Today's Spokesman-Review reports:

The Spokane City Council on Monday gave a lukewarm endorsement to ideas designed to help combat climate change.

The council’s approval was so reluctant that it added an amendment to the document that stressed the action was only to “accept” the report, which was drafted by the 13-member Sustainability Task Force formed last year by Mayor Mary Verner.

The report recommends several steps the city should take to cut its dependence on oil and reduce the city’s negative effect on climate change. Ideas include promotion of energy efficient construction and transportation. It also sets a goal for the city to acquire 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.

Before the vote, Verner said some of the opposition had raised arguments that were “just flat false” and were motivated by “party politics.”

Yeah, Mary.  It's another Rovian compiracy.  Or maybe it actually has to do with another story that appeared in today's Spokesman: "Cool, showery today with freeze coming tonight."  Maybe it was this winter being the third snowiest in Spokane history, following on the heels of the snowiest winter ever last year.  Snow was five feet deep in Spokane back in December, and now the city council is trying to pass global warming legislation?  Give me a break.

Dr. Lucia Liljegren, an atmospheric researcher with the Ames Laboratory at Iowa State University, over at The Blackboard, has compared climate predictions since 1979 against the actual temperature trends observed for those years:

As you can see, climate predictions have consistently grossly overestimated a rise in global temperature.  No wonder the wheels are statring to come off the global warming bandwagon.  Michale Barone at the Washington Examiner put it well:

Over the last decade, the Gallup organization has been asking Americans whether the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated or generally correct. From 1998 to 2007, except for the runup to the 2004 election, they said it was generally serious by roughly a 2-1 margin — 66 to 30 percent in 2006, for example. But in March 2009, that margin slipped to only 57 to 41 percent, with two-thirds of Republicans and nearly half of independents saying concern is exaggerated.

Similarly, last month pollster Scott Rasmussen found that only 34 percent believe that global warming is caused by human activity, while 48 percent said it was caused by long-term planetary trends. That’s almost exactly the opposite of what he found 12 months before — 47 to 34 percent the other way around. However, 48 percent of the group Rasmussen calls the Political Class — in other words, the elite — continues to believe global warming is man-made.

[snip]

As for global warming, many Americans may have noticed that temperatures actually haven’t been rising over the last decade as global warming alarmists predicted.

I think there’s something else at work here. For liberal elites, belief in gun control and global warming has taken on the character of religious faith. We have sinned (by hoarding guns or driving sport utility vehicles), we must atone (by turning in our guns or recycling), we must repent (by supporting gun control or cap-and-trade schemes). You may notice that the “we” in question is usually the great mass of ordinary American citizens.

[snip]

It should not be completely surprising that, over time, these views have become less congenial to the masses who are the object of such condescension.

UPDATE 5/12/09 at 3:55 PM: 

The Associated Press is reporting the National Weather Service says a cold front dropped the freezing level below 3,000 feet in the Cascade passes, giving drivers a spring taste of winter driving conditions.

Chains were required for a time Tuesday morning on Snoqualmie Pass, just as traffic was starting to move again eastbound after being blocked by a boulder that was struck by a truck.

Forecasters expect up to 8 inches of new snow on the west slopes of the Cascades before a winter weather advisory expires at 5 p.m. Tuesday.