Climate Weekly: April 21, 2005

Climate & Environment Weekly
April 21, 2005

Climate & Environment Weekly is brought to you by The Center for Science and Public Policy (CSPP). CSPP is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy organization.

CSPP relies on scientific experts in many nations and the vast body of peer-reviewed literature to help lawmakers, policy makers, and the media distinguish between scientific findings that are agenda-driven and those that are based on accepted scientific methods and practices. In a timely manner, the Center's Science Watch Team alerts policy makers, the media, and the public to unreliable scientific claims and unjustified alarmism which often lead to public harm. We strive for a fair and balanced examination of science.

Blackballing Sections of the Science Community (from Spiked-Online.com)
The new US protocol that says scientists with corporate connections are unfit to judge drug safety smacks of modern-day McCarthyism... >>Read More<<

Temperature (Urbanization Effects - North America) -- Summary
How significant are anthropogenic-induced increases in temperature that are not caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions... >>Read More<<

Sand Drift Episodes of Europe
The authors describe and examine the sedimentary characteristics of a series of Late Holocene coastal windstorm deposits found on the Scottish Outer Hebrides, an island chain that extends across the latitudinal range 56-58°N. These deposits form part of the landward edges of coastal sand accumulations that are intercalated with peat, the radiocarbon dating of which is used to construct a local chronology of the windstorms... >>Read More<<

Mercury in Fish Seems Not to Harm Older Brains
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Eating moderate amounts of fish—and its added ingredient, mercury—appears to pose little danger to the brains of older adults, according to new study findings released Tuesday...
>>Read More<<

Global Sea Level: 1950-2000
Building on the work of Chambers et al. (2002), the authors used TOPEX/Poseidon satellite altimeter data to estimate global empirical orthogonal functions, which they combined with historical tide gauge data to estimate monthly distributions of large-scale sea level variability and change over the period 1950-2000...
>>Read More<<

USHCN Temperature Record of the Week: Alexandria, LA
To bolster our claim that "There Has Been No Net Global Warming for the Past 70 Years," each week we highlight the temperature record of one of the 1221 U.S. Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) stations from 1930-2000...>>Read More<<

Update on Mann: Critique of the Mann et al Northern Hemisphere Average Temperature Reconstruction
There is a lot of material to wade through, and we appreciate that readers may be feeling somewhat buried by it all. Mann et al. are blogging away at realclimate.org, adding to the list of things experts need to consider. We would like to highlight the following points for those trying to keep up... >>Read More<<

Let The Whining Begin Down Under, Glenn Milne: Uncharitable clampdown
As his July Senate majority looms, John Howard publicly makes much of avoiding hubris. But behind the scenes this Government is moving ruthlessly to lock in its political ascendancy, even at the cost of free speech. Thus it was that early last week Environment Minister Ian Campbell announced that in the future government grants to environmental lobby groups would be capped at $10,000, rather than the previous $80,000... >>Read More<<

Ignore gloom; environment will survive
Shocking news! Stop the presses. New data leaked during this Earth Week
tent revival reveal previously unacknowledged environmental secrets. Sit
down, Mama, the revelations are coming hard and fast... >>Read More<<

“Whipple one-side” at it again.
UPI's Climate was reminded the other day there is a broad spectrum of interpretations of the science behind global climate change... >>Read More<<

What Defines the Arctic? A Discussion of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment
The Arctic and what is happening to it was a central concern at last week's United Nations' 10th annual Conference of the Parties (COP-10) on climate change in Buenos Aires... >>Read More<<

Turning Children Against Business
Imagine this: environmental activists transporting second-graders from suburban Connecticut public schools to Manhattan to protest a major U.S. bank at its headquarters... >>Read More<<

The Oracle at EI
Climate change computer models aren’t much better than ancient oracles... >>Read More<<

Scientific American shows its Bias
WNYC Radio: Interview of John Rennie, editor-in-chief of Scientific
American... >>Read More<<

Polar history shows melting ice-cap may be a natural cycle
THE melting of sea ice at the North Pole may be the result of a centuries-old natural cycle and not an indicator of man-made global warming, Scottish scientists have found... >>Read More<<

It's Decision Time for J.P. Morgan Chase's CEO
Living in gated communities may soon become a necessity rather than an option for corporate managers. Social activists are escalating their anti-business campaigns by taking them into management's own backyards - well, make that front yards... >>Read More<<

No strong evidence linking mercury levels with worse neurobehavioral performance in older adults
In a study of older adults, researchers did not find a definitive association between blood mercury levels, which can become elevated with fish consumption, and adverse neurobehavioral effects, according to a study in the April 20 issue of JAMA... >>Read More<<

Here is a review of a book that everyone should read.
Book Review by George Taylor of Mihkel Mathiesen's. "Global Warming in a Politically Correct Climate: How Truth Became Controversial" Universe Star, Universe.com, Inc., Lincoln, NE., 2004... >>Read More<<

Climate Experts Speak Out in New Video - Science underlying Kyoto Protocol seriously flawed
At a news conference held in Ottawa, some of North America's foremost climate experts provided evidence demonstrating that the science underlying the Kyoto Protocol is seriously flawed; a problem that continues to be ignored by the Canadian government... >>Read More<<

Stymied in Washington, some groups lobby corporations to further their aims. Surprisingly, they're getting results.
For the past 35 years, Common Cause has lobbied Congress on everything from open- meetings laws to campaign-finance reform. But facing stiff resistance to its issues in Washington these days, the good-government group is opening a second front in its push for reform: Wall Street... >>Read More<<

Britain may pay price for botched GM debate, says Reith lecturer
Britain may have “thrown the baby out with the bath water” because of its poor handling of the debate about GM crops, according to Lord Broers, the BBC Reith lecturer... >>Read More<<

Big Money Discovers the Huge Tax Breaks and Subsidies for Wind Energy -- While Taxpayers and Electric Customers Pick up the Tab
Recent events confirm that Big Moneyinterests in the US and Europe have discovered the enormously generous tax breaks and subsidies that are now available in the US for producing electricity with wind turbines. These
organizations are moving aggressively to build wind farms and to seek more subsidies... >>Read More<<

Activists Plan Disruptions for World Bank, IMF Meetings
(CNSNews.com) - Cue the protesters: In what's become an annual rite of spring, an assortment of leftist-activists have launched a weekend full of demonstrations against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which are holding meetings in Washington, D.C... >>Read More<<

A TAXONOMY OF CLIMATE POLITICS
Dan Whipple's UPI column today has some kind words for Prometheus and a response to a post here a few weeks back that took issue with his use of the politically-loaded phrase "climate skeptic."... >>Read More<<

Writer fabricated Boston Globe story on seal hunt
BOSTON (Reuters) - A Boston Globe freelance writer fabricated large chunks
of a story published this week, the newspaper said on Friday in the latest
incident to embarrass the U.S. media... >>Read More<<