I thought about writing a year end recap, but then I saw my traffic count for the month at 00 GMT (4PM PST), and thought that would do just as well at telling the story for this year. After a slight dip in October and November, WUWT has reached a new high at nearly 900,000 page views this month.
Click for a larger image
Not bad for a 12 month growth. My hit counter, as of this writing, stands at:
6,840,995 hits
In December 2007, I hadn’t even broken 500,000.
Thanks to each and every one of you for visiting, contributing, and commenting. Thanks especially to the moderating team who keeps the temperature of this blog down whilst I think up new topics.
Here were the top 7 most popular posts in 2008, in case you missed them:
Top Posts
January 2008 – 4 sources say “globally cooler” in the past 12 months 140,090 views
A look at temperature anomalies for all 4 global metrics: Part 1 64,508 views
Where have all the sunspots gone? 59,144 views
Sudan hit by Apollo Asteroid 36,543 views
UAH: Global Temperature Dives in May 35,521 views
Solar Cycle 24 has officially started 34,877 views
Arctic sea ice back to its previous level, bears safe; film at 11 27,091 views
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
See what I mean?
Sorry, Ed, I don’t click on sites with “denialist” in the name.
Happy New Year.
Anthony, cogratulations!
World history this is. I wish for you that all aspect of driving this site will succeed also in the years to come. I wish everybody around you understands and gives a hand. Im sure its sometimes up the hill. But i am sure its worth it :-). Thanks!
K.R. Frank Lansner
Jeff, Carsten, I agree. But in fact sites like his and Gavin Schmidt’s are totally counter-productive to their cause. Just direct any real scientist to spend a few hours on either and they will be sickened that science is reduced to such a gutter level of debate and censorship of opposing views.
Real science delights when models don’t match reality because that is when discoveries are made. Real science delights when the best brains from either side debate and challenge each other. Censorship of the half the story is a complete turnoff and utterly boring.
Unfortunately now we have a group on a crusade to save the world and the last thing they want to hear is any evidence the world might not need saving.
Congratulations Anthony and the moderators. I spend more time on WUWT each day than I care to admit. Keep up the great work and best wishes for a successful 2009 from Down Under
Neil Crafter
Adelaide, South Australia
For those in the general public who are interested in glaciers: click
[Please, no ad hominem regarding the author. Thanks.]
Ed Darrell, interesting chart on glaciers indeed. Although no source for it.
Note the following,
Up until 1970 the chart shows that glaciers were accumulating ice.
The rate of glacier melt is remarkable stable apart from a step change up in the mid-1990s, following Mt Pinatubo and preceding the 1998 super El Nino.
Volcanic eruptions result in a pronounced reduction in melt in the following year or so. Which lends weight to the argument that what is different climate-wise about the last few decades is that we are long overdue for a mag 7+ volcanic eruption.
The cumulative glacier loss plot is ‘rhetorical device’ to impress those who do not understand basic statistics, and is there to decieve them into thinking there is an accelerating trend. When in fact there is no evidence of any significant trend (never mind accelerating). Just a step change in the mid 90s.
Chart referred to,
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/johnnyrook1/glacier_thicknessgraphNSIDC.gif
BTW, the accompanying article is typical Warmer rhetorical excess, with little scientific support (if this graph is typical of the article as a whole).
Smokey,
the Himalayas (glaciers), which help to provide water for a sixth of mankind.
The Himalayan glaciers only provide water to the extent they melt (on a net basis) or retreat. If they don’t melt they can’t provide water.
Otherwise, Himalayan rivers have a very large summer maximum flow due to the Monsoon. Any change to summer melt will produce a change too small to be measured against the summer monsoon flow (flood).
This is an example of climate change being my local weather extrapolated globally – Where I live rivers are at their lowest in the summer, therefore rivers everywhere are at lowest in summer.
What is disturbing is that I have seen both these error made by so called climate experts.
Anthony,
Congratulaions on the amazing web stats – you are an inspiration to other ‘skeptical’ bloggers.
And best wishes to you, and your readers, for a happy New Year.
Anthony,
May I wish you and your colleagues all the warmest wishes for 2009. I know we don’t see eye to eye on the majority of subjects but I thank you for allowing me to state an opposing case without censorship. This is why I, and many others, keep coming back.
I would like to give warmest wishes to those regulars that have given good references to various subjects. Thanks to Leif specially, I know a lot more about the sun than this time last year.
So best wishes to all, Anthony keep the blog going and lets carry on with the meaty debates!
REPLY: It is my pleasure. Differences of opinion, sans snark or anger, are welcomed here. – Anthony
Re. soil (03:29:22) :
—
I guess this alexa.com comparison is well known but since I have’nt seen it posted here, looks like a good moment to do:
http://plazamoyua.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/wuwt-rc.jpg
—
Easy to spot the RC graph, it has the sharp up-tick at the end. 🙂
My thanks for this site and the efforts to keep it an open debating forum. I started at RC having become concerned but then noted that all too often in my opinion the use of personal attacks when differing views are dealt with. So now spend altogether too much time at this site, Icecap and ClimateAudit. 🙂
A good year to all here.
Mick.
Smokey said:
Sorry. Didn’t know you were allergic to data.
Congrats Anthony.
I’ve been a avid reader since about March or June or….oh how time flies!
Terry Ward (07:50:43) :
The graph correlates with CO2 as measured at Mauna Loa.
This blog is the cause of global warming.
I am highly skeptical of that correlation. Although not statistically quantified or peer-reviewed, I am sure there is a higher inverse correlation between WUWT hits and global cooling since blog inception. I take great satisfaction knowing that every time I open WUWT I contribute .00000001degrees C to aid in cooling our planet. But then, I is stupiderer :<).
Mary Hinge (03:17:55) :
Hey, no fair, does this mean that Evan and I can’t post quotes from “The Hunting of the Snark?” At least you didn’t include “sans frumious”.
Mary, I’ve seen too many organizations turn into mobs full of self importance who run off in leaderless direction. We always need a few naysayers like you and Leif to remind us to think first, write second. I don’t suppose you and Leif get mentioned together in too many sentences.
When you decide we’re right after all, be sure to bring in a replacement. 🙂
Congratulations Anthony, and staff. Thank you for all your hard work and fairness of mind. All the best in ’09.
Congratulations Anthony (and the moderating team)! Objectivity is a haven to cherish, and yours is a model of that.
So there I was just minding my own business, congratulating Anthony on his well-deserved success, when Ed Darrell (16:02:49) comes along and starts an argument over glaciers.
Ed, I’m sorry that glacier behavior distresses you, but really, it’s not a problem at all. Maybe this will help you understand bogus ‘data’, and help you to see what’s really going on.
Let’s end the year on an up note: Happy New Year Ed, and thanx for your contributions toward this site’s 6,904,736 hits [and counting…]
Has anyone mentioned that WUWT has passed the RC total number of hits? Was this in the models?
Now it’s 6,909,553 hits. 5,000 new hits in just two hours. 7 million hits is right around the corner.
I don’t want to miss anything in this historic debate, so I’ve made WUWT my home page.
Congratulations Anthony, you deserve it. This is a great blog. Congratulations as well for becoming a finalist for the 2008 Weblog “Best Science Blog” award. Romm goes off on quite a rant about this today at climate progress. He goes so far as to recommend against his readers voting for RC saying: “Much as I’d love to recommend voting for RealClimate, the smart money has to be on voting for last year’s co-winner — Bad Astronomy Blog”. I’ll bet Gavin is steamed. Good.
Good luck in the vote Anthony.
Since a big part of this site is about predictions, I predict 7,000,000+ blog hits by 1-05-09.
A gift for all those who made this site such a big success: clicky