THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, Executive Vice President Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Distinguished physicist Hal Lewis caused a furor when he submitted his letter of resignation to the American Physical Society (APS) The response from APS was more typical of an authoritarian organization than a scientific society. This week, Hal Lewis sent his response to APS which was posted, at his request, on Anthony Watts’ web site Watts Up With That. Lewis insists the statement by APS embracing the IPCC version of global warming must be retracted and proposes two reforms to the society. Please see Article # 1.
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The American Thinker published a piece by Fred Singer demonstrating that the biases in New York Times editorials lead to ludicrous assertions such as the newspaper accusing those who do not subscribe to Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) as denying climate change – something that has been taking place for millions of years. Such claims are the result of the failure by the newspaper to listen to the assertions those who challenge the IPCC and AGW advocates. Please see Article # 2.
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When the IPCC insisted that its 2007 Assessment Report was correct and the glaciers of the Himalayan Mountains will melt by 2035, the government of India engaged Indian Himalayan expert V.K. Raina to make an independent report. The independent report noted that some glaciers are receding and others are advancing. Sometimes different tongues of the same glacier are moving in opposite directions, one receding while another is advancing. There is no general trend. To double check this work, the government of India engaged Australian ice expert Cliff Ollier who described the work of VK. Rina as splendid and found the IPCC claims are “unsupported, unscientific, and wrong.”
The Global Warming Policy Forum published an exceptional article by Cliff Ollier on the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Ollier devastates the naiveté displayed by alarmists in making their assertions. Apparently, many of these alarmists do not understand difference in the movement of ice if it is in a bowl that is right side up, or on a bowl that is upside down. Please see Article #3.
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On Monday, the Tribune Newspapers, to include the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, carried an article announcing that several groups, including the American Geophysical Union (AGU), are preparing scientists to speak out against those who question that humans are causing unprecedented and dangerous global warming. This effort is apparently in response to polls showing that fewer people believe the AGW claim. The mantra of AGW enthusiasts is that the “deniers” are engaged in a well-funded, effective, and professionally run disinformation campaign in which AGW climate scientists cannot compete. They claim that this disinformation campaign supposedly creates confusion among the populace causing many people to think climate science is unreliable or controversial.
Roy Spencer quickly posted an effective rebuttal pointing out that it is the alarmists who have received billions of dollars for their work and have spent large sums on advertising campaigns. [The 2007 grand announcement of the Fourth IPCC Summary for Policymakers comes to mind, which was complete with glorious fireworks near the Eiffel Tower in Paris.] Please see Article # 4.
AGU quickly announced a qualifying statement saying it would enlist 700 climate scientists to respond to questions from journalists Needless to say, skeptics need not apply. Please see referenced articles under Defending the Orthodoxy.
If scientific organizations are truly interested in communicating the science of AGW to the public, they would disavow the propaganda that has infected the entire issue for decades. Necessary steps include stopping the use of scientifically meaningless slogans such as climate change, disruptive climate change, or climate protection as substitutes for the real issue: are humans causing unprecedented and dangerous global warming?
Those who wish to communicate science to the public should object to propaganda photos that commonly accompany articles on carbon dioxide. These ubiquitous photos show emissions from smokestacks at power plants blackening the sky. Carbon dioxide is invisible. What appears to be blackening the sky is water vapor condensing under certain atmospheric conditions and exceptional lighting conditions. Several examples appear in the articles referenced below including the article by Tribune Newspapers.
Those organizations claiming to be scientific should recognize ad hominem propaganda attacks, such the recent book by Oreskes and Conway, for what they are, and denounce those attacks rather than treat them as scientific works. And, of course, objective scientific organizations should proclaim the results of the IPCC models are sophisticated speculation from unverified models rather than scientifically supported predictions.
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A Wall Street Journal article on a leaked White House memo contained the Quote of the Week. Apparently the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Treasury question the wisdom of huge subsidies for wind farms, thus are delaying approvals for massive amounts of subsidies under the stimulus bill. According to the article, a wind farm at Shepherds Flat, Oregon will receive a total of $1.2 Billion in Federal, state, and ratepayer subsidies. According to another article, the total permanent jobs created will be 35. This works out to over $34 Million per job. Please see Article #5.
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The 16th Conference of Parties (COP-16) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will be held in Cancun, Mexico, starting November 29. It may be a dud. The original concept was to have nations commit to a new treaty far stronger than the Kyoto Protocol. In Article # 6, Bjorn Lomborg expresses why he thinks COP-16 may be a failure and then pleads for massive funds to support a technological fix to the non-problem of global warming. The skeptical environmentalist should become a skeptical economist, or physicist.
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Even though sustained US unemployment is the highest since the Great Depression, the EPA announced additional restrictive measures that will throttle economic growth. Please see articles referenced under EPA and Other Regulators On the March.
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THE NUMBER OF THE WEEK is 65.8 GWe to 0.7 GWe. This is the NET increase in capacity from coal-fired electrical generation for 2008 in China and in the US, respectively. According to the World Nuclear Association, referenced in an earlier TWTW, in 2008 China added 91.8 GWe of capacity in new coal-fired plants while closing 26 GWe in old coal-fired plants. According to the US Energy Information Administration the US added 1.5 GWe in new coal-fired plants while closing 0.8 GWe in old coal-fired plants. The additions were on existing sites.
Solar and wind advocates claim the US is losing the race with China for so – called 21st Century energy. Once again, it appears China is in a different race. ###################################################
ARTICLES:
For the numbered articles below please see
http://www.haapala.com/sepp/the-week-that-was.cfm..
1. Another letter from Hal Lewis to the American Physical Society
By Hal Lewis, WUWT, Nov 6, 2010
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/11/06/another-letter….
2. Climate Alarmism at the New York Times
By S. Fred Singer, American Thinker, Nov 7, 2010
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/11/climate_….
3. No Cause For Alarm Over Sea Level Or Ice Sheets
By Cliff Ollier, School of Earth and Environment, University of Western Australia, Nov 11, 2010 [H/t John Cribbs]
http://thegwpf.org/science-news/1837-no-cause-for-al….
4. Climate Scientists Plan Campaign Against global Warming Skeptics
By Roy Spencer, Nov 8, 2010
5. Wind Jammers at the White House
A Larry Summers memo exposes the high cost of energy corporate welfare
Editorial, WSJ, Nov 11, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704635….
6. Can Anything Serious Happen in Cancun?
The upcoming climate summit promises more proposals that ignore economic reality.
By Bjorn Lomborg, WSJ, Nov 12, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703848….
[SEPP Comment: Another appeal for an expensive technological fix to a non-problem.]
NEWS YOU CAN USE:
Climategate Continued
Environmentalists ‘exaggerated’ threat to tropical rainforests from global warming
By David Derbyshire, Mail Online, Nov 12, 2010 [H/t ICECAP]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13288….
Challenging the Orthodoxy
Branding of Dissenters Has Begun – Clearing The Path To A Climate Science Pogrom
By P. Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Nov 11, 2010 [H/t WUWT]
http://notrickszone.com/2010/11/11/branding-of-scien….
[SEPP Comment: Fred Singer’s talk to the German Parliament created a hostile reaction from the Green Industry.]
McKitrick Rebuts Deutsche Bank
By Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit, Nov 9, 2010
http://climateaudit.org/2010/11/09/mckitrick-rebuts-….
[SEPP Comment: As noted in a prior TWTW, Deutsche Bank has a multi-billion dollar portfolio for Green investment. It engaged the Columbia Climate Center to justify such investments. The subsequent DB report incorrectly stated the conclusions of the 2006 reports by NAS and by Wegman et al. regarding the ‘hockey stick.’ The referenced paper further addresses such misstatements.]
Inconvenient nonsense infiltrates the classroom
By Bob Carter, The Australian, Nov 11, 2010
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/inconve….
Defending the Orthodoxy
Climate scientists plan campaign against global warming skeptics
The American Geophysical Union plans to announce that 700 researchers have agreed to speak out on the issue. Other scientists plan a pushback against congressional conservatives who have vowed to kill regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.
By Neela Banerjee, Chicago Tribune, Nov 8, 2010
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-na….
[SEPP Comment: Typical propaganda photo of smokestack emissions darkening the skies with condensing water vapor?]
AGU Manufacturing Climate Consensus
By Anne Jolie, WSJ Political Diary, Nov 12, 2010
Desperate Days For Global Warm-ongers
Editorial, IBD, Nov 11, 2010
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/553….
‘No climate talks in future if Cancun fails’
Chetan Chauhan, Hindustan Times, Nov 10, 2010 [H/t Marc Morano, Climate Depot]
http://www.hindustantimes.com/rssfeed/newdelhi/No-cl….
[SEPP Comment: Is this bad news?]
A Novel Tactic in Climate Fight Gains Some traction
By John Broder, NYT, Nov 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/science/earth/09mo….
[SEPP Comment: Distort the language of the Ozone Treaty to cover global warming.]
Bank Tax, CO2 Auctions Recommended by Soros Panel to Help Climate Efforts
By Alex Morales and Jim Efstathious, Bloomberg, Nov 5, 2010 [H/t Patrick Quirk]
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-05/soros-panel….
Seeking a Common Ground
Is this the start of a proper, open debate on climate change?
By the Scientific Alliance, Nov 12, 2010 [H/t ICECAP]
http://www.scientific-alliance.org/…
[SEPP Comment: Thoughtful questions concerning those who are considered part of the orthodoxy but question its tactics and some of its conclusions.]
BP Oil Spill and Aftermath
Interior inspector general: White House skewed drilling-ban report
Dan Berman, Politico, Nov 9, 2010
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44921.html….
Anger overflows on drilling halt report
IG: Scientists didn’t back ban
By Kara Rowland, Washington Times, Nov 10, 2010
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/10/ange….
Offshore Drilling Commission Convenes: Same Attacks, Still Missing The Facts
By Thomas Pyle, IBD, Nov 5, 2010
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/552….
Energy Issues
The Great Transmission Heist
The latest scheme to subsidize solar and wind power to the detriment of rate payers
Editorial, WSJ, Nov 7, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304772….
Food industry faces off against EPA over ethanol ruling
By P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times, Nov 11, 2010
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2010/11/epa….
EU biofuel policy will increase CO2 emissions, study says
By Andrew Willis, EU Observer, Nov 8, 2010 [H/t Catherine French]
http://euobserver.com/9/31210/?rk=1…
Cost of Green Power Makes Projects Tougher Sell
By Matthew Wald and Tom Zeller, NYT, Nov 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/science/earth/08fo….
Ethanol subsidies pose early test for the GOP
By Timothy Carney, Washington Examiner, Nov 5, 2010 [H/t Deke Forbes]
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Ethanol-s….
IEA expects ‘golden age’ for gas industry
By Stefan Nicola, UPI, Nov 9, 2010 [H/t Toshio Fujita]
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2010/1….
Global gas glut threatens alternative power sources: EIA
By Robin Pagnamenta, Times, AU, Nov 10, 2010
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-ener….
[SEPP Comment: Apparently alternative energy sources cannot compete with natural gas in many parts of the world.]
Green jobs cut despite government subsidy
Editorial, Orange County Register, Nov 10, 2010 [H/t WUWT]
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/solyndra-275413-go….
[SEPP Comment: Even with $535 Million in loan guarantees to this Spanish company to build in the US, it could not compete with the Chinese.]
IET: Wind turbines and solar panels are not the best way for homes to reduce carbon emissions
Politics. UK. Oct 7, 2010
http://www.politics.co.uk/opinion-formers/press-rele….
EPA and other Regulators On the March
EPA’s Permitting Guidance for Greenhouse Gases – Does It Endanger Coal?
By Marlo Lewis, Global Warming. Org, Nov 11, 2010
http://www.globalwarming.org/2010/11/11/can-best-ava….
E.P.A. Issues Guidance on New Emissions Rules
By John Broder, NYT, Nov 10, 2010
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/e-p-a-issu….
[SEPP Comment: Great propaganda photo of smokestack emissions from a coal-fired power plant near Emmitt, Kan. darkening the sky with – condensing water vapor?]
How EPA could destroy 7.3 million jobs
By William Shughart II, Washington Examiner, Nov 12, 2010
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/-W….
Bay cleanup could cost billions, require tax hikes
By Ben Giles, Washington Examiner, Nov 5, 2010
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Bay-cleanup-….
Agency Pushes Halliburton to Hand Over Drilling Data
By Stephen Power and Siobhan Hughes, WSJ, Nov 10, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704635….
[SEPP Comment: Preparing to regulate hydraulic fracturing – the one bright spot in the energy picture?]
California Dreaming
California Dreaming: Missing America’s Wake-Up Call
By Larry Bell, Forbes.com, Nov 10, 2010
http://www.forbes.com/2010/11/10/california-texas-cl….
Calif.’s Little-Noticed Prop 26 Squeaks Through in Dead of Night
By Colin Sullivan, NYT, Nov 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/11/03/03greenwire-….
Review of Recent Scientific Articles by NIPCC
For a full list of articles see
A Century of Parana River Streamflow Data
Reference: Mauas, P.J.D., Flamenco, E. and Buccino, A.P 2008. Solar forcing of the stream flow of a continental scale South American river. Physical Review Letters 101: 168501.
http://www.nipccreport.org/articles/2010/nov/11nov20….
Floods of the Mississippi River System
Reference: Pinter, N., Jemberie, A.A., Remo, J.W.F., Heine, R.A. and Ickes, B.S. 2008. Flood trends and river engineering on the Mississippi River system.Geophysical Research Letters 35: 10.1029/2008GL035987
http://www.nipccreport.org/articles/2010/nov/10nov20….
Coral Reefs and Climate Change: Unproved Assumptions
Reference: Maynard, J.A., Baird, A.H. and Pratchett, M.S.. 2008b. Revisiting the Cassandra syndrome; the changing climate of coral reef research. Coral Reefs 27: 745-749..
http://www.nipccreport.org/articles/2010/nov/10nov20….
Global Warming and the Biodiversity of Small temperate Ponds
Reference: Rosset, V., Lehmann, A. and Oertli, B. 2010. Warmer and richer? Predicting the impact of climate warming on species richness in small temperate waterbodies. Global Change Biology 16: 2376-2387.
http://www.nipccreport.org/articles/2010/nov/10nov20….
Other Issues that May Be Of Interest
What the Green Movement Got Wrong: Greens come to see the error of their ways
By Charles Moore, Telegraph, UK, Nov 11, 2010 [H/t Joe Bast]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/charle….
The Crash Of The Climate Exchange
Editorial, IBD, Nov 9, 2010
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/553….
[SEPP Comment: Only after the original promoters made a bundle.]
Can the U.S. Compete on Rare Earths?
Editorial, NYT, Nov 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/11/08/can-….
Mining the Seafloor for Rare-Earth Minerals
By William Broad, NYT, Nov 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/science/09seafloor….
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE:
Current Global Warming May Reverse Circulation in Atlantic Ocean, as It Did 20,000 Years Ago
Science Daily, Nov 4, 2010 [H/t Eric Gottshall]
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/1011031….
[SEPP Comment: At least according to the headline writer, a reversal of circulation in the Atlantic caused the global warming that ended the ice age. Now global warming will cause another reversal of circulation that will bring on a new ice age?]
Oil will run dry before substitutes roll out: study
At the current pace of research and development, global oil will run out 90 years before replacement technologies are ready, says a new University of California, Davis, study based on stock market expectations.
Physorg, Nov 9 2010 [H/t Toshio Fujita]
http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-11-oil-substitutes…..
[SEPP Comment: Poor concepts from economics come to engineering and physics.]
Flashback 2005: UN warns of 50 MILLION climate Refugees a year – by 2010
ICECAP, Nov 12, 2010
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“”””” kim says:
November 14, 2010 at 8:54 am
I once had a brief interchange with a Greenland ice core researcher in a climate book discussion group. I said that Greenland was bowl shaped. “””””
Well Kim, even I know that Greenland is bowl shaped, In fact I have heard it referred to as a ring of islands. But I don’t know if that is an exaggeration; but I’m sure you are correct on the bowl shape;
Well you see those ice rivers may just get rolling fast enough that they end up running up the sides of the bowl and spill out over the top.
I am sure that Svend Hendriksen will write and warn us if the great slopover gets underway. Meanwhile Svend ; you watch you back there Mate; and don’t let that ice pass you by on its way out of the bowl.
“”””” drewski says:
November 14, 2010 at 11:25 pm
@James Baldwin Allison
This is from the NOAA, but extensive credit for researching these records goes to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera, who maintains a comprehensive set of extreme temperature records on his web site. Records are listed below. As well, all-time national heat records were missed by 1°C or less in at least 5 other nations this summer, including China, the Azores, Morocco, Estonia, and Latvia. “””””
So did Maximiliano also publish a list of all the places that did not have all time record high temperatures in 2010, and are there more names on that list than on the othr list.
And for how many million years back does Max have this data; it seems that earth was onece much hotter all over; than any of those places he mentioned.
If you take Temperature records outside your back door every day at some specified time; for 100 years; then for every date, there’s probably a 1% chance of a new daily high, or a new daily low, or a new high wind speed or rainfall, so you can expect 3.65 new daily highs each year and 3.65 daily lows each year.
Some time has to be the all time local extrrema; so it will happen with or wiothout our influence.
Yes George, If temperatures were not warming, the number of record daily highs and lows being set each year would be approximately even. Instead, for the period from January 1, 2000, to September 30, 2009, the continental United States set 291,237 record highs and 142,420 record lows, as the country experienced unusually mild winter weather and intense summer heat waves.
For the year to date, new highs are exceeding new lows by a ratio of 2.8 to 1 and for October, 2010 there were over 1500 new record highs, vs. slightly more than 300 lows, giving a ratio of 4.75 to 1.
What’s Up With That?
The study, by authors at NCAR, Climate Central, The Weather Channel, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters. It was funded by the National Science Foundation, NCAR’s sponsor, the Department of Energy, and Climate Central.
The study team analyzed several million daily high and low temperature readings taken over the span of six decades at about 1,800 weather stations across the country, thereby ensuring ample data for statistically significant results. The readings, collected at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center, undergo a quality control process at the data center that looks for such potential problems as missing data as well as inconsistent readings caused by changes in thermometers, station locations, or other factors.
drewski,
Here are 150 national temperatures listed seasonally [Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter]: click
And high/low record temperature records: click
And the global mean temperature from 1880 — on a normal y-axis: click
And raw monthly hi/lo global temps since 1950: click
Yes, global temperature has risen a few tenths of a degree since the LIA. This is just the normal ebb and flow of the climate. But there is zero empirical evidence verifying that CO2 is the cause.
CO2 probably has a slight effect, but it is so insignificant that it is unmeasurable. And that is the central argument, isn’t it? Because if “carbon” doesn’t drive the climate, then there is no reason to waste any more tax money on that repeatedly falsified scare.
The whole CO2 alarm has been debunked ever since Arrhenius recanted his 1896 paper that claimed a high climate sensitivity to CO2. But when the scientific method is ignored, bad ideas tend to persist — especially when fueled with public grant money.
Take away the taxpayer loot, and the “carbon” scare will go the way of the ALAR scare, the Y2K scare, the killer bees scare, and all the other scares that came to absolutely nothing.
Hi Smokey,
Is it just me or do you also see about 140 out of the 150 country temperature records are trending upwards?
But no doubt you are right about the insignificance of CO2 — now you just have to change the minds of all those reputable science organizations, societies, clubs and universities all over the world who think otherwise.
Good luck!
drewski,
Thank you.
The truth is slowly winning out, as we see from the growing numbers of formerly worried folks who are now skeptics. IMHO, unless evidence is found showing conclusively that CO2 is the main driver of the climate, the ranks of skeptics will continue to grow.