Oh My Gosh, Were We Wrong About Climate Change?

Yet another example of "I told you so" for all the global warming alarmists out there. I hope these new facts turn out to be accurate. Nothing would please me more than for these junk scientists to get a healthy dose of humble pie.

In an article posted on the Australian titled Climate facts to warm to, we read some interesting facts from biologist Jennifer Marohasy.

Last Monday - on ABC Radio National, of all places - there was a tipping point of a different kind in the debate on climate change. It was a remarkable interview involving the co-host of Counterpoint, Michael Duffy and Jennifer Marohasy, a biologist and senior fellow of Melbourne-based think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. Anyone in public life who takes a position on the greenhouse gas hypothesis will ignore it at their peril.

Duffy asked Marohasy: "Is the Earth stillwarming?"

She replied: "No, actually, there has been cooling, if you take 1998 as your point of reference. If you take 2002 as your point of reference, then temperatures have plateaued. This is certainly not what you'd expect if carbon dioxide is driving temperature because carbon dioxide levels have been increasing but temperatures have actually been coming down over the last 10 years."

Duffy: "Is this a matter of any controversy?"

Marohasy: "Actually, no. The head of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has actually acknowledged it. He talks about the apparent plateau in temperatures so far this century. So he recognises that in this century, over the past eight years, temperatures have plateaued ... This is not what you'd expect, as I said, because if carbon dioxide is driving temperature then you'd expect that, given carbon dioxide levels have been continuing to increase, temperatures should be going up ... So (it's) very unexpected, not something that's being discussed. It should be being discussed, though, because it's very significant." (more)

Firefox Stumble of the Day

Songza is a brand new web jukebox and music search engine. Enter the name of a band or song title and a list of related songs comes up. You can scan the list to find something you want to listen to, and then you have several options available to you. Clicking on your chosen song, a menu comes up that allows you to either play that song, rate if it's a good or bad recording, add it to your play list, or share it by sending the song to a friend, linking to that song, embedding it on your site, or watching the YouTube video of it. As you are making new searches, the song you have been listening to continues to play uninterrupted at the bottom of the page. If you don't select another song to play before that song is over, it'll go straight to playing the list of songs you've collected on the side. Within your play list, you can drag and drop songs to determine their order.

There are short cuts to playing the songs on the site as well, such as hitting the space bar to pause or play the current song and using the arrow keys to scroll through your play list to the next song you want to hear. You can also check out the discography of the song you are currently listening to, or you can purchase it, all through Google links. Anytime you want to see the song's YouTube video or check out the track's discography, the information comes up in a new window so as not to interrupt your listening experience. If you want to create a play list to easily enjoy while surfing the web, or you want to check out different tracks from various artists without having to bring up more complicated sites that only let you listen to 30 second clips of the songs, Songza will be a great tool for you.

Earth Apparently Able To Heal Itself From Man's Evil Deeds

In a story by LA Times writer Robert Lee Hotz, he states,

An international team of scientists reported Thursday that rising temperatures are steadily transforming the Arctic -- warming millions of square miles of permafrost, promoting lush greenery on previously arid tundras and steadily shrinking the annual sea ice.

Oh my, to quote REM, "It's the end of the world as we know it." but wait...before you sell your evil, greenhouse gas spewing vehicles, read this from the same article,

Yet the researchers also found new patterns of cooling ocean currents and prevailing winds that suggested the Arctic, long considered a bellwether of global warming, may be reverting in some ways to more normal conditions not seen since the 1970s.

I'm sorry, could it be that the earth just might be in the midst of a natural wobble in it's orbit which varies it's distance from the sun, thus changing temperatures? I hate to keep harping on these "chicken little" stories about global warming, but one week, it's "global warming isn't happening" and "warming is significant, water levels are rising" the next.

Which Is It?

Is this another nail in the self-loathing, tree hugger's "American is evil polluter" coffin? I feel like it's a ping pong game. Not that long ago we had Algore bloviating again about how America is responsible for global warming and now a well respected professor at Colorado State University, and one of the nation's leading hurricane experts lays blame on changes to ocean circulation patterns.

Global warming is happening, but humans are not the cause, one of the nation’s top experts on hurricanes said Monday morning. Bill Gray, who has studied tropical meteorology for more than 40 years, spoke at the Larimer County Republican Club Breakfast about global warming and whether humans are to blame. About 50 people were at the talk.

Gray, who is a professor at Colorado State University, said human-induced global warming is a fear perpetuated by the media and scientists who are trying to get federal
grants.

“I think we’re coming out of the little ice age, and warming is due to changes to ocean circulation patterns due to salinity variations,” Gray said. “I’m sure that’s it.” (more)

E-85 Ethanol Not Mana From Heaven

We've been getting all these stories that extole the virtues of Ethanol. We're being told how it will wean us from dependence to foreign oil and give us relief from high gasoline prices. Some examples here, here, and here. The Governor of my own state of Louisiana has even signed a bill requiring that fuel containing ethanol, as well as other alternative fuels, must be sold in the state once production of such fuels reaches certain levels.

From what I've read, the only ones benefiting from Ethanol, are the corn farmers, refiners, and investors.

Here's a story from the San Fransisco Chronicle by Edward Epstein:

The ethanol plant is a real key to economic development in this part of the county," said Fritz Kuhlmeier, president of the locally owned Citizens State Bank in Lena, which has deposits of about $120 million.

"Our jobs are being sucked into the cities, where there's more people and more culture, more activity. We have a brain drain here," said Kuhlmeier, whose son went away to college and now works as a structural engineer in Milwaukee, about three hours away.

Almost 350 farmers around Lena benefit from the strong ethanol market for their corn. They're doing even better because they own 85 percent of the Adkins plant, along with three corporate partners. (more)

Here's another from CNNMoney.com by Grace Wong:

Wall Street has taken a shine to ethanol producers as sky-high crude prices, limited refining capacity and concerns over environmental pollution have helped push ethanol prices to record highs. Ethanol, an alternative fuel most often made from corn, is usually blended with gasoline to make it burn more cleanly.

Three ethanol producers are looking to capitalize on those conditions. VeraSun Energy, the nation's No. 2 ethanol producer,will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "VSE" Wednesday. Rivals Hawkeye Holdings and Aventine Renewable Energy have filed to go public as well. (more)

Today I see this headline Professor: Ethanol is no miracle cure and story by Randy Conat of WJRT-TV.

But Professor Mark Perry, of U-M Flint, recently wrote an article published in the Flint Journal that points of some of the drawbacks of ethanol as a fuel. "I think this is one of the most misguided public policies we've had in a generation."

E-85, the fuel that's 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, is promoted as a way of lessening the need for foreign oil. But it takes a lot of fossil fuel to produce ethanol.

"The energy required to produce a gallon of ethanol is more than the energy you get out of it. So producing ethanol results in about a 20 to 30 percent net loss of energy in the process," Perry explained.