GWPF | 23 Jan 2015
Richard Lindzen, an MIT professor of meteorology, is dismissing global-warming alarmists as a discredited “cult” whose members are becoming more hysterical as emerging evidence continues to contradict their beliefs. “As with any cult, once the mythology of the cult begins falling apart, instead of saying, oh, we were wrong, they get more and more fanatical. I think that’s what’s happening here.” –Howie Carr, Breitbart News, 21 January 2015
Climate change and the danger of nuclear war pose an ever-growing threat to civilisation and are bringing the world closer to doomsday, a group of prominent scientists and Nobel laureates said Thursday. “It is now three minutes to midnight,” said Kennette Benedict, executive director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, as the group moved its symbolic “Doomsday Clock” two minutes forward. –Jean-Louis Santini, The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 January 2015
Who can forget the infamous threat from Greenpeace’s Gene Hasmi? We know who you are. We know where you live. We know where you work. And we be many, but you be few. But was this a one-off? The evidence is suggesting otherwise. In the comments thread to a particularly sick Guardian post, which was adorned with a photo of a severed head, and which I will not therefore dignify with a link, comes this from commenter Bluecloud: Should that not be [Matt] Ridley’s severed head in the photo?… Why are you deniers so touchy? Mere calls for a beheading evolve such a strong response in you people. Ask yourself a simple question: Would the world be a better place without Matt Ridley? Need I answer that question? The Guardian and Greenpeace: sick, sick people. –Andrew Montford, Bishop Hill, 23 January 2015
The US Senate on Wednesday voted 98-1 in favor of a an amendment stating that “climate change is real and is not a hoax.” The provision offered by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) to put Republicans on record about climate change ahead of the 2016 election passed with near unanimous support, with only Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chairman of the campaign committee for Senate Republicans, voting “no.” In a surprise, one of the Senate’s staunchest climate change skeptics, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), voted in favor of the amendment. But he made clear he doesn’t believe humans are the primary driver of climate change. –Laura Barron-Lopez, The Hill, 21 January 2015
The point in this post and the previous one should be becoming clearer. Just as the IPCC has noted, any effects of global warming that may harm humans are for the future, not the present. Hysterical claims of extreme weather, rapid spread of disease and economic catastrophe are just that–hysterical claims. –The Lukewarmer’s Way, 22 January 2015
European Union carbon allowances posted their biggest drop since April after a panel in the bloc’s parliament failed to agree on how to modify a measure curbing a glut of carbon permits. Permits fell as much as 8.1% after the European Parliament’s industry committee, which has an advisory role in the legislative process, rejected a recommendation on a mechanism to withhold surplus allowances. –Ewa Krukowska and Ian Wishart, Bloomberg, 22 January 2015
1) Defeat For Green Lobby As EU Panel Rejects Cap-And-Trade Reforms – Bloomberg, 22 January 2015
2) EU Carbon Price Plummets As EU Panel Rejects Cap-And-Trade Fix – Bloomberg, 22 January 2015
3) Richard Lindzen: Climate Alarmism Is a Doomsday Cult – Breitbart News, 21 January 2015
4) Climate Change Brings World Closer To ‘Doomsday’, The Usual Doom-Mongers Scream – The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 January 2015
5) More Greenpeace Death Threats – Bishop Hill, 23 January 2015
6) And Finally: Calling Greens’ Bluff, US Senate Votes That ‘Climate Change Is Real’ – The Hill, 21 January 2015
1) Defeat For Green Lobby As EU Panel Rejects Cap-And-Trade Reforms
Bloomberg, 22 January 2015
Ewa Krukowska and Ian Wishart
The European Parliament’s industry committee failed to agree on a recommendation for a draft measure to curb a glut of carbon permits.
The panel, which has an advisory role in the legislative process, rejected a report on a mechanism to withhold surplus allowances. Earlier, committee members backed the start of the market overhaul in 2021, as envisaged by the European Commission, while a rival proposal for it beginning in 2017 was rejected.
The 28-nation EU is seeking to strengthen its cap-and-trade emissions program after the price of permits plunged almost 70 percent since 2008 to levels that fail to deter industry from burning coal, the most polluting fossil fuel.
The measure debated by lawmakers introduces a market stability reserve, or a tool to automatically adjust the permits in circulation. “There is no formal opinion adopted today but there were important political signals, especially on the starting date” and provisions for companies relocating to escape emission limits, Ivo Belet, the European Parliament’s lead lawmaker on the draft law, told reporters after the vote in Brussels.
“We can’t neglect those votes on those particular compromises.”
In today’s final ballot, the industry committee voted 31 to 28, with seven abstentions, against an entire report even after approving individual amendments.
The final report on the draft would be “highly regressive and would have had an extremely negative impact on the ETS without benefiting industry in the long run,” said Theresa Griffin, the Socialist’s lead lawmaker on the proposal in the industry panel.
2) EU Carbon Price Plummets As EU Panel Rejects Cap-And-Trade Fix
Bloomberg, 22 January 2015
Ewa Krukowska and Ian Wishart
European Union carbon allowances posted their biggest drop since April after a panel in the bloc’s parliament failed to agree on how to modify a measure curbing a glut of carbon permits.
Permits fell as much as 8.1% after the European Parliament’s industry committee, which has an advisory role in the legislative process, rejected a recommendation on a mechanism to withhold surplus allowances. Earlier, committee members backed inclusion in the report of an amendment to start the market overhaul in 2021, as envisaged by the European Commission, while a proposal for it beginning in 2017 was rejected.
3) Richard Lindzen: Climate Alarmism Is a Doomsday Cult
Breitbart News, 21 January 2015
Howie Carr
An MIT professor of meteorology is dismissing global-warming alarmists as a discredited “cult” whose members are becoming more hysterical as emerging evidence continues to contradict their beliefs.
“As with any cult, once the mythology of the cult begins falling apart, instead of saying, oh, we were wrong, they get more and more fanatical. I think that’s what’s happening here. Think about it,” he said. “You’ve led an unpleasant life, you haven’t led a very virtuous life, but now you’re told, you get absolution if you watch your carbon footprint. It’s salvation!”
Lindzen, 74, has issued calm dismissals of warmist apocalypse, reducing his critics to sputtering rage.
Last week, government agencies including NASA announced that 2014 was the “hottest year” in “recorded history,” as The New York Times put it in an early edition. Last year has since been demoted by the Times to the hottest “since record-keeping began in 1880.”
But that may not be true. Now the same agencies have acknowledged that there’s only a 38 percent chance that 2014 was the hottest year on record. And even if it was, it was only by two-100ths of a degree.
Lindzen scoffs at the public-sector-generated hysteria, which included one warmist blogger breathlessly writing that the heat record had been “shattered.”
“Seventy percent of the earth is oceans, we can’t measure those temperatures very well. They can be off a half a degree, a quarter of a degree. Even two-10ths of a degree of change would be tiny but two-100ths is ludicrous. Anyone who starts crowing about those numbers shows that they’re putting spin on nothing.”
4) Climate Change Brings World Closer To ‘Doomsday’, The Usual Doom-Mongers Scream
The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 January 2015
Jean-Louis Santini
Climate change and the danger of nuclear war pose an ever-growing threat to civilisation and are bringing the world closer to doomsday, a group of prominent scientists and Nobel laureates said Thursday.
“It is now three minutes to midnight,” said Kennette Benedict, executive director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, as the group moved its symbolic “Doomsday Clock” two minutes forward.
The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947. It has changed 18 times since then, ranging from two minutes to midnight in 1953 to 17 minutes before midnight in 1991.
The clock has been at five minutes to midnight since 2012 and the last time it was three minutes to midnight was in 1983, during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
“Today, unchecked climate change and a nuclear arms race resulting from modernisation of huge arsenals pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity,” Benedict said.
“And world leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe.”
5) More Greenpeace Death Threats
Bishop Hill, 23 January 2015
Andrew Montford
Who can forget the infamous threat from Greenpeace’s Gene Hasmi?
We know who you are. We know where you live. We know where you work.
And we be many, but you be few.
But was this a one-off? The evidence is suggesting otherwise. In the comments thread to a particularly sick Guardian post, which was adorned with a photo of a severed head, and which I will not therefore dignify with a link, comes this from commenter Bluecloud:
Should that not be [Matt] Ridley’s severed head in the photo?
and this from the same source:
We would actually solve a great deal of the world’s problems by chopping off everyone’s heads.
Why are you deniers so touchy? Mere calls for a beheading evolve such a strong response in you people.
Ask yourself a simple question: Would the world be a better place without Matt Ridley?
Need I answer that question?
Bluecloud turns out to be another Guardian author, Gary Evans, whose day job is as a boat-driver for Greenpeace.
The Guardian and Greenpeace: sick, sick people.
6) And Finally: Calling Greens’ Bluff, US Senate Votes That ‘Climate Change Is Real’
The Hill, 21 January 2015
Laura Barron-Lopez
The Senate on Wednesday voted 98-1 in favor of a an amendment stating that “climate change is real and is not a hoax.”
The provision offered by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) to put Republicans on record about climate change ahead of the 2016 election passed with near unanimous support, with only Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chairman of the campaign committee for Senate Republicans, voting “no.”
In a surprise, one of the Senate’s staunchest climate change skeptics, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), voted in favor of the amendment. But he made clear he doesn’t believe humans are the primary driver of climate change.
The amendment will now be attached to legislation that would approve the $8 billion Keystone XL oil pipeline — a project that environmentalists vigorously oppose.
