Dan Maes, the Tea Party-supported candidate in the Colorado governor’s race, has argued that a popular Denver bike-share program is a “very well-disguised” part of a plan by Denver mayor (and Democratic gubernatorial candidate) John Hickenlooper for “converting Denver into a United Nations community.” Last week, Maes told the press that Denver’s membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) “could threaten our personal freedoms” because environmental initiatives like the cycling program are “very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to.”

This afternoon, Maes appeared on MSNBC to explain his conspiracy theory. Although the “bike program in and of itself is fine,” he said, what worries him is “what’s behind it all”:

We’re trying to differentiate myself from the mayor. If I win the primary and when I win the primary tomorrow, people are going to say what the difference is. We’re both business people. When a mayor signs onto a program sponsored by the United Nations, that should bring concern to people as to how the program may or may not be compatible with our state constitution.

Watch it:

Despite Maes’s dark fears, Denver’s participation in ICLEI carries no legal obligations and raises no constitutional issues, but does allow city planners to share information and ideas with other urban communities throughout the world. Maes has not yet commented on Colorado State University’s support for the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the suspiciously named Denver International Airport, the University of Colorado Model United Nations Club, or Denver’s international sister cities, like Brest, France, Chennai, India, and Kunming, China.

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Masters: Over 15,000 likely dead in Russia, 17 nations comprising 19% of Earth’s total land area set extreme heat records this year, July was “sixth straight record warm month in the tropical Atlantic”

Caption:  “A comparison of August temperatures, the peak of the great European heat wave of 2003 (left) with July temperatures from the Great Russian Heat Wave of 2010 (right) reveals that this year’s heat wave is more intense and covers a wider area of Europe. Image credit: NOAA/ESRL” — Jeff Masters.

Ria Novisti reports:

Russia has recently seen the longest unprecedented heat wave for at least one thousand years, the head of the Russian Meteorological Center said on Monday….

“We have an ‘archive’ of abnormal weather situations stretching over a thousand years. It is possible to say there was nothing similar to this on the territory of Russia during the last one thousand years in regard to the heat,” Alexander Frolov said.

He said scientists received information on ancient weather conditions by exploring lake deposits.

Frolov also said Russia’s grain crop may decrease by at least 30% compared to last year.

Once-in-a-thousand-year weather events ain’t what they used to be (see “Stunning NOAA map of Tennessee’s 1000-year deluge“).  And we’ve only warmed about 1.5°F in the past century.  We’re  projected to warm some 6 times that (!)  on our current emissions path.  So we ain’t seen nothing yet!

The BBC reports, “Moscow’s health chief has confirmed the mortality rate has doubled as a heatwave and wildfire smog continue to grip the Russian capital.”  The BBC repeats the “worst in 1,000 years of recorded Russian history” line, and quotes Frolov also saying, “It’s an absolutely unique phenomenon – nothing like it can be seen in the archives.”  But the BBC  is mum on global warming or climate change or greenhouse gas emissions.

At least  Russian leaders are starting to get (see Medvedev: “What is happening now in our central regions is evidence of this global climate change, because we have never in our history faced such weather conditions in the past”).

Meteorologist Jeff Masters has the full story on just what Russia and the rest of the planet is going through:

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Progressives should know the most commonly used arguments by the disinformers and doubters — and how to answer them.

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The Best peak oil investments: Bicycle and scooter stocks

When gas prices rise, more people turn to bicycles for transportation. Will these bike and scooter stocks ride in the oil price’s slipstream?

A 2008 survey of bicycle retailers found that the vast majority of bike store owners felt that their sales had increased because many people were turning to bicycles for some of their transportation needs because of high gas prices. 95% of store owners reported that they had new customers because of high gas prices.

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This is a guest post by CAP’s Kalen Pruss.

New unemployment numbers out today show no improvement in the job market.  Although the July unemployment rate held steady at 9.5%, the economy lost 131,000 jobs last month, more than twice as many as economists expected.  Overall, it’s been a very poor summer for job growth, making the Senate’s failure to pass job-growing climate and clean energy legislation that much more disappointing.

Industrial states have largely bourn the brunt of the country’s job high unemployment rate.  Michigan, the “automobile capital of the world,” has faired the worst.  The state’s unemployment rate sat at 13.2% in June, the lowest rate in a year.  Employment numbers shrank every year over the past decade; personal income fell in 2009 for the first time in thirty years; and manufacturing jobs number almost half what they did in the late 1990s.

But the state is starting to take big steps to stem the job loss.  In a presentation at the Center for American Progress Thursday, Governor Jennifer Granholm energetically explained how Michigan is creating jobs by building a low-carbon economy.  Taking advantage of Michigan’s manufacturing base, the Governor is fighting tooth and nail to bring clean energy businesses to Michigan.  Thus far, the results are impressive, and she described many successes.

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