USD College Republicans

Environmental Vindication?

Another ridiculous BBC article describes the current anti-warming trend in a way that still clings to prophecies of a global meltdown. I fail to understand the "logic" of these mad scientists. Even though scientific data demonstrates that temperatures are going down and will continue to for more than a decade, global warming alarmists continue to espouse un-amended assertions that humans are the cause of warming trends.

I don't trust the accuracy of weather models that make predictions more than twenty years in advance. I have had a few bad experiences with meteorologists. ;)

It is somewhat annoying that Republicans have been stuck with the environmentally apathetic label. This is simply not the case. The Republican Party strongly supports responsible management of our natural resources in order to cultivate a future for our country. The problem is, we want a productive future, meaning we will still have to -shudder- USE some resources. It's the USE part that liberals can't quite accept. It seems that all they want is to block society's access to it's own resources and trade progress for digression. That, my friends, is not the path to prosperity, and it never will be.

B. Reasonable

Posted at 02:14PM May 01, 2008 by College Republicans in Climate Change/Global Warming  |  Comments[2]

Volante Column

Check out my final Volante column of the year.

It's about the ridiculous waste of time that IS Earth Day.

I'm not sure if Tim has one out this week, but I'll post it if he does.

-Matt Hittle

Posted at 11:12AM Apr 30, 2008 by College Republicans in Climate Change/Global Warming  |  Comments[3]

Well, it's Earth Day...

..And nothing has changed. Nor will it.

Days like Earth Day are worthless. So someone tied "hug me" signs to the trees on campus? What will THAT do for the Earth? NOTHING.

Events like Earth Day are just excuses for people to feel better about themselves, thinking they "did something" for the Earth. They didn't.

-Matt Hittle

Posted at 12:31PM Apr 22, 2008 by College Republicans in Climate Change/Global Warming  |  Comments[4]

Scientist: We're brainwashing our children

A leading scientist says we are brainwashing our children about global warming

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"Another post from guest blogger Rick Neale of Florida Today, from the National Hurricane Conference in Orlando:

William Gray, the well-known Colorado State University hurricane forecaster, routinely uses the annual National Hurricane Conference as a platform to bash global warming. In a statement to Florida Today, Gray argued that the scientific consensus on global warming is bogus — and "a mild form of McCarthyism has developed toward those scientists who do not agree" that mankind is in danger.

"We are also brainwashing our children on the warming topic. We have no better example than Al Gore's alarmists and inaccurate movie which is being shown in our schools and being hawked by warming activists with little or no meteorological-climate background," Gray wrote.

Some scientists believe global warming will actually decrease — not increase — the number of hurricanes that form over the Atlantic Ocean each year. Last Friday, in the final session of the hurricane conference, a pair of climate experts said rising sea-surface temperatures in and near the Caribbean could strengthen vertical wind shear. Robust wind shear is the bane of hurricanes, as it tends to tear apart cyclones during their formative stages.

"If (global warming) were to happen, that is an effect which should be more hostile to hurricane building," said Thomas Knutson, research meteorologist with the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, N.J.

Knutson and Chris Landsea, science and operations officer with the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said historic observation data and computer models debunk doomsday scenarios that foresee armadas of deadly hurricanes, slamming into the Southeast. "Any (hurricane) trend we're seeing due to global warming — and I do agree global warming's real, and manmade causes contribute to it — really has very limited impact, very tiny changes," Landsea said.

Both scientists referred to the global warming studies of ocean climatologist Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Emanuel noted that from 1972-2004, Atlantic surface temperatures and hurricane intensity were closely linked."
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-Matt Hittle

Posted at 09:04AM Apr 08, 2008 by College Republicans in Climate Change/Global Warming  |  Comments[0]

Earth Hour a miserable failure

Like other liberal feel good events, Earth Hour failed miserably.
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Credit the public with sense. Earth Hour, hysterically promoted by The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, the ABC, SBS, Sky News and the federal and state governments, resulted in no significant fall in power usage.

Check the graphs from our National Electricity Market Management Company, tracking power use between 8pm and 9pm (a period in which demand always plummets)
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Here are the hilarious updates:

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As with the graphs, so with the crowds:

More than 1000 people braved the chill and the rain to see Premier John Brumby and Lord Mayor John So lead the countdown to 8pm… At the top of the Rialto, a small crowd had a sense of anticlimax when there was no widespread blackout at 8pm. In fact, across the CBD rows of illuminated office windows, with little sign of beavering workers behind them, showed not everyone had read the memo.

The organisers will say never mind, this was about raising awareness (although not of raising awareness of the facts). But here’s the awareness it should raise: how difficult it is to get even a tiny cut in just electricity use for one lousy hour, in a country responsible for just 1.5 per cent of the world’s emissions.

And then think what the Rudd Government is promising: a 60 per cent cut in all emissions, all year. And it’s to be matched by every country around the world.

Meanwhile, the world has not warmed since 1998. Indeed, the oceans and atmosphere have cooled over the past couple.

UPDATE

Meanwhile the Sydney Morning Herald keeps telling fibs about last year’s Earth Hour while claiming success with this one:

The city’s energy consumption dipped by more than 10 per cent - a 25-tonne reduction in carbon dioxide emissions...

Again, it’s raising awareness of anything but the truth. In fact:

(T)he claimed dip in power was just for the CBD, not all Sydney. (Moreover), the 10 per cent cut claimed for the CBD is itself a gross exaggeration. A cut so tiny is trivial - equal to taking six cars off the road for a year. But David Solomon, a finance PhD student at the Chicago University’s graduate school of business, crunched Sydney’s power figures to exclude seasonal and daily fluctuations, and concluded… “the drop in electricity use during Earth Hour is statistically indistinguishable from zero.”

UPDATE 2

Reader Sally points out that the hundreds of Brisbane residents who drove to Kangaroo Point, choking the roads, to see the lights go down sure made up for any cut in emissions:

UPDATE 3

Reader B., an electrical engineer, checks the raw figures. His initial findings, pending more detailed research:

I have just looked at Qld, NSW, and Vic. Qld dropped the most power during Earth Hour, and it appears to be greater than normal. On average the drop is around 250 MW, in this case it is 400 MW… While Qld appears to have done well, NSW’s power usage actually went up for the first half-hour (7,777 MW to 7,862 MW), before dropping 112 MW… Vic remained more or less constant, with a drop of only 90 MW during the hour.

UPDATE 4

Some warming worshippers just didn’t get that this was about cutting warming gases, not adding to them with a bonfire:

At Giuseppe Arnaldo & Sons, celebrity chef Maurice Terzini ensured diners were not left in the dark in spectacular fashion by lighting 1000 candles.

UPDATE 5

Reader Jessica spots more warming lunacy:

We watched at least 7 helicopters flying around the inner Brisbane skies. I sent a leftie friend of mine an sms at about 8:15pm asking her if she could hear them too - she was very perplexed as to why they were there until I explained it was the Earth Hour people filming the lights so that they could go home and watch their “success” on their plasma televisions.

UPDATE 6

Reader Andrew lives in Carlton, a Melbourne suburb with a strong Green vote. Note that you’d actually know it from Earth Hour.

UPDATE 7

Symbolic, all right - of the way even fraud is excused in this “good” cause:
Sixteen office blocks owned or leased by the State Government took part. In a few cases, where staff were on 24-hour rosters, lights on some floors had to be kept on, but staff were instructed to pull blinds in order not to detract from the effect of the blackout.

(Thanks to reader oblong.)

UPDATE 8

National Electricity Market Management Company says Earth Hour caused power use to fall - but only until everyone reached for the switches again:

“We’re still finalising the data, but we do believe that there was at least 1,000 megawatts reduction across the national grid, which is a significant reduction across the states, south-eastern and eastern states of Australia,” (spokesman Paul Bird) said… Mr Bird says demand dropped during the hour, but then rose again.
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This is typical of the feel good events that liberals/progressives hold. As with Al Gore's failed Live Earth event in summer 2007 (I witnessed the DC event- what a crock ), this event failed to have any appreciable effect on emissions or energy usage. Maybe they should actually DO something.

The organizers of this event said it was held in order to "raise awareness." What? Who ISN'T aware of global warming? The mainstream media shove it down our gullets DAILY. If it's as urgent of a problem as they say, it's only logical that they'd want to DO something about it, rather than holding these stupid, insignificant events.

-Matt Hittle

Posted at 11:17AM Mar 31, 2008 by College Republicans in Climate Change/Global Warming  |  Comments[3]

Chinese pollution and the 2008 Games

Famed marathon runner Haile Gebrselassie has pulled out of some events of the the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games because of health worries.
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"The pollution in China is a threat to my health and it would be difficult for me to run 42km in my current condition," Gebrselassie said. "But I am not pulling out of the Olympic event in Beijing all together. I plan to participate in the 10,000m event."
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Pollution is a major concern for athletes participating in the Games. Of course, we don't hear a peep out of the global warming fanatics, the Democratic presidential candidates, or even the Left in general. Why? I think it's because they simply don't care about China's pollution. They've politicized the issue to the extent that their rhetoric now hammers on the US, even though the US has some of the most advanced anti-pollution technologies in the world.
Hypocrisy of the highest order!

-Matt Hittle

Posted at 08:29PM Mar 10, 2008 by College Republicans in Climate Change/Global Warming  |  Comments[3]

Supernova: It's comin', y'all!

I just stumbled across this YouTube video of Frank Caliendo making fun of Al Gore.

Caliendo uses his spot-on impression of Gore to poke fun at Gore's factually questionable, hype-inspiring blockbuster "An Inconvenient Truth."

-Matt Hittle

Posted at 11:46PM Feb 19, 2008 by College Republicans in Climate Change/Global Warming  |  Comments[0]

400 Scientists: Man-made global warming a myth

The Democrats will HATE this.
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"Even some in the establishment media now appear to be taking notice of the growing number of skeptical scientists. In October, the Washington Post Staff Writer Juliet Eilperin conceded the obvious, writing that climate skeptics "appear to be expanding rather than shrinking." Many scientists from around the world have dubbed 2007 as the year man-made global warming fears “bites the dust.” (LINK)

This blockbuster Senate report lists the scientists by name, country of residence, and academic/institutional affiliation. It also features their own words, biographies, and weblinks to their peer reviewed studies and original source materials as gathered from public statements, various news outlets, and websites in 2007. This new “consensus busters” report is poised to redefine the debate."
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Keeping the environment safe and beautiful is important. However, enacting regulations that will push us back to the stone age isn't...unless you're Al Gore. Environmentalists like Gore and, unfortunately, the USD Dems, typically turn a blind eye to the developing nations like China, which builds, on average,
one new coal power plant each week.. Instead, they focus their energies on the United States, disparaging it for its emissions. I hope that this inequality will be remedied, and that environmentalists will realize that we're on the right path while developing nations aren't..
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-Matt Hittle

Posted at 11:21AM Dec 20, 2007 by College Republicans in Climate Change/Global Warming  |  Comments[5]

Climate change regulations used to slow US economy

Pete DuPont has an excellent article in the WSJ today
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The gist of this article is that developing countries still say they should be exempted from international climate change regulations. Unfortunately, those wishy-washy types in Congress and the UN are more than happy to oblige. Their willingness to let developing nations run amok environmentally is contrary to everything they claim to stand for.
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"In light of all this criticism, what is the status of global emissions over the past few decades? Compared with other countries, how has America done? We generate about 25% of the world's global warming emissions, which is not surprising since we are about 27% of the global economy.

From 1990 to 1995, America's emissions increased 3.9% compared with 3.4% for other developed nations.

From 1995 to 2000, the emissions increased to 11.3%, compared with other developed nations' decline of 1.4%.

From 2000 to 2005, our increase was 0.6% compared with other nations' 2.7%.

So we are making progress. Comparing us with other nations over the 1990-2005, period we are doing better than Canada, Greece, Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain and Turkey, and not as well as Australia, France, Germany, Britain and the Scandinavian nations."
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"Neither Kyoto nor Bali will solve our global energy emission problems. According to a Princeton University study a few year ago the world could hold its carbon dioxide emissions flat if 700 nuclear power plants were built around the globe, for they do not increase global warming. But they are not favored by the climate establishment, and so are not a part of the Bali solution.

Which makes one wonder whether the Kyoto/Bali emotion isn't really energy ballyhoo. Progress can be made in reducing global emissions through technological breakthroughs, not by an economic equality effort by nations irritated by America's economic success over the past decades."
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Did I read that correctly? If 700 nuclear plants were built around the world, carbon dioxide emissions would be nil. Maybe those ultra-lefties who want to save the Earth should also get off of their high horses and quick knocking nuclear energy. Heck, we can't all wear hemp.
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-Matt Hittle

Posted at 02:57PM Dec 19, 2007 by College Republicans in Climate Change/Global Warming  |  Comments[0]

Koch: Al Gore has no idea what he's doing

Ed Koch has an article today on RealClearPolitics detailing why Al Gore is an idiot.
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"Last week Al Gore appeared at the Bali conference and said, "I am not an official of the United States and I am not bound by the diplomatic niceties. So I am going to speak an inconvenient truth. My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali. We all know that."

Oh, really? And just how do we all know that? Is it true that the U.S. is "principally responsible for obstructing progress" in Bali? The New York Times, which applauds the former Vice President, reported on December 14 that "[t]he emerging economic powers, most notably China and India, also refuse to accept limits on their emissions, despite projections that they will soon become the dominant sources of the gases." The same Times article stated while the U.S. opposes an agreement that would include numerical targets, so do "a few other countries, including Russia."

On November 7, 2006, The Times reported, "China will surpass the United States in 2009, nearly a decade ahead of previous predictions, as the biggest emitter of the main gas linked to global warming, the International Energy Agency has concluded in a report to be released Tuesday." The article continued, "China's rise, fueled heavily by coal, is particularly troubling to climate scientists because as a developing country, China is exempt from the Kyoto Protocol's requirements for reductions in emissions of global warming gases."
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This is interesting. If Gore was truly concerned about the environment, he would recognize the fact that the United States is making progress with regard to emissions and he would admonish those like China and India who are just beginning to become heavily industrialized.
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Here's the best paragraph:
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"I wonder if Al Gore knows what he's doing. Reducing and sacrificing the U.S. standard of living as a way to bring others up the ladder, rather than allowing the U.S. to maintain its living standard while encouraging and helping others to reach our level, is a foolish and dangerous plan. It is simply unacceptable. Al Gore and his friends live in a Democratic society and have the absolute right to say what they want. But those of us who do not want to see the U.S. punished because of its success have rights, too. I believe it is our duty to denounce Al Gore's unwise attacks on America and hold him accountable for what he says."
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-Matt Hittle

Posted at 02:18PM Dec 18, 2007 by College Republicans in Climate Change/Global Warming  |  Comments[0]

Skeptic scientists swarm UN

Climate change skeptics swarmed the UN at its climate change meeting in Bali.
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UN officials were wary of them. Well, if I had a thinly veiled political agenda that might come down like a house of cards, I would be, too!
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' "UN organizers refused my credentials and appeared desperate that I should not come to this conference. They have also made several attempts to interfere with our public meetings," Monckton explained.

"It is a circus here," agreed Australian scientist Dr. David Evans. Evans is making scientific presentations to delegates and journalists at the conference revealing the latest peer-reviewed studies that refute the UN's climate claims.

"This is the most lavish conference I have ever been to, but I am only a scientist and I actually only go to the science conferences," Evans said, noting the luxury of the tropical resort.'
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' "We now have quite a lot of evidence that carbon emissions definitely don't cause global warming. We have the missing [human] signature [in the atmosphere], we have the IPCC models being wrong and we have the lack of a temperature going up the last 5 years," Evans said in an interview with the Inhofe EPW Press Blog. Evans authored a November 28 2007 paper "Carbon Emissions Don't Cause Global Warming." '
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I'll almost certainly be labeled a "flat Earther" or some other horrible name, but let's face it- these scientists are another voice in the debate, no matter how much the environmentalists want to control the entire discussion.
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-Matt Hittle

Posted at 09:14AM Dec 11, 2007 by College Republicans in Climate Change/Global Warming  |  Comments[1]

A closer look at CAFE standards

FreedomWorks' Peter Suderman writes about the proposed increased CAFE standards.
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"Tough new fuel economy standards could backfire in a more fundamental way. With oil selling at close to $100 a barrel, a bonanza awaits the first automaker to develop affordable, high-performance vehicles that run on rechargeable batteries, fuel cells, or some other low-emitting or non-emitting propulsion system. But only prosperous companies can afford to plow billions into R&D. Capital spent complying with arbitrary fuel economy mandates is capital unavailable for investment in breakthrough technologies."
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-Matt Hittle

Posted at 08:29PM Dec 06, 2007 by College Republicans in Climate Change/Global Warming  |  Comments[0]

The UN: inept since 1945

The UN is being hypocritical again!
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"Government officials and activists flying to Bali, Indonesia, for the United Nations meeting on climate change will cause as much pollution as 20,000 cars in a year.

The delegates each will produce an average 4.07 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or CO2, to reach the resort island 950 kilometers (600 miles) from Jakarta, according to estimates e- mailed to Bloomberg by the UN agency holding the conference."
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Thanks for pure symbolic gesture and no substantive action, UN!
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-Matt Hittle

Posted at 09:04AM Dec 06, 2007 by College Republicans in Climate Change/Global Warming  |  Comments[0]

Climate change warnings exaggerated?

The Times reports that a fall in deaths attributed to weather indicates that climate change warnings could have been overstated.
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"GREEN scientists have been accused of overstating the dangers of climate change by researchers who found that the number of people killed each year by weather-related disasters is falling.

Their report suggests that a central plank in the global warming argument – that it will result in a big increase in deaths from weather-related disasters – is undermined by the facts. It shows deaths in such disasters peaked in the 1920s and have been declining ever since."
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It will be interesting to see if these reports help cut through the hype of climate change and aid a reasoned discussion of the phenomenon.
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-Matt Hittle

Posted at 04:02PM Dec 02, 2007 by College Republicans in Climate Change/Global Warming  |  Comments[0]