There are fears a quintessential icon of the English countryside could be destroyed forever by global warming.  …

But as spring gets shorter each year, the flower loses the time it needs to mature and set seeds, and the carpet of blue we look forward to could die out forever.  …

Foxley Wood Nature Reserve, 15 miles to the North west of Norwich on Fakenham Road, is the largest remaining ancient woodland in the county and sees the flower carpet the floor.  …

Richard Hobbs, a spokesman for Norfolk Wildlife Trust, said: “Certainly bluebells are showing above the ground earlier than they used to, and Foxley Wood is the best place to see them, tens of thousands carpet the floor.

Source
The List

[H/T to Marc]  British journalism lecturer and warming alarmist Alex Lockwood says my blog is a menace to the planet. Sceptical bloggers like me need bringing into line, and Lockwood tells a journalism seminar of some options:a

There is clearly a need for research into the ways in which climate scepticism online is free to contest scientific fact. But there is enough here already to put forward some of the ideas in circulation.

One of the founders of the Internet Vint Cerf, and lead for Google’s Internet for Everyone project, made a recent suggestion that the Internet should be nationalised as a public utility. As tech policy blogger Jim Harper argues, “giving power over the Internet to well‐heeled interests and self‐interested politicians” is, and I quote, “a bad idea.”

Or in the UK every new online publication could be required to register with the recently announced Internet watchdog...

A YouTube video showing the 'science' of Gore's AIT and the half-truths he uses.

Most people almost instinctually try their best to be responsible stewards of this earth’s valuable natural resources. But the abrasive approach and militant tactics of many who fill the ranks of the environmentally conscious have led me to believe that the movement has gradually devolved into a kind of Religion. In fact, if we look closely at some of the social initiatives and assorted orbiting causes that are championed by the so called “green movement”, one may discern some eerie similarities with some less well organized religions. 

I received confirmation of my suspicions that this Religion had become a widespread phenomenon only a few days ago, when I witnessed what surely must have been one of its disciples indignantly refusing a plastic bag from a grocer who kindly offered to bag her purchases. The customer seemed horrified that this clueless shop owner had not been duly briefed on how plastic bags are a known contributor to the destruction of our fragile planet. This was followed by an even sterner reprimand to the callous philistine for being so blissfully out of touch with the widely accepted new creed.

We are all so besieged by the drivel that Greens put out daily that it is easy to forget how idiotic it is and, in many cases, how deceitful it is.

I recently received an emailed news release with the following headline: “If you don’t know what to buy for the holidays, the Better World Shopping Guide will help you decide.” The Guide is described as “a must-have guide for the socially and environmentally responsible consumer or those who want to improve their awareness.”

The guide purports to evaluate 1,000 companies and 75 product categories to determine “a product’s value by price point and its cost to society…” This, my friends, is bull feathers! When you are buying Christmas gifts this year, buy something the recipients will actually enjoy. If you’re in the mall trying to figure out which product threatens all life on Earth, you are certifiably insane.

Carbon offsets are the new gravy train

When the idea of selling carbon offsets by otherwise profitable businesses is described twice in the same month as “gravy,” you know offsets have an image problem.

But the bigger question remains. Is the market for carbon offsets, imperfect as it is, a necessary evil if real progress is to be made cutting emissions of greenhouse gases?

Our colleague Jeff Ball reports today in the WSJ on the latest blow to the credibility of the offset market, that is, when companies get paid for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. Landfills have been capturing methane for years, and making money off it–but thanks to the growing offset market, they are getting paid twice. As the paper says: