So, what prompted me to write the above long-winded complaint was a page on the Heartland Institute’s web site, on how people can sponsor their upcoming climate inactivist conference. It’s the kind of jaw-dropping thing that made me think, “Oy, why am I the one writing about this?...
Yep, you read that right. First, sponsors will have a hand in deciding what the topics of the conference will be. I must say — my friends — this is totally above and beyond what actual serious scientific conferences do! (My experience is that the conference organizers will just give them some booth space to tout their stuff and recruit folks, and perhaps a time slot for them to talk about their fine work.)
Second, note that there’s no fee for sponsorship — yes, no fee — but “sponsors” are asked to spread the word about the conference and to get people to attend. That is, Heartland is looking for sponsorship not in the form of money, but in the form of noise. The more noise, the merrier.
And… one other thing: According to the registration information for the conference, there’s a 20% registration fee discount for signers of the “Oregon Petition”. I still can’t tell what Heartland’s trying to achieve with this move.
2 October 2008
Arctic Sea Ice Down to Second-Lowest Extent; Likely Record-Low Volume
Arctic sea ice extent during the 2008 melt season dropped to the second-lowest level since satellite measurements began in 1979, reaching the lowest point in its annual cycle of melt and growth on September 14, 2008. Average sea ice extent over the month of September, a standard measure in the scientific study of Arctic sea ice, was 4.67 million square kilometers (1.80 million square miles) (Figure 1). The record monthly low, set in 2007, was 4.28 million square kilometers (1.65 million square miles); the now-third-lowest monthly value, set in 2005, was 5.57 million square kilometers (2.15 million square miles).
The 2008 season strongly reinforces the thirty-year downward trend in Arctic ice extent. The 2008 September low was 34% below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000 and only 9% greater than the 2007 record (Figure 2). Because the 2008 low was so far below the September average, the negative trend in September extent has been pulled downward, from –10.7 % per decade to –11.7 % per decade (Figure 3).
NSIDC Senior Scientist Mark Serreze said, “When you look at the sharp decline that we’ve seen over the past thirty years, a ‘recovery’ from lowest to second lowest is no recovery at all. Both within and beyond the Arctic, the implications of the decline are enormous.”
program
last updated: October 13, 2008
Where and When
The 2009 International Conference on Climate Change will take place in New York City on March 8-10, 2009 (Sunday - Tuesday), at the Marriott New York Marquis Times Square Hotel, 1535 Broadway, New York, NY.
There will be four tracks of panel discussions:
1. Paleoclimatology
2. Climatology
3. Impact of Climate Change
4. Economics and Politics
Confirmed Speakers
Name Affiliation Dennis Avery Hudson Institute Joseph Bast The Heartland Institute Robert Bradley Institute for Energy Research Bob Carter James Cook University (Australia) Frank Clemente Penn State University John Coleman KUSI-TV - San Diego Joseph D'Aleo International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project David Douglass University of Rochester Myron Ebell Competitive Enterprise Institute Michelle Foss University of Texas - Center for Energy Economics Fred Goldberg Royal School of Technology (Sweden) Laurence Gould University of Hartford William Gray Colorado State University Chris Horner Competitive Enterprise Institute Craig Idso Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change David Legates University of Delaware Jay Lehr The Heartland Institute Marlo Lewis Competitive Enterprise Institute Richard Lindzen Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ross McKitrick University of Guelph Christopher Monckton Science and Public Policy Institute Jim O'Brien Florida State University Tim Patterson Carleton University Benny Peiser Liverpool John Moores University (United Kingdom) Paul Reiter Institut Pasteur (France) Arthur Robinson Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine Joel Schwartz American Enterprise Institute S. Fred Singer Science and Environmental Policy Project Fred Smith Competitive Enterprise Institute Willie Soon Science and Public Policy Project Roy Spencer University of Alabama at Huntsville James M. Taylor The Heartland Institute Anthony Watts Surfacestations.org
 clipped from www.desmogblog.com
The situation is more clear cut - if more dire - in Canada. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has made it clear that his most important constituents are the people who want unfettered rights to develop the tar sands - environmental consequences be damned. Elections.DesmogBlog.com will help you analyse the position of all the leading candidates.
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From Chicken Little to Dr. Pangloss: William Nierenberg, Global Warming, and the Social Deconstruction of Scientific Knowledge
Oreskes, Conway, Shindell.
 clipped from www.worldwatch.orgThe recently announced alliance between technology giants General Electric and Google may provide the lobbying arsenal necessary for the U.S. to overhaul an outdated electric grid widely considered as a barricade to a low-carbon future.
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Palin:"it's very important when you consider even national security issueswith Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of theUnited States of America, where, where do they go? It's Alaska. It'sjust right over the border."
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Tobias: But if Putin were to actually visit Washington DC or the UN in NewYork, he would pass near or over Iceland and then enter US airspace inNew England, no doubt rearing his head menacingly all the while.
 clipped from www.smh.com.au
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Sex, Drug Use and Graft Cited in Interior Department
WASHINGTON — As Congress prepares to debate expansion of drilling in taxpayer-owned coastal waters, the Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties has been caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal — including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct.In three reports delivered to Congress on Wednesday, the department’s inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found wrongdoing by a dozen current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service, which collects about $10 billion in royalties annually and is one of the government’s largest sources of revenue other than taxes.
“A culture of ethical failure” pervades the agency, Mr. Devaney wrote in a cover memo.
The reports portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch.
The highest-ranking official criticized in the reports is Lucy Q. Denett, the former associate director of minerals revenue management, who retired earlier this year as the inquiry was progressing.
... show me where I've said there's absolute proof that nothing that man has ever conducted or engaged in has had any effect or no effect on climate change. I have not said that. I have said that my belief is there is a cyclical nature of our planet — warming trends, cooling trends — I'm not going to argue scientists, because I believe in science and have such a great respect for what they are telling us. I'm not going to disagree with the point that they make that man's activities can be attributed to changes."
A MAJOR survey of Australians' views on climate change has found an overwhelming majority think it is happening and they're prepared to pay to address it.
The study by University of Technology Sydney found Australians wanted to see cuts in the nation's greenhouse gas emissions irrespective of the actions of other countries.
The key findings include that 83.7 per cent believed global warming was occurring and, of those, 84.9 per cent said Australia should proceed with an emissions trading scheme (ETS) regardless of the international response. "The bottom line from this study is that Australians think now is the time to adopt a climate change program that has some real teeth," visiting economics professor at UTS Richard Carson said.
"They believe that climate change will cause serious problems in Australia and elsewhere in the world, and they understand there will be sizeable cost going along with it."
Professor Carson said 58.7 per cent of participants supported spending 20 per cent of ETS revenues on R & D, in keeping with a recommendation of the Rudd Government-commissioned Garnaut Review.
"The public clearly favours spending 20 per cent of the money on R & D … even though we told them that if they did that they would redistribute less money to the public," he said.
"That shows the Australians are very forward-looking, they see it as a long-term problem and the R & D efforts will help them get over the hump."
Survey participants' views were also sought on the different government plans and opposition policies to tackle climate change.
A majority (57.1 per cent) supported the government's plan to begin emissions trading from 2010 over the Liberals' later 2012 start date.
Participants were quizzed on their political leanings and Professor Carson said Green and Labor voters were more likely to favour the government's plan.
Interestingly, more than half (53 per cent) of Liberal-aligned survey participants also favoured the earlier 2010 ETS start date instead of official policy held by the Federal Opposition.
Views were split on whether transport should be exempt for the first three years of the ETS - with just over half (50.6 per cent) for the move to temporarily delay price increases at the petrol bowser.
The study, entitled Survey on Controlling Greenhouse Gases, was conducted by the UTS Centre for the Study of Choice.
Professor Carson is a Professor of Economics at the University of California and is a Visiting Distinguished Professor at the UTS.
Republican White House hopeful John McCain and running-mate Sarah Palin will Sunday ditch their pre-convention plans and visit people in Mississippi bracing for deadly Hurricane Gustav.
The visit comes as the fearsome category four storm's approach overshadowed the buildup to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota on Monday, and stirred memories of the botched response to Hurricane Katrina exactly three years ago.
Earlier, in an interview to be broadcast on Fox News Sunday, McCain suggested he might go as far as suspending the convention, if the storm turned into a huge human tragedy on the par with Katrina.
"It wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a national disaster.
"So we're monitoring it from day-to-day and I'm saying a few prayers, " he said.
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Forecasters said the storm could hit top category five force as it moved toward the US Gulf Coast for a direct hit Monday or Tuesday. In any case, "Gustav is forecast to remain a major hurricane through landfall along the northern Gulf coast," the US National Hurricane Center said.
New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin has ordered the city emptied tomorrow in the face of "the storm of the century", warning anyone that stays behind that they are on their own.
"I am announcing today mandatory evacuation of New Orleans starting 8am Sunday (2300 Sunday AEST) on the West bank," Nagin said at a press conference. "We want everybody... we want 100 per cent evacuation. If you decide to stay, you are on your own."
"This is the mother of all storms," Nagin said. "This storm is so powerful and growing more powerful every day that I'm not sure we've seen anything like it."
Nagin estimated that less than half of the city's population has left despite days of dire warnings.
"This is the real deal," Nagin said. "Riding this storm out would be one of the biggest mistakes you could make in your life."
Nagin said police, fire and other emergency personnel are being pulled from the city to safer areas. A "skeleton crew" of fewer than 50 city workers will be left behind, according to officials.
Hurricane Gustav is on course to crash ashore near New Orleans. Nagin told anyone planning to stay behind to "make sure you have an axe because you will be busting your way out to get on your roof with waters surrounding you."
Gustav has left around 85 people dead in Caribbean nations.
In 2005, New Orleans was hammered by Hurricane Katrina which caused widespread flooding and left tens of thousands of people homeless.
Top regions for global warming Region al gore global warming climate change Indonesia 19 100 25 Philippines 41 77 29 India 18 76 27 South Africa 37 69 43 Australia 47 54 80 United States 100 51 19 New Zealand 38 49 56 Singapore 36 43 29 Canada 63 42 37 Kenya 0 39 100
Global Warning Climate Change Energy
