Monday 30 September 2013

Sunday 29 September 2013

PACHAURI IN DENIAL OVER GW SLOW DOWN

This piece on the BBC website is an interview of Rajendra Pachauri (IPCC chairman) by science correspondent Roger Harrabin. Pachauri says "I don't think there is a slowdown (in the rate of temperature increase). I would like to draw your attention to the World Meteorological Organization which clearly stated on the basis of observations that the first decade of this century has been the warmest in recorded history".  To which Harrabin might have replied "yes, but the annual differences are so small that rate of warming has definitely slowed". But alas Harrabin is much too in awe of the "great man" to dare to question him.

A graph is displayed in the article which has been the subject of some controversy. However he does not seem bothered by that as long as it "proves" his point. More on the graph here.

IPCC PREDICTS DROP IN GULF STREAM WILL COUNTERACT GW IN UK

This report in the Telegraph looks at the prediction in the latest IPCC report. What it seems to suggest is that the UK will retain its present temperature due to the reduced warming from the Gulf Stream cancelling out the effects of CO2. They also seem to suggest that our weather patterns will be "disrupted", as if we had some sort of reliable weather now. So the lucky old UK will carry on unaffected, so why are we spending billions of pounds reducing our CO2 emissions? It must be to help those Chinese and Indians who are building hundreds of coal-fired power stations. You couldn't make up a story as daft as that. 

Saturday 28 September 2013

WHAT DOES 95% CONFIDENCE MEAN?

Below is an excerpt from Judith Curry's blog, "Climate Etc" 
 
Reporter:  I’m hoping you can answer a question about the upcoming IPCC report. When the report states that scientists are “95%  certain” that human activities are largely the cause of global warming, what does that mean? How is 95% calculated? What is the basis for it? And if the certainty rate has risen from 90% in 2007 to 95% now, does that mean that the likelihood of something is greater? Or that scientists are just more certain? And is there a difference?
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JC:  The 95% is basically expert judgment, it is a negotiated figure among the authors.  The increase from 90-95% means that they are more certain.  How they can justify this is beyond me.
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Reporter:  You mean they sit around and say, “How certain are you?” ”Oh, I feel about 95% certain. Michael over there at Penn State feels a little more certain. And Judy at Georgia Tech feels a little less. So, yeah, overall I’d say we’re about 95% certain.”  Please tell me it’s more rigorous than that.
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JC:  Well I wasn’t in the room, but last report they said 90%, and perhaps they felt it was appropriate or politic that they show progress and up it to 95%.
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Reporter:  So it really is as subjective as that?
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JC:  As far as I know, this is what goes on.  All this has never been documented.

Friday 27 September 2013

GWPF CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF FLAWED MET OFFICE PROJECTIONS

Here is the press release by the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) with links to the report by Andrew Montford into the methods used by the UK Met Office to make their projections of future climate change here in the UK.

This report in the Mail refers to the GWPF report.

Thursday 26 September 2013

CLIMATE SCARE GOES ON AND ON

Booker's column considers why it will be so difficult to dismantle all the government schemes set up to tackle the "global warming crisis".

Booker is always worth reading. Here is an excerpt: "the IPCC itself, as the main driver of the scare, has been more comprehensively discredited than ever as no more than a one-sided pressure group, essentially run by a clique of scientific activists committed to their belief that rising CO2 levels threaten the world with an overheating which is not taking place". Great stuff!

As long as the population is prepared to go along with the expensive energy and the blight of wind turbines, then the government will not change course. However if more jobs are lost as industries migrate and if power cuts become a reality then the backtracking will be worth watching. 

POWER SHARES FALL AS UK LABOUR LEADER PROMISES FREEZE ON ENERGY PRICES

This article in the Mail gives the details. Power bosses claimed the policy could lead to power cuts and lower investment. Some suggest a parallel with the Californian power cuts of 2000.

Wednesday 25 September 2013

BBC PUTS OUT PRO WARMING PROPAGANDA AHEAD OF IPCC REPORT

This piece on Bishop Hill blog contains a link to the Newsnight piece which interviewed a number of pro-warmist scientists and Lord Stern, and one token slight sceptic to give an impression of balance. Paxman was a pale shadow of Andrew Neil in his  recent grilling of Ed Davey

GOVERNMENTS ROW OVER LATEST IPCC REPORT

This report in the Telegraph refers to the meeting of nation states to discuss the content of the latest IPCC report due out in a few weeks. Apparently some states are arguing that there should be no reference to the 16 year pause in global temperature rise, while others want a strong explanation put forward to explain it. What they fear, of course, is that sceptics will ridicule any attempt to state that they are more certain of the hypothesis of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming (CAGW), yet that is, apparently, what they intend to report. I wonder what the increasingly sceptical media will make of it. 

Tuesday 24 September 2013

ENERGY POLICY CAN BE REVERSED

This article shows how the CO2 madness on energy policy can be reversed. It happens when the population wake up and start demanding it. That will start when the people realise how much it is costing them. It is only when the people feel the effect of price increases and collectively put the blame on the government policy. It requires a number of clear simple articles in the press, which is happening now in the UK.

Monday 23 September 2013

NIPCC REPORT HAS BEEN PUBLISHED - IPCC HIDES THE TRUTH

Here is a press release with links to the very extensive report. Like the IPCC report hardly anyone will read this right through due to its great length and complexity, but the press release contains the gist.

Sunday 22 September 2013

IPCC MUST THINK WE ARE FOOLS

This article by Ross McKitrick in the Financial Post gives a good account of the current situation between the computer climate models and the data which are growing farther apart as each year passes. As Ross puts it: "The IPCC must take everybody for fools. Its own graph shows that observed temperatures are not within the uncertainty range of projections; they have fallen below the bottom of the entire span. Nor do models simulate surface warming trends accurately; instead they grossly exaggerate them".

Saturday 21 September 2013

CLIMATE MODELS FAIL

Here is a link to a video introduction to a new book by Bob Tisdale on the subject. Well worth a look.

Friday 20 September 2013

EU CLIMATE MINISTER - "ENERGY POLICY IS RIGHT EVEN IF GW SCIENCE IS WRONG"

This article in the Telegraph quotes the words of the woman in charge of EU energy policy. So that's it - whatever the science turns out to be we are destined for high energy policies. The future looks bleak, time to leave!

Thursday 19 September 2013

GLOBAL WARMING IS ONLY HALF AS MUCH AS PREDICTED

This Mail article again pre-empts the upcoming IPCC report by looking at a leaked draft of it and picks out the inconsistencies. This is but the latest in a long line of articles on the same lines. I almost feel sorry for the IPCC who must be frantically trying to keep the wheels on the climate change bandwagon, and trying to sound credible at the same time.   

Wednesday 18 September 2013

OUR FOSSIL FUELED FUTURE

This article gives a thorough summary of the world's future energy demands and how they are predicted to be fuelled. The vast majority of it is likely to come from fossil fuels says the report by the experts at the USA's Department of Energy. Of course any prediction can be wrong, but it's all we can do without a crystal ball. The writer of the article is obviously a climate alarmist, but if you disbelieve all that stuff the facts and figures in the report are very interesting. If one conclusion emerges from it, it is the fact that reducing CO2 emissions is an impossibility, and the UK is spitting in the wind with its current energy policy. Either the climate sensitivity to CO2 is low or we are in for alarming warming.

Tuesday 17 September 2013

THE COST OF CLIMATE ALARMISM

Here is a good summary of the cost of extreme climate alarmism versus the reality of how the climate is currently behaving. It is the climate alarmists who should be made to account for their behaviour, not those using fossil fuels. 

Monday 16 September 2013

CZECHS SCRAP SUBSIDIES ON NEW SOLAR ENERGY SCHEMES

Here is the latest report on the elimination of subsidies for new solar energy. Following on from the new Australian government scrapping their carbon trading scheme and the Spanish having already scrapped the subsidies on their new solar schemes it is looking bleak for the future of uncompetitive forms of renewable energy. How long can the UK continue to buck the trend?

Sunday 15 September 2013

MATT RIDLEY ON CLIMATE ALARM

This piece in the Wall Street Journal looks at the massive problem for the IPCC in trying to keep up the alarm, while recognising the reality of the data. Having seen a leak of the draft report Matt concludes "the new report is effectively saying (based on the middle of the range of the IPCC's emissions scenarios) that there is a better than 50-50 chance that by 2083, the benefits of climate change will still outweigh the harm", but I doubt if you will find those actual words in the report.

Friday 13 September 2013

UK PARLIAMENT DEBATES THE CLIMATE CHANGE ACT

Here is a transcript of the debate, and you can see a number of MP's are prepared to put on the record their opposition to the current UK policy. The tide is definitely turning, though there is still some way to go.

Thursday 12 September 2013

HAS STERN FINALLY BEEN DEBUNKED?

This article looks at the way Stern's economics is not being accepted in the USA. It appears that his analysis of the cost of the "damage" caused by climate change vastly overestimates what most businesses believe is realistic. Stern has been savaged many times before, but in these times when financial constraints are much tighter and the degree of warming is much lower he seems to be more out of touch than ever.

Tuesday 10 September 2013

NEW AUSSIE PM TO SCRAP CARBON TRADING SCHEME

This article confirms that Tony Abbott, the new Australian PM intends to deliver on his election pledge to scrap the carbon trading scheme, recently introduced by the previous Labour government (having promised not to do so). This is yet another sign that the world is ready to ditch costly schemes to reduce CO2 emissions. It is an implicit admission that fears of global warming are receding, fears which have not materialised in real data.

Monday 9 September 2013

GLOBAL COOLING GOES MAINSTREAM

This piece in the Mail on Sunday confirms that fears of global warming are now hotly contested in the mainstream media. This is deeply embarrassing just a few weeks before the new IPCC report is due to come out. What will they say? Can they possibly stick with the reported "95% confidence" in the hypothesis of man made global warming, which the public will treat with derision, or do they downgrade a bit to say 70%? Such an admission would be unthinkable, wouldn't it?

Sunday 8 September 2013

UK REFINERY MAY CLOSE

This report relates to Grangemouth Refinery, and the reason for the possible closure is mainly due to increased energy costs. So reality is now being felt and real jobs being affected.

Saturday 7 September 2013

EU ENERGY MINISTER WAKES UP TO REALITY OVER SHALE FRACKING

This article gives the news that the EU minister in charge of energy seems to be shifting his position, becoming more favourable to shale gas, and less inclined to go for rapid decarbonisation. As reality dawns the UK's position of going for rapid decarbonisation is getting more and more isolated. I expect it will soften in practice even if they talk the talk.

Friday 6 September 2013

50 TO 1 PROJECT IS UP AND RUNNING

Here is a link to their website. The idea is to demonstrate using the figures given by the IPCC that it is 50 times more expensive to try to prevent global warming than to mitigate the effects of it if they appear. Although this approach has the drawback of accepting the biased reporting of the IPCC, it nevertheless shows that the carbon trading and taxing schemes are completely pointless, which is well worth making.

Thursday 5 September 2013

HOW MUCH OF RECYCLING IS RUBBISH?

by Penn and Teller uses some fruity language to make its point, but at 20 minutes in length it packs a strong punch against much of the trendy but very costly recycling industry, heavily subsidised by the government (in this case the US government). The points made in the film will be equally applicable here in the UK, or anywhere else. It does not decry all recycling, even singling out aluminium cans as a profitable and useful item to recycle.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

HERE'S WHY CHINA DIDN'T SIGN UP TO KYOTO

This article shows why the Chinese didn't sign, and this is why no developing nation will sign in the future. And this is why it is pointless for the developed world to sign up to any successor to Kyoto - because it won't work, and will simply cripple our own industry while giving the likes of China and India a free pass. Either the world is really facing disaster and everyone must stop using fossil fuels, or it is simply a lot of pointless political posturing. I suspect most, if not all, governments really believe it to be the second while pretending it's the first.

I wonder what would happen if the world's temperature really did start to rise alarmingly, with a corresponding increase in severe droughts and floods. Do we think that the Chinese and the Indians etc would then shut down all their coal and oil fired power stations? Somehow I doubt it. Just as well it's not happening. 

Tuesday 3 September 2013

UNUSUALLY COLD WEATHER IN SOUTH AMERICA

This article reveals the unusually snowy weather in South America which has not figured at all in the main stream media here in the UK. Of course this weather is not the same as the climate, in the same way as hot spells causing forest fires in California or Australia. While the hot spells are prominently displayed on our news programmes, the cold ones seem to get missed off. Strange isn't it?

Monday 2 September 2013

ENVIRONMENTALISTS TRY TO GET USA UNIVERSITIES TO STOP INVESTING IN FOSSIL FUELS

Here's a great letter signed by many prominent scientists and industrialists urging the American universities to resist the pressure being applied by environmentalists to remove their investments in fossil fuel companies. As the letter states, we need education, not indoctrination.  

Sunday 1 September 2013

POLAND'S SUCCESSFUL FRACKING OPERATION

This piece hails the good news from Poland that a well has been successfully fracked to extract promising amounts of gas.