Copenhagen redux
December 19, 2009
As the U.N.’s climate conference stumbles to its ignoble end with world leaders scrambling to put a happy face on failure and the world’s climate good-doobies saying goodbye to their favorite hookers and boarding their private jets, I have three lingering thoughts.
1: Climategate is not going away
The participants in Denmark did their best to downplay and ignore the scandal at East Anglia, but as the conference progressed the scandal grew and spread around the world.
Wednesday evening, the Russian Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) announced that British climatologists “probably tampered with Russian climate data” to produce the report they submitted to the Copenhagen conference. According to the Russians, the Brits used a pick ‘n’ choose method when it came to Russian temperatures, picking the ones that showed warmer temps and choosing to ignore the ones that did not.
The result was to overestimate warming in Russia “by up to 0.64C between the 1870’s and 1990’s.”
If you remember my column from Wednesday, I mentioned that NASA’s James Hansen was also caught screwing up Russian temperature data last year to manufacture apparent warming. As the IEA points out (and as I pointed out Wednesday), since Russia is the world’s largest country, any shenanigans played out with Russian temperature data will have an outsize impact on global climate statistics.
Meanwhile, in New Zealand the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research—New Zealand’s version of the East Anglia CRU—has also been caught red-handed altering temperature data to show warming which raw temperature data does not show. Since “water” is in their name, I’m guessing they measure water temperatures in the Pacific, which means the Global Warming crowd has been caught manipulating temperature data for the world’s largest country and for the world’s largest ocean.
Give them credit for concentrating their skullduggery where it will have the most effect.
In the U.S. the NASA climate complex is under attack for not sharing information. NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), where Hansen works, has refused for two years to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the data upon which it bases its Global Warming claims, and in the wake of Climategate congress has taken notice and wants answers. Republicans are demanding an investigation into Climategate and also sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson telling her to withdraw any rules relating to climate until the science can be substantiated.
One of the names that showed up in the Climategate emails about manipulating data was Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). So David Harsanyi, a columnist, promptly filed a FOIA request for all of Trenberth’s emails. The NCAR’s attorney responded that NCAR is not a federal agency and therefore doesn’t honor FOIA requests.
Trenberth was the lead author of the U.N.’s 1995, 2001, and 2007 climate assessments, and NCAR gets 95% of its funding from the federal government, but they feel no moral obligation to share information with the public. How does that make you feel as a taxpayer?
And why are all these Global Warming scientists so damned secretive and sneaky?
2: Democrats have no respect for the Constitution
President Obama sent Hillary Clinton to Copenhagen on Wednesday to promise $100 billion for poor countries to deal with Global Warming. Obama followed that up by reiterating the pledge yesterday. It’s unclear how much of that is supposed to come from the United States, but what should be clear to a man who taught constitutional law is that he has no authority to allocate one dime of our money.
This is not Venezuela or Zimbabwe—yet—and he did not win an election to be dictator-for-life. The president of the United States has no right to make treaties or spend money that has not been specifically allocated by congress.
Congress controls the national wallet and congress ratifies the treaties. He can look it up… but why a man who taught constitutional law would need to look up something so basic is a mystery.
This isn’t the only violation of constitutional law by Obama and the Democrats. It’s scary the way politicians in Washington are ignoring the law and doing whatever they want. How many “czars” does the White House have working for it now? These so-called “czars” are, in practical terms, miniature dictators because they bypass the constitutional “advice and consent” authority of the senate and therefore answer to nobody but the president.
In other words, they represent exactly the kind of abuse of executive power that the founders wrote the advice and consent rules to prevent.
The only strident voice on the floor of the senate objecting to this usurpation of power by the president has been Democrat Senator Robert Byrd. Trouble is, Byrd is so damn old he gets strident just trying to empty his bladder so nobody listening to him speechify can be sure whether he’s serious about the Constitution or just passing a stone.
Meanwhile, on the budget front, you know how congress always has to pass emergency legislation to prevent the government from shutting down because they’ve butted up against the debt limit? This year they didn’t pass it in time so the federal government went over the debt limit. No big deal, I guess. Nothing shut down. The government kept spending money and doing business as normal.
Makes you wonder why they were always in such a hurry to raise the debt limit, when ignoring it seems so much easier.
The worst end-around of the Constitution is the EPA’s decision this week to declare “greenhouse gases” a danger to human health, giving unelected bureaucrats at the EPA, who are answerable to nobody, the power to regulate everything that emits carbon dioxide. Naturally, they made this decision in the middle of the Copenhagen conference, proving that it was all about science, not politics... yes, that was sarcasm.
In case you skipped science class, happen to be a liberal, or are otherwise handicapped by ignorance of natural law, you emit carbon dioxide. So do your children and your grandchildren, which means your whole family is a “danger to human health” according to the EPA. As is your car, your house, your dryer, your snowblower, and your dog. As of Monday, thanks to the Obama Administration, your entire existence is susceptible to being micromanaged by the same kind of people who wait on you at the DMV.
It’s frightening, but these people just don’t take the Constitution seriously anymore.
3: Al Gore is still hard selling Climate Doomsday
AL Gore contributed to the climate conference by trumpeting a brand new report that shows the Arctic’s ice melting faster than expected. Funny how they had reports all set to be released during the conference, eh? One would almost think they were used-car salesmen the way they invent, gyrate, and hype to make us buy what they’re selling.
Anyway, in Gore’s confused mind he somehow leapt to the conclusion that melting Arctic ice somehow raises sea levels, which it does not. (This is an example of the mindless quagmire educated folk find themselves mired in when they try to debate Global Warming science. Our opponents are basically idiots.) He was the big news Monday, talking about island nations that would disappear and the millions of people who would be displaced.
Trouble is, sea levels don’t really seem to be rising. There are disparate studies, but since Climategate taught us that we cannot trust studies done by most of the people who hold themselves out as experts, well, I decided to provide visual evidence that sea level is not rising: Tasmanian benchmark photographed by John L. Daly.
4: God’s presence
Okay, so I meant four lingering thoughts.
I’m grateful that the Copenhagen climate conference was a failure. I don’t know who released the Climategate emails and data, or how they did it, but whoever and however are irrelevant to my firm conviction that it was God’s work. His Christmas present to the world. The last two days of the conference exposed conference participants for what they are: not environmentalists, but rather communists and thugs intent upon raking in some dough and damaging the United States in the process.
Hugo Chavez got standing ovations for saying, “The destructive model of Capitalism is eradicating life,” and “Our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell….let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.”
Bolivian president Evo Morales railed against the United States: “The United States—how much does the United States spend to export terrorism to Afghanistan, to export terrorism to Iraq, and to export military bases to South America? They don’t only spend millions, but billions and trillions.”
(Millions, billions, trillions, what’s the difference when you’re basically stupid?)
Then they let Robert Mugabe give a speech about climate. At that point, it was either start crying in frustration or try to see the humor in this absurd and farcical gathering of nitwits.
Clearly, the Good Lord has a sense of humor: Nancy Pelosi’s congressional contingent in attendance at the Global Warming conference was told Friday afternoon that they had to leave Copenhagen early to fly home so they could beat the giant snowstorm expected to dump two feet of snow on Washington.
From Reno, Nevada, USA
1: Climategate is not going away
The participants in Denmark did their best to downplay and ignore the scandal at East Anglia, but as the conference progressed the scandal grew and spread around the world.
Wednesday evening, the Russian Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) announced that British climatologists “probably tampered with Russian climate data” to produce the report they submitted to the Copenhagen conference. According to the Russians, the Brits used a pick ‘n’ choose method when it came to Russian temperatures, picking the ones that showed warmer temps and choosing to ignore the ones that did not.
The result was to overestimate warming in Russia “by up to 0.64C between the 1870’s and 1990’s.”
If you remember my column from Wednesday, I mentioned that NASA’s James Hansen was also caught screwing up Russian temperature data last year to manufacture apparent warming. As the IEA points out (and as I pointed out Wednesday), since Russia is the world’s largest country, any shenanigans played out with Russian temperature data will have an outsize impact on global climate statistics.
Meanwhile, in New Zealand the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research—New Zealand’s version of the East Anglia CRU—has also been caught red-handed altering temperature data to show warming which raw temperature data does not show. Since “water” is in their name, I’m guessing they measure water temperatures in the Pacific, which means the Global Warming crowd has been caught manipulating temperature data for the world’s largest country and for the world’s largest ocean.
Give them credit for concentrating their skullduggery where it will have the most effect.
In the U.S. the NASA climate complex is under attack for not sharing information. NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), where Hansen works, has refused for two years to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the data upon which it bases its Global Warming claims, and in the wake of Climategate congress has taken notice and wants answers. Republicans are demanding an investigation into Climategate and also sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson telling her to withdraw any rules relating to climate until the science can be substantiated.
One of the names that showed up in the Climategate emails about manipulating data was Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). So David Harsanyi, a columnist, promptly filed a FOIA request for all of Trenberth’s emails. The NCAR’s attorney responded that NCAR is not a federal agency and therefore doesn’t honor FOIA requests.
Trenberth was the lead author of the U.N.’s 1995, 2001, and 2007 climate assessments, and NCAR gets 95% of its funding from the federal government, but they feel no moral obligation to share information with the public. How does that make you feel as a taxpayer?
And why are all these Global Warming scientists so damned secretive and sneaky?
2: Democrats have no respect for the Constitution
President Obama sent Hillary Clinton to Copenhagen on Wednesday to promise $100 billion for poor countries to deal with Global Warming. Obama followed that up by reiterating the pledge yesterday. It’s unclear how much of that is supposed to come from the United States, but what should be clear to a man who taught constitutional law is that he has no authority to allocate one dime of our money.
This is not Venezuela or Zimbabwe—yet—and he did not win an election to be dictator-for-life. The president of the United States has no right to make treaties or spend money that has not been specifically allocated by congress.
Congress controls the national wallet and congress ratifies the treaties. He can look it up… but why a man who taught constitutional law would need to look up something so basic is a mystery.
This isn’t the only violation of constitutional law by Obama and the Democrats. It’s scary the way politicians in Washington are ignoring the law and doing whatever they want. How many “czars” does the White House have working for it now? These so-called “czars” are, in practical terms, miniature dictators because they bypass the constitutional “advice and consent” authority of the senate and therefore answer to nobody but the president.
In other words, they represent exactly the kind of abuse of executive power that the founders wrote the advice and consent rules to prevent.
The only strident voice on the floor of the senate objecting to this usurpation of power by the president has been Democrat Senator Robert Byrd. Trouble is, Byrd is so damn old he gets strident just trying to empty his bladder so nobody listening to him speechify can be sure whether he’s serious about the Constitution or just passing a stone.
Meanwhile, on the budget front, you know how congress always has to pass emergency legislation to prevent the government from shutting down because they’ve butted up against the debt limit? This year they didn’t pass it in time so the federal government went over the debt limit. No big deal, I guess. Nothing shut down. The government kept spending money and doing business as normal.
Makes you wonder why they were always in such a hurry to raise the debt limit, when ignoring it seems so much easier.
The worst end-around of the Constitution is the EPA’s decision this week to declare “greenhouse gases” a danger to human health, giving unelected bureaucrats at the EPA, who are answerable to nobody, the power to regulate everything that emits carbon dioxide. Naturally, they made this decision in the middle of the Copenhagen conference, proving that it was all about science, not politics... yes, that was sarcasm.
In case you skipped science class, happen to be a liberal, or are otherwise handicapped by ignorance of natural law, you emit carbon dioxide. So do your children and your grandchildren, which means your whole family is a “danger to human health” according to the EPA. As is your car, your house, your dryer, your snowblower, and your dog. As of Monday, thanks to the Obama Administration, your entire existence is susceptible to being micromanaged by the same kind of people who wait on you at the DMV.
It’s frightening, but these people just don’t take the Constitution seriously anymore.
3: Al Gore is still hard selling Climate Doomsday
AL Gore contributed to the climate conference by trumpeting a brand new report that shows the Arctic’s ice melting faster than expected. Funny how they had reports all set to be released during the conference, eh? One would almost think they were used-car salesmen the way they invent, gyrate, and hype to make us buy what they’re selling.
Anyway, in Gore’s confused mind he somehow leapt to the conclusion that melting Arctic ice somehow raises sea levels, which it does not. (This is an example of the mindless quagmire educated folk find themselves mired in when they try to debate Global Warming science. Our opponents are basically idiots.) He was the big news Monday, talking about island nations that would disappear and the millions of people who would be displaced.
Trouble is, sea levels don’t really seem to be rising. There are disparate studies, but since Climategate taught us that we cannot trust studies done by most of the people who hold themselves out as experts, well, I decided to provide visual evidence that sea level is not rising: Tasmanian benchmark photographed by John L. Daly.
4: God’s presence
Okay, so I meant four lingering thoughts.
I’m grateful that the Copenhagen climate conference was a failure. I don’t know who released the Climategate emails and data, or how they did it, but whoever and however are irrelevant to my firm conviction that it was God’s work. His Christmas present to the world. The last two days of the conference exposed conference participants for what they are: not environmentalists, but rather communists and thugs intent upon raking in some dough and damaging the United States in the process.
Hugo Chavez got standing ovations for saying, “The destructive model of Capitalism is eradicating life,” and “Our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell….let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.”
Bolivian president Evo Morales railed against the United States: “The United States—how much does the United States spend to export terrorism to Afghanistan, to export terrorism to Iraq, and to export military bases to South America? They don’t only spend millions, but billions and trillions.”
(Millions, billions, trillions, what’s the difference when you’re basically stupid?)
Then they let Robert Mugabe give a speech about climate. At that point, it was either start crying in frustration or try to see the humor in this absurd and farcical gathering of nitwits.
Clearly, the Good Lord has a sense of humor: Nancy Pelosi’s congressional contingent in attendance at the Global Warming conference was told Friday afternoon that they had to leave Copenhagen early to fly home so they could beat the giant snowstorm expected to dump two feet of snow on Washington.
From Reno, Nevada, USA
