Newsbytes from Dr. Benny Peiser, The GWPF
Europe’s Durban Plan Kaput
Europe’s attempt to formulate a ‘coalition of the willing’ seems doomed. The BASIC countries – China, India, South Africa and Brazil — have already taken a position that any decision on climate change actions beyond 2020 must be based on the next report of UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which will be submitted in 2014, and a review of the fulfilment of commitments under the UN climate convention to be done in 2015. –Nitin Sethi, The Times of India, 15 November 2011
In all likelihood we will see a big change in energy policy and a downgrading of the EU’s ‘20/20/20’ obsession. The targets won’t be changed; they will no longer be taken that seriously. For the first time, the Greens were voted down in the European Parliament, so the mood has changed. The reality is, climate policy isn’t a big agenda item and there are other economic concerns, which are taking higher precedence. This is the attitude and mood swing that I’m witnessing in the UK. –Benny Peiser, Natural Gas Europe, 15 November 2011
For the mechanism of global warming, the IPCC report emphasizes the impact of human activities and the correlation between the CO2 concentration and temperature increase. However, the Earth is a complex dynamic system with various factors affecting each other; great uncertainties exist regarding causes and effects of the climate changes. Therefore, the claims of the IPCC AR4 have been largely questioned. The IPCC report is no longer the most authoritative document on climate changes, as it is restricted by its political tendencies and some errors and flaws. –Fang et al., SCIENCE CHINA, Earth Sciences • October 2011 Vol.54 No.10: 1458–1468
An investigation by the Independent has caught the BBC red-handed selling airtime for millions of pounds. They are trying to spin it as “nominal fees”, but a look at the numbers and content involved is pretty shocking. Perhaps most damning is the fact that a BBC World documentary about climate change was sponsored by green crusaders Envirotrade. And of course “Envirotrade was featured in a positive light in the programme but viewers were unaware that there was a funding arrangement in place.” So remember that next time you swallow the Beeb’s “the debate is over” climate change line… –Guido Fawkes, Order-Order, 15 November 2011
Spain’s likely new centre-right government plans a major overhaul of the energy sector, possibly axing subsidies for wind and solar power as the euro zone debt crisis makes funding very costly. –Jonathan Gleave, Reuters, 15 November 2011
When the Confederation of British Industry and the big Trade Unions are in policy agreement, it amounts to reliable circumstantial evidence for taking the opposite view. Energy Minister Greg Barker’s decision to cut solar subsidies by 50% is one-nil to the public against the forces of corporatism, the conspiracy of big capital and big labour against the consumer. It was an outrage that the scheme was ever implemented in the first place – with the support of all three main political parties. –Dominic Lawson, The Independent, 15 November 2011
15 Nov: Bernama:Durban Has Plan To Offset Carbon Fooprint From Hosting Climate Change Summit
According to eThekwini Environmental Planning and Climate Protection deputy head, Debra Roberts, the Durban Ceba Initiative is one of the most exciting elements of the city’s broader COP17 greening programme.
Delegates at COP17 will be able to buy “Ceba credits” to offset the carbon footprint of the event.
“It has been adopted as the official voluntary offset mechanism for COP17. Delegates, corporates and residents of Durban will be able to contribute towards the project by buying ‘Ceba credits’ to play their part in helping offset the environmental impact associated with hosting COP17,” said Roberts…
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=626991
business for insiders as usual:
SAIEE: Profile: Dr. Debra Roberts
Internationally, Dr Roberts is a lead author of Chapter 8, Urban Areas, of the Working Group II contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, due for release in 2014. She is also a member of the South African national negotiating team participating in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations – specialising in the area of adaptation. She sits on various international advisory bodies focused on climate change issues in cities (e.g. the Rockefeller Foundation’s Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes’ Expert Panel on Human Settlements and Infrastructure). In addition she is vice-chair of UN-Habitat’s HS-NET Advisory Board which recently oversaw the production of the 2011 “Cities and Climate Change” Global Report .
http://www.saiee.org.za/content.php?pageID=55&eventID=570#
Rosco says:
November 16, 2011 at 1:08 pm
I was recently asked why the Moon gets so hot.
The best I could come up with is that absent the cooling mechanisms of an atmosphere, (convection, advection etc,) it had to rely on purely radiative dissipation.
DaveE.
Mike Bromley @ur momisugly 3;15: “An unpopular decision at this point would be disastrous for the politicos.”
Mike, the unpopular decision already occurred at Copenhagen. It put the final nail in the coffin of post-Kyoto before the current global financial crisis hit. What will be seen at Durban is that while national leaders came to Copenhagen, for Durban, none of the national leaders will attend from any nations that actually matter. All that will show up will be Environment Ministers. Oh, there will be lots of Green trash, particularly from the Euro nations, and lots of excited and panicky end-of-the-world press conferences, but the political steam has completely gone out of this thing.
Who gives a rat’s @ur momisugly$$ about emissions trading credits when the EU has to scrape up 3 trillion Euros or so to bail out their banking systems?
Why will this not be a disaster for the politico’s? Because like every UN process the COP conferences will never actually die. Instead, over a few years there will be a slow downgrading of the seniority of representation and status of the delegations, particularly for those nations which matter. This was already starting to happen at Copenhagen. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper never went, despite the “world summit” hype, even though Canada represents a very large proportion of the world’s undeveloped oil reserves. Barack Obama went and was thoroughly embarrassed, as China, India and Brazil told him to wait outside the meeting room while they sorted things out to their convenience. It’s guaranteed that Obama’s not going to Durban after that fiasco.
Because of the economic and international trade nature of Kyoto and its now non-existent follow-ons, participation of the US and the BASIC nations was essential. However, remember that even with the most left wing President in the history of the nation and with Democrat super-majorities in both Houses, the US still refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
It’s done, like last week’s dinner.
Dave Evans, remember that the Moon has no atmosphere, so all of the Sun’s output, including high energy charged particles like protons, strikes the lunar surface, whereas for Earth, much of it does not, being absorbed by the upper atmosphere and re-radiated.
davidmhoffer says:
November 16, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Hugh … I’m sort of on Hugh’s side on this one. He just misworded it a bit. I think what he meant was if the IPCC is not the most authoritative source on CAGW, then who is? Fair question, is it not?
Follow up question would be, if the most authoritative source on CAGW can’t convince the masses that it is real, would that not raise the suspicion that it is a fairy tail?…..
____________________________
Actually I thought it was a donkey’s tail…..
Colin says:
November 16, 2011 at 5:44 pm
I did actually address that, saying that there was no atmospheric attenuation of Solar input on the Moon. Given that that attenuation is at most about 20% it alone cannot explain it.
DaveE.
Gail Combs;
Actually I thought it was a donkey’s tail…..>>>
Maybe it was a fairy tail about a donkey’s tail?
Gail Combs;
Actually I thought it was a donkey’s tail…..>>>
Maybe it was a fairy tail about a donkey’s tail?
On second thought, perhaps it was a tall tail? Told by donkey’s?
(If you have a line that involves fairies to continue that logic chain, by all means feel free to add it. I came up with several, all of which I’m certain would get snipped)
Spain will change under the new government (Mariano Rajoy and the PP party), or die.
Under the PSOE party they have gone way too far to the left and became a quasi-socialist country that could not employ/feed its citizens.
In Alberta, the government until now was for carbon capture, but the new premier seems to have a change of heart. In today’s Edmonton Journal, see:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Redford+government+backs+away+from+carbon+capture/5717406/story.html
“Redford government backs away from carbon capture
‘Better initiatives’ for emissions cuts, new premier says”
If billions & billions of dollars,euros & pounds sterling had not been wasted on green prostitution, would there be a worldwide financial crisis? It is obvious that some type of “post normal science” thinking has been applied to financial markets, with the result that “Atishoo, atishoo, it’s all fallen down”. Bring on the deluge and cleanse the Augean stables.
Let us consider how elite politicians and piano wire would go so well together.
So climate change is no longer being taken seriously in the UK and the targets are being ignored. Tell that to the Scottish Government with its obsession with renewables. They will soon be a laughing stock. As the proud Scottish mother said as her soldier son marched by: “A’body’s oot o’ step but my Wullie.”
DirkH is correct – watch out for Santa bringing new (well, the return of the good old ones really) currencies. If there is one ideal time of year to change currencies then that time is Christmas. Banks close for a number of days allowing for account currencies to be changed as well as preventing money from being withdrawn and transferred to other countries. The more the merrier I say and hasten the end of the euro and soon after the European (soviet) Union.
Everybody here is essentially saying “the Alarmists are through, done, stick a fork in them because bulk of the world’s governments are too broke to take the IPCC and Al Gore’s other assorted merry mental munchkins seriously”. I would respectfully submit that it’s not that simple if one simply looks at this situation not from a scientific basis but a monetary basis. Yes the free world’s governments are broke but the bankers, pols and other elites have made a huge bet on being able to implement an unprecedented global tax and they are most certainly not going to go quietly into the long good night of irrelevance and ridicule. With trillions at stake I would never under estimate their capacity for political chicanery and outright criminal thuggery. They know the scam is unraveling. Why do you think they are getting more strident by the moment calling for a “Climate Nuremburg” to prosecute “enviro-criminal deniers”? I submit that things are going to get a whole lot uglier before they get better.
They managed to ram through the carbon scam in Australia despite over half the citizens being against it. If President Obama manages to get re-elected (not at all a sure thing either way) they have on their side a world leader who has shown little compunction so far at ignoring the congress and getting his way by executive order and who doesn’t have to worry about being re-elected. I’m not trying to sound like a conspiracy theorist but simply saying let’s not get complacent and start patting each other on the back for a hard fought victory just yet.
I would also add that the more prominent members of the skeptic community should be watching their backs. Progressives can get pretty nasty when you tip over rice bowl and downright vicious when you’re threatening the whole cart. Every time I hear comments like “when is it going to be OK to start killing criminal deniers” I take that seriously. Add to that prominent skeptics being featured in “Criminal Denier” pamphlets I start to worry about the safety of the selfless and dedicated folks who have given so much of themselves for such an important cause.