Soil more than two meters (6.6 feet) below the Arctic surface in Canada's Yukon territory has remained frozen for as long as 740,000 years, Duane Froese of the University of Alberta and colleagues said in a preview of a study to appear in Science. Surface temperatures have since surged and dropped without the permafrost melting, which can release greenhouse gases.

The soil examined is the oldest-known permafrost in North America, the research said. Climatologists study the Arctic, which includes parts of Canada, Russia, Alaska and Greenland, because it is warming faster than other regions. That potentially could speed up global warming if deep soil thaws, unlocking gases such as methane that trap heat near the Earth's surface.

Warming and cooling cycles are more directly tied in with astronomical influences than they are with human-caused carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, some scientists now say.

Recent observations point to a strong link between “solar variability” – or fluctuations in the sun’s radiation – and climate change on Earth, while other research sees the sun as just one of many heavenly bodies affecting global warming in the later half of the 20^th century.

Contrary to what has been stated in a “Summary for Policymakers” attached to the United Nation’s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report -- and in subsequent press coverage of the report -- there is scant evidence in favor of human-caused global warming, according to geologists, astrophysicists, and climatologists who have released updated studies.

No, this is not a satire. Greenpeace has launced an art project this week that makes the case for polar bears everywhere in light of global warming. For the demonstration, er, project, Greenpeace had mannequins wear polar bear heads and ratty clothing to 'dramatize' how GW is causing polar bears to end up 'homeless' because of melting sea ice. The D.C. police were not amused as the polar bear protest stood in traffic holding signs that said S.O.S., while another prompted an investigation by the bomb squad.

They also have other 'mannequins' showing a homeless polar bear eating out of a trashcan (which shut down the nearby Metro station for 2 hours when the bomb squad was called in), and another with a faux bear panhandling for change. The biggest punchline to their supposed concern for humanity is making a mockery of a current human tragedy: homeless people. But when you're looking through green-colored glasses, getting hopped up on some theoretical catastrophe rather than helping those who are actually in need is the real disaster.

If this is how Greenpeace is spending its enormous financial resources to show the plight of bears and humans, than they have only shown what it means to be inhumane.

A report entitled "A Pragmatic Energy Policy for the UK", by Professor Ian Fells and Candida Whitmill, said renewables would not fill the impending energy gap so old nuclear and coal plants had to be kept going while new ones were built urgently.

"Current UK energy policy is not fit for purpose. Something has to be done about it if we are not going to run into serious problems around about the middle of the next decade," Fells, an advocate of nuclear power, told reporters.

The government should guarantee a minimum electricity price to the power companies for the next 30 years to give them a secure investment outlook to finance the 4 billion pounds each nuclear power plant is likely to cost, he added.

"If you hear that a thousand scientists agree that global warming is due to mankind, chances are that only ten of that thousand actually know enough about the problem to cast any judgment on the issue at all," says Dr. Roy Spencer.

Spencer is former senior scientist of climate studies for NASA and now principal research scientist at University of Alabama. He is among an elite and eclectic collection of heavy-hitting experts who debunk the claims of climate alarmists and radical environmentalists on a new DVD from Coral Ridge Ministries and Answers in Genesis.

Global Warming: A Scientific and Biblical Expose of Climate Change contends that the doomsday prophets of global warming ignore much science in their rush to perpetuate a misguided campaign. The DVD credits Dr. Timothy Ball, Canadian climatologist and retired University of Winnipeg professor, with the charge that "funding that supports the theory of man-made global warming has created an industry that has generated a truth of its own."

Masters of the Universe - dontcha just love 'em? This is a bad time for the Great and the Good. The current global phenomenon is the rug being pulled from under the mighty ones. Not a day goes by but another group of sages is exposed for the buffoons they actually are. The truth is, we are ruled, in every aspect of our lives, by clowns arrogating to themselves the airs of philosopher kings.

The redundant deal-maker from Lehman Brothers clutching a black plastic bag as he makes his way out into deserved oblivion would not have given you the time of day a year ago. At dinner parties he would have sneered down anyone who suggested the remotest vulnerability in the Wall Street leviathan and opened another magnum of vintage champagne.

Global warming crusader Al Gore drew criticism over his energy-guzzling Tennessee home, and now he’s catching flak over his massive new houseboat.

Talk show host Steve Gill, whose show is carried on nearly a dozen stations around Tennessee, fired up listeners over the Gore family’s 100-foot houseboat that’s docked on Center Hill Lake in Smithville, Tenn.

“As he often does, Gill labeled Gore a hypocrite who preaches energy conservation to curb what Gill refers to as ‘so-called global warming,’ but who doesn’t practice it,” the Nashville Tennessean reported.

For most people, being the president of a country would be enough to keep one busy, but not so for Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic. He directs as much time and energy as he possibly can to campaigning against those he characterizes as global warming alarmists. That is why Klaus was delighted when a major Czech daily newspaper ran the complete text of a speech he gave last week -- in Tokyo -- to the The Mont Pelerin Society, a prestigious international economics organizationof which he is a member. Klaus, who has been President of the Czech Republic since 1993, holds a doctorate in economics.

The Tokyo meeting gave President Klaus an opportunity to introduce his new book, "Blue Planet in Green Shackles." The book’s subtitle -- What is Endangered: Climate or Freedom? -- reveals Klaus’s concern about the totalitarian agenda of environmentalists. He sees no difference between the ideology of communism and that of climate change. He says he is no longer simply concerned about the consequences of politicians using global warming to gain and wield power over ordinary citizens. Klaus describes himself now as “angry.” He agrees with author Michael Crichton. “The greatest challenge facing mankind is distinguishing between reality and fantasy, truth from propaganda” as regards global warming.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has been told that tariffs aimed at punishing countries -- mostly from such emerging markets as China -- that emit high levels of greenhouse gases carry "significant" risks, including sparking a global trade war. It is advised to "speak out strongly" against such levies.

Carbon tariffs "will neither improve the global environment nor strengthen the competitiveness of OECD industries, companies and firms," the OECD was told in a briefing dated Sept. 10.

But, in general they also claim that their beliefs in humanism and nature are superior. However, they’d scoff at claims that they have merely replaced traditional religion with one of their own creation: environmentalism. They would argue that their beliefs are simply applied logic and does not represent that of religious zealotry.

I am waiting for some moron in Obama’s campaign team to announce that the devastation of Hurricane Ike is the fault of the Bush administration.

Worse yet, I am waiting for some moron in McCain’s campaign team to say something stupid about “global warming” as the reason for the hurricane. Since the Earth has been in a cooling cycle now for the passed ten years, you can be fairly certain that (a) there is no global warming and (b) there’s no connection to the recent hurricanes.

As to what is “causing” them, the answer is the same thing that has been causing them for millions of years, Mother Nature. Those of us on the East Coast and in the Gulf area are now in a “hurricane season” and it will remain in it through October.

Ike stirs memories of Galveston’s 1900 hurricane

Citizens being told to flee Hurricane Ike or face “certain death” have only to look back at the 1900 hurricane that struck Galveston to know the destructive force of a storm.

Hurricane Katrina, of course, is the benchmark in modern times, the storm of August 2005 having killed about 1,800 in New Orleans, but the 1900 Galveston tempest is said to be the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history, killing as many as 12,000. (The exact totals have never been known; some estimates put the death toll at 5,000; the U.S. Weather Service says it was 8,000.)

In just one day, the town of 36,000 was destroyed. About 3,600 buildings were demolished. And a city that once fancied itself as the Wall Street of the West was gone, and with it its chances of achieving its potential as the premier deep-water port in Texas.