This is a familar set of issues in one article. – Anthony

By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Thursday, September 25, 2008 4:20 PM PT
Environment: The solar wind is slowing, but Al Gore is still spewing hot air. The Oscar winner is promoting civil disobedience to stop energy and economic growth as the first U.S. emissions cap-and-trade program begins.
Speaking before Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative, junk science advocate Gore called on young people to take the law into their own hands because the climate, he claims, is a-changin’. He told the gathering in New York City that “the world has lost ground to the climate crisis” and the time for action is now.
“If you’re a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration,” Gore said to loud applause.
His comments come two weeks after a British jury acquitted six Greenpeace activists accused of causing property damage at a power plant. The jury felt the “protest” was acceptable because the “protesters” feared the plant would contribute to global warming.
Luddites of the world, unite!
On the same day Gore spoke, scientists involved in NASA’s Ulysses project reported that the intensity of the sun’s solar wind was at its lowest point since the beginning of the space age – one more indication that the sun, the biggest source of energy affecting the Earth, is getting quiet.
The weaker solar wind appears to be due to changes in the sun’s magnetic field, but the cause is unknown. Sunspots, which normally fluctuate in 11-year cycles, are at a virtual standstill. In August, the sun created no visible spots. The last time that happened: June 1913.
The results of the Ulysses spacecraft’s mission, according to Jet Propulsion Laboratory project scientist Ed Smith, show that “we are in a period of minimal activity that has stretched on longer than anyone anticipated.”
The consequences for Earth are enormous. The lack of increased activity could signal the start of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event that occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century. It leads to extended periods of severe cooling such as what happened during the Little Ice Age.
It may already be happening. The four major agencies tracking Earth’s temperature, including NASA’s Goddard Institute, report that the Earth cooled 0.7 degree Celsius in 2007, the fastest decline in the age of instrumentation, putting us back to where the Earth was in 1930.
The climate is changing, but not in the direction Al Gore thinks. As the Earth demonstrably cools under a weakening sun, a 10-state coalition on Thursday held the nation’s first carbon allowance auction to deal with a warming trend that may have ended a decade ago.
They will impose a minor league version of the Lieberman-Warner economy-killing cap-and-trade rationing system in which emissions are limited by a progressively lowered cap. Emission permits are auctioned off by government, making it a cap-and-tax system. Permits can be traded or sold between companies like baseball cards.
The Lieberman-Warner bill would mandate emission cuts of 44% below 2007 levels. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that it would cost as much as $3 trillion a year in lost GDP in an economy of roughly $14 trillion. It dwarfs the current financial crisis. But then, it’s for a good cause – right, Al?
The New York-based Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, launched Thursday, strives to freeze CO2 emissions through 2014 and then gradually reduce them to 10% below current levels by 2018. The states participating are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Like its bigger cousin, it’s a job- and growth-killing plan in a time of economic crisis. As the sun slows and the Earth cools, it’ll mean higher energy prices during colder and snowier winters.
Al Gore’s hippie legions may have to wear their winter coats.
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Once again I have to say that I am a skeptic of AGW and sunspot theory. The article notes that there were no sunspots in August and that the last time that happened was in June of 1913. Well we didn’t get a little ice age following 1913. What makes us think we will get one now?
As to Al Gore, it sounds like he must be getting desperate. Further if the civil disobedience results in violence or destruction of property then the perpetrators should go to jail and if Al Gore incited them to do it then he should go to jail too.
When Al Gore says “OK” to one of these in his neighborhood, I will believe that he’s actually concerned about “carbon.”
Can’t see any problems for the AGW crowd here.
All they have to do is push through some kind of CO2 saving proposal in the next year of so. Anything will do – it doesn’t have to work.
Then, when the temperatures start to fall, they can claim that they are saving the world, and negotiate a fat sum of money to ‘keep the globe at an even temperature…”.
Hi Andrew,
I thought you might be interested in the Irish weather this year.
Ireland has been having it particularly cold (and wet) this year. The met office in Ireland keeps a track of historical data on their web site http://www.met.ie/climate/monthly-data.asp
Most of the monthly temperatures are at or below the mean, but the temperature difference between August and September show much greater drops than normal, e.g. Casement (station 3) has a 3 degree drop in temperature where the mean from 1961 to 1990 is 1.9 degrees.
Some of the stations have Global Solar Radiation in Joules/cm2 values. Several of these show below normal values.
Mike B. above is absolutely on target. A profound moral cancer has spread through our political establishment. Albert Gore was VP for 8 years and nearly POTUS. Yet his disrespect for the law, democracy, and the social fabric is sadly evident. Crooks and grafters propose to loot the taxpayers and equity of this country based on Ponzi schemes and groundless Chicken Little dire reports.
The problems we face as a society today will not be solved with “science.” They require moral fortitude and the courage to cast aside corrupt leadership through peaceful democratic action. It does not matter whether the globe is warming or not; freedom from authoritarianism and amoral government controls is too precious to discard, too vital to let whither.
Gore and his fellow traveling knuckleheads will wish we had more CO2 in the atmosphere when the Maunder Minimum hits us.
I know it’s easy to mock these folks, and certainly they do deserve a great deal of what they get, but do remember this is a serious movement. They are fully prepared for the downturn in global temperatures. Remember, they switched from ‘global warming’ to ‘climate change’ just so they could corner the market on any change whatsoever. This will just be explained away as upheavels in Earth’s climate due to man’s activity.
This is a religious cult. You should treat it as such. Don’t expect logic, except that based on AGW being true. Don’t expect them to be swayed by evidence to the contrary. Absolutely nothing will disprove the AGW hypothesis for them, even while a great many of them will live in the lap of luxury, albeit as ‘green’ as current technologies permit.
And here, read the first three articles on Joe D’Aleo’s blog. The third one itself is rather eye-opening.
http://www.icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog
Since the blog will no doubt be updated, I should add that the articles are entitled:
1. Study: Solar Wind Influenced Cosmic Rays Not CFCs Produce Ozone Hole
2. Solar Winds Cooling Warmist Doomsaying
3. Sun Warms and Cools the Earth
Interesting blog post for sure!! Made me smile and laugh out loud, too…
http://www.cookevilleweatherguy.com
Not completely off this topic, but the Department of Climate Change in Australia is using Mann’s reworked Hockey Stick as justification for the claim that current temperatures are higher than ever in the last 1700 years. They then use that to justify our own version of a cap and trade system. Who knows; the government here may even soon encourage civil disobedience too!
Has anyone critically reviewed this latest analysis by Mann? Where can I find it?
“It may already be happening. The four major agencies tracking Earth’s temperature, including NASA’s Goddard Institute, report that the Earth cooled 0.7 degree Celsius in 2007, the fastest decline in the age of instrumentation, putting us back to where the Earth was in 1930.”
That simply isn’t true.
Fred
Is it my imagination or have these people confused the precautionary principle with the idiot principle?
precautionary principle = don’t act without thinking.
idiot principle = act without thinking.
H
http://www.climateaudit.org/
The latest version is in more trouble than the first version. There is a series of posts covering not only the statistical methods and their misuse as well as examinations of the data sets. It is amazing that this latest treatment is even mentioned by anyone without first checking its basics. This version is as incorrect as was the first version.
H,
Check out Steve McIntyre’s site at Climate Audit, http://www.climateaudit.org/, for a thorough, and I mean thorough, critical examination of Mann et als recent paper.
Mann just doesn’t stand up.
This is an old adage of unknown origin:
Men are four:
He who knows and knows he knows,
is wise; follow him;
He who knows and knows not that he knows,
is asleep, wake him;
He who knows not and knows not that he knows not,
is a child, teach him;
He who knows not and knows that he knows not,
is a fool, shun him.
He = Gore, Pelosi, Reid, and the rest of the know-nothings in Congress.
Wow, Al Gore incites criminal behavior. Has he not done enough? This country’s insane energy , make that “non-energy” policy is costing the US about two dollars for every gallon of fuel we consume.
If we had a reasonable energy policy we would have very low inflation, high employment, the ability to survive this financial disaster, and be able to afford (at a reasonable pace) the development of clean energy and fossil fuel alternatives.
I just goggled US gasoline use. 1.5 trillion gallons a year. That factor alone at $2.00 less per gallon would be 3 trillion dollars available to help face this crisis.
Al Gore and Jamie Gorelick should marry. They could be the Mister and Mistress of disaster.
[…] And now he’s promoting civil disobedience. Speaking before Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative, junk science advocate Gore called on young people to take the law into their own hands because the climate, he claims, is a-changin’. He told the gathering in New York City that “the world has lost ground to the climate crisis” and the time for action is now. […]
Well if he was here comments like that could be taken up as inciting terrorism and charges laid. If he hasnt been irresponsible enough already this tops the cake. And to think when idealistic young youth are caught and charged he wouldnt bail them out.
fred (14:57:30)
What’s the truth, Fred? I’m interested.
Gore’s Law — As The Facts Prove More ‘Inconvenient’ The Extremist Hype Will Grow.
DKK
The consequences for Earth are enormous. The lack of increased activity could signal the start of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event that occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century. It leads to extended periods of severe cooling such as what happened during the Little Ice Age
Ah, but now we have the offsetting effect of our lovely warm and growing CO2 blanket. The solar minimum forcing is about 0.15 W/m2 relative to the mean, but the manmade GHG climate forcing is now increasing at a rate of about 0.3 W/m2 per decade. So even in the unlikely event that the sun gets ‘stuck’ at its minimum, the effect would be overtaken by a mere 5 years of our emissions. http://tinyurl.com/4ll4nw
It may already be happening. The four major agencies tracking Earth’s temperature, including NASA’s Goddard Institute, report that the Earth cooled 0.7 degree Celsius in 2007, the fastest decline in the age of instrumentation, putting us back to where the Earth was in 1930.
Oh really? Here are the NASA numbers
2000 .33
2002 .56 .
2003 .55
2004 .49
2005 .62
2006 .54
2007 .57
Source: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.A2.txt
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that it would cost as much as $3 trillion a year
Oh pleease!
Consumption is modeled to be between 0.9% ($180 billion) and 1.4% ($233 billion) lower in 2030 and between
2.1% ($670 billion) and 3.3% ($843 billion) lower in 2050 than in the Reference Scenario.
Source: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/downloads/s2191_EPA_Analysis.pdf
But we have an alternative view from the Congressional Budget Office:
CBO estimates that enacting the legislation would increase revenues by about $902 billion over the 2009-2018 period, net of income and payroll tax offsets. Over the next 10 years, we estimate that direct spending would total about $836 billion. The additional revenues from enacting this legislation would exceed the new direct spending by an estimated $66 billion, thus decreasing future deficits (or increasing surpluses) by that amount over the next 10 years. Other spending could result from enactment of the bill, but it would be subject to future appropriation action. This estimate does not address such spending. In years after 2018, net revenues attributable to the legislation would exceed annual direct spending through 2050.
Source: http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=113
We can save some dollars here, guys.
Really, Anthony, you do yourself no favours in the credibility stakes by posting up an IBD Editorial. This is the outlet that asked “Did NASA scientist James Hansen, the global warming alarmist in chief, once believe we were headed for an ice age?” http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=275267681833290
Answer where I come from: Don’t be so bloody daft.
REPLY: NASA GISS is no longer considered an acceptable unbiased source of data, and thus is not accepted here, please choose another reference. May I suggest RSS or UAH, or even your own Hadley Centre? – Anthony
David-
just goggled US gasoline use. 1.5 trillion gallons a year. That factor alone at $2.00 less per gallon would be 3 trillion dollars available to help face this crisis.
No it isn’t. It’s 390 million gallons a day=142 billion per year.
NASA GISS is no longer considered an acceptable unbiased source of data, and thus is not accepted here, please choose another reference. May I suggest RSS or UAH, or even your own Hadley Centre?
Excuse me? The IBD Editorial you posted said …
The four major agencies tracking Earth’s temperature, including NASA’s Goddard Institute, report that the Earth cooled 0.7 degree Celsius in 2007,
But OK- it’s your house, your rules. The IBD Editorial continues
the fastest decline in the age of instrumentation, putting us back to where the Earth was in 1930.
So what does the Hadley Centre say about the relative temperatures of 1930 and 2007?
1930 -0.373
2007 0.632
A rise of 1C
Source : http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/hadcrut3gl.txt
The IBD stuff really is weapons grade Balonium, whichever data source you choose. I am genuinely surprised you give it bandwidth.
John Philips:
Ah, but now we have the offsetting effect of our lovely warm and growing CO2 blanket.
Only in the fantasy world of AGW. The one thing the extra C02 WILL be good for is the extra plant food. We’ll sure need it.
David:
“Once again I have to say that I am a skeptic of AGW and sunspot theory. The article notes that there were no sunspots in August and that the last time that happened was in June of 1913. Well we didn’t get a little ice age following 1913. What makes us think we will get one now?”
1930 was only a small slow down compared with 1813 which was much more severe. The Cycle is right on track for a “1830” type cooling this time.
http://users.beagle.com.au/geoffsharp/gasgiants.pdf