Comment #2

konane — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:59:05 GMT

You know it! Farmer's Almanac predicting colder than normal winters in the mid-west, already been hovering around freezing this area a couple of nights. Earlier than normal past few years temp drop, reverting back to the way it was when I was a kid. Dog's coat is growing thick which portends cold.

Comment #1

jarasan — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:08:03 GMT

Could be a Monty Python skit!

Original Blog Entry: "Snow blankets London for Global Warming debate

konane — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:08:44 GMT

Oblivious to the obvious.

__________________

__________

Snow blankets London for Global Warming debate

How Parliament passed the Climate Bill

By Andrew Orlowski

Source The Register

29th October 2008 12:35 GMT

Snow fell as the House of Commons debated Global Warming yesterday - the first October fall in the metropolis since 1922. The Mother of Parliaments was discussing the Mother of All Bills for the last time, in a marathon six hour session.

In order to combat a projected two degree centigrade rise in global temperature, the Climate Change Bill pledges the UK to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. The bill was receiving a third reading, which means both the last chance for both democratic scrutiny and consent.

The bill creates an enormous bureaucratic apparatus for monitoring and reporting, which was expanded at the last minute. Amendments by the Government threw emissions from shipping and aviation into the monitoring program, and also included a revision of the Companies Act (c. 46) requiring the directors report of a company to contain such information as may be specified in the regulations about emissions of greenhouse gases from activities for which the company is responsible by 2012.

Recently the American media has begun to notice the odd incongruity of saturation media coverage here which insists that global warming is both man-made and urgent, and a British public which increasingly doubts either to be true. 60 per cent of the British population now doubt the influence of humans on climate change, and more people than not think Global Warming won't be as bad as people say .

Both figures are higher than a year ago - and the poll was taken before the non-summer of 2008, and the (latest) credit crisis.

Yet anyone looking for elected representatives to articulate these concerns will have been disappointed. Instead, representatives had a higher purpose - demonstrating their virtue. And for the first 90 minutes of the marathon debate, the new nobility outdid each other with calls for tougher pledges, or stricter monitoring. Gestures are easy, so no wonder MPs like making them so much.

It was all deeply sanctimonious, but no one pointed out that Europe's appetite for setting targets that hurt the economy has evaporated in recent weeks - so it's a gesture few countries will feel compelled to imitate.

The US Senate has Senator James Inhofe, but in the Commons, there wasn't an out-and-out sceptic to be found. It was 90 minutes before anyone broke the liturgy of virtue. When Peter Lilley, in amazement, asked why there hadn't been a cost/benefit analysis made of such a major change in policy, he was told to shut up by the Deputy Speaker. ...........

.... However, Tim Yeo, the perma-suntanned Tory backbencher who wants us to carry carbon rationing cards, said it would improve Britain's competitiveness . He didn't say how.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/29/commons_climate_change_bill/

... [ More ]