The Plain Truth

'I Feel Duped on Climate Change'

{This guy should have been reading the Plain Truth!}

The articulate utility executive is nervous at the beginning of the conversation. He is groping for words -- not a common occurrence for the practiced provocateur. After all, Fritz Vahrenholt, 62, who holds a doctorate in chemistry, has been a rebel throughout his life. "Perhaps it's just part of my generation," he says.

 

He is typical of someone who came of age during the student protest movement of the late 1960s, and who fought against the chemical industry's toxic manufacturing plants in the 1970s. His party, Germany's center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), chose him as environment senator in the city-state of Hamburg, where he incurred the wrath of the environmental lobby by building a waste incineration plant, earning him the nickname "Feuerfritze" (Fire Fritz). He worked in industry after that, first for oil multinational Shell and then for wind turbine maker RePower, which he helped develop. Now, as the outgoing CEO of the renewable energy group RWE Innogy, he is about to embark on his next major battle. "I'm going to make enemies in all camps," he says.  Read More>>>>>>>>>

Global warming ended 15 years ago; 'mini-ice age' next...

The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.

The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.

Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.

A painting, dated 1684, by Abraham Hondius depicts one of many frost fairs on the River Thames during the mini ice age

Meanwhile, leading climate scientists yesterday told The Mail on Sunday that, after emitting unusually high levels of energy throughout the 20th Century, the sun is now heading towards a ‘grand minimum’ in its output, threatening cold summers, bitter winters and a shortening of the season available for growing food.

Solar output goes through 11-year cycles, with high numbers of sunspots seen at their peak.

We are now at what should be the peak of what scientists call ‘Cycle 24’ – which is why last week’s solar storm resulted in sightings of the aurora borealis further south than usual. But sunspot numbers are running at less than half those seen during cycle peaks in the 20th Century.

Another Blow to the Global Warming Myth

‘It’s Useless’: Canada Announces Withdrawal From Kyoto Treaty

December 13, 2011 at 4:14 pm - Reuters
Dateline: Canada

"The Kyoto Protocol ... cannot work. It's now clear that Kyoto is not the path forward for a global solution to climate change. If anything, it's an impediment."

Solar Industry Responsible for Lead Emissions in Developing Countries, Research Finds

ScienceDaily (Aug. 31, 2011) — Solar power is not all sunshine. It has a dark side -- particularly in developing countries, according to a new study by a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, engineering professor.

A study by Chris Cherry, assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering, found that solar power heavily reliant on lead batteries has the potential to release more than 2.4 million tons of lead pollution in China and India.

Lead poisoning causes numerous adverse health effects, including damage to the central nervous system, the kidneys, the cardiovascular system, and the reproductive system. In children, blood lead concentration is associated with learning impairments, as well as hyperactive and violent behavior.    MORE>>>>>>>>

Texas aglow with effort to save the incandescent bulb

It doesn't have the ring of "Remember the Alamo," but a new battle cry has gone up in Texas: "Remember the incandescent bulb."

Texas has become the first state seeking to skirt a federal law that phases out old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs in favor of more efficient lamps — a move that has emerged as a shining example of Republicans' resolve to strike down what many view as excessive federal regulation.   MORE>>>>

Scientists Admit Climate Cooled in the Last Decade, Cite Sulfur Pollution from China

Power Plant Pollution - Wiki image public domain

Activist Post

The Associated Press is reporting today that scientists believe one explanation as to why the earth's heating trend stopped in the last decade is due to China's excessive use of coal-burning power plants. As reported by the Associated Press:

Sulfur particles in the air deflect the sun's rays and can temporarily cool things down a bit. That can happen even as coal-burning produces the carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming. 

'People normally just focus on the warming effect of CO2 (carbon dioxide), but during the Chinese economic expansion there was a huge increase in sulfur emissions,' which have a cooling effect, explained Robert K. Kaufmann of Boston University. He's the lead author of the study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

This admission would seem to indicate several things; 1) climate science is still very much an unsolved mystery, 2) yet, climate studies start from the notion that human activity is the main driver whether the planet heats up or cools down, 3) therefore indicating, god-like human manipulation can reverse planetary climate trends.

Read more »

CompactFluorescentLightBulbs: WhatToDoIfABulbBreaks Not a Joke!

Click Here for PDF from State of Connecticut:

Scientists: Sun's approaching 'Grand Cooling" assures new Ice Age

So What happened to NASA's GLOBAL WARMING????

Terence Aym
Helium

NASA and the ESA agree, and so does the Russian space agency, Roscosmos—the sun is headed for a Grand Solar Minimum and a Grand Cooling will commence.

The aptly named Grand Cooling is exactly what it implies: the sun is going to cool. That cooling will also cool off the Earth. It will last from 30 to 50 years.

What exactly does global cooling mean? Well for one, Al Gore was sure wrong! The Earth isn't going to warm, it's going to get colder. Much colder. So cold a little or full-blown Ice Age will ensue. As a matter of fact, some scientists claim we're already in the early stages of an Ice Age.

Maybe the Nobel Committee and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should ask Mr. Gore to return his awards.

Read Full Article

Big Oil's Tree Huggers

Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Tony Cartalucci, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

It's not entirely accurate to call the Belfer Center merely a big oil representative that forms the spearhead of promoting the theory anthropogenic global warming and the resulting farcical, Ponzi-scheme environmental policies proposed to deal with it. They also meddle deeply in the affairs of foreign nations, have banking magnates lining their advisory board, as well as lobbyists like Belfer adviser Robert Blackwill of Barbour Griffith & Rogers salvaging the failed efforts of a US-backed now exiled Thai prime minister.

Belfer Center is a mixed bag of self-serving corporate agendas. As an international think-tank located within one of America's most "prestigious" universities, it turns out to be nothing more than a den of deception and intellectual dishonesty, as we'll see as we peel back the cheap veneer of legitimacy.

Read more »

Der Spiegel 1974 – New Ice Age Approaching. Odds Of A Warm Future “At Best 1 in 10,000″

By P Gosselin on 17. Dezember 2010

Der Spiegel warned of a coming ice age in 1974. 10,000 to 1 odds against warming. (Photo source: Wikipedia)

An increased frequency in extreme weather events, a cooling North Atlantic, and growing Arctic sea ice were viewed as signs of climate change. The odds of a warmer climate in the future, according to one scientist, were “at best 1 in 10,000″ (see below). That’s what Der Spiegel wrote about in a 3700-word article back in 1974, warning the world of a coming ice age.

Hat tip: oekowatch.org.

In that issue Der Spiegel described a series of ”weather extremes” occurring all over the world, claiming they were unmistakable signs of a climate change to cooling: deluges of rain in West Germany, severe thunderstorms that uprooted trees and blew off roofs in Berlin, the worst storm in 100 years devastating much of Lower Saxony, hurricane Agnes inflicting 3 billion dollars in damage, floods in Japan and Peru, temperatures in Argentina, India and South Africa dropping to their lowest levels in 300 years.

Back in 1974, in its introduction, Der Spiegel wrote:

Irony alert: The unusually chilly global-warming summit

Best Opinion:  Wall St. Pit, Independent

The irony: As negotiators from nearly 200 countries met in Cancun to strategize ways to keep the planet from getting hotter, the temperature in the seaside Mexican city plunged to a 100-year record low of 54° F. Climate-change skeptics are gleefully calling Cancun's weather the latest example of the "Gore Effect" — a plunge in temperature they say occurs wherever former Vice President Al Gore, now a Nobel Prize-winning environmental activist, makes a speech about the climate. Although Gore is not scheduled to speak in Cancun, "it could be that the Gore Effect has announced his secret arrival," jokes former NASA scientist Roy W. Spencer.

CLICK LINK TO READ MORE------->

What happened to the 'warmest year on record': The truth is global warming has halted

A year ago tomorrow, just before the opening of the UN Copenhagen world climate summit, the British Meteorological Office issued a confident prediction. The mean world temperature for 2010, it announced, 'is expected to be 14.58C, the warmest on record' - a deeply worrying 0.58C above the 1961-1990 average.

World temperatures, it went on, were locked inexorably into an everrising trend: 'Our experimental decadal forecast confirms previous indications that about half the years 2010-2019 will be warmer than the warmest year observed so far - 1998.'

Met Office officials openly boasted that they hoped by their statements to persuade the Copenhagen gathering to impose new and stringent carbon emission limits - an ambition that was not to be met. 

Winter's icy grip: Drivers and pedestrians battle through blizzards in Kent last week

Last week, halfway through yet another giant, 15,000delegate UN climate jamboree, being held this time in the tropical splendour of Cancun in Mexico, the Met Office was at it again.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1335798/Global-warming-halted-Thats-happened-warmest-year-record.html#ixzz17NyAJkyi

Global Warming Summit in Cancun Opens with Prayer to Pagan Goddess Ixchel

With United Nations climate negotiators facing an uphill battle to advance their goal of reducing emissions linked to global warming, it's no surprise that the woman steering the talks appealed to a Mayan goddess Monday.

 

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, invoked the ancient jaguar goddess Ixchel in her opening statement to delegates gathered in Cancun, Mexico, noting that Ixchel was not only goddess of the moon, but also "the goddess of reason, creativity and weaving. May she inspire you -- because today, you are gathered in Cancun to weave together the elements of a solid response to climate change, using both reason and creativity as your tools."

 

She called for "a balanced outcome" which would marry financial and emissions commitments from industrialized countries aimed at combating climate change with "the understanding of fairness that will guide long-term mitigation efforts."

 

"Excellencies, the goddess Ixchel would probably tell you that a tapestry is the result of the skilful interlacing of many threads," said Figueres, who hails from Costa Rica and started her greetings in Spanish before switching to English. "I am convinced that 20 years from now, we will admire the policy tapestry that you have woven together and think back fondly to Cancun and the inspiration of Ixchel."

Of course, that little vignette was NOT republished in the print edition of Tuesday's Post.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2010/12/02/global-warming-summit-cancun-opens-prayer-pagan-goddess-ixchel#ixzz170oiBlQB

GM Overestimates Chevy Volt Fuel Efficiency By…130 MPG?

In August 2009, General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson announced that the new Chevrolet Volt, GM’s first electric car, would get an estimated 230 miles per gallon. The faltering car company hoped that the exceptionally high government mileage rating could give the Volt a major sales boost. “Having a car that gets triple-digit fuel economy can and will be a game changer for us,” Henderson predicted.

But more than a year later, the Chevy Volt is finally ready to hit sales lots, but may give Henderson his own sticker shock.  The EPA mileage rating for the Volt now stands at 93 mgp, significantly less than previous predictions.  The Volt‘s rating comes just days after Nissan’s own electric vehicle, the Leaf, received an estimated 99 mpg rating.   MORE

Gore Admits He Was Wrong About Ethanol Subsidies: ‘Not Good Policy’

FROM THE BLAZE

Former Vice President Al Gore is admitting that he was wrong about “first generation” ethanol subsidies, calling them “not good policy” and admitting his support of them were clouded by his presidential ambitions.

From Reuters:

“It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for (U.S.) first generation ethanol,” said Gore, speaking at a green energy business conference in Athens sponsored by Marfin Popular Bank.

“First generation ethanol I think was a mistake. The energy conversion ratios are at best very small.

“It’s hard once such a programme is put in place to deal with the lobbies that keep it going.”

He explained his own support for the original programme on his presidential ambitions.

“One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president.”

Gore also said that rising food prices could be fueled by the ethanol craze. “The competition with food prices is real,” he said.

But Gore didn’t give up on a fuel subsidies altogether. Instead, he supports technology that extracts fuel from other things such as wood and grass. He called that process “second and third generation” ethanol, and supports it because he says it won’t compete with food.

UPDATE:

As Noel Sheppard over at NewsBusters reminds us, “Gore was the tie-breaking vote in the Senate mandating the use of ethanol in 1994.”

 

MORE......

 

Republican Co-Author of Incandescent-Bulb Ban Seeks Chair of House Energy Committee

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) may have some explaining to do to fellow GOP colleagues as he seeks the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, given the incoming wave of new conservatives who may not appreciate some aspects of Upton's voting record.

Upton joined with Rep. Jane Harman (D.-Calif.) in  2007 to co-author the legislation that effectively banned indoor incandescent light bulbs in the United States. In the last Congress, he an Harman teamed up again to offer new legislation that would extend the ban on incandescent bulbs to outdoor lighting also.

"In 2007, Harman and Upton introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation--which became law as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act--that bans the famously inefficient 100-watt incandescent light bulb by 2012, phases out remaining inefficient light bulbs by 2014, and requires that light bulbs be at least three times as efficient as today's 100-watt incandescent bulb by 2020," explained a 2009 press release put out by the two House members.  MORE

The Biofuels Scam

AMERICAN THINKER

Since 2007, the price of food around the world has just about doubled. Bad harvests, inflation, or George Bush didn't cause this price increase. According to a secret report from the World Bank, reported in the U.K.'s Guardian, 75% of the increase in price has one source: "Biofuels." This contrasts with U.S. claims of only a 3% biofuels-caused increase. The World Bank also says that rising food prices have pushed 100 million people worldwide below the poverty line. Riots have been sparked from Bangladesh to Egypt.

Where is the outrage? Where are the MSNBC stories on food riots? Where is Sean Penn?

The Holy Grail of the Left in recent years is climate disruption (formerly known as global warming and climate change). Much ink has been spilled, and much airtime has been devoted to pushing the Green Agenda. Legislation has been passed in the U.S., Europe, and other places to address this so-called crisis. Incandescent bulbs have been banned and mercury-laden CFLs required. Coal-fired power plants are shuttered, raising the price of energy. Vast oil fields are placed off limits. "Cap and Trade" rules threaten our already reeling economy. Among other measures, Congress mandates that gasoline contain 10% by volume of ethanol. As a result, the U.S. is currently burning about 25% of its corn crop as fuel. Government subsidies and mandates work quite well at converting food into fuel, thus reducing the amount of food. As anyone with more than a room temperature IQ knows, less of something results in higher prices. Hungry people? Psh! Saving the planet takes precedence.

Brazil is clearing (by burning) tens of thousands of acres of rainforest to plant sugarcane -- not for human consumption, but for conversion to ethanol. Much more acreage has been cleared for sugarcane production than for lumber. As a CO₂ "sink," sugarcane is nonexistent compared to the trees it replaced. If CO₂ were such a threat to the survival of the human race, wouldn't keeping the rainforest be a good idea? Doesn't burning millions of trees produce many thousands of tons of CO₂? Clearly, common sense is missing from the "settled science" agenda of climate disruption.

There are problems with biofuels other than "merely" world hunger, deforestation, and air pollution. Corn is a thirsty plant. Much water is used to make it grow, and copious quantities of nitrogen-based fertilizer. In addition to depleting the aquifer, fertilizer runoff ends up in the ocean. The Gulf of Mexico has a dead zone the size of New Jersey. Fish and nitrogen aren't compatible. The blue crab population in the Chesapeake is at a record low, and the sizes caught are smaller than in the past. Of course, "there are those who say" that climate disruption is to blame.

Ethanol is highly corrosive. It absorbs water from the air like a sponge. It cannot be transported in pipelines, necessitating delivery by (diesel) tanker trucks. If used in aircraft, water in the fuel can cause engine failure at the colder high altitudes. If left in your lawnmower or chainsaw over the winter, it causes serious rust problems. It lowers your car's mileage, negating any benefits from "reducing our dependence on foreign oil." It causes rust in your fuel lines and engine. It burns too hot in catalytic converters, causing premature failure. However, your car and lawnmower are not the only things at risk. According to a study conducted by National Institute of Health, there is a nearly threefold increase in thyroid cancer risk for women who have used a public water supply that had nitrate levels of 5 milligrams per liter (mg/L) or higher for five years.

Given all these easily verifiable facts, why would we continue to mandate the use of ethanol in our gasoline? Why would we spend billions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing it? Why would Big Ag be pressuring our corrupt and greedy political class to increase the mandate from 10% to 15%, despite alarm from automotive manufacturers concerning engine damage? You be the judge. Think about this the next time you shop for groceries, fill up your car, or pay your utility bill.

30 Comments on "The Biofuels Scam"

Obama to bypass Congress with carbon taxes

Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium online newsletter published by the current No. 1 best-selling author, WND staff writer and senior managing director of the Financial Services Group at Gilford Securities.

In his nationally televised press conference, President Obama indicated that carbon taxes may be imposed on U.S. citizens through a move designed to bypass Congress altogether, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.

Knowing that the chances of getting cap-and-trade legislation through a Republican-controlled House and a Senate with a larger, more conservative Republican minority will be almost impossible, Obama suggested a backdoor route through the Environmental Protection Agency may be a way to accomplish the goal without requiring new legislation.  MORE

Oil Spill Panel: White House Blocked Federal Scientists From Releasing Worst-Case Scenario For Gulf Disaster

Dina Cappiello
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration blocked efforts by government scientists to tell the public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could become and made other missteps that raised questions about its competence and candor during the crisis, according to a commission appointed by the president to investigate the disaster.

In documents released Wednesday, the national oil spill commission's staff describes "not an incidental public relations problem" by the White House in the wake of the April 20 accident.

Read more »

Back from the dead: One third of 'extinct' animals turn up again

Note from Bob Barney: Several Weeks ago, I had comments on my FaceBook page from a guy trying to tell me more species were going extinct today than ever!  Here is yet another fib buster story to the rock the libs....

Conservationists are overestimating the number of species that have been driven to extinction, scientists have said.

A study has found that a third of all mammal species declared extinct in the past few centuries have turned up alive and well.

Some of the more reclusive creatures managed to hide from sight for 80 years only to reappear within four years of being officially named extinct in the wild.

The shy okapi – which resembles a cross between a zebra and a giraffe – was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1901.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1315964/One-extinct-animals-turn-again.html#ixzz113vzuSe0

 

Inhofe Says EPA's New Boiler Rule Could Kill Nearly 800,000 Manufacturing Jobs

The top Republican on a Senate environmental panel released a scathing report Tuesday that he contends shows that the Environmental Protection Agency's new proposed rule on cleaning up boilers nationwide could devastate America's manufacturing base and imperil hundreds of thousands of jobs without providing any real public health or environmental benefits.

In June, the EPA issued a proposal that would force industrial, commercial and institutional boilers and heaters to use "maximum achievable control technology" to reduce harmful emissions that erode air quality and pose a public health risk.

LINK

Five myths about green energy

By Robert Bryce

Sunday, April 25, 2010  

Americans are being inundated with claims about renewable and alternative energy. Advocates for these technologies say that if we jettison fossil fuels, we'll breathe easier, stop global warming and revolutionize our economy. Yes, "green" energy has great emotional and political appeal. But before we wrap all our hopes -- and subsidies -- in it, let's take a hard look at some common misconceptions about what "green" means.

1. Solar and wind power are the greenest of them all.

No Science, Fake Science, and the Destruction of the Nation

By Alan Caruba

Any scientist who has not sold his soul to the environmental movement will tell you that the reason that greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide (CO2), do not cause any warming is due to the fact that they have to conform to the laws of thermodynamics. The first law states that “energy can be neither created nor destroyed. It can only change form.”

Energy produced by coal, natural gas, oil, or nuclear is energy that has changed from one form of matter to another. The attack on these sources of energy is a direct attack on the economic success of America and it is one that is at a dangerous peak of activity generated by the Obama administration, primarily through the Environmental Protection Agency.

There is simply no such thing as “dirty energy.” The push for so-called clean or renewable energy is a fiction to advance the use of the two worst, most unpredictable and unreliable forms of energy, solar and wind. They exist solely because of government subsidies and mandates. They produce little over three percent of the energy used nationwide every day.  Read the rest.........

Filmmaker James Cameron Backs Out of Global Warming Debate HE Organized!

Multi-millionaire filmmaker James Cameron on Sunday backed out of a global warming debate that he asked for and organized.

For those that haven't been following the recent goings on concerning Nobel Laureate Al Gore's favorite money-making myth, an environmental summit was held this weekend in Aspen, Colorado, called AREDAY, which is short for American Renewable Energy Day.

Ahead of this conference, Cameron challenged three noted global warming skeptics to a public debate where he was going to personally "call those deniers out into the street at high noon and shoot it out with those boneheads."

One of the invited skeptics, Ann McElhinney of NotEvilJustWrong.com, wrote about Cameron's surprise cancellation Sunday:

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/08/23/filmmaker-james-cameron-backs-out-global-warming-debate-he-organized#ixzz0xXGcmqad

Hotter-burning sun warming the planet

The sun is burning hotter than usual, offering a possible explanation for global warming that needs to be weighed when proceeding with expensive efforts to cut emissions of greenhouse gases, Swiss and German scientists say.

"The sun has been at its strongest over the past 60 years and may now be affecting global temperatures," said Sami Solanki, the director of the renowned Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, who led the research.

"The sun is in a changed state. It is brighter than it was a few hundred years ago and this brightening started relatively recently -- in the last 100 to 150 years," Mr. Solanski said.

Average global temperatures have increased by about 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) over the past 20 years and are widely believed to be responsible for new extremes in weather patterns.

Globally, 1997, 1998 and 2002 were the hottest years since worldwide weather records were first collated in 1860.

Bill Burrows, a climatologist and a member of the Royal Meteorological Society, welcomed Mr. Solanki's research.

"It shows that there is enough happening on the solar front to merit further research. Perhaps we are devoting too many resources to correcting human effects on the climate without being sure that we are the major contributor," he said.

Mr. Solanki said that the brighter sun and higher levels of so-called "greenhouse gases" both contributed to the change in the Earth's temperature, but it was impossible to say which had the greater impact.

Most scientists agree that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from fossil fuels have contributed to the warming of the planet in the past few decades, but have questioned whether other factors beyond man's control are also to blame.

To determine the sun's role in global warming, Mr. Solanki's research team measured magnetic zones on the sun's surface known as sunspots, which are believed to intensify the sun's energy output.

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