URBAN HEAT-ISLAND EFFECT DETECTED

As Wok Hughes will tell you. Or see my post of 24 Dec. 05

Last year was the warmest in a century, nosing out 1998, a federal analysis concludes. Researchers calculated that 2005 produced the highest annual average surface temperature worldwide since instrument recordings began in the late 1800s, said James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The result confirms a prediction the institute made in December. In a telephone interview, Hansen said the analysis estimated temperatures in the Arctic from nearby weather stations because no direct data were available. Because of that, "we couldn't say with 100 percent certainty that it's the warmest year, but I'm reasonably confident that it was," Hansen said. More important, he said, is that 2005 reached the warmth of 1998 without help of the "El Nino of the century" that pushed temperatures up in 1998. Over the past 30 years, Earth has warmed a bit more than 1 degree in total, making it about the warmest it's been in 10,000 years, Hansen said. He blamed a buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Jay Lawrimore of the federal government's National Climatic Data Center said his own center's current data suggest 2005 came in a close second to 1998, in part because of how the Arctic was factored in. But he said a forthcoming analysis "will likely show that 2005 is slightly warmer than 1998."

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CALIFORNIA GREENIES LOSE ONE

A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a U.S. Forest Service logging project near Meadow Valley, handing the agency a crucial legal victory in its efforts to implement federal legislation designed to provide jobs and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. In a decision filed Thursday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the Forest Service properly evaluated the environmental impacts of logging more than 40 million board feet of timber around the community five miles west of Quincy. The ruling rejects an appeal filed by four environmental organizations seeking to force the Forest Service to study more fully the combined effects of the Meadow Valley and adjacent logging, much of it in the planning stages.

The judges said the Forest Service "took the requisite 'hard look'" at the cumulative effects of the logging - past, present and future. The agency's environmental study adequately analyzed the risks associated with logging debris, and the direct and indirect effects on the California spotted owl, the judges said. The appeals court also found that the Forest Service did not arbitrarily or capriciously restrict the scope of its cumulative impacts review.

The ruling affirms a May 9 decision by U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. that found the agency's analysis of both specific and cumulative effects of the project adequate under federal regulations. England refused to halt logging during the appeal process.

Plumas Forest Supervisor Jim Pena said the recent ruling allows him to carry out the mandates of the 1998 Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group Forest Recovery Act, inspired by a coalition of local timber industry, civic and environmental leaders. "Tremendous amounts of work and effort have been accomplished in the planning and implementation of the Meadow Valley project. We are pleased to be able to continue this important work," Pe¤a said.

Craig Thomas, director of the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign, one of the plaintiffs, said he was disappointed by the decision. The Forest Service victory does not resolve the complex issues and the threat of environmental damage involved in the Quincy Library Group logging, he said....

The Meadow Valley project is part of the Quincy legislation's plan to log about 1.4 billion board feet of timber on the Plumas, Lassen and Tahoe national forests in the northern Sierra Nevada. At least six other projects are in the planning process, most of them employing a controversial tactic that removes all trees less then 30 inches in diameter within plots up to 2 acres.

The environmental plaintiffs have challenged three projects in addition to Meadow Valley. They forced the Forest Service to revamp two of them, one on an appeal that was upheld by the agency's regional office. The environmentalists lost a third appeal and are considering whether to file legal action, Thomas said Monday.

Plumas County Supervisor Rose Comstock called last week's appeals court decision "great news" for the Meadow Valley area, which she represents. "This decision is truly a win-win situation for our local economy, the environment and the communities who are surrounded by national forests in need of management," said Comstock, a member of the Quincy Library Group.

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Snowstorm Closes Hawaii Volcano To Tourists: Rare Event Causes Concern, Surprise

It's all due to that global warming, I tell you

Officials closed the summit of Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano to the public after a snowstorm shut down access for the first time this winter season. Clouds blanketed Hawaii's tallest peak this weekend. A blanket of snow forced everyone to evacuate, including park rangers. "We've got to make sure and keep everybody healthy and safe on the summit. So, I'm closing it," Mauna Kea ranger Kimo Pihana said.

The heavy snowfall was a rare sight, even for those who are up there almost every day. The snow began to accumulate very quickly and we had to evacuate to prevent being trapped on the summit," telescope operator Paul Sears said. A California family was at the summit when the snow started falling, before the road was shut down. "Did you ever think you'd see snow in Hawaii?" a reporter asked. "Wasn't really expecting to see snow in Hawaii," said Bob Nyman. "So it's a nice treat on your vacation?" the reporter asked. "Oh absolutely. It was great," Nyman said.

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(HT Mike Jericho)




Global "warming" now killing lots of people across Europe

Plummeting temperatures and icy winds have claimed up to 300 lives across Europe as Russia’s big freeze spreads westwards. The Arctic chill has closed schools, frozen out hospital wards, cracked railway lines and immobilised motorways, airports and river traffic. The worst-hit country is Poland where 161 people have died as a result of the weather. But the freezing temperatures have caused problems as far west as France. Even the Acropolis in Athens has been closed because of ice.

Northern and Central Europe are used to harsh winters, but even these weather-hardened regions were struggling yesterday to stave off chaos. Public transport has broken down in many parts of Poland, where some temperatures fell to minus 35C (-31F). Bus drivers clambered under their vehicles with blow torches in a vain attempt to defreeze their fuel tanks. From Moscow to Berlin, would-be motorists tried to thaw the frozen locks of their cars with cigarette lighters.

A surge in demand for heating fuel has distorted energy supplies. Russia is consuming so much gas that supplies to other Eastern European countries are being restricted. The cold is also causing problems in nuclear plants, where vital instruments are freezing over. One reactor block has been closed down in the Temelin power plant in the Czech Republic.

Coal, heating oil, petrol and even firewood are in short supply. In Cracow in southern Poland, the authorities have been piling up coal in parks to keep the population supplied. Moscow is experiencing its coldest winter since 1978. When temperatures plunged to minus 22C in Podolsk, a city outside Moscow, the district heating system collapsed. Pipes carrying heat to 26 high-rise buildings froze, leaving 12,000 people stuck in apartments that were colder than most refrigerators.

Rescue services are at breaking point in the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary as radiators crack and power cuts trap residents in lifts. Hypothermia is the biggest threat. More than 400 people have been treated in hospital in Ukraine. The death toll in Eastern Europe was climbing yesterday as quickly as the temperatures were dropping. More than eighty people have been reported dead in Russia, dozens in the Baltic republics and Ukraine, five in Germany and sixteen in Romania since the beginning of the cold spell. In France, a homeless man was found frozen to death in Joinville-le-Pont, southeast of Paris.

Countries used to gentle winter temperatures are reeling. Snow and high winds in northern Greece brought air traffic to a standstill. In Istanbul, car owners have been told to leave their vehicles at home as snow and ice have led to too many crashes.

Most of the victims are the homeless and the isolated elderly. Charity workers have been trawling the underground tunnels of Berlin and taking the homeless to shelters as temperatures dropped to the lowest for 64 years. Banks are turning a blind eye to tramps spending the night in their foyers.

City authorities in Warsaw have urged wealthier Poles to help the poor with food and clothing. Braziers are being set up at street corners. “The problem is, there is nowhere really warm to go,” Wojciech Brylski, the head of a Warsaw photo agency, said. “It is cold at work — people are sitting in fur hats and coats — it is cold at home, and those buses and trams still running are like ice boxes.” In Russia, a circus in Yaroslavl is warming elephants with vodka, rubbing brandy into the chest of a performing lion and spooning wine into monkeys. The authorities in Russia, Germany and Poland have warned humans against a similar remedy. “Many of the casualties in Eastern Europe so far have been drunks,” Frank Zander, a campaigner for the homeless in Berlin, said. “They are less sensitive to the cold — and then it suddenly hits them, with fatal effects.”

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

Global warming has taken the place of Communism as an absurdity that "liberals" will defend to the death regardless of the evidence showing its folly. Evidence never has mattered to real Leftists

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