Temp Data Glitches

How bad is the global temperature data?
Watts UP With That 10/13/09

Excerpts Include:
The world’s climate data has become increasingly sparse with a big dropoff around 1990. There was also a tenfold increase in missing months around the same time. For many, many stations, you will see the data set in a monthly tabular form has many missing data months mostly after 1990

Most of the stations that dropped out were rural. More of the missing data points are having their missing months filled in with more urban data in the grid boxes.

Numerous peer review papers suggest an exaggeration of the warming by 30%, 50% or even more

One example.. from Maine. Volunteers completed surveys....The survey determined that every one of the stations in Maine was subject to microclimate or urbanization biases.

One station especially surprised the surveyors, Ripogenus Dam, a station that was officially closed in 1995. Despite being closed in 1995, USHCN data for this station is publicly available until 2006!

Part of the USHCN data is created by a computer program called “filnet” which estimates missing values.

How can we trust NOAA/NASA/Hadley assessment of global changes given these and the other data integrity issues? Given that Hadley has destroyed old original data because they were running out of room in their data cabinet, can we ever hope to reconstruct the real truth?

Climate Change Reconsidered

Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) has released an 880-page book challenging the scientific basis of concerns that global warming is either man-made or would have harmful effects.

Climate Change Reconsidered
June 2, 2009

Coauthors Dr. S. Fred Singer and Dr. Craig Idso and 35 contributors and reviewers present an authoritative and detailed rebuttal of the findings of the IPCC.

A couple highlights include:
"We regret that many advocates in the debate have
chosen to give up debating the science and focus
almost exclusively on questioning the motives of
“skeptics,” name-calling, and ad hominem attacks."

"The IPCC continues to undervalue the
overwhelming evidence that, on decadal and centurylong
time scales, the Sun and associated atmospheric cloud effects are responsible for much of past climate
change. It is therefore highly likely that the Sun is
also a major cause of twentieth-century warming,"

"The scholarship in this book demonstrates overwhelming scientific support for the position that the warming of the twentieth century was moderate and not unprecedented, that its impact on human health and wildlife was positive, and that carbon dioxide probably is not the driving factor behind climate change."

"the contributors and reviewers of NIPCC donated their time and best efforts to produce this report out of concern that the IPCC was provoking an irrational fear of anthropogenic global warming based on incomplete and faulty science."

"Seeing science clearly misused to shape public policies that have the potential to inflict severe economic harm, particularly on low-income groups, NIPCC’s team of scientists chose to speak up for science at a time when too few people outside the scientific community know what is happening, and too few scientists who know the truth have the will or the platforms to speak out against the IPCC."

Chapter 1 describes the limitations of the IPCC’s
attempt to forecast future climate conditions by using
computer climate models.

Chapter 2 describes feedback factors that reduce
the earth’s temperature sensitivity to changes in
atmospheric CO2.

Chapter 3 reviews empirical data on past
temperatures. We find no support for the IPCC’s
claim that climate observations during the twentieth
century are either unprecedented or provide evidence
of an anthropogenic effect on climate.

Chapter 4 reviews observational data on glacier
melting, sea ice area, variation in precipitation, and
sea level rise. We find no evidence of trends that
could be attributed to the supposedly anthropogenic
global warming of the twentieth century.

Chapter 5 summarizes the research of a growing
number of scientists who say variations in solar
activity, not greenhouse gases, are the true driver of
climate change.

Chapter 6 investigates and debunks the
widespread fears that global warming might cause
more extreme weather.

Chapter 7 examines the biological effects of
rising CO2 concentrations and warmer temperatures.

Chapter 8 examines the IPCC’s claim that CO2-
induced increases in air temperature will cause
unprecedented plant and animal extinctions, both on
land and in the world’s oceans. We find there little
real-world evidence in support of such claims and an
abundance of counter evidence that suggests
ecosystem biodiversity will increase in a warmer and
CO2-enriched world.

Chapter 9 challenges the IPCC’s claim that CO2-
induced global warming is harmful to human health.............
However, a thorough examination of the
peer-reviewed scientific literature reveals that further
global warming would likely do just the opposite and
actually reduce the number of lives lost to extreme
thermal conditions.............

Winter Weather Hits Las Vegas

Winter Weather Hits Las Vegas
From Eyewitness News Las Vegas

These are below average temperatures for this time of year. Typically the temperature during the day and evening is about 15 degrees warmer. The cold snap that has descended on the Las Vegas Valley is expected to last into the weekend and cause temperatures to be at freezing or near freezing for most of the week.

A winter storm warning is in effect for the Las Vegas Valley until Thursday at 6 a.m. Snow is falling all over Southern Nevada including the Las Vegas Strip. The winter storm is expected to dump more than a foot of fresh snow above the 3,500 elevation.

Obama & Climate Change

Environment News Service

Excerpts include:

Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense said, "This election offers us the greatest opportunity we have ever had to change course on global warming."

"We must do everything we can to pass climate legislation........."

"An Obama administration should end tax incentives and subsidies for high carbon-emitting technologies and projects and enact mandates that 20 percent of the nation�s electricity come from renewable power by 2020 and at least 30 percent by 2030, Lubber said."

"The new administration and Congress must shun the excuse that it is 'too expensive' to act to curb global warming..."

"The Center for Biological Diversity looks forward to working with the Obama administration and the new Congress to take swift action to stem the extinction crisis, reverse the current course toward runaway global warming,...."

Gore urges civil disobedience to stop coal plants

Gore urges civil disobedience to stop coal plants
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48N7AA20080924?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Old Farmers Almanac: Global cooling underway

USA Today
The Old Farmer's Almanac is going further out on a limb than usual this year forecasting a cooler winter and suggesting we are in for global cooling for decades.
Tuesday saying a study of solar activity and corresponding records on ocean temperatures and climate point to a cooler, not warmer, climate.

"We at the Almanac are among those who believe that sunspot cycles and their effects on oceans correlate with climate changes," writes meteorologist and climatologist Joseph D'Aleo. "Studying these and other factor suggests that cold, not warm, climate may be our future."

British Environment Minister Discounts Global Warming as 'Pseudo-Religion'

British Environment Minister Discounts Global Warming as 'Pseudo-Religion'

Britain's environment minister on Friday discounted arguments that global warming is man-made and said instead that the phenomenon is a naturally occurring event.

"Resources should be used to adapt to the consequences of climate change, rather than King Canute-style vainly trying to stop it," Sammy Wilson said in an interview with the New Letter newspaper.

He described green campaigners' views on global warming as "hysterical psuedo-religion," and said he refused to "blindly accept" the need to make significant changes to the economy to stop climate change.

"The tactic used by the 'green gang' is to label anyone who dares disagree with their view of climate change as some kind of nutcase who denies scientific fact,"
Wilson said.

He said he accepts that climate change can occur but argued that its cause is as yet unknown.

"Reasoned debate must replace the scaremongering of the green climate alarmists," he said.

Global cooling gains momentum among scientists

Delta Farm Press
http://deltafarmpress.com/news/robinson-column-0825/
Aug 25, 2008 9:40 AM, By Elton Robinson
Farm Press Editorial Staff

Two weeks ago, after writing about the possibility that the Earth may actually be entering a cooling phase, I braced myself for a torrent of icy missives from the global warming crowd suggesting that the heat must have fried my noggin.

By the way, it is very difficult to discuss global cooling in the midst of a summer when temperatures are hovering around 100 degrees and crops are wilting. As one friend and colleague from the sweltering Southwest noted after reading the column, “Please send some of that cooling this way.”

However, one response opened my eyes to the growing community of global warming skeptics out there, most of them merited scientists. I thought it might be worth presenting their thoughts — a little equal time if you will. Marc Marona, a global warming skeptic who works for the U.S. Senate Committee on Environmental and Public Works, sent me these excerpts from a U.S. Senate report.

Russian solar physicists Galina Mashnich and Vladimir Bashkirtsev are so convinced that global temperatures will cool within the next decade they have placed a $10,000 wager with a United Kingdom scientist to prove their certainty. The criteria for the $10,000 bet will be to compare global temperatures between 1998 and 2003 with those between 2012 and 2017. The loser will pay up in 2018, according to an April 16, 2007, article in Live Science.

Australian engineer Peter Harris says that the Earth is nearing the end of the typical interglacial cycle and is due for a sudden cooling climate change. “Based on this analysis we can say that there is a 94 percent probability of imminent global cooling and the beginning of the coming ice age.

“Climate is becoming unstable,” Harris went on to say. “Most of these major natural processes that we are witnessing now are interdependent and occur at the end of each interglacial period, ultimately causing sudden long-term cooling.”

Oleg Sorokhtin, merited scientist of Russia and fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and staff researcher of the Oceanology Institute, says to “stock up on fur coats and felt boots! Earth is now at the peak of one of its passing warm spells. It started in the 17th century when there was no industrial influence on the climate to speak of and no such thing as the hothouse effect.

“Carbon dioxide is not to blame for global climate change, Sorokhtin said. “Solar activity is many times more powerful than the energy produced by the whole of humankind. Man’s influence on nature is a drop in the ocean.”

Canadian climatologist Timothy Ball said, “If we are facing (a crisis) at all, I think it is that we are preparing for warming when it is looking like we are cooling. We are preparing for the wrong thing.”

On the impact of carbon dioxide on global temperature, United Kingdom astrophysicist Piers Corbyn said, “There is no evidence that carbon dioxide has ever driven or will ever drive world temperatures and climate change. Worrying about carbon dioxide is irrelevant.”

So there you have it folks — solid evidence from the other side of the global warming fence and critical thinking I’m sure you won’t hear much about outside this space.

To be honest, I’m not sure which global weather consequence is more daunting — to be ice fishing in Florida or planting cotton in Maine. But politicians and the popular press should speak out for the resumption of genuine, open debate on climate change. Global warming is not necessarily a foregone conclusion.

William Gray - Ocean Cooling

Prominent hurricane forecaster Dr. William M. Gray, a professor at Colorado State University, told the audience at the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change on March 4 in New York that a natural cycle of ocean water temperatures related to the salinity (the amount of salt) in ocean water was responsible for some global warming that has taken place. However, he said that same cycle means a period of cooling would begin within 10 years.

Gray criticized NASA scientist and global warming alarmist James Hansen, calling him “the most egregious abuser” of data. According to Gray, Hansen’s alarmism is exaggerated because the models he uses to predict the increase in global warming count on too much water vapor in the atmosphere.

“[S]o he puts that much vapor in his model and of course he gets this,” Gray said. “He must get upper troposphere where the temperature is seven degrees warmer for a doubl[ing of] CO2. Well, the reason he got that was – why this upper-level warming was there – was he put too much water vapor in the model.”

Save the Bears - Pandering to Pandas

Summary from Heartland
The U.S. Department of the Interior decided today to list polar bears as a "threatened" species under the Endangered Species Act. The decision was based on predictions that future global warming will negatively affect polar bear populations.

Experts contacted by The Heartland Institute note global temperatures have not risen in the past 10 years, and scientists with the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predict temperatures will cool for at least the next 10 years. Moreover, polar bear populations have been increasing during recent decades.

Some excerpts include:
"Only by completely ignoring real-world scientific evidence and jumping head-first into the world of special-interest group propaganda can one justify listing polar bears as a threatened species."

Also:

"This decision represents a conflict between politics and science. Polar bear populations have been increasing in recent decades, so there is no current problem. The concern is based on forecasts. However, the government forecasts used to support the decision violate basic scientific principles, and thus provide no scientific support for the listing.

"There are no scientific forecasts that would suggest a reduction in polar bear populations. It would be improper, then, to designate polar bears as endangered. Application of proper forecasting methods suggests a small short-term rise in polar bear populations followed by a leveling off. We provide full disclosure to support these statements at publicpolicyforecasting.com and at theclimatebet.com. In the long term, science will prevail."

Scott Armstrong
Professor
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Continued Cooling

NOAA
The average temperature in April 2008 was 51.0 F. This was -1.0 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average, the 29th coolest April in 114 years.

Also, some theories would hold warmer weather leads to more evaporation and thus more rain. Cooler temperatures, less evaporation and less rain.

NOAA reports:
2.39 inches of precipitation fell in April. This was -0.04 inches less than the 1901-2000 average, the 54th driest such month on record.

And, the cycle 24 sunspots have still yet to develop.