By Sarah O’Grady, Express
MORE than five million British households will struggle to stay warm this winter and the number of people likely to die in freezing temperatures is set to rise sharply, a leading charity warned yesterday.
There are increasing concerns for poorer pensioners and other vulnerable people, said National Energy Action.
Fuel poverty is defined as when a household needs to spend more than 10 per cent of its income keeping warm. Campaigners say it is caused by poorly insulated homes, low incomes, and the continued high cost of energy bills. Gas and electricity prices have soared more than 80 per cent in the last five years.
Just last week British Gas announced a seven per cent hike despite owners Centrica showing profits of more than 2.2 billion pounds. The rise comes as the number of families struggling to pay their heating bills reaches 5.5 million and excess winter deaths this year are expected to be higher than ever.
Action’s Maria Wardrobe said: “The reality of fuel poverty is living in a cold, damp home, which can lead to health problems and seriously worsen existing conditions such as chest complaints with the possibility of this leading to heart attacks and strokes.
Fuel poverty will continue to grow at alarming rates unless people are able to reduce their energy bills by a national programme of energy efficiency and Government schemes must be effective at targeting help at the most vulnerable.” See post here.
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Climate Wars: Nick Stern Threatens U.S. With Trade Boycott
By Ben Webster, The Times, 19 November 2010
The United States will be banned from selling goods to many countries if it continues to shirk its promise to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to the world’s leading climate change economist.
In an interview with The Times, Lord Stern of Brentford said that nations that were taking strong action on emissions could start imposing restrictions on “dirty” US exports by 2020.
Lord Stern, who advises several G20 leaders and is one of the key players in the international negotiations seeking a deal on emissions, made his comments ten days before the annual United Nations climate change conference opens in Cancun, Mexico. They reflect the feeling in many countries that a lack of action on emissions in the US is delaying progress in the talks.
“The US will increasingly see the risks of being left behind, and ten years from now they would have to start worrying about being shut out of markets because their production is dirty,” Lord Stern said. “If they persist in being slow about reducing emissions, US exports will start to look more carbon intensive.”
President Obama pledged before the Copenhagen climate conference last December to cut US emissions by 17 per cent on 2005 levels by 2020. But his efforts to introduce legislation have been blocked by Congress. Republican gains in the midterm elections mean that there is little chance of legislation being passed in the next two years.
The US emits more than twice as much CO2 per capita as the EU and almost three times as much as China.
Lord Stern said that Europe and the Far East (sic) were forging ahead of the US in controlling emissions and switching to low carbon sources of energy. They would not tolerate having their industries undermined by American competitors that had not paid for their emissions. “If you are charging properly for carbon and other people are not, you will take that into account,” he said. “Many of the more forward-looking people in the US are thinking about this. If they see a danger on the trade front to US exports that could influence public discussion.”
Asked what type of US products could face restrictions, Lord Stern said: “Aircraft, clearly, some cars, machine tools - it’s not simply what’s in the capital good, it’s what kind of processes the capital good is facilitating.”
Lord Stern said that a complete ban on some goods was also possible. He said the American people should overcome their historical antipathy to taxation and accept that emissions needed to be controlled either through a tax or a trading scheme.
“It’s a country that is very sensitive to big government and taxation for understandable historical reasons,” he said, adding that it was a “conceptual mistake” to see charging for emissions as a tax.
ICECAP Note: Lord Stern and his ilk are responsible for economic misery of the European countries economies and the death of people who can no longer afford to pay for fuel. Their blood will be on his hands and the other single minded, scientifically illiterate economists and enviros who care more about trees and white grizzly bears than people.
U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and the Enviornment
Purpose
On Wednesday, November 17, 2010 the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment of the House Committee on Science and Technology will hold a hearing entitled: “A Rational Discussion of Climate Change: the Science, the Evidence, the Response”. The Subcommittee will receive testimony on the basic science
underlying how climate change happens; the evidence and the current impacts of climate change; and the actions that diverse sectors are taking today to respond to and prepare for a changing climate.
Witnesses
Panel 1
* Dr. Ralph Cicerone is the President of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Cicerone will explain the basic science, including the fundamental physics, underlying how climate change happens. He will also discuss the role of the National Academy of Sciences in advancing climate science and informing the public on the issue.
* Dr. Heidi Cullen is the CEO and Director of Communications at Climate Central. Dr. Cullen will discuss the basic science of climate change, including the fundamental chemistry, the causes of production of greenhouse gases; and the expected impacts on the climate.
* Dr. Gerald A. Meehl is a Senior Scientist in the Climate and Global Dynamics Division at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Dr. Meehl will discuss the basic physics underlying how climate change happens and how the physics is incorporated into the development of the climate models.
* Dr. Richard Lindzen is the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Lindzen will discuss how greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities will only minimally contribute to warming. He will also discuss the limitations in the global climate models and the problems with the positive feedbacks built into the models.
Panel 2
* Dr. Benjamin Santer is an Atmospheric Scientist in the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Santer will discuss the evidence of climate change; how well the science validates that climate change is happening; and the computational climate models, including how the various climate data sets are utilized and analyzed.
* Dr. Richard Alley is the Evan Pugh Professor in the Department of Geosciences and an Associate of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Alley will describe the effects of climate change on ice dynamics and explain how changes in levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have led to a rise in global temperatures.
* Dr. Richard Feely is a Senior Scientist at the Pacific Marine Environment Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Dr. Feely will discuss the current science and understanding of ocean acidification, the factors that contribute to the acidification process, and the resulting impacts.
* Dr. Patrick Michaels is a Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies at the Cato Institute. Dr. Michaels will discuss the rate of greenhouse-related warming; the Endangerment Finding by the Environmental Protection Agency; and scientific integrity.
Panel 3
* Rear Admiral David Titley is an Oceanographer and Navigator for the United States Department of the Navy, Department of Defense. RADM Titley will discuss the impacts of climate change on U.S. Navy missions and operations, the national security implications of climate change, and the role of the U.S. Navy’s Task Force Climate Change.
* Mr. James Lopez is the Senior Advisor to the Deputy Secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mr. Lopez will discuss the impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations and communities; HUD’s proposed Sustainable Communities Initiative; and how the Department is working to improve the coordination of transportation and housing investments to ensure more regional and local sustainable development patterns, more transit-accessible housing choices, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
* Mr. William Geer is the Director of the Center for Western Lands for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. Mr. Geer will discuss the threat of climate change to hunting and fishing; its impacts on fish and wildlife; and how the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is responding to the impacts of climate change.
* Dr. Judith Curry is the Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Curry will discuss how uncertainty in data and conclusions is evaluated and communicated. She will also discuss how this uncertainty should be incorporated into decisionmaking efforts.
Read the full charter to see how the word ‘rational’ really is inappropriate - it is clearly a biased series of panels with 75% alarmists. You can see the testimony on the site link here. Pay most attention to the testimony of Lindzen, Michaels and Curry, the only rational and knowledgeable members of the panels. The others are on a mission to preserve funding for their continued obfuscation efforts. Cicerone has accelerated the decline of the NAS, Cullen is a climate lightweight as she proved so well at TWC
(Note: see how Anthony Watts reacted here to her testimony - “One of her statements though, made me bust out laughing. It’s a prime candidate for Quote of the Week but I’ve already named one this week. Here’s what she had to say:
“And the urgency is that the longer we wait, the further down the pipeline climate travels and works its way into weather, and once it’s in the weather, it’s there for good.”)
and now working for George Soros at Climate Central, Santer is a manipulative modeler who single handedly overode the scientific conclusions of the real scientists in the second IPCC report, Meehl is riding the NCAR gravy train. Alley had a brain freeze years ago during his Icecap travels.
by Chad E. Rogers, the Dead Pelican
Video: LSU Professor Mocks, Berates Students for Conservative Views
November 17, 2010
10:30 AM CDT
Arlington, VA – CampusReform.org, a network of conservative and libertarian student activists, acquired video of a Louisiana State University astronomy professor who seated students by their political views on global warming in class and then openly mocked conservative students. The first of three videos was released today.
In the video, Professor Bradley Schaeffer tells students who support limited government regulation for global warming that “blood will be on your hands” because of their political opinions.
As part of the coursework, the professor asked the students who favored no or limited government response to global warming this question in writing:
“Your professed policies have a substantial likelihood of leading to the death of a billion or more people. (A) Estimate the probability that you personally will be killed in an ugly way because of your current decision? (B) What is the probability that any children of yours will die in ugly ways due to your current decision?”
Schaeffer later compares deaths from European heat waves to the deaths of Americans who died on September 11. “Now remember, how many people got killed on 9/11?” he says to the class. “What was it? One thousand? Two thousand? Something like that. Three thousand, whatever. It’s [9/11] dwarfed by this [heat waves]. Why aren’t people reacting?”
The first video is available on CampusReform.org: http://lsu.campusreform.org/group/blog/video-lsu-professor-tells-students-they-will-have-blood-on-their-hands
The video was taken through the Leadership Institute’s National Field Program, which sends field representatives to support conservative and libertarian students at colleges across the country each fall. The video and accompanying story were then posted on CampusReform.org, a project of the Leadership Institute.
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Campus Reform efforts commendable AND NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT
Dr. Schaefer’s views on the subject were well-known. At one point in class, the professor compares deaths from European heat waves to American deaths
in the September 11 terrorist attacks: “Now remember, how many people got killed on 9/11? What was it? One thousand? Two thousand? Something like that. Three thousand, whatever. It’s dwarfed by this. Why aren’t people reacting?”
His class seating chart, which ranged from “US should do nothing” to “mandatory birth control” and “eliminate all engines,” seemed—to one student—“an opportunity for our teacher to openly mock” right-leaning students in class.
Students who chose a limited government response to global warming were given this question to answer: “Your professed policies have a substantial
likelihood of leading to the death of a billion or more people. (A) Estimate the probability that you personally will be killed in an ugly way because of your current decision? (B) What is the probability that any children of yours will die in ugly ways due to your current decision?”
Dr. Schaeffer later asks a student representative to read the question aloud and provide his answer. But the professor interrupts him: “You are going to be accountable for this! Screwing around with the science results is stupid...Screwing with the science is wrong. You’re an ostrich putting your head under the sand.” Others have to ask the professor to allow the student to continue speaking.
As the class laughs with the professor, the student asks to read his arguments. As the student proceeds, the professor laughs, shakes his head, rolls his eyes, and mocks the response as the entire class watches him. Watch the first video in a three-part series above. Share your thoughts in the comments and then share this video with your families and friends—especially those who love LSU or help pay for it as Louisiana citizens.
If you or someone you know has experienced a class like this, share your story with a simple email contact@campusreform.org> or by filling out this form . No professor should be able to mock his students’ for their beliefs, but no professor or college will change until you stand up for what’s right.
Share your story with CampusReform.org today and then let’s change your school for the better.
ICECAP Note: I have a number of examples. I in the last 5 years have given several college talks on Climate Change. They were generally very well received although I was challenged in one by an Environmental Professor who was clearly nervous his students were hearing things he had not taught them. In one class, a student stood up after my lecture and said he was mad...not at me but at his school to which he pays a hefty tuition. He said in a class on science and climate change, he heard none of the facts I presented about issues with the temperatures, about urban heat island and the natural variability caused by the oceans, sun. and volcanism and felt he was not getting his money’s worth.
I know in another large college, a former colleague who has taught a course on weather and climate for a decade. He presents a balanced picture on Climate Change. His department head though told him he can no longer talk about climate, because he was confusing his students by presenting non AGW arguments. In another example at a large University, a proposal for a very fair and balanced course was rejected by the environmentalist professors on the committee even as another professor reacted “lucky students”. This I am sure is happening everywhere as the Universities battle for a part of the huge largesse from the corrupted NSF, funds, NGOs and other grant sources. Honest teachers are being suppressed or purged. When professors bring in the bacon but get caught, (Wang at SUNY, Mann at PSU, Jones at East Anglia) the universities whitewash the cases in sham investigations. Hopefully this will begin to change. Meanwhile, any stories you have please write the campus reform group or pass it on to Icecap at jsdaleo@yahoo.com.
See also this Houston Chronicle story on this video episode. The professor argues politics was not a factor, but the story and video say otherwise.