Controversial preservative doesn’t have time to build up in babies’ bodies

February’s issue of Pediatrics offers another reason to rethink blaming the spike in autism diagnoses on thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative routinely used in several childhood vaccines until the late ‘90s.

Super Bowl banned for 'causing' heart attacks? - Just imagine, New York Giants and New England Patriots fans might have to find something else to do this Sunday.

The Super Bowl, and all spectator competitive sports, may be a thing of the past, in accordance with current public health policies. A new study has found such sporting events are associated with a 326% increase in cardiac emergencies among men and nearly a doubled risk among women. These are actual myocardial infarctions and cardiac arrhythmias, not surrogate endpoints for heart problems. For those with heart disease, the risks are twice those of people without a history of heart problems.

Calls have already begun to ban all competitive sports to protect public health and contain healthcare costs... (Junkfood Science)

TV diet doctor spreading the ‘gospel of healthy living’ - Let’s face it. There are a zillion ways to make money selling a diet book. All anyone needs is a gimmick to cut calories, then write how easy your plan is to follow and that everyone is guaranteed to lose weight. Promise they’ll never need to diet again. Be sure to warn about the dangers of obesity and unhealthy lifestyles, then vow that your diet will save them and lead to a healthier, happier and longer life, prevent cancer, promote regularity or even give them youthful complexions. Give impressive explanations that make your plan sound like it’s based on science (no evidence is required as you’ll need only a few anecdotes and inspiring photos). Being able to say you’re a doctor or professor is certain to make people believe you know what you’re talking about. Finally, get endorsements from celebrities or high-profile television shows as they’ll guarantee your diet book will be a best seller. :)

By taking their diets directly to the media and public, TV diet doctors bypass the medical community, as well as any scrutiny that would come if they were published in the medical literature. So, not surprisingly, some of the wackiest fad diets are seen on TV.

But consumers deserve a special alert about the risks that come with one of the fastest-growing gimmicks. (Junkfood Science)

EU health chief angers industry over labelling - BRUSSELS - The European Union's health chief overcame intense industry pressure on Wednesday to propose stricter food labelling rules that aim to halt Europe's rising levels of obesity.

Despite huge political opposition and lobbying by food and drink multinationals, EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou forged ahead with plans to require companies to detail energy, sugar, salt, fat and saturates on the front of the packages.

"Today's proposal aims to ensure that food labels carry the essential information in a clear and legible way, so that EU citizens are empowered to make balanced dietary choices," Kyprianou told a news conference.

"Confusing, overloaded or misleading labels can be more of a hindrance than a help to the consumer," he said. (Reuters)

A Significant Warm Bias With The Diagnosis Of A Global Average Surface Temperature Anomaly To Diagnose Global Warming - Part II From Our JGR Paper - Part I of this series of weblogs (see), discussed the serious limited value of the use of a global average surface temperature anomaly to diagnose the global radiative imbalance (i.e., global climate heat system changes). In Part II, we discuss another serious issue that we raised in our paper Pielke Sr., R.A., C. Davey, D. Niyogi, S. Fall, J. Steinweg-Woods, K. Hubbard, X. Lin, M. Cai, Y.-K. Lim, H. Li, J. Nielsen-Gammon, K. Gallo, R. Hale, R. Mahmood, S. Foster, R.T. McNider, and P. Blanken, 2007: Unresolved issues with the assessment of multi-decadal global land surface temperature trends. J. Geophys. Res., 112, D24S08, doi:10.1029/2006JD008229.

Today’s weblog discusses Section 3 in this paper entitled “Difficulties With the Use of Observed Nocturnal Warming Trends as a Measure of Climate Trends”

Because the land portion of the global average surface temperature trend is constructed using the average of the minimum and maximum daily temperatures, if there is a bias in either one of these temperatures, there will be a bias in the trends. (Climate Science)

PlayStation® alert! Study Shows Hurricane Impact of Warmer Atlantic - LONDON - British researchers say they have shown that a half-degree Celsius temperature rise in the Atlantic ocean can fuel a 40 percent increase in hurricanes.

U.S researchers, however, last week challenged this view, saying global warming could reduce the number of hurricanes hitting the United States with warmer waters resulting in atmospheric instabilities that prevent storms from forming. (Reuters)

Podcast: Indur Goklany explains why climate change is far from being the most important environmental problem facing the planet this century.

UA prof challenges one of central beliefs about global warming - New information is leading to a controversial shift in thinking on the impact of global warming on ocean circulation, partly due to the work of a UA researcher.

The scientific community has long believed that as global warming continues and large amounts of freshwater ice melt into the ocean, the ocean's circulation will slow.

This would have a catastrophic impact on the environment as vividly, if somewhat overdramatically, portrayed in the film "The Day After Tomorrow."

But a paper published last week in Nature magazine, the result of several studies of past and possible future weather, says that in fact the very opposite is true and ocean circulation will become stronger as the icecaps melt.

"We missed what was right in front of our eyes," said Joellen Russell, an assistant professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona and co-author of the paper. (Arizona Daily Star)

Witanagemot Justice And Senator Inhofe’s Fancy List - Anyone interested in the intersection of science and politics has to be watching with some amusement and more than a little dismay at the spectacle of professional immolation that the climate science community has engaged in following the release of Senator James Inhofe’s list of 400+ climate skeptics.

The amusement comes from the fact that everyone involved in this tempest in a teapot seems to be working as hard as possible in ways contrary to their political interests. (Prometheus)

Not sure I agree with Roger Junior’s conclusions here. For one thing the Senator’s list might encourage skeptics to speak out because their voices will not be alone and they can take courage from company in expressing doubts over positions espoused by government-imposed authority (the IPCC acronym stands for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change after all).

Offering comfort and encouragement to those wishing to raise legitimate doubts but concerned about appearing a lone dissenter is surely to be encouraged rather than disparaged. If it discouraged young researchers speaking out for fear of being listed as skeptical then that would say much about the established authority and none of it complimentary.

Scientists worried about appearing skeptical should perhaps familiarize themselves with Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895).

Moreover, the maintainer of the list, Marc Morano (who probably has a fancy title like "Communications Director" or something but I don’t just recall what it might be), has a public e-mail address and anyone concerned about finding themselves on said list could simply ask to be removed with a stub stating they were wrongly included and that it did not reflect their position, so "Steve Rayner asked if there was some way to sue the Senator for defamation, tongue only partly in cheek" is a pretty silly and heavily loaded response.

On the whole I’d say anything which encourages skepticism is to be applauded and so publication of a list challenging the oft-touted "consensus" is a good thing. Can’t think of anything nice to say about "climate science attack dogs" though…

What the Future Holds in Store - The American Geophysical Union (AGU) recently released its new and improved “position statement” on global warming. Andy Revkin of the New York Times featured the AGU’s release on this DotEarth blog site and asked AGU members to chime in on their opinions of the statement that was developed by the AGU’s ruling Council. While there were definitely members who expressed dismay at the position statement, a majority of commentors gave it their hearty endorsement. Apparently, most of the endorsers have not given a very in depth consideration of all that is contained in the AGU’s statement, for otherwise, (we would hope anyway) that they would have been a bit more reserved.

For instance, the AGU’s position statement includes the following sentence: “If this 2 degrees Celsius warming [above 19th century levels] is to be avoided, then our net annual emissions of carbon dioxide must be reduced by more than 50 percent within this century.” This is akin to stating “If pigs had wings, they could fly.” Sure, you could endorse the statement, but to do so would seem a bit foolish. First off, pigs don’t have wings, and it would take nothing short of a miracle for them to acquire them, and secondly, even if they had wings, it is not guaranteed that they could fly. The most pig-shaped bird we can think of—the penguin which is large and rotund and flopping around on its belly a lot of the time—has wings, but can’t fly. Thus even if the impossibility of pigs sporting wings was overcome, it wouldn’t insure a successful flight. (WCR)

U.S. Senate Report Debunks Polar Bear Extinction Fears - The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is considering listing the polar bear a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. This report details the scientists debunking polar bear endangerment fears and features a sampling of the latest peer-reviewed science detailing the natural causes of recent Arctic ice changes.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service estimates that the polar bear population is currently at 20,000 to 25,000 bears, up from as low as 5,000-10,000 bears in the 1950s and 1960s.  A 2002 U.S. Geological Survey of wildlife in the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain noted that the polar bear populations “may now be near historic highs.”  The alarm about the future of polar bear decline is based on speculative computer model predictions many decades in the future. And the methodology of these computer models is being challenged by many scientists and forecasting experts. (U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee)

UN: Climate Change May Cost $20 Trillion - UNITED NATIONS - Global warming could cost the world up to $20 trillion over two decades for cleaner energy sources and do the most harm to people who can least afford to adapt, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warns in a new report.

Troops Help Stranded Chinese as Snow Kills 50  - BEIJING - Troops fanned out across large swathes of China hit by snow storms that have killed about 50 people as Premier Wen Jiabao apologised to stranded railway passengers ahead of the biggest holiday of the year.

The government has ordered almost 500,000 troops and paramilitary forces to help millions cut off and suffering shortages of food and power, but there is little sign the weather will improve soon.

Unusually icy temperatures, snow and sleet blanketing much of central, eastern and southern China have crippled thousands of trucks and trains loaded with coal, food and passengers in the most severe winter weather in half a century. (Reuters)

Big firms lack climate change plans - LESS than 3 per cent of major Australian firms have implemented a climate change plan even though the Federal Government intends to bring in new carbon emission laws by 2010, a survey shows.

Less than one in five firms see climate change as a present risk.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of CEOs and chief financial officers of 303 Australian companies with a turnover of more than $150 million, found that 67 per cent of firms were unsure about their compliance obligations on climate change.

Some 78 per cent of firms polled had not taken any action and 98 per cent had not implemented a strategic response to address climate change risks.

Only 8 per cent believed that climate change posed a present risk to their business.

"The main conclusion from the survey is that while Australian business leaders are aware of climate change as an issue and are keen to know more about how to how to respond, they are not ready for a carbon-constrained economy,'' the report compiled in November said.

"Given the level of uncertainty around climate change risks, it is perhaps not surprising to find that the majority of respondents have only taken minimal action to respond to climate change risks.'' (The Australian)

Landlords oppose EU bid to ban patio heaters - Patio heaters, which have mushroomed in pub gardens since the smoking ban was introduced last year, were at the centre of a battle between British landlords and the EU last night as Euro MPs were expected to vote for energy-saving proposals seeking their abolition.

New proposals from Brussels address various appliances such as air-conditioning units and television "decoder" boxes, as well as the stand-by mode on electrical appliances. But they specifically mention patio heaters, which have also been used domestically for around a decade. Industry figures have claimed that the pub trade now faces losses of up to £250m.

According to the Publican Market Report 2007, the pub trade invested up to £86.5m on outdoor heaters in the past year as it learnt of the impending government ban on smoking in public places. Now pubs are worried they will not only have wasted the money they spent on the new heaters, but customers who still smoke will be tempted to stay at home, where recent figures show most Britons are now consuming alcohol.

The Energy Saving Trust has predicted that the number of heaters in use is set to rise this year from 1.2 million to 2.6 million. The energy-efficiency report being debated in Brussels has been written by Fiona Hall, the Liberal Democrat MEP for the North-east.

Significantly, the report is an "own initiative" set of recommendations, meaning it is not legally enforceable. But it means the Commission – the "executive" of the EU – is likely to come under renewed pressure to ban the heaters. (London Independent)

Patio heaters ‘don’t harm the planet’ but the EU still wants them banned - Patio heaters have a minimal effect on the environment, an expert said yesterday.

Dr Eric Johnson spoke out as Euro MPs were about to demand that outdoor heaters be banned to tackle climate change.

Europe’s Green wars begin - WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 — It is ironic that Europe, which likes to think of itself as the center of environmental correctness and the green revolution, should now be the scene of a sharp political struggle over its ambitious emissions targets. Indeed, few EU proposals have aroused quite such a chorus of complaint and derision.

EU carbon trading scheme to wipe out paper industry profits - Paper companies have warned that the rising cost of raw materials and the introduction of an EU CO2 carbon emission trading scheme will raise prices and kill off profits.

The Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) said the trading scheme will take £750m out of the European paper industry, effectively wiping out its annual profits.

It described it as the "first direct EU tax in history", as it even stipulates how the monies raised should be spent by member states. (Matt Whipp, printweek.com)

Peat bogs pelted with heather to slow CO2 emissions - Bales of heather fell from the sky onto a peat plateau in the Peak District yesterday, in the latest attempt to halt what scientists believe is a dangerous emitter of carbon dioxide.

Instead of acting as a natural store, or sink, for CO2, peat bogs such as the district's Bleaklow are leaking the gas, a process which experts put down to exposure to 200 years of pollution, overgrazing and fire. The gas is thought to be a big contributor to climate change.

Helicopters interrupted the January tranquillity of a few sheep and muddy walkers to drop billions of heather seeds embedded in bales of brash, or cut heather, which should start sprouting in the spring. The seeds will also be spread across the moorland by volunteers in the coming weeks.

The rate of CO2 emission from eroded peat bogs is a matter growing concern for scientists: along with neighbouring Peak District hills such as Kinder Scout, it is thought the 700 sq km of the southern Pennine hills could be leaking as much CO2 as a town of almost 50,000 people. Britain's peat bogs store the equivalent of 10 times the country's total CO2 emissions.

Fiona Reynolds, director general of the National Trust, said emissions - a "ticking timebomb" - from the land are potentially as serious as those from cars and planes. Instead of being a squelchy green blanket covered in moss and cotton grasses, Bleaklow is, in parts, dry as southern Europe, and gullies 4m deep cross the moor. (John Vidal, The Guardian)

Claimants Tiptoe Around Lucrative Antarctic Rights - TROLL STATION, Antarctica - Nations claiming parts of Antarctica are quietly staking out rights to the seabed, in stark contrast to the North Pole where Russia ostentatiously planted a flag to back its claim.


"We have a vessel making seismic surveys of the continental shelf," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told Reuters at the Troll research station, 250 km (155 miles) inland in a part of Antarctica claimed by Oslo.

Interested countries are tiptoeing around the question of who owns the Antarctic seabed, and potential deposits of oil and gas, fearing it could open the floodgates to counter-claims or undermine a treaty protecting the continent as a nature reserve.

Unlike the Arctic, which is open to competition for minerals, Antarctica is set aside forever for peaceful purposes and scientific research under a 1959 treaty that was a big success of the Cold War.

Argentina, Australia, Britain, Chile, France, New Zealand and Norway -- all close to Antarctica or with historical ties -- made claims before the treaty took effect. Moscow and Washington did not make claims but reserved the right to do so. (Reuters)

Emissions trading - European power is a great business. Like producers everywhere, Europe’s utilities are shielded from international competition by the need to produce electricity near their customers. Many get extra protection from authorities’ foot-dragging on structural reform. And, since 2005, most have enjoyed an additional fillip. Under the European Emissions Trading Scheme, customers have paid for the permits the utilities require to produce carbon, despite the fact that, so far, the companies have received them for free. Between now and 2013 the number of permits granted will fall, and the proportion of free permits will be reduced to two-thirds. But Centrica, the UK’s biggest residential energy supplier, estimates the windfall from free permits will still be worth €110bn for the European utilities.

Finnish Nuclear Revival Not Seen in Other Nordics - HELSINKI - Finland is pressing ahead with a new atomic power station and Swedes have abandoned some of their deep-seated opposition to nuclear energy but other Scandinavian countries are unlikely to resort to it. (Reuters)

Britain Must Stand Firm on Nuclear Power - E.ON - LONDON - The British government must remain resolute in its backing for a new fleet of nuclear power stations despite the likelihood of a fresh legal challenge, the head of power giant E.ON UK said on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, the government gave the green light to a new generation of nuclear power plants nearly a year after environment group Greenpeace won a court case forcing it to undertake a lengthy public consultation on the issue. (Reuters)

Wildlife disaster as uncropped land is ploughed - Half the uncropped land in the country has been ploughed up this year, in what conservationists have warned could be one of the worst disasters for wildlife for 40 years.

The skylark, stone curlew, English partridge and brown hare were predicted by conservationists to suffer further declines as a result of the ploughing up of land as the result of higher prices for wheat and the demand for biofuels.

Conservationists said that the extent of the changes, identified in a survey for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, came as an "unwelcome shock."

The survey showed that this growing season there has been an 85 per cent decline in stubbles left out of production for one year and a 30 per cent decline in non-rotational set-aside, as farmers respond to demand and the EU minister's decision to set the mandatory level of set aside at zero last autumn. (London Telegraph)

DEVELOPMENT: Unexpected Benefits of Lesotho Highlands Water Project - JOHANNESBURG, Jan 30 - The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) was conceived and built primarily to supplement the water supply of the industrial hub of South Africa. The additional water has however, provided an important benefit beyond the original aims of the project -- it is reducing the salinity of the Vaal Dam reservoir.
The reservoir near Vereeniging -- about sixty kilometres south of Johannesburg -- is the principal water reservoir for Gauteng Province, the largest industrial and mining centre on the African continent.

Originating in the eastern part of the country, the Vaal River serves as the main source of water for the Vaal Dam reservoir. While the river is large enough to meet water requirements for the area most of the time, the catchment area is subject to severe and protracted droughts. The LHWP was built to help Gauteng Province cope with perennial water shortages that resulted from these droughts.

The catchment area includes many coal and gold mines that are responsible for a substantial amount of water pollution. Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) and nutrient rich outflow from sewage treatment works have caused the salinity of the river flowing into the Vaal Dam reservoir to increase dramatically.

Water in the reservoir became so rich in extra nutrients that plant life became unusually plentiful and dense. When plants died and began to decompose, the decomposition process killed the animal life by starving it of oxygen.

Since the far cleaner waters from the LHWP began flowing into the reservoir, scientists from the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry have noted how much easier it is to manage salinity levels in the dam. As the project evolves in coming decades -- and more water from Lesotho and the Tugela River flows into the Vaal River system -- this unexpected purifying effect is likely to become more significant.

This positive side-effect might help create a somewhat more encouraging image of LHWP project that has had more than its fair share of controversy. (IPS)

China's Crops Badly Damaged by Icy Storms - Agmin  - BEIJING - China's Agriculture Ministry said on Wednesday that the unusually harsh winter had dealt a serious blow to the country's wheat and vegetable crops and warned that damage could rise because of persistent cold. (Reuters)

Top scientist scorns 'tastier' organic foods - A LEADING scientist has described claims that organic foods are more nutritious and taste better as "fiction".

And any aims to turn Ireland into an 'organic island' were also scorned yesterday by Dr Con O'Rourke, who said this would mean there could be no exports and there would need to be massive recycling.

Dr O'Rourke, a former senior member of agricultural body Teagasc and scientific journal editor, said substantial research had not shown any differences between organic and standard foods.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland yesterday had an open debate on the attitudes and findings on organic food. Research from the body shows that less than one-third of people (32pc) surveyed believe organic food to be a healthier option while 15pc believe it to be "full of flavour and taste".

"Organic foods are often claimed to be more nutritious and to taste better," said Dr O'Rourke.

"However, this has to be regarded as a fiction since, to date, rigorous scientific evaluation has failed to show significant and consistent difficulties."

In addition, genetically modified (GM) foods are "no less safe" than conventional foods, with a 'GM-free' Ireland as unlikely as an 'organic Ireland', he said. (Irish Independent)

Farmers May Have Golden Rice by 2011 - IRRI - HONG KONG - Genetically modified (GMO) Golden Rice may be available to farmers as early as 2011, possibly helping to save millions of children threatened with blindness or premature death due to Vitamin A deficiency.

Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), told Reuters it expected to release the GMO rice, enriched with Vitamin A, by 2011. It was conducting its first field trials in the Philippines this year.

It would be 10 years since the invention in 2001 of Golden Rice, which scientists have said may prove that the controversial biotechnology can help feed the poor and needy if applied with care and caution.

There is as yet no GMO rice grown commercially. Widely produced transgenic products, such as GMO soy, corn or cotton, are mostly pest- or herbicide-resistant. They are beneficial to farmers, but not necessarily to consumers.

Golden Rice -- which includes three new genes, including two from daffodil -- is yellowish and contains beta-carotene, a substance that human bodies convert to Vitamin A. (Reuters)

US Seeks to Retaliate Against EU in GMO Case - GENEVA - The United States underlined on Wednesday its right to retaliate against the European Union in a row over an EU ban on biotech crops.

The dispute has pitted the EU against the United States, Argentine and Canada, the world's three biggest growers of genetically modified (GMO) food. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has ordered the EU to end the ban.

Brussels has found it hard to implement the WTO ruling because some of the 27 EU member states operate their own bans. (Reuters)

January 30, 2008

Prison study to investigate link between diet and behavior - Trials will soon be underway in three UK prisons to investigate the link between nutrition and behaviour. Funded by the Wellcome Trust, the study will look at which nutrients are most important and at what dosage.

In the study, volunteers from three young offenders institutions housing male prisoners aged 16 to 21 will take nutritional supplements on top of their normal choice of food to ensure they receive the necessary vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids to meet daily guidelines. The results will be compared with a control group under double blind conditions. Researchers will monitor how levels of nutrients affect a range of behaviours including violence, drug-related offences and incidents of self-harm. (Wellcome Trust)

Microbes as climate engineers - Humans are continually altering the atmosphere. “Arrogant organisms that we are, it is easy to view this as something entirely novel in Earth’s history,” says Dr Dave Reay from the University of Edinburgh. “In truth of course, micro-organisms have been at it for billions of years.”

Schelling’s shilling: Face up to climate change - Talk about non-sequiteurs! “If we know that the earth is warming, but are uncertain about how fast and with what effects on climates worldwide, what are the most urgent steps that we should take to address it?” Firstly, nothing says we need address warming at all. Certainly there is no indication urgent steps are required or that we could do anything even if we did decide there was need and value in so doing. The one thing we do actually need to do is reduce people’s vulnerability to weather events (whatever their cause) and we can do that with development and wealth generation (probably the only way we can do so). The not-inconsiderable collateral benefit of this course is that people’s lives and living standards are improved whether the climate becomes more hostile than usual or not.

Setting Up a Scapegoat - As with the global-warming advocate who explains each weather event — hot or cold, wet or dry — as proof of his creed, there’s nothing like starting one’s day off having your beliefs or assumptions affirmed. So when I picked up today’s Washington Post, I was confident that the lead editorial would feature angst over the lack of global-warming specifics in last night’s SOTU speech.

Lo and behold, in true self-parody, the Post laments in its ultimate paragraph:

But the greatest disappointment of the night was [Bush’s] failure to commit to working with Congress on legislation to create a mandatory carbon emissions reduction system in the United States — without which no international accord will be possible.

So the U.S. must unilaterally mandate carbon emissions in advance of international accords in which we’ll ask other nations to join us in mutually mandating carbon emissions? Which is to say: Handing over our main bargaining chip improves our bargaining position, because without that anticipatory capitulation there could be no pact? Thank goodness WaPo editorial writers aren’t negotiating U.S. treaties.

That vacuity aside, the most instructive part of this complaint is the mindset it betrays, which we also see in the halls of Congress: that President Bush must take ownership of this issue before he leaves office. (Chris Horner, Planet Gore)

Some fear super-cheap car’s environmental cost - Anything that gives IPCC chief misanthropist Rajendra Pachauri nightmares simply must be a good thing. To do so while improving the lives of people in the developing world elevates it to great. Bear in mind that Pachauri happily flies 10,000 mile round trips from conferences and gabfests — to play social cricket matches! Does anyone who clocks up such frivolous mileage to play games have a right to whine about families traveling in a small car?

How not to measure temperature, part 50. How to make a rural station “urban” - One of the things that happens when your work becomes well known is that people send you things to look at. Such is the case for today’s subject. Here we have a NOAA COOP station which is on the side of a mountain, well away from large cities. Only problem is, they put it right next to a parking lot. (Watts Up with That?)

Aha! We knew the cold would be a sign of global warming! - No, you didn’t misread that. They said that the most severe winter in 50 years, coming on the heels of one of the warmest [read: mildest] winters on record last year, are both due to ‘rising global temperatures’ (which are currently not rising, so far as anyone can tell — but never mind that). And some people take this crap seriously?

Important New Research Paper Published - Reconstructed Historical Land Cover And Biophysical Parameters For Studies Of Land-Atmosphere Interactions Within The Eastern United States” - An important new research paper has appeared which documents how dynamic human land management has been in altering the landscape component of the climate system. This seminal paper is Steyaert, L.T., and R.G. Knox, 2008: Reconstructed historical land cover and biophysical parameters for studies of land-atmosphere interactions within the eastern United States, J. Geophys. Res., 113, D02101, doi:10.1029/2006JD008277. (Climate Science)

US Climate Talks Must Focus on Emissions Curbs - UN - OSLO - US-hosted climate talks in Hawaii this week need to focus more on agreeing curbs to greenhouse gas emissions by major polluters, the UN’s top climate change official said on Tuesday.

The debate on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, which come mainly from burning fossil fuels, needed "to move into a higher gear" if the talks were to produce a plan this year, the United Nations’ Yvo de Boer said of the Jan. 30-31 meeting in Honolulu.

Relax greenhouse cuts, Rudd told - THE Rudd Government will have to abandon plans for rigid interim targets for greenhouse gas cuts to allow its emissions-trading scheme to work properly, a senior economist has said.

Warwick McKibbin, whose economic models on climate change are being used by Treasury to calculate the costs involved, yesterday added his voice to concerns that mandating a specific cut for 2020 could lift the cost of tackling global warming.

"That's the problem with politicians who make promises that can't be sustained," Professor McKibbin said. "I think the Government will realise they can still be credible enough, even if they drop a few things."

Kevin Rudd has said Australia needs interim targets for emissions cuts, beyond its existing pledge to reduce greenhouse emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.

The Prime Minister commissioned Australian National University economist Ross Garnaut to advise the Government on how the targets should be set.

Professor Garnaut suggested yesterday it would be more efficient to use targets as a guide for allocating carbon permits, rather than as exact and enforceable cuts for specific years.

Professor McKibbin agrees, saying business should in some years be allowed to exceed the target for emissions. "It can't be all or nothing," he said. "There has to be a balance between the environmental benefit and the economic costs, and that's what's missing."

However, a spokesman for Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the Government would not abandon its election commitment on targets. (The Australian)

From CO₂ Science this week:
Editorial:
Biofuels as Religious Fodder: Could filling your car's fuel tank with biofuel lead to the starvation of generations yet unborn? ... and to the demise of much of earth's wild nature in the process?

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week:
This issue's Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from Lake Teletskoye, Altai Mountains, Russia. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period Project's database, click here.

Subject Index Summary:
Coral Reefs (History - Caribbean Sea): What can we learn from the history of Caribbean coral reefs about the effects or non-effects of global warming upon their diversity and robustness?

Plant Growth Data:
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Adsuki Bean, Garden Bean, Garden Pea, and Soybean.

Journal Reviews:
A Global Temperature History of the Past Two Millennia: What does it reveal about the relative warmth of the 20th-century?

Flirting with Solar Causes of Climate Change: How can solar irradiance changes that are so small create terrestrial climate changes that are so large?

The Urban CO2 Dome and Heat Island of Baltimore (USA): Do the two conjoined phenomena represent a microcosm of what the entire world can expect in the future?

Growth Rates of Siberian Spruce and Scots Pines in Northwest Russia: How did their growth rates change between the two 50-year periods 1900-1949 and 1950-2000?

Earth's Peatlands in a CO2-Enriched World of the Future: How will they differ from those of today?

Temperature Record of the Week:
This issue's Temperature Record of the Week is from Lewisburg, TN. During the period of most significant greenhouse gas buildup over the past century, i.e., 1930 and onward, Lewisburg's mean annual temperature has cooled by 2.64 degrees Fahrenheit. Not much global warming here!

Conference Announcement:
2008 International Conference on Climate Change: An international conference on climate change will take place on March 2-4, 2008 in New York City, calling attention to widespread dissent to the alleged “consensus” that modern warming is primarily man-made and is a crisis. Read more about the conference by clicking on the link above. (co2science.org)

When reality bites: Oil sands curbs could cost Ontario jobs - Vancouver–A defiant Alberta premier warned that Canada’s economy, already on the verge of a slowdown, will be further hurt if his province is forced to move quicker on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Another surprise: Britain May Have to Dump Carbon Cutting Targets - LONDON - Britain may have to dump its carbon cutting targets or risk power cuts due to the retirement in the near future of old coal and nuclear plants, according to energy consultancy Inenco.

CBI director says emissions target unrealistic and not cost-effective - The head of Britain's business lobby said yesterday that there was no chance of Britain or Europe meeting the cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by the deadline set by Brussels last week.

Richard Lambert, director-general of the Confederation of British industry, added that there was also no chance of Britain meeting the target for renewable energy by 2020 ordered by the European Commission. (Ian Traynor, The Guardian)

Nuclear clean-up bill £12bn higher than predicted - Funny how they neglect to mention the major reason costs are so high is ridiculous ’safety’ levels to placate a population terrorized by the very ‘environmental campaigners’ who now claim these costs are indicative of a prohibitively expensive power source.

Not climate change? How novel: New threat to Lake Victoria? - Two hydroelectricity dams appear to be threatening the health of Lake Victoria – and of the people living along its shores who depend on the lake for food. A new study¹ suggests that the dams’ systematic overuse of water has decreased the lake level by at least two meters between 2000 and 2006 – and that this drop was not influenced by weather. The study by Yustina Kiwango of Tanzania National Parks and Eric Wolanski of James Cook University in Australia was published online this week in the Springer journal Wetlands Ecology and Management. (Springer)

E.coli a future source of energy? - For most people, the name “E. coli” is synonymous with food poisoning and product recalls, but a professor in Texas A&M University’s chemical engineering department envisions the bacteria as a future source of energy, helping to power our cars, homes and more.

By genetically modifying the bacteria, Thomas Wood, a professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, has “tweaked” a strain of E. coli so that it produces substantial amounts of hydrogen. Specifically, Wood’s strain produces 140 times more hydrogen than is created in a naturally occurring process, according to an article in Microbial Biotechnology, detailing his research.

Though Wood acknowledges that there is still much work to be done before his research translates into any kind of commercial application, his initial success could prove to be a significant stepping stone on the path to the hydrogen-based economy that many believe is in this country’s future. (Texas A&M University)

California Asks EPA to Regulate Machine Emissions - LOS ANGELES - California officials Monday called on the US Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from industrial machines that they say emit as much carbon dioxide as 40 million cars. (Reuters)

A load of hot air? - Green and vegan claims that meat is a climate crime are based on a UN statistic that could lead to more industrialised farming

Humans Join Hunt for Antarctica's "Pink Gold" - TROLL STATION, Antarctica - They only grow up to 6 cm (2.4 inches) yet are perhaps the most abundant creatures on the planet in terms of weight. Snow petrels nesting in Antarctica fly for up to eight hours to catch a meal of them.

Krill -- small shrimp-like crustaceans which with modern technology can be used in fish feed, human dietary supplements, soya sauce flavouring, pharmaceuticals, or even to clean the paintings of Old Masters -- are in increasing demand.

A "pink gold" which if fed to farmed salmon cut out the need for colorants to make the flesh pink, krill are extremely rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, linked to health benefits for people.

Occurring in all oceans but most abundant in the Southern Ocean, they are also the staple diet for seals, penguins and whales as well as for the snow petrels living on icy mountains inland, which fly more than 500 km (300 miles) for each meal.

But rising human demand for fish oils, likely to bring more competition from trawlers for krill, is causing concern that this keystone species near the bottom of the food chain should not be overfished. (Reuters)

USTR Schwab urges EU to hasten biotech approvals - WASHINGTON - U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab on Tuesday pledged to watch for proof that the European Union is accelerating approval of new biotech products and ending a delay that has been costly to U.S. exporters.

Schwab declined to specify how long she might be willing to wait before she would ask the World Trade Organization to probe whether the EU is in violation of its ruling that found the 27-member bloc dragged its feet for years in approving new genetically modified food and crops.

"We have been tremendously frustrated at the lack of progress on the biotechnology issue," Schwab, who discussed the issue last week with European officials, told reporters.

"We need to see some progress," she said. (Reuters)

January 29, 2008

Children hungry to lose weight - A diet program to reduce childhood obesity among school children in Scotland was given an interesting name: Hungry for Success. According to NHS Health Scotland, the program has been a “substantial” success ... except it failed to work. (Junkfood Science)

U.S. dietary guides criticized for potential harm - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Some researchers are questioning whether national guidelines advising Americans to eat a low-fat diet have had the unintended consequence of feeding the current obesity epidemic.

The federal government has issued official dietary guidelines every five years since the late 1970s. In 1990, a recommendation was added that people should get less than 30 percent of their daily calories from fat.

In the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York argue that the guidelines — particularly those on fat — may have done more harm than good.

Deadly? Oh boy... In San Francisco, Deadly High Fructose Corn Syrup May Soon be Banned - Following New York’s prohibition of trans fats, San Francisco is pushing its own food ban. This one might cut even closer to the bone of processed food. Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to curtail sugary drinks in the city by making those who sell it pay a significant fee. He's particularly concerned about high fructose corn syrup, which a lot of authorities believe is even worse than old-fashioned sugar.

Oddly enough, high-fructose corn syrup has done so well because it gets a kind of perverse subsidy from the federal government. Some of the great San Francisco fortunes were based on sugar production. Once, American farmers produced sugar beets. Now, sugar—mostly cane sugar—must be imported. However, Americans pay double the world price for sugar because of import quotas and tariffs. Why? To protect corn growers. Corn growers reap enormous government subsidies, most of which go to large agribusiness conglomerates. Consequently, anything made with corn is relatively inexpensive. Were it not for cheap corn due to subsidies, high fructose corn syrup would be expensive to produce. Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland and such other mega food corporations want to continue the corn subsidies as well as the high import tariff on sugar, and Midland “bundles” a lot of political contributions to make sure the status quo continues.

Putting high fructose corn syrup in many foods is only done by manufacturers in the American market. Coca Cola, which contains massive amounts of corn syrup, is a prime example. In other markets, Coke is still real—it contains real sugar. So it isn’t that corn syrup tastes so much better.

“The bottom line is,” said Mayor Newsom, “there is a direct nexus between high-fructose corn syrup drinks like colas and Big Gulps and obesity among school kids.” (Cutting Edge)

EU health chief uses food labels to fight obesity - BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union’s health chief wants to introduce tougher food labeling rules to combat the growing problem of obesity across Europe, but is facing stiff political and industrial opposition.

Moonbat, still wrong: Population growth is a threat. But it pales against the greed of the rich - I cannot avoid the subject any longer. Almost every day I receive a clutch of emails about it, asking the same question. A frightening new report has just pushed it up the political agenda: for the first time the World Food Programme is struggling to find the supplies it needs for emergency famine relief. So why, like most environmentalists, won’t I mention the p-word? According to its most vociferous proponents (Paul and Anne Ehrlich), population is "our number one environmental problem". But most greens will not discuss it.

El Nino at play as source of more intense regional US wintertime storms - The next time you have to raise your umbrella against torrents of cold winter rain, you may have a remote weather phenomenon to thank that many may know by name as El Nino, but may not well understand.

Researchers now believe that some of the most intense winter storm activity over parts of the United States may be set in motion from changes in the surface waters of far-flung parts of the Pacific Ocean. Siegfried Schubert of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and his colleagues studied the impact that El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events have on the most intense U.S. winter storms.

Volcanic eruptions caused Little Ice Age? Baffin Island ice caps shrink by 50 percent since 1950s, says CU-Boulder study - A new University of Colorado at Boulder study has shown that ice caps on the northern plateau of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic have shrunk by more than 50 percent in the last half century as a result of warming, and are expected to disappear by the middle of the century.

Radiocarbon dating of dead plant material emerging from beneath the receding ice margins show the Baffin Island ice caps are now smaller in area than at any time in at least the last 1,600 years, said geological sciences Professor Gifford Miller of CU-Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. "Even with no additional warming, our study indicates these ice caps will be gone in 50 years or less," he said.

The study also showed two distinct bursts of Baffin Island ice-cap growth commencing about 1280 A.D. and 1450 A.D., each coinciding with ice-core records of increases in stratospheric aerosols tied to major tropical volcanic eruptions, Miller said. The unexpected findings "provide tantalizing evidence that the eruptions were the trigger for the Little Ice Age," a period of Northern Hemisphere cooling that lasted from roughly 1250 to 1850, he said.

Inevitably: Groups sue for files on polar bears, lease sale - Conservation groups today sued the federal agency responsible for the upcoming offshore petroleum lease sale in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast, claiming the government has not disclosed documents that could show harmful effects to polar bears and other marine mammals.

The groups said the documents could reveal that the Minerals Management Service's plans for the outer continental shelf sale are ill-advised and possibly illegal.

"Hiding critical documents about the potential harm to polar bears from drilling their habitat is symptomatic of the administration's head-in-the-sand approach to global warming and the melting of the Arctic," said Brendan Cummings, ocean program director of the Center for Biological Diversity. (Associated Press)

More of the harm done by “global warming” hysteria - The Preservation Predicament

Conservation organizations that work to preserve biologically rich landscapes are confronting a painful realization: In an era of climate change, many of their efforts may be insufficient or beside the point.

Some scientists say efforts to re-establish or maintain salmon runs in Pacific Northwest streams will be of limited long-term benefit to the fish if warming makes the streams inhospitable. Others worry about efforts to restore the fresh water flow of the Everglades, given that much of it will be under water as sea level rises. Some geologists say it may be advisable to abandon efforts to preserve some fragile coastal barrier islands and focus instead on allowing coastal marshes to migrate inland, as sea level rises. (Cornelia Dean, New York Times)

All these well-meaning (if misguided) wannabe critter-savers are being discouraged or are misdirecting their efforts because no one has explained the difference between reality and PlayStation® climatology. We do not know and probably never will know what the climate will be in 30 years time. All we really know is that there is an equal chance next year will be either warmer or cooler. We have no evidence of accelerating sea level rise. We have no knowledge of impending disaster or temperature-related catastrophe. What a waste of everyone’s time and effort.

Spencer Part2: More CO2 Peculiarities - The C13/C12 Isotope Ratio - NOTE: This post is the second in the series from Dr. Roy Spencer of the National Space Science and Technology Center at University of Alabama, Huntsville. The first, made last Friday, was called Atmospheric CO2 Increases: Could the Ocean, Rather Than Mankind, Be the Reason?

Due to the high interest and debate his first post has generated, Dr. Spencer asked me to make this second one, and I’m happy to oblige.

Here is part2 of Dr. Spencer’s essay on CO2 without any editing or commentary on my part. (Watts Up With That?)

Will Nuclear and Biotech Save Us From Global Warming? - Nuclear power and genetically engineered rice are set to help rescue the world from global warming. This isn’t really what anti-tech activists had in mind when they launched the campaign against fossil fuels, hoping to restrict our current lifestyles.

'Global warming' is alarmism - Like most liberal organs in this country, the Seattle P-I invariably comes out on the side of global warming being the direct result of irresponsible behavior by people.

Mankind caused the global warming, so mankind must employ draconian measures to fix it. Al Gore told us the science of global warming is settled. So why hasn't the entire scientific community fallen into step?

Can a reputable scientist be a "denier?" If the evidence of man-caused global warming is as overwhelming as the left claims it is, why the lack of rational, intelligent public debate between qualified people of opposing views? Doesn't this make more sense than believers simply brushing off deniers?

Given the chance, wouldn't believers want to publicly articulate their overwhelming scientific evidence and silence the naysayers or "deniers" once and for all?

The reason this hasn't happened is because the science is not settled. Man-caused global warming isn't scientific fact; it's an article of faith for the left -- the stuff of belief. In the realm of global warming, environmentalism has become a faith-based movement not unlike Christianity. (Jim Pedersen, Seattle P-I)

Economists Help Climate Scientists To Improve Global Warming Forecasts

That’s fair enough, "On the one hand it could get warmer, on the other hand it could get cooler" is about as accurate as GCMs are ever likely to predict future climate states in a complex, coupled, non-linear chaotic system. Economists are the perfect role models

Dozey blighters… Media consign global warming to back burner - Climate change may be a top issue in the minds of California voters, but so far it’s played only a cameo role in this year’s presidential race.

The League of Conservation Voters has been tracking the number of questions asked of the presidential candidates on the Sunday news shows and the debates televised by the major networks. Of the more than 2,900 questions asked, only four have mentioned the words "global warming."

"It’s stunning," said David Sandretti, the League of Conservation Voters’ chief spokesman.

But it’s not the candidates’ fault. Many of the top contenders have been promoting their plans to battle climate change on the campaign trail. It’s the leading TV journalists - like NBC’s Tim Russert or ABC’s George Stephanopoulos or CNN’s Wolf Blitzer - who have relegated it to a second-tier issue. (SF Chronicle)

Of course the media have shelved gorebull warming — it’s winter and northern hemisphere snows are above average for this time of year. Global warming alarmism is basically a summer sport, resurrected in winter only in cases of seemingly anomalous warm spells or perhaps the 50% of times snow levels are below a periodic mean. It’ll be back when the weather warms.

Australia's Climate Change Rainfall Non-Crisis - We've been told over and over again how global warming will result in a decrease of rainfall over Australia.

The CSIRO have said that

"Projected reductions in precipitation and increases in evaporation are likely to intensify water security problems in southern and eastern Australia"

"In no regions or season do models suggest a 'likely' increase in rainfall"

"For 2030, best estimates of rainfall change indicate little change in the far north and decreases of 2% to 5% elsewhere"

and "The rainfall decrease in south western Australia since the mid-1970s is likely to be at least partly due to human-induced greenhouse gases"

Notice the language, "likely", "Best estimates" (not average estimates??) and "partially due". In other words, no-one is really sure, and it is clear that no-one has done the appropriate statistical analysis to prove or disprove the argument.

So how did we go in 2007 with rainfall? With decreases predicted Australia wide, lets take a look at the stats. (Gust of Hot Air)

Here we go again: Contaminated floodwater threatens reef - No, the Great Barrier Reef is not at risk from floodwaters (a few shallow water, inner shoals within the lagoon tend to get smothered by silt every time we get good rains, have been doing so for millennia but will wash clear again soon). The GBR is a huge complex, covers many, many degrees of water temperatures, depths, salinity, clarity etc., not to mention some 25° latitude south from the equator and actually requires these floods every few years for nutrient flows. There is zero risk here which even the few amateurs who make up the fancifully named “Queensland Conservation Council” should be able to find out. Lord only knows why the AAP found it necessary to regurgitate this pap.

CLIMATE CHANGE RE-EXAMINED - AGW DISPROVED - Claimed human-caused warming of the Earth to dangerous and unprecedented levels by human-related emissions of carbon dioxide is contradicted by a non-correlation of CO2 levels with warming. (Climate Science NZ)

Still running the carbon dioxide=pollution nonsense - World’s Big Polluters Meet in Hawaii Over Climate

WASHINGTON - The world’s biggest greenhouse gas-polluting countries are sending delegates to Hawaii this week for a US-hosted meeting aimed at curbing climate change without stalling economic growth.

The two-day gathering, which starts on Wednesday in Honolulu, is meant to spur UN negotiations for an international climate agreement by 2009, so a pact will be ready when the current carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

No need to sell Alberta's climate plan, Stelmach suggests - VANCOUVER — Embattled Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach walked into a potentially charged meeting of the premiers Monday morning suggesting he does not need to sell his colleagues on Alberta's plan to tackle global warming.

Mr. Stelmach is under pressure from business leaders and environmental groups over a climate change plan released last week that leaves him at odds with the federal government and the other provinces. Critics say the plan will undo progress made in other provinces to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“It's a real plan for a real problem,” a defiant Mr. Stelmach told reporters going into the meeting, held in a downtown Vancouver hotel conference room overlooking the city's scenic mountains. “Albertans are buying it.”

Later Monday Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty warned the Harper government that Canada risks losing its pre-eminence as North America's No. 1 auto maker without federal funding.

Mr. McGuinty said the federal government is under new pressure to inject financial assistance into Ontario's auto sector in the wake of aid programs worth billions of dollars provided by the Bush administration south of the border.

Mr. McGuinty said Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has asked Washington for $5-billion (U.S.) in funding to help auto makers in her state develop more environmentally friendly vehicles. The funding would come from $25-billion that the Bush administration has earmarked for climate change. (Globe and Mail)

Bordeaux to measure wine's CO2 footprint - BORDEAUX, France — The Bordeaux region, one of France's premier wine growing regions, is launching an ambitious project to measure the industry's greenhouse gas emissions to bolster its environmental standards.

The Bordeaux Wine Board (Conseil Interprofessionel des Vins de Bordeaux or CIVB) said it wanted to find out just how much carbon dioxide, one of the main culprits in global warming, it generated.

"We know we produce 756 million bottles of wine per year and that 40 percent of that is exported," said Laurent Charlier of the CIVB, who will be working with environmental consultant Jean Marc Jancovici on the project.

"This study should give a clear idea of what different methods of production or shipment mean, in terms of environmental cost," he said. (AFP)

Europe Climate Targets Strong Signal to Others - UN - DAVOS, Switzerland - New European targets for cutting emissions of greenhouse gases are a strong signal to other countries to reduce their carbon output, the UN environment chief said on Friday. The European Commission’s plan to cut emissions unilaterally by 20 percent by 2020, announced this week, is "quite far-reaching," Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme, said at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

"I think the signal value of the European decision cannot be underestimated for other parts of the world," Steiner told Reuters.

Um… signaling what, exactly? That European bureaucrats are stupid and should not be emulated under any circumstance?

Warning against greenhouse targets - THE economist advising the government on climate change has warned against locking in to strict interim greenhouse-gas reduction targets.

Professor Ross Garnaut is examining the economic costs of tackling climate change and is due to deliver his report to the federal Government in the second half of this year.

At December’s international climate talks in Bali, the Rudd government refused to commit Australia to interim emissions-reduction targets until the Garnaut review was complete.

Professor Garnaut said it was more important to achieve an overall greenhouse-gas reduction target longer-term - for example over 40 years - than to meet short-term targets in particular years.

Instead, the market should decide how quickly to cut emissions, he said. (AAP)

Global Warming Prompts Some Lifestyle Changes - LONDON - Britons are starting to change their lifestyles in response to global warming, but few are making the tough choices and in many cases the motivation is fear of punishment, according to a new survey. (Reuters)

Lifestyle changes huh? They mean changes something like this?

Carbon import tax could provoke trade war - Plans to force importers to pay the same greenhouse gas emission charges as domestic producers could provoke a trade war of retaliation and litigation, officials and lawyers have warned.

The plans, being considered by the US Senate and floated by the European Commission, are intended to prevent production shifting to laxer regimes abroad after countries impose carbon controls. But although supporters argue they will comply with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt), the treaty that underlies the World Trade Organisation, officials and lawyers say that affected countries such as China and India are likely to resort to litigation or retaliation. (Financial Times)

Auto Companies Press States on Calif. Emissions - WASHINGTON - Automakers and their allies have stepped up lobbying to convince states that a proposal by California to cut tailpipe emissions sharply to fight global warming could further depress the struggling US industry.

US automakers, sandwiched between sliding sales and a softening economy on one side and a new mandate on the other, are scrambling to respond with more efficient engines and research on alternative fuels. The impact of December’s energy law alone at GM is US$6,000 per vehicle, the company estimates.

EU Industry Unites to Promote Energy-Saving Lamps - BRUSSELS - Europe’s lamp and electricity producers joined forces with the retail sector on Monday to encourage consumers to buy more energy-efficient light bulbs and help the European Union in its fight against climate change.

Germany eases GM crops, angering Greens, Monsanto - Germany - Germany passed legislation making it easier for farmers to sow genetically altered corn, angering green lobbies and consumer groups while earning a rebuke from Monsanto Co., the world's largest seed producer, for not going far enough.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition steered legislation through parliament in Berlin today outlining new rules on sowing a pest-resistant corn seed known as MON180, whose patent is held by Monsanto. Lawmakers also framed a voluntary code on labeling food that's free of genetically altered substances. (Exchange Morning Post)

January 28, 2008

What's Cholesterol Got to Do With It? - THE idea that cholesterol plays a key role in heart disease is so tightly woven into modern medical thinking that it is no longer considered open to question. This is the message that emerged all too clearly from the recent news that the drug Vytorin had fared no better in clinical trials than the statin therapy it was meant to supplant.

The cholesterol myth has raised its ugly head again so perhaps it’s time to re-feature this review

Big fat lie - As you pound the treadmill in the gym, trying to sweat off the Christmas pudding and wind back the dial on the bathroom scales, consider this: what if someone told you it was all in vain? What if no amount of exercise will make you thinner, and everything we’ve been led to believe about exercise, diet and obesity is wrong?  

This intriguing possibility has been raised by Gary Taubes, America’s most controversial science writer and the author of a book called The Diet Delusion: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Loss and Disease. The book, out this month, tackles what Taubes says are the myths surrounding these issues. Taubes, 51, believes that, since the obesity epidemic began, back in the late 1970s, scientists have been working with faulty - or at the very least too little - data. After conducting his own research for 13 years he has some shocking conclusions: exercise won’t make us thin; carbohydrates are what cause obesity; eating fat doesn’t cause heart disease.

National medical welfare - This story needs no introduction, but does deserve thoughtful consideration. (Junkfood Science)

Reading for thought  - Inspired by George Santayana

What happens when a nation embraces the idea that people bring health problems on themselves through undesirable behaviors, that the common good is greater than that of the individual, and that government determines what is best for all? When government health and medical policies are based on the inherent worth of individuals, can those who are seen as more costly or less productive be cast aside? Mark P. Mostert, Ph.D., of Regent University, examined the history of medical and healthcare policies in Germany during the early 1900s, in an article for the Journal of Special Education: (Junkfood Science)

Isn’t all this talk of an apocalypse getting a bit boring? - THIS year is the 40th anniversary of Paul Ehrlich’s influential The Population Bomb, a book that predicted an apocalyptic overpopulation crisis in the 1970s and ’80s.

Ehrlich’s book provides a lesson we still haven’t learnt. His prophecy that the starvation of millions of people in the developed world was imminent was spectacularly wrong — humanity survived without any of the forced sterilisation that Ehrlich believed was necessary.

It’s easy to predict environmental collapse, but it never actually seems to happen.

I am an intellectual blasphemer - When Alexander Cockburn, author of the forthcoming book A Short History of Fear, dared to question the climate change consensus, he was punished by a tsunami of self-righteous fury. It is time for a free and open ‘battle of ideas’, he says.

Warming Trend: PDO And Solar Correlate Better Than CO2 - Note: This is my analysis of a new paper by Joe D’Aleo, I’ve tried to simplify and explain certain terms where possible so that  it can reach the broadest audience of readers. You can read the entire paper here. Analysis by Anthony Watts, Watts Up With That?

Modeling the impact of historical land cover change on Australia’s regional climate - There is a very important new paper that highlights the role of land surface processes, including its human management, as an integral component of climate variability and change. The paper is McAlpine C. A., J. Syktus, R. C. Deo, P. J. Lawrence, H. A. McGowan, I. G. Watterson, S. R. Phinn (2007), Modeling the impact of historical land cover change on Australia’s regional climate, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L22711, doi:10.1029/2007GL031524. (Climate Science)

Physicist questions climate change finding - No evidence in Canadian skies to back U.S. theory of jet condensation trails, York U. professor says

NEW ORLEANS–A York University professor has ignited a controversy by challenging a supposed prime example of man-made climate change – that jet condensation trails, know as contrails, act like clouds, cooling the Earth during the day and keeping it warmer at night.

Physicist William van Wijngaarden says he found no evidence to support this climate effect in Canadian temperature records for the contrail-free days immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

That contrasts with a 2002 study by U.S. researchers that concluded the temperature spread between day and night over the lower 48 states increased by 1.5C over long-term averages between Sept. 11 and 14 in 2001, when commercial air flights were mostly grounded over North America.

Double Whammy Friday: Roy Spencer on how Oceans are Driving CO2 - NOTE: Earlier today I posted a paper from Joe D’Aleo on how he has found strong correlations between the oceans multidecadal oscillations, PDO and AMO, and surface temperature, followed by finding no strong correlation between CO2 and surface temperatures. See that article here: Warming Trend: PDO And Solar Correlate Better Than CO2

Now within hours of that, Roy Spencer of the National Space Science and Technology Center at University of Alabama, Huntsville, sends me and others this paper where he postulates that the ocean may be the main driver of CO2.

In the flurry of emails that followed, Joe D’Aleo provided this graph of CO2 variations correlated by El Nino/La Nina /Volcanic event years which is relevant to the discussion. Additionally for my laymen readers, a graph of CO2 solubility in water versus temperature is also relevant and both are shown below:

   
Click for full size images

Additionally, I’d like to point out that former California State Climatologist Jim Goodridge posted a short essay on this blog, Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Variation, that postulated something similar.

So without any editing or commentary, here is Roy Spencer’s essay: (Watts Up with That?)

Comment By Chris Colose On Water Vapor Feedback - There is a posting on the weblog Climate Change An Analysis of Key Questions entitled “How not to discuss the Water Vapor feedback” by Chris Colose with respect to the Climate Science set of weblogs on the subject Climate Metric Reality Check #3 - Evidence For A Lack Of Water Vapor Feedback On The Regional Scale. Chris Colose has the following issues with the Climate Science weblog: (Climate Science)

How not to measure temperature, part 49. Alaska’s COOP Stations - Earlier I wrote up an essay on the NOAA climate station at Cordova, AK. This station was directly next to the village diesel power plant. That station also happens to be part of the NASA GISS surface temperature record used for climate research. The problem is the proximity to nearby human caused heat sources, which may not be accurately adjusted for in the record. Of course the real issue is that if the stations were properly setup and maintained by NOAA, paying attention to their own 100 foot rule, such potential bias would not be an issue. Today I’d like to show you a few other NOAA climate stations in Alaska. (Watts Up With That?)

NEW Presentation - 17th Jan on the occasion of Piers Corbyn being awarded the AMEME Hopley Lecture Shieild. - Piers Corbyn was awarded the AMEME Hopley Lecture Shield for his Presentation on 17th Jan.

This prestigious annual award was started by what was then the Association of Mining Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in 1975.

This presentation better than previous explains the lack of role of CO2 - slide 9, 23 and others; points about what drives Climate Change Policy including oil companies - slide 36; and ‘What to do’ - slide 37.

The Polar Bear Express - Global warming is becoming a new unified field theory for environmentalists, a crisis so urgent and profound that it even justifies leaping the democratic process. Consider the political campaign to prod the Bush Administration to list the polar bear as an endangered species -- even though many proponents admit it isn't endangered at all.

This game began with a 2005 lawsuit against the Interior Department from pressure groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council. Their demand was that the polar bear be designated as "threatened" -- that is, at risk for extinction in the foreseeable future -- under the 1973 Endangered Species Act.

No one disputes that higher temperatures in the bear's Arctic habitat have disrupted the sea ice that bears use to catch food and breed. The problem is that polar bear populations have been rising over the last four decades, and may now be at an historic high. This is the result of conservation management, including international agreements on trophy hunting and federal safeguards like the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The warmists say current numbers count for little because climate-change models anticipate even more Arctic melting. These projections are speculative, however, and tend to underestimate the dynamism of the environment. Animals adapt to changing conditions, which might mean a shift in population patterns to areas where pack ice is more robust year-round. And the reduction in ice cover may be the result of cyclical wind circulation patterns and natural variability, not exclusively warming trends.

The scientific questions are complex -- and that ought to rule out premature, simplistic answers. Naturally, it's having the opposite effect, which suggests that this is really about the politics of global warming. The more honest activists basically concede that a listing is a P.R. ploy to "raise awareness," or achieve other ends, or something. (Wall Street Journal)

Political science: Lacking studies, state still disputes polar bear ‘doom’ - The answer is really simple: the bears are threatened by PlayStation® climatology, so turn off the PlayStation®s and the bears will be fine. The darn things certainly survived the Holocene Climatic Optimum, when Arctic regions are thought to have been 3-9 °C warmer in summer and a recent fossil find suggests they successfully survived the warmer Eemian interglacial period, too.

Oh… fighting the phantom menace: The Bush Plan for Climate Change - The “Bali Roadmap” is a major achievement. It was adopted by all parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to guide negotiation of a new, post-2012 climate-change arrangement by 2009. The U.S. is committed to working with other nations to agree on a global outcome that is environmentally effective and economically sustainable. That is the only kind of agreement that can win public support.

To be environmentally effective, a new approach must involve measurable actions by the world’s largest producers of greenhouse-gas emissions. Without substantial participation by developing economies, greenhouse-gas emissions will continue to rise rapidly over the next 50 years even if the U.S. and other developed economies cut emissions to zero.

Meanwhile: Big business says addressing climate change ‘rates very low on agenda’ - Poll of 500 major firms reveals that only one in 10 regard global warming as a priority

Nearly nine in 10 of them do not rate it as a priority, says the study, which canvassed more than 500 big businesses in Britain, the US, Germany, Japan, India and China. Nearly twice as many see climate change as imposing costs on their business as those who believe it presents an opportunity to make money. And the report’s publishers believe that big business will concentrate even less on climate change as the world economy deteriorates.

Not the time to be sandbagging the US economy or energy supply: - Move over US — China to be new driver of world’s economy and innovation

A new study of worldwide technological competitiveness suggests China may soon rival the United States as the principal driver of the world’s economy – a position the U.S. has held since the end of World War II. If that happens, it will mark the first time in nearly a century that two nations have competed for leadership as equals.

Sheldon Richman: Most presidential seekers want energy socialism - One of the great unnoticed curiosities of the presidential campaign is that even the party that claims devotion to free enterprise is full-out socialist — or, more precisely, fascist — when it comes to energy policy. Listening to the presidential forum the other night, I was struck by how anti-free market all but one of the Republican candidates, Ron Paul, are on this matter.

Of course, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson, who has since dropped out of the race, pay lip service to the free market on many issues. However, when it comes to energy, they don’t do even that.

Soon we’ll all know the price of CO2 - You might think twice before switching on the lights. Brussels has finally agreed reforms to Europe’s energy markets that should weaken our addiction to fossil fuels and at the same time lighten our wallets.

EU plans to see our economy blown away - It was appropriate that, just as our MPs were voting last week to hand over yet more of the power to run this country in the EU treaty, the EU itself should be unveiling easily the most ambitious example yet of how it uses the powers we have already given away. The proposals for "fighting climate change" announced on Wednesday by an array of EU commissioners make Stalin's Five-Year Plans look like a model of practical politics.

Few might guess, from the two-dimensional reporting of these plans in the media, just what a gamble with Europe's future we are undertaking - spending trillions of pounds for a highly dubious return, at a devastating cost to all our economies.

The targets Britain will be legally committed to reach within 12 years fall under three main headings. Firstly, that 15 per cent of our energy should come from renewable sources such as wind (currently 1 per cent). Secondly, that 10 per cent of our transport fuel should be biofuels. Thirdly, that we accept a more draconian version of the "emissions trading scheme" that is already adding up to 12 per cent to our electricity bills. (Christopher Booker's Notebook, London Telegraph)

Shell games… - After lobbying for carbon caps and trading, from which many of the rent-seekers expected windfall profits from free emission allocations (for which we would all have to pay as consumers) we now see a new strategy emerging (something to do with finding they’ll have to pay, perhaps?). Now we have the RDS chief executive beginning to pave the way for much greater emission of carbon dioxide by waving the ‘peak oil’ banner.

Iconic Lewis Saved From Wind Farm? - “Fàilte. Ciamar a tha sibh?” I bring you hot news from one of the biggest Green punch ups in the world, currently taking place on the beautiful Isle of Lewis (Eilean Leòdhais) in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.

This lonely land of peat and Presbyterians has been the scene of an epic battle between those desperate to conserve the traditional landscapes and wildlife of the island and those wishing to to erect 176 colossal wind turbines.

Now, as The Scotsman reports (‘March of the wind farm in doubt on a divided island’, January 26), yesterday:

“... the ‘naes’ could scent victory in the air when the Scottish Government wrote to the developer, Ameco, saying it was ‘minded to refuse’ planning permission. However, ministers gave the company 21 days to address the concerns listed in a 14-page letter.

The fate of the Lewis wind farm is far from just a barrage of hot air among island folk. It goes to the heart of Scotland’s attempt to generate 50 per cent of its electricity using renewables, such as hydro, wave or wind power, by 2020.” (Global Warming Politics)

Blaming carbon on planes ‘is flight of fancy’ - Which is worse for the environment – cars or aircraft? If your answer was aircraft, then you are among a growing crowd of aerophobes egged on by anti-aviation campaigners.

Minnesota: Panel approves proposal on global warming - Emissions to be curbed at least 30% by 2025 - Minnesota would cut greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide at least 30 percent by 2025 under a mixture of strategies that received final approval Thursday from a governor's advisory panel.

If enacted, the approaches would enable the state to meet the first set of emissions reduction goals it established last year to help blunt the effects of global warming. They would set the stage for even more dramatic cuts by 2050.

"Some of these actions are not easy to do,'' said David Thornton, assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and co-coordinator of the Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Group. "But these goals are attainable.''

The strategies cover a wide range: Greater energy efficiencies would be sought, future power plants would meet prescribed emissions standards, a third of the gasoline consumed here would come from biofuels such as ethanol, Minnesota would adopt California's tough vehicle-emissions standards and the state would participate in a regional system of capping emissions and then trading pollution credits.

But one tactic, cutting speed limits on some state roads, likely won't be forwarded to Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the 2008 Legislature, according to Edward Garvey, the other co-coordinator and director of the Minnesota Office of Energy Security. He said Pawlenty, who appointed the panel, doesn't like that idea. (Pioneer Press)

Road humps slow the traffic but speed up death of planet - They damage cars and give drivers a nasty jolt, but now speed bumps have been found guilty of an even worse crime — they are helping to destroy the planet.

The traffic-calming measures double the carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption by forcing drivers to brake and accelerate repeatedly, according to a study commissioned by the AA. A car that achieves 58.15 miles per gallon travelling at a steady 30mph will deliver only 30.85mpg when going over humps.

The AA employed an independent engineer who used a fuel flow meter to test the consumption of a small and a medium-sized car at Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire.

The results, calculated by averaging the performances of the two cars, also showed that reducing the speed limit from 30mph to 20mph resulted in 10 per cent higher emissions. This is because car engines are designed to be most efficient at speeds above 30mph.

A motorist who observed the speed limit on one mile of 20mph road during a daily journey would produce an extra tonne of CO2 in a year compared with driving at 30mph on the same stretch. (The Times)

To bio or not to bio - are ‘green’ fuels really good for the earth? - From the top of the Greenergy refinery in Immingham you can see across the Humber estuary to Hull. A hum of equipment fills the air, along with a curious smell. Popcorn.

Greenergy processes vegetable oil. It takes the gloopy juice squeezed from inside rape seeds harvested on surrounding Lincolnshire fields, strips out the waste and chemically tweaks the leftovers to make it easier to burn. Greenergy pipes almost 100,000 tonnes a year of its veggie option to ConocoPhillips and Texaco, just across the road, which mix it with their diesel fuel.

Until recently, the operation was viewed as a good thing. Because the oilseed rape plants absorb carbon dioxide, the company says the carbon emissions of the mixed fuel are lower, which helps the fight against global warming. And because oil companies that supply the blend pay less tax, everybody wins. Greenergy is expanding and similar facilities are going up elsewhere.

Should There be a Ban on Incandescent Lamps? - PLEASE NOTE: My apologies for the length of this article, but this has turned into something of a horror story. Only a short while ago, I thought that the power factor issue was most important, then that a vast number of enclosed light fittings (probably hundreds of millions worldwide) cannot be used with CFLs was critical. Now, it turns out that dimmers are a far bigger issue that first imagined. What happens in houses where dimmers are fitted? These must be removed completely, not simply set to maximum and left there. Who’s going to pay to have millions of dimmers worldwide removed by electricians? You, the homeowner - that’s who.

Can airlines find a cleaner way to fly? - Planes may account for only 2 per cent of the world's carbon emissions, but it is a figure destined to rise. The aviation industry is expanding at a dramatic rate, around 5 per cent a year. Twice as many passengers are likely to be passing through British airports in 2020 compared with today, and three times by 2030.

As the developed world acknowledges climate change warnings, the carbon emissions from industry will fall. The aviation industry's output will therefore account for an even larger percentage of emissions. One calculation, by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, suggests the UK aviation industry could end up accounting for every gram of our carbon quota by 2040. (The Observer)

Can Darwin’s Lab Survive Success? - FOR anyone touring the Galápagos Islands, it is hard to imagine the globe’s first World Heritage Site is at risk. The marine reserve is populated with sea turtles and humpback whales, and the national park’s trails are inhabited by herons and albatrosses.

Yet last June, Unesco added the archipelago to its “in danger list,” specifically citing the fragile ecosystem and the negative effects of a sizable growth in tourism. The number of visitors to the Galápagos rose more than 250 percent to 145,000 in 2006 from 40,000 in 1990, while the number of commercial flights to the area has increased 193 percent from 2001 to 2006.

“Unless we start to make fundamental changes right now, in the next 10 to 15 years we will see the Galápagos suffer from both economic and environmental degradation,” said Dr. Graham Watkins, executive director of the Charles Darwin Foundation, whose mission is to conserve the Galápagos through scientific research. “What we have here is an unsustainable model of development,” he added in a telephone interview from his office in Ecuador.

FEATURE-Antarctica on alert for alien invaders - TROLL STATION, Antarctica, Jan 28 - Aliens are landing in Antarctica.

Seeds, spores, mites, lichens and mosses alien to the continent have been brought unwittingly by scientists and tourists, and could disrupt life in the icy wilderness.

Antarctica is best known for penguins as well as seals and whales, but scientists are finding a host of other tiny organisms from springtails -- closely related to insects -- to mosses.

And they fear global warming may create conditions suitable for outside marauders such as rats or mice in Antarctica, where the biggest land creature is now a tiny flightless midge.

Among plants a type of European grass -- agrostis stolonifera -- may be among threats if the icy climate thaws.

"It's a species that gets everywhere, it's already on most of the Antarctic islands," said Dana Bergstrom of the Australian Antarctic Division, who leads an international research project entitled "Aliens in Antarctica".

"It would just create lawns," she said.

Invasive species have long disrupted life on earth, from rabbits brought to Australia by European settlers to zebra mussels from Russia clogging pipes and piers in North America's Great Lakes, and now Antarctica is a target.

"Antarctica is the last bastion of a pristine environment compared to the rest of the world," Bergstom said in a telephone interview.

"It has been isolated by the southern ocean -- people are starting to break that barrier," she said. New species are getting in partly because visitors' clothes often contain seeds, spores or insect eggs. (Reuters)

Thousands of birds swoop down on St. Catharines - Thousands of birds have swooped down on a St. Catharines apartment complex and global warming could be the reason why.

About 100,000 starlings fly into the area each night at sundown. It's believed they have settled in the area rather than fly south because of the mild winter weather.

Mild temperatures are just part of the reason. Bird watchers agree the area's large selection of evergreen trees provide a perfect nightly nesting ground. Others say an abundance of vineyards in the area harvesting ice wine grapes is also a reason for the birds to stay. (toronto.ctv.ca)

Another one who doesn’t realize people evolved as omnivores… - A SEA change in the consumption of a resource that Americans take for granted may be in store — something cheap, plentiful, widely enjoyed and a part of daily life. And it isn’t oil.

It’s meat.

Festival film takes on water profiteers - Documentary film "Flow," premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this week, condemns water profiteering, calling for a UN resolution to make access to clean drinking water a human right.

The film by French-born director Irena Salina blasts Paris-based Suez and Vivendi Environment for commercializing water systems around the world, as well as Nestle, the world's largest bottled water seller, for draining watersheds.

Even the World Bank gets knocked in the film for funding massive water diversion projects that have displaced 80 million people, instead of smaller, cheaper and more eco-friendly community projects to bring fresh drinking water to the poor.

"It's a very dangerous trend, at a time when clean drinking water is becoming scarce, even in the United States, the richest country in the world," said Salina in an interview with AFP. "We can't let companies continue to pollute our water. We need strong regulations to stop that, and also to stop them from draining our watersheds for profit," she said.

Along with a collective of activists, she is calling for a binding international treaty to protect the human right to water, as well as tougher local laws to prevent contamination of watersheds and water profiteering.

"It should not be possible to be running out of water," Maude Barlow, a Canadian activist and author of a book on the water crisis, "Blue Covenant," told AFP.

Transgenic rice seeds still await go-ahead - China strictly supervises its transgenic rice research and production, and no such seed has been approved for the market, according to agriculture officials.

"Scientists are still conducting research on transgenic rice," Yang Xiongnian, deputy director of the science, technology and education division under the Ministry of Agriculture, said on Friday.

"We are at the last stage of safety evaluation." (China Daily)

Monsanto is shifting its focus from corn to new biotech soybeans - A shift is becoming visible in the research labs and executive suites of crop giant Monsanto Co.

After years of focusing on corn, the Creve Coeur-based company is developing new biotech soybeans. Monsanto's leaders also are thinking as much about demand from China's growing middle class and from heath-conscious Americans as they are about feeding biofuel facilities.

The company's soaring earnings and share price last year largely were attributed to growing ethanol use, but other factors are coming into play.

"Agriculture is in new territory," Hugh Grant, Monsanto's president, chairman and chief executive, said in a recent interview.

"I'm not belittling biofuels, but I think there's a tremendous opportunity behind it," Grant said. "There's a larger global factor that's being masked, in some ways, by biofuels — and that's the demand curve coming out of Asia."

Scott Rozelle, an agriculture economist and China expert who teaches at Stanford University and the University of California-Davis, said both factors are fueling unprecedented global demand for soybeans, corn and other grain. (St Louis Post-Dispatch)

January 25, 2008

Capturing Carbon Pipe Dreams - If you enjoy the benefits of affordable and readily available electricity, a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) may spur you to press your elected representatives for a reassessment of climate alarmism. (Steven Milloy, FoxNews.com)

They said it... GE Can’t Block Shareholder Vote On Climate-Change Costs - GE spokesman Peter O’Toole said GE shareholders have resoundingly rejected the climate-change proposal in prior years, showing that they don’t think it is in their interest. He said a global-warming report would provide minuscule, if any, value to shareowners, so GE requested it be rejected to allow shareowners to focus on issues of genuine importance.”

So, “global warming actions” are not an issue of genuine importance… Now you know.

Brussels' CO2 permits expected to cost Drax its independence - Drax, operator of Europe's biggest coal-fired power plant, is facing a crippling increase in operating costs after the European Union decided yesterday to begin auctioning carbon emission permits rather than giving them away, analysts said.

"In terms of the losers from this, Drax is top of the list by a long way," said an analyst who follows several UK power companies. He said an expected rise in the cost of carbon allowances, as envisaged by the EU's climate change draft directives unveiled yesterday, will force the UK's biggest polluter to drastically reduce its generation activity and that it ultimately will be picked off by a larger rival better suited to operate within a new energy order. "Eventually, [Drax] will only be able to operate about 40 per cent of the time. Over the longer term, they won't be able to survive as an independent entity. They will probably be bought by a large, integrated power company," he added. (London Independent)

Alberta sets bar low in climate change plan - EDMONTON - The Alberta government set new provincial goals Thursday for greenhouse gas reductions that are less stringent than Canada's obligations under the Kyoto Protocol or even the current federal government's lesser targets.

Under a plan Premier Ed Stelmach's government described as a responsible one for a growing and oil-rich province, Alberta's overall climate-changing emissions by 2050 would be 14% below 2005 levels.

"This approach reflects the realities of Alberta's strong energy-based economy and is an important step in managing and reducing emissions while, at the same time, not compromising the viability and strength of our economy," says the blueprint, released this morning.

Most of the predicted drop would come through carbon-capture technology, which strips greenhouse gases from industrial smokestacks and pumps them underground. (Jason Markusoff, Canwest News Service)

A Serious Problem With The Use Of A Global Average Surface Temperature Anomaly To Diagnose Global Warming - Part I - We recently published our paper Pielke Sr., R.A., C. Davey, D. Niyogi, S. Fall, J. Steinweg-Woods, K. Hubbard, X. Lin, M. Cai, Y.-K. Lim, H. Li, J. Nielsen-Gammon, K. Gallo, R. Hale, R. Mahmood, S. Foster, R.T. McNider, and P. Blanken, 2007: Unresolved issues with the assessment of multi-decadal global land surface temperature trends. J. Geophys. Res., 112, D24S08, doi:10.1029/2006JD008229.

This paper raises serious issues with respect to the use of observed land surface air temperatures to diagnose multi-decadal global temperature trends and to report regional and local temperature anomalies and extremes. A major key finding from our study is that the magnitude of global warming is significantly overstated using surface air temperature as a metric. (Climate Science)

Reanalysis of the Climate Factors with USHCN Version 2 - A while ago, we presented correlations of US annual mean temperatures with carbon dioxide, solar irradiance, and ocean multidecadal cycles. We found the best correlations with the ocean cycles and irradiance and weakest with carbon dioxide, especially in the last decade.

NCDC has released its new climate data set Version 2 of USHCN in which it has replaced some of the prior adjustments (like Karl’s 1988 based urban adjustment) with an adjustment using an algorithm that is designed to find known and previously undocumented inhomogenteities (i.e. station moves, land use changes, etc.). The differences between the two data sets is relatively small but the pattern is hard to understand from a purely scientific basis. (Joseph D’Aleo, CCM)

Huh? Lofty Himalaya Magnify Global Warming Impact - DAVOS, Switzerland - The Himalayas are suffering the effects of global warming more acutely because of their height and melting glaciers could flood local settlements, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) said on Thursday.

"The Himalaya, that's really moving very fast. They're being hit very hard," IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lefevre told Reuters at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. (Reuters)

try this: Tibet’s Temperature Story - Hardly a week goes by without some story hitting the news about global warming and retreating glaciers, and for whatever reason, retreating glaciers in the Himalayan region get more than their fair share of coverage. The recent death of Sir Edmund Hillary served to further focus attention on this part of the world. (WCR)

Al’s off in the ozone again - The former US vice-president took to the stage at Davos to claim that the North Pole ice cap could disappear in five years.

Climate change and hurricanes stir debate among weather experts at meeting in New Orleans - NEW ORLEANS – A lively and sometimes scrappy debate on whether global warming is fueling bigger and nastier hurricanes like Katrina is adding an edge to a gathering of forecasters here.

The venue for the 88th annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society could not have been more conducive to the discussion: The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is where thousands of people waited for days during the storm to be evacuated from a city drowning in water and misery.

Although weather experts generally agree that the planet is warming, they hardly express consensus on what that may mean for future hurricanes. Debate has simmered in hallway chats and panel discussions.

A study released Wednesday by government scientists was the latest point of contention.

The study by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Miami Lab and the University of Miami postulated that global warming may actually decrease the number of hurricanes that strike the United States. Warming waters may increase vertical wind speed, or wind shear, cutting into a hurricane's strength.

The study focused on observations rather than computer models, which often form the backbone of global warming studies, and on the records of hurricanes over the past century, researchers said. (AP)

Revkin’s playing the ‘consensus statement’ line again - The bottom line is that this is not a binary state machine, there is a diversity of views and infinitely nuanced perceptions. If your organization has made sweeping statements and/or issued declarations of position with which you are not comfortable then this is a good time to say so and a great opportunity to set Andy straight. Why not click on over there and have your say? Go ahead, we’ll still be here when you get back.

Comment on Andy Revkin’s New York Times Weblog “Dot Earth” - Andy Revkin has started a dialog on the policy statements of professional organizations with respect to the role of humans within the climate system on his weblog Dot Earth.

Please enter this discussion if you are a credentialed climate scientist. My comment that I have submitted is

”Andy - Thank you for bring this issue up. There is actually considerable diversity of views on the role of humans within the climate system. The AGU (and AMS) policy statements are actually written by just a few individuals. While this captures their views, it is incorrect and inaccurate to present these policy statements as a consensus of these professional organizations. These policy statements certainly do not represent my views on this issue.

Readers of your weblog should also visit my Climate Science weblog [ http://climatesci.org/ ], where other viewpoints are presented, including that of a 2005 National Research Council report entitled Radiative forcing of climate change: Expanding the concept and addressing uncertainties [ http://www.nap.edu/openbook/0309095069/html/ ].”

I also urge you, for completeness, to post the policy statement of the AGU Natural Hazards Committee. (Climate Science)

Advocacy Out of Control in the Organizations and Media - As Andrew Revkin noted on the dot.earth blog today, the American Geophysical Union, the world’s largest organization representing earth and space scientists, put out a fresh statement on the causes and consequences of recent climate change and possible responses. In the last few years, the Royal Society, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the American Meteorological Society (AMS) have also issued statements endorsing the so-called “consensus” view that man is driving global warming. What you don’t hear is that these societies never allowed member scientists to vote on these climate statements. Essentially, only two dozen or so members on ad hoc committees and governing boards of these institutions produced the “consensus” statements. (Joseph D’Aleo, CCM)

Updated: Carbon Heat Trapping: Merely A Bit Player in Global Warming

Editor's note: this paper has been edited and resubmitted with typos fixed. Anyone wishing to review or simply check the calculations please be sure to use the version linked above.

Besides my estimates of global temperature changes due to CO2 increases in this paper, I think my separate idea in the paper of a way to measure heat flux being radiated down from the atmosphere could be important. Recently I saw a paper by Richard Lindzen of MIT that showed that the upper atmosphere temperature gradients did not come close to what the models predict they should be. I believe these are the same models that predict the global warming due to more CO2.

The idea in my paper could do a similar thing by looking at the atmosphere from the other side, from the bottom up. It has the advantage that many people could do it since inexpensive equipment is all that is needed. The main part missing is the internal estimations that the IPCC models estimate for the amount of heat flux in watts per sq. meter that is being radiated down. This will vary with seasons and latitude, but they should be able to produce it. Is not that the principal way greenhouse gases raise the climate temperature?

(I have seen some atmospheric heat flow diagrams that had the back radiation coming down from the atmosphere much higher than possible as can be shown by a simple measurement.)

I think the IPCC should explain in one place how they end up with their estimates for a normal technical person to understand. All I can find is a lot of jargon and insider special terms, references to several of levels down of previous work, and then jumping to curves showing radiative forcing in watts/m^2. We are paying enough tax dollars for this work for it to be explained and justified. For example, when doing estimating heating due to more CO2, do they assume all other gases including water vapor are fixed at today's levels, and then change the amount CO2 and then look at the resulting change. That is the way I do it, plus allowing some positive feedback. This way means the extra CO2 only can operate on what is not already being captured by the pre-change gases including that of the CO2. It is like putting the new CO2 "at the end of the line" so to speak, which makes sense to me. I would not be surprised to find out that IPCC has some sharing method which puts the new CO2 "at the head of the line or scattered through out." (RJ Petschauer, pers comm.)

Climate change to cost 5% global GDP by 2030 - The descriptions are becoming more accurate, at least: “World renowned Indian environmentalist, R K Pachauri” -- coincidentally IPCC chair.

Heat put on Stern report - A PRODUCTIVITY Commission paper has criticised the influential Stern review on global warming for making value-laden assumptions that inflated estimates of the economic costs of warming.

The internal staff working paper, released as Australia prepares its own version of the Stern review, called the original British review's conclusions "as much an exercise in advocacy as it is an economic analysis of climate change".

It acknowledged Nicholas Stern's contribution to the field, but said it was impossible to say whether some assumptions were "definitively right or wrong".

The former World Bank chief economist's review had "erred" in not making key value judgments explicit, or testing different parameters in his modelling, the paper said.

The commission paper, originally prepared for internal use in response to the Stern review's October 2006 release, was published yesterday. (The Australian)

More nonsense founded in PlayStation® climatology: Climate change affecting health - Climate change is putting global human health at risk and requires an "urgent response".

The health risks include those from heat waves, floods and wildfires, changes in infectious disease patterns, the effect of worsening food yields and loss of livelihoods, according to a paper published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

Lead author Anthony McMichael said human actions were causing "unprecedented global environmental changes", including climate change, loss of bio-diversity and the exhaustion of fisheries.

The professor of public health at the Australian National University said this "weakening of the earth's life support systems" would hit the health of the most vulnerable populations the hardest.

Climate change could add 20-70 million people to the 110 million already living in regions prone to malaria epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa by the 2080s, he said. (PA News)

Republicans Differ on Global Warming (but they have drunk the Kool-Aid) - WASHINGTON — While the major presidential candidates agree global warming is real, the Republicans are sharply divided over what to do about it — even as they chase votes in Florida, where the predicted risk of rising sea waters and more severe storms is anything but a passing concern.

Strategists in both parties say the political landscape for global warming has shifted dramatically in recent years with a broad coalition of environmentalists, business leaders, evangelical Christians and national security advocates — Democrats and Republicans alike — urging concrete actions to stem the effects.

The issue is likely to interest voters not only in Florida’s primary next Tuesday but in the rush of primaries that follow. Nine of the more than 20 states with contests on Feb. 5 have passed or are considering programs to cap greenhouse gases, as is Maine, which holds its caucuses on Feb. 2.

“Climate change is real. It’s happening. I believe human beings are contributing to it,” former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said during a debate in Iowa when pressed on the issue.

Limbaugh, Geraghty & Global Warming - At the risk of losing my tongue-in-cheek position as Rush Limbaugh’s “Official EIB Climatologist,” I’m going to weigh in on his argument against Jim Geraghty’s view that the Republicans’ chances in the next presidential election are being hurt by those of us not willing to give in to the scientific “consensus” on global warming.

First, the science. After many years in this line of work, I’ve come to the firm conclusion that global warming is one of those research areas where scientists think they know much more than they really do. In many ways, putting a man on the Moon was far easier than understanding the climate system. Yes, carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas — a minor one. And, yes, humans burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide: one molecule of CO2 for every 100,000 molecules of atmosphere, every five years.

But is this a recipe for a global warming Armageddon? I’m betting my reputation on: “No.” Recent research has made me more convinced of this than ever. (Roy Spencer, Planet Gore)

Al touting for business - “One simple thing that will solve the climate crisis is to put a price on carbon. It needs to be effective globally,” he said at the forum of business and political leaders in Davos, where economic fears have overshadowed climate problems.

Who would be paying and who would be collecting this carbon premium Al?

Oh boy... Bono confesses sins to ‘father’ Al Gore - “It’s like being with an Irish priest. You start to confess your sins,” he said. “Father Al, I am not just a noise polluter, I am a noise-polluting, diesel-soaking, gulfstream-flying rock star.

“I’m going to kick the habit. I’m trying father Al, but oil has been very good for me — those convoys of articulated lorries, petrochemical products, hair gel.”

Entry in $150,000.00 Ultimate Global Warming Challenge - Global near-surface temperatures correlate with Al Gore’s political clout. (Compelling piece of wiggle-fitting.)

Core issue ignored at Senate hearing on California waiver - Today, as I write, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is holding a hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency’s denial of a waiver allowing California to set the first-ever CO2 emission standards for new motor vehicles. Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) alleges that the EPA denied the waiver at the behest of industry special interests to the neglect of its duty to protect public health and the environment. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson is defending the agency’s decision on the grounds that global warming is by definition not exceptionally concentrated in California, unlike bad air quality from traditional pollutants like smog-forming emissions. Alas, neither Boxer nor Johnson even touch on the core issue. EPA could not authorize California and other states to regulate CO2 emissions under the auspices of the Clean Air Act without creating a regulatory morass that will hinder economic and environmental progress.

If the EPA had granted the waiver, allowing California and other states to adopt CO2 emission standards for new motor vehicles, CO2 would arguably become a pollutant “subject to regulation” under the Clean Air Act’s Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program. That, in turn, could compel EPA and its state-level counterparts to regulate CO2 from hundreds of thousands of stationary sources, spawning a red-tape nightmare as detrimental to the environment as it to the economy.

Attorneys Peter Glaser and John Cline provide an eye-popping analysis of the economic and administrative burdens that would be created by extending the PSD program to CO2 in a November 8, 2007 testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. (Marlo Lewis, Planet Gore)

EU aims to adopt energy, climate laws by spring 2009: presidency - The European Union aims to enact sweeping new legislation on energy and climate change by the spring of 2009, the EU's Slovenian presidency said Thursday.

"We are counting on a constructive approach and support of the member states and the parliament for a final adoption of the package by spring 2009," said Slovenian Environment Minister Janez Podobnik.

The measures, presented by the European Commission on Wednesday, are designed to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. (AFP)

Europe Pisses In The Wind - Yesterday, the EU Commission proposed its draft plan to achieve, by 2020, a 20 per cent cut in EU carbon emissions compared with 1990. Of course, the ever-bureaucratic and unaccountable EU could not leave this to its individual countries to achieve in their preferred manner, so that the micromanagement of each state, with severe financial penalties for failure, is an integral part of the centralised planning.

Accordingly, legally-binding ‘renewable’ energy targets (no nuclear, of course) are proposed for each member state, ranging from Malta at 10 per cent to Sweden at 49 per cent, the average being 20 per cent. Although the UK’s figure of 15 per cent ‘renewables’ appears to be below average, it is, in effect, the toughest of all, demanding an increase in ‘renewable’ energy from a 2005 figure of 1.3 per cent to 15 per cent in under 12 years. Moreover, because this figure involves all forms of energy, it necessitates a 35-40 per cent figure for electricity generation, the equivalent of over 20,000 wind turbines. The cost of electricity will inevitably rise dramatically for all consumers, at estimates of 15 per cent or more. Lastly, 10 per cent of all road fuels must be biofuels.

Much of this is economic and, I might add, ecological suicide. It is the Mad Hatter’s EU tea party. But worse, much is also pissing in the wind.

20,000 new wind turbines [the UK Government has actually talked about 17,000] by 2020 is - wait for it - 4.6 turbines per day, including weekends. And this must be achieved against strong rural opposition and difficult planning laws, and in a situation where there is a world shortage of equipment, parts, and skilled engineers.

Brussels’ famous ‘Manneken Pis’ is surely in full flow, and in a gale. (Global Warming Politics)

Political tension rises in Japan over gas tax - TOKYO - Political tension is heating up in Japan over whether to extend the temporary higher rate for the gasoline tax, amid spikes in oil prices and growing concerns about global warming.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling coalition wants to retain the temporary higher rate, for fear of losing tax revenues needed for road-related projects, especially in rural areas, amid dire fiscal straits. Meanwhile the biggest opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) demands the abolition of the temporary rate at a time when soaring prices for gasoline and other fuels are hitting consumers. (Asia Times)

The Choice between Food and Fuel - Food prices are skyrocketing. Arable land is becoming scarce. And forests continue to disappear across the globe. The world must decide between affordable food and biofuels. (Der Spiegel)

Errors, Inaccuracy Mar NYT Sushi Story - In a poorly-sourced, sensational article in this Wednesday’s New York Times, reporter Marian Burros presents a distorted report on sushi and seafood that is at odds with widely accepted science. The story is unreliable and contradicts broadly-held medical advice that tuna and other kinds of fish are an essential part of a healthy diet. The Times story is alarmist, special interest-driven journalism and should be treated with extreme skepticism.

NFI will be demanding an explanation from Times editors for how these basic breaches in the newspaper’s own standards could have occurred and will also be requesting a formal correction on specific errors. (National Fisheries Institute)

Basically just more food porn from mad Marian Burros but we guess some people will be concerned. Of greater concern is that mercury mania is driven by desire to restrict energy as is AGW (Steve’s done some background on this before, see e.g., FDA’s Mercurial Fish Story, also see Mercury In Perspective and Eat More Fish!).

The campaign to suppress human activity to spare the ‘Earth Mother’ goes on and on in it’s various guises and activists long ago realized restricting energy supplies was their greatest weapon. They also know their greatest chance of success is to disguise it as ‘concern for human welfare’ and everyone will do it ForTheChildren™.

How to get permission to destroy the countryside: say you're building an eco-town - A giant Swiss-based insurance company is seeking permission to build a new town of 12,500 houses in Hampshire by labelling it an "eco-town". If it succeeds, Zurich Financial Services – the sixth biggest insurance group in the world, with annual profits of $4.65bn (£2.4bn) – will be looking at a billion-pound bonanza.

Its proposed development at Micheldever Station, between Basingstoke and Winchester, would be one of the great property coups of recent years.

But local councils and green campaigners say the location, in the middle of Hampshire's rolling chalk downland, is the wrong place for a major new settlement. The scheme has been rejected out of hand four times since 1994 by planning authorities. But with the possibility of quite staggering profits, Zurich has never given up on the scheme and is now seeking a new way to get it through – by taking advantage of the Government competition for eco-towns, launched last summer as part of its new housebuilding drive. (London Independent)

SOUTH AFRICA: Ban May Push Abalone to Extinction - CAPE TOWN, Jan 24 - South Africa’s decision to suspend commercial fishing of wild abalone, a large marine slug, from Feb. 1, could drive the species further towards extinction. Conservationists fear the ban will fuel poaching, currently the most criminalized wildlife trade in Africa. (IPS)

Finally waking up to ‘use it or lose it’? - While tourism is popular in Kenya, it still provides few incentives for people to protect wildlife rather than turn their land over to agriculture. Suppose one owned a goat, but was not allowed to use it in any way: no slaughter, no milk, meat or skin. Suppose, further, that breaking these laws meant risking death or imprisonment. In fact, the only way of making money out of the goat would be if a passing minibus with a load of tourists happened to drive past and photograph it. Not many people would keep goats.

Update for those following the cholesterol-Vytorin-ENHANCE story - The Congressional investigation has added insider trading to its inquiry. In a letter on Tuesday addressed to the Chairmen and CEOs of Merck & Co. And Schering-Plough Corp., the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations said they’d discovered company officer Carrie Smith had sold significant quanities of Schering-Plough shares prior to the public release of the ENHANCE results.

“This raises questions as to whether this sale was related to any knowledge of the study’s results,” said the Congressional letter. Therefore, the Committee also wants answers from Schering-Plough and Merck as to what meetings were held to discuss the ENHANCE trial results and all records of briefings to corporate officers; if any corporate officer had knowledge of the results of any preliminary results prior to the public release on January 14th; and all records of stock sales by corporate officers between the study’s completion and when the results were made public nearly two years later.

The Congressional investigation also wants the results of the secondary analyses of the ENHANCE trial that have also not yet been released. (Junkfood Science)

Happy Peanut Butter Day! - Kids of all ages love peanut butter. Even dogs love PB treats. Peanut butter lovers even have their own website, with fun tidbits and recipes. For those cooks and bakers with sophisticated peanut butter tastes, there are 185 more recipes here.

While peanuts and PB taste great and are dandy in the nutrition department, one thing they won’t do is help anyone lose weight and become thin. Yes, there’s even been a peanut butter diet, but it didn’t work better than any other diet. That hasn’t stopped researchers from trying, however. Last month, we heard in the news that kids who snacked on peanuts and peanut butter lose weight. (Junkfood Science)

January 24, 2008

When science was forgotten — The Lobotomist - This historical medical film is one of the hardest and most uncomfortable films you’ll ever watch. That is also why it is one of the most important films to watch.

Some readers may be old enough to remember when the press heralded this medical procedure as “one of the greatest surgical innovations of this generation” and a miracle cure. Hospital administrators and doctors deemed it a milestone of modern medicine and it was widely accepted. Nurses and doctors flocked to auditoriums to learn about it and watch it performed. The procedure was done by the tens of thousands at the most elite medical institutions in the country and the doctor who developed it was awarded a Nobel prize. Among patients and families, it offered hope and was accepted uncritically.


This is a story about how popular science went terribly wrong, while the truth never spoken. Healthcare professionals didn’t speak out, few criticisms were recorded in medical journals or mentioned to the public, the AMA and FDA were complicit despite the scientific data refuting it, and no one stopped it ... for decades. This experimental procedure and its many untested variations, with no scientifically valid evidence for safety or efficacy, were done on the healthy organs of tens of thousands of people who, it was believed, had no other options.

But it wasn’t a cure or a treatment. The Hippocratic Oath — First, do no harm — was abandoned. It was an era when the science wasn’t understood and such measures were justified by the perceived need to do something, regardless of the costs. This crude procedure left the lives of the vast majority of its victims, those who survived, permanently devastated by horrible side effects and took away joys of human social existence. It became fashionable as a result of fraudulent promotional claims spread by advocates with prestigious medical credentials and positions of authority.

Here are excerpts of the full transcripts of the program, The Lobotomist, available through PBS. As you read these and the evolution of this procedure and its acceptance, think of what it can teach us today. (Junkfood Science)

Cash carrot for obese people to lose pounds - Obese and overweight adults in England could be paid to lose weight under plans being considered by the Government. The new strategy to tackle poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyles includes the suggestion that people should receive financial rewards or shopping vouchers for achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.

The £372 million strategy reiterates a target set last year to cut the proportion of overweight and obese children by 2020 to levels in 2000. (The Times)

Sea Level Rise - Paradise Lost - Tuvalu - A BBC TV News item yesterday, January 22nd 2008, revisited the perpetual story of Tuvalu, the Coral Island supposedly sinking beneath the waves, because of greenhouse gases from the developed world. (Harbinger, Blog.JunkScience.com)

Poor Countries Don’t Need Climate Change Welfare, They Need Capitalism - Irvine, CA--A major theme of the recent climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, is that wealthy, industrialized nations have an obligation to help poor countries adapt to climate change. Delegates agreed to activate an “adaptation fund” to help undeveloped nations cope with projected threats such as disruptions to agriculture and decreased water availability.

But according to Dr. Keith Lockitch, resident fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute: “If environmentalists were really concerned about people in undeveloped countries, they would be helping them to bring about what they really need: industrial development. (Keith Lockitch, Ayn Rand Institute)

Antarctic Ice Loss: Is There Really a Problem? (SPPI)

Political Advocacy By The University Corporation For Atmospheric Research (UCAR) (Climate Science)

Second Warmest Year Declaration Full of Pitfalls! - The news item about the year 2007 as the second warmest (Washington Post 12 January 2008) must be taken with a grain (maybe a whole block) of salt. Such declarations are based on calculating a mean temperature for the earth’s surface area (land-ocean combined) and this seemingly simple task is often full of ‘pitfalls’. Large areas of earth’s landmass were only sparsely monitored in the past, and remain so even today. Ironically the situation has gotten worse since 1990, when two thirds of the world’s climate reporting stations shut down. Add to that the issues of improper accounting for urbanization and land use changes as documented by Roger Pielke Sr. and most recently McKitrick and Michaels and poor siting as documented by Anthony Watts and his network of volunteers and unaccounted for instrument changes as Ben Herman blogged on Climate Science recently about, and you have a little reason to trust the accuracy of any station based data set. (Madhav Khandekar and Joseph D’Aleo, Icecap)

Driven by mischief (These guys take themselves soooo seriously) - Judging by their ads, some companies now revel in taunting environmentalists. (Well duh! What the heck else can you do with ‘em?) Discuss on Blog.JunkScience.com

Please, Al, turn up the heat! - Sunday morning broke bright and clear. There was not a cloud in the sky, barely a breeze, and only 15 little degrees shivering in my porch thermometer. Please, Al, turn up the heat! I don't know who else to ask. After all, the former vice president has been honored all over the world for having the most profound insight into the weather.

Last week, for the first time in modern memory, there was snow in Baghdad. A few days ago, NASA reported on the remarkable observation that more than 60 percent of 48 contiguous states were covered with snow. From Seattle to Bangor they were measuring the snowfall in feet instead of inches. Schools in Middle Tennessee took snow days. Children cheered. Parents wept. Please, Al, turn up the heat. (Robert Evans Burnette, Crossville Chronicle)

Climate Laws May Be Used to Limit Exports, Group of 77 Says - The Group of 77 developing nations, representing about two-thirds of the world's population, said it is concerned that climate-protection laws will be used to curb their exports to rich nations. (Bloomberg)

Warming 'proved' by consensus - Tired of having to defend their dubious theory of anthropic climate change, warmists unilaterally declared victory in 2005, thereby setting a new scientific standard of proof: consensus. No longer must they test their hypothesis rigorously and repeatedly as the scientific method demands. Henceforth, anything they feel is proof shall be deemed proof. All information contrary to the teachings of St. Internet Al shall be declared heresy and suppressed, and all heretics — "deniers" — shall be vilified lest others take their arguments seriously. (Republican American)

How not to measure temperature, part 48. NOAA cites errors with Baltimore’s Rooftop USHCN Station - I happened across a NOAA internal training manual a couple of weeks ago that contained a photo of a USHCN official climate station that I thought I’d never get a photo of. The Baltimore Customs House. (Watts Up With That?)

New Antarctic ice core to provide clearest climate record yet - After enduring months on the coldest, driest, and windiest continent on Earth, researchers today closed out the inaugural season on an unprecedented, multi-year effort to retrieve the most detailed record of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere over the last 100,000 years.

Working as part of the National Science Foundation’s West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS Divide) Ice Core Project, a team of scientists, engineers, technicians, and students from multiple U.S. institutions have recovered a 580-meter (1,900-foot) ice core – the first section of what is hoped to be a 3,465-meter (11,360-foot) column of ice detailing 100,000 years of Earth’s climate history, including a precise year-by-year record of the last 40,000 years.

The dust, chemicals, and air trapped in the two-mile-long ice core will provide critical information for scientists working to predict the extent to which human activity will alter Earth’s climate, according to the chief scientist for the project, Kendrick Taylor of the Desert Research Institute of the Nevada System of Higher Education. DRI, along with the University of New Hampshire, operates the Science Coordination Office for the WAIS Divide Project.

WAIS Divide, named for the high-elevation region that is the boundary separating opposing flow directions on the ice sheet, is the best spot on the planet to recover ancient ice containing trapped air bubbles – samples of the Earth’s atmosphere from the present to as far back as 100,000 years ago.

While other ice cores have been used to develop longer records of Earth’s atmosphere, the record from WAIS Divide will allow a more detailed study of the interaction of previous increases in greenhouse gases and climate change. This information will improve computer models that are used to predict how the current unprecedented high levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere caused by human activity will influence future climate. (University of New Hampshire)

So much angst spawned by PlayStation® climatology…

More PlayStation®-driven hand wringing: Hurricanes and global warming devastate Caribbean coral reefs - Warmer seas and a record hurricane season in 2005 have devastated more than half of the coral reefs in the Caribbean, according to scientists. In a report published yesterday, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) warned that this severe damage to reefs would probably become a regular event given current predictions of rising global temperatures due to climate change. (The Guardian)

Keep climate change on agenda, pleads IPCC (or “Don’t derail our gravy train”) - The head of the UN’s Nobel Prize-winning scientific panel on climate change warned Wednesday that fears about the world economy could put climate change issues in the shade.

The “teach-in” makes a comeback - My goodness, a relic, a veritable fossil of my misspent youth 35 odd years ago in the heyday of anti-war teach-ins.

It’s been reported by Evan Moore of CNSNews that Global Warming Teach-In Coming to Campuses Nationwide.Now that I am forewarned, I will alert my daughter the high school senior to avoid it when it comes to whichever institution of higher education she elects (depending upon acceptances) to attend.

It’s most appropriate the Goreacle leading the charge against anthropogenic global warming is a boomer and that his acolytes should use the wayback machine to resurrect the “teach-in.”

We baby boomers truly did loose upon the world some gruesome things about which we are ever eager to brag about amongst one another while awash in our self-evident self-importance. (Johnny Lucid, Blog.JunkScience.com)

Really? Australia among worst climate offenders - AUSTRALIA is one of the world's worst performing nations when it comes to addressing climate change, according to an annual ranking of 149 countries by researchers at Yale and Columbia universities in the United States. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Oddly enough, Australia's emissions are largely generated for and on behalf of others as we mine and ship vast quantities of raw materials like iron ore, bauxite, coal... big shippers of grain to the world's hungry too. China (aided and abetted by the anti-West contingent of Europe and the Green-Left watermelons) point out that their emissions from manufacturing for export are made for and on behalf of consumers but the watermelons apparently don't want such consideration for any Western nation. Since about the only thing differentiating among developed nations (according to this list) is total greenhouse gas emission (emissions which aren't really a problem but never mind that) and there is obviously sentiment that these emissions should be accounted by end-user then Australia has a trivial footprint and the US, as generator of roughly a quarter of the world's economic wealth but somewhat less than a quarter of human GHG emissions is also "in credit", so to speak. Guess it must be the EU and ubiquitous "others" liberating carbon to the atmosphere but contributing proportionately less to the world economy -- the consumers rather than producers, in other words -- we should consider "climate criminals" then, shouldn't we?

Yale Cooks the Global-Warming Books - The Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy has issued its 2008 Environmental Performance Index and —what a surprise — the United States looks like a bad guy, dropping from a 2006 ranking of 28th, to a 2008 ranking of 39th out of the 149 countries surveyed. Canada, our environmentally angst-ridden neighbors to the north, also slipped in the rankings, dropping from 8th to 12th in only two years. Oh, Canada!

Given that the U.S. and Canada have both shown huge success at cleaning up their air and water, reforesting their land-masses, reducing toxic chemical exposures, and improving nearly every environmental indicator you can name, you’d think it would be hard to make us look like eco-villians. But it’s not that hard if you’re determined: you just stack the deck.

First, you set up targets that are so low that no large country with a robust industrial, agricultural, and transportation sectors could ever hope to reach them. Thus, you set a goal of zero for SO2 emissions (we’d better not burn any of our plentiful coal), intensive agriculture, agricultural water stress, and more. Best of all, you set a goal of zero greenhouse gas emissions from the generation of electricity. Yes, ZERO. And you set a per-capita target for CO2 emissions at 2.4 megatons (sic) of CO2 equivalent, which was just about what Kyrgyzstan produced in 2003. (Ken Green, Planet Gore)

Megatons? No but 2.4 tons per capita is about what Kyrgyzstan produces. Large sized typo notwithstanding Green is right about Yale's loaded, um... 'study'.

EU backs measures to combat climate change - BRUSSELS: European Union officials on Wednesday presented a vast package of environmental measures to make the trade bloc's climate protection system tougher and more expensive for polluters, setting the stage for a lengthy fight with industry over the coming year.

The measures are meant to make sources of power like nuclear, renewable and gas more competitive against dirtier fuels like coal and petroleum and to eradicate windfall profits that some of Europe's biggest polluters have made from the three-year-old system.

"Europe can be the first economy for the low-carbon age," the European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, told members of the European Parliament. He called the package "the most far-reaching legislative proposals to be made by the European Commission for many years." (James Kanter, Reuters)

EU Climate Change Plans Get Cool Reception - LONDON - Activists and environmentalists reacted cooly on Wednesday to the European Commission's new plans to cut climate warming carbon emissions by one-fifth and boost energy from renewables like wind, waves and sun by 2020. (Reuters)

SOD: UK Energy Policy - Here is a Full Report on UK Energy Policy from a sickly Green perspective: (Global warming Politics)

UK handed tough climate change targets - The EU today announced ambitious plans to make Europe "the first economy for the low-carbon age" before handing the UK a tough set of climate change targets.

British energy consumption will be slashed by 16 per cent and the use of renewable energy increased more than seven-fold by 2020 if the Government is to meet its share of the EU’s targets.

John Hutton, the Business Secretary, said the Government was committed to hitting the target, but he explained that the final target for the UK will be determined in forthcoming negotiations between ministers on today’s commission proposals.

“Whatever the final outcome, the UK is already exploring a vast expansion of wind energy offshore, and tidal power on the Severn, and we are already thoroughly reviewing our strategy to drive progress further,” he said. (Times Online)

Energy Disaster Looming - There are strong suggestions circulating that the Administration is being firmly lobbied to announce a cap-and-trade scheme for electricity utilities in the State of the Union address as a 'legacy' item and in a futile attempt to bind the hands of an incoming President. This would be a disaster.

At a time when the Fed and the rest of the Administration is doing its best to avoid recession, what Mike Huckabee might call the "Wall Street Lobby" within the White House is doing its best to counteract all that effort. Given that the Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us that household energy prices rose by a staggering 17.4 percent in 2007, but electricity prices rose only 3.4 percent. Cap and trade will push up those electricity prices too. It is the last thing we need at present. (Iain Murray, National Review Online)

The more things change, the more they stay the same - Rumors are flying that President Bush may propose to cap CO2 emissions from electric power plants in the upcoming state of the union speech. It's deja vu all over again. (Marlo Lewis, CEI)

"Wake Up, America!" - Today the Financial Times has a little piece mentioning the gloating in the halls of Brussels over current U.S. financial controversies, with one Eurocrat after another preening that the U.S. adopted reckless policies, didn’t pay heed to Europe – and it’s projected 1.5-1.8% growth, by the way – and has only itself to blame. FT pompously passed along the call to “wake up, America!.

OK, so let’s pay attention to Europe. (Chris Horner, CEI)

America Needs France’s Atomic Anne - It’s not often that I find myself recommending a French state-owned industry as the answer to major U.S. problems, but I guess there’s an exception to every rule.

In this case the exception is the French nuclear energy company Areva, which provides about 80 percent of the country’s electricity from 58 nuclear power plants, is building a new generation of reactor that will come on line at Flamanville in 2012, and is exporting its expertise to countries from China to the United Arab Emirates.

Contrast that with the United States, where just 20 percent of electricity comes from nuclear plants, no commercial reactor has come on line since 1996, no new reactor has been ordered for decades, and debate about nuclear power remains paralyzing despite its clean-air electricity generation in the age of global warming. (Roger Cohen, New York Times)

Ah! Nothing like a good conspiracy... Politicians Censor Report on Dangers of Arctic Drilling - There's black gold beneath the snow white Arctic -- and oil companies are gearing up to exploit it on a massive scale. Scientists had hoped to warn of the scope of the environmental dangers of Arctic drilling in a new report, but 60 passages have been removed following pressure from the United States and Sweden. (Der Spiegel)

20,000 wind turbines - plus a 15% rise in electricity bills - The cost of household electricity bills is expected to rise by up to 15 per cent if Britain is to meet compulsory climate change targets announced yesterday.

Under the European Commission’s proposed measures for renewable energy supplies and lower carbon dioxide emissions, Britain will be required to increase its proportion of renewable energy from 1.3 per cent in 2005 to 15 per cent in 2020 – the equivalent of 20,000 wind turbines being erected in the countryside and offshore if Britain is to meet the target.

The investment required to get Britain’s energy supplies anywhere near the target mean that electricity prices are likely to rise 10-15 per cent by 2020 even before other inflationary factors are taken into account. (The Times)

Oh boy... Could carbon capture replace cuts? - If there's a country that's really made the most of its fossil fuel resources, Norway is a good candidate for the prize.

Proceeds from its energy industry fund world-leading healthcare and welfare systems.

They have also created the second-biggest sovereign wealth fund in the world.

But there is a snag.

Rising emissions from oil and gas rigs, and from onshore power plants, sit uncomfortably with Norway's sense of itself as a country with a green conscience.

Its ambition is to be a carbon neutral nation in just 22 years' time.

Hard to be green and rich, you might think. But Norway's leaders insist they can achieve it, largely because they are planning to capture carbon as it is released, then store it under the seabed.

Carbon capture and storage, alongside carbon trading schemes, should be a major weapon in the European Commission's arsenal as it sets out to ensure emissions are cut by 20% by 2020 from what they were in 1990.

Norway, outside the European Union but nevertheless covered by all its climate change mechanism, has been doing it for more than a decade at the Sleipner rig in the North Sea.

"The gas in the Sleipner west field has 9% carbon dioxide," explains Helge Smaamo, who manages the rig for the Norwegian energy giant Statoil.

"We have to get that down to 2%, because gas burns much better at 2% than at 9%, so we separate a lot of it out by chemical processes.

Since they have to separate out large quantities of CO₂ it makes economic sense to inject it to help maintain pressure in the field and facilitate recovery of valuable hydrocarbons. There is no other useful purpose for doing so and the economics quite unique in having a ready source of a handy hydrocarbon solvent actually on field to wring more oil from the substrate. The value of capturing elsewhere and piping it to the field is however far more dubious.

Refineries, Airlines Phased Into EU CO2 Charges - BRUSSELS - The European Commission proposed on Wednesday that oil refineries and airlines pay more over time for permits to emit greenhouse gases under the European Union's emissions trading scheme. (Reuters)

EU Commission to Decide 2010 on Free CO2 Permits - BRUSSELS - The European Commission said on Wednesday it would decide in 2010 which industrial sectors will get free permits to emit greenhouse gases under its Emissions Trading Scheme from 2013, after mulling competitiveness impacts.

Electricity generators will have to pay for all CO2 permits in the third trading cycle of the scheme, 2013-2020, which is likely to slash coal plant profits, but sectors including chemicals, steel, aluminium and cement will have to wait to decide whether they get any or all for free.

The Commission estimated that 60 percent of all permits will be auctioned in 2013. (Reuters)

EU Persists With Biofuels - BRUSSELS, Jan 23 - The European Union has decided to maintain a target for increasing the use of biofuels despite mounting concerns that its strategy could worsen global hunger.

In a far-reaching action plan for combating climate change published Jan. 23, the European Commission, the EU executive, announced that it was sticking to a previously agreed goal that biofuels should provide 10 percent of the energy needed to power cars and other modes of transport by 2020.

This was despite a barrage of recent criticism of this goal, including by some figures within the Commission. Louis Michel, the European commissioner for development aid, said earlier this month that there is a genuine risk that traditional agriculture in poor countries will be damaged if arable land is used for growing crops destined to meet energy needs in wealthier parts of the world.

Also, a study by scientists working for the Commission has concluded that "the uncertainty is too great to say whether the EU 10 percent biofuel target will save greenhouse gases or not." (IPS)

Critique Mounts against Biofuels - The European Union has announced plans to increase the use of gas and diesel produced from plants. But the critique against biofuels is mounting. Many say they are even more harmful than conventional fossil fuels. (Der Spiegel)

Govt, industry clash over biofuel usage - The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization has announced that it withdrew a plan to replace regular gasoline with a biofuel across the whole of the island of Miyakojima in Okinawa Prefecture.

The decision was made in the face of strong opposition from the oil industry. Many of the island's gas stations, which are affiliated with major oil wholesalers, were reluctant to cooperate with the government project.

Although the government originally planned to sell the E3 fuel variant--a gasoline-based biofuel containing 3 percent ethanol--at 19 gas stations on the island, it will only be available at four stations in 2008.

The government's decision to give up on its plan to turn Miyakojima into a "bioethanol island," where vehicles run entirely on biofuels, highlighted the deep schism between the government and the oil industry.

The oil industry opposed the government's plan, saying there were problems with the E3 fuel, such as the difficulty of maintaining its quality. (Yomiuri Shimbun)

UN Warns of Biofuels' Environmental Risk - The world's rush to embrace biofuels is causing a spike in the price of corn and other crops and could worsen water shortages and force poor communities off their land, a U.N. official said Wednesday. (AP)

Chrysler Executive Says Fuels Key to Success - WASHINGTON - Research and development in fuel alternatives for gasoline should be the auto industry's top priority, even in a weakened economy, and even if it means companies delay expanding or other expensive strategic decisions, the president of Chrysler LLC said on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Seismic images show dinosaur-killing meteor made bigger splash - The most detailed three-dimensional seismic images yet of the Chicxulub crater, a mostly submerged and buried impact crater on the Mexico coast, may modify a theory explaining the extinction of 70 percent of life on Earth 65 million years ago. (University of Texas at Austin)

Biotech Critics Challenging Monsanto GMO Sugar Beet - KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Opponents of biotech crops said on Wednesday they were filing a lawsuit to challenge the USDA's deregulation of Monsanto Co's genetically engineered sugar beet because of fears of "biological contamination" and other harm to the environment. (Reuters)

Benefits outweigh risks from genetically modified plants - Australian states should not ban commercial production of genetically modified (GM) plants and food as the risks are alarmist and exaggerated, according to a new study. (UQ)

‘India may turn big producer of GM rice, vegetables by 2010’ - Chennai, Jan. 23 India has the potential to become a major producer of transgenic rice and several genetically modified (GM) or engineered vegetables by 2010, according to a research report by Rabo India Finance Ltd on the Indian agri-biotech sector. It has emerged as one of the leading destinations for investment in biotechnology in the recent years. It is also emerging as an important destination for both biomarkers and validation services, the report said. (Hindu Business Line)

January 23, 2008

Study raises questions about diagnosis, medical treatment of ADHD - A new UCLA study shows that only about half of children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, exhibit the cognitive defects commonly associated with the condition.

The study also found that in populations where medication is rarely prescribed to treat ADHD, the prevalence and symptoms of the disorder are roughly equivalent to populations in which medication is widely used. (University of California - Los Angeles)

It’s not nice to scare mothers: the latest miscarriage scare - Pregnancy should be a time of joy, as a new life is about to be brought into the world. But, sadly, it can also be an anxious time for expectant parents, who worry for the health of their unborn babies and fear that something will go wrong. Sound information can help to ensure each pregnancy has a happy ending. This month brought reassuring information, as well as the re-emergence of a 30-year old scare targeting pregnant women. (Junkfood Science)

Scientists: Warm seas may mean fewer hurricanes - Following in the footsteps of an earlier study, government scientists on Tuesday said warmer oceans should translate to fewer Atlantic hurricanes striking the United States.

The reason: As sea surface temperatures warm globally, sustained vertical wind shear increases. Wind shear makes it difficult for storms to form and grow.

"Using data extending back to the middle 19th century, we found a gentle decrease in the trend of U.S. landfalling hurricanes when the global ocean is warmed up," Chunzai Wang, a physical oceanographer and climate scientist with NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, said in a prepared statement.

Sang-Ki Lee, of the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies at the University of Miami, worked with Wang on the study. Their findings are to be published on Wednesday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The study found that the warming of the Pacific and Indian oceans plays an important role in determining hurricane activity in the Atlantic.

A study released in December found that as the Atlantic basin becomes hotter, hurricane intensity likely won't increase and might even deflate somewhat. That study found that ocean's heat acts to stabilize the upper atmosphere, which, in turn, hurts a storm's ability to build.

It was conducted by Gabriel Vecchi, a NOAA research oceanographer and Brian Soden, an associate professor of oceanography at the University of Miami. (Ken Kaye, Sun-Sentinel.com)

Surprise! There’s an active volcano under Antarctic ice - It seems that we still don’t know everything there is to know about our earth-climate system. Take this for example. Scientists have just now discovered an active volcano under the Antarctic ice that “creates melt-water that lubricates the base of the ice sheet and increases the flow towards the sea”.

Yet many claim the CO2 is the driver for any melting of the Antarctic ice sheet. I wonder how this will figure into that argument?

Larsen Ice Shelves A and B, by the way, sit astride a chain of volcanic vent islands known as the Seal Nunataks, which may figure into melting and breakups like this and this. (h/t Alan)

In fact, there are a LOT of volcanoes in Antarctica as you can see in this image. Notice that many are near the edge of the ice, and there are none in the interior, which may be a lack of discovery of ancient ice buried volcanoes. Most scientific bases are near the sea, rather than inland, for supply and weather tolerance purposes and there are many places in the interior that have yet to be fully explored. (Watts Up with That)

The Relationship Of ENSO Events To Global Ocean Heat Content Anomalies And Its Use To Diagnose The Global Radiative Imbalance - Bryan Sralla has asked several very important climate science questions in an interesting discussion with Gavin Schmidt at Real Climate in comments in their January 11 2008 weblog. This discussion concerns the relationship between ENSO (El Nino/Southern Oscillation) events and ocean heat content anomalies (OHCA). (Climate Science)

Follow Up On Research On Ocean Heat Content Changes - Timo Hämeranta has graciously provided us with two new research papers that are relevant to today’s weblog on ocean heat content. (Climate Science)

Stalagmites' nuclear touch a record of climate change - RADIOACTIVE fallout from nuclear bombs detonated in the atmosphere more than 50 years ago has been found far underground, in limestone cave stalagmites around Australia.

This time the fallout is serving humanity, helping scientists understand climate changes over the past 500,000 years.

Seeking ways to map past climate patterns, researchers from the Australian National University, Newcastle University and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation proposed harnessing stalagmites as ancient rain gauges. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Why 'Global Warming' is Not a Global Crisis - I earned my Nobel Peace Prize by making the United Nations fix a deliberate error in its latest climate assessment. After the scientists had finalized the draft, UN bureaucrats inserted a new table, but with four decimal points right-shifted. The bureaucrats had multiplied tenfold the true contribution of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets to sea-level rise. Were they trying to support Al Gore’s fantasy that these two ice-sheets would imminently cause sea level to rise 20ft, displacing tens of millions worldwide?

How do we know the UN’s error was deliberate? The table, as it first appeared, said the units for sea-level rise were being changed. But the table was new. There was nothing to change from. I wrote to the UN that this misconduct was unacceptable. Two days later, the bureaucracy corrected, relabeled and moved the table, and quietly posted the new version on its Web site. The two ice sheets will contribute, between them, over 100 years, just two and a half inches to sea-level rise. Gore had exaggerated a hundredfold; the UN tenfold. Hawaii is not about to disappear beneath the waves. (Christopher Monckton, Hawaii Reporter)

What? Human-generated aerosols affect our weather - The rise of human-generated pollution in the global atmosphere is forcing a change in ocean circulation in the Southern Hemisphere, in turn affecting our region’s weather systems.

In new research published in Geophysical Research Letters, CSIRO’s Dr Wenju Cai and Mr Tim Cowan found that the changes in ocean circulation in turn influence our weather systems and are partially responsible for a southward shift of these systems away from southern Australia and other mid-latitude regions.

“Aerosols cool the Northern Hemisphere’s ocean surface, which induces a hemispheric imbalance. This causes an increase in the transport of heat from the Southern Hemisphere oceans to the Northern Hemisphere oceans via the south Atlantic,” says Dr Cai, from the Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship. (CSIRO)

The northern hemisphere, which appears to be warming slightly, is cooled by aerosols, 'creating an imbalance' which causes an increase in heat transport from the southern hemisphere, which is actually doing nothing in the temperature department. So, our energy flow then is from the cooler southern hemisphere to the warmer northern due to an imbalance caused by aerosols cooling the north (which is actually the warming hemisphere). And this is how GCMs treat thermal flow? And these guys believe the models over their own lying eyes? Worse, we pay these fellows to write this stuff!

Utah Scientist: Dust Shortening Winters - Western winters are getting shorter because of dust kicked up by urban and agricultural development, a University of Utah researcher said.

Thomas Painter, head of the school's Snow Optics Laboratory, said in a lecture at the downtown library Monday that disturbed particles from the Colorado Plateau mix with snow, limiting the heat it can reflect. As a result, today's snowpacks melt about a month earlier than they once did. Painter's research affirms longtime anecdotal claims that the dirtier snow is, the faster it melts.

"That has enormous implications up and down the line," Painter said. He said it's important because when the snow cover dissipates earlier than it should, the ground is exposed at a time when the sun is highest in the sky. This can hurt the local ecology.

"That has some impact on regional climate," he said. "We're seeing a 1.5 degree Centigrade temperature increase."

Painter, a recent addition to the university's geology department, is now studying the Wasatch Range. He says the snowpack there is under serious assault from dust and soot. Wasatch canyons provide most of Salt Lake City's water and are economically significant for winter recreation.

"If it's possible to clean up the snowpack, we can buy significant time to increase snowpack duration," he said. "We have enormous amounts of research to do. I look forward to doing it over the next decade." (AP)

This is significantly better. Snow and icefield discoloration is believed to account for a significant portion of observed Arctic warming. Observation, empirical measure, cause and effect relationship. Not likely to be embraced by the carbon dioxide coterie. Might get a bit of attention, even research funding, since this can still be used to paint human activity "bad" and thus misanthropists will not be displeased.

Ocean Bridge Links Climate In Mid-Latitudes And Tropics - It's no surprise when a tropical El Niño brings wet storms to the U.S. Southwest; now researchers are finding that the relationship may be two-way, with atmospheric variability outside of the tropics impacting the formation of El Niños and La Niñas through upper-ocean pathways called "ocean bridges."

"Earlier climate studies suggest that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which affects weather around the world, evolves independently of interannual-to-decadal North Pacific Ocean climate variability. Our study shows that the two are really quite connected through a large-scale atmosphere-ocean tropical-subtropical feedback loop," said Amy Solomon of the CU-Boulder and NOAA Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES. (University of Colorado at Boulder)

And finally, an appropriate use of process models. This is precisely why climate models are of value and involves no absurd prognostication (which is not even a vaguely plausible misuse of process models 'predicting' complex, coupled, non-linear chaotic systems). They help us untangle what is occurring to produce results observed in the real world.

Come again? Spanish study warns of rising Mediterranean sea levels - The level of the Mediterranean is rising rapidly and could increase by another half metre in the next 50 years unless climate change is reversed, producing "catastrophic consequences", a Spanish study said Friday.

"This area has suffered a considerable increase in water and air temperatures since the 1970s as well as a rapid rise in the sea levels since the 1990s," said the study by the Spanish Oceanographic Institute.

It said the Mediterranean has risen "between 2.5 and 10 millimetres (0.1 and 0.4 inches) per year since the 1990s, "which implies that, if this trend continues, the water levels will rise between 12.5 centimetres (five inches) and half a metre (20 inches) in around 50 years." (AFP)

So, the Med is rising because there's reduced rainfall, which is making it saltier because there's increased evaporation because the traditionally warm, sunny Med has been, um... warm and sunny? And this has caused huge increases in Mediterranean Sea levels? Do they suppose this could have something to do with varying atmospheric pressure as oceanic oscillations go in and out of phase and winds tending to either pile up water or drain the Med? What has been the current strength through the Strait of Gibraltar? How has it varied?

Tourism at the End of the World - TORONTO, Jan 18 - Hurry! Hurry! See the polar bears, penguins, Arctic glaciers, small pacific islands before they disappear forever due to global warming.

Tourism companies are now using climate change as a marketing tool: Visit the pacific island paradise of Tuvalu before rising sea levels swallow it in the next 30 to 50 years. See the Arctic while there is still ice and polar bears.

"Some companies are using climate change as a marketing pitch, a 'see it now before it's gone' kind of thing," says Ayako Ezaki, communications director for the International Ecotourism Society, based in Washington DC. (Tierramérica)

Development and illustrative outputs of the Community Integrated Assessment System (CIAS), a multi-institutional modular integrated assessment approach for modelling climate change - Abstract: This paper describes the development and first results of the “Community Integrated Assessment System” (CIAS), a unique multi-institutional modular and flexible integrated assessment system for modelling climate change. Key to this development is the supporting software infrastructure, SoftIAM. Through it, CIAS is distributed between the communities of institutions which has each contributed modules to the CIAS system. At the heart of SoftIAM is the Bespoke Framework Generator (BFG) which enables flexibility in the assembly and composition of individual modules from a pool to form coupled models within CIAS, and flexibility in their deployment onto the available software and hardware resources. Such flexibility greatly enhances modellers' ability to re-configure the CIAS coupled models to answer different questions, thus tracking evolving policy needs. It also allows rigorous testing of the robustness of IA modelling results to the use of different component modules representing the same processes (for example, the economy). Such processes are often modelled in very different ways, using different paradigms, at the participating institutions. An illustrative application to the study of the relationship between the economy and the earth's climate system is provided.

Gee, wouldn't it be great if we could actually model the climate (and the economy, for that matter) so that this system would actually be useful?

Let’s Have A Trade War! - The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, appears to have lost it completely. Speaking yesterday in London, he has threatened to impose carbon tariffs on imports unless the US accepts a climate-change deal (‘Barroso trade threat on climate’, BBC Online World News, January 22):

“The president of the European Commission has threatened to impose carbon tariffs on imports unless the US agrees to a global climate change deal.

José Manuel Barroso wants to protect energy-intensive sectors such as aluminium, steel and cement.

He says there is no point these industries cutting emissions in Europe if they lose business to countries with more lax rules on carbon emissions.
Mr Barroso made the comments in a speech to business leaders in London.”

That way madness lies. With the world economy experiencing a significant downturn, the economic engine of the US stuttering, and the sub-prime market undermining banks to housing, trade wars should be the last thing on anyone’s mind. It is crass irresponsibility, though the underbelly politics are all too apparent and involve the usual EU attack on the US, combined with a sweetener to Nicholas Sarkosy, the French President, and Germany, both of which have become increasingly critical of EU policies on emissions [see: ‘The End of European Industry?’, January 17].

Luckily, the political response to such dangerous nonsense will be as politically tart as one can get. (Global Warming Politics)

Danish PM attacks forthcoming EU plans on CO2 cuts - Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen insisted on Tuesday that an upcoming EU plan to slash green house gases should not force Europe's richest countries to shoulder the heaviest load. (AFP)

Merkel Caught between Industry and the Climate - Last spring, Chancellor Merkel portrayed herself as the world's foremost fighter against climate change. With the EU set to pass a package of emissions regulations, though, she suddenly finds herself defending German industry. Will the real Merkel please stand up? (Der Spiegel)

<chuckle> EU puts carbon trading at heart of climate change battle - The European commission will tell member states today what they have to do to meet its plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by a fifth by 2020.

Legislative proposals from Brussels, being unveiled today, will extend and improve the world's first carbon trading scheme as the central element of the package to fight climate change. (The Guardian)

meanwhile: Weather warning for carbon trading - The only sure thing about the creation of this market for carbon quotas and credits is that it risks opening a field for financial manipulation and speculation.

Remember the financial wizardry that brought down Enron and later Parmalat? In the case of this new market, the all-important responsibility of verifying the carbon quota and credit entitlements will rest with political organisations – either national governments or the United Nations. (Financial Times)

UK rejects plan for EU trade steps against polluters - LONDON - Britain said on Tuesday it did not support proposed punitive trade measures threatened by the European Commission against countries that do not sign up to greenhouse gas emissions cuts.

Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said proposals on Monday from European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso that importers may have to obtain emissions permits equivalent to those of the European competitors "might look like trade barriers."

"We believe in global trade, we want more of it in the future, not less, and that is good for the European economy," Wicks told BBC radio. "So we are against any measures which might look like trade barriers." (Reuters)

EU Must Control Kyoto Offsets from 2013-20 - Report - BRUSSELS - The European Union should restrict the availability to heavy industry of cheap carbon offsets to 1.4 billion tonnes from 2008-2020, to meet its greenhouse gas emissions goals, a confidential EU document said.

The EU limits carbon emissions by energy-intensive industry but allows companies to meet targets by buying offsets from emissions-cutting projects in poor nations, under a Kyoto Protocol scheme, up to a cap of 1.4 billion tonnes from 2008-12.

If no global, post-2012 Kyoto deal is agreed, companies should only be allowed to use unused offsets in the next trading cycle from 2013-2020 -- keeping to the 1.4 billion tonnes cap -- the internal note from EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas to other commissioners said.

The Kyoto cap implied that three-quarters of emissions-cutting effort by business to 2020 would have to be made within Europe, the note, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, said. (Reuters)

Global warming: French carbon emissions sharply lower in 2006 - French greenhouse gas emissions fell sharply in 2006, helped by a warmer fall, leaving the country well on course to meet its goals under the UN's Kyoto Protocol, France's ecology minister said Tuesday.

Carbon emissions were 2.5 percent lower in 2006 compared with 2005, and four percent lower than in 1990, the Protocol's benchmark year, Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo told journalists at an annual reception. (AFP)

So, a mixture of less-cold and nuke power achieved exactly what AGW worriers claim to want. Problem solved then, eh?

From CO₂ Science this week:
Editorial:
Climate Model Problems: IV. Ice Sheet Mass Balance: How good are current models at predicting the future evolution of the mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet?

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week:
This issue's Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from Lake Kamalete and Lake Nguene, Central Gabon, Western Equitorial Africa. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period Project's database, click here.

Subject Index Summary:
Rainfall (Trends - Regional: Europe, Central): Are they in line with climate-alarmist predictions?

Plant Growth Data:
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Canada Cockleburr, Curlytop Knotweed, Lambsquarters, and a Phytoplankton Community of a Fjord in Southern Norway.

Journal Reviews:
Rainfall Erosivity in Sicily: How did it vary over the 20th century?

The Little Ice Age in Mesoamerican Tropical Lowlands: Why is its manifestation there so important?

The Roman and Medieval Warm Periods at Paradise Lake, Northwestern Himalaya: How did their temperatures compare with those of the present?

Grassland Soil Organic Matter in a CO2-Enriched Atmosphere: Does it increase or decrease with the passage of time? Or does it stay about the same?

Effects of Elevated CO2 on Respiration in Prickly Pear Cactus: Does atmospheric CO2 enrichment enhance or diminish dark respiration in this common CAM plant?

Temperature Record of the Week:
This issue's Temperature Record of the Week is from Spanish Fork, UT. During the period of most significant greenhouse gas buildup over the past century, i.e., 1930 and onward, Spanish Fork's mean annual temperature has experienced no net change. Not much global warming here!

Conference Announcement:
2008 International Conference on Climate Change: An international conference on climate change will take place on March 2-4, 2008 in New York City, calling attention to widespread dissent to the alleged “consensus” that modern warming is primarily man-made and is a crisis. Read more about the conference by clicking on the link above. (co2science.org)

EU sets UK 'ambitious' green energy target - Forty per cent of Britain's electricity will have to be generated from wind, wave or plant energy by 2020 as a result of a legally-binding new European Union target.

British officials described the target for renewables to be divided up between all EU 27 member states as "ambitious", since it will mean a rapid increase from the five per cent of electricity generated from renewables at present.

It is likely to mean a six-fold increase in the amount of onshore wind turbines in Britain and a 50-fold increase in the number of offshore wind turbines, according to industry sources.

This is because the 20 per cent target for renewables applies to energy across the board, including transport and heating where the scope for renewables is less, meaning the electricity sector has to do more.

Officials were explaining the implications of the announcement, expected on Wednesday, as the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, warned that the package would not be "cost free".

In fact, officials say it is likely to cost electricity generating companies €3-8 billion a year.

In an attempt to reach the target, ministers will announce increased support for offshore wind turbines and a feasibility study into a Severn Barrage - to harness tidal power - are being included in the Energy Bill today. (London Telegraph)

Water Hogs on the Ski Slopes: Snow Cannons Drink Up As Attention Is Turned To Globe's Rising Thirst - DAVOS, Switzerland -- The chief executives of Coca-Cola Co., Nestlé SA and others will warn the World Economic Forum in Davos this week that the world is running out of water, threatening conflict, higher prices and lost production.

Some will likely then strap on skis to take advantage of the Swiss resort's glistening slopes. But the pistes of the Alps are also contributing to the world's water woes.

Europe's ski resorts have been racing to install snow-making machines to bed the slopes with artificial snow as snowfall becomes less reliable and resorts compete with one another to offer guaranteed good skiing. That is great for skiers and businesses that rely on them, but not so great for local water supplies.DAVOS 2008

Snow cannons suck up a lot of water. As much as 35% of all water used in Davos now goes to making artificial snow, according to a report released last month by the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research to examine the net benefits of snow-making machines. Davos bought 16 additional snow cannons for this season, according to town authorities. (Wall Street Journal)

Bushfire impact on water yields - While forest fires can often result in an initial increase in water runoff from catchments, it’s the forests and bush growing back that could cause future problems for water supplies by reducing stream flows. (CSIRO)

Without Proof, an Ivory-Billed Boom Goes Bust - The ivory-billed woodpecker supposedly spotted in a patch of Arkansas bayou has remained scarce, as has the economic upswing its admirers might have brought to the local community. (New York Times)

How to encourage illegal dumping: Homes face £100 'tax' for not recycling enough - Households could face "rubbish tax" charges of as much as £100 for failing to recycle enough waste under Government plans.

Under tests expected to begin later this year, families will be penalised if they exceed weekly limits on the amount of non-recycled waste they throw away. Households who beat their recycling targets will be rewarded.

One system set to be trialled would give each household a fixed weight allowance for non-recycled rubbish. Rubbish exceeding that limit incurs a fine, but disposals below the limit would result in a financial bonus.

An alternative would be to give households a fixed number of "official" rubbish bags, and to charge punitive rates for more bags. (London Telegraph)

Council calls for easing of restrictions on GM crops - EUROPEAN farmers must be given the tools to produce more food, if targets to feed a rapidly expanding world population are to be achieved.

The alternative will be to source agricultural produce from the global market where the control of supply, quality and sustainable means of production will be limited.

So says Dr Colin Ruscoe, of the British Crop Production Council, who believes politicians have seriously misjudged the true market situation in both the medium and longer term.

He said: "In 25 years, there will be an extra 1.7 billion mouths to feed and there are growing pressures already being placed upon Europe's farmers, (who are] struggling to meet the demands placed upon them both by society and global competition."

Ruscoe believes that increased food and biofuel supply can only be achieved by bringing more land into production or through increasing crop yields.

However, it is estimated that only 10 per cent of the available land in the world is of sufficient quality to produce worthwhile crops. In any event, bringing more land into production is likely to have a considerable impact on the environment. (The Scotsman)

Biotech companies 'desert' international agriculture project

And what did everyone expect with former IPCC chair Bob Watson directing the project and Greenpeace[!] having representatives on the assessment panel? (Blog.JunkScience.com)

Gates Foundation's agriculture aid a hard sell - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is dramatically expanding its efforts to help the world's poorest farmers, with goals every bit as ambitious as its better-known global-health work fighting diseases such as AIDS and malaria.

But the foundation's nascent agricultural program is encountering more resistance than much of its other work, with critics concerned that its market-oriented, technology-centric approach will open the door to big agribusiness interests and genetically engineered food.

The Gates Foundation began making grants a year and a half ago, spending $350 million so far. Its aim is to radically boost farm productivity in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia in a short time by introducing new seed varieties, irrigation, fertilizer, training for farmers and access to local and international markets. (Seattle Times)

January 22, 2008

The tyranny of science - Scientists at one of Rome’s most prestigious universities, La Sapienza, are protesting against a planned visit by Pope Benedict XVI this Thursday. The Pope is due officially to open the university’s academic year, but some of the professors of science at the university are not happy. In a letter to the university’s rector, 67 lecturers and professors said it would be ‘incongruous’ for the Pope to visit given his earlier comments on Galileo; while he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Pope said that the Catholic Church’s trial of the great Italian astronomer was ‘reasonable and just’. So, university staff want to block a visit by a religious leader in the name of defending scientific truth and integrity.

This is a striking story: today, it frequently seems as if scientific authority is replacing religious and moral authority, and in the process being transformed into a dogma. At first sight, it appears that science has the last word on all the important questions of our time. Science is no longer confined to the laboratory. Parents are advised to adopt this or that child-rearing technique on the grounds that ‘the research’ has shown what is best for kids. Scientific studies are frequently used to instruct people on how to conduct their relationships and family life, and on what food they should eat, how much alcohol they should drink, how frequently they can expose their skin to the sun, and even how they should have sex. Virtually every aspect of human life is discussed in scientific terms, and justified with reference to a piece of research or by appealing to the judgment of experts. (Frank Furedi, sp!ked)

see also: The Royal Society’s ‘motto-morphosis’ - Nullius in Verba, the motto of the prestigious Royal Society in London, is usually translated as ‘on the word of no one’. When it was coined back in 1663, it was intended to distance science from the methods of the ancient universities, which relied heavily on the personal authority of the scholars. ‘On the word of no one’ highlighted the independent authority that empirical evidence bestowed on science; knowledge about the material universe should be based on appeals to experimental evidence rather than authority.

Lately, however, the Royal Society has dropped any mention of ‘on the word of no one’ from its website. Instead, it talks of the need to ‘verify all statements by an appeal to facts determined by experiment’. Lord May of Oxford, erstwhile president of the Royal Society and former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, offers us a whole new translation: ‘respect the facts.’ This provides the title of his recent review in the Times Literary Supplement (TLS), in which he gave the scientific nod of approval to seven recent publications on climate change, including books by George Monbiot, Al Gore and Sir Nicholas Stern.

The Royal Society’s ‘motto-morphosis’ - where it has gone from saying ‘on the word of no one’ to demanding that we ‘respect the facts’ - points to an important shift in the way that scientific authority is used to close down debate these days. (Ben Pile & Stuart Blackman, sp!ked)

Really? Cancer agents in Tassie devils - SCIENTISTS have been shocked to find high levels of potentially carcinogenic flame retardant chemicals in Tasmanian devils, a discovery certain to fuel a global campaign to ban their use.

The Australian has obtained, under Freedom of Information, preliminary results of tests ordered by the Tasmanian Government on chemicals found in fat tissue from 16 devils.

They show surprisingly high concentrations of toxic chemicals used in flame retardants commonly found in computers, white goods, carpets and foam in bedding and furniture.

Scientists yesterday said more research was needed to establish if the chemicals helped trigger devil facial tumour disease, a rare communicable cancer that threatens to drive the carnivore to extinction.

The International Persistent Organic Pollutants Elimination Network said the findings also raised concerns for human health.

IPEN co-ordinator Mariann Lloyd-Smith said the findings added weight to a global push to ban flame retardants, some of which have been linked to reproductive disorders and cancers in animals and humans. (The Australian)

And just where do they allege these compounds are coming from? The reason air samples are collected at Cape Grim is because it's some of the most pristine on the planet, so having these compounds blow in from the industrial north is unlikely, to say the least. Tasmania certainly is a significant producer (or consumer) of such deliberately synthesised compounds. Is this another case of brominated chemicals of natural origin (of which there are extraordinary numbers and quantities) being blamed on industrial "pollution"? That would seem the most likely case, despite the wishful assertions of professional chemophobes.

Put up a sticker and you've done your bit - I HAVE this visceral dislike of bumper-sticker moralisers. These are people who go out of their way to advertise what they take to be their own exalted moral sensibilities, but do so at no cost to themselves and without the messy business of having to weigh costs and benefits or to choose between stark alternatives where none is particularly pleasant or easy. It's all form and no substance for these people, and there's no shortage of them around. (James Allan, The Australian)

Cholesterol buzz - For those still craving more perspectives on cholesterol and statins — the cover story of Business Week is devoted to this very issue. The articles offer information that has not been reported anywhere else. Here's a glimpse at this special issue. (Junkfood Science)

Update: Trusting drug company marketing - Yesterday, we examined a surprising similarity between FDA approval for diet drugs and statins, but news today brought an entirely new connection. Brandweek NRx has just reported additional background on the company management at Schering-Plough pharmaceutical company, behind that ENHANCE trial controversy. (Junkfood Science)

Calcium — marvel or menace? The evidence may not be what you suspect - One of the most egregious examples of inaccurate medical reporting and grossly exaggerating a study’s findings, and needlessly frightening millions of women around the world, was seen this week. Does something as simple as taking a calcium supplement really double an older woman’s risk for a heart attack, as was reported in the news? That is very unlikely what you would conclude from reading the actual study. But the evidence might not be what you think, either. (Junkfood Science)

Wellness programs face legal action for being discriminatory - Today is a fitting day for this story. The discriminatory aspects of employer wellness programs have caught the eye of the Department of Labor and lawyers. Last month, the Department of Labor issued a Field Assistance Bulletin directed to company wellness programs. It closed a loophole which would have allowed employers to discriminate against employees based on their health indices and lifestyles. The Department of Labor said it may bring enforcement actions against companies that attempt to reward employees based on their health status. (Junkfood Science)

Amazing Food Detective for doctors - In promoting its childhood obesity programs, Kaiser Permanente has been on television, although viewers might not realize the source of the show.

It just teamed up with Discovery Health to launch a documentary geared to “instruct physicians and healthcare professionals about childhood obesity and the necessary steps to treat and prevent this epidemic.” The program, “Healthy Steps to Treating Childhood Obesity,” is currently airing across the country and offering doctors free continuing education credit (CME). (Junkfood Science)

Leave no child fat - The Sierra Club and other environmental groups are calling for a couch potato sin tax to finance their outdoor classrooms, reportedly to fight childhood obesity. It’s part of a growing “Leave No Child Inside” movement to get kids outside of classrooms and reduce screen time. We want to “tax part of the problem to fund the solution,” a Sierra Club spokesperson told KOB-TV news. (Junkfood Science)

Voices of sanity... for the children - A calm article calling for balance, reason and an end to the hysteria over obesity is something you rarely see in media anymore. That makes it all the more valuable for its fresh perspectives. Sharon Kirkey writes in the Edmonton Journal of the adverse effects of today’s unhealthy obsessions with weight being seen by pediatric psychiatric specialists. (Junkfood Science)

Antarctica Snowfall Increase - The ice caps hold a special place in the cold hearts of the global warming advocates who are all too quick to insist that our ice caps are currently melting at an unprecedented rate. We suspect that they will not be particularly thrilled to learn that a paper has just appeared in Geophysical Research Letters entitled “A doubling in snow accumulation in the western Antarctic Peninsula since 1850.” The article is by scientists with the British Antarctic Survey and the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada; the work was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council and the U.S. National Science Foundation. In case you think that the Desert Research Institute in Nevada would have little interest in Antarctica, recall from geography classes you’ve had that Antarctica receives little precipitation and is regarded by climatologists as a frozen desert. (WCR)

When Science Reporting Was Unbiased - We reported that the arctic ice minimum this year was due to natural cyclical fluctuations in the multidecadal ocean cycles and the flow of warm water into the arctic through the Barents Sea and Bering Strait in this blog on September 22nd. NASA too did a story on the changes in the arctic being at least in part due to changes in the arctic ocean circulation.

To show this is nothing new or unusual, take note of this quote from Scientific American reported in the Orleans, Vermont Independent Standard of Nov.28, 1856 found and forwarded by John McClaughry of the Ethan Allen Institute: (Joseph D’Aleo, CCM)

Antarctic volcanoes identified as a possible culprit in glacier melting - Another factor might be contributing to the thinning of some of the Antarctica's glaciers: volcanoes.

In an article published Sunday on the Web site of the journal Nature Geoscience, Hugh Corr and David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey report the identification of a layer of volcanic ash and glass shards frozen within an ice sheet in western Antarctica.

"This is the first time we have seen a volcano beneath the ice sheet punch a hole through the ice sheet" in Antarctica, Vaughan said.

Volcanic heat could still be melting ice to water and contributing to thinning and speeding up of the Pine Island glacier, which passes nearby, but Vaughan said he doubted that it could be affecting other glaciers in western Antarctica, which have also thinned in recent years. Most glaciologists, including Vaughan, say that warmer ocean water is the primary cause of thinning. (Kenneth Chang, IHT)

Antarctica and Volcanism - Thanks to John McLean for a link to this site tracking Antarctic temperatures since 1955 by Ole Humlum, UNIS, Department of Geology, Svalbard, Norway. They conclude the existing Antarctic surface air temperature records 1960-1998 reveal periods of persistent (multi-year) and geographically extensive temperature trends towards cooling in the interior and warming in the coastal regions. The spatial and seasonal patterns of these trends are, however, not quite simple and appear to change with time; that is, the temperature relationship between specific locations is not temporally consistent. Within the Antarctic Peninsula a warming trend has, however, persisted, with exception of the spring season. The cooling has been modest in coastal East Antarctic regions, but more pronounced at the Amundsen-Scott Base and at the South Pole. (Icecap)

see also: Antarctic Peninsula warmer in mid-Holocene - Some interesting papers from an AGU conference: “Mid Holocene Warmth in the Antarctic Peninsula: evidence from the Vega Drift”. So, 4000 to 7000 years ago this area was warmer than now. Another interesting paper mentions an active undersea volcano in the area. “A Benthic Invertebrate Survey of Jun Jaegyu Volcano: An active undersea volcano in Antarctic Sound, Antarctica”. (Warwick Hughes, Errors in IPCC climate science)

Guest Weblog By Professor Ben Herman Of The University Of Arizona - Maximum Temperature Trends - There is an issue with regards to U.S. surface temperature trends that seems to have been overlooked, although apparently well recognized. I am referring to the HO-83 thermometers that were installed at many USHCN sites as well as first order stations. It has been well documented (Gall et.al. 1992, Jones et.al. 1995, Karl et. al. 1995) and others that a warm bias existed, primarily in the daily maximum temperature readings reported by these instruments. The error in the Tucson data was about 2-3 deg F, but this error was apparently different with each thermometer. Karl et. al. (1995) have suggested that the average for this error over the country was on the order of 0.5 deg C on the reported maximum temperatures. Thus, if the maximum temperatures were corrected by this amount, average temperatures in the U.S, would be lowered by about 0.25 deg C, assuming the minimum readings were correct. This would probably pretty much neutralize the reported trend increase during the late 80’s and 90’s in this country. The situation has been covered in some detail in a blog by Steve McIntyre on ICECAP.US [Climate Audit?] (http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=1954) for those wishing more detail on the history of this issue. (Climate Science)

How not to measure temperature, part 47 (Watts Up with That?)

Numbers not yet checked, provided as is for anyone with the time and inclination: Carbon Heat Trapping: Merely A Bit Player in Global Warming (.pdf) - Abstract: New calculations show that doubling of carbon dioxide (CO₂) will increase average global temperature by only about 1 °F (degrees Fahrenheit) or 0.55 °C (degrees Centigrade), much less that the range of 1 °C to 5 °C estimated by the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These new calculations are based on NASA supported spectral calculations available on the Internet relating to greenhouse gases. The temperature increases are estimated to be somewhat more in winter in the colder climates because of reduced competing atmosphere water vapor, but smaller increases at other times and places. These calculations also estimate that a 10 percent increase of water vapor in the atmosphere, a stronger greenhouse gas than CO₂, or a reduction in the average cloud cover of only about 2 percent, will increase global temperature about as much as doubling CO₂ would. Each additional doubling of CO₂ will cause further temperature increases of about the same as that caused by the first doubling. Greenhouse gases, except water vapor, only trap heat at certain narrow wavelengths of infrared radiation related to their molecular structures. Data shows that present concentrations of CO₂, a strong absorber, are already well above the saturation value at its principal wavelength, so increases in it have a relative small affect. These new calculations are based on atmospheric models of the energy absorption bandwidths of greenhouse gases coupled with Max Planck’s equations relating to infrared wavelength distributions. A new simple technique is also proposed in the appendix to measure actual trapped heat being radiated back from the atmosphere to the Earth. This can be used to evaluate validate various estimating models. It also indicates that the role of clouds and their height above the Earth may have a larger role than previously thought. Since clouds operate as both powerful heat-trapping agents, overriding others, and a reflector of the sun’s energy, they may be the key factor in the regulation of the average global temperature. At the present time, they are one of the least measured parameters in the computer models predicting future climate changes. Weather and climate forecasting considering all factors is very complex, and this paper does not cover that subject. However it is felt that the simple role of long-term heat rises due to only CO₂ changes is a much simpler process and better estimated by basic models as used here. Certain shortcomings in the IPCC data and estimates, as reported by others, are also summarized. Based on this new information, recommendations are made regarding future U.S. energy policy. While it does appear that the recent years show a warming trend, the role of CO₂ in this is very small, and perhaps beneficial in moderating winter temperatures in colder climates. (Richard J. Petschauer, Senior Member IEEE)

Correction to: A 2000-year global temperature reconstruction based on non-treering proxies. Energy & Environment 19(1): 93-100. - Historical data provide a baseline for judging how anomalous recent temperature changes are and for assessing the degree to which organisms are likely to be adversely affected by current or future warming. Climate histories are commonly reconstructed from a variety of sources, including ice cores, tree rings, and sediment. Tree-ring data, being the most abundant for recent centuries, tend to dominate reconstructions. There are reasons to believe that tree ring data may not properly capture long-term climate changes. In this study, eighteen 2000-year-long series were obtained that were not based on tree ring data. Data in each series were smoothed with a 30-year running mean. All data were then converted to anomalies by subtracting the mean of each series from that series. The overall mean series was then computed by simple averaging. The mean time series shows quite coherent structure. The mean series shows the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and Little Ice Age (LIA) quite clearly, with the MWP being approximately 0.3°C warmer than 20th century values at these eighteen sites. (Multi-Science Publishing)

Not a significant correction if you are only interested in whether the MWP a) existed and b) was of comparable temperatures to those of today.

Oh good grief! Couldn’t be more wrong: - Winning Over Global-warming Skeptics - … The skeptic’s argument is simple. Since the debate is still ongoing and the jury still out, we should not get all hot and bothered about turning the world upside down to satisfy the doomsday environmentalists. Let’s take no action. The Earth will eventually normalize. Seems reasonable enough.

Or is this Russian roulette? You remember the game. The revolver has six chambers, one of which contains a bullet. I spin the magazine, put the revolver to my head, and pull the trigger. Will it fire? Probably not. Indeed, there is an 83 percent chance that I will survive, only a 17 percent chance that I will die (Rule 3). The single bullet represents, of course, disaster for the human race; while the empty chambers, an adjusting planet returning to normal. Odds for the survival of the planet, 83 percent are not too bad. Why not chance it?

But wait. The forecast of catastrophe is held by 80 percent to 95 percent of scientists, with only 5 percent to 20 percent predicting that the changes will be manageable. Not one chamber but five chambers contain bullets. If I spin the magazine and pull the trigger, will I blow my brains out? Now the probabilities are reversed — suicide, 83 percent; survival, 17 percent. Still in the game? (Joseph Murray, The Day)

This is the error made generally by AGW disaster believers. There is no “low cost” means of “addressing global warming” and no such thing as insurance against mythical problems. This is “Russian roulette” with not one but two revolvers and it works like this: (JunkScience.com Blog)

This nonsense, again! Ocean floor sensors will warn of failing Gulf Stream - An armada of robot submarines and marine sensors are to be deployed across the Atlantic, from Florida to the Canary Islands, to provide early warning that the Gulf Stream might be failing, an event that would trigger cataclysmic freezing in Britain for decades.

The £16m system, called Rapid Watch, will use the latest underwater monitoring techniques to check whether cold water pouring south from melting Arctic ice sheets is diverting the current's warm waters away from Britain.

Without the Gulf Stream, the UK would be as cold as Canada in winter. Ports could freeze over and snowstorms and blizzards would paralyse the country. An extreme version of this meteorological mayhem provided the film The Day After Tomorrow with its plotline. (Robin McKie, The Observer)

As long as the world turns and wind blows there is no stopping the gulfstream and it wouldn't significantly affect European temperatures if it did since eastern Atlantic temperatures differ dramatically from western primarily due to topography (i.e., mountain ranges deflecting winds and influencing the jet stream, causing much greater frequency of Arctic breakouts over Labrador than Scandinavia). 'Ice age Europe' due to fluctuations in the meridional overturning are one of the worst pieces of gorebull warming folklore. Will not happen. Can not happen.

7.5m Britons don't care about global warming - Up to 7.5million Brits do not care about global warming, a government briefing paper warns.

And environmental groups believe such huge disinterest could spell disaster for the planet.

They want ministers to force the "don't cares" to change their ways.

Friends of the Earth's Robin Webster, said: "Urgent steps are needed to make it cheaper to go green and increase taxes on activities that are helping to wreck the planet." (The Mirror)

If the rest understood it they wouldn't give a rat's either.

Of course... Suffering from 'eco-anxiety' - NORTH CAROLINA -- Former Vice President Al Gore isn’t the only one concerned about the environment, as more and more people are starting to become aware of global warming and experiencing ‘eco-anxiety.’

"People are afraid of the future, they're afraid of what's going to happen,” said licensed therapist Melissa Pickett, saying of one patient, "She brought up during the course of our session that she had just read an article about the polar bears and the loss of habitat and she started crying … she said 'I just don't understand this.'"

Pickett said fears about the environment are sending some people into a panic. The mental health disorder has grown enough to gain the ‘eco-anxiety’ name. (News 14)

EPA Denies Docs On Calif. Emissions Law - Invoking executive privilege, the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday refused to provide lawmakers with a full explanation of why it rejected California's greenhouse gas regulations.

The EPA informed Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., that many of the documents she had requested contained internal deliberations or attorney-client communications.

"EPA is concerned about the chilling effect that would occur if agency employees believed their frank and honest opinions and analysis expressed as part of assessing California's waiver request were to be disclosed in a broad setting," EPA's associate administrator Christopher P. Bliley wrote.

The document dump is the latest twist in a congressional investigation into why the agency denied California permission to impose what would have been the country's toughest greenhouse gas standards on cars, trucks and sports utility vehicles.

Sixteen states were ready to adopt the California rules or were considering doing so had the EPA approved the state's request for a waiver under the state Clean Air Act. (AP)

Media campaign to silence global warming skeptics failing - Step right up folks and get your tickets to the greatest scam on Earth as we pay homage to those much-maligned scientists, geologists, climate researchers and marginalized Global Warming Skeptics the world over who refuse to be silenced by the skeptiphobics who would still the voices of reason.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys observe the spectacle with amazement and see how mainstream television and newspapers have put P. T. Barnum and James Anthony Bailey, two of the world’s greatest circus hucksters, to shame with their involvement in promoting the Great Global Warming Charade.

Undoubtedly even the Ringling Brothers in their wildest imaginings could not have envisioned how the Clown Princes of media, eco-zealotry, self-interested politicians and nose-in-the-ozone academia have created the shameful alliance we have seen develop across the world today. (Bill McIntyre, CFP)

‘Medieval Environmentalists’ attack CO2 in their efforts to derail civilization - California Senator Barbara Boxer is a co-sponsor of the “Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act” (S.309). The title, and much of the text of the bill, is inappropriate since, regardless of its impact on climate change, CO2, the act’s major target, is not a pollutant.

Why are carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, particularly the relatively small amount emitted by human activity, the sole focus of most climate change debates? In scientific circles, CO2 is referred to as a ‘trace gas’ that, for hundreds of thousands of years, has remained at or below five ten-thousandths of the atmosphere by volume. Even among the so-called ‘greenhouse gases’ (GHG), CO2 accounts for less that 4%, with water vapour being by far the most significant GHG. CO2 is clearly a miniscule component of the massive mechanisms that create climate and cause climate change.

Attributing global climate change to human CO2 production is akin to trying to diagnose an automotive problem by ignoring the engine (analogous to the Sun in the climate system) and the transmission (water vapour) and instead focusing entirely, not on one nut on a rear wheel, which would be analogous to total CO2, but on one thread on that nut, which represents the human contribution. (Dr. Tim Ball & Tom Harris, CFP)

Gray Matter, Golden Balls - Although the political philosopher, John Gray, is an out-and-out ‘global warmer’, and a bit of a Neo-Malthusian doomster to boot, his rant today in The Observer against the “irrational” Greens (‘Only science can save us from climate catastrophe’, January 20) is well worth reading, especially as it makes some of the same trenchant points addressed by Nick Cohen in last week’s The Observer [see my posting: ‘Blame The Greens’, January 13]. Gray is also, like ‘Global Warming Politics’, entirely realistic about the future of fossil fuels: (Global Warming Politics)

Signs of panic? Has global warming really stopped? - Mark Lynas responds to a controversial article on newstatesman.com which argued global warming has stopped. (Mark Lynas, New Statesman)

Cap and Trade Not Enough to Cut Carbon - Goldman - NEW YORK - Capping and trading carbon emissions will not be enough to fight output of the gases blamed for warming the planet, the managing director of Goldman Sachs' US carbon emissions desk said on Thursday. (Reuters)

They don't say? To work, carbon tax must sting - Most Canadians tell pollsters they're concerned about climate change. Many insist they'd like to do something about it, and would even pay for measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But propose actual cash amounts – 25 cents a litre on gasoline, perhaps, or a $10 daily commuter toll – and support evaporates.

"Once you put a price on it, people tend to think twice about it and say, `Maybe not,'" says Mario Canseco of Angus Reid Strategies, which surveyed about 3,700 Canadians on the issue last March.

That's just one reason politicians aren't rushing to embrace an idea endorsed by environmentalists, many economists and even some business groups.

It's also why this month's report from the National Round Table on the Environment and Economy, while it produced a flurry of media headlines, appears fated to join many others on a long, dusty shelf. (Peter Gorrie, Toronto Star)

US warns EU against using environment for protectionism - BRUSSELS - US Trade Representative Susan Schwab warned Europe on Monday against using environmental issues as an excuse for protectionism amid disputes ranging from biotechnology to greenhouse gas emissions.

"We have been dismayed at a variety of suggestions where we see climate or the environment being used as an excuse to close markets," Schwab said after talks with EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.

She said it was "imperative" to "work with our colleagues in the environmental area to use trade as a positive contributor to environmental causes ... but also to avoid using climate ... as an excuse for trade protectionism." (AFP)

EU emissions plan to cost billions -German industry - FRANKFURT, Jan 21 - New financial burdens on German industry arising out of greenhouse gas emissions rules due from Brussels later this week could run to 17 billion euros ($24.92 billion), a German energy users' lobby said on Monday.

The European Commission is expected to introduce a new system on Wednesday to auction permits to emit carbon dioxide (CO2) after 2012 as part of proposals to protect the climate.

"Should the Commission implement its plans, we calculate that the costs of the CO2 trading scheme would unnecessarily rise 18-fold," said the Essen-based VIK lobby group, which says it represents 80 percent of German industrial energy consumption.

"Between 2013 and 2020, that would mean around 1 billion euros for actual CO2 reductions and 17 billion of a penalty tax on the amount of CO2 still allowed to be emitted in those years," it said in a statement.

"The EU Commission unnecessarily threatens Europe's valuable industrial structure." (Reuters)

Scientists call for sharper cuts in carbon emissions - ENVIRONMENTAL scientists are today calling on the Government to introduce tougher cuts in carbon dioxide emissions in the forthcoming Climate Change Bill.

Experts including Sir John Houghton, one of Wales’ most eminent scientists, say the Bill, which commits the UK to at least 60% reductions in greenhouse gases by 2050, is out of date.

Based on the latest science, including the most recent assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the scientists believe a reduction of more like 80% is necessary.

And they have stated their case in an open letter to the Government and leaders of the main political parties, published in a number of broadsheet newspapers today.

Signatories include the current chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, Sir John Lawton, and former chairmen, Sir Tom Blundell and Sir John Houghton. (Alice Klein, Western Mail)

EU nations chafe as the climate change bill comes in - BRUSSELS — Less than a year after challenging the world to a race to stop global warming, European Union nations are bickering over who should carry the biggest burden in the EU's push to cut greenhouse gases.

Now starkly aware of the cost their commitments could imply, the 27 nations have been lobbying the European Commission hard as it prepares to unveil Wednesday a package of measures meant to achieve Europe's climate goals.

Whether it is Germany with its auto industry, nuclear minded France, coal-dependent central Europe or the environment-friendly Nordic nations, all know they will struggle to meet targets the Commission is ready to impose.

Just nine months ago, EU leaders agreed with great fanfare to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by 2020, against 1990 levels, which they judged to be the best way to stop the planet heating by two degrees Celsius. (AFP)

EU climate change plans to cost 60 billion euros: Barroso - BRUSSELS - European Union plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions could cost at least 60 billion euros (86.6 billion dollars) a year, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Monday.

"Taking action is not cost free, although we think we can limit the cost of our proposals to around 0.5 percent of gross domestic product," he said, according to remarks prepared for delivery in London. (AFP)

Top EU ecology expert wants global warming Marshall plan - Jacqueline McGlade, the EU's chief environment expert, believes Europe needs a Marshall plan of investment - up to several percentage points of GDP per year - to reduce the vulnerability to climate change.

Europe also must lead by example on global warming, especially in reducing the use of coal and encouraging action in the developing world, the head of the Copenhagen-based European Environment Agency (EEA) told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in an exclusive interview.

Speaking ahead of the EU's planned release this week of what she called a "very ambitious climate change and energy package", McGlade said her agenda was to ensure that Europe was both united in its front on the environment and "doing its utmost" in the bloc's own environmental policies. (Trend News)

EU plans to charge for pollution rights ruffle feathers - BRUSSELS — EU plans to make companies pay for the right to pollute have come under fierce fire from governments and industry, warning they could force business and jobs to leave Europe.

As part of a broad strategy for fighting climate change, the European Commission is to unveil plans on Wednesday to make companies pay for tradeable carbon emissions quotas.

The quotas are the cornerstone of the European Union's emissions trading scheme, under which nearly 12,000 energy-intensive plants can buy or sell emissions credits, which EU governments currently hand out for free.

However, Europe's businesses are up in arms about the plans to make them pay for what are in effect permits to pollute, and European leaders are taking note, fearful of the economic impact.

"The way that it's all planned leaves us no other choice than to leave," the European steelmakers federation Eurofer warned last week. (AFP)

Really, well current spot prices don't suggest they'll raise too much cash: Welcome to euets.com - the CO2 exchange for CEE -- current quote: €0.02/mt and yes, that really is 2¢.

EU Executive Sees No Cut in Green Goods VAT - Source - BRUSSELS - There will be no proposal from the European Commission to cut sales tax on energy-efficient products as a way to help combat climate change despite French and British calls, a source at the EU executive said on Monday. (Reuters)

Japan to propose 2000 as post-Kyoto base year: report - TOKYO — Japan will propose setting 2000 as the reference year for future greenhouse gas emission cuts in a bid to bring more countries aboard a post-Kyoto Protocol deal, a report said Monday.

The Kyoto Protocol requires major developed nations to slash emissions causing global warming by an average of five percent from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will propose in a speech Saturday at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland to switch the base year for cuts to 2000 for after Kyoto's current obligations expire, Kyodo News reported.

Officials declined immediate comment on the report, which quoted unnamed government sources.

Kyodo News said Japan hoped the 2000 base would lower hurdles for fast-growing China and India, which have no obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and whose emissions shot up between 1990 and 2000.

But such a shift would likely encounter opposition from the European Union, the only major region whose emissions have gone down since 1990. (AFP)

Europe won't like this -- they chose 1990 specifically to take advantage of accidental emission reductions from the UK "dash for gas" and the collapse of inefficient Soviet industry as the USSR imploded. It was then and remains today a handicapping scheme to make European industry more competitive in global markets.

“What Skylarks, Pip!” - I must first apologise to my non-British readers for the seeming parochial nature of today’s post, which features the world’s longest-running radio soap [more than 15,000 episodes to date - it was first broadcast on Whit Monday, 1950], namely The Archers (BBC Radio 4), our famous “everyday story of country folk”. Still, you may well know the programme already (and its middle-England fictional village, Ambridge - map here), as it holds the BBC radio record for the number of times listened to over the Internet. But even if you don’t, you should most certainly read (and listen) on. In the Stott household, sitting down - often with a glass in hand - to The Archers at 7.02 pm, after the ‘News Bulletin’, is a daily ritual to savour.

Although The Archers is sometimes snootily mocked by the metro-elite as a comfortable (and comforting) middle-class, middle England, rural nostalgia series with comical Shakespearian ‘mechanicals’ thrown in, the programme frequently tackles serious social issues. For example, its present portrayal of the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on the rich and elderly Jack Woolley has been painfully drawn and superbly acted. But the programme is at its very best, and most relevant, when it addresses real countryside matters relating to farming, to the rural landscape, and to conservation. (Global Warming Politics)

Eye-roller: Philip Pullman: new brand of environmentalism - Climate change, say the pessimists, will destroy our world. But in an exclusive interview, acclaimed author Philip Pullman champions a new brand of environmentalism that offers us all hope (London Telegraph)

Dill! Environmentalism is the threat.

And Now, A Bear Market In Oil - A key Democrat wants the polar bear to be declared an endangered species to block offshore oil development in Alaska. The only thing endangered by drilling there is our dependence on foreign oil. (IBD)

Arctic Oil Activity Seen Up, Eco-Risks Loom - Report - OSLO - Exploitation of the Arctic's huge oil and gas wealth poses a growing danger to an icy wilderness that can recover only slowly from heavy oil spills, a report by the eight-nation Arctic Council said on Monday. (Reuters)

Honolulu City Lights Going Out? - As described in The Honolulu Advertiser (Jan. 15, 2008), Honolulu lawmakers apparently are thumbing their noses at basic science, energy, and environmental evidence. The international attacks on the U.S. energy systems, systems which have provided the freedom, liberty, and prosperity of our nation for 2 centuries, are being masked by green stories which are pleasing, plausible, and wrong. This is also being embraced by state legislatures -- http://tinyurl.com/2z2sej -- and is very dangerous to the economy and prosperity of Hawaii, and our nation.

In pushing for a “greener Hawaii,” the global warmers are targeting the fossil energy sources for Hawaii, one third of which goes for electrical generation, one third to transportation fuels, and the rest for aviation fuels. More than 95 percent of the state’s electrical energy is provided by fossil fuels all of which are imported, save for the few percent provided by the combustion of Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW). Closing or crippling these sources of energy would be devastating to all of Hawaii, putting the state on a path to Third World status. Such attacks on fossil energy sources, similar to the continuing attacks on nuclear and hydro facilities, are now taking place on the mainland USA -- http://tinyurl.com/2z2sej (Michael R. Fox, Hawaii Reporter)

Public stiffs green cars at Detroit auto show - After a week of rolling out green products to wow the assembled media hordes and presidential candidates at the North American International Auto Show, the public got its first look at the show Friday and stiffed the green products.

Ignoring the PC-hybrid, electric plug-in, and hydrogen concepts salivated over by the press just days before at the celebrated “press preview,” a panel of 100 Detroit News readers gave their Best-in-Show awards to big, sexy, gas-guzzling products like the 600 HP Corvette ZR-1, the 20 mpg Chrysler 300C, and the towering Ford F-150 pickup. Not a green car made the list, except for the Honda Civic Hybrid — and only as answer to the News’ “Most Earth Friendly” vehicle category. (Henry Payne, Planet Gore)

Fury as fuel poverty soars close to a 10-year record - One in six British households is living in fuel poverty, the highest for almost a decade, according to new figures that threaten the government's target to eradicate the problem in England by the end of the decade.

Fuel poverty is defined as when a household spends more than a tenth of its income on utility bills. The consumer group Energywatch said yesterday there are now about 4.4 million of these in the UK, with just over 3 million in England alone.

Charities and other groups, led by the Association for the Conservation of Energy, are preparing a legal challenge in the next few weeks to force the government to meet the 2010 target, to which it is committed by law.

The figures came at the end of a week in which the UK's largest energy supplier, British Gas, said it was increasing bills by 15 per cent. This month EDF Energy and Npower raised prices by up to 27 per cent, and two-thirds of British households will have to pay higher tariffs. Other suppliers are likely to follow suit soon.

The regulator Ofgem's estimate of 4 million UK households living in fuel poverty in 2006 does not take into account the price rises announced this month. According to government figures, the last time there were as many fuel-poor households was in 1999 when the figure was 4.5 million. Numbers then fell until about 2005, when fuel poverty started increasing again. (Tim Webb, The Observer)

See Who Gets What From Oil?

Could it get any dumber than this? Taxpayers face $15b power sale sting - NSW taxpayers could be forced to pay more than $15 billion to indemnify private companies bidding for the state's power assets, a report has found.

The indemnities - against losses that privatised coal-fired power stations would face under a new national carbon trading scheme - would wipe out the $15 billion revenue boost the Iemma Government expects to gain from the privatisation.

An analysis by the independent think tank the Australia Institute has revealed the carbon trading scheme the Federal Government intends to introduce to combat global warming would dramatically reduce the value of coal-fired generators.

According to the author of the report, economist and institute director Clive Hamilton, the cost of the indemnity could reach $15.4 billion.

"This amount would be the cost borne by NSW citizens if the NSW Government indemnifies private buyers against future carbon liabilities," he concludes. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Fortunately it's only an 'analysis' by [anti-]Australia Institute fruit-loop Clive Hamilton, so the chances of it being similar to reality are negligible.

Car companies fight CO2 laws - Europe's carmakers have launched a fresh campaign to water down EU proposals to slash carbon dioxide emissions from new vehicles and impose stiff penalties on manufacturers failing to meet its targets. (The Guardian)

Davos must deal with the water crisis - We are on the verge of a water crisis.

As we continue to grow our world economy and population, we are becoming a much thirstier world. It is important to realise just how much water we need to make every aspect of our economy work.

And we need to adapt our water use to a fast-changing world while we still can.

Every litre of petrol requires up to 2.5 litres of water to produce it. On average, crops grown for their bio-energy need at least 1,000 litres of water to make one litre of bio-fuel. (London Telegraph)

Dark side of a hot biofuel - In Indonesia, oil palms feed world thirst for clean fuel, but forests, climate and species pay a steep price (Sacramento Bee)

MPs' warning on biofuels angers Brussels - The EU yesterday denounced a House of Commons report calling for a moratorium on the increased use of biofuels and made plain it would stick to mandatory targets for the use of biofuels in transport when it unveils a climate change package today. (The Guardian)

B&Q to end sale of patio heaters - The UK's largest DIY chain, B&Q, has announced it is to stop selling environmentally damaging patio heaters once its current stock is sold off.

The company said yesterday it has 20,000 heaters in its stores and expects to sell the last one during 2008. After that it will no longer stock the heaters once branded by ministers as "environmental obscenities." (guardian.co.uk)

Whassa matta? Not enough margin in such a competitive market?

Time to wake up to the sewage crisis - While carbon emissions are now rightly lodged at the forefront of most people's minds, I'm constantly dismayed at how few mentions another urgent global environmental crisis is getting. There is a major stink out there.

It's not a glamorous issue, far from it. In fact it's a bit of a taboo subject. But it's an issue we need to start talking about because it's causing extensive environmental damage and leading to the deaths of 5,000 infants every day.

It's a problem of disposal of human waste and toilets. Or rather the lack of good sanitation and toilets. (London Telegraph)

Well, the need for sanitation and potable water part is right, at least.

Traipsing off into the virtual realm, again... As carbon dioxide levels rise, staple grains could lose some nutritional value - It started with a seemingly off-the-wall question in a 2004 global change biology class at Southwestern University. The discussion was about how increases in carbon dioxide, a contributing cause of global warming, lead to a decline in the amount of proteins in some plants.

"How would rising CO2 levels affect the Atkins diet?" asked Holly Allen, then an undergraduate majoring in environmental studies. The Atkins diet, still en vogue then, emphasizes proteins over carbohydrates.

Searching for the answer led to a study, to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Global Change Biology, that provides a serious answer:

Protein levels in staple foods like rice and wheat could decline by as much as 15 percent by the year 2100.

Those results could have far-reaching consequences for nutrition, especially in developing countries. (Austin American-Statesman)

Francis Childs, 68, Dies; Sage of High Corn Yields - Francis Childs, a third-generation farmer who studied, schemed and tramped his fields with a spade to become the most productive corn grower ever, died on Jan. 9 in Marshall County, Iowa. He was 68.

Carolynn Childs, his daughter-in-law, confirmed the death but declined to give a cause.

Mr. Childs shattered old notions of just how much corn could be coaxed from an acre of ground. He was the first farmer in a controlled contest to exceed 400 bushels an acre, achieving 405 in 2001 and 442 the next year.

Neighbors on land similar to his were getting yields just a third this size. When he passed 400 bushels, his nearest competitor trailed him by 85. In 1999, an Agriculture Department official watching the weigh-in of his 394 bushels likened the event to breaking the sound barrier, The Wall Street Journal reported. (New York Times)

Canadian farmer forces GM giant back to court - He was portrayed as an environmental David who stood up to the corporate Goliath, and became a figurehead of the battle against the introduction of genetically modified crops everywhere. When Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser was sued by Monsanto for growing the firm's GM crops, which he claimed blew on to his land, the company's eventual victory in the Canadian supreme court was overshadowed by accusations of aggressive tactics and corporate bullying.

Now, Schmeiser, of Bruno, Saskatchewan, is back to launch another slingshot at Monsanto, and this time he is suing the billion dollar business for £300 in his local small claims court. At stake, he says, is millions of pounds of compensation for those who have seen their land contaminated with GM material, and the rights of organic farmers and others to produce GM-free crops. Monsanto calls the case "specific and local". (The Guardian)

Bizarrely The Guardian finds multiply-adjudged liar and thief Percy Schmeiser as worthy of yet more ink.

Militant 'Farmer' and French Government Make Common Cause in GM Crop Ban - PARIS -- It was one of the most surprising and revealing images of the New Year in French politics: José Bové, the famously mustachioed "anti-globalization" activist and self-appointed scourge of genetically-modified crops, being greeted by France's prim and proper Deputy Minister of Ecology Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet . . . with a kiss. The highly publicized encounter took place with cameras rolling on Jan. 3 in front of the French Ministry of Ecology in Paris. Technically, Bové was supposed to be in prison, serving a four-month jail sentence as a consequence of his role in vandalizing a field of genetically-modified (GM) corn in the French department of Haute-Garrone in 2004. But in mid-December, a judge "converted" his jail sentence into a fine of €4,800.

For several years now, Bové has been the leading figure in a movement of so-called "Volunteer Reapers" (Faucheurs Volontaires) whose members express their opposition to the introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in France by tearing up fields of GM crops. The friendly kiss in front of the Ministry of Ecology provides perhaps the most striking illustration to date of the remarkable complicity that exists between French authorities -- ostensibly sworn to uphold the law -- and the small band of radical anti-GMO militants who make a regular practice of breaking it. (John Rosenthal, World Politics Review)

January 21, 2008

Yes! We did!

Not so much like this

More like this

but we have managed to recover just about everything following a major crash.

Unfortunately it was taking too long to unravel all the individual comments which have been concatenated by thread (sorry!) but at least most are still online. Additionally, we have lost a couple of threads and still need to restore a few files — we’re getting there — please bear with us.

Meanwhile, despite the blog having a new address and annoying people whose blog links no longer work, JunkScience.com is undamaged & fully functional while the blog, albeit with a couple of dings in the fender, is back and working more or less as before — within days all missing files & updates should be complete.

Thank you all for your patience.

Barry Hearn
Senior Editor, JunkScience.com

January 18, 2008

Manmade Antarctic Melting, Indeed - A new study, much hyped by the media, blames humans for escalating ice loss in Antarctica. The media, however, seems to have no idea as to how truly manmade the supposed ice loss may be. (Steve Milloy, FoxNews.com)

Ice returns as Greenland temps plummet - While the rest of Europe is debating the prospects of global warming during an unseasonably mild winter, a brutal cold snap is raging across the semi-autonomous nation of Greenland.

On Disko Bay in western Greenland, where a number of prominent world leaders have visited in recent years to get a first-hand impression of climate change, temperatures have dropped so drastically that the water has frozen over for the first time in a decade.

'The ice is up to 50cm thick,' said Henrik Matthiesen, an employee at Denmark's Meteorological Institute who has also sailed the Greenlandic coastline for the Royal Arctic Line. 'We've had loads of northerly winds since Christmas which has made the area miserably cold.'

Matthiesen suggested the cold weather marked a return to the frigid temperatures common a decade ago. (Copenhagen Post)

Russia Warns of Emergency as Siberian Temperatures Dip to -55C - Jan. 16 -- The Russian region of Siberia faces plunging temperatures over the next week, the Emergencies Ministry warned, advising regional officials to be prepared for heating systems to break down in the extreme cold.

Worst hit will be the Siberian region of Evenkiya, where night-time temperatures will be as low as minus 55 degrees Celsius (minus 67 degrees Fahrenheit), the Emergencies Ministry said today in a ``special warning'' posted on its Web site. Temperatures to Jan. 21 are expected to be 12 degrees to 15 degrees Celsius below the long-term average, it said.

In the former Soviet republic of Georgia, famed for growing wine, tea and citrus fruits in a subtropical climate, Lake Paliastomi in the west of the country froze for the first time in 50 years, Rustavi-2 television reported. Temperatures plunged to as low as minus 35 degrees Celsius, Rustavi said.

In the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, the temperature fell below minus 13 degrees last night, the coldest in 14 years, Rustavi-2 said. The city is ill-prepared for prolonged cold: During a Jan. 5 presidential election, Tbilisi was covered in snow, and motorists slithered along roads untreated with grit or sand. (Bloomberg)

More PlayStation® 'science': Far fewer polar bears expected by 2050 - WASHINGTON - Two-thirds of the world's polar bears will be killed off by 2050 – and the entire population gone from Alaska – because of thinning sea ice from global warming in the Arctic, government scientists forecast Friday.

Only in the northern Canadian Arctic islands and the west coast of Greenland are any of the world's 16,000 polar bears expected to survive through the end of the century, said the U.S. Geological Survey, which is the scientific arm of the Interior Department. (AP)

Bear litigation a ploy, say Inuit groups - The push by environmentalists to have polar bears declared a threatened species by the U.S. is a cynical ploy that puts politics ahead of science, says Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapariit Kanatami.

Three environmental groups announced last week they would sue the U.S. government for missing its deadline to decide whether polar bears should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. In response, ITK and the Inuit Circumpolar Conference issued a joint press release Jan. 14 that condemns the groups.

Simon said environmentalists are "using the polar bear for political reasons against the Bush administration over greenhouse gas emissions, and as Inuit we fundamentally disagree with such tactics."

On Jan. 7 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it needed another 30 days to decide whether polar bears should be classified as "threatened" under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. (Nunatsiaq  News)

Polar bear status won't halt oil exploration - WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is just weeks away from a decision that most likely will designate polar bears as a threatened species but said today that it won't budge on issuing oil and gas leases in their shrinking Alaska habitat.

A House committee on global warming called on the U.S. Interior Department to hold off auctioning oil and gas leases in northwest Alaska's Chukchi Sea until it makes a decision about whether to list polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service postponed the decision last week for at least another 30 days, and it is not expected to be issued before the Feb. 6 oil and gas lease sale by the Minerals Management Service. The agency estimates that the Chukchi Sea holds 15 billion barrels of oil and as much as 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

"Every time there is a choice between extinction and extraction in this administration, extraction wins," said the committee's chairman, U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass. "This must not be the case for the polar bear." (ADN)

Global warming hysteria fading in Canada? (Tom Nelson)

Podcasts From AccuWx On Climate Change - There are a set of quite informative podcasts on the Accuweather website. It is accessible through http://www.accuweather.com/global-warming/headline-earth.asp

Interviewees include Jim Hansen to Fred Singer. These interviews are well worth listening too. Accuweather is commended for seeking to present the diversity of views on climate change science. (Climate Science)

Cycles in Landfalling U.S. Hurricanes? - To many global warming alarmists, every disastrous weather event becomes yet another piece of evidence of the coming man-made apocalypse. One only needs to look at their exploitation of Hurricane Katrina victims in the furtherance of the global warming crusade. Most average citizens are shocked to find out that at landfall, Katrina was not a record-setting Category 5 monster hurricane, but really a Category 3 storm—hardly unprecedented in intensity but devastating with respect to the landfall location and timing.

Most reasonable people believe that there exist natural cycles in climatic events, perhaps even hurricanes. But to the aforementioned alarmists, cycles are anathema—with increasing greenhouse gases, temperatures (and the related disastrous repercussions) must only trend inexorably upward. The declining (cooling) limb of any cycle is simply unacceptable. (WCR)

Adapting To Climate - The mantra is repeated daily. There is consensus on climate change. Global warming is real. It will be a disaster. Humans are to blame. We have to do something – immediately.

The United Nations and its Climate Cataclysm army of 15,000 in exotic Bali were not about to let even one fact prevent them from promoting climate scares and a successor to the Kyoto treaty. Gloom-and-doom scientists and bureaucrats owned Bali’s podiums. Radical environmentalists fumed and staged stunts. Al Gore denounced President Bush, repeated myths that enthralled the Academy and Nobel committees, and demanded sacrifices – by others.

Meanwhile, respected climate scientists were barred from panel discussions, censored, silenced and threatened with physical removal by polizei, if they tried to hold a press conference to present peer-reviewed evidence on climate, such as:

Climate change is natural and recurrent. The human factor is small compared to that of the sun and other natural forces. There has been no overall global warming since 1998, and most local and regional warming trends have been offset by nearby cooling. One degree of net warming since 1900 (amid many temperature ups and downs) does not foreshadow a catastrophe. Recent glacial retreats, sea-level rise and migrations of temperature sensitive species are all within the bounds of known natural variability.

The best approach is to adapt, as our ancestors did. (Paul Driessen, ACUF)

Washington state sea levels could rise considerably by end of century - Melting glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica, combined with other effects of global climate change, are likely to raise sea levels in parts of Western Washington by the end of this century, though geological forces will offset the rising water in some areas.

A new report suggests a moderate scenario is for sea levels on the Washington Coast and in the Puget Sound Basin to rise an average of 6 inches by 2050 and 14 inches by 2100.

The analysis, conducted by the Pacific Northwest Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington and the Washington State Department of Ecology, suggests that a worst-case scenario could raise sea levels in some places as much as 22 inches by 2050 and 50 inches -- more than 4 feet -- by 2100.

"We can't rule out higher rates of sea-level rise, but given what we know now they seem improbable," said Philip Mote, a UW research scientist and lead author of the analysis. Other authors are Spencer Reeder and Hugh Shipman of the Department of Ecology and Alexander Petersen and Lara Whitely Binder of the Climate Impacts Group.

The scenarios are based on projections for worldwide sea-level increases contained in the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body that this year shared the Nobel Peace Prize. Mote was a lead author for one chapter of the panel's report. (University of Washington)

South Florida firm plans Kyoto specialty - Speaking to 200 participants who gathered Thursday in Coral Gables for a conference on how to take advantage of global warming, a Greenberg Traurig executive described how the law firm had established a Climate Change Task Force to meet the growing needs of the business community.

John S. ''Chip'' Rainey, a member of the firm's Carbon Credits Group, said Greenberg Traurig envisioned a huge need for lawyers to be involved in virtually every aspect of the complex provisions worked out by the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Miami Herald)

Sarkozy attacks EU carbon targets - Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has weighed into the controversy over the European Union's climate change plans with an attack on some proposals as "neither efficient, fair nor economically sustainable".

Just six months before France takes up the EU presidency, Mr Sarkozy has written to Commission president José Manuel Barroso to set out his objections to the plan for reducing carbon emissions to be published later this month. (Financial Times)

The End Of European Industry? - Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa, better known as ‘Sarko’, the French President, has more on his mind than singer/ex-model Carla Bruni, and former wives, Marie-Dominique Culioli and Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz. As the Financial Times reports (‘Sarkozy attacks EU carbon targets’, January 15), he is about to employ his now infamous Kärcher on the EU’s self-destructive and barmy emissions-trading scheme:

“Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, has weighed into the controversy over the European Union’s climate change plans with an attack on some proposals as ‘neither efficient, fair nor economically sustainable’. Just six months before France takes up the EU presidency, Mr Sarkozy has written to Commission president José Manuel Barroso to set out his objections to the plan for reducing carbon emissions to be published later this month.”

Above all in his letter, “... he warns that, as currently structured, the proposals could unfairly penalise France and would pose a real threat to European industry, which would be forced to move to countries where regulations were less restrictive and costly.” (Global Warming Politics)

Oh, so it's just a face-saving exercise? EU to Stick to Climate Plan Despite Rival Protests - BRUSSELS - The European Commission will spell out next week, over the din of protests from industry and governments as well as green groups, how it intends to cut greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change.

At stake, as Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Wednesday, is Europe's credibility in claiming to lead the world in the fight against global warming. (Reuters)

Norway Says Aims to Go Carbon Neutral by 2030 - OSLO - Norway, which last year set what it called the world's most ambitious target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, said on Thursday it aimed to go "carbon neutral" in 2030, which is 20 years earlier than its previous target. (Reuters)

New chief scientist’s advice to Defra - Defra’s new chief scientific adviser Prof Robert Watson spoke about climate change at the Oxford Farming Conference. After his speech, WILLIAM SURMAN caught up with him and asked what sort of advice he would be giving Defra Secretary Hilary Benn.( Farmers Guardian)

British Gas Chief Says EU Must Make Polluters Pay - LONDON - Lawmakers must act now to end a scheme that has handed billions of euros in windfall profits to Europe's biggest polluters, the chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica said on Thursday.

Sam Laidlaw also said homeowners should expect a slight long-term rise in energy bills as power firms invest in the clean technologies needed to reduce CO2 emissions and combat climate change. (Reuters)

Britain Cool on Carbon Profit Claw Back Proposal - LONDON - Britain is focused on making power generators buy more permits to emit climate-warming gases, rather than taking back billions of pounds in windfall carbon profits from utilities, the government says.

Energy regulator Ofgem told UK finance minister Alistair Darling on Tuesday he could redistribute an estimated 9 billion pounds the energy sector stands to gain from trading carbon permits they got for free under the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to help people struggling to pay their bills.

But the government seems unlikely to take back the fat profits to be made from the second stage of the ETS. Instead it wants the European Union to auction off, not give away, most of the credits for the third phase of the ETS. (Reuters)

Nuclear Fuel: Waste Not, Want Not - On the eve of the Nevada caucus, Democrats fall over each another opposing storage of the nation's nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain Repository. But is it really waste or the ultimate form of renewable energy? (IBD)

Unconventional natural gas reservoir in Pennsylvania poised to dramatically increase US Production - Natural gas distributed throughout the Marcellus black shale in northern Appalachia could conservatively boost proven U.S. reserves by trillions of cubic feet if gas production companies employ horizontal drilling techniques, according to a Penn State and State University of New York, Fredonia, team. (Penn State)

Siberian riches - With the population of 0.03 persons per square kilometre in some parts and temperatures plunging well below minus 50 degrees Celsius in the winter, East Siberia is Russia's next up-and-coming oil province.

In fact, developing the remote eastern lands -- formerly home to many of Russia's notorious Gulag labour camps -- is no longer a choice but a necessity, thanks to Russia's booming economy, growing exports obligations and colossal ambitions to become a truly global supplier of energy. The advancing maturity of the country's main producing fields in Western Siberia means that an alternative must be found before supply becomes a real issue.

East Siberia and the Russian Far East (RFE) rose on the government agenda rapidly, propelled primarily by geopolitical considerations. The region's proximity to the Asia-Pacific, tensions in energy relations with Europe and the resultant desire to diversify export outlets -- not least to raise its bargaining power with Europe -- have made East Siberia and the RFE the preferred candidate of the Russian government to succeed -- or better still, complement -- West Siberia. (The World Next Week)

China Drought Underlines Hydropower Reliance Risks - BEIJING - A major drought has squeezed electricity output at big dams across southwest China, highlighting the risks of Beijing's massive hydropower expansion plans on coal and oil markets in a warmer, drier world. (Reuters)

Down and dirty - IN THE world of environmental activism, there is a good rule of thumb. If an energy source comes out of the ground it is probably bad (think coal, oil, natural gas and, in the view of many, uranium). If it does not, then it is probably good (think wind, waves, solar and biofuels). But there is an exception. Even the most hair-shirted environmentalist finds it hard to argue against geothermal energy. When what comes out of the ground is merely hot water or steam there is, as it were, little to get steamed up about.

The problem is that traditional geothermal power relies on volcanism. Fine if you live in Iceland or New Zealand. Not so good in a geologically passive place such as Germany. Which is why Wulf Brandt, of the National Research Centre of Geosciences in Potsdam, has dug a deep hole in the ground at Gross Schönebeck, near Berlin. (Economist.com)

Top Ten Science Based Predictions that didn’t come true. - There’s an article in the New York Times pushing a something called “the five stages of climate grief” done by a professor at the University of Montana. This got me to thinking about the regular disaster forecasting that we see published in the media about what will happen due to climate change.

We’ve seen this sort of angst broadcast before, and it occurred to me that through history, a lot of ”predictions of certainty” with roots in scientifically based forecasts have not come true. That being the case, here is the list I’ve compiled of famous quotes and consensus from “experts”. (Watts Up With That?)

How’d we get here? If you’re confused about the latest statin and cholesterol news, this information may help... - Have you been confused about what to make of the ENHANCE trial tumult and the differing viewpoints from experts about whether or not statins save lives and if lowering cholesterol levels matter?

It’s certainly become widely believed that lowering our cholesterol levels is important to prevent heart disease and premature death — but is it?

It’s also popularly believed that statins are important for preventing premature deaths (whether or not they work by lowering cholesterol levels) — but are they?

How can we make informed, evidence-based, decisions or make sense of the conflicting things we've been hearing this week? (Junkfood Science)

Research Links New Virus to Rare Form of Skin Cancer - Scientists have discovered a new virus and strongly linked it with the most aggressive form of skin cancer, they reported in a scientific journal on Thursday.

The skin cancer, called Merkel cell carcinoma, tends to occur most often on the sun exposed areas of the body like the face, head and neck.

Although rare, the incidence of Merkel cell carcinoma tripled between 1986 and 2001, now accounting for an estimated 1,200 cases in this country each year, the National Cancer Institute says.

The team that discovered the new virus at the University of Pittsburgh includes Dr. Patrick S. Moore and his wife, Dr. Yuan Chang. They also discovered the Kaposi’s sarcoma virus (human herpes virus 8) in 1994 when they were at Columbia University.

Until the advent of transplant surgery and AIDS, Kaposi’s sarcoma and Merkel cell carcinoma typically affected people older than 65. Now both cancers occur much more commonly among transplant and AIDS patients, who have impaired immune systems, than among people without such medical problems.

The new virus belongs to the polyoma family, which scientists have studied for more than 50 years because other members of the family have been found to produce cancers in animals. Although polyoma viruses have been suspected of causing human cancers, conclusive proof has been lacking. The Pittsburgh scientists call the new virus Merkel cell polyoma virus.

In a report that Science magazine published online, the scientists said that while they suspect the polyoma virus causes Merkel cell skin cancer, more work is needed to prove it. (New York Times)

Team finds an economical way to boost the vitamin A content of maize - A team of plant geneticists and crop scientists has pioneered an economical approach to the selective breeding of maize that can boost levels of provitamin A, the precursors that are converted to vitamin A upon consumption. This innovation could help to enhance the nutritional status of millions of people in the developing world. (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Europe voices ethical doubts over 'Frankenfood' - BRUSSELS — A European report voicing ethical misgivings over cloned animal products on Thursday fuelled a growing debate in the EU on "frankenfood", despite approvals granted this week by US food authorities.

"Considering the current level of suffering and health problems of surrogate dams (mothers) and animal clones, the EGE has doubts as to whether cloning animals for food supply is ethically justified," the European Group on Ethics in science and new technologies (EGE) said in an opinion delivered to the European Commission.

The EU-endorsed group added that it "does not see convincing arguments to justify the production of food from clones and their offspring", in its opinion made public Thursday after being delivered to EU authorities late Wednesday. (AFP)

January 17, 2008

The one to watch in 2008 - Malaria kills thousands each day, mainly in the world's poorest countries. At a research centre in Mozambique, the work of one man, Pedro Alonso, offers hope

Westerners travelling to work in malarial regions used to be told that there was only one way to avoid catching the mosquito-borne disease: don't get bitten. It was by no means a foolproof method, but at least wealthy expats could afford preventative medicine and proper treatment if infected by the parasite. These, however, are not easily available options for many of the 500 million people in developing countries who catch malaria every year. Estimates vary, but somewhere between one and two and a half million of those die.

The statistics make a ghastly roll-call: more than 90 per cent of fatal cases are children under five. Most of these are in Africa, where roughly 2,000 children die from the disease every day. No wonder that ten years ago the World Health Organisation declared the mosquito "public health enemy number one".

If there is one man who provides hope in the long fight against malaria, which is spreading out of the tropics through a combination of increased travel and trade and, possibly, global warming, it is Pedro Alonso. The director of the Bar celona Centre for International Health Research is a modest man. He insists that he has "just been one of many". Nevertheless, he is the public face of a project in Mozambique that has made the prospect of eliminating malaria appear tantalisingly within our grasp. (New Statesman)

Revulsion theatre: using horror to “make you” change your ways - Trying to gross you out or terrorize you about fat are the latest side show efforts to make people feel disgusted by fat people and for their own bodies, and to scare them about "bad" foods. Crudeness is not how trusted medical providers care for people, but it does create attention for “celebrity” chefs. The same young chef who electrocuted a chicken to scare people about eating things he doesn’t believe are good for children is now behind televising an autopsy — the distasteful content reportedly to “make people change their eating habits.” (Junkfood Science)

Cholesterol as a Danger Has Skeptics - For decades, the theory that lowering cholesterol is always beneficial has been a core principle of cardiology. It has been accepted by doctors and used by drug makers to win quick approval for new medicines to reduce cholesterol.

But now some prominent cardiologists say the results of two recent clinical trials have raised serious questions about that theory — and the value of two widely used cholesterol-lowering medicines, Zetia and its sister drug, Vytorin. Other new cholesterol-fighting drugs, including one that Merck hopes to begin selling this year, may also require closer scrutiny, they say. (New York Times)

Yet more classical scaremongering nonsense (Number Watch)

Fun science facts: What do people really know about science? - The new report “Science and Engineering Indicators 2008” has just been released. This is that biannual report by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Science Resources Statistics under the National Science Board that reveals the state of science education, research and development trends, health of the science and technology industry, and the understanding of science among children and adults in the United States. The chapter on public attitudes and understandings about science and health always offers interesting surprises about what people think. (Junkfood Science)

Reporting or marketing? It really is possible to tell the difference... - All too often, journalism today is little more than marketing copy. How many reporters cite original source materials, investigate the evidence behind the claims, reveal the conflicts of interest of the experts they quote, or present a balanced viewpoint? Practically none, especially when it comes to obesity. Writing that elicits an emotional response on this issue, rather than objectively reports the facts, has become so widespread that many readers and editors have become numb to the manipulations.

Can you identify how many things were not revealed in this story and how words and images were used to steer your emotions? (Junkfood Science)

Out of business: the country’s largest weight loss chain - Amidst the nonstop diet and weight loss commercials that are besieging us this month with unprecedented intensity, have you noticed the silence from the country’s largest weight loss chain? For years, you couldn’t turn on the television without seeing an ad for LA Weight Loss Centers — the corporate-owned outlets renamed 'Pure Weight Loss' last year.

But that's no more, because Pure Weight Loss, Inc. (formerly LA Weight Loss Centers) based in Horsham, Pennsylvania, went out of business on January 4th — shutting down all 400 corporate centers across the country — and leaving countless numbers of consumers high and dry. Unsuspecting customers had prepaid unfathomable amounts of money for expensive weight loss products, diet bars and “nutrition” supplements... money they aren’t likely to ever see. (Junkfood Science)

The world according to Jim - Hansen claims 2007 was the equal second warmest in history but which data is he using? He has published global mean temperature anomalies for December 2007 of +0.39 to +0.6. Everyone else seems to think the world has cooled since 1998 yet Hansen claims it’s a tie. Why? (JunkScience.com blog)

Low system heralds return of Big Wet - A MONSOONAL low that battered an inland town with the ferocity of a mini-cyclone and caused at least $12 million worth of damage across north Queensland was hailed by a senior forecaster yesterday as heralding a return to the traditional Big Wet.

After wreaking havoc in Airlie Beach, Proserpine and Townsville, the volatile tropical low headed southwest, picked up intensity and slammed the historic mining town of Charters Towers late on Tuesday afternoon with winds up to 96km/h.

The system dumped almost 200mm of rain in two hours and more than 60 homes and businesses were flooded in the town, which lies 100km southwest of Townsville.

Bureau of Meteorology severe weather expert Jeff Callaghan said it was unusual for a tropical low to increase intensity while travelling so far inland.

"Usually they weaken after they cross the coast," Mr Callaghan said.

"This was a very intense system. If it had remained out to sea, it would have developed into a severe cyclone."

He said the weather that had dumped huge amounts of rain over vast areas of Queensland in the past week signalled the start of a pattern not seen since 1977, when drought-causing El Nino events began to become the norm.

"This is the sort of weather we had right through the 1950s and through to the mid-1970s," he said. (The Australian)

It remains to be seen whether we are witnessing a Pacific phase shift back to the regime that held through the great cooling scare. Early indications are promising.

Climate Science has Moved and is Back Online! - We have moved our weblog to a new private host and we are back up and running. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Our new link is http://climatesci.org (Climate Science)

Discuss this in the blog: New test for developers in Maine: climate change - A plan to build thousands of new homes next to a lake in Maine’s north woods faces an environmental test that may one day challenge developers nationwide: What’s the carbon footprint of a new subdivision or land development?

At hearings last month, Maine environmentalists unveiled for state regulators what is being called a first-in-the-nation study of the greenhouse-gas emissions expected from a huge development planned for Maine’s Moosehead Lake. Some observers call it a new front in an emerging battle between environmentalists and developers that started in California two years ago.

The Failure of Climate Change Economics - In 1896, the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius developed a theory to explain the likely impact of burning coal on the climate.  Arrhenius claimed that, due to human activity, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere would increase, creating an "enhanced" greenhouse effect.  His theory did not enjoy consensus in his time, but the scientific community today agrees that human beings are responsible for the present global warming trend.  Why, then, has the United States not signed on to the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the international document that established legally binding reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, with targets determined on a country-by-country basis? (Matthew Thomas Clement, Monthly Review)

Oh, it's the pine beetles' fault: Prince George to send warm water into river to ease ice jam - Prince George has been given the go-ahead to pump warm water into the Nechako River with the aim of loosening an ice jam that has caused widespread flooding in the city for five weeks.

Clean discharge water heated to 15 degrees from steam plants belonging to Canfor pulp mills on the northern outskirts of the city will be pumped into the river as soon as possible, said city spokesman Don Schaffer.

Approval for the plan came from the Provincial Emergency Program, he said. The estimated cost for the project is $500,000.

He said that the temperature was only four degrees warmer than the current temperature of the river and would therefore have little impact on resident sturgeon and bull trout.

A second plan, to run an amphibious excavator - a digging machine that is adapted to work in water - that would sit in the river, carve out ice, and move it to a stretch of open water on the nearby Fraser River was also given approval by the PEP, Mr. Schaffer said.

The unseasonably warm temperatures of the past week have resulted in open water on the Fraser River, creating an opportunity that did not exist earlier to move ice out of the Nechako. (Globe and Mail)

Hubbard Glacier refuses to fade away - As you read this, a rogue glacier is again threatening a small town.

Hubbard Glacier crept to within a football-field distance of ramming into Gilbert Point last June, and some scientists say that a spring 2008 closure of Russell Fiord “may be eminent.” Roman Motyka, a research professor with the University of Alaska Southeast and the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, gives Hubbard a 50-50 chance of plugging the entrance to Russell Fiord this spring.

Hubbard Glacier dips its tongue into salt water about 40 miles north of Yakutat, Alaska, home to about 600 people. Fed by fields of ice so immense that the glacier will rumble forward regardless of how warm the planet gets in the near future, Hubbard Glacier made headlines in 2002 when it bulldozed gravel into Gilbert Point, pinching off Russell Fiord’s link to the sea and creating the largest glacier-dammed lake in the world. Before the gravel dam broke, water within the lake rose more than eight inches each day and threatened to spill into a world-class steelhead stream near Yakutat.

Hubbard Glacier has been thickening and advancing since scientists first measured it in 1895. After the glacier dammed the fiord in 1986, the new Russell Lake rose 83 feet above sea level before the ice-and-gravel dam broke. In 2002, Russell Lake reached 49 feet above sea level before the dam burst and the water rejoined the ocean with a flood 30 percent greater than the largest measured flow of the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge. (Alaska Science Forum)

It’s Water Vapour, Stupid - An extremely important and challenging paper, ‘Coupling of water and carbon fluxes via the terrestrial biosphere and its significance to the Earth’s climate system’, has just been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research (Vol. 112, 2007: doi:10.1029/2007JD008431). The paper is by Paul R. Ferguson and the eminent, Professor Ján Veizer, of the Department of Earth Sciences and Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre, University of Ottawa, Canada. (Global Warming Politics)

Whoops! Those Darned Climate Models Just Don’t Work - What will the world look like in a century? Imagine asking that question in 1900. And in 1800. The world would have changed in so many dramatic ways, that any economic and environmental predictions would have been worthless.

That’s the problem that we face with the climate doomsayers. They can spin out scenarios day after day, but there is little reason to believe the underlying economic and other assumptions.

So far the computer models have proved inadequate to the task. More research has come forth demonstrating that the models predict more warming than we have so far seen. If they can’t get the last three decades right, why does anyone believe that they will get multiple decades, or longer, in the future right? (Doug Bandow, CEI)

Hmm... Climate change, global economy among top priorities for 2008: UNDP chief - 16 January 2008 – Climate change and the world economy are among the top development priorities for this year, the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced today in New York. (UN News)

... either these are mutually exclusive goals or he means they are going to concentrate on hyping the phantom menace in order to destroy the world economy.

Even the cheapest global warming bill ain't cheap - A report released yesterday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should be opening some eyes to the true costs and ultimate ineffectiveness of proposed domestic legislation to fight global warming.

The study is an analysis of the economic impact of New Mexico Democratic senator Jeff Bingaman’s version of climate legislation. It is important to note that Bingaman's bill is widely considered to be the least stringent climate bill, with less aggressive carbon-emission-reduction targets than any other proposal. Even so, the EPA estimates that Bingaman’s bill would cause gas prices to rise 22 cents per gallon by 2030 and 57 cents per gallon by 2050. In addition, it would spark a 19-percent rise in electricity prices by 2030 ticking up to 21 percent by 2050. All told, Bingaman’s legislation would cut between 0.5 percent and 1.4 percent ($124 billion to $370 billion) from the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. (Sterling Burnett, Planet Gore)

Taxi Industry Questions Safety Of Switching to Hybrid Vehicles - Taxi industry officials are calling dangerous Mayor Bloomberg's plan to quickly replace Ford's Crown Victoria vehicles with fuel-efficient hybrid cars.

Of the nine hybrid models approved by the Taxi and Limousine Commission, not one meets the safety, durability, and comfort standards of the industry's most popular vehicle, the bulky, gas-guzzling Crown Victoria, the officials say.

The most frequently employed hybrid model on the street today, the Ford Escape, last year received a three-star rollover rating from a federal review agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Crown Victoria was awarded the maximum five stars, beating out all of the hybrid competitors that have been tested. (New York Sun)

Texas Is Biggest Carbon Polluter - (AUSTIN, Texas) — Everything's big in Texas — big pickup trucks, big SUVs and the state's big carbon footprint, too.

Texans' fondness for large, manly vehicles has helped make the Lone Star State the biggest carbon polluter in the nation.

The headquarters state of America's oil industry spewed 670 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2003, enough that Texas would rank seventh in the world if it were its own country, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The amount is more than that of California and Pennsylvania — the second- and third-ranking states — combined. (AP)

Except atmospheric carbon dioxide is not pollution.

UN Climate Head Welcomes Marshall Plan Climate Fund - LONDON - UN climate chief Yvo de Boer on Wednesday hailed as a "Marshall Plan" for climate change news that the United States will set up a multi-billion dollar fund to help developing nations acquire clean power technologies. (Reuters)

Detroit Wants Industries Looked at on Climate - DETROIT - With stricter US rules in place to sharply improve gas mileage and reduce tailpipe emissions, domestic automakers now want Washington to look elsewhere for help in achieving climate change goals. (Reuters)

Climate plans spark EU job fears - Trade unions and business leaders say EU plans to cut carbon emissions could harm European jobs and industry.

The European Trade Union Confederation fears up to 50,000 steelworkers' jobs could go if their industry moves to areas with lower costs for polluters.

And lobby group BusinessEurope says companies will lose competitiveness if they are forced to buy all their rights to emit carbon dioxide. (BBC)

EU's Barroso Hits Back at Critics of Climate Plan - STRASBOURG, France - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso hit back on Wednesday at criticism from member states and industry of planned radical proposals to fight climate change and save energy. (Reuters)

EU wants Germany to double clean energy output: report - (FRANKFURT) - The European Commission wants Germany to double the percentage of renewable energy in its overall consumption to 18 percent by 2020, a press report said, quoting EU diplomatic sources.

The European Union's executive branch wants France to raise its share of energy produced by solar, wind and other clean power generating methods to 23 percent over the next 12 years, the daily Handelsblatt said. (EUbusiness)

Biofuels, BP-Berkeley, and the New Ecological Imperialism - British Petroleum, Beyond Petroleum . . . Biofuel Promoter, Biosphere Plunderer. Regardless of what the BP abbreviation actually stands for, one thing is clear: this oil giant knows a good deal when it sees one. For a relatively small financial contribution, BP appropriates academic expertise from a leading public research institution, founded on 200 years of social support, to maximize its return on energy investments. These investments, in turn, are focused primarily on promoting the market for biofuel, the newest darling of those in power who stimulate change while maintaining "business as usual." This means working-class people in the core developed countries will subsidize the extraction of even more ecological goods from the developing world to serve elites, who never mind taking food out of the mouths of people to put gold in their pockets. Socializing the costs for private economic gain is not a new phenomenon in the capitalist system. However, this case represents a new twist in the combination of debunked science, ecological imperialism, and the sophistry of "sustainable development." (Hannah Holleman and Rebecca Clausen, Monthly Review)

Editorial: No more energy favors, please - WASHINGTON - Huge energy price increases account for almost all of terrible new inflation numbers that came out yesterday, and federal lawmakers deserve much of the blame. The Labor Department said wholesale prices rose 6.3 percent in 2007, the largest jump in 26 years. “Core” inflation (excluding food and energy) rose just 2 percent, but a whopping 18.4 percent jump in energy prices pushed the overall rate sky-high. It is true that a large part of the problem today stems from increasing international demand combined with a weak dollar. But the big congressional energy bill of 2005 unnecessarily made the problem far worse. In April 2005, when gasoline prices were at what now seems like a bargain at $2.20 per gallon, analyst Ben Lieberman of the Heritage Foundation warned that the energy bill then moving through Congress would be a disaster. Boy, he got that right. (The Washington DC Examiner)

New Fields May Offset Oil Drop - Output from the world's existing oil fields is declining at a rate of about 4.5% annually, a new study concludes, depriving the world of the same amount of oil that No. 4 producer Iran supplies in a year.

Yet the study's authors, Boston-based Cambridge Energy Research Associates, argue that their assessment supports a generally rosy view of the industry's future, given that new projects in the works will make up for the decline.

Set for release today, the study, based on data from 811 fields around the world, takes aim at a growing school of thought that the world's oil production may soon hit its peak just as demand is surging in Asia and the Middle East.

"This study supports a view that there is no impending short-term peak in global oil production," the paper concludes. CERA, led by oil historian Daniel Yergin, is a prominent adviser to oil companies. (Wall Street Journal)

Solar Industry Faces More Supply, Falling Prices - LOS ANGELES - The booming solar power sector is about to get squeezed by the age-old laws of supply and demand.

Solar energy companies are scrambling to ramp up production amid skyrocketing interest in renewable energy, but the pendulum is swinging quickly toward oversupply. (Reuters)

BA uses own jets to examine effect of air travel on climate - British Airways aircraft are to be used to gather data about the hidden impact of air travel on climate change in research that could result in much higher environmental surcharges on tickets than expected.

The airline is supporting research by the University of Cambridge into the warming effects of condensation trails, nitrogen dioxide and other aircraft emissions. (Ben Webster, London Times)

Green advisers dismiss nuclear plans as 'megafix' solution - Two of the UK's chief green advisers yesterday launched a ferocious attack on government saying the national fight against climate change will be hindered by the decision to encourage nuclear power. (The Guardian) | A blatant failure of moral vision | Overthrow of New King Coal

Scientists outraged by GE tree vandalism - The Life Sciences Network has condemned the actions of "eco-terrorists" who broke into a genetically engineered tree trial on Monday.

Crown research institute Scion's base in Rotorua was breached and around 20 pine trees chopped down in an apparent protest.

Scion, which is a member of LSN, had been studying how 80 radiata pine and Norway spruce trees reproduce.

A hole was dug under the fence and a spade with a GE Free New Zealand sticker was left behind. (NZPA)

Many US consumers oblivious to GM food fears - Concerns over genetically modified foods have failed to make much impact in the United States, where consumers and the US media are less fired up about the issue than in Europe, activists say.

Dr Michael Hansen, a biologist with the major New York-based Consumers Union, says the media doesn't talk about GM issues and there is more apathy in the US.

"When the public is asked in the survey, a high percentage wants food labels," he said.

"They just don't realise the extent to which certain food such as corn or soybean are genetically engineered, and often they have not heard of any of these food safety concerns." (AFP)

January 16, 2008

Amalgams pose no risk to human health, EU report - LONDON - Amalgam fillings for teeth, containing mercury, pose no health risk to the human nervous system, an EU scientific committee said on Tuesday.

The opinion supports arguments by some dentists and governments, who have said the material is safer and more durable than alternatives. But the results caused a stir among patients' organizations who argue amalgam is dangerous, because of the known side effects of mercury.

"The facts do not add up -- mercury is the third most toxic poison in the world and we are still putting it in people's mouths," said Becky Dutton of patient organization Mercury Madness.

The EU said it had investigated claims of a link between amalgams and a variety of systemic conditions, particularly neurological and psychological or psychiatric effects.

"It is concluded however, that no risks of adverse systemic effects exist and the current use of dental amalgam does not pose a risk of systemic disease," it said. (Reuters)

Reading the evidence closely — statins for seniors - Recent news has reported that new research offers evidence for the benefits of taking statins for the elderly and for women — two groups of people in which statins have been especially controversial and not widely prescribed. Today, we’ll look at this new study on the use of statins in seniors.

To help us make the soundest health decisions for ourselves or a loved one, it’s first crucial to understand how clinical studies are reported. Oftentimes, the way results are reported don’t mean what we think they do. (Junkfood Science)

America's Poor Scientific Literacy - Don’t worry about that sound. It’s just the ghost of C.P. Snow lamenting the persistent gulf between what he long ago labeled the two cultures — science and the rest of learning. The latest survey results have just come out on what laymen know about science, and the picture, mainly concerning Americans, is not pretty. But on the bright side, though most of us know relatively little about it, we generally like it.

The survey results are in a big report, “Science and Engineering Indicators 2008,” issued biennially by the National Science Board, the policy-making body of the U.S. National Science Foundation, which bankrolls university research outside of the medical sciences. The report states that some of the data “are subject to numerous sources of error and should be treated with caution” — rare candor in the survey business. With that understood, we can take a swing through the findings: (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Plague: a growing but overlooked threat -- study - LONDON - Plague, the disease that devastated medieval Europe, is re-emerging worldwide and poses a growing but overlooked threat, researchers warned on Tuesday.

While it has only killed some 100 to 200 people annually over the past 20 years, plague has appeared in new countries in recent decades and is now shifting into Africa, Michael Begon, an ecologist at the University of Liverpool and colleagues said.

The bacterium known as Yersinia pestis causes bubonic plague, known in medieval times as the Black Death, is spread by the bite of infected fleas that live on rats. Pneumonic plague, also cause by Y. pestis, is spread from one person to another through coughing or sneezing.

"Although the number of human cases of plague is relatively low, it would be a mistake to overlook its threat to humanity, because of the disease's inherent communicability, rapid spread, rapid clinical course, and high mortality if left untreated," they wrote in the journal Public Library of Science journal PloS Medicine.

Rodents carry plague, which is virtually impossible to wipe out and moves through the animal world as a constant threat to humans, Begon said. Both forms can kill within days if not treated with antibiotics. (Reuters)

Poor sanitation kills 5,000 children a day: report - LONDON - Five thousand children die every day globally because they do not have access to clean toilets, health experts said on Tuesday.

Wealthy governments and donors could make a huge impact on global health by making sanitation a priority, representatives from a coalition of 60 health groups said.

They estimated that 40 percent of the world's people do not have access to clean and safe toilets.

"It is about generating political will, and we also want to see is a real mobilization around sanitation in the aid system," said Henry Northover of WaterAid, which founded the coalition End Water Poverty. (Reuters)

A Coffin for Rabies - On June 26, 2007, a dog walked into Lupiro, a small village in southern Tanzania. It bit eight people and 11 other dogs before anyone managed to kill it. It had rabies or, as the French call it, la rage.

Neither of the nearby hospitals had any vaccine. The closest place with a supply was a private clinic in Dar es Salaam — a 9-hour drive away. The clinic had enough for a full course — five doses — of vaccine for two people, or a single dose for each person. It would be $40 per dose. In Tanzania, the average income per person is just $340 a year, and Lupiro is in one of the poorest regions.

Exposure to rabies requires immediate treatment: the first dose of vaccine should be taken the day you are bitten; every hour counts. Full treatment requires the four remaining doses to be taken, on a schedule, over the course of the month. In addition, if it’s available, rabies immunoglobulin — antibodies that can attack the virus at once — should be injected at the wound. For although not all bites from a rabid animal lead to infection, you won’t know if you’ve been infected or not. If you have been, and you do not get treatment, you will die: rabies is fatal. And it is a horrible death. (Olivia Judson, New York Times)

Hooray! Some skepticism in The Guardian: Did a pair of twins really get married by mistake? - So you're sitting in the pub and your nice-but-naive friend says: "Hey, I heard the most amazing story the other day. There were these twins, right, a boy and a girl, who were separated at birth and adopted by different families. And, like, years later, by an amazing coincidence, they meet. And fall madly in love, and get married. Straight up! Then, obviously, they find out they're actually brother and sister. And it all has to be annulled, and they're just devastated. It's the ultimate nightmare. Can you imagine?"

Assuming your brain is still functioning like the well-oiled piece of precision engineering it is, your response would, I trust, be: "That's a wind-up if ever I heard one. Think about it for a minute - you mean these two meet by accident, discover not only that they were both adopted but were born on exactly the same day in exactly the same town, and still never pause to wonder whether they might be related? Pull the other one. What did it say on their birth certificates?" (Jon Henley, The Guardian)

Coco loco - When Jennifer Aniston was spotted with a shopping trolley full of coconut oil, the manufacturers of this little-used fat must have jumped for joy. Coconut oil has had a bad press because of its high saturated-fat content, but devotees claim it is misunderstood. It is heart-healthy and fantastic for weight loss, they say, because it speeds up the metabolism. It is also cholesterol-free and - according to some of the wilder proponents - can cure anything from candida to cancer. The coconut is being touted as the health food of 2008, but a closer look at the science behind the claims highlights the hyperbole that is rife in the "superfoods" industry. Can the answer to all modern ills really be found up a palm tree? (The Guardian)

Global Advances Challenge U.S. Dominance in Science - The United States remains the world leader in scientific and technological innovation, but its dominance is threatened by economic development elsewhere, particularly in Asia. (New York Times)

Green “Disparate Impact”: Ugly and selfish realities. - Environmentalists often talk as if they are trying to save the last few patches of greenery from being paved over, when in fact 90 percent of the land in the United States is undeveloped and forests alone cover more area than all the cities and towns in the country combined.

Behind much of the lofty and pretty talk are some ugly and selfish realities.

Greenland thaw biggest in 50 years - report - OSLO - Climate change has caused the greatest thaw of Greenland's ice in half a century, perhaps heralding a wider meltdown that would quicken a rise in world sea levels, scientists said on Tuesday.

"We attribute significantly increased Greenland summer warmth and ice melt since 1990 to global warming," a group of researchers wrote in the Journal of Climate, adding to recent evidence of faster Antarctic and Arctic thaws.

"The Greenland ice sheet is likely to be highly susceptible to ongoing global warming," they said. Greenland contains enough ice to raise world sea levels by 7 metres, a process that would take centuries if it were to start.

Melt water from Greenland -- excluding ice losses from glaciers slipping into the sea -- totalled 453 cubic kms in 1998, the most ahead of 2003, 2006, 1995 and 2002 in detailed records stretching back to the 1950s.

Preliminary data showed that 2007 would rank second or third highest and confirm the last decade as the biggest melt, said Edward Hanna of England's University of Sheffield who led the study with colleagues in Belgium, the United States and Denmark.

So far, the water runoff has been largely offset by rising snowfalls in Greenland that may also be a side-effect of climate change. Even freezing air can hold more moisture, and so deliver more snow, if it gets slightly less chilly.

But continued warming could threaten an irreversible meltdown. The report noted that typical climate models pointed to a warming for Greenland of 4-5 degrees Celsius (7.2 to 9 Fahrenheit) by 2100. (Reuters)

There is no known significance to PlayStation® 'predictions' and while there may indeed have been some increased recent melt there was also increased snowfall, with little net result. I ran a GCAG HadCRUT2v plot for the region Longitude: -85 to -25, Latitude: 85 to 60 with the suggestion there is a long-term warming with a trend of [drum roll, please] Trend: 0.05°C/decade. So, if it continued for 1,000 years (some hope) it might deliver the warming they claim for 100.

And when do we think was the greatest period of Greenland ice melt in recent history? Probably in the 1920s and 1930s:

Remote sensing of Greenland ice sheet using multispectral near-infrared and visible radiances - Abstract: We present the physical basis of and validate a new remote-sensing algorithm that utilizes reflected visible and near-infrared radiation to discriminate between dry and wet snow. When applied to the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite data, our discrimination algorithm has the potential to retrieve melting regions of the ice sheet at a spatial resolution of 0.25 km2, over three orders of magnitude higher than the resolution of current microwave methods. The method should be useful for long-term monitoring of the melt area of the Greenland ice sheet, especially regions close to ice sheet margins and of the outflow glaciers. Our analysis of MODIS retrievals of the western portion of the Greenland ice sheet over the period 2000 to 2006 indicates significant interannual variability with a maximum melt extent in 2005. Collocated in situ meteorological data reveal a high correlation (0.80) between the MODIS melt-day area and the average summer temperature. Our analysis suggests that it is the magnitude of the summer temperature that dominates the melting (not the variability of the length of the melting season). Furthermore, we find that the melt-day area increases by about 3.8% for each 0.1 K increase in the average surface air summer temperature. We combine this empirical relationship with historic temperature data to infer that the melt-day area of the western part of the ice sheet doubled between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s and that the largest ice sheet surface melting probably occurred between 1920s and 1930s, concurrent with the warming in that period. (Petr Chylek, M. McCabe and M. K. Dubey, JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 112, D24S20, doi:10.1029/2007JD008742, 2007)

Mapping of Greenland may aid understanding of sea-level mystery - A University of Alberta Arctic ice researcher is closing in on some real understanding about the process that might be feeding rising sea levels. (University of Alberta)

This is actually a pretty good piece, note the tag: "We are asking if it is actually true that the amount and extent of melting in Greenland has increased over the period of interest and, in particular, is it increasing in the places where it looks as if the flow of the glacier has been sped up," said Sharp.

Haifa University study: Local rainfall stats defy global warming fears - Despite warnings that global warming is already impacting precipitation quantities, local rainfall statistics have remained essentially unchanged in the 60 years they have been tracked.

"While models project gloom and doom for climate change, field observation of rainfall indicates a grayer stability," according to Haifa University's Noam Halfon. The institute's geography department recently completed research that found no substantial change in rainfall quantities. (Haaretz)

Sun drives carbon levels via water cycle? Coupling of water and carbon fluxes via the terrestrial biosphere and its significance to the Earth's climate system - Abstract: Terrestrial water vapor fluxes represent one of the largest movements of mass and energy in the Earth's outer spheres, yet the relative contributions of abiotic water vapor fluxes and those that are regulated solely by the physiology of plants remain poorly constrained. By interpreting differences in the oxygen-18 and deuterium content of precipitation and river water, a methodology was developed to partition plant transpiration (T) from the evaporative flux that occurs directly from soils and water bodies (E _d ) and plant surfaces (I _n ). The methodology was applied to fifteen large watersheds in North America, South America, Africa, Australia, and New Guinea, and results indicated that approximately two thirds of the annual water flux from the “water-limited” ecosystems that are typical of higher-latitude regions could be attributed to T. In contrast to “water-limited” watersheds, where T comprised 55% of annual precipitation, T in high-rainfall, densely vegetated regions of the tropics represented a smaller proportion of precipitation and was relatively constant, defining a plateau beyond which additional water input by precipitation did not correspond to higher T values. In response to variable water input by precipitation, estimates of T behaved similarly to net primary productivity, suggesting that in conformity with small-scale measurements, the terrestrial water and carbon cycles are inherently coupled via the biosphere. Although the estimates of T are admittedly first-order, they offer a conceptual perspective on the dynamics of energy exchange between terrestrial systems and the atmosphere, where the carbon cycle is essentially driven by solar energy via the water cycle intermediary. (Paul R. Ferguson and Ján Veizer, JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 112, D24S06, doi:10.1029/2007JD008431, 2007)

Changing climate 'is leading to rougher seas' - Climate change is having a significant impact on the health of the seas surrounding Britain, says a new report.

Rising seas, bigger waves, flooding, and more violent storms are already happening as temperatures increase.

2006 was the second-warmest year in UK coastal waters since records began in 1870 and seven of the 10 warmest years have occurred in the last decade, according to the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP) report card 2007-08.

The report attempts to assess how much climate change has affected the UK's marine environment and what the consequences may be in the future.

Coastal erosion, which already affects 17 per cent of the UK coastline is expected to increase and more powerful seas will have a major impact on commercial operations in ports and shipping while coastal buildings will be more vulnerable to damage. (London Telegraph)

When hasn't coastal erosion been an issue in the UK?

Global Warming Hysteria in The West Australian: A Note from Roger Underwood - Over the last 6 months, readers of The West Australian newspaper have been subjected to a barrage of hysteria over global warming. Very bad news stories of one kind or another are published almost every day, all with the common theme that civilisation as we know it is about to be destroyed.

Some of these stories are simply laughable, like the article asserting that a rise in temperature of 1-2 degrees will result in the extinction of the karri forest. Another reported that rising sea levels (caused by global warming) will, amongst other calamities, lead to a killer increase in salinity in the Swan River. Many readers were surprised by this, since the Swan River is a tidal estuary in its lower reaches, and is fed by the salt-laden Avon River in its upper reaches.

Day after day The West Australian delivers stories unequivocally foretelling the melting of ice caps and glaciers, death of forests, disease outbreaks, the collapse of agriculture, social disruption, loss of coastal communities and beaches, catastrophic storms, floods, droughts and bushfires. All of this is based on an unquestioning acceptance of the theory that human-induced CO2 emissions are causing the world to heat up, and an unquestioning belief in the link between projected warming and ghastly consequences. (JenniferMarohasy.com)

Green tax a state cash cow - The tax minister admits that CO2 levy is solely in place to fill state treasury

Companies and private consumers will continue paying an annual DKK 2.6 billion in greenhouse gas taxes despite already paying a similar levy to the EU.

Amid harsh criticism from businesses, private consumers and government ally the Danish People's Party, Kristian Jensen, the tax minister, openly admitted that the greenhouse gas levy was a source of income for the state and no longer an environmental measure. (The Copenhagen Post)

US House's Dingell Hopes to Draft Climate Bill Soon - DETROIT - The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Democrat John Dingell of Michigan, said Tuesday he hoped to draft climate change legislation as soon as possible. (Reuters)

EU Business Blasts Planned CO2 Emissions Auction - BRUSSELS - Europe's top business lobby attacked on Tuesday European Commission plans for implementing deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, saying that auctioning pollution permits could hurt industry in global competition. (Reuters)

ROMANIA: Fighting for the 'Right' to More Emissions - BUCHAREST, Jan 15 - Following the example of seven other countries from Central and Eastern Europe that joined the European Union (EU) in 2004, Romania and Bulgaria, the newest members, have sued the European Commission (EC) for lowering their national caps for carbon dioxide emissions.

Echoing arguments used by the other states, the Romanian government claims that the difference between the proposed national plan for allocation of emissions for 2008-2012 and the cap allowed by the EC is "discriminatory" and will stifle development of industry. (IPS)

European Union countries fighting over share-out for cutting greenhouse gas emissions; Environment Commissioner now says some biofuels do more harm than good - European Union countries are fighting for national interest within days of the Commission publishing the country-by-country targets share-out for cutting greenhouse emissions.

Meanwhile, the European Commission is in disarray after the Environment Commissioner in effect admitted that a biofuel production target was a naïve response to demands of some environment campaigners, without an appreciation of the consequences. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas now says that some biofuels do more harm than good for the environment.

The issue is an illustration of the damage politicians can cause to the efforts to respond to climate change. The recent case in Ireland of the announcement of a ban on incandescent light bulbs from January 2009, to provide political spin at the December Bali Climate Change Conference, is a local example. Full "consultation" is now beginning but Minister for the Environment John Gormley cannot say if the ban will include fridge light bulbs! (Finfacts)

EU Lawmakers Seek More Time for Car CO2 Cuts - STRASBOURG, France - Automakers should be given more time to cut carbon dioxide emissions from their cars under legislation proposed by the European Union's executive arm to slow climate change, EU lawmakers said on Tuesday. (Reuters)

'Cavalier' construction undermining government's green message - Whitehall departments are undermining government attempts to encourage people to take climate change seriously, MPs said today.

A report by the Commons public accounts committee accused some departments of taking a cavalier approach to the environment and ignoring sustainability checks on building projects.

Almost two-thirds of new constructions and one in four big refurbishments were not assessed for their environmental impact, and just 9% overall had met the required "excellent" standard.

MPs blamed pressure to achieve short-term cost cuts for the failure to make buildings more green-friendly and achieve long-term savings. (Guardian Unlimited)

From CO₂ Science this week:
Editorial:
On Potential Responses of Corals to Global Warming: To hear climate alarmists speak (and to read what they write), one might think that the only viable option corals possess in a warming world is the non-viable one of dieing. However ...

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week:
This issue's Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from Bol'shoi Avam River, Putoran Plateau, North Central Siberia, Russia. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period Project's database, click here.

Subject Index Summary:
Coral Reef History (General): What do we learn about the fragility/tenacity of earth's coral reefs from a study of their history over geologic time?

Plant Growth Data:
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Adsuki Bean, Annual Ragweed, Garden Pea, and Great Ragweed.

Journal Reviews:
Global Sea Level: What is it doing? And why?: Some serious roadblocks to unlocking the answers to these questions are methodically being removed.

Southeastern United States Hurricanes: Shining a Light on Their Positive Side: Not everything associated with the feared storms is bad.

Elevated CO2 Primes the Ocean's Biological Carbon Pump: Just as it does for land plants, so also does atmospheric CO2 enrichment enhance the photosynthetic rates of oceanic phytoplankton, leading to a greater transfer of carbon from the surface of the global ocean to the sea's abyssal sediments.

The Potential for "Symbiont Shuffling" in Corals: A new investigative technique provides evidence for the veracity of a postulated mechanism by which corals may survive high-temperature-induced bleaching.

The Functioning of Symbiodinium Clade A and B Algae in Giant Sea Anemones: What does it reveal about the potential for "symbiont shuffling" in corals?

Temperature Record of the Week:
This issue's Temperature Record of the Week is from Hot Springs, SD. During the period of most significant greenhouse gas buildup over the past century, i.e., 1930 and onward, Hot Springs' mean annual temperature has cooled by 1.26 degrees Fahrenheit. Not much global warming here! (co2science.org)

Warming Threat Used to Thwart Coal Power Plants - Today the Associated Press examines how environmental activists are engaged in an unprecedented push to prevent utilities from building new coal-fired power plants, because of the threat from global warming: (Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch)

Green Groups Sue Ottawa Over Refinery Assessment - CALGARY, Alberta - Environmental groups are suing the Canadian government and Irving Oil Ltd, alleging the federal environmental assessment planned for a proposed C$7 billion (US$6.9 billion) refinery in New Brunswick is too limited, their legal defense fund said Monday. (Reuters)

Gesture politics: Ontario to approve Great Lakes wind power - Ontario is preparing to lift a controversial moratorium on the development of offshore wind projects in the Great Lakes that has been in place for nearly 14 months, the Toronto Star has learned.

A Ministry of Natural Resources official says the department is "getting ready" to make an announcement and that new minister Donna Cansfield is "anxious to demonstrate leadership in the area." (Toronto Star)

Germany, Spain Warn EU on Renewables Plan - BRUSSELS - Germany and Spain have warned the European Commission that an ambitious plan to boost the use of renewable energy sources, due to be unveiled next week, could be counter-productive and wreck existing successful schemes. (Reuters)

Fifty times more wind turbines by 2020 - Britain will have to install six times more wind turbines on land and 50 times more wind turbines at sea by the end of the next decade under rules to be announced by Brussels next week.

Experts say that EU's country-by-country share-out of targets for renewables will mean that Britain has to generate nearly 40 per cent of its electricity by renewable means to help tackle global warming.

This is because the mandatory target which EU sources say Britain will face is 13-14 per cent of total energy use to come from renewable sources by 2020 - up from 2 per cent today. It applies to total energy use, not just electricity generation as targets have in the past.

This target was signed up to by Tony Blair, who defied advice from business leaders and ministerial colleagues that it would be hard to meet at a summit of EU leaders last March. It was confirmed by Gordon Brown in the autumn.

Experts estimate that by 2020 no more than 6-7 per cent of the heating of homes and businesses will be converted to renewable sources - such as biomass boilers, ground source heat pumps and solar - and road transport will be at best only 10 per cent biofuels, so the rest of the slack will have to be taken up by the electricity generating companies. (London Telegraph)

Climate Change Aids Nuclear, Despite Safety Fears - OSLO - Half a century after the first atomic power plant opened at Obninsk near Moscow, climate change is widening the environmental appeal of nuclear power despite a lack of final storage for the most toxic waste. (Reuters)

Australia Tells India it Will Not Sell it Uranium - CANBERRA - Australia's new Labor government told India's nuclear envoy Shyam Saran on Tuesday it would not sell uranium to New Delhi unless it signs the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), reversing a decision by the previous government. (Reuters)

EU reviews biofuel target as environmental doubts grow - A European drive to run vehicles on biofuels instead of petrol and diesel to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to be reviewed after concerns about its environmental impact.

Stavros Dimas, the EU environment commissioner, said a European target to boost biofuel production risked causing more damage than Brussels realised. But he insisted that biofuels still had benefits, and their impact on food supplies and biodiversity could be limited by the introduction of strict sustainability standards.

Europe has pledged that biofuels, such as bio-ethanol and bio-diesel, will make up 10% of transport fuel by 2020; Britain has a separate target of 5% biofuels in petrol and diesel by 2010.

Supporters argue that biofuels can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, because the plants they are made from absorb carbon dioxide from the air. But a number of studies have raised doubts about the green credentials of many of the leading candidates, such as palm oil and ethanol made from corn. Critics say biofuels compete for land with staple food crops, and vast areas of rainforest are cleared to grow them.

Dimas told the BBC: "We have seen that the environmental problems caused by biofuels and also the social problems are bigger than we thought they were." He said the EU would "move carefully" on the issue. "We have to have criteria for sustainability, including social and environmental issues, because there are some benefits from biofuels."

If sustainability could not be achieved, he said, the EU target would not be met. (The Guardian)

More of US Grain Crop to be Consumed by Family Car - WASHINGTON - Almost a third of the US grain crop next year may be diverted from the family dinner table to the family car as fuel, putting upward pressure on food prices, a leading expert warned on Tuesday. (Reuters)

US Ethanol Expansion Cooling Next 18 Months - CHICAGO - US corn-based ethanol expansion is headed for a cooling-off period over the next 18 months until demand catches up with supply, said a senior executive of leading agricultural research firm Informa Economics on Monday. (Reuters)

US Gives Blessing to Food from Cloned Animals - WASHINGTON - The US government ruled on Tuesday that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring is as safe as other food, but pressed firms that produce clones to hold off on bringing them into the food supply. (Reuters)

Brussels to hear report on moral and ethical issues - The ethical and moral issues surrounding the use of cloned animals and their offspring for food and milk will be examined today in a report by a European advisory group, including senior Christian theologians.

Their verdict could be crucial in determining whether Europeans accept the controversial technology.

"We have taken into account the moral, ethical and social dimensions," said Göran Hermerén, chairman of the European Group on Ethics in Science and professor of medical ethics at Lund University, Sweden.

The European Food Safety Authority, the bloc's leading regulator, last Friday issued its draft opinion, stating that milk and meat from cloned pigs and cows, the only two animals in which the technology has been used extensively, was safe.

EFSA is solely concerned with science. It is up to the European Commission, the EU executive, and the 27 national governments to decide whether to follow its advice and what restrictions to impose. The Commission has learnt its lessons from the genetically modified crops controversy, which saw them waved through on scientific grounds.

That was until a consumer revolt and media scares about "Frankenfoods" forced a moratorium on approvals for the use of GM crops until 2004, when a US complaint to the World Trade Organisation was upheld.

Last week the commission emphasised that EFSA's opinion, out for consultation before a final ruling expected in May, was just the start of a long process.

France Defends GMO Crop Ban, Says Temporary - PARIS - French ministers tried on Tuesday to calm tensions following the government's decision to ban cultivation of the sole genetically modified (GMO) crop grown in the country, stressing that the move was temporary. (Reuters)

Some nitwits never shut up: Dr. Mae-Wan Ho: Beware the New “Doubly Green Revolution” - The fake moral crusade to feed the world with genetically modified crops promoted as the second “Doubly Green Revolution” is doing even more damage than the first. The bad genetics involved in has failed the test in science and in the real world. (UN Observer)

January 15, 2008

Don't tell the enviros but Heavy metal slips down UK air quality charts - Air quality in the UK has improved significantly over the last 25 years according to a report published by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Monitoring at 17 testing sites around the UK shows a fall in the presence of harmful heavy metals such as lead, iron and copper in the air we breathe. (National Physical Laboratory)

Breaking news! ENHANCE trial results released - After nearly two years of controversy surrounding the results of the ENHANCE clinical trial — a melodrama filled with theories of cover-ups and manipulations of clinical trial data in the possession only of the drug company sponsor, a secret panel behind attempts to change the study endpoints after the trial was over, a Congressional investigation and years of delays in the release of the findings — in a surprise move this morning, Merck/Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals announced the results: (Junkfood Science)

Living in Fear and Paying a High Cost in Heart Risk - Which is more of a threat to your health: Al Qaeda or the Department of Homeland Security?

An intriguing new study suggests the answer is not so clear-cut. Although it’s impossible to calculate the pain that terrorist attacks inflict on victims and society, when statisticians look at cold numbers, they have variously estimated the chances of the average person dying in America at the hands of international terrorists to be comparable to the risk of dying from eating peanuts, being struck by an asteroid or drowning in a toilet.

But worrying about terrorism could be taking a toll on the hearts of millions of Americans. The evidence, published last week in the Archives of General Psychiatry, comes from researchers who began tracking the health of a representative sample of more than 2,700 Americans before September 2001. After the attacks of Sept. 11, the scientists monitored people’s fears of terrorism over the next several years and found that the most fearful people were three to five times more likely than the rest to receive diagnoses of new cardiovascular ailments. (John Tierney, New York Times)

The Real Key to Development - Are the world's impoverished masses destined to live lives of permanent misery unless rich countries transfer wealth for spending on education and infrastructure?

You might think so if your gurus on development economics earn their bread and butter "lending" at the World Bank. Education and infrastructure "investment" are two of the Bank's favorite development themes.

Yet the evidence is piling up that neither government nor multilateral spending on education and infrastructure are key to development. To move out of poverty, countries instead need fast growth; and to get that they need to unleash the animal spirits of entrepreneurs.

Empirical support for this view is presented again this year in The Heritage Foundation/The Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom, released today. In its 14th edition, the annual survey grades countries on a combination of factors including property rights protection, tax rates, government intervention in the economy, monetary, fiscal and trade policy, and business freedom. (Wall Street Journal)

Inhofe EPW Website Wins Coveted Gold Mouse Award

International Conference on Climate Change - The Heartland Institute is planning an International Conference on Climate Change for the weekend of March 2 – 4, 2008 in New York. We will have hundreds of scientists from around the world in attendance to debunk the supposed ‘consensus’ on global warming. (Heartland Institute)

The Publication Of A Hypothesis: An Article Titled “A Model Forecast - Model Projections of an Imminent Transition to a More Arid Climate in Southwestern North America” - Thanks to Chris Castro for alerting us to this paper (see also his quest weblog “Monsoon on Track to be a Wet One”) .

The article is Richard Seager, Mingfang Ting, Isaac Held, Yochanan Kushnir, Jian Lu, Gabriel Vecchi,Huei-Ping Huang, Nili Harnik, Ants Leetmaa,2 Ngar-Cheung Lau, Cuihua Li, Jennifer Velez, Naomi NaikModel Projections of an Imminent Transition to a More Arid Climate in Southwestern North America Richard Seager, et al., Science 316, 1181 (2007); DOI: 10.1126/science.1139601

This paper is an clear example of publishing a hypothesis as a scientific paper. Hypothesis testing is certainly appropriate but this is a blatant example of publishing a paper but its forecasts are not tested. Hindcasting, where the answer is known is an appropriate part of the assessment of a hypothesis but predictions in which the answer is not known are a requirement for a robust evaluation. (Climate Science)

Canada Inuit rap U.S. greens for polar bear campaign - OTTAWA - Leaders of Canada's Arctic Inuit people denounced U.S. environmentalists on Monday for pushing Washington to declare the polar bear a threatened species, saying the move was unnecessary and would hurt the local economy. (Reuters)

Latest Antarctic Sea Ice Extent - Once again today we were told in the media that the Antarctic ice is melting at an increasing and alarming rate. One example was a Globe Mail story today based on a research project, led by Eric Rignot, principal scientist for the Radar Science and Engineering Section at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and appearing in the current issue of Nature Geoscience. In an e-mail, Dr. Rignot attributed the shrinkage in the ice sheet to an upwelling of warm waters along the Antarctic coast, which is causing some glaciers to flow more rapidly into the ocean. He suspects the trend is due to global warming. (Joseph D’Aleo, CCM)

Oh boy... The end of the world as we know it - In a hundred years, the planet will be unrecognisable. (Sydney Morning Herald)

The changing face of Britain's skies - Driven by climate change, the 21st century will see a dramatic shift in the nation's feathered population with many species either arriving for the first time or leaving for good. Michael McCarthy reports (London Independent)

Climate change threatening bird species, RSPB says - The RSPB today called for urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions to avoid a 'calamitous' impact on birds.

A new report published today by the conservation charity shows that if climate change is not slowed down, the potential distribution of average bird species by the end of this century will shift nearly 342 miles (550km) to the north-east – equivalent to the distance from Plymouth to Newcastle.

The report, A Climatic Atlas of European Breeding Birds, maps potential change in distribution of all the continent's regularly occurring nesting birds against a temperature rise of 3C. (The Guardian)

How nice, PlayStation® Biology to go with PlayStation® Climatology ;)

Race for '08: Voters split on global warming cost - Some fear businesses will be hobbled - Engel, an undecided voter, is uncomfortable with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's self-proclaimed California crusade against global warming and by the state's decision to sue the Bush administration for blocking California's effort to impose the nation's first greenhouse gas emission limits for cars and light trucks. He's willing to make environmental changes that make sense for his company but doesn't want California businesses to bear an unfair burden. (Sacramento Bee)

Wash. state governor to launch greenhouse gas bill - SEATTLE - Washington state Gov. Christine Gregoire said on Monday she plans to introduce legislation to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent in 2050 from 1990 levels.

Under the legislation, Gregoire will direct the state's ecology department to create a regional cap and trade market for carbon emissions that would allow companies to buy and sell pollution credits within an overall cap in emissions.

It would also require companies and government agencies in Washington to report their greenhouse gas emissions. Gregoire expects emissions reporting to start in 2010 for 2009 measurements. (Reuters)

Survey shows eco-warriors are worst polluters - A survey of travel habits has revealed that the most environmentally conscious people are also the biggest polluters.

"Green" consumers have some of the biggest carbon footprints because they are still hooked on flying abroad or driving their cars while their adherence to the green cause is mostly limited to small gestures. (London Telegraph)

EU members braced for emissions targets - EU members are bracing for proposed greenhouse gas emission targets due next week as they fret over how much of the burden they will have to bear in the fight against climate change.

The European Commission on January 23 is to unveil plans for individual targets for member states on how much they need to cut their carbon dioxide emissions in the coming years. (AFP)

EU to Allow Poorest Members to Raise CO2 Emissions - BRUSSELS - The European Commission will propose allowing the poorest new central European member states to increase greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 percent by 2020 over 2005 levels under a major energy and climate change plan to be unveiled next week, EU sources said on Monday. (Reuters)

China 07 Coal Output Rises 5 Pct to 2.52 Bln Tonnes - BEIJING - China's coal output rose 5 percent in 2007 to 2.52 billion tonnes, the China Daily said, citing the head of the State Administration of Work Safety. (Reuters)

How Did They Become 'Smart' Thermostats? - As the debate builds about state-controlled thermostats in your homes, you may notice that programmable communicating thermostats (PCTs) are now being referred to as "Smart" thermostats. This conflates PCTs with programmable, or "setback" thermostats which have been around for decades and are totally under the householder's control with no radio override features. Google "smart thermostat" and you'll find information on both kinds. (Joseph Somsel, American Thinker)

Time's up for petrol cars, says GM chief - THE world's biggest car maker, General Motors, believes global oil supply has peaked and a switch to electric cars is inevitable.

In a stunning announcement at the opening of the Detroit motor show, Rick Wagoner, GM's chairman and chief executive, also said ethanol was an "important interim solution" to the world's demand for oil, until battery technology improved to give electric cars the same driving range as petrol-powered cars.

GM is working on an electric car, called the Volt, which is due in showrooms in 2010, but delays in suitable battery technology have slowed the project. (Sydney Morning Herald)

EU to Toughen Environment Criteria for Biofuels - BRUSSELS - The European Union is to set tougher environmental criteria for biofuels after acknowledging that the drive for transport fuels produced from crops has done unforeseen damage, the European Commission said on Monday. (Reuters)

The Big Question: Can biofuel help prevent global warming, or will it only make matters worse? - The European Union is having second thoughts about its policy aimed at stimulating the production of biofuel – transport fuel derived from crops and other vegetation or organic waste. Stavros Dimas, the EU environment commissioner, admitted yesterday that the EU did not foresee the scale of the problems raised by Europe's target of deriving 10 per cent of its transport fuel from plant material. The rush to produce biofuels is reported to have increased the cost of food on the global market, destroyed tracts of rainforest in tropical countries and to have had little overall impact on reducing greenhouse gases.

"We have seen that the environmental problems caused by biofuels and also the social problems are bigger than we thought they were. So we have to move very carefully," Mr Dimas told the BBC. Yesterday also saw the publication of a report on biofuel by the Royal Society in London which had asked a committee of experts to examine the complex issues surrounding the technology. The report concluded that there is no simple answer to whether biofuels are good or bad for the environment, and that each type of biofuel – and how it is produced – has to be considered on its own merits. (London Independent)

UK Biofuels Push Lacks Greenhouse Targets - Report - LONDON - A government directive requiring fuel suppliers to use more biofuels will do little to combat climate change because the measure lacks targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, British scientists said on Monday. (Reuters)

Food cost increase adds £750 to annual bill - Food prices are accelerating at their fastest rate since records began, fuelling a rise in the average family's shopping bill of £750 a year.

Official figures showed wholesale food prices rose by 7.4 per cent in the past 12 months - more than three times the headline rate of inflation.

The increase - the highest since the Office for National Statistics (ONC) began keeping records in 1992 - has driven the cost of a consumer's average basket of groceries up by 12 per cent in a year.

Experts said the rate of food price inflation was making life increasingly difficult for the millions of families already struggling to make ends meet under the weight of rising council tax bills, mortgage repayments and energy costs. (London Telegraph)

EU drive to boost grain output fails - The European Union effort to boost agriculture production significantly has failed in spite of the suspension of the limits to grain crops and despite current record prices.

Last year, in an effort to increase output, the EU scrapped a rule requiring farmers to set aside 10 per cent of their land. However, French and Germans farmers, who account for half of the EU-15's production, increased the sowing of winter crops by less than 2 per cent.

The failure makes it more likely that the prices for wheat, barley, rapeseed and other crops will remain high for longer, threatening a second wave of food inflation. (Financial Times)

DuPont sees ethanol as path to new fuels - NEW YORK - Corn-based ethanol may dominate the nascent U.S. biofuels industry for now, but fast-developing technologies will likely create new biofuels and markets in the next few years, the head of chemical giant DuPont's biofuels development said on Monday.

"I think over the period of the next five years or so, you'll start to see biofuels move from something monolithic -- corn to ethanol -- to multiple entries into this field," Thomas Connelly, DuPont's chief innovation officer, told the Reuters Global Agriculture and Biofuel Summit.

"We'll start to see the first of the advanced biofuels -- that is to say, molecules other than ethanol, molecules with improved fuel properties -- enter the market," he said.

DuPont, whose agriculture unit Pioneer produces genetically modified seed corn designed for ethanol, has set its sights on biobutanol, another motor fuel that can be made from corn or sugar cane, but has not proven it can be economically feasible. (Reuters)

This has been my perfect week - A couple of weeks ago, plans for a wonderful new coal-fired power station in Kent were given the green light and I was very pleased.

This will reduce our dependency on Vladimir’s gas and Osama’s oil and, as a bonus, new technology being developed to burn the coal more efficiently will be exported to China and exchanged for plastic novelty items to make our lives a little brighter.

It’s all just too excellent for words, but of course galloping into the limelight came a small army of communists and hippies who were waving their arms around and saying that coal was the fuel of Satan and that when the new power station opened, small people like Richard Hammond would immediately be drowned by a rampaging tidal swell.

They argued with much gusto that if Britain was to stand any chance of meeting Mr Prescott’s Kyoto climate change targets then we must build power stations that produced no carbon emissions at all.

You’d imagine then that last week, when Gordon Brown announced plans for a herd of new nuclear power stations, they’d have been delighted. Quiet power made by witchcraft, and no emissions at all. It’s enough, you might imagine, to make Jonathon Porritt priapic with pleasure. (Jeremy Clarkson, Sunday Times)

Protests Greet Nuclear Power Resurgence in US South - WAYNESBORO, Georgia , Jan 14 - Residents and environmental activists are in a bitter dispute with large U.S. energy corporations and the federal government over the safety of nuclear power, as more than a dozen corporations plan to, or have filed, paperwork to open new nuclear power plants, primarily in the U.S. South. (IPS)

Nuclear Costs Explode - Progress Energy Florida is going to have to spend more than originally planned to build two nuclear reactors in Levy County, the utility's top executive said.

The St. Petersburg-based utility won't disclose how much more expensive the project will be until it's presented to state regulators within 90 days. Based on new industry estimates, the revised cost could be two to three times more expensive than the projection Progress issued more than a year ago.

That's because the cost of concrete, steel, copper, labor and reactor technology has soared as energy companies move forward with plans to build more than 30 new reactors nationwide. Also, Progress Energy's initial estimate excluded the cost of land, inflation, interest payments and new transmission lines.

"Yes, it will be higher," Jeff Lyash, president and CEO of Progress Energy Florida, said of the project's cost. "The price of any construction project you undertake today is going to escalate based on commodity prices. That's not a nuclear issue." (The Tampa Tribune)

Genetically modified carrots provide more calcium - A specially developed carrot has been produced to help people absorb more calcium. Researchers at Texas A&M AgriLife’s Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Center studied the calcium intake of humans who ate the carrot and found a net increase in calcium absorption. The research, which was done in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine, means adding this carrot to the diet can help prevent such diseases as osteoporosis. (Texas A&M University)

US stalls sanctions against EU in biotech food dispute - THE US said it would temporarily hold fire on sanctions on European Union goods in a last-ditch attempt to resolve a bitter trade dispute over genetically modified crops. (Agence France-Presse)

Arpad Pusztai: Biological divide - Contrary to the belief of some in the scientific community, Dr Arpad Pusztai does not have horns or a malevolent cackle. Nor does he inhabit an imposing gothic mansion bought with the proceeds of guest appearances as an eco-hero. In fact, he lives in a modest semi in Aberdeen.

This elderly man is one of the most divisive figures in biology. Many blame him for tilting the balance in the PR battle over GM food towards public rejection. His research on GM potatoes - which came explosively into the public spotlight in a World in Action programme in August 1998 - has been dismissed as poorly done, muddled and even fabricated. Yet to anti-GM campaigners he is a hero - the scientist who stood up to the establishment and, as a result, had his career squashed at the behest of shadowy forces in the GM industry and the government.

"I think it did a lot of damage because ... the vast majority of people were somewhat neutral at the time," said Professor Chris Leaver, a plant scientist and strong supporter of GM at Oxford University. "I think the NGOs ... decided that they would make a play using him. I think he got hijacked and then he got out of his depth." (The Guardian)

January 14, 2008

High degree of resistance to antibiotics in Arctic birds - In the latest issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, Swedish researchers report that birds captured in the hyperboreal tundra, in connection with the tundra expedition “Beringia 2005,” were carriers of antibiotics-resistant bacteria. These findings indicate that resistance to antibiotics has spread into nature, which is an alarming prospect for future health care. (Uppsala University)

Antibiotic resistance has always been high in nature. After all, antibiotics are the result of the evolutionary war that has been ongoing between competing entities just about as long as there has been life on Earth.

Follow-up: Secret panel hired by drug company revealed - More amazing than what is reported in the news is what isn’t.

It has been impossible not to notice that every day brings another press release about the purported benefits of statins. Meanwhile, the most shocking developments of the ENHANCE statin trial commotion continue to be cloaked in secrecy and haven't even made the nightly news. (Junkfood Science)

Diets don’t work, but keep dieting anyway? - Here’s one marketing campaign didn’t last long. What happened to their acknowledgement that diets don’t work? Today, Weight Watchers general manager is reported as blaming fat women for not continuing to diet and for not losing weight! As the Australian Age reports, the diet company manager said fat women have given up and are in denial about the need to lose weight: (Junkfood Science)

Junkfood Science could use your assistance -- the donation button is just above the awards logos on the right of the main page.

Cue the gluttony: Environmental triggers might play a significant role in Americans' overeating. - HERE'S an interesting thought: What if you're not to blame for your weight problem?

What if the fault could be laid squarely at the feet of food manufacturers and marketers, grocery store managers, restaurant operators, food vendors -- the people who make food so visible, available and mouth-watering?

Several recent studies, papers and a popular weight-loss book argue that eating is an automatic behavior triggered by environmental cues that most people are unaware of -- or simply can't ignore. Think of the buttery smell of movie theater popcorn, the sight of glazed doughnuts glistening in the office conference room or the simple habit of picking up a whipped-cream-laden latte on the way to work.

Accepting this "don't blame me" notion may not only ease the guilt and self-loathing that often accompanies obesity, say the researchers behind the theory, but also help people achieve a healthier weight. (Los Angeles Times)

Economists weighing in... Round two - Another economist has weighed in with an obesity book and, once again, the media has credulously reported it as expert health information and recommended health policy. This time, however, the public isn’t buying it. Growing numbers of consumers know that obesity is not a ‘lifestyle choice” or the result of an economy that forces people to eat too much and be inactive, as the media and this book reports. Nor are they convinced that it is a public health crisis. In fact, on the authors’ website, an informal and open poll asks people if they believe ‘obesity’ is a problem in the United States and, as of this morning, more than two-thirds had checked “No, not at all.” (Junkfood Science)

Cinnamon and sugar — blood sugar, that is - Each January brings advice on how to start the New Year off right, revitalize ourselves and get healthy. Superfoods are credited with special powers to protect us from cancer, heart disease and other diseases of aging. Cinnamon is one such food. It has been widely heralded for its ability to stabilize blood sugars and ward off diabetes. (Junkfood Science)

Oh boy… It Happened to Him. It’s Happening to You. - The news of environmental traumas assails us from every side — unseasonal storms, floods, fires, drought, melting ice caps, lost species of river dolphins and giant turtles, rising sea levels potentially displacing inhabitants of Arctic and Pacific islands and hundreds of thousands of people dying every year from air pollution. Last week brought more — new reports that Greenland’s glaciers may be melting away at an alarming rate.

What’s going on? Are we experiencing one of those major shocks to life on Earth that rocked the planet in the past?

That’s just doomsaying, say those who insist that economic growth and human technological ingenuity will eventually solve our problems. But in fact, the scientific take on our current environmental mess is hardly so upbeat.

More than a decade ago, many scientists claimed that humans were demonstrating a capacity to force a major global catastrophe that would lead to a traumatic shift in climate, an intolerable level of destruction of natural habitats, and an extinction event that could eliminate 30 to 50 percent of all living species by the middle of the 21st century. Now those predictions are coming true. The evidence shows that species loss today is accelerating. We find ourselves uncomfortably privileged to be witnessing a mass extinction event as it’s taking place, in real time. (Michael Novacek, Washington Post)

The number of documented extinctions according to the 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is 735 animal species since 1500 AD. The majority of these are island critters that could not cope with the influx of Norway Rats in the era of sail and exploration (ground & low shrub-nesting birds etc., whose nests were pillaged by rats…). Just prior to 1500 there was a wave of extinctions due to Maori hunters in newly settled New Zealand (mainly species of flightless Moa). In the last few centuries Australian fauna has taken a bit of a hiding from introduced rodents, rabbits, cats and foxes, in particular. Recent [presumed] extinctions are actually pretty rare, perhaps 30 since 1950 (although some not sighted for some time have a bit of a habit of turning up thriving in unexpected locations or known by different local names).

The sixth great extinction wave? There’s a lot of talk about it but no evidence it is occurring.

Consequences Of The Conflict Of Interest In the 2007 CCSP Report - “Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere: Steps for Understanding and Reconciling Differences” - As reported on Climate Science (e.g. see) and documented in depth in a public comment; see

Pielke Sr., Roger A., 2005: Public Comment on CCSP Report “Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere: Steps for Understanding and Reconciling Differences”. 88 pp including appendices.

the CCSP Report - Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere: Steps for Understanding and Reconciling Differences

“……excluded valid scientific perspectives under the charge of the Committee. The Editor of the Report systematically excluded a range of views on the issue of understanding and reconciling lower atmospheric temperature trends. The Executive Summary of the CCSP Report ignores critical scientific issues and makes unbalanced conclusions concerning our current understanding of temperature trends.”

The Editor of this Committee was Thomas Karl, who is also Director of the National Climate Data Center (NCDC). Karl also directs the completion of multi-decadal global surface air temperature trends which were used in the 2007 IPCC report. (Climate Science)

Making NOAA’s MMTS wireless - issues also know that I’ve been critical of the MMTS (Max Min Temperature System) which has been deployed at a majority of the COOP and USHCN networks. As of this writing, 55% of USHCN is made up of the original MMTS system, with 16% of the network being the improved “Nimbus” version, which has a display unit with max-min memory to prevent data loss. With 71% of the USHCN network being based on MMTS technology, it represents the major component of surface temperature measurement.

The big problem with MMTS is the fact that it is a cabled sensor, whereas the original Stevenson Screens could be placed anywhere, and often at better locations, the MMTS system cable often prevented proper placement because NWS COOP managers could not easily run the cable under walkways or driveways, since they lacked heavy equipment and time. This despite the fact that the original specification for MMTS cabling allowed for distances up to 1/4 mile. Stated simply; COOP managers don’t have access to trenching machines, and installation work is often done with shovels in a single day.

So, I decided to solve the problem. (Watts Up With That?)

WMO wants satellites to monitor climate change - GENEVA — The United Nations' weather agency will ask NASA and other space agencies next week to make their next generation of satellites available to monitor climate change, a senior official at the UN body said on Friday.

The aim is to ensure that satellites launched over the next 20 years constantly record parameters such as sea levels and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said.

"The main focus of the meeting next week will be the expansion of the global observing system by satellites to not only monitor severe weather, which is a core function, but also to monitor climate on a very continuous and long-term basis," WMO expert Jérome Lafeuille told a news briefing in Geneva. (Reuters)

NASA Satellites Capture Start of New Solar Cycle - NASA scientists say a new solar cycle is beginning, and this could have important repercussions for space-based technology ranging from GPS navigation to weather satellites. (Marshall and Goddard space flight centers)

Oh dear… Andy Revkin is still at it: - Unfortunately his entire opening premise is dead flat wrong. What needs to head the list is acknowledgement that we can not now and never will be able to knowingly and predictable adjust the global thermostat by tweaking peripheral parameters such as carbon emissions. Complete cessation of human emissions will produce exactly zero measurable change in global temperature in the next 50-100 years.

Even Hansen admits we do not know the global mean temperature within ±0.7 K — note that that is 10 times greater than Tom Wigley estimates could have been achieved by Kyoto and 3-7 times what a Kyoto “constant compliance” scenario would shave off global average temperatures by 2100. We simply can’t measure global temperature that precisely.

Then there’s the premise that a warmer world, if it did eventuate, would be a net detriment. Funny how people want to escape to tropical paradises but don’t seem to aspire to cold uh, ice holes.

He also raises such irrelevancies as ocean acidification and the absurd stories of “it’ll harm coral/shellfish…” without stopping to think about when these species evolved. Atmospheric CO₂ was >4,000ppmv in the Ordovician and in the Ordovician a variety of new types including cephalopods, corals, bryozoans, crinoids, graptolites, gastropods, and bivalves flourished. Doesn’t sound like calciferous critters are at much risk at present at <400ppmv, does it? See also: New front in the carbon wars.

Nonetheless, here’s what Revkin calls A Starting Point for Productive Climate Discourse.

Here’s our take Andy, we don’t need a “starting point” but rather an endpoint for all this nonsense so we can move on to real problems. (JunkScience.com Blog)

Raining on the Drought Parade - One of the many pillars of fear regarding global warming is the claim that droughts will become more severe in the future, particularly in continental interiors. The story is very simple and is told over and over – temperatures rise, evaporation rates increase, and even with no change in rainfall, soil moisture levels decrease and droughts last longer and are more severe. Then, crops will fail, ecosystems will collapse, major cities will run out of water, diseases will spread – you know the story. There is always some drought occurring some place on the planet, so supporting evidence is easy to find.

We have written on this subject many times, and like everything else, there is a lot more complexity to the story. Changes in wind and/or clouds could impact future evaporation rates, global dimming could cause a decease in evaporation, plants could become more water use efficient thanks to higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and therefore extract less water from the soil, and on and on. One of the problems is that long term soil moisture data are rare to non-existent, but an article in a recent issue of the International Journal of Climatology brings us a story about soil moisture extending back 1,426 years! (WCR)

Storm porn: Call it the Katrina effect: it's no longer enough to just report the weather; it has to be entertainment - Has the weather gone Hollywood?

In an effort to grab higher ratings and boost advertising in a fiercely competitive market, some television stations are being accused of exaggerating, dare we say hyping, their weather forecasts.

Crippling ice storms, devastating tsunamis and powerful hurricanes enthral viewers like a drawn-out O.J. Simpson trial or the heart-wrenching coverage of 9/11. Hurricane Katrina had us mesmerized for weeks – and the ad revenue flowed.

It used to be that weather forecasters were criticized for getting it wrong. Now, in true Chicken Little style, it's being suggested they're consistently overstating their predictions – the depth of snow, the severity of wind-chill factors – urging the audience to brace for the worst.

David Phillips, senior climatologist for Environment Canada, calls it "storm porn." (Toronto Star)

and disaster porn: Everglades project can ease harm of climate change, scientist says - CAPTIVA — Global warming means South Florida faces a future of eroded coasts, flooded barrier islands, mud-clogged bays, dying coral reefs, swaths of dead mangroves and saw grass, and shorelines reeking with blooming algae, a University of Miami scientist warned environmentalists Saturday.

But Harold Wanless offered one glimmer of hope: Restoring the Everglades can postpone some of the damage - but only if it's done right. That means recreating enough of the marsh's natural flow to rebuild eroded peat, which could hold back the salt and protect South Florida's drinking water supply.More Florida news

"Everglades restoration is more important than ever," Wanless told hundreds of activists, engineers and state and federal leaders at the Everglades Coalition's annual conference. Even so, he said Florida faces a grim fate if scientists' worst fears are realized about the melting of glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland.

"We have set into motion a monster," said Wanless, who chairs the university's department of geological sciences. "I wish I was writing you a novel. But unfortunately this is, as far as we can see, very real." (Palm Beach Post)

This crock, again: Scientists to discuss how global warming effects diseases - PRAGUE — Global warming in Europe could mean a host of potentially fatal diseases become more prevalent, a leading scientist warned Friday ahead of a major conference on the subject.

Warmer temperatures could encourage the spread of mosquito-spread malaria and the potentially fatal West Nile Virus, David Rogers, who heads up the EU-funded Eden project into emerging diseases, told AFP.

On the positive side however, rising temperatures could eventually rid the continent of tick-borne encephalitus and other diseases, said Rogers, a professor of ecology at Oxford University. (AFP)

Malaria is not limited by temperature.

World warming despite cool Pacific, Baghdad snow - OSLO - Climate change is still nudging up temperatures in the long term even though the warmest year was back in 1998 and 2008 has begun with unusual weather such as a cool Pacific and Baghdad's first snow in memory, experts said.

"Global warming has not stopped," said Amir Delju, senior scientific coordinator of the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) climate programme.
The sun sets next to a smokestack from a coal-burning power station in Beijing January 9, 2008. Climate change is still nudging up temperatures in the long term even though the warmest year was back in 1998 and 2008 has begun with unusual weather such as a cool Pacific and Baghdad's first snow in memory, experts said. (REUTERS/David Gray)


Last year was among the six warmest years since records began in the 1850s and the British Met Office said last week that 2008 will be the coolest year since 2000, partly because of a La Nina event that cuts water temperatures in the Pacific.

"We are in a minor La Nina period which shows a little cooling in the Pacific Ocean," Delju told Reuters. "The decade from 1998 to 2007 is the warmest on record and the whole trend is still continuing." (Reuters)

Well, yes, after a fashion. Checking trend slope since January 2000 (the "bottom" of the cooling post-97/98 El Niño) shows GISTEMP and UAH MSU yielding y = 0.0019x (R² of 0.1711 and 0.1373, respectively) while HadCRUT3 delivers y = 0.001x (R² = 0.0863) and RSS AMSU comes in at y = 0.0007x (R² = 0.0201). Not exactly the kind of results you'd write home about, are they?

Weather, climate, and noise - Gavin Schmidt and Stefan Rahmstorf discuss the difference between the weather and the climate and the relevance of noise. There are many correct things in their text but there is a lot of naivité in it, too. (The Reference Frame)

Hot And Icy - For a long time, scientists have regarded a geological stage known as the Turonian to be one that was largely ice-free. The Turonian, lasting from 93.5 ± 0.8 Ma (million years ago) to 89.3 ± 1 Ma, was one of the warmest times in Earth history, when dinosaurs still prowled the world and alligators/crocodiles were key predators, even in the Arctic. The stage was defined by a French paleontologist, Alcide d'Orbigny (1802 - 1857), who named it after the city of Tours.

Now scientists have discovered in a new paper published in the journal, Science, that, despite the Turonian’s ‘super greenhouse’ climate, giant ice sheets were able to grow and persist during the stage. As The New York Times reports today (‘Study says Glaciers formed during a Very Warm Period’, January 11): (Global Warming Politics)

This again: Antarctic ice sheet shrinking at faster rate - One of the biggest worries about global warming has been its potential to affect the stability of the Antarctic ice sheet, a vast storehouse of frozen water that would inundate the world's coastal regions if it were to melt because of a warming climate.

The southern continent contains enough ice to raise ocean levels by about 60 metres, a deluge that would put every major coastal city in the world deep under water and uproot hundreds of millions of people.

The huge implications posed by the health of the ice sheet have prompted major scientific interest into whether it is growing, shrinking, or stable, with no clear consensus among researchers about its overall trend.

But a new study released today, based on some of the most extensive measurements to date of the continent's ice mass, presents a worrisome development: Antarctica's ice sheet is shrinking, at a rate that increased dramatically from 1996 to 2006.

"Over the time period of our survey, the ice sheet as a whole was certainly losing mass, and the mass loss increased by 75 per cent in 10 years," the study said.

The results of the research project, led by Dr. Eric Rignot, principal scientist for the Radar Science and Engineering Section at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's in Pasadena, Calif., appear in the current issue of Nature Geoscience.

In an e-mail, Dr. Rignot attributed the shrinkage in the ice sheet to an upwelling of warm waters along the Antarctic coast, which is causing some glaciers to flow more rapidly into the ocean.

He suspects the trend is due to global warming, and isn't part of a normal natural fluctuation. (Globe and Mail)

Our guess is it'll be at least next week before competing statistics says the Antarctic is gaining ice mass. What isn't highlighted in this piece is that this again relies on PlayStation® climatology -- compared with models the WAIS appears to be losing mass.

Meanwhile JunkScience reader M O'R has beaten us to checking the data, pointing out that the Antarctic Peninsula (the region of alleged ice loss) shows dramatic cooling over the last year and providing the following:

Five GISS Stations To The North And East Coast Of The West Antarctic Peninsula

70188968000 BASE ORCADAS                   -60.75  -44.72    6    0R   -9HIICCO 1x-9WATER         
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=301889630008&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1

70089050000 BELLINGSHAUSE                  -62.20  -58.93   16   76R   -9HIICCO 1x-9ANTARCTICA      A
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=700890500008&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1

30489056000 CENTRO MET.AN, Marsh           -62.42  -58.88   10    0R   -9HIICCO 1x-9ANTARCTICA      A
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=304890560008&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1

30188963000 BASE ESPERANZ                  -63.40  -56.98   13   45R   -9HIICCO 1x-9WATER           A
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=301889630008&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1

70089055000 CMS_VICE.DO.Marambio           -64.23  -56.72  198    0R   -9HIICCO 1x-9WATER           A
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=700890550008&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1

Three GISS Stations On The West Coast Of The West Antarctic Peninsula

70089063000 FARADAY                        -65.25  -64.27   11    0R   -9HIICCO 1x-9WATER           A
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=700890630008&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1

70089062000 ROTHERA POINT                  -67.57  -68.13   16   12R   -9HIICCO 1x-9WATER           A
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=700890620000&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1

70089066000 BASE SAN MARTIN                -68.13  -67.13    4  233R   -9MVICCO 1x-9WATER           A
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/gistemp_station.py?id=700890660004&data_set=1&num_neighbors=1

Even providing a bookmark file for Google Earthers :)