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Slope & change: The ski industry struggles to get its act together on global warming | Grist "That mighty Ski and Snowboard Caucus? At last count (yesterday, to be specific), it had only 22 members. Granted, it’s just getting back on its feet, but there’s a deeper problem here: At least four of the six Republicans on the caucus have stated that they don’t believe in human-caused climate change at all. The other two have such abysmal environmental records that their opinion one way or another is irrelevant."

Far From Conclusive: EPA Evidence on global Warming "Very fortunately we are living at an optimum time in climate history. There has been no trend in the strength or frequency of land-falling hurricanes in the world’s five main hurricane basins during the past 50-70 years; there is no trend in the strength or frequency of tropical cyclones in the main Atlantic hurricane development corridor over the past 370 years; there is no trend since 1950 in the frequency of strong (F3-F5) U.S. tornadoes; and the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season was the first season since 1994 to end with no known major hurricanes and cyclonic activity."

China's Plan to Clean Up Air in Cities Will Doom the Climate, Scientists Say | InsideClimate News "China is erecting huge industrial complexes in remote areas to convert coal to synthetic fuel that could make the air in its megacities cleaner. But the complexes use so much energy that the carbon footprint of the fuel is almost double that of conventional coal and oil, spelling disaster for earth's climate, a growing chorus of scientists is warning."

China's Plan to Clean Up Air in Cities Will Doom the Climate, Scientists Say | InsideClimate News "China is erecting huge industrial complexes in remote areas to convert coal to synthetic fuel that could make the air in its megacities cleaner. But the complexes use so much energy that the carbon footprint of the fuel is almost double that of conventional coal and oil, spelling disaster for earth's climate, a growing chorus of scientists is warning."

Heating up: Climate change advocates try to silence Krauthammer | Fox News : "Krauthammer told me the petition-signers “showed up just in time to make precisely the point I made in the column.” When it comes to free speech, he says, “they don’t even hide it anymore. Now they proudly want certain arguments banished from discourse. The next step is book burning. So the question of the day is: Can you light a Kindle? “Is there anything more anti-scientific than scientific truths being determined by petition and demonstration?”"

Accounting for global warming requires looking at the oceans | John Abraham | Environment | theguardian.com "Separating natural and human influences on the climate a Herculean task ...This complex topic clearly involves many different kinds of experts: satellite sensing, radiation, atmospheric, aerosols, clouds, oceans, sea ice, glaciers, climate modeling… and then special generalists to tie everything together and nudge the topic experts to do even better."

U. lecturer argues global warming doesn’t cause polar vortex - The Daily Princetonian "Happer explained that this year’s record lows have been emphasized in order to support the climate change “myth.” “You know, for years we were told we’re going to fry, and the earth refused to cooperate. And so they desperately look for something else to hang their hat on,” he said, referring to supporters of the global warming theory."

Freezing Sochi: how Russia turned a subtropical beach into a Winter Olympics wonderland | The Verge : "The mechanics of climate change mean that polar regions are warming much faster than those at the equator. The February daytime temperature of Winter Games locations averaged out at 32.7 F between the 1920-'50s, but have soared to 46.0 F at Olympics held this millennium. "

Paul Douglas on Climate Change – Greg Laden's Blog "One came as part of the answer to the question, why isn’t there more climatology, and in particular, climate change, in with the weather reporting on local TV? I should note right away that this is one of the reasons you should read Paul’s blog. You get the weather AND the climatology. If you are in the Twin Cities area, his Strib Blog is the place to go. If you are elsewhere in the US or beyond, his Weather Nation blog is the place to go. There is a lot of overlap but somewhat different regional coverage. Anyway, Paul’s answer included this: On news TV, global warming is toxic. Meaning, specifically, stating the basic fact that global warming is established science is not really allowed on standard news TV, local or national. The False Balance sells, admitting the facts is boring. More importantly, stating that climate change is real and important will piss off 30% of the audience and the people running the news shows don’t ...

To Fight Climate Change, What Would George Washington Do? | Rocky Kistner "Today, an overwhelming consensus of scientists say man-made carbon pollution is dangerously transforming life on the planet, melting the Arctic, fueling more ferocious fires, promoting more punishing droughts and devastating floods and wreaking havoc with our global weather systems and currents. "

To Fight Climate Change, What Would George Washington Do? | Rocky Kistner "Today, an overwhelming consensus of scientists say man-made carbon pollution is dangerously transforming life on the planet, melting the Arctic, fueling more ferocious fires, promoting more punishing droughts and devastating floods and wreaking havoc with our global weather systems and currents. "

Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene - NYTimes.com "Now, when I look into our future — into the Anthropocene — I see water rising up to wash out lower Manhattan. I see food riots, hurricanes, and climate refugees. I see 82nd Airborne soldiers shooting looters. I see grid failure, wrecked harbors, Fukushima waste, and plagues. I see Baghdad. I see the Rockaways. I see a strange, precarious world."

Global Warming Is Reducing Mental Health Stress | Heartlander Magazine "Objective evidence, however, shows extreme weather events have become less frequent and severe as our planet gradually warms from the Little Ice Age conditions that prevailed through the end of the nineteenth century. Hurricane and tornado activity are currently at record lows, wildfires are at record lows, droughts are in long-term decline, and just about every other category of extreme weather shows either no trend or a beneficial trend as the planet warms."

Meet Eric Holthaus, the Rebel Nerd of Meteorology | Culture | Rolling Stone "He covers everything from super typhoons in Hong Kong to walking conditions in Atlanta, tying it all back to the warming planet – which is something many of his colleagues refuse to do. Amazingly, according to one study, nearly half of all US meteorologists don't believe that humans are the cause of climate change. Holthaus has met this contingent at conferences. "The crowd is like 1980s military uniform-type people," he says. "They're prominently conservative Republicans in positions of power, and they want to push the message they believe, politically.""

Obama offers aid to drought-stricken California; warns of drier future - UPI.com "Obama said the drought is a sample of what's to come with global warming. "Unless and until we do more to combat carbon pollution that causes climate change, this trend is going to get worse," he said. "And the hard truth is even if we do take action on climate change, carbon pollution has built up in our atmosphere for decades. "The planet is slowly going to keep warming for a long time to come.."

Cat parasite found in western Arctic Beluga deemed infectious -- ScienceDaily : ""Ice is a major eco-barrier for pathogens," says Michael Grigg, a molecular parasitologist with the U.S. National Institutes of Health and an adjunct professor at UBC. "What we're seeing with the big thaw is the liberation of pathogens gaining access to vulnerable new hosts and wreaking havoc.""

10 Questions for Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) - NBC News.com : "It’s interesting that about a decade ago there was a lot of talk about “global warming.” Thirty years ago we were talking about "global cooling." Now all we hear about is “climate change.” There has been evidence throughout history of cycles when the earth gets warmer and cycles when the earth gets colder. We should always be wise stewards of the earth and all of our natural resources. But as a policymaker, I won't be guided by the global warming propaganda machine. Al Gore - we need you to return your Nobel Peace Prize!"

Discussing global warming: why does this have to be so hard? | John Abraham | Environment | theguardian.com : "1. We don't know exactly how much climate change will occur. It may range from very little to a lot over the next 100 years or longer. If we are lucky, climate change will be a minor inconvenience. If we are unlucky, it will destabilize societies around the world. It is most likely neither of these extremes will occur, the future will be somewhere in the middle, but frankly we just don't know. 2. We don't know how fast it will happen. Will it take a few decades or a few centuries for some of the big changes to occur? We have a pretty good idea but we can't be certain. 3. We don't know exactly how climate change will manifest itself. How will drought/flood patterns change? How will hurricanes change? How will sea levels rise? How fast will the oceans acidify? We have educated guesses but we can't be certain. 4. It isn't clear how much of what we...

What is a Climate Hub? | JunkScience.com : "Sounds like passing money around to a favored few to further the climate change agenda.  Not much research, but lots of meetings."

Senators and Scientists Play Climate Dating Game - NationalJournal.com : ""Making sure science is front and center in terms of media attention is certainly going to be part of our strategy," said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, a member of the newly minted Senate Climate Action Task Force. "We want to make sure climate deniers and scientists do not get equal time . Media coverage needs to be decisively in favor of the facts."..."We need to work with scientists to pitch stories to the major media outlets that highlight the urgency of this issue," said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn."

Global Wind excuse — monkey-modeling shows global warming theory is Still Not Wrong. « JoNova : "The backdown continues. Faced with the ongoing failure of their models, the search rolls on for any factor that helps “explain” why the official climate scientists are still right even though they got it so wrong.  The new England et al paper endorses skeptics in so many ways."

This year’s bitter cold damages Ontario/Canada grape vines | eCanadaNow : "Some growers even have turned to calling 2014 the year of the grape-killing cold. Hank Hunse, an Ontario grape grower, said he lost his entire Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc crops for 2013 already due to cold temperatures. Crop insurance only covers some of the losses"

Why did warmist Matthew England deny the dud predictions he now concedes? | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog : "Those models have actually vastly overestimated the warming, but England still wants us to have “confidence” in them. Could his own “wanting” explain why England vilified sceptics as liars for saying what he now admits is true: that the warming of the world’s atmosphere has paused for at least 13 years, contrary to the IPCC predictions? How can we trust him? And will he say sorry?"

Letters: Name and shame the climate-change deniers - Letters - Voices - The Independent : "There is a longstanding tradition of naming extreme weather events such as hurricanes and typhoons. Perhaps the time has come for scientists to give them more relevant titles and name them after the malicious pundits, politicians and media whose actions have prevented the world from taking the necessary steps to fight this worsening catastrophe faced by the whole of humanity. Aidan Harrison, Rothbury,  Northumberland"

Get Headlines! How to find a heatwave in five easy steps « JoNova : "Heatwaves have become a publicity tool. Far from there being a clear trend in Australian heatwaves, Geoff Sherrington shows that it’s also legitimate to claim heatwaves were worse 80 – 100 years ago in Adelaide and Melbourne and things are getting better. Those officials who cherrypick their claims might be technically correct, but it’s outrageously deceitful and unscientific at the same time."

Week in review | Climate Etc. : "I’m not predicting how Mann’s lawsuit will turn out, but Steyn’s relentless hammering of Mann seems to be doing far more damage to Mann’s reputation that the alleged legal defamation."

How Cold Weather Makes You Forget About Global Warming : The New Yorker : "A slight change in presentation, however, may shift attitudes in the direction of climate science and away from the vicissitudes of local weather. A study out this month, from the Cardiff University psychologists Stuart Capstick and Nicholas Pidgeon, found that periods of exceptionally cold weather in the United Kingdom had the opposite effect as they did in the United States: more people believed in the truth of climate change. The reason for the difference? The media had framed the weather within the context of climate change, emphasizing that it was unnatural, rather than simply cold. Perhaps if people here were told that it’s not just brutal out there, it’s unnaturally brutal, they, too, might jump to a different conclusion"

60 Minutes and Cleantech | The Energy Collective : "Now there’s nothing wrong with Jordan trying something new. He was pursuing a dream. I am sure his presence in the minor league sold lots of tickets. But he was playing the wrong game for his skill set, and after a mediocre season in the minors, he went back to the NBA. Vinod Khosla in the energy sector has been akin to Michael Jordan the baseball player. He struck out because he was out of his element. If a baseball team had been built itself around his skill set, it would have failed miserably."

60 Minutes and Cleantech | The Energy Collective : "Now there’s nothing wrong with Jordan trying something new. He was pursuing a dream. I am sure his presence in the minor league sold lots of tickets. But he was playing the wrong game for his skill set, and after a mediocre season in the minors, he went back to the NBA. Vinod Khosla in the energy sector has been akin to Michael Jordan the baseball player. He struck out because he was out of his element. If a baseball team had been built itself around his skill set, it would have failed miserably."

NASA data shows that the ‘pause’ in global warming continues | The Daily Caller : "“Our expectations for what temperatures should be changing like, they come from our understandings of our forcings of climate change,” Schmidt said, adding that such forcings include greenhouse gases, volcanoes, solar activity and air pollution — for example, aerosols from coal burning, smog and volatile organics. “Our ability to properly quantify the air pollution around the world … is actually not very good, and we have had historically a problem in defining those aerosol forcings very accurately … and that has not improved,” Schmidt admitted."

NASA data shows that the ‘pause’ in global warming continues | The Daily Caller : "“Our expectations for what temperatures should be changing like, they come from our understandings of our forcings of climate change,” Schmidt said, adding that such forcings include greenhouse gases, volcanoes, solar activity and air pollution — for example, aerosols from coal burning, smog and volatile organics. “Our ability to properly quantify the air pollution around the world … is actually not very good, and we have had historically a problem in defining those aerosol forcings very accurately … and that has not improved,” Schmidt admitted."

‘Retroactive Looting’: Spain Plans To End All Pre-2004 Wind Subsidies | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) : "The Spanish government said it plans to end all price subsidies for wind capacity online before end-2004, while slashing remuneration for younger capacity."

Pre-Industrial Farming Sprouted Global Warming | LiveScience : "Early farmers boosted Earth's temperature by 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) over a period of 8,000 years, a new study suggests. "This is almost as large as the global warming in the past 150 years," said Feng He, lead study author and a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "That means early agricultural is as powerful as the whole Industrial Revolution." However, the study concludes that the net warming caused by early humans was only 1.3 degrees F (0.73 degrees C), thanks to a slight cooling of 0.31 degrees F (0.17 degrees C) due to more sunlight reflecting from cleared land."

Could the Northlands Look Like the Prairie? - MN2020 Hindsight : "If we continue emitting carbon at our current rates, the Boundary Waters will turn into an open prairie by the end of the 21st century, killing off and pushing away moose, lynx and some songbirds, according to a recent National Wildlife Federation report."

U.S. to launch 'climate hubs' to help farmers face climate change | Reuters : "The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the effects of climate change have led to a longer crop growing season in the Midwest, a fire season that is 60 days longer than it was three decades ago, and droughts that cost the United States $50 billion from 2011-2013."

CAMPAIGN 2014: GOP mounts broadened ad blitz to frame Rahall as 'no friend of coal' -- Tuesday, February 4, 2014 -- www.eenews.net : "For months, it's appeared as though every attack ad in West Virginia is a knock on Rep. Nick Rahall (D) over his vote for a carbon tax, but now the House Republicans' campaign arm is getting ready to expand its reach. A document obtained by E&E Daily shows that the National Republican Congressional Committee plans to criticize Rahall in upcoming ads over old votes on cap and trade, the renewable portfolio standard and U.S. EPA regulations and funding, while also continuing to hammer its message on the carbon tax."

Hulme tries to throw all scientists under a bus. It’s just “the debate is over”. Cook, consensus take collateral hit « JoNova : "It’s another tiny marker on the road to reality. Mike Hulme has admitted that Cooks 97% study is “infamous” and “irrelevant”. He’s trying to wash himself of both the “Consensus” argument and Cook’s work which he can see are becoming a liability. But make no mistake Hulme is more alarmist than ever. He’s just trying to rebrand the gravy train."

thebahamasweekly.com - "State of the Union climate rhetoric undermines rational decision making" : "Obama’s error is not harmless. It is part of the way language has been distorted to bolster concerns about human-caused climate change. Calling CO2 carbon, or worse, carbon pollution, encourages people to think of it as something dirty and so important to restrict. Obama reinforces this misunderstanding by referring to power plants that have low CO2 emissions as clean. This mistake is so entrenched that even those who oppose fashionable beliefs about climate change make it often. Calling CO2 by its proper name would help people remember that, regardless of its role in climate change (a point of intense debate among scientists), CO2 is really an invisible gas essential to plant photosynthesis, and so to all life. Recent studies demonstrate that worldwide crop yield has soared as CO2 levels have risen. So although CO2 is an ‘infrared absorbing gas’ blamed by governments for ...

Fight Global Warming: Approve the Pipeline! - Phil Kerpen - Page full : "In its latest review, the State Department outlined the greenhouse gas impact of approving the pipeline against the backdrop of this reality. They analyzed three different potential “no action” scenarios and found they would all have significantly higher emissions than approving the pipeline. The all-rail scenario would have 41.8 percent higher emissions; a scenario in which rail is used for part of the route to reach existing pipelines would have 39.7 percent higher emissions, and a scenario in which rail is used to ship crude to reach tankers would increase emissions 27.8 percent."

Fight Global Warming: Approve the Pipeline! - Phil Kerpen - Page full : "In its latest review, the State Department outlined the greenhouse gas impact of approving the pipeline against the backdrop of this reality. They analyzed three different potential “no action” scenarios and found they would all have significantly higher emissions than approving the pipeline. The all-rail scenario would have 41.8 percent higher emissions; a scenario in which rail is used for part of the route to reach existing pipelines would have 39.7 percent higher emissions, and a scenario in which rail is used to ship crude to reach tankers would increase emissions 27.8 percent."

Climate change threatens to cause trillions in damage to world's coastal regions : "According to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, global average storm surge damages could increase from about $10-$40 billion per year today to up to $100,000 billion per year by the end of century , if no adaptation action is taken."

Why a meteorologist took the bus for 28 hours instead of flying. : "My world is much smaller now, and that’s both good and bad. I’ve found myself exploring more around where I live. One of the biggest downsides is giving up international travel, which I love. But I’d rather do my part now so the people who actually live in all those exotic places can continue to do so. Maybe, someday soon, there will be a low-carbon way to travel to those places again. Here’s hoping. But for now, for me, the climate is more important."

Auto Sales for January Held Down by Harsh Winter Weather - NYTimes.com : "Automakers reported on Monday sharp declines in United States sales in January as a harsh freeze and winter storms thwarted purchases across much of the country."

Ban Ki-moon selects Bloomberg as cities and climate change envoy : "“Cities are on the frontline because federal, national and international organisations aren’t doing anything,” he said. “They either deny that the world is changing or they say that it’s not changing so fast that we should do anything about it but all of the scientific information that we have and the empirical evidence that we see … these are things that somebody’s got to worry about.”"

Polar Bear Blog – Polar Bear Diets and Sharing Seals | Polar Bear Alley – Guide to the Polar Bears of Churchill : "My one difficulty with the articles on this paper is that they make it out as if the polar bears are forced to forage because of a warming climate. In truth, polar bears have always had a varied diet. Yes, their primary focus is seal but they are opportunists and even the early whalers noticed them feeding on grasses and such, even comparing them to sheep grazing in herds. And then they slaughtered them, but that’s a different blog entry. Anyway, there were many obersvations of summer foraging in the late 1960s near Churchill, as well as the early 1990s and all along. Bears will dive to feed on kelp and algae on the ocean floor. They have always scaled cliffs to raid nests and occasionally attacked walrus. Females emerging from the maternity dens will sometimes graze for a number of days before heading to the seal hunting grounds on the ice. They even make open water ...

Stick Yourself Up :: SteynOnline :  "Reluctant public figure" and shrinking Nobel violet Michael Mann writes more newspaper columns than I do these days, but  his latest  in  The Guardian  has one delightful moment of  self-sabotaging omniscience , in which he does to the early typewriters what he did to the Medieval Warm Period. That's a good example of why he's careful never to expose himself to genuine debate, and why his cross-examination on the witness stand will be such a hoot. Seating limited. Book now.

The Price Of Green Dreams: Energy Woes Will Hobble Europe For 20 Years | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) : "One of biggest stories of this decade is the steady erosion of the global green movement, which has almost entirely been driven by the incoherence of green policy proposals and the serial failure of signature policies. Yet the response of the mainstream green movement to critics who point these facts out is “Shut up, you evil science deniers.”"