Climate Change Weekly #121
Global warming alarmists last week suffered perhaps their worst political defeats since the Democrat-controlled U.S. House and U.S. Senate refused to pass the Waxman-Markey cap-and-tax bill in 2009. Democratic Senators up for reelection this fall declined to participate in a high-profile filibuster supporting a carbon tax, and then Alex Sink suffered an upset in a bellwether congressional election after Sink’s supporters made her opponent’s global warming skepticism a central issue in the race.
Nearly half the Democrats in the U.S. Senate declined to participate in the Senate Democratic Climate Action Task Force’s March 10 evening filibuster supporting a carbon tax. Democrats control the Senate and have more than enough votes to pass a carbon tax if they had party unity on the issue. Not only did nearly half the Senate’s Democrats decline to participate, but moderate Democrats and Democrats from political swing states were almost entirely absent from the filibuster. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Mark Begich (D-AK), Mark Pryor (D-AR), and Kay Hagan (D-NC), all of whom face tough election contests in November, were filibuster no-shows. The carbon tax filibuster did little other than underscore how few politicians outside the most liberal wing of the Democratic Party are foolish enough to spend their political capital on a mythical global warming crisis and costly, futile programs to address it.
The very next day, voters in Florida’s U.S. House District 13 elected underdog and global warming skeptic David Jolly to Congress. Political pundits and polls made Sink the favorite to win the special election in a congressional district that twice voted for Barack Obama and twice voted for Sink in statewide elections. However, global warming became a central factor during the final few weeks before the election and Sink suffered an embarrassing upset.
The Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters saturated the television airwaves with a campaign ad pointing out Sink claims global warming is a serious problem and Jolly is a global warming skeptic. The ad played upon District 13’s location along the Gulf of Mexico by claiming global warming is causing more hurricanes and sea-level rise. The ad began airing a few weeks before the election as polls showed Sink with a fairly comfortable lead of about five points. After the voters watched the ad over and over again during the campaign’s final days, they voted for Jolly.
MORE INFORMATION: Forbes.com
IN THIS ISSUE
Weather Channel co-founder airs landmark climate video … Polar bear population grows in Davis Strait … Gallup poll shows climate change is next-to lowest worry … Noonan: “What is our foreign policy? Disliking global warming?” … Warmists claim lowering income will make people happier
WEATHER CHANNEL CO-FOUNDER AIRS LANDMARK CLIMATE VIDEO
Weather Channel co-founder John Coleman aired a 36-minute video explaining why humans are not causing a global warming crisis. With the support of television station KUSI in San Diego, Coleman observed how he would be fully supportive of saving the planet he loves if human carbon dioxide emissions were producing serious harm. Coleman documents how global warming assertions are myths contradicted by sound science.
SOURCE: YouTube
POLAR BEAR POPULATION GROWS IN DAVIS STRAIT
The polar bear population of Davis Strait, between northeast Canada and Greenland, is growing. Polar bear scientists upgraded the population from “vulnerable” to “stable” in light of the growing population and growing polar bear habitat.
SOURCE: Polar Bear Science
GALLUP POLLS SHOWS CLIMATE CHANGE IS NEXT-TO-LOWEST WORRY
Americans worry less about climate change than all but one of 15 issues presented as part of a Gallup poll. Only 24 percent of Americans worry about climate change “a great deal,” putting the issue behind the economy, federal spending and the budget deficit, affordable health care, unemployment, the size and power of government, the Social Security system, hunger and homelessness, crime, future terrorist attacks, affordable energy, drug use, illegal immigration, and general environmental issues. Only race relations ranked as a lower concern.
SOURCE: Gallup
NOONAN: ‘WHAT IS OUR FOREIGN POLICY? DISLIKING GLOBAL WARMING?’
Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan published an article pointing out that American foreign policy’s preoccupation with global warming rather than military aggression emboldens Vladimir Putin to invade neighboring nations. “What is our foreign policy? Disliking global warming?” Noonan asks.
SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
WARMISTS CLAIM LOWERING INCOME WILL MAKE PEOPLE HAPPIER
Global warming alarmists at Spain’s Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona published a paper claiming a much-feared result of government restrictions to fight global warming – higher energy prices resulting in lower real income – is actually a good thing. The paper claims people are happier when they are poorer. Lead author Filka Sekulova claimed, “The reduction in salaries in the two years before the survey, from 1,373 to 1,310 euros monthly in average, did not represent a reduction in the level of happiness. Even in more recent periods, reductions in salary periodically presented a positive relation with a subjective wellbeing.”
SOURCE: Science Codex
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