Nach Ansicht der Handwerkskammer (HWK) Potsdam verhindern steigende Energiepreise einen Wirtschaftsaufschwung. Durch die Anhebung der Kosten von Januar 2008 an würden den 16 500 Betrieben im Kammerbezirk neue Lasten aufgebürdet, teilte die HWK am Freitag in Potsdam mit. Vor allem Bäcker, Fleischer oder Metallbauer könnten ihre Kosten aus Wettbewerbsgründen kaum an die Kunden weitergeben.
http://newsticker.welt.de/index.php?channel=wir&module=dpa&id=16524624

The UK’s biggest polluters will reap a windfall of at least £6bn from rising power prices and the soaring value of carbon under the new European carbon trading scheme that critics say fails to correct the flaws of the system it replaced.

From yesterday, the second phase of the European Trading Scheme (ETS) took effect. Analysts have predicted that the price of carbon for 2008, already trading at about 22 Euro per ton, could nearly double under the new regime, which sets much lower emissions ceilings for the …

I’d like to wish you a happy New Year, but I’m afraid I have a different sort of prediction.

You’re in for very bad weather. In 2008, your television will bring you image after frightening image of natural havoc linked to global warming. You will be told that such bizarre weather must be a sign of dangerous climate change — and that these images are a mere preview of what’s in store unless we act quickly to cool the planet.

Unfortunately, I can’t be more specific. I don’t know if disaster will come by flood or drought, hurricane or blizzard, fire or ice. Nor do I have any idea how much the planet will warm this year or what that means for your local forecast. Long-term climate models cannot explain short-term weather.

But there’s bound to be some weird weather somewhere, and we will …

The Defense Department this October quietly issued a 75-page study conducted for its National Security Space Office concluding that space power´, collection of energy by vast arrays of solar panels aboard mammoth satellites, offers a potential energy source for global U.S. military operations.

It could be done with today’s technology, experts say. But the prohibitive cost of lifting thousands of tons of equipment into space makes it uneconomical.

That’s where Palau, a scattering of islands and 20,000 islanders, comes in.

In September, American entrepreneur Kevin Reed proposed at the 58th International Astronautical Congress in Hyderabad, India, that Palau’s uninhabited Helen Island would be an ideal spot for a small demonstration project, a 260-foot-diameter “rectifying antenna,” or rectenna, to take in 1 megawatt of power transmitted earthward by a satellite orbiting 300 miles above Earth.

That’s enough electricity to power 1,000 homes, but …

We need rigorous cost-benefit analysis of every proposal and healthy scepticism of all semi-religious rhetoric about the climate and, especially, about computer models for the future.

It is difficult to predict what the weather will be like next week, let alone in 10, 20 or 100 years.

We hope the drought is coming to an end in country areas, but Australia will always be susceptible to recurrent droughts until the arrival of the next ice age.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22987467-5007146,00.html

In keinem anderen Land Europas, nicht einmal in Deutschland, ist die allgemeine Klimahysterie so entwickelt und allgegenwärtig wie in Grossbritannien. Sämtliche Massenmedien und alle im Parlament vertretenen Parteien versuchen, sich mit immer apokalyptischeren Prophezeiungen nahender Klimakatastrophen zu überbieten. Dessen ungeachtet scheint die breite Masse der britischen Bevölkerung von der Panikmache der ´chattering classes´ eher unbeeindruckt. Diese Unaufgeregtheit wird allerdings von vielen Klima-Aktivisten und Journalisten als ein Affront gesehen, wie der folgende Bericht im heutigen Observer darlegt: 

British people are now convinced about the dangers of global warming but are either baffled about how to stop it or are ignoring the issue.

Analysts say few people are taking action to deal with the threat of climate change, although over the past 12 months the vast majority have come to accept that it poses a real threat to the world. Opinion polls reveal much confusion among the public …

Man verachte die Skeptiker der offiziellen Klimapolitik nicht. Diesmal sind sie die wahren Optimisten.
http://www.cicero.de/97.php?ress_id=4&item=2285

Al-Qaeda has already claimed credit for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s former prime minister.  But this crime has plenty of suspects—any combination of whom might have been working together.  Here’s a line-up of the potential killers… http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/12/who-killed-bena.html

Andrew Dessler is a professor at the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University. He is complaining about a US senate report which listed hundreds of individuals who have been reported in the media during 2007 as speaking against the “scientific consensus” on climate change, claiming that they are scientists. The report naturally challenges the very principle of the consensus, which has given climate policies the authority they have needed to be carried forward. The global warming camp have sought to undermine the value of this new list, by claiming that the scientists lack scientific qualifications, expertise, or moral integrity.

But Dessler has made a significant concession here. He is visibly shifting from the idea that the power of the consensus comes from the weight of scientific opinion - numbers. An “overwhelming number” of scientist’s opinions might indicate that the “science” had been tested. Now, you have to …