Cooling 3.5 degrees Celsius by 2020.
A new Norwegian study predicts that the annual mean temperature in Svalbard will drop 3.5°C over the period of 2009 to 2020 and mean winter temperature will drop 6°C. The study is based on solar activity and the duration of solar cycles. While the study is specific to Norway, if this actually occurs, temperatures will also drop significantly in other areas.
Cooling ‘til 2068?
A recent Chinese study of Tibetan tree rings indicates that there is nothing abnormal about the current climate conditions. The research team determined that several different natural cycles – 2-3 years, 100 years, 199 years, 800 years, and 1,324 years – combined to produce the climate history seen in the varying tree ring properties from the Tibetan Plateau.
The study indicate that temperatures have peaked and predicts that they will drop until 2068 AD, rising again after that.
The studies are two of a number of studies that run counter to the anthropogenic global warming theory so prominent in today’s media.
Global warming or global cooling?
If I had a choice, I’d prefer warming.
(I’d also prefer that governments not waste money in futile efforts that aren’t going to make a significant difference. If we’re going to spend money like that, let’s do something worthwhile – like eradicating malaria or making sure more people in the world have clean water, something that would make a real difference instead of lining the pockets of bureaucrats or eco-snobs.)
William J. Clinton Presidential Center, May 12, 2007
The Clinton service is remarkable not only for its revolutionary design but also for its significance to the history of the American presidency.
The Clinton administration coincided with the bicentennial of the White House as home to America’s first families, a role it had played since John Adams, the second president, took up residence there on November 1, 1800. To commemorate this event, and also replenish the stock of official state china for the first time in nearly two decades, President William Clinton and his wife, Hillary, commissioned Lenox to create 300 12-piece place settings in 2000.
In a dramatic departure from previous White House services, the Clinton china features a border of pale creamy yellow, instead of a bright primary color, and images of the White House facades, in place of the customary presidential seal. Each piece in the placesetting is decorated with a different pattern, the motifs derived from outstanding architectural elements found in the State Dining Room, East Room, and Diplomatic Reception Room.
Fittingly, the china was used for the first time at a dinner attended by former Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George Bush, their wives, and Lady Bird Johnson, former first lady.
Lenox White House China
Clinton Presidential Library and Center
Little Rock Area
Other Exit78 posts related to the Clinton Presidency:
Other posts related to the Little Rock area
In Australia, climate change initiatives have been delayed until at least 2013. Despite that, the Federal Climate Change Department is not considering any cutbacks or layoffs.
TAXPAYERS will fork out $90 million a year to keep more than 400 public servants employed within the Federal Climate Change Department – despite most of them now having nothing to do until 2013.
More than 60 of them are classified as senior executive staff on salaries between $168,000 and $298,000 a year. Their salary bill alone will cost an estimated $12 million every year.
A further $8 million will also be paid in rent for plush offices at Canberra’s Constitution Place until 2012, where it is believed 500 new computers will be delivered this week.
It can be revealed that despite Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s decision on Tuesday to suspend the failed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme until at least 2013, the department has ruled out plans to cut back staff.
Read the full Herald Sun article – Kevin Rudd’s Department of Hot Air costing taxpayers $90m
From Fox News:
Al Gore won a Nobel Prize and an Oscar for his film, An Inconvenient Truth. But in the last three months, as global warming has gone from a scientific near-certitude to the subject of satire, Gore — the public face of global warming — has been mum on the topic.
The former vice president apparently finds it inconvenient even to answer calls to testify before the U.S. Senate. You can call him Al . . . but he won’t call back.
On Tuesday, Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe — a prominent skeptic of global warming theory and the Republican leader of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee — issued a request for Gore to come testify on global warming. In an interview with FoxNews.com, Inhofe said he wants Gore to appear because "it will be interesting to ask him on what science he based his movie," a film the senator considers "science fiction."
Gore has yet to respond, but that didn’t prevent him from causing a stir at Apple’s shareholder meeting Thursday. According to CNET, Gore was seated in the first row while several stockholders bashed his high-profile views on climate change. One reportedly said Gore "has become a laughingstock. The glaciers have not melted."
Read the Fox News article: You Can Call Him Al … But Al Won’t Call You Back
Meeting in closed sessions in Bali, Environment and Climate ministers from several countries are insisting on a review of the performance of the IPCC and it’s head, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri. According to a UK Telegraph article, the minister’s main concern is over Dr. Pachauri’s response to errors discovered in the 2007 IPCC assessment report on climate.
Environment and Climate ministers meeting in closed session in Bali last night insisted that an independent review should be carried out following the publicising of mistakes in its last report, and a row surrounding Dr Pachauri’s robust response to his critics. If his management is found to be at fault his position could become untenable.
Participants in the unprecedented meeting – held at the annual assembly of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Governing Council in Bali – were sworn to secrecy over the decision and it is only expected to be announced after its detailed scope and composition have been worked out by UNEP and the World Meteorological Organisation, the two UN agencies that oversee the IPCC’s work.
The ministers – led by Hillary Benn, the Environment Secretary,and his counterparts from Germany,. Norway, Algeria and Antigua and Barbuda – refused to allow Dr Pachauri to decide who would carry out the review, insisting it must be completely and demonstrably independent of the IPCC.
Read the full Telegraph article: IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri to face independent inquiry.
In today’s hard economic times, closing state parks seems to be a remedy that many states have used or are considering. A Las Vegas Sun article says Nevada legislators are considering closing all of the state parks in Nevada.
The Nevada Legislature is thinking of closing state parks as it considers how to patch an estimated $900 million budget gap, a move that would save a few million dollars while killing the economies of rural towns and stunting tourism efforts across the state, opponents of the idea say.
Gov. Jim Gibbons has suggested a 10 percent budget reduction for a number of agencies, including the State Parks Division. But the Interim Finance Committee could take that a step further. At its meeting in Las Vegas on Thursday, the committee is expected to consider following the lead of cash-strapped states such as California and Arizona, that have closed some or all of their state parks.
In Nevada, the proposal is the brainchild of Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, who says he is considering shutting down all state parks to save money.
Read the entire article: Would closing state parks to save money do more harm than good?
A report in Newsweek, Iceberg Ahead, looks at the current state of climate science and politics… and how things got to this point.
What went wrong? Part of the blame lies, of course, with those who obstructed the efforts of the IPCC and the individual scientists, including bloggers who tried to sandbag scientists with spurious FOIA requests, and the perpetrators (as yet unknown) of the hack at the Climatic Research Unit. Part of the blame also falls on the climate scientists themselves. Many of them—including perhaps Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC head—may have stepped too far over the line from science to advocacy, undermining their own credibility. Some scientists, as a result, are now calling for a change in tone from antagonism to reconciliation. Climate science, they say, needs to open its books and be more tolerant of scrutiny from the outside. Its institutions—notably the IPCC—need to go about their business with greater transparency. "The circle-the-wagons mentality has backfired," says Judith Curry, head of Georgia Tech’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Read more: Iceberg Ahead – Climate scientists who play fast and loose with the facts are imperiling not just their profession but the planet.
From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli turned up the heat on global warming yesterday.
On behalf of the state, Cuccinelli filed a petition asking the federal Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its December finding that global warming poses a threat to people.
Cuccinelli also filed a petition with the federal appeals court in Washington seeking a court review of the EPA finding.
read more: Va. challenges EPA’s stance on global warming
The last several months have been a very interesting time for those who monitor climate change issues. Finally, problems with the “settled science” of climate change are hitting main stream media outlets. A concise Wall Street Journal editorial chronicles the majority of the most significant issues identified so far.
It has been a bad—make that dreadful—few weeks for what used to be called the "settled science" of global warming, and especially for the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that is supposed to be its gold standard.
Read the rest at the Wall Street Journal: The Continuing Climate Meltdown.
