Taxes are the new climate forcing. I kid you not.
From the NYT, columnist Gail Collins:
But a carbon tax/fee is the key to controlling climate change. That or just letting the next generation worry about whether the Jersey Shore is going to wind up lapping Trenton. Currently, majority sentiment in Congress is to hope for the best and pass the baton to the grandchildren. (When it comes to rising-sea-level denial, the champion may be North Carolina, where the Legislature has voted to base state coastal management policy on historic trends rather than anything the current experts have to say. “This means that even though North Carolina scientists predict 39 inches of sea-level rise within the century, North Carolina, by its own law, is only allowed to prepare for 8. King Canute would be so proud,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island in a recent speech.)
…
It’s sort of ironic. These are the same folks who constantly seed their antideficit speeches with references to our poor, betrayed descendants. (“This is a burden our children and grandchildren will have to bear.”) Don’t you think the children and grandchildren would appreciate being allowed to hang onto the Arctic ice cap?
=============================================================
I dunno, my kids haven’t used the Arctic icecap lately, I’m not sure they’d miss it with all the clutter in their rooms.
Read the whole silly essay here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/opinion/collins-cooling-on-warming.html
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
vukcevic says:
March 28, 2013 at 9:08 am
As a climate variability reference the AMO’s 11 year moving average is plotted (left hand scale). This appears to support Dr. Svalgaard’s view.
Vuk – Recall that Knight et al 2005 showed the AMO is oscillatory and at least pseudo-periodic over the timebase of a millenium they looked at (note who the coauthor is – this suggests it is correct, since that guy is no fan of solar influences).
I’d say then that both of the good doctors are correct. The ~60 year cycle seems also to be a solar indirect effect based on your graph, as is the (previous) solar cycle length correlation with temperature, which is where Svensmark and his colleague Friis-Christensen are coming from. The two influences together on my calcs empirically correspond to about 85% of the temperature rise in the IPCC’s magic century 1906-2005, which coincidentally corresponds to exactly the bottom of the 60 year cycle in 1906 and top of the following cycle in 2005. Funny that.
A lot of people are or have discovered the bias and bad reporting of the NYT, and complaining and reporting about it :
http://windowsitpro.com/mobile/microsoft-claim-limited-windows-phone-success-comes-under-attack
In Australia a carbon tax looks like a swift move to the opposition benches for the ruling coalition of Labor Greens.
You could argue that their carbon tax fixed the climate so well it fixed it before even the tax was levied.Now the tax has been so effective it need not be applied anymore because all the good work has been done.
America, one good thing is that if Obama gets his Carbon Tax then history tells up that you will not have to worry about a Democrat President for some time….
Latest polling in Oz suggests the Labor vote will land them just 20% representation in the Parliament and perhaps lower, with the rest going conservative (or Katter maybe).
My estimate is 20 years to crawl back from a defeat like that…
Perhaps, the americans reading might just like to quietly point out the Australian Carbon Tax led clean out of progressive parliamentarians to their Dem representatives. Carbon Tax = Electoral oblivion – or maybe just economic oblivion in the case of the EU, fatally wounded by green trash policy.
Perhaps the USA likes the fact that it’s heading for debt ridden oblivion, maybe a rescue package, where your federal government will rip 30% direct from YOUR bank accounts? Not so silly after the last week or so UN/EU attack of outright insanity.
The oz government, now broke after their green brain snap, is contemplating retrospectively raiding australian’s savings direct from their retirement funds. Let’s rip off the current and future pensioners to get more cash is their motto, after all pensioners have their eyes wide open, and usually vote conservative.
All hail the power of the carbon tax to consign any government that implement it to the dustbin of history
Rant complete…. I now return you to your regular programming.
Bob –
Winged monkey, now headed for winged monkey with forked tail status.
vukcevic says:
March 28, 2013 at 9:08 am
Why are we letting OT posts like that through?
“This means that even though North Carolina scientists predict 39 inches of sea-level rise within the century, North Carolina, by its own law, is only allowed to prepare for 8.
I find the 39″ of sea level rise an interesting number since that is the same SLR that FEMA has used to redraw the Flood maps for Flood insurance. And these were drawn before Sandy which had a significant impact since it coincided with a monster lingering NE storm, so it might get worse.
Every homeowner on the Jersey Shore (and possibly elsewhere) are impacted by the new, yet to be approved, maps in that some newspapers have reported that Flood insurance could cost up to $30,000 dollars per year.
FEMA has increased the risk level from 6′ to 8′ on my lagoon front house that is located several hundred yards off the Barnegat bay, which is in turn extends several miles west of the barrier island that protects us from the Atlantic Ocean. It is true that many homes on the barrier island that were not elevated with piling were damaged.
This house has never had water in it even during the Sandy/NE Storm event, yet since my shore home is only 7.5 feet above the reference level, I can expect significant increases in Flood Insurance premiums. Also “they” claim that it can be exposed to mild waves although the waves would have to pass over two streets parallel to the shoreline and 4 Lagoons which seems improbable. I should mention that one cannot get a mortgage without flood insurance in FEMA designated flood zones, which have been expanded via the new flood maps.
It appears that the above quoted 39″ SLR this century is now the standard accepted by the government bureaucrats and will be imposed on building standards, insurance premiums, etc. unless someone can stop the exaggerated SLR predictions in the next few months, even though there has been no global warming for circa 15 years. Most of us could live with the North Carolina 8″ SLR. The 39″ edict will drive all but the more wealthy out of homes along the waterfront while also killing property values.
One can only hope that blogs such as WUWT can ultimately rescue us from the SLR predictions, cap and trade, carbon tax, ethanol mandates, bans on drilling, and other threats to our lifestyle and economy.
“…This is a burden our children and grandchildren will have to bear…”
Simplest answer to this – don’t have children.
And as far as the “one meter rise in sea level” goes, if you really want to have your neighbors pay attention to you, start building a one meter levee around your property. Be sure to tell everyone that you’ve been listening to a prominent NASA scientist, and he makes a compelling case for the deadly rise, and you want to be prepared.
And if you live in the middle of Kansas, so much the better…
North Carolina scientists predict 39 inches of sea-level rise within the century.
Based on internal peer reviewed computer models by people who would not get a job in the place if they said otherwise. I think that trusting the integrity of any self selected group in this highly commercially motivated era is sheer folly. Climate scientists are like the tale of the people feeling the elephant and think it a snake based on only the trunk. Others outside the profession see the highly implausible assumptions made in the computer models and the huge errors in the appalling data acquisition now proven to way exceed the current warming level measured.
Bruce of Newcastle says:
March 28, 2013 at 4:11 pm
…….
Thanks for the links. You make a good point. Svensmark may well be correct that the cloud formation is significantly modulated by the variability of magnetic fields, but that looks more likely to be the geomagnetic than the heliospheric. I am also sure that the solar magnetic field has strong input in the formation of the the AMO’s 60ish year cycle.
Jeff Alberts says:
March 28, 2013 at 7:24 pm
……….
The thread is ‘Climate Craziness of the Week – the new climate forcing’, hence the fact that the AMO in the N. Atlantic (at 40W) is closely synchronised with the geo magnetic oscillations in the Siberia on the other side of the globe (130E), during the last 100 years (as shown here)
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/AMF.htm
regardless of a possible ‘cause-consequence’ or coincidence is well in accord with the title ‘Climate Craziness of the Week – the new climate forcing’
Catcracking says:
March 28, 2013 at 10:19 pm
re: increases in flood insurance.
You may want to check the grandfather clause in FEMA flood insurance. Basically, if your house is in a designated flood zone with a corresponding elevation and your house is built to code and you have had proper flood insurance on the house, you can keep your current flood zone designation even if FEMA redraws the map and increases the base flood elevation. My property was designated as zone D with a base elevation of 13 feet. After Hurricane Andrew FEMA redrew the zone to AE and increased the base flood elevation to 15 feet. Because my property met the conditions of the grandfather clause I was able to keep my insurance premiums at the zone D base elevation 13 feet price. That saves me over $2500 per year! Check it out.
Gary says:
March 28, 2013 at 9:58 am
Sen. Whitehouse is a US Senator from RI, a state with the terrible habit of harming itself in every conceivable way. Electing him and anyone else affiliated with the Democrat Party is just one example of our repeated mistakes. We never learn. In fact, we usually double-down on them. Amoebas have more sense about what is beneficial for them, than the citizens of this place.
*******************************************************************************************************************
At least Providence had the good sense to build a hurricane barrier in the 1960s, unlike New York City, which paid the price for this costly environmentalist-induced mistake when Sandy struck, for which negligence NY wants taxpayers in other states to fork over billions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Point_Hurricane_Barrier
Its construction began & ended under GOP governors, with a Democrat for two years in between.
Tom,
Thanks for the input, but I believe that the recently passed law is game changer and past grandfathering may go out the window.
While I agree that past government policies were insane, insuring high risk locations at low premiums, the redo seems to go the other way by spreading the premium increase risk more broadly into areas that never have experienced flooding by including a 39″ SLR based on computer model projections of global warming.
I would appreciate it if you have any further information on the grandfathering you reference.
Below is a link provided to me by John Droz as well as a contact at FEMA on the flood maps.
http://www.floods.org/ace-files/documentlibrary/2012_NFIP_Reform/2012_NFIP_Reform_Act_ASFPM_Summary_of_Contents.pdf
Paul Rooney
GISPFEMA – Risk Analysis Division
Department of Homeland Security
paul.rooney@fema.dhs.gov
Office 617-832-4719
Mobile 617-312-5976
This change has impact all over the US mainland, not just the NJ coast.
Coming soon, confiscation of a percentage of your bank balance as a climate change fee.