July 2004 news archive

Economy slows as energy costs rise
Boston Globe, July 31 2004
The US economy slowed dramatically in the past three months as consumers, battered by higher energy prices, sharply curtailed their spending.

The science isn’t settled: The Limitations of global climate models
Fraser Institute, July 2004
This paper examines two major limitations that hinder the usefullness of climate models to those forming public policy.

Barclays, Shell in landmark carbon emissions deal
Reuters, July 29 2004
Barclays Capital and Shell Trading have completed the first carbon emissions trade using standard terms set out by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, the two firms said.

President Bush plans trade in methane
Associated Press, July 28 2004
Methane emissions would be harvested by industrial nations and sold to poorer countries for use as a clean-burning fuel under a plan that would also slow global warming, Bush administration officials announced Wednesday.

Global warping
Number Watch, July 28 2004
In a midday presentation on July 28^th the BBC broadcast a television programme called Global Warning (the first of three). It was possibly the most one-sided piece of blatant propaganda that has ever been transmitted in Britain in time of peace.

Beyond Kyoto
American Enterprise Institute, July 27 2004
Whether the Kyoto Protocol is ever ratified is fast becoming irrelevant. Many of the European nations that ratified the convention are failing to reach their targets, while developing countries, not required to comply with Kyoto, claim they will never participate in targets and timetables, as it would retard their economic growth.

Malaria experts abuzz on global warming fears
Reuters, July 27 2004
“Temperature is only one of many, many factors in malaria, and in many cases it’s totally irrelevant,” said Paul Reiter, professor of medical entomology at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. “Many climate scientists don’t know anything about the complexities of malaria.”

Warming case uses overheated evidence
Grand Forks Herald, Jul 26 2004
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change claim that human activities are responsible for nearly all Earth’s recorded warming during the past two centuries is based largely upon the work of Michael Mann of the University of Virginia and Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia in England. But over the past two years, their work has been discredited by five different groups of independent research scientists.

Catching up to the costs of global warming
New York Times, July 25 2004
As regulators around the world move to curb global-warming emissions from cars and improve fuel efficiency, what happens if Wall Street adds up the costs?

Sir David King’s queenie fit: Shutting down dissent
National Review Online, July 23 2004
(Iain Murray) In medieval fashion, adherents of the environmentalist religion have launched an inquisition against scientific views that they consider heretical. Hence, Sir David’s outrageous behavior at the Moscow conference.

Ohio won’t join global warming lawsuit
Dayton Business Journal, July 23 2004
Jim Petro, the state’s attorney general, released a letter Friday that said Ohio is not planning to join the lawsuit that seeks to force five electricity generators to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.

Cooler Heads Coalition newsletter, July 21 2004
* Attorneys General sue five big electric utilities
* Democratic Party platform drops Kyoto ratification
* Illarionov comments on Russian position on Kyoto
* Three Democrat Senate candidates support ANWR drilling
* European industry waking up to costs of Kyoto
* Schleede examines costs and benefits of wind power
* Extraordinary scenes at Russian conference
* Study rejects anthropogenic origin of mercury
* Global warming creates biodiversity boom

Hot under the collar
Frontiers for Freedom, July 22 2004
(Christopher Horner) – Attorneys Generals Sue, Yet Their States Arent Warming

Now they want to be Caesar
National Center for Public Policy Research, July 21 2004
Court decisions are blunt instruments and ill-suited for determining policies on such matters as global warming, where opinions are constantly undergoing change as new scientific knowledge is gained.

Job advocacy group applauds DNC for opposing Kyoto
United for Jobs, July 20 2004
Today United for Jobs (UFJ) applauded the Democratic Party for dropping their endorsement of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming in the party’s 2004 platform, and called on the U.S. Senate to reject a domestic version of Kyoto proposed by Senators McCain and Lieberman.

Earth observatory receives NASA grant
Rockland Journal News, July 19 2004
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University has received a grant of $671,200 from NASA to map dissolved organic carbon in Eastern coastal waters by using satellite data to interpret the color of the ocean.

The truth about global warming – it’s the Sun that’s to blame
London Telegraph, July 18 2004
Global warming has finally been explained: the Earth is getting hotter because the Sun is burning more brightly than at any time during the past 1,000 years, according to new research.

Academician Izrael: Kyoto Protocol economically hazardous to Russia
Pravda, July 17 2004
The Kyoto Protocol is scientifically ungrounded and economically hazardous to Russia, well-known Russian scholar Academician Yuri Izrael opines in the Nezavisimaya Gazeta. He heads the Global Climate and Ecology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences…

US-NZ climate change partnership bears fruit
National Business Review [NZ], July 16 2004
Six projects will involve a number of US and NZ agencies working closely together and are part of an enormous climate science inititative funded by the Bush administration.

Europeans still wait for summer weather
Associated Press. July 15 2004
May was fitful, and June promised a summer that could go either way. But except for southern Europe, July has been wet and almost glacial.

Study: Oceans absorb carbon dioxide excess
Associated Press, July 15 2004
Nearly half the excess carbon dioxide spilled into the air by humans over the past two centuries has been taken up by the ocean. . . Christopher L. Sabine of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, reports in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.

Nuance in the atmosphere
San Francisco Chronicle, July 15 2004
If Kerry could fool John Edwards about his support for Kyoto, maybe he can fool the rarified minds of Europe, too.

Effects of elevated CO2 on medicinal substances found in St. John’s wort
CO2science.org, July 14 2004
180% increase in the air’s CO2 content more than doubled the dry mass produced by well-watered and fertilized St. John’s wort plants, while it also more than doubled the concentrations of both hypericin and pseudohypericen.

New twist on the old threat of an imminent release of vast amounts of CO2 from the world’s peatlands
CO2science.org, July 14 2004
Peatlands represent a vital component of the planet’s carbon cycle, and it is important to determine how their carbon balance may change in response to the ongoing rise in the air’s CO2 content.

Breaking the hockey stick
National Center for Policy Analysis, July 12 2004
Michael Mann of the University of Virginia and Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia updated the influential reconstruction of global and hemispheric air temperatures (Geophysical Research Letters, 2003) used in the IPCCs third assessment of climate change. However, five independent research groups have uncovered problems with this reconstruction…

Dems delete support for Kyoto
Frontiers for Freedom, July 9 2004
(Christopher Horner) So far as only reported by the left-wing “DemocracyNow.org,” “In a shift from the party’s 2000 platform, the Democrats have dropped a reference to endorsing the Kyoto treaty on global warming.”

Precipitate modeling
CO2science.org, July 9 2004
While it is true that at any given time many places on earth experience drought or flooding, this reflects normal patterns of climate variability.

Peat bog gases ‘accelerate global warming’
Independent (UK), July 8 2004
Global warming is set to dramatically worsen because of huge amounts of carbon dioxide (CO₂) being released from the world’s peatlands, a study has found.

Cooler Heads newsletter, July 7 2004
– Second Senate vote on Kyoto-lite bill is delayed again
– Californias auto emissions plan has costs but no benefits
– Blair “Nuclear power an option”
– Three states pass renewable portfolio standards
– SUVs under fire in Europe
– British conservationist dismisses wind farms
– ‘Nature’ corrects temperature record
– Global warming to increase size, strength of coral reefs
– More evidence of weak relationship between temperatures and malaria
– What consensus on sea level rise?
– Satire: New alternative-fuel SUV will deplete world’s hydrogen by 2070

EU countires ‘dragging feet’ on emissions
Scotsman, July 7 2004
The EU head office said today only five EU states are ready to implement a 1997 United Nations accord next year limiting carbon-dioxide emissions and chided other members for dragging their heels.

CO2: The debate heats up
Business Week, July 7 2004
Is carbon dioxide an air pollutant? That will be the key issue in any legal challenge to California’s proposed rules to reduce CO2 in auto exhaust.

EU countires ‘dragging feet’ on emissions
Scotsman, July 7 2004
The EU head office said today only five EU states are ready to implement a 1997 United Nations accord next year limiting carbon-dioxide emissions and chided other members for dragging their heels.

New space-borne instrument to measure greenhouse gases
University of Colorado, July 7 2004
A powerful new instrument heading to space this Saturday is expected to send back long-sought answers about greenhouse gases, atmospheric cleansers and pollutants, and the destruction and recovery of the ozone layer.

CO2: The debate heats up
Business Week, July 7 2004
Is carbon dioxide an air pollutant? That will be the key issue in any legal challenge to California’s proposed rules to reduce CO2 in auto exhaust.

The Economic Hardship Act
TechCentralStation, July 7 2004
Just last week both McCain and Sen. Lieberman took their message to a conference on climate change that was jointly sponsored by Brookings Institute and Pew Center.

New space-borne instrument to measure greenhouse gases
University of Colorado, July 7 2004
A powerful new instrument heading to space this Saturday is expected to send back long-sought answers about greenhouse gases, atmospheric cleansers and pollutants, and the destruction and recovery of the ozone layer.

Climate models: Are they improving?
CO2science.org, July 6 2004
Just because climate models tend to become more complex with the passage of time does not insure they are getting better; they may well be stagnating or actually on a retrograde course …

Sunspots reaching 1,000-year high
BBC, July 6 2004
A new analysis shows that the Sun is more active now than it has been at anytime in the previous 1,000 years. Scientists based at the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich used ice cores from Greenland to construct a picture of our star’s activity in the past. They say that over the last century the number of sunspots rose at the same time that the Earth’s climate became steadily warmer.

Climate: Searching for the ‘dread factor’
United Press International, July 5 2004
The climate change priesthood is looking for something as attention-getting as the ozone hole.

No realistic way to stabilize CO2
Financial Times, July 2 2004
Lord Browne… imagines that the world’s nations, via a series of “small steps”, could stabilize atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) at 500 to 550 parts per million by 2050 “without doing serious damage to the world economy”.  This is pie in the sky.

Purdue global warming center emits hot air, BSU experts say
Indiana Star Press, July 6 2004
Ball State geography professor Dave Arnold, who teaches global climatology, thinks it is jumping to conclusions to say that weather trends in Indiana have become increasingly variable because of global warming.

U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rise
Reuters, July 2 2004
A colder winter in 2003 helped boost the amount of U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions spewed last year by 0.9 percent to 5,788 million metric tons, the government said on Thursday.

Corrections to the Mann et al (1998) proxy database – UPDATE
Steven McIntyre & Ross McKitrick, July 1 2004
The Corrigendum in Nature today (July 1, 2004) by Professors Mann, Bradley and Hughes is a clear admission that the disclosure of data and methods behind MBH98 was materially inaccurate.

Lamy rejects call to act against non-Kyoto states
Financial Times, July 1 2004
New calls for trade sanctions against countries that spurn the Kyoto global warming treaty have been rejected by Pascal Lamy, the European Union’s trade commissioner. Such action would risk sacrificing the EU’s long-term climate goals “for uncertain and short-term benefits”, he said.

Stop global warming? California’s dreaming
Cato Institute, July 1 2004
California’s newly released regulatory initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new cars sold in that state represents the triumph of symbolism over substance. It’s an ill-considered gesture that ought to annoy partisans on both sides of the global warming fence.

Promises, promises
CO2science.org, July 1 2004
Scientific research based on factnot ideology is what the Democrats presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) promises. But there are some pertinent facts about global warming we can probably count on him ignoring.

JUNE 2004 NEWS ARCHIVE