Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Climate & Climate Change

Extreme Weather Events are Killing Fewer People

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DESPITE concerns about global warming and a large increase in the number of reported storms and droughts, the world’s death rate from extreme weather events was lower from 2000 to 2010 than it has been in any decade since 1900, according to a new Reason Foundation study.  Following is the media release:

THE Reason Foundation report chronicles the number of worldwide deaths caused by extreme weather events between 1900 and 2010 and finds global deaths caused by extreme weather events peaked in the decade running from 1920 to 1929, when there were 241 deaths a year per million people in the world. From 1930 to 1939 there were 208 deaths a year per million people. But from 2000 to 2010 there were just 5.4 deaths a year per million people in the world. That’s a 98 percent decline in the weather-related death rate since the 1920s. Extreme weather events were responsible for just .07% of the world’s deaths between 2000 and 2010.

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How to Get Your Child Expelled from School

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Ian Plimer not only finished school, he went on to University, graduated and then worked his way up to the esteemed rank of Professor.

He has been Professor and Head of Geology at the University of Newcastle, is Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne, and currently lectures at the University of Adelaide.   He has already published more than 120 scientific papers on geology and seven books on a range of science related subjects including ‘Telling lies for God’ (Random House) and his best-selling ‘Heaven and Earth’ (Connor Court).   So why such a provocatively entitled eighth book ‘How to Get Expelled from School”.  Because it’s a guide to climate change for pupils, parents and punters’!

Getting expelled from school is not something anyone would wish on their child…  So I’m suggesting you only buy the book if your children have already finished school.

It’s available here:  www.connorcourt.com .

Insightful Ramblings on “The Greenhouse Effect” from Vincent Gray

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I can’t agree with Vincent Gray that the only true climate science is meteorology, but I can agree that meteorology as a climate science is in its infancy.   There is much we don’t understand about convection, evaporation and precipitation.   And interesting, as Gray explains in the following essay, they are all limited in a Greenhouse…

“THE only true climate science is meteorology. It has been built up for some 200 years from a network of local and international observations of every property which can be measured and can influence both local and more general climate behaviour.

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Nobel Prizing-Winning Physicist Also Denies AGW

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Yet another much acclaimed and high profile physicist has declared his disgust with all the global warming hype especially as promoted by the American Physical Society (ASP).

Ivan Giaever won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1973.   Earlier this year he did not renew his APS membership.  When asked why, he replied by email that he did not agree with the APS’s promotion of global warming as settled science.

He also made comment that for the APS it is OK to discuss whether the mass of a proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence for global warming is incontrovertible.

Source: Climate Depot  http://www.climatedepot.com/a/12797/Exclusive-Nobel-PrizeWinning-Physicist-Who-Endorsed-Obama-Dissents-Resigns-from-American-Physical-Society-Over-Groups-Promotion-of-ManMade-Global-Warming

New insight into cloud formation

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If cloud formation  is impacted by cosmic ray flux, as suggested by new research from CERN, then this further complicates our understanding of drivers of global temperature:

GENEVA, 25 August 2011. In a paper published in the journal Nature today, the CLOUD1 experiment at CERN2 has reported its first results. The CLOUD experiment has been designed to study the effect of cosmic rays on the formation of atmospheric aerosols – tiny liquid or solid particles suspended in the atmosphere – under controlled laboratory conditions. Atmospheric aerosols are thought to be responsible for a large fraction of the seeds that form cloud droplets. Understanding the process of aerosol formation is therefore important for understanding the climate.

The CLOUD results show that trace vapours assumed until now to account for aerosol formation in the lower atmosphere can explain only a tiny fraction of the observed atmospheric aerosol production. The results also show that ionisation from cosmic rays significantly enhances aerosol formation. Precise measurements such as these are important in achieving a quantitative understanding of cloud formation, and will contribute to a better assessment of the effects of clouds in climate models.

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Climate4you Update July 2011

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THE climate update for July 2011 indicates:

“The Northern Hemisphere was characterised by regional variability. Below average temperatures extended across western North America, most of the North Atlantic and Europe, and central Russia. Above average temperatures characterised eastern North America, western Russia and eastern Siberia.

The Southern Hemisphere in general was close to average 1998-2006 conditions, with the exception of parts of the Antarctic. Most other land regions experienced below average temperatures.

Also the near Equator temperatures conditions were close to average 1998-2006 conditions.

The Arctic was characterized by a relatively high variability of surface air temperature deviations from the 1998-2006 average. The European Arctic sector had below average temperatures, and also Alaska and parts of Russia and western Siberia were relatively cold. Most of the Canadian sector and eastern Siberia experienced above average temperatures.

Most of the Antarctic continent experienced high average temperatures, the only major exception being the Antarctic Peninsula…

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