In a recent and wonderful New York Times essay, John Tierney documented the pervasive left-leaning bias of the social sciences in particular and academia in general, which he persuasively painted as the home of tired ideological groupthink. No doubt his essay was an eye-opener for anyone without much experience in the ivy morass, even as it came up short in its search for causation. (more)
Dallas, the site of this Sunday’s Super Bowl, is experiencing unusual winter weather with record snowfall this year. That brings to mind a question: whatever happened to global warming? (more)
In August, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that the floods that were ravaging Pakistan at the time were linked to global warming. (more)
On Sunday, The Washington Post ran a long article noting (gloating?) that in 2010, “Construction did not begin on a single new coal-fired power plant in the United States for the second straight year,” with plans for 38 new plants dropped and even more older plants scheduled for retirement. Apparently we’re leaving that to our supposed “green” model, China, even though we have enough coal to last for centuries. This is reckless, the result of policies, threats and uncertainty out of Washington all tied to “global warming.” (more)
In November, Bracken Hendricks, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal D.C. think tank, wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post entitled “Don’t believe in global warming? That’s not very conservative.” His op-ed wasn’t very convincing, but it got me thinking of the various ways that the push for cap-and-trade legislation undermines traditionally liberal goals, like helping poor people. (more)
During the waning days of December I often find myself desperate for comic relief from the hum-drum routines of life. In recent days I happened upon these mirthful headlines: (more)
Increased warm temperatures indicate global warming. Severe winter storms also help prove global warming, according to a recent op-ed in the New York Times. So is there any weather pattern that would disprove or call into question the existence of global warming? (more)
While watching one of the news shows I had recorded over the weekend, a particular panelist’s comment stood out for its rare feat of actually saying something. In explaining a critical aspect of the economic problem facing the U.S., she said: (more)
When it comes to ironic hyperbole, Media Matters tops the competition. In a dramatic diatribe of sorts, the self-described “progressive research and information center” published a blog post entitled, “FOXLEAKS: Fox boss ordered staff to cast doubt on climate science.” Media Matters’ Ben Dimiero writes, (more)
As predicted, because it is by now absurdly ritual, early the day after the scheduled conclusion of this year’s talks to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol, negotiators emerged hailing a breakthrough agreement on “global warming.” The Washington Post offers its take which, although it provides no word whether I won the CEI office pool on the number of European diplomats crying (the “over/under” was five), nonetheless opens risibly: (more)
Cancun, Mexico (CNN) — Delegates at the United Nations climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico, approved an agreement early Saturday morning, despite objections from Bolivia. (more)
One of the biggest failures of climate science is the fact that the data sets created to justify global warming are not independently reviewed or subject to standardized quality control procedures, such as ISO 9000. The very people who write scientific papers on global warming, lobby Congress to take action, and even get arrested protesting about climate, such as NASA’s Dr. James Hansen, are the same ones who are the keepers of the world’s most-cited climate data. (more)
Although this week’s “ministerial” meetings have yet to play out at the Cancun talks seeking a possible successor to the Kyoto Protocol expiring at the end of 2012, several things are already clear. The most important are these: (more)
Alarming predictions that global warming could cause sea levels to rise 6ft in the next century are wrong, it has emerged. (more)
If you are (a) an environmentalist, and (b) a Burkean, how do you establish a position on global warming? Are you conflicted, confused? It so happens I am (a) an environmentalist and (b) a Burkean, and I am neither conflicted nor confused. To the contrary, the precepts of Edmund Burke provide me with a position on the issue that I take to be both sound and clear. Moreover, Burke provides a useful guide to remedial action. (more)
This week marks the one-year anniversary of ‘ClimateGate,’ the release of thousands of damning emails between the most prominent alarmist ‘climate’ scientists, as well as computer code and annotations affirming that the books were being cooked. ClimateGate spelled the end for the global warming agenda in the U.S., at least through the front door of the cap-and-trade energy tax. (more)
Americans living in the most industrialized regions of the country have a special stake in the outcome of a California ballot initiative that would suspend implementation of that state’s global warming law until after unemployment drops, according to policy experts who favor a free market response to energy needs. (more)
Warren Meyer runs the website climate-skeptic.com and has been one of our early surface stations project volunteers, getting that famous photo of the climate monitoring weather station in the hot parking lot at the University of Arizona’s Atmospheric Sciences Department. He’s also produced a marvelous movie that defines the skeptic position. You can watch it on YouTube here. (more)
CALIF. — The future of climate change legislation in the United States could rest in California, where voters will decide on Nov. 2 whether to pass Proposition 23, a ballot measure that would roll back the state’s ambitious greenhouse gas emissions targets. With some polls showing voters in California split over the issue, former Vice President Al Gore released a video today explaining his opposition. (more)
