Why Views on Climate Matter
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With temperatures cooling and not rising you’d think that the debate on Global Warming, or Climate Change as the kids are calling it these days, would be more of a debate. Instead, most of the liberal politicians are ignoring the facts and acting to prevent more warming when much of the globe is freezing!
A great example comes to us from the U.K. Seems some British politicians are hoping to ban plasma TVs because they use too much energy! Read it for yourself from the Independent.
Energy-guzzling flatscreen plasma televisions will soon be banned as part of the battle against climate change, ministers have told The Independent on Sunday.
“Minimum energy performance standards” for televisions are expected to be agreed across Europe this spring, they say, and this should lead to “phasing out the most inefficient TVs”. At the same time, a compulsory labelling system will be drawn up to identify the best and worst devices.
How do Brits feel about this? The story doesn’t say.
Could you imagine if this was tried in the United States? I know a few Texans who might say, “They’ll have to pry the remote from my cold, frozen, global cooled fingers!”
This in the face of the coldest Winter in a decade. Glaciers grew last year in Alaska. Snow is falling in the south of France and Madrid, Spain! The Sun is quiet and Solar Scientists say colder decades are ahead. We should be drilling for more oil and natural gas and burning it to produce electricity and to stay warm! Not banning plasma TVs.
It really does matter your view of global warming. If you believe man is causing it then you have to control peoples behavior to combat it. If it’s natural and we are entering a very cold spell then it’s time to prepare by mining, and using, more fossil fuels!
It’s a debate we better have. Otherwise we could waste a lot of time, money, resources, and even lives.
Snow Job
Man caused Global Warming is losing support. Maybe because of the actual weather across the globe. This Winter is turning out to be another unusually cold and snowy one. Not just in Alaska as I noted a couple of days ago. How about this from Breitbart. Madrid, Spain was paralyzed by a rare snow storm and cold temperatures! The same story talks about the extreme cold in Germany.
In Germany, the death toll from the cold snap rose to three and several rivers were frozen over, blocking ship traffic, authorities said.
Drift ice covered 80 to 90 percent of the surface of the river Elbe from Doemnitz to the Germany’s main port of Hamburg in the north, a spokeswoman for the Water and Shipping Office said.
Meanwhile, Russia has decided to shut off the natural gas to parts of eastern Europe.
As temperatures plummeted throughout the continent, around a dozen European nations were suffering the effects of Russia’s decision to turn off the natural gas supplies transiting through Ukraine to Europe.
Bulgaria received no Russian gas for the fourth day in a row as temperatures plunged to minus 17 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and heavy snow covered most of the country.
Meanwhile the extreme cold in Alaska and Canada is set to move into the U.S. next week. If you live east of the Rockies, get ready for VERY cold air. New York City could be below zero for only the second time since the 1940s!
It’s COLD!
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Not everywhere, of course. Here in Tucson it’s been near normal with some days above and some below. Today should be about 70 which is a good 6 or 7 degrees above normal. However, it’s been cold and snowy enough so far this Winter that nearby Mt. Lemmon is having another good ski season! With last weekends storm they say they now have enough snow at Ski Valley to last until Spring.
In other parts of the country it has been extreme snow. So much snow that avalanches are causing problems for some ski areas and even some deaths. Here is that story.
On the “Glabal Warming” front, it’s quite the opposite. Alaska, known for it’s cold in the Winter is having an unusual bitter cold arctic outbreak. Here’s an article from AP on Yahoo! News.
Alaskans are accustomed to subzero temperatures but the prolonged conditions have folks wondering what’s going on with winter less than a month old.
How cold is it?
Johnson lives in Stevens Village, where residents have endured close to two weeks of temperatures pushing 60 below zero.
In Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, residents are used to lows of about 10-degree temperatures in January — not 19 below zero, which is what folks awoke to Wednesday morning.
Temperatures finally settled to about 10 below at midday, but that was cold enough to cancel races in the U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships.
More evidence that its the Sun that causing all of this cooling. As it continues to be less active, we on Earth continue to cool. This article from the Daily Mail in England outlines how scientists are concerned about less solar wind. The solar wind protects the inner solar system from Cosmic Rays. Weaker solar wind means more danger for astronauts. It also makes sense that a quieter Sun means less solar radiation. It follows that that would cause the Earth to cool!
I’m still hoping that folks would see that light. I believe many of them are. We need to contact our representatives in Washington and stop the plans to tax CO2. What a waste of money, especially when the country is going broke! We really need to be developing our energy resources yesterday so that we can keep warm in the chilly decades to come!
Astronauts returning to the moon could be threatened by cosmic rays as a result of the sun becoming less active, scientists have said.
The sun’s ability to shield the solar system from harmful radiation could falter in the early 2020s, research from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology claimed.
It’s cold in space and it’s getting colder down here too.
A Cool World
2008 is a fading memory, but some things remain. The inactive Sun that has brought a cooler world to us all is still inactive. Global warming models didn’t predict the current cooling while those that study the Sun’s activity did. Who do you believe? Check out more in this article:
When the sun is active, it’s not uncommon to see sunspot numbers of 100 or more in a single month. Every 11 years, activity slows, and numbers briefly drop near zero. Normally sunspots return very quickly, as a new cycle begins. But this year, the start of a new cycle, the sun has been eerily quiet.
The first seven months averaged a sunspot count of only three and in August there were no sunspots at all — zero — something that has not occurred since 1913.
According to the publication Daily Tech, in the past 1,000 years, three previous such events — what are called the Dalton, Maunder and Sporer Minimums — have all led to rapid cooling. One was large enough to be called the Little Ice Age (1500-1750).
Good thing I love snow!
Yeah. It’s the Sun
Amazing video and .pdf file. Just follow the link. I’ve also embedded the video below. Basically. These scientists are saying that changes in the Earth’s climate are 99.5% driven by the Sun. While they do say that man’s activities play a role, it’s a very small one.
Genesis 8:22
22“While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
And cold and heat,
And summer and winter,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”
If solar scientists are right, we are still headed toward colder. This Winter so far is pretty strong anecdotal evidence!
Merry Christmas!
“One of the longest stretches below freezing since the 1970’s”
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Yesterday I mentioned the big chill I enjoyed in Oregon in the 1970′s. It was referenced this morning on KGW as Portland is snowing in the 20′s with no warm up in sight. Here’s the video.
Pretty exciting storm with snow at the Oregon Coast even! Temperatures falling into the 20′s this morning with 1-3″ of snow right down to the Willamette Valley Floor. Snow is expected to end tonight, but the cold is just getting started!
In case you are too busy to watch the video. The weather guy is saying that temperatures should stay below freezing at least through next weekend. If that happens it will be the longest stretch of below freezing temperatures for Portland since the 1970′s.
Global Warming is out! Global Cooling is in! But you already knew that :-)
Snow in the South
A dusting yesterday in Austin. Houston a dusting to a half inch. Beaumont got 2 inches! It’s 7am Mountain time as I write this and FoxNews just showed a live shot of snow falling in New Orleans! It looked like it might be sticking on the grass.
Mississippi still under a Winter Storm Warning. Jackson now expecting 1-3 inches this afternoon/evening.
Snow in Houston, Mississippi Winter Storm Warning!
Just think how cold it would be if there WASN’T Global Warming :-)
Houston saw snow falling this afternoon although I don’t think it piled up or anything. Houston sees snow every third or fourth year or so. Almost never before Christmas!
Meanwhile, much of central and southern Mississippi is under a Winter Storm Warning for snow that’s expected to stick! Most unusual for this early in the year. My hometown in Oregon is bracing for a VERY cold weekend and the cold snap is expected to last into next week. Places like Portland could stay below freezing for several days!
There was a most excellent guest article on the Opinion page today of the Arizona Star. I just tried to go to the link and it requires registration. Here’s the link, but if you are like me, you will skip it. Registration is annoying, although I understand why they do it.
Here’s a FREE story from Congress. U.S. Senate Commitee on Environment and Public Works is releasing a new report with 650 scientists disputing the U.N. Report that Global Warming is occuring or man made. Yet the Main Stream Media is taking only one side, and I’m afraid it’s the wrong side that may end up costing us a huge amount of money for no good reason.
UPDATE: AZStar link does work the few visits. After that just register, or clear your cookies!
UPDATE: Houston snow ties the record for earliest snowfall on record! From this article, “Since 1895, records indicate, snow has fallen this early just once — on Dec. 10, 1944.”
UPDATE: Forecast for Jackson, Mississippi:
Thursday: Rain, possibly mixed with snow, becoming all snow after 9am. High near 40. North northwest wind between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible.
Climate Change Conference this Spring
If we don’t freeze first! Actually, it’s been quite pleasant this Fall in Southeastern Arizona with temperatures running a bit above normal. However the Great Lakes region especially, and the eastern half of the U.S. generally, has been MUCH below normal, with temps. most of November closer to what they should be in January. Januaryesk hard freezes have been felt as far south as northern Florida already this Fall!
Meanwhile, a conference I would love to attend is being planned. The 2009 International Conference on Climate Change. Here’s an excerpt from an article in the Boston Globe:
“Scientists urge caution on global warming,” the story was headlined; it opened by noting “a growing accumulation of global cooling science and other findings that could signal that the science behind global warming may still be too shaky to warrant cap-and-trade legislation.”Coverage of such skepticism is increasing. The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Michael Scott reported last week that meteorologists at each of Cleveland’s TV stations dissent from the alarmists’ scenario. In the Canadian province of Alberta, the Edmonton Journal found, 68 percent of climate scientists and engineers do not believe “the debate on the scientific causes of recent climate change is settled.”
Sounds like fun times! I wonder if ABCBSNBC will be covering the conference?
Meanwhile, glaciers are starting to grow again! If the predictions of much colder weather ahead in the next two decades is true, then they are just getting warmed up, so to speak :-)
Early November Blizzard
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Good thing there is Global Warming. Just think how bad it could have been if it had been colder!
A record November blizzard buried the Dakota’s with anywhere from several inches to several feet of snow! Accompanied by winds 35-50+ mph, the drifts were 3-12 feet in many areas! The Weather Channel has more on the record snowfall. Many locations had the most snow ever for a storm in November. Keep in mind, this was November 6th! Not late November, but less than a week into November.
Hmmmm. Could the Earth be cooling? Someone tell President-Elect Obama and the UN. No need for carbon offset programs and high taxes on CO2 emissions. No. We need to ENCOURAGE CO2 emissions to warm this place up. It’s getting cold out there!
