Lord Monckton Warns of Obama's Copenhagen Threat

Lord Christopher Monckton is one of the last true Britons, a countermoonbat who has been eviscerating the global warming hoax for years. At a speech at the Minnesota Free Market Institute Wednesday, he warned of what Comrade Obama is planning to do to us in Copenhagen. From the transcript at Watt's Up With That:

At [the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in] Copenhagen, this December, weeks away, a treaty will be signed. Your president will sign it. Most of the third world countries will sign it, because they think they're going to get money out of it. Most of the left-wing regimes from the European Union will rubber stamp it. Virtually nobody won't sign it.

I read that treaty. And what it says is this, that a world government is going to be created. The word "government" actually appears as the first of three purposes of the new entity. The second purpose is the transfer of wealth from the countries of the West to third world countries, in satisfaction of what is called, coyly, "climate debt" — because we've been burning CO2 and they haven't. We've been screwing up the climate and they haven't. And the third purpose of this new entity, this government, is enforcement.

How many of you think that the word "election" or "democracy" or "vote" or "ballot" occurs anywhere in the 200 pages of that treaty? Quite right, it doesn't appear once. So, at last, the communists who piled out of the Berlin Wall and into the environmental movement, who took over Greenpeace so that my friends who funded it left within a year, because [the communists] captured it — Now the apotheosis as at hand. They are about to impose a communist world government on the world. You have a president who has very strong sympathies with that point of view. He's going to sign it. He'll sign anything. He's a Nobel Peace Prize [winner]; of course he'll sign it.

The country that will be looted the most aggressively on behalf of socialist Third-World dictators for the greater glory of the radical left agenda will of course be the financially staggering USA.

So, thank you, America. You were the beacon of freedom to the world. It is a privilege merely to stand on this soil of freedom while it is still free. But, in the next few weeks, unless you stop it, your president will sign your freedom, your democracy, and your humanity away forever. And neither you nor any subsequent government you may elect will have any power whatsoever to take it back. That is how serious it is. I've read the treaty. I've seen this stuff about [world] government and climate debt and enforcement. They are going to do this to you whether you like it or not.

But I think it is here, here in your great nation, which I so love and I so admire — it is here that perhaps, at this eleventh hour, at the fifty-ninth minute and fifty-ninth second, you will rise up and you will stop your president from signing that dreadful treaty, that purposeless treaty. For there is no problem with climate and, even if there were, an economic treaty does nothing to [help] it.

Even the BBC is now admitting not only that economic freedom doesn't make it be too hot out, but that the climate has been cooling despite rising levels of harmless CO2. But by the time awareness that the grand global warming crisis is a complete and absolute farce fully penetrates the public, the socialists who have taken control of our country will have us locked into this treaty, subjugating American sovereignty to unaccountable, anti-democratic global entities and subjecting American taxpayers to slavery not just to generate wealth for the bloated pigs in Washington, but to buy palaces for Robert Mugabe types around the world.

Here's where we find out if we deserve to call ourselves Americans. If the radicals running the government aren't stopped, we don't.

SOURCE

The actual text of the delusional "treaty" can be found here. I think Viscount Monckton takes it a little more seriously than he should. No treaty would be enforceable against the USA unless the government of the USA wished it.





None Dare Call It Fraud

Imagine the reaction if investment companies provided only rosy stock and economic data to prospective investors; manufacturers withheld chemical spill statistics from government regulators; or medical device and pharmaceutical companies doctored data on patients injured by their products.

Media frenzies, congressional hearings, regulatory investigations, fines and jail sentences would come faster than you can say Henry Waxman. If those same standards were applied to global warming alarmists, many of them would be fined, dismissed and imprisoned; sanity might prevail, and the House-Senate cap-and-tax freight train would come to a screeching halt.

Fortunately for alarmists, corporate standards do not apply – even though sloppiness, ineptitude, cherry-picking, exaggeration, deception, falsification, concealed or lost data, flawed studies and virtual fraud have become systemic and epidemic. Instead of being investigated and incarcerated, the perpetrators are revered and rewarded, receiving billions in research grants, mandates, subsidies and other profit-making opportunities.

On this bogus foundation Congress, EPA and the White House propose to legislate and regulate our nation’s energy and economic future. Understanding the scams is essential. Here are just a few of them.

Michael Mann’s hockey-stick-shaped historical temperature chart supposedly proved that twentieth century warming was “unprecedented” in the last 2000 years. After it became the centerpiece of the UN climate group’s 2001 Third Assessment Report, Canadian analysts Ross McKitrick and Steve McIntyre asked Mann to divulge his data and statistical algorithms. Mann refused. Ultimately, Mc-Mc, the National Science Foundation and investigators led by renowned statistician Edward Wegman found that the hockey stick was based on cherry-picked tree-ring data and a computer program that generated temperature spikes even when random numbers were fed into it.

This year, another “unprecedented” warming study went down in flames. Lead scientist Keith Briffa managed to keep his "lost” (destroyed?) all the original data.

The supposedly “final” text of the IPCC’s 1995 Second Assessment Report emphasized that no studies had found clear evidence that observed climate changes could be attributed to greenhouse gases or other manmade causes. However, without the authors’ and reviewers’ knowledge or approval, lead author Dr. Ben Santer and alarmist colleagues revised the text and inserted the infamous assertion that there is “a discernable human influence” on Earth’s climate.

Highly accurate satellite measurements show no significant global warming, whereas ground-based temperature stations show warming since 1978. However, half of the surface monitoring stations are located close to concrete and asphalt parking lots, window or industrial-size air conditioning exhausts, highways, airport tarmac and even jetliner engines – all of which skew the data upward. The White House, EPA, IPCC and Congress use the deceptive data anyway, to promote their agenda.

With virtually no actual evidence to link CO2 and global warming, the climate chaos community has to rely increasingly on computer models. However, the models do a poor job of portraying an incredibly complex global climate system that scientists are only beginning to understand; assume carbon dioxide is a principle driving force; inadequately handle cloud, solar, precipitation and other critical factors; and incorporate assumptions and data that many experts say are inadequate or falsified. The models crank out (worst-case) climate change scenarios that often conflict with one another. Not one correctly forecast the planetary cooling that began earlier this century, as CO2 levels continued to climb.

Al Gore’s climate cataclysm movie is replete with assertions that are misleading, dishonest or what a British court chastised as “partisan” propaganda about melting ice caps, rising sea levels, hurricanes, malaria, “endangered” polar bears and other issues. But the film garnered him Oscar and Nobel awards, speaking and expert witness appearances, millions of dollars, and star status with UN and congressional interests that want to tax and penalize energy use and economic growth. Perhaps worse, a recent Society of Environmental Journalists meeting made it clear that those supposed professionals are solidly behind Mr. Gore and his apocalyptic beliefs, and will defend him against skeptics.

These and other scandals have slipped past the peer review process that is supposed to prevent them and ensure sound science for a simple reason. Global warming disaster papers are written and reviewed by closely knit groups of scientists, who mutually support one another’s work. The same names appear in different orders on a series of “independent” reports, all of which depend on the same original data, as in the Yamal case. Scientific journals refuse to demand the researchers’ data and methodologies. And as in the case of Briffa, the IPCC and journals typically ignore and refuse to publish contrary studies.

Scandals like these prompted EPA career analyst Alan Carlin to prepare a detailed report, arguing that the agency should not find that CO2 “endangers” human health and welfare, because climate disaster predictions were not based on sound science. EPA suppressed his report and told Carlin not to talk to anyone outside his immediate office, on the ground that his “comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision,” which the agency supposedly would not make for several more weeks.

The endless litany of scandals underscores the inconvenient truth about global warming hysteria. The White House, Congress and United Nations are imperiling our future on the basis of deceptive science, phony “evidence” and worthless computer models. The climate protection racket will enrich Al Gore, alarmist scientists who get the next $89 billion in US government research money, financial institutions that process trillion$$ in carbon trades, and certain companies, like those that recently left the US Chamber of Commerce. For everyone else, it will mean massive pain for no environmental gain.

Still not angry and disgusted? Read Chris Horner’s Red Hot Lies, Lawrence Solomon’s Financial Post articles, Steve Milloy’s Green Hell, and Benny Peiser’s CCNet daily climate policy review. Go to a premier showing of Not Evil Just Wrong.

Then get on your telephone or computer, and tell your legislators and local media this nonsense has got to stop. It may be that none dare call it fraud – but it comes perilously close.

SOURCE






Eliot Spitzer Attack on U.S. Chamber of Commerce is Left-Wing Politics at its Worst

This statement was issued today by Tom Borelli, Ph.D., director of the Free Enterprise Project:

"Eliot Sptizer's commentary in Slate ("Chamber of Horrors") calling for state pension funds to pressure corporations to leave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reminds us of his past efforts to climb the political ladder on the backs of business executives.

Instead of worrying about the Chamber, state officials should be investigating pension funds for potential conflicts of interest and using their shareholder standing to advance the left-wing agenda.

Spitzer's commentary exposes the left-wing strategy of using public money to advance its cause. Spitzer's political motivation is clear: because the Chamber is fighting cap-and-trade and "Card Check" they need to be taken out.

While Attorney General of New York, Spitzer used the power of the state and his sharp elbows to loot business leaders of their property and reputation. Spitzer's legal assault against former New York Stock Exchange head Dick Grasso serves as a prime example. In this case, New York was forced in to a drawn-out legal battle because Grasso and Ken Langone -- a NYSE board member -- refused to genuflect at Spitzer's altar. Spitzer's investigation "included 1,454 hours of depositions" and, ironically, he attacked Grasso's personal life. Spitzer deposed Grasso's secretary and inquired about an affair, and, during his nine-day deposition, Grasso was asked if he had a love child.

Paradoxically, it's the pension funds that need investigation by state officials. For years, state pension funds have been working with labor unions and environmental groups to advance the left-wing agenda, including pressuring corporations to address global warming. Pension funds, facing serious shortfalls, should focus their time and efforts on investment strategies -- not politics.

In fact, a front page story, "Calpers Rocked By 'Pay-to-Play;" in today's Wall Street Journal reports on a possible conflict of interest involving a former board member who "reaped more than $50 million in fees for arranging investments that could saddle state taxpayers with hundreds of millions of dollars in losses."

Spitzer is nothing more than a left-wing political hack leading the charge against liberty and free-markets."

SOURCE






A chilly Chicago

Chicago remains mired in the chilliest early October in 22 years. Its opening 14 days -- with an average temperature of 47.6 degrees -- are well below the 57.3 degrees observed during the same period over the last 138 years -- and chilly enough to rank third coldest since 1871. The only Oct. 1 to 14 periods that have been colder occurred in 1876 (46 degrees) and 1987 (47.5).

Thursday likely will be the 18th straight day of below-normal temperatures and the sixth day highs fail to reach 50 degrees, establishing a record for the most early-season daytime readings that fail to break out of the 40s. With Friday and Saturday predicted to stay in the 40s, the string is likely to end up at seven days, which doesn't usually happen for another five weeks.

SOURCE






Snow in Central Europe brings death, chaos and start to ski season



A shepherd leads his flock through a street in Zakopane, Poland, after heavy snow. The unseasonable weather killed at least four Poles and cut power and heating to hundreds of thousands of homes in Central Europe.

Three people, including a shepherd, froze to death in the mountains of southern Poland and a man died when his car was blown off the road in the north of the country. In northeastern parts of the Czech Republic roads and railway lines were blocked by fallen trees after strong winds and snow about 50cm (20in) deep in the mountains.

Meteorologists said that snow flurries were not uncommon in Poland in October, but the conditions had been unexpectedly severe this week. In the Austrian Alps there has been up to 90cm of snow in the past two days. Several ski resorts in southern Styria have opened their slopes in the earliest start to the season on record.

The CEZ power group declared a state of emergency in eight Czech districts because power lines had been damaged and sent hundreds of workers to repair them. A malfunction in a heating plant left many of the 40,000 residents in Jablonec and Nisou without heat and the mayor was considering closing schools, a Czech news website reported.

Some Polish villagers suffered because they had not yet bought coal for the winter. There was snow in the mountain ranges of eastern Germany and overnight frost in the west, with temperatures falling as low as minus 8.5C (16.5F) (Reuters)

SOURCE





Environmental Swine

by Mike Adams

My friend Mary wrote the other day to tell me of her grandfather’s dilemma. He’s involved in important litigation aimed at saving his farm, his family business, and hundreds of agricultural jobs in North Carolina. His problems have been produced by a series of unfortunate events. Among them is a radical environmental movement that cares more about trees and fish than it does about human beings.

The Bunting family business was started in the 1950s by brothers C.B. and Duck Bunting. It’s a tough business that requires 365 days of work per year. C.B. and his sons still leave the family Christmas Day lunch every year to help load hogs and do other chores around the farm. C.B. is 84 years old but he still physically corrals the hogs into the truck. The work is not just strenuous. It’s dangerous, too.

Basically they grow and sell wean pigs and completely finished pigs through their own stock and a group of contract growers. Through their companies; Bunting Farms (the pig farm), Wilson Milling (a mill that supplies their feed), and Pine Ridge Foods (a plant that packs their own line of pork) they employ 200 to 300 people. They are the largest employer in Micro, NC, and among the largest in Pinetops, NC. Bunting Farms produces 400,000 head of hogs a year, with combined gross billings of $70,000,000 a year. They’ve been a real success in rural North Carolina.

But trouble began a few years back. Grain prices, which account for 75 % of the cost of raising a pig, began to skyrocket. They had been around $2.00 a bushel for over ten years. Then, in the summer of 2008, they hit $8.00 a bushel. This was despite two of the largest corn crops in U.S. History. The principal reason for the price hike was federally mandated use of corn to produce ethanol fuel.

Then the financing issues set in. In June 2008, Bunting Farms asked their banker of 30 years for a 2-3 million dollar line of credit to help them through the storm. Two weeks before their normal loan was to roll over they learned they were not going to receive an additional line of credit. Worse yet, they were not going to roll over their loan.

Imagine having your home mortgage start over each and every year. Further imagine your banker showing up one day and saying “Sorry, we are not going to renew your mortgage. You have two weeks to find and close another loan or we’re taking your house.” This is exactly what happened to the owners of Bunting Farms. And now almost 300 people are out of work. This is truly a tragedy in four parts:

1. Feed prices skyrocket due to radical environmentalist demands for more ethanol based fuels without consideration of consequences to the local farmers.

2. Financial institutions having to tighten lending exposure due to losses incurred during the home financial crisis.

3. Swine flu hysteria leads to a decrease in demand for pork products – all because of the misnaming of a virus that has nothing to do with hogs.

4. Rising labor costs due to a lack of willing migrant workers who would do the work most Americans don’t want to do.

So the problem is complex. But the solution begins with a call for the White House to take the lead on reversing federally mandated use of corn to produce ethanol fuel. Imagine how many jobs we could save if we turned away from ethanol mandates and towards drilling in ANWR.

But don’t hold your breath waiting for help from this White House. Out in California, water has been diverted from the San Joaquin Valley in order to save the two-inch hypomesus transpacificus fish – also known as the delta smelt. This has caused a severe drought in the area with some farming towns like Mendota seeing unemployment numbers of 40%.

In August, fifty mayors from the San Joaquin Valley asked President Obama to come see the devastation first-hand. He refused. Obama previously denied a request to designate California as a federal disaster area. To do so would have acknowledged the fact that Obama’s radical environmental policies are, quite literally, scorched earth policies. Just go to the San Joachim Valley and you’ll see plenty of scorched earth.

There’s little chance President Obama will take interest in the unforeseen effects his policies are having on the hog farming industry. In his part of the world there’s an endless supply of pork. And there’s no shortage of pigs feeding at the government trough.

SOURCE





Non-urban dwellers living near parks are healthier and less depressed

Another variation on an old theme. You would never guess from the media report below that this did NOT apply to city-dwellers (dwellers in "strongly urban areas"), which is an example of why it is important to go back to the original journal article, and the "Results" section of the article at that. I have found many times over the years that the conclusions don't reflect the results. So the findings in fact DISPROVE the claim that green surroundings are generally beneficial. The only reasonable conclusion from the research is that the minority who live in or near the countryside ("slightly urban areas") do so in part because it makes them feel better, which is not much of a discovery. It is just a finding of individual differences, not a finding about greenery in general. Some people like the countryside and some don't

City dwellers living near parks are healthier and suffer fewer bouts of depression, a study has revealed. The study was adjusted to take into account socio-economic background and found that the effect of green surroundings was greatest for people with low levels of education and income.

The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, found that in urban zones where 90 per cent of the area was green space the incidence of anxiety disorders or depression was 18 people per thousand. In areas with only 10 per cent greenery the incidence was 26 per thousand.

The annual rates of more than a dozen disease types, including cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, digestive and mental disorders, were also lower for those living near parks. The impact on health was most marked in people who spent a lot of time in their green surroundings, especially children and people aged 45 to 65.

The findings are based on health records in the Netherlands for nearly 350,000 people registered with 195 family doctors in 95 practices across the country. “The role of green space in the living environment should not be underestimated,” the study concludes.

SOURCE

Abstract follows:

Morbidity is related to a green living environment

By Jolanda Maas1 et al.

Background: Due to increasing urbanisation, people face the prospect of living in environments with few green spaces. There is increasing evidence for a positive relation between green space in people's living environment and self-reported indicators of physical and mental health. This study investigates whether physician assessed morbidity is also related to green space in people's living environment.

Methods: Morbidity data were derived from electronic medical records of 195 general practitioners in 96 Dutch practices, serving a population of 345,143 people. Morbidity was classified by the general practitioners according to the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC). The percentage of green space within a one kilometre and three kilometre radius around the postal code coordinates was derived from an existing database and was calculated for each household. Multilevel logistic regression analyses were performed controlling for demographic and socio-economic characteristics.

Results: The annual prevalence rate of 15 of the 24 disease clusters was lower in living environments with more green space in a 1 km radius. The relation was strongest for anxiety disorder and depression. The relation was stronger for children and people with a lower socio-economic status. Furthermore, the relation was strongest in slightly urban areas and not apparent in very strongly urban areas.

Conclusion: This study indicates that the previously established relation between green space and a number of self-reported general indicators of physical and mental health can also be found for clusters of specific physician assessed morbidity. The study stresses the importance of green space close to home for children and lower socio-economic groups.

J. Epidemiol. Community Health, 2009

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