Tuesday, June 30, 2015

JoNova

JoNova: Science, Carbon, Climate And Tax

TOP STORIES mark as read

Northern Greenland warmer 1000 years ago, warmer in the 1920s too
Thanks to the Hockeyschtick for pointing us at a new study of Greenland ice cores[1]. For the first time, 12 ice cores drilled in the northern section of Greenland have been “stacked” and published.  Curiously, these 12 ice cores were drilled from 1993 to 1995, so this is not new data– but it’s the first time that all 12 oxygen isotope records, which are a proxy for temperature, have been published together. The area represents about 10% of Greenland, and seems to behave differently to the southern part. The warm event in 1420 is described as a local effect. The researchers acknowledge that so
Vanishing hot days of December 1931 — and BOM monthly averages hotter than every single day that month
The hot desert border of Western and South Australia Lance Pidgeon has drawn my attention to the mysteriously detailed weather maps of the Australian BOM, with their mass of contradictions. The intricate squiggles of air temperature profiles suggests an awesome array of data — especially remarkable in places like “Cook”, which is a railway station with a population of four. Eucla, the megopolis in the map, has a population of 368. The shared border in the map (right) is 674km long top to bottom. Thankfully, after 80 years of modern technology, the weather at Eucla and in the Great Victorian De
How do we panic about warming during a maunder-type freeze?
Is this the way the Great Global Warming Scare fades out? The UK newspapers are full of “Maunder Freeze Coming” as forecast by Ineson et al.[1] Rest assured, the solar-driven-cold is only a local effect, only 0.1C, and only a vague short 20 to 40 winters to come. The Sun, which has been ruled out as a major cause of global warming, is still not a cause of global warming — it’s just a minor technical issue called UV from a local star, which will be affecting an ocean current. Then the Big 6.6 degrees of heatstroke will land upon us. Britain could be on the verge of a mini Ice Age as the Sun ent

YESTERDAY

Carbon tax and Sydney Uni economics, both slugs on the economy
Michael Harris,  Senior Fellow in the School of Economics at University of Sydney, has the impossible job of defending the monstrously ineffective carbon tax against the pointless-but-efficient “Direct Action” program. The carbon tax cost $15b, and cut emissions by 12 million tonnes. The Direct Action plan cost $660m, and is projected to save 47 million tonnes. Having no numbers remotely on his s

JUN 27

Weekend Unthreaded
… Rating: 7.7/10 (20 votes cast)Rating: 7.7/10 (20 votes cast)

JUN 24

Sherwood’s devout unscientific faith in “climate change” and the hot spot
In The Age this week, Stephen Sherwood explains how misleading skeptics have been for repeating obvious, incontestable results from millions of weather balloons. See, all along, Sherwood knew the weather balloons were wrong, and if only skeptics had his psychic powers, or connection to God, they would have too. Naughty skeptics,eh? The article in The Age gives away a lot more than either Steven Sh

JUN 23

Relentlessly shrinking climate sensitivity estimates
Remember how all the news stories keep telling us the evidence is growing and getting stronger than ever “against the skeptics”? David Stockwell has done a beautiful graph of the value of climate sensitivity estimates that of recent climate research that Steven McIntyre discussed in detail. The trend looks pretty clear. Reality is gradually going to force itself on the erroneous models. … Indicati

JUN 21

Your car causes war! Feel the fear about Australia’s climate security.
Not only climate change destroy coffee, chocolate and beer, but war is going to ruin your weekends too. When war breaks out and they come for your first-born, you may ask if you should’ve left the car in the garage more. You may wonder if you could have used public transport, and converted all the lights to LEDs sooner and only eaten locally sourced oranges. Feel the guilt. Send them your money. W

JUN 20

Weekend Unthreaded
… Rating: 7.2/10 (29 votes cast)Rating: 7.2/10 (29 votes cast)

JUN 19

The Climate Wars are Damaging Science
Matt Ridley has produced the shortest whole, killer summary of the sordid state of climate science, science journalism, and science associations for Quadrant magazine. This is the ideal single-chapter-length-work to bring in anyone who missed the last twenty years of clima-farce, scandal, hubris and hypocrisy. Matt is not just summing up the way his career as a science writer has transformed, but

JUN 18

If it can’t be replicated, it isn’t science: BOM admits temperature adjustments are secret
The BOM Technical Advisory Forum report is out. Finally there is the black and white admission that the BOM “adjusted” dataset cannot be replicated independently, has not been replicated by any other group, and even more so, that the BOM will not provide enough information for anyone who wants to try. As we have said all along, the all new ACORN wonder-data was not created with the scientific meth

JUN 16

A mess of adjustments in Australian capital cities — The inexplicable history of temperatures
Two out of three Australians live in our capital cities where the longest and best resourced temperature records would be found. These are the places where the weather reports matter to the most people on a daily basis — and where headlines about records and trends will be widely discussed.  But these are also the sites which have been affected by the growth of concrete and skyscrapers, and potent
Chocolate is the fountain of youth, eat blocks, live long, be slim
We have found the holy grail and it is chocolate. Lo, “Eating 100 g of chocolate daily linked to lowered heart disease and stroke risk”. One hundred grams a day! That’s about a quarter of the average adult woman’s total daily calorie intake. (About one sixth for a man). So much for the 99% certain consensus that chocolate was junk food. ScienceDaily: Eating up to 100 g of chocolate every day is l

JUN 15

Does global warming make your baby smaller? 800 years from now babies may weigh 17g less!
A new study uses a  ‘high resolution air temperature estimation model’ to figure out (guess) the daily air temperature pregnant women in Massachusetts might have been exposed to during their pregnancy. A whopping increase of 8.5C in the last three months was associated with a 17 gram drop in birth weight. Given that global temperatures have risen by about 1 C in the last 100 years, at the current

JUN 14

Weekend Unthreaded
Oops!. OK There are two in  a row because of a computer glitch last week. I put off the double one then til this week, and totally forgot I had prescheduled that errant extra unthreaded. – Jo Rating: 6.4/10 (20 votes cast)Rating: 6.4/10 (20 votes cast)

JUN 13

Australian Medical Association survey on climate change
The Australian Medical Association is a powerful union here, and the  AMA President, Brian Owler, is an outspoken advocate of the need for more action to change the climate, calling it “intergenerational theft” if we don’t do something. (Apparently we care for our kids by spending billions of their dollars now on schemes to fix the weather. If that’s not stealing, what is? ) Apparently the AMA are

JUN 12

Livestream: Heartland International Climate Conference
These are always great events Watch it live. Starting at 9:30am EST USA time (11:30 pm Sydney, 9:30pm Perth, 2:30pm London, 6:30 LA.) climateconference.heartland.org/ Schedule below: Thursday, June 11 8:00 AM EST – Opening Breakfast Keynote with Sen. James Inhofe 9:30 AM EST – Panel 1: Climate Science with Willie Soon, Ph.D., David Legates, Ph.D., and Patrick Michaels, Ph.D. 10:50 AM EST – Panel 3
Devastating Pacific Ocean warming, 10,000 years ago
A new study suggests that the Pacific ocean near Peru was two degrees warmer 10,000 years ago.[1] The current rate of warming (as estimated by ARGO buoys in the last ten years) is 0.005C per year. So we are only 400 years away from achieving the same kind of warming the Mesopotamian Farmers did. Of course this could be just a localized warm patch, except that an earlier study showed that waters dr

JUN 11

Climate Change will ruin beer, chocolate, coffee, says The Guardian
More adventures in science from The Guardian. “No more beer, chocolate or coffee: how climate change could ruin your weekend”. Obviously, since coffee, hops, and cocoa are all plants which like arctic weather and frosts, and grow mainly in Greenland glaciers, a warmer world will devastate these essential foods. I’m in tears just thinking about it. Likewise, being alien silicon lifeforms, these pla

JUN 10

Forget momentum for renewables. Five of the G7 nations increased their coal use
Spot the contradictions. Oxfam want us to believe we can be “coal free” in France, the UK and Italy by 2023. Then they tell us that most of these richest of rich nations are already trying and failing to do that. They are using more coal. Then there is a nifty graph below, which seems to suggest that in these same nations solar is cheaper than coal. If solar is so cheap then, we don’t need any sch

JUN 09

A bit of a backdown? — G7 leaders to go slow on low carbon
World G7 leaders resolved to bravely free us from fossil fuels after most people alive today are long departed. Either this a back-down, admitting that the tipping point is not upon us, or possibly, they are reframing the Paris target. This modest announcement paves the way for a press release in December saying they will decarbonize by 2075. Imagine the headlines: “Shock historic agreement in Par

JUN 08

The IPCC has become to science what FIFA is to soccer (Time to axe both)
You don’t need a science degree to see how weak the evidence is. Nick Cater, author, journalist, editor, writes in The Australian about the contradictions and failed predictions of climate experts. He lists the “own goals” — like the Himalayan Glaciers, The Hockeystick, Antarctic Sea ice (which is at another record high) and The Pause. For two-and-a-half decades, the planet has been defying the ex
Researchers astonished: Coral reefs thriving in a more “acidic” ocean
Palau Islands The researchers at Woods Hole have spent four years doing a comprehensive study at Palau Rock Islands in the far Western Pacific, where pH levels are naturally “more acidic” (which is  big-government speak for less alkaline). Because of laboratory experiments Barkley et al [1] expected to find all kinds of detrimental effects, but instead found a diverse healthy system they describe

JUN 07

What green vision? US forests burned to make costly UK electricity and produce more CO2
The Green movement have come full circle, from protecting forests and attacking coal, to preserving coal and destroying forests. The most interesting question for me (apart from wondering how long it can continue) is what the UK environmental movement is going to do with this. Do they care about forests? Do they care about the electricity bills inflicted on the poor? Do CO2 emissions matter? In th

JUN 06

Weekend Unthreaded
Perhaps I need a “Tips and Hints” thread? Rating: 6.9/10 (20 votes cast)Rating: 6.9/10 (20 votes cast)
Weekend Unthreaded
Perhaps I need a “Tips and Ideas” thread? Rating: 8.9/10 (17 votes cast)Rating: 8.9/10 (17 votes cast)
Cheaters have been around since the Age of Amoeba
UPDATE: This is generating some good discussion, which is what I wanted to help me explain why this is relevant. It’s a study about amoeba, but reveals something I think about biological “laws” of all cooperative societies and genetics. It’s very relevant to the nature-nurture debate, and to national politics and policies. UPDATE #2: The cheating referred to in this post is defined as “social chea

JUN 05

Exotic adventures in global data to unfind “the Pause”, by Karl in 2015
UPDATED: Ross McKitrick’s PDF file has some minor changes. The Pause has been unfound, not with new data, but with new adjustments in one odd dataset. The awkward “Pause” in global temperatures shows up in every major dataset. It’s the reality that conflicts with nearly every major climate model. But it’s there in the Hadley records of land surface and ocean, it shows up in the Hadley sea surface

JUN 04

Which countries will survive climate change?
Great news for Australians, Scandinavias, Greenlanders, Poms, and New Zealanders:  all the headlines about how your home will be the hardest hit were wrong. Instead, your real estate will be the most valuable on Earth and everyone will want to visit you. Thank The Guardian for its restrained headline:  Countries most and least likely to survive the effects of climate change . Study source: Diply …

JUN 03

Study shows ARGO ocean robots uncertainty was up to 100 times larger than advertised
The oceans contain 90% of the heat energy on the surface of the Earth, which makes it “kinda important”. There are claims that the missing heat went into ocean temperatures, which are allegedly warming by five thousandths of a  degree per  year (which is still a lot less than the models predicted). The ARGO array of 3,000 ocean buoys deployed from mid-2003 is a vast improvement on the occasional s

JUN 01

Save the world with legislation? Three quarters of worlds emissions “limited” by red-tape and meaningless targets
Here’s a new form of climate control. Red-tape. Count the laws for the climate! [ScienceDaily] London School of Economics (LSE) Three-quarters of the world’s annual emissions of greenhouse gases are now limited by national targets, according to a new study published today (1 June 2015) by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Politi

MAY 30

Weekend Unthreaded
Ideas that wander… Rating: 7.6/10 (32 votes cast)Rating: 7.6/10 (32 votes cast)
Cholesterol — how the web and books are years ahead of “Consensus”
Consensus — slowing real science for decades There is a surprising amount of interest in the cholesterol story of Matt Ridley’s in The Times and The Australian last week. Surprising to me anyway, because 15 years ago the other benevolent side of cholesterol was pretty clear online.  Fifteen years is not a long time in human civilization, but it’s a long time in a human life. And in the case of th
End of feed