Michaelyya/contrarian-claims huggingface dataset:
Under the current program, those who wish to buy power from wind turbines pay a $4.30 per month premium for three years. Due to the lack of significant participation, the program is currently losing about $12,000 per month.
Crank of the Week July 18, 2014 Tom Steyer
As a result, the North Atlantic experiences alternating decades long (20 to 30 year periods or even longer) of above normal or below normal hurricane seasons. NOAA research shows that the tropical multi-decadal signal is causing the increased Atlantic hurricane activity since 1995, and is not related to greenhouse warming.
"As if from a parallel universe where everything is reversed," Lassman continued, "Walker claims that CEI's motions in response to overreaching and abusive action initiated by his office are a waste of his time and resources."
Most important, it would have been very useful to examine explicitly the rest of the panel's inherent belief that the federal science bureaucracy is not an interest group, as noted earlier. Rush Holt's faith in this was very clear, as he argued that the scientific community enhanced the quality and scientific integrity of the Iran nuclear negotiations, an amazing example of trees/forest myopia. Does Holt believe that Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz would have contradicted Secretary of State John Kerry or President Obama or would have resigned had the evidence called for it? Holt argued also that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) should have been allowed to study "gun violence," as if gun crime and defensive uses of guns are communicable diseases. Does he not understand that CDC wanted to examine this topic precisely so that they could politicize it?
Anti-Glacier Prayer "Worked Too Well"Vatican Approves New Ritual
Now, youd think that you could just use the Stefan-Boltzmann equation to figure out how many more upwelling watts would be represented by a global surface temperature rise of 3C. Even that number was a surprise to me 16.8 watts per square metre.
Prior to Hansen et al tampering with the temperature record, 1970 was about the same temperature as 1900. The graph below was generated by the National Academy of Sciences in 1975.
Their overarching message has been that this doesnt touch the science, that the basic premise that human beings are altering the climate in dangerous ways remains unchallenged. I dont know whether to laugh or cry when I hear this argument. What it conveniently ignores is that weve been told for years that the reason we should believe in human-caused climate change is because an elaborate and reliable IPCC process had examined matters and pronounced it a genuine and pressing problem. . . Weve been urged to believe in the end result because the IPCCs process is itself trustworthy.
Jim Lakely, Heartlands communications director, takes Daniel Souweine of the TV meteorologist hassling group Fabricate Forecast the Facts to task in this piece on the Heartland blog:
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis on the impact of this move:
So how much of the change in climate is due to us and how much is natural? Nobody knows. No body, not even an international body of climate scientists. There are some guesses, mainly in the form of forecasts that say temperatures will rise dramatically. But those models predictions have, so far, been wrong in the sense that they say we should have been hotter than we have been.
Obama willingness to get specific in SOTU on long term fiscal challenges in doubt:
The negative feedbacks from evaporation & convection of water vapor, clouds, and precipitation illustrate how the climate is self-regulating, independent of CO2.
So not only is Heartland not down a net $1 million, Heartland is not even at a net zero after spinning off its dedicated insurance projects. Were up in funds, overall. Heartland has already doubled the number of individual donors since Peter Gleicks Fakegate scandal, and we expect that number to continue to rise steeply throughout 2012.
Climategate, of course, casts serious doubt on much of the underlying data, as well. Those with a taste for dark humor will enjoy the reference in the EPA's response to comments (p.12) to "the clear, transparent, and open procedures of the IPCC, CCSP, USGCRP, and NRC."
After losing the Washington state governor's race four years ago by the closest margin of any gubernatorial contest in U.S. history133 votes out of 2.8 million castRepublican Dino Rossi wasn't taking any chances in last fall's rematch. He avoided his party's national convention, so as to better position himself as a nonpartisan; when it came to putting his name on the ballot, Rossi forsook his party's name altogether. His descriptor: "prefers GOP party" (GOP, of course, being shorthand for Grand Old Party, a phrase that local pollsters found only one in five Washington state voters fully understood).
In all of Denmark, there are only a few of dozen limousines for hire. So more than 1,000 of the gas-guzzling, carbon-belching behemoths have been driven to Copenhagen from Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and France. Since, at most, 140 heads of state and heads of government will attend the week-long conference, the bulk of these land yachts are being delivered for use by United Nations officials, the heads of environmental organizations and celebrities. All these people preach environmental sustainability for others, yet do not practice it themselves.
A group of children (run by adults who aren't ashamed of using children as shields, of course) has filed a lawsuit claiming that the atmosphere is a "public trust". What could a stupid district court judge do with it?
The Daily Signal discusses Leonardo DiCaprio and President Obama's convorsation on climate change at "South by South Lawn" with Marlo Lewis.
On the other side are the bad guysthose oil, car and utility companies that produce or use fossil fuels, their defenders in Congress and "pro-business groups" such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Cooler Heads Coalition.
The other case is perhaps even moreegregious, and comes from Indiana , where the state Supreme Court decided that citizens must defer to agents of the state, even when those agents are violating the law. In particular, if a cop wants to enter your house for no reason at all without a warrant, you can't resist.
The last statementwhich is the same now as it was then, is arguably the most important. Despite a record (or near record, depending on who you ask ) high for global temperatures in 2010, the general rate of warming over the past decade and half (going on two decades) is generally less than it was expected to be .
Kemp Column Distributed by Copley News Service
H/t Matt here at Briggs' blog and James Evans on BishopHill here
"Estimates of human populations in Amazonia around A.D. 1500 range from one to almost seven million substantial parts of Amazonia must have been cleared at some time of contact to support several million people." This has been backed up as "pioneer highways and accompanying settlements have exposed numerous black earth sites with pottery on a wide variety of soil types suggesting that sizeable and sedentary populations once occupied `pristine' upland forests."
So, why wasn't the greenhouse gas theory and CO2 not an issue for leading climate researchers in the 1970's? Well, there is plenty of evidence to show that scientists appreciated that CO 2 is limited in effect to a single band of thermal radiation from the Earth centred on the 14.77wavelength resonant with the vibration along the length of the CO 2 molecule. That provides the dipole moment necessary for interaction with electromagnetic radiation. At very low atmospheric concentrations of CO 2 a large percentage of the available energy radiated by the Earth in this 14.77band is already affected leaving very little energy for increased CO 2 concentrations to affect. This is basic physics and was why the American Meteorological Society (AMS) wrote in 1951 that this was the reason why the GHE hypothesis was not given any credence by mainstream science.
People saw their homes and possessions washed away.
He is right to say that the proposed policy is a mess, incoherent, full of contradiction, and likely to fail. He is right that investors are being put off, and were never very confidfent in the first place. But it was ever thus with the UKs renewable energy policies, and it is unlikely to change while policy-makers labour under the misapprehension that you can simply set targets and make promises to reward investment, and LO! Britain will have a wonderful new energy grid. While this belief persists, expensive failure will follow expensive failure. Its not the detail of the policy which is the problem, it is policies of this kind. What Gardiner forgets is reality.
What this means, is that if the modeled temperatures were also stripped of their natural variability, then the 95% range of uncertainty (the yellow area depicted in Fig. 2) would contract inwards towards the model mean (green line). The net effect of which would be to make the observed trends (red and blue lines in Fig. 2) over the past 30 years or so lie even closer to (if not completely outside of) the lower bound of the 95% confidence range from the model simulations. Such a result further weakens our confidence in the models and further strengthens our confidence that future warming may well proceed at a modest rate, somewhat similar to that characteristic of the last three decades.
Here . Excerpt: The climate is not highly sensitive to CO2 warming because water vapour is a damper against the warming effect of CO2. That is why history is full of Ice Ages - where other effects, such as increased reflection from the ice cover, do provide positive feedback - while we do not hear about Heat Ages. The Medieval Warm Period, for example, is known for being benignly warm - not dangerously hot. We live on a benign planet - except when it occasionally gets damned cold.
For example, when estimating methane emissions, they assumed all methane from certain stages of the fracking process was simply discharged, or vented, into the atmosphere with no attempt to control emissions. This is a poor assumption, however, because oil and gas operators use special equipment to capture methane and volatile organic compounds during the drilling and completion process to limit methane emissions.
in their discussion on solar RF since the Maunder Minimum are very dependent on
Pondering the difficulties involved in cutting back on energy use led us to an offshoot of the energy literature pertaining to indirect energy usethat is, the energy embedded in virtually everything we buy. An example of this is the manufacturing and sale of a simple cotton t-shirt. Energy is required to grow and harvest the cotton; transport it to a factory; make, package, and transport the chemicals used to bleach, dye, or condition the cotton; run the machines on which the t-shirt is processed; create packaging materials; ship the t-shirt to the store; and keep the heat and lights on in the store. This is distinct from direct energy consumption, like using gasoline to run our cars, oil to heat our houses, or electricity to keep our televisions on.
In this hyper-partisan environment, it is good to know that a majority of Senators can still agree on an issue. When such a rare moment happens, the rest of us should pay attention, as it is probably something very important.
American Products. American Power. highlights these important facts and challenges Washington to open the doors to economic growth by encouraging the production of our vast domestic energy resources and ensuring that the regulatory system adopts reasonable, thoughtful approaches that better balance costs and benefits.
Judge Amit Mehta granted legal discovery in a case brought by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an NGO that seeks to advance the principles of limited government, free enterprise, and individual liberty.
The issue as to the size of the externalities boils down to three main considerations:
Swiftly, Australia's equally-hated climate bureaucrats swung into action. They began writing to farmers who had paid good money for their land and had been working hard to make a living from it. They said roughly this: "Your land has been designated as a carbon sink in the name of Saving The Planet. You must stop farming your land at once. You will not be allowed to make your living from it. Because it is now worth nothing, you will not be able to sell it. You will not be paid any compensation. Good afternoon."
Frankly, given the known historical level of volcanism, globally,. that fact that when it all dramatically slowed in the 1900s, we got somewhat warmer really ought not to surprise anyone. My expectation is simply that we will return to more historical average levels. What where those? Enough to have tropical and Pacific islands depicted with smoking volcanoes more often than not. Enough to have a Year without a summer in 1816-17. Yeah, not a common event; but not the sort of thing to be gone for a century and just call that the new normal.
Key points: CEI's Comments on Clean Power Plan (CPP)
of predicting the climate over the last decade (they said it would get warmer;
In northeastern Germany, March is the coldest since at least 130 years ago. In Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Berlin, the DWD average temperatures measured up to almost minus two degrees, which lie very close to the previous March-cold record from 1883. In the last four days of the month will determine whether there is even a record. It would then be the coldest March since records began 1881st
Changing The Engine Of The Global Economy ? The Next UN Strategy 20 July 2010
Yours truly: Please give me one piece of evidence in support of your assertion that dangerous climate effects already are visible. Just one.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announces a new system for using fines to reimburse investors in companies that violate financial regulations.
The rainforest provides a virtual pantry of goods commonly used including canes and fibers like bamboo, rattan, and jute (for rope, twine and burlap), fruits and veggies like avocados, bananas, mangos, papaya, passion fruit, and pineapple, spices and flavors including allspice, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, paprika, cloves, and ginger, oils like camphor, coconut, sandalwood, and palm, medicines like curare, ipecac, and quinine, and a host of other things like Brazil nuts, cashews, and tea. (NWF Educator's Guide, P.17)
Note that at longer times t, a fat-tailed decay function gives the same result as a standard exponential decay function with a longer time constant. For example, in Figure 1 at t equal to 12 months, a standard exponential decay with a time constant tau of 6.2 months (black line) gives the same result as the fat-tailed decay (golden line).
Waxman-Markey is a bundle of contradictions. It seeks to make carbon energy more expensive but does not ask consumers to pay higher energy pricesat least for the first decade of its operation. Hence, Waxman-Markey allocates 85 percent of the emission rights it creates to existing emitters (coal-fired power plants, electric utilities, and manufacturers) for free, rather than auctioning the emissions permits, as President Obama and environmentalists have long advocated. It seeks a first in economic history: rationing without scarcity or price inflation. Thus, Waxman-Markey allows generous "offsets" so that carbon-based energy does not, in fact, become scarce. The bill does, however, contain a multitude of new regulations, product-efficiency mandates, and spending programs that will require extensive managerial attention from both the public and private sectors, though to much less effect than promised.
Tony Earley, CEO of DTE Energy, which owns Detroit Edison, said in a speech earlier this year, "When I in 2002, my comments about nuclear energy were brief and pretty discouraging. I predicted that while most nuclear power plants would have their licenses renewed, no new nuclear power plants would be built in the U.S. to accommodate growing demand. Today, I'm here to tell you that I was dead wrong. ... DTE Energy has start ed work on preparing a license application for a new nuclear plant." Earley cautioned, however, that the company still hasn't decided whether it will actually build the project, but rather is just "preserving our option" by starting the still "long and complex" licensing process now.
Climate change, contrary to what greens argue, exemplifies why more growth is needed. Let us assume for a moment that the mainstream scientific view is right, and man-made climate change presents a severe threat. Although the likes of Al Gore prefer to avoid the word, their approach to climate change centers on rationing. They want us to modify our behavior and change our lifestyles to help tackle the problem of global warming. In other words, although they are coy about saying it explicitly, they want us to consume less.
Climategate: CATOs Pat Michaels and Center for American Progress Dan Weiss on Fox News
The dynamics of the energy markets changed notably as shale-oil production came onstream at a market-moving scale in 2013-2014. With this new source meeting more of world energy demand, particularly in the US, energy users were no longer as dependent on OPEC and other oil producers. In the process, they also became less vulnerable to geopolitical concerns.
Like the OPT report, this study does not recommend any coercive measures or legislation. Its looking at the potential for reducing carbon emissions by reducing the number of emitters. These are scientific papers: legislation is not their remit. Whats worrying is this new trend towards discussing children in terms of their emissions. Its the tacit and unspoken way that the equation of humans/gas is taken as somehow acceptable in modern society because of the supposed threat of global warming.
"In the never-ending political showdown between business and labor, there certainly is no shortage of business associations and labor unions doing their part to keep their respective sides competitive."
A review by SPPI and CO2 Science finds theCO2-fertilization induced percentage increase in plant productivity was nearly always greater under water-stressed conditions than it was when plants were well-watered.
Wind power harms the environment. Because of the large area of land needed to collect low-density wind energy, wind power requires more land-clearing, needs more transmission lines, kills more wildlife, lights more bushfires and uglifies more landscape per unit of electricity than conventional power. The subsonic whine of the turbines drives neighbours batty and devalues local properties.
Gore: Global warming is increasing the number of wildfires in US forests. Truth: Fires continue to threaten habitats, wildlife and homes because insects are killing trees and environmentalist legal actions prevent foresters from managing dense stands of brush and thin, diseased and dead trees.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists informs that it has nudged the hands on its "Doomsday Clock" two minutes closer to midnight: "It is now 3 minutes to midnight." What's the big worry? Nuclear weapons nukes are being modernized rather than dismantled and "unchecked" climate change are the baddies here. It must be a disappointing moment for the group. Back in 2010, the Bulletin moved the Clock's hands back a minute, likely placing a bet on the new American president who just promised to "work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat and roll back the specter of a warming planet."
1) Since 1980, temperatures had fallen in the Antarctic by 0.87C, nearly as much as the rise of 1.01C in the Arctic (to August 2012).
Whether there is a link between asthma and global warming, Malia herself hasn't really experienced much. The high school junior was born in 1998, when temperatures spiked. By some measurements, the world hasn't warmed significantly since then.
Obviously the planet??s temperature (red line) hasn??t increased nearly as much as they forecast. After the temperature peak in 1998 (a strong El Nino year), the temperature appears to have leveled off. The temperature is only shown here to the beginning of 2010: in 2010 (another strong El Nino year) it peaked at the 0.6 degree line (cooler than in 1998), and as of March 2011 is plunging below the 0.4 degree line.
There are presently 28 wind farms operating on public lands, which make up about 13 percent of the U.S. land surface, although records show that more than 800 have been proposed in recent decades.
from White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in November: "Never let a serious
Thompson's colleague, Kurt Schrader (D-Oregon) went even further saying the agency is morphing into a hybrid of the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. "The original mission of the Forest Service has been lost," he told a congressional hearing, according to Greenwire. "The law requires species diversity, not viability."
U.S. emissions Are declining: U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are declining both in absolute terms and as a percent of total global emissions. The major sources of new greenhouse gas emissions are from emerging markets including China, India and Brazil. These countries show no inclination to reduce their emissions, because they want to reach the wealth levels of the West. It will not help global temperatures if America cuts back and other countries do not. When alternative energy incentives were put in place, it was thought that other countries would join us in cutting back.
Germany?s renewable energy levy, which subsidises green energy production, rose from ?14bn to ?20bn in just one year as a result of the fierce expansion of wind and solar power projects. Since the introduction of the levy in 2000, the electricity bill of German consumers has doubled.
S. Fred Singer, former director of the U.S. Weather Satellite Service and University of Virginia professor emeritus commented about these sorry circumstances in the foreword of my book, stating in part:
The real laugher, however, the place where you can see the gears stripping, involves the conventions about fracturing the rocks to allow more oil to come out, what we call fracking. The fracturing technology was developed about forty years ago, and has been used ever since, mostly for secondary recovery. And for all those decades the oil coming from the fractured rocks has been conventional oil. But now people have learned to drill wells horizontally and fracture them and now suddenly after forty years of fracturing the rock, which gave conventional oil when it was done from vertical wells, fracking now only delivers unconventional oil simply because the drill hole goes horizontally instead of vertically does this make any sense to anyone?
1) The carbon taxers/limiters have lost. Carbon-dioxide emissions have been the environmental issue of the past decade. Over that time period, Al Gore became a world-renowned figure for his documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," for which he won an Oscar. In 2007, he, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), collected a Nobel Peace Prize for "informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change." That same year, the IPCC released its fourth assessment report, which declared that "most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions." (Emphasis in original.)
The new news for me was the admission that the warming rate from 1979-present is in no way unprecedented. This is important as the lead argument (beyond black box the models say so justifications) for blaming anthropogenic factors for recent warming is that the rate of warming was somehow unprecedented. However, Jones admits (as all rational skeptics have said for some time) that the warming rate from 1979 to today is really no different than we have measured in other periods decidedly unaffected by CO2.