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/
Philip Bump has a science background? Philip Bump understands science at all, other than being able to embrace and occasionally reproduce the current narrative?
Put me in the “show me” category.
Ignorant liberal arts major here, with a question:
The difference between aphelion and perihelion is a little over 3 million miles, which I guesstimate to be about 4 percent difference between the two points. Does that mean that summers/winters in the Southern Hemisphere are 4 percent fiercer than in the Northern Hemisphere?
In many ways this is an analogy to the entire AGW scare. You take an obvious fact (Earth closer to sun will receive more energy) and leap to the conclusion that it explains summer/winter. However, it ignores the more detailed elements that actually explain the difference (axis tilt).
One could say this is exactly how AGW evolved. They start with a fact (GHGs absorb and re-radiate) and leap to the conclusion that it can only warm the planet. However, in this case they jumped on a “save the Earth” bandwagon and can no longer get off without looking like fools. The more detailed elements are making it obvious they are wrong.
Anthony, let me get this straight. You were ridiculed on a blog, sponsored by Nat Geo, on a posting you were forwarding to you readership on the possibility of non-terrestrial life. The blogger pulled out his childhood cut and paste skills and conveniently left out the fact that you wrote a big word of caution that this needs to pass rigorous scientific scrutiny.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/01/16/greg-laden-liar/
Fast forward to today, current subject. Another blog site posts a ridiculous and extremely wrong explanation of the interaction of the orbit of the earth and the change in temperature in the seasons. Eventually changing his explanation (which is still wrong) and saying it was just an oversimplification, ‘ooops, my bad’…
Now, could someone get a statement from Mr. Greg Laden on his review of the GristMill article in question? Could he please enlighten up as to his understanding of the orbit of the earth, how it relates to our change in seasons and provide his scientific understanding of the previously mentioned GristMill article? What is his review of the article and can he provide a supporting statement?………… (insert crickets here)
Just wondering…
To Delayna:
Well, that’s not quite a fair comparison. The NH has water at the pole,
the SH has Antarctica–a continent that acts like a giant refrigerator for
the entire Hemisphere. Also, the NH has more land closer to the pole.
For example, South Georgia Island, at 54 degrees S., has a climate
where daily highs in summer run about 8 degrees C. Daily highs in
winter reach about 0 degrees C.
Unalaska island in the Aleutians is about 54 degrees N. latitude. Summer
daily highs are about 15 degrees C., winter daily highs about 3 degrees
C. Notice that BOTH are warmer.
So, the short answer to your question: no. The SH is a different place,
but the fierce heat of the Australian outback comes from the fact that
it’s a subtropical desert, not because it’s in the SH.
Thanks, Chris R. Yet another example of why I shouldn’t pin too much effect on a single cause!
What I find intruiging is this distance from the Sun is irrelevant.
I think if today’s situation were reversed and the northern hemisphere, with most of the land mass, were at Perihelion during summer I think summers would be warmerthan at present and southern hemisphere winters would likely be so also. Northern hemisphere winters would also likely be significantly colder.
It is interesting that the estimated 0.1 % change in Solar irradience is always dismissed as insignificant as a climate driver but on current accepted figures this is a radiative forcing of ~1.37 W/sq metre yet CO2 is less than this figure and obviously in control of the climate.
Can someone please also explain why mass isn’t important in radiative physics. I always feel there is something missing in the radiative physics I see used to prove the greenhouse effect.
With CO2 representing 0.06% of the atmosphere by weight and 1.205 kg of air/cubic metre at sea level CO2 represents about 0.0006 x 1,205 grams = ~0.7 grams in a cubic metre. Surely it is impossible for this to have any observable effect ?
We know you cannot get much energy from 0.7 grams / cubic metre of anything. Surely it is like trying to boil a kettle using one match at a time !
Why doesn’t mass matter – the joule is related to mass – why isn’t radiation ?
Is it just me or if actually faced with someone literally patting my head and saying something that stupid they’d be very lucky if they weren’t picking themselves up off the floor shortly thereafter?
PS: I’m really a laid back, easy going, southern gentleman not prone to violence but I think that would be just a little more than I could take, kinda like Buzz being called a coward and a liar.
Some people just need a good smacking.
Yep, I’m with the crowd here. It’s STILL WRONG. The critical role of the planetary tilt in the changing seasons is based on the angle of the sun. During the winter the sun is lower in the sky and above the horizon for fewer hours than during the summer. Further, because of the angle its rays spend more time passing through a thicker layer of atmosphere before reaching the ground.
Somebody needs to pat the writer over at CNN on the head. Upside the head.
CNN Weatherman:
Don’t Laugh! Cold Temps Come from Global Warming
Issac Newton
Ok. Don’t Laugh! Then Hot Temps Must Come from Global Cooling
MAC says:
January 23, 2013 at 5:50 pm
Delayna says:
January 24, 2013 at 6:55 am
denniswingo says:
January 23, 2013 at 7:48 pm
—–
The earth IS closer to the sun during the (northern hemisphere) winter, furthest from the sun during the (northern hemisphere) summer.
Saying the same thing with respect to our dear friends below the equator that CNN (and the CAGW theists forget) …
The earth IS closer to the sun during the summer, furthest from the sun during the winter.
A good approximation for the closest point of approach is January 3, for furthest distance is July 4, as noted above. ONLY around the two equinox (March 21-22 and Sept 21-22) is the actual insolation value close to the “average”. Also, notice that mid-March is also the point of highest sea ice extent in the Arctic/minimum sea ice extents in the Antarctic, and mid-September is the point of highest sea ice extents in the Antarctic/minimum sea ice extents in the Arctic.
A BAD approximation for day-to-day insolation values is the “classic” average-of-all-year 1367 watts/sq meter that is all-too-often used. Lief recently told us the best (most accurate) average TSI value is now 1320 watts/meter square for Insolation. But remember – This value is ONLY good for top-of-atmosphere, on the equator, at the equinox. Any other day-of-year or location on earth receives more or less radiation than “nominal”.
Two similar equations for day-to-day insolation for each Day-of-Year (DOY) are:
Insolation (day) = 1362 watts/sq meter * (1+0.034 cos ( 2* 3.14* DOY/365.25))
but Dr Frank Bason of Soldata prefers to use
Insolation (day) = 1362 watts/sq meter * [1 + 0.033 {cos (360 x(DOY – 3)/365)}]
Notice both equations approximate very closely the actual received radiation: which varies very closely to a cosine wave through the year from a maximum of 1418 in early January dropping to a minimum of 1320 in late June early July.
As usual, the climate alarmists’ approximations completely miss the boat most of the time ….
It’s all about the Sun. Rosco is astute. Follow the sun. http://www.climate4you.com/images/SolarIrradianceReconstructedSince1610.gif
Question: Why is Mars having a big melt at the same time Earth is?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html
Glaciers used to cover Chicago… guess the Alarmist should have been warning us back about CO2 admissions.
Gentlemen, a few numbers extra. At perihelion the Earth is ~91.5M miles from the Sun. At Aphelion it is ~94.5M miles, a difference of ~3.25%. Therefore at Aphelion the radiation reaching the Earth should be ~3.25% less, all other things being equal. But they are not equal because of the 23 deg tilt. That changes the length of the days by about 2-2 1/2 hours ( I think, although it could be as much as 4-5 hours) between shortest and longest days of the year.
@denniswingo, when you are closer in Winter (northern hemisphere I assume), we are closer in Summer in the southern. Therefore the tilt is more significant than peri or Aphelion but it is still useful as told by the TSI. This Global Warming/Climate change/whatever they call it is just another plan to cede more power from us to them to the U.N to control the World via stupid treaties and Taxes. At least we get to kick out the looney Lefties in Aus later this year. HFTC all.
This is in the same league as the explanation for the rise in air temperature with altitude observed when ascending through an inversion “When you climb the mountain the air gets warmer because you are getting closer to the sun”
Distance from the sun “emphasizes” seasonal differences in the SH, and “counteracts” them in the NH. To the extent it makes any difference at all.