By Joanne Nova
A donor in the US felt The Skeptics Handbook was so worthwhile that they have paid to print and post 150,000 copies of the booklet through Heartland. Just soak in that number. A “bestseller” only has to notch up 5,000 copies. always, Joseph Bast and his team are efficient and ambitious. For starters, the Handbook was provided to everyone who came to the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change in New York, but the big plan extends far and wide. It includes some 850 journalists, 26,000 schools, 19,000 leaders and politicians, just to mention a few (see the list at the bottom for details).
My aim, as always, is to lift standards of science communication to help people make up their own minds. Scientists need to stand up and defend the discipline that gave us penicillin, cures for cataracts, and machines that fly round the world in a day. Science has become the victim of politics and economics and like everything valuable in life it needs to be defended against the ever present entropy of unreason. There are infinite ways to confuse, confound and be incorrect.
For those who are wondering, I will not, and have not received any payment for my work or costs. I did not ask for any, nor was any offered. Heartland approached me with a request for permission to print the Handbook, which I was happy to give. That I should have to even mention payments (or lack of) shows how weak the AGW case is. After all, if the alarmists had the evidence they claim, they could discuss the science instead of the funding. (DeSmog and Deltoid tried and failed pathetically to find any faults in the science. See my reply to DeSmog here.) Thanks to the special online supporters who’ve bought me boxes of chocolate and to everyone for all the enthusiastic feedback. It keeps me going.
Like predictable performing poodles, no doubt some who pretend to be concerned about the environment will find the time to question my motivations (as if that changes Earth’s climate somehow). Apparently some ‘idealists’ can’t imagine anyone working for free for a cause they believe in passionately. It’s hard to believe I’m just as dedicated and sincere as all those greenie bloggers eh? Ironically, I’m just like them, except - I can reason.
Even if I had been paid, it makes no difference to the graphs from NASA. The hypocrisy is rich. No one expects NGO office bearers to work for free, and when funded-Greenpeace-activists publish reports, no one shrilly dismisses the science because it’s produced by an organization that benefits from inflating crises. Read more here.
By Matt Vooro
For decades we have been urged by IPCC and various AGW supporting scientists to urgently prepare for unprecedented global warming. Yet only few years after the issue of their 2007 or latest report, exactly the opposite is happening. The entire planet is cooling and significantly. Some governments have implemented carbon tax and most are proposing more ‘back door taxes’ through the ‘cap and trade’ mechanism to fight even more global warming.
Sounds to me like another groundless search for weapons of mass destruction that never ever existed. Good taxpayer money is again being wasted for what purpose.
Global cooling is projected to last for another 20- 30 years and the future is likely one of alternating cycles of cooling and warming rather than unprecedented warming for 100years. (Don Easterbrook)
How Come The Media Is Giving IPCC A Free Ride Despite The Flawed Results?
Recent Global And Canadian Evidence Of Global Cooling
1] Global air temperature anomalies have been dropping for 3 years from 0.482C in 2005 to 0.325C in 2008.
2] Global sea surface temperature anomalies have been dropping for 5 years from 0.383C in 2003 to 0.274C in 2008
3] Southern hemisphere sea surface temperature anomalies have been dropping for 6 years from 0.372C in 2002 to 0.287C in 2008
4] The northern hemisphere sea surface temperature anomalies have been dropping for 5 years from 0.479C in 2003 to 0.261C in 2008
5] Canadian national annual temperature departures from the 1948 -2008 trend have been declining for two years from 2.4C in 2006 to 0.7C in 2008
6] Canadian west coast annual temperature departures from the 1948-2008 trend have been declining for four years from 1.5C in 2004 to -0.1 in 2008
7] Canadian national winter temperature departure from 1948-2009 trend has been dropping for 3 years from 3.9C in 2006 to 0.3C in 2009
8] The average winter temperature anomalies from the 1948-2009 trend for the three Canadian prairie provinces have dropped some 6.6 to 7.1 degrees C in only three years since 2006
IPCC projected decadal increases of 0.2 C degrees for each of the next 2 decades and 2 to 6 C by 2100. The observed historical trend is closer to 1.5 C per century during the last several years since 2005 actual temperatures are cooling at – 0.157 C per three years or equivalent of -0.52 C per decade per CRUtem 3 global air temperatures. Read more on how Matt ties the changes to the PDO and uses that to project ahead here.
By Andrew Pierce, UK Telegraph
Tim Nicholson’s commitment to green causes was enshrined in law by an employment tribunal as a “philosophical belief” under the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations.
The landmark ruling could now pave the way for hundreds more discrimination claims against companies who have ridden roughshod over employees’ support for climate change. Mr Nicholson, 41, was made redundant while head of sustainability at Grainger, Britain’s biggest residential property investment company, in July last year.
In the first case of its kind he has been given permission to sue his former employers for unfair dismissal, arguing that his beliefs on the environment prompted clashes with other senior executives, and led to his sacking. Mr Nicholson said that his frustrations were underlined when the Rupert Dickinson, the chief executive, “showed contempt for the need to cut carbon emissions by flying out a member of the IT staff to Ireland to deliver his BlackBerry that he had left behind in London”.
Mr. Nicholson also fell foul of his colleagues when he tried establish a carbon management strategy for the company which had been listed as a target in its annual report. But when he tried to calculate the firm’s carbon footprints the information was refused to him by the personnel department. He said that Grainger’s executives would turn up for meetings in “some of the most high polluting cars on the road”.
Grainger sought to have Mr Nicholson’s case struck out arguing that his views on climate change were based on fact and science, not on philosophical belief. At a pre-hearing review at an employment tribunal in London chairman David Sneath ruled on a point of law that Mr Nicholson’s stance was a genuine philosophical position. “In my judgment, his belief goes beyond a mere opinion.”
Mr Nicholson, a marred father of one, told the hearing the green beliefs affected every aspect of his life “including my choice of home, how I travel, what I buy, what I eat and drink, what I do with my waste and my hopes and fears”. He said: “I no longer travel by aeroplane. I have eco-renovated my home. I have reduced my consumption of meat, I compost my food waste.” The full employment hearing will take place on June 4. See full story here.