Solar flare-up will burn a hole in every pocket (NSW Australia)

HOUSEHOLDS will pay an extra $600 on their electricity bill over six years to cover the $2 billion cost of the failure of the state government's overly generous solar power scheme.

Personally I am disappointed. I was looki\ng forward to the windfall from rorting solar subsidies.
Even so, the cost of solar power is still ridiculously cheap. If I can manage it I'll play the federal energy credits scheme via independent suppliers and get free solar panels plus rebates plus ongoing revenue - all at the cost of the average electricity user,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qk11/episodes/2010 around 34 minutes in.

Another glimmer of sanity.
The Moral Maze on Wednesday October 27 and last night (Saturday 30th) was about the Wikileaks leak of information about Afghanistan. While discussing transparency and the public interest, Michael Portillo asked Professor Gwyn Prins from LSE, and one of the authors of the Hartwell papers, for his opinion on the category into which he would put the CRU emails. The prof said he had no problem with the LEAK of emails from there as they were in the public interest, disclosing a situation "exceptionally interesting and exceptionally worrying," and showing that people at CRU had crossed the line from science into advocacy. He also considered that the recent enquiries have not solved the problems.

From an article in Discover Magazine:

In a new study, David Gal and Derek Rucker from Northwestern University have found that when people’s confidence in their beliefs is shaken, they become stronger advocates for those beliefs. The duo carried out three experiments...

Gal and Rucker were inspired by a classic psychological book called When Prophecy Fails. In it, Leon Festinger and colleagues infiltrated an American cult whose leader, Dorothy Martin, convinced her followers that flying saucers would rescue them from an apocalyptic flood. Many believed her, giving up their livelihoods, possessions and loved ones in anticipation of their alien saviours. When the fated moment came and nothing happened, the group decided that their dedication had spared the Earth from destruction. In a reversal of their earlier distaste for publicity, they started to actively proselytise for their beliefs. Far from shattering their faith, the absent UFOs had turned them into zealous evangelists.

The case study inspired Festinger’s theory of “cognitive dissonance”, which describes the discomfort that people feel when they try to cope with conflicting ideas. Festinger reasoned that people will go to great lengths to reduce this conflict. Altering one’s beliefs in the face of new evidence is one solution but for Martin’s followers, this was too difficult. Their alternative was to try and muster social support for their ideas. If other people also believed, their internal conflicts would lessen.

I tried to recommend this comment as I thought it was pertinent, but nothing happened when I clicked the recommend button. Is the Telegraph at it too?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8095735/IPCC-will-probably-make-more-mistakes-vice-chair-claims.html
Comment by pdo710 at 1pm

"I accept that the revelations about the IPCC probably were timed to coincide with Copenhagen. But then so were all of those reports in the weeks making the opposite case including lurid headlines about rising sea levels, falling sea ice and so on. Why is it okay on one side and not the other? If you don't want criticism then be more careful about they way you put together reports and deal with facts and not conjecture."

???

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/oct/29/advertising-natural-world

???

Funny how Norfolk keeps cropping up!

This maybe comming your way soon!

"Norfolk Island to trial world's first personal carbon trading scheme"

"Norfolk Island, a former British penal colony in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, is to become the first place in the world to trial a personal carbon trading program."

"During the trial, residents will use the card when they pay for petrol and power. Those who use fewer units by walking or cycling instead of driving or using less electricity at home will be able to exchange any remaining credit at the end of the year for cash."

"Over time the number of carbon units handed out on the cards will go down, forcing individuals to work harder to maintain a low-carbon lifestyle."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/8092210/Norfolk-Island-to-trial-worlds-first-personal-carbon-trading-scheme.html

Ten months on from the failed Copenhagen climate summit, a binding global agreement on emissions cuts is still out of reach. Stephen Sackur speaks to Tony Juniper, the former head of the campaign group Friends of the Earth, who is now working with Prince Charles calling for a sustainable revolution. In this age of austerity, have environmental issues have slipped down the political agenda?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00vjxps/HARDtalk_Tony_Juniper/

Monseigneur

The French Academy of Science's report on climate change has been published.

http://www.academie-sciences.fr/publications/rapports/pdf/climat_261010.pdf

The Nature blog has commented already.

http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2010/10/french_climate_farce.html

Another conference for warmists on the theme of "Why won't they believe us?"

http://homepages.ulb.ac.be/~geograph/2010-10-27_climate_controversies_program.pdf

Perhaps I should have my coffee before typing!

Climate Fools day

and the link

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/oct/25/climate-fools-day-sceptics-parliament