Climate Change Dispatch

Free-for-all Topics and Discussion: Feb. 27, 2012

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Climate Change Dispatch) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:52:22 +0000

Dear Readers: Because of previous appointments (have to get a crown fixed-ugh), posting will be light today. Always check our Facebook page , Google Plus, or Twitter feed for stories we didn't get around to posting directly here. Go ahead and post links to relevant articles, snippets, and/or thoughts in the comments (after the jump). Use the "Report to Admin" link beneath inappropriate/spam comments. Thanks! --CCD

To get you started, here is an always-interesting article by Joe Olson in PDF format.

Lower Than Pond Scum

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Alan Caruba, Warning Signs) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:41:25 +0000

Between 1955 and 1959 I was a student at the University of Miami. It was perhaps the best four years of my life and remembered fondly for its combination of fun and learning. On Thursday, February 23, President Barack Obama was on the UM campus to tell the biggest bunch of lies about energy in America I have heard compressed into a single speech.

What triggered Dr. Peter Gleick to commit identity fraud on January 27th?

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Dr. Nicola Scafetta, WUWT?) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 19:33:17 +0000

[h/t to Adam] I am following this story about Gleick vs. Heartland Institute. I believe I found something that might be useful and/or interesting.

To understand what happened in the mind of Gleick you need to carefully read the exchange occurred on Forbes between Gleick and Taylor in January. Apparently, everything started from this post by Gleick:

Peter Gleick’s Actions Exposes “End Justifies Means” Mentality: Poses Problem for UN Agenda 21

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Dr. Tim Ball, guest post) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:18:34 +0000

Peter Gleick - (Photo credit: World Economic Forum)

Peter Gleick obtained documents falsely from the Heartland Institute (HI) and used them to vilify that organization. HI was a major target for promoters of human caused climate change because they dared to hold international conferences presenting the other side of the climate debate. This was actively surpressed by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Climatic Research Unit (CRU) members, as leaked emails showed. (Disclosure; I was privileged to be a keynote speaker at the first conference in New York and commented in my opening remarks, I’ve waited thirty years for this day.)

New skeptic book published

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Climate Change Dispatch) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:40:24 +0000

[h/t to Adam] AMAZON'S BOOK DESCRIPTION: Global Warming-Alarmists, Skeptics & Deniers: A Geoscientist looks at the Science of Climate Change, brings a unique geological perspective to this politically charged issue, a perspective that has been ignored far too long. Written by a father-son team of geoscientist and attorney, it is the concise guide to the global warming controversy that has been long needed. As a university professor and research geologist for thirty years, Dr. Robinson knows that geological science is essential for placing the global warming controversy in proper prospective.

Climate Change Dispatch welcomes a new skeptical blog

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Climate Change Dispatch) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:18:25 +0000

We'd like to welcome a new blogger to the skeptic community located in Germany. Dr. Matthias Kleespies' Climate Blog mainly focuses on relevant scientific articles either posted in the English blog and/or its German counterpart. Since his blog is mostly targeting a German audience, the English blog will only grow significantly through contributions from English bloggers, who are encouraged to submit articles, content, etc...

Pesky Penguins

support@climatechangedispatch.com (The Daily Bayonet) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:37:04 +0000

It's good to be King: licensed to krill and
popular with chicks, tooIt’s not easy living in a tuxedo 24/7 and hopping around on ice all day waiting for Morgan Freeman to show up. Ask any penguin.

But for King Penguins, life was pretty much expected to be over as they moved ‘inexorably’ toward extinction caused by, you guessed it, global warming:

Using a mathematical model, the scientists calculate that there will be a nine per cent decline in the adult penguin population for every 0.26ºC of sea surface warming, suggesting that this population is at high risk under current global warming conditions, which predict an average increase of 0.2ºC per decade for the next two decades.

Lindzen totally pwns the alarmists

support@climatechangedispatch.com (James Delingpole, Telegraph blogs) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:19:20 +0000

Professor Richard Lindzen is one of the world's greatest atmospheric physicists: perhaps the greatest. What he doesn't know about the science behind climate change probably isn't worth knowing. But even if you weren't aware of all this, even if you'd come to the talk he gave in the House of Commons this week without prejudice or expectation, I can pretty much guarantee you would have been blown away by his elegant dismissal of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming theory.

My Interview with WaPo Reporter Juliet Eilperin

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Dr. Roy W. Spencer) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:40:24 +0000

[CCD Editor's note: If and when the article appears, it should show up on Juliet Eilperin's Wash. Post bio and articles page.]

Yesterday I was called by Washington Post reporter Juliet Eilperin, who was doing a follow-up story on the Peter Gleick “Fakegate” release of Heartland Institute documents.

Normally, I would not blog about talking to a reporter, but in my experience talking with a high-profile reporter like Juliet invariably leads to regret. Reporters will listen to my points, openly “agree” with me on many of them, and then take one poorly phrased snippet from a 20 minute conversation to make it appear I support their narrative.

97% Of Scientists Say Humans Are Responsible For Climate Change

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Steven Goddard, Real Science) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:05:04 +0000

Not seen: The big pile of dino-doody
behind the bushes.

[CCD Editor's Note: Just add it to the list]

Global Warming Made First Tiny Horses Even Smaller, Study Finds

Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) — Global warming 50 million years ago caused the first horses, already tiny in stature compared with present-day animals, to shrink 30 percent to about 8.5 pounds, the size of a house cat today, a study suggests.

It was 10°C warmer when dinosaurs ruled the planet. Dinosaurs were made small by the heat of human emissions – which 97% of scientists say are responsible for climate change.

Another Warmist Monk Immolates at the AGU Temple

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Joseph A Olson, PE, guest post) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:03:02 +0000

In the Fall of 2010 I was concerned about the alarmist actions of two claimed scientific organizations and did some research into their administration science training. The first group that I reviewed was an NGO with a big science name and minimum science leadership. My “Concerned About Concerned Scientists” is posted here [1].

Then in Dec, 2010 a curious event occurred at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting prompting review of their administration. That prompted my article, “Warmist Monk Immolates at the AGU Temple” posted here [2]

[Rebuttal] Climate Experts Spencer and Lindzen Lash Out as Pet Theory is Trashed

support@climatechangedispatch.com (John O'Sullivan) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:17:06 +0000

Two irate climatologists launch into a flurry of name-calling and innuendo as their beloved greenhouse gas theory collapses threatening to take their careers with it.

Dr. Roy Spencer this week followed the lead of Dr. Richard Lindzen in spitting insults after fellow skeptic scientists debunked the greenhouse gas effect (GHE). Lindzen confined his insults to private emails. But Spencer openly blogged his personal attack after reading how cutting-edge scientific research by specialists in astrophysicists, space engineering and mathematics had exposed Spencer’s weak grasp of physics; something particularly identified by NASA’s former Apollo Mission engineer, Dr. Pierre R. Latour.

Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up: Feb. 23, 2012

support@climatechangedispatch.com (The Daily Bayonet) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:20:08 +0000

Dolphins are non-human persons, a man who cut animals in half for fun and profit wants to build eco-homes and Britain saved Kenyan rainmakers from global warming.

Part One: Hippie of the Week

If you didn’t predict this week’s winner, you must live in a cave. If that happens to be the case, welcome, Taliban readers.

Peter Gleick, co-founder and president of the Pacific Institute, faked an identity to solicit and release the same Heartland Institute documents that won DeSmogBlog the HOTW award last week.

Yes, Virginia, the “Vacuum” of Space Does have a “Temperature”

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Dr. Roy W. Spencer) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:36:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Usually, I refrain from addressing silly scientific claims. But since some people seem determined to go to any extent to ‘disprove’ greenhouse gas theory, in this instance I am going against my better judgment to answer a particularly crazy article entitled, “Roy Spencer’s Fatal Error: Believing the Vacuum of Space Has a Temperature“.

I can’t tell whether John O’Sullivan really believes what he has written there. While I will assume he does, it still feels like I’m being challenged by a supermarket tabloid to offer proof that Elvis was not abducted by space aliens.

Is catastrophic global warming, like the Millennium Bug, a mistake?

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Simon Carr, The Independent) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:27:25 +0000

At a public meeting in the Commons, the climate scientist Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT made a number of declarations that unsettle the claim that global warming is backed by “settled science”. They’re not new, but some of them were new to me.

Over the last 150 years CO2 (or its equivalents) has doubled. This has been accompanied by a rise in temperature of seven or eight tenths of a degree centigrade.

Fakegate: why the perps should be prosecuted

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, WUWT?) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:42:25 +0000

Yesterday I had the pleasure of chairing a packed meeting in the Palace of Westminster (don’t tell the Clerk of the Parliaments), at which Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT spoke even more brilliantly than usual on “global warming”, and engagingly answered many questions from Parliamentarians and the public.

Afterwards, Dick went to brief a Cabinet Minister (who shall be nameless, but he is a good egg, and privately regards catastrophic manmade “global warming” as nonsense). The Minister indicated – in effect, and with scarcely-concealed regret – that the party line set by David Cameron in response to various opinion polls, focus groups and other such artifices for identifying and following a consensus rather than setting a lead, and not the objective scientific and economic truth, was likely to remain the basis of UK climate policy.

CO2 Science Weekly Journal Reviews

support@climatechangedispatch.com (CO2 Science) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:22:45 +0000

The following are this week's journal reviews from CO2 Science magazine. Interesting and well-written, we encourage you to read them at your leisure.

North American Mega-Droughts and Global Mega-Warming: What do they tell us about the current state of earth's climate?

Two Thousand Years of Temperature Change in China: How do the results of the latter part of the 20th century compare with those of earlier periods?

Global Warming Crowd Opposed in Virginia

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh, Canada Free Press) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:16:01 +0000

After global warming has been debunked, omniscient environmentalists changed their rhetoric to global cooling and now to climate-change. Of course, the climate has been changing back and forth for thousands of years without human input, but environmentalists have now noticed because it justifies their man-as-culprit agenda. How else could a minority impose their omnipotent will on the majority?

Because 30,000 readings of temperatures around the globe have shown the earth as cooling since 1997, Al Gore and his supporters have changed their talking points from global warming to climate-change.

Who killed the electric car? You, perhaps, if you didn't charge it

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Stuart Martin, Herald Sun) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:32:05 +0000

DON'T leave your electric car parked for too long - by the time you get back it could have turned into a $200,000 brick.

Electric car maker Tesla is defending claims its cars become immobilised if the battery ever becomes completely discharged. This results in a battery replacement cost of about one-fifth the car's $206,000 sticker price.

Tesla owners in the US who have parked their vehicles with low battery power remaining - for as little as a week - have found their cars had become "bricks" that could not be re-charged.

Harnessing oilsands won't cause 'climate calamity'

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Paula Simons, The Edmonton Journal) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:26:37 +0000

Andrew Weaver isn't what you'd call an oilsands apologist.

Weaver, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Climate Modelling and Analysis at the University of Victoria, was a lead author with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

He is one of the world's leading authorities on global warming and one of the fiercest critics of the Harper government's carbon emissions policy - or lack thereof.

That's what makes Weaver's latest research publication such startling news.

A Climate Science Post On September 4 2011 Involving Peter Gleick

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Dr. Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:49:03 +0000

[h/t to Adam] On September 4 2011 I posted

Hatchet Job On John Christy and Roy Spencer By Kevin Trenberth, John Abraham and Peter Gleick

I have reposted below since the recent behavior (e.g. see) of Peter Gleick, co-founder and president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security in Oakland, California, involving the Heartland Institute is just another example of the often vitriolic and unseemly behavior by some to discredit what are appropriate alternative viewpoints on the climate issue. Unfortunately, the action towards the Heartland Institute displayed by Peter Gleick is just another example of an attitude of a significant number of individuals in the leadership of the climate science community.

Omitted variable fraud: vast evidence for solar climate driver rates one oblique sentence in AR5

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Alec Rawls, WUWT?) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:39:15 +0000

[h/t to Gator] “Expert review” of the First Order Draft of AR5 closed on the 10th. Here is the first paragraph of my submitted critique:

My training is in economics where we are very familiar with what statisticians call “the omitted variable problem” (or when it is intentional, “omitted variable fraud”). Whenever an explanatory variable is omitted from a statistical analysis, its explanatory power gets misattributed to any correlated variables that are included. This problem is manifest at the very highest level of AR5, and is built into each step of its analysis.

Time Magazine: "You can't drink from a poisoned well."

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Climate Change Dispatch) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:17:03 +0000

Bryan Walsh: "Credibility is nonnegotiable
in journalism."Bryan Walsh, an environmental journalist at Time and man-made global-warming "alarmist", is wading into the Gleick mess, more or less denouncing his tactics while taking the usual jabs at Heartland, Climategate, and conservatives in the process. Couching his article as a Liberal vs. Conservative tête-à-tête is a typical MSM scorched-earth machination:

As his apology concedes, what Gleick did was wrong. No reputable investigative reporter — certainly not one who worked at TIME — would be employed for long after obtaining insider information by lying the way Gleick did. Think of the outcry over James O'Keefe's use of sting tactics to record employees from the now defunct political group ACORN as they gave advice to a supposed pimp and prostitute (actually O'Keefe and an associate).

Fakegate: Warmists fumble the fallout

support@climatechangedispatch.com (The Daily Bayonet) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:09:54 +0000

Global warming and Greenpeace: Still full of hot air.

Image via Wikipedia

Peter Gleick’s ‘lapse of judgement’ has delivered his fellow global warming advocates into a world of pain, and they are struggling to manage the fallout.

Greenpeace USA understands the bad optics, but not the wider damage Gleick wrought:

“This is going to stick,” said Kert Davies, director of research for Greenpeace USA. “For those people who don’t believe climate change is real or think that it’s part of some U.N. conspiracy to control their lives, this will reinforce that view. Those who don’t believe that, who think there is a massive conspiracy by corporate and conservative interests to muddy the science, on that side Peter Gleick is a hero for his temerity to do this.”

The climate scandal that wasn’t

support@climatechangedispatch.com (Lorne Gunter, National Post) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:59:13 +0000

Peter GleickLast week, what was purported to be the Heartland Institute’s strategy documents were leaked to prominent climate-change websites, such as Vancouver’s DeSmogBlog, which posted them online, where they were picked up by media outlets around the world.

Heartland is a Chicago-based libertarian think tank that has helped publicize research that questions the alleged consensus on man-made global warming and hosts a successful annual conference of warming sceptics.