The WUWT Hot Sheet for August 20th, 2013

WUWT_hot_sheet2

Bill McKibben thinks Al Gore has been ‘diminished’ by skeptics:

We actually had a charismatic leader in Al Gore, but he was almost the exception that proved the rule.

For one thing, a politician makes a problematic leader for a grassroots movement because boldness is hard when you still envision higher office; for another, even as he won the Nobel Prize for his remarkable work in spreading climate science, the other side used every trick and every dollar at their disposal to bring him down. He remains a vital figure in the rest of the world (partly because there he is perceived less as a politician than as a prophet), but at home his power to shape the fight has been diminished.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-mckibben/movements-without-leaders_b_3777136.html

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Speaking of Gore’s “diminished role”, this is what he’s up to now*

Duke C. says:

Al Gore at Work: $8.7 Billion to ‘Repair Sound Barrier’?

The EPA has already begun discussions with environmentalist thought leader Al Gore about developing a series of Public Service Announcements to inform the public and to caution them about the damaging effects of supersonic speeds. When reached by phone, the former Vice President and filmmaker shared his newfound expertise on the topic, “Most of the smaller residual sonic disturbances seem to be concentrated in some of the least populated areas, like ranches and rodeo arenas.” He further quipped that, “This truth is looking pretty inconvenient as well.”

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/markbaisley/2013/08/19/al-gore-at-work-87-billion-to-repair-sound-barrier-n1667603/page/full

*Spoof article

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Mike Bromley the Kurd says:

Oh Noes Department: European Forests aren’t the carbon sink they once were……

http://phys.org/news/2013-08-europe-forests-carbon-saturation.html

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Stresiand effect in 3, 2, 1…

Mr Bliss says: A potentially very damaging story regarding UK wind farms:

“Sources have said that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) run by Ed Davey, a Liberal Democrat wants to stop Owen Paterson, the Conservative Environment Secretary, publishing a major report that he has commissioned on renewable energy and the rural economy. ”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/10253462/Ministers-at-war-over-secret-wind-farm-evidence.html

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It took them this long to figure this out?

NASA scientists relate urban population to air pollution

Live in a large city like New York, London, Beijing or Mumbai, and you are likely exposed to more air pollution than people in smaller cities in surrounding areas. But exactly how a city’s pollution relates to the size of its population has never been measured, until now.

http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-scientists-relate-urban-population-to-air-pollution/#.UhKAMT92EhV

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Fearmongering from National Geographic, which is why I don’t subscribe anymore.

Steve Wilent says:

Have you seen the cover of the September 2013 National Geographic Magazine? Cover story: Rising Seas. Image: The statue of Liberty with water up to about Liberty’s waist — more than 200 feet above sea level.

http://press.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/15/national-geographic-magazine-september-2013/

I wonder if they tell readers how long that will take to get to that level, like I did here:

Freaking out about NYC sea level rise is easy to do when you don't pay attention to history

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UHI and social justice?

ut8t5 says:

Reducing Urban Heat Island effect in Toronto a matter of social justice, “experts” say

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/08/17/reducing_urban_heat_island_effect_in_toronto_a_matter_of_social_justice_activists_say.html

Toronto Public Health claims that the urban heat effect makes poorer neighbourhoods even hotter than wealthier neighbourhoods.

“The Urban Heat Island problem “doesn’t affect everyone equally… In Toronto, there is “almost a perfect overlay between poor areas and hot areas,” says Kevin Behan, deputy director of the Clean Air Partnership, an environmental group.”

“Modern scientists have confirmed that the average temperature difference between an urban heat island and its rural belt is usually 1 C to 2 C but can reach as much as 12 C in extreme cases.”

Chicken Little is very worried about this and want to spend our money RIGHT NOW.

“Mitigating the Urban Heat Island effect — which can be as easy as switching roof colours — is a matter of social justice, many experts say. And as climate change continues to amplify weather extremes, that task is increasingly urgent.”

LOL

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Heatwaves Projected to Double by 2020

New Computer Models Project Rapid Increase in Heatwaves

John Marincic writes:

Heatwaves are projected to double by 2020 based on new computer models and reviewing an “exceptional number of extreme heatwaves” over the last decade.  The scientists from Germany and Spain use the latest heatwaves in Australia, US, and Russia as examples of what will become more prevalent over the coming decade.

The study is in the Journal of Environmental Research Letters.  There is a link to the study in the article (see URL) published by Reuters.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Environment/2013/08/16/21052391.html

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milodonharlani
August 20, 2013 8:18 am

So much lunacy, so little space!
Now the EPA will want to ban ranches & rodeos.

milodonharlani
August 20, 2013 8:22 am

From Algore article:
And the fact that even at this late point in the article you don’t know that I’m kidding says more about Obama and environmental foolishness that it does about your sense of humor or mine.

August 20, 2013 8:24 am

That’s a pretty funny spoof, having Al Gore want to “repair the broken sound barrier.”
I wish that National Geographic cover was a spoof as well. Oh, how far the mighty have fallen!

Kevin Kilty
August 20, 2013 8:25 am

From the Teuters article:

“It is very likely that the length, frequency, and/or intensity of warm spells or heatwaves will increase over most land areas” this century….
“In many regions, the coldest summer months by the end of the century will be hotter than the hottest experienced today,” unless emissions of greenhouse gases are curbed, said Dim Coumou, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Point one: the sentence about length, frequency, and intensity is heavily hedged to make any observation a confirmation. This is especially true in a system dominated by 1/f noise.
Point two: The Potsdam researcher states, without doubt, that it is the rate of increase of emissions that is the cause of warming and intensifying of climate features. This is not logically consistent with the physics of the problem that the researchers/journalists/politicians/activists keep insisting we do not understand.

Jeff in Calgary
August 20, 2013 8:28 am

“Modern scientists have confirmed ”
What exactly is a Modern Scientist? Is that someone who has a new “scientific meathod”?

August 20, 2013 8:29 am

46 years ago my grandmother gave me a lifetime subscription to National Geographic. It was a fairly good magazine back then that still had the occasional picture of naked breast natives, but sometime around the 1990s it became nothing more than a left wing propaganda machine. All it does now is talk about how humans are destroying the planet.
Al Gore alway was and always will be a pure joke.

Kevin Kilty
August 20, 2013 8:32 am

Oops. I meant rate of increase of CO2.

Jeff in Calgary
August 20, 2013 8:34 am

Maybe if those Europeans harvested their forests once in a while they wouldn’t be aging so badly. They could cut sections of the forest, use the wood for something (like maybe lumber…) and then replant. They could even setup a rotating schedule. But make sure not to recycle any wood products, that would reduce the demand for fresh cut wood. And you need to make sure not to compost it either. That would release the CO2 back to the air. You need to somehow sequester it, maybe by burying it in a land fill or something…

milodonharlani
August 20, 2013 8:36 am

Jeff in Calgary says:
August 20, 2013 at 8:28 am
Should read, “post-Modern scientists”. Modern scientists were the likes of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Lavoisier, Hutton, Darwin, Pasteur, Koch, Rutherford, Einstein, Curie, Chadwick, Pauling, Wegener, Watson, Crick, Franklin, Feynman, Dyson, et al, you know, old fogies such as they, boring data-collectors & hypothesis testers, not up to date computer modelers & spaghetti graphers (or grafters) like the mighty Mann.

Mike Bromley the Kurd
August 20, 2013 8:43 am

National Geolaughic. Not a thing about geography anymore. Everything about leftist demography.

TomRude
August 20, 2013 8:44 am

Rising seas are the main fear mongering of AR5 so Nat Geo just plays the game…
As for The Toronto Star’s UHI, that’s brilliant agit prop. Next: are subduction zones racist?

Stephen Richards
August 20, 2013 8:50 am

milodonharlani says:
August 20, 2013 at 8:18 am
So much lunacy, so little space!
Now the EPA will want to ban ranches & rodeos.
Especially those with Oblarny clowns.

H.R.
August 20, 2013 8:53 am

Al Gore… charismatic?!?
I wonder if Bill McKibben has an extra nickel bag of whatever it is he’s using that he’d sell to me?

JimS
August 20, 2013 8:54 am

At least the statue of liberty does not have the water over her head. How does my expression of attitude fit in with the “seeing the glass half full or half empty”? I am so confused.

JJ
August 20, 2013 9:02 am

Jeff in Calgary says:
“Modern scientists have confirmed ”
What exactly is a Modern Scientist? Is that someone who has a new “scientific meathod”?

Maybe I’m being too pedantic, but you spelled “meathead” wrong.

John F. Hultquist
August 20, 2013 9:03 am

The WUWT Hot Sheet seems to be working well. Good idea. Thanks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff in Calgary says:
August 20, 2013 at 8:34 am
“. . . use the wood for something (like maybe lumber…)

There is a precedent for this sort of thing:
http://gamblershouse.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/where-they-got-the-wood/
The Chacoan style of architecture, however, features an enormous amount of wood, mostly in the ceilings of rooms but also in the lintels of doorways and vents and in some cases as intramural beams inside the walls. It has been estimated that about 200,000 beams were used in construction in the canyon. Because of the arid climate and the strength of the construction, a considerable amount of this wood has survived quite well and can be seen by visitors today.

Dr. Bob
August 20, 2013 9:06 am

On the Kurd’s reference to European Forests not removing CO2 anymore. That is to be expected from a climax forest. It is well known that a forest that is mature has a net neutral impact on CO2 as tress and forest matter are growing and decaying at the same rate. The only way to keep a forest in the absorbing CO2 mode is to harvest it in a “sustainable” manner. And to make sure that you are removing CO2, the harvested wood needs to go into permanent use such as houses. If it is used for fuel or feed to a cellulosic ethanol facility, the CO2 ends up in the atmosphere anyway. But the only really good biomass feedstock available for CE fuel production is forest matter. All other energy crops will take way too much land to produce feed for a biofuels plant. For example, switchgrass as an energy crop will take about 100 sq mi of land dedicated to this crop for 30 years to provide 2000 tons/day of biomass to a CE plant. This will produce 2000 to 3000 barrels of oil equivalent of fuel (ethanol in this example, if the plant works as designed) when our needs are 17 million bbl/day. And with the new shale plays, there is a glut of oil available on the market and we are soon to be reasonably independent of imported crude by maybe 2025.
How times have changed from only a few years ago.
Bob

August 20, 2013 9:16 am

Those deniers used every trick and every dollar at their disposal to manipulate the local atmosphere to bring “Gore Effect” weather everywhere that man meant.

Mike McMillan
August 20, 2013 9:18 am

I’ve broken the sound barrier three times, once even in an old F-100. If I’d known it would cost that many billions to repair, I’d have thought twice about it.
On second thought, naaw. It was too much fun.

Kaboom
August 20, 2013 9:19 am

I doubt the sceptic side has spent 1% of the money on bringing down Al Gore than he earned from his involvement with alarmism. Probably less than 1% of 1%.
The easiest fix to improve european forests as carbon sinks would be to chop them down. New growth will help. Expect recommendations to this end from leading warmist experts soon, harebrained as it may be.

Garfy
August 20, 2013 9:30 am

is Al Gore really interested in ecologic problems – I heard he has a plane and a big ranch with a lot of light on ……..

DesertYote
August 20, 2013 9:33 am

Jeff in Calgary says:
August 20, 2013 at 8:28 am
“Modern scientists have confirmed ”
What exactly is a Modern Scientist? Is that someone who has a new “scientific meathod”?
###
Yes. The stodgy old one has been replaced by one that has been “enlightened” by the inclusion of “Critical Theory”.

GlynnMhor
August 20, 2013 9:33 am

Gore does not appear diminished at all.
If anything he may have put on a few kilos…

OldWeirdHarold
August 20, 2013 9:39 am

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? There’s no such thing as the UHI, but it affects the poor disproportionately?

TomRude
August 20, 2013 9:46 am
Steve C
August 20, 2013 9:48 am

Re Ed Davey trying to squelch Owen Paterson’s evidently-too-honest wind farm report, Paterson should have a word with fellow Conservative Lord Lawson. I’m sure the GWPF would be happy enough to publish it, and a lot of us Brits would be most interested in reading it.

numerobis
August 20, 2013 9:49 am

What’s the deal with mocking Toronto for studying where it should plant its trees to help as many of its citizens as possible?
Or does the poster just not believe there’s a heat island effect, which would explain the “chicken little” accusation.

August 20, 2013 9:50 am

Heatwaves projected to double by 2020:
“Almost 200 governments have agreed to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times and plan to agree, by the end of 2015, a deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions.”
Finally, we know what the ideal earth temperature should be!

Richards in Vancouver
August 20, 2013 10:06 am

@Kaboom, 9:19
“I doubt the sceptic side has spent 1% of the money on bringing down Al Gore than he earned from his involvement with alarmism. Probably less than 1% of 1%.”
The actual number is $0.00398 as measured at Moanin’ Liar volcano in Hawaii.
Of course, this is still only raw data. Needs more work.

RockyRoad
August 20, 2013 10:09 am

The Statue of Liberty will be completely corroded away before sea level reaches its pedestal!
And as far as Bill McKibben’s estimation of “charismatic leader” Al Gore–both Bill and Al are more than “diminished”, they are full-blown liars when it comes to climate. And if they blame skeptics for being “outed”, they’re finally recognizing the fact that truth is destroying their fiction.
I strongly recommend that they keep spewing their propaganda because more and more people are seeing through it. That’s one of the more transparent aspects of this whole Global Warming meme.

Tim OBrien
August 20, 2013 10:13 am

I still think it was cartoons that killed Al Gore’s chance to be a messiah. The roasting he got on the ManBearPig episode of South Park was burned into the brains of the very demographic he wanted to lead, making him a notable fool. His appearance on Futurama, which I think he thought would help him, backfired with his first sentence “I have ridden the mighty Moon-Worm!” He is now irrelevant.

Richards in Vancouver
August 20, 2013 10:13 am

Re. the National Geographic cover:
If you look more closely, you’ll see that the water is not up to the waist of the Statue of Liberty. It is only up to her watsis.
This is good. Every national monument needs a clean watsis.

Thomas Gough
August 20, 2013 10:18 am

I get a little tired every time I see a well known saying used when it doesn’t mean what (almost) everyone thinks it means. I refer to Bill McKribben when he says that Al Gore was almost the exception that proved the rule. In this matter I don’t blame McKribben. It is sloppy thinking on all our parts.
Why should the exception prove the rule?? if you think about it, it is nonsense. But yes, it is an old English saying and it does makes sense. It is just that we don’t understand it (and what is worse when it doesn’t make sense don’t bother to look further). PROVE is an Old English word meaning to TEST. Reading as…… “It is the exception that tests the rule”… does make sense.
Thomas Gough (A Scot !!)

jorgekafkazar
August 20, 2013 10:20 am

Tom Trevor says: “46 years ago my grandmother gave me a lifetime subscription to National Geographic. It was a fairly good magazine back then that still had the occasional picture of naked breast natives….”
As Caleb has said, above: “Oh, how far the mighty have fallen!”

Zeke
August 20, 2013 10:21 am

Did you know Al Gore does some very important work in comparative mythology?
Apparently he does not look with favor on monotheism but approves of returning to Gaia worship – and may also have given his academic and scholarly approval to the worship of other dishy Roman Goddesses as well. To quote from his book, “we” may be able “to resanctify the Earth” through religion. “Man belongs to the Earth.”
Could there be some kind of physiological explanation for this level of academic hubris? Are there potentially some neurological issues underlying this kind of progressive need to explain all religions, and to set the temperature and population of the Earth? Could there have been some frontal lobe damage during the years between 18-24, in which there has been excessive exposure to alcohol and Marxist professors? Future studies are needed.

Jimbo
August 20, 2013 10:24 am

[Al Gore]
……but at home his power to shape the fight has been diminished.

Maybe the following provides a clue.
He owns a 10,000-square-foot mansion with 20 rooms. Not content he went on to purchase a $8.875 Million 6,500 sq. foot Montecito Villa with 6 fireplaces. He sold his Current TV to oil funded Al Jazeera. It is also well known that the family became rich from Occidental Petroleum. Al Gore has admitted to cultivating and selling tobacco and so on…………………….

JimS
August 20, 2013 10:25 am

@Russ
“Finally, we know what the ideal earth temperature should be!”
Do a search on what the preindustrial global temperature was though. I did, and came up empty. It was never defined. LOL!
If I recall correctly, the global temperature immediately before the industrial revolution was the global temperature of the Little Ice Age. No one seems to know what that temperature was either. LOL!

milodonharlani
August 20, 2013 10:28 am

Thomas Gough says:
August 20, 2013 at 10:18 am
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/exception-that-proves-the-rule.html
It’s a legal maxim, established in English law in the early 17th century. Written, as law was in those days, in Latin:
Exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis
and is interpreted to mean ‘exception confirms the rule in the cases not excepted’
It has (slightly modified) examples in print going back to at least 1617:
Collins: Indefinites are equivalent to vniversalls especially where one exception being made, it is plaine that all others are thereby cut off, according to the rule Exceptio figit regulam in non exceptis.
While not the earliest citation, this, from Giovanni Torriano’s Piazza universale di proverbi italiani, or A Common Place of Italian Proverbs, 1666, expresses the idea clearly:
“The exception gives Authority to the Rule.”
An instance often cited is a sign reading “No parking on Sunday”, which exception implies that on all other days, parking is allowed.
You are correct about “prove” & “test”. In Spanish, derived from Vulgar Latin, the noun “prueba” still means “test” & the verb “probar” is “to test”. Our measure of alcohol content “proof” also derives from the meaning “test”.

John Brisbin
August 20, 2013 10:40 am

To describe Al ‘Wooden Indian’ Gore as a charismatic leader would require the perspicuity of a … climate scientist.
Oh. Right.

highflight56433
August 20, 2013 10:42 am

200 feet increase in sea level will put the other statue of liberty 90 feet below the surface.

Louis Hooffstetter
August 20, 2013 10:49 am

National Geographic is a joke! The cover article is based on busted sea level models that are based on busted climate models. The cover article is science fiction. They should have used this for the cover:
http://www.impawards.com/2004/day_after_tomorrow_ver4.html

BFL
August 20, 2013 11:23 am

Mike McMillan says:
August 20, 2013 at 9:18 am
I’ve broken the sound barrier three times, once even in an old F-100. If I’d known it would cost that many billions to repair, I’d have thought twice about it.
————————————————————————————————————————————-
But in that aircraft you just barely broke the sound barrier (I think that you had to be in a slight dive at full power most of the time), so you couldn’t have really done that much damage.
Once crawled down a Super Saber’s inlet to inspect the blades for damage and grime (kinda tight with the crew making the usual jokes about dropping the Ram Air Turbine or starting the engine). This particular aircraft, with cables and chocks, would stall in full After Burner after a few seconds, Flames would come all the way out the 21′ inlet and of course the rear tailpipe. Quite impressive (and loud) to see the plane completely relax on the cables/chocks and then lunge forward again during stall and recovery. Turns out the F100 aircraft stall issues at this base were from oiling the compressor in an attempt to reduce salt corrosion (this base had lots of flight time over the ocean). Of course the oil attracted dust/dirt which spoiled the smooth airflow over the compressor blades, causing the stalls.

Steve in Seattle
August 20, 2013 11:31 am

OldWeird … that was good, Whiskey, Tango …..

clipe
August 20, 2013 11:31 am

Al Gore’s (does this make me look fat?) private jet struggling for altitude.

mkelly
August 20, 2013 11:51 am

Whatever happened to Gore he did to himself. His hypocrisy, his lack of knowledge, telling fibs, etc. earned him all the derision he gets.

e.c. cowan
August 20, 2013 11:52 am

Gore was a speaker at the Lake Tahoe Summit.
In his speech, he used the term ‘Global Warming’ 3 or 4 times.
Even the person who wrote the article used the Politically Correct term ‘Climate Change”.
Poor old Al is living in the past.

R. de Haan
August 20, 2013 11:52 am

“there he is perceived less as a politician than as a prophet”
That says it all doesn’t it. In order to make a scientific case you have to be a prophet.
Well, I think Al Gore is a bad politician and a bad prophet who is creating a non existing problem based on (B)ull (S)hit assumptions, not even bad science.
He will fade away in history as the personification of one of the biggest government scams in human history.

Bruce Cobb
August 20, 2013 11:52 am

Bill Mickibben’s (BM for short) treatise on movements is a veritable onslaught of verbal diarrhea. He likens the climate “movement” to that for civil rights. In his blind idiocy, he fails to see that the consequences of his crusade against “carbon” will be dire for all of humanity, but most especially the poor.

Gail Combs
August 20, 2013 12:01 pm

Kaboom says: @ August 20, 2013 at 9:19 am
…The easiest fix to improve european forests as carbon sinks would be to chop them down. New growth will help. Expect recommendations to this end from leading warmist experts soon, harebrained as it may be.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The fix is already in the locals are busy chopping them down to burn in the winter so they can keep warm. …Tens of thousands of trees have disappeared from parks and woodlands this winter across Greece, authorities said, in a worsening problem that has had tragic consequences as the crisis-hit country’s impoverished residents, too broke to pay for electricity or fuel, turn to fireplaces and wood stoves for heat….
(The law of unintended consequences strikes again.)
The UK, Spain and Portugal to follow. /snark

Rex Knight
August 20, 2013 12:06 pm

I am 75 years old and have never been without the National Geographic in my household. I paid for a subscription for all the kids as they left home for a total of seven subscriptions. Now the number is zero and it will stay that way.

Joe Crawford
August 20, 2013 12:13 pm

H.R. says (August 20, 2013 at 8:53 am): “… I wonder if Bill McKibben has an extra nickel bag of whatever it is he’s using that he’d sell to me?”
Isn’t that sort ‘a showing your age? Of course so am I… hadn’t seen one of those in many ‘a coon’s age.

Jeff in Calgary
August 20, 2013 12:57 pm

Funny how Bill McKibben thinks that he is part of a grass roots uprising; the underdogs struggling to have their voice heard; fighting on a shoestring budget against the hugely well-funded juggernaut of ‘Denialests’. Is this a strange form of projection disorder? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection)
He kind of seems like a guy with a bad toupee. He thinks that his argument makes him look good, but actualy, everyone is laghing at him behind his back….

Bob
August 20, 2013 12:58 pm

“Bill McKibben thinks Al Gore has been ‘diminished’ by skeptics:”
Everybody knows that Al Gore has needed no help in the diminishing department. He has screwed his own reputation all by himself.

hunter
August 20, 2013 1:10 pm

The real movement without leaders is that of the AGW Skeptics.
AGW belief is pure astroturf, carefully packaged, marketed by way of high level conferences, and self-selecting committees, and paid for by huge amouints of tax payer money. How many showed up in support of the President’s war on ‘flat earther’s last week?

Mickey Reno
August 20, 2013 1:13 pm

What follows is my irreverent humor in response to the stories in the WUWT hot sheet, some of which are pretty dang funny. Skip this post if you don’t like that sort of thing.
still reading? okay, it’s on you, I don’t want to hear any complaints… 😉
Al Gore has been spreading climate science. I finally understand why Super Scott Mandia wears hip waders.
I know Al Gore, although he made a ton of money, didn’t get the full happy ending that he wanted to his climate story. This must have left him hot and bothered. I’m sure he’s delighted that Bill McKibben is taking this matter into his own hands in order to insure a successful climax to his efforts.
Speaking of Lady Liberty’s ‘whatsis,’ I know this isn’t the biggest problem that we face when sea levels rise 200 ft above today’s levels. But still, forewarned is forearmed. If Liberty’s ‘whatsis’ is at sea level, it will eventually get covered with marine growth, barnicles, oysters, mollusks, etc. She’ll be needing a female statue’s equivalent of a good Brazilian waxing from time to time. I hope the Park Service is making their contingency plans.
UHI is a social justice issue? Having lived in a poor Mexican town with only one paved street, and having seen how dirt streets turn into often impassable morasses of mud and malaria spreading mosquito ponds during the rainy season, I think the poor of the world need more pavement, not less. At the very least, let’s not settle this question until we ask the poor people for their opinions. Hint: pretty sure the poor want paved roads in their barrios and to be able to afford a car, air conditioning, reliable electricity, etc
NASA must have figured out that urban areas were more heavily populated by finally launching into orbit more powerful cameras with adequate resolution to make out details of urbanized areas. I hope it wasn’t just computer models, I’ll be so disappointed if it was just computer models.
Speaking of models, with these new computer models that predict more heatwaves, did they use the word “powerful” to describe them? NO. Did they talk about running them on powerful supercomputers? NO. Obviously, these people aren’t real climate scientists. They don’t know how to communicate science. Ergo, I think it’s safe to completely ignore them.
On the Streisand effect: I think the world would be so much better off if we were all just people who need people… if we were people who needed people, we’d all be the luckiest people in the world. Aw crap, I just thought of a complication. If we’re all the luckiest people in the world, won’t the bookmakers and casinos be relatively unluckier? So obviously they’re not among the luckiest people. But wait, they still need people, or else they’d not have any business, so then THEY must also be the luckiest people… aw, screw it, this is too hard to figure out.

Admad
August 20, 2013 1:21 pm

“…for another, even as he won the Nobel Prize for his remarkable work in spreading climate science…” (in re Al Gore): I was under the impression that the Nobel Prize caper had already been debunked. Did I miss something? Has he actually been given one now?

August 20, 2013 1:39 pm

John Brisbin says:
August 20, 2013 at 10:40 am
To describe Al ‘Wooden Indian’ Gore as a charismatic leader would require the perspicuity of a … climate scientist.

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Maybe “Yamal 06” didn’t come from Yamal after all?

Warren
August 20, 2013 1:45 pm

Al Gore spreading “climate science.” Hmph!

H.R.
August 20, 2013 2:04 pm

Joe Crawford says:
August 20, 2013 at 12:13 pm
H.R. says (August 20, 2013 at 8:53 am): “… I wonder if Bill McKibben has an extra nickel bag of whatever it is he’s using that he’d sell to me?”
Isn’t that sort ‘a showing your age? Of course so am I… hadn’t seen one of those in many ‘a coon’s age.
================================================================
I’ll dial you up from a payphone and we can discuss the matter. Just be sure the operator puts me straight through to you and that no one else is on the party line, m’kay? ;o)
.
.
.
Al Gore… phhtttt! The little dead voles my dogs leave by the door have more charisma than Al.

Editor
August 20, 2013 2:58 pm

Anybody else notice that IARC/JAXA at http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/seaice/extent/plot.csv hasn’t been updated for a few days? According to http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/en/home/seaice_extent.htm
The latest value : 5,867,813 km2 (August 16, 2013)

KNR
August 20, 2013 3:09 pm

When you consider the type of ‘prophets’ , such as St Gore and Mann, that lead ‘the cause ‘ you can almost get all you need to know about its actual value from that alone.
Hype and BS with a big fat dollop of self-serving interest..

kim
August 20, 2013 3:12 pm

Peter Bocking told me that if Al Gore’s hair were set on fire it would provide enough heat and light for a small English village.
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milodonharlani
August 20, 2013 3:26 pm

Walter Dnes says:
August 20, 2013 at 2:58 pm
ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02186/masie_extent_sqkm.csv

Txomin
August 20, 2013 6:05 pm

It is interesting that someone as rich as Gore bothers so much with this sort of thing. What’s the drive?

Jeff Alberts
August 20, 2013 6:11 pm

McKibben: “there [Al Gore] is perceived less as a politician than as a prophet profit
I’m sure that’s what Billy REALLY meant.

Jon
August 20, 2013 7:44 pm

“Modern scientists have confirmed ”
What exactly is a Modern Scientist? Is that someone who has a new “scientific meathod”?
I think they mean Post Modern Scientists?

R. de Haan
August 20, 2013 8:06 pm

I would like the see the UHI effect tested in ghost cities.
We have several ghost cities in China and Spain. Just the buildings, no people.
I think it is not the number of people but the size of the town which makes the UHI effect.

wayne
August 20, 2013 10:54 pm

” Is that someone who has a new “scientific meathod”? ”
No, according to Lew it is a new “scientific methud”, not “meathod”, but still new. Just listen. The old ways were simply too constrained to match his conclusion.

August 21, 2013 5:45 am

Don’t laugh, but another sound barrier source is gunshots, so the nut jobs might take up that argument, which oh by the way, outlaws most guns.

Curt
August 21, 2013 7:57 am

I don’t know whether to be amused or appalled at the idea that UHI is undesirable in a cold city like Toronto (where the average summer high temperature is only 25C).

numerobis
August 21, 2013 9:36 am

25 is comfortable; add on several degrees of urban heat island effect in the worse-off neighbourhoods, and it’s uncomfortable on average. Even moderate heat waves quickly get to be dangerous.

he's dead jim
August 21, 2013 11:38 pm

the average temp for summer around the world is 15C not “25C”

Roger Knights
August 23, 2013 12:23 am

he’s dead jim says:
August 21, 2013 at 11:38 pm
the average temp for summer around the world is 15C not “25C”

Buy Curt made a different claim:

. . . a cold city like Toronto (where the average summer high temperature is only 25C)

August 25, 2013 12:03 am

I think so. I think your report will give the individuals a good suggesting. And they will show thanks to anyone later