The price of dissent on global warming

David Bellamy November 25, 2008
Article from: The Australian

WHEN I first stuck my head above the parapet to say I didn't believe what we were being told about global warming, I had no idea what the consequences would be. I am a scientist and I have to follow the directions of science, but when I see that the truth is being covered up I have to voice my opinions.

According to official data, in every year since 1998, world temperatures have been getting colder, and in 2002 Arctic ice actually increased. Why, then, do we not hear about that? The sad fact is that since I said I didn't believe human beings caused global warming, I've not been allowed to make a television program.

My absence has been noticed, because wherever I go I meet people who say: "I grew up with you on the television, where are you now?"

It was in 1996 that I criticised wind farms while appearing on children's program Blue Peter, and I also had an article published in which I described global warming as poppycock. The truth is, I didn't think wind farms were an effective means of alternative energy, so I said so. Back then, at the BBC you had to toe the line, and I wasn't doing that.

At that point, I was still making loads of TV programs and I was enjoying it greatly. Then I suddenly found I was sending in ideas for TV shows and they weren't getting taken up. I've asked around about why I've been ignored, but I found that people didn't get back to me. At the beginning of this year there was a BBC show with four experts saying: "This is going to be the end of all the ice in the Arctic," and hypothesising that it was going to be the hottest summer ever. Was it hell! It was very cold and very wet and now we've seen evidence that the glaciers in Alaska have started growing rapidly, and they have not grown for a long time.

I've seen evidence, which I believe, that says there has not been a rise in global temperature since 1998, despite the increase in carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere. This makes me think the global warmers are telling lies: CO2 is not the driver. The idiot fringe has accused me of being like a Holocaust denier, which is ludicrous. Climate change is all about cycles. It's a natural thing and has always happened. When the Romans lived in Britain they were growing very good red grapes and making wine on the borders of Scotland. It was evidently a lot warmer.

If you were sitting next to me 10,000 years ago, we'd be under ice. So thank God for global warming for ending that ice age; we wouldn't be here otherwise.

People such as former American vice-president Al Gore say that millions of us will die because of global warming, which I think is a pretty stupid thing to say if you've got no proof. And my opinion is that there is absolutely no proof that CO2 has anything to do with any impending catastrophe. The science has, quite simply, gone awry.

In fact, it's not even science any more; it's anti-science.

There's no proof, it's just projections, and if you look at the models people such as Gore use, you can see they cherry-pick the ones that support their beliefs. To date, the way the so-called Greens and the BBC, the Royal Society and even political parties have handled this smacks of McCarthyism at its worst.

Global warming is part of a natural cycle and there's nothing we can actually do to stop these cycles. The world is now facing spending a vast amount of money in tax to try to solve a problem that doesn't actually exist.

And how were we convinced that this problem exists, even though all the evidence from measurements goes against the fact? God knows. Yes, the lakes in Africa are drying up. But that's not global warming. They're drying up for the very simple reason that most of them have dams around them.

So the water once used by local people is now used in the production of cut flowers and vegetables for the supermarkets of Europe. One of Gore's biggest clangers was saying that the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan was drying up because of global warming.

Well, everyone knows, because it was all over the news 20 years ago, that the Russians were growing cotton there at the time and that for every tonne of cotton you produce you use a vast amount of water. The thing that annoys me most is that there are genuine environmental problems that desperately require attention. I'm still an environmentalist, I'm still a Green and I'm still campaigning to stop the destruction of the biodiversity of the world. But money will be wasted on trying to solve this global warming "problem" that I would much rather was used for looking after the people of the world. Being ignored by the likes of the BBC does not really bother me, not when there are bigger problems at stake.

I might not be on TV any more but I still go around the world campaigning about these important issues. For example, we must stop the destruction of tropical rainforests, something I've been saying for 35 years.

Mother nature will balance things out, but not if we interfere by destroying rainforests and overfishing the seas. That is where the real environmental catastrophe could occur.

David Bellamy is a botanist, author of 35 books, and has presented 400 television programs.

23 Comment(s)

paul of bris 4:28pm today
pity the article doesnt menting the petition of 400 scientists that deny GLOBAL WARMING......or that GW is the catylist for a $45 trillion dollar per year carbon credit tax scheme.....but that would give him more CREDIBILITY, wouldnt it....?!!!! .

Rathtyen of Sydney 4:10pm today
David Bellamy hits the nail on the head. Acting to reduce CO2 to "prevent" global warming is not a free option which does good even if CO2 is not actually a problem. The simple fact is too many of the "conservation" steps being undertaken to reduce CO2 are in fact damaging the environment. In short we need to grow more food using less land, and provide reliable energy to more parts of the world. Global population growth is huge and is occurring mainly in the third world. Inefficient farming practices and using wood for fuel is having a devastating effect on the environment. I%u2019m not aware of a single species becoming extinct or at risk due to global warming (polar bears are doing just fine), but many, many species are at risk from deforestation in particular. Wind farms need large areas of cleared land, while ethanol use encourages land clearing for crops for fuel. They encourage land clearing, which is the biggest single environmental problem in the world today. CO2 mitigation also encourages bad forest practices when (re)planting trees: planting trees can be an environmental disaster if they are the wrong kind. In Australia, carbon offsets can be gained by planting forests, and these are usually pine forests. Most native trees in Australia are eucalypts, and the native ecology isn%u2019t destructive to pines. As well pines %u201Cpoison%u201D the ground with sulphur so most native plants won%u2019t grow near them. The pines forests therefore grow really well, but they are devoid of native life. In the rest of the world, the increasing trend is the plant eucalypts. They may be vulnerable in Australia, but elsewhere they are pretty much invulnerable. Eucalypts are very toxic, and nothing outside of Australia has evolved to eat them. The massive eucalyptus plantations in Brazil are supposed to counter CO2 increases, and maybe they do. But they also displace native forest, and the Brazilian forests are some of the most ecologically important in the world. The eucalypt forests aren%u2019t helping the environment - they are green deserts in which no native animals can live. Lets go for more productive genetically modified crops grown using (albeit energy intensive) hydroponics in enclosed multi-rise farm structures using abundant coal for power. This reduces land use, saves water, and gives higher and more guaranteed crops yields. The money saved and productivity gained from abandoning CO2 reduction could be used for pollution reduction from coal (not CO2, which is actually highly beneficial, but other emissions) and properly targeted environmental programs, and in particular native forest recovery. It%u2019s a harder slog to be effective, buts it better than the current feel-good but otherwise useless CO2 reduction efforts we are seeing now.

Pallywood of Sydney 4:06pm today
Hear Hear!! I wonder how long before the voice of reason will become the prevalent one.

JOHN of ADELAIDE 3:53pm today
at last someone with common sense not dribble

Thank You President Bush!

This has been flying under the radar. Read the MSNBC article and check the TruthOrFiction.com site. The TruthOrFiction version is shown below. This event is factual. I have an increased respect for President Bush. He has taken the heat of being called a liar and a war monger for 5 years while he kept his silence to protect the people of the world. This is truly a display of selfless honor.

On July 5, 2008, the Associated Press (AP) released a story titled: Secret U.S. Mission hauls uranium from Iraq. The opening paragraph is as follows:

The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. Operation that included a two week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

See anything wrong with this picture? We have been hearing from the far-left for more than five years how, Bush lied. Somehow, that slogan loses its credibility now that 550 metric tons of Saddam's yellowcake, used for nuclear weapon enrichment, has been discovered and shipped to Canada for its new use as nuclear energy.

It appears that American troops found the 550 metric tons of uranium in 2003 after invading Iraq. They had to sit on this information and the uranium itself, for fear of terrorists attempting to steal it. It was guarded and kept safe by our military in a 23,000-acre site with large sand beams surrounding the site.

This is vindication for the Bush administration, having been attacked mercilessly by the liberal media and the far-left pundits on the blogosphere. Now that it is proven that President Bush did not lie about Saddam's nuclear ambitions, one would think the mainstream media would report the story. Once the AP released the story, the mainstream media should have picked it up and broadcast it worldwide.

This never happened, due in large part I believe, to the fact that the mainstream media would have to admit they were wrong about Bush's war motives all along. Thankfully, the AP got it right when it said, "The removal of 550 metric tons of yellowcake the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy."

Closing the book on Saddam's nuclear legacy. Did Saddam have a nuclear legacy after all? I thought Bush lied. As it turns out, the people who lied were Joe Wilson and his wife.

Valerie Plame engaged in a clear case of nepotism and convinced the CIA to send her husband on a fact finding mission in February 2002, seeking to determine if Saddam Hussein attempted to buy yellowcake from Niger. The CIA and British intelligence believed Saddam contacted Niger for that purpose but needed proof.

During his trip to Niger, Wilson actually interviewed the former prime minister of Niger, Ibrahim Assane Mayaki. Mayaki told Wilson that in June of 1999, an Iraqi delegation expressed interest in 'expanding commercial relations' for the purposes of purchasing yellowcake.

Wilson chose to overlook Mayaki's remarks and reported to the CIA that there was no evidence of Hussein wanting to purchase yellowcake from Niger.

However, with British intelligence insisting the claim was true, President Bush used that same claim in his State of the Union address in January of 2003.

Outraged by Bush's insistence that the claim was true, Wilson wrote an op-Ed in the New York Times in the summer of 2003 slamming Bush.

Wilson did this in spite of the fact that Mayaki said Saddam did try to buy the yellowcake from Niger. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence disagreed with Wilson and supported Mayaki's claim. This meant nothing to Wilson who was opposed to the Iraq war and thus had ulterior motives in covering up the prime minister's statements.

It was a simple tactic really. If the far-left and their friends in the media could prove Bush lied about Hussein wanting to purchase yellowcake from Niger, it would undermine President Bush's credibility and give them more cause for asking what other lies he may have told.

Yet, the real lie came from Wilson, who interpreted his own meaning from the prime minister's statements and concluded all by himself that the claim of Saddam attempting to purchase yellowcake was 'unequivocally wrong.' Curiously, the CIA sat on this information and did not inform the CIA Director, who sided with Bush on the yellowcake claim. This was made public in a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report in July 2004.

Valerie Plame also engaged in her own lie campaign by spreading the notion that the Bush administration outed her as a CIA agent. Never mind that it was Richard Armitage — no friend of the Bush administration — who leaked Plame's identity to the press. Never mind that Plame had not been in the field as a CIA agent in some six years.

The truth is, due to their opposition to the war, Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, the mainstream media and their left-wing friends on the blogosphere engaged in a propaganda campaign to undermine the Bush administration. Now that Saddam's uranium has been made public and is no longer a threat to the world, do you think these aforementioned parties will apologize and admit they were wrong? Don't count on it. The rest of the American people should hear the truth about Saddam's uranium. It is up to you and me to inform them every chance we get.

As far as the anti-war crowd is concerned, the next time they say that, 'Bush lied,' we should tell them to, 'Have the yellowcake and eat it too.'

This story was verified, if you want to check it for yourself, click on the links below.

www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/u/uraniumyellowcake.htm

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25546334

www.snopes.com/politics/war/yellowcake.asp Note: Snopes is showing its far-far-left leanings with this.

Obviously, considering the narcissists involved, an apology will never come. However, entries like this one will forever reflect the fact that President Bush withstood the hate of the left for over eight years and kept many of those ungrateful Americans safe from terrorist attack since September 12th, 2001.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Planet Has Cooled Since Bush Took Office

Wow, all this news of global cooling!

‘Planet Has Cooled Since Bush Took Office’ – Scientists Continue Dissenting – Gore Admits 'I've failed badly' - Global Sea Ice GROWS!
November 20, 2008
Posted By Marc Morano – 5:35 PM – Marc_Morano@EPW.Senate.Gov
‘Planet Has Cooled Since Bush Took Office’ – Scientists Continue Dissenting – Gore Admits 'I've failed badly' - Global Sea Ice GROWS!
Global Warming Theory has ‘failed consistently and dramatically’
Read Part Two of this Report Here:

Washington DC - The bad news for global warming alarmists just keeps rolling in. Below is a very small sampling of very inconvenient developments for Gore, the United Nations, and the mainstream media. Peer-reviewed studies, analyses, and prominent scientists continue to speak out to refute climate fears. The majority of data presented below is from just the past few weeks. Also see: U.S. Senate Minority Report: “Over 400 Prominent Scientists (and rapidly growing) Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007” & ‘Consensus’ On Man-Made Global Warming Collapses in 2008 - July 18, 2008 & An August 2007 report detailed how proponents of man-made global warming fears enjoy a monumental funding advantage over skeptical scientists. LINK

Bush The Cooler: 'Planet has cooled since Bush took office' – November 12, 2008 Excerpt: On this symbolic date, it seems worthwhile to reflect that the planet has not only cooled since George W. Bush took office – pause and let the significance of that one sink in – but began to chill significantly at almost precisely the moment that we signed the Kyoto Protocol, exactly ten years ago today.

National Climatic Data Center: U.S. on track for coolest year since 1997- November 12, 2008
Excerpt: The calendar year isn't exactly over yet, but the people who watch such things --- namely the National Climatic Data Center --- are reporting that through its first 10 months 2008 is shaping up to be the coolest year in the United States since 1997.

‘The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled the World's Top Climate Scientists’ - By Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Roy W. Spencer, formerly a senior scientist for climate studies at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center where he received NASA's Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, and currently principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville) Excerpt: New papers Debunk Warming Fears: The first paper showed how none of 18 IPCC climate models, in over 1,000 years of global warming simulations, ever exhibits the negative feedback we have measured from global satellite data. The second paper revealed new satellite evidence that the Pacific Decadal Oscillation modulates the Earth's radiative balance by an amount that, when put into a simple climate model, can explain 75% of global warming over the 20th Century....including the slight cooling between 1940 and 1980. Since our previous publications have been basically censored by the news media, and I have now experienced scientific censorship (which I suppose was long overdue), I have decided to take my message to the people in a second book. In anticipation of trouble getting these papers published, I had already started the book awhile back...it is now about 80% finished, heavily illustrated. The working title is: The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled the World's Top Climate Scientists. My book agent is currently scouting for publishers.

UK Astrophysicist: Global Warming Theory has ‘failed consistently and dramatically’ - October 28, 2008 - By Astrophysicist Piers Corbyn, founder of the UK based long-term solar forecast group Weather Action and creator of the solar-particle based "Solar Weather Technique" of long range weather forecasting.
Excerpt: Global Warming is over and Global Warming Theory has failed. There is no evidence that CO2 drives world temperatures or any consequent Climate Change. According to Official data in every year since 1998 world Temperatures have been colder than that year yet CO2 has been rising rapidly. The rate of decline of world temperature has got more rapid since 2002; and Arctic ice has increased in the last year : ( Including maps of ice extent: Arctic ice increasing rapidly also see Increase by nearly a half million square miles) The UN IPCC predictions from 2000 have failed consistently and dramatically.

Global Sea Ice Growing at Fastest Pace on Record -- Returns to Levels from the 1980s – Daily Tech – November 7, 2008 Excerpt: An abnormally cool Arctic is seeing dramatic changes to ice levels. In sharp contrast to the rapid melting seen last year, the amount of global sea ice has rebounded sharply and is now growing rapidly. The total amount of ice, which set a record low value last year, grew in October at the fastest pace since record-keeping began in 1979.

Report: Global sea ice area: now same as in 1979! - 'Fastest move in the 30 year history' – November 6, 2008
Arctic Sea Ice Extent: In October 2008, Fastest Ever Growth
(Should we celebrate?) A Depression Would Reduce Carbon Emissions
Excerpt: So, why isn’t all the bad economic news openly embraced as positive news by those that advocate we urgently cut carbon dioxide emissions. Surely, if solutions to global warming are so pressing, the best thing that could possibly happen is a recession if not a depression?

Earth welcomes economic meltdown to stop global warming? – ‘May give the planet a breather from the excessively high CO2’ – October 7, 2008
Excerpt: (Reuters) - A slowdown in the world economy may give the planet a breather from the excessively high carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions responsible for climate change, a Nobel Prize winning scientist said on Tuesday.

Gore warns world may face civilization 'collapse' – November 19, 2008
Gore Excerpt: A new study suggests the Mayan civilization might have collapsed due to environmental disasters. […] As we move towards solving the climate crisis, we need to remember the consequences to civilizations that refused to take environmental concerns seriously.

Gore: U.S. needs 'emergency rescue of human civilization' from global warming – NY Times – November 9, 2008
‘We're not scared anymore Mr Gore!’ Declares New Book – ‘A Climate Change Story For Little Skeptics’ - A climate change parody by geologist Marc Hendrickx - November 11, 2008
Excerpt: Here’s a new climate change book for your Christmas reading: We’re not scared anymore Mr Gore. A climate change parody by geologist Marc Hendrickx. Download free copy here:

Gore laments global warming efforts: 'I've failed badly' - Washington Post – November 11, 2008 Excerpt: When asked about the goal of his movie "An Inconvenient Truth"--to wake people up to an approaching global, environmental crisis-Gore said "I think it's been a failure . . . I feel, in a sense, that I've failed badly."

Globally averaged temperatures have dropped -.37° F. since An Inconvenient Truth was released in 2006 – November 13, 2008
Excerpt: Bad news for Al Gore. Temperatures have gone down a total of .37° F. (or .205° C.) since An Inconvenient Truth was released at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2006. […] The weather/climate just hasn't cooperated with Gore and the IPCC's computer climate models. Remember, Gore said that CO2 drives temperature. It isn't happening folks.

Skeptical UK scientist mocks Gore's Nobel: 'There’s no accounting for human folly' – November 19, 2008 (By Physicist Freeman Dyson, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, is a fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the Royal Society of London.)
Excerpt: Mr. Dyson had an argument anyway with the scores of people (like Al Gore) who weren’t present to defend their belief in the dire consequences of global warming. (“There’s no accounting for human folly,” Mr. Dyson said when asked about Mr. Gore’s Nobel Prize.)

Earth has had “no statistically significant warming since 1995” – Based on March 2008 presentation of data from the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office by MIT Climate Scientist Dr. Richard Lindzen.

Global Warming Has Stopped – by UN IPCC Reviewer Christopher Monckton

Global Cooling? - 'Thirty years of warmer temperatures go poof' - National Post – October 20, 2008

Climate change momentum fading: Asia-Pacific survey – November 19, 2008
Excerpt: “You see the same shift in focus in the public away from climate change questions to questions of economic survival and growth," said Woo, president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

CO2 hysteria continues its slow death – November 20, 2008
Excerpt: at this week's summit of 21 Pacific Rim nations, global warming is barely on the agenda. In its place: the financial crisis. "The interest and focus on climate change has dissipated somewhat," said Woo Yuen Pau, CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

Prominent Geologist says ‘Global Cooling is Here’ -- Could ‘plunge Earth into another Little Ice Age!’ – November 2, 2008 – (By Geologist Dr. Don J. Easterbrook, Emeritus Professor at Western Washington University, who has authored eight books and 150 journal publications.)
Excerpt: Just how much cooler the global climate will be during this cool cycle is uncertain. Recent solar changes suggest that it could be fairly severe, perhaps more like the 1880 to 1915 cool cycle than the more moderate 1945-1977 cool cycle. A more drastic cooling, similar to that during the Dalton and Maunder minimums, could plunge the Earth into another Little Ice Age, but only time will tell if that is likely.

Canadian Climatologist predicts ‘at least a 23-year cycle of global cooling ahead!’ – November 16, 2008 – By Climatologist Cliff Harris of Long Range Weather - bio here.
Excerpt: These alternating natural climatic cycles defy the so-called "climate consensus" that human-emitted carbon dioxide was responsible totally for the recent cycle of global warming that began in the late 1970s and peaked in 1998.

Extensive global COOLING news round up on Biologist Jennifer Marohasy's website – October 31, 2008

Flashback: 'Global Warming Will Stop,' New Peer-Reviewed Study Says – April 30, 2008
Global warming predictions are overestimated, suggests Cornell study on black carbon – November 18, 2008
Excerpt: A detailed analysis of black carbon -- the residue of burned organic matter -- in computer climate models suggests that those models may be overestimating global warming predictions. A new Cornell study, published online in Nature Geosciences, quantified the amount of black carbon in Australian soils and found that there was far more than expected, said Johannes Lehmann, the paper's lead author and a Cornell professor of biogeochemistry. The survey was the largest of black carbon ever published. […] The findings are significant because soils are by far the world's largest source of carbon dioxide, producing 10 times more carbon dioxide each year than all the carbon dioxide emissions from human activities combined. Small changes in how carbon emissions from soils are estimated, therefore, can have a large impact. […] "But this particular aspect, black carbon's stability in soil, if incorporated in climate models, would actually decrease climate predictions."

'Life-long liberal Democrat' Meteorologist rejects 'fear mongering clap-trap about human-caused global warming' - By Dr. Martin Hertzberg, a retired Navy meteorologist with a PhD in physical chemistry - Excerpt: As a scientist and life-long liberal Democrat, I find the constant regurgitation of the anecdotal, fear mongering clap-trap about human-caused global warming to be a disservice to science, to your readers, and to the quality of the political dialogue leading up to the election. […] The global warming alarmists don't even bother with data! All they have are half-baked computer models that are totally out of touch with reality and have already been proven to be false.

Another Dissenter: Award-Winning NASA Astronaut and Moonwalker - Jack Schmitt says 'global warming scare being used as a political tool' – November 17, 2008 – (Award-winning NASA astronaut/geologist Dr. Harrison H. “Jack” Schmitt – Bio here. ) Excerpt: The Planetary Society (TPS) Climate Statement: “accelerating research into global climate change through more comprehensive Earth observations.” Schmitt’s response: As a geologist, I love Earth observations. But, it is ridiculous to tie this objective to a "consensus" that humans are causing global warming in when human experience, geologic data and history, and current cooling can argue otherwise. "Consensus", as many have said, merely represents the absence of definitive science. You know as well as I, the "global warming scare" is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making. It has no place in the Society's activities. See also here.

Ski Paradise: ‘Snow-vember’ Sees Ski Resorts Open Early Around The World – November 17, 2008
Excerpt: ‘Snow-vember’ Sees Ski Resorts Open Early Around The World Skiinfo.com, is reporting bumper pre-season snow across the northern hemisphere with the Alps, Pyrenees, Scandinavia and the Rockies all receiving huge early snow falls that have brought wonderful powder snow conditions for skiers and boarders on the glacier ski areas that were already open, and led to an increasing number of resorts in Canada, Italy, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the US to open up to a month earlier than planned
South African Scientist Warns of ‘Interference’ By ‘Old Colonial Powers’ – ‘WWF and Greenpeace are not welcome in this country’ – Exposes ‘Climate Alarmism’ November 14, 2008
By Professor Dr. William J.R. Alexander, Emeritus of the Department of Civil and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Pretoria in South Africa and a former member of the United Nations Scientific and Technical Committee on Natural Disasters. Excerpt: Have you not noticed the growing opposition by African countries to interference in our affairs by the old colonial powers? […] The WWF and Greenpeace are not welcome in this country. Nor are the activities of their South African lackeys. […] Your vigorous pro-environmental, anti-social actions will soon be seen as pressures by a small, affluent white community who have no concern at all for South Africa’s large and growing, economically disadvantaged black communities. […] Many thanks for all those emails urging me to continue exposing this whole climate alarmism issue for what it is.

Africa to pay for Europe's "green policies"
Excerpt: Campaigns to buy locally produced food and travel to local destinations particularly hit out against African products. Consumers in Europe are again growing more environmentally conscious and are willing to use their purchasing power to assist in what is widely seen as our era's most pressing problems - the overspending of energy and global warming. Meanwhile, European politicians have been those pressuring strongest to gain support for the Kyoto Protocol while having totally failed to lower emissions of climate gases in their own countries. In every country, emissions have steadily increased.

Another Dissenter: Atmospheric Scientist says ‘growing number of scientists’ are skeptical of warming fears! – November 20, 2008
Dr. James Koermer, a meteorology professor at Plymouth State University presentation it titled “Inconvenient Science." Excerpt: Kevin McGuire, a fellow professor at PSU, said Koermer's presentation was "very well done." "I agree that there are a lot of uncertainties," McGuire said about the causes and nature of global climate change. […] During a presentation at the university on Wednesday, Koermer explained why there are a growing number scientists, such as himself, who don't subscribe to the popular theory on global warming. […]Koermer said just because he doesn't think man-made carbon dioxide is contributing significantly to climate change, it does not mean he is opposed to the increased use of renewable fuel sources. […] "Over millions of years there have been periods when we have been hotter than we are today," Koermer said. He added that while humans do have an impact on the climate, it is minimal compared to natural phenomena. He also said that humans are not the biggest producers of carbon dioxide and that the gas is not the most abundant green house gas in the atmosphere. That title goes to water vapor, which is produced by the world's oceans.

Another Dissenter: Astrophysicist says put IPCC reports ‘in the trash!’ – - November 20, 2008
"What I'd do with the IPCC report is to put it in the trash can because that's all it's worth," said Dennis Hollars, who holds a doctorate in astrophysics from New Mexico State University. […] Hollars, meanwhile, claimed that carbon dioxide was an insignificant component of the earth's atmosphere and that, rather than being the purveyor of doom it is currently viewed as today, it is needed in order for plants to grow.

Another Dissenter: Meteorologist Declares ‘CO2 has never led to an increase in temperature’ - November 20, 2008
Excerpt: “One of the central arguments of the side arguing that global warming is a natural occurrence was that temperatures were driving the increase in carbon dioxide, rather than the commonly accepted reverse. "CO2 has never led to an increase in temperature, based on historical record," said Robert Cohen, a certified consulting meteorologist.

Scientist rejects UN climate fears as 'simplistic, superficial, and now proven wrong' - November 19, 2008
(By Dr. Dr Jim Sprott, OBE, MSc, PhD, FNZIC, a consulting chemist and forensic scientist of Auckland.)
Excerpt: “The projections of the IPCC are simplistic, superficial, and now proven wrong. The whole issue requires a fresh start, based on the mass of irrefutable data which has been assembled.”

'Record inactivity' -- 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season 'lowest in 30-years'
Arctic sea ice extent now GREATER than in 2002
UN IPCC Scientist Ridicules Global Warming Linked National Security Fears
Another Dissenter: 'I am unconvinced' about man-made warming - Australian long-range weather forecaster Haydon Walker - November 2, 2008 More info no Walker here: http://www.worldweather.com.au%20/
Researchers find arctic may have had less ice 6000-7000 years ago
Excerpt: Recent mapping of a number of raised beach ridges on the north coast of Greenland suggests that the ice cover in the Arctic Ocean was greatly reduced some 6000-7000 years ago. The Arctic Ocean may have been periodically ice free.

For full report on Arctic ice see this report: Scientists Counter Latest Arctic 'Record' Warmth Claims as 'Pseudoscience’ – Comprehensive Arctic Data Round Up – October 17, 2008
Atmospheric Scientist Dr. John Christy disputes new Antarctic claims - 'Climate models just don't have the variability that nature provides' – Disputes Antarctic and Arctic Melt Fears – October 30, 2008 Excerpt:. John Christy, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Alabama, has done studies on climate models and says they are extremely limited tools in trying to mimic what happens in nature. He said they are unable to reproduce all of the naturally occurring influences and, as a result, give a false picture of what might be causing changes in the environment. […] "Just 1,000 years ago the Arctic was much warmer than it is today so it's interesting that they would use the term conclusively," he said. "Natural variability can account for warming since the Arctic has been warmer before."


Why the EPA should find against “Endangerment” – November 19, 2008
Excerpt: The IPCC’s AR4 was published in the spring of 2007, but to meet the deadline for inclusion in the AR4, scientific papers had to be published by late 2005/early 2006. So, in the rapidly evolving field of climate change, by grounding its TSD in the IPCC AR4 the EPA is largely relying on scientific findings that are, by late 2008, nearly 3 years out of date. And a lot has happened in those intervening three years. • Global temperatures have declined…

Physicist predicts man-made global warming fear bubble to burst in 2008 – November 16, 2008 - Dr. Thomas P. Sheahen, an MIT educated physicist, author of the book An Introduction to High-Temperature Superconductivity, and writer of the popular newspaper column "Ask the Everyday Scientist."

UK Scientist: – ‘Climate change is governed by hundreds of factors, or variables’ Not Just CO2!
By UK Professor Emeritus of Biogeography Philip Stott of the University of London - Excerpt: As I have said, over and over again, the fundamental point has always been this: climate change is governed by hundreds of factors, or variables, and the very idea that we can manage climate change predictably by understanding and manipulating at the margins one politically-selected factor is as misguided as it gets.

Oops! Propagandists at RealClimate.org Let Truth Slip Out! – ‘The actual temperature rise is an emergent property resulting from interactions among hundreds of factors’ – September 20, 2008

Professor Roger Pielke Jr. Smacks down activists at RealClimate.org Again! Cooling consistent with warming?
Excerpt: The exercise also provides some insight into how this branch of the climate science community defines the concept of consistency between models and observations, and why it is that every observation seems to be, in their eyes, "consistent with" model predictions. This post explains why Real Climate is wrong in their conclusions on falsification and the why it is that two decades of cooling can be defined as "consistent with" predictions of warming.

We can't think of any other cause, it must be us = 'Prehistoric civilisation' blaming thunderstorms on upset gods - October 31, 2008
Excerpt: 'We can't think of any other cause, it must be us' - This is the depth to which scientific research into climate change has sunk, like a kind of prehistoric civilisation that blames thunderstorms, earthquakes and volcanoes on humanity somehow having "upset the gods". A Canadian study has concluded that we must be causing climate change because nothing else can explain it.

Global Cooling Caused by Warming? Global Cooling ‘may indeed be a consequence of the increasing atmospheric murkiness caused by warming’ - Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog – November 20, 2008 - Excerpt: Lawyers Weekly Online: It seems almost impossible that, whatever the debate about the causes of global warming, some people simply refuse to believe that any appreciable change outside normal climatic cycles is actually happening: some even say we are headed for a period of global cooling – which may indeed be a consequence of the increasing atmospheric murkiness caused by warming, but which encourages a way of thinking that fails to address our need to do something about the warming phase if we’d like to see life on Earth remain more or less as it is now.

UN IPCC = 'Worst case of scientific malpractice in history' says Climate Scientist Dr. Spencer[ Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Roy W. Spencer, formerly a senior scientist for climate studies at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center where he received NASA's Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, is currently principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. ] Spencer Excerpt: I find it astounding that the IPCC has ignored the potential role of natural climate variability in global warming. In any other realm of science we are careful to look for alternative explanations for some phenomenon…but today, mankind is the only allowable reason for climate change. I predict that the IPCC experience will end up being the worst case of scientific malpractice in history.

MIT Climate Scientist Exposes ‘Corrupted Science’ in Devastating Critique - Sep 24, 2008
Excerpt: MIT Meteorology Professor Richard S. Lindzen, confirms how Al Gore and his minions used Stalinist tactics to subvert, suborn and corrupt a whole branch of science, citing chapter and verse in his report entitled “Climate Science: Is it currently designed to answer questions?” His answer: A resounding “NO!” Full Lindzen paper here:

Brazilian Meteorologist Scoffs at Notion Mankind impacts climate more than Sun and Oceans - Brazilian meteorologist Eugenio Hackbart
Excerpt: So, given that August was the first month since 1913 in which no sunspot activity was recorded -- none -- and during which solar winds were at a 50-year low, he was not surprised that Brazilians were suffering (for them) a brutal cold snap. "This is no coincidence," he said as he scoffed at the notion that manmade carbon emissions had more impact than the sun and oceans on global climate.

UK scientist: ‘Green’ totalitarianism promotes 1984 style tactics - By Philip Stott, emeritus professor of biogeography, University of London.
Excerpt: The second tactic has been to try to manufacture, in the style of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1947), an all-encompassing external threat against which there must be perpetual war. The prime example of this is ‘global warming’, which has been likened in gravity to the Great World Wars. Such a perpetual threat demands the downplaying of democracy, the legitimising of ‘Green’ totalitarianism, the destruction of markets, and the establishment of Ministries of Truth.

Skeptical Physicist Freeman Dyson: 'When science gets rich it becomes political' – November 19, 2008
Canadian scientist: ‘Scientific assumptions underlying Kyoto are false!’ - 'A revolution in climate change science' since Kyoto – November 18, 2008 (By Paleoclimatologist Tim Patterson, professor in the department of Earth Sciences at Carleton University in Ottawa) Excerpt: In the eight years since the Kyoto Protocol was first introduced, there has been a revolution in climate change science. What we have learned is that many of the scientific assumptions underlying Kyoto are false. Climate is not naturally constant and global warming is not evidence of human interference,” he insists. “Climate change, including global warming and cooling, is perfectly normal.” Patterson contends that the sun is the reason why the 20th century has experienced some of the hottest temperatures in recent history. “My own research shows that, on all time scales, there is a very good correlation between the Earth’s temperature and natural celestial phenomena, such as changes in the brightness of the sun. The fact that the sun is now brighter than it has been in 8,000 years should have a major impact on climate.” Patterson is not alone in his claims. In fact, a large number of scientists from around the world agree that anthropogenic (human) activity is not the cause of global warming.

'Fixing' global warming called 'another meaningless promise' – Edmonton Sun – November 13, 2008
Excerpt: it's time to start thinking of "fixing" global warming the same way we do "ending" child poverty. Or "settling" native land claims. Or “shortening" medical wait times. Like these other issues, "fixing" global warming has become yet another meaningless promise that all politicians of all stripes will be paying lip service to in perpetuity. One they will spend billions of our dollars "fixing" year after year.

Australian geologist: Climate theory 'like Y2K scam' – November 7, 2008 – (By Prize-wining Geologist Dr. Ian Plimer, a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Adelaide in Australia.) Excerpt: The Federal Government's emissions trading scheme has been likened to the ''Y2K scam'' by climate change sceptic Professor Ian Plimer. […] The number of hurricanes around the world was now decreasing, he said. Sea ice in western Antarctica was ''a little bit unstable'' while sea ice on the east of the continent was ''getting bigger''. ''The continent of Antarctica is actually rising.'' Well-known active volcanoes were sitting under Antarctica and ''pumping out exceptionally hot air''. Carbon dioxide levels had been ''very much higher in the past'' and the world was at one of the lowest levels of CO2 in history. ''Most of the emissions come from natural sources, and most of the emissions we don't even put into our calculations.'' Sea levels had risen 130m over the past 14,000 years, or 1cm per year, far from doomsday scenarios, he said. AAP

UK SCIENTIST: 'BBC SHUNNED ME FOR DENYING CLIMATE CHANGE' – Says Warming Science has ‘Gone Awry’ - November 5 , 2008 – UK Daily Express
Excerpt: respected botanist and the author of 35 books, he had presented around 400 programmes over the years and was appreciated by audiences for his boundless enthusiasm. Yet for more than 10 years he has been out of the limelight, shunned by bosses at the BBC where he made his name, as well as fellow scientists and environmentalists. His crime? Bellamy says he doesn’t believe in man-made global warming. […] And my opinion is that there is absolutely no proof that carbon dioxide is anything to do with any impending catastrophe. The science has, quite simply, gone awry. In fact, it’s not even science any more, it’s anti-science. There’s no proof, it’s just projections and if you look at the models people such as Gore use, you can see they cherry pick the ones that support their beliefs.

Study finds Greenland Ice Melt 'Slowed Significantly' – WorldClimateReport.com – November 14, 2008
Excerpt: Despite all the talk about moulins, melting, rapid acceleration of ice, van der Wal et al. reveal that the ice movement in western Greenland over the past 17 years has … slowed significantly. […] But when we examine this article, we are most impressed with the results over the 17-year period and the lack of support for the notion that somehow the velocity of ice is increasing during a time of greenhouse gas build-up!

Greenland ice cap 'uncertainty makes future predictions almost meaningless' - -
Flashback: Latest Scientific Studies Refute Fears of Greenland Melt – July 2007 – ‘Greenland has cooled since the 1930's and 1940's’
Aussie Scientist: Human-caused global warming fears are 'heavily biased propaganda' – October 2008 - (By Atmospheric scientist William Kininmonth is the former head of Australia’s National Climate Centre. He was an Australian representative and consultant to the World Meteorological Organization on climate issues and is the author of Climate Change: A Natural Hazard.
Excerpt: In spite of claims to the contrary, there is no consensus of scientists supporting the findings and recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. There exists a large and vocal group of highly qualified dissenters (often denigrated as sceptics, deniers or worse). In the absence of computer models there would be little credence given to the view that the relatively small warming of the second half of the twentieth century was due to carbon dioxide emissions; there would certainly be no credence given to the possibility of irreversible runaway global warming over the coming century. […] The likely magnitude of human-caused global warming is so low that it will not be discernible against the background of natural variability in the climate record.

Video of late great Dr. Reid Bryson on CNBC TV - You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling CO2’
Excerpt: See this 5-minute video of late great Dr. Reid Bryson on CNBC TV - 'You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling CO2' Atmospheric Scientist Bryson's last TV appearance in December 2007. Bryson is a guest on CNBC with host Joe Kernen He died in June 12, 2008 at the age of 88. This clip shows he was lucid and persuasive right until the end of his life. Some of his colleagues tried to diminish Bryson’s skepticism, ... but as you can see from video clip, Bryson was no believer in man-made warming fears. One of the "Fathers of Meteorology," Dr. Bryson, was the founding chairman of the Department of Meteorology at University of Wisconsin (now the Department of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences.

Meteorologist says ‘don’t believe it’ to claims that October was 2nd Warmest – November 18, 2008
Excerpt: This is not surprising as NOAA has become the biggest outlier in recent months. They have thanks to Tom Peterson and Tom Karl a global data base that is worth nothing. There is little or no adjustment for urbanization, land use changes, no adjustment for bad station siting (69% of the 560 US climate stations surveyed by Anthony Watts team of volunteers were poor or very poorly sited), 2/3rds of the stations globally dropped out around 1990, the number of missing months increased tenfold in the FSU and Africa after 1990, and changes in instrumentation like here in the US that Tom Karl himself found produced a warm bias of 0.5F. Not less than 6 peer review studies have shown these issues may account for up to 50% of the warming since 1900. Trust only the satellite. In fact, this October was the 10th warmest of the 30 years of data for the MSU satellite according to UAH with only a 0.167C (0.3F) anomaly instead of the 1.1F (2nd warmest out of 129 years) as per NOAA. Unfortunately satellite data extends only back to 1979.

Australian Scientist Calls Warming Fears ‘self-delusion on a grand scale’ – By Paleoclimate scientist Dr. Bob Carter of Australia's James Cook University and former chairman of the earth science panel of the Australian Research Council, who has published numerous peer-reviewed papers. Also see Carter's November 2008 paper: “The Futile Quest for Climate Control.”
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READ PART TWO OF THIS News ROUND UP
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# # #

Global cooling news

Poor whales suffer because of Global Cooling, yet the dummies keep telling us that we are causing warming.

Canadian hunters in a remote Arctic community have started killing a large number of narwhals — small, white whales best known for their long tusks — that are trapped by ice, a federal official said on Friday.
The whales — which number between 100 and 200 — are stuck near Bylot Island, close to the tiny town
of Pond Inlet on the northern end of Baffin Island. The nearest open water is 30
miles away.
The narwhals are now breathing through small cracks in the ice and face a slow death.

Murtha: we will bailout no matter what you think!

In other words, even though 70% of the people don't want a bailout of companies stupid enough to not negotiate UAW contracts, and even though the average salary of the UAW workers is $130,000 a year, we're going to bail them out anyway, after a slight delay, because you lamebrain voters keep voting for us anyway, not matter what we do!

---

Dear Congressman Murtha:
I would urge you to try to roll back this bailout. As we can see it was ill planned, and isn't working. Now everyone wants a piece of the pie, even the auto industry and cities like Philadelphia. Government is already too big and bloated. I urge you to find a way to reign in Treasurer Paulsen.
Thanks for your consideration

---

Dear Constituent:

I appreciate your input regarding proposed legislation to provide a bridge loan to the American automobile industry. While I recognize that such legislation may be unpopular, Congress must do what is in the best interest of the American people and our country.

Congress has decided not to proceed with legislation at this point. Instead, leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate have asked General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler to submit reports to the House and Senate banking committees by December 2. These reports must prove that the companies are able to remain viable, are able to repay the government loans, and will not ask the government for any additional money. After the reports are given to Congress, the House and Senate banking committees will hold hearings on the matter.

Again, I appreciate your contacting me and I encourage you to keep in touch as we see further development on this issue.

Sincerely,
JOHN P. MURTHA
YOUR CONGRESSMAN

UCLA: FDR's policies prolonged Depression by 7 years

From UCLA. This is why we don't care for Obama's NEW New Deal.

FDR's policies prolonged Depression by 7 years, UCLA economists calculate
By Meg Sullivan | 8/10/2004 12:23:12 PM

Two UCLA economists say they have figured out why the Great Depression dragged on for almost 15 years, and they blame a suspect previously thought to be beyond reproach: President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

After scrutinizing Roosevelt's record for four years, Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian conclude in a new study that New Deal policies signed into law 71 years ago thwarted economic recovery for seven long years.

"Why the Great Depression lasted so long has always been a great mystery, and because we never really knew the reason, we have always worried whether we would have another 10- to 15-year economic slump," said Ohanian, vice chair of UCLA's Department of Economics. "We found that a relapse isn't likely unless lawmakers gum up a recovery with ill-conceived stimulus policies."

In an article in the August issue of the Journal of Political Economy, Ohanian and Cole blame specific anti-competition and pro-labor measures that Roosevelt promoted and signed into law June 16, 1933.

"President Roosevelt believed that excessive competition was responsible for the Depression by reducing prices and wages, and by extension reducing employment and demand for goods and services," said Cole, also a UCLA professor of economics. "So he came up with a recovery package that would be unimaginable today, allowing businesses in every industry to collude without the threat of antitrust prosecution and workers to demand salaries about 25 percent above where they ought to have been, given market forces. The economy was poised for a beautiful recovery, but that recovery was stalled by these misguided policies."

Using data collected in 1929 by the Conference Board and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Cole and Ohanian were able to establish average wages and prices across a range of industries just prior to the Depression. By adjusting for annual increases in productivity, they were able to use the 1929 benchmark to figure out what prices and wages would have been during every year of the Depression had Roosevelt's policies not gone into effect. They then compared those figures with actual prices and wages as reflected in the Conference Board data.

In the three years following the implementation of Roosevelt's policies, wages in 11 key industries averaged 25 percent higher than they otherwise would have done, the economists calculate. But unemployment was also 25 percent higher than it should have been, given gains in productivity.

Meanwhile, prices across 19 industries averaged 23 percent above where they should have been, given the state of the economy. With goods and services that much harder for consumers to afford, demand stalled and the gross national product floundered at 27 percent below where it otherwise might have been.

"High wages and high prices in an economic slump run contrary to everything we know about market forces in economic downturns," Ohanian said. "As we've seen in the past several years, salaries and prices fall when unemployment is high. By artificially inflating both, the New Deal policies short-circuited the market's self-correcting forces."

The policies were contained in the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), which exempted industries from antitrust prosecution if they agreed to enter into collective bargaining agreements that significantly raised wages. Because protection from antitrust prosecution all but ensured higher prices for goods and services, a wide range of industries took the bait, Cole and Ohanian found. By 1934 more than 500 industries, which accounted for nearly 80 percent of private, non-agricultural employment, had entered into the collective bargaining agreements called for under NIRA.

Cole and Ohanian calculate that NIRA and its aftermath account for 60 percent of the weak recovery. Without the policies, they contend that the Depression would have ended in 1936 instead of the year when they believe the slump actually ended: 1943.

Roosevelt's role in lifting the nation out of the Great Depression has been so revered that Time magazine readers cited it in 1999 when naming him the 20th century's second-most influential figure.

"This is exciting and valuable research," said Robert E. Lucas Jr., the 1995 Nobel Laureate in economics, and the John Dewey Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. "The prevention and cure of depressions is a central mission of macroeconomics, and if we can't understand what happened in the 1930s, how can we be sure it won't happen again?"

NIRA's role in prolonging the Depression has not been more closely scrutinized because the Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional within two years of its passage.

"Historians have assumed that the policies didn't have an impact because they were too short-lived, but the proof is in the pudding," Ohanian said. "We show that they really did artificially inflate wages and prices."

Even after being deemed unconstitutional, Roosevelt's anti-competition policies persisted — albeit under a different guise, the scholars found. Ohanian and Cole painstakingly documented the extent to which the Roosevelt administration looked the other way as industries once protected by NIRA continued to engage in price-fixing practices for four more years.

The number of antitrust cases brought by the Department of Justice fell from an average of 12.5 cases per year during the 1920s to an average of 6.5 cases per year from 1935 to 1938, the scholars found. Collusion had become so widespread that one Department of Interior official complained of receiving identical bids from a protected industry (steel) on 257 different occasions between mid-1935 and mid-1936. The bids were not only identical but also 50 percent higher than foreign steel prices. Without competition, wholesale prices remained inflated, averaging 14 percent higher than they would have been without the troublesome practices, the UCLA economists calculate.

NIRA's labor provisions, meanwhile, were strengthened in the National Relations Act, signed into law in 1935. As union membership doubled, so did labor's bargaining power, rising from 14 million strike days in 1936 to about 28 million in 1937. By 1939 wages in protected industries remained 24 percent to 33 percent above where they should have been, based on 1929 figures, Cole and Ohanian calculate. Unemployment persisted. By 1939 the U.S. unemployment rate was 17.2 percent, down somewhat from its 1933 peak of 24.9 percent but still remarkably high. By comparison, in May 2003, the unemployment rate of 6.1 percent was the highest in nine years.

Recovery came only after the Department of Justice dramatically stepped enforcement of antitrust cases nearly four-fold and organized labor suffered a string of setbacks, the economists found.

"The fact that the Depression dragged on for years convinced generations of economists and policy-makers that capitalism could not be trusted to recover from depressions and that significant government intervention was required to achieve good outcomes," Cole said. "Ironically, our work shows that the recovery would have been very rapid had the government not intervened."

-UCLA-

LSMS368

Globalony promises from Obama

he he, more pledges that can't be kept.

Obama Out-Gores Gore at Climate Summit
By Marc Sheppard
Barack Obama managed to say all the wrong things at this week's Governors Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles -- without even showing up. The President-elect appeared to the green faithful on Tuesday in the form of a mammoth video image, and opened his pre-recorded pledge to "take the lead" in addressing global warming with these eerily familiar words:

"Few challenges facing America -- and the world -- are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. We've seen record drought, spreading famine and storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season."

Now from whom have we heard such an arrogant concentration of misinformed alarmist hokum before? Of course - the man that Obama promised "will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem." The Delphic Goracle himself.

And just as we have been compelled to do with the teacher, so must we with the heir apparent student. Let's dissect this opening bit of twaddle.

"Few challenges facing America -- and the world -- are more urgent than combating climate change"

Stop right there! Waging a Don Quixote style battle against the very forces of nature trumps all but a few challenges? Do these happen to include the immediate issue of collapsing international markets and their very real potential to spark a worldwide depression? Or assuring the denial of weapons of mass destruction to terrorists and rogue nations? Or evading the strangle hold our dependency on oil allows those same factions and governments to leverage over us? Or our deteriorating confidence in the safe stewardship of a nuclear weapons arsenal already in the hands of an Islamic State of dubious intent and political cohesion? Or the successful outcomes of wars currently waging in Iraq and Afghanistan? Or resolving our increasingly tenuous relationship with Russia? Or the "poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan [that] could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris" Obama himself spoke of in his July "fellow citizen of the world" speech in Berlin?

Or, for that matter, any of countless bona fide and resolvable dangers the planet actually faces in the immediate future?

"The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear"

Of course, no science is beyond dispute. Furthermore, one in its infancy, as is climatology, literally depends upon disagreement to light its path to maturity. And considering the thousands of media-ignored-or-demeaned scientists disputing AGW dogma each and every day, Obama diminishes any credibility he might have on the subject by uttering words lifted directly from Gore's devious playbook.

He is, on the other hand, quite correct in stating that the facts are clear. Although, not as he sees them. To name but a few of contextual note:

• Warming stopped in 1998 and the planet has been cooling for over a year now while atmospheric CO2 levels continue to rise. In fact, the 2009 Old Farmer's Almanac includes an article by IceCap editor Joe D'Aleo making the case in its subtitle that "Some scientists believe that an extreme cooling episode, potentially a mini-ice age, is imminent. Others think that it may already be under way."
• Over long time periods, global temperature anomalies appear correlative not to CO2 levels, but rather a combination of natural forces -- particularly solar activity and sea surface temperatures.
• Bad Supreme Court decisions notwithstanding, CO2 is not a pollutant but a gas as essential to the flora as O2 is to us fauna.
• Global climate has always and will always change -- independent of the actions of man.
• Policy makers would do well to realize that entities such as the IPCC - from which their "scientific" beliefs emanate -- are commissioned to deal exclusively with human influence on the climate and have no motivation to find any natural explanations.

Meanwhile, as falling temperatures continue to topple their AGW house of cards along with public acceptance of furthering existing economic anxieties by adding fruitless green-burdens, it's the alarmists that deny the facts. Just last month, IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri told a large group at NSW University that "we're at a stage where warming is taking place at a much faster rate [than before]". And at a Brussels Climate Conference just last week, Johan Rockström, executive director of the Stockholm Environment Institute, took it a step further, warning that "the world is in even ‘more dire straits' than the worst predictions set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC)." Imagine the audacity of such hopelessness.

Sorry, Mr. President-elect, but the science is in active dispute and your side is working overtime to maintain cloud-cover over the facts.

"Sea levels are rising."

Yawn.

Sea levels have been rising at varying rates since the end of the last ice age -- over 10,000 years ago. And, despite Monday's proclamation by NBC's Meredith Vieira that "if [Icelandic glaciers] were to melt, the oceans could rise at least 200 feet," and Al Gore's map-redrawing 20 feet by the year 2100, the worst case scenario of the equally alarmist IPCC is less than 3 feet.

Even if true -- Somehow an atomic Iran seems the more imminent threat.

"Coastlines are shrinking."

When Obama dropped this idiom in Berlin, it was meant to be synonymous with "rising sea levels." Now, I like effect as much as the next fellow, but if our next president intentionally used redundant expressions merely as a scare tactic, then I'm going to cry foul and count them individually nonetheless. If, on the other hand, these were separate observations, then Obama must be referring to beach erosion, which has a multitude of non-AGW causes, chiefly storms, which we'll address later.

"We've seen record drought, spreading famine"

Record drought? Where? Certainly not here. Even the media-hyped June 2008 U.S. Climate Change Science Program assessment report disagreed with that propaganda:

"Averaged over the continental U.S. and southern Canada the most severe droughts occurred in the 1930s and there is no indication of an overall trend in the observational record, which dates back to 1895."

And what's this about spreading famine? Where? Yes, there have been scare-stories of future warming-induced famine in Africa, Philippines and other areas rich in poverty photo-op potential. But as none has materialized yet, no one not blessed with precognitive vision has ever "seen" it.

In any event, there have also been predictions of crops becoming more bountiful during longer growing seasons of warmer (and even carbon rich) air and increased rainfall. In fact, according to a peer-reviewed report in Quaternary Science Reviews, floods, storms, droughts and famines are more frequently associated with cold periods than warm periods. That's right, it just might turn out that global warming is a good thing.

Nice try, Barack. And now, speaking of storms, you said:

"Storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season."

Assuming he's referring to North Atlantic hurricanes, he's all wet once again. Obama has likely heard alarmists use estimated property damage costs to conclude that we're about to close the second most destructive season on record. But applying instead the widely accepted Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) metric - an amalgam of storm frequency, intensity, and duration -- paints a different picture entirely. This chart from the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies shows 2008 to be, indeed, above average, but the 10^th highest since 1978, not the 2^nd. And between it and the worst year ever -- 2005, which included Katrina and 6 other major hurricanes -- sat 2 extremely quiet years.

Bottom line: As clearly depicted by the COAPS's up and down annual trends, storms most definitely are not growing stronger with each passing hurricane system.

Wrong as Gore - But Possessing Perilous Power and Personality

In all, it took Obama but 50 words to craft 8 material mistruths and misrepresentations. At just over 6 average words per green lie (AWPGL), the brilliant orator displayed a bravo sierra talent almost twice that of the reigning King of greenhouse gasbags himself. Indeed, during Gore's Deceptive Rolling Stone Interview, the hitherto undisputed Globaloney Champion of the World managed a paltry 5 deceptions and took 58 words to squeeze them out, for an AWPGL of nearly 12.

But Obama's out-Goring Gore transcends dishing underhanded hyperbole.

During Tuesday's sermon on the mounted flat-panel, Obama promised that his presidency "will mark a new chapter in America's leadership on climate change," starting with a federal cap and trade system:

"We will establish strong annual targets that set us on a course to reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80 percent by 2050."

And those Kyotoesque words aroused much rejoicing.

But the green fable of Obama as eco-savior is based largely on the lie that it was George Bush who blocked American Kyoto compliance. Non Obama-bots (nee Gore-bots) know damned well it was the Senate that unanimously rejected the accord back in 1997 for fear of its adverse impact on our economy and CO2 abatement futility in its exemption of China and India. And that was during what Democrats are quick to point out were prosperous times.

These, of course, are not. And a majority of Kyoto-abiding nations, including Japan, Italy and Australia, are still releasing so much more "greenhouse-gas pollution" than they agreed to that they face a combined 36 billion euros ($46 billion) in penalties. Japan's emissions reached record levels of 1.37 billion tons in 2007 -- 8 percent above 1990 target levels and 15 percent above last year's national reduction target. It seems all but impossible that even Kyoto's host country, which ratified over 6 years ago, will even approach its 2012 goals.

Australia is facing similar problems, where leaders fear the country's emissions trading scheme (ETS) will push industry overseas. In England, EU anti-pollution directives demanding one third of all electricity be generated from wind turbines and other renewables by 2020 and austere green taxes are destroying the country's ability to meet energy demands. As with their Aussie allies, an uncertain green tax future is causing companies to flee the island in droves. Other EU nations are revolting, demanding developing states like China and India "contribute adequately" to emissions reduction - a demand that cannot possibly be met, given their booming economies and consequent unquenchable thirst for energy.

In short, Obama promised his flock he'd leverage the Democrats' majority in both houses to inflict policies -- which Congress kiboshed in June and have proven disastrously ineffectual on every level in every country -- upon an economy in the most precarious state of his lifetime. To the loud cheers of simple drones who thought they had died and gone to green-heaven, the new Green Messiah promised immediate rapture:

"Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response."

Wrong again. Were there a genuine long-term threat, now would be the worst time imaginable to address it; delay would be our only viable option. And it is the alarmists and their obedient minions who remain in denial, many of whom truly believe drastic and immediate measures our only hope to save a planet not in peril. Obama's sermon climaxed:

"The stakes are too high. The consequences -- too serious."

On the surface, the beloved next leader of the free world espouses unequivocally fallacious ideas toward both the problem and its solutions. Given his glaring facility for subterfuge, we can only hope that deep down -- he's no more serious than the consequences he preaches.

Particularly about the timing.

remastered versions of Star Trek

An idea for Christmas: The remastered versions of Star Trek!

The remastered versions of the original (and superior) series look like a real winner.

Are you an idiot to keep paying your mortgage?

Why the C.R.A. was doomed to someday fail... Good intentions from liberals should be a red flag. It should be a flag to run for your life, because we're all screwed. The road to hell is paved by good intentions.

Capitalism and small government works much better than liberals and their good intentions. It just works. Greed has its purpose. Working for money is its own incentive. We all work, we all gain, it's a win-win.

Government, when it is too big, is a lose-lose.

Are you an idiot to keep paying your mortgage?

Kathleen Pender

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Should you keep paying your mortgage?

If you have significant equity in your home, absolutely.


If you don't, it's getting harder to answer that question, especially when our government keeps giving people who owe more than their homes are worth so many reasons not to pay.

Last week, the government announced a program that will substantially lower payments for many homeowners who have little or no equity, but only if they are at least 90 days delinquent.

Critics say the plan, which applies to loans owned or guaranteed by government wards Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac among others, could encourage people to suspend payments.

But what about the moral obligation to pay off a debt?

Elected officials have been chipping away at that by blaming the foreclosure crisis largely on predatory lenders. In a campaign fact sheet, President-elect Barack Obama says he "recognizes that the real victims in the subprime mortgage crisis are not the lenders, but the millions of borrowers who followed the rules and whose only crime was taking out mortgages that lenders told them they could afford."

Last year, Congress started removing some financial hazards of default when it passed a bill that temporarily waives the income tax on mortgage debt that is canceled when a homeowner is foreclosed upon, sells a home for less than the remaining debt (a short sale) or gets a loan modification that reduces the principal balance.

The tax waiver originally applied only to debt on a primary residence canceled in 2007, 2008 or 2009. Last month, in the bailout bill, Congress extended the waiver until 2013.

There are exceptions: The waiver applies only to debt that was used to buy or improve a primary residence. If you took out a home-equity loan or did a cash-out refinance to buy a car, you'll still owe tax on that debt if it is canceled. For state income taxes, California has partially conformed to the federal law, but only for debt canceled in 2007 or 2008. (For more details, see my April 24 column at www.sfgate.com/ZFJS.)

The Federal Housing Administration is offering two programs to help homeowners get more-affordable mortgages, FHA Secure and Help for Homeowners. Neither requires borrowers to be current on their payments.

The program announced Monday goes a step further by requiring homeowners to be late.

The Streamlined Modification Program, sponsored by the government agency that oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and 27 loan servicers, promises to swiftly reduce payments for certain homeowners who appear to be on the verge of foreclosure.
How to qualify

To qualify, you must be at least 90 days delinquent and live in the home as your primary residence. You must owe at least 90 percent of the home's value. It's fine if you owe more than it's worth.

Your mortgage must be owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or held by one of the participating loan companies.

If you meet these requirements and can document your income, your servicer will reduce your monthly mortgage payment - including property taxes, insurance and association dues - to 38 percent of your gross income.

The reduction can be accomplished in one or more ways:

-- Reducing the interest rate, but not below 3 percent. (The new rate, if below market, goes back to a market rate after five years.)

-- Extending the term of the loan up to 40 years.

-- Reducing the principal on which monthly payments are calculated. Unpaid principal is added to the loan balance and due when the homeowner sells or refinances. The reduced interest payments never have to be repaid.

If you owe more than the home is worth, the plan will only reduce principal down to 100 percent of market value, according to an official for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which supervises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

If all three of these maneuvers can't reduce your payments to 38 percent of income, you won't get a fast-track modification but could still request a customized deal, says the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The streamlined process looks only at income, not assets. If you refinanced your home to buy a Mercedes or own another home, you won't be expected to sell them to pay your mortgage.

Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital, predicts that many homeowners who have little or no equity will stop paying their mortgage and then reduce their income to get the biggest payment cut possible. They could stop working overtime or, if two spouses work, one could quit. After the modification, they could try to boost their income again.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Schiff says. "People are going to feel like complete morons if they don't participate. The people getting punished are the ones who never made an irresponsible decision to buy a house they couldn't afford."

The government is offering loan servicers $800 for every homeowner they get into the plan.

Schiff predicts that loan agents "will be cold-calling people trying to get them into it. Just like they encouraged people to overstate their income to get a bigger loan in the first place, now they will encourage them to understate their income to qualify for a smaller loan."

To prevent fraud, the government says a borrower "must certify that he or she experienced a hardship or change in financial circumstances, and did not purposely default to obtain a modification."

The housing agency official doubts that people will stop paying just to get a modification because it will hurt their credit record, and that will make it harder to get a loan and possibly a job.

"Credit bureau reports are checked by employers. They're taking a big risk missing three payments just to get a lower rate," she says. An existing lender who sees your credit score deteriorate could also cut back on your credit and possibly raise your rate.
Credit score impact

Risking your credit score for a lower rate "sounds like a game of chicken on the lending highway," says Craig Watts, a spokesman for Fair Isaac, which markets the FICO credit score.

A 90-day delinquency will hurt your score, but not as badly as a foreclosure. How many points it takes off depends on other things in your credit file, such as the number and severity of late payments on other accounts.

In the latest version of FICO, which is just being rolled out, "one isolated delinquency will do less damage to your score than it has in the past," Watts says.

Consumers who suffer a severe delinquency can rebuild their scores over time by paying all credit accounts on time and keeping their balances low.

"If it was me and I was certain that I could keep my home even after missing a couple payments by working out a deal with the lender, I'd be for keeping the home," Watts says. "Your score will bounce back."

Schiff predicts that many homeowners will reach that conclusion and that the new program will cost Fannie and Freddie far more than expected.

Although the mortgage giants are under a government conservatorship, the housing agency official says that any losses under the program will not be paid for by taxpayers unless Fannie and Freddie exhaust their reserves.

Net Worth runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. E-mail Kathleen Pender at kpender@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Does al-Qaeda read Tom Clancy?

Here are a few books I read back in the 1990s, soon after they were written. Now of course it is common knowledge that al-Qaeda also read these, because the first book, written in 1994, is very similar to what happened on 9/11/2001. So if al-Qaeda read Debt of Honor, did they also read Executive Orders? I would think so. Executive Orders is about terrorists attacking us with biological weapons (actually a virus). I've read in various news accounts recently of the next al-Qaeda initiative.perhaps they did read the follow up book....Should we be mad at Tom Clancy?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5158569.ece
Barack Obama is warned to beware of a ‘huge threat’ from al-Qaeda

Debt of Honor (1994) is a novel by Tom Clancy. It is a continuation of the series featuring his character Jack Ryan. In this installment, Ryan has become the National Security Advisor when the
Japanese government (controlled by a group of corporate tycoons known as the Zaibatsu) goes to war with the United States. One of the sub-plots in this novel (on occupying the Siberian "Northern Resource Area") would later form part of the main plot of Clancy's later novel The Bear and the Dragon.

Plot summary
On Interstate 40 in Eastern Tennesee, a car accident involving a tractor-trailer and two Japanese-made cars results in the death of six people (2 adults, 2 teenagers, and 2 little kids.) The accident involves the failure of both gas tanks in the Japanese cars, which causes an explosion. It is revealed that the Japanese-made gas tanks were below standards, which caused them to fail when they shouldn't have. This results in Congress passing the "Trade Reform Act", enabling the United States to mirror the trade practices of the countries that it imports goods from. The bill is immediately used against Japanese goods, and results in an increasing backlog of imported products which begins to hurt the Japanese economy. Facing a perceived economic crisis, a group called Zaibatsu
decides to seize Japan and take military action to safeguard the Japanese economy. Along with the China and India, the plan involves curtailing the American presence in the Pacific in an effort to reestablish the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, which includes a possible Chinese-Japanese invasion of Siberia to secure its extensive resources. The earlier part of the novel implies that the Zaibatsu was planning to seize Japan anyway, and used the economic crisis as an excuse.
Japan begins its part of the operation against the U.S. by launching torpedoes at two of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet aircraft carrier and two submarines at the conclusion of a joint U.S.-Japan naval exercise, destroying both submarines and crippling the carriers. Simultaneously, the Japanese cabal engineers the collapse of the American stock market (through the use of witting and unwitting personnel who electronically wipe out the computerized records of all transactions on Wall Street), leaving America at a huge economic disadvantage. Meanwhile, units of Japan's
Self-Defense Forces occupy the Marianas Islands (as part of the grand plan involving China and India), specifically Saipan and Guam. The Zaibatsu, actually its leader Raizo Yamata, believe that these two elements, combined with the acquisition of Russian SS-19 ICBMs and nuclear warheads under the cover of the Japanese space program, will be enough to force the United States to negotiate a truce.
As the U.S. and Japanese delegates negotiate to avoid further bloodshed in what is now called the "Pacific Crisis," newly appointed National Security Advisor Jack Ryan and Russia's SVR determines Japan's covert actions and in the process discovers the overall plan by Japan, India and China to eliminate U.S. influence in the Pacific. Fearful of an impending nuclear war between China and
Russia, Ryan convinces President Roger Durling that the U.S. must take immediate action to stop the Japanese occupation, which Ryan hopes will derail the efforts of India and China. As a result, the United States commits two separate surgical strikes against Japan, resulting in the death of nearly all the Zaibatsu and the elimination of the Japanese presence in the Mariana Islands. The U.S. and Europe also perform a "reset" on the stock market that wipes out the zaibatsu's planned gains from the previous sabotage and rescue the kidnapped former Japanese prime minister who later forces a cowardly, zaibatsu-controlled PM to resign in disgrace.
The ending also has coincidental parallels with the September 11, 2001 attacks, although the disaster is not caused by hijackers. An embittered Japan Air Lines pilot, avenging the deaths of his son and brother — killed during the Pacific conflict — flies his Boeing 747 directly into the U.S. Capitol building during a joint session of Congress[1] assembled to vote on President Durling's nomination of Ryan to fill the just-vacated office of Vice-President. Nearly the entire
United States presidential line of succession is eliminated, including the President, most of Congress, nearly all of the Cabinet, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and all nine Supreme Court Justices. Ryan, who has just been confirmed as Vice President moments before, narrowly escapes the attack and is immediately sworn in as President. He begins his term of office in the immediate sequel, Executive Orders.

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Executive Orders is a political and military thriller novel by Tom Clancy. It was published in 1996.

Plot summary
Jack Ryan is sworn in as President of the United States minutes after becoming Vice-President. With most of Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. military, much of the senior staff of the Executive Office of the President, the Supreme Court, and all but two members of the Cabinet dead in a terrorist attack, Ryan is left to represent the United States virtually all by himself. This novel follows Ryan as he deals with various hardships and crises, ranging from domestic and foreign policy, to reconstituting the House and Senate, a challenge to his legitimacy by his Vice-Presidential predecessor, scandal-tainted Ed Kealty, and a brewing war in the Middle East. After learning that the majority of the government are dead, two anarchists decide to kill both Ryan and Ed Kealty, using a cement truck filled with an explosive mixture.
When the President of Iraq (at the time of publication, the book presumably referred to then-President Saddam Hussein although he is only mentioned once by name) is assassinated by an Iranian member of his own security detail, the leader of Iran (Ayatollah Mahmoud Haji Daryaei) takes advantage of the power vacuum and invades Iraq, uniting the two countries into one called the United Islamic Republic.
With assistance from India and the People's Republic of China, the UIR plans to transform itself into a superpower by conquering Saudi Arabia. Following a series of Iranian-backed terrorist attacks designed to cripple the United States, including a kidnap attempt on Ryan's youngest daughter and a biowarfare attack using a new Iranian-developed airborne strain of the extremely lethal Ebola virus, the UIR goes to war against Saudi and
Kuwaiti forces and the few uninfected American units are rushed to the region to stand by them. Ryan restricts interstate travel, and closes schools and businesses to reduce the virus spreading. The biowar attack fails for a reason well known to virologists: Ebola outbreaks quickly exterminate a small group of people, then burn out because they run out of new hosts; other viruses that kill less efficiently manage to spread to larger communities.
He also orders the country into martial law during this time, which inadvertently prevents the anarchists' assassination attempt because interstate travel has been prohibited. During a routine police check at a truck stop, one of the anarchists panics, drawing police attention to their unusual truck.
In a matter of days, with the combined strength of the Kuwaiti, Saudi Arabian and American armies, they begin to seriously damage the UIR's military resources, soldiers and morale by destroying two entire corps of the UIR's army. Eventually, the triumvirate of the three countries win the war.
At the same time, President Ryan calls Ding Chavez and John Clark into a secret mission. They set up a laser guidance device in an apartment facing Daryaei's home, allowing US aircraft to target a precision bomb upon it. Simultaneously, during a press conference, President Ryan shows the destruction of Daryaei's residence on live national television and tells the international community that they will only hurt those who are specifically responsible for attacking America. Ryan assassinates Darayei just after another attempt on Ryan's life, by an Iranian sleeper agent in the US
Secret Service, is foiled and the assassin arrested.
Ryan threatens to bomb biowarfare targets in Tehran unless the surviving people responsible for the biowarfare attacks are extradited to America to face charges.
Afterwards, the American people accept their new President, and he concedes that he will in fact run for election to a term in his own right.
The book is so named because President Ryan governs by issuing executive orders, as opposed to working with the Congress to pass legislation or deferring to state and local governments. This is because most of Congress, as well as the Supreme Court and most of the cabinet were killed in the same terrorist action which elevated Jack to the Presidency. In particular, acting on advice of his wife, a physician, in regard to the biological weapon threat, Jack restricts interstate travel by executive order. In a move designed to embarrass and undermine Jack's presidency, resigned Vice-President Ed Kealty files a lawsuit alleging Jack acted unconstitutionally in restricting the travel of US citizens. While ruling in Kealty's favor on constitutional grounds, the lawsuit also ends Kealty's claim to the Presidency, since he inadvertently acknowledges Ryan as President.