C3

Newest Ice Core Data: Medieval Temperatures Unprecedented; Modern Temperatures Only Lukewarm In Comparison

Read here. Scientists confirm that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the Medieval Period exceeded those of recent years of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Greenland ice sheet scientific evidence is clear about this, as the chart depicts. (click on image to enlarge)

 

"The authors say their data "show clear evidence of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in agreement with documentary evidence," and those data clearly show that the Medieval Warm Period was at times considerably warmer than the Current Warm Period has been to date, and that even the Little Medieval Warm Period was considerably warmer than it was over the last decades of the twentieth century, as well as the first decade of the 21st century. Thus, there is no compelling reason to believe that the 20th-century increase in the air's CO2 content (a 100-ppm rise above what it was during the warmer Medieval Warm Period) was the cause of 20th-century global warming, especially when climate alarmists claim that such warming, when it occurs, should be most evident and earliest expressed in high northern latitudes..."

Additional historical temperature charts. Climate history postings. Modern temperature charts.

The Thorium Energy Solution Is Going Mainstream - Will Leftists & Democrats Destroy This Attractive Power Source Also?

Read here. The article in the UK's Telegraph discusses the incredible promise of the thorium solution, which we have discussed in two previous postings. The article suggests Obama could radically change the entire global energy structure by having the U.S. embrace a leadership role for developing thorium-based solutions. Great idea but unfortunately Obama's not the man, and the Democrats aren't the party to get it accomplished.

Obama is too beholden to the Democratic base of luddite-fanatics of the environmental movement who fear humans achieving cheap and reliable energy; and, he is beholden to the wealthy, leftist elites who are heavily invested in CO2 'cap & trade' wealth generation, for themselves.

Wish this cynical assessment could be proven wrong, but when you have an administration pushing green-job ideas, such as painting dark roofs white, one can safely surmise that real solutions are off the table.

Does The Atlantic Ocean Current Drive Major Climate Change? Hawaiian Glacier (Hawaii?) Provides Confirmation

Read here. It's amazing what you learn from reading blogs. I had no idea that Hawaii once had glaciers (Hawaii?). But thousands of years ago, during the last glaciation, Hawaii's highest peaks sported glacier ice. And, this glacier ice's retreat and surging during the end of the glaciation age left clues that natural Atlantic Ocean current oscillations were the primary factor affecting the tropical Pacific - not the trace gas CO2.

"However, the new research found that the glacier on Mauna Kea began to re-advance to almost its ice age size about 15,400 years ago. That coincides almost exactly with a major slowdown of what scientists call the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, or AMOC, in the North Atlantic Ocean.....But scientists have found that the AMOC does more than just keep northern Europe habitable. Its effects can extend far beyond that...“The new data from Mauna Kea, along with other findings from geological archives preserved in oceans and lakes in many other areas, show that the decline of the AMOC basically caused climate changes all over the world,” Clark said. “These connections are pretty remarkable, a current pattern in the North Atlantic affecting glacier development thousands of miles away in the Hawaiian Islands...“The global impact of the AMOC changes,” Clark added, “was just massive.”"

Additional climate history postings.

August Is Hot Month For Climate "Science" Smackdowns: Mann Methodolgy Discredited; IPCC Process Fails Credibility Review

The climate science field, as represented by Michael Mann and Rajendra Pachauri, is in tatters this August as renowned experts weighed in on the current climate science techniques of the Climategate scientist and the process by which the current IPCC management reports the climate science findings.

It's fairly obvious at this point that if climate science is to regain the public's trust, these two individuals need to be removed from the public face of climate science as soon as possible. The damage they've done has become cancerous and is spreading, which means these twin tumors need to be excised soon, without pity.

Hot Summer In Europe Causes Rhine River To Become Trickle; Parisians Using Seine River As Walking Path

Read here. As everyone knows, regions of Europe, including parts of Russia, experienced an uncomfortable heat wave for several weeks during the summer of 2010. But how about a heat wave and drought that lasted for several months? Well, certainly not in this century, nor during the late 20th century when there was a huge growth in CO2 emissions. But in 1540, there was a European heat wave that was truly unprecedented.

"According to Buisman’s recent findings, the year 1540 was one with an even more severe summer than was 2003. All over Europe, the heatwave lasted, off and on, for seven months, with parched fields and dried up rivers, such as the Rhine. People in Paris, France could walk on the river bed of the Seine without getting their feet wet."

h/t:  Science & Policy Organization

Predictions By Virtual Computer Simulations: The "Model-Crack" of Elites & Bureaucrats

Computer model predictions from a virtual simulated climate are functionally worthless. For a multitude of reasons, climate simulation models will continue to fail at the task of predicting usable/actionable global climate forecasts. (click on images to enlarge)

Update: More proof that IPCC climate models don't work as claimed. Another update: "This paper reinforces two issues that have repeatedly been made on my weblog: The multi-decadal IPCC global climate models, which have predicted more-or-less perpetual drought in the southwestern United States, are failing in their regional prediction."

  
Yet, climate science and policy has been bedeviled by the extreme over-reliance on these virtually simulated climate projections. Like a crack addiction, the elites have become addicted to the faulty prediction output of these models, regardless of what the empirical climate data and observations say otherwise. The scientists, politicians, pundits and celebrities of the "elite" class have become so blinded by the "rush" of virtual climate global warming predictions that rationale and cost-effective solutions became literally impossible to civilly discuss/debate, let alone implement.

Unfortunately, the addiction to computer model forecasts is not restricted to climate science. The elites on "model-crack" exist throughout government, industry and the mainstream press, and they continue to be amazed at the gross failures of computer predictions, even those failures in the realm of simplicity (like the housing market) in comparison to the chaotic, complex computer models of the climate.

Another Example of Scientist & Reporter Dishonesty: The Bogus Claim of El Niños Getting Stronger

Read here. Scientists seeking more funding for their global warming research love to gain media attention by constructing press releases that mislead and misinform. They do this because they know a gullible and stupid press corp will pick up on the global warming nuances and run with that as the headlines. The latest case of this practice of science by press release is the JPL study claiming that a newer type of El Niños is getting stronger. (click on image to enlarge)

Well, if mainstream reporters has gotten off their collective lazy rear-ends, they would have easily found that the JPL press release was flat-out wrong about the central Pacific (CP) El Niño being "relatively new" - ahem....the CP El Niño has been around at least as long as they've been taking official instrument temperatures of the central Pacific. And, they would have discovered that the claim of "getting stronger" swims in the deep waters of bogosity. As Bob Tisdale charts indicate, the JPL "press release" science is pretty lame, which means mainstream outlets like the NYT and LA Times will swallow it, hook-line-and-sinker.

Do Sea Corals Like Ocean Acidification? Peer-Reviewed Research Indicates They Do

Read here. There exists corals in several locations already thriving in open waters that possess the attributes of sea water under a condition of CO2 levels 2 to 3 times higher than today. The empirical evidence suggests that corals are fully capable of adapting to a wide range of conditions, including much higher levels of atmospheric CO2.

"...the two researchers report that "today, several reefs, including Galapagos, areas of Pacific Panama, and Jarvis (southern Line Islands), experience levels of aragonite saturation equivalent to that predicted for the open ocean under two times and three times pre-industrial CO2 levels"....."Probably the most important deduction to flow from these observations is the observable fact, in the words of Cohen and Holcomb, that "naturally elevated levels of inorganic nutrients and, consequently, high levels of primary and secondary production, may already be facilitating high coral calcification rates in regions with naturally high dissolved CO2  levels," which further suggests that earth's corals, with their genetically-diverse symbiotic zooxanthellae, are likely well equipped to deal successfully with whatever increase in the air's CO2 content will ultimately result from the burning of fossil fuels before other energy sources become viable..."

Additional sea coral postings.

Australia's "Unequivocal" Warming: The Dark Art of Fabricating Global Warming Documented

Read here - download PDF version here. Across the globe, climate scientists eager to sustain their global warming research funding have resorted to fabricating increases in global warming. What climate scientists refer to as "unequivocal" warming really means unequivocal fabrication.

Ken Stewart, an Australian blogger, documents how the Australian climate scientists fabricated additional warming, which the result is shown in his chart below. Officially, Australia reports a +1.0°C per century warming trend. In contrast, the original data temperature trend was a +0.6°C trend. The official trend represents a magical 66% increase in warming. (click on image to enlarge)

Additional current temp charts here. Historical temp charts here.

Sea Stars: Another Marine Species Study Confirms That The "Ocean Acidification" Fear Is Without Merit

Read here. Global warming alarmists have recently chosen to push the "ocean acidification" will harm marine life scare since the initial global warming scare has proven to be of such little significance. As has been documented in the recent past, study after study on ocean acidification finds empirical evidence pointing to its impact on marine life to one of very tiny to small. These studies are in significant contrast to the highly publicized, non-scientific claims made by Hollywood celebrities and anti-growth, green-fanatic organizations.

"The authors write that "echinoderms [ed: sea stars] are among the most abundant and ecologically successful groups of marine animals, and are one of the key marine groups most likely to be impacted by predicted climate change events," presumably because "the larvae and/or adults of many species from this phylum form skeletal rods, plates, test, teeth, and spines from an amorphous calcite crystal precursor, magnesium calcite, which is 30 times more soluble than normal calcite, "and this fact would normally be thought to make it much more difficult for them (relative to most other calcifying organisms) to produce calcification-dependent body parts....."The three researchers report that just the opposite  of what is often predicted actually happened, as the echinoderm larvae and juveniles were "positively impacted by ocean acidification." More specifically, they found that "larvae and juveniles raised at low pH grow and develop faster, with no negative effect on survival or skeletogenesis within the time frame of the experiment (38 days)." In fact, they state that the sea stars' growth rates were "two times higher" in the acidified seawater; and they remark that "C. papposus seem to be not only more than simply resistant to ocean acidification, but are also performing better.""

New Peer-Reviewed Study: IPCC's Ice Sheet Models Totally Wrong; Ice Sheet Loss Predictions Not Based On Reality

Read here. Al Gore and other prominent alarmists have relied on computer model predictions, which allowed them to make incredible claims of sea level rise due to major ice sheets melting. A new peer-reviewed study finds that the ice sheet models significantly overestimated ice-mass loss, and as a result, the projected maximum IPCC sea level predicted rise is no longer credible.

"We don't really have an ice-sheet model that we trust,"

It's another case of prediction failure by computer models:

"Assessments of the glacial isostatic adjustment typically rely on deglaciation models—which simulate the evolution of the ice sheets since the Last Glacial Maximum—together with assumptions about the viscosity profile of the mantle. Much is still unknown regarding the history of the ice sheets, and even less is known about the behaviour of the mantle in response to loading and unloading."

"Bottom line on the new work is that ice-mass loss has been overestimated by previous studies. “These findings confirm the ongoing shrinkage of the polar ice sheets,” state Bromwich and Nicolas. “However, and most importantly, the newly estimated ice-sheet mass losses represent less than half of other recent GRACE-based estimates for the same time interval: −230 ± 33 Gt yr−1 for Greenland2 and −132 ± 26 Gt yr−1 for West Antarctica.” According to Wu et al.  “We conclude that a significant revision of the present estimates of glacial isostatic adjustments and land–ocean water exchange is required.”.....So, when the more exact measurement separation methodology of Wu et al. is applied to the GRACE geoid data, ice sheet shrinkage, which has been systematically overestimated, is cut in half.  “The differences between the work by Wu and colleagues and earlier studies may reflect errors in present deglaciation models with respect to the ice-load history and response of the Earth's mantle,” conclude Bromwich and Nicolas. According to Wu et al. “significant revision” is required. The general result—the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets will be with us for a long time to come."

Climate Models' Drought of Accuracy Confirmed Again In Major Peer-Reviewed Study

Read here. Climate alarmist experts almost solely rely on computer model predictions. These scientists then publicize the models' scariest predictions in order to build funding support for their global warming research. Unfortunately for the scientists, the climate models have been spectacularly wrong regarding future climate conditions. The newest example of this climate model fallibility? The precipitation levels and aridity of the southwestern United States.

"As we have covered in previous essays, global warming alarmists insist that the southwestern United States is getting drier and will get substantially drier in the future due to the buildup of greenhouse gases.....The latest article on this subject appears in a recent issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research and once again, the results are at odds with the popular perception of increased drought in the Southwest.....However, most of the statistically significant trends in the number of dry days and dry event length are negative trends for water years and cool seasons.”.....The number of dry days dropped over the entire study period..... Furthermore, they conclude “Since the mid-1970s, El Niño events have been more frequent, and this has resulted in increased precipitation in the southwestern United States, particularly during the cool season. The increased precipitation is associated with a decrease in the number of dry days and a decrease in dry event length.”"

Will Shellfish Survive Ocean Acidification? Multiple Peer-Research Says 'No Problemo'

Read here. Climate scientists and fear-mongering pundits have been banging the drums about the computer models' speculative predictions of "ocean acidification" and the resulting harm to marine life. Unfortunately, the highly gullible among us fall victim to this specific scare tactic despite the fact that marine life existed in waters of higher acidification levels for millions of years, and thrived and prospered doing so.

Fortunately for all of us (and those tasty shell fish), the actual empirical research, not the bogus computer model results, keep documenting the acidification scare falsehoods.

"...it's also good to remember that there is a large and accumulating body of research that demonstrates that extremely rapid micro-evolutionary processes are poised and ready to "kick into action" when required in almost all of earth's life forms, and that these phenomena should enable them to successfully respond to significant environmental changes at rates that correspond to the rates of those changes, as described by Balanya et al. (2006), Jump et al. (2006), Franks et al. (2007), Rae et al. (2007), Skelley et al. (2007), Van Doorslaer et al. (2007), Franks and Weis (2008), Jump et al. (2008), Purcell et al. (2008), Alford et al. (2009), Bell and Gonzalez (2009), Onoda et al. (2009) and Van Doorslaer et al. (2009)...Consequently, when all is said and done, it would appear that earth's shellfish should do just fine as the air's CO2 content continues to rise -- and gradually peaks -- near the end of the current century, as well as when it gradually returns to what it is today, some three centuries or so later..."

The Global Irresponsibility of Al Gore: World Scarcity of Fresh Water Due To His Policies Will Cause Refugees & War

Read here - a peer-reviewed paper recently published in AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment. The production of biofuels requires staggering amounts of fresh water, several times more than fossil-fuel energy production. Al Gore has pushed politicians and the UN towards policies favoring biofuel renewable energy as a solution to reducing human CO2 emissions, using the rationale that climate change (human CO2 "caused") will create climate refugees and climate conflict. It is highly speculative though that global warming will cause "refugees" and "conflict." In contrast, if regional shortages of fresh water develop due to biofuel production, water refugees and water conflict will most definitely occur.

"The three U.S. researchers say their results suggest that "the most water-efficient, fossil-based technologies have an EROWI one to two orders of magnitude greater [ed: better] than the most water-efficient biomass technologies, implying that the development of biomass energy technologies in scale sufficient to be a significant source of energy may produce or exacerbate water shortages around the globe and be limited by the availability of fresh water."...These findings will not be welcomed by those who promote biofuel production as a means of combating what they call "the threats posed by 'climate refugees' and 'climate conflict' to international security,"..... she identifies some of the principals in the spreading of what she calls this "alarmist rhetoric" to be various United Nations agencies, NGOs, national governments, security pundits, the popular media and -- quite specifically -- the Norwegian Nobel Committee of 2007, which, as she describes it, "warned that climate-induced migration and resource scarcity could cause violent conflict and war within and between states when it awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore, Jr. and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.".....Hartmann goes on to suggest that "this beating of the climate conflict drums has to be viewed in the context of larger orchestrations in U.S. national security policy." And in this regard it doesn't take a genius to realize that the promotion of biofuels to help resolve these concerns will only exacerbate them in one of the worst ways imaginable, providing a "cure" [ed: water shortages] that is worse than the disease [ed: human CO2 emissions]."

Gulf Oil Spill: Newest Findings Reveal That "Expert" Environmental Disaster Predictions Were Disastrously Wrong

Read here and here and here. Although it's still too early to determine the full extent of environmental damage done by the oil spill, scientists and researchers examining its affects are reporting that scaremongering predictions of disaster are not coming true. The environmental Cassandra disaster alarmists are found to be wrong again.

The goods news is that they were wrong; the bad news is that scientists who brandish environmental scare tactics continue to degrade the trust and credibility of all science.

"The news out of the Gulf of Mexico doesn't look too bleak, according to preliminary reports here today at the semiannual meeting of the American Chemical Society.....Among the bits of good news is that so far chemical testing on seafood hasn't yet turned up any samples from fish, shrimp, or oysters with dangerous levels of contamination.....Erik Cordes, a marine ecologist at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said his first look at some deep seafloor ecosystems was encouraging....."Right now things seem to be improving a lot faster than I ever dreamed,"."

The 2010 'Global Warming' Summer Apocalypse: A New Movie Blockbuster or The Usual Hollywood Flop?

As most observers of the world's climate/weather realized earlier this year, the 2010 summer was going to be a 'hot one' due to El Niño conditions out in the Pacific. Sure enough, there were some hot temperatures that came to fruition this summer. Yet, despite the foreknowledge that it was to be a hot summer, this summer's warmth drove the media to become gloriously stupid, and of course, the famous Hollywood "climate scientists" to become all-a-flutter, with even a spectacular incident of mental failure - all for the purpose of turning the natural El Niño into man-made global warming fiction.

As the leftist-liberal-progressive elites continue being unhinged from what is normal summer weather and El Niño temperatures, they might want to put 2010 into context so as to avoid looking even dumber. To do so, they might compare the 2010 El Niño summer temps with those of the last major El Niño during the summer of 1998, in order to gain perspective.

First, it's been really hot in some places and pretty damn cold in others this summer (winter for the Southern Hemisphere), none of which has anything to do with CO2. As for hot, Washington D.C. has had a hot 12-month period ending in July, as the graph on the left depicts. It's the same for the north-east region of the U.S., as shown on the right graph. But look carefully at that chart on the right, despite a hot last 12-months, the trend since the '98 El Niño is at a minus 3.4 degrees per century rate for the north-east region. (click on each image to enlarge)

How about the Atlantic coastal south-east region, below the Washington D.C. area? Well the feared global warming didn't seem to really impact that area over the last 12-months, as it continues a cooling trend since the 1998 El Niño summer (see left chart below). What about the last 12 months for the entire continental U.S.? Actually, as the below chart on the right reveals, U.S. temperatures over the last twelve months have cooled, and has now pushed the country's cooling trend down to a minus 8.5 degrees per century rate. (click on each image to enlarge)

As the above evidence clearly points out, the U.S. has had some urban areas and larger regions warming over the recent past, but overall, the nation's temperatures are down since the last major El Niño. Most certainly, the nation's cooling runs totally counter to what the media and celebrities are always telling us. It's a sad fact that the U.S. elites are either completely ignorant of the real facts or are purposefully misleading the public - it has to be one or the other (okay....there's a third explanation....leftist/liberal "elites" tend to be fairly stupid and gullible - "hey there Mr/Ms Elite Moonbat, how are your Bernie Madoff investments doing?").

Now, how do global temperatures over the last 12 years compared to the U.S. temperature experience? Below is a chart with all 12-month period global temperatures ending in July. As we did above, we are comparing temperatures from the last major El Niño to the one we've experienced in 2010.

On close examination, the chart shows that since 1998 there has not been a single period when global temperatures exceeded the 12-month period ending in July 1998, with one exception: 2010. For all the hysterics about CO2-induced global warming, not a single period bested 1998 until another large El Niño arrived on the scene.

With that said, note that the 2010 absolute increase over the 1998 period was a "staggering," "mind-boggling," an "unprecedented" +0.03 degrees (three one-hundredths of a single degree). This is the "gigantic," "immense" global warming increase that goads Hollywood celebrities into continuously making fools of themselves, and incites hysterical journalists to write idiotic the-world-is-going-to-end articles about summer severe weather events. (click on image to enlarge)

To further put global temperatures in their context, we've marked on the chart the temperature level (15 degrees Fahrenheit higher) that various climate experts and their models predict temperatures will be at 2100.

Look carefully. If massive CO2 emissions caused only +0.03 increase over 12 years, is it really possible they are going to cause a 15 degree jump by 2100? I don't think so....based on a simple average increase experienced over the last 12 years, the temperatures by 2100 would be +0.23 degree higher at best; or, extending a simple linear trend from the past 12 years produces a +1.1 degree warming for the world by 2100.

Whether it's a 0.23 or a 1.1 degree Fahrenheit increase, this is not the climate catastrophe that elites keep predicting will happen but never does.

Here's the moral of this summer's "global warming" story: when elites claim the planet is dying, or facing a climate Armageddon because of a hot weather incident or a severe summer storm, it always pays to stop and ponder what has been said. Temperatures are always going up and down due to natural cycles and any current event always needs to be put into context of what reality is, not what the elites claim.

For modern temperature context, visit here. Or for historical temperature context, visit here and here.

And since leftist's think climate change is causing more death and destruction, they're wrong on both these points also.

Update: Several readers have contacted us about the fact that ENSO is officially in the La Niña phase. Indeed, that is correct and that switch to La Niña occurred earlier in the summer. Despite the switch, that doesn't mean all of El Niño's impact on global temperatures disappears immediately. There remains a lingering El Niño influence in parts of the world that definitely influenced northern hemisphere summer temperatures this year. More articles on the subject are here, here, here and here.

Are Humans Killing Off The Oceans' Plankton? Yes, It's Possible...This Is Not A 'Fish Story'...But Then Again, It Is

Read here. A recent study by alarmist scientists has implicated global warming as the cause of a 50% reduction of the oceans' phytoplankton over the last century. Fortunately for humanity and the oceans, the study seems to be fairly lame in terms of science:

1. There are numerous places in extremely warm sea waters where plankton thrives.

2. Plankton populations appear to be better correlated to water nutrient abundance, not temperatures.

3. Increased CO2 from human emissions should have increased the plankton population since it is a major nutrient.

4. The likelihood that a 4/10's of a degree increase in sea temperatures would cause a 50% reduction in marine life is essentially a ludicrous finding.

So, if there actually has been a 50% reduction in sea plankton, and if global warming isn't the culprit, then what is? Very possibly it's the intensive overfishing practiced by humans that is the cause:

"The problem is that we have fished out the oceans. Only 10% of the large fish found in the oceans in 1950 remain. And we have been over-fishing the oceans far longer than just the last 60 years. Even back in 1950, people were already noticing a reduction in stocks of whales, salmon, cod, halibut, and other fish. We probably have less than 10% of the large fish and whale stocks that were present before we began harvesting the seas in earnest...Where does the nitrogen that phytoplankton require come from? At the the mid-ocean levels, some comes from nitrogen fixing bacteria, but the rest comes from excrement in the form of urea and ammonia from bacteria breaking down protein as carcasses decompose. Iron, molybdenum, and phosphates come from the same sources. But remember we are removing large amounts of fish protein from the ocean, especially whale, tuna, shark, and other large fish. 90% of what was there is now gone. We are removing more every year. The fish products are no longer available to the phytoplanktons. Their food supply has diminished. They are starving."

Another Alarmist Climate Scientist Caught Exaggerating (Lying?): Heidi Cullen Loves Whoppers®

Read here. Heidi Cullen, a "scientist" who has struggled with the non-factual evidence and bogus truth of climate models in the past, has a new book out that appears to confirm one should never trust Heidi's climate opinions. Or, I guess you could trust her, in that she is always exaggerating (lying?), and then you could assume the opposite in order to determine truth. (Ya know, it's always soooo confusing with these global warming alarmists.)

Anywho....the cover of her book shows Manhattan's tall buildings being swamped by 250+ feet of water. Yet deep inside the book she claims there might be, worst case, a 3-foot rise. And as she knows, the 3-foot rise is at the very extreme, high range that even the IPCC thinks will happen - a true "I Love Whoppers" moment!

Ahemmmm....judging a book by its cover really is a no-brainer in the case of Heidi.

Oh, what the heck, it's only global climate science....you go girrrrrrl!

Note: Heidi and her science is really getting the old coots riled up; or, is she borrowing her science from these crazies. With alarmists it's always hard to distinguish where idiocy and craziness merge.

Global Cooling Is Here, Pt. X: The Satellite Data - Are We Witnessing Unprecedented Ocean Cooling?

Read here. As the satellite data depicts below, Pacific Ocean temperatures are in a dramatic, accelerating free-fall. If this trend continues, we will be witnessing unprecedented ocean cooling, which will drive global temperatures and climate change.

We are already seeing the climate result from this La Niña phase of the ENSO cycle:

Huntington Beach, California seeing record lows

Peru's recent outbreak of rabid bats is thought to be tied to cooling

Bolivia experiences coldest temps in 40 years

Argentina olive plantations hurt badly by severe winter temperatures

Victoria, Australia has coldest day in years. Gloomy, cold conditions predicted

Previous global cooling postings in this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8 and Part 9.

It's Official: NOAA Finds That Russian Heat Wave Was 100% Natural - CO2 Warming Not Even A Factor

Read here. Here and here are prior postings on the heat wave. Of course, an actual scientific finding like this crushes the hopes of liberal-left politicians, celebrities and the MSM reporters/pundits everywhere. They are so enamored with the global-warming meme, they literally blame any (every?) earthly condition on it. (Honestly, are leftists/liberals just more susceptible to mass group stupidity?)

As a plus, when you read the article, especially note how the hysteria of global warming brings out the extreme stupidity of left-wing organizations, such as the Pew Center on Climate Change and their in-house climate "scientist." Yikes, don't pay to hear this dufus speak on climate.

NOAA's statement:

"...greenhouse gas forcing fails to explain the 2010 heat wave over western Russia. The natural process of atmospheric blocking, and the climate impacts induced by such blocking, are the principal cause for this heat wave. It is not known whether, or to what extent, greenhouse gas emissions may affect the frequency or intensity of blocking during summer. It is important to note that observations reveal no trend in a daily frequency of July blocking over the period since 1948, nor is there an appreciable trend in the absolute values of upper tropospheric summertime heights over western Russia for the period since 1900. The indications are that the current blocking event is intrinsic to the natural variability of summer climate in this region, a region which has a climatological vulnerability to blocking and associated heat waves (e.g., 1960, 1972, 1988)."

Update: Another example of natural heat waves, which occur without any help from the trace gas CO2.

Update: More detail - "There is strong evidence that the immediate cause can be placed at the doorstep of an extreme pattern of atmospheric winds—widely referred to as blocking....."In many ways,the heat wave is a “black swan” event in that it is well beyond the normal expectations in the instrumental record.....There is strong evidence that the immediate cause can be placed at the doorstep of an extreme pattern of atmospheric winds—widely referred to as blocking.....Blocks are not an uncommon occurrence over Eurasia in summer, with a episodes of July blocking in the region between 0-60°E evident during the past half century. This region is vulnerable to episodes of blocking owing to physical factors related to the region’s location downstream of the Atlantic westerly jet."

Update: Uh-oh...the liberal elites are mounting a response - leftist/progressive "scholar" claims U.S. used its climate-change weapons against Russia...it's only a matter of time before elite Democrats claim "BUSH CAUSED IT!"

Update: Where and when were the ten deadliest forest fires? (Another heart breaker for leftist/progressive coalition for AGW-caused disasters.) h/t: Tom Nelson

Wild Sea Level Predictions By Stefan Rahmstorf, The IPCC's Hysterical Sea Level Expert, Found To Be Wrong

Read here and here. German climate scientist Stefan Rahmstorf has made a name for himself by predicting incredible sea level rises due to global warming. These "predictions" of course are based on computer models, which history tells us are completely worthless when predicting the chaotic climate of Earth.

Regardless, this hasn't stopped Stefan from avidly seeking the media limelight by announcing scary sea level increases generated by the dubious models.

Unfortunately for Stefan, the actual facts are always the proof that determines if model predictions have real-world value. The latest data, from the premier sea-level measuring program in the Pacific managed by the Aussies, totally shatters the Rahmstorf prediction that global warming is causing accelerated sea level rise trend. As the chart below indicates, there is no trend of sea level rise acceleration across the Pacific.

And it's not just this specific data that proves Rahmstorf is incompetent at his day job - multiple studies are making similar findings. Yet the media keeps quoting the IPCC's 'wrong-level' Stefan. Go figure.

Is Global Warming Drowning Islands of The Great Barrier Reef? Another Alarmist Prediction Gone Wrong Says Study

Read here. Map source here. Much has been made of the demise of islands within Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The prediction by global warming alarmist scientists was that rising sea levels would overwhelm the islands, putting them beneath the waves forever. Like most alarmist predictions by the so-called climate scientists of the IPCC, they were wrong. This newest research revealed islands that actually increased in size, doing opposite of the predictions.

"Working on Raine Island at the northwest end of a planar reef on the outer edge of Australia's Great Barrier Reef -- which is one of the world's most important nesting sites for marine turtles -- Dawson and Smithers employed three historic survey maps and five topographic survey datasets of earlier researchers, supplementing them with digital elevation data collected in 1998, 2006 and 2007, to reconstruct a 40-year (1967-2007) shoreline history of the island.....The two Australian researchers report that their "detailed quantitative surveys and analyses demonstrate that Raine Island increased in area (~6%) and volume (~4%) between 1967 and 2007," and that "in the 40 years between 1967 and 2007 Raine Island underwent a net accretion of 68,400 ± 6,700 m3."

Brutal Facts: 58.8 Million Deaths Globally, Only 32,000 From Severe Weather - Climate Change Has Been Overblown By The Left

Read here. For the period of 2000 to 2008, deaths from all causes averaged 58 million per year. And those from severe weather events? 32,000 per year. This was a during a period when global climate change was supposedly dramatic and unprecedented, causing untold extreme death and destruction.

Yet, as a contrast, severe weather deaths averaged 485,000 per year during the 1920's, over 10 times higher than the present.

Why would the world's politicians of the left and the left/liberal biased media present the case that the world, in recent decades, has suffered untold misery at the hands of climate change when the facts are just the opposite. Why do they focus attention on only 32,000 deaths when over 58 million are dying from other major causes (starvation, malaria, cancer, etc.)? 

As has been discussed before, the left-liberal-progressive-socialist agenda is one of enrichment and empowerment, for themselves. These people do not care about climate change nor global warming nor global cooling nor any actual facts. They are habitual liars about climate change because they feel that the truth will stop their momentum. That is why climate change has been blown totally out of proportion when viewed against the world's other major issues.

The severe issues that the world faces will never be solved until the left quits trying to enrich themselves via power grabs for world government control. Don't think that's a reasonable assessment of what the left is trying to accomplish? Well, read their own words and then you may finally understand the rationale behind the "climate change" farce.

More Bogus Climate Science: Study That Claims Warming of Antarctica's Surrounding Waters Ignores The Actual Data

Read here (and if there's time, read the enlightening comments also). Climate science's plunge into the toilet continues. Would it not be appropriate for a scientist attempting to prove a hypothesis that the waters around Antarctica are warming (and will warm even more!) would at least check the real observed data? Guess not. (Update: Further analysis of this study's bogosity.) (click on image to enlarge)

And, of course, the peer-review journal's editors who published this study were either too stupid or too lazy to look at the basic data themselves.

Additional current temp charts here. Historical temp charts here.

More Sea Acidification Studies Debunk Fantasy Fears: Sea Urchins Even Thrive With 5,000 PPM CO2 Levels

Read here. The green organizations that rely on donations from those individuals frightened by "ocean acidification" may have to get a new gig or find new gullible patsies. Study after study keeps being produced showing the impact of CO2 on marine life to range from minimal to nada.

The green-fanatic groups that conduct this type of money-raising via orchestrated scaremongering should lose their tax-exempt status or at least be investigated by the FTC for outright fraud.

"In studies of sea urchins, for example, statistically significant reductions in egg fertilization rates did not occur in Echinometra mathaei until the atmospheric CO2 concentration was raised a full 5,000 ppm above that of the ambient air; and in Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus, even a 10,000 ppm increase in the air's CO2 concentration was insufficient to elicit a statistically significant decline in egg fertilization rate.....In doing so, they say that over the ranges of seawater pH and temperature they studied, there was "no effect of pH" and "no interaction between temperature and pH" on sea urchin egg fertilization.....the five Australian researchers found that "across all treatments there was a highly significant effect of sperm density, but no significant effect of temperature or interaction between factors." In fact, they state that "low pH did not reduce the percentage of fertilization even at the lowest sperm densities used, and increased temperature did not enhance fertilization at any sperm density." In addition, they remark that "a number of ecotoxicology and climate change studies, where pH was manipulated with CO2  gas, show that sea urchin fertilization is robust to a broad pH range with impairment only at extreme levels well below projections for ocean acidification by 2100."

Black Soot: This Major Global Warming Agent Kills Hundreds of Thousands Annually - The Problem The IPCC & Politicians Want To Ignore

Read here, here and here. It is common knowledge that the inhalation of black soot particles kill hundreds of thousands of individuals each year. It is common knowledge that black soot from combustion is a major contributor to global warming and Arctic area ice/tundra melting/thawing. It is common knowledge that reducing the production of black soot is considered easier and less painful than reducing human-based CO2 emissions. Yet the IPCC and politicians have done nothing to solve the huge black soot global problem(s) that would be so beneficial to humans and the environment. Why?

The reality as to 'why' is fairly clear. Black soot reduction neither enriches nor empowers. Understand the reality: wealthy individuals, such as Al Gore and George Soros, seek to immensely enrich themselves via various CO2 'cap and trade' schemes; in a similar vein, organizations such as the UN and the EU hoped to expand their power and control over individuals via increased CO2 regulations and emissions taxation. This combination of greedy carbon-barons and rapacious non-sovereign entities presented the perfect storm that kept the real black soot problems of death and warming from being solved.

"Compared to the larger, longer term task of getting greenhouse-gas pollution under control, limiting soot wouldn’t be hard. Unlike new energy technology and profound changes in lifestyle, the tools — exhaust filters, clean-burning stoves — already exist.....Soot has such a strong climate effect, but it has a lifetime in the atmosphere of just a few weeks. Carbon dioxide has a lifetime of 30 to 50 years. If you totally stop CO2 emissions today, the Arctic will still be totally melted.....If soot pollution is immediately curtailed, “the reductions start to occur pretty much right away. Within months, you’ll start seeing temperature differences.” According to Jacobson, climate policymakers have paid little attention to soot. “There are international efforts to limit greenhouse gases, but they completely ignore soot as something to control from a climate perspective,”.....The draft international climate treaty negotiated last year in Copenhagen doesn’t contain soot-specific provisions."

Additional black soot and aerosol postings. Update: Gore calling for protests to pass CO2 regulations, not for solving the black soot death and warming problems. Hmmmm...

Gavin Schmidt's Idea of Climate Science: Global Warming Stupidity? Buffoonery? Deception? Or, The Twilight Zone?

Unfortunately, there are prominent AGW-agenda driven climate scientists who will claim or insinuate that specific weather events are a result of "global warming" or are "consistent" with AGW. NASA's Gavin Schmidt is such a scientist. The recent Moscow regional weather heat wave is his latest global warming insinuation:

"If you ask me as a person, do I think the Russian heat wave has to do with climate change, the answer is yes.  If you ask me as a scientist whether I have proved it, the answer is no — at least not yet."

The major problem with Gavin, and scientists of his ilk, is the total disregard of actual science, such as the fact that meteorology scientists know the cause of the Russian heat wave (and the Pakistani floods); and, scientists know that this exact same type of heat wave has happened before during the 1930's.

Gavin and his friends practice a unique form of climate science malpractice by using specific weather events as stimulating climate porn, and of course, catastrophic global warming catnip.

Instead of bashing Gavin and his "science" comrades with words, let's have the visuals explain the Twilight Zone of Gavin Schmidt's climate science. Episode synopsis: In this 2010 summer episode, red-pink areas represent "GLOBAL WARMING-CLIMATE CHANGE" and the blueish areas are just your typical summer cool weather incidents. Obviously, AGW "global" climate change is just soooo fiendish because it temporarily hides in regional/local areas, never revealing itself as the "global" sinister monstrosity it actually is in Gavin's Twilight Zone.

Click on images to enlarge. Top image from here; bottom image from here.

 

Hockey Stick Mann Flunks His Final Stats/Math Exam: Experts Totally Discredit Mann et al

Read here, plus the comments are a real hoot. The hockey-stick science fiasco is hopefully going to come to an end. The real experts in statistics and mathematics, not the IPCC paleo-tree-ring clowns, find methodology used to create the hockey-stick temperatures to be a farce.

The final important conclusion: modern temperatures are not unprecedented. Simple as that.

Latest Scientific Paper: Physical Measurements Determine Seas Rising At Only 6 Inches Per Century Rate

Read here. As multiple studies have found before, the scientific sea level observations contradict the predictions of the likes of Al Gore and James Hansen. The accelerating sea level claim is at this point a pure fantasy concocted to fool the low IQ of MSM-types and Hollywood celebrities.

The study identified natural ocean and climate patterns to be the prime cause of sea level variability.

"The 20th century regional and global sea level variations are estimated based on long-term tide gauge records.....The global mean sea level for the period January 1900 to December 2006 is estimated to rise at a rate of 1.56 ± 0.25 mm/yr which is reasonably consistent with earlier estimates, but we do not find significant acceleration. The regional mean sea level of the single ocean basins show mixed long-term behavior.....On shorter timescales, but longer than the annual cycle, the basins sea level are dominated by oscillations with periods of about 50–75 years and of about 25 years."

Mission Accomplished!: Climate Alarmist Scientists Achieve Flushing Peer-Review Reputation Down Toilet

Read here. Although the original Swiss article does not mention "climate science" specifically, everyone and their mama knows the AGW-based scientists have totally trashed the peer-review journal process - they are the poster boys of science corruption.

Here's but just one example of how biased the peer-reviewed journals have become due to AGW-scientist influence. How about this recent gem from the AGW scientists? And of course, there is the entire realm of Climategate, which revealed to the average layperson why the peer-reviewed process was in the crapper.

"...the peer-review process and the problems plaguing it. Peer-review has become a leading topic in science in Europe and all over the world. The NZZ starts off: Irritated by multiple scandals over the last years, many scientists are up in arms over the peer-review of scientific articles and are hoping for improvement. Many say there’s a need for reform. Scientists say manipulation is as easy as pie.....And it is unclear whether the current large-scale peer-review process yields the correct, important results every time. Also publishers and peer-reviewers can make mistakes, as hanky panky like copying text and manipulating charts is especially easy in today’s computer age."

The quickest way to clean the peer-review process is for governments to mandate the science journals to publish all data and coding associated with research that is published in the peer-reviewed journals. Of course, the science journals that propose CO2 and energy mandates on the public and industry will fight any mandates imposed on them. Too bad. Time for the whining and resistance to end. For the reputation of science and peer-reviewed journal process to be restored, the first step requires transparency. It's a simple, quick fix that will weed out the majority of bogus science, naturally.

Global Cooling Is Here, Pt. IX: 2010, The Coldest Arctic Summer Ever! Will Low Solar Activity Keep The World Cooling?

While Moscow warms like "never before" (not), the extreme northern Arctic regions have had an unprecedented, extended cold summer.  (click on image to enlarge)

This Arctic temperature graph says it all, and if this cooling trend continues through the month of August, indeed we may witness a truly exceptional event - the COLDEST EVAAAR! Well....at least since 1958.

Read here. What is causing this major Arctic cooling? Will it continue? Answers: Solar. Yes, extended cooling is often the result of a decreased solar furnace. If so, the solar indicators point to some very miserable Northern Hemisphere weather in the very near future. Does this mean the entire global climate will be cooling? That seems like a stretch, but as they say, read the whole thing.

Previous global cooling postings in this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, and Part 8.

NASA's GISS: Moscow Is Burning - Human CO2-Induced Unprecedented Global Warming Is To Blame, Not

This NASA temperature anomaly map says it all. During July, Moscow was burning up, as well as a major portion of the U.S. This is clear evidence of what the last three decades of massive human CO2 emissions has done to the global climate.

 

Oooops, we bad - OMG, the left image isn't for July 2010, it's for July 1936! Here on the right is the temperature anomaly map for July 2010.

Hmmm...wait a second....it seems the July 2010 warming is not as global as the 1936 warming. Go figure.

Since everyone concurs that human CO2 emissions were not large prior to 1936, I wonder what could have caused Moscow and the U.S. to be "burning up" at the same time during the summer of '36? I wonder if natural weather patterns are responsible for this type of heat wave? Naaaah, that could never be the case.

Read here to learn the why and how of the 1936 and 2010 similarities. To summarize, the July warming has happened before and it will happen again - oh that's right, sane people call that weather.

Natural Climate Change Every 1,500 Years: New Peer-Reviewed Study Provides Further Evidence This Natural Cycle Exists

Read here. Map source here. Climate scientists have previously proposed that a 1,500 year oscillation driven by solar activity changes affects the climate, causing periodical warming and cooling cycles. A new study analyzing lake sediment cores from Bolivia confirms the existence of the approximate 1,500 year cycle.

"The five researchers report that their work "shows clear evidence of millennial-scale climate variation between ~60 and 20 ka BP," which was driven by variations in the degree of regional wetness; and they say that this climatic oscillation is well correlated with the stadial/interstadial oscillation of the North Atlantic region. More specifically, they write that "the correlation between the Lake Titicaca and NGRIP records suggests that the major cold periods in the North Atlantic region were synchronous with wet periods on the Altiplano.".....And this combined set of findings suggests that the approximate 1500-year climatic oscillation that alternately brings century-long periods of relative cold and warmth to the Northern Hemisphere impacts the hydrologic climate of the Southern Hemisphere on approximately the same time scale."

Additional climate history postings.

Why The Public No Longer Trusts Scientists: Another Nail-In-Coffin Is The Recent Bogus "Declining" Rice-Yield Study

Read here. The rice yield study is quickly becoming infamous for borderline science fraud, or would that be incredible science incompetence? Like so many recent journal peer-reviewed studies advocating the threats of global warming, this one on rice yields is flat-out awful. Even laypersons can easily understand this study's major failings and politically driven AGW stupidity. This type of science is effectively undermining the public's trust.

"But whichever dataset they used, they are comparing a two year series of yields against a twenty-six year trend. I’m sorry, but I don’t care what the results of that comparison might be. There is no way to compare a two-year dataset with anything but the temperature records from that area for those two years.....As a result, they are comparing the Chinese results to a theoretical trend which has absolutely no relationship to what actually occurred on the ground.....they base their predictions for the future on a single computer model of the regional changes. It is widely agreed that computer climate models are not very good at predicting regional changes, so that part of their study seems very weak. I am most mystified by their use of the 26-year temperature trend. Why not use the actual year-by-year changes in the local temperature? The rice is responding to actual temperatures, not to a mathematical trend … so why not compare yields to actual temperatures? So once again, we have questionable methods used with uncited data to give alarming results."

Update: I think we found the underlying reason why so many of today's "scientists" are such incompetents, and have lost the faith of the public. ;-)

(Note: We should mention that this analysis was done by one of the true WUWT stars, Willis Eschenbach. The other star who provides timely and valuable insight is Steve Goddard. Either one is always a great read and informative.)

A Primer On Both The Disaster Called "Renewable Energy" & The Promise of Thorium-Based Energy

Read here. Recently, we had a posting on renewable energy (ethanol) and one that mentioned the great promise of thorium-based energy. A new C3 reader saw those postings and informed us of his own writings on both subjects. We can't vouch for all the very interesting content on Christopher Calder's site but to our eyes it represents a great primer for laying out the problems with renewables and the hope for newer clean, reliable and abundant energy solutions.

From the Obama's and left-liberal's energy strategy, the "Let them eat cake" strategy:

• "According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, global food prices rose an incredible 40% in 2007.  The World Bank states that the cost of staple foods rose by 83% during the 3 year period from 2005 to 2008.  The International Food Policy Research Institute states that biofuels are responsible for rapid grain price inflation, and a detailed analysis by Don Mitchell, an internationally respected economist at the World Bank, stated that biofuels have forced global staple food prices up by 75%.....The United Nations states that its charity programs can no longer afford to feed the starving peoples of the world because of the high cost of staple foods.  Mr. Jean Ziegler, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, repeatedly denounced biofuels as "a crime against humanity."  The new UN food envoy, Mr. Olivier De Schuster, has called for United States and European Union biofuel targets to be abandoned, and said the world food crisis is "a silent tsunami affecting 100 million people."  Oil price increases have not shrunk the human food supply, but biofuel production has.  The more biofuels we produce, the less food we have to eat, because we grow biofuel crops using the same land, water, fertilizer, farm equipment, and labor we use to grow food."

On the promising energy solution that Obama, Al Gore, George Soros, Goldman Sachs and most leftist/liberals/progressives hate:

• "The Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) solves all of the major problems associated with nuclear power.....LFTRs only requires input of uranium or plutonium to kick-start the initial nuclear reaction, and as the fissionable material can come from either spent fuel rods or old nuclear warheads, LFTRs will inevitably be used as janitors to clean up old nuclear waste.....The cost savings of using a liquid fuel is like the difference between making soup vs. baking a wedding cake.  Soup is cheap, and you can change ingredients very easily.  The reactor works like a Crock-Pot; you keep the fuel cooking in the pot until it is over 99% burned, so LFTRs produce less than 1% of the long-lived radioactive waste of light water reactors, making Yucca Mountain waste storage unnecessary....."Liquid fluoride thorium reactors operate at high temperature for 50% thermal/electrical conversion efficiency, thus they need only half of the cooling required by today's coal or nuclear plant cooling towers."  LFTRs will be manufactured on an assembly line, dramatically lowering costs and enabling electricity generation at a projected rate of about 3 cents per kilowatt hour, which is cheaper than burning coal for power."

Global Warming Extremists Claim Melting Ice Sheets Cause Volcano Eruptions - Scientists Determine That's Bogus Speculation

Read here. Recently, global warming alarmists (the climate "hystericals") have speculated that melting polar ice sheets will cause more volcano eruptions. New research, a peer-reviewed study, was conducted to investigate the alarmist claims. The study's result was a confirmation that scientists have no idea whether the wild alarmist predictions of warming-induced volcano eruptions has any basis in reality.

"At the conclusion of his review and analysis, Tuffen finds that "ice unloading may encourage more explosive eruptions," but that "melting of ice and snow may decrease the likelihood and magnitude of meltwater floods." On the other hand, he says there is (1) "uncertainty about the time scale of volcanic responses to ice unloading," (2) "poor constraint on how ice bodies on volcanoes will respond to twenty-first century climate change," (3) "lack of data on how past changes in ice thickness have affected the style of volcanic eruptions and associated hazards," and that (4) "the sensitivity of volcanoes to small changes in ice thickness or to recession of small glaciers on their flanks is unknown," (5) "it is not known how localized ice withdrawal from stratovolcanoes [tall, conical volcanoes with many layers (strata) of hardened lava, tephra, and volcanic ash] will affect shallow crustal magma storage and eruption," and (6) "broader feedbacks between volcanism and climate change remain poorly understood.""

Why Can't The U.S. Produce Clean, Reliable, Abundant Energy and Never Will? Blame Greenpeace & Similar Organizations

Over at Watts Up With That, there is an interesting article about using thorium as major energy source. It would appear that a national effort to replace coal-fired energy plants over coming decades with thorium-based power generation would be an effective solution for an abundant, non-CO2 producing, reliable energy solution. Well, if that's so, why haven't you heard anything about this marvelous solution?

Two word answer: Nuclear. Greenpeace.

No matter how sane and rational the energy solution, if nuclear is mentioned, Greenpeace and other green-fanatic organizations will effectively kill it. And thorium-based power generation is a nuclear solution.

If the green fanatics hate it (nuclear), the MSM won't report on it. If the MSM won't objectively report on it, the left-liberal oriented politicians will never support it. Essentially, that's why the U.S., unlike France, still depends on fossil-fuels for the majority of its power generation.

To repeat, the U.S. still emits billions of tons of CO2 because of Greenpeace and other fanatical green organizations.

How to finally fix the problem of the U.S. achieving a clean, reliable and abundant source of energy? Americans need to quit giving money (donations, subscriptions, membership fees) to Greenpeace or any other green organization that promotes an anti-nuclear, anti-technology stance. Instead, they should give their money to legitimate green organizations that promote conservation, without the extreme leftist-liberal insanity that has caused sheer lunacy in the energy domain.

What might that exact leftist-liberal insanity be? Well, here are quotes from individuals who lead and support the radical Greenpeace-like agenda. Read the quotes carefully - these people are either insane or incredible control-freaks. It is these crazed, leftist-greenies who have prevented the U.S., and the world, from developing the clean, abundant and reliable power generation needed.

In a nutshell, here is the philosophy of the crazed green-left. Whenever a fanatic speaks against nuclear energy (or other advanced technology), you can be sure his/her touchstone is one of the below:

1. Humans are evil
2. More humans are even worse
3. Technology is evil
4. More technology is even worse
5. Economic growth is evil
6. More economic growth is even worse
7. Prosperity is evil
8. More prosperity is even worse
9. Poverty, in all its forms, is good
10. More poverty, in all its forms, is the best

Global Cooling Is Here, Pt. VIII: From San Diego to Santiago, It's Cold Out There, Baby!

The world has had a few hot spots the past few months, but large areas of extreme cold and cooler temperatures are dominating. (Previous global cooling postings in series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7.)

San Diego, this summer's cold continues a 50-year trend

The Pacific is experiencing unprecedented cooling

Greenland has experienced colder temperatures this summer (more Arctic cool)

Northern Hemisphere headed towards severe cooling say experts

New Zealand hit with more freezing and a lot of snow

Argentina is colder than Antarctica....whoa!

Santiago, Chile has coldest July since 1908

Note: h/t to Tom Nelson for many of these stories

Sea Experts Do A Smackdown on NASA's James Hansen: Potential Sea Level Rise Is Only Fraction Of Hansen's Ludicrous Prediction

Read here. James Hansen, and his creepy friend A. Gore, have crisscrossed the world claiming sea levels will rise by some 20 meters due to global warming. It's a nice scary story designed to frighten the clueless, MSM reporters and Hollywood celebrities, but unfortunately it is told by two non-experts regarding sea levels. As a result of their non-expertise, it happens their scary story has zero connection with current reality or the ancient/historical past.

So, what do the real sea-level experts say? The latest peer-reviewed report from the world expert PALSEA team indicates a worst-case scenario of 0.59 meter to 1.4 meters by 2100. Hellooooo....the experts say it's not even going to be close to the 'teens' let alone a rise 20 meters. 

And carefully note, that's the worst-case scenario. If the actual present trends of sea-level rise continue, it's highly likely that the sea-level rise might only be 0.2 meters by 2100. How scary is that? It's only a tiny fraction of the mythical scariness.

Ethanol, The Renewable Disaster - Obama's Favorite Corporate Welfare Program Unites Right & Left Dissent

Read here. If one desires any proof that the Obama administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress could care less about the environment, the legislation to expand the use of ethanol as fuel is all one needs.  Almost all proposed climate/energy legislation is blatant big corporate welfare or an attempt to enrich wealthy liberal/left donors who invest in get-rich-quick-on-taxpayer-subsidies green schemes.

The ethanol expansion is a classic case of a gigantic corporate welfare scheme, which a lot of people and groups (both left and right) are now plenty sick and tired of, as the above linked article documents.

And, as we've mentioned before, the ethanol (and other biofuels) solution is just plain stupid for a lot of important reasons.

• Ethanol produces little or no additional energy versus energy needed to produce it.
• Can damage vehicle engines not designed to run on ethanol.
• Result in greater CO₂ emissions than fossil fuel.
• Causes rising food prices either directly or by competing with food crops.
• Food riots and hunger have been direct result of higher ethanol production.
  
• Encourages clearing of climate-stabilizing forest lands.
• Increases use of fertilizer leading to greater runoff and NO_x emissions.
• Huge amounts of scarce fresh water wasted to produce single gallon of ethanol.
  
• Produce less energy than simply burning the biomass to produce electricity.
• Are only commercially viable with government subsidies and forced use mandates.

Methodist Church Goes Pagan: New Climate Worship Has Scripture Replaced By Gospel of IPCC

Read here. Similar to ancient pagan faiths that worshiped the sun and rain gods, the Methodist church leadership has decided to go the full-Pagan by embracing weather scripture. The founder of the Methodist denomination must be doing the proverbial spinning-in-his-grave.

"Wesley believed that the living core of the Christian faith was revealed in Scripture; and the Bible was the sole foundational source of theological or doctrinal development. The centrality of Scripture was so important for Wesley that he called himself "a man of one book"—meaning the Bible—although he was well-read for his day. However, he believed that doctrine had to be in keeping with Christian orthodox tradition.....Tradition, experience and reason, however, were subject always to Scripture, Wesley argued, because only there is the Word of God revealed 'so far as it is necessary for our salvation."

Why are Methodists so out of sync with the founder's beliefs and teachings? Well, it's highly probable that the typical Methodist doesn't even crack open the Bible on a decadal basis, let alone a yearly one. Did we mention religious, leftist hypocrites yet?

Since the mid-1800's, human progress and wealth has increased at a prodigious rate that was only made possible by the use of cheap fossil fuels and the acceptance of free economic/intellectual trade. The elites of the IPCC and the Methodist church now embrace a pagan philosophy that screams "STOP" at the thought of more change and human progress. A miserable philosophy that would lead people and civilization back to the Dark Ages of poverty, tree worshiping, early death, and once again, a full reliance on the anointed "religious" elites.

Watch this whole 16 minute video about human progress and especially pay close attention to the first minute and 15 seconds. (h/t Bishop Hill)

Greenland Spawns 10,000 to 40,000 Icebergs Per Year; Some Are Small & Some Are Size of Manhattan

Read here. Recently, a large tongue of glacier ice that was floating on the sea broke off. This 9-mile wide river of ice had gradually pushed itself some 40 miles into the waters over recent years. As every individual with an interest in science would have predicted, the weight of this ice beast would eventually cause a break-off somewhere along its 40-mile length. And on August 3, 2010, it did just that as captured by satellite.

Of course, it didn't take long for the moronic left to claim that a huge river of ice that's been growing since 2002 to be a victim of global warming. The fact that the glacier tongue break was not due to warming but instead to its growing too much is irrelevant science to the liberal/left/progressive AGW fanatics. To get a sense of how moronic the U.S. Democrats sound to the world about science issues, just read this EU scientist's take on our version of "liberal" politicians. The constant science stupidity that Democrats reveal is mind-numbing and dangerous.

Global Cooling Is Here, Part VII: U.S. Temps Cooling At -8.5°F Rate per Century

Previous global cooling postings in series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6.

(click on image to enlarge)
Source here.  Although July 2010 was the 17th warmest July since 1895, the twelve-month period ending July 30 was the second coldest since 1998. Of course, the U.S. cooling trend will eventually revert to a warming trend, but the current decade-long plus global cooling trend has not yet abated, which has been a major surprise for all global warming alarmists. This trend has persisted since the super 1997-98 El Niño event.

With the continental U.S. having the most extensive thermometer network in the world, this suggests that possibly other areas of the world would be reporting a cooling trend if they also had the extent and quality of actual temperature measuring coverage that exists in the U.S.

The AGW hypothesis calls for global warming, which is obviously not happening in the U.S. - the case for AGW is significantly weakened by this type of empirical evidence. Just as a reminder, the climate models predicted "global" warming, not partial-global warming, as seems to be the present situation. Note: A temperature trend, as shown in the chart, is not a prediction.

Each red line (link) on graph represents a 12-month period ending in July of related year - continental U.S. temperatures only.

Additional current temp charts here. Historical temp charts here.

Global Cooling Is Here, Pt. VI: More Evidence That Cooling Is A Global Phenomenon

From the top of the globe to the bottom, we are witnessing patterns of cold weather that may be indicators of the expected global cooling period that many scientists feel we are entering, or already have. ('Cooling series' Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5)

Arctic temperatures appear to be cooler than those in in the 1950's

San Francisco July temperatures coolest since 1971

Germany, first 6 months of 2010 coldest in 14 years

San Diego, coldest July since 1933

Brazil, tropical fish freezing

Bolivia, 6 million fish killed by colder temperatures

Peru, declares emergency due to plunging temperatures

Antarctic sea ice growing at fastest rate ever

Southern Hemisphere, global cooling could be killing penguins

Researchers Discover Irrefutable Proof That Arctic Sea Ice Had Disappeared In The mid-1800's

Read here. The British ship, HMS Investigator, sailed the Arctic area in the 1850's. The ship was abandoned and then sunk. After 150+ years the sea ice finally retreated enough to allow researchers to find the HMS Investigator, on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.

Sooooo.....during the 1850's, well before the huge spike in human CO2 emissions, the area north of the Arctic Circle was so free of ice that a wooden ship with sails could easily traverse the area. Simply put, this is irrefutable historical evidence about large scale sea ice melt, which proves that the Arctic has 'been there, done that.'

"Interesting that the ship was lost in 1853, right at the end of the Little Ice Age, and coincidentally just 3 years after the start of the HADCRU global temperature record, from which we are led to believe the earth has warmed about 0.7C. If we are seeing "unprecedented" global temperatures and changes in Arctic sea ice, how did the HMS Investigator get this far north at the end of the Little Ice Age?"

Why 'Best Buy' Must Die - This Retailer Wants Its Consumers To Pay More For Electronics & Electricity

Read here. Corporations that advocate that their customers should be forced to pay more taxes, pay higher product prices, and pay more for their energy no longer deserve their customers' loyalty. All the companies listed below advocate their customers do this type of wallet sacrificing.

Instead, companies like Best Buy should die, quickly. Do we really need another electronics retailer, especially one that advocates consumers should pay more? Would the world, and the global climate, be better off if Best Buy (and the other retailers on this list) just closed its doors? Yeah, it probably would be - no more consumers driving to their stores; no more employees doing the same; and, no electronic/electrical devices (TVs, computers, appliances, lights, etc.) needlessly wasting electricity. 

Let's simplify this: if you desire the world climate to heal, don't buy from these consumer-harmful companies. If all 14 of these organizations were to close their physical, electricity wasting/redundant operations tomorrow, the global human CO2 excess would be reduced, and we can then spend our monies with companies that put the consumer first. It's a definite win-win.

Die, Best Buy, die!

Latest Peer-Research: Solar/Cosmic Rays Combo Is Driving Climate Change, Not Human CO2 Emissions

Read here. As the scientists are now informing us, there are sources and factors totally out of the control of humans that are causing our climate to change, the same as they have done in the past.

Scientists are discovering that the level of solar activity determines how many cosmic rays strike our atmosphere, which then determines the extent of cloud coverage. Less clouds allow more sunlight to reach the surface, and more clouds reflect increased sunlight back to space. (click on image to enlarge)

 
As an example, early on August 4, 2010 a solar flare eruption struck Earth. The result was the quick reduction of cosmic rays striking the planet, as this chart from the Moscow Neutron Monitor shows.

"A paper published online today in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Atmospheres  lends credence to the cosmoclimatology theory of Svensmark et al, finding that increases in galactic cosmic ray counts (GCRs) have a statistically significant correlation to increased cloud formation.....The theory of cosmoclimatology explains why small changes in total solar irradiance (TSI) during solar cycles may be amplified due to secondary effects on galactic cosmic rays and cloud formation: Even though solar irradiance only changes about .1% during a solar cycle, the secondary effects of changes in the solar magnetic field on GCRs can be up to 25% or more.....As proven empirically by the study published today, increases in GCRs seed more clouds which reflect more sunlight back into space ("albedo") and result in cooling of the earth. The study published today finds that a 15% increase in GCRs resulted in up to a 9% change in the "cloud index" which corresponds to an increase in cloud opacity."

High Arctic Region Reveals Zero Climate Change Since 1930's, New Peer-Reviewed Study Finds

Read here. Map source here. The past decade has been filled with climate warming alarmist predictions that CO2-induced warming is running amok, globally causing significant climate change. The most significant change that global warming was predicted to cause would have happened in the polar regions. As is often the case, the alarmist polar predictions are frequently incorrect.

Recently, scientists conducted research on the same plot of Arctic land where research was done back in the 1930's. What did they find? Climate change from "global warming" was non-existent.

"Parmesan (2006) wrote that "nearly every Arctic ecosystem shows marked shifts due to climate change," and as a result, the authors decided to see if such was the case at a study site in the High Arctic located at 78°38'N, 16°45'E, near Brucebyen at the Adolfbukta Bay in central Spitsbergen (Svalbard), where the vegetation had been carefully surveyed, identified and mapped in the 1930s and the results published by Acock (1940).....In the summer of 2008, Prach et al. repeated the vegetation mapping and identification of species "on the same strip of land 2,042 x 521 meters in size, as surveyed by Acock in 1936-1937 and using the same methods.".....The four researchers, all from the Czech Republic, report that their work "did not reveal any changes in vegetation, since a previous study in 1936-1937, that could be attributed to climate change.".....maybe it just hasn't warmed as much in this High Arctic land as the world's climate alarmists would have us believe, which is also suggested by Prach et al."

The Climate-Gate-Keeper: What Has The IPCC & Hockeystick Science Wrought? 'Gate' #94 and Counting!

Read here. Keeping track of the Climategate fiascoes has been a challenge but an unofficial gate"keeper" has now come forward. The climate science endeavor has become such a travesty, the entire field is being mocked, and to a lesser degree, all of science. And, FWIW, deservedly so since the science establishment refuses to clean house and get climate science back on sound footing.

A few of my newer favorites:

#26.NEW! Faster then every place-gate Tom Nelson and here  WUWT

#48. NEW! Judith Lean-gate and here and here. 

#73. Persecute and execute-gate and here (NEW!) and here (NEW!)
Warmist zealots use threats and intimidation to suppress free speech and thought in science.

Global Warming Is Good: For Southwestern U.S., Medieval Warming Ended The Massive Floods of Cold Dark Ages

Read here. Much to the consternation of the habitual deceivers of the IPCC paleo-climate scientist community, new research keeps piling up confirming the global extent of the Medieval Warming, and its unprecedented, huge climate-change impact. Adding insult to injury to the warming alarmists, the Medieval Global Warming was beneficial by ending the severe weather events that had led to the massive floods during the colder periods.

""In an attempt to determine the environmental origins of extreme flooding events throughout the southwestern United States, according to the author, "paleoflood records from nineteen rivers in Arizona and southern Utah, including over 150 radiocarbon dates and evidence of over 250 flood deposits, were combined to identify regional variations in the frequency of extreme floods," .....The frequency of extreme floods also increased during the early and middle portions of the first millennium AD, many of which coincided "with glacial advances and cool, moist conditions both in the western U.S. and globally." Then came a "sharp drop in the frequency of large floods in the southwest from AD 1100-1300," which corresponded, in her words, "to the widespread Medieval Warm Period, which was first noted in European historical records." With the advent of the Little Ice Age, however, there was another "substantial jump in the number of floods in the southwestern U.S.," which was "associated with a switch to glacial advances, high lake levels, and cooler, wetter conditions.""

Additional climate history postings.