The head of the International Energy Agency, Nobuo Tanaka, has called on government leaders to take bolder action to curb CO2 emissions. Energy saving alone could produce a third of the necessary CO2 reductions, he told SPIEGEL.
Politicians need a lot of courage for that. They have to make clear to their populations that this is the cheaper way in the medium and long term and that it even helps to promote economic growth. That is risky for politicians but no one can do the job for them.-Tanaka
If I close my eyes, I can almost see the courageous solons rushing forward to impliment a new energy policy. If I keep them open, I know that nothing short of disaster is going to change the direction of this state.
" Government is the entertainment arm of the Military-Industrial-Complex."- Frank Zappa
Posts: 261 | Location: Erehwon | Registered: 09 March 2006
Article published Dec 19, 2007 Year of global cooling
December 19, 2007
By David Deming - Al Gore says global warming is a planetary emergency. It is difficult to see how this can be so when record low temperatures are being set all over the world. In 2007, hundreds of people died, not from global warming, but from cold weather hazards.
Since the mid-19th century, the mean global temperature has increased by 0.7 degrees Celsius. This slight warming is not unusual, and lies well within the range of natural variation. Carbon dioxide continues to build in the atmosphere, but the mean planetary temperature hasn't increased significantly for nearly nine years. Antarctica is getting colder. Neither the intensity nor the frequency of hurricanes has increased. The 2007 season was the third-quietest since 1966. In 2006 not a single hurricane made landfall in the U.S.
South America this year experienced one of its coldest winters in decades. In Buenos Aires, snow fell for the first time since the year 1918. Dozens of homeless people died from exposure. In Peru, 200 people died from the cold and thousands more became infected with respiratory diseases. Crops failed, livestock perished, and the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency.
Unexpected bitter cold swept the entire Southern Hemisphere in 2007. Johannesburg, South Africa, had the first significant snowfall in 26 years. Australia experienced the coldest June ever. In northeastern Australia, the city of Townsville underwent the longest period of continuously cold weather since 1941. In New Zealand, the weather turned so cold that vineyards were endangered.
Last January, $1.42 billion worth of California produce was lost to a devastating five-day freeze. Thousands of agricultural employees were thrown out of work. At the supermarket, citrus prices soared. In the wake of the freeze, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked President Bush to issue a disaster declaration for affected counties. A few months earlier, Mr. Schwarzenegger had enthusiastically signed the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, a law designed to cool the climate. California Sen. Barbara Boxer continues to push for similar legislation in the U.S. Senate.
In April, a killing freeze destroyed 95 percent of South Carolina's peach crop, and 90 percent of North Carolina's apple harvest. At Charlotte, N.C., a record low temperature of 21 degrees Fahrenheit on April 8 was the coldest ever recorded for April, breaking a record set in 1923. On June 8, Denver recorded a new low of 31 degrees Fahrenheit. Denver's temperature records extend back to 1872.
Recent weeks have seen the return of unusually cold conditions to the Northern Hemisphere. On Dec. 7, St. Cloud, Minn., set a new record low of minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit. On the same date, record low temperatures were also recorded in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Extreme cold weather is occurring worldwide. On Dec. 4, in Seoul, Korea, the temperature was a record minus 5 degrees Celsius. Nov. 24, in Meacham, Ore., the minimum temperature was 12 degrees Fahrenheit colder than the previous record low set in 1952. The Canadian government warns that this winter is likely to be the coldest in 15 years.
Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri are just emerging from a destructive ice storm that left at least 36 people dead and a million without electric power. People worldwide are being reminded of what used to be common sense: Cold temperatures are inimical to human welfare and warm weather is beneficial. Left in the dark and cold, Oklahomans rushed out to buy electric generators powered by gasoline, not solar cells. No one seemed particularly concerned about the welfare of polar bears, penguins or walruses. Fossil fuels don't seem so awful when you're in the cold and dark.
If you think any of the preceding facts can falsify global warming, you're hopelessly naive. Nothing creates cognitive dissonance in the mind of a true believer. In 2005, a Canadian Greenpeace representative explained “global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter.” In other words, all weather variations are evidence for global warming. I can't make this stuff up.
Global warming has long since passed from scientific hypothesis to the realm of pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo.
David Deming is a geophysicist, an adjunct scholar with the National Center for Policy Analysis, and associate professor of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Posts: 8264 | Location: Fl | Registered: 05 July 2001
Recent weeks have seen the return of unusually cold conditions to the Northern Hemisphere. On Dec. 7, St. Cloud, Minn., set a new record low of minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit. On the same date, record low temperatures were also recorded in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
duh!! because its WINTER!!!!! your post proves nothing don, except you wish to remain in the dark in terms of global warming
quote:
Antarctica is getting colder. Neither the intensity nor the frequency of hurricanes has increased.
but yet over half of all catagory 5 hurricanes in the atlantic have formed since 1990. don, if you are going to post nonsense, you should at least research it first. goto weatherunderground.com and look at the posts of dr jeff masters, their chief weatherguy and tropical expert.
quote:
Australia experienced the coldest June ever. In northeastern Australia, the city of Townsville underwent the longest period of continuously cold weather since 1941. In New Zealand, the weather turned so cold that vineyards were endangered.
you fail to mention that in the southern hemisphere, it is the middle of winter in june. convienant that you leave that nice tidbit out.
quote:
Last January, $1.42 billion worth of California produce was lost to a devastating five-day freeze. Thousands of agricultural employees were thrown out of work. At the supermarket, citrus prices soared. In the wake of the freeze, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked President Bush to issue a disaster declaration for affected counties.
southern florida, where i happen to live, is a tropical climate. however, once in a while we also get freezing temps for a few hours that kills citrus. when that happens, prices (amazingly) go up for things like orange juice and grapefruit. don, your post here sounds like something GG would post. no credible science to back it up.
quote:
On June 8, Denver recorded a new low of 31 degrees Fahrenheit. Denver's temperature records extend back to 1872.
but when was the record on june 8th originally set? i am pretty sure it wasnt back in 1872. more scewed data meant to confuse people. gotta do better than this dusty.
quote:
Extreme cold weather is occurring worldwide. On Dec. 4, in Seoul, Korea, the temperature was a record minus 5 degrees Celsius. Nov. 24, in Meacham, Ore., the minimum temperature was 12 degrees Fahrenheit colder than the previous record low set in 1952.
once again, records set in WINTER!!! if these records were broken in summer, perhaps you would have a case don. but they werent. they were broken in winter, when the temperature is at its lowest point of the year.
quote:
People worldwide are being reminded of what used to be common sense: Cold temperatures are inimical to human welfare and warm weather is beneficial.
tell that to water parched areas like the southeast. warmer temps mean faster evaporation rates. did you know that in the summer, lake okeechobee loses over a million gallons a day just in evaporation? of course not. someone who thinks global warming is not occuring would ignore facts like that.
quote:
If you think any of the preceding facts can falsify global warming, you're hopelessly naive.
facts that are skewed and cherrypicked at best. sort of like the "facts" that iraq had wmd. where are those "facts"? actually, if you believe in the nonsence posted by the link you provided don, you are hopeless naive one.
*sigh*
i guess don and this lone 'scientist' are the only ones on the planet who doesnt think global warming is occurring. hell, even the bush adminstration (after years of denial) are admitting global warming is a problem.
btw don, if you need proof or links to any of the information i provided, i would be happy to post them. just tell me what you need.
------------------------------------------ debating conservatives is easy. so easy, even a caveman can do it!
"if this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck lot easier, just so long as im the dictator" -GWB Dec 18,2002
Posts: 1614 | Location: ft myers florida area | Registered: 23 September 2006
n agreement with Dr. Bellamy were a host of other respected climatologists including the 19,000 who have signed a declaration that rejects Gore’s accusation that the rise of greenhouse gasses is caused by mankind’s use of fossil fuels. As has been pointed out, previous ice ages have been preceded by a rise on CO2 levels long before there were humans or fossil fuels or backyard barbecues.
Commenting on the scientists who support Gore’s thesis, Dr. Carter one of hundreds of highly qualified non-governmental, non-industry, non-lobby group climate experts who contest the hypothesis that human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are causing significant global climate change, says, "‘Climate experts’ is the operative term here. Why? Because of what Gore's ‘majority of scientists’ think is immaterial when only a very small fraction of them actually work in the climate field.
Global warming has finally been explained: the Earth is getting hotter because the Sun is burning more brightly than at any time during the past 1,000 years, according to new research.
A study by Swiss and German scientists suggests that increasing radiation from the sun is responsible for recent global climate changes.
Dr Sami Solanki, the director of the renowned Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, who led the research, said: "The Sun has been at its strongest over the past 60 years and may now be affecting global temperatures.
I could go on but have to pack and get ready for a party.
It's the weather, it changes. If Meteorologists can't get next week right, how can you expect accuracy from them in the next decade? The more I read, the more I believe global warming is a political conspiracy.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Posts: 8264 | Location: Fl | Registered: 05 July 2001
The weather changes from day to day and week to week, and predicting the weather in a few hours can be tough. But most of us are able to predict summer and winter. We don't say, "but it is much colder today than it was yesterday, record for the date, so we can't be headed for summer".
Sue N.
Posts: 4624 | Location: UK | Registered: 16 November 2004
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