Daily Archives: May 23, 2011

Actually people love fossil fuels, although many of them don’t realize it

Posted on May 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

Irrational Fossil Fuel Hatred
by BRIAN MCGRAW on MAY 23, 2011

Energy blogger Robert Rapier has an excellent post about the naive hatred shown towards the fossil fuel industry by what he calls Democrats. I’m not completely convinced that its a position held by all of those on the left (rather than environmentalists, a subset of the left) but the knee-jerk anti energy sentiments tend to aggregate more on that side of the isle. Read the whole thing, especially his thoughts on clueless celebrity activism. He quotes an environmentalist who struggled to come to this realization: (Cooler Heads)

White House Misses the Energy Message
By Marita Noon
Posted on May. 23, 2011

In a politically polarized climate there seems to be little upon which most Americans can agree. But everyone seems to concur that the prices at the pump are too high—even though they have dipped slightly, and that expensive energy drags down a struggling economy.

Even Congress has heard the voice of the people but the White House is still pushing policy that is certain to pump up prices. (Energy Tribune)

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Posted in Energy

Enhanced oil recovery we can live with but CCS is a total nonsense

Posted on May 23, 2011 | 1 Comment

U.S. Can Curb Carbon Emissions While Boosting Domestic Oil Production, Report Says

AUSTIN, Texas — A report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and The University of Texas at Austin urges the U.S. to accelerate efforts to pursue carbon capture and storage (CCS) in combination with enhanced oil recovery (EOR), a practice that could increase domestic oil production while significantly curbing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2).

For decades the oil industry has used CO2 to extract oil from mature fields, often relying on purchased CO2 from natural sources. The idea of seeking CO2 from industrial sources, such as coal- and natural gas-fired electricity plants, has gained currency because of public concerns about carbon dioxide emissions.

Widespread adoption of combining enhanced oil recovery with carbon capture and storage faces major hurdles, including development of infrastructure, regulation and economic incentives to manage supply and demand of CO2. (UT)

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Posted in CCS, Energy

UK chooses abundant energy over absurd green hysteria

Posted on May 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

UK Lawmakers: No Evidence Shale Gas Threatens Environment
Monday, 23 May 2011 21:11 James Herron, Dow Jones Newswires

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- There is no evidence that properly conducted drilling for shale gas poses a direct risk to underground aquifers, a group of lawmakers on the U.K. Parliament’s Energy and Climate Change Committee said in a report Monday.

These conclusions could be a boon for the shale gas industry, which has transformed the energy landscape in the U.S. following a huge surge in new production. However, even as it gave a green light to shale gas development, the committee warned that the industry would likely have a far smaller impact on U.K. energy supplies than occurred in the U.S.

The committee rejected requests for a moratorium on shale gas extraction in the U.K., although it urged the government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change to monitor drilling “extremely closely” as long as the industry remains in its early stages.

“There has been a lot of hot air recently about the dangers of shale gas drilling, but our inquiry found no evidence to support the main concern–that UK water supplies would be put at risk,” said Tim Yeo, the Conservative member of Parliament who is chair of the committee. “There appears to be nothing inherently dangerous about the process of ‘fracking’ itself and as long as the integrity of the well is maintained shale gas extraction should be safe.” (GWPF)

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Posted in Energy, Fracking

Good to see at least a couple of states holding EPA’s feet to the fire

Posted on May 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

Virginia, Texas Go Forth With Climategate Challenge
Monday, 23 May 2011 15:55 Cheryl K. Chumley, The Washington Examiner

Did the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rely on flawed science when it ruled carbon dioxide was a harmful pollutant, needful of regulation?

That’s one question Virginia and Texas seek to resolve with a lawsuit against the EPA accusing the agency of using known erroneous reports as an excuse to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Here’s another one: did the EPA use agenda-driven science – from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – rather than independent science, as required by law, to arrive at its ruling? (GWPF)

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Posted in Climategate, Crazy carbon schemes, EPA

Still trying to beat up weather disasters

Posted on May 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

When even rabid “decarbonization” advocates like Roger Pielke Jr. can’t find any association between weather related disasters and “global warming” or rising atmospheric CO2 then you really have to wonder about Oxfam’s claims. It could just be selective application of statistics, we suppose, since they are only apparently looking at the period since the Great Pacific Climate Shift but we would not be surprised if someone had their thumb on scales a bit here.

Weather disasters in the poorest nations ‘have trebled since 1980s’
By Steve Connor, Science Editor

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Posted in Climate change, Development, Propaganda

Roger Pielke Sr. on the selective bias of NOAA’s NCDC…

Posted on May 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

The Selective Bias Of NOAA’s National Climate Data Center (NCDC) With Respect To The Analysis And Interpretation Of Multi-Decadal Land Surface Temperature Trends Under The Leadership Of Tom Karl and Tom Peterson

I have posted on the science of our paper

Fall, S., A. Watts, J. Nielsen-Gammon, E. Jones, D. Niyogi, J. Christy, and R.A. Pielke Sr., 2011: Analysis of the impacts of station exposure on the U.S. Historical Climatology Network temperatures and temperature trends. J. Geophys. Res., in press. Copyright (2011) American Geophysical Union

in the post

A Summary Of Our New Paper “Analysis Of The Impacts Of Station Exposure On The U.S. Historical Climatology Network Temperatures and Temperature Trends” By Fall Et Al 2011

John Neilsen Gammon and Anthony Watts have excellent posts on our paper also; see, for example,

Something for Everyone: Fall et al. 2011

Fall et al. 2011: The Statistics

Fall et al. 2011: What We Learned About the Climate

According to the best-sited stations, the diurnal temperature range in the lower 48 states has no century-scale trend.

Today, I want to summarize the clear bias of NOAA’s National Climate Data Center under the leadership of Tom Karl and Tom Peterson on the research we have completed on the remaining uncertainties and systematic biases in the multi-decadal surface temperature analyses that are used by the IPCC and others in the quantification of global warming. Tom Karl is Director of the NOAA’s National Climate Data Center [NCDC], and Tom Peterson works for Tom Karl and has a leadership role in the analysis and interpretation of long term surface temperature data trends and anomalies. (Roger Pielke Sr.)

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Posted in Climate change

Usual claims about warming and tornados, despite world being relatively cool

Posted on May 23, 2011 | 1 Comment

The Tornado Disinformation Machine Ramps Up!

The ongoing and desperate effort to blame weather on global warming gets increasingly pathetic every day.

The deadliest year for tornadoes in the U.S. was 1925, when 794 people were killed, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Yesterday’s Joplin twister is tied with a 1953 Flint, Michigan, tornado as the single deadliest in records going back to 1950.

The 1925 Tri-State Tornado killed at least 695 people. Remarkably, people actually kept records prior to 1950. (Steven Goddard, Real Climate)

No Link Between Tornadoes And Climate Change: US
Monday, 23 May 2011 20:48 AFP

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Posted in Climate change, Propaganda

Apparently fancy, albeit meaningless titles do impress the media

Posted on May 23, 2011 | 1 Comment

I admit I used to doubt anyone was really impressed by governments wasting a few millions and granting grandiose titles to propaganda stooges but here is Reuters elevating a few professional panic merchants and publicity hounds to “Australia’s top scientists” — go figure!

Climate change warnings add heat to Australia CO2 price

A team of Australia’s top scientists warned on Monday of dire climate change in calling for the nation’s carbon-dominated energy sector to turn green, as the government struggles to win support for a carbon price to cut pollution.

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Posted in Cap and tax, Climate change

Daily Bayonet: An Inconvenient Truth, five years on

Posted on May 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

An Inconvenient Truth, five years on

Five years ago, An Inconvenient Truth was released to an unsuspecting world.

Not only did it break new cinematic ground with pilfered special effects, it proved PowerPoint could sell movie tickets as long as it was narrated by a famous politician willing to say almost anything to increase the value of his investment portfolio.  Not only that, Michael Moore suddenly had Oscar competition for agit-prop documentaries.

An Inconvenient Truth made global warming a global star and elevated a relatively feeble field of science far beyond the level of incompetence of many of its biggest names. Celebrities, politicians and activists rushed to the new cool hot cause célèbre and posed for the cameras with concerned faces as they parroted dire predictions about the state of Kilimanjaro glaciers, homeless polar bears and living with a Prius.

Life was golden for the green jet set, but then came failure in Copenhagen and the game-changing revelations of Climategate.  That was the beginning of the end for global warming.  It’s since been renamed climate change, climate disruption, global weirding and Maude.  Okay, no-one’s named it Maude yet, but it could happen. (Daily Bayonet)

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Posted in Climate change, Propaganda

Diabetes cures and risk (or not)

Posted on May 23, 2011 | 1 Comment

Is it diabetes…or just hyperglycemia?

My latest HND piece examines the sketchy world of Type 2 diabetes, a disease defined so nebulously that it is becoming a parody of itself. Can it be cured? Good luck getting an authoritative medical answer on that one. The insurance underwriting answer, of course, is “no.”

If the signal symptom is a fasting blood glucose on two occasions higher that 125 mg/dL (6.9 mmol/L), then what about someone who has been diagnosed as such but is is able to get below that level consistently without drugs (usually by improving his diet)? That would pass as a “cure” for me, but then I’m not in the diabetes industry. (Shaw’s Eco-Logic)

Gluten not linked to babies’ risk of diabetes: study

NEW YORK | Fri May 20, 2011 3:54pm EDT – For babies at higher risk of childhood diabetes because of family history or genes, a gluten-free diet in the first year of life does not lower the chances of developing the disease, German researchers report. (Reuters Health)

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Posted in Health care

On light bulbs, fires and increasingly rational Canada

Posted on May 23, 2011 | 2 Comments

The Dangers of CFLs Even Greater Than Previously Known
By Edmund Contoski

New evidence of CFLs causing fires — even exploding — as well as new environmental concerns have come to light since my article The CFL Fraud published. (American Thinker)

Canada sees the incandescent light

Just a few weeks after winning a majority government, Stephen Harper’s government announced a delay in phasing out incandescent light bulbs: (Daily Bayonet)

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Posted in Energy, Regulation

Personalized account from Viv Forbes on the costs being imposed by Australia’s dalliance with a carbon tax proposal

Posted on May 23, 2011 | 2 Comments

“The End of an Era“
A statement by Viv Forbes.
23 May 2011

A personal explanation first:

People seldom recognise major turning points when they occur. At the time they are just another routine event in a crowd of trivial news.

But I was shocked recently by what I believe is a major turning point in Australian industrial history.

Xstrata announced that smelting and refining of Mount Isa copper is to be phased out.

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Posted in Cap and tax, Crazy carbon schemes, Development

People seem to need frequent reminders – warm good, cold bad

Posted on May 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

Evidence suggests global warming is good for our health

After I wrote Wasting money on climate change betrays sick in The Weekend Australian, Fiona Armstrong of the Climate and Health Alliance replied with Climate action has clear public health dividend. Here’s why she’s missing the main point (saving lives). (Jo Nova)

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Posted in Climate, Health care

No matter how well constructed, flawed narratives fall apart eventually, global warming no exception

Posted on May 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

The Truth About Greenhouse Gases
The dubious science of the climate crusaders.
William Happer

The object of the Author in the following pages has been to collect the most remarkable instances of those moral epidemics which have been excited, sometimes by one cause and sometimes by another, and to show how easily the masses have been led astray, and how imitative and gregarious men are, even in their infatuations and crimes,” wrote Charles Mackay in the preface to the first edition of his Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. I want to discuss a contemporary moral epidemic: the notion that increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide, will have disastrous consequences for mankind and for the planet. The “climate crusade” is one characterized by true believers, opportunists, cynics, money-hungry governments, manipulators of various types—even children’s crusades—all based on contested science and dubious claims. (First Things)

German Skeptics Finally Breaking Into The Discussion – Germany Says Auf Wiedersehen To Climate Science Consensus
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Posted in Climate change, Propaganda

Oceans, covering 70% of planet, now thought to be climatically important

Posted on May 23, 2011 | 1 Comment

Intriguing New Paper “Climate Sensitivity To Changes In Ocean Heat Transport” By Barreiro Et Al 2011

We have been alerted to an intriguing new paper that further illustrates the complexity of the climate system (h/t to Geoff Smith). It is

Marcelo Barreiro, Annalisa Cherchi and Simona Masina, 2011: Climate sensitivity to changes in ocean heat transport. J of Climate. doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-10-05029.1 [in press] (Roger Pielke Sr.)

New paper shows significant natural climate change from ocean oscillations

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Posted in Climate