How about that Global Warming?

[bborg 0]

If warming is bad, then cold is…good?

Bitter cold, snow pummel Plains, East

HAZLETON, Pa. - Windy, bitterly cold weather spread from the northern Plains to the Northeast on Sunday, with blinding snow canceling church services in parts of Michigan and causing a 68-vehicle pileup in Pennsylvania.

A woman died in the Pennsylvania pileup when her car became wedged underneath a tractor-trailer, said Lt. Jason Zoshak of Hazleton Township Fire and Rescue. About 35 people were injured, and at least 24 people whose cars were not drivable were taken to shelters, he said.

Record cold for northern Minn.:40 below

Hundreds of West Virginia homes and businesses had no electricity Monday, down from several thousand, after weekend wind gusts of up to 55 mph. At least nine counties closed schools because of power outages and the cold. The mountain city of Elkins had a low of 6 above.

Classes also were canceled Monday for a number of schools in Michigan, which remained in a deep freeze after a weekend of single-digit temperatures and gusty wind. One death was blamed on the weather there.

Storm hits Ohio Valley with snow and ice

Highways near Louisville were improving Tuesday morning after a night in which dozens of cars were abandoned on freeways surrounding the city.

Indiana State Police closed a five-mile stretch of icy southbound Interstate 65 south of Indianapolis during the morning after more a dozen wrecks in just one hour, and Illinois police reported dozens of accidents.

Utilities in Kentucky reported more than 16,000 homes and businesses had been blacked out by the weather.

[Stussy88 0]

Thought you might enjoy this one, from the BBC

Glocal warming may save lives

Now I know a BBC story not spreading endless, alarmist gloom and doom about glocal warming is rarer than a Raiders superbowl win, but here is one. Okay, they had to say it would cause a few deaths in Britain, but generally, warming = good according to the BBC!

[bborg 0]

That’s pretty amazing. I’m glad that some in the media (especially in the BBC, of all places) are finally starting to recognize that any climate has tradeoffs, and “climate change” is not an intrinsic threat. It’s also encouraging to see it recognized that humans have the ability to adapt to and diminish the impact of negative changes.

I look forward to the day when articles assert these facts without also including persistent myths, such as “sustainable development”, and hysterical fiction such as the claim that rising temperatures cause malaria outbreaks.

The real test comes later, when the heat waves hit, and people have forgotten the winter’s hardships. What will the BBC say then?

[piz 0]

It's not just here. From a couple of emails I got from an Objectivist friend today:

Tajikistan is suffering a major life-threatening emergency caused by EXTREME COLD and an ENERGY SUPPLY CRISIS (i.e., not enough fossil-fuel-fired power plants). However, the world news agencies are ignoring it because this kind of news doesn’t fit in with their man-made global warming "template" of the world dying from too much heat and that to prevent this overheating we must shut down our fossil-fuel-fired power plants that provide our ENERGY SUPPLY.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900S...VD?OpenDocument

From the World Health Organization story titled "Tajikistan: Severe cold and energy supply crisis threatens health:"

"Copenhagen, 12 February 2008 - Tajikistan is facing a growing humanitarian crisis. United Nations agencies warn that the health of large parts of the population is already affected, as the country struggles with a cold and energy emergency.

"The central Asian republic, home to about 7 million people, is currently experiencing its harshest winter for three decades. The average temperature is around minus 15 degrees Celsius, dropping to as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius at night. Roads between several districts are blocked by heavy snowfall, affecting supplies of food and other basic products.

"The cold wave has also led to severe problems with the water supply system, as supply lines either break or freeze."

All the world-wide eco-fanatics want to use man-made global warming as the excuse to shut down U.S. fossil-fuel fired power plants and industries. If we do that, then our future will contain suffering from a life-threatening ENERGY SHORTAGE and deaths from EXTREME COLD just like Tajikistan is having now.

And:

Mumbai and many other cities throughout India are suffering from record low temperatures and high snowfalls. Surprise, surprise - the drive-by media, with its man-made global warming agenda, is NOT reporting on it.

http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=l...mp;newsid=66656

From the article in an Indian publication:

"Mumbai, Feb 9 [2008] (IANS) A nail-biting cold wave is making the country's financial capital - Mumbai - shiver. The minimum temperature in the city dipped to a season's low of 8.5 degrees Celsius Friday.

"'This is the lowest-ever temperature recorded in the city for the month of February,' said K. Sathi Devi, director of weather bureau here.

"The minimum temperature recorded Friday at Colaba, in south Mumbai, was 13.4 degrees Celsius, while at Santacruz in north Mumbai it was 8.5 degrees Celsius. This is the coldest ever in the city of stars in the past 40 years. But the record low is 7.4 on Jan 22, 1962.

"It's cold everywhere, officials say more chill to come.

"People in the national capital continued to shiver Friday as the promised relief from the cold wave didn't materialise and the Met Office here said the severe cold in the northern region would continue over the weekend.

"'The snowfall in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh is really making life difficult here. It's not Delhi alone, the entire north India is shivering in cold due to it,' said S.C. Bhan, director India Meteorological Department (IMD), here."

[Stussy88 0]

That’s pretty amazing. I’m glad that some in the media (especially in the BBC, of all places) are finally starting to recognize that any climate has tradeoffs, and “climate change” is not an intrinsic threat. It’s also encouraging to see it recognized that humans have the ability to adapt to and diminish the impact of negative changes.

I look forward to the day when articles assert these facts without also including persistent myths, such as “sustainable development”, and hysterical fiction such as the claim that rising temperatures cause malaria outbreaks.

The real test comes later, when the heat waves hit, and people have forgotten the winter’s hardships. What will the BBC say then?

I'm guessing a default back to gloom and doom

[alann 0]

The latest is that sunspot activity is the lowest it's been since 1930:

A former NASA astronaut says the same solar phenomenon that doomed Napoleon's army may soon stop Al Gore's march to glory cold. Prepare for the big chill.

... Geophysicist Phil Chapman, the first Australian to become a NASA astronaut, and who served as mission specialist on the Apollo 14 lunar mission, writes in the Down Under newspaper the Australian that "the rout of Napoleon's Grand Army from Moscow was at least partly due to the lack of sunspots."

This is more than a historical footnote. The same pattern of solar activity that doomed Napoleon is occurring as we speak.

[Capitalism Forever 0]

The latest

There are many inaccuracies regarding the solar cycle in that article, and extrapolating the variation in annual temperature for 20 years into the future is just plain silly. The sentence about most of North America and Europe being under ice in "normal conditions" is also misleading at best; e.g. the ice sheet did not extend below the centerline of Europe during the last ice age.

Al Gore's propaganda should be countered--by sound science, not ignorant opposite-pole scaremongering.

[bborg 0]

It's funny, I've talked to a couple people and the year's winter came up. They don't seem to remember how freezing it was. They forgot that we did get snow, and one person acknowledged we had a few "chilly days". Are they remembering the same winter I am?

[piz 0]

It's funny, I've talked to a couple people and the year's winter came up. They don't seem to remember how freezing it was. They forgot that we did get snow, and one person acknowledged we had a few "chilly days". Are they remembering the same winter I am?

Worldwide, it was one of the coldest winters on record. There was snow in places that had never had it before in recorded history (Baghdad, for example).

Point out to them that the evidence of all that is recorded and readily available, so there's no plausible way to deny it.

[piz 0]

Worldwide, it was one of the coldest winters on record. There was snow in places that had never had it before in recorded history (Baghdad, for example).

Point out to them that the evidence of all that is recorded and readily available, so there's no plausible way to deny it.

I should add that in my own area it was a pretty average winter. I know other places experienced a lot more cold, though.

[Capitalist Man 0]

Worldwide, it was one of the coldest winters on record. There was snow in places that had never had it before in recorded history (Baghdad, for example).

Didn't you hear? That is happening because of "climate change".

I think it's just an association thing. If you constantly hear about hot days and all that, you're just going to associate that. It's like when you're planning to go buy a car, a red whatever, and on your way home after thinking about it you see ever single red whatever pass you by.

That's why they're trying to change it from global warming to climate change, so they can blame anything on it. Too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, too moderate, too extreme, too nice, too dreary, it's all capitalism's fault.

[Stussy88 0]

The Independent, a leftie pseudo-intellectual UK newspaper carried a WWF advert yesterday.

No, I didn't get to read who Triple H will be fighting at Wrestlemania five million, it was the other less believable WWF who are apparently concerned with animals. Anyway, they had the usual photo of a polar bear on a small ice flow accompanied by the regular stuff about how the cuddly bears are dying and it’s all YOUR fault unless you give them some money, they will all be gone.

So, I couldn’t resist, I e-mailed their ‘contact us’ page asking how many polar bears were in the world today and how much their numbers have declined in the last 10, 20 and 30 years.

Guess how keen they are to engage in correspondence with me, just because I asked a question (whilst posing as a potential financial supporter!). It’s not discussion they want, it’s unquestioning acceptance and obedience, that and your money.

[Carlos 0]

The Independent, a leftie pseudo-intellectual UK newspaper carried a WWF advert yesterday.

No, I didn't get to read who Triple H will be fighting at Wrestlemania five million, it was the other less believable WWF who are apparently concerned with animals. Anyway, they had the usual photo of a polar bear on a small ice flow accompanied by the regular stuff about how the cuddly bears are dying and it’s all YOUR fault unless you give them some money, they will all be gone.

So, I couldn’t resist, I e-mailed their ‘contact us’ page asking how many polar bears were in the world today and how much their numbers have declined in the last 10, 20 and 30 years.

Guess how keen they are to engage in correspondence with me, just because I asked a question (whilst posing as a potential financial supporter!). It’s not discussion they want, it’s unquestioning acceptance and obedience, that and your money.

Actually the stereotypical picture of the polar bears "stranded" on a "melting" ice-floe turned out to be a scam. It was a picture taken in 2004 of an ice-floe that had been sculpted by water waves and the bears had simply swam out to it.

Polar bears are excellent long-distance swimmers.

[Carlos 0]

Worldwide, it was one of the coldest winters on record. There was snow in places that had never had it before in recorded history (Baghdad, for example).

Didn't you hear? That is happening because of "climate change".

I think it's just an association thing. If you constantly hear about hot days and all that, you're just going to associate that. It's like when you're planning to go buy a car, a red whatever, and on your way home after thinking about it you see ever single red whatever pass you by.

That's why they're trying to change it from global warming to climate change, so they can blame anything on it. Too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, too moderate, too extreme, too nice, too dreary, it's all capitalism's fault.

The Global Warming people commit two major crimes here.

First, they 'cherry pick' their data: only data that supports AGW theory (hot summers, warm winters, record heat waves, etc) is relevant, valid, should be noted, while data that contradicts AGW theory (record cold winters, cool summers, etc.) is somehow ignored or not regarded as relevant. They selectively choose what part of reality their theory has to agree with!

But the worst thing is the dropping of our climate's historical context: the Earth is incredibly old, and climate change happens over long intervals (anywhere from hundreds of years to hundreds of millions of years), so short term abnormal weather really has no significance when it comes to judging climate change--you have to look at the big picture to see the gradual big changes. When AGW theorists and promoters scream to the heavens at the latest blistering summer, claiming it's severity is a sign of it being unnatural and therefore manmade, a simple graph or two of the Earth's global temperature over time can demolish their hysteria:

http://www.awi.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Re...rve_WebPage.jpg

And for a much larger look:

http://www.scotese.com/images/globaltemp.jpg

[Carlos 0]

http://www.awi.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Re...rve_WebPage.jpg

By the way (because this is important enough to 'bear' emphasizing), if we take the scaremongerers seriously, aren't polar bears already extinct?

[ewv 0]

http://www.awi.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Re...rve_WebPage.jpg

By the way (because this is important enough to 'bear' emphasizing), if we take the scaremongerers seriously, aren't polar bears already extinct?

There you go again trying to polarize the discussion.

[Capitalism Forever 0]

There you go again trying to polarize the discussion.

As far as I'm concerned, I don't have anything against some heated debate now and then.

[piz 0]

There you go again trying to polarize the discussion.

As far as I'm concerned, I don't have anything against some heated debate now and then.

This discussion leaves me cold. Wait, no, hot! No, that's not right... I know, CHANGING!

[Arnold 0]

Worldwide, it was one of the coldest winters on record. There was snow in places that had never had it before in recorded history (Baghdad, for example).

Didn't you hear? That is happening because of "climate change".

I think it's just an association thing. If you constantly hear about hot days and all that, you're just going to associate that. It's like when you're planning to go buy a car, a red whatever, and on your way home after thinking about it you see ever single red whatever pass you by.

That's why they're trying to change it from global warming to climate change, so they can blame anything on it. Too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, too moderate, too extreme, too nice, too dreary, it's all capitalism's fault.

The Global Warming people commit two major crimes here.

First, they 'cherry pick' their data: only data that supports AGW theory (hot summers, warm winters, record heat waves, etc) is relevant, valid, should be noted, while data that contradicts AGW theory (record cold winters, cool summers, etc.) is somehow ignored or not regarded as relevant. They selectively choose what part of reality their theory has to agree with!

But the worst thing is the dropping of our climate's historical context: the Earth is incredibly old, and climate change happens over long intervals (anywhere from hundreds of years to hundreds of millions of years), so short term abnormal weather really has no significance when it comes to judging climate change--you have to look at the big picture to see the gradual big changes. When AGW theorists and promoters scream to the heavens at the latest blistering summer, claiming it's severity is a sign of it being unnatural and therefore manmade, a simple graph or two of the Earth's global temperature over time can demolish their hysteria:

http://www.awi.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Re...rve_WebPage.jpg

And for a much larger look:

http://www.scotese.com/images/globaltemp.jpg

A friend I sent this to, emailed the following reply:

I respectfully recommend that before you have another "Eureka"

moment, you check the source of your information. A quick web search on

Google for "Klimakurve" would have led you to the following:

1. It is a fake. Was developed by a German school teacher named E.G. Beck.

2. He took a 1990 IPCC report and graph that tracked climate change in

Central England.

3. He altered the x axis marking from its original 1C to 5C which

exaggerated the past temperatures by a factor of 3.

4. Perhaps you could tell us all what "Benthic Oxygen Isotopes" means? For

example, a Benthic Zone is "the lowest level of a body of water, such as an

ocean or lake".

And I think that I saw Elvis in the Interglacial Globe picture. Or was it

the Glacial Globe? Can't remember.

[Carlos 0]

Worldwide, it was one of the coldest winters on record. There was snow in places that had never had it before in recorded history (Baghdad, for example).

Didn't you hear? That is happening because of "climate change".

I think it's just an association thing. If you constantly hear about hot days and all that, you're just going to associate that. It's like when you're planning to go buy a car, a red whatever, and on your way home after thinking about it you see ever single red whatever pass you by.

That's why they're trying to change it from global warming to climate change, so they can blame anything on it. Too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, too moderate, too extreme, too nice, too dreary, it's all capitalism's fault.

The Global Warming people commit two major crimes here.

First, they 'cherry pick' their data: only data that supports AGW theory (hot summers, warm winters, record heat waves, etc) is relevant, valid, should be noted, while data that contradicts AGW theory (record cold winters, cool summers, etc.) is somehow ignored or not regarded as relevant. They selectively choose what part of reality their theory has to agree with!

But the worst thing is the dropping of our climate's historical context: the Earth is incredibly old, and climate change happens over long intervals (anywhere from hundreds of years to hundreds of millions of years), so short term abnormal weather really has no significance when it comes to judging climate change--you have to look at the big picture to see the gradual big changes. When AGW theorists and promoters scream to the heavens at the latest blistering summer, claiming it's severity is a sign of it being unnatural and therefore manmade, a simple graph or two of the Earth's global temperature over time can demolish their hysteria:

http://www.awi.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Re...rve_WebPage.jpg

And for a much larger look:

http://www.scotese.com/images/globaltemp.jpg

A friend I sent this to, emailed the following reply:

I respectfully recommend that before you have another "Eureka"

moment, you check the source of your information. A quick web search on

Google for "Klimakurve" would have led you to the following:

1. It is a fake. Was developed by a German school teacher named E.G. Beck.

2. He took a 1990 IPCC report and graph that tracked climate change in

Central England.

3. He altered the x axis marking from its original 1C to 5C which

exaggerated the past temperatures by a factor of 3.

4. Perhaps you could tell us all what "Benthic Oxygen Isotopes" means? For

example, a Benthic Zone is "the lowest level of a body of water, such as an

ocean or lake".

And I think that I saw Elvis in the Interglacial Globe picture. Or was it

the Glacial Globe? Can't remember.

If the particular graph I randomly found on the internet turns out to not be perfectly accurate it is still besides the point: any reliable long term temperature reconstruction will look fundamentally the same, and will still serve to excellently demonstrate the point I was trying to make. No offense, but anyone who seriously studies this and continues to ignore the climate history of our earth is an idiot: the Earth's climate has always, and will always, be in a state of change, and warming phases have regularly occurred that were far greater than anything like our paltry warming today.

I do not recommend you spend a lot of time arguing with AGW promoters, it is amazing on two counts:

1, how easily you can demolish their arguments

2, how easily they refuse to recognize it.

[Carlos 0]

And I don't understand the comment about Benthic Oxygen Isotopes; measurements of oxygen isotopes are regularly used as a reconstruction proxy. Perhaps there is something I don't know about this particular case, but unless the critique comes from a source other than realclimate.org I don't want to take it seriously!

[Capitalist Man 0]

But the worst thing is the dropping of our climate's historical context: the Earth is incredibly old, and climate change happens over long intervals

You hit on the head. I remember catching Al Gore on Oprah one time and he took a statistical range of 14 years to show global warming. The Earth is billions of years old, but let's take a range of 14 years.

Anyone that took high school science should be able to pick away at the retardation in their theory. In fact, when I ask people what exactly is the process of global warming, they give me different answers. I've hear sun rays bounce off the ocean and get caught in the greenhouse gases. I heard sun rays heat the ocean and this heat is trapped. I heard that long wave radiation produced by the Earth gets absorbed by greenhouse gases causing heating. I heard that greenhouse gases alter the type of radiation the Earth creates, which means we end up getting different radiation from the sun(which happens to heat us up).

Among environmentalists, they don't even have a consensus on the theory, let alone a consensus on the science.

When ever I ask for proof, all I see is the "cause and effect" crap which no scientist (real scientist) would ever claim. "Well, it's hot today, so there must be global warming", "Well, there are less icecaps, there must be global warming", "Well, CO2 went up and temperature went up, so CO2 made temperature go up." The last one is the most common one I get.

Finally when I "logically" stump these people by boiling it right down for what I'm looking for "the proof", I get this typical response "Well, wouldn't you think these policies would be good for the environment anyway?"

I feel like shaking them. I don't think these people even put more than 30 seconds of thought into the crap they believe and feel they have a right to push onto other people. It's dangerous. It makes me sick that people like that can vote and change policy. It's scary. I feel like shaking them, "I want to be able to heat my home. I want to have electricity 24hrs a day. I want to drive my car, just for the sake of driving. Piss off."

[alann 0]

I feel like shaking them. ... I feel like shaking them...

Oh, so you're the one causing global warming. The latest theory is that the shaking of environmentalists is causing them to overheat, resulting in a net increase in temperature. Please be careful.

An alternative explanation is equally anthropogenic: If Al Gore had to buy carbon offset credits equal to the amount of hot air he expels into the atmosphere, he'd have to put his house, his SUV, and his jet up for sale.

[piz 0]

If Al Gore had to buy carbon offset credits equal to the amount of hot air he expels into the atmosphere, he'd have to put his house, his SUV, and his jet up for sale.

He could just buy 'em back again, since the company he buys his carbon credits from is owned by...Al Gore.

[bborg 0]

And again this year.

Storm may leave thousands in darkness for days

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Utility companies and road crews prepared for the worst Wednesday as a winter storm barreled into the Northeast, while officials in areas already hit hard by the blast warned it may be days before some shivering communities have electricity again.

The storm has been blamed for at least 19 deaths, shuttered government offices and kept kids home from dozens of schools from the Southern plains to the East Coast.

"We fully expect this to be one of the largest outages we've ever had," said Mel Coleman, CEO of the North Arkansas Electric Cooperative in Salem. "Right now, we're just hoping it's days and not weeks."

And yet, Yahoo! recently helped to spread more global warming hysteria. Ice breaking off Antarctica