OPVARMNING NO NEWS BY GROENLAND

Below is an email to Benny Peiser from Jens Kieffer-Olsen M.Sc.(Elec.Eng.), Slagelse, Denmark [dstdba@post4.tele.dk]

Sorry for the limping headline - I tried a free translation from Danish of the homepage of Politiken. The article by Jorgen Fleischer, editor of Gronlandsposten from 1962 to 1987, appeared in the leading Danish newspaper Politiken on Dec. 3rd. I'll translate a section myself :

WARMING NO NEWS TO GREENLAND

Records dating back to the days of Hans Egede provide evidence that over the last 300 years warming periods with cold has occurred every century. To the foreign celebrities who now flock to the Ilulissat Isfjord glacier, which is melting in the extreme, it might be of interest to hear that the melting of the glacier in the ice fiord was even more extreme during the 17th century.

In the year 1747 the trader Peder Olsen Walloe met a very old Greenland woman, who had seen an ice-free Ilulissat Isfjord. In his diary the trader wrote:

"At the edge of the ice fiord an old lady was in the house of a Greenland family. She lay down all the time as in a cramp, she could not stretch her legs or help herself in any way. Her hair was very gray. When asked about her age, she would say she didn't know, but that she remembered well the time, when in this fiord with now so many of so large icebergs there weren't any, and how the fiord was accessible far up. She may have been 100 years old or more. What a change within one lifetime. Now there is so much ice both on the shore and at sea that in the summer it is hardly possible to get around because of large and small icebergs."

Mind you, Peder Olsen Walloe was no ordinary traveller. Around 1752 he explored the East coast of Greenland from kayak, and Qaqortoq celebrates him as the town's founder here

A copy of his diary is for sale on the Internet for 25 pounds , or as little as 10 with the cover missing. I gather it has never been translated into English.





KERRY SAYS US SENATE WOULDN'T PASS CLIMATE DEAL WITHOUT DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

If China and other emerging economies don't contribute to reining in greenhouse gases, "it would be very difficult" to get a new global climate deal through the U.S. Senate, even under a Democratic president, Sen. John Kerry said Monday. "At some point in time, they will have to take on those reductions, for several reasons, most importantly the developed countries are not going to be able to do this on their own," Kerry said in an interview.

The Massachusetts Democrat, a longtime champion of the climate cause in Washington, spoke with The Associated Press during a fast-paced, one-day visit midway through the two-week U.N. climate conference on Bali island. Delegates from more than 180 nations hope to adopt a final document this Friday that would launch a two-year negotiating process to reach an agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

Kyoto requires 36 industrial nations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other global-warming gases by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The U.S. is the only major industrial nation to reject the 1997 pact.

Kerry noted that one reason Kyoto found no support in the late 1990s in the Senate, which must ratify such international accords, was that it didn't demand emissions cuts by developing nations. That objection was later repeated by U.S. President George W. Bush, who complained such an agreement would harm the U.S. economy. The draft final document being debated here, besides calling for renewed post-2012 emission-reduction targets for industrialized countries, says negotiators in 2008-09 should also consider ways to measure and recognize what such developing countries as China and India are doing to slow their emissions growth. China, for one, is expected to overtake the United States this year or next as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, and is taking steps to improve energy efficiency.

Kerry said the final document should include a "more bold statement" of developing-country responsibility. "If the 'roadmap' that comes out of Bali does not embrace the notion that less developed countries have to also be part of the solution at an appropriate moment in an appropriate way, it would be very difficult to pass something, certainly in our country," said Kerry, the 2004 U.S. Democratic presidential nominee. "But I believe that won't be the case," he added. "I believe we're going to make progress both in the United States and globally."

During his one-day visit, the senator repeatedly sounded the theme that, despite Bush administration opposition to mandatory caps on U.S. emissions, many U.S. states have gone ahead and set their own limits, led by California. He said the end of the Bush administration in 2009 will most likely introduce a new attitude in the White House as well. The U.S. delegation here was opposing inclusion in the conference final document of a nonbinding reference to an emissions-reduction guideline favored by the European Union - of 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020.

Kerry said he favored including such a guideline in the Bali text. When asked what emissions-reduction target the U.S. could accept for the 2012-2020 period, he said that should be subject to negotiation, including talks with developing countries about the steps they will take in that direction.

Source





WORLD LEADER IN GREEN HYPROCRISY: UK'S OFFICIAL CO2 FIGURES AN 'ILLUSION'

Official British statistics are generally very Soviet these days. British statisticians are the only people in Britain who believe that crime has declined there, for instance

Britain is responsible for hundreds of millions more tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions than official figures admit, according to a new report that undermines UK claims to lead the world on action against global warming. The analysis says pollution from aviation, shipping, overseas trade and tourism, which are not measured in the official figures, means that UK carbon consumption has risen significantly over the past decade, and that the government's claims to have tackled global warming are an "illusion".

The report, from a team of economists led by Dieter Helm at Oxford University, could prove embarrassing for British negotiators at the UN climate summit in Bali, where they are trying to persuade countries including the US and China to agree a new worldwide treaty to limit the effects of global warming.

Britain is seen as a main player as the talks enter their second week, partly because it is one of few countries on track to reduce its emissions as required under the Kyoto protocol, the existing global plan to curb carbon emissions. Ministers are due to arrive for the high-level segment of the talks on Wednesday. By Friday, they aim to agree a road map and timetable for a treaty to succeed Kyoto in 2012.

Under Kyoto, Britain must reduce its greenhouse gas output to 12.5% below 1990 levels by 2012. According to official figures filed with the UN, Britain's emissions are currently down 15% compared with 1990. But the new report says UK carbon output has actually risen by 19% over that period, once the missing emissions are included in the figures. The report says: "This is a dramatic reversal of fortune. It merits an immediate, more detailed and more robust assessment. It suggests that the decline in greenhouse gas emissions from the UK economy may have been to a considerable degree an illusion."

The new analysis measures the UK's consumption of carbon, rather than production. It includes energy consumed to make products and ship them to the UK from countries such as China, as well as the carbon footprint of British citizens abroad. Helm, who is a government adviser, says: "The implications for the UK are stark: the UK has not yet, as ministers repeatedly claim, emphatically broken the link between economic growth and emissions. To reduce carbon consumption in the UK would demand much more radical policies. Excluding carbon imports and excluding aviation provides an artificial picture. We have to take responsibility for the carbon we consume."

The new figures, which are approximate and need more research, threaten the government's pledge to reduce emissions by 60% by 2050, he said. "This puts us in a completely different starting position. We need to move on from all the self-congratulations over [meeting the target set by] Kyoto and look at the real effect of policies."

The report says that Britain's success in meeting its Kyoto target is not related to climate policies, but the result of a major shift from coal to cleaner gas for power generation during the 1990s, and the closure of much of the country's heavy industry. The report says the resulting drop in carbon pollution "gives the impression that the UK is winning the fight against climate change and it leads people to think that the UK is reducing its dependence on greenhouse gas emissions". In fact, it says, "the economy's demand for greenhouse gases may have been growing".

FULL STORY here





Bali: While Greenies Gab, Science Strides Forward

Without exception, everything discussed at UNFCC, indeed the very temporary greening of Bali itself, is predicated on the specious argument that GHG, and no other forces, might be driving global temperatures. But the science on which the U.N's hysteria-engendered flock base their planet-saving plans is settled only in their minds and the reams of hyped reports from the IPCC, which they foolishly expect to dictate global climate policies.

Readers are all too aware of the endless tricks, deceptions, outright lies, and more tricks used to divert attention from any driver not Carbon (and, therefore, not industry) related. Those same readers are well aware that this author believes the factor most irresponsibly ignored by alarmists to be Solar, as I have opined many times, including here, here, and here. As it happens, last week also saw astronomer and Sun expert Dr David Whitehouse further the case for Solar forcing's majority influence. Whitehouse reported that it's been months since any sunspots have been observed:

"After a period of exceptionally high activity in the 20th century, our Sun has suddenly gone exceptionally quiet."

The significance of which might become quite evident quite quickly. You see, whenever presented with the obvious (and logical) correlations between solar activity and Terran climate in the past, Solar Deniers claimed that continued elevations in global temperatures after 1998 somehow disproved any direct connection. While insignificant in long-term analysis, Whitehouse nonetheless attributed this to the rapid increase between 1978 and 1998, after which average temps have held their high, but steady, level:

"Almost everyone agrees that throughout most of the last century the solar influence was significant. Studies show that by the end of the 20th century the Sun's activity may have been at its highest for more than 8,000 years."

He suggests we're actually in a period of solar activity low enough to not only counteract any GHG increases, but, as proposed by Russian Academy of Sciences members, actually cause temperatures to drop 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2020. Whitehouse dubs this new Solar season, which may even usher in another Little Ice Age, the Modern Solar Minimum. The good doctor also lists it with previously correlative periods the greenies completely ignore:

* Modern Solar Minimum
(2000-?)

* Modern Climate Optimum
(1890-2000) - the world is getting warmer. Concentrations of greenhouse gas increase. Solar activity increases.

* Dalton Solar Minimum
(1790-1820) - global temperatures are lower than average.

* Maunder Solar Minimum
(1645-1715) - coincident with the 'Little Ice Age'.

* Spoerer Solar Minimum
(1420-1530) - discovered by the analysis of radioactive carbon in tree rings that correlate with solar activity - colder weather. Greenland settlements abandoned.

* Wolf Solar Minimum
(1280-1340) - climate deterioration begins. Life gets harder in Greenland.

* Medieval Solar Maximum
(1075-1240) - coincides with Medieval Warm Period. Vikings from Norway and Iceland found settlements in Greenland and North America.

* Oort Solar Minimum
(1010-1050) - temperature on Earth is colder than average.

If current trends continue, 2007 will be the coolest year this century, perhaps the coolest since 1995. Of course, should temperatures continue to drop off precipitously while CO2 levels continue to rise, those intent on wielding both political and economic power through junk-science know they will have missed their opportunity to do so.

The Death of the Red Masque

Its science is unmitigated junk. Its solutions are unworkable. Its corruption runs so deep as to be worthy of a Hague forum. But there's more. One upshot of Bali thus far has been the demand by China and India that the U.N steward the transfer of low-carbon energy technology the Intellectual Property not of Western governments, but of their private enterprises. Its unity with this and a proposal for a "technology transfer fund" that industrialized nations would be forced to pay into for developing countries withdrawal to finance clean energy technology projects or purchase patents should end any doubt of the U.N's socialist objectives.

Yet they're apparently not red enough for some greens, as many less developed countries told the conference they were being deprived of benefits. That's right -- they complained that carbon offsetting pays companies to cut emissions, but undeveloped countries -- particularly in Africa -- have few emissions to start with and would not gain from such reductions. Sound familiar? Like the Democrats who constantly complain that tax-cuts, while benefiting tax-payers, do nothing for those not earning enough to pay taxes?

And speaking of domestically grown lefties -- should they really wish to relate Kyoto to Warner-Lieberman, then they can neither deny nor escape the corollary of the faults of each. By setting utopian limits and assuming that technology will rise to meet them, both play a dangerous game with human posterity.

At home, utility companies would be forced to either invest heavily in uncertain R&D or move away from coal altogether, retooling their plants for alternate fuels such as natural gas. Neither solution bodes well for their customers, who would themselves be forced to make the choice between paying hugely higher rates for their heat and electricity (if they can) or suffering long seasons without them. How many of those responsible for the current Democrat majorities might then ponder their vote as they struggle to keep their families warm while battling soaring inflation?

Internationally, the trade warfare the UN plan would impose impedes global development while likely doing nothing to aid any but the corrupt leaders of the very poor nations the union is duplicitously scheming to uplift. And, as it needlessly degrades the economies of all prosperous nations involved, it would ultimately be just another socialist experiment gone horribly wrong - this time on a devastatingly global level.

And all in an effort to prevent an impending storm they likely know full well never actually threatened. Disgraceful. While Bali's pulse grows faint, the adolescent green dream of controlling climate through a new world order may smell funny - but it's not quite dead. Given the extent of the madness, even armed with a sudden extended cooling such as that predicted by Whitehouse and others, it won't be an easy kill. However -- it will be an essential one.

Source





A letter that did NOT get published -- funnily enough

Submitted to: Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin. Written By: James M. Taylor

Artic Sea Ice Unaffected by Global Warming

Regarding "Evidence of dramatic effects of global warming apparent now" (Nov. 6), the guest writer presented a misleading view of global warming in the Arctic and left out many important facts.

NASA released a study in October 2007 demonstrating that the recent decline in Arctic sea ice is due to unusual localized wind patterns rather than global warming.

A 2006 study in Journal of Geophysical Research demonstrated that Greenland is in a prolonged cold spell unequaled since the 1910s. The December 2005 issue of Journal of Glaciology reports that the Greenland ice sheet is growing rather than shrinking.

Still further, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that Southern Hemisphere Antarctic sea ice is currently at its greatest extent in recorded history, showing that Arctic sea ice retreat is local rather than global.

It is funny how the author conveniently forgot to mention these facts in her alarmist article.

Source

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