Showing posts with label copenhagen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label copenhagen. Show all posts

Monday, November 29, 2010

UK Telegraph: "Cancun climate change summit: scientists call for rationing in developed world"

Remember the "global warming" disaster in Copenhagen last year?

So-called scientists, politicians, and representatives from big business who are very keen on profiting from the "global warming" to the tune of $12 trillion dollars are flying in on their fancy jets to Cancun, Mexico, to hold another "climate" conference in a super-fancy resort built on a strip of land that used to be a ecologically sensitive mangrove swamp with pristine beaches and rainforests.

These so-called scientists are already lecturing us that the developed countries like UK should be put on a rationing system just like during the World War II and halt any growth for 20 years to save the planet from the "global warming".

Talk about hypocricy.

And PR disaster.

UK's Telegraph reports:

In a series of papers published by the Royal Society, physicists and chemists from some of world’s most respected scientific institutions, including Oxford University and the Met Office, agreed that current plans to tackle global warming are not enough.

Unless emissions are reduced dramatically in the next ten years the world is set to see temperatures rise by more than 4C (7.2F) by as early as the 2060s, causing floods, droughts and mass migration.

As the world meets in Cancun, Mexico for the latest round of United Nations talks on climate change, the influential academics called for much tougher measures to cut carbon emissions.

In one paper Professor Kevin Anderson, Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said the only way to reduce global emissions enough, while allowing the poor nations to continue to grow, is to halt economic growth in the rich world over the next twenty years.

This would mean a drastic change in lifestyles for many people in countries like Britain as everyone will have to buy less ‘carbon intensive’ goods and services such as long haul flights and fuel hungry cars.

Prof Anderson admitted it “would not be easy” to persuade people to reduce their consumption of goods

He said politicians should consider a rationing system similar to the one introduced during the last “time of crisis” in the 1930s and 40s.

This could mean a limit on electricity so people are forced to turn the heating down, turn off the lights and replace old electrical goods like huge fridges with more efficient models. Food that has travelled from abroad may be limited and goods that require a lot of energy to manufacture.

...Prof Anderson insisted that halting growth in the rich world does not necessarily mean a recession or a worse lifestyle, it just means making adjustments in everyday life such as using public transport and wearing a sweater rather than turning on the heating.

Sure, sure. I'm sure he will be delivering his excellent paper in a super-fancy resort in Cancun, if he can take the time off from his golf on a course designed by Jack Nicklaus or relaxing in a jaccuzzi eating shrimp.

By the way, Cancun means "a nest of serpents". Indeed.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Chinese Snub Obama in Copenhagen

not once but twice in the same day.

Obama must have pissed off Chinese very badly. I don't think this is a typical Chinese antic, for, after all, they are face- and protocol-conscious East Asians. The president had better hope Chinese will not stop buying Treasuries.

China's delaying tactics threaten climate deal
(Chris Green, 12/18/09 The Independent)

"China is attempting to scupper chances of a comprehenive agreement at the Copenhagen climate summit by using delaying tactics, sources inside the negotiations have told The Independent.

"At an emergency meeting convened at the Bella Center this morning, Barack Obama and Gordon Brown assembled 26 heads of state in an attempt to revive a deal. But China's Premier Wen Jiabao did not attend and was replaced by vice foreign minister He Yafei.

"This afternoon, the US president and his secretary of state Hillary Clinton called another meeting with China, but were snubbed again when only three low-level Chinese delegates arrived."

[Not even the foreign minister himself. Ouch.]

"According to a high level source, the US president clearly regarded Premier Wen’s absence as a major diplomatic insult, and snapped: “It would be nice to negotiate with somebody who can make political decisions.”

It looks like the U.S. president has made things worse by going to Copenhagen. His speech had a frigid reception, leaving Venezuela's Hugo Chavez to continue to smell "sulpher". Bullying Chinese clearly backfired and now the Chinese are pissed, and he is on the way back to Washington D.C. before the final vote, because of blizzard in D.C..

Copenhagen seems to have a bad juju for Obama. In retrospect, his trip to Copenhagen for Chicago's Olympic bid may have been a dry-run for the latest snub.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Climategate: Gore Falsifies the Record

or he misspoke. (Ooo I hate that word.)

This from Andrew Bolt of Australia's Herald Sun, regarding Slate magazine's Q&A with Al Gore over global warming, those pesky leaked emails, and his new book (what a surprise). Andrew Bolt has other excellent posts on global warming and the "Climategate".

(Remember that Australia's Senate voted down the government's bill on carbon trading recently, partly thanks to the "Climategate" emails.)

Climategate: Gore falsifies the record (12/9/09, Herald Sun, Australia)
[emphasis is original]

"Al Gore has studied the Climategate emails with his typically rigorous eye and dismissed them as mere piffle:

Q: How damaging to your argument was the disclosure of e-mails from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University?
A: To paraphrase Shakespeare, it’s sound and fury signifying nothing. I haven’t read all the e-mails, but the most recent one is more than 10 years old. These private exchanges between these scientists do not in any way cause any question about the scientific consensus.
" And in case you think that was a mere slip of the tongue:
Q: There is a sense in these e-mails, though, that data was hidden and hoarded, which is the opposite of the case you make [in your book] about having an open and fair debate.

A: I think it’s been taken wildly out of context. The discussion you’re referring to was about two papers that two of these scientists felt shouldn’t be accepted as part of the IPCC report. Both of them, in fact, were included, referenced, and discussed. So an e-mail exchange more than 10 years ago including somebody’s opinion that a particular study isn’t any good is one thing, but the fact that the study ended up being included and discussed anyway is a more powerful comment on what the result of the scientific process really is.

"In fact, thrice denied:
These people are examining what they can or should do to deal with the P.R.
dimensions of this, but where the scientific consensus is concerned, it’s completely unchanged. What we’re seeing is a set of changes worldwide that just make this discussion over 10-year-old e-mails kind of silly.
"In fact, as Watts Up With That shows, one Climategate email was from just two months ago. The most recent was sent on November 12 - just a month ago. The emails which have Tom Wigley seeming (to me) to choke on the deceit are all from this year. Phil Jones’ infamous email urging other Climategate scientists to delete emails is from last year.

"How closely did Gore read these emails? Did he actually read any at all? Was he lying or just terribly mistaken? What else has he got wrong?"


It's Newspeak, Mr. Bolt. "One month ago" means "10-years ago", and "two months ago" means "more than 10 years ago", by imperious Al Gore's decree. Well, Mr. Gore has a lot depending on the global consensus on global warming and implementation of cap and trade globally.

What I want to ask in addition is this: Since when is the validity of science determined by consensus?

If the age of the planet earth had been determined by the consensus, it would have stayed at 100 million years, the number mathematically derived by the very influential and brilliant physicist (Lord Kelvin). For the next three decades, it stayed that way during which scientists tried their best to come up with the evidence that would justify Lord Kelvin's conclusion. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

This brilliant conclusion about the age of the planet, agreed upon by most scientists, was rudely overturned by empirical evidence: Discovery of radioactivity that threw a monkey wrench into Lord Kelvin's meticulous calculation on thermodynamics. (For more, please read the article by David Deming, titled "Global Warming and the Age of the Earth: A Lesson on the Nature of Scientific Knowledge", 12/3/09 Lewrockwell.com)

But the age of the planet didn't affect nation's GDP or welfare of the nation's inhabitants the way this idea of global warming is going to affect.

Mr. Gore, himself a non-scientist, seems to have decided science should be run like politics - compromise, consensus, arm-twisting, silencing the opponent, outspending the opponent to win the race. And partly thanks to people like Mr. Gore, science, particularly climate science, has become exactly that: a branch of politics.

Another thing I want to ask is about Slate: Were they also unaware that the emails were as recent as a month ago? Or are they taking part in perpetuating this new myth created by Al Gore that those emails were "more than 10 years ago"?

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

CO2 Is a Dangerous Pollutant

so declared the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday.

The agency is dutifully doing the bidding of the administration just in time for the Copenhagen climate summit. I will believe that when these officials at the agency show us the way by stopping breathing completely in order to save the planet.

Here's a take on the issue by the Heritage Foundation:

EPA Formally Declares CO2 a Dangerous Pollutant
(12/7/09 The Foundry, Heritage Foundation)

"Step aside, elected Members of Congress. If you can’t pass cap and trade legislation, The Environmental Protection Agency will move in with massively complex and costly regulations that would micromanage just about every aspect of the economy. They announced today that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten public health and the environment." (The article continues. Click on the link above to read.)

This, despite the "Climategate" where the world's leading climate scientists are accused of falsifying the data to fit their theory of global warming.

The following article about the "Climategate" is about the only one posted on the mainstream media outlets. The author, Declan McCullah, has written good articles on health care "reform" and climate change legislation.

ClimateGate Could Threaten Copenhagen Climate Deal
(Declan McCullah, 12/7/09, CBS News)

Soon, the government will decree that:

War is peace;
Fiscal responsibility means profligate spending;
Recession/Depression is over;
Only the government can save you;
The world is flat;
The sun revolves around the earth, again;
Sky is falling.

What else?

Ooops forgot the obvious.

The earth is warming because of pesky humans.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Cooking Up Data on Global "Warming"?

Can we kiss "cap and trade" goodbye now?

Climategate: the final nail in the coffin of 'Anthropogenic Global Warming'? (James Delingpole, 11/20/09 Telegraph UK)

"If you own any shares in alternative energy companies I should start dumping them NOW. The conspiracy behind the Anthropogenic Global Warming myth (aka AGW; aka ManBearPig) has been suddenly, brutally and quite deliciously exposed after a hacker broke into the computers at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (aka Hadley CRU) and released 61 megabites of confidential files onto the internet. (Hat tip: Watts Up With That)

"When you read some of those files – including 1079 emails and 72 documents – you realise just why the boffins at Hadley CRU might have preferred to keep them confidential. As Andrew Bolt puts it, this scandal could well be “the greatest in modern science”. These alleged emails – supposedly exchanged by some of the most prominent scientists pushing AGW theory – suggest:

Conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more.

"One of the alleged emails has a gentle gloat over the death in 2004 of John L Daly (one of the first climate change sceptics, founder of the Still Waiting For Greenhouse site), commenting:
In an odd way this is cheering news.
"But perhaps the most damaging revelations – the scientific equivalent of the Telegraph’s MPs’ expenses scandal – are those concerning the way Warmist scientists may variously have manipulated or suppressed evidence in order to support their cause."

The article continues to list some of their amusing emails.

James Delingpole has several deliciously-titled books like Welcome to Obamaland: I Have Seen Your Future and It Doesn't Work.

Despite the article's title, he is realistic (that nothing of that sort happens any time soon) but at the same time thinks the tide is turning against Al Gores of the world:

"I asked in my title whether this will be the final nail in the coffin of Anthropenic Global Warming. This was wishful thinking, of course. In the run up to Copenhagen, we will see more and more hysterical (and grotesquely exaggerated) stories such as this in the Mainstream Media. And we will see ever-more-virulent campaigns conducted by eco-fascist activists, such as this risible new advertising campaign by Plane Stupid showing CGI polar bears falling from the sky and exploding because kind of, like, man, that’s sort of what happens whenever you take another trip on an aeroplane.

"The world is currently cooling; electorates are increasingly reluctant to support eco-policies leading to more oppressive regulation, higher taxes and higher utility bills; the tide is turning against Al Gore’s Anthropogenic Global Warming theory. The so-called “sceptical” view is now also the majority view.

"Unfortunately, we’ve a long, long way to go before the public mood (and scientific truth) is reflected by our policy makers. There are too many vested interests in AGW, with far too much to lose either in terms of reputation or money, for this to end without a bitter fight."