by Drieu Godefridi, January 2018 in BigPicNews.com
SPOTLIGHT: We’re told that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a scientific organization that makes scientific determinations. But that isn’t true.
The myth of a fossil fuel phase-out
by Samuel Furfari, December 13, 2017 in Eco-Business
The world has nothing to worry about reserves. After 40 years of fearing energy shortages, we now live with abundance. Guard against false narratives, not scarce resources says Samuele Furfari, Professor at Université libre de Bruxelles.
Mass extinctions remove species but not ecological variety
by University of Chicago, January 9, 2018 in ScienceDaily
-
Though mass extinctions wiped out staggeringly high numbers of species, they barely touched the overall ‘functional’ diversity — how each species makes a living, be it filtering phytoplankton or eating small crustaceans, burrowing or clamping onto rocks.
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.
SEA LEVEL: Rise and Fall – Part 4 – Getting a Rise Out of Nothing
by Kip Hansen, January 9, 2018 in WUWT
Prologue: I have been writing recently about Sea Level Rise, both as particular local examples ( Guam, Canton, Miami, New York, and NY/NJ ) and in the series SEA LEVEL: Rise and Fall, of which this is the fourth installment.
Series Take Home Messages:
-
Overall, the seas have been rising, slowly and inexorably, since the end of the last Ice Age, with some blips and bumps along the way. In general, they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future — at somewhere between 4-12 inches [10-30cm] per century. This rate is an imminent threat to populated areas built nominally at today’s existing sea level.
-
(…)
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.
Evaluating biases in Sea Surface Temperature records using coastal weather stations
by C Kevin, January 8, 2018 in SkepticalScience
Science is hard. Some easy problems you can solve by hard work, if you are in the right place at the right time and have the right skills. Hard problems take the combined effort of multiple groups looking at the problem, publishing results and finding fault with eachother’s work, until hopefully no-one can find any more problems. When problems are hard, you may have to publish something that even you don’t think is right, but that might advance the discussion.
The calculation of an unbiased sea surface temperature record is a hard problem. Historical sea surface temperature observations come from a variety of sources, with early records being measured using wooden, canvas or rubber buckets (figure 1), later readings being taken from engine room intakes or hull sensors, and the most recent data coming from drifting buoys and from satellites.
See alos here
New study reveals strong El Nino events cause large changes in Antarctic ice shelves
by University of California, January 8, 2018 in PhysOrg
A new study published Jan. 8 in the journal Nature Geoscience reveals that strong El Nino events can cause significant ice loss in some Antarctic ice shelves while the opposite may occur during strong La Nina events.
See also here
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.
Manufacturing consensus: the early history of the IPCC
by Judith Curry, January 3, 2018 in ClimateEtc.
Short summary: scientists sought political relevance and allowed policy makers to put a big thumb on the scale of the scientific assessment of the attribution of climate change.
Despite What You’ve Heard, Global Warming Isn’t Making Weather More Extreme
by Anthony Watts, January 7, 2018 in WUWT
From Investors Business Daily
Climate Myths: We keep reading about how the extreme weather of 2017 is the “new normal” thanks to global warming — even if the weather in question is frigid air. But the data don’t show any trend in extreme weather events in the U.S. for decades. Science, anyone?
Geopolitical risks to US oil supply lowest since the early 1970s
by Rice University, January 5, 2018 in Sciencedaily
-
The geopolitical risks to the United States’ oil supply are the lowest since the early 1970s, due to fracking, climate action and a more diverse global supply, according to a new paper. America’s energy prosperity contrasts with a more fraught period for energy-exporting countries where geopolitical challenges have been compounded by fiscal stress and rising domestic energy demand, the authors said.
After 20 Years, No New Global Temperature Record
by Cornwall Alliance, from Dr. Roy Spencer, January 2, 2017
2017 Third Warmest in the 39-Year Satellite Record
Global Satellite Monitoring of Temperature Enters its 40th Year
The Version 6.0 global average lower tropospheric temperature (LT) anomaly for December, 2017 was +0.41 deg. C, up a little from the November, 2017 value of +0.36 deg. C
Secretary Zinke Announces Plan For Unleashing America’s Offshore Oil and Gas Potential
by Press Release, U.S. Department of the Interior, January 1, 2018
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke today announced the next step for responsibly developing the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program (National OCS Program) for 2019-2024, which proposes to make over 90 percent of the total OCS acreage and more than 98 percent of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in federal offshore areas available to consider for future exploration and development. By comparison, the current program puts 94 percent of the OCS off limits. In addition, the program proposes the largest number of lease sales in U.S. history.
485 Scientific Papers Published In 2017 Support A Skeptical Position On Climate Alarm
by K Richard, January 4, 2017 in NoTricksZone
These 485 new papers affirm the position that there are significant limitations and uncertainties inherent in our understanding of climate and climate changes, emphasizing that climate science is not settled.
SCIENTISTS: Global Warming Is Not Causing Harsh Winter Weather
by M Bastach, January 5, 2017 in ClimateChangeDispatch
Record snowfall, a “bomb cyclone” and cold Arctic air have once again stirred up the debate over global warming’s impact on winter weather.
Some climate scientists are pointing the finger at manmade global warming as a culprit behind recent wintry weather, but there’s not a lot of evidence or agreement that global warming is currently driving extreme cold and snow (…)
12 New Papers: North Atlantic, Pacific, And Southern Oceans Are Cooling As Glaciers Thicken, Gain Mass
by K Richard, September 11, 2017 in NoTricksZone
Contrary to expectations, climate scientists continue to report that large regions of the Earth have not been warming in recent decades.
According to Dieng et al. (2017), for example, the global oceans underwent a slowdown, a pause, or even a slight cooling trend during 2003 to 2013. This undermines expectations from climate models which presume the increase in radiative forcing from human CO2 emissions should substantially increase ocean temperatures.
The authors indicate that the recent trends in ocean temperatures “may just reflect a 60-year natural cycle“, the AMO (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation), and not follow radiative forcing trends.
U.S. oil production booms as new year begins
by Thomas Heath, December 31, 2017 in Washington Post
U.S. crude oil production is flirting with record highs heading into the new year, thanks to the technological nimbleness of shale oil drillers .
The current abundance has erased memories of 1973 gas lines, which raised pump prices dramatically, traumatizing the United States and reordering its economy. In the decades since, presidents and politicians have made pronouncements calling for U.S. energy independence.
UAH: 2017 was third warmest year in satellite record
by Antony Watts, January 3, 2017 in WUWT
From the University of Alabama, Huntsville.
Global Temperature Report: December 2017
Global climate trend since Nov. 16, 1978: +0.13 C per decade
December temperatures (preliminary)
Global composite temp.: +0.41 C (about 0.74 degrees Fahrenheit) above 30-year average for December.
Northern Hemisphere: +0.50 C (about 0.90 degrees Fahrenheit) above 30-year average for December.
Southern Hemisphere: +0.33 C (about 0.59 degrees Fahrenheit) above 30-year average for December.
Tropics: +0.26 C (about 0.47 degrees Fahrenheit) above 30-year average for November.
Pennsylvania’s Gas Fields Ramp Up For More Drilling In 2018
by Ami Sick, December 29, 2017 in 90.5WESA
Activity in Pennsylvania’s gas fields slowed in recent years amid low prices, but operators ramped up drilling in 2017, and they’re expecting to drill even more in the new year.
Australia overdoes carbon reduction by 294mt: could cool world by 0.0002C extra (maybe)
by JoNova, January 3, 2018
Other countries are failing to meet their targets, but we’re not only achieving them, we’re overdoing it. And this is despite our obvious handicaps: like that we have rapid population growth, are further from everywhere and anywhere* except for Antarctica, and we’re the largest coal exporter in the world;
(…)
Tamper, tamper! How They failed to hide the gulf between predicted and observed warming
by Christopher Monckton, January 3, 2018, in WUWT
The indefatigable Roy Spencer at the University of Alabama at Huntsville is the first to declare the global temperature anomaly for December 2017. As Fig. 1 shows, in the 39 years 1 month from December 1978 to December 2017, the planet has warmed by half a Celsius degree. But that is equivalent to 1.28 C°/century, or little more than one-third of the 3.3 C°/century predicted with “substantial confidence” by IPCC in 1990 and also by the fifth-generation general-circulation models of the Climate Model Intercomparison Project in 2013.
Ocean surface temperature variability: Large model–data differences at decadal and longer periods
by T Laepple and P Huybers, July 14, 2014 in PNAS
Determining magnitudes of sea surface temperature variability is important for attributing past and predicting future changes in climate, and generally requires the use of proxies to constrain multidecadal and longer timescales of variability. We report a multiproxy estimate of sea surface temperature variability that is consistent between proxy types and with instrumental estimates but strongly diverges from climate model simulations toward longer timescales. At millennial timescales, model−data discrepancies reach two orders of magnitude in the tropics, indicating substantial problems with models or proxies, or both, and highlighting a need to better determine the variability of sea surface temperatures.
Impact of Volcanic Eruptions on Decadal to Centennial Fluctuations of Arctic Sea Ice Extent during the Last Millennium and on Initiation of the Little Ice Age
by J Slawinska and A Robock, November 29, 2017 in AmerMeteorSoc
We evaluate different hypotheses of the origin of the Little Ice Age, focusing on the long-term response of Arctic sea ice and oceanic circulation to solar and volcanic perturbations. We analyze the Last Millennium Ensemble of climate model simulations carried out with the Community Earth System Model at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. We examine the duration and strength of volcanic perturbations, as well as initial and boundary conditions such as the phase of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, and their impact on decadal to multi-centennial perturbations of the cryospheric, oceanic, and atmospheric components of the climate system.