The temperature data underlying the claim a rare white possum could be extinct from climate change is based on a combination of modelling and empirical data from 25 weather stations … current and new research that is unpublished at this stage. More at an update at the blog post, here.
Climate & Climate Change
It’s Official: Oceans Caused Droughts
Folks,
Here’s an interesting report from the “pedigree” US Climate Change Science Program (heavily backed by NOAA).
http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap1-3/final-report/
And a news description of it from the good ole’ National Post:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1453831&p=2
I sort of remembering seeing a brief press release on this in December (when it was issued), but I certainly didn’t understand that it was associated with such bombshells as:
“It’s wrong to blame our warming climate on human pollution alone, says a major analysis by U. S. climate scientists who say North America’s warming and drying trend also has important natural causes.
Natural shifts in ocean currents have caused much of the warming in recent decades, and almost all of the droughts, says the U. S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).”
Cathy
G20 Deal to Boost Economic Growth
Investor sentiment soared in response to the recommendation that more than $1.4 trillion in financial aid be made available to help boost economic growth. Read more here.
NYT Interviews Freeman Dyson
Freeman Dyson says he doesn’t want his legacy to be defined by climate change, but his dissension from the orthodoxy of global warming is significant because of his stature and his devotion to the integrity of science. Read more here.
Deep Solar Minimum
The sunspot cycle is behaving a little like the stock market. Just when you think it has hit bottom, it goes even lower. Read more here.
A Reality Check on the Role of Water Vapour in Climate Change: A Note from Michael Hammer
ACCORDING to the international panel on climate change (IPCC) any direct temperature rise from increasing carbon dioxide levels is greatly amplified by positive feedback from water vapour. As the theory goes, rising carbon dioxide levels from human activity causes some temperature rise which causes more water to evaporate. Because water vapour is the dominant greenhouse gas, the additional water vapour absorbs even more energy, so global temperatures rise even, more causing still more water to evaporate and so on in an amplifying spiral. In this way the roughly half degree direct impact from doubling carbon dioxide is claimed to be amplified to three degrees or more.
An interesting theory, but now consider the following scenario;
We know the earth rotates about an axis tilted about 23 degrees relative to the sun. This is what causes the seasons and what sets the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Imagine a location on the Tropic of Capricorn (23 degrees south) – say Mackay in Queensland. In summer the sun is directly overhead – average solar input of around 310 watts/sq meter. In winter the sun is at maximum elevation 44 degrees – average solar input of around 220 watts/sq meter. That is a difference summer to winter of about 90 watts/sq meter which, according to Stefan’s law, without any feedbacks would give a temperature difference summer to winter of about 16 degrees. The amount of positive or amplifying feedback claimed by the IPCC would inflate that about 6 times to more than 90 degrees C, extinguishing all life in Mackay.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.