090807 Marc Morano’s Round Up– August 9, 2007
Stephen Hawking Warns Earth’s Temps May Reach 250 Degrees C!
(From DiCaprio’s "The 11th Hour")
Excerpt: The narrative of the film repeatedly emphasizes that the very fate of the human race is at stake. Change isn’t just a good thing to do for nature—change is required for our very survival. Stephen Hawking, the esteemed physicist and author, most vividly describes the direness of the situation: “We don’t know where the global warming will stop,” he explains, “but the worst-case scenario is that Earth would become like its sister planet, Venus, with a temperature of 250 [degrees] centigrade, and raining sulfuric acid. The human race could not survive in those conditions.” The film does more than just sound the alarm and call for change; it also devotes plenty of time illustrating the most practical—and economically feasible—ways for us to change our habits. Most engaging is a discussion of biomimicry, a new science that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. This idea has inspired new types of ecologically friendly design that mimic the sustainability of nature (for instance, ecological systems in which one organism’s waste is another’s food).
http://campusprogress.org/soundvision/1847/the-11th-hours-ticking-clock
Actress Cate Blanchett stops washing her hair to help save Earth
Excerpt: Oscar winner Cate Blanchett has stopped washing her hair in an effort to do her bit to save the environment and become a green example to her kids.The actress admits she has installed timers all around her home to restrict energy levels - and one is even on her shower head. Now she is no longer washing her hair, Blanchett has realized: "I only need to have a two minute shower."
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/entertainment/story.asp?j=227615812&p=zz76y65y8
New Rankings for Warmest Years – 1934 Now Warmest in U.S. History – NASA Temp Error Rewrites Record Books!
[Note: 80% of man-made CO2 emissions occurred after 1940. (http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/avery042507.htmLINK) ]
Excerpt: By Joseph D’Aleo, Icecap
With the changes to the GISS data made today after an error was found by Stephen McIntyre, 1998 falls to #2 behind 1934 as the warmest year, followed by 1998, 1921, 2006, 1931, 1999 and 1953. Expect more changes to come in the months ahead as more scrutiny of the data bases takes place. Note in the graph below the peak in the five year mean around 2000 is a mere 0.25F higher than that in the early 1930s.
Don’t expect any press releases from NASA or NOAA about this change nor much coverage on the networks or major newspapers.
http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/new_rankings_for_warmest_years/
More on NASA’s Reported Whopper of a Mistake
Excerpt: Four of the top 10 are now from the 1930s: 1934, 1931, 1938 and 1939, while only 3 of the top 10 are from the last 10 years (1998, 2006, 1999). Several years (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004) fell well down the leaderboard, behind even 1900. (World rankings are calculated separately.) Note: For the new leaderboard see http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.D.txt
The old data has been erased; by sheer chance, I had the old data active in my R-session but I can’t give a link to it.) GISS U.S. Temperatures (deg C) in New Order YearOldNew 19341.231.25 19981.241.23 19211.121.15 20061.231.13 19311.081.08 19990.940.93 19530.910.90 19900.880.87 19380.850.86 19390.840.85 Here’s the old leaderboard.
http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=1880
Recent changes to the NASA historical climate data records refute claims by Gore that 9 of the ten hottest years in U.S. history occurred since 1995 (Newsbusters)
Excerpt: A change in climate history data at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies recently occurred which dramatically alters the debate over global warming. Yet, this transpired with no official announcement from GISS head James Hansen, and went unreported until Steve McIntyre of http://www.climateaudit.org/Climate Audit discovered it Wednesday. < > Most importantly, according to the GISS, 1998 is no longer the warmest year in American history. That honor once again belongs to 1934.As global warming is such a key issue being debated all around this country and on Capitol Hill, wouldn't such a change by the agency responsible for calculating such things be important to disseminate? When this correction was made by Hansen's team at the GISS, shouldn't it have been reported?In fact, it is quite disgraceful that it wasn't, as it suggests that a government agency is actually participating in a fraud against the American people by withholding information crucial to a major policy issue now facing the nation. Think this will be Newsweek's next cover-story? No, I don't either. Post facto thought: If Hansen's team had made changes to the data which showed that ten of the ten warmest years in American history occurred since 1995, do you think that would have been reported? Yeah, I do, too.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2007/08/09/did-media-or-nasa-withhold-climate-history-data-changes-public
NASA’s James Hansen Reported Temperature Data Error Discovered
(Note: This is a developing and story of potentially huge magnitude)
Excerpt: Steve McIntyre: I http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=1854observed recently that Hansen’s GISS series contains an apparent error in which Hansen switched the source of GISS raw from USHCN adjusted to USHCN raw for all values January 2000 and later. For Detroit Lakes MN, this introduced an error of 0.8 deg C. I’ve collated GISS raw minus USHCN adjusted for all USHCN sites (using the data scraped from the GISS site, for which I was most criticized in Rabett-world). Figure 1 below shows a histogram of the January 2000 step for the 1221 stations (calculated here as the difference between the average of the difference after Jan 2000 and for the 1990-1999 period.) < > NASA admists Error: “When we did our monthly update this morning, an offset based on the last 10 years of overlap in the two data sets was applied and our on-line documentation was changed correspondingly with an acknowledgment of your contribution. This change and its effect will be noted in our next paper on temperature analysis and in our end-of-year temperature summary.” (Stay tuned for this developing story)
http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=1868
Dingell's tax plan targeting gas, mansions
Excerpt: U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., unveiled his plan to fight global warming this week through additional taxes on both http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/08/08/dingells_tax_plan_targeting_gas_mansions/6309/gasoline and large U.S. homes. The Detroit Free Press said Wednesday the House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman wants to end a mortgage http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/08/08/dingells_tax_plan_targeting_gas_mansions/6309/tax deduction given to estates larger than 3,000 square feet and create a 50-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax under his environmental plan. Speaking Tuesday in Ann Arbor, Mich., Dingell recognized he will undoubtedly be criticized for suggesting such measures.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/08/08/dingells_tax_plan_targeting_gas_mansions/6309/
Scholastic accused of 'indoctrinating kids' for publishing Laurie David's global warming book
Excerpt: Scholastic, the venerable children’s publisher and the U.S. company behind Harry Potter, has published books for school children for generations. But the publishing company’s forthcoming book on global warming may have crossed the line from information into manipulation. That’s the warning being issued by Eric M. Jackson, president of World Ahead Media, following the publication of an interview with Scholastic author Laurie David in Publishers Weekly last week. David, a Hollywood activist who produced Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” is the co-author of a book entitled “The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming” that Scholastic is publishing next month. “In her jaw-dropping interview, Laurie David makes it clear that her book has been written specifically to indoctrinate children,” asserts Jackson. Last week Publishers Weekly quoted David as saying, "Kids also are the number one influence on their parents, so if you want to reach the parents, go to the kids.” The article also quoted David’s co-author, Cambria Gordon, as agreeing: “‘At times the adult world is getting burnt out,’ coping with existing crises and forecasts for disaster. But, Gordon continues, ‘children’s concern is for their adult life—they don’t have the cynicism adults have.’” She also added that classrooms and after-school programs would be targeted as likely users of the book.
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=44565
Government lowers 2007 hurricane forecast
Excerpt: Government forecasters minimally reduced their prediction for the Atlantic hurricane season Thursday, but said that up to nine hurricanes and up to 16 tropical storms are expected to form, still a busier-than-average season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintained its estimate that three to five of the hurricanes will be major storms of Category 3 strength or stronger. The original report forecast up to 17 tropical storms, with up to 10 becoming hurricanes.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070809/ap_on_re_us/hurricane_forecast
Chilean wine region sees first snowfall in 50 years
Excerpt: Snow coated the fields of Chile's normally temperate central valley wine and farm region for the first time in half a century on Wednesday, causing officials to declare an emergency to avoid traffic accidents. The Maule region, located about 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of the capital Santiago, where snow fell for four hours, was the most affected. Television images showed snow covering fields that typically get nothing more than a constant drizzle of rain during the winter season. The snow also caused the Libertadores Mountain Pass, which connects central Chile with neighboring Argentina, to be closed.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/43574/story.htm
NEW STUDY: GLOBAL SEA-LEVEL RISE SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER THAN THOUGHT
(From CCNET)
Excerpt from CO2 Science Magazine: The mean global sea-level rate-of-rise calculated by Woppelmann et al. appears to resolve the "sea-level enigma" noted by Munk (2002), who called attention to the sizable discrepancy that existed at the time of his writing between estimates of climate-related contributions to sea-level change and what the observed value was thought to be. Now, there is no longer any discrepancy between these two numbers. What is more, the global ocean's mean rate-of-rise is now seen to be much slower than what was previously believed to be the case.
http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/articles/V10/N32/C1.jsp
NASA’s Hansen claims Polar Ice melt underestimated
Excerpt: Writing in New Scientist this week, James Hansen tells us that the scientific community (you know, those 'thousands' of specialised scientists at the IPCC) are wrong, and have massively underestimated the extent of polar ice melting as a consequence of anthropogenic global warming. "I find it almost inconceivable that "business as usual" climate change will not result in a rise in sea level measured in metres within a century. Am I the only scientist who thinks so?" Apparently he is. And the reason? All the other scientists are being too cautious.
http://www.climate-resistance.org/2007/08/scientific-consenseless.html
Rising trend of March sea ice in Antarctic
(By scientist Ben Herman, past director of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and Head of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona)
Excerpt: I was reading through the latest “http://ams.allenpress.com/archive/1520-0477/88/6/pdf/i1520-0477-88-6-s1.pdfState of the Climate in 2006” put out by AMS, and was kind of puzzled by their discussion of Antarctic Sea Ice on page S74. While there was considerable discussion of the reduction of sea ice in the Arctic, there was no discussion of the rising trend of March sea ice [in Antarctic] as shown on the lower left of Fig 5.22. In fact, after reading through the discussion, I at least, was left with impression that negative ice cover trends and locations where they took place were more important than the overall positive trend as shown in the figure.Why did this deserve more attention than given? In my opinion, since it is contrary to most model predictions, it is of considerable interest to those referring to these models for future predictions, for obvious reasons.
http://climatesci.colorado.edu/2007/08/08/antarctic-sea-ice-trends-a-guest-weblog-by-ben-herman/
Flashback: Study: Antarctica is not cooperating with the man-made catastrophic global warming models (February 15, 2007)
Excerpt: “A new report on climate over the world's southernmost continent shows that temperatures during the late 20th century did not climb as had been predicted by many global climate models,” reads the February 15, 2007 press release announcing the findings of David Bromwich, professor of professor of atmospheric sciences in the Department of Geography, and researcher with the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University. "It's hard to see a global warming signal from the mainland of Antarctica right now,” Bromwich explained. The release explains that Bromwich’s research team found “no increase in precipitation over Antarctica in the last 50 years. Most models predict that both precipitation and temperature will increase over Antarctica with a warming of the planet.”
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/osu-atd021207.php
DiCaprio takes on forest industry but runs into factual problems
Excerpt: its underlying facts are wrong -- or at least, misleading -- according to the Canadian federal government's own reports to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the globe's global warming intelligence centre. In fact, in 11 of the past 16 years, Canada's managed forests have sucked up more greenhouse gases than they have emitted. And logging was not to blame for those five years when the woods were net emitters, said one of Canada's leading forest carbon experts. That, said Werner Kurz, a senior research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, "is because of years with large forest fires and, more recently, the mountain pine beetle." What Ms. Berman has done, he said, is fail to account for the fact that every tree cut down in this country is replaced by another tree, which then begins once again sucking carbon from the atmosphere. "It's like looking at a partial balance sheet. You're looking at the expenses but you're not looking at the returns," he said.
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=3a1568f6-a720-4d4c-9c88-c6c7a862dce3&k=63459
IPCC Criticized by Renowned Economist
Excerpt: In the article, Crook brings up a piece in the current issue of World Economics by David Henderson, a distinguished academic economist who believes that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should never have been given the amount of authority it currently has on the global warming policy decision process of certain governments. Henderson points out some of his issues with the IPCC below.... --Earlier studies on emissions standards were miscalculated by the IPCC.
--Reluctance to disclose data and methods.--Lots of errors and a failure to correct those errors.--The panel has numerous scientific contributors, but they are drawn from a narrow professional circle.Henderson believes if governments are to get the best advise, they need information and analysis from an open and disinterested source or multiple dissenting sources.
http://global-warming.accuweather.com/2007/08/ipcc_criticized_by_renowned_ec_1.html
Surprise? IPCC chairman supports Australia's decision to delay emission cuts
Excerpt: THE head of the world's leading climate change organisation has backed the Howard Government's decision to defer setting a long-term target for reducing greenhouse emissions until the full facts are known. Despite widespread criticism of the Government's decision last month to defer its decision on cutting emissions until next year, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said yesterday he agreed with the approach. IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri, in Canberra to meet government officials, said it was critical that policies to address climate change be rolled out only after informed debate based on rational thinking and rigorous analysis of the impact of different options.
"Otherwise one might come up with a lot of emotional and political responses that may or may not be the best, and I think in a democracy it's important to see there is an informed debate in officialdom as well as in the public," Dr Pachauri told The Australian yesterday. "One would also have to look at the macroeconomic effects -- will that result in a decline in jobs and economic output?"
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22213422-601,00.html
Meteorologists Note Newsweek’s reported error on hurricanes
Meteorologist Craig James from Michigan: Excerpt: Among many other errors, the Newsweek article erroneously states: “The frequency of Atlantic hurricanes has already doubled in the last century.” I have written posts on the frequency of Atlantic hurricanes http://blogs.woodtv.com/?p=1919here and http://blogs.woodtv.com/?p=1858here and you can read a new post about Atlantic hurricane frequency from Roger Pielke Sr. http://climatesci.colorado.edu/2007/08/07/on-the-hollandwebster-landsea-debate-a-guest-weblog-by-roger-a-pielke-jr/here. Basically, the article is a long, biased, closed-minded dissertation of a subject the authors cannot or chose not to understand masquerading as news with the intent of scaring the unchattering classes into becoming believers.
http://blogs.woodtv.com/?p=2411
From Meteorologist Joe D’Aleo on Newsweek’s reported (formerly Weather Channel)
Excerpt: Note: The Newsweek story contained blatant errors including “The frequency of Atlantic hurricanes has already doubled in the last century.” This has been shown clearly by http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118541193645178412.htmlDr. Bill Gray and http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Landsea/landsea-eos-may012007.pdfChris Landsea in stories and papers on this site to be very wrong.
http://icecap.us/index.php/go/political-climate/P3/
Newsweek climate article an 'editorial rag,' says warming skeptic
(Click on link in article to hear audio of interview.)
Excerpt: Morano points out that even The New York Times concedes that current weather patterns are within natural climate variability. He states that the only thing "global warming" skeptics are denying is the uncertainty of computer models of the future predicting doom. "That's it. And the U.N. itself is now on record saying the models don't account for half the climate variability and aren't very reliable," he says. As for Newsweek's use of the term "global warming deniers," Morano says it is designed to equate skepticism of manmade global warming to questioning of the Holocaust.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/08/newsweek_climate_change_articl.php
Newsweek Cover Story Screed Against 'Denial Machine' on Warming
Excerpt: Using the term "deniers" for those who haven't bought into the media-fueled panic over global warming, a term which harkens to dishonorable Holocaust deniers, this week's Newsweek delivered a one-sided cover story broadside ("THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DENIAL") against those who dare to examine the science and fresh evidence. "Global Warming is a Hoax*" read the headline on the cover of the August 13 issue.
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2007/cyb20070808.asp#3
Newsweek: Alarmed by Deniers
Excerpt: But Newsweek ignores that uncomplicated nuance. Instead Begley and her reporter helpers (including that paragon of objectivity, Eleanor Clift) largely avoid any substantive discussion over the scientific views both sides hold in the debate, and instead snipe at those who doubt Newsweek's panic agenda. Their opponents consist of industry and associations "representing petroleum, steel, autos and utilities," who "sow doubt about climate research just as cigarette makers had about smoking research." The contrarian curmudgeons' scientists, like MIT's Richard Lindzen and Virginia climatologist Patrick Michaels, are dismissed as obstinate folks who don't do their own climate research but instead "kibitzed about other people's" (like most in the climate change caution camp). The intellect and credentials of the doubters are irrelevant in Newsweek's eyes. At the heart of it all, of course, is the deniers' money. Begley emphasizes repeatedly how big oil and utilities feed the opinions from conservative think tanks. But what about the flow of cash that sustains the nonprofit-driven eco-movement? The dollars pushing global warming paranoia, coming from wealthy foundations like those established by Merck, the Rockefellers and Ted Turner, dwarf the skeptics' resources. But Begley and Newsweek show prejudice only against certain shades of green -- both monetary and ecological. Begley's piece should surprise nobody. Anyone who has subscribed to Newsweek in recent years could not help but notice the near-weekly articles promoting the global warming scare agenda, and "what can be done about it."
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=11847
Gore Slings Bogus Borrowed Charges
Excerpt: Speaking Tuesday in the island nation, Gore shamelessly repeated point after nonsensical point of Senior Editor Sharon Begley's The Truth About Denial, apparently favoring credit upon neither the author nor the publication. Quite astounding, as the basis of his cerebral petty-larceny was ripped straight from the article's core contention that, in Gore's words, there lurks an organized campaign, "[by] some of the largest carbon polluters, to create the impression that there is disagreement in the scientific community."
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/08/al_gore_slings_bogus_borrowed.html
A productive global warming propaganda factory
Excerpt: Last week I wrote an article exposing the way the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) pre-packages templates for stories on the environment. At time I wrote it, I vowed to revisit the issue from time to time to see if the templates are being used. Well, I didn't have wait very long. Wednesday's Washington Post had a front page story on how global warming is drawing the faithful in into the fold. And by faithful, they don't mean global warming believers, they're talking about that oldtime religion, Christianity. The story template, action line and some sources appear to be lifted right from the SEJ website. In fact, their climate change propaganda handbook has a chapter devoted to this very topic.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/08/a_productive_global_warming_pr.html
SciAm Worried Newsweek’s ‘Global Warming Is A Hoax*’ Headline is Misleading
Excerpt: Maybe it's because I don't have the faith in people that I should, but I find this http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032542/site/newsweek/Newsweek cover really irresponsible. Actually, it's due to the polls cited http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20122975/site/newsweek/in the article--and http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/26/opinion/polls/main2731709.shtmlthose I have seen elsewhere--that suggest that the American public thinks, among other things, that scientists are still trying to determine if global warming is for real and that it's a major issue in the upcoming Presidential election. Sure, the cover is provocative and gripping, but it also may be doing a disservice to the general public and the people working hard to develop new ways to combat what is realistically the greatest threat to our livelihood: climate change.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2007/08/08/sciam-worried-newsweek-s-global-warming-hoax-headline-misleading
Washington Post Cheerleads Conversion of a Small Number of Evangelicals to Anti-Global Warming Activism
Excerpt: Despite finding great significance in the conversion of Hunter, along with http://www.nationalcenter.org/2006/11/ted-haggard-on-environment-no.htmlTed Haggard, late of the National Association of Evangelicals, to the anti-global warming cause, Eilperin skips entirely the work of the http://www.stewards.net/About.htmInterfaith Council For Environmental Stewardship, and the many prominent http://www.stewards.net/Signers.htmsigners in the religious community to its http://www.stewards.net/CornwallDeclaration.htmCornwall Declaration, which takes an entirely different, but still faith-based, position. It's hard to imagine the group would have been left out, had its position been closer to that of Rev. Hunter. Finally, though it does little good to say so (Eilperin apparently isn't swayed by http://www.nationalcenter.org/2006/11/global-warming-consensus-folks-who.htmlcriticism on this particular point), Eilperin really shouldn't continue to imply ("greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are warming Earth's climate") that all scientists believe in the human-caused global warming theory. The Washington Post may not acknowledge much diversity when it comes to global warming, but the wider world is more open-minded.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/amy-ridenour/2007/08/08/washington-post-cheerleads-conversion-small-number-evangelicals-anti-g
Save the Environment—from school dunce Al Gore
Excerpt: Gore’s Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth will return to class when youngsters return to school next month. “They are showing his film in schools when I would give it an “F” even as a Grade X assignment,” says climatologist Ball. Gore needs a lot of work on the subject of man-made Global Warming, but his biggest boo-boo comes from his well-publicized definition of C02. “Gore says C02 is the most important greenhouse gas. This is wrong for two reasons,” says Dr. Ball. “First, C02 is nowhere near the most important greenhouse gas from a climate perspective. C02 is less than 4% of the greenhouses gases. Water vapor is 95% of the greenhouse gases by volume.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/cover080907.htm
Corn Facts, Not Corn Flakes!
Excerpt: E. Ralph Hostetter, the publisher of American Farm Publications, is one of the most cogent, sensible voices on issues concerning farming today. Recently he wrote about the impact of biofuels. You might think he would be all for converting corn into ethanol, but Hostetter is not. He sees the insanity of using corn -- a crop used in the manufacture of 3,500 commonly used products during their production or processing -- in this fashion. "The American public is told by our government the rate of inflation in 2006 was only 2.2 percent," wrote Hostetter. "However, when price increases in food and energy were factored in, the reality was that actual inflation was 4.8 percent, or an increase of 118 percent what the nation was told." The volatility of food and energy prices is such that the government's Consumer Price Index conveniently ignores them. That doesn't make the problem go away, but it does mislead the public. "Today, 60 percent of the American corn crop is fed to U.S. livestock," noted Hostetter. "Therefore, as the price of corn is forced up by the demands of ethanol production and many natural causes such as weather, so is the price of meat, poultry, eggs, milk and more than 3,500 products American use every day."
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=/Commentary/archive/200708/COM20070807a.html
Exercise Causes Global Warming
Excerpt: In the '80s, rock musician Joe Jackson published a song called "Everything Gives You Cancer." Recent assertions by England's Green Party parliamentary candidate Chris Goodall suggest that sometime soon, someone - maybe Al Gore sycophant Sheryl Crow - is going to write a hit song called "Everything Causes Global Warming." As reported by the Times Online Saturday in a http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2195538.ecepiece hysterically titled "Walking to the Shops ‘Damages Planet More Than Going By Car'"
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2007/08/08/exercise-causes-global-warming