Peter C. Glover

Climategate II: Won’t Get Fooled Again?

"For the clueless or cynical diehards who deny global warming, it's getting awfully cold out there." So wrote Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson on October 24. Unfortunately for Robinson, he was right about it "getting awfully cold out there", though not as he contended for climate sceptics.

Carbon Jihad, iPads & the Jevons Paradox

It was John Lennon who famously remarked, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”. So too, market forces is “what happens” while bureaucrats are busy planning strategies. According to a new study, government anti-carbon emission initiatives are being undermined by the boom in sales of electronic gadgetry and devices.

Spying Iran’s Nuclear End Game

As John le Carré's Cold War spy movie Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy opens to rave reviews in London, so the story of Iran's nuclear program is taking on a dark le Carré-esque 'keep-em-guessing' undercurrent. Probably how Teheran's 'cloak and dagger' regime prefers it. The question is: whose intelligence (pun intended) would it fool?

Goodnight, Irene

There was something faintly amusing about the rash of media reporters roaming the empty wet and windy streets of New York and Long Island at the weekend. While directors back at base repeatedly ran the same shot of the wooden shed being tossed by waves off Long Island, for the frontline reporters, it must have felt like somebody had, quite literally, stolen their broadcasting thunder.

The Green Subsidy-Job Loss Nexus

There comes a point when even how to save the planet boils down to hard economics--what can we afford? Bottom line: the green refrain "whatever it costs" won't do in the real world. Whichever side of the Atlantic we live on, the economic indicators are all registering in the red 'critical' zone when it comes to the destructive impact of diverting precious economic resources into green subsidies, particularly on real jobs.

Iran’s Army Chief: Next OPEC President?

Former Iranian Revolutionary Guards Commander Rostam Ghasemi is one of four names on a list submitted to the Iranian Parliament for approval as the country's new oil minister--a position that also includes the presidency of OPEC.

Anders Breivik is Not a Christian. Period.

I have just witnessed Bill O'Reilly of Fox News and Washington Post resident leftie Sally Quinn who edits WPs 'On Faith' section - I can't think of anyone intellectually less qualified on the issue of faith from what I have heard from her - over whether Anders Breivik would be called a Christian. Thus, as the New York Times would have it Breivik must be a "Christian Terrorist”, much as we feel able to use the term “Muslim Terrorist”.

No Global Warming: Due to China Burning “Extra Coal”!

As a superb bronze of Ronald Reagan was being unveiled in the gardens of London's U.S. Embassy on July 4, a new study into why global temperatures stalled back in the mid-1990s was making headlines. According to the study's lead author Robert Kaufmann the "lack of global warming" may well be due ... to the Chinese burning "extra coal". So there it is. Hot off the presses is the suggestion that not only is man's burning of coal a chief cause of global warming, man's burning of even more coal, at least temporarily, may also be responsible for cooling global temperatures, too.

The Need for Public Ownership of the Carbon “Idea”

"If in the long run we are the makers of our own fate, in the short run we are the captives of the ideas we have created". These words of economist and political philosopher Friedrich Hayek's today resonate loudly in the carbon "idea"--that the West should fast-track a low-carbon economy no matter what the socio-economic cost.

Emission Control, We Have a Problem

Unlike the CAU--Climate Alarmists' Union--I don't major in defending the immutable prophetic utterance of the computer modelling gods. Still, the faith of those in the rush to decarbonisation at any cost it seems remains unabated, even though all the evidence pointing to spiralling electricity bills resulting in loss of industrial competitiveness--not to mention jobs--will be the direct result. But what is truly disturbing is how little credence our political leaders appear to grant to this self-inflicted 'foot wound'.

Greenism’s Threat to Democracy

Sydney Herald columnist Richard Glover believes the time has come for all "climate-change deniers" to have "their opinions forcibly tattooed on their bodies". Ah yes, Nazi-style totalitarianism, officially-sanctioned and enforced beliefs with the physical marking of dissidents. That's the spirit, Richard. Overlooking the stark fact of misrepresentation--no one denies that climate change is a reality, that is what climate does, change or vary over cyclical periods--what we, and quite a few others including countless scientists, do deny is that the recent warming period which flat-lined around 12 years ago, is entirely within normal, historic, temperature parameters.

The Blackpool Quakes and UK Shale: Injecting Perspective

"Small earthquake, not many dead" is the well-known winner of a poll among journalists to identify the world's dullest headline. "Small earthquake in Blackpool" could rival it, except for the suspicion that it may have been caused by nearby hydraulic fracture drilling or 'fracking', on the site of the UK's first shale gas prospect.

Scottish Wind Farms Paid to Shut Down Generation

In April, six Scottish wind farm companies were paid £300,000 (US$485,000) to shut down generation. The problem? Over a two-day period they were producing too much electricity. UK wind power groups were cock-a-hoop. At last, a good news wind energy story not built on the quicksand of fanciful claims to "free" energy, for once based on the hard math of actual production. Unfortunately, the apparent "success" story turns out instead merely to reinforce serious concerns over the volatility of base load supply to power grids from highly variable generation sources; not to mention highlighting yet another 'hidden' public subsidy necessary to cope with the problem.

Shale Gas Wars: A Tale of Two Studies

"A lie gets halfway around the world before truth has a chance to get is pants on". It seems Winston Churchill's dictum could be applied to "comprehensive" studies into the global shale gas phenomenon too.

Ten Fracking Things Everyone Should Know

As dull headlines go it’s on a par with the (almost certainly apocryphal) classic “Small earthquake in Chile. Not many dead”. But “Hundreds rally against fracking” – the hydraulic fracturing procedure used in shale gas extraction – must be up there with the dullest.

Shale Gas: And the Hits Just Keep On Coming

It needs to be broadcast loud and clear: energy crises are the result of 'above the ground geopolitics' not a lack of global resources. When it comes to supply, as the latest U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report assessing recoverable shale deposits in 14 regions/32 countries outside North America makes clear, we need to ditch the alarmism of the doom and gloom-mongers once and for all. While talk of energy crises sell books and make eye catching headlines, the fact is that current circulating maps of global energy reserves have been rendered meaningless.

Warmageddon Deferred, says Joe Public

“The global warming hysteria is well and truly over. How do we know? Because all the relevant factors – polls, news coverage, government u-turns and a manifest lack of interest among policy makers – show a steep decline in public concern about climate change.” Dr Benny Peiser, director of the UK’s Global Warming Policy Foundation, was speaking for the motion ‘The Global Warming Concern is Over, Time for a Return to Sanity’ at a public debate hosted by the UK’s Spectator magazine at The Royal Geographic Society in March. The London audience having heard an evening of hard facts openly debated, duly voted 428 in favor of the motion, 214 against, 31 undecided.

Wind Power Causes Gridlock

'Hamish' lives in a remote, relatively windy, farmhouse location in Scotland. Being an unreconstructed liberal with cash to splash, Hamish decided eighteen months ago to invest in his 'free' wind power dream. Disgusted that his power company would not buy any excess electricity a 'home' turbine would produce, Hamish switched to the one Scottish power company that was prepared to buy it. By February 2011, having bought his £55,000 ($88,000) turbine and completed the infrastructure and after the power company laid the cables, Hamish received a bombshell. Having tested the system the power company refused to allow Hamish to turn it all on because variable wind surges would trip out the power grid.

The Great British Solar Scam

Every year millions of Britons join the birds flying south for a vacation. The reason for the annual exodus is simple enough: guaranteed sun, guaranteed heat. I have yet to hear of a foreign tourist giving the same reasons for visiting British shores. So why, you might wonder, does the British Government want we Brits to invest heavily in solar panels?

The Carbon Prayer

It’s not been a good year for the followers of ‘man-made carbon dioxide as key driver of global temperature’ theory. Not least because the seemingly inexorable upward trend of global CO2 emissions (courtesy of the fast-industrializing nations) shows no signs of abating while global temperatures persist in flat-lining, even falling. But hey, let’s not let scientific fact interfere with a good computer-generated, speculative global scare story.