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Despite US heat wave, global warming in question as Asian glaciers grow

Huge glaciers in the area between Pakistan and China are puzzling scientists – and disproving the doom-laden predictions of some climate experts.

The glaciers in the Karakoram Range between northern Pakistan and western China have actually grown, rather than shrinking.

Unlike most mountain glaciers, the Karakoram glaciers, which account for 3 percent of the total ice-covered area in the world, excluding Greenland and Antarctica, are not shrinking.

A team of French glaciologists has recently confirmed that these glaciers on average have remained stable or may have even grown slightly in recent years.

The new study used data from satellites to study the Karakoram Range of northern Pakistan and western China.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: woodleywonderworks

So much for global warming: ice delays Shell’s Alaska drilling plans

Heavier than expected ice in Arctic waters off Alaska will likely delay until August Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s (RDSa.L) long-anticipated exploration drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, a company spokesman said on Friday.

Shell, which wants to search for oil in what are considered remote but promising frontiers, had planned to start the wells this month, said Curtis Smith, a company spokesman in Anchorage.

Sea ice is “the number one reason we won’t be drilling in July,” Smith told Reuters. “At this point, we’re looking at the first week of August.”

While sea ice cover is sparse in most of the Arctic, ice off Alaska is thicker than in recent years, and that ice is melting fast, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Shell plans to drill two wells this year in the Beaufort at a prospect about 20 miles offshore, and three in the Chukchi about 70 miles offshore. Drilling must take place during the brief ice-free season, since federal approvals for the plans require that Shell cease all operations for the year by October 31.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit:  Derek Keats

Exclusive: New information on Romney’s views on global warming

 

Recently, various media outlets have reported on Romney’s statement in which he expressed support for global warming: “I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that.” This despite the last two winters being among the coldest in recent history and the recent evidence revealing pro-global warming scientists to have made fraudulent claims and suppressed contrary views. Romney also called for America to “reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases,” which, will, of course entail massive new government programs despite air quality in the United States being among the cleanest in the world.

I have always argued that Romney’s long history of promoting liberal causes make him unfit as the GOP nominee and that should he win, his lack of a consistent worldview would set the party back decades. But the “Romney is a conservative” myth has become so entrenched that when people hear about his global warming views, they’re surprised. But Romney has always held liberal views on the environment – he’s just downplayed them for the last five years and hoped no one would notice.

Most voters seem unaware of that Romney ran for Governor on a global warming platform. In 2004, Governor Romney initiated the “Massachusetts Climate Protection Plan” which just about every New England free market group attacked due to the harmful effects the plan would have upon the state’s economy. This plan morphed into a larger regional plan called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), that Romney and ten other liberal Northeastern governors signed. The goal of the pact was to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by ten percent by 2019. This pact, of course, assumed the global warming theory was scientific fact and to carry it out its wide-ranging dictates, Romney hired Douglas Foy, a radical environmental activist.

Foy’s claim to fame was his notoriety for suing businesses for not complying with various draconian environmental regulations. Not surprisingly, RGGI was a disaster from day one and created such economic uncertainty that businesses began to flee the state. Indeed, the job creation record of Gov. Romney became the second worst in the country, another shocking fact most voters are unaware of. Nevertheless, against all evidence, Romney insisted that RGGI was “good for business,” a statement which sounds like Obama’s statements about how his policies promoting alternative fuels are “good for business.”

As a result of the negative economic impact and a pressure campaign mounted by the business community, Romney did eventually pull out of RGGI. However, shortly after pulling out of RGGI, Romney initiated new regulations that essentially did the same thing RGGI was planning to do: a series of damaging emission regulations targeted at power plants. Incredibly, in preparations for these regulations, Romney proceeded to demonize the plants, even claiming “the Salem Harbor Plant is responsible for 53 premature deaths, 570 emergency room visits and 14,400 asthma attacks each year.” It turned out that these stats were false and borrowed from extremist environmental propaganda. Moreover, the stats were based upon a theoretical model created by the American Cancer Society and had nothing to do with the Salem Harbor plant. Even though there were zero deaths associated with the Salem Harbor power plant, Romney held a press conference in front of the power plant with all his extremist environmentalist friends present and recited these phony statistics while hysterically announcing “that plant kills people.” Bear in mind Salem Harbor was a legal power plant in full compliance with the law in every respect. Due to the impact Romney’s regulations had upon energy rates, the Salem Harbor power plant filed for bankruptcy two years later but was then purchased by Dominion Power. Foy later became a “super-secretary” in the Romney administration, responsible for overseeing the transportation, housing, environmental and energy agencies.

 Read More at Romney Exposed By Rino Hunter, Romney Exposed

Where’s The “Science Story of the Century?”

Is it the “Science Story of the Century” or the best kept American media secret of the year? Just-announced heavyweight new studies from the U.S. National Solar Observatory tell us to expect a long quiet period for the sun—and decades of cooler global temperatures.

The Register in London headlined, “Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade . . . which could mean that the Earth—far from facing a global warming problem—is actually headed into a mini Ice Age.”

Solar scientists are saying that as the sun goes quiet, the earth gets colder. Bloggers note that the Sporer (1460–1550), and the Maunder (1645–1715) sunspot minimums coincided with the two coldest spasms of the Little Ice Age. The Dalton Minimum (1790-1830) also produced colder temperatures.

The American media, however, would rather not encourage the public to expect cooling that would contradict the man-made warming scenario. After all, the 2012 election is coming soon, and President Obama is publicly committed to making energy prices “skyrocket” to “save the planet.” A long cooling trend now would tell us that all the billions spent subsidizing wind turbines, solar cells, and rare-earth lithium batteries represent a colossal waste—as the CO2 levels continue to rise with Asia’s economic growth.

Science correspondent Richard Kerr was very calm:  “Things may be about to get very dull on the sun. Three different measurements of solar activity, reported by scientists at a press conference today, suggest that the next 11-year solar cycle well be far quieter than the current one. . . . If the reported trends continue—a big if, other researchers note—a hibernating sun would have only a slight cooling effect on the climate.” Translation: “Move on, folks, no story here.”

Read More at Canada Free Press By Dennis Avery, Canada Free Press