Archives de catégorie : better to know…?

Climate value of Earth’s intact forests

by Wildlife Conservation Society, February 26, 2018 in ScienceDaily


With over 80 percent of forests already degraded by human and industrial activities, today’s findings underscore the immediate need for international policies to secure remaining intact forests — including establishing new protected areas, securing the land rights of indigenous peoples, regulating industry and hunting, and targeting restoration efforts and public finance. Absent specific strategies like these, current global targets addressing climate change, poverty, and biodiversity may fall short, including the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals to sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

Pollution Market Gets a Boost in EU With Move to Reduce Glut

by E.  Krukowska and R. Morison, February 26, 2018 in Bloomberg


European Union nations are poised to endorse the biggest overhaul of the market they created more than a decade ago to rein in pollution, a move that may lift prices of power generated from fossil fuels.

The measures, due for final approval in Brussels on Tuesday, impose tougher requirements on thousands of companies to reduce greenhouse gases or pay higher costs for their carbon dioxide emissions. They’re part of a plan to clear up a flaw in the market that left the cost of CO2 permits well below the level needed to stir investments in green energy.

Russian Cold Shot Set To Shock-Freeze Europe …Cold Temperatures…High Winds…Homeless At Risk

by P. Gosselin, February 23, 2018 in NoTricksZone


A vicious cold blast is about to invade Europe from the Russian Front and shock freeze the continent.

Interestingly some people – meteorologists among them – have been poking fun at the “hype” or even have blasted media outlets and other private meteorologists for “sensationalizing” the forecast Cold Beast from the East.

Sure, a number of locations over Germany for example may not even see temperatures drop below -10°C. What’s the big deal? It’s winter after all, they are saying. Just put on an extra coat. Some of these critics have even called the loud warnings of the Siberian cold “shrill, dumbass, click-baiting headlines“.

Wind Industry Faces Billions In Early Repair Costs

by Benny Peiser, February 23, 2018 in ClimateChangeDispatch


Ørsted must repair up to 2,000 wind turbine blades because the leading edge of the blades has become worn down after just a few years at sea.

Siemens Gamesa also does not want to comment on the costs, but the company’s Danish subsidiary has just provided 4.5 billion Danish Krone ($750 million) or 16% of its revenue to guarantee its commitments (…)

Groupthink On Climate Change Ignores Inconvenient Facts

by Christophe Booker, February 2018


.pdf (107 pages)

Foreword

By Professor Richard Lindzen

The bizarre issue of climate catastrophism has been around suf ciently long that it has become possible to trace its history in detail, and, indeed, several excellent re- cent books do this, placing the issue in the context of a variety of environmental, economic and political trends.

(…)

 

Where Do We Get Most Of Our Energy (Hint: Not Renewables)

by Bjorn Lomborg, February 20, 2018 in ClimateChangeDispatch


The world is mostly run on fossil fuels (81%). Nuclear makes up 5%, with 14% from renewables. Solar panels and wind turbines contribute 0.8%.

When you hear 14% renewables, you will likely think ‘wow, things are going pretty well with the switch to renewables’. But these renewables are not the ones you hear about. The biggest contributor is humanity’s oldest fuel: wood (…)

New Scientist prints a more reasoned polar bear article but myths persist

by Dr S. Crockford, February 12, 2018 in ClimateChangeDispatch


It acknowledges that polar bear numbers have not declined in recent years even though summer sea ice dropped dramatically but goes on to perpetuate a number of myths that might not have happened if the author had done his homework or quizzed his other experts as thoroughly as he did me.

DO-IT-YOURSELF TEMPERATURE RECONSTRUCTION

by M.  Chase, February 2, 2018 in WUWT


This article describes a simple but effective procedure for regional average temperature reconstruction, a procedure that you, yes you dear reader, can fully understand and, if you have some elementary programming skills, can implement.

To aid readability, and to avoid the risk of getting it wrong, no attempt is made in the article to give proper attribution to previous work of others, but a link is provided at the end to where a list of references can be found.

(…)

Amid a warming planet, snow falls in Southern Morocco – first time in 50 years

by A. Watts, January 31, 2018 in WUWT


After several decades of extremely dry weather, residents in southern regions of Morocco finally woke up this morning to an unusual snowfall that currently impacted Ouarzazate, Taroudant and even Zagora, which has not experienced snowfall for fifty years.

Several photos and videos have been posted on social media depicting the cities covered with a huge layer of snow. Despite the freezing cold temperatures, many residents went outside to enjoy the unexpected snowfall.

L’ Empire des Métaux Rares

by Edouard Guigue, 13 janvier 2018


Que sont les métaux rares ? Des ressources peu connues mais essentielles au fonctionnement de l’espace mondialisé. Insérées au cœur de tout appareil électronique, sans elles aucune de nos technologies numériques n’existerait. Composant également la plupart de nos technologies vertes (éoliennes, panneaux solaires ou voitures électriques), leurs modes de production laissent toutefois perplexe sur leur capacité à s’établir comme alternatives durables aux énergies fossiles. La pollution ne serait pas réduite mais simplement délocalisée… essentiellement en Chine où 95% des terres rares sont produites. Un chiffre qui par ailleurs devrait nous alarmer sur la situation de dépendance à la Chine dans laquelle le reste du monde  -dont l’Europe- se trouve depuis les années 1980. Guillaume Pitron nous présente une enquête de six ans, dont les résultats sont à retrouver dans son livre La guerre des métaux rares.

A ‘marine motorhome for microbes’: Oceanic plastic trash conveys disease to coral reefs

by Cornell University, January 25, 2018 in ScienceDaily


Plastics make ideal vessels for colonizing microscopic organisms that could trigger disease if they come into contact with corals,” Lamb said. “Plastic items — commonly made of polypropylene, such as bottle caps and toothbrushes — have been shown to become heavily inhabited by bacteria

HISTOIRE DES TEMPÊTES

by E.  Garnier, septembre 2012, in Risques, les Cahiers de l’Assurance


Ce travail tente de prouver l’intérêt pour l’assureur d’une approche historique consacrée aux tempêtes et aux cyclones entre 1500 et nos jours. Les exemples de la France, de l’Europe et de l’océan Indien montrent que ces événements extrêmes sont en réalité des facteurs de permanence historique et que les archives peuvent être très utiles pour estimer leur sévérité. Dans cette perspective, une simulation du coût actuel de la tempête atlantique de mars 1937 est réalisée. Elle révèle que les sociétés littorales de cette époque étaient nettement plus résilientes. Enfin, l’étude prouve que, depuis la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la vulnérabilité a augmenté plus rapidement que l’aléa tempête, notamment depuis les années 1990 avec l’urbanisation croissante des littoraux.

TAO Sea and Air Temperature Differences

by Willis Eschenbach, January 24, 2018 in WUWT


(…) I like the TAO buoy data because we can be sure that it is free of urban heat islands, changes in location, instrumentation changes, and many of the other problems that plague land-based stations. It is also measured very frequently, typically every ten minutes. This lets us explore the daily cycles of air and sea temperature, solar radiation, longwave radiation, humidity, and the like.

New Study: German Agreed 2050 CO2 Reductions Could Cost Astronomical $2.8 TRILLION By 2050!

by  P. Gosselin, January 20, 2018 in NoTricksZone


It has long been dawning on most people that the costs of Germany’s Energiewende (transition to green energies) have been spectacularly underestimated. As Germany rushes into its foray with renewable energies, principally wind and sun, we are finding out that many of the costs involved were never taken into account.

(…)

What do the Ice Core Bubbles Really Tell Us?

by Tim Ball, January 20, 2108


The short answer to the question posed in the title to this article is virtually and practically nothing. They definitely do not tell us what is claimed, that is, accurate representation of the state of the atmosphere including temperature in individual years. This is why one of the world’s experts on atmospheric chemistry and ice cores Zbigniew Jaworowski M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., wrote,

“It was never experimentally demonstrated that ice core records reliably represent the original atmospheric composition.”

(…)

On Science and Nonscience

by Neil Lock, January 11, 2018 in WUWT


What is science?

According to Webster’s, science is: “knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws.”

The way I see it, science is a method of discovering truths. For the idea to make any sense at all, though, we need first to agree that scientific truth is objective. Now, a particular truth or fact may of course be unknown, or poorly understood, or wrongly apprehended, at a particular time. But in science, one man’s truth must be the same as another’s. (…)

MUGGED BY REALITY, GERMANY’S CLIMATE CONSENSUS IS COLLAPSING

by Benny Peiser, November 11, 2017, in GWPF


Germany’s utopian dream of transforming itself into the world’s green powerhouse is collapsing as its political and media establishment is mugged by reality. The country’s climate obsession has turned into one of the country’s biggest political and economic handicaps, making Germany almost ungovernable.

See also here

Les émissions de CO2 augmenteraient de 50 % d’ici 2030 si les centrales nucléaires fermaient

by Le Vif Express, 9 décembre 2017


La fermeture des centrales nucléaires belges pourrait entraîner une augmentation de 50% des émissions de CO2 liées à la production d’énergie d’ici 2030, selon le professeur d’économie Johan Albrecht (UGent – Université de Gand), qui est également membre de l’institut de réflexion Itinera. Cela alors que le gouvernement fédéral et les entités fédérées doivent négocier dans les semaines à venir le Pacte énergétique, qui doit fixer l’avenir de la production d’électricité en Belgique.

Un livre révèle “la plus fantastique opération de greenwashing de l’histoire”

by Mathieu Dejean, 6 janvier 2017 in LesInrockuptibles


Dans un essai édifiant, le journaliste Guillaume Pitron dévoile “la face cachée de la transition énergétique et numérique”. Selon lui, le recours aux éoliennes, panneaux solaires et autres véhicules électriques n’a fait que déplacer l’impact de l’activité humaine sur les écosystèmes.

England & Wales Precipitation Series For 2017

by Paul Homewood, January 8, 2018 in NotaLotofPeopleKnowThat


The England & Wales Precipitation Series has now been updated for last year.

Precipitation totalled 952mm during the year, slightly above the series average of 918mm. In ascending order, 2017 ranked 158th.

There seems to be little evidence of any real trends. Whatever trend can be winkled out of the numbers will likely be too small to notice, and swamped by the natural variability in the data.

The wettest years remain 1872 and 1768. The driest were 1788 and 1921.

Freeman Dyson, 94 today, on scepticism

by Paul Matthews, December 15, 2017


At the excellent Curious Wavefunction blog of Ash Jogalekar, there’s an article (posted last year) about Freeman Dyson, who is 94 today.

He disapproves of faith in computer models and of the zealous dogmatism exhibited by some climate change activists, and both these points are extremely well taken. Ultimately Dyson is saying something simple; that science progresses only when there is a critical mass of skeptics challenging the status quo

Sharks FREEZE and Niagara Falls turns to ice as US temperatures hit staggering -37 degrees

by Will Kirby, December 31, 2017 in SundayExpress


More than 220 million Americans are preparing for the coldest New Year in living memory as the cold snap that has swept across the northern states prompts chaos across the country.

Temperatures atop the highest peak in the north-east, Mount Washington, hit a shocking -37 degrees celsius – breaking the previous record at the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire of -35C which was set in 1933.

2017 in review: polar bear prophesies of doom more at odds with current reality

by Polar Bear Science, December 29, 2017


Tales of doom and gloom about polar bears reflect what some people think might happen in the future, not what is happening right now.  Currently, polar bears are doing just fine despite the low summer sea ice coverage they’ve experienced since 2007 (Crockford 2017a; York et al. 2016). In other words, there has been no global population decline as predicted: officially, the numbers were 22,000-31,000 (or 26,500 average) in 2015 (Wiig et al. 2015) but about 28,500 when estimates published since then are included (Aars et al. 2017; Dyck et al. 2017; Matishov et al. 2014; SWG 2016), up from about 22,500 in 2005).

Elsevier retracting 26 papers accepted because of fake reviews

by Victoria Stern, December 21, 2017

Elsevier has retracted 13 papersand says it will retract 13 moreafter discovering they were accepted because of fake reviews.

A spokesperson for Elsevier told us that the journals are in the process of retracting all 26 papers affected by the “peer-review manipulation” and “unexplained authorship irregularities.” Most share one corresponding author, a physical science researcher based in Iran.

So far, 13 of the papers were retracted this year: 10 in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy and three in Results in Physics. Of the remaining 13 papers, four others were published in Results in Physics, four in Journal of Crystal Growth, three in Journal of Alloys and Compounds, and one each in International Journal of Thermal Sciences and Fusion Engineering and Design.