REPORTS FROM THE HEARTLAND-2 CLIMATE CONFERENCE

Bob Carter [bob.carter@jcu.edu.au] has written a series of reports on the Heartland-2 climate conference in New York for Quadrant Magazine. See here.




What we are not being told

An email from Hans Labohm [mailto:H.Labohm@freeler.nl]

Attached my latest article for `Research Review', March 2009: `What we are not being told'.

What is so special about this article? Certainly not the contents. It's all old hat for climate sceptics. No, it is the fact that the journal has invited me to write it and that the article has been published, whereas so many similar articles have been turned down by editors of many newspapers and journals.

As far as I know, `Research Review' is a mainstream quality science glossy, based in Brussels. Why is this journal sticking its neck out to publish an opinion which is anathema for its neighbours, the EU, in Brussels? Is it just professional journalism? Other than that, I have no clue.

What we are not being told

Hans Labohm argues that experts' warnings of an imminent climate catastrophe are products of computer modelling

Climate change has become a major issue of our time. While history clearly demonstrates that there has always been climate change, the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) keeps reminding us that the current climate change - the measured recent warming of the earth - is something exceptional and alarming, and is mainly caused by mankind.

Jumping on the IPCC's bandwagon, politicians, bureaucracies, industry, media and self-appointed climate gurus, such as Al Gore, George Monbiot, David Suzuki and Stefan Rahmstorf, reinforce and grossly exaggerate the IPCC's message with their warnings of an imminent climate disaster, which can only be prevented if we fundamentally alter our social and economic system and lifestyles.

Opinions which deviate from those of the IPCC are more often than not ignored by politics, even if they come from prominent scientists, attached to the most prestigious universities and scientific institutions in the world. Apparently, politics considers that it can do without a second opinion.

That is most unfortunate because is has become abundantly clear by now that the IPCC's modus operandi modus has been characterised by cherry-picking, spin-doctoring and scaremongering, and that its reports lack scientific rigour. Since its inception, the IPCC has been heavily criticised by so-called climate sceptics.

According to Al Gore and other protagonists of the man-made global warming hypothesis, dissident numbers have been dwindling over time. It has even been said that you could have a convention of all the scientists who dispute climate change in a relatively small phone booth. Yet the climate conference organised by the Heartland Institute in New York in March last year, which aimed to challenge the man-made global warming hypothesis, was attended by some 400 scientists, whereas the so-called petition project (urging the US to reject the Kyoto protocol) has listed the support of over 31,000 scientists, all distancing themselves from this hypothesis.

This is probably unprecedented in the history of science, although only a few people might be aware of it, as it received little media attention. Today, climate scepticism is extensively documented in thousands of peer-reviewed articles, which have been published in many renowned journals in a variety of scientific disciplines - far too many for one single person to digest.

However, two relatively brief reports have appeared that present an overview of salient points of the critique of the anthropogenic global warming hypothesis. They offer the additional advantage of being fairly accessible to non-expert readers: Ross McKitrick et al, `The independent summary for policymakers, IPCC fourth assessment report' and Fred Singer et al, `Nature, not human activity, rules the climate', a report by the NIPCC (non-governmental international panel on climate change).

The latter report especially shows that the man-made global warming hypothesis is contradicted by observations. In doing so, it offers a convincing falsification of it. If that hypothesis continues to be used in computer models to produce future projections of climate, one surely enters the field of pseudo-science, no matter how sophisticated the models might be.

Mother nature refuses to comply with the projections of the climate models. Despite the continued rise of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, there has not been any global warming over the last 10 years - as a matter of fact, there has been a slight cooling. The illustrated graph shows declines in temperatures measured by surface and satellite thermometers over the last 10 years, while the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere still rises. It indicates that over this period there has been no warming, but cooling. It also shows that CO2 is not correlated with temperatures, which suggests that it has only little impact, if at all.



The graph, which is based on the measurements of the official scientific institutions, is the best-kept secret of the `warmoholics'. It indicates that the imminent climate catastrophe exists only in virtual reality - it is a product of computer modelling. Those who are old enough to remember the apocalyptic predictions of the Club of Rome at the beginning of the 1970s will undoubtedly be struck by the similarities. It is high time the EU opened its eyes to facts and discontinued its climate policy, which will only wreck its economy, and will have no effect whatsoever on worldwide temperatures.

GALLUP POLL: GROWING NUMBER OF AMERICANS THINK GLOBAL WARMING IS 'EXAGGERATED'

Although a majority of Americans believe the seriousness of global warming is either correctly portrayed in the news or underestimated, a record-high 41% now say it is exaggerated. This represents the highest level of public skepticism about mainstream reporting on global warming seen in more than a decade of Gallup polling on the subject.

As recently as 2006, significantly more Americans thought the news underestimated the seriousness of global warming than said it exaggerated it, 38% vs. 30%. Now, according to Gallup's 2009 Environment survey, more Americans say the problem is exaggerated rather than underestimated, 41% vs. 28%.

The trend in the "exaggerated" response has been somewhat volatile since 2001, and the previous high point, 38%, came in 2004. Over the next two years, "exaggerated" sentiment fell to 31% and 30%. Still, as noted, the current 41% is the highest since Gallup's trend on this measure began in 1997.

Since 1997, Republicans have grown increasingly likely to believe media coverage of global warming is exaggerated, and that trend continues in the 2009 survey; however, this year marks a relatively sharp increase among independents as well. In just the past year, Republican doubters grew from 59% to 66%, and independents from 33% to 44%, while the rate among Democrats remained close to 20%.

Notably, all of the past year's uptick in cynicism about the seriousness of global warming coverage occurred among Americans 30 and older. The views of 18- to 29-year-olds, the age group generally most concerned about global warming and most likely to say the problem is underestimated, didn't change.

Dampened Concern

Apart from these findings about news coverage of global warming, the March 5-8 poll shows in a similar vein that Americans are a bit less concerned about the seriousness of global warming per se than they have been in recent years.

Six in 10 Americans indicate that they are highly worried about global warming, including 34% who are worried "a great deal" and 26% "a fair amount." Overall worry is similar to points at the start of the decade, but is down from 66% a year ago and from 65% in 2007.

More HERE






Inhofe Speech: `Consensus' Continues Freefall - Why Americans Are Growing More Skeptical

U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, today delivered a floor speech on the latest global warming poll data and the continuing inconvenient science developments refuting man-made climate fears.

Inhofe Speech Highlights:

I come to the floor today with breaking news in the man-made global warming debate: A new Gallup Poll has just been released yesterday reveals a "record-high 41% of Americans now say [global warming] is exaggerated!" This is the "highest level of public skepticism about mainstream reporting" in more than a decade, according to the March 11, 2009, Gallup survey. You should never underestimate the intelligence of the American people. Sadly, that is exactly what the promoters of man-made climate fears have been consistently doing, and the American people have consistently rejected climate alarm. [...]

Skepticism persists despite an Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth. Skepticism persists despite a $300 million campaign by Gore to spread climate fears. Skepticism persists despite a daily drumbeat of scary scenarios promoted by the UN and the media of what could, might, or may happen a 20, 50, 100 or even 1000 years from now. In fact, global warming skepticism appears to have grown stronger as the shrillness of the climate fear campaign has intensified. The latest Gallup Poll, released March 11, 2009, further reveals the American public's growing skepticism. Most telling, Americans ranked global warming dead last -- eight out of eight- out of a list of environmental issues.

The new Gallup survey found: "A record-high 41% now say it is exaggerated. This represents the highest level of public skepticism about mainstream reporting on global warming seen in more than a decade of Gallup polling on the subject. Not only does global warming rank last on the basis of the total percentage concerned either a great deal or a fair amount, but it is the only issue for which public concern dropped significantly in the past year." [...]

These dramatic polling results are not unexpected as prominent scientists from around the world continue to speak out publicly for the first time to dissent from the Al Gore, UN IPCC and media driven man-made climate fears. In addition, a steady stream of peer-reviewed studies, analyses, real world data and inconvenient developments have further refuted the claims of man-made global warming fear activists.

Americans are finally catching on in large numbers that the UN IPCC is a POLITICAL -- not scientific organization. Man-made global warming fears have proven simply unsustainable - to use a nice green term.

If new peer-reviewed studies are to be believed, today's high school kids watching Gore's movie will be nearing the senior citizen group AARP's membership age (50 years) by the time warming allegedly "resumes" in 30 years! See: Climate Fears RIP.for 30 years!? - Peer-Reviewed Study Finds Global Warming could stop 'for up to 30 years! Warming 'On Hold?...'Could go into hiding for decades' study finds - Discovery.com - March 2, 2009 -

Dr. John Brignell, a skeptical UK Emeritus Engineering Professor at the University of Southampton wrote in 2008: "The warmers are getting more and more like those traditional predictors of the end of the world who, when the event fails to happen on the due date, announce an error in their calculations and a new date." [...]

Confirming this unintended consequence is a study by the scientific journal Risk Analysis released in February 2008 which found that Gore and the media's attempts to scare the public "ironically may be having just the opposite effect." The study found that the more informed respondents "show less concern for global warming."

The study found that "perhaps ironically, and certainly contrary to... the marketing of movies like Ice Age and An Inconvenient Truth, the effects of information on both concern for global warming and responsibility for it are exactly the opposite of what were expected. Directly, the more information a person has about global warming, the less responsible he or she feels for it; and indirectly, the more information a person has about global warming, the less concerned he or she is for it."

For Full Speech Texts See here

SOURCE







OBAMA'S CLIMATE POLICY DEAD IN THE WATER

President Obama's budget doesn't have enough support from lawmakers to pass, the Senate Budget Committee chairman said Tuesday. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said he has spoken to enough colleagues about several different provisions in the budget request to make him think Congress won't pass it. Conrad urged White House budget director Peter Orszag not to "draw lines in the sand" with lawmakers, most notably on Obama's plan for a cap-and-trade system to curb carbon emissions. "Anybody who thinks it will be easy to get the votes on the budget in the conditions that we face is smoking something," Conrad said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, when asked Tuesday about the Democratic criticism of the budget, told reporters that it wasn't unusual. He noted that lawmakers and the president often have competing agendas. "I don't think, ultimately, the criticism is surprising," Gibbs said. "That certainly happens and is all part of a process."

Conrad joined Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the top Republican on the Budget Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in criticizing the administration's cap-and-trade proposal for not doing enough to counterbalance increases in energy costs that will be felt by consumers and companies, especially those in energy states such as North Dakota. Conrad said that it would be a "distant hope" to expect the climate change plan to pass unless it includes help for industries that would be hit hard by limits on carbon emission production.

More HERE





UN CLIMATE CHIEF: US CARBON CUTS COULD SPARK 'REVOLUTION'

The head of the UN body charged with leading the fight against climate change has conceded that Barack Obama will face a "revolution" if he commits the US to the deep carbon cuts that scientists and campaigners say are needed.

Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said domestic political constraints made it impossible for the US president to announce ambitious short-term climate targets similar to those set by Europe. And he questioned the value of a new global climate deal without such a US pledge.

His words come as scientists at the Copenhagen conference said that modest IPCC estimates of likely sea level rise this century need to be increased. Extra melting in Greenland could drive sea levels to more than a metre higher than today by 2100, they said.

Obama has said the US will work to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Europe has pledged to cut them by 20-30% on 1990 levels by 2020. The IPCC says developed nations should aim for 25-40% cuts by then to avoid dangerous climate change.

Speaking on the fringes of a high-level scientific conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Pachauri told the Guardian: "He [Obama] is not going to say by 2020 I'm going to reduce emissions by 30%. He'll have a revolution on his hands. He has to do it step by step."

Pachauri's remarks echo those of Todd Stern, the US president's new chief climate negotiator, who said last week that it was "not possible" for the US to aim for 25-40% cuts by 2020.

Such a stance could threaten attempts to agree a new global deal to regulate carbon emissions to replace the existing Kyoto protocol, the first phase of which expires in 2012. Campaigners say a new treaty must be agreed at UN talks in Copenhagen this December.

Obama has called for 80% carbon cuts by 2050, but insiders say that such long-term pledges will do little to convince developing nations such as China to sign up to a new climate deal. British officials say meaningful US involvement in the short term is crucial to agree a new treaty.

Pachauri told the Guardian the US needed to do more in the short term. But he questioned whether there would be sufficient domestic movement for the US to agree stricter targets in December. He said it was "hard to say" if a new deal would be meaningful without such a step.

SOURCE






Green Child Abuse

By Alan Caruba

Has it occurred to you that constantly telling children and teens that "global warming" is real and that the Earth is in deadly peril constitutes child abuse? That thought came to me as I enjoyed some of the excellent seminars and speeches during the March 8-10 second annual Conference on Climate Change. Here were some of the nation's leading climatologists and others spelling out in detail precisely why there is no global warming and, indeed, why the Earth is now into a decade-old cooling trend. The experts believe that the Earth will stay in this trend for easily another decade or two, maybe three. Sponsored by The Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based non-profit, free market think tank, the conference was, of course, slandered by the few mainstream media "journalists" who took note of it.

My complaint, however, is about the vast media coverage of global warming as something that is actually happening. The other element of this "reporting" is that the GW predictions made always seem to self-adjust forward ten, twenty, fifty or a hundred years. The current cooling trend is giving the global warming alarmists fits.

Back in the 1970s the news was filled with reports of a coming ice age. In the 1980s the reports changed to "global warming" and they took off as the defeated Al Gore made global warming his highway to vast wealth, selling bogus "carbon credits."

Requiring school children to watch, often many times, Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth", is part of the child abuse to which I refer. It is so filled with inaccuracies that a British court ruled that it could not be shown in schools without a laundry list of disclaimers and corrections being made by the teachers.

This is not to say that adults, too, aren't subject to the same abuse as the children. However, it is about to become far worse if the Obama administration's intention of imposing "cap and trade" regulations on CO2 emissions comes true. This carbon tax is anticipated to raise $646 billion for the federal government and we all know how careful it is when it comes to spending taxpayer's money.

Speaking before the House Ways and Means Committee last year, Peter Orszag, formerly the Director of the Congressional Budget Office and now President Obama's Director for the Office of Management and Budget, said that a "cap and trade" law to cut carbon emissions by 15% would cost the average household about $1,300 in higher energy costs. He added the working class families would be hardest hit.

Actually, the Obama gang wants to cut carbon emissions by more than three times the original figure, 83%. Using Orszag's calculations, that means the average family will pay close to $4,000 a year or $333 a month. For nothing!

There is no scientific justification to cut carbon dioxide emissions. They play no role in global warming. At a time when CO2 emissions have risen, the Earth is still cooling and likely to do so for a long time to come.

This is a vicious tax to be imposed on Americans for the purpose of rendering them further impoverished in the midst of a financial crisis of worldwide proportions. And when you tax the parents, you tax the children too. If the Green organizations are the shock troops of global warming, President Obama is the Abuser-in-Chief.

SOURCE

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