Environment

Sarah Palin on Kyotohagen Konference

The president’s decision to attend the international climate conference in Copenhagen needs to be reconsidered in light of the unfolding Climategate scandal. The leaked e-mails involved in Climategate expose the unscientific behavior of leading climate scientists who deliberately destroyed records to block information requests, manipulated data to “hide the decline” in global temperatures, and conspired to silence the critics of man-made global warming. I support Senator James Inhofe’s call for a full investigation into this scandal. Because it involves many of the same personalities and entities behind the Copenhagen conference, Climategate calls into question many of the proposals being pushed there, including anything that would lead to a cap and tax plan.

Bear PicnicPolicy should be based on sound science, not snake oil. I took a stand against such snake oil science when I sued the federal government over its decision to list the polar bear as an endangered species despite the fact that the polar bear population has increased. I’ve never denied the reality of climate change; in fact, I was the first governor to create a subcabinet position to deal specifically with the issue. I saw the impact of changing weather patterns firsthand while serving as governor of our only Arctic state. But while we recognize the effects of changing water levels, erosion patterns, and glacial ice melt, we cannot primarily blame man’s activities for the earth’s cyclical weather changes. The drastic economic measures being pushed by dogmatic environmentalists won’t change the weather, but will dramatically change our economy for the worse.

Policy decisions require real science and real solutions, not junk science and doomsday scare tactics pushed by an environmental priesthood that capitalizes on the public’s worry and makes them feel that owning an SUV is a “sin” against the planet. In his inaugural address, President Obama declared his intention to “restore science to its rightful place.” Boycotting Copenhagen while this scandal is thoroughly investigated would send a strong message that the United States government will not be a party to fraudulent scientific practices. Saying no to Copenhagen and cap and tax are first steps in “restoring science to its rightful place.”

Sarah Palin, December 4, 2009 [via Planet Gore]

Emphasis added. Image – ‘endangered’ polar bears.

A Call for Hearings on Fraudulent Climate Science

Now that the lid has been blown off of the Climate Crisis Fraud, it’s time for the U.S. Senate to conduct hearings into the mess. Yesterday, Senator James Inhofe (R OK) called for hearings with a letter to Senator Ma’am, head of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW). Inhofe, the ranking member of the committee, released this yesterday (excerpt):

Washington, D.C.—Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, sent a letter today to EPW Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) requesting hearings on the recent disclosure of emails between some of the world’s most preeminent climatologists—emails that reveal apparent attempts to manipulate data, vilify scientists with opposing viewpoints, and circumvent information disclosure laws.

“The emails reveal possible deceitful manipulation of important data and research used by the US Global Change Research Program and the IPCC,” Inhofe wrote. “For instance, one scientist wrote of a ‘trick’ he employed to ‘hide the decline’ in global temperature trends, as well as discussed attempts to ‘redefine what the peer-review literature is’ to prevent papers raising questions about anthropogenic global warming from appearing in IPCC reports.” [more…]

Solar Tsunamis

There are signs that the current solar cycle, presently in a relatively low activity state, is on the move to become more active as we enter the second year of the eleven-year cycle. This is a movie of an event captured last February that scientists are calling a “solar tsunami.” It is a towering wave of plasma that lifts itself more than the width of the Earth above the solar surface and hurls massive amounts of solar matter into space.

From NASA:

The twin STEREO spacecraft confirmed their reality in February 2009 when sunspot 11012 unexpectedly erupted. The blast hurled a billion-ton cloud of gas (a “CME”) into space and sent a tsunami racing along the sun’s surface. STEREO recorded the wave from two positions separated by 90o, giving researchers an unprecedented view of the event:

tsunami.gif

Above: A solar tsunami seen by the STEREO spacecraft from orthogonal points of view. The gray part of the animation has been contrast-enhanced by subtracting successive pairs of images, resulting in a “difference movie.”

Please note that this is actual science and not the filtered version that you get from, say, the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit. You can click on the movie above to see a larger version.

Fall Colors in Coastal California

fall-colors.jpg

Many folks who don’t live here, see the California Coast as a place where you don’t have four seasons. While the seasons here don’t take on many of the extreme characteristics of the weather experienced elsewhere, we do have distinct seasons.

The colors in these trees with deciduous leaves give the suburban areas a definite sense of fall. By January, the leaves will all have fallen and the branches will be bare until late march or early April. Click on the image to enlarge.

Merced River – Panorama

OK – Just one more panoramic image from our vacation. I took this the first night away from home on our way to the Gun Bloggers Rendezvous – this is the Merced River (South Fork) that ran immediately behind our hotel room at the Yosemite View Lodge, just outside the National Park boundary.

merced-river-pan.jpg

Other than a five foot high fence obstructing the view (refer to the right end of the panorama), this was what we had for ambiance that evening. We sat on the back patio and waited for the stars to come out and after that, the moonrise over the canyon wall.

Click on the panorama thumbnail to see full size.

The Gore Minimum Continues

The Sun is a star – a main sequence star whose business is to fuse hydrogen atoms into helium atoms. Fusion is a steady but somewhat unstable and potentially violent thermonuclear process. During fusion, solar mass, heat and pressure force hydrogen atoms to combine to become helium atoms. This transformation of atomic states produces energy in the form of multispectral photons (visible light, heat, x-rays, ultra-violet, cosmic rays, magnetic flux, radio-frequency emissions and more). We all know the effects of UV on skin disease, and lately, the effects of magnetic flux on the electrical grid. The Sun, like fire, can be good and bad.

The current Solar Minimum has been exceptionally quiet much to the despair of climate alarmists. They are being forced to re-invent the so-called ‘climate crisis.’ But, don’t relax just yet, because we know their tactics:

  1. The media will print or broadcast sensationalized headlines to sell copy regardless of scientific value
  2. The media will print or broadcast manipulated science with half-truths and invalid conclusions to damage politicians with whom they do not agree
  3. Politicians seize on these unverified claims in order to blame their opponents
  4. Uneducated/uninformed people are as gullible as ever

Meanwhile, Old Sol refuses to cooperate: From SOHO Pick of the Week:

The Sun had no sunspots for 51 days in a row July 11 – Aug. 30, 2009 — just nearly breaking the record of 52 days for the longest quiet period for this solar cycle. That record was set last summer. As we watch 50 days of that period with STEREO (Behind) in a wavelength of extreme UV light, we see some activity, such as prominences popping about here and there, but no active regions strong enough to form a sunspot.

Late on Aug. 31, a little sunspot emerged (not shown in the clip that ends on Aug. 28th) to interrupt the long string of quiet days. Even so, this little sunspot measured about nearly 3000 km (1800 miles) across. Nevertheless, it is likely that the current year’s number of blank days will be the longest in about 100 years. It is not shown many signs of picking up the pace so far.