Gore calls for Civil Rights Movement-like action to that needed to deal with climate change

The schoolchildren of Memphis heard the name "Al Gore," and their loud, uninhibited response more resembled that given to a rock star than to a former vice president.

Appearing this morning at the National Civil Rights Museum's Freedom Awards public forum at the Temple of Deliverance, Gore connected the lessons imparted by Civil Rights Movement heroes like fellow honoree Diane Nash to the action needed to confront the "emergency" of global climate change.

Honored last year with a Nobel Peace prize for his efforts to raise awareness over global warming, Gore described growing up in Washington, D.C. and Carthage, near Nashville and watching on early TVs as Nash and other students in Nashville challenged Jim Crow laws with sit-ins and by directly questioning public officials.

No GW here: Obama rallies the troops in bone-chilling rain

We're talking about the weather.

After a string of huge rallies in idyllic fall tableaus and under crystal skies, Obama spoke today to thousands in a driving, cold rain on a muddy field at Widener University. With temperatures in the 30s, he spoke an hour earlier than scheduled because of the worsening weather and ditched his usual dark suit and white shirt for a heavy jacket, jeans and sneakers.  …

Obama noted that the "Stop Global Warming" signs some in the crowd held might have more appeal on another day.

"I saw [Pennsylvania Gov.] Ed Rendell backstage and his teeth were chattering," Obama said.

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A blast of Arctic weather today saw snow showers sweep across the country leaving the UK shivering.

A thick covering of snow was reported across Scotland and Northern Ireland, with heavy showers recorded as far south as Birmingham.

Forecasters predicted blizzards may hit northern areas of Britain tonight and in some parts of Scotland the temperature may fall as low as -8C.

The chilly forecast follows the revelation that hundreds of Bewick's swans, which were due to return to an English nature reserve for the 'warmer' winter, are staying put in Siberia because it is colder in the UK.

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Having a bad heir day?

Prince Charles, the vacuous heir to the throne and self-appointed village idiot of Buckingham Palace is off around the world again talking about global warming.

This time he's not suggesting a direction that would starve millions, he is in Japan and bemoaning the fact that a real crisis (the economic meltdown) has trumped the fake crisis (global warming).

The clueless Prince has never had to worry about where the next guinea is coming from, so it's little wonder he does not understand why the economic problem is of overwhelming concern to ordinary folks.  He spoke out earlier this month saying that the world was not acting fast enough to fight global warming, and he' stuck on the same tune now.  But what do we expect from man that divorced a model and married his horse?

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Welcome to winter ... well, a taste of it, at least.

The coldest air of the season, with temperatures at mid-January levels, has blanketed the Carolinas. Near-record daytime temperatures are expected today in Charlotte, and snow is falling in the mountains. A freeze warning is in effect for much of the Charlotte area, and forecasters say cold temperatures Wednesday and Thursday mornings will end the growing season in the region.

The National Weather Service is reporting accumulations of snow at a number of sites this morning, with totals of up to 2 inches in several places.

The cold snap will relent in time for Halloween on Friday, but chilly air will return again later in the weekend.

A spokesman for MeteoGroup said this is the result of chilly winds coming in from the Arctic and warned the cold would intensify during the day.

"There are quite a few showers about, which are the result of instability in the atmosphere, created by cold air meeting sea surfaces which are still relatively warm," the spokesman said.

Only 18 percent of survey respondents strongly believe that climate change is real, human-caused and harmful.

Yes you read that correctly, it is all in this article on the Nature Conservancy webpage. And that goes along with what was discovered in June this year by the newspapers UK Guardian and Observer, which reported that:

The majority of the British public is still not convinced that climate change is caused by humans - and many others believe scientists are exaggerating the problem…

Canadian researchers studying the Arctic´s ancient permafrost have discovered 700,000-year-old ice wedges buried in the soil that have survived earlier periods of global warming, adding complexity to predictions about the impact of contemporary climate change.

Duane Froese, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science at the University of Alberta, found what he describes as "the oldest ice in North America" in the Klondike region of Canada's Yukon Territory about 10 feet below the surface.

Because these ice wedges were found under a layer of volcanic ash, researchers from the University of Toronto and the Geological Survey of Canada were able to use a technique known as "fission track dating" of the ash to date it at roughly 700,000 years old.

One passionate man, a handful of skeptics. That was the scene Monday night when Jeff Kropf, the Oregon director of the anti-government organization Americans for Prosperity, brought his "Stop The Panic" tour to a group of area residents at a local restaurant.

"Stop the Panic" - as in stop the panic about global warming - is the latest rallying cry for the group, which says that legislation aimed at curbing carbon dioxide emissions, such as the Western Climate Initiative and the recently defeated Lieberman-Warner legislation, would dangerously encroach upon Americans' freedom and way of life.

Former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar

Former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar Wednesday dismissed climate change as a "new religion" that is drawing hundreds of billions of euros at a time of economic crisis.

Aznar made the remarks at the presentation of a book by Czech President Vaclav Klaus, "Blue Planet in Green Shackles", in which he also questions the widely held theories about climate change.

"In these times of global cooling of the international economy ... the standard bearers of the climatic apocalypse demand hundreds of billions of euros" to combat global warming, said Aznar, who was conservative prime minister from 1996 to 2004.