The Day Global Warming Stood Still (But Warming Lies Didn't)

  This is simply silly. There is no doubt that the earth is warming up and that the global icecaps are disappearing at an alarming rate. Not to sound coy or flippant about this but the dogs on the street know that at this stage. They can put together a panel of people to say anything these days and it seems they inevitably will. Wasnt there a panel that decided Maccarthy should have more power to deal with 'the commies'? Wasnt there a panel that said Sadam Hussain's nuclear arsenal needed to be dealt with as soon as possible for 'our own personal safety'? And wasnt there a panel who met a few months ago and said that at the rate the world is warming all our ice will be gone in 20 years? So now, when these same panels tell us that the blatant global warming around us isn't happening at all we are suppose to go 'really, ah it must all be in my mind'? REALLY? The term absolute nonsense comes to mind.

 The present global debate is over whether or not mans direct influence has acted as a catalyst to this change and whether we can manage to slow its inevitable shift. It seems, from the countless other research projects that have systematically proven the earth is warming, that our carbon emissions have indeed affected out climate around us. To say otherwise would be to play into the hands of vested interest companies and research groups, whose agenda is clearly not as impartial as some may think. This report, and however many others they want to churn out in a seemingly endless attempt to stem the tide of public awakening that is happening in regards to the damage we have caused this planet, will not save them from the future backlash by our children for not taking appropriate steps nor will it save this planet from the growing fever that now fills its very being. We have made the earth sick, a term we dont like to use because that would mean accepting the reality that the planet is a living organism and not some chunk of divine playdo for us to mould in our own industrial image, and it is gradually running up a fever. It seems that rather than address the problem we have chosen to deny it, bury it, chastice its supporters and use it as a political tool with which to dispence our own self-involved version of global development. In a world such as that we arguably dont deserve to survive the deluge that is coming, and make no mistake it is coming. It will not be some religious apocalypse nor will it be some righteous act by a more advanced society than our own. It will be a self created end to the human race. It seems that in the end of days, a term many people like to use to refer to the end of mans brief time on earth,  we will be left, as W.B Yeats has so aptly put it, searching for 'another troy to burn'.

Kenneth

The hacked e-mails did not disprove global warming, or that much of this was man-made.  Imhofe is an imbecile.

The Artic icecap was formed in about three million years, and is now melting before our eyes, and will be nonexistent.  The science showing that greenhouse gases trap heat has been around for about 150 years. 

Dawg, I must tell you that you are insane. It is too bad as you do have brains, but you use them in strange ways. Michael Joel Held PS To those who bother to read the posts of Dawg, please think about what he says and does or does not do. You will certainly get an earful about him from his own words. Michael Joel Held

Gore made billions?  Please prove this.

The investment vehicle headed by Al Gore has closed a new $683m fund to invest in early-stage environmental companies and has mounted a robust defence of green investing.

The Climate Solutions Fund will be one of the biggest in the growing market for investment funds with an environmental slant.

The fund will be focused on equity investments in small companies in four sectors: renewable energy; energy efficiency technologies; energy from biofuels and biomass; and the carbon trading markets.

This is the second fund from Generation Investment Management, chaired by the former vice-president of the US and managed by David Blood, former head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

The first, the Global Equity Strategy Fund, has $2.2bn invested in large companies the company judges have "sustainable" businesses, from an environmental, social and economic viewpoint. Mr Blood said he expected that fund to be worth $5bn within two years, based on commitments from interested investors.

Mr Blood said raising $683m for the new fund in the midst of "market disruption" showed the resilience of green investing. "The fact we were able to raise $683m was extraordinary, so our experience is that it has not really been a problem [raising funds despite what is] generally a difficult environment," he told the Financial Times.

"A fear expressed by some is that the first thing to go in a downturn is the nice-to-have sort of investment. Some people put green investments in that category, but we think that is nonsense. This is not nice-to-have - it is fundamental finance...because the transition from a high-carbon to a low-carbon economy is a ginormous step that is going to happen quickly," he said.

Both Mr Gore and Mr Blood had invested in the new fund to a "pretty sizeable" extent, Mr Blood said.

The average size of investment made by the new fund is likely to be about $30m, in small private or public companies. All of the investors in the new fund were drawn from the company's existing pool of investors.

None were willing to be named but existing investors in the Global Equity Strategy Fund include the Swiss private bank Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch; the California State Teachers Retirement System; Sweden's Mistra Foundation; and Australia's Victoria Super Fund.

Last year, Generation formed a partnership with the Silicon Valley venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to collaborate on possible investments.