Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming

China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile — the list goes on and on.No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA’s GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C — a value large enough to wipe out nearly all the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year’s time. For all four sources, it’s the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down.

Law of Unintended Consequences

I'm all for alternative energy research. Get us off the oil tit. But, like anything, I think you must meter carefully how quickly you rush to embrace this or that and balance the need to innovate against the need to understand and mitigate the attendant risks.

Here's what we in Texas learned about the brave new world of alternative energy yesterday:

Loss of wind causes Texas power grid emergency

This guy "gets it"

GM exec stands by calling global warming a "crock"

Not because he calls it a crock, but because he gets the bigger picture that his critics miss.

How your money will be spent if you start handing over "Carbon Taxes"

Analysis of Londoners' experience with carbon tax revenue.

The Domino Effect of Misguided Irrationality Masquerading as Political Action

This column by George Will in last week's Newsweek about the domino effect of environmental altruism run amok provides an interesting perspective of how real-world political wranglings by eco-zealots here in the US actually result in the global effect of an increase in both the carbon load and the trade deficit.

There's gold in them thar green hills

What's a politician like NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg's motivation for shoving a "carbon tax" down your throat? Easy. He's seen what it's done for the city of London. Not for the people of the city. No. But for the governing apparatus. It's called empire building.

As of 27 Oct 2008, the city of London will levy £25 *per day* in carbon duties if you drive something like a pickup truck into the city. That and other so-called 'green' levies amount to an expansion of the London municipal coffers by close to a half-billion US$ a year. What do they do with that money? Well, pretty much anything they want. (See this post for a breakdown)

London's example, of course, now creates an imperative, and marketing plan, for every civic manager in the world to pursue this fresh, fertile revenue stream; you're irresponsible to your charter - and mankind - if you don't. To do with pretty much as you please. All generated from uninformed hysteria over an unproven theory rampantly marketed by every half-educated half-wit on the planet to the delight of the true manipulators.

The IPCC's Anthropogenic Global Warming is the greatest Multi-Level Marketing scheme ever devised.

Socialism has arrived and it is dressed in green.

Why is it stupid to "fight" AGW?

If you can, set aside for a minute whether you agree or disagree with the hypotheses of the IPCC. China adds the equivalent of a 1000 megawatt coal-fired power plant to the "carbon load" every five days. India is increasing its carbon output at about 2/3 that pace. Never mind the rest of the countries playing industrial "catch up". Do you really think they're going to stop their march to industrial parity because the west decides to start punishing its own citizenry with "carbon taxes". Do you think that the Chinese and Indians work as hard to protect the environment when expanding their industry as we already do and have for a couple of decades? We could park every car, switch off every light and extinguish every fire here in the west and carbon output would still continue to grow.

The Chinese and Indian power-elite have to be giddy with what's going on in the west.

It never ceases to amaze me ....

... the number of people that blurt out things like,

"If things keep going like they are, all our cities will be under water in a few years."
"Don't you know that all the polar bears are going to die if we don't quit driving cars?"
"Hurricane Katrina is an example of what we can expect more of in the future because of all the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere."

When you ask these well-meaning altruists why they have this opinion, the answer usually cites vague second-hand knowledge of the facts. As in:

"That United Nations report says so."
"Well all the scientists think so."
"I heard it on Anderson Cooper."
"What? You don't think so? Oh."

What's your reaction when you read or hear, "Anonymous sources told us."?

Uh huh.

Baaaaaaahhhhahaahhhh

You like blue. I know you do.

That everyone west of the Mississippi's favorite color is blue is an unassailable, proven fact. The data tells us this. That means we should paint every building in that part of the country blue, because our panel of statisticians tells us that's what everybody likes. We will pay for the new blue painting program with money from the new blue paint tax. If you live there, I know you like blue best because the panel asked a little boy standing on the corner in Kansas City what his favorite color was and he said, "Blue". They also saw a wall painted blue in Denver. So blue must be true.

If you buy the IPCC's Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) as "proven by the data" at its current face value and think a carbon tax is a good idea, you'll just love our "everyone loves blue" proposition, too.

Seminal Disagreement

Lawrence Solomon is one of the few with the conviction, courage and reach to call out the chicken little purveyors of global warming hysteria on their own terms. His series in the National Post of Canada highlights the work and beliefs of highly-esteemed, Nobel-class, recognized authorities who are not part of the so-called IPCC consensus. I don't care what you're position is in the global warming debate, these articles, like An Inconvenient Truth and the IPCC report itself are required material if you're to claim any rational basis for your opinion.

Statistics needed -- The Deniers Part I
Warming is real -- and has benefits -- The Deniers Part II
The hurricane expert who stood up to UN junk science -- The Deniers Part III
Polar scientists on thin ice -- The Deniers Part IV
The original denier: into the cold -- The Deniers Part V
The sun moves climate change -- The Deniers Part VI
Will the sun cool us? -- The Deniers Part VII
The limits of predictability -- The Deniers Part VIII
Look to Mars for the truth on global warming -- The Deniers Part IX
Limited role for C02 -- the Deniers Part X
End the chill -- The Deniers Part XI
Clouded research -- The Deniers Part XII
Allegre's second thoughts -- The Deniers XIII
The heat's in the sun -- The Deniers XIV
Unsettled Science -- The Deniers XV
Bitten by the IPCC -- The Deniers XVI
Little ice age is still within us -- The Deniers XVII
Fighting climate 'fluff' -- The Deniers XVIII
Science, not politics -- The Deniers XIX
Gore's guru disagreed -- The Deniers XX
The ice-core man -- The Deniers XXI
Some restraint in Rome -- The Deniers XXII
Discounting logic -- The Deniers XXIII
Dire forecasts aren't new -- The Deniers XXIV
They call this a consensus? -- Part XXV
NASA chief Michael Griffin silenced - Part XXVI
Forget warming - beware the new ice age -- Part XXVII
Open mind sees climate clearly -- Part XXVIII
Models trump measurements -- Part XXIX
What global warming, Australian skeptic asks -- Part XXX
In the eye of the storm of global warming -- Part XXXI
From chaos, coherence -- Part XXXII
The aerosol man -- Part XXXIII
The Hot Trend is cool yachts -- Part XXXIV
You still need your parka in Antarctica -- Part XXXV
IPCC too blinkered and corrupt to save -- Part XXXVI
Why melting of ice sheets 'is impossible' -- Part XXXVII
Climate change by Jupiter -- Part XXXVIII