Tous les articles par Alain Préat

Full-time professor at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium apreat@gmail.com apreat@ulb.ac.be • Department of Earth Sciences and Environment Res. Grp. - Biogeochemistry & Modeling of the Earth System Sedimentology & Basin Analysis • Alumnus, Collège des Alumni, Académie Royale de Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux Arts de Belgique (mars 2013). http://www.academieroyale.be/cgi?usr=2a8crwkksq&lg=fr&pag=858&rec=0&frm=0&par=aybabtu&id=4471&flux=8365323 • Prof. Invited, Université de Mons-Hainaut (2010-present-day) • Prof. Coordinator and invited to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Belgium (Belgian College) (2009- present day) • Prof. partim to the DEA (third cycle) led by the University of Lille (9 universities from 1999 to 2004) - Prof. partim at the University of Paris-Sud/Orsay, European-Socrates Agreement (1995-1998) • Prof. partim at the University of Louvain, Convention ULB-UCL (1993-2000) • Since 2015 : Member of Comité éditorial de la Revue Géologie de la France http://geolfrance.brgm.fr • Since 2014 : Regular author of texts for ‘la Revue Science et Pseudosciences’ http://www.pseudo-sciences.org/ • Many field works (several weeks to 2 months) (Meso- and Paleozoic carbonates, Paleo- to Neoproterozoic carbonates) in Europe, USA (Nevada), Papouasia (Holocene), North Africa (Algeria, Morrocco, Tunisia), West Africa (Gabon, DRC, Congo-Brazzaville, South Africa, Angola), Iraq... Recently : field works (3 to 5 weeks) Congo- Brazzaville 2012, 2015, 2016 (carbonate Neoproterozoic). Degree in geological sciences at the Free University of Brussels (ULB) in 1974, I went to Algeria for two years teaching mining geology at the University of Constantine. Back in Belgium I worked for two years as an expert for the EEC (European Commission), first on the prospecting of Pb and Zn in carbonate environments, then the uranium exploration in Belgium. Then Assistant at ULB, Department of Geology I got the degree of Doctor of Sciences (Geology) in 1985. My thesis, devoted to the study of the Devonian carbonate sedimentology of northern France and southern Belgium, comprised a significant portion of field work whose interpretation and synthesis conducted to the establishment of model of carbonate platforms and ramps with reefal constructions. I then worked for Petrofina SA and shared a little more than two years in Angola as Director of the Research Laboratory of this oil company. The lab included 22 people (micropaleontology, sedimentology, petrophysics). My main activity was to interpret facies reservoirs from drillings in the Cretaceous, sometimes in the Tertiary. I carried out many studies for oil companies operating in this country. I returned to the ULB in 1988 as First Assistant and was appointed Professor in 1990. I carried out various missions for mining companies in Belgium and oil companies abroad and continued research, particularly through projects of the Scientific Research National Funds (FNRS). My research still concerns sedimentology, geochemistry and diagenesis of carbonate rocks which leads me to travel many countries in Europe or outside Europe, North Africa, Papua New Guinea and the USA, to conduct field missions. Since the late 90's, I expanded my field of research in addressing the problem of mass extinctions of organisms from the Upper Devonian series across Euramerica (from North America to Poland) and I also specialized in microbiological and geochemical analyses of ancient carbonate series developing a sustained collaboration with biologists of my university. We are at the origin of a paleoecological model based on the presence of iron-bacterial microfossils, which led me to travel many countries in Europe and North Africa. This model accounts for the red pigmentation of many marble and ornamental stones used in the world. This research also has implications on the emergence of Life from the earliest stages of formation of Earth, as well as in the field of exobiology or extraterrestrial life ... More recently I invested in the study from the Precambrian series of Gabon and Congo. These works with colleagues from BRGM (Orléans) are as much about the academic side (consequences of the appearance of oxygen in the Paleoproterozoic and study of Neoproterozoic glaciations) that the potential applications in reservoir rocks and source rocks of oil (in collaboration with oil companies). Finally I recently established a close collaboration with the Royal Institute of Natural Sciences of Belgium to study the susceptibility magnetic signal from various European Paleozoic series. All these works allowed me to gain a thorough understanding of carbonate rocks (petrology, micropaleontology, geobiology, geochemistry, sequence stratigraphy, diagenesis) as well in Precambrian (2.2 Ga and 0.6 Ga), Paleozoic (from Silurian to Carboniferous) and Mesozoic (Jurassic and Cretaceous) rocks. Recently (2010) I have established a collaboration with Iraqi Kurdistan as part of a government program to boost scientific research in this country. My research led me to publish about 180 papers in international and national journals and presented more than 170 conference papers. I am a holder of eight courses at the ULB (5 mandatory and 3 optional), excursions and field stages, I taught at the third cycle in several French universities and led or co-managed a score of 20 Doctoral (PhD) and Post-doctoral theses and has been the promotor of more than 50 Masters theses.
climate-debate

Mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet 1992–2016: reconciling results from GRACE gravimetry with ICESat, ERS1/2 and Envisat altimetry

by J. Zwally et al., 2021, March 29, in J.of.Glaciology

Abstract

GRACE and ICESat Antarctic mass-balance differences are resolved utilizing their dependencies on corrections for changes in mass and volume of the same underlying mantle material forced by ice-loading changes. Modeled gravimetry corrections are 5.22 times altimetry corrections over East Antarctica (EA) and 4.51 times over West Antarctica (WA), with inferred mantle densities 4.75 and 4.11 g cm−3. Derived sensitivities (Sg, Sa) to bedrock motion enable calculation of motion (δB0) needed to equalize GRACE and ICESat mass changes during 2003–08. For EA, δB0 is −2.2 mm a−1 subsidence with mass matching at 150 Gt a−1, inland WA is −3.5 mm a−1 at 66 Gt a−1, and coastal WA is only −0.35 mm a−1 at −95 Gt a−1. WA subsidence is attributed to low mantle viscosity with faster responses to post-LGM deglaciation and to ice growth during Holocene grounding-line readvance. EA subsidence is attributed to Holocene dynamic thickening. With Antarctic Peninsula loss of −26 Gt a−1, the Antarctic total gain is 95 ± 25 Gt a−1 during 2003–08, compared to 144 ± 61 Gt a−1 from ERS1/2 during 1992–2001. Beginning in 2009, large increases in coastal WA dynamic losses overcame long-term EA and inland WA gains bringing Antarctica close to balance at −12 ± 64 Gt a−1 by 2012–16.

…

better to know...?, climate-debate

Global Man-Made CO2 emissions 1965 – 2021: BP Data

by BP, Jul 10, 2022 in WUWT

Introduction

Every summer BP publish their statistical review of world energy.

https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy/co2-emissions.html

One element of their comprehensive set of spreadsheets is a table of CO2 emissions country by country since 1965.  For the purposes of this post, the CO2 emissions data provided by BP here is assumed to be valid.  This post reviews the 2022 update to the BP data.

The 2022 dataset accounts for the 2020 effect of the Covid-19 epidemic, the CO2 emissions resulting in the aftermath of the epidemic, its impact on Global economic activity and the outcome for the recovery of Man-made CO2 emissions in 2021.

For an earlier post reporting the status of Man-made CO2 emissions as of 2020, see:

Global Man-made CO2 emissions 1965 – 2020: BP data

Developed nations:  population ~1.3 billion, (~17%) – ~37% CO2 emissions.

United States of America:  population ~330m, ~13.9% of global CO2 emissions.

President Biden has negated many of Trump’s climate initiatives, including the USA rejoining support for the Paris Climate accord.  The actions of the Trump presidency had established USA energy independence for the first time in several decades.  In the USA, simply by exploiting shale gas as opposed to Coal for electricity generation, has already reduced its annual CO2 emissions by some by ~1,000,000,000 tonnes, ie by one third, since 2005.  That market driven initiative has already had a greater CO2 emission reduction effect than the entire Kyoto protocol and the Paris Climate Accord.

Japan, the former Soviet Union, (CIS), Canada and Australia, (JP CIS CA AU):  population ~356m, ~12.1% of global CO2 emissions.

These are nominally developed nations with some ambivalence towards controls on CO2 emissions and not necessarily adhering to the Paris Climate Accord.

Europe including the UK, Turkey and the Ukraine:  population ~650m, ~11.2% of global CO2 emissions.

This reassessment including Turkey and the Ukraine adds ~120 million to the wider European population with a resulting lowering of the overall CO2 emissions/head.  Currently European governments are still largely committed to action to combat Global Warming;  they have generally been enthusiastic supporters of the Paris Climate Accord, but the context is changing rapidly, including:

  • since February 2022 the war in Ukraine has suddenly made Western nations realise that their immediate energy security in the is much more important than any Green agenda to save the World from possible warming by the end of the century and that their Energy Security and injudicious dependence of Russian energy sources has enabled that Energy Security as a weapon against their economies.  But, after 30 years of unrelenting Green propaganda the Green agenda is still well established in the thinking of European Governments.
  • European peoples will come to understand the substantial changes to their lifestyles, personal economies and freedoms that are demanded by their governments’ to pursue the Net Zero / Green agenda and voters may be losing enthusiasm as they understand the real life implications of the imposed policies.
  • long-term policies providing generous subsidy support for “Renewables” as opposed to Conventional power generation have been pursued, particularly in Germany and the UK.
  • the preferential support of “Renewable” technologies has fruitlessly undermined investment in conventional reliable power generation to the extent that there is now real doubt about the ability of European power grids to provide a consistent service 24/7.
  • the subsidy support has meant that ~ 25% is aded to electricity bills go to support the “Renewable” technologies in the UK and elsewhere.  With escalating power bills European are at last realising that much of their increased costs are for the support of “Renewables” and progressively these expenditures will meet increasing resistance as the level of waste and the unreliability they represent becomes appreciated.
  • the Yellow Vests reaction in France was an immediate and violent reaction to the increase of fuel taxes on grounds of combatting climate change.  The fuel price rises in 2022 are much more drastic than those that induced the “Yellow Vest” reaction.
  • policies based on climate concerns are irrelevant to improving well-being in the Developing World, which has no interest for actions that would restrain their continuing development and well-being using their indigenous fossil fuels.

https://edmhdotme.wordpress.com/weather-dependent-power-generation/embed/#?secret=l8iZWBRns9#?secret=oko5JekhTo

Nominally Developing nations:  population ~6.6 billion, (84.6%) – ~63% CO2 emissions.

…

Australia, climate-debate, Cooling

ALL-TIME COLD RECORDS FALL IN AUSTRALIA; + SOLAR ACTIVITY CONTROLS THE CLIMATE

by Cap Allon, Jul 5, 2022 in Electroverse

ALL-TIME COLD RECORDS FALL IN AUSTRALIA

Following its best start to a ski season ever, conditions have anomalously cold and snowy across swathes of Australia.

June 2022 finished with a temperature anomaly of -0.1C below the multidecadal average, according to data supplied by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology–whatever that’s worth.

The unusual chill has extended into July, too, and hundreds of monthly low temperature records have fallen over the past two days alone–particularly across the northeastern state of Queensland, where even a number of all-time benchmarks have been toppled.

 

Senior meteorologist Harry Clark said the combination of rain and cold temperatures was “extremely unusual” for July.

“Both in terms of the amount of rainfall and the extent of it, for what is one of our driest months of the year, but also for the extremely low maximum temperatures we’ve seen,” said Clarke. “Temperatures are looking more into what you might expect in Melbourne, or some of those southern capital cities where it’s the typical winter weather.”

Clarke confirmed that “many” cold weather records were broken across Queensland this week, with the standouts for him being Rockhampton peaking at only 12.5C (54.5F) yesterday, and Toowoomba struggling to just 7.6C (45.7F).

Other locales registered equally impressive readings: The Gold Coast Seaway set its coldest day of any month ever yesterday with 14C (57.2F); while further north, in Townsville, residents there suffered their coldest July day ever with a high of 15C (59F).

And most recently, Brisbane, the capital of Queensland –which had already registered its coldest start to a winter since 1904— has, today (July 5), gone and logged its coldest daily high in 22 years, reaching only 12.4C (54.3F).

For reference, Brisbane’s lowest-ever maximum remains the 12C (53.6F) set in July 2000; with the city’s third-coldest July maximum actually being yesterday’s 14.2C (57.6F) … but ‘catastrophic global warming’, you know … ?

SOLAR ACTIVITY CONTROLS THE CLIMATE

The global temperature record since 1880 is highly correlated to solar activity, and solar activity is highly correlated to the harmonics of planetary motion.

The below chart is NASA’s Historical Total Solar Irradiance Reconstruction, Time Series.

And looking ahead, Australia’s Antarctic blast isn’t forecast to abate anytime soon — quite the opposite, in fact:

 

…

better to know...?, climate-debate

LinkedIn Bans Scientist for Presenting Inconvenient Truths About CO2

by C. Rotter, Jul 9, 2022 in WUWT

“The big-tech censors are at it again: the CO2 Coalition’s Executive Director Gregory Wrightstone has been permanently banned from LinkedIn. What did Wrightstone do to earn the banishment? His ‘crime’ consisted of posting charts from peer reviewed research supported by official sources demonstrating that current global average CO2 levels are well within the natural range of concentrations throughout the Earth’s history. LinkedIn’s moderators sent Wrightstone an email informing him that his violations have been so numerous and/or so severe that they couldn’t allow him to continue to use the platform.”

Originally published here at Climate Realism on 6 July 2022.

Australia, climate and geology

2021-2022 Tonga Volcanic Eruption and Record Rainfall in Eastern Australia and New Zealand

by A. Wong & W. Yims, Jul 4, 2022 in The SaltbushClub

Summary

During late 2021, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai submarine volcano erupted creating a new island which erupted sub-aerially on 15th January, 2022 sending a plume 58 km above sea level penetrating the mesosphere. The study of observation records including satellite data has revealed warming of the ocean-surface layer followed by atmospheric cooling caused by the release of geothermal heat and volcanic materials entering the atmosphere respectively. Environmental factors influencing weather include the development of a relatively ‘short’ life-span South Pacific Blob; the transfer of large quantities of water vapour from the ocean into the atmosphere; the low-pressure condition on the ocean surface; the formation of clouds; the reduction of solar radiation caused by volcanic materials in the atmosphere; the strengthening of trade winds; the meandering of jet streams; the development of atmospheric rivers, the additional cooling effect of torrential rainfall, and, the switch to La Niña conditions. The record rainfall in eastern Australia and New Zealand and Tropical Cyclone Dovi occurring in February 2022 were both outcomes of atmospheric cooling following the sub-aerial eruption.

…

…

only geology

Porosity of the moon’s crust reveals bombardment history

by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jul 7, 2022 in ScienceDaily

The moon sustained twice as many impacts as can be seen on its surface, scientists find.

Around 4.4 billion years ago, the early solar system resembled a game of space rock dodgeball, as massive asteroids and comets, and, later, smaller rocks and galactic debris pummeled the moon and other infant terrestrial bodies. This period ended around 3.8 billion years ago. On the moon, this tumultuous time left behind a heavily cratered face, and a cracked and porous crust.

Now MIT scientists have found that the porosity of the moon’s crust, reaching well beneath the surface, can reveal a great deal about the moon’s history of bombardment.

In a study appearing in Nature Geoscience, the team has shown through simulations that, early on in the bombardment period, the moon was highly porous — almost one-third as porous as pumice. This high porosity was likely a result of early, massive impacts that shattered much of the crust.

Scientists have assumed that a continuous onslaught of impacts would slowly build up porosity. But surprisingly, the team found that nearly all the moon’s porosity formed rapidly with these massive imapcts, and that the continued onslaught by smaller impactors actually compacted its surface. These later, smaller impacts acted instead to squeeze and compact some of the moon’s existing cracks and faults.

From their simulations, the researchers also estimated that the moon experienced double the number of impacts as can be seen on the surface. This estimate is lower than what others have assumed.

“Previous estimates put that number much higher, as many as 10 times the impacts as we see on the surface, and we’re predicting there were fewer impacts,” says study co-author Jason Soderblom, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). “That matters because that limits the total material that impactors like asteroids and comets brought to the moon and terrestrial bodies, and gives constraints on the formation and evolution of planets throughout the solar system.

…

energy and fields

Mining Industry Warns Energy Transition Isn’t Sustainable

by I. Slav, Jul 03, 2022 in OilPrice

  • There is a glaring problem in the energy transition that not many people are acknowledging.

  • It is being built on the back of finite resources, and the mining industry is already warning that there aren’t enough metals for all the batteries the transition will require.

  • Because of the short supply, prices are on the rise, as are prices across commodity sectors.

    The energy transition has been set by politicians as the only way forward for human civilization. Not every country on the planet is on board with it, but those that are have the loudest voices. And even amid the fossil fuel crunch that is beginning to cripple economies, the transition remains a goal. It is no secret that the transition—at the scale its architects and most fervent proponents envisage it—would require massive amounts of metals and minerals. What does not get talked about so much is that most of these metals and minerals are already in short supply. And this is only the start of the transition problems.

    Mining industry executives have been warning that there is not enough copper, lithium, cobalt, or nickel for all the EV batteries that the transition would require. And they have not been the only ones, either. Even so, the European Union just this month went ahead and effectively banned the sales of cars with internal combustion engines from 2035.

    “Rare earth materials are fundamental building blocks and their applications are very wide across modern life,” a senior VP at MP Minerals, a rare-earth miner, told Fortune this month. He added that “one third of the demand in 2035 is not projected to be satisfied based on investments that are happening now.”

    Because of the short supply, prices are on the rise, as are prices across commodity sectors. According to a calculation by Barron’s, the price of a basket of EV battery metals that the service tracks has jumped by 50 percent over the past year as a result of various factors, including Western sanctions against Russia, which is a major supplier of such metals to Europe.

…

climate-debate, Cooling

Since 2000 The Arctic’s Hudson Bay Has Cooled -0.35°C With 10 Of 15 Sites Gaining Sea Ice

by Gupta et al.,  July 7, 2022 in NoTricksZone

A new study (Gupta et al., 2022) indicates that from 2000-2019 73% of the 15 sites considered have been cooling and 67% have experienced a lengthening of sea ice duration.

Canada’s Hudson Bay extends into the Arctic Ocean and its coasts are teeming with polar bears.

Scientists report 11 of 15 Hudson Bay sites have been cooling since 2000. The average cooling for these 11 sites is -0.34°C per decade.

…

better to know...?

The unravelling of Germany’s green agenda

by S. Bopper-Spahl, Jul 4, 2022 in Spiked

Germany is going backwards. Last month, Robert Habeck – German vice-chancellor and co-leader of the Green Party – announced that Germany will significantly increase its use of coal power, in order to wean itself off Russian gas. The energy situation is critical, says Habeck – not least as Russia has cut the amount of gas it supplies to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline by 60 per cent.

So much for Germany’s much-vaunted Energiewende, or clean-energy transition. For years, the transition to renewable energy has been sold as an expression of modernity – of a new technologically advanced and environmentally sustainable Germany. It is one of the few policies that politicians have shown any enthusiasm for in recent years. Now that the Energiewende is going into reverse – with a Green Party minister leading the charge back to one of the most polluting forms of energy – its shortcomings are impossible to ignore.

Of course, the plan to fire up the coal-fired power plants has been presented as an ‘emergency’ measure, in response to the war in Ukraine. As recently as December, the German government was promising to accelerate the phase-out of coal power. Instead of eliminating coal by 2038, as Angela Merkel had planned, the new government aims to end the use of coal by 2030. On the world stage, the German government has lobbied heavily for a global phasing-out of coal to fight climate change. Back in November, the government signed a new climate declaration – the ‘Global Coal to Clean Power’ Transition Statement’.

…

…

Germany’s irrational green politics should be a warning to the world.

climate-debate

…IPCC Summary Report, Part 2…

by D. Dears, July 2022 in PowerForUsa

…

Conclusion

The politicians changed the report written by the scientists so that it would be consistent with the SPM written by the politicians.

The report now reads:

“The body of statistical evidence in chapter 8 … now points towards a discernible human influence on global climate.”

Whereas it originally read:

“No study to date has positively attributed all or part (of the climate warming observed) to (manmade) causes.”

As a result, the pubic was told there is a discernible human influence on global climate when the scientists said none had been positively identified.

A legitimate scientific organization wouldn’t allow politicians to overrule scientists.

Why would our country rely on such an organization?

Link to Amicus Curiae https://bit.ly/3QSuyCn

Use this link in an email to let others know about this article https://bit.ly/3AqFm53 

better to know...?, energy and fields

European Parliament backs listing nuclear energy, gas as ‘green’

by Reuters, AP, AFP, July 2022 in DW

European Parliament backs listing nuclear energy, gas as ‘green’

The push to label natural gas and nuclear energy as “green” in order to lure in more private investors was met with heavy resistance. But EU lawmakers ultimately gave it the green light.

The European Parliament on Wednesday voted in favor of a proposal regarding labeling natural gas and nuclear power plants as climate-friendly investments.

The European Commission released the proposal, formally called the EU taxonomy, in December as a list of economic activities that investors can label and market as green in the EU.

A motion to block the proposal received 278 votes in favor and 328 against, while 33 lawmakers abstained.

Unless 20 of the EU’s 27 member states oppose the proposal, it will be passed into law.

…

better to know...?, climate-debate

The Truth About Cold- And Heat-Related Deaths

by H.S. Sterling, Jul 6, 2022 in ClimateChangeDispatch

In a refreshingly honest article in the Logan Daily News, author Bud Simpson cites data from research showing deaths from non-optimal temperatures are declining amid climate change.

Simpson is right and he and the Logan Daily News are to be congratulated for discussing this important truth about climate change. [bold, links added]

In a Logan Daily News article, titled “My last global warming column?”, Simpson describes how after examining the facts over time, he went from being a firm believer that human activities were causing dangerous climate change to realizing no climate catastrophe is in the offing.

“Carbon dioxide was, and is, bandied about as if it were the biggest demon on the face of the earth,” writes Simpson. “In truth, it is one of the most valuable of gases and contributes hugely to a better life for us earthlings. … Proponents of this group even tried to get carbon dioxide labeled as a toxic gas! If that were true, we’d all be dead by now. And without any warming.”

Among the research Simpson discovered that convinced him climate change was not, in fact, threatening human survival was a study published in the prominent peer-reviewed journal, The Lancet, which firmly established:

“…that worldwide, cold kills about 17 times more people than heat does. A group of 22 scientists studied over 74 million deaths in the U.S., China, Brazil, and ten other countries. The findings showed that cold caused 7.29 percent of the deaths while heat caused 0.42 percent.”

…

better to know...?, climate-debate

New Study: Greenland ‘Must Have Been At Least 3°C Warmer’ Than Today During The Early Holocene

by K. Richard, Jul 4, 2022 in NoTricksZone

These much warmer Greenland temperatures imply that the elevation of the ice sheet was 400 meters lower than it is today from about 6,000 to 10,000 years ago.

Scientists (Westhoff et al., 2022) report that the two largest Greenland melt events in the last few hundred years occurred in 2012 and in 1889 CE – when atmospheric CO2 levels were still under 300 ppm.

The “melt events around the Holocene Climate Optimum were more intense and more frequent” than has been observed during the modern period. And the most prominent melt events of the last 10,000 years centered around the Medieval Warm Period, 986 CE.

Overall, the elevation of the Greenland ice sheet has grown by 0.4 km since the Early Holocene, as “summer temperatures must have been at least 3 ± 0.6°C warmer during the Early Holocene compared to today.”

…

better to know...?, climate-debate

“We Live In The Coldest Period Of The Last 10.000 Years”

by P. Homewood, Jul 5, 2022 in NotaLotofPeopleKnowThat

Jørgen Peder Steffensen is an Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen and one of the world’s leading experts on ice cores. Using ice cores from sites in Greenland, he has been able to reconstruct temperatures there for the last 10000 years. So what are his conclusions?

  • Temperatures in Greenland were about 1.5 C warmer 1000 years ago than now.

  • It was perhaps 2.5 C warmer 4000 years ago.

  • The period around 1875, at the lowest point of the Little Ice Age, marked the coldest point in the last 10,000 years.

  • Other evidence from elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere confirms this picture.

…

better to know...?, climate-debate

Climate Change Weekly #439: Hurricanes Not Increasing, Despite Warming

by H.S. Burnett, Jul 1, 2022 in WUWT

…

Pielke notes five points of fact about hurricanes:

  1. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finds “no consensus” on the relative role of human influences on Atlantic hurricane activity, quoting the IPCC as follows: “there is still no consensus on the relative magnitude of human and natural influences on past changes in Atlantic hurricane activity, … and it remains uncertain whether past changes in Atlantic TC activity are outside the range of natural variability.”
  2. “The IPCC has concluded that since 1900 there is ‘no trend in the frequency of USA landfall events.’ This goes for all hurricanes and also for the strongest hurricanes, called major hurricanes.”
  3. “Since at least 1980, there are no clear trends in overall global hurricane and major hurricane activity.”
  4. “There are many characteristics of tropical cyclones that are under study and hypothesized to be potentially affected by human influences, … but at present there is not a unified community consensus on these hypotheses, as summarized by the World Meteorological Organization,” as to whether any of the factors are affected by human greenhouse gas emissions.
  5. “Hurricanes are common, incredibly destructive and will always be with us. Even so, we have learned a lot about how to prepare and recover.”

Pielke points out that some of the costliest hurricanes occurred in the early part of the twentieth century when average global temperatures were cooler than at present.

…

better to know...?, Cooling

Coldest, Wettest & Stormiest – The Good Old Days Before Global Warming

by P. Homewood, Jul 3, 2022 in NotatLotofPeopleKnowThat

By the 1970’s, the Earth had experienced three decades of declining temperatures, which Hubert Lambdescribed as “longest-continued downward trend since temperature records began”.

Many will be aware that the coldest winter on record in the US was that of 1978/79, more than 1F colder than any other year.

 

image

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/

…

…

only geology

Tonga volcano eruption among the most powerful ever observed, triggering atmospheric gravity waves that reached the edge of space

by University of Bath,  Jun 30, 2022 in ScienceDaily from Nature

The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai submarine volcano in January 2022 was one of the most explosive volcanic events of the modern era, a new study has confirmed.

Led by researchers from the University of Bath and published today in Nature, the study combines extensive satellite data with ground-level observations to show that the eruption was unique in observed science in both its magnitude and speed, and in the range of the fast-moving gravity and atmospheric waves it created.

Following a series of smaller events beginning in December 2021, Hunga Tonga erupted on 15 January this year, producing a vertical plume that extended more than 50km (30 miles) above the surface of the earth. Heat released from water and hot ash in the plume remained the biggest source of gravity waves on earth for the next 12 hours. The eruption also produced ripple-like gravity waves that satellite observations show extended across the Pacific basin.

The eruption also triggered waves in our atmosphere that reverberated around the planet at least six times and reached close to their theoretical maximum speeds — the fastest ever seen within our atmosphere, at 320m per second or 720 miles per hour.

The fact that a single event dominated such a large region is described by the paper’s authors as unique in the observational record, and one that will help scientists improve future atmospheric weather and climate models.

…

climate-debate, energy and fields

G7 Abandons Climate Agenda, Will Turn To Fossil Fuels Amid Energy Crisis

by J. MCEVOY, Jul 1, 202 in CimateChangeDispatch

World leaders at the G7 summit in Germany signaled they will turn back to fossil fuels despite their commitments to a green energy transition thanks to the ongoing energy crisis.

The war in Ukraine is heavily restricting fuel imports, with Russia cutting off European access to the Nord Stream pipeline and the US imposing a fuel embargo on Putin. [bold, links added]

As a result, the U.S. and European countries are abandoning their climate agenda to return to fossil fuels.

Amid skyrocketing fuel prices, the Biden administration has been forced to abandon certain planks of its climate agenda.

Biden called for a temporary increase in domestic fuel production two weeks ago and also asked Congress to suspend the federal per-gallon gas tax for three months last week.

“The G7 leaders are pretending that nothing has happened to the green agenda,” Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Forum, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “In reality, if you look at individual member states… it’s quite obvious that the green agenda will be sunk.”

…

climate-debate

The New Pause Lengthens to 7 Years 10 Months

by C. Monckton of Brenchley, July 2, 2022 in WUWT

The New Pause paused last month because I was ill. Many apologies for the interruption. Now, however, it resumes – and it has lengthened from 7 years 7 months to the end of April 2022. To the end of June 2022, the New Pause is now 7 years 10 months in length:

 

This Pause, like its predecessor, which was an impressive 18 years 8 months (UAH), or 18 years 9 months (HadCRUT4), is, as always, not cherry-picked. It is derived from the UAH monthly global mean lower-troposphere temperature anomalies as the period from the earliest month starting with which the least-squares linear-regression trend to the most recent month for which data are available does not exceed zero. Whatever the data show, I show. Or, in the immortal words of Dr Roy Spencer, speaking of his dataset, “It is what it is”. In that splendid dictum speaks all true science.

The least-squares trend, which Professor Jones at the University of East Anglia used to recommend as the simplest and most robust method of deriving global-temperature trends, takes due account of all monthly values, not merely of the starting and ending values.

…

 

See also here

climate and geology

CO2 and O2 oxidized 2.7 Ga micrometeorites in two stages suggesting a >32% CO2 atmosphere

by Huang G. et al., Nov 2021 in PrecambrianResearch

Abstract
It is widely accepted that atmospheric pO2 < 1 ppm before the Great Oxidation Event. Yet a recent study found fossil micrometeorites (MMs) containing the oxidized iron species wüstite (FeO) and magnetite (Fe3O4) formed 2.7 billion years ago (Ga). How these MMs became oxidized is uncertain. Abundant O2 in the upper atmosphere and iron oxidation by CO2 have been suggested. However, photochemical reactions cannot produce sufficient O2, and oxidation by CO2 can only produce FeO, each individually failing to explain the formation of Fe3O4-only MMs. Using an oxidation model of iron MMs including photochemistry, we show that a >32% CO2 Archean atmosphere and different entry angles can generate the Fe3O4-only and Fe-FeO mixed composition MMs that have been discovered. Oxidation happens in two stages: by CO2 under brief melting, then by O2. Our results challenge existing constraints on Earth’s atmospheric CO2 concentration at 2.7 Ga and support a warm Late Archean despite the ‘faint young Sun’.
…
better to know...?, climate-debate

The NOT melting glacier

by T. Ciccone & J. Lehr, May 31, 2022 in CFact

beautiful white icy hill with cave in antarctic

 

Could Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ meet its doom within 3 years?

“Time is melting away for one of Antarctica’s biggest glaciers, and its rapid deterioration could end with the ice shelf’s complete collapse in just a few years,” alarmist researchers warned at a virtual press briefing on Dec. 13, 2021 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU)–a once outstanding professional society, but now a shill for the left.

Above is the first sentence of the article titled “Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ could meet its doom within 3 years,” not what we would expect to see from a once reputable source, the AGU. It warns us that in a few years, the world’s largest glacier, about the size of Florida, will melt and raise ocean levels by up to 3 meters (about 10 ft). It then tells us that the glacier is melting from below because the surrounding ocean waters have been warmed “thanks to human-induced climate change.” Finally, it tells us that a team of more than 100 scientists from the USA and the UK have been studying the Thwaites glacier and sharing their findings with scientists worldwide.

The article then explains that the Thwaites is not melting from above, but “the melting is coming from below,” from the warmed-up oceans that have been warmed by human-made CO2 and the greenhouse effect. The bulk of the article then proceeds to detail the forecasted consequences around the world:

…

This team may not have even been communicating with each other. Almost a decade earlier, geologists were seeing evidence of volcanoes in a known active tectonic plate boundary, buried under the glacier and the oceans. Before 2017, at least 47 volcanoes were found in western Antarctica and around the area of the Thwaites glacier. In 2017 the Guardian reported that an additional 91 volcanoes had been found along the western shores of Antarctica, with some sitting under the Twaites glacier itself. See the article “Scientists discover 91 volcanoes below Antarctic ice sheet.”

…

…

climate-debate

New Study Affirms Temperatures Determine Greenhouse Gas Forcing Trends, Not The Other Way Around

by Singh H  & Polvani L, Jun 30, 2022 in NoTricksZone

CO2 and water vapor greenhouse effect impacts are not independent climate forcings . A new study affirms the “variance in the radiance in these channels is primarily controlled by…temperature” and “atmospheric absorption is strongly saturated in these [CO2, water vapor] channels”.

It has previously been established that greenhouse gas (water vapor, CO2) forcing “cannot be considered an independent component of the surface energy budget” because “anomalies in the downward longwave flux at the surface primarily arise as a consequence of surface temperature anomalies, rather than being the cause of those anomalies” (Singh and Polvani, 2020, Zeppetello et al., 2019).

Image Source: Singh and Polvani, 2020, Zeppetello et al., 2019

Feldman et al. (2015) admit they had to “construct” model-based spectra to simulate a CO2 signal in their seminal paper purporting to show CO2 changes cause temperature changes. This is because the temperature and water vapor levels primarily determine the overall longwave forcing (clear-sky) trends.

…