The 2009 Foster et al paper (In Press) "Comment on 'Influence of the Southern Oscillation on tropospheric temperature' by J. D. McLean, C. R. de Freitas, and R. M. Carter" was written by a who's who of climate scientists. The authors include G. Foster, J. D. Annan, P. D. Jones, M. E. Mann, B. Mullan, J. Renwick, J. Salinger, G. A. Schmidt, and K. E. Trenberth. Their comment is summarized by a sentence in the abstract: "Their [McLean, Freitas, and Carter's] analysis is incorrect in a number of ways, and greatly overstates the influence of ENSO on the climate system."
Link to Preprint (The Google link to the pdf version of the preprint is no longer operational): (Google Cache Link)
This post does not discuss the analysis by Carter et al nor does it examine the methods used by Foster et al to critique it. This post lists the papers cited by Foster et al that determine "the connection between ENSO and large-scale temperature variability, particularly with regard to the role of ENSO in any long-term warming trends, that has been carried out over the past two decades," and discusses the errors that are common to those papers.
Earth Changes
Australia's Senate rejected the government's climate-change legislation, forcing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to amend the bill or call an early election.
Senators voted 42 to 30 against the law, which included plans for a carbon trading system similar to one used in Europe. Australia, the world's biggest coal exporter, was proposing to reduce greenhouse gases by between 5 percent and 15 percent of 2000 levels in the next decade.
Rudd, who needs support from seven senators outside the government to pass laws through the upper house, can resubmit the bill after making amendments. A second rejection after a three-month span would give him a trigger to call an election.
Senators voted 42 to 30 against the law, which included plans for a carbon trading system similar to one used in Europe. Australia, the world's biggest coal exporter, was proposing to reduce greenhouse gases by between 5 percent and 15 percent of 2000 levels in the next decade.
Rudd, who needs support from seven senators outside the government to pass laws through the upper house, can resubmit the bill after making amendments. A second rejection after a three-month span would give him a trigger to call an election.
The lunatic ambitions of the "man-made" climate change fanatics are reaching new heights. They also pose a serious danger to human survival - the very objective they claim to champion. Among the latest Frankenstein proposals are "cloud ships" to generate more cloud and deflect the sun's rays. This scheme envisages 1,900 wind-powered ships cruising through the world's oceans creating bad weather.
Scientists insist the effects would be purely local (how can climate interference be localised, without a domino effect?) and that it could be reversed. This would cost a mere $9 billion, compared to the $395 trillion it would cost to launch mirrors into space to deflect the sun. We should count ourselves lucky this fruitcake scheme to switch off the light that sustains life on earth is too expensive to be implemented.
Scientists insist the effects would be purely local (how can climate interference be localised, without a domino effect?) and that it could be reversed. This would cost a mere $9 billion, compared to the $395 trillion it would cost to launch mirrors into space to deflect the sun. We should count ourselves lucky this fruitcake scheme to switch off the light that sustains life on earth is too expensive to be implemented.
A magnitude-6.6 earthquake struck south of Tokyo at 7:49 a.m. local time today, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, the third temblor to rock the Japanese capital since Aug. 9.
The earthquake hit 312 kilometers (186 miles) south of Tokyo at a depth of 57 kilometers, shaking buildings in the capital, the weather agency said on its Web site. There were no reports of injuries or damage.
A magnitude-6.5 earthquake to the southwest of Tokyo two days ago left one person dead, 123 people injured and damaged 5,192 houses, according to Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency. A magnitude-6.9 quake struck to the west of today's quake on Aug. 9.
The earthquake hit 312 kilometers (186 miles) south of Tokyo at a depth of 57 kilometers, shaking buildings in the capital, the weather agency said on its Web site. There were no reports of injuries or damage.
A magnitude-6.5 earthquake to the southwest of Tokyo two days ago left one person dead, 123 people injured and damaged 5,192 houses, according to Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency. A magnitude-6.9 quake struck to the west of today's quake on Aug. 9.
Summary for Policy Makers
Senator John Kerry's statement in early August 2009 about "global warming" before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he chairs, was false in every particular, says SPPI, leading him to draw the incorrect conclusion that "global warming" was a threat to national security. The Senator got every fact wrong -
Wilkins Ice Shelf: Senator Kerry said the recent cracking of the thin "ice-bridge" linking the Wilkins Ice Shelf to the Antarctic Ice Shelf was caused by "global warming". It was not: there has been no statistically-significant "global warming" for almost 15 years.
Senator John Kerry's statement in early August 2009 about "global warming" before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he chairs, was false in every particular, says SPPI, leading him to draw the incorrect conclusion that "global warming" was a threat to national security. The Senator got every fact wrong -
Wilkins Ice Shelf: Senator Kerry said the recent cracking of the thin "ice-bridge" linking the Wilkins Ice Shelf to the Antarctic Ice Shelf was caused by "global warming". It was not: there has been no statistically-significant "global warming" for almost 15 years.
A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 struck central Japan early Tuesday morning, injuring more than 100 people, setting off a tsunami warning and swaying buildings 90 miles away in Tokyo. The quake struck at 5:07 a.m. Tuesday off the coast of Shizuoka prefecture, 90 miles southwest of Tokyo, and was centered about 14 miles underground, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The agency immediately issued a tsunami warning for parts of Japan's Pacific coast. Small waves of around 16 inches reached Omaezaki and other coastal towns in Shizuoka before the warning was lifted about two hours later.
The agency immediately issued a tsunami warning for parts of Japan's Pacific coast. Small waves of around 16 inches reached Omaezaki and other coastal towns in Shizuoka before the warning was lifted about two hours later.
© Scott Thong
The Goracle
The Goracle
The power of mass manias is reinforced by severe disapproval of any questioning of their certain truth. Any doubt is seen not just as error needing correction but as conscious deliberate evil deserving expulsion or extermination. With adherents permitted only to support the established dogma, these movements tend to gather followers rapidly. But they also soon become afflicted with a growing disconnect from reality which they can neither acknowledge nor adjust for.
As no believer dares express anything other than certainty, social manias tend to persist for some time after their disconnect with reality has become obvious to all. In the face of such recalcitrant reality, leaders are forced to become ever more extreme in their proclamations. This then often leads to a zenith of zealotry and disconnect just before increasingly obvious reality finally forces them to make some small admission of error. The spell is then broken and the faith collapses.
Michigan just experienced its coldest July on record; global temperatures haven't risen in more than a decade; Great Lakes water levels have resumed their 30-year cyclical rise (contrary to a decade of media scare stories that they were drying up due to global warming), and polls show that climate change doesn't even make a list of Michigan voters' top-ten concerns.
Yet in an interview with the Detroit News Monday, Senator Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) - recently appointed to the Senate Energy Committee - made clear that fighting the climate crisis is her top priority.
Yet in an interview with the Detroit News Monday, Senator Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) - recently appointed to the Senate Energy Committee - made clear that fighting the climate crisis is her top priority.
© NCDC/NESDIS/NOAA
From NOAA/NCDC
The July 2009 temperature for the contiguous United States was below the long-term average, based on records going back to 1895, according to a preliminary analysis by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
The average July temperature of 73.5 degrees F was 0.8 degrees F below the 20th century average. Precipitation across the contiguous United States in July averaged 2.90 inches, which is 0.14 inches above the 1901-2000 average.
In his recent column in the Calgary Herald, Prof. David Mayne Reid marched out a squad of seven straw men to explain why "so many" people do not "accept climate change data." Among the reasons the professor suggested were fear of unpleasant truths; a genetic incompetence at managing slow-motion disasters; short-term economic thinking; selfishness; ignorance; excessive humility about the ability of humanity to affect the climate; and misinformation campaigns that buy people off.
Reid offers no evidence in imputing such base motivations to those who disagree with him, dismissing the need to back up his claims with hauteur worthy of Marie Antoinette when he says "I am not going to bother refuting such silliness." Naturally, with the profound egotism of the ivory-tower academician, he does not allow for any possibility that people might disagree with him for perfectly valid reasons, and that they could be both honest and sincere in holding a different interpretation of climate data.
With all due respect for the professor, I'd like to offer up five reasons that people might not accept the catastrophic modelling exercises and horror stories that he seems to have confused with actual climate change data.
Reid offers no evidence in imputing such base motivations to those who disagree with him, dismissing the need to back up his claims with hauteur worthy of Marie Antoinette when he says "I am not going to bother refuting such silliness." Naturally, with the profound egotism of the ivory-tower academician, he does not allow for any possibility that people might disagree with him for perfectly valid reasons, and that they could be both honest and sincere in holding a different interpretation of climate data.
With all due respect for the professor, I'd like to offer up five reasons that people might not accept the catastrophic modelling exercises and horror stories that he seems to have confused with actual climate change data.
Comment: Quoting Senator Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.): Scientists mull quiet '09 hurricane season
NOAA Lowers Hurricane Season Outlook
Dr. Gray's updated hurricane forecast 2009: Good news
Still No Tropical Storms? Must Be Global Warming
US: Mild season in Tornado Alley frustrates scientists
Note to NCDC climate report authors: try using the telephone next time
The mental aberrations being displayed in the global warming camp are showing more and more what our leaders are made of - or at least who and what they are.