Guest post by Bill Gray Professor Emeritus, Colorado State University
(AMS Fellow, Charney Award recipient, and over 50-year member)
June 2011
I am very disappointed at the downward path the AMS has been following for the last 10-15 years in its advocacy of the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) hypothesis. The society has officially taken a position many of us AMS members do not agree with. We believe that humans are having little or no significant influence on the global climate and that the many Global Circulation Climate Model (GCMs) results and the four IPCC reports do not realistically give accurate future projections. To take this position which so many of its members do not necessarily agree with shows that the AMS is following more of a political than a scientific agenda.
The AMS Executive Director Keith Seitter and the other AMS higher-ups and the Council have not shown the scientific maturity and wisdom we would expect of our AMS leaders. I question whether they know just how far off-track the AMS has strayed since they foolishly took such a strong pro-AGW stance.
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) was founded in 1919 as an organization dedicated to advancing scientific knowledge of weather and climate. It has been a wonderful beacon for fostering new understanding of how the atmosphere and oceans function. But this strong positive image is now becoming tarnished as a result of the AMS leadership’s capitulating to the lobby of the climate modelers and to the outside environmental and political pressure groups who wish to use the current AMS position on AGW to help justify the promotion of their own special interests. The effectiveness of the AMS as an objective scientific organization is being greatly compromised.
We AMS members have allowed a small group of AMS administrators, climate modelers, and CO2 warming sympathizers to maneuver the internal workings of our society to support AGW policies irrespective of what our rank-and-file members might think. This small organized group of AGW sympathizers has indeed hijacked our society.
The AMS should be acting as a facilitator for the scientific debate on the pro and con aspects of the AGW hypothesis, not to take a side in the issue. The AMS has not held the type of open and honest scientific debates on the AGW hypothesis which they should have. Why have they dodged open discussion on such an important issue? I’ve been told that the American Economic Society does not take sides on controversial economic issues but acts primarily to help in stimulating back and forth discussion. This is what the AMS should have been doing but haven’t.
James Hansen’s predictions of global warming made before the Senate in 1988 are turning out to be very much less than he had projected. He cannot explain why there has been no significant global warming over the last 10-12 years.
Many of us AMS members believe that the modest global warming we have observed is of natural origin and due to multi-decadal and multi-century changes in the globe’s deep ocean circulation resulting from salinity variations. These changes are not associated with CO2 increases. Most of the GCM modelers have little experience in practical meteorology. They do not realize that the strongly chaotic nature of the atmosphere-ocean climate system does not allow for skillful initial value numerical climate prediction. The GCM simulations are badly flawed in at least two fundamental ways:
- Their upper tropospheric water vapor feedback loop is grossly wrong. They assume that increases in atmospheric CO2 will cause large upper-tropospheric water vapor increases which are very unrealistic. Most of their model warming follows from these invalid water vapor assumptions. Their handlings of rainfall processes are quite inadequate.
- They lack an understanding and treatment of the fundamental role of the deep ocean circulation (i.e. Meridional Overturning Circulation – MOC) and how the changing ocean circulation (driven by salinity variations) can bring about wind, rainfall, and surface temperature changes independent of radiation and greenhouse gas changes. These ocean processes are not properly incorporated in their models. They assume the physics of global warming is entirely a product of radiation changes and radiation feedback processes. They neglect variations in global evaporation which is more related to surface wind speed and ocean minus surface and air temperature differences. These are major deficiencies.
The Modelers’ Free Ride. It is surprising that GCMs have been able to get away with their unrealistic modeling efforts for so long. One explanation is that they have received strong support from Senator/Vice President Al Gore and other politicians who for over three decades have attempted to make political capital out of increasing CO2 measurements. Another reason is the many environmental and political groups (including the mainstream media) have been eager to use the GCM climate results as justification to push their own special interests that are able to fly under the global warming banner. A third explanation is that they have not been challenged by their peer climate modeling groups who apparently have seen possibilities for similar research grant support and publicity by copying Hansen and the earlier GCM modelers.
I anticipate that we are going to experience a modest naturally-driven global cooling over the next 15-20 years. This will be similar to the weak global cooling that occurred between the early-1940s and the mid-1970s. It is to be noted that CO2 amounts were also rising during this earlier cooling period which were opposite to the expected CO2-temperature association.
An expected 15-20 year cooling will occur (in my view) because of the current strong ocean Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) that has now been established in the last decade and a half and ought to continue for another couple of decades. I explain most of the last century and-a-half general global warming since the mid-1800s (start of the industrial revolution) to be a result of a long multi-century slowdown in the ocean’s MOC circulation. Increases of CO2 could have contributed only a small fraction (0.1-0.2oC) of the roughly ~ 0.7oC surface warming that has been observed since 1850. Natural processes have had to have been responsible for most of the observed warming over the last century and a half.
Debate. The AMS is the most relevant of our country’s scientific societies as regards to its members having the most extensive scientific and technical background in meteorology and climate. It should have been a leader in helping to adjudicate the claims of the AGW advocates and their skeptical critics. Our country’s Anglo-Saxon derived legal system is based on the idea that the best way to get to the truth is to have opposite sides of a continuous issue present their differing views in open debate before a non partisan jury. Nothing like this has happened with regards to the AGW issue. Instead of organizing meetings with free and open debates on the basic physics and the likelihood of AGW induced climate changes, the leaders of the society (with the backing of the society’s AGW enthusiasts) have chosen to fully trust the climate models and deliberately avoid open debate on this issue. I know of no AMS sponsored conference where the AGW hypothesis has been given open and free discussion. For a long time I have wanted a forum to express my skepticism of the AGW hypothesis. No such opportunities ever came within the AMS framework. Attempts at publication of my skeptic views have been difficult. One rejection stated that I was too far out of the mainstream thinking. Another that my ideas had already been discredited. A number of AGW skeptics have told me they have had similar experiences.
The climate modelers and their supporters deny the need for open debate of the AGW question on the grounds that the issue has already been settled by their model results. They have taken this view because they know that the physics within their models and the long range of their forecast periods will likely not to be able to withstand knowledgeable and impartial review. They simply will not debate the issue. As a defense against criticism they have resorted to a general denigration of those of us who do not support their AGW hypothesis. AGW skeptics are sometimes tagged (I have been) as no longer being credible scientists. Skeptics are often denounced as tools of the fossil-fuel industry. A type of McCarthyism against AGW skeptics has been in display for a number of years.
Recent AMS Awardees. Since 2000 the AMS has awarded its annual highest award (Rossby Research Medal) to the following AGW advocates or AGW sympathizers; Susan Solomon (00), V. Ramanathan (02), Peter Webster (04), Jagadish Shukla (05), Kerry Emanuel (07), Isaac Held (08) and James Hansen (09). Its second highest award (Charney Award) has gone to AGW warming advocates or sympathizers; Kevin Trenberth (00), Rich Rotunno (04), Graeme Stephens (05) Robert D. Cess (06), Allan Betts (07), Gerald North (08) and Warren Washington and Gerald Meehl (09). And the other Rossby and Charney awardees during this period are not known to be critics of the AGW warming hypothesis.
The AGW biases within the AMS policy makers is so entrenched that it would be impossible for well known and established scientists (but AGW skeptics) such as Fred Singer, Pat Michaels, Bill Cotton, Roger Pielke, Sr., Roy Spencer, John Christie, Joe D’Aleo, Bob Balling, Jr., Craig Idso, Willie Soon, etc. to ever be able to receive an AMS award – irrespective of the uniqueness or brilliance of their research.
What Working Meteorologists Say. My interaction (over the years) with a broad segment of AMS members (that I have met as a result of my seasonal hurricane forecasting and other activities) who have spent a sizable portion of their careers down in the meteorological trenches of observations and forecasting, have indicated that a majority of them do not agree that humans are the primary cause of global warming. These working meteorologists are too experienced and too sophisticated to be hoodwinked by the lobby of global climate modelers and their associated propagandists. I suggest that the AMS conduct a survey of its members who are actually working with real time weather-climate data to see how many agree that humans have been the main cause of global warming and that there was justification for the AMS’s 2009 Rossby Research Medal (highest AMS award) going to James Hansen.
Global Environmental Problems. There is no question that global population increases and growing industrialization have caused many environmental problems associated with air and water pollution, industrial contamination, unwise land use, and hundreds of other human-induced environmental irritants. But all these human-induced environmental problems will not go away by a draconian effort to reduce CO2 emissions. CO2 is not a pollutant but a fertilizer. Humankind needs fossil-fuel energy to maintain its industrial lifestyle and to expand this lifestyle in order to be able to better handle these many other non-CO2 environmental problems. There appears to be a misconception among many people that by reducing CO2 we are dealing with our most pressing environmental problem. Not so.
It must be remembered that advanced industrial societies do more for the global environment than do poor societies. By greatly reducing CO2 emissions and paying a great deal more for our then needed renewable energy we will lower our nation’s standard of living and not be able to help relieve as many of our and the globe’s many environmental, political, and social problems.
Obtaining a Balanced View on AGW. To understand what is really occurring with regards to the AGW question one must now bypass the AMS, the mainstream media, and the mainline scientific journals. They have mostly been preconditioned to accept the AGW hypothesis and, in general, frown on anyone not agreeing that AGW is, next to nuclear war, our society’s most serious long range problem.
To obtain any kind of a balanced back-and-forth discussion on AGW one has to consult the many web blogs that are both advocates and skeptics of AGW. These blogs are the only source for real open debate on the validity of the AGW hypothesis. Here is where the real science of the AGW question is taking place. Over the last few years the weight of evidence, as presented in these many blog discussions, is beginning to swing against the AGW hypothesis. As the globe fails to warm as the GCMs have predicted the American public is gradually losing its belief in the prior claims of Gore, Hansen, and the other many AGW advocates.
Prediction. The AMS is going to be judged in future years as having foolishly sacrificed its sterling scientific reputation for political and financial expediency. I am sure that hundreds of our older deceased AMS members are rolling in their graves over what has become of their and our great society.
[duplicate text removed ~ ctm]
Interesting and cogent post by Bill Gray, but why the duplication?
I think that the AMS leadership’s ears will be burning after this one…
About time they began to speak out like this,
While I respect the science of Dr. Gray, in this case I wish he had brought the same level of evidence to this position piece as he does to his science. Unfortunately this article is an opinion piece rooted in his personal perspective of the issue of AGW. As such it must necessarily stand only as an opinion among a myriad opinions which both agree and contradict. I wish the evidence had been laid out with equal vigor.
Hear! Hear! Truer words were never spoken! Professor Gray writes:
“These ocean processes are not properly incorporated in their models. They assume the physics of global warming is entirely a product of radiation changes and radiation feedback processes.”
See, Professor Gray focuses on the natural processes. He has the instincts of the scientist. By contrast, Warmista focus on their “Gaia Models” of radiation exchange and have no account of natural processes. Warmista have the obsessions of computer modelers, not the instincts of scientists, and, no, there is no synergy between the two. Computer models can assist scientists who are investigating what follows from their complicated physical hypotheses, but there is no way in heck that computer models can substitute for physical hypotheses.
It’s about the stupidest “science” I’ve ever seen.
They decide what’s normal.
They decide that it’s not normal.
They know so little about CO2 and what makes climate, they can back up and make it fit……
Then push it forward to claim it’s “unprecedented”
And when it doesn’t pan out, they still claim it………..
If this was your investment broker, you’d fire them in a heart beat
The definitive evidence, which will require the wholesale rethinking and rewriting of climate science, and should be headline news around the world:
Venus: No Greenhouse Effect
Our old rebellious, and my very close friend Vuk (vukcevic) informs me that his younger daughter has today successfully completed presentation of her MSc (Master of Science) thesis at Oxford University.
Great stuff. Mr Gray covers a lot of ground here, and raises the important issues. I suggest to him that he join forces with his fellow meteorologists and throws the corrupt out of office. Great institutions like the AMS should not be hamstrung by carefully encroached and reworded policies preventing a free vote of the membership.
The entire story is printed twice.
Working on it. Robt]
Is it me or is the essay duplicated above?
“AGW enthusiasts”…now THAT is an oxymoron of giant proportions.
I am afraid that judging has already started. Once Heidi Cullen called for banishment, to when James Hansen called for imprisonment – of any who dared debate the issue, the AMS has been tarnished as a PR outfit for BIG GREEN, and not any kind of science organization.
There is still time to make this period just a footnote or trivia question on Jeopardy, but that will take some hard choices made by honest people. Is the AMS up to the task?
Nice article. Our major institutions used to take a much more objective view of events and look at the evidence rather than take up a political stance. I have found that pre 1980 items tend to have a much higher level of objectivity than modern day papers.
This item comes from the US weather bureau from 1955 in which Giles Slocum elegantly demolishes the Co2 theories of GS Callendar
http://www.pensee-unique.eu/001_mwr-083-10-0225.pdf
tonyb
fredb says:
June 16, 2011 at 12:21 pm
I wish the evidence had been laid out with equal vigor.
I think the term is “rigor”. Vigor is not lacking at all. Calling attention to a society’s political bias does not require scientific rigor per se…and suggesting that the pot is calling the kettle black is, well, cheap. And, as you state, your opinion is carefully shrouded in the disqualifation of its just being an opinion. Nope.
These blogs are the only source for real open debate on the validity of the AGW hypothesis. Here is where the real science of the AGW question is taking place.
Some “real science” with real peer-review, “priceless”!
A wonderful overall statement of things, Dr. Gray.
I quit the ASA/CSSA for the same reason (Agronomy and Crop Science organizations). They recently published a societies position statement on AGW, of course supporting the whole notion. Who is the bureaucratic cabal purporting to be representing? Obviously they see this as a way to get more funding. It is all about money. Every time a potential budget cut comes across, the societies send out an e-mail telling us to call congress and say no. Once people get their hand in the government trough they don’t want to remove it.
Quote from Dr. Grays letter
“I anticipate that we are going to experience a modest naturally-driven global cooling over the next 15-20 years. This will be similar to the weak global cooling that occurred between the early-1940s and the mid-1970s. It is to be noted that CO2 amounts were also rising during this earlier cooling period which were opposite to the expected CO2-temperature association. ”
I would agree with his prediction, other factors being equal, but they are not. His prediction would be largely right if only the 60 year cycle were involved. However, we are also on the downside of the Jose (179 year) cycle, and we have a deep grand solar minimum. It is likely to get a lot colder than he predicts.
Bravo. Professor Gray correctly points out that all Alarmist GCM models are known to be faulty. To be reliable, the models must be able to predict not only global temperature trends, but also accurately predict the trend as a function of latitude; it is on this measure that all GCM models spectacularly fail. The reason they fail is the lack of fidelity in the ocean circulation part of the model. In fact, every major GCM uses the same flawed circulation model.
Without even knowing the details, any reasonably competent scientist would conclude that these models are unreliable simply from the observation that they have completely failed to predict the decade of the 2000s.
Dr. Gray has hit hard. Congratulations to him for speaking his mind.
It’s not just the AMS. It’s the American Chemical Society, the American Physical society, the NAS and others. If the temperature remains stable or if it cools over the next decade or two, I hope members in all these societies put pressure on their leadership to re-examine their decision making processes and make it a requirement to see input from their membership before making policy statements on things such as climate change. What might be even more helpful is that if a society chooses to make a policy statements with political ramifications, that policy statements from those with an opposing view also be included.
What a fantastic letter Professor Gray. Thank you for your integrity and courage.
Silence many times can be misconstrued for agreement . . . .That’s why I only know two German jokes . . . one of which is; it only takes one thing to get two Germans into an ‘argument’ . . . and that is; being in the same room together!
fredb says:
June 16, 2011 at 12:21 pm
“I wish the evidence had been laid out with equal vigor.”
So, you believe that the (i.e. Meridional Overturning Circulation – MOC), a natural process, is in the Warmista’s “Gaia Model?” No interesting physical processes are in the models: Not ENSO, not PDO, nothing. If you do not believe me, ask the Warmista. They will tell you.
Any thoughts if people like Gore Hanson, Suzuki, Weaver and Greenpeace, WWF etc can be held legally accountable down the road.
Would Bill Gray like to elaborate on all these people “he has talked to”, and have published in the peer-reviewed literature on climate-related topics, that actually disagree with the AMS position? As this stands, it is little more than an opinion piece full of assertions.
I would HOPE that Dr. Gray is still not supporting the charlatans, thereby strengthening their non-science!
Fredb: opinion pieces are very valuable. Bill Gray has a long and distinguished career in the subject at hand and holds a Charney award. He clearly knows what he is talking about and given his status and his reputation I would place considerable weight on his view. I would like to hear the view of other eminent meteorologists just as I like to hear from credible scientists from all sides of the argument. The fact that Bill Gray has not incorporated 50 references to peer reviewed journals is irrelevant. What matters to me is his judgement – and after interminable and inconclusive debates about the evidence, that is all that matters.
So, you believe that the (i.e. Meridional Overturning Circulation – MOC), a natural process, is in the Warmista’s “Gaia Model?” No interesting physical processes are in the models: Not ENSO, not PDO, nothing. If you do not believe me, ask the Warmista. They will tell you.
—
Over on National Review Online, I had a Warmista try to convince me that it was the models that predicted the existence of PDO and AMO. According to her, nobody had any clue that these things might exist until the GCR models told them to look.
Look, I’m agreeing with what you say, but the fact is that most people won’t get involved in the “politics” of an association. The ‘greens’ have taken over for exactly that reason. We sat around and snickered at their ideas believeing that no one would be foolish enough to believe these models. We now sit around and bemoan the direction of the groups. We stand indignant and threaten to leave the prestegious organzations.
The only way to change an organization is not by anickering, bemoaing, or leaving. It can only be achieved by ‘politics’. Get involved. Run for office at the local and national level. Only if we can active will we have a say.
I’m sorry that this sounds unprofessional, but the reality is this: Professional organzations are being taken over by the minority by default..
Ok looks like my key board is having battery problems, and I didn’t take the time to review.
“These blogs are the only source for real open debate on the validity of the AGW hypothesis.”
Yup.
You could start by actually reading the article. A pull quote from it:
Peter Webster, a Georgia Institute of Technology professor, has been part of the anonymous peer review on several of Gray’s National Science Foundation proposals. In every case he has turned down the global warming research component because he believed it was not up to standards, but recommended that Gray’s hurricane research be funded.[10]
====================================================================
and that’s the definition of peer….
..has nothing to do with science, and everything to do with agreeing with the peers
Dr. Gray, I believe it’s a lot simpler than that.
All of their science, computer models, you name it, would not mean one single thing if it wasn’t abnormal.
You touched on that.
We have allowed them to define what is normal.
We have allowed them to define where to start counting………
If you start at the MWP, temps have gone down and back to “normal”, Arctic ice has gone up.
If you start at the LIA, temps have gone up, Arctic ice has gone down.
If you start at 1980’s down, 1920’s up………………………
What’s normal and who gets the money/science depends on who can define “normal”…
Thirty years of “normal”, and 2/3’s went one way, and 1/3 went the other………….
Can they predict anything? of course not.
We know so little about CO2 and climate, they are both so malleable, people have been able to back up and make/force them to fit. Then try to forward cast them into some prediction.
Even when that forward cast is blatantly wrong, there is so little to go on they still claim “science”………
….remind me again, why is this still a subject of conversation?
I have learned a lot from reading through the AMS material from the past.
Very good stuff, and I learned what is normal/abnormal and a lot of things that have happened before, some of which have yet to happen again. The change to colder climate will bring some eye-opening phenomena.
PhilJourdan says:
June 16, 2011 at 1:35 pm
well said Phil – but as we all know, there’s none as blind as those that won’t open their eyes (and read!) LOL
PhilJourdan,
Bill Gray specifically talked about qualified climate scientists skeptical of AGW and that were affiliated with AMS, so he must be talking about another group of individuals. Aside from which Spencer, and Christ(y) are the only people there who meet even the qualifications aspect, and yet do not even deny that humans have an impact on the warming world. For all the cheerleading going on I only see assertions and arguments completely unfamiliar with the literature (such as the water vapor stuff…).
This is WUWT I guess…whatever
REPLY: This is Chris Colose, inexperienced student, http://www.aos.wisc.edu/~colose/ whatever. – Anthony
Of all orgs I’d expect the AMS to be the “purest” in terms of attacking the AGW debate with open minds.
Meteorologists, more than many other disciplines, well understand the hard knocks of computer modeling. In particular, meteorologists understand skill in simulations vs increasing the time frames of the simulations. At some point, given a sufficiently long forecast horizon, a long term weather forecast (or really, the integral of forecasts between time zero and a given future time) becomes a climate model. The true hands on experts are the best group to be evaluating the debate. Such a doctrinaire stance is horrific. This org is now effectively dead.
Sadly this phenomenon is not unique to the AMS. Many scientific groups have become political entities (e.g. the AMA, ACP, ASHP, etc). A minority of the politically correct, liberal membership seem to gravitate to the leadership positions and thereby get to define organizational policy. I’ve resigned from several for this very reason. Web sites such as this excellent one are the bane of AGW activists. They’re not afraid of anyone telling lies…they’re afraid of people telling the truth.
As the worm turms and AGW is dumped, I hope all the names of these illustrious leaders of and to the “dark side” — in all professional scientific societies — will be set down in a permanent blacklist. Those who chose to destroy science and the scientific method should be blocked from ever again working in the profession(s) they so betrayed. Speak now or forever hold your peace. The evidence against any meaningful AGW is building into a tsumani, a Tohoku-size tsunami.
Mark Wilson says:
June 16, 2011 at 1:24 pm
“Over on National Review Online, I had a Warmista try to convince me that it was the models that predicted the existence of PDO and AMO. According to her, nobody had any clue that these things might exist until the GCR models told them to look.”
Bwhaaa ha ha ha…! Ask Anthony or other meteorologists about the history of the PDO and similar phenomena then ask them just how much the modelers want to talk about them. For that matter, just review the Warmista’s statements about the frigid December in Europe. Not one of them gives any credence to claims about the AMO or similar phenomena.
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 2:07 pm
Professor Gray writes:
“They lack an understanding and treatment of the fundamental role of the deep ocean circulation (i.e. Meridional Overturning Circulation – MOC) and how the changing ocean circulation (driven by salinity variations) can bring about wind, rainfall, and surface temperature changes independent of radiation and greenhouse gas changes. These ocean processes are not properly incorporated in their models.”
Totally and completely true. In fact, if you ask the “Gaia Modelers” about the physical processes that make up the MOC and how radiation is processed within them, they have nothing to say. No doubt, it is because that they work with the simple minded assumption that Earth is at radiation equilibrium so that they can depend on their simple minded calculation of radiation-in and radiation-out on a daily basis. Sorry, the natural world is far trickier and far more versatile than that. But you are never going to discover that if you spend your whole life in front of a computer screen.
Anthony,
You obviously know how I feel about you and your blog, and the level of scientific understanding here, so the insults are pointless. I will do my best to suspend my anger at some of the things people are spoon-fed (and that they actually eat) daily.
I made a very simple request. AMS, and virtually every other scientific organization (all of the worlds National Academies, AGU, etc) have accepted the strong role of humans in the climate system. This is the overwhelming consensus portrayed in the peer-reviewed literature and understood by thousands of publishing scientists around the world with actual qualifications, with the exception of a handful of dissenters.
Now let’s pretend that I am some casual joe walking down the street, and someone says that they talked to a bunch of angry meteorologists that think this is all unfair. For one thing, meteorologists are not trained in the technicalities of the climate system, so this casual joe is saying “so what?” But, then I ask, so who are these meteorologists, and what are their qualifications? Even if they have no qualifications, this joe might be ready to hear, provided they submitted their profound insights to be scrutinized by peer review and that it stood the test of time. Get the point yet…
REPLY: You are right, your predictable insults are pointless, so stop it and take it up with Dr. Gray rather than dissing me for publishing his essay at his request. Consensus does not equal fact, and the moment consensus replaces empirically proven facts in science, science is lost. – Anthony
Thanks for your post, Professor Gray.
Would you agree to be a candidate in the next AMS elections?
I would vote for you. I guess it is the best way of changing things
Chris,
I get your point now. People who don’t understand the technology on a first principles basis must rely on an appeal to authority argument.
I’ll just stick to understanding the technology on issues like AGW and leave the consensus argument to political issues. The consensus process elected every congress critter that makes speeches on C-SPAN.
WHAT IS MORE OBVIOUS IS THAT MR COLOSE IS A SELF OPINIONATED YOUNG PRAT
Chris Colose ,
I respectfully suggest that you keep an open mind – your degree might not be worth squat in twenty years .
fredb says: “While I respect the science of Dr. Gray, in this case I wish he had brought the same level of evidence to this position piece as he does to his science. Unfortunately this article is an opinion piece rooted in his personal perspective of the issue of AGW. As such it must necessarily stand only as an opinion among a myriad opinions which both agree and contradict. I wish the evidence had been laid out with equal vigor.”
Bloody shame you didn’t read the post, Fred.
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 2:24 pm
I’ve heard Joe D’Aleo and others get very upset about the hijacking of the AMS and other groups. (NAS, AGU, ACS.) I’m not someone prone to believing conspiracy theories, but the similarity of the stories suggests either that or a situation where people who want to direct the organization head that way and people who keep want to keep doing science head that way and the difference is consistently showing up in policy. I don’t like either possibility, I’d like to hear others.
BTW, I followed you link and took a brief look at your http://chriscolose.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/greenhouse-effect-revisited/ which I think is quite interesting. I’ll look at it some more. I suspect one reason models and reality are diverging is that convection may be playing a bigger role in in transporting heat upward – as the radiative path is impeded, and ground level temps climb, then that enhances convection.
I need to update http://wermenh.com/climate/science.html someday – can I use some of your images (with attribution)?
Professors like Dr. Bill Grey are exactly the reason I have encouraged my kids to attend CSU instead of CU here in Colorado.
When Hanson won the Rossby Award, I dropped out of the AMS; Television Seal and all. You do not let those who are the gatekeepers of climate data have such sharp environmental and political viewpoints that could challenge if the data is true and unbiased. What would happen if the Congressional Budget Office allowed politics to influence cost estimates. We deserve to have non-political, pure scientists and statisticians to track our raw date.
john(UK)– Joe did not like to be yelled at and is now running away in tears
PWalker— Yes, I should keep an open mind, but I must also keep an open mind about people who think they have an open enough mind to overturn decades of scientific literature. I hope people here do this too, rather than just being told Venus has no greenhouse effect, even though not one planetary scientist would agree with this.
Maurice– Well, people appeal to authority all the time. This Joe takes the prescriptions the doctor gives me. It seems only to be climate science where everyone thinks they understand everything by learning it for a week.
Chris Colose,
Find a way to get the numbers of buffalo on the great plains , deer in the northeast, bear, antelop, wolfs, coyotes, skunks, badgers, raccons, beaver, on and on that were here in north and south america together with all the natives at the time before all these new ones came. Find the amount of CO2 they exhaled and prove what that caused to the earths tempature to do. Publish it here.
Does democracy not exist within the AMS and other similar organisations then ?
Here is an experiment that shows that the “greenhouse gas effect” does not exist!
Part1
I have indicated that there is an experiment that demonstrates that the “greenhouse gas effect” does not exist. This experiment plus the mathematics of several hundred Ph. D. physicists and the non existent experiments “proving the ghge” should show that the Hypotheses is a fairy-tale.
The Experiment that Failed and saved the World trillions.
By Berthold Klein P.E November 16, 2010 revision 11-19-2010
The hypotheses of the “greenhouse gas effect” is the process where a combination of IR absorbing gases including Water/vapor/liquid/solid, CO2.CH4. NO2 and others are super insulation and cause the atmosphere to be 33 degrees warmer than would be explained by the “black body “temperature.
How is this done? The hypothesis says that the IRag’s absorb the IR radiation then it is “back radiated to earth causing the earth to be warmer by the resonating of this heat energy.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of the magic caused by the “greenhouse gas effect”
as has been said the truth is in the detail therefore anyone that wants to get into more of the details,please join in. I will be adding more later.
As others have not started to define “The greenhouse gas effect” lets start with what are the “features that should be testable!” Because water/liquid, vapor,solid (H2O /lvs) is different than gases IRag’s as CO2 ,Ch4,NO2 and others -this will deal first with the none H2O ,IRags.
Critical features:
1. The IRags absorb the IR radiation and thus prevents it from escaping into space reducing the rate of atmospheric cool- it causes the air to be warmer.
2. The IRags will “back radiate” IR radiation to earth to cause increased heating of the surface.
3. The IRags will heat up by the absorption of the IR radiation thus heating the air.
4. The IRag’s have different levels of “back-forcing”. Having ask others how this is determined,( no answer yet) ,it is assumed that someone has reviewed the amount of IR that a particular molecule absorbs by a spectrophotometer analysis then comparing this to the absorption of CO2. (I have not seen any experimental data that the “back-forcing” relates to absorption).(an assumption based on The Bohr model however a time factor is needed)
5. The higher the concentration of IRags the greater the amount of “back-radiation” the higher the “global atmospheric temperature will become.(were is the experimental data )
6. The concentration of CO2 found in million year old Ice cores can be used as proof that the “ghg effect” exists. When there is no experimental data that proves that the “ghg effect”exists.
7. Where does this lead?
We all know that the “greenhouse” effect exist. Anyone that has gotten into a hot car on a sunny day.(summer or winter). Has walked into a store with south facing window , its temperature will be much higher than a car ,or window in the shade. This is caused by confined space heating- this was established in 1909 by R.W. Wood a professor of Physics and Optics at John Hopkins University from 1901 to 1955.
What experiment could be performed to “prove” that the ”greenhouse gas effect exists.
All the AGW point out it is impossible to simulate what actually happens in the atmosphere therefore they propose using computer models, the problem with “computer models” is that unless all the factors that effect the atmosphere are included into the program it is “garbage in is garbage out”. When this is tried there are no computers made that have sufficient capacity to handle all of the factors. Many of the factors are not even fully know yet. Then the big guess is what are the factors to include and which are really of minor importance and can be left out and still get usable results. To data no one has come up with the “right model”
continued
Part 2
Using the list of “critical factor” lets see if there are some way of indicating if the concept may exist.
To use the concentration of IRags in the atmosphere for testing does not work otherwise there would not be the controversy that exists today. In the field of engineering and research there is the use of “models” that are either similar in behavior or can be proportioned to a larger or smaller series of events that relate to an actual set of events.
As the amount of heating that is supposed to be is on the order of fractions of a degree per year- we need a more dramatic experiment to show that the concept actually exists. If the experiment at a much higher concentration does not demonstrate the effect then the Concept does not exist. If the concept works at high concentration then it can be tried with lower and lower concentrations until a threshold of effects is reached.
Some numbers are needed now: By definition 10,000 ppm is 1%, therefore 100 % equals 1million parts per million( 1×10+6) . The atmosphere is supposed to contain 400 ppm (round Number) therefore a concentration of 100% CO2 is 2500 time that of what is in the atmosphere. If the effect exists it should be much easier to measure and demonstrate.
Now it is claimed that CH4 is from 23 to 70 time the effect of CO2,thus using the lowers figure by using a concentration of 100 % CH4 ,the effect should be 57500 time stronger that using CO2. It is claimed that NO2 is 100 time more powerful that CO2 thus it should cause 250,000 X the effect of CO2 in the atmosphere
As CH4 is found to be about 2ppB ( 2 X 10 -9)in the atmosphere , a concentration of 100 % CH4 should give a results that is 5 X 10 + 10 times what exists in the atmosphere.
. Now if CH4 is 23 times the effect of CO2 another longer chain hydrocarbon molecule will be even more powerful thus the proposed experiment shown below was done with 100 % butane.
The experiment shown below substituted “natural gas” a mixture of 70% CH4 about 29% CO2 and the remainder is H2 and other trace gases. This is readily available for test purposed from any natural gas stove. Now 100 % CO2 is available for several sources, but one that is not too expensive is from any Paint ball supply store, another is from a supplier of Dry ice. Do not use Alka Seltzer as you have to put this in water to get the CO2 thus you have a mixture of CO2 and water and water vapor – you are not testing the effect of CO2 only. Discussion of H2O/lvs in the atmosphere will follow later.
The natural gas mixture should have a combined effect of less that 100% CH4 by a weighted average of 70% CH4+ 29% CO2or 3.500000725X10+9 times the effect of CO2 in the atmosphere. If this occurs the temperature increase must be measurable.
How does the experiment contain the high concentration of the IRags for this test? Having reviewed several experiments that contained the IRags is glass containers then they measures the increase in temperature of the gas which had increased, they claimed this increase was do to the “ghg”effect, they are absolutely wrong. The cause of the temperature increase was do to the heating of the glass by its absorbing the IR and the glass heating. ( A Master’s thesis (peer reviewed) with this information is available on request). Another failure of these tests were their including a black cardboard inside the containers, thus additional heating of the IRag’s from conduction of heat from the black cardboard. (They created a Greenhouse effect-confined space heating)
The proper way to contain the high concentration of IRags is in a thin walled material that will not absorb the IR and heat. The experiment used crystal clear Mylar balloons. They are available in various sizes, several 20 inch diameter(major diameter) were chosen. If you want you can use larger ones to contain larger numbers of IRag molecules.
continued
What puzzles me is why such “learned societies” feel able (or are even permitted by their members) to state any official position at all, either way, on a matter that is clearly far from settled: it is no more scientific than betting on a horse in a race; and in this particular race the AGW horse is looking increasingly to be running on only three legs.
It took about 40 years for ‘Piltdown Man’ to be exposed: I hope the AGW hypothesis is discredited a lot sooner because I’d like to see this insufferably arrogant “the science is settled” brigade publicly humiliated in their (and my) lifetimes.
Part 3
Now lets discuss the experiment.
1. Fill the balloons with the various IRags ,and one with dry air as a control.
2. Let the balloons reach ambient temperature. If you are going to use sunlight let it adjust outside in the shade.
3. Use an IR thermometer to check the temperatures of each balloon, use a digital thermometer that reads to 0.1 degree to check air temperature in the shade. Record data.
4. Take a large black mate board or a large black cloth or sheet and lay it on the ground in the sun. Use the IR thermometer to check the temperature as it raises in the sun. Record the data. When it appears to reach a maximum then go to step 5.
5. Suspend the balloons over the black background (about 1 foot above) and measure the temperature of the balloons initially. Record the temperature.
6. Measure the temperature of the black background in the “shadow” of each of the balloons also measure the temperature of the black background outside of the “shadows” of the balloons.
Now lets repeat the Critical factors and note the result of my test to the critical factor.
Critical features:
1. The IRags absorb the IR radiation and thus prevents it from escaping into space reducing the rate of atmospheric cool- it causes the air to be warmer. The air between the balloons and the black background did not change temperature.
2. The IRags will “back radiate” IR radiation to earth to cause increased heating of the surface. The black background did not change temperature either in the “shadow” or outside the shadow. The temperature of the black background heated to 20 t0 30 degrees above ambient before the balloons were placed over the black background. When this was done outside in bright sun light the black background heated to 130 to 140 degrees F. Similar temperature can be measured from black asphalt. When the experiment was done with the 500 watt power shop light (see below)inside the black background went from ambient of 70-72 degrees to 100 -110 degrees. Again when measuring the temperatures of the black background with the IR thermometer there was no measurable temperature difference anywhere along the surface.
3. The IRags will heat up by the absorption of the IR radiation thus heating the air. The balloons did not warn any warmer than ambient. The IRags in the balloons will not warm because that would be a violation of the Bohr Model.
4. The IRag’s have different levels of “back-forcing”. Having ask others how this is determined,( no answer yet) ,it is assumed that someone has reviewed the amount of IR that a particular molecule absorbs by a spectrophotometer analysis then comparing this to the absorption of CO2. (I have not seen any experimental data that the “back-forcing” relates to absorption).(an assumption based on The Bohr model however a time factor is needed) As there was no temperature difference under any of the balloons, there was no stronger “back-forcing” because the IRag absorbed more IR radiation.
5. The higher the concentration of IRags the greater the amount of “back-radiation” the higher the “global atmospheric temperature will become.(were is the experimental data )
6. The concentration of CO2 found in million year old Ice cores can be used as proof that the “ghg effect” exists. When there is no experimental data that proves that the “ghg effect”exists.
Specifications of the IR thermometer: model: MTPRO laser-Micro Temp; temperature range: -41degree C/F to 1040 degrees F. IR range 5 to 16 nm. Angle of view D:S =11:1
cost about $60.00. many other models available.
continued
Chris Colose,
I have read your posts. You are not qualified to assess the scientific literacy of others.
Mark
Part 4
I have thought about several refinements, but it would not change the bottom line that the “ghg effect” is a fairy-tale.
I’m sure that the AGW’s will not believe this proves that the “greenhouse gas effect does not exists , therefore I challenge them to come up with an experiment that they claim “proves the existence of the “greenhouse gas effect”.
As an alternate light source the experiment has been performed with an incandescent light. By using a 500 watt shop power light which because of the temperature of the filament approach the spectral characteristics of the Sun light ( should have more long wave IR because of a lower temperature) It was place one(1) meter away from the balloons to avoid conduction and convection heating of the balloons. As is stated above there was no difference in the final results.
Now lets talk about water( H2O/lvs):
Yes H2O/lvs has a major effect on weather conditions, where I’m at in Northern Ohio it just started to rain, if it gets any colder we will have snow or sleet. Of course tomorrow it may be sunny and clear. As is said in the Great Lakes region if you don’t like the weather wait 15 minutes and it will change. Now the “climate” has not changed for the last 300 years just as the Indians.
Any way lets look a H2O/lvs in the atmosphere : If its clear the humidity can be from near 0 % relative humidity to 100%. Now if it ‘s cloudy the “relative Humidity” can vary from 30 to 100% depending on temperatures, Now we know that the air temperature where the clouds are forming is at or below the “dew point”, now as the H2O vapor cools to form clouds there is a release of energy( Heat of condensation), if the general air temperature is low enough ( below freezing) more energy is released as ice or snow is formed. This energy has to be dissipated either as IR radiation or as lightening or probably high winds or tornado.
This is only one phase of the complex weather conditions when H2O/lvs is being evaluated another is the solar heating of clouds both day and night. During the day the warming of the top of clouds is obvious but it is also relevant that in spite of significant solar absorption the “clouds “ have not absorbed enough radiation to convert the water or solids back to vapor; there is probably a rapid turbulent exchange of energy in both directions from evaporation/ sublimation to condensing, to freezing. This is why “climatologists” can not get the correct “sign” on the “forcing” it is a constantly changing set of conditions, non are wrong and non are correct.
Now lets add the next variable- solar heating at night of the clouds. Having taken IR radiation measurements at night for the last year at many different times by solar time it is apparent that when the sun goes down below the visible horizon , the clouds are still receiving solar energy. This has been confirmed by both measurements and visible lighting (multiple colors ) of the clouds. The clouds and the atmosphere cool until about 2:00 am when there is measurable increases in cloud temperatures and air temperatures. This warming continues until daylight is visible. The degree of warming is related to the time of year and what is happening with the jet stream and arctic storms.
There are other factors that are being monitored by real astrophysics researcher that are showing that Solar flares, and different type of radiation have an effect on cloud formation,this is only a beginning of learning about our atmosphere.
There is no way in the world of Fairy-tales that CO2 can have an effect on weather or “climate”
The nice thing about this experiment is that it can be done by high school physics classes or freshmen college physics lab classes . It would teach a very important lesson in that “not all experiments have to have a “positive” end result to be meaningful.
Mann-made global warming is a hoax,because the “greenhouse gas effect” is a fairy -tale.
Chris, perhaps you could walk down the hall and ask some of your senior colleagues at U Wisc about Bill Gray’s contributions to Tropical Meteorology. If you look back over the past 5-10 years of the so-called “hurricane war” in which aspects of climate change and hurricanes have been linked, then you will see that the eventual consensus that emerged was much closer to Bill Gray’s “loud” expert opinions.
Chris Colose, great photo’s of you out enjoying the natural world on your website. I would suggest you do more of that & spend less time reading the IPCC, GISS, & realclimate websites, as they are written by political hacks whose careers depend on keeping the AGW bandwagon rolling.
Thanks to Prof Gray for a very concise, pointed article. Of course it is mostly Op-Ed as some here have asserted, but that is simply because Gray decided to trade thoroughness for brevity. The assertions he makes are well attested, both here & at other skeptical blogs. Other scientific societies have become similarly restive, re; the dust-up a few years ago at the ACS. If he should decide to publish his article in a “mainstream” publication, say the Wall Street Journal, which has been receptive to non-hysterical viewpoints, he would need to carefully document his assertions, perhaps as an on-line appendix.
The above seems pretty simple; what would be a more difficult but worthy followup would be to canvass the AMU membership and see just how big the gap is between its soi-disant leadership and its in-the-trenches membership; and if it’s as big as Dr. Gray believes, stage a rout and get a governing body that represents the working membership.
Ric, from a meteorological perspective, please pull up the ‘charts’ for today in Texas. In particular east and north central Texas (Dallas area); please note the winds and temperatures we are experiencing. Then take a look at a skew-t diagram from one of today’s soundings …
This marks about the 3rd straight week (exc for a couple of days earlier in the week) of what you will see (horizontal winds, high temps and little to no vertical convection) …
I assert the ‘heat transport’ is from more southern latitudes to northern via advection (where radiation from those ‘newly warmed’ surfaces then takes place).
.
Well done Bill Gray. There can be no more important post this year.
@chris Colose
It is interesting that you mention meteorologists not be trained in the technicalities of ‘climate science’. Perhaps you would like to elaborate just exactly whom is trained in the technicalities of ‘climate science’ – Indeed, it would be nice to see a realistic definition of what exactly is ‘climate science’! Then you might like to consider how ‘deep’ an understanding of each section of those ‘areas’ that form part of ‘climate science’ would be required?
I put it to you that there is no such thing as a trained ‘climate scientist’ – though I accept there are various multi-disciplined and multi-trained guys out there that cover a couple of the arenas where ‘climate science parts’ converge/overlap and that would make them more able to understand larger zones of the ‘subject’.
I’ll not bother to list all the possible subjects which would be required to FULLY understand ‘climate science’ but I am absolutely certain no such curriculum of study, even group of studies, exists sufficient to attain ‘enlightenment’! in the area of climate science: and nor is there any person capable of understanding ALL the necessary areas of science to such a level as to be an absolute expert in ‘climate science’! As for the term ‘climatologist’ – again, it would be interesting to read a proper scientific definition!
We have experienced members of various disciplines involved, but we have very few folk capable of bridging more than a couple of said disciplines!
Thus, it seems highly unlikely that you yourself would be able to categorically ‘assess’ the various scientific studies (ok,ok – including the politically biased bullshit produced by the IPCC!) to any signifcant level. (I myself am a geologist/geo-engineer and struggle like flip with some of the statistics methods, ‘modelling’, etc!)
I further opine that many ‘self’ or ‘media’ proclaimed climate scientists are often just jumped up guys from primary science subjects, many of whom have further ‘jumped up’ onto the AGW bandwagon – seeing an opportunity for ‘making a name for themselves’ in an area which is ill-defined yet full of grants, and PUBLICATION (peer reviewed by equally jumped up folk!) for weak scientific ideas!
And then – you, based on your obvious extensive experience and obviously infinite wisdom, feel that it is OK to accept the ‘concensus’ because you’re just so superior in your knowledge and understanding of all the subject matter?? Purleeeezzzzz…….
Thanks, Dr. Gray!
Ryan Maue,
Although I do not follow Tropical Meteorology literature in any detail, I am aware of the importance of some of his contributions. One of my peers in Madison that was really into hurricanes brought him up on occasion, and I doubt faculty in Madison would argue the point (unfortunately I’m not there now since I am going elsewhere for graduate school and am stationed in NYC @ GISS over the summer). Of course, those same colleagues in Madison would disagree with his views on climate change, and important contributions in one area does not guarantee expertise in another. As I’m sure you are well aware, fluid dynamics and meteorology are much different subjects than radiation/climate. I’m also not aware of a single faculty member in Madison that studies climate that is “skeptical” of anthropogenic climate change in the way advertised by Bill, and I’m pretty sure they are not communist conspiracy and politically-driven people, and I can assure you none of their jobs depend on climate change. I don’t doubt his contributions or intelligence, but the conspiracy-type remarks that they make offline really makes me wonder. When you have tenure or have gone Emeritus there are no consequences except for how your peers view you. I’d love to chat with you more though.
When I attended college I kept learning about more and more things I did not know the answers to. Perhaps some folks find it comforting to know all the answers in advance, but a sense of wonder suits too.
As for Bill Gray’s essay – It is clearly written and informative, containing information about the AMS as he understands it to be. It is written well enough to inform us that other members of the AMS do not agree with him. Perhaps someone else wants to explain the other side of the story and if so, fine. But all the huffiness going on is misplaced – apply your energy to a real issue. Providing clean drinking water for millions of people comes to mind.
Ric Werme– You can use images, I have some other ones in another greenhouse post I just did here (which may be of interest to others since it focuses on claims along the lines of why Venus does not have a greenhouse effect, the greenhouse effect doesn’t exist, or other flavors along this line of reasoning)
Sean says:
June 16, 2011 at 1:00 pm
It’s not just the AMS. It’s the American Chemical Society, the American Physical society, the NAS and others.
Good observation. It also extends into other avenues of life.
It seems the world is being taken over by 10% of the population that are activists with their own agendas.
Chris Colose said: “Would Bill Gray like to elaborate on all these people “he has talked to”, and have published in the peer-reviewed literature on climate-related topics, that actually disagree with the AMS position? As this stands, it is little more than an opinion piece full of assertions.”
What is the matter with you warmistas? Can you not read and understand an article before you disagree with it? It’s like a knee-jerk reaction. Dr. Gray made quite clear that there is no place for open debate, not within the AMS and absolutely not within “peer-reviewed” literature. Scientific, peer-reviewed literature in the CAGW world does not exist. If you are not a member of the believer’s club and you try to publish anything looking like dissent, you cannot get it published and he named names as well as the foolish reasons his papers were rejected. The entire article was a request for free and open debate. Neither you nor fredb paid any attention to what Dr. Gray said. That makes your response, an opinion piece full of assertions, look foolish.
I much prefer the National Weather Association’s statement on climate change over the AMS’. The NWA simply encourages the membership to become educated on the complex issues involved. I believe this is more in line with what Dr. Gray is discussing here. It’s why I am a member of the NWA and am not a member of the AMS.
This is a very direct and accute call to the leadership of the AMS. Will they respond?
I doubt it, they have too much to lose; time to set up an alternative Real AMS.
John F. Hultquist, energy is not being applied to providing clean water to people because of the AGW hysteria generated by the warmistas. How about Hansen decrying real problems, rather than inventions.
The American Meteorological Society as a scientific organization dedicated to advancing the knowledge of weather and climate is dead, it is now a green political behemoth. Rightly or wrongly they have followed the money and notoriety, the climate modelers have surely created wealth for the organization, but must now accept and be recognized as an enviro-political advocacy group.
It will take a new smaller organization to refocus on advancing scientific knowledge of weather and climate, the AMS cannot be reformed to the purpose of it’s creation.
Yes DCC, I gathered all the conspiracy stuff. Thanks.
ew-3 says:
Good observation. … It seems the world is being taken over by 10% of the population that are activists with their own agendas.
Exactly! This is why I always tell people to become involved in politics, even though most, if not all, politicians are turds. If you do not participate in the game, then those whose ideas you despise will dominate the law-making process. It’s a question of entering Hell to protect Heaven.
Latitude: “….remind me again, why is this still a subject of conversation?”
Because the political actions taken — and still being promoted — on the basis of this moronically oversimplified hypothesis are at this very moment devastating millions of acres of countryside, wilderness, and coastline, impoverishing ordinary citizens with astonishingly elevated energy bills, causing a mass exodus of manufacturing from Europe, hampering efforts to develop domestic energy production in the US and elsewhere, threatening to shut down the Australian economy, killing rare birds and bats in wholesale numbers, promising to allow the Englishman his traditional privilege of freezing to death in the dark, and everywhere sucking money from the pockets of the people and depositing it in those of politicians, activists, and their financier friends.
Other than that, no reason. Next question?
OK Let’s hear about variation in Albedo. There is very little discussion of this; it appears to be assumed to be constant. It is not http://www.bbso.njit.edu/Research/EarthShine/ … this line of research should be pursued
Craig Goodrich says:
June 16, 2011 at 4:05 pm
Other than that, no reason. Next question?
=====================================================
LOL…..agreed
and all this over less than 1/2 a degree……….
As a meteorologist and FORMER member of the AMS, I can say Dr. Gray has hit the nail on the head. The recruitment of yong scientists (myself being one of them, a few moons ago) into the Society was one of joy and honor, as the discourse of atmospheric science discussions were typically very pleasent and respectful when there was dissention on various hypothesized topics……until “Global Warming” became a prominent topic of discussion. The spirited debate/discussions just dissappeared!! The value of skeptical/critical thinking/questioning was slapped down in both a subtle and not so suble fashion.
Sadly, your corespondent, Emeritus Professor Gray omitted mentioning that the AMS position which he condemns, was in fact an endorsement of a position taken by 11 National Academies of SCience. Their statement, which was being endorsed by the AMS, called for world leaders to “acknowledge the threat of climate change, address its causes and prepare for its consequences. Their statement further notes that their iis enough scientific understanding for all nations to identify cost-effective steps “to reduce greenhouse gas emissions which cause global warming.” The Professor must have missed this connection.
Chris,
If you believe in the appeal to authority argument then I claim expertise in computer modeling of natural processes in excess of the original hockey team who drafted climate models. I have reviewed, and chuckled at their work. That is not bragging that on mysewlf, but ridiculing the amateurism of the team. I do not claim expertise in software development in comparison to others on this site.
One week of studying AGW eh? Project much? I’m 69 and have had over a dozen software patents approved while studying AGW. On this site I’m the new guy. Where does that leave you?
Much as I agree with Gray’s view of the role of the nominal leadership of the AMS in advancing agenda-driven scientific conjectures , his attribution of natural variations of climate largely to salinity-driven MOC falls into the same category. Unlike lakes in their annual cycle, the oceans do not overturn in corpore on any time scale. MOC involves only a tiny fraction of the oceanic mass , moving at snail’s pace. And it is temperature, rather than salinity—which varies only minutely beyond the marginal seas–that primarily sets the different densities of oceanic waters, the sine qua non of gravity-driven THC. Experienced dynamical oceanographers look upon MOC explanations of climate variabilty with the same skepticism that Gray and many us regard those provided by GCMs. In the present post-normal political climate, such ill-founded conjectures do, however, attract massive funding that would otherwise be unavailable to off-on-a tangent studies.
Well done Dr. Gray…
The AMS has been leaning left (in its leadership) for a long time and it’s nothing new for them to reject what they consider to be “minority” views (even though actual survey numbers show thousands more scientists are anti-AGW than pro-hoax). I suppose that money and influence are partly the reason, but the AMS has had a sliding reputation in the meteorological community for more than a decade.
Contrary to their uninformed and purely political position, the National Weather Association (a younger and smaller group or meteorologists from all backgrounds which has set the new standard for operational meteorology) has taken no such position in the matter and the NWA has always supported open debate and the scientific method…and there is always a welcome mat there for AMS members disillusioned by the laughable and increasingly embarrassing stance the AMS has taken. I suppose that changes in leadership there may make a difference, but rebuilding a reputation is very difficult, especially when the proper position in this matter was so obvious, even for PhDs. They should have simply said that “science will decide which position is the correct one”, not flawed GCMs, intentionally falsified hockey sticks and the failure of every prediction in every IPCC report. RIP once proud AMS…
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 3:39 pm
“Although I do not follow Tropical Meteorology literature in any detail, I am aware of the importance of some of his contributions. One of my peers in Madison that was really into hurricanes brought him up on occasion, and I doubt faculty in Madison would argue the point… Of course, those same colleagues in Madison would disagree with his views on climate change, and important contributions in one area does not guarantee expertise in another.”
In your criticisms of Professor Gray’s little essay, you studiously ignore several very direct challenges he made to Warmista. In stating one of those challenges, he writes:
“They lack an understanding and treatment of the fundamental role of the deep ocean circulation (i.e. Meridional Overturning Circulation – MOC) and how the changing ocean circulation (driven by salinity variations) can bring about wind, rainfall, and surface temperature changes independent of radiation and greenhouse gas changes. These ocean processes are not properly incorporated in their models.”
Do you or any of your colleagues in Madison have expertise in the MOC? Do you have physical hypotheses which describe the phenomena that make up the MOC? If you do and they are reasonably well-confirmed then you can predict the behavior of the MOC. Dr. Gray is asking for such physical hypotheses.
If you do not have physical hypotheses that describe the MOC then what is your knowledge of it? None? Some sort of simulation that contains it and is produced by a computer model?
My guess is that everything that you know about climate science either came from computer models or is a series of temperature readings of the sort produced by Mann, Briffa, Jones, and the gang. Because that is all that climate science has produced. Climate science has not produced one reasonably well-confirmed physical hypothesis that goes beyond Arrhenius. If I am wrong, can you offer one such reasonably well-confirmed physical hypothesis?
I doubt that you or your colleagues understand Professor Gray’s challenge to you at all. I doubt that you understand what he is talking about. You are not physical scientists. You are “Gaia Modelers” and nothing else. Professor Gray has just accused you of the gravest fault that can befall a scientist, namely, that you are not physical scientists. But you will not address the matter. As such you are a typical Warmista. When a distinguished physical scientist tells you that you are not practicing physical science, you have not a clue what he is talking about or you pretend that you do not understand.
Theo,
Madison’s Atmos. science program is best known for its world-renowned remote-sensing & radiation studies ( there are better schools for pure climate) but actually if you are curious enough, Prof. Galen McKinley teaches a graduate level course in Physical Oceanography here. We also have quite a few experts in fluid dynamics, and several people who work on paleoclimate problems related to the MOC, including Zhengyu Liu. If you really want to learn, I encourage you to take some classes. I’m sure Ryan Maue can recommend similar faculty at Florida State, but there many people around the world interested in physical oceanography. Several schools even have that as there own program, like Washington. Bill Gray is welcome to think nobody understands anything, but this is really why people pay tuition and read the literature.
Professor Gray writes:
“We AMS members have allowed a small group of AMS administrators, climate modelers, and CO2 warming sympathizers to maneuver the internal workings of our society to support AGW policies irrespective of what our rank-and-file members might think. This small organized group of AGW sympathizers has indeed hijacked our society.”
The main fight between pro-AGW scientists and AGW sceptics at this time is a fight between computer modelers and physical scientists. There has been a coup by computer modelers. This is not a novel phenomenon. It has happened many times in science that a new technology has changed the practice of science, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. The reason that there is no debate is that the winners of this coup have the attitude that they are going to live within their “Gaia Models” and everybody else can be damned. As genuine scientists, “Gaia Modelers” must face up to the fact that they have not produced one reasonably well-confirmed physical hypothesis that pushes beyond Arrhenius our understanding of CO2 effects in the environment.
As genuine scientists, “Gaia Modelers” have a duty to recognize the limitations of their work. It is no more a basis for expensive public policy ventures to mitigate the effects of CO2 than are the recent statements from the AAS, also based on models, that we might be entering a Maunder Minimum a basis for expenditures to mitigate the effects of a coming Little Ice Age.
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 3:04 pm
. It seems only to be climate science where everyone thinks they understand everything by learning it for a week
==============================================================================
Chris, since it’s only climate science that decides what normal is…..
Can you tell me if the planet is warming up because it’s below normal, or warming up above normal?
Whenever I talk to some Engineers who are not up to speed with the AGW alarmist point of view I show them two graphs. The 1st one shows the futile attempt back in 1988 to forecast the effects of increased CO2. Hindcasting is crap but this simulation shows Hansens claim in 1988 in 2011 is now crap as well. Climate modelers like Gavin refuse to any testable simulations.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/08/13/is-jim-hansens-global-temperature-skillful/
Secondly anyone as smart as a 5th grader can see the the very recent warming is a tiny tiny blip of noise on top some very large temperature excursions.
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/noaa_gisp2_icecore_anim3.gif
The state of climate modeling is a joke
Money talks.
The AMS needs to do what the Geological Association of Canada (GAC) has done. The membership revolted and now the AGW crowd has taken their ball and left. At this years annual conference organizers invited Ian Plimer and gave equal preference for presenters to both sides. The alarmists (with at least one exception) refused to participate.
I doubt very much that the GAC will suffer any significant internal conflict over this event. We geologists are a pragmatic lot.
As a member and fellow of the GAC I am very proud of my brothers for not being led astray by the alarmists. It also shows that there is still room for hope for the members of the AMS, AGU and other similar organization in America.
@ APACHEWHOKNOWS June 16, 2011 at 3:06 pm
EXACTLY. Well said.
Rob Dixon says:
June 16, 2011 at 3:02 pm
> When Hanson won the Rossby Award, I dropped out of the AMS; Television Seal and all…
Wow, that’s a pretty serious statement.
The Seal of Approval (now Certified Broadcast Meteorologist) is important – a number of markets pay a lot more attention to applicants with it and attract viewers by displaying it. (When I moved to New England I was surprised that none of the weather segments on the various stations mentioned the Seal. I figured that if you couldn’t qualify for the Seal you had no right to forecast weather in the northeast.)
I see they still list you (Seal 182) but note you haven’t renewed. Hmm, 182 – does that mean you’re old? 🙂 Or just that you’ve experienced an entire PDO cycle?
Thank you for standing up for your beliefs.
Can I suggest that Ferenc Miskolczi’s work should be brought up when talking of modeling? He totally demolishes the myth of water vapor increase that modelers claim occurs when carbon dioxide goes up. Not only did Miskolczi prove that the optical depth of the atmosphere in the infrared did not change for the last 61 years when carbon dioxide increased by 21.6 percent but he also showed that there was a measurable reduction in the mole percent of water vapor during the same period. His work contradicts the output from models in the most fundamental way possible by showing not only that the absorption of IR from the added CO2 did not take place but also that water vapor decreased instead of increasing. And sensitivity to doubling of CO2 in air? Exactly zero.
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 2:24 pm
“You obviously know how I feel about you and your blog, and the level of scientific understanding here, so the insults are pointless. I will do my best to suspend my anger at some of the things people are spoon-fed (and that they actually eat) daily.”………..
===========
You infer I am “spoon fed”, because I dare to question your consensus?
Please, thrall me with your acumen, so I too may understand completely.
I’m tired of thinking for myself.
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 3:39 pm
Ack! Is one of your goals to be the Junior Member of the Team? Say it isn’t so!
Well, perhaps you’re on your way. Give our regards (a Bronx cheer) to Gavin.
Here are a few suggestions from an old software engineer (hey, I could’ve been a scientist, it just happens I’m wired for programming computers).
1) Climatology and all the supporting stuff is way more than one person can master.
It’s one of the thing I like about the field – no matter if a scientist is great at some specialty (e.g. hurricanes), or broadly trained, there’s always some piece of the pie I could learn more about than the scientists.
2) Academics and theoretical understanding isn’t enough, ya gotta make some forecasts and get doped-slapped by Mother Nature.
A lot of people live in New England because we like variable weather. You have more extreme weather (for the most part) in the midwest, but we pack a heck of a lot more into New England. Kerry Emanuel is a good example of a theoretician who discovered that reality bites. He stepped down to a shorter pedestal, it might be safe to see him and Gray in the same room now.
3) Pay attention to the geologists.
My brother is one, he sounds a lot like Bob Carter at times, and I like Bob Carter too. I got active in this arena in 2008 when “tipping points” were all the rage. Geologists were a lot more laid back – they know that Earth has seen a lot worse than anything Hansen could imagine and hasn’t turned into Venus yet. I heard Heidi Cullen dismiss both TV mets and geologists as group with the greatest amount of skepticism. She’s still on her pedestal. Geologists also get outside a lot. In the weather. With beer.
Re: Chris @ 3:39 ” I’m also not aware of a single faculty member in Madison that studies climate that is “skeptical” of anthropogenic climate change in the way advertised by Bill”
Do you hear yourself? From inside an echo chamber like Madison???
You sound just like the editor of the “Nation” who upon learning that Nixon had won (a 49 state victory) asked “How is that possible? I don’t know a SINGLE PERSON who voted for him”
She thought she was indicting others…
Forgive my misunderstanding if I’ve done so.
I’d picked up the idea, correct me if I’m wrong, that Weatherpersons change into Climatologists once they’d been in the business for about thirty years or so!
I can understand that, I think, a newly qualified Climatologist beats an experienced weather scientist until three decades later when they converge into equality.
Wait a minute. That is so counterintuitive!
I think, but what do I know, that an experienced weather professional should be more switched on than a raw novice.
Guess that that two-week course in GCM’s that the neophytes got where it was clearly explained that ‘We don’t know what else it could have caused it’ beats the old-timers into the dust.
Now I understand. Ignorance beats Experience. Now I truly believe. Not!
Chris,
Good luck at GISS. Many of the national labs (NASA, Navy, GFDL) are excellent places to spend a summer and develop connections. I think Gray is making more of a political argument about the AMS, which has clearly moved to the left on the climate ideological spectrum. When James Hansen was awarded the Rossby medal, and then didn’t show up, the AMS really looked ideological and dogmatic.
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 3:39 pm
” in the way advertised by Bill,”
” I’d love to chat with you more though”
=========================================================
LOL “Bill”? “chat”?
Gosh Chris, didn’t realize you were so mature for you age…………………………
I cannot agree more with Dr. Gray. I have been a member of the AMS for 35 years and forecasting for nearly 40 years. Those of us who are not climatologists, that work in the trenches with daily weather, can clearly see the warm and cool periods are cyclical. May be some day the climatologists will actually look at the 11 year sunspot cycle!
Professor Gray’s first objection – that water vapor feedbacks are grossly wrong isn’t backed up by any citations, but I did a quick Google search and my first hit was “Global Cooling After the Eruption of Mount Pinatubo: A Test of Climate Feedback by Water Vapor” by Brian J. Soden, Richard T. Wetherald,Georgiy L. Stenchikov, and Alan Robock 2002.
The GCMs were specifically tested in a real-world situation to test the accuracy of their sensitivities to lower and upper tropospheric water vapor. Their conclusion: “These results provide quantitative evidence of the reliability of water vapor feedback in current climate models, which is crucial to their use for global warming projections.”
I predicted the radical left environmentists would attack non believers in AGW 15 years ago and now it has arrived. They are not interested in science, they are only driven by ideology which has no place in science. Anyone who claims the there is no debate about AGW is a fraud and con artist. They should be relieved of their position.
Its great to see Bill Grey understands how a engine/radiator system works. Most climate scientist seem to think that the slowing down of the MOC/gulfstream causes cooling, when it clearly causes global warming. Of course at the same time the radiator gets colder if you shut off the supple of water from the engine. Of course some people think ocean circulation has little effect on climate despite the fact that the geological record show that major climate changes are associated with changes in ocean circulation driven by tectonics.
I’m amazed that more climate scientist don’t look towards the patten of atmospheric and oceanic mixing as the obvious cause of climate change.
Bill Gray’s idea that AGW relies on models is wrong. It starts with Arrhenius and Tyndall over a century ago. Arrhenius had the basic ideas right, if not the current more accurate numbers for radiation. If he wants a physics debate, it should be on why he thinks Arrhenius was wrong that increasing CO2 should have a warming effect, or whether he believes the current total greenhouse effect really is 33 C. These are the basic science ideas that such debates would start with. Most AMS members would accept these points without needing a debate, however.
Hugh Pepper says:
“Sadly, your corespondent, Emeritus Professor Gray omitted mentioning that the AMS position which he condemns, was in fact an endorsement of a position taken by 11 National Academies of SCience…”
Pepper inadvertently highlights the problem: a handful of people at the top deign to speak for thousands of rank-and-file members who, if it were put to a vote by secret ballot, would vote overwhelmingly that the effect of human emiisions is unproven, since there is no evidence of AGW! There may be a minor effect – or not. But until measurable, testable evidence of AGW is produced, it must be assumed that it is nothing more than an evidence-free hypothesis, based on models and nothing more.
And, Chris Colose…
Anthony, so glad for your witty repose to Chris’s second comment. Any idiot could have clicked on his name and been taken to the same site as you linked to.
Rattus Norvegicus said on June 16, 2011 at 7:21 pm:
Anything special happen when you clicked?
u.k.
“Thinking for yourself” is not synonymous with disagreeing with the consensus for the sake of disagreeing with it, but rather trying to objectively determine why it is the consensus.
Hugh Pepper says:
June 16, 2011 at 4:27 pm
Sadly, your corespondent, Emeritus Professor Gray omitted mentioning that the AMS position which he condemns, was in fact an endorsement of a position taken by 11 National Academies of SCience.
Where is the AMS Board’s statement that their statement itself, and any “consensus” derived internal to the board or extended therefrom, when combined with the statements of other Boards, is not part of the Scientific Method, nor part of any known scientific principle?
As to the AMS statement itself, where are the individual votes of the Board members recorded, and where are the individual votes of the rest of the members of the Society recorded for access?
Chris Colose put up an appearance in Steve McIntyre’s thread about how Lindzen & Choi’s paper was treated by PNAS. He made the same ad-hom attacks on Lindzen and on Happer whom Lindzen nominated as the reviewer. This in spite of the fact the Chris’ \knowledge, qualifications and experience not been fit enough to wipe their boots. When his arguments were factually ripped apart, he claimed that all the posters ” needed to get out of posting at Climate Audit and see the world ” and that he was too busy and has other more important things to do. That was just 2 days ago. Glad to see what are the important things he is doing. He just goes around from blog to blog and throws ad homs at any scientist who talks about asking to prove AGW.
And this from a first year undergraduate student with no qualifications or experience in anything.
Should be above, “As to the ‘consensus’ weight of the AMS statement itself….”
What a brilliant read… and Chris Colose goes out of his way to prove Dr Gray’s point.
“As a defense against criticism they have resorted to a general denigration of those of us who do not support their AGW hypothesis”.
Thanks Chris, you’ve made my day. But seriously Chris, many years ago when I was a graduate engineer I was a whiz at designing filters. Butterworth, Elliptical.. could do them all, no computers, just an HP15C calculator, a pen and some paper. If you wanted a filter designed you came and saw me. Then one day a technician came in with a copy of PSpice Filter designer. I scoffed, much in the same way that you scoff at this site. But we ran some tests. Guess what I learned, MY SKILLS WERE OBSOLETE. Chris, the faster you realise that your skills are rapidly becoming obsolete the better off your life will be. No body here wishes you ill will, we just want to see you get back on track and learn the scientific method. Spending your life trying to convince yourself that AGW is true really is a waste.
Chris C, you naively assume that integrating the dynamics over time spans makes radiation balance analysis accurate as a means of modeling climate. OK, show us your work. Let’s see your proofs.
Jim D says:
June 16, 2011 at 7:19 pm
If he wants a physics debate, it should be on why he thinks Arrhenius was wrong that increasing CO2 should have a warming effect….
No one is denying that CO2 interacts with long wave/IR. But so should and does water vapor as a stand alone ghg molecule. Therefore, so what? Water vapor should have a warming effect, but does it produce an atmospheric warming runaway, alone or with even smaller than current concentrations of CO2?
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 7:35 pm
u.k.
“Thinking for yourself” is not synonymous with disagreeing with the consensus for the sake of disagreeing with it, but rather trying to objectively determine why it is the consensus.
============
Ok, first, science has nothing to do with consensus.
I rest my case.
Don’t these organizations (like the AMS) have more-or-less democratic procedures for deciding who gets on their boards of directors? Are there no periodic elections? Are the majority of members such sheep that they allow the ‘official’ positions to represent their own? Or do they just acquiesce and agree?
Inquiring minds want to know. . .
/Mr Lynn
Venter, you can at least get the fact that I’m a graduate student right (and yes, I actually do have a day job getting myself into climate research, so I’m tied up with things more important than blogging). A couple of years studying climate and even going through basic radiation/dynamics courses will give you a bit of perspective on the arguments. Again, that is why I paid tuition, paid for textbooks, and devoted a lot of time over several years to reading a lot of papers. A lot of this stuff isn’t tough to get, even without expertise, with just some calculus and physics background.
Given that so many people are attacking my status as a student in the field, I am wondering if anyone here aside from Ryan Maue has even taken a 101 course, has given presentations or went to conferences in atmospheric physics related topics? My impression is that everyone here wants very badly to be the rebel, the guy who “thinks for themselves” and ignores all authority. That is all good and dandy, except I am baffled as to how exactly people are going about “thinking for themselves” without some training in the field? Or is this just a matter of siding with whoever happens to be the most articulate (which I freely admit, is probably not the climate scientists)?
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 7:35 pm
u.k.
“Thinking for yourself” is not synonymous with disagreeing with the consensus for the sake of disagreeing with it, but rather trying to objectively determine why it is the consensus.
====================
Uh huh. Yeah.
OR….[to use your words] “rather trying to objectively determine why it is the consensus…” …whether the objective determination of the consensus…is objective or determinable at all.
Let’s see your “objective determination of the consensus”…and let’s see if it has any scientific merit at all.
And no, no adjustments are to be made for any type of factors related to groupthink disorder.
Will let the raw data speak for itself.
So….let me ask you this Chris….you seem like a reasonable man….what are your parameters for determining the telelogical “reasons” for the “consensus.”?
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
Harpo says:
The scientific method is what has brought the overwhelming majority of scientists to accept AGW as true. In the 19th century Fourier recognized the earth would be much colder without an atmosphere. Tyndall described the importance of water vapor as a GHG: Remove for a single summer-night the aqueous vapour from the air… and the sun would rise upon an island held fast in the iron grip of frost. Arrhenius articulated the role of CO2 as the “control knob” regulating the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere.
These are not alarmist or leftist environmental talking points – they’re basic physics. These basic physical insights have been known for 150 years. With larger and more accurate data sets, satellite observations, and high speed computers we now have the tools to expand upon the work of these early pioneers. That’s the way science works.
I have said it before, who better to know the climate of this world than a meteorologist. To be able to understand the climate you must know about the weather and the how and why of it to include the atmosphere and oceans, jet streams and more. There are to many variables to put it all on CO2! And NO GCM and its programmer will ever be able to do it with any confidence as the models have proven over the past couple of decades to be WRONG!
Hello Chris Colose! Welcome to WUWT.
Hey, since you’re at GISS, could you ask Gavin Schmidt to once and for all properly document his AOGCM code, Model E? It’s one of the worst documented (and written) codes I’ve seen, and yet people are attempting to use it to make predictions which will negatively affect my life (though the IPCC, EPA and other autocratic bodies). I don’t even think anyone knows what differential equations it’s solving. Thanks in advance.
REPLY: He’s not at GISS, which is in NYC, he’s in Madison at UW, Home of McIdas and SEIU riots taking over the capital and all that. – Anthony
JPeden, no one is expecting a runaway greenhouse effect, unless you call 3-4 C warming by 2100 a runaway. I haven’t seen Gray address the GHG issue yet, and why he doesn’t believe it is more important than his own invented AMO theory. A debate on CO2 would be very useful for him to show where he stands exactly. He knows about radiation and clouds (at least in the 70’s he had a well known paper on it), so why aren’t we seeing his view on it? Maybe his life’s work on hurricanes has skewed his view that the oceans are more important. I don’t know how he got to where he is scientifically.
Hi Anthony,
Maybe I’m wrong, but I think Chris mentioned…
… (unfortunately I’m not there now since I am going elsewhere for graduate school and am stationed in NYC @ GISS over the summer).
So, I thought while he was there, he could relay a few messages from us to “Team”…. :^)
REPLY: Ah well, my bad, moderation que doesn’t show messages upstream and I have been offline for 4 hours. GISS it is then. – Anthony
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 8:57 pm
“Given that so many people are attacking my status as a student in the field,…..
==================
Be very, very, very careful what you say , because everybody is watching.
I don’t get it. When I search the web for MOC or THC and global warming, there are lots of sites that discuss it in the context of global warming. I don’t believe that it’s been completely left out of the models.
savethesharks,
First, I do not recognize phrases such as “the consensus” to have much meaning; I only use it because the blogosphere somehow identifies it with agreement or disagreement on whether humans cause global warming. There are of course a wide spectrum of thoughts on the subject of climate, with experts mostly quibbling about finer details rather than these type of broad-brush questions. Part of an education in any field involves asking the right questions and learning terminology that scientists do and do not communicate in, as well as the big areas of “debate” that open pathways to new research. I think this is a big stumbling block in the “debate” rather than the relative role of physical understanding between groups. This makes it difficult to answer many questions that are legitimate rather than just argumentative.
For example, there is still legitimate debate on the magnitude and path of a freshwater pulse required to cause a Younger Dryas episode toward deglaciation– was it a re-routing event into the St. Lawrence, or a catastrophic meltwater flux into the Atlantic, or perhaps the Arctic? Experts on this topic may disagree over these aspects but still agree on basic physics of ocean circulation, that a YD event actually occurred, etc. In situations where multiple hypotheses exist, it is often possible to rule some out even without knowledge of the right answer, based on some other evidence (or physical constraints). It also happens that the community will naturally shift toward the ideas with the most explanatory and predictive ability, and where it is possible to unify different levels of theory and observation.
Chris Colose says:
“A couple of years studying climate and even going through basic radiation/dynamics courses will give you a bit of perspective on the arguments.”
I guess Chris Colose doesn’t realize that there just might be people here who have TAUGHT basic radiation/dynamics courses for a couple of years…or even more.
Chris seems to be of the opinion that he’s the exclusive commentator here with a university education in fields applicable to climate studies. Never mind those who might have experience actually teaching at a 700 level…
Given the sheer number of viewers and commentators on this website, that kind of assumption is not one I think I’d be so bold in making. I’d fear being perceived as arrogant.
Chris,
I think you underestimate your opposition. I studied Engineering Physics. We did normal engineering (4years) in two years and then spent most of 3rd and 4th year in Graduate level physics courses. I freely admit I know only enough to be dangerous but it is more than enough to shoot holes in the CAGW nonsense. One of my text books on the basics of atmospheric radiation was by Liou – I expect you still use this – I would hardly call this stuff rocket science – the basic physics of atmospheric radiation is so full of questionable assumptions that I am astonished that anyone actually takes these back of the envelope calculations seriously. Amusing and entertaining is more like it. iMHO, the actual real world is far more complex than climate modelers are willing to admit – there are huge factors like wind, convection, oceanic circulation, clouds….just to name a few ….and none of these are adressed in your simplistic back of the envelope analyses ( I read your blog). I am afraid the Professors have misled you with regard to the power of their calculations – these simplistic models do not come even remotely close to modeling any real world conditions. They have appealed to your ego with their wild claims and “mission to save the planet” – and having been young once, I know exactly how tempting and desirable it is to be able to attribute such meaning and importance to your own research work. We all start with grand plans to change the world!
I suggest you embrace the feedback you are receiving here and become humble about your chosen field of research – I promise you that you will be a better scientist if you do! The curious, skeptical and most humble scientists are usually the most successful in “real science”, although they may struggle more than others to gain funding support for their ideas.
Take a look at Jasper Kirby’s presentation to Simon Fraser University a month or so ago (on YouTube) – his approach to research is an excellent role model – notice how his work is heavily weighted towards experimental research supplemented by modelling rather than pure modelling.
Did we just nuke the wrong guy?
CC’s comments bring to mind Dr. Sowell’s words, “Intellectuals are the last people to realise their own vast sea of ignorance surrounding the small island of their knowledge. That is why they are so dangerous.”
Mr. Colose, I’d like to welcome you and thank you for popping by. Doubt if we agree on much but I’m glad you’re here. Heck most of the people here don’t agree with me much either, come to think of it.
Good luck with your studies.
The word consensus doesn’t just mean “most” but includes the idea that minority objections will be resolved. Folks are using this term to mean unanimity except for the few skeptics that don’t agree. There is no consensus. Live with it.
At his blog, the young Colose lists his interests as ” from past (“paleo”) climates, the evolution of atmospheres, to projections of 21st century climate change forced by human causes”. In other words, he’s interested in 21st century earth climate change only if humans caused it. What an exemplary young zombie in the image of James Hansen and the IPCC itself.
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 7:35 pm
“Thinking for yourself” is not synonymous with disagreeing with the consensus for the sake of disagreeing with it, but rather trying to objectively determine why it is the consensus.
Why would anyone want to disagree with the alleged “fact” of what is both an undefined “consensus” numerically – that is, where actual numbers of individual people are not even asserted pro vs con on the issue – and otherwise simply a parroted ad nauseum word having the visible form or auditory sound of “consensus”, as is seen in various media reports and as an alleged debating point on the part of warmist supporters?
Essentially, there’s nothing meaningful in either case alleging or putting forth the word “consensus” by itself to disagree with!
On the other hand, thousands of qualified people have actually signed their names to an explicit statement as to the lack of danger which CO2 represents, including its benefit – as stated in the Oregon Petition. And hundreds of others have made explicit statements contradicting CO2 = CAGW “science”, as collected at Sen. Inhoff’s gov’t website.
So the score concerning a “consensus” of people concerning the question of whether CO2 = CAGW is currently, thousands “con” vs….what number?
Hal Lewis made the same points. How many senior members must read the riot act before the AMS executive clique is swept aside?
Many years ago, I had an EE instructor spend an afternoon teaching us the “smoke theory” of electronics. In case you don’t know what it is, it’s a tongue-in-cheek explanation of how electronics all work by captured smoke circulating through the wires and components. If you mess up and let the smoke out, the circuit or device stops working.
Even though I have developed hundreds of circuits and modules and devices over the years, and worked with both analog and digital circuits, vacuum tubes, transistors and ICs, nothing, NO OTHER principle of design has more relevance to “getting it right” than the smoke theory.
I see a strong parallel with “smoke theory” and the current obsession with AGW, except for one critical difference. Smoke theory works. The correlation between CO2 and temperature is weak. And the proven problems with what we use as temperature pretty much make it impossible to rely on any correlation that may or may not be there anyway. And the last decade has eliminated any credibility to the hypothesis of CO2 driving temperature or climate.
Jim D says:
June 16, 2011 at 9:39 pm
JPeden, no one is expecting a runaway greenhouse effect….
Well, they sure had me fooled with all of this catastrophic “tipping point” and no more glaciation stuff!
But, sure, I’d like to hear more of what you’d like to hear from Gray too, and he’s no doubt got it covered somewhere else. I don’t think he’ll deny that CO2 is a ghg which has some potential and actual effect on atmospheric temps, since he’s already allowed for this possibility above:
Increases of CO2 could have contributed only a small fraction (0.1-0.2oC) of the roughly ~ 0.7oC surface warming that has been observed since 1850. Natural processes have had to have been responsible for most of the observed warming over the last century and a half.
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 10:12 pm
re:your last sentence…
Sorry, Chris – it just simply isn’t possible or reasonable, with our current levels of understanding, to accept the theory/hypothesis of AGW in preference to any other.
And as for ideas with the ‘most explanatory and predictive ability’ – CO2 based AGW is probably amongst the worst. Perhaps I am wrong, but to my knowledge, even today, after a couple of decades of kicking the CO2 based AGW theory around, and billions of dollars, there is still no obvious proof?
The key word here is ‘proof’ – which in the context of AGW, would mean some reasonably direct correlation that shows CO2 causes absolute temperature rises. In the world scale, with all the observations, this is simply not-demonstrated. The natural temperature variations appear to outweigh any posited anthropogenic signal by a significant margin.
It’s all very well saying ‘this model shows this’ and ‘this model shows that’ – but in the absence of any observationally verified predictability – the models are seemingly not showing jack sh*t !
Even in todays highly skilled and engineered scientific world, a scale model of say, an aeroplane, does not necessarily behave the same way as the ‘real thing’. So, if you were to imagine that the AGW prognosticators, who basically want us to ‘believe’ the AGW aeroplane will fly, without even having a decent ‘scale model’, let alone the physical calculations to show how the ‘climate model’ behaves (you know, like +ve and -ve feedback, not knowing how much of each, etc – it is kind of the equivalent of not knowing which way the round the wings go, or which way round the thrust from the engines should be !) – if you wanna be one of the ‘test flight’ passengers that’s fine – but I’ll wait for the real thing!
Minor, but if it is an error (which I think it is) worth correcting typo: “contentious” not “continuous” from the “Debate” segment of Professor Gray’s letter.
Our country’s Anglo-Saxon derived legal system is based on the idea that the best way to get to the truth is to have opposite sides of a continuous issue present their differing views in open debate before a non partisan jury.
DJ,
I would have assumed by now that this person who has taught 700 level courses and could so easily overturn the decades of scientific literature would have actually published his results and watched in glory as the community reproduced his findings to find he was right, and then won a nobel prize and was labeled as one of the great scientists of the 21st century.
Given that most of the comments so far have just been conspiracy theories, or personal insults toward me, I will assume he has not done this yet. This only leaves me to conclude that those, such as KevinUK who claim that the greenhouse-based physics underlying modern global warming is not solid, are only doing so based on unfamiliarity with the literature. Frankly, I am not interested in people’s opinions. The arrogance required to think that a handful of bloggers are right, and hundreds of world experts have been all wrong for decades, even with no will to publish the pathway to this conclusion, far extends whatever I am capable of.
I will check back for initiation of some sort of reasonable (scientific) discussion here, but since everything seems mostly arguing about the significance of “consensus” or my level of education, I will just assume no one has anything to say about the physics of climate that the worlds scientists have not already thought of.
All praise to Bill Gray. Time for others to publicly stand up and speak up for the right of free speech and open debate on climate. It is only by stifling that scientific discussion and refusing the rights of its members to have and even handed scientific debate that climate science lost its way. Even here in Australia, where an active warmista clique are government sponsored to try and keep the public from any open debate past the hackneyed “take my word for it” so called consensus, there are those at the heart and soul of the Bureau Of Meteorology (BOM) who are now openly rejecting any attempt, to take up the government line that our extreme weather events are a sign of climate change caused by Carbon dioxide, or that carbon dioxide is the evil pollutant and a toxic changer of our very much variable weather patterns they have patiently observed for more than a Century!
While our Julia triumphantly waves 2006 soundly discredited CSIRO recycled garbage (trash) put out by her climate “bought and sold gurus”, the people who know the GCM modeling is a political fantasy, just shake their heads and try and maintain a level headed weather outlook in their dealings with the bias of media in this country.
Time for the Bill Grays of Australia to also speak out.!!
Tom Fuller says:
June 16, 2011 at 10:36 pm
… Heck most of the people here don’t agree with me much either, come to think of it.
Well Tom, reading your comments on various blogs I supect I agree with much of what you say. Many would accuse taking the middle road as laziness – cowardess even – but from my experience it often stems from a rigorous exploration of ones own motives and biases and the courage to question the dictates eminating from either poles.
As Stephen Jay Gould extolled:
Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview – nothing more constraining, more blinding to innovation, more destructive of openness to novelty.
Best wishes, ian
Tom Fuller
Nice to see you, where have you been hiding? Come on, admit it it, you’d be disappointed if most of us here agreed with you 🙂
tonyb
Dr Gray,
The people who hijacked the AMS did so with purposeful intent. Removing them will require the same sort of careful planning and execution. It will not be possible to reason with them for they are not functioning on reason. AGW worship is a Marxist cult. Like minded members must work together to build a coalition to install new leadership.
“They simply will not debate the issue”
And therein lies the rub…
You call for the author and others to publish their scientific research and ridicule them, even though their papers are being subjected to conspiratorial suppression and outright political censorship by the people you support. Meanwhile, you and your buddies ignore the “the decades of scientific literature” which refute the AGW conjecture. Then you wonder why your disrespectful comments are so strongly criticized. Would you care to lead an effort to end the unethical censorship and suppression of scientific papers critical of AGW?
Why I Am A Global Warming Skeptic.
No they don’t want to debate. Because every single time there is an open debate they lose! And Chris’ hero Gavin Schmidt got his butt handed to him and he had to go away with his tail between his legs then whine about why he lost so bad. So yes Chris you will get a good education at GISS
@ Chris Colose, throughout this thread:
It seems to me that you may have a lack of knowledge in regard to how science, scientific discovery and the scientific method works – all of it, that is, not just the climate one. To help you out, as a first step, look up what Feynman had to say on that. I hope he is an authority which even you can accept …
As for assuming that everyone who posts here or on other blogs has to be a numpty who can be disregarded because they are not climate scientists with peer-reviewed publications (where are yours, btw?) – well, I find it sad that you are already narrowing your view and thus your intellectual capability at your age. A so-called scientist who is not prepared to spend their life learning, especially from those who hold opposing views, but relies on something called ‘consensus’ is not a scientist.
Um, and how was that “qualification” arrived at? You state one thing, then when called upon it, equivocate to another. Clearly you must have the Little Orphan Annie Secret Decoder Ring that allows you – and apparently only you – to determine who is qualified and who is not. Bill Gray, not having said ring, apparently talked to many people who you later decided to disqualify.
Condemn him for not have the Secret decoder ring, not for not talking to the people.
But then you are an “oceanic” student in the middle of a continent, where pronunciations by faux experts are god’s law – whatever.
Chris Colose provides an accurate stereotype of a wet behind the ears, baselessly arrogant, immature suck-up to his GISS masters. He knows where his bread is buttered, and he ignores the scientific method and professional ethics because his blind ambition requires it.
The entire AGW edifice is based on climate alarmism, and there is exactly zero real world evidence supporting it. AGW is based entirely on computer models programmed by people who have already arrived at their conclusions, and blinkered wannabes like Colose jettison their ethics in order to be on the side of alarmist grant recipients with their snouts deep in the taxpayer trough. Science is simply a self-serving veneer, and the truth is not in them.
Reminds me of a friend who used to maintain that it was the number of people which determined the temperature of a location. See, it’s usually warmer where more people congregate. In fact, you’ll notice that when a lot of people gather in a room, they take their coats off, and the room warms up even more! Simple, really.
/Mr Lynn
The level of scientific understanding is apparently a lot higher here than at your institution since even a freshman science major knows you do not “accept” science, you question, test and prove it. You do “accept” political campaigns and promises (often broken). I dare say if you are representative of your institution, it is no wonder why “Johnny can’t read”.
Well done Dr Gray for voicing this concern.never seen a more evident example of group think than that has happpened in the AMS.
Some times it takes a brave man to pull the pin and throw, let hope it has the desired effect of waking those complicit in this sleep walking on the AGW rail, and not labeling a brave and honest scientist just another “denier”,
A flood must start with at least one raindrop Lets hope other AMS member come out and back you.
Ok, now that Chris has been bashed to death, there are a number of points I struggle with in the letter above. I’ll stick to one. “James Hansen’s predictions of global warming made before the Senate in 1988 are turning out to be very much less than he had projected. He cannot explain why there has been no significant global warming over the last 10-12 years.”
James Hansens 20+ year old model yields a climate sensitivity of +4.2C per doubling of CO2, very much at the high end of the range 2.0-4.5C (please read http://www.iac.ethz.ch/people/knuttir/papers/knutti08natgeo.pdf). This is not a crime. Nor is it an indication that all models are fundamentally flawed. I don’t know what source Professor Gray is using to claim James Hansen cannot explain “no significant global warming over the last 10-12 years”. My understanding is that the level of confidence in the trend has been around 90%, so given the relatively short run and the natural variability inherent in the climate system there is not much explaining to do.
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 11:43 pm
“I will check back for initiation of some sort of reasonable (scientific) discussion here, but since everything seems mostly arguing about the significance of consensus or my level of education, I will just assume no one has anything to say about the physics of climate that the worlds scientists have not already thought of.”
OK. Let’s start a discussion of climate modeling, focusing on Model E since you’re at GISS. Could you please point us to some documentation which describes/defines ALL of the differential equations being solved, and discusses in detail the numerical methods (including the stability, and consistency of the formulation) and boundary/initial conditions. You can start with the Eulerian core for the atmosphere model. If you can’t find anything (and I doubt you will), that’s OK. Thanks.
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 8:57 pm
Don’t underestimate the readership here. While I am concerned about the number of quick-on-the-trigger attacks against almost any scientific research, some of that comes with the territory. In the long run, those are the folks who stand to learn the most from WUWT.
Last November I wrote 35 years ago: The Witch of November Come Stealin in honor of the sinking of the Great Lakes ore carrier, the Edmund Fitzgerald and notes on similar storms.
Besides the weather connection, I figured that few WUWT readers outside those of us in the midwest are familiar with ore carriers and it would be nice to pass on my inconsiderable knowledge (i.e. I saw them occasionally on Lake Erie and thought they looked weird).
The comments were as good or better than my post. They included an ore boat deckhand for a couple months; someone who knew a crewman on a rescue chopper in the area then; Roy Spencer, who was at the NWS office in Sault Ste. Marie, when the report came in that the Fitzgerald had likely sunk; and someone noting how family discussions changed in tone whenever the Armistice Day topic was mentioned; and people who know a lot about the design of bulk carriers. I was very pleased – amazed – with the wide ranging and non-confrontational response, thanks in part to the mostly non-controversial subject.
WUWT has a huge readership, and only a small percentage of us comment. Assume that your comments are read by future (and current!) classmates, professors, employers, wives, landlords, bus drivers, owners of the local farmstand….
Please consider your time here as an opportunity to educate people who are interested in science but haven’t had the time to study it more. Remember your limitations. While you understand a lot more about radiative physics than I ever will, even though it’s something I need to learn more about, there’s a lot you haven’t touched on, like how to model the transition of water vapor from GHG to albedo increasing cloud. Above all, when you reply to some comment, don’t write to that person (there’s only one of him), but write to the thousands of readers here who never comment.
Thanks guys! 🙂
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 5:18 pm
Theo,
“Madison’s Atmos. science program is best known for its world-renowned remote-sensing & radiation studies ( there are better schools for pure climate) but actually if you are curious enough, Prof. Galen McKinley teaches a graduate level course in Physical Oceanography here. We also have quite a few experts in fluid dynamics, and several people who work on paleoclimate problems related to the MOC, including Zhengyu Liu. If you really want to learn, I encourage you to take some classes.”
Well, you arrogant little child. I ask you to produce some reasonably well-confirmed physical hypothesis that goes beyond Arrhenius and supports the Warmista case on CO2 induced warming. You cannot produce any such hypothesis, so like any good Warmista you respond with an ad hominem. Is this kind of behavior what your professors taught in your classes? You are nothing but another Warmista troll; that part you have down pat.
Jim D says:
June 16, 2011 at 7:19 pm
“Bill Gray’s idea that AGW relies on models is wrong. It starts with Arrhenius and Tyndall over a century ago.”
Present one reasonably well-confirmed physical hypothesis created by Schmidt or some other Warmista that goes beyond Arrhenius. You cannot do it.
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 8:57 pm
“Given that so many people are attacking my status as a student in the field, I am wondering if anyone here aside from Ryan Maue has even taken a 101 course, has given presentations or went to conferences in atmospheric physics related topics?”
Sir, this is a debate and you stated a position. You are expected to defend it. What you need to do is present one reasonably well-confirmed physical hypothesis that goes beyond the 19th Century work of Arrhenius. Can you do it?
I left the AMS this year after 20-some years of membership. I simply couldn’t take the drumbeat in BAMS month after month, not to mention the various policy statements.
Those who have the job flexibility to run for AMS office are more likely to be those who firmly believe in (C)AGW, so the pool of candidates tends to be skewed in distribution compared to the membership at large. Plus, like in any election, the time spent by the voters vetting candidates is somewhat inadequate (I freely admit to that early on in my membership).
The entire AGW edifice is based on climate alarmism, and there is exactly zero real world evidence supporting it.
I don’t think you do your argument any good by throwing out false statements like this. There is evidence supporting warming in the past couple decades — check out the new Temperature Normals for the USA, for example, that show that the new normal is warmer for most of the country, except the Southeast. (I think, that’s from memory), or changes in the Arctic. The ‘A’ part is questionable, I agree, but there is evidence of warming, so to say there is zero real world evidence supporting it is a stretch.
Kevin O’Neill says:
June 16, 2011 at 9:08 pm
“These are not alarmist or leftist environmental talking points – they’re basic physics. These basic physical insights have been known for 150 years. With larger and more accurate data sets, satellite observations, and high speed computers we now have the tools to expand upon the work of these early pioneers. That’s the way science works.”
This work has in it no physical hypotheses which can be used to explain feedbacks and which are reasonably well-confirmed. With no explanation of feedbacks, there is nothing connecting CO2 concentration and temperature.
You might as well be attempting to explain genetic engineering by appeal to Darwin. In case you don’t know, Darwin knew that there must be a physical mechanism of heredity but he went to his grave having not a clue about the actual physical mechanism. That’s a good analogy for climate science. Having discovered their Darwin, Warmista concluded that they had discovered their Crick and Watson.
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 10:12 pm
savethesharks,
“Part of an education in any field involves asking the right questions and learning terminology that scientists do and do not communicate in, as well as the big areas of “debate” that open pathways to new research. I think this is a big stumbling block in the “debate” rather than the relative role of physical understanding between groups.”
So, you are retreating into the vague? Would you care to state a clear position on “the relative role of phsical understanding between groups?” You should begin with some well-confirmed physical hypothesis that explains some kind of forcing and, thereby, connects manmade CO2 to temperature. Yes, this is a trick question. Warmista have produced no such physical hypotheses.
Ammonite says:
June 17, 2011 at 5:31 am
“James Hansens 20+ year old model yields a climate sensitivity of +4.2C per doubling of CO2, very much at the high end of the range 2.0-4.5C (please read http://www.iac.ethz.ch/people/knuttir/papers/knutti08natgeo.pdf). This is not a crime. Nor is it an indication that all models are fundamentally flawed.”
It shows that Hansen was dead wrong. Why do you switch from discussing Hansen to all models?
Reneissance comes when the people are ready and their minds are open to the truth! Today the dull and stupid rule and the wise hide and bite their nails in the shadows. One day, let us hope sooner than later, the windows will open again, fresh air and the light of reason will reenter the room, and fear will change to courage. Hope it doesn’t take too long. Lead on, Doctor Gray! Take another small step for man, and a giant leap for all mankind! You appear to have a few more miles to go before you sleep.
It’s kind of sad to see another blind acceptance of what an individual is taught. I see this as THE big problem with our educational system. Instead of being taught to think, students are taught to believe exactly what they are told. The result is little advancement of science.
I’ve ask, off and on, if anyone who believes in AGW can explain the “cooling effect” of GHGs. Not once has anyone even understood what that means. They are so caught up in what they’ve been told they have no ability to think outside the box.
The educational system is badly compromised by the socialists, who scourge any teachers and parents daring to exhibit any signs of independence and capability. Fifty years ago teachers were teaching the tests as is so often done today, which emphasized rote memorization of which answers to put on a test. The publishers of the textbooks habitually made errors in their end of chapter test questions and answers. When students correctly thought out the problem and wrote down the correct answer for the question, they were often marked down on their test score when their correct answer was graded as an incorrect answer due to the textbook answer being incorrect. When a student challenged the errors in the textbook question and/or answer and succeeded in getting the scoring of the student answers corrected, the teacher or principle would in som instances retaliate against the student who challenged the teacher and the textbook by correcting the grades of the other students, but refused to correct the grade of the student who reasoned out and challenged the error. fifty years later, this is still going on, with some college professors privately confessing to the student that they are teaching them a lesson in life what to expect when challenging their authority.
The educational system has been transformed into a system of political indoctrination into socialist thinking and conditioning, in which independent thought and action is discouraged and sanctioned. This has been going on for so many generations now, few people who have not lived or studied the history of things before the socialist educational establishment held sway even recognize what is going on, or that any other form of education existed or was possible.
Meh, our boy has taken his ball and gone home…
Actually, when I was that age, I knew someone who gave me a lot of the same kind of useful, real-world advice that he just got. I often wonder how much easier and more productive my life would have been if I had only listened.
Then again, I often work with students and I swear they are programmed like little robots these days. The internet, far from the ideal of helping to educate and create more knowledgeable people, has made it incredibly simple for the ones with agendas to push them, the idealogues to push their ideology, and the dishonest to fleece the masses.
D. Patterson says:
June 17, 2011 at 7:43 am
The educational system is badly compromised …
Agree with your analysis 100%. The problem today is the teachers themselves are so indoctrinated that they don’t even know it. IMO, all T/F and multiple choice questions should be eliminated. That would be a start.
CodeTech says:
June 17, 2011 at 7:56 am
BINGO!!!!!!
Scott says:
“There is evidence supporting warming in the past couple decades… so to say there is zero real world evidence supporting it is a stretch.”
Sorry for not being clearer. There is no evidence supporting the AGW hypothesis. AGW may exist, but the basis for the hypothesis is computer models, not measurable, testable, empirical evidence connecting the mild warming cycle of the past century and a half with the rise in CO2.
Based on the lack of evidence, the rise in CO2 and the rise in temperature may be coincidental. The gradually rising temperature trend since the LIA has not accelerated even though CO2 has risen by ≈40%. That fact alone makes the AGW conjecture questionable.
We have a number of family members who have spent their lifetime careers in elementray, secondary, and collegiate education in roles ranging from teachers to superintendants of public instruction. When debating the merits of the Internet in education, they tend to be uniformly horrified with the prospect that the students may use the Internet to read and learn from unapproved sources, especially original surces such as pre-20th Century authors, which are not textbooks or aproved New Age books and articles.
A great way of sticking a stick into a hornets’ nest is to playfully suggest it would be a good idea to unconsolidate these school districts, stop the consumption of fossil fuels by ending most bussing of students, and returning to the concept of township and neighborhood schools with the Internet providing the technological means for delivering the best educational sources and methods at the least cost. It would also return the old fashioned teaching methods in which the brightest students were challenged to exercise thinking skills when they had to help teach their classmates.
The need to teach a subject is often the best means of exercising the mind and revealing shortcomings in knowledge when confronted with the need to teach another person. In the days of the one room schoolhouse, students helped to teach each other, while the teacher provided the necessary guidance. This has often been lost in present day schools where the educational establishment typically punishes deviations from a predetermined “lesson plan” which supposedly is the only approved subject matter and way for a student to learn. Teachers and students who would dare to deviate from the state approved lesson plan are punished. The end result are teachers, students, and a society which must not be allowed to deviate from the state sanctioned lesson plan for socialist engineering.
Hello together,
this is a hobby meteorologist from Germany. I want to refer to Point 1 of the above article I can fully agree with. I translated the dismissal letter from former member Hal Lewis for a German website of climate realists. That’s why I was so much touched by this one.
Ever since it came up that there should be a “hot spot” over the tropics I have one question: If really it would become warmer above the tropics, but not at the surface – wouldn’t that mean a general death of any tropical cumulus convection? I mean, if the vertical temperature gradient becomes smaller…
Is there any evidence that soemthing like this so far has been observed? I think not – is it?
Just askin’!
Best regards Chris Frey German Author
“There is evidence supporting “seasons” in the past couple of billionions!!
David Jay:
Actually, it was Pauline Kael who was supposed to have made the comment about Nixon, although I see on a Wikipedia page that this has been contested. (No mention about an editor of Nation, though.)
Although I agree with Chris Colose that conspiracy hypotheses can be far-fetched, my take on what’s going on could be considered even more paranoid. Unfortunately, I don’t think many people (among those of us who have managed to land outside the Matrix) have yet come to terms with what’s happened over the last few decades. By now there are generations of university graduates who have been ‘parameterized’ in such a way that the AGW hypothesis is highly appealing. It’s going to take a long while to dig ourselves out of this mess.
Richard M says:
June 17, 2011 at 7:05 am
“It’s kind of sad to see another blind acceptance of what an individual is taught. I see this as THE big problem with our educational system. Instead of being taught to think, students are taught to believe exactly what they are told. The result is little advancement of science.”
“I’ve ask, off and on, if anyone who believes in AGW can explain the “cooling effect” of GHGs. Not once has anyone even understood what that means. They are so caught up in what they’ve been told they have no ability to think outside the box.”
Unfortunately, this is true all the way up to defense of thesis for the Phd. In the old days, there was unbridled debate. Today, a student who disagrees with his thesis adviser is considered a mental case. It has flipped totally from the post war period, 1945 -1973. In my humble opinion, the causes of Political Correctness form the greater part of the causes for this phenomenon. Just think about it for a minute. If you are going to permit academic departments of Feminist Studies and feminists publish books in which they argue that science proves that the root of all evil is “maleness,” then you cannot really permit debate.
Chris: “This Joe takes the prescriptions the doctor gives me.”
Personally, I don’t, until I have researched the medicine for myself. I don’t simply accept the claim – I want to KNOW. That applies in my life to medicine, home and auto repair, and to science. And I hold all to the same standard.
Chris Frey says:
June 17, 2011 at 8:36 am
Oh yes, Lewis’s letter belongs referenced here. Start at http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/10/16/hal-lewis-my-resignation-from-the-american-physical-society/
Ref – D. Patterson says:
June 17, 2011 at 7:43 am
Time to close down the Public Schools and turn them all private, just no other way; thanks for nothing NEA. Tax write offs for tuition? I’ll bite.
Would you like to know what is the greatest casualty of all of this?
In my opinion, these Charlatans have created a populace that doubts science itself. Not just junk science, but, as a large group of scientists bought into and were actively promoting this particular brand of snake oil as genuine science, all science is thereby condemned in the mind of the larger population.
When the scientists cannot tell the difference between rigorous peer review and consensual group think, what is the average man to believe. At that point everything is propaganda. Who would fund research when everyone knows the money is going to be used to fund junkets and parties and the scientists will eventually prove whatever it was the believed in the first place. I think this is how the dark ages began. Once Galileo proved the church wrong, nobody knew what to believe anymore and society began to lose it’s cohesiveness. This happened just as the Little Ice Age began. Coincidence? My personal belief is that God works in ways which we cannot comprehend, but that this has all the hallmarks and irony of his type of humor. Just when we think we’ve got it all figured out and don’t need him anymore; a little dose of reality; people are small. The earth isn’t even large by most objective standards. If he wants us to learn a lesson; here it comes. In the exact opposite form of what we’ve convinced ourselves WE were responsible for.
I suggest we call this one the Eddy Minimum, after Jack Eddy. A man who was trying to lead the way on climate research before it was hijacked by the current crop of charlatans and opportunists posing as scientist. If anybody with any pull in science or academia would support that notion, I would greatly appreciate it.
I have a great deal of respect for meterologists that agree with the fact that “Mann-made global warming” does not exist. The question above asked about “climatology” here is my definitions. Again there are many “climatologist” that do not believe in the fairy-tale of Mann-made global warming but for those that do,there is one question-” Where is the creditable experimental data that “proves that the “greenhouse gas effect exists?”.
It appears that no one either understand my experiment or that its to long to follow the 4 parts. It does demonstrate that the “greenhouse gas effect” does not exist.
Definitions of the Climate Discussion
What is Climate?
Definition:A few thousand weather days end to end for a specific location.
How many climates are there in the world?
Every part of the country and the world has a unique climate -the south of France, the North slope of Alaska, the heart of Africa, the northeast Great Lakes region of the US ,the north of Italy, the south of Italy,thousands of different climates etc.
What is weather?
The atmospheric conditions where you are.
Can mankind control the weather?
We have tried for thousands of years from the Indian rainmaker, to the cloud seeders of the 1950-60. Man can not control the weather, then how the hell can man be controlling the climate. This whole B.S of MANN-made global warming is a fairy tale. The MANNipulation of temperature data is a crime against humanity and these criminals should be put in jail.
Be careful of the Pied Pipers of Gorezillaism- remember Hamlin- except it is happening to ignorant supposed adults.
Climatologists”- are temperature historians. If they chose to project into the future they have gone from historians to Flat Screen fortune tellers. “computer generated Models” “garbage in is garbage out”
Scott says:
June 17, 2011 at 6:40 am
He said there was no evidence supporting climate alarmism. Most of us agree that the planet has warmed over the last 100 years. The big disagreement is how much weight to give to CO2, the sun (both direct TSI and indirect factors such as the Svensmark effect), UHI and microsite contamination, factors yet unknown.
with some college professors privately confessing to the student that they are teaching them a lesson in life what to expect when challenging their authority.
—
Every time I’ve ever had a boss like that, I left the company at the first opportunity.
Such people do exist, unfortunately most of the exist in academia.
Bob Kutz says:
June 17, 2011 at 9:11 am
I am glad you don’t think we live in one giant “Halideck” . . . . with some “control” freak at the console!
In my opinion, these Charlatans have created a populace that doubts science itself. Not just junk science, but, as a large group of scientists bought into and were actively promoting this particular brand of snake oil as genuine science, all science is thereby condemned in the mind of the larger population.
—
I’m afraid that this kind of corruption has been going on for a long time, and it isn’t limited to climate scientists.
Need I remind anyone of Alar.
Chris:
You must realize that your recent education is equipping you for a career. Post graduation will commence your real education as experience and exposure begins the filtering and addition of real knowledge. Your own opinion of the extent of value, from this education, will change drastically over the coming decades. Your real education is about to begin.
I hope you successfully survive the transition from theory to “what is”. Remember, when your faith in peer review and consensus science is destroyed and you are in the depths of career despair… you may always come to WUWT for a little ” now, now… everything is going to be OK” therapy. GK
CodeTech says:
June 17, 2011 at 7:56 am
“Meh, our boy has taken his ball and gone home…”
Yes, and that’s too bad. I really wanted him to start researching what’s really in the climate codes, but alas…
I really can’t say though that I blame him for leaving. Based on what Dr. Judith Curry has gone through, it would appear that the penalty for even trying to create a bridge between the two sides in the climate debate is to severely compromise your career opportunities. In fact, I bet someone at GISS sat him down for a “talk” about appropriate internet interactions for a climate scientist.
A final thought – it would be interesting to know if Chris is paying for his education himself or if his education is being subsidized by the taxpayers. Not that subsidizing education is bad, but it’s pretty easy for him to say to us “go take a class in the physics of radiation” at a major university when he’s getting public money to do so and I would have to pay out-of-pocket.
BTW – I took a graduate-level class in Radiation Heat Transfer when I was pursuing my Ph.D. in the early 90s (Still have my copy of “Thermal Radiation Heat Transfer” by Siegel and Howell, and have used it occasionally in my present job).
Bob Kutz says:
June 17, 2011 at 9:11 am
The Eddy Minimum
This was discussed quite awhile ago as suggested by Leif Svalgaard, and others.
See:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/?s=%22eddy+minimum%22
Mark Wilson says:
June 17, 2011 at 9:31 am
Yes, agreed . . . . there is “junk” religion and “junk” government . . . . And all have the same thing in common . . . . they do not work! . . . . Because they seek to dominate what they have no “right” to dominate. And “they” seek to place burdens (taxes, tithes) on those that are already over burdened!
I’m not sure who this “student” is but I am sure he knows very little about noisy, chaotic data somehow being capable of revealing “trends” related to AGW CO2. This stuff I know, finding signals within chaotic noise. Done it. Published it. I studied noisy natural data. I added a controlled high-frequency artificial input signal under lab-controlled conditions, and then tried to find that signal in the natural noise by mathematically averaging out the natural noise. Found it. It’s called the high-frequency auditory brainstem response. Others have found it as well. The input signal resulted in an artificial (as in not chaotic) response that mechanistically and mathematically was exactly as predicted. It is a very robust finding. It is predictable and repeatable across subjects.
This “warming signal” is another kettle of fish entirely. Natural CO2 has been said to affect weather, since it is a greenhouse gas. So it is a natural part then of weather, not an artificial input, and weather cares not one bit how the CO2 got there or who owns which part. If that is true, you will not be able to say with confidence whether or not the signal you find is an AGW CO2 signal or a natural signal, if all you have is natural weather data to study, of which greenhouse affects are a natural component.
In general then, the consensus has failed to prove an artificial response to an artificial input, within the lab or in observations.
The concept of “hijacking” is wrong here. The AMS Council members are elected for short limited terms by the whole membership. They select a special committee to draft a statement that then has a period when it is open for membership comment. This statement has been around for more than four years with no dissent, even from Bill Gray himself, as far as I know. Statements are in effect for five years, and a new one is due in 2012, which is also going to be open for input by members. The use of the word “hijack” is bogus and misleading when confronted with the facts.
Theo Goodwin, skeptics are even denying what Arrhenius says, as he included the water vapor feedback in his estimate too. You don’t have to go beyond Arrhenius to make the argument that prevails today.
Harry Dale Huffman, I’m commenting here as well as on your blog directly.
What you have done is proved that, within experimental error, the greenhouse gas warming of Earth and Venus is equivalent. This is clear evidence that there is nothing special about CO2 in the atmosphere that would cause it to warm the atmosphere. However, that in and of itself is a misunderstanding of the greenhouse gas effect.
We would expect that since both atmospheres are primarily a single gas (N2 for Earth, CO2 for Venus) that the atmosphere would be saturated on that gas’s absorption spectrum. In fact, one would expect Earth’s greenhouse gas absorption to be greater due to the Oxygen band also being saturated. Unfortunately, this doesn’t say anything about trace gases, which the primary matter of debate.
Sorry, but the “There is no greenhouse effect” conclusion does not follow from the evidence. What you have proved is “There is no magical greenhouse effect caused by CO2 that isn’t caused by gases on Earth”. While this invalidates the “Venusification” nonsense by the alarmists as well the “terraform Venus” simulation in the classic climate model SimEarth, it does NOT present any evidence that would falsify the greenhouse gas theory. You merely proved that Venus (and therefore CO2) is not exceptional in this regard.
Please issue a correction. We need good science on our side to defeat the human-killing idioticy of the IPCC, not strawman fallacies.
CodeTech says:
June 17, 2011 at 7:56 am
“Meh, our boy has taken his ball and gone home…”
There’s been quite a ramp up recently of rabid believers commenting on many of the skeptic blogs or responding to skeptics on alarmist blogs. Mainly resulting in distraction, as in this thread.
Has anyone else noticed?
What about there being only about half as many temperature recording stations as there were 50 or so years ago? One in Arizona out in the desert is no longer in use; the one that’s recording data is on a stretch of asphalt at the U of A. Think that one’s giving higher temp data than the earlier two combined? As I understand it, the ones no longer in use were generally in rural (i.e., cooler) areas. A practical question: If it takes dozens or hundreds of engineers to write an OS or application, and even then the software likely has some bugs, how can a relatively few scientists write a program that models the whole world’s climate unto eternity and get something believable?
As I read through the dialog from and to Chris Colose several things occurred to me.
First, Chris Colose, you came here for this post with a pre-determined low opinion about the qualitiy of WUWT. You appeared to act in a condescending and consensus fawning manner that you knew (from previous visits here) would create the response you got. Chris, you have done this before at WUWT. Why did you come here? Did you really come here in an open search for knowledge and open debate or for emotional kicks?
Secondly, Chris Colose, I was thinking of you when I encountered one of Mark Lynas’ comments at Judith Curry’s site on the subject of Lynas starting to be attacked by his old Consensus/AGW friends/colleagues because of his recent critical position on blatant IPCC conflict of interest. This following quote from Lynas may give you food for thought regarding your consensus acceptance of climate science per se.
Good luck in you climate science career.
John
“Theo Goodwin, skeptics are even denying what Arrhenius says, as he included the water vapor feedback in his estimate too. You don’t have to go beyond Arrhenius to make the argument that prevails today.”
—
Regardless of how many people decided to add water vapor, there still isn’t a shred of evidence that more CO2 leads to more water vapor.
It’s not denialism to when what you are denying is untrue.
A statement of the the Scientific Method and the Scientific Computer Modeling Method:
The Scientific Method
1. Observe a phenomenon carefully.
2. Develop a hypothesis that possibly explains the phenomenon.
3. Perform a test in an attempt to disprove or invalidate the hypothesis. If the hypothesis is disproven, return to steps 1 and 2.
4. A hypothesis that stubbornly refuses to be invalidated may be correct. Continue testing.
The Scientific Computer Modeling Method
1. Observe a phenomenon carefully.
2. Develop a computer model that mimics the behavior of the phenomenon.
3. Select observations that conform to the model predictions and dismiss observations as of inadequate quality that conflict with the computer model.
4. In instances where all of the observations conflict with the model, “refine” the model with fudge factors to give a better match with pesky facts. Assert that these factors reveal fundamental processes previously unknown in association with the phenomenon. Under no circumstances willingly reveal your complete data sets, methods, or computer codes.
5. Upon achieving a model of incomprehensible complexity that still somewhat resembles the phenomenon, begin to issue to the popular media dire predictions of catastrophe that will occur as far in the future as possible, at least beyond your professional lifetime.
6. Continue to “refine” the model in order to maximize funding and the awarding of Nobel Prizes.
7. Dismiss as unqualified, ignorant, and conspiracy theorists all who offer criticisms of the model.
Repeat steps 3 through 7 indefinitely.
Chris Colose says:
June 16, 2011 at 11:43 pm
“This only leaves me to conclude that those, such as KevinUK who claim that the greenhouse-based physics underlying modern global warming is not solid, are only doing so based on unfamiliarity with the literature. ”
Well, Chris, it may take you some decades of experience to realize that physics questions are settled not by what appears in the literature, but by what appears in the real world. On the other hand, you might just languish in the ivory tower of empty ideas forever.
Roy Tucker says:
June 17, 2011 at 2:31 pm
“The Scientific Computer Modeling Method
1. Observe a phenomenon carefully.
2. Develop a computer model that mimics the behavior of the phenomenon.
3. Select observations that conform to the model predictions and dismiss observations as of inadequate quality that conflict with the computer model.
4. In instances where all of the observations conflict with the model, “refine” the model with fudge factors to give a better match with pesky facts. Assert that these factors reveal fundamental processes previously unknown in association with the phenomenon. Under no circumstances willingly reveal your complete data sets, methods, or computer codes.”
You have made a noble effort here, but I want to suggest some corrections.
3. Select some output from the model and declare that it represents some natural phenomenon, whether that be a natural process on Earth, such as La Nina, or one originating in the sun, such as various kinds of radiation.
3A. Repeat step 3 until you have covered either all natural processes that interest you or all the output sets that
strike you as fitting together.
3B. Make more runs (simulations).
3C. Rejigger the natural processes and output sets until you have something of beauty – in your exalted opinion.
3D. Continue as long as you have grant money.
4. Present selected results to the MSM and call them evidence, though they are evidence for no one but you and
have no bearing on anything but the computer model itself.
4A. Alert the MSM to the fact that your computer model (actually, selected parts of it) indicates increasing
temperatures on Earth into infinity or something of that sort.
4B. Bash your critics. If anyone should state that the facts on Earth differ from the output of your computer model
then label them deniers and shout that they do not understand computer modeling. On the latter point, you
cannot be wrong because, as a matter of fact, no one but you understands your computer model.
4C. Write Op-Ed pieces in which you bash the public as rubes who have no understanding of science. Ignore
the fact that what you say about your computer model and its output has no bearing to science except in
your imagination.
Mark Wilson says:
June 17, 2011 at 2:26 pm
“Theo Goodwin, skeptics are even denying what Arrhenius says, as he included the water vapor feedback in his estimate too. You don’t have to go beyond Arrhenius to make the argument that prevails today.”
And what, pray tell, did Arrhenius have for evidence? How did he measure water vapor feedback? What tools did he use to get readings at 0, 5, or 10 miles above the Amazon rain forest? The answer is that Arrhenius failed to create one or more physical hypotheses which could explain and predict the behavior of clouds or other kinds of water vapor in an environment of increasing CO2 concentrations. Also, do not forget that when Arrhenius was active there was only an eeny-teensy bit of manmade CO2.
John Whitman says:
June 17, 2011 at 1:59 pm
This following quote from Lynas may give you food for thought regarding your consensus acceptance of climate science per se.
Mark Lynas said: “ I think part of the problem for Greenpeace is that they (and their supporters) actually see everything they do as being good for the planet, ergo justifiable in principle. . . . Same with all the greens attacking me now – they just ‘know’ they are saving the planet, so anyone who makes a criticism is worthy of very harsh responses.”
This could be a direct quotation from Lenin or one of his minions, though he was urging others to hold this view that the end justifies the means. Everyone should read Bertolt Brecht’s “The Measures Taken.” Yes, Brecht was a communist and this is a play, but Brecht really nailed the problems with Lenin’s doctrine.
Theo Goodwin says:
This is why it often becomes impossible to discuss climate change. Theo has just denied nearly two centuries of basic physics – yet not one regular commenter on this blog attempts to correct him. Fourier is a scientific giant – but Theo dismisses his work and everyone here moves on without comment.
It’s fine to argue that sensitivities are too high or too low; that the dataset is too small to be predictive; or any of a hundred different arguments based on SCIENCE. [Snip. First and last warning. ~dbs, mod.]
I suspect that most readers of this blog know that the theory of GHG is settled science. Without GHG we’d be living on ‘snowball Earth.’ The fact that atmospheric water vapor, CO2, methane, et al create a feedback system that warms the planet is not an admission that the AGW hypothesis is true, but apparently some like Theo must think so – else why would he deny or dismiss 200 years of basic physics? And it’s an interesting question why no one here would tell him he’s full of bovine excrement. If an AGW supporter made equally ludicrous statements here, there’d be umpteen dozen posts ridiculing his/her position.
An honest debate or argument is a good way to learn – but it’s impossible to even have a good argument amidst this type of herd mentality.
Any good scientist should also be
Pamela Gray says:
June 17, 2011 at 10:13 am
I’m not sure who this “student” is but I am sure he knows very little about noisy, chaotic data somehow being capable of revealing “trends” related to AGW CO2. This stuff I know, finding signals within chaotic noise. Done it. Published it. I studied noisy natural data. I added a controlled high-frequency artificial input signal under lab-controlled conditions, and then tried to find that signal in the natural noise by mathematically averaging out the natural noise. Found it. It’s called the high-frequency auditory brainstem response. Others have found it as well. The input signal resulted in an artificial (as in not chaotic) response that mechanistically and mathematically was exactly as predicted. It is a very robust finding. It is predictable and repeatable across subjects.
This “warming signal” is another kettle of fish entirely. Natural CO2 has been said to affect weather, since it is a greenhouse gas. So it is a natural part then of weather, not an artificial input, and weather cares not one bit how the CO2 got there or who owns which part. If that is true, you will not be able to say with confidence whether or not the signal you find is an AGW CO2 signal or a natural signal, if all you have is natural weather data to study, of which greenhouse affects are a natural component.
In general then, the consensus has failed to prove an artificial response to an artificial input, within the lab or in observations.
=============================
Repeated for effect. Brilliant. I love Pamela’s style.
She is lady-like….but don’t cross her. Don’t cross her. Would you cross a lioness with her young? NO.
The indirect “I’m not sure who this student is”….is rather indirectly direct.
I love it.
Beyond that…the meat of what is being said here…is incontrovertible.
Why not give it a try, Chris C?
Bet you can’t make a noticeable nick.
Bravo Pamela. Keep it up.
Chris (M)
Norfolk, VA, USA
Theo Goodwin says: June 17, 2011 at 6:54 am
Ammonite: “James Hansens 20+ year old model yields a climate sensitivity of +4.2C per doubling of CO2…”
It shows that Hansen was dead wrong.
Hi Theo. Hansen was correct that temperature would rise, but it seems highly probable that his model has over-estimated transient climate sensitivity. So what? Others have built upon his work, as is the way of science.
Pamela Gray says:
Absolutely correct. Who could disagree with that? And since we know how the system responds to ‘natural’ CO2 and we also know that the system doesn’t discriminate between natural and ‘artificial’ CO2, then we know how the system responds to ‘artificial’ CO2.
Thanks for elucidating the point.
…and thank goodness the climate system does not respond at all to variances in CO2’s concentration. Always amazes me how some who call themselves scientists just ignore the real data that has been out there in proper papers for years… must have a thumb in the pie.
Hi Mark.
Mark Wilson says @ June 17, 2011 at 2:26 pm “Regardless of how many people decided to add water vapor, there still isn’t a shred of evidence that more CO2 leads to more water vapor. It’s not denialism to when what you are denying is untrue.”
Ouch – I thought the d-word was off limits here.
Anyway I guess it depends on how you define “shred”, but this would seem to be some evidence, no?
‘Data from the satellite-based Special Sensor Microwave Imager
(SSM/I) show that the total atmospheric moisture content over
oceans has increased by 0.41 kg/m2 per decade since 1988. Results
from current climate models indicate that water vapor increases of
this magnitude cannot be explained by climate noise alone. In a
formal detection and attribution analysis using the pooled results
from 22 different climate models, the simulated ‘‘fingerprint’’
pattern of anthropogenically caused changes in water vapor is
identifiable with high statistical confidence in the SSM/I data.
Experiments in which forcing factors are varied individually suggest
that this fingerprint ‘‘match’’ is primarily due to human caused
increases in greenhouse gases and not to solar forcing or
recovery from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Our findings
provide preliminary evidence of an emerging anthropogenic signal
in the moisture content of earth’s atmosphere.”
http://www.pnas.org/content/104/39/15248.full.pdf
Re Tyndall and ‘if there was no water vapour in the atmosphere the Earth would be freezing’
Deserts anyone?
AGWScience is a set of beliefs about the physical nature of the world we see around us, it is science fiction. It cannot debate real world scientists because its base premises are fantastical and not real.
AGWScience has created its science fiction world by mixing and mis-matching properties and processes and taking laws out of context from the real physical world, even though very well-known and taught and in continuing real world physical applications, and given them a twist which has created an impossible world, an Alice through the looking glass world of being able to believe any number of impossible things before breakfast. Those defending AGW memes are doing so from a distinct body of work, an entity in its own right with its own particular and distinct beliefs about the properties and workings of the world, and, these beliefs have been introduced into the education system over the last few decades to the point where even those sceptical of AGW claims from knowledge of their own science disciplines, applied and theoretical, will take ‘on trust’ an AGWScience variation when not in their field.
In AGWScience’s world, for example, the molecules of nitrogen and oxygen and carbon dioxide are given the qualities of of ideal gas, therefore there is no sound in this world and they can’t hear arguments from real physical disciplines which actually know the difference, why no real gas obeys ideal gas law. However, for example, there are ‘skeptics’ who take seriously the AGWScience fiction claim that no thermal infrared reaches the Earth’s surface and that it is instead the short wave visible reflective radiation, light, and the short wave either side which converts to heat the land and oceans of the Earth, as per the claim in the Keil/Trenberth 1997 energy budget. Thermal infrared has been taken out of the equation in the downwelling of the budget.
What Tyndall failed to take into consideration in his equation is the Water Cycle’s main role of taking heat away from the Earth. Without the Water Cycle, ‘vapour in the air’, the Earth’s temp would be 67°C. Think deserts.
The ‘freezing’ Earth, would be one without the atmosphere altogether, which is the real ‘Greenhouse’ around the planet, the fluid and voluminous and weighty gas Air without which the Earth temp would be -18°C.
The confusion created here is subtle, for an example of an attempt at deconstruction of the AGWScience presentation having to ‘adjust’ for the missing half of the Water Cycle please see my post http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/05/30/skeptic-strategy-for-talking-about-global-warming/#comment-673855. I’m quite sure the majority here could improve on it.
What I have seen in all these discussions is the failure of real science and scientists to make any impact on the core problem here, that AGWScience as a whole needs to thoroughly debunked, in its manipulations of the basics, by a co-ordinated effort from the many disciplines involved; as Lucy Skywalker has proposed re her wiki set up.
I see lot’s of folks praising Bill Gray’s article here. I don’t want to spend too much time tearing apart his whole letter but let’s look at some context here and at lease analyze one sentence in the first paragraph:
“We believe that humans are having little or no significant influence on the global climate and that the many Global Circulation Climate Model (GCMs) results and the four IPCC reports do not realistically give accurate future projections.”
1. Science is not based on belief, it’s based on math and physics and the CI.
2. The GCM’s are not accurate.
3. The GCM’s are not accurate because they are models and models can’t be accurate because they are just models, but they can be used to test observations to see if they represent reality in a meaningful manner.
4. Who cares if the models are not perfect? They are not even needed to see that AGW is occurring. All you really need is the basic physics of the greenhouse effect, the radiative forcing potential the negative albedo calcs., the amounts of GHG’s at various altitudes and to test the vertical pattern of warming along with changes in outgoing LWR to see if it fits with the physics and observations… Well fancy that, It does.
So Gray’s claim that the AMS leadership is capitulating to the lobby of the climate modelers is incorrect. Climate models are only one single line of evidence among many.
– The vertical pattern of warming fits
– The changes in the Hadley cell fits
– The increase in atmospheric. moisture fits
– The decrease in soil moisture fits
– The increase in sea surface temp fits
– The increase in atmospheric temp fits
– the increase ice mass loss fits
– the heat trapping capacity of a specified amount of increased GHG’s fits with the increase of radiative forcing and the industrial aerosols negative albedo fits
– The isotopic signature fits
– The horizontal pattern of warming fits
– the land sea temperature profile fits
– The seasonal pattern changes fit
– the latitudinal pattern changes fit
– The changes in outgoing long wave radiation fit
I could of course go on and the list is very very long, especially when you add the physical basis for paleo comparison. But the point is, we simply don’t need models to see that this particular global warming event is human caused. So Gray’s argument is false because he apparently doesn’t know the whole story, while simultaneously claiming, or inferring that he does; which is very confusing because some choose to trust him because he is a professor even though he has no scientific basis in his argument on this subject. This is referred to as argument from eminence, but it is not a scientific argument.
Does he deserve a seat at a table arguing with scientists that actually do know how these mechanisms work and the relative confidence levels in the constituent aspects of related science? Not really. It’s like letting a whiny kid get what he wants just to shut him up. That’s not science, it’s bad parenting.
It ‘seems’ the non, or less, scientific crowd view will always complain that they are being shut out of the argument, no matter how many times they repeat points without relevant substance. But in science, if they want to be heard, they need to publish a paper. And if your physics don’t stand up to the stronger, higher confidence level of science, and you can’t get published, it’s not because you are being shut out because you think other scientists are wrong, it’s because your assertions are not supported by the science. This is apparently the category that Gray falls into.
The AMS has not been infiltrated by liberals. it is drawing conclusions based on the known physics and observations. Science truly doesn’t care about my, your, or anyone else’s opinion.
Roy Tucker says:
June 17, 2011 at 2:31 pm
“The Scientific Computer Modeling Method” . . . . .
Gee Roy . . . . where I come from the is the epitome of one of the “Huckster” strategies . . .
Is that the Mark I or Mark II Huckster Model?
Theo Goodwin and others here are asserting that as the oceans warm, and they cover 70% of the earth’s surface, this has no effect on the total water vapor in the atmosphere. Does this sound correct from the physics standpoint? Should not the atmospheric boundary layer maintain water saturation near the surface that would increase water vapor amount with temperature? To say water vapor does not increase as SST does flies in the face of known physics. Arrhenius, as a physicist would, realized a hundred years ago that the relative humidity is a better approximation to what is preserved, not the water vapor amount, hence the water vapor feedback.
John P. Reisman says:
“Who cares if the models are not perfect? They are not even needed to see that AGW is occurring.”
Thanx for expressing your true beliefs, but there is misrepresentation in the first sentence. The models are crap. They can’t predict their way out of a wet paper bag. The only way they come anywhere close to hindcasting is by endless tweaking after the fact, and they all fail at forecasting. Not a single GCM predicted the flat to cooling global temperatures over the past decade+.
Your second sentence is based on belief, not on measurable, testable evidence, because there is no such evidence. The rest of your post is just as easy to debunk. Your “fits” disregard the null hypothesis, which has never been falsified, and they are simply an Argumentum ad Ignorantium: “Since we can’t think of any other explanation, then AGW must be the cause.” That is simply an evidence-free conjecture.
The fact is that despite CO2 steadily rising, global temperatures are not following as has been endlessly predicted. When you have empirical evidence of global harm from CO2 per the scientific method, wake me. Until then, the only sensible conclusion is that CO2 is harmless.
As Dwight D. Eisenhower said in his 1961 “military industrial complex” speech: “Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashon, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers. The prospect of the domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded. Yet, holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become captive of a scientific technological elite.”
Jim D,
The problem with your argument is that global relative humidity is declining.
Jim D says:
June 18, 2011 at 8:49 am
To say water vapor does not increase as SST does flies in the face of known physics.
=====================================================================
Then either the physics is wrong, temperature measurements are wrong, our understanding of climate/computer models is wrong, ……………something ain’t right
Because relative humidity has been going down in direct proportion to CO2 going up………..
Smokey, you are probably aware that the column water vapor is dominated by that near the surface, which is controlled by ocean temperatures, and the total is increasing, and that is what matters for the greenhouse effect. I was answering people who seemed to think the water vapor wasn’t increasing in total. At least your figures show it is because for a 1 degree increase RH would have to drop 7% in the whole column to compensate and keep water vapor constant.
Latitude, see my reply to Smokey.
Actually in a transient CO2 increase phase, RH might drop because the land warms faster than the oceans. This is not necessarily a good thing, because it can lead to more frequent droughts and heat waves.
Smokey says: June 18, 2011 at 8:59 am
To be quite honest, I care very little for anonymous voices on the internet, but since you think certain things are crap, can you point me to one single paper, or a plethora of papers, that have survived peer review and peer response to support your tentative hypotheses presented?
Kevin, I fail to see how you proved your unspoken point (and you would have improved your post by stating your point clearly). Let me correct your post as if you did the work or are reporting on a peer-reviewed article that did the work.
Assuming the signals for natural ENSO/atmospheric neutral temperature outputs, natural ENSO/atmospheric non-neutral temperature outputs, and anthropogenic-only temperature outputs are mathematically known or hypothesized,
1. Non-chaotic artificial inputs present at the time of a selected temperature series span (IE anthropogenic CO2 only -not all of CO2 just the anthropogenic part- along with its anthropogenically increased water vapor), were determined, mechanized and mathematically calculated. A resultant anthropogenic trend was hypothesized (what the anthropogenic-only temperature output signal should look like).
2. The observed chaotic ENSO-neutral noise was removed from the observed temperature series, leaving the non-chaotic inputs in place and the resultant observed trend. This served as the data series: A neutralized data series trend with nothing but non-chaotic non-neutral drivers in place with error bands.
3. From that series the non-chaotic natural trend was separated from the man-made non-chaotic trend.
4. Finally, the a priori hypothesized anthropogenic-only trend was compared with the control (natural non-chaotic trend), and the observed anthropogenic non-chaotic trend.
What did you find Kevin?
Jim D,
You argued in effect that relative humidity is rising because of global warming. I posted a chart showing that relative humidity has been delining for decades, at all altitudes. Tap dancing won’t change the fact that your premise has been falsified.
Jim D says:
June 18, 2011 at 10:00 am
Latitude, see my reply to Smokey.
Actually in a transient CO2 increase phase, RH might drop because the land warms faster than the oceans.
===========================================================================
Might? when the land is not warming faster than the oceans either?
…got any more rabbits in that hat?
Smokey says: June 18, 2011 at 8:59 am
Okay, here’s a more detailed response to your post:
1. I avoid expressing beliefs, I express representations based on validated studies.
2. Which models are crap and prove it.
3. a single decade is too short a time to have large scale predictability due to natural variation largely based on ocean heat content overturn
4. Funny thing about observations, they are observable so your unfounded ‘belief’ that we can’t actually see evidence is a bit weird.
5. Re. null hypothesis? What are you talking about? The amount of evidence has not reached epic proportions so the only reasonably null hypothesis is can you prove current global warming on trend is not human caused.
6. As to falsifiability. The models are absolutely falsifiable. The model based perdition’s in the 60’s by Hansen, Manabe, and Washington demonstrated that the vertical pattern of warming would include stratospheric cooling and troposphere warming, therefore the models were falsifiable… only problem is they turned out to be correct.
7. Your saying I’m arguing from ignorance. Well isn’t that just a pot meet kettle moment.
John P. Reisman,
First, provide testable, falsifiable, empirical evidence showing global harm due specifically to CO2. If you can, then I will provide your citations.
I didn’t say RH would rise, just column water vapor. There is a difference.
The equilibrium response would have RH staying constant, as Arrhenius suggested. However, because the ocean has a circulation, and deep cooler water comes to the surface, its response is expected to be slower than land where no such effect exists, and we see the faster land warming from the surface observations, which is why the transient response is different from the equilibrium one. There are too many factors to know the full transient effects from simple Arrhenius-type one-dimensional calculations, because it relies on how the different ocean and land changes affect the atmospheric circulation (monsoons, etc.), but our current climate state is a transient one for sure, the degree of which is a rarity in recent climatological history.
I think this is a very pretty picture indeed! Has lots a pretty colors and very lovely patterns and balance!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vostok_420ky_4curves_insolation.jpg
Smokey says: June 18, 2011 at 11:04 am
As is typical for those that don’t understand all the teleconnections and evidentiarry support, the most solid proof regarding AGW does not lie in a single piece of evidence but rather all the evidence when considered together.
However, there are already indications that the CO2 increase is problematic.
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/plant-decline.html
The FACE experiments during the Bush W. administration were falsifiable and some researchers tested protien counts and the indicatios were that anythign that does not fix nitrogen, such as legumes dropped proteins.
Other lines of evidence regaridn CO2 is ocean acidificaiotn which is affecting phytoplanckon.
But you’ve probably already read the studies on that, right?
John P. Reisman ,
Teleconnections, Hm-m-m? They must be like treemometers. But I suppose they’re robust teleconnections, eh?☺
You are flat wrong about the effect of CO2 on C3 and C4 plant growth. More CO2 enhances both. In fact, there is plenty of empirical evidence showing that more CO2 is beneficial:
click1 [click on + sign to embiggen page; see ‘conclusions’]
click2
click3
click4
click5
But since you made a [sadly, failed] effort to show global damage due to CO2, at least you tried. I will be out for the afternoon, but when I get back home I’ll respond to your 11:02 am post.
Nice touch Smokey . . . Click5 is great . . .
John P. Reisman says:
June 18, 2011 at 11:55 am
Other lines of evidence regaridn CO2 is ocean acidificaiotn which is affecting phytoplanckon.
========================================================================
John, I have a question about ocean acidification, and can never get a straight answer…
…perhaps you know
Marine bryozoans lay down a calcium skeleton and show up in the fossil record in the early part of the Ordovician Period, about 470 million years ago, when atmospheric CO2 levels were ~4000-5000 ppm….
…how did they do that?
Jim D says:
June 18, 2011 at 11:06 am
Great hunches. Do you have one or more rigorously formulated physical hypotheses which can be used to explain these matters? Now, that would be interesting.
John P. Reisman says:
June 18, 2011 at 11:02 am
“6. As to falsifiability. The models are absolutely falsifiable. The model based perdition’s in the 60′s by Hansen, Manabe, and Washington demonstrated that the vertical pattern of warming would include stratospheric cooling and troposphere warming, therefore the models were falsifiable… only problem is they turned out to be correct.”
Physical hypotheses are falsifiable when they are rigorously formulated. If you have physical hypotheses then you can explain and predict the phenomena in question. Models do not contain physical hypotheses because if you have the physical hypotheses then you do not need a model. Models, not being physical hypotheses, can no more predict than your shoes can.
Simulations cannot be used as evidence. Simulations produce numbers. Someone has to interpret those numbers; that is, the numbers do not interpret themselves, nor does the computer code which generates them. Real science involves real data collected from the real world and, for that reason, it does not need interpretation.
Anthony,
you say: “REPLY: This is Chris Colose, inexperienced student, http://www.aos.wisc.edu/~colose/ whatever. ”
At the same time, you allow the following to remain unmoderated:
“john(UK) says:
June 16, 2011 at 2:48 pm
WHAT IS MORE OBVIOUS IS THAT MR COLOSE IS A SELF OPINIONATED YOUNG PRAT”
And then you speak in a somewhat outraged tone of Chris’s “predictable insults”.
Hmm. I think I’ll draw my own conclusions on that! So will most casual visitors.
See you around…… John
Smokey says: June 18, 2011 at 12:30 pm
How can ‘I’ be flat wrong about plant growth? ‘I” didn’t do any of the studies. So how can ‘I’ be wrong?
1. I never said CO2 does not increase plant mass. It does.
2. The problem is not plant growth, but plants burning up and releasing all their CO2 back into the atmosphere.
I have not sadly failed anything. Or, are you denying that CO2 is absorbing in the oceans and raising the PH levels?
But actually, your question is a red herring anyway. You are distracted by plant growth from plant burning due to increased soil moisture content loss and increased drought potentials on periodic scales as well as seemingly ignoring the productivity losses form increased warming due to excess CO2 in the atmosphere, which by the way will be one of the primary cost issues regarding damage due to CO2.
Smokey says: June 18, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Oh and bigger plants do not necessarily mean more proteins, which was the indication by one particular study during the FACE experiments. Sorry, I don’t have the ref on it though, but I do remember reading it somewhere. And besides if the crops burn due to the warming, that is also a cost that we need to be thinking about.