Watts Up With That?

I received this presentation of the “Bjerknes Lecture” that Dr. James Hansen gave at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union on December 17th. There are the usual things one might expect in the presentation, such as this slide which shows 2008 on the left with the anomalously warm Siberia and the Antarctic peninsula:

Source: James Hansen, GISS

Off topic but relevant, NASA has recently “disappeared” updated this oft cited map showing warming on the Antarctic peninsula and cooling of the interior:

Click for larger image

Here is the link where it used to exist:
(h/t) to Richard Sharpe and Steve Goddard

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/antarctic_temps.AVH1982-2004.jpg

See the updated image here: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=8239
(h/t to Edward T)

There is also some new information in Hansen’s presentation, including a claim about CO2 sensitivity and coal causing a “runaway greenhouse effect”.

Hansen makes a bold statement that he has empirically derived CO2 sensitivity of our global climate system. I had to  chuckle though, about the claim “Paleo yields precise result”.  Apparently Jim hasn’t quite got the message yet that Michael Mann’s paleo results are, well, dubious, or that trees are better indicators of precipitation than temperature.

In fact in the later slide text he claims he’s “nailed” it: Read the rest of this entry »