Reducto Al absurdium?
The former vice president [Al Gore] set out to create the Apple Computer of climate change — but instead he’s running the Microsoft. From a sweeping, expensive “blitz” to a “niche” effort in digital media.
…
The numbers, according to a review of the nonprofit’s tax filings, show the change has been severe. In 2009, at its peak, Gore’s group had more than 300 employees, with 40 field offices across 28 states, and a serious war chest: It poured $28 million into advertising and promotion, and paid about $200,000 in lobbying fees at the height of the “cap and trade” energy bill fight on Capitol Hill.
Today, the group has just over 30 people on staff and has abandoned its on-the-ground presence — all of its field offices have since shut down — in favor of a far cheaper digital advocacy plan run out of Washington. Advertising expenses have decreased from the millions to the thousands, and the organization no longer lobbies lawmakers. Donations and grants have declined, too — from $87.4 million in 2008 to $17.6 million in 2011, and many of its high-profile donors have drifted away, one telling BuzzFeed she now sees the group’s initial vision as “very naïve.”…Susie Tompkins Buell, a California-based Democratic donor and one of Hillary Clinton’s closest friends, seeded $5 million in 2007 to the organization, but now says she hasn’t “followed it very much” or contributed since.
Gee, I wonder what happened in 2009? Climategate anyone?
More at Buzzfeed: Al Gore’s Incredible Shrinking Climate Change Footprint
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Speaking of Absurdium, this columnist at The Atlantic, William R. Polk, blames “climate change” for the chemical weapons incident in Syria.
Syria has been convulsed by civil war since climate change came to Syria with a vengeance. Drought devastated the country from 2006 to 2011. Rainfall in most of the country fell below eight inches (20 cm) a year, the absolute minimum needed to sustain un-irrigated farming. Desperate for water, farmers began to tap aquifers with tens of thousands of new well. But, as they did, the water table quickly dropped to a level below which their pumps could lift it.
[USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, Commodity Intelligence Report, May 9, 2008]
In some areas, all agriculture ceased. In others crop failures reached 75%. And generally as much as 85% of livestock died of thirst or hunger. Hundreds of thousands of Syria’s farmers gave up, abandoned their farms and fled to the cities and towns in search of almost non-existent jobs and severely short food supplies. Outside observers including UN experts estimated that between 2 and 3 million of Syria’s 10 million rural inhabitants were reduced to “extreme poverty.”
Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/09/your-labor-day-syria-reader-part-2-william-polk/279255/
Like the country has never had a drought before? I blame Joe Romm for stirring this pot.
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Murray Grainger writes in Tips and Notes:
According to TVNZ news tonight, the Pacific Forum will make an announcement tomorrow about Global Warming (and rising seas threatening low-lying Pacific atolls) that will make the world sit up and take notice.
You have been warned!
Gosh what could it be? Tuvalu is sinking 6.0? Been there done that, snoarzzz.
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NASA: Black soot melted glaciers
“PASADENA, Calif. – A NASA-led team of scientists has uncovered strong evidence that soot from a rapidly industrializing Europe caused the abrupt retreat of mountain glaciers in the European Alps that began in the 1860s, a period often thought of as the end of the Little Ice Age.
The research, published Sept. 3 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may help resolve a longstanding scientific debate.
In the decades following the 1850s, Europe underwent an economic and atmospheric transformation spurred by industrialization. The use of coal to heat homes and power transportation and industry in Western Europe began in earnest, spewing huge quantities of black carbon and other dark particles into the atmosphere.
Black carbon is the strongest sunlight-absorbing atmospheric particle. When these particles settle on the snow blanketing glaciers, they darken the snow surface, speeding its melting and exposing the underlying glacier ice to sunlight and warmer spring and summer air earlier in the year. This diminishing of the snow cover earlier in each year causes the glacier ice to melt faster and retreat. ”
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-267&cid=release_2013-267
h/t to reader mogamboguru
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UHI on steroids
An interesting illustration of the Urban Canyon Effect.
The skyscraper that’s melting cars
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Readers may recall that WUWT published: NOAA’s claim on El Reno tornado may not hold up
And so it goes….the El Reno tornado has been downgraded to an EF3 from an EF5: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/52900379/
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Um, Dana, did you notice that your own paper was rejected?
Mr. Bliss writes:
An amusing little twitter exchange that ends up with a dig at Nuccitelli’s reliance on psychology in the climate debate:
@GernotWagner I think answering that question would require a psychologist, honestly.
— Dana Nuccitelli (@dana1981) September 1, 2013
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If disaster strikes this hurricane season, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will use an unconventional system to evaluate damage: the ‘Waffle House Index.’
FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate told “The Fine Print” that he started using Waffle Houses as an informal metric of measuring the severity of a storm in its aftermath. He first started using the method in his previous post overseeing emergency management in Florida.
“If the Waffle House was open and had a full menu, it was green because that meant they hadn’t lost power.”
“If [it] was open but had a limited menu, it meant that there were more problems, so they were yellow. And if the store was closed, it was red.”
h/t to OssQss
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To Mike Jowsey, thanks for the detail. Much appreciated.
jono1066 says: @ur momisugly September 4, 2013 at 11:23 am
If soot is dark…
…and I never see the lumps of rock sitting on the top of the glacier sinking into the glacier,
but they are supposed to be hotter and therefore melting the ice so they should NOT be sitting on the top.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
HMMMmmm, I guess none of the scientists have ever watched what happens when you sand a road/drive and the ice becomes all pitted.
Gore’s Climate Reality Project inner circle circulated a memo specifically addressing this Buzzfeed article, refering to Al as the piñata
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/al-gore-group-defends-climate-change-strategy-in-internal-me
Subject: Buzzfeed and the piñata
Good morning/mid-day,
I am sure many of you have read the article Buzz Feed published today about our fearless leader and our fearless non-traditional efforts. I thought I would share a few thoughts that, of course, did not make it into the article.
As many of you already know, AG and climate change are one of the favorite piñatas for media and easy targets for headlines.
Always have been and always will be. In that stead, this particular piece was written with a narrative that the reporter had no interest in changing despite both GPG’s and my efforts to educate them on the great work of this team.
You would think Buzzfeed, of all places, would understand our approach to tackle this issue. But, alas, headlines are more important to and easier for them than writing about innovation and a community effort.
AG and Maggie have both read the article and are unwavering in their support of each of you and our strategy. As are the Climate Leaders and others who have weighed in the comment section to the article already.
So, when I invited Buzzfeed to join us this year, despite their viewpoint, to see our launch of bleeding edge digital tools like What I Love and join us again along with millions of others for 24 Hours of Reality and the launch of an innovative carbon too, I did it without any hesitation. And, they accepted.
This hasn’t been done before and we’re building something new together.
I can’t think of anything more inspiring than the opportunity to prove a naysayer wrong. And, I hope you find that inspiring too as we head into an action packed fall.
Let’s get out there and show them how its done!
Dan