Two weeks ago, the Bangor (Maine) Daily News published a photo of a harp seal on the ice in the Penobscot River (central Maine). The caption noted that the harp seal is a native of the high arctic, but has been extending its range south for the past 10 or 12 years.

The obvious irony escaped the editors of the BDN a week later, when they published yet another article on the supposed future effects of “global warming” – in the very same issue that reported confirmation that Maine had indeed set a new record low of minus 50 (F).

Record low temperatures, arctic seals moving south – sure sounds like global warming to me (not).

Think about it – politicians who espouse the global warming nonsense are the same ones who have just passed the largest spending bill in U.S. history, without debate, before those voting on the bill even had a chance to read it. “Global warming” is nothing more than a “willing suspension of disbelief” litmus test; i.e., if we can get them to believe this one, they’ll buy anything we have to sell.

Aren’t you glad we have such smart people in charge now?

UPDATE: 50-below sets Maine record

(For Al Gore, inventor of the Internet, and a C- science student in college.)

Erik Stumpfel
Sangerville Maine

So, if I understand correctly, the temperatures dropped approximately one month earlier than usual, the rams got randy, and the lambs arrived also one month early?

I am in Southern California, and am watching for the snow build up in Yosemite valley. We are supposed to be entering a long period of drought and climate warming in the Sierras, according to the AGW experts. So, when Yosemite is filled with snow in June and July, I suspect maybe that will be clear and convincing proof that the place is cooling.

We also have a big ski resort at Mammoth Mountain, not far from Yosemite on the east side of the Sierras. We sometimes get so much snow that Mammoth stays open into June. It will be interesting to watch the snow extent in Mammoth each summer over the next 10 years.

Anyone interested can follow along at this website for Badger Pass ski resort in Yosemite:

http://www.yosemitepark.com/DailySnowReport.aspx

And this one for Mammoth:

http://www.mammothmountain.com/skirpt.htm

Is anybody else following any of that?…”

I am in mid North Carolina. My equines started growing winter coats at the end of July and my lambs and kids were born more than a month early. (heat makes rams and bucks sterile so they can not breed until the temp stays cool)

The upper boundries of wild plants are also a good indicator of climate change but animals have a faster response compared to the migration of plant species.

On journalists and the Media. As my newspaper editor/reporter relatives pointed out “freedom of the press” mean the OWNER of the press has the freedom NOT the reporter. Derry Brownfield getting kicked off the air for reporting negative information about Monsanto is an example of how “Free” the US media actually is. http://irjci.blogspot.com/2008_04_27_archive.html

I should also add that my original intent was not to say the Indonesia sea floor lift changed sea surface height, but rather that land can move vertically a lot in seismic events. (I might also add that when one chunk of land goes up, even if under water, nearby land may shift too – general uplift or counter trend down if it relaxes stress on a nearby area. Basically, the land moves. Sometimes a lot.)

Water ‘piles up’ over the extra mass of higher ocean bottom due to more gravity. It isn’t much, but enough that the presence of mountains on the ocean bottom can be read as bumps in the ocean surface.

But you probably know of the antics of Seattle this past month, where salt was forbidden on their snowy roads. Seems the enviros blocked salt usage on the grounds the salt would alter the aquatic environment. So, they used sand.

Had not heard of that. GAK! Someone needs to tell them that most fish have a wide salt tolerance but that sand covered eggs suffocate. I would not want to move a fresh water fish into the ocean, but a mild brackish water is used when they get ‘skin problems’ as a medicinal.

Where are the adults in all this process?

I like your explanation on salt for the roads. But you probably know of the antics of Seattle this past month, where salt was forbidden on their snowy roads. Seems the enviros blocked salt usage on the grounds the salt would alter the aquatic environment. So, they used sand. And the cars could not obtain traction. A city bus made the news when it nearly slid over an embankment. Then other scientists showed that the sand was more deleterious than salt, because when the snow melts, the sand filled in crevices and such in the streams, thereby altering the natural flow of the streams.

Tell me about it. The area was pretty much disabled for a couple of days. I live about 70 miles north of Seattle, we got about a foot and a half over 4 days, never got above 30 degrees for about 7 days or more, so the snow stayed the entire time and just kept piling up. There was some compaction and sublimation on the rare cloud breaks which occurred, had that not happened we would have had closer to 2 feet.

In my small town they didn’t bother sanding the hillier roads, they just closed them off. It was fun driving my wife to work for 7 days…

You are so right on the earthquakes moving and lifting the area. The Northridge quake in 1994 was reported to have lifted the nearby mountain range by 2 feet. I think that was the San Gabriel mountains.

But what is puzzling me about the Boulder data for MSL is the data is from satellite measurements, and those are supposedly unbiased by land elevation. I also read that the satellites are calibrated from land sites. Seems contradictory. I also do not see how the sea surface changes when the sea floor is shifted by an earthquake. I must research all this more to increase my understanding.

I like your explanation on salt for the roads. But you probably know of the antics of Seattle this past month, where salt was forbidden on their snowy roads. Seems the enviros blocked salt usage on the grounds the salt would alter the aquatic environment. So, they used sand. And the cars could not obtain traction. A city bus made the news when it nearly slid over an embankment. Then other scientists showed that the sand was more deleterious than salt, because when the snow melts, the sand filled in crevices and such in the streams, thereby altering the natural flow of the streams.

By Scott Williams of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Dec. 28, 2008
[...]
With another season of heavy snow already stretching some road salt supplies, Ohio state officials are calling for increased cooperation with their Midwest neighbors in managing government’s most precious winter commodity.
[...]
The move toward regional coordination is seen as a possible solution to a conundrum facing local governments in Wisconsin as they confront a second consecutive winter with repeated snowfall tapping salt stockpiles.
[...]
Despite procuring 1,300 tons of road salt this year – 200 tons more than last year – Greendale already has used about 30% of its supply and has announced plans to curtail salting on some residential streets.

Michaels expressed doubts that the village could purchase more salt if snow continues bombarding area roadways the way it has the first few weeks of winter.

“That’s what concerns us – that it’s so early,” he said.

Last year’s near-record accumulations in Wisconsin created widespread shortages of road salt and sharp price increases that had some cities, counties and other government agencies paying as much as $134 a ton – more than three times the normal price.

Ohio investigators released their report Dec. 15, saying that road salt consumption in Wisconsin and other Midwestern states last year was 700,000 tons above average combined. Those same states boosted advance orders dramatically this year, again straining supplies and creating a demand spike, the report says.

I see 3 problems with ‘acidification’.

1) We’ve had much higher CO2 before, why did coral et. al. not go extinct then? The ‘disastrous’ part seems hobbled by an existence proof to the contrary.

2) The ocean is just chock full of all sorts of ‘buffer salts’. It would take a lot to get a significant pH shift. Maybe they are just counting H2CO3 in and not actual pH as ‘acidification’? Any significant acid conditions ought to result in more CO2 outgassing, IIRC. Data on long term CO2 concentration in the ocean ought to directly tell you the degree of ingress, if any.

3) There are an awful lot of precipitated alkaline materials on the planet. I’d expect any acidification to result in fairly quick neutralization. (From Ca+ and Mg+ et. al. containing rocks to manganese nodules to ???) There is one heck of a lot of ocean bottom out there. So is there any evidence of a differential pH between top layers and others?

Seems very odd that the MSL data from Boulder shows the Pacific just offshore San Francisco is on a decreasing trend. The HCTB (how can THAT be?) bell is ringing again… This is very important data since California enacted the Climate Warming Initiative (AB 32) to stop sea level rise, among other goals.

See! It worked!! 8-}

Given that coastal California is a very active geologic region, and that the coastal mountains are still having uplift, I would not use it as a measure of what is going up and what is going down… When the plate under Indonesia let go in 2004 and made the big tsunami the ocean bottom popped up several meters in one go. When the San Andreas last moved under my feet I think it was about 6 feet sideways (don’t know the uplift if any).

From:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1989_10_18.php

Six feet of right-lateral strike-slip and 4 feet of reverse-slip was inferred from geodetic data. The only surface fracturing that might be attributed to primary tectonic faulting occurred along a trace of the San Andreas near Mount Madonna Road in the Corralitos area, where en echelon cracks showed 2 centimeters of right-lateral displacement.

Most likely it’s that the ocean is cooling, but it would take other measurements to prove that California is not going up… it’s certainly slip sliding away ;-)

There are some empirical data available also that can be used to corroborate the climate warming or cooling trends. One that I follow is sales volume of home heating oil in the U.S.

Orange juice futures follow the weather in Florida and South Texas most of the time. Spikes are unusual freezes or hurricanes. Wheat futures follow global weather as each region production is predicted (with some bias to U.S. data and reflecting freezes that kill planted wheat before harvest). I would also expect road salt sales data to closely follow coldness anywhere east of the West coast.

Frankly, if there were any shift of 30 year weather zones, I’d expect Sunset to know about it and be changing their Garden Book. I think they may depend on all the county ag departments to tell them changes is first / last freeze days. Worth a call though.

Global Warming is becoming a harder sell. More and more people I talk to are starting to say it’s a crock.

I have also wondered about other anecdotal/empirical evidence as a measure of warming/cooling, e.g. citrus groves being grown farther and farther south if cooling dominates, permafrost line extent in Canada, ice-road duration in the Arctic, ice fishing season duration, number of school closing days due to snow/cold, sales quantities of Arctic diesel fuel, the number of tire chain days due to snow, the number of ski-resort days open per year, perhaps a few others. I am aware that some ski resorts manufacture artificial snow, but if the air is too warm the snow does not form.

Is anybody else following any of that?

I track snow fall and snow depth days (like heating degree days only simpler) for several folks around New England. My conclusion is that comparing those is as foolish as trying to link North Atlantic hurricane activity to climate. We have very wide swings from year to year. Some years my data tracked Derry (30 miles away) well, other years the rain/snow line frequently was between us.

Today I have 19″ of snow on the ground. Last year I had the same. Snow Depth Days (the sum of all the daily snow depths) is 279 this season, it was 761 last year. Major snows in December 2007, big January thaw in 2008. Quieter and colder this year, pretty much in line with Joe D’Aleo’s forecast.

See http://wermenh.com/sdd/ for more and links to annual data.

We like to look forward to “ice out” dates on the major lakes, that’s also too variable to be much use except over a several decades.