Activists, Neil & Esther Henderson
- Julia Hoare, a chartered accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers specialising in carbon markets, and an adviser to the special select committee on the ETS
- Chris Karamea Insley, a company director with specialist knowledge of forestry, a Scion board member, with tikanga Maori knowledge, fishing interests and a sound understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi
- Tom Lambie, a dairy farmer and former President of Federated Farmers and currently Chancellor of Lincoln University
- David Russell, former Chief Executive of the Consumers Institute
- Geoff Thompson, a lawyer and consultant at Duncan Cotterill, with specialist knowledge of forestry aspects of the ETS
- Dr John Wood, Pro-Chancellor of the University of Canterbury, former Ambassador to United States, Japan, Germany and Iran, and now a small scale sheep and beef farmer.
The Greens don’t like it…….
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Food For Thought..
Changes in the Sun’s Surface to Bring Next Climate Change
Today, the Space and Science Research Center, (SSRC) in Orlando, Florida announces that it has confirmed the recent web announcement of NASA solar physicists that there are substantial changes occurring in the sun’s surface. The SSRC has further researched these changes and has concluded they will bring about the next climate change to one of a long-lasting cold era.
Today, has reaffirmed earlier research he led that independently discovered the sun’s changes are the result of a family of cycles that bring about climate shifts from cold climate to warm and back again.
“We today confirm the recent announcement by NASA that there are historic and important changes taking place on the sun’s surface. This will have only one outcome – a new climate change is coming that will bring an extended period of deep cold to the planet. This is not however a unique event for the planet although it is critically important news to this and the next generations. It is but the normal sequence of alternating climate changes that has been going on for thousands of years. Further according to our research, this series of solar cycles are so predictable that they can be used to roughly forecast the next series of climate changes many decades in advance. I have verified the accuracy of these cycles’ behaviour over the last 1,100 years relative to temperatures on Earth, to well over 90%.”………………………
This will take just over two hours of your time, but you will not regret it. You will have to wait for approx. 1 1/2 hour to get to the bit about global warming, but that’s only part of it all. Pretty thought provoking facts.
Wind farms becalmed just when needed the most
Wind farms in Britain generated practically no electricity during the recent cold spell, raising fresh concerns about whether they could be relied upon to meet the country’s energy needs.
Even yesterday , when conditions were slightly breezier, wind farms generated just 1.8 per cent of the nation’s electricity less than a third of usual levels.
The failure of wind farms to function at full tilt during December forced energy suppliers to rely on coal-fired power stations to keep the lights on meaning more greenhouse gases were produced.
Experts feared that as the Government moved towards a target of generating 30 per cent of electricity from wind while closing gas and coal-fired power stations cold, still winters could cause a problem in the future.
Prof Michael Laughton, emeritus professor of engineering at Queen Mary University London, said wind turbines became still just when they were needed most, meaning that the country was reliant on imported oil or coal.
Charles Anglin, of Renewable UK, which represented the wind energy industry, said that over a normal year wind turbines were working about a third of the time. He said future energy plans took into account periods when wind turbines were still, just as current models had backup available for when nuclear or coal plants were down.
“There are periods, of course, when it is not windy but year on year we are seeing growth,” he said.
Britain had 2 per cent of electricity from renewables in 2002, but that figure was now almost 10 per cent, with wind providing about half.
It was confirmed yesterday that December had been the coldest since national records were first kept in 1910, with the average temperature little more than -1.5C.
ÞâGovernment grants for up to a quarter of the cost of an electric or ultra-low emission cars up to a maximum of £5,000 will be available from today .
Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, hailed the £43âmillion scheme as the start of “an exciting green revolution”, but most of the nine cars eligible would cost well over £20,000 even taking into account the grant. The Electrical Contractors’ Association expressed concerns over the number of charging points.
By Ivana Sekularac Wageningen, Netherlands, Jan 18 Reuters –
All you need to do to save the rainforest, improve your diet, better your health, cut global carbon emissions and slash your food budget is eat bugs.
Mealworm quiche, grasshopper springrolls and cuisine made from other creepy crawlies is the answer to the global food crisis, shrinking land and water resources and climate-changing carbon emissions, Dutch scientist Arnold van Huis says.
The professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands said insects have more protein than cattle per bite, cost less to raise, consume less water and dont have much of a carbon footprint. He even has plans for a cookbook to make bug food a more appetising prospect for mature palates.
Ross *************************************************************************************************************************
Congratulations on producing your informative newsletter and belated seasons greetings……It should be of interest to readers that the Libertarianz Party also has what it believes is a “sensible” attitude toward climate change:
ideally, that the pricing system determined by a free market should be the vehicle to address economic pressures caused by temperature fluctuation (which, as the science suggests, is influenced almost entirely by solar and volcanic activity). If the government insists on “acting” to save us all from imminent combustion, then carbon taxes be linked to actual global temperature change – and with average global temperature having dropped for the past 12 years, we should be enjoying tax cuts!We have issued a number of press statements outlining our approach to climate change, including a submission to parliament on the proposed ETS:
http://www.libertarianz.org.nz/?libzpr=623
http://www.libertarianz.org.nz/?libzpr=622
http://www.parliament.nz/NR/rdonlyres/020C8F3F-23F8-479F-928A-151D4AEB4209/103244/TheLibertarianzParty_177_2.pdf
The Libertarianz Party believes the government’s role is to uphold individual rights and freedoms. Carbon taxes and the like penalise productive industry and are a violation of the rights and freedoms of New Zealanders, hence we oppose the imposition of such taxes.
Cheers
Richard McGrath
Leader, Libertarianz Party
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Chris de Freitas: Emotion clouding underlying science of global warming
Unlike most other hot button environmental issues, global warming is widely misunderstood. As a climate scientist thinking about this, it struck me that it was not surprising since accounts of the scientific basics of global warming almost never appear anywhere in the press.
There is not space here to include all the charts and numbers that might accompany such an account. In its place is a necessarily brief summary.
Most people are not shocked to learn that global warming discussions evoke polarised views, but many are surprised to discover that the scientific basics are not contentious. An awareness of these is helpful in building an understanding of the extent to which there is a problem and how it might be addressed………
read full article at:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10697845
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A couple of comments from readers follow the report, and generally concur with my thoughts on the article.
Cheers, and I hope the new year is shaping up well for you,
Bruce Burn.
*************************************************************************************************************************MIT Professor Richard Lindzen, doyen of US climate science, presents a summarised “Case Against Precipitous Climate Action”.
US Government Agencies have lodged their 2011 budget requests – more that $4 billion to study and educate on Climate Change. That’s $10.6 million every day!
IPCC Green Doctor Prescribes End to Democracy to Solve Global Warming
Posted on January 5, 2011 by hauntingthelibrary
This is a longer post than normal but trust me, there’s a damn good reason for that. If you don’t read a single one of my other posts, read this one.
This post is not about some fringe character. It’s a review of a serious book written by a professor who lectures in mainstream education and is involved in compiling the IPCC reports. The book is published by a respectable publisher for a recognized academic institute
And that’s what so scary about it.
Professor David Shearman, MD, is Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Adelaide, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University’s Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences and Law School. Professor Shearman was an Assessor for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report and the Fourth Assessment Report. (1)
Shearman has penned several books on global warming, such as `Climate Change as a Crisis in World Civilization: Why We Must Totally Transform How We Live` and `The Climate Change Challenge and the Failure of Democracy`. His argument is that overpopulation and industrialization are causing an ecological disaster which requires a total change of lifestyle for everyone on the planet. As democracy isn’t up to the challenge, an authoritarian government must (obviously) be imposed to save us from ourselves.
Let’s take a look at one of those books, ’The Climate Change Challenge and the Failure of Democracy`, which Shearman co-authored with Joseph Wayne Smith. (2)
The book was written as part of a series sponsored by the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy. The Pell Center was established at Salve Regina Universityin Newport, Rhode Island, by an Act of the United States Congress on September 28, 1996, to honor Democrat Senator Claiborne Pell. (3)
The introduction, by the director of the Pell Center, provides a handy summary of the argument contained in the book:
In short, Shearman and Smith argue that liberal democracy considered sacrosanct in modern societies is an impediment to finding ecologically sustainable solutions for the planet [intro. p.xi]
Moving to the preface, the authors demand that the reader be prepared to reassess their notions of what is or is not acceptable, and what actions tackling global warming may require. They ask the reader if they are committed to the well-being of future generations:
If so, are you prepared to change your lifestyle now? Are you prepared to see society and its governance change if this is a necessary solution? [preface. p. xiv]
You see, apparently democracy is simply not natural. As the authors put it: `we argue that authoritarianism is the natural state of humanity’. They propose the formation of an `elite warrior leadership’ to `battle for the future of the earth’[p.xvi]. Can you see where this is going yet?
The authors recognize that religion plays a big part in many people’s lives, and they discuss whether Islam or Christianity fits better with the authoritarian government they see as essential, before deciding that there is a better option:
However, they are not the only contenders for providing social glue for the masses. Although too much of the natural world will be destroyed for civilization to continue in its present form, some biodiversity will still exist . . . It is not impossible that from the green movement and aspects of the new age movement a religious alternative to Christianity and Islam will emerge. And it is not too difficult to imagine what shape this new religion could take. One would require a transcendent God who could punish and reward because humans seem to need a carrot and a stick. [p. 127]
Frankly, I find this kind of thing terrifying. All the talk of `necessary solutions’ and a new Green religion that would provide `social glue for the masses’ are we back in the 1930s?
But it gets worse. I know, you must be asking yourselves how much more fascistic it can get. The answer is a lot more:
Chapter 9 will describe in more detail how we might begin the process of constructing such real universities to train the ecowarriors to do battle against the enemies of life. We must accomplish this education with the same dedication used to train its warriors. As in Sparta, these natural elites will be especially trained from childhood to meet the challenging problems of our times. [p. 134]
To combat global warming effectively, these `natural elites’ will require a government capable of taking the necessary action to combat climate change:
Government in the future will be based upon . . . a supreme office of the biosphere. The office will comprise specially trained philosopher/ecologists. These guardians will either rule themselves or advise an authoritarian government of policies based on their ecological training and philosophical sensitivities. These guardians will be specially trained for the task. [p. 134]
Worrying stuff, coming from a professor whose previous book (which the Australian government helped to promote) argued that humanity was a `malignant eco-tumour` and an `ecological cancer`. (4)
I could go on quoting from the book, but I’m sure you’ve already got the gist of what’s being proposed here: Global warming presents such a massive and immediate danger that democracy no longer cuts it, and an authoritarian ecological government of `natural elites’ will have to be found to replace it, as well as a new green religion to help provide `social glue for the masses’.
Posted on a blog somewhere, such a plan would probably elicit a visit from the anti-terrorist division of the police. But the fact that it comes from a professor at a major university, who works for the IPCC and was written at the behest of a serious academic institute, founded by Act of Congress, means that the author need not be afraid.
But we should be.
Greetings,
You are invited to read the most recent press release from the Space and Science Research Center, (SSRC) entitled, “NASA Data Confirms Solar Hibernation and Climate Change to Cold Era.”
This important release addresses the prediction made almost four years ago by SSRC Director John L. Casey that what he calls a ‘solar hibernation’ has begun within our Sun. The new data from NASA posted this month confirms that the Sun’s activity levels have dropped to record lows and that the crucial sunspot count at peak for the current solar cycle 24 will be in the 50’s – by definition a solar hibernation, also called a ‘grand minimum.’
This vital piece of NASA data about the Sun’s behavior also validates another SSRC prediction that the next climate change to a deep cold era has already begun, since these hibernations are always accompanied by dramatically lower global temperatures lasting 20-30 years. These extreme cold temperature periods in turn produce serious to catastrophic damage to crops globally.
The last time a solar hibernation occurred centered on the year 1812, it produced according to one historian “…the last great subsistence crisis.” This time the effects are expected to be worse with some scientists saying the hibernation of the Sun this time will be as bad as the global cold that hit around 1700 at the bottom of the so-called Little Ice Age.
This press release is posted at the new web site for the SSRC at: http://www.spaceandscience.net/id16.html.
Best Regards,
John L. Casey
Has anyone done the greenhouse test? Take ten greenhouses and fill with little to a lot of CO2 and measure for the next few years. Cost: a few million. Settling the science once and for all.
The Sun alters our climate!