TheLocal (Norway)
"Tore Larsen, who lives in a cottage on the shores of Møsvatn lake, decided to rethink his plans for the day after taking a look at his thermometer.
“Right now it’s -37 degrees here. I was actually supposed to travel to West Telemark today to install a satellite dish but I’ve put that off for now,” he said.
Meteorologists said the temperature was the lowest recorded in the country on Tuesday, as well as being the lowest in memory in the Telemark area. However, since it was recorded by an individual home owner it is not destined to enter the record books.
“We recorded -31.8 degrees at Møsstrond in Telemark in 1980. We haven’t had any colder measurements at our weather stations since then, so this is probably a new record cold level for Telemark,” Øyvind Johnsen from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute told national broadcaster NRK." (H/T Dr Richard North)
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Global warming nonsense gets a true cold shoulder
Andrew Bolt,Telegraph (Australia)
"LET'S take stock of the great global warming scare and see how it's panning out.
First, the planet hasn't actually warmed for a decade - or even 15 years - according to new temperature data released by Britain's Met Office.
Hmm. That's not what global warming scientists predicted.
Look out of your window. The rain that Climate Commissioner Tim Flannery said in 2007 "isn't actually going to fill our dams and river systems" any more has just flooded NSW and Queensland yet again.
The Bureau of Meteorology - which three years ago warned "we are just not going to have that sort of good rain again" - now admits last year was our third wettest on record.
The snowfalls that the University of East Anglia in 2000 said would soon become "a very rare and exciting event" are falling as hard as ever.
The monster hurricanes we were told to expect by Nobel Prize winner Al Gore are coming no more often.
The massive coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef that warmist Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg predicted would occur every second year from 2010 has not been seen in years.
Wherever you look it's the same wake-up-to-yourself story. Sea levels have recently dipped, the oceans have lately cooled, Arctic ice has not retreated since 2007, polar bears are increasing in numbers, global crop yields keep rising and now some solar scientists warn not of global warming, but cooling -- a far deadlier threat."
"LET'S take stock of the great global warming scare and see how it's panning out.
First, the planet hasn't actually warmed for a decade - or even 15 years - according to new temperature data released by Britain's Met Office.
Hmm. That's not what global warming scientists predicted.
Look out of your window. The rain that Climate Commissioner Tim Flannery said in 2007 "isn't actually going to fill our dams and river systems" any more has just flooded NSW and Queensland yet again.
The Bureau of Meteorology - which three years ago warned "we are just not going to have that sort of good rain again" - now admits last year was our third wettest on record.
The snowfalls that the University of East Anglia in 2000 said would soon become "a very rare and exciting event" are falling as hard as ever.
The monster hurricanes we were told to expect by Nobel Prize winner Al Gore are coming no more often.
The massive coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef that warmist Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg predicted would occur every second year from 2010 has not been seen in years.
Wherever you look it's the same wake-up-to-yourself story. Sea levels have recently dipped, the oceans have lately cooled, Arctic ice has not retreated since 2007, polar bears are increasing in numbers, global crop yields keep rising and now some solar scientists warn not of global warming, but cooling -- a far deadlier threat."
Obama's clean energy scorecard
The Hockey Schtick
"In just the past week we’ve learned that three so-called “green energy” companies have either gone out of business or are laying off massive numbers of employees.
Evergreen Energy: This company received $5.3 million in government “stimulus.” That’s either your money or money we had to borrow from China. Evergreen has filed for bankruptcy.
Eneri. They manufacture batteries for electric vehicles. Bankrupt. Millions more in “stimulus” money.
Amonix, Inc. They make solar panels. $5.9 of your money --- now laying off two-thirds of its workforce; about 200 people.
And of course you remember Solyndra. About a half-billion shot to hell there."
"In just the past week we’ve learned that three so-called “green energy” companies have either gone out of business or are laying off massive numbers of employees.
Evergreen Energy: This company received $5.3 million in government “stimulus.” That’s either your money or money we had to borrow from China. Evergreen has filed for bankruptcy.
Eneri. They manufacture batteries for electric vehicles. Bankrupt. Millions more in “stimulus” money.
Amonix, Inc. They make solar panels. $5.9 of your money --- now laying off two-thirds of its workforce; about 200 people.
And of course you remember Solyndra. About a half-billion shot to hell there."
Monday, 30 January 2012
Obama’s 22-car salute to gesture politics
Andrew Bolt,Herald Sun (Australia)
"President Barack Obama goes to the UPS Depot in Las Vegas to promote clean energy:
President Obama proposed several federal initiatives favoring the use of natural gas for transportation, including getting more natural gas vehicles on the road using federal fleets ...
Here is the green-preaching Obama arriving at the UPS Depot in his fleet of 22 fossil-fueled cars: .."
"President Barack Obama goes to the UPS Depot in Las Vegas to promote clean energy:
President Obama proposed several federal initiatives favoring the use of natural gas for transportation, including getting more natural gas vehicles on the road using federal fleets ...
Here is the green-preaching Obama arriving at the UPS Depot in his fleet of 22 fossil-fueled cars: .."
A Rose on winter
Bishop Hill
"Over the weekend there was quite a lot of interest in David Rose's article in the Mail, which addressed new figures from the Met Office which appeared to confirm a lack of any warming in the last 15 years. ......The Met Office have now responded, with a blog post that has a whiff of Bob Ward about it: "includes numerous errors in the reporting of published peer reviewed science". The argument seems to be that if you take decadal averages it is still possible to obscure the plateau in the temperatures.
Or words to that effect."
"Over the weekend there was quite a lot of interest in David Rose's article in the Mail, which addressed new figures from the Met Office which appeared to confirm a lack of any warming in the last 15 years. ......The Met Office have now responded, with a blog post that has a whiff of Bob Ward about it: "includes numerous errors in the reporting of published peer reviewed science". The argument seems to be that if you take decadal averages it is still possible to obscure the plateau in the temperatures.
Or words to that effect."
Spain Halts Renewable Subsidies to Curb $31 Billion of Debts
Bloomberg
"Spain halted subsidies for renewable energy projects to help curb its budget deficit and rein in power-system borrowings backed by the state that reached 24 billion euros ($31 billion) at the end of 2011.
“What is today an energy problem could become a financial problem,” Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria said in Madrid. The government passed a decree today stopping subsidies for new wind, solar, co-generation or waste incineration plants.
The system’s debts were racked up as revenue from state- controlled prices failed to cover the cost of delivering power. Costs have swollen in the past five years because of an increase in regulated payments for the power grid, support for Spanish coal mines and subsidies for renewable energy plants."
"Spain halted subsidies for renewable energy projects to help curb its budget deficit and rein in power-system borrowings backed by the state that reached 24 billion euros ($31 billion) at the end of 2011.
“What is today an energy problem could become a financial problem,” Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria said in Madrid. The government passed a decree today stopping subsidies for new wind, solar, co-generation or waste incineration plants.
The system’s debts were racked up as revenue from state- controlled prices failed to cover the cost of delivering power. Costs have swollen in the past five years because of an increase in regulated payments for the power grid, support for Spanish coal mines and subsidies for renewable energy plants."
Headlines over solar cycle 25 and potential global cooling
WUWT
"There’s a story about solar cycle 25, and a potential “mini ice age” in the UK Daily Mail by David Rose that is making headlines today, even hitting the Drudge Report. .....Readers may recall that WUWT had this story on January 25th via David Archibald: First Estimate of Solar Cycle 25 Amplitude – may be the smallest in over 300 years The graph he provided matches almost exactly. ....."
"There’s a story about solar cycle 25, and a potential “mini ice age” in the UK Daily Mail by David Rose that is making headlines today, even hitting the Drudge Report. .....Readers may recall that WUWT had this story on January 25th via David Archibald: First Estimate of Solar Cycle 25 Amplitude – may be the smallest in over 300 years The graph he provided matches almost exactly. ....."
Sea Surface Salinity from Space
Nasa
"As computer models evolve, Aquarius will provide the essential SSS data needed to link the two major components of the climate system: the water cycle and ocean circulation. ......Aquarius is a focused effort to measure Sea Surface Salinity and will provide the global view of salinity variability needed for climate studies." (Aquarius/SAC-D was launched, June 10, 2011)
"As computer models evolve, Aquarius will provide the essential SSS data needed to link the two major components of the climate system: the water cycle and ocean circulation. ......Aquarius is a focused effort to measure Sea Surface Salinity and will provide the global view of salinity variability needed for climate studies." (Aquarius/SAC-D was launched, June 10, 2011)
Sunday, 29 January 2012
Drenched Queensland braces for more rain
ABC (Australia)
"More than 200 millimetres of rain has drenched parts of the Fraser Coast over the weekend, with Bundaberg having more than 150."
ED: Warmists predicted endless drought...
"More than 200 millimetres of rain has drenched parts of the Fraser Coast over the weekend, with Bundaberg having more than 150."
ED: Warmists predicted endless drought...
Children just aren't going to know what sun is
Telegraph
"There's a great piece by David Rose in the Mail On Sunday nicely summing up what a lot of us here knew already: that the thing we really need to fear right now is not global warming but global cooling. And that, on current evidence, it's global cooling we're going to get. .....Rose's piece comes hot on the heels of an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal signed by 16 distinguished scientists (proper ones: not "climate" "scientists") noting the continuing absence of ManBearPig: ...The lack of warming for more than a decade—indeed, the smaller-than-predicted warming over the 22 years since the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began issuing projections—suggests that computer models have greatly exaggerated how much warming additional CO2 can cause. Faced with this embarrassment, those promoting alarm have shifted their drumbeat from warming to weather extremes, to enable anything unusual that happens in our chaotic climate to be ascribed to CO2.
The fact is that CO2 is not a pollutant. CO2 is a colorless and odorless gas, exhaled at high concentrations by each of us, and a key component of the biosphere's life cycle. Plants do so much better with more CO2 that greenhouse operators often increase the CO2 concentrations by factors of three or four to get better growth. This is no surprise since plants and animals evolved when CO2 concentrations were about 10 times larger than they are today. Better plant varieties, chemical fertilizers and agricultural management contributed to the great increase in agricultural yields of the past century, but part of the increase almost certainly came from additional CO2 in the atmosphere."
"There's a great piece by David Rose in the Mail On Sunday nicely summing up what a lot of us here knew already: that the thing we really need to fear right now is not global warming but global cooling. And that, on current evidence, it's global cooling we're going to get. .....Rose's piece comes hot on the heels of an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal signed by 16 distinguished scientists (proper ones: not "climate" "scientists") noting the continuing absence of ManBearPig: ...The lack of warming for more than a decade—indeed, the smaller-than-predicted warming over the 22 years since the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began issuing projections—suggests that computer models have greatly exaggerated how much warming additional CO2 can cause. Faced with this embarrassment, those promoting alarm have shifted their drumbeat from warming to weather extremes, to enable anything unusual that happens in our chaotic climate to be ascribed to CO2.
The fact is that CO2 is not a pollutant. CO2 is a colorless and odorless gas, exhaled at high concentrations by each of us, and a key component of the biosphere's life cycle. Plants do so much better with more CO2 that greenhouse operators often increase the CO2 concentrations by factors of three or four to get better growth. This is no surprise since plants and animals evolved when CO2 concentrations were about 10 times larger than they are today. Better plant varieties, chemical fertilizers and agricultural management contributed to the great increase in agricultural yields of the past century, but part of the increase almost certainly came from additional CO2 in the atmosphere."
Forget global warming - it's Cycle 25 we need to worry about (and if NASA scientists are right the Thames will be freezing over again)
Daily Mail
Met Office releases new figures which show no warming in 15 years
"The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years. The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century. Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997."
Met Office releases new figures which show no warming in 15 years
"The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years. The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century. Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997."
Saturday, 28 January 2012
How I woke up to the untruths of Barack Obama
Christopher Booker of The Sunday Telegraph
"A later passage in Obama’s speech, when he hailed the way his country’s energy future has been transformed by the miracle of shale gas, met with a storm of applause. Not only would this give the US energy security for decades, creating 600,000 jobs, but it could now go all out to exploit its gas and oil reserves (more applause). Yet this was the man who in 2008 couldn’t stop talking about the threat of global warming, and was elected on a pledge to make the US only the second country in the world, after Britain, to commit to cutting its CO2 emissions from fossil fuels by 80 per cent within 40 years. ......But on no issue has this been more obvious than political America’s wholesale retreat from the great fantasy of global warming – which leaves Britain as the only country committed to the insanity of cutting “carbon emissions” by four-fifths in less than four decades. President Obama and the rest of the world have moved on."
"A later passage in Obama’s speech, when he hailed the way his country’s energy future has been transformed by the miracle of shale gas, met with a storm of applause. Not only would this give the US energy security for decades, creating 600,000 jobs, but it could now go all out to exploit its gas and oil reserves (more applause). Yet this was the man who in 2008 couldn’t stop talking about the threat of global warming, and was elected on a pledge to make the US only the second country in the world, after Britain, to commit to cutting its CO2 emissions from fossil fuels by 80 per cent within 40 years. ......But on no issue has this been more obvious than political America’s wholesale retreat from the great fantasy of global warming – which leaves Britain as the only country committed to the insanity of cutting “carbon emissions” by four-fifths in less than four decades. President Obama and the rest of the world have moved on."
Friday, 27 January 2012
No Need to Panic About Global Warming
WSJ
"There's no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to 'decarbonize' the world's economy. ....Editor's Note: The following has been signed by the 16 scientists listed at the end of the article: .......Although the number of publicly dissenting scientists is growing, many young scientists furtively say that while they also have serious doubts about the global-warming message, they are afraid to speak up for fear of not being promoted—or worse. They have good reason to worry. In 2003, Dr. Chris de Freitas, the editor of the journal Climate Research, dared to publish a peer-reviewed article with the politically incorrect (but factually correct) conclusion that the recent warming is not unusual in the context of climate changes over the past thousand years. The international warming establishment quickly mounted a determined campaign to have Dr. de Freitas removed from his editorial job and fired from his university position. Fortunately, Dr. de Freitas was able to keep his university job. .......Alarmism over climate is of great benefit to many, providing government funding for academic research and a reason for government bureaucracies to grow. Alarmism also offers an excuse for governments to raise taxes, taxpayer-funded subsidies for businesses that understand how to work the political system, and a lure for big donations to charitable foundations promising to save the planet. Lysenko and his team lived very well, and they fiercely defended their dogma and the privileges it brought them.
Speaking for many scientists and engineers who have looked carefully and independently at the science of climate, we have a message to any candidate for public office: There is no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to "decarbonize" the world's economy. Even if one accepts the inflated climate forecasts of the IPCC, aggressive greenhouse-gas control policies are not justified economically."
Claude Allegre, former director of the Institute for the Study of the Earth, University of Paris; J. Scott Armstrong, cofounder of the Journal of Forecasting and the International Journal of Forecasting; Jan Breslow, head of the Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics and Metabolism, Rockefeller University; Roger Cohen, fellow, American Physical Society; Edward David, member, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences; William Happer, professor of physics, Princeton; Michael Kelly, professor of technology, University of Cambridge, U.K.; William Kininmonth, former head of climate research at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology; Richard Lindzen, professor of atmospheric sciences, MIT; James McGrath, professor of chemistry, Virginia Technical University; Rodney Nichols, former president and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences; Burt Rutan, aerospace engineer, designer of Voyager and SpaceShipOne; Harrison H. Schmitt, Apollo 17 astronaut and former U.S. senator; Nir Shaviv, professor of astrophysics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem; Henk Tennekes, former director, Royal Dutch Meteorological Service; Antonio Zichichi, president of the World Federation of Scientists, Geneva.
"There's no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to 'decarbonize' the world's economy. ....Editor's Note: The following has been signed by the 16 scientists listed at the end of the article: .......Although the number of publicly dissenting scientists is growing, many young scientists furtively say that while they also have serious doubts about the global-warming message, they are afraid to speak up for fear of not being promoted—or worse. They have good reason to worry. In 2003, Dr. Chris de Freitas, the editor of the journal Climate Research, dared to publish a peer-reviewed article with the politically incorrect (but factually correct) conclusion that the recent warming is not unusual in the context of climate changes over the past thousand years. The international warming establishment quickly mounted a determined campaign to have Dr. de Freitas removed from his editorial job and fired from his university position. Fortunately, Dr. de Freitas was able to keep his university job. .......Alarmism over climate is of great benefit to many, providing government funding for academic research and a reason for government bureaucracies to grow. Alarmism also offers an excuse for governments to raise taxes, taxpayer-funded subsidies for businesses that understand how to work the political system, and a lure for big donations to charitable foundations promising to save the planet. Lysenko and his team lived very well, and they fiercely defended their dogma and the privileges it brought them.
Speaking for many scientists and engineers who have looked carefully and independently at the science of climate, we have a message to any candidate for public office: There is no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to "decarbonize" the world's economy. Even if one accepts the inflated climate forecasts of the IPCC, aggressive greenhouse-gas control policies are not justified economically."
Claude Allegre, former director of the Institute for the Study of the Earth, University of Paris; J. Scott Armstrong, cofounder of the Journal of Forecasting and the International Journal of Forecasting; Jan Breslow, head of the Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics and Metabolism, Rockefeller University; Roger Cohen, fellow, American Physical Society; Edward David, member, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences; William Happer, professor of physics, Princeton; Michael Kelly, professor of technology, University of Cambridge, U.K.; William Kininmonth, former head of climate research at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology; Richard Lindzen, professor of atmospheric sciences, MIT; James McGrath, professor of chemistry, Virginia Technical University; Rodney Nichols, former president and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences; Burt Rutan, aerospace engineer, designer of Voyager and SpaceShipOne; Harrison H. Schmitt, Apollo 17 astronaut and former U.S. senator; Nir Shaviv, professor of astrophysics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem; Henk Tennekes, former director, Royal Dutch Meteorological Service; Antonio Zichichi, president of the World Federation of Scientists, Geneva.
Alaska On The Rocks
WUWT
"The Bering Sea ice this year is in early, and it’s thick. Not only that, it’s moving south fast. The crab fleet has some $8 million dollars of gear in the water, and the ice is moving south at twenty miles an hour. Usually ice comes in later and thinner, and moves south at three miles an hour. Boats are tied up to the Dutch Harbor docks. At St. Paul Island, out of the photo to the left, the crab boats usually sell their loads to the processor boats. It is also totally iced in. Millions of dollars have already been sunk into moving the crab boats and the processor boats and the crab pots to Dutch. If this cold continues, the season will likely be a total bust."
"The Bering Sea ice this year is in early, and it’s thick. Not only that, it’s moving south fast. The crab fleet has some $8 million dollars of gear in the water, and the ice is moving south at twenty miles an hour. Usually ice comes in later and thinner, and moves south at three miles an hour. Boats are tied up to the Dutch Harbor docks. At St. Paul Island, out of the photo to the left, the crab boats usually sell their loads to the processor boats. It is also totally iced in. Millions of dollars have already been sunk into moving the crab boats and the processor boats and the crab pots to Dutch. If this cold continues, the season will likely be a total bust."
Thursday, 26 January 2012
What in the world is going on with global temperatures?
WUWT
"Multiple indicators show global temperatures headed down this month, and fast."
"Multiple indicators show global temperatures headed down this month, and fast."
Brisbane floods redux
Bishop Hill
"Remember last year's floods in Brisbane? There were some interesting exchanges in the comments on my posts on the subject, with some differences of opinion between those who thought that the dams had been mismanaged, perhaps in response to green-initiated concerns over droughts - and those who thought otherwise"
"Remember last year's floods in Brisbane? There were some interesting exchanges in the comments on my posts on the subject, with some differences of opinion between those who thought that the dams had been mismanaged, perhaps in response to green-initiated concerns over droughts - and those who thought otherwise"
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Isolated & Depressed: Greens Attack Obama For Promoting Fracking & Oil
GWPF
"But global warming was barely a passing reference in the speech—quite unlike something that surely has many greens worried: a call to increase domestic oil and gas production.
In Obama’s words:
Nowhere is the promise of innovation greater than in American-made energy. Over the last three years, we’ve opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration, and tonight, I’m directing my Administration to open more than 75 percent of our potential offshore oil and gas resources. Right now, American oil production is the highest that it’s been in eight years. That’s right – eight years. Not only that – last year, we relied less on foreign oil than in any of the past sixteen years.
It’s true that the President went onto admit that the U.S. has only 2% of proven global oil reserves, and that there’s no way to drill ourselves out of the economic doldrums. But still, coming less than a week after the Administration blocked the oil sands Keystone XL pipeline, it was striking to see a President who had come to office promising to make clean energy and climate change a top priority."
"But global warming was barely a passing reference in the speech—quite unlike something that surely has many greens worried: a call to increase domestic oil and gas production.
In Obama’s words:
Nowhere is the promise of innovation greater than in American-made energy. Over the last three years, we’ve opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration, and tonight, I’m directing my Administration to open more than 75 percent of our potential offshore oil and gas resources. Right now, American oil production is the highest that it’s been in eight years. That’s right – eight years. Not only that – last year, we relied less on foreign oil than in any of the past sixteen years.
It’s true that the President went onto admit that the U.S. has only 2% of proven global oil reserves, and that there’s no way to drill ourselves out of the economic doldrums. But still, coming less than a week after the Administration blocked the oil sands Keystone XL pipeline, it was striking to see a President who had come to office promising to make clean energy and climate change a top priority."
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Greenpeace's forest policy is unsustainable
Telegraph
"Imagine a situation in which an activist group with certain political ambitions and close ties to a computer manufacturer engaged in a campaign of threats against specific UK retailers.
Targeted retailers were told that they must buy computers from only a select manufacturer (the one closely associated with the activist group) — and no other, to the detriment of the retailer, market competition, and consumers at large. If retailers dared to purchase from any other computer manufacturer, the activist group would continue a campaign to spread misinformation, harass and embarrass the retailer, and sully its name brand. If this fictional scenario were made real, it would likely be cause for an investigation. In the world of organized crime, this type of strategy has a name: racketeering."
"Imagine a situation in which an activist group with certain political ambitions and close ties to a computer manufacturer engaged in a campaign of threats against specific UK retailers.
Targeted retailers were told that they must buy computers from only a select manufacturer (the one closely associated with the activist group) — and no other, to the detriment of the retailer, market competition, and consumers at large. If retailers dared to purchase from any other computer manufacturer, the activist group would continue a campaign to spread misinformation, harass and embarrass the retailer, and sully its name brand. If this fictional scenario were made real, it would likely be cause for an investigation. In the world of organized crime, this type of strategy has a name: racketeering."
Warmists washed out
Andrew Bolt,Herald Sun (Australia)
"Meanwhile, the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed 2011 was Australia’s third-wettest year on record and the wettest year since 1970. .....How strange. I mean, remember the claims that we faced a “permanent drought”, thanks to man-made global warming? Here’s just some of those warnings: ...."
"Meanwhile, the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed 2011 was Australia’s third-wettest year on record and the wettest year since 1970. .....How strange. I mean, remember the claims that we faced a “permanent drought”, thanks to man-made global warming? Here’s just some of those warnings: ...."
Monday, 23 January 2012
A major FOI victory
Bishop Hill
"So, the key outcome of this case is that a further precedent has been set. That precedent is that UEA’s refusal to release information on the grounds that under EIR Reg. 12(4)(a) – Information not held, is no longer valid. Backup servers have to be searched."
"So, the key outcome of this case is that a further precedent has been set. That precedent is that UEA’s refusal to release information on the grounds that under EIR Reg. 12(4)(a) – Information not held, is no longer valid. Backup servers have to be searched."
Newman blasts windfarms like his former staff won’t
Andrew Bolt,Herald Sun (Australia)
"Even before they threatened my property, I was opposed to wind farms. They fail on all counts. They are grossly inefficient, extremely expensive, socially inequitable, a danger to human health, environmentally harmful, divisive for communities, a blot on the landscape, and don’t even achieve the purpose for which they were designed, namely the reliable generation of electricity and the reduction of CO2 emissions.
Even if you buy the anthropogenic global warming case, experience shows that wind energy is not the answer. How is it, then, that governments around the world have embraced this technology with abandon, in the process spending hundreds of billions of dollars of other people’s money in a shameless wealth transfer from the poor to the rich?"
"Even before they threatened my property, I was opposed to wind farms. They fail on all counts. They are grossly inefficient, extremely expensive, socially inequitable, a danger to human health, environmentally harmful, divisive for communities, a blot on the landscape, and don’t even achieve the purpose for which they were designed, namely the reliable generation of electricity and the reduction of CO2 emissions.
Even if you buy the anthropogenic global warming case, experience shows that wind energy is not the answer. How is it, then, that governments around the world have embraced this technology with abandon, in the process spending hundreds of billions of dollars of other people’s money in a shameless wealth transfer from the poor to the rich?"
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Ready for Worst, New York Gets First Major Snowfall
NYT
"By 1 p.m., 4.3 inches of snow had fallen in Central Park, said David Stark of the National Weather Service. The highest total on Long Island was at Orient, N.Y., where 6.3 inches were measured at 12:30 p.m., Mr. Stark said, while Hamden, Conn., saw 8.5 inches."
"By 1 p.m., 4.3 inches of snow had fallen in Central Park, said David Stark of the National Weather Service. The highest total on Long Island was at Orient, N.Y., where 6.3 inches were measured at 12:30 p.m., Mr. Stark said, while Hamden, Conn., saw 8.5 inches."
Alex Salmond plans to cheat the English of billions in a green power swap
Christopher Booker,Telegraph
"As we all know, however, the problem with wind is that it doesn’t permanently blow at the right speed to generate the power needed. There might be times when Scotland could export large amounts of wind-generated electricity to England. But these would be counterbalanced by all the times when, to keep its own lights on, it needs to import even larger amounts of power from England – generated by the kind of conventional power stations that Mr Salmond so scorns.
As hypocrisy, this is bad enough. But Mr Salmond omits to mention the further anomaly arising from the ludicrous subsidy system for wind energy. Onshore wind farms receive a 100 per cent subsidy on top of the market rate for their electricity; for offshore this is doubled to 200 per cent. So Mr Salmond’s green dream implies that Scotland will sell large amounts of inordinately expensive electricity to England, at about two to three times the going rate, while to keep its own lights on it will buy very much cheaper power from England. In other words, he is hoping to pull off an astonishingly advantageous deal, which might soon net Scotland a profit amounting to billions of pounds.
We can already see the absurd situation such green dreams can bring about in the case of Denmark, which has more wind turbines per head than any country in the world, generating on paper the equivalent of 20 per cent of the power it uses. But, wind being so variable, as much as 80 per cent of the electricity produced has to be exported cheaply to Norway, forcing the Danes to import power from Germany at prices which have made Danish electricity the most expensive in Europe.
Mr Salmond hopes to get round this difficulty by selling his own “green electricity” at exorbitant rates to the hated English, while relying on them to supply cheap electricity whenever the wind fails him. Whether he can pull off such a trick is another of the questions that needs to be resolved before Scotland is allowed to float off into his dreamworld where it joins the euro and lives happily ever after, in a land made even more beautiful by 1,000 square miles of windmills. "
"As we all know, however, the problem with wind is that it doesn’t permanently blow at the right speed to generate the power needed. There might be times when Scotland could export large amounts of wind-generated electricity to England. But these would be counterbalanced by all the times when, to keep its own lights on, it needs to import even larger amounts of power from England – generated by the kind of conventional power stations that Mr Salmond so scorns.
As hypocrisy, this is bad enough. But Mr Salmond omits to mention the further anomaly arising from the ludicrous subsidy system for wind energy. Onshore wind farms receive a 100 per cent subsidy on top of the market rate for their electricity; for offshore this is doubled to 200 per cent. So Mr Salmond’s green dream implies that Scotland will sell large amounts of inordinately expensive electricity to England, at about two to three times the going rate, while to keep its own lights on it will buy very much cheaper power from England. In other words, he is hoping to pull off an astonishingly advantageous deal, which might soon net Scotland a profit amounting to billions of pounds.
We can already see the absurd situation such green dreams can bring about in the case of Denmark, which has more wind turbines per head than any country in the world, generating on paper the equivalent of 20 per cent of the power it uses. But, wind being so variable, as much as 80 per cent of the electricity produced has to be exported cheaply to Norway, forcing the Danes to import power from Germany at prices which have made Danish electricity the most expensive in Europe.
Mr Salmond hopes to get round this difficulty by selling his own “green electricity” at exorbitant rates to the hated English, while relying on them to supply cheap electricity whenever the wind fails him. Whether he can pull off such a trick is another of the questions that needs to be resolved before Scotland is allowed to float off into his dreamworld where it joins the euro and lives happily ever after, in a land made even more beautiful by 1,000 square miles of windmills. "
Warming Summers Not Causing Colder Winters
NoTricksZone
"The colder winters are more likely due to changing spatial pattern of more cooler water in the North East Pacific than in the Central and North West Pacific Ocean, especially since 2007 (see PDO) and more recently the slow cooling of the Atlantic Ocean....."
"The colder winters are more likely due to changing spatial pattern of more cooler water in the North East Pacific than in the Central and North West Pacific Ocean, especially since 2007 (see PDO) and more recently the slow cooling of the Atlantic Ocean....."
Friday, 20 January 2012
Solar Stocks Plunge as Germany Vows to Quicken Subsidy Cuts
Bloomberg
"Economy Minister Philipp Roesler has said spiraling costs linked to solar subsidies are a threat to the economy. Roettgen on Jan. 18 indicated concern that the funds are benefiting Chinese companies. “The increase in installations in the past few years has gone far beyond what we had targeted in our legislation,” Roettgen said yesterday. He said the subsidy overhaul would be handled “quickly.”
"Economy Minister Philipp Roesler has said spiraling costs linked to solar subsidies are a threat to the economy. Roettgen on Jan. 18 indicated concern that the funds are benefiting Chinese companies. “The increase in installations in the past few years has gone far beyond what we had targeted in our legislation,” Roettgen said yesterday. He said the subsidy overhaul would be handled “quickly.”
Appalling disinformation in Irish Times
Bishop Hill
"The Irish Times has the most appalling piece by an environmental writer called John Gibbons. ......Quite, quite extraordinary."
"The Irish Times has the most appalling piece by an environmental writer called John Gibbons. ......Quite, quite extraordinary."
Sahara Snow On January 17 2012 – Is It Unprecedented?
Roger Pielke Sr.
"In the video, the NBC reporter adds that the snow and cold was considered by the local population to be a good thing as it kills parasites on the palm trees."
"In the video, the NBC reporter adds that the snow and cold was considered by the local population to be a good thing as it kills parasites on the palm trees."
Solar tariffs to be cut 'in April at the latest'
Telegraph
"Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, said in a written statement that the tariff paid to customers who generate their own electricity will be cut from April 1 for all installations completed on or after March 3.
If the Government wins its appeal, however, the current December 12 cut-off date will stand. "We continue to stand by our original proposal," Mr Huhne said. "However, I know that the uncertainty while we await the court's decision is difficult for the industry.
"If the court finds in favour of the Government's appeal, we intend to stand by all our consultation proposals, including an earlier reference date, subject to the Parliamentary procedure and consideration of consultation responses."
"Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, said in a written statement that the tariff paid to customers who generate their own electricity will be cut from April 1 for all installations completed on or after March 3.
If the Government wins its appeal, however, the current December 12 cut-off date will stand. "We continue to stand by our original proposal," Mr Huhne said. "However, I know that the uncertainty while we await the court's decision is difficult for the industry.
"If the court finds in favour of the Government's appeal, we intend to stand by all our consultation proposals, including an earlier reference date, subject to the Parliamentary procedure and consideration of consultation responses."
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Green policies are costing Britons the earth
Telegraph
"Rather predictably, Ed Miliband blamed the cuts for making life tough for those on low and middle incomes this week. And he has heaped scorn on what he calls "rip-off Britain". Both he and Cameron, however, are missing a trick when it comes to making life easier for lower earners. It is in part the green agenda that is driving up living costs and making life harder for vast swathes of Britain.
People on low incomes spend 15 per cent of their total expenditure on food and non-alcoholic drinks, and between a third and a half on housing, fuel and power. Interference under the Labour Government in the form of taxes and subsidies pushed up the costs of these goods. The Coalition government has done nothing in policy terms to reverse this trend, indeed it is continuing with a policy that is pushing up the cost of living in the name of saving the environment: the so-called ”green agenda”.
We have seen the cost of energy rise substantially. A recent report by the Institute of Economic Affairs pointed out: “The government estimates that climate change policies, primarily the Renewables Obligation and the EU Emission Trading Scheme, will be adding 26% to domestic electricity prices in real terms by 2015 and 10% to domestic gas prices.”
"Rather predictably, Ed Miliband blamed the cuts for making life tough for those on low and middle incomes this week. And he has heaped scorn on what he calls "rip-off Britain". Both he and Cameron, however, are missing a trick when it comes to making life easier for lower earners. It is in part the green agenda that is driving up living costs and making life harder for vast swathes of Britain.
People on low incomes spend 15 per cent of their total expenditure on food and non-alcoholic drinks, and between a third and a half on housing, fuel and power. Interference under the Labour Government in the form of taxes and subsidies pushed up the costs of these goods. The Coalition government has done nothing in policy terms to reverse this trend, indeed it is continuing with a policy that is pushing up the cost of living in the name of saving the environment: the so-called ”green agenda”.
We have seen the cost of energy rise substantially. A recent report by the Institute of Economic Affairs pointed out: “The government estimates that climate change policies, primarily the Renewables Obligation and the EU Emission Trading Scheme, will be adding 26% to domestic electricity prices in real terms by 2015 and 10% to domestic gas prices.”
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Solar Subsidy Sinkhole – Germany’s Solar Debacle Is A “Massive Money Pit”
NoTricksZone
"The costs of subsidizing solar electricity have exceeded the 100-billion-euro mark in Germany, but poor results are jeopardizing the country’s transition to renewable energy. The government is struggling to come up with a new concept to promote the inefficient technology in the future…"
"The costs of subsidizing solar electricity have exceeded the 100-billion-euro mark in Germany, but poor results are jeopardizing the country’s transition to renewable energy. The government is struggling to come up with a new concept to promote the inefficient technology in the future…"
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Winter chill freezes North India
ZeeNews (India)
"New Delhi: North India is reeling under intense cold wave condition that has lead to more than 140 deaths across the region. .....In Punjab, Amritsar was the coldest at 0.4 degree celsius, 3 degrees below normal. Punjab's largest city, Ludhiana recorded a minimum temperature of 4.3 degrees Celsius. Certain pockets of Pathankot received snowfall, first time in 40 years. " (H/T Dr Richard North)
"New Delhi: North India is reeling under intense cold wave condition that has lead to more than 140 deaths across the region. .....In Punjab, Amritsar was the coldest at 0.4 degree celsius, 3 degrees below normal. Punjab's largest city, Ludhiana recorded a minimum temperature of 4.3 degrees Celsius. Certain pockets of Pathankot received snowfall, first time in 40 years. " (H/T Dr Richard North)
Peanuts: Germany's Green Energy Shift To Cost 1.7 Trillion Euros
GWPF
"Germany's exit from nuclear power could cost the country as much as 1.7 trillion euros ($2.15 trillion) by 2030, or two thirds of the country's GDP in 2011, according to Siemens, which built all of Germany's 17 nuclear plants. The estimate of 1.7 trillion euros assumes strong expansion of renewables, with feed-in tariffs as the biggest chunk of costs."
"Germany's exit from nuclear power could cost the country as much as 1.7 trillion euros ($2.15 trillion) by 2030, or two thirds of the country's GDP in 2011, according to Siemens, which built all of Germany's 17 nuclear plants. The estimate of 1.7 trillion euros assumes strong expansion of renewables, with feed-in tariffs as the biggest chunk of costs."
There are more charging points than electric cars in UK as sales slump
Daily Mail
"Sales of electric cars have slumped so badly that there are now more charging points than vehicles on the road. Just 2,149 electric cars have been sold since 2006, despite a government scheme last year offering customers up to £5,000 towards the cost of a vehicle.The Department for Transport says that around 2,500 charging points have been installed, although their precise location is not known."
"Sales of electric cars have slumped so badly that there are now more charging points than vehicles on the road. Just 2,149 electric cars have been sold since 2006, despite a government scheme last year offering customers up to £5,000 towards the cost of a vehicle.The Department for Transport says that around 2,500 charging points have been installed, although their precise location is not known."
Monday, 16 January 2012
The behind the scenes bumbling of the hockey stick
WUWT
"Mann oh Mann. Tom Nelson continues to wade through the 5000+ Climategate 2 emails. I’ve selected a few he’s highlighted in the vein of behind the scenes discussion of Dr. Michael Mann’s infamous “hockey stick” which claimed we were living in a period of unprecedented warmth."
"Mann oh Mann. Tom Nelson continues to wade through the 5000+ Climategate 2 emails. I’ve selected a few he’s highlighted in the vein of behind the scenes discussion of Dr. Michael Mann’s infamous “hockey stick” which claimed we were living in a period of unprecedented warmth."
Sunday, 15 January 2012
Green Fraudsters: Carbon Trading Hits Europe’s Gangland
GWPF
"At least four recent gangland killings are connected to a multibillion euro carbon trading fraud that has cost taxpayers about €5 billion in VAT.
It was a classic French gangland operation. The killers drew up alongside their victim on a scooter as he walked through an affluent district in west Paris, shot him dead with a 7.65 pistol and then disappeared into the traffic. Police originally assumed that the murder in September of Samy Souied, a French underworld boss, was linked to drugs, gambling or prostitution. Now, officers believe it was the result of a very different racket – one involving the fight against global warming.Detectives in the French capital are convinced that at least four recent unresolved killings are connected to a multibillion euro fraud that targeted the Europe Union’s carbon dioxide trading scheme."
The disclosure comes amid a flurry of court cases across Europe involving gangs who exploited Brussels’ environmental policy to make lucrative gains.
Europol, the European Police Office, estimates that they cost taxpayers about €5 billion in VAT.
"At least four recent gangland killings are connected to a multibillion euro carbon trading fraud that has cost taxpayers about €5 billion in VAT.
It was a classic French gangland operation. The killers drew up alongside their victim on a scooter as he walked through an affluent district in west Paris, shot him dead with a 7.65 pistol and then disappeared into the traffic. Police originally assumed that the murder in September of Samy Souied, a French underworld boss, was linked to drugs, gambling or prostitution. Now, officers believe it was the result of a very different racket – one involving the fight against global warming.Detectives in the French capital are convinced that at least four recent unresolved killings are connected to a multibillion euro fraud that targeted the Europe Union’s carbon dioxide trading scheme."
The disclosure comes amid a flurry of court cases across Europe involving gangs who exploited Brussels’ environmental policy to make lucrative gains.
Europol, the European Police Office, estimates that they cost taxpayers about €5 billion in VAT.
Saturday, 14 January 2012
The slow cooliong of our interglacial
Matt Ridley
"..Still, it's striking that most interglacials begin with an abrupt warming, peak sharply, then begin a gradual descent into cooler conditions before plunging rather more rapidly toward the freezer. The last interglacial—which occurred 135,000 to 115,000 years ago (named the Eemian period after a Dutch river near which the fossils of warmth-loving shell creatures of that age were found)—saw temperatures slide erratically downward by about two degrees Celsius between 127,000 and 120,000 years ago, before a sharper fall began. See charts here and here.
Cyclical changes in the earth's orbit probably weakened sunlight in the northern hemisphere summer and thus caused this slow cooling. Since the northern hemisphere is mostly land, this change in the sun's strength meant gradually increased snow and ice cover, which in turn reflected light back into space. This would have further cooled the air and, gradually, the ocean too. Carbon-dioxide levels did not begin to fall much until about 112,000 years ago, as the cooling sea absorbed more of the gas.
Our current interglacial shows a similar pattern. Greenland ice cores and other proxy records show that temperatures peaked around 7,000 years ago, when the Arctic Ocean was several degrees warmer than today, trees grew farther north in Siberia and the Sahara was wet enough for hippos (Africa generally gets wetter in warm times). Data from the southern hemisphere reveal that this "Holocene Optimum" was global in extent."
"..Still, it's striking that most interglacials begin with an abrupt warming, peak sharply, then begin a gradual descent into cooler conditions before plunging rather more rapidly toward the freezer. The last interglacial—which occurred 135,000 to 115,000 years ago (named the Eemian period after a Dutch river near which the fossils of warmth-loving shell creatures of that age were found)—saw temperatures slide erratically downward by about two degrees Celsius between 127,000 and 120,000 years ago, before a sharper fall began. See charts here and here.
Cyclical changes in the earth's orbit probably weakened sunlight in the northern hemisphere summer and thus caused this slow cooling. Since the northern hemisphere is mostly land, this change in the sun's strength meant gradually increased snow and ice cover, which in turn reflected light back into space. This would have further cooled the air and, gradually, the ocean too. Carbon-dioxide levels did not begin to fall much until about 112,000 years ago, as the cooling sea absorbed more of the gas.
Our current interglacial shows a similar pattern. Greenland ice cores and other proxy records show that temperatures peaked around 7,000 years ago, when the Arctic Ocean was several degrees warmer than today, trees grew farther north in Siberia and the Sahara was wet enough for hippos (Africa generally gets wetter in warm times). Data from the southern hemisphere reveal that this "Holocene Optimum" was global in extent."
Friday, 13 January 2012
On IPCCs exaggerated climate sensitivity and the emperor’s new clothes
Professor Nir Shaviv
"Normal science progresses through the collection of observations (or measurements), the conjecture of hypotheses, the making of predictions, and then through the usage of new observations, the modification of the hypotheses accordingly (either ruling them out, or improving them). In the global warming “science”, this is not the case."
"Normal science progresses through the collection of observations (or measurements), the conjecture of hypotheses, the making of predictions, and then through the usage of new observations, the modification of the hypotheses accordingly (either ruling them out, or improving them). In the global warming “science”, this is not the case."
Shale gas: the battle for Balcombe’s riches
Telegraph
"At present, Cuadrilla is focused on the Blackpool area – one of the most deprived regions in the country – where, it says, it has found enough shale gas to meet national needs for decades. But much of Britain is believed to contain exploitable resources, with other hotspots including Scotland, South Wales, Somerset – as well as Kent, Surrey and Sussex. ......The shale phenomenon is worldwide and could – the International Energy Agency estimates – supply 250 years of gas, at present levels of consumption. Far cleaner than coal or oil, it gas has been widely hailed – including by many environmentalists – as a miraculous game-changer."
"At present, Cuadrilla is focused on the Blackpool area – one of the most deprived regions in the country – where, it says, it has found enough shale gas to meet national needs for decades. But much of Britain is believed to contain exploitable resources, with other hotspots including Scotland, South Wales, Somerset – as well as Kent, Surrey and Sussex. ......The shale phenomenon is worldwide and could – the International Energy Agency estimates – supply 250 years of gas, at present levels of consumption. Far cleaner than coal or oil, it gas has been widely hailed – including by many environmentalists – as a miraculous game-changer."
A Tale of Two Disciplines
Quadrant Online
"Turning to the discovery of the Higgs, the estimated certainty for the discovery is 99%. This level of probability would qualify for “virtually certain” for the IPCC yet this is judged not to be sufficient proof for physicists.
Look at the claim that the use of fossil fuels explains the earth’s temperature rise since industrialization. The certainty is “estimated” (and this estimate includes expert opinions) to be 90% and styled “very likely” by the IPCC. Governments are taking action to protect the environment based on this level of certainty, urged on by climate scientists. But the same governments will not accept this level of certainty for the introduction of new drugs.
So we have two putative world ending actions. One has not occurred and may have enabled a remarkable discovery while the jury is still out on the other. But the contrast in the actions of the physicists compared to the climate scientists is remarkable.
The claims of climate scientists will take them into the realm of some astrophysicists who are judged “often wrong but never in doubt”.
"Turning to the discovery of the Higgs, the estimated certainty for the discovery is 99%. This level of probability would qualify for “virtually certain” for the IPCC yet this is judged not to be sufficient proof for physicists.
Look at the claim that the use of fossil fuels explains the earth’s temperature rise since industrialization. The certainty is “estimated” (and this estimate includes expert opinions) to be 90% and styled “very likely” by the IPCC. Governments are taking action to protect the environment based on this level of certainty, urged on by climate scientists. But the same governments will not accept this level of certainty for the introduction of new drugs.
So we have two putative world ending actions. One has not occurred and may have enabled a remarkable discovery while the jury is still out on the other. But the contrast in the actions of the physicists compared to the climate scientists is remarkable.
The claims of climate scientists will take them into the realm of some astrophysicists who are judged “often wrong but never in doubt”.
Open letter: Radicals threaten resource development
Financial Post (Canada)
"An open letter from the Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources, on Canada’s commitment to diversify our energy markets and the need to further streamline the regulatory process in order to advance Canada’s national economic interest."
"An open letter from the Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources, on Canada’s commitment to diversify our energy markets and the need to further streamline the regulatory process in order to advance Canada’s national economic interest."
Please, Global Warming Alarmists, Stop Denying Climate Change - And Science
Forbes
"Gleick, like so many of his alarmist colleagues, believes that anybody who disagrees with his scientific theories is “anti-science.” Yet it is hard to imagine objective tornado data compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to be “anti-science.” But Gleick apparently believes it so.
It is hard to imagine objective tropical cyclone data compiled by Florida State University Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies to be “anti-science,” but Gleick apparently believes it so.
It is hard to imagine objective soil moisture data compiled by several independent teams of scientists to be “anti-science,” but Gleick apparently believes it so.
The term “anti-science” most appropriately applies to those who refuse to consider competing evidence and scientific theories that raise doubts about their own theories. This term applies in spades to Gleick."
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Climate Change Dispatch
"Gleick, like so many of his alarmist colleagues, believes that anybody who disagrees with his scientific theories is “anti-science.” Yet it is hard to imagine objective tornado data compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to be “anti-science.” But Gleick apparently believes it so.
It is hard to imagine objective tropical cyclone data compiled by Florida State University Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies to be “anti-science,” but Gleick apparently believes it so.
It is hard to imagine objective soil moisture data compiled by several independent teams of scientists to be “anti-science,” but Gleick apparently believes it so.
The term “anti-science” most appropriately applies to those who refuse to consider competing evidence and scientific theories that raise doubts about their own theories. This term applies in spades to Gleick."
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Climate Change Dispatch
Global warming: red-faced climatologist issues grovelling apology
Telegraph
"But you'd never guess it from his high-handed tone when he was asked why he'd lost. "Just bad luck," Annan explained, going on to insist (contradicting most available real-world data, it must be said) that the trend for global warming remained "robustly positive." He then agreed to another four-year bet. If it went against him a second time would he change his mind, Annan was asked. At first he appeared to agree that it would but then he started backtracking, insisting that it wouldn't change in the slightest his view that carbon dioxide causes global warming….
This "Even though I was wrong I'm still right" syndrome afflicts a lot of people in the climate alarmist community. But then, you can hardly blame them for their wilful self-delusion and glib complacency for they seem to operate in a bubble in which there are no punishments for failure."
"But you'd never guess it from his high-handed tone when he was asked why he'd lost. "Just bad luck," Annan explained, going on to insist (contradicting most available real-world data, it must be said) that the trend for global warming remained "robustly positive." He then agreed to another four-year bet. If it went against him a second time would he change his mind, Annan was asked. At first he appeared to agree that it would but then he started backtracking, insisting that it wouldn't change in the slightest his view that carbon dioxide causes global warming….
This "Even though I was wrong I'm still right" syndrome afflicts a lot of people in the climate alarmist community. But then, you can hardly blame them for their wilful self-delusion and glib complacency for they seem to operate in a bubble in which there are no punishments for failure."
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Trapped in ice: Alaska fuel convoy moves just 50 FEET in a day... and giant ice wall blocks harbour for crucial delivery
Daily Mail
"The Coast Guard icebreaker should have no problem getting through the ice even if it becomes several feet thick, said Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class David Mosley. 'In the worst-case scenario, it might stop and back up and ram their way through the pressure ridges, where it gets really thick,' he said. However, conditions are so cold that the ice quickly freezes around the tanker, requiring the Healy to back up and free it.Additionally, maneuvering is a problem. The tanker must stay close enough to its Coast Guard escort that the lanes through the ice freeze back over. However, that distance puts the two vessels at risk of slamming into each other. This means that progress is exceptionally slow during the long, dark nights, which last most of the day close to the Article Circle."
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A pathetic inadequacy (Dr Richard North)
"Thus we have chickens coming home to roost. After years of warmist propaganda, Alaska is suffering a ferocious winter, and the US government has been caught out, totally unprepared to deal with the conditions."
"The Coast Guard icebreaker should have no problem getting through the ice even if it becomes several feet thick, said Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class David Mosley. 'In the worst-case scenario, it might stop and back up and ram their way through the pressure ridges, where it gets really thick,' he said. However, conditions are so cold that the ice quickly freezes around the tanker, requiring the Healy to back up and free it.Additionally, maneuvering is a problem. The tanker must stay close enough to its Coast Guard escort that the lanes through the ice freeze back over. However, that distance puts the two vessels at risk of slamming into each other. This means that progress is exceptionally slow during the long, dark nights, which last most of the day close to the Article Circle."
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A pathetic inadequacy (Dr Richard North)
"Thus we have chickens coming home to roost. After years of warmist propaganda, Alaska is suffering a ferocious winter, and the US government has been caught out, totally unprepared to deal with the conditions."
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Proud To Be Canadian
Donna Laframboise (Canada)
"It is a great moment to be a Canadian. Three weeks ago Peter Kent, our environment minister, announced that Canada will withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. Failure to do so, he explained, would oblige us to purchase $14 billion worth of carbon credits from abroad.
As someone who thinks Kyoto was a mirage (even its proponents admit it would accomplish nothing meaningful) I’m thrilled that $14 billion worth of tax dollars will be spent on schools and hospitals instead."
"It is a great moment to be a Canadian. Three weeks ago Peter Kent, our environment minister, announced that Canada will withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. Failure to do so, he explained, would oblige us to purchase $14 billion worth of carbon credits from abroad.
As someone who thinks Kyoto was a mirage (even its proponents admit it would accomplish nothing meaningful) I’m thrilled that $14 billion worth of tax dollars will be spent on schools and hospitals instead."
Nick Grealy: Science At Last On UK Shale Gas
GWPF
"Mike Stephenson of the British Geological Survey made an important and fairly definitive contribution to the shale debate yesterday. First the BBC report it is "extremely unlikely" shale gas drilling in Lancashire could contaminate ground water supplies, a leading geologist has said. Professor Mike Stephenson of the British Geological Survey said most experts thought the process, known as fracking, was a "pretty safe activity".
"Mike Stephenson of the British Geological Survey made an important and fairly definitive contribution to the shale debate yesterday. First the BBC report it is "extremely unlikely" shale gas drilling in Lancashire could contaminate ground water supplies, a leading geologist has said. Professor Mike Stephenson of the British Geological Survey said most experts thought the process, known as fracking, was a "pretty safe activity".
The Portland State University study of shrinking Mt. Adams glaciers—a good example of bad science.
WUWT
"The recent Portland State University study of glaciers on Mt. Adams by is a good example of bad science, i.e., how a dogmatic bias and selectively leaving out contrary factual data can lead to bad conclusions. As an exercise in critical thinking, I used to have my graduate students take a paper like this apart, piece by piece, to show any scientific errors. Here is an analysis of bad assumptions and errors in the Mt. Adams study."
"The recent Portland State University study of glaciers on Mt. Adams by is a good example of bad science, i.e., how a dogmatic bias and selectively leaving out contrary factual data can lead to bad conclusions. As an exercise in critical thinking, I used to have my graduate students take a paper like this apart, piece by piece, to show any scientific errors. Here is an analysis of bad assumptions and errors in the Mt. Adams study."
European ski resorts in 'lockdown' after freak snowfalls cut road, rail and air links
Daily Mail
#1,000 British skiers trapped in Alps after severe snowfalls
#Falling trees and rocks blocking many routes
#Avalanche warning raised to stage three, or 'considerable risk'
#Holidaymakers advised to stay indoors
#1,000 British skiers trapped in Alps after severe snowfalls
#Falling trees and rocks blocking many routes
#Avalanche warning raised to stage three, or 'considerable risk'
#Holidaymakers advised to stay indoors
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
"Shrinking ice" stops tanker
Dr Richard North
"It may be relatively mild in Britain, but not so in Alaska which is suffering an "exceptionally harsh" winter with snow at crisis point in some locations.Thick ice in the Bering Sea is also giving problems. The US coastguard's only functional icebreaker, the USS Healy, in the area is failing to get to grips with ice up to 2.5 feet thick in the approach to the seaboard town of Nome, which is running out of diesel and gasoline."
"It may be relatively mild in Britain, but not so in Alaska which is suffering an "exceptionally harsh" winter with snow at crisis point in some locations.Thick ice in the Bering Sea is also giving problems. The US coastguard's only functional icebreaker, the USS Healy, in the area is failing to get to grips with ice up to 2.5 feet thick in the approach to the seaboard town of Nome, which is running out of diesel and gasoline."
Monday, 9 January 2012
Wind power is expensive and ineffective at cutting CO2 say Civitas
Telegraph
"A study in the Netherlands found that turning back-up gas power stations on and off to cover spells when there is little wind actually produces more carbon than a steady supply of energy from an efficient modern gas station.
The research is cited in a new report by the Civitas think tank which warns that Britain is in danger of producing more carbon dioxide (CO2) than necessary if the grid relies too much on wind.
Wind turbines only produce energy around 30 per cent of the time. When the wind is not blowing - or even blowing too fast as in the recent storms - other sources of electricity have to be used, mostly gas and coal.
However it takes a surge of electricity to power up the fossil fuel stations every time they are needed, meaning more carbon emissions are released."
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The cost of wind (Bishop Hill)
"A study in the Netherlands found that turning back-up gas power stations on and off to cover spells when there is little wind actually produces more carbon than a steady supply of energy from an efficient modern gas station.
The research is cited in a new report by the Civitas think tank which warns that Britain is in danger of producing more carbon dioxide (CO2) than necessary if the grid relies too much on wind.
Wind turbines only produce energy around 30 per cent of the time. When the wind is not blowing - or even blowing too fast as in the recent storms - other sources of electricity have to be used, mostly gas and coal.
However it takes a surge of electricity to power up the fossil fuel stations every time they are needed, meaning more carbon emissions are released."
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The cost of wind (Bishop Hill)
Global Warming To Save The Planet?
GWPF
"That’s the inference from a study on climate variation being covered by the BBC this morning. According to the Beeb (not normally a source of comfort on the subject of climate change), an international team of scientists headed by Cambridge University researcher Luke Skinner projects that sometime in the next 1500 years a devastating new Ice Age will descend on Planet Earth. As in past Ice Ages, glaciers would cover much of the northern hemisphere, many species would face extinction and the productivity of the biosphere would diminish as fertile farmlands went under the ice.
But, the scientists say, that won’t happen now, thanks to man’s new best friend: greenhouse gasses. Rising levels of CO2 will offset the natural forces leading to a new Ice Age, saving civilization from its greatest test yet."
"That’s the inference from a study on climate variation being covered by the BBC this morning. According to the Beeb (not normally a source of comfort on the subject of climate change), an international team of scientists headed by Cambridge University researcher Luke Skinner projects that sometime in the next 1500 years a devastating new Ice Age will descend on Planet Earth. As in past Ice Ages, glaciers would cover much of the northern hemisphere, many species would face extinction and the productivity of the biosphere would diminish as fertile farmlands went under the ice.
But, the scientists say, that won’t happen now, thanks to man’s new best friend: greenhouse gasses. Rising levels of CO2 will offset the natural forces leading to a new Ice Age, saving civilization from its greatest test yet."
Scripps paper: Ocean acidification fears overhyped
WUWT
"Scripps blockbuster: Ocean acidification happens all the time — naturally
There goes another scare campaign."
"Scripps blockbuster: Ocean acidification happens all the time — naturally
There goes another scare campaign."
Saturday, 7 January 2012
Chris Huhne is piling on the make-believe
Christopher Booker,Telegraph
"What emerges from reading the DECC report in full is how heavily almost every page of it relies on wishful thinking and unproven assumptions. The report babbles on, for instance, about how we will have “zero carbon homes” and a “zero carbon waste economy” and how we will build “33 gigawatts” of zero carbon nuclear power and “45 gigawatts” of wind power (without, of course, pointing out that 45GW refers to the capacity of the windmills, not the 15GW or less they might actually produce, due to the intermittency of the wind).
The report does recognise that we would still need 28GW of the fossil-fuel electricity which currently supplies nearly 80 per cent of our needs. But this brings us to perhaps the most glaring example of wishful thinking that runs right through the report: its insistence that gas and coal-fired power stations can only be allowed if they are fitted with “carbon capture and storage” (CCS), the immensely costly equipment that is supposed to pipe away CO2 and bury it in the ground.
It cannot be stated too forcefully that, as yet, the technology to do this has not been commercially developed, for the simple reason that, as various scientific studies have shown, it cannot work. There is no way in which vast quantities of CO2 can be injected into rock at the high pressures necessary without fracturing the rock to the point where no more can be injected. Yet it is on this make-believe that the dreams of Cameron, Clegg and Huhne ultimately rest.
It is ironic that the shale gas bonanza, now offering the world its greatest energy revolution since nuclear power, depends on a rock-fracturing process that does work – indeed, it already provides 25 per cent of all America’s gas, cutting its cost to the lowest winter level in a decade. In Poland, the first homes will be heated by shale gas this winter."
"What emerges from reading the DECC report in full is how heavily almost every page of it relies on wishful thinking and unproven assumptions. The report babbles on, for instance, about how we will have “zero carbon homes” and a “zero carbon waste economy” and how we will build “33 gigawatts” of zero carbon nuclear power and “45 gigawatts” of wind power (without, of course, pointing out that 45GW refers to the capacity of the windmills, not the 15GW or less they might actually produce, due to the intermittency of the wind).
The report does recognise that we would still need 28GW of the fossil-fuel electricity which currently supplies nearly 80 per cent of our needs. But this brings us to perhaps the most glaring example of wishful thinking that runs right through the report: its insistence that gas and coal-fired power stations can only be allowed if they are fitted with “carbon capture and storage” (CCS), the immensely costly equipment that is supposed to pipe away CO2 and bury it in the ground.
It cannot be stated too forcefully that, as yet, the technology to do this has not been commercially developed, for the simple reason that, as various scientific studies have shown, it cannot work. There is no way in which vast quantities of CO2 can be injected into rock at the high pressures necessary without fracturing the rock to the point where no more can be injected. Yet it is on this make-believe that the dreams of Cameron, Clegg and Huhne ultimately rest.
It is ironic that the shale gas bonanza, now offering the world its greatest energy revolution since nuclear power, depends on a rock-fracturing process that does work – indeed, it already provides 25 per cent of all America’s gas, cutting its cost to the lowest winter level in a decade. In Poland, the first homes will be heated by shale gas this winter."
Deep Freeze Maybe Headed For Western Europe
NoTricksZone
"No doubt Europeans this year have been enjoying a relatively mild winter this year, unlike the previous 3 winters. But it may be too early to start planning for spring. Mother Nature has a way punishing the overly optimistic."
"No doubt Europeans this year have been enjoying a relatively mild winter this year, unlike the previous 3 winters. But it may be too early to start planning for spring. Mother Nature has a way punishing the overly optimistic."
Friday, 6 January 2012
The wind turbines that can’t cope… with the WIND! Three more are blown to pieces in gales that swept across Britain
Daily Mail
#Huge turbine blades flew off three structures in 112mph winds
#Concerned villagers fear someone could have been killed
#Huge turbine blades flew off three structures in 112mph winds
#Concerned villagers fear someone could have been killed
CO2 shortage may flatten soft drink supplies
China to boycott EU airline carbon tax
ABC (Australia)
"The European Union plans to charge foreign airlines for carbon (dioxide) emissions, as part of its efforts to combat global warning - but China is refusing to pay up." (Audio)
"The European Union plans to charge foreign airlines for carbon (dioxide) emissions, as part of its efforts to combat global warning - but China is refusing to pay up." (Audio)
What Financial Meltdowns Teach Us About the IPCC
Donna Laframboise,(Canada)
"In a sensible world, scientists who refuse to share the data and computer codes behind iconic climate graphs and important conclusions would be ostracized by the scientific community. Instead, they get showered with awards and accolades (see the bottom of this post for more detail).
In a sane universe, the fact that two-thirds of the chapters in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report were written by scientists known to be affiliated with the World Wildlife Fund lobby group would damage the IPCC’s reputation beyond repair. Instead, we collectively pretend it doesn’t matter.
When I describe the weird world of climate science to people who are strangers to that world I know it sounds fantastical. Yeah, right I imagine them thinking behind their polite smiles. Surely it can’t be that bad. Surely there’s a reasonable explanation."
"In a sensible world, scientists who refuse to share the data and computer codes behind iconic climate graphs and important conclusions would be ostracized by the scientific community. Instead, they get showered with awards and accolades (see the bottom of this post for more detail).
In a sane universe, the fact that two-thirds of the chapters in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report were written by scientists known to be affiliated with the World Wildlife Fund lobby group would damage the IPCC’s reputation beyond repair. Instead, we collectively pretend it doesn’t matter.
When I describe the weird world of climate science to people who are strangers to that world I know it sounds fantastical. Yeah, right I imagine them thinking behind their polite smiles. Surely it can’t be that bad. Surely there’s a reasonable explanation."
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Many consumers in the dark about dangers of CFL bulbs
Examiner
"In a report last March, Fox News exposed the potentially dangerous health hazards of mercury-laced CFL bulbs: .....Mercury Instruments, a Littleton, Colo., firm that specializes in removing mercury contamination, states the following on its Web site:
“If you break a "CFL" Compact Fluorescent light bulb and attempt to clean it up yourself, there is absolutely no way to know that you have removed the mercury unless you screen the area with a mercury vapor monitor . . . Without the proper equipment, equipment you will never be able to locate where the mercury came to rest.
Concerned about mercury contamination, many environmental agencies have adopted strict regulations for the disposal and recycling of CFLs. In California, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, it is illegal to improperly dispose of florescent bulbs in trash or landfills. Consumers face stiff fines if they violate the law."
"In a report last March, Fox News exposed the potentially dangerous health hazards of mercury-laced CFL bulbs: .....Mercury Instruments, a Littleton, Colo., firm that specializes in removing mercury contamination, states the following on its Web site:
“If you break a "CFL" Compact Fluorescent light bulb and attempt to clean it up yourself, there is absolutely no way to know that you have removed the mercury unless you screen the area with a mercury vapor monitor . . . Without the proper equipment, equipment you will never be able to locate where the mercury came to rest.
Concerned about mercury contamination, many environmental agencies have adopted strict regulations for the disposal and recycling of CFLs. In California, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, it is illegal to improperly dispose of florescent bulbs in trash or landfills. Consumers face stiff fines if they violate the law."
The bleak weather continues - just where has our summer gone?
The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
"It's a good thing December is almost over - it's been the coldest for more than 50 years. With two days to go, it seems certain Sydney will record its coldest December since 1960, with the average daily maximum so far this month 2.2C below the long-term average. Sydney's average top temperature so far this month was a chilly 23C - only 0.2C more than in 1960. That isn't going to change much over the next two days, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting showers and tops of just 24C. Not once has the temperature reached 30C in the city this month, the first time since 1999 the mercury has failed to reach that mark in December."
THE damage bill for the Christmas Day storms is expected to reach almost $700 million as repair claims continue to inundate insurers. (Herald Sun)
"It's a good thing December is almost over - it's been the coldest for more than 50 years. With two days to go, it seems certain Sydney will record its coldest December since 1960, with the average daily maximum so far this month 2.2C below the long-term average. Sydney's average top temperature so far this month was a chilly 23C - only 0.2C more than in 1960. That isn't going to change much over the next two days, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting showers and tops of just 24C. Not once has the temperature reached 30C in the city this month, the first time since 1999 the mercury has failed to reach that mark in December."
THE damage bill for the Christmas Day storms is expected to reach almost $700 million as repair claims continue to inundate insurers. (Herald Sun)
Lying With Numbers: Green Energy Edition
Forbes
"And that’s where our lie is. They are not saying that producing the same amount of energy is going to be about the same price with the new technology. They’re saying that producing half the amount of energy is going to be about the same price."
--------------------
Ha ha Warmist losers. For you the war is over (Telegraph)
---------------------
Solyndra-Gate Opens Into A Large Den Of Corruption (IBD)
"Obama's green-technology program was infused with politics at every level," the Washington Post reported on Christmas Day after it had analyzed "thousands of memos, company records and internal e-mails."
--------------------
Modern-day climate change witch hunt (ABC, Australia)
"In the old witch-hunting era, it was a powerful sense of social uncertainty and fear of the future which led the priestly class to view mysterious individuals as being culpable for climate change. Today, too, a similarly profound social and moral malaise has led elite greens to claim that the throng, with its reckless ways and insatiable material desires, is causing dangerously freezing/hot conditions."
"And that’s where our lie is. They are not saying that producing the same amount of energy is going to be about the same price with the new technology. They’re saying that producing half the amount of energy is going to be about the same price."
--------------------
Ha ha Warmist losers. For you the war is over (Telegraph)
---------------------
Solyndra-Gate Opens Into A Large Den Of Corruption (IBD)
"Obama's green-technology program was infused with politics at every level," the Washington Post reported on Christmas Day after it had analyzed "thousands of memos, company records and internal e-mails."
--------------------
Modern-day climate change witch hunt (ABC, Australia)
"In the old witch-hunting era, it was a powerful sense of social uncertainty and fear of the future which led the priestly class to view mysterious individuals as being culpable for climate change. Today, too, a similarly profound social and moral malaise has led elite greens to claim that the throng, with its reckless ways and insatiable material desires, is causing dangerously freezing/hot conditions."
Defund the IPCC Now
WUWT
"It turns out that the GAO, the US General Accounting Office, says US has been secretly hiding their funding of the IPCC for the last decade. .....The latest 2011 GAO Report says the US government has not changed their ways. They have been clandestinely providing about half the operating funds for the IPCC for the last decade. ......The report says that the State Department provided $19 million dollars to the IPCC. .......I also found out that the IPCC got $12.1 million dollars from the US Global Change Research Program. That one really angrifies my blood. The IPCC flat out states that they do not do a single scrap of scientific research … so why is the US Global Change Research Program giving them a dime, much less twelve million, that was supposed to go for research? "
"It turns out that the GAO, the US General Accounting Office, says US has been secretly hiding their funding of the IPCC for the last decade. .....The latest 2011 GAO Report says the US government has not changed their ways. They have been clandestinely providing about half the operating funds for the IPCC for the last decade. ......The report says that the State Department provided $19 million dollars to the IPCC. .......I also found out that the IPCC got $12.1 million dollars from the US Global Change Research Program. That one really angrifies my blood. The IPCC flat out states that they do not do a single scrap of scientific research … so why is the US Global Change Research Program giving them a dime, much less twelve million, that was supposed to go for research? "
Media 101 – How to jump a shark
WUWT
"The story about the hybrid sharks being a byproduct of climate change turns out to be an act of quote fabrication in some media outlets. This story by Dina Spector of the Business Insider, is a prime example of such quote fabrication:.......After I showed the original press release contained not one mention of “global warming” or “climate change”, one of our readers decided to ask the researcher about this statement attributed to to Jessica Morgan in that Business Insider story:
According to lead researcher Jess Morgan, the hybridization might be a sign that the animals are adapting to rising temperature levels as a result of climate change.
Here’s the answer. Bolding mine. ......
And I received this reply:
On 1/4/2012 7:34 PM, Morgan, Jessica wrote:
Quote not correct – I have now stated numerous times that it is extremely unlikely that climate change caused the hybridization event – however, the hybrid-Australian blacktips are now being seen further south of their known range (Australain blacktips have a tropical distribution) in cooler waters suggesting that the hybrids may have a wider temperature tolerance than their parents (ie the hybrids may be better adapted to handle changing water temperatures). That long statement is being condensed and printed as your quote below.
Jess
"The story about the hybrid sharks being a byproduct of climate change turns out to be an act of quote fabrication in some media outlets. This story by Dina Spector of the Business Insider, is a prime example of such quote fabrication:.......After I showed the original press release contained not one mention of “global warming” or “climate change”, one of our readers decided to ask the researcher about this statement attributed to to Jessica Morgan in that Business Insider story:
According to lead researcher Jess Morgan, the hybridization might be a sign that the animals are adapting to rising temperature levels as a result of climate change.
Here’s the answer. Bolding mine. ......
And I received this reply:
On 1/4/2012 7:34 PM, Morgan, Jessica wrote:
Quote not correct – I have now stated numerous times that it is extremely unlikely that climate change caused the hybridization event – however, the hybrid-Australian blacktips are now being seen further south of their known range (Australain blacktips have a tropical distribution) in cooler waters suggesting that the hybrids may have a wider temperature tolerance than their parents (ie the hybrids may be better adapted to handle changing water temperatures). That long statement is being condensed and printed as your quote below.
Jess
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
Taxpayers Take Hit As Solar Industry Implodes
GWPF
"In a year where Solyndra became the face of the solar industry’s chronic failures, even the holiday season could not prevent one last flurry of layoffs in 2011."
"In a year where Solyndra became the face of the solar industry’s chronic failures, even the holiday season could not prevent one last flurry of layoffs in 2011."
The Windparks To Nowhere
NoTricksZone
"With its nuclear power reactors in the process of being shut down by government decree (done in a hysterical state of mind in the wake of Fukushima), Germany now needs to find an alternative supply for electricity, and real soon. The answer was to build huge offshore wind parks in the windy North Sea, for example like the one now being completed by energy giant RWE. However,..."
"With its nuclear power reactors in the process of being shut down by government decree (done in a hysterical state of mind in the wake of Fukushima), Germany now needs to find an alternative supply for electricity, and real soon. The answer was to build huge offshore wind parks in the windy North Sea, for example like the one now being completed by energy giant RWE. However,..."
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
Arctic Ice Extent Closes Out The Year Highest In The DMI Record
Real Science
"It is time to end the denial."
"It is time to end the denial."
Could Climate Change create deadly, mutant sharks which kill us all?
Telegraph
"It had to happen. As if the plight of the polar bear wasn't punishment enough for our evil, selfish, refusing-to-change-our-lifestyle-because-we're-addicted-to-oil ways, it now seems that Mother Gaia may have a deadly new weapon up her sleeve: KILLER MUTANT SHARKS!!! .......In fact I wouldn't be at all surprised if "scientists" at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (and similar august institutions) haven't already prepared computer projects of what could so easily happen next."
"It had to happen. As if the plight of the polar bear wasn't punishment enough for our evil, selfish, refusing-to-change-our-lifestyle-because-we're-addicted-to-oil ways, it now seems that Mother Gaia may have a deadly new weapon up her sleeve: KILLER MUTANT SHARKS!!! .......In fact I wouldn't be at all surprised if "scientists" at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (and similar august institutions) haven't already prepared computer projects of what could so easily happen next."
Monday, 2 January 2012
Canadian Senate Testimony – Skeptic side now being heard in Canadian politics
WUWT
"The presentations and follow-up questions are both excellent! Interesting to note the avoidance of some of the alarmist bullying seen in some of the U.S. Senate hearings from the likes of Clinton and Boxer. Of course, you’ll see the odd Liberal senator make the typical noxious commentary around thousands of scientists and ‘consensus’ but it doesn’t matter, they are only looking increasingly foolish."
ED: we carried this here in December,glad it is getting more views.
"The presentations and follow-up questions are both excellent! Interesting to note the avoidance of some of the alarmist bullying seen in some of the U.S. Senate hearings from the likes of Clinton and Boxer. Of course, you’ll see the odd Liberal senator make the typical noxious commentary around thousands of scientists and ‘consensus’ but it doesn’t matter, they are only looking increasingly foolish."
ED: we carried this here in December,glad it is getting more views.
Sunday, 1 January 2012
Europe cannot save the euro, nor save itself from the euro
Christopher Booker,Telegraph
"....We are left in an equally insoluble mess by the ebbing away of what we can now see was the greatest and most damaging scare-story in history: the belief that the world was threatened with catastrophic warming by human emissions of carbon dioxide.
In the 20 years since the scare was launched, global man-made CO2 emissions have risen by 50 per cent. But at the end of 2011, global temperatures measured by Nasa satellites stood barely a tenth of a degree Celsius higher than their average throughout the 32 years since satellite measurements began – far lower than the projected warming. The computer models on which the scare relied have proved so wrong that it is incomprehensible how they were ever taken seriously.
Hardly surprisingly, in 2011 any attempt to get global agreement on drastic meaures to meet this supposed threat finally expired, as the third mammoth UN conference in as many years fizzled out in Durban. There is no chance that China, India, Brazil, Russia or even the US will agree to a replacement for the failed Kyoto Protocol – not when China alone, with its coal-fired power stations, is increasing its CO2 emissions each year by an amount greater than the UK’s entire annual output.
On all sides, mad schemes dreamed up to meet this imaginary crisis are falling apart. The EU’s carbon trading scheme is collapsing, The dream of solar power is disintegrating, as country after country slashes its subsidies, and firms set up to cash in on the bonanza close in droves (5,000 in Germany alone). Evaporating likewise is the fantasy of “carbon capture and storage” – CO2 from power stations being piped away, at vast expense, and buried in holes in the ground.
More and more, this leaves Britain isolated in a mad little bubble of its own, the only country in the world committed by law to the completely unrealisable goal of cutting CO2 emissions by 80 per cent within 40 years.
On this very day, January 1, the EU is imposing a tax on airline flights which, on top of the Air Passenger Duty, when George Osborne raises it yet again in April, will bring the tax for a British family of four flying to Florida to £344.
Next year, Mr Osborne is to impose a “carbon floor price” of £16 on every ton of CO2 emitted by British industry, when the price of “carbon” under the EU’s emissions trading scheme has collapsed to just £5.40. Not only will Osborne’s tax do serious damage to the competitiveness of British industry, it will add £3 billion a year to the cost of our electricity. This will rise within eight years to £5 billion, which alone will add 25 per cent to all our bills.
Meanwhile, utterly lost in his own green dreamworld, the man supposedly in charge of energy policy, Chris Huhne (below), babbles about chequering thousands of square miles of our countryside and our coastal waters with a further 32,000 crazily expensive and useless windmills. It is a vision so insane that one cannot imagine why men in white coats have not already hauled him off – rather more expeditiously than the Essex police who, we are told, wish to see him prosecuted for perverting the course of justice over an alleged traffic offence.
Even if Huhne’s pipedream could be achieved (it is technically out of the question), he still has not grasped that it would be necessary to pay billions of pounds more to build dozens of grown-up gas-fired power stations, as essential back-up for those still days that render the energy contributions of windmills all too frequently derisory. Something that we can predict with certainty is not going to happen in 2012 is any trace of sanity on these matters entering this absurdly dangerous man’s charmless head."
"....We are left in an equally insoluble mess by the ebbing away of what we can now see was the greatest and most damaging scare-story in history: the belief that the world was threatened with catastrophic warming by human emissions of carbon dioxide.
In the 20 years since the scare was launched, global man-made CO2 emissions have risen by 50 per cent. But at the end of 2011, global temperatures measured by Nasa satellites stood barely a tenth of a degree Celsius higher than their average throughout the 32 years since satellite measurements began – far lower than the projected warming. The computer models on which the scare relied have proved so wrong that it is incomprehensible how they were ever taken seriously.
Hardly surprisingly, in 2011 any attempt to get global agreement on drastic meaures to meet this supposed threat finally expired, as the third mammoth UN conference in as many years fizzled out in Durban. There is no chance that China, India, Brazil, Russia or even the US will agree to a replacement for the failed Kyoto Protocol – not when China alone, with its coal-fired power stations, is increasing its CO2 emissions each year by an amount greater than the UK’s entire annual output.
On all sides, mad schemes dreamed up to meet this imaginary crisis are falling apart. The EU’s carbon trading scheme is collapsing, The dream of solar power is disintegrating, as country after country slashes its subsidies, and firms set up to cash in on the bonanza close in droves (5,000 in Germany alone). Evaporating likewise is the fantasy of “carbon capture and storage” – CO2 from power stations being piped away, at vast expense, and buried in holes in the ground.
More and more, this leaves Britain isolated in a mad little bubble of its own, the only country in the world committed by law to the completely unrealisable goal of cutting CO2 emissions by 80 per cent within 40 years.
On this very day, January 1, the EU is imposing a tax on airline flights which, on top of the Air Passenger Duty, when George Osborne raises it yet again in April, will bring the tax for a British family of four flying to Florida to £344.
Next year, Mr Osborne is to impose a “carbon floor price” of £16 on every ton of CO2 emitted by British industry, when the price of “carbon” under the EU’s emissions trading scheme has collapsed to just £5.40. Not only will Osborne’s tax do serious damage to the competitiveness of British industry, it will add £3 billion a year to the cost of our electricity. This will rise within eight years to £5 billion, which alone will add 25 per cent to all our bills.
Meanwhile, utterly lost in his own green dreamworld, the man supposedly in charge of energy policy, Chris Huhne (below), babbles about chequering thousands of square miles of our countryside and our coastal waters with a further 32,000 crazily expensive and useless windmills. It is a vision so insane that one cannot imagine why men in white coats have not already hauled him off – rather more expeditiously than the Essex police who, we are told, wish to see him prosecuted for perverting the course of justice over an alleged traffic offence.
Even if Huhne’s pipedream could be achieved (it is technically out of the question), he still has not grasped that it would be necessary to pay billions of pounds more to build dozens of grown-up gas-fired power stations, as essential back-up for those still days that render the energy contributions of windmills all too frequently derisory. Something that we can predict with certainty is not going to happen in 2012 is any trace of sanity on these matters entering this absurdly dangerous man’s charmless head."
Shukman on windfarms
Bishop Hill
"In these terms then, this was a rather unusual programme for the BBC in that for the most part it avoided most of the usual green propaganda. That said, Shukman did blot his copybook and in a very serious way. He reported that it would take 200 turbines to replace a conventional power station. He should probably have realised that his maths was going to be checked, and unfortunately for him it was. .......I don't know about you, but I think if Shukman had reported that it was going to take 600 turbines to replace a conventional power station viewers would have gained a remarkable insight into the sheer insanity of offshore wind. The conflating of installed capacity of windfarms with their actual output is an problem that has been repeated so often over the years that it is hard to accept it as an error any longer."
"In these terms then, this was a rather unusual programme for the BBC in that for the most part it avoided most of the usual green propaganda. That said, Shukman did blot his copybook and in a very serious way. He reported that it would take 200 turbines to replace a conventional power station. He should probably have realised that his maths was going to be checked, and unfortunately for him it was. .......I don't know about you, but I think if Shukman had reported that it was going to take 600 turbines to replace a conventional power station viewers would have gained a remarkable insight into the sheer insanity of offshore wind. The conflating of installed capacity of windfarms with their actual output is an problem that has been repeated so often over the years that it is hard to accept it as an error any longer."
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