Jeez, there’s no excuse for this spectacular failure to understand one of most basic principles about the Earth’s weather and climate. From:
How to respond to people who say the cold weather disproves global warming | Grist
This helpful diagram taught in grade school science, is relevant. Note the proximity of Earth to the sun at the winter solstice and at perihelion -vs- the summer solstice and Aphelion:
Of course, they’ve deleted the sentence in red now. It reads now:
The author writes:
Update: This post originally included a line about the Earth’s distance from the Sun that was an intentional oversimplification, but a dumb one, as (lots of) people have pointed out. I removed it. Your comments about irony and hubris are welcome.
This of course illustrates why GRIST is such a well respected source for climate entertainment. Cold weather events don’t disprove global warming any more than hot weather events prove global warming. Let’s all remind GRIST of this fact come summer.
h/t to Tom Nelson
UPDATE: Must be something in the air today, more hilarity:
CNN Weatherman: Don’t Laugh! Cold Temps Come from Global Warming | NewsBusters
We were amused by this one. In the 1 pm hour, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers was talking about the frigid temperatures in the eastern United States. Guess the culprit? As always, global warming.
“So what’s causing all of this cold air? If I tell you and I look at you straight in the face and tell you global warming, you’re going to laugh at me. But in fact, it’s the case.”
PS: Years ago, Myers dared to be a bit more skeptical on this politically loaded issue.
MYERS: Because there’s no sea ice up in the Arctic, the Arctic is warmer than it should be. In fact, Quebec is colder than the Arctic. When this happens, when this kind of surface happens, there’s not cold air just pounded over here, right over Santa Claus, the jet stream is allowed to expand farther to the south. And because the jet stream is expanding farther to the south, the cold air that should be bottled up here, making more sea ice and it’s not, now expands into China, expands into Russia, and all the way down to the U.S. And that’s exactly the position we’re in right now.
There’s no sea ice up in the Arctic? Could have fooled me. From the WUWT Sea Ice reference page: http://wattsupwiththat.com/reference-pages/sea-ice-page/
Agreed. The “distance from the sun” explanation is wrong. Anyone who paid attention in elementary school science classes knows it’s about the angle at which the sun’s rays hit the planet. The greater the deviation from straight overhead, the lower the power per unit area.
” Science is Hard” Barbara M. Roberts
If I remember correctly, the Earth is something like 93 million miles from the sun.
Anyone who thinks adding or subtracting 1000 miles from that is going to make any difference at all in the Earth’s temperature has never done science.
When grain is sent through a gristmill something useful comes out. I guess that doesn’t hold true here.
O Olson agrees with what BobN says-
“Their explanation is still wrong.”
Indeed. The writer’s explanation ” This post originally included a line about the Earth’s distance from the Sun…” is also wrong. The modified paragraph still refers to one hemisphere being ‘closer’ to the sun than the other.
A fellow GRIST’r predicted this futurecrime against science-
“For the most part, those who strongly support climate action do not do so because they’ve been rationally persuaded; in fact, they tend to be quite ignorant of the scientific details. People who reject climate science tend to know the most about it, because they’re motivated to learn about it in order to reject it.”
David Roberts, Grist, October 2011
Oh, the ironing!
What kind of math do they use to assume that the Earth’s 21 degree tilt means that one hemisphere is thousands of miles further from the sun than is the other? More like a few hundred, even at the pole. As you get closer to the equator the difference gets less.
Angle of incidence, beam intensity, and the depth of atmosphere the sunlight has to travel are the determining reasons, and which are also the reasons why the poles would still be colder than the equator, if the Earth’s axis wasn’t tilted. Elegantly illustrated with a torch and a football in very junior physics.
Dhuhh– it is summer in the southern hemispere right now.
“So what’s causing all of this cold air? If I tell you and I look at you straight in the face and tell you global warming, you’re going to laugh at me. But in fact, it’s the case.”
PS: Years ago, Myers dared to be a bit more skeptical on this politically loaded issue.
MYERS: Because there’s no sea ice up in the Arctic, the Arctic is warmer than it should be.
============================================================================
There’s no ice because it’s warm because of all the cold air. Or is it there’s no ice because it’s cold because of all the warm air?
Anybody got an aspirin?
Alex,
Yes, and the fact that the sun has less time to shine on certain areas in the “winter” periods as well.
Less daily sun shine + Lower angle of the sun meaning less directed sun = COLD
If I follow their logic, cold in winter is due to axial tilt. So, colder than usual winters by their reasoning must be caused by increased axial tilt which is in turn caused by global warming.
“That’s not right. That’s not even wrong.”
~Albert Einstein
In fairness, the Einstein quote fails to convey the depth of the stupidity.
The most hilarious and spectacular failure of climate pseudo science can actually be found in its very core.
For all the claims of “settled science” and “basic physics” the climate pseudo scientists left out the most basic physics of all – HOT AIR RISES! I know it sounds unbelievable but it is true.
They failed to correctly model gravity, the pressure gradient in the atmosphere and the convective movement of gas in the atmosphere. They got the answer to the most basic basic question, “what would happen if gases in the atmosphere did not radiate IR?”, totally wrong. The answer is not 33C cooler.
How did they get it so wrong? They used linear flux equations on a moving atmosphere! Because they never correctly modelled convective energy transport,they failed to correctly model the role of radiative gases in in the atmosphere. Do it correctly and you find that radiation from the mid to upper troposphere is critical for continued convective circulation.
What happens if convective circulation stalls? The atmosphere heats. Heated gases can rise but without radiating IR to space they cannot cool and descend. Adiabatic cooling on ascent does not count as it is matched by adiabatic heating on decent. For an atmosphere maintaining a relatively stable temperature and exhibiting strong vertical convection, energy must be exiting the atmosphere at a higher altitude than it is entering the atmosphere. There is only one way for our atmosphere to lose energy at altitude and that is radiative gases.
Have a think about the atmosphere. Where does all the strong vertical convection occur? Below the tropopause. Where are almost all the radiative gases? Below the tropopause. These gases are vital for continued convective circulation. If convective circulation stalls the atmosphere heats.
Climate pseudo scientists also got conductive energy flow from the surface to the atmosphere wrong. They forgot gravity and treated an atmosphere with depth and a pressure gradient as a single mathematical layer. In the real atmosphere gravity brings the coldest gases in contact with the surface. This means conductive energy flow into and out of the atmosphere from the surface is biased. Conductive energy flow is greater when the is a greater temperature differential. Heating an gas column in a gravity field from the base is more effective than trying to cool the gas column from the base. The opposite is also true. That is the critical role that radiative gases play in our atmosphere. Cooling at altitude.
Radiative gases act to cool our atmosphere at all concentrations above 0ppm. AGW is the biggest and most spectacular fail in the history of human scientific endevour.
Josualdo says:
January 23, 2013 at 1:47 pm
I still fail to see how the earth axis tilt justifies that cold weather is accounted for by global warming. But my head is spinning with so much fake reasoning.
————–
Sun gives off UV .. That is absorbed by the planet.
Planet gives that off as Infra Red
Infra red absorbed by Greenhouse gases warming the atmosphere making it colder.
/sarc
They should thnik before they write ;o)
We worked this out in grade school with a flashlight and a basketball. I always wondered what would become of those who did not get it.
The descent into idiocracy continues.
No doubt they need slip on shoes.
O Olson says: They are still saying that the seasons are regulated by distance of a hemisphere from the sun.
Yeah, to them, being in the dark for 24 hours a day has nothing to do with getting colder.
..and they just don’t seem to realize that they’re the ones in the dark.
Someone must have gone to Harvard where they learn this: http://youtu.be/p0wk4qG2mIg
Media must scrupulously avoid reporting stories like this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257995/Trapped-icy-prison-1-000-ships-stranded-frozen-ocean-China-gripped-extreme-cold-snap.html
Do not disturb the faith.
Doug, they apparently became Climate scientists.
I remember reading somewhere, someone stating that any field of study that has the word “science” in it isn’t a science at all: Political Science, Social Science, etc. I guess we can add “Climate Science” to that list.
Chairman Mao introduced the cultural revolution because he was convinced that the educational elite was using long words to hide a simple truth from the masses. Seems it is still going.
Even outside of the major goof, the final line in the quote is as stupid as taking a July heat wave and saying, “Give the warmist a little pat on the head and tell them that if it were this hot in, say, January, then they’d have a right to be suspicious.”
Seriously GRIST? Only a July that’s as cold as January disproves global warming/climate change?
I’d like to think my 9th graders know better than this…except that there are a lot of people who used to be my ninth graders who are now out in the world, apparantly believing this stuff.
THAT’S not even entirely correct; HOW ABOUT INCLUDING the influence the TILT has on the movement of COLD POLAR AIR MASSES down into CANADA *and* THE CONTINENTAL US ? ? ? ? ? ?
Don’t think that’s it even?
Listen, we PRAY for cold fronts to make their way down into Texas come mid July! … last year we were rewarded with a COUPLE fronts, as RARE as they are ! ! ! ! ! !
.
Is CNN meteorologist Chad Myers “certified” by AMS or have some other claim to fame in his qualifications? If so, the group doing so should send him back his money and tell him to take some classes. A few weeks ago I had a message from a local consulting meteorologist saying that there was unusual warming in the Arctic and that was gong to push cold south. Myers must not understand that it can be unusually warm and still be well below freezing (i.e., -20 is warmer than -25, but still plenty cold to contribute to expanding sea ice.
Sheeesh!
I, for one, Konrad, would like a little more than just bold assertion on this point (i.e. include a cite or reference please if you could). Thank you.
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PS. Meteorologically speaking, when it comes to warm air masses in what is called ‘the boundary layer’ there is more to it than just ‘hot air rises’; such factors as RH (dew point) and winds at the lower levels also play a part.
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