NIGHT CHICKEN

New global warming shock ad features polar bears falling to their deaths

Plane Stupid's cinema ad.  Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's a double entendre there.

From their website:

We have a problem. We're flying too much, and it's changing the earth's climate. Aviation is the fastest growing cause of climate change. But instead of doing anything about it, the Government is planning more flights and larger airports. Like you, we're worried about climate change.
Like you, we don't think the Government can be trusted to do what needs to be done.
It's OK though: we've got a plan.

E-mail system of leading climate research unit is hacked and sensitive e-mails are published -- Evidence of fixing the data to a desired outcome?

I have read some of the e-mails that have been published and they certainly appear to raise questions about whether science is following the data or manipulating data to support a desired outcome.  Hopefully we will see some interesting e-mails with analysis and commentary by honest, disinterested climate scientists.

BBC News

November 20, 2009

Hackers target leading climate research unit 

The e-mail system of one of the world's leading climate research units has been breached by hackers.

E-mails reportedly from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU), including personal exchanges, appeared on the internet on Thursday.

A university spokesman confirmed the email system had been hacked and that information was taken and published without permission.

link to story 

‘Climate change pushes poor women to prostitution, dangerous work’

Reason No. 3,264 to restructure and regulate our energy production, distribution and consumption. 

GMA News.TV

November 19, 2009

Effects of climate change have driven women in communities in coastal areas in poor countries like the Philippines to risk dangerous jobs, and sometimes even into the flesh trade.

Suneeta Mukherjee, country representative of the United Nations Food Population Fund (UNFPA), said women in the Philippines are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the country.

“Climate change could reduce income from farming and fishing possibly driving some women into sex work and thereby increase HIV infection," Mukherjee said during the Wednesday launch of the UNFPA annual State of World Population Report in Pasay City.

link to story

Climatologists Baffled by Global Warming Time-Out

It would have been nice to have heard some comments from scientists who are skeptics.  I wonder if they are baffled.

Spiegel Online - International

November 19, 2009

Global warming appears to have stalled.  Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years.  Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others expain it through ocean currents.

...

The planet's temperature curve rose sharply for almost 30 years, as global temperatures increased by an average of 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.25 degrees Fahrenheit) from the 1970s to the late 1990s. "At present, however, the warming is taking a break," confirms meteorologist Mojib Latif of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in the northern German city of Kiel. Latif, one of Germany's best-known climatologists, says that the temperature curve has reached a plateau. "There can be no argument about that," he says. "We have to face that fact."

Even though the temperature standstill probably has no effect on the long-term warming trend, it does raise doubts about the predictive value of climate models, and it is also a political issue.

link to story

Is The U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable?

When you consider the location and situation of these stations, it's makes you wonder why this wasn't picked up on earlier and why it doesn't appear to be a newsworthy story for the media to run with.

Download the report below.

 

Anthony Watts

How do we know global warming is a problem if we can't trust the U.S. temperature record?

The official record of temperatures in the continental United States comes from a networkof 1,221 climate-monitoring stations overseen by the National Weather Service, a department of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Until now,no one had ever conducted a comprehensive review of the quality of the measurement environment of those stations.

During the past few years I recruited a team of more than 650 volunteers to visually inspect and photographically document more than 860 of these temperature stations. We were shocked by what we found.

We found stations located next to the exhaust fans of air conditioning units, surrounded by asphalt parking lots and roads, on blistering-hot rooftops, and near sidewalks and buildings that absorb and radiate heat. We found 68 stations located at wastewater treatment plants, where the process of waste digestion causes temperatures to be higher than in surrounding areas.

In fact, we found that 89 percent of the stations – nearly 9 of every 10 – fail to meet the National Weather Service’s own siting requirements that stations must be 30 meters (about 100 feet) or more away from an artificial heating or radiating/reflecting heat source.

In other words, 9 of every 10 stations are likely reporting higher or rising temperatures because they are badly sited.

Download Surfacestationsreport_spring09

But I thought there was a "consensus" among scientists regarding Anthropogenic Global Warming

450 Peer-Reviewed Papers Supporting Skepticism Of AGW-Caused Global Warming

by Anthony Watts

Download 450_peer_reviewed_papers

Approximately 50 percent of the warming that has occurred since 1950 is due to land use changes

There is something in the green debates for which there appears to be is a scientific consensus.  The so called "Cap and Trade" solution to anthropogenic global warming (now "climate change"), should it even exist, is just another government bludgeon calculated at controlling and taxing.  Also related to the observed increase in temperatures is the location of weather stations, many of which are located in developed areas surrounded by asphalt and air conditioning units.

Georgia Tech Newsroom

November 9, 2009

Reducing Greenhouse Gases May Not Be Enough to Slow Climate Change 

...

“Across the U.S. as a whole, approximately 50 percent of the warming that has occurred since 1950 is due to land use changes (usually in the form of clearing forest for crops or cities) rather than to the emission of greenhouse gases,” said Stone.  “Most large U.S. cities, including Atlanta, are warming at more than twice the rate of the planet as a whole – a rate that is mostly attributable to land use change.  As a result, emissions reduction programs – like the cap and trade program under consideration by the U.S. Congress – may not sufficiently slow climate change in large cities where most people live and where land use change is the dominant driver of warming.”

link to story

One more way to control and tax -- Personal carbon allowances and penalties

Telegraph.Co.Uk

November 9, 2009

Everyone in Britain could be given a personal 'carbon allowance'

Everyone in Britain should have an annual carbon ration and be penalised if they use too much fuel, the head of the Environment Agency will say.

Lord Smith of Finsbury believes that implementing individual carbon allowances for every person will be the most effective way of meeting the targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

It would involve people being issued with a unique number which they would hand over when purchasing products that contribute to their carbon footprint, such as fuel, airline tickets and electricity.

Like with a bank account, a statement would be sent out each month to help people keep track of what they are using.

If their "carbon account" hits zero, they would have to pay to get more credits.

Those who are frugal with their carbon usage will be able to sell their unused credits and make a profit.

Lord Smith will call for the scheme to be part of a "Green New Deal" to be introduced within 20 years when he addresses the agency's annual conference on Monday.

An Environment Agency spokesman said only those with "extravagant lifestyles" would be affected by the carbon allowances.

link to story

Climate change belief given same legal status as religion

Telegraph.co.uk

November 3, 2009

An executive has won the right to sue his employer on the basis that he was unfairly dismissed for his green views after a judge ruled that environmentalism had the same weight in law as religious and philosophical beliefs.

In a landmark ruling, Mr Justice Michael Burton said that "a belief in man-made climate change ... is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations.

...

Mr Nicholson hailed the Employment Appeals Tribunal ruling as "a victory for common sense" but stressed climate change was "not a new religion".

He said: "I believe man-made climate change is the most important issue of our time and nothing should stand in the way of diverting this catastrophe."

"This philosophical belief that is based on scientific evidence has now been given the same protection in law as faith-based religious belief."

"Belief in man-made climate change is not a new religion, it is a philosophical belief that reflects my moral and ethical values and is underlined by the overwhelming scientific evidence."

link to story

Remember the good old days when cartoon characters led advertising campaigns for fast food restaurants?

U.N. taps Tinker Bell for green ambassador

UPI.com

October 26, 2009

The United Nations Monday named Disney character Tinker Bell an "Honorary Ambassador of Green" to help raise children's environmental awareness.

...

"We're delighted Tinker Bell has agreed to be our Honorary Ambassador of Green," said Kiyo Akasaka, undersecretary-general for communications and public information. "This beloved animated character

...

Protecting the environment is an underlying theme of the Tinker Bell movies, said the U.N. Department of Public Information.can help us inspire kids and their parents to nurture nature and do what they can to take care of the environment."

link to story