EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED

As they say in discussion about the environment, everything is connected to something else.

In Germany, unquestioning belief in IPCC science and 'catastropic' climate change, not to mention Angela Merkel's sharp eye on domestic green politics, led to heavy investment in renewable energy technologies, along with the subsidies that go with these currently inefficient forms of electricity generation.

Adding to Germany's current woes is Merkel's pandering to populist sentiment by backing away from investing in further nuclear energy, but being forced to import electricity generated by French nuclear power stations.

Germany is now struggling with the enormous cost of its solar subsidies as consumers tire of paying Europe's second highest rates for power - coming in behind that other stellar performer in the renewable energy stakes Denmark, who have the highest power bills in Europe.

TEMPERATURES REFUTE HANSEN PREDICTIONS

Twenty four years after Dr James Hansen predicted catastrophe from rising greenhouse gas emissions real world data refute all his predictions.

How long do we have to wait for the mainstream media to critically examine Dr Hansen's track record?

ARE THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO RETURNING?

Professor Georg Kaser of Innsbruck University in Austria tackles the myths surrounding retreating glaciers on Tanzania's Mt Kilimanjaro.

WINNING A CLIMATE BET

Dr David Whitehouse from the Global Warming Policy Foundation, at their website, outlines the background to the climate bet he has just won.

"In December 2007 I wrote what I thought was quite a straightforward article for the New Statesman pointing out that it was curious that when so many voices were telling us that global warming was out of control, and that the global warming effect dwarfed natural fluctuations, the global annual average temperature hadn’t increased for many years. I wasn’t promoting any particular point of view just describing the data. The New Statesman jumped at it."

IS GLOBAL WARMING A BIPOLAR DISORDER?

Dr Patrick Michaels, IPCC author and reviewer writes of the satellite data at Forbes.com "We now have a full one-third of a century of satellite-measured lower atmospheric temperatures, and what an interesting story the machines are revealing!  I think it’s fair to say that they provide increasing evidence in favor of the “lukewarm” view of climate change, or the hypothesis of modest warming.  In climate change, “it’s not the heat, it’s the sensitivity”, or the amount of warming that a change in carbon dioxide causes, that is important."

WIND POWER EXPENSIVE & INEFFICIENT AT REDUCING CO2

Louise Gray writing in the U.K. Telegraph draws on a report by think-tank Civitas who conclude that wind farms could in fact produce more CO2 instead of reducing it.

"A study in the Netherlands found that turning back-up gas power stations on and off to cover spells when there is little wind actually produces more carbon than a steady supply of energy from an efficient modern gas station.

The research is cited in a new report by the Civitas think tank which warns that Britain is in danger of producing more carbon dioxide (CO2) than necessary if the grid relies too much on wind."