U.S. Scientist Sees New Ice Age Coming,” blares the headline of the July 9, 1971, article, which cautions readers that the world “could be as little as 50 or 60 years away from a disastrous new ice age, a leading atmospheric scientist predicts.” The scientist was S.I. Rasool, a colleague of James E. Hansen’s at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The article goes on to say that Mr. Rasool came to his chilling conclusions by resorting in part to a new computer program developed by Mr. Hansen that studied clouds above Venus. 

"Make no doubt, however, if tipping points are passed, if we, in effect, destroy Creation, passing on to our children, grandchildren, and the unborn a situation out of their control, the contrarians who work to deny and confuse will not be the principal culprits. The contrarians will be remembered as court jesters. There is no point to joust with court jesters. They will always be present. They will continue to entertain even if the Titanic begins to take on water. Their role and consequence is only as a diversion from what is important.”

Read more on Hansen’s latest ranting on Newsbusters here.

"It is a common opinion that the climates of the several states of our union have undergone a sensible change since the dates of their first settlements; that the degrees of both cold & heat are moderated. The same opinion prevails as to Europe; if facts gleaned from history give reasons to believe that, since the times of Augustus Caesar, the climate of Italy, for example, has changed regularly at the rate of 1 [degree] of Fahrenheit’s thermometer for every century. May we not hope that the methods invented in latter times for measuring with accuracy the degrees of heat and cold, and the observations which have been & will be made and preserved, will at length ascertain this curious fact in physical history?”

Thanks to Willie Soon who used this quote in EPW testimony. Also see Willie’s paper on Thomas Jefferson on climate and this story from Lubos Motl on the misuse of Jefferson’s work by Hansen.

“We are now treating the Earth’s atmosphere as an open sewer...I can’t understand why there aren’t rings of young people blocking bulldozers, and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants.”

See more on Al Gore and Civil Disobediance.

"The world meat industry produces 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions, more than transportation produces. A gallon of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream requires electricity guzzling refrigeration, and four gallons of milk produced by cows that simultaneously produce eight gallons of manure and flatulence with eight gallons of methane. The cows do this while consuming lots of grain and hay, which are cultivated by using tractor fuel, chemical fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides, and transported by fuel-consuming trains and trucks.”

"Man’s contribution to the greenhouse gases was so small we couldn’t change the climate if we tried.  We’re all going to survive this. It’s all going to be a joke in five years. A combination of misinterpreted and misguided science, media hype, and political spin had created the current hysteria and it was time to put a stop to it.  It is time to attack the myth of global warming.” See story here.

Note: Sadly just before the story was published, Augie passed away suddenly while celebrating his 67th birthday and 35th wedding anniversary in Melbourne. He will be missed.

"The slow collapse of this 116-year old network has been documented in numerous professional reports during the past two decades. This network faces extinction because the data still are manually acquired, much like in 1890, by volunteer observers using equipment that is either obsolete or obsolescent. It has proven almost impossible to replace aging observers. Data quality continues to diminish, access to the data (recorded on paper) remains arduous, and the corps of maintenance professionals has been decimated because federal personnel have been shifted to other duties”. 

See full letter here.

”...Eighty percent of the heat radiated back from the surface is absorbed in the first 30 feet by water vapor. Eight hundredths of one percent ia absorbed by carbon dioxide. One one-thousandth as important as water vapor. You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling carbon dioxide...” See more