Subject: Happy New Year and the weekly Chilling Effect Cartoon
From: "editor@thechillingeffect.org"
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 12:33:41 -0600
To: bob@cosy.com

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January 5, 2008

 

 
    * “State of the Sun for year end 2008: all’s quiet on the solar front - too quiet”
    * “How Al Gore Saved Christmas”
    * “Why was the world hotter 700 years ago in the ‘Medieval warm Period’?”
    * “Green Comes Clean”
    * “2008: Another Grim Year for the Global Warmers”
    * Examiner’s Mark Tapscott: “Coal Lies From A Progressive Fable Factory”
 
And one longer quote for your consideration:
 
“Environmentalists, in their opposition to coal of any kind, may provide the coup de grâce. Greenpeace, riffing on James Bond, is hawking a “Coalfinger” spoof on the Internet and is deep in a campaign to stop all new coal plants. U.S. environmental groups recently announced a campaign to expose clean coal as a chimera. Thanks to such efforts, in the United States it’s now nearly impossible to build any kind of coal plant, including tests of clean technology. As the world economy recovers, nations will once again turn to their old stalwart, dirty coal..”.
 
 
 
Dr. Margo Thorning of the American Council for Capital Formation has an op-ed on keys to getting the economy moving. One piece of advice touches on energy and environment policy:
 
    “Don’t: Push unrealistic energy and climate change policies.
 
    “We need energy to keep improving the world. U.S. economic growth and energy use go hand in hand; each 1% increase in U.S. GDP is accompanied by a 0.3% increase in energy use. The U.S. Department of Energy projects that the U.S. will need approximately 30% more energy by 2030 to accommodate our growing population, higher levels of employment and economic activity.
 
    “Meanwhile, popular opinion has caught up to economics on the issue of drilling. Allowing increased access to both offshore and onshore areas for drilling and exploration would also have a positive impact on U.S. energy supplies.
 
    “At the same time, many are rushing to legislate regarding global warming. Climate change is a global problem and meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will require the participation of developing and industrializing countries such as India, China, Brazil, Indonesia and others whose emissions are growing rapidly.
 
    “Politicians should avoid imposing tight mandatory emission reduction targets in the U.S., however, because that move could significantly reduce economic and employment growth while sharply raising electricity and other energy prices…”
 
 
It will be interesting to see how people respond to the Times of London column by Christopher Booker, who writes:
 
    “Easily one of the most important stories of 2008 has been all the evidence suggesting that this may be looked back on as the year when there was a turning point in the great worldwide panic over man-made global warming. Just when politicians in Europe and America have been adopting the most costly and damaging measures politicians have ever proposed, to combat this supposed menace, the tide has turned in three significant respects.
 
The practical effect, for Booker, is something Americans may need to take more seriously:
 
   “As 2009 dawns, it is time we in Britain faced up to the genuine crisis now fast approaching from the fact that – unless we get on very soon with building enough proper power stations to fill our looming “energy gap” - within a few years our lights will go out and what remains of our economy will judder to a halt. After years of infantile displacement activity, it is high time our politicians – along with those of the EU and President Obama’s US – were brought back with a mighty jolt into contact with the real world…”
 
 
..is the cuddly koala. The logic seems a bit dodgy, but it’s always interesting to see how the deaths of cute animals can be attributed to climate change. We suspect 2009 will be the Year of the Newborn Puppy (they can’t pant fast enough to cool their core temperature!) rather than the Year of the Smelly Water Buffalo. We could be wrong, we’re just saying we see a trend for the propagandists.