As forecast, China has overtaken the U.S. in carbon-dioxide emissions due largely to China’s heavy reliance on coal. Another factor is its well-publicized population of 1.3 billion. But per-capita emissions are much higher in developed countries, where populations are exploding due to immigration. The U.S. already releases four times the carbon per-capita each year as China. And the U.S. population, which has been doubling every 40 years, is headed for one billion by the end of this century!

This letter to the editor of the Canada Free Press website came in response to a piece from Dr. Tim Ball. The writer says:

"It would be great if there was somewhere you footnoted or documented your articles, like “Global Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts?” I am constantly in arguments with everyone I know about this issue and I would like to site to the science, articles, or to graphs and charts that support the statements and positions you take."

The deathless and - in many specific respects - completely fictional meanderings of Dr. Tim Ball have begun appearing again on right-wing blogs all over the net. At City Troll, at Convenient Untruth and at New Orleans Lady, the same tired and retreaded old climate rant paints Dr. Ball as the courageous victim of a plot to silence a well-meaning skeptic.

But Ball can't even tell the truth about his own resume. His claim to be the first Climatology Ph.D. in Canada is a total falsehood; his degree was in historical geography - not climatology - and it was nowhere near the first ever granted to someone writing vaguely in the field.

UPDATE: to make matters worse, it looks like Ball's "global warming is good for us" message is running front page in the right-wing uber site, The Drudge Report

Does anyone out there have any intelligence on the political activities of the owners or manager's of the hotel chain, Best Western.