Romm must be fuming. After disappearing his formerly independent “Climate Progress” blog and merging it with the main Think Progress website, where he’s lucky to get a dozen comments a day. His parent organization, Think Progress, utterly fails to mention The Most Important Issue of All Time as a top issue for 2013. Oooh, that’s gotta hurt.
This morning, 31 December 2012, Think Progress provided 12 Progressive Resolutions for 2013. From better drug policy to immigration reform to enacting gun safety laws, many interesting (if not outright good) items in this list. Again, however, the telling thing is the absence of a critical set of issues.
Amid these 12, no (zero, nada, nilch) reference to climate change, the climate cliff, environment, clean energy, green jobs, energy efficiency, fossil fuel impacts on the political system, …
From Get Energy Smart NOW! Stunning Think Progress Climate Silence
It is just one more indication that even the people pushing the issue don’t really much believe in it anymore, especially when we’ve had over a decade of no warming.
h/t to Tom Nelson
In related news, Bill McKibben has apparently gone insane with this latest statement:
‘Fossil-Fuel Companies Have Become Outlaws Against The Laws Of Physics’
Samurai said (January 1, 2013 at 1:08 am)
“…Romm must be going apoplectic over this “oversight”, he, he.
I think 2012 became CAGW’s Waterloo and it’s all downhill from here.
2013 looks to be another La Niña year, which will make 17-18 yrs of no warming.
2013 will also mark the year that SC24 peaks and then starts its slide SC25, which will become the lowest SC since 1715.
The PDO also started its 30-yr cool phase in 2008, so cooling Pacific Ocean temps will further push global temps down.
It would be great if Climategate 3.0 e-mails could be released a few weeks prior to AR5′s release.
2013 should be interesting…”
To me, the “climate scientists” won’t start the wailing and gnashing of teeth until we see the first “global temperature anomaly” index go below zero.
Remember, that their “anomaly” charts (for example, GISS), uses a period from the past (GISS – 1951-1980). IFAIK, there are no charts they use that shows the global anomalies from the LIA, or during the Maunder minimum based on that 1951-1980 period.
Imagine how much more extreme those temperature charts would appear if every bit of that warming were above “zero” (as it would be if they used the LIA as an averaging period).
But just once, I’d like to see an anomaly chart that uses GISS data, and also uses the most current period as the averaging period (example, 1981-2010). Just to see how “extreme” the past couple of years are compared to that 30-year climatological period.
I know they won’t, though. Their funding wouldn’t survive if our “current warming” was close to “zero” or close to average.
Mike Roddy says:
January 1, 2013 at 3:41 pm
“Here’s the response to your question about deaths from burning fossil fuels, Anthony:”
Mike, you must then oppose the construction of wind turbines and solar panels as well due to their energy needs in construction (steel, cement, melting of silicon, production of [silane] needed in PV production, production of Rare Earths for wind turbine generators, transporting them around the globe in container ships). Or alternatively, demonstrate that you can build more wind turbines and PV panels using only the output of PV panels. (Nobody does that EVEN THOUGH the use of PV panels and wind turbines is SUBSIDIZED! So I take it that it is COMPLETELY impossible when unsubsidized; under “bootstrap” conditions)
That leaves you with a civilisation with a technology ca. 1250 to 1650 AD, pre industrial revolution.
Do you want to tell us that that’s BETTER than what we have now in terms of mortality?
DirkH says:
January 1, 2013 at 7:37 pm
“production of hexane needed in PV production”
Sorry, not hexane – Silane. It’s very energy intensive to produce and largely squandered (to 95%) during PV production.
I notice that the greens have given up on 350 ppm and are now targetting 425 as the ‘must reach’ goal. of course when we get to that 450 will become the new absolute maximum (etcetc)
One proposal that I have yet to hear from all of the “great progressive minds”. Wouldn’t it be at the forefront of minds of those who wish for a smaller world population? Wouldn’t it be at the forefront of the minds of those who wish for greater control of the masses? It would virtually eliminate all currently intractable problems such as human consumption of resources, the growth of impoverished nations, the spread of STD’s, the spread of HIV, abortions, foreign adoptions in Russia, Ukraine & China. It would be more effective than “Cap-and-trade”. It would eliminate the debt of most government entities. It would have the same regressive effects as current(ly proposed) energy taxes. Just think what control the ‘globalists’ could exert over the entire world – far better than Kyoto:
Copulation Tax or Copulation License
Call it “Cop-and-tax”, “Cop-or-trade”. I’m sure a good propagandist such as Romm could come up with an even better tag for it…
The WordPress editor ate my /sarc tag!!!
[But where should it get inserted ? Mod]
henrythethird says:
January 1, 2013 at 7:32 pm
To me, the “climate scientists” won’t start the wailing and gnashing of teeth until we see the first “global temperature anomaly” index go below zero.
Remember, that their “anomaly” charts (for example, GISS), uses a period from the past (GISS – 1951-1980). See:
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/gistemp/from:1940/plot/gistemp/from:1981/to:2011/trend
The mean of that trend line is 0.365. January of 2012 was 0.32, so that would have been negative had they used 1981 to 2011 as the base period.
Gail Zawacki says: January 1, 2013 at 10:15 am
=============================
Gail, if people can’t burn gas, or coal, or fuel oil to keep warm, do you know what they will burn?
Brace yourself Gail, they will burn – TREES, oh horrors! They will cut down trees and cut them up into FIREWOOD and then burn the poor dears! Now you would not want that, would you? the poor trees?
Certainly not. Become a skeptic and work to save the trees from the idiotic and destructive aims of the global warmers. They hate trees, because trees drop leaves which are made of CARBON, and the nasty old carbon is recycled into the atmosphere.
Kermit says: January 1, 2013 at 4:46 pm
“…You can feel like you’re winning this, but I’m afraid there is going to be a real shock soon. It is simply too tempting to raise a lot of new money based on “saving the earth.” …”
Correct Kermit, it feels like sense is winning the debate when all the logic and information is laid out plainly for all to see …..
But, there has never been a better idea for opportunities to make money out of nothing, and opportunities to regulate us into corners where we have no choice but to pay the rent seekers ….. and will be pursued relentlessly by men with infinite financing, and zero conscience, who will loudly proclaim they are on a mission to save the world.
But, we have to keep at it, and it is easy to keep on fighting when you know you are on the side of ‘right’.
“it is easy to keep on fighting when you know you are on the side of ‘right’.”
True. But it may be more fruitful to focus the battle on the economics of mitigation. In rough estimates, I computed that if the US were to reduce its CO2 footprint to ZERO, it would take 300 years to have a 1 degree impact on the temperature. If correct (and I would love to have this confirmed or corrected), this kind of argument may go much further to prevent useless regulation than any other.
Gail Combs says: January 1, 2013 at 6:05 pm
“Enron, joined by BP, invented the global warming industry. I know because I was in the room.”
http://dailycaller.com/2010/12/15/lessons-from-the-global-warming-industry/
That is a helluva link, Gail…. an interesting essay.
I need to pass it to all my (many) warmist friends who think big oil/big energy are quaking in their boots at carbon taxes and cap and trade. Nope, they are all set up to benefit.
The author of that piece, Chris Horner is certainly doing his bit!
(Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a Washington, DC-based think-tank).
Gail Zawacki says: January 1, 2013 at 10:15 am
“…..You really don’t need a physicist to tell you that the world is warming, and that the weather has become terrifyingly violent. …”
Gail this is just silly, surely you are watching too many movies: Just because someone TELLS us something is happening, does not necessarily mean that it is.
Just cast a quick glance down this page, it is worth doing:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/reference-pages/climatic-phenomena-pages/extreme-weather-page/
My earlier comment should have ended with a </sarc>.
Mike Roddy says:
January 1, 2013 at 3:41 pm
So no science then, what a surprise.
This isn’t new.
Here is a Guardian report (October 2011) on the Earthwatch conference (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2011/oct/12/top-environmental-priority-debate-earthwatch).
Climate change didn’t get a mention.
The new scam is population.
In case no one has noticed, population has been getting increasing mentions from all the usual suspects – the BBC for example.
This isn’t a new idea. Just take a look at publications by John Holdren or Maurice Strong going back over their “careers”.
The anger/hate (let’s call it “AH”) to sadness ratio is very high in this thread and very telling. The majority of those who enter here probably realize already: there IS no good answer about how to keep all of us warm, fed and thriving (with lots of toys). But instead of being sad about it, this really gets you ticked. It is hard to be a single male who doesn’t get stewardship and will not be concerned with the next generation and it has to be infuriating to hear about other people who love and care deeply about these things. You could say that the high concentration of AH in America (and skulking about here) effectively blocks progress toward a more careful approach and amounts to a “forcing” factor, ensuring that we (in America at least) will not make the changes that are needed. Not even the loss of our heartland farms, coastal cities, clean full rivers, and biodiversity will make you feel sad. You are incapable of it. I am sorry for you.
Joe Romm is an American hero.
Bill,
This is the internet’s “Best Science” site. All your complaining amounts to nothing. Posting a comment like that on a two week old thread is completely lame. Why bother?
BTW, what color is the sky on your planet? Here on Earth our sky is blue, and here on Earth Joe Romm is a clueless idiot.