340 replies to this topic

[Rogerdodger]

12 DEAD ACROSS EUROPE FROM LOW TEMPS...
Jan 7, 2009
MILAN, Italy (AP) - Freezing temperatures and exceptional snowfall caused travel delays Wednesday across Europe and were blamed for at least 12 deaths, including that of a man in Milan who was crushed when a canopy collapsed under the weight of snow. In Poland, the Interior Ministry said at least 10 people have frozen to death due to temperatures reaching minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 25 Celsius ).

Italian police said a Milan businessman standing on his balcony was killed when the snow brought down a canopy and part of a wall. A 47-year-old Serbian was found frozen to death in his home in the town of Zagarolo, east of Rome.

The winter weather temporarily closed Milan's two airports, halted trains in the normally sunny south of France and pressed into service ice breakers in the Dutch port of Rotterdam. It was the first time since 1996 that the port has used an icebreaker.


A rare snowfall in France's normally sunny Cote d'Azur sent the national railway into crisis mode, halting trains in Provence as well as the Alps.


But the freezing temperatures warmed the hearts of Dutch skaters, with sports stores reporting a run on skates and skaters flocking to the country's famed canals. Serious speed skaters were hoping the cold spell would continue long enough for the country to stage its 11 cities tour, a 125-mile (200 kilometer) race over frozen canals and rivers in the country's northern province of Friesland.

The race was last run in early 1997 and has only been staged 15 times since the first official event in 1909.

[Rogerdodger]

Extreme Alaska cold grounds planes, disables cars...

Minnesota sled dog race canceled -- because of too much snow...

RISE IN AVALANCHES TAKING TOLL AT SKI RESORTS...

Astronauts threatened by cosmic rays as sun becomes less active...

Edited by Rogerdodger, 08 January 2009 - 10:49 PM.

[Rogerdodger]

Jan 10, 2009 Headlines:

Coldest Weather Possible In Nearly 15 Years...

Life At -78 Degrees In Alaska...

What To Wear...

Wisconsin: Record snow steals spotlight from frigid temps...

'Brutal' Arctic air set to invade eastern USA...

Chicago Socked By Snow... Over 8 Inches At O'Hare...

SNOWBLAST SET FOR GOTHAM; UP TO 5-INCHES... DEVELOPING...

Watches/Warnings...

Heavy Snow, Detroit to New York; More coming to Chicago...

Edited by Rogerdodger, 10 January 2009 - 01:30 PM.

[Rogerdodger]

Jan 15, 2009
As Tulsa faces tonight's low of 6 degrees with a -20 wind chill, it could be worse:

Wicked: Coldest Temps In Over A Decade
First Day With A Low Colder Than -10 In Chicago Since 1999
LINK

Chicago has most consecutive days of snowfall since records began in 1884...

Flint, Michigan breaks 95-year-old record...

Blowing snow, frigid temps pound nation...

40 BELOW ZERO...
Maine residents braced Thursday for readings down to 40 below zero. And in the Midwest, Iowans were warned that temperatures could drop as far as 27 below zero, matching a Jan. 15 record set in 1972.

Edited by Rogerdodger, 15 January 2009 - 11:32 AM.

[OEXCHAOS]

"What would change your mind about AGW?" "NOTHING!" One wonders how cold it has to get before they admit that they're wrong. What's funny is that you and I and a bunch of other folks took one look at the solar activity thing, saw the relationship, then saw activity drop and predicted much colder temperatures. That's a successful test. Far better and reliable I might add than any of the thousands of AGW models and tests. Sheeze... Mark

[Rogerdodger]

Canal ice helps Dutch rediscover national identity

NIEUWERKERK AAN DEN IJSSEL, Netherlands:
January 16, 2009
For the first time in 12 years, the Netherlands' canals froze this month, bringing the Dutch, who like their tulips in neat rows, a heady mix of pandemonium and euphoria.

Hundreds of thousands of skaters, their cheeks as red as apples in the freezing temperatures, took to the ice, and hospital wards were filled with dozens of people with fractured arms, sprained ankles and broken legs.

"It's nice to skate when there is a beautiful view of the fields. You see a lot of people skating alone. Everybody took days off."

Henk Haitsma was not complaining. His store shelves were swept clean. "I sold 3,000 to 4,000 pairs of skates in the last 10 days," he said. In that much time he would have sold several hundred in other years. The Dutch, famed for their champion speed skaters, like to go first class on the ice. The most expensive pair Haitsma sells, fancy skates with hinged blades, retails for $1,190.

Edited by Rogerdodger, 16 January 2009 - 10:42 PM.

[mss]

HEAT OF THE MOMENT Scientists abandon global warming 'lie' 650 to dissent at U.N. climate change conference Posted: December 11, 2008 12:00 am Eastern © 2009 WorldNetDaily WASHINGTON – A United Nations climate change conference in Poland is about to get a surprise from 650 leading scientists who scoff at doomsday reports of man-made global warming – labeling them variously a lie, a hoax and part of a new religion. Later today, their voices will be heard in a U.S. Senate minority report quoting the scientists, many of whom are current and former members of the U.N.'s own Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. About 250 of the scientists quoted in the report have joined the dissenting scientists in the last year alone. In fact, the total number of scientists represented in the report is 12 times the number of U.N. scientists who authored the official IPCC 2007 report. Here are some choice excerpts from the report: · "I am a skeptic .... Global warming has become a new religion." -- Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever. · "Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receiving any funding, I can speak quite frankly .... As a scientist I remain skeptical." -- Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Joanne Simpson, the first woman in the world to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology and formerly of NASA who has authored more than 190 studies and has been called "among the most pre-eminent scientists of the last 100 years." · Warming fears are the "worst scientific scandal in the history ... . When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists." -- U.N. IPCC Japanese Scientist Dr. Kiminori Itoh, an award-winning Ph.D. environmental physical chemist. · "The IPCC has actually become a closed circuit; it doesn't listen to others. It doesn't have open minds ... . I am really amazed that the Nobel Peace Prize has been given on scientifically incorrect conclusions by people who are not geologists." -- Indian geologist Dr. Arun D. Ahluwalia at Punjab University and a board member of the U.N.-supported International Year of the Planet. · "The models and forecasts of the U.N. IPCC "are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include, for example, solar activity." -- Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. · "It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don't buy into anthropogenic global warming." -- U.S. Government Atmospheric Scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. · "Even doubling or tripling the amount of carbon dioxide will virtually have little impact, as water vapor and water condensed on particles as clouds dominate the worldwide scene and always will." -- Geoffrey G. Duffy, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering of the University of Auckland, New Zealand. · "After reading [U.N. IPCC chairman] Pachauri's asinine comment [comparing skeptics to] Flat Earthers, it's hard to remain quiet." -- Climate statistician Dr. William M. Briggs, who specializes in the statistics of forecast evaluation, serves on the American Meteorological Society's Probability and Statistics Committee and is an associate editor of Monthly Weather Review. · "For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming? For how many years must cooling go on?" -- Geologist Dr. David Gee, the chairman of the science committee of the 2008 International Geological Congress who has authored 130 plus peer-reviewed papers, and is currently at Uppsala University in Sweden. · "Gore prompted me to start delving into the science again and I quickly found myself solidly in the skeptic camp .... Climate models can at best be useful for explaining climate changes after the fact." -- Meteorologist Hajo Smit of Holland, who reversed his belief in man-made warming to become a skeptic, is a former member of the Dutch U.N. IPCC committee. · "Many [scientists] are now searching for a way to back out quietly (from promoting warming fears), without having their professional careers ruined." -- Atmospheric physicist James A. Peden, formerly of the Space Research and Coordination Center in Pittsburgh, Pa. · "Creating an ideology pegged to carbon dioxide is a dangerous nonsense ... . The present alarm on climate change is an instrument of social control, a pretext for major businesses and political battle. It became an ideology, which is concerning." -- Environmental Scientist Professor Delgado Domingos of Portugal, the founder of the Numerical Weather Forecast group, has more than 150 published articles. · "CO2 emissions make absolutely no difference one way or another .... Every scientist knows this, but it doesn't pay to say so.... Global warming, as a political vehicle, keeps Europeans in the driver's seat and developing nations walking barefoot." -- Dr. Takeda Kunihiko, vice-chancellor of the Institute of Science and Technology Research at Chubu University in Japan. · "The [global warming] scaremongering has its justification in the fact that it is something that generates funds." -- Award-winning Paleontologist Dr. Eduardo Tonni, of the Committee for Scientific Research in Buenos Aires and head of the Paleontology Department at the University of La Plata. The report also includes new peer-reviewed scientific studies and analyses refuting man-made warming fears and a climate developments that contradict the theory. It is 4 degrees Celsius (39 Fahrenheit) today in Poznan, Poland, where the U.N. conference is being held.

[grizzly]

Wow, its hard to believe that there are still ignorant people who do not understand the difference between weather and long term climatic trends.

There is absolutely no doubt among the massive majority of scientists of the long term global climatic warming that is occurring, and the role of increased atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations in this warming. Do yourself, and your grandchildren, a favor and educate yourself. Start here.

http://climate.ntsg....G1_Pub_FAQs.pdf

Denying the reality of the situation does not change reality, it only worsens the ultimate reckoning.

[stocks]

There is absolutely no doubt among the massive majority

"Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty—some most unsure, some nearly unsure, none absolutely certain."

— Richard Feynman

Consensus is the business of politics. If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus. Period."

-- Michael Crichton

[stocks]

Global warmers starting to sweat (so to speak)


Heartland Institute media monitors have noted on several occasions that climate-change alarmists are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their position that human activity has warmed Earth to crisis proportions.

Polar bears keep growing in numbers, Antarctic ice keeps expanding, deserts keep receding, temperatures keep easing, the ranks of science skeptics keep multiplying. It's tough to scare people with that kind of sound-science evidence.

DeSmogblog toted up the 2008 online battle this way: References to "global warming" and "hoax" soared 125 percent to 49,719 citations in 2008; GW and "lie" jumped 101 percent to 100,770; "alarmist" increased 97 percent to 27,298, and "skeptic" (our favorite) rose 93 percent to 73,956 citations.

"We're also seeing more people than ever using the internet as their main source of news and information," DeSmogblog posted recently. "Legislators are going to be very hard pressed to implement strict new greenhouse gas regulations if almost a majority of the public believes that climate change has nothing to do with human activity."

http://www.heartland...articleid=24532



Al Gore's side may be coming to power in Washington, but they appear to be losing the battle on the idea that humans are to blame for glob al warming.

Forty-four percent (44%) of U.S. voters now say long-term planetary trends are the cause of global warming, compared to 41% who blame it on human activity.

In April of last year, 47% of Americans blamed human activity versus 34% who viewed long-term planetary trends as the culprit. But the numbers have been moving in the direction of planetary trends since then.

http://www.rasmussen...ends_not_people