by Tony Heller, July 31, 2018 in ClimateChangeDispatch
July 31 afternoon temperatures have been declining in the US for a century, with the hottest year being 1917 when almost half of the US was over 95 degrees.
Archives de catégorie : better to know…?
Meat, Dairy Industry Surpass Big Oil As World’s Biggest Polluters
by P. Homewood, July 31, 2018 in NotaLotofPeoppleKnowThat
Within the next few decades, Big Meat and Big Dairy could surpass Big Oil as the world’s biggest climate polluters, a new study by non-profit GRAIN and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) showed on Wednesday.
The world’s biggest animal protein producers could soon surpass ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP as the largest contributors to climate pollution, according to the study.
IATP and GRAIN jointly published the study that quantifies emissions from 35 of the world’s largest meat and dairy companies and reviews their plans to fight climate change.
The report found out that the five largest meat and dairy corporations combined – JBS, Tyson, Cargill, Dairy Farmers of America, and Fonterra – are already responsible for more annual greenhouse gas emissions than ExxonMobil, Shell, or BP. According to one figure in the report, the combined emissions of the top five companies are on par with those of Exxon and significantly higher than those of Shell or BP.
The truth behind the Baffin Bay starving polar bear video is worse than we thought
by P. Homewood, July 263, 2018 in NotaLotofPeopleKnowThat
Remember that video of an emaciated Baffin Island polar bear that went viral last December? In an unexpected follow-up (“Starving-Polar-Bear Photographer Recalls What Went Wrong“; National Geographic, August 2018 issue), photographer Cristina Mittermeier makes some astonishing admissions that might just make you sick.
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Susan Crockford uncovers the truth behind that “starving polar bear video”
La terrible canicule de l’été 1911 qui provoqua 40 000 morts
by Pierre Bienvault, 22 juin 2017 in LaCroix
Encore dans toutes les mémoires, la canicule de 2003 et ses 15 000 morts n’a pas été la plus meurtrière de la France du XXe siècle.
Il faudra marquer cette année 1911 d’une croix noire. » Voilà ce qu’écrivait, à la fin de l’été, un médecin du département de la Seine inférieure. À l’évidence traumatisé par les conséquences de la terrible vague de chaleur qui frappa alors, de juillet à septembre, toute l’Europe mais surtout la France et la Belgique. « Pendant la longue période de chaleur, la mort n’a cessé de faucher les tout-petits élevés au biberon », ajoutera ce médecin.
Une canicule de juillet à septembre
Encore dans toutes les mémoires, la canicule de 2003 et ses 15 000 morts n’a pas été la plus meurtrière en France. C’est ce que rappelait Catherine Rollet dans un article (1) paru en 2010. Cette historienne et démographe, décédée en décembre 2016, y racontait la dramatique canicule de l’été 1911.
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Hiding The Inconvenient Satellite Data
by Tony Heller, July 25, 2018 in TheDeplorableClimateScienceBlog
In 1972, forty-two “top European and American investigators” predicted a rapidly approaching new ice age – based on an increase in snow and ice cover from 1967-1972.
The technique employed ….. depends on the averaging of information from standard and ‘infra-red satellite weather pictures.
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How the Little Ice Age affected South American climate
by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, July 24, 2018 in ScienceDaily
A new study published in Geophysical Research Journal shows that the so-called Little Ice Age — a period stretching from 1500 to 1850 in which mean temperatures in the northern hemisphere were considerably lower than at present — exerted effects on the climate of South America.
Based on an analysis of speleothems (cave formations) in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso do Sul and Goiás, the study revealed that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the climate of southwestern Brazil was wetter than it is now, for example, while that of the country’s Northeast region was drier.
The same Brazilian cave records showed that the climate was drier in Brazil between 900 and 1100, during a period known as the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA), when the northern hemisphere’s climate was warmer than it is now.
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Why we’re winning: WUWT gets more page views than the last two remaining government websites on climate
by Anthony Watts, July 17, 2018 in WUWT
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While NBC News might think that 68,000 page views per month is impressive, in comparison to our regular daily traffic on WUWT, it pales in comparison. For example, here is a screencap from my WordPress dashboard from yesterday, July 16th, which was a fairly typical summer day for WUWT. Note that it shows 92,467 page views in one day.
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What’s most interesting is that while there’s been a slow, almost imperceptible increase in the phrase “climate change”, the search phrase “global warming” is getting far less use than it did when data was first collected, back in 2004. Right now, both “climate change”, and “global warming” have low interests.
Chart of the week: The US is the leader in CO2 emissions reduction
by Anthony Watts, July 16, 2018 in WUWT
From the American Enterprise Institute via Twitter. h/t to WUWT reader “Latitude”
Last year the United States had the largest decline in CO2 emissions *in the entire world* for the 9th time this century.
From the June 2018 BP Statistical Review of Global Energy (67th edition) here are some details on C02 emissions in 2017: (…)
Sound waves reveal diamond cache deep in Earth’s interior
by Jennifer Chu, July 16 in MITNews
There may be more than a quadrillion tons of diamond hidden in the Earth’s interior, according to a new study from MIT and other universities. But the new results are unlikely to set off a diamond rush. The scientists estimate the precious minerals are buried more than 100 miles below the surface, far deeper than any drilling expedition has ever reached.
The ultradeep cache may be scattered within cratonic roots — the oldest and most immovable sections of rock that lie beneath the center of most continental tectonic plates. Shaped like inverted mountains, cratons can stretch as deep as 200 miles through the Earth’s crust and into its mantle; geologists refer to their deepest sections as “roots.”
In the new study, scientists estimate that cratonic roots may contain 1 to 2 percent diamond. Considering the total volume of cratonic roots in the Earth, the team figures that about a quadrillion (1016) tons of diamond are scattered within these ancient rocks, 90 to 150 miles below the surface.
L’hydrogène géologique ou hydrogène naturel : Etat de la question
by A. Préat, 16 juillet 2018 in ScienceClimatEnergie
L ’hydrogène, un gaz peu abondant…
L’ hydrogène n’est présent qu’à concurrence de 1 ppm ( = une ‘partie par million’, soit 0,0001%) dans l’atmosphère : autant dire que c’est presque rien. D’où vient-il ? Peut-on en produire de grandes quantités à partir de ressources naturelles (géologie) ou artificielles (chimie) ? Autant de questions que de plus en plus d’industriels, de scientifiques, de politiques et de citoyens (?) se posent pour faire face à ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler la transition énergétique tant à l’ordre du jour, à raison ou à tort, là n’est pas l’objet de cet article. Comme nous le verrons par la suite, l’exploitation directe de l’hydrogène naturel n’est pas encore rentable et il faudra sans doute le produire à partir d’une autre source d’énergie, car il n’est pas lui-même une source d’énergie, mais au contraire un simple vecteur d’énergie.A l’heure actuelle il n’est donc pas exploité à une échelle suffisante en raison des contraintes géologiques et économiques, et il faut le synthétiser [1]. C’est ce que réalise aujourd’hui l’industrie principalement en vue de la fabrication de l’ammoniac pour les engrais ou des plastiques.…
Diesel cars are still the most sensible option for long journeys despite pledge to wipe vehicles from roads by 2040, says transport secretary
by James Salmon, July 9, 2018 in DailyMail
Diesel cars may still be the most sensible option for many families who drive long distances, the transport secretary Chris Grayling said yesterday.
Despite a pledge to see the end of petrol and diesel vehicles on UK roads by 2040, Mr Grayling said new diesels were not destined for the scrapheap just yet.
He said: ‘If you are doing long distances on the motorway, maybe the new generation of diesel engines are the right option for now.
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Warm world? Look at the cold all over the map
by Robert, July 9, 2018 in IceAgeNow
If you were to believe the mainstream media, you’d think our world is burning up. But that is not true.
Yes, there were places on our planet where it was warmer than normal today. But many parts of the world displayed normal or even colder than normal temperatures.
Look at all of the white and blue on this map.
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‘The Earth has a fever’ – the only solution is 14 billion air conditioners
by University of Birmingham, July 10, 2018 in WUWT
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According to the report, if we are to take cooling demand seriously, the key stages to move towards a solution for cooling demand are:
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Reducing the energy required for cooling: getting industry to adopt high efficiency cooling technologies and using maintenance to deliver optimum performance.
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Reducing the need for cooling through better building design
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Systems level thinking across built environment and transport
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Harnessing waste resources: ‘wrong time’ renewables; waste cold; and waste heat.
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Considering the strategies and skills required for installing appliances and maintaining them in order to maximise efficiency and reduce energy demand
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Creating a model for delivery of affordable cooling to those in rural and urban communities based on the energy needs of local requirements, rather than imposing a ‘one size fits all’ approach
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Ocean Temperature – Part 1
by Irek Zawadzki, July 10, 2018 in SkepticalScience
How have we measured the temperature of the ocean’s upper layer in the last 150 years? How does understanding physical processes and observational errors help to standardise climate data and understand climate change?
Sea surface temperature (SST) is also one of the climate indices with the longest histories of direct measurements. Because ocean makes up about 70% of the total Earth’s surface, changes in the temperature of its surface are a key factor for determining the global temperature of the planet’s surface.
Why Are We Doing This? A Trove Of New Research Documents The Folly Of Renewable Energy Promotion
by K. Richard, July 9, 2018 in NoTricksZone
The advocacy for widespread growth in renewable energy (especially wind, solar, and biomass) usage has increasingly become the clarion call of the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) movement. And yet more and more published research documents the adverse effects of relying on renewables.
Over the course of the last year, at least 30 papers have been published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature detailing the fatuity of promoting renewable energy as a long-term “fix” for climate change mitigation. A categorized list of these papers is provided below.
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June NOT The Driest On Record
by P. Homewood, July 2018 in NotaLotofPeopleKnowThat
It has been wrongly reported that June was the driest on record in the UK..
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In reality, there have been eight years with drier Junes since 1910 alone
Quiet Sun: More than 3 months without a sunspot
by Dr Carlo Tesla, July 2, 2018 in A. Watts, WUWT
What if the worst is to come?” – Dr Carlo Testa.
2 July 2018 – “The Belgian department of solar physics research (SIDC) says we are about to touch 100; that is, a hundred days in which we do not see spots on our sun,” says Italian meteorologist Dr Carlo Testa.
During a time of few or no sunspots (a solar minimum) the Sun emits less energy than usual, says Dr Testa. “According to some scholars this situation could lead to climatic upheavals.”
Suffice it to recall, says Testa, that between 1645 and 1715 the most significant solar minimum of history, the Little Ice Age, occurred, bringing years and years marked by very strict winters that lasted until June. (…)
Rapid 3D analysis of rockfalls in Yosemite
by Geological Society of America, June 28, 2018 in ScienceDaily
On 27 and 28 September 2017, eight large rockfalls occurred from the southeast face of El Capitan. These rockfalls resulted in one fatality and two serious injuries, and spurred a complicated rescue and temporary closure of the main road exiting Yosemite Valley. In order to manage these challenging events, the National Park Service (NPS) had a critical, immediate need for quantitative information about the sequence of rockfalls and the potential for additional activity.
Using new “structure-from-motion” photogrammetry techniques in conjunction with baseline laser-scanning data, scientists from the NPS, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the University of Lausanne, Switzerland rapidly analyzed these rockfalls. By comparing 3-dimensional (3D) models of the cliff before, during, and after the rockfalls, the researchers were able to pinpoint the exact locations, dimensions, and volumes of the rockfalls, along with the spatial and temporal pattern of their progression up the cliff.
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Thirty Years On, How Well Do Global Warming Predictions Stand Up?
by P. Michaels and R. Maue, June 21, 2018 in WSJ
James Hansen issued dire warnings in the summer of 1988. Today earth is only modestly warmer.
What about Mr. Hansen’s other claims? Outside the warming models, his only explicit claim in the testimony was that the late ’80s and ’90s would see “greater than average warming in the southeast U.S. and the Midwest.” No such spike has been measured in these regions.
As observed temperatures diverged over the years from his predictions, Mr. Hansen doubled down. In a 2007 case on auto emissions, he stated in his deposition that most of Greenland’s ice would soon melt, raising sea levels 23 feet over the course of 100 years. Subsequent research published in Nature magazine on the history of Greenland’s ice cap demonstrated this to be impossible.
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New Report: Recycling Plastic Is Making Ocean Litter Worse
by GWPF, June 28, 2018
* Most of the plastic waste comes from just a few countries, mostly in Asia and Africa.
* 25% is “leakage” from Asian waste management processes — the rest is waste that has never been collected, but is simply thrown into rivers.
* But European countries ship inject huge quantities of waste into Asian waste management streams, ostensibly for recycling. As much as 20% — millions of tons every year — ends up in the oceans and will continue to do so.
* Since the Chinese banned waste imports at the start of the year, shipments have been diverted to other Asian countries with even weaker environmental controls (Figure 1).
* EU recycling is therefore a major contributor to marine waste and increasing recycling will therefore simply increase marine litter.
Full paper .pdf here
Can Universities Lawfully Bully Academics into Silence?
by Jennifer Marohasy, June 19, 2018
Dr Peter Ridd has taken James Cook University to court protesting his sacking for what he says is, primarily, speaking-out about the lack of quality assurance in Great Barrier Reef science.
Dr Ridd spoke out initially about there being no quality assurance of Great Barrier Reef science – science that is arguably misused to secure billions of dollars of tax-payer funding. When the University tried to stop Dr Ridd doing this, Dr Ridd spoke out against University management – making all the documentation public including on his new website.
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Energy Access Outlook 2017
by International Energy Agency, June 22, 2018 in IEA
Energy access is the “golden thread” that weaves together economic growth, human development and environmental sustainability. The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, and the adoption of SDG 7.1 specifically – the goal to ensure access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy for all by 2030 – established a new level of political recognition for energy’s central role in development.
Improvements in technologies are offering new opportunities for making significant progress on the SDG goal on electricity access. The combination of declining costs for solar and decentralised solutions, cheaper and more efficient lighting and appliances, and new business models making use of digital, mobile-enabled platforms has increased the number of available solutions to cater to those currently without electricity access. But many challenges remain, particularly for clean cooking.
New World Atlas of Desertification shows unprecedented pressure on planet’s resources
by European Commission Joint Research Centre, June 21, 2018 in ScienceDaily
The main findings show that population growth and changes in our consumption patterns put unprecedented pressure on the planet’s natural resources:
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Over 75% of the Earth’s land area is already degraded, and over 90% could become degraded by 2050.
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Globally, a total area half of the size of the European Union (4.18 million km²) is degraded annually, with Africa and Asia being the most affected.
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The economic cost of soil degradation for the EU is estimated to be in the order of tens of billions of euros annually.
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Land degradation and climate change are estimated to lead to a reduction of global crop yields by about 10% by 2050. Most of this will occur in India, China and sub-Saharan Africa, where land degradation could halve crop production.
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As a consequence of accelerated deforestation it will become more difficult to mitigate the effects of climate change
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By 2050, up to 700 million people are estimated to have been displaced due to issues linked to scarce land resources. The figure could reach up to 10 billion by the end of this century.
Paris Accord Humiliation: 23 Of 28 EU States Graded “Poor” Or “Very Poor” On Achieving Climate Targets!
by P. Gosselin, June 19, 2018 in NoTricksZone
Not a single EU state is meeting its climate targets, a new analysis by CAN Europe finds.
It’s been close to three years since countries worldwide signed the Paris Agreement, which obligates nations pledge to commit themselves to intending (or something like that) to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in order to “safeguard the planet’s future”.
The language of the Agreement is in fact non-binding, and so one wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some signatories might not be living up to the agreement’s spirit.
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A conversation with Prof. Richard Lindzen
by Grégoire Canlorbe, June 18, 2018 in WUWT
Richard Siegmund Lindzen is an American atmospheric physicist known for his work in the dynamics of the atmosphere, atmospheric tides, and ozone photochemistry. He has published more than 200 scientific papers and books. From 1983 until his retirement in 2013, he was Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a lead author of Chapter 7, “Physical Climate Processes and Feedbacks,” of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Third Assessment Report on climate change. He has criticized the scientific consensus about climate change and what he has called “climate alarmism.”
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