Some Weekend Reading from Marc Morano (Part 5)

1. Coldest Temperature Stations shut down in old Soviet Union caused artificial rise in global average temp

Excerpt: With data provided by Ross McKitrick the number of temperature stations around the world dropped by about 7000 in the 1989-1990 time frame. Thousands of these were in the Soviet Union at the time when that nation was going through major upheaval and economic collapse. With much bigger problems, these temperature stations were shut down. Now try to imagine the problem in calculating an average global average temperature when thousands of the coldest stations are shut down? An average temperature using the remaining stations showed an increase in global temperature of about 1 degree C. This is called a major data quality problem.

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?260c3ffc-6af0-40f6-b4c1-0afb46987770

2. Metallica lead singer disses LIVE EARTH: ‘I didn’t quite agree with what was going on there’

Excerpt: James Hetfield “Our philosophy is ‘think for yourself’ at the end of the day — do what you think feels right. I really believe that humans will survive. I have a lot of faith in mankind that we will overcome and adapt — whatever it is; whether it’s man-made or God-made, or Earth/Mother Nature — we have a lot of smart people on this planet that will make something good out of bad.”

http://blog.nam.org/archives/2007/07/metallica_the_v.php

METALLICA’s ‘Live Earth’ Appearance Translates Into Record Sales

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=76943

3. America’s gas price survey maven mocks climate fears as ‘unfriendly brainwashing’

Excerpt: I think that there has been friendly as well as unfriendly brainwashing taking place. And when I say friendly and unfriendly, I’m talking about decades of extremist views that have now achieved mainstream acceptance. And the No. 1 item among those affecting current oil politics in Washington is the boogeyman, also known as global warming.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/07/10/fa.lundberg.qa/

4. Eating beef found to be more harmful to Earth than driving

Excerpt: Producing 2.2lb of beef generates as much greenhouse gas as driving a car

non-stop for three hours, it was claimed yesterday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/19/nbeef119.xml

5. Bees disappearance solved? Scientist says Asian parasite is killing Western bees

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/43163/story.htm

6. Bees Dying: Is It a Crisis or a Phase?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/science/17bees.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

7. Russia plans big nuclear expansion

Excerpt: Leading the globe in construction of new plants, it also hopes to export as many as 60 plants in the next two decades.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0717/p01s04-woeu.html

8. Vandals slash tires and scratch eco note on DC man’s Hummer & Prius driving neighbors seem to approve

Excerpt: Now, as Groves ponders what to do with the remains of his $38,000 SUV, he has been the target of a number of people who have driven by the crime scene in his upscale neighborhood and glared at him in smug satisfaction. “I’d say one in five people who come by have that ‘you-got-what-you-deserve’ look,” said his friend Andy Sexton, 27, who is visiting from Arkansas and has been helping Groves deal with fallout from the crime. < > “They’ve got everything at their disposal in this city to make a statement in a legal way,” Fremaux said of the bat-wielding men who struck out at the Hummer. “I consider this a hate crime.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/17/AR2007071701808.html

9. Flashback: Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage (March 7, 2007 – THE RECORDER – Central Connecticut State University)

Excerpt: Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the dead zone around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=14304 &
http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/editorial/editorial_item.asp?NewsID=188

10. Australian city sees coldest day on record

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2007/07/19/1184559902397.html

11. Live Earth – Dead Africans?
Policies that prevent energy development have lethal consequences for Africa

http://www.webcommentary.com/asp/ShowArticle.asp?id=driessenp&date=070719

12. Effort to Curb Climate Change May Hurt African Farms

Excerpt: A bid to slow global warming by reducing the tonnes of food air freighted around the world ran up on Tuesday against the worries of poor African growers who fear it will hurt their business. <> “The repercussions will certainly be bad. This ban will only serve as an incentive to kill all environmentally friendly agriculture in Kenya,” Stephen Mbithi, Chief Executive of Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya, told Reuters.

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/43143/story.htm

13. Organic food air freighted should be stripped of organic status roundup

Excerpt: Food imported into Britain by air is an “absolute catastrophe” and should be stripped of any right to organic status, campaigners have claimed.Greenpeace and leading figures in the organic industry called on the Government to take action against “air freight”, which they claim undermines the whole ethos of wholesome, sustainable agriculture.But opponents pointed out that a ban would unfairly penalise poor farmers in developing countries and fail to make a meaningful impact on the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/07/17/eamiles117.xml

14. Briton swims at North Pole to show effects of global warming

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070715211336.h2lllk66&show_article=1&image=large

Meteorologist raises questions about truthfulness of arctic swimmer (James Craig of Wood TV in Michigan)

Excerpt: This man was in the water for almost 19 minutes wearing nothing but a speedo! Is that possible? Does the first picture look like a man who has just spent this much time in subfreezing water? http://blogs.woodtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/screenshot_012.jpgAnd take a look at the next picture. http://blogs.woodtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/screenshot_011.jpgI have never been to the North Pole but is it possible to see the curve of the horizon there? Doesn’t this picture look faked? Perhaps there is a camera lense that would produce this effect.

http://blogs.woodtv.com/?p=2284

Flashback: Scientists say open water at the North Pole isn’t unusual

Excerpt: According to Rothrock and other scientists who study the Arctic, open water at the pole is a common occurrence. ROTHROCK: “There’s a lot of open water, a lot of crack of this size they describe in the sea ice in the summer. So in and of itself, that doesn’t seem so bizarre. I think they played it up as something a little bigger than it actually was. It seemed to me that mostly, it was a disappointment to the people who wanted to step out and say they stood on the North Pole.” In fact, at any given time during the summer, 10 to 15 percent of the Arctic Ocean is not covered by ice, says Dr. Mark Johnson, a physical oceanographer at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Johnson spends a great deal of time modeling the ever-changing dynamics of the ice cap. He says the six-mile-long opening in the ice—called a lead—that tourists saw, sounds about right for this time of year.

http://seagrant.uaf.edu/news/00ASJ/08.30.00_MeltingIcecap.html

15. An Interview With Nigel Calder, former editor of New Scientist and co-author with Physicist Henrik Svensmark of a new 2007 book entitled “The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change”

Excerpt: Q: How do you respond to the paper by Lockwood and Froehlich, which claims to comprehensively ‘settle the debate’ on the cosmic ray hypothesis (& Solar-climate link) you describe in The Chilling Stars? NC: How often we’ve heard it before, that the debate has been settled! But this is an interesting case because these scientists accept that the Sun has played a big part in climate change over hundreds and thousands of years, just as we explain in the book. They even allow that it was involved in the warming in much of the 20th Century. And when Lockwood and Froehlich go on to say that the intensification of solar activity seen in the past hundred years has now ended, we don’t disagree with that. We part company only when they say that temperatures have gone on shooting up, so that the recent rise can’t have anything to do with the Sun, or with cosmic rays modulated by the Sun. In reality global temperatures have stopped rising. Data for both the surface and the lower air show no warming since 1999. That makes no sense by the hypothesis of global warming driven mainly by CO2, because the amount of CO2 in the air has gone on increasing. But the fact that the Sun is beginning to neglect its climatic duty — of batting away the cosmic rays that come from ‘the chilling stars’ — fits beautifully with this apparent end of global warming.

http://www.londonbookreview.com/interviews/nigelcalder.html

16. What global warming, Australian skeptic asks (Paleoclimate scientist Bob Carter)

Excerpt: Carter: “The accepted global average temperature statistics used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that no ground-based warming has occurred since 1998. Oddly, this eight-year-long temperature stasis has occurred despite an increase over the same period of 15 parts per million (or 4%) in atmospheric carbon dioxide. “Second, lower-atmosphere satellite-based temperature measurements, if corrected for non-greenhouse influences such as El Nino events and large volcanic eruptions, show little, if any, global warming since 1979, a period over which atmospheric CO2 has increased by 55 ppm (17%).”

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/comment/story.html?id=d71dfa89-384c-4ede-a759-55fb7ffdcfc2

17. When Physics Trumps Hysteria in Global Warming

The climate forces which have led to the estimated 0.6C degree temperature increase over the past 100 years or more (according to the International Panel on Climate Change) have been assumed to be man-made CO2 emissions from advanced nations including the U.S. We know this can’t be true for several reasons. The first is that water vapor provides 95 percent of the total of the greenhouse gases, not CO2. The total of the CO2 represents less than 3 percent of the total. The second is that of the total atmospheric CO2 inventory, the manmade fraction is less than 3 percent of the CO2 total and therefore far less than 1 percent of the total greenhouse gas inventories. Third, studies of the recent climate variations are finding, for example, (See article by J. Oestermans, Science, p. 375, April 29, 2005) that glaciers have been receding since 1750 or so, well before any significant man-made CO2 emissions occurred. The mid 1700s were at the very depths of the Little Ice Age, which we have learned was the coldest climate over the last 5000 years. Obviously, other warming forces were at work before humans had anything to do with it.

http://www.grassrootinstitute.org/GrassrootPerspective/PhysicsTrumps.shtml

18. MAYOR SAYS NJ GOVERNOR, SIERRA CLUB ARE HYPOCRITICAL ON GLOBAL WARMING

Excerpt: Cassella, whose town encompasses the state-owned meadowlands property that is the future home of the massive Xanadu mega-mall project and the new Giants-Jets stadium – said the state is being hypocritical when it is pushing a global warming initiative on state utility companies and private corporations while ignoring the greenhouse gases created by the projects it controls.

“Just a few yards from where Gov. Corzine, Al. Gore and New Jersey Sierra Club President Jeff Tittel were holding their photo-op and proclaiming their concern for the global environment is the site of two of the biggest, energy wasting projects in the state,” said Cassella.

http://www.politicsnj.com/mayor-says-corzine-sierra-club-are-hypocritical-global-warming-10344

19. Meteorologist Anthony Watts finds more questionable temperature sensors

Excerpt: I just didn’t think it possible NOAA would allow a consumer grade sensor in the USHCN dataset.

http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=1817

20. Meteorologist debunks notion of a ‘consensus’ on global warming (James Craig of Wood TV in Michigan)

Excerpt: “International surveys of climate scientists [were] conducted in 1996 and again in 2003 by two German environmental scientists. More than 530 climate scientists from 27 different countries provided answers for the surveys. The surveys were password protected to ensure that scientists in climate related fields were the only ones with access. The Heartland Institute’s booklet is entitled Scientific Consensus on Global Warming (PDF) and gives the following summary of the 2003 survey: The 2003 survey results show climate scientists at laboratories, universities, and offices around the world nearly all agree that global warming is underway and the media influences the public’s perception of climate change. On all other questions, there was significant disagreement. Specifically, there is no consensus regarding the causes of the modern warming period, how reliable predictions of future temperatures can be, and whether future global warming will be harmful or beneficial. After you read the article, send it to the very next person who claims there is a consensus on this issue. As the article states: ” those who say the time for debate is over are at odds with half of the scientists they claim to be speaking for.”

http://blogs.woodtv.com/?p=2269

21. Even UN IPCC Concedes Antarctica not melting away

Global Warming Debate Upside-Down: Antarctic Update

Excerpt: If you consult the latest report of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), you would find statements on the subject in the summary including “Antarctic sea ice extent continues to show inter-annual variability and localized changes but no statistically significant average trends, consistent with the lack of warming reflected in atmospheric temperatures averaged across the region” and “Current global model studies project that the Antarctic ice sheet will remain too cold for widespread surface melting and is expected to gain in mass due to increased snowfall.” Amazing – one would never suspect such conclusions given a cover story in National Geographic titled “THE BIG THAW.”

http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/2007/07/17/global-warming-debate-upside-down-antarctic-update/

22. How the “Climate-Change” faithful spin cold weather

Excerpt: The “Climate-Change” faithful now have the power to levitate above the embarrassment of awkward evidence. To deal with exceptions, they have conceived the metaphysical category of the “Extreme Event”. This phrase does not refer to weather which has extreme consequences, such as the past 48 hours in Victoria. The significance is altogether different. The “Extreme Event” is a device for ruling out the very possibility of contrary evidence and, thus, for denying the prospect of Popperian falsification. < > If all swings in the weather are worshipped as manifestations of “Climate Change”, that hypothesis is elevated above the realm of rational enquiry. Its advocates have entered the domain of theology where all outcomes — even the cruelest — are accepted as God’s working in his mysterious ways to reveal his omnipotent Goodness.

http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/002161.html

23. Global warming has its upside

Excerpt: Yet to the delight of some global warming naysayers, previously cool vineyard regions are finding that climate change can offer good news. Where once only two or three German vintages each decade saw ripe grapes, now nearly every vintage has been riper. Nearby northern France has seen the same.

http://www.kansascity.com/living/food/story/193259.html

24. Is Gore correct in asserting mankind is causing more droughts?

Gore’s testimony of 21 March 2007 before the United States Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee for confirmation of this fact, wherein he states – without equivocation – that “droughts are becoming longer and more intense,” but, of course, without offering any evidence in support of his contention.

The 30 major droughts of the 20th century were likely natural in all respects; and, hence, they are “indicative of what could also happen in the future,” as Narisma et al. state in their concluding paragraph.

http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/articles/V10/N29/EDIT.jsp

25. Snowless in a warming world, ski resort in French Alps bids adieu

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/19/europe/EU-GEN-France-Too-Warm-To-Ski.php

26. Gore: human species in a race for its life

Excerpt: “What we’re facing worldwide really is a planetary emergency,” Gore said. “I’m optimistic, but we’re losing this battle badly.” <> Gore has spent 30 years trying to bring the world around to the effects of global climate change, and the last several touring with his slideshow (now the Oscar-winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth”), writing books, and teaching 1,400 people worldwide how to deliver the global warming message in several different languages. Next week it will be China, then India.

http://www.aspendailynews.com/article_20762

27. Animal Rights Activists Have ‘No Choice’ but Violence, Spokesman Says

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200707/CUL20070719b.html

27. Environmental Extremists Likely to Attack, Says NIE

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200707/CUL20070719a.html

28. Greenpeace plan nude global warming stunt

http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/19/1982884.htm

29. Eco-warrior Al Gore serves up endangered fish at daughter’s party

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=469277&in_page_id=1811

30. Humane Society criticizes Gore for serving threatened fish species at daughter’s wedding

Excerpt: ONLY one week after Live Earth, Al Gore’s green credentials slipped while hosting his daughter’s wedding in Beverly Hills. Gore and his guests at the weekend ceremony dined on Chilean sea bass – arguably one of the world’s most threatened fish species.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22090734-5001031,00.html

Claim: Restaurant claims Gore did not dine on endangered fish

Excerpt: [The fish] had come from one of the world’s few well-managed, sustainable populations of toothfish, and were caught and documented in compliance with Marine Stewardship Council regulations.

http://www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/8120/Gore_fish_dish_was_green,_says_restaurant_.html

31. Scientists invent device to stop Global Warming

Excerpt: Chemists at the University of California, San Diego have created a device that uses sunlight to transform harmful CO2 gas into fuel that could replace all the gasoline used in transportation.

http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/nextnews7.16b.html

32. IT AIN’T EASY BEING GREEN, AL

http://nypress.com/20/16/news&columns/JohnDeSio.cfm

33. Island of Vanuatu rates happiest nation on Earth roundup

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6897485.stm

34. Corn biofuel ‘dangerously oversold’ as green energy

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12283-corn-biofuel-dangerously-oversold-as-green-energy.html

35. Continuing the Green Revolution – By NORMAN E. BORLAUG

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118472139326369773.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

36. Global warming may bench a baseball staple

Excerpt: The White Ash Tree is in danger of being wiped out, and that could threaten a long baseball tradition. The wood from the ash tree has been used for decades to create a majority of the nation’s baseball bats, including those for Major League Baseball.

http://global-warming.accuweather.com/2007/07/baseball_bats_and_global_warmi.html

37. Mars Once Shuffled Its Icy Poles

http://www.livescience.com/space/scienceastronomy/070713_mars_ice.html

38. Meat is murder on the environment

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/mg19526134.500-meat-is-murder-on-the-environment.html

39. Gun battle over valuable wild fungus kills 8, wounds 44 in China

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22098335-5006003,00.html

40. What It Feels Like…to Be Mauled By a Bear

Excerpt: Then its teeth were in my left thigh. I thought, How strange, I’m actually being bitten by something. The grizzly’s fangs sank to my femur, and it jerked me all over the trail. I couldn’t tuck into a fetal position, so my front side was exposed, and I thought, Man, it’s going to rip my intestines out. So I dove off the trail, about twenty feet down.

Dense alder bushes broke my fall, and it looked like the bear might ease off. I yelled, “Jenna, come down here!” At the sound of my voice, the grizzly came charging down at me fast — like you can’t imagine how fast, like out-of-this-world fast. I curled into the fetal position. The bear’s jaws clamped on my backpack and lifted me up and down. I tried to scramble out from under it but instead forced us into another tumble thirty feet down the mountain. < > It gnawed on my head, and I could feel flesh tearing away. I grabbed the animal by the throat; its fur felt like a dirty wet dog, only thicker. I hit it with a rock, but the rock crumbled, so I wiggled back into the fetal position. Its teeth cut deep into the bottom of my skull; I actually heard bone cracking.

http://www.esquire.com/dont-miss/wifl/mauledbybear0807

Many thanks to Marc Morano for all these links.
Happy reading and have a good weekend.