The Week That Was: 2023-11-11 (November 11, 2023)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “Doubt is clearly a value in the sciences. Whether it is in other fields is an open question and an uncertain matter.” “…it is very important to doubt and that doubt is not a fearful thing, but a thing of very great value.” — Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All
Number of the Week: 4.00 to 4.25 kWh/m2/Day
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: The issues discussed include the different approaches towards understanding the climate used by a scientific organization and the demanding adherence to an artificial consensus of the science by politized organizations. This goes into issues with the means of the model ensembles used. US government agencies frequently ignore their obligation to ensure data quality in their presentations as shown in a presentation by Willie Soon. Howard Hayden discusses the costs of “free energy” from wind and solar. Some additions and corrections to past TWTW are presented.
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Contrasting Analyses: Two documents appeared that give a clear example of the contrasting analyses of a scientific institution and a political one. The scientific analysis appeared in Philosophical Transactions A of The Royal Society and the political effort was by the UN Environmental Program and a host of other environmental organizations.
CMIP Model Issues: The paper in Philosophical Transactions A raises an interesting question: “Can we trust projections of AMOC [Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation] weakening based on climate models that cannot reproduce the past?” We do not have strong evidence of change in the AMOC or that it is not changing. It is part of the thermohaline circulation around the globe that takes, perhaps, a thousand years to complete. Our observations of part of it, the Gulf Stream, extend only a few hundred years. We are seeing papers claiming an impending collapse based on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) model simulations and a highly questionable “tipping point in the climate system” sometime this century. A result of a collapse of the AMOC would bring devastating cold to the Northern Europe.
Given the oscillations in the Arctic ice cap and in the Intertropical Convergence Zone that drives the Atlantic Currents from Africa to South America, Brazil, and hence the north flowing Gulf Stream, coupled with the glaciation cycles of the past 3 plus million years, TWTW ordinarily would dismiss such claims of a collapse of the AMOC. However, the article in Philosophical Transactions A gives a useful approach to conflicting claims where there is no rigorous physical evidence.
The Abstract of the paper in Philosophical Transactions A states:
“The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a crucial element of the Earth’s climate system, is projected to weaken over the course of the twenty-first century which could have far reaching consequences for the occurrence of extreme weather events, regional sea level rise, monsoon regions and the marine ecosystem. The latest IPCC report puts the likelihood of such a weakening as ‘very likely’. As our confidence in future climate projections depends largely on the ability to model the past climate, we take an in-depth look at the difference in the twentieth century evolution of the AMOC based on observational data (including direct observations and various proxy data) and model data from climate model ensembles. We show that both the magnitude of the trend in the AMOC over different time periods and often even the sign of the trend differs between observations and climate model ensemble mean, with the magnitude of the trend difference becoming even greater when looking at the CMIP6 ensemble compared to CMIP5. We discuss possible reasons for this observation-model discrepancy and question what it means to have higher confidence in future projections than historical reproductions.
This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ’Atlantic overturning: new observations and challenges’.”
After a discussion of the AMOC explaining what it is, why it is important, and the difference in the CMIP5 and CMIP6 models’ ensemble means, the authors state [references and figures omitted here]:
“Comparing the models’ AMOC evolution to the observational data, we find that neither the CMIP5 nor the CMIP6 ensemble mean are successful at representing the observational AMOC data. Looking at the only available direct continuous AMOC observations (RAPID data) we can see that the ranges of uncertainty of the 2005–2016 RAPID trend and the standard deviation of the CMIP5 and CMIP6 ensemble distributions of the same trend barely overlap. The fit between model output and SST [Sea surface temperatures]-based AMOC index for the same time period is better. However, the ability of temperature-based indices to represent AMOC strength has been challenged on certain timescales.”
The authors state there are three possible explanations for the model-observation discrepancy:
“(i) The models are wrong.
(ii) The observations are wrong.
(iii) Models and observations are not expected to agree.”
The authors discuss each of these possibilities individually, followed by a general discussion. They state [citations omitted here]:
“If the observations of the AMOC are wrong and the multi-model mean of the CMIP6 ensemble members does represent the twentieth century AMOC, the only problem with the models is that there is a large range of trends in the CMIP6 ensembles. Ultimately, if external forcing of the AMOC is of leading importance, then the key variations in the multi-model mean of the CMIP6 ensemble members should capture the evolution of the AMOC in the twentieth century. Moreover, this multi-model ensemble mean has remained relatively consistent between CMIP5 and CMIP6, with changes to the magnitude of AMOC change rather than the sign of that change. The type of external forcing that does dominate the AMOC in this scenario is a relevant concern. Future AMOC simulations differ little between greenhouse gas trajectories until beyond 2050 when aerosol forcing fades out. Aerosol forcing has been key to historical changes in AMOC in CMIP models. By contrast, there has been little discussion of the role of aerosols in observational AMOC literature. Could aerosol forcing of AMOC be key and the current set of AMOC observational reconstructions be based on incorrect model relationships?
Were aerosol forcing to be key, it offers another path of reconciliation between observations and climate models. Many observational AMOC proxies depend on the relationship between subpolar warming and a strong AMOC. However, this is not the only potential relationship. In certain models, where aerosol forcing dominates, an inverse relationship between subpolar warming and AMOC strength is found. Potentially, incorrect relationships that underestimate aerosol forcing of AMOC in observations could be the cause of the disagreement. This statement can be applied more generally as many of the observational proxies are reliant on relationships derived from models and therefore reliant on those models getting this relationship correct. Some of the sparse hydrographic AMOC estimates that currently disagree could be explained by aliasing large natural variability. Progress on this can be made by further understanding what historical hydrography is telling us about AMOC variability.
Potentially, we do not expect the historical climate models and the observations to match. Internal variability may dominate observations. The multi-model ensemble spread only barely encompasses the range of AMOC observations.
[Please note that aerosols are the reason given by James Hansen, et al. for their recent claim that human-caused global warming is being hidden by aerosols and will emerge as the atmosphere becomes cleaner. Hansen’s paper is discussed in detail by Nic Lewis in Climate, Etc.] The authors of the analysis discuss other issues that may be missing in the models such as physical processes in the cryosphere. They conclude with [Boldface added]:
It is said that the only person who believes a model is the person who built it and that everyone believes an experiment/observation apart from the person who performed it. The challenge facing the AMOC community is either to reconcile the differences between climate models and observations or to better understand the reasons for deviation. Only with improved agreement and convergence will future IPCC reports be able to move from assessments of low confidence in this crucial climate variable.
We finish with a pessimistic statement: if it is not possible to reconcile climate models and observations of the AMOC in the historical period, then we believe the statements about future confidence about AMOC evolution should be revised. Low confidence in the past should mean lower confidence for the future! The IPCC AR6 report ranks it as very likely that the AMOC will decline in a changing climate. But, if these models cannot reproduce past variations, why should we be so confident about their ability to predict the future? Likewise, the IPCC AR6 reports medium confidence that there will be no collapse in the AMOC. But, with missing ice and freshwater dynamics, the processes that could initiate a collapse are unlikely to be simulated. We believe that progress needs to be made in understanding why models do not reproduce past AMOC variability and that this is the key to having confidence in the future evolution of this key climate variable.
From this paper there is no basis for certainty in the projections of the global climate models used by the IPCC. This particularly applies to the conclusions drawn by the UN agencies for claiming that additional carbon dioxide emissions are causing disruptions in our climate system, something that is not fully understood. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy and Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science, and Seeking a Common Ground.
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A Speculative Aside: “Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate” presents detailed proxy data from a cave in Oman showing that cosmic rays, modulated by solar activity, change the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). This indicates that the Indian Ocean current rounding Africa and hitting eastern Brazil varies. This variation can increase or decrease the intensity of the Gulf Stream, flowing north, and its counterpart flowing south. TWTW has not been able to find rigorous physical evidence supporting or refuting this concept of a changing Gulf Stream, thus a changing AMOC. See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy – NIPCC.
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Defending the Orthodoxy: The careful analysis in Philosophical Transactions A is in stark contrast with the latest publication of the UN on greenhouse gas emissions: “The Production Gap, 2023: Governments planned fossil fuel production remains dangerously out of sync with Paris Agreement limits.” Here the production gap means overproduction of carbon dioxide and fossil fuels. No physical evidence of harm from increasing carbon dioxide is given, no effort is made to explain the deficiencies of the global climate models and why their results differ from observations.
Instead, the UN and its supporters rely on pure politized argument and elaborate graphics, “smoke and mirrors.” The Paris Agreement was taken seriously by some countries that lowered CO2 emissions. However, some of these countries are discovering that abandoning fossil fuels is very costly, and the cheap alternatives are very expensive when the costs of providing reliable electricity and transportation are considered. Further, there is nothing magical about limiting warming to 1.5°C by 2100 nor is there any credible reason to believe that lowering CO2 emissions will have any measurable effect on the earth’s temperature. The “warming limit” is a contrived figure produced by politized organizations.
The recent warming is minimal when compared with the wild fluctuation during the Younger Dryas, which is not explained, much less the great fluctuations during glacial cycles when ice covers most of North America and parts of Eurasia. The Obama administration did not even bother to send the Paris Agreement to the US Senate for ratification, thus it is not legally enforceable in the US. No wonder China, the BRICS countries, and most of South Asia are ignoring the UN. See links under Defending the Orthodoxy, Problems in the Orthodoxy, and After Paris!
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US Data Quality: US government agencies routinely ignore the Data Quality Act, also known as the Information Quality Act, to push political agendas. In a presentation to the Federalist Society of the University of Houston Law School, Willie Soon, in collaboration with Michael and Ronan Connolly of the Center for Environmental Research and Earth Sciences (CERES) gives a detailed presentation on the extent to which US government agencies ignore data quality in their work.
Focusing on the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) Soon emphasizes that the USGCRP ignores its mandate to coordinate federal research and investments in understanding the forces shaping the global environment, both human and natural, and their impacts on society. The USGCRP ignores natural climate change in favor of adapting the deficient IPCC reports for its National Climate Assessments (NCA). The fifth NCA is expected this fall and probably will be no better than the previous ones. [The second or third NCA commented on CO2 increasing photosynthesis by stating it will enhance invasive plants such as Kudzu and ignoring that it is beneficial to all agriculture plants, especially C3 plants and trees which produce fruits and nuts.]
As Soon points out the IPCC Assessment Reports on which the NCA relies on contain an iconic (idealized and asserted without evidence) statement:
“The observed global warming since at least 1950s is mostly human-caused and also unprecedented.”
Since the IPCC ignores natural influences on climate change, it has no physical evidence supporting such claims and certainly periods of glaciation and subsequent warming were not caused by humans. Soon gives details of serious misrepresentations by the US government agencies responsible for understanding natural climate change. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy for the slide presentation and video discussing the work of the CERES group.
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Costly Freebies: Writing in the November 2023 Energy Advocate, AMO physicist Howard Hayden summarizes well the delusion that wind and solar can provide affordable, reliable electricity. He writes:
“Wind energy, like solar energy, is free. You don’t have to pay a red cent to anybody to use the breezes and sunbeams that you encounter in your daily life. However, turning that energy into something useful is not free.
As the late Petr Beckmann said in reference to subsidies for solar and wind, “gasoline could be free if only the government would buy it for us.” Presently, even massive subsidies for wind are inadequate. The leading example of the plight of wind-power companies is that Avangrid is poised. [1]
“…to pay fines totaling approximately $16 million if the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) approves the requests. … Avangrid similarly paid $48 million in fines to get out of PPAs [power purchase agreements]it had signed pursuant to a deal to sell offshore wind-generated power in Massachusetts in July, CommonWealth reported at the time.” …
Orsted, another major offshore wind developer with stakes in several East Coast projects, is willing to abandon its work if more competitive arrangements cannot be reached in time, CEO Mads Nipper told Bloomberg News in September. In August, a number of green energy companies and advocacy groups petitioned the New York Public Service Commission to renegotiate contracts with state utilities as rising costs could threaten the viability of numerous projects.
There are no hills, trees, houses, or other obstructions to inhibit offshore winds, but installation and maintenance costs are high. In Great Britain, the problem is not that companies are trying to get out of offshore wind contracts, but rather getting any bids at all [2 (The Guardian)]:
Government’s goals of reaching 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 and reducing energy bills may be at risk.
No energy companies have submitted bids in the government’s offshore wind auction, sources have said, in what would be a significant blow to Rishi Sunak’s plans to meet climate targets and drive down energy bills.
Industry insiders suggested not a single firm had taken part in the auction for financial support contracts after the government ignored warnings that the offer was too low to reflect soaring costs.
We read [2]
The latest announcement, expected on Friday, could have brought an extra 5 gigawatts of power – enough to power 5m homes. Instead, consumers will miss out on savings of up to £1bn every year in annual energy usage, relying on more expensive gas instead.
The editorial standards at The Guardian have obviously slipped considerably. The (unspecified) announcement would not have brought more power. Five GW of power (meaning nameplate) would not power 5 million homes. The homes need 1 kW on average, but 5 GW (nameplate) wind turbines will produce perhaps 2 GW on average, and when the winds are low, the wind machines produce no power.
Having become famous for lecturing the US Congress about the evils of “climate change,” the 20-year-old Swedish climate activist is now inveighing against wind turbines in Norway on the grounds that they’re on traditional Sami reindeer-grazing land [3].
How can you lose money selling “free” energy? That requires a fair amount of expertise from decades of practice, and the experts also know the solution: more bailouts [4]:
General Electric, for instance, said it expected to lose $1 billion this year and again next year because of its offshore wind project losses, according to Bloomberg.
Siemens Energy is looking at a loss of $4.8 billion, according to Fortune, while Orsted A/S is facing a loss of $2.3 billion over its projects, Bloomberg reported. …
“No one should doubt the willingness of the Biden administration and congressional Democrats to try to spend billions more debt-funded dollars to bail out their pet offshore wind industry,” David Blackmon, an energy consultant with 40 years of experience, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Wind and solar are supplementary energy sources, and often useful ones. However, the “free” energy comes with costs. The obvious one is the cost of manufacture and construction. A less obvious one is the cost of maintenance. An even less obvious one is that they necessarily raise the cost of electricity from conventional power. People invest in conventional power plants with the expectation that they will be used—providing income from the sale of electrical energy—a certain percentage of the time. If input from solar and wind decrease that percentage, then the price of conventional power must be raised.
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References:
[1] Nick Pope, “Offshore Wind Company Wants To Pay Large Fine To Break Contract In Latest Sign Of Trouble For Industry,” https://dailycaller.com/2023/10/04/offshore-wind-company-fine-contract-utility-trouble-industry/
[2] Pippa Crerar and Jillian Ambrose, 9/7/2023, “Blow to Rishi Sunak as offshore wind auction appears to have zero bidders,” https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/07/suank-offshore-wind-auction-bidders-government-energy-bills
[3] “Greta Thunberg and Norwegian activists stand firm against wind farm on Sami reindeer herding land,” Euronews, 12/October/2023
[4] Kevin Killough, “Wind companies losing billions, prompting fears a federal bailout could be coming,” 10/28/2023, https://justthenews.com”
See: “Wind and Other Freebies,” The Energy Advocate, Editor Howard Hayden, November 2023
http://www.EnergyAdvocate.com and other links under Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind.
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Additions and Corrections: TWTW misspelled the last name of Kevin Kilty. TWTW reader Ken Towe asks:
“Where can one find what the ‘seasonal average’ is? How does that differ from the long-term average or the 30-year average?
Seems meaningless otherwise. NOAA reported in 2021 that the Northern hemisphere was 15.69°C. And the Southern was 13.99°C. Making the globe 14.84°C. A global anomaly of +0.84°C.
For surface-air temperatures, there is no agreed upon method for measuring temperatures and where to measure them. As Anthony Watts has shown, even US NOAA is extremely lax in ensuring data quality and this failing continues.
The reported University of Alabama, Huntsville temperature trends are based on their assessment of satellite measurements of the brightness of Earth’s atmosphere. These are adjusted every ten years to develop new averages, that are presented monthly. These calculations have been independently verified by NOAA but are different than NOAA’s published surface-air temperatures.
Emeritus Professor Antero Ollila of the Aalto University School of Science and Technology asks why TWTW has not posted constant updates on the reports from the CERES satellites and attached his recent paper. [The CERES satellites should not be confused with the CERES group to which Willie Soon is a member.] Ollita’s paper brings up the very good point that this summer’s surface warming may be due to a sharp increase in solar radiation. Perhaps from a decrease in cloud cover caused by an increase in solar wind? Further, the atmosphere showed significant increases in temperature trends for September and October. The CERES satellite data for these months are not yet available. TWTW is delaying writing about it until that data is available and analyzed. See link under Science: Is the Sun Rising?
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Let It Burn? The Wall Street Journal has a pictorial article on the problems of extinguishing electrical fires in EVs to include riding lawn mowers. It goes through different techniques and tests by fire departments and concludes that for the safety of the firemen the best approach is “Let It Burn.” See Article # 1
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Number of the Week: 4.00 to 4.25 kWh/m2/Day. According to the Global Horizontal Solar Irradiance calculations by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) the annual average daily total solar resource using 1998-2016 data for Massachusetts is 4.00 to 4.25 kWh/m2/Day (166 to 177 W/m2) or less. For New York State it is less than 4. For the Southwest, from west Texas to south-central California it is greater than 5.75 (240 W/m2). In December and January, the entire continuous 48 states are below 4. Why are the Northeastern states committing resources for solar power? See links under Questioning the Orthodoxy and https://www.nrel.gov/gis/solar-resource-maps.html
NEWS YOU CAN USE:
The temperatures in the summer of 2023 were due to a sharp increase in solar radiation
By Antero Ollila, ClimatExam, Accessed Nov 8, 2023
Solving the Climate Puzzle: The Sun’s Surprising Role
By Javier Vinos, Climate Etc. Nov 4, 2023
Challenging the Orthodoxy — NIPCC
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science
Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2013
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/_template-assets/documents/CCR/CCR-II/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts
Idso, Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2014
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/climate-change-reconsidered-ii-biological-impacts/
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/media-library/pdfs/CCR-IIb/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels
By Multiple Authors, Bezdek, Idso, Legates, and Singer eds., Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, April 2019
http://store.heartland.org/shop/ccr-ii-fossil-fuels/
Download with no charge:
Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming
The NIPCC Report on the Scientific Consensus
By Craig D. Idso, Robert M. Carter, and S. Fred Singer, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), Nov 23, 2015
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/
Download with no charge:
Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate
S. Fred Singer, Editor, NIPCC, 2008
http://www.sepp.org/publications/nipcc_final.pdf
Global Sea-Level Rise: An Evaluation of the Data
By Craig D. Idso, David Legates, and S. Fred Singer, Heartland Policy Brief, May 20, 2019
Atmosphere and Greenhouse Gas Primer
By W. A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, Preprint, Mar 3, 2023
CO2–The Gas Of Life–Prof William Happer
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 9, 2023
Video – Happer’s presentation in Brisbane
Scientists: Nearly 4 Decades Of Climate Model Failure Undermines Confidence In Future Predictions
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Nov 9, 2023
Link to paper: Can we trust projections of AMOC weakening based on climate models that cannot reproduce the past?
By Gerard D. McCarthy and Levke Caesar, Philosophical Transactions A, The Royal Society, 2023
Bad Data: Are NASA, NOAA, EPA (and IPCC) Violating the Data Quality Act and Ignoring Science to Push Preferred Climate and Energy Policies?
A presentation for The Federalist Society of the University of Houston Law School
By Willie Soon, Center for Environmental Research and Earth Sciences, Nov 6, 2023
file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/Soon23_Nov6_Fedsoc_Uhoustonlawschool_40min_Final_Forall.pdf
Slides
Climate Change Is Settled Science. EXCEPT…
By Staff, America Uncovered, Accessed, Nov 9, 2023
Video on the works done by CERES-science group which includes Willie Soon
[SEPP Comment: Why is NASA so interested in debunking the solar hypothesis which uses data from NASA satellites. Intimidation to enforce conformity. Consensus through coercion?]
John Constable’s talk at Universidad de las Hespérides
By Andy May, WUWT, Nov 4, 2023
Link to video of talk, first Spanish then English about 4 minutes in: Charla con John Constable
By Staff, Universidad de las Hespérides, Oct 5, 2023
“What figure 1 says is that, relative to fossil fuels, the energy gained from wind and solar is much less than the energy required to build and operate the wind and solar facilities. Wind and solar are lower energy gain, and more expensive per unit of energy output. This means the rest of the economy must shrink.”
New Wholistic Paradigm of Climate Change
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, Nov 5, 2023
Link to paper: Comparison of Recently Proposed Causes of Climate Change
By Stuart A. Harris, Atmosphere, Aug 3, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Ron Clutz adds illustrations to the valuable paper in Atmosphere. The one on Pole-to-Pole Temperature Gradients (Icehouse to Hothouse) illustrates the discussion by Tom Gallagher and the concepts in many papers by Richard Lindzen.]
By Staff, Stockholm Environment Institute, IISD, ODI, E3G, and UNEP, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Contrary to what the UN implies, democracies are not dictatorships.]
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
By Peter Ditlevsen and Susanne Ditlevsen, Nature Communications, July 25, 2023
Protecting the Renewable Energy Revolution
By Tammy Marie Rose, Real Clear Energy, Nov 7, 2023
Prince Harry branded ‘hypocrite’ after flying on fuel-guzzling private jet owned by oil heir to attend Katy Perry gig
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 8, 2023
“King Charles to give opening address at Cop28 climate summit.”
Questioning the Orthodoxy
Stop clearing thousands of acres to build solar panels: Harvard study
By Elaine Gunthorpe, The College Fix, Nov 7, 2023
Link to report: Growing Solar, Protecting Nature: Building the solar Massachusetts needs while protecting the nature we have
By Michelle Manion, et al, Mass Audubon and Harvard Forest, October 2023
[SEPP Comment: Making Massachusetts look like it did before the heavy use of fossil fuels and modern agriculture by objecting to “climate polluting” carbon dioxide? Massachusetts is hardly a solar hotbed!]
There’s that dang settled science again
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Nov 8, 2023
“Yes, well in the wacky world of climate alarmism everything is bad including clean air. (And in the New York Times ‘Climate Forward’ David Gelles relays this claim and also peddles Hansen’s paper without skepticism.) But hang on. If cleaner air is burning up the planet, do the geoengineers want to relax clean air standards to save us all from climate boiling?”
That’s IFAR enough
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Nov 8, 2023
Link to paper: When the fraction of attributable risk does not inform the impact associated with anthropogenic climate change
By Patrick T. Brown, Climate Change, Aug 9, 2023
“‘IFAR’ isn’t a typo. It’s a tool used by climate scientists (or scientivists as they are sometimes called, merging ‘scientist’ with ‘activist’ in name as so many do in practice) to measure the costs from extreme weather events that can be attributed to your gas stove, i.e. greenhouse gas emissions. ‘FAR’ stands for ‘Fraction of Attributable Risk’, as in attributable to anthropogenic climate change, and ‘I’ stands for Impact, as in the costs of an extreme weather event like a flood or a hurricane. Multiply the two together, the argument goes, and you get the dollar value of the damage done by CO2 emissions. Do people actually do these calculations and present them as solid even to several decimal places? Why yes.”
[SEPP Comment: Discussed in September 9, 2023, TWTW]
#ECS in the real world: Otto et al. 2013
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Nov 8, 2023
Link to paper: Energy budget constraints on climate response
By Alexander Otto, et al. Nature Geoscience, May 19, 2013
“What with uncertainties, the ‘error bars’ so often missing in alarmist climate science, they said it could be between 1.2 and 3.9 C, but the best estimate was 2.0C.”
Keep an Eye Out for AI “Climate Bots” Haunting the Web
By Linnea Lueken, WUWT, Nov 9, 2023
Energy and Environmental Review: November 6, 2023
By John Droz, Jr., Master Resource, Nov 6, 2023
UN admits World will crash through Paris Agreement goals by a factor of two for 2030
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Nov 9, 2023
Global leaders reach deal on structure for fund compensating developing countries for climate damage
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Nov 6, 2023
“In order to go into effect, the agreement will need to be adopted at the global COP28 climate summit that begins later this month.”
The Futile Climate Crusade in One Graph
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Nov 10, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Trends in atmospheric CO2 vs global temperature change (in colors) with times of various “agreements” to stop CO2 emissions.]
COP28 Comedy: Oil Consultants Accused of Being Big Oil Shills
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Nov 8, 2023
Stakeholders Worried Middle East Tensions Will Remove Climate Action Urgency
By Saman Rizwan, Real Clear Energy, Nov 6, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Save the climate myth?]
Canada won’t meet climate targets despite carbon tax: Environment Commissioner
By Isaac Lamoureux, True North, Nov 8, 2023 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Weird, it’s cold in winter again
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Nov 8, 2023
“’Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, said that Hansen and his co-authors are ‘very much out of the mainstream’ in identifying an acceleration in surface heating that has ‘continued at a remarkably constant rate for the past few decades’.’”
“Nowadays of course with modern scientific modeling, we have no idea what it will be like in three days except the conditions forecast in our ubiquitous pocket telephone weather apps will not arrive as forecast.”
BBC Uphold Bologna Floods Complaint
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 9, 2023
“Could it be that the BBC is starting to take complaints more seriously since Tim Davie took direct charge of oversight?”
Hansen’s latest overheated global warming claims are based on poor science
By Nic Lewis, Nov 6, 2023
Link to paper: Global warming in the pipeline
By James E Hansen, et al., Oxford Open Climate Change, Nov 2, 2023
Science, Policy, and Evidence
Offshore U.S. Wind: Childish Energy Policy
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Nov 7, 2023
Models v. Observations
Wonky economics and the energy transition
By Tim Worstall, Net Zero Watch, Nov 9, 2023
“Which leaves us with just the one final observation. E3ME is a widely used model among EU types who would like to see more government control of investment activity – as the model creators themselves boast. Meanwhile, the model assumes that more government control of investment is a good idea, and thus gives results that suggest that…more government control of investment is a good idea. Funny the people who think that more government control of investment is a good idea like to use it, isn’t it?”
Measurement Issues — Surface
Examples from our New UAH Urban Heat Island Database
By Roy Spence, His Blog, Nov 7, 2023
“Since few people who visit here will actually download and analyze data, I present some imagery of the new Urban Heat Island (UHI) dataset we have developed, at their full (~9×9 km or better) spatial resolution.”
Changing Weather
Just Believe and Drought Not
By Kip Hansen, WUWT, Nov 10, 2023
[SEPP Comment; According to Cliff Mass, an El Niños bring atmospheric rivers to California. If the current one becomes strong, will it overfill reservoirs that are already over historic averages? See link immediately bolow.]
A Strong El Nino This Winter
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Nov 8, 2023
“For western Washington, January-March tends to be warmer than normal during El Nino years (by about 1°F). Neutral years represent more typical conditions.
While for the same months, the region is generally drier than normal by about 2 inches.
California has an opposite correlation, with the Golden State usually wetter than normal during El Nino periods.”
US Flood Trends
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 10, 2023
Massive Early NH Snow Cover
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, Nov 6, 2023
Changes in global precipitation over land in a warming world
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Nov 8, 2023
From the CO2Science Archive:
“The three Australian researchers report discovering that ‘on average, dry regions/months became wetter and wet regions/months became drier over the 1940-2009 period,’ and they say that ‘this conclusion holds in all available databases and also holds for 1940-1999.’ In addition, they further remark that the patterns observed ‘show no relationship to local or global changes in temperature,’ and that ‘if anything, these results constitute a slight decline in meteorological drought over the last 70 years.’”
The Burns Day Storm of 1990
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 8, 2023
Towyn’s Devastating Floods
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 10, 2023
Six Weeks Of Severe Gales–February 1990
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 9, 2023
The Storms of January 1993
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 10, 2023
“We certainly have not seen anything approaching the storminess of 1987, 1990 and 1993 in the last decade.”
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
New Study Finds Most Of Antarctica Has Cooled By Over 1°C Since 1999…W. Antarctica Cooled 1.8°C
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Nov 6, 2023
Link to paper: Significant West Antarctic Cooling in the Past Two Decades Driven by Tropical Pacific Forcing
By Xueying Zhang, et al, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, June 1, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Generally answers the unanswerable question: Is Antarctica melting?]
Research suggests Greenland’s northern ice shelves have shrunk by a third since 1978
By Tara Suter, The Hill, Nov 8, 2023
Link to paper: Rapid disintegration and weakening of ice shelves in North Greenland
By R. Millan, et al., Nature Communications, Nov 7, 2023
The abstract begins: “The glaciers of North Greenland are hosting enough ice to raise sea level by 2.1 m and have long considered to be stable.”
[SEPP Comment: Obviously these experts never heard of Camp Century (1959 – 1967), which was abandoned because the ice moved.]
Arctic Granted A Reprieve
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Nov 9, 2023
Lowering Standards
Yet Another “Climate Crisis” News Cabal
By Kip Hansen, WUWT, Nov 6, 2023
“The world’s major health journals, not all of them, but a majority of the major medical journals, have issued a joint statement. Let me re-word that: The Editors of the world’s leading medical journals have issued a joint statement as an Editorial in the BMJ (frequently referred to as the British Medical Journal). How many of them? “Over 200”. The joint statement starts with this:
“’Time to treat the climate and nature crisis as one indivisible global health emergency’”
BBC’s Indonesia Drought Claims Rebutted By The Data
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 4, 2023
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
Euan Mearns On Babet [a Storm]
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 8, 2023
Washington Post and ABC Are Wrong: There is No Evidence Surpassing 1.5 Degrees Constitutes a Climate Emergency
By Linnea Lueken, Climate Realism, Nov 3, 2023
Wrong, Phys.Org, Boreal Forests Are Doing Well Amid Modest Warming
By H. Sterling Burnett, Climate Realism, Nov 9, 2023
Link to article from The Conservation: The world’s boreal forests may be shrinking as climate change pushes them northward
By Ronny Rotbarth,, et al., Phys.org, Nov 6, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Apparently the authors of The Conservation piece are ignorant of H.H. Lamb’s Climate History and the Modern World. The cold of the Little Ice Age killed thousands of acres of Boreal forests resulting in massive fires.]
Don’t answer the phone
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Nov 8, 2023
“Of course, there’s always someone. Over at the New York Times ‘Climate Forward’ David Gelles surveys the dismal state of the American electrification revolution and waves a magic wand:
‘Unless the U.S. and other developed countries reinvent their electricity grids, the revolution in clean energy that has given us radically cheaper solar and wind power will be for naught. The clean energy will have nowhere to go.’”
[SEPP Comment: Of course, a piece in the NYT could not possibly conclude there is no demand for expensive, unreliable power, except from politicians.]
Last 12 months were hottest ever recorded: Report
By Miranda Nazzaro, The Hill, Nov 9, 2023
Link to report: The hottest 12-month stretch in recorded history
By Staff, Climate Central, Nov 9, 2023
“We found that 1 in 4 people (1.9 billion) experienced a five-day heat wave (at minimum) that was strongly influenced by carbon pollution.”
[SEPP Comment: How do trees survive this carbon [dioxide] pollution? How did our species survive life in tropical Aferica?]
Communicating Better to the Public – Do a Poll?
‘Demographic Warming’: Humans Increasingly Choose to Live Where It’s Warmer
By Roy Spencer, His Blog, Nov 8, 2023
“Now, don’t be confused about what this means regarding the UHI impact on the thermometer measurements — that’s a different subject. All this shows is an metric of human-centric experienced warmth, not a thermometer-centric estimate of how much warming from the thermometer network can be attributed to UHI effects.”
[SEPP Comment: A real poll! Homo sapiens evolved from the human family bush in tropical Africa about 2 to 3 hundred thousand years ago. It survived the last hot period, the last interglacial, the Eemian which was warmer than today, between 130,000 and 115,000 years ago. An interesting characteristic is the high density of sweat glands in the skin.]
Americans’ Beliefs on Climate Change Causes Shift: Survey Insights
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Nov 8, 2023
Link to survey report: Who, Us? Fewer Than 50% of Americans Think Humans Are the Main Cause of Climate Change
By Staff, Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, Apr 18, 2023
[SEPP Comment: They don’t believe in human-caused Ice Ages?]
Polls, polls, and more polls
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Nov 8, 2023
“As for Net Zero, the numbers are even worse. ‘Just 52 per cent of respondents had heard of the plan, and when its basic details were explained, a mere 15 per cent thought net-zero was realistic.’”
Communicating Better to the Public – Go Personal.
Is Seattle in Decline? Was My 2020 Blog Correct?
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Nov 4, 2023
Questioning European Green
Czech Physicist: [Luboš Motl] Claims Net Zero Would Be Cheap And Easy Are “Completely Insane”
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Nov 7, 2023
Green Economic Collapse: 1/3 Of Germany’s Automotive Suppliers Considering Moving Abroad
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Nov 8, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Chart shows electricity prices for German consumers from 2000 to 2022 (eurocents/kwh). Went from 14 in 2000 to 41 in 2022 from “The BDEW is the largest energy industry association in Germany. It has 1800 members, including local and municipal utilities as well as regional and inter-regional suppliers.”]
Questioning Green Elsewhere
As The Transition To Green Energy Crumbles, Funding For The Climate Scare Soars
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Nov 8, 2023
“Even as everyone can see that this whole green energy thing is just not going to work, the Times reports that the entire environmental movement is doubling down, cutting other programs and focusing their funding on climate change to the exclusion of everything else:”
According to the NYT: “’ Meanwhile, global spending to fight climate change by environmental groups and other nonprofits reached $8 billion in 2021, most of it in the United States and Canada, according to a survey released in September by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. …’”
“I’d be surprised if the total annual funding of all climate skeptic organizations is as much as $25 million. Well, they have religious fervor and fanaticism on their side, but we have reality. “
[SEPP Comment; Rule # 4 of Energy Transition Club by Irana Slav: If it’s failing, double down.]
Africa Doesn’t Need Western Elites’ Meaningless Climate Policies
By Vijay Jayaraj, Daily Caller, Nov 4, 2023
Solar Stocks crashed in the last quarter too, down 40% so far this year around the world
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Nov 8, 2023
“It seems people only wanted renewable energy if they got cheap loans.”
Self-Imposed Energy Poverty Coming to Canada
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, Nov 7, 2023
Funding Issues
£15 Million AI Climate Change Grant for the University of Southampton
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Nov 6, 2023
“A university has been given £15m for a training centre aimed at developing artificial intelligence to tackle climate change.”
[SEPP Comment: Aren’t global climate models which are refuted by physical evidence artificial enough?]
Litigation Issues
Court upholds Biden’s approval of Willow oil project
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Oct 9, 2023
“Under the Willow Project, which the Biden administration approved earlier this year, ConocoPhillips will be able to drill 576 million barrels of oil in Alaska over 30 years.”
“The project garnered massive pushback from numerous young people, progressives and environmentalists, going viral in the days ahead of the administration’s decision.”
[SEPP Comment: After five years the greens did not get the support of the natives.]
Cap-and-Trade and Carbon Taxes
BBC: Kenya’s Ogiek People are Being Evicted for Carbon Credits
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Nov 10, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Sacrificing people to save the planet?]
Subsidies and Mandates Forever
“Too Favored to Fail:” Taxpayers Bailout Biden’s Green Friends
By Larry Behrens, Real Clear Energy, Nov 6, 2023
Biden administration announces 15 new renewable energy projects on public lands
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, Nov 6, 2023
“’The BLM’s work to responsibly and quickly develop renewable energy projects is crucial to achieving the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035,’ added BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning. ‘Investing in clean and reliable renewable energy represents the BLM’s commitment to addressing climate change and supports direction from the president and Congress to permit 25 gigawatts of solar, wind and geothermal production on public lands no later than 2025.’”
[SEPP Comment: Why do “investments” require subsidies?]
EPA and other Regulators on the March
The EPA’s Coming Energy Catastrophe
By Rich Nolan, Real Clear Energy, Nov 08, 2023
“The nation’s electric grid experts and operators now work in a constant state of emergency. There’s little if any respite in the change of seasons. Fears of soaring electricity demand overwhelming power supplies during searing summer heat are now matched by an equally unnerving fear millions will be left shivering in darkness during the coldest days of winter.
The question is no longer will there be rolling blackouts or grid emergencies but rather when or where.”
Energy Issues – Non-US
The Intermittency Problem with Wind Power Generation in Great Britain
By Guy Falkner, WUWT, Nov 9, 2023
“Great Britain’s electricity generation from wind has steadily increased over the past three years but Gridwatch statistics highlight the intermittency problem faced by engineers operating the electricity grid. While around 800 Gigawatts (GW) per quarter are generated in the winter period, only around 500GW are generated in the summer quarters.”
Energy Issues — US
America’s power grid at risk of buckling this winter: Regulator
By Nick Robertson, Nov 9, 2023
“The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) said that much of the central and eastern U.S. is at an ‘elevated’ risk of power failure. The risk affects every region east of the Rocky Mountains, except for the Southeast and upstate New York.”
[SEPP Comment: Is power failure from extreme cold a climate change issue?]
Electricity Grid in Peril: A National Priority
By Thomas Coleman, Real Clear Energy, Nov 6, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Does not identify the main problem, over reliance on unreliable wind and solar.]
Texas voters approve amendment putting billions toward gas power plants
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Nov 8, 2023
“The fund will make $7.2 billion in low-interest loans available for the construction of gas-fueled power plants, as well as completion bonuses for that construction and repairs to existing plants in areas controlled by grid operator ERCOT.”
[SEPP Comment: Now have necessary gas-well equipment run on methane from the well rather than electricity from an unreliable grid.]
Setting Utility Rates
By Kevin Kilty, WUWT, Nov 5, 2023
Washington’s Control of Energy
White House finalizes guidance expected to result in stricter regulations
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Nov 9, 2023
Nuclear Energy and Fears
UAMPS and NuScale Power Terminate SMR Nuclear Project
By Aaron Larson, Power Mag, Nov 9, 2023
[SEPP Comment; The power was too expensive?]
Experts Warn German Economic Decline Certain… “We’ll Soon Be Living In Trees Again”
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Nov 5, 2023
“German nuclear power plants, deemed by the Socialists and Greens as a threat to the environment, were shut down on April 15, 2023, and the country is now importing more expensive nuclear power from abroad.”
New paper reveals sorry state of GB nuclear
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 8, 2023
Link to paper: Prospects for Nuclear Power in the UK
By Kathryn Porter, The Global Warming Policy Foundation, 2023
A Nuclear Renaissance Is the Best Path Forward
By RJ Roux & Yaël Ossowski, Real Clear Energy, Nov 8, 2023
“Next-generation nuclear energy technology — such as small modular reactors — may share the splitting of the atom with its predecessor, but its modern form is anything but.
SMRs can be as small as an SUV but still produce plenty of megawatts of energy. They can more quickly and reliably deliver power to the electric grid or industry, and in some cases, the spent fuel can be reused. SMRs could become the main carbon-free power source for a large manufacturing facility that would employ thousands of people and keep the load off residential grids.”
[SEPP Comment: North America can produce all the fossil fuels it needs for reliable, affordable power, while benefiting the environment with CO2. Let’s see a demonstration project of SMRs to understand the costs involved.]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
The myth of cheap offshore wind has been exposed
Press Release, Net Zero Watch, Nov 10, 2023
Link to report: UK Prepares to Hike Wind Farm Prices as Developers Struggle
Next auction bid ceiling could be £70-75 a megawatt-hour
Offshore wind firms balked at low prices at previous auction
By Todd Gillespie and Ellen Milligan, Bloomberg Green, Nov 9, 2023
Britain’s one of the darkest countries in the world–Sir David Mackay
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 10, 2023
[SEPP Comment; What is sustainable about solar power that goes out at night?]
Orsted Mulling Private Power Deals For Hornsea
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 6, 2023
“The developer behind one of Britain’s largest offshore wind farms is exploring ditching state subsidies in favor of private power deals as it scrambles to boost the project’s finances.
Ørsted has confirmed it may give up some government support that would apply to Hornsea 3, off the coast of Yorkshire, amid concerns that the subsidies it has been awarded are too low.”
Offshore Wind’s Bizarre Global Problem
Orsted’s cancellation of two big New Jersey wind projects raises questions about the way the Biden administration is approaching renewable energy.
By Kate Aronoff, New Republic, Apocalypse Soon, Nov 7, 2023
[SEPP Comment: The report ignores the main problem; wind power is unreliable. Could it be consumers will not pay more for unreliable power?]
Good for our enemies: Wind turbines scramble the Air Force radars, and provide cover for jets
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Nov 7, 2023
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Other
Replace Carbon Fuels with Hydrogen? Absurd, Exorbitant and Pointless
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, Nov 4, 2023
“Summation: The Hydrogen Crusade is absurd because hydrogen is not an energy source, but a storage system, and natural properties and scarcities will not be suspended for the sake of human ambitions.”
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
Electric Vehicles and Africa: No Place for Rich Boys Toys
By Vijay Jayaraj, Real Clear Energy, Nov 5, 2023
It’s Time To Tell The Truth About Electric Cars
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 4, 2023
From Master Investor magazine.
Study: EV’s are Cars for People Who Don’t Need to Drive (as much)
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Nov 6, 2023
Link to paper; Quantifying electric vehicle mileage in the United States
By Lujin Zha, et al., Joule, Oct 24, 2023
Et tu, EV?
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Nov 8, 2023
“Oh, and credit to Akio Toyoda, the chairman and former CEO of Toyota, who saw it coming and has long been braving conventional wisdom and its slings and arrows by warning that EVs were overhyped. He gets to say, ‘Told you so’ and he did: ‘People are finally seeing reality’.”
Mini Electric Costs £10K More Than Petrol–And Has An Effective Range Of 100 Miles
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 5, 2023
EV Sales Falter As Private Purchasers Remain Unconvinced
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 7, 2023
California Dreaming
California Continues to Be a National Security Risk for America
By Ronald Stein, The Heartland Institute, Nov 7, 2023
“Governor Newsom directives increase California’s dependency on foreign crude oil to support the State’s international and military airports, and shipping terminals.”
Controlled burns in California could reduce risk of catastrophic wildfire by 60 percent
By Sharon Udasin, The Hill, Nov 10, 2023
Link to article describing study, but no link to study: Low-intensity fires reduce wildfire risk by 60%
High-intensity, often catastrophic, wildfires have become increasingly frequent across the Western U.S. Researchers quantified the value of managed low-intensity burning to dramatically reduce the risk of such fires for years at a time.
By Rob Jordan, Stanford News, Nov 10, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Natives have known this for hundreds of years.]
California EV HELL: QUEUING for chargers at MIDNIGHT!!!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 5, 2023
[SEPP Comment: The cost of being fashionable.]
Oh Mann!
Mann’s “Dirty Laundry”
By Stephen McIntyre, Climate Audit, Nov 7, 2023
“Dirty Laundry” Residuals
By Stephen McIntyre, Climate Audit, Nov 8, 2023
MBH98 Confidence Intervals
By Stephen McIntyre, Climate Audit, Nov 10, 2023
Trump 2.0: The climate cannot survive another Trump term
By Michael Mann, The Hill, Nov 5, 2023
“Michael E. Mann is presidential distinguished professor and director of the Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at The University of Pennsylvania. He is author of the new book ‘Our Fragile Moment: How Lessons from Earth’s Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis.’”
[SEPP Comment: Does Mr. Mann have any idea of the Earth’s climate history?]
Environmental Industry
Dumped by New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern Still Pushing Climate Action
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Nov 7, 2023
“Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will work with the Conservation International group.”
Other Scientific News
Artificial Airglow from HAARP May Be Widely Visible in Alaska Tonight
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Nov 4, 2023
“NOTE: The HAARP facility was closed some years ago, and now it is operational again. Back then I was happy it was closed because it (mostly) ended the silly conspiracy theories about weather and climate effects, which were baseless. If you want to expound on those theories again here, watch how fast I’ll delete them. Anthony”
In a surprising finding, light can make water evaporate without heat
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Nov 5, 2023
Link to paper: Plausible photomolecular effect leading to water evaporation exceeding the thermal limit
By Yaodong Tu, et al., PNAS, Oct 30, 2023
Light Shaking Water
By Willis Eschenbach, WUWT, Nov 4, 2023
[SEPP Comment: We know that dry winds can sublimate, evaporate, ice. Why is this a surprise?]
Other News that May Be of Interest
Catching-up on Monarch Butterflies
By Kip Hansen, WUWT, Nov 7, 2023
Facebook accounts hit with malicious ad attack with dangerous malware
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 4, 2023
The Most Beautiful Weather Imagery Imaginable: Steam Fog over Lake Washington
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Nov 6, 2023
“Steam fog generally occurs when the air temperature is at least 20F cooler than the water temperature. Such a condition is most frequent in fall when the water is relatively warm after a summer of sunshine.”
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
California scientists suggest a strategy to ‘eat our way’ out of the climate crisis
By Sharon Udasin, The Hill, Nov 6, 2023
Link to paper: Food without agriculture
By Steven J. Davis, et al., Nature Sustainability, Nov 6, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Starve to save the world?]
CFACT Blasts Fed’s “Floating Wind” Fantasy
By David Wojick, WUWT, Nov 9, 2023
“Suppose you took a sailboat and put a 600′ tall mast on it. At the top, you put an 800-ton turbine with three 500′ long wind-catching blades. How big would that boat have to be not to blow over when hit by severe wind and waves?”
[SEPP Comment; According to Wikipedia, the 241 m (791 ft) SS El Fargo registered in Porto Rico went down in Hurricane Joaquin on Oct 1, 2015, with all hands.]
Chatbot Gets It Wrong Again–Blames Trainers!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 9, 2023
“So as some of us suspected, the answers you get are not necessarily factual. Instead they are determined by the ‘training’ given by the programmers!”
Study: Underground car parks heat up groundwater
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Nov 5, 2023
Link to paper: Thermal impact of underground car parks on urban groundwater
By Maximilian Noethen, et al. Science of The Total Environment, Dec 10, 2023
Dr. Jim Advises Panic
By Willis Eschenbach, WUWT, Nov 5, 2023
Fleeing Desperate Circumstances
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Nov 10, 2023
“The Australian PM braved desperate circumstances to rescue Tuvalu.”
Met Office Amber Warnings!!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Nov 4, 2023
Humor
ARTICLES
1. Best Way to Extinguish a Flaming Electric Vehicle? Let It Burn
Electric-vehicle fires last longer and are harder to extinguish than fires in gas-powered cars
By John Keilman, WSJ, Nov. 8, 2023
TWTW Summary: The key part is discussed in the This Week section above.
“The observations are wrong.”
The Home secretary pointed out what everybody knows and has seen. The elites foamed at the mouth.
Demonstration in favour of George Floyd and BLM
Demonstration against lockdown
“The observations are wrong.” The police are entirely even-handed and impartial.
This nonsense now is applied to everything. from science to emptying the bins.
Story Tip
Start of World Cup ski season falls victim to ‘heavy snowfall’
Strong winds and “heavy snowfall” on Saturday caused the delayed opening round of the men’s World Cup skiing season to be cancelled at the controversial cross-border venue of Zermatt-Cervinia.
https://phys.org/news/2023-11-world-cup-season-falls-victim.html
That story about Harvard and enviro groups now opposing deforestation for solar farms.
Actually, Wokeachusetts is a solar hotbed- several thousand acres in this tiny state have already been built, mostly on forests and good farm land- some on brown fields. I got caught up in the battle a dozen years ago when the state started pushing the idea. A 20 acre solar monstrosity was built behind my neighborhood- and yes, I’m a NIMBY and proud of it. They were going clear all the trees within 10 feet of the mostly half acre house lots with modest ranch houses on them. I sued that firm and the town and after a long battle- we came to an agreement- they’d push it back from the boundaries and cough up some $$$ to landscape behind our homes. The land had been a gravel pit but about 2/3 of it had reverted naturally to pine forest. When I complained about it I gave good ecological reasons why it sucks- rare and endangered species on the site- destroy oxygen producing, carbon sequestering trees- the land is part of the watershed for town water supply- the site is next to a river- next to some large vernal pools- next to a state wildlife sanctuary, etc. I offered to show the site – before it was built- to all the state’s enviro groups- none showed any interest.
But now, they’re enlightened!
As it was being constructed- they didn’t mind me walking around the site photographing and video shooting of their work. I had several hundred photos and several hours of video- making it into a short YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYYVZKgusU4&t=156s
Of course they’ll never give me any credit for being ahead of them on this subject.
I thought we were past this kind of thing!
California hits major industry with lawsuit for allegedly spreading ‘lies and mistruths’: ‘[They] have privately known the truth for decades’ (msn.com)