June 23, 2009 by admin.

The Blogosphere-section at http://icecap.us has an excellent commentary that illustrates that CO2 levels, in the long and short run, do not drive global temperature trends.  Instead, what the cited climatological research shows is that increases and decreases in atmospheric CO2 levels are a consequence of temperature changes.

When the global temperature increases, the CO2 level increases, and when the global temperature falls, then, without fail, the CO2 level will fall as well.

As Icecap explains in relation to the article, “CO2 Levels Highest in Two Million Years?” (Jun 23, 2009), “There is other evidence that CO2 is actually lower than most of historic times.” Icecap provides information indicating that “Today’s CO2 concentration is less than 400 ppm”, approximately 20 times lower than what it was 550 million years ago and lower than for most of the interval since about 1810 during which actual measurements of atmospheric CO2 concentrations were taken and recorded, and much lower than it was during most of the past six-hundred million years.

What neither the commentary by Icecap nor the article it refers to mention is that the current CO2 levels of around 380 parts per million in the atmosphere are not all that much higher than the level of 200 ppm where plant growth shuts down.

Human CO2 production is not a problem.  It has at worst an insignificant impact on global temperature trends.

In relation to carbon capture and burial (a.k.a. carbon capture and sequestration), carbon-cap-and-trade schemes and other schemes and efforts to “control” man-made global warming, Sir Christopher Monckton of Brenchley (the former science advisor of Margaret Thatcher) was absolutely correct when he stated to American legislators that,

If you wish to raise excessive revenue, be honest about it. Say that you intend to tax and tax and tax again. But desist from claiming that you are raising the revenue with the aim of preventing “climate crisis”. (Full Story)

All of that does not toe the party line, of course, which is why — even though it should be front-page news — it is with extremely few exceptions not covered in the politically-correct main-stream media.

Nevertheless, the Alberta Government alone, even though it is suffering from a serious revenue shortfall and had to cut back on many social programs, not the least of which are the large cutbacks on health-care provisioning, reserved $2 billion in its budget for carbon capture and sequestration.

After all, the politics in search of rationalizations for increasing taxation are more important than the welfare of Alberta residents.

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June 22, 2009 by admin.

You may wish to bookmark the following link to help you to keep up-to-date on discussions of energy issues:

http://www.icecap.us/

Today, here are some of the articles that will probably interest you.Jun 21, 2009

The Wong-Fielding Meeting On Global WarmingBy David Evans on Joanne Nova’s blog

The article relates to a meeting between government officials and government-funded climate change alarmists on the one side, and reputable climate scientists in Australia who fall into the camp of the so-called climate-change “skeptics” on the other side.

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Jun 20, 2009 “World cooling has set in and it will stay colder for at least 100 years predicts scientist”

By Piers Corbyn, WeatherAction

Piers Corbyn is an astrophysicist-turned-weather-forecaster whose long-range weather forecasts - based on solar activity trends and their influence on Earth - are remarkably accurate.

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Jun 22, 2009 United States, Great Britain and Russia Climate Action In the News

Obama Gives Green Light to Canadian Oil Sands

Climatico, 21 June 2009

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Britain Green Suicide Note: 5,000 Pound Power

By Louise Barnett, Consumer Editor

That will be the combined costs of electricity and natural (or city-) gas by 2020.  Costs are projected to go up by as much as 42% a year.
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Jun 21, 2009 Appeal to Authority

By Norm Kalmanovitch

From the article:

See large image here.

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Jun 20, 2009 A Move to Put the Union Label on Solar Power Plants

By Todd Woody, New York Times Business

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June 22, 2009 by admin.

Winnipeg Free Press

June 21, 2009

Big chill in Churchill

Winter grips 90 per cent of north, migratory birds can’t breed

By: Robert Alison

(Full Story)

It has been a long and cold spring in Alberta, but, as the indicated article shows, Alberta is not the only area of Canada that suffers from unusually cold weather.

The article by Robert Alison mentions: “Recent late springs in the Hudson Bay area have been more frequent than normal: 2004, 2002, 2000 and 1997,” and that the year 1983 provided another late spring.  However, the article asserts that, “Such major oscillations are part of a bumpy ride toward global warming,” and that, “People often confuse climate with weather, and this spring is a weather phenomenon,”…

Nevertheless, those assertions are illogical in view of the fact that the article identifies an increase in the frequency of late springs, with late springs having occurred in 1997, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2009.  A late spring in 2009 is a weather phenomenon, but having late springs occur more often in the last decade is most definitely a climate phenomenon.  The climate is cooling.

Accurate temperature records have been taken through satellite observations since 1979.  Those records show a cooling trend in the Arctic.  As can be seen in data from Environment Canada (See appended graphs), the cooling trend has been quite pronounced in the 2006 - 2009 interval.

Data source for graphs: Environment Canada

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June 13, 2009 by admin.

It is very odd that the mainstream media in North-America is not covering this critical issue, either in part or in detail.

Well, at least one major newspaper in the U.K. did; via a journalist who, as usual, writes objectively and realistically about the climate, its trends and consequences.

Telegraph.co.uk

June 13, 2009

Crops under stress as temperatures fall

Our politicians haven’t noticed that the problem may be that the world is not warming but cooling, observes Christopher Booker.

For the second time in little over a year, it looks as though the world may be heading for a serious food crisis, thanks to our old friend “climate change”. In many parts of the world recently the weather has not been too brilliant for farmers. After a fearsomely cold winter, June brought heavy snowfall across large parts of western Canada and the northern states of the American Midwest. In Manitoba last week, it was -4ºC. North Dakota had its first June snow for 60 years.

There was midsummer snow not just in Norway and the Cairngorms, but even in Saudi Arabia. At least in the southern hemisphere it is winter, but snowfalls in New Zealand and Australia have been abnormal. There have been frosts in Brazil, elsewhere in South America they have had prolonged droughts, while in China they have had to cope with abnormal rain and freak hailstorms, which in one province killed 20 people….(Full Story)

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June 12, 2009 by admin.

Weather data have been kept at local weather stations all over the world for quite some years.

There are some problems with those data.  The data for rural areas generally show no or insignificant warming trends over time, while some formerly rural stations are gradually being encroached upon by urbanization.  Many of those former rural stations and those that were all along in or near urban centres do show warming trends over the years.  There is such a thing as the Urban Heat Island effect, markedly elevated temperatures in any given urban location (even in small towns) as compared to surrounding rural locations.

Aside from that, one would expect that by inspecting historical weather data and the cries about the global warming crisis promoted by global warming alarmists, first and foremost by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), there should now be a good number of locations in the world that show definitive evidence of pronounced local warming.  It appears that such evidence of a global-warming “crisis” does not exist.

I just spent a few hours checking historical weather data for many locations throughout the world and cannot, for the life of me, detect any signs of problems at any locations.  Pronounced local warming trends at any of the many locations I checked are conspicuously absent.  If anything, there appears to be some cooling instead at many of the locations I looked at.

Give it a try.  Check http://www51.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=weather+Edmonton

Substitute your location of choice for “Edmonton” in the preceding URL or in the web page that will be displayed when clicking on that URL. You will most likely be able to see historical weather data for your location or one near you.

Send a line if your location shows a definite warming trend over the years.

So far, I wonder.  The provincial Government of Alberta recently had to make severe budget cuts to various social programs, such as health care.  Still, it earmarked and kept reserved $2 billion for a program of carbon capture and sequestration, so as to help save the globe from going up in flames due to man-made global warming. Where is the fire?

Our elected officials are chasing after the wrong problem.  It is time to put someone interested in real problems into the driver seat.  Enough of the global-warming scam already.

Update 2009 06 13: The following article sheds more light on the futile attempts to influence climate trends through carbon capture and burial (a.k.a. carbon capture and sequestration).

“Carbon Capture and Burial – a Stupid Answer to a Silly Question.”

May 18th, 2009 by Warwick Hughes By Viv Forbes, Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition.

7th May 2009

The Carbon Sense Coalition today called on the Australian Federal Parliament to stop playing Global Warming politics and focus instead on the irresponsible damage being contemplated by the Cap-N-Tax promises.

In testimony this week to the New Zealand Parliamentary Enquiry into the ETS, the Chairman of Carbon Sense, Mr Viv Forbes, said that it was impossible to achieve the gigantic cuts in carbon dioxide emissions suggested by various western governments without a crash program of Carbon Capture and Burial (CCB). He expanded on those comments today (quote): (Full Story)

What comes to mind is Sir Christopher Monckton of Brenchley’s admonition, which calls the alarmist climate hype “the most lavishly-funded propaganda campaign by the classe politique since Goebbels tried to make Nazism look good,” and states:

If you wish to raise excessive revenue, be honest about it. Say that you intend to tax and tax and tax again. But desist from claiming that you are raising the revenue with the aim of preventing “climate crisis”.

Full Story

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June 10, 2009 by admin.

The title of this posting is not quite correct.  Although global warming is not a problem, the measures to be taken to alleviate that non-problem constitute a massive crisis that will put all of the global economy and the lives of millions of people in peril.

The following document explains the circumstances of why that is so.

Letter to Representatives Ed Markey and Joe Barton, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce

From
The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley

SPPI (Science & Public Policy Institute) Reprint Series ♦ March 30, 2009

(Full Text of Letter) (PDF Document — 8.2MB; The file contains a large number of graphics.)

The letter lists and illustrates 50 specific concerns of which each, individually, must be taken as evidence of what Sir Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, former science advisor of Margaret Thatcher, calls “the most lavishly-funded propaganda campaign by the classe politique since Goebbels tried to make Nazism look good.”

Excerpt:

There was no “climate crisis”; there is no “climate crisis”; there will be no “climate crisis”. The right response to the non-problem of “global warming” is to have the courage to do nothing.

You are the guardians of the public purse: do not loose the purse-strings too readily when the scientists cry “Wolf!”

The measures that your Administration currently proposes by way of addressing the non-problem of “global warming” might have been calculated to do maximum damage to the very poorest voters – those who depend upon the taxes of the prosperous for their very survival; those in low-paid jobs in heavy industries that are heavy emitters; those who run the Mom-and-Pop enterprises that are tomorrow’s big businesses; those low-income families who pay a disproportionately large proportion of their income to energy providers.

Rightly, one of the Administration’s own supporters on your Committee has stated that the principal purpose of “cap-and-trade” is not to “Save The Planet” – which it would not do even if it worked – but to raise revenue. If you wish to raise excessive revenue, be honest about it. Say that you intend to tax and tax and tax again. But desist from claiming that you are raising the revenue with the aim of preventing “climate crisis”. Already, every opinion poll demonstrates that, notwithstanding the most lavishly-funded propaganda campaign by the classe politique since Goebbels tried to make Nazism look good, the people are not buying the “global warming” scare any more.

Already, millions face death by starvation, not because of “global warming” (for warmer weather saves lives, while cold weather kills), but because of the misplaced fear of “global warming” that a few malicious and ill-intentioned members of the scientific-technological elite have fraudulently engendered, with the acquiescence of a cloud of what Lenin called “useful idiots” among the academic community who have found it expedient to drift along with the scare by not looking too closely at any of the facts.

The facts are what I have given you in this letter. You need not believe a word I say: for every fact I have given you is taken from the peer-reviewed scientific literature or from the plentiful scientific data that are publicly available. Why not verify what I have said – perhaps by the simple expedient of directing some well-targeted questions at the IPCC? (p. 32 )

–The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley

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June 8, 2009 by admin.

Climate Change Reconsidered : The 2009 Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), June 2009

In June 2009, the first full NIPCC report was published by The Heartland Institute. It is titled Climate Change Reconsidered: The 2009 Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC). The new report, some 880 pages in length, is the most comprehensive critique of the IPCC’s positions ever published. It lists 35 contributors and reviewers from 14 countries and presents in an appendix the names of 31,478 American scientists who have signed a petition saying “there is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.” (Excerpted from here; Full Story)

The full report can be downloaded (PDF File, 8.1 MB) but is also available in hard copy format.

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June 5, 2009 by admin.

Shock: Global temperatures driven by US Postal Charges

Full Story

A quick glimpse at what the weather is like:

Winter weather advisory: Rocky Mtns and central Montana - 5 Jun 09
Winter Weather Advisory for California Mountains - 4 Jun 09
Freeze warning for northern Minnesota - 2 Jun 09
Record low temperatures in seven states – Where is the media? - 1 Jun 09
See Record Low Temperatures across the US..

And in other places in the world:

Big snow in Antarctica - 23 May 09
Record low May temperatures in New Zealand - 2 Jun 09
Snowfall warning for Schefferville, Quebec - 2 Jun 09
Freeze warnings for Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick
and Quebec - 2 Jun 09
Record low May temperatures in New Zealand - 2 Jun 09
See What’s Happening in Other Parts of the World.

All of that is evidence of man-made global warming?

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June 5, 2009 by admin.

Two important documents of concern to anyone interested in global warming issues as presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

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Fraser Istitute

Re: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report

Independent Summary for Policymakers
(Introduction and more on the ISPM, by Ross McKitrick, the coordinator of the writing team for the ISPM)

February 1, 2007

Coordinator: Ross McKitrick, Ph.D.
Writing Team: Joseph D’Aleo, M.Sc., Madhav Khandekar, Ph.D., William Kininmonth, M.Sc., M.Admin., Christopher Essex, Ph.D., Wibjörn Karlén, Ph.D., Olavi Kärner, Ph.D., Ian Clark, Ph.D., Tad Murty, Ph.D., and James J. O’Brien, Ph.D.

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Fraser Institute

Studies in Risk and Regulation

Supplementary Analysis of the Independent Summary for Policymakers

Critical Topics in Global Warming

March 2009

Editor: Ross McKitrick, Ph.D.
Authors: Ian Clark, Ph.D., Joseph D’Aleo, M.Sc., Christopher Essex, Ph.D., Craig D. Idso, Ph.D., Olavi Kärner, Ph.D., Madhav Khandekar, Ph.D., William Kininmonth, M.Sc., M.Admin., and Richard C. Willson, Ph.D.

Contents

Introduction

Why the “Greenhouse” Metaphor is Misleading
Christopher Essex and William Kininmonth

Solar Changes and the Climate
Joseph D’Aleo, Olavi Kärner, Richard C. Willson, and Ian Clark

Problems with the Global Surface Thermometer Network
Joseph D’Aleo, Madhav Khandekar, and Ross McKitrick

Long-Term Persistence and Nonstationarity in Geophysical Data
Olavi Kärner and Ross McKitrick

Major Climatic Oscillations and Recent Weather Changes
Joseph D’Aleo

Paleoclimatic Indicators of Medieval Climate Change
Craig D. Idso

Fundamental Uncertainties in Climate Modeling
Christopher Essex

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