In The News

[Devonian]

More evidence to prove CO2 not linked to world temps

Atmospheric CO2 has been rising for years, but global temps are going in the opposite direction! Source:woodfortrees.org (Straight lines drawn in by hand by NTZ).

New CO2 report! Expect the mainstream media to begin their chorus of impending doom and gloom now that the latest annual global CO2 report has been released.

Warmist energy and climate website CO2-Handel reports here that once again global CO2 emissions have increased, reaching a record level in 2012!

Yet CO2 Handel forgets to tell us that global temperature hasn’t risen in almost 15 years

Here's my graph using the same data but a longer time frame. I've added some hand drawn trends (just like your author did).

More evidence to 'prove' CO2 is linked to world temperatures??....

[knocker]

Ancient Alteration of Seawater Chemistry Linked With Past Climate Change

Dissolution or creation of huge gypsum deposits changed sulfate content of the oceans

July 19, 2012

Scientists have discovered a potential cause of Earth's "icehouse climate" cooling trend of the past 45 million years. It has everything to do with the chemistry of the world's oceans.

"Seawater chemistry is characterized by long phases of stability, which are interrupted by short intervals of rapid change," says geoscientist Ulrich Wortmann of the University of Toronto, lead author of a paper reporting the results and published this week in the journal Science.

"We've established a new framework that helps us better interpret evolutionary trends and climate change over long periods of time. The study focuses on the past 130 million years, but similar interactions have likely occurred through the past 500 million years."

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=124844&org=NSF&from=news

[keithlucky]

Sugar cane ethanol biofuel produces 10 times the pollution of gasoline and diesel

Indur Goklany calculated that biofuels policies killed nearly 200,000 people in 2010 alone. That was before this study showed things may be worse than we suspected.

Brazil is the largest sugar cane ethanol producer in the world, but people are burning four times the area of sugar cane plantations than previously realized, and it’s producing far more pollution than they thought. For every unit of energy generated, the ethanol-biofuel use produces a lot less CO2 (plant fertilizer) but more volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), more carbon monoxide, more nitrous oxides, as well as more sulphur dioxides. (See Graph b below).

Compared to gasoline and diesel, over its whole life cycle, every unit of energy produced with sugar cane produces 10 times as much volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), carbon monoxide, and nitrous oxides. The amount PM10′s and PM2.5′s produced with ethanol fuels is even higher. Most of the pollution comes from burning fields of sugar cane (see graph a). Hence the people suffering the most from ethanol production will be villagers and rural farmers living near areas of sugar cane production. While there have been efforts to encourage farmers to produce cane without burning fields, over half of sugar-cane crop loads continue to be burned. Presumably there is a cost to producing sugar cane without burning. Perhaps sugar-cane production is viable and competitive without burning but this study does not discuss the reasons farmers prefer to burn fields.

If you care about pollution, and want less of it, and you care about the health of people in developing countries then clearly we should encourage gasoline and diesel use, and discourage production of ethanol that involves burning sugar cane-fields.

Likewise, to promote growth in the Amazon (by increasing CO2 levels), we ought to be burning fossil fuels and not fields of cane.(extract from janova.com)

If global policies devalue concentrated energy underground and prize diffuse photosynthetic sources of energy above ground, will we protect and retain dirty rocks deep below the surface at the expense of biodiversity and health of plants and people? It seems so.Which ones cleaner for the Environment lets s decide.

[Methuselah]

More evidence to prove CO2 not linked to world temps

Atmospheric CO2 has been rising for years, but global temps are going in the opposite direction! Source:woodfortrees.org (Straight lines drawn in by hand by NTZ).

New CO2 report! Expect the mainstream media to begin their chorus of impending doom and gloom now that the latest annual global CO2 report has been released.

Warmist energy and climate website CO2-Handel reports here that once again global CO2 emissions have increased, reaching a record level in 2012!

Yet CO2 Handel forgets to tell us that global temperature hasn’t risen in almost 15 years

I see! The same old 'the world was created in 1998' nonsense...

[BornFromTheVoid]

http://www.nasa.gov/...nland-melt.html

For several days this month, Greenland's surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations. Nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its two-mile-thick center, experienced some degree of melting at its surface, according to measurements from three independent satellites analyzed by NASA and university scientists.

On average in the summer, about half of the surface of Greenland's ice sheet naturally melts. At high elevations, most of that melt water quickly refreezes in place. Near the coast, some of the melt water is retained by the ice sheet and the rest is lost to the ocean. But this year the extent of ice melting at or near the surface jumped dramatically. According to satellite data, an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface thawed at some point in mid-July....

...Son Nghiem of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., was analyzing radar data from the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Oceansat-2 satellite last week when he noticed that most of Greenland appeared to have undergone surface melting on July 12. Nghiem said, "This was so extraordinary that at first I questioned the result: was this real or was it due to a data error?"

but...

"Ice cores from Summit show that melting events of this type occur about once every 150 years on average. With the last one happening in 1889, this event is right on time," says Lora Koenig, a Goddard glaciologist and a member of the research team analyzing the satellite data. "But if we continue to observe melting events like this in upcoming years, it will be worrisome."

[knocker]

Tropical plankton invade Arctic waters

Researchers see natural cycle; but questions arise on climate change

For the first time, scientists have identified tropical and subtropical species of marine protozoa living in the Arctic Ocean. Apparently, they traveled thousands of miles on Atlantic currents and ended up above Norway with an unusual—but naturally cyclic—pulse of warm water, not as a direct result of overall warming climate, say the researchers. On the other hand: arctic waters are warming rapidly, and such pulses are predicted to grow as global climate change causes shifts in long-distance currents. Thus, colleagues wonder if the exotic creatures offers a preview of climate-induced changes already overtaking the oceans and land, causing redistributions of species and shifts in ecology. The study, by a team from the United States, Norway and Russia, was just published in the British Journal of Micropalaeontology

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/teia-tpi072412.php

[pottyprof]

but...

"Ice cores from Summit show that melting events of this type occur about once every 150 years on average. With the last one happening in 1889, this event is right on time," says Lora Koenig

Researchers see natural cycle; but questions arise on climate change

but naturally cyclic—pulse of warm water

This is where I have problems with regards to AGW. We're still seeing natural events where drivers are natural and not something that has been over-ridden by AGW. Surely these events would have been stronger or cancelled or would have happened earlier than expected? We've still yet to see the 1m rise of the oceans, which is within the scope of natural variability.

I know we're tinkering about with the planet's workings before anyone starts but after all the talk of over-riding cycles, what is it that is still allowing perfectly natural things to happen as they should and as expected? Not being funny by the way. Just an observation and a question...

[BornFromTheVoid]

This is where I have problems with regards to AGW. We're still seeing natural events where drivers are natural and not something that has been over-ridden by AGW. Surely these events would have been stronger or cancelled or would have happened earlier than expected? We've still yet to see the 1m rise of the oceans, which is within the scope of natural variability.

I know we're tinkering about with the planet's workings before anyone starts but after all the talk of over-riding cycles, what is it that is still allowing perfectly natural things to happen as they should and as expected? Not being funny by the way. Just an observation and a question...

My own thinking on this, is that these warm "natural" events will become more common, simply because the world is warming, whilst at the same time, natural large cold event wills become more rare. That seems to be what's happening.

So while major cold events will still occur, the number of warm events will outnumber them. We need to remember that without natural "weather", anthropogenic CO2 would have nothing to influence.

Perfectly natural things will continue to happen, but the frequency of the events may change, perhaps their intensity also and some new things will start to occur.

[knocker]

My thinking is similar to this and summed up in the last paper I posted in the New Research thread.

“What we are observing in the present day is the mankind has caused the CO₂ content in the atmosphere to rise as much in just 150 years as it rose over 8,000 years during the transition from the last ice age to the current interglacial period and that can bring the Earth’s climate out of balance,â€

[Methuselah]

The suspense is killing me: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/07/27/wuwt-publishing-suspended-major-announcement-coming/

[BornFromTheVoid]

The suspense is killing me: http://wattsupwithth...ncement-coming/

I'm sure this was never the intent!

I’ve been advised by concerned friends that speculation on the nature of this announcement has gotten out of hand in the blogosphere, and that was not my intent

[Methuselah]

I'm sure this was never the intent!

[BornFromTheVoid]

Could the WUWT anouncement be related to this?

http://thinkprogress...rfeed&mobile=nc

The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Study (BEST) is poised to release its findings next week on the cause of recent global warming. A forthcoming NY Times op-ed by Richard Muller, BEST’s Founder and Scientific Director, has been excerpted on a conservative website with the headline, “New Global Temperature Data Reanalysis Confirms Warming, Blames CO2.â€

I have spoken with scientists and journalists familiar with BEST’s findings, and the excerpt appears genuine. Here is the money graf:

CALL me a converted skeptic

. Three years ago I identified scientific issues that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Now, after organizing an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I’ve concluded that

global warming is real, that the prior estimates of the rate were correct, and that cause is human.

Yes, yes, I know, the finding itself is “dog bites man.†What makes this “man bites dog†is thatMuller has been a skeptic of climate science, and the single biggest funder of this study is the “Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation ($150,000).†The Kochs are the leading funder of climate disinformation in the world!

It gets better:

Our results show that the average temperature of the Earth’s land has risen by two and a half degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years, and one and a half degrees Fahrenheit over the most recent 50 years. Moreover,

it appears likely that essentially all of this increase is due to the human emission of greenhouse gases

.

These findings are stronger than those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations group that defines the scientific and diplomatic consensus on global warming.

[4wd]

Er, No.

Why are people so obsessed with WUWT anyway?

[Methuselah]

Er, No.

Why are people so obsessed with WUWT anyway?

Obsessed? But they are, along with IceAgeNow, often quoted by sceptics - as a source of valid information??

[BornFromTheVoid]

Er, No.

Why are people so obsessed with WUWT anyway?

You must be privy to Mr Watts big announcement so, do share!

I think your mixing up obsessed and amused with, or is that just ploy to get a reaction and avoid comment of a sceptic funded and run study that confirms AGW?

[Red Raven]

Has this been posted?

Climate change study forces sceptical scientists to change minds

Earth's land shown to have warmed by 1.5C over past 250 years, with humans being almost entirely responsible

http://www.guardian....ics-change-mind

Edited July 29, 2012 by Red Raven

[Methuselah]

That's interesting RR...

[Polar Maritime]

Over the last 15 years, we've been told that human CO2 emissions would cause global warming to accelerate to new dangerous levels, and this "unequivocal" warming would generate fantastic, catastrophic climate change disasters - the IPCC's climate models told us this, and truth be told, they were absolutely and spectacularly wrong.

http://www.c3headlines.com/2012/07/contrary-to-ipcc-climate-models-massive-human-co2-emissions-still-unable-to-reverse-natures-global-c.html

[BornFromTheVoid]

Over the last 15 years, we've been told that human CO2 emissions would cause global warming to accelerate to new dangerous levels, and this "unequivocal" warming would generate fantastic, catastrophic climate change disasters - the IPCC's climate models told us this, and truth be told, they were absolutely and spectacularly wrong.

http://www.c3headlin...s-global-c.html

It's too easy for certain people, like in that link, to make claims without presenting any evidence.

An animation from skeptical science.

[laserguy]

Climate change study forces sceptical scientists to change minds

Earth's land shown to have warmed by 1.5C over past 250 years, with humans being almost entirely responsible

More globowarmthinkery gobbledygook. How much they paying these guys?

[BornFromTheVoid]

More globowarmthinkery gobbledygook. How much they paying these guys?

Your trolling powers are growing weak, LG...

[4wd]

is that just ploy to get a reaction and avoid comment of a sceptic funded and run study that confirms AGW?

It appears to be a rehash of last years BEST study.

The problem areas with that were made clear enough at the time.

[BornFromTheVoid]

It appears to be a rehash of last years BEST study.

The problem areas with that were made clear enough at the time.

I think what was released last year were the preliminary results, based on just a fraction of the total stations. This is now the final product of all the analysis.

[4wd]

http://joannenova.com.au/2012/07/muller/#more-22978