Sea level only creeping up

There are considerable difficulties in measuring sea level  -- particularly when changes are small.  A big issue is whether land itself is also rising or falling.  Swedish sea-level Nils Axel Morner has been working on the problems involved for many years.  In his latest paper he has found a geologically very stable area that includes 3 tide gauges. Using these gauges, he shows that sea levels have risen only about half an inch over the last 125 years

Deriving the Eustatic Sea Level Component in the Kattaegatt Sea

Author: Nils-Axel Mörner

Abstract:

Changes in global sea level is an issue of much controversy. In the Kattegatt Sea, the glacial isostatic component factor is well established and the axis of tilting has remained stable for the last 8000 years. At the point of zero regional crustal movements, there are three tide gauges indicating a present rise in sea level of 0.8 to 0.9 mm/yr for the last 125 years. This value provides a firm record of the regional eustatic rise in sea level in this part of the globe.

SOURCE





Never-Ending Green Disasters

    by Viv Forbes
   
Newton’s 3rd law of motion, if applied to bureaucracy, would state: “Whenever politicians attempt to force change on a market, the long-big-govt-term results will be equal and opposite to those intended”.

This law explains the never-ending Green energy policy disasters.

Greens have long pretended to be guardians of wild natural places, but their legislative promotion of ethanol biofuel has resulted in massive clearance of tropical forests for palm oil, sugar cane and soy beans.  Their policies have also managed to covert cheap food into expensive motor fuel and degraded land devoted to bush, pastures or crops into mono-cultures of corn for bio-fuel. This has wasted water, increased world hunger and corrupted the political process for zero climate benefits.

Greens also pretend to be protectors of wildlife and habitat but their force-feeding of wind power has uglified wild places and disturbed peaceful neighbourhoods with noisy windmills and networks of access roads and transmission lines. These whirling bird-choppers kill thousands of raptors and bats without attracting the penalties that would be applied heavily to any other energy producers – all this damage to produce trivial amounts of intermittent, expensive and blackout-prone electricity supplies.

Greens have long waged a vicious war on coal, but their parallel war on nuclear power and the predictably intermittent performance of wind/solar energy has forced power generators to turn to hydro-carbon gases to backup green power. But Greens have also made war on shale-gas fracking – this has left countries like Germany with no option but to return to reliable economical coal, or increase their usage of Russian gas and French nuclear power. Their war on coal has lifted world coal usage to a 44 year high.

Greens also say they support renewable energy, but they oppose any expansion of hydro-power, the best renewable energy option. For example, they scuppered the Gordon-below-Franklin hydro-electric project, which would have given Tasmania everlasting cheap green electricity. But they never mention their awkward secret – the Basslink under-sea cable goes to Loy Yang power station in Victoria and allows Tasmania to import coal-powered electricity from the mainland.

Robbie Burns warned us over 200 years ago:

“The best laid schemes of Mice and Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!”

SOURCE





No Denying Climate Change Deniers

People who refuse to drink the Kool-Aid known as global warming-climate change are not just "deniers"; we are guilty of a "nihilistic refusal" to address the issue. So says a Washington Post editorial commenting favorably on Monday's Supreme Court ruling that allows the Environmental Protection Agency, under certain limits, to proceed under the Clean Air Act to regulate major sources of greenhouse-gas emissions.

The actual nihilists are those who refuse to accept any scientific information that undermines their claim that the globe is warming and humans are responsible for it. Cults are like that. Regardless of evidence contradicting their beliefs, cultists persist in blind faith.

Sometimes one must look to sources outside the U.S. to get a better perspective on what is happening.

The London Daily Telegraph’s Christopher Booker, author of "The Real Global Warming Disaster," writes of climate change denier Steve Goddard's U.S. blog Real Science, which he says shows "...how shamelessly manipulated has been one of the world's most influential climate records, the graph of U.S. surface temperature records published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)." Goddard, Booker adds, illustrates "...how, in recent years, NOAA's U.S. Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) has been 'adjusting' its record by replacing real temperatures with data 'fabricated' by computer models. The effect of this has been to downgrade earlier temperatures and to exaggerate those from recent decades to give the impression that the Earth has been warming up much more than is justified by the actual data."

Goddard compared the most recently published graphs with "those based only on temperatures measured at the time." He concludes: "The U.S. has actually been cooling since the '30s, the hottest decade on record; whereas the latest graph, nearly half of it based on 'fabricated' data, shows it to have been warming at a rate equivalent to more than 3 degrees centigrade per century."

If that isn't a smoking gun, what is?

Last month, President Obama issued a proclamation for “National Hurricane Preparedness Week." He said, "As the climate continues to warm, hurricane intensity and rainfall are projected to increase."

Except many believe the climate is not continuing to warm (see above) and that there has been no significant warming for 17 years (see more at climatedepot.com). As for hurricanes, USA Today reported last month: "...the nation is enjoying two record streaks for a lack of hurricanes: It's been nine years since the last hit from a 'major' hurricane and also nine years since a hurricane of any sort hit Florida, traditionally the most hurricane-prone state in the nation. ... A 'major' hurricane is a Category 3, 4, or 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale of Hurricane Intensity; the minimum wind speed for a major hurricane is 111 mph." (Despite its fury and the high death toll, Hurricane Sandy's wind speeds did not fall under the official category of a "major" hurricane when it touched down.)

The global warmers are the ones refusing to discuss, debate or even mention the growing body of science questioning and in increasing instances disproving their theories. They also mostly ignore news of manipulated climate models and the serious concerns of scientists who no longer believe the climate is changing significantly.

Many in the media, including some newspaper editorial pages, refuse to broadcast or print information that challenges and in some cases refutes arguments about global warming, claiming it is "settled science." It is nothing of the kind, as any open-minded person can see by a simple Google search.

This is about government gaining more control over the lives of its citizens. Already they are in our bathrooms, our cars, our light bulbs and so many other areas that have the cumulative effect of encroaching on our freedoms. Government is not the final arbiter of truth, yet the global-warming cultists worship at its shrine.

Polls show the public has far greater concerns. An April Gallup Poll affirms previous findings: "...warming has generally ranked last among Americans' environmental worries each time Gallup has measured them with this question over the years.

So exactly who are the real nihilists and deniers?

SOURCE




Global Warming (Snowstorms) Killed Obamanomics?

Wow. Remember when everyone was predicting 3 percent GDP growth for 2014? Apparently the “experts” were a little off. (Seriously… Economists, meteorologists, and global warming scientists must have pretty awesome job security.) It turns out that the first quarter of 2014 actually contracted 2.9 percent. Yeah, we just saw the largest revision between second and third estimates of GDP since 1976.

So what caused this (apparently) unpredictable drop in economic activity? Well… According to CNBC, it can all be chalked up to snowstorms in January and February (which are clearly freak occurrences due to global warming). Maybe we can just have Obama sign an executive order that bans winter weather?

Um… Right. Several inches of global warming snow killed the economy in early 2014. I mean, it was no hurricane, or earthquake, or apocalyptic zombie virus outbreak, but it was still “extreme” weather, right? After all, there weren’t any broken levies, flooded New York City boroughs, or state-wide wildfires… But, yeah: snow caused the economy to shrink by nearly three percent. (Well, Bill de Blasio did keep all those rich Manhattan residents snowed in for a few weeks; but I don’t think the postponement of their Neiman Marcus shopping trips caused a massive contraction in GDP for the first quarter.)

Heck, with the way the Administration is trying to shift blame for poor economic performance, I’m almost expecting them to somehow blame Q1 GDP on a computer crash… Assuming that winter weather is the reason (which I’m kinda inclined to doubt), then we must have a pretty fragile “recovery” going on. The idea that GDP could be dampened by some heavy seasonal snowstorms is plausible; but if Father Winter is responsible for the single largest decline in economic output in five years, then our “recovery” is about as fragile as Hillary Clinton’s sense of reality.

But, wait a minute! I thought the Obamacare premium hikes were going to save us from this awful trend of disappointing GDP growth. Remember? Because that’s what the official White House Spin Doctor had to say when the first round of disappointing estimates were released:

So, let me get this straight: We were pinning our hopes of an economic expansion on skyrocketing healthcare inflation? “I know you can’t afford your rent, clothing or food… But look at your massive insurance premium. Aren’t we a prosperous bunch?”

But even with the burden blessing of Obamacare-induced increases in healthcare spending, we managed to see economic activity grind to a halt in January and February of 2014. (Apparently, the Obamacare price hikes hadn’t yet had their impact on the recovery-weary public.) So, again, we ask why did the Q1 GDP disappoint in the midst of our great Obamanomics comeback? Because people don’t buy things when it snows? (I mean, aside from snow shovels, winter clothing, hot water heaters, space heaters, scarves, insulated windows, de-icer, alcohol, dinners, movie rentals, books, health insurance, etc.)

Oh… But those people that originally told us we would expand by three percent in 2014, are now telling us that things are getting better. And who wouldn’t believe the group of experts who were surprised by the initial report of 0.1 percent growth? Especially when they were equally shocked by the subsequent revisions to that number, which ultimately showed a contraction of 2.9 percent…

So things are better, right? I mean, we just saw higher inflation than anticipated, with negative GDP, stagnant wages, and record-low labor force participation; but sure… Obamanomics is a big success.

Now, if we could just hike gas prices up a little, maybe we can make the 1970s jealous.

SOURCE





EPA employees warned to stop defecating in the hallways

I hope this is a spoof but I fear it is not

Employees ith the Environmental Protection Agency were recently warned to keep their bathroom habits in the bathroom.

According to communications obtained by Government Executive, employees of a Denver, Colorado office of the EPA were admonished for what the publication described as “inappropriate bathroom behavior.”

* In the email, obtained by Government Executive, Deputy Regional Administrator Howard Cantor mentioned “several incidents” in the building, including clogging the toilets with paper towels and “an individual placing feces in the hallway” outside the restroom.

Apparently, this EPA office needed to “consult” with a workplace violence expert on the matter in order to ascertain that leaving human feces in office hallways was “very dangerous.”

When asked for a statement, EPA spokesman Richard Mylott refused to comment on what he called “ongoing personnel matters” at the Denver office.

SOURCE




Now EPA says it can't find emails requested by Congress because of hard drive crash

How thin can an excuse get?

Does the federal government have any systems at all to back its email archives? Maybe not, because the Environmental Protection Agency is now using the same excuse as the IRS is using in response to a Congressional subpoena: the computer ate our homework.

In a hearing Wednesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said the agency was still trying to recover the emails from a now-retired employee who was involved in a controversial EPA evaluation of a proposed mine project in Alaska's Bristol Bay.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., asked McCarthy: "Were all of his emails preserved according to the Federal Records Act or was a law violated?"

McCarthy responded: "I think we have notified the appropriate authorities that we may have some emails that we cannot produce that we should have kept. I do not know yet whether we can recover all of these or not." She added that later: "We are not sure where the failure came from and what it is attributed to."

A committee aide told the National Journal that an apparent hard drive crash in 2010 is preventing the recovery. The crash reportedly happened right around the same time that the committee first started expressing an interest in the emails.

The former EPA employee in question was Philip North, a fish biologist. North contributed to an agency study released in January that said a proposed mining project in the Bristol Bay area could hurt the salmon population. The agency has not been able to recovery any emails from him from 2002 through 2010.

The EPA's Inspector General is probing some possible "collusion" between people inside the agency and environmental groups opposed to mining regarding the report's recommendations. "I look forward to his report," McCarthy said.

McCarthy said the agency was still trying to recover some of the emails, but that this has been complicated by the fact that they have lost contact with North, who is reportedly on an extended trip to New Zealand. The agency first told the National Archives of the problem on Tuesday, but had not told the committee until Wednesday.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., was incredulous: "Two different government agencies tried to convince Congress and the American people this week that emails disappear into thin air. We didn’t believe it when we heard it from the IRS and I’m not inclined to believe the EPA’s excuses. The Federal Records Act is very clear. This is either willful ignorance on the part of the EPA or gross incompetence. I hope the EPA will follow through and turn over the relevant information it promised to the Oversight Committee months ago."

SOURCE

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