the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota , Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia , Iran, Greece , South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.

No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.

Meteorologist Anthony Watts compiled the results of all the sources. The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to erase nearly all the global warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year's time. For all sources, it's the single fastest temperature change every recorded, either up or down.

Scientists quoted in a past DailyTech article link the cooling to reduced solar activity which they claim is a much larger driver of climate change than man-made greenhouse gases. The dramatic cooling seen in just 12 months time seems to bear that out. While the data doesn't itself disprove that carbon dioxide is acting to warm the planet, it does demonstrate clearly that more powerful factors are now cooling it.

Let's hope those factors stop fast. Cold is more damaging than heat. The mean temperature of the planet is about 54 degrees. Humans -- and most of the crops and animals we depend on -- prefer a temperature closer to 70.

Historically, the warm periods such as the Medieval Climate Optimum were beneficial for civilization. Corresponding cooling events such as the Little Ice Age, though, were uniformly bad news.

But the warmists have a response!  Apparently they are describing the current exceptional cold as "suppressed warming"!


The Airbus/Boeing battle

On March 6th I attended a breakfast briefing with the Airbus top brass, on the status of their WTO dispute with Boeing.  Briefly, Boeing say that European launch funding for Airbus projects amounts to state aid in conflict with WTO rules, while Airbus say that research contracts for Boeing from NASA and the Department of Defence amount to the same thing.  The dispute has been with the WTO since the dawn of time (almost), and the WTO seems reluctant to rule -- perhaps because it fears that its judgement would be ignored, undermining its authority, or perhaps in the hope that the parties might grow up and sit down and talk.  It is in no one's interests to start a transatlantic trade war.

Meantime the WTO threat seems to be delaying developments at Airbus, which may be the main objective of Boeing and the US Administration.

Right now everyone is astonished that the Pentagon has placed a vast air transport order with Airbus, not Boeing.  In the middle of a US election campaign, this is dynamite, with talk of "giving American jobs to French workers", and threats that Congress will deny the funding.  Call me an old cynic, but I suspect that the Pentagon is simply making a gesture to put pressure on Boeing for a better deal.


The Fair Trade Scam

The Adam Smith Institute has published a paper, "Unfair Trade" , which makes the case that while "Fair Trade" produce may salve middle-class consciences in the West, its overall effect is to increase poverty and delay development.  It's essentially a marketing scam that enables supermarkets to increased margins, and customers to feel better.  But as with most well-intentioned interference with price mechanisms, it does more harm than good.  It may increase the incomes of the fortunate few, but it leaves other producers outside the scheme worse off.  And it fails to address market and regulatory distortion in poor countries.

But the press coverage has failed to mention the Elephant in the Room -- the EU's CAP.  It is profoundly protectionist, and for years has created surpluses which have become subsidised exports, undermining local producers in poor countries.  If we are serious about supporting third world countries, we should forget "Fair Trade", and start dismantling the CAP.


Give Europe Flack!

Now I have been re-selected, I am more or less free of the purdah rules -- except that I may not lobby for any euro-candidate, whether in the