Thanks to our reader George M. from California, who dropped this note in our basket:

Where the HECK HAVE YOU BEEN!!!??? I had no idea that such a great and logical effort was being made to fight the insanity of the man-made global warming claims. I have you on my FAV list now and have signed up for updates. Thank you for being there.

Kind words we’ll take. Arrows we will suffer. Just keep talking about these important issues!

From Steve Milloy at Junkscience.com:

It’s little wonder why the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list doesn’t include anyone accused of breaking federal environmental laws. It’s hard to argue that a father-son team accused of illegally importing Alfa Romeo sports cars that don’t meet U.S. tailpipe emissions standards is the criminal equivalent of the likes of Usama bin Laden or the other hardened sociopaths for whom the FBI warns the public to remain on the lookout.

But the Environmental Protection Agency has now cured its apparent case of outlaw-envy with the launch of its own “Wanted” list last week. Hoping to “track down environmental fugitives,” the agency wants to “increase the number of ‘eyes’ looking for environmental fugitives.”

In addition to the Alfa Romeo Gang believed to be hiding out in Italy (so remain alert on your next visit to Tuscany), the EPA wants us to keep an eye out for Mauro Valenzuela, an airplane mechanic criminally charged for improperly loading oxygen canisters thought to have caused the tragic 1996 crash of ValuJet flight 592.

“It is being called the snowiest December that Las Vegas has ever seen. Officially, 3.6 inches of snow was recorded.”

In USA Today:

Salazar’s record on the issue of energy exploration on federal land is mixed. He has opposed drilling in politically sensitive sites such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but supported a compromise bill this year that would’ve allowed more oil rigs off the nation’s coast.

“These issues are very polarizing,” said Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, which supports energy exploration on public lands. “A lot of pressure will be put on him by the environmentalist lobby and the energy lobby.”

As part of his person of the year interview with TIME magazine, President-elect Barack Obama says of climate change:

All the indicators are that this is happening faster than even the most pessimistic scientists were anticipating a couple of years ago

That doesn’t bode well for good science or good policy.

from IBD:

The Europeans and the Japanese long ago solved the problem of nuclear waste, reprocessing most of it into new fuel and safely storing what it can’t, making nuclear power a renewable resource. It also removes billions of tons of greenhouse gases, waste that also finds its way into our lungs.

Nuclear power means jobs, clean air, energy independence and keeping money here at home.

Bjorn Lomborg, known as the skeptical environmentalist, sets out the Copenhagen Consensus findings on just where global warming should fit into our global agenda (hint: we’re worrying ourselves about climate while more serious and more pressing problems are still plaguing us). Thought we’d offer this reminder this holiday season:

The panel concluded that the single best investment, one that could help the planet today, is spending on cheap, simple policies to combat malnutrition and hunger. Getting basic micronutrients to 80% of the 140 million or so undernourished children in the world would require just $60 million annually–and produce economic gains that would surpass $1 billion a year.

The Copenhagen Consensus economists also concluded that passing the Doha Round would be an astonishingly cheap way to reap the benefits of more free trade. From his research on the project, World Bank economist Kym Anderson concluded that, if developing countries cut their tariffs by the same proportion as high-income countries and services and investment were also liberalized, the global annual gains could climb as high as $120 billion by 2015, with $17 billion going to the world’s poorest countries.

Please give the gift of freedom and food this year.

In the pages of the Wall Street Journal, Benny Peiser writes “Germany and the rest of Europe are getting more rational on climate change”:

Participants at last week’s United Nations climate conference in Poznan, Poland, were taken aback by a world seemingly turned upside-down. The traditional villains and heroes of the international climate narrative, the wicked U.S. and the noble European Union, had unexpectedly swapped roles. For once, it was the EU that was criticized for backpedalling on its CO2 targets while Europe’s climate nemesis, the U.S., found itself commended for electing an environmental champion as president.

Congrats, America, we’ve gone beyond the Europeans on the alarmism scale (even after adjusting for the metric system)!

If you didn’t read the ridiculous news about proposed “Cow Taxes” on emissions you could certainly smell it.  Here’s this week’s cartoon: