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Global Warming Blues: The increase in temperature predicted by the global warming computer models is about 3 degrees Celsius. This isn't very scary, so the promoters of global warming alarmism come up with additional scare stories. For example, there will be more hurricanes, the ice caps will melt, the polar bears will die, the oceans will become acid and kill the coral, and weather will become more extreme. These stories have much less scientific support than the warming theories, and each has been rebutted. Scare stories attract attention and it is much more difficult to refute scare stories than it is to create them. By the time one scare story becomes discredited a new scare story is spread. California Wildfires Falsely Linked to Global Warming. The largest wildfire in Los Angeles County history destroyed 78 homes and burned more than 150,000 acres during the last week in August and the first week in September. Despite the fire's direct link to arson following an extended period without any fire activity, activists put the blame squarely on global warming. An arsonist started the fire in an area that had not burned in several decades, during which time a substantial amount of dry tinder had accumulated. Global warming blamed for aspen die-off across the West. The trees, which were already under duress, are being killed by insects that thrive as the climate changes. Scientists call it Sudden Aspen Decline. Warmer Weather Said to Threaten Moose in Minnesota. The moose calf didn't seem to want to get out of the water. The Editor says... The excerpt above doesn't look like much, but there is a reason. This web site has a new policy regarding news items from the Associated Press: The synopsis posted on this site will be limited to one sentence only. As you can see above, the first sentence of an AP story often conveys no information at all. In this case it is only an attempt to draw you in to the story by making a cheap emotional appeal about baby animals. Please note that the rest of the story, whatever it says, is inaccurate (at best) because the weather in Minnesota is not getting warmer, and even when (and if) it is, it's not warming enough for the moose to notice. They will adapt, as they have for thousands of years. The temperature changes over which so many are arguing are so minute that it takes world-wide networks of accurate measurement systems to detect any difference. Plants and animals don't care about one degree difference in temperatures, because they have no idea what last year's temperatures were. Cooling the Hysteria: Time to Ask the "Nasty Questions". Like doctrine, we've been told that the drought of the 1970s and 1980s in the African region is a tell-tale sign of anthropogenic global warming. But Mojib Latif, showing wide fluctuations in precipitation levels in the Sahel throughout the past century — including a probable reversal now from regional drought to rainfall — argues these "anomalies" can be traced to natural swings in the Atlantic's surface temperatures. Everything is Caused by Global Warming. Dr. John Brignell, a British engineering professor, runs a website called numberwatch. He has compiled what has to be the most complete collection of links to media stories ascribing the cause of everything under the sun to global warming. He has already posted more than six-hundred links. A complete list of things caused by global warming. [I don't know if there are six hundred, as stated above, but there are numerous links. —Editor] Global Warming Did It! Well, Maybe Not. Somewhere along the line, global warming became the explanation for everything. Right-thinking people are not supposed to discuss any meteorological or geophysical event — a hurricane, a wildfire, a heat wave, a drought, a flood, a blizzard, a tornado, a lightning strike, an unfamiliar breeze, a strange tingling on the neck — without immediately invoking the climate crisis. It causes earthquakes, plagues and backyard gardening disappointments. Weird fungus on your tomato plants? Classic sign of global warming. Science of global warming doesn't support the hype. [Scroll down] It goes something like this: If the planet is warm, it is because of global warming. If the planet is cold, it is in spite of global warming. I've noticed this dynamic in play for quite some time. Whenever the weather smacks us around, be it a Midwest flood, a Florida drought, a New Orleans hurricane or a California wildfire, it is blamed on Hummers. No Matter What Happens, Someone Will Blame Global Warming. Global warming was blamed for everything from beasts gone wild to anorexic whales to the complete breakdown of human society this year — showing that no matter what it is and where it happens, scientists, explorers, politicians and those who track the Loch Ness Monster are comfortable scapegoating the weather. The Mother of All Scares. As we are all aware, thanks to global warming, the world seems to be heading for an unprecedented catastrophe. But it is not, of course, the technicolor apocalypse we have so long been promised by the likes of Al Gore and Jim Hansen — melting ice sheets, rising sea levels, hurricanes, droughts, mass-extinctions. The real disaster hanging over us through global warming lies in all those measures now being adopted by the world's politicians to meet a crisis which was never going to happen anyway. Never before in history have politicians come up with proposals so astronomically costly or potentially so damaging to their economies. State drops warming suit against carmakers. State Attorney General Jerry Brown agreed Friday to drop a global warming lawsuit that accused the six largest automakers of damaging California's resources by selling vehicles that emit large amounts of heat-trapping gases. Brown's predecessor, Bill Lockyer, filed the suit in 2006 against General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, and the North American outlets of Toyota, Honda and Nissan. The suit alleged that the companies' cars were a significant cause of climate change and have already contributed to problems ranging from a decline in the Sierra snowpack to increased air pollution and wildlife hazards. Strong words on climate change. Global warming has already caused more heavy downpours, the rise of temperatures and sea levels, rapidly retreating glaciers, and altered river flows, according to the document released yesterday by the White House science adviser and other top officials. Great Lakes Are Rising. Great Lakes water levels are on the rise, putting the damper on media reports claiming global warming has been causing declining water levels. Water levels for each of the Great Lakes are rising. Water levels in Lakes Huron and Michigan have risen a full foot since 2008. Great Lakes water levels rose during the second half of the twentieth century but experienced a short-term decline from the late 1990s through the middle of this decade. Alarmists blamed that on global warming. Government Study Warns of Climate Change Effects. The impact of a changing climate is already being felt across the United States, like shifting migration patterns of butterflies in the West and heavier downpours in the Midwest and East, according to a government study to be released on Tuesday [6/16/2009]. Even if the nation takes significant steps to slow emissions of heat-trapping gases, the impact of global warming is expected to become more severe in coming years, the report says, affecting farms and forests, coastlines and floodplains, water and energy supplies, transportation and human health. Here's the rebuttal: U.S. Climate Report Assailed. The new federal report on climate change gets a withering critique from Roger Pielke Jr., who says that it misrepresents his own research and that it wrongly concludes that climate change is already responsible for an increase in damages from natural disasters. Polar bear, arctic fox hurt by climate change. Polar bear cubs, the arctic fox and caribou herds are among the victims of dramatic changes in the Arctic due to climate change, a new study has found. ... They found the effects of a one-degree Celsius warming over the past 150 years were dramatic and cautioned that it is difficult to predict the consequences of an expected six-degree warming over the next century. Climate Casualties 'To Soar In Six Years'. The number of people hit by climate-related disasters around the world will increase by more than half in the next six years, according to aid agency Oxfam. Climate Change May Halve Southern Africa Cereal Crop. Cereals production could fall by 50 percent in parts of southern Africa in the long term due to climate change, causing increased hunger and poverty, a researcher told an agriculture conference on Wednesday [4/15/2009]. South Africa is the largest carbon emitter on the continent, mainly due to its reliance on coal to produce most of its electricity. London tabloid claims... Climate change 'will cause civilisation to collapse'. An effort on the scale of the Apollo mission that sent men to the Moon is needed if humanity is to have a fighting chance of surviving the ravages of climate change. The stakes are high, as, without sustainable growth, "billions of people will be condemned to poverty and much of civilisation will collapse". Global Warming Could Uproot California's Fruit, Nuts. Enjoy those fresh California peaches, apricots, and cherries while you can. A new study from UC Davis shows that someday, those crops might not grow locally anymore because of global warming. Shrinking sheep blamed on climate change. Warmer weather is causing a famous breed of Scottish sheep to get smaller, according to research published in a leading scientific journal. Evolutionary theory holds that species get bigger and stronger over time because larger, more dominant animals are more likely to reproduce. But wild sheep on the Scottish island of Hirta have baffled scientists since 2007 when the animals' average size appeared to be shrinking. The Editor says... I wonder if these scientists have considered the possibility that their "evolutionary theory" might be flawed. Sheep Shrinking Each Generation Amid Global Warming. Just as wool clothing shrinks in a hot wash, sheep on a remote Scottish island are getting smaller from one generation to the next as temperatures rise. The average Soay sheep on Hirta island off western Scotland decreased in weight by 81 grams (3 ounces) a year for more than two decades, researchers said in the journal Science. That's because they have to eat less in their early months to survive winters that became shorter and milder, they wrote. The Editor says... Huh? It's easier "to survive winters that became shorter and milder." How is that a problem? Let's ignore, for a moment, the fact that the earth has been cooling for a decade or so. Look at it this way: How long is one generation amongst sheep? Two or three years? Even if the earth is warming at the rate of two degrees per century, and it isn't, that would be about 1/20th of a degree of warming per generation of sheep. Would the sheep really be affected by long-term temperature changes of that infinitesimal magnitude? The temperature in the morning sun increases 1/20th of a degree about every two minutes, and that hasn't bothered sheep over the last several thousand years. But here's a bigger question: Why weren't sheep shrinking rapidly between 1900 and 1940, when most of the global warming of that century occurred? The answer is obvious: This so-called "research" is not credible. I have just shot it down without leaving my desk. Fish are shrinking in response to global warming: study. Fish have lost half their average body mass and smaller species are making up a larger proportion of European fish stocks as a result of global warming, a study published Monday [7/20/2009] has found. "It's huge," said study author Martin Daufresne of the Cemagref Public Agricultural and Environmental Research Institute in Lyon, France. The Editor says... This is even less plausible than similar claims about sheep (above), because the fish have greater control of their ambient temperature. And the story here is that fish are half as big as they used to be due to global warming. But again, global warming stopped ten years ago, and even in its heyday it was only about one degree per century. Fish have been around longer than sheep, and in all those centuries, nobody has ever claimed that all fish have been so drastically affected by slight changes in the weather. Climate Change Shrinks Sheep. Female wild Soay sheep on the remote North Atlantic island of Hirta have shrunk by about 5 percent during the past two decades, says Tim Coulson of Imperial College London's campus in Berkshire. To see what's driving that change, a weight loss averaging 81 grams per year, Coulson and his colleagues applied a new analytical approach to a mountain of data. It turns out that evolutionary forces favor the opposite trend, toward bigger sheep. But environmental changes have softened winters, overwhelming those evolutionary effects, the team reports online July 2 in Science. For the Farm Lobby, Too Much Is Never Enough. A report out last week from scientists at 13 government agencies found that climate change is happening more quickly than we thought and that by the end of the century, many farmers will face scorching summer weather, severe storms, prolonged drought and swarms of new insects. The Editor says... Neither the name of the report, nor the names of its authors, nor those of the "13 government agencies", were mentioned in the remainder of the article. At the very least, that's sloppy reporting. 'Kangaroo-Court' Hearing a One-Sided View of California Drought. The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources is holding a one-sided hearing this morning [3/31/2009] on the California drought that is expected to blame climate change for a critical water shortage while glossing over the role of activist-inspired environmental policies in exacerbating the shortage, according to The National Center for Public Policy Research. FEMA Launches Effort to Measure Impact of Climate Change on Flood Insurance. Federal officials are struggling to calculate the fiscal impact that climate change could have on the nation's troubled public flood insurance program, amid predictions of intensifying downpours and more potent hurricanes. The mission is proving extremely difficult, according to one researcher, who said the effort so far has failed to reveal even "squishy assumptions." Did global warming help bring down Air France flight 447? As the investigation continues as to what brought down the French airliner over the Atlantic Ocean with 228 people on board, a Russian climatologist believes global warming played a significant part. Global Warming Brings More Tornadoes and also Less Tornadoes. Count on the alarmists and their cheerleaders in the media to take any unusual weather pattern and blame it on 'global warming' or 'climate change': record cold and heat, flooding rains and drought, storm or lack of storm, lack of snow and record snow. Yet they are quick to accuse the 'realists' of 'cherry picking' when we point out [that] there has been no statistically significant warming since the middle 1990s, cooling since 2001, a drop in ocean heat content since at least 2003, slowing sea level rises since 2005 and so forth. Then they claim you need to look at long term trends, there favorite being the changes since 1970, the heart of the last cold period. Obama says flooding serves as warning. President Barack Obama acknowledged the current flood emergency in the Red River Valley on Monday [3/23/2009], and warned that global warming could lead to similar disasters in the future. Obama flunks Global Warming 101 on Fargo. President Obama used recent flooding in Fargo, North Dakota to push his misguided belief in global warming. His comment, "If you look at the flooding that's going on right now in North Dakota and you say to yourself, 'If you see an increase of two degrees, what does that do, in terms of the situation there?'" is speculative and completely wrong. Global warming could take bite out of Midwest corn, report says. Global warming could sock Illinois right in the Corn Belt — to the tune of $243 million a year, a national environmental group estimated in a report released Thursday. The Environment America study, based on government and university data, projects rising temperatures will reduce yields of the nation's biggest crop by 3 percent in the Midwest and the South, compared to projected yields without further global warming. The Editor says... On the contrary — warmer weather and more carbon dioxide would make corn grow better than ever. Global warming may worsen droughts in West Africa. West Africa is already living on the edge, and new research indicates that even worse droughts are possible than the one that devastated the region in the late 20th century. The Editor says... Really? You need "research" to tell you that something like that is "possible?" Overcome by Heat. Climate change alarmism has moved firmly into the realms of science-fiction with a piece in the Los Angeles Times claiming that Australia is being ravaged by "drought, fires, killer heat waves, wildlife extinction and mosquito-borne illness." The headline screams: "What will global warming look like? Scientists point to Australia." An obvious power grab: EPA: Global Warming Threatens Public Health, Welfare. The Environmental Protection Agency sent a proposal to the White House on Friday [3/20/2009] finding that global warming is endangering the public's health and welfare, according to several sources, a move that could have far-reaching implications for the nation's economy and environment. Global warming skeptic is simply man of reason. Unfortunately, life is more about circles and cycles than straight lines. Global warming is taking on the aspect of a religious belief rather than science. No matter what happens — hot or cold, wet or dry — it's blamed on global warming. My own Inconvenient Truth: It's no wonder the political left is all over the global warming phenomenon, as it falls into line with the rest of their causes that require no logical argument, only a bumper sticker, protest sign, or T-shirt. No matter what the weather happens to be doing — whether its snowing or scorching hot — these people will simply point to the nearest window and mumble, "Yeah man, global warming." Seasons change — earlier than before, study says. The seasons begin two days earlier than they did 50 years ago, a shift that may be related to human activity, according to researchers at UC Berkeley and Harvard University. Amazon could shrink by 85% due to climate change, scientists say. Global warming will wreck attempts to save the Amazon rainforest, according to a devastating new study which predicts that one-third of its trees will be killed by even modest temperature rises. Global warming increasing death rate of US trees, scientists warn. Trees in the western United States are dying twice as quickly as they did three decades ago and scientists think global warming is to blame. Sanity check: One degree per century is not enough to kill trees. Trees have been around since day three of creation. [Genesis 1:12] There must be another explanation. Aha! Here it is: Beetles feasting on state's trees. Dave Dallison, the lead forester for the San Juan National Forest, isn't too surprised to see old-growth forests losing trees. After all, older, bigger trees are a better meal, he said. ... "Trees have been affected by drought," said Dallison, who didn't know of a Friday article in Science. "But maybe it's just drought and not climate change. Alarmists use weather to promote global warming hoax. Claims that recent severe weather and flooding in the US are proof of human CO2 impacts on global climate are scientific nonsense. … Governments and large segments of society accepted the theory. Most bullied by use of fear but also their lack of knowledge and understanding was also exploited. Now a combination of events are driving them to raise the threat level and make increasingly false claims, forcing a coverup. Humans could provide spark that ignites Amazon. In one of the most extreme climate change scenarios, a blistering drought will dry up the Amazon forest, which will ignite and burn away, leaving the world's rain patterns disrupted. Identifying factors that could tip the forest over the edge and make this scenario a reality is clearly a matter of great importance. Now new computer models suggest ... The Editor says... I provide links to articles like the one above only to show that I'm not making this up. I don't recommend that you waste your time by clicking on the link and actually reading the article. California farms, vineyards in peril from warming, U.S. energy secretary warns. 'We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California,' Steven Chu says. ... California's farms and vineyards could vanish by the end of the century, and its major cities could be in jeopardy, if Americans do not act to slow the advance of global warming, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said Tuesday [2/3/2009]. The Editor says... I can see how there might be "no agriculture" if the average temperature increased by a hundred degrees or so, but one degree per century is not enough to make any difference to California's agriculture. Anyone who believes that all agriculture can potentially be wiped out by slightly warmer weather is unfit to serve as Secretary of Energy. Amphibian Extinctions: Is Global Warming Off the Hook? The world's amphibians are in dire straits — but global warming may not be the problem, a new study suggests. Previous research has pinned steep declines in amphibian species on rising global temperatures, which are said to be fueling the growth of a deadly fungus. ... In fact, the researchers found that, in the Latin American countries they studied, beer and banana production were actually better predictors of amphibian extinctions than tropical air temperature. Jellyfish gone wild ruin tourist spots, report says. Huge swarms of stinging jellyfish and similar slimy animals are ruining beaches in Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean, Australia and elsewhere, U.S. researchers reported on Friday. ... Human activities that could be making things nice for jellyfish include pollution, climate change, introductions of non-native species, overfishing and building artificial structures such as oil and gas rigs. The Editor says... This article leaves a lot of unanswered questions: Who are these alleged "researchers", and who among us has been introducing "non-native species" to places where jellyfish live? Brazil floods are early sign of global warming, expert warns. The rains that devastated 30 towns in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina could be an early consequence of global warming, a climatologist from the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said Friday. At least 99 people died and 80,000 had to be evacuated because of the rains and subsequent flooding. White possum said to be first victim of global warming. Scientists say a white possum native to Queensland's Daintree forest has become the first mammal to become extinct due to man-made global warming. The white lemuroid possum, a rare creature found only above 1000m in the mountain forests of far north Queensland, has not been seen for three years. The Editor says... Are we to believe that every extinct animal — from now on — is the victim of global warming? How many of you believe that a temperature change of 0.8°C. is enough to kill an opposum — or kill all of them? And (at the risk of repeating myself) please note that the people who are most distressed about this opossum are the same people who preach "survival of the fittest" in the public schools. They should be thrilled when the fittest survive and the others do not. Sunbeams from Cucumbers. For those of us seeking guidance through the mystical corridors of "global warming", "global cooling" or "global dimming" (neatly packaged as "climate change" to cover all three possible scenarios) — as well as shrinking ice packs, melting glaciers, rising seas, growing deserts, encroaching shorelines and shrivelling river-beds — a rereading of Jonathan Swift may be just the thing. As the morally empowered scientific and political elite encourage us to "throw off our carbon chains", they should at least tell us what they think we should wear in their place. Chilled By The Heat: If the zealots are right, global warming is the cause of just about any earthly ill or phenomenon. Hotter weather? It's caused by global warming. Colder weather? Global warming again. More rain? Global warming. Drought? Global warming. Even an increase in vampire moths, insects that consume human blood, has been blamed on global warming. In a tribute to rational thinking, and a welcome repudiation of silliness, John Brignell, a British engineering professor, has compiled "a complete list of things caused by global warming." A little warming, a lot of hysteria. The debate was supposed to be over by now, but it's not. … Al [Gore] and proponents of global warming argue that whatever bad happens, happens because of the greed of man, and mostly Americans at that. Icebergs floating too far south? Man did it. Torrential rains in Monument Valley? Blame it on global warming. A drought in Tacoma-Seattle? Fog in Phoenix? Man set fire to the globe. Keep it scary, and keep it coming. Climate of Fear: Everything from the heat wave in Paris to heavy snows in Buffalo has been blamed on people burning gasoline to fuel their cars, and coal and natural gas to heat, cool and electrify their homes. Global Warming Led to 'Black Hawk Down,' Congressman Says. A top Democrat told high school students gathered at the U.S. Capitol Thursday that climate change caused Hurricane Katrina and the conflict in Darfur, which led to the "black hawk down" battle between U.S. troops and Somali rebels. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House (Select) Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee, also equated the drive for global warming legislation with the drive for women's suffrage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Global Warming May Lead to More Kidney Stones, Researchers Say. More Americans may develop kidney stones as global warming raises the risk of dehydration, according to a study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Warmer temperatures predicted by climate scientists may lead to a 30 percent increase in kidney stone cases in some U.S. regions, researchers at the University of Texas wrote in the study published today [7/15/2008]. Climate Change Could Choke Oceans for 100,000 Years. According to a simulation of planetary warming trends, failure to drastically cut greenhouse gas pollution within the next half century could choke Earth's oceans for the next 100,000 years. With warmer temperatures reducing its ability to absorb oxygen, much of the water would become barren and lifeless. Oceanic food chains could be profoundly disrupted. The Editor says... All this panic is the result of a computer simulation, and we're all familiar with the principle of "garbage in, garbage out." Moreover, the people so frantically making this claim are those of the left-wing socialist persuasion, whose primary concern is political power, not "saving the earth." Melting ice could push penguins to extinction. Emperor penguins are likely to be melted out of house and home by climate change, according to a new study. Earlier work suggests that Antarctica's penguins are already suffering from warming temperatures. Now a group of researchers have combined what is known about emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) ecology with forecasts from 10 leading climate change models to forecast the future of the species. Sanity check: Penguins don't "suffer" from a temperature change of one degree per century. The life expectancy of a penguin is probably not much more than 20 years,*, and the penguins alive today have experienced (on average) no warming at all. Alarmist Claims Global Warming Causes Increase in Kidney Stones. New research by University of Texas-Southwestern professor Margaret Pearle claims global warming will cause an increase in kidney stones. Others, however, dismiss the claim as just another example of over-the-top global warming alarmism, citing other research on factors known to be associated with kidney stone development. Pearle's paper, "Climate-related increase in the prevalence of urolithiasis (kidney stones) in the United States," appears in the July 15 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Gore getting desperate proof public cooling on GW hoax. Comments and reports about global warming are getting silly and even ridiculous. Al Gore says we have ten years left. We're told cooling is due to warming. More rain and flooding and less rain and drought are both due to warming. More hurricanes are predicted while fewer occur. Global temperatures declined as much in the first few months of 2008 as they increased in the previous 100 plus years due to warming. EPA experts detail warming's health risks. Government scientists detailed a rising death toll from heat waves, wildfires, disease and smog caused by global warming in an analysis the White House buried so it could avoid regulating greenhouse gases. Global Warming and Risks of Severe Acne: Increased temperature, damaged ozone layer and agriculture changes are all economical factors that profoundly impacts human life. Human skin is the most sensitive and most affected organ by these factors. Various skin disorders such as acne, scars are the result of global warming and climate change. Big culprit for allergies? Evidence points to global change. If you have respiratory allergies, you have an environmental problem: There's something in the air that makes you sniffle, sneeze, stuff up or wheeze. And growing evidence suggests your problem may be linked with the biggest environmental problem of all: global climate change. Fires the deadly inevitability of climate change. It is only a couple of years since scientists first told us we could expect a whole new order of fires in south-eastern Australia, fires of such ferocity they would simply engulf the towns in their path. And here they are. Here is a more likely explanation: Victoria bushfires stoked by green vote. I have been a bushfire scientist for more than 50 years, dealing with all aspects of bushfires, from prescribed burning to flame chemistry, and serving as supervisor of fire weather services for Australia. We need to understand what has happened so that we can accept or prevent future fire disasters. ... It is hard for me to see this perversion of public policy and to accept that the folk of the bush have lost their battle to live a safe life in a cared-for rural and forest environment, all because of the environmental fantasies of outraged extremists and latte conservationists. Stridently dark green. Global warming preachers have been crowing over the bushfires in ways not just despicable but dangerous. Just hours after the first bodies were being recovered, Greens leader Bob Brown was already on television, lecturing us on our sins against the planet. Rather than confess that green activists had been desperately wrong to oppose fuel reduction burns, Brown was eager to boast that this catastrophe had instead proved them right. About global warming, you know. Growing Acid Problem Thins Shells of Ocean Creatures. Scientists have started to see some of the expected effects of Earth's increasing carbon dioxide burden: The shells of microscopic animals in the ocean are becoming thinner thanks to the ocean's absorption of some of that excess carbon dioxide, a new study shows. Warming health report: Poor, elderly to hurt most. Global warming will affect the health and welfare of every American, but the poor, elderly, and children will suffer the most, according to a new White House science report released Thursday [7/17/2008]. The 284-page report, mostly written by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said every region of the country will be hit by worse health from heat waves and drought. Climate Change Brings Jellyfish Plague to Europe's Beaches. Jellyfish are taking over Europe's favorite swimming spots in increasing numbers. Scientists blame climate change and overfishing for the proliferation of the stinging nuisance. Climate change to increase rainfall. Add heavy rainfall to the litany of expected bad news due to climate change. Along with the likelihood of more intense heat waves, wildfires, and hurricanes, a new study released today reports that extreme precipitation events are already increasing as the globe warms. Iowa-Like Floods to Increase With Global Warming. The chances for extreme weather in the U.S. such as the record rainfall and flooding in Iowa this month are increasing as worldwide temperatures rise, a government agency that researches climate change said. North America may get more abnormally hot days and nights, heavier downpours and deadlier storms from global warming, today's report from the Bush administration's U.S. Climate Change Science Program said. The Editor says... Notice that the article above does not blame the midwest flooding on global warming, since there has been no warming in several years, but that connection is clearly implied. On the other hand, the writer of the article below does blame the Iowa flood on global warming. This item serves as a prime example of propaganda disguised as journalism. The article is replete with unmitigated political bias and obvious half-truths about global warming. Flooding is global warming at work. [Synopsis omitted]. An excuse I hadn't thought of: [There is an utterly bullet-proof excuse the IPCC can use if its doomsday predictions don't come true.] There is no possible observation that can negate it. Whatever happens is a win for its believer. If the temperature goes up, the believer can say, "Our theories predicted this." If the temperature goes down, the believer can say, "There was no way to know the future." Walruses die; global warming blamed. In what some scientists see as another alarming consequence of global warming, thousands of Pacific walruses above the Arctic Circle were killed in stampedes earlier this year after the disappearance of sea ice caused them to crowd onto the shoreline in extraordinary numbers. A Matter of Degrees. Politicized science cannot exist unless both sides have some inkling of what it is they are trying to politicize. The polarization of environmental rhetoric, from apoplectic denial to Apocalyptic environmentalism, demonstrates instead that most American politicians are scientifically clueless. The last few apocalyptic boom-bust cycles based on the misunderstanding of science, from "the energy crisis" to "nuclear winter" teach that while publishers reward alarmism, disinterested readers of the scientific literature behind these Jeremiads emerge with a heightened sense of humility rather than a flatly polemic view of the world. Climate can't be understood by leaps of faith from one worst-case scenario to another. Ex-Clinton Official Ties Minneapolis Bridge Collapse to Global Warming. A former member of the Clinton administration, and current Senior Fellow at the virtual Clinton think tank the Center for American Progress, claimed Monday that global warming might have played a factor in the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis. In 2008, a 100 Percent Chance of Alarm. I'd like to wish you a happy New Year, but I'm afraid I have a different sort of prediction. You're in for very bad weather. In 2008, your television will bring you image after frightening image of natural havoc linked to global warming. Sen. Kerry Blames Tornados on Global Warming. Politicians using tragedy to advance an agenda has been a tried-and-true strategy. Paint the idea green and a natural catastrophe became political fodder for former Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (Mass.). Kerry appeared on MSNBC on February 6 to discuss storms that have killed at least 50 people throughout the Southeastern United States. So, of course, Kerry used the platform to advance global warming alarmism. This article reeks with bias: Report: Climate change threatens security. Global warming is likely to increase illegal immigration, create humanitarian disasters and destabilize precarious governments and could add to terrorism, all of which could threaten U.S. national security, according to an assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies. Global warming could increase terrorism, official says. Global warming could destabilize "struggling and poor" countries around the world, prompting mass migrations and creating breeding grounds for terrorists, the chairman of the National Intelligence Council told Congress on Wednesday [6/25/2008]. The Editor says... Global warming is still being used as a political catch-all, regardless of the evidence that global warming has stopped (even though CO2 emissions haven't) and that the rate of global warming is extremely slow. Turner: Global Warming Will Cause Mass Cannibalism. Interviewed Tuesday for Charlie Rose's PBS show, CNN founder Ted Turner argued that inaction on global warming "will be catastrophic" and those who don't die "will be cannibals." PBS And The 'Remarkable' Ted Turner: True to form, [Ted] Turner walked off a cliff of rhetorical excess on "The Charlie Rose Show," charging that global warming was going to grow so severe that in a few decades, most of humanity would be extinct. "We'll be eight degrees hotter in 10 — not 10, but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died, and the rest of us will be cannibals." … PBS is a natural habitat for this kind of wild-eyed lunacy. Climate change will impact beer production: scientist. Jim Salinger, a climate scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, said climate change likely will cause a decline in the production of malting barley in parts of New Zealand and Australia. Malting barley is a key ingredient of beer. "It will mean either there will be pubs without beer or the cost of beer will go up," Salinger told the Institute of Brewing and Distilling convention. House Majority Whip: Climate Change Hurts Blacks More. Climate change is no longer just an environmental issue. It's now an issue of race, according to global warming activists and policy makers. "It is critical our community be an integral and active part of the debate because African-Americans are disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change economically, socially and through our health and well-being," House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., said July 29. Scientific consensus on climate change? Recently, patients alarmed by the tone of media reports and political speeches on climate change have been voicing severe distress, for fear of the imagined consequences of anthropogenic "global warming". In my clinical practice patients with benign and malignant disorders are concerned that their disease may be caused by "climate change" and that they might have remained healthy without it. In discussions, they are often specifically distressed that inefficiency or carelessness of policy makers could thus be the origin of their individual suffering. Feeling under the weather? Australians are getting so anxious about climate change that they are seeing their doctors for help. In a speech tonight to mark World Health Day, Dr Grant Blashki says climate change is already having direct and indirect effects on Australia's health, and the problems are set to get worse. Climate change risk to health. Doctors have warned of disastrous health outcomes over the next 10 years, particularly among children and the elderly, unless greater action is taken on climate change. Improved strategies are required to reduce the impact of climate change on health, including a growing incidence heat-related illness and infectious diseases, a report by Doctors for Environment Australia says. The Editor says... It's only one degree per century. If you're sick, a long-term climate change is not the reason. Doomed to a fatal delusion over climate change. "A 17-year-old man was referred to the inpatient psychiatric unit at Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne with an eight-month history of depressed mood … He also … had visions of apocalyptic events." … "The patient had also developed the belief that, due to climate change, his own water consumption could lead within days to the deaths of millions of people through exhaustion of water supplies." But never mind the poor boy, who became too terrified even to drink. What's scarier is that people in charge of our Government seem to suffer from this "climate change delusion", too. Climate change leads to psychiatric illness: WHO. Establishing a link between climate change and mental health, the World Health Organisation has said extreme weather conditions like floods, droughts and natural calamities can lead to psychiatric illnesses. "Psychosocial illnesses are a part of the various health issues associated with climate change," Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Deputy Regional Director, WHO, said. Climate change sends lemming numbers plunging. Lemmings are under threat — not from mythical mass suicides, but from climate change. Melting glacier empties lake in southern Chile; global warming blamed. Melting ice in southern Chile caused a glacial lake to swell and then empty suddenly, sending a "tsunami" rolling through a river, a scientist said Thursday [4/10/2008]. No one was injured in the remote region. Glacier scientist Gino Casassa said the melting of the Colonia glacier, which he blamed on rising world temperatures, filled the Cachet Lake and increased pressure on the ice sheet. Dire warnings on global warming are just hot air. Global warming has a way of prompting metaphors so bad they destroy a claim to seriousness. This week's prize goes to Klaus Toepfer, head of the Kenya-based United Nations Environment Program. Climate change could lead to Earth "spinning out of control", he warned, neglecting to describe the time when the planet's climate, or rotation, have been under control. Surge in fatal shark attacks blamed on global warming. Three decades have passed since the movie Jaws sent terrified bathers scrambling out of the ocean. But as any beach lifeguard knows, there's still nothing like a gory shark attack to stoke public hysteria and paranoia. Two deaths in the waters off California and Mexico last week and a spate of shark-inflicted injuries to surfers off Florida's Atlantic coast have left beachgoers seeking an explanation for a sudden surge in the number of strikes. Koalas threatened by climate change. Lab tests have revealed that global warming is stripping the goodness from eucalypt leaves, and the University of Sydney researchers behind the study say the koalas that rely on them don't have enough time to adapt to the change. [One degree per century is just not that fast.] Gore: Deadly Cyclone a 'Consequence' of Global Warming. It was bound to happen eventually — someone from the global warming movement tying the recent Myanmar cyclone to the so-called climate change phenomenon. Former Vice President Al Gore in an interview on NPR's May 6 "Fresh Air" broadcast did just that. Goreacle's complicated truth: Well, here's a surprise. Al Gore last week linked the deadly cyclone in Myanmar to global warming. "We're seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming," he told National Public Radio in reference to the tragedy. Al Gore Feeds on Myanmar's Tragedy. With the potential death toll in Myanmar from Cyclone Nargis rising into the hundreds of thousands, last week's attempt by Al Gore to use the tragedy to promote his "climate crisis" agenda becomes all the more reprehensible. Gore Celebrates Israel's 60th With Whoppers. After delivering a scientifically inept global warming lecture in Tel Aviv on Tuesday [5/20/2008], greenhouse gasbag Al Gore presented Israel with a 60th birthday gift of custom tailored, regionally-targeted Globaloney. As adaptable to his surroundings as any desert snake, the shameless Nobel laureate told conference attendees that plunging water levels in their lakes and rivers were the result of -- guess what? Overheated Rhetoric. Sen. Harry Reid blames global warming. Sen. Barbara Boxer says they're President Bush's fault. Rather than participate in a civilized discussion, the Democrats' first impulse is to play politics. While homes burned and hundreds of thousands were fleeing in the state next door, Senate Majority Leader Reid of Nevada moaned to the media on Tuesday [10/23/2007] that "One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming." Blame Bush first; then warming. Believe it or not, some environmental groups, celebrities and politicians are blaming climate change for the severe wildfires that are ravaging Southern California. That's right: If only the human race could manage the atmosphere's chemistry by reducing carbon emissions, we would also reduce the likelihood of fierce fires in the future. Does that make sense? Or does that seem like an extremely roundabout way of addressing wildfires. New geological age caused by humans. Humans are causing such unprecedented climatic change and mass extinctions it is creating a new geological age, according to a leading environmental scientist. … "The facts speak for themselves," Prof Steffen will tell the Second International Salinity Forum in Adelaide today. … "10-30 percent of birds, mammals and amphibians are currently threatened with extinction." The Editor says... The professor is right about only one thing: The facts speak for themselves. A change of one degree per century is imperceptible if not negligible. It is not enough to wipe out 10 percent of the animals. Show me the list of animals that have been driven to extinction by a one-degree climate change. Sick Argument: Global Warming and the Spread of Tropical Diseases. Even if a warmer climate is in the offing, there is no reason for alarm, since the prime factor controlling communicable diseases is not global temperature, but relative wealth and the ecological and medical interventions people use to control diseases and their hosts. Environmentalists Link West Nile Virus to Global Warming: Environmental groups, preparing for the Earth Summit in South Africa, say global warming is to blame for the spread of the West Nile Virus, which has killed nine people in the United States. Fear and fear mongering. Most environmentalists, to their credit, are not trying to capitalize on the Asian catastrophe. But a few cannot resist. Environmental Activists Claim Wildfires Sparked by Global Warming: Hundreds of thousands of acres of forests have gone up in smoke in America's western states, with developers blaming conservation policies they say produced thicker forests that are more vulnerable to fires and environmentalist activists blaming the phenomenon known as global warming. Climate change 'could wipe out whales'. Climate change could help do to whale populations what commercial whaling has not — wipe out an entire species. Humpback, southern right and minke whale populations could be damaged by a lack of food caused by a change in sea temperatures, according to researchers from the [Australian] Federal Environment Department. UN Says Global Warming is Confusing Birds and Whales. During meetings on climate change among representatives from over 100 countries, specialists said global warming is confusing the biological clocks of birds and whales — disrupting their migration patterns. In case you have just tuned in, the pace of global warming is about one degree per century. The air warms and cools 20 or 30 degrees every day, and a lot more than that over the course of a year. The global warming (or cooling) slope is way down in the "noise floor" of temperature change. Birds and whales are just not that fragile. Media Malpractice: Now I am not a scientist, but the idea that a few alleged degrees of warming — with none apparently in the last decade — could cause an increase in earthquakes seemed pure quackery to me. So, I decided to perform Google and Yahoo searches of the "scientist" who had issued the finding, one Thomas Chalko, MSc, Ph.D. In less than five minutes I found that Chalko was perhaps the last person who should be quoted on the purported impact of allegedly man-caused global warming. CBS Pulls Unvetted Story Blaming Earthquakes on Global Warming. CBS News and the Associated Press were quick to regurgitate claims that global warming has increased the intensity of earthquakes fivefold in the past 20 years. But had either taken the time to investigate, they would have discovered that both the source's facts and credentials were, if you'll pardon the expression, on very tremorous ground. The Editor says... I am amazed that a story like this got on the CBS web site, and may have aired on CBS stations. Anyone with a milligram of critical thinking skills should be able to conclude that a one-half degree temperature change is not enough to cause an earthquake, without having someone else point it out. Climate change is driving increase in tiger attacks. The number of tiger attacks on people is growing in India's Sundarban islands as habitat loss and dwindling prey caused by climate change drives them to prowl into villages for food, conservation experts say. Wildlife experts say endangered tigers in the world's largest reserve are turning on humans because rising sea levels and coastal erosion are steadily shrinking the tigers' natural habitat. The Editor says... If the sea level is rising that much in India, why is it still the same in North America? Climate change causes 315,000 deaths a year — report. Climate change kills about 315,000 people a year through hunger, sickness and weather disasters, and the annual death toll is expected to rise to half a million by 2030, a report said on Friday [5/29/2009]. The study, commissioned by the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum (GHF), estimates that climate change seriously affects 325 million people every year, a number that will more than double in 20 years to 10 percent of the world's population (now about 6.7 billion). 300,000 Global Warming Deaths a Year? The first comprehensive report into the human cost of climate change warns the world is in the throes of a "silent crisis" that is killing 300,000 people each year. More than 300 million people are already seriously affected by the gradual warming of the earth and that number is set to double by 2030, the report from the Global Humanitarian Forum warns. Is there even one person whose death certificate lists "global warming" as the proximate cause? Name 10 of the people global warmed to death. Not a single reputable climate scientist, I'd wager, would guarantee the truth of that wild claim. So who actually made it? Global warming and a tale of two planets. [Scroll down] Then there was the 103-page report launched by Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General, on behalf of something called the Global Humanitarian Forum, claiming, without a shred of hard evidence, that global warming is already "killing 300,000 people a year". But Mr Annan himself had to admit that this report, drawn up by a firm of consultants, was not "a scientific study" but was "the most plausible account of the current impact of climate change". Even this was topped by a report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claiming that world temperatures could rise this century by 7 degrees C, "killing billions of people worldwide and leaving the world on the brink of total collapse". ... Now for the other planet, the one the rest of us live on. Here all the accepted measures of global temperatures show that their trend has been downwards since 2002, declining at a rate that averages to about 0.25 degree per decade. Peter Foster for Junk Science Week: 300,000 non-deaths. The Global Humanitarian Forum — former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan's personal, Geneva-based NGO — will next week convene a conference devoted to "the significant and rapidly growing human impact of climate change." We may be sure that Prof. Roger Pielke of the University of Colorado will not be among the invitees. That's because he dubbed the alarmist report on which the conference is based "a methodological embarrassment and poster child for how to lie with statistics." Worse Than Fiction. But the Annan report deserves even closer scrutiny as an example of the sleight of hand that so often goes with the politics of global warming. Unlike starvation, climate change does not usually kill anyone directly. Instead, the study's authors assume a four-step chain of causation, beginning with increased emissions, moving to climate-change effects, thence to physical changes like melting glaciers and desertification, and finally arriving at human effects like malnutrition and "risk of instability and armed conflicts." This is a heroic set of assumptions, even if you agree that emissions are causing adverse changes in climate. Take the supposedly heightened risk of conflict: The authors suggest that "inter-clan fighting in Somalia" is a product of climate change. A likelier explanation is the collapse of a functioning Somali government and the rise of jihadists in the region. MIT: Global Warming of 7°C 'Could Kill Billions This Century'. A new study out of MIT predicts "a 90% probability that worldwide surface temperatures will rise at least 9 degrees by 2100." This is more than twice what was expected in 2003. ... So what has changed since 2003 to cause the scientists at MIT's "Centre for Global Climate Change" to believe the world is going to boil over this century and send billions of us directly to a toasty demise...? Since 2003, global temperatures have been dropping. The coral reef scare: Great Barrier Reef doomed within a generation, say scientists. It is probably too late to save the Great Barrier Reef and other coral reefs from global warming. Even if governments implement far-reaching measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions, they will not prevent the annihilation of coral reefs around the world. These are the conclusions of analysis by leading marine scientists to be published today in the prestigious journal Science. The Editor says... Clip and save the article above, so that in a few years -- when the dire predictions turn out to be false -- you'll have a record of the false alarm. Coral reefs have been around for a long time, and they can adapt to minor changes in the climate like every other living thing. If the ocean gets six inches deeper or one degree warmer, the coral won't notice. $cience Mag Jumps on Global Moneywagon. Scientists like money. … The trouble is that money means politics, and politics means shading the truth. As a result, we get politicized science, which corrupts real science. Any kind of Politically Incorrect science therefore becomes very hard to publish. So the cult of PC has invaded the pristine halls of science. The past week's Science magazine is a study in the way science can be ruined. The scare cover shouts Reef TROUBLE, to support the idea that our coral reefs are dying. It's like the National Enquirer. Is the Great Barrier Reef threatened by global warming? Does anyone seriously think the GBR could be "threatened by global warming", when the Willis island data shows no trend since WWII? How do such fairy stories pass as fact and become part of national mass belief? Coral flourishing at Bikini Atoll atomic test site. Coral is again flourishing in the crater left by the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated by the United States, 54 years after the blast on Bikini Atoll, marine scientists reported Tuesday [4/15/2008]. A team of research divers visited Bravo crater — ground zero for the test of a thermonuclear weapon in the remote Marshall Islands on March 1, 1954 — and found large numbers of fish and coral growing, although some species appeared locally extinct. The Editor says... The article goes on to say that even though the coral rebounded after a 99,000-degree blast from an H-bomb, they could still be wiped out by "climate change" amounting to one or two degrees. Nonsense! And what does "locally extinct" mean, anyway? Bikini Atoll's Nuked Coral Reef Bounces Back to Life. Half a century after the atomic blasts that devastated Bikini Atoll, vast expanses of corals in the area seem to be flourishing once again, much to the surprise of scientists. American government scientists detonated a hydrogen bomb on the tiny island (a part of the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific) on March 1, 1954, and about 20 other nuclear tests were carried out on the atoll between 1946 and 1958. [Emphasis added.] One fifth of world coral reefs lost, survey finds. A downward trend tied to warming seas has not reversed and the world has now lost nearly one-fifth of its coral reefs, according to a global survey released Wednesday. Much of the rest could be destroyed within 40 years by increasingly acidic seas if warming continues unchecked, the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network stated in its report. The Editor states the obvious... As any first-year chemistry student can tell you, temperature and pH are two different things. If the ocean is "increasingly acidic" in some places, that isn't necessarily due to temperature changes. Barrier Reef 'can adapt' to warmer climate. The Great Barrier Reef may be much better suited to surviving climate change and warmer conditions than previously thought. Researchers in north Queensland have found many corals contain microscopic algae that protect them from temperature fluctuations. 'Freezer plan' bid to save coral. A meeting in Denmark took evidence from researchers that most coral reefs will not survive even if tough regulations on greenhouse gases are put in place. Scientists proposed storing samples of coral species in liquid nitrogen. That will allow them to be reintroduced to the seas in the future if global temperatures can be stabilised. Top 10 dud predictions: In 1999, [Ove] Hoegh-Guldberg warned that the Great Barrier Reef was under pressure from global warming, and much of it had turned white. In fact, he later admitted the reef had made a "surprising" recovery. In 2006, he warned high temperatures meant "between 30 and 40 percent of coral on Queensland's great Barrier Reef could die within a month". In fact, he later admitted this bleaching had "a minimal impact". In 2007, he warned that temperature changes of the kind caused by global warming were again bleaching the reef. In fact, the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network last week said there had been no big damage to the reef caused by climate change in the four years since its last report, and veteran diver Ben Cropp said this week that in 50 years he'd seen none at all. Australian scientists celebrate Great Barrier Reef comeback. Despite dire predictions about the impact of climate change on Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef, researchers have found that badly-damaged coral has managed to repair itself. Scientists say, although this is a heartening discovery, the threat of global warming to the world's largest coral system has not diminished. The Editor says... I suspect there has been no remarkable comeback. In other words, I suspect there was nothing wrong with the Great Barrier Reef in the first place and there was no "badly-damaged coral". Now that global warming alarmism is rapidly losing credibility, it has become necessary to discount the original damage reports, since the non-existent global warming could not have caused any damage. This appears to be an Environmental False Alarm. Global warming could change Earth's tilt. The Earth spins on an axis that is tilted some 23.5° from the vertical. But this position is far from constant — the planet's axis is constantly shifting in response to changes in the distribution of mass around the Earth. "The Earth is like a spinning top, and if you put more mass on one side or other, the axis of rotation is going to shift slightly," says Felix Landerer of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The Editor says... First of all, there is no "vertical" in space, but since newspaper writers habitually "dumb down" the news, especially when covering anything technical, we'll let that one go. But really, how would a NASA scientist conclude that the mass of the Earth is changing — and changing unevenly — because of a global change in temperature? Name a substance that gets more massive as its temperature increases by one degree. Consider also the mass of the atmosphere versus the mass of the earth. Global warming, when and if it occurs, affects only the atmosphere and the first few feet of the oceans -- not the entire mass of the Earth. The mass of the Earth is 5.97 x 10^24 kg.* The mass of the atmosphere is 5.13 x 10^18 kg.* The mass of the Earth thus exceeds the mass of the atmosphere by 1.16 million to one. One handy feature of the atmosphere is that it circulates constantly, and doesn't just pile up in one place. (Except over Texas in August, of course.) Even a substantial shift of the atmosphere would not affect the rotation of the Earth enough to be measured (to say nothing of being noticed) by more than a handful of hair-splitting scientists. The friendly folks at the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) would notice right away. But then again, why would the atmosphere shift if it is being warmed and cooled evenly? Can anyone take NASA seriously if its only end product is idle speculation about minute changes in Earth's orientation? Is that worth $19 billion per year? Is it time to scrap NASA? If you were paying attention in high school, you should be able to controvert these lame theories yourself. Conversely, everything causes global warming ... or so the news media would have you believe. The news media would like to have us believe that all sorts of chemicals (fertilizers and pesticides) and activities contribute to global warming. This is what's called "straining at a gnat, but swallowing a camel." The overwhelming majority of the greenhouse effect is due to water vapor, about which we can do nothing, because it comes from lakes and oceans. But somehow that's never mentioned by the alarmists in the press. Nor do the "journalists" mention the most obvious source of warmth: the Sun. This convenient canard has become the environmentalists' handiest tool -- to add weight to an argument against "X", just make the claim that it causes global warming! Articles of this sort are too numerous to list, but here are a few representative samples: Some Blame Autumn Leaves for Global Warming: Those colorful autumn leaves that decorate skylines and blanket landscapes may play a role in global warming, according to some environmentalists. While most scientists agree that "trees pollute," they disagree on whether human activity makes that natural pollution even worse and whether any of it causes global warming. Birds, fleas — even elevated trees add to global warming. Human activity isn't the largest direct contributor to increased carbon dioxide levels of the Earth's atmosphere. It seems that humans attract more prolific rodents and insects, such as fleas, hence the animals of the Earth are producing a lot more CO2 than humans themselves do, according to information suggested during a discussion Thursday night [11/15/2007] sponsored by the American Chemical Society's San Gorgonio section. Fall in pea souper fogs has led to increase in global warming. Pea souper fogs, those veils of ground level cloud that gave atmosphere to Sherlock Holmes movies, have halved in thirty years — triggering up to a fifth of global warming across Europe, new research shows. The Editor says... What a relief! Automobiles weren't causing global warming after all. Doctors: Third babies are the same as patio heaters. A pair of doctors have said that British parents should have fewer children, because kids cause carbon emissions and climate change. The two medics suggest that choosing to have a third child is the same as buying a patio heater or driving a gas-guzzling car, and that GPs should advise their patients against it. Cleaner skies means more global warming. For past three decades, Europe has been following the trend of saying goodbye to air pollution and smoky chimneys but a new study has shown that cleaning up the skies has allowed more of the sun's rays to pierce the atmosphere, contributing to at least half the global warming that has occurred. The Editor says... Well, if that's true, then we need to turn on the smoke again. Anyone with the most basic critical thinking skills can see that if this hypothesis is correct (and it isn't), then the world would have been much warmer 200 years ago. NASA: Smog chemical tied to Arctic warming. Ground-level ozone, the same pollutant that makes smog, is responsible for a surprisingly large part of the spring and summer warming that's been detected in the Arctic, NASA researchers said in a new study. "Instead of being this tiny player, (ozone) can be more like 30 or 40 or even 50 percent of the cause of warming that we're seeing in the Arctic now," said lead author Drew Shindell, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "It's very dramatic." [Yes, it's the drama that really matters, after all.] Fumigating your greenhouse could drive climate change. When it comes to fumigating greenhouses, there's now a tricky choice: wreck the ozone layer or accelerate global warming. Methyl bromide, the previous fumigant of choice, is being phased out because it destroys the stratospheric ozone layer protecting us from harmful solar radiation. Meat's bad for the planet say protesters. Environmentalists today scaled Smithfield meat market to highlight the alleged links between climate change and eating animals. Six members of Climate Camp climbed onto the roof of the Victorian buildings in the City of London and unfurled a banner that read, "Fight Climate Change — Go Vegan". The group wants more people to choose a vegan diet, which excludes all animal products including meat, eggs and dairy, because they say it can reduce climate-altering emissions. Meat must be rationed to four portions a week, says report on climate change. People will have to be rationed to four modest portions of meat and one litre of milk a week if the world is to avoid run-away climate change, a major new report warns. The report, by the Food Climate Research Network, based at the University of Surrey, also says total food consumption should be reduced, especially "low nutritional value" treats such as alcohol, sweets and chocolates. UN says eat less meat to curb global warming. Dr Rajendra] Pachauri, who was re-elected the [IPCC]'s chairman for a second six-year term last week, said diet change was important because of the huge greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems — including habitat destruction — associated with rearing cattle and other animals. It was relatively easy to change eating habits compared to changing means of transport, he said. The Editor asks... Don't cows have a "habitat"? Our dietary freedom's at steak. Green groups long ago decided that eating meat was worse for the environment than driving cars, and last year they began campaigning in earnest. ... Having attacked our wool so unscrupulously and so successfully, PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is going for broke, claiming that meat is the "Number one cause of Global Warming". Climate change chicanery. Although hailed by the BBC as "the UN's top climate scientist", Dr Pachauri, who holds PhDs in economics and engineering, is nothing of the kind, but just an apparatchik. A vegetarian Hindu, Dr Pachauri not only used highly tendentious figures to promote his cause but said nothing about the contribution made to global warming by India's 400 million sacred cows, which presumably would still be free to vent wind even if the rest of humanity is converted to eating veggieburgers. Global Warming Activists Press Anti-Meat Campaign. Global warming activists are putting agriculture firmly in their crosshairs, launching new efforts to restrict meat production and consumption. This latest anti-meat campaign builds on prior efforts to restrict various forms of agriculture in the name of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. "This is a new level of silliness," said Jay Lehr, Ph.D., science director for The Heartland Institute. "Telling people not to eat meat will have no measurable effect on global temperatures but will have a devastating effect on American and global farmers. The Green Religion. [Scroll down] They all share an equal affinity for a common worldview that essentially brands humanity as the enemy. To cite two recent examples, there's PETA's recent plea to ice-cream moguls Ben & Jerry's to stop exploiting dairy cows and consider using human milk for their product, or the report by the Food Climate Research Network decreeing that meat ought to eventually be rationed to avoid "run-away climate change". Flat-screen TV gases may be added to climate fight. New greenhouse gases emitted in making flat-screen televisions or some refrigerants might be capped under a planned U.N. treaty to combat global warming, delegates at U.N. talks in Ghana said on Friday. Emissions of the recently developed industrial gases, including nitrogen trifluoride and fluorinated ethers, are estimated at just 0.3 percent of emissions of conventional greenhouse gases by rich nations. But the emissions are surging. Ozone-Friendly Chemical Said to be Causing Global Warming. Refrigerant chemicals that have replaced substances banned for allegedly harming the ozone layer are poised to become a major source of global warming, according to a study conducted by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. Plasma, LCDs blamed for accelerating global warming. A gas used in the making of flat screen televisions, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), is being blamed for damaging the atmosphere and accelerating global warming. Load of hot air: TVs and old trees pose threat to climate. Carbon dioxide is not the only gas that worries climate scientists. Airborne levels of two other potent gases — one from ancient plants, the other from flat-panel screen technology — are also on the rise. And that has scientists wondering about accelerated global warming. The gases are methane and nitrogen trifluoride. TV boom may boost greenhouse effect. An industrial chemical being used in ever larger quantities to make flat-screen TVs may be making global warming worse. ... The gas was first introduced as a measure to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but a prominent atmospheric chemist this week warned it could now be having the opposite effect. Nitrogen trifluoride sounds like one of those supposedly good ideas that may not be good at all. Fat causes a billion tonnes of greenhouse gas. High rates of obesity in richer countries cause up to a billion extra tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year, compared with countries with leaner populations, according to a study that assesses the additional food and fuel needs of the overweight. The Editor interjects... How big of a cloud would contain a "billion tonnes" of gas? See the discussion at the bottom of this page. The Late Great Planet Girth. We are now told that obesity causes global warming. Maybe that's why belief in human-caused climate change is at an all-time low. That and the fact that Antarctic ice is growing, not melting. Heat we emit could warm the Earth. Even if we turn to clean energy to reduce carbon emissions, the planet might carry on warming anyway due to the heat released into the environment by our ever-increasing consumption of energy. That's the contentious possibility raised by Nick Cowern and Chihak Ahn of the School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering at Newcastle University, UK. The Editor says... Once again it's time for a sanity check: The university students (mentioned in the article above) could have uncovered the facts in ten minutes on the internet, just as I did. The energy received from the sun is 10,982 times greater than the energy produced by man. The heat we generate is but a drop in a very large bucket. The amount of solar energy received by the earth is 174 Petawatts, or 174 x 10^15 watts. There are 31,557,600 seconds in the average year (365.25 days x 86,400 seconds per day). Therefore the earth receives 5,491 x 10^21 joules per year from the sun. In 2005, total worldwide energy consumption was 5 x 10^20 Joules). Study: Global warming sparked by ancient farming methods. Ancient man may have started global warming through massive deforestation and burning that could have permanently altered the Earth's climate, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. The study, published in the scientific journal Quaternary Science Reviews and reported on the University of Virginia's Web site, says over thousands of years, farmers burned down so many forests on such a large scale that huge amounts of carbon dioxide were pumped into the atmosphere. The Editor says... In order to believe this "study", you would have to believe... (1) Farmers intentionally burn down forests instead of planting crops on open land; (2) A forest that burns down will never grow back; (3) Lightning has never started a forest fire — only man can start a fire; (4) Carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere and never comes out; (5) The actions taken by a handful of people 1000 years ago are detectable in the atmosphere today; (5½) The actions taken by a handful of people 1000 years ago are just now becoming a problem, having had no effect on the "little ice age"; and most of all... (6) Carbon dioxide is a pollutant. Pretty obviously, I don't believe any of that. 
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Document location http://www.akdart.com/warming14.html Updated November 7, 2009. Page design by Andrew K. Dart ©2009 |