In Climatology, Whatever Happened To Evidence-Based Science?

by J. Hellner, Nov 21, 2023 in ClimateChangeDispatch


Isn’t it time that journalists and students are taught to do research and ask questions about the climate instead of just regurgitating talking points pushing the green agenda?

We are constantly told that storms, floods, droughts, and other natural disasters are growing in frequency and intensity—so why don’t we see specific examples? [emphasis, links added]

Like the severe drought and warm period in Europe in 1540 when temperatures were 9–13 degrees above today’s averageduring the Little Ice Age?

For eleven months, there was practically no rain, and temperatures were five to seven degrees [Celsius] [9–13°F] above the normal values of the 20th century; in many places, summer temperatures must have exceeded 40°C (104°F).

Many forests in Europe went up in flames, choking smoke darkened the sun, and not a single thunderstormwas reported in the summer of 1540.

Water was already scarce in May, wells and springs dried up, mills stood still, people starved, and livestock was slaughtered. Estimates are that in 1540, half a million people died, mostly from dysentery.

Or what about the massive fires in the United States in 1871? In 1871, the Midwestern United States had a severe drought and warm weather, clearly not caused by humans and our use of natural resources.

As a result of this heat and drought, there were severe fires throughout the Midwest, including the Great Chicago Fire.

The temperature was 85 degrees on October 8, 1871. This year the high was 55 degrees, or thirty degrees cooler.

Why isn’t Chicago warmer, after 152 years, with all the cement, people, and gas vehicles and equipment if they all cause warming?

The Chicago fire alone caused $200 million in damages, which is the equivalent of over $5 billion today.

I am 70 years old, and I don’t recall serious fires during my lifetime in the Midwest.

The narrative that humans and our use of natural resources are to blame for warming temperatures, in turn creating an existential threat to our survival, is contrary to the data and facts; scientific honesty would be forming a narrative based on the evidence, instead of forcing “evidence” to fit a story.

What about the Medieval Warm Period 1,000 years ago where temperatures were similar to today? What caused that warming since it clearly wasn’t man’s use of natural resources?

Beijing’s Coal Boom Is Here to Stay

by Vijay Jayaraj, Nov 2023 in CO2Coalition


News of record installations of so-called renewable energy electric generation in China may have kindled the hopes of those supporting the “green” agenda and hostile to fossil fuels. However, China is in no position to give up hydrocarbons, particularly coal.

During the first half of 2023, China approved 52 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power, which was more than all the approvals issued in 2021. These new approvals are in addition to the 136 GW of coal capacity that are already under construction. Together, these new plants represent more than 67% of all new approvals in the world.

Why is China doing this despite climate pledges? And what does the future hold?

Robust evidence for reversal of the trend in aerosol effective climate forcing

by J. Quass et al., 2022 in EurGeoscUnion


Abstract

Anthropogenic aerosols exert a cooling influence that offsets part of the greenhouse gas warming. Due to their short tropospheric lifetime of only several days, the aerosol forcing responds quickly to emissions. Here, we present and discuss the evolution of the aerosol forcing since 2000. There are multiple lines of evidence that allow us to robustly conclude that the anthropogenic aerosol effective radiative forcing (ERF) – both aerosol–radiation interactions (ERFari) and aerosol–cloud interactions (ERFaci) – has become less negative globally, i.e. the trend in aerosol effective radiative forcing changed sign from negative to positive. Bottom-up inventories show that anthropogenic primary aerosol and aerosol precursor emissions declined in most regions of the world; observations related to aerosol burden show declining trends, in particular of the fine-mode particles that make up most of the anthropogenic aerosols; satellite retrievals of cloud droplet numbers show trends in regions with aerosol declines that are consistent with these in sign, as do observations of top-of-atmosphere radiation. Climate model results, including a revised set that is constrained by observations of the ocean heat content evolution show a consistent sign and magnitude for a positive forcing relative to the year 2000 due to reduced aerosol effects. This reduction leads to an acceleration of the forcing of climate change, i.e. an increase in forcing by 0.1 to 0.3 W m−2, up to 12 % of the total climate forcing in 2019 compared to 1750 according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).