The Legacy of Rachel Carson

Back in the early seventies, Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring and the book caused the use of DDT to be curtailed or banned. DDT was a potent pesticide that killed mosquitoes and was highly effective in tropical areas where mosquito-borne disease was rampant. In the years since, an estimated 30-million have  died because of those diseases, mainly malaria.

Carson hypothesized that DDT was harming animals and potentially humans and particularly she guessed that the decline in bald eagles was due to DDT causing eggs to be more fragile. The environmental movement used the symbol of America to reduce and ultimate stop completely the use of the chemical.
This was the first instance in which unproven science was used to attack chemical corporations on a large scale and also sentence millions of children to a preventable death.

Ironically, that same environmental movement is today causing the deaths of thousands of raptors including eagles:

"The greatest threat to migrating birds in my lifetime is unfolding in those mountains," said Jesse Grantham, former California condor coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "As for condors, strikes are inevitable. They travel together when a food source appears, so a single turbine blade could take out a lot of them in one swing."

The irrational fight against "climate change" has led us to wind power, which is not exactly proven as a carbon reducer and directly threatens species that have been brought back from the brink by reduced hunting and public knowledge. The California Condor was considered a prime example of rescuing struggling avian populations and now they face a new threat thrust upon them by a radical environmental lobby that acts first (and procures federal tax dollars) before fully investigating the consequences. Kinda sounds like Obamacare in my opinion.

So, here we are, 50 years since Rachel Carson started the movement and we have regressed to the point that that same movement is giving back substantial gains all in the name of reducing a gas all of us exhale hundreds of times per day.

Irony doesn't begin to express it.

Solyndra Finally Creates Jobs That Will Last

Solyndra received hundreds of millions from the the Obama green jobs slush fund and was supposed to create long-lasting jobs in the green tech field. It appears they have, just not in the way they or Obama expected:

The building’s owner, a company called iStar, claimed in court documents, “there may be serious environmental, health and safety issues” at the premises. According to the documents, they include, “numerous containers of solvents and chemicals…and processing equipment contaminated with lead.”

In my 20-years experience, I've never seen a a contaminated site that didn't get that way by mismanagement and poor hazardous waste handling practices. It's possible it was disturbed by kids or other means but nearly every time it was from sheer neglect and not following the rules established under RCRA. It will take a good amount of time and people to clean this up.

So what we may now have is a honest to goodness Superfund site since Solyndra blew all the money and I'm guessing that iStar doesn't have the money to clean it up. This site will require in-depth sampling and remediation if what they describe is true. I guarantee that the drums shown in the video are passed the 90-day storage allotted under regulatory requirements.

Based on what they've described, I know that lead, cadmium and solvents are most likely covered under RCRA but California law under Title 22 and DTSC regulations also brings numerous other metals and wastes into the mix. I'm curious, where was DTSC in this whole mess? They were always at my San Diego site and we had the best and cleanest hazardous waste site in Southern California.

I find it interesting that a supposed green company would refuse to pay for the clean-up of a site they have the responsibility for. Of course, we all know that they weren't a green company, they are nothing but cronies and they got paid well with our tax dollars.

Looking at the site, we may be on the hook for a hell of a lot more.

More Hypocrisy in the Global Warming Propaganda Community

In yet another blow to global warming hysteria peddlers, one of their leaders has destroyed his reputation by presenting false documents as real.

Peter Gleik recently sent documents supposedly from conservative advocacy group the Heartland Institute to several papers that allegedly showed their agenda in fighting the climate change supporters and also released names of donors and other information. At least some of those documents turned out to be true while those that were not were fraudulently acquired, meaning stolen.

The ones that may have been true don't concern me that much, they lay out what we know about the Heartland Institute and its mission. Having documents released by unauthorized personnel is as old as secrets are and we never would have heard the phrase "hide the decline" if that wasn't the case.

The ones that were falsified concern me greatly, however. Putting out false information to attack an individual or organization is not only illegal but says a great deal about the integrity of those who illegally construct them. If falsifying documents is you way to win an argument then your argument wasn't very strong anyway. This is just such an example of that.

Better still, Gleik had the support of some pretty strong allies including the NY Times, Guardian (UK), leading climate change blogs and many other including Bill Gates. Liberal purveyors of information to be sure and now looking like suckered amateurs.

Here's Gleiks weaselly confession and I'm sure we'll see the "fake but accurate" meme resurrected once again but for anyone paying attention, this is a black eye for climate change propagandist's who have berated those of us who don't take studies showing rising temperature at face value just because they say to. The hypocrisy in the movement knows no bounds.

I have one last question for this guy: If you believe every single word of the Heartland documents, why do you not also believe every single e-mail written by the CRU at East Anglia? Those were a million times more devastating to the science of the issue. What about statements recently released by the CRU that greatly contradict what CRU themselves said?

More here.

Update: Much more here.

Update #2: This puts it better than I ever have:

The main issue I am raising is not that the scientists who are at the front line of this research are blind or bellicose – not that they are unscrupulous or fraudulent. Most of the scientists working in the field are not trying to push an ideological position but are genuinely trying to get at the truth. If they can be accused of any moral failing, it is simply the tendencey to go with the flow when it comes to writing grant proposals and alluding to the possibility of global warming as a justification for supporting their research. Nothing horrible about that.

That does not say that there are not a few at the top and at the edges who are true believers – who think that behaving as deceivers is ethically the right thing to do given the gravity of the threat (that they perceive) and the ignorance of the masses to that threat (as they perceive).

Al Gore and his army of climate change zealots are the ones at the top and will do anything to stop even one counter argument. To allow any alternative theories would begin to erode the belief in the false god they've constructed and staked their reputations on. But ideology is not their main driving force, AGW has been their golden goose and they've made billions on the biggest scam of the last century. Redistribution is only a happy side effect to them.

Global Warming Belief Melting Away

In the seven years I've been writing this blog (damn, 7 years is an eon in the blogosphere but I digress) I've pointed out numerous instances where the facts presented about global warming just didn't add up. Let's just say I was one of the sceptics back when being a sceptic made one a pariah--especially in the environmental business in which I make my living. It was kind of like eating a roast beef sandwich for lunch while working for PETA.

Anyway, in the last six months or so, we've seen the carefully constructed "science" behind the case for man-caused global warming be obliterated. From the "hide the decline" e-mail leak to the Himalayan glacier embarrassment, it's been a non-stop rebuke to those who made their name and their money from perpetuating this myth. Somewhere along the line, too many governments and too many universities got in on the act and it snowballed to the point that it was no longer about the science but about the cash one could make by adjusting the numbers and calling it science.

When the Climate Research Unit e-mails were released, we got an unprecedented look at just how important it was to those who were leaders in global warming studies to make the data fit their preconceived notions--about as unscientific as anything can be. Science is disproving things and looking at all the data to determine a hypothesis, not fudging numbers to make your work look better. These guys were the world leaders on climate science and billions if not trillions of dollars have been spent by nations around the world based on what these guys wrote and passed off as legitimate science. That's billions of dollars, shekels, rupees, euros, pesos and pounds that could have been spent on needy places like Haiti and Ghana. Instead the money was moved in the biggest Ponzi schemes ever devised in an effort to redistribute money from the 1st world to the 3rd. A liberal wet dream is there ever was one.

But now the jig is up and the news is out, the world is starting to catch on that we've been had. The Brits have been huge supporters of carbon emissions reduction and belief in the Great Global Warming Swindle but that's changed dramatically and just in the last three months:

The Populus poll of 1,001 adults found 25% did not think global warming was happening, a rise of 8% since a similar poll was conducted in November.

The percentage of respondents who said climate change was a reality had fallen from 83% in November to 75% this month.

And only 26% of those asked believed climate change was happening and "now established as largely man-made"...

"It is very unusual indeed to see such a dramatic shift in opinion in such a short period," Populus managing director Michael Simmonds told BBC News.

"The British public are sceptical about man's contribution to climate change - and becoming more so," he added.

"More people are now doubters than firm believers."

This is from the very liberal BBC I should note.

I know that weather and climate are two mutually exclusive things but people are out in weather every day and have discerned that it's not been getting warmer in the aggregate, but getting colder. I know that the fot of snow I'm looking at right now outside my window is what it's always been; winter precipitation and nothing more. But when we get hit with two huge storms in a month and a half, people start to get sceptical. Add to that the fact that these global warming zealots have said it's because of global warming that we are having these storms and the average persons bullshit meter pegs at eleven.

Climate change politics and global warming rhetoric is not dead but it's waning. Once more people realize that it's OK to ask questions and not be labeled a "flat earther" or some other such garbage, the more people will realize they've been had. Once that happens, the money will start to dry up and the issue will fade until the next one comes along and the next after that.

Until that battle, we are seeing the beginning of the end of the Great Global Warming Swindle.

Update: California Republicans have launched a ballot initiative that would suspend greenhouse gas emission rules in the state until the unemployment rate improves to 5.5% or better. I bet it will pass too.

Pure Brilliance in Exposing Climategate

Check this out: Kent Clizbe sent the following e-mail to 27 colleagues of Michael Mann at the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University who developed the "hockey stick" BS that was the nexus of the entire global warming movement:

Hi,

Greetings and best wishes for a prosperous New Year.

National Search
After the recent whistleblower revelations of emails between climate researchers and data from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, there are on-going investigations into potential fraudulent use of grant funds in Climate Research in the US. I am assisting interested parties who may have details of fraud in climate research to make contact with the proper authorities, and to share in the rewards paid when the funds are recovered.

Whistleblower Rewards Program
The federal government has established vigorous programs to identify and prosecute fraudulent grant applications and administration. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) administers the False Claims Act. It allows rewards for those who come forward with details of grant fraud to share in the recovery of federal funds. This reward can be as much as 30% of the total amount reclaimed. The program is almost completely reliant on insiders to report their knowledge of the fraud in their institutions.

Attorney Literally “Wrote the Book” on Fraud Recovery Lawsuits
Joel Hesch, Esq., of Hesch and Associates, literally wrote the book on how to report federal fraud. He has an extensive background in representing whistleblowers in all types of federal funding fraud cases, including Educational/ Research Grant Fraud. According to Mr Hesch: “Many institutions receive grants, whether for research or educational purposes. When they lie to get the grant or keep the grant or if they use the funds for purposes outside the grant, they are liable under the DOJ program. There have been many grant cases brought by whistleblowers. ”

If you know of anyone who might have details about fraudulent statements or actions by recipients of federal grant funds for climate research, please have them contact me immediately at the below email or cell phone. Alternatively, they may also contact Mr Hersch directly, and let him know that they were referred by me. All communications are completely confidential. They may want to consider using a third party email service (Yahoo, Hotmail, or other) instead of work email to communicate.
30% of $50 million is more than $12 million. Ask your friends to do the right thing, and be rewarded for doing it.
Our country, and in fact, the entire world is counting on someone to stand up and tell the truth about climate research. The effects of moving forward with taxes and policies based on fraudulent science could potentially cripple the US economy and cost lives and jobs for generations.

Look forward to hearing from you.

All the best

Kent Clizbe

Needless to say, I'm sure it was a chilly day at Penn State.

This is one of the reasons I love the internet and the free exchange of ideas. People with a bit of smarts and the right motivation can expose scams by the dozens--a job once held by the US media (and one now carried on valiantly by the UK and Aussie media). This is sheer brilliance on the part of Mr. Clizbe and I hope he succeeds beyond his wildest dreams.

Awesome.

H/T: Insty's link to James Delingpole.

Climategate Derailing Copenhagen meeting

If you read any news that is not based in the US, you'll see that Climategate is a huge deal. How huge?

The Met Office plans to re-examine 160 years of temperature data after admitting that public confidence in the science on man-made global warming has been shattered by leaked e-mails.

The new analysis of the data will take three years, meaning that the Met Office will not be able to state with absolute confidence the extent of the warming trend until the end of 2012.

The Met Office database is one of three main sources of temperature data analysis on which the UN’s main climate change science body relies for its assessment that global warming is a serious danger to the world. This assessment is the basis for next week’s climate change talks in Copenhagen aimed at cutting CO2 emissions.

So to sum up: at least one third of the data used by the UN comes from this source and it will take three years to confirm or disavow the existence of global warming. That means that we shouldn't see anything from the UN over the next 3-years screeching about impending doom, right? Yeah right, if only.

Copenhagen is being looked at as a sham by much of the world with the exception of America because the media has done Obama's dirty work and dutifully not reported anything about it. This would be why people are getting their info online and the word is getting out in spite of the US media embargo.

Unfotunately for Gordon Brown, the Brit media has more scruples than their Yank counterparts:

The Government is attempting to stop the Met Office from carrying out the re-examination, arguing that it would be seized upon by climate change sceptics.

Got that, can't have those pesky facts backing up those vile sceptics, can we? More here.

The Global Warming Swindle Unravels Quickly

A must read in the Telegraph (UK):

The reason why even the Guardian's George Monbiot has expressed total shock and dismay at the picture revealed by the documents is that their authors are not just any old bunch of academics. Their importance cannot be overestimated, What we are looking at here is the small group of scientists who have for years been more influential in driving the worldwide alarm over global warming than any others, not least through the role they play at the heart of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Professor Philip Jones, the CRU's director, is in charge of the two key sets of data used by the IPCC to draw up its reports. Through its link to the Hadley Centre, part of the UK Met Office, which selects most of the IPCC's key scientific contributors, his global temperature record is the most important of the four sets of temperature data on which the IPCC and governments rely – not least for their predictions that the world will warm to catastrophic levels unless trillions of dollars are spent to avert it.

This is essentially Enron times one hundred. They cooked the books to ensure that more money--your money and mine--was spent on ever more carbon-reducing activities and studies. They built an industry of which Al Gore became the American face whereby they manipulated data to meet their own ends. It's a fraud of epic proportions and one that would make Bernie Madoff salute for the sheer audacity.

The more that comes out, the more the whole house of cards will teeter and eventually fall. At that time, many Americans will wonder what happened while the rest of the world laughs as the world's media is reporting every single breaking detail while American media is ignoring it with every fiber of their being (Fox News excepted).

I've been writing this blog for seven years and have linked story after story that questioned the validity of the data. I've been a sceptic because the science never added up. Now we who knew the scam was on are vindicated and those who perpetrated the con will be shown the scumbags we knew them to be.

I pray that Cap and Trade comes to the floor of the House and Senate so this will be out in the open. I picture Sen. Inhofe jamming it straight down Sen. Boxer's throat live on C-SPAN.

Please take the time to read the entire piece.

Update: Forgot to link to this. All the important data was "lost" during a move to new facilities. A convenient way to keep those who would review the veracity of the data from ever getting a chance to see it. The scandal widens daily but you'll have to read the UK press, blogs or Aussie media to know anything about it.

Obama Followers Leave Huge Carbon Footprint

Almost as much as Al Gore's house on a good day. Look at the picture via Drudge:


I get it, it was the beginning of the Obama stimulus plan whereby half the city picks up trash left by environmentally aware liberals. I'd say that yes, DC was well-prepared for the million or so people who attended.

The Dwindling Kennedy Influence

Whither the Kennedy's?

It's bee a rough ten months or so for the Kennedy family. Senator Kennedy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor--a tough blow.

But look at what has occurred recently:

Princess Caroline Kennedy has been belittled by the news media when she threw her hat into the ring to replace Senator Clinton and now this:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Plans for the nation's first offshore wind farm got a boost Friday when a federal agency rejected high-profile opponents' arguments that the giant turbines would damage the environment off Cape Cod.

A bitter fight over the proposed wind farm has lasted more than seven years. Its foes, including Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., argue the wind farm would kill birds and endanger sea life, and harm the scenic area's tourism and fishing industries.

But the new Minerals Management Service report said developer Cape Wind Associates' plans pose no major environmental problems.

The new Obama administration will decide the project's fate. President-elect Barack Obama, who wants to double alternative energy production over the next three years, was visiting an Ohio company that makes parts for wind turbines on Friday. He takes office Tuesday.

Too bad for the Kennedy's that a judge overturned their collective family hypocrisy. One has to assume Obama has no option but to approve it or he will also be seen as a major hypocrite and not just by conservative pundits.

Global Warming: Anatomy of a Worldwide Swindle Part 1

Years from now, college classes will look back at the rise of global warming as an issue that swept across the planet. They will examine how a frightening few developed a strategy to make an unproven issue into one of the biggest issues facing the world and became one of the most-costly mistakes in modern times.

Let's go back and examine just how this issue came to become gospel to many throughout the world.

Back in the late 1960's, it became evident that we had serious environmental problems. For decades, the world had not been good environmental stewards disposing of sewage, chemical waste and other byproducts of a burgeoning industrial age wherever was convenient at the time. Industrial effluent was discharged to the nearest body of water with no thought of what would happen downstream. We buried drums of hazardous waste in any available landfill or created them for just such a purpose. At Love Canal, NY, 27,000 tons of highly toxic, corrosive and flammable waste was buried in the remnants of the canal the town was named for. There existed no laws dictating what the proper disposal techniques should be.

The US took the initiative and passed the initial Federal Water Quality Control Act (amended as the Clean Water Act in 1977), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the Clean Air Act. Eventually the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (also known as Superfund) was passed and we started to get a handle on our hazardous waste disposal and emissions problems. Note that the majority of the legislation was signed by a Republican president.

The environment became a major focus of most Western governments as it should have but environmental awareness was long in coming in Eastern nations--especially those under the oppressive thumb of the Soviet Union. We worked to clean up the mess we had made and environmental awareness was at an all-time level. Corporations were fined for mishandling waste and people who broke the laws went to jail. Industry soon got the message that being a good environmental steward was the only option. We were at a point where we had a nice agreement between industry, government and consumers.

Enter the environmental coalitions who found themselves left out in the cold. They lost cache and were essentially ignored. That was unacceptable to them and they needed a new issue. At roughly the same time, a small uptick in global temperatures was recorded by weather scientists that could easily be explained as an anomaly or a cyclical increase when compared to historical data. But environmentalists looked at the data and misconstrued it. They started making noise about holes in the ozone layer and they paid scientists to write stories about impending doom if the issue was not rectified. Newspapers started reporting on the story and they were given gravitas way beyond what was warranted. They were relevant again and people stopped ignoring them.

But how to keep the public interested? How to maintain their position as the go-to people on environmental issues? How to keep their name in the papers? They had one choice; ratchet up the rhetoric and make the issue one in which everyone would made aware and become believers. It was a strategy that called for propaganda and that was easy with a compliant media. They belittled scientists who disagreed with their findings as frauds and worse, pawns of the political right. Grant money flowed to those who wrote studies showing catastrophic and irreversible damage to the planet within one, ten or fifty years. As every new report was released, the dire consequences of inaction were said to be so destructive as to inundate every major coastal city. Those who took a contrarian approach saw grant money dry up like the dust bowl during the early part of last century. Voices who were even remotely sceptical or who showed the flawed thinking for what it was, shoddy science, were quickly buried under an unstoppable torrent of bad press and were not given any credible press outside of the blossoming Internet.

Enter Al Gore. The former VP glommed onto the issue and to the world left and the press (but I'm redundant) they had a voice that would seal the deal. He made a video that was adamant that global warming was man-made, possibly unstoppable and could not be dispelled.

More later.

Obama to Coal Mining States: Screw You!

He's made it clear. Note that it was in Frisco again where he also slammed people who cling to guns and religion and intimated they hate on minorities:



A vision of one, possible future.

The Green Revolution Wilts

I always wondered what the tipping point for the American public was when it came to opting oil exploration over environmental concerns. That point was $4 per gallon.

Now we're seeing a sea change in the concept of green thinking by Americans. They are mush more open to drilling off our coasts and in ANWR, burning whatever coal is necessary to keep electricity affordable, increasing production of shale deposits and ratcheting up natural gas production. They haven't exactly warmed to resuming construction of nuclear plants but that's changing as well.

Perhaps the high cost of fuels and the hypocrisy of eco-celebrities like Al Gore and others have finally made people realize just how ridiculous the carbon offsets garbage is as well as realizing that America is at the forefront of environmental regulation with regards to clean water, air and land.

Here's another view along these same lines.

Al Gore Encourages "Civil Disobedience" Over Power Plants

Former VP and environmental hypocrite Al Gore is urging on the the agitators:

Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental crusader Al Gore urged young people on Wednesday to engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal plants without the ability to store carbon.

The former U.S. vice president, whose climate change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Academy Award, told a philanthropic meeting in New York City that "the world has lost ground to the climate crisis."

Translated from Gorese into English he's actually saying "that Obama character has stolen my thunder and the rise in gas prices has turned the American people into anti-environmentalist's who encourage drilling everywhere so let's riot".

By the way Al, this is the type of civil disobedience the libs are good at.

The fact that without coal-fired power plants, Gores own house--a building that has a carbon footprint larger than most African nations--would go dark seems to have escaped the Goracle. Obama's success has put a dent in Gore's lucrative business as a hypocritical environmental shill so it's time to take off the (hemp) gloves and get serious about putting coal-fired plants in a "lockbox". I guess Biden is getting his talking points from the Goracle instead of his running mate.

The Decline of the Global Warming Scam?

Not likely but cracks are showing in the carefully built facade:

Responding to various new scientific reports questioning the concept of global warming, Assemblyman Michael Doherty today called on Governor Corzine to hold off on proposing any new regulations associated with the state’s Global Warming Response Act and urged the Legislature to repeal that act when it returns to legislative business after Labor Day.

“There are many credible members of the scientific community who have questioned the theory of global warming, and now we have some scientists actually suggesting the earth’s temperatures may be entering a period of dramatic cooling,” said Doherty, R-Warren and Hunterdon. “With this growing level of scientific uncertainty, it makes no sense to enact a new set of economically damaging regulations prompted by the global warming hysteria of recent years.”

Two years ago, this would have been political suicide to make this call with the environmental jihadist's ready to lynch apostates and atheist's at a moments notice. Even in the industrial state of New Jersey--home to major pharmaceutical and chemical facilities--the global warming bell tolled incessantly calling the faithful to the church of Green. Now, not so much.

The "climate change" advocates have built themselves their own industry, call it "Big Environmental" and they aren't going away without a fight to be sure. Al Gore has made himself the leader of this creepy cult of misfits who espouse reduction of every persons' "carbon footprint" except for their own and the lefties have fallen for this bunk hook, line and sinker.

Of course the Gorebots will claim the temps dropped because of their efforts so I would be naive to think they will forget this but it's amazing how quickly the bottom is dropping out of this scam and other environmental falsehoods due to rising gas prices and the realization that we need energy from domestic sources right now. We're seeing more stories about global cooling and a new ice age so they'll just have to white out "warming" and add "cooling" on their literature. It will still be the fault of Bush and the US somehow so they have that going for them.

Yes my friends, the environmental zealots of the Church of Gaia will not just fade but they are rightfully being exposed as the false prophets many on the right knew them to be.

GOP Gets a Backbone on Oil Drilling

Speaker "San Fran Nan" Pelosi shut down Congress today without debating or putting up for a vote drilling for oil domestically. When I say shut down, I mean microphones, lights and C-Span cameras shut off so that Nan could shuttle across country in her carbon footprint-expanding jet to the sunny climes of No Cal.

Some ballsy Republicans decided that this is an important issue to Americans who are paying $4.00 a gallon for gas and decided that they would just continue to protest in the dark:

Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders opposed the motion to adjourn the House, arguing that Pelosi's refusal to schedule a vote allowing offshore drilling is hurting the American economy. They have refused to leave the floor after the adjournment motion passed at 11:23 a.m., and they are busy bashing Pelosi and her fellow Democrats for leaving town for the August recess.

At one point, the lights went off in the House and the microphones were turned off in the chamber, meaning Republicans were talking in the dark. But as Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz..) was speaking, the lights went back on and the microphones were turned on shortly afterward.
But C-SPAN, which has no control over the cameras in the chamber, has stopped broadcasting the House floor, meaning no one was witnessing this except the assembled Republicans, their aides, and one Democrat, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), who has now left.

Only about a half-dozen Republicans were on the floor when this began, but the crowd has grown to about 20, according to Patrick O'Connor.

It grew and Nan tried to shut it down but they did call for President Bush to invoke his Executive right to call the smug bastards back from recess and debate this like the people's reps should. Get ready for war:

The daring insurrection on the House floor has come to a quiet end. There was a presser that included a call for the president to exercise his right to call Congress back into session.

In response, Nancy Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly offers the following quote: "The New Direction Congress led by Democrats has offered real solutions to bring down energy costs, promote renewable fuels and energy efficiency, and promote oil production right here in America. But a majority of Congressional Republicans have voted NO each time. They should go home to their districts and explain their record of obstructing common-sense proposals to address the pain at the pump being felt by American consumers and businesses."

Nice try. We want drilling, we want oil shale production and we want it now. What a lame response from the cowardly, do-nothing Congress led by Pelosi. This is a loser issue and Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid know it so they'll try to keep their powder dry and hope prices keep going lower during the recess. Here's to hoping Bush has the huevo's to call them back to session and hold their collective feet to the (carbon-producing) fire.

Global Warming Denial is "a Crime" says NASA Scientist

As an addendum to the previous post, global warming believers aren't taking too well to the prospect that people are actually seeing through their scam. The chief snake oil salesman has gone over the edge against people who question his absolute moral authority on the issue:

James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer.

...In an interview with the Guardian he said: "When you are in that kind of position, as the CEO of one the primary players who have been putting out misinformation even via organisations that affect what gets into school textbooks, then I think that's a crime."

Speaking ones mind is ever a crime, sir and the fact that you propose putting anyone on trial for their thoughts and views is downright Orwellian. What the hell is a "high crime against...nature" anyway? You also have to admire the chutzpah for using the phrase "actively spreading doubt" as if their can be no disbelief about the issue...ever. Kind of religious, isn't it?

But no, this yahoo isn't done yet:

He wants to see a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants, coupled with the creation of a huge grid of low-loss electric power lines buried under ground and spread across America, in order to give wind and solar power a chance of competing. "The new US president would have to take the initiative analogous to Kennedy's decision to go to the moon."

His sharpest words are reserved for the special interests he blames for public confusion about the nature of the global warming threat. "The problem is not political will, it's the alligator shoes - the lobbyists. It's the fact that money talks in Washington, and that democracy is not working the way it's intended to work."

Are not global warming theory (yes, it's still a theory) pushers not adding to the "public confusion?" Perhaps Hansen needs a refresher on democracy. In his world, a democracy is when everyone votes the way he prefers. By the way Mr. Hansen, this is a Republic, Google it.

Even better, why don't we put it on the ballot in all fifty states in November--a question that asks the American public whether or not we should raise taxes on fuel and everything else so that we can reduce a gas that may or may not be contributing to global warming. We can further ask the public whether or not they would be willing to foot the trillion dollar bill for burying all those power lines. I'm game and that's about as democratic as you can get. Are you up for it Mr Hansen?

Are People Finally Seeing Through the Global Warming Scam?

With world energy prices at record highs and the quality of life for nearly everyone being effected, it seems as though people are finally taking a good, hard look at the global warming charade and find the international consensus lacking.

First in Britain where the public has had just about enough:

The majority of the British public is still not convinced that climate change is caused by humans - and many others believe scientists are exaggerating the problem, according to an exclusive poll for The Observer.

The results have shocked campaigners who hoped that doubts would have been silenced by a report last year by more than 2,500 scientists for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which found a 90 per cent chance that humans were the main cause of climate change and warned that drastic action was needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The findings come just before the release of the government's long-awaited renewable energy strategy, which aims to cut the UK's greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent over the next 12 years.

The "campaigners" are shocked because they have had a compliant media and in many cases a compliant government telling them just how real this global warming thing is. On the sceptic's side, we had several reputable folks telling us it was not at all as disconcerting as the warmenist's claimed but they were effectively shut out of the conversation. The grass-roots sceptics continually poked holes in their case but with fuel prices at historic lows or at least steady, people swallowed the spoon-fed "data" being dished out about temperature rises of 1 degree Celsius and rising oceans despite sketchy science. Even conservatives are getting caught up and are missing the lack of seriousness by the public on this issue.

Not any more.

When the warming alarmist's were told that the Earth was, in fact, cooling, they changed their mantra from global warming to "climate change" so they could blame every single weather event from earthquakes and flooding to snowfall a day before summer and the reduction of hurricanes on "climate change." Thankfully, some people scratched their heads and said "how can this be?" But most went along with the plan because it wasn't directly costing them money (the fact that their taxes were being used and raised for anti-global warming activities didn't seem to phase many) and it was hip to be a good environmental steward.

Fast-forward to the future and we now have oil approaching $150 per barrel and the quality of life being effected daily because of silly environmental policies. Now, the alarmist's message can not be accepted so lightly. The costs of signing a ridiculous Kyoto agreement is starting to be seen and when we see that non-Kyoto nations are actually reducing carbon output better than signers, the people have to be questioning what the hell this scam is all about.

Global warming deniers or those who believe that the world may be getting a bit warmer through natural means such as sun spots have been labeled heretics and compared to Holocaust deniers in the most extreme cases but we are entitled to out views and perhaps we are seeing a tipping point where we're starting to get some acceptance for our views. People are seeing Al Gore make millions off an industry he helped create based on half-truths and outright lies. They see Al Gore using more energy than ten families should why we turn off our air to save money. They hear liberal elites sermonize about how evil we are by driving SUV's then watch as they fly off in private jets while saying they've offset the carbon created by planting a damn tree somewhere.

The tide is turning (and not going up and flooding low-lying cities) and the public has had enough. For those who have seen through this sham since it was first pushed in the 90's, it feels pretty sweet that the public is starting to see the arrogance and hypocrisy as well.

Happy Friggin' Earth Day!

Those who've read this site regularly I'm in the environmental business and know how environmental policy works. That said, I'm far from an environmentalist, which brings us to Earth Day and the celebration of the planet taking place in countries where people are fortunate and blessed enough to think about such things and not have to worry about finding a single cup of rice to feed their children.

Those who actually take Earth Day seriously are those who believe every single thing Al Gore says about global warming (now mostly called climate change because the temps have gotten cooler of late) and drive the carbon footprint-enlarging Prius to make themselves feel like they're better than you are.

In my work, I've cleaned up many of the most-polluted sites in the Northeast, sites that once posed real harm to humans and the environment, not a problem that is mostly made-up to give libs another issue to whine about like global warming.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for reducing energy usage but more because the environmentalist's have succeeded in handcuffing the oil industry by not allowing construction of new refineries or tapping new sites, thus leaving us at the mercy of terror-supporting nations like Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Listen, I want a cleaner planet and the US has the most stringent environmental regulations in the world. We are making unfathomable progress in cleaning up our environmental messes, but we still have a ways to go. Libs act like we are the world's biggest polluters because we didn't sign onto the Kyoto Protocols and their inane pacts. Believe me, had we signed on to Kyoto, the loss of jobs would have been enormous and impoverished people not only cling to guns and religion but don't care a wit about the environment.

Anyway, here's the first post I ever wrote about the GOP and environmental regulations.

How ER Will Celebrate Earth Hour

I've been prepping for this for a whole week (well, a few minutes, anyway). Earth Hour--that evil little creation whereby we're supposed to shut off our lights at 8:00 PM in support of Gaia--is creeping eerily across the globe only to reach here in less than seven hours.

To show the inanity of the idea, I've not only devised ways to keep my own lights and appliances on at peak, electricity-eating performance but plan on going to neighbors windows who aren't home and using the universal Verizon remote to turn on their TVs to add to the wattage. I'm also going to drink alot of beer so that I have to use the toilet as much as possible thereby increasing the wattage used at the treatment plant. I'm also going to set my dogs loose in the neighborhood to trip the neighbors motion detector lights.

Finally, the best plan of all: I am buying a dozen balloons, tying four extension cords to them as well as a light and letting it go so the neighbors can see my anti-global warmingist attitude in all it's glory. Hell, I may well do the same thing at homes where the neighbors are out using their outdoor plugs.

A devious scheme indeed but one needed as an antidote to the group stupidity gripping the world today.

Global Warmingist's Perplexed

Check out how this little bit of anti-global warming science is spun:

Some 3,000 scientific robots that are plying the ocean have sent home a puzzling message. These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. That could mean global warming has taken a breather. Or it could mean scientists aren't quite understanding what their robots are telling them.

Got that? The message is "puzzling" because it gives them data that doesn't support their collective global warming theories. Either global warming has taken a "breather" or the scientists are just too damn stupid to figure out how to make the data more conducive to NPR reporting about the escalation of global warming. Note: these are the same scientists who provided data previously that people who listen to NPR were more than happy to exploit for their own, Gaia-proselytizing means.

This is puzzling in part because here on the surface of the Earth, the years since 2003 have been some of the hottest on record. But Josh Willis at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the oceans are what really matter when it comes to global warming.

Yeah, I too find it amazing that global temperature increases of less than 1 degree celsius have not had the oceans boiling by now. I was thinking by this point, I could grab a pot of water out of the Atlantic surf, throw some ziti in there and in ten minutes I'd be chowing down.

In fact, 80 percent to 90 percent of global warming involves heating up ocean waters. They hold much more heat than the atmosphere can. So Willis has been studying the ocean with a fleet of robotic instruments called the Argo system. The buoys can dive 3,000 feet down and measure ocean temperature. Since the system was fully deployed in 2003, it has recorded no warming of the global oceans.

Call me stupid but may I suggest that there hasn't been any warming of the oceans?

"There has been a very slight cooling, but not anything really significant," Willis says. So the buildup of heat on Earth may be on a brief hiatus. "Global warming doesn't mean every year will be warmer than the last. And it may be that we are in a period of less rapid warming."

Oh, okay. There has been cooling and at no time in the past five-years has there been any warming. So it must mean a period of less rapid warming even though there's been no warming on record. Got it? This pretzel logic is giving me a headache.

One possibility is that the sea has, in fact, warmed and expanded — and scientists are somehow misinterpreting the data from the diving buoys.

But if the aquatic robots are actually telling the right story, that raises a new question: Where is the extra heat all going?

Again with the scientists. Lay. Off. The. Scientists.

When these good men and women were reporting higher temperatures (and supporting global warmingist's doctrine) they were interpreting the data flawlessly, now, not so much. Perhaps the belief in global warming is...how to put this kindly...bullshit.

"I suspect that we'll able to put this together with a little bit more perspective and further analysis," Trenberth says. "But what this does is highlight some of the issues and send people back to the drawing board."

Translation, we need time to spin the data to make it look as if global warming is not a farce or is not slowing or else we lose the gravy train of grants from suckers who we've conned into believing global warming is real--cha-ching!. "Back to the drawing board" means we have a new grant proposal and we may just be able to claim this global warming thing exists until it's time to retire.

Update: More from Sweetness and Light and AJ Strata.

Update: Tim Blair linked. Thanks buddy, we all love an Aussielanche. AJ Strata did as well but the link is wrong and I can't seem to find his e-mail address on the site to tell him so.