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Temperature remains high at damaged reactor An unknown rise in temperature at one of the reactors at the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant is troubling its operator. Tokyo Electric says the temperature hasn't gone down even after it increased the volume of cooling water on Tuesday. One of the thermometers at the bottom of reactor No. 2 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant gradually rose to about 70 degrees Celsius since January 27th. It had stayed around 45 degrees before. In an effort to lower the temperature, the operator increased the amount of water sprayed on the nuclear fuel by 3 tons...

Temperature Soars Mysteriously Inside Fukushima Nuclear Reactor Updated: Monday, 06 Feb 2012, 9:22 AM EST Published : Monday, 06 Feb 2012, 9:22 AM EST By NewsCore TOKYO - The temperature of a reactor at Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has soared and remained mysteriously high Monday, despite more water being pumped through it. The facility's No.2 reactor had reached 164 degrees Fahrenheit (73.3 degrees Celsius) by Monday morning, after sitting at 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius) on Jan. 27, broadcaster NHK reported. That was despite Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) officials pumping 9.6 tonnes (10.6 tons) of water...

The National Center for Public Policy Research is claiming a scalp today after Ford Motor Co. formally withdrew from the liberal U.S. Climate Action Partnership. The conservative non-profit announces today that Ford has withdrawn from the organization, which uses corporate support form management to work against shareholders' interests by promoting a cap-and-trade framework for carbon emissions.

Climate change subscribers say the fight against global warming will require younger soldiers. On Monday, the National Center for Science Education, a nonprofit group that denounces intelligent design and supports an evolution-only curriculum in the classroom, will expand its mission. The organization of scientists, anthropologists and others is turning its attention to climate change, and it will mount an aggressive effort to teach the nation’s schoolchildren that climate change is real and is being driven by human activity. “For 20 years, we’ve helped teachers cope with what we can only describe as societal or political problems in teaching evolution. They’re...

MARINE ON ST. CROIX — Shawn Lawrence Otto thinks many of the world's problems - especially its political problems - can be attributed to a lack of scientific rationale. Potentially harmful myths he identified: global warming is a concocted idea, vaccines cause autism and cell phones cause brain cancer. Such beliefs are what spurred the 48-year-old Marine-based screenwriter and blogger to complete his latest writing project, a nonfiction book published in October called "Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault of Science in America" (Rodale Press Inc.). The tome started last year is targeted toward a general audience. He's now in...

However, most commentators gave short shrift to the most important—in a sense, the only—outcome of the meeting. This was, of course, the agreement to hold yet another conference in yet another nice location (Qatar) about a year from now. The Durban conference was the seventeenth conference of its kind. They have been held annually since 1995 in places such as Geneva (in July 1996) and Bali (in December 2007). Don’t hold your breath for one to be held in Newark, New Jersey, or Fargo, North Dakota. Snip . . . The Progressives are well aware that their opposition to geoengineering...

The UN’s global warming unit, IPCC, is so discredited that “it is not clear how much additional benefit there is to having a huge bureaucratic scientific review effort under UN auspices” said Ken Caldeira in announcing that he is resigning as one of its leading authors on the next IPCC report. The previous one won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Outside of a few skeptical bloggers, you will not see this story anywhere else. If anyone doubts there is a bias in the media for the bright and shiny object called Global Warming (aka Climate Change, Climate Disruption and...

Europe pledged Wednesday to press on with new charges for airline carbon emissions across its airspace as of January 1, after scoring a key victory over US rivals in the EU's top court. The decision was welcomed as vindication by the European Union, which told US airlines to get ready to obey the law in the same way EU companies respect American regulations. But it was not without collateral damage, with industry sources fearing a possible trade war after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned of reprisals ahead of the ruling. A high-ranking source in the aviation sector told...

Should we act on climate change now or wait? While an international majority of scientists believes climate change is real, a minority of scientists and majority of politicians want you to wait. After all, behavior change should not be mandated or government regulated - especially without proof. UBS Wealth Management, a financial services company working with high/ultra high net worth clients, published a comprehensive report to its investors in January of 2007 titled "Climate Change: Beyond Whether." Its findings suggest we can follow one of three paths: 1) Take a wait-and-see approach 2) Act now and risk investment if nothing...

The National Climate Ethics Campaign is pleased to announce that the "Statement of Our Nation’s Moral Obligation to Address Climate Change" will be released Wednesday, November 30 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. in Room 406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building (The Environment and Public Works Hearing Room). There are now over 1200 signers on the climate ethics statement. Please send the message pasted below to organizations, listservs, and people that might endorse it.

The IPCC is having a hard time disguising the fact that the planet is not in fact overheating UN Trapped in Climate Turmoil – CHURCHVILLE, VA—The man-made warming activists at the UN are trapped in turmoil over how to deal with the earth’s lack of warming since 1998. A week or so ago, the UN climate panel circulated a draft statement that would have admitted we’re unlikely to have any further earth-warming for the next 30 years “because climate change signals are expected to be relatively small compared to natural climate variability.” The BBC’s environmental reporter Richard Black reported that...

The eruption of a volcano in Virunga National Park near Goma is seen at night. Volcano fanatics will have to pay $300...The eruption of a volcano in Virunga National Park near Goma is seen at night. Almost three weeks after a fissure opened amidst dense flat forest, the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park has seen an increasing number of tourists seeking to be guided on treks to witness the Nyamulagira volcano spewing geysers of lava into the night.

It seems esteemed NASA astronomer turned climatologist turned paid activist Dr. James Hansen of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) has not been reporting some income that he is required by law to do. How long will NASA continue to look the other way? Chris Horner explains. – AnthonyA Summary of James E. Hansen’s NASA Ethics FileBy Christopher HornerNASA records released to resolve litigation filed by the American Tradition Institute reveal that Dr. James E. Hansen, an astronomer, received approximately $1.6 million in outside, direct cash income in the past five years for work related to — and, according...

The extinction of the woolly mammoth and other large ice age animals can't be blamed on a 'human blitzkrieg', say researchers. A new study shows the apparent mass extinction was due instead to a combination of climate change, habitat loss as well as human impact. The findings have been hailed as a "fantastic development in the debate on extinction" and a key to developing strategies to prevent further loss of species. The research, published today online in Nature, tracks the extinction of six large mammals during the last ice age and shows while climate is the major driver of population...

Depopulation of Americas may have cooled climate MINNEAPOLIS — By sailing to the New World, Christopher Columbus and the other explorers who followed may have set off a chain of events that cooled Europe’s climate for centuries. The European conquest of the Americas decimated the people living there, leaving large areas of cleared land untended. Trees that filled in this territory pulled billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, diminishing the heat-trapping capacity of the atmosphere and cooling climate, says Richard Nevle, a geochemist at Stanford University. “We have a massive reforestation event that’s sequestering carbon … coincident...

When it comes to climate change denial, not all human beings are created equal. As a recent study shows, conservative white males are less likely to believe in climate change. "It's not surprising," said Aaron McCright, sociology professor at Michigan State University, who is a white male himself. But anecdotal evidence is not scientific, he said. "You really don't know what's going on until you crunch the numbers and find out." Besides the trend amongst skeptics, the study also found that conservative white men who self-report a high understanding of global warming -- dubbed "confident" conservative males -- are even...

The data process used to arrive at the administration’s determination that greenhouse gases endanger “the public health and welfare� violated the Environmental Protection Agency’s own peer review procedure, a new report from the EPA Office of the Inspector General reveals.Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, requested this report in April, asking that the OIG determine whether the EPA “followed key federal and Agency regulations and policies in developing and reviewing the technical data used to make and support its greenhouse gases endangerment finding.� Now, Inhofe is calling for a series of...

"Recent satellite images of Greenland make it clear that there are in fact still numerous glaciers and permanent ice cover where the new Times Atlas shows ice-free conditions and the emergence of new lands," they say in a letter that has been sent to the Times. "We do not know why this error has occurred, but it is regrettable that the claimed drastic reduction in the extent of ice in Greenland has created headline news around the world. "There is to our knowledge no support for this claim in the published scientific literature."

The science is now all-but-settled on global warming, convincing new evidence demonstrates, but Al Gore, the IPCC and other global warming doomsayers won’t be celebrating. The new findings point to cosmic rays and the sun — not human activities — as the dominant controller of climate on Earth. The research, published with little fanfare this week in the prestigious journal Nature...

WASHINGTON—Ushering in the largest decrease in auto fuel consumption since the 1970s, President Barack Obama and automobile manufacturers Friday announced a deal that will save drivers money at the pump and dramatically cut heat-trapping gases coming from tailpipes. The agreement pledges to double overall fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, bringing major under-the-hood changes for the nation's automobiles starting in model year 2017. Cars and trucks on the road today average 27 miles per gallon. "This agreement on fuel standards represents the single most important step we have taken as a nation to reduce our dependence on...

Cutting down on pollution from Chinese coal plants could actually make the earth become warmer, according to a new study. Exponents of global warming have struggled to explain why temperatures have declined in recent years instead of rising in line with the significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers now claim that sulphur emissions from power plants in China are blocking sunlight and having a cooling effect on the atmosphere, cancelling out the effect of global warming. The impact of the sulphur emissions has combined with a cooler stage of the sun's cycle and a change from the El Nino...

TEPCO: Nuclear fuel pool cooled to stable level The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has reported progress in its work to stabilize the facility's spent fuel rods. Tokyo Electric Power Company says the cooling system that began operating at the No.3 reactor on Thursday has brought the temperature of the nuclear fuel storage pool of the reactor to just below 40 degrees Celsius from the previous level of 62 degrees. TEPCO says the temperature of the pool was 39.9 degrees as of 5 AM on Saturday. As cooling has progressed faster than initially expected, TEPCO says the...

If Philadelphia has a run of abnormally hot weather this summer, it will be considered less unusual than it would have been a year ago. That’s because “normal” now has a new definition. A set of updated national climate averages due to be released this week shows that average summer temperatures in the city are nearly 2°F warmer than the benchmarks meteorologists have been citing for the past decade. The updates come from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which will impliment its new 30-year “Climate Normals” on July 1. When weather forecasters use terms like “above normal” or...

TEPCO halts water circulation due to leaks The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has suspended using decontaminated water as a coolant because of leaky pipes. Tokyo Electric Power Company began circulating recycled water through the No.1, 2 and 3 reactors at 4:20 PM on Monday. But it halted the operation one and a half hours later after discovering water leaking from the pipes. TEPCO has been attempting to run the decontamination system since June 14th. It has so far treated about 1,850 tons of the water. The operator hopes to reduce the levels of radioactive wastewater accumulated...

House Republicans charged Wednesday that the Obama administration is aiming to establish a “propaganda office” for Democratic initiatives on global warming through a proposal to consolidate operations in a new “climate service” office within the Commerce Department Tensions boiled over at a congressional hearing as officials of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) defended the consolidation plan contained in President Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget and denied having any ulterior motive. NOAA hopes to move more than 50 percent of its resources into the new climate service department, which it says will serve as the central clearinghouse for farmers, local...

As the evidence continues to mount overshadowing the false claims of global warming catastrophe, the global warmists ratchet up their claims – and their demands for money. At this rate, by the time everyone on the planet agrees there is no threat from global warming, the warmists will have everyone on the planet’s money. The latest absurdity: “The European Union will spend €270 billion ($375 billion) a year to cut greenhouse gas emissions . . .

It’s official: a new Ice Age is on its way. In what has been described as “the science story of the century”, heavyweight US solar physicists have announced that the sun is heading for a prolonged period of low activity. This makes global cooling a much more plausible prospect in the next few decades than global warming. Indeed, it might even usher in a lengthy period of climate grimness such as we saw during the Maunder Minimum (when Ice Fairs were held on the Thames) or the Dalton Minimum (which brought us such delights as the 1816 Year Without A...

Trail Ridge Road will not open for Memorial Day weekend because heavy snow has hampered plowing efforts. Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous paved road in the United States, climbs to 12,183 feet and connects the towns of Estes Park and Grand Lake through Rocky Mountain National Park. The road traditionally opens for Memorial Day weekend. Last year, it opened May 28. However, park snowplow operators found a deeper than usual winter snowpack when plowing began earlier this month, and more snow fell in storms last week. Park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said there are 17-foot drifts above Rainbow Curve on...

No surprise here. Another day, another study that was intentionally doctored to make so-called "global warming," now called "global climate change," more alarming. This time they were caught. A NASA-funded group at the University of Colorado discovered that sea levels were not rising nearly as much as expected. Their solution: just arbitrarily make the number higher. Unfortunately for the University of Colorado Sea Level Research Group, global sea rates rose a mere .83 inches for the last decade. That's .083 inches a year, or the width of two and a half pieces of hair. These scientists decided that wasn't nearly...

The Supreme Court signaled Tuesday that it would throw out a global warming lawsuit brought by California and five other states that seek limits on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants in the South and Midwest. Encouraged by the solicitor general, the justices said regulating greenhouse gases should be left to the Environmental Protection Agency. The issue debated before the high court Tuesday was not whether greenhouse gases are causing global climate change, but who should regulate them. The decision involves politics, economics and science, the lawyers said. "It's a question of tradeoffs," said Peter Keisler, representing the power producers....

Charles Manson, the notorious cult leader, has broken a 20-year silence in an interview from his prison cell to warn the world of an impending apocalypse due to global warming. In a series of rambling interviews from his Californian jail, the man who brainwashed members of his commune known as "The Manson Family" into butchering eight people on two nights in August 1969 described himself as a "very mal hombre". Among those stabbed in the killing spree was Sharon Tate, the wife of film director Roman Polanski, who was eight months pregnant with his child. [snip] Refusing to discuss whether...

New cooling options being explored The Yomiuri Shimbun Tokyo Electric Power Co. is considering alternative methods, including the construction of improvised systems, to cool reactors at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Ongoing operations--which involve pouring water directly into the reactor cores to lower temperatures inside the pressure vessels of the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors to below 100 C--have not worked as expected, and restoration of the reactors' existing cooling systems is not likely to happen soon. /snip One proposal is to build makeshift cooling systems. TEPCO would have to access pipes connected to the pressure vessels...

The events in Japan are disastrous and heartbreaking, but they should not be used to stop us from safely utilizing nuclear energy for the benefit of our nation. As a senior member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, I am a strong advocate for safe and clean nuclear technology to meet the energy needs of our growing nation. Research and development makes technologies safer and more effective. Now is not the time to abandon nuclear energy, as our allies in Germany are doing. Now is the time to finally make the move to newer, safer nuclear technologies...

Even on the heels of another nasty winter, the Obama administration hangs on to climate change as an article of liberal faith. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson remains steadfast in her desire to unilaterally impose massive new greenhouse-gas regulations on energy producers. And if that doesn't work, the administration is ready to move on costly "renewable-energy standards."

SolveClimateNews.com blessed us with an article telling how Google "has brought together a team of 21 climate researchers to improve the way the science of global warming is communicated using new media". This, no doubt in response to widespread reports of a Gallup poll showing ever-decreasing concern by the public about global warming, which must also explain why the GOP-controlled US House is moving forward with actions to thwart greenhouse gas regulations. Ignorance run amok, thus Google's experts are here to save the day. If only that were the case. The enormous irony here is the very service Google itself...

New Power Line Installed At Fukushima Daiichi Plant: Govt TOKYO (Nikkei)--Japanese officials have installed cables to supply electricity from Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s (9506) power grid to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a step they hope will help inject water more efficiently into the facility's crippled reactors that are at the center of Japan's nuclear crisis, the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said at a news conference Thursday night. Officials will try to connect the cable to the plant's No. 2 reactor on Friday, the agency said. The No. 2 reactor's containment vessel was partly damaged in its...

SDF Choppers Unable To Drop Water On Nuke Reactor Due To Radiation TOKYO (Kyodo)--The Self-Defense Forces will not conduct a planned operation Wednesday to drop water from helicopters on the troubled No. 3 reactor of the Fukushima nuclear power plant because of the high radiation level around the plant, Defense Ministry officials said. The Ground Self-Defense Force helicopters were on standby to drop water on the reactor as it is feared the reactor may have released radioactive steam due to damage to its containment vessel.

Fukushima No. 4 reactor spent fuel pool may be boiling -Kyodo 4:48am EDT TOKYO, March 15 (Reuters) - A pool containing spent fuel at the quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi No.4 reactor may be boiling and the water level may be falling, Kyodo news agency quoted an official at the reactor's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co , as saying on Tuesday

More nuclear reactors show signs of trouble Two more reactors at the troubled Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan have lost cooling functions as the plant's operators struggle to contain what threatens to become a meltdown. /snip Mr Edano says the earlier high reading could have been caused by rubble from Monday's explosion at one reactor rather than from any continuing leak. But he says cooling of the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors now appears not to be working properly, with slight rises in temperature recorded. Explosions at the four other reactors at the plant followed the losses of...

As Congress looks for ways to trim the budget, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) represents an opportunity for up to $9 billion in savings. This outfit has become little more than an advocacy group for trendy leftist causes operating on the public’s dime. Many liberal policies being promoted are so unpopular that congressional Democrats can’t muster the votes to get them through the proper legislative process. So they go to the EPA instead. That’s why the EPA announced Tuesday that it had revised the deadlines imposed on certain companies for reporting so-called “greenhouse gas” production. A facility that manufactures paper,...

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee members sparred Wednesday over whether there existed a consensus in the 1970s that the earth was cooling.

Washington, D.C.–Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, released the following findings from the investigation by the Commerce Department’s Inspector General on emails from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) related to the “climategate” scandal. --SNIP-- Emails ‘Warrant Further Investigation’ “We found eight emails which, in our judgment, warranted further examination to clarify any possible issues involving the scientific integrity of particular NOAA scientists or NOAA’s data. As a result, we conducted interviews with the relevant NOAA scientists regarding these eight emails, and have summarized their responses and explanations in the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Commerce Department investigation has found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of federal climate researchers whose e-mails were leaked in the debate over global climate change. The report Thursday from the department's inspector general is the latest to exonerate climate scientists whose communications with the Climate Research Unit at England's University of East Anglia were stolen and made public in 2009.

RGGI Is The Prototype For More Regional Cap & Tax Entities Soon RGGI will expand to every state and stick you with astronomical energy prices. RGGI is the model for two new stealth cap & tax entities. The Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord would bring the tax scheme to Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas. The Western Climate Initiative will force California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Montana to start paying through the nose for energy. Both programs are set to start in 2012. The corruptocrats in Washington are completely responsible for this gigantic waste of tax...

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Anthony Watts Image via WikipediaThe question is, are we a country of laws made by our representatives, or a country of laws made by bureaucrats? The constitution provides only one answer, and Ms. Jackson would do well to read it.Latest News release from the EPA: CONTACT: EPA Press Officepress@epa.gov February 9, 2011Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, Opening Statement Before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and PowerAs prepared for delivery – Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify about Chairman Upton’s draft bill to eliminate...

For the second time in eight days, a prominent liberal has blamed the developing crisis in Egypt on global warming. Following in the footsteps of climate alarmist extraordinaire Joe Romm Monday was New York Times columnist Paul Krugman: We’re in the midst of a global food crisis — the second in three years. World food prices hit a record in January, driven by huge increases in the prices of wheat, corn, sugar and oils. These soaring prices have had only a modest effect on U.S. inflation, which is still low by historical standards, but they’re having a brutal impact on...

Al Gore responds to Bill O’Reilly on snow-climate nexus By Ben Geman - 02/01/11 03:36 PM ET Al Gore is taking Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly up on his request to address this winter’s severe snowstorms. O’Reilly on the Jan. 27 edition of The O’Reilly Factor asked, “Why has southern New York turned into the tundra,” adding, “I have a call in to Al Gore.” The former vice president and climate activist provided a response on his website Tuesday. “I appreciate the question,” Gore wrote. “As it turns out, the scientific community has been addressing this particular question for some...

Sorry again about not being circumspect about posting every week. So I'll do two in a row. The first one is reticulite. It's not a sponge, it's a rock. From the Earth Science Picture of the Day, where this was a top pick for 2010: http://epod.usra.edu/blog/vote-2010.htmlCaption: Pumice is a glassy volcanic rock that's so full of bubbles that most examples will float on water. Reticulite is an extreme form of pumice in which the bubbles have coalesced, leaving only a tenuous reticular network of glassy lava behind in the interstitial spaces between the bubbles. While pumice is more characteristic of...

E.P.A. Faces First Volley From the House By JOHN M. BRODER Green: Politics The newly empowered Republicans in the House aren’t wasting any time making good on their pledge to throttle the Environmental Protection Agency. On the first full day of legislative business, House Republicans introduced measures on Wednesday to block the environmental agency’s proposed regulation of greenhouse gases and new rules limiting toxic air emissions from cement factories. The bills represent what is certain to be a concerted effort by the new House majority to address what they consider to be burdensome environmental rules, part of a broader assault...

Republicans kill global warming committeeMother Jones: Republicans have disbanded the one committee devoted solely to climate change and energy issues. At least it went out on its own terms Kate Sheppard for Mother Jones guardian.co.uk Thursday 6 January 2011 15.51 GMT The kick-off of the 112th Congress on Wednesday also marked the end of an era in the House – the demise of a committee devoted solely to climate change and energy issues. The Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, created by Nancy Pelosi in 2006, has been shuttered under the new Republican leadership. In the final days...