Global “Warming” – No Runny Eggs

Yes but No

Shoebox — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:40:52 +0000

It’s been a lot of fun watching the contortions the folks invested in global warming have been going through the past couple of years. Begin with the stolen emails that showed severe credibility questions with foundational AGW research, add the recent lack of high count hurricane seasons and double it with increasing studies that tie Earth’s temperature changes to solar activity and you get AGW scientists chasing theories looking like the Keystone Kops chasing a petty thief. Yet, for all the pretzel logic moves employed in an attempt to keep AGW alive, I can’t remember any as wacky as this from Reuters:

Asia pollution blamed for halt in warming: study

According to this study, sulphur from coal burning plants in Asia have offset the increase we nasty humans have created in carbon dioxide. The result is that global temperatures are no longer rising!

Oh, lucky us! Now we don’t have to cut back on our carbon dioxide emissions! Wait, not so fast! The article goes on to say that as the nasty coal plants are cleaned up and sulphur is reduced, we’ll go right back to sending our temperatures towards those of Mercury. Damn, we can’t win!

Let me see if I have this correct:

If we pollute the world with carbon dioxide, we’ll all burn up…
If we pollute the world with sulphur, the world is fine…
But we can’t pollute the world with sulphur because it’s bad? Can it be worse than being burnt to a crisp by our own sun?

I thought pollution was bad but now pollution is good, right? Well yes, but no!

I’m so confused!

Update 7/5 –If the above irony isn’t enough, glance through this article and you can see why the logic has gotten so contorted. Some people will tell you anything you want to hear if their…livlihood depends on it.

Speaking of Demon Snow…

Shoebox — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:57:27 +0000

The second greatest job in the world is to be a media weather forecaster. All you do is spend a few minutes a day getting a forecast from the national weather service and spend a few minutes more repeating that forecast. The best thing about being a media weather forecaster is that you never have to be right. After all, if you’re wrong you just say “Weather can be unpredictable.”

The best job in the world has to be a global warming evangelist. With this job, you don’t have to do any analysis. You just take any weather oddity and explain it as caused by global warming. Doubt me?

Here’s a video of global warming evangelists telling us how the lack of snow is sure proof of global warming:

Oh, and that “Governor” that Amy Klobuchar was referring to is my former Governor Tim Pawlenty. Yes, he was a global warmist which is a key reason why I could never see him as a viable Presidential contender.

And…….here is Al Gore telling us that snomageddon is a sure sign of global warming.

It’s hard to wrong if your central theory is based on change. Then again, it appears pretty hard to be right as well.

H/T: Instapundit

Killing Two Birds With One Stone

Shoebox — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 02:34:41 +0000

We all know about President Obama’s concern regarding global warming. We all know he blames whatever warming he alledges on the use of fossil fuels. To put his money where his mouth is, so to speak, President Obama has told federal workers to cut down on their travel and commuting by car:

In a statement, Obama noted that the government is the biggest energy user. “The government has a responsibility to use that energy wisely, to reduce consumption, improve efficiency, use renewable energy, like wind and solar, and cut costs,” he said.

By doing this, President Obama has set a goal of reducing greenhouse emissions by 13% a reduction by 2020.

President Obama for once, is practicing what he preaches and I applaud him. In January, 2009 when President Obama took office, there were approximately 2.772 million federal government employees. As of June, 2010 the Bureau of Labor Statistics says there are now 3.227 million federal government employees, an increase of over 16%! I suggest that rather than chide employees to drive less, President Obama simply reduce the federal employee employment level back to 2008. By doing so he would not only reduce the greenhouse gasses, perhaps as much as 16%, but also reduce the budget deficit…another goal that President Obama tells us is important to him, and you know how fervent he is in achieving his goals.

Go ahead President Obama, use my idea, I won’t even charge you for my consulting time!

Ummmmmmmmm

Shoebox — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:37:03 +0000

Just one question:

Will Sting be returning the wealth he’s amassed from selling his music on all of those highly ungreen records and CDs? Oh, maybe he’s planning on donating it to pay for his “bigger government?”

Snow on the ground. Acting like a fool with all that snow on the ground.

steveegg — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:15:52 +0000

(H/Ts for the retreat by the acolytes – Ed Morrissey, and H/T for the sea-level mismeasurement – JammieWearingFool)

There have been ~~three~~ four items of interest over the weekend regarding the implosion of the religion of Gorebal “Warming”:

Item #1 – On Friday, all 50 states had at least some snow cover according to the National Weather Service. That is the first time in at least 30 years, and perhaps far longer, that has happened.
Item #2 – David Jones, who has stepped down from his post as head of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, admitted that there has been no “statistically significant” warming, manmade or otherwise, over the past 15 years, and that medieval temperatures may have been warmer than modern temps. He also admitted his record-keeping, which formed the basis of the infamous “hockey stick”, was quite lacking.
Item #3 – John Christy, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and a former lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, admitted that the temperature records the IPCC relied upon to claim that there already was a 1.3 degree rise in global temperatures and that they would go up another 9-11 degrees before this century was out could not be relied upon because of local “contamination” factors such as urbanization and moves of the record stations.
Item #4 – The IPCC was forced to admit that they overstated the amount of land in the Netherlands that is below sea level by about 100%. This comes just a month after they had to admit that their claims that the Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035 had no basis in scientific fact.

That first item is significant because it blows up one of the “other” indicators the IPCC is using to justify their warming claims while admitting to the contamination problem in the third item – the amount of snow cover.

Also note that none of the sources are from American media. To be fair, USA Today noted the snowfall that I sourced directly from the NWS (though they excluded Hawaii because the search hadn’t been completed). The other two items both come from British media. Interesting, isn’t it?

Revisions/extensions (9:28 pm 2/14/2010) – And the hits just keep on coming.

Yet Another Inconvenient Truth – Number 3,287

Shoebox — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:57:57 +0000

I told you last week about a new problem that that IPCC had with it’s MMGW “documentation.” That problem was that they had folks speaking as “experts” when in fact, at least one was a journalist!

WattsUp.com has the latest IPCC gaffe. It turns out that their claims of ice reductions on mountain tops was based on an article from a climbing magazine! Yup, again, no scientific measurement. Again, nothing but anecdotal hearsay by a people who no ability to comprehend that yes, climates do change but that doesn’t mean the change is caused by man.

I’m pretty sure that we are now just days away from finding that the core theory that global warming comes from CO2 emissions, was originally published in a 1930 Buck Rogers episode and in fact, has never been factually examined!

Yet Another Inconvenient Truth?

Shoebox — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:28:06 +0000

First it was the “hockey stick.” Next was the “historical” data. Following that was the glaciers melting. Now it appears that all the concern about the horrors of glorebal warmings impact on the Amazon forest was…….wait for it…………….. Also made up!

Watts up has the story. It’s a story that is beginning to sound vaguely familiar: Data “gathered” by advocacy groups, the “peer reviewers” had no knowledge of the Amazon, one of the “peer reviewers” was actually a journalist.

Net result of the recent revelation is that no one can find any basis for the IPCC’s claim that “40 percent” of the Amazon is at risk due to global warming. Is nothing sacred?

A recent Pew poll showed that of 20 potential topics, Americans ranked global warming dead last in importance getting only 30% of those polled to think it had top priority.

In 1996 a Newsweek poll found that 29% of Americans believed that we had made contact by aliens and that the truth was being covered by the government.

If the number of people who are really concerned about global warming are now equal to the number of people who think we’ve been visited by alien, maybe man made global warming has finally reached the point where those who believe in it can show unity by wearing the international symbol of farcical thinking the tinfoil hat!

Old Dogs…

Shoebox — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:05:15 +0000

No, I’m not referring to the new movie out starring Robin Williams, Seth Green and John Travolta!

Of the many reasons that I was opposed to John McCain’s nomination last year, one that stood out towards the top, was McCain’s position on Global Warming. You may remember that McCain was one of the authors of the Lieberman McCain Climate Stewardship Act, more commonly known as the McCain/Leiberman bill. The bill assumed that carbon dioxide was the cause for global warming. It further assumed that by limiting or capping the amount of carbon dioxide released, the earth would cease its warming trend. The method for “capping” the gas was to provide a series of disincentives for creating the gas through a mechanism known as cap and trade. Fortunately, the bill was unable to pass the Senate in 2003 and subsequent attempts to pass similar legislation have also failed in the Senate.

Earlier this year the House passed its version of Cap and Trade legislation. Thus far, the Senate has not offered a bill for debate that would marry with the House bill and allow Cap and Trade to move forward.

While Cap and Trade is generally not supported by Republicans because they know the global warming science is junk and that Cap and Trade is just one more way for government to regulate significant portions of our liberty, there are a few Republicans who have sided with the alarmists. Lindsey Graham has always looked to support Can and Trade and until recently, so did John McCain.

Huh? Until recently you say? Yup!

Politico is reporting that John McCain has done an about face on Cap and Trade:

McCain has emerged as a vocal opponent of the climate bill — a major reversal for the self-proclaimed maverick who once made defying his party on global warming a signature issue of his career.

Further:

McCain refers to the bill as “cap and tax,” calls the climate legislation that passed the House in June “a 1,400-page monstrosity” and dismisses a cap-and-trade proposal included in the White House budget as “a government slush fund.”

The Politico article goes on to attempt to figure out why McCain has changed. Most of the article is focused on McCain’s staff changes, arguing that the new staff doesn’t have the history or passion for the global warming issue. They get quotes from a professor, lobbyists, former aides and even Graham himself that express their confusion over McCain’s change in position.

Maybe, just maybe, I was wrong about McCain. Maybe, John McCain can be the Right’s most notable example of an old dog learning new tricks….maybe.

Most of the piece on the suggestive picture that McCain’s change is the oddity not that other folks who still buy into a theory who’s only truth is that by its perpetuation, Al Gore increases his income, are the oddity. However, in the near middle of the piece, as an almost throw away paragraph, The Politico hits on this:

Arizona politics could be another factor. Republicans hope to use the cap-and-trade bill to attack Democrats on economic issues by saying it will raise electricity costs for businesses and spike electric bills. Those attacks could resonate in Arizona, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

In a poll released by Rasmussen this week, McCain is leading J.D. Hayworth by only 2%, within the margin of error, in an Arizona Republican primary for McCain’s Senate seat. In an earlier poll, Rasmussen found that 61% of Arizona Republican voters believe that McCain had lost touch with the Republican party.

Learning new tricks? Probably. However, I don’t believe for a minute that the “new trick” is a core change in belief of global warming.

In last year’s Presidential election, McCain saw what happens when the Republican base abandons you. What was a problem in a Presidential election would be political death to McCain in an Arizona primary. With the rise of the teaparty movement and the subsequent desire for candidates who are more conservative, McCain has a problem. In a state where illegal immigration is a significant issue and you supported amnesty, where the independence of the wild west still lives and you supported McCain/Feingold to limit free speech, McCain has a problem. He can’t undo McCain/Feingold and no legislation is pending to “correct” his position on amnesty. John McCain has thrown Cap and Trade under the bus in an effort to establish some conservative bona fides and keep the the torches and pitchforks at bay.

Old dog and new tricks? Nope. Just the same old dog using the same old political tricks in an attempt to keep his cushy job!

Unpatriotic AND Selfish!

Shoebox — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:37:51 +0000

It’s been just over a year since Joe Biden called 95% of Americans unpatriotic:

“We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people. It’s time to be patriotic … time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut.”

Apparently, Biden wasn’t the loan wolf that I thought at the time.

In a recent poll, Rasmussen found that 29% of Americans believe that you are selfish if you put the economy ahead of global warming. Fortunately, there are a whole lot more people, 49% who disagree with this assessment. Additionally, 65% believe jobs are more important than global warming. It’s good to know we still have a plurality, if not a majority of sanity yet in this country.

In case you missed it, the $1,761 annually per family that cap and trade will cost us will mostly go back to the government. While President Obama isn’t able to determine what is or isn’t a tax, I can. If you pay the government, you can call it what you want but it boils down to a tax.

Don’t like increased taxes? Want more jobs and a better economy? Not only are you unpatriotic you’re also selfish!

Cap-and-tax would hurt Wisconsin says…Russ Feingold?

steveegg — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:41:12 +0000

WisBusiness.com reports that Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) admits at a WisPolitics.com (sister web publication) luncheon that the cap-and-tax (H/T for the term – the muzzled Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-WI) scheme before the Senate would hurt Wisconsin:

I’m not signing onto any bill that rips off Wisconsin,” Feingold declared, arguing the bill’s mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions could put the coal-dependent Badger State at an economic disadvantage compared to other regions and nations….

At the same time, Feingold said he’s “troubled” by some of his constituents’ refusal to accept the principles of global warming, but agreed with some critics who have said the bill could stifle job growth in the industrial sector and increase energy prices.

“Western Wisconsin is particularly strong in being concerned about this because of their reliance on coal,” Feingold said of the bill, which has already passed the House. “There is a real possibility … that it will be unfair to Wisconsin and Wisconsin ratepayers.”

As the selected excerpt shows, it is not all rainbows and roses. Feingold merely wants to spread the pain of “dealing” with a non-problem around, not remove the pain. There is no such thing as man-caused global “warming”, or even man-caused climate “change”.

Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It Too!

Shoebox — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:18:30 +0000

Do your remember all of those great arguments for support of the Waxman-Markey “let’s rush back to the 1500’s bill?” We were going to save mother earth, we were going to increase jobs, we were going to be less dependent on foreign oil.

Not so much!

A new study done by Ensys Energy finds that rather than import less oil, if Waxman-Markey is passed, we will actually import MORE oil. In fact, the study shows that by 2030 we would likely need to DOUBLE the amount of imported oil!

How can that be? Simple.

If we start taxing production and processing of fossil fuels, less investment will be made into production and processing of fossil fuels. If less investment is made, less outcome will result. All of this is pretty much in line with the designs of the Waxman-Markey bill. The problems comes in that there is no magical product available that can replace fossil fuels in the vast majority of it’s uses. Thus, we dramatically reduce supply but have little reduction in demand. Unless we actually do chose to go back to the 1500’s, we’ll need to replace the production that is no longer happening in the US. According to the study, the shift in production looks like this:

U.S. refining throughput, a measure of productivity, could plummet by as much as 25% (4.4 million barrels per day) and investment in U.S. refining could fall by as much as $90 billion, a decline of 88 percent, by 2030, the EnSys study forecast.

Well, I guess that shoots one of the reasons for the Waxman-Markey bill. Would you like a quick second?

According to the same study, because no magical new power source will be available, the effect of the Waxman-Markey bill will not reduce carbon emissions. All Waxman-Markey will do is shift the carbon emissions from the US to other countries around the world. In other words, only the NIMBY people will get anything out of Waxman-Markey. Yeah, they’ll get something right up to the point that the US economy is hammered because we have a dramatically increasing negative trade balance because we have to import twice as much energy as we used to! Oh, and we’ll lose a bunch of jobs too!

The Natives are Even More Restless Than First Thought!

Shoebox — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:36:51 +0000

I gave you a video earlier from a town hall meeting in Delaware hosted by Republican Congressman Mike Castle. The previous video showed him getting grilled about health care reform. Here’s another piece from the same meeting. This time the natives are upset about Cap and Trade.

Listen as Castle tells the forum that the Cap and Trade bill was really too complicated for anyone to “absorb” and that he relied on what Democrat leadership told him about the bill.

Listen as people laugh at Castle as he states that “he reads all legislation.”

Listen as Castle states that he received more calls in opposition to the bill than for it yet he still voted for the bill!

Folks, the August recess will be here in just a couple of weeks. Many of your Congresscritters and Senators will be holding similar townhall meetings during this recess. Make sure and attend these. If you’re folks have been voting properly, make sure and give them positive reinforcement. If they haven’t, take some notes from the folks in Delaware!

Finally, note to the GOP: If you think folks are safe just because we’re so pissed off with the Democrats, think again. We don’t care what party you belong to. If you are stupid enough to support the government take over of America, whether it be Cap and Trade, health care, auto manufacturers or any of a number of other areas, repent now because you are just as useless to us as any Democrat!

Paul Ryan’s reaction to the Cap-and-Tax passage

steveegg — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:13:28 +0000

The following just came into the comm-box:

House Passes Punitive Cap-and-Tax Bill

New energy tax “demonstrates just how distant and out of touch

Washington is from Wisconsin,” says Ryan

WASHINGTON – Wisconsin’s First District Congressman Paul Ryan today spoke out on behalf of the families and small businesses that would be on the receiving end of a massive new energy tax. Earlier today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2454, American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, by a vote of 219 to 212, with bipartisan opposition. Ryan voted against this legislation.

The center of the deeply flawed H.R. 2454 is a cap-and-trade scheme aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by increasing energy costs on all Americans. The complicated cap-and-trade program would require all energy producers to purchase expensive government permits in exchange for the right to produce energy from certain natural resources or to produce certain goods like steel, aluminum, or cement. Without regard for the detrimental economic consequences, the proponents of the legislation believe this unilateral energy tax would help reduce global temperatures by a fraction of a degree by the end of the century.

Ryan’s vote against the 1,200 page bill came after only three hours of general debate, with Majority rejecting the single amendment they allowed. In addition to the job losses that would result from the smaller economy, Ryan raised concerns with the impact on the budgets of individual households. Families would face increasing costs on not only energy – but all products that require energy to make them (i.e., everything). Various nonpartisan studies have estimated that average annual household cost increases would range from $425 per household to over $4000 per household. Specifically, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimate that Wisconsin families will pay an extra $230 million in energy tax once the bill is fully implemented in 2012.

Congressman Ryan fought against this draconian energy tax and supports H.R. 2828, the American Energy Innovation Act, a commonsense alternative to promote a cleaner environment without causing further economic devastation in the middle of a painful recession.

Following today’s action of the House floor, Congressman Ryan issued the following statement:

“Today’s vote reminds me of just how distant and out of touch Washington is from Wisconsin. At a time when jobs are increasingly scarce across Southern Wisconsin, Congress passed legislation explicitly designed to shrink our economy and increase energy costs on all Americans. Wisconsin is one of the nation’s top manufacturing States. Wisconsin entrepreneurs, small businesses, and workers shouldn’t need permission from the federal government to produce, grow, and create jobs, yet that is exactly the paternalistic message sent by Congress today.

“The Majority added a 300 page amendment to the 1100 page bill at 3:09am this morning which effectively regulates the national energy sector (8% of the U.S. economy), and no member of Congress has even read it. This bill is the biggest federal power grab of the American economy this year and that’s quite a statement.”

“Should this bill become law, Wisconsin would suffer a disproportionate economic blow. As the legislation’s authors and chief advocate reside far from the Midwest, the cap-and-trade legislation wasn’t primarily concerned with cold-weather, manufacturing States that get most of their energy from coal. Families in Southern Wisconsin don’t have the luxury of turning off the heat in the winter.

“What’s worse, because we are imposing this energy tax unilaterally, the legislation will actually hinder the environmental goals we’ve set out to achieve. By making manufacturing more expensive here in America, this bill would send our manufacturing jobs overseas to our competitors like India and China. For every ton of emissions we reduce, India and China will produce several tons more. Under this bill, we will send our competitors American jobs while they are negating the minimal environmental gains made here at home.

“There is a better way forward. I was proud to support a substitute energy reform – the American Energy Act – on House floor today, which focused on an all-of-the-above approach to creating a cleaner environment and a stronger economy. Rather than lock-up domestic energy supply, we should expand our use of American-made resources as we encourage the use of renewable and alternative energy sources, including nuclear, wind, solar, and more. Environmental stewardship and economic growth are not mutually exclusive goals, and I will continue to fight for both of behalf of those I serve in Southern Wisconsin.”

John Boehner reading the entire cap-and-tax amendment

steveegg — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:16:18 +0000

In case you don’t have C-SPAN on, you might want to turn it on right now. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) is reading the entire 300-page amendment to the cap-and-tax Waxman-Markey bill that was introduced at 3:09 am this morning. He’s just over halfway through as I type.

Did you know that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made it into this amendment?

In other news,…

steveegg — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:05:00 +0000

I’ve been focused on the state budget almost as much as the national presstitutes have been focused on Michael Jackson’s death, but Ed Morrissey has been keeping eyes on the larger picture. First stop – government-run health care. Our friends at ReasonTV have created a commercial on that…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPC6CqAFA4E[/youtube]
Next stop – Iran. Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami called for death to protestors. Things are going to get even bloodier.

Last, but definitely not least, is a familiar battleground, Gorebal “Warming”. The tactics employed by the Dems, including a last-second 300-page amendment to a 1200-page bill, are all-too-familiar. Just as a reminder from Ed, “This bill will lose the US 2.5% of its GDP each and every year in the years after the first decade of implementation.” (emphasis in the original)

300,000 deaths per year from global warming?

phineasfahrquar — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:05:29 +0000

That’s what the United Nations would have us believe, in their continuing campaign to convince us that global warming is real and that something must be done about it NOW. (Said something including crippling the most productive economies in the world and giving national and international bureaucrats more power.) Here’s what Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General and head of the Global Humanitarian Forum, had to say:

A report by the Global Humanitarian Forum, led by Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General, says that the effects of climate change are growing in such a way that it will have a serious impact on 600 million people, almost ten per cent of the world’s population, within 20 years. Almost all of these will be in developing countries.

“Climate change is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time, causing suffering to hundreds of millions of people worldwide,” Mr Annan said.

“As this report shows, the first hit and worst affected are the world’s poorest groups, and yet they have done least to cause the problem.”

What gets buried at the end of the article is this:

Mr Annan said the report could never be as rigorous as a scientific study, but said: “We feel it is the most plausible account of the current impact of climate change today.”

Emphasis added. In other words, the report is guesswork – garbage. It is a fraud, the sole purpose of which is to get people to agree to the climate-change alarmists’ agenda either through fear or guilt: “If we don’t do something now, all these deaths will be on our hands!” If global warming is a problem and if it is anthropogenic in origin, both of which leave me gravely skeptical, this “report” contributes no light to the debate, just smoke and heat. It is worse than useless, it is misleading, dishonest, and potentially harmful.

Of course, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that the GHF would issue a report that essentially makes up facts to further the agenda of transnationalist bureaucrats. Its head is, let me remind you, Kofi Annan. Yes, that Kofi Annan, under whom the UN was wracked by the Oil-for-Food scandal, scandals involving sexual abuse by peacekeeping troops, and a Human Rights Commission that had become an international farce.

And we’re supposed to trust him now?

(hat tip: Watt’s Up With That)

(cross-posted at Public Secrets)

Technorati tags: Kofi Annan, Global Humanitarian Forum, climate change, junk science, global warming, Oil for Food, United Nations, scandals

Ruh Ro!

Shoebox — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:32:35 +0000

Per President Obama:

But let’s be clear: Promoting science isn’t just about providing resources — it’s also about protecting free and open inquiry. It’s about letting scientists like those who are here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it’s inconvenient — especially when it’s inconvenient. It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda — and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology. (emphasis mine)

UW-Milwaukee Study Could Realign Climate Change Theory
Scientists Claim Earth Is Undergoing Natural Climate Shift

“The research team has found the warming trend of the past 30 years has stopped and in fact global temperatures have leveled off since 2001.”

And

8 Dems oppose quick debate on global warming bill

Again I’ll ask, whose science will we be using?

Whose Science Will It Be?

Shoebox — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:16:56 +0000

You may not be aware of it but there is a global warming conference going on this week. The International Conference on Climate Change is in New York. You probably haven’t heard about the conference because it is specifically for skeptics of global warming. You know, the folks who also believe that the Earth is flat and at the center of the universe?

Ronald Bailey from Reason magazine is covering the conference and has a recap of the presentations here. Included in yesterday’s presentations was the following scientific data:

According to Indur Goklany, assuming the worse case scenario for global warming, income in both developed and undeveloped countries would be higher, worldwide deaths would increase by less than 1/2% and the amount of land required for agriculture would drop by 1/2.
According to Paul Reiter, head of the insects and infectious disease unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, 150 EDEN studies have been published so far and that “none of them support the notion that disease is increasing because of climate change.” In fact,

Reiter pointed out that many of the claims that climate change will increase disease can be attributed to an incestuous network of just nine authors who write scientific reviews and cite each other’s work. None are actual on-the-ground disease researchers and many of them write the IPCC disease analyses. “These are people who know absolutely bugger about dengue, malaria or anything else,” said Reiter.

Finally, Stanley Goldenberg, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Hurricane Research Division in Miami presented evidence refuting the notion that hurricanes have become more prevalent due to global warming. Goldenberg showed evidence that hurricanes increase and decrease over decadal cycles he provided this synopsis:

Tropical North Atlantic SST [sea surface temperature] has exhibited a warming trend of [about] ) 0.3 °C over the last 100 years; whereas Atlantic hurricane activity has not exhibited trend-like variability, but rather distinct multidecadal cycles….The possibility exists that the unprecedented activity since 1995 is the result of a combination of the multidecadal-scale changes in the Atlantic SSTs (and vertical shear) along with the additional increase in SSTs resulting from the long-term warming trend. It is, however, equally possible that the current active period (1995-2000) only appears more active than the previous active period (1926-1970) due to the better observational network in place.

Goldenberg completed his remarks with:

“Not a single scientist at the hurricane center believes that global warming has had any measurable impact on hurricane numbers and strength,”

Yesterday, President Obama announced that he would be lifting the ban on Federal funding for stem cell research that had been implemented by President Bush. In his statement describing the reason for his decision, President Obama said:

But let’s be clear: Promoting science isn’t just about providing resources — it’s also about protecting free and open inquiry. It’s about letting scientists like those who are here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it’s inconvenient — especially when it’s inconvenient. It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda — and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology. (emphasis mine)

I have to say, this is the first statement I can completely get behind President Obama on. We should allow science to operate “free from manipulation or coercion.” We should follow the facts and findings and “listen to what they tell us, even when it’s inconvenient.” That leaves me with just two questions for President Obama:

Free from manipulation or coercion by whom?
Even when it’s inconvenient for whom?

All animals created equally?

It’s all about the Green(backs, that is)

steveegg — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:20:05 +0000

Conn Carroll of The Heritage Foundation runs the numbers on the cap-and-~~trade~~ -tax scam that the Obama administration and the Spendocrats are pushing:

– $650 billion from carbon credit fees this year
– $150 billion of that going to “alternative energy production”
– $500 billion of that going to the return of welfare

Conn goes on to point out that it’s a low-ball figure. Under the less-expensive Lieberman-Warner scheme, the 8-year cost would be somewhere north of $1,622,848,000,000.

Don’t forget that both Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel have admitted that cap-and-~~trade~~ -tax is meant to cripple the energy market to the tune of $700-$1,400 per family per year.

I actually feel sorry for the Gorebal “Warming” acolytes

steveegg — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:51:09 +0000

I’m sure they’re warming up their voices to start chanting, “It’s all your fault!” right about now because we had a real nice day yesterday and will have another one today. They just can’t seem to accept that sometimes the weather gets far nicer than we deserve this time of year in the land of cheese and beer.

Odd Man Out

Shoebox — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:23:09 +0000

An article out in Germany talks about growing interest in developing nuclear power in Europe. According to the article, Germany and even Sweden are talking about restarting nuclear power development. Apparently previous agreements to cease and desist are now considered old fashioned:

Sweden announced last week that it was revoking a 1980 referendum decision to phase out nuclear power. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and the leaders of the three other parties in the coalition described the deal as “historic.”

The European Union gets nearly 30% of its electricity from nuclear plants. It has 147 active nuclear power plants. They have 2 under construction with 20 proposed plants.

Isn’t nuclear so, what’s the phrase, 1970’s? I thought nuclear was anti green, anti new world order. Why the sudden interest in nuclear?

With gas and oil prices rocketing and fears about global warming growing, however, nuclear power seems to be experiencing a global renaissance.

Funny thing, we’ve got all the same issues and concerns. The one advantage we do have is that we have more coal than anywhere else in the world, but that’s bad too.

I’ve looked through the entire stimulus bill and can find no reference to nuclear energy in it. That’s kind of odd considering that President Obama continues to tout all of the green jobs that will be created.

Europe’s decided that being anti nuclear is “historic.” Looks like contrary to all of Obama’s talk about leading we’re just going to be plain old history.

It Seemed Like a Good Idea At The Time…

Shoebox — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:17:15 +0000

The Shoelets each have a T-shirt that has that saying on the front of it. As 10 year old boys, there isn’t a caption I can think of, that is at the same time funnier or truer. At this age, the Shoelets are completely oblivious to the consequences of their actions. They focus every moment of their lives in the moment that their lives happen to be in, at the moment.

The same could be said about many in the environmental community. Too often they get focused on one specific issue or goal and don’t understand the implications or ramifications of their actions. Case in point. This article from the Agency who shall not be named.

The article tells about how environmentalists wanted to take the island of Macquarie back to its pristine condition. Problem was, the island had a bunch of cats, rats, mice and rabbits that had inadvertently attained residence via boat transport over the years. Well, “pristine” certainly couldn’t include feral cats so folks went about killing them off. Then, a funny thing happened on the way to “pristine.” Without the cats to keep them in check i.e. kill and eat them, the rabbits, mice and rats were now living in paradise. While they lived in paradise, the vegetation of paradise was taking a beating. With the vegetation taking a beating, the birds that relied on it also took a beating.

After figuring out that their first “fix” didn’t work, the environmentalists are going back for another try. This time they will get the mice, rats and rabbits all at one time. Of course, this is going to cost them over $16M for the 49 Sq. Mi. island not to mention that the island has been set back many years in an environmental sense.

In the same vein, here comes the world’s favorite Goreacle Acolyte, Jim Hansen. He’s moved from being the world’s cheerleader for AGW to becoming the world’s hysteric for AGW:

President ‘has four years to save Earth’

US must take the lead to avert eco-disaster

Hansen’s big concern this time? The ice caps are melting even faster than we thought which will make the seas rise even higher than we thought and we don’t have any more time to wait!!!!!! Geez, does this guy ever peruse the internet?

I find it interesting that Hansen has put a 4 year time frame on responding to his nonsense. I’m torn on the reason. It could be that as more and more evidence comes out refuting the link between carbon dioxide and climate change, Hansen may believe his gravy train is about to run out if he doesn’t get it codified by Congress. On the other hand, it could be that he already believes that Obama will only be a one term President and the next one won’t be as gullible.

I also find it interesting that Hansen took his plea first to the British and US science communities in an attempt to “stir the pot:”

As a result of his fears about sea-level rise, Hansen said he had pressed both Britain’s Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences to carry out an urgent investigation of the state of the planet’s ice-caps.

The response? Radio silence:

However, nothing had come of his proposals.

If rational thought and sound science were applied, I have no doubt that Congress would shelve Hansen, along with his increasingly questionable dataand focus on more pressing matters. The problem is that Congress isn’t a whole lot different than 10 year olds, they focus every moment of their lives in the moment that their lives happen to be in, at the moment.

20 years from now, after spending billions of dollars, short changing the growth of the economy and showing absolutely no greater control over the earth’s temperature, someone will look back and ask why Hansen, President Obama and Congress led us down an obviously flawed path. The only answer they will receive, the answer that Congress provides for nearly every issue that in bungles (see Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, TARP etc.) will be, “It seemed like a good idea at the time!”

We’re All Doomed, Doomed I Tell You!

Shoebox — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:04:36 +0000

According to the UK’s Independent, we’ve passed the point of doing anything about global warming….We’re Doomed:

Scientists have found the first unequivocal evidence that the Arctic region is warming at a faster rate than the rest of the world at least a decade before it was predicted to happen.

…The phenomenon, known as Arctic amplification, was not expected to be seen for at least another 10 or 15 years and the findings will further raise concerns that the Arctic has already passed the climatic tipping-point towards ice-free summers, beyond which it may not recover. (Emphasis Mine)

An explanation of why this find is sooooooo very important, and proves global warming, once and for all, is given by Julienne Stroeve of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC):

“The observed autumn warming that we’ve seen over the Arctic Ocean, not just this year but over the past five years or so, represents Arctic amplification, the notion that rises in surface air temperatures in response to increased atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations will be larger in the Arctic than elsewhere over the globe.”

Um, wait, what? NOTION?

notion"‚

–noun 1. a general understanding; vague or imperfect conception or idea of something: a notion of how something should be done.
2. an opinion, view, or belief: That’s his notion, not mine.
3. conception or idea: his notion of democracy.
4. a fanciful or foolish idea; whim: She had a notion to swim in the winter.

Notice the definition doesn’t include “fact,” “proven” or replicated. “Notion,” by definition, isn’t even as substantive as “theory.”

Alright, it’s easy to pick on the poor ladies words. Perhaps she had no notion what she was really saying when she used the word “notion!”

The article goes on to lay out the “facts” used to make the determination that the world is coming to an end:

Temperature readings for this October were significantly higher than normal across the entire Arctic region – between 3C and 5C above average – but some areas were dramatically higher. In the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, for instance, near-surface air temperatures were more than 7C higher than normal for this time of year. The scientists believe the only reasonable explanation for such high autumn readings is that the ocean heat accumulated during the summer because of the loss of sea ice is being released back into the atmosphere from the sea before winter sea ice has chance to reform.

Hmmmmm, October, October. Wasn’t there something special about global warming in October? Oh yeah, I remember. October was the hottest October ever on record…Oh, no, my bad. As I noted here, it wasn’t. In fact, part of the “error” for October created the appearance of a hotspot in the Artic:

The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs – run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious “hockey stick” graph – GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new “hotspot” in the Arctic – in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.

Is it just me or does anyone else notice that Ms. Stroeve’s “doom data” looks an awful lot like the data the number one global warming acolyte had to retract?

I’m sure Ms. Stroeve didn’t use the incorrect data to create her alarm. It would seem like data integrity would be the first thing that any scientific claim or theory would want to insure and verify. I’m sure the “error” of the GISS data was just that, an “error” and the global warming community have implement rigorous standards to ensure that something like that never happened again…or maybe not!

On a related note, Minneapolis is forecasted to have the third coldest temp ever for December 16th tonight. Maybe I should move to the Arctic!

I’m beginning to wonder who has more credibility, the global warming faithful or Britney Spears…Oops, I did it again!

Santa goes color bli…er, “green”

steveegg — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:00:17 +0000

(H/T – Josh Schroeder)

The Portage Daily Register reports on the use of Santa Claus and his friends to indoctrinate the young skulls full of mush at Lewiston Elementary School in Portage, Wisconsin. From thin snowmen to Coppertone-spreading elves to Rudolph’s new LED nose, the “Santa Goes Green” holiday program was dripping with every cliche from the Religion of Gorebal “Warming”. At least the color-blind who don’t have green can still wear red.

…Worse Than The Disease?

Shoebox — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:29:08 +0000

According to the UK Independent, we no longer have to fear global warming….we’ve found a solution! All we have to do is 1. Grow a bunch of trees, 2. burn them without releasing the CO2 they’ve absorbed, 3. Burn them without using more energy than they create in the burning process and 4. Bury the ashes in the soil.

Sounds simple; well, except that whole burning them without releasing the C02 and not using more energy than they create part! But, hey, let’s not be negative. After all, as Big G points out regularly to me, no one thought we could go to the moon but we did! It does sound simple except for a minor detail. In order to do this, we would need to grow and burn forests that are the equivalent of 2.5% of our productive land.

2.5%, doesn’t sound like much does it?

The World has approximately 33 Million sq. Mi. of productive land. 2.5 % of that would be approximately 835,600 sq. miles that would be needed for our carbon tree farm. So far so good.

I think it’s safe to assume that planing our Carbon tree farm willy nilly around the world isn’t what these folks have in mind. I think it would be safe to assume that they would determine that the tree farms should be where the carbon dioxide is. After all, you’ll want to soak it up right after it gets produced so that the carbon dioxide doesn’t get a chance to further warm the world right?

According to this chart by the World Bank, the US, Saudi Arabia, Canada and Australia have the highest carbon dioxide per capita. It would seem to make sense to plant the bulk of the trees in those countries.

The US has about 1.5 million sq. mi. of productive land, Canada has a little over 100,000 sq. mi. and Australia has about 138,000 sq. mi. That’s a total of about 1.74 million sq. Mi. of productive land in the most offensive (carbon dioxide wise) countries. If I take it one step further, of the US’ productive land, only 58% of it is in crop or forest land. I suspect a similar number would be found in Canada and Australia, the balance of the land is pasture.

The reason that I raise the US, Canada and Australia is that with their productive lands account for over 70% of the world’s wheat exports, over 60% of the world’s corn exports and even 13% of the world’s rice exports.

Remember what was happening to the price of corn this past spring as energy prices were rising and the US was forcing more production into creation of ethanol? Just to remind you, corn went from a recent average of less than $3/bushel to nearly $8 bushel. Do your remember the stories about how the increased price of corn was increasing the cost of tortillas in Mexico? Do you remember how the increased price of corn was being blamed for people starving in developing countries?

The additional corn production required to make our expected ethanol mandate this year amounted to less than .75% of our total productive acres. Only .75% yet, it over doubled our price of corn. The Carbon Tree Farms are expected to need 2.5% of all our productive acres.

Does anyone else see a problem?