Why does Daily Kos deny science when it should be taking bows for its US CO2 victory? Scientists say US CO2 is no longer an issue

"US CO2 emissions are falling even faster than what President Obama pledged in the global Copenhagen Accord."......"One group...that isn’t sharing in the general joy: the greens. For them, the spectacle of a looming world energy crisis was good news. It justified huge subsidies for solar and wind power (and thereby guaranteed huge fortunes for clever green-oriented investors)....But those glory days are over now, and the smarter environmentalists are bowing to the inevitable."...

8/19/12, "Bring it on: Michael Mann to participate in "blogathon at Daily Kos to raise public awareness of the climate change impacts happening now," Tom Nelson

• Twitter / MichaelEMann: Looking forward to participating ...

"Looking forward to participating in @DailyKos "Climate Change SOS blogathon" tomorrow (7PM EDT/4PM PDT) http://fb.me/tPBNSWcF"

• Daily Kos: Climate Change SOS Blogathon: Romney's Illiteracy & Election Vulnerability

"Bill McKibben, boatsie and I would love for you to join us next week for a blogathon at Daily Kos to raise public awareness of the climate change impacts happening NOW. Our August 20-24 blogathon will feature top U.S. and world climate scientists, lawmakers and political activists as well as our very special kossacks writing about climate change. Some blogathon participants will also write about the interrelationship of climate change with human rights, environmental justice, natural resources, civil rights, culture, economy, jobs, food security, health care, etc., to provide a realistic picture of the so-called "external costs" of climate change impacts that also affect our lives.

For years, the right-wingers and teabaggers have convinced many Americans that climate change is a myth or, if it does happen, it will be decades down the road, so why worry about it now.

THEN this summer happened."...

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6/4/12, "Climate change stunner: USA leads world in CO2 cuts since 2006,"
Vancouver Observer, Saxifrage

"Not only that, but as my top chart shows, US CO2 emissions are falling even faster than what President Obama pledged in the global Copenhagen Accord."...

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7/15/12, "Recession Special: Cleaner Air," NY Times, Matthew Wald

"What the government has not mandated, the economy is doing on its own: emissions of global warming gases in the United States are down.

According to the Energy Department, carbon dioxide emissions peaked in this country in 2005 and will not reach that level again until the early 2020s."...

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US CO2 has dropped and is going lower:

6/26/12, "The Incredible Shrinking Carbon Pollution Forecast - Part 2," switchboard.NRDC.org, Dan Lashof

• The NRDC author notes lack of media coverage about US ongoing CO2 emissions drop.

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8/16/12, "AP IMPACT: CO2 Emissions In US Drop To 20-Year Low," AP via NPR

"In a surprising turnaround, the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere in the U.S. has fallen dramatically to its lowest level in 20 years, and government officials say the biggest reason is that cheap and plentiful natural gas has led many power plant operators to switch from dirtier-burning coal.

Many of the world's leading climate scientists didn't see the drop coming, in large part because it happened as a result of market forces rather than direct government action against carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere.

Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, said the shift away from coal is reason for "cautious optimism" about potential ways to deal with climate change."...

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6/29/12, "US Carbon Output Forecasts Shrink Again," American Interest, Walter Russell Mead

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6/22/12, "U.S. cuts greenhouse gases despite do-nothing Congress," CNN, Steve Hargreaves

"Even factoring in a stronger economy, forecasters see greenhouse gas emissions continuing to fall....Others take the U.S. success in reducing its energy sector emissions as a sign that its fragmented, state-based, regulatory approach has worked better than Europe's market-based cap-and-trade approach."

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4/21/12, "Why [CO2] Emissions Are Declining in the U.S. But Not in Europe," by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, newgeography.com

"As we note below in a new article for Yale360, a funny thing happened: U.S. emissions started going down in 2005 and are expected to decline further over the next decade."

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A 2011 report noted EIA results through 2009, US CO2 emissions dropped steadily since 1999. If, hypothetically, US temperatures have been on the increase, such couldn't possibly be due to US carbon dioxide emissions:

• 4/14/11, "Biggest Drop in U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions," World Climate Report

"In 2009, greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. experienced their biggest drop since the U.S. Energy Information Administration began tracking them during the 1990-2009 time frame."

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1/25/2009, "Global warming industry becomes too big to fail," Timothy Carney, Washington Examiner

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8/23/11, "The Alarming Cost Of Climate Change Hysteria," Forbes, Larry Bell

"The Small Business Administration estimates that compliance with such regulations costs the U.S. economy more than $1.75 trillion per year — about 12%-14% of GDP, and half of the $3.456 trillion Washington is currently spending. The Competitive Enterprise Institute believes the annual cost is closer to $1.8 trillion when an estimated $55.4 billion regulatory administration and policing budget is included."...

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A few examples of climate cash sought in 2011:

• 1/11/11, "Big Money in Climate Change: Who Gives, Who Gets," Al Fin

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8/10/11, "U.S. Army Creates Renewables Office: Billions to Be Spent," GreenTechMedia.com

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3/26/12, "Obama Requests $770 Million to Fight Global Warming Overseas," CNS News, Matt Cover

"The Obama administration has requested $770 million in federal funds to combat the effects of global warming in developing countries, a new congressional report details, continuing its policy of using foreign aid to combat the effects of global warming in the developing world.

The figure, from a recent report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), shows that despite another year of $1 trillion deficits, the Obama administration continues to pursue its policy of using foreign aid funds for anti-global warming measures – known as the Global Climate Change Initiative (GCCI).

According to CRS, the government has spent a total of $2.5 billion on GCCI since 2010 on overseas anti-global warming efforts in Latin America, Asia, and Africa."...

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11/30/11, "U.S. Nears Milestone: Net Fuel Exporter," Wall St. Journal, by L. Pleven, R. Gold

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CO2 alarmist 'glory days' are over in the US. Congratulations to the greens, you won, best of luck in your future endeavors:

• 7/28/12, "The Energy Revolution 4: Hot Planet?," Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest

"But there is one group (other than the Russians and the Gulf Arabs and the Iranians) that isn’t sharing in the general joy: the greens. For them, the spectacle of a looming world energy crisis was good news. It justified huge subsidies for solar and wind power (and thereby guaranteed huge fortunes for clever green-oriented investors). ...But those glory days are over now, and the smarter environmentalists are bowing to the inevitable."...

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The financial survival of the UK monarchy is dependent on the world believing in catastrophic man made global warming. Much of the monarchy's income will derive from lease payments for offshore wind turbines:

• 12/31/10, "One's in the money! Why Prince Charles's secret 20-year campaign could make him the richest king in history," UK Daily Mail, G. Levy

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10/24/10, "'It is wholly inappropriate that the Palace should have such a direct interest in a subject like windfarms, given Prince Charles's obsession with renewable energy. It raises the question as to whether he is seeking to increase his own

• investment portfolio

each time he makes a favourable reference to wind power.'"

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1/30/2012, "Americans on pace to have driven 40 billion fewer miles in 2011 vs. 2010," GasBuddy (Fed. Hwy. Admin. data)

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7/5/2008, "30 billion fewer miles driven, and counting," McClatchy via Seattle Times

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Global Warming "action" was institutionalized in US government in 1990 by George Bush the 1st. 13 federal agencies are tasked with climate "action," $68 billion has been spent on 'climate' just in the past 4 yrs.

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Bill McKibben, David Rockefeller, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, your great issue US CO2 is now moot. Roy Orbison sings 'It's Over' to help you thru your pain

The great Roy Orbison sings, "It's Over."

Thanks very much to all who fought against CO2 and steered trillions of taxpayer dollars into fighting it in the US. Well done, and best of luck in your future endeavors. They say crying helps.

• 7/15/12, "Recession Special: Cleaner Air," NY Times, Matthew Wald

"What the government has not mandated, the economy is doing on its own: emissions of global warming gases in the United States are down.

According to the Energy Department, carbon dioxide emissions peaked in this country in 2005 and will not reach that level again until the early 2020s."...

• -----------------------------------------------------------

• US CO2 has dropped and is going lower:

6/26/12, "The Incredible Shrinking Carbon Pollution Forecast - Part 2," switchboard.NRDC.org, Dan Lashof

• The NRDC author notes lack of media coverage about US ongoing CO2 emissions drop.

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• 8/16/12, "AP IMPACT: CO2 Emissions In US Drop To 20-Year Low," AP via NPR

"In a surprising turnaround, the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere in the U.S. has fallen dramatically to its lowest level in 20 years, and government officials say the biggest reason is that cheap and plentiful natural gas has led many power plant operators to switch from dirtier-burning coal.

Many of the world's leading climate scientists didn't see the drop coming, in large part because it happened as a result of market forces rather than direct government action against carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere.

Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, said the shift away from coal is reason for "cautious optimism" about potential ways to deal with climate change."...

• --------------------------------------

6/29/12, "US Carbon Output Forecasts Shrink Again," American Interest, Walter Russell Mead

========================

• 6/4/12, "Climate change stunner: USA leads world in CO2 cuts since 2006," Vancouver Observer, Saxifrage

"Not only that, but as my top chart shows, US CO2 emissions are falling even faster than what President Obama pledged in the global Copenhagen Accord."...

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'Have you ever wondered where the terms 'sustainability' and 'smart growth' came from?' Have you ever heard of UN Agenda 21?

"SOUNDS LIKE SCIENCE FICTION...OR SOME CONSPIRACY THEORY...BUT IT ISN'T," DemocratsAgainstUNAgenda21

"U.N. Agenda 21 cites the affluence of Americans as being a major problem which needs to be corrected. It calls for lowering the standard of living for Americans so that the people in poorer countries will have more, a redistribution of wealth. Although people around the world aspire to achieve the levels of prosperity we have in our country, and will risk their lives to get here, Americans are cast in a very negative light and need to be taken down to a condition closer to average in the world. Only then, they say,

• will there be social justice which is a cornerstone of the U.N. Agenda 21 plan.

Agenda 21 policies date back to the 70's but it got its real start in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro when President Bush signed onto it. President Clinton signed it later and continued the program in the United States. A non-governmental organization called the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives, ICLEI, is tasked with carrying out the goals of Agenda 21. Over 600 cities in the U.S. are members; our town joined in 2007. The costs are paid by taxpayers....(parags. 7 and 8)

Have you wondered where these terms 'sustainability' and 'smart growth' and 'high density urban mixed use development' came from? Doesn't it seem like about 10 years ago you'd never heard of them and now everything seems to include these concepts? Is that just a coincidence? That every town and county and state and nation in the world would be changing their land use/planning codes

• and government policies to align themselves with...what?...

But then you have UN Agenda 21. What is it? See our videos and radio shows at the bottom of this page (or search YouTube for Rosa Koire) or buy BEHIND THE GREEN MASK: U.N. Agenda 21 by Rosa Koire click here.

Considering its policies are woven into all the General Plans of the cities and counties, it's important for people to know where these policies are coming from. While many people support the United Nations for its peacemaking efforts, hardly anyone knows that they have very specific land use policies that they would like to see implemented in every city, county, state and nation. The specific plan is called United Nations Agenda 21 Sustainable Development, which has its basis in Communitarianism. By now, most Americans have heard of sustainable development but are largely unaware of Agenda 21.

In a nutshell, the plan calls for governments to take control of all land use and not leave any of the decision making in the hands of private property owners. It is assumed that people are not good stewards of their land and the government will do a better job if they are in control. Individual rights in general are to give way to the needs of communities as determined by the governing body. Moreover, people should be rounded up off the land and packed into human settlements, or islands of human habitation, close to employment centers and transportation. Another program, called the Wildlands Project spells out how most of the land is to be set aside for non-humans....

Redevelopment is a tool used to further the Agenda 21 vision of remaking America's cities."...

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The mantle of leadership has passed, Romney and Ryan are already leading the country-Pollak

"Let us begin with the obvious. Obama cannot run on his record."...

8/17/12, "The Mantle of Leadership Has Shifted: Romney, Ryan Govern in All but Name," Joel B. Pollak, Breitbart.com

"In the first week since Paul Ryan joined Mitt Romney on the Republican ticket, something subtle yet fundamental has happened to the country--something not yet reflected in poll numbers or punditry: the mantle of leadership has shifted.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden (certainly the latter) occupy office but cannot be said to govern in any meaningful way beyond formalities. Obama avoids the media; Biden has been sent back to Delaware; and their vast auxiliary army of super PACs and community organizers is reduced to petty sniping and personal attacks. No one expects any truly new ideas or proposals to come out of the Obama campaign anymore. It is telling that the only real debate this week was between Romney and Ryan's Medicare policies, not Obama's.

The honest reflections of the more thoughtful voices on the American left confirm that Romney and Ryan are, in effect, leading the country. First there was William Saletan of Slate, who wrote--without irony: "A wonderful thing has happened for this country. Paul Ryan will be the Republican nominee for vice president." He added that Republicans like Ryan were the perfect antidote to Democratic excesses: "Maybe, like me, you were raised in a liberal household. You don’t agree with conservative ideas on social or foreign policy. But this is why God made Republicans: to force a reality check when Democrats overpromise and overspend."

That reaction found echoes in praise for Ryan offered by veteran Democrat Erskine Bowles of the president's own fiscal commission, among others. Other Democrats--notably former Virginia governor Douglas Wilder, the state's first African-American governor, and none too impressed with Biden's offensive appeals to racial resentment--began to consider crossing party lines to support the Republican ticket, even if just this once.

Eli Zaretsky, writing for the hard-left, pro-Occupy, pro-Palestinian Tikkun magazine, admitted candidly:

Now leftists are exploding with joy at Romney’s supposed mistake in choosing the easily attacked Ryan as his running mate. Perhaps leftists might reconsider their own credibility as political analysts in evaluating the Republican strategy.

Let us begin with the obvious. Obama cannot run on his record, since it is a record of failure. Therefore, he was always going to run a scare campaign, explaining how bad the Republicans are. In choosing Ryan, Romney has not made this easier for Obama — it was always easy. Rather, he showed that he is not afraid of Obama’s scare tactics, and of the Democrat’s ad hominem attacks on him — rich, unfeeling, out of touch, and all the rest.

In choosing Ryan, what Romney showed above all was courage--or, more precisely, the absence of fear. Eighty years ago, a great Democratic president comforted the nation by telling it that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." That comfort and confidence is what Romney and Ryan now offer Americans, while Obama ducks questions, Biden hurls bombs, and Democrat surrogates find the old weapons no longer work.

There was a telling moment, shortly after he was chosen, when Paul Ryan faced reporters on the campaign plane and said simply: "We're going to win this campaign." It was not bluster; it was simple self-assurance.

There is a long way to go on this campaign trail, and Romney and Ryan will have to fight for every vote. But now they will be tested not as candidates, but as leaders of the nation. That is what they have already won." via Free Republic

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Scary Arctic ice data given on BBC turns out to be for less than 2 years which European Space Agency and others say is inadequate

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Cryosat-2 data was only obtained from 2 winters and 1 summer which scientists agree is insufficient time to be statistically significant. (For the record, whether or not Arctic ice is melting due to excess CO2, the US is no longer a culprit if it ever was. US CO2 has dropped and is heading lower. No 'climate treaties' needed. The CO2 gravy train has reached the end of the line.)

8/14/12, "Arctic ICE PANIC sparked by half-baked sat data," UK Register, A. Orlowski

"Listeners to Radio 4's Today programme - and this includes much of the political elite - will have been alarmed to be told that "the Arctic could be ice-free on a summer’s day by the end of the decade".

Yet the evidence for this "trend" turns out to be drawn from less than two years worth of data.

Dr Seymour Laxon of University College London raised the alarm using radar altimeter observations made by the European-funded Cryosat-2 satellite, a project he helped devise. This allows scientists to gain more accurate mapping of the sea floor and also sea ice extent and thickness.

Cryosat-2 began observing the Arctic ice cap in October 2010, and has been acquiring data since. So scientists have two winter seasons and one summer season on which to base any claims.

Is this a problem? Actually, according to the European Space Agency, it is. "Three to four years of data from Cryosat-2 can be averaged to reduce the 'noise' due to currents and tides and better chart the permanent topography related to marine gravity," it stated.

Using less than three or four years of data is frowned upon - and that's official.

In addition, Dr Laxon himself recommends using much longer timescales. As he wrote in a 2003 paper (High interannual variability of sea ice thickness in the Arctic region Laxon, Peacock and Smith, Nature), "the sea ice mass can change by up to 16 per cent within one year" and "this variability must be taken into account when determining the significance of trends".

So how can Dr Laxon now justify using an inadequate data set to make a long-term claim? Alas, we don't know. The tenacious questioning that Today typically gives to guests was suspended for this segment, and Laxon was received with the deference a Pope receives when lecturing his cardinals. The claim went unchallenged.

Arctic ice is cited by catastrophists as a potential "tipping factor" (or "hysteretic threshold behavior") for two reasons. Cooler water may affect oceanic circulation, with consequences for countries south of the ice cap. And less ice may decrease the albedo.

Yet the true picture is complicated. Ice extent has varied much more dramatically in the past, long before global-warming skeptical Top Gear was conceived or broadcast. Research published in the peer-reviewed Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences [PDF, 1.1MB] in 2008 looked at the Western Arctic, and noted that "the amplitude of these millennial-scale changes in sea-surface conditions far exceed those observed at the end of the 20th century".

Without causing a tipping.

Climate policy blogger Ben Pile has put together a roundup of "ice free" Arctic claims. "The alarmist story is allowed to proceed in spite of facts, and without scrutiny or criticism," he observed.

Scientists despair of the public's waning interest in climate change, and like to blame disinformation. They only have themselves to blame." via Climate Depot

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Ed. note: Scientists note US CO2 has been dropping for many years and is heading lower. Other countries have not lowered their CO2. US taxpayers have for some reason shipped billions of their tax dollars around the world to "tackle" alleged man-caused climate change despite the fact that many Americans are broke, hungry and suffering themselves. But we 'tackled' our alleged CO2 issue. Being into self-flagellation, we also paid for UN IPCC staff to jet set around the world and scold us. Congratulations to all the greens who wanted the US to lower its CO2 and GDP, you won!

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8/16/12, "AP IMPACT: CO2 Emissions In US Drop To 20-Year Low," AP via NPR

"In a surprising turnaround, the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere in the U.S. has fallen dramatically to its lowest level in 20 years, and government officials say the biggest reason is that cheap and plentiful natural gas has led many power plant operators to switch from dirtier-burning coal.

Many of the world's leading climate scientists didn't see the drop coming, in large part because it happened as a result of market forces rather than direct government action against carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere.

Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, said the shift away from coal is reason for "cautious optimism" about potential ways to deal with climate change."...

==============================

This isn't to say the US hasn't become partners with the 'climate' industry. Trillions have been taken from US taxpayers for climate expenses via outright agency budget allocations, tax subsidies, diversion of US military to climate or green projects, countless federal regulations, vast sums shipped out in foreign aid for 'climate' endeavors, etc. Devoting 13 federal agencies to 'climate' matters is hardly 'lagging' in action! Global Warming 'action' was institutionalized in US government in 1990 by George Bush the 1st in the "U.S. Global Change Research Act of 1990." (He mentions CO2 near the end). The US even exports fuel now!

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7/15/12, "Recession Special: Cleaner Air," NY Times, Matthew Wald

"What the government has not mandated, the economy is doing on its own: emissions of global warming gases in the United States are down.

According to the Energy Department, carbon dioxide emissions peaked in this country in 2005 and will not reach that level again until the early 2020s."...

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US CO2 has dropped steeply and is going lower:

6/26/12, "The Incredible Shrinking Carbon Pollution Forecast - Part 2," switchboard.nrdc.org, Dan Lashof

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6/29/12, "US Carbon Output Forecasts Shrink Again," American Interest, Walter Russell Mead

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6/4/12, "Climate change stunner: USA leads world in CO2 cuts since 2006," Vancouver Observer, Saxifrage

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6/22/12, "U.S. cuts greenhouse gases despite do-nothing Congress," CNN, Steve Hargreaves

"Even factoring in a stronger economy, forecasters see greenhouse gas emissions continuing to fall."...

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4/21/12, "Why [CO2] Emissions Are Declining in the U.S. But Not in Europe," by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, newgeography.com

"As we note below in a new article for Yale360, a funny thing happened: U.S. emissions started going down in 2005 and are expected to decline further over the next decade."

11/23/11, "Europe's $287 billion carbon 'waste': UBS report," The Australian, by Sid Maher

"SWISS banking giant UBS says the European Union's emissions trading scheme has cost the continent's consumers $287 billion for "almost zero impact" on cutting carbon emissions."...EU CO2 trading provided "windfall profits" to participants paid for by "electricity customers.""

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4/23/12, "'I made a mistake': Gaia theory scientist James Lovelock admits he was 'alarmist' about the impact of climate change," UK Daily Mail, L. Warren

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A 2011 report noted EIA results through 2009, US CO2 emissions dropped steadily since 1999. If, hypothetically, US temperatures have been on the increase, they couldn't possibly be related to US carbon dioxide emissions:

4/14/11, "Biggest Drop in U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions," World Climate Report

"In 2009, greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. experienced their biggest drop since the U.S. Energy Information Administration began tracking them during the 1990-2009 timeframe."

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1/25/2009, "Global warming industry becomes too big to fail," Timothy Carney, Washington Examiner

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8/23/11, "The Alarming Cost Of Climate Change Hysteria," Forbes, Larry Bell

"The Small Business Administration estimates that compliance with such regulations costs the U.S. economy more than $1.75 trillion per year — about 12%-14% of GDP, and half of the $3.456 trillion Washington is currently spending. The Competitive Enterprise Institute believes the annual cost is closer to $1.8 trillion when an estimated $55.4 billion regulatory administration and policing budget is included."...

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8/10/11, "U.S. Army Creates Renewables Office: Billions to Be Spent," GreenTechMedia.com

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11/21/11, "Analysis: U.S. government a tenuous beachhead for biofuel firms," Reuters

"The U.S. military has emerged as a key ally for fledgling producers of non-food-based biofuels."...

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A few examples of climate cash sought in 2011:

1/11/11, "Big Money in Climate Change: Who Gives, Who Gets," Al Fin

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CRS says congress may want to consider that global warming isn't happening anyway.

3/26/12, "Obama Requests $770 Million to Fight Global Warming Overseas," CNS News, Matt Cover

"The Obama administration has requested $770 million in federal funds to combat the effects of global warming in developing countries, a new congressional report details, continuing its policy of using foreign aid to combat the effects of global warming in the developing world.

The figure, from a recent report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), shows that despite another year of $1 trillion deficits, the Obama administration continues to pursue its policy of using foreign aid funds for anti-global warming measures – known as the Global Climate Change Initiative (GCCI).

According to CRS, the government has spent a total of $2.5 billion on GCCI since 2010 on overseas anti-global warming efforts in Latin America, Asia, and Africa."...

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7/16/12, "Offshore drilling: Extra-thick ice freezes early operations in Arctic," E&E reporter, Margaret Kriz Hobson

=================================

11/30/11, "U.S. Nears Milestone: Net Fuel Exporter," Wall St. Journal, by L. Pleven, R. Gold

"U.S. exports of gasoline, diesel and other oil-based fuels are soaring, putting the nation on track to be a net exporter of petroleum products in 2011

• for the first time in 62 years.

A combination of booming demand from emerging markets and faltering domestic activity means the U.S. is exporting more fuel than it imports,

• upending the historical norm.

According to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Tuesday, the U.S. sent abroad 753.4 million barrels of everything from gasoline to jet fuel in the first nine months of this year, while it imported 689.4 million barrels."...

===========================

"But those glory days are over now, and the smarter environmentalists are bowing to the inevitable."...

7/28/12, "The Energy Revolution 4: Hot Planet?," Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest

"But there is one group (other than the Russians and the Gulf Arabs and the Iranians) that isn’t sharing in the general joy: the greens. For them, the spectacle of a looming world energy crisis was good news. It justified huge subsidies for solar and wind power (and thereby guaranteed huge fortunes for clever green-oriented investors). Greens outdid themselves year after year with gloom and doom forecasts about the coming oil crunch. They hoped that public dislike of the Middle East and the costs of our involvement there could be converted into public support for expensive green energy policies here at home: “energy independence” was one of the few arguments they had that resonated widely among average voters. Back in those salad days of green arrogance, there was plenty of scoffing at the ‘peak oil deniers’ and shortage skeptics who disagreed with what greens told us all was settled, Malthusian science. “Reality based” green thinkers sighed and rolled their eyes at the illusions of those benighted techno-enthusiasts who said that unconventional sources like shale oil and gas and the oil sands of Canada would one day become available. "...

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7/02/09, "The Great American Bubble Machine: How Goldman Sachs has Engineered Every Major Market Manipulation Since the Great Depression," Rolling Stone, by Matt Taibbi

"A groundbreaking new commodities bubble,

• disguised as an "environmental plan"

• called cap-and-trade."...

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1/3/12, "U.S. Taxpayers Cover Nearly Half the Cost of U.N.’s Global Warming Panel," CNS News, E. Harrington

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2/19/11, "Republicans attempt to defund 'nefarious' global warming research group," The Hill, J. Ryan

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11/28/2009, "Western lifestyle unsustainable, says climate expert Rajendra Pachauri," UK Guardian



UN IPCC chief Pachauri, getty photo


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US CO2 falls to lowest in 20 yrs. per US EIA, Michael Mann sees reason for 'cautious optimism' for climate

8/16/12, "AP IMPACT: CO2 Emissions In US Drop To 20-Year Low," AP via NPR

"In a surprising turnaround, the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere in the U.S. has fallen dramatically to its lowest level in 20 years, and government officials say the biggest reason is that cheap and plentiful natural gas has led many power plant operators to switch from dirtier-burning coal.

Many of the world's leading climate scientists didn't see the drop coming, in large part because it happened as a result of market forces rather than direct government action against carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere.

Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, said the shift away from coal is reason for "cautious optimism" about potential ways to deal with climate change. He said it demonstrates that "ultimately people follow their wallets" on global warming.

"There's a very clear lesson here. What it shows is that if you make a cleaner energy source cheaper, you will displace dirtier sources," said Roger Pielke Jr., a climate expert at the University of Colorado.

In a little-noticed technical report, the U.S. Energy Information Agency, a part of the Energy Department, said this month that total U.S. CO2 emissions for the first four months of this year fell to about 1992 levels. The Associated Press contacted environmental experts, scientists and utility companies and learned that virtually everyone believes the shift could have major long-term implications for U.S. energy policy.

While conservation efforts, the lagging economy and greater use of renewable energy are factors in the CO2 decline, the drop-off is due mainly to low-priced natural gas, the agency said.

A frenzy of shale gas drilling in the Northeast's Marcellus Shale and in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana has caused the wholesale price of natural gas to plummet from $7 or $8 per unit to about $3 over the past four years, making it cheaper to burn than coal for a given amount of energy produced. As a result, utilities are relying more than ever on gas-fired generating plants.

Both government and industry experts said the biggest surprise is how quickly the electric industry turned away from coal. In 2005, coal was used to produce about half of all the electricity generated in the U.S. The Energy Information Agency said that fell to 34 percent in March, the lowest level since it began keeping records nearly 40 years ago.

The question is whether the shift is just one bright spot in a big, gloomy picture, or a potentially larger trend.

Coal and energy use are still growing rapidly in other countries, particularly China, and CO2 levels globally are rising, not falling. Moreover, changes in the marketplace — a boom in the economy, a fall in coal prices, a rise in natural gas — could stall or even reverse the shift. For example, U.S. emissions fell in 2008 and 2009, then rose in 2010 before falling again last year."...via Hot Air

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Solar Co. CEO in Communist China commits suicide, was unable to repay $3 million loan, mounting debt threatens entire China solar industry

8/17/12, "China’s solar industry falls," Australia Herald Sun, Andrew Bolt

"The Greens urged us to follow China in going solar:

Just as Australia finally puts a price on pollution, China is powering ahead quadrupling its target for solar power to an astonishing 21 gigawatts by 2015. If we don’t start to build a clean energy economy in Australia, we’ll be left behind swiftly.

We should follow this?

Li Fei, the owner of Chengxing Solar Company in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, committed suicide by jumping off a building, alarming the debt-ridden photovoltaic industry, reported First Financial Daily in Shanghai.

Li ended his life after Chengxing was unable to repay a 20 million yuan (US$3.15 million) loan taken by another photovoltaic company called Zhongxi, for which Chengxing was the guarantor.

The incident was a sign of the imminent collapse facing the Chinese photovoltaic industry, because of its lack of liquidity and mounting debts, noted First Financial Daily…

Most companies in the industry were burdened with high debts, according to the newspaper. For example, Suntech Energy reported a debt of US$2.26 billion in the first quarter of this year, the same as the last quarter of last year, while Trina Solar’s debt grew 9.7% to US$1.13 billion.""

"The newspaper quoted US investment bank Maxim Group as warning that China's top ten photovoltaic companies had accumulated a combined debt of US$17.5 billion and the entire industry was teetering on the brink of collapse."

8/16/12, "CEO commits suicide, Chinese photovoltaic industry at its limit," WantChinaTimes, via Tom Nelson

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