The science is getting settled, but no celebration yet.

Russ Steele

Lawrence Solomon writing and the Financial Post has some insight into how Dr Kirkby has been co-opted into cooperating with those who cannot accept the idea that global warming is a natural process aided by interstellar cosmic rays.  Solomon could just as well have entitled his column follow the money, because in the end the control mechanism used on Kirkby by the warmers was money and his future as a funded scientist.

I have written about the CLOUD experiment elsewhere on this blog, now lets look at the aftermath following the findings that cosmic rays, which are not generated by humans, but rain down in us from intergalactic space are responsible for some of the cloud formation on the earth. Those extra cloud influence the earth’s climate. A natural process.

Lawrence Solomon:

Which produces the most conflict, a warm world or a cold world?

Russ Steele

I have written about Dr Wheeler’s Drought clock research who found that cold periods resulted in the most civil conflict, more details here.  Now Dr. Bruno Tertrais takes a look at The Climate Wars Myth, which is being promoted by Columbia University, more details here.

Dr Tertrais:

History shows that ‘‘warm’’ periods are more peaceful than ‘‘cold’’ ones.

What History Teaches Us

 Since the dawn of civilization, warmer eras have meant fewer wars. The reason is simple: all things being equal, a colder climate meant reduced crops, more famine and instability. Research by climate historians shows a clear correlation between increased warfare and cold periods. They are particularly clear in Asia and Europe, as well as in Africa.

Interestingly, the correlation has been diminishing since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution: as societies modernize, they become less dependent on local agricultural output.

We are going to have an opportunity to test the strength of global agricultural output to provide the needed food in a cooler world.

You can read the full paper here.

H/T to Watts Up With That

Researchers identify 26 past scares analogous to the global warming alarm.

Russ Steele

Kesten C. Green and Tom Harris are writing about their research into past scientific scares at Pajamas Media: Past Alarmism and the Future of Manmade Global Warming.

Green is a forecasting expert at the University of South Australia in Adelaide . Harris is the Executive Director of the International Climate Science Coalition. They list all 26 of the past scares and the analysis at www.PublicPolicyForecasting.com, all of which turn out to be wrong. Many of you will be surprised to discover that you still believe these past scares, yet they have all been debunked.

In the case of global warming, roughly one person in two is concerned about manmade global warming. Why? Because vivid and alarming forecasts, that have appeared in the press, promoted by high visibility policy leader like Al Gore and President Obama, even though global warming is based on weak foundations.

Green and Harris:

Nails in California’s economic coffin — ignoring reality.

Russ Steele

Joel Kotkin takes a look at Rick Perry’s influence on Texas’ economic success in an article that first appeared in Forbes. Link to the full article is here.

The part of Kotkin’s article that I found most interesting was the role of the energy sector in job Texas creation.  California is desperate to turn it’s growing unemployment around, but is unwilling to follow the Texas example.  Yes, Texas has benefited from higher energy prices, but in California the opposite it true, higher energy cost are reducing employment.  Companies are moving to Texas.

Kotkin writes:

To be sure, Texas has benefited from higher energy prices, as Perry’s detractors point out. According to an analysis by the EMSI economic forecasting group, the energy sector jumped from over 230,000 jobs in 2001 to just under 490,000 in 2011. That’s roughly 10% of all the state’s overall job gains. This parallels job growth in other states that have experienced surges in energy-related employment — such as North Dakota and Wyoming. 

But some of this has to do with making your own “luck.” Energy-rich California has all but declared war on its fossil fuel industry, once one of the nation’s most important. Instead, the state has placed lavish bets on renewable fuel and the much ballyhooed notion that “green jobs” could provide a massive base for new employment — something even the green-friendly New York Times has called “a pipe dream.” In fact, employment in this field has actually started to tick down, and the prospect of ever higher energy prices associated with “clean” fuels could prove another nail in California’s economic coffin.

What does all this have to do with the Next Grand Minimum? California is investing huge sums in “green energy” and “clean fuels” that are designed to reduce CO2, all to satisfy environmentalist who are trying to save the planet from global warming. Yet, the planet is not warming and we are spending billions that will be needed to deal with a decline in agriculture production,  resulting from shorter growing seasons as we enter The Next Grand Minimum. If California has a robust economy, we will be better prepared to deal with the problem created by cooling world. Drill baby dril!

I recommend that you read all to the Kotkin article here.

Fuel Price Page Updated

Russ Steele

I have updated the Fuel Page.  For the past seven weeks diesel prices in Nevada County have been stable while prices in the US and California have been declining. Why?  Your thoughts?

When the cost of milk and bread goes up – Call CARB

Russ Steele

Every thing that we buy in the foothills is brought in by truck. The cost of that transportation is included in the cost of the products on our store shelves. Transportation companies do every thing they can to keep the cost of transportation down to stay competitive. But,  we can not say of the same of government agencies like the California Air Resources Board. Here is an example of CARB out of control, faking the data to save the planet.

The details are in a story by Michael Shaw, in the Capital Weekly: When writing regulations, make sure to consider all pertinent data.

Case in point is the Greenhouse Reduction Measure for Heavy-Duty Vehicles in the final steps with the California Air Resources Board (CARB). This regulation takes a great voluntary program, known as SmartWay, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to promote best practices for heavy duty vehicle fuel efficiency and turns it into a $10.4 billion mandate. However, CARB’s estimate claims a net savings of more than $3 billion from greater fuel efficiency.

Oh My God! — Climate change is going to fry California’s Seniors

Russ Steele

According to a study funded by CARB, California can expect more frequent and more dangerous heat waves in the coming decades, the result of global warming and the state’s aging population.  I am a member of this aging population and according to a new climate-modeling study commissioned by the California Air Resources Board I am toast.  Study is here.

The KQED Climate Watch warmers have this quote from CARB’s Warmer-in-Chief Mary Nichols along with the scary stats in the second sentence:

“Along with reducing our climate-warming emissions, we need to prepare for longer and hotter heat waves,” Board Chairman Mary Nichols said. “Raising public awareness of the risks and having safety nets such as community cooling centers can greatly reduce those risks.

 Currently, an average of about 500 elderly people die from excessive heat each year in the nine major urban areas studied: Fresno, Los Angeles, Oakland, Santa Ana, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose. By the 2090s, the death toll within this population group could rise more than nine-fold – to a range of roughly 4,700 to 8,800 – depending on the climate scenario, according to the study.

 How did this CARB funded team arrive at this conclusion? From the study:

House Republicans Seek to Remove U.S. Funding for UN Climate Efforts

Russ Steele

Elections have consequences. The Republican controlled house is targeting the funds for the IPCC and UNFCCC, two programs designed to educate policy makers about climate science and the need slow global warming world wide.

WASHINGTON—House Republicans are applying a search and destroy tactic to international funding for global warming this budget season. It goes like this: Ax any line items with the words “climate change.”

Is El Niño driving civil wars?

Russ Steele

The Earth Instttute at Columbia University, recently published a study that ties El Niño events to tropical conflicts.

In the first study of its kind, researchers have linked a natural global climate cycle to periodic increases in warfare. The arrival of El Niño, which every three to seven years boosts temperatures and cuts rainfall, doubles the risk of civil wars across 90 affected tropical countries, and may help account for a fifth of worldwide conflicts during the past half-century, say the authors. The paper, written by an interdisciplinary team at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, appears in the current issue of the leading scientific journal Nature.

In recent years, historians and climatologists have built evidence that past societies suffered and fell due in connection with heat or droughts that damaged agriculture and shook governments.

Do you remember the Drought Clock that was developed by Dr John Wheeler which is referenced here and is discussed in detail at the Cycles Research Institute, who had this to say about Dr Wheeler and his research on the climate conflict connection:

CARB — Naked and alone in the Carbon Market

Russ Steele

The California Air Resources Board voted Monday the 22nd of August to proceed with it’s cap and trade program in California. The global carbon market has collapsed and they will be in the market alone in a naked attempt to extort $30-40 dollars a ton from California business that generate CO2.

When the Chicago Carbon Exchange closed carbon was selling for less than a nickel ton.  All the states originally recruited to be in the Western Climate Initiative and participate in carbon trading have with drawn, except for two Canadian Providences that may participate someday.

Compliance with the cap-and-trade program has been pushed back a year and is now set to begin in 2013.   By then we will be coming close to solar maximum for Solar Cycle 24, and maybe we will have some new faces in Sacramento who will have enough spine to reign in CARB.