NOW TREES CAUSE GLOBAL COOLING

They were causing global warming earlier this year

Europe's "Little Ice Age" may have been triggered by the 14th Century Black Death plague, according to a new study. Pollen and leaf data support the idea that millions of trees sprang up on abandoned farmland, soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This would have had the effect of cooling the climate, a team from Utrecht University, Netherlands, says. The Little Ice Age was a period of some 300 years when Europe experienced a dip in average temperatures.

Dr Thomas van Hoof and his colleagues studied pollen grains and leaf remains collected from lake-bed sediments in the southeast Netherlands. Monitoring the ups and downs in abundance of cereal pollen (like buckwheat) and tree pollen (like birch and oak) enabled them to estimate changes in land-use between AD 1000 and 1500. The team found an increase in cereal pollen from 1200 onwards (reflecting agricultural expansion), followed by a sudden dive around 1347, linked to the agricultural crisis caused by the arrival of the Black Death, most probably a bacterial disease spread by rat fleas. This bubonic plague is said to have wiped out over a third of Europe's population.

Counting stomata (pores) on ancient oak leaves provided van Hoof's team with a measure of the fluctuations in atmospheric carbon dioxide for the same period. This is because leaves absorb carbon dioxide through their stomata, and their density varies as carbon dioxide goes up and down. "Between AD 1200 to 1300, we see a decrease in stomata and a sharp rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide, due to deforestation we think," says Dr van Hoof, whose findings are published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

But after AD 1350, the team found the pattern reversed, suggesting that atmospheric carbon dioxide fell, perhaps due to reforestation following the plague. The researchers think that this drop in carbon dioxide levels could help to explain a cooling in the climate over the following centuries. From around 1500, Europe appears to have been gripped by a chill lasting some 300 years.

There are many theories as to what caused these bitter years, but popular ideas include a decrease in solar activity, an increase in volcanic activity or a change in ocean circulation. The new data adds weight to the theory that the Black Death could have played a pivotal role.

Not everyone is convinced, however. Dr Tim Lenton, an environmental scientist from the University of East Anglia, UK, said: "It is a nice study and the carbon dioxide changes could certainly be a contributory factor, but I think they are too modest to explain all the climate change seen." And Professor Richard Houghton, a climate expert from Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, US, believes that the oceans would have compensated for the change. "The atmosphere is in equilibrium with the ocean and this tends to dampen or offset small changes in terrestrial carbon uptake," he explained.

Nonetheless, the new findings are likely to cause a stir. "It appears that the human impact on the environment started much earlier than the industrial revolution," said Dr van Hoof.

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MORE GLOBAL COOLING IN BRITAIN

Arctic weather is set to return with a vengeance this week as icy blasts chill most of Britain. Weather forecasters say that temperatures could plunge to as low as minus 6C (22F) in some areas, as snow and severe frost endured in Scotland overnight fan out across England. Last night gritters were out in Lincolnshire, East Anglia and the South West, and the Highways Agency told drivers to look out for stretches of ice on roads that they had not managed to treat. A spokesman said that drivers should watch the forecasts and not go out without a shovel.

Spring is supposed to begin tomorrow. "Mother Nature does not always stick to her calendar," a spokesman for the Met Office said. "The next few days will be a timely reminder that winter is still with us." Overnight temperatures in northern Scotland were expected to drop to minus 15C, with snow settling up to 20cm (8in) deep. Daytime temperatures there are unlikely to rise above freezing.....

From December until mid-February, colder conditions swept west through Europe and across southeast and southern Britain. Average temperatures dropped below the average for this period from 1971 to 2000. In southern England it has been the coldest December and January for nine years...

But the evidence from Britain's gardens is in line with the predictions by the Met Office. Guy Barter, of the Royal Horticultural Society, said that English gardens had suffered colder than average temperatures and little rain, while Scotland's shrubberies benefited from more normal levels of precipitation. At the RHS Garden at Wisley, in Surrey, temperatures fell to minus 6C in November, the lowest recorded there since 1976. "We have seen milder winters in the last four or five years," Mr Barter said. "This one has come as a bit of a shock."

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Protect Private Property Rights, 85 Groups Tell Senate, in Endangered Species Act Reform

Today, a letter signed by 85 major national and state policy organizations was delivered to Senators on the Environment and Public Works Committee. The letter warns Senators that any Endangered Species Act reform effort must include strong private property rights protections. The coalition letter was spearheaded by The National Center for Public Policy Research. "Whatever action the Senate takes on ESA reform should reflect the national, bipartisan outcry for strong property rights protections," said David Ridenour, vice president of The National Center for Public Policy Research. "Quite simply, when the government takes your property, the least it can do is pay for it."

National policy organizations signing the letter include: Coalitions for America, the American Conservative Union, the National Taxpayers Union, Eagle Forum, National Center for Policy Analysis, 60 Plus Association, National Legal and Policy Center, the Property Rights Foundation of America, and the American Family Association, among many others.

The letter was also signed by the Honorable Edwin Meese III, who served as U.S. Attorney General under President Ronald Reagan, and the Honorable Don Hodel, who served as both U.S. Secretary of Interior and Secretary of Energy in the Reagan Administration. Former Senator Malcolm Wallop (R-WY) signed the letter as well.

State policy groups, including the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, Oregonians in Action, the James Madison Institute, the Illinois Policy Institute, and the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, among others, also signed the letter. "Today, private landowners live in fear of the ESA. Those who harbor endangered species on their property or merely own land suitable for such species can find themselves subject to severe land use restrictions that can be financially devastating," said Ridenour. "This creates a perverse incentive for landowners to preemptively 'sterilize' their land to keep rare species away. Such sterilizations benefit no one - least of all the species the ESA was established to protect." "Property owners should not be punished for being good environmental stewards, yet that is exactly what the ESA does," said Peyton Knight, director of environmental and regulatory affairs for The National Center.

In order to fix the ESA's perverse incentive problem, the letter says property owners who are denied the use of their land should be given 100 percent, fair market value compensation for losses. This would bring the ESA in line with the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees such compensation ("nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation"). "Americans nationwide were outraged when, in Kelo v. City of New London, the Supreme Court ruled that government could evict property owners to financially benefit private interests," said Knight. "As terrible as eminent domain abuse is, at least the victims in eminent domain cases are compensated. Landowners who lose their property under the Endangered Species Act don't receive a dime."

Under the current ESA, landowners who apply to the Department of Interior for permission to use their property, are often forced to wait years for a response - years during which they often are unable to use the land they legally own, and on which they pay taxes.

The letter suggests that establishing a simple time limit within which the Department of Interior must issue final decisions to landowners' requests could prevent this injustice.

Meaningful ESA reform faces a big hurdle in the Senate, as the chairman of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Act is liberal Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI). The National Center tried to schedule a meeting to discuss upcoming reform efforts with Senator Chafee's staff. However, the prospect of a meeting was immediately rebuffed by the Senator's staff after The National Center made it clear it wished to discuss the importance of protecting property rights in such a meeting. "Allergy season is just around the corner and 'property rights' are apparently ragweed to the Chafee office," said Knight. "Unfortunately, this strangest of allergies hurts American property owners and endangered species more than it does the Senator and his staff."

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EPA-Mandated NOx Reductions Poised to Increase Urban Smog

Short-term effect may be paraded as excuse for more regulation

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be allowed to implement potentially counterproductive smog-prevention regulations after the U.S. Supreme Court on November 14 let stand a lower court decision that a legal technicality prevented the National Alternative Fuels Association (NAFA) from challenging the regulations. According to regulations implemented in 2000, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposes to reduce the formation of ground-level ozone, a key smog component. Ozone forms when nitrous oxides (NOx) react with volatile organic compounds (VOC) on hot, sunny days. Accordingly, "smog season" in the U.S. tends to run from approximately April 1 through September 30.

A cursory look at the components of ozone formation would lead one to believe cutting either NOx or VOC concentrations would reduce ozone and, hence, smog. However, computer models and real-world observations indicate the equation is not so simple. Ozone formation is not dependent only on the mere presence of NOx and VOC. "Ozone formation depends on the ratio of VOC to NOx, and different ratios of VOC/NOx lead to very different outcomes," explained Joel Schwartz, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

According to computer models, "when the VOC/NOx ratio is high--greater than about 10 to one--ozone formation is limited by the availability of NOx, and VOC reductions have no effect on ozone levels. But when the VOC/NOx ratio falls below 10 to one, VOC reductions begin to reduce ozone," Schwartz observed. Paradoxically, when the VOC/NOx ration is below 10 to one, "reducing NOx actually increases ozone."

Urban areas currently tend to have the lowest VOC/NOx ratios and are therefore most prone to this paradox. According to the computer models, NOx reductions in urban areas will actually increase ozone and, thus, smog. "Smog in many urban areas increases when NOx concentrations are further reduced, while declines generally occur in less heavily populated areas," noted Dr. Kay Jones of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

The computer models, moreover, have been verified by real-world observations. "A disproportionate number of exceedances of the ozone standard are occurring on weekends, when emissions of ozone-forming chemicals--especially NOx--are down anywhere from 10 to 40 percent," Schwartz reports. "At some monitoring locations in the Los Angeles area, weekend exceedances account for nearly 80 percent of total exceedances. And these ozone increases are occurring in spite of large declines in NOx. Although the `weekend effect' is most pronounced in California, it is becoming increasingly prevalent in other cities across the nation, including Denver, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York." "EPA failed to consider compelling science that its NOx reducing regulation would actually severely worsen the nation's air quality," observed a summary of the issue prepared by NAFA.

Despite these findings, EPA has targeted NOx for significant short-term reductions. While the agency has mandated that both NOx and VOC must be significantly reduced in the long term, which computer models predict will result in long-term smog reduction, the front-loading of NOx reductions may result in near-term increases in smog levels in urban areas. "Ozone is not very likely to improve much in the future," explained Doug Lawson, a researcher with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. "In fact, it's very likely to get worse, given that all the regulations in place for the next decade or so have larger NOx reductions built in to them than VOC reductions, which is exactly what takes place now on weekends relative to weekdays."

The negative effects of this policy are twofold. The first negative effect is apparent: Increases in urban smog result in greater discomfort and greater alleged health impairments associated with smog. Second, a short-term rise in ground-level ozone and resulting smog is likely to be paraded by activist groups as "proof" that EPA's mandated NOx reductions are not stringent enough. More stringent, and more costly, reductions would then be advocated on the false premise that more stringent NOx reductions would further reduce ground-level ozone. "EPA ignored other viable less costly solutions, which could have easily resolved the stated ozone problem," observed the NAFA summary.

A solution, agreed Schwartz, lies in targeting more front-loaded VOC reductions rather than front-loaded NOx reductions. "What makes this strategy appealing is that VOC reductions will reduce ozone in most places, especially places where most people live," Schwartz noted. "After substantial near-term VOC reductions, later NOx reductions would achieve the EPA's ozone standard on the same schedule as currently planned, but with less harm in the interim. In addition, this change would give each non-attainment area flexibility to tailor its ozone reduction strategy based on the specifics of local emissions and air chemistry."

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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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