Parents, please encourage your children to become “science experts.” The perks are excellent – prestige, travel, publicity, conferences – your fifteen minutes of fame. And all you have to do is make bigger claims than the last expert.
Here are a few favorite gems :
March 10, 2006: It’s official: Solar minimum has arrived. Sunspots have all but vanished. Solar flares are nonexistent. The sun is utterly quiet.
This week researchers announced that a storm is coming–the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). “The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one,” she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/10mar_stormwarning.htm
Dec. 21, 2006: Evidence is mounting: the next solar cycle is going to be a big one.
see captionSolar cycle 24, due to peak in 2010 or 2011 “looks like its going to be one of the most intense cycles since record-keeping began almost 400 years ago,” says solar physicist David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center. He and colleague Robert Wilson presented this conclusion last week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/21dec_cycle24.htm
OSLO, Feb. 29, 2008 (Xinhua) — The polar cap in the Arctic may well disappear this summer due to the global warming, Dr. Olav Orheim, head of the Norwegian International Polar Year Secretariat, said on Friday.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/01/content_7696460.htm
27-Aug-2007
Will oceans surge 59 centimetres this century – or 25 metres?
When Al Gore predicted that climate change could lead to a 20-foot rise in sea levels, critics called him alarmist. After all, the International Panel on Climate Change, which receives input from top scientists, estimates surges of only 18 to 59 centimetres in the next century. But a study led by James Hansen, the head of the climate science program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and a professor at Columbia University, suggests that current estimates for how high the seas could rise are way off the mark – and that in the next 100 years melting ice could sink cities in the United States to Bangladesh
Glaciers on Snowdon’ warning by climate expert
Jan 12 2010 by Rhodri Clark, Western Mail
THIS winter’s prolonged cold spell could be a taste of things to come for Wales – with glaciers a possibility within 40 years. That’s the chilly message from a leading Welsh climate expert who has warned that global warming could paradoxically trigger a collapse in temperatures in western Europe.
The Cooling World
Newsweek, April 28, 1975
Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects. They concede that some of the more spectacular solutions proposed, such as melting the Arctic ice cap by covering it with black soot or diverting arctic rivers, might create problems far greater than those they solve. But the scientists see few signs that government leaders anywhere are even prepared to take the simple measures of stockpiling food or of introducing the variables of climatic uncertainty into economic projections of future food supplies. The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality.
http://www.denisdutton.com/cooling_world.htm
Proof of life on Mars by year-end, says NASA expert
Washington, Jan 16, 2010 (PTI) Is there life on Mars? The most intriguing question for everyone on the Earth would be answered by American space scientists by the end of this year, a NASA expert has claimed.
According to David McKay, chief of astrobiology at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, the fact that Mars has bred life will be confirmed this year and the historic discovery will not be made on the Mars, but here on Earth using the chunks of the red planet.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/471015_Proof-of-life-on-Mars-by-year-end–says-NASA-expert
4 January 2007
2007 – forecast to be the warmest year yet
2007 is likely to be the warmest year on record globally, beating the current record set in 1998, say climate-change experts at the Met Office. http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2007/pr20070104.html
Hot summer on the way, predicts Met
Sunday 8 April 2007
Britain set to enjoy another sizzling summer after new evidence from the Met Office suggested above average temperatures for the season. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/apr/08/weather.theobserver
Climate could warm to record levels in 2010
10 December 2009
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2009/pr20091210b.html
From The Sunday Times January 10, 2010
“This will be the warmest winter in living memory, the data has already been recorded. For your information, we take the highest 15 readings between November and March and then produce an average. As November was a very seasonally warm month, then all the data will come from those readings.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/dominic_lawson/article6982310.ece
Jan, 2008
Under my plan of a cap and trade system electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, even, you know, regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad, because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal powered plants, you know, natural gas, you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydqg7ThZB04
November, 2009 GORE: It definitely is, and it’s a relatively new one. People think about geothermal energy – when they think about it at all – in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, ’cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot …
Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past Monday, 20 March 2000 According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”. “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html
1998 Was Warmest Year Of Millenium, Climate Researchers Report ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 1999) — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Researchers at the Universities of Massachusetts and Arizona who study global warming have released a report strongly suggesting that the 1990s were the warmest decade of the millennium, with 1998 the warmest year so far. Researchers have also found that the warming in the 20th century counters a 1,000-year-long cooling trend. The study, by Michael Mann and Raymond Bradley of the University of Massachusetts and Malcolm Hughes of the University of Arizona, appears in the March 15 issue of Geophysical Research Letters, published by the American Geophysical Union. The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/03/990304052546.htm
December 14, 2008 “The time for delay is over; the time for denial is over,” Obama said on Tuesday after meeting with former Vice President Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming. “We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now that this is a matter of urgency and national security and it has to be dealt with in a serious way.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/14/obamas-global-warming-cha_n_150947.html
March 24, 2006 London ‘under water by 2100’ as Antarctica crumbles into the sea http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article694819.ece
February 20th, 1969
NYT: Expert Says Arctic Ocean Will Soon Be an Open Sea http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/07/24/nyt-expert-says-arctic-ocean-will-soon-be-an-open-sea/
Arctic Ice Cap to Become an Open Sea in 10 years Oct 14, 2009 http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/280517
What are some of the reader’s favorites?
h/t to Steve Goddard
Mattweezer (10:02:14) :
I have to go with Gore’s several million degrees, at least some of the predictions could have happened (however unlikely), in Gore’s case he is 100% wrong and 100% amusing. After all, he’s trying to make himself into the climate god.
It’s pretty clear why he doesn’t debate and doesn’t even let anybody attend his speeches who might ask an embarrassing question like, “How hot is the visible surface of the sun?”
Gail, my sincere apologies, I’m in Canada so I used Canadian national debt. It never crossed my mind that some other country could be at fault. No point asking Obama, if he moved to Canada he would be the most right wing politician in the country. I did ask our Prime Minister though, and he insists that the American deficit being so much larger than ours, we have no real effect on world matters.
Now China has recently been posting large surpluses. Is that perhaps driving the recent cooling trend?
Check out this article. She could have asked some harder questions!! In spite of the softballs lobbed at him, he still comes off as the evil emperor from the Star Wars series. /Users/david/Documents/Microsoft%20User%20Data/Saved%20Attachments/Maurice%20Strong%20The%20U.N.&apos%3Bs%20Man%20of%20Mystery%20-%20WSJ.com.htm
This may work better …………………………….. /Users/david/Desktop/Maurice Strong The U.N.'s Man of Mystery – WSJ.com.htm
Sorry, ham-handed attempt at posting a link. Little help?
REPLY: super easy, just type it in as it appears below, wordpress will do the rest, including making the autolink
http://www.wattsupwiththat.com
Here, David:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122368007369524679.html
Steve Goddard (10:18:10) :
Ahh, Feynman. Now there’s an intelligent, humble scientist whose words should always be listened to. His presence is greatly missed.
I’ve compiled a list of ‘must-have’ inventory items for parents to purchase should they wish for their little darling seedlings to become a science expert :
– wizard’s hat (must be a deep ocean blue colour with gold stars)
– crystal ball (set on ash wood stand)
– tarot cards (Sylvia Browne special order only)
– magic wand (made from, of course, ash wood)
– white lab coat (stocked with pocket protector and leaky pens)
– SuperSeer-Omatic 6000 personal computer (batteries not included)
– hand-held thermometer (in case your computer model crashes)
– gun-metal grey garbage bin (to toss those pesky 10 yr old data files)
– bendable rubber ruler (because sometimes precision doesn’t matter)
But the absolutely most important item that every wannabe climate science expert must have :
– one medium sized sky blue genuine crystal stone to rub around your belly button counterclockwise three times each night at exactly three strokes before midnight (will drastically improve ones ability to lie with a straight face… yes kids, even to your mommy and daddy !)
Got it!! Thanks very much !!! 8^D http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122368007369524679.html
Having what I like to call a “Three Stooges” day. 8^B (this emoticon looks more like Jerry Lewis, but you get the idea).
David Ball (18:45:49)
That looks like the “address” of the material on your computer, not on the net. You can’t get to one from the other. I see Roger Knights (19:25:42) has found it for you.
Henry chance (09:47:06) :
Favorite:
Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past Monday, 20 March 2000 According to Dr David Viner.
Too bad buildings still have windows. we can see that was never true.
Too bad you left of the rest of his statement: “Heavy snow will return occasionally, says Dr Viner, but when it does we will be unprepared. “We’re really going to get caught out. Snow will probably cause chaos in 20 years time,” he said.”
Looks like he was on the money, just a little off in the timing.
Here’s how scientists are supposed to go about their business.
“Why won’t the supernova explode?”
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2010/07jan_nustar.htm
Their computer models aren’t working. What do they do? “Fix” them with “artificial corrections”? NO! They don’t insist their models are correct and their observing methods must be wrong*. They discard the parts of their theories that didn’t match what real supernovas do and they make more observations of reality to improve their models.
*”I reject your reality and substitute my own!” Best line ever said on Mythbusters.
Phil tells us that two winters in a row with heavy snow is an indication that snow is diminishing. Thanks for that wisdom!
Charlie Veron, former chief scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6652866.ece
A real expert is a former drip under pressure. Any one can be a Real Climate Science expert.
How about this gem:
“How cold is it in Antarctica? According to Weather Underground, Vostok, Antarctica is forecast to reach -113F on Friday. That is four degrees below the freezing point of CO2 and would cause dry (CO2) ice to freeze directly out of the air.”
“What Does it Take to Be a Science Expert?”
Shoot! I get lots of junk mail offers of advancical degreedys from prestidigical instisolutions. Never responded to any of ’em but maybe I too could be “a xpurt.”
Circa 1900, Lord Kelvin announced that physics was over – we knew it all. only 5 years later Max Planck received a paper from a little know patent clerk….. In the meantime Kiel University in Germany had closed its physics department.
In 1958 Eugene Parker suggested that inter-planetary space was full of ‘solar wind’. He was derided, until satellite measurements from 1960 proved him right. It is possible that fluctuations in this solar wind (associated with sunspots) determine the cosmic ray flux that controls cloud formation (and hence the Earth’s albedo). Hey Ho.
I fell about when I read this…
http://www.noteviljustwrong.com/blog/general/327
“What is the freezing temperature for carbon dioxide? around -109.3 degrees Fahrenheit”
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_freezing_temperature_for_carbon_dioxide
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-25061-Climate-Change-Examiner~y2009m11d5-Climate-change-induced-disaster-predictions-falling-flat
However, for me here in London, it was the Met Office’s forecast that the winter of 2008/9 would be mild. (presumably such forecasts are based on those odd *emissions scenarios*, which sound more like economic business plan talk) In fact it was a long freeze. After the event they said “It would have been even colder had it not been for global warming”.
The audacity.
A couple of days ago I watched an entertaining documentary about the catastrophic events of a future enormous solar storm. Obviously the documentary was made a few years ago.
Right at the end the narrator ominously says: “The next solar maximum will be in 2011”.
Amazing what a difference a few years can make….
Chris
How do we go about selecting the deserving recipient for the Doomsday WUWT Trophy? So many to choose from? Such a plethora of hyperbole! Such a challenging peer review process!
What Does it Take to Be a Science Expert?
Ummm…Powerpoint and some willful ignorance?