Oh, I found some comedy gold posted on the NASA website What on Earth is That?
It features a talk by NASA GISS warmist Gavin Schmidt, who apparently took a trip to understand that all important metric of the Arctic climate; polar bears. A video of his talk follows. Apparently, Martha Stewart came along for the ride and made a festive thermometer cozy for Gavin.
Gosh, how did he tear himself away from his taxpayer funded blogging duties at Real Climate while he’s still got hundreds of climate reporting stations in Australia that haven’t been updated since 1992 in the GISTEMP database? Good thing he has his priorities straight.
Somebody at NASA writes on that blog:
You just can’t go wrong with a title to a talk like that. The clip below is from an hour-long talk that Gavin Schmidt gave to colleagues at GISS about his visit to Churchill, a tiny town in Canada that’s known as the polar bear capitol of the world. Yes, Martha Stewart came along as well. The talk doesn’t start until about 1:48, and Schmidt’s interview with Stewart starts at 48:18
And here’s the video:
This note is on the video, presumably from Gavin. This video says it has had 35 views so far, so I expect WUWT readers will make up the bulk of the viewership.
Title: Polar bears, Martha Stewart and me
Abstract:
Polar bears are frequently poster children for climate change issues, but until recently I had very little idea of the details of threat posed by continuing Arctic change on their life-cycle. In this presentation I’ll share what I learned on a recent trip along with some other, perhaps more recognisable, New Yorkers, to Churchill, Manitoba
“Polar Bear Capital of the World”!
And, here’s Gavin’s slide show in PDF form:
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/meetings/lunch/2011a/20110209-Gavin_Schmidt.pdf
UPDATE: For those of you that would like some peer reviewed science to help de-gavinify your friends that fear “global warming” will bring on the demise of the polar bear, here’s this from commenter “Jimbo” who writes:
It seems to me that Polar Bears are more robust than previously thought.
and…
This is the perfect thread to show how vulnerable Polar Bears are.
Estimating the Energetic Contribution of Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) Summer Diets to the Total Energy Budget
The analysis indicated that it is possible for polar bears to maintain their body mass while on shore by feeding on arctic charr and seal blubber. Polar bears of body masses up to 280 kg could gain sufficient energy from blueberries to match the daily energy loss.
http://www.asmjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1644/08-MAMM-A-103R2.1
We describe an observation of a polar bear cub on its mother’s back while the mother was swimming among ice floes in Svalbard, Norwegian Arctic.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/8051204vu73l320w/
Also:
and…
Polar Bears Thrive While Arctic Warms Up!
A survey of the animals’ numbers in Canada’s eastern Arctic has revealed that they are thriving, not declining, because of mankind’s interference in the environment.
In the Davis Strait area, a 140,000-square kilometre region, the polar bear population has grown from 850 in the mid-1980s to 2,100 today.
Polar bears are distributed throughout the Arctic in 19 populations, comprising an estimated total of 20 000–25 000 bears (Marine Mammal Commission, 2006).
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Considering that apparently the polar bear has descended from some Irish brown bear, this must be Gavin’s version of the Orange march…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jul/07/polar-bear-ancestors-ireland
Climate doesn’t kill polar bears, bullets do!
From 5,000 to 25,000 in 40 years. Not bad. Take out the human AWG (Automatic Wild Guns) and you have recovery. Go figure.
I wonder if “The Tundra Bus” is all electric or just a hybrid-electric.
It’s polar o’bear: Scientists reveal giant mammals’ ancestry can be traced to IRELAND
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2012363/Its-polar-obear-Scientists-reveal-giant-mammals-ancestry-traced-IRELAND.html
Ed Mertin says:
July 8, 2011 at 7:25 pm
But she got me a 90 day restriction for using funds from a sale that hadn’t cleared and sold after 1 day.
There was an alert you click past about daytrading, wash rules, tax treatments, and so on. You can’t blame Martha Stewart for your clicking past that. Don’t ask about MLP’s in IRAs. They come with warning days or months later.
Think positive. Mix a bit or Martha and Dave Barry: It’s a good thing and still the UN does nothing.
I’m sure Martha served steaming bowls of: http://i39.tinypic.com/wklr28.jpg
dp says:
July 8, 2011 at 8:58 pm
A couple of problems: The Icefields Parkway is in Alberta, and access to the photo of your Harley is forbidden.
Have you seen this one?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8622987/Polar-bears-traced-back-to-Britain.html
I can’t believe I watched the whole thing!
I’ve probably seen 30 of these “sack lunch talks” at work. I missed perhaps 10, given by people who I knew would spoil my lunch. Sometimes the company provides lunch and sometimes the employees bring their own. I’d rate Gavin’s talk as about as informative as those of our summer interns (but he’s not nearly as cute). Someone should tell him that “defecate” and “feces” are better word choices than “dump” and “turds” when giving a talk. Yes, the visiting undergrads will reward him with a snicker but it’s more respectful of his audience to use the appropriate words and would give him an air of knowing something about science.
Of course, that’s the purpose of these talks. It gives the scientist the opportunity to give presentations in front of “friendlies”, get tips to improve their speaking abilities and style, learn to handle Q&A sessions and justify the money spent on travel. Other employees like them because they get paid to watch and often get free lunch to boot!
My assessment of presentation: C Information: D He went on a tour and reported what he learned from those wishing to encourage more tours and promote “save the polar bear” organizations-contributions accepted, thank you.
One thing baffled me! How did they get the guy, who always sat behind me and coughed or cleared his throat every 10 seconds, to go to Gavin’s talk???
Note to Beth (should you happen to be lurking), your talks on the African Rift and Antarctica were outstanding! Gavin is probably 10-15 years your senior and doesn’t have enough time left in life to hone his skills to your level AND you take better pictures.
Thanks WWF
Thanks WWF
I’m still waiting for someone to explain how a WARM blooded mammal wouldn’t actually like a warmer Arctic. (And don’t tell me they’re too stupid to hunt on land).
Rattus,
I’ll say, with 95% certainty, that all Polar Bears International gave Gavin was a brochure and contrrbution envelope. What makes you think Martha even knew, when she booked, that Gavin would be there or would pay his way? I don’t remember hearing any comment about who paid. I do know about the ease of arranging such trips with taxpayers’ money, though. I say you made a bad guess because you have no idea. Not your fault. Who woulda thunk it?
Polar bears come from Ireland. Don’t know why anyone is fussed.
http://earthsky.org/biodiversity/ancestral-mother-of-polar-bears-traced-to-ireland
Joe,
You pondered, “i always wonder how many gov’t “workers” spend all day in their cubicles just surfing the internet all day and generally wasting time on the taxpayer’s dime…”
Here is your answer on the NSF alone:
http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=f6cd2052-b088-44c3-b146-5baa5c01552a
“Among the fraudulent and inappropriate expenditures highlighted in this report:
47 joint trips to the tune of $144,152 for a pair of romantically involved NSF employees (p.17);
Bowling and amusement park trips using research funds (p.19);
Pervasive porn-surfing by NSF employees (p.15);
Millions spent on alcohol and unrelated costs (p.18)”
Is that rabbi Schmidt screaming “DENIER!” ?
Sorry. I am 60 years old. Life is too short to view stuff like that.
OFF TOPIC: NEW ERUPTION IN ICELAND. POSSIBLY KATLA:
A small eruption seems to have started a few hours ago in Mýrdalsjökull near Katla. This could even be Katla. The water level in the river Múlakvísl started to increase at midnight and now the river has cut off the main road in the south. Picture here: http://mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2011/07/09/hringvegurinn_i_sundur/
This is called “jökulhlaup”, see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B6kulhlaup
Still no volcanic plume, so this may be a small eruption under the ice.
.
Map: http://www.ruv.is/frett/mogulega-litid-gos-undir-jokli
Earthquakes; http://www.vedur.is/skjalftar-og-eldgos/jardskjalftar/
News here in Icelendic: http://www.mbl.is
“he’s still got hundreds of climate reporting stations in Australia that haven’t been updated since 1992 in the GISTEMP database?”
Since climate is 30 years of weather, he doesn’t have to do that until the year 2022.
In the video, comments about Mitch Taylor(?) at around 0:52:40.
A few years ago, my youngest daughter (helicopter pilot) was working at the Alaskan North Slope. Her colleagues have traced a male bear which did swim over 500 km from the polar ice to mainland in only three days. No problem at all for bears to swim such a distance…
KATLA:
This webcam should be pointed to Katla. The glacier seems to be covered with clouds at the moment. http://www.vedur.is/skjalftar-og-eldgos/jardskjalftar/
The 128 meter long bridge over the river Múlakvísl has disappeared. There is a strong hydrogen sulphide (H2S) smell from the river. People in some places south of Katla have been asked to leave their homes. The road over Mýrdalssandur has been closed. Geologist say that this may or may not be a start of a big eruption.
This webcam is however showing another type of eruption every five minutes: http://live.mila.is/geysir/
Gosh, how did he tear himself away from his taxpayer funded blogging duties at Real Climate while he’s still got hundreds of climate reporting stations in Australia that haven’t been updated since 1992 in the GISTEMP database? Good thing he has his priorities straight.
He is probably not in any hurry as a few of those stations not updated from the 60’s and 70’s (as shown on the list) are from higher altitudes and rural areas – wouldn’t want to skew the figures with colder readings would we? Nice to see that the urban and airport readings are all much more up-to-date.
Perhaps he could check with this site that has much more accurate data on Australian temperature readings – complete with how they have been manipulated.
http://kenskingdom.wordpress.com/
Anthony. This is of course very much off-topic.. and does not belong here…
But…
We hope this will not be a large eruption in Katla as last time in 1918. It could even only be geothermal heat that has accumulated under the glacier and found way to the river. A pilot flying over the glacier a few minutes ago noted large cracks in the surface.
This news in English is on Icelandic State Radio website: http://www.ruv.is/frett/possible-eruption-in-katla
09.07.2011 09:13 GMT
Possible eruption in Katla
Main road closed
A glacial flood from volcano Katla, in Mýrdalsjökull, has disrupted highway no.1 (the ring road), by river Múlakvísl on Mýrdalssandur, in the South of Iceland. The road is closed between Höfðabrekka, east of Vík, and river Skálm, near Álftaver. The flood is thought be the result of a small eruption underneath the icecap of Mýrdalsjökull, probably in the Katla crater. The Civil Protection and Emergency Management has sent out a warning to people in the area, to beware of sulphurate smell near the river, as it might be poisonous sulphurate gas.
The mountain route Fjallabaksleið nyrðri is open for 4X4 vehicles only, and is the only open road in the area.
The Álftaver area is being evacuated and preparation for evacuating the camping area in Þakgil.
frettir@ruv.is