While the most recent public polls on climate-change give a ho-hum response, Dr. Roy Spencer recently surmised that in the State of the Union Address tonight, President Obama will join the “everything is caused by global warming” club. He writes:
I predict that, despite the brutally cold weather in DC this Tuesday, Obama will preach on climate change in his State of the Union address. I predict he will even use the cold weather as evidence to support his case.
During his address it looks like there will be a wintry mix starting across the southern reaches of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, and the Florida panhandle. I wouldn’t be surprised if he uses the event as evidence of human-caused climate change.
…
For those of us old enough to remember, similar events happened back in the epic cold winters of the 1970s. Many instances of snow falling in Florida in the 1800s surely weren’t due to humans. Believe it or not, more snow tends to go with colder weather, not warmer. Go figure.
Sounds plausible, rational, and factually based. Of course, the SOTU is all about politics, so we’ll have none of that.
In other related news, that National Journal Reports:
Public to Obama, Congress: Climate Action Is No Big Deal This Year
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that 27 percent believe that addressing climate change should be an “absolute priority” in 2014.
Forty-one percent put the topic in the “can be delayed until next year” bucket, according to the poll conducted January 22-25 and released Tuesday.
In contrast, 91 percent say job creation should be a top priority, reducing the deficit comes in at 74 percent, and 63 percent say ensuring all children have access to preschool should be in the “absolute priority for this year” category.
A separate Pew Research Center poll finds that 29 percent of respondents want global warming to be a “top priority” for Obama and Congress this year, while 31 percent call it an “important but lower priority.”
http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/public-to-obama-congress-climate-action-is-no-big-deal-this-year-20140128
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I won’t be able to listen to/watch the SOTU address, as I’m traveling today, so readers will have to dissect and post memorable quotes here for discussion.
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Obamas increasing use of executive orders will I hope chill independent voters. Those like me who chose sides a long time ago will do what we will do. Those not afflicted with the partisan bug are the prize in the US.
On climate as on economics and healthcare The President follows his ideology. If the Left shifts he shifts. To quote Albert Gore “There has to be a political price on climate change denial” I couldn’t agree more Al. We are working hard to make sure that LOTUS and You pay it.
WaPo’s SOTU piece? hilariously, Robinson quotes Chris Turney’s boss, Sherwood, to make his case!
28 Jan: WaPo: Eugene Robinson: Dire signs from a warming world
Another insane cold wave — not the infamous “polar vortex ” but its evil twin — is bringing sub-zero and single-digit temperatures to much of the nation. And global warming may be even more extreme, and potentially more catastrophic, than climate scientists had feared.
This is, of course, no contradiction. The rallying cry of the denialists — “It’s really cold outside, so global warming must be a crock!” — can be taken seriously only by those with a toddler’s limited conception of time and space. They forget that it’s winter, and apparently they don’t quite grasp that even when it’s cold in one part of the world, it can be hot in another…
Why is it getting warmer? There’s still just one explanation that fits the available facts: Since the Industrial Revolution, the large-scale burning of fossil fuels has increased the concentration of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by an incredible 40 percent.
And according to an important new study, published Jan. 2 in the journal Nature, the eventual effect of human-generated carbon emissions could be greater than anticipated. Because of the impact of warming on cloud cover, the researchers calculated, average global temperatures could rise a full 7 degrees by the end of the century. This “would likely be catastrophic rather than simply dangerous,” the study’s lead author, Steven Sherwood of the University of New South Wales in Australia, told the Guardian newspaper….
President Obama, who understands the science, should use his executive powers as best he can, not just to reduce carbon emissions but also to prepare the country for confronting the environmental, political and military hazards of a warmer world.
The day will come, I predict, when world leaders are willing, even desperate, to curb greenhouse gases. But by then, I’m beginning to fear, it will probably be too late.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-global-warmings-impact-cant-be-ignored/2014/01/27/b5917594-8792-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html
I’ll miss the SOTU unfortunately. I’ll be busy stuffing attic insulation into my underwear. While wearing it…
The Idiot-in-Chief aka der Fuehrer presses on with his claims of the world getting hotter and hotter, while even so cautious an observer as Dr. Judith Curry speaks of how the talk is “no longer about the ‘pause,’ but about the cooling since 2002”.
Climate Depot has a whole long list of articles by any number of researchers (the genuine article, not der Fuehrer’s “research grant” paid propagandists) as to the cooling now in prigress and expected to deepen and last for anywhere from 30 to 250 years.
And to think this sort of criminal idiocy is behind, among other things, der Fuehrer’s preference to buy oil from Middle Eastern hatemongers, instead of our most valued ally, Canada (the Keystone). How can anyone possibly rationalize that decision as in the national interest? Not to mention a gratuitous slap in the face to our most supportive world partner.
Why, with all this cold he could claim victory over global warming. Would not be that nice? The war on sea is already won.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inEAWVS64T0?rel=0&w=640&h=360%5D
Due to a snowstorm last week, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick (D) Ma., who originally comes from Chicago (and is really good friends with O), is having his State of the State address as I write this. I expect the same content will come from the SOTU.
Will post link to the SOTS address in the morning for comparison.
“Enron guys, smartest guys in the room”.
Why fuss about what he says? He is the figure head propped up for you to adore or revile while the Big Money boys and assorted other creeps who brought us the Global Financial Crisis, the Iraq War, and the various other disasters that have killed or otherwise screwed the rest of us, carry on their rampage.
ossqss says:
January 28, 2014 at 2:36 pm
I believe he will blame the cold weather on George Bush !
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You haven’t been around here very long have you. Cold weather is Al Gore’s fault.
Public Radio weighs in:
28 Jan: PRI: Peter Thomson: After a starring role in 2013, look for just a climate change cameo in this year’s State of the Union
Look for climate talk to have a lower profile for in this year’s State of the Union address
Seven paragraphs. That’s how much of last year’s State of the Union address President Barack Obama devoted to climate change and related issues.
It was a huge amount of time for any issue, short of war or the economy, and to some it seemed to signal a new emphasis on an issue that many felt had lingered in the shadows of this administration far too long…
But he also all but acknowledged the futility of that plea, and promised the administration would move on its own, and not wait for Congress.
Which it did, in June, when Obama unveiled his climate action plan, a list of measures the administration could take unilaterally, without Congressional approval. Among other things, it promised tighter regulations on coal-fired power plants, a high environmental bar for evaluating the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, and to start taking climate change into account in everything government does.
Well, that was last year. This is this year, and if you want to hear what the president has to say about climate change now, I’d suggest you don’t leave the living room even for a fresh bowl of chips.
Maybe it’s because he doesn’t really think the problem is as serious as he suggested last year, but I chalk it up to the realities of politics and the way this particular concern oozes in and out of the public’s mind, even as it gets inexorably worse…
As a rule, State of the Union speeches are driven more by the politics of the moment than by difficult long-term issues. Climate change by its very nature is mostly a drip, drip, drip of bad news and incrementally more urgent warnings that it’s getting really serious, and that the time to deal with it is running out. Occasionally a single riveting event like Sandy focuses Americans’ minds on it, but the moment passes and more acute issues and concerns again push it off the country’s to-do list…
And what about the one really big, extremely charged climate-related issue the president will have to face this year, the decision on the Keystone Pipeline that would bring oil from the tar sands of Canada to the Midwest? …
But don’t expect the president to bring it up tonight. There’s just nothing in it for him politically…
Of course, Keystone won’t be entirely out of the spotlight tonight. Tom Steyer, the zillionaire environmentalist who’s trying to be the sort of liberal counterweight to the Koch brothers in terms of injecting big money into politics, is bookending the speech on MSNBC with ads urging the president to reject the pipeline…
http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-01-28/after-starring-role-2013-look-just-climate-change-cameo-years-state-union
I, for one, will be watching. I happen to believe everything Resident Obama doesn’t say. Period.
trillion $$$ dreams:
28 Jan: HuffPo: Julie Fox Gorte: Tricks of the Trade That Block Climate Change Progress
(Julie Fox Gorte, Senior Vice President for Sustainable Investing, Pax World Management LLC)
I recently attended the 2014 Investor Summit on Climate Risk at the United Nations, along with more than 500 other financial leaders, most of them members of the Investor Network on Climate Risk. At that meeting, Ceres, the Summit’s organizer, released the Clean Trillion report calling on investors to scale-up clean energy investment to at least $1 trillion by 2030. This is the level of investment that the International Energy Agency estimates will be needed to keep additional global warming below the 2-degree Celsius threshold, beyond which the impact of climate change is judged catastrophic…
Last week the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released a new report, “Tricks of the Trade: How companies anonymously influence climate policy through their business and trade associations.”…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julie-fox-gorte/tricks-of-the-trade-that-_b_4674342.html
Somehow snowballs thrown from the fires of hell comes to mind.
Perhaps the President will discuss his progress in “stopping the seas from rising” as he promised in first speech after being elected. Perhaps he will explain how terminating the use of fossil fuel around the world which will massively and irreparably escalate inequality of billions of the earth’s people will help his goal of reducing inequality. Perhaps he will explain how he has failed completely to be a leader of the U.S. Government because he seems to believe he was elected King and need not bother with the Congress. Perhaps he will take mercy on all American’s and make this a very short speech and spare us an extended bunch of baloney.
Or, you could just read this:
Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA. Frances Goldin, Debby Smith, Michael Smith. Harper Perennial. January 21, 2014. ISBN-10: 0062305573.
http://www.amazon.com/Imagine-Living-Socialist-Frances-Goldin/dp/0062305573/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390958037&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=what+would+a+socialist+america+look+like
Chapters by many, including Obama’s ghost-writer William Ayers, as well as fellow travelers Mumia Abu-Jamal, Angela Davis, Juan Gonzalez, Frances Fox Piven, Michael Moore,…
My copy just showed up in the mail today, so I cannot tell you what is between the covers.
But SRSLY – Obama has accomplished at least something for all of his special-interest groups except the anti- g u n crowd. I expect some exec order regarding g u n
Peter Miller says:
January 28, 2014 at 3:52 pm
Politicians arrive at a certain level of success that they realize it doesn’t matter if you are obviously lying as the audience either is ignorant, stupid or blind.
Larry Hamlin January 28, 2014 at 5:16 pm
Perhaps the President will discuss his progress in “stopping the seas from rising” as he promised in first speech after being elected.
We know from measurements that he has been very successful at stopping the seas from rising. He IS the messiah, after all.
I wish I had as good an excuse about missing it as you do! 😉
Wasn’t this called double-speak? Cold is Heat. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery.
pat says:
January 28, 2014 at 5:02 pm
trillion $$$ dreams:
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Dreams I dont think we will see.
http://m.spiegel.de/international/europe/a-943664.html#spRedirectedFrom=www&referrrer=http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/01/europe-dumps-global-warming-efforts.html
Makes me think of a Molly Hatchet song. Oh what the heck,,,,, video not redacted 😛
http://youtu.be/B53j-lKZdhE
I’m not watching, I have it on the radio. It’s easier to type here when I don’t have to watch congresscritters applaud whatever it is he just said. Hmm, would be easier if I turned off the radio.
davidmhoffer says:
[davidmhoffer’s comment has been removed at his request – mod]
Gail Combs says:
January 28, 2014 at 4:28 pm
RACookPE1978 says: @ur momisugly January 28, 2014 at 4:04 pm
1-3/4 inches of White “Global Warming” Shuts Down Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport
The (light) snow around Atlanta started about 11:00 AM, schools were shutdown at 1:00, but nobody down can drive in anything white….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The problem is the lack of training in driving in snow. The lack of snow tires or chains (I have chains for my truck even though I am in mid NC) and the lack of any sanding/salting equipment
……………………>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Most of the problems in Atlanta wasn’t caused by the white stuff. Schools, businesses, and government all decided to close at the same time. The ensuing gridlock was a nightmare, and ironically, melted all the snow on many roads. That wasn’t the only reason, though. Interstates were snarled because of jack-knifing 18-wheelers hitting icy patches on overpasses.
There is no suitable training for driving on these roads. Unlike the frozen wasteland to the north, the South isn’t ironing-board flat, graced with straight roads. The most well-trained, experienced snow driver will take on a new appreciation for Newton’s Laws of Motion when attempting to go down a steep, ice-covered hill on a road with multiple sharp curves.
Bammer still thinks govnt creates jobs. More dangerous he understands the poor vote Dem and his policies guarantee plenty of Dem votes. And most dangerous of all he has now put the Presidential seal of approval on CAGW. Good luck America, glad I got Harper as a head of state.
The more I consider the claim made by believers and promoters of AGW regarding how cold weather is evidence to support warming is totally sick.