Bush bashed over vapid climate conference

Time Magazine reported on the White House organised Climate Change Conference. They were rather unflattering of Bush, and set him up as a foil for Clinton to do what he does best. Shine.

Look at the photos accompanying the article.



Clinton looks steely and resolved, Bush defensive ... hunched. Clinton's jaw is firmly set, in contrast to the slack-jawed look of Bush, which is unfortunately what can happen when one is photographed mid-sentence. He is looking down, Clinton is looking forwards. George is looking a mite wan against Bill's robust complexion.

If you think I am letting my biases get in the way of my judgement, you should read Time Magazine reporter and resident climate change geek, Jason Decrow.

Start with the headline — Climate Change: Filling the Bush Gap. Positioned above Bush's photo, the aforementioned gap seems to refer to the one between his hears. Very unfairly too.

Reporting on Bush:

You could Amtrak down to the White House and hear President George W. Bush tell the world's major economies that this global warming thing might actually be a problem and that we should maybe consider doing something about it eventually.

No hint of scorn for Clinton:

Of the three, it was the Clinton meeting that proved the best bet —

[...]

As part of his Clinton Climate Initiative, launched in August 2006, the former President has brought together business and philanthropy to generate locally focused efforts to reduce energy use and carbon emissions.

While President Bush offered mostly empty rhetoric, on Friday afternoon Clinton reeled off pledge after concrete pledge for his climate initiative: $150 million to harness geothermal energy in Africa, $5 million for the Alliance for Climate Protection in the U.S., $210 million for carbon offsetting in the developing world.

While UN action on climate change remains stalled by the deadlock between the developed and the developing world, Clinton has proved remarkably successful in fostering real engagement and investment on global warming across national lines. "Clinton just really gets it," says Ted Nordhaus, co-author of the new environmental politics book Break Through.

Good to see some balanced journalism, the type where you call a spade a spade.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Australia don't follow US climate policy failure — ACF

It seems I am not out-of-line describing Australia as the lap-dog of the US when it comes to climate policy, although Don Henry put it more diplomatically, when commenting on the White House-sponsored climate change conference, the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change in Washington.

Don Henry, executive director of the Australian Conservation Foundation, said Australia needed to stop copying the US position on climate change immediately.

"It is disappointing the conference has not delivered,'' Mr Henry said.

''(US) President Bush is still resisting setting binding targets or commitments on greenhouse gas emissions.

"He wants the flexibility of voluntary targets.

"The US is the world's biggest climate laggard and are holding up global action on climate change.''

Mr Henry said Mr Bush's climate change policies were "disastrous'' and Australia had to "disconnect'' itself from them. "More than any other country on Earth we should tackle this issue seriously with our water supplies at risk and the Great Barrier Reef,'' he said.

"At the conference every developed country has taken on board binding targets and every developing country has committed to cleaning up their economy and set long-term aspirational goals.

"The only two that have not are Australia and the US who have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol and stand out like sore thumbs.''

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Global warming boon for brain-eating amoeba

Sensational headline — one with some basis in fact:

"This is definitely something we need to track," said Michael Beach, a specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does better," Beach said. "In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd expect to see more cases."

The villain is a killer amoeba, Naegleria fowleri (nuh-GLEER-ee-uh FOWL'-erh-eye), that enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain where it feeds until you die. The good news is that it has only killed six boys and young men this year, the bad news is that this is a spike; it has killed 23 people in the United States, from 1995 to 2004.

The other bad news is that it's only getting hotter.

Global Warning Climate Change

Emissions reductions — aspirationals miss the binding obvious

Condoleeza Rice sounds as convincing a leader on climate change, as she is on the Palestinian crisis. But at least she knows that others regard her warily:

THE US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, has tried to assuage European and green group concerns the US is trying to hijack the United Nations process for developing a new global deal on climate change. "I want to stress that the United States takes climate change very seriously," Dr Rice said at the start of a two-day conference. "Managing the status quo is simply not an adequate response."

Oh goodie... they are now up to speed in Washington. So how to they plan to respond?

But she repeated that the US did not support binding targets on individual countries - a key difference between the US and European position.

Oh — back to the status quo. "Yip, yip, yippy", yapped her lap-dog Downer-Under, issuing discombobulated climate policy like flying fur-ball:

Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, predicted that Australia, like the European Union, Canada and Japan, would ultimately embrace binding targets. This was because it was essential to make the Coalition's proposed carbon trading scheme work, he said. "In our case, the way the binding target will work, we'll set next year an aspirational goal, then to make that work, we have to get the emissions trading scheme into operation and you have to have binding targets under an emissions trading scheme, otherwise you can't create a price for carbon," Mr Downer said.

The South Africans don't sound too convinced by the conviction of the Kyoto Protocol hold-outs.

Critics have questioned whether the US approach of voluntary targets would work. "We appreciate the sentiments expressed by Secretary Rice, but the devil is always in the detail," said South Africa's Environment Minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk.

The Europeans are wary of a process that circumvented the United Nations. They were right about Iraq; they are right about climate change. A target is not a target if it is not binding. If it is not binding, if it is an aspirational target, it is a mere wish.
Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Arctic thaw yeilds mammoth rewards for fossil hunters

Alarming story:

clipped from www.smh.com.au ONE day, climate change could cost the earth. For now, it is a nice little earner for Russian hunter Alexander Vatagin. In Siberia's northernmost reaches, well above the Arctic Circle, the changing temperature is thawing the permafrost to reveal the bones of prehistoric animals such as mammoths, woolly rhinos and lions that have lay buried for thousands of years. Private collectors and scientific institutes will pay huge sums for the right specimen, and bone prospectors such as Mr Vatagin have turned this region, eight time zones from Moscow, into a paleontological Klondyke. "Last year someone was paid 800,000 roubles ($36,755) for a mammoth head with two tusks in great condition," Mr Vatagin said. Prehistoric bones are easy to spot. The permafrost is thawing so rapidly that in certain places in the tundra, bones poke through the soil every few metres. Some lie on the surface. "From the point of view of humanity, it would have been better if this had never happened."

Australia most global warming aware. No, really!

I've come across this before, but it still catches me by surprise — the fact that Australians are at the forefront of global warming consciousness. A September poll by World Public Opinion.org shows that, despite our fossil-fuel fixated Government's penchant for future non-binding emissions targets we, the governed, want proper action now. A whopping ninety-two percent of us.

Twelve countries were asked whether steps should be taken to address climate change and majorities in all but one of them favored action. The largest majority in favor of measures to combat global warming is found in Australia (92%).

China and Israel are the next most likely (83%) to favor such measures. Eighty percent of respondents in the United States—the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases—also support taking such measures. The lowest level of support for taking steps to address the problem is found in India, nonetheless nearly half (49%) favor taking action while just 24 percent oppose it (26% do not answer).

In no country (out of 12 asked) does more than one in four endorse the statement, “Until we are sure that global warming is really a problem, we should not take any steps that would have economic costs.” The countries where the highest percentages favor delaying any action are India (24%), Russia (22%) and Armenia (19%). The countries with the lowest are Argentina (3%), and Thailand (7%).

How is it that we ended up so ahead of the curve for climate change, despite the long-standing counter-efforts of our Kyoto Protocol combatant of a Federal Government?

It's tempting to go for the low-hanging fruit and put it down to an outdoor lifestyle that allows us to connect with nature, or some other self-congratulatory nod to some aspect of Aussiedom. But I think it has more to do with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation inspired drought we endured. It impacted the countryside the worst, but even the comfortable suburbs of all major cities copped it in the daily image stream of cracked earth and farmers kicking the dirt. Soon the seriousness was driven home by domestic water-restrictions as local dam levels dropped alarmingly.

We responded. The masses let it mellow if it were yellow,and the immediate reaction of the wealthy was to ward-off zealous water-inspectors with signs indicating a bore had been sunk for garden irrigation. In time the water-inspectors appeared less Orwellian and somehow fitted in with the spate of suburban gardens that abandoned their thirsty, mother-country heritage to go native. Grey water was redirected over lawns, and Australia showered with a bucket to catch the cumulative waste. While the water drummed down on this latest symbol of a changed world, the plastic bucket, and we stared at the unhelpful dribbling from the water-efficient shower heads, our entire citizenry had daily opportunities to consider how things got to this stage. That's perhaps how ninety two percent of us decided that we are living through global warming induced climate change. A newly enlightened media, and Al Gore's phenomenally successful An Inconvenient Truth only confirmed our suspicions.

Giving this theory weight is that we did save a lot of domestic water. In Sydney I remember being down 25 percent on the previous year's consumption atone stage. The year-to-year worsening of the bush fire seasons also helped — another dramatic, big ticket item for the evening news that is easily linked to global warming.

In summary, I believe that a reason for our high awareness, is because our continent is highly susceptible to the effects of climate change. And it's only going to get worse. So close to the election there is no way John Howard's latest ploys to delay emissions targes are going to fly— in this climate.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Berks in our backyard

Looks like we have our very own astroturfing outfit in Australia called the Australian Environment Foundation (AEF). Don Burke of Burk's Backyard is the chairman, and he chairs a quality crew — some of whom are presenting at their Rydges Carlton meeting in Melbourne over the next two days. Andrew Bolt is pumped and pumping (tyres apparently).

Prof Bob Carter, the environmental scientist, will talk on the “myths of climate change”, showing it’s not clear man is to blame for any warming.

Entomologist Rick Roush will explain the benefits of biotechnology in a state that has—for no rational reason—banned genetically modified food crops that have been grown safely by our big competitors for years.

Ziggy Switkowski, who led an inquiry into nuclear power, will again prove that if we want electricity that doesn’t emit greenhouse gases, we can’t beat nuclear, so ignore the scares.

And Gunns’ resources manager will tell why the $2 billion pulp mill it hopes to build in Tasmania’s Tamar Valley is not the poisonous menace that green crusaders are trying to paint.

Wonder if we can reverse engineer the list of industries and special interest groups that provide funding for the AEF? Let's see, Bob Carter... well, he does not believe in global warming, so that would be a fossil fuel industry link. Then we have the GM industry, the nuclear industry and, well, Gunns. I didn't want to mentions companies they are well known, but there you go, Gunns. They are linked to the Institute of Public Affairs. Hardly your environmentally minded group. More your right-wing think tank.

Here's the programme. Oh, and here are the sponsors: Monsanto (GM), and Auscott Limited among them.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Global warming denialist scrambles for Bolt hole

It had to happen at some time. That people who make a living casting doubt about the scientific consensus of global warming realise the wheels are falling off their bandwagon. Witness this pitiful bleat that Andrew Bolt concludes with, in his latest carping, and tell me how moved you were.

Face facts: There’s no place now for my kind of petty carping. Just go to campaign central and read the inspiring words of Tim Flannery, Al Gore and others. Join today’s chat with Peter Garrett.

Be improved, and come back here to tell me how moved you were. And who might employ me now that I’ve done my dash.

My god, it's finally sinking in! Poor Bolt. Hope it was all worth it in terms of your children's education fund, if 'Still Not Sorry' flops. There, I plugged it for you, you have to relax the ban and post my comment now. It is going to be fascinating to follow up on how you survive your credibility self-immolation. Tell your sponsors there may still be a few more pennies in the Boltskeptics yet. Schadenfreude ain't pretty, but it can pay the bills. And, you know it makes sense, there are more of us than Boltstrokers when it comes to climate change.

On the other hand, you could strike out on your own (i.e., approach the fossil-fuel funded think-tanks to finance your own blog). Don't forget, you first read it here.


Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Greens calls Government hypocrites over deforestation

Indeed they are...

clipped from www.theage.com.au Prime Minister John Howard will be a hypocrite if he calls on other countries to avoid deforestation while allowing further logging in Tasmanian and Victorian native forests, the Australian Greens say. A leaked declaration on climate change, energy security and clean development, prepared for the 21 leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next month, calls on the world's major polluters to set goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions. It also calls for agreement on the importance of preserving and managing forests. But Greens leader Bob Brown said the authorised destruction of Tasmanian and Victorian forests is one of the world's worst examples of deliberate deforestation. "Logging and burning Tasmanian and Victorian native forests is up there amongst the world's worst examples of deliberate deforestation and greenhouse gas pollution of the Earth's atmosphere - the very thing the APEC declaration aims to stop.

Amazon Deforestation down by 25%

For whatever reason this has happened, surely it is a good thing. Long may it continue.

clipped from news.nationalgeographic.com Amazon Deforestation Drops 25 Percent, Brazil Says The pace of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 25 percent in a recent 12-month period, according to recently released government figures. Even so, some conservation groups claim the decrease is due to lower demand for crops that grow on cleared forest land, and not successful environmental policies. Between July 2005 and July 2006, the amount of cleared forest fell to about 5,400 square miles (14,000 square kilometers), as compared to 11,681 miles (18,800 kilometers) cut in the same period between 2004 and 2005, according to government figures. (Related: World's Forests Rebounding, Study Suggests [November 13, 2006].) In his weekly radio address Monday, President Luiz Inácio da Silva said he expected further declines for the 2006 to 2007 period—drops that he said will not crimp economic growth, the Associated Press reported. "I am plainly convinced that it is possible to grow while preserving the environment," da Silva said

Thirteen die in the Land of The Hot Rising Sun

clipped from www.physorg.com A man takes rest on the grass at a park in Tokyo, 01 August. The temperature hit a record high in Japan on Thursday, with the extreme summer heat killing at least 13 people across the nation this week, officials said. The temperature hit a record high in Japan on Thursday, with the extreme summer heat killing at least 13 people across the nation this week, officials said. The mercury shot up to a record 40.9 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit) in Tajimi city in the central prefecture of Gifu on Thursday afternoon, according to the weather agency. In one of the latest deaths, an 88-year-old man was found unconscious in his bed Thursday morning and rushed to a hospital where he died, Yamasaki said. "He had a heart illness but heat stroke is suspected to have caused the death," he said.

Thanks for global warming we didn't have to have

This caught my eye in a report recently tabled in the Australian parliament. It is the acknowledgements of a dissenting chapter. I pulled it out so your kids know who to thank for global warming when they grow up. Feel free to bookmark the page for them.

Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the following people for reviewing the scientific accuracy of this report:
1. Professor R.S. Lindzen (Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT)
2. Professor J.R. Christy (University of Alabama, Huntsville)
3. Professor G.W. Paltridge (Director of the Antarctic CRC and IASOS, University of Tasmania)
4. Professor R.M. Carter (James Cook University)
5. Associate Professor C.R. de Freitas (University of Auckland)
6. W. Kininmonth (Retired Head of the National Climate Centre, Australia)

Would you trust a report based on the science being vetted by this panel of subject matter experts? Well let's find out who they are, and then I'll tell you what the report is about?

1. Professor R.S. Lindzen

"the solitary plausible academic [the skeptics] can dig up, out of hundreds working in the field."

Dick Cheney's investment manager -- Jeremy Grantham

Other posts on exposing Lindzen's interests:

• ExxonMobil links to Dr Richard Lindzen.
  Who is paying this messenger?
• Fossil-fuel plants shut down.
  Pity the poor dissenter, persecuted into silence.

This post is a work in progress... more reason to come back later!


Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Government splits climate change message

Today was the day that the Australian Government, notorious for dragging its feet on climate change, tabled its carbon trading system recommendations by the House of Representative’s Standing Committee on Science and Innovation. For a moment it looked like the Government was finally coming clean; The report begins with the statement “there is now compelling evidence that human activity is changing the global climate". There must be an election on. It appears Howard has minimised damage of his abrupt change from years of neglect, and encouraging activities that aggravate the problem.

But then the nutters of Flat-Earth Society of the Liberal Party broke ranks.

FOUR Coalition MPs have questioned the consensus that humans are causing climate change.

The four backbenchers have questioned the link between human activity and global warming, saying Mars, Jupiter, Pluto and Neptune are also warming up.

Nuclear physicist and West Australian MP Denis Jensen, former ministers and NSW backbenchers Jackie Kelly and Danna Vale, and Northern Territory MP Dave Tollner say the hypothesis of “anthropogenic" or human created global warming was based on theoretical models and unproven economic assumptions.

In a dissenting chapter to a parliamentary report, the four labelled as fanatics those who believe humans are causing climate change.

"The science related to anthropogenic global warming is not, despite the assurances of some, settled in the scientific community,'' they wrote.

"Another problem with the view that it is anthropogenic greenhouse gases that have caused warming is that warming has also been observed on Mars, Jupiter, Triton, Pluto, Neptune and others.

In this day and age, hey? My immediate instinct is that Howard is up to his old and mean tricks again. Mars, Jupiter.

MP Peter Garrett, Labor environment spokesman: "Mr Howard which planet are these backbenchers on?"

John Howard, Liberal Australian Prime Minister: "On the planet inhabited by people who hate the Australian coal industry."

Huh? Howard's nutters are equivalent to people who recognise that we have to cut our emissions? And he ties them, us, to alleged hatred of the coal industry. That's clever Johnny for you. But, he's not stupid either.

Peter Garrett: "Mr Prime Minister, do you agree with their views?"

John Howard: "No I don’t agree with their views,"

He's not going out of his way to censure them, though.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Newsweek exposé: Global Warming Is A Hoax*

*So say the folks funded by fossil-fuel lobby groups.

I've said it often enough, so it was great to read Dave Sag of Carbon Planet saying it:

Newsweek is running a fascinating history of coordinated climate change denial in a story The Truth About Denial.

It’s been the dirty secret of the dinosaur industries who see their immediate bottom line about to be hit by actions to mitigate against climate change that they know global warming is real, they know we humans have caused it, and they have been doing everything in their path to coverup those facts. But no amount of bullshit pseudo-documentaries, hack-science and well funded rhetoric can keep the basic, inconvenient truths contained. For those of us who care about the planet, our time is surely now. — DS, Carbon Planet

It's even more gratifying that the respected Newsweek is exposing the confected "hoax" of the fossil-fuel funded global warming denialist industry. The article by Sharon Begley is accurate, well researched and well written. It lays bare the mechanics behind a decades-long orchestrated, concerted attack on the public's understanding of the crystal-clear message coming out of the climate sciences.

The outcome is that we are still fiddling around the edges of mitigation while ExxonMobil — the largest patron of the denialist industry — continues making record profits. By now we should have rolled up our sleeves, got stuck into the problem, and be well down the road of serious progress. You see, climate change is racing to head us off at Tipping Point pass.

All the blame for the opportunity-cost lies at the feet of ExxonMobil, the think-tanks and lobby-groups they funded, and the media shills and blatantly scientifically illiterate opinion journalists who faithfully relayed the big lies of big coal and oil.


Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Fine ceramic tubes cut carbon dioxide out of coal-fired power

If this works out, I'm putting my money (ha) into advanced ceramic material...

clipped from www.sciencedaily.com Science Daily — Greenhouse gas emissions from power stations could be cut to almost zero by controlling the combustion process with tiny tubes made from an advanced ceramic material, claim engineers on August 3, 2007. The oxygen-depleted air, which consists mainly of nitrogen, can be returned to the atmosphere with no harmful effects on the environment, while the carbon dioxide can be collected separately from the inside of the tubes after combustion. An alternative would be to control the flow of air and methane so that only partial combustion took place. This would result in a flow of 'synthesis gas', a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which can easily be converted into a variety of useful hydrocarbon chemicals.