by Dr. D. Whitehouse, January 17, 2020 in ClimateChangeDispatch
It’s the usual story. It’s the beginning of the year and the statistics of the previous year are hurriedly collected to tell the story of the ongoing climate crisis.
First off, we have the oceans which, according to some, are living up to the apocalyptic narrative better than the atmosphere.
The atmosphere is complicated, subjected to natural variabilities, that make the temperature increase open to too much interpretation.
The oceans, however, are far more important than the air as they absorb most of the anthropogenic excess heat.
Looking at the literature reveals no one knows just how much excess heat (created in the atmosphere) it mops up or indeed exactly how or where it does it. Some say it is 60% which is a bit on the low side, most say 90% or 93%.
The real figure is unknown though it should be noted that a few percent errors translate to a lot of energy, about the same amount that is causing all the concern.
On 14 January the Guardian had the headline, “Ocean temperatures hit record high as the rate of heating accelerates.” The study that reached this conclusion was published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.
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It’s a badly written paper full of self-justifying statements and unwarranted assumptions that should have been stripped-out by the editor.
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