McCains rumored VP pick says “don’t spend time on [skeptics]“

28 08 2008

I’ll point out that this is just a rumor. Last week many people were sure that Obama’s VP was going to be Evan Bayh based on bumper sticker printing rumors. Let’s hope this one doesn’t pan out. – Anthony

UPDATE: Speculation has now shifted to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Her approval rating, according to the Anchorage Daily News, tops 80 percent. Among other things, she supports drilling in Alaska, with limits, she’s pro-life and she’s a fiscal conservative. If she’s the pick, that surely figured into the McCain strategy of hoping to woo upset Hillary Clinton supporters. She’d be a magnet for them.

From Capital Research: Tim Pawlenty, Global Warming Alarmist

August 28th, 2008 by Matthew Vadum

Rumors are circulating that GOP presumptive presidential candidate Senator John McCain plans to select Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty as his vice presidential running mate.Pawlenty certainly talks a good shtick when it comes to free markets, low taxes, and limited government, but his views on climate change and energy policy are downright frightening.

“We should not spend time on voices that say [climate change] is not real,” Pawlenty said even as new evidence surfaces almost daily that undermines the alarmist consensus.

“We should have listened to President Carter” about energy policy, Pawlenty said.

President Jimmy Carter, readers may recall, gave his infamous “malaise” speech (also known as the “Crisis of Confidence” speech) live on television on July 15, 1979.

In it Carter blamed Americans for the problems in American society at that time. He told Americans they were too materialistic and greedy and that they needed to make do with less. He told Americans that turning down their thermostats and wearing sweaters indoors would help solve the nation’s problems.

That was Jimmy Carter’s energy policy.

And Pawlenty says we should have listened to President Carter?


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Categories : politics

Fill your gas tank – now

28 08 2008

While it is far from certain yet how strongly these storms will develop and where they will go, production platforms are already shutting down in some parts of the Gulf of Mexico in anticipation of the storm Gustav. Here is the latest satellite image and track overlay from my meteorological business, IntelliWeather:


Click for Hi Definition image

The last time we saw oil platforms shut down in the Gulf, prices at the pump went up almost immediately. Today I noticed a 5 cent jump in prices at my own local gas station from yesterday as crude oil prices push higher.

Here is another wider Atlantic view of the two storms: Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : weather

Skeptical Article on Climate in the Old Farmer’s Almanac – cooler times ahead?

28 08 2008

My friend, Joe D’Aleo who runs ICECAP, had the opportunity this year to write an article for the 2009 Old Farmer’s Almanac.  While I’m normally “skeptical” of the long term forecasts printed in the OFA, I’m not of this piece written by D’Aleo, who is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and a Certified Consulting meteorologist.

With 3.3 million copies printed, his article, Is Global Warming on the Wane? ,  will get wide distribution in many venues. The subtitle “Some scientists believe that an extreme cooling episode, potentially a mini-ice age, is imminent. Others think that it may already be under way.” will probably raise a few eyebrows.

In this blog I often cite historical perspectives on how people and the press have perceived and written about climate in the past, such as this article from the New York Times that says “the Arctic will soon be an open sea” or this one from the 1933 Monthly Weather Review “IS OUR CLIMATE CHANGING? A STUDY OF LONG-TIME TEMPERATURE TRENDS.”, or this one from 1922 “Arctic Ocean Getting Warm; Seals Vanish and Icebergs Melt.“

The editors of OFA took a similar view for the beginning of D’Aleo’s article with this timeline of similar events:


Click for the full size image and article

D’Aleo relies heavily on UAH, HadCRUT, and Mauna Loa CO2 data to make his point, which is that climate change is mostly about cycles, oceans, and solar activity. Here is one of the graphs from the article that we’ve seen many times before:

D’Aleo’s also cites the work of David Hathaway, whom we often mention here, and his predictions of solar cycle 25 being weak, along with mentions of the PDO shift

Doug Hathaway, a solar physicist at NASA, believes that solar activity has diminished and will continue to do so for decades. In 2006, he predicted, based on observations of the slowing of the plasma flow on the Sun, that cycle 25 could be the quietest—thus, the coolest—in centuries. Also in that year, Khabibullo Abdusamatov, head of research for the Russian Academy of Sciences, issued an imminent mini-ice age warning based on expectations of a quieter Sun over the next 50 years. Our long-range forecasts also point toward cooling conditions. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Science, climate_change