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October 2007 Archives

MUST READ FOLLOW-UP: Huffington Post Blogger Chris McGowan takes heat from the looney left for not towing the liberal line!
Chaparral & Global Warming Footnotes - By Chris McGowan - On October 24, I published the blog Global Warming Not Behind SoCal Fires. Many readers disagreed passionately, and I found myself, a card-carrying Sierra Club member and longtime Al Gore fan, in the odd position of being urged to go to "Republican fact-check school." Interestingly, the next day Los Angeles Times writer Alan Zarembo published a piece called "Global Warming Not A Factor In Wildfires."
Certain critics didn't read my piece carefully, and thought that I was another global-warming skeptic. No, I'm not on Michael Crichton or Rush Limbaugh's team. I believe global warming is a threat, and probably has been a factor in wildfires sweeping through drought-stricken conifer forests in recent years. My blog, however, was specifically about the chaparral brushland of Southern California, not about pine, fir and cedar forests of the West. There is a big difference, as locals know (or should know). We're talking about manzanita, ceanothus, laurel sumac, chamise, scrub oak, and the other thorny scrubs that grow on the hills and up to about five or six thousand feet in the local ranges. In my blog, I argued that "the blame for the conflagrations should be placed on chaparral, a growing population, and inadequate suburban planning." More. (10/31/07)

You can't blame fires on man-made global warming - Froma Harrop's column on global warming and wildfires ("There's no more time for inaction," Oct. 27) made the claim that man-made global warming is responsible for the forest fires but offered zero evidence supporting her claim. Here are a few "inconvenient truths" for those who were taken in by all that hyperbole.
During the past two years, leftist environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the Forest Conservation Council have filed more than 400 federal lawsuits against U.S. Forest Service proposals to thin forests and prevent forest fires. The lawsuits delayed efforts to treat 900,000 acres of forests and cost the federal government millions of dollars to address.
The result? Our forests are thicker (more trees/fuel) than at any time in America's history. The buildup of organic materials (fuel) on the forest floors is at an all-time high as well.
Guess what? More fuel equals forest fires that are more intense and more difficult to contain. And it has absolutely nothing to do with the 21st-century pseudo-religion of man-made global warming. ~ Bruce Gordon, Fishers (10/31/07)

NewsBusters: Media's New Motto: All Societal Problems Caused by Global Warming - By Noel Sheppard - As America ends a second consecutive below-average hurricane season since Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" incorrectly forecast greater and stronger tropical storms due to global warming, it's become apparent that media are trying new strategies to scare the public into believing the hysteria.
Last week, the game plan was to blame the California wildfires on climate change. This week, it's health problems such as heart attacks, strokes, and respiratory diseases. More. (10/30/07)

Kooky advice from one kook to another...
Al Gore Should Add Go Vegetarian to Global Warming Pledge - PETA - Matt Prescott - The Nobel committee has made a powerful statement by awarding this year's Peace Prize to former vice president Al Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N.'s Environment Program, says, we now know "that what happens in the environment is not just about natural resources but has so many different dimensions." www.peta.org
Scientists and economists warn that climate change will lead not only to droughts and rising sea levels, but also to disease outbreaks, economic mayhem and conflicts among people struggling to survive in an ever more hostile environment. Already we are starting to see the first climate wars in Africa, where farmers are facing off with herders and nomads because the changing climate has brought drought and a decline in fertile lands.
"We face a true planetary emergency," says Mr. Gore. Which is why PETA has asked Gore and his Alliance for Climate Protection to make their "7-Point Pledge" an "8-Point Pledge"--adding "Go vegetarian" to the top of the list. More idiocy. (10/30/07)

The new morality - By Klaus Rohrich - All cultures require a set of moral principles in order to maintain a sense of self-worth. Our own culture is currently in the process of redefining our understanding of morality to better conform to the dominant social and political ethos. All that was once a moral imperative is now passe and a new sense of morality is appearing on the social and cultural landscape.
Issues such as premarital sex, cheating on exams, attending church, drug use, abortion and a long list of others have gradually eroded from the moral radar and have left a vacuum that is being filled by a new set of moral values.
Interestingly these values, while they assume a moral importance, have little to do with morality in the absolute sense and tend to be more political as well as relative in nature. The terminology that defines this new morality involves words such as "sexism", "homophobia", "racism" and my own personal favorite "denial of global warming". Continued. (10/30/07)

Don't sweat global warming; Hollywood is on it - By BRUCE D. CALLANDER - I don't think we have to worry any more about global warming. Hollywood is taking care of it.
I saw a movie on TV the other night where New York was flooded up to the first floor of the public library. A lot of people had crowded into the library for safety and they weren't even asking to see their library cards. It was that kind of crisis.
Then, the smart scientist got hold of the thing and managed to reverse the global warming. Manhattan drained dry and was as good as new in a few minutes. There was a little seaweed on the streets and a couple of motor boats marooned in Times Square, but nothing that couldn't be sorted out. More. (10/30/07)

Barbara Kay: Score a point for the global warming 'deniers' - Despite enviro-warriors' best efforts to suppress dissent from "deniers," the debate continues: Nagging questions keep arising over the causes of global warming, its long-term effects and whether in fact humans can influence environmental outcomes, no matter how many billions we spend.
Most media genuflect before Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth." Every shrinking minuscule Pacific atoll, every less-than-roly-poly Polar bear is front page news. But facts that don't support, or that counter the "sky is falling" scenario tend to be ignored or shuffled off to journalistic Siberia.
An illustrative case in point is a thought-provoking fragment of ephemera tucked away on the back page of the October 25 Wall St Journal (WSJ).
Does the name John Christy ring a bell? It should if you care about the environment, so colour yourself embarrassed if it doesn't. He's the real scientist from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change who was Al Gore's co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. In their "Notable and Quotable" section, the WSJ excerpted a few telling moments of dialogue from a post-Nobel CNN interview with him.
From it we learn that yes, it is true the ice at the North Pole has been diminished to a record minimum. No surprise there: Who can watch the news for a week without viewing at least one Bermuda-size chunk of Arctic ice shearing off a towering 'berg and plunging dramatically into the sea?
Scary stuff. Except that it isn't, because according to Christy, the extent of Antarctic ice - which accounts for a full 90% of the earth's ice ( i.e. the Arctic contains a mere 10%) - has just reached its all-time maximum. Thickening ice may not be an ambitious journalist's money shot, but it's still - or should be - environmental news the public deserves to know about. More. (10/29/07)

2007 Hurricane Season: What Season?

2007 Hurricane Season: Where's the Beef, Part II - By Michael Asher - Doom-and-gloomers are silent (except for the "Looney Mooney" story below) as another historically low year comes to a close - Back in July, I predicted 2007 would be a very mild hurricane season. Many called the claim premature, and even irresponsible, despite the fact that other media sources had months earlier predicted far more dire events.
Its now three months later and, with the season in the final month, my crystal ball seems vindicated. COAPS, the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, has just released data showing 2007 activity to be nearly 50% below average. In their own words, unless we experience a dramatic flurry in activity, 2007 will rank as historically inactive. Just as the year before was. More. (10/29/07)

As the 2007 hurricane season wanes, the "Storm Pundit" looney Chris Mooney tries desperately to keep the alarmist myth alive. Truly pathetic.
The 2007 Hurricane Season: Lion, Lamb, Lion? - It's hard now even to believe that the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season started off with two Category 5 storms. The Gabrielles, the Karens, the Melissas - they've slowly made us forget storms like Dean and Felix. For the time being, anyway.
I mean, sure: Hurricanes Humberto and Lorenzo were extremely rapid intensifiers. But they were only Category 1 storms for a few hours apiece-failing to provide sustained drama of the sort that makes CNN run an storm update every hour for days at a time. Except among the wonks who track hurricane records, these storms were quickly forgotten.
But now, here comes Tropical Storm Noel. Sure, it may never become a hurricane. On the other hand, it is dumping prodigious rain over Hispaniola, the island that is home to both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. 2004's Tropical Depression Jeanne, which killed 3,000 people in Haiti in this way, is being invoked frequently right now. After all, you don't need an intense hurricane to cause a lot of death and damage if you've got mountainous terrain and a slow moving storm that pours down precipitation. Right now, the fear is that Noel will be one of these, and that the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season will close out nastily after all. Nice try. More. (10/29/07)

Senator Barbara Boxer Can't Resist Blaming Fires On Global Warming - By Duane Patterson - A 61 minute stem-winder was given on the Senate floor today by one of California's dimmest elected bulbs, Barbara Boxer. Serving this term as the Albert A. Gore, Jr. czar of the Senate Global Warming Will Kill All Life On Earth If We Don't Regulate Everything Committee, Senator Boxer spewed enough CO2 single-handedly today during her speech to be classifed a gross polluter. Lunacy continues... (10/29/07)

More Hysterical Claims Bush Censoring Climate Change Information - By Noel Sheppard - Do you find it amazing that the same media doing everything possible to ignore global warming skeptics whilst almost exclusively focusing attention on entities advancing climate change hysteria (i.e. Al Gore) are constantly accusing the Bush administration of censorship regarding this issue?
The most recent example of such absurdity transpired when assertions were made about nefariously edited Senate testimony given last Tuesday by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Julie Gerberding.
Though many in the media credited the Associated Press for breaking the story, it appears this conspiracy theory might first have been hatched by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Cal.), as according to LexisNexis, the following announcement posted at the website of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works was published by US Fed News at 2:46AM EST Tuesday: Continued. (10/29/07)

'Today' Tries Carbon-Belching Publicity Stunt for Global Warming Awareness
Lauer, Roker and Curry travel to extremes 'to find out what's going on with the world's climate.' - By Jeff Poor - Business & Media Institute -- Even though NBC's "Today" crew is fretting over the effects of climate change and the price of oil, exceeding $90 a barrel - that isn't stopping them from traveling to the "ends of the earth" in the name of climate change. The trips will release nearly 25 tons of carbon into the atmosphere - more than three times what a typical American uses in a year. More. (10/29/07)

After hundreds of stories predicting that global warming would be and has been responsible for killer droughts in Africa, warmists are tired of waiting. Now that the expected killer droughts have failed to materialize, the global warming alarmists have shifted gears.
Global Warming Causing African Floods, Experts Say - Alexis Okeowo in Kampala, Uganda for National Geographic News - Twenty-two African countries are experiencing their worst wet seasons in decades, and climate experts say that global warming is to blame.
Devastating rains and flash floods have affected 1.5 million people across the continent, killing at least 300 since early summer.
West Africa has seen its most severe floods in years, as torrents swamped the Democratic Republic of the Congo's capital of Kinshasa last week, killing 30 people in less than 24 hours.
In northern Ghana, more than 300,000 people have been uprooted by devastating downpours. Alarmism continues. (10/29/07)

Absurdity of the day...
Global warming may hit kids harder, pediatrics group says - By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY - Global warming is likely to disproportionately harm the health of children, and politicians should launch "aggressive policies" to curb climate change, the American Academy of Pediatrics said today.
In the first major report about the unique effects of global warming on kids, U.S. pediatricians also were advised to "educate" elected officials about the coming dangers.
There's evidence that children are likely to suffer more than adults from climate change, says the report's lead author, Katherine Shea, a pediatrician and adjunct public health professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
"We already have change, and certain bad things are going to happen no matter what we do," Shea says. "But we can prevent things from getting even worse. We don't have the luxury of waiting."
More greenhouse gases and a warming Earth will leave children particularly vulnerable in several ways, the report says:
Air pollution does more damage to children's lungs, causing asthma and respiratory ailments, because their lungs are still developing, they breathe at a higher rate than adults and are outdoors more. No shit! But C02 is not "pollution".
Waterborne infections, such as diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems, hit children especially hard. These infections rise sharply with more rain, which is expected as the climate warms. Maybe in some regions, but in other parts of the world it will be drier...you know, all those doom and gloom predeictions of drought, etc.
As mosquitoes are able to move to higher ground, the malaria zone is expanding. Kids are especially vulnerable; 75% of malaria deaths occur in children younger than 5. So this is the new strategy. Mix a spoonful of truth with a tonn of bullshit. Lets see what the real story is on malaria.
[...]
The Associated Press reported that Gerberding's speech was "eviscerated" by the White House, but CDC spokesman Tom Skinner denied it, adding that Gerberding said everything she wanted to say without constraint.
"This is not a political issue, it's a public health issue," Shea says. "If we know the health of children and future children is threatened, we have an obligation to act." Yes they've even managed to work global warming into the new S-chip template - "Bush hates children". (10/29/07)

Blaming California's Fires on Global Warming - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took some grief last week for this assertion in a news conference:
One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming. (Listen to the audio here.)
Reid quickly backed off the statement, perhaps recognizing that 1. It would be better for leaders to support the people of California, rather than scoring political points. 2. There have always been fires and Santa Anna winds in the hills of California. 3. Global warming did not cause powerlines to fall and spark, arsonists to set the fires, or human activity to become more widespread in an arid yet forested area.
Unfortunately, Representative Ed Markey seems not to care about those points. This Thursday, his taxpayer-financed bully pulpit, the House Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee will be holding a hearing, "Wildfires and the Climate Crisis." From his Dear Colleagues letter, dated Oct. 19th, before the latest, worst fires:
Evidence shows that as a result of global warming, forest fires in our western states are burning more frequently and with greater intensity than we have ever seen before. Last year was the worst fire season in recorded history and this season is already second, with eight million acres burned.
This is not evidence, this is testimony from the scriptures of the Church of Global Warming, in which all earthly events lead back to transcendental climate change.
Trouble is, you can't debate faith. But you can debate the propriety of politicizing every bit of human tragedy in the world. (10/29/07)

The Spoof!
Global warming causes cat population explosion; kittens being born due to late-season breeding -- thanks balmy weather! - Seattle, Washington - Pussies are getting all hot and bothered resulting in an extension of the mating season that usually ends by October before starting up again in April. However, due to the balmy weather, cats are knocking their mittens and having kittens well into the fall and late winter. Many blame the cat population explosion directly on the unforeseen effects of global warming, while other say it is due to owners not neutering and spading their cats. More. (10/29/07)

Corn for carsCorn ethanol makes global warming worse - Tribune Editorial - Corn ethanol is the answer to global warming and American energy independence.
Right?
Wrong.
A bushel of new studies suggest that production of corn ethanol not only makes global warming worse but contributes heavily to water pollution. One reason is the heavy doses of nitrogen fertilizer that American farmers dump on corn fields... (10/29/07)

James Lovelock: Reducing emissions could speed global warming - By Charles Clover, Environment Editor - A rapid cutback in greenhouse gas emissions could speed up global warming, the veteran environmental maverick James Lovelock will warn in a lecture today.
Prof Lovelock, inventor of the Gaia theory that the planet behaves like a single organism, says this is because current global warming is offset by global dimming - the 2-3ºC of cooling cause by industrial pollution, known to scientists as aerosol particles, in the atmosphere.
His lecture will be delivered as Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, launches the results of a public consultation on the Government's proposed Climate Change Bill which is intended to cut Britain's greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.
Prof Lovelock will say in a lecture to the Royal Society: "Any economic downturn or planned cutback in fossil fuel use, which lessened aerosol density, would intensify the heating.
"If there were a 100 per cent cut in fossil fuel combustion it might get hotter not cooler. We live in a fool's climate. We are damned if we continue to burn fuel and damned if we stop too suddenly." Continued. (10/29/07)

Greenland finds growing evidence of global warming benefits - A STRANGE thing is happening at the edge of Poul Bjerge's forest, a place so minute and unexpected that it brings to mind the teeny piece of land that Woody Allen's father carries around in the film Love and Death.
Its four oldest trees - in fact, the four oldest pine trees in Greenland, named Rosenvinge's trees after the Dutch botanist who planted them in a mad experiment in 1893 - are waking up. After lapsing into stately, sleepy old age, they are exhibiting new sprinklings of green at their tops, as if someone had glued on fresh needles.
"The old ones, they're having a second youth," said Mr Bjerge, 78, who has watched the forest, called Qanasiassat, come to life, in fits and starts, since planting most of the trees in it 50 years ago. He beamed like a proud grandson. "They're growing again." More. (10/29/07)

Satire
Global Warming: War Is Good For The Environment
REPORTS the Guardian - "Call to use leftovers and cut food waste. Return to wartime values and reduce emissions, say campaigners."
Why not just return to war? If the people won't listen, let the knowing declare war upon their sorry heads. If they listen, hurrah! If they don't, then so be it; less people means less CO2 emissions. It is win-win.
Research by the government's waste reduction agency, Wrap, found that "one third of all food bought in Britain is thrown away - of which half is edible". (10/28/07)

The Spoof
Christmas Under Threat From Global Warming - There are only 59 shopping days left until Christmas, but don't get carried away just yet, because it may be cancelled altogether - due to nasty old Global Warming.
That's because a steady and unabated rise in the world's temperature has melted the ice pack around the North Pole, and toy factories owned by Father Christmas have had to be abandoned, as the sites have become too dangerous to work at. More. (10/28/07)

Skippy on global warming menu - Australian scientists claim eating cuddly kangaroos instead of cows will help reduce greenhouse gases.
One minute, Skippy's bouncing happily through the Outback with not a care in the world. The next, he's heralded as the latest superfood - delicious, nutritious and fabulously low fat - the natural solution to global warming.
A special Greenpeace report claims 20 million Aussies can dramatically reduce their carbon footprint by eating less beef and more of the local wildlife. Cows and sheep release vast quantities of methane through belching and flatulence, but kangaroos release virtually none. Continued. (10/28/07)

Global Warming? Hogwash!! - By Carlton Ross - The tree-hugging global warming radicals are out for one thing -- control of some aspect of our lives, our economy or our country. The present-day scaremongers of global warming make no sense in view of the long term history of this earth alternating from glacial age to interglacial (warming), then back to another glacial period. How long has each ice age lasted and how long has each interglacial period lasted? Entire article. (10/27/07)

California burning - By Ellis Washington -

While California burns down,
Harry Reid, from D.C. town,
Blames global warming,
Cries, "It's so alarming!"
But Rush proved Reid's a clown.
~ Paul (a poet and reader of my WND column)

Last Tuesday at a press conference, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made the ludicrous claim that the wildfires presently raging throughout Southern California were due to politics - that global warming was at least partly responsible for the blazes. (Listen to the audio). "One reason why we have the fires in Southern California is global warming," the Nevada Democrat told reporters, emphasizing the need to pass the Democrats' comprehensive energy package presently stalled in Congress.
A few minutes later in that same interview, the venerable senator was forced to retract his global warming theory by lying, obfuscating and saying he never said what everybody had heard him just say openly on TV. And Congress wonders why their approval ratings hover around single digits? More. (10/27/07)

Why light bulbs are accelerating global warming and mercury contamination - By Mike Adams - ...Isn't it interesting how the U.S. government requires Energy Saver statistics to be printed on washing machines, dryers and other household appliances, but NOT on incandescent light bulbs (which are, by any measure, the least efficient household appliances of all)? I think we should start with mandated labeling that shows the lifetime cost of each bulb sold at retail so that consumers can start to see the different in the total cost of ownership right there at the point of purchase. That would, for the first time, make consumers acutely aware of what it costs them to operate a light bulb, not to even mention the cost to the planet. Article begins here. (10/26/07)

2007: Global Warming Alarmism Reaches A "Tipping Point" - By Senator James Inhofe - The American people will soon be asked to support global warming cap-and-trade legislation that will be billed as a "solution" to global warming. These bills come at a time when the science is overwhelmingly taking away the basis for alarm.
An abundance of new peer-reviewed studies, analyses, 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 are "falling apart."
I have addressed global warming on the Senate floor more than a dozen times since 2003, and today's speech will reveal that peer-reviewed studies and scientists are coming over to many of the concerns I raised years ago. More. (10/26/07)

Wildfires: Global Warming to Blame? - Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine: Global Warming Connection?
The contention by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and others earlier this week that the California wildfires are connected to global warming is not supported by science.
The Los Angeles Times reports a recent study that cited a slight average temperature rise in the Western U.S. concluded that there has been no increase in the frequency of fires in Southern California. Scientists say the dangerous mix of drought and wind has plagued the region for centuries. Wildlife analyst Tom Wordell says, "That is a fire-prone environment regardless of whether we are in a climate-change scenario... If you live in a snake pit, you're going to get bit." (10/26/07)

Agricultural Soil Erosion Not Contributing To Global Warming, Study Shows - ScienceDaily (Oct. 26, 2007) -- Agricultural soil erosion is not a source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, according to research published online October 25 in Science. Carbon emissions are of great concern worldwide because they, and other greenhouse gases, trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere and are a major cause of global climate change.
"There is still little known about how much carbon exactly is released, versus captured, by different processes in terrestrial ecosystems," said Johan Six, a professor of agroecology at UC Davis and one of the study's authors. "We urgently need to quantify this if we are to develop sensible and cost-effective measures to combat climate change." (10/26/07)

An Interview with Joe Bastardi - In part one of her interview, Katie Fehlinger sits down with our own expert senior Meteorologist and hurricane specialist Joe Bastardi, who has strong opinions on climate change. We would also like to hear your feedback. Do you agree or disagree with what Joe is saying? Katie also discusses a new climate change bill that might have a chance of getting through Congress.

Scientists Denounce Global Warming Report 'Edits'
Public Health Experts Say Edits Represent Censoring of Science - But does it? Environmental and public health experts overwhelmingly denounced editing by the White House of a federal health agency head's testimony to Congress Tuesday. Significant deletions were made from the testimony, concerning global warming and the potential impact on human health. More. But it's OK for Al Gore and James Hansen to espouse their alarmist mistruths, and outright lies while testifying before Congress. (10/26/07)

I'm suffering from eco-fatigue - By Lila das Gupta - A few months ago we had unexpected guests for lunch, so I sent my 12-year-old son out for some lettuce. "Mum, I got the one that says it was grown in England, not the one that was grown in Spain. I thought that's what you'd want."
He knew I might be thinking about the lettuce's air miles. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the Spanish one might be more environmentally friendly because it was probably grown in an unheated greenhouse, unlike its British counterpart.
But then again, who's to know? Continued. (10/26/07)

Quote Of The Day

The White House did the right thing by editing Gerberding's testimony. There's no evidence that climate change causes public health problems. The White House simply prevented Gerberding from misinforming and scaring Congress and the public. ~ Steven Milloy JunkScience.com

And speaking of the JunkMan...
California Fire Smokescreen - By Steven Milloy - Are climate alarmists using the Southern California wildfires to fan the flames of global warming?
Are environmentalists and government bureaucrats using global warming to cover up their share of responsibility for the wildfires that have displaced more than 500,000 people and destroyed more than 1,300 homes? Continued. (10/25/07)

No to coal
NASA climatologist calls for no more coal plants to avoid global warming tipping point. - Before approving a costly and irreversible program to build a new generation of coal-fired power plants, Texas officials should carefully study the statements of James Hansen. He's the director of the New York City-based NASA Institute for Space Studies and one of the first scientists to speak out on the threat of global warming caused by man-made greenhouse gases. He's also Al Gore's "Alarmist in Chief" and on the George Soros payroll. More. (10/25/07)

NewsBusters: Fox News Reports, Networks Ignore Consequences of Not Clearing Brush - By Justin McCarthy - Fox News, just as Glenn Beck previously, picked up on an observation that the rest of the mainstream media largely ignored: brush left in place under environmental groups' pressure fueled much of the fires in southern California. While all of the network's morning shows ignored this angle (NBC's "Today," ABC's "Good Morning America," and CBS's "The Early Show") the October 25 edition of "Fox and Friends" contained this report from Adam Housley. More. (10/25/07)

NewsBusters: Global Warming Expert: $800 Billion a Year for Carbon Capture - By Jeff Poor - If you thought doing your part in waging the war against global warming was as simple as attending one of Al Gore's mid-summer "Live Earth" concerts, think again.
One of the authors of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Carbon Capture and Storage, Dr. Ken Caldeira, said on September 5 at the annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists there "would be an annual expense of perhaps $800 billion to capture carbon from centralized power plant," as reported by Bud Ward, editor of The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media. More. (10/25/07)

Unbelievable, MUST READ! Time to give credit where credit is due. The most well written, thoughtful and comprehensive article of the day regarding the California wildfires, comes from of all places, The Huffington Post. Bravo!
Global Warming Not Behind SoCal Fires - By Chris McGowan - The devastating blazes that swept through Southern California these last few days were largely unrelated to changing weather patterns due to global warming, as some newscasters and pundits have stated. I have been a believer in the danger of global warming for more than two decades, but I don't think it's the culprit here. Rather, the blame for the conflagrations should be placed on chaparral, a growing population, and inadequate suburban planning. Fire in the hills behind Malibu and San Diego is inevitable, and at the moment at least is not connected to our pumping of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. McGowan continues. (10/25/07)

Third consecutive day of more Bay Area Bullshit from the Chronicle. No wonder it has one of the most rapidly declining subscription bases in the country.
THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FIRES
CLIMATE CHANGE: Hotter world may fan flames - By Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer - The risk of catastrophic wildfires like those sweeping through Southern California will increase all over the state as the world heats up, forests dry out and weather patterns shift, forestry experts said Wednesday.
The 16 wind-blown fires that forced the largest mass evacuation in California history may or may not be the result of climate change, but studies have shown that the hot drought conditions that fed the flames are becoming more common.
"Fires are burning hotter and bigger, becoming more damaging and dangerous to people and to property," U.S. Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell said. "Each year the fire season comes earlier and lasts longer."
The flames stretching from Malibu to the Mexican border struck during the driest year in Southern California history. Measurements taken by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection detected less than 10 percent moisture in the region's vegetation. The moisture level in kiln-dried lumber is generally 12 percent.
"They got less rain than they've ever gotten," said Hugh Safford, a Forest Service ecologist. "Any time you have a dry year like this one, you are going to get fires." But what these numbnuts don't say is that if we DID have more rain earlier this spring, there would have been more fuel to burn. But you can rest assured, that more rain would be attributed to global warming, just as less rain, more heat, less heat, more snow, less snow, warmer temperatures, cooler temperatures, and everything else is. (10/25/07)

Absurdity of the day: Basically, those who "deny" that the fires in California were caused by global warming are "cranks". Really? Who's the real crank? Answer: Froma Harrop, a long time left wing partisan. This article is so ridiculous, it won my "absurdity of the day award", even beating out this rubbish over at Arianna's place.
Global Warming and the Politics of the California Wildfires - By Froma Harrop - It has long been sage policy to ignore the crank denials around global warming. But now and then you have a weather-related disaster like the fires devouring big chunks of Southern California -- and you wonder about the extent to which the blockheads have slowed progress in dealing with the problem. Leading climatologists may debate how much of the drought in the West and South reflects normal weather cycles and how much climate change.
Few question that global warming is already here and that its acceleration will bring more of what we've been seeing -- extreme dryness in parts of the United States and more hurricanes. Really? Rubbish continues... (10/25/07)

Alarmist LA Slimes article begins with the following deceiving headline, then does a 180 and propagates the "global warming causes fires scenario.
Global warming not a factor in wildfires - Southern California has long been plagued by wind and drought, but climate change may make for a drier future, scientists say. - By Alan Zarembo, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer - Are the massive fires burning across Southern California a product of global warming?
Scientists said it would be difficult to make that case, given the dangerous mix of drought and wind that has plagued the region for centuries or more.
But they said the extreme conditions that stoked the wildfires could become more common as the world warms.
Research suggests that rising temperatures are already increasing fire damage in many parts of the West. Here we go... (10/25/07) Update: Noel Sheppard gives his take on this peice.

No wonder Katie's ratings are in the cellar.
NewsBusters: CBS Blames Warming, But Also Fuel from Putting Out All Fires - By Brent Baker - A day after NBC blamed the California wild fires on global warming, CBS on Wednesday night cited global warming, but also gave equal emphasis to how years of putting out fires has provided more fuel for them in the form of thick trees and brush. From Escondido, California, anchor Katie Couric asserted the wild fires are "more intense today than ever, and John Blackstone reports, man may be at least partly to blame for that." Blackstone first went to global warming: "Fire ecologist Tom Swetnam has a collection of tree rings that reveals thousands of years of climate history. He told Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes that global warming means a longer fire season." Baker continues. (10/25/07)

Global Warming: Let's Rely on Science Instead of Hysteria - Daniel Botkin's voice of reason ("Global Warming Delusions," editorial page, Oct. 17) about putting climate change in perspective while working for science-based solutions should be heeded by our public policy leaders in Washington, D.C., and state capitals. Regrettably, hyperbole drives many of our policy decisions, thus the ever swinging pendulum seeking the midpoint balance. Al Gore is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for highlighting the importance of climate change, but scientifically based research that might not track with the hyperbolic perception advanced by activists is ignored. More comments. (10/25/07)

Dave Gordon: Al Gore's melting mountains ... of evidence - He won the Nobel Prize, an Academy Award and the hearts of global warming activists everywhere, but Al Gore will have to lose some footage of his popular environmental documentary if a British judge has anything to do with it. That is, at least if students in England are forced to watch it.
If schools require a screening of "An Inconvenient Truth," the judge ruled,
the students must also be advised of its factual errors.
Another option is to vet about 25 minutes of the 98-minute film. The remainder includes Gore personal drama, images of Gore in his limousine, shots of the 2000 presidential election and other scenes that have nothing to do with science. More. (10/25/07)

Bravo Arnold!

Kudos to the Governator!
Arnold Grabs ABC's Shipman, Demands: Stop Spinning Fire Coverage - By Scott Whitlock - Reporter Claire Shipman did her level best to get California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to admit that the efforts to combat the state's wild fires were going poorly. Shipman interviewed the governor on Wednesday's "Good Morning America" and wondered about "the comparison to Katrina that everybody's making in the back of their mind..." At one point, Governor Schwarzenegger cut off Shipman's pleas for negative assessments of the effort by grabbing her arm. He bluntly scolded, "Trust me when I tell you, you're looking for a mistake and you won't find it because it's all good news, as much as you maybe hate it, but it's good news."

Video (1:21): Real (2.21 MB) and Windows (2.51 MB), plus MP3 audio (632 kB).

Earlier, the ABC correspondent attempted to deflate Schwarzenegger's sunny optimism by mentioning unnamed officials in Orange County who asserted the state doesn't have enough resources, including firefighting aircraft. The former actor simply wouldn't go along with this premise of victimization. He firmly retorted, "Anyone that is complaining about the planes, just wants to complain because it's a bunch of nonsense." Schwarzenegger then proceeded to point out that the state has 90 planes and only wind has hampered their use. Whitlock continues... (10/24/07)

New from The JunkMan
Clouds Mitigate Global Warming, New Evidence Shows - By Steven Milloy - In a study published in the American Geophysical Union's Geophysical Research Letters on August 9, researchers at the University of Alabama-Huntsville (UAH) provide more real-world evidence of the self-regulating nature of the Earth's atmosphere.
If the self-regulatory mechanism is confirmed by additional research, it will represent yet another deal-breaker for the hypothesis that has propped up climate alarmism thus far. Continued. (10/24/07)

Senators Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer are perfect examples of why this Congress has the worst approval rating (11%) in the history of polling!

From the editor:

Senators Reid and Boxer are a disgrace to the "greatest deliberative body in the world." They, and any other elected official who would politicize the disaster here in California are unfit to serve in the U.S. Government. I urge you all to call or email them and let them know how disgusted you are. ~ DEK

Senator Boxer's contact information is here.

Senator Reid's contact information is here.

Harry Reid Blames California Wildfires On Global Warming...Before He Denies He Said It. - By: Duane Patterson - After a closed door policy meeting with other Senate Democrats, Majority Leader and utter buffoon Hary Reid of Nevada took to the microphones just outside the floor of the United States Senate, and fielded questions.
In response to a question on the energy bill, Reid said the following:

As you know, one reason that we have the fires burning in Southern California is global warming. One reason the Colorado Basin is going dry is because of global warming.

Six questions later, a reporter followed up on Reid's amazing statement.

Question: Senator, on the California fires, you said that the reason the fires are burning in California is global warming?
Reid: No. Here's what I - I didn't say the reason the fires were burning in Southern California was global warming...

First, Reid is an idiot because tried to use global warming as a prop in a current news story in order to advance his energy bill agenda. When called on it, he denied he said it. It's on tape. You can listen to it here. (10/24/07)

Add to the list of truely embarrasing Senators, representing the land of nuts and fruits, our own enviromental Nazi, Barbara Boxer.
Boxer: Global Warming and Public Health - Statement of Chairman Barbara Boxer during full committee hearing "Examining the Human Health Impacts of Global warming" - By: Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works - Global warming is the greatest environmental challenge that we face today. Read the rest of Boxer's "statement" if you must. (10/24/07)

NewsBusters: CBS's Storm Quotes Barbara Boxer, Who Blamed Wildfires on Iraq - By Kyle Drennen - Wednesday's CBS "Early Show" had a recurring theme in its coverage of the Southern California wildfires: the federal government failed to provide resources. Co-host Harry Smith opened the show by exclaiming that "...a fire chief says it's "the absolute truth," with more air resources, we would have been able to control this." In a later segment of the show, co-host Hannah Storm asked FEMA Administrator David Paulison, "Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California complained the ability of the state's National Guard has been compromised because too much of their equipment and personnel is in Iraq. Is that true?" (10/24/07)

NewsBusters: California Wildfires: Media Blame Another Natural Disaster on Bush - By Noel Sheppard - As wildfires rage throughout Southern California, media have predictably begun to blame this awful natural disaster on President George W. Bush much as they did almost exactly two years ago when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.
On Tuesday evening, MSNBC's Dan Abrams set up an interview with California Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-Cal.) thusly:
But the fire storms in California`s raising tough questions about what the National Guard is extended too much to handle emergencies at home. Back in May, before the fire started, "The San Francisco Chronicle" reported that the California National Guard was down a billion dollars worth of equipment. Two hundred and nine vehicles in Iraq, including 110 humvees and 63 military trucks. According to report the California guard should have had 39 diesel generators on hand. They say it had none. The Kansas governor raised similar concerns earlier this year when she said the deployment of National Guard troops to Iraq hurt the emergency response to a deadly tornado in her state. The question -- is this another unanticipated cost of a prolonged and expensive war effort? More. (10/24/07)

Not only does global warming cause fires, but now the fires cause global warming! You really can't make up this stuff up!

M&R: Southern California blazes add to global warming - By Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross - When it comes to greenhouse gases, Mother Nature and her forest fires like the ones raging through Southern California can be some of the biggest polluters out there.
According to the California Air Resources Board, the blazes raging from Malibu to the Mexican border will send some 2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, plus 200,000 tons of methane and nitrous oxide.
That output of global warming gases is equal to what 440,000 cars would pump into the atmosphere in a year, said Richard Bode, chief of the Air Resources Board's emissions inventory branch.
"In terms of global warming, it is a sizable chunk," Bode said. "But you have to remember that overall, the state puts out about 470 million tons of gases every year - so it's about a half a percent" of California's yearly contribution to global catastrophe.
Still, that's a lot of Priuses. Lunacy continues... (10/24/07)

NewsBusters: Global Warming Hysteria Drives States to Sue Bush Administration Over CO2 Emissions - By Noel Sheppard - For many months, NewsBusters has been warning readers that the hysteria being generated by the media and the Global Warmingist-in-Chief Al Gore concerning climate change would eventually begin to impact energy and economic policies.
Following last Thursday's landmark decision in Kansas to not give an electricity producer a construction license for a coal-fired power plant due to global warming fears, more than a dozen states are set to file a lawsuit against the Bush administration for holding up efforts to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from cars and trucks.
I kid you not. Noel continues... (10/24/07)

The disgraceful media and their coverage of the fires here in Southern California

CNN Predicts Possible 'Century of Fires' Due to Global Warming - Anderson Cooper and Tom Foreman warn that global warming may be to blame for Southern California fires. - By Paul Detrick - CNN exploited a national tragedy on October 23 by finding a way to blame global warming for wildfires.
During the October 23 "Anderson Cooper 360: In the Line of Fire," Cooper reported from Southern California saying, "People are wondering if these fires are a result of global warming in some way."
Although Cooper admitted that, "no one really knows for sure," the broadcast still took the time to predict the future with CNN's Tom Foreman who warned of a possible "century of fires, just like what we're seeing now" as a result of global warming. More. (10/24/07)

While, the Huffington Post hardly qualifies as media, (more like Democratic Talking Points), here is their daily nonsense.
Global Warming and the California Wildfires - By Joseph Romm - Global warming makes wildfires more likely and more destructive -- as many scientific studies have concluded. Why? Global warming leads to more intense droughts, hotter weather, earlier snowmelt (hence less humid late summers and early autumns), and more tree infestations (like the pine beetle). After reading the first sentence if you feel compelled to read any more feel free. Masochists click here. (10/24/07)

NewsBusters: Ted Turner: Global Warming Worse Than Iran, Causing Drought - By Brad Wilmouth - In a recent Web interview with "Foreign Policy" magazine, dated October 2007, which focused on environmental issues, CNN founder Ted Turner claimed that global warming presents a greater danger to the world than Iran. Turner: "Iran does not put us in peril like global warming does." In a September interview with "GQ" magazine, Turner had similarly downplayed the nuclear threat from Iran as he argued that America's nuclear arsenal poses a greater threat to the world: "I'm much more worried about our nuclear arsenal than theirs. Iran, at best, can get a few nuclear weapons. We have tens of thousands." The CNN founder further suggested that global warming is to blame for the drought in the Southeast, and contended that the same Al Gore who refuses to debate scientists on global warming is as "smart as a whip." (Transcript follows) (10/24/07)

NewsBusters: Without Proof, NBC Presumes Global Warming to Blame for Wild Fires - By Brent Baker - ABC and CBS stuck Tuesday night with news stories on the impact of the roaring California wild fires, but as houses were still burning NBC Nightly News found it an opportune time to make the case that global warming caused the fires. NBC's sole expert, however, delivered a circular argument in which the lack of scientific proof did not detract at all from his media-shared presumption that anything bad which occurs in the environment can be tied to global warming. After reporter Anne Thompson cautioned scientists say you can't know "after just one season" whether warming is to blame, Princeton professor Michael Oppenheimer, a leading global warming alarmist who, NBC failed to mention, serves as a science adviser to Environmental Defense, reasoned:
The weather we've seen this fall may or may not be due to the global warming trend, but it's certainly a clear picture of what the future is going to look like if we don't act quickly to cut emissions of the greenhouse gases. Baker continues... (10/23/07)

NewsBusters: Damned If You Do: Bush Visit Will 'Distract' From CA Firefighting - By Mark Finkelstein - President Bush has shown that he can be empathetic, sensitive and decisive. But those qualities eluded him for days after Hurricane Katrina ... He didn't cancel his vacation until two days after Katrina struck and didn't visit the region until four days after the storm. -- "A compassionate Bush was absent right after Katrina", USA Today, 9-9-05.
USA Today's broadside is typical of the MSM criticism leveled at Pres. Bush for his failure to visit New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. So, now that President Bush has announced that he will be visiting California on Thursday while the wildfire flames are still burning, naturally the MSM and Dems will put politics aside and laud his decision, right?
I did say "the MSM and Dems."
View video here. (10/23/07)

NewsBusters: CBS's Pelley Uses Wildfires to Prove Global Warming - By Kyle Drennen - With Southern California in the midst of dealing with disastrous wildfires, on Sunday's "60 Minutes," anchor Scott Pelley used the issue to promote Global Warming ideology. He did a segment on wildfires in the American west and declared in traditional alarmist fashion: "It appears that we're living in a new age of mega-fires, forest infernos ten times bigger than the fires we're used to seeing." It did not take long for Pelley to find the culprit for this crisis as he talked to University of Arizona professor, Tom Swetnam:
Swetnam says that climate change-- global warming-- has increased temperatures in the west about one degree, and that has caused four times more fires. Swetnam and his colleagues published those findings in the journal "Science," and the world's leading researchers on climate change have endorsed their conclusions. More. (10/23/07)

One wingnut to another...
Are the Wildfires in So. California Related to Global Warming? - By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! - Environmental journalist Bill McKibben explains the connection between raging wildfires and our warming planet.
AMY GOODMAN: As we continue on this issue of global warming, what does global warming have to do with the fires raging in Southern California?
More than a half a million people in San Diego County have been ordered to evacuate. Over 900 homes have been destroyed. At least one person has died. Another thirty-seven people have been reported injured, including seventeen firefighters. The fires extend from the Mexican border to Santa Barbara, the most devastating fires in San Diego County. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency.
Bill McKibben is a leading environmentalist and one of the leading forces behind Step It Up. In 1989, he wrote the book The End of Nature, one of the first books to describe global warming as an emerging environmental crisis. His latest book is called Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. Bill McKibben, joining us from Boston, welcome to Democracy Now!
BILL McKIBBEN: Amy, it's good to be with you, as always.
AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us. The fires in Southern California and global warming, is there a connection?
BILL McKIBBEN: I'm afraid that there is. Absurdity continues... (10/23/07)

Well it didn't take long for the warmist to get around to this one.
California Wildfires and Global Warming - Across the West, Major Wildfires are More Frequent and Intense Due to Climate Change - By Dan Shapley / News Editor - The wildfires consuming Southern California are extraordinary: Extraordinary because they have claimed so many homes. extraordinary because they started so quickly and have burned so intensely. Extraordinary because they are exhausting the formidable firefighting resources in a region used to wildfire.
But in the years to come, they may become ordinary.
Scientists have already tied increased frequency and intensity of wildfires to the changing climate, (what haven't they tied to climate change?) and scientists are confident that the conditions that will be brought on by global warming will only make conditions more ripe for wildfire. Really? This is pure nonsense. As a life long resident of Southern California, we know what causes fires here; it's not rocket climate science!
Dry brush + high temperatures + single digit humidity + high "Santa Ana" winds = extreme fire danger in Southern California. It always has...and almost always in the fall. Add arson to that, as in the case of the Santiago Canyon fire, and you have a big problem.
Ironically, it is the environmentalists who lobbied successfully to prevent the forest service from "thinning" trees, and clearing dead brush in the San Bernardino and Cleveland National Forests who have exacerbated the problem in the Lake Arrowhead area fire.
If you need a reminder of the dangers presented by environmental policies run-amuk, you need only go back a few months. (10/23/07)

Global Warming Being Blamed for Calif. Wildfires - By Jim Meyers - Man-made global warming is being blamed for yet another natural calamity - the roaring California wildfires.
As the fires raged out of control in a number of Southern California locations, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada flatly declared on Tuesday: "One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming." He cited the fires in stressing the need to pass the Democrats' comprehensive energy package, The Hill newspaper reported.
When asked by a reporter if he really believed global warming caused the fires, however, Reid appeared to back away from his remark, saying many factors contributed to the disaster. More. (10/22/07)

MUST READ!
Mega forest fires -- caused by global warming or the Sierra Club? - By Mary Mostert - Yesterday, 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley reported that "Global warming is increasing the intensity and number of forest fires across the American West, according to one of the world's leading fire ecologists."
It isn't global warming, which even Pelley put at a 1 degree increase in climate "change" that has caused the mega fires in Western forests. It is the "success" of the Sierra Club and a bunch of city-slicker environmentalists who forced changes in logging and brush control which led to a huge build-up of fuel in the forests. Those who know the forests have been warning for years these kind of fires would happen.
From 1975 to 1999 I lived on the edge of the El Dorado National Park in Northern California. I not only watched the changes take place, I WROTE about what would happen as a result of those changes, after listening to experienced forest rangers give testimony congress.
What those experienced forest rangers warned us would happen is now happening. It is certainly no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to what has been occurring in the past couple of decades. Twelve years ago, in the April 1995 issue of Michael Reagan's newsletter, which I edited, I warned that the Sierra Club was BRAGGING about its success in destroying the logging industry in the national forests in California. More... (10/22/07)

More absurdity from the land of nuts and fruits.
New Shopping Site Helps Consumers Fight Global Warming - Oakland, CA -- Cooler, a leading provider of commerce solutions that address global warming, recently announced the launch of ClimateCooler.com, a Web site that helps consumers eliminate the global warming impact of their online purchases at more than 400 of the Internet's most popular stores. When a consumer starts their online shopping at ClimateCooler.com and completes the purchase at a participating store, the global warming impact of each purchase is calculated and a portion of the purchase price is returned by stores to Cooler to offset that impact.
Consumers who shop through ClimateCooler.com pay the same prices they would going directly to the retailer. The company uses a product-level carbon calculator that is the first global warming solution to address the impact of almost any consumer good or service sold in the U.S. Fees paid back to Cooler by the stores on its site are invested in renewable energy and pollution prevention projects approved by some of the world's best known environmental organizations. (10/23/07)

Apocalypse Now? - The scaremongers are not always wrong. The Trojans should have listened to Cassandra. But history shows that the scaremongers are usually wrong. More. (10/23/07)

Economics and politics, not science, fuel global warming claims - (PressMediaWire) Los Angeles, CA Oct. 23, 2007 -- It took an article in an Australian newspaper to make Americans aware that prominent American meteorologist Dr. William Gray called the theory that won Al Gore a Nobel Prize "ridiculous." And that's worrisome to Holly Fretwell, author of The Sky's NOT Falling: Why It's OK to Chill about Global Warming (Kids Ahead Books, 0-9767269-4-7, for ages 8-12, Sept. 2007), a new book for kids designed to inform, not indoctrinate, on the subject of global warming. More... (10/23/07)

5 Global Warming Myths - a.k.a. things you thought you knew about Global Warming which you didn't. There is more speculation about global warming than there is about Sienna Millar and Rhys Ifans (will they, won't they...). So here are some facts to dispel those myths. (10/23/07)

Indoctrination continues...
Global warming goes to school - LEARNING about global warming is set to ease students' transition from primary to high school.
Staff at Bathurst, Eglinton and West Bathurst public schools and Bathurst High have written a transition unit on global warming.
Bathurst Public School assistant principal John Wilkinson said students at the three primary schools would spend six weeks working on the unit and then complete the project at high school next year. More. (10/23/07)

What's causing global warming on Mars? - After the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to former Vice President Albert Gore Jr., NASA received an urgent call from Spirit and Opportunity demanding an answer to their question: "What does this guy know about recession of the Mars polar ice cap which is melting at the same rate as the Ice Caps on Earth?"
They wanted to know what are the polluting factors on Mars and are they the same factors that Gore says are causing global warming and melting of the polar caps on Earth. Since the nearest human to Mars is 40 million miles away at the closest point, and there are only two solar powered vehicles working the planet, Spirit and Opportunity personally discussed the circumstances and came to the conclusion that the melting of the Martian ice cap was radiation from the sun and not man-made pollution. This seems to be confirmed by independent research of solar scientists in recent discoveries who say it is solar radiation in the same wavelength as your microwave oven that is melting the ice caps.
NASA of course desired to be politically correct and referred the question to the former vice president who was en route to Europe to collect his prize on his private jet and was unavailable for comment. Spirit and Opportunity were immediately programmed for a long winter's sleep so as not to cause a political fire fight. (10/23/07)

Global warming not to blame for recent hot weather: climatologist - By Graham Hughes, Ottawa Citizen - People should not feel guilty about the recent spate of warm weather, says David Phillips.
"It has nothing to do with global warming. It's the result of a series of high-pressure areas that have established over the eastern United States," the senior climatologist at Environment Canada said Monday.
"The clockwise rotation around the centre of the high is pumping warm air from the Gulf of Mexico into Eastern Canada." Continued. (10/22/07)

The True Cost Of The Global Warming Farce - By Tom McClintock - Last year, in the name of saving the planet from global warming, California adopted the most radically restrictive legislation anywhere in the nation, including AB 32, which requires a 25 percent reduction in man-made carbon dioxide emissions within 13 years.
To put this in perspective, we could junk every car in the state of California RIGHT NOW - and not meet this mandate.
Californians just approved $40 billion of bonds that California's political leaders promised would be used for highways, dams, aqueducts and other capital improvements. They are desperately needed.
But at the same time, those same political leaders have imposed a 25 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
Now here's the problem. Building highways, dams and aqueducts requires tremendous amounts of concrete, the principle ingredient of which is cement. Tom McClintock is one of only a few adults remaining in the California State Legislature More. (10/22/07)

Involve kids in global warming discussion - Al Gore has an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize, but does he have the truth, convenient or inconvenient?
Despite his honors and his elevation to guru-like status as both a scientific expert, without portfolio, and a seer, with photogenic charisma, the debate on global warming rages. And well it should.
On the day Gore and the United Nations climate panel were awarded the Nobel, some 300 meteorologists and meteorology students at the University of North Carolina were hearing a celebrated expert declare that they had it all wrong.
Further, "We're brainwashing our children," declared Dr. William M. Gray, 76, probably the world's best-known hurricane expert and forecaster.
That is the part that concerns us. More. (10/22/07)

Do accurate reports on global warming - It was so nice to see Al Gore's beaming face taking up most of your Saturday Oct. 13 front page. The Nobel Peace Prize selection committee has a history of following an anti-American, liberal agenda and you played right into their hands. Jimmy Carter's selection was another prime example.
The global warming controversy has become a political, not a scientific, issue. Perhaps all reporting on the subject should be relegated to the editorial page. If you wanted to report the news fairly, how about printing (right next to the Nobel article) the recent report out of London regarding the High Court judge who ruled that Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" contained nine assertions that are "not supported by current mainstream scientific consensus." More. (10/22/07)

REBUTTING GLOBAL WARMING ALARMISM - Global warming that is reasonably projected might be problematic, although not devastating, for the much-fretted-about polar bears, but it will be beneficial for other species, says columnist George F. Will. (10/22/07)

Many scientists do not accept Mr Gore's case for global warming - Dear Editor,
When I wrote my last letter about carbon credits and carbon footprints captioned "Does censoring our forests make sense economically?" (07.10.17) I did not know about President Jagdeo's "offer to deploy almost our entire rainforest - which is the size of England - in the long term service of the world's battle against climate change. I do not believe that we should "deploy" our forest towards this scheme. While global warming is real there is no conclusive proof that saving the forest would stop the phenomenon. Guyanese should be looking forward to the full utilization of our forest. Continued. (10/22/07)

The Spoof
Humor: The Cause Of Global Warming? - Hindustan, the Indian Subcontinent: Fresh from his Nobel Peace Prize award last week, former vice-president Al Gore dropped a bombshell at his latest press conference, charging that out of control worldwide humor is chiefly responsible for global warming. More. (10/21/07)

NewsBusters: 35 Errors Discovered in Al Gore's Film - By Noel Sheppard - NewsBusters readers are well aware of the recent controversy involving Al Gore's schlockumentary "An Inconvenient Truth."
A few weeks ago, a British judge cited nine errors in the film. Team Gore responded Thursday in a rebuttal published at the Washington Post's Fact Checker blog.
Now, famed climate change skeptic Christopher Monckton, in a detailed report published by the Science and Public Policy Institute, not only refuted Gore's defense of the movie's contents, but also listed a total of 35 errors in the award-winning abomination responsible for most of the global warming hysteria sweeping the planet: Continued. (10/21/07)

NewsBusters: John Stossel Questions Inconvenient Truths on MSM View of Global Warming - By John Stephenson - John Stossel dares to question the conventional wisdom of liberal minds and MSM on the topic of global warming in the following video.
The heartbreaking part of this report is to see the reaction of the children being interviewed. They have obviously been indoctrinated with only one side of the story to the point of fear. When asked where they learn this, one kid points to Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth."
One point that John takes apart as factless is that even if global warming is real, that it is man's fault. Despite recent developments, man can't control the weather, much less the climate.
John points out that there is another side to the story and that too often the scientists that have tried to tell it have been silenced and threatened. As John says, "Give me a break".
Even though folks like Al Gore say "the debate is over", the debate is long from over. The only reason it appears so is because the critics are too often silenced.
What liberal bias? Watch the video here. (10/21/07)

Dolphins "planning to move into our houses after global warming" - Dolphins and porpoises are already planning to move into human homes after they are submerged by seawater it has been revealed this week. Marine biologists studying cetecean communications claim they have observed dolphins discussing which homes they will occupy and whether they might change the layout a little. "People have been amazed to see friendly dolphins popping their head close to the shore in bustling coastal fishing villages," said Professor Karl Ingerson. "They think they are coming up to say hello to the local humans. Actually they are checking out their houses and deciding which one they are going to nab." More. (10/21/07)

The Spoof
Global Warming is caused by the planet Venus - The lunar calendar and more accurately the Mayan long calendar predicts 2012 to be the date when the gravity of the planet Venus negatively affects the Moon's lunar trajectory and causes disruptions in the weather patterns on the planet Earth.
At the time, communities which were then dependent largely on agricultural industries, this was known as the beginning of the end times or the apocalypse. Now it has become known only as Global Warming.
The event of Venus' orbit pulling the moon away from us happens every so often and coincides with landmark claims and maps of human survival such as the book of Genesis and the predictions of the Maya.
In order to thwart this new enemy (or threat from outer space as I like to call it), we need to re-engineer the moons orbit back to a position agreeable with life on earth. This should be the sole focus of Global Warming talks and endeavours.
That new bomb the Russians invented should do the trick. Just detonate it alongside the trajectory of the moon and nudge it back into place. Do this every once in a while and we'll have a very nice planet to live on for a long time to come. (10/21/07)

Europe to Require Carbon Dioxide Emissions Warnings in New Car Ads - By Noel Sheppard - As media induced warm-mongering heats up across the globe, Europe is about to take climate change hysteria to a new level by requiring cigarette-style health warnings about carbon dioxide emissions in advertisements for new cars. Noel continues... (10/20/07)

And so it begins; the gulable, led by the enviro-kooks, are regulating us into darkness...
Citing Global Warming, Kansas Denies Plant Permit - By MATTHEW L. WALD - A Kansas regulator has turned down a permit for a large coal-fired power plant solely because of the global warming gases it would emit.
Opponents of the plant say this is the first instance of a regulatory agency's rejecting a permit for that reason alone.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment on Thursday turned down a permit for twin 700-megawatt coal-fired generators that a group of electric cooperatives is seeking to build near Holcomb in southwest Kansas. The ownership and the electricity would be shared by 67 cooperatives in Kansas and neighboring states.
The department's staff had recommended issuing the air quality permits, but Roderick L. Bremby, the secretary of the department, said in a statement, "I believe it would be irresponsible to ignore emerging information about the contribution of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to climate change and the potential harm to our environment and health if we do nothing." More. (10/20/07)

MUST READ!
35 Inconvenient Truths: The errors in Al Gore's movie - A spokesman for Al Gore has issued a questionable response to the news that in October 2007 the High Court in London had identified nine "errors" in his movie An Inconvenient Truth. The judge had stated that, if the UK Government had not agreed to send to every secondary school in England a corrected guidance note making clear the mainstream scientific position on these nine "errors", he would have made a finding that the Government's distribution of the film and the first draft of the guidance note earlier in 2007 to all English secondary schools had been an unlawful contravention of an Act of Parliament prohibiting the political indoctrination of children. Monckton continues... (10/19/07)

From 20/20:
Man vs. Nature : Challenging Conventional Views About Global Warming - By JOHN STOSSEL - The globe is warming, it's our fault and the consequences are going to be terrible. So goes the rhetoric spouted by politicians, celebrities and the media.
It's hard to turn on the TV or open a newspaper these days without hearing about the horrors caused by our warming climate. We can expect more floods, droughts, hurricanes and tornadoes as global warming continues, and pretty soon we'll have to flee from the coasts as the polar ice caps melt and our shorelines flood. Stossel continues... (10/19/07)

The Global Warming Deceptions
Analyses by Dr. Vincent Gray - By Michael R. Fox, - The scientific opposition to the discredited theory of man-made global warming has been large and enduring. It also has been studiously ignored, dismissed, or attacked.
Ten years ago in 1997 the Petition Project was organized and implemented by Dr. Art Robinson of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine. He ultimately collected more than the names of 19,000 signatories. The petition was as clear and simple as it was necessary:
"We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.
There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth."
I am proud to be one of the original signatories and nothing has happened in the intervening 10 years to change that. In fact, the growth of climate evidence and expanding analyses has only affirmed that endorsement. Furthermore the list of climate experts who oppose the current political "science" of global warming continues to grow. It is important to note that many of these were scientists were originally participants supporting man-made global warming theory. The evidence has changed their minds. More. (10/19/07)

Questioning Gore's Climate Theories - By Han Sam-hee - Somebody has given me a copy of an interesting book -- "Cool It" published last month by Bjorn Lomborg, an associate professor of statistics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. In 2003, Lomborg brought the falsehood of the existing environmental theories into light based on a total of 2,930 individual footnotes backed up with piles of statistical data in his book entitled "The Skeptical Environmentalist." In "Cool It," he addresses global warming theories. He references Al Gore, Jr. throughout the book, almost as if he expected Gore would receive the Nobel Peace Prize this year. More. (10/19/07)

New from the JunkMan.
Junk Science: Hey Al Gore, We Want a Refund! - By Steven Milloy - A British judge ruled on the eve of Al Gore co-winning the Nobel Peace Prize that students forced to watch "An Inconvenient Truth" must be warned of the film's factual errors. But would there be any science at all left in Gore's "truth" if these errors and their progeny were excised? More. (10/19/07)

Global Warming: Polar Bear Watch On Arctic Report Card - GLOBAL warming is good news for polar bars. At least it would be if they had agents. As ever the Independent illustrates its story that ice (cold) melts under sun (hot) with a picture of polar bears. More. (10/19/07)

George Will Rebuts Global Warming Alarmism - In his latest biweekly column in Newsweek magazine (circ. 3,118,432), Pulitzer Prize-winning writer George F. Will says efforts to battle global warming by reducing human greenhouse gas emissions, such as those endorsed by former Vice President Al Gore, could cause "more preventable death and suffering than was caused in the last century by Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot combined."
The Heartland Institute has warned of the high costs and inconsequential environmental impact of greenhouse gas controls for more than a decade, and it is currently running ads in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Times challenging Gore to debate his critics.
Will's commentary is one more sign that the global warming campaign is flagging. More. (10/18/07)

John Stossel Exposes Global Warming Myths - "20/20" co-anchor John Stossel is going on the attack against "experts" who warn about manmade global warming - along the way berating Al Gore for saying the debate over climate change is over.
In a release from ABC previewing Stossel's report on Friday's "20/20," the veteran newsman and Newsmax pundit - who won 19 Emmys exposing scammers and con artists - says:
"This week on '20/20' (in our new 8 p.m. Eastern time slot) I say 'Give Me a Break!' to our Nobel Prize-winning Vice President.
"Mr. Gore says 'The debate is over,' and those who disagree with his take on global warming have been 'purchased' in order to create 'the illusion of a debate.' Nonsense. It's as if the Vice President and his allies in the environmental movement plan to win the debate through intimidation. I interview some scientists who won't be intimidated, even though one has had his life threatened for speaking up." Stossel continues... (10/18/07)

Patric Michaels visits the land of nuts and fruits...
Global warming lecture at CSUF stirs controversary
Science weighs against philosophy on campus - By: Sylvia Masuda - Controversy erupted in the Cal State Fullerton science community over Tuesday's global warming lecture in the Titan Theatre.

Research professor and climatologist Patrick Michaels presented "Reducing the Effects of Global Warming in Southern California," a presentation which explained why global warming is not an imminent problem. The Economics Association organized the event. Over the years, science organizations have criticized Michaels for exaggerating his credentials and for pushing what they feel is a political agenda. CSUF science professors said his articles published in science journals "Science" and "Nature" are actually letters to the editor. Michaels' lecture featured graphs and data to support his belief that although global warming is a real concept, its negative effects are not as urgent as many claim. In particular, he backed his information by challenging several ideas Al Gore discussed in the former vice president's book. For example, Michaels said he considers the Kyoto Protocol counterproductive. The protocol calls for participating nations to limit its greenhouse gas emissions. "It takes away the capital to invest in a more efficient society," Michaels said. "For all their good intentions, they haven't realized that they've delayed the efficient future." Article continues... (10/18/07)

Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media Patrick Michaels Shattered Consensus: The True State of Global Warming Patrick Michaels

Global Warming: Dissenting Voices - By Michael S. Rozeff - If we value our children's and grandchildren's welfare, we should stop being stampeded by the global warming lobby who want us to waste trillions of dollars on a futile and needless endeavor to lower the Earth's temperature by a trivial amount. We should pull the plug on the political process for controlling climate. That process can only magnify and entrench the power of world government over each of us.
The Earth's atmosphere at present is mostly a commons. The world's governments want to keep it that way so that they can jointly regulate every activity that impinges on the atmosphere, which is everything of any importance.
If the atmosphere is free to use as a commons, the result is a tendency to overuse it. One use is as a dump for emissions of gasses. That's a negative if those emissions harm, which sometimes they do. For example, it was not too long ago that states tested radioactive bombs in the air and caused any number of cancer deaths.
How then do we control emissions that are doing harm? The answer is through courts. Someone has to prove that they have been harmed by someone else. They have to bring a lawsuit. It has to be argued out and proven. This is how we get justice. Once a few cases are decided, a precedent is set. Then all those who are doing similar harm have to change their ways of operating or face lawsuits.
For example, a coal-burning utility that produces sulfur dioxide can choke people and irritate them or worse. It has no right to do that. One or two lawsuits would put an end to it by proving harm. The atmosphere would no longer be free to them as a disposal site.
Carbon dioxide is similar. If it is harming, then let it be shown. Let courts rule on the disputes.
We have not followed this method of controlling atmospheric use. Instead we have gone the legislative and regulatory route. The result is that we have built up powerful institutions geared toward oppression. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want courts meddling in the climate either. The Supreme Court has already found CO2 to be a "pollutant". By this "logic" breathing can now be regulated - or even banned. Rozeff continues... (10/18/07)

Global Warming is Racist - The world's poorest people are also taking the brunt of global warming's negative effects. Although the average African produces 13 times less harmful emissions than their North American counterparts, the African ecosystem is suffering far greater damage. Droughts and floods, as well as shifting ecosystems throughout the continent, threaten the welfare of both the people and wildlife of Africa.
Scientists warn that rising temperatures could cause massive extinctions for wildlife, including lions, elephants, and mountain gorillas. The climate change has also been blamed as the alleged cause of droughts which have left nearly 1.8 million Africans without a sufficient supply of clean water. The water shortage has caused outbreaks of malaria and cholera, as well as an increase in poverty.
Experts say most African nations are ill-prepared to fight global warming, although improved land management and natural gas use in place of coal could both help. University of Cape Town climatology specialist Professor Bruce Hewitson says that many African countries do not have the cash to meet the 2005 Kyoto Protocol emission reduction targets. More. (10/18/07)

What's 25 years between warmists?
IPCC 'global warming' model is flawed - If the IPCC computer model on global warming (which links CO2 to Global Warming, and treats CO2 as the independent causation variable) was accurate, then the worst case scenario that it was forecasting to occur in 2050 would have occurred in 2050.
There is no question that Mr. Gore's efforts have alerted the world to the existence of Climate Change. There is also increasing evidence to support the conclusion that Climate Change is not "man-made", and that the IPCC computer model is flawed - just as Professor Edward Wegman of George Mason University said it was. (See bio)
By a simple application of common sense: If the IPCC computer model on global warming (which links CO2 to Global Warming, and treats CO2 as the independent causation variable) was accurate, then the "worst case" scenario that it was forecasting to occur in 2050 would have occurred in 2050. The hard fact is that the model got it wrong by 25 yea