Germany in skeptical turmoil on both Climate and Solar/Windfarms

This looks like a top post for some time

If the German economy crashes, there won’t be any stable economies in the Euro-zone. Look out below.

Anybody that works at the “coal face” of the generating industry could see this coming from a mile away. I have been trying to tell the hysterical numpties at The Guardian exactly what Guenter Kiel has said about the instability caused by intermittent renewables.
The reality is, it has been obvious all along. Ask anyone working on despatch at any national grid in the developed world.

Quick! They need the smart grid! Oh… wait?

I wish the same high impact news story about the AGW folly would happen in Oz. As a constrast, scientists here are complaining that our West Australian reefs are GROWING at an unsustainable rate.
(http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201202/s3423899.htm)
(http://www.aims.gov.au/latest-news/-/asset_publisher/MlU7/content/3-february-2012-ocean-warming-drives-coral-growth-rates-in-western-australia;jsessionid=D0C4E65038D4EFE6048E452B75821E8E?redirect=http%3a%2f%2fwww.aims.gov.au%2flatest-news%3bjsessionid%3dD0C4E65038D4EFE6048E452B75821E8E%3fp_p_id%3d101_INSTANCE_MlU7%26p_p_lifecycle%3d0%26p_p_state%3dnormal%26p_p_mode%3dview%26p_p_col_id%3dcolumn-2%26p_p_col_pos%3d2%26p_p_col_count%3d3)

Start emailing the newsdesks of all the media outlets you know, linking to this WUWT article. They can’t ignore it.
A comment like the following could be added as we nail up the coffin …
The two major errors were
(1) assuming that the Earth’s surface has to radiate like a blackbody and thus would have been -18 degrees C if there were no “greenhouse” gases. But the surface loses thermal energy by diffusion, conduction, convection, evaporation and chemical processes, leaving far less than 50% of the energy to be radiated. So you cannot apply the Stefan-Boltzmann Law as if all energy is radiated.
(2) assuming that radiative flux (energy) from a colder atmosphere can be converted to thermal energy when it strikes a significantly warmer surface.
For more detail see my site http://climate-change-theory.com

@DirkH
Is there anything in English about the impact the cold is having on modern diesel cars?
I know I could feed my old Peugeot 405 just about anything including vegetable oil with a bit of white spirit to prevent emulsifying.
Best regards.
DaveE.

I can hear Wagner playing under this unfolding story!!!

Glad to see the Germans coming around! This past November 20th, I had the honor of seeing one of my skeptical posts translated into German then published on a German-skeptic site (see links below). Translation was performed by Chris Frey, and published by Michael Limburg. I have never had a web-post translated and published before, so this was very nice!
The English version is here: http://sowellslawblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/from-man-made-global-warmist-to-skeptic.html
The German version is here: http://www.eike-klima-energie.eu/climategate-anzeige/von-einem-warmisten-zu-einem-skeptiker-meine-ganz-private-reise/

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” :- Winston Churchill.
I agree with crosspatch. They are not environmentalists but economic saboteurs!
DaveE.

Great news! I know that weather is not climate. But the people are battling severe cold right now in Germany (as well as many other countries). When the weather very strongly reinforces what you read, that is a very powerful one-two punch. (Ask Hansen!)

It’s easier to bury something with gravel than with boulders.

Thanks DirkH
I’d seen the comment over at NTZ & hoped maybe you had an English reference as I’ve been unable to find one. I do know often German sites also often have an English zone. Google translate is OK but I was hoping for a better translation.
My Danish is rusty & my German is worse. 🙁
DaveE.

Bernd Felsche says:
February 6, 2012 at 6:19 pm
Quote of the thread!

R. Gates says:
February 6, 2012 at 6:09 pm
“Markus Fitzhenry says:
February 6, 2012 at 5:52 pm
Gentlemen, I have it ion very good authority, the date Anthropogenic Global Warming bit the dust was in fact, 23 January 2012.
———
This is one of the most humorous things I’ve read all day.”
R. Gates, despite my best attempts, I could not discern the convenient warming of Longwave Infrared Backradiation from the heavens, even though it was -15 deg C with no winds where I stood; which should have given the flux of quantae a good opportunity to flow my direction. Yes, I do have the feeling it’s dead.

Achtungate:
It must be difficult to lose face. Losing face is a big thing in Asia, I should know I live there. I suspect that it is the same all over the world. But some people have no face to lose. Maybe saving face is one of the reasons for the religious fever attached to people who believe that CAGW is the new holy gospel. Who knows? I have never managed to understand fanaticism and properly never will. Now very importantly on that point of face: All the scandals and this fantastic new development from Germany have now given the people who more or less believed in CAGW a way out. “Without losing face”. Think about that for a minute. I predict that this day is the turning point in history, even more than the previous gates. I call this one achtungate.

The article DirkH referenced translated via Google
It has trouble with a word, “versultzen” which I think may mean “emulsified”.
DaveE.

This is AWESOME!!!

Wow, those Germans always where a smart bunch of folks, i.e.; the jet engine, optics, and the ever present ball bearing are just a few examples. I’m surprised it took so long. Hopefully this will catch on !!!!
Of course, they did take a little unfortunate side trip back in the 1930’s and 40’s.
FYI, the vast majority of ball bearings are still to this day made in metric sizes. This is because the Germans perfected the machines that manufacture said bearings. And the machines came pre-programmed (in a mechanical sense, not a computer software sense) to make metric sizes.
Disclaimer, as an American I do in fact have a family history based on German immigrants that came here before the US Revolution. So I am at least a little bit of a “German-American” although I consider myself 100% American, with interests in the ways of my forbearers.
Cheers, Kevin.

And, according to Michael Mann, “For climate change not not even be *mentioned* in a story on “Year Without a Winter”…is simply journalistic malpractice”.
Ok, so in this story, climate change WAS mentioned.
Wonder if he’s happy about this one…

Meanwhile, in Moree (NSW)…
Solar project rethink a blow to government
David Wroe
February 7, 2012 – 2:42PM
Read later
Two major projects awarded a total of $750 million in the first round of the government’s Solar Flagships funding are struggling to secure private investment. The federal government has been forced to rethink its $300 million support for a massive solar power station after the project failed to attract private financing.
In an embarrassing blow to the government’s clean energy efforts, Energy Minister Martin Ferguson has re-opened the bidding on a $306 million grant under the government’s Solar Flagship scheme, which aims to encourage investment in large-scale solar projects.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/solar-project-rethink-a-blow-to-government-20120207-1r328.html#ixzz1lfGLh1XT

@Andrew30
the correct saying is:
“Von den Toten sprich nichts außer Gutes”

There may come a time in the foreseeable future, when Big Climate will no longer hold sway over policies of nations. It will take a while, though, because policy-makers are so in love with raising taxes for any reason, and Big Climate allows for a an excuse to raise taxes by amounts and to levels unheard of, except during the wonderful monarchies of centuries past.

Awesome! What great news.

Ratten entgehen vom sinkenden Schiff.

Meanwhile, from Richard Black, the BBC’s Head AGW Parrot, comes this backsliding piece of spin:
“Is there or isn’t there a scientific consensus on climate change?
And does it matter?”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16906738
After ranting on endlessly about the authority of The Consensus, now we have this. Too funny.
Does Black’s blog matter? Yes and no. It matters as a sign of the times but, due to its hopeless bias and Black’s role as a useful idiot for the Team, it has long been irrelevant to the dynamics of the debate.
And, besides all this great news on the PR front, the best news from Europe is China’s response to the EU’s carbon tax on airlines… which is, officially, to stuff it. With the EU now on its knees begging for China’s help, I’m guessing that the EU will back down and Carbon Connie will soon reach some kind of tipping point.

Well, no one can say they weren’t told. However, if Germany can’t get this turned around, and quickly, there are some very major implications. Germany is propping up the economically weaker EU nations, such as Greece. If/when this stops, and it will as soon as the industrial base starts to move, bad things are going to happen……. world wide. Think nations in default….. Greece, Italy, Spain…… think of the banking strains occurring in an already strained industry. People will yearn for the word “recession”.
This is rather timely, while this was being posted, I was working on a post. For those who don’t understand how renewables make the grid unstable, I’ve got a few of graphics in the post which show Cali’s renewable energy production in action. And, it’s ugly.
http://suyts.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/california-demonstrates-why-soft-renewables-are-a-bad-idea/
For those that don’t understand why industry doesn’t like this, our industrial base operates within production quotas and anticipation. The energy must be available when the need for production occurs. No energy, no production. If they have to wait for the energy to be available, someone else will produce the required goods.

Man oh Man Michael Mann will be spewing on this one!

The cold winds of reality doth blow.
They blow through chinks in crumbling walls,
They blow through cracks beneath the doors,
Draft protection will not avail,
The winds of reality are becoming a gale!

Ursus Augustus says:
February 6, 2012 at 6:45 pm
Well I’ve sent a link to this WUWT article to most mainland Aussie newspapers, so how about you doing so in Tassie.
Nice place, BTW. Did you get snow there (like Victoria) this summer?
Anyway, enjoy my pics http://tasmania-holiday.com

It’s simple really – either he’s gone mad or was bought off by the oil industry…
As long as MSM and MSP(oliticains) praise AGW crowd and villify the sceptics nothing will ever change. We can applaud brave people like this one all we like, the truth of the matter is this is all futile untill the two main instigators of this whole thing I mentioned above change their tune. Every once in a while we see influential people come back on the side of rationality and scientific process, but the amount is not nearly enough.
The way of the world sickens me, and as long as it keeps functioning the way it does, we will never have freedom, principled leaders and all that jazz. Us normal blokes will keep giving money to all those rich [selfsnipped] while us normal joes keep starving and freezing to death.

They must do Green differently in Germany. It’s surprising that a long time green activist would be surprised to learn the movement, globally at least, is beset by crap.

“Ratten entgehen vom sinkenden Schiff.”
(The rats departing from the sinking ship)
Indeed! The MSM (Including Bild) have been supporting the IPCC ‘scientists’ with their fraud. They have been very vocal in smearing reputable and proper scientists and now they sense a turn in public opinion they suddenly pretend they have never supported the “Anthropogenic CO2 is a greenhouse gas that is the cause of global warming”.
It is time to get the tar and feathers out and name and shame the pseudo-scientists, ‘environmental’ profiteers and organisations, Newspapers, politicians and political parties (Icluding and especially the corrupt UN) that have been party to this scam.
Don’t let them get away with it!

The mystery is why it has taken so long for the news media and at least some government officials to acknowledge what energy experts like me (I actually am an expert with a long list of credentials) have been telling them for years. Other than in certain narrowly defined, niche markets and applications, renewable energy in most of its forms is economically ruinous. Pathetic energy density and capacity factors doom both wind a solar, even at their theoretical conversion efficiency limits.
Anyone with a journeyman understanding of electric power generation/distribution and in possession of a hand-held calculator could have and should have long ago reached the above mentioned conclusion. That many of those who could have done so did not is a testament to the power of political correctness, fashion and vested interests of our times to bury simple truth under a pile of noble-sounding environmental proclamations.
The front page of today’s Los Angeles Times features a solar article covering what I would describe as an “environmental hangover”. In it, representatives of various environmental protection groups bemoan the pain of having sacrificed (in their view) trainloads irreplaceable desert critters and fauna to the latest rush of federally promoted, commercial solar monsters in exchange for the greater good of preventing global warming calamity. The irony is that the AGW alter on which they’ve made that sacrifice is fraudulent on its face and the resulting solar power plants are unlikely to last past the five years it takes to drain off all the federal tax benefits to private investors hooked up with the current political administration. At that point, horrendous economics is likely to leave U.S. tax payers holding the bag for $ billions in loan guarantees and a lawyer field day will begin over who should be responsible for cleaning up the physical mess left behind out in the desert.

For whatever reason, the following comment failed to post. I’ll try again.
The mystery is why it has taken so long for the news media and at least some government officials to acknowledge what energy experts like me (I actually am an expert with a long list of credentials) have been telling them for years. Other than in certain narrowly defined, niche markets and applications, renewable energy in most of its forms is economically ruinous. Pathetic energy density and capacity factors doom both wind a solar, even at their theoretical conversion efficiency limits.
Anyone with a journeyman understanding of electric power generation/distribution and in possession of a hand-held calculator could have and should have long ago reached the above mentioned conclusion. That many of those who could have done so did not is a testament to the power of political correctness, fashion and vested interests of our times to bury simple truth under a pile of noble-sounding environmental proclamations.
The front page of today’s Los Angeles Times features a solar article covering what I would describe as an “environmental hangover”. In it, representatives of various environmental protection groups bemoan the pain of having sacrificed (in their view) trainloads irreplaceable desert critters and fauna to the latest rush of federally promoted, commercial solar monsters in exchange for the greater good of preventing global warming calamity. The irony is that the AGW alter on which they’ve made that sacrifice is fraudulent on its face and the resulting solar power plants are unlikely to last past the five years it takes to drain off all the federal tax benefits to private investors hooked up with the current political administration. At that point, horrendous economics is likely to leave U.S. tax payers holding the bag for $ billions in loan guarantees and a lawyer field day will begin over who should be responsible for cleaning up the physical mess left behind out in the desert.

Jeremy says:
February 6, 2012 at 8:19 pm
“Sad to say, none of the “climate scientists” (con artists) nor the media will ever be held accountable by western governments.”
Jeremy, CAGW was always in the interest of these governments; they MADE it. It was always the intent to use this or any other scientific concern to raise new taxes. The Kyoto treaty is a near-verbatim copy of a template penned by a commission of the German parliament. CAGW scientists have always worked in the name of the government. That also explains why the science is so crappy.

_Jim says:
February 6, 2012 at 8:58 pm
Doug Cotton says on February 6, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Have you any concept of how … energy is exchanged, from propagation in ‘space’ to a molecule – and then re-radiated again?”,
___________________________
Yes, coherent radiated energy is indeed converted to incoherent thermal energy when the peak frequency of the incident radiation exceeds the peak frequency of the recipient body, such peak frequencies being determined by Wien’s Displacement Law.
The earth’s surface converts incident high frequency solar radiation to thermal energy, which can subsequently be diffused to the surface by molecular collision, or transferred by evaporation or chemical processes or, if the adjoining atmosphere is cooler, the remaining energy will be radiated to such atmosphere with a one-way transfer of thermal energy from the warmer surface to the cooler atmosphere or directly to space. .
Radiation is also generated in the atmosphere from thermal energy which is absorbed in a variety of ways including absorption of both surface and solar radiation, molecular collision and phase change. Any such radiation which meets a (significantly) warmer surface will be scattered and not converted to thermal energy.
Spectroscopy demonstrates this quite clearly for gases which only show absorption lines when the emitting source is warmer than such gases.
I hope that helps you to understand, but if you need mathematical proof visit http://www.csc.kth.se/~cgjoh/blackbodyslayer.pdf

Here is the link regarding Kyoto I expected DirkH to include:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/secret-history-climate-alarmism?page=1

Reblogged this on Xylance's Blog.

_Jim says:
February 6, 2012 at 8:58 pm
Doug Cotton says on February 6, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Have you any concept of how … energy is exchanged, from propagation in ‘space’ to a molecule – and then re-radiated again?”,
___________________________
Yes, coherent radiated energy is indeed converted to incoherent thermal energy when the peak frequency of the incident radiation exceeds the peak frequency of the recipient body, such peak frequencies being determined by Wien’s Displacement Law and being thus proportional to absolute temperature.
The earth’s surface converts incident high frequency solar radiation to thermal energy, which can subsequently be diffused to the surface by molecular collision, or transferred by evaporation or chemical processes or, if the adjoining atmosphere is cooler, the remaining energy will be radiated to such atmosphere with a one-way transfer of thermal energy from the warmer surface to the cooler atmosphere, or directly to space. .
Radiation is also generated in the atmosphere from thermal energy which is absorbed in a variety of ways including absorption of both surface and solar radiation, molecular collision and phase change. Any such radiation which meets a (significantly) warmer surface will be scattered and not converted to thermal energy. (See link to proof below.)
Spectroscopy demonstrates this quite clearly for gases which only show absorption lines when the emitting source is warmer than such gases.
I hope that helps you to understand, but if you need mathematical proof visit http://www.csc.kth.se/~cgjoh/blackbodyslayer.pdf

_Jim says:
February 6, 2012 at 8:58 pm
Can you explain to us all how a CLOUDY night does not cool off near as much as a clear-sky night?
Clouds usually form when the humidity is so high that the atmosphere reaches its dew point. The moist adiabatic lapse rate is lower than the dry adiabatic lapse rate because latent heat is released when water condenses, thus decreasing the rate of temperature drop as altitude increases.

“Doubt came two years ago when he was an expert reviewer of an IPCC report on renewable energy. “I discovered numerous errors and asked myself if the other IPCC reports on climate were similarly sloppy.””
This is a very important point. Google “michael-crichton gell-mann-amnesia” and read the first link. Key psychological insight into why so many otherwise intelligent people can be easily misled. Congratulations to Vahrenholt for being willing to follow the evidence.

__Jim: (continued)
In general, spontaneously emitted radiation has an attenuated frequency distribution with a peak frequency which is proportional to the absolute temperature, quantified in Wien’s Displacement Law. When it strikes another body (eg Earth’s surface) its coherent energy will be converted to incoherent thermal energy only if the surface is emitting (or would emit) at a peak frequency less than that of the radiation. In other words, the surface has to be (significantly) cooler than the source of the radiation, usually the Sun.
So the Earth’s surface converts incident high frequency solar radiation to thermal energy, but reflects or scatters low energy (low frequency) radiation from a cooler atmosphere, the energy therein not being converted to thermal energy and thus not affecting the temperature of the surface.
For mathematical proof see Prof Claes Johnson’s Computational Blackbody Radiation.
You also mentioned IR spectroscopy which does in fact provide evidence for my point. You will find it common knowledge that a gas will not been seen to be absorbing radiation from a cooler emitter when the radiation is analysed by spectroscopy. It is only when the emitter is warmed and its temperature starts to exceed that of the gas that we do in fact start to see absorption lines.

Das is richtig.

Talking of windfarms, here is John Brogden’s masterful take on Grid Management — never read by politicians —
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/2010%20March.htm

There is a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon where Calvin asks his dad how they know what weight of lorry a bridge can support. His dad tells him they build the bridge, run heavier and heavier lorries across until it collapses. Then they rebuild the bridge now they know the weight limit!
We know of course that architects and engineers know exactly what characteristics a bridge [or any other construction] will have before it is even started.
Renewables seem to follow the same principles related by Calvin’s dad! Germany has spent 100 billion Euros on solar panels, and gives 6 billion a year in subsidies, and they are having problems with the costs. In winter the short days and overcast skies mean they produce almost no energy. The current situation could have been predicted before the first panel was installed, but it is obvious no experts are ever consulted, or certainly not listened to.
There are issues with most ‘green’ solutions. Experts point out that if wind power comprises 20% of the grid the variations in output will destabilise the grid causing blackouts or even damaging the infrastructure, If 15% of cars were electric it would require hundreds of billions spent on upgrading the grid with new power stations and transmission lines. Biodiesel is claimed to produce 4 times as much CO2 as the oil it replaces, and almost a litre of oil is used to produce a litre of biodiesel, plus the destruction of forests for palm plantations. Ethanol has been proved to require 40% more energy to produce than it creates [a green group said they had disproved this but as is often the case I suspect ‘disproved’ should read as ‘ignored’!], and the watts per square metre using corn is abysmal.
It seems that many decisions are made by people who don’t have a clue, surprising when such vast quantities of money are involved. Experts may be consulted but if they give the wrong answer they will be ignored. It is obvious that if Germany continues on the same lines with renewables it will destroy the country’s manufacturing base, and that applies to any country following the same route. It can also be argued that the world would be in a far better financial state if so many trillions had not been wasted on these green delusions.
On the other hand, if you are a green supporter who wants an end to our civilisation then things are going great! Not sure they will like what comes after.

DirkH,
Thank you.
I am trying to learn German but, as any other language, it is highly idiomatic.
What I wrote was a verbatim translation of the way Russians say the same thing.
The correct version sounds much better:
“Die Ratten verlassen das sinkende Schiff!“

David A. Evans: Our Peugeot 807 has no problems starting even at -32 C, but it has a diesel-driven pre-heater that we start in advance (it can be programmed to start at a given time).

Message for Norway: YES!
The Norwegian government is one of the biggest climate hysterics in the world, and they are planning to waste billions of kroner on a virtual problem. The CO2 fear mongering is in all the newspapers and on national TV all the time. The press in Norway is totally brain washed and has no authority when it comes to climate issues. The stupidity has come very far in our oil-rich country.

Manfred says:
February 6, 2012 at 11:53 pm
Doug Cotton says:
February 6, 2012 at 9:40 pm
…Yes there will be slight cooling in the near future until about 2028, but we should still expect another 0.4 to 0.8 degree rise in the long-term trend before it passes a maximum some time in the next 50 to 200 years. Let’s not be accused of alarmist claims ourselves….
—————————————
Could you elaborate on that or give a link ?
___________________________
This has been discussed in previous posts – you should also see the WUWT article by Nicola Scafetta regarding 60 year cycles and the correlation with planetary orbits.
Briefly, there appears to be a ~1,000 year roughly sinusoidal cycle I will call the long-term trend. Yes there is some correlation with Solar activity, but it may be due to a common cause and there does appear to be a lag of about 50 years for Earth’s climate to follow. In the short term the correlation is not strong and the (superimposed) 60 year cycle is observed. This is discussed on my original site http://earth-climate.com
At the foot of the Home page of my newer site http://climate-change-theory.com is a revealing plot of the gradient of 30 year trends calculated monthly starting Jan 1900-Dec 1930. This shows a rate of increase (green line) of about 0.06 deg.C/decade back then, but this rate has now decreased to about 0.05 deg.C/decade, and, if the trend is sinusoidal and approaching a maximum within 200 years or so, I postulate that the gradient could be down to zero by about then, thus indicating a maximum in the long-term (~1000 year) cycle. Meanwhile, the next maximum in the 60 year cycle is expected in 2058 as it is actually about 59.6 years if caused by the Jupiter/Saturn resonance cycle which has that periodicity.

While there is an endless list of self serving and often well meaning useful idiots providing the energy and infrastructure for the CAGW myth, at the core you will find a cadre of remarkably evil people whose raison d’être seems to be the destruction of western democracy.

I do remember some time ago, maybe half a century or so, that it was the dawning of the age of aquarius, and peace and love would rule the planet. I am some what disappointed as we have had war, hatred,shifty politics and AGW.
This is a good step to rid us of AGW, that would rid us of some shifty politics. This may lead to the removal of shifty politicians, and that would be a major step forward.

Driving from Chemnitz , Germany to Hamburg Germany on Sunday night ( 2200 – 0230 hours ) the outside temp. shown in my car was -13 c in Chemnitz a low of -23 c on the trip and a – 12 c in Hamburg, a trip across northern Germany of approx. 450 km

I hestitate to rank comments but this for me [see quoted comment] is what it is all about, I just wish someone was listening in the braindead and insensate world of UK politics, boy we sure ‘got the AGW thing’ bad in Britain.

Anybody that works at the “coal face” of the generating industry could see this coming from a mile away. I have been trying to tell the hysterical numpties at The Guardian exactly what Guenter Kiel has said about the instability caused by intermittent renewables.
The reality is, it has been obvious all along. Ask anyone working on despatch at any national grid in the developed world.

Galvanise, thank you, I most whole heartedly concur.

Right. Green activist, you say? Vahrenholt was a lobbyist for Shell and responsible for “improving their public image”. He now works for one of the biggest energy companies in Germany.

A colleague of mine here in Germany printed out this article to read it, and discovered that at the end there is an advert for solar panelling! Clearly, computers don’t do irony.
It will be interesting to see if this gets into the rest of the MSM here. So far, only the AGW party line is being followed, far more rigidly than in the Anglo-Saxon world.

When a colleague and I started our climate data web site in 2009 (www.climatedata.info) we felt that in trying to present a balanced viewpoint we were part of the squeezed middle. Now more-and-more it seems as if we are part of an expanding middle.

Oh, as an addition: even here in Germany we know not to trust anything the BILD writes. Most of you won’t understand the BILDblog, but its mission is to debunk their bullshit.
Before using a BILD article as a basis for an argument, thing again. Next time maybe just enjoy the naked ladies and move on.

Excellent news!

“THE CO2 LIES … pure fear-mongering … should we blindly trust the experts?”

There are lies, damned lies and IPCC publications for governments.
It seems as if the message is finally getting home, let’s keep hammering, the CO2 SCAM has to be ended as soon as possible before the climate bandits do anymore damage. I expect to see fraud trials this decade.

John Marshall says:
February 7, 2012 at 3:15 am
The survival of the Euro, the European currency, is dependent on a productive Germany to help the bankrupt southern states, Portugal, Spain Italy, Greece, to survive. Already Hungary is heading the same way, with France close behind, so Germany with a reliably power supply is a must.
Goodbye Euro.
You could not be more right. What’s worse is that Hollande, candidat for president here in France, has pledged, to the green party, that he will close 18 nuclear power stations in exchange for their support. The end for Germany and Europe is near but not for the commissars in Brussels. They will continue to spend our money through the raising of their own tax regime over and above those of the member countries.

The story is promently published on WeltOnline today:

Fritz Vahrenholt
Geht die Klimakatastrophe an der Erde vorbei?
Will the climate catastrophe pass earth?
For years he was spreading the theses of the IPCC. Now the former senator for environment and manager performs a change of mind (…)
Fritz Vahrenholt: Yes, I was an active supporter of the CO2 theory. But then I had two key moments, that made me reassess my Position (…)

Varenholt says that the first crucial experience he describes was an IPCC meeting about renewable energies, which was, according to Varenholt “anything but scientific”. The report was full of mistakes and the final version was edited by a Greenpeace representative. (This report. Here is a statement from ClimateAudit. )
The second key moment was the findings of a study his company RWE Innogy had carrfied out, in which was found, that natural processes are a main driver of climate change.
…Probably one of the biggest issues every religion has to face from time to time is statements of former believers which have fallen from faith…

This is big news since this is MSM and it is in print not merely online. German politics has been heavily dominated by the Green movement for many decades so this goes right to the heart of political debate in Germany. One should not under-estimate the effect that this breaking news will have in Germany, the shock waves of which will be felt across Europe.
Germany is the industrial power house of Europe. One of the most fundamental resources required by any industry is cheap and reliable energy. In the past, most heavy industry was sited next to coal fields for this very reason.
Germany is therefore an energy intensive user. It is imperative to its continued prosperity that it can draw upon cheap and reliable energy.
As we all know, renewables are heavily subsidised and it is the poor that bear the brunt of this subsidy. On an European scale, it is the poorer nations (the Club Med) who have been effectively subsidising German renewable energy. Germany has been able to run a healthy trade balance surplus, but only because the poorer Club Med nations have been able to afford to buy German products. With the collapse of the economies in the Club Med nations, they will be unable to buy (or at any rate buy as much) German manufactured products. This means that German industry will find it difficult to pass on the high costs associated with green renewable energy to the mass market of the Club Med nations and this will put a severe strain on German industry. For the ordinary Germans, this will be a double whammy since they are already being expected to bail out the Club Med economies but now they will also begin to feel the additional costs associated with green renewables. This is bound to have a serious impact on the German economy and on German politics.
The gut reaction to the Japanese disaster of last year was not well thought through. The closure of so many nuclear power stations (with no proper programme in place for their substitution) was madness. The effect of this madness would have been seen much sooner but for the general economic slow down. It will however be felt since there is no quick fix to mass energy production.
Solar has no place in a country such as German due to its high latitude and because of cloudiness. Wind, as we all know, is far too intermittent to form the base load of an energy supply system. The short coming of both these systems should be obvious to a school child so when the Sh** hits the fan, there will be questions asked as to how the political masters fell for this hype. I think that the public back lash will be severe to such an obviously flawed programme

LEt it all get more and more expensive..it is better to be a carier of diamonds than a carier of water. Thats the philosophy.
The energy poor will soon need help to pay their heating bills. No problem other people’s money will be used for that.
I do not think that anyone in the brainwashing complex, say the editorial boards of ZDF, Das Zweite Deutsche Funknetz, will suffer financially.

R. Gates says:
February 6, 2012 at 6:09 pm

Markus Fitzhenry says:
February 6, 2012 at 5:52 pm
Gentlemen, I have it ion very good authority, the date Anthropogenic Global Warming bit the dust was in fact, 23 January 2012.
———
This is one of the most humorous things I’ve read all day.

When in reality, R., you’ve broken into a sweat because the Big Scam called Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming is about to be exposed EVERYWHERE–from Germany to the rest of Europe, and from there to the rest of the world. Oh, Happy Day!
You really are a slick propagandist, R., just like the Soviet Union and the propaganda they spewed before the inevitable breakup of that BIG LIE. But you only fool yourself–those of us that lived through the Cold War (and now the Warm War of CAGW on the planet’s inhabitants) can see you coming a mile away.
Time to give it up, R. It isn’t working any more! Your side with their incestuous “climate scientists” (“climsci” for short) are losing their fraudulent footing and thinking people (well, and even “useful tools” who looked up to “authority” and “experts”) are finally being told what they’ve felt in their gut all along–that CO2 is NOT the culprit.
But people like you ARE!
Do you really sleep well at night knowing what you know yet keep doing what you do? Only if you don’t have a conscience. (The pay must be pretty good.)

looks like google trying to massively supress this story LOL BTW why dont you keep important postings on top based on number of comments etc. It a bit annoying to be involved in a major story and then see it wiped away by a minor one. Just my point of view sorry…

Regarding German forests. I grew up in West Virginia, surrounded by forests, but then spent two years in Germany. Every time I happened by a forest there (I spent most of my time in cities) I was struck by how neat and orderly everything was. The trees were all in rows, like soldiers in formation, and there was very little undergrowth. I often said to myself, “This ain’t like the woods back home.” I didn’t get it then, but after reading comments by DirkH here, maybe I understand it now.

Those who have commented on Bild-Zeitung – yes it’s about as trustworthy as the National Enquirer. But in this case – read the GWPF link! The say that the print edition of Focus also features an article about Die kalte Sonne. I’m neither German nor living in Germany, so I can’t vouch for Focus either, but I certainly regard it as more trustworthy than Bild. In fact, I think I’m going to take a short break and go out and buy a copy of Focus right now…

Victor Venema says:
February 7, 2012 at 6:03 am
Please also read alternative information sources if you are interested in the truth.
Yes.

Victor Venema says:
February 7, 2012 at 6:03 am
“Please also read alternative information sources if you are interested in the truth.”
We do (like this most excellent blog) but, from your tone, I doubt that you do regarding your own beliefs. Pot, kettle, black etc., the usual spiel.

Interesting we have people like detroiter and v venema coming here to tell us how absolutely awful Bild is and how much Vahrenholt is in the pockets of Big Oil (yawn) etc etc etc, with nothing to say about the actual issues (so what’s new in that?).
‘Focus’ , oh yes, probably another awful and unreliable source – /sarc, says this about V:
“Doubters like him have been often accused to represent the interests of coal and petroleum industries. This accusation will not bother Vahrenholt. Since 2001 he has worked for companies that earn their money with renewable energy, first for Repower Systems, a leading manufacturer of wind turbines. Since 2008 for Innogy, the largest German investor in renewable energy. The RWE subsidiary invested over one billion Euros annually in CO2-free electricity. Accordingly, it would be in his interest to celebrate the transformation of energy by the Federal Government.
However, he does the opposite.”The promotion of photovoltaics is madness,” he said in Munich. “It is the most uneconomic form of climate protection.” He still considers wind power to be reasonable. But his earlier euphoria was dampened, as he experienced in 2008 and 2009 that the wind sometimes pauses for weeks in Central Europe. He began to learn about cyclical fluctuations in air pressure, which exert a strong influence on the wind patterns and the climate.”
http://thegwpf.org/international-news/4923-solar-shift-rock-germany.html
Hmm, sounds like a man who knows what he’s talking about. Hence the panic from the alarmists, no doubt.

Kevin J Klees says:
February 6, 2012 at 7:43 pm
“Wow, those Germans always where a smart bunch of folks, i.e.;. …Jet Engine…”
You are right about that. But the list is soooo long, that it would take a whole evenings research on coming up with everything they have created.
In a few seconds I came up with my little list;
First Jet fighter in production ( me 262 with the first jet engine in serial production; The Jumo engine), First Rocket Figher ( me 163 with the first liquid propellant rocket, the Walther engine), First cruise missile ( V1 ), first ballistic missile ( V2 ), Fatest propeller figher, ever ( Do 335 ) , first Jet bomber, The printing technique (Gutenberg) , the diesel engine, first four stroke gas engine….and on and on and on.

Michael Reed says:
February 7, 2012 at 6:03 am
“Regarding German forests.”
Friends from Austria first visited us in 1975 when we lived in northern Idaho. They were astonished at the “wildness” of the nearby forests. Their experience was that a “forest” had a caretaker (my words; I don’t recall theirs) who was responsible for deciding on when and what could be taken from the forest in the manner of limbs and dead wood. Then the caretaker would look at the list and inform the person or family next-in-line to come and harvest their share. In contrast, many forested areas in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington are surrounded by a natural wall of shrubs and small trees (access to sunlight) and internally there is a massive amount of downed trees and limbs. The national and state forest agencies have specialists in “fuel load” and have this mapped so as to better chart the progress of wild fires.

Die Gruene are all like David Thoreau: in the week they are in the log cabin loooking rough, saturday at mommy’s to do the laundry and eat warm apple pie.

Rocky Road,
You are wasting your time with R. Gates, that is just a computer program that feeds on ad hominim attacks and regurgitates a bunch of canned responses. You won’t be able to change it unless you get the source code.

“Capo says:
February 7, 2012 at 9:15 am
Sorry, but Vahrenholt is CEO of RWE-Innogy.”
IIRC Innogy is that part of RWE that produces renewable energy. That used to be “green” before Varenholt wrote his book.
Die “Bild” alone sells almost as many copies in Germany as USAToday and WSJ sell in the US together. Die “Welt” is the more “intellectual” sister newspaper at Springer editions. Both are conservative, US-friendly and probably influential.

Well it is one small step that’s all (but it is one step!). It may take some time until it gets traction and people start to accept the idea that there is no catastrophe awaiting us in the next couple of hundred years due to our CO2 production.
It ends with:
“Der Weg weg von Öl/Gas/Kohle hin zu mehr erneuerbarer Energie ist richtig!”
free translation: – The way away from coal/oil/gas to renewable is still the right thing to do – missing the whole discussion here about grid stability and connectivity.
One step at a time.

ggm says:
February 6, 2012 at 5:08 pm
<"Wow, this is pretty big. But on it`s own, it will achieve little, unless more of this happens.
Only a couple of years ago half my small circle of friends were drinking the CO2 cool aid and accepting the cost of the move to renewables. Since then all have come round to the view that CAGW is hype and they are bitterly opposed to the extra tax being extorted to cover the cost of inefficient green energy and the negative impact of these technologies on the environment.
This is a major blow to the green socialist agenda and the capitalist hangers-on who stand to make a fortune. Great… 🙂

Every time russians cut gas to germans or when they watch their frozen lakes and rivers, no matter how disciplined they are, they are beginning to doubt in Global Warming religion´s dogmas. Their “Grüne Parteigenossen” have become so dead pale white because of cold that they not green anymore.

Victor Venema says
‘Fritz Vahrenholt could just as well be called a top manager from Shell and RWE (one of the largest electricity firms in Europe). And the Bild Zeitung is something like USA Today, a newspaper for paper who are barely able to read. The headline yesterday was a new diet plan.
A theory that needs such supporters is lying on the ground.’
If 80% of the people believed in a mistaken course, for whatever reason, and then some come around to our way of thinking, it is obvious that we are going to find ourselves shoulder to shoulder with people we used to be opposed to.
get used to it

The death of unsustainable wind and solar power cannot come fast enough.

The main energy source for the far future, would remain fossils. But…other sources would also are inevitable. Who can deny hydro-electric. There are G20 and more than 170 countries around the world. We cannot say G20 are the only ones that can breathe and live in this world. In Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, India, Australia and many more locations there are various sorts of energies which can be used. The hero energy yes, would be FOSSILS. This view doesn’t mean we have denied fossil performance and or the others are insisting on their global warming theory.

fred houpt says:
February 7, 2012 at 11:39 am
http://www.ecogeek.org/component/content/article/3698
Fred, does it seem odd to you that 1/2 a degree C of warming over 130 years is depicted by global map coloring going from deep blue to bright red? Did it hit your alarm button? It was supposed to do that for you.

Samurai says:
“I must caution myself not become too optimistic, as I felt the same sentiment during and after Climategates 1.0 and 2.0, but it somehow feels different this time… ”
Indeed it does. It feels like a mighty step has been taken. One that’s been long-awaited.
In 1994 when I first became professionally obligated to look into the matter, the availability of objective or skeptical information was atrociously scarce thankfully I had kept some of my college books in Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Physics, Geology, Oceanography, World History, etc.; so I immediately noticed the obvious zohnerism and thought:
If they can’t come up with better evidence than that, It’ll never last!
As time went on I noted that my friends and colleagues (Engineers, Chemists, Biologists and Mathematicians) were “skeptics” as well and generally speaking from what I could tell so were Meteorologists and Geologists, and I thought:
If they can’t convince the “working class” of science, It’ll never last!
Around 1997 or so, it was the Y2K bug and global warming was put on the back burner in the MSM and I thought:
If they can’t compete with something as simple as Y2K, it’ll never last!
At this point I lost focus on the issue due to being very busy with career and family and considering the matter a non-problem from my review of the evidence. I was shocked back into the reality that the man-made global warming crisis movement had indeed been building when a local news story proudly proclaimed that a local science teacher had shown “An Inconvenient Truth” as a documentary. I took a quick dive back into the issue before writing an editorial in the local paper. The availability of objective and skeptical information had increased tremendously on the internet with sites such as WUWT and I thought:
If they can’t keep the whole truth from being exposed, it’ll never last!
Then there was Climategate et al and I thought:
If they can’t maintain credibility, it’ll never last!
Then there were a series of scientific publications with skeptical implications such as lower sensitivity and 90% of living plants having the same carbon isotope ratios as fossil fuel emissions, etc. and I thought:
If they can’t maintain their control of “peer-reviewed” publications, it’ll never last!
And now here we are with a major MSM in a CAGW stronghold publishing skeptical articles and I’m thinking:
If they can’t keep the MSM on their side, it’ll never last!
In 2010 I told my boss (non-scientist) that if we made it until 2015 without any major regulation on CO2 that there wouldn’t be any, because by then it would be painfully obvious to everyone except the most deluded that it was all a case of making a mountain out of a mole hill from the beginning. I’m sticking with 2015, it’s taking a while but since they didn’t have very strong evidence to begin with and its evidentiary support has been declining ever since, they can’t convince the “working class” scientists that can keep the whole truth exposed thanks to the internet, which in turn keeps their credibility in question, such that now they’re losing control of peer-reviewed publications as well as the MSM not to mention legislators; it ‘ll never last! Although, I do suspect they won’t go quietly and there will be shrill voices from the true believers well past 2015, they’ll be regarded about the same as the Mayan 2012 doomsayers are today.

This has been one hell of a great day for truth and honesty in the area of climate and its determinants. It will be fascinating to see which of the USA’s MSM will be first to give some recognition to these anti-CAGW items.
I, for one, am NOT holding my breath !

Don’t get too excited. The ‘Bild” is a picture newspaper, akin to the British ‘The Sun’, it is little more than an adult comic with lots of celebrity gossip and pictures of minimally clothed young ladies. Both are conservative and nationalist so although this report will be important in getting to the masses – as the Bild is the 6th largest newspaper in the world – it may have little impact on the politicians. Now if the ‘Der Speigel’ has a report like this, it could become more mainstream. The German economy is under pressure to support economic basket cases in the EU and it can hardly absorb spending many more billions and billions to support energy supply policies which are unlikely to be a sustainable solution (oh, the paradox of ‘renewables’ and ‘sustainable’) for the energy demands of modern societies. Their energy policy needs to focus on stable energy supply and preferentially not dependent on sourcing such from external sources, i.e. Russia, as such dependency has been shown to be very bad policy for countries which are dependent for their energy needs outside their borders, i.e. USA.

Told ya so top post and the Argentina malvinas issue is about guess what OIL! At least it not wind mills! Let us celebrate the end of AGW and I think we should let them all off (Mann Jones Ect)

Mike Wryley says:
February 7, 2012 at 9:37 am

Rocky Road,
You are wasting your time with R. Gates, that is just a computer program that feeds on ad hominim attacks and regurgitates a bunch of canned responses. You won’t be able to change it unless you get the source code.

Yes, you’re right. However, the casual viewer will now understand how bad the “source code” really is.

I would like to comment to the blogs about BILD newspaper and Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt, because there are perhaps some details useful.
anorak2 said: “The news isn´t so much what´s written in the (BILD) article. The news is that a mainstream climate alarmist tabloid is changing sides. It´s a political signal.”
Absolutely ! Not long ago, BILD trumpeted “We have only 13 years” in front of a flaming planet. And all the other media presented the same story. The reason: The editorial staff is mostly green. Skeptical articles are systematically suppressed and the intensity of the brainwashing reminds me of the former communist East Germany. The government fears the media much more than the opposition in the parliament.
And BILD is by far the biggest newspaper. Not green, but without any preference, except scandals. Now they seem to have decided that bashing the AGW-club is interesting news for their readers. And since the author of the book “The cold Sun” is the highly respected Prof. Vahrenholt, the BILD-gunners have the best ammunition.
No matter what their intentions are, what only counts is the attack itself, which is highly unpleasant for Merkel.
Of course many persons will touch BILD only by using a nippers, because of the permanent mixture of blood, sex and gossip. But BILD is mighty.
It should be recognized that this is the first time that a big German newspaper attacks the climate panic group directly. Until now, we had only some articles against wind- and sunpower. So BILD has broken a taboo after all and we wonder if some other media will follow.
The author of “The cold Sun” was called a “Shell lobbyist” by some bloggers. But Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt has a longer course of life:
He studied Chemistry and worked first in the Umweltbundesamt Berlin (the federal environment agency). Between 1984 and 1990 he had a job in the environment agency of the city of Hamburg. From 1991 to 1997 he was senator (equal to a minister in a federal state) of this Hamburg environment agency. And he was a green politician with a high reputation. Then – 1998 – he joined indeed Shell AG, where he was member of the managing board until 2001 – and in 2001 he became member of the Shell supervisory board.
2001 was the year as he became head of the managing board of REpower Systems – an enterprise that constructed, sold and installed Windpower Systems of the megawatt-class.
Since 2007 he is heading RWE Innogy, the “green” branch of energy-giant RWE which produces Windpower-, Waterpower- and Bioenergy-Systems.
This impressive background gives him a high reputation – especially from the greens, who still feel that he is one of them, and right they are – and he is a well-known expert in the energy field and perhaps also the one that is respected most. This makes his attack so dangerous for Merkel.
Of course now his enemies (and earlier friends) will try to glue the stickers “Shell” and “RWE” on him.
The number of books sold will tell everybody whether the opinion in Germany about the climate policy is about to change.
Concerning the rats, which some think that they are leaving the sinking ship: I guess, these rats are already entering a new ship. Only the scientists are still fiddling on the upper deck.

J. Jefferson says:
February 7, 2012 at 6:35 pm

Germany’s attempts at central planning of the energy supply are so reminiscent of Soviet central planning of the food supply, Chinese central planning of the steel supply, and so on.

The commies of yesteryear have to find employment SOMEWHERE. Unfortunately, they like to think they know how to run things, and they do. Right into the ground.
Maybe people will wake up in time, and maybe they won’t. We’ll keep goading, goading, goading…