Climate Change Tag

Climate change is turning into the hobgoblin of political posturing, with both sides seemingly incapable of making it through a news cycle without finding some new and exciting way to bring up the impending boiling of our oceans. Progressives can always be counted on to play connect-the-dots with their favorite token issues, and a new Congressional resolution does just that. California Democrat Barbara Lee proposed a resolution in the House of Representatives late last month that encourages policymakers to frame their approach to climate change through the lens of gender equality. The resolution claims that women in developing areas could eventually be forced into prostitution in exchange for access to clean water and food for their families. Correlation vs. causation---it's a problem for liberals. Dennis Miller opines:

Researchers now claim global warming predictions are greatly exaggerated. (This is not surprising to those of us climate change skeptics.) What is shocking is that the findings were published in a peer-reviewed journal and are now actually being covered by some media. The UK Daily Mail has a review of the study:

Since 1990, scientists have used complex models to predict how climate change and manmade greenhouse emissions will affect the world. But a team of experts - including an astrophysicist, statistician, and geography professor – has claimed these models ‘very greatly exaggerate’ the effects of global warming. Using a simpler, solar-based model, the researchers arrived at figures that are more than half those previously predicted. The paper, ‘Why models run hot: results from an irreducibly simple climate model’, was written by Lord Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, astrophysicist and geoscientist Willie Soon, Professor of Geography at the University of Delaware David Legates, and statistician Dr Matt Briggs. It has been peer reviewed and is published in the journal Science Bulletin.

Interestingly, one of the scientists who authored the paper has a connection to Cornell. Dr. Matt Briggs, who has a Ph.D. in mathematical statistics from that university, has been the focus of a lot of heat from global warming advocates. He explained the smear campaign to Stephen K. Bannon on Breitbart News Sunday.

The hottest topics in weather today are the officially-named winter storms that are being covered as enthusiastically as hurricanes once were. Winter storms Pandora, and the associated Siberian Express, are well-chronicled via social media. The photos are amazing:

#Pandora winter storm pic.twitter.com/QwOOFiKfZ1

— Dick Glover (@GloverDick) February 22, 2015

And so are the videos: Tragically, however, over two dozen Americans have died as a result of the frigid weather.

...Nearly a week of cold and ice has contributed to 18 weather-related fatalities in Tennessee since Monday, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. They include nine people who died of hypothermia and five victims of motor-vehicle accidents. And in Kentucky, 10 people have died since Monday in weather-related incidents, said Buddy Rogers, a spokesman for Kentucky Emergency Management. Pennsylvania authorities said Friday at least two people had frozen to death outside. A 119-year-old record low temperature for February 20 was broken in Washington, with a temperature of 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15 degrees Celsius) recorded at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

"Global warming" has long been bandied about as "settled science." However, in what can reasonably be termed as a "science-based crime", scientists have been caught adjusting their raw temperature data to enhance the supposed global warming effect. This fakery is really too bad for Professor Jacobson, who is spending the day shoveling the snow from Winter Storm Neptune.

The storm's predicted barometric pressure, a measure of the storm's intensity, "is typically observed with a Category 2 hurricane," the National Weather Service in Boston said. The heaviest snow will stretch from northeastern Massachusetts to coastal Maine with more than a foot expected, AccuWeather predicts. Wind gusts could approach 70 mph in some spots — strong enough to cause structural damage and widespread power outages, the weather service said.

You know a storm is going to be bad when it is given a name, and the state's governor makes a statement about it before the first flake strikes the ground.

“New Yorkers should take every appropriate precaution as subzero temperatures and blizzard-like conditions hit the state this weekend,” Cuomo said in statement. According to the National Weather Service, [Gov. Andrew] Cuomo said some areas of the state may experience some of the “coldest temperatures in generations.” Cuomo claimed that temperatures at LaGuardia Airport may drop to their lowest since 1943 and Central Park may experience its lowest temperature since 1888.

Back in California, I'll be strolling along the beach enjoying sunny weather. However, my state is also facing its own generational climate crisis -- a drought that is the worst in US history, and severe enough to earn the term "megadrought".

In an ill-omened trip, Secretary of State John Kerry headed to India to pave the way for a climate change deal, missing the important Paris march against terror. I was skeptical that the Indians would warm to any carbon emissions agreement, given the level of poverty in that country and need to rapidly modernize its industry. He should have listened to me, because he just emitted a whole lot of greenhouse gas for no reason. The Indians rejected the deal.

President Barack Obama has left India for Saudi Arabia without inking a climate deal that formed much of the basis for his second trip to the subcontinent. The Hindustan Times reported on Tuesday that India has refused to embrace the idea of a 'peaking year' for greenhouse gas emissions – a designated year after which emissions levels would have to start decreasing. China agreed to that sort of framework last year, but Indian officials now see being lumped in with Beijing as a negative thing. India is the world's fourth-biggest carbon emitter. China is number one. 'Having a peaking year was not acceptable to us,' an Indian environment ministry official told the Times. Obama visited India on Air Force One, a plane that burns five gallons of jet fuel for every mile it flies. His round-trip, including a stop in Saudi Arabia, will emit 809 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

The President did offer the Indians $1 billion to develop green technology to sweeten the deal...which is fascinating, because American green technology ventures sponsored by this administration have been man-made disasters.

As surely as night follows day, a natural disaster will be followed by the assertions of environmental activists that it was caused by "man-made climate change." At this point, six of the now 11 wildfires raging through San Diego county are fully contained. And before the embers have begun to cool, California Governor Jerry Brown offered his eco-activist assessment of its cause.

On Thursday, Governor Jerry Brown asserted that it is settled that climate change is a factor in the wildfires now devastating parts of San Diego County. According to a story in the U-T San Diego, the governor opined, “Despite what you may hear in Washington, climate change is a factor… This is not about theory. It’s not about politics. This is about fires on the ground, people’s homes.” ..Brown, a staunch advocate of climate change theory, recently confirmed that Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is in danger of being overwhelmed by floods due to global warming.

Actually, it looks like some of the wildfires may, indeed, be "man-caused disasters." But not in the way Brown thinks. The Bernardo Fire was caused by a backhoe:

A backhoe in use at a housing construction project near Rancho Bernardo sparked the first large wildfire to erupt in San Diego County this week, authorities reported Friday.