Guest Post by Bob Tisdale
Yesterday, November 24th, the Russian News Agency TASS published the article Russia to take advantage of global warming — chief of Russian weather service.
Isn’t that refreshing? Optimism about a warming world.
The article begins:
MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/ The phenomenon of global warming will have its effect on Russia 2.5 times sooner than in the rest of the planet, Alexander Frolov, Chief of the Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Rosgydromet) told a TASS-hosted briefing on Monday.
“Global warming might give certain advantages to Russia — a longer navigation period and a shorter heat supply season, which are very important for Russia because it is the coldest country. Areas where grain and bean crops might be harvested will be considerably enlarged, mostly in western Siberia and in the Urals, and a life comfort zone will be broadened, moving it up to the north,” Frolov told the briefing.
Frolov was also realistic, inasmuch as he discussed the downsides as well:
“The negative effects of global warming are a growing threat of forest and peat bog fires, and possible breaking of a traditional way of life of the indigenous population of the North. Russia must be prepared to survive under conditions both of water shortages and floods,” he said.
But water shortages and floods have existed in the past. And computer-model-based outlooks are debatable (simply speculation at this point) because climate models do not properly simulate precipitation and they cannot simulate the coupled ocean-atmosphere processes that impact precipitation around the globe. Additionally, climate models do not properly simulate polar amplification, which has a strong impact on Russia surface temperatures. Here’s a link to the Climate Model Failings category at my blog, for those who wish to confirm my statements in this paragraph.
The closing paragraph sounds odd, and I don’t have the time today to verify it.
Climate on earth has become warmer by 0.7 degrees on the average over a period of ten years, while climate in Russia has warmed by 0.43 degrees in the same period, the expert said.
Is there a typo in there? Here’s a link to the Russia surface temperature data from BEST.
I had to create a new category here at WUWT and at my blog Climate Observations: Global Warming Optimism. Who would’a thunk???
Otherwise known as Wishful Thinking.
Yeah, because things are always worse than we thought.
/sarc
To be clear, it’s the warming part which is wishful thinking, not the benefits of warming.
Exactly, I wish I were as optimistic that future generations will be lucky enough to enjoy warm interglacial conditions indefinitely but I’m afraid nature is still fully in control of climate.
I have another optimist for your new category :
Matt Ridley on How Fossil Fuels are Greening the Planet
that does raise the question of why the climate obsessed are so fixated on their CO2 obsession.
Nice vid.
I’ve been hoping for some warming my whole life. The second largest country is Canada. It has always been hard for me to understand the fear of warming. Can these people read a map? Find a place on the earth that is largely unpopulated because of being too warm. Tough to do isn’t it? Now find a place largely unpopulated because it’s too cold. Easy! Catastrophic climate change fans act like the possibility of maybe some people needing to move in a century or two is something to fear but gaining millions of square miles of more habitable land is nothing. That takes a very special kind of irrational.
there is no place on earth that is too warm for humans if there is a supply of fresh water. there are however many places that are too cold.
the reason for this is quite simple. it takes almost no energy to cool warm objects using the evaporation of water. however, it takes tremendous amounts of energy to warm cool objects. thus, a sweaty human can survive heat for days on end, but a shivering human cannot long survive cold.
Coincidentally, there was a nice rant by somebody freezing off his behind in Saskatchewan on the news today …
Canada, N USA, N Europe, Russia, Siberia and Alaska probably make up the majority of the world’s land.
[Rather than make that statement – although with a “probably” included – actually do your homework and do the calculation. Do NOT just look at a northern hemisphere Mercator projected classroom map. What is the weighted latitude area of the world’s land areas? .mod]
Nah, they are just having some fun sticking it to little “o”
There will be places on earth that will benefit from global cooling too. Reduce peak temperatures by 2 or 3 degrees, make more crop growth successful at those elevated temperatures and certain places could become much, much better places to live.
Parts of this are comedy gold…
2.5 times sooner! Really! So, 10 years ago? But wait, this is in the future… will. So, next Wednesday? It really better hurry up, because
They’re behind! And yet, there’s still that pesky 2.5 times sooner claim! Better stay away from Russia, the whiplash as they catch up could have devastating consequences!
For those of us who are aware that this is all a load of crap, the amateurish nature of this is painful, and also entertaining.
There is a warming gap with Russia!
Just as they start to get optimistic about global warming, global temps will turn towards a mini ice-age and they’ll be pessimistic again. It’s being so miserable that keeps them happy.
Sells more vodka especially when most containers can’t be resealed.
I have not met too many optimistic Russians
Bob B.
Goodness me. I worked for a Russian shipping company for about seven years,
I n e v e r [that is – Never ever ] met an optimistic Russian . . . .
Auto
“Climate on earth has become warmer by 0.7 degrees on the average over a period of ten years”
Over which period of ten years? This would be rather scary speed, 7 degrees a century.
Hugh
Well, you know, net of multiple unexplained IPCC temperature “adjustments” and stuff like that.
If that’s how the game is played, you can almost pick any number you want.
Since hurricanes, storms, and extreme climate periods (LIA, MWP, etc) are given pet names, we should be coming up with a good name for this pleasant interglacial warm period. How about the Green Warm Period? In honor of the greening of the Earth? Or the PBTIS? The Pause Before The Ice Storm? I like that one. Fun to say. Sounds like biptis. We know it will get friggin cold soon enough. The cold is locked in. We just don’t know the exact timing.
It is going to be called … the Little Nice Age
Love it! That is my new description of the modern warm era!
Mediaeval Warm Period, Little Ice Age, Really Little Warm Period …
I like PBTIS.
PMWLLF? Period Making Warmists Look Like Fools?
P’raps PaBTIS, it’s easier to see the pronunciation. Also sounds a lot like “bupkis” an
Americanism as in “you don’t know bupkis” meaning you don’t know anything or more likely you don’t know sh$t or you don’t know as much as a country bumpkin.
I know in my older years my memory is supposed to get a bit “foggy”…but.
Aren’t these the same people that about 5yrs ago said that the world would continue to cool for at least the next 20-30yrs?
And this is the first time I’ve heard of peat-bog fires being linked to AGW. So an increase if a few deg over 10-20yrs is going to cause more peat-bog fires? HTH does THAT happen?
Apparently they believe there will be more droughts, which would tend to make peat bogs more susceptible to burning – the drier it is, the deeper the fires can go, and the longer they can burn. Total nonsense, of course.
Unfortunately its not warming
“Climate on earth has become warmer by 0.7 degrees on the average over a period of ten years”
By which temp. resource?
(all temps. starting in 2003)
GISTEMP: 0.012 ±0.271 °C/decade (2σ)
NOAA: -0.019 ±0.250 °C/decade (2σ)
HADCRUT4: -0.027 ±0.222 °C/decade (2σ)
RSS: -0.060 ±0.325 °C/decade (2σ)
UAH: 0.056 ±0.327 °C/decade (2σ)
(trends calculated on SkS Trend Calculator)
This does not change the thrust of your argument, but SkS has not been updated since January. The following is up to date, but it gives slightly different numbers:
http://moyhu.blogspot.com.au/p/temperature-trend-viewer.html
Thank you for the heads-up Werner, I will be using this trend calculator from know on.
Wonder why the kidz @ SkS haven’t kept it up to date?
in 2006 somebody at the Russian academy was writing about a mini ice age beginning around 2013-2015 … they should rather bet on that, the last three years were colder around here, and we’re not very far from Russia
It is a valid point that Russia (and Canada) will benefit from Global Warming, if it resumes.
Presumably there will have to be some form of compensation agreed at Paris if any climate agreement is to be made.
Obviously money should be transferred from countries like Brazil and India to Canada and Russia for the lost benefits that the treaty will cause.
it would appear that the human race in general has benefited greatly from the warming. we are today feeding 7 billion people, while 50 years ago we struggled to feed 3 billion.
we don’t have more land surface. we don’t have more sunlight. so what else can account for the failed predictions of those that claimed that population increase would lead to mass starvation? exactly the opposite of what happened.
how is it that the experts that predict the future are so good at getting it wrong?
“it’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future” Yogi Berra
Has literally a hundred variations by others but this one sounds most like Yogi’s variation.
I have for years heard all the hubbub about a warmer world. This past two weeks has been like January, here in mid November. Where is the warming?
CO2 has fallen down on the job.
“CO2 has fallen down on the job.”
How can you say that? Hasn’t this been the warmest November in history?
human history extends back at least a couple of thousand years. what was the average temperature of the earth in November 1032 AD, or in November 34 BC? How about in 2346 BC, or 4822 BC?
Depends on the data set. Satellite data show ordinary temps. The instrument land data has been fiddled with and cooked. You can believe the fudged temps if you wish, but get me my fair share of the warming, please and thank you.
okay, okay, maybe I DID need to include it…
/sarc.
I thought the Russians did not believe in Global Warming? They do not have the luxury of being extravagant when it comes to their power grid.
What exactly have climate models predicted with any accuracy? U could probably do better with chicken entrails or the grounds at the bottom of my Turkish coffee.
Dr Abdussamatov should talk to this guy.
Thanks, Bob. The closing paragraph is not supported by any temperature data set that I know of.
And yes, at least for the coldest countries global warming would be good. It is a real pity it stopped after the ’98 El Niño.
I’d gotten the impression the Russian climate community generally took issue with AGW theory and its projections. Now they embrace the upside? Maybe it’s a Putin trick to encourage Obama in his effort to “green” us into third-world energy poverty.
That was my take as well, this seems like an about-face from what I remember hearing in the past.
Tend to agree, never argue with an enemy who’s on a self-inflicted course which will cause harm to them.
“See” say the Warmistas ” even the Russian’s, who were skeptics, now agree with us”
Hold it right there sunshine! Russia has boreal forests.
Mr. Flannigan seems to have several different opinions:
Future wildfire in circumboreal forests in relation to global warming in Journal of Vegetation Science 9: 469-476, 1998
http://www.sefs.washington.edu/classes.esc.401/Circumborealfiresclimate98.pdf
or
Impacts of climate change on fire activity and fire management in the circumboreal forest in Global Change Biology (2008) 14, 1–12
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~mrtlab/mrtlab/Publications_files/Flannigan%20et%20al.%202008%20(GCB).pdf
http://www.sefs.washington.edu/classes.esc.401/Circumborealfiresclimate98.pdf
if you have only one click left
According to a sputniknews article,
See http://sputniknews.com/world/20140919/193093969.html for the rest of the article.
BTW, IMHO, sputniknews appears to be Russia’s new propaganda voice, similar to USSR’s old “Radio Moscow”. Some of the articles are right on, and others — well — you need to take them with a grain of salt. But they do have some interesting reading.
Methinks the spokesman has been mis-translated or misspoke – 0.7C in a CENTURY is about right.
As a Canadian resident, about the only thing I can think of as a downside to a warmer Canada would be a shorter period for transporting materials by ice road to some northern communities. Even that would be tempered by a reduced requirement for heating fuel and so might come out as even. Not sure if I can find a map, but the frost line has certainly moved northwards in the agricultural areas (increasing the acreage available for planting) and I have some anecdotal reports of altered corn growing zones, although the there is a lot of variability on this so probably nothing significant.
Another downside, warmer winters equals bigger nastier bugs. The bugs found in warmer climates are freaks
As the song says, it ain’t necessarily so. Look up the New Zealand weta and you’ll find some very large insects. One type is larger and heavier than a sparrow.
I still say ten years of weather cycles doth not a climate make.
Won’t they be surprised if solar cycle 25 brings another Dalton occurrence (or worse).
The term ‘global climate’ is still a misnomer anyway, an impossible value to calculate precisely, as there is insufficient quantities of simultaneous global data collected over a long enough time. Satellites will hopefully make it a valid concept after half-a-century or so of real time observation.
Technology has given us the perception that the world is getting “smaller” and folks assume they can understand things on a global scale because of their increased access to information.
In the satellite era, ie since 1979, there have been about 17 years of a warming trend and 18 years of sideways trend. Like many here, I expect the next move to be toward cooler temperatures rather than warmer, at least in satellite observations, if not in the cooked to a crisp adjusted surface books.
The cutoff between weather and climate is typically set at 30 years, which may be too short a time, but does have the advantage of representing about half of a PDO cycle.
The Russians will be disappointed when global warming doesn’t happen, but shouldn’t the GW doomsayers be relieved? No?
The father of the theory of the Green House Effect, Svante Arrhenius, said in part, ” By the influence of the increasing percentage of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, we may hope to enjoy ages with more equable and better climates, especially as regards the colder regions of the earth, ages when the earth will bring forth much more abundant crops than at present, for the benefit of rapidly propagating mankind” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svante_Arrhenius
In the BEST graphs for Mongolia it shows 1990 down by .75 C while all other regions
positive, some significantly. Anyone care to give it a shot? The difference seems too great to reconcile.
Tallahassee – Florida: Average temperature: 67.6°F
Minneapolis – Minnesota: Average temperature: 46.15°F
Average temperature difference: 21.45°F
If I lived my whole life in Minneapolis, Minnesota until retirement, and then moved to Tallahassee, Florida, should I expect to experience “catastrophic” consequences from a 21 degree increase in average temperatures? If not, why should I believe that an increase of a few degrees in average global temperature will be catastrophic? Perhaps the oceans will rise some over time, but can’t we adapt to that?
You will be laid low by tropical fevers, plagued by invasive species, drowned by rising sea levels, blown away by hurricanes, and other than that you should be okay.
Does this mean that they are hoping for no more Russian winters with brides being thrown to the wolves from troikas?
http://picsandstuff.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/worst-wedding-ever-1911/
His ‘optimism’ is based on several assumptions: (1) global warming will happen as predicted by the warmists, (2) the catastrophes predicted by the warmists will mainly befall the ‘west’, (3) warming Siberia will only improve the land, converting tundra into a breadbasket, and (4) the west’s loss will match Russia’s gain in terms of agricultural productivity.
Why wouldn’t they be , after all they going to do nothing and if others want to shoot themselves in the foot their more than happy to sell them new shoes , just like China .
I don’t know what the politburo thinks about this statement, maybe a single ticket Magadan.
Loook at a world map during the last ice age. Desert areas were much wider than now, tropical jungle area much more restrictd than now. Based on past performance, my guess would be that there would be FEWER water shortages with global warming. Unfortunately, in the real world, I suspect we’re in for a period of cooling. That WOULD lead to more water shortages.
Just a bit of desperate hope from a Russian. Given what the winter is like there, who can blame him?
If I were a Muscovite I’d be praying like heck for the warmists to be right starting
In mid-September every year.
Note the tremendous role that terrible Russian winter has had in their history, against foreign invaders but also by the rulers against the masses.
Russia has deep stakes in promoting global warming, since it tends to thwart oil production outside of their country. They are now one of the largest producing nations in the world. So promoting global warming means OTHER countries around the world will not invest in pipelines and domestic production.
I fail to see how this is any different then say the Japanese Auto industry funding greens here to shut down USA auto plants, but then turn around and import their cars!
When the wall came down, much of the socialist’s movement found a nice home in the global warming movement.
Here is a great video of such CAGW people at the Copenhagen IPCC conference:
So the connection of socialism + an anti west + anti industrial policy is rather clear. And the IPCC stated goals of redistributing the worlds wealth by taxing CO2 is also the prominent theme here.
Regards,
Albert D. Kallal
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
I’ve been pointing out the irony of fear of a largely beneficent phenomenon for years. Unfortunately, it’s a fake from the ground up, so Russian hopes are in vain.
There are very few optimists in Russia, and almost all of them are Russian officials. For them optimism is mandatory.