Sunday 30 November 2014

HAS THE ROYAL SOCIETY GIVEN UP ON SCIENCE?

This report looks at the recent RS report into extreme weather and concludes that it has much more in common with propaganda than science. It is an extraordinary situation for a scientific institution of such historical importance to be reduced to this advocacy role. My hunch is that they have been " bought" by vested interests, in particular the government who supply the bulk of its funding.

UPDATE: More here.

Saturday 29 November 2014

WIND FARM AD USES SPIN AND DECEIT TO CLAIM 25% OF OUR ELECTRICITY COMES FROM RENEWABLES

This article by Christopher Booker looks at the facts behind a recent claim made by a wind farm operator in a huge advertisement in the Guardian newspaper. What he discovered was that though the claim could be technically shown to be true, in fact for all practical purposes it was nonsense.

Friday 28 November 2014

2014 - "THE WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD" - DON'T BELIEVE THE SPIN

Here are the facts and they say that it may come out on top on some land based data sets, but only by an amount smaller than the margin of error. In other data sets including the satellite data sets it will not be so. Any attempt to use this as evidence of continuing global warming will be premature and unscientific. 

Thursday 27 November 2014

MP EXPOSES FLAWED IPCC SUMMARY IN UK PARLIAMENT DEBATE

Here is a link to the debate in which Peter Lilley exposed a number of serious weaknesses in the IPCC summary for policy makers. Here are a few extracts:

 "There has been a hiatus in warming, yet during that period since 1997, one third of all the carbon dioxide ever emitted by mankind has been pumped into the atmosphere. We have had 17 years to test the effect of a third of all the CO2 we have ever emitted, and there has been no increase in temperature"
"That does not seem to be evidence for being more certain; it seems to be evidence for being a little more qualified in stating that CO2 may be the dominant factor. It clearly was not dominant during that period. By definition, a period with record emissions but no warming cannot provide further evidence that emissions are the dominant cause of warming"
"For the first time, the authors of the IPCC report are unable to agree on a best estimate of how sensitive the climate is to increases in CO2. In previous reports, they have always been able to agree a best estimate, but this time, there has been so much disagreement among them that they have been unable to reach one".
"Nor does the summary mention that in the body of the report, the IPCC’s medium-term forecast for temperature increases to 2035 is below that given by the climate models. In other words, the experts used their judgment to say that in their opinion, the climate models are wrong. They came up with a forecast below the models, and they explain that the reason is that the models have been overheating"
"None of the models take into account the latest information on aerosols. Had they done so, they would have produced an even higher forecast for future warming, because the future warming forecast involves the warming created by CO2 less the cooling created by aerosols."

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Wednesday 26 November 2014

BIOMASS LIKELY TO INCREASE CO2 EMISSIONS

Here is the article that contains the details of a paper on this topic. It goes against the conventional wisdom which makes it all the more important. It seems that a lot of government efforts at reducing emissions may be counter-productive.

Tuesday 25 November 2014

RENEWABLE ENERGY NOT THE ANSWER SAY TOP ENGINEERS

This article explains the findings of the experts, who even surprised themselves. It is yet more confirmation of how out of touch with reality our political leaders have become.

Monday 24 November 2014

OBAMA INSULTS AUSSIE PM ON CLIMATE


2) Obama's Climate Fiasco Drives Aussies Closer To India & China
The Australian, 22 November 2014 (
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/weird-speech-makes-obama-odd-man-out/story-e6frg76f-1227130149413)

Greg Sheridan

The United States embassy in Canberra advised President Barack Obama not to make the provocative, anti-Abbott speech on climate change which he made at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. That the President acted against the advice of his own embassy reveals a deeply divided and in part dysfunctional Obama administration, unable to reconcile its foreign policy objectives and its domestic imperatives.


The speech was not only damaging for Tony Abbott, as it will be used by all his opponents on climate change up until the next election, it was a disaster for US foreign policy, because the gratuitous climate change remarks completely overshadowed all the regional and security content which Obama's foreign policy team wanted to be the main point of his major address on his Asian tour.

Obama's self-indulgent folly was in striking contrast to the masterful performances of China's President Xi Jinping and India's new Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Xi and Modi have both achieved almost everything they wanted from Asia's season of summits. Obama has achieved almost nothing.

The other big winner from this summit season was Abbott. Despite the damage Obama inflicted on him, Abbott emerged from APEC, the East Asia Summit, the G20 summit which he hosted, and the separate bilateral visits of so many world leaders, with huge structural wins.

The free trade agreement with China has the potential to be transformative for Australia. It locks the two nations much more closely together. It contains a host of immensely important specifics, and was accompanied by numerous side agreements.

But the transformative potential lies in the door it opens for Australian business into China's future. Don't think for a moment that resources will cease to be at the centre of Australia/China trade. The anti-coal propaganda is fanciful nonsense, believed only by Green dreamers.

Coal will be at the heart of China's energy generation for decades ahead.

Nonetheless, China is transforming. Coal and iron ore are about building cities. China has now built its cities on a vast scale. Cities are occupied by middle class people. They need high-quality food and high-quality services. The China FTA opens up the services sector in an unprecedented way. That is the future.
The Indian visit also offers to be transformative. Modi likes Abbott. But of course such likes and dislikes are never the real engine of history.

Modi wants India to develop. Modi's closest friend and partner internationally is Japan's Shinzo Abe. Abe is Abbott's closest collaborator in Asia. It was Abe who advised Modi that Australia was a country to take seriously and that Abbott was a PM who could deliver.

Modi believes Australia can be a big part of India's development.

I attended a small business gathering with Modi in Melbourne. He made a few comments about the need for greener energy, but he also said: "India will have massive requirements for coal and iron ore." Just in case his interlocutors missed the point, he repeated it: "Whatever we do, we will still need massive amounts of coal and iron ore."

But Modi understands that India also needs foreign investment and expertise. Since the turn of the century, India has been the second fastest growing economy in the world. Tens, hundreds, of millions of Indians will enter the middle class over the next decade. They offer the same opportunities as the Chinese middle class. Trade Minister Andrew Robb describes the India relationship as being where the Chinese relationship was 15 years ago. Robb is right. The potential, like China 15 years ago, is enormous.

The ambition to complete a free trade agreement between India and Australia by the end of next year is heroic. But it is not impossible. Indeed, one FTA helps produce another. Australia's success in securing an FTA with South Korea helped motivate Japan. Canberra's success with Tokyo helped motivate Beijing. Part of India's motivation is not to be left out of the east Asian economic success story. So the string of north Asian FTAs Robb has concluded helps us with New Delhi.

Here we need a note of caution. Each one of these relationships - the US, China and India - is intensely complex, influenced by many factors beyond Australia's reach and there are many ways these ambitious plans could fall short, if not fall apart.

Take each in turn.

Obama's speech was deliberately designed to hurt Abbott. This may not have been its primary purpose, but it certainly was a significant effect. Historians of the relationship cannot cite a single similar example of a visiting president going out of his way to wound an Australian prime minister.

The speech was bizarre in many ways and deserves proper analysis as a pointer to the divisions and dysfunction within the Obama administration, features which will only get worse as power, and a sense of responsibility, ebb away from Obama in the less than two years he still has in office.

There was also an element of cowardice in the speech. Obama would never have given that speech at home before the congressional mid-term elections. There would have been some courage in such a speech delivered, say, in West Virginia, or Ohio, a week before the mid-terms.

What was Obama's purpose? Can one more celebrity orgasm really be more important to the President than maintaining his relationship with his closest ally in Asia? Was Obama preparing for his post-presidential life, as a new and improved Al Gore? [...]

Finally, other senior Americans put it to me that many high-level figures in the administration, in so far as they think about Asia at all, think only of China. They fail to understand that a successful China policy has to be embedded in a successful Asia policy. This contributes to their taking close allies for granted.

Virtually all senior Asia hands in Washington outside the administration agree that Obama has never really paid attention to managing alliances.

This was evident in the fact that the Obama team decided to do the speech at the last minute, insisted it be to a university audience, never gave their Australian hosts any hint of what the President was planning to say, and refused to offer the Australians either a text or a summary of the speech before it was delivered. All of that is truly a bizarre way to treat an ally.

Nonetheless, Obama's selfindulgence will not cause the Abbott government to back away from co-operation with the US. The alliance is much bigger than Obama and Australia participates in the alliance because it is in our interests and reflects our values.

The vacuum created by Obama in Asia is partly filled by Xi, although other formidable Asian leaders such as Abe and Modi also occupy important strategic space.

Xi, like most Chinese leaders, is a super hard head with little sentimentality. He is the most powerful leader in modern China since at least Deng Xiaoping. He offered an ambition to make China more democratic in his beautifully crafted speech to parliament, but in truth he has suppressed what little liberal space formerly existed in China.

Nonetheless, Xi is genuinely an economic reformer, which is one reason he undertook the FTA with Australia. Xi's climate deal with Obama is another masterstroke. It commits him to nothing of substance, nothing he was not doing anyway, but, with Obama's benediction, will help insulate Beijing from the type of criticism it suffered after Copenhagen.

Xi spent a lot of time in Australia and devoted a lot of attention to us. This speaks well of him, and of Abbott. But again, we have to be a bit careful of assessing Chinese policy, even Chinese policy towards us, in a narrow Australian framework.
This past few months, Xi has been on a charm offensive with everyone. He even kissed and made up with Abe. As well as his climate faux agreement with Obama, Xi agreed to various confidence-building and military consultation measures with the Americans, which Washington has wanted for years.

Nor is it quite true to say that Australia is the first advanced economy with which Beijing has done an FTA. Xi finalised an FTA with South Korea just before the one with Australia.

All of this is in stark contrast to the aggressiveness Beijing has displayed over the past few years in the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Intelligence agencies in the US and Australia are flat out trying to work out whether this friendliness is the new paradigm for China, or, as one senior American put it to me, "a judo move", that is, moving back for a second in order to trip the opponent up.
China's b_ehaviour in the disputed maritime territories over the next few months will be critical in determining the answer to this question.

Abbott convened a trilateral leaders' dialogue with Obama and Abe. The official communique was full of concern over Russia, Islamic State etc. It didn't mention the main actual topic of conversation - China, or another topic of conversation, Canberra's ambition to buy Japanese submarines and install US weapon systems on them.

And finally Modi's India. Modi offers India its best hope in decades for breaking free from poverty and achieving sustained, socially transformative economic growth. But just as analysts are pondering Xi's true intentions so they are asking one central question about Modi - can he tame the Indian bureaucracy and produce results? This astonishing two weeks of summits has given Australia a great deal of benefit, but left huge and intriguing questions for the future.

Full analysis (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/weird-speech-makes-obama-odd-man-out/story-e6frg76f-1227130149413)

Sunday 23 November 2014

THE US-CHINA CLIMATE PACT SWINDLE

Here is a very good article that explains the complete one-sidedness of the recent "deal" between Obama and the Chinese Leader. Why on earth would the US President want to sign such a deal?  

Saturday 22 November 2014

UK PAYS TWICE ITS FAIR SHARE TO GREEN CLIMATE FUND, SAYS OXFAM

Yes, Oxfam (not known for admitting such things) has calculated that the UK has paid twice the amount that is expected. See here for the details. If only the government would  put a stop to this largesse by our Leader. It is so easy to be generous with other people's money.

Friday 21 November 2014

AUSTRALIAN PM STANDS FIRM IN NOT SHELLING OUT MORE CLIMATE MONEY

Here are the details. He seems to have a good deal of courage to keep out of this and I admire him for it. It is only too easy to get out the nations cheque book and spend other peoples money to make him look good.

Thursday 20 November 2014

OBAMA STUMPS UP $3 BILLION TOWARDS CLIMATE FUND

Here is the details of President Obama's offer. It is by far the largest contribution so far, though it falls far short of the promised $100 billion per year that was apparently promised by the developed world from 2020. I cannot somehow see that sum, or anything like it, being achieved. It's time for world leaders to get real and stop making rash promises, and put all this nonsense behind them and tackle the real problems facing the world.  

Wednesday 19 November 2014

GERMANY SET TO ABANDON 2020 CO2 EMISSION TARGET

Here is the detail taken from a German newspaper article. This has to be very significant as the Green Party is part of the coalition government in Germany and if the Germans have to abandon their target then this must set a precedent for all other EU nations. It means that there is no prospect of any world agreement next December in Paris. If this target date is missed then according to some scientists we could be in a cooling world. If that happens then it is hard to see any agreement possible.

Tuesday 18 November 2014

AN ALTERNATIVE CLIMATE MODEL PREDICTING COOLING TO START SOON

Here is a link to the climate model devised by David Evans in which he predicts that world temperatures will start to cool within the next decade, most likely within the next two or three years. David's work seems to link with that of Henrik Svensmark which was highlighted a few days ago. Both relate to a cooling effect of the sun. We will not have long to wait to see if he is correct. 

Monday 17 November 2014

THE CONSENSUS IS - WARMER TEMPERATURES ARE OF NET BENEFIT TO THE WORLD!

Yes you did read that headline correctly - the consensus (ie the majority of experts) is that all the global warming we have had so far, plus any we are likely to get in the 21st century will be of net benefit to the world. Read it here for yourself with all the figures to back it up. Now let's hope that we don't get a cooling cycle.  

Sunday 16 November 2014

THE SUN AND THE CLOUDS CONTROL CLIMATE

This video explains the work of Henrik Svensmark into the role of cloud variation, caused by the variation of cosmic rays entering the lower atmosphere, into the temperature of the Earth's surface. The case presented is very compelling and sounds more plausible than change in CO2.

Saturday 15 November 2014

WHY COAL IS KING, AND WILL BE FOR DECADES TO COME

Some green climate alarmists are trying to stop any coal from being used and want to shut down the whole industry by various means, such as urging universities to sell their shares in the sector. If anyone believes that this will be likely to have any effect, then they should read this article. The facts speak for themselves.

Friday 14 November 2014

SCHOOL TEXT BOOK PROMOTES FALSE SCIENCE ON GW

Here is the article that gives the details of a scientific paper on the behaviour of butterflies which has been debunked, and yet is in school text books as an example of the effect of climate change. The moral of the story is - don't believe everything in text books.

Thursday 13 November 2014

LATEST CLIMATE P.R. DEAL ANNOUNCED

China and the USA's new climate deal is just a PR stunt. Read the link to get the details of the unenforceable deal, designed to encourage others to make commitments in Paris in December 2015. I am putting my money on the global deal being equally vague.

UPDATE
For a good look at the way China is heading here is a good resume by Paul Homewood.

Wednesday 12 November 2014

HOW THE GREEN LEVIES WILL RISE AND INCREASE OUR ENERGY BILLS

This article looks at the latest figures from the government which, laughably, try to claim that their policies will actually reduce the cost of our energy. To achieve this Orwellian claim they include the savings that we are supposed to make by buying new more efficient appliances as well as increasing the insulation on our homes.

Tuesday 11 November 2014

SOCIETY RELIES ON CHEAP RELIABLE ELECTRICITY

This article highlights the vital importance of cheap reliable electricity for our economic success as well as the comfort of our people.  A well-argued piece, if only the government would see sense.

Monday 10 November 2014

NEW CLIMATE CHANGE "PLAY" GETS PANNED BY CRITIC


This review does not make for comfortable reading for the author of this work who is a climate alarmist himself. It reminded me that a couple of years ago there was another climate change play; this one was from a sceptic view point, and here is the report on it, including reviews. I think the sceptic play would seem to offer the best entertainment.

Sunday 9 November 2014

REPUBLICAN-CONTROLLED SENATE LIKELY TO STOP FUNDING TO THE IPCC

Here is the article giving the details. It would be a useful start, and maybe they will also rein in the EPA as well. This could be a very important election result which will have repercussions even beyond the USA. A new world climate deal has just got a little bit harder to achieve.

Saturday 8 November 2014

OIL TO DOMINATE WORLD FUEL USE UNTIL AT LEAST 2040 SAYS OPEC REPORT

Here is the article in the Telegraph with some details. So much for giving up fossil fuels! Some of our leading politicians are misleading us by suggesting that the world is following our lead. It is simply nonsense to make such claims.

Friday 7 November 2014

ROW OVER HISTORIC TEMPERATURE DATA RAGES ON IN OZ

Here is a link to the discussion at Jo Nova's blog. It is now being raised in parliament. Well done to all those Australian sceptics who have held out for the truth. There is a lot more truth that needs to be told, and it will take similar action here in the UK to get it out.

Thursday 6 November 2014

PARLIAMENTARY MEETING ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Yesterday I set off for Westminster to hear Roger Helmer and Piers Corbyn give their presentations to the Climate Change Meeting, having booked a ticket, only to find that the parliamentary authorities claimed no knowledge of the meeting whatsoever. Having made the 3 hour coach journey I was not going to give up so easily, so I waited around to see if others would arrive. Eventually I met up with Roger Helmer who had travelled all the way from Brussels and was unaware of any change. Luckily I had a card with Piers Corbyn's mobile phone number and he was able to tell us of a last minute change of venue, though many others had already been turned away, being told it was cancelled. Was it  cock up or conspiracy? I am not sure, but at least I was able to attend a much reduced meeting of 18 determined souls who had persevered to the end. In some ways it was a better meeting for those who got there as it was much smaller and more intimate.

Roger Helmer gave a really excellent tour-de-force of the UKIP energy policy, which I must say is by far the most sensible energy policy I have heard from any political party. It's just a pity that it has very little chance of being implemented. Piers Corbyn explained his theories of climate forecasting based on looking at repeating patterns of the positions and behaviour of the sun and the moon. He claims to have had great success with this and tantalisingly left us with a prediction of cold weather during December due to the position of the jet stream, though he sadly predicted a "green Christmas". 

Wednesday 5 November 2014

MET OFFICE NEW COMPUTER COSTING 97 MILLION STILL WON'T GIVE ACCURATE FORECASTS

Here's the details from Christopher Booker. As Booker points out, their computer is only as good as the information put in, and looking at the Met Office's recent record they seem to have some missing or incorrect data. In the same article Booker also explains the folly of our energy policy and why he expects the lights to stay on this winter, at a huge price, though they will go out eventually if the government continues to reduce our use of fossil fuels.

Tuesday 4 November 2014

CLIMATE LESSONS FROM 2.7 MILLION YEARS AGO

This report looks at new evidence uncovered by scientists which shows that a sudden temperature change 2.7 million years ago was likely caused by both the atmosphere and a change in the circulation of the ocean currents. This is yet more evidence that shows how much we still have to learn.

Monday 3 November 2014

UK ENERGY NETWORK SAID TO BE "INADEQUATE"

This article gives the details of the concerns of UK industry, who fear they are struggling at a serious disadvantage to their competitors. If the UK continues to follow the path set by the Climate Change Act then this disadvantage is set to get much worse, as our competitors are set to do no such thing. In particular China and India, who are building cheap coal-fired power station far faster than we are closing ours.

Sunday 2 November 2014

PUBLIC MEETING ON WEDNESDAY AT WESTMINSTER - A PRACTICAL ENERGY POLICY

I am coming to this meeting and hoping to meet up with like-minded people and see what the latest ways of getting out a positive message on sensible energy policy are. If any readers are able to come do let me know. I will report on the meeting later on in the week.

A public meeting open to all on Wednesday 5 November from 1pm to 3pm in room 9 at UK Parliament, Palace of Westminster, hosted by Repeal The Climate Change Act
Come via main - St Stephens (Cromwell Green) entrance
Ask for Sammy Wilson's (DUP MP) Meeting 
(Please allow 30 minutes for security)
Speakers include
* Roger Helmer UKIP MEP - A practical UK energy policy 
                - explaining what is needed and how the EU is driving the UK's energy crisis
(Find UKIP's Energy Policy Here)
Piers Corbyn WeatherAction 
Will the lights go out this winter?
- explaining the essential incredibility of the CO2 theory of Climate Change,
the latest advances is solar-based Long Range forecasts and spelling out what will happen this winter. 
* Sammy Wilson DUP MP and other MPs 
(Graham Stringer Labour MP and Peter Lilley Conservative MP invited)
The changing climate of Climate Change in Parliament and beyond. 
*Campaign Against the Climate Act News
Discussion and Questions, Literature   
 
Room booked by Sammy Wilson MP with our thanks.

YET ANOTHER DOOMSDAY CLIMATE REPORT (YAWN)

Here are the details of another scary report that appears to fly in the face of the actual facts, which are of an eighteenth year with no statistically significant change in the world's average surface temperature. How many more scary reports can we expect? Each time the public become a little less inclined to believe the doom merchants.

Saturday 1 November 2014