Minnesota State Senator Tom Neuville

No More Political Commentary

Tom Neuville — Fri, 30 May 2008 02:54:29 +0000

As most of you know, I resigned my position as a Minnesota State Senator effective January 1, 2008. I was honored to be appointed as a District Court Judge by Governor Tim Pawlenty and was sworn in as Judge on January 10, 2008.

This site is already in the public domain and will be retained only for archival purposes. Judges should refrain from partisan or political commentary in order to maintain the impartiality of the judiciary. Therefore, this site will no longer be used for political commentary.

Global Warming: Why does global warming make earth so cold?

Tom Neuville — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 23:25:23 +0000

2007 has turned out to be a pretty cold year. It seems whenever we have a “hot day” someone claims that is proof of global warming. So why isn’t cold or frigid temperatures evidence that global warming is not at a “tipping point” ?

Here is an interesting article from the Washington Times entitled, “Year of Global Cooling” which provides some evidence that earth may be getting colder on a global basis. As usual, I invite comment. But, the author clearly has his own belief in the soundness of global warming theory. The final sentance of the article is:

“Global warming has long since passed from scientific hypothesis to the realm of pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo.”

Global Warming: Politics Posing as Science - IPCC

Tom Neuville — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:44:36 +0000

Here is a critical, but well documented and footnoted article which looks into the workings of the IPCC.
The Article is entitled: ” Politics Posing as Science: A Preliminary Assessment
of the IPCC’s Latest Climate Change Report “.
The article includes this sentence, “The people of the world should not let themselves be steamrolled by a report that reflects the IPCC’s interest in promoting climate change fears, rather than in conveying the weight of the scientific evidence.”
It’s an interesting read and I invite comments.

I also read another interesting article in the Christian Science Monitor entitled, ” Let Policy follow Science: Tie a Carbon Tax to Actual Warming. ” The article is Linked here. The article makes a case for “dynamic” global warming strategy, which allows change in policies based upon new scientific observations in the future. Many scientists believe that sunspot activity, or the lack thereof, has more impact on global temperature, than carbon emissions. Better evidence of the effect of sunspots will be known by 2010, when the model projects the beginning of global cooling.

Global Warming: The “Cascade Effect” of Public Opinion

Tom Neuville — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:50:01 +0000

Here is a good article from the Wall Street Journal today. The article discusses the “cascade effect” of global warming “consensus”. The study of “cascade effect” was also the subject of a Nobel Prize in 2002 to Daniel Kahneman. “Availability cascade” has been coined for the way a proposition can become irresistible simply by the media repeating it; “informational cascade” for the tendency to replace our beliefs with the crowd’s beliefs; and “reputational cascade” for the rational incentive to do so.

It’s an interesting article and I invite comments.

Global Warming: Will Anyone Listen to the Founder of the Weather Channel ? (Post 29)

Tom Neuville — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 02:10:30 +0000

John Coleman is the founder of the weather channel. He has studied climate and weather for many years. Recently, he called the global warming movement a “scam” on his blog. His article is Linked Here from ICECAP. Will anyone listen to John Coleman ?

I just discovered the ICECAP website. It looks informative and I encourage people to visit the site.

I also came across this very interesting lecture from Bob Carter, an Australian research professor. You can listen to his fascinating lecture (37 minutes in length), presented in Sept, 2007, in 4 parts at these Links.

Link 1 Link 2 Link 3 Link 4

Here is a related article by Professor Carter entitled: ” The Myth of Dangerous Human-Caused Climate Change”.

Global Warming: Is Arctic Ice Melt a Concern? (Post 28)

Tom Neuville — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 02:57:52 +0000

Arctic ice is melting today. There is no doubt about it. Many people are alarmed that ships might actually be able to travel through arctic waters in 20-30 years, or sooner. The Washington Post has written about melting glaciers and the disappearance of Arctic sea ice before. Here is a copy of the article. The only thing is: the article was written in 1922 ! One thing the Post did not do was blame the warmer temperatures observed in 1922 on CO2 concentrations.
The 1922 article puts some perspective on what is occurring in the Arctic today. Only 50 years after the Post article, it was global cooling, and the possibility of excess Arctic ice that many people were concerned about.

Global Warming: The Sky Isn’t Falling (Post 27)

Tom Neuville — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 02:57:31 +0000

Radio Commentator Dennis Prager visited with William Gray, a pioneer in the area of forecasting hurricanes, and Professor Emeritus in Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University.

The Link to the radio interview is Linked Here. The interview can be heard during the first 15 minutes of the 34 minute segment.

Dr. Gray is a knowledgeable skeptic on the topic of Global Warming. (by the way, he hasn’t taken research money from petroleum interests). He believes that the panic over global warming is greatly exaggerated. Dr. Gray also explains the peer pressure confronting many scientists today not to depart from the politically driven orthodoxy on the issue of global warming. Peer reviews are harder to come by from scientists who depend upon government grants for their research.

Global Warming: Thinking Big about Global Warming (Post 26)

Tom Neuville — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 04:09:44 +0000

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting Article describing a different approach to the issue of Global Warming. Linked Here.
It’s called “Climate Geo-Engineering”. This approach suggests that we could add particles to earth’s upper atmosphere and reflect 1-2% of the Sun’s rays back into space. We know that the approach would work. Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in 1991 and cooled most of the Earth for a few years, erasing for a short time roughly half of the global warming that took place during the entire 20th century.

In 1992, a report by the National Academy of Sciences found the prospect of stratospheric albedo enhancement “feasible, economical, and capable.” And there are a great many geo-engineering options apart from adding sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere.

This approach doesn’t depend upon “winning” the political argument about the question of whether man is the cause of global warming. Even scientists who believe the earth is warming due to natural causes, would welcome further research of climate geo-engineering models.

Defeat of Jesse James Days: A wonderful time for Northfield.

Tom Neuville — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 03:28:38 +0000

Marilynn and I attended the Joseph Lee Heywood Distinguished Service Award dinner tonight at the Northfield American Legion Hall. It’s the “Kick-off” event for the annual Defeat of Jesse James Days Celebration in Northfield.

The Banquet honored Chip DeMann for him many years of service to the DDJJ Days committee and for his great work as an ambassador for Northfield, Dundas, and Rice county. Chip has been very involved in organizing the Defeat of Jesse James Days celebration and all of the local Historical societies, especially the Northfield Historical Society. Nobody knows the local history of Jesse Jame’s raid on the First National Bank of Northfield better than Chip.

Congratulations to Chip DeMann and his family. Well Done!

Of course, I also got to take a picture with the newly crowned DDJD Queen and her Princesses.

Do you Support a Constitutional Amendment for Dedicated Arts and Environment Funding?

Tom Neuville — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 03:04:30 +0000

I received an email from Senate staff regarding the results of the “non-scientific” State Fair Poll regarding the proposed constitutional amendment that will likely be on the ballot next year.

The Senate booth polled mostly metro citizens (nearly 80% of respondents). The question was the same as proposed for the ballot next year. 55% of respondents favored a 3/8th cent increase in the sales tax dedicated to environment and arts funding.

In contrast, the House of Representatives Booth had 50% more respondents and the question was simple to understand. Only 42% favored the Amendment in the House poll. If this result is accurate, then the Constitutional amendment will fail by a large margin.
It is my belief that the inclusion of dedicated arts funding will lose votes for the Constitutional amendment statewide. People favor dedicated funding for preserving wetlands, wild life habitat, clean water and other environmental activities. This is because there is a common understanding that the State has a fiduciary duty to preserve its natural resources. The same cannot be said for arts funding.

Here is the email from Senate Staff, describing the State Fair Polls.

Dedicated funding: Both the Senate and House booths at the State Fair asked the public what they thought about dedicated funding for the arts and environment.

*****The results are telling…

*****The House had 6,619 respondents and the Senate had 4,452, even though the booths were adjacent to each other in the same building. The Senate questions are much longer in their poll than the House questions. The Senate question is word for word on how the question would be on the ballot on November of 2007 (Conference Committee bill language on SF 6, HF 2285).

*****A total of 79.94 percent of the respondents to the Senate poll stated that they were either from Mpls/St. Paul or the metropolitan suburbs.

Senate Question posed at the state fair on dedicated funding: Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to dedicate funding to protect our drinking water sources; to protect, enhance, and restore our wetlands, prairies, forests, and fish, game, and wildlife habitat; to preserve our arts and cultural heritage; to support our parks and trails; and to protect, enhance, and restore our lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater by increasing the sales and use tax rate beginning July 1, 2009 by three-eighths of one percent on taxable sales until the year 2034?

A. Yes. 55.08% (2452)
B. No. 36.10% (1607)
C. Undecided/No opinion. 8.83% (393)

House Question posed at the state fair on dedicated funding: Do you support a proposal to amend the state constitution to raise the state’s sales tax by three-eighths of 1 percent and dedicate the money to environment and arts funding?

Yes 41.7% (2,762)
No 48.7% (3,223)
Undecided/No Opinion 9.6% (634)

Special thanks to Dan Mueller, Senate Fiscal Analyst.