Playing for time with global warming... and spectator sports...

...the weekend treat for many Kiwi's was the success of the All Whites over Bahrain and our inclusion in next year's World Cup. The weekend's great yawning bore on the other hand, was the totally ridiculous display that is present day international rugby, particularly as played over the weekend by Italy and the All Blacks. If ever sport can be said to have degenerated into farce, and have lost all spectator appeal it is this, our national sport. (But see addendum below.) By contrast, football here in NZ is in ascendancy. We have recently been treated to thrilling trans-Tasman competition courtesy of the Wellington Phoenix, (thanks to Terry Serepisos) under-17 success in the Uganda tournament, superb women's football in Christchurch last year, and now World Cup qualification.

And what has all this got to do with global warming ? Only the fact that total farce is also being played out on the world stage and here in NZ too. Australia we are told, will exclude agriculture from its ETS, while NZ is determined to hobble its main economic linchpin, and will tax agriculture heavily, and is likely then to subsidise Australian dairy exports. The USA have determined that they will not pass domestic climate change legislation this year thus relegating next month's Copenhagen conference to an expensive international high carbon footprint junket for attendees. And apart from all this we are still expected to believe, despite rebuttal, that the science behind all this posturing and expense is settled beyond doubt, and that global catastrophe awaits if we do not reform our ways. What a load of cobblers !

At least the reality of the opposition to green/left hysterics is being noticed more, and the main media are now having to dilute their scare stories. See Chris de Freitas from yesterday's NZ Herald, here. And every day that passes, new research and new information adds to our sceptical armament and knowledge...from WuWT...“The more people learn about the supposed issue of ‘climate change’ and how green extremists intend to control our lives, the more skeptical they become,” said Jeff Davis, president of Minnesota Majority...Last week, key US Senate Democrats said it is unlikely there will be any additional action on climate-change legislation this year. The Obama administration had hoped to seal a deal on domestic cap-and-trade legislation prior to attending the Copenhagen conference in December. Earlier this month, The Times reported that all hope is lost for a deal in Copenhagen and that a world treaty on climate change will likely be delayed by up to a year. Davis warns now is not the time for treaty opponents to rest on their laurels. “We may have bought ourselves some time,” said Davis. “But green extremists will be back in-force trying to advance both domestic cap-and-trade legislation and an international climate treaty that will rob us of our liberties and grant government more control over our lives.”

...and from Samizdata...Often I read, in various Climate Alarmist articles, words to the effect that "time is running out on a global climate deal"... which is great news if it is actually true. It suggests to me that perhaps they realise that the "universally accepted" One True Apostolic Eco-Faith is really the very epitome of a paper tiger as there is far from a genuine consensus on the subject.
So if time is running out, it would seem hard to overstate the importance of running interference and generally throwing spanners into the works for as long as possible. To prevent the latest transnational 'tranzi' red-wrapped-in-green statist power ploys, friends of liberty need to do whatever they can to 'run out the clock' and then encourage as much international political recrimination post-failure as possible, in order to keep the ball out of play for as long as possible. I think it is time to suggest creative but practical ways to help sow discord and disunity amongst the predatory political elites (and their supporters) of the various countries seeking to extend ever more control over their national subjects under the cloak of green politics.
Certainly if overtly totalitarian measures like carbon rationing are ever brought in, truly the time for unambiguous direct resistance to the state will have arrived, so preventing things getting to that stage is more than a little important...

I take all my cruel words about rugby back. As tedious as the Italy match was, France v the All Blacks yesterday (the 29th) was a true sports spectacle. Skill, confidence, speed, power and flair demolished an opposition who also played with credit and daring. Wonderful stuff.

Scientific consensus ? Baloney !

...for many global warming/climate change sceptics the alarm bells rang loud and clear when politicians and green/left political "activists" announced that the jury had returned, and that the science of climatastrophe was settled. Over these last few years the AGW debate has largely stayed out of the MSM, it has instead been fought through blogs, and day by day, poll by poll the news is that the general public are getting the message. Re recent US polling see this.

Now from the University of Bristol, UK, more bad news for the warmists and further reinforcement that computer based climate change models are worthless...

...New data (9.11.09) shows that the balance between the airborne and the absorbed fraction of carbon dioxide has stayed approximately constant since 1850, despite emissions of carbon dioxide having risen from about 2 billion tons a year in 1850 to 35 billion tons a year now.This suggests that terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans have a much greater capacity to absorb CO2 than had been previously expected.
The results run contrary to a significant body of recent research which expects that the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans to absorb CO2 should start to diminish as CO2 emissions increase, letting greenhouse gas levels skyrocket. Dr Wolfgang Knorr at the University of Bristol found that in fact the trend in the airborne fraction since 1850 has only been 0.7 ± 1.4% per decade, which is essentially zero...

...This work is extremely important for climate change policy, because emission targets to be negotiated at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen early next month have been based on projections that have a carbon free sink of already factored in. Some researchers have cautioned against this approach, pointing at evidence that suggests the sink has already started to decrease...MORE HERE...

Quote of the day...

...courtesy of WuWT...from Congressman Henry Waxman, Chairman, Committee on Energy and Commerce...leading to this comment from Sam the Skeptic...
...Words failed me when I first read this quote. They continue to fail me today. There never was any chance of anything I have read anywhere since last Sunday ever being in the same horse race as this for Quote of the Week.,..fellow-sufferers, really do be afraid. If this is what US politicians genuinely believe and they do not have enough of an open mind to consider they may have got the facts wrong, then we are indeed doomed...

“We’re seeing the reality of a lot of the North Pole starting to evaporate, and we could get to a tipping point. Because if it evaporates to a certain point - they have lanes now where ships can go that couldn’t ever sail through before. And if it gets to a point where it evaporates too much, there’s a lot of tundra that’s being held down by that ice cap...”

...That’s probably the scariest statement on “science” ever uttered by a Congressman.
Let me go on record by saying Waxman is stunningly and stupidly misinformed and intellectually inadequate for the tasks at hand that bears his name: The Waxman-Markey Bill

...more from WuWT here...