Bait and Switch techniques by the media on AGW

Does anyone else find it amusing that USA Today puts the following headline/graphic display out front and center:


Here's the by-line they used.

Questions about research slow climate change efforts

Then...the entire voluminous article is a puff piece to give Michael Mann (discredited Hockey Stick theory dreamer) and life long political hack/mouthpiece/environmental zealot, Carol Browner an opportunity to zing the skeptics while conveniently limiting the absolute turmoil and negative exposure they have experienced due to truth seeing the light of day.

Classic bait and switch. Patently obvious, though.

UPDATE: Take a gander at the comments to the article. The media truly underestimates the motivation and intelligence of their dwindling readers. Its gimmic articles such as this that make those numbers continue to dwindle.

New Hampshire leading the way into the Abyss...

The tax was added late in the state budget process last summer, and as rules were being developed to administer it complaints from business began to grow. A lawsuit is still in court that challenges the state's attempt to collect the tax for all of 2009, even though the bill did not take effect until the middle of last year.

Lynch said he does not think the state "I don't see New Hampshire as becoming a place unfriendly to business that's not what I hear," he said. "In fact, many people tell me it is the best place in New England to do business."

The tax in question is the Limited Liability Company (LLC). Governor Lynch now wants to consider repealing it, as the purpose (closing a tax loophole) is null and void...since tax experts are already showing that there are other ways around it.

I just find it amusing that Lynch states outright that he doesn't think that New Hamphsire is becoming a place unfriendly to business...

Well?

CONCORD – New Hampshire's Senate has given preliminary approval to entering a 10-state regional effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions to preserve the state's climate and way of life.

The Senate voted 16-8 yesterday to ask its Finance Committee to review a bill that implements the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative known as RGGI.

Gov. John Lynch believes the initiative will help New Hampshire's environment and economy.

This is a state initiative to institute "Cap and Trade" legislation. View it at any angle and it kicks business in the teeth.

Environmental Services Commissioner Thomas Burack says New Hampshire's electric users will pay higher rates regardless of New Hampshire participating in RGGI. That's because New Hampshire buys about half its power from a wholesale market whose rates will rise as other states' power producers buy RGGI allowances and pass on the costs to ratepayers.

It's high time those wacky scientists in Korea create a genetic path so that we can create two separate mouths on politicians. That way, we can keep the rhetoric categorized.

Global Warming brigade really grasping now...

Although global warming could cause the number of tropical cyclones to decrease around the world by the end of the century, the storms that do form probably will be more intense, a study in the journal Nature Geoscience finds.

Just like all the other snake oil out there, I don't buy this study in the first place...but suppose it's true. How much more fierce are those lesser number tropical cyclones going to be?

Landsea says the potential increase in strong hurricanes is "pretty tiny. We're not looking at any drastic increase by 2100." For example, he says, a 150-mph hurricane might increase only to a 157-mph hurricane. "In my perspective, that's a little change, a long ways in the future."

That's hilarious. We have this big threatening article in USA Today entitled:

"Fewer, fiercer tropical cyclones are in our future, study finds"

...and we are talking about a Hurricane packing a 157 MPH punch as opposed to a 150 MPH punch...(Laughing)

How come Al Gore's blog doesn't allow comments?

Al's Journal is HERE.

He, apparently, does not want your scrutiny, input or contributions (intellectual...not monetary). He just wants to tell how it is...and what you need to do. Gore bars the press from his speaking events. I find that interesting because of what Gore has to say about the media:

Television stations and networks, by contrast, are almost completely inaccessible to individual citizens and almost always uninterested in ideas contributed by individual citizens.

Replace a few words and you could say the exact same thing about Al Gore's alarmist brigade.

I was just curious...why doesn't Al want to chat?

Fantasy world politics (Nuclear Power)

WASHINGTON — There has been no more reliable cheerleader for President Obama’s energy and climate change policies than Daniel J. Weiss of the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

But Mr. Obama’s recent enthusiasm for nuclear power, including his budget proposal to triple federal loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors to $54 billion, was too much for Mr. Weiss.

The president’s embrace of nuclear power was disappointing, and the wrong way to go about winning Republican votes, he said, adding that Mr. Obama should not be endorsing such a costly and potentially catastrophic energy alternative “as bait just to get talks started with pro-nuke senators.”

Actually, the president's "embrace" of nuclear power is an absolute joke. Even if he does follow through and put money aside for a measley two (2) nuclear projects, the greenies out there will file lawsuit after lawsuit to make sure that nothing ever comes to fruition.

This has nothing to do with the will of the people. Any lawsuit will eventually end up in front of some judge who likes to legislate from the bench... This is a safe bet for Obama, because he knows there will be no new nuclear plants while he is in office. Greenpeace...Friends of the Earth...WWF and all the other statist idiots are already gearing up for challenge after challenge and injuction after injunction. The Ninth Circus Court of Appeals is alread clearing their schedule.

In other words...."Screw You" (Updated)

HOUSTON, Feb. 16, 2010 -- ConocoPhillips [NYSE: COP] today announced that it will not be renewing its membership in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP). This action enables the company to better focus its efforts on ensuring fair and equitable treatment of the transportation sector and its consumers and on expanding opportunities for greater near-term GHG reductions through increased use of natural gas.

In other words..."SCREW YOU."

I get the distinct impression that ConocoPhillips stuck their collective fingers up in the air, and realized that those who would chastize their company for walking away from the "cap and trade" brigade is significantly smaller than those who would cheer the reality wake-up call.

Who's next?

UPDATE: Well, that didn't take long. Add BP America and equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. to the list. (via Big Government and a news piece on Breitbart)

Pork Bellies, pronto...and ditch the Carbon...

Ah...yes...I believe I can sense Spring in the air...or perhaps spring in my step...

NZX Drops By Record After Slashing Proceeds of Carbon Unit Sale

Feel the rush of the Carbon Market as it caresses the valley floor...

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- European Union carbon permits fell from their highest level in seven weeks as gas prices dropped.

Gas prices? Ok...whatever story makes you feel good...but there is THIS.

Investors are steering clear of energy-saving projects meant to generate carbon credits, and traders in Europe are hunkering down through a period of consolidation that is disappointing to those who had hoped carbon markets would grow quickly into a $2 trillion-a-year business.

That's a shame...

Bureaucratic promises of markets for forestry carbon offsets, claimed to be worth $150 million, would not materialize unless the US Congress passes a so-called “cap & trade” climate bill. Known as “cap & tax”, such legislation would tax energy users, producers and most emissions. A recent report says faltering congressional attempts to pass such a bill, means that a forest carbon market is unlikely soon.

If a forest carbon market falls apart and no one is there to hear it...does it make a sound?

The market for carbon trading, never popular in some circles to begin with, is starting to look rather shaky. The bungled Copenhagen summit was bad enough. Now we have the UK energy regulator suggesting the market is not working and that a floor price for carbon should be imposed.

I love the fact that these opportunistic jackasses who were looking to make a killing on the carbon market are now wondering whether it's time to cut and run before the bottom falls out. I'd like to see quite a few of them wrecked...

Cambridge Climate Congress (aka: moronic, meddling, simpletons)

About that Audi commercial during the Super Bowl...

Parody...yes?

Congestion pricing to reduce car travel. Elimination of curbside parking. A carbon tax "of some kind," not to mention taxes on plastic and paper bags. Advocating vegetarianism and veganism, complete with "Meatless or Vegan Mondays." Those are just some of the proposals put forth by the Cambridge Climate Congress, an entity created in May 2009 to respond to the "climate emergency" plaguing the Massachusetts city.

Going green will not be optional in Cambridge, Mass., if the Cambridge Climate Congress has its way. It will be mandatory.

There will be congestion pricing to reduce car travel. Curbside parking will be eliminated. There will be a carbon tax "of some kind," not to mention taxes on plastic and paper bags. And the Massachusetts city, home of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will advocate vegetarianism and veganism, complete with "Meatless or Vegan Mondays."

Those are just some of the proposals put forth by the Congress, which was created in May 2009 to respond to the "climate emergency" plaguing Cambridge. Once the Congress settles on its recommendations, they will submitted to the City Council.

Behold the idiots and their jack-booted followers...

New York Times late to the party...

But Dr. Pachauri and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are now under intense scrutiny, facing accusations of scientific sloppiness and potential financial conflicts of interest from climate skeptics, right-leaning politicians and even some mainstream scientists. Senator John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, called for Dr. Pachauri’s resignation last week.

I love the way the NYT limits the damage by only noting two of the items that plagues Pachauri and the IPCC. Sloppiness? Bull hockey...the information and statements appearing now suggest that it wasn't sloppiness but intentional misrepresentation (significantly more egregious).

Potential financial conflicts. No...it has been proven (not only with Pachauri) that there are, indeed, financial conflicts of interest throughout the entire AGW cast and crew. But, the NYT misses out on informing on the blantant violation of the Freedom of Information Act...wild accusations over the years that never came true...the court case in Great Britian which substantively gutted Al Gore's fictional "An Inconvenient Truth..."

The simple fact of the matter is that this article by the NYT is an attempt to limit the damage (the only reason they are even touching this story)...which is so obviously bad, that even they can't shut it down entirely.

But they try.

Parody fighting it out with Reality...(Never good)

Tim Blair has posted the Audi Super Bowl commercial...and it's disturbing in the fact that parody is way too close to reality. The underlying amusement, however, is that there will be a demographic of viewers out there that just don't understand the humor associated with the bit. The greenies will sit there "smileless" wondering when the humor will kick in.

Most folks will chuckle and realize that the commercial is there to sell the Audi clean diesel vehicle, and take home the indirect punchline that Audi is saying..."yeah...this whole green thing is a bit out of control, but here's our contribution to the trend...and remember us when you Green stormtroopers target major corporations...we're playing along."

HERE'S THE LINK TO BLAIR'S POST WITH THE VIDEO.

My favorite part is the music underneath...Cheap Trick's "Dream Police" is now Audi's "Green Police."

Just STOP with this esoteric Global Warming nonsense...

A study of beleaguered butterflies in California provides some of the best clues yet as to how other animals may react to climate change, scientists say.

Yes...yes...the butterflies are a "clue" to climate change destruction.

"Like polar bears, these high-elevation butterflies were already living in extreme environments, and now they don't have any options" for escape, Forister says. He says butterfly populations have always shifted over time, but the destruction of their habitat has occurred at an accelerated pace in recent years because of urbanization and warming temperatures.

As I type through my tears shed in sympathy for the wayward butterflies and the down-trodden polar bears...I am ashamed to ask:

HOW IN THE HELL CAN THIS STUDY SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY WHEN THE EARTH'S TEMPERATURES ARE PROVEN TO HAVE FALLEN SINCE A PEAK IN 1998....HUH?!?

The good Dr. Matthew Forister's study says in black in white "accelerated pace in recent years because of urbanization and falling temperatures." Yet, the study is hogwash because the Earth's temperatures have been falling for the last decade!!!

Well, I am pragmatic. So, let's look for a bit of motivation for such a report. How about that the report was initiated by a Federal Grant by the National Science Foundation? In other words, your tax dollars paid for this nonsense. And, since the jackassery in Washington D.C. is bent on disrupting private business by applying "cap and trade" legislation that would hogtie viable US industry, those "scientists" wishing to continue making a comfortable living have to return studies (funded publically) showing "proof" of the necessity. That way, when it comes time for another Federally funded round of grants to be approved, Dr. Forister gets first dibs.

This AGW racket has become a laughable, insufferable...joke.

It's a test...

THE TOPIA INN, a laboratory of sustainability with an artsy vibe here in the Berkshires, confirmed my reservation with a friendly e-mail reminder about its “green” guest policy:

No Smoking.

No chemical fragrances/bug repellant.

Leave your shoes at the front door or cover them with the inn’s neoprene booties, so as not to track in pesticide residue and other pollutants.

Leave all grooming products at home, so as not to interfere with the chemical-free organic mattresses and bedding. Complimentary organic bath and body products provided.

Oooooo...nice! Take that special woman in your life away for the weekend up into the Berkshires...and make sure she leaves all her grooming products at home so she doesn't interfere with the organic matresses and bedding.

If you can still look her in the eye at the end of the weekend...she's a keeper.

Bonus: When you get home...crank the climate control...take a shower and douse yourself with chemicals...order a huge non-fair trade pizza and feel good about your 48 hour tribute to Mother Earth...while sipping a nice glass of Shiraz made from grapes harvested by underage Australian Aborigines in wheelchairs.

"As they say in the glacier business, ice work if you can get it."

Mark Steyn's latest in MaCleans. It's a pisser...

Go back to that Berkeley professor mooning over the loss of that “magnificent landform” he once thought “immutable, eternal.” From his prose style, one might easily assume Orville Schell was a professor of creative writing or some such. In fact, he’s the former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism. Yet, for all the limpid fragrance of his poignant obsequies, professor Schell would seem to lack the one indispensable quality of a journalist: basic curiosity—the same curiosity that led Miss Laframboise to see just how much of the “science” in the IPCC report rested on the assertions of the panda-cuddlers. So instead, professor Schell bid a teary farewell to his beloved landform, even though the glaciers of the western Himalayas are, in fact, increasing.

Each day seems to reveal a new revelation suggesting that man-induced "climate change" is an absolute fairy tale. And, as each small glimpse of reality sprouts to the surface the big picture takes form. Each cry by the supporters of "the science is settled" shows a perceived desparation to protect that "settled science." In other words, scrutiny and time has been plucking pieces of the weigh bearing wall holding up their theories and the realization, awareness and knowledge threatened their stranglehold on what they hoped to pass out as truth and fact. Desparation and frustration had been ramped up in an effort to stave actual science from intervening.

What would Lenin say?

If you're living a green lifestyle, it turns out you can take it with you.

Cemeteries and funeral homes across the USA are offering environmentally friendly burials featuring formaldehyde-free fluids for embalming and biodegradable caskets made of pine, wicker or even cardboard.

Green burials are available in nearly 30 cemeteries nationwide, up from a handful at the start of 2008, says Joe Sehee, executive director and president of the Green Burial Council, a non-profit organization that encourages environmentally sustainable death care.

Nice! I always thought the funeral scene was a bit subdued. What we need is the slow slake of dry ice fog to gently caress the vistors as they say goodbye to Uncle Henry.

But...one would have to wonder what Vladimir Lenin would look like today in his Мавзоле́й Ле́нина as misguided Russians form long lines to visit with his remains every day from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, except Mondays and Fridays. Or, what about the sacred bodies of Ho Chi Minh, Chiang Kai-shek and other lefties of that ilk. In fact, lately, Osama bin Laden has been rumbling about ecological impurity in the West.

Of course...in the case of the latter, a quick cremation from a daisy cutter can prove his dedication to the cause.

Motivation of the means...

The American Thinker has a piece up highlighting Li Xing's evaluation of climate change after attending the Copenhagen fiasco:

It is amazing that Chinese media examine what has recently come out revealing IPCC "mistakes" and conclude more serious examination of its work is in order. Yet the American mainstream media brush aside such concerns seeking to keep an obvious political agenda alive.

As, contributor, John McLaughlin, points out, the US Media is AWOL on the issue of "hide and decline."

The New York Times has a piece out today showing that China is surpassing everyone in "Clean Energy" production and research.

China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants.

These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China.

I suspect that Global Warming is not the motivation for this exploration. Rather, dominating the world economy and being able to breathe in downtown Bejing without hacking up a lung is more likely...

Curt Schilling on the AGW lemming mentality...

You lemmings that scream as loud as you can, just because. Think about this. If the evidence IS so overwhelming and the science is irrefutable, why would there EVER be a reason to fabricate ANY data? Wouldn’t the overwhelming evidence be RIGHT IN FRONT OF US? Would the data be so concrete we couldn’t debate it? Why would these ‘top scientists’ lie? Hide data? You do those things because you ARE lying and you ARE hiding the facts because both the DATA and the FACTS go against the arguments you are making, that’s why.

Curt Schilling, apparently, has taken up tennis after baseball.

That is GAME, SET, and MATCH...my friends.

The Hole in Global Warming...

Well over two decades ago we, the public, were on the receiving end of the Montreal Protocol. Do you remember what that was? Here's a hint:

The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer is a landmark international agreement designed to protect the stratospheric ozone layer. The treaty was originally signed in 1987 and substantially amended in 1990 and 1992. The Montreal Protocol stipulates that the production and consumption of compounds that deplete ozone in the stratosphere--chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), halons, carbon tetrachloride, and methyl chloroform--are to be phased out by 2000 (2005 for methyl chloroform).

Here's the thing...which I happened to mention on this blog quite a while ago under the very apt titles of "Behold the Idiots" and "I want a refund." I find it hard to believe that the Montreal Protocol served any valued purpose in reducing the size of the Ozone Hole. I base this on the fact that the Hole was bigger than ever just three years ago.

Stratospheric ozone has been depleted by 5 to 6 percent at middle latitudes, but has somewhat rebounded in recent years. The largest recorded Antarctic ozone hole was recorded in 2006.

Gosh!...those climate scientists screwed up the "model." Of course, despite the increased costs of switching over to approved automobile air conditioners that did not use freon and other costly changes that you likely weren't aware that you financed...it was all for naught.

Ah...but have faith...

While most of the world has warmed, parts of the southern hemisphere have remained stubbornly cold—oddly enough because of a gaping hole in the ozone layer. Now new research shows that all the efforts made by scientists and environmental advocates to close the hole may actually increase warming throughout the entire southern hemisphere.

I, actually, pointed this out a little less than a year ago.

June 10 2008 A new study led by Seok-woo Son and Lorenzo Polvani, in the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics at SEAS, is suggesting that the winds in the Southern Hemisphere will be greatly impacted by the expected recovery of the ozone hole in the second half of this century. In a study that appears in the June 13 issue of Science, Seok-Woo Son, lead-author and a postdoctoral research scientist at SEAS, and Professor Polvani suggest that stratospheric ozone ought to be more carefully considered by the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) round of climate model predictions.

"We were surprised to find that the closing of the ozone hole, which is expected to occur in the next 50 years or so, shows significant effects on the global climate," said Lorenzo M. Polvan one of two principle investigators and professor of applied mathematics at SEAS. "This is because stratospheric ozone has not been considered a major player in the climate system. We believe the closing of the ozone hole is likely to have profound impacts on the surface winds and, also likely, to have an impact on other aspects of the Earth's climate, including surface temperatures, locations of storm tracks, extent of dry zones, amount of sea ice, and ocean circulation."

So, why trot out this "old" study now? Not much attention was paid back in June 2008. Well, the IPCC's agenda driven Climate Change stance is decaying rather quickly due to false premise, unreliable model, activist "scientists," climate-gate and various other idiocy. The whole "global warming" mantra is rather unpredictable (mostly because no one has developed a model that includes all the applicable factors in climate change...and likely never will). Also, as the Earth's climate cools (as it has been for the last decade) the global warming cabal is left looking...silly.

The fact that more press has been given to the Ozone Hole lately,...and it's inverse relationship to "warming" suggests that it's getting more difficult for the activist scientists and the "climate change machine" to hold back reports detrimental to their preconceived goals.

I look at both the Montreal Protocol legislation and the IPCC's Climate Change report and realize that the environuts are zero for two...while costing us all a pretty penny in the process. I, also, find it ironic that the downfall is delivered in cold hard scientific facts; the same type facts the IPCC is supposed to deliver, but decided on agenda driven tripe wrapped up in ulterior motives instead.

There...that's better...

Climate-Change Report: From Bad to Worse

In reality:

"From FAD To PERVERSE"

Covering all the bases...with nonsense...

Source: National Geographic- May 19, 2008...

Global warming may reduce the number of hurricanes forming in the Atlantic Basin by 2060, a new study says. But it adds that the storms that do form may be slightly stronger and wetter.

It's important to note that this report followed an above average ranked year in Hurricane quanity.

Source: National Geographic- June 30, 2007...

The number of Atlantic hurricanes that form each year has doubled over the past century and global warming is largely to blame, according a new study.

This is from just about one year before the previous study. I find it amusing that 2006 was a very low ranked Hurricane quanity year with none touching landfall in the US (and a low amount of tropical storms to boot).

In short...these studies are proven to be out and out distortions that don't even reflect the most recent season prior to the date of the reports. It is even more amusing that the medium of these two separate and contradicting articles is the same (National Geographic). This year (2009)...the "experts" are already lowering their prediction totals (which rarely correspond with reality).

So...there you have it. Global Warming causes less hurricanes and more hurricanes. The trick is to do a study that forms one postulate or the other and make sure your summary reflects the exact opposite from what transpired most recently. That provides maximum skepticism...and makes the faith base global warming brigade really dig into their hearts for true belief.

Models of nothing...

In the waning days of April, as federal officials were declaring a public health emergency and the world seemed gripped by swine flu panic, two rival supercomputer teams made projections about the epidemic that were surprisingly similar — and surprisingly reassuring. By the end of May, they said, there would be only 2,000 to 2,500 cases in the United States.

May’s over. They were a bit off.

On May 15, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that there were “upwards of 100,000” cases in the country, even though only 7,415 had been confirmed at that point.

Funding...funding...and more funding. Plus, if you are a political machine type operation like the Center for Disease Control, you alway error to the worst case scenario to protect your worthless behind, and increase funding...funding...and funding.

Liberals and their "models." You have to love them. Who knows, maybe some day they will use a half-ass model to predict the end of the world.