The One & Only Global Warming Thread, Part 7 (including environmentalism and energy)

[movielib]

I looked up "insanity" in the dictionary and I got this:

http://bond.senate.gov/public/index....9-8606ffdd01f3

STATEMENT OF U.S. SENATOR KIT BOND EPW HEARING ON GLOBAL WARMING LEGISLATIVE TOOLS

July 7, 2009

Madame Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing today on global warming legislative tools. The problem is that it will fail to cover the most important legislative tool, and that is the one you intend this committee to consider and mark up at the end of the month.

The American people and my Missouri constituents deserve to know how the legislation we consider will: impose new energy taxes upon them, kill their jobs, punish the Midwest and South, help China and India, and construct a new bureaucratic nightmare to implement a carbon cap and trade program.

Some say that we should just look to the bill the House passed last month - and to that I say which one? We have the 648 page Discussion Draft. We have the 932 page Introduced Bill. We have the 946 page Committee Substitute. We have the 1,201 page Floor Filed Bill. We have the 500 page Redline Version. We have the 743 page Committee Report. We have the 309 page Manager’s Amendment filed at 3am the morning of the floor debate. And, we have the 1,427 page House Passed Bill. In total, that is 6,706 pages or 15 inches of legislative material.



For those who say that we should work off the House passed bill, we have a prominent environmental advocate here today who will testify that we should abandon the floor compromises benefitting agriculture and go back to the committee passed version.

And we have the fresh experience of the most recent legislation this committee considered where the Chairman adopted a complete substitute the day of the markup and then berated members for not reading that substitute. We deserve better. The American people deserve better.

The American people and my Missouri constituents deserve to know why it takes 1,427 pages to address energy issues. What needles are the Majority trying to hide in this haystack? What backroom deals were made to buy support? What provisions were added in the middle of the night? How will the bureaucratic nightmare this bill creates work?

And what a nightmare it will be with EPA at the center of a great web of government mandates, programs and taxes. EPA will have help from nearly 2 dozen other federal agencies, the black boxes on the bottom, some here today and many not, implementing government programs that will tax and spend trillions of dollars, the grey, green, purple and brown boxes on the sides and middle.

All of this will focus through our power bills, cooling & heating bills, food prices, product prices, gasoline prices and jobs, threatening families with higher prices, farmers with higher prices, drivers with higher prices, and workers with lost jobs.

All of this is to ask what are our Democratic colleagues afraid of? If they are not afraid of us knowing what this will do to our families and workers, why are we not having hearings on the legislation itself? Why do we not have this legislation now? I hope we will soon get answers to these questions and many more.

Thank you.

I couldn't find a larger version of the chart at the top but if you have Firefox you can make it bigger by holding down Ctrl and pressing the +/= button at the same time.

Can this insanity be stopped? Why would anyone vote for this?

[movielib]

Disappearing sea ice forces ship to turn back.

http://sermitsiaq.gl/indland/article89500.ece?lang=EN

Ice leaves East waiting

Sea ice has residents of a town on the eastern coast are left waiting for provisions.

By Redaktionen
06-07 - 15:53

Narsaq on Greenland’s east coast will have to wait a little longer to get much needed provisions after the ‘Nuka Arctica’ was forced to turn back from southern Greenland due to large amounts sea ice.

The goods, which were due to be delivered on 7 July, have now been sailed back to Nuuk to be transferred on to the ‘Irena Arctica’ for redelivery. It is now hoped that Royal Arctic Line will be able to deliver the goods on 14 July.

Towns on Greenland’s eastern coast are dependent on ship deliveries, and communities often run out of certain goods leading up to the next expected arrival.

Presumably, at this time of the year, the ship expected to get through. Must be more sea ice than the models predicted. Gore's "melting" North Pole (and thereabouts) is not cooperating. Again.

[movielib]

Has Gore just gone full on bonkers?

http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegrea...ate_and_n.html

Big Al speaks on climate (and neuroscience) - July 07, 2009

I got to hear Al Gore speak today at the close of the World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment in Oxford, and I was amazed to be treated to a pop neuroscience lecture.

Rather than climate, Gore opened by talking about human psychology and physiology. Climate change, he said, is "ultimately a problem of consciousness". He went on: "What is being tested is the proposition of whether or not the combination of an opposable thumb and a neocortex is a viable construct on this planet".

That's pretty deep [Note by movielib: Is that what they're calling needing a rubber room, now?], but Gore got deeper. Evolution, he said, had trained us to to respond quickly and viscerally to threats. But when humans are confronted with "a threat to the existence of civilization that can only be perceived in the abstract", we don't do so well. Citing functional magnetic resonance imaging, he said that the connecting line between amygdalae, which he described as the urgency centre of the brain, with the neocortex is a one way street: emotional emergencies can spark reasoning, but not the other way around.

Gore went on to speak about lots of other stuff: how better management of soil would be critical to solving the climate crisis. How geothermal energy had the potential for enormous development, and how existing technologies, such as coal-fired power plants had to become more efficient.

But in the end, he brought it back to human consciousness. Until the majority of citizens perceive climate change as a true crisis, he said, politicians will be sluggish to act. That's the bad news. The good news, though, is that when we do decide to act, we will be able to do so more rapidly than anyone currently thinks is possible. "Just remember, when we become aware of what we have to do, and when we have the tools available to us to get the job done, it can change", he said. "We ought to approach this challenge with a sense of joy."

I'm not sure what it says about human consciousness, but it certainly is an interesting insight into Mr. Gore's psychology. I'm curious to hear what neuroscientists make of his analysis.

[Tuan Jim]

Originally Posted by OldDude

The last time, we bought the plutonium from the Russians, diluted it with U-238 (nonfissionable, "buffer" form of uranium) and made fuel rods for nuclear power plants. They worked fine, are the ultimate in "beating swords into plowshares."

It gets it off the market, unavailable to terrorists, and "burns" it up in a useful way, providing energy.
(Probably uranium miners are opposed, though).

Hopefully, we'll do the same thing again.

As an aside, it demonstrates that MOX (mixed oxide) fuel rods work perfectly, and the US should reprocess 100% of spent fuel rods to reduce nuclear waste, the time for storing it, and reduce the cost of the nuclear energy.

Talked with you a bit about this last year. Plenty of great alternative nuke powerplant models (pebble bed, molten salt, thorium, etc) out there as well that don't even involve water, radioactive steam, etc - but nobody wants to fund them for proper tests.

Still, I coulda sworn that with normal reprocessing you still wound up with a certain percentage -- ~5% that was weaponized Plutonium that couldn't be reduced further (although could presumably still be used as fuel - albeit dangerous fuel - in that state).

Heck, the Frenchies have a repo plant, the Japanese have a plant, others are talking about starting up new ones....and we shut ours down in the 70s? What's up with that?

[movielib]

Originally Posted by Tuan Jim

Heck, the Frenchies have a repo plant, the Japanese have a plant, others are talking about starting up new ones....and we shut ours down in the 70s? What's up with that?

Greenies

[OldDude]

Originally Posted by Tuan Jim

Still, I coulda sworn that with normal reprocessing you still wound up with a certain percentage -- ~5% that was weaponized Plutonium that couldn't be reduced further (although could presumably still be used as fuel - albeit dangerous fuel - in that state).

Heck, the Frenchies have a repo plant, the Japanese have a plant, others are talking about starting up new ones....and we shut ours down in the 70s? What's up with that?

Fear of terrorists, which I will get to in a moment.

Fuel rods are a few percent fissionable load, whether U-235 or Pu-239, and a whole lot of U-238 buffer. The fissionable load is gradually "burned up," partially offset by a little U-238 being bred to Pu-239 by neutron capture and beta decay. When the total fissionable load is down to about 95% of new, it has to be replaced and either stored or recycled. By NOT recycling, we WASTE 95% of our fissionable material.

As long as the rod has the right mixture of fissionable load and buffer, plutonium is NOT a more dangerous fuel. One is as good as the other, and mixed rods are called MOX. In my opinion, they are the perfect way to dispose of weapons grade plutonium in a manner which SERVES mankind rather than pissing it down a rathole in Yucca mountain. Of course, it is critical that terrorists don't intercept the weapons-grade plutonium and subvert it to evil purposes.

And that gets us to why the US doesn't recycle. Normally fuel rods in the US are ONLY U-235 and U-238. Separating weapons grade U-235 from U-238 is a MAJOR technological challenge, and even if terrorists stole them, they couldn't make a bomb. They come out of the reactor a mixed-oxide of lower total fissionable load, but some plutonium. If stolen by terrorists, it IS easier to separate the plutonium from the buffer. We assume we can safely transport them to Yucca Mountain and store them securely for 100000 years. However, if we took them to a reprocessing center (recovering 95% of the material into new fuel rods, enormously lowering costs), terrorists would be bound to steal them, separate the plutonium and build bombs to blow us up.

The only part of the absurd scenario I accept is that better security would be needed both to and from reprocessing with MOX rods. But if they can be stolen from reprocessing, they can be stolen on the way to Yucca. To suppose they can be guarded in one case, not the other, is patently absurd, and is meant to deny us 20X benefits that make nuclear power far more attractive.

Also reprocessing reduces storage requirements. It is the fissionable material that requires the 100000 years of storage. Reprocessing puts them back in a reactor and "burns" them. The fission fragments that build up are intensely radioactive and need to be cleaned out during reprocessing, but they are small in bulk, and have short half lives. 1000 years of storage would be plenty. 1000 years is a long time, but man has built things that have lasted that long, 100000 years is frankly beyond our engineering knowledge. It should probably be a criminal offence to NOT reprocess a fuel rod.

I still don't know anything about your other reactor types. I suspect any "safe" design would have a lot of unburnt fuel when it needs to be replaced and the pellet would require reprocessing.

[wishbone]

Originally Posted by movielib

I couldn't find a larger version of the chart at the top but if you have Firefox you can make it bigger by holding down Ctrl and pressing the +/= button at the same time.

I did not know Firefox could do that.

Here is slightly larger version movielib -- different title, same gist.

[OldDude]

Originally Posted by Tuan Jim

Still, I coulda sworn that with normal reprocessing you still wound up with a certain percentage -- ~5% that was weaponized Plutonium that couldn't be reduced further (although could presumably still be used as fuel - albeit dangerous fuel - in that state).

Do you mean reprocessing fuel rods? You never need to separate the plutonium. You flush out fission fragments from the material that has reacted, then you separate out and discard some U-238 (and make spent uranium ammunition). This reconcentrates the mixed U-235 and Pu-239 to the proper fission load and produces a MOX (mixed oxide) fuel rod. You don't separate the U-235 and Pu-239; you increase the mix by discarding U-238.

If you mean from nuclear weapons, you just mix the weapons-grade Pu-239 with enough U-238 as moderator and use it. After that dilution, it is not weapons grade.

[movielib]

Originally Posted by wishbone

I did not know Firefox could do that.

If you haven't figured it out, smaller is holding down Ctrl and pressing the _/- button. I read it somewhere, can't remember where. Why does anyone still use IE?

[arminius]

Originally Posted by movielib

If you haven't figured it out, smaller is holding down Ctrl and pressing the _/- button. I read it somewhere, can't remember where. Why does anyone still use IE?

Firm mandated.

[classicman2]

I saw ex-governor George Pataki on CNBC this morning.

He was very critical of Obama's plan in that it did precious little to address transportation.

[VinVega]

I'm sure you guys will delight in this news:

Yahoo Story

Pickens calls off massive wind farm in Texas

HOUSTON – Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle have been scrapped, energy baron T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday, and he's looking for a home for 687 giant wind turbines.

Pickens has already ordered the turbines, which can stand 400 feet tall — taller than most 30-story buildings.

"When I start receiving those turbines, I've got to ... like I said, my garage won't hold them," the legendary Texas oilman said. "They've got to go someplace."

Pickens' company Mesa Power ordered the turbines from General Electric Co. — a $2 billion investment — a little more than a year ago. Pickens said he has leases on about 200,000 acres in Texas that were planned for the project, and he might place some of the turbines there, but he's also looking for smaller wind projects to participate in. He said he's looking at potential sites in the Midwest and Canada.

In Texas, the problem lies in getting power from the proposed site in the Panhandle to a distribution system, Pickens said in an interview with The Associated Press in New York. He'd hoped to build his own transmission lines but he said there were technical problems.

Wind power is a big part of the "Pickens Plan," which was announced a year ago Wednesday. Pickens has spent $60 million crisscrossing the country and buying advertising in an effort to reduce the nation's reliance on foreign oil.

"It doesn't mean that wind is dead," said Pickens, who runs the Dallas-based energy investment fund BP Capital. "It just means we got a little bit too quick off the blocks."

Pickens announced in 2007 plans to install the turbines in parts of four Texas Panhandle counties.

He had hoped to complete the four-phase project in 2014 and eventually have 4,000 megawatts of capacity, enough to power more than one million homes. The total cost was expected to approach $12 billion.

Renewable energy provides a small fraction of electricity used today, but the wind and solar sectors are the fastest growing in the U.S. In 2008, the U.S. became the world's leading provider of wind power.

Like most industries around the world, the recession has hurt wind turbine manufacturers and wind farm developers. Companies have shelved development plans and laid off workers.

Enjoy.

[movielib]

I never thought I'd be quoting the Weekly World News here. Well, it's more that I had never thought about it, period. But this is just too good. "Ed Anger's" rant about Al Gore comparing fighting global warming to fighting the Nazis:

http://weeklyworldnews.com/opinion/e...her-is-hitler/

ED ANGER: AL GORE THINKS THE WEATHER IS HITLER!
Posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
By Ed Anger

I’m madder than Winston Churchill at an A.A. meeting! Just when I figured Al Gore couldn’t get any nuttier, yesterday he made a fool of himself again.

He gave a speech at some fancy British college, and told the kids that fighting global warming was like fighting Hitler.

Well, global warming and World War II both had something to do with “gas”, but other than that, I don’t get it. I didn’t drop out of divinity school like Al Gore did, and I didn’t invent the internet or get a hoity toity Nobel Prize, so can somebody explain his speech to me?

If the sun is Hitler, does that make the moon Mussolini? Are polar bears the Poles? Are cow farts the Kamikaze? OK, Japan was the Land of the Rising Sun but this is ridiculous!

Reading his speech, it’s pretty clear Al Gore thinks he’s the Winston Churchill in all this. Well, he’s fat enough, but that’s about it. I can’t believe Al would think much of Churchill’s famous cigars – don’t they cause pollution? Not as much as Gore’s Lear jet and two SUVs, I’ll bet.

So, is Gore planning on ending global warming by nuking the sun? Twice?

Besides, it was Hitler who started the first anti-smoking campaign. You’d think Al would like him for that! [Note by movielib: Hitler was also big on environmentalism and he was a vegetarian, other things beloved by Goreites. I'm pretty sure Churchill was neither.]

The trouble with Al Gore’s speech is that nobody’s ever died of global warming, World War II wasn’t a scam FDR cooked up to make money (although I wouldn’t put it past the S.O.B…) and the sun hasn’t bombed Pearl Harbor.

Plus nobody has to hide their Cadillacs and those old-fashioned light bulbs in their attics. Well, not yet, anyhow…

[Dr Mabuse]

Originally Posted by VinVega

I'm sure you guys will delight in this news:

Yahoo Story


Enjoy.

Why would anyone delight in that?

Wind power is a great idea for rural areas. rural homes, etc. There are many great applications. Wind will never even partially replace the energy required by modern cities on large grids. It simply can't produce the output to do that.

The only downside is it kills the most endangered birds left and right, and if a large turbine goes south it can cause serious destruction for up to a ~half mile in any direction.

[wendersfan]

Note to movielib: I have been a vegetarian for 24 years but am not by any stretch of the imagination a "Goreite". Thank you.

[movielib]

Originally Posted by wendersfan

Note to movielib: I have been a vegetarian for 24 years but am not by any stretch of the imagination a "Goreite". Thank you.

Goreites tend to like vegetarianism. The reverse is not necessarily true.

[movielib]

Yet another stupid Greenpeace stunt.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/07/0...ount-rushmore/

Greenpeace defaces Mount Rushmore
8 07 2009

More civil disobedience and vandalism along the thinking of Dr. James Hansen of NASA GISS, who advocates such things.

From Ecorazzi and Treehugger



Greenpeace took a unique approach today and sent several climbers up Mt. Rushmore in the middle of the night to deploy a giant 75lb sixty-five feet high by thirty-five feet wide banner calling for Climate Action. Featuring an unfinished portrait of the President, it read “America honors leaders not politicians: Stop Global Warming.” The demonstration came as President Obama meets other G8 leaders in l’Aquila, Italy today to discuss the global warming crisis in the lead-up to UN climate treaty negotiations in Copenhagen this December.

The banner managed to stay up on Mt. Rushmore for about an hour before being cut at around 1:17 PM est. Greenpeace was quick to point out that they respect American monuments and the banner was not installed in any way detrimental to the carvings on Mt. Rushmore. For more information, jump to the official Greenpeace posting on the event here.

via Treehugger

[UPDATE: Newsweek's The Gaggle blog says it has learned: "That a team of 12 experienced climbers prepped conspicuously for months planning for different scenarios to ensure the action could be completed safely. The group also promised there would be no damage to the actual monument, which is solid granite. And all involved planned to spend several weeks behind bars."]

At least they "expect" to be punished. That is, unless Hansen and a stupid jury get them off.

[classicman2]

Originally Posted by VinVega

I'm sure you guys will delight in this news:

Yahoo Story


Enjoy.

Technical problems - money

[frenchy]

Originally Posted by movielib

I like the Google search box and the find box in these screenshots.

[movielib]

Originally Posted by frenchy

I like the Google search box and the find box in these screenshots.

Yeah, I noticed that too.

[movielib]

Must be something in the heating air today (not here in Madison where it's way below normal though) that's bringing out the Greenpeace and other loonies. First Mt. Rushmore, now these:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090708/...ummit_protests

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer Ariel David, Associated Press Writer – [July 8, 2009]

ROME – Environmentalists broke into power stations across Italy and shed their clothes in downtown Rome on Wednesday as world leaders discussed a new deal to combat global warming.

Dozens of activists from 18 countries scaled smokestacks and occupied four Italian coal-fired power plants, hanging banners that called on the Group of Eight summit in central Italy to take the lead in fighting climate change, Greenpeace said.

Italian energy giant Enel, which owns three of the plants, said production had not been disrupted by the protests. Employees at two of the plants staged counter-demonstrations, and the union for Italy's energy workers condemned the protest.

In Rome, activists from charity group Oxfam International put on masks of world leaders and dressed up as chefs, stirring a mock Earth in a pot representing the planet's rising temperature.

On the historic Spanish Steps, environmentalists stripped half-naked in front of tourists and unfurled a banner calling on leaders to "Keep climate cool." Police briefly detained two women, a French citizen and an American, as well as a Greek man.

The G-8 on Wednesday agreed to support a goal of keeping the world's average temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

The agreement marks a significant step in efforts to limit greenhouse gases blamed for the world's rising temperature. The G-8 previously had not been able to agree on that temperature limit as a political goal.

In Rome, several members of the Italian parliament said they were starting a hunger strike on Wednesday night to urge the G-8 leaders to press China to end the violence in Xinjiang region.

Chinese President Hu Jintao hastily cut short a visit to Italy this week, where he was to attend the summit along with other developing countries, to deal with the violence, in which at least 156 people have perished in rioting.

The climate change stunts came a day after anti-globalization groups in the capital blocked roads and rail tracks and clashed with police in violent protests against the G-8. Nearly 40 activists were detained.

Also Wednesday, the ANSA news agency reported that police had briefly held four Dutch citizens who were traveling to the summit area with helmets, gas masks and sticks in their car.

Several demonstrations have been scheduled in Rome and L'Aquila, the quake-shattered central Italian town hosting the three-day summit that opened Wednesday.

In one such protest, L'Aquila residents climbed a hill in front of the police school serving as the summit venue and set up giant plastic letters reading "Yes we camp" ahead of President Barack Obama's arrival.

The wordplay on Obama's "Yes we can" campaign slogan sought to remind the world leaders about the thousands of earthquake survivors who are still living in makeshift tent camps since the devastating April 6 temblor.

The Italian government chose L'Aquila as host to highlight the population's plight, but some locals fear the decision is diverting time and resources from the rebuilding of their shattered homes.

What is it with these protesters who can't protest without trespassing, vandalizing or inconveniencing hordes of people? And why no pics? Probably for the best as I'd bet no one wants to see these people naked or half naked.

[movielib]

The first thing the alarmists want you to believe about the medieval warm period is that it didn't exist. Thus we had Michael Mann and his incredible discredited Hockey Stick. If that fails, they want you to believe that the MWP was localized to, like, Europe, where the evidence is best. However, scores of studies find that it was basically worldwide. If that fails, they want you to believe that, like drugs on South park, "warming is bad." However, all evidence consistently shows the opposite. Now a new study credits the success of the Incan empire largely to the MWP.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/07/0...u-picchu-inca/

The Medieval Warm Period linked to the success of Machu Picchu, Inca Empire
8 07 2009

According to Wikipedia, the Medieval Warm Period was a time of warm weather around AD 800-1300 during the European Medieval period. Initial research on the MWP and the following Little Ice Age (LIA) was largely done in Europe, where the phenomenon was most obvious and clearly documented. It was initially believed that the temperature changes were global. However, this view has been questioned; the 2001 IPCC report summarises this research, saying

“…current evidence does not support globally synchronous periods of anomalous cold or warmth over this time frame, and the conventional terms of ‘Little Ice Age’ and ‘Medieval Warm Period’ appear to have limited utility in describing trends in hemispheric or global mean temperature changes in past centuries”.

Of course, there’s many researchers, such as Michael Mann and his thoroughly discredited “hockey stick” that try mightily to make the MWP disappear.



News flash to IPCC. Now a scientist has linked the MWP to success of the Inca civilization in the southern hemisphere. It is not going away any time soon, it is spreading.

The new study is called “Putting the Rise of the Inca within a Climatic and Land Management Context” and was prepared by Alex Chepstow-Lusty, an English paleo-biologist working for the French Institute of Andean Studies, in Lima. Link to paper (PDF) is here (h/t to WUWT reader Corey)

Here is the abstract:

The rapid expansion of the Inca from the Cuzco area of highland Peru produced the largest empire in the New World between ca. AD 1400–1532. Although this meteoric rise may in part be due to the adoption of innovative societal strategies, supported by a large labour force and standing army, we argue that this would not have been possible without increased crop productivity, which was linked to more favourable climatic conditions. A multi-proxy, high-resolution 1200-year lake sediment record was analysed at Marcacocha, 12 km north of Ollantaytambo, in the heartland of the Inca Empire. This record reveals a period of sustained aridity that began from AD 880, followed by increased warming from AD 1100 that lasted beyond the arrival of the Spanish in AD 1532. These increasingly warmer conditions allowed the Inca and their predecessors the opportunity to exploit higher altitudes from AD 1150, by constructing agricultural terraces that employed glacial-fed irrigation, in combination with deliberate agroforestry techniques. There may be some important lessons to be learnt today from these strategies for sustainable rural development in the Andes in the light of future climate uncertainty.

Here is a news article about it that talks of the findings. (h/t to WUWT reader “cotwome”) - Anthony

Huayna Picchu towers above the ruins of Machu Picchu

Opportunity knocks, again, in the Andes
by Nicholas Asheshov
Living in Peru

The last time global warming came to the Andes it produced the Inca Empire. A team of English and U.S. scientists has analyzed pollen, seeds and isotopes in core samples taken from the deep mud of a small lake not far from Machu Picchu and their report says that “the success of the Inca was underpinned by a period of warming that lasted more than four centuries.”

The four centuries coincided directly with the rise of this startling, hyper-productive culture that at its zenith was bigger than the Ming Dynasty China and the Ottoman Emachu_picchu_globempire, the two most powerful contemporaries of the Inca.

“This period of increased temperatures,” the scientists say, “allowed the Inca and their predecessors to expand, from AD 1150 onwards, their agricultural zones by moving up the mountains to build a massive system of terraces fed frequently by glacial water, as well as planting trees to reduce erosion and increase soil fertility.

“They re-created the landscape and produced the huge surpluses of maize, potatoes, quinua and other crops that freed a rapidly growing population to build roads, scores of palaces like Machu Picchu and in particular the development of a large standing army.”

No World Bank, no NGOs.

The new study is called “Putting the Rise of the Inca within a Climatic and Land Management Context” and was prepared by Alex Chepstow-Lusty, an English paleo-biologist working for the French Institute of Andean Studies, in Lima. Alex led a team that includes Brian Bauer, of the University of Illinois, one of today’s top Inca-ologists. The study is being published in Climate of the Past, an online academic journal.

Alex spends a lot of time in Cuzco and he told me the other day that the report “raises the question of whether today’s global warming may be another opportunity for the Andes.”

The core samples from the sediment of the little lake, Marcacocha, in the Patakancha valley above Ollantaytambo, show that there was a major cold drought in the southern Andes beginning in 880 AD lasting for a devastating century-plus through into 1000AD. This cold snap finished off both the Wari and the Tiahuanaco cultures which had between them dominated the southern Andes for more than a millenium.

It was at this same time that the Classic Maya disappeared in Yucatan. It was also a time, on the other side of the Pacific when major migrations from East Asia took place into Polynesia, an indication of a major Niño event; a Niño sees western Pacific currents switch to flow from West to East.

Core samples from glaciers and from the mud beneath lakes in the Andes, the Amazon and elsewhere have built up a history of the world’s climate and the message is crystal clear. It is that changes have taken place in the past, during the six or seven thousand years of our agriculture-based civilizations, that are just as big as the ones we are facing from today’s CO2 warming.

The message may be, too, that climate change is especially forceful in the Andes. Here we are, sandwiched thinly between the world’s biggest ocean and the world’s biggest jungle. The peaks are so high that they have had until just a few years ago deep ice on or near the Equator.

The valleys and surrounding hills have formed the roof of the human world for at least three millennia, according to Alex Chepstow-Lusty’s core samples. Nowhere else do millions of people live at or even near 4,000ms above sea level where it is cold, but getting warmer.

Today’s warming is also following on a colder spell that started, the core samples say, not long after the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century.

For instance, the pollen in the cores says that there was maize being grown under the Incas around the lake at 3,300ms a.s.l. Until recently the upper level for maize around the Urubamba valley was 3,000-3,100ms. In the past few years the maize level has moved up and today there is maize being grown again above Marcacocha.

Alex’s records show that hundreds of terraces were being built around the lake between 1100 and 1150 AD -”lots of mud followed by the heavy pollen of maize.”

Enrique Mayer, at Yale, tells me that “the question of the expansion of maize together with the Inca state is now a proven archeological fact, notably in the Mantaro Valley (Tim Earle).

“The question of why terraces are not worked now as intensively as they could has been worked on (Bill Devevan) in the Colca Valley where the terraces are actually in franco retroceso.

“Also, you have John Treacy’s book on Coporaque which is probably the most technically accessible to the argument that terraces are, like flower pots, expensive to maintain.”

There is also, of course, the work of John Earls on the terracing at Moray.

Today there are thousands upon thousands of fine flights of Inca terraces all over the upper ends of the valleys of Central and Southern Peru but few of them are used on a regular basis.

Efforts have been made, among them by Ann Kendall, the English archaeologist, to rescusitate the old irrigation channels and the use of the terraces in the valleys above Machu Picchu. But most have been re-abandoned.

In the same vein the great forests of polylepis, the world’s highest tree, which capture and conserve moisture, have mostly been cut down for firewood.

As they say, you only have to look in the mirror to see where the problem is.

CO2 Science has been bringing together studies of the MWP for years. You can look here, if so inclined:

http://www.co2science.org/subject/s/southamericamwp.php

[wmansir]

I just read about the G-8 agreeing to a 2C limit in temperature rise, what ever the hell that means. They also agreed that all weekends will be sunny and 70F.

[OldDude]

Originally Posted by wmansir

I just read about the G-8 agreeing to a 2C limit in temperature rise, what ever the hell that means. They also agreed that all weekends will be sunny and 70F.

and hopefully would only rain between midnight and 6 AM (local time) on weekdays.

[movielib]

Realclimate.org tries to appear nonpartisan and "scientific" and bills itself thusly: "RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists..." They may be real scientists but they are above all propagandists and activists. Activist scientists were recruited by environmental interests and their numbers include Michael Mann of the discredited Hockey Stick, Eric Stieg of the discredited Warming Antarctic, Caspar Amman who is shown to have been as dishonest as the two I just mentioned (see http://bishophill.squarespace.com/bl...sus-paper.html), William Connolley who patrols Wikipedia to keep out any skeptical voices and Gavin Schmidt who never saw an attempted comment at realclimate he would refuse to print if he might have a difficult time answering it (at realclimate, "troublesome" posts are routinely not printed or, if they are printed, are immediately rebutted with "inline comments" some good, some much of the same garbage). And realclimate still sticks to its initial assessment of Al Gore's movie that it got the science essentially correct.

Here is a long, wonderfully revealing article about the real realclimate:

http://www.co2science.org/subject/s/...limateorg.html

Monday, July 06, 2009
The Truth about RealClimate.org

RealClimate.org is assumed by those who do not know any better to be an "objective" source on climate change. It features activist scientists with degrees in Geology, Geosciences, Mathematics, Oceanography and Physics who are all self proclaimed "climatologists". Yet skeptical scientists with equivalent credentials are not (probably because they have not proclaimed it). Essentially the site exists to promote global warming alarmism and attack anyone who does not agree with their declaration of doomsday (proven of course by their own computer climate models) and the need for government intervention against the life supporting, atmospheric trace gas, carbon dioxide. Standard operating procedure is to post "rebuttals" to everything they disagree with and then declare victory, making sure to censor comments challenging their position. It doesn't matter if they actual rebutted any of the science or facts just so long as they provide the existence of a criticism. This gives their fanboys "ammunition" to further promote alarmist propaganda across the Internet (and of course declare victory). Their resident propagandist William Connolley's job is to edit dissent and smear skeptical scientists on Wikipedia. In the world of global warming alarmist "science" pretending you win is apparently all that matters because in real debates they lose. The truth is that RealClimate.org is an environmentalist shill site directly connected to an eco-activist group, Environmental Media Services and Al Gore but they don't want you to know that.

RealClimate.org

Hosted by - Environmental Media Services
Environmental Media Services (EMS) (Discover the Networks)



EMS's founder and President was Arlie Schardt, who also served as the National Press Secretary for Al Gore's 1988 presidential campaign, and as Gore's Communications Director during his 2000 bid for the White House. [...]

EMS officially served as the "scientific" branch of the leftist public-relations firm Fenton Communications; both companies shared the same Washington, D.C. address and office space. For more than a decade, David Fenton (CEO of Fenton Communications) used EMS to run negative media campaigns against a wide variety of targets, including biogenetic foods, America's dairy industry, and President George W. Bush. [...]

EMS also produced many stories condemning the Bush administration's environmental policies. Among these titles were: "Bush Administration Obscures Truth About Toxic Cleanups"; "President Bush Signs Fatally Flawed Wildfire Bill"; "Earth Day Event To Highlight Bush Administration Assault On Environment, Public Health"; "Bush Administration Report Card: 'F' on Protecting Children"; and "National Environmental Groups Launch Campaign to Defeat President Bush." EMS claimed that the data contained in its press releases constituted "the latest and most credible information" provided by "top scientists, physicians, and other experts." These "experts" included officials of Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Environmental Media Services (EMS) (Activist Cash)

EMS is the communications arm of leftist public relations firm Fenton Communications. Based in Washington, in the same office suite as Fenton, EMS claims to be "providing journalists with the most current information on environmental issues." A more accurate assessment might be that it spoon-feeds the news media sensationalized stories, based on questionable science, and featuring activist "experts," all designed to promote and enrich David Fenton's paying clients, and build credibility for the nonprofit ones. It's a clever racket, and EMS & Fenton have been running it since 1994. [...]

It's called "black marketing," and Environmental Media Services has become the principal reason Fenton Communications is so good at it. EMS lends an air of legitimacy to what might otherwise be dismissed (and rightly so) as fear-mongering from the lunatic fringe. In addition to pre-packaged "story ideas" for the mass media, EMS provides commentaries, briefing papers, and even a stable of experts, all carefully calculated to win points for paying clients. These "experts," though, are also part of the ruse. Over 70% of them earn their paychecks from current or past Fenton clients, all of which have a financial stake in seeing to it that the scare tactics prevail. It's a clever deception perpetrated on journalists who generally don't consider do-gooder environmentalists to be capable of such blatant and duplicitous "spin."

Fenton Communications (Discover the Networks)

Foremost public relations firm of the political left. Past clients have included Marxist dictatorships in Central America. Represents environmentalist groups, pro-Democratic political action committees, labor unions, and the anti-war movement.

Founded in 1982 by activist and public relations veteran David Fenton, Fenton Communications (FC) is the leading advertising and public relations firm for advocacy groups on the political left, with locations in Washington DC, New York, and San Francisco.

FC serves as an "umbrella" for "three independent nonprofit organizations" which it co-founded. These include: Environmental Media Services, which manages publicity efforts for environmental groups; New Economy Communications, a social justice group; and the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-death penalty lobby.

FC expressly refuses to represent "clients and projects that we don't believe in ourselves." Among the clients and projects that FC has worked for are Marxist-Leninist regimes in Central America and Africa, environmental groups, labor unions, and anti-war organizations. In addition, FC has offered its services to pro-Democrat political action committees and law firms, as well as to political campaigns against the death penalty and gun-ownership rights. [...]

Equally noteworthy has been FC's business partnership with environmental groups. In 1988 and 1989, FC helped one such organization, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), promote misleading claims about the dangers of Alar, a pesticide then in use by the apple industry. On the basis of NRDC's study of Alar, itself based on exaggerated probabilities rather than concrete empirical data, FC launched a media campaign that stoked consumers' fears and captured the interest of television news programs, daily newspapers and daytime talk shows, fueling a backlash against apple growers. By some estimates, the apple industry suffered $200 million in lost revenue as a result of the FC campaign.

By contrast, FC and its client prospered. David Fenton subsequently boasted that his firm had "designed" the media campaign "so that revenue would flow back to NRDC from the public," noting that FC had gained "$700,000 in net revenues from it." Fenton Communications today cites the Alar campaign as a significant contribution to the "national debate" on pesticides. [...]

Joining forces with the Environmental Working Group, FC has also engineered media campaigns exaggerating the dangers posed by pesticides in tap water and baby food.

In 2003 FC created an ad campaign targeting the automotive industry for the Evangelical Environmental Network. The controversial ads alleged that consumers who bought sport utility vehicles were, in effect, supporting terrorism by using large amounts of fuel imported from the Middle East. [...]

Arlie Schardt, a senior consultant at Fenton Communications and Chairman of Environmental Media Services, served as Al Gore's national press secretary during his first presidential campaign.

David Fenton (ActivistCash)

David Fenton has turned leftist activism into big business with his firm Fenton Communications, the single most easily identifiable nexus of anti-consumer activism in Washington, DC. Fenton and his staff masterminded the mad cow scare campaign, the organic marketing craze, the phony Alar-on-apples food scare, and more. He’s very good at what he does, and groups like the Center for Food Safety, Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Organic Consumers Association, and SeaWeb are all happy to pony up big bucks to give their radical messages the Fenton touch.

Fenton started out in the music biz, directing public relations for Rolling Stone. He entered the activist fray in the anti-nuclear movement of the late 1970s, co-producing the 1979 “No Nukes” concerts headlined by Bruce Springsteen and Bonnie Raitt. From there, he went on to found his own activism-centered PR empire, Fenton Communications, in 1982. Within that umbrella are “three independent nonprofit organizations” all co-founded by Fenton: the Death Penalty Information Center, New Economy Communications (an anti-globalism outfit), and Environmental Media Services.

Fenton Communications Launches Green-Tech Division (Reuters)

Fenton Communications has been deeply involved in environmental issues since its founding in 1982. The firm publicized the first reports of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, helped environmental NGOs at the Kyoto Global Warming Summit, and worked with Vice-President Al Gore to publicize the issues.

Climate Science: Is it currently designed to answer questions? (PDF) (Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D. Professor of Atmospheric Science, MIT)

"Environmental Media Services (a project of Fenton Communications, a large public relations firm serving left wing and environmental causes; they are responsible for the alar scare as well as Cindy Sheehan’s anti-war campaign.) created a website, realclimate.org, as an ‘authoritative’ source for the ‘truth’ about climate. This time, real scientists who were also environmental activists, were recruited to organize this web site and ‘discredit’ any science or scientist that questioned catastrophic anthropogenic global warming. The web site serves primarily as a support group for believers in catastrophe, constantly reassuring them that there is no reason to reduce their worrying." - Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D. Professor of Atmospheric Science, MIT