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Category: Science (Page 12 of 17)

Cap And Trade US Self-Sabotage Bill Passed

Possibly the most monumental piece of economic lunacy ever proposed by any government anywhere (and I include the collectivisation of farms in Stalinist Russia) has passed through the US Congress.

This despite the fact that members of congress could not have read the bill for the simple reason that no complete, updated copy existed at the time of the vote. (Via Hyscience). As David Freddoso points out, global warming is apparently so urgent that politicians do not even have time to know what they are voting for.

Senator James Inhofe is not a brilliant speaker. But he is a clear thinker who does his homework. This video of his speech to the US senate illustrates the horrifying cost of this utterly pointless scheme. His criticisms apply  equally well to Australia’s equally disastrous proposed Cap and Tax legislation:

In related news, Polar Bear expert Mitchell Taylor has been told by the global warming alarmists preparing for the Copenhagen conference that because his research does not support the cause, his views are not helpful, and he is not welcome.

Copenhagen is not a science conference, it is a religious revival meeting.

Urban Heat Island Effects And Recorded Global Temperature Change

I noted in my introduction to global warming Profits of Doom, that:

The IPCC’s warming figure of 0.8 degrees Celsius over the last century is doubtful, for at least two reasons.

First, no one knows for certain how much of that increase is due to what is called the Urban Heat Island effect. Industry, air-conditioners, vehicle traffic and other human activity, along with large amounts of concrete and asphalt, can increase the night-time temperature in city areas by as much as three degrees compared with that of surrounding countryside. Many temperature recording stations which were in rural areas at the time they were established are now well within city limits.

The difference this makes can be seen clearly in these two graphs which compare average temperatures in the six Australian capital cities from 1882 to 1992, with records from twenty-five regional and remote Australian recording stations. The graph of city temperatures shows an increase of about 0.8 degrees, which the IPCC claims is the average global increase over this period:

Australian Capital City Temperature Change

Australian Capital City Temperature Change

This second graph, of rural and remote stations, shows minor fluctuations, but no overall increase at all:

Australian Rural Temperature Change

Australian Rural Temperature Change

Now Michael Hammer has posted an article on Jennifer Marohasy’s blog which looks in much more detail at the urban heat effect in one major Australian city, Melbourne, compared with surrounding rural areas including regional centres.

He concludes:

The data for Ballarat, Alexandra and Mildura suggest no temperature rise at all over the measurement period and especially (Ballarat and Mildura) over the last 3 decades.  Horsham data suggests some temperature rise early in the century but if anything cooling over the last 3 decades.  Cape Otway is questionable, there is an 0.7C rise in minimums but a 2.1C fall in the maximums most of which occurred in the early part of the century before the rapid rise in carbon dioxide. The last 3 decades have seen a return to the temperatures of the 1920’s.

Overall one would have to say the Bureau data suggests no significant warming over the last century and in particular the last 3 decades in Victoria.  On the other hand it does show significant UHI.  Consider that an increase of 1.5C in the minimums for Melbourne over the last 3 decades corresponds to 5C per century.  Averaging the minimum and maximum readings yields a rise from 14.7C to 15.7C over 30 years equating to 3.3C per century and Melbourne is far from the worst city in the world for UHI.

The data analysed here is real, high quality, data from Australia’s premier weather/climate organisation. It is completely at odds with the claims of about 0.6C of warming over the 20th century predominantly in the last 3- 4 decades.  Is Victoria really so anomalous or are the AGW claims questionable?

Fielding Asks For Evidence

Tempers erupt.

But why? Losing one’s temper is usually a sign of insecurity. If global warming alarmists are so certain the evidence supports them, why don’t they just provide it?

Instead insults are thrown at Fielding and anyone who, like him, questions the dogma of warmism. Such questioners are stupid, or out of date, or in the pay of oil companies. But again, why not just provide the evidence, if it is so clear?

It had jolly well better be clear, given the enormous cost.

The world runs on energy. Cheap goods, transport, medical care, virtually every aspect of daily life we now take for granted, depends on the energy presently produced by fossil fuels.

In the form of emissions trading schemes, legislation is being proposed which will cause massive unemployment, shut down major industries, and cause a depression and depth of suffering never seen since the beginning of the industrial age.

It is not only the right of legislators to ask for clear evidence of the reasons for which such legislation is being proposed, it is an absolute obligation.

Fortunately, more and more people are becoming that aware claims of a scientific consensus, and the ‘science’ on which that consensus is supposedly based, are both a crock of doo-doo.

And Another Thing

While we’re thinking about global warming.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center has a tool which allows you to compare the extent of sea ice in any two years from 1978 to 2009.

Here are figures for sea ice in May of three different years:

1980 Southern Hemisphere = 9.5 million sq km
1980 Northern Hemisphere = 14.0 million sq km
Total = 23.5 million sq km

2008 Southern Hemisphere = 11.5 million sq km
2008 Northern Hemisphere = 13.2 million sq km
Total = 24.7 million sq km

2009 Southern Hemisphere = 11.4 million sq km
2009 Northern Hemisphere = 13.4 million sq km
Total = 24.8 million sq km

Global Warming Causes Everything

A Russian climatologist says global warming played a ‘significant part’ in the crash of Air France flight 447 in the Atlantic a couple of days ago.

If you don’t know, you might as well make something up. Especially if what you are making up might get you some more grant money.

Reading that article reminded me of this list of all the things scientists have so far claimed are caused by global warming. The Earth spins faster. The Earth is slowing down. Widespread floods. Widespread droughts. Maple syrup production down. Maple syrup production up. Mountains breaking up. Mountains getting taller. Farmers getting richer. Farmers getting poorer. Polar bears becoming aggressive.

Well, that settles it for me. Those polar bears have always been so gol darn cute and cuddly before. I just know something’s going on.

NASA: Sun Influences Climate

No s%#t, Sherlock.

A study from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland looking at climate data over the past century has concluded that solar variation has made a significant impact on the Earth’s climate.  The report concludes that evidence for climate changes based on solar radiation can be traced back as far as the Industrial Revolution. Past research has shown that the sun goes through eleven year cycles.  At the cycle’s peak, solar activity occurring near sunspots is particularly intense, basking the Earth in solar heat.

Solar activity has shown a major spike in the twentieth century, corresponding to global warming. Recent cooling corresponds to a cyclic decline in sunspot activity. Comparable up and down changes in atmospheric temperature have been observed on Mars, Jupiter, and most other places which receive light and heat from the sun. 

June 1 is the beginning of the North Atlantic hurricane season. Benita Dodd, of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, notes that:

Odds are a mild hurricane season will be blamed on … global warming. Odds are an active hurricane season will be blamed on … global warming.

Seals Not Endangered By Climate Change

Global temperature has (possibly, no one is really sure) risen by about half of one degree over the last hundred years.

Given that seals have survived the last several million years of climate changes, varying from ice ages to periods considerably warmer than now, their ability to survive this miniscule change is hardly surprising.

Unless you are a raving climate catastrophist who looks for horror stories around every corner. In which case you would have been pleasantly suprised by growing numbers of protected Russian seals. Or horribly disappointed.

In further news, disobedient sea otters and polar bears also continue to increase in number.

For Love Or Money

The Tragedy of The Diocese Of The Murray.

You have never cared about me. Nobody likes me. But I am still your bishop, so do what I say. Or give me $1 million and I will leave.

That was the message from Bishop Ross Davies to members of the Anglican Diocese of The Murray at their annual meeting (synod) a week ago.

The Anglican Diocese of The Murray is a small (by Australian standards) diocese in South Australia.

I have known Ross Davies for nearly thirty years. He is an intelligent man, and a capable speaker and administrator.

He was consecrated bishop in March 2002.

At that time I was Rector of Naracoorte and Rural Dean of the South East. I was on the Bishop Election Committee. So was Bishop Ross, who was then Vicar-General of the diocese.

It was not appropriate for him to remain on the committee after his name was put forward. But he did remain, and did not excuse himself when his nomination was being discussed.

Nonetheless, he was elected, and I was happy with the result.

I preached at the Bishop’s consecration at St Peter’s cathedral. Shortly after, I was asked to be the first Dean of The Murray. I declined, believing I was still called to serve in Naracoorte. A year later I was asked again and accepted.

The bishop and I are both conservative anglo-catholics. We were of similar mind in terms of the central issues of the faith, and the role of the Diocese of The Murray in the life of the Anglican Church of Australia, and the wider Anglican Communion.

These, and our long standing friendship, were strong reasons for me to want him to succeed.

Problems began very quickly after the consecration. The Bishop had difficulty keeping his temper, and those who disagreed with him were treated like enemies. Both clergy and lay people reported feeling hurt and confused by his behaviour towards them.

Over a period of time I raised some of these concerns with him, only to be sworn at myself, and told that I had been ‘opposing him at every turn.’

I still supported the Bishop, though often with considerable embarrassment and internal conflict, in relation to some of his public actions, such as participation in the consecration of bishops for the Traditional Anglican Communion, and at his treatment of people who did not instantly agree with him, or were slow to do as he wished.

Eventually ill-feeling in the diocese rose to such a point that I wrote to the Archbishop of Adelaide and to the Primate, listing some of the major issues, and asking them to speak to Bishop Ross.

This did not happen.

As time went on the situation became completely unworkable, with the Bishop increasingly expressing resentment against the people he was called to serve, experienced clergy leaving or being sacked, and lay people refusing to come to church if the Bishop was present.

Claims that allegations of a pattern of predatory sexual abuse of women by the then Vicar-General had been ignored, or worse, deliberately covered up, were the last straw for many faithful worshippers.

The Bishop has been largely absent from the diocese for the last eighteen months.

A number of parishes have made it clear he is no longer welcome. It has been reported that the Diocesan Council has passed a vote of no confidence in his leadership. But Bishop Davies has refused to leave until he is given a payout of close to $1 million.

The Archbishop of Adelaide has complied with a request from the diocesan council of the Diocese of The Murray to open an independent investigation into Bishop Davies’ behaviour. The investigator may then recommend that a tribunal be set up which would have the power to dismiss Bishop Davies.

Bishop Davies disputes the Archbishop’s right to set up such an investigation, and the authority of any tribunal established as a result.

The categories of behaviour which a tribunal can investigate are very limited. They do not include simply being unable or unwilling to do the job of Bishop.

However, Bishop Davies is an employee of the diocese. If he is not able or willing to do the job he was appointed to do, and all attempts at negotiation have failed, the diocese is within its rights to dismiss him.

This has been suggested before, and the response has been that this would be a harsh and unforgiving thing to do. It would not.

There is much to be forgiven. And much has been forgiven. But the question is the suitability of Ross Davies to be Bishop.

It is not unforgiving to recognise that someone is not suited to the position to which he has been appointed. The last five years have been miserable for Bishop Davies and his family as well as for the diocese. The longer this crisis continues, the more harm will be done.

It is time to call an end.

Gluing Breasts To Men

And tying penises to women, doesn’t make a man a woman, nor a woman a man.

Andrew Bolt has made some rightly alarmed comments about an Australian court that pretends to help a confused 17 year old girl by ruling she is entitled to have her breasts cut off.

This article from the Sydney Morning Herald tells the story of two people who, confused about their gender as teens, demanded gender re-assignment surgery. Both regretted that decision deeply, and came to feel lasting anger towards the people who allowed their mutilation to proceed.

Teenagers have not yet fully developed their identity, their sense of responsibility, their ability to assess risk and long term consequences. That is why we have laws prohibiting them from drinking, from having sex, from gambling. These laws protect them from abuse, from outcomes and harm which they may not have the ability to foresee.

Yet a court can say that those same teenagers have the right to decide about irreversible mutilating surgery which leaves them neither male nor female.

The Desire for a Sex Change, an article by Dr Richard Fitzgibbons, draws on medical and psychiatric research and catholic theology to explain why gender re-assignment surgery has not been and cannot be a satisfactory solution to what is a psychological problem.

Climate Model Works

One system of climate modelling has a proven history of correct prediction of weather events.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac is going further out on a limb than usual this year, not only forecasting a cooler winter, but looking ahead decades to suggest we are in for global cooling, not warming.

Based on the same time-honored, complex calculations it uses to predict weather, the Almanac hits the newsstands on Tuesday saying a study of solar activity and corresponding records on ocean temperatures and climate point to a cooler, not warmer, climate, for perhaps the next half century.

From a USA Today article of September last year.

The Almanac certainly got the part about a colder Winter right.

Glaciers Growing

Two of the global warming poster stars are declining polar bear populations and shrinking arctic ice.

Disappointingly (for the alarmists) polar numbers have increased dramatically over the last 30 years, and the extent of Arctic ice is increasing.

Another claimed proof of global warming has been that glaciers all over the world are retreating.

Of course even if the world were warming, this would not by itself prove that warming was our fault, or that there was anything we could do to stop it.

Even so, glaciers going backwards, bits dropping off, etc, are pretty dramatic.

But a large number of glaciers have obviously not heard what is expected of them, or are stubbornly refusing to comply. Glaciers from New Zealand to the Himalayas to Greenland are growing.

Climate Change Disasters Cause 300,000 Deaths Per Year

According to the Global Humanitarian Forum.

But actually no.

Dr Roger Pielke calls the report a ‘methodological embarrassment,’ and notes that the report itself says ‘there is not yet any widely accepted global estimate of the share of weather related disasters that are attributable to climate change.’

If no one knows how many weather disasters are due to global warming, what basis exists for making an estimate of deaths due to warming? Well, none.

And since the world isn’t getting any warmer, probably the best estimate of climate change disaster related deaths is zero.

Deaths amongst the world’s poor are more likely to be caused by pointless attempts to mitigate climate change, such as the conversion of food crops into bio-fuel.

Climate Change – What I Said

Dutch chemist Dr Hans Schreuder drew on the work of a number of climate and other scientists in his address to the Northern Ireland Climate Change Committee, which is considering legislative controls of ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions.

The UN’s IPCC bases its dire forecasts on nothing more than computer models that regard the earth as a flat disk bathed in a constant 24 hour haze of sunlight, without north and south poles, without clouds and without any relationship to the real planet we live on.

Despite much rhetoric and research over the past two decades, there is still not a single piece of actual evidence that the now-maligned carbon dioxide molecule causes global warming (or “climate change”).

Any and all schemes to reduce carbon dioxide emissions are futile in terms of having an effect on reducing global temperatures or affecting the climate and any and all carbon trading exchanges are a fraudulent exercise amounting to no more than hidden taxation.

If this Committee does come to the conclusion that emission controls need to be imposed upon the people of Northern Ireland in order to make a difference to global temperatures, then it will have failed to a substantial degree in understanding the issues in hand.

I have said repeatedly over the last several years that the key question is whether there is any evidence of a correlation between human output of CO2 and changes in global climate. The answer is that there is not and never has been any such evidence.

via Ice Age Now, which also notes hundreds of low temperature records around the world over the last few months, reports of which have been strangely missing from the mainstream media.

You can imagine the headlines and warming hysteria if it were hundreds of high temperature records!

Ice Age Ending - Our Fault

Ice Age Ending - Our Fault

Cold Water On Warming

This column by a physicist and climatologist is a week old. But it is worth reading because of its clear comparison of the predictions of global warming theory with real word observations.

The conclusion: global warming theory is: a political movement with nearly all the recognised climatologists throughout the world dissenting from the man made global warming theory. This can be seen on the US Senate Environment committee web site with over 700 leading climatologists from 24 different countries including Nobel Prize laureates all dissenting from the man made global warming theory.

The magnificent Cardinal Pell, a champion of compassion and common sense, also notes that global warming just doesn’t seem to be happening:

… history shows the planet is dynamic and the climate is always changing, sometimes drastically.

Contrary evidence is already changing the debate.  Australia, with its tiny economy, is no longer aiming to lead the world.  The threat of massive job losses and increasing awareness of new evidence will provoke even greater caution in the future…

Evidence shows the wheels are falling from the climate catastrophe bandwagon.

The end to the global warming nonsense cannot come soon enough. Eventually governments will stop wasting vast amounts of time and money, and sabotaging key industries, to prevent something that isn’t happening.

Perhaps then, at least until the next mindless scare, we will have the will to deal with some of the world’s real problems.

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