Excerpt:
In 2003, Putin amazed scientists when he speculated that a global warming by “two or three degrees” could be a good thing for Russia as its people would no longer need fur coats.
A press conference hosted by the RIA Novosti state news agency ahead of Cancun provided some indication of official attitudes. Called “Climate Change: myth or reality?” it gave a platform to a leading climate sceptic academic.
“Climate is a concept that has existed as long as the Earth exists… several hundred million years ago the temperature was 10-13 degrees higher than now,” said Yury Israel, director of the Institute of Global Climate and Environment at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“What is happening now is not some kind of unusual special case,” he said, adding that life flourished on Earth at the time of dinosaurs.
Full story here
h/t to WUWT reader Jorge Kafkazar
Anthony, Isn’t it fun that the Met Office brought out they’re ‘warmest year ever’ just before the deep freeze hits Britain, once again – -17 in some parts, though the good old Met wants only to say ‘officially’ -10? Of course the year isn’t quite over but whats that to the prospect of another junket in Cancun?!
The average Russian citizen has a well developed BS detector – this is a consequence of being lied to by authoritative “experts” for decades…
These warmists are amateurs by comparison.
The UK Met office have just announced that 2010 has been the hottest year on record. My first reaction to this given the UK’s cold winter and spring, followed by a patchy summer and now snow in November was ‘They have got to be joking, who on earth do they think they are trying to kid’. On reflection, the happenings in other parts of the world are far more important in this context than my back yard but didn’t the parts of the US experience record low temperatures last winter?
Couldn’t help but notice the following :
“Although Medvedev has indicated his concern at climate change, scepticism in academic circles remains due to Putin’s position, since Russian science depends on government funding, Chuprov told AFP.”
It’s OK for western climate scientists to be beholden to government largesse but it’s dishonest when the Russians do it. Greenpeace hypocrite.
Russia will look out for their own interests, much like every other country. Were what is being predicted come to pass and the Arctic warms 4-6 degrees, Russia and Canada are the big winners. Why in the world would they want to stop something that would make much more of their land useful?
A gentleman from Russia’s Greenpeace writes:
…. Although Medvedev has indicated his concern at climate change, scepticism in academic circles remains due to Putin’s position, since Russian science depends on government funding, Chuprov told AFP….
Seems that the Russin scientists do value their governmental grants…. Were they funded by EU or US research agencies then they might take another stance :)…
But Mr. Chuprov again – unconsciously probably – explained the reason for “the consensus”. Since he sees the world this way then it strongly indicates how Greenpeace plays it worldwide – pressuring politics over (willful) “science” :).
Anthony,
I thought you might like this
Heatwave warning for 2070
http://www.connexionfrance.com/Paris-same-climate-Seville-in-2070-12303-view-article.html
rg
@RG
Late prof. Marcel Leroux has explained the processes leading to heat waves and flash floods. In fact, he has analysed the Paris heatr wave of 2003, and flash floods in South of France.
His conclusion was that the mechanism has more to do with atmospheric circulation originating in polar areas, having nothing to do with average temperature. And he describes this circulation as one having quite complex vertical structure. He commented that climate models cannot account for it. And even meteo models do not capture this. I do not recall that th meteorologists were able to predict when the heat wave in Moscow area would terminate, neither how long the rain in Pakistan would continue. And the physics behind these events were qualitatively explained by prof. Leroux.
It is a bit sad that someone can offer prediction of some phenomena while not possessing a good physical model explaining it.
But Cancun is on the horizon 🙂
Anthony – Record cold in UK at the moment!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11855579
Stonyground,
The Met Office haven’t said that this year is the warmest on record, they’ve said so far it appears to be. The year hasn’t ended yet and this late November and December has to be accounted for. My suspicion is that, anticipating a very cold winter (even they can do that!), they wanted to get the word out before, especially before Cancun. As far as I am concerned, the Met Office press section has little to no dignity when it comes to being straight.
Stonyground says:
November 28, 2010 at 1:21 am
“The UK Met office have just announced that 2010 has been the hottest year on record. My first reaction to this given the UK’s cold winter and spring, followed by a patchy summer and now snow in November was ‘They have got to be joking, who on earth do they think they are trying to kid’.”
Yeah!it’s truly unbelievable!!
With
“1,000 Records Broken: May Cold and Snow
May 11, 2010; 1:04 PM ET
UPDATE 5/12: The number of low + low max records has increased with yesterday’s data, to 384 (156) + 540 (46) = 924 (202), not including ties, where () indicates Eastern U.S. only. Even more impressive, >>>19 monthly snowfall records were set (in other words those stations had never seen a snowier May), and >>>190 daily snowfall records were set. And it’s snowing again, heavily in the West this week. In Fort Collins, Colorado, this has helped to add to the >>>3rd snowiest winter.”
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/weathermatrix/story/31417/may-cold-and-snow-from-west-to-east.asp
Temperature plummets to record low
Record low temperature for November in Northern Ireland
The lowest recorded temperature in Northern Ireland for November has been recorded overnight on Sunday 28th Nov 2010.
In Wales, the temperature plummeted to -17.3c.
The models predicted this.
http://www.u.tv/News/Temperature-plummets-to-record-low/05c45a94-f8df-4744-9eaa-991da9b200c4
AGW Obituary.
“Copenhagen was not a political breakdown. It was an intellectual breakdown so astonishing that future generations will marvel at our blind credulity. Copenhagen was a classic case of the emperor with no clothes.”
Margaret Wente.
…-
“Can environmentalism be saved from itself?”
“Maybe it was just a bad dream.”
“Just a year ago, 15,000 of the world’s leaders, diplomats, and UN officials were gearing up to descend on Copenhagen to forge a global treaty that would save the planet. The world’s media delivered massive coverage. Important newspapers printed urgent front-page calls for action, and a popular new U.S. President waded in to put his reputation on the line. The climate talks opened with a video showing a little girl’s nightmare encounter with drought, storms, eruptions, floods and other man-made climate disasters. “Please help the world,” she pleads.”
“Mercifully, nobody will pay attention to the climate conference at Cancun next week, where a much-reduced group of delegates will go through the motions. The delusional dream of global action to combat climate change is dead. Barack Obama’s cap-and-trade scheme is dead. Chicago’s carbon-trading market is dead. The European Union’s supposed reduction in carbon emissions has been exposed as a giant fraud. (The EU is actually responsible for 40 per cent more CO2 today than it was in 1990, if you count the goods and services it consumed as opposed to the ones that it produced.) Public interest in climate change has plunged, and the media have radically reduced their climate coverage.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/margaret-wente/can-environmentalism-be-saved-from-itself/article1815408/
scott ramsdell says:
November 27, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Thanks Scott.
We, in the UK, had another symptom of ACD this week, record low November:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11855579
Exactly, Barry Day, there just is no cogency in the Met Office’s assertions. It isn’t just anecdote that last year we had, all over the Northern hemisphere (where, of course, most of the measurements are taken) that last year was one of the coldest winters measured and, probably, this year will be worse. How many of our elders have to die of hypothermia before this global warming nonsense is knocked on it’s head
maybe stationary planetary waves are responsible. It looks like a warm crest of the wave, mostly located over western europe, tends to relocate over eastern one, thus making w.e. colder and e.e. warmer. at least, here we had record-hot november, with temperatures at times soaring into 20C daytime (15C average), while avg. norm is around +5 max and ~0 min or something.
Claude Harvey says:
November 27, 2010 at 10:09 pm
“What happened to the “weather is not climate” argument of the AGW crowd where Russia is concerned? ”
The “Weather is not climate” argument goes out the window when it comes time to renew/increase the government-sponsored Climate Ca$h budgets, and you need some good press releases to bolster your climate research programs. NASA/NOAA are already writing their “HOTTEST YEAR” press releases as we speak. It will be interesting to see what their salary/benefits increases will be for 2011…
Russians are like Canadians. We freeze our butts all winter long and have all to gain, nothing to lose, from global warming. There has never been a world climate solidarity before, why should there be one now?
OK if we are going to use the logic of Russia has had it’s hottest summer temperatures ever and this proves AGW, how about the news that Wales had it’s COLDEST temperatures ever yesterday!
Methinks folks really haven’t got the idea of weather and climate, or stable and cyclical or backside and elbow.
From the article:
Therein lies the problem. We rightfully complain when the scientists reach the conclusion that AGW is real only because it is required to reach such a conclusion to continue to earn a living. Do we complain when the opposite is true? Do we complain when the scientists reach the conclusion that AGW is bogus only because it is required to reach such a conclusion to continue earn a living? We should. Only until the science and research grants are not dependent on the outcome can their results of such studies be fully trusted. Of course, even scientists are people, and being people many can easily be corrupted.
Do not think for a second that Russia is smart and liberated. The main difference between the Russia of today and the Russia in the USSR is now a select people are rich and state sponsored atheism is no longer practiced. Russia still is envious of western Europe and by extension the US. Why did Vladimir Putin have a fit when the US wanted to build an anti-ICBM shield in Poland? Because Putin wanted Poland to be under Russia’s sphere of influence, not the US’s. There are many cases against Russia in the European Court of Human Rights. Russia is as close to be an oligarchy without actually being one as you can possibly get. If the weather was not a factor, I would never choose to live in Russia because it is still repressive and more corrupt than ever. We should not commend Russians, we should pity them.
Germany is headed for -8 deg C on Wednesday, with some cold spots (on hilltops and the likes) forecast to reach -20 deg. Monday will bring 10cm (4 inches) of snow. About 10 degrees C colder than usual for this time of year, for what it’s worth.
Here in the UK we have been setting record lows for the month.
Minus 18.5 in Wales, minus 9.5 in Northern Ireland and here in the middle of the urban heat island that is Cambridge, I measured minus 7.2. An independent (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/dtg/weather/) automated weather station in Cambridge measured minus 7.6.
Yet the Met Office forecast for the UK suggested minus 3 or 4 degrees for the UK. In fact for the last few days it has consistently underestimated the night time lows and overestimated the daytime highs.
This is either sheer incompetance on their part, or cover for Vicky Pope’s (Head of Met. Office) latest gaffe that this will be “the warmest year on record” and that “this by supported by various lines of evidence such as milder winters”.
Maybe they understand the perturbing effects of massive volcanic aerosols from a large eruption in Iceland, heh. A lot more than our famous climate scientists do.
And not a mention from the Met office or BBC about how the Atlantic Jet Stream is behaving or the AMO or how bloody cold it’s actually going to get over the next week. I wonder just how many folk are going to die because the Met office/BBC are hell bent on doom mongering about warming but are not saving lives by pointing out the dangers of the cold? The question has to be asked, will the Warmists have blood on their hands because they have perverted the reporting of the weather due to their intransigence over AGW?
Tim says:
November 28, 2010 at 12:22 am
“I say keep up the info from Russia, they seem to be a beacon of sanity.”
I’ve started watching RT after seeing a YouTube posting of them reporting some demonstrations here in the UK which didn’t get a mention on any of our own media.
Funny how 25 years ago the “Western” broadcasters were beaming high power shortwave broadcasts INTO the Soviet bloc countries, as their media was state controlled….