Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts

Thursday, February 20, 2014

WSJ to Kerry: Flat Earthers were the “consensus” position

Hot Air,  by  BY ED MORRISSEY, February 20, 2014

Last week, John Kerry burned 12 tons of carbon to travel to Indonesia and declare global warming as the biggest WMD of all. In what has become the general model of climate-change alarmism, he told his audience that Jakarta would soon be half-submerged thanks to the rising of the oceans that the election of his boss supposedly stopped. The Chicken Little spectacle was so embarrassing that Newt Gingrich suggested that Kerry should retire out of embarrassment, if not national security. “A delusional secretary of state,” Gingrich tweeted, “is dangerous to our safety.”

In the same speech, Kerry referred to climate skeptics as “Flat Earth Society” holdouts. That caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal and two fellows of the American Meteorological Society, Professors of Atmospheric Science Richard McNider and John Christy. Dr. Christy served at one time on the IPCC, the UN body that pushes anthropogenic climate change as the bogeyman of our time, and shared in its Nobel Prize along with Al Gore. Christy and McNider, however, teach a history lesson to Kerry before addressing his shrieking hysteria on global warming. It was the Flat Earthers who clung to “consensus,” and the skeptics who turned out to be right:



Friday, January 24, 2014

Letter to the Editor: Climate Change Debate

Several centuries ago the “consensus” of scientists of the times agreed the earth was flat.  Now those who dare to question those who live and breathe the gloom and doom of “global warming” are often called “flat-earthers”.  Honest dissent or questioning of the “consensus” leads to derision and ad hominem attacks.

A number of Sun Journal readers have weighed into the debate, and there seems to be very little middle ground.  Those who have bought the “consensus” theory are not open to another opinion, and often overlook startling facts, especially that a few years ago the “consensus” was the earth was rapidly cooling, and an Ice Age was on the near horizon.

The EPA has declared carbon dioxide a “pollutant” which poses a danger to human health and welfare.  By doing so, the EPA will be able to regulate every single economic activity in America; even if those regulations won’t do anything to impact climate.  Former EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, admitted as much in an analysis showing that US action to reduce greenhouse gases would have no impact on climate because of growing emissions from China and India.

It’s distressing to see few pointing out the inconsistencies of the alarmists.  At Georgetown University recently, President Obama gave a speech stating the earth has been warming at an accelerated rate over the past 15 years.  But Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN’ global warming science body, the IPCC, has recently admitted there has been no global warming for 17 years.  Guess the president didn’t get the memo, but neither did Al Gore.  Mr. Gore’s misstatements have included:  “The Earth has never been hotter and “There has never been more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than we have now”. 

Many scientists believe the Earth was at least as hot around 1100.  During that period the Vikings discovered and settled Greenland.  Food was plentiful in Europe and people prospered.  That “warming” period was actually beneficial to the adaptable humans.  As far as carbon dioxide, geologists have found evidence to prove carbon dioxide levels were 20 times as large in the distant past as they are now.

Many of the theories of the climate alarmists are not only wrong, but dangerous.  Their views are influencing our government to take actions which will negatively impact us all.  While many of these people profess to care about the poor and disenfranchised, their actions will more adversely affect those very people through rising gas and heating costs.  America’s prosperity is undermined, jobs are destroyed, and the sovereignty of our country is threatened by unaccountable bureaucrats from the United Nations.


Instead of trying to stop the “dissenters”, would it not be better to have more open debate before we commit scarce resources and apply draconian measures to a subject that appears to be less than “settled”?

Nancy Murdoch, CCTA Education Chairman
Havelock, NC

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Morning Bell: Things That Will Cost More Under Obama's Climate Change Plan

Things That Will Cost More Under Obama's Climate Change Plan


06/26/2013

President Obama doesn’t “have time for a meeting of the flat-Earth society.” And he probably considers you a member if you disagree with him on his crushing regulatory approach to climate change.

The heck of it is, the policies he advocates actually would not help the Earth.

Before Obama’s speech yesterday, Heritage’s Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow, Nicolas Loris, explained the President’s dilemma:

But let’s pretend we were able to stop emitting all carbon immediately. Forget the electricity to cool our homes in the summer months. Shut down the power plants. Stop driving our cars. No talking. The Science and Public Policy Institute found that the global temperature would decrease by 0.17 degrees Celsius—by 2100. These regulations are all pain no gain.   That’s what President Obama’s climate change plan would not do.

What President Obama’s climate change plan would do: increase the price of just about everything.

Whether it’s regulating appliances or eliminating coal from the nation’s energy diet, Obama’s plan has the same effect: hiking the cost of living.

Think through your day. Everything you buy, everything you eat, everything you wear… it was all produced using energy. Just a few of the things that will be more expensive under Obama’s plan:
  • Heating and cooling your home
  • Buying a car and driving—from your work commute to soccer practice and everywhere in between
  • Turning on the lights
  • Washing and drying clothes
But that’s not all. Think even bigger. What will it mean for President Obama’s war on coal to hike natural gas prices by 42 percent?
  CONTINUED:  http://blog.heritage.org/2013/06/26/morning-bell-things-that-will-cost-more-under-obamas-climate-change-plan/?roi=echo3-16080468091-13384451-db895401c1c05b8db1e32ef9be98d9b2&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

Monday, September 5, 2011

Check out this new guidebook from the U.S. Department of Transportation!

Check out this new guidebook from the U.S. Department of Transportation, intended to serve as resources for organizations that may be interested in, or stand to benefit from, incorporating climate change considerations into transportation and land use planning. Download the Full Report!

U.S. Department of Transportation Releases Framework for Considering Climate Change in Transportation and Land Use Planning


http://www.icleiusa.org/blog/u.s.-department-of-transportation-releases-framework-for-considering-climate-change-in-transportation-and-land-use-planning#.TmVI5pcEKWg.facebook

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Action Alert...Remove ICLEI – Restore the Republic

Many Americans ask how dangerous international policies can suddenly turn up in state and local government, all seemingly uniform to those in communities across the nation and around the globe.

The answer – meet ICLEI, a non-profit, private foundation, dedicated to helping your mayor implement all of his promises. Originally known as the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), today the group simply calls itself “ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability.”

In 1992, ICLEI was one of the groups instrumental in creating Agenda 21. The group’s mission is to push local communities to regulate the environment – and it’s having tremendous success.

I have included a list of 544 American cities in which ICLEI is being paid with tax dollars from city councils to implement and enforce Sustainable Development. ICLEI is there to assure that the mayors keep their promises and meet their goals. Climate change, of course, is the ICLEI mantra.

Here’s just some of the programs ICLEI provides cities and towns, in order to spread their own particular political agenda in the name of “community services” and environmental protection, they include:

Software programs to help set the goals for community development – which leads to taking control of your private property;

Access to a network of “Green” experts, newsletters, conferences and workshops – to assure the indoctrination of city employees is complete;

Toolkits, online resources, case studies, fact sheets, policy and practice manuals, and blueprints used by other communities – so you know you are not alone;

Training workshops for staff and elected officials on how to develop and implement the programs — wanna bet they never seem to mention that thousands of scientists around the world now say man-made global warming is a myth and none of these programs are necessary? Probably doesn’t make it into the workshop;

And, of course, there’s Notification of relevant grant opportunities – this is the important one – money – with severe strings attached.

ICLEI recommends that the community hire a full time “sustainability manager,” who, even in small towns, can devote 100% of his time to assure that every nook and corner of the government is on message and under control.

As I said, it’s not about protecting the environment; it’s about reinventing government with a specific political agenda. ICLEI and others are dedicated to controlling your locally elected public officials to quietly implement an all encompassing tyranny over every community in the nation.

Like a disease, ICLEI (or others of its kind) is entrenched in most American cities, dictating policy to your locally elected officials, controlling policy and making sure they do not listen to your protests. To truly see tyranny in action, one only needs to go to a city council meeting and attempt to ask questions or discuss a sustainable development program. Most who have tried it have been literally physically removed from the chamber.

It’s time to remove ICLEI. Look at this list of communities where they currently hide behind the curtain — and take action to remove them. Now, before your community is run like a soviet, where there is no debate, no regard for constitutionally-guaranteed rights, no property rights, no free markets, no alternative thought. Through ICLEI there is only top-down control – just like a soviet. Remove ICLEI – Restore the Republic!

ICLEI Cities Across the Country

Action to Take:

ICLEI is one of the most dangerous forces in the nation, particularly because so few people know if their existence. But your mayor and city council know. They are in regular meetings with them, They get memos on policy. They are told what to support and who to silence. What they fear most is exposure. Now, we can turn the tables on ICLEI by shining a bright spot light on their activities in your community.

First, go to a city council meeting and listen to the discussion. Are they talking about land use, water control, development control? Are they using the language I have described in this issue? If so, Sustainable Development is ruling your community.

Second, begin to ask questions. You may have to do it after the meeting, but if you can, ask during… Ask where these policies they are discussing come from. Ask if your community is now paying dues to a group called the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). Once you have determined that ICLEI is truly in your community, they the battle can begin. Remember, the list of ICLEI cities on this page came directly from the ICLEI web page – so you already know they are there.

Third, do not begin to discuss “UN” policies. Instead, keep your discussion on a local level, as in how such policies may impact local citizens.

Fourth, I have enclosed a petition. Make copies of this petition, which calls on your city council to stop paying dues to ICLEI and to remove them from policy making in your community. Pass out your copies and get as many citizens as possible to sign it. Make copies of this issue of The DeWeese Report to educate your neighbors on the dangers of Sustainable Development. Deliver the singed petitions to City Council and cause a firestorm of protest if they ignore you. And do not stop until ICLEI and Sustainable Development are removed from your community. REMOVE ICLEI – RESTORE THE REPUBLIC.

Tom DeWeese is the President of the American Policy Center and the Editor of The DeWeese Report. TThe DeWeese Report is now available online, for more information click here.

Monday, January 17, 2011

The Great "Climate Change" Taxpayer Rip-Off of 2011

Mon, January 17, 2011

The Great "Climate Change" Taxpayer Rip-Off of 2011 By Alan Caruba


Unless I am seriously mistaken or misinformed, the rate of unemployment in the U.S. remains high and the foreclosure rate on homes is approaching the level of the Depression years. Two major bond rating companies, Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s just warned that, if the federal government doesn’t stop spending and borrowing, America’s Triple-A highest ranking will be down-graded.


Along with all the other things in the federal budget wish list for 2011 are millions to be spent on climate change.


It helps to understand how obscene this is if you pause to consider (1) there is not one damn thing anyone can do about climate change, (2) climate change has been researched and studied since the late 1980s, enough to fill an entire wing of the Congressional Library to hold all the reports, and (3) the only climate change Americans really need to know about is what the weather will be tomorrow.

With a tip of the hat to Climatequotes.com and the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) report on “research development, fiscal year 2011”, let me share just a few of the ways the Obama administration intends to squander your money.

The magic number is $2,481,000 and it represents specific amounts devoted to "climate change" research or other programs requested for the 2011 budgets by an alphabet soup of federal agencies that include the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, Department of Energy (DOE), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of the Interior (DOI), and the Department of Agriculture (DOA).

The figures cited all come from chapter 15 of the AAAS report and you can access it via Climatequotes.com

NOAA’s total budget request is for $5.6 billion, an increase of 17%. It intends to devote $437 million for climate research funding, an increase of $77 million over last year.

Over at the National Science Foundation (NSF), its budget of $7.4 billion (that’s a lot of science!) includes a request for $480 million for Atmospheric and Earth Sciences, $765.5 million for NSF’s Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability program and $19 million for a joint program with DOE “to promote education in clean energy research. An additional $10 million would fund “Climate Change Education” in the nation’s schools. It’s not education, it’s indoctrination.

The Department of Energy which currently is projecting that permits for deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico won’t be forthcoming until, maybe, June. DOE seems oblivious to the fact that the price of oil is set to hit $100 a barrel and higher costs will hit everyone driving anything using gasoline or diesel fuel. Fuel oil prices will rise and any business that uses oil or anything made with oil will be forced to raise its prices. In short, everything.

DOE, however, is in no hurry and, of course, the Obama administration is dead set against ANWR or off-shore exploration and extraction of the BILLIONS of barrels of crude oil projected to exist.


However, DOE is set to receive $28.4 billion in 2011 and that includes $4.6 billion for research and development in its Office of Science and $2.4 billion for energy research and development. Its Office of Biological and Environmental Research is devoted to atmospheric science, including “climate modeling”, which would be allocated $627 million. Last time I checked, oil, coal, and natural gas were not found in the “atmosphere”, but rather were extracted from deep within the Earth.

The entire global warming hoax was and is based on “climate modeling”, all of which consistently found that the Earth was warming at an alarming rate. Except that the Earth is NOT warming. It has been cooling since 1998. And DOE intends to waste $627 million on more modeling. It is worth noting that the most sophisticated models of the National Weather Bureau still cannot predict with any confidence what the weather—not the climate—will be next week.

 The Environmental Protection Agency, gearing up to regulate all utilities that produce carbon dioxide and all other industries that do the same, has zero authorization to do so under the Clean Air Act. It is CO2 that is designated by the warmists as the chief culprit for the global warming that is NOT happening.

Despite this, EPA has requested $169 million “to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”, with $43.5 million in new funding for “regulatory efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions” through the Clean Air Act. And it wants $22 million for its Global Change Research Program. It is time to shut down this rogue agency before it totally destroys the economy.


Even the Department of Agriculture wants $159 million for “climate change research”, an increase of 42% and $179 million for renewable energy, to “help farmers.” Farmers are heavy users of fossil fuels to operate the machinery needed to till, plant, and harvest crops. They need reliable energy, not "renewable" energy.


The Recovery Act of 2009 has managed to blow more than $600 million on climate change research and billions on greenhouse gas mitigation.

This is just the tip of the ‘climate change’ rip-off in terms of billions wasted or soon to be wasted on “research” that can only be deemed an obscene diversion of taxpayer money that will not benefit a single taxpayer, generate any new jobs except for those in government agencies, and further bankrupt a bankrupted nation about to have its credit rating reduced.

The “scientists”, “regulators”, and “administrators” feasting off this federal largess should be handed a shovel to earn a living on one of those “shovel ready” projects we were told about.

Beyond that, if Congress was really intent on cutting back on spending, they could begin by defunding or shutting down the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and all the other federal grifters with their snouts rooting around in the climate change trough.



© Alan Caruba, 2011
http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/article/great-climate-change-taxpayer-rip-2011

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Final Report from Cancun - COP 16

From Cathie Adams
December 11, 2010

U.N. Agrees on a Process to Design the Global Taxing Scheme

Cancun, Mexico’s record-setting low temperature during the “global warming” conference did not cool the “hot air” at the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, Conference of the Parties 16.

At 5:18 a.m. on Saturday, December 11, Mexican President Felipe Calderón proclaimed the meeting a success and announced next year’s confab in Durban, South Africa. That meeting will be another step on their way to a “legally-binding” document they hope to produce in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2012, a.k.a. Rio+20 signifying 20 years since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio.

Key elements of the Cancun Agreement include:

President Obama’s commitment in Copenhagen last year to reduce greenhouse gases by 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 is now officially recognized by the U.N. The U.S. is to create a low-carbon development plan and strategy, and assess how they plan to meet them, including through market mechanisms, then to report their inventories annually to the U.N. It is incredulous for the U.N. to demand that a sovereign nation pass laws to fit the U.N.’s political agenda, but that is essentially what they did! In light of the November 2nd elections, “cap & trade/tax” legislation that would destroy the American economy while having a negligible impact on the environment, is unlikely to pass. But we must remain vigilant concerning the president’s abuse of Executive Orders and the Environmental Protection Agency to implement the unscientific radical environmental agenda.

• Poor countries’ actions to reduce emissions will also be officially recognized by the U.N. and a registry will be set up to record and match developing country mitigation actions to finance and technology support from rich countries. Poor countries must publish progress reports every two years.

• Parties meeting under the Kyoto Protocol (the U.S. is not a party) must continue negotiations with the aim of completing their work and ensuring there is no gap between the first and second commitment periods of the treaty. The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanisms were strengthened to drive more major investments and technologies to the developing world.

* A set of new initiatives and institutions were launched to deploy money and technology for poor countries to plan and build their own sustainable futures.

* Added to the Cancun Agreement are the $30 billion Fast Start Fund by 2012 and the $100 billion annual Green Fund by 2020 that President Obama committed to last year in Copenhagen.

* A process was established to design the $100 billion Green Climate Fund under the Conference of the Parties, with a board that equally represents rich and poor countries. The design will probably be for a tax on international shipping and aviation.

http://sovereignty.net/

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Climate absurdity: Illegal immigration caused by warming?

Just when you think you've heard everything, we're told that impoverished Mexicans are fleeing north to escape global warming.


According to a new study in the "prestigious" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they are leaving because of climate change! And the problem will only get worse, as more farms and water supplies dry up. By 2080, up to 6.7 million Mexican campesinos could be heading north, to escape droughts worse than anything since the Nature-driven Dust Bowl or Anasazi and Mayan desiccations.

Yes, we could have a disaster and mass northward migration, if the climate really did warm 5 or 10 degrees, as some computer models, computer games, Hollywood movies and "prestigious" researchers say it might. Or if space aliens landed in Mexico and stole all the water? Give me a break. Enough with the ridiculous what-if computer scenarios. Anyone can manufacture "scenarios." They mean nothing. They are "evidence" or "proof" of nothing, except overly active imaginations.
http://www.cfact.org/a/1853/Climate-of-absurdity-Illegal-immigration-caused-by-warming

Saturday, November 20, 2010

AFP Broadcast 12/2/10: The United Nations Climate Change Conference

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 16) will meet in Cancun, Mexico from November 29 – December 10 2010; and Americans for Prosperity is taking our Hot Air Tour there to meet them on December 2nd.


AFP’s Hot Air Tour will be broadcasting Live from Cancun on December 2nd to remind Americans that energy regulations handed down by the UN would mean: Lost Jobs, Higher Taxes and Less Freedom.

Want to join us in Cancun on December 2nd for the Hot Air Tour? Click here to register!
http://hotairtourcancun.com/

Monday, November 8, 2010

Obama to bypass Congress with carbon taxes?

Regulatory action on cap and trade could force climate levies

Posted: November 07, 2010

© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium online newsletter published by the current No. 1 best-selling author, WND staff writer and senior managing director of the Financial Services Group at Gilford Securities.

In his nationally televised press conference, President Obama indicated that carbon taxes may be imposed on U.S. citizens through a move designed to bypass Congress altogether, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.

Knowing that the chances of getting cap-and-trade legislation through a Republican-controlled House and a Senate with a larger, more conservative Republican minority will be almost impossible, Obama suggested a backdoor route through the Environmental Protection Agency may be a way to accomplish the goal without requiring new legislation.

"The EPA is under a court order that says greenhouse gases are a pollutant that fall under their jurisdiction," Obama said. "And I think one of the things that's very important for me is not to have us ignore the science, but rather to find ways that we can solve these problems that don't hurt the economy, that encourage the development of clean energy in this country, that, in fact, may give us opportunities to create entire new industries and create jobs that – and that put us in a competitive posture around the world."

Corsi wrote, "Obama intends to pursue the ideological cause of reducing carbon emissions despite growing doubt in the international scientific community about the validity of anthropogenic climate warming theories."

"Cap-and-trade was just one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way," Obama said. "And I'm going to be looking for other means to address this problem."

On June 26, 2009, in a 219 to 212 vote, House passed a cap-and-trade bill that was championed by Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Edward Markey, D-Mass. The Senate did not take up floor consideration of a cap-and-trade measure.

Corsi wrote, "Now, Obama is in for a fight if he intends to proceed with implementing carbon taxes through the back door of EPA regulations."

For more information on carbon taxes, read Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium, online intelligence news source by the WND staff writer, columnist and author of the New York Times No. 1 best-seller, "The Obama Nation."

Red Alert's author, who received a doctorate from Harvard in political science in 1972, is the author of the No. 1 New York Times best-sellers "The Obama Nation" and (with co-author John E. O'Neill) "Unfit for Command." He is also the author of several other books, including "America for Sale," "The Late Great U.S.A." and "Why Israel Can't Wait." In addition to serving as a senior staff reporter for WorldNetDaily, Corsi is a senior managing director in the financial-services group at Gilford Securities.

Disclosure: Gilford Securities, founded in 1979, is a full-service boutique investment firm headquartered in New York City providing an array of financial services to institutional and retail clients, from investment banking and equity research to retirement planning and wealth-management services. The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the author are his alone and do not necessarily reflect Gilford Securities Incorporated's views, opinions, positions or strategies. Gilford Securities Incorporated makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability or validity of any information expressed herein and will not be liable for any errors, omissions or delays in this information or any losses, injuries or damages arising from its display or use.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=225333

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

ALERT-- CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES: OPPOSE S1733: Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act

S1733: Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act


This is the so-called Kerry-Boxer bill that proposes a cap and trade regime and would require emissions curbs of 20 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050.

BP has been involved in the writing of this bill. The administration and liberal Congress are using the BP oil spill to their advantage and to advance their agenda.

Why You Should Oppose the “American Power Act”:

• The Legislation includes a “Fuels’ Fee” that is in fact a $.27 Tax per Gallon of Gasoline

• The Bill is really just another Cap and Trade Scheme in disguise.

• It’s a jobs killer in the industrial Midwest and across the country.

• It’s an energy tax, hitting the poor and middleclass the hardest.

• It creates a brand new government slush fund for Washington to spend.

• It’s the largest tax increase ever.

• It will needlessly export more American jobs to China, India and other countries.

• It will do nothing to impact global climate temperatures.

Below are related bills and resolutions H.R. 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (Passed House) and H.R. 2998: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (Introduced). For more information, see Climate Change Legislation: Where Does it Stand?
http://www.govtrackinsider.com/articles/2010-04-27/climate-change