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Well well well. It looks like the Global Warming Deniers are still out to lunch. Yes folks, it was just a minor blip on the radar… I guess we will just have to continue to look for the Armageddon of Scientific Cover ups.
From the report released by the The UK parliamentary Science and Technology Committee:
On the much cited phrases in the leaked e-mails—”trick” and “hiding the decline”—the Committee considers that they were colloquial terms used in private e-mails and the balance of evidence is that they were not part of a systematic attempt to mislead.
Insofar as the Committee was able to consider accusations of dishonesty against CRU, the Committee considers that there is no case to answer.
The Committee found no reason in this inquiry to challenge the scientific consensus as expressed by Professor Beddington, the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, that “global warming is happening [and] that it is induced by human activity”. But this was not an inquiry into the science produced by CRU and it will be for the Scientific Appraisal Panel, announced by the University on 22 March, to determine whether the work of CRU has been soundly built.
I’m still waiting for the media hoopla to start. You know the coverage where they admit they were wrong about the facts of the matter? The one where the media say they gave entirely too much time and credence to climate-quacks and delusional AGW denialists? Hello…. hello….?
Thanks to Dr. Myers for the steer, and the quote as it summarized things quite nicely.
Bringing energy awareness to the next level!
The idea behind Earth Hour is a good one. Raising awareness of energy use and fossil fuel is a good thing, but really how useful is it?
Those people who are energy conscious will continue to conserve energy and treat it like the precious resource that it is. Conversely, those who are all about the consumption will continue to consume. I just wonder if having their ‘awareness raised’ is enough these days.
People’s awareness is certainly raised when it comes to paying for petrol at the pumps. Good heavens, we have been dancing around a dollar per litre for years now. Ironic considering that oil is a major export here in Alberta. But of course that is just the market working its magic, or so they say. Considering that oil is still floating around 80 dollars a barrel it still surprises me that our government cries poverty as well as the oil and gas sector. Those poor dears are being driven out of business by one of the lowest royalty regimes in the industrialized world.
I apologize, but the Alberta Tories repeated, unabashed love fest with Big Oil in Alberta rankles my feathers to no end. Back to Earth hour.
How we are going to raise awareness is make consuming energy less attractive. We need to add taxes to fossil fuel resources to bring them more inline with renewable energy resources. Take the tax revenue from the additional taxes and allow homeowner to retrofit and upgrade their dwellings for the new century, I guarantee that houses built before 2000 are not even close to the insulation standards we have today.
People will not change until it is too late. We need to address the energy consumption issue proactively when the people of Canada still have a choice about how to spend their energy dollar. The alternative, freezing in the dark because of market imposed energy austerity, is not a cheery future.
A little knowledge can go a long way.
Unsurprisingly, not much happened at the latest and greatest climate conference. Many thanks to the hackers who spun up a flurry of negative PR for a meeting that only had the slightest chance of reaching a meaningful agreement in the first place.
What is utterly discouraging is that nothing will come of this. It was a waste of time (emphasis mine):
“The agreement recognizes that an increase in global temperature should be kept to two degrees Celsius — the threshold that UN scientists say is needed to avert serious climate change — but the deal is not legally binding and has no long-term global targets for emissions cuts.”
So really, in essence, let us continue to our plunder of the earth. We will make the requisite noises:
“Prime Minister Stephen Harper called the agreement “realistic” and said Canada was “very comfortable” with it.”
You know if Harper agrees with this particular tidbit of climate folly it is can only be a hollow shell of dank turpitude and risible half truths. In other words nothing will change.
For the eternally optimistic:
“Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, welcomed the climate deal as an “essential beginning,” but said it must be transformed into a legally binding treaty next year.”
Yep. The US will also get Israel to respect the 1967 borders, pay reparations to Iraq for ruining their country and will make peace with Osama bin Laden. I’ll also be having a piping hot mug cocoa and a blueberry scone with Pope while we discuss how he should not act like such a douche bag.
It is the unabashed realm of the conservative media to engage in hyperbole about issues that effect things they care about. The whole climategate nonsense is a perfect example of what happens when commentators who, being short on brain but long on wind, get a hold of a story and spin it to meet their own particular agenda.
The hacked emails from CRU seems to be the holy tinfoil jesus for climate change denialists, finally proving that it was all a lie and a hoax. Keep in mind these are some of the people that also believe that a rapture is coming and need to prepare for the coming of their lord and high-douchbag – jebus himself.
Predictably, when actual rational people look into things the picture is much different. The data in question does not contradict the last 30 years of evidence based climatological research. There is no grand conspiracy, no deliberate hoax; just much partisan grandiloquent bloviatation from ignorant people.
Thunderfoot does his usual impeccable job of describing the situation and illustrating how thick the tinfoil is for some people. Enjoy the video.
Update: More information on the ‘debate’ here and here.
Second Update June 2010 – The media admits it was wrong and prints a retraction.
This just in: Stephen Harper cares about Climate Change:
“Full global participation in cutting greenhouse gases is necessary to tackle global warming, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said at an APEC summit in Singapore on Saturday.”
There are just a few problems with all this tackling and cutting. When it comes to Canadian treatment of actually cutting greenhouse gases we need to consider a new adjective, ‘glad-handing’ for instance.
The reality of the situation:
“Ottawa will soon exceed its Kyoto limit by about 30%, yet it will face no penalty for doing so because the Kyoto parties never agreed on any meaningful punishments,” so says Michael Levi in the National Post article.
Climate change is a challenging problem perhaps we are just getting ‘up to speed’ on a Canadian solution. We need qualified scientists to lead the charge. Harper appointed Mark Mullins and John Weissenberger to key posts in the government’s science sections.
The Globe and Mail says this (this is a meta-link as the actual article is safely out of the public domain, earning a extended middle fingered salute to the asshats at the G&M):
The 18-member NSERC already includes another Harper government appointee, mathematician Christopher Essex, who wrote a book challenging the “myth of climate change.”
On the same day Dr. Mullins was appointed to NSERC, April 23, another skeptic of global warming was appointed to the board of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, which funds large research projects. John Weissenberger is a close friend of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a former chief of staff in the Harper government and a geologist who works for Husky Energy in Alberta.
Dr. Weissenberger has written opinion pieces in the media and on his Internet blog expressing his “skepticism about global warming.” That and other comments by the two appointees on the public record were compiled by NDP researchers and verified by The Globe and Mail.
So we are committed to climate change, yet we seem to be appointing people who are climate change deniers. You wonder why we have no credibility on climate change, just look at the annotated Frasier Institute report.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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