We’re saved!: California might reward you with CO2-induced-bad-weather prevention cash if a tree is cut down with a fossil-fueled chainsaw, hauled to a fossil-fueled lumber mill with heavy fossil-fueled equipment, then transported by another fossil-fueled truck to a fossil-fueled furniture factory, then transported by a another fossil-fueled truck to a furniture store, then transported by another fossil-fueled truck to someone’s fossil-fueled mansion …and you get to keep the cash even if the mansion immediately burns to the ground along with the furniture!

Today’s puzzler: If your school district has $1 million to allocate, should they spend it on teachers or maybe spend it on an insane scheme to prevent CO2-induced bad weather in 2050?

Today’s puzzler: If your school district has $1 million to allocate, should they spend it on teachers or maybe spend it on an insane scheme to prevent CO2-induced bad weather in 2050?

http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/2013/07/today-puzzler-if-your-school-district.html

$30-million surplus for BC Carbon Trust | News1130The Pacific Carbon Trust forces cash-strapped public institutions like schools and hospitals to buy “carbon credits” to keep them pollution-neutral; that money is supposed to go to private companies to make improvements….Bateman says the money from the Surrey and Vancouver School Districts could be better spent. “Between the two of them this year, they put in $1 million into carbon credits. That’s 10 teachers, 11 teachers… that’s 20 special education assistants.”…

Sun’s Bizarre Activity May Trigger Another Little Ice Age (Or Not): ‘Solar activity is in gradual decline’

Sun’s Bizarre Activity May Trigger Another Little Ice Age (Or Not)

http://www.thegwpf.org/suns-bizarre-activity-trigger-ice-age/

The sun is acting bizarrely and scientists have no idea why. Solar activity is in gradual decline, a change from the norm which in the past triggered a 300-year-long mini ice age.

Illustration mapping the steady decline in sunspot activity over the last two solar cycles with predicted figures for the current cycle 24
Three leading solar scientists presented the very latest data about the weakening solar activity at a teleconference yesterday in Boulder, Colorado, organised by the American Astronomical Society. It featured experts from Nasa, the High Altitude Observatory and the National Solar Observatory who described how solar activity, as measured by the formation of sunspots and by massive explosions on the sun’s surface, has been falling steadily since the mid-1940s.
The sun goes through a regular 11-year cycle with a maximum, when sunspot activity is at its peak, followed by a minimum when sunspot numbers are reduced and are smaller and less energetic. We are supposed to be at a peak of activity, at solar maximum.
Outside the norm 
The current situation, however, is outside the norm and the number of sunspots seems in steady decline. The sun was undergoing “bizarre behaviour” said Dr Craig DeForest of the society.
“The sun’s current maximum activity period is very late and very weak, leading to speculation that the sunspot cycle itself could be shutting down or entering a dormant phase,” he said before the teleconference.
Irish solar science specialist Dr Ian Elliott, formerly of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, quoted from figures released by Nasa on July 1st. It had asked an expert group to predict sunspot activity using models, with an upper limit and a lower limit.
The predictions suggested the monthly average sunspot total should range between 90 and 140, but in fact the present monthly average is only 67, Dr Elliott said. A typical average at maximum during much of the early 20th century was about 200.
“It is the smallest solar maximum we have seen in 100 years,” said Dr David Hathaway of Nasa. We are currently in solar cycle number 24 which is about half as active as cycle 23, but cycle 25 is likely to be smaller again due to changes in the magnetic flux on the sun’s surface,” he said.
Dr Giuliana de Toma of the High Altitude Observatory acknowledged …

Embarrassment To Science: WWF Postulates Climate Change Will Lead To More Seafaring Accidents

Embarrassment To Science: WWF Postulates Climate Change Will Lead To More Seafaring Accidents

http://notrickszone.com/2013/07/12/embarrassment-to-science-wwf-postulates-climate-change-will-lead-to-more-seafaring-accidents/

Die kalte Sonne site here has a report on how the WWF claims that climate change will likely lead to more ship accidents on the high seas, caused by stormier weather.
Science Speechless Over Embarrassing WWF Claim: Environmental Activists Postulate More Ship Accidents Due To Climate Change
By Sebastian Lüning and Fritz Vahrenholt

Former East Germany party organ ‘Neues Deutschland‘ (New Germany) brought out a claim from climate activist group WWF on June 10, 2013. In it a surprising relationship had been postulated:
WWF: Climate change increasing the risks of ship accidents. Climate change and the associated extreme weather events increase the dangers of ship accidents on the seas, according to the environmental organization WWF. Increasing frequency of storms heighten the risks, said the WWF Germany on Friday at the World Conference of the Seas on 8 June [2013].’
Neue Deutschland apparently is referring to a press release that had appeared on a WWF website. Unfortunately we are not able to quote from this press release because the hotel in Dublin where this blog post was created unfortunately does not allow access to websites of political activist groups (see screenshot).

Thus it seems that the hotel has correctly rated the affiliation of the WWF. Little wonder, because when you compare the claims made by the WWF to the results from serious science, the overblown construct collpases. According to the WW, climate change will lead to more storms.
First let’s check whether warmer temperatures lead to more storms at middle latitudes in the past. The result: unexpectedly the exact opposite of what the WWF asserted has actually occurred: i.e., the colder it was, the more stormy is was! For example see our blog article: “Storms in the English Channel occurred in sync with the 1500 year cycle: The colder it was, the stormier it was” as well as other papers here).
And what does the situation with hurricanes look like? Over the long-term it appears that hurricane activity has decreased (see “New climate modeling finds long-term reduction in hurricane activityi“). It is indeed baffling how the WWF could be so reckless with the scientific facts. This is especially troubling in light of the fact that the WWF avidly participated in writing the new IPCC climate report. Just a few months ago observers sounded the alarms when a …