Month: December 2010

Did Ben Santer finally Beat the Crap out of Pat Michaels? You Decide.

One of the most notorious of the East Anglia Climate e-mails was written by Dr. Ben Santer, wherein he mused that he sometimes harbored the desire to “beat the crap out of Pat Michaels” – a well known shill for the fossil fuel industry.

Continue reading “Did Ben Santer finally Beat the Crap out of Pat Michaels? You Decide.”

The “CO2 is Good for Plants” Crock. Turns out — not so much.

The video above from NASA, describes recent research indicating decline of primary plant productivity around the planet over the last decade. The study indicates that Global warming may be the cause.

Now Science News reports that “signs of food insecurity – droughts, food riots, five to tenfold increases in produce costs – have erupted around the globe.”

Continue reading “The “CO2 is Good for Plants” Crock. Turns out — not so much.”

Meet the Anti Christ

It’s not Barack Obama – that’s so 2008.

Now, it’s you.

If you are concerned about global climate, global environment, or a liveable future for your children, you are the anti Christ.  So says a fossil funded “Christian” group, the Cornwall Alliance.  The existence of this group points out how fossil fueled PR firms have done due diligence in psychological profiling of potential targets for disinformation, and found a target rich environment in the wackjob fundamentalist community. Continue reading “Meet the Anti Christ”

Deniers Who Changed Their Minds

Bjorn Lomborg.
Favorite mop top boy wonder denialism. Author of “The Skeptical Environmentalist”, frequent guest on Fox news and corporate gatherings for his “practical” approach to the environment.

Now quoted as saying, “We actually have only one option: we all need to start seriously focusing, right now, on the most effective ways to fix global warming.”

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Tiny Invaders pump Climate Impact on Fresh water

The way climate change interacts with other human changes on environment is well illustrated by the impact of warming on Greats Lakes waters in the US.

Parallel environmental problems – pollution runoff from agriculture, and spread of invasive species, both enhanced and accelerated by warmer temperatures, were vividly on display this past summer across the Great Lakes basin – source of 20 percent of the world’s fresh water.

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Christiana Figueres meets the trackers at COP16 in Cancun, Mexico

From the Wonk Room:
The head of the Cancun climate talks fought back tears in a meeting with youth activists on Wednesday, as she frankly admitted the insufficient ambition of global leaders to protect the future. Christiana Figueres, who replaced Yvo de Boer as the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change following last year’s negotiations in Copenhagen, teared up as she considered her responsibility to her daughters and the youth of the world.

She told the activists, part of Tck Tck Tck’s Adopt a Negotiator program, that the Cancun negotiations will be “insufficient” and that “nothing will be highly ambitious,” because of the economic and political constraints. But she believes that “each one of use has the moral responsibility to do the absolute best that we can.” Asked what inspires her to lead the effort despite the challenges, she choked up as she answered that it is “the next generation”:

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