Heliogenic Climate Change

“[Republican candidate for governor of California Meg] Whitman issued a statement again slamming [California's "global warming"] law, referred to as AB32, calling it a “job-killing regulation.” She previously made critical comments in Orange County on Tuesday, when she formally announced her campaign for the GOP nomination next year.

The global warming law, a Democratic initiative that Schwarzenegger signed in 2006, mandates that the state cut its emissions of greenhouse gases 25 percent by 2020. …

Whitman has recently slung a steady barrage of mud at the law. She cited a recent study estimating that AB32 could cost California more than a million jobs, while the costs to implement it could exceed $100 billion. …

“Three years ago when the bill was signed, the unemployment rate was 4.9 percent with 883,000 Californians unemployed. Today, we have 12.2 percent unemployment, with 2.2 million Californians out of work,” she said. …

“I reject radical environmental policies that do little for the environment and devastate California’s economic future,” [Whitman] said. “Liberal environmentalists may not like jobs or people, but California needs both.”" “Schwarzenegger defends legacy from Whitman attack“
-

“Global warming lawsuits [Earth to enviros: the planet has been cooling for a decade] brought by New York State and others who challenged major utilities on carbon-dioxide emissions from coal-burning power plants were reinstated Monday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Southern District Judge Loretta A. Preska had dismissed the suits against American Electric Power Co. and five other operators of fossil-fuel-fired power plants in 2005, finding that the plaintiffs — eight states in all, New York City and three private land trusts — had pleaded a federal common law of nuisance action that was non-justiciable under the political questions doctrine.

But 2nd Circuit Judges Joseph M. McLaughlin and Peter W. Hall disagreed, finding there was no need for the trial court to defer to the political branches and refrain from hearing the suit until there is a definitive policy statement on global warming from Congress and the president. …

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo released a statement Monday saying, “This is a game-changing decision for New York and other states, reaffirming our right to take direct action against global warming pollution from power plants. Today’s decision allows us to press this crucial case forward and address the dangers posed by these coal-burning power plants.” …

McLaughlin and Hall found the federal common law of nuisance governs the plaintiffs’ claims …

The states’ complaint warns the earth’s climate could undergo “an abrupt and dramatic change when a ‘radiative forcing agent’ causes the Earth’s climate to reach a tipping point.” The states allege that these changes will have a severe impact on their environments, residents and property.” “2nd Circuit Revives Suit Targeting Power Plant CO2 Emissions“

“California’s drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley [f]armers, families and food are being held hostage to an endangered fish called the delta smelt.

There was a time when the San Joaquin Valley was the most productive agricultural region in the world. It was a large part of what made the Golden State golden.

Now it’s a place where farmers no longer farm, but instead line up at food banks to feed the families of those who once fed the rest of the country and a good chunk of the world.

The largest man-made agricultural disaster since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s is unfolding in the valley due to yet another attempt to protect a fish declared to be threatened under the Endangered Species Act. This damage is being done to protect the hypomesus transpacificus, otherwise known as the delta smelt.

Last December the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in its finite wisdom, issued something called a biological opinion imposing water restrictions on the San Joaquin Valley and surrounding areas to protect the habitat of this tiny fish. The authorities forget the species homo sapiens, also part of the ecosystem, is threatened.

Its habitat is being destroyed — by government edict.

To protect the smelt, billions of gallons of water from the mountains east and north of Sacramento have been channeled away from farms and into the ocean, while farmers watched their crops wither and their once-productive land become barren.

Kern County authorities say that 145,000 acres that are usually irrigated with this water were killed or underirrigated last year. The loss was estimated at $100 million in that county alone. The University of California, Davis, estimates that San Joaquin Valley farm revenue losses ranged from $482 million to $647 million. Total economic losses could hit $3 billion this year.

In affected areas, the jobless rate is at 14%, with farming towns such as Mendota experiencing unemployment near 40%. In August, 50 valley mayors signed a letter to President Obama asking him to come and witness the devastation firsthand.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he “doesn’t have the authority to turn on the pumps” that the feds have ordered turned off. In June, the administration denied his request to designate California a federal disaster area because of the drought even though the U.S. Drought Monitor lists 43% of the state as being under “severe drought” conditions.” “Fish vs. farmers“

“[G]overnor [Schwarzenegger] is still fighting to convince all Californians the state should go full steam ahead with its climate change plans, but he said he would not back down.

He argued that California’s economy would boom thanks to the push to cleaner technology, including a requirement he signed last week that 33 percent of state electricity come from renewable sources by 2020 and the most aggressive energy efficiency plan by a U.S. state, announced by regulators on Thursday.” “Schwarzenegger Vows to Go ‘Green’ for Obama“

“A tiny car company backed by former Vice President Al Gore has just gotten a $529 million U.S. government loan to help build a hybrid sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89,000.

The award this week to California startup Fisker Automotive Inc. follows a $465 million government loan to Tesla Motors Inc., purveyors of a $109,000 British-built electric Roadster. Tesla, like Fisker, is a California startup focusing on high-end hybrids, with a number of celebrity endorsements that is backed by investors that have contributed to Democratic campaigns.

The awards to Fisker and Tesla have prompted concern from companies that have had their bids for loans rejected, and criticism from groups that question why vehicles aimed at the wealthiest customers are getting loans subsidized by taxpayers.

“This is not for average Americans,” said Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, an anti-tax group in Washington. “This is for people to put something in their driveway that is a conversation piece. It’s status symbol thing.” …

Fisker’s top investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a veteran Silicon Valley venture-capital firm of which Gore is a partner. Employees of KPCB have donated more than $2.2 million to political campaigns, mostly for Democrats, including President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign contributions. …

Asked whether Mr. Gore had any influence on Fisker’s application, the DOE’s Rogers said, “None at all.”" “Gore-Backed Car Firm Gets Large U.S. Loan“

“Given that we are now only 74 days from the Copenhagen summit, which was supposed to frame the successor agreement to Kyoto that would stop climate change in its tracks, this is depressing. Perhaps the only people not suddenly depressed are those immersed in the negotiations [and climate realists!]. With more than a thousand points still to be agreed, all the policymakers I’ve spoken to recently say that they cannot see how a meaningful deal can be reached by December in Copenhagen.” “We won’t be able to save the world in 74 days“
-

“Droughts, acidic oceans and melting glaciers are signs of accelerated global warming, a United Nations Environment Program report said on Thursday.

The pace of climate change is surpassing the worst-case scenarios scientists predicted in 2007, a UN report said on Thursday, according to Reuters. Droughts, acidic ocean waters and melting glaciers are some of these telltale signs.

“We are headed to very serious changes in our planet and we need to appreciate how serious it is in order to lend support to the transformational policy measures that need to be taken,” Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), told reporters.” “UN: Climate change surpasses worst-case scenarios“

“Climate researchers now predict the planet will warm by 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century even if the world’s leaders fulfill their most ambitious climate pledges, a much faster and broader scale of change than forecast just two years ago, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations Environment Program.

The new overview of global warming research [is] aimed at marshaling political support for a new international climate pact by the end of the year …

The increase is nearly double what scientists and world policymakers have identified as the upper limit of warming the world can afford in order to avert catastrophic climate change. …

[Gore friend, Teresa Heinz Foundation activist, and chairman of the international Climate Action Initiative Robert] Corell … noted that global carbon emissions are still rising. “It’s accelerating,” he said. “We’re not going in the right direction.” …

Other findings include the fact that sea level might rise by as much as six feet by 2100 instead of 1.5 feet, as the IPCC had projected, and the Arctic may experience a sea-ice summer by 2030, rather than by the end of the century.” “New Analysis Brings Dire Forecast Of 6.3-Degree Temperature Increase“
-

“Ice is expanding in much of Antarctica, contrary to the widespread public belief that global warming is melting the continental ice cap. …

Antarctica has 90 per cent of the Earth’s ice and 80 per cent of its fresh water. Extensive melting of Antarctic ice sheets would be required to raise sea levels substantially, and ice is melting in parts of west Antarctica [primarily the antarctic peninsula]. …

However, the picture is very different in east Antarctica …

East Antarctica is four times the size of west Antarctica and parts of it are cooling. The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research report prepared for last week’s meeting of Antarctic Treaty nations in Washington noted the South Pole had shown “significant cooling in recent decades“.

Australian Antarctic Division glaciology program head Ian Allison said sea ice losses in west Antarctica over the past 30 years had been more than offset by increases in the Ross Sea region, just one sector of east Antarctica. …

Ice core drilling in the fast ice off Australia’s Davis Station in East Antarctica by the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-Operative Research Centre shows that last year, the ice had a maximum thickness of 1.89m, its densest in 10 years. The average thickness of the ice at Davis since the 1950s is 1.67m.

A paper to be published soon by the British Antarctic Survey in the journal Geophysical Research Letters is expected to confirm that over the past 30 years, the area of sea ice around the continent has expanded.” “Revealed: Antarctic ice growing, not shrinking“

“France, Italy and several other European Union countries weighed their chances of haggling up their EU carbon emissions quotas on Thursday, one day after Poland and Estonia successfully challenged theirs in court.

The two east European countries won their appeal on Wednesday for more generous caps on industrial emissions in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the EU’s main tool for ratcheting down gases blamed for climate change.

The ruling by the European Court of First Instance, the bloc’s second highest court, threw European carbon markets into uncertainty and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) asked countries to refrain from challenging their own quotas. …

“We call on all member states to hold back from attempting to make use of a loophole that simply has to be closed for the carbon market, and European climate policy, to continue on a sound footing,” IETA said in a statement. …

Elsewhere there was little sign of restraint, with Italy complaining about its quotas and Lithuania and the Czech Republic optimistic about their own pending court appeals. …

Lithuania and the Czech Republic, which are pursuing a similar appeal to Poland, were encouraged by Wednesday’s court decision. …

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had already written last week to the European Commission pointing out the country’s difficulties with meeting carbon quotas, an Italian government spokesman said. …

Several European Union countries, including France, are also discussing the possibility of increasing carbon emissions permits in a reserve fund for new businesses entering the ETS, an EU diplomat said.” “Europe wrangles over carbon emissions quotas“

Let’s see, the planet’s been cooling for a decade, the oceans have been cooling in recent years, ice is accumulating in the antarctic, the arctic was warmer in the 1930s and 1940s than today, but recently ocean currents have shifted, as they periodically do, temporarily bringing warmer water northward, and somehow this must be a man made calamity:

“Scientists say it’s a natural process — in one period the cold waters will have the upper hand, and in the next it’s the other way round. But the rapidly increasing temperatures of the subtropical oceans suggest that the balance could be tilted beyond natural variability, [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute scientist Ruth] Curry says.

“We’ve actually measured the waters at their source and have seen their temperature going up, up, up in a way that can’t be explained without taking into account human influences,” she says. …

Helge Drange, professor of oceanography at Norway’s University of Bergen [says] “This can only be understood as a combined effect of natural variability and manmade warming” …

To many scientists, however, the shifts in ocean currents are no cause for celebration. Even if there’s natural variability, there’s concern that global warming may make the fluctuations more extreme.

And while some species thrive in warmer water, others that live on the edge of the Arctic, such as polar bears and seals, find their habitat melting away.

“We’re heading off to a climate extreme and this is just going to snowball,” says Curry, reflecting on the state of the global climate on the Greenpeace icebreaker hosting the Woods Hole research team.

“I think that we’ve done it, really kicked Earth’s climate system. And that says a lot,” she says. “It’s a beast. It’s huge. And to have moved it in as short a period of time as a 100 years, basically, to have done that is enormous.”” “Warming ocean melts Greenland glaciers, alters marine ecosystems” h/t reader Larry

“[T]he California Energy Commission is considering a plan that would effectively ban televisions 40 inches wide and larger through strict energy consumption standards. These luxury electronics pose no real threat to the environment. But they are easy targets for egalitarians, who are offended by symbols of wealth and consumption.

What’s next? What other feature of modern life will the environmentalists attack? Which convenience will they demonize? How much of the last century’s advancement do they want to reverse?

The public needs to understand the environmentalists’ goals before we’re driven back to the age of the outhouse.” “Going back in time“

“Estonia and Poland have scored deeply significant wins in their battle with the EU over carbon quotas. In a decision that threatens to scupper Europe’s cap and trade scheme, the Court of First Instance annulled the European Commission’s decision to lower the carbon emission quotas of both countries.

The court said setting carbon limits is a matter for member states rather than the EU. The ruling could force the European Commission to review its quotas and undermine the fledgling carbon market. …

Under the scheme countries get a certain allowance of carbon emissions rights which they apply to industry, such as power plants and steel mills.

“The Commission exceeded its powers” by imposing a ceiling on carbon emissions, said the EU Court of First Instance, Europe’s second highest court, in its statement. …

The news sparked concern among EU carbon market participants that the ruling, if upheld, could cause an unravelling of the market, which depends on a tight cap on emissions. …

EU member states alone had the power to take final decisions fixing the quota, the court said on Wednesday. The Commission only had powers to review the quotas, and was wrong to dismiss these solely on the grounds of unreliable data, it added.” “Court decision threatens to unravel Europe’s carbon market” h/t CCNet
-

“There is a battle for America’s behinds.

It is a fight over toilet paper …

It’s a menace, environmental groups say — and a dark-comedy example of American excess.

The reason, they say, is that plush U.S. toilet paper is usually made by chopping down and grinding up trees that were decades or even a century old. They want Americans, like Europeans, to wipe with tissue made from recycled paper goods. …

Toilet paper is far from being the biggest threat to the world’s forests: together with facial tissue, it accounts for 5 percent of the U.S. forest-products industry, according to industry figures. …

But environmentalists say 5 percent is still too much.

Felling these trees removes a valuable scrubber of carbon dioxide, they say. …

But despite environmentalists’ concerns, [big tissue makers] say customers are unwavering in their desire for the softest paper possible.

“That’s a segment [of consumers] that is quite demanding of products that are soft,” said James Malone, a spokesman for Georgia-Pacific. Sales figures seem to make that clear: Quilted Northern Ultra Plush, the three-ply stuff, sold 24 million packages in the past year, bringing in more than $144 million, according to the market research firm Information Resources Inc.” “Environmentalists Seek to Wipe Out Plush Toilet Paper“

“To Energy Secretary Steven Chu, we are children who need parental help in grasping the threat of global warming. Beware of federal officials with superiority complexes.

Speaking Monday at a Washington conference in which he sketched out plans to develop a smart grid to carry electricity, Chu nagged the public over its lack of urgency in cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

“The American public . . . just like your teenage kids, aren’t acting in a way that they should act,” he said. “The American public has to really understand in their core how important this issue is.”

Chu’s handlers issued a statement later in the day insisting that their boss “was not comparing the public to teenagers.” But he clearly was doing just that. The fact that his comment needed to be clarified indicates he realized he came off as condescending, not that he felt he’d been misunderstood.” “Scolding gets old“
-

“Solar thermal company BrightSource Inc has dropped plans to build a solar power plant in the Mojave Desert, losing a battle with environmentalists and a U.S. senator who want to preserve the surrounding area.

Privately held BrightSource had applied with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to build a 500-megawatt solar thermal power plant at the Broadwell Dry Lake area in California.

The project site is part of a larger area that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, wants to make into a national monument.

“We have ceased all activity at the Broadwell site,” BrightSource spokesman Keely Wachs told the Los Angeles Times.” Link

“Millions of children could die because cash for food aid is diverted to tackle climate change, Oxfam has warned.

As part of a global climate change deal to be agreed in Copenhagen in December, the rich world is being asked to come up with billions of pounds to help developing countries cope with global warming. …

However aid agencies are becoming increasingly concerned that the money will be diverted from existing funds to help countries deal with poverty, child malnutrition, Aids and other issues.

A new Oxfam report has warned that at least 4.5 million children could die, more than 75 million fewer children are likely to attend school and 8.6 million fewer people could have access to HIV/Aids treatment if aid is diverted to help poor countries tackle climate change.” “More than 4.5m children will die if money for aid is diverted to climate change – Oxfam“

“People who emit more than their fair share of carbon emissions are having their pay docked in a trial that could lead to rationing being reintroduced via the workplace after an absence of half a century.

Britain’s first employee carbon rationing scheme is about to be extended, after the trial demonstrated the effectiveness of fining people for exceeding their personal emissions target. Unlike the energy-saving schemes adopted by thousands of companies, the rationing scheme monitors employees’ personal emissions, including home energy bills, petrol purchases and holiday flights.

Workers who take a long-haul flight are likely to be fined for exceeding their annual ration unless they take drastic action in other areas, such as switching off the central heating or cutting out almost all car journeys. Employees are required to submit quarterly reports detailing their consumption. They are also set a target, which reduces each year, for the amount of carbon they can emit.

Those who exceed their ration pay a fine for every kilogram they emit over the limit. The money is deducted from their pay and the level of the fine is printed on payslips. Those who consume less than their ration are rewarded at the same rate per kilogram. …

Stuart McLachlan, the managing director, [was] fined. Mr McLachlan tried to cut his carbon footprint by buying a bike and cycling 12 miles to work from Richmond, Surrey, to Chancery Lane, in Central London. He also installed energy-saving lightbulbs, but he still exceeded his ration — and was fined £100 — because he flew to his holiday home in South Africa. …

WSP is planning to expand its rationing scheme next year to cover 3,000 employees in offices around the world.” “Staff in carbon footprint trial face £100 fines for high emissions“

“

For more than a quarter century controversy has embroiled the scientific community over whether carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas formed from burning fossil fuels, is causing increased global temperatures with catastrophic consequences. This is also called anthropogenic global warming (AGW). Many supporters of AGW are adamant in their views and refuse to acknowledge the existence of scientists or the science that refutes their views. Some [AGW] advocates could be described as self-assured, arrogant, and using unflattering terms to describe those who disagree with them. …

After WWI, a movement was started to promote accomplishments of German physicists which soon took on racial aspects because these accomplishments were restricted to Aryan or German physicists <www.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeutschePhysik>. Thousands joined this movement and notable members where Nobel Prize Winners Johannes Stark and Philipp Lenard. Naturally, Aryan Physics excluded the works of Jewish scientists; most famous being Albert Einstein. …

They saw that the works of Jewish scientists were stricken from textbooks, papers could not be published in scientific journals, research funds denied, and finally by the mid 1930s, employment with universities or research institutions terminated. Jewish science was ignored. Supporters of Aryan Physics could be described as self-assured, arrogant, and using unflattering names to describe Jewish scientists. …

Finally Aryan Physics fell apart because it was recognized the Secrets of the Universe could not be unlocked without use of Einstein’s Theories. …

The behavior of many AGW advocates is remarkably similar to that of supporters of Aryan Physics in 1930s Germany. They ignore entreaties of scientists who disagree with them. They attempt to stifle publications of research papers, obstruct funds for research that challenges AGW, and refuse public debate on the science of AGW.

It is ironic that scientists who question AGW are placed in a similar position as Jewish scientists in 1930s Germany. Their fate is most certainly not as grim. Labelling those who question AGW as deniers implying they deny the Holocaust is immoral.” “

Aryan Physics Revisited: A Comparison of 1930s German Physics and Global Warming Science Today“, essay by James H. Rust from CCNet September 17.
-

“The legitimacy of the $100 billion (£60 billion) carbon-trading market has been called into question after the world’s largest auditor of clean-energy projects was suspended by United Nations inspectors.

SGS UK had its accreditation suspended last week after it was unable to prove its staff had properly vetted projects that were then approved for the carbon-trading scheme, or even that they were qualified to do so.” “Carbon-trading market hit as UN suspends clean-energy auditor“