Solar energy has some legitimate uses in isolated cases, such as providing electricity where there is no other source available, and when you need it so badly you are willing to pay a premium, say, for use on your sailboat. But the inherent physics limitation to solar energy is that it is so diffuse (so little solar energy falls on each square meter of ground), the efficiency of conversion to electricity is so low (typically 15% or so), and it is so expensive to convert it to electricity with … [Read more...]
Archives for August 2016
Climate Models: Uncertain? Inaccurate? What’s the Difference? Why Does it Matter?
For years I have been pointing out that the super-sophisticated computer climate models on which the IPCC, national environment agencies, national academies of science, and of course the many climate-alarmist advocacy groups and journalists depend for their predictions of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming (CAGW) predict, on average, 2 to 3 times the warming actually observed over the relevant periods; that they failed to predict the complete lack of statistically significant … [Read more...]
Record Warm 2016? What a Difference One Month Makes
With the rapid cooling now occurring in the global average tropospheric temperature, my previous prediction of a record warm year in the satellite data for 2016 looks…well…premature. Here’s an update of what the average temperature trend would have to be in the next 6 months for 2016 to tie 1998 as record warmest year in the 38 year satellite record: Basically, as long as the anomalies stay below the June value of 0.34 deg. C, 2016 won’t be a record warm year. If only I had kept my … [Read more...]
Earth to Climatistas: I’m Not Cooperating!
The climate alarmists claim that global warming will lead to more frequent and more severe hurricanes. Nature doesn't seem to be cooperating. As University of Alabama climatologist and Cornwall Alliance Senior Fellow Dr. Roy W. Spencer points out: In less than two months (October 6, 2016) it will be 4,000 days since the last time a major hurricane made landfall in the U.S., which was Wilma on October 24, 2005. Wilma was a record-setter, being the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record, … [Read more...]
Is the Democratic Party’s Climate and Energy Platform Defensible?
Pressured by radical environmentalists and multi-billionaires like Tom Steyer who stand to profit, the Democratic Party has issued a new platform statement on climate and energy: Moving beyond the “all of the above” energy approach in the 2012 platform, the 2016 platform draft re-frames the urgency of climate change as a central challenge of our time, already impacting American communities and calling for generating 50 percent clean electricity within the next ten years. The Committee … [Read more...]