)

Nutcase warmist James Hansen is at it again. Now he knows bettter than the UN. I guess the IPCC is not "alarmist" enough for him any more.
Will oceans surge 59 centimetres this century - or 25 metres? - By ZOE CORMIER - LONDON -- When Al Gore predicted that climate change could lead to a 20-foot rise in sea levels, critics called him alarmist. After all, the International Panel on Climate Change, which receives input from top scientists, estimates surges of only 18 to 59 centimetres in the next century. But a study led by James Hansen, the head of the climate science program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and a professor at Columbia University, suggests that current estimates for how high the seas could rise are way off the mark - and that in the next 100 years melting ice could sink cities in the United States to Bangladesh. "If we follow 'business-as-usual' growth of greenhouse gas emissions," he writes in an e-mail interview, "I think that we will lock in a guaranteed sea-level rise of several metres, which, frankly, means that all hell is going to break loose." The scientific basis for this idea - which Prof. Hansen and five co-authors gleaned from geological records, ice core samples and analysis of the sea floor - is outlined in a recent paper published by the British journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. In stark contrast to estimates put forward by the IPCC, Prof. Hansen and his colleagues argue that rapidly melting ice caps in Antarctica and Greenland could cause oceans to swell several metres by 2100 - or maybe even as much as 25 metres, which is how much higher the oceans sat about three million years ago. (08/25/07)

To combat global warming, catch them young ... Workshops to motivate students to contribute towards saving the climate - NEW DELHI: The Worldwide Fund for Nature has joined hands with Tetra Pak Industries to launch the "Young Climate Savers" programme beginning next month under which a series of workshops on climate change will be conducted in schools across the country. The workshops are aimed at educating and motivating students to contribute towards reducing global warming. Students will be taught to promote energy-efficient lifestyles and eco-friendly attitudes. (08/25/07)

Why do some deny global warming? - Because not all of us are as gullable as Mr. Scholfield. By Randy Scholfield - The Earth might be having health problems these days, but global warming denial is alive and well. Witness Cal Thomas' column Wednesday in this space, which even by his overheated standards was a doozy. Cal pronounced warming a hoax perpetrated by "global warming jihadists." That's right -- jihadists. Climate scientists are the new terrorist group! (08/25/07)

The Truth Hurts - Global warming tale looking more like fictional movie than fact - By Licia Corbella -

A new apocalyptic movie being filmed, in part, on the T'suu Tina Nation reserve near Calgary claims to be fuelled by science. It's a nice try, but this piece of fiction is fuelled by ... well, fiction. Agee the actor polar bear will star as the world's last polar bear on Earth in a made-for-TV movie set in the year 2075. The idea for the film comes from the belief that polar bears are on thin ice -- literally and figuratively -- as a result of man-made global warming. Terry Marsh, president of Calgary-based Full Frontal Films and this movie's production manager, wrapped up one-month of filming in Calgary and area yesterday and was reached while en route to the airport for Paris, where filming will continue. "This movie is based on a United Nations report on global warming," says Marsh. "It's a docu-drama -- which is heavy on the drama. It's not a glitzy, Hollywood production about climate change, it's a very serious look at what might actually happen as a result of global warming." That's curious, says I. I just read some reports by polar bear experts and despite what many global warming alarmists claim, polar bears are not dying and drowning, but surviving and thriving. "I have no idea about that," says Marsh. "This is only a movie and I'm a film maker, not a scientist." GOOD POINT. But, will the movie claim to be based on science? The answer to that question, is, infuriatingly, "yes." In other words, just like the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who's going to let a few facts get in the way of a good piece of fiction or even a United Nations' report? Polar bears, in case you haven't noticed yet, are the poster boy -- or is that, poster bear? -- for proponents in the theory of man-made global warming.

Photo: www.theagge.com.au

Virtually every news clip and certainly most documentaries about global warming shows some beleaguered-looking polar bear perched perilously on a small piece of ice apparently in grave danger of drowning. Here's some more shocking news. Polar bears can swim! Last spring, Dr. Mitchell Taylor, a wildlife biologist with the Government of Nunavut's Department of Environment presented a 12-page report to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which was endeavouring to determine whether it should declare the polar bear "threatened" under its Endangered Species Act. Taylor's report showed that of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada's north -- all but two are increasing or remaining stable. According to a Nunavut Department of Environment spokesman, Taylor is "out in the field tagging polar bears" in the 140,000 sq.-km Davis Strait area. Taylor has reported that in the mid-1980s there were just 850 bears in Davis Strait, whereas earlier this year there were 2,100. The worldwide numbers are way up too. As he said at the time: "Scientific knowledge has demonstrated that Inuit knowledge was right. There aren't just a few more bears, there are a hell of a lot more bears." An inconvenient truth for the prophets of global warming doom, to be sure, but nothing that will stop them from needlessly alarming children about disappearing polar bears. more... (08/24/07)

Latest Research Erodes CO2's Role in Global Warming - By Michael Asher - Researchers on three different continents agree; CO2 is not the devil we once thought -- Last week I reported on a new study by the Belgium Royal Meteorological Institute that stated the effects of CO2 on world temperatures had been "grossly overstated". The RMI's conclusion is supported by a pair of recent papers, both of which severely downgrade the warming effect of carbon dioxide. The first is by atmospheric scientist Stephen Schwartz, of Brookhaven National Labs. Entitled, "Heat Capacity, Time Constant, and Sensitivity of Earth's Climate System", the paper is based on more accurate estimates of feedback processes in the Earth's atmosphere. It concludes the IPCC estimate of 2 - 4.5C degrees warming (from the anticipated 1900-2100 doubling of CO2 levels) is much too high, and the actual figure should be closer to 1.1 degree. The conclusion is very significant as we've already experienced some 0.7 degrees of that warming. That means over the next century, only an additional 0.4 degrees warming is expected. And after that, the warming effect will nearly vanish. (08/24/07)

Canadian Opposition Party Threatens Fall Election Over Global Warming Policies - By Noel Sheppard - If you had any question as to how hot the climate change debate is getting in governments around the world, all you need do is look at our neighbor to the north for answers. On Thursday, members of Canada's Liberal Party threatened Prime Minister Stephen Harper with a fall election if he didn't change course on his global warming policies. (08/24/07)

UNBELIEVABLE! Texax A&M Professor says "...in 50 to 100 years, most of the population won't be alive."
SPE study group gets lesson in global warming - Ruth Campbell, Midland Reporter-Telegram - There is no question people -- and the output of carbon dioxide -- are contributing factors to global warming. If nothing is done, it's a "coin flip" on how it's going to turn out, said Andrew E. Dessler, professor at the Texas A&M University College of Geosciences. Dessler spoke to a group of 40 people at the Society of Petroleum Engineers Environmental Study Group meeting Thursday at the Advanced Technology Center. Most attending are in the environmental side of the oil and gas industry. - His presentation, titled "An Update on the Science of Climate Change: What We Know and Why You Should Believe It," went through how scientific assessments are done. "The future is hard to predict," Dessler said. "It is certainly possible we'll see a warming" of 2 to 3 degrees Celsius, which could be dangerous. "You never really know how it's going to turn out, or if all your assumptions are right. The possible downside of being wrong is enormous. The time horizon is such that ... in 50 to 100 years, most of the population won't be alive." (08/24/07)

This is by far the most ridiculous "movie review" I have ever read. It amazes me that any publisher would print it.
A grim reminder that global warming is a catastrophe - By Wesley Morris, Globe Staff - I don't know how things are in your life. But no matter what's going on, this planet has got you beat. We've made it sick, and it, in turn, is sick and tired of us. We have the floods, fires, droughts, heat waves, melting ice caps, and endangered or extinct species to prove it. "The 11th Hour," the exhaustively depressing documentary (there's no dressing this up) that brings us this news, has the misfortune to be yet another global warming warning. [....] More than once, we're reminded that 99 percent of species that have ever appeared on this planet in the last few billion years haven't lasted. Extinction is part of life. So, hey Earth: Things might be looking up for you after all. We won't be around to torture you much longer. Amen! For the few of us that remain with our sanity intact, that day can't come soon enough. (08/24/07)

Global warming alarms not worth their salt - Marc Sheppard - Two years ago scientists warned that the North Atlantic Ocean had become much less salty over the past 50 years due to global warming. This year, scientists warn that the North Atlantic Ocean has become more salty over the past 50 years due to -- guess what? (08/24/07)

California Faces Conundrum Over Global Warming - By Brian Farmer - A recent poll indicates a majority of Californians claim to believe in global warming, but that most in the state have no inclination to do anything about it. (08/24/07)

IS GLOBAL WARMING SERIOUS ENOUGH TO LIFT CALIF. BAN ON NUKE PLANTS? - What if Californians considered the relative risks and rewards of nuclear power vs. global warming, increased use of imported fossil fuels and massive electricity rate hikes, and decided in favor of nuclear power? The California Energy Independence and Zero Carbon Dioxide Emission Electrical Generation Act slated for the June 2008 ballot will give Californians that choice, says Chuck DeVore, a California state assemblyman representing Orange County. The proposed initiative overturns California's nuclear ban, enacts seismic and environmental restrictions that place about 40 percent of the state off limits to nuclear power, and approves on-site dry-cask storage of spent fuel as an acceptable storage method for 100 years, says Devore. (08/24/07)

Environment Canada's Climate Change Fiasco - Global Warming rivals Sponsorship Scandal - By Dr. Tim Ball, Natural Resources Stewardship Project - Many years ago, I warned Henry Hengeveld of Environment Canada (EC) that, if he thought it was difficult to convince ministers and MPs that global warming was due to human carbon dioxide (CO2) production, it would be twice as difficult to change their minds once they were convinced. The theory was, and still is, unproven of course, but by adopting it so completely so early on, Hengeveld would find himself on a treadmill virtually impossible to get off. After all, it would be very dangerous for a bureaucrat to go back to those same politicians with the message that their political positions were wrong because they were based on wrong information. (08/24/07)

Dennis Miller Explains Why He Stopped Caring About Global Warming - Comedian Dennis Miller used to be fairly liberal. However, in a recent interview with Bill O'Reilly, he reveals that he's actually a pragmatist who has been slammed for speaking his mind. Whatever your opinion of him, he did explain his position on Global Warming. Here's a snippet from the interview: (08/24/07)

Environmentalism: Religion for the Godless - By Matthew Sheffield - In a time when modern science and scholarship have begun to cast doubts on traditional faith, many on the left, right, and center are increasingly abandoning traditional religion. While most such people on the center-right are content simply not to believe, many on the left continue to cling to the salvationist ethos. In the past, that impulse was satiated with communistic reveries. If religion was the opiate of the masses, socialism was the heroin of the secular leftist. That no longer seems, at least outwardly, to be the case. With a worldwide record of abject failure, socialism lost its claim to the miraculous. Despite this, the left's desire for cosmic justice remained unfilled; it was only a matter of time before something stepped into the teleological breach. (08/24/07)

Oh no, not again!
Brown mulls run for governor in 2010 - Attorney general says state's biggest problem is global warming. - By Andy Furillo - Riding high on a global warming action plan he wants to take statewide, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said Wednesday he's thinking about running for governor when the job opens up again in 2010. "The thought has certainly crossed my mind, but I haven't really come to any conclusion," Brown said over coffee in a meeting with The Bee's Capitol Bureau staff. GOD HELP US! (08/23/07)

Scary, but out here in Moonbeam's wild wild west, anything is possible!
Today's editorial: "All-time prescription for ultimate power" - If government takes jurisdiction over vital atmospheric gases, what couldn't it control? - An Orange County Register Editorial - The monumental cost of California's highly touted Global Warming Solutions Act (Assembly Bill 32) is coming into focus. Attorney General Jerry Brown and the county of San Bernardino on Tuesday settled his lawsuit to force compliance with AB32's regulations, which won't even exist for several more years. County officials estimate paperwork costs to be more than $500,000. Not to worry. Mr. Brown promised to help the county recoup that from your taxes. The county agreed to inventory all "sources of greenhouse gases in the county" existing today, that existed in 1990 and that would exist in 2020 if no mitigation measures were taken. County officials also agreed to adopt "feasible mitigations" by amending their general plan to reduce greenhouse gases to 80 percent of 1990's level by 2050... (08/23/07)

Story Time with E: Global Warming - Just Another Tedious Religion - The cover story of last week's Newsweek patriotically exposed the global warming "denial machine," effectively branding global warming doubters as heretics. This is the kind of thing that happens when lefties find religion - they become as intolerably smug as right-wingers. (08/23/07)

FOX Avoids Global Warming During Hurricane Season - Hurricane coverage is serious business at FOX News but don't expect them to bring global warming or climate change into their coverage. That's because there is absolutely NO EVIDENCE to link hurricanes to global warming. After Rupert Murdoch's recent expression of environmental concern, one might expect this hurricane season to be different. However, last night,8/21/08, Joe Bastardi once again appeared on FOX News to talk about "hurricane cycles" just like he did in 2006 and 2005. Maybe Bastardi never got Murdoch's memo. Then again, maybe he did. Or maybe it's because Bastardi is a professional, not a political hack like the weather babe, "Dr." Heidi Cullen. (08/23/07)

A Carbon Tax Would Be Cleaner - By NICOLE GELINAS - Though skeptics may still grumble that the science isn't settled, some 84% of Americans think humans are contributing to climate change, with 78% (and 60% of Republicans) saying we should do something about it "right away," according to a recent poll. The political answer to all this anxiety has arrived. Prominent politicians -- including first-tier Democratic and Republican candidates -- are embracing a national "cap and trade" program to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. Powerful corporate leaders are right behind them; and even the Bush administration, led by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, is reportedly considering the costs and benefits of various cap and trade proposals after years of opposition. The mechanics of such regulation are complex, but one result is certain: It will exact a toll on our economy. (08/23/07)

This just in!!! Breaking!!! Global Warming is caused by gassy moose! - By Shea Gunther - I knew it! Global Warming is caused by burping and farting Moose (Meese? Mooses? Meeses?). Let's get rid of 'em so we can get back to driving our cars around. The poor old Scandinavian moose is now being blamed for climate change, with researchers in Norway claiming that a grown moose can produce 2,100 kilos of methane a year - equivalent to the CO2 output resulting from a 13,000 kilometer car journey. Now poor moose are being blamed for global warming. Norway is concerned that its national animal, the moose, is harming the climate by emitting an estimated 2,100 kilos of carbon dioxide a year through its belching and farting. Norwegian newspapers, citing research from Norway's technical university, said a motorist would have to drive 13,000 kilometers in a car to emit as much CO2 as a moose does in a year. (08/22/07)

Is that Kumbaya I hear?
Global warming could be a friend - By McAvoy Layne - The Lake Tahoe Forum of 2007 proved that concern for our environment can transcend political divides. This leads me to suspect that global warming might eventually align antagonistic nations and religions against a common threat to our mutual survival. Could it be, after all, that global warming might actually save us? Let's look at some of the possibilities... (08/22/07)

The global warming crisis ... really? - By Craig Kincannon - So, the science is settled. The scientific community has reached a consensus; global warming is real and it is the result of our visit here on the great ship mother earth. Only one problem I see with that: "Consensus" has no place in science. And unless my Webster's New World dictionary is wrong, consensus is simply "an opinion held by many or most." While the opinion held by many is certainly a factual statement when discussing the issue, once you've gotten past the hypothesis stage and actually run tests, verifiable, repeatable tests, there is no longer room for your opinion. The results should speak for themselves. (08/22/07)

Caution urged on global warming - Legislators hear scientists say there are causes beside humans. - By Brandon Larrabee, The Times-Union - ATLANTA - Georgia lawmakers shouldn't overreact to the scientific consensus that the world is getting warmer and humans are at least partly to blame, a handful of scientists told a legislative panel Tuesday. The scientists, some of whom cast doubt on the idea that the warming is mainly caused by humans, appeared at a special hearing of the House Energy, Utilities & Telecommunication called "Global Warming: Fact or Fiction?" Rep. Jeff Lewis, R-White, said he called the meeting because of a recent presentation at a national legislative conference that promoted the idea of global warming and taking the steps needed to prevent it. "We need to hear both sides," Lewis said [...]"No one here is going to say CO2 has zero effect," said John Christy, director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. "It is going to have an effect on climate change in some way." But he said the carbon dioxide-induced warming paled in comparison to some natural causes. "Water vapor and clouds are the big story here," he said. (08/22/07)

Man-Made Global Warming Links Challenged - Many media outlets such as the recent Newsweek magazine cover story, portray man-made global warming as fact and those who deny it as conspirators. But skeptics are increasingly certain that the scare is vastly overblown. A new study by Brookhaven National Lab scientist Stephen Schwartz contends that the Earth's climate is only about one-third as sensitive to carbon dioxide as the United Nations' recent climate study claims. Schwarz's work will be published in The Journal of Geophysical Research. The study is just one of several peer-reviewed scientific studies challenging global warming alarmism. The Belgian Weather Institute concludes that carbon dioxide does not have a decisive role in global warming. A study by two Chinese scientists says CO2's role in warming is "vastly exaggerated." (08/22/07)

Lawmakers air out global warming - By Dave Williams - ATLANTA -- The threat posed by global warming is being exaggerated by "alarmists," several scientists who have been criticized as "deniers" told a Georgia House committee Tuesday. But even if the worst fears associated with rising temperatures come to pass, there's little the current generation of technology could do that would be worth the economic costs, a panel of scientists associated with universities and think tanks testified during a special hearing of the Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications Committee. "This is not going to be something to cause major harm to humankind," said Joel Schwartz, senior fellow and scientist with the American Enterprise Institute. "But even if it was, the cure would be worse than the disease." (08/21/07)

Coldest August Day in NYC in Almost a Century - By Noel Sheppard - All you global warming skeptics, deniers, and court jesters better stow your potables, combustibles, and sharp objects safely from proximity of electronic equipment, because it was absolutely a frigid August day in the Big Apple Tuesday. HOW COLD WAS IT? Well, as reported by WCBSTV.com, this is the coldest August day in New York City in almost a century. (08/21/07)

Excellent read
Silencing global warming skeptics - Walter Williams - A minority view - ...Suppression of ideas is far more dangerous to our civilization than manmade global warming - real or imagined. Given the horrible history of brutal attempts to silence people who have different ideas or dissent from the conventional wisdom, those of us in the academic and scientific communities ought to openly repudiate and condemn the efforts to silence global warming skeptics. This is particularly so in light of the mounting evidence that manmade CO2 emissions have little or nothing to do with climate change. (08/21/07)

Calling out the global warming alarmists - Christopher Alleva - Dr. Bob Carter, a research professor at James Cook University (Queensland, Australia), and Tom Harris, Executive Director of Canada's Natural Resources Stewardship Project, have laid it on the line about global warming alarmists in an article that appeared in the Canadian Free Press. Carter studies ancient environments and climate. The Natural Resources Stewardship Project has undertaken a project they call Understanding Climate Change. Their article explored the shortcomings of the science that is so shaky a school girl (albeit a rather precocious one) like Kristen Byrnes, armed with a rudimentary knowledge of science and a small dose of courage, can challenge the myriad investigators funded by federal and UN billions. (08/21/07)

Skip the global warming hype and live a cleaner life - The Earth is warming! So what? The Earth only does one of two things -- warms or cools. Think! It's never static. In the early 1300s, France imposed one of the first tariffs. It was against cheap and popular English wine, which was costing the French vineyards business. The point is England has been too cold to grow any amount of wine for the past 500 years. Was Greenland named that because Norse explorers were witty? No, it was a green land a thousand years ago. They built settlements and then in later years were frozen out because of global cooling. Were these and the other recorded swings in global temperature caused by changes in the ratio of "Green" Democrats to dirty Republicans or could it be some greater mechanism? (08/21/07)

Moonbeam Update; A Double!

Brown criticizes refinery plans - Contra Costa officials voice intent to comply with emissions law - By Lisa Vorderbrueggen, STAFF WRITER - California Attorney General Jerry Brown, who sued San Bernardino County for failing to factor in greenhouse gas emissions in its general plan, is turning his attention to Contra Costa County and its two refinery expansion proposals. Brown has submitted critical comments to Richmond planners as part of the city's environmental analysis of a Chevron project and appealed the county Planning Commission's approval of a ConocoPhillips Rodeo refinery upgrade on the grounds that it has failed to mitigate the impacts on global warming. The attorney general personally called all five members of the county's Board of Supervisors, who will vote on the appeal, and met in San Francisco last week with supervisors Gayle Uilkema and John Gioia, who sit on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The enigmatic Brown, who could not be reached for comment, has also scheduled a meeting this week in Contra Costa County with local union leaders whose members work in the refineries. (08/21/07)

Emissions pact near in San Bernardino County - Board of supervisors meets today to vote on settling the state's emissions-related lawsuit, which was a factor in budget stalemate. - By Margot Roosevelt - San Bernardino County is expected today to approve a "unique and very powerful plan to combat global warming," state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said Monday. The county Board of Supervisors will meet in closed session to vote on the settlement of a lawsuit that Brown filed in April to force the county to account for greenhouse gas emissions in its 10-year growth plan. San Bernardino County, the largest county by acreage in the lower 48 states, has been growing at breakneck speed in a sprawl pattern that has drawn sharp criticism from environmental planners. More than 500,000 new residents are expected to move into the county by 2030, bringing its population to 2.5 million. Although the outcome of the lawsuit is not final until today, Brown said he had met with the county board chairman, vice chairman and general counsel and that "they took it very seriously. There were proposals back and forth. What we have now is the product of genuine cooperation." (08/21/07)

Over at Arianna's place, Mooney wonders how we can tie Hurricane Dean to global warming without actually tieing Hurricane Dean to global warming. Make sense?
What We Can and Can't Say About Global Warming and Hurricane Dean - By Chris Mooney - Now we see why the ancient Mayans built their cities inland from the coasts. Early this morning, Hurricane Dean slammed the Yucatan as a still-intensifying Category 5 storm with sustained winds upwards of 165 miles per hour. Dean required some troubling readjustments of our hurricane records, and as a result, we may hear some serious chatter today about the relationship between these intense storms and global warming. For that reason, the purpose of this post is to lay out what we can and can't reliably say about Hurricane Dean. The upshot is this: We have to be careful what we claim and how we claim it, but even so, Dean fits into a worrisome pattern. (08/21/07) But here is the extended version for The Daily Green by Chris Mooney, "The Storm Pundit"
Hurricane Dean: 1 Of 10 Most Intense Atlantic Hurricanes Ever Measured - ...Dean was officially the most powerful hurricane that we've seen globally so far in 2007, and was by far the strongest at landfall. It was also the first Category 5 Atlantic hurricane seen in the since the record-setting Hurricane Wilma of October 2005. In fact, Dean set some records of its own. Its pressure was the ninth lowest ever measured in the Atlantic, and the third lowest at landfall. Indeed, there hasn't been a full Category 5 landfall in our part of the world since 1992's Hurricane Andrew. Dean was in all respects a terrifying storm, and we can only hope that the damage will somehow be less than expected as it tears across the peninsula and then, after crossing the Bay of Campeche, moves on to a presumed second Mexican landfall. (08/21/07)

Buddhadeb blames US for global warming - KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday accused the US of being "largely responsible for global warming". His comments come at a time when the CPIM leadership has locked horns with the Congress-led UPA government over the controversial Indo-US nuke deal. (08/21/07)

Another junk article by greenie John Sibley suggests skeptics be ignored by using the "Exxon-Mobil" tag.
Global warming: Don't take skeptics at face value - By JOHN SIBLEY - ...It will be important to the success of the public conversation for the committee to be sure that the overwhelming weight of scientific analysis - as typified by the IPCC reports - is fully and fairly presented. The well-organized deniers certainly have a point of view to add, but they should be recognized for whom they are and not treated as if they represent the mainstream. It appears that this first hearing is heavily overweighted in their favor. (08/21/07)

Heathrow protesters ignore evidence against global warming - Sir - Last week rain fell not only on the rag-bag of climate-change activists camped outside Heathrow, it also poured on the whole global-warming parade. First, new research indicates that our climate may be only one third as sensitive to C02 as has been assumed. Secondly, corrected temperature figures for America from Nasa indicate that the hottest year in the 20th century was 1934, not in the 1990s. Thirdly, recent satellite figures from the National Oceanic and