While Matt Ridley makes mincemeat of über alarmist Joe Romm’s latest ridiculous claims, I started doing a search for stories to do a “year in review” for such things. I just found this, though it is six years old. It came out before I started WUWT, so that’s why I missed it.
It’s weapons-grade stupid, and fanatically FUBAR. It’s also hysterically funny.
From the Eco-Enquirer (h/t to Skeptical Scientist on FB):
University of Michigan scientists have claimed that global warming causes an increased risk of asteroids striking the Earth, due to expansion of the atmosphere outward into space making the Earth a bigger “target”.
“Some large meteoroids have skimmed the outer reaches of Earth’s atmosphere, skipping off back into outer space”, said Professor Charles Boyle, chairman of U. of M.’s Near-Earth Asteroid Team (NEAT). “As the atmosphere warms, it expands outward, potentially capturing large asteroids that would have otherwise been a near-miss. It seems that the dangers from global warming just keep mounting up…like the national debt.”
The source story: http://www.ecoenquirer.com/global-warming-asteroid.htm
Obviously, it is a spoof story, because they’ve changed NEAT from what it actually is. http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/programs/neat.html There’s no Charles Boyle on the NEAT program (a spoof name of the Boyles and Charles gas laws). And, the Eco-Enquirer has this disclaimer.
Besides being a ridiculous story on face value (though with just enough science to be a plausible claim), there’s only one teeny tiny little problem with the claim.
From WUWT on August 26th, 2010:
Results of a study published today link a recent, temporary shrinking of a high atmospheric layer with a sharp drop in the sun’s ultraviolet radiation levels.
The research, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU), indicates that the sun’s magnetic cycle, which produces differing numbers of sunspots over an approximately 11-year cycle, may vary more than previously thought.
That, and there’s no tropospheric hot spot (which would also expand the atmosphere) as expected from warming, from:
http://joannenova.com.au/2012/05/models-get-the-core-assumptions-wrong-the-hot-spot-is-missing/
It is not well known that even the IPCC agrees that the direct effects of CO2 will only increase world temperatures by 1.2°C. All of the projections above that (3.3°C , 6°C etc) come from model projections based on assumptions of what water vapor and clouds will do (these are the feedback effects of the original 1.2°C).[i] Are the feedbacks correct?
If the IPCC models are right about the feedbacks, we would see a hot spot 10km above the tropics. The theory is that with more heat, more water will evaporate and rise, keeping relative humidity constant at all heights in the troposphere. The point has been conclusively tested with 28 million weather balloons since 1959.[ii]
As for the ridiculous claim about CO2 and asteroid strikes, I thought surely there’s no parallel to this, no peer, no possible equal in the realm of silly-stupid claims about global warming (spoof or not).
Then, I saw this paper which is oh-too-real:
No second chance? Can Earth explode as a result of Global Warming?
Dr Tom J. Chalko 1 , MSc, PhD
Submitted on 8 April 2001, revised 30 October 2004. Published in NU Journal of Discovery ISSN 1444 1454 Publisher: Natural University
Abstract: The heat generated inside our planet is predominantly of radionic (nuclear) origin. Hence, Earth in its entirety can be considered a slow nuclear reactor with its solid ”inner core” providing a major contribution to the total energy output. Since radionic heat is generated in the entire volume and cooling can only occur at the surface, the highest temperature inside Earth occurs at the center of the inner core. Overheating the center of the inner core reactor due to the so-called greenhouse effect on the surface of Earth may cause a meltdown condition, an enrichment of nuclear fuel and a gigantic atomic explosion.Paper here: http://nujournal.net/core.pdf
God help us all, the stupid, it burns.
Here are some observations on nujournal.net and the only contributor, Thomas J. Chalko.
Found at http://www.discovery.org/a/5911.
One has to feel sorry for people like this. But what is disturbing is main stream media giving this guy air time. What little confidence I had in the likes of CBS and MSNBC is now gone.
More on Dr. Chalko’s website, http://sci-e-research.com/.
Here’s a list of topics under Research Division,
He’s different.
More on Dr. Chalko.
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=Chalko+T.J.&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C6&as_sdtp=
In real life he appears to be a mechanical engineer.
Maybe all this other stuff is an Onion like parody?
Having had the misfortune to have seen a very large asteroid passing through the Earth’s atmosphere I have to say that the expansion of the atmosphere due to global warming is not an issue. This is not just because it isn’t happening (i.e. global warming) but because the atmospheric flows around very large asteroids are akin to the airflows around pyroclastic flows. That is to say a great deal of atmosphere moves with and therefore lubricates the passage of the asteroid through the atmosphere so for very large asteroids atmospheric friction is very much lower relatively speaking. This has the effect of allowing such large bodies to sustain orbits for very long periods of time within the atmosphere, even within the lower troposphere, and return to space having lost very little energy of motion. A secondary effect of this atmospheric airflow is the reduced friction produces reduced plasma around the head and so such very large asteroids tend to be relatively dim compared with large meteors, even so the ground can be well illuminated. However this dimming means the angle subtended at the eye is a real angle as it is not exaggerated by atmospheric scattering as is the case with much smaller large meteors. Interestingly artists impressions of what such a large asteroid might look like as can be found on the internet are often fairly accurate excepting there is a tendency to draw the plasma flow near the asteroid as streamlined. This is not the case. Typically the airflow swirls around features on the asteroids surface such as ridges and depressions which results in pronounced but relatively low frequency flickering of the ground illumination which for stony asteroids is typically orange red in colour.
Unfortunately having become the world’s leading expert on asteroids with orbits partially within the Earth’s atmosphere I feel compelled to warn people that very significant global warming is due in the relatively near future. It will not be cause by CO2 but by a 1000,000,000 megaton (approx..) impact which is due sometime after February next year. “Sometime” could in fact be decades ( the asteroids orbit is a “dynamic three body” orbit). Looking on the bright side this could keep the “New Age” movement running harmlessly for decades too.
I take it the people who wrote this drivel were on top of a mountain in France on Friday morning waiting to be whisked away by aliens?
It is a pity they weren’t!!
ntesdorf says:
December 22, 2012 at 1:47 pm
Oh, Chalko sounds familiar. Yep, there was a sighting here too, worth following these links, very embarrassing for CBS, but we were about the only ones to realize it:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/06/19/quake-n-bake-global-warming-causes-more-earthquakes/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/06/19/cbs-news-sinks-to-new-low-publishes-crackpot-global-warming-story-attributes-it-to-associated-press/ , kills it with no retraction
The very next post is titled “Warming On 11 Year Hiatus” – that was 4.5 years ago, so we should be up to about 16 years by now. 🙂 Of course, 2008 was very much a La Niña year.
clipe says: December 22, 2012 at 2:10 pm
grauniad.co.uk
________________________________
Brilliant. You Google “grauniad.co.uk” and it comes up with the London Guardian Newspaper as the top choice. Someone at Google must have a sense of humour.
.
Its funny how the right-wing Manchester Grauniad, that was described in the early 19th century as the “the foul prostitute and dirty parasite of the worst portion of the mill-owners” (now the oil barons), became the uber-left wing Green spouting London Granuad. WUWT??
.
You Big Oily skeptics are taking our learned colleague Professor Boil out of context here as his is important preliminary work for the fortcoming AR5 and COPulater. We have already made the necessary adjustments to our computer models for the Boil Effect which will of course cause more Giant Asteroids to burn up more quickly in Gaia’s atmospere, thereby increasing the warmening estimates with catastrophic effects for the alien space rays getting through the Troppo-sphere and finally demonstrating once and for all the definitive proof you’ve all been clamouring for.
At long last we finally have you there.
Silver Ralph says: @ur momisugly December 23, 2012 at 7:28 am
Its funny how the right-wing Manchester Grauniad, that was described in the early 19th century as the “the foul prostitute and dirty parasite of the worst portion of the mill-owners” (now the oil barons), became the uber-left wing Green spouting London Granuad. WUWT??
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
They got smart enough to learn to wear a sheepskin?
Notice WHO is making a bundle off the Global Warming scam, WHO is freezing to death, WHO is losing their liberties to more and more bureaucracy and you just might get a clue as to WHO is really controlling the MSM. Or you can just Follow the Money.
D Böehm says:
‘Global warming causes more sex!”
=================================================
Hmmm … I think some have tied Global Warming to overpopulation (more people, more man-made CO2). So then … Global Warming has caused itself?
I just noticed this in yesterday’s SF Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Weather-warnings-become-reality-4139790.php
How does this lunacy get printed as news?? And of course Michael Mann gets his say, with no opposing point of view.
D Böehm says: @ur momisugly December 23, 2012 at 11:41 am
…How does this lunacy get printed as news??…
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Because the guy who OWNS the press wants to make a killing in carbon trading, the newest bubble but he knows you have to confince the public to go along with the rape.
Climate science stupid is a “target-rich” environment. Like shooting passenger pigeons in the days when they darkened the skies.
Silver Ralph says:
December 23, 2012 at 7:28 am
clipe says: December 22, 2012 at 2:10 pm
grauniad.co.uk
________________________________
Brilliant. You Google “grauniad.co.uk” and it comes up with the London Guardian Newspaper as the top choice. Someone at Google must have a sense of humour.
Put grauniad.co.uk into your browser address bar. No need for Google.
.
This is related to something only slightly less insane; Global warming is slowing down the earth, and making our day’s longer.
Ya see, the hotter atmosphere expands, so the moment of inertia is that much greater……
Nevada’s version of The Grauniad
http://guardianlv.com/2012/12/climate-change-will-global-warming-create-the-end-of-the-world/
Add it to the Warmlist
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm
“No second chance? Can Earth explode as a result of Global Warming?”
So THAT’S what happened to the planet Krypton!