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November 2007 Archives

NewsBusters: Public Radio Judges "Green" Products Guilty of "Greenwashing" - By Paul Detrick - When business goes green, interest groups get mean.
National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" gave a report November 30 on misleading "green" products, charging companies with "The Six Sins of Greenwashing."
"You may have thought they were environmentally friendly just because the product says so, but some environmentalists think you're being 'greenwashed,'" said host Steve Inskeep. "Is one of the sins just lying, then, basically?"
Scot Case of the environmental marketing firm TerraChoice conveyed that "the biggest sin [they] found ... was called 'The Sin of the Hidden Tradeoff' for products that promote a single issue ... but there are a wide variety of environmental considerations."
TerraChoice evaluated 1,018 retail products for their environmental claims and only one was found to be without sin, while the rest were guilty of offenses like "The Sin of the Lesser of Two Evils," "The Sin of Fibbing" and "The Sin of No Proof."
So, what's TerraChoice's solution?
According to Case, consumers should reward products that provide the most accurate and useful information about how their products are eco-friendly.
No representatives for business were included in the report, although Case was careful not to name the products outright. Nevertheless, he was "absolutely shocked by some of the brand names that were committing these sins," which came off the shelves of six big-box retailers. (11/30/07)

AH HA!
Found continent makes global warming haters scratch their round heads. - By Molly Lower - LOS ANGELES - The search for Atlantis has long been on humankind's agenda - right up there with the Holy Grail and that Waldo guy. For ages, this legend has been relentlessly pursued by adventurers and archaeologists, immortalized by the writings of Plato and the cinematic super-genius of Disney, regarded by all modern civilizations as being responsible for our way of life as we know it! This proverbial White Rabbit has eluded us for millennia, feared to be lost to the waves of time. But it has finally been nabbed. We are tumbling down the rabbit hole, only to find that Atlantis was where we always thought it was - Antarctica.
That's right, folks! It turns out the rumors are true! Under our noses (and the rest of the globe) this whole time, Atlantis was buried under one mile of ice and penguins. Not in that order. Historians are claiming this is the greatest discovery for humanity since the concept of recycling. More. (11/29/07)

In case you've forgotton, or have missed my link in the right-hand nav. table, here's a reminder from the American Thinker. I'm a big fan of John's "warmlist" and I've been known to send him a link now and then...Enjoy!
Everything is Caused by Global Warming (600+ links) - Christopher Alleva - Dr. John Brignell, a British engineering professor, runs a website called numberwatch. He has compiled what has to be the most complete collection of links to media stories ascribing the cause of everything under the sun to global warming. He has already posted more than six-hundred links.
The site's stated mission is to expose all the "scares, scams, junk, panics and flummery cooked up by the media, politicians, bureaucrats and so-called scientists and others that try to confuse the public with wrong numbers" Professor Brignell's motto is "Working to Combat Math Hysteria."
This exercise is not merely a lark to show the abject absurdity of this global warming nonsense. Brignell wrote a great book titled Sorry Wrong Number, The Abuse of Measurement on this very subject.
Dr. Brignell is accepting additions to the list so if you have any send them along. More. (11/29/07)

From the JunkMan!
It's the Sun, Stupid - By Steven Milloy - When the international global warming alarm-ocracy gathers for its annual convention on the balmy island of Bali next week, is there any chance that the delegates will look up at the big yellow ball in the sky and ask, "Could it be the Sun, stupid?"
New research suggests that would be a great question for them to consider.
A recent study from the Journal of Geophysical Research (November 2007) reports that the sun may have contributed 50 percent or more of the global warming thought to have occurred since 1900.
Researchers from Duke University and the U.S. Army Research Office report that climate appears to be insensitive to solar variation if you accept the global temperature trend for the past 1,000 years as represented by the so-called "hockey stick" graph - which claims to show essentially unchanging temperatures between from 1000 to 1900 and then a sharp uptick from 1900 to the present. But the hockey stick-graph has been relegated to the ash heap of global warming history.
Even the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) no longer mentions the graph in its reports. The researchers instead used a temperature reconstruction developed by Stockholm University researcher Ander Moberg and others that shows more variation in pre-industrial temperatures. Using Moberg's reconstruction, the researchers found that "the climate is very sensitive to solar changes and a significant fraction of the global warming that occurred during the last century should be solar induced." Continued... (11/29/07)

Finally, something not caused by global warming - It's important that we occasionally acknowledge good environmental news. Global warming is becoming the Paris Hilton of environmental stories. Every time you pick up a paper or turn on the television, if there's a story remotely related to the environment, global warming will somehow be implicated. This shouldn't be surprising. As much as we humans try to separate ourselves from the natural world, we can't get away from it. Earth's air, water and soils are all connected. So, if you change the composition of the atmosphere - in this case, by increasing carbon dioxide levels by 30 per cent in the last 200 years - you're likely to see changes across the board. And that ultimately affects us, too. Really, it's about time global warming was covered thoroughly in the media.
But not every environmental issue can be attributed to global warming. In spite of all the doom and gloom, there's some positive news out there, too. You just have to look for it. More. (11/29/07)

Well duh!
Ocean Fertilization 'Fix' For Global Warming Discredited By New Research - ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2007) -- Scientists have revealed an important discovery that raises doubts concerning the viability of plans to fertilize the ocean to solve global warming, a projected $100 billion venture.
Research performed at Stanford and Oregon State Universities suggests that ocean fertilization may not be an effective method of reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a major contributor to global warming. Ocean fertilization, the process of adding iron or other nutrients to the ocean to cause large algal blooms, has been proposed as a possible solution to global warming because the growing algae absorb carbon dioxide as they grow.
However, this process, which is analogous to adding fertilizer to a lawn to help the grass grow, only reduces carbon dioxide in the atmosphere if the carbon incorporated into the algae sinks to deeper waters. This process, which scientists call the "Biological Pump", has been thought to be dependent on the abundance of algae in the top layers of the ocean. The more algae in a bloom, the more carbon is transported, or "pumped", from the atmosphere to the deep ocean. The obvious continues... (11/29/07)

Global warming and the UN a fraud, hoax and lie - The Earth has been seeing significant rises and falls in both temperature and CO2 levels since the dawn of time. It is ludicrous to think that man has control over the climate on a large scale. If we could change the weather, wouldn't we eliminate killer tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons and the like?
How many active volcanoes are there in the world right now? Those spew billions of tons of pollutants (and CO2) every year, many times more than man and industry combined.
By the way, the No. 1 greenhouse gas in concentration is water vapor. The sun causes warming! If you check solar output against global temperature measurements you will find that they follow the same path. The sun heats us, and when it is hotter, it stands to reason that we get hotter too.
Some scientists need ongoing jobs so they create an ongoing crisis. Most scientists are not on board with the global warming fraud.
There is the Petition Project, where more than 17,000 verified scientists signed the following statement against the signing of the Kyoto Protocol: www.oism.org/pproject/s33p37.htm.
The world will not end in 2020, as the UN infers. ~ Mark C. Corcoran (11/29/07)

Rethingking environmentalism - If we want to fight global warming, we can't just sit in the dark - By Laura Vanderkam - The post-environmental movement took off in late 2004, when Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, green movement veterans, published an essay called The Death of Environmentalism. In the essay and the Break Through follow-up, they argued that the traditional environmental approach - identify a pollutant, mobilize public opinion, pass a law to stop it - was inadequate for dealing with global warming.
For starters, there's no one polluter to target. We're all sinners. New online calculators are showing that an urban-dwelling, car-less environmentalist will produce more planet-heating carbon dioxide by taking an eco-vacation to the Australian outback than a guy who commutes 30 miles a day in an SUV. Sure, we can buy compact fluorescent light bulbs, but does that matter when China is building a coal-fired power plant every week? Article begins... (11/29/07)

Cannon questions man's link to warming - By Robert Gehrke, The Salt Lake Tribune - Rep. Chris Cannon said Wednesday that there is "no question that we have global warming," but there is a big question about how much is caused by humans.
He cautioned against sweeping government efforts to try to stop the warming trend.
"I never, ever said we don't have global warming. The question is whether it's caused by man or not and that is very, very unclear when you get into the science," Cannon said in a meeting with The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board. "The human cost of reducing [greenhouse gases] is so high we need to be thoughtful about what we do." More. (11/29/07)

Global Warming Shakedown Begins - INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY - Climate Change: Al Gore was smiling like the proverbial cat that ate the canary following his 45-minute talk Monday with President Bush. Does he know something about U.S. global warming policy we don't? Find out. (11/27/07)

Opposition steams at exclusion from global warming summit - By Mike De Souza, CanWest News Service -

Opposition steams at exclusion from global warming summit Mike De Souza, CanWest News Service - OTTAWA -- Opposition parties are accusing the Harper government of excluding them from participating at next month's United Nations climate change summit to muzzle any criticism about its environmental policies. Environment Minister John Baird is expected to negotiate with elected officials from around the world at the conference in Bali, Indonesia, to establish a framework for a new international climate change treaty. The new deal, expected to be finalized by 2009, would be designed to respond to the latest scientific evidence about the impact of human activity and rising greenhouse gas emissions on global warming.

photo: University of Tennessee

But opposition parties say Baird's decision to keep them out of Canada's official delegation would muzzle the opinion of a majority of Canadians who want the government to respect its binding targets under the Kyoto Protocol and adopt stronger policies to crack down on industrial pollution.
"I think he's more worried about his ego than the air our kids breathe," said NDP environment critic Nathan Cullen.
The government has invited provincial governments such as Quebec to attend the conference at their own expense, but said that it wanted to focus on getting results to fight climate change, instead of fighting partisan battles. Whining continues... (11/22/07)

Global warming is a hippy myth - Chris Chapman (Letters, November 21) is yet another who has bought into the-world-is-at-risk-from-global-warming myth.
It's called nature, Chris.
All that stuff you think might be bad for our children and grandchildren. We can do nothing about it, man, and it's been going on since the beginning of time.
Don't mind all that guff the tree-hugging namby-pamby arty-farty knityourownmuesli brigade tell you.
If, as you say, by the year 2030, the future of the world is "in danger" from "global warming" and our offspring wish to know what we didn't do about it before then, how about telling 'em we were too busy living as best we could without the power to change much -- except our socks and occasionally our minds.
The next morning they'll have forgotten the needless worry on waking up to yet another lovely day of fun in the sun. Sorted. ~ ROBERT O'SULLIVAN BANTRY, CO CORK (11/22/07)

KUSI's Coleman a climate lightning rod - By ROBERT KRIER - KUSI TV weatherman John Coleman has quickly become a hero to global-warming naysayers. To local climate scientists, he's proof that dinosaurs still live.
On Nov. 11, a blog called Icecap posted a commentary by Coleman in which he called global warming "the greatest scam in history." He said "manipulated science has been accepted as fact" by "well-informed but very gullible environmentally conscientious citizens."
The online Drudge Report picked up the piece, then Rush Limbaugh. Then he was on conservative CNN commentator Glenn Beck's TV show.
Since then, Coleman says he has done about 20 radio interviews and been contacted by newspapers from around the world. He says he has received more than 500 e-mails, and about 90 percent of them have been positive.
"They say things like, 'I'm really glad you said this. I knew global warming is a scam.' But some people are very upset at me." More. (11/22/07)

Global warming just a big scam - By BILL MELECH, Bismarck - What in the world is going on? This global warming business is getting completely out of hand.
An Associated Presspoll said that 87 percent of Americans believe in global warming. How misleading and gullible can one get? Global warming is a farce, a charade, nothing but a consensus, not based on scientific fact, but on a "what if" or "a maybe."
At least half of the scientists say there is no such thing as global warming, that it is nature. Who cares if the oceans rise 2 inches by the year 2100, which is 93 years from now, as some wacko scientists say.
When I lived in Los Angeles in 1955, I remember reports that in 15 to 20 years Los Angeles would be flooded, along with most of the west coast. Lo and behold, it is still there.
If we want to go back to the stone age, we'll have city, county, state and federal governments mandating so many rules and regulations, leading to increases in taxes for everyone.
Of all the problems that may face our country, global warming should not be one of them.
John Coleman, who founded the "Weather Channel," and who is an expert lifelong scientist specializing on weather, interviewed recently on the Glen Beck show, said that "global warming is the greatest scam in history." In addition, he said 19,000 other scientists have signed a petition declaring "global warming" as a false notion.
Many billions of dollars each year of our tax money will be going to the scam, with no cost analysis. (11/21/07)

Global warming is not about to unleash hell on us - Long-time British chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson, addressing the New Zealand Business Round Table.
AS it is, the temperature projections (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) does come up with in its fourth and latest report range from a rise in the global average temperature by the year 2100 of 1.8C for its lowest emissions scenario to one of 4C for its highest emissions scenario, with a mean increase of slightly under 3C. The average annual temperature in Helsinki is less than 5C. That in Singapore is in excess of 27C, a difference of more than 22C. If man can cope with that, it is not immediately apparent why he should not be able to adapt to a change of 3C when he is given 100 years in which to do so.
Let us look at the gloomiest of the IPCC's economic development scenarios, according to which living standards ... would rise, in the absence of global warming, by 1 per cent a year in the developed world and by 2.3 per cent a year in the developing world. It can readily be calculated - using, to repeat, a cost of global warming (based on the gloomiest IPCC warning) of 3 per cent of GDP in the developed world and as much as 10 per cent in the developing world - that the disaster facing the planet is that our great-grandchildren in the developed world would, in 100 years, be only 2.6 times as well off as we are today, instead of 2.7 times; and that their contemporaries in the developing world would be only 8.5 times as well off as people in the developing world are today, instead of 9.5 times as well off. And this, remember, is the IPCC's very worst case. Continued. (11/21/07)

John McCain: too old, wrong side of amnesty for illegal aliens, and-oh yeah, wrong side of global warming. Fogeddaboudit!
New McCain radio ad focuses on global warming, his change - CONCORD, N.H. -- Sen. John McCain's new campaign radio ad focuses on his support of efforts to curtail global warming, an area where he claims to differ from his Republican rivals. He also uses the ad to remind New Hampshire voters of his successful campaign in 2000, when he dominated the New Hampshire primary before being defeated by then-Texas Gov. George Bush in later primaries.
more stories like thisThe 60-second ad, titled "I Listened," began airing Wednesday in New Hampshire. More. (11/21/07)

NewsBusters: Global Warming for the Holidays: Have a Green Thanksgiving - By Noel Sheppard - When this first appeared in my inbox, I thought it was a joke from one of the many satirical websites on the Internet which regularly lampoon the liberal bogeyman disaffectionately known as global warming.
Then, I thought the good folks at the Washington Times were having a little fun the day before Thanksgiving highlighting tips to make your holiday more eco-friendly.
Sadly, a visit to the World Wildlife Fund's website proved that the joke's on us as the largest multinational conservation organization in the world offered readers ten tips for a greener Thanksgiving: Read on! (11/21/07)

Flip or flop?
NewsBusters: Time Magazine on Drought, 2007 Versus 1974 - By Amy Ridenour... Time magazine, November 26, 2007 (Michael Grunwald):
[Georgia's] drought was a natural event transformed into a natural disaster by human folly. And while it's still hard to say whether global warming caused any particular drought or flood or fire, it's going to cause more of all of them.
Time magazine, June 24, 1974:
In Africa, drought continues for the sixth consecutive year, adding terribly to the toll of famine victims... Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age. (11/21/07)

Lions vow to fight global warming with "carbon neutral" game - By DAVID N. GOODMAN, The Associated Press - DETROIT (AP) -- The Detroit Lions say they'll take on the Green Bay Packers without warming the globe, buying a stake in a replanted rain forest in Ecuador to offset the up to 933 tons of carbon dioxide the Thanksgiving Day game is expected to generate.
The Lions will follow the standards for greenhouse gas offsets laid down by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, according to the environmental engineering company handling Thursday's "green game" at Ford Field.
It may seem odd to plant trees in South America because of U.S. football fans' tailpipe emissions, but there is strong logic to it, said Mike Dolkowski, a partner in Carbon Credit Environmental Services Inc. More. (11/21/07)

Alarmist Hyperbole of the Day:
Yeah yeah yeah, it's the end of the world thing again!
Global Warming Action: A Good Economy Won't Help You When You're Dead -By Eric Baerren - What is more important -- surviving or winning?
Increasingly, it appears that the White House's answer to this question is that it is more concerned with winning than surviving. The most recent evidence of this came late last week, in response to a United Nations report that blasted inaction of global warming and warned of looming climate-related catastrophes.
The president's reaction? A typical "Yeah, yeah, yeah," and raising the specter of China and India. Drivel continues. (11/19/07)

I keep hearing Republican pundits saying "Why do liberals like Mike Huckabee so much?" Well maybe this is one reason. This year, Hillary Clinton's success on the campaign trail has taught us that the issues are not important to Democratic voters. Instead, she has demonstrated that in order to get votes from the left, you have to pander. So why shouldn't a Republican candidate pander to the left?
Huckabee: God wants us to fight global warming
The Republican presidential candidate believes it's our biblical duty to stop climate change. - By Amanda Griscom Little - Should you heart Huckabee? The jovial former Arkansas governor famously shed 100 pounds in two years and became an outspoken health and fitness advocate, and now he's focusing that can-do attitude on a much weightier problem: America's beleaguered energy system.
"The first thing I will do as president is send Congress my comprehensive plan for energy independence," he proclaims on his Web site. "We will achieve energy independence by the end of my second term." The goal may sound admirable, but even if it's achievable -- and many experts doubt that it is -- Huckabee's plan for getting there is light on specifics. Rather than spell out what steps he would take, he talks of creating a market environment that encourages innovation, and he praises just about every energy source you can think of -- nuclear, "clean coal," wind, solar, hydrogen, biomass, biodiesel, corn-based ethanol, cellulosic ethanol, oil from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other untapped domestic areas, and, yes, conservation too.
A conservative Republican and devout Christian, Huckabee believes he has a biblical responsibility to protect God's planet from climate change, even though he's not convinced that climate change is largely human-caused. But mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions make him squeamish.
I called Huckabee up in Iowa to find out how his ideas are playing on the campaign trail.
For more info on his platform and record, check out this Huckabee fact sheet. So why shouldn't a Republican candidate pander to the left? Well, theres that Republican Primary thing that you have to get past first... More. (11/19/07)

NewsBusters: Global Warming Hysteria Could Make Gore Richest VP in History - By Noel Sheppard - Is the press beginning to see through Al Gore's global warming scam?
A brief article posted at Newsweek's website offers hope that the media might finally be recognizing the former Vice President could be this decade's Ken Lay. More. (11/19/07)

Gore Challenged Over Warming - Last month, professor Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology spoke to the 350 students at St. Marks School in Providence, R.I., on the science of global warming. [...]
Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmosphere and Planetary Sciences, has been pilloried as a mouthpiece for oil companies who has somehow infiltrated one of the country's leading science institutions.
Science is not knowledge, he told his audience. It is a method for determining what is true, based on observation and theory. Given the sorry state of science education in America, that may have been a revelation to students even at this fine private school. More. (11/19/07)

USHCN in the "ass end of nowhere" - By Anthony Watts - There's a USHCN station out there, in the "ass end of nowhere".
Apologist Eli Rabett (Joshua Halpern) recently lamented that in order for dendrochronologists to update tree ring studies used in MBH98/99 (aka Mann's Hockey Stick) that they "have to drive out to the ass end of nowhere". It's such an inconvenience for those that just perform data wrangling in the office, instead of going out to get their hands dirty, that a study used as the basis for legislation hasn't had its data updated in almost 10 years! Watts continues... (11/18/07)

NewsBusters: UN Discusses Global Warming in Spain as Snow Pummels Switzerland - By Noel Sheppard - Remember when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) traveled to Germany to discuss global warming with Chancellor Angela Merkel and was hysterically greeted with a late-season snowstorm that rocked Europe?
Well, as the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change met in Valencia, Spain, last week to contemplate the supposedly catastrophic warming of the planet, Switzerland to the east received the most snow for this early in the season since 1952.
You really can't make this stuff up. Noel continues... (11/18/07)

NewsBusters: ABC: Accept Global Warming or Violate 'Moral Imperative' - By Mark Finkelstein - If you don't buy into a Goresque view of global warming, you're not just wrong -- you're immoral. That was ABC's implication this morning.
The notion came from Good Morning America co-anchor Bill Weir at the end of his interview of Jim Gooch. The Dem state representative from Kentucky recently had the audacity to hold hearings with witnesses who cast doubt on global warming theories.
View video here. (11/18/07)

Delay In Autumn Color Caused By Increased Carbon Dioxide Not Global Warming - ScienceDaily (Nov. 17, 2007) -- The delay in autumnal leaf coloration and leaf fall in trees is caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere and not by increased global temperatures, suggests a new study by researchers at the University of Southampton. So, if the trees are greener longer won't they remove more CO2, hence reducing global warming...naturally? Na, it (climate change) CAN'T be a natural process. Read the entire article. (11/17/07)

Its the end of the world...again!
U.N. report: Urgent action needed on 'severe' climate change - (CNN) -- Climate change is "severe and so sweeping that only urgent, global action" can head it off, a United Nations scientific panel said in a report on global warming issued Saturday.
The report produced by the Nobel prize-winning panel warns of the devastating impact for developing countries and the threat of species extinction posed by the climate crisis.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, presenting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in Valencia, Spain, warned that some of the effects of rising levels of greenhouse gases may already be irreversible.
The U.N. head said the situation was already "so severe and so sweeping that only urgent, global action" could head off the crisis. More. (11/17/07)

Keep your hands off my meat!
Vegetarians applaud global warming link - Hallelujah! Finally in a major media outlet, The Morning Call on Nov. 12, we see an article showing the connections between exercise and meat consumption with obesity, chronic disease and global warming. Many scientists were quoted describing the importance of exercise in alleviating all these problems, but to finally hear what we in the environmental, sustainable-community and vegetarian movements have known for a considerable amount of time, is most encouraging.
It is old news that meat- and dairy-eating lead to chronic disease. But it's big news that they also contribute to global warming. Three quarters of our corn and 90 percent of our soy go to feed cows, pigs and chickens. Half of our agricultural land and at least half of our water is used to grow crops to feed food animals. Methane from cows is a greenhouse gas, and the carbon dioxide from burning fuel to grow and ship crops as well as the animals, also produces greenhouse gas.
One of the most important contributions that each of us can make to prevent the oncoming disaster of global warming is to minimize, if not eliminate, our consumption of meat, especially beef and pork. Len Frenkel ~ Upper Saucon Township (11/17/07)

Global warming is doomsday drivel - When I read your front-page report noting that competent men of science are daring to question the global warming juggernaut, it was like a ray of sun breaking through an overcast sky ("Skeptics raise doubts on global warming," Sunday).
Thank you for letting your readers know there are dissenting voices that refused to be herded into the "group think" of this doomsday movement.
I hope I live long enough to see the day when this inflated and exaggerated balloon of hot air is deflated by men and women of science and reported by media spokesmen willing to stand up to the rumor mongers, politicians and ecological extremists who are driving this runaway train.
People will then look back and laugh at the gullibility of the thought leaders of our generation. ~ John Waddey,Sun City West (11/17/07)

Cool it on the global warming debate - The Nov. 8 column by Eric Sharp ("Heed global warnings") was an example of dangerous journalism. He claimed to know that all who dispute the Al Gore version of climate change are "either hopelessly uninformed, in denial, or lying" -- or are mostly funded by groups such as the fossil fuel industry.
But how well is Sharp informed? He did not give an example of any scientist.
Consider his statement: "We don't know if warming land temperatures could increase the spread of existing plant diseases or foster the emergence of new diseases." After saying that we don't know, he continued with: "If that were to happen ... it would be a disaster of unprecedented proportions."
This is an interesting construction of logic. First say we don't know if this will cause a cataclysm, but if it does, it will be cataclysmic. He should write about global warming with a lot less heat and a little more light. William Margolin ~ Commerce Township (11/17/07)

Get ready to bend over...
Global warming's trillion dollar debate
UN scientists say climate change is happening faster than thought as politicians head to Bali to hammer out Kyoto's successor - By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer - NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Kyoto, the far-reaching agreement reached in 1997 intended to reduce global carbon emissions, is nothing compared to what could be coming next as the world's governments confront the ecological damage from global warming and debate what needs to be done to fix it.
The fourth and final UN report on climate change, due Saturday, is expected to emphasize that the warming of the planet is "unequivocal" and that humans are the main cause. That report will act as a blueprint for the next crucial round of climate talks starting next month in Bali, Indonesia. More. (11/16/07)

Global warming reports miss facts - The recent CNN report "Planet in Peril" spent considerable time discussing shrinking Arctic sea ice (which has shrunk and expanded many times in the past, so what's so unusual about that?) but never mentioned that Antarctica last month experienced the record maximum winter sea ice coverage since aerial measurements started.
Also, NASA has confirmed that 1934 was the warmest year in the U.S. over past 100 years. If Earth is supposed to be warming due to large increases in mankind's usage of fossil fuels during the past 30 years, why wasn't 2006 or 1998 warmer than 1934?
Another thing: Because of so many (nine) inaccuracies in Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth," an English court ruled that if the film is to be shown in schools, it must contain a warning.
Global warming alarmists look more like English economist Thomas Malthus, who predicted mass starvation 250 years ago. ~ Charles Luger, Sarasota (11/15/07)

Legislators hear global warming disputed - Called a myth of Gore, U.N., media - By John ChevesFRANKFORT - Global warming is a myth concocted by former Vice President Al Gore, the United Nations, Hollywood and the news media, Kentucky lawmakers were told yesterday.
The interim joint Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing to dispute the idea that the Earth is warming, at least in part because of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere produced by industrial activity. More. (11/15/07)

Politicizing Global Warming - The Nov. 12 editorial "Political Heat, Global Warming" is a perfect illustration of how the press politicizes global warming.
The editorial starts by criticizing the Bush administration for editing an employee's testimony, implying a political motive. Two paragraphs later, it quotes fragments of the removed text. There is no evidence to support the comment, no literature references cited, no peer review of the editorial. The words were chosen by The Courant's editors to support their particular view not to inform or educate the public. Of course, this is exactly what The Courant suggests that the Bush administration did in the first place.
Creating political firestorms may win some elections, but it only delays the consensus needed to address global warming. ~ Leonard Ulicny, Durham (11/15/07)

NewsBusters: Shocking Stanford Luncheon: 'Is Global Warming a Myth?' - By Noel Sheppard - Don't weep for the youth of America, for about a week after the Harvard Crimson published a shocking editorial antagonistic to Nobel Laureate Al Gore, Stanford University held a luncheon entitled "Is Global Warming a Myth?"
Adding to your likely surprise, the guest speaker was the world-renowned global warming skeptic S. Frederick Singer. Noel continues... (11/15/07)

Global warming not to blame for warmer North Pole? - Boffins blame ocean currents instead - By Lucy Sherriff - Recent dramatic changes in the Arctic climate - melting sea ice, warmer ocean, green fields in place of icy wilderness, etc - might not all be directly related to global warming.
The more clement Arctic climate of recent years could have been triggered by shorter term circulation changes in the oceans and atmosphere.
According to a team of NASA scientists, decade-long variations in ocean circulation, known as the Arctic Oscillation, have an effect on the oceans' salinity. A very salty sea is heavier and circulates differently than a less salty one, the team says. This can affect the temperature of the water in the region and thus the local climate. More. (11/15/07)

EXCELLENT! Believe it or not, the best article of the day comes from right here in the land of fruits and nuts! Hat tip to Debra Saunders of the... wait for it... San Francisco Chronicle!
Global warming plans more fantasy than science - By Debra J. Saunders, San Francisco Chronicle - Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., delivered a speech in the Senate last week in which she linked global warming to the San Diego wildfires, Darfur, the imminent loss of the world's polar bears and even a poor 14-year-old boy who died from "an infection caused after swimming in Lake Havasu," because its water is warmer.
Forget arson. Forget genocide. Forget nature. There is no tragedy that cannot be placed at the doorstep of global warming skeptics.
Oh, and there's no need to acknowledge the regulations or taxes necessary to curb emissions by a substantial degree might damage economic growth.
According to Boxer, laws to curb greenhouse gases - this country would have to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half over 12 years to meet the latest international community goals - will do good things for the American economy and create lots of jobs. It's Nostradamus science wedded to Santa Claus economics.
It's rhetoric such as Boxer's - an odd combination of the-end-is-near hysteria and overly rosy economic scenarios - that keeps me in the agnostic-skeptic global warming camp. Ms. Saunders continues... (11/14/07)

And another great piece from the left coast. Two in one day!
A scientist's take on global warming - By JEFFREY P. SCHAFFER - John Stephens' piece on global warming ("From AmCan to Greenland, take action on warming," Oct. 24) outdoes Al Gore's "Inconvenient (Half) Truth" in hysteria.
Gore actually got quite a bit right, but his 20-foot sea level rise due to rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet is far from reality, and Stephens' 23-foot rise in two or three years is worse. At an April 2007 American Association of Geographers conference I attended, its session on global warming produced estimates of only four to six inches by 2100, and that included Greenland ice melting three times faster than in the previous decade. Still, most would put the rise at one foot; the extremists, at three feet.
My background in science started in 1961 at M.I.T., and then later, at Berkeley. In addition to a full range of biological and geoscience courses (double major), I had a rigorous course on meteorology (physics of weather). Starting in 1972, when scientists were convinced global cooling was about to destroy civilization, I began to make weather observations in the Sierra Nevada (along with biological and geoscience observations). Beginning in 1986 I became seriously interested in global warming, and learned that the sea level would rise about 20 feet very rapidly due to melting ice shelves and sea ice. However, as any science-literate elementary school kid can tell you, when floating ice melts, it contracts; there is no increase in volume, so no sea-level rise. After about 10 years with this impending doom scenario, scientists dropped it. I suppose some elementary school kid told them about the "floating ice cubes" class experiment.
Back in the late 1980s, I made two global warming predictions. The first is that summers in the Bay Area would become cooler, windier and foggier, and this has already happened. The second is that by 2100, the sea level may drop a foot. How so? Easy. Greenland and other high-latitude lands are likely to warm about 10 degrees Celsius, and hence the air will be able to hold twice as much water vapor as it did before warming. This leads to twice as many clouds and twice as much precipitation. Thanks to satellite measurement, we can already observe parts of Greenland and Antarctica that have snow accumulating faster than ice is melting. As this trend accelerates, total snow accumulation should outpace total ice melting, and then the sea level will drop.
What I did not foresee back then is that although many of us felt that the Arctic Ocean would become ice-free in summer by about 2050, we did not think of the consequences with regard to sea level. Last century, as in past centuries, the polar region had a continental climate, which sent extremely cold, dry air south. But as sea ice continues to shrink, the polar region will shift increasingly to a maritime climate, which will greatly increase the number of storms in Eurasia, North America and Greenland. Snow could accumulate in Greenland (as well as in the mountains of Alaska and Canada) at a much higher rate than I had predicted.
Mr. Stephens recommends one book. I'll recommend three. (Like me, none of these books' authors doubts global warming.) The first is "Useless Arithmetic: Why Environmental Scientists Can't Predict the Future," by Orrin Pilkey. An old field scientist like me, Pilkey believes in detailed field work, not modeling, since models will always produce the results you want. The second is "Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming," by Bjorn Lomborg. If you are concerned about polar bears, he says, stop shooting them. (The hunting program is a way to control the bear's overpopulation problem.) The third is "State of Fear," a novel by Michael Crichton. Part fiction and part science, he shows how environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club create imaginary crises. Having been on the board of one organization and observing others, I can vouch for this. A perceived crisis really boosts your membership! For example, here is a global-warming quote by Stanford University climatologist Stephen Schneider: "We need to get some broad-based support to capture the public's imagination. That of course, entails getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have."
(Schaffer is an instructor at Napa Valley College.) (11/14/07)

UK politician blames babies for global warming! - London, Nov 14: A top British Liberal Democrat has proposed a solution to combat global warming -- put a full stop on babies.
Chris Davies has warned that halting population growth, as an answer to global warming, would prove to be far more efficient than trying to cut pollution.
The North West England MEP added that families should be encouraged to have no more than one child in an effort to combat climate change.
But he said he did not support "Chinese-like ideas of compulsion".
"What's the single most effective thing couples can do to play a part in combating global warming? It is to have no more than one child," the Mirror quoted him, as saying.
Davies added that he wants his plan to be considered by the EU.
However, not all are convinced with Davies' theory.
Labour MP Sion Simon said: "This is a crazy idea."
Bureau Report with ANI input (11/14/07)

Sun and global warming: A cosmic connection? - By Richard Black, Environment correspondent, BBC News website
- In February 2007, depending on what newspaper you read, you might have seen an article detailing a "controversial new theory" of global warming.
The idea was that variations in cosmic rays penetrating the Earth's atmosphere would change the amount of cloud cover, in turn changing our planet's reflectivity, and so the temperature at its surface.
This, it was said, could be the reason why temperatures have been seen to be varying so much over the Earth's history, and why they are rising now.
The theory was detailed in a book, The Chilling Stars, written by Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark and British science writer Nigel Calder, which appeared on the shelves a week after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had published its landmark report concluding it was more than 90% likely that humankind's emissions of greenhouse gases were warming the planet. Continued. (11/14/07)

Absurdity of the day; from The Daily Green, of course.
Bangladesh, Global Warming and Islamic Extremism - Why Cyclone Sidr Should Matter to the U.S. Media - By Dan Shapley - Bangladesh could be ground zero for the geo-strategic fallout from global warming, if some of the nation's best national security minds are right. And that makes Cyclone Sidr a big glaring warning signal. Shockingly, it's a warning signal that the major U.S. media is ignoring. That's because it's a ridiculous assertion. Ground zero? Global warming fallout? Give me a break! Absurdity continues... (11/14/07)

Global Warming, Subsidies Fuel a Nuclear Renaissance - By Cyrus Farivar - A recent application to build the first American nuclear power plant in nearly 30 years has the nuclear community aglow with talk of possible industry resurgence.
In September 2007, NRG Energy filed a proposal with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a nuclear power plant in Texas. Last month, NuStart, a nuclear consortium, also filed an application. These represent the leading edge of a wave of renewed interest in domestic nuclear energy.
"We are expecting an additional three (applications) before the end of this calendar year," said Scott Burnell, an NRC spokesman, who said another 16 applications, some for multiple power plants, are likely by the end of 2009. "If all of these applications were approved, we would end up with a total of 32 new reactors in the United States," Burnell said. More. (11/14/07)

Busy day at NewsBusters...

NewsBusters: Live Earth II: The Concert to Honor Nobel Laureate Al Gore - By Noel Sheppard - The torture never stops!
As if the failure of Al Gore's Live Earth concerts in July wasn't enough, a musical fiesta is being prepared to honor the new Nobel Laureate after he receives his Peace prize in December.
I don't know about you, but I can't wait!
More Gore... (11/14/07)

NewsBusters: NASA Debunks Part of Global Warming Myth, Will Media Report It? - By Noel Sheppard - Is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration filled with climate change deniers?
Such seems likely to be alleged by hysterical alarmists in the press when and if they read a new study out of NASA which determined that "not all the large changes seen in Arctic climate in recent years are a result of long-term trends associated with global warming."
Goes quite counter to all the recent media reports, as well as assertions by Nobel Laureate Al Gore, that low ice conditions in the Arctic are all the fault of that despicable -- albeit essential to life and naturally occurring! -- gas carbon dioxide.
Of course, it's quite unlikely many climate alarmists will even hear about this study, for today's green media wouldn't want to do anything that destroys their illusion that there's a scientific consensus regarding this matter. Noel continues... (11/14/07)

NewsBusters: Laurie David Cries: Tim Russert Won't Mention Global Warming - By Matthew Sheffield - Reading this HuffPo entry from "Inconvenient Truth" producer Laurie David and environmental activist Gene Karpinski, it's hard to not come up with the impression that these two are a bunch of whiners.
Both are outraged (!) that NBC host and former Democratic strategist Tim Russert is not as obsessed with global warming as they are.
What's even funnier (unintentionally of course) is that David and Karpinski frame their outrage around the recent NBC Universal PR campaign "Green Is Universal," which was nothing more than a corporate-driven shillfest designed to drum up interest in parent company General Electric's non-fossil fuel offerings. (So much for the left-wing lie about corporate "conservatism.")
Tim Russert's real sin was that he didn't parrot the company line like a good liberal media hack. The arrogance is stunning. A billion-dollar media empire devotes an entire week to promoting their pet issue and yet it's still not enough for David and Karpinski. Whine excerpt is past the jump: Story continues... (11/14/07)

Another example of the idiotic hypocrisy of the environut mentality. After all, it's all about what you say, not what you do...
ASU's global warming skeptic says he's "green" - The Arizona Republic - Arizona State University climatologist Robert Balling attended the premiere of Al Gore's global-warming documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."
He served on the United Nations' climate-change panel and studies how drought and warmer temperatures will affect the West.
He bikes to work and eats organic food.
But environmentalists hate him.
Balling, 54, has spoken and written extensively against the widely held scientific view that the documented rise in global temperatures is the result of human activity and that serious consequences will result.
Even if humans are warming the planet by causing the buildup of greenhouse gases, he says, the doomsday scenarios forecast by many climate scientists may never happen.
His views have elicited outrage from environmentalists and scorn from some fellow scientists. Article continues... (11/13/07)

So this is where the global warming "science" is going?
Less men = less global warming - It's science, so it's must be true. New Scientist reports that a Swedish government scientist has found that men are, on the whole, far greater contributors to global warming than women.
The study, "gender equality as a prerequisite for sustainable development," found that because women travel less than men, measured in person-kilometres per car, plane, boat and motorcycle, women cause considerably fewer carbon dioxide emissions than men.
Even further, the study notes, 60% of car emissions in Sweden are created by the 10% of drivers who use roads the most, and that men account for three-quarters of car driving in Sweden. (11/13/07)

I've had enough of these lefty complaints about White House censorship. So here's what I say to all you warmist alarmists...
Political Heat, Global Warming - Why did the White House cut by half the congressional testimony on global warming drafted by Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? Editor raises hand, "I know, I know! Because she injected conjecture, and her own unsubstantiated opinions into her "scientific" testimony.
Six of the 12 pages were deleted from Ms. Gerberding's draft because they did not "comport with the science," Dana Perino, the president's press secretary, said recently. There was no censoring, she said; the changes were necessary to match the science in a U.N. report on global warming.
If that is so, the White House should not object to releasing the full draft submitted by Ms. Gerberding for its vetting. Let the public and the experts then assess the importance of the deletions. Good question. By that logic, the White House should give a forum to anyone with an opposing opinion that does not "comport with the science in a U.N. report on global warming." Anyone got Lindzen's phone number?
Besides, you can't keep a secret in Washington. Portions of the original text have already been leaked. One excised part had Ms. Gerberding warning that "CDC considers climate change a serious health concern." She warned of possible respiratory problems, the spread of diseases, and food and water shortages for some people. "Catastrophic weather events such as heat waves and hurricanes are expected to become more frequent, severe and costly," the draft version also said.
Those statements, however, don't square with the administration's more relaxed approach toward global warming. That's because those "statements" are not supported by any evidence -- even the psudo-science of the U.N. It continues to argue that the problems can be addressed voluntarily by individual nations. Well, why not address a percieved problem with a percieved solution? The left does it all the time. Have any tax increases EVER solved the problem for which they were raised?
Despite the deletions, Ms. Gerberding said she was "absolutely happy" with her testimony and insisted she doesn't "let people put words in my mouth, and I stand for science." Well, she also has a top job to think about before complaining that she was muzzled.
This isn't the first time the administration has been suspected of shutting up officials. For example, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was accused earlier this year of censoring its polar bear experts on the subject of climate change. That's probably because the polar bears are not in any danger. Unless you consider a five-fold population increase in the last five decades a "danger". In the 1960's they were down to less than 5000 globally. Now their numbers are approaching 25000. Why you ask? Because we quit shooting them. That's science for ya.
Releasing the uncut Gerberding statement would restore a measure of the government's credibility and serve the public's right to know their public servants' thoughts about global warming. Releasing the uncut Gerberding statement would only encourage every alarmist nutcase with a worthless diploma and no common sense to demand to be heard. (11/13/07)

Take action on global warming scam - By DON SNYDER - Writer John Stephens wants everyone to take action on global warming ("From AmCan to Greenland, take action on warming," Oct. 24) because of a global warming book he found scary.
Perhaps this subject is scary to those who read only what associate editor for Time, Michael Lemonick, has to say. I remember when Time was also responsible for the coming ice age scare. But now we have Al Gore and his trophy of a Nobel Peace Prize to make things more frightening. I guess it was expected since all Nobel Peace Prizes go to individuals promoting internationalism.
The promoters of global warming are now very carefully changing the wording to "climate change" to cover any weather condition. But currently, the big scare is all the carbon dioxide (CO2) we humans generate that raises the temperature and melts the Arctic ice causing enormous flooding.
CO2 is a normal byproduct of a lot of natural chemical reactions all over the face of the earth. All decomposition, such as the leaves you rake up for the compost pile to volcanic action, produces CO2. In Cameroon, West Africa, Lake Nyos sits inside the crater of a dormant volcano. In 1986 a landslide into the lake triggered CO2 gas to bubble up to the surface and over the rim of the mountain. Roughly 1,700 village people in the lower region died because of suffocation from the CO2. There are several thousand volcanoes on this planet, with a number under the sea, generating CO2.
Volcanoes also produce toxic gasses such as SO2 (sulfur dioxide). Volcano Nyiragongo in the Congo, not far from the border with Rwanda, produces 50,000 tons of SO2 a day, the primary cause of acid rain. That's more than the amount produced by all power plants, factories and cars in the United States.
Global warming of our troposphere comes from around 95 percent water vapor and only around 5 percent CO2. The big claim about CO2 having an effect comes from "climate models." Snyder continues... (11/13/07)

NewsBusters: SanFran Chronicle: Only The 'Informed' Believe in Global Warming - By Warner Todd Huston - The San Francisco Chronicle decided to pat Californians on the back last week for how much "better informed" Golden Staters are on the supposed dire threat of global warming. With their headline joyously proclaiming, "Californians better informed on global warming threat, poll finds," the SF Chron handed out the party hats, blew their celebratory horns and lined up little Al Gore statuettes to hand out at the awards banquet. And how is it that their poll "found" this startling fact? Why it's because our friends in California believe, man! It's not because Californians are any better informed, that they know all the facts, it's just that they accept Al Gore's claim that the "debate is over" despite any evidence or lack thereof. They really, really believe man.
Californians are more likely than the rest of the nation to see global warming as a threat, but also are more optimistic that greenhouse gases can be cut while creating jobs and expanding the economy, according to a Field Poll released Friday.
See, they are "better informed" because they are "more likely" to see global warming "as a threat." It's not because they have any more facts or science backing up this "informed" position. It's cuz they "get it," baby.
The SFChron goes on with their elation: (11/13/07)

Nukes or Deadly Storms? - Is nuclear power the answer to global warming? It provides lots of reliable electricity while producing almost none of the greenhouse gases that pour out of the smokestacks of coal and gas-fired power plants. And it takes up very little land, compared to the construction of wind turbines -- another form of relatively clean energy.
These are questions that Marylanders need to tackle, because Constellation Energy is discussing the construction of a new nuclear reactor at its Calvert Cliffs plant in Southern Maryland (shown above). That 1970's era plant today produces about a quarter of the state's electricity, which could increase to nearly half if Constellation and the federal government give their okay. Meanwhile, more than 150 wind turbines, each about 40 stories tall, have been proposed off the beaches of Ocean City, Md., and in the scenic mountains of Western Maryland.
Which makes more sense for fighting global warming? A single new nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs wouldn't consume an additional acre of land, but would provide about as much electricity as about 1,000 wind turbines. Article continues. (11/13/07)

Far out man... Without a doubt, this is the wierdest article on global warming I have ever seen.
Global Warming caused fundamentally from a negative consciousness rather than Greenhouse gases - By Peter Tremblay - Redressing the Global Warming catastrophe, requires humanity to appreciate critically the root cause of Global Warming. Unfortunately, environmental activists and other concerned human beings have absorbed apparent "half-truths" on Global Warming. As a result, human beings who are critically concerned about Global Warming, and who want to save our planet Earth from destruction, do not have the kind off overall appreciation of the Global Warming problem, that is required to do something about it. It gets even stranger... (11/13/07)

Excellent!
Irving C. Sheldon Jr.: Science vs politics: Challenging the global-warming hysteria - IRVING C. SHELDON Jr. - SOUTHBORO, Mass. -- LAST MONTH, Prof. Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology spoke to the 350 students at St. Marks School on the science of global warming.
With his large glasses and unruly hair, he could have been a professor from central casting. While he was being introduced by the headmaster, he leaned casually against the wall of the wood-paneled, three-level auditorium -- a little shocking at a prep school, where not long ago bad posture could get the odd fifth-quintilian the boot.
The students had been called together because last year, they had viewed Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth. The movie -- which won an Oscar and helped lead to Gore's being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize -- has been praised for describing in dramatic terms the consequences of the unchecked accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, chiefly carbon dioxide from the burning of coal and oil by the world's industrialized economies. The movie predicts the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and the rise of sea levels by as much as 20 feet, increasingly violent weather patterns and droughts that will kill millions.
To the school's credit, it asked Professor Lindzen, a critic of some of the extreme claims of global warming apostles, to give his views. Lindzen has been a minor affliction to those, like Gore, who maintain that the science on global warming is settled and the debate is over. Mr. Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmosphere and Planetary Sciences, has been pilloried as a mouthpiece for oil companies who has somehow infiltrated one of the country's leading science institutions. Continued. (11/13/07)

UN Official: If You're Not Trying To Stop Global Warming You're A Criminal - And so it begins...
VALENCIA, Spain - The U.N.'s top climate official warned policymakers and scientists trying to hammer out a landmark report on climate change that ignoring the urgency of global warming would be "criminally irresponsible."
Yvo de Boer's comments came at the opening of a weeklong conference that will complete a concise guide on the state of global warming and what can be done to stop the Earth from overheating. It is the fourth and last report issued this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, co-winner of this year's Nobel Peace prize.
Got that? If you don't buy into the war on climate change, if you don't line up to follow each and every life-controlling regulation Al Gore's legions dream up from what kind of car you can drive to what size of house you can live in, you're a criminal.
Sure it's just a bit of hyperbole, but this is how totalitarianism gets started. They find a common enemy (for Hitler it was the Jews, for communists it's always been the capitalists or the rich) and then the recruit everyone into the struggle against that enemy. And then they case those who don't want to struggle as traitors or...criminals.
It's dangerous stuff, this sort of rhetoric, but the global warming zealots are charging forward with it full speed. All based on theories about anthropomorphic global warming that are anything but settled. (11/13/07)

Must read article of the day! A special hat tip to NewsBusters' Noel Sheppard for this one.
NewsBusters: Global Warming Plot Thickens: Gore Joins Venture Capital Group - By Noel Sheppard - *****Update: Media Matters shill doesn't like this post, and is responded to at end of article.
The financial scam involved in advancing climate alarmism got even more obvious Monday - to folks outside of the media, that is! - when Nobel Laureate Al Gore joined "Silicon Valley's most prestigious venture capital firm to guide investments that help combat global warming."
As reported by the Associated Press (emphasis added, h/t NBer Wildcatter 1980): "Gore, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last month for his work on climate change, joins Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as it and dozens of other venture firms expand into so-called 'clean-tech' investments worldwide."
Media that have continually ignored the financial aspects of this con will certainly not see the exquisitely delicious irony in the following announcement from the same article: Noel continues... (11/13/07)

CO2 Science: Hurricanes (Global and/or General) -- Summary - Although some climate models suggest the intensity and frequency of tropical cyclones may be significantly reduced in response to global warming (Bengtsson et al., 1996), thus implying a "decrease in the global total number of tropical cyclones on doubling CO2," as noted by Sugi et al. (2002), most of them suggest otherwise, as noted by Free et al. (2004), who state that "increases in hurricane intensity are expected to result from increases in sea surface temperature and decreases in tropopause-level temperature accompanying greenhouse warming (Emanuel, 1987; Henderson-Sellers et al., 1998; Knutson et al., 1998)." Hence, it is important to see what the world of nature has to say about the issue. (11/13/07)

From "The Spoof" (satire)
BaBa Booey's Breath Linked to Global Warming - By Ryan Splan - "We are constantly studying new issues that perpetuate the onset of Global Warming, and my team of researchers may have stumbled onto another link that will bring us one step closer into finding out even more information regarding Global Warming." States Dr. Ivan Stefansky, PhD, a professor of Atmospheric and Climate Change at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "And, because of this constant drive and this hunger to know more about Global Warming, we have discovered that BaBa Booey's breath may in fact cause an influx of gas emissions faster than any other negative hazard that has been reported to date." From the beginning... (11/12/07)

UN official warns of ignoring warming - By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press Writer - VALENCIA, Spain - The U.N.'s top climate official warned policymakers and scientists trying to hammer out a landmark report on climate change that ignoring the urgency of global warming would be "criminally irresponsible."
Yvo de Boer's comments came at the opening of a weeklong conference that will complete a concise guide on the state of global warming and what can be done to stop the Earth from overheating. It is the fourth and last report issued this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, co-winner of this year's Nobel Peace prize.
Environmentalists and authors of the report expected tense discussions on what to include and leave out of the document, which is a synthesis of thousands of scientific papers. A summary of about 25 pages will be negotiated line-by-line this week, then adopted by consensus. More. (11/12/07)

NewsBusters: Plant-Gate Grows: Is Clinton Campaign Telling Truth About What Hillary Knew? - By Mark Finkelstein - Did Hillary answer a second planted question at the event? See foot. What did Hillary Clinton know about the planted question in Iowa and when did she know it? The Clinton campaign and apparently Clinton herself are denying she had any idea she was calling on a plant.

photo courtesy of NewsBusters

But according to information in the New York Times, Clinton campaign aides had in fact prompted her to call on the plant.
At 10:51 AM ET this morning, MSNBC anchor Tamron Hall interviewed Hillary campaign co-chair Tom Vilsack, the former Dem governor of Iowa.
TAMRON HALL: Senator Clinton herself said she knew nothing about this and promised it would not happen again...
TOM VILSACK: Obviously Hillary Clinton does not condone the planting of questions; she did not know that this young person had been given that question.
View video here.
Vilsack elaborated on his answer later in the interview... (11/12/07)

NewsBusters: Conspiratorial Wink of the Hillary Plant - By Mark Finkelstein - UPDATE, see below: Shuster says "watch the wink." Sometimes, the smallest gestures are the most significant ... Have a look at the freeze-frame. It shows the moment at which the young woman in Iowa this weekend is retaking her seat after posing that planted question to Hillary about climate change.

photo courtesy of NewsBusters

As you'll see, she's flashing someone a conspiratorial wink and smile. "Morning Joe" rolled the video of the moment at 6:43 and 7:01 AM ET today and MSNBC has been replaying throughout the day.
But for a driver's license and a wink, was a nomination was lost?
Video: Real (648 KB) or Windows (716 KB), plus MP3 (112 KB)
The video is a bit grainy but the wink is very visible when seen in TV quality. Hopefully MSNBC will post the clip.
Discussing the controversy on today's "Morning Joe," Mika Brzezinski tried floating the know-nothing defense on Hillary's behalf.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: OK, does she know about -- you guys, Pat [Buchanan] and Joe, help me out here. She's in on this?
JOE SCARBOROUGH: I hope so.
BRZEZINSKI: I mean, come on. No, no, no!
UPDATE | 11-12 4:05 PM ET: Here's a brief, higher-quality video clip of the moment, making the wink and smile easier to see.
UPDATE | 11-12 5:40 PM ET: I don't imagine that David Shuster is a huge fan of this blog, but perhaps he does read it. At 5:38 PM ET, during his report on this afternoon's Hardball, Shuster played a specially-edited clip of the moment, zeroing in on the young woman's face, and invited viewers to "watch the wink."

NewsBusters: A Global Temperature Chart Not in Gore's Movie - By Noel Sheppard - So, you think today's temperatures are out of the ordinary?
Nobel Laureate Al Gore does, and strongly made the case in his schlockumentary "An Inconvenient Truth" with all kinds of neat slides and graphs.
Of course, despite incessant claims of a consensus concerning this premise, not everyone agrees.
In fact, climatologist Cliff Harris and meteorologist Randy Mann, who, amongst other things, run a website called Long Range Weather, have created an absolutely marvelous long-term global temperature chart that wasn't in Gore's movie, and every climate alarmist in the media desperately hopes you never see it: (11/12/07)

Photo Source: Long Range Weather

Unfortunately, to configure the picture in the space available, the text inside is a tad illegible. Those interested in viewing a larger more readable image should go here.
That said, it's great stuff, wouldn't you agree? And, so is this article by Harris and Mann entitled "Could This Cycle 'Global Warming' Finally Be Winding Down?" Noel continues... (11/12/07)

Global Warming Is The New AIDS - By Dave Gibson on Nov 12, 07 - Just as AIDS was the first politically correct disease, global warming is the first politically correct weather forecast. Both have been advertised as catastrophic events which will spell the end of civilization as we know it. However, in reality it is only the left trying to frighten us into furthering their twisted agenda. By attempting to "mainstream" AIDS, they have tried to legitimize homosexual behavior and by convincing us that we can somehow "save the planet" by using less energy, they hope to thwart development and eventually destroy capitalism.
During the 1980's and '90's, Americans were bombarded by the leftist media with images of emaciated men dying of AIDS. The term "AIDS epidemic" became a constant phrase in the American lexicon. Despite all of the fear mongering, AIDS remains a very low threat to the health of the vast majority of Americans. It is still almost exclusively a disease of homosexuals and IV drug users.
In 2003, the Center for Disease Control reported 17,011 Americans died of AIDS. By that same year, the total number of American deaths attributed to the AIDS virus was 550,394. While that number seems large, it becomes much less impressive when you consider that during the year 2001, there were 553,400 U.S. deaths due to cancer alone. More. (11/12/07)

Ridiculous rubbish of the day...
Global warming splits Christmas tree - How about an alternative headline? "Bolt of Lightning from Al Gore's Arse Splits Christmas Tree" - Christmas will be coming a little late to Belfast this year after a mini global warming disaster struck the city's Christmas tree.
The 45ft Norway Spruce tree from Parkanaur near Dungannon, was cut down last week.
However, it quickly began to split in two.
A council spokesman said: "The wet summer and unseasonally dry autumn had a devastating effect on the tree but we hope to source another immediately.''
Time's running out for the council though, the big switch on of the Christmas tree lights is due to take place on Tuesday, November 20. About 15,000 people are expected to attend. What a bunch of crap! (11/12/07)

Skeptics raise doubts on global warming - By Shaun McKinnon, The Arizona Republic - Do you believe in global warming? Most climate scientists cringe at the question. Why not just ask whether you believe in gravity, they argue. The planet has warmed, and evidence points, at least in part, to human activities. The debate among these scientists ended years ago.
But it hasn't ended everywhere.
As scientists gather in Spain this week to ratify the last in a yearlong series of climate reports, the widening spotlight on the issue will again bleed onto a small chorus of skeptics. Their goal: seed the discussion with enough doubt to keep the debate alive.
"Has the globe warmed? It's almost stupid to deny that it's warmed in some ways over the last 100 years," said Warren Meyer, a Phoenix engineer who wrote a book and made a video chipping away at the conventional wisdom of climate change.
"Where the problem comes in," he said, "is when people oversimplify and try to say that other things are settled, like the magnitude of warming or the government action that's needed. There are lots of interesting questions that are a long, long way from being settled." More. (11/11/07)

Unholy writ: Skeptic debunks climate change apologists - The Oklahoman Editorial - PITY that the writers strike doesn't extend to the authors of reports on global warming, to news stories about those reports and to the sermons penned by Al Gore, the high priest of climate change. Perhaps a break from writing would give them more time to read.
We suggest they start with "Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming" by Scandinavian scholar Bjorn Lomborg. "Skeptical" as he may be, Lomborg is no doubter of global warming: "That humanity has caused a substantial rise in atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels over the past centuries, thereby contributing to global warming, is beyond debate."
The key word in this discussion is "debate." Let's have some! Let's leave the pews of the First Church of Climate Change long enough to sort fact from fiction and the rational from the emotional. Continued. (11/11/07)

Global warming's true remedies Taxes, taxes and more taxes, of course... - By Agus Budiman, Jakarta - ...Taxes on fossil fuels would be an option, but it will raise fuel prices. Will politicians, for the sake of controlling global-warming, dare to impose such measures if people resist? I don't think so. Politicians must take heroic action to win public sympathy and secure their current position -- or prepare for their fate in the next succession. Read the entire article. (11/11/07)

Excellent ,as always...
NewsBusters: Think Progress Takes Climate Alarmism to Absurd Degrees - By Noel Sheppard - On Thursday, NewsBuster Amy Ridenour reported the hysterical protestations of the liberal blog Think Progress concerning conservative websites like ours having the unmitigated audacity to share with readers the global warming skepticism of The Weather Channel founder John Coleman. Noel continues... (11/10/07)

Global warming: Don't look now - James Delingpole reviews Scared to Death: from BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth by Christopher Booker and Richard North - Imagine you could travel back to Britain in 1998. One of the amusing things you might do there - in between buying heavily into property and cheap gold - would be to pooh-pooh all those ridiculous panic-mongers wittering on about the Millennium Bug. "It's just another of those modish, silly scares that never actually come to anything," you could declare with a knowledgeable chuckle on Newsnight and the Today programme. No one would take you seriously, though. Why should they, when the prime minister himself - presumably with access to much better expert advice than you - had declared the Millennium Bug "one of the most serious problems facing British business and the global economy today. Its impact cannot be overestimated"? But had the world listened to you instead of to Tony Blair, it might have been spared the estimated $300 billion it spent trying to solve this non-existent problem.

Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming: Why Scares are Costing Us the Earth Christopher Booker and Richard North

Add to that the many more billions squandered in the past two decades because of similarly groundless scares over dioxins, Mad Cow Disease, leaded petrol, asbestos, Listeria and salmonella, and you begin to understand the aggrieved tone of Christopher Booker and Richard North in their rather terrifying book, Scared to Death. Continued. (11/10/07)

NewsBusters: "Manmade Global Warming Myth" Shockingly Refuted by ABC Affiliate - By Noel Sheppard - You'd better strap yourself in tightly before proceeding, for the following story and video will likely shock you more than anything you've seen in quite some time.
On Thursday, in the middle of NBC's "Green is Universal" campaign, an ABC affiliate in Tyler, Texas, broadcast a segment during one of its news programs focusing exclusively on positions skeptical of man's role in climate change.
In fact, one of the meteorologists involved actually referred to this whole issue as "the manmade global warming myth."
During the piece, not only did the two anchors express a viewpoint contrary to the current media meme, but also the reporter, Molly Reuter, and the station's three meteorologists, unanimously spoke against the view held by Nobel Laureate Al Gore and his sycophant devotees (video available here): (11/10/07)

Global companies unite to promote market-based methods of fighting global warming - WASHINGTON - Forty-six of the world's biggest corporations on Friday laid out their plan for reducing global warming, putting an emphasis on market-based ways to cut emissions. But is it really market-based? Read on... (11/09/07)

NewsBusters: Why Did 'Green Week' Go Out With Travelogue Whimper? - By Mark Finkelstein - "Green Week" at "Today" came in with an Al Gore roar but went out with a travelogue whimper. What happened?
On Monday, "Today" kicked off Green Week with an Al Gore interview in which he proclaimed there was no room for dissenting voices on global warming. Over at MSNBC the same day, an NBC environmental "correspondent" urged viewers to vote for candidates with an environmentalist agenda.
But this morning, "Green Week" at "Today" went out on a mysteriously innocuous note. Gone, at least during the crucial first-half hour, was the environmentalist crusading, replaced by little more than a travelogue. Instead of global warming, the focus was Ann Curry's personal accomplishment in Antarctica. More. (11/09/07)

Today's raving idiot...
Column: Exposing the truth of the global warming 'myth' - By Matt Eldridge, CT Regular Columnist - One of the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated, believed by millions of Americans who have been duped by faulty science used to advance political agendas threatens this nation's very existence.
This hoax has diverted millions, if not billions, of dollars from tackling the real issues, and as a result has threatened our national security and cheapened the political discourse.
I'm talking of course about global warming, or more specifically, about the community of global warming skeptics who have gone out of their way to ignore mounting scientific evidence which even one of the densest presidents in U.S. history has come to accept as fact. Rant continues. (11/09/07)

Black Ops PR in Global Warming Hoax? - By James Lewis - Rush Limbaugh was hoaxed today by a very slick and superficially plausible Global Warming fraud. This resembles the kind of Black PR operation we have just been warning about. The trick is to plant a plausible story that fits a conservative theme, in this case skepticism about anthropogenic GlobWarm.
The hoax looks very professional. A fraudulent scientific journal was created on the web, called the "Journal of Geoclimatic Studies." The journal is fake, the article claiming to disprove the popular Global Warming meme is fake, the Editorial Board is fake, and the authors are faked.
The key to this fraud is its professionalism. All the visible features of the hoax are superficially possible. They do not stand up to deeper examination, but the hoaxers succeeded in fooling Rush for some minutes before he caught it.
The Left is bound to trumpet their momentary success as a proof that the GlobWarm skeptics are wrong.
Two possibilities. One is a bunch of smart grad students at MIT or Caltech. That's the innocent explanation, and we can all have a good laugh.
The other possibility is a very slick dirty trick from the Left.
It could be hard to distinguish between the two, since college students also tend to be Leftist True Believers. We will probably find out more in the coming days. The web allows a lot of back-tracing.
We have previously warned about likely Black PR in the blogosphere. It is possible that others have been planted. We will undoubtedly see other Black PR ops as the election season heats up. James Lewis blogs at dangeroustimes.wordpress.com/ (11/08/07)

First-Ever Survey of IPCC Scientists Undermines Alleged 'Consensus' on Global Warming; Poll Exposes Disagreement and Confusion Among United Nations Scientists - WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Is there really a "consensus" on global warming among the scientists participating in the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)? To find out, DemandDebate.com conducted the first-ever survey of the U.S. scientists who participated in the most recent IPCC report.
"Our results indicate that the notion of a meaningful scientific consensus on global warming is ludicrous," said Steve Milloy, DemandDebate.com's executive director.
During the month of October, DemandDebate.com polled each of the 345 U.S. scientists listed as contributing authors and reviewers of the IPCC's "Climate Change 2007: The Physical Basis" with a six-question survey on climate change. Fifty-four IPCC scientists completed the survey, including several of the most prominent global warming alarmists and several IPCC lead authors.
Less than 50% of the respondents said that an increase in global temperature of 1-degree Celsius is flatly undesirable. Half of the respondents said that such a temperature increase is either desirable, desirable for some but undesirable for others or too difficult to assess.
"Among survey respondents, then, there's no consensus on desirability of 1-degree Celsius of global warming -- twice the level of warming that occurred during the 20th century," observed Milloy.
When asked about the ideal climate, only 14% said that the ideal climate was cooler than the present climate. Sixty-one percent said that there is no such thing as an ideal climate.
"So if there's no agreement on what the target climate should be, what precisely is the point of taking action on global warming? What is the climatic goal at which we are aiming?," Milloy asked.
Another notable result is that an astounding 20% of those surveyed said that human activity is the principal driver of climate change.
"So was there no climate change before mankind?" Milloy asked. "And if there was natural climate change before man, why not now also?" he added. Forty-four percent didn't think that the current global climate was unprecedentedly warm.
"The survey results indicate that when asked routine questions about the climatic role of manmade CO2, the IPCC scientists responded for the most part with the Pavlovian manmade-CO2-is-bad view seemingly demanded of them by the IPCC," Milloy noted. "But when you ask questions that are off the IPCC script, the supposed consensus seems to readily fall apart," concluded Milloy. The survey report is on the web at: DemandDebate.com (11/08/07)

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