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WASHINGTON -- If you are going out anytime over the next few months, may I suggest that you wear a hat? You might even buy earmuffs. We are experiencing yet another cold winter. Al Gore may believe in global warming, but I suggest that he have a word with his fellow environmental catastrophists at the UK's Hadley Centre for Climate Predictions. Since the end of 1998 global warming has ceased. In fact, it is getting colder out there. Two thousand eight was possibly the coldest year of this young century. Over the last two years temperatures have dropped by more than 0.5 degrees Celsius -- brrrr.

The reason I mention Al's co-religionists at the Hadley Centre is that they have come to realize that computer projections of global warming have been wrong. Carbon dioxide levels have indeed increased but not temperatures. So bundle up, Al. Last year, in many parts of the world, snowfalls reached levels not seen in decades. The Associated Press recently shrieked that global warming "is a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can't avoid," but the facts are otherwise. The computer models that have predicted global warming have failed just as the computer models that predicted very few financial losses for the insurance industry from credit default swaps (CDSs) failed.

Christopher Booker, writing in London's Daily Telegraph, observes that "2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved." I am not sure I would go that far, but I do believe that the so-called consensus that the catastrophists claim exists among scientists has frayed, and it may be years before we know if global warming is long-range or what causes it. It may be caused by humans, but it may also be caused by natural activity on the sun.

From the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization has come a very interesting book of essays that displays the diverse views of some very serious scientific minds. One contributor, Richard Lindzen, professor of atmospheric sciences at MIT, raises the question: "Is the Global Warming Alarm Founded on Fact?" He acknowledges that over the decades there has been some global warming but argues that the predictions of catastrophe are greatly exaggerated. "Actual observations suggest that the sensitivity of the real climate is much less than that found in computer models whose sensitivity depends on processes that are clearly misrepresented."

Then there is Freeman Dyson, who in the June 12, 2008 issue of the New York Review of Books writes very calmly about global warming. He assures us that "genetically engineered carbon-eating trees" are just around the corner, likely to be developed in twenty years, certain to be developed in fifty years. What is so promising about genetically engineered carbon-eating trees? Writes Dyson: "Carbon-eating trees could convert most of the carbon that they absorb from the atmosphere into some chemically stable form and bury it underground. Or they could convert the carbon into liquid fuels and other useful chemicals."

So relax. Our future is in the trees -- genetically engineered carbon eating trees. Frigid winters are on the return. Al Gore's next new thing will be the common cold. It is rather amazing to think of how he and the catastrophists whipped up hysteria worldwide. One wonders what their next fear will be, carnivorous trees?

During December 1-12, 10,000 delegates from around the world met in Poznan, Poland, for the latest fiesta of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It was to come up with a successor to the ill-fated Kyoto treaty. Alas, the conference heard thousands of words, read dozens of papers and spewed untold tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere from the conferees' flights, but there was no thunderous announcement of the birth of Kyoto II.

For the inside word, we called Ms. Henny-Penny, founder and recording secretary of The Holy Order of The Sky is Falling. She had just returned to the barnyard from Poland.

"Brrr, it's cold here," she said. "While you were away," I noted, "an ice storm left thousands of New Englanders without electricity; New Orleans had eight inches of snow. It even snowed in the hills above Malibu in southern California. What do you think of that?"

"It's just as our Pontiff, Al Gore, has said all climate change is caused by our profligate ways, burning fossil fuels and consuming far too much of everything."

"Funny," I replied. "Not too long ago you and your IPCC friends were preaching that temperatures would continue to climb, all the ice would melt and the coasts and low islands would be flooded. Now, the National Climatic Data Center says 2008 will turn out to be our coldest year since 1997. And astrophysicist Dr. Sallie Baliunas, of Harvard and the Smithsonian Institution, says that solar variability ("sun spots") more than CO2 affects global temperatures."

"She must be another of those deniers," Ms. H-P retorted. The Pontiff says they are to be ignored. The evidence is right there in our computers."

"The IPCC's scary warnings are based on 22 computer-generated models and the IPPC admits they can't be validated. So how can we believe the dire claims about global warming? Why Piers Corbyn, an astrophysicist with the Imperial College, London, a long-range forecaster, wrote to the British Parliament recently that 'Global warming is over and Global Warming Theory has failed. There is no evidence that CO2 drives world temperatures or any consequent climate change' Sounds pretty authoritative to me..

"You remind me of Chicken Little," she huffed. "When I declared the sky was falling, she said she could see no evidence of it. Another denier. How can 10,000 UN scientists be wrong and that one man right?"

"Well," I said, "many of those UN friends of yours work for governments whose policy is to swallow the global warming argument in the hope that it reduces economic output of the most productive countries. And others are living off government grants that support global warming.

"Besides, Mr. Corbyn is not alone. Just a year ago, more than 400 scientists -- including some who had participated in the IPCC -- challenged the so-called 'consensus' about global warming.

"So, what happened in Poznan? Did you and your friends get the new treaty to replace Kyoto?"

"Well, not exactly. It needs some more work. I'm sure we'll work it out at the next meeting in the spring. By then there will be a friendlier administration in Washington. Carol Browner, the new czarina of environmental policy in the White House, will surely understand the need for cutting CO2 emissions. Governor Schwarzenegger of California understands it. His new policy, if and when it takes effect, will stop that state's economy in its tracks. And, of course, our Pontiff has declared that we must go to renewable energy sources completely within 10 years. All of us at THOOTSIF agree with him."

"Solar and wind energy provide, at most, three percent of our energy," I said. "How are you going to get us to 100 percent in 10 years?"

"The Pontiff will ask President Obama and the leaders in Congress to pass a bill requiring it. That will do the trick here. Now, if only we could do something about the surplus population in Africa and Asia. Perhaps that cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe will spread…"

I could hear her wings flapping as she said, "I've got to run; I'm about to lay an egg."

Mr. Hannaford writes from Northern California, which is experiencing colder than normal temperatures for this time of year.

Barack Obama announced his new energy team at a press conference Monday, sending a subtle slap down to President Bush by saying his administration would "value science" and "make decisions based on the facts."

The four appointments are a precursor to what will be the most enviro-activist administration in American history. Among others, Obama tapped Carol Browner, former EPA chief in the Clinton administration, to head up a new office in the White House designed to coordinate environmental policies. In a move that will please multiple facets of his leftist base, he also picked Nancy Sutley (an open lesbian and current deputy mayor in Los Angeles) to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

The press conference underscored the Obama agenda for curbing so-called catastrophic climate change. That agenda will doubtless extend to supporting nonprofit organizations like the Climate Registry.

If you've never heard of it, don't worry. The California-based nonprofit has kept out of the headlines. But it has the potential to be a major player in the ongoing debate over climate-change policy. It's also a prime example of the snug relationship between environmentalist groups and state governments.