240707 Marc Morano’s Round-up– July 24, 2007
Senate moderates advance cost-control bill for cap and trade
Excerpt: Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) offered a more critical perspective on the cost plan. "Constructing new federal bureaucracies like the proposed 'Carbon Market Efficiency Board' will do nothing to alter the climate or solve the economic issues," said Inhofe, the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Inhofe cited Massachusetts Institute of Technology climate scientist Richard Lindzen, who said in March, "Controlling carbon is a bureaucrat's dream. If you control carbon, you control life."
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2007/07/24/12
(Subscription required)
Gore, Jr., RFK, Jr., called modern version of ‘snake oil salesmen’ – part of ‘venerable American institution of quackery’
Excerpt: The venerable American institution of quackery -- quack science, quack medicine, quack theories of anatomy and digestion -- seems to be revenant today. It is back in all its glory, now adorned with the sophisticated mantle of modern presentation. You may not realize it while reading Earth in the Balance or watching An Inconvenient Truth, but you are getting the updated flavor of the snake oil salesmen and castor oil prescribers and witch hazel appliers described in Huckleberry Finn. < > Gore and Kennedy are drawing upon this treasure trove in the American historical memory. They are pressing the same buttons in our personas and eliciting the same slack-jawed slavishness. The toxins are now in our gas tanks and air-conditioning vents; the corrupted bowels extend into the stratosphere. Apparently, they are full of, er... toxic waste. The solution is not the Sanitarium but the government. But the technique remains the same: corny appeals, flaky ideas.
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=11766
An African dismisses Bono, pleads for no more 'saviors'
Excerpt: Africa doesn't want to be saved. With fair partnerships, it is capable of unprecedented growth. < > Idealistic college students, celebrities such as Bob Geldof, and politicians such as Tony Blair have all made bringing light to the dark continent their mission. This is the West's new image of itself: a sexy, politically active generation whose preferred means of spreading the word are magazine spreads with celebrities pictured in the foreground, forlorn Africans in the back. Perhaps most interesting is the language used to describe the Africa being saved. For example, the Keep a Child Alive/"I am African" ad campaign features portraits of primarily white, Western celebrities with painted "tribal markings" on their faces above "I AM AFRICAN" in bold letters. Below, smaller print says, "help us stop the dying." Such campaigns, however well intentioned, promote the stereotype of Africa as a black hole of disease and death. News reports constantly focus on the continent's corrupt leaders, warlords, "tribal" conflicts, child laborers, and women disfigured by abuse and genital mutilation. These descriptions run under headlines such as "Can Bono Save Africa?" The relationship between the West and Africa is no longer based on openly racist beliefs, but such articles are reminiscent of reports from the heyday of European colonialism, when missionaries were sent to Africa to introduce us to education, Jesus Christ, and "civilization."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0724/p09s02-coop.html
Hollywood Actress Sienna Miller fears global warming may impact shanty towns in India
Excerpt: Stressing on the need to curb carbon emissions, Miller says these poor people in the slums will be the first to get affected if the water level rises. In her diary for Sunday Times, she writes: “Should the water levels rise due to global warming, the entire slum population of the city, an estimated 10m, will be left with nowhere to live…It is vulnerable people like these who will initially be the most affected – unjust when you consider that the majority of damage inflicted on the planet had been caused by our lifestyles in the West.”
http://www.apunkachoice.com/scoop/hollywood/20070724-0.html
Polar Bears: [The New York] Times is on their side (World Climate Report)
Excerpt: As we have documented on numerous occasions (see for example),
http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/2007/05/02/arctic-ice-and-polar-bears/
or
http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/2007/02/05/arctic-lessons-from-the-last-interglacial-polar-bears-survived/
polar bears, as a species, have survived through several extended periods, lasting many thousand years, when conditions were warmer than present. The existence of a warmer Arctic in the past (both during the current interglacial warm period, as well as during the one prior) is well documented in the scientific literature and those that act as if this time around such conditions will wipe out the polar bear simply ignore scientific fact. A thorough and excellent review of the past, present, and future climate of the Arctic and how it has, does, and may impact polar bears can be found at the new web site of the http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/
on pages 3 through 6 of its issues paper
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/sppi_originals/current_issues_in_climate_science_focus_on_the_poles.html
”That polar bears have survived through previous warm periods is not to say that polar bears will have an easy time of it this time around.
http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/2007/07/24/polar-bears-times-is-on-their-side/
[Editor’s Note: I will be going on this trip to Greenland – expect full report upon my return]
Boxer to lead Senate global warming delegation to Greenland
Excerpt: Accompanying Boxer on the trip will be Democratic senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin of Maryland, Bill Nelson of Florida, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. Republican senators are Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Bob Corker of Tennessee. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont also will attend. Richard Alley of Penn State University, the lead author on the United States Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will be the scientific advisor on the trip.Boxer invited Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., the ranking Republican on her committee, but he declined. Inhofe opposes a regulatory approach to climate change and has challenged the findings of much of the scientific community on this issue.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/boxer-sen-senators-1783281-barbara-north
Scientific studies completely debunk Greenland melt fears?
Sampling below:
Flashback: DNA hints warm era didn't melt entire cap on Greenland during Medieval Warm Period (July 6, 2007)
Excerpt: An international team of scientists, drilling deep into the ice layers of Greenland, has found DNA from ancient spiders and trees, evidence that suggests the frozen shield covering the immense island survived the earth's last period of global warming. The findings, published today in the journal Science, indicate Greenland's ice may be less susceptible to the massive meltdown predicted by computer models of climate change, the article's main author said in an interview. "If our data is correct, and I believe it is, then this means the southern Greenland ice cap is more stable than previously thought," said Eske Willerslev, research leader and professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Copenhagen. "This may have implications for how the ice sheets respond to global warming. They may withstand rising temperatures."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/07/06/greenland_ice_yields_hope_on_climate
Flashback: Current temperatures in Southern Greenland are "1.5°C colder than the peak warmth of Medieval Times."
http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/data/mwp/studies/l1_dye3.jsp
Flashback: Greenland warming of 1920-1930 and 1995-2005
Excerpt: We provide an analysis of Greenland temperature records to compare the current (1995–2005) warming period with the previous (1920–1930) Greenland warming. We find that the current Greenland warming is not unprecedented in recent Greenland history. Temperature increases in the two warming periods are of a similar magnitude, however, the rate of warming in 1920–1930 was about 50% higher than that in 1995–2005.
http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2006/2006GL026510.shtml>http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2006/2006GL026510.shtml
Flashback: Greenland's glaciers have been shrinking for 100 years (August 21, 2006)
Excerpt: Greenland's glaciers have been shrinking for the past century, according to a Danish study published on Monday, suggesting that the ice melt is not a recent phenomenon caused by global warming.
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/060821152543.jn8x3o1k.html
Flashback: Greenland's residents 'cheer' global warming: 'I can grow more hay. The sheep get fatter' (June 7, 2007)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/06/AR2007060602783.html
British teach less Churchill, more global warming
Excerpt: Once upon a time, the British curriculum was straightforward. There was math, English, science. You learned about Winston Churchill, how to locate Greece, and how to say "My name is John" in French. But starting next year British teenagers will face an exotic range of new disciplines designed to equip them with more practical skills. Healthy cooking, personal finances, and global warming are in. Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and the Battle of the Nile may be nudged out.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0724/p01s02-woeu.html?s=hns
Carbon Offsetting Needs Code of Practice - UK Report
Excerpt: “Without transparency, consumers will have little confidence in purchasing or otherwise dealing in offsets," the report by the House of Commons Environment Audit Committee said. "The government must act quickly," it added, while criticising as too restrictive a recent British proposal to tie the voluntary market to the existing Kyoto standards.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/43236/story.htm
New website launched:
The Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI) is a nonprofit institute of research and education dedicated to sound public policy based on sound science
http://www.scienceandpublicpolicy.org
“Consensus”? What “Consensus” Among Climate Scientists? The Debate Is Not Over
(By Viscount Monckton of Brenchley)
It is often said that there is a scientific “consensus” to the effect that climate change will be “catastrophic” and that, on this question, “the debate is over”. The present paper will demonstrate that the claim of unanimous scientific “consensus” was false, and known to be false, when it was first made; that the trend of opinion in the peer-reviewed journals and even in the UN’s reports on climate is moving rapidly away from alarmism; that, among climate scientists, the debate on the causes and extent of climate change is by no means over; and that the evidence in the peer-reviewed literature conclusively demonstrates that, to the extent that there is a “consensus”, that “consensus” does not endorse the notion of “catastrophic” climate change.
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/monckton_papers/consensus_what_consensus_among_climate_scientists_the_debate_is_not_over.html
Shining More Light on the Solar Factor:
A discussion of problems with the Royal Society
Excerpt: In reality global temperatures have stopped rising. Data for both the surface and the lower air show no warming since 1999. That makes no sense by the hypothesis of global warming driven mainly by CO2, because the amount of CO2 in the air has gone on increasing. But the fact that the Sun is beginning to neglect its climatic duty -- of batting away the cosmic rays that come from 'the chilling stars' -- fits beautifully with this apparent end of global warming.
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/sppi_originals/shining_more_light_on_the_solar_factor_a_discussion_of_problems_with_the_royal_society.html
Current issues in Climate Science: Focus on the Poles
Excerpt: Al Gore says the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets will melt and cause sea level to rise 20 feet, putting the present-day populations of Manhattan, Shanghai, Bangladesh and other coastal regions at risk. The official scientific consensus, represented by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says that over the coming century the contribution of these two ice sheets to sea-level rise will be not 20 feet but 2 inches; that in each of the past four interglacial warm periods sea level rose to a height five metres above its present level, and did so without any influence from humankind; that sea level will do the same in the present interglacial period; but that it will not rise by 20 feet for several millennia. Indeed, the UN says the probability that our activities make any difference to sea level is little better than 50:50. So, on the scariest of all the "global warming" scares - sea-level rising and displacing hundreds of millions - Al Gore is exaggerating 120-fold, or almost 12,000 per cent. He does not represent the scientific mainstream consensus, but instead speaks for a small, fringe group of politically-motivated scientists.
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/sppi_originals/current_issues_in_climate_science_focus_on_the_poles.html
Meteorologist: Shining More Light on the Solar Factor-
A Critical Review of the Lockwood and Frolich (No Solar-climate link) Paper
Excerpt: “Statistically the world’s temperature is flat. The world certainly warmed between 1975 and 1998, but in the past 10 years it has not been increasing at the rate it did.” Indeed, temperatures have declined and then leveled off in the past 8 years. This year despite the predictions by Jones (Hadley Center) as early as January that the year would end up warmest on record, looks to be cooler than 2006, with the record cold Southern Hemisphere winter and a cooling Pacific, and continuing that trend.
http://icecap.us/images/uploads/Lockwood_and_Frolich_Review.pdf
Temperature stations inadequacies exposed
Excerpt:
http://blogs.woodtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/screenshot_014.jpg
The June issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (a peer-reviewed journal) has a couple of interesting articles about the climate network here in the United States. Roger Pielke Sr. from The University of Colorado at Boulder, along with 14 other coauthors has an article titled: Documentation of Uncertainties and Biases Associated with Surface Temperature Measurement Sites for Climate Change Assessment http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=res-loc&uri=urn:ap:pdf:doi:10.1175/BAMS-88-6-913
I guess each author must have contributed one word to the lengthy title. In any event, the conclusion of the authors’ analysis is: “...there are large uncertainties associated with the surface temperature trends from the poorly sited stations. Moreover, rather than providing additional independent information, the use of the data from poorly sited stations provides a false sense of confidence in the robustness of the surface temperature trend assessments.”
http://blogs.woodtv.com/?p=2300
Childhood sun exposure may lower risk of multiple sclerosis
http://www.physorg.com/news104426851.html
Thousands of Burmese pythons on the loose in Florida
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/23/europe/python.php
Pravda: Another human civilization may live inside Earth's hollows
Excerpt: Since ancient times the exploration of the North was of immense interest to humans. It was an attraction for adventurers and researchers seeking mysterious land and unexplored islands there.
Legends say that an entry to the underground realms was located somewhere in the North, and legendary ancient tribes living on the planet centuries ago used the entries to have a good shelter under the http://english.pravda.ru/filing/Earth's_surface/
Mystics believe that the entry to the legendary Hyperborea, http://english.pravda.ru/filing/Shambala/
Shambala and Plutonia is carefully concealed from outsiders somewhere close to the North Pole. Recently, a reliable edition reported that UFOs coming to this planet start not from space but burst out from huge holes under the surface in the North Pole.
http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/24-07-2007/95191-civilization-0
What do we really know about the sun-climate connection?
In New report scientists reveal Sun-climate connection (Paper written for the Solar-Terrestrial Physics Division, Danish Meteorological Institute – written by scientists: Eigil Friis-Christensen is director of the Danish National Space Centre & Physicist Henrik Svensmark, co-author of the new 2007 book entitled “The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change.”)
Excerpt: The Sun is the source of the energy that causes the motion of the atmosphere and thereby controls weather and climate. Any change in the energy from the Sun received at the Earth’s surface will therefore affect climate. < > Recent results have indicated strong correlations between the total cloud cover and the cosmic ray flux, indicating that this could be the missing link between solar activity variations and climate changes.
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/sppi_reprint_series/what_do_we_really_know_about_the_sun-climateconnection.html
Global warming in 1907 By Henry Lamb
Excerpt: Now suppose Al Gore lived a hundred years ago, with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in control of Congress, and any one of the current Democrat candidates in the White House. Had all this collected genius lived in 1907, they would have, no doubt, convinced the nation that growth in atmospheric carbon dioxide had to be stopped to prevent Florida and half of New York from being flooded by a 20-foot sea-level rise. Suppose they had succeeded in enacting legislation to virtually stop the growth in CO2 in the atmosphere.Consider carefully what this means: no increase in human-caused carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This means no new automobile could be put into use unless an existing automobile was junked. No new airplanes at all. "In 1907, only 8 percent of all dwellings were using electricity," and to keep the atmospheric carbon dioxide at 280 ppm, there could be no new coal or petroleum-burning electricity generating facilities. Public transportation could not expand. Nashville's transportation system suggests how difficult public transportation was in 1907. No Greyhound buses – ever. No new trains, unless an existing train was taken out of service. No air travel at all.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56770
Cold Or Hot, it's always our fault
Excerpt: I was struck by another similarity between the alarmism then and now: The proof for each was/is almost entirely circumstantial.
In theory, both global cooling and warming are possible. But all we can see are potential effects. We then look backwards to determine if we can discern a cause.
The scientists and activists who believe the globe is currently warming dangerously don't have any direct proof that carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gases are the cause. They merely have a stack of potential consequences that they have convinced themselves amount to incontrovertible proof.
Today, effects such as big hurricanes, spring heat waves, rising levels of atmospheric CO2 and melting polar ice are pointed to as proof that a single cause (man-made carbon emissions trapping solar energy in the atmosphere) exists.
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=4df175c5-d861-4bb1-8145-4132fcd49870
Glaciers Growing: Evidence Of Glacier Advance or Near-Stationary Positions In Some Areas
(former State of Colorado Climatologist Roger Pielke Sr. )
Excerpt: The statement that the retreat since 1850 is rapid and worldwide leads a reader to assume this trend continues everywhere. It does not. They also write “since 1980 a significant global warming has led to glacier retreat becoming increasingly rapid and ubiquitous..”. This is the kind of inaccurate reporting that Climate Science is responding to on this theme of glacier retreat.
Climate Science has so far documented the following examples of recent and current glacial advance or near stationary movement within the following regions:
1a. http://climatesci.colorado.edu/2007/07/16/status-of-the-siachen-glacier-in-the-himalayas/
1b. http://climatesci.colorado.edu/2007/03/13/more-evidence-on-the-issue-of-glacier-retreat-and-advance/
2. http://climatesci.colorado.edu/2007/07/10/a-new-paper-on-glaciers-in-the-highest-altitudes-in-the-alps/
Striking `Arctic Tale' kid’s film a Bit of a Trick (Review)
Excerpt: Think of "Arctic Tale" as a mash-up between "March of the Penguins" and "An Inconvenient Truth" apropos, since it's being marketed at Starbucks like some innocuous folk-rock music except unlike both of those movies, it isn't even trying to be a pure documentary. < > But what's problematic is that Ravetch and Robertson have manipulated those shots to create a fictional, family-friendly fable that serves as a warning about http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul24/0,4670,FilmReviewArcticTale,00.html
With the help of Queen Latifah, whose narration often feels too cutesy and gets in the way, they introduce us to Nanu, a spirited polar bear cub, and Seela, a roly-poly walrus pup. (Linda Woolverton and Mose Richards wrote the narration along with http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul24/0,4670,FilmReviewArcticTale,00.html
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul24/0,4670,FilmReviewArcticTale,00.html
American Acceptance of Nuclear Power Grows - Survey
Excerpt: The survey by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found 35 percent of people in the United States favored increasing the nation's reliance on nuclear energy, up from the 28 percent who held that view five years ago.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/43242/story.htm
Slowing Global Warming by Enhancing the Natural Sulfur
Excerpt: Prof. Oliver Wingenter of New Mexico Tech and his colleagues propose a limited iron fertilization of the Southern Ocean as a means to stimulate the natural sulfur cycle associated with marine phytoplankton which could result in increased cloud reflectivity that would slow down global warming and possibly decrease sea level rise.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/7/prweb542030.htm
San Francisco may retire taxi 666 because of links to 'evil and Satan'
Excerpt: The San Francisco Taxi Commission is set to decide this evening whether one of the city's cabs is "associated with evil and Satan.'' And its decision, according to the official agenda, has implications involving no less than Armageddon, St. John the Divine, Good Friday, the Book of Revelation and the Mark of the Beast. At its regular meeting, the commission will consider a request from the distraught holder of taxi cab medallion No. 666 to have the number retired.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/24/SATANCAB.TMP