Articles Tagged "Rick Moran"

The 7th annual International Climate Change Conference ended on Wednesday with growing signs that skeptics are making steady progress in their efforts to turn back the tide of the alarmists.
I covered the conference for PJ Media and pointed out that while progress is real, much remains to be done:

Dodging the Waxman-Markey bullet may have been a high point, but, as many speakers at the conference pointed out, the failure to pass cap and tax gave Americans only temporary respite. The EPA's war on coal will result in the closure of 319 coal-fueled generating units totaling 42,895 megawatts, about 13 percent of the nation's coal fleet, according to the Sierra Club. This will result in consumers being hit with a 10-15% increase in their electric bills by 2015. That's an extra $150-$330 per year.

So while much has been accomplished, much remains to be done. Former Apollo astronaut and senator from New Mexico Harrison Schmitt believes the number one priority for the skeptical community is to "recapture" youngsters in the K-12 grades. It's too late for this generation, he says, because they have become so thoroughly indoctrinated. But Schmitt believes it is critical for the future that young people be given the opportunity to be taught both sides of the climate change debate rather than brainwashed to accept the AGW religion.

Beyond that, there is a real problem with trying to get the media to report the position of climate realists accurately. This was brought home by protestors at the conference, many of whom carried signs saying "Climate Change is Real." As president and CEO of the Heartland Institute Joseph Bast made note of on several occasions, the vast majority of skeptical scientists believe that the climate is indeed getting warmer. That is not now (nor has it ever been) the issue. What climate realists are "denying" (if that's even the right word) is: 1) that man is primarily, or solely, responsible for the increase in temperature and 2) that the effects of climate change will be catastrophic for humanity.

The only reason I am highlighting this piece in the Guardian is because it is a textbook example of everything that's wrong with climate change advocates.

Greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year, to the highest carbon output in history, putting hopes of holding global warming to safe levels all but out of reach, according to unpublished estimates from the International Energy Agency.

The shock rise means the goal of preventing a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius - which scientists say is the threshold for potentially "dangerous climate change" - is likely to be just "a nice Utopia", according to Fatih Birol, chief economist of the IEA. It also shows the most serious global recession for 80 years has had only a minimal effect on emissions, contrary to some predictions.

Last year, a record 30.6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide poured into the atmosphere, mainly from burning fossil fuel - a rise of 1.6Gt on 2009, according to estimates from the IEA regarded as the gold standard for emissions data.

"I am very worried. This is the worst news on emissions," Birol told the Guardian. "It is becoming extremely challenging to remain below 2 degrees. The prospect is getting bleaker. That is what the numbers say."

I remember after the Indonesia earthquake and Tsunami that some moonbat liberals over at Democratic Underground blamed the catastrophe on the US, claiming we had invented an earthquake machine and Tsunami generator to kill the brown people of the world.

That was topped by one of the posters on the thread (long since deleted) that global warming was the cause of the quake. It seems that Gaia was so distraught because we were ignoring the problem that she caused the quake to remind us who's in charge on planet earth.

This was topped by a report last year - generated by climate change scientists - that because the ice sheets of the world were melting, the earth's crust "bounced back" from the weight being lifted and this causes more earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

That's right - they are saying that global warming causes earthquakes.

Some poor global warming religionist posted yesterday on this nutty idea. He was hammered so badly that he changed the article and headline. But Tim Blair caught him before he made the changes: