CBS Hosts Guest Who Implicates Climate Change in Disasters of 2011 | NewsBusters.org
Droughts are going to continue probably. [Ya think?]
Thousands spent on celebs for council events « Express & Star
The cost of celebrity appearances at council-run events in the Midlands can be revealed today – with some stars taking home several thousands pounds for a few hours’ work.
Cash-strapped local authorities have been splashing out on special guests appearing at awards ceremonies, conferences and fun days in recent years.
One of the biggest payouts was to weatherman Bill Giles, who earned £5,000 from Walsall Council for speaking at a climate change conference.
New Year starts with thespian climate madness | Australian Climate Madness
Inspired by the 2009 Copenhagen climate change conference, Jamieson’s As The World Tipped features a stage that slowly becomes vertical, leaving performers hanging in the air
Newt Gingrich reins himself in during final push - Ginger Gibson and James Hohmann - POLITICO.com
At a town hall here Saturday afternoon, Gingrich delivered his neatly segmented remarks on taxes, regulations and an overarching economy, but when asked to explain his position on global warming, he delivered a new line.
“I’m an amateur paleontologist,” Gingrich said. “I spend a lot of time looking at the Earth’s temperature for a very long time. I’m a lot harder to convince than just looking at a computer model.”
Fisker Recalling 239 Karma Plug-In Hybrids for Fire Hazard - NYTimes.com
Fisker Automotive is recalling all 239 of its 2012 Karma luxury plug-in hybrid cars because of a fire hazard, according to a report filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Prices on the 2012 model start at $103,000, including the destination charge.
Flashback: Car Company Gets U.S. Loan, Builds Cars In Finland - ABC News
With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work.
Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the company's manufacturing jobs are still limited to the assembly of the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car in Finland.
Via Drudge
I am really sorry but I have to nag about that review - Confidentially I now need a hard and if required extensive case for rejecting - to support Dave Stahle's and really as soon
as you can. Please
Keith
Hat tip: AJ
Miranda Devine's mailbag: A year of reader feedback | thetelegraph.com.au
Bob took the long view: "I am a life member of Bronte Surf Club. I am 76yrs of age and I have not seen the sea level change at all.
"In fact as a child I remember one year with the Xmas tides the water came right up through the park. How come these alarmists can predict that the beaches are going to be swamped in the next 75yrs when nothing has altered in the past 75yrs?"
Climate Change Denial – Book Review | Young Australian Skeptics
According to a collaborative energy research study by The University of Melbourne, Australia could be powered 100% by renewable energy in just 10 years, at a cost of 3% GDP per year.
Die Klimazwiebel: Leaving carbon underground and paying for it: the way forward?
how can one make sure that a nation who received such compensation does not extract the fuels at a later date?
First, here are a few statements from within the ranks of the global warming camp that expose the fraudulent science they themselves are disseminating
Smallest Sunspot Cycle in 80 Years, and ENSO is Headed South | The Next Grand Minimum
The current prediction for Sunspot Cycle 24 gives a smoothed sunspot number maximum of about 99 in February of 2013. We are currently about three years into Cycle 24. Increased activity in the last few months has raised the predicted maximum and moved it earlier in 2013. The current predicted size still make this the smallest sunspot cycle in over 80 years.
Latest scientific research completely debunks Michael Mann's bogus hockey stick chart - North Atlantic ocean temperatures warmer during Medieval Warming
A Glimpse Inside The Alarmist Mind | Real Science
Temperatures in Greenland warmed from 1880 to about 1930. Then they cooled until the late 1970s. Then they warmed until about 2000, and have since declined again.
Below is a plot of Nuuk temperatures vs. atmospheric CO2. Nuuk has had fifteen years which averaged above 0C. Thirteen of those years occurred with CO2 below 350 ppm. Twelve of those years occurred with CO2 below 320 ppm. Temperatures in Greenland peaked around 1940, and obviously have nothing to do with CO2.
Al's Journal : Climate Misinformer of the Year
Media Matters names Rush Limbaugh the "Climate Misinformer of the Year"
Himachal to have climate change centre -
Environmentalist R.K. Pachauri, director general of The Energy and Resources Institute, will inaugurate the centre here in February, the statement quoting Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said.
More than a 100 bathers made a mad dash into the 44-degree Atlantic Ocean at East End Beach today to benefit the Natural Resources Council of Maine’s work to curb global warming
Putting Extreme Weather Into Perspective « NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
According to Heidi Cullen, “2011 is further proof that a new era of extreme weather is dawning — and it’s about to get much, much worse “. But is there any truth in such claims?
We need to put this year’s weather into some sort of proper perspective. A few months ago, I put together a record of extreme weather events in 1971. Nothing special about that year, it just happened to be 40 years ago. So how does 2011 compare?
The World’s Slowest Learners « NoFrakkingConsensus
- ...UN bureaucrats (and their close friends in the environmental movement) have spent the past 14 years pretending – against all evidence – that a Kyoto-style treaty was somehow achievable. Thousands of them have flown off to exotic locales at regular intervals to hold climate summit after climate summit. Again and again they’ve pretended for the TV cameras that reaching such an agreement was a realistic expectation.
- What, exactly, have these people been smoking?
- Or, to use a phrase from my undergraduate days in women’s studies – Which part of ‘no’ did they not understand?
The 12 Most Hopeful Trends to Build On in 2012 by Sarah van Gelder — YES! Magazine
...there is a global initiative underway to recognize the rights of Mother Nature. Climate talks in Durban, South African, arrived at a conclusion that, while far short of what is needed, at least keeps the process alive.
Despite corporate-funded climate change deniers, most people know climate change is real and dangerous; expect to see many more protests, legislation, and new businesses focused on reducing carbon emissions in 2012.
Twitter / @Revkin: In many parts of US, mild ...
In many parts of US, mild temps redefining winter landscape washingtonpost.com/national/healt… [Pond hockey crew here in Philipstown, NY is going nuts] [What percentage of the Earth's surface is represented by the ponds in Philipstown, NY?]
Scientist Discusses Latest Report of Rising Global Temperatures
[January 2010] NASA: Many have noted that the winter has been particularly cold and snowy in some parts of the United States and elsewhere. Does this mean that climate change isn’t happening?
Gavin Schmidt: No, it doesn’t, though you can’t dismiss people’s concerns and questions about the fact that local temperatures have been cool. Just remember that there’s always going to be variability. That’s weather. As a result, some areas will still have occasionally cool temperatures — even record-breaking cool — as average temperatures are expected to continue to rise globally.
NASA: So what’s happening in the United States may be quite different than what’s happening in other areas of the world?
Gavin Schmidt: Yes, especially for short time periods. Keep in mind that that the contiguous United States represents just 1.5 percent of Earth’s surface.
Comment: Obama’s Climate Betrayal : The New Yorker
Now, by trying to block others’ attempts to tackle the problem, the U.S. is behaving in a manner that seems best described as unforgivable. Last week, in a letter to Secretaries Clinton and LaHood, the heads of several of the nation’s leading environmental groups noted that the Administration is “actively thwarting other countries’ efforts to effectively and efficiently reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” a position that is incompatible with the Administration’s own stated commitment to avoiding “a dangerous rise in global average temperatures.” The groups urged the Administration to abide by the European court’s decision, “just as the Administration would wish other nations to respect the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.”
It’s pretty much impossible to imagine how the world can reduce the risks of climate change without imposing some sort of emissions limits, and airline emissions seems like as good a place to start as any. If the Administration disagrees with the European plan, then it would seem to be under a heavy obligation to propose its own. All it's doing now is shilling for the airlines. Is this any way to run a planet?
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - 2012 will bring a cold start to the new year in Interior Alaska
FAIRBANKS — When the door to the Tanana Commercial Company store freezes shut, Cynthia Erickson knows it’s getting cold. On Friday morning, the door was frozen shut.
“It was 56 below this morning on my thermometer,” Erickson said by phone from the village of Tanana, 200 miles east of Fairbanks. “Now I have to put an old blanket in front of the door to keep it from freezing.”
A cold air mass combined with clear skies produced some of the coldest temperatures of the year in the western Interior on Friday, and it’s not expected to warm up for at least a week, according to the National Weather Service.
...
“The 50s below will be the rule for Tanana west,” meteorologist Rick Thoman at the weather service in Fairbanks said. “Some villages might push 60 below. It’s a cold enough air mass to do that.”
Interior Alaska: Subsistence hunting in a warming world | UCAR & NCAR Staff Notes
April 8, 2011 | Alaska is among the fastest-warming places on Earth, with its interior region warming the most statewide.
Mild weather redefines winter landscape - Eilperin/Fears - The Washington Post
“It’s about long-term trends, and one year does not make a trend,” said Doug Inkley, a senior scientist at the National Wildlife Federation.
Temperature anomalies happen for many reasons, and Arndt said some of the mild weather stems from a persistent ridge of high pressure that has settled over the eastern third of the country, pumping up south winds in many areas. But he added that the shifts in seasonality now on display are in line with the warming the United States has experienced in recent years.
“We’ve seen consistently in the last couple of decades more consistent warm episodes for the season than cold episodes,” Arndt said, adding that the “climate wrapper” that affects local weather is akin to the connection between parenting and how children behave. “There’s always local factors to a kid’s behavior. Maybe he was stressed out, or didn’t get enough sleep, or was hanging out with other kids who don’t behave. But when you see a pattern to that, you think, ‘Maybe it is parenting.’ ”
Below350.org : Setting Some Real Targets | Real Science
In order to erase doubts about our determination to stabilize the climate, we are setting “Target 1934″ That was a glorious year, with very consistent precipitation across the US, and mild temperatures.
Missing Ice Cube Found! | Real Science
There is a missing ice cube near Russia – which threatens the survival of all life on the planet. Turns out it was hiding in Antarctica.
On a $4M Vacation, Michelle Seeks $3 From Backers | The Blog on Obama: White House Dossier
Speaking from her paradisical $4 million Hawaii vacation, Mrs. Obama wants to know: Do any of President Obama’s supporters have $3 to spare for his reelection?
Gingrich scraps planned book chapter on climate change | Grist
He’s totally damaged his right-wing reputation by believing in science and giving a crap about the future survival of anything.
In a first, gas and other fuels are top US export - Florida Wires - MiamiHerald.com
NEW YORK --
For the first time, the top export of the United States, the world's biggest gas guzzler, is - wait for it - fuel.Measured in dollars, the nation is on pace this year to ship more gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel than any other single export, according to U.S. Census data going back to 1990. It will also be the first year in more than 60 that America has been a net exporter of these fuels.
Just how big of a shift is this? A decade ago, fuel wasn't even among the top 25 exports. And for the last five years, America's top export was aircraft.
Arctic Ice Extent Closes Out The Year Highest In The DMI Record | Real Science
It is time to end the denial.
The Reference Frame: How would Jesus deal with global warming?
You could think that we are just making fun out of a random stupid woman [Hayhoe] who has surely nothing to do with the actual "origins" of the global warming "science". But you would be wrong. The IPCC environment is literally built out of cranks similar to her. She wasn't just a top AGW "adviser" for a major GOP presidential candidate.
...Not only she isn't just a marginal player in the IPCC games: she's one of the true "leaders" in the IPCC hierarchy who determine the overall "tone" of the message and who are responsible for spreading this intellectual disease to numerous layers of the U.S. society
So, where is the figure for Scotland’s temperature? … Apparently, our cold year doesn’t fit the Global warming bullshite of the Met Office propaganda machine.
Time to celebrate Global Warming! | ScottishSceptic
Pierre-Emmanuel also spoke of the positive benefits from climate change on Champagne production when addressing those at the masterclass, which was held in London’s Vintner’s Hall, and organised by the Institute of Masters of Wine.
“The last 10 years have been excellent due to the global warming,” he said, referring to the Champagne harvests.
Hurricanes and typhoons may trigger major earthquakes, according to new study
"Very wet rain events are the trigger," said Wdowinski, associate research professor at the UM Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. "The heavy rain induces thousands of landslides and severe erosion, which removes ground material from the Earth's surface, releasing the stress load and encouraging movement along faults ... the reduced load (can) unclamp the faults, which can promote an earthquake."
178 of 180 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars It's almost 2012. Get 'em before the eco-nazi ban sets in!, December 29, 2011 ...They work well, shine bright, and - best of all - make me feel constantly proud to be screwing the eco-nazis. Screw you, Al Gore! Keep your hands off my thermostat, light bulbs and recycling bins. I worked hard for my money; I'll spend it however I choose.
Mike Mann Lecture: The Hockey Stick on Vimeo
[One hour video] The Hockey Stick: On the front lines of the climate wars.
Delivered April 21, 2011 at Mount Holyoke College.
Climate Change: Exclusive Interview with Katharine Hayhoe - News
KH: Back in the 1970s, a handful of scientific articles and one Newsweek story speculated that we might be headed for a period of global cooling—over the next 10,000 years or so, that is! Today, more than ten thousand scientific articles, and perhaps even millions of news stories, have shown that instead, the world is warming; and warming very quickly...In contrast, all we have to do is look at our long-term temperature records to recognize how we are currently experiencing a warming that is “off the charts” in comparison with anything we saw before the dawn of the Industrial Age. It’s warming, and it is an unnatural warming that coincides perfectly with our production of heat-trapping gases over the last 150 years.No sincere scientist who has looked at the data can claim that what we’re experiencing today resembles any natural cycle we have seen in the past. It’s interesting that some who believe in a young Earth (maybe 6,000-10,000 years old) are the same who argue that our current warming is part of a natural cycle. Both cannot possibly be true! First, if the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, there are no natural cycles that are even noteworthy. Therefore, to say this is just a natural cycle like we’ve seen in the past, we are committing to an old Earth, not a young Earth.
With the clock ticking on her final term in office, Rep. Lynn Woolsey visited Point Reyes Station Thursday night and shared some frank opinions on Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, President Obama and the Occupy movement.Woolsey, D-Petaluma, announced in June that she will retire from Congress
...When the subject of global warming came up, Woolsey said nothing is going to be done about the problem as long as the Congress is dominated by Tea Party Republicans.
"Half of them have never held an elected office in their lives; they don't know nothing," Woolsey said. "They don't know why they're against what they're against. They don't know what is happening to our environment. All they know is it's not something they're supposed to support."
...Woolsey, who will be 75 when she retires, said whatever she does it won't involve flying back and forth between San Francisco and Washington D.C. once a week."That's too much," she said. "I don't want to do it anymore."
Record-breaking snow in Iceland
“Another record has also been set in the capital region, where snow has laid on the ground uninterrupted since the 26th November — the longest period of early winter snow cover since records began.”
Roads buried beneath almost 7 feet (two meters) of snow in one town.
Gingrich thinks Palin would be a darned fine energy secretary | Grist
Newt Gingrich told conservative activists on Wednesday that
Sarah "Drill Baby Drill" Palin would be an ideal candidate for
secretary of energy.
From Andy Revkin, high praise for Andy Revkin
Most blogs = comfort zones for likeminded-whether liberal, libertarian, vegan, carnivore. @dotearth is discomfort zone: dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/on-…
Twitter / @KHayhoe: Nice to hear that Gingrich ...
Nice to hear that Gingrich is tossing my #climate chapter in the trash. 100+ unpaid hrs I cd've spent playing w my baby cbsnews.com/8301-503544_16…
Alaska and Greenland have been experiencing near record cold this month. Sooner or later that cold is going to come south, somewhere.
Al's Journal : Americans Make the Link
Americans have linked extreme weather to the climate crisis – it's time out [sic] leaders do the same:
Keith Kloor is a climate skeptic « Shub Niggurath Climate
Simple explanation? Kloor, just like everyone else has questions in his mind, questions which are eminently reasonable given the poor quality of IPCC science. There is no catastrophe and like most people Kloor doesn’t believe that climate change is an existential threat. No one is sold by the alarmism peddled in the name of the IPCC. Those who openly declare this are labeled ‘skeptics’ and compared to Holocaust deniers. Kloor just doesn’t have the courage to do so, that’s all.
Even The Washington Post Concedes That Obama's Green-Energy Program Is A Sham - Investors.com
Corruption: The Obama administration promised a green energy future. What it delivered, though, is a present filled with rancid politics, aching failure and tawdry scandal.
Bulb ban delayed by lack of recycling options - Manitoba - CBC News
He’s not alone. According to Environment Canada, less than 10 per cent of CFLs are recycled. And tens of millions are sold each year.
Shock News : Sea Level Almost As High As Eight Years Ago | Real Science
If sea level continues to rise at this rate, an ant may drown sometime in the next millennium. Or perhaps not.
Gingrich kills chapter on climate change in upcoming book - Political Hotsheet - CBS News
DES MOINES -- Newt Gingrich says he has killed a chapter on climate change in a post-election book of essays about the environment. But the intended author of the chapter, who supports the scientific consensus that humans contribute to climate change, says that's news to her.
Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech, confirmed in an email interview that she had been asked to write a chapter on climate change for the speaker's book. She said was approached by former Palm Beach Zoo CEO Terry Maple, Gingrich's co-editor, at an annual meeting of Republicans for Environmental Protection. Asked to confirm her chapter was dropped, she replied, "I had not heard that."
Study: Does enduring extreme weather make you vote liberal?
The study findings are based on an Internet survey of about 2,500 Americans, conducted in August 2009 by Owen and three other Hamilton College economists.
...Experiencing extreme weather has the greatest impact on respondents who are less aware or knowledgeable about global warming.
Extreme Weather 1970’s Style « NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
Of course the “Ice Age Scare” of the 1970’s is nothing new. What is interesting though is that they believed, rightly or wrongly, that extreme weather was getting worse, and that a cooler climate was responsible.
Visualizing The Joy Of Cold Temperatures | Real Science
Vikings who lived in Greenland during the MWP, and named the country Greenland -because it was Green - were also very upset about the melting glaciers and global warming. One can only imagine their intense joy when temperatures plummeted in the 14th century, and they all froze to death.
It was a noble death, for the good of the planet. Scientists tell us that cold and ice is good, and that warming temperatures selectively target poor women and children with many forms of evil.
Amartya wants Dhaka to lead climate battle
Nobel Laureate Dr Amartya Sen yesterday said the reputation of Bangladesh has increased in international arena for its starring role in action against global warming, and suggested the country take the leadership in dealing the issue.
If Bangladesh becomes a leader in protecting the Earth from rising temperature, it can hold a big position in the world, he said.
Dr Sen, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contribution to welfare economics and social choice theory, was addressing yesterday a programme titled "40th anniversary of Bangladesh's Independence: The Vision and The Journey".
UK investment in green energy stagnates at £2.5bn | Environment | The Guardian
Total financial commitment to renewable energy sharply down on 2009 figures as developing world surges ahead of Britain
...
But the £2.5bn investment announced since April showed little progress from 2010, when £2.1bn was poured into renewables and other low-carbon forms of energy in the UK, according to the US-based thinktank Pew Environment Group.The 2010 figure was itself a dramatic fall of 70% compared with the investment reached in 2009, when at least £7.1bn was put into the sector.
Harsh Winters, Habitat Loss Hurts Plains Hunting : NPR
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Hunters in the northern Plains who've grown accustomed to bringing home three pheasants or a deer are finding the years of abundance may be over.
Three brutal winters and a steady loss of habitat have hurt reproduction and reduced the number of animals hunters have seen this season, wildlife and conservation experts say.
...Pheasant numbers also have dropped in North Dakota and Minnesota and have hit an all-time low in Iowa, said Dave Nomsen, vice president of government affairs for the conservation group Pheasants Forever. He experienced the loss firsthand a few weeks ago while hunting near Aberdeen, S.D. The two most frequent comments he heard were "Where are the hens?" and "Wow, we're shooting a lot of old, adult birds." Both are signs of a hard winter, he said.
Back-to-back-to-back tough winters have killed bucks and does and led to some of the lowest reproductive numbers North Dakota has ever seen. Mule deer typically produce from 0.8 to 1.2 fawns per doe, but last year that number dropped to 0.59 fawns, Kreil said.
Should We Fear the Methane Time Bomb?
Atmospheric data going back 420,000 years indicate that the climate is more stable than alarmists assume. Even greater-than-present Arctic warmth sustained over thousands of years did not turn the permafrost or the seafloor into a climate-disrupting methane bomb.
China plans Asia's largest coal-fired power plant | MNN - Mother Nature Network
China relies on coal for nearly 70 percent of its energy needs, which have soared in recent years as the country's economy grew at a blistering pace....China is the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter with many of its cities cloaked in a polluted haze.Shenhua and the Guangxi government will ensure the new plant's eight power generators get a steady supply of coal from company mines in Indonesia and Australia by building four 100,000-tonne deepwater loading docks, Xinhua said.
- Bishop Hill blog - Poisoning the well
...It appears, by the way, that [McIntyre] has been trying to break into our machine ("multiproxy"). Obviously, this character is looking for any little thing he can get ahold of...
The best that can be done is to ignore their desperate emails and, if they manage to slip something into the peer-reviewed literature, as in the case of Soon & Baliunas, deal w/ it as we did in that case--i.e., the Eos response to Soon et al---they were stung badly by that, and the bad press that followed.For those of you who haven't seen it, I'm forwarding an interesting email exchange from John Holdren of Harvard that I got the other day. He summarized the whole thing very nicely, form an independent perspective...
Cheers,
mike
p.s. I'm setting up my email server so that it automatically rejects emails from the "usual suspects". You might want to do the same. As they increasingly get automatic reject messages from the scientists, they'll start to get the picture...
Shock News : Quebec Temperatures Approaching Those Of Venus | Real Science
spring temperatures in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River region, which includes Montreal and Quebec City, were 54 per cent higher than normal.
C3: New Research Confirms That Urban (UHI) Warming Accounts For Over 50% Of All Climate Warming
Regions of the world that exhibit significant warming over recent decades is likely the result of a robust urban heat island effect - South Korea's warming climate provides evidence
Coldest Year In Nuuk, Greenland Since 1995 | Real Science
The capital of Greenland – Nuuk – is finishing the year with an average temperature of -1.9C, the coldest since 1995.
Temperatures in western Greenland have been declining for 80 years.
Greenland - National Geographic Adventure Magazine
Sure, I don't doubt that the average temperature on the ice cap rose four degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius) in the past decade, making this the fastest warming place on Earth.
New Directions for the Intergovernmental Climate Panel - NYTimes.com
[Warmist Ken Caldeira] Call it naivete, but I was surprised when the last remnants of the climate-science denial team erupted with glee in the blogosphere at my remarks on the IPCC made on Dot Earth earlier this week. This shows that I may have been wrong about the effectiveness of the IPCC, as at least this marginalized faction thinks that the IPCC is an important and effective tool for scientific communication -- important enough that they feel it is worth their time to try to weaken its influence.
Instead, what I was looking for was to strengthen the IPCC, but in my earlier post I failed to make positive remarks on how this might be done. I present here a modest suggestion.
...
Climate science is a relatively mature science. It does not change a lot in a few years. Climate science today is largely an elaboration on and confirmation of the basic climate science I was taught in graduate school 25 years ago, which isn't that different from climate science as understood by the generation that preceded me.My guess is that most of the key points that scientists will feel important to communicate five or ten years from now will be largely the same as what scientists would like to communicate right now. Therefore, future editions of this book could consist of relatively minor updating, pointing to important new literature and important new scientific discoveries.
Farming The Permafrost | Real Science
Nuuk is located in the warmest part of Greenland, and has averaged below freezing temperatures for all but two of the last 30 years. Obviously you can’t farm in permafrost. They don’t have very many nights in Nuuk above freezing.
...Yet historical records tell us that there was extensive farming in Greenland when the Vikings lived there, during the non-existent Medieval Warm Period.
Catalogue & Shop - CO2.1: Beyond the EU's Emissions Trading System
The EU's Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is the flagship tool of European environmental policy, designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions swiftly and inexpensively. In this report, David Merlin-Jones argues that the EU ETS fails on both counts: it provides only marginal emissions reductions and at a high cost to businesses and consumers. The EU ETS pushes up energy bills, increasing fuel poverty, while power companies make billions in windfall profits. Vested interests have all but paralysed the effectiveness of EU ETS, with banks making billions out of playing the carbon credit market. Criminal activity is rife, at one point constituting up to 90 per cent of all EU ETS market activity.
Quebec on the verge of catastrophic climate change, expert say
The models indicate mean temperatures in the southern half of Quebec will be 2C to 3C higher than normal by 2020. In northern Quebec, the warming will be even higher. And at the present rate of warming as tracked since 1948, we are on track to be well over 4C by 2050 and as high as 7C to 9C by 2080.
QUEBEC,QU, Weather History and Climate Data
[Average January temperature 10.9 F; Averagte July temperature 67.1 F]
Eat meat on feast days only to fight obesity, says adviser - Telegraph
Meat should be eaten only on feast days, to prevent obesity and climate change, according to a government adviser.
...Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, London, said meat consumption was "out of control"...Prof Lang, who advises the World Health Organisation, as well as the Department for Environment, on food policy, said eating too much meat can cause obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: New Paper finds significant cooling of Atlantic Ocean over past millennium
A paper published today in the journal Paleoceanography finds that Atlantic Ocean surface temperatures have significantly cooled over the past millennium, since the Medieval Warming Period from about 950-1200 AD.
THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: New Paper: Cold Arctic winters becoming colder, resulting in large ozone hole
Paper published today notes near-complete loss of ozone over the Arctic due to one of the coldest stratospheric winters on record from 2010-2011. No mention of the now-inconvenient link to man-made chlorofluorocarbon emissions.
His new book Wine, Terroir and Climate Change (Wakefield Press) is garnering excellent reviews, and here’s the thing: his message on climate change is well researched, clear, and unapologetic — man-made effects have been exaggerated, and the effects of extra CO2 are largely beneficial. He’s 79, and not going to waste time pandering to silly fashions.
And so the message spreads to a wider crowd.
Peering Into The Looney Bin | Real Science
I did a Google news search for “global warming” and was mightily impressed. These people are completely insane, and live inside a dark fantasy – trapped by their own minds.
One article was discussing relocating Polar Bears
Another was a lengthy discussion by climate scientists about catastrophic methane releases
Then there was a brilliant monologue about the climate worsening and being already unrecognizable.
For Entrepreneurial 'Change Agents,' a Green M.B.A. - NYTimes.com
Dr. Goodstein anticipates that many graduates will start their own green-minded businesses
Lying With Numbers: Green Energy Edition - Forbes
And that, in the end, is where the lie really is. In the attempt to sell us renewables the assumption is made that energy usage will halve. But energy usage halving has nothing at all to do with renewables, it has to do with energy efficiency. And when we compare energy efficiency plus fossil fuels with energy efficiency plus renewables we find that the renewables are twice the price of the fossil fuels.
So to say that the green energy revolution will cost about the same as fossil fuels is, well I call it a flat out lie.
And aren’t we lucky that we are forced, at gunpoint, to pay the salaries of those who lie to us so grievously?
The anticarbon movement has already done enough harm by increasing the cost of energy and wasting money on subsidies for ethanol and other renewables that can't compete on their own. Now it may start a trade war, which may be the only language that Eurocrats understand.
Hansen's explanation of why the oceans are not warming
One doesn't need to go into the physics involved to see that this is bad science. It is in fact a particularly egregious example of a post hoc explanation -- being wise after the event in layman's terms. Such explanations get as little respect in science as elsewhere.
Such explanations are given when something predicted by theory fails to occur -- and when there is one clear confounding factor they can have some status. But Hansen's paper has no such status. He has to invoke a whole range of special influences, some of which seem to be entirely imaginary. Without any evidence for it he extends the influence of the Pinatubo eruption to two decades, which is wildly outside the normal expectation of a couple of years at most. The paper is a patent work of desperation.
On the amusing side, he admits an effect of solar variations, something long denied by Warmists, including himself.
Obama Vacation: War Memorial, Golf, Beach Time - Washington Wire - WSJ
Earlier Thursday, the president hit the beach with his family and took his daughters for shave ice, the Hawaiian version of a snow cone. He has also played several rounds of golf and gone to dinner with friends while getting some down time before heading into a tough re-election fight next year.
Andrzej Jarzabek Dies of Cold on Chicago Street
Chicago - A 43-year-old man found dead on a sidewalk Tuesday afternoon in the Southwest Side Archer Heights neighborhood died in part from cold exposure.
Homelessness Falls Under Bush... Where is the Media? | NewsBusters.org
Some may remember how the media constantly bemoaned the state of the homeless during the Reagan and H.W. Bush years in office, and how the media constantly used this tale as a club with which to beat those two Republican presidents over the head.
Brace! Brace! : NYT article by Leslie Kaufman incoming! « Tallbloke's Talkshop
Two years ago I made a discovery concerning solar system dynamics which leads me to believe that changes in planetary surface temperatures partly involve long term and shorter term cyclic phenomena related to the changing disposition of solar system masses and their electromagnetic activity.
The Sun’s Impact On Earth’s Temperature Goes Far Beyond TSI – New Paper Shows
Recall that the CO2 warmists in their half-baked models stubbornly keep focusing only on total solar irradiance (TSI), which itself varies only about 0.1% over an 11-year cycle (and thus by itself is no real climate driver) and ignore all the other amplification mechanisms. Well, the results of this study, as do dozens of others studies, show you can’t do that. Like it or not – the sun is a real player. Eventually the CO2 warmists will have to admit this, as anyone with even just an inkling of intuition would do.
2011 Was the Year of the Restless Sun by Nola Taylor Redd, SPACE.com | Solar Cycle 25
After five years of surprising quiet, the sun roared to life in 2011.
Our star erupted with numerous strong flares and waves of charged particles. Many researchers predict the surge will culminate in a peak in the sun's 11-year activity cycle in 2013.
California low carbon fuel law blocked by federal judge | Watts Up With That?
Ow, that’s gotta hurt. CA’s 2006 Global Warming law – denied.
Katharine’s Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment–Part II « NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
We have already seen how Katharine Hayhoe’s Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment made exaggerated claims about a rapidly warming climate in the Northeast that do not stand up to scrutiny. Let’s take a look at some other claims it makes that are claimed to be “Changes consistent with global warming”.
“shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods” | Real Science
Nature has played a mean joke on James Hansen. The PDO shift in 1977-1978 was exactly coincident with the launch of satellites monitoring temperatures and sea ice. The rising temperatures since the 1970s fooled Hansen into believing that his CO2 theory was correct.
Sadly though for the CO2 team, ENSO and PDO went south this decade and warming has stopped. Hansen blathers on mindlessly about volcanoes from 20 years ago affecting current temperature. There is really no place left for him to hide. Hansen should admit that he was wrong – and retire.
Hansen Peering Into The ENSO Abyss | Real Science
These forecasts have been every bit as wrong as the rest of his gigantic portfolio of failed predictions.
Taking the pulse of a shrinking glacier : Nature News & Comment
Earlier this year, glaciologist Neil Glasser of Aberystwyth University, UK, and colleagues estimated that since 1870 the Northern Patagonian Icefield has lost more than 100 cubic kilometres of ice, and that the Southern Patagonian Icefield had lost more than 500 cubic kilometres since 1650. In both case, the melt rate had speeded up considerably in recent decades
A Climate-Change Skeptic Changes His Tune - The Top 10 Everything of 2011 - TIME
3. A Climate-Change Skeptic Changes His Tune
Tom Nelson: Muller: "I never said you shouldn't be a skeptic. I never said that."
Around the 2:45 mark of Part 1, referring to his recent Wall Street Journal article, Muller says "I never said you shouldn't be a skeptic. I never said that."
...Just before the 5-minute mark, Muller is asked if he's in the Al Gore camp. Muller: "Al Gore camp? That's ridiculous...what I point out is that most of what appears in An Inconvenient Truth is absolutely either wrong, exaggerated, or misleading."
At the 8:45 mark, he says scientists will "endorse Al Gore, even though they know what he's saying is exaggerated and misleading. He'll talk about polar bears dying even though we know they're not dying...".
...
[Q] It says "What Dr Muller says proves that the skeptics are wrong and they've got to get on the cap and trade train".
Muller: "That's ridiculous. I mean, some people say I proved that there was no ClimateGate. No. NO! The ClimateGate thing was a scandal. It's terrible what they did. It's shameful the way they hid the data."
Michael Mann, climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University:
"That's a tough one. But I think I'd have to go with a body of work – several studies – establishing a more definitive link between climate change and certain types of weather extremes (heat waves and intense rainfall events/flooding), and studies by Stefan Rahmstorf, Tad Pfeffer and others suggesting a significant upward revision of projected sea level rise this century relative to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC AR4) estimates, with the latest studies suggesting that 6 feet (1.8 meters) of global sea level rise under business-as-usual emissions is not out of the question.
THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: Happy New Year!: Ethanol subsidies expire at end of 2011
Ethanol in Winter WSJ.com 12/30/11Wonder of wonders, the tax subsidy and tariff expire.
Warm Winter in Minnesota - Could it be 11 Year Solar Cycle? - Minnesotans For Global Warming
There seems to be a correlation between these mild winters and the solar cycle or sunspot cycle. If you look at this chart you will see the the solar activity goes up and down like a yo-yo on an eleven year cycle. I was looking for a warm winter in 2010 and it didn't happen but sure enough one year later we get a little break from the severe winters we've had in the last few years. So hope to see you on the golf course real soon.
Two Different Types Of Science | Real Science
The definition of good science is any random idea which pops into an alarmist’s head after smoking a doobie.
The definition of bad science is anything with disagrees with the crap that alarmists are saying. By definition, this is always funded by Exxon, and is an attempt to destroy the planet.
Hansen Explains The Missing IQ | Real Science
A couple of months ago the missing heat was due to Chinese aerosols. Now it is due to Pinatubo aerosols from 20 years ago.
Earth to Jim – Pinatubo aerosols were gone by 1995. There has been essentially no warming since then.
Tornado Fatalities Peaked In The 1920s | Real Science
Climate 'scam' holdouts linger | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com
Reading Eugene Robinson's column ("Climate change summit made a breakthrough, of sorts," Dec. 18) reminded me of the Japanese holdout soldiers who either were unaware that Japan had surrendered or thought the news reports of the surrender were not real.
The existence of hundreds of holdouts has been well documented. One famous holdout, Hiroo Onoda, surrendered in 1973, 29 years after the war officially ended.
In similar fashion, Mr. Robinson is a global warming holdout. For whatever reason, Mr. Robinson is unaware of the giant scam that is global warming. The rest of the world has learned about the rigged data, faulty and poorly placed thermometers, the East Anglia emails, the continual failure of grim predictions to come true (Katrina was the start of more common and devastating storms), the scientists who are speaking out against global warming and its adherents, the earth's gradual cooling over the last decade, the hypocrisy of the movement leaders, etc., yet Mr. Robinson is either unaware or chooses not believe the evidence.
50 scientists, eh? | New Hampshire LOCALVOICES03
It is a funny little bit of propaganda made all the more humorous by its labeling as "scientists" a historian, a sociologist, two political scientists, a professor of health economics, several civil engineers, two medical doctors, and some Ph.D. candidates.
Nothing says "We are serious scientists; heed our doomsday predictions!" quite like the overstating of credentials. If they'll overstate their credentials, then why wouldn't they overstate the connection between recent weather events and human behavior?
Nonetheless, the petition got written up in The Hill, which lent it some undue legitimacy. Voters ought to ignore it.
Slopping At The Hansen Trough | Real Science
Right about almost everything? Dead certain multi-metre sea level rise? Temperatures below scenario C? Manhattan underwater? Coal death trains?
Has there ever been a more clueless scientist in the history of science? ROFLMAO
A Rational Thought Process? | Real Science
- I expect the weather to be bad – due to CO2
- The weather is bad today
- It seems like the weather is worse than it was when I was a kid
- This proves that the weather is bad due to CO2
An alternative explanation is that kids don’t care about or notice the weather. It takes a good 20 years for most lefties to go off the deep end.
Climate Scientists Tacitly Acknowledge The Use Of New Hallucinogens | Real Science
WTF are these people talking about? The only difference I see in the world is the percentage of morons willing to speak out about things they seem to know nothing about.
Nobel Laureate Speaks About The Most Pressing Issue Of Our Time | Real Science
Al Gore: I told you, we need to fill the cave with hot, molten lead, ’cause it’s the only way to make sure Manbearpig never comes out. And I’m saying it and I’m totally cereal but everyone just keeps digging!
Policeman #1: Well, see, the problem is, if we fill the cave with hot, molten lead, it will kill those boys too.
More Evidence Of Global Weirding At The Poles | Real Science
In the latest sign of global weirding, global sea ice extent remains close to the 30 year mean. Hansen forecast a huge loss of sea ice at both poles, so the only possible explanation for the normalcy of the ice – is global weirding.
I defer to the IPCC analyses (AR4 and pending AR5) on the growing, but limited capabilities of the global models to project (they do not “predict” as my comment on your note in Climatic Change attempted to clarify several years ago–so you should know better than to be saying “predict”) the present and future changes in the statistics of various Earth system oscillations (and what, in some cases, our limited observational record suggests, perhaps incorrectly, may be oscillations). I would only note that I don’t consider this limitation to accurately simulate the current statistics of Earth system oscillations to mean that the models are not reasonably projecting how the mean state of the global climate is likely to change over periods of several decades and more due to combustion of fossil fuels, but do think this limitation makes it more difficult to project the combined changes of fossil fuel combustion and land cover change on regional scales.
Al's Journal : Massachusetts Benefits from Cap-and-Trade [Scam]
Despite all the naysaying and skepticism, Massachusetts is economically benefiting from cap-and-trade
After the news portion of a "Warmer Weather Hurting Retail" segment on the impact of the mild winter on retail sales thus far appearing early this morning on CNBC, Joe Kernen and John Harwood got into it over the relevance and influence of so-called "global warming" (I guess Harwood didn't get the memo that it's "climate change" now).
...
Nice job by Kernen in asking the logical questions which really can't be answered by the warmist crowd.
Where Does Katharine Get This Tripe From? « NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
According to Katharine Hayhoe, there has been a 50% increase in precipitation in the Northeastern United States.
Not according to NOAA, Katharine.
New Paper Shows Profound Urban Warming Impact
According to their results, that means well over a half of the warming is caused by urban warming.
The mainstream press has consistently misinformed and mislead the public regarding global warming science - NYTs does it again with the never-ending, bogus methane gas scare
Research inflicts more heat on 'costly and inefficient' solar | The Australian
THE government's key economic advisory body has defended the research underpinning its report that described Australian solar subsidies as costly and inefficient.
thanks for this - and it is intriguing , not least because of the degree of coherence in these series between 1200 and 1900 - more than can be accounted for by either replication of data between the series (of which there is still some) or artifact of the standardisation method (with the use of RCS curves which are possibly inappropriate for all the data to which each is applied) . Having then got some not insubstantial confidence in the likelihood of a real temperature signal in this period - the question of why the extreme divergence in the series pre-1200 and post 1900? [Briffa]
CSIRO's Climate Change science kit | Australian Climate Madness
- 1 hockey stick (broken)
- 1 climate change calculator (multiplies everything by a fudge factor automatically)
- software for deleting emails (Windows and Mac)
- phone numbers of editors of all sceptical climate journals with handy script for threatening voicemail message
- model windmill (self-combusting)
- Himalayan glacier ice cube kit
- application form for government funding (pre-approved)
- plastic polar bear to create your own Al Gore-style weepy animation
- model pink batts insulation experiment, with fire extinguisher and pro-forma writ for negligence
- fake carbon credit certificates (actually real ones, but hey, they’re the same!)
- guide to Freedom of Information legislation in 50 major jurisdictions
- application for IPCC lead author status (pre-approved)
The Puzzle of Rising Methane - NYTimes.com
It’s true that methane was stable for roughly a decade ending in 2006. That apparent stabilization occurred after a long rise in the methane content of the atmosphere related to human activities, so it came as a relief to scientists. They have had a hard time figuring out exactly why it happened, but the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and the economic decline of its successor states is assumed to have played a role.
date: Mon Nov 13 09:29:49 2006 from: Keith Briffa subject: Re: Mitrie to: "Nanne Weber"
Between you and I , I believe there may be problems with the analysis of the Bristlecone data. We can talk by phone about this Keith
It is important to learn about past climate change, especially over the past 1000 years, but it is even important to use new and improved evidence from proxy sources (i.e. not to cling to outdated concepts of the past such as the MWP and LIA). How can we ever hope to progress if we have conform to incorrect concepts? On the early mid-20th century warming - look at the figures in Ch 9. The decrease from 1940-75 didn't happen if you look at global records. MBH was published in 1998 and wasn't just a tree-ring study. [Phil Jones]
Up to 30 inches snow for Wyoming
Planet Dingell: Volt “selling like hotcakes” - By Henry Payne - Planet Gore - National Review Online
Does John Dingell even know the Volt’s sales figures? How to explain this? One possibility is that Dingell actually believes the fiction that permeates political circles. Politicians love the Volt because it is everything they think a car should be. It’s “green”. It’s made by union labor. It’s subsidized by the government. It’s wonderful! It receives praise from Motor Trend and J.D. Power & Associates.
It has to be selling. It must be selling. Why wouldn’t it be selling? When you’re this steeped in the propaganda, there’s no need to check the actual sales figures. You just know, baby.
The Blackboard » Noisy Blue Ocean, Blue Suede Shoes and AGW Attribution
Q. What do Blue Suede Shoes have to do with the temperature series?
A. Both Elvis and an AGW signal have been sighted there with equal credibility.
Ecocide a crime against peace? | Climate Nonconformist
There is a push to have “ecocide” made illegal as a fifth crime against peace. I am at a loss to figure out how harming the environment could be constituted as such, unless you consider nature to be the equivalent of a sovereign nation that the horrible corporate world is waging war against.
ACP - Abstract - Earth's energy imbalance and implications
We conclude that recent slowdown of ocean heat uptake was caused by a delayed rebound effect from Mount Pinatubo
aerosols and a deep prolonged solar minimum. Observed sea level rise during the Argo float era is readily accounted for by ice melt and ocean thermal
expansion, but the ascendency of ice melt leads us to anticipate acceleration of the rate of sea level rise this decade.
Mount Pinatubo Eruption - Eruption of Mount Pinatubo
In June 1991, the second largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century* took place on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, a mere 90 kilometers (55 miles) northwest of the capital city Manila.
Michael E. Mann (michaelemann) on Twitter
Heidi Cullen
Retweeted by @MichaelEMann
2011 in Retrospect, Part IV: What's Ahead for 2012
While U.S. insurance losses in 2011 due to weather-related disasters will top records, this is just the beginning: Fukushima and Irene were a warm-up exercise for a planet that has gone from angry to totally pissed off.
Climate Change: Up; Turmoil: Way Up
In 2012, we will see Mother Earth take continued revenge at the tail end of an industrial revolution that failed to recognize the first and second laws of thermodynamics. Button down your supply chains and buy a generator, because 2012 will change – at long last – the way we in the U.S. think about and act on global climate change.
In Solar Power, India Begins Living Up to Its Own Ambitions - NYTimes.com
Every five days or so, in a marriage of low and high tech, field hands with long-handled dust mops wipe down each of the 36,000 solar panels at a 63-acre installation operated by Azure Power.
Sun powers Orlando man's electric car - OrlandoSentinel.com
Bob Stonerock has hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of solar-panel equipment, which generates far more electricity than his home needs.
..."I'm very, very worried about the effects of climate change," Stonerock said. "I will do whatever it takes to reduce my carbon footprint because I don't want to be part of the problem."...His estimate for how long it will take for his solar equipment to pay for itself is 50 years or more, a period of time he shrugged at as more than acceptable.
THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: Shock news: Glacier shedding ice as fast as in the 1930's when CO2 was safe
Tornadoes More Likely During Cold Years | Real Science
The graph above plots the NOAA tornado count vs. GISS annual anomaly since 2001. The three largest tornado counts occurred among the coldest years of the decade – 2004, 2008 and 2011.
How 2011 Became a 'Mind-Boggling' Year of Extreme Weather | PBS NewsHour | Dec. 28, 2011 | PBS
JEFF MASTERS, Weather Underground: In one year, we had three of the most remarkable extreme weather events in history of the U.S.
I mean, we talk about the Dust Bowl summer of 1936. Well, this summer pretty much matched that for temperature, almost the hottest summer in U.S. history.
...JEFF MASTERS: Well, normally, you have the everyday ups and downs of the weather, but if you pack a little bit of extra punch in there, it's like a baseball hitter who's on steroids.
You expect to see a big home run total maybe from this slugger, but if you add a little bit of extra oomph to his swing by putting him on steroids, now we can have an unprecedented season, a 70 home run season. And that's the way I look at this year.
We had an unprecedented weather year that I don't think would have happened unless we had had an extra bit of energy in the atmosphere due to climate change and global warming.
...JEFF MASTERS: Drought is my number-one concern for climate change because drought affects food prices.
Evaluative premises | Climate Etc.
JC comment: With regards to “This alone shows that global warmists are biased.” Back in 1992, the UNFCCC framed the entire issue of AGW in the context of dangerous climate change, which evolved into a charge for the IPCC (WGII) to identify the dangerous impacts. The NIPCC countered by focusing on positive impacts. I’ve stated before that the the UNFCCC put the policy cart before the scientific horse; recall that the conclusion from the IPCC FAR in 1990 was: “The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models, but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability.”...JC comment: Scientists working on the IPCC have been working under the charge of the UNFCCC, convinced that they were doing the right thing and responding to issues of concern to the policy makers. This framed the climate problem too narrowly: natural internal climate variability (multi-decadal and longer) and benefits of a warmer climate were not considered in a serious way. Science for policy IPCC-style has resulted in epistemic slippage (Mike Hulme’s phrase); I wouldn’t call this fraud.
.JC conclusion: Burgess-Jackson clarifies a primary flaw in the warming to mitigation argument: the absence of evaluative premises, beyond a prima facie assumption that warming is dangerous. This article leads us to ask the following questions. What are the appropriate evaluative premises for assessing the good versus bad consequences of AGW? Economic? Social justice? As per the Morgan paper discussed in the previous thread, expected utility isn’t a very useful concept here. Good versus bad is regional, in terms of regional variations in climate change, regional vulnerabilities, and local cultural and political values. When considering a unilateral global response to AGW such as CO2 stabilization, how do you weight these various factors? As I argued in my testimony, climate models predict more rainfall in South and Central Asia, where half of the global population lives, with all of these countries (except for Bangladesh) having major concerns about their future water supply. This is one example of a major benefit for half of the world’s population. Etc.
The utterly irrelevant boat ride, which Gilmer plans to document by video so that people can oc-cupy precious hours of their time watching clips of a self-satisfied little shit in a cramped sailboat cabin as if it were an actual event of significance, will in no way address climate change, ocean conservation, unemployment, workers' rights, cancer research, or any wars or conflicts anywhere in the world.
Michael Mann a conservative? | JunkScience.com
But take a look at Mann’s political contributions for 2008-2010. They hardly amount to evidence of being a conservative.
DYER: Was 2011 a turning point year?
And so to the really bad news. The Arctic sea ice is disappearing faster than even the pessimists feared, massive floods are devastating huge areas (Pakistan, Thailand, Australia), and sea level is rising at twice the predicted speed, but nothing will be done about it for the next 10 years. That, effectively, was the decision ---- or rather, the non-decision ---- taken at the annual climate change summit in Durban in December....By 2020 it will probably be impossible to prevent the rise in average global temperature from exceeding 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F), which is generally agreed to be the point of no return. After that, we will probably find ourselves in a new world of runaway warming. We know it, and yet we do nothing.
Warmist chosen as a "messenger" of science
Chris Mooney is basically an ignoramus. You will see here how ill-informed he is. He is all bluster, speculation and projection. He is not a researcher's rear end. Science is in a bad way if he counts as a scientist
Sense and sensitivity | Watts Up With That?
In Durban I had the chance to discuss the indications of low climate sensitivity with influential delegates from the US and other key nations. I asked one senior US delegate whether his officials had told him – for instance – that sea level has been rising over the past eight years at a rate equivalent to just 2 inches per century. He had not been told, and was furious that he had been misled into thinking that sea level was rising at a dangerous rate.
Having gained his attention, I outlined the grounds for suspecting low climate sensitivity and asked him whether he had been told that there was a growing body of credible and robust evidence that climate sensitivity is small, harmless, and even beneficial. He had not been told that either. Now he and other delegates are beginning to ask the right questions. If the IPCC adheres to its present draft and fails to deal with arguments such as that which I have sketched here, the nations of the world will no longer heed it. It must fairly consider both sides of the sensitivity question, or die.
Unified Theory of Climate | Watts Up With That?
Earth’s climate is currently in one of the warmest periods of the Holocene (past 10K years). It is unlikely that the Planet will become any warmer over the next 100 years, because the cloud cover appears to have reached a minimum for the present levels of solar irradiance and atmospheric pressure, and the solar magnetic activity began declining, which may lead to more clouds and a higher planetary albedo. At this point, only a sizable increase of the total atmospheric mass can bring about a significant and sustained warming. However, human-induced gaseous emissions are extremely unlikely to produce such a mass increase.
Not unexpectedly, Scientific American has gone full-moron with just 4 scientific stories in the Top 10 science stories of 2011.
Of those 4, one is a paid-up baseless list of conjectures about climate change, officially making Scientific American now worse than “New Scientist”.
Incredibly though, it’s the same Scientific American that just allowed a blog post describing vast increases in Alpine glaciers during the Little Ice Age, thereby undermining the magazine’s own scream-in-panic policy on climate change.
The taxpayer-supported cellulosic ethanol industry has fallen 98% short of its congressionally-mandated goal. Congratulations Vinod Khosla.
I have just completed reading your most recent GRL paper (Schmutz et al., 2000) on NAO reconstructions in which you show that proxy-based NAO reconstructions are probably wanting. It is not possible to strongly defend my reconstruction at this time (indeed I was extremely cautious in my description of it with regards to over-fitting problems, etc.).
...Indeed, I did make some effort to "verify" my reconstruction against early instrumental records, with somewhat contradictory and potentially interesting results. Over the 1841-1873 period, my record correlates significantly with Stykkisholmer SLP (-0.456) and Oslo temperatures (0.323), but not Bermuda SLP (0.156) and Central England temperatures (0.211). The "appearance" of significant verification with only the more northerly instrumental records may be telling us something about differences in circulation and SSTs over the North Atlantic from what is now the case. This could affect the way in which the NAO affects climate jointly over North America and Europe. Of course, when I added some earlier observations (same stations) to the verification tests (Table 4 of my paper), the results weakened considerably. So, maybe this means that my NAO reconstruction is indeed poor. However, I must admit to having doubts about the quality of the early instrumental records despite the great efforts made to homogenize and correct them. This is especially the case with regards to low-frequency variability, but can also extend to individual values as well. I talked with Phil Jones about one suspect datum in the early portion of his extended NAO record that largely destroys any correlation with proxy-based NAO estimates (the sign of the instrumental index appears to be wrong to me). Yet, Phil is convinced that that datum is good and he may very well be right. Either way, more robust methods of association between series may be jusitified to guard anomalous values. [Ed Cook]
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