Episcopal "green" bishop Cederholm conducts service to bless solar panels

The Episcopal Church in Massachusetts seems to be a "church of many colors".

Today the "green" bishop Bud Cederholm, who has campaigned together with the likes of Bill McKibben, will bless the taxpayer subsidized, more or less useless solar panels installed on a church Dover, MA:

At 10 a.m. on Sunday May 19, St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church will conduct a service to bless the solar panels they installed in April. The blessing will be conducted by the Episcopal Diocese’s “Green Bishop,” the Right Rev. Bud Cederholm, assisted by St. Dunstan’s rector, the Rev. Mark McKone-Sweet.

“Using solar energy decreases our use of fossil fuels, and thus our contribution to global warming,” said McKone-Sweet. “It is a way to live our faith by caring for those who will be affected by the extreme weather global warming causes.”

Two weeks ago, Rev. Victoria Pretti performed another  blessing in Milton, MA:

The transformation Sunday afternoon was part of the Episcopal church’s second annual Blessing of the Motorcycles. Motorcyclists from around the South Shore and beyond came to the church, on Adams Street near East Milton Square, to have their bikes blessed by the pastor, the Rev. Victoria Pretti.

More than 100 people, many wearing black leather vests and other riding gear, showed up for the event, where food, rock music and raffles complemented the friendly atmosphere and the revving of engines.

The Rev. Pretti and her husband, Anthony, are both riders themselves, and they belong to Star, a motorcycle group with members all over the country. Steve Franzosa of Peabody, a fellow member of Star’s Charter 400, which is based on the North Shore, came down to Milton to show support for his friends and his passion for motorcycling.

“It’s nice to see people and be in the group environment,” said Franzosa, who showed up on his Yamaha V-Star 1300. “There’s food, great music and good camaraderie.”

After saying a prayer for the protection of the many motorcycles and their owners, the Rev. Pretti walked up and down the street, blessing the bikes with holy water from a motorcycle helmet.

It is pretty clear that my vote goes to the Rev. Pretti. There is a nice photo of the Reverend sitting on her bike here. 

But moneywise the "green" bishop Cederholm's global warming scare campaign has been rather successful - there are quite a few people in the "liberal" state who are an easy prey for global warming hoaxters:

This kind of falling in love with creation and responding with passion has generated more than $320,000 for green grants to some 50 congregations these past two years, with even more getting on board this year.  And our Creation Care Season itself has been an awakening in many congregations to the many resources available for worship, education, formation and contemplation in nature, and advocacy that shapes public policy.  Numerous churches and homeowners have reduced their carbon footprint.  Acts of justice have addressed the poisoning of the environment that causes death and extinction of species. 

Should we be worried about global cooling?

Global warming has stopped. But should we again start worrying about global cooling? Ken Gregory, director of Canada's Friends of Science thinks we should:

“The current solar activity is similar to that at the start of the Little Ice Age of sustained low solar activity and frigid global temperatures,” says Gregory. “It is the changing solar magnetic flux that affects climate, not the total solar energy which is virtually constant.”

“Canada and the US mid-west are the bread basket of the world,” says Len Maier, president of Friends of Science and a farmer himself. “Billions of dollars are being spent on climate change in the belief that the world will be warming. Our data shows a cooling trend for the past ten years. The cooling has begun due to solar cycles and galactic influences.”

The temperature index from the UK Met Office shows there has been no global warming for 15 years. From 2002 to December 2012, the best fit linear temperature trend has declined by 0.1 °C when climate models predicted a temperature rise of 0.2 °C.

Historically, the consequences of global cooling include extreme weather cycles, floods, freezing temperatures – and worst of all – crop failures.

“A one or two degree drop in temperature would significantly reduce agricultural crop yields in Canada,” says Len Maier. “We believe that current government ‘climate change’ policies to subsidize biofuel production are disastrous. These divert crops from food production to making fuel for vehicles. Food prices are up, due to a reduction in food stocks and changes in food security policies.” continues Maier. --

Maier points out: “We have spent a trillion dollars on climate change policies, diverted acres of food crops to biofuels, and made futile attempts to reduce CO2 emissions, while we stand on the brink of catastrophic cooling as the sun enters an extreme minimum of activity. Our position is that the sun is the main driver of climate change. Not CO2. These wasteful carbon reduction policies must be abandoned and food security dealt with instead.”

Read the entire article here

German scientist: UN climate models represent "almost complete disregard for reality"

Sanity is beginning to prevail in the German public debate on global warming. More and more leading experts say that it is time to discard the useless, expensive and absurd UN climate negotiation process:

Today's computer-simulated climate models, the foundation of all UN climate negotiations, represent the "almost complete disregard for reality," says Werner Krauss, from the Helmholtz Geesthacht Center for Materials and Coastal Research. "A world is being saved that only exists as a model."

---

Any sort of move away from the 2 degree Celsius target, of course, would be politically risky. To many, it would sound like an abdication and a retreat from decades of pledges to finally launch a global effort to combat global warming. But researchers are beginning to come to the conclusion that there might be no other way.

---

The goal of limiting global warming to just 2 degrees Celsius has become much too central, they say, because it guarantees that the focus of the public debate remains almost exclusively on the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. Yet after two decades of failed negotiations, the 2 degree goal has likely already become unattainable. It's time to broaden the focus, they say.

"The current discussion is much too fixated on greenhouse gases," says Uekötter. He refers to the recent climate conference failures as the "phase of inaction."

Instead, many say that measures aimed at dealing with the inevitable consequences of climate change must become central. That would involve including local initiatives in the broader UN approach rather than just focusing on average global temperature.

Germany, for example, has moved ahead with a multi-billion euro plan to protect its coasts from rising sea levels and worsening storm surges. But such issues are left largely unaddressed at UN climate conferences.

"The situation is absurd," says Sebastian Wiesnet of the University of Bamberg. "It would be more forthright, with respect to voters, to step back and think about how global climate protection could really be implemented." Efforts to actually prepare for the effects of climate change, he says, could not only be implemented more quickly, but they would also be cheaper than emissions reduction efforts.

Furthermore, the effects of the changing climate are different from place to place and are often magnified by local realities. When it comes to dangerous storm surges threatening islands in the South Pacific, for example, the UN climate conference tends to focus exclusively on rising sea levels. But the problem is often magnified, for example, by the destruction of coral reefs by fishermen. "At the local level, other, more rapidly changing conditions are often more consequential than climate change," says political scientist Mayer.

Read the entire Der Spiegel article here

The next step is of course for politicians - not only in Germany - to part company with the enviro-fundamentalist greenies, who so far have been allowed to dictate so much of the politically correct global warming/climate change agenda so far. 

South African energy CEO: "Coal is best, cheapest option"

There seems to be a continuing flow of catastrophic climate change news from Africa ahead of the cop 17 conference to be held in Durban in November. At a recent World Economic Forum Africa conference in Cape Town, South Africa´s president Jacob Zume added his voice to the alarmist cause:

"As a global community, we have no alternative but to respond to the challenges of climate change. They are real, they are life and death. We cannot hesitate, we cannot wait, we need to act now," Zuma said.

Although Zuma and other alarmists got most of the publicity at the conference, it is worth noting that there were at least three moderate and realistic voices:

This is what Brian Dames, CEO of the state-owned power utility company Eskom had to say:

Coal is best, cheapest option says Eskom boss

SA will continue to use coal to generate electricity because this is still the cheapest and quickest option.

Dames said while the price of renewable energy was coming down, Eskom was continuing to build its two coal-fired plants (at Kusile and Medupi) as that was the easiest and most efficient way to deal with energy security.
"Out of 54 countries in Africa only 15 have a power capacity of more than 500MW," Dames said.

"We have a massive energy issue on the continent. It is truly a dark continent."

But he said the government's integrated resource plan (IRP) has a clear view that SA would draw a line on coal investments after Eskom's Kusile power station was completed and then invest in cleaner energy.
"Hence nuclear power then needs to play a role in meeting our energy needs," Dames said.

While Zuma was propagating the alarmist line, the country´s energy minister, Dipuo Peters also had a surprisingly realistic view of its energy future:

She said the IRP, which sets out power-generating plans for the next 20 years, still includes a large percentage of coal-generated power.
"We need to do that with the understanding that we need to mitigate climate change," she said.
"We are working with other (African) governments on research on clean technology for coal-fired power generation. This (coal) is what we know at present and how we can ensure security of supply."

And this from Eskom´s chairman:

Eskom's chairman, Mpho Makwana, who was also one of the co-chairs of this year's WEF on Africa, said only 30% of Africa's one billion people had access to electricity.
"It is impossible to improve education and health systems on the continent without power," said Makwana.

Read the entire article here

PS
Although almost all African political leaders are screaming for climate change aid in order to "save" their continent, it is interesting to note, that there are among the energy decision makers also people with balanced and realistic views, like e.g. the three mentioned above. How refreshing it is to listen to an energy company CEO, who does not feel the need to sugar coat his message with the usual politically correct "green" phrases (as American and European CEOs nowadays usually do).

And Mr. Dames´s company is no small actor in Africa. Here are some facts about Eskom:

• has 24 power stations with a nominal capacity of 39 872 megawatts
• is among the top five utilities in the world in terms of size and sales
• is presently one of the lowest-cost producers of electricity in the world
• supplies 95% of the country's electricity requirements, which equals more than half of the electricity generated on the African continent

Last hope for alarmists: "an extreme climatic event like a national draught"

An "extreme climatic event" William K. Reilly is looking forward to?

Climate change alarmists are getting desperate these days. Global warming has almost disappeared from the political agenda, and ordinary citizens have lost interest in the scaremongering propaganda offered by the warmists. The republican alarmist (yes there is one), former EPA chief William K. Reilly does not find many reasons for optimism, but in the interview published by German Der Spiegel he clings to one last hope:

"American politics can turn on a dime," he says. "If our economy woes become smaller and we then face an extreme climatic event like a national draught, things might change."

Read the entire interview here.

PS
One wonders what kind of persons Reilly and his likes really are? To openly hope for a national disaster in order to promote (bogus) climate change policy is both immoral and contemptible.

Proof of global warming

(Image by antiqueprints.com)

This has to be the definitive proof that global warming is happening: Thanks to milder winters (global warming), there are now more brown owls - and less grey ones - in Finland, reports Eli Rosenberg in the Atlantic Wire:

 there are those who have their own research and data to suggest global warming is not really happening.

The BBC today has a much simpler example of how global warming is not only apparent, but visible to the naked, unscientifically-inclined eye: tawny owls are turning brown as a result of a warming climate, according to scientists in Finland. A study carried out over thirty years and published recently in the journal Nature Communications showed that while grey tawny owls had higher survival rates in colder environments, brown owls were becoming more common. Dr. Patrik Karell from the University of Helsink, the leader of the journal study, tells the BBC that they've gone from around 30 percent of the tawny population in Finland to around 50 percent, despite the fact that the grey color trait is the dominant gene when mixed.
PS
And even as winters are getting colder again, that is, as alarmists tell us, of course also due to global warming. So, in a future scientific study, a decreasing number of brown owls must also be a sign of global warming ....