Wow, this is thick. What next? Climate research becoming classified?
Panetta: Climate change a national security threat
by Joel Gehrke Commentary Staff Writer for the Washington Examiner – Beltway Confidential
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared global warming a national security threat yesterday during a speech before an environmentalist group in Washington, D.C.
“The area of climate change has a dramatic impact on national security,” Panetta told the Environmental Defense Fund last night. “Rising sea levels, severe droughts, the melting of the polar caps, the more frequent and devastating natural disasters all raise demand for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.”
The Defense Secretary must have missed Examiner Columnist Mona Charen’s recent piece on how symbols of global warming aren’t working out the way environmentalists predicted.
For instance, The United Nations climate change panel “admitted that the melting Himalayas prediction was not based on science but on a 1999 media interview given by one scientist,” Charen observed. “They said they regretted the error. Now, a study in nature, based on satellite imagery, has shown that some melting of lower altitude glaciers is taking place but that higher glaciers have been adding ice.”
With reference to the story of an apparently-marooned polar bear floating on an ice floe — puzzling, as polar bears can swim for hundreds of miles — Charen cited a new Canadian study showing that the polar bear population is on the rise.
“Oh, and the scientist for the Department of the Interior whose 2004 work on drowning polar bears inspired Al Gore and others [had been] placed on administrative leave for unspecified wrongdoing,” she added.*
*But is now reinstated
Yeah, national security threat. That’s the ticket.
h/t to Dr. Leif Svalgaard
Speaking of jumping the shark, seen the Heartland billboard?
I checked as you suggested, and replied to the Heartland as follows:
Sirs, Madams and Dudes,
You just repeated the Blow-Em-Up UK fiasco. You have equated warmists to the Unabomber. Have you been talking to each other so long that groupthink has erased all sense of your audience?
Many, many warmist believers are sincere, caring people. It is their caring and passionate nature, their desire for fair play, for justice for all, for fuzzy pets and cute kittens that lets Gore, Hansen and others pull them in. They are the victims of their own kindness, not maniacal, totalitarian despots and murderers. But you have just portrayed them all as The Enemy. The type we want to execute or assassinate.
I could point out that the non-murdering beliefs of murderers are in no way questionable because of the murderers other, despicable actions. This billboard strategy is ad hominem by association. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
If it weren’t for my personal technical work that I feel repudiates CAGW, your behaviour here would push me into the warmist camp. What was someone thinking? Or, really, was anyone thinking?
Whoever is your PR firm, FIRE THEM IMMEDIATELY, as well as whoever approved the program.
Doug Proctor
Friends;
I think we should be careful to avoid knee-jerk reactions.
US Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta spoke at an annual reception for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) at the Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C., May 2, 2012.
Panetta’s political affiliation and policies of the EDF should not prejudice consideration of what he said. And I would like to see a full text of Panetta’s speech because the reports of it I have seen say he provided a speech which seems eminently sensible. Indeed, I could have made the speech if it was as is reported by Nick Simeone of the American Forces Press Service.
Simeone reports Panetta’s speech to the EDF on the US Department of Defence web site at
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=116192
Simeone’s article says;
“Panetta cited the melting of Arctic ice in renewing a longstanding call for the Senate to ratify the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea. More than 150 nations have accepted the treaty, which has been in force since the early 1990s, and a succession of U.S. government administrations have urged ratification.
Among other things, the convention would guarantee various aspects of passage and overflight for the U.S. military. Panetta urged his audience to use their influence to push for treaty ratification. “We are the only industrialized nation that has not approved that treaty,” he said.”
Simeone then goes on to say;
“The secretary also said he has great concern about energy-related threats to homeland security that are not driven by climate change.
“I have a deep interest in working to try to ensure from a security perspective that we take measures that will help facilitate and maintain power in the event of an interruption of the commercial grid that could be caused, for example, by a cyber attack which is a reality that we have to confront,” he said.”
Simeone’s article says Panetta commented on rising fuel costs affecting military budgets. And reports Simeone then saying;
“In the next fiscal year, we are going to be investing more than a billion dollars in more efficient aircraft and aircraft engines, in hybrid electric drives for our ships, in improved generators, in microgrids for combat bases and combat vehicle energy-efficient programs,” he said. “We are investing another billion dollars to make our installations here at home more energy-efficient, and we are using them as the test bed to demonstrate next-generation energy technologies.”
Simeone’s article is typical of other such articles in that none quotes Panetta as having made any reference to AGW or any suggestion that AGW is having any affect. So, I would like to see the actual text of what Panetta said.
Richard
What’s your source that confirms that the billboard space purchased was actually bought and paid for by HI?
… could be a ‘false flag’ op designed to have the exact effect you responded with …
Oh, I see now that they may have paid for them … still, the disloyal opposition is all over this, the ‘think progs’ and ‘desmog blogs’ are leading with this … could this fall into the “no publicity is bad publicity” department?
http://climateconference.heartland.org/our-billboards/
(More – see link above.)
I see that they do make effort to justify their ‘direction’ and choice, as those persons depicted did make statements/writings in support of curative measures for purported CAGW. Of course, the disloyal opposition makes no ‘reference’ to those criminals’ AGW positions …
.
richardscourtney says:
May 4, 2012 at 9:00 am
….“Panetta cited the melting of Arctic ice in renewing a longstanding call for the Senate to ratify the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea. More than 150 nations have accepted the treaty, which has been in force since the early 1990s, and a succession of U.S. government administrations have urged ratification…..
__________________________________
This is just another move towards “Global Governance”
Soon the USA and other nations will become vassal states of the United Nations/world trade Organization bureaucracy as more and more decision making power is moved from the nation to a Supranational Governing Authority.
I’ve said this before; if they believe their manufactured hype nonsense about AGW (which secretly they don’t thanks to climategate 1 and 2); then it is a basis for war. Which is why Leon needs to urge the neo-con-artists to start bombing China immediately. True though isn’t it?; if AGW threatens mankind—then it is the basis for going to war. When the Germans situated in France in 1940, England’s response was optionable but innevitable. China’s program, if you factor AGW, of opening one coal fired power plant per week, directly threaten’s our existence just as much as any hot war. Bombing us or poisoning our habitat and life environment is the same and is one. it amounts to an act of war. And that makes you, Mr. Anthony Mega Watty, a security threat. Mr. Pannetta’s abitlity to reason through a simple pie chart has yet to be tested so don’t bet on reason and Science to let you wiggle out of this one!!!
Meet the Canadian Hansen: Economist Simon Frazer Univeristy Professor Mark Jaccard…
Jaccard never seeked office in a federal election. The Green Party gathered 3.76% during the 2011 Federal Election. Inciting to civil disobedience, Jaccard does not play by the democratic rules, he flaunts them.
Clearly Minsiter Oliver was darn right to label him and its kind terrorists, intellectual terrorists to start then…
Mark Jaccard SFU professor:
http://www.straight.com/article-676861/vancouver/mark-jaccard-why-ill-be-blocking-bnsf-coal-trains-saturday
“Putting myself in a situation where I may be accused of civil disobedience is not something I have ever done before. It is not something I ever expected to be doing or wanted to do. But the current willingness of especially our federal government to brazenly take actions that ensure we cannot meet scientifically and economically sound greenhouse gas reduction targets for Canada and the planet leaves me with no alternative. I now ask myself how our children, when they look back decades from now, will have expected us to have acted today. When I think about that, I conclude that every sensible and sincere person, who cares about this planet and can see through lies and delusion motivated by money, should be doing what I and others are now prepared to do.
I pledge, along with everyone else taking part on Saturday, that my actions will be peaceful, non-violent and respectful of others. There will be no property damage. We will conduct ourselves in a safe, open and transparent manner. We are putting ourselves on the line Saturday because our future is at risk and we have to stand up for it”.
Let’s look at what precipitated the world wars: “trade wars” and trade restrictions; I don’t think we’re there yet … ever heard the saying: “If goods don t cross borders, armies will” or “Where goods cross borders, armies don’t” works equally well.
.
Tom Rude quotes Prof Mark Jaccard:
“…I conclude that every sensible and sincere person, who cares about this planet and can see through lies and delusion motivated by money…”
So states über-hypocrite Mark Jaccard, with his snout firmly planted in the public trough…
@ur momisugly Smokey, Jaccard is a green fascist who imposed the BC Carbon Tax. Meanwhile for the second year in a row, spring is well below normal temperatures on the West Coast of Canada… but the media are quite discreet about it… wait for two hot days and “heatwave” will be all over the headlines of postmedia…
TomRude says:
May 4, 2012 at 10:54 am
“…..Meanwhile for the second year in a row, spring is well below normal temperatures on the West Coast of Canada… ”
Tom,
The same is true down the west coast of the US. I live just south of Seattle and we are routinely running 5-10F below ‘normal’ average high and low daily temperatures. With only occasional exceptions, this has been true since January. Our monthly temp averages, as reported by Pacific Gas and Electric, are running a few degrees below last year, when we also experienced a colder than normal winter and spring. The stores are trying to sell tomato plants and our daily temp ranges are low 40s to mid 50s, with cold rains almost daily! My neighbor has erected a PVC pipe and transparent plastic ‘dome’ over his garden, in a determined attempt to get his tomatoes to really grow, set fruit well, and ripen in abundance! It has just been too damn cold, the last few summers.
The good news: We may hit 70F on Sunday or Monday! Whooo Hoooo! Heat Wave!
MtK
TomRude says:
May 4, 2012 at 10:54 am
“…..Meanwhile for the second year in a row, spring is well below normal temperatures on the West Coast of Canada… ”
Tom,
The same is true down the west coast of the US. …
_______________________________
The East Coast has not exactly been hot either. We had a warm spell early (lots of trumpeting in the media) but April was chilly. Only four days in the 80F range with a high of 86F normally we have at least a few days over 90F in April. We are seeing them now, but it isback to the seventies this weekend. The large town south of us is Fayetteville NC It sits in the middle of the state and you can see it has been cooling for the last nine years. We are a good one degree C lower than the mean for the 1930’s.
Mr Panetta has obviously noticed the huge inflow of cash to finance climate scientists. Accordingly he is making an attempt to grab some of that funding by adding climate change to the list of enemies of the US military.
Harold Ambler (above) notes “DSYC [‘Don’t sell Your Coat’] has been the No. 1 Climatology book on Amazon for most of the last 5 weeks, and if you think that’s a sales pitch, you’re right.”
Deservedly so! CONGRATULATIONS.
Tomorrow, I get to speak to the Denver SKEPTICAMP 2012 conference, and Ambler’s book is my BIG recommend to assembled science geeks and fanboys! WUWT here put it on my ~buy~ list, and later brought me to Harold Ambler’s worthy new blog, http://talkingabouttheweather.com/
Anthony, I love this graphical illustration, and my talk will conclude with it – “jump the shark” indeed! My theme is about how “global weirding” converted ordinary weather variability into “the climate crisis” thereby killing climate science. Next theory…? Most likely, Svensmark’s cosmoclimatology.
If Panetta can make this stick, the Government could use it as an excuse to exempt all climate research details from FOIA. National Security is one of the listed exemptions.
John F. Hultquist says:
May 3, 2012 at 9:39 pm
Gunga Din says:
May 3, 2012 at 8:17 pm
Try this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_cyclone_model
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Thanks. I think I had Urbain Leverrier in mind. Napoleon III had him organize a weather-forecasting system for France. But, as you’ve pointed out, he had nothing to do with using the word “fronts” in forecasting. Learn something new everyday.
Thanks for the kind words, orson2
Willis Eschenbach says:
May 3, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Rising sea levels are a threat to national security???
Do you have any idea of the havoc just one fast attack sub could wreak in the Shenandoah Gulf?
Here’s a paper by LTC Fujimoto of the Strategic College pushing the NWO “Liberal” solution to the rise of China. There’s clearly a cadre of Rodney King disciples there.
Cites Wilsonian Slaughter and ultra-lib Friedman: