Guest post by Steve Goreham
Originally published in The Washington Times
With barely a whimper from the media, John Kerry is President Obama’s official nominee for Secretary of State. Mr. Kerry is the senior Senator from Massachusetts, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and was the 2004 presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. Kerry has also been a long-time crusader in the effort to try to stop global warming.
With the possible exception of former Vice President Al Gore, Senator Kerry has been the most fervent climate hawk in the United States Congress. Kerry believes that “catastrophic climate change represents a threat to human security, global stability, and—yes—even to American national security” and that global warming is man-made. He further states that “Once you accept the science, it’s clear that such massive environmental change will create dislocation, destruction, chaos, and conflict.”
Senator Kerry and his wife authored the 2008 book This Moment on Earth: Today’s New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future, asking the question, “And what, in the face of so many powerful interests defending the status quo, are each of us willing to do, today and tomorrow, to force a change of course?”
True to his convictions, Kerry co-sponsored the American Power Act in 2010. The bill would have established a US cap-and-trade carbon trading system, but died in the Senate without a vote.
Senator Kerry parrots the “science” of man-made global warming with the starry-eyed ideology of a young environmentalist. After tornados killed 50 people in the Southeastern US in February 2008, Kerry appeared on MSNBC and concluded that man-made warming was to blame: “…this is related to the intensity of the storms that is related to the warming of Earth…the storms are more intensive and the rainfall is more intense…” But a simple look at data from the National Climatic Data Center shows that strong tornado activity in the US has decreased since the 1970s.
In a 2009 interview with the Huffington Post, Mr. Kerry stated, “Nowhere is the connection between climate and security more direct than in South Asia—home to Al Qaeda. Scientists now warn that the Himalayan glaciers which supply fresh water to a billion people in the region could disappear completely by 2035.” He was referring to a statement in Chapter 10 of the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
But in 2010, Dr. Murari Lal, the coordinating lead author for Chapter 10, admitted that the “melting by 2035” statement was not from peer-reviewed literature, but had been added to Chapter 10 to try to put pressure on world leaders. An accepting Senator Kerry fell prey to the ruse.
In another example last July, Senator Kerry warned about rising seas, stating, “With the melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet alone, global sea levels could rise by as much as 3.26 meters in the coming years. And the Pacific and Atlantic coasts may be in for a 25 percent increase above average levels by century’s end.” But, empirical data indicate growth of both Antarctic sea ice and land ice over the last 30 years.
Data from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia show no increase in global surface temperatures for more than ten years. Nevertheless, Mr. Kerry continues his climate crusade. In a speech on the Senate floor in August of this year, Kerry declared that global climate change was “as dangerous” as nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran. President Obama recently said that climate change would be one of his top three priorities for his second term. Mr. Kerry may be just the man to lead the crusade.
During the next four years, look for Secretary Kerry to boost efforts in a futile fight to stop global warming. The real problems of the world, such as hunger, poverty and disease in developing nations, terrorism, and nuclear proliferation, may need to take a back seat.
Steve Goreham is Executive Director of the Climate Science Coalition of America and author of the new book The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism: Mankind and Climate Change Mania.
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Dave says:
December 26, 2012 at 7:29 am
” Get him out of the Senate and we have a small chance of getting someone in there who isn’t a western civilization hating megalomaniac.”
_____________
Replacing a senior senator with someone at the bottom of the seniority ladder will in itself be beneficial.
“catastrophic climate change represents a threat to human security, global stability, and—yes—even to American national security”
That might be true. What I know is true is that limiting the energy around the world by raising the price is also a threat to all of those things. I believe even worse of a threat.
The real problem is Obama. He’s the one who appointed Lisa Jackson, who is a little more than a clueless apparatchik under his direction. I’m sure if you checked the Senate voting records of Kerry, Obama, Boxer and Clinton, they all voted in lockstep on climate and environmental issues.
Climate stupidity is only a part of Liberal, no-growth, strangulating and corrupt environmental policies. Obama can do a lot of damage just with presidential directives in that direction.
The good news is that the Republicans still own the House and will probably pick up seats there and in the Senate in 2014. If Kerry resigns, Scott Brown stands a good chance of winning his seat.
This will mean more to Brits.
John Gummer (or Lord Deben) was recently appointed chairman of the Committee on Climate Change, despite certain business interests relating to renewables, etc. These interests were declared by him.
What he does not seem to have declared is that he is a Council Member of the World Future Council (WFC), whose stated aim is to influence decision makers and bring about
a fair and ecologically intact world for current and future generations
Their policy list makes Greenpeace look like the Tea Party!
This cannot possibly not result in a conflict of interest, and there may be much more to come out of this yet. e’g. why Gummer has not declared the WFC on his Parliamentary Register of Interests.
More detail here.
http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/john-gummer-and-the-world-future-council/
If he gets confirmed as our Secretary of State there is a good chance he will go down in history as America’s Neville Chamberlain and will bumble his way into some disastrous foreign policy moves that will cost us dearly.
If I made a list of the 5 least competent Senators, he would appear on the list twice.
Larry
Speaking as a non-American, few thought Hilary Clinton would do such a good job as Secretary of State, perhaps in his new job Kerry will find himself too busy to continue pandering to the whims of the econuts in the PDR Massachusetts. We can always hope.
Speaking as an American, I rather agree. He’s not stupid, and there is plenty of real stuff to keep him occupied.
Also, AR5 is showing the first signs that the “consensus” is breaking down. Figure 1.4 is as easily an argument against CAGW as it is for it, and this is being pointed out in a highly vocal and articulate manner. They are also lowering the “consensus” prediction of warming by the end of the century, increasingly constrained by facts as they emerge.
I don’t see this state of affairs changing unless the data changes and another burst of rapid warming occurs akin to that in 1997-1998. Which could happen, but probably requires a strong ENSO to take place.
rgb
wucash says:
December 26, 2012 at 2:29 am
……………… We lost our tripple A rating, something George Osborne has said before was incredibly important to guage how the plan is working out. Not surprisingly after the rating was lost he said it’s not a big deal anyway.
Yup, even his own indicators tell him his economic policy has failed, yet Cameron still won’t admit it and carries on this path that threatens many more with severe poverty.
*********************************************************************************************
Do you have your own news feed? In the real world the UK still has a triple A rating albeit with a warning that the rating is on watch. I
If you do not know this what are your other points worth in terms of credibility?
Steve T
AleaJactaEst says:
December 26, 2012 at 5:43 am
I’d agree, largely, but with a caveat: Cameron was doing immensely well in the polls until he backed away from his “cast iron guarantee” for a referendum on continued membership of the EU. You can trace to the very day he said it and see the polls start their inexorable slide toward the election. If he’d stuck by that one promise, the tories would have won with a landslide.
I think it was the fact that he backed away from something he’d essentially laid his entire political standing over. The fact that it was a referendum on the EU added some emotional ooomph, but the fact that he was so willing to drop something that he’d declared was inviolable revealed a great deal about his character. People weren’t willing to vote for the party of such an obvious charlatan and they went to the minnows instead, or just stayed at home. Turnout at that election was the lowest it’s ever been.
Data from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia show no increase in global surface temperatures for more than ten years.
To elaborate on this point, here are the latest times for no warming on both Hadcrut3 and Hadcrut4:
Hadcrut3: since May 1997 or 15 years, 7 months (goes to November)
Hadcrut4: since December 2000 or an even 12 years (goes to November.)
See:
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/hadcrut3gl/from:1997.33/plot/hadcrut3gl/from:1997.33/trend/plot/hadcrut4gl/from:2000.9/plot/hadcrut4gl/from:2000.9/trend
However the times for no significant warming are as follows:
For Hacrut3, the warming is NOT significant for 19 years.
For Hadcrut3: 0.098 +/- 0.113 C/decade at the two sigma level from 1994
For Hacrut4, the warming is NOT significant for 18 years.
For Hadcrut4: 0.098 +/- 0.111 C/decade at the two sigma level from 1995
(P.S. RSS has NO warming for 16 years and no significant warming for 23 years.)
theduke says:
December 26, 2012 at 8:02 am
The real problem is Obama. He’s the one who appointed Lisa Jackson, who is a little more than a clueless apparatchik under his direction. I’m sure if you checked the Senate voting records of Kerry, Obama, Boxer and Clinton, they all voted in lockstep on climate and environmental issues…
…The good news is that the Republicans still own the House and will probably pick up seats there and in the Senate in 2014. If Kerry resigns, Scott Brown stands a good chance of winning his seat.
————————————————————————————————
You better read this…
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/02/24/kerry-brown-call-for-extension-wind-energy-tax-credits/VyL5FzAHoqoO2YkIw7PF8O/story.html
john from DB
P. Solar says:
December 26, 2012 at 2:56 am
“See Kerry stand by Florida U. police taser a student for asking “difficult” questions. What a guy.”
Kerry …in that videw one can easily witness what a coward he is. Obama nominated John Kerry to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, saying Kerry’s ”entire life has prepared him for this role.” He further contended that Kerry’s service as a Vietnam veteran taught him the “responsibility to use American power wisely, especially our military power.” Us Vietnam veterans whose reputations Kerry trashed in order to advance his own radical political agenda permanently cemented his yellow striped character. Keep the truth flowing.
CAGW will prove to be the modern version of the Piltdown Man. When Dart discovered the Taung child he was roundly criticized, for as everyone knew, the brain size was too small. Piltdown Man, on the other hand, was just right…he fit the concensus among the experts that brain size was the first step from ape-hood, and he had a big brain. It took decades before the “fossil” was determined to be a fraud. Anthropogenic global warming as a concensus is at the point Raymond Dart entered the picture. About to have the legs cut out from under it.
Lest Canadians be tempted to smugness because our Prime Minister has pulled us out of Kyoto and away from AGW fear-mongery, we need to remember here that whatever the US does is going to unavoidably drag Canada and our economy with it.
Senator Kerry and President Obama cannot change fundamental economic science. There are hundreds of past examples where governments repeating the same policy mistakes and discovery economic reality. There are millions of ways governments can waste money. The extreme AGW paradigm is a classic create an artificial crisis to justify spending billions of dollars deficit dollars on scams and studies.
The good times for the bureaucracy and scam artists eventually ends. The problem with massive deficit stimulus spending on green scams and entitlements is the massive deficit spending leads to a currency collapse as surely as objects fall down rather than up. Individuals understand that that a family’s standard of life does not improve by taking on massive credit card debt. Deficit spending is a type of a ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemes are lose-lose.
The only difference between deficit spending by an individual and a government is there is a longer delay or lag time between the initiation of the massive deficit spending and economic collapse. Obama won the election by selling a scam. It does not matter whether he and his followers believe their scam. Leaders can lead followers off of cliffs. The reality of the cliff does not change. Changing direction and addressing the problem takes a different type of leader. (i.e. A leader that leads in the correct direction and makes real fundamental changes rather than talks about change.)
Western unemployment will continue to rise until the Western governments address the structural problems. (We need a dozen Margaret Thatchers.)
“If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing”
“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money [to spend].”
“Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.”
“To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.”
The green scam mania is not going to end well. US tax payers are not going to support spending billions of dollars to set up a world bureaucracy to monitor and control a “carbon trading scheme”, when there is high unemployment and massive cutbacks in government spending. US tax payers are not going to support sending billions of dollars to corrupt third world governments and green scam companies.
The green scams will end due to the economic facts on the ground and Svensmark’s mechanism.
Predictions for the next four years:
1. Large default of Spain banks, riots and politic instability in Spain
2. Greece leaves the EU
3. UK takes steps to leave the EU
4. US currency controls to stop run on dollar
5. Solar cycle 24 leads to a Maunder minimum
6. Obvious and unequivocal planetary cooling due to solar cycle change
http://en.mercopress.com/2012/03/31/height-of-antarctica-ice-sheet-increasing
Height of Antarctica ice sheet increasing
According to findings come from the Europe’s Space Administration ESA’s ice-measuring satellite, CryoSat, over the last two years Antarctica’s ice sheet has increased in height.
In a press release ESA announced that the measurements from their 2010-2011 campaigns show the height of Antarctic ice to be an average of nine centimetres higher than the measurements obtained during the 2008-2009 campaigns.
ESA says these findings not only provide good news from the ice sheets, but also show the effectiveness of the CryoSat missions.
According to the ESA press release, there was a five cm drop of the height of Antarctic ice from 1991-2000 that continued until 2008. ESA does not yet have information explaining why the ice height has increased, but are encouraged at the possible upward trend.
Wucash – are you getting your factoids from the Socialist Worker?
UK still has – just – a triple-A rating.
Cameron’s government is spending ( and taxing) more than Brown or Blair ( remember Tony B. Liar?) ever did, unhappily.
The deficit this year will be between 119,000 and 135,000 million pounds.
The government is spending, this year, about a hundred and twenty-five thousand million pounds it doesn’t have – borrowing, not least to pay the interest on the existing debt.
That is he economics of the madhouse.
Better to cut red tape, make “elf’n’safety” about important things, not stopping students from making cups of tea in case they scald themselves.
Government ‘does’ many things.
Some it may not need to do.
Those it does need to be done more cost-effectively -and incompetent staff need to be moved or sacked.
If this sounds bad, of course, it is!
There are now too many functionaries all over the world justifying their existence by drafting regulations.
Too much government
Too many regulations.
Rant over. John Kerry, as POTUS candidate, spawned many funnies. Perhaps, as SoS, he will redeem himself.
Perhaps not, too.
The broad sweep of regulatory authority granted to President Obama under environmental law and product safety law could be used as the legal basis for immediate action against further increases in global greenhouse gas emissions, and without the need for legislative authorization from Congress.
As one of his first actions as the new Secretary of State, John Kerry should place his publicly-stated convictions about AGW first on his personal agenda by asking President Obama to initiate a War on Global Warming as the President’s number one priority for his new term, operating through a series of previously existing and/or newly promulgated Executive Orders:
–> Operating through product safety regulations and/or environmental compliance regulations, President Obama should impose what is effectively a broad-scope trade embargo against any industrial nation which refuses to meet the goal of a 20% reduction in their total greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
–> Operating through his executive authority for dealing with national security issues, President Obama should declare a national carbon pollution emergency with strictly enforced rationing of carbon fuel consumption.
–> Operating through environmental compliance regulations, the President should instruct the EPA to levy stiff environmental compliance fines on all industries in the US which produce significant greenhouse gas emissions.
It is the duty of those who are truly serious about dealing with ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions to seize this opportunity for taking serious action and to inform John Kerry of the nation’s expectation that he must act in accordance with his own stated convictions.
Senator Kerry must be made to recognize that nothing less than the three-point program described above could have any measurable impact in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, and that he has no other choice but to convince President Obama of the pressing need to move forward with this plan as expeditiously as possible.
Another story about Kerry and his new job.
Kerry to face climate test at State Department but not Keystone XL
http://business.financialpost.com/2012/12/24/kerry-to-face-climate-test-at-state-department-but-not-keystone-xl/
All these guys work for the banksters, and the banksters want their money.
The fact that carbon credits will be traded on Wall St. tells you exactly who is behind this scam.
Pretty much everyone knows that Kissinger called us “useless eaters” – watch the video below and hear some bankster from Montreal call us “canon fodder, that unfortunately populates the Earth right now” – you can also find speeches by Edmund Rothschild and Maurice Strong from the same conference.
John A says: …..
………The reality is that no-one, not even the Democrats, is going to vote for higher energy costs through a cap-and-trade while America still struggles with the results of the near collapse of the American economy during latter Bush administration.
=================================================================
John,
While I believe that you and I disagree politically, don’t you think that the Obama Administration is going to have a go at Cap and Trade bureaucratically instead of legislatively?
TR
Make my day.
(In the 2014 elections.)
Mike M says:
December 26, 2012 at 5:46 am
I think communist Ed Markey is second to Gore putting Kerry further down the list. Markey and scientific moron Henry Waxman authored a monstrosity cap and trade bill “ACES” in 2009 that narrowly passed in the House but was thankfully shot down in the Senate.
We dodged a big bullet back then when there was less public awareness of the fraud of CAGW so I think the chances of anything like it being foisted on us again are very remote and getting through the House right now – impossible.
==================================================================
Mike,
I am from Massachusetts and, no word of a lie, “Easy Eddie” Markey’s only foray into the private sector economy is running an ice cream truck after he graduated from Boston College, from there he went into congress.
You couldn’t make it up iany funnyer/sadder.
Good luck America, We have been through the climate idiocy down here (Australia).
All you can do is hang on until the next election and HOPE that the population wakes up to reality, before too much damage is done.!!!
I watch CSPAN when I get a chance – so I can see what our politicians are saying. Henry Waxman is a buffoon! In a House debate he claimed that Obama has saved the auto industry from going bankrupt, and that Romney would have let them just go bankrupt.
He was corrected
1) Ford did not take the bailout and did not go bankrupt.
and then asked the following:
2) Did you know that GM and Chrysler did go bankrupt after the bail out?
His response was that he has not heard of such a thing. He’s that stupid that he believes his own Democrat party’s hype. He did not know that GM and Chrysler indeed went bankrupt!
There are experts on the committee to help states implement Obamacare (ACA) who did not know what our national debt was… not even a wild guess. Yet, they were proposing that states get free money from the Federal government to help them with implementation of the ACA.
That we we have people in congress this dumb and completely aware of the subject matter of their profession scares the hell out of people like me. People like wucash exist here in the US and vote. That is sad indeed.
If global warming alarmist John Kerry becomes Secretary of State, one can only wonder why the Obama administration is determined to make Americans poorer from its green agenda, allowing the rich to become even richer and more powerful, particularly the banking cartel behind the Federal Reserve, which does well in normal times and even better in times of chaos and depression.
I wonder if the skuttle-butt about his Vietnam antics will be raised link 1 and link 2.