Lost Horizons

Ben Pile's new film on windfarms has been released. Colour me very impressed. Phillip Bratby features early on.

Climategate revisited

The BBC Radio 4 programme revisiting Climategate is on tonight at 9pm. Here's the blurb:

Climategate was the term quickly applied in 2009 to the mysterious appearance on the internet of large numbers of emails and documents belonging to some of the world's leading climate scientists.

This happened just a month before the Copenhagen climate change conference, which failed to meet the expectations of many for agreement on international action. The timing may not be coincidental.

Click to read more ...

Davey snaps back

Ed Davey has apparently snapped back at John Hayes' comments about wind farms:

A source said the minister had planned to make the remarks in a speech on Tuesday night but was instructed to remove them by Davey if he wanted to deliver a speech.

The source warned: "What he planned to say was not government policy; will not be government policy. It might be what the Tory party would like to be energy policy, but it is not. He is not in charge of renewable policies on his own, he has to follow the coalition agreement which is in favour of renewable energy, and meeting our legal EU targets for 2020.

"He has been very silly to give interviews to the Telegraph and the Mail on a speech he was not allowed to deliver.

The statement then continued:

"The only way we are going to meet our targets is if we include renewable energy which is ultimately a cheap form of energy, and in parts of Wales and Scotland is popular."

thus proving beyond any reasonable doubt that the "source" is on drugs.

It's hard to tell what this all means, but I imagine that wind energy investors are having something of a squeaky bum day.

Hiding the Decline

You may have thought that you had heard everything there is to know about Climategate, but in fact there are still details of what happened that have yet to be aired.

For example, did you know that UEA were investigated by the police under suspicion of perverting the course of justice?

Or that Lord Oxburgh quietly changed his evidence to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, introducing a falsehood into the official record?

It's all in Hiding the Decline, my definitive history of the Climategate affair, which is now on sale here.

***Did Hayes just kill the wind industry?***

Energy Minister John Hayes may just have killed the wind industry:

John Hayes said that we can “no longer have wind turbines imposed on communities” and added that it “seems extraordinary” they have allowed to spread so much throughout the country.

The energy minister said he had ordered a new analysis of the case for onshore wind power which would form the basis of future government policy, rather than “a bourgeois Left article of faith based on some academic perspective”. The comments sparked speculation that Conservative ministers are planning to drop their support for wind farms — a move which would trigger a major Coalition rift.

Turbine Travails - Josh 187

Click the image for a larger version

Cartoons by Josh

Site down

My blog host, Squarespace, is located in New York. Its data centre has been hit by the hurricane and they are apparently unable to get fuel to the backup generators. The centre is going to have to close down shortly. I'll therefore be offline for a while.

Update on Oct 30, 2012 by Bishop Hill

The latest is that the fuel for the generator has held out slightly longer than expected but we are still expected to go down soon.

Update on Oct 30, 2012 by Bishop Hill

They're pedalling like crazy in NYC and the site is still up and running - just. Apparently there is still a possibility it will go down if they can't get more fuel supplies delivered soon.

Mann sinking

Science Insider reports that Michael Mann is likely to struggle to win his libel case against the National Review.

"Libel lawsuits are not about whether journalism or commentary is misleading or irresponsible," says Peter Canfield, a partner at the Atlanta office of national law firm Dow Lohnes, who has counseled newspapers and other media outlets. "What the lawsuit is about is whether it contains false statements of facts that the authors knew to be false or seriously doubted to be true. That is a very high burden for a plaintiff to bear, particularly with respect to an issue such as this one that is such a hot topic of public debate."

It's unclear whether Mann's case will go to trial. Robert Drechsel, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who focuses on media law, notes that most libel suits never make it to trial, either because the courts dismiss them or the parties settle. If these parties don't settle, then the court must decide whether to hear all or parts of the case.

Not alarmist enough?

Lord Winston, the scientist and broadcaster has made some interesting comments about BBC coverage of climate change. Accusing the corporation of dumbing down its coverage, he suggests that he would do things differently.

The trouble with climate change is it’s an extraordinarily diverse and complex issue, but for example if the BBC would let me make some of the programmes I’d like to make on climate change, I bet you there would be a change of emphasis.

I'm not entirely convinced that he is seeking quite the same change of emphasis as I am though.

WUWTTV

Anthony's latest project looks very exciting - the idea of a telethon to counter the wall of guff emitted by Al Gore is a stroke of genius. And of course with me due to appear it should be absolutely unmissable.

Can't wait.

Boaden on the stand

The BBC's Helen Boaden was on the witness stand today as Tony Newbery makes a last-ditch attempt to force the BBC to disclose who attended its mysterious seminar on climate change in 2006 (background here). If the Information Tribunal throws his case out, it's probably the end of the line.

Andrew Orlowski of the Register was there and describes what happened here. It looks like a fait accompli:

When it came to a cross examination by Newbery, David Marks QC, the presiding tribunal judge, threw a thick protective cloak around the BBC's star witness, refusing to allow the blogger to pose many of his questions to Boaden directly. As a result, most remained answered.

"If the BBC had no record of what was said," remarked Newbery, "the first part of the Chatham House Rule doesn't apply. I can't request it. It doesn't exist."

The judge sternly reminded Newbery that any line of enquiry that allowed the identity of the attendees to be inferred should not be allowed. Marks also stepped in where he thought Boaden may not have been able to answer. Marks even intervened to prevent one line of enquiry very germane to Newbery's case: the blogger wanted to know if the attendees were there in a private or public capacity.

”It could be both,” mused the judge. “I'm reluctant to allow Ms Boaden say anything about this. I doubt if she can add anything to what is a submission by you. You’re under a severe warning from me not to go anywhere near the question.”

[Update: Tony telephones, noting that he will be unable to report on what happened at his own blog for a few days. He's on the witness stand himself tomorrow.]

The madness of dim George

Some spotty teenagers have occupied a gas-fired power station, according to the Guardian.

Around 20 climate change protesters have seriously disrupted operations at one of the UK's new generation of gas-fired power stations at West Burton in Nottinghamshire.

Police have made five arrests but climbing parties from the campaign group No Dash for Gas successfully scaled two 91m (300ft) concrete cooling towers overnight, securing themselves on ledges with supplies for a week.

This foolishness has been welcomed by, among others, George Monbiot.

The problem is that the shortfall in energy supply will be taken up by coal. Which produces more greenhouse emissions than gas.

They're not the sharpest tools in the box these greens, are they?

A kind of debate

Updated on Oct 30, 2012 by Bishop Hill

I'm due to appear at a debate in Glasgow sponsored by UKIP tomorrow. The motion is:

This meeting believes there is no evidence of catastrophic warming remotely as catastrophic as the regulations, taxes and other costs imposed to ameliorate it

Unfortunately, the organisers haven't been able to get anyone to oppose the speakers for the motion - myself, Jim Sillars, and Christopher Monckton. This is not for lack of trying. The list of people who have spurned the opportunity is extraordinary:

Click to read more ...

UEA footdragging - Part 3

This is a guest post by Don Keiller.

At the end of the last episode the forces of “disgraced, FOI-breaching, email-deleting, scientific-method abusing” consensus appeared to have chalked up another victory.

Well as UEA have previously discovered, to their cost, I can be very persistent.

I felt another court battle coming on.

Dear Mr. YYYYYY, I note the recent correspondence you sent from UEA and HP Security Services, together with the ICO's opinion that the Tribunal's Substituted Decision Notice has now been satisfied. However I remain unconvinced that this is the case.

Click to read more ...

The Gergis timeline

Readers are cordially invited to take a look at the comments thread on the Gergis post at Climate Audit. Email correspondence between the Gergis paper authors has been disclosed under Australian FOI. This appears to cast light on the murky question of just who discovered the error in the Gergis paper first.