February 2010

Al Gore a lightning rod at Apple shareholder meeting

Written By: Erica Ogg

The presence of one of the world’s pre-eminent environmentalists at Apple’s shareholder meeting Thursday was the subject of much of the morning’s pointed discussion.

As expected, Apple’s attitude on environmental and sustainability issues was one of the main concerns of the stockholders present Thursday, followed closely by the company’s immense pile of cash. But early harsh comments about former Vice President Al Gore’s record set the tone.
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At the first opportunity for audience participation just several minutes into the proceeding, a longtime and well-known Apple shareholder–some would say gadfly–who introduced himself as Shelton Ehrlich, stood at the microphone and urged against Gore’s re-election to the board. Gore “has become a laughingstock. The glaciers have not melted,” Ehrlich said, referring to Gore’s views on global warming. “If his advice he gives to Apple is as faulty as his views on the environment then he doesn’t need to be re-elected.”

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U.S. Climate Data Compromised by Sensors’ Proximity to Heat Sources, Critics Say

Written By: Joseph Abrams

A critical cog in the machinery that drives the theory of global warming is a small white box not too far from where you live. Inside the box sits a thermometer that tracks the local temperature, which in turn becomes part of a data trail for the monitoring of climate change on Earth.

But there’s a problem: Nearly every single weather station the U.S. government uses to measure the country’s surface temperature may be compromised. Sensors that are supposed to be in empty clearings are instead exposed to crackling electronics and other unlikely sources of heat, from exhaust pipes and trash-burning barrels to chimneys and human graves.

The National Climate Data Center (NCDC) uses this massive network of sensors to determine daily highs and lows at the 1,219 weather stations in its Historical Climatology Network (HCN). The network has existed since 1892, but only in the last decade has it come under intense scrutiny to determine whether the figures it measures can be trusted.

For the past three years, a group of zealous laymen has visited and photographed nearly every one of the weather stations to determine whether they have been placed properly. And what they found is a stunning disregard for the government’s own rules: 90 percent of the sensors are too close to potential sources of heat to pass muster, including some very odd sources indeed:

• A sensor in Redding, Calif., is housed in a box that also contains a halogen light bulb, which could emit warmth directly onto the gauge.
• A sensor in Hanksville, Utah, sits directly atop a gravestone, which is not only macabre but also soaks up the sun’s heat and radiates it back to the thermometer at night.
• A sensor in Marysville, Calif., sits in a parking lot at a fire station right next to an air conditioner exhaust, a cell phone tower and a barbecue grill.
• A sensor in Tahoe City, Calif., sits near a paved tennis court and is right next to a “burn barrel” that incinerates garbage.
• A sensor in Hopkinsville, Ky., is sheltered from the wind by an adjoining house and sits above an asphalt driveway.
• Dozens of sensors are located at airports and sewage treatment plants, which produce “heat islands” from their sprawling seas of asphalt and heavy emissions.

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A crack in the wall; EPA administrator distances the agency from IPCC report

Written By: Rick Moran

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, in testimony before the Environment and Public Works Committee, made it a point to declare that the agency was not using the IPCC report to develop policy.

Charlie Martin at PJ Media reports:

During the review of the Environmental Protection Agency budget in today’s Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, both Senator Barbara Boxer – the chair of the committee – and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson distanced themselves from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4).

Boxer and Jackson’s statements, in addition to being a striking change in policy, are problematic because U.S. climate science is very closely tied to the IPCC reports (as Christopher Horner showed in his recent PJM series on the NASA FOIA emails.)

The statements by Boxer and Jackson followed Senator Inhofe’s release (see the PJM exclusive report) in his opening statement of a minority staff report documenting many flaws in the IPCC report and the other evidence revealed in the Climategate files. (See the full hearing on CSPAN here; the exchanges with Senator Boxer and Inhofe, and Administrator Jackson begin at about 56 minutes into the video.)

Both Boxer and Jackson appeared to be trying to distance the EPA from the IPCC report. Boxer said:

In my opening statement, I didn’t quote one international scientist or IPCC report. … We are quoting the American scientific community here.

When Inhofe directly asked Jackson if she still considered the IPCC report the “gold standard,” she answered:

The primary focus of the endangerment finding was on climate threat risks in this country.

Jackson also noted:

[The errors Inhofe had presented were] international events. The information on the glaciers and other events doesn’t weaken … the evidence we considered [to make the Endangerment Finding on CO2.]

Jackson’s weak defense was notable for its lack of specificity on any scientific findings that EPA will base their “carbon is poison” policy. So much of the science the EPA is relying on is tainted by IPCC conclusions. It will be a good trick to try and separate EPA from the flawed study.

Charlie notes in this piece the news that Senator Inhofe has called for a criminal investigation into climategate principles and their actions. This might really shake something loose if it comes to pass. Threatened with jail time, some of the small fry might start to sing and bring down the whole rotten edifice.

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