(h/t to Dan) The official numbers released by Environment Canada confirm what we already suspected - April in Victoria was pretty awful.

Last month saw the coolest temperatures for April in 36 years and an record-setting average daily low, said Anne McCarthy, weather services specialist.

The average daily high for April was 11.2 C degrees, below the normal 13.2 C degrees and the third coolest on record. The average daily low of 2.1 was two degrees below normal, breaking the record of 2.2 C degrees set in 1972.

Not only will it not be revenue neutral, it will bring in revenue the B.C. Liberals will come to depend on (h/t to Dan)

When Finance Minister Carole Taylor introduced the provincial budget in February, I questioned how the government could call it balanced when it clearly showed spending in excess of revenue.

My suggestion that the answer could be found in rising debt elicited an angry call from a finance department official who explained that I had omitted revenue from Crown corporations.

Since the government conveniently omits Crown corporation debt when it calculates ratios based on "taxpayer-supported" debt, it seemed reasonable to me to ignore the revenue as well.

A veteran US meteorologist and global warming sceptic says a bid to sue Al Gore for fraud over his claims about man-made climate change is gathering momentum.

Al Gore: now staying tight-lipped over climate change comments?

John Coleman, who founded the Weather Channel in 1982, proposed taking the former vice president and other environmental activists to court at a conference in New York in March.

The Earth’s temperature never stands still. Even when there is no discernible “trend” in the global thermometer, ocean and surface temperatures fluctuate to some minor degree on a year-to-year basis. And when there are trends, as the centuries-long Roman Warming of 200 BC to 600 AD, the last place to look for causation is human activity. The first is to the source of heat in our planetary system: the Sun. A number of scientists contend that decreased solar activity caused all, or nearly all, of 2007’s dramatic drop in global temperatures; down point-65 to point-75 of a degree Celsius. Put another way, last year’s steep drop in overall planetary warmth, confirmed by all four major global tracking outlets, was enough to wipe out a century of gradual warming all by itself. And it came at the end of a cooling trend that began in 1998.

There seems to be an unwritten assumption among environmentalists — and among the media — that any influence humans have on nature is, by definition, bad. I even see it in scientific papers written by climate researchers. For instance, if we can measure some minute amount of a trace gas in the atmosphere at the South Pole, well removed from its human source, we are astonished at the far-reaching effects of mankind’s “pollution.”

But if nature was left undisturbed, would it be any happier and more peaceful? Would the carnivores stop eating those poor, defenseless herbivores, as well as each other? Would fish and other kinds of sea life stop infringing on the rights of others by feasting on them? Would there be no more droughts, hurricanes, floods, heat waves, tornadoes, or glaciers flowing toward the sea?

Members of Congress say they overreached by pushing ethanol on consumers and will move to roll back federal supports for it — the latest sure signal that Congress' appetite for corn-based ethanol has collapsed as food and gas prices have shot up.

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Democrats will use the pending farm bill to reduce the subsidy, while Republicans are looking to go further, rolling back government rules passed just four months ago that require blending ethanol into gasoline.

"The view was to look to alternatives and try to become more dependent on the Midwest than the Middle East. I mean, that was the theory. Obviously, sometimes there are unforeseen or unintended consequences of actions," Mr. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, told reporters yesterday.

The Earth's temperature may stay roughly the same for a decade, as natural climate cycles enter a cooling phase, scientists have predicted.

A new computer model developed by German researchers, reported in the journal Nature, suggests the cooling will counter greenhouse warming.

However, temperatures will again be rising quickly by about 2020, they say.

Other climate scientists have welcomed the research, saying it may help societies plan better for the future.

“Despite the media’s spin and Al Gore’s rants, many Americans don’t believe the Climate Alarmist agenda and strongly oppose the coming $1.2 trillion Carbon Tax,” says Steve Elliott, President of Grassfire.org. “I think it is significant that, over a span of eight days, our petition rallied more signers than Al Gore’s effort which included expensive ad buys and has been heavily promoted by the media. People are beginning to question the coming $1.2 trillion Carbon Tax.”

Environmentalists are in their normal state of righteous frenzy over the Department of Interior’s continued deliberations on whether or not to list the polar bear as “endangered” pursuant to the Endangered Species Act. Responding to a California judge’s decision ordering Interior to make their decision by May 15, Natural Resources Defense Council’s Andrew Wetzler said, “The science is absolutely unambiguous that the polar bear deserves protection.” The Center for Biological Diversity’s Kassie Siegel added: “The science is perfectly clear. There’s no dispute. The polar bear is an endangered species.” This rhetoric is 100% typical of the environmental movement. All scientists agree with us. There is no debate. Politicians need to conform to our agenda or we’ll all soon die. The problem in this case is that someone forgot to tell the Canadians.