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Politics : Manmade Global Warming, A hoax? A Scam? or a Doomsday Cult? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: FJB who wrote (2711)	7/6/2011 8:33:43 PM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Respond to of 4326

Coal Stops Global Warming? .................................................................................................... July 6,2011 investors.com Weather Science: Climate alarmists are now explaining away their failed predictions by claiming China's power plants emit sulfur dioxide that cancels out carbon dioxide emissions. So should we burn more coal? Among the emails unearthed during ClimateGate, when scientists working at or with Britain's Climate Research Unit conspired to "hide the decline" in global temperatures, is one from Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research to Michael Mann, inventor of the now-discredited "hockey stick" graph that purported to show sudden and dangerous man-induced temperature rise. Trenberth says: "Well, I have my own article on where the heck is global warming. We are asking that here in Boulder (Colo.), where we have broken records the past two days for the coldest days on record. We had 4 inches of snow." Trenberth also says: "The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment, and it is a travesty that we can't." An ironic answer to where the heck global warming is may be found in a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by a team of two geographers and two economists headed by professor Robert Kaufmann at Boston University (BU). That answer is: increased coal burning from China. Global warmers have long charged that burning coal releases carbon dioxide that traps heat from the sun, raising temperatures, and dangerously so. But it also emits particles of sulfur that help block the sun's rays and cool the earth. "During the Chinese economic expansion, there was a huge increase in sulfur emissions," Kaufmann noted. China's coal use doubled over two decades from 1980 and doubled again from 2002 to 2007, according to figures from the Energy Information Administration. Since 2007, it is estimated China's coal consumption increased an additional 30%. According to climate models, the consequences should have been cataclysmic. Subscribe to the IBD Editorials Podcast "Results indicate that net anthropogenic forcing rises slower than previous decades because the cooling effects of sulfur emissions grow in tandem with the warming effects of greenhouse gas concentrations. This slowdown, along with declining solar insolation and a change from El Nino to La Nina conditions, enables the model to simulate the lack of warming after 1998," the team explains. This raises an interesting set of questions. What if China, exempt from climate pacts such as Kyoto because of its "developing" status, had accepted inclusion under Kyoto's energy mandates? Would Beijing's agreeing to fight "climate change" have contributed to it? Should we follow China's lead and burn more coal to put more sulfur particles in the atmosphere? The study makes clear that climate is affected by any number of variables. The shifting answers as to what causes what only underscores the fact that climate science is still in its infancy. It is naive and dangerous to plan draconian changes in energy and economic policy not knowing if these changes are effective or necessary. Certainly it's one more reason to rein in the Environmental Protection Agency and its efforts to regulate carbon dioxide emissions as it makes regulatory war on the coal industry. Observable facts have repeatedly challenged faulty computer models. One thing is certain — the earth hasn't warmed in over a decade. The BU study notes the huge impact that natural phenomena such as ocean currents and solar activity have on climate. Kaufmann told the BBC that "natural fluctuations in the sun's output, volcanoes and water vapor have also been proposed for causing the non-warming noughties and may have contributed to a degree." Before we jump off an economic cliff through regulation and energy deprivation, we need a clear and scientific answer to the question: Where the heck is global warming?

To: FJB who wrote (2711)	7/20/2011 12:40:07 AM
From: joseffy	2 Recommendations Respond to of 4326

Scores of Protected Golden Eagles Dying after Colliding with Wind Turbines ............................................................................................................................. By David Gardner...Daily Mail...6/6/11 dailymail.co.uk “California’s attempts to switch to green energy have inadvertently put the survival of the state’s golden eagles at risk. The 200ft high turbines, which have been operating since the 1980s, lie in the heart of the grassy canyons that are home to one of the highest densities of nesting golden eagles in the US. Now the drive for renewable power sources, such as wind and the sun, being promoted by President Obama and state Governor Jerry Brown has raised fears that the number of newborn golden eagles may not be able to keep pace with the number of turbine fatalities. Nationwide, about 440,000 birds are said to be accidentally killed at wind farms each year, as well as thousands more bats. ‘We taxpayers have spent millions of dollars saving the California condor from extinction,’ Gary George, spokesman for Audubon California, told the Times. ‘How’s the public going to feel about wind energy if a condor hits the turbines?’