Green programs in Oregon bleeding the state books red

1 11 2009

Oregon’s biggest problem used to be logging jobs lost from spotted owl lawsuits.

http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/IMAGES/Oregon/OregonStateSeal.jpg

A new sort problem is developing. Green jobs and green programs are going off the rails. Portland recently passed a draconian “Climate Action Plan to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% that has little chance of succeeding by its 2050 deadline.

Read the story from the Oregonian here

The latest news is that the Green Tax breaks aren’t what they were promised to be and taxpayers are getting hosed for a cost 40 times what was voted on:

State lowballed cost of green tax breaks

State officials deliberately underestimated the cost of Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s plan to lure green energy companies to Oregon with big taxpayer subsidies, resulting in a program that cost 40 times more than unsuspecting lawmakers were told, an investigation by The Oregonian shows.

It gets worse. Now tax breaks are being sold in Oregon for less than they are worth. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 86 Comments »

Categories : politics

Australia’s CSIRO tries to squelch a dissenting view on carbon trading

1 11 2009

CSIRO bid to gag emissions trading scheme policy attack

csiro-logo

Article from:  The Australian by Nicola Berkovic

THE nation’s peak science agency has tried to gag the publication of a paper by one of its senior environmental economists attacking the Rudd government’s climate change policies.

The paper, by the CSIRO’s Clive Spash, argues the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is an ineffective way to cut emissions, and instead direct legislation or a tax on carbon is needed.

The paper was accepted for publication by the journal New Political Economy after being internationally peer-reviewed.

But Dr Spash told the Australia New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics conference that the CSIRO had since June tried to block its publication.

In the paper, Dr Spash argues the economic theory underpinning emissions trading schemes is “far removed” from the reality of permit markets. “While carbon trading and offset schemes seem set to spread, they so far appear ineffective in terms of actually reducing GHGs (greenhouse gases),” he says. “Despite this apparent failure, ETS remain politically popular amongst the industrialised polluters.

“The public appearance is that action is being undertaken. The reality is that GHGs are increasing and society is avoiding the need for substantive proposals to address the problem of behavioural and structural change.” Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 39 Comments »

Categories : politics

Spot the science error

1 11 2009

Guest post by Dr. Leif Svalgaard

The following abstract of a poster to be presented next month at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union caught my eye:

Session Title: GC11A. Diverse Views From Galileo’s Window: Solar Forcing of Climate Change Posters Chair: Willie Soon, Nicola Scafetta, Richard C Willson

ID# GC11A-0685: Dec 14 8:00 AM – 12:20 PM
Revised Assumptions and a Multidiscipline Approach to a Solar/Climate Connection

C. A. Perry (US Geological Survey, Lawrence, KS, USA).

Click to enlarge

Abstract: Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 214 Comments »

Categories : Science, solar

Spencer on IPCC admission on climate feedbacks

1 11 2009

In Their Own Words: The IPCC on Climate Feedbacks

by Roy W. Spencer, Ph. D.

feedback_system

Despite the fact that the magnitude of anthropogenic global warming depends mostly upon the strengths of feedbacks in the climate system, there is no known way to actually measure those feedbacks from observational data.

The IPCC has admitted as much on p. 640 of the IPCC AR4 report, at the end of section 8.6, which is entitled “Climate Sensitivity and Feedbacks”:

“A number of diagnostic tests have been proposed…but few of them have been applied to a majority of the models currently in use. Moreover, it is not yet clear which tests are critical for constraining future projections (of warming). Consequently, a set of model metrics that might be used to narrow the range of plausible climate change feedbacks and climate sensitivity has yet to be developed.”

This is a rather amazing admission. Of course, since these statements are lost in a sea of favorable (but likely superfluous) comparisons between the models and various aspects of today’s climate system, one gets the impression that the 99% of the IPCC’s statements that are supportive of the climate models far outweighs the 1% that might cast doubt. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 96 Comments »

Categories : modeling

Equatorial Volcano shows signs of imminent eruption

1 11 2009
Colombia volcano rumbles back to life. The volcano is about 1.2 degrees north of the Equator.

From AFP

Galeras Volcano in 2005

BOGOTA, Colombia — Officials in southern Colombia have issued a code orange alert for the newly-active Galeras volcano which they said could erupt in a matter of days or weeks, according to the state-run Geological and Mining Institute.

Authorities said they are continuing to monitor the nearby Huila volcano, also on orange alert, where sizeable volcanic activity also has been detected in recent weeks. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 26 Comments »

Categories : vulcanism

Weather Balloon Challenge – WUWT reaches far and wide – we can win

1 11 2009

This contest from DARPA caught my eye because it involves weather balloons, the Internet, and social networking. WUWT is poised to help due to our reach, and because we have lots of keen eyed surfacestations.org volunteers with GPS and cameras.
darpa_balloon

This prize would be enough money to put a full page ad about climate in a major media outlet. Or, all balloon locators could equally split the winnings with me as facilitator. All you have to do is locate the weather balloons and get the lat/lon to me. The idea of this contest is to use social networking to locate them and win. Once the balloons are launched on December 5th, we have 9 days to find them. I think there’s a good chance WUWT readers can pull this off pretty quickly.

The way to do this (without tipping off competitors) is to post a notice in comments, saying you have a located one, and leave an email address where you can be contacted.

If WUWT readers think this is a good idea, I’ll register the website and we’ll give it a go. I also welcome strategies. My only question (which doesn’t seem to be delineated in the announcement) is how is DARPA going to label real balloons from regular red ones commonly available and used for promotions? I’ve sent them a query.

Here are the details: Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 75 Comments »

Categories : Announcements

Prius and Tesla gang up on SUV – The SUV wins

1 11 2009

You can’t make this stuff up.  A priest, a rabbi, and a minister…no wait. A Prius, a Tesla, and an SUV…

prius_tesla_toureg_crash

3 car pileup - Prius, Tesla, SUV: caption your own joke

No, this isn’t a Photoshop trick. Proving truth is indeed stranger than fiction, it actually happened in Denmark on October 9th. It is likely the only accident of its kind in the world.

WUWT reader Lars Seiersen gives us the details and translation of this newspaper article that appeared in Ekstra Bladet: Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 67 Comments »

Categories : Uncategorized

In-betweeners: Enjoy the warmth while it lasts

1 11 2009

Our “recent” (geologically speaking) temperature history:

Image by Joe D'Aleo via IntelliCast - data is oxygen isotopes - click to enlarge

By Lawrence Solomon in the Financial Post

Thank your lucky stars to be alive on Earth at this time. Our planet is usually in a deep freeze. The last million years have cycled through Ice Ages that last about 100,000 years each, with warmer slivers of about 10,000 years in between.

We are in-betweeners, and just barely — we live in (gasp!) year 10,000 or so after the end of the last ice age. But for our good fortune, we might have been born in the next Ice Age.

Our luck is even better than that. Those 10,000-year warm spells aren’t all cosy-warm. They include brutal Little Ice Ages such as the 500-year-long Little Ice Age that started about 600 years ago. Fortunately, we weren’t around during its fiercest periods when Finland lost one-third of its population, Iceland half, and most of Canada became uninhabitable — even the Inuit fled. While the cold spells within the 10,000 year warm spells aren’t as brutal as a Little Ice Age, they can nevertheless make us huddle in gloom, such as the period in history from about 400 AD to 900 AD, which we know as the Dark Ages. We’ve lucked out twice, escaping the cold spells within the warm spells, making us inbetweeners within the inbetween periods. How good is that? Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 94 Comments »

Categories : Opinion

New WUWT milestone: 2 million hits this month

1 11 2009

During the summer, numbers held steady. This month saw some significant growth. According to the stats, the hit counter reached 2 million about 10:18AM on the morning of October 31st.

Here’s the graph from the internal WordPress stats system. Raw data, not adjusted, directly measured.

WUWT_stats_Oct2009

WUWT statistics, visits by month, ending Oct 31st 2009 - click for larger image

As always, I think of this as a joint success. The readers, moderators, and contributors make this site what it is. I couldn’t do it alone.

You all have my sincere thanks for being an active part of this success. Because of that shared success, I always like to share good news.

- Anthony


Comments : 79 Comments »

Categories : Announcements