Bishop Hill writes of a new paper, one so “toe curling” it is worth mentioning here to get more exposure. He writes:
This is science? This is progress?
Reports on Progress in Physics, a journal published by the Institute of Physics here in the UK, has published a paper by Raymond Orbach, an engineer at the University of Texas at Austin. It’s available in return for free registration, and I actually think it’s worth it, if only because it’s so toe-curling.
In some ways the paper’s title tells you all you need to know about it. `Our Sustainable Earth’ looks at (you guessed it) eight climate myths propagated by bad people. Like every other set of climate myths you have ever seen, each of the myths is entirely devoid of sources – Orbach has taken them from this page at his university’s website. Where they got them from is a mystery.
In fact, absence of citations is a bit of an issue. Here’s how Orbach starts to deal with claims about the medieval warm period.
Climate scientists now understand that the Medieval Warm Period was caused by an increase in solar radiation and a decrease in volcanic activity, which both promote warming. Other evidence suggests ocean circulation patterns shifted to bring warmer seawater into the North Atlantic. Those kinds of natural changes have not been detected in the past few decades.
Interesting claims – but where did they come from? We are not told. We are expected to take Prof Obach on trust. At the risk of repeating myself, one would never get away with this kind of thing on a blog.
(PS: Note to Prof Orbach – the ocean near the top of the globe is the Arctic (with a c in the middle). And it’s Santer not Senter.
Nothing good ever came out of Travis County. Well, at least OU whipped up on them during the Red River Shoot out, and A&M will have their turn in December. Next up a mauling by OSU.
Gig ’em.
John says:
October 12, 2011 at 10:31 am
Gail Combs says:
October 12, 2011 at 6:10 am
No wonder science is now extinct in the USA. From his CV you would think this guy was another Dr. Feynman. . . .
“Gail,
Politicians really prefer a populace that is handled like mushrooms – i.e. kept in the dark and fed on b.s. Neither party in the US really supports an educated populace. The right prefers the simpler “can’t afford” approach, which simply keeps schools dark, while the left insists on course content that has a high b.s.fraction.”
Actually, we do not want “dark” schools but prefer to not be taxed to support incompetence and propaganda or public employee unions that support the same.
My fine alma mater, The University of Texas, once again has caused me to hang my head in shame and disgust. Their recent parroting of the AGW meme is beyond belief. This has resulted in many, many of our Alumni (who are known as Texas Exes, by the way) to suspend our contributions to the University. http://texasexes.org/
I had hoped, though, that the University would find and hire professors that actually know how to spell. Proper spelling was a requirement in my undergraduate days there in the 70s, even in the Engineering department. Our graded papers received two grades, one from the Engineering professor, and the other from an English professor. The paper’s grade was the average of the two. We became quite proficient at using the dictionary, and a thesaurus.
For any UT administrators reading this, once again, don’t bother sending the annual solicitation letter to me.
Roger Sowell, ’77 BS in chemical engineering, UT Austin.
Its a fine example of why ‘trust me I am scientists’ is such as rubbish idea in practice.
Once again a journal pushes out AGW supporting article that would be failed if it was an undergraduate assessment handing in at a university, just how low are the standards applied for these things ?
Maybe he’s trying to make Aggies look smart for a change.
Martin says:
October 12, 2011 at 3:34 am
“How about why the global sea levels have not risen much lately, although the ice is still melting. Now where did all that water go?
Could it be that all those record rains that have been causing catastrophic flooding recently is due to increased evaporation due to global warming? And all that extra water that’s been sucked up and dumped on land is making it’s way back into the oceans – keep an eye on the sea levels as that happens….”
Martin, under the assumption that AGW is happening, the increased evaporation would persist, catastrophic flooding would persist, and a new equilibrium with lower sea levels would persist. You just invented Antropogenic Sea Level Drop. Congratulations. You should publish it in a peer-reviewed journal. As it explains inconvenient data within the framework of CAGW, you will sail through peer review like a Dessler.
The Cockrell Family must be so proud.
As an engineer it is that he is a professor of engineering that is most galling. But then again, fond of them as I am, some of my (professorial ) mentors at university were not the most worldly or practical of people. Academia can be a sedentary environment for an engineer. Sorry all you academics out there.
Dear Mr. Raymond Orbach:
Things are going very badly in the Artic. It used to be that a lot of ice was thought to be missing there, but now it seems there is a lot of C missing there, and, as usual, Trenberth doesn’t know where it is.
We need first hand analysis pronto. Please, for the sake of the world, schedule a visit to the Artic as soon as possible. Let us know when you get there.
“Flawn” is the pluperfect tense of “flew”, similar to “scrod” being the pluperfect tense of “screw”.
Roger Sowell
Did you happen to see Figure 14 in the paper? In that schematic it illustrates (by my way of looking at it) the separation of CO2 from N2 via a heat exchanger. I’m confused. I’m an “aqueous” guy, so I don’t rightly know for sure; but, I was under the impression that separating CO2 from N2 is rather difficult.
http://sequestration.mit.edu/pdf/introduction_to_capture.pdf
Any help in reducing my bewilderment would be appreciated.
You have to ask the question – “what would make a politician go back on an absolute commitment not to introduce a tax?”
“What would it take to make such a public breach of faith worth while?
“What would do that, do you think?”
He are an engineer, well I are an engineer too so whom expects people like we to spell write anyway? Its a porevn fcat taht pepole can unredstnad msiselpsled wrods prefcteley fnie aywnay.
“DirkH says:
October 12, 2011 at 7:42 am
polkyb says:
October 12, 2011 at 3:30 am
“Does anyone actually measure the Arctic (and Antarctica for that matter) temperature with any great degree of accuracy?”
DMI, the Danish Meteorological Institute, has some 70 floating buoys or so for that.”
I find myself wondering what use a floating buoy is at measuring atmospheric temperature in either an ice field in the north, or on Land in the south?
Would it not be better to just disregard the area’s where there is no temperature data, rather than to guess at it by using reference data from over 1000 kilometers away?
polkyb
“Would it not be better to just disregard the area’s where there is no temperature data”
No, no, no! Those are the best locations for data invention! No one can prove you’re wrong. You can make it trend however you like.
Neo-AGW Progress Report.
Not these* “science cheats”.
Lizard May said: “‘Well, we don’t really like to let people know when we have cheaters’,” she said in an interview.”
…-
“Science cheats must be exposed: [Liberal] MP”
“Like the recent Nature editorial, Hsu says scientists who engage in serious research misconduct should be publicly identified.
“If it is done on purpose I am in favour of pretty harsh consequences,” says Hsu. He says those who plagiarize, or fake or fudge studies or experiments should be named.
Green Party leader Elizabeth May agrees.
“You can’t be known as a country that has any kind of claim on legitimacy in science but say: ‘Well, we don’t really like to let people know when we have cheaters’,” she said in an interview.
“I don’t think you can build academic and scientific excellence with that kind of policy,” says May,”.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/10/12/science-cheats-must-be-found-mp/
…-
*Not these “science cheats”:
“ClimateGate Who’s Who – Conspirators Names and Quotes
Prof. Phil Jones
“I’ve just completed Mike’s nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.”
“PS I’m getting hassled by a couple of people to release the CRU station temperature data. Don’t any of you three tell anybody that the UK has a Freedom of Information Act!”
If he [Steven McIntyre] pays 10 pounds (which he hasn’t yet) I am supposed to go through my emails and he can get anything I’ve written about him. About 2 months ago I deleted loads of emails, so have very little – if anything at all.
“Mike, can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise. He’s not in at the moment – minor family crisis. Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don’t have his new email address. We will be getting Casper to do likewise.
Dr. Mick Kelly
Told Paul Horsman of Greenpeace “The IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] reports and the broader climate negotiations were working to the globalization agenda driven by organizations like the WTO [World Trade Organization].”
Prof. Michael E. Mann
I did this knowing that Phil and I are likely to have to respond to more crap criticisms from the idiots in the near future, so best to clean up the code and provide to some of my close colleagues in case they want to test it, etc. Please feel free to use this code for your own internal purposes, but don’t pass it along where it may get into the hands of the wrong people.
On the other hand, you might want to visit the thread and post replies yourself. We can hold comments up in the queue and contact you about whether or not you think they should be screened through or not, and if so any comments you’d like to include.
Tom Wigley
We probably need to say more about this. Land warming since 1980 has been twice the ocean warming – and skeptics might claim that this proves that urban warming is real and important.
Thomas R Karl
I will continue to refuse such data requests in the future. Nor will I provide McIntyre with computer programs, email correspondence, etc. I fee very strongly about these issues.”
http://conspiracyrealitytv.com/climategate-whos-who-conspirators-names-and-quotes/
Oxford English Dictionary – monotonic – a. Uttered in monotone;
That boring?
Also.., (Math.) either never decreasing or never increasing; hence ~ically.
Santa traded in the sled for an Artic, hence the warming at the North Pole.
@John W, I had a look a the article, and Figure 14 and its description. The reference [28] is to an unpublished paper, so no good there.
I think the diagram in Fig 14 must be overly simplified, and shows “heat exchanger” with power plant flue gas incoming, with hot but low-pressure brine also incoming. The brine appears to be cooled (color changes from red to blue, the standard convention for cooling). The nitrogen appears to be vented from the heat exchanger. If it were a heat exchanger, the CO2/N2 mixture would heat up, as the brine is cooled. However, that makes no sense because we would want to chill the CO2 in order to remove it from the Nitrogen.
This Fig 14 appears to have a “black box” labeled “heat exchanger” but I suspect there is far more to that black box. The article states that the brine entering the heat exchanger is at approximately 300 degrees F. That is not very hot, but it would be sufficiently hot to run a thermal chilling unit, such as an absorption chiller. I haven’t run the numbers to see if that would be sufficiently cold to condense out the CO2.
There does not appear to be sufficient information to determine what is going on in Figure 14.
“This gentleman was a DOE Undersecretary for Science? God save us all, 1984 is here.”
I think that helps explain the content of this paper,. He’s been out of touch with reality after spending too long in the DOE.
dtbronzich says:
October 12, 2011 at 5:54 am
…… Austin, the capitol of Texas, is the home of every liberal in the state.
____________
Is Austin the Contaiment Area for Relocated Califonians? You know the ones who wrecked the economy of California and then headed to Texas when they lost their jobs and want to do a rinse and repeat to Texas.
We have one here in North Carolina for Yankees, we call it C.A.R.Y.
TomT says:
October 12, 2011 at 7:56 am
….I suggest that all you English majors stop complaining about the good doctor’s spelling and grammar, very few of your posts are error free.
_________________________________________
We are all well aware of that Tom, however we are writing for a blog in real time without anyway to correct after we push the “Button”
Also we do not have an editor and two well educated professionals “supposedly” checking out what we wrote FOR NINE MONTHS before it is published.
Apples and Oranges.
John says:
October 12, 2011 at 10:31 am
Gail Combs says:
No wonder science is now extinct in the USA. From his CV you would think this guy was another Dr. Feynman. . . .
____________________________
Gail,
Politicians really prefer a populace that is handled like mushrooms
____________________________
Oh I am well aware of that. John Dewey (Father of Progressive Education) Actually ran experiments on children to see how he could “Dumb Down” kids to make them into mushrooms instead of strong willed individualists. The key he found was the ability to read. You will also note that in US schools many states only require one year of science and two of math (and therefore logic) to graduate from high school.
…the U.S. ranks 21st out of 29 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in mathematics scores, with nearly one-quarter of students unable to solve the easiest level of questions….In 2000, 28 percent of all freshmen entering a degree-granting institution required remedial coursework http://www.edreform.com/_upload/CER_JunkFoodDiet.pdf
No wonder more and more parents are home schooling. I recommend it every chance I get.
Thanks Roger,
“However, that makes no sense because we would want to chill the CO2 in order to remove it from the Nitrogen.“
That’s what I thought, but considering it was peer reviewed I thought I might have misinterpreted something.
I’m thinking an editor should resign over this paper that should never have been published!
Gail Combs says:
October 12, 2011 at 6:10 am
————————————————————————
Having read the Wiki information, how did anyone come to the conclusion that Dr. Orbach is an engineer? He is Chair of Engineering, but no where do I see that he studied engineering. He did physics and other things, but does Texas give “engineering” credits to people who have never studied or practiced engineering? In Canada, if he claimed to be an engineer without proper accreditation, he could be charged. Are the rules different in Texas? Roger Sowell – is Dr. Orbach a registered engineer in Texas or is he just an appointee to an administrative position that includes engineering? Is he a Professional Engineer or an administrator in charge of engineering? Project Managers need not be engineers, but the designers had better be. As an administrator or physicist, maybe he can say what he likes without being technically correct.
__________________________________________________________________
Roger Sowell says:
October 12, 2011 at 12:51 pm
My fine alma mater, The University of Texas, once again has caused me to hang my head in shame and disgust.