Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Banksy - For or Against Global Warming?
Four New Banksy Images Found In London
2:39pm UK, Monday December 21, 2009
Lewis Dean, Sky News Online
Four new images by the elusive street artist Banksy have surfaced over the weekend, with one seemingly attacking global warming sceptics.
The pieces follow the Copenhagen summit. Photo: londonist.com
It found the first beneath Camden Street Bridge - "almost in the back yard of the British Transport Police building".
The second and third pieces were etched under and next to the Oval Road Bridge in the direction of Primrose Hill.
The most provocative simply has the words: “I don’t believe in global warming”, with the writing gradually disappearing into a canal.
Image of man unrolling advert for graffiti. Photo: londonist.com
Another shows a man rolling a graffiti-covered advertisement.
The third has a young boy fishing a dripping ‘Bansky’ tag out of a polluted canal.
Bansky’s artworks use spray paint and stencils and are often satirical in nature
Artwork showing a boy fishing in a polluted canal. Photo: londonist.com
There is debate over his identity as he shuns media exposure, preferring to remain anonymous.
This has only added to Banksy's iconic status as one of the world's greatest street artists.
Some of his pieces have gone for over £50,000 at auction but apparently he has never profited from the sale of any of his works.
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Friday, December 18, 2009
Rajendra Pachauri.......
Panel chief Rajendra Pachauri under attack Amanda Hodge, South Asia correspondent From: The Australian December 18, 2009 12:00AM Increase Text SizeDecrease Text SizePrintEmail Share
Add to DiggAdd to del.icio.usAdd to FacebookAdd to KwoffAdd to MyspaceAdd to NewsvineWhat are these?THE head of the world's top climate change body has been accused of a conflict of interest over his many business directorships, just days after he used his keynote speech at the Copenhagen summit to attack global warming sceptics.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and head of India's Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), has come under attack over his involvement in a long list of fossil fuel, venture capital, alternative energy, research and motor vehicle companies.
In a blog this week that continuously referred to him as a "millionaire businessman", British right-wing commentator Richard North suggested Dr Pachauri was profiting handsomely from his many connections, and that the climate debate was being run by a cartel of scientists with corporate links who were making money from the carbon credits market.
A follow-up column in Britain's Daily Telegraph detailing Dr Pachauri's corporate advisory and director positions ran under the headline: "With business interests like these are we really sure Dr Rajendra Pachauri is fit to chair the IPCC?"
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
Related CoverageGood laugh, sweet prince
The Australian, 4 days ago
Proposed greenhouse cuts remain `far short'
The Australian, 4 days ago
Australia demands climate commitment
Adelaide Now, 10 days ago
UN expert likens Abbott to Bush
Adelaide Now, 10 days ago
Danish PM talks up climate deal chances
The Australian, 10 days ago
.End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
The column also questioned Dr Pachauri's connection with TERI, which is involved in a joint solar energy research project with the CSIRO. "As we learn from its website, this used to stand for Tata Energy Research Institute, but was renamed The Energy and Resources Institute in 2003. Nothing sinister, I'm sure, in its decision to play down the Tata connection; nor in the fact that Dr Pachauri makes no mention of the fact that he is funded by Tata on his website," it said.
During his lightning 36-hour visit to India last month Kevin Rudd met with Dr Pachauri at the TERI headquarters in New Delhi where he announced $71 million in funding for joint Indian-Australian scientific research and fellowship programs.
In a brief email response to questions from The Australian yesterday, Dr Pachauri said: "These are absolute lies, and I am sure those who are trying to perpetrate these are aware of the facts."
A spokeswoman for TERI also denied the organisation had received any money from Tata, other than the 1974 seed funding, which helped create what has become India's premier environmental research body.
"These allegations are baseless and Dr Pachauri has much better things to do than take up such false accusations," she said.
"Let them come up with some serious findings and we will get back to them."
Former Greenpeace International head turned business consultant Paul Gilding defended Dr Pachauri yesterday, saying: "The fact that Pachauri has experience in business makes him more qualified to get involved in the debate about what's fundamentally an economic transformation."
Add to DiggAdd to del.icio.usAdd to FacebookAdd to KwoffAdd to MyspaceAdd to NewsvineWhat are these?THE head of the world's top climate change body has been accused of a conflict of interest over his many business directorships, just days after he used his keynote speech at the Copenhagen summit to attack global warming sceptics.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and head of India's Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), has come under attack over his involvement in a long list of fossil fuel, venture capital, alternative energy, research and motor vehicle companies.
In a blog this week that continuously referred to him as a "millionaire businessman", British right-wing commentator Richard North suggested Dr Pachauri was profiting handsomely from his many connections, and that the climate debate was being run by a cartel of scientists with corporate links who were making money from the carbon credits market.
A follow-up column in Britain's Daily Telegraph detailing Dr Pachauri's corporate advisory and director positions ran under the headline: "With business interests like these are we really sure Dr Rajendra Pachauri is fit to chair the IPCC?"
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
Related CoverageGood laugh, sweet prince
The Australian, 4 days ago
Proposed greenhouse cuts remain `far short'
The Australian, 4 days ago
Australia demands climate commitment
Adelaide Now, 10 days ago
UN expert likens Abbott to Bush
Adelaide Now, 10 days ago
Danish PM talks up climate deal chances
The Australian, 10 days ago
.End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
The column also questioned Dr Pachauri's connection with TERI, which is involved in a joint solar energy research project with the CSIRO. "As we learn from its website, this used to stand for Tata Energy Research Institute, but was renamed The Energy and Resources Institute in 2003. Nothing sinister, I'm sure, in its decision to play down the Tata connection; nor in the fact that Dr Pachauri makes no mention of the fact that he is funded by Tata on his website," it said.
During his lightning 36-hour visit to India last month Kevin Rudd met with Dr Pachauri at the TERI headquarters in New Delhi where he announced $71 million in funding for joint Indian-Australian scientific research and fellowship programs.
In a brief email response to questions from The Australian yesterday, Dr Pachauri said: "These are absolute lies, and I am sure those who are trying to perpetrate these are aware of the facts."
A spokeswoman for TERI also denied the organisation had received any money from Tata, other than the 1974 seed funding, which helped create what has become India's premier environmental research body.
"These allegations are baseless and Dr Pachauri has much better things to do than take up such false accusations," she said.
"Let them come up with some serious findings and we will get back to them."
Former Greenpeace International head turned business consultant Paul Gilding defended Dr Pachauri yesterday, saying: "The fact that Pachauri has experience in business makes him more qualified to get involved in the debate about what's fundamentally an economic transformation."
Matthew Knott in Copenhagen 2009
The word that dare not speak its name at Copenhagen: science
December 17, 2009 – 9:52 am, by Matthew Knott
By Matthew Knott in Copenhagen
The Copenhagen climate change summit has been an attention seeker’s nirvana: protester stunts, global warming sceptics and grandstanding politicians have provided colourful copy for journalists locked out of most of the negotiation sessions.
But lost in all the talk of arrests and walkouts and stolen emails have been the voices of those whose work brought this whole crazy circus about: climate change scientists.
Pity the friendly folk at the American Geophysical Union who organised 650 climate scientists to volunteer to assist journalists covering the Copenhagen climate talks through an on-call email service.
Sounds like a good idea. Just one problem: only about 20 journalists have bothered to write in (over 3,500 journalists are here reporting on the conference).
Lack of promotion of the initiative probably played a role – I certainly hadn’t heard of it until yesterday – but the fact remains that scientific issues have been low on the priority list of most journos at COP15.
This isn´t really a surprise. Protesters dressed up as pandas certainly make for better photos than dour climatologists. And sceptics like Ian Plimer provide streams of juicy quotes – global warming is the greatest scientific hoax of all time etc etc – while mainstream scientists tend to shy away from commenting on politics. (Note: I’m certainly not claiming to be holier than thou – my interview with Plimer shows I’ve been as guilt as the rest of ‘em)
It’s natural that reporters are interested above all in political pageantry of the talks, Mark Henderson, one of the experts scientific volunteers, told Wired Science. But the science shouldn’t be lost in all the white noise.
“How will the public judge whether their leaders have done a good job in Copenhagen if they don’t know the likely results on the climate of the agreement reached there?” he asked.
The case of Tuvalu, which last week called for a new treaty limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, is a prime example of a story where increased scientific knowlege among journalists could have produced better reporting.
Tuvalu’s pleas for survival made headlines around the world and the media came out en masse to film the NGO protests that erupted in support of the small island nation.
However, as Matthew England, IPCC author and joint Director of the UNSW Climate Change Research Centre, told Crikey: “Unfortunately, we´re probably already locked in to 1.5 degrees Celsius warming. Whilst 1.5 degrees is a laudable goal it´s virtually impossible to achieve without a shutdown of all industry.”
This is a reality I didn’t see reflected in most media reports.
Dr England said that emissions reduction targets on the table from rich countries like Australia at Copenhagen are disappointingly low. “Scientifically, if you look at all the climate models and our understanding of past climate change we need to be reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 40 per cent by 2020,” he said. “At the moment many of the targets are around five to six per cent. There’s a big gap between what is being considered and what the science is saying we should aim at.”
A 25 per cent reduction on 1990 levels is the “very minimum” that developed nations should be proposing. Australia has offered 25 per cent as its maximum target, with 5 per cent as its minimum.
The full interview with Dr England – in which I also ask him about the impact of the Climate-gate emails and his hopes for COP15 – can be viewed below.
December 17, 2009 – 9:52 am, by Matthew Knott
By Matthew Knott in Copenhagen
The Copenhagen climate change summit has been an attention seeker’s nirvana: protester stunts, global warming sceptics and grandstanding politicians have provided colourful copy for journalists locked out of most of the negotiation sessions.
But lost in all the talk of arrests and walkouts and stolen emails have been the voices of those whose work brought this whole crazy circus about: climate change scientists.
Pity the friendly folk at the American Geophysical Union who organised 650 climate scientists to volunteer to assist journalists covering the Copenhagen climate talks through an on-call email service.
Sounds like a good idea. Just one problem: only about 20 journalists have bothered to write in (over 3,500 journalists are here reporting on the conference).
Lack of promotion of the initiative probably played a role – I certainly hadn’t heard of it until yesterday – but the fact remains that scientific issues have been low on the priority list of most journos at COP15.
This isn´t really a surprise. Protesters dressed up as pandas certainly make for better photos than dour climatologists. And sceptics like Ian Plimer provide streams of juicy quotes – global warming is the greatest scientific hoax of all time etc etc – while mainstream scientists tend to shy away from commenting on politics. (Note: I’m certainly not claiming to be holier than thou – my interview with Plimer shows I’ve been as guilt as the rest of ‘em)
It’s natural that reporters are interested above all in political pageantry of the talks, Mark Henderson, one of the experts scientific volunteers, told Wired Science. But the science shouldn’t be lost in all the white noise.
“How will the public judge whether their leaders have done a good job in Copenhagen if they don’t know the likely results on the climate of the agreement reached there?” he asked.
The case of Tuvalu, which last week called for a new treaty limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, is a prime example of a story where increased scientific knowlege among journalists could have produced better reporting.
Tuvalu’s pleas for survival made headlines around the world and the media came out en masse to film the NGO protests that erupted in support of the small island nation.
However, as Matthew England, IPCC author and joint Director of the UNSW Climate Change Research Centre, told Crikey: “Unfortunately, we´re probably already locked in to 1.5 degrees Celsius warming. Whilst 1.5 degrees is a laudable goal it´s virtually impossible to achieve without a shutdown of all industry.”
This is a reality I didn’t see reflected in most media reports.
Dr England said that emissions reduction targets on the table from rich countries like Australia at Copenhagen are disappointingly low. “Scientifically, if you look at all the climate models and our understanding of past climate change we need to be reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 40 per cent by 2020,” he said. “At the moment many of the targets are around five to six per cent. There’s a big gap between what is being considered and what the science is saying we should aim at.”
A 25 per cent reduction on 1990 levels is the “very minimum” that developed nations should be proposing. Australia has offered 25 per cent as its maximum target, with 5 per cent as its minimum.
The full interview with Dr England – in which I also ask him about the impact of the Climate-gate emails and his hopes for COP15 – can be viewed below.
Thanks to Acuweather for this post.....
Gore`s Response to Climategate
Running very short on time today, especially with the big storm going on. I also spent 2 hours of my morning shoveling out our long driveway. The snow blower was not an option, as shoveling the snow was like shoveling thick, heavy mud. I am fried, but at least I did not throw out my back this time.
Anyway, I see Al Gore has finally made a response to the climategate story. CNN was fortunate to get the interview. Tell us what you think.
The first thing that came to my mind was the excessive amount of makeup that the CNN artists have applied to Gore's face.
Here is the link to the video interview and partial transcript from CNN International.
Categories: Opinion
Posted on December 9, 2009 2:29 PM
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Running very short on time today, especially with the big storm going on. I also spent 2 hours of my morning shoveling out our long driveway. The snow blower was not an option, as shoveling the snow was like shoveling thick, heavy mud. I am fried, but at least I did not throw out my back this time.
Anyway, I see Al Gore has finally made a response to the climategate story. CNN was fortunate to get the interview. Tell us what you think.
The first thing that came to my mind was the excessive amount of makeup that the CNN artists have applied to Gore's face.
Here is the link to the video interview and partial transcript from CNN International.
Categories: Opinion
Posted on December 9, 2009 2:29 PM
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AccuWeather.com: Global Warming News, Science, Myths, Articles
I tuned in to this site after looking at a weather forecast for my area. I hadn't realised that Acuweather was in the business of blogging............Some good reports.
AccuWeather.com: Global Warming News, Science, Myths, Articles
AccuWeather.com: Global Warming News, Science, Myths, Articles
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Climate-Gate.......What the networks are doing......
ABC and CBS discounted the scientific relevance of the admissions and obfuscations displayed in the ClimateGate e-mails, but on Wednesday night they finally devoted full stories to the controversy and quoted the “most-damning” of the e-mails, the ones referring to a “trick” to “hide the decline” in a temperature measurement and in which a scientist fretted “we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment, and it is a travesty that we can't.”
The two networks, however, painted the “stolen” e-mails not as laudatory whistle-blowing, but as an unwanted impediment to the left's global warming agenda. “Just as the world seems finally poised to do something about global warming, an inconvenient scandal,” ABC's David Wright began in playing off the title of Al Gore's movie. He despaired that “as the controversy heats up, the consensus about making the tough choices to curb carbon emissions threatens to crumble.”
On CBS, Wyatt Andrews relayed how “to many Republicans, Climategate proves that global warming is a deception,” before he countered: “But if that's true, it's a fraud adopted by most of the world's leading scientists, along with NASA, the U.N., the American Medical Association, and the National Academies of Science of 32 countries, including the United States. To most of them, Climategate is a sideshow compared to one overwhelming fact:” Viewers then were treated to this declaration from the scientist with the “hide the decline” boast: “The last decade is the warmest decade on record.”
Story Continues Below Ad ↓
ABC anchor Charles Gibson set up the World News segment:
In Copenhagen right now, world leaders are focused on the long-term and potentially devastating effects of climate change, global warming. And for all the scientific ammunition being presented at the U.N. conference, some stolen e-mails are giving encouragement to global warming skeptics.
Meanwhile, NBC continued its blackout of any embarrassing disclosures in the e-mails as anchor Brian Williams introduced a story:
As we've been reporting, there's been a world conference going on in Copenhagen. It's about climate change and global warming, but that subject heated up here today with a newspaper article by Sarah Palin, and then a return shot from Al Gore.
Reporter Anne Thompson concluded with the usual agenda: “At the climate talks, the bigger issue is American credibility, and will the United States live up to its promise to cut carbon dioxide emissions?”
Earlier rundowns of how the evening newscasts have ignored and dismissed ClimateGate:
Friday: “NBC Nightly News Takes Up ClimateGate, But Frets It Could 'Delay Taking Action'”
Sunday: “ABC and NBC Acknowledge 'ClimateGate,' But Remain Undeterred: 'Science is Solid'”
Monday: “Nets Panic: Clock at Zero in 'Life and Death' Effort to Avoid 'Global Catastrophe'”
Tuesday: “CBS and NBC Trumpet UN Predictions About Warmest Decade Since 1850”
The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide these transcripts of the stories on the Wednesday, December 9 evening newscasts:
ABC’s World News:
CHARLES GIBSON, IN OPENING TEASER: Hot topic: Did scientists skew their research to support theories about global warming?
...
GIBSON, BEFORE COMMERCIAL BREAK: And still ahead on World News, have global warming skeptics found a smoking gun? The controversy over climate change will be our "Closer Look."
...
GIBSON: We began tonight's broadcast with the powerful blast of bitter cold and snow that's blanketing much of the country – and its powerful, to be sure. But its effects will be short-lived. In contrast, in Copenhagen right now, world leaders are focused on the long-term and potentially devastating effects of climate change, global warming. And for all the scientific ammunition being presented at the U.N. conference, some stolen e-mails are giving encouragement to global warming skeptics. David Wright has our "Closer Look."
DAVID WRIGHT: Just as the world seems finally poised to do something about global warming, an inconvenient scandal.
GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS CHANNEL: Let's start with the science that has been so settled for all these years.
WRIGHT: Skeptics of climate change suddenly have plenty of new fodder.
REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R-WI): There is increasing evidence of scientific fascism that's going on.
WRIGHT: 1,000 e-mails dating back more than a dozen years stolen from a top climate research center in Britain.
SENATOR JAMES INHOFE (R-OK): For the taxpayers' sake, let's look at this controversy from top to bottom.
WRIGHT: As the controversy heats up, the consensus about making the tough choices to curb carbon emissions threatens to crumble.
JON STEWART, THE DAILY SHOW: Poor Al Gore! Global warming completely debunked via the very Internet you invented. Oh!
WRIGHT: In the e-mails, the scientists are downright dismissive of naysayers. In one message, a researcher at Lawrence Livermore Labs offers to "beat the crap out of" a leading skeptic. In another, Penn State's Michael Mann suggests hiding data from dissenters, writing, "This is the sort of ‘dirty laundry' one doesn't want to fall into the wrong hands."
MICHAEL MANN: Imagine somebody going through all of the emails you ever sent, looking for a single word or phrase that could be twisted.
WRIGHT: One of the most damning e-mail exchanges credits Mann with a "trick" to "hide the decline" in temperatures. In another, the head of the National Center for Atmospheric Research writes a colleague, "The fact is, we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment, and it is a travesty that we can't."
KEVIN TRENBERTH, NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH: It shows human nature at work, but I don't think it throws any, casts any aspersions on the science.
WRIGHT: Global warming may be a scientific issue, but it's also a hot-button political debate. So right now, the scientists aren't the only ones on the defensive. Politicians are, too.
LISA JACKSON, EPA ADMINISTRATOR: There is nothing in the hacked e-mails that undermines the science.
WRIGHT: That may be true, but the e-mails threaten to undermine the political effort under way in Copenhagen.
JAMES HOGGAN, HOGGAN AND ASSOCIATES PR: This is going to get worse. They are going to use this and blow it up way beyond anything that the evidence supports.
WRIGHT: At a recent book signing in Chicago, Al Gore was a soft target.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE PROTESTER: Research Climategate! This guy is a fraud! It's a scam!
WRIGHT: The protesters wasted little time posting their antics online, where their message now has a worldwide megaphone. David Wright, ABC News, Washington.
CBS Evening News:
KATIE COURIC: President Obama will be spending a lot of time on Air Force One. He's flying tonight to Oslo where he'll accept the Nobel Peace Prize tomorrow. He returns home on Friday. But next week, it's back to Scandinavia for the climate conference in Copenhagen. The U.S. and China squared off there today, each accusing the other of failing to cut greenhouse gases. And Wyatt Andrews tells us the entire conference is taking place under a cloud that's become known as Climategate.
WYATT ANDREWS: To anyone skeptical about the science of global warming-
REP. DARRELL ISSA (R-CA): Climategate.
REP. MIKE PENCE (R-IN): Climategate.
REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R-TN): Climategate.
ANDREWS: -Climategate is the biggest scandal ever.
GLENN BECK: They're just cooking the books.
ANDREWS: Climategate is the term being used for a handful of e-mails stolen last month from the influential CRU, the Climatic Research Unit in England. By far, the most embarrassing e-mail is from 1999 in which CRU's director Phil Jones brags that he's used a trick to "hide the decline." "Hide the decline" meaning hiding studies from tree rings that show the earth cooling since 1960 when actual temperatures show a trend toward warming. The phrase "hide the decline" is now so infamous it's being spoofed on YoutTube.
CLIP OF VIDEO WITH CARTOONS OF PROF MICHAEL MANN AND A COW SINGING:: Hide the decline, hide the decline.
ANDREWS: And the fact that global temperatures have gone down in some years was in other e-mails, with one scientist lamenting, "we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment, and it is a travesty that we cant." To many Republicans, Climategate proves that global warming is a deception.
REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R-WI): And at worst it's junk science, and it is a part of a massive international scientific fraud.
ANDREWS: But if that's true, it's a fraud adopted by most of the world's leading scientists, along with NASA, the U.N., the American Medical Association, and the National Academies of Science of 32 countries, including the United States. To most of them, Climategate is a sideshow compared to one overwhelming fact:
PROF. MICHAEL MANN: The last decade is the warmest decade on record.
ANDREWS: Michael Mann is the professor who's being lampooned in that YouTube video. Mann says "hide the decline" was never an attempt to deceive, it was the use of real temperatures to show a real trend.
MANN: Those who deny the existence of this problem, who don't have the science on their side, have instead engaged in a smear campaign to distract the public, to distract policymakers.
ANDREWS: Climategate advocates do want political traction. They hope any uncertainty over manmade global warming might change the President's plan to offer CO2 cuts in Copenhagen next week. Wyatt Andrews, CBS News, Washington.
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
The two networks, however, painted the “stolen” e-mails not as laudatory whistle-blowing, but as an unwanted impediment to the left's global warming agenda. “Just as the world seems finally poised to do something about global warming, an inconvenient scandal,” ABC's David Wright began in playing off the title of Al Gore's movie. He despaired that “as the controversy heats up, the consensus about making the tough choices to curb carbon emissions threatens to crumble.”
On CBS, Wyatt Andrews relayed how “to many Republicans, Climategate proves that global warming is a deception,” before he countered: “But if that's true, it's a fraud adopted by most of the world's leading scientists, along with NASA, the U.N., the American Medical Association, and the National Academies of Science of 32 countries, including the United States. To most of them, Climategate is a sideshow compared to one overwhelming fact:” Viewers then were treated to this declaration from the scientist with the “hide the decline” boast: “The last decade is the warmest decade on record.”
Story Continues Below Ad ↓
ABC anchor Charles Gibson set up the World News segment:
In Copenhagen right now, world leaders are focused on the long-term and potentially devastating effects of climate change, global warming. And for all the scientific ammunition being presented at the U.N. conference, some stolen e-mails are giving encouragement to global warming skeptics.
Meanwhile, NBC continued its blackout of any embarrassing disclosures in the e-mails as anchor Brian Williams introduced a story:
As we've been reporting, there's been a world conference going on in Copenhagen. It's about climate change and global warming, but that subject heated up here today with a newspaper article by Sarah Palin, and then a return shot from Al Gore.
Reporter Anne Thompson concluded with the usual agenda: “At the climate talks, the bigger issue is American credibility, and will the United States live up to its promise to cut carbon dioxide emissions?”
Earlier rundowns of how the evening newscasts have ignored and dismissed ClimateGate:
Friday: “NBC Nightly News Takes Up ClimateGate, But Frets It Could 'Delay Taking Action'”
Sunday: “ABC and NBC Acknowledge 'ClimateGate,' But Remain Undeterred: 'Science is Solid'”
Monday: “Nets Panic: Clock at Zero in 'Life and Death' Effort to Avoid 'Global Catastrophe'”
Tuesday: “CBS and NBC Trumpet UN Predictions About Warmest Decade Since 1850”
The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide these transcripts of the stories on the Wednesday, December 9 evening newscasts:
ABC’s World News:
CHARLES GIBSON, IN OPENING TEASER: Hot topic: Did scientists skew their research to support theories about global warming?
...
GIBSON, BEFORE COMMERCIAL BREAK: And still ahead on World News, have global warming skeptics found a smoking gun? The controversy over climate change will be our "Closer Look."
...
GIBSON: We began tonight's broadcast with the powerful blast of bitter cold and snow that's blanketing much of the country – and its powerful, to be sure. But its effects will be short-lived. In contrast, in Copenhagen right now, world leaders are focused on the long-term and potentially devastating effects of climate change, global warming. And for all the scientific ammunition being presented at the U.N. conference, some stolen e-mails are giving encouragement to global warming skeptics. David Wright has our "Closer Look."
DAVID WRIGHT: Just as the world seems finally poised to do something about global warming, an inconvenient scandal.
GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS CHANNEL: Let's start with the science that has been so settled for all these years.
WRIGHT: Skeptics of climate change suddenly have plenty of new fodder.
REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R-WI): There is increasing evidence of scientific fascism that's going on.
WRIGHT: 1,000 e-mails dating back more than a dozen years stolen from a top climate research center in Britain.
SENATOR JAMES INHOFE (R-OK): For the taxpayers' sake, let's look at this controversy from top to bottom.
WRIGHT: As the controversy heats up, the consensus about making the tough choices to curb carbon emissions threatens to crumble.
JON STEWART, THE DAILY SHOW: Poor Al Gore! Global warming completely debunked via the very Internet you invented. Oh!
WRIGHT: In the e-mails, the scientists are downright dismissive of naysayers. In one message, a researcher at Lawrence Livermore Labs offers to "beat the crap out of" a leading skeptic. In another, Penn State's Michael Mann suggests hiding data from dissenters, writing, "This is the sort of ‘dirty laundry' one doesn't want to fall into the wrong hands."
MICHAEL MANN: Imagine somebody going through all of the emails you ever sent, looking for a single word or phrase that could be twisted.
WRIGHT: One of the most damning e-mail exchanges credits Mann with a "trick" to "hide the decline" in temperatures. In another, the head of the National Center for Atmospheric Research writes a colleague, "The fact is, we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment, and it is a travesty that we can't."
KEVIN TRENBERTH, NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH: It shows human nature at work, but I don't think it throws any, casts any aspersions on the science.
WRIGHT: Global warming may be a scientific issue, but it's also a hot-button political debate. So right now, the scientists aren't the only ones on the defensive. Politicians are, too.
LISA JACKSON, EPA ADMINISTRATOR: There is nothing in the hacked e-mails that undermines the science.
WRIGHT: That may be true, but the e-mails threaten to undermine the political effort under way in Copenhagen.
JAMES HOGGAN, HOGGAN AND ASSOCIATES PR: This is going to get worse. They are going to use this and blow it up way beyond anything that the evidence supports.
WRIGHT: At a recent book signing in Chicago, Al Gore was a soft target.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE PROTESTER: Research Climategate! This guy is a fraud! It's a scam!
WRIGHT: The protesters wasted little time posting their antics online, where their message now has a worldwide megaphone. David Wright, ABC News, Washington.
CBS Evening News:
KATIE COURIC: President Obama will be spending a lot of time on Air Force One. He's flying tonight to Oslo where he'll accept the Nobel Peace Prize tomorrow. He returns home on Friday. But next week, it's back to Scandinavia for the climate conference in Copenhagen. The U.S. and China squared off there today, each accusing the other of failing to cut greenhouse gases. And Wyatt Andrews tells us the entire conference is taking place under a cloud that's become known as Climategate.
WYATT ANDREWS: To anyone skeptical about the science of global warming-
REP. DARRELL ISSA (R-CA): Climategate.
REP. MIKE PENCE (R-IN): Climategate.
REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R-TN): Climategate.
ANDREWS: -Climategate is the biggest scandal ever.
GLENN BECK: They're just cooking the books.
ANDREWS: Climategate is the term being used for a handful of e-mails stolen last month from the influential CRU, the Climatic Research Unit in England. By far, the most embarrassing e-mail is from 1999 in which CRU's director Phil Jones brags that he's used a trick to "hide the decline." "Hide the decline" meaning hiding studies from tree rings that show the earth cooling since 1960 when actual temperatures show a trend toward warming. The phrase "hide the decline" is now so infamous it's being spoofed on YoutTube.
CLIP OF VIDEO WITH CARTOONS OF PROF MICHAEL MANN AND A COW SINGING:: Hide the decline, hide the decline.
ANDREWS: And the fact that global temperatures have gone down in some years was in other e-mails, with one scientist lamenting, "we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment, and it is a travesty that we cant." To many Republicans, Climategate proves that global warming is a deception.
REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R-WI): And at worst it's junk science, and it is a part of a massive international scientific fraud.
ANDREWS: But if that's true, it's a fraud adopted by most of the world's leading scientists, along with NASA, the U.N., the American Medical Association, and the National Academies of Science of 32 countries, including the United States. To most of them, Climategate is a sideshow compared to one overwhelming fact:
PROF. MICHAEL MANN: The last decade is the warmest decade on record.
ANDREWS: Michael Mann is the professor who's being lampooned in that YouTube video. Mann says "hide the decline" was never an attempt to deceive, it was the use of real temperatures to show a real trend.
MANN: Those who deny the existence of this problem, who don't have the science on their side, have instead engaged in a smear campaign to distract the public, to distract policymakers.
ANDREWS: Climategate advocates do want political traction. They hope any uncertainty over manmade global warming might change the President's plan to offer CO2 cuts in Copenhagen next week. Wyatt Andrews, CBS News, Washington.
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
Al Gore
Al Gore should know better.
He's now attacking the Global Warming sceptics in a more openly personal way than ever before. He used to be tolerant of opposing views. Not any longer.
What is the truth behind climate change, changing weather patterns, extremes in flooding and drought?
It's not easy to decipher given the different views of eminent scientists in both camps but when Al Gore joins the fray the waters just get muddier!
He's now attacking the Global Warming sceptics in a more openly personal way than ever before. He used to be tolerant of opposing views. Not any longer.
What is the truth behind climate change, changing weather patterns, extremes in flooding and drought?
It's not easy to decipher given the different views of eminent scientists in both camps but when Al Gore joins the fray the waters just get muddier!
Labels:
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Al Gore - Looking for a role in life.....
Trouble with Al gore is that although his views on Global Warming have been refuted many times over by reputable scientists he has found himself a little bandwagon for his ego and he ain't going to give it up.....come what may.
Sarah Palin and Global Warming
Love her or loathe her you certainly get things straight from Sarah Palin. Her views on Global Warming are strident and directly in the camp of the sceptics.
Labels:
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Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin : This is where she stands on Global Warming
Sarah Palin all but declared global warming a hoax yesterday when she urged President Obama to boycott the Copenhagen climate change conference and to stand up to the “radical environment movement”.
The former Alaska Governor and possible 2012 presidential contender seized upon leaked e-mails from climate change scientists at the University of East Anglia. The scientists have been accused by global warming sceptics of falsifying data to make the case that the phenomenon is real and man-made, something they deny.
The scandal has become a cause célèbre among climate change deniers and sceptics in the US. A group of Republican politicians has vowed to fly to Copenhagen next week to argue that the threat from global warming is overblown and too costly to act on.
Writing on the editorial page of The Washington Post — which was criticised from the Left for allowing her to argue her case — Mrs Palin said: “The revelation of appalling actions by so-called climate change experts allows the American public to finally understand the concerns so many of us have articulated on this issue. She added: “‘Climategate’, as the e-mails have become known, exposes a highly politicised scientific circle — the same circle whose work underlies efforts at the Copenhagen climate change conference. The agenda-driven policies been pushed in Copenhagen won’t change the weather but they would change our economy for the worse.”
Related Links
Sarah Palin: my life with a Down's child
Beware the fantasy world of Sarah, Warrior Princess
Mrs Palin’s article appears at a time when the scandal over the leaked e-mails is gaining increasing exposure in the US. A poll released on Monday also revealed that only 45 per cent of Americans believe that global warming is caused by human activity, down from 56 per cent two years ago.
Mrs Palin, last year’s Republican vice-presidential nominee, has become a leading voice for her party’s conservative grassroots supporters. Recent polls suggest that she would make a competitive candidate if she chose to make a bid to become the Republican presidential nominee in 2012.
Her argument that the case for climate change is far from proved is shared by a significant number in Congress. A cap-and-trade climate Bill that Mr Obama wants passed is bogged down in the US Senate, mainly over concerns that it will be too costly, and Democrats are several votes short of seeing it prevail.
Mrs Palin does not deny “the reality of some changes in climate — far from it”, and adds that “I saw the impact of changing weather patterns first hand while serving as governor of our only Arctic state”. She asserts, however, that such weather changes are “natural, cyclical environmental trends,” and that “we can’t say with assurance that man’s activities cause weather changes”.
The former Alaska Governor and possible 2012 presidential contender seized upon leaked e-mails from climate change scientists at the University of East Anglia. The scientists have been accused by global warming sceptics of falsifying data to make the case that the phenomenon is real and man-made, something they deny.
The scandal has become a cause célèbre among climate change deniers and sceptics in the US. A group of Republican politicians has vowed to fly to Copenhagen next week to argue that the threat from global warming is overblown and too costly to act on.
Writing on the editorial page of The Washington Post — which was criticised from the Left for allowing her to argue her case — Mrs Palin said: “The revelation of appalling actions by so-called climate change experts allows the American public to finally understand the concerns so many of us have articulated on this issue. She added: “‘Climategate’, as the e-mails have become known, exposes a highly politicised scientific circle — the same circle whose work underlies efforts at the Copenhagen climate change conference. The agenda-driven policies been pushed in Copenhagen won’t change the weather but they would change our economy for the worse.”
Related Links
Sarah Palin: my life with a Down's child
Beware the fantasy world of Sarah, Warrior Princess
Mrs Palin’s article appears at a time when the scandal over the leaked e-mails is gaining increasing exposure in the US. A poll released on Monday also revealed that only 45 per cent of Americans believe that global warming is caused by human activity, down from 56 per cent two years ago.
Mrs Palin, last year’s Republican vice-presidential nominee, has become a leading voice for her party’s conservative grassroots supporters. Recent polls suggest that she would make a competitive candidate if she chose to make a bid to become the Republican presidential nominee in 2012.
Her argument that the case for climate change is far from proved is shared by a significant number in Congress. A cap-and-trade climate Bill that Mr Obama wants passed is bogged down in the US Senate, mainly over concerns that it will be too costly, and Democrats are several votes short of seeing it prevail.
Mrs Palin does not deny “the reality of some changes in climate — far from it”, and adds that “I saw the impact of changing weather patterns first hand while serving as governor of our only Arctic state”. She asserts, however, that such weather changes are “natural, cyclical environmental trends,” and that “we can’t say with assurance that man’s activities cause weather changes”.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Sceptics meet in Copenhagen........
It was a ragtag group of mostly ageing male academics and politicians, no more than 100 in total, crammed into a small meeting room in central Copenhagen – a far cry from the 15,000-strong United Nations climate change summit taking place on the other side of the Danish capital.
But the global warming sceptics holding their rival conference in the city insisted the momentum was shifting in their direction after the leaked “climategate” emails exposed questionable practices among some of the world’s leading climate scientists.
“The average person is starting to wake up to the fact that something is wrong,” said Ian Plimer, the Australian geologist whose book, ‘Heaven and Earth: Global Warming – the missing science’, has become a bible for climate change sceptics. “The average person does not like to be talked down to by arrogant bureaucrats or arrogant scientists.”
If a shift is taking place, there was little sign of it at the sceptics’ conference on Tuesday. No delegates from the UN talks appeared to have turned up and the media presence was a tiny fraction of the army of reporters embedded in the other conference. There were not even any activists or mainstream scientists on hand to challenge the sceptics’ arguments.
Recent opinion polls in the US, UK and other countries, however, suggest Mr Plimer and his allies may be striking a chord with a growing section of the public as climate change drops down the list of people’s political priorities.
Craig Rutter, executive director of CFACT, a sceptics’ organisation, said the leaked emails, in which climate scientists discussed ways to avoid making their raw data public and slung insults at sceptics, had crystalised public doubts about the consensus behind global warming. “People know that when someone hides their data or resorts to name calling, they are not confident of their facts,” he told the conference. “Alarmists have been cooking the books to get the results they wanted and putting climate propaganda ahead of science.”
There was a clear right-wing slant to much of the rhetoric, with Mr Rutter describing efforts to cap carbon emissions as the “greatest threat to human freedom since the fall of 20th century totalitarianism”, while other speakers warned that the costs of action, in terms of increased energy prices and suppressed economic activity, would cause more human misery than the impact of climate change itself.
“The governing classes worldwide have gone bonkers and taken leave of their senses,” said Lord Christopher Monckton, a former longtime adviser to British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and now a leading sceptic.
It was not all political bombast. Several serious scientists, with long paper trails of academic work behind them, delivered power point presentations filled with data and diagrams attempting to show why the mainstream consensus was wrong.
Nils Axel Morner, an expert in sea level changes at Stockholm University, claimed that sea levels had shown no change in the Maldives or Bangladesh – two of the countries considered most at risk from climate change – for the past 30 years. Moreover, the sea level rises predicted by mainstream scientists were far in excess of what should be expected based on the rises that occurred when ice sheets melted at the end of the last ice age, he argued.
Perhaps the main message was a call for greater humility about the limits of knowledge and the fallibility of predictive models. One speaker after another accused mainstream climate scientists of betraying the sceptical spirit of scientific discovery and of selling their souls to a political propaganda programme in return for lavish government funding.
“Science should be anarchic, not dogmatic,” said Mr Plimer. “As soon as you hear the word ‘consensus’, you are talking politics. As soon as you hear the word ‘believe’, you are talking religion.”
Mr Pilmer questioned how scientists could so confidently predict future temperature changes when so little was understood about the causes of past changes, such as ice ages. He pointed to volcanoes and solar radiation as greater influences on climate than man-made carbon emissions. “I cannot respect a theory that looks at one trace gas as being the only variable that drives a very complex, dynamic, chaotic system called the earth.”
He and other sceptics poured scorn on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the 2,000-strong group of scientists responsible for establishing a link between man-made emissions and global warming – and took pride in their absence from the panel.
“Science doesn’t go on a vote,” said Mr Plimer. “Albert Einstein didn’t go around his mates and say, ‘I’ve found this equation E=MC squared, let’s take a vote on it’.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
But the global warming sceptics holding their rival conference in the city insisted the momentum was shifting in their direction after the leaked “climategate” emails exposed questionable practices among some of the world’s leading climate scientists.
“The average person is starting to wake up to the fact that something is wrong,” said Ian Plimer, the Australian geologist whose book, ‘Heaven and Earth: Global Warming – the missing science’, has become a bible for climate change sceptics. “The average person does not like to be talked down to by arrogant bureaucrats or arrogant scientists.”
If a shift is taking place, there was little sign of it at the sceptics’ conference on Tuesday. No delegates from the UN talks appeared to have turned up and the media presence was a tiny fraction of the army of reporters embedded in the other conference. There were not even any activists or mainstream scientists on hand to challenge the sceptics’ arguments.
Recent opinion polls in the US, UK and other countries, however, suggest Mr Plimer and his allies may be striking a chord with a growing section of the public as climate change drops down the list of people’s political priorities.
Craig Rutter, executive director of CFACT, a sceptics’ organisation, said the leaked emails, in which climate scientists discussed ways to avoid making their raw data public and slung insults at sceptics, had crystalised public doubts about the consensus behind global warming. “People know that when someone hides their data or resorts to name calling, they are not confident of their facts,” he told the conference. “Alarmists have been cooking the books to get the results they wanted and putting climate propaganda ahead of science.”
There was a clear right-wing slant to much of the rhetoric, with Mr Rutter describing efforts to cap carbon emissions as the “greatest threat to human freedom since the fall of 20th century totalitarianism”, while other speakers warned that the costs of action, in terms of increased energy prices and suppressed economic activity, would cause more human misery than the impact of climate change itself.
“The governing classes worldwide have gone bonkers and taken leave of their senses,” said Lord Christopher Monckton, a former longtime adviser to British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and now a leading sceptic.
It was not all political bombast. Several serious scientists, with long paper trails of academic work behind them, delivered power point presentations filled with data and diagrams attempting to show why the mainstream consensus was wrong.
Nils Axel Morner, an expert in sea level changes at Stockholm University, claimed that sea levels had shown no change in the Maldives or Bangladesh – two of the countries considered most at risk from climate change – for the past 30 years. Moreover, the sea level rises predicted by mainstream scientists were far in excess of what should be expected based on the rises that occurred when ice sheets melted at the end of the last ice age, he argued.
Perhaps the main message was a call for greater humility about the limits of knowledge and the fallibility of predictive models. One speaker after another accused mainstream climate scientists of betraying the sceptical spirit of scientific discovery and of selling their souls to a political propaganda programme in return for lavish government funding.
“Science should be anarchic, not dogmatic,” said Mr Plimer. “As soon as you hear the word ‘consensus’, you are talking politics. As soon as you hear the word ‘believe’, you are talking religion.”
Mr Pilmer questioned how scientists could so confidently predict future temperature changes when so little was understood about the causes of past changes, such as ice ages. He pointed to volcanoes and solar radiation as greater influences on climate than man-made carbon emissions. “I cannot respect a theory that looks at one trace gas as being the only variable that drives a very complex, dynamic, chaotic system called the earth.”
He and other sceptics poured scorn on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the 2,000-strong group of scientists responsible for establishing a link between man-made emissions and global warming – and took pride in their absence from the panel.
“Science doesn’t go on a vote,” said Mr Plimer. “Albert Einstein didn’t go around his mates and say, ‘I’ve found this equation E=MC squared, let’s take a vote on it’.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
BBC News - Ed Miliband clashes with Lord Lawson on global warming
Lord Lawson beats on littler Ed.................
BBC News - Ed Miliband clashes with Lord Lawson on global warming
BBC News - Ed Miliband clashes with Lord Lawson on global warming
'Global warming' threat is a big lie | LoHud.com | The Journal News
Yep- a great big lie........not that it's happening. But that its totally man's fault!
'Global warming' threat is a big lie LoHud.com The Journal News
'Global warming' threat is a big lie LoHud.com The Journal News
Where are the Emails for Climategate?
I've trawled the Web to see if I can find and read these emails. I can't find them!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Report: Cooling Temperatures Don’t Disprove Global Warming - Science News - redOrbit
Image via Wikipedia
Well the Emailsgate lot want it both ways.They want to be able to distort facts and figures whenever they want. See the recent bad boy behaviour of indecent scientists at the university of East Anglia.
Then they want to refute evidence when it clearly shows a distinct cooling in some areas.
Now I know that dealing with and assessing the science is very difficult but this is a case of having your cake, spitting it out, trying some sandwiches and eating them.....then spitting them out.
Who you going to believe?
Report: Cooling Temperatures Don’t Disprove Global Warming - Science News - redOrbit
The aftermath of flooding....and the cause?
Image via Wikipedia
Whether it's Cumbria UK or Snoqualmie falls the devastation of flooding can be seen and witnessed.Countless peoples have been affected in the last few years.
Climate change, diverse weather patterns are with us - but what causes them remains a little more of a mystery.
BBC News - UN hits back at climate sceptics amid e-mails row
Image by oxfam international via Flickr
Things are "hotting up" in the Global warming arena. You'll know that a bunch of so-called scientists have been cobbling together various facts and figures in a most unscrupulous concoction of half truths and lies.Their presentation of scientific fact was no more than a manipulation of their data, an attempt to dupe everyone into believing that things are very much worse as regards global warming than the real facts show. Emailgate goes on and the UN gets involved.
For shame - Professors of Non Truth.
Now they're hitting back after being found out.........Read below for even more distortion.
BBC News - UN hits back at climate sceptics amid e-mails row
Labels:
2009,
Climate,
Global warming,
Opposing Views
Thursday, December 3, 2009
BBC News - Climate e-mail hack 'will impact on Copenhagen summit'
BBC News - Climate e-mail hack 'will impact on Copenhagen summit'
Will some of those who attack the sceptics now take a more studied and scientific view please.
Will some of those who attack the sceptics now take a more studied and scientific view please.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
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