"Suckling states that as of now, any bid to fight the construction of a power plant by arguing that the emissions might harm species would probably get thrown out because climate-change effects remain speculative, but that could change in a few years if evidence grows."

What is reasonable about this is the admission that climate science is uncertain and unsettled.

The more we let ourselves be pushed down this ridiculous road the more it all resembles a three ring circus, with Maurice Strong and the UN as the ringmasters. I guess you can add lawyers now to the group who will get rich off of this manmade problem (The idea that we are causing the warming).
Whatever happened to common sense? Is the leader of the Czech Republic the only leader left who isn't pretending to buy into this crap? Bush believes in AGW as much as Canada's Stephen Harper, which is to say they don't. But to stand up and say what they really believe would be political suicide, so they pretend to go along with most of the brainwashed sheep who are the public in general, and hope the truth about this comes out sooner or later. I actually doubt the leaders of the left believe it either, they just go with the flow instead of having any backbone.

A few years ago Queen Elizabeth was invited to the capital to see the our gov in action. She flew into Sydney in her Royal jet where she was forced to change planes to a smaller aircraft in order to complete the journey to Canberra. The reason for the inconvenience was because the runway in Canberra was just too short for her plane and lengthening it was impossible due to the area being the last habitat of an endangered lizard and any development would harm its chances of survival.. It was a bit embarrassing but the queen got over it.
Two years after that very exciting visit, George Bush flew into Canberra without hesitation in Air force 1, a few weeks after the runway was extended for his visit and we haven�t heard a squeak out of the lizards since.

The problem is that we are coming in at a time when the loss of habitat has occurred or is in the process of happening, rather than at a time when loss of habitat could have been averted. Any action taken now is a bit like fitting the airbag after the accident has occurred.

Simple things like changing planes might be possible as long as those unconvinced are reasonable, but stopping the flight altogether will not go down well at all.

Even if they believe that CO2 is warming things up, I still find it unbelievable that anyone believes that any legislative or legal actions are actually going to have an impact one way or another on the climate.

The earth's supply of fossil fuels is going to be burned one way or another in the next few generations. It is delusional to believe otherwise.

Many species are becoming endangered due to global warming, so it makes perfect sense that the endangered species act should apply to the habitats for these species. What will be interesting is that the ESA is designed to address specific threats with specific protections; global warming will be much more difficult to use except in the highest courts.

Amazing but not surprising. FYI the Federal does NOT have the authority to do anything that it wants, there's this old doc everyone ignores called the Constitution. Nor does the UN have sovereignty over the planet (not yet anyway).
Wonderful that taxpayers fund these schemes to "save" the planet.
Schemes based more on a dubious cult than science.
What is hopeful is that the level of laughter rising in respond to the daily new claims and alarms shows that the vast majority of people are not being conned.
Watch as the fringe cultists start going berserk as they slowly realize the laughter is directed at them and as they are dismissed instead of fawned over.
What is really sad is how much hard science was lost because we funded these GW clowns instead of spending on actual medical and scientific research.
But that doesn't make headlines or please pols, so we see sadly that many scientists only care about their own careers and pocketbooks, as science is dragged through the mud of foolish and false delusions.

U.S. - The federal government needs to do a better job addressing how climate change is transforming the hundreds of millions of acres under its watch, according to a congressional investigative report to be released this week. Accountability office officials gathered reports of dramatic changes across the nearly 30% of U.S. land that lies under federal control. Since 1850, the glaciers in Glacier National Park have declined from 150 to 26 and the habitat of bighorn sheep, mountain goats and grizzly bears is vanishing. Wildfires are flaring in Alaska, the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada. Climate-triggered coral bleaching in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is eroding the area's tourist appeal. Sea levels are rising around the low-lying Florida Keys. Global warming is killing off the nation's trees. Spruce bark beetles are chewing their way through Alaska's Kenai Peninsula and the Chugach National Forest, while pine beetles are destroying red spruce woodlands. Even pinyon pines hundreds of years old that have survived droughts before in the Southwest are dying off. Non-native grasses have replaced native shrubs in the Mojave Desert, fuelling hotter and longer-lasting wildfires. For the most part, the men and women overseeing these 600 million acres of land and 150,000 square miles of protected waters have little direction on how to respond to these shifts. "Global warming is and will continue to contribute to species extinctions, flooding of coastal refuges and massive movements of wildlife populations in search of more hospitable habitat. Polar bears and other imperiled species, wildlife refuges, parks and myriad natural resources are at risk and Congress clearly needs to provide more legislative direction because the agencies have failed to do so."

Simon,

Can you show a link to your claim about BusHitler eradicating the lizards of Canberra?

Anonymous,

I spent a very cold, wet summer day yesterday in Rocky Mountain National Park staring up at glacial valleys which used to be a mile deep in ice 20,000 years ago. On the way back down we had to slam on the brakes to keep from hitting a family of bighorn sheep.

Glaciers have been disappearing around here for a long time and the sheep population is quite healthy, thanks. But I always appreciate a good healthy dose of disconnected alarmism.

Patrick'

I make it out to Estes Park a couple of times per year to visit my sister. It is my impression that not much of anything, glaciers or otherwise, will be left after the elk population reaches a density of, oh I don't know, one every 2 feet? Do you have any info on exactly what those beasts are doing to the habitat? I'd be curious. It sure doesn't seem as if AGW is not hurting the elk in RMNP.

rbync,

In the fall in RMNP they frequently have traffic jams caused by elk watchers. Instead of straining for a view of a few elk in the park, people should go to the Estes Park golf course which has literally hundreds of them foraging on the last green grass of the season. As you know, sometimes you can't walk on the sidewalk downtown because of all the antlers blocking the path. I've seen bulls fighting over cows on the practice green.

The elk and sheep populations are very healthy, but they know exactly where to go to protected locations during hunting season.

Simon,

Any luck finding a link to the story about Chimpy destroying the Canberra Airport lizard? I see nothing on Google or Yahoo, though there is a story about some runway damage caused by a visit in 2004. Also found an article about lengthening the runway but it didn't mention doing it for him. Rove likely suppressed that.

rbnyc:
The sources for the lizard claim that Howard does quite well by himself

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/667556.stm
http://www.canberraairport.com.au/docs/hub/hub21_dec.pdf.

maybe there were never any lizards to begin with.

Ed Lulie:

Do you object to tax dollars being given to energy suppliers, weapons manufactures and to private armies in the efforts to secure oil supplies from politically unstable nations?
Do you object when maize is being processed as a fuel rather than being given in aid programs to feed the hungry? Are you upset that more trees are cleared to make room for biofuel plantations than are planted for carbon credits?
A great deal of the money being spent by governments is being borrowed so that business can continue as usual while only a fraction of the total funds are being spent from taxes to explore alternatives.
In the end I can assure you very little will change except that a combined power can be harnessed to provide more fuel to meet increasing demands.
There is really no need to worry about the economy wasting money; as it always has and will always struggle between boom, bust and crash. Soon the economy will enter into a recognised recession and all the talk of AGW funding will disappear as the government deals with the consequences of the day. As this occurs we have the advantage of being able to use both our abundant coal resources and the alternative energies that come from AGW, which once combined will assist in another boom.
At no time will we sacrifice the economy so that AGW can be reversed, so you should see right through the current efforts and realise the objective is only to harness extra power rather than to change current behaviour.
Picture nuclear power stations geothermal plants coal fired power stations and solar[panels springing up between wind farms as the world wakes up to the potential of the new energy age.
The new businesses of the future will be in air purifier�s desalination plants and suburban biospheres and I expect government funds will become available as you learn to adjust.

Simon,

I can only go by your first link because the second did not go through.

"US President Bill Clinton was allowed to land his 747 in Canberra during his 1996 tour of Australia because his plane, Air Force One, is a military aircraft."

Did HaliburtonHitler need the extra runway room for his ego, because Slick Willy managed to get his big-A 747 down on the same runway? Does the link that won't work show that this runway was widened for GWBush? I've not seen evidence of this yet.

".....the Australian capital Canberra because of a rare lizard which has never even been sighted in the area."

I see a strong link (no pun intended) to your belief in this phantom lizard and AGW. Bush derrangement syndrome strikes again: George Bush causes the extinction of a lizard never before seen (at this particular point) by landing the same airplane on the same runway as his predecesor.

Not widened just for GWB, just lengthened and widened before his visit, by chance, lucky, pure fluke.

There are strange forces at work, saving species and extending runways, who can say what went on. The lizards remained elusive even after the queens visit and so it was decided in their absence that the international airport, where us common people can only take domestic flights, could have a wider and longer runway as long as grass was allowed to grow between tarmac and fence lines.
Apparently the length of grass was critical rather than the amount of it. Which makes about as much sense as any size jet carrying VIPS has no difficulty in landing as long as it is classified as military.
In the bigger picture my opinion is that if saving wildlife comes at a cost we will just regret the loss.. Studies have shown that forestry practices have led to extinctions in the past due to lost habitat and even the pollution belching out of factories kills thousands of people every year. However in all cases protecting life comes at a cost, so we regret the loss, its cheaper, and those that decide get what they want.

here that link again without any mention of lizards

http://www.canberraairport.com.au/docs/hub/hub21_dec.pdf

And another link to show what happened when the lizards were found.

http://www.canberraairport.com.au/docs/hub/hub13_nov_01.pdf.

Scroll down, its on a green section, coz its environmental.

They did the same thing with koalas when developing land in Victoria and relocated them safely to Kangaroo Island in the Indian Ocean off the South Australian coast. The relocation was a great success until overpopulation caused starvation and loss of tree cover on the island which has led to a sterilisation and cull of the animals so that its numbers can be decimated and the islands fragile ecosystem can survive.

I would like to know where they can relocate all the wildlife that depends on Arctic ice and herds of caribou that depend on solid permafrost to cross the Alaskan swamps.
Eventually we will all have to come to terms with the fact that AGW has pressed tipping points into service which now emit higher co2 emissions and absorb more heat which is what really drives an accelerated GW in the NH.

Once full understanding occurs the foolishness of limiting emissions now will be equal to closing the stable door after the horse has dropped dead.
No attempt to limit emission to less than 1990 discharge is possible in a world that will always use more energy than it used last year. If industry is made to pay, it will demand that more energy is made available to afford the extra expense, which will only stabalize emissions.
if clean energy is used to generate supplies for growing demand, the amount of fossil fuel burnt will not change and the amount of airborne pollution, co2 and soot will not alter.
I think we need to get use to the idea that something always needs to be said by governments in answer to enviromental concerns, but we should never expect that something will or can be done.

Nice little rant, Simon, but your original point is just a bunch of baloney.

"George Bush flew into Canberra without hesitation in Air force 1, a few weeks after the runway was extended for his visit"

The link to Canberra airport very clearly states that whatever work was done on the runway had to do with the fact that the airport services the capitol city of one of the more important countries in the world. TheDevilHisself had nothing directly to do with it.

The second link did not work. As best I can tell you are still holding bush accountable for causing the extinction of a lizard that has never been seen at the airport. That makes no sense at all. For the record, and just as logically, I am blaming you for the extinction of this lizard. I hope you sleep well at night, lizard extinctifier.

"the runway was extended for his visit and we haven�t heard a squeak out of the lizards since."

I guess I would have to agree that the above sentence is completely accurate, with the exception of the claim that the runway was extended exclusively for Bush. The problem is that no squeak had been heard previous to his Canberra visit either. Is that also his fault?

Your argument is very much in line with the AGW and anti-Bush dogma: fake but accurate. You've made up a complete fabrication and placed it on Bush, but who cares, the world has a fever and something must be done even if it means trumping up a runway full of baseless charges.

rbnyc:

You are very strange. Canberra has been a very unimportant capital of an insignificant country for a very long time. Until the Queen had to change planes a few years ago, its airport was more than adequate for the domestic flights it recieved. Even now you cannot fly direct commercial flights into Canberra from anywhere outside Australia even though its airstrip is now very wide and excessivly long.

Like I said it was just a coincidence that the money was spent to make the airport safe for large jets just before GWB flew in. Of course GwB flew in with not just one but a fleet of jets so luckily there was plenty of room on the tarmac to park the jets nose to tail.

I hope you are aware of how much that guy costs when he shows up America.

When Clinton made the same trip, Australia provided transit between the airport, Bush on the otherhand came with a convoy of armoured cars and security personel plus his own history and story writers, so it was a bit of an invasion.I wonder how he recorded the visit.

The point is that it shows that wildlife will not get in the way of any future development or an idiot.

In answer to who cares?, obviously you care very much that GWB is protected more than any other species on the planet, but thankfully after 2008 he will be as dead as a dodo rather than just a lame duck.

Oh btw some lizards were found and were relocated, no squeaks were ever heard though because lizards just dont.