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Title: The Climate Change Climate Change
Source:
WSJ
URL Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124597505076157449.html
Published: Jun 26, 2009
Author: KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
Post Date: 2009-06-28 01:55:10 by farmfriend
Ping List: *Agriculture-Environment* Subscribe to *Agriculture-Environment*
Keywords: None
Views: 145
Comments: 13
The number of skeptics is swelling everywhere. By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL Steve Fielding recently asked the Obama administration to reassure him on the science of man-made global warming. When the administration proved unhelpful, Mr. Fielding decided to vote against climate-change legislation. If you haven't heard of this politician, it's because he's a member of the Australian Senate. As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to pass a climate-change bill, the Australian Parliament is preparing to kill its own country's carbon-emissions scheme. Why? A growing number of Australian politicians, scientists and citizens once again doubt the science of human-caused global warming. Among the many reasons President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority are so intent on quickly jamming a cap-and-trade system through Congress is because the global warming tide is again shifting. It turns out Al Gore and the United Nations (with an assist from the media), did a little too vociferous a job smearing anyone who disagreed with them as "deniers." The backlash has brought the scientific debate roaring back to life in Australia, Europe, Japan and even, if less reported, the U.S. In April, the Polish Academy of Sciences published a document challenging man-made global warming. In the Czech Republic, where President Vaclav Klaus remains a leading skeptic, today only 11% of the population believes humans play a role. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to tap Claude Allegre to lead the country's new ministry of industry and innovation. Twenty years ago Mr. Allegre was among the first to trill about man-made global warming, but the geochemist has since recanted. New Zealand last year elected a new government, which immediately suspended the country's weeks-old cap-and-trade program. The number of skeptics, far from shrinking, is swelling. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe now counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the U.N. -- 13 times the number who authored the U.N.'s 2007 climate summary for policymakers. Joanne Simpson, the world's first woman to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology, expressed relief upon her retirement last year that she was finally free to speak "frankly" of her nonbelief. Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist who contributed to a U.N. climate report, dubs man-made warming "the worst scientific scandal in history." Norway's Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner for physics, decries it as the "new religion." A group of 54 noted physicists, led by Princeton's Will Happer, is demanding the American Physical Society revise its position that the science is settled. (Both Nature and Science magazines have refused to run the physicists' open letter.) The collapse of the "consensus" has been driven by reality. The inconvenient truth is that the earth's temperatures have flat-lined since 2001, despite growing concentrations of C02. Peer-reviewed research has debunked doomsday scenarios about the polar ice caps, hurricanes, malaria, extinctions, rising oceans. A global financial crisis has politicians taking a harder look at the science that would require them to hamstring their economies to rein in carbon. Credit for Australia's own era of renewed enlightenment goes to Dr. Ian Plimer, a well-known Australian geologist. Earlier this year he published "Heaven and Earth," a damning critique of the "evidence" underpinning man-made global warming. The book is already in its fifth printing. So compelling is it that Paul Sheehan, a noted Australian columnist -- and ardent global warming believer -- in April humbly pronounced it "an evidence-based attack on conformity and orthodoxy, including my own, and a reminder to respect informed dissent and beware of ideology subverting evidence." Australian polls have shown a sharp uptick in public skepticism; the press is back to questioning scientific dogma; blogs are having a field day. The rise in skepticism also came as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, elected like Mr. Obama on promises to combat global warming, was attempting his own emissions-reduction scheme. His administration was forced to delay the implementation of the program until at least 2011, just to get the legislation through Australia's House. The Senate was not so easily swayed. Mr. Fielding, a crucial vote on the bill, was so alarmed by the renewed science debate that he made a fact-finding trip to the U.S., attending the Heartland Institute's annual conference for climate skeptics. He also visited with Joseph Aldy, Mr. Obama's special assistant on energy and the environment, where he challenged the Obama team to address his doubts. They apparently didn't. This week Mr. Fielding issued a statement: He would not be voting for the bill. He would not risk job losses on "unconvincing green science." The bill is set to founder as the Australian parliament breaks for the winter. Republicans in the U.S. have, in recent years, turned ever more to the cost arguments against climate legislation. That's made sense in light of the economic crisis. If Speaker Nancy Pelosi fails to push through her bill, it will be because rural and Blue Dog Democrats fret about the economic ramifications. Yet if the rest of the world is any indication, now might be the time for U.S. politicians to re-engage on the science. One thing for sure: They won't be alone.
The Climate Change Climate Change
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#1. To: farmfriend (#0)
I wish all of the malarky about "CO2" in the atmosphere would get dumped into the nearest recycling bin, and then we would instead focus on mandating that all plastics manufactured world-wide absolutely MUST be bio- degradable over a reasonable time, and then we could put some money into creating plastic harvesting ships that could trawl through the enormous "dead zones" in our oceans, scoop up the millions of tons of CRAP floating there that will NEVER degrade on its own, and burn that vile slop using onboard plasma furnaces. We have taken our oceans for granted for way too long, treating them in ways that are simply unspeakable. It's long past time we did something to prevent any further damage and then acted to repair the damage already done.
 | Gold and silver are REAL money, paper is but a promise. |
#2. To: Elliott Jackalope (#1)
Most plastics, that is. Don't want my rifle stocks to be degrading. Other than items we should label on the packaging "WILL NOT DEGRADE" - that is an outstanding idea and would do more for the environment than Cap And Tax ever will.
focus on mandating that all plastics manufactured world-wide absolutely MUST be bio- degradable over a reasonable time
#3. To: farmfriend (#0)
More scientists know this is merely a social engineering plan being forced down our throats yet the Wizard of Oz maintains his happy course guiding the USA over a cliff whilst the media calls him "intellectually curious, intelligent," and a whole bunch of other nonsense.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
#4. To: mirage, Elliott Jackalope (#2)
Yes but the goal of those pushing this is not a clean environment but control of the energy market.
that is an outstanding idea and would do more for the environment than Cap And Tax ever will.
"The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty - that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men."
--George Washington, General Orders, August 23, 1776
#5. To: IndieTX (#3)
Well, you have to appreciate the context of all of this. Compared to our previous pResident, your average gerbil would be able to be described as "intellectually curious and intelligent". God, I swear, I cannot even THINK of George W. Bush without wanting to smash something. But he did do one good thing for me: I will never, ever, ever, ever, EVER even THINK of voting for ANY Republican candidate for ANY office EVER again for as long as I live, EVER. Any party that could inflict a walking abortion like that despicable pile of offal upon our nation is a party that has earned the lifelong disdain and distrust of every decent American.
yet the Wizard of Oz maintains his happy course guiding the USA over a cliff whilst the media calls him "intellectually curious, intelligent," and a whole bunch of other nonsense.
| Gold and silver are REAL money, paper is but a promise. |
#6. To: Elliott Jackalope (#5) (Edited)
By the time the messiah gets through with us, I don't see you ever voting for a democrat (code for leftist fascist) ever again, either. (Actually, that should have happened after Johnson, Klinton, Karter anyway)
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
#7. To: IndieTX (#6)
Clinton was no prize, believe me, but then again I can look back on the Clinton years and go "hey, we had an ECONOMY back then". You know, with jobs and stuff like that. Remember those? Yeah, that was great. But then George W. Bush got elected, and as the Onion put it, "Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity finally came to an end..." I'm not a fan of the Democrats, believe me. But as much as I dislike them, I don't have the same feeling that the George W. Bush era gave me of having been utterly and completely betrayed, sold out, ripped off, swindled, screwed over, stabbed in the back, thrown under the bus, lied to, rammed up the ass, tossed into the bushes and then peed on while being told it was raining - all with no candy, no flowers... and no lube. I live in a town where candidates often go door-to-door trying to win support for their campaigns. If one comes to my door, I have one question for them: What party are you in? If the answer is Republican, I'm going to inform them that I cannot vote for them for three reasons. George. W. Bush. Then I'm going to slam the door in their face.
| Gold and silver are REAL money, paper is but a promise. |
#8. To: Elliott Jackalope (#7)
Yes, the Greenspan Bubble was quite the ride, wasn't it?
I can look back on the Clinton years and go "hey, we had an ECONOMY back then".
#9. To: Elliott Jackalope (#7)
Wow, uninformed much?
I can look back on the Clinton years and go "hey, we had an ECONOMY back then".
#10. To: Elliott Jackalope, farmfriend, Wudidiz, christine, TwentyTwelve, all (#1)
We have taken our oceans for granted for way too long, treating them in ways that are simply unspeakable. It's long past time we did something to prevent any further damage and then acted to repair the damage already done. Uh, uh,uh! The Oil Barons wouldn't like that. Plastics are manufactured from petrochemicals and it would be bad for profits. Petrochemical plastics would go up in price making alternatives more attractive. The poor widdle Oil Barons might have to hire another PR Firm. More and more I'm convinced that: A. GlowBull Warming is a scam to stick another siphon in people's already threadbare pockets.I wish all of the malarky about "CO2" in the atmosphere would get dumped into the nearest recycling bin, and then we would instead focus on mandating that all plastics manufactured world-wide absolutely MUST be bio- degradable over a reasonable time, and then we could put some money into creating plastic harvesting ships that could trawl through the enormous "dead zones" in our oceans, scoop up the millions of tons of CRAP floating there that will NEVER degrade on its own, and burn that vile slop using onboard plasma furnaces.
B. That it is another CONTROL mechanism to further reduce individual liberty.
C. That it is a diversion and cover Op to distract from other real and pressing environmental problems such as despoilage of the environment by the Petrochemical Industry i.e., the Oil Barons.
"I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology...It's importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda...Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated." Bertrand Russel, Eugenicist and Logician
#11. To: Elliott Jackalope (#7)
Clinton cut taxes in '97 and that's when the economy really took off. Unfortunately he also repealed the Glass-Steagall Act ('99) and that really let the piggies out of the sty.
#12. To: Original_Intent (#10)
A. GlowBull Warming is a scam to stick another siphon in people's already threadbare pockets. B. That it is another CONTROL mechanism to further reduce individual liberty. C. That it is a diversion and cover Op to distract from other real and pressing environmental problems such as despoilage of the environment by the Petrochemical Industry i.e., the Oil Barons. That is exactly what it is. It was my work dealing with AGW that made me a believer in global elitist conspiracy. They use the green movement to control natural resources and agriculture. Now they are using AGW to control the energy market.
More and more I'm convinced that:
"The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty - that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men."
--George Washington, General Orders, August 23, 1776
#13. To: farmfriend, all (#12)
95% of Americans will see no new taxes...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... HUSSEIN will take every last dime you make one way or another, this in his effort to redistribute wealth. Oh by the way, he's redistributing it from the poor and middle class to the extremely wealthy...oops suckers...WOW all you silly sheep who fell for his crap hook line and sinker. You all bought the Mother of all con jobs.
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