Daily Archives: June 8, 2011

Is feral species frenzy basically eco-snobbery?

Possibly but don’t worry, people are still to blame for everything “bad” :-)

Ecology biased against non-native species?

Nature authors: End bias, focus on impact, function rather than origin

The recent field of invasion biology faces a new challenge as 19 eminent ecologists issue a call to “end the bias against non-native species” in the journal Nature.

Often called aliens, hitchhikers or invasives, some scientists say that non-native species could just as easily be coined “abductees” whose transport links to activities by humans.

The authors of the Nature comments section note that assumptions that “introduced species” offer only deleterious impacts are misguided and “that human-induced impacts, such as climate change, nitrogen eutrophication, urbanization and land use change are making the native-versus-alien species dichotomy in conservation increasingly meaningless.” (EurekAlert)

Ben Pile on a recent bit of moonbattery

All Watched Over by Monbiot
by Ben Pile

Monbiot, again. He has a piece in yesterday’s Guardian, taking issue with a report commissioned by the previous government — but taken up enthusiastically by the coalition. The report aimed to put a value on the UK’s ecosystem, such that planning policies could take account of the ‘ecosystem services’ that development may destroy. But, complains Monbiot, The true value of nature is not a number.
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From the “I told you it didn’t smell right” department

A few days ago I posted “Something else I’m skeptical about” stating that claims of death treats against ANU climate scientists, protection and moves to secret locations had the appearance of convenient timing and propaganda. Guess what?

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Bishop Hill points to a series of youtube clips: “Stopping the coming ice age” reminding us just how wonderfully flexible have been claims of the consequences of enhanced greenhouse

In the beginning (Bishop Hill)

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Just for laughs: here’s another poor threatened warmie piece

It’s even possible this sycophantic scribe actually believes this pap. Never heard of Climategate either :-)

Playing rough: ‘Hockey stick’ scientists dragged into the politics of global warming

By Carlo Rotella
June 8, 2011

PUT “RAYMOND Bradley’’ and “hockey stick’’ into a Google search box, and you’ll get an education in what happens when science runs afoul of politics. Bradley, a distinguished and widely respected climatologist who directs the Climate System Research Center at UMass Amherst, is co-author of a graph known as “the hockey stick’’ because it shows relatively flat temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere for most of the last millennium, with a sharp upward turn in the 20th century.

Your Google search will also take you to websites that question the scientific consensus on global warming. They typically depict Bradley as a ringleader in a conspiracy to orchestrate panic over climate change, one of a cabal intent on making themselves rich and famous, taxing the free market to death, and instituting a new world order headed by Al Gore. And the hockey stick, first published in 1998 and reproduced in 2001 in a report of the authoritative (and therefore, on these websites, incomparably nefarious) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is his worst crime. (Boston Globe)

Good news for all but catastrophists, natural gas is abundant, accessible and quick to deploy

Peter Foster: Golden age for gas may lift both Canada and China

Shale era ushers in lead-balloon age for wind and solar energy

The International Energy Agency released a report on Monday outlining a “Golden Age” for natural gas. The fact that this represents a major revision within just months of the IEA’s 2010 Energy Outlook demonstrates how quickly new technologies — and accidents — can upend the best laid bureaucratic projections.

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Green energy myth and downside

The Renewable Energy Myth
By Robert Emery

On a number of occasions, President Barack Obama has set a goal to reduce the United States’ dependence on oil imports by a third by 2025 or about 4 million barrels a day. Unfortunately, his own energy policies undercut his goal. President Obama’s belief that clean energy investments will offset our dependence on foreign oil in the short-term is misplaced, given that oil is used predominantly as a transportation fuel and produces less than 1 percent of U.S. electricity; solar and wind, the dominant renewable energy technologies in Obama’s portfolio, produce electricity. The scenario would be feasible if many of the United States’ 250 million automobiles were electric.

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Ag effort misdirected to fuel production while worries continue about food production

Vegetable oils output to fall short in 2011: Oil World

Global vegetable oil production this year will not suffice to meet the needs of biodiesel industry, the output of which is expected to increase 10 percent from 2010, Oil World said on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Billions needed to boost food production, says DuPont committee

High-tech seeds and innovations in chemicals and farming will not be enough to solve looming food shortages for the world, according to a report issued Tuesday by a committee formed by food and chemicals conglomerate DuPont. (Reuters)

Oil and Government Motors

Forget Global Warming: Oils Sands Boom Full Steam Ahead
Tuesday, 07 June 2011 16:47 Ian Austen, The New York Times

The stakes are enormous. The oils sands have reserves of 171.3 billion barrels, according to estimates by the provincial government of Alberta — enough to change the balance of world oil markets. At some point China will take every drop of oil Canada can produce.

One way or another — by rail or ship or a network of pipelines — Canada will export oil from its vast northern oil sands projects to the United States and other markets.

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Down-under: business not willing to foot “carbon” bill, consumers not either

Carbon tax on coal is ‘ahead of world’ – Australian Coal Association
Sid Maher

Major coal producers such as Anglo American Australia and Xstrata Holdings appear among the 1000 companies that will be subject to the Gillard Government’s carbon tax / File

NO major coal-producing country currently imposes a direct charge on greenhouse gas emissions from coalmines, according to research released last night as industry prepared to intensify its opposition to Julia Gillard’s carbon tax scheme.

After Wayne Swan yesterday announced that a much-anticipated Productivity Commission report into international climate regimes would show that seven of Australia’s top-10 trading partners had adopted major policies to reduce pollution, the Australian Coal Association launched a pre-emptive strike against the report’s findings, The Australian reports.

The association released research by the Centre for International Economics that showed none of the major coal-exporting countries “either currently, or has concrete plans to impose, a direct or indirect constraint on fugitive emissions from coalmining”. (The Australian)

Mind the gap on climate
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With gravy train disappearing into the distance, wannabe welfare recipients willing to compromise

Island states hint at climate talks compromise

Small island states, at risk from rising seas due to climate change, hinted on Tuesday at a compromise in order to kick-start U.N. talks on reaching a binding deal to curb global warming. (Reuters)

After 15 Years, Europe Kills Its Unilateral Kyoto Policy
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The world is behaving normally – but CAGW proponents don’t want to talk about it

Climate isn’t up for debate
Alarmists refuse to take on skeptical geologists
By Tom Harris

Anyone not already familiar with the stance of geologists towards the global warming scare would have been shocked by the conference at the University of Ottawa at the end of May. In contrast to most environmental science meetings, climate skepticism was widespread among the thousand geoscientists from Canada, the United States and other countries who took part in GAC-MAC 2011 (the Joint Annual Meeting of the Geological Association of Canada, the Mineralogical Association of Canada, the Society of Economic Geologists and the Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits). (Financial Post)

Dominant glacier in the Alps is larger today than most of the past 11,500 years

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Stop the presses! EPA criticized; Naomi Oreskes an agenda-driven conspiracy theorist!

Critics of EPA climate regulations monopolize TV news, report says
By Andrew Restuccia – 06/07/11 09:36 AM ET

More than three-quarters of the guests invited to appear on nine major television channels in the last two years to discuss Environmental Protection Agency climate regulations were critical of the rules, a new report says. (E2 Wire)

Naomi Oreskes, Conspiracy Queen
By Norman Rogers

Naomi Oreskes is the environmentalist Noam Chomsky. She thinks that anyone who questions environmentalist doctrine is evil. Her crusade is to expose the presumed ulterior motives of the critics. According to Oreskes, if you question the dubious studies concerning secondhand tobacco smoke, you must be in the pay of tobacco companies. If you question global warming, you must be working for a fossil fuel company. If you question the DDT ban, you must part of a right wing conspiracy to weaken faith in government regulators. (American Thinker)