That 200,000 tons of gas and 4.4 million barrels of oil would devastate marine life was not taken as scientific proposition; it was (reasonably) taken as fact. That everyone was so wrong about the impact that BP’s hydrocarbons would have on the ocean should give those who believe in scientific consensus second thought. Particularly if the consensus is one that is believed by Hollywood, academia, and media alike, a trifecta not exactly known for its prophetic abilities. Nature is more resilient, more powerful, more adaptive, and more complex than most people believe. --Jared Sichel, Next Gen Journal, 23 January 2012
There are many people who argue that the era of fossil fuels is coming to a close. The facts are very, very different. We’re awash with the stuff. The Earth crust is riddled with fossil fuels. And what’s happened recently, in response to higher prices, is that we’ve got technologically much better at getting that stuff out. –Professor Dieter Helm, Oxford University, BBC Today Programme, 24 January 2012
Chris Huhne’s claim is based on the assumption that the price of fossil fuels can only go up as we "run out" of oil and gas supplies. As a result, energy prices will inevitably shoot into the stratosphere, making very costly renewables competitive in the future. I am afraid Huhne's assumptions are misguided. In reality, we are in the middle of a global natural gas revolution. The abundance of natural gas and of ever more abundant shale gas, in particular, has prompted a global rush to explore for the new gas resources. --Benny Peiser, Public Service, Europe, 19 January 2012
EU environmental policy is one of the casualties of Greece's austerity drive. Almost a quarter of a century of advances in environmental regulation made by Greece as a member of the EU are now being weakened and rolled back. A case in point is the pioneering ‘Green Fund' established by the Greek government in 2010 with the aim of promoting nature conservation and investments related to climate change. The fund swiftly accumulated over €1 billion. But the fund was effectively dissolved only months after its creation; 95% of the fund can now freely be absorbed by the state budget in order to help cover the national debt. -- Demetres Karavellas, European Voice, 19 January 2012
The frozen world of the Arctic is warming up as a new frontier of the great power game for energy resources, with India, China and Japan seeking stakes in the ecologically and economically sensitive region. This northernmost part of Earth looms in 21st century importance as a vast buried treasure of oil, gas, coal and minerals such as zinc and silver, as a key region for studying global warming, and as significant gateway for maritime trade between Asia, Europe and North America. --Raja Murthy, Asia Times, 24 January 2012
This question about whether or not the IPCC model predictions (as represented by the GISS models) are still consistent even with the large Loeb et al estimate should have been a major part of their article. The Loeb et al 2012 even cited the Hansen paper but did not take the next step and complete model and observational comparisons. That the IPCC models are close to being refuted with respect to the magnitude of global warming even with the large Loeb et al values is an unspoken result of their findings. They missed a major implication from their results. --Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science, 23 January 2012
