If the Sun’s magnetic activity does not increase, and it goes dim for an extended period, it will get quite chilly. In the meantime the Canada Space Agency, the Royal Observatory Greenwich and the US Air Force Solar Optical Observing Network are all keeping an eye on the Sun.
As the costs of most government mandates are.
Brussels demands thousands more wind turbines across the UK
Britain will be forced to build thousands more wind turbines in the countryside under a Brussels edict to be announced tomorrow.
Energy experts say new EU climate change targets mean the UK will have to generate 40 per cent of its electricity from green sources within 12 years.
In order to meet that target, the number of wind turbines on the land would have to rise fourfold. Thousands more would be needed at sea.
The move would be one of the greatest engineering projects in years - and dramatically change the skyline of Britain and its coastal waters.
But critics say onshore turbines are an expensive blot on the landscape that often fail to generate enough power to justify their existence.
The Government concedes that the shift away from coal and gas will cost up to £6billion [US$23.23 billion] a year. Most of that burden will be passed to consumers.
The move is part of the EU's commitment to generating 20 per cent of Europe's energy from renewable sources by 2020.I agree with Professor Richard Lindzen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who said: “future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age”. --- Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic
Under the plans - approved by Tony Blair - every member state will be told its contribution to the "green energy revolution" tomorrow. Britain currently has one of the worst records for renewable energy in Europe.
Years of cheap gas mean that nine out of ten homes use gas central heating, while hydroelectric and wind power produces just 2 per cent of electricity.
Tomorrow,the petulant bitch known as the European UnionBrussels is expected to demand that 15 per cent of Britain's energy, including heating, transport fuel and electricity, comes from renewable sources by 2020. Because it would cost too much to convert homes and vehicles to green energy, the bulk of the target will have to be met by electricity companies.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs estimates that 40 per cent of electricity will have to be renewable within 12 years.
If it fails to meet the targets - described by civil servants as "difficult" - Europe will impose daily fines on the UK.
[...]
Read it all at The Daily Mail
Chocolate and bonbon prices to skyrocket
BRUSSELS – Chocolate and bonbons will become much more expensive in the coming year and quality could become poorer, according to insiders in the chocolate market in Belgium and Switzerland, the leading chocolate producers in Europe.
The reasons behind this are the increasing demand from China and the poorer cocoa quality because of unrest in the largest production country, Ivory Coast. The cocoa plantations in Malaysia have largely been replaced by more lucrative palm oil plantations for bio-fuel.
Top Belgian chocolatier Galler announced a 10-percent increase in prices on Tuesday. "In the long term we are heading for scarcity and even higher prices," Justine Galler said in Het Laatste Nieuws.
CEO Patrick de Maeseneire of Swiss company Barry-Callebaut predicts increases of 12 to 15 percent this month. It is not that easy to step up cocoa bean production, he warned. "Planting more beans and harvesting good quality cocoa takes five to seven years."
Via Expatica
Such mishegas, 'global warming'.Oops.UK's official CO2 figures an illusion
Report reveals Britain's hidden CO2 emissions
Britain is responsible for hundreds of millions more tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions than official figures admit, according to a new report that undermines UK claims to lead the world on action against global warming.
The analysis says pollution from aviation, shipping, overseas trade and tourism, which are not measured in the official figures, means that UK carbon consumption has risen significantly over the past decade, and that the government's claims to have tackled global warming are an "illusion".
The report, from a team of economists led by Dieter Helm at Oxford University, could prove embarrassing for British negotiators at the UN climate summit in Bali, where they are trying to persuade countries including the US and China to agree a new worldwide treaty to limit the effects of global warming.
Britain is seen as a main player as the talks enter their second week, partly because it is one of few countries on track to reduce its emissions as required under the Kyoto protocol, the existing global plan to curb carbon emissions.
Ministers are due to arrive for the high-level segment of the talks on Wednesday. By Friday, they aim to agree a road map and timetable for a treaty to succeed Kyoto in 2012.
Under Kyoto, Britain must reduce its greenhouse gas output to 12.5% below 1990 levels by 2012. According to official figures filed with the UN, Britain's emissions are currently down 15% compared with 1990.
But the new report says UK carbon output has actually risen by 19% over that period, once the missing emissions are included in the figures.
The report says: "This is a dramatic reversal of fortune. It merits an immediate, more detailed and more robust assessment. It suggests that the decline in greenhouse gas emissions from the UK economy may have been to a considerable degree an illusion."
[....]
Here's a curious thing.That's from David Vance, blogging from Northern Ireland over at A Tangled Web, who also wonders about eco-fraud at the 'climate change' conference in Bali and offers up some interesting info.
Around 750 gigatonnes of carbon (GtC) is stored in the atmosphere. The annual interchange of carbon between oceans and atmosphere is estimated at 90 GtC while the annual interchange between the atmosphere and plant life is about 60 gigatonnes. Annual anthropogenic emissions are about 5.5 gigatonnes.
When I do the maths, that makes human emissions contributing just over 7% towards the carbon in the atmosphere. I wonder why then global alarmists choose to more than double this figure? Could it be that the mania that drives so much of global warming alarmisn is in itself immune to science?
The more I think about [it] the more I conclude that this entire climate change fanaticism is just a crock.
"While global warming alarmists revel in self-importance at their 11-day forum in Bali, dissenting scientists are being shut out and credible charges are leveled that the U.N. has doctored sea-level data."A very interesting quote he cites from Investor's Business Daily. Read it all, you won't be disappointed.
Hang on to your wallets, folks.'We Have Very Little Time to Act'
A world with 30 percent fewer species. Huge water shortages caused by disappearing glaciers affecting hundreds of millions of people. Tropical rain forests dying out as ground water disappears. An accelerating overall rise in world temperatures. All this and more could be the world's fate in just a few short decades.
That, at least, is the ominous tale told by the report released this spring by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This month, though, the IPCC said it had made a mistake. Our future is actually much bleaker. The original predictions had been based on current emissions of greenhouse gases. As it happens, such emissions are still climbing by 3 percent each year.
"Scientists are telling us we have a very small window of time in which to act," Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nation's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "We have 10 or 15 years to turn global emissions from their current upward trend to an extreme downward trend."
There's much, much more from the Bali Climate Change Conference
Oy, such mishegas! Just in time for the UN Climate Change Conference.Rare September storm bringing wind, rain, even snow
A strong storm rarely seen in September is rolling into Southern California this week, bringing high winds, cool temperatures and a potential for rain or even snow, according to the National Weather Service.
There is a wind advisory in effect from noon today until 11 a.m. Friday, meaning winds of 35 mph or stronger are expected, the weather service reported.
Gusts could hit 45 mph by this evening. The high temp today is expected to be 86 to 91 degrees and 80 to 85 degrees tomorrow and Friday.
There is a slight chance of thunderstorms and a potential for local heavy precipitaion from late Thursday through Friday.
The cold storm may even bring snowfall in the mountains above 6,000 feet, the weather service reported.
The possible precipitation also brings the threat of flash flooding and debris flows over the recently burned areas.
A September storm like this has not been seen in Southern California since 1986, the National Weather Service reported.
Via The Desert Sun (Palm Springs).
'We're wondering if Heartland received the same discount from the NY Times that was provided to the Stalinistas?Czech president new face of US media campaign
[13-09-2007] By Ruth Frankova, Radio Praha
Czech president Vaclav Klaus has become the face of a media campaign questioning the impact of global warming. The campaign is run by the free-market think-tank Heartland Institute. It features pictures of Vaclav Klaus and former US vice-president Al Gore under the headline "Global Warming Is No Crisis". It also draws attention to Mr Klaus' speech that is to take place in two week's time at the UN conference on global warming. I spoke to Tom Swiss of the Heartland Institute and started by asking about the campaign's aim.
"The ad campaign is focused around the central idea that global warming is not a crisis. We acknowledge that global warming exists and it exists at about one degree per century. Al Gores movie An Inconvenient Truth created a lot of fear and hysteria and we are challenging Al Gore to a debate on a science because his science is very weak."
Why did you choose the Czech president to feature in your campaign?
"President Klaus has been a big defender of freedom. He understands the idea that the big government oppression destroys communities. When government gets in to control something, the entrepreneurial spirit is just killed. President Klaus has understood for a long time that this debate on global warming is bringing the big government back in. We feel that he is a great spokesperson and a real hero. I think the Czech Republic should be really proud to have him as a president."
How many Americans do you think know who Vaclav Klaus is?
"Well the newspaper campaign runs in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Washington Times and they are all for the business leaders of America. So these are the people that are the most highly educated; the upper level executives. I think a significant percentage of them know who Vaclav Klaus is."
Do you think the campaign can affect Americans' view of the Czech Republic?
I hope so. President Klaus is demonstrating some significant leadership on this issue. And in politics, when someone does that, they open themselves up to an amazing amount criticism. I think the American spirit is entrepreneurial and I think they respect a leader that actually stands up for a position and speaks clearly on it. So I think the United States will see that president Klaus is a leader in the position and have a lot of respect for the Czech Republic because of that."
The Czech environmental group Hnuti Duha said earlier this week that the Heartland Institute is sponsored by Exxon Mobile. Is that right?
"No, I don't know where they got that. The ad campaign is supported by business leaders. We have 1,500 individuals that support us. There is no energy producer money spent. In fact all of our donations that come from energy producers are less than a four percent. I would like to challenge them and ask them where they came up with that information because that's not accurate."
