Muß Al Gore jetzt seinen Friedensnobelpreis wieder zurückgeben?

Following in the footsteps of an earlier study, government scientists on Tuesday said warmer oceans should translate to fewer Atlantic hurricanes striking the United States.

The reason: As sea surface temperatures warm globally, sustained vertical wind shear increases. Wind shear makes it difficult for storms to form and grow.

“Using data extending back to the middle 19th century, we found a gentle decrease in the trend of U.S. landfalling hurricanes when the global ocean is warmed up,” Chunzai Wang, a physical oceanographer and climate scientist with NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, said in a prepared statement.

Merkel begründete ihr Plädoyer für die Kohlekraft auch mit dem weltweiten Kursrutsch an den Börsen. Es gehe gerade auch in der Energiepolitik darum, “wie sichern wir uns ab, wie schaffen wir ein Stück Unabhängigkeit von der Globalisierung”

Temperatures on Earth have stabilized in the past decade, and the planet should brace itself for a new Ice Age rather than global warming, a Russian scientist said in an interview with RIA Novosti Tuesday.

“Russian and foreign research data confirm that global temperatures in 2007 were practically similar to those in 2006, and, in general, identical to 1998-2006 temperatures, which, basically, means that the Earth passed the peak of global warming in 1998-2005,” said Khabibullo Abdusamatov, head of a space research lab at the Pulkovo observatory in St. Petersburg.

According to the scientist, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere has risen more than 4% in the past decade, but global warming has practically stopped. It confirms the theory of “solar” impact on changes in the Earth’s climate, because the amount of

Britain said on Tuesday it did not support proposed punitive trade measures threatened by the European Commission against countries that do not sign up to greenhouse gas emissions cuts.

Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said proposals on Monday from European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso that importers may have to obtain emissions permits equivalent to those of the European competitors “might look like trade barriers.”

“We believe in global trade, we want more of it in the future, not less, and that is good for the European economy,” Wicks told BBC radio. “So we are against any measures which might look like trade barriers.”

“There is always the danger that the protectionists in Europe ... could use this as a secret weapon… to bring about protectionism.”

The president of the European Commmission has threatened to impose carbon tariffs on imports unless the US agrees to a global climate change deal. Jose Manuel Barroso wants to protect energy-intensive sectors such as aluminium, steel and cement.

He says there is no point these industries cutting emissions in Europe if they lose business to countries with more lax rules on carbon emissions.

The threat of trade measures is the nuclear bomb of climate negotiations - and the commission president said he very much hoped it would not be used.

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US trade representative Susan Schwab has said that climate change should not be used as an excuse for protectionism.

She was speaking in Brussels after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said a European tax could be imposed on states that refused to cap carbon emissions.

Ms Schwab said the

EUROPEAN Union plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions could cost at least €60 billion ($99.88 billion) a year, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said today.

“Taking action is not cost free, although we think we can limit the cost of our proposals to around 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product,” he said, according to remarks prepared for delivery in London.

Bis einschließlich 2020 würden sich die Auktionskosten der Stromwirtschaft sogar auf insgesamt 66 Milliarden Euro summieren. “Und es gibt keinen Mechanismus, der verhindert, dass die Stromkonzerne diese Mehrkosten über den Strompreis vollständig auf uns Verbraucher abwälzen”, warnt Alfred Richmann, der Geschäftsführer des Verbraucherverbandes.

Dabei fürchtet die energieintensive Industrie nicht nur die steigenden Strompreise: Nach dem Willen der

Naumann delivered a blistering attack on his own country’s performance in Afghanistan. “The time has come for Germany to decide if it wants to be a reliable partner.” By insisting on “special rules” for its forces in Afghanistan, the Merkel government in Berlin was contributing to “the dissolution of Nato”.

The ice caps hold a special place in the cold hearts of the global warming advocates who are all too quick to insist that our ice caps are currently melting at an unprecedented rate. We suspect that they will not be particularly thrilled to learn that a paper has just appeared in Geophysical Research Letters entitled “A doubling in snow accumulation in the western Antarctic Peninsula since 1850.”