The weather isn’t so hot, either.
Editorial from: The Washington Times, 29 November 2010
Today, U.N. negotiators will begin two weeks of meetings in Cancun, Mexico, looking for a way to move the climate action agenda forward, impose global carbon emissions caps and compel countries to pay a series of new international taxes to underwrite environmental programs. Maybe they’ll get what they want when hell freezes over.
The mood of climate alarmists going into Cancun is decidedly downbeat. The sense of impending doom they had cultivated over the last decade or so has largely evaporated. The Climategate scandal took a severe toll on the credibility of some of the climate theology’s leading high priests, and subsequent investigations into some of the more outlandish claims on which their doomsaying was based found them to be either exaggerated or fabricated. The November demise of the Chicago Climate Exchange – which sought to transfer billions of dollars to political insiders trading in government-rigged carbon markets – signaled that there was no money in the game anymore. Last week, even Al Gore admitted his fallibility when he retracted his earlier support for ethanol fuels. The god bleeds.
Last year’s Copenhagen confab was intended to seal a comprehensive global climate deal but turned into an exercise in humiliation. The imagined 2009 treaty – originally billed as “the single most important piece of paper in the world today” – would have instituted global governance of carbon emissions enforced by an international body with the power to levy taxes to force countries to impose its will. But the final, hastily written three-page agreement contained none of those controversial proposals and was simply a nonbinding statement regarding voluntary emissions caps. The most significant event at last year’s summit was when the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa unceremoniously snubbed President Obama, who was reduced to barging his way into their meeting uninvited. It was a low moment for the president personally, and a poor showing for what is under most circumstances the strongest country in the world.
The principal goal of this year’s meeting seems to be to hang on to the meager gains made in 2009 and to discuss what to do about the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire at the end of 2012. The green utopians are up against more immediate problems than their imagined impending climate catastrophe. The debt crisis in Europe will blunt the enthusiasm of countries in the Eurozone to underwrite expensive new international initiatives. China, India, Braziland South Africa, among others, will be even less willing to agree to cut back growth than they were when they scuttled the Copenhagen deal. The United States delegation will have to accept the fact that whatever schemes they would like to agree to, any treaty language would have to meet the approval of the incoming more conservative Senate, a highly unlikely proposition. Cancun will be dead on arrival.
One benefit of meeting in Mexico is that the conference will avoid the embarrassment last year when the Copenhagen meeting ended in an unexpected blizzard. It’s harder to sell global warming to world leaders who have to flee the city before their flights are grounded by an ice storm. The worst the Cancun conferees will have to deal with is the threat of being kidnapped by heavily armed gangs of drug dealers.
Jim Cole says: @ur momisugly November 29, 2010 at 8:59 am
“another “PFFFFFT” hurricane season has passed with a whimper.”
The 2010 season yielded 19 named storms, matching AccuWeather.com Chief Hurricane Meteorologist Joe Bastardi’s forecast of 18-21 total storms. By simply looking at the number of storms, 2010 ties 1995’s intense hurricane season, with both years having 19 named storms. Since 1950, only 2005 has surpassed this amount.
The season also had three occurrences of three simultaneously named systems. In addition, there was a 36-day period from Aug. 21 to Sept. 26 where there was not a single full day without at least one active tropical cyclone.
Tropical Storm Matthew was the deadliest storm of the season, killing 126 people in Central America. Tomas killed a total of 41 people. While the United States was spared the majority of tropical activity this year, the same cannot be said for much of the Caribbean, where heavy flooding, intense winds and widespread destruction in some places led to disastrous conditions. Also there was lots of damage and people killed in Canada.
Just because there were no storms in the US does not mean there were no storms!
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/41710/2010-atlantic-hurricane-season-1.asp
dp says: “Does anyone have a phone number or a web page where I can speak with a local international tax representative?”
I have it on good authority that the number you’re looking for is:
666
Eddi Salm says:
November 29, 2010 at 9:48 am
Perhaps he wants them to save alternative energies as IR radiation in his Atmosphere’s Piggy Bank, now that it is empty….
The truth and bottom line strikes again. My question is don’t these people have any personal pride or to put it another way a lick of sense. Their scam has been exposed and the national debts in the US and EU is taking top priority. Now they still want to tax the britches off successful nations to support the third world with free money.
Given how many times they have been embarrassed by winter weather it is surprising they did not schedule this one on the equator.
Are there any luxury hotels on the equator? If so do they serve good wine?
@R. de Haan says:
November 29, 2010 at 9:57 am
The same on Dutch television, why nothing about Cancun? Why the Silence? Next news-item, the first ice-skating marathon on natural ice in the Netherlands 🙂 and a record evening rush hour with more than 900 km of traffic jams on the Dutch highways caused by an inch of snow 🙂
Cancun delegate: “We all know that nothing’s going to come of this so I move we sing a few bars of “Kumbayah,” adjourn to the bars and brothels, tell the media that negotiations are tough but we’re making good progress, and just try to stay warm. Do I have a second?”
“All in favor…”
“Aye”
“All opposed…”
(ribbit… ribbit…)
The USA is already broke. There is both a yearly deficit and an accumulating debt. Many folks do not know the difference. The US Treasury Department (FY2010) must pay interest of $414 billion dollars to holders of the national debt.
http://www.federalbudget.com/
My personal share of the debt (~ $13.6 B) is about $44,000. Can I get some help with this, please?
But wait, there’s more:
Cities are in debt and want states to bail them out. States are in debt and want the US to help. “Build America Bonds” [BABs] and other programs do just that, although BABs are supposed to be revenue neutral to the federal treasury. Still the cities and states accumulate more debt. States sell their future tobacco income stream for current uses. They hide debt and move expenses to the next fiscal year. They issue IOUs for expenses. The list of debt problems seems endless.
Next let’s look at Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and . . . Never mind!
Talk about craziness.
Kidnapped, huh? From your keyboard …
😀
What a phenomenal article!
I suppose it would be too much to ask for to have a little cold rain wander past…
Just a little 😉
California has been all about making the “Fast Buck” ever since the ’49ers Gold Rush. It’s all ‘fast put up’ and ‘fast fold up’ when the game ends. I’d not suggest it as a model of ‘sustainable economics’… Witness our present $14 Billion bond offerings that are not going very well and our $40 Billion (or more depending on who’s rosy projections you believe) deficit that we can’t pay. Oh, and business is fleeing the state (what hasn’t already fled…) now that Governor Moonbeam is back in power. But hey, he did such a great job as Mayor of Oakland that they could almost pay their police… and they are now planning that if they sell
indulgenceslicenses to grow pot, maybe that will get enough money to pay the cops to guard the pot farms…http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/maybe-grass-can-save-california/
at least the ones that pay their
protection moneyfees to the Mayor Moonbeam…Is this really a business model for Australia to emulate?…
Oh, and we’ve been setting new cold records in California, too:
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/now-thats-low-in-tahoe/
Along with a very very early opening to a very snowy ski season:
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/record-early-skiing-and-snow/
Wonder if there are any ski resort in Mexico…
From a site that gave me pop up crud, so no link…
Might be interesting to have an article on Mexican Snow now compared to historical…
dp says: “Does anyone have a phone number or a web page where I can speak with a local international tax representative?”
I think a good number to start with might be 1-212-963-3062. That will be the UN building in New York – ask for the International Civil Service Commission.
If you want an alternative ‘party’, the European Commission are on 00 800 6789 10 11
Both these organisations specialise in international taxes and laws, and offer very attractive tax-free remuneration…
ES says: @ur momisugly November 29, 2010 at 10:11 am . . .“Just because there were no storms in the US does not mean there were no storms!”
What you say is true. The 2010 Hurricane season is no surprise given the warm Atlantic temperatures and lack of shear conditions. Any deaths from natural or man-made disasters are tragic. Yet, I think you are missing Jim Cole’s point: Worldwide ACE is down. “Just because there are storms in the Atlantic does not mean that the world is getting more tropical storms.” In addition, several of these Atlantic storms probably would not have been classified as storms pre-1950. Certainly, some Tiny Tims would not have received the hurricane classification. Also, I feel that it is noteworthy that fifteen years ago, we had a similar number of storms. We are not on the trajectory envisioned by the IPCC five years ago.
Ahhh! Socialism. Isn’t it wonderful?
It’ll never work because it’s opposite to the way people want to live. Yet the little utopian, greeny sheeples continue to insist that we all cede to their every whim. @ur momisugly@$#%#}}~!!!!!
I would suggest (with semi-apologetic nods to Neil Young) these conclaves be renamed “Brother Gore’s Travelling Salvation Show.”
pat says:
November 29, 2010 at 8:36 am (Edit)
“In the first comprehensive global survey of temperature trends in major lakes, NASA researchers determined Earth’s largest lakes have warmed during the past 25 years in response to climate change.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101128220357.htm
The reported rate is rather startling. The highs are 1C per decade. Hmmmm.
Interesting. Back radiation from co2 can’t cause inland water bodies to be preferentially heated more than the ocean and doesn’t penetrate the surface beyond its own wavelength anyway. More support for my thesis that global warming was caused by lowered cloud albedo 1979-98 as empirically measured by the ISCCP cloud project. The well above average solar irradiance had less cloud to get through and penetrates water to over 100m, deeper than a lot of inland water bodies. Hitting the bottom it would warm the mud, heating lakes from below.
Thanks Pat, more circumstantial evidence to support my hypothesis.
Putting aside sincere concerns about the hospitality & security industries in Cancun, taxpayers back home would be better served if the money was spent on honest climate data exploration, with a strict requirement that not a penny be spent on computer modeling fantasies based on untenable assumptions.
Eddi Salm says:
November 29, 2010 at 9:48 am
“Tomorrow James Hansen will go to Pontresina, a village in Switzerland. What is he doing there? He will make propaganda against a planned pumped-storage power station (project Lago Bianco of Repower) !”
Looks like cold and snow in Pontresina this week…[heh]
MattV: I might want to use some of your prose for a letter to the editor. Can you post a comment letting me know it is OK to use it?
Thanks, Greg, San Diego
Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show is the name of Neil Diamond’s fourth studio album
“The worst the Cancun conferees will have to deal with is the threat of being kidnapped by heavily armed gangs of drug dealers. ”
We can only hope.
Some good may come of this. If the drug lords kidnap the delegates and spend even a few minutes listening to them, they’ll pay anything to get someone–anyone–to take them off their hands. We could bankrupt the Mexican drug business in one fell swoop!
By the way Cancun is better pronounced as ‘Can’t con’ (me)
julia Gillard will be working in a fish and chips shop after the next elections nobody has any respect for her anymore ,australians cannot wait for the next elections LABOUR PARTY AND THE GREENS WILL BE KICKED OUT
Apparently they didn’t all get the memo.
A good deal of the whining last year was the “nasty” timing of the Climategate files – “Those horrid deniers did this right now on purpose!”
As usual with the warmists, double standards are the fair of the day.
7.2F no less! Hahahahahahahahaha – can they scream “The Sky Is Falling!” any louder? But they couldn’t use the standard Centigrade this time, no. 4C wasn’t a big enough number. 7.2F sounds SO much scarier! (I have not seen an F temp mentioned – much less headlined – in five years until this…LOL)
They also misrepresent what went down at Copenhagen last year. They mention the 2C as if it was agreed upon or something concrete, when in fact Copenhagen resulted in no agreement of substance.
They also seem to not understand the term “worst case,” since that is by definition an outlier, an EXTREME unlikelihood – one that only comes about if every single forcing occurs. Reuters just accepts this and – I guess – believes it will help sell news. Thus the MSM shows its colours again.
Shame on Reuters…
Greg SAN DIEGO,CA
Greg, ok. My point for writing the few words was to highlight my observation that we seem to be able to find lots of money to solve a problem that does not even exist in the form being stated and is certainly not urgent. Yet for a real world problem like the current Haiti situation which is now extremly urgent, no more help seems to be forthcoming. It would have made lot more sense if the nations got together to discuss how they could help Haiti.It makes me very suspicious about where the money is really going to go and for what purpose?
John F. Hultquist: don’t you mean $13.6 Trillion?