This is a collection of news story excerpts this past week. AGW proponents and environmentalists is general are taking hit after hit in the media this week. – Anthony
From the GWPF via email: The Crisis of Climate Catastrophism
The threat to tropical rainforests from climate change may have been exaggerated by environmentalists, according to a new study. Researchers have shown that the world’s tropical forests thrived in the far distant past when temperatures were 3 to 5C warmer than today. They believe that a wetter, warmer future may actually boost plants and animals living the tropics. – David Derbyshire, Daily Mail, 12 November 2010
There are many climactic models today suggesting that … if the temperature increases in the tropics by a couple of degrees, most of the forest is going to be extinct. What we found was the opposite to what we were expecting: we didn’t find any extinction event [in plants] associated with the increase in temperature, we didn’t find that the precipitation decreased. — Carlos Jaramillo, The Guardian, 12 November 2010
The spectre of imminent thirst and/or starvation for billions by 2035 from melting glaciers would appear to have been confirmed as the worst kind of alarmist scaremongering. — Lewis Page, The Register, 11 November 2010
Bjorn Lomborg should be careful about what he wishes for. The unintended consequences pursuant to a renewable trough worth $250 billion has the potential to spawn a lot more nonsense, given its potential for increasing the size and direction of government and making energy policy even more political, much less meritorious. The skeptical environmentalist has become far too credulous. –Jon Boone, MasterResource, 11 November 2010
MORE than $1 billion of taxpayers’ money was wasted on subsidies for household solar roof panels that favoured the rich and did little to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, a scathing review has found. –Tom Arup, The Age, 11 November 2010
Despite a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government, Solyndra, a maker of solar panels in the southeast San Francisco Bay Area city of Fremont, will close one of its manufacturing plants, lay off 40 permanent and 150 contract workers, delay expansion plans of a new plant largely financed with the government-guaranteed loan and scale back production capacity more than 50 percent. Despite the hype and tax money, Solyndra seems unable to compete with Chinese manufacturers, whose prices are lower. This is the latest bad news for the company touted by Mr. Schwarzenegger and President Barack Obama as one of the green industry’s supposed shining lights. – Editorial, The Orange County Register, 11 November 2010
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Guess again. Nature has burned, bulldozed, and oblitrated forests and environments in centuries, decades, and even in moments. Man is not even close to equaling the destructive power wielded by Natur in Earths past history. Take a look at the abrupt and continental wide changes in forestation in North America during the Neogene. Consider the devastation wrought by the extinction level events when the large aseroids impacted the Earth in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere. Look at the changes caused by the mega-droughts inNorth America in the past 2,000 years. The Earth is presently in an interglacial period in one of the coldest ice ages it has experienced in the past 550 million years. A return to slightly colder ice age temperatures will cause mass extinctions, whereas any post ice age climate change can only return to the 5C to 10C greater than today temperatures which have been the norm for most of the Earth’s past experience.
Mike says:
November 12, 2010 at 9:14 am
Do you know why the Amazon jungle it is a jungle and the Saharan desert it is what it is, being one “in front” of the other?
Please let us know your opinion about it.
There are many climactic models today suggesting that …
That’s precisely the problem!, Try “Wii” instead, kids, at least you will excercise everyday, and if you are constant enough you’ll improve your I.Q. to reach levels similar as to your beloved and Inconvenient Prophet. (From 50 to 60)
RR Kampen says:
November 12, 2010 at 8:57 am
The issue is climate change and a large change happening quickly _can_ kill of a vast number of species before new equilibrium is reached.
Some say it “can”, some say it won’t, some say, “Since we either can’t do anything to regulate ‘climate’, or don’t know what the best thing to do is, so what?”
Did you mean CLIMACTIC or rather CLIMACTERIC ?…because many of the Climatic Scientists, by now, they are frankly Climateric.
“As times goes by…”. Remember the 1980’s ?…..Oh! those were the days my friends…..!!!
Guess I’m gonna cry…….Booooaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!
One advice: If you become sceptic you’ll avoid Alzheimer, Sure!
Looks like Climate Science needs a new Villiam…. GLOBAL DIMMING
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/national/global-dimming-threatening-delhi-most-161
“‘Global dimming’ threatening Delhi the most
London: Scientists and environmental experts scheduled to attend a UN-sponsored Environment Program in Cancun, Mexico, this month, have warned that ‘global dimming’ is emerging as the latest threat to planet Earth, and added that cities like Beijing and New Delhi lie just beneath atmospheric brown cloud, thought to be caused mainly by the use of wood-burning stoves. ”
will this nonsense ever stop?
“thought to be caused by….”.
you have got to be kidding me…..
Apparently the UN hasn’t gotten the news :
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/11/12/global-warming-global-taxes
Douglas says
Quote
Palm oil for biodiesel is the problem now
Unquote
Mmmmm, Why? Too efficient, too green, uses too much jungle? Competes too effectively with Soy or Corn?
While the peanut gallery whoops and yelps at this latest paper, seemingly affirming their mistaken view that more CO2 is good…or whatever.
Perhaps it’s useful to hear another word from the author of this paper…
“It’s not just a matter of applying what we learned at that time, because today the forest is very fragmented,” Jaramillo says. “For the forests, I don’t think global warming is going to be good.” http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/65394/title/Warm_spell_spurred_tropical_biodiversity
Which incidently, is pretty well exactly what the IPCC AR4 has been saying on the matter…”There is high confidence that climate change will result in extinction of many species and reduction in the diversity of ecosystems (see Section 4.4) Vulnerability of ecosystems and species is partly a function of the expected rapid rate of climate change relative to the resilience of many such systems. However, multiple stressors are significant in this system, as vulnerability is also a function of human development, which has already substantially reduced the resilience of ecosystems and makes many ecosystems and species more vulnerable to climate change through blocked migration routes, fragmented habitats, reduced populations, introduction of alien species and stresses related to pollution.”http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg2/en/ch19s19-3-4.html
To be perfectly honest, to compare a likely greenhouse gas forced rapid warming of 5-6°C over a period of 10,000 years, some 56 million years ago, to an incredibly rapid ,likely greenhouse gas forced warming over the next few hundred years and expect what’s left of the tropical forest to evolve it’s way back to luxuriant rude health in a similar time frame is…..silly IMO.
Smokey: Al Gore has not gone missing… he’s moving on, quietly, to other ways of making money. He appears to be doing something with Time Warner at the moment.
Trust me – soon enough he’ll have no interaction with anything to do with climate.
Yes we cut down a lot more trees than before. How many of those trees were not there because ice covered most of North America to a depth of a mile or more? The area that is now green with plants instead of white with ice or brown with desserts is amazing.
Just for the ice you are looking at an area about twice the size of Canada. Most of which now has forests, brush etc growing. Look at how large the Gobi desert was. No trees don’t grow all over the previous ice covered area but they grow up to the tundra which is most of it.
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/last_glacial_max.html
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/present_interglacial.html
Found it – this is what he’s up to now:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/former-vice-president-al-gore-hosts-time-warner-cables-global-online-town-hall-on-student-attitudes-toward-math-and-science-education-2010-10-26
Mike says:
November 12, 2010 at 9:14 am
What solar panels have to do with the merits of AWG I do not know. This post is just another piece of spin.
——————————————————–
If you don’t know what “solar panels have to do with the merits of AWG” then your comment is just another piece of nonesense.
In fact, what are the “merits of AGW” anyway? Unless you’re talking about the easy money the corporations can make off of the government subsidies for ‘green’ energy.
In fact, I only just noticed – WTF is AWG anyway! I’d copied and pasted and proof read once and I still didn’t see it, though I see it now! Anthropogenic Wobal Gorming! Good one!
AS Jimmy Haigh says above, James Delingpole received the Bastiat Prize for online journalism at a dinner in New York last night. His work on exposing ‘Climategate’ is duly recognised at last , especially on Telegraph Blogs where they’re having a Field Day.
REPLY: Good for him! But few seem to remember that the source was right here, including the coining of “Climategate” on WUWT. – Anthony
A bad news week for some … people … is a good news week for others.
It all balances out.
Even better in those choice selections is the bit about the way the true believers are embracing self-imposed eugenics. No more little global warming rugrats underfoot. Normal skeptical healthy couples can embrace the changes and get busy …
Smokey, I was calling the wrong number from the milk carton. I kept dialing 1-800-get-lost. Thanks for your help.
James did acknowledge/correct the fact that he did not label it climategate in his blog..
In the UK, Booker and Delingpole (both the Telegraph) have done more than anyone else in the mainstream media.
Importantly both of these journalists were writing against AGW and CAGW for a long time before the ‘climategate’ events.
guess they never heard of the Jurassic…or the Triassic…etc etc…
They thought they could be happy with the IEA’s “World Energy Outlook 2010”. They hyped the Media with “fossil fuel subsidies are five times greater than renewables”.
But the truth is very, very inconvenient! Before you read my post below, just ask where that subsidies might be…?
Then read the post: http://ecotretas.blogspot.com/2010/11/world-energy-outlook-2010.html
You’ll be very surprised!
Ecotretas
Mike says:
November 12, 2010 at 9:14 am
The threat to the Amazon rainforest is from drought not higher temp per se. The warming event studied here occurred much more slowly and did not involve major changes is rainfall. The decline in plant growth in the Amazon has already been observed. Projections are for a significantly drier region. Rainforests need … lot’s of rain.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/65394/title/Warm_spell_spurred_tropical_biodiversity
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19713-tropical-forests-thrived-in-ancient-global-warming.html
What solar panels have to do with the merits of AWG I do not know. This post is just another piece of spin.
Yep, yours sure was.
UN Taxes!!!!!!!!!!! Who said something along the lines of `when they take my gun from my cold, dead hands’ or something like that. And imagine, me a Canadian saying something like that…………
Grey Lensman says: The problem with the palm oil plantations is that they are cut out of rain forests and with the blessings of the same crowd that has hissy fits over native farmers slash and burn farming. Can’t have the locals farming for survival, but WWF and other large ‘environmental’ groups can destroy rain forests for profit if they belong to the church of AGW.
RE: Spector: (November 12, 2010 at 9:09 am)
“I have just seen a promo for a new film titled “Cool it””
Based on reviews I have found, it appears that “Cool it” does not question the basic global warming catastrophe hypothesis but it offers a lower cost solution to the ‘problem’ presented by Danish scientist Bjorn Lomborg and spends a little too much time, in the opinion of one reviewer, dwelling on the exaggerations and fear tactics of former Vice President Gore’s film. This may mark the first stages of a retreat or, perhaps, an example of “The Empire Strikes Back.”.
Yes we have observed 0.6 to 0.7 degrees of net warming since 1880 but I think it is hard to say whether if the 40% CO2 increase is responsible for all of this. Lomborg’s proposals may be just one more way to waste government money.
The subsidies for solar panels weren’t wasted at all. “Favouring the rich” is the sole purpose of AGW, so those subsidies accomplished their goal precisely.