Posted by
Always To The Right on Monday, June 30, 2008 9:29:54 PM
There's been a lot of excited chatter over an appallingly written Indy
piece:The Indy is please note that even not claiming that the Arctic Ocean will or could be
ice free this year. Specifically they are making a deal out of normal Arctic Ocean ice drift carrying some thinner,
first season ice over the geographic North Pole and breathlessly beating up the fact that thinner ice melts more
easily than thicker, multiyear ice. While this may be emotively significant to some (certainly it has some
propaganda value, apparently) its net climatic significance is exactly nothing.
For some reason the media have a habit of hyperventilating about water at the North Pole, remember the infamous New
York Times
debacle and quiet correction a few years ago? The late John L. Daly put together a piece
on open water at the North Pole soon after.
See also Is Arctic Ice Thinning Rapidly? in Ice
and Climate News (.pdf) for important perspective -- h/t Dennis Ambler
A Review: Climate
Confusion by Roy Spencer - How Global Warming Hysteria Leads To Bad Science, Pandering Politicians And Misguided
Policies That Hurt The Poor
Spencer's book, Climate Confusion, is the most comprehensive discussion of "global warming" (aka,
human-caused climate change) available today. Spencer's PhD in Meteorology shines through with the very best
description of how weather systems function to help maintain a moderate climate. It is an outstanding book for
anyone whose interest in climate and weather has stopped short of actually reading a book about it. No deep
scientific background is required to understand the processes Spencer describes.
This book is an excellent companion to Dr. Howard Hayden's book, A Primer on CO2 and Climate. Spencer does not go
into detail regarding CO2's limitations as a heat retention agent, possibly due to the more technical nature of such
discussions. Hayden's book complements Spencer's in that it is not overly technical in detail and presents an
easy-to-understand discussion of greenhouse gases that help the reader understand the degree to which alarmists have
vastly overrated the dangers of CO2 emissions. (Bob Webster, Web Commentary)
Global Warming: Has the Climate
Sensitivity Holy Grail Been Found? - The following is a simplified version of a paper entitled "Chaotic
Radiative Forcing, Feedback Stripes, and the Overestimation of Climate Sensitivity" I submitted on June 25,
2008 for publication in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. (Roy W. Spencer, Ph.D.)
The UN climate change numbers hoax - It’s
an assertion repeated by politicians and climate campaigners the world over: “2,500 scientists of the United
Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) agree that humans are causing a climate crisis.”
But it’s not true. And, for the first time ever, the public can now see the extent to which they have been misled.
As lies go, it’s a whopper. Here’s the real situation. (Tom Harris and John McLean, Online Opinion)
The
cynical politics of global warming and its hobgoblins - "Cynical politics" may be a redundancy, but it
is hard to imagine a more cynical political issue than global warming. In his 1992 book "Earth in the
Balance," Al Gore called for a "wrenching transformation of society." Leftists, with their elitist
penchant for social engineering, didn't need any convincing. (Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson, White Mountain Independent)
Science
by intimidation - Truth may enter the world by many doors, but she is never escorted by force. I thought that
was a lesson learned long ago, and learned by none more tellingly than scientists. Real scientists, actually, have
learned it. A new amalgam has emerged however, the scientist-activist, and for that specimen it's a lesson passed
by.
In the dawn of the Enlightenment, it was scientists who were hauled before tribunals and inquisitions. Galileo is
the arch example, the pioneer empiricist who rejected the ancient Earth-centric model of the (then known) universe,
and for his pains earned the attention and wrath of the distinctly unscientific Inquisition.
I am drawn to these thoughts, and to the long-decayed example of the Inquisition, by a most curious outburst this
week by James Hansen, the principal voice of NASA on the subject of global warming, a man who played – as it were
– John the Baptist to Al Gore's messianic teachings on the subject. Dr. Hansen is largely credited with
“sounding the alarm” on man-made global warming, and he has been a persistent, high-profile and very aggressive
proponent of the cause for over two decades now. Dr. Hansen doesn't take kindly to those who dispute his apocalyptic
scenarios. I choose the term, apocalyptic, deliberately. According to Dr. Hansen, mankind may have reached the
tipping point with global warming. Should that be the case, wide-scale calamity and catastrophe are inevitable. And
should we not have reached the point of absolute crisis, should there be a minuscule interval for the human species
to act and avert the very worst, according to Dr. Hansen, what yet remains to be faced is still horrible enough
indeed.
Not all the world shares Dr. Hansen's vision of imminent ecological Armageddon. (Rex Murphy, Globe and Mail)
Newsweek
Blames Midwest Floods on Global Warming - Newsweek's senior editor Sharon Begley has taken it upon herself to
publicly declare the recent floods in the Midwest are being caused by global warming.
Those familiar with her work shouldn't be even slightly surprised by this, as Begley was the person responsible for
the August 13, 2007, Newsweek cover story "Global-Warming Deniers: A Well-Funded Machine" which evoked
widespread criticism including from one of her fellow editors.
Regardless, Begley is at it again with an article in the upcoming issue of Newsweek disgracefully entitled,
"Global Warming Is a Cause of This Year’s Extreme Weather" (NewsBusters)
Climate skeptic: Don't panic - The
readers of various climate realist blogs may already know this 10-minute video created by Climate-skeptic.com and
posted by Coyoteblog - these two websites actually have the same person behind them unless I misunderstand
something. ;-)
But I found it so insightful that you might enjoy it, too. It discusses the importance of feedbacks, why most of
them are negative, and what contrived things you have to assume if you want to believe that climate sensitivity
significantly exceeds 1 °C. (The Reference Frame)
What if it never was the
tomatoes? - How were tomatoes pinpointed as the source of the latest salmonella outbreak that, as of today’s
count, infected 810 people across the country between April 10th and June 15th? Nearly 2,000 tomato samples across
the country and in Mexico have been tested and not a single tomato has been found to be contaminated with
salmonella. The FDA has cleared 41 states and most of Mexico from being a source of tainted tomatoes.
What if tomatoes never were the source? (Junkfood Science)
MSM
Shuns Embarrassing 'The Population Bomb' Anniversary
- Today is the official publication date of The Dominant Animal: Human
Evolution and the Environment by Paul and Anne Ehrlich. The release of
this book was timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the
publication of Paul Ehrlich's once exceedingly popular "The Population
Bomb" in 1968. If you expect to see much about either of these books in
the mainstream media, you are in for a big disappointment. The MSM is
avoiding the whole subject of Paul Ehrlich and his apocalyptic "The
Population Bomb" like the plague nowadays. The reason is probably
because it might draw embarrassing attention to the fact that
apocalyptic visions, despite their popularity at one time such as the
current global warming alarmism, are usually proven to be flat out
wrong. Such was the case with Paul Ehrlich's "The Population Bomb"
which the Intercollegiate Studies Institute ranked as one of the 50
Worst Books of the 20th century due to its many errors. (NewsBusters)