Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

QUICK TAKES

  - The Impending Collapse of the Global Warming Scare

  - Netanyahu Pays Visit to Strategically Positioned Azerbaijan: Iranians now fretting the Israeli military option is back on the table.

  - Child chain gangs of North Korea exposed, as kids as young as five forced to repair railways (Video and photos)

  - Identity Politics are Anti-American (David Horowitz)

THE 97 PERCENT "STATISTIC" REGARDING GLOBAL WARMING

Jonah Goldberg introduces the video below by saying:

This video clip of Ted Cruz disemboweling Aaron Mair, the head of the Sierra Club, is making the rounds. It shows Cruz at his very best, cross-examining a witness to a pulp. The most striking thing, however, is how unbelievably hackish and ill-prepared Mair is. Here’s the video:

 

Goldberg writes further:

Over and over again, Mair simply says that he’s going to rely on the 97 percent of scientists who say that global warming is happening, it’s caused by man and it’s a huge problem. People of good faith can take Mair’s position on one or all of those particulars. But the 97 percent stat is pure public relations b.s.

Here’s a good explainer by Joseph Bast and Roy Spencer on where that number — which Barack Obama, John Kerry and countless other politicians and journalists retail uncritically:   [more. . .]

MAUREEN MULLARKEY OFFERS A "NO-HOLDS BARRED" ATTACK ON POPE FRANCIS' ENVIRONMENTAL ENCYCLICAL

In addition to Rich Lowry's negative commentary on Pope Francis' encyclical posted previously, I now offer Maureen Malarkey's which is even more strident, but very much worth reading.  She titles her contribution (published June 24, 2015), "Where Did Pope Francis's Extravagant Rant Come From?"  Mularkey writes: [my bolding]

Subversion of Christianity by the spirit of the age has been a hazard down the centuries. The significance of “Laudato Si” lies beyond its stated concern for the climate. Discount obfuscating religious language. The encyclical lays ground to legitimize global government and makes the church an instrument of propaganda—a herald for the upcoming United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Paris.

Accommodation by church hierarchy to green dogma has been metastasizing since the UN proclaimed Earth Day in 1970. Two decades later, Kevin Costner went dancing with wolves while the Fraser Institute prefaced “Religion, Wealth, and Poverty” (1990) by Jesuit scholar James V. Schall with this:

. . . the relatively sudden appearance of religion not primarily as worship or doctrine, but as social activism, has been not a little perplexing. Numerous sympathetic critics, many of the faithful, and interested observers sense that something is occurring with vast and unsettling implications for the well-being of the public order and for religion itself. They are not at all sure, however, that what is happening is itself in the best interests of religion or of the poor and outcast for whom it is said to be occurring.

Propelled by the cult of feeling and Golden Age nostalgia—enshrined in the myth of indigenous peoples as peaceable ecologists—that elusive something picked up a tincture of Teilhardian gnosticism as it grew. It bursts on us now as “Laudato Si,” a malignant jumble of dubious science, policy prescriptions, doomsday rhetoric, and what students of Wordsworthian poetics call, in Keats’ derisive phrase, “the egotistical sublime.”

Eco-Activists Thrive on Distortions

The document’s catalogue of distortions and factual errors are those of the climate-change establishment swallowed whole. There is no scientific consensus on man-made global warming, no consensus on the role of human activity in any of the environmental phenomena cited.

Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore abandoned the organization in 1986, highlighting its abandonment of scientific objectivity in favor of political agendas:

By around the mid-1980s, when I left Greenpeace, the public had accepted most of the reasonable things we had been fighting for: stop the bomb, save the whales, stop toxic waste dumping into the earth, water, and air. Some, like myself, realized the job of creating mass awareness of the importance of the environment had been accomplished and it was time to move on from confrontation to sustainable development, seeking solutions. But others seemed bent on lifelong confrontation, ‘up against the man’ ‘smash capitalism’. . . .

In order to remain confrontational as society adopted all the reasonable demands, it was necessary for these anti-establishment lifers to adopt ever more extreme positions, eventually abandoning science and logic altogether in zero-tolerance policies.

That was 30 years ago. Since then, “the ‘green’ movement has not only become more hard line, they have also become irrational and fanatical.”

Climate has fluctuated since the planet formed. Sea levels have been rising for thousands of years with no current increase in the rate. Catastrophic extinctions occurred millions of years before industrialization. Not so long ago in geological time, Arctic islands were covered in sub-tropical forests and no ice covered either pole. Climate temperature has been flat for nearly two decades despite rise in CO2. On it goes.

Enter Jorge Bergolio. Informed objection to the pope’s roster of pending disasters is widely available—but also, at this point, moot. Reducing greenhouse gases has just been deemed a religious obligation. What should concern us now is the ecclesial climate that yielded this extravagant rant.

A Short List of What’s Wrong with ‘Laudato Si’

There is nothing to admire in its assault on market economies, technological progress, and—worse—on rationality itself. Bergolio, whom we know now as Pope Francis, is a limited man. His grasp of economics is straitjacketed by the Peronist culture in which he was raised. “Laudato Si” descends to garish, left-wing boilerplate. The pope is neither a public intellectual, theologian, nor a man of science. Yet he impersonates all three.

JOHN COLEMAN, WEATHER CHANNEL CO-FOUNDER: MAN-MADE CLIMATE CHANGE ‘A MYTH’

 

Nat Brown reports:

Appearing on the "Kelly File" last night, Weather Channel co-founder and meteorologist John Coleman discussed an open letter he had recently authored in which he declared that “man-made global climate change is a myth.” The letter was written to UCLA’s Hammer Museum forum and criticized one of its recent panels, entitled “Tackling Climate Change,” for not including any skeptics in the event.

Coleman noted that it has been tough for climate skeptics to voice their opinions in the media “ever since Al Gore made [climate change] a plank of the Democratic party.” When host Megyn Kelly raised the point that even certain Republican political candidates will label such views as “nuts,” Coleman replied, “It’s very difficult to be against it when the media has told the nation that the oceans are rising, the polar bears are dying, the ice is melting, that storms are going to sweep the earth, and that we’re all going to die of a heat wave,” adding, “this is bad, bad science.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Climate change has become what philosophers call a “non-falsifiable hypothesis.”  Everything—Hurricane Sandy, warm winters, cold winters—is said to be proof of climate change.

"Try this parlor game out at a cocktail party next time you’re clinking ice-free glasses with a warmist: ask him to specify what climate or weather phenomenon would not be consistent with the general theory of climate change.  And then step back and enjoy the fun."  - Steven Hayward at Powerline blog.  (more . . }

"GLOBAL WARMING" SCIENTISTS TRAPPED IN ANTARCTIC ICE

** Update 1/2/14 - 98% of Stories Ignore that Ice-bound Ship Was on Global Warming Mission

A group of climate change scientists were rescued by helicopter Jan. 2, after being stranded in the ice since Christmas morning. But the majority of the broadcast networks’ reports about the ice-locked climate researchers never mentioned climate change.  [more. . .]

** (Original post) -  The U.K. Daily Mail reports:  (HT: Drudge)

Global warming scientists forced to admit defeat... because of too much ice: Stranded Antarctic ship's crew will be rescued by helicopter

• Chris Turney, a climate scientist and leader of the expedition, was going to document 'environmental changes' at the pole

• In an interview he said he expected melting ice to play a part in expedition

• MV Akademik Schokalskiy still stuck among thick ice sheet 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart, the Tasmanian capital
  

• Called for help at 5am Christmas morning after becoming submerged in ice

• Australia's back-up ship, Aurora Australis could not break through

Me:  No doubt many will miss the irony of Global warming scientists trapped in ice.  Read the full story complete with pics and video.

STEVE GOREHAM: CLIMATISM THE "GREATEST GLOBAL DELUSION IN HISTORY"

Goreham, author of Climatism! Science, Common Sense, and the 21st Century's Hottest Topic   (New Lenox Books, 2010) and The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism: Mankind and Climate Change Mania (New Lenox books, 2012), appeared July 25, 2013 on the 700 Club

 
Goreham maintains an interesting website - www.climatism.net

HEAVENLY BODIES MIGHT BE DRIVING LONG-TERM WEATHER TRENDS

Anne Jolis reports on "The Other Climate Theory" in the pages of today's Wall Street Journal.

--  Update 9/14/11 - "Cosmic Rays, Cloud Influences and Climate Change" - Five letters to the editor in response to Jolis' report.

WINTERY KNIGHT POTPOURRI

I am a fan of Wintery Knight's blog. It should be checked frequently.  In case you haven't done so lately, here are some links to recent posts:

- If Obamacare is so great, then why do so many Democrats get waivers?

- Do pro-lifers care about people who are already born?

- Wayne Grudem defends what the Bible says about same-sex marriage

- Former alarmist scientist admits global warming is a “fiction”

- Does sex education reduce teen pregnancies and sexually-transmitted infections?

- UK Telegraph on Richard Dawkins’ cowardly refusal to debate William Lane Craig

I have referred to Wintery Knight's website many times (e.g. here, here, here, and here)

QUICK TAKES

 - Daily Caller - Sen. Inhofe turns tables on global warming ambushers -- and gets it on tape [video]

- John Fund - "What's at Stake in Wisconsin's Budget Battle"  "Who's in charge of our political system, voters or unions?"(WSJ)

"Ending dues deductions breaks the political cycle in which government collects dues, gives them to the unions, who then use the dues to back their favorite candidates and also lobby for bigger government and more pay and benefits," Mr. Siegel told me.

- Marcel Dicke and Arnold Van Huis - "The Six-Legged Meat of the Future"  (WSJ)

"Insects are nutritious and easy to raise without harming the environment. They also have a nice nutty taste."

- Kay S. Hymowitz - Where Have the Good Men Gone?  Hymowitz argues that too many men in their 20s are living in a new kind of extended adosescence.  (WSJ)

Not so long ago, the average American man in his 20s had achieved most of the milestones of adulthood: a high-school diploma, financial independence, marriage and children. Today, most men in their 20s hang out in a novel sort of limbo, a hybrid state of semi-hormonal adolescence and responsible self-reliance. This "pre-adulthood" has much to recommend it, especially for the college-educated. But it's time to state what has become obvious to legions of frustrated young women: It doesn't bring out the best in men.

"COOL IT" OPENS THIS WEEKEND

Hugh Hewitt says:

The critically-acclaimed new documentary that rips global warming alarmism opens in theaters across the country today, and every opponent of cap-and-tax and the hysteria that drives it should turn out to see the entertaining expose of sky-is-falling climate change doomsaying.

Bjorn Lomborg drives the Goreites crazy, as will this film for years to come.  A big first weekend at the box office will drive its release so find time to be amused and enlightened this weekend.

ENVIRONMENTALIST "WACKOS" AND HUMAN WELL-BEING

It's hard to find a more dramatic beginning to an article than this . . .

Who is the worst killer in the long, ugly history of war and extermination? Hitler? Stalin? Pol Pot? Not even close. A single book called "Silent Spring" killed far more people than all those fiends put together.

"Dr. Zero" proceeds to  unpack and defend his opening paragraph and along the way makes other accusations: 

The DDT ban isn’t the only example of environmental extremism coming with a stack of body bags. Mandatory gas mileage standards cause about 2,000 deaths per year, by compelling automakers to produce lighter, more fragile cars. The biofuel mania has led resources to be shifted away from growing food crops, resulting

THE CONTINUING CLIMATE MELTDOWN

The stories keep coming.  I didn't want to keep posting one after another so I've waited for a fairly comprehensive overview.  The editors of the Wall Street Journal published such an article today.

It has been a bad—make that dreadful—few weeks for what used to be called the "settled science" of global warming, and especially for the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that is supposed to be its gold standard.

First it turns out that the Himalayan glaciers are not going to melt anytime soon, notwithstanding dire U.N. predictions. Next came news that an IPCC claim that global warming could destroy 40% of the Amazon was based on a report by an environmental pressure group. Other IPCC sources of scholarly note have included a mountaineering magazine and a student paper. . .

All of this matters because the IPCC has been advertised as the last and definitive word on climate science. Its reports are the basis on which Al Gore, President Obama and others have claimed that climate ruin is inevitable unless the world reorganizes its economies with huge new taxes on carbon. Now we are discovering the U.N. reports are sloppy political documents intended to drive the climate lobby's regulatory agenda.  [more. . .]

CHUCK COLSON - THE CULTURE OF POLYAMORY IS AT WAR WITH THE CULTURE OF MONOGAMY

Chuck Colson writes:

In Touchstone magazine, Patrick Fagan writes that the culture of the traditional family, based on life-long monogamy, is competing with another culture—one that is polyamorous in nature. “In the culture of monogamy,” he writes, “men are anchored in their families and tied to their children and wives, through the free and deliberate focus of their sexuality.”

By contrast, the culture of polyamory treasures sexual license. In fact, Fagan writes, any attempt to constrain sex “would be the antithesis of the main project of the culture of polyamory”—sexual relations when you want, with whomever you want.

That’s why the culture of polyamory attempts to control childhood education, sex education, and adolescent health programs. This control, Fagan warns, “enables the polyamory culture to reach into the traditional monogamy culture and gradually dismantle it.”

Fagan's article, which Colson quotes above, is MUST READING.  It illuminates the culture we inhabit powerfully and insightfully.  And it's not just about sex.  It touches on government, laws, and the future.  It should be printed out and discussed in small groups throughout the country.

Having said that, Colson's own article centers around the recently-published study on sex education that demonstrated the effectiveness of  abstinence-based sex education.  I have reprinted his article below.

CORNWALL ALLIANCE - THE BEST WAY TO KEEP UP WITH WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON IN COPENHAGEN AND THE "GLOBAL WARMING CROWD"

E. Calvin Beisner is live blogging in Copenhagen.  See the Cornwall Alliance's website and note in particular "An Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming which has been signed by scores of Evangelical leaders.  About the Cornwall Alliance:

The Cornwall Alliance is a coalition of clergy, theologians, religious leaders, scientists, academics, and policy experts committed to bringing a balanced Biblical view of stewardship to the critical issues of environment and development. The Cornwall Alliance fully supports the principles espoused in the Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship, and is seeking to promote those principles in the discussion of various public policy issues including population and poverty, food, energy, water, endangered species, habitat, and other related topics.

So far as I can tell, the Cornwall Alliance is strongly concerned about how global policies will affect the poor -- which is often quite different from what major media outlets would have us believe.  Also, an often overlooked or hidden agenda of the Global Warming crowd is to dramatically reduce world population.  The Cornwall Alliance gets behind the "alleged facts" to the truth.  This is definitely a website to consult often.

ONE MAN MAKES A DIFFERENCE - NON-CLIMATOLOGIST STEPHEN McINTYRE ANALYZED THE DATA AND CHANGED THE CLIMATE SCIENCE WORLD

I found this article fascinating.  (HT:  HotAir) It proves once again that the right man, in the right place, with the right background and mindset, with focus and deliberation, can take down a Goliath.  One man!

McIntyr states a somewhat startling fact:

“There is far more independent due diligence on the smallest prospectus offering securities to the public than on a Nature article that might end up having a tremendous impact on policy.”

** Also, consider this video (not directly related to the McIntyr story above) demonstrating the deceptive use of the "hockey stick" set against an historical perspective :  (HT: HotAir via the Autopsy)

KRAUTHAMMER - The "NEW SOCIALISM" USES THE "RELIGION OF ENVIRONMENTALISM" AS ITS PRETEXT

Charles Krauthammer's article lays out the goals and technique of the "New Socialism" now raising its hydraheaded spectre once again.  It's  must reading for anyone interested in what's really going on, and for understanding the enormous threat the new socialism poses.

AL GORE IS A LIAR

- Update - Sarah Palin on her Facebook repeats her contention that President Obama should stay at home and not go to Copenhagen.  Excerpt:  (HT: HotAir)

In his inaugural address, President Obama declared his intention to “restore science to its rightful place.” But instead of staying home from Copenhagen and sending a message that the United States will not be a party to fraudulent scientific practices, the president has upped the ante. He plans to fly in at the climax of the conference in hopes of sealing a “deal.” Whatever deal he gets, it will be no deal for the American people. What Obama really hopes to bring home from Copenhagen is more pressure to pass the Democrats’ cap-and-tax proposal. This is a political move. The last thing America needs is misguided legislation that will raise taxes and cost jobs -- particularly when the push for such legislation rests on agenda-driven science.

- (Original Post) -That's the only conclusion one can come to if one reads Andrew Bolt's post:  (HT: Drudge)  (Note: Readers must click through to the extended page for the revelation of  Gore's falsehoods.)

Al Gore has studied the Climategate emails with his typically rigorous eye and dismissed them as mere piffle:

Q: How damaging to your argument was the disclosure of e-mails from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University?

A: To paraphrase Shakespeare, it’s sound and fury signifying nothing. I haven’t read all the e-mails, but the most recent one is more than 10 years old. These private exchanges between these scientists do not in any way cause any question about the scientific consensus.

And in case you think that was a mere slip of the tongue:

Q: There is a sense in these e-mails, though, that data was hidden and hoarded, which is the opposite of the case you make [in your book] about having an open and fair debate.

A: I think it’s been taken wildly out of context. The discussion you’re referring to was about two papers that two of these scientists felt shouldn’t be accepted as part of the IPCC report. Both of them, in fact, were included, referenced, and discussed. So an e-mail

THE TOTALITARIAN IMPULSE OF CLIMATE CONTROL

Bret Stephens, writing in the Wall Street Journal, sees the intellectual methods of true believers in global warming as instructively similar to Stalinists:  (HT: NRO Corner)

• Revolutionary fervor: There's a distinct tendency among climate alarmists toward uncompromising radicalism, a hatred of "bourgeois" values, a disgust with democratic practices. So President Obama wants to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 83% from current levels by 2050, levels not seen since the 1870s—in effect, the Industrial Revolution in reverse. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, insists that "our lifestyles are unsustainable." Al Gore gets crowds going by insisting that "civil disobedience has a role to play" in strong-arming governments to do his bidding. (This from the man who once sought to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.)

• Utopianism: In the world as it is, climate alarmists see humanity hurtling toward certain doom. In the world as it might be, humanity has seen the light and changed its patterns of behavior, becoming the green equivalent of the Soviet "new man." At his disposal are technologies that defy the laws of thermodynamics. The problems now attributed to global warming abate or disappear.

FORBES MAG: "THE WEST'S GOALS IN COPENHAGEN ARE TANTAMOUNT TO SUICIDE"

Forbes magazine published an important article, The West's Goals in Copenhagen are tantamount to Suicide." (HT: HotAir)  A few paragraphs near the end especially caught my eye:

Hegemony-seeking communist capitalists in China might fancy seeing America and the West decline to the point that they can no longer compete or fund their militaries. A weakened European Union or U.S. also won't be able provide a model of a more democratic version of capitalism to counter China’s ultra-authoritarian version.

The Chinese may win a victory in Copenhagen greater than anything accomplished so far in the marketplace--and our leaders will likely thank them for it. Forget bowing to the emperor in Tokyo; like vassal states at the height of the old Middle Kingdom, the new requisite diplomatic skill for Westerners will be kow-towing to Beijing.

SARAH PALIN TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: BOYCOTT COPENHAGEN

- Her latest Facebook message is here.

- Update 12/4/09 - On a different subject, Ben Smith names Sarah Palin a "Pro-Life Star" (he calls her the "anti-abortion star").   It's an excellent article that needs to be read in full.  (HT: HotAir)  It begins: 

In the months since she returned to the public spotlight, Sarah Palin’s continually evolving political identity has undergone a subtle change as her public persona centers increasingly on her disabled son, Trig.

Palin began her political career as a reformer breaking up Alaska’s corrupt boys club and shifted seamlessly into last fall’s campaign trail culture warrior. But her decision to carry to term her Down syndrome child established a special relationship with anti-abortion activists, and now Palin has transformed herself from a politician who was anti-abortion into the leading figure of the anti-abortion movement. . .

More:

But the most striking evidence of her son’s impact has been Palin’s book tour promoting her memoir, “Going Rogue.” As she descends from her tour bus or private jet to meet her fans, 19-month-old Trig has been a conspicuous presence — and generated a huge response. “There’s a lot of people who come through the line to see Trig instead of to see her,” says Jason Recher, a campaign aide who remained close to Palin and is now accompanying her on her book tour.

And those people, says Greg Mueller, a veteran anti-abortion political operative and former spokesman for Pat Buchanan, are getting a powerful message. “She’s going out there as a pro-life woman to say that there’s great joy in special-needs kids — and that we shouldn’t be aborting them.”   [Read the whole thing. . .]

See also Gary Bauer - Trig Palin has divided America

CLIMATEGATE - THE SCIENCE IS NOT SETTLED!

Update 12/3/09 - In addition to Michelle's recommended article linked below, Jonah Goldberg gives a fine overview of what ClimateGate is all about.  Perhaps the best and most detailed summary has been provided by Lord Moncton who challenged Al Gore to a debate long ago.  Read his most recent summary here.  I blogged about Lord Moncton's warnings about the hoax of global warning and the threat to national sovereignty it entailed  here.

- (Original post) - Michelle Malkin has penned an excellent article on ClimateGate.  Top notch.  Take a deep breath everyone: the science is not settled!  She points out the great number of Obama administration people "who are working overtime to paper over the ClimateGate scandal."

CLIMATEGATE SENTENCE OF THE DAY

Clive Cook writing in The Atlantic:  (HT: HotAir)

The stink of intellectual corruption is overpowering."

Read on...

CLIMATEGATE: HAS THE IDOL OF "SCIENCE" BEEN SMASHED?

- Update 11/29/09 -  UK Times Online article: "Climate Change Date Dumped"  (HT: Drudge)

SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based.

It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years.

Me:  Oh great.  Get a load of the comments on this article.

- (Original Post) - The idols of our time are falling with breathtaking rapidity.   The oldline media has been revealed to be biased and unreliable.   It suppresses information it doesn't want us to know, and pushes themes and stories it wishes to promote. 

The idol of Congress has been smashed.  Ordinary trust has been destroyed.  How can senators and representatives retain the people's confidence when they vote on bills they haven't read, and saddle generations to come with debt that staggers the mind?

And what about groups supposedly devoted to helping the poor like ACORN, which when the stone is lifted  show themselves immoral, vote-rigging, and power hungry arms of the democratic party.

And what about President Barack Obama?  Rather than continuing to bask in his Messiahship ("change you can believe in"), more and more segments of the nation have come to question his judgment and regret giving him stewardship over this great land.

And now, our trust in "science" has been smashed, as we see scientists fudging data, withholding information, lying, converting journals into propaganda organs, and misleading the public.  "Climategate" articles keep pouring from the press.  An earlier one is Three Things You Absolutely Must Know About Climategate." John Hindraker over at Power Line has written a lot about the East Anglia emails, here, here, here and here.  Viscount Monckton (the man who challenged Al Gore to a debate) expresses his anger.

See also James Lewis's "Climate-Gate: It's the Totalitarianism, Stupid."  He pulls no punches.  An excerpt:

Global warming was a fraud, and it has now been exposed.

That little fraud would have cost the taxpayers of the world trillions of dollars, not to mention wrecking their economies with carbon taxes and penalties.

But that’s not even the worst of it. The most important take home lesson is that global frauding was the clear and conscious work of a political machine aiming to steal your money,  your liberties, and your country. It was a massive, worldwide attempt at a coup d’etat, and the

VACLAV KLAUS, PRESIDENT OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Peter Robinson interviews Vaclav Klaus:

Communism and environmentalism—we are talking about two ideologies that are structurally very similar. They are against individual freedom.  They are in favor of centralist master-minding of our fates.  They are both very similar in telling us what to do, how to live, how to behave, what to eat, how to travel, what we can do and what we cannot do.  There is a huge similarity in this respect.

Full video interview here.

OBAMA TO CEDE U.S. SOVEREIGNTY IN DECEMBER

- Update 10/27/09 - AP - UN Signals Delay in Climate Change Treaty

UNITED NATIONS — Just weeks before an international conference on climate change, the United Nations signaled it was scaling back expectations of reaching agreement on a new treaty to slow global warming.   [more. . .] 

- (Original post) So says Lord Christopher Monckton, a global warning skeptic, and former science adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.  Pamela Geller, of Atlas Shrugs, has posted one of the most dire warnings I have read in a long time.  It represents MUST READING.  Be sure to view the four-minute video (embedded in her post) of Lord Monckten issuing his warning at Bethel University on October 14, 2009.

Geller writes:

PROBLEMS WITH THE SCIENCE BEHIND GLOBAL WARMING CATASTROPHE THEORY

Iain Murray reports that Marlo Lewis over at Master Resource has produced a very useful round-up of the latest problems.

"GLOBAL GOVERNANCE" BEHIND CLIMATE CHANGE ISSUE

Marc Morano over at  "Climate Depot" headlines:  "Gore: U.S. Climate Bill Will Help Bring About 'Global Governance.'"  (HT: Drudge)  Morano  writes:

Former Vice President Al Gore declared that the Congressional climate bill will help bring about “global governance.”

“I bring you good news from the U.S., “Gore said on July 7, 2009 in Oxford at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by UK Times.

“Just two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey climate bill,” Gore said, noting it was “very much a step in the right direction.” President Obama has pushed for the passage of the bill in the Senate and attended a G8 summit this week where he agreed to attempt to keep the Earth's temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C.

Gore touted the Congressional climate bill, claiming it “will dramatically increase the prospects for success” in combating what he sees as the “crisis” of man-made global warming.

“But it is the awareness itself that will drive the change and one of the ways it will drive the change is through global governance and global agreements.” (Editor's Note: Gore makes the “global governance” comment at the 1min. 10 sec. mark in this UK Times video.)

Gore's call for “global governance” echoes former French President Jacques Chirac's call in 2000.  [Keep reading...]

HAS WASHINGTON GONE INSANE?

Hugh Hewitt titles his post: "Voting for Economic Suicide"  He writes:

They could not have read the bill. 

A 300 page amendment to a bill that greatly impacts every American and greatly burdens every American business was introduced at 3:00 AM Friday and passed 16 hours later.

The spectacle of the House voting for a massive tax increase and a 300 page amendment they could not have read is a low point for post-segregationist Congresses.  Never have so few read so little about so important a proposal, and yet brazen forward oblivious to the the deeply embarrassing charade it presents to the world.  Banana republics make a better show of governing themselves than did the U.S. House of Representatives today.

. . . The Senate may stop this attempt at economic suicide, but independents and Republicans cannot allow the public to forget the recklessness of today's abdication of responsibility by the hard left House leadership.   [more . .]

Me: I feel like I am at the bedside of a sick patient who is being treated by a mad doctor who doesn't know what he is doing, or who possibly intends to kill the patient via a slow, agonizing death.  It infuriates.

Update - Kim Strassel in the Wall Street Journal explains the haste to pass the climate change bill: the number of skeptics is swelling everywhere.

CHUCK COLSON - CO2, EPA AND US

Chuck Colson's perspective is worth weighing.

Just recently, the Environmental Protection Agency ruled that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases are “pollutants that threaten public health and welfare.” The “threat” comes from the effects of man-made global warming.

This ruling is the first step in regulating the very gas that makes life on Earth possible. If that sounds odd to you, it should. A lot of what is going on here has little, if anything, to do with public health.

REPORT: DEMOCRATS REFUSE TO ALLOW SKEPTIC TO TESTIFY ALONGSIDE GORE AT CONGRESSIONAL HEARING

Click here.  (HT: Drudge)

Me: This represents another case of the Left's commitment to "controlled speech."  They lock out opponents, shout down opponents,  or sue opponents.  Anything but allow opponents to speak freely.

Update:  I saw a book mentioned on TV the other day.  It may be worth taking a look at.  It's Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Ruin Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them by Steven Milloy

Also, did you see the article, "One in Three Children Fear an Earth Apocalypse?

One out of three children aged 6 to 11 fears that Ma Earth won't exist when they grow up, while more than half—56 percent—worry that the planet will be a blasted heath (or at least a very unpleasant place to live), according to a new survey.

Me:  This is sad.  The new earth religion is sapping the life out of children, and for no reason.  Talk about irresponsible fear-mongering!

U.N. 'Climate Change' Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy

Oh, brother.  As in World Big Brother controlling the world economy!  Click here for the Fox news report.  (HT: Drudge) Ed Morrissey offers analysis and commentary and concludes:

If one tried to get as many foolish ideas into one 16-page document as the UN does here, they’d be hard pressed to do so.  If Obama cooperates with this, we will have willingly traded American sovereignty for rule by thieves and knaves.  Republicans need to win some seats back in the Senate to ensure this treaty never gets ratified.

- Speaking of the UN, Another Day, Another Scandal

Vaclev Havel - President of the Czech Republic. Is There a National Leader Deserving More Respect?

He's not afraid to confront Al Gore over global warming.  He worries about freedom in the world.  And he fears economic "reforms" more than he does the economic crisis itself.  Jay Nordlinger reports from Davos:

A group of us met this afternoon with Václav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic, which has the presidency of the European Union at the moment.

 

I asked Klaus something about global warming: “Al Gore calls people who disagree with him ‘deniers.’ I heard him do this just yesterday, in the Congress Center.” (The main forum here in

More. . .

ARCTIC SEA ICE

Jonah Goldberg reports:

Arctic Sea Ice is back to 1979 levels. Funny how that hasn't been front page news. Of course, it's just a snapshot, but whenever the snapshots point to global-warming-catastrophe, it's headline news.

1/12/98 Update/correction follows . . .

SACRIFICES TO THE CLIMATE GODS

Dr, Roy Spencer makes many good points.  Note: I would have provided excerpts of the article but the updated software associated with "Typepad" (the software associated with this blog) has all kinds of bugs in it making posting very difficult these days.

GLOBAL WARMING: THE LEFT'S LATEST WAR ON THE FAMILY

Don Feder's article has lots of statistics and arguments (actual facts!) to disarm the Global Warming, anti-family zealots.

EARTH DAY -BAD FOR THE UNBORN!

"Earth Day" was yesterday, April 22nd.  Our friends at the Family Research Council remind us that anti-life agendas piggy-back on the day.  (My underlining below).

An estimated billion people are celebrating Earth Day around the world, but few seem to understand its true motivation. Today isn't just another reminder to use recycled paper or drive energy-efficient cars. It's a calculated attack on the sanctity of human life. Population control is inextricably linked to the environmental and abortion movements. For years, the Sierra Club and other green militants have said that the best way to consume fewer resources is to have fewer children. Their own website says, "Talk to your decision-makers and demand an increase of funding for voluntary family planning programs and access to comprehensive sex education for young people." Last year, Optimum Population Trust released

CZECH PRESIDENT VACLAV KLAUS WITH DISSENTING VIEWS ON GLOBAL WARMING, RUSSIA, KOSOVO, AND AMERICA

Brian M. Carney of the Wall Street Journal reports on his interview with Klaus.  An excerpt:

Mr. Klaus is also interested in the politics of global warming. He has written a book, tentatively titled "Blue, Not Green Planet," published in Czech last year and due out in English translation in the U.S. this May. The main question of the book is in its subtitle: "What is in danger: climate or freedom?"

He likens global-warming alarmism to communism, which he experienced first-hand in Cold War Czechoslovakia, then a Soviet satellite. While the communists argued that we must all sacrifice some freedom in pursuit of "equality," the "warmists," as Mr. Klaus calls them, want us to sacrifice liberty -- especially economic liberty -- to prevent a change in climate. In both cases, in Mr. Klaus's view, the costs of achieving the goal, and the impossibility of truly doing so, argue strongly against paying a price of freedom.

SO MUCH FOR GLOBAL WARMING... NEW DATA SHOWS THE ICE IS BACK

Phil Brennan reports:

Are the world's ice caps melting because of climate change, or are the reports just a lot of scare mongering by the advocates of the global warming theory?

Scare mongering appears to be the case, according to reports from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that reveal that almost all the allegedly “lost” ice has come back. A NOAA report shows that ice levels which had shrunk from 5 million square miles in January 2007 to just 1.5 million square miles in October, are almost back to their original levels.

Moreover, a Feb. 18 report in the London Daily Express showed that there is nearly a third more ice in Antarctica than usual, challenging the global warming crusaders and buttressing arguments of skeptics who deny that the world is undergoing global warming.  . . . (more)

Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed "Man-Made Global Warming" Claims in 2007

From the U.S. Senate report.  More here.  (HT: Drudge)

Record Low Temperatures Being Set All Over the World

David Deming of the Washington Times reports a year of global cooling.  (HT: Drudge)

Baby tax needed to save planet, claims expert

Oh my...  This item would go in the "hard to believe department" if I had such a category. (HT: Drudge)

A WEST Australian medical expert wants families to pay a $5000-plus "baby levy" at birth and an annual carbon tax of up to $800 a child.

Writing in today's Medical Journal of Australia, Associate Professor Barry Walters said every couple with more than two children should be taxed to pay for enough trees to offset the carbon emissions generated over each child's lifetime.

How Global Warming Activisim Hurts the Poor

Mark D.  Tooley does his usual excellent job of analyzing the negative effects of what at first seems a noble endeavor, but in the end proves otherwise.  The Religious Left more often than not can be relied upon to make false judgments of this sort.  Click here

Gore Wins 2007 Nobel Peace Prize - Plus a Look Back at Past Nobel Peace Prize Winners

Al Gore has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).   Powerline asks the question, "When did the Nobel Peace Prize go off the tracks?" and supplies this reminder of past recipients (HT: Hugh Hewitt):

2005
MOHAMED ELBARADEI (joint winner).  He's done such a nice job with Iran. 

2004
WANGARI MAATHAI. The Kenyan ecologist peacefully teaches that the AIDS virus is a biological agent deliberately created by the Man.

2002
JIMMY CARTER JR., former President of the United States of America. A true cosmopolitan, he has undermined the foreign policy of his own country and vouched for the bona fides of tyrants and murderers all over the world.

2001
UNITED NATIONS, New York, NY, USA. 
KOFI ANNAN, United Nations Secretary General. Among other things, they have

Bjorn Lomborg on the Global Kyoto Craze

Update 10/10/07 - British Court finds inaccuracies in Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." Judge rules it should only be shown in schools with guidance notes to prevent political indoctrination.
**
David Freddoso refers to Bjorn Lomborg's article as

a must-read — a reductio ad absurdum for the Global Warming religion from someone who believes in man-made warming but sees through the hype.

Freddoso says:

Bjorn Lomborg is not a skeptic of man-made global warming. But he is a skeptic of the millennialist views of Al Gore and other adherents. The world is not coming to an end, he says, and no, Kyoto will not solve the world's problems. Nor is Global Warming the cause of all the world's problems — it might actually solve some of them.

Excerpts from Lomborg's article:

According to the first complete peer-reviewed survey of climate change's health effects, global warming will actually save lives. It's estimated that by 2050, global warming will cause almost 400,000 more heat-related deaths each year. But at the same time, 1.8 million fewer people will die from cold.

The Kyoto Protocol, with its drastic emissions cuts, is not a sensible way to stop people from dying in future heat waves. At a much lower cost, urban designers and politicians could lower temperatures more effectively by

Ocean Currents to Blame for Warming: Expert

Click here.     (HT: Drudge)

THE United States' leading hurricane forecaster says global ocean currents, not human-produced carbon dioxide, are responsible for global warming.

William Gray, a Colorado State University researcher, also said the Earth may begin to cool on its own in five to 10 years.  (more)

What Does Recent Sunspot Activity Have to Do with Global Warming?

Possibly a lot.  An important Investors Business Daily editorial demands attention.  Some excerpts: 

The same day that Al Gore lectured Congress about man-made global warming, NASA made a startling announcement: The sun is hotter and more active than thought.

NASA detailed new observations of solar explosions from a powerful space telescope that recently beamed back X-ray images of the sun's outermost layer. Scientists expected to see a calm region but instead saw a bubbling mass of swaying and arching spikes, some more than 5,000 miles long . The tangled magnetic fields dump energy back into the corona, causing huge temperature flares.

The sunspot intensity shocked NASA astronomers, who held the press conference in Washington as Gore testified nearby that the planet has a 'fever' caused by carbon-spewing humans. Of course, the media were too busy genuflecting before 

British TV 4 "Great Global Warming Swindle" TV Program (Video) Available on the Internet

** Update:   (HT:  Drudge)

- Researches Question Validity of a "Global Temperature"
- Al Gore Challenged to Intenational TV Debate on Global Warming
- Scientists Blame Hollywood for Increased Fears Over Global Warming

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I have posted many items before on global warming and environmentalism, including the "Great Global Warming Swindle"  produced by British Channel 4 Television.  Now, however, I want to provide a link to the actual TV Program that you can view on the internet.   A friend passed along the following commentary by Thomas Sowell on the British Channel 4 production.  Sowell concludes, “Global warming” is just the latest in a long line of hysterical crusades to which we seem to be increasingly susceptible."   More excerpts:

The documentary goes into some of the many factors that have caused the earth to warm and cool for centuries, including changes in activities on the sun, 93 million miles away and wholly beyond the jurisdiction of the Kyoto treaty.

According to these climate scientists, human activities have very little effect on the climate, compared to many other factors, from volcanoes to clouds.

These climate scientists likewise debunk the mathematical models that have been used to hype global-warming hysteria, even though

Quick Takes on "Global Warming"

Update 3/13/07 -  The New York Times today published a major article on the "Global Warming" debate.  It offers a balanced assessment, and in so doing it printed a representative number of strong critiques.  It's worth a read. 

**

Some articles from Drudge worth checking:

Environmentalism is a Religion says Czek President.

From Babylon of Gilgamesh to post-Eden of Noah, every age has viewed climate change cataclysmically, as retribution for human greed and sinfulness..

Scientists threatened with death for 'climate denial'...

'New world order' to fight global warming...

Jamie Glazov of Frontpagemag conducts an interesting (and alarming in its own way) interview with Christopher Horner, the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming (and Environmentalism).

What is the true agenda behind the global warming hysteria?  Who profits?   This interview tells us.  It's important.  A must read.   

My previous posts on global warming can be found here.