Global warming alarmists the world over have been hailing 2015 as the warmest year on record. Reality check: The satellite data are in, and at 0.27 deg C above the 1981-2010 average) it's only the third warmest, behind 1998 (#1, 0.48 deg C above the 1981-2010 average) and 2010 (#2, 0.34 deg C above 1981-2010 average). Kudos to Cornwall Alliance Senior Fellow Dr. Roy Spencer, who collects the satellite data with U. of Alabama colleague Dr. John Christy, for providing this monthly update. As our … [Read more...]
Getting a Grasp on Grid Reliability Issues with Wind and Solar
Critics of calls for rapid replacement of coal and natural gas with wind and solar to power the grid often argue that the intermittency of wind and solar destabilize the electrical power grid, making brownouts and blackouts, which are costly and often life threatening, more likely. The basic point is that simple to make, but its explanation and support are more difficult. A new post at Judith Curry's Climate Etc. blog, by a guest author identified simply as "Planning Engineer," develops the … [Read more...]
Responding to Risks of Climate Change—and to Risks of Responding to Climate Change
Judith Curry delivers a (typically) very thoughtful analysis of one attempt to push people into applying the "Precautionary Principle" so as to embrace major policy initiatives to mitigate "climate change" to avoid its risks. I'll not try to summarize here other than to say she shows clearly that the arguments fail. Read her post here. Featured image courtesy of Got Credit, Creative Commons. … [Read more...]
Why It’s Misleading to Speak of “Ocean Acidification”
Calling a decline in pH of ocean water from 8.2 to 8.1 (which is calculated to have happened over recent decades, perhaps in response to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration though other causes are possible) “acidification,” meaning “becoming more acidic,” is misleading at best. Something can’t become “more acidic” unless it’s already acidic, and a solution with a pH higher than 7.0 is by definition not acidic but basic. Earth's five oceans vary in pH from about ~7.9 to ~8.3, and pH … [Read more...]
Never Underestimate Your Opponent—Coming to Grips with the Paris Climate Agreement
Master Sun [Tzu] talks often about deception and therefore warns against being deceived by the enemy and underestimating their ability. ‘He who exercises no forethought but makes light of his opponents is sure to be captured by them.’ It’s important to properly assess your opponent without prejudice or assumption. Many skeptics of catastrophic, anthropogenic global warming (CAGW) and therefore opponents of a legally binding treaty to limit carbon dioxide emissions to fight it, including me, … [Read more...]
What Is “the Wisdom from Above”?
Last week I posted a blog piece answering the objections of one Christian college faculty member, a theology professor, to our Open Letter on Climate Change to the People, their Local Representatives, the State Legislatures and Governors, the Congress, and the President of the United States of America because he thought the world’s poor would be hard hit by manmade global warming. Another negative response came from a professor in the physics and engineering department of a different Christian … [Read more...]
Whose Policies Kill More People: ISIS…or Greenpeace?
Approximately 200,000 people have died due to global terrorism in the last 10 years. During the same time, many millions of people (mostly women and children) have died due to policies promoted by Greenpeace and other “green” organizations (e.g. anti-DDT, anti-golden rice, anti-fossil fuel). I’ve said it before…I don’t really care where our energy comes from…as long as it is abundant and affordable. Until someone comes up with an alternative energy source with those two characteristics, … [Read more...]
Signers of Open Letter to American People etc. By Degree Level
As of November 23, 2015 Doctoral Level Degrees Sheila Prabhakar Abraham, Ph.D. (Entomology), Associate Professor of Biology, Southeastern University, Evangelical Protestant, Lakeland, FL, USA Robert V. Acuff, Ph.D. (Nutritional Biochemistry), Professor, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, East TN State University, Evangelical Protestant, Elizabethton, TN, USA Dwight D. Allman, Ph.D. (Political Science), Associate Professor of Political Science, Baylor University, Mainline … [Read more...]
2015 Will be the 3rd Warmest Year in the Satellite Record
Way back in June, John Christy and I called 2015 as being the warmest year on record … in the surface thermometer data. Given the strong El Nino in progress, on top of the official thermometer data warming trend, this seemed pretty obvious. Of course, everyone has their opinions regarding how good the thermometer temperature trends are, with periodic adjustments that almost always make the present warmer or the past colder. But I’m not going there today …. Instead, I’m going to talk about our … [Read more...]
Is Our Position on Global Warming “Baffling”?
In our current public dialogue, people don’t often encounter our position on global warming, so when they do, they can find it surprising, even “baffling,” as one website visitor on the second day of COP21, the UN climate summit in Paris, put it. But if they take the time to investigate why we hold our position, we think they'll at least no longer be baffled, even if they're not persuaded. If we were persuaded by the empirical evidence that human use of fossil fuels was causing global … [Read more...]
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