GlobalWarming.org

One of the most influential scientists behind the theory that global warming has intensified recent hurricane activity says he will reconsider his stand. The hurricane expert, Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, unveiled a novel technique for predicting future hurricane activity this week. The new work suggests that, even in a dramatically warming world, hurricane frequency and intensity may not substantially rise during the next two centuries.

Richard Sandor, president of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), said in an interview with E and E TV (subscription req), “I just want to see reductions.” CCX also owns 50% of the European Climate Exchange, which covers 85% of EU emissions credits.

It dawned on me after reading this paragraph from the Wall Street Journal’s “EU greenhouse-Gas Emissions Rose 1.1% Last Year” that investment banks and hedge funds actually don’t want EU companies to reduce their emissions:

"Hedge funds, investment banks and brokers trade carbon permits as they would any other commodity, like gold or oil. And while the data released Wednesday might fuel pessimistic predictions about the effectiveness of the scheme in holding back emissions, financial players were bullish about what it meant for the carbon market."

It’s in the financial interest of hedge funds and investment banks, such as Goldman Sachs, for those emissions to keep rising. The less companies reduce emissions, the more carbon credits they need to buy. The lower the emissions cap, the harder for companies to meet the cap with actual reductions and the more money these banks and funds make through companies needing to purchase carbon credits for them.

As Sandor says about the lowering EU caps, “…lower is what we want, right?”

Henry Paulson, the current US Secretary of the Treasury and former Goldman Sachs CEO, co-founded with Al Gore, Generation Investment Management. GIM now manages $5 billion in “sustainable” investments. And Goldman Sachs owns 10% of the Chicago Climate Exchange. (See blog post entitled “Maurice Strong”)

Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius's secretary of health and environment, Roderick Bremby, said in an Associated Press interview that he based his decision to deny air permits for two coal-fired power plants on last April's Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA. It appears that he understands that the court really did not mandate that EPA regulate CO2 emissions (Stevens: ""We need not and do not reach the question whether on remand EPA must make an endangerment finding. . . . We hold only that EPA must ground its reasons for actions or inaction in the statute."), but merely stated that EPA has the authority to do so should it determine it is an endangerment to public health. But nevertheless he grounded his decision based on the court's ruling, not on anything actually in the state law, the Clean Air Act, or in any EPA decision.

Bremby also said during an interview with The Associated Press that the concerns of eight other states also were important. And, he said, the decision took on a moral dimension as he considered his duty to protect Kansans’ health and the state’s environment.

But Bremby said the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision was crucial because the state’s air-quality laws are tied to the federal Clean Air Act. Deciding that CO2 wasn’t a factor would have created “a complete disconnect.”

Bremby decided in October to deny an air-quality permit to Sunflower Electric Power Corp. for the two plants.

“I think it was a typical permitting decision until the Supreme Court decision suggested that CO2 needed to be considered as a pollutant,” Bremby said. “The science was really insufficient for the decision. It was the science coupled with the interpretation of federal law by the Supreme Court.”

Meanwhile Gov. Sebelius plans to veto today a second attempt by the Kansas legislature to pass a law that would allow the new power plants to go forward, and the votes to override fall short by one. Apparently she will do so in North Carolina, where she is campaigning for (a cabinet post?) Barack Obama.

Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on the implications of climate change for human health. Malaria will top the menu, but so will ignorance and disinformation.

The law of unintended consequences has claimed many millions of victims over the centuries; the first decade of the 21st century is now demonstrating that governments have not lost the knack of destroying the livelihoods of the very people they purport to help.

So much for that job requirement of balance and objectivity. When it came to global warming the media clearly left out dissent in favor of hype, cute penguins and disastrous predictions.

JOURNALISTS at The Age yesterday condemned management for undermining the Melbourne newspaper's editorial independence, claiming reporters were pressured not to write negative stories about Earth Hour and sports coverage was in danger of being compromised by commercial considerations.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick says a global food crisis demands the immediate attention of world leaders.

In Stalin's Russia any dissenter from the Party Line was guilty. Innocence had to be proved. It's a standard tyrant's trick. During the reign of Oliver Cromwell in England, witchhunters did not have to prove that their victims were guilty. The accused witches had to prove their innocence.