... pretty much stable. That's according to the most recent NASA data on polar sea ice extent, shown in this graph, posted by the University of Illinois's Department of Atmospheric Sciences: James Taylor comments: Updated NASA satellite data show the polar ice caps remained at approximately their 1979 extent until the middle of the last decade. Beginning in 2005, however, polar ice modestly receded for several years. By 2012, polar sea ice had receded by approximately 10 percent from … [Read more...]
New Observational Evidence Supports Old “Infrared Iris” Theory
About seven years ago I read a fascinating paper by Roy Spencer et al. that argued that clouds respond to Earth's surface temperatures in ways that moderate them--cooling the surface in response to warming, warming it in response to cooling. It led me to an earlier paper by Richard Lindzen that argued that, at least in a major region above the Pacific, clouds respond to surface temperature changes in a way analogous to how the human eye's iris responds to light. In response to dimmer light, the … [Read more...]
Obviously this Guy’s a Science Denier!
Was it a critic of the IPCC's notion of dangerous manmade climate change who wrote this? The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness. As one participant put it, "poor methods get … [Read more...]
Why One Conservative, Evangelical Republican’s Case for Climate Alarm Fails—Part 1
Dr. Scott Rodin, chairman of the board of the Evangelical Environmental Network and a blogger at The Steward’s Journey, posted a piece May 19, 2015, titled, “As a Conservative, Evangelical Republican, Why Climate Change Can’t be True (Even Though It Is).” It has some very interesting reasoning and deserves careful consideration. In this and several future blog posts, I’m going to interact with it. He began, “Imagine a mathematician basing his or her entire life’s work on the premise that 1+1 = … [Read more...]
Alabama meteorologist James Spann hits the nail on the head
In responding to news hype about the flooding in Houston (the tragedies of which we most certainly don't want to downplay), James Spann, chief meteorologist for ABC 33/40 in Birmingham, Alabama, hit the nail on the head when he wrote, ... the entire climate change situation has become politicized, which I hate. Those on the right, and those on the left hang out in “echo chambers”, listening to those with similar world views refusing to believe anything else could be true. Everyone knows the … [Read more...]
Science Daily Mutes Main Point of Important New Study
Nature, one of the world’s premier science journals, has just published a new study showing that “proves that ocean circulation is the link between weather and decadal scale climatic change.” More important, it undermines the storyline of dangerous anthropogenic global warming so hotly promoted by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Green groups around the world. But note how Science Daily, which is sold out to global warming … [Read more...]
Words Matter—and So Does Honesty
Some folks just don’t play fair. Instance? Media Matters and ForecasttheFacts.org have just teamed up to pressure the media to not to characterize scientists who doubt claims of dangerous manmade global warming as “skeptics.” Their preferred term? “Deniers.” Why? Two reasons: First, because skepticism is a scientific virtue, which they don’t want to attribute to those who dare question them. Second, because “denier” smacks of Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism, and Nazism and so is the … [Read more...]
The Cost of an Animal Protectionists Agenda
Ideologies have financial costs. One such ideology is exemplified by the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program. In 1971, Congress banned the hunting of wild horses and burros on public land. The genesis of the movement stemmed from the work of Velma B. Johnston who was upset with the manner in which people captured and used wild horses for commercial purposes. Unfortunately, when people confuse abuse with use and therefore ban human use of animals, bad things often … [Read more...]
NOAA Seeks to Expand Federal Oversight of Hawaiian Waters: New plan will limit use of Hawaiian coastal waters by surfers, fishermen and tourists
With the incredible recovery of humpback whales, NOAA recently proposed to delist them as an endangered species. The logical follow-up step is to dismantle the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. Instead, NOAA is moving forward with a 24 million dollar proposal to expand their focus to much more than whales, while increasing regulations and restricting use and enjoyment of areas within the revised sanctuary boundaries. Located mostly in state waters, the current … [Read more...]
If they Could Put a Man on the Moon …
A couple of years ago a group of engineers and other scientists involved in the Apollo space program took interest in the debates over global warming. They called themselves The Right Climate Stuff, and they set out to make as objective assessments as they could of the arguments pro and con on global warming, human influence on it, and proposals to mitigate it. Lots of folks wondered why astronautical engineers should have thought they had anything special to contribute to the debate. Over the … [Read more...]
