Global Warming Public Debate Updates

Dr.John R.Christy, Written Testimony before the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee

cblomquist — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Dr. Christy is a professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, Director of the Earth System Science Center, and State Climatologist.

Dispatches from the UN Climate Conference

jplichta — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 23:00:00 -0800

CEI's team (Marlo Lewis, Richard Morrison, Isaac Post, and I) arrived in Montreal at 8:35 this morning and, after checking in to our hotel, reached the Palais des Congres just after 10. After registering, we immediately went to an NGO side event held by the Pew Center of Global Climate Change to discuss their report on the results of their "Climate Dialogue at Pocantico."

The Abdication of Oversight

jplichta — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 23:00:00 -0800

Rep. Dennis Kucinich's (D-OH) recently made statements implying that the President hid evidence linking hurricanes to global warming, but a leading hurricane researcher calls this "playing politics with climate science."

Scientists Recent Comments on Global Warming and Hurricanes

jplichta — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 23:00:00 -0800

"Scientists' Recent Comments on Global Warming and Hurricanes" examines recent claims that hurricanes are becoming dramatically worse, and that global warming is influencing the numbers, frequency and intensity of recent hurricanes in the busy 2004-2005 seasons. One focus is recent controversy over papers by Webster and Curry (Science, 2005) and by Kerry Emanuel (Nature, 2005), claiming a positive connection.

"This paper is a bit different," says Ferguson, "because it presents the discussion directly from the participating scientists via popular press commentaries and unedited internet blogs. It makes for some highly interesting reading." The paper demonstrates how disputes over the science of the hot topics of global warming and hurricanes are spilling over into the public arena.

Climate Change and the Insurance Industry A Critical look at the Ceres report: Availability and Affordability of Insurance Und

jplichta — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 23:00:00 -0700

The Ceres report fails to make the case that the impacts of climate change to events such as floods, windstorms, thunderstorms, hail storms, ice storms, wildfires, droughts, and heat waves are already being felt in the United States and that their impacts will grow into the future in a scientifically defensible manner. Its analyses are inadequate and ill-formed, and it ignores a large, robust body of literature on the subject whose conclusions run opposite to those found in the Ceres report.

The Kyoto Protocol and Beyond: Roundtable discussion on the future of climate policy

jplichta — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 23:00:00 -0800

The Kyoto Protocol will enter into force internationally on February 16th without the participation of the United States or Australia. Senator James M. Inhofe, State Department Senior Climate Negotiator Harlan L. Watson, and other experts will discuss the prospects for implementing the Kyoto Protocol, what new international agreements and efforts may follow Kyoto, what this means for future U. S. climate policies and international involvement, and where we should be going on climate policies.

2500 minus one

jplichta — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 23:00:00 -0800

Dr. Christopher Landsea of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administrations Hurricane Research Division at NOAAs Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, has withdrawn as an author of the Fourth Assessment Report under preparation by the UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for release in 2007.

Pachauri must resign as head of UN climate panel

jplichta — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

The Competitive Enterprise Institute today called on Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri to resign as chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the grounds that his political activism fatally compromises his IPCC responsibilities.

U.N.: No 'natural' disasters?

jplichta — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

The United Nations is trying to blame natural disasters on, of all things, people. President Bush, however, is standing in its way.

CEI comments on proposed New Jersey CO2 rule

jplichta — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

The proposed rule is a conceptual muddle. Logically, DEP cannot classify CO2 as an air contaminant unless it is prepared to apply the same designation to water vaporthe atmospheres main greenhouse gas. Presumably, DEP has no intention to cap steam from nuclear power plants, or evaporation from public green spaces, but it should be aware of the regulatory folly that its argument implicitly demands.

Consensus, truisms and straw men

jplichta — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

An examination of the form the much-touted scientific consensus actually takes reveals that it does not mandate policy choices.

Tsunami of the absurd

jplichta — Sun, 09 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

One has to assume that respectable academics who talk about tsunamis know these numbers, and the nugatory nature of global warming compared to seismic inundations. So, why argue the sky is falling?

Climate change: Government and Canadian steel industry reach agreement

jplichta — Sun, 09 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

The Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario and the Canadian Steel Producers Association today signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to address climate change.

Reef madness

jplichta — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

Now that Russia has ratified the Kyoto Protocol, Australia is the only industrialized country besides the United States to reject the U.N.-sponsored climate treaty. However, a report commissioned by Australian affiliates of World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace denies that Australia has any choice in the matter.

Environmentalists dispute tsunami quotes

jplichta — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

Last week's column cited quotes from the British branches of two environmental groups, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, blaming the Indian Ocean tsunami on global warming. Both groups have disputed the quotes.

EU warned against pursuing its climate change agenda

jplichta — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

The chairman of the US Senate's environment committee, Senator James Inhofe, warned the EU against pursuing its climate change agendastalled to date in the international negotiating processthrough backdoor means such as the World Trade Organization.

'Environmentalists' vs humans

jplichta — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

Environmentalists don't really have a problem with CO2 (what tree hugger could object to plant food?) but rather with energy and humanity's use thereof. Misanthropist quotes are abundant in the movement, here's a few

An Update on the Science of Climate Change

jplichta — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

As I said on the Senate floor on July 28, 2003, "much of the debate over global warming is predicated on fear, rather than science." I called the threat of catastrophic global warming the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," a statement that, to put it mildly, was not viewed kindly by environmental extremists and their elitist organizations.

Environmentalists surf tsunami tragedy

jplichta — Sun, 02 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

Environmental activists are shamelessly trying to exploit last week's earthquake-tsunami catastrophe in hopes of advancing their global warming and anti-development agendas.

Review of "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton

jplichta — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 23:00:00 -0800

"State of Fear" is a little different. While constructed as a novel, it is also a guide to environmental issues and its advocates, principally the problem of climate change.