The Long Road to Copenhagen

There are two different stories coming from the same political party on global warming, leading to only one conclusion: President Obama is about to (or has) ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to mandate some type of cap on U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.

Harry Reid and other democratic leaders in the Senate have clearly indicated that cap-and-trade legislation will be put off at least, until what they call “spring”, which is long after the upcoming UN climate conference in Copenhagen next month. At the same time, President Obama has said that the U.S., along with China, will announce some type of emissions cap in Copenhagen. Obviously this cannot refer to legislation that has yet to be voted on in the Senate.

President Obama keeps using the language “operationally significant” when referring to what the U.S. will agree to in Copenhagen. The only way that he can get around the Senate and still have a credible position in Copenhagen is for the EPA to announce specific regulations for carbon dioxide emissions between now and the conclusion of the Copenhagen meeting in mid-December. (Patrick J. Michaels, Cato at liberty)

 

ANALYSIS-Carbon trade on brink of boom - or backwater

LONDON, Nov 18 - Emissions trading stands at a crossroads -- a future as a $2 trillion market if the United States bolsters it, or as a modest sideline to energy and commodities trade if a new climate treaty is not agreed.

Some players have bet on the growth of the $126 billion global carbon market after 2012 but regulatory uncertainty will be drawn out for another year as a deadline for a binding treaty on greenhouse gas emissions was pushed back to 2010 this week.

That uncertainty about the future form of emissions trading after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 could put off new entrants and discourage banks, brokers, funds and commodity traders from expanding their operations.

"It looks like carbon trading will remain a small backwater in commodities markets," said David Metcalfe, chief executive of UK-based research group Verdantix. (Reuters)

 

Maurice Strong's authoritarian saviour - "Our concepts of ballot-box democracy may need to be modified to produce strong governments capable of making difficult decisions."

Hollywood isn't alone in its anticipation of Armageddon. Writing in the summer issue of World Policy Journal, Maurice Strong - Canada's very own prophet of doom - unequivocally embraces the apocalypse. Straight-forwardly entitled "Facing Down Armageddon: Environment at a Crossroads," Mr. Strong's essay ends with a dire warning. "Human existence is at risk," he says. "We face an Armageddon that is both real and imminent." Yet he implicitly grasps for hope - choosing at any rate not to specify (as the new film 2012 does) the precise day, month and year of the catastrophe.

More so than most people who assert that The End Is Near, however, Mr. Strong gives humanity a provisional way out. Reform democracy, he says, by - more or less - getting rid of it. Although he doesn't say this as candidly as he could have, his exact words leave little doubt: "Our concepts of ballot-box democracy may need to be modified to produce strong governments capable of making difficult decisions." This is not a new argument. In one historic usage, it was deployed to celebrate fascism - because ballot-box democracy couldn't make trains run on time. (Neil Reynolds, Globe and Mail)

 

Global Warming or Global Cooling? What is Coming?

I find it strange that liberal environmentalists, who believe human beings need to conform to nature and natural processes, say that we need to interrupt global warming to avoid mass dislocation and disaster. That seems contradictory, but they make the argument on the basis of their belief that we humans have interfered with nature and need to undo our misdeeds.

The evidence says otherwise. (Annuit Coeptis)

 

Revenge of the Climate Laymen - Global warming's most dangerous apostate speaks out about the state of climate change science.

Barack Obama conceded over the weekend that no successor to the Kyoto Protocol would be signed in Copenhagen next month. With that out of the way, it may be too much to hope that the climate change movement take a moment to reflect on the state of the science that is supposedly driving us toward a carbon-neutral future.

But should a moment for self-reflection arise, campaigners against climate change could do worse than take a look at the work of Stephen McIntyre, who has emerged as one of the climate change gang's Most Dangerous Apostates. The reason for this distinction? He checked the facts. (Anne Jolis, WSJ)

 

Dear Tom Friedman, Please Look At The Forest Instead Of The Trees

In “What They Really Believe” (NYT, Nov 17), Tom Friedman states (before the usual tirade against “willfully blind” non-believers in global warming):

if you follow the debate around the energy/climate bills working through Congress you will notice that the drill-baby-drill opponents of this legislation are now making two claims. One is that the globe has been cooling lately, not warming, and the other is that America simply can’t afford any kind of cap-and-trade/carbon tax

I am afraid Mr Friedman is missing the most important point.

“If you follow the debate around the energy/climate bills working through Congress“, and what has already come out of it in the House of Representatives, you will not find anything remotely like the “serious energy/climate bill” global warming advocates such as Mr Friedman are opining for.

Surely not even “green hawks” believe that the pork-laden 1,400-pages of the “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009″ (aka “Waxman-Markey”) will bring anything practical about climate change? Unless, that is, one is talking about “green hawks” that are “willfully blind“, and (literally) “hurting America’s future to boot“. (OmniClimate)

 

Back in the make-believe realm: Climate model sets tough targets - International group outlines steps needed to reach 'safe' levels of carbon dioxide.

A new model suggests that emissions will have to near zero by 2100.Ingram Publishing

Carbon dioxide emissions will have to be all but eliminated by the end of this century if the world is to avoid a temperature rise of more than 2 ºC, scientists warned yesterday. And it might even be necessary to start sucking greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.

The findings are the culmination of five years work by Ensembles, a major European research consortium led by the UK Met Office Hadley Centre and involving 65 other research institutes worldwide. In the first study of its kind, scientists in the project used a variety of the latest global climate models to determine the reductions needed to stabilize levels of greenhouse gases, termed CO2 equivalents, at 450 parts per million. That level, which offers a reasonable chance of keeping the temperature rise under 2ºC, is the goal of European climate policy.

The results suggest that to achieve that target, emissions would have to drop to near zero by 2100. One of Ensemble's models predicted that by 2050, it might also be necessary to introduce new techniques that can actually pull CO2 out of the atmosphere. (Olive Heffernan, Nature News)

 

Is this real or an elaborate hoax? Breaking News Story: Hadley CRU has apparently been hacked – hundreds of files released

The details on this are still sketchy, we’ll probably never know what went on. But it appears that Hadley Climate Research Unit has been hacked and many many files have been released by the hacker or person unknown

I’m currently traveling and writing this from an aiprort, but here is what I know so far: Read the rest of this entry » (WUWT)

 

Defending science: the disease of denialism

Fear is as infectious as any virus, and gives many Americans a warped view of the dangers posed by vaccines, genetically engineered crops and other beneficial technologies, New Yorker writer Michael Specter said in Seattle Tuesday.

Touting his new book "Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens our Lives," Specter took aim at the kind of anti-science sentiment he says is hijacking public discourse and policy.

"We need to step back and look at the other side of every issue - and we never do," Specter said at a lecture at the University of Washington sponsored by the World Affairs Council.

He was particularly critical of parents, like many who live on Vashon Island, who refuse to vaccinate their children. "This is insane," he said. "Vaccines are the most effective public health measure in the history of the world, except for clean water."

Study after study has shown no evidence that vaccines cause autism, yet people ignore a mountain of data and instead focus on unproven horror stories from neighbors or things they read on the Web, he said. "People jump to conclusions. They decide what makes sense to them intuitively." (Seattle Times)

Actually they tend to get on Specter's wheel because he doesn't promote gorebull warming fears, which is exactly the kind of baseless fear promotion he writes about.

 

A New Maximum For Climate Hubris

What should one wisely think upon discovering that 200-year-old remarks sound as if uttered today?

• within the last 40 or 50 years there has been a very great observable change of climate
• a change in our climate … is taking place very sensibly
• men are led into numberless errors by drawing general conclusions from particular facts

Why, one might start considering the possibility that a lot of the climate debate is as relevant and as important today as a discussion about the relaxation of costumes, the good old days and the decline in University exam standards (=something more or less in the news since the times of Cato the Censor some 23 centuries ago).

But of course…no, now it is different! Now “we have satellites monitoring high-latitude snow cover, thinning sea ice and deep-layered atmospheric temperature increases, coupled with ground observations revealing the disappearing snows of Kilimanjaro (85 percent ice loss since 1912) and many other glaciers“.

In its modern usage, hubris denotes overconfident pride and arrogance; it is often associated with a lack of humility, not always with the lack of knowledge

(OmniClimate)

 

Nations Unveil Plans to Rein in Emissions

With less than three weeks remaining before negotiators gather in Copenhagen to hammer out a global response to climate change, a rapid-fire succession of countries are unveiling national plans that serve as opening bids for reining in heat-trapping emissions. 

“The list of what is on the table is rather long,” said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the sponsor of the meeting, which runs from Dec. 7 to 18 in Copenhagen. 

But, speaking at the United Nations headquarters on Thursday, he seized on the latest pledges to take aim at the United States, which has not yet played its hand.

“We now have offers of targets from all industrialized countries except the United States,” Mr. de Boer said. He emphasized that he was looking to the United States for “a numerical midterm target and commitment to financial support.”

“This is essential, and I believe this can be done,” he said. (NYT)

 

A carbon target for Copenhagen - It's time for the Obama administration to make a commitment on emissions reductions.

CLIMATE CHANGE was at the top of President Obama's agenda in China Tuesday, just three weeks before representatives from 192 countries meet in Copenhagen for a much-anticipated international climate conference. And he came tantalizingly close to saying what the rest of the world has been waiting years to hear: that next month the United States, the largest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases, will finally come to the table with a specific carbon reduction target. (Washington Post)

 

McCain doesn't love climate bill

Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman have been working overtime to craft a climate bill that can attract significant GOP support. But they aren’t exactly scoring points with their mutual best friend in the Senate, John McCain. 

“Their start has been horrendous,” McCain said Thursday. “Obviously, they’re going nowhere.” 

McCain has emerged as a vocal opponent of the climate bill — a major reversal for the self-proclaimed maverick who once made defying his party on global warming a signature issue of his career. (Politico)

 

USA! USA! US is a dead weight on Copenhagen talks, pulling down ambition ever lower

Europe needs to take the lead and face down Barack Obama's 'no we can't' attitude on agreeing a climate change deal (Joss Garman, The Guardian)

 

Climate change plan 'could ruin Australia'

AUSTRALIA will go broke and become the laughing stock of the world if politicians ignore basic science on climate change, a leading global warming sceptic says.

Adelaide University professor of mining geology, Ian Plimer, said he feared Australia would become an economic backwater if due diligence was not part of developing climate change policy.
"My greatest fear is this country's lights will go out and the rest of the world will think no one is home - and they will be right," Professor Plimer said today.

"Australia will go broke and will become the laughing stock of the world if our political leaders keep making decisions on climate change based on ideology rather than on science. (AAP)

 

Fur flies down-under: Emissions debate gets personal

After four days of emissions trading negotiations behind closed doors and still no deal in sight, the shadow boxing on climate change in the Senate has become personal.

Coalition climate change sceptics have accused Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of "bloated moral vanity" and "arrogance" in driving the debate. 

Liberal MP Dennis Jensen has predicted 30 MPs and Senators will cross the floor to vote against the emissions trading scheme should the majority of Liberals decide to support the legislation at next Tuesday's party-room meeting.

After the Government ramped up personal attacks on Opposition MPs who are committed to voting against the scheme, Coalition Senators hit back.

Liberal Senator Brett Mason accused Mr Rudd of being led by his ego in pushing a scheme before next month's global climate change talks in Copenhagen.

"There's only one reason, just one reason, to rush in before the rest of the world acts, and that is Kevin Rudd's bloated moral vanity," he said.

"We have seen in this debate the ugly devolution of Kevin Rudd.

"Kevin Rudd, the nerd from Nambour, wants to transform himself into Kevin Rudd the cool kid from Copenhagen, and for that ugly transformation, thousands of Australians will be losing their jobs.

"It's not about a healthy planet, it's about Kevin Rudd's unhealthy ego. And though they might be about both of a similar size, they are not the same.

"Because what's good for Kevin Rudd is not good for Australia."

Liberal leader in the Senate Nick Minchin took a similar line, saying an emissions trading scheme was not in the national interest.

"Mr Rudd's arrogance and vanity in wanting to lead the world in cutting C02 emissions is really sickening," he said.

"He's happy for every Australian to pay a huge price to satisfy his ego. The Senate overwhelmingly rejected this abomination in August; it should do so again." (Australian Broadcasting Corp.)

 

Turnbull loses vital ETS ally

MALCOLM Turnbull is facing growing shadow cabinet pressure to vote down the government's emissions trading bills, with former minister Tony Abbott abandoning his earlier support for the Opposition Leader's strategy to try to amend and pass the scheme. 

Mr Abbott's shift, and Liberal Senate leader Nick Minchin's strong advocacy of the "vote no" view within the Coalition, will make it harder for Mr Turnbull to persuade his shadow cabinet to support the deal expected to be finalised between the government and the opposition by early next week. (The Australian)

 

Turnbull burnt by revolt on climate

MORE than half the Coalition's 37 senators have formally declared their opposition to Malcolm Turnbull's desire to cut a deal with Labor on the emissions trading scheme, setting up a showdown next week that many fear could tear the Opposition apart.

As the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, linked the heatwave savaging southern Australia to global warming, the Coalition senators split into two camps - those backing Mr Turnbull and those backing the Opposition Senate leader and climate change sceptic, Nick Minchin.

In the most open show of defiance to date, 12 Liberals and all five Nationals sat in solidarity behind Senator Minchin as he slammed the emissions trading scheme and Mr Rudd's desire to pass it before the Copenhagen conference next month.

''Mr Rudd is prepared to sacrifice Australia's national interest on the altar of his vanity,'' Senator Minchin said. (SMH)

 

Ag not in ETS, but definitely not out

The weekend news reports suggested that Climate Change Minister Penny Wong “backflipped” by opening up the possibility of excluding agriculture from Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).

My impression is that Senator Wong is not a woman who does backflips, even in the privacy of her own home. Agriculture might not be “in”, but by no means is it “out”, either.

Many people, including yours truly, can’t see how agriculture can operate within an emissions trading scheme, particularly if our international trading partners are not on board at the same time.

But sitting outside the CPRS will be no offsets gravy train; at worst, being “out” could squeeze farmers even harder between rising input costs and inadequate returns on outputs. (Stock and Land)

 

Climate Change Gasbags Want to Shame You

In the New Scientist magazine, the writers argue that your personal carbon footprint should be made public because knowledge of your misdeeds might change your ways. They ask: "Would you want your neighbors, friends or colleagues to think of you as a free rider, harming the environment while benefiting from the restraint of others?"

This is an excellent question, for it exposes the real motivation behind most climate change apostles: to allow these gasbags the superior pleasure of shaming you.

It's all about denigrating your reputation in order to elevate theirs; a self-satisfied reward for their sheep-like devotion to climate change hysteria. ( Greg Gutfeld)

 

Clearing ground for a deal to save forests

Carbon emission: smoke rises from a devastated peatland forest in Indonesia’s Riau province

One does not have to venture off the beaten track to discover why south-east Asia’s biggest economy is the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

For mile after mile on Sumatra and Borneo, the country’s once ubiquitous tropical rainforests, and crucially those growing on the especially carbon-rich peat swamps, are being systematically felled and the peat drained, releasing millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The perpetrators range from wealthy paper and palm oil companies to poor farmers.

In many areas the degraded remains of the jungle are then set alight to accelerate what would otherwise be a costly land clearing process. This results in more emissions as well as areas of up to thousands of square kilometres being blanketed in a choking smog that forces schools to close, cripples regional air traffic and sees hospital admissions soar. (Financial Times)

 

Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, Nov. 19th 2009

This week the round-up finds political hackery, partisan shenanigans and something called climate justice. Some Germans wonder how to get America’s attention (which might make Poland nervous) and Hopenchangen in Copenhagen is even more doomed than the planet. (Daily Bayonet)

 

Land Use As Climate Change Mitigation by Brian Stone

Land Use as Climate Change Mitigation by Brian Stone [Associate Professor Center for City and Regional Planning Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology].

 One of the earliest journalistic accounts of climate change in the American media appears in a 1950’s edition of Popular Mechanics. While only a single paragraph in length, the piece is remarkable in at least two respects. First, the description of the basic workings of the global greenhouse effect is entirely consistent with our understanding of this phenomenon today, anticipating by more than half a century what has become the most significant policy challenge of our time. Second, and perhaps more telling in this regard, is the placement of the article. Appearing on the final pages of the magazine and following a piece titled, “Dutch entertainer rides tiny bike,” the editor’s positioning of the piece reflects accurately the light in which global warming would be viewed throughout much of the intervening period: more as a meteorological curiosity than as a problem worthy of a serious policy response.

Today, one could argue that the phenomenon of the urban heat island effect is generally regarded in the climate change literature in a similar light: as a meteorological anomaly occurring over a relatively small percentage of the Earth’s land surface, with few implications for larger scale climate phenomena.  However, as I argue in a forthcoming article in ES&T (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es902150g), the urban heat island effect can be understood to be only the most acute manifestation of a more geographically expansive mechanism through which land use change is altering climate at the regional to sub-continental scales.  Consistent with an established and growing body of evidence linking land use to regional scale climate changes, an analysis of temperature trends in the most populous U.S. cities since the 1950s suggests land use to be playing a role in urban climate change comparable in magnitude to that of greenhouse gas emissions.    

In light of this body of work, focused on the climate forcing effects of land use change within both urban and rural contexts, there is a need for national and international climate change management frameworks to employ land use mitigation strategies.  Such strategies would complement well existing frameworks for emissions mitigation and, within the U.S. context at least, capitalize on as of yet unharnessed governing capacities at the local and state levels of government.  With the potential for the upcoming Copenhagen talks to produce new binding agreements now greatly diminished, treaty negotiators should focus on augmenting established mitigation strategies with new approaches that can provide signatory nations with greater flexibility in meeting binding targets and facilitate more robust participation amongst developing economies.  Land use mitigation can advance both objectives. (Climate Science)

 

Their embargo didn't hold: Gap Widening Between Human Demand and Earth's Supply, Data Show 

OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 18 // -- (http://www.myprgenie.com) -- Humanity now requires the resources it would take almost one and a half planets to sustainably produce, according to figures to be released Tuesday by Global Footprint Network. The data show that humanity is demanding nature's resources and producing CO2 at a rate 44 percent faster than what nature can regenerate and reabsorb, meaning it now takes 18 months for the Earth to regenerate what we use in one year. (See www.footprintnetwork.org/factsheet2009 for key findings.) (PRNewswire)

This is an interesting spin on the recent realization that Earth's carbon absorption has been expanding apace with anthropogenic emissions -- there is a slight delay in absorption of atmospheric CO₂ equivalent to about two-fifths of our emissions (expressed another way that's an annual carryover of about 1-2% of total emissions). That has apparently always been the case.

What it really means is that the biosphere really enjoys the increasing abundance of the essential trace gas, carbon dioxide and is fully exploiting the carbon we mine and return to biospheric availability in well under 2 years. We are going to have to work hard to stay in front of nature's ever increasing drawdown of this most wonderful atmospheric asset.

 

Melting Sea Ice Dilutes Water, Endangers Sea Life

HONG KONG - Melting of the Arctic sea ice due to global warming is diluting surface waters and this is endangering some species of shellfish which need minerals in the water to form their shells and skeletons, scientists have found.

In a paper published in Science, they warned that this has serious implications for ecosystems in the Arctic.

"Organisms that are likely to be affected are from the family of pteropods, also mussels and clams on the sea floor," said Fiona McLaughlin, research scientist at Canada's Institute of Ocean Sciences's department of fisheries and oceans.

Pteropods are minute swimming sea snails. (Reuters)

 

US navy braces for Arctic resources fight

The US navy has issued its Arctic roadmap, outlining the potential for competition, conflict and climate change in the waters of the icy north.

The scientific consensus is that future Arctic summers will have less and less sea ice, and that has massive implications for the surrounding nations. (ABC News)

 

Actually not just too bad: Stop Soot, Black Carbon, and Global Warming - Earthjustice

Soot, also known as black carbon, is the second-leading cause of global warming after carbon dioxide, and it's totally preventable. We already have the technology to avoid producing it; it's just a matter of using it.

For more information, go to StopSoot.org.

Black carbon does alter snowpack dynamics and precipitation so yes, addressing soot can be a very good thing to do. About the gorebull warming thing we are not too excited but we can certainly support cleaning up smoke and soot emissions.

 

Fighting climate change by turning CO2 to stone

While politicians debate the best ways to cut global carbon dioxide emissions, researchers at Idaho National Laboratory's Center for Advanced Energy Studies are charging ahead on a strategy to defuse the CO2 the world already produces. They want to inject the greenhouse gas deep underground, where it would react with rocks and remain, entombed, for thousands of years.

CAES scientists have been studying this novel approach — called mineral sequestration — for years. They have characterized promising injection sites and run many computer simulations to understand how the process works. But they will soon ramp up their efforts dramatically, thanks to collaborations with international research groups, newly installed lab equipment and a recently awarded $750,000 grant. The CAES team will play a key role in determining if mineral sequestration is a viable strategy for mitigating the impact of climate change — or just a pipe dream.
Fighting climate change by turning CO2 to stone

INL scientists Rob Podgorney (left) and Travis McLing are studying how mineral sequestration works and if it can be harnessed to help blunt the impact of climate change.

"The next year ought to be pretty exciting for us," says geochemist Travis McLing, INL's technical lead for carbon capture and sequestration. "The rubber should really hit the road." (R&D)

We do not want to waste the essential resource of atmospheric CO₂!

 

Not finding any, Gore airbrushes in hurricanes for his new book

Al Gore’s new book had a problem – no big hurricanes since Katrina to put in the book to look “threatening” to the USA. Any imagined link between hurricanes and global warming has evaporated.

Solution: the artists airbrush.

Ryan Maue, hurricane expert from the University of Florida writes:

Anthony,

The cover opens and closes half and half — so you only see one hurricane…as in the press release photo or the one on  Amazon.

But this is the real picture sequence from the book which I looked at Borders today and took cell-phone pictures, original (before the retouching by some “artist”) Note all of the Arctic ice and the size of the Florida Peninsula…

and the final product: Read the rest of this entry » (WUWT)

 

Joe Bastardi RE: Katrina Army Corps Ruling

AccuWeather.com Professional's Joe Bastardi [BIO] asked me to post his thoughts on the recent court ruling faulting the Army Corps of Engineers for the flooding at New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Because all of Joe's blogs are on our subscription Pro site he was unable to post this publicly without doing it here. I haven't researched this topic enough to have an opinion myself, though if you post a (rational) Comment I will forward all Comments to Joe, and, should he respond, I will post responses here.

DISCLAIMER: (Just like when I rant...) These are the opinions of Joe Bastardi and may not reflect those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com.

GOVERNMENT TO BLAME FOR KATRINA FLOODING? HOW ABOUT BUILDING MUCH OF CITY NEAR OR BELOW SEA LEVEL SURROUNDED BY 86-DEGREE WATER?

The ruling that shoddy management by the Army Corp of engineers of a navigation channel seems to me to be a classic case of simply trying to find one cause for something that has multiple causes.

Here, look at this article.

Now let me, since it was on national TV on Friday p.m. before Katrina that I told people to get out of New Orleans, weigh in on this.

1) Katrina was not because of global warming. If you want to play that card, then explain why it weakened from a 5 to a 3 before landfall, something that may have happened multiple times in seasons like 1915-1916 as we didn't have constant recon then. So no global warming finger.

2) The city is lucky to be alive in the first place. Someone has got to say it, and out of respect for what happened there, I have kept my mouth shut except in talks I give, but face it, you build a city near or under sea level, and surround it with water that can support Category 3, 4 or 5 hurricanes, what do you expect to happen? The dirty little secret that no one wants to address but I will, is New Orleans was lucky. The attack by Katrina was not a full frontal assault, but a pincer movement that spared the city the prime devastation. Push water back west to the north of the city, then have the northwest wind blast it back in. However, if you get the track of the 1947 hurricane and it's as strong as Katrina, then the city would be devastated probably beyond repair. I don't know if people understand that. The track from the east-southeast hitting NORTH of the mouth of the Mississippi and moving right over the town would push the 20- to 30-foot surge, not 9-12 feet like Katrina, back through lakes Bourne and Pontchartrain with the full fury of the storm passing directly over the city.

... (AccuWeather)

 

Pine Beetles Not a Good Reason for Climate Change Legislation

Last week Senator Max Baucus joined several mainstream environmentalists in adding pine beetle outbreaks to a long list of things that can be blamed on climate change. As Baucus said in a Congress Quarterly report,

Running on the trails by my home in Helena, seeing the red forests destroyed by pine beetles or seeing sustained drought and increased wildfires, we feel the impacts of climate change.”

Continue reading… (The Foundry)

 

Really? Mysteriously warm times in Antarctica

A new study of Antarctica's past climate reveals that temperatures during the warm periods between ice ages (interglacials) may have been higher than previously thought. The latest analysis of ice core records suggests that Antarctic temperatures may have been up to 6°C warmer than the present day.

The findings, reported this week by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the Open University and University of Bristol in the journal Nature could help us understand more about rapid Antarctic climate changes.

Previous analysis of ice cores has shown that the climate consists of ice ages and warmer interglacial periods roughly every 100,000 years. This new investigation shows temperature 'spikes' within some of the interglacial periods over the last 340,000 years. This suggests Antarctic temperature shows a high level of sensitivity to greenhouse gases at levels similar to those found today.

Lead author Louise Sime of British Antarctic Survey said,

"We didn't expect to see such warm temperatures, and we don't yet know in detail what caused them. But they indicate that Antarctica's climate may have undergone rapid shifts during past periods of high CO2." (PhysOrg.com)

Looks equally likely that carbon dioxide levels rise when temperatures are high (same as all the ice core records seem to indicate, with the temperature rise preceding the carbon dioxide change).

Roy Spencer also had a bit to say on the topic: Increasing Atmospheric CO2: Manmade…or Natural?, as have the Idsos: Ice Core Studies Prove CO2 Is Not the Powerful Climate Driver Climate Alarmists Make It Out to Be and David Evans and Joanne Nova: Climate: Bull or Bear?

 

CO2 and ocean uptake – maybe slowing

While this article makes a strong case, looking at SST and CO2 can also be revealing:

A review of this WUWT post might also be instructive: A look at human CO2 emissions -vs- ocean absorption

From Columbia University: Oceans’ Uptake of Manmade Carbon May be Slowing

First Year-by-Year Study, 1765-2008, Shows Proportion Declining

The oceans play a key role in regulating climate, absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air. Now, the first year-by-year accounting of this mechanism during the industrial era suggests the oceans are struggling to keep up with rising emissions—a finding with potentially wide implications for future climate. The study appears in this week’s issue of the journal Nature, and is expanded upon in a separate website.

The researchers estimate that the oceans last year took up a record 2.3 billion tons of CO₂ produced from burning of fossil fuels. But with overall emissions growing rapidly, the proportion of fossil-fuel emissions absorbed by the oceans since 2000 may have declined by as much as 10%. Read the rest of this entry » (WUWT)

 

Natural drought causes warming

A new study by University of Newcastle researchers is questioning widespread claims that the drought experienced in Australia's Murray Darling Basin is a result of CO2 emissions.

The analysis, to be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, concluded that the cause of elevated temperatures in the Murray Darling Basin was a combination of natural factors. (Science Alert)

 

NOAA: new ocean database spans to 1800

Bill Illis and Bob Tisdale will likely make use of this. h/t to WUWT reader Chris D.

NOAA Releases Expanded World Ocean Database

NOAA today released the World Ocean Database 2009, the largest, most comprehensive collection of scientific information about the oceans with records dating as far back as 1800. This product is part of the climate services provided by NOAA.

The 2009 database, updated from the 2005 edition, is significantly larger providing approximately 9.1 million temperature profiles and 3.5 million salinity reports.  The 2009 database also captures 29 categories of scientific information from the oceans, including oxygen levels and chemical tracers, plus information on gases and isotopes that can be used to trace the movement of ocean currents. Read the rest of this entry » (WUWT)

 

Big Oil To Congress: Expand Offshore Drilling

WASHINGTON - Executives from two major oil companies told Congress on Thursday that the U.S. government should open more offshore areas to oil and natural gas drilling so America can rely less on foreign suppliers.

"There is some hypocrisy in locking these resources away while relying on resources produced in other countries," said Marvin Odum, the President of Shell Oil Co., the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

"Instead, we should embrace policies that provide access to our own oil and gas resources," Odum told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at hearing on offshore energy production.

The U.S. Interior Department is considering a five-year plan that might open new offshore areas to drilling.

But many environmental groups oppose expanded offshore drilling, fearing oil spills could result, especially when energy companies move into the deeper waters of the Gulf of Mexico where platforms are susceptible to hurricanes. (Reuters)

 

The IEA’s “Whistleblower” Is Irrelevant

The 1999 Michael Mann movie The Insider remains one of my favorites. The story of Jeffrey Wigand’s “outing” of Big Tobacco’s lying to Congress over the real science behind cigarette addiction is inspiring. But it seems to me, we may be in danger of running away with a romantic notion of the modern phenomena of “whistle-blowing,” especially in light of the claims by an un-named insider at the International Energy Agency that the agency deliberately overstated available oil reserves.

As a highly opinionated journalist and analyst, I have a long history of engaging in public debate on numerous issues and have always been publicly accountable for my public utterances. I have long despised who believe they have the public interest at heart while cloaking themselves in personal anonymity. The chief reason is that it now becomes impossible to question the facts and motives of those who have publicly impugned the integrity of work colleagues while themselves avoiding such scrutiny.

Take how the story of the IEA’s latest energy report has gained less headlines than those garnered by an anonymous IEA whistle-blowing ‘insider’ which was was broken in the UK by The Guardian newspaper. It headlined: “Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower.” In fact, it transpires from the article itself, that this “US pressure” was more felt than applied. But then a strongly anti-American paper would not worry about such a trifle. The core of the paper’s story rests on the whistle-blowing “senior official” who ascribes “an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves”. (Peter C Glover, Energy Tribune)

 

Meantime, In the Real World

As people wonder if the Copenhagen conference will lead to any significant outcomes, the dramatic expansion of carbon-intensive infrastructure continues with little apparent worry about the effects of climate policies. From a quick tour of news from Asia over the past day or so:

From India:

JSW Steel Ltd., India’s third- biggest producer, may spend $500 million buying coal mines overseas to secure supplies for its local expansion.

The company is seeking mines in nations including Australia and South Africa, Managing Director Sajjan Jindal said in an interview in Mumbai. JSW Steel plans to source half of its coal overseas, he said.

Indian steelmakers are expanding as local demand is expected to grow by about 10 percent in the second half of this financial year. JSW Steel is looking at new locations after failing to find coking coal at its exploration project in Mozambique.

The company plans to raise capacity by more than 33 percent to 10 million metric tons at its Vijayanagar plant in South India by 2011 as demand from customers including Larsen & Toubro Ltd. and GMR Group increases, Jindal said in the interview yesterday. Later, JSW aims to build a mill in West Bengal state with an initial 3 million ton capacity, he said.

And also from India:

Top Indian power-equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL.BO) said on Wednesday it has signed a joint-venture pact to build a 1,600 megawatt (MW) thermal power plant in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

The power plant at Khandwa will be equipped with supercritical technology, which helps lower coal consumption and leads to lower emissions.

State utility Madhya Pradesh Power Generation Co Ltd and BHEL will initially have an equal share in the joint venture. Their stakes will later be diluted to 26 percent each, with the rest held by financial institutions and other partners, BHEL said.

BHEL has been promoting joint ventures with state utilities to set up and operate supercritical thermal power plants. It has set up joint ventures with the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Earlier this month, leading Indian power producer NTPC (NTPC.BO) said it would set up a 2,640 megawatt (MW) thermal power plant under a pact with the Madhya Pradesh state government and the MP Power Trading Co.

And from Bangladesh:

Bangladesh plans to set up a fund that will invest as much as $10 billion in energy and power projects within the next decade to resolve an electricity shortage, a senior official said.

The 11-month-old government also is seeking to attract about $4 billion of investments in power plants and a liquefied- natural-gas import terminal, and will meet potential investors in London, New York and Singapore in December, said Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, 64, energy adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed who also holds the post of energy minister.

“The potential demand for electricity is maybe twice as much as we are producing now,” Chowdhury said in an interview in Dhaka yesterday. “It’s not just trying to meet today’s gap; it’s trying to stay ahead of the curve, which is going to be very difficult.” . .

The fund will invest in the equity and debt of coal, oil and gas companies as well as power projects along with companies, he said. The government is still working on the structure of the fund, including how it will be securitized and whether it will be traded, he said.

From Australia:

The Federal Government has put Waratah Coal’s proposed $7.5 billion ‘China First’ coal project in the fast-lane, yesterday granting it Major Project Facilitation (MPF) status.

According to the company’s chief executive Peter Lynch, MPF status will the give the central Queensland development access to a more a timely and efficient approvals process.

Waratah, owned by billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer, is planning to build a thermal coal mine near Alpha, in the Galilee Basin.

The lesson from these vignettes? The world needs more energy. Much more. Reducing emissions is the wrong focus, the expansion of carbon free energy is more appropriate. But until the costs of alternatives are lower than fossil fuels then news stories like the above will continue to appear around the clock and around the world. (Roger Pielke Jr)

 

Bill set to boost Ofgem's powers

The Queen's Speech has outlined an Energy Bill, which is expected to give the regulator Ofgem more power to intervene on behalf of consumers.

The intention is to provide more support for energy consumers and to tackle fuel poverty.

The bill also introduces a financial incentive for carbon capture and storage (CCS) which stops greenhouse gases from reaching the atmosphere. (BBC)

 

Energy bill generates weak signal

With Copenhagen just days away the ragtag bill in the Queen's speech failed to send the message the green sector needs (James Randerson, The Guardian)

 

More Green Crony Capitalism

Green energy investments are coming from every direction. Whether it is the stimulus package or the cap and trade bills proposed in Congress, the government is eager to invest taxpayer dollars in renewable energy technology. As Americans become desensitized to the copious amounts of money the government is spending, clean energy investments are growing from millions to billions. And companies are chomping at the bit:

Last month, for example, President Barack Obama announced $3.4 billion in government-stimulus grants for power-grid projects. About one-third of the recipients are GE customers. GE expects them to use a good chunk of that money to buy its equipment.

The government has taken on a giant role in the U.S. economy over the past year, penetrating further into the private sector than anytime since the 1930s. Some companies are treating the government’s growing reach — and ample purse — as a giant opportunity, and are tailoring their strategies accordingly. For GE, once a symbol of boom-time capitalism, the changed landscape has left it trawling for government dollars on four continents.”

Continue reading… (The Foundry)

 

High Capital Costs Plague Solar (RPS mandates, cost dilution via energy mixing required) Part III

Solar power has one major advantage over its more ubiquitous cousin wind power: electricity that is  generated during peak demand hours (hot, sunny, air conditioned afternoons). Such makes solar attractive to utilities that value such capacity for peak shaving, cost aside.

The problem of wind is shown by this example. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) leads the nation with more than 8,000 MW of installed wind capacity, yet their resource planning–tasked with keeping the lights on–“counts 8.7 percent of wind nameplate capacity as dependable capacity at peak.”

The limited usefulness of wind and solar is reflected by their low system capacity factors. For example, the capacity factor of a typical utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) or concentrating solar project (CSP) is still limited to about 25% compared to the average for U.S. nuclear power plants of 91.5% in 2008, with many nuclear plants operating at or above 100%.

Also, given the lower capacity factors, the amortized cost of transmission per unit of energy carried is almost four times as high given the wide difference in capacity factors. We explored this systematic problem earlier.

The physics of solar energy production, without subsidy, will continue to conspire to keep the first cost and operating costs of the solar option higher than conventional approaches to producing electricity, especially when the cost of transmission is included in the equation. The capital cost of all the solar technologies are about $6,000/kW and higher (sharp-eyed readers will note that I’ve increased this number from the $5,000/kW estimate provided in earlier posts—the reason is discussed shortly) and projects are moving forward only in particular regions within the U.S. with tough RPS requirements and large subsidies from states and the federal government.

In Part I, we reviewed the enormous scale and capital cost considerations of PV projects and then introduced the standard taxonomy of central solar power generating plants. By far the favored technology for utility-scale projects is the CSP option that either produces thermal energy used to produce electricity in the familiar steam turbine process or by concentrating the sun’s thermal energy on an air heat exchanger to produce electricity via an air turbine. In Part II, we reviewed a sampling of recent solar projects.

This final post explores the latest cost solar project cost data and then rising interest in hybrid projects that combines these two solar energy conversion technologies with conventional fossil-fueled technologies. Hybrid projects offer the opportunity for utilities to reduce fuel costs, while simultaneously helping utilities cope with onerous renewable portfolio mandates.

Creative Electricity Accounting

Renewable energy does generate a larger portion of the world’s electricity each year but the reported numbers are misleading. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA, a trade organization that promotes solar energy technologies) recently released its 2008 Year in Review report wherein the organization estimated the solar industry growth over the past year. According to SEIA’s number, the total capacity of the solar industry grew by 1,265 MW in 2008, up from 1,159 MW installed in 2007, a modest increase. However, since my first post in early October where I first referenced this report, a closer look at the numbers reveal much creative accounting in SEIA’s numbers. Their mistake, and it’s a doozie, is they sum the electrical production of a photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) systems that produce electricity with the thermal energy production of solar water heating. No can do. [Read more →] (Robert Peltier, MasterResource)

 

Draining Swamps To Fuel Autos

A report out from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting, which was held in Barcelona, identifies peaty wetlands as a major source of CO₂. Marshes, swamps and bogs emit about 1.3 billion tonnes of CO₂ a year as a result of human activity that drains them. If those dried out former swamps catch fire that amount can double and large amounts of aerosols can be emitted as well. With governments offering subsidies for growing biofuel crops the question is, how do we stop people from draining the world's remaining wetlands?

According to Hans Joosten of the University of Greifswald, Germany, one of the report’s authors, drained peatlands emit a disproportionate amount of carbon dioxide. Although drained peat occupies a only 0.3% of the world’s land surface, it is responsible for 6% of man-made CO₂ emissions. The report identifies the nations most involved with this swamp draining activity. Topping the list is Indonesia, with emissions of 500 million tons of CO₂ a year, not including additional emissions due to fire. Though Indonesia is by far the largest offender, a number of developed countries are guilty as well. Next on the list is Russia, followed by China, America and Finland (see chart).

Leading swamp and bog draining nations. Source The Economist.

Much of the swamp draining in Indonesia can be attributed to replacing moisture-loving rubber trees with oil palms, used to make biofuels for import to Europe and China. According to Indonesia’s own figures, 9.4 million acres of forest have been planted with oil palm since 1996, an area larger than the American states of New Hampshire and Connecticut combined. That works out to 2,000 acres a day, or about a football field a minute. Indonesia is second in palm oil only to nearby Malaysia. “This isn’t mowing your lawn or putting up a factory on the outskirts of town,” said Stephen Brend, a zoologist and field conservationist with the London-based Orangutan Foundation. “It’s changing everything as far as the eye can see.”

More than 10 years after the massive fires of 1997-98 grabbed international headlines, the problem is still far from solved. A recent report for the Indonesian government by McKinsey, a consulting firm, outlined steps to be taken to reduce the damage. The report proposed reducing CO₂ emissions from the country’s peatlands by 900 million tons a year through a combination of halting further marsh deforestation, better water management, and fire control.

Guido van der Werf and a team of researchers has analyzed the density of smog during Indonesian forest fires. The analysis showed that the intensity of the forest fires is directly linked to population density and land use. Nature Geoscience published the results of this research on February 22, 2009. In addition to the major human influences, the researchers also analyzed the influence of two meteorological phenomena. The influence of El Niño on the amount of rainfall was already known, but the Indian Ocean Dipole, which exerts a major influence on water surface temperature, was identified as an equally important factor.

Ten-day fire hotspot satellite image for period 7-17 July 2009 showing hotspots throughout much of Sumatra and Kalimantan. Red dots indicate fire hotspots. This image was taken at the beginning of this year’s El Niño dry season; it is likely that substantially more hotspots will be detected as this dry season progresses. Image courtesy of NASA/GSFC MODIS Rapid Response.

Although severe drought provides conditions conducive to forest fires, it is often humans who are actually responsible. Many fires are deliberately started to free up land for agriculture. The sustained burning of biomass not only releases the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane but also large quantities of carbon monoxide and particulate matter. Consequently, during major fire years the air quality in Indonesia is many times worse than that in the worlds' most polluted cities. Given the new found importance of aerosols on atmospheric warming the problem has become even more pressing (see “African Dust The New CO₂?,” “Arctic Aerosols Indicate Melting Ice Not Caused By CO₂” and “Warming Caused by Soot, Not CO₂”).

Even so, while forest destruction still causes “high emissions,” the “perspective has changed,” contends van der Werf. The study reflected a lower deforestation rate than the IPCC due to more detailed satellite imagery showing tree coverage. “Carbon emissions from fossil fuel combustion have increased substantially” the article in Nature Geoscience said. That makes “the relative contribution from deforestation and forest degradation even smaller.” It seems that climate scientists can not even agree on the importance of not draining and burning the world's remaining swamplands.

Fires at Sebangau Forest, Central Kalimantan threaten Borneo's wild Orangutans. Photo by CIMTROP

One thing that scientists and people all over the world are beginning to understand is that water is becoming a scarce commodity. Though I have reported on the link between biofuels and extreme water use (see “Watering Down Biofuels”) a new article in Science has reiterated the magnitude of the problem. In a a news focus article by Robert F. Service entitled “Another Biofuels Drawback: The Demand for Irrigation” the problem is outlined:

Biofuels promise energy and climate gains, but in some cases, those improvements wouldn't be dramatic. And they come with some significant downsides, such as the potential for increasing the price of corn and other food staples. Now, a series of recent studies is underscoring another risk: A widespread shift toward biofuels could pinch water supplies and worsen water pollution. In short, an increased reliance on biofuel trades an oil problem for a water problem.

Converting biological feedstocks into biofuel has been found to be an inefficient process (see “Better To Burn Than To Brew Ethanol”). Now it seems that other requirements of biofuel manufacture can place an even greater strain on limited water supplies. Agriculture already consumes 70% of all global freshwater withdrawn worldwide, depleting soil nutrients, draining underground aquifers and promoting desertification. More and more, the amount of water needed to produce a given amount of energy must be factored into the true cost of a power source.

A report from Argonne National Laboratory by Deborah Elcock, an energy and environmental policy analyst, predicts that water consumption for energy production in the US will jump two-thirds between 2005 and 2030—from about 6 billion gallons of water per day to roughly 10 billion gallons per day. Though the increase is driven primarily by population growth, about half of that increase will go toward growing biofuels. Nor is this strictly an American problem.

According to the UN, the world faces a bleak future over its dwindling water supplies. The warning from the UN is based on a comprehensive assessment of the state of the world's fresh water, which involved some 24 UN agencies. “Today, water management crises are developing in most of the world,” says the 3rd World Water Development Report. The demand for water is increasing rapidly because of industrialization, rising living standards and changing diets that include more foods—primarily meat—that require larger amounts of water to produce.

Water required for energy production. Source Dominguez-Faus et al.

Deepak Divan and Frank Kreikebaum from Georgia Tech, writing in the November 2009 IEEE Spectrum, put the issue into perspective: “organic biofuels can't possibly fuel a growing world economy in a sustainable manner.” By their calculations running the world on biofuels would require crop land equivalent to 193% of Earth's surface and 173% of annual global precipitation to keep the plants watered—an obvious impossibility (see “Biofuels Aren't Really Green”). Yet in both the US and the EU government mandates have been passed requiring the use of biofuels as a way of reducing CO₂ emissions and, to a lesser degree, attaining energy independence.

It is a captivating idea, growing your own fuel supply in the same way food is produced, while at the same time eliminating carbon emissions said to cause global warming. This is particularly attractive to the United States, already an agricultural powerhouse with excess arable land. The ineffectiveness of biofuels—ethanol and biodiesel—has been widely noted, with reports from the EPA, California's CARB and the EU's joint Research Council claiming that biofuels pollute more than the fossil fuels they are supposed to replace. Still, this has not prevented the biofuels industry from receiving big government subsidies. Congress's “Cap and Trade” legislation will not fix biofuel's problems either. According to a reassessment of greenhouse gas reduction goals by Timothy D. Searchinger et al., “carbon cap accounting ignores land-use emissions altogether, creating its own large, perverse incentives.”

In 2007, the perceived benefits of biofuels helped spur the US Congress to pass the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), which mandated a nearly fivefold increase in U.S. ethanol production, to 117 billion liters, by 2022. Of this amount, nearly half is slated to come from corn ethanol by 2015. If this goal is pursued it will cause food prices to rise, fresh water to become scarcer, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico to expand and overall air pollution to increase. This is not good economic policy. This is not good environmental policy. This is not good energy policy. It is special interest politics at its worst. Biofuels are the last thing the world needs.

Be safe, enjoy the interglacial and stay skeptical.

There are an estimated 6,500 orangutans left on Sumatra, in 10 identified populations on the island. Of those, probably only six contain more than 250 individuals, with just three of those containing more than 1000 individuals. Is biodiesel production worth their extinction? (Doug L. Hoffman, The Resilient Earth)

 

About time! Giant reed 'a giant danger to environment'

THE Government is being warned not to play with fire by promoting the use of an invasive weed to produce biofuel.

Biologist and project officer with the invasive species council, Tim Low, will warn of the potential dangers of cultivating the species Giant Reed (Arundo donax) in a speech to a biosecurity conference in Canberra today.

The giant reed is a member of the grass family and looks similar to sugar cane or bamboo.

The reed is one of the fastest growing plants on earth and during peak conditions is capable of growing as much as 10cm per day.

The speed at which it grows allows it to overcome native plants very quickly and has led to it being declared a noxious weed in a number of countries including some parts of Australia.

"The state of California spends many millions of dollars controlling giant reed, but in Australia, taxpayers' money is being used to promote it as biofuel," Mr Low will tell the conference.

The reed is just one of the candidates for what is known as a second-generation biofuel, where the whole plant is used to produce fuel rather than just the seeds.

The traits that make the reed attractive as a second-generation biofuel crop, being fast growing and low maintenance, also make it an incredibly invasive weed. (AAP)

 

Shocking! $124 Billion For Electric Car Subsidies

Ed. Note: This article first appeared on Geoffrey Styles' blog, Energy Outlook.

Electrification Roadmap cover from the Electrification Coalition

Perhaps it's merely a sign of the times, when a billion is the new million and firms in many industries have found it easier to get capital from the government than from bankers, bondholders and shareholders, but the price tag implicit in the recommendations of a new cross-industry group formed to promote electric vehicles is startling even in this context. Although I couldn't find the total anywhere in the lengthy report from the Electrification Coalition, the Washington Post tallied the combined cost of their proposals at $124 billion in new government incentives, over and above the billions already being spent under the stimulus bill and other programs to support the R&D, manufacturing, and infrastructure for plug-in electric cars, and to subsidize consumer purchases of them. The frustrating part of this is that I'm in general agreement that electric vehicles probably represent the long-term future of cars. However, I don't believe anyone can know this with sufficient certainty, any more than they knew a few years ago that fuel cell cars were the answer, or in the late 1990s that diesel hybrids were the answer. The report also raises basic questions about how new industries should be built, and at whose expense. (Energy Tribune)

 

 

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National Association For Gun Rights

 

Deaths not linked to H1N1 vaccines: WHO

GENEVA - About 40 people have died after being inoculated against H1N1 pandemic flu, but investigations so far show the fatalities were not caused by the vaccine, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday.

The U.N. agency reaffirmed that the pandemic vaccine was safe and voiced concern that some pregnant women and others at risk were shunning it because of a fear of side effects.

"No new safety issue has been identified from reports issued to date ... Reporting so far reconfirms that the pandemic flu vaccine is as safe as the seasonal flu vaccine," Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO's top vaccine expert, told a telephone conference.

Governments have so far reported that 65 million vaccine doses have been administered against H1N1, known as swine flu, in 16 countries, but the true figure is probably higher since immunisation campaigns are under way in 40 countries, she said. (Reuters)

 

Average UK woman wears 515 chemicals a day

LONDON - The average British woman "hosts" 515 chemicals on her body every day, according to a new study.

The poll of 2,016 women by deodorant-maker Bionsen said most of the pollutants are self-inflicted by women who sprayed on deodorant, slapped on body moisturiser and applied lipstick each morning.

Today's average British woman uses body and facial moisturisers, perfumes, deodorants and various other make-up products, which leave them unknowingly carrying hundreds of chemicals on their bodies throughout the day, Bionsen said.

Moisturiser can contain over 30 different chemicals and perfume up to 400, it added.

More than a third of the women who took part in the study were unaware of the key ingredients in their toiletries, with only nine percent aware of most of the ingredients in the cosmetics they put on each day.

More than 70 percent of the women polled said they were not concerned about the number of chemicals they put on their skin and only one in 10 opted for chemical-free toiletries when shopping. (Reuters Life!)

How do you apply "chemical-free" anything? Or eat, or ...

 

Low-carb, high-carb diet both help keep weight off

NEW YORK - Low-carb and high-carb diets work equally well for maintaining weight loss, Australian researchers report.

People had the same success in keeping off the weight they'd lost after sharply cutting their calorie intake for 3 months if they followed a low-carb (also called high-protein) diet or a high-carbohydrate regimen for the following year, Dr. Elizabeth A. Delbridge of the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital in Victoria and her colleagues found.

Some studies have suggested that high protein diets may be a more effective way to lose weight short-term than high carbohydrate diets, Delbridge and her team note in their report. But there's less evidence on which approach might be better for helping people to keep off weight they've lost, and whether the two diets have different effects on heart health. (Reuters Health)

 

Study showing alcohol may cut heart risk under fire

LONDON - Spanish research appearing to show that very heavy drinking can reduce men's risk of heart disease has come under fire from scientists who say the study is flawed and should not encourage anyone to drink more.

The controversial study found that men who drank moderate, high and very high levels of alcohol had a lower risk of coronary heart disease. 

Many previous studies have suggested that moderate drinking -- usually defined as a drink or two per day -- can be a healthy habit, particularly when it comes to heart disease risk. But experts have warned that heavy drinking can damage organs and lead to early death. (Reuters)

 

A Leviathan of Land: Perspective on the Size of the US Gov’t In Pictures

With the takeover of health care and frenzied government growth front and center, many are wondering when we will - if we haven’t already - reached a tipping point that fundamentally alters America. Much of what’s been done is described as a temporary fix. However, as President Reagan noted, “There is nothing so permanent as a temporary government program.”

With this reinvigorated discussion of how big is too big, it is worthwhile to remind Americans of just how massive the Federal government already was before our current woes began. There are few more striking measures of the government’s size than the land mass of the Federal estate. The vast majority of federal lands fall within one of four agencies: the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Agriculture’s US Forest Service. At over 258 million acres, the Bureau of Land Management alone is bigger than France and Germany combined. When combined with the other aforementioned agencies, the land area is equal that of ten European nations as shown in the accompanying graph (click it to see a larger version). (The Foundry)

 

GM crops have a role in preventing world hunger, chief scientist says - The Government should approve trials to develop crops resistant to climate change that would feed a growing population

GM crops have a role to play in preventing mass starvation across the world caused by a combination of climate change and rapid population growth, a senior government scientist said yesterday.

Professor Robert Watson, the chief scientific adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), called for UK trials of GM foods, arguing that the Government needs to be more open with the public about the risks and benefits of genetically modified foods.

"Over the next 20 to 50 years, the population is going to increase from 6.5 to 9 billion. There will be more extreme weather, more demand for food, meat, and water, a changing climate: it is a very challenging situation, which, if we don't deal with it, could become a nightmare scenario," said Professor Watson. "We have to look at all the technologies, policies and practices, all forms of bio-tech, including GM." (The Independent)

Bob Watson just can't get past not being co-chair of the IPCC, can he? Of all the reasons for using biotech-enhanced crops gorebull warming isn't one of them.

 

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