(CNSNews.com) – New scientific evidence suggests there is a stronger link
between solar activity and climate trends on Earth than there is with greenhouse
gases, Fred Singer, an atmospheric and space physicist, told CNSNews.com.
The new data call into question whether scientific evidence shows that global
warming is a man-made phenomenon and suggests that natural forces, as opposed to
human activity, may drive global climate change.
WASHINGTON,
Aug. 26 (UPI) -- The
Republican platform may include a first-ever
plank on global warming, an examination of a draft
document indicated.
"Increased atmospheric carbon has
a warming effect on the Earth," The Hill reported
the draft document as saying. "While the scope and
long term consequences of this warming effect are
the subject of ongoing research, we believe the
United States should take measured and reasonable
steps today."
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York and 11
other states are suing federal environmental regulators
over greenhouse gas emissions from oil refineries, the
New York attorney general's office said on Monday.
The suit, led by New York Attorney
General Andrew Cuomo, charges that the Environmental
Protection Agency violated the federal Clean Air Act by
refusing to issue standards, known as new source
performance standards, for controlling global warming
pollution emissions from oil refineries.
People living on some stretches of coastline will be forced to abandon their
homes and move inland as sea levels rise, the new head of the Environment Agency
has warned.
Lord Smith of Finsbury said plans need to be drawn up to evacuate people from
large stretches which are threatened by erosion.
Work is already under way to identify parts of the south and east coast which
are most threatened and Lord Smith said there would be hard decisions to be made
about which areas to defend and which to allow the sea to reclaim.
August is the wettest and often the muggiest month of the year. Yet, summer heat
continues in short supply, continuing a trend that has dominated much of the
21st Century's opening decade. There have been only 162 days 90 degrees or
warmer at
Midway Airport over the period from 2000 to 2008. That's by far the fewest
90-degree temperatures in the opening nine years of any decade on record here
since 1930.
This summer's highest reading to date has been just 91 degrees. That's unusual.
Since 1928, only one year—2000—has failed to record a higher warm-season
temperature by Aug. 13.
In spite of the media’s obsession with global warming, only 25 percent of
Americans view climate change as the world’s biggest environmental threat,
according to a new ABC News poll. Fewer than half – 47 percent – viewed global
warming as “extremely” or “very” important to them.
"Notwithstanding the significance of the
fossil preservation, the presence of lake
ostracods at this latitude, 77 degrees
south, is also of great note. Present
conditions in this Antarctic region show
mean annual temperatures of minus 25 degrees
C. These are impossible conditions to
sustain a lake fauna with ostracods."
Greens are increasingly frantic over the
opposition being voiced against global warming, one of the
greatest hoaxes in modern history.
It’s hard to ignore the fact that the Greens are going crazy,
not just in the United States, but around the world. They are
increasingly frantic over the opposition being voiced against
global warming, one of the greatest hoaxes in modern history.
DAILY, new evidence emerges to demonstrate that Climate
Minister Penny Wong is wrong.
The latest blow to the Government’s apocalyptic
prophet is news from the Norwegian Meteorological
Institute that there is more ice than normal in the
Arctic waters north of the Svalbard archipelago.
According to the Barents Observer there are open
areas in this area in most years during July - but this
year the area is covered by ice.
A fortnight ago a Norwegian research ship, Lance, and
a Swedish ship, MV Stockholm, got stuck in the ice in
the area and needed to be freed by the Norwegian Coast
Guard.
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - California
said Thursday it planned to sue the US government for failing to regulate
greenhouse gas emissions
from ships, aircraft, construction and agricultural equipment.
In the latest legal threat from the state against the
Environmental Protection Agency,
California's Attorney General Jerry Brown said the body was "wantonly ignoring"
its duty to set pollution standards.
This past January I met Dr. E. Calvin Beisner at a Christian think tank
sponsored by Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet. Beisner told me about a book
that shows that the irreducible complexity of the numerous factors that
contribute to climate makes it impossible to know or predict future climate
changes. Beisner is involved with the Cornwall Alliance and has written on the
topic of climate change1. This article is a review of the excellent book that he
recommended.
ScienceDaily (July 28, 2008)
— A global change in climate could explain the explosion in
marine biodiversity that took place 460 million years ago.
Researchers from Lyon (1) and Canberra (Australia) (2) have
found evidence of a progressive ocean cooling of about 15°C over
a period of 40 million years during the Ordovician (3). Until
now, this geologic period had been associated with a "super
greenhouse effect" on our planet.
Republican presidential candidate
Senator John McCain travelled to Oregon in mid-May to deliver
the definitive climate change speech of his campaign. He spoke
in Portland, at the U.S. headquarters of Vestas Wind Systems AS,
a Danish company that markets wind turbines around the world. He
started on a self-deprecating note. “Today is a kind of test run
for this company,” he said. “They've got wind technicians here,
wind studies and all these wind turbines. But there's no wind.
So now I know why they asked me to come and give a speech.”
California, six other
Western states and four Canadian provinces will launch a
market-based carbon trading system in a major North American
effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions that cause global
warming, according to a draft proposal released today.
When it officially begins in four years, the program would
first target heavy polluters such as electric utilities, oil
refineries and large industrial and commercial facilities,
which would be required to begin reporting emission levels
beginning in 2011 to allow participating governments to
agree on the maximum level of emissions for the region.
Bureaucrats at the American Physical Society (APS) have issued a
curious warning to their members about an article in one of
their own publications. Don't read this, they say - we don't
agree with it. But what is it about the piece that is so
terrible, that like Medusa, it could make men go blind?
It's
an article that examines the calculation central to climate
models. As the editor of the APS's newsletter American
Physics Jeffrey Marque explains, the global warming debate
must be re-opened.
"There is a considerable presence within the scientific
community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion
that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be
primarily responsible for the global warming that has occurred
since the Industrial Revolution. Since the correctness or
fallacy of that conclusion has immense implications for public
policy and for the future of the biosphere, we thought it
appropriate to present a debate within the pages of P&S
concerning that conclusion," he
wrote.
WASHINGTON (7-15-08) - Mathematical proof that there is no “climate crisis”
appears today in a major, peer-reviewed paper in Physics and Society, a learned
journal of the 10,000-strong American Physical Society, SPPI reports.
Christopher Monckton, who once advised Margaret Thatcher, demonstrates via 30
equations that computer models used by the UN’s climate panel (IPCC) were
pre-programmed with overstated values for the three variables whose product is
“climate sensitivity” (temperature increase in response to greenhouse-gas
increase), resulting in a 500-2000% overstatement of CO2’s effect on temperature
in the IPCC’s latest climate assessment report, published in 2007.
DEVOTED six years to carbon
accounting, building models for the Australian Greenhouse
Office. I am the rocket scientist who wrote the carbon
accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia's
compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, in the land use change
and forestry sector.
FullCAM models carbon flows in plants, mulch, debris,
soils and agricultural products, using inputs such as
climate data, plant physiology and satellite data. I've been
following the global warming debate closely for years.
When I started that job in 1999 the evidence that carbon
emissions caused global warming seemed pretty good: CO2 is a
greenhouse gas, the old ice core data, no other suspects.
The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000
physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming
that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is
also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The
leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming
"incontrovertible."
Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr praised Al Gore on Thursday for his
commitment to addressing climate change and said he has met with the former vice
president several times to discuss possible solutions.
In a speech Thursday at Constitution Hall in Washington, Gore said that he has
also discussed climate change with presidential candidates Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).
Stephen Wilde has been a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society since 1968.
The first eight articles from Mr Wilde were received with a great deal of
interest throughout the Co2 Sceptic community.
In Stephen Wilde’s ninth and exclusive article for CO2Sceptics.Com called
"Greenhouse Confusion Resolved" he answers the questions that have been raised
as a result of his previous work "The Hot Water Bottle Effect".
If you are confused about the Kyoto Accord, climate change, greenhouse gases,
the deleterious effects of carbon dioxide (CO), and assorted environmental
threats as outlined in Al Gore's Academy Award and Nobel Prize winning
documentary An Inconvenient Truth, I have a solution.
One of the mysteries of the universe is why President Bush bothers to charge the
fixed bayonets of the global warming theocracy. On the other hand, his
Administration's supposed "cowboy diplomacy" is succeeding in changing the way
the world addresses climate change. Which is to say, he has forced the world to
pay at least some attention to reality.
GOODBYE air pollution and smoky chimneys, hello brighter
days. That's been the trend in Europe for the past three
decades - but unfortunately cleaning up the skies has
allowed more of the sun's rays to pierce the atmosphere,
contributing to at least half the warming that has
occurred.
For many millennia, Catholic school children could find inspiration in their
own names because likely they shared them with a sanctified namesake, or patron
saint. St. Anthony, for example, is the patron saint of the lost and found.
Now, it seems, even the saints have become political totems. “In the spirit
of their founder, Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology, the Franciscan
Friars of Holy Name Province recognize the seriousness that the challenge of
climate change presents, especially to the poor and marginalized,” the bulletin
of the parish in Triangle, Virginia that bears that sainted gentleman’s name
reads. “Please consider joining the friars in their support of the
Boxer-Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.”
Yo, I am the Gore-Ax, who speaks for the trees I speak for the Earth and she
wants to say "Please!" "Address global warming as soon as you can." "The sun
cannot cause it. The culprit is man." Oh Gaea, so fragile, she can't take the
heat A few more degrees and the Earth is dead meat From choking on carbon
emissions, you hear? More threat'ning than any munitions you fear Your minivans,
Hummers, immense S.U.V.s Are wreaking great havoc on Earth and her trees And
muscle car drivers, you ruin the air So switch to a Prius to show that you care
Or better yet, travel by bus or by train And then my new limo can have a clear
lane
For I am the Gore-Ax, who speaks for the trees I'll speak for the Earth until
everyone sees The danger that climate change poses to all Especially if suburbs
continue to sprawl We must limit suburbs if we're to defer The global
catastrophe soon to occur If glaciers keep melting, the oceans will rise And
polar bears surely will meet their demise My house in the Hamptons, right there
by the shore Will be underwater if Earth heats up more When oceans get warmer,
more hurricanes form My house in the Hamptons might fall in a storm It's Earth
in the balance. Am I getting through? Do all that you can to reduce CO2
Now, I am the Gore-Ax, who speaks for the trees When saving the Earth I
refuse to appease You stubborn deniers who won't see the light We have a
consensus that says that I'm right You shill for big oil and guzzle gas, too
It's time for a carbon tax levied on you The planet's in peril, so cut back or
pay Your country should bow to Kyoto today I know it's not easy, but what can
you do? A truth inconvenient is nonetheless true I've so much to teach you, but
must say goodbye My Gulfstream is waiting. It's time that I fly To Hollywood,
Davos and maybe to Cannes So limit your energy use when I'm gone
Energy: A state judge has blocked construction of a power plant on
grounds that its emissions permit does not set a cap on carbon dioxide. Global
warming alarmism wins another round.
After his unsuccessful presidential bid in 2000, Internet Al Gore pegged his net
worth at about $1 million. Today, it's at least $100 million thanks to his
global-warming rantings grounded in a consensus of warmists masquer- ading as
scientists who are unable to prove a word of it.
BELGIUM - It has been hailed as the most important European Union legal proposal
in the last five years: a package of laws aimed at fighting global warming by
reducing carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions from everything from power stations to
cars.
ScienceDaily (June 26, 2008)
— Large amounts of ozone -- around 50% more than predicted by
the world's state-of-the-art climate models -- are being
destroyed in the lower atmosphere over the tropical Atlantic
Ocean. This startling discovery was made by a team of scientists
from the UK's National Centre for Atmospheric Science and
Universities of York and Leeds. It has particular significance
because ozone in the lower atmosphere acts as a greenhouse gas
and its destruction also leads to the removal of the third most
abundant greenhouse gas; methane.
"Consider that the United States spends tens of
billions of dollars on frenzied programs to upgrade
and improve the technology of bombers and fighter
planes to counter an increasingly remote threat to
our national security. but we are content to see
hundreds of millions of automobiles using an old
technological approach not radically different from
the one first used decades ago in the Model A Ford.
If the government gets into the business of regulating and
controlling carbon emissions it will be an unparalleled
concentration of power far exceeding the New Deal under
Roosevelt. The government will be in complete control over what
businesses and average citizens consume and produce.
It
is the gateway excuse to rule, regulate and control your daily
life in a fashion that we have never tolerated before but are
now expected to meekly accept as we attempt to bailout the
bathtub with a teaspoon. Never have Americans been so willing to
hand over the most fundamental financial, transportation and
quality of life decisions over to a central authority on such
questionable grounds.
[1] that conclude that a massive build-up of nuclear power is needed to minimize
the negative economic impact of CO2 caps have spurred several high-profile
articles on the costs of nuclear energy.
[2] One such article notes that estimated construction costs for nuclear power
plants and the overall costs of nuclear power have increased significantly since
2000 and espouses wind power, solar power, and energy efficiency as alternatives
to new nuclear plants.
OTTAWA (AFP) - Canada's opposition on Thursday unveiled an environmental plan to
curb greenhouse gas emissions that would heavily tax polluters, but trim income
taxes.
"Canadians know that we need to be bold, not blind, to
the challenges we are facing today, especially climate
change," opposition Liberal leader Stephane Dion said.
In the year since Al Gore took steps to make his home more energy
efficient, the power use at the former vice president's house has increased more
than 10 percent, a nonprofit research group reported Tuesday.
Icelandic farmers bring their
sheep down from the hills for the winter. Sheep
have played a large role in the degradation of
Iceland's soil, through overgrazing.
The late Natalie Grant Wraga once wrote, "Protection of the environment has
become the principal tool for attack against the West and all it stands for.
Protection of the environment may be used as a pretext to adopt a series of
measures designed to undermine the industrial base of developed nations. It may
also serve to introduce malaise by lowering their standard of living and
implanting communist values."
A29-MEMBER independent task force of the
Council on Foreign Relations released a report
Friday that adds another authoritative voice to the
clamor for U.S. leadership on climate change. Co-chaired
by former New York governor
George E. Pataki (R) and former Iowa governor
Tom Vilsack (D), the bipartisan document makes an
argument that has fallen on deaf ears at the
White House. "As the United States takes
increasingly aggressive action at home," the authors
correctly note, "it will be in a stronger position to
ask more of others."
You may want to give credit where credit is due to Al Gore and his global
warming campaign the next time you fill your car with gasoline, because there is
a direct connection between Global Warming and four dollar a gallon gas. It is
shocking, but true, to learn that the entire Global Warming frenzy is based on
the environmentalist’s attack on fossil fuels, particularly gasoline.
All this big time science, international meetings, thick research papers, dire
threats for the future; all of it, comes down to their claim that the carbon
dioxide in the exhaust from your car and in the smoke stacks from our power
plants is destroying the climate of planet Earth. What an amazing fraud; what a
scam.
BRDO, Slovenia, June 10 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) on
Tuesday urged leadership from Washington in fight against climate change while
U.S. President George W. Bush insisted on bringing emerging economies on board.
Environmentalists are stunned that their global warming agenda is in collapse.
Senator Harry Reid has all but conceded he lacks the vote for passage in the
Senate and that it's time to move on. Backers of the Warner-Lieberman
cap-and-trade bill always knew they would face a veto from President Bush, but
they wanted to flex their political muscle and build momentum for 2009. That
strategy backfired. The green groups now look as politically intimidating as the
skinny kid on the beach who gets sand kicked in his face.
LONDON, June 9 - The World Bank on Monday
priced a $25 million bond linked to United Nations-approved
carbon emission offset credits, the market's first such bond,
lead manager Daiwa Securities SMBC Europe said.
Fortune) -- What do Oreo cookies made by Nabisco (KFT,
Fortune 500), Cheez-It crackers from Kellogg's (K,
Fortune 500) or General Mills' (GIS,
Fortune 500) Fiber One Chewy Bars have to do with global
warming and the destruction of tropical rainforests? A lot,
say environmental activists.
The link between the
supermarket shelf, climate change and shrinking rainforests
is palm oil, a controversial ingredient that may now be the
most widely-traded vegetable oil in the world.
Just a few weeks ago, predictions of Arctic ice collapse were
buzzing all over the internet. Some scientists were
predicting that the "North Pole may be ice-free for first
time this summer". Others
predicted that the entire "polar ice cap would disappear
this summer".
The Arctic melt season is nearly done for this
year. The sun is now very low above the horizon and will set for
the winter at the North Pole in five weeks. And none of these
dire predictions have come to pass. Yet there is, however,
something odd going on with the ice data.
Linda Young - AHN Editor Greenbelt, MD (AHN) - Researchers in the United
States and Israel teemed up to re-examine the role of soot in world climate and
discovered a key to helping to determine the true impact on the climate of human
activities such as burning trees or sooty industrial fuels.
Scientists discovered that soot can help heat the climate up as well as cool
it down and they developed a model to be able to forecast whether soot will
provide a cooling or heating effect at any given time.
San Francisco - Ever-perceived by the rest of the nation as perched on the
fringe of rationality, San Francisco is about to flip its lid once again. The
lid's color, if it's any comfort, is green – as in one of the three recycling
bins into which its residents will be forced to sort their food waste.
The consequences for the unwilling, if the mayor has his way? Fines up to
$1,000 from the garbage police.
I kid you not. Mayor Gavin Newsom is taking the leap from voluntary
environmental engagement to an enforced one. You will recycle, or you'll be
outed, says the legislation drafted by the city's Department of the Environment.
To cut energy use, save money and, while you're at it, live a greener life,
you can turn down the air conditioning, back off the accelerator, hop on a bike.
But when it comes to your personal energy tally, there's another big but not
as commonly considered source: the stuff you buy. Every product, from
televisions to teapots, takes energy to get to the shopping bag — energy to mine
raw materials, make the product and ship it.
Maybe the snow in the Cascade Mountains isn't in such immediate
peril from global warming after all.
Despite previous studies
suggesting a warmer climate is already taking a bite out of
Washington's snowpack, there's no clear evidence that
human-induced climate change has caused a drop in 20th century
snow levels, according to a new study by University of
Washington scientists.
In fact, the newest study also predicts the Cascade snows —
vital to water supplies, crop irrigation and salmon — could
enjoy a delay in the effects of global warming.
August 3, 2008
Marc Morano
Award-winning Astronaut Slams Hansen - Urges NASA to 'Debunk the current
hysteria' over Warming - By Physicist Walter Cunningham, NASA Apollo 7 Astronaut
in July/August 2008 Issue of
Launch Magazine. Key Quotes: "NASA
should be at the forefront in the collection of scientific evidence and
debunking the current hysteria over human-caused" warming.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic
senators called on Tuesday for the resignation of
Stephen Johnson, head of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, saying he sided with polluters
instead of fighting global warming and other ecological
problems.
Have no doubt about it: Health and environmental scares have robbed this
generation of the age of prosperity and freedom that was their birthright, for
which their forefathers fought and died.
The continual shift of labor and resources from the economically productive
sector to the regulatory system and compensation culture has cost all of us
billions of dollars. The tobacco settlement and the massive amount of money it
generated for anti-smokers is a perfect example.
The "Climate Cops" website
encourages children to investigate family and friends and "then
build your 'Climate Crime Case File' and report back to your
family to make sure they don't commit those crimes again (or
else)!" The site also warns children that they "may need to keep
a watchful eye" to prevent future violations.
WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - American blacks
are likely to suffer disproportionately from climate change and
they are willing to pay to combat it, a commission aimed at
raising awareness about global warming said on Tuesday.
"There is a fierce urgency regarding climate
change effects on the African-American community," said Ralph
Everett, the co-chair of the Commission to Engage
African-Americans on Climate Change said. "People need to
understand what is at stake -- our very health and well-being."
California public students will stick to reading, writing and arithmetic,
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decided as he vetoed a bill late Friday that would
have required climate change be added to schools' curriculum.
The measure, sponsored by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, also would
have required future science textbooks to include climate change as a subject.
In January, the state Senate approved the bill, SB 908, by a 26-13 vote. Only
two Republicans supported the proposal.
What if there were a lie that was so big and so widely accepted that it was
defended and promoted by the rulers of the world's nations, and those nations
governments had huge agencies with billion dollar budgets based on that lie, and
whole industries developed with no other purpose than pursuing and promoting the
lie; and what if the lie became so pervasive that it was taught and promoted in
every school and university until that lie was was embraced by almost all
scientists, social and political leaders, news commentators, experts and
authorities in the world and they all staked their fortunes and professional
reputations on it? There is a name for that kind of lie. It is called hegemony.
As western nations step up pressure on India and China to curb the emission
of greenhouse gases, Russian scientists reject the very idea that carbon dioxide
may be responsible for global warming.
Russian critics of the Kyoto Protocol, which calls for cuts in CO2 emissions,
say that the theory underlying the pact lacks scientific basis. Under the Theory
of Anthropogenic Global Warming, it is human-generated greenhouse gases, and
mainly CO2, that cause climate change. “The Kyoto theorists have put the cart
before the horse,” says renowned Russian geographer Andrei Kapitsa. “It is
global warming that triggers higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,
not the other way round.”
“The leading experts predict that we have less than 10 years to make dramatic
changes in our global warming pollution lest we lose our ability to ever recover
from this environmental crisis,” Gore stated. But the former Vice President, who
has been warning of a 10-year “tipping point” for several years now, appears to
be unaware that the United Nations already started the 10 year countdown in
1989!
WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) - The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, under fire for apparently
discounting the impact of climate change, on Thursday said
global warming poses real risk to human health and the American
way of life.
Risks include more heat-related deaths, more
heart and lung diseases due to increased ozone and health
problems related to hurricanes, extreme precipitation and
wildfires, the agency said in a new report.
A heat wave is now scorching California and Texas -- giving global warming
advocates yet more ammunition to support their contention of impending climatic
catastrophe.
Yet 72 years ago today -- on July 13, 1936 -- America also was swooning under
a heat wave. But this time it was not in California or Texas; it was in the
Midwest, as NewspaperArchive.com notes in its regular "Today in History"
feature:
A study on the impact of rising CO2 levels finds a future world of thriving
agriculture and lush vegetation, says Investor's Business Daily (IBD). Carbon
dioxide, the gas some see as a threat, is the basis of all plant, and therefore
all animal, life on Earth.
Nothing is out of whack with the sun, a NASA researcher
said this week, despite some scientists' suggestions
that a lull in the weather there lately is unusually
long, a phenomenon linked to at least one small
ice age.
WITH understandable reluctance, Prime Minister John
Howard recently donned the political hair-shirt of a
carbon trading system.
On the same day, NASA chief Michael Griffin
commented in a US radio interview that "I am not
sure that it is fair to say that (global warming) is
a problem that we must wrestle with".
Jason Burnett has made a lot of news lately, criticizing the Bush administration
for rejecting California’s request for a federal waiver that would allow the
state to enforce greenhouse gas restrictions.
In the late 19th century, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer developed
what would come to be known as yellow journalism. By disregarding what had been
standard journalistic methods, particularly in regards to the verifying of
sources, these two publishers were able both to push their country toward war
with Spain and dramatically increase the circulation of their respective
newspapers.
James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists,
will today call for the chief executives of
large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high
crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively
spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that
tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer.
A "perfect storm" of diseases can get unleashed by the kind of
extreme swings in weather expected with global warming, triggering
mass die-offs of wildlife or livestock, research now reveals.
The majority of the British public is still not convinced that
climate change is caused by humans - and many others believe
scientists are exaggerating the problem, according to an
exclusive poll for The Observer.
The results have shocked
campaigners who hoped that doubts would have been silenced by a
report last year by more than 2,500 scientists for the UN
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which found a
90 per cent chance that humans were the main cause of climate
change and warned that drastic action was needed to cut
greenhouse gas emissions.
WASHINGTON — The fight over energy and
how to lower gas prices threw the Rocky
Mountain West into the spotlight
Wednesday when President Bush urged
Congress to repeal a moratorium on the
development of oil shale.
In a speech that spurred protests
from Democratic leaders and
environmentalists, Bush called for
harvesting oil from shale rock found in
Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The
president also advocated drilling for
oil in coastal waters and the Alaskan
wilderness, saying the tight supply is
pushing up gas prices.
One fire ebbs but another is being kindled in the great global-warming debate.
For those determined to save the planet, it's all about taking action.
Posthaste. In other words:
A year and a half ago, James Spann questioned the money and the so-called
scientific consensus pushing the idea that mankind is causing global warming.
Today, he says it’s losing steam. Two imminent surveys of meteorologists may
further complicate the climate debate.
The recovery of the ozone layer is considered essential for the health of the
planet's living creatures, but new research suggests it could also assist in the
fight against global warming. In the 13 June issue of
Science, climatologists report that ozone recovery could restore wind
patterns in the Southern Hemisphere that have blown out of kilter due to ozone
depletion and the buildup of greenhouse gases.
Sometimes we need to think the unthinkable, particularly when
dealing with a problem as dangerous as climate change - there is
no room for dogma when considering the future habitability of
our planet.
It was in this spirit that I and a panel of other specialists
in climate, economics and policy-making met under the aegis of
the Stockholm Network thinktank to map out future scenarios for
how international policy might evolve - and what the eventual
impact might be on the earth's climate. We came up with three
alternative visions of the future, and asked experts at the Met
Office Hadley Centre to run them through its climate models to
give each a projected temperature rise. The results were both
surprising, and profoundly disturbing.
PARIS (AFP) — The internal temperature of leaves, whether in the
tropics or a cold-clime forest, tends toward a nearly constant 21.4
degrees Celsius (71 degree Fahrenheit), reports a study released
Wednesday.
It had long been assumed that actively
photosynthesising leaves -- using energy from sunlight to convert
carbon dioxide and water into sugar -- are nearly as cold or hot as
the air around them.
ICEBERGS often etch out messages on the shallow ocean
floor. Now a newly discovered set of scratches suggests
bergs from the icy north drifted further south than we
thought after the last ice age.
According to a growing number of
scientists, the period of global warming that we have experienced over the past
few centuries as Earth climbed out of the Little Ice Age is about to end.
BALTIMORE, June 4 (UPI) -- A U.S. economist praises
Congress for planning to fight global warming, but
he says the plan being considered would hasten
environmental calamity.
Peter Morici, former chief
economist at the U.S. International Trade
Commission, is concerned about the Warner-Lieberman
bill pending in the Senate. It would limit U.S.
greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 to 2005 levels, and
reduce those by 70 percent in 2050.
