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

To: J.B.C. who wrote (2753)	7/20/2011 1:21:08 PM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4326

Waxman calls for national climate-change-education push .......................................................................... By Andrew Restuccia - 07/20/11 thehill.com The top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday urged Energy Secretary Steven Chu to launch a national climate-change-education campaign. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), in a letter to Chu, said the public’s understanding of climate change is “diminishing” in part because there are “powerful vested interests in the oil and coal industries successfully fanning disbelief.” “I ask you to investigate the disconnect that appears to be growing between the scientific and the public understanding of climate change,” Waxman said. “I hope you will then decide to lead a national effort to ensure the public is fully and accurately informed about the science of climate change and its implications for human health and welfare.” The letter comes as Republicans and some Democrats in Congress push to block or delay the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate-change rules with a series of bills and policy riders to spending legislation. But Waxman said Chu must act fast to educate the public, because the consequences of climate change already are being felt around the world. “[Scientists] say that the heat waves, droughts, fires and floods that are afflicting our nation are harbingers of the dangers we face if we continue to ignore the threat of climate change,” Waxman said. Chu is the ideal candidate to lead a wide-ranging campaign to educate the public about climate change, Waxman said. “Your position as Secretary of Energy and your world-renowned stature as a scientist mean you are in a unique position to speak with authority about the science of climate change and the frightening consequences of inaction,” he said. “Given the stakes, I believe you have a responsibility to do so.” Here is the full letter: July 20, 2011 The Honorable Steven Chu Secretary U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20585 Dear Mr. Secretary: I am writing to urge you to lead a national campaign to educate the public about the causes and dangers of climate change. The scientific consensus linking carbon emissions to climate change has never been stronger. In May, the National Academy of Sciences, our nation’s preeminent scientific organization, called for urgent action to reduce carbon emissions because “climate change is occurring, is very likely caused primarily by human activities, and poses significant risks to humans and the environment.” In the same month, the top scientists at the Vatican called “on people and nations to recognize the serious and potentially irreversible impacts of global warming caused by the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases.” The national academies of science in every major nation have reached the same conclusion, as have virtually all of the world’s climate scientists. In fact, many scientists now believe that we are beginning to experience the consequences of climate change. They say that the heat waves, droughts, fires, and floods that are afflicting our nation are harbingers of the dangers we face if we continue to ignore the threat of climate change. Yet at the same time that the scientific evidence has grown stronger and extreme weather has become more frequent and intense, the public’s understanding of the danger has been diminishing. According to data from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, there has been a decline in the percentage of Americans who think climate change is occurring (from 71% in 2008 to 64% in 2011), a decline in the percentage of Americans who believe climate change is caused by man (from 57% in 2008 to 47% in 2011), and a decline in the percentage of Americans who are worried about climate change (from 63% in 2008 to 52% in 2011). There has even been a noticeable drop in the percentage of Americans who understand that there is a scientific consensus that climate change is happening (from 47% in 2008 to 39% in 2011). There are powerful vested interests in the oil and coal industries successfully fanning disbelief in the science of climate change. In a recent article, former Vice President Al Gore likened their actions to the efforts of the tobacco companies to sow doubt about the dangers of smoking. We urgently need champions in the Administration to tell the American public the truth about the risks we face. Your position as Secretary of Energy and your world-renowned stature as a scientist mean you are in a unique position to speak with authority about the science of climate change and the frightening consequences of inaction. Given the stakes, I believe you have a responsibility to do so. Your voice could make an enormous difference in ensuring our nation understands the magnitude of the risks and the urgent need for a plan of action. I recognize that there are many competing demands on your time, but few, if any, could be as important. I ask you to investigate the disconnect that appears to be growing between the scientific and the public understanding of climate change. I hope you will then decide to lead a national effort to ensure the public is fully and accurately informed about the science of climate change and its implications for human health and welfare. Sincerely, Henry A. Waxman Ranking Member

To: J.B.C. who wrote (2753)	7/22/2011 1:16:42 PM
From: joseffy	3 Recommendations Respond to of 4326

Congress shuts down foreign climate funding ............................................................................................... wattsupwiththat.com July 21, 2011 A panel of the US Congress on Thursday moved to bar foreign assistance related to climate change, defying President Barack Obama's calls to contribute as part of an international accord. On a party line vote, the Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to ban funding in next year's budget for Obama's initiative to support poor nations in adapting to climate change or pursuing clean energy. But the measure's future is uncertain as other committees also have jurisdiction over climate funding including in the Senate, where Obama's Democratic Party is in control. Representative Connie Mack, a Republican from Florida, said he proposed the funding cut as "we have to prioritize US tax dollars." Jean Schmidt, a Republican from Ohio, questioned if human activity was causing climate change. Democrats attacked the move. Representative Howard Berman, the top Democrat on the committee, said it would cut off funding for vulnerable populations that are already feeling the effects of climate change. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia, likened the Republican effort to the 1925 Scopes monkey trial in which a Tennessee teacher was taken to court for teaching evolution. Obama requested some $1.3 billion in the fiscal year starting in October for his Global Climate Change Initiative, according to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. The funding would include assistance to the poorest nations including small islands feeling the brunt of climate change, as well as efforts to encourage clean energy and to reduce deforestation. Around half of the funding falls under the Treasury Department, whose budget is under the purview of another House committee. UN-led talks in December in Cancun, Mexico, agreed to set up a Green Climate Fund to help the poorest countries combat climate change, with wealthy nations contributing $100 billion each year starting in 2020. The developed world has also promised some $30 billion between 2010 and 2012 in so-called "fast-track" assistance -- seen as a key part of sealing a future global deal on curbing carbon emissions. Japan has pledged $15 billion, or about half, of the fast-track funding and European Union members have promised $10.3 billion (7.2 billion euros). The United States budgeted $1.7 billion in the 2010 fiscal year.

To: J.B.C. who wrote (2753)	7/24/2011 11:12:32 PM
From: joseffy	2 Recommendations Respond to of 4326

Heat Wave: Record-Breaking Temperatures, Or Not … By Brian Koenig – July 24, 2011 http://brianekoenig.com/ With blistering and sunburn-friendly temperatures sweeping the country last week, the media has gone heat crazy over so-called “record-breaking temperatures” – which according to Bill Maher, and of course Al Gore, is ”proof” of global warming. Indeed, out come the headlines: “90 year-old man dies of heat exhaustion after mowing his lawn, changing his oil, and jogging in the 100 degree heat.” But according to the National Climactic Data Center, the media’s claims are false: The news media is saturated with headlines about the “record-breaking” US heat wave over the past week. However, the NOAA database of all-time Max Temperature for the entire US from over 6000 weather stations shows that there were no records broken on July 17, July 18, July 19, or July 20th. A total of 4 stations broke records on July 21, 20 on July 22, and 10 on July 23, 2011, for a grand total of less than 0.4% of stations breaking a temperature record sometime during the past week. More than 99.6% of stations failed to break records sometime over the past week.

To: J.B.C. who wrote (2753)	7/28/2011 10:07:06 AM
From: joseffy	6 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4326

New NASA Data Blow Gaping Hold In Global Warming Alarmism Forbes by James Taylor 7/28/2011 http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-data-blow-gaping-hold-global-warming-alarmism-192334971.html NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed. Study co-author Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA's Aqua satellite, reports that real-world data from NASA's Terra satellite contradict multiple assumptions fed into alarmist computer models. "The satellite observations suggest there is much more energy lost to space during and after warming than the climate models show," Spencer said in a July 26 University of Alabama press release. "There is a huge discrepancy between the data and the forecasts that is especially big over the oceans." In addition to finding that far less heat is being trapped than alarmist computer models have predicted, the NASA satellite data show the atmosphere begins shedding heat into space long before United Nations computer models predicted. The new findings are extremely important and should dramatically alter the global warming debate. Scientists on all sides of the global warming debate are in general agreement about how much heat is being directly trapped by human emissions of carbon dioxide (the answer is "not much"). However, the single most important issue in the global warming debate is whether carbon dioxide emissions will indirectly trap far more heat by causing large increases in atmospheric humidity and cirrus clouds. Alarmist computer models assume human carbon dioxide emissions indirectly cause substantial increases in atmospheric humidity and cirrus clouds (each of which are very effective at trapping heat), but real-world data have long shown that carbon dioxide emissions are not causing as much atmospheric humidity and cirrus clouds as the alarmist computer models have predicted. The new NASA Terra satellite data are consistent with long-term NOAA and NASA data indicating atmospheric humidity and cirrus clouds are not increasing in the manner predicted by alarmist computer models. The Terra satellite data also support data collected by NASA's ERBS satellite showing far more longwave radiation (and thus, heat) escaped into space between 1985 and 1999 than alarmist computer models had predicted. Together, the NASA ERBS and Terra satellite data show that for 25 years and counting, carbon dioxide emissions have directly and indirectly trapped far less heat than alarmist computer models have predicted. In short, the central premise of alarmist global warming theory is that carbon dioxide emissions should be directly and indirectly trapping a certain amount of heat in the earth's atmosphere and preventing it from escaping into space. Real-world measurements, however, show far less heat is being trapped in the earth's atmosphere than the alarmist computer models predict, and far more heat is escaping into space than the alarmist computer models predict. When objective NASA satellite data, reported in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, show a "huge discrepancy" between alarmist climate models and real-world facts, climate scientists, the media and our elected officials would be wise to take notice. Whether or not they do so will tell us a great deal about how honest the purveyors of global warming alarmism truly are. James M. Taylor is senior fellow for environment policy at The Heartland Institute and managing editor of Environment & Climate News.