Climate & Environment Review: May 5, 2006

Climate & Environment Review: 2nd Edition
May 5, 2006

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.

Scare Mongering as Journalism: A Commentary on Time’s “Special Report” on Global Warming
The cover of Time magazine’s April 3, 2006 issue tells readers to “be very worried” about climate change. The issue features a “special report” on global warming... >>Read More<<

Modeling Switchgrass Derived Cellulosic Ethanol Distribution in the United States
Discussions of alternative fuel and propulsion technologies for transportation often overlook the infrastructure
required to make these options practical and costeffective... >>Read More<<

Tempers flare at hurricane meeting
Hurricanes may be becoming more intense because of global warming, but so is research on the topic... >>Read More<<

Modeling Switchgrass Derived Cellulosic Ethanol Distribution in the United States
Discussions of alternative fuel and propulsion technologies for transportation often overlook the infrastructure required to make these options practical and cost-effective. We estimate ethanol production facility locations and use a linear optimization model to consider the economic costs of distributing various ethanol fuel blends to all metropolitan areas in the United States... >>Read More<<

GORE PICKS PALS OVER CAPE WIND
Given his commitment to the environment, you'd think Al Gore would be a big booster of Cape Wind. Think again... >>Read More<<

'Clear' human impact on climate
A scientific report commissioned by the US government has concluded there is "clear evidence" of climate change caused by human activities. The report, from the federal Climate Change Science Program, said trends seen over the last 50 years "cannot be explained by natural processes alone"... >>Read More<<

TESTIMONY OF DR. SYUN-ICHI AKASOFU
BEFORE THE UNITED STATES SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION SUBCOMMITTEE ON GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AND IMPACTS
Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to testify at this important hearing today.
In order to avoid any misunderstanding, I would like to state at the outset that it is in the best interests of mankind to reduce the rate of increase of our release of CO2. My talk is about how much this future reduction should be. For this purpose, I would like to demonstrate that... >>Read More<<

Really, Really, Really Bad Reporting
Time magazine has named MIT’s Kerry Emanuel one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Congrats to him, I certainly think he is brilliant and the honor is well deserved. However, I can’t imagine that Kerry is too happy with the unfortunate blurb Time put together to describe him... >>Read More<<

GROWING DOUBTS ABOUT PALEO-CLIMATIC CATASTROPHE THEORIES
Climate deterioration at around the time of the Bronze Age/Iron Age transition has for long been argued to have resulted in upland abandonment in northern and western Britain, and recent research has provided evidence that a major climate downturn from 850 cal BC caused settlement abandonment in western Europe and potentially worldwide... >>Read More<<

Reconciliation...
By and large, the much-touted new report by U. S. Climate Change Science Program (USCCSP) titled Temperature trends in the Lower Atmosphere: Steps for Understanding and Reconciling Differences, amounts to little more than throwing water on a fire that has, for the most part, already gone out... >>Read More<<

Little Ice Age (Solar Influence - Precipitation) – Summary
Although temperature change (cooling) is the primary climatic phenomenon associated with the lower solar forcing that created and sustained the Little Ice Age, precipitation during this period was also significantly influenced by variations in solar activity. Hence, in the paragraphs that follow, we review some of the scientific studies that address this other important aspect of global climate change during the Little Ice Age... >>Read More<<

HOW FAR CAN YOU DRIVE ON A BUSHEL OF CORN? CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS ON ALTERNATIVE FUELS
On the outskirts of Garnett, Kan. (pop. 3362), the horizon is broken by what at first sight seems to be a grain elevator rising above the cornfields... >>Read More<<

The Origin of Past (and Future?) Abrupt Climate Changes
Wunsch re-examines several of the "assumptions, assertions and inferences" to which he refers and finds them wanting in many respects... >>Read More<<

Canada Alters Course on Kyoto
TORONTO, May 2 -- Canada's Conservative government on Tuesday slashed funds for environmental programs designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions, a move that critics said gutted support for the Kyoto accord on global warming... >>Read More<<

Statement of Paul Reiter, Professor, Institute Pasteur: Committee on Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Global Climate Change and Impacts
I am a specialist in the natural history and biology of mosquitoes, the epidemiology of the diseases they transmit, and strategies for their control. I worked for 22 years for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including two years as a Research Scholar at Harvard... >>Read More<<

LET'S PUT A FREEZE ON GLOBAL WARMING HYPE
Exactly 31 years ago tomorrow Newsweek carried a story that predicted a rapidly cooling world that would result in a "drastic decline in food production -- with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth." ... >>Read More<<

REPORT RECONCILES ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE TRENDS
May 2, 2006 — The U.S. Climate Change Science Program issued the first of 21 Synthesis and Assessment S&A Products today with findings that improve the understanding of climate change and human influences on temperature trends... >>Read More<<

USHCN Temperature Record of the Week - Dickson, TN
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<<

Last stand of our wild polar bears
Tim Flannery is one of Australia's best-known scientists and authors. That doesn't mean what he says is correct or accurate. That was clearly demonstrated when he recently ventured into the subject of climate change and polar bears. Climate change is threatening to drive polar bears into extinction within 25 years, according to Flannery. That is a startling conclusion and certainly is a surprising revelation to the polar bear researchers who work here and to the people who live here. We really had no idea... >>Read More<<

Endangered Plants on the Road to Extinction?
In a study that employed a wealth of data pertinent to this horrific claim, Wills et al. (2006) analyzed seven tropical forest dynamics plots located throughout the New and Old World tropics that have a wide range of species richness and tree densities, and that have all been visited and "censused" more than once over the past few decades... >>Read More<<

Difficult road for ethanol in Brazil
Brazil's booming ethanol industry has won international acclaim, but recent supply and pricing problems suggest that it's not the grand solution to tight oil supplies and ever-rising prices that had been hoped... >>Read More<<

Study Reconciles Data in Measuring Climate Change
A government study released yesterday undermines one of the key arguments of climate change skeptics, concluding there is no statistically significant conflict between measures of global warming on the earth's surface and in the atmosphere... >>Read More<<

Climate 90 miss the point of debate
Judged by their Climate Manifesto, the Climate 90 signers are not scientists. That is the unavoidable conclusion of the Climate Manifesto's language... >>Read More<<

Dueling scientists’ letters indicate full review required
It was inevitable. Architects of the previous government’s Kyoto policy and beneficiaries of the billions of dollars wasted on the file have sent their own open letter to the Prime Minister contradicting the open letter signed by 61 climate experts who asked for open consultations on the underlying science... >>Read More<<

Hurricane destruction powers global warming debate
MIAMI (Reuters) - For a brief time in October, the pressure inside 185-mph (298 kph) Hurricane Wilma dropped to an astonishing low, making it the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic and Caribbean... >>Read More<<

First CCSP Report Published With Further Evidence That It Is Biased
Over the past century, consumption of carbon dioxide-emitting fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) has risen to staggering levels, especially in the United States, where five percent of the world’s population is responsible for 25 percent of the world’scarbon dioxide emissions. TOO HOT NOT TO HANDLE offers a wealth of chilling evidence that the greenhouse effect is intensifying and the Earth is warming faster than at any other time in human history... >>Read More<<

Some coral seems to beat the heat
Most corals face a dire fate if the world's oceans continue to warm but some reefs appear able to survive higher water temperatures by accelerating their feeding rates, according to a study in the journal Nature... >>Read More<<

The Next IPCC Consensus?
A United Nations panel on climate change noted for the first time the likelihood that global warming resulting from human activities is causing heat waves and other abnormal weather phenomena as well as Arctic ice mass loss, according to a draft report seen by Kyodo News on Sunday... >>Read More<<

A 56-Year History of Global Monsoon Precipitation
After defining "a global monsoon rain domain according to annual precipitation range, using simple objective criteria," the authors derived an ensemble (arithmetic) mean of annual global monsoon precipitation for the period 1948-2003, based on four sets of monthly rain-gauge data for a 0.5-degree latitude/longitude grid of the land surface of the globe, as compiled by four different climate diagnostic groups... >>Read More<<

"Too Hot" Not So Hot
The latest triumph of the global warming crusade is a one hour HBO special entitled "Too Hot Not Too Handle" that is premiering in several cities this month. The screening in Albuquerque was well-advertised; it was free, and hosted by Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez... >>Read More<<

SO NOW WE'RE HOLOCAUST DENIERS
As part of the current media frenzy over the imminent demise of the Earth from global warming, it has become fashionable to demonize global warming skeptics through a variety of tactics. This has recently been accomplished by comparing scientists who don't believe in a global climate catastrophe to those who deny the Holocaust, to those who denied cigarettes cause cancer, or to 'flat-Earthers'... >>Read More<<

An Open Letter to the Community from Chris Landsea
Dear colleagues,
After some prolonged deliberation, I have decided to withdraw from participating in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). I am withdrawing because I have come to view the part of the IPCC to which my expertise is relevant as having become politicized. In addition, when I have raised my concerns to the IPCC leadership, their response was simply to dismiss my concerns... >>Read More<<

CNN PRESENTS Melting Point - Tracking the Global Warming Threat
Aired April 30, 2006 - 14:00 ET
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Earth's changing climate.
ELLEN MOSLEY-THOMPSON, POLAR PALEOCLIMATOLOGIST: Temperatures of the
last few decades are warmer than the last 2,000 years... >>Read More<<

Statement of Thomas Armstrong, Director of the Earth Surface Dynamics Program, U.S. Geological Survey
Committee on Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Global Climate Change and Impacts
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to participate in this hearing on climate change and its effects on terrestrial and marine systems. My name is Tom Armstrong, and I am the Program Coordinator for the Earth Surface Dynamics Program at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)... >>Read More<<

Stormy Seas Ahead for the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation?
Earlier this week, the Center for Science and Public Policy (http://ff.org/centers/csspp/misc/index.html) hosted a briefing for Hill staff and media on global warming and hurricanes. The briefing featured contrasting perspectives by Christopher Landsea of NOAA and Kerry Emanuel of MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences... >>Read More<<

Bolivian President Seizes Gas Industry
CARACAS, Venezuela, May 1 -- Bolivian President Evo Morales seized control of the country's natural gas industry Monday, sending soldiers to occupy fields that he contends private companies have plundered for years... >>Read More<<