Mann, Cook, Nuccitelli get put off-site for their presentations
I spent Monday looking around at the sights on the opening day of AGU 2014. Before I get to that I want to give some thanks to some people. First of all I want to give thanks to my readers for their gracious assistance in getting me here via help with expenses, secondly I’d like to thank Joan Buhrman and Peter Weiss of AGU for their assistance in getting me set up with media passes and hearing assistance. They have been quite gracious.
That said, here are some of my first impressions of the conference. Number one it’s very large; thousands of people milling about going to different sessions and breakouts and halls it can be quite overwhelming just simply getting from point A to point B due to the volume of people. Along way I did spot some things of interest and I’ve taken some photographs which I’ll share below.
One thing that did strike me as different this year was this seems to be less emphasis on climate alarmism than their wares in years past. I’ve noted there’s less advertising for things like this session last year….
![IMG_20131209_131354[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_20131209_1313541.jpg?quality=83)
….in fact it seems to have been muted a bit….no mention of “attacks”:
….and there doesn’t seem to be any special session with the usual suspects on being “attacked” like last year:
Perhaps my report on it last year had something to do with it, once people saw how ridiculous and egomaniacal the entire session was. But then again, there was this item from Dr. Mann this year: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/12/14/hilarious-irony-michael-mann-to-give-lecture-on-professional-ethics-for-climate-scientists/ so I’m not completely convinced that AGU has dialed back, but there are encouraging signs.
For example, the whole John Cook/Dana Nuccitell Skeptical science social media attack dog universe seems to have been moved off-site to the Marriot Marquis hotel rather than be in the main buildings at Moscone Center:
The same thing seems to have happened to Chris Mooney, who is also presenting off-site…
Even Michael Mann has been relegated to the back forty:
So, there is encouraging signs that maybe the rhetoric is being put on the back shelf a bit, we shall see. I haven’t decided if I’ll even bother to go to any of these, as there’s nothing new. Maybe I’ll just show up to get a head count.
One other thing that struck me as different this year was the fact that the poster sessions seemed to have doubled in size over AGU 2013. There are now two halls, Moscone West, and Moscone main that have poster sessions. They were quite popular and well attended yesterday.
Though…it might have been due to the free beer provided by AGU:
Imagine the wailing if Heartland provided free alcohol at their ICCC conferences at sessions.
I looked at a number of posters yesterday many of which were dealing with carbon in the Arctic something that seemed is been missing last year released not as prominent. This year there were at least a half-dozen of not more posters just on Monday alone dealing with carbon soot in the Arctic one of the posters struck me as being quite profound because of the mapping of carbon deposition in southern Greenland as you can see in this photo below.
A close up showing the deposition pattern:
What was most interesting was that the author of this poster had no idea about the actual carbon set being seen at collecting in meltwater ponds on the surface of the Greenland ice sheet. I showed her this photo from one of my earlier blog posts, and she and another person standing there were just flabbergasted.
Of course images like this one at left showing water tumbling down a huge moulin are being held up with gloom and doom scenarios that say Greenland’s Ice is melting “faster than expected” and we’ll get six feet of sea level rise from it along with a 10-15°F temperature rise by the year 2100.
Perhaps. But, moulins have existed since Greenland had ice, they are just part of the natural landscape and processes. They aren’t “new” to our time.
One of the photos we don’t often get to see was also circulated in the email, by somebody who lives in Greenland and knows what this is really all about.
It’s a real eye opener:
Image from National Geographic online slide show – Photo: James Balog – click for more
I saw quite a bit of good science being presented at this conference I was especially impressed with this poster that had a caveat at the end, seen in the closeup.
“correlation does not equal causation” Hmmm, where have we heard that before?
I’ll have more reports later tonight or tomorrow from what I learn today.
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Has anyone published an elemental analysis of those dark streaks in the Greenland ice, or of that dark sediment at the bottom of the ice-lake? Do they know for a fact that it’s all elemental carbon, or industrial carbon soots?
Could some of it be aeolian dust from the Sahara? Or the Gobi?
My guess is that it’s from some volcano near by?
Most of the recent soot is from huge Canadian forest fires (http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/09/16/jason_box_s_research_into_greenland_s_dark_snow_raises_more_concerns_about.html), but some of the dark stuff is not soot, but algae.
Pat,
That is a darn good question! I hope somebody looks into it.
Also, Anthony,
If I understand the black carbon poster, it is model output showing much REDUCED bc reaching Greenland since the industrial revolution? Is my interpretation correct? If so, does that agree with ice core data?
Thanks for the good work,
Ken
When I lived in Lima, 1971 thru 1975, we too had our own generator. A big problem in the third world, although I don’t know if Lima still suffers it, is “Pegados”; literally “stuck on’s.”
They connect to the grid via two rebar hooks placed over the transmission lines with a pole – wood poles are recommended. The hooks are connected to a light bulb and TV inside your dirt-floor shack. Obviosly unmetered use with no feedback to regulate balance demand with supply causes market distortions and unstable current to everyone.
I often wonder how now power could be saved just by solving this problem.
Corrections: “no feedback to balance”; “wonder how much power”.
“Obviosly unmetered use with no feedback to regulate balance demand with supply causes market distortions and unstable current to everyone.”
Metered use does not feedback anything to regulate supply. It just meters.
“I often wonder how now power could be saved just by solving this problem.”
Actually, more power could be saved in the households that have meters, I suspect. Not only that, but think of the capital savings to the power company: they don’t need to buy meters.
I’ve seen that in the US… back in the 50’s when I watched a couple of men lift a wired hook on a wooden pole over the power line, with a rod attached to the other end, which they stuck into the ground and the fishin’ worms did come dancin’ right up out of the ground and the wet- shoed little boy who was collecting them did some tingly dancing, too while the men laughed and said, “it won’t hurt you, just get ’em quick.”
Especially since the brewing of beer releases the – gasp – DREADED CO2 into the atmosphere!
AND (in the day) I would release some methane, too. I can still do that, but not from beer.
Remember, always bring a BIC lighter to burn off the excess!
Yes, but what percentage of that CO2 is first passed through the body, providing endless hours of belching, farting, and laughing about it; activities priceless when it comes to quality-of-life for those of us who still don’t know what we want to be when we grow up..
@ur momisugly Socrates —
1. Funny. You assert your opinion with a high level of confidence in your own intellectual ability, and yet… cannot even see the obvious: that exposing an egomaniac does not require that one be one. One merely has to report what the egomaniac said or did.
2. You also reveal a surprising ignorance of the definition of “attack dog.” Here’s a clue: attack dogs are not big on substance and attack the person, not the issue… sort of like you just did…..
An-thony’s site is all about substance and issues …. and freedom of speech. While we commenters are free to speak our mind strongly about just about anyone or anything, An-thony restricts his exposes to proven l1ars such as Micky {LOVED that, James Bull — much more finely tuned connotation than the more typically American “Mikey”} Mann.
@ur momisugly Socrates — … and you also reveal your ignorance of English… . Or, perhaps, in your haste to castigate An-thony, you missed the word, “perhaps.”
‘Socrates’ says:
Funny how you don’t seem to be aware of your own egotism nicely displayed…
No one I know is a more humble person than Anthony Watts. So that comment fits right in with all Socrates’ other comments: he simply doesn’ know what he’s talking about.
I think this is called grasping at straws.
Glad to be of small help, keep us informed.
If you get the urge please attend the more rabid presentations, as your mere presence seems to provoke madness amongst the afflicted ones.
Which produces ever more entertaining and occasionally informative outbursts on their part.
Anthony, can you let us know how many sheep went to graze on the “back forty” . please?
Wow. It is almost as if people are coming back to their senses after a wild binge.
A couple of newspaper articles for your amusement.
Firstly,
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30456869
it seems that ground squirrels are the villains in their contribution to global warming.
Secondly, any overweight readers can claim that they are helping through carbon sequestration, and avoid losing weight because that releases CO2
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/12/17/4149911.htm
Do they have ground squirrels on Mars?
Interesting that Mann mentions the famous Stephen Schneider quote. Eloquent indeed.
Enjoy the conference, Anthony.
As to methane on Mars, have those pesky oil & gas companies been fracking up there already? 😉
“correlation does not equal causation” Hmmm, I am not so sure.
Over the last few decades, mapping my rate of weight gain to rate of global temperature increase, it certainly looks like I am influencing the climate by eating too much and not exercising enough.
This is a global matter that must be addressed. I recommend everyone eat well and exercise or a burdensome tax be placed upon them.
But wait, causation is tricky. If it is the rising temperature itself that is causing my weight gain, then I am a victim and should receive a federal subsidy, paid for of course by those fortunate enough to be immune from climate influence and able to eat well and exercise.
I am certain authorities will find the correct answer to this vexing causation issue.
Any time I’m feeling depressed about this EPA and THIS Administration, all I have to do is to click on WUWT. BIG ANTHONY & HIS SCIENTISTS make be smile with their comments. :-))
I think I can speak for any number of contributors who helped: Would do it again without hesitation!
I like the comments by Mr Golden in the BBC Science Report mentioned by Michael Hart (17:0722)
“The team found that this activity meant that their burrows were warmer than the surrounding ground.
Mr Golden said: “We saw an increase in soil temperature in the soils where the arctic ground squirrels were occupying.”
This is what is known as the “Urban Heat Island Effect”.