Is Ian Plimer's Heaven and Earth a sell-out?

Well yes, considering he challenges the fundamentals of the spectrum of multidisciplinary sciences making up the body of climate science. Problem is, he won't do this in the peer-reviewed literature.

But has it really sold out of its 25,000 print run, as claimed by Andrew Bolt? Not according to Tim Lambert of Deltoid, whose mate reckons it's more like probably around~3700.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Reduced emissions with increased productivity

In the search for every-day global warming solutions, Eli of Rabett Run suggests that cheap is good. Think low-tech solutions for everyday tasks.

Consider where the costs and problems associated with reducing carbon emissions comes from, from having to transform a dispersed, costless source of energy such as wind or solar or geothermal, into a form which can be centrally distributed to cover all needs. For that we need efficient and elegant. On the other hand there are applications where cheap by itself would do the job, such as an inefficient small windmill or a solar array you could hang out the window which would generate enough electricity to recharge all your Ipod, Iphone, Inks (a very old device made by Apple for taking memos), etc. and run the standby power for your TV. Eli remembers some awkward windmills that used to pump well water on farms. Same sort of thing. The ultimate example is drying clothes on a clothesline.

Dave Sag of Carbon Planet has turned this into a fetish.

HowTo: Make a simple hand-cranked device recharger

And Get Energy Smart Now looks at carbon-friendly approaches to Lighting up the Developing World.

PowerMundo seeks to create a global business network, marketing products that might represent an upfront capital investment for sustainability but long-term efficiency and cost-effectiveness by either drastically cutting polluting energy use or a total reliance on renewable power. Their products include solar powered lighting, efficient wood stoves, and renewable energy radios.

D-Light design focuses quite specifically on the lighting arena and has received serious start-up money. Their target is quite explicitly the 1 in 4 people on earth who do not have reliable access to electricity and who rely on kerosene for lighting at night. The concept is to set up micro-loans, enabling people to buy their solar energy, battery, light combinations (ranging in price from $12 to $30) that will then be paid back due to no longer having to pay for that kerosene. D-Light is focusing on India and has, in fact, lit up an entire (even if small) village with renewable systems

With the world saved for another day, sometime in the future, I'm off to bed.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Government ETS delay: A back-flip to the future

I don't know what to think about the Australian Government's 2011 back-flip on the starting date of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

The economy is going sideways. This means fewer carbon emissions caused by lower productivity. A delayed introduction will help businesses by delaying compliance costs, but it is only a delay. And, we miss the chance to go to Copenhagen and negotiate with more leverage. I do think this is a big-picture mistake because Australia's (or any country's) best shot at mitigation is as part of a global effort.

In what's becoming a knack of this government, it's a back-flip with a twist. In the following case, for the greater good:

The government has delayed its emissions trading scheme (ETS) a year to July 2011, citing the global economic crisis.

But Labor has also pushed up its emissions reduction target to 25 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020 - up from a maximum of 15 per cent - depending on the strength of an international agreement. The bottom end of the target range is still five per cent.

They sneaked that in without much protest. Wong and Co also neutralised one of the criticisms of the pollution reduction scheme — that carbon emissions savings by conscientious households would allow business more ceiling to pollute in. Well, Rudd's mob seem to have thought about that.

Concerned householders will be able to calculate their carbon output and buy permits to pollute, effectively taking these permits out of circulation.

Because the scheme will have a set number of permits for trading, permits bought in this way will not be available to polluting industries, thus reducing the amount of pollution able to be pumped into the atmosphere.

These permits will be bought by a new Australian Carbon Trust – Energy Efficiency Savings Pledge Fund, which will pool donations to buy the permits.

Seems like they have been consultative, which is a good sign. If I could say anything to them, my echo in the blogiverse would be to take heart from the British Colombian government's recent victory.

The only government in North America to implement a carbon tax to fight climate change has been re-elected handily in British Columbia.

And to take heed.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

AGW deniers deny World Vision children

By day Andrew Bolt pumps out AGW denial propaganda that has its genesis in a handful of Exxon-Mobil supported think-tank workshops. By any measure it's distasteful stuff, with Andrew regularly branding 9 out of 10 Australians as alarmist, pagan, lefty, earth-worshipping, green-fascists who have fallen for the great global warming hoax.

Then he takes his work home with him, teaching his ten year old child to teach his classmates the cheap tricks of the AGW denial trade.

ANOTHER week, and another student tells me of a teacher who’s turned preacher instead.

This student, a very honest boy, tells me he was asked on Tuesday to give a summary on global warming.

Naturally, he included one plain fact: the planet hadn’t warmed since 1998, according to satellite measurements.

Check with Britain’s Hadley Centre. Or with Dr Roy Spencer, US head of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on NASA’s Aqua satellite.

No, no, no, said the teacher, brought in by the school to give a few lessons on learning techniques. You mustn’t believe such a thing. That was just put out by that Andrew Bolt, and, ha!, he was in a room of his own.

“Really?” replied my son.

If that not enough of a cynical use of children, starting with his own son, to peddle fossil-fuelled climate-change denial, then today's effort sets his high water mark:

I’ve been a donor to World Vision for more than a decade. I’ve helped to publicise its work and urged you to support it, praising above all its commitment to giving the poor the direct help they need.

That’s now over. When my current sponsorships end, I will not renew. I will not donate a dollar more than I’ve already promised. An organisation I once admired for pragmatism has now fallen for the giddiest ideology of all. Under Tim Costello, so ignorant and alarmist that he blames global warming even for tsunamis, donors’ money is now being wasted on a great sham. A once-Christian organisation is now switching its focus from saving people to saving Nature, as it follows a neo-pagan gospel.

The latest evidence? From World Vision’s jobs page:

What are these offending job vacancies that would cause Bolt to preach that more poverty-struck children must not be helped now? Strategic Technical Advisor (Carbon and Poverty Reduction Facility - Asia Pacific), Campaigns Leader - Climate Change, and Project Manager.

Andrew Bolt: affirmed yet cognition challenged

Who still does not appear to understand that the definition of climate change can take in extreme cold?

Oops. I made a mistake in today’s column when I said that despite all this alleged global warming, Australia’s record temperatures had not been broken for decades. Reader Cameron says I’ve been proved wrong - and on the very day my column appeared:

A new Australian record was set early this morning, a temperature of minus 13 degrees, at Charlotte Pass on the Snowy Mountains. This is the lowest temperature recorded anywhere in Australia in April and is 13 below the average.

I stand both corrected and affirmed.

Affirmed as a dummy.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Climate Sceptics needs all the help it can get

Found this in my inbox, forwarded to me by a reader after reading this:

Climate Sceptics News - 10/04/09 www.climatesceptics.com.au

to unsubscribe - reply "please unsubribe" (sic)

Welcome to the first of what will be regular updates of what Climate Sceptics around the country are doing to change the perspective of the community on global warming scares etc. As President of "The Climate Sceptics", I can inform you I have a great team of people looking to build the "Climate Sceptic movement" in ways that allow people of differing political perspectives to get involved at some level. Of course most importantly we will give everyone an upper house voting option in the next Federal election to say they are opposed to an Emissions Trading Scheme. If you need to know more about our party and how we accomodate the different situations of people being members of other party`s and uniting us in the broader cause, please email me your questions.

Laymans climate change chronicle to begin soon.

In coming weeks The Climate Sceptics will be putting out a climate change chronicle that will be different to this newsletter and will explain the science and logic of climate change issues to ordinary people. The idea is to give climate sceptics across the country brief and moderately easy to understand materials they can pass onto their friends and relatives to gently and continually inform them of the science, the costs of an ETS, and what climate sceptics are doing. You will get a copy of the climate change chronicle emailed to you for passing on if you are happy to remain on this list. If you know of other climate sceptics who want to receive this newsletter please ask them to email "please subscribe" to newsletter@climatesceptics.com.au or sign up on our web site
Miklos Zagoni in Australia and available for meetings
Dr. Miklos Zagoni, Hungarian physicist, reviewer of the IPCC 2007 Assessment Report Four is now in Australia staying with his Uncle in Melbourne. On 4th May, he will appearing in front of a Committee set up by the NZ Government to revise their emissions trading scheme. Miklos is available to speak at any meetings we can find someone to organise between now and 2nd May. TCS Secretary Anthony Cox will have him speaking in Newcastle on 15th April. Miklos will be my guest in Mt Gambier speaking on 23rd April. If anyone would like to invite Miklos to explain the work of his colleague Ferenc Miskolczi let me know. I can assist with media releases and Miklos is very helpful in making things happen. Please email info@climatesceptics.com to chat about this if you are interested and would like more info - especially if you live in Victoria. What Dr Miklos Zagoni will speak about “I am not sceptic at all”, he said, “I am positively convinced that the anthropogenic global warming theory is wrong. New developments in the physics of greenhouse effect and radiative transfer show that the accepted theory leads to largely exaggerated global warming projections”. The new results were achieved and published in peer-reviewed periodicals by his fellow Hungarian physicist dr. Ferenc Miskolczi, who has been principal research scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center in the U.S. for years. And in 2 years no one has published a rebuttal Dr. Zagoni can give talks and lectures to layman and expert groups and university people. “The new results of Dr. Miskolczi prove that the accepted theory contradicts fundamental physical principles. The Earth maintains a controlled greenhouse effect by strict energetic constraints”, he said. “Runaway global warming seems physically impossible.” “We obviously do not deny that a certain change in the climate is taking place. This might be a mix of natural processes and consequence of the influence of human activity on the Earth’s surface (land use change and deforestation might altered the surface reflectivity, modifying the amount of the absorbed solar energy). We also accept that the climate has warmed during previous centuries. What we challenge is the cause: Our results show that it cannot be the increase of atmospheric GHG composition.” “If we are right, extra CO2 cannot enhance the atmospheric greenhouse effect. Powerful energetic feedbacks drive it back to its equilibrium state. Fluctuations are possible in the stochastic system of the climate, and time-scales are to be thoroughly examined, but the average surface temperature is clearly limited by the global energy balance. Incoming energy of the sun, planetary albedo, water vapor cycle and the partial cloud cover may be the main players on the scene.” “According Dr. Miskolczi’s calculation on the NOAA 60-years global average database, during these decades the Earth’s greenhouse effect remained constant. The atmosphere equated the increase of CO2 with minor modifications in the hydrological cycle.” "This may sound crazy to those accepting the common wisdom. But I will present data and the computations and I welcome anyone who can come and falsify Dr. Miskolczi and myself. Dr. Zagoni’s website, with all the relevant publications and other information: http://miskolczi.webs.com
Till next time
Leon Ashby President
"The Climate Sceptics"
PO box 721, Mt Gambier, SA 5290
(447 Chambers Rd Mt Gambier SA 5290)
Ph 0887259561 or 0887235550
www.climatesceptics.com.au

If Ferenc Everything-bar-the-CO2e Miskolczithe is anything to go by then the climate change chronicle promises to be fun pickings.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Financial crisis equals breathing space on climate

In news that Andrew Bolt is sure to jump on, climate adviser Ross Garnaut claims that the economic crisis has bought Australia at least two years of "breathing space" in the fight against climate change.

The crisis has clamped down on industry and production, which has put a lid on greenhouse gas emissions.

Australia's emissions have been rising every year, but are now some years behind predictions because of the financial meltdown.

"At this stage it looks like we've transferred two years ... it might turn out to be longer than that if this turns out to be an even worse economic crisis," Prof Garnaut told an agriculture conference in Canberra on Tuesday evening.

"We've got a little bit of breathing space."

"But we need it, because the world's a long way behind where it needs to be."

This follows the call by Nicholas Stern on February 11, this year, to spend billions on green investments now to reverse economic downturn and halt climate change.

A report published today, written by many of the team that prepared the influential 2006 Stern Review on the economics of climate change, says politicians should not delay plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions because of the global slowdown. Instead, action to tackle climate change could form a central part of fiscal packages to stimulate national economies.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Who is fueling new Climate Sceptics political party?

Witness the birth of The Climate Sceptics, Australia's newest political party. Aren't we truly the lucky country? They bill themselves as 

"The World's first up front political party representing climate sceptics"

Well, after John Howard's Liberals here in Australia, and George W. Bush's Republicans in the US. And then there was that Vaclav Klaus' Civic Democratic Party in Checkloslavakia. That's why we are in the mess we are in.

Forth time lucky's president, Leon Ashby, used to run the The Australian Environment Foundation, a front group founded by the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), a conservative Melbourne-based think tank, according to Sourcewatch.

The newest party's website is carrying advertising for the US ExxonMobil funded AGW denier outfit, The HeartLand Institute.

Gee, I wonder who is financing The Climate Sceptics?

 Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Intelligent design falsified by cdesign proponentsists' intellligence decline

I have just finished watching a fascinating documentary on SBS, called Judgment Day, about how a bunch of weird Christian extremists tried to introduce stealth creationism into the science class of Dover High School as an alternative to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. This was obviously Dover, Pa, in the US, and not Dover, England. 

They called this stealth creationism Intelligent Design (ID).  Actually they didn't originally, they called it creationism, but obviously realised this would not fly in a science class with sharp students, so they rebadged it as ID — and gave it scientific trappings. It was part of a 20 year plan to make science (the gift that gives everyday)  subordinate to bible 'teachings' (the gift that gives every day... after you are dead).  All this was uncovered in the gruelling court case that followed, Kitzmiller v. Dover, along with the creationists' original planning document detailing the deception, The Wedge Strategy.

To cut a long story short, Judge John E. Jones III finally ruled that ID was an assault on the the US constitution because it ignored the first amendment, which provides for separation of religion and state. To prove this the prosecution had to establish that ID was originally a creationist theory, and this did this by subpoenaing all the drafts of the ID Trojan text-book, Of Pandas and People. 

Ironically, these drafts established evidence that the intent always was religiously motivated deception, such as the evolution of the term creation to Intelligent Design via search and replace. At least these creationists don't typeset in lead anymore. It was found there were approximately 150 uses of the root word "creation", such as "creationism" and "creationist", were systematically changed to refer to intelligent design. Definitions remained essentially the same, with "intelligent design" substituted for "creation", and "intelligent creator" changed to "intelligent agency." But, unfortunately for the god botherers, the final draft still contains vestigal organs evidencing these deceptions: The term "creationists" was changed to "design proponents", but in one case the beginning and end of the original word "creationists" were accidentally retained, so that "creationists" became "cdesign proponentsists".

The judge ruled againt them, and the rest is history. The poor bugger received death threats to himself and his family soon after, and now lives under federal protection. Charming, those so called Christians.

Watching the program, I was repeatedly reminded of the contemporary anti-science offence of AGW denial. One of the main claims AGW deniers make about AGW is that it is the new green faith — a religion.

Given the precedence that Kitzmiller v. Dover sets, you would think that cashed-up think-tanks in the US pushing AGW denial would at least attempt to prevent anthropogenic global warming from being taught in the science-class, and at least relegated to religion class.

But they won't. And, this indicates that they don't have the conviction.

 Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Climate change tougher than Sydney roofs

Great!

The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) called on the Federal and State governments to toughen the Building Code of Australia and address the problem of "brittle buildings".

It seems research conducted by Professor Alan Jeary, a structural design specialist from the University of Western Sydney's school of engineering, concludes that roofs tiles will not withstand the onslaught of a summer storm season. Sydney's present roofing materials - up to 75 per cent ceramic tile and 10 per cent slate - were easily damaged by relatively minor hail storms.

In the past 20 years, Sydney has been hit by five significant hailstorms, which have caused more than $6 billion damage. Climate change research indicates that the problems could get much worse.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

AGW deniers desperate in their death throws.

Desmogblog asks why we have seen such a flurry of activity from the global warming denial lobby, lately:

Barack Obama has promised to lead the nation in a massive climate intervention and reengage with the international community on climate change. The past weeks have also seen progressive environmentalist Rep. Henry Waxman take over as chairman of the House Energy and Environment Committee and Senator Barbara Boxer announce plans to introduce two major climate bills early next year. The first hearing that she will hold in January will be titled, "How Fighting Global Warming is Good for the Economy and Will Create Jobs."

In other words, the deniers are gearing up for yet another fight against reality--this time, political reality as much as scientific reality. Unlike President George W. Bush, who at best played the role of apathetic substitute teacher to the United States, President-elect Obama is preparing to lay down the law.  He’s made it clear that our planetary fever will be taken seriously under his watch.

It's not worth underestimating these guys. Afterall -- with big fossil-fuel backing them, it's clear they aren't running out of cash anytime soon. 

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Andrew Bolt: The climate concerned are Nazis

Andrew Bolt reckons "the Global Day of Climate Action, which, to judge from this Friends of the Earth ad requires greenshirts to stage rallies eerily similar to the ones once seen at Nuremberg".



What an uncut dick-head! What a prize scumbag this Andrew Bolt is. Only he can be flippant about 6 million murdered Jews and Gypsies, and 80 million dead all up. Put it down to the evidential success of his self-lobotomy.

Here we see the outcome of the operation -- watch closely as he misinterprets a straight-forward graph: 

UPDATE

And with sea levels now refusing to rise, too, I guess the Rudd Government can ice its policy and plans to take in the Tuvalu islanders as “environmental refugees”. 

See, lobotomy successful. What? More proof, I hear you say:

UPDATE 2

Global warming theory is still being questioned, despite the efforts of the mainstream media and the Left to declare the debate closed. From a new study published in Climate Dynamics:

Evidence is presented that the recent worldwide land warming has occurred largely in response to a worldwide warming of the oceans rather than as a direct response to increasing greenhouse gases (GHGs) over land… Although not a focus of this study, the degree to which the oceans themselves have recently warmed due to increased GHG, other anthropogenic, natural solar and volcanic forcings, or internal multi-decadal climate variations is a matter of active investigation.

And in news just at hand, Bolt's demonstrated ability to survive without a brain has thrown the whole medical ethical area of when to turn off a life-support system into chaos.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

This isn't Funk — it's the Flying Spagetti Monster

Heathens! What's this, a creepy schism?

The full Old Greg (minus ending)


Old Greg -- The Ending

Oceans cooling. Not.

A common misconception about measuring global warming, one that deniers prey upon, is that the average global temperature is the whole story. Ergo, if the last ten years of lower atmosphere temperatures plateau, the warming must have stopped, so the meme goes... on and on.

No so, according to Josh Willis, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who specialises in estimating how much heat the ocean stores annually:

"The oceans are absorbing more than 80 percent of the heat from global warming,” he says. "If you aren’t measuring heat content in the upper ocean, you aren’t measuring global warming."

And so goes a fascinating NASA Earth Observatory feature story of how a conundrum facing scientists, that climate models predicting rising ocean temperatures mismatched observations, was solved.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Cheney grounded $100 million climate satellite

Desmogblog is right into the unfolding story of the Bush Administration's interference with NASA's climate science research. This time it is allegations of Cheney's hand in the mothballing of the DSCOVR satellite question :

An unnamed source within NASA intimately familiar with the mothballed Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) mission spoke to Desmog Blog on the condition of anonymity.

The story is incredible.

The big question has always been: who would want to kill a $100 million fully completed climate satellite that has sat in a box since the 2000 presidential election - even though dozens of leading scientists have demanded it be launched?

“Apparently Cheney was the hatchet man”, said the source. “Bush tried the keep his hands clean so he didn’t actually have direct involvement. It almost reminds me of the way Nixon used to operate…He assigned Cheney to be the hatchet man job on DSCOVR… Bush’s fingerprints weren’t on it but Cheney’s were… That’s what we heard through the grapevine.”

All allegations, though. No nitty gritty yet. Watch this space.


Global Warning Climate Change Energy