Earth ChangesS


Propaganda

Damage Control: NOAA claims water vapor slowed recent 'global warming trend'

Sid Perkins
ScienceNews
Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:21 UTC
A sudden and unexplained drop in the amount of water vapor present high in the atmosphere almost a decade ago has substantially slowed the rate of warming at Earth's surface in recent years, scientists say.

In late 2000 and early 2001, concentrations of water vapor in a narrow slice of the lower stratosphere dropped by 0.5 parts per million, or about 10 percent, and have remained relatively stable since then. Because the decline was noted by several types of instruments, including some on satellites and others lofted on balloons, the sharp decrease is presumed to be real, says Karen Rosenlof, a meteorologist at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.

And because water vapor is a powerful greenhouse gas, the decline has slowed the increase of global temperatures, Rosenlof, Susan Solomon, also of NOAA in Boulder, and their colleagues report online January 28 and in an upcoming Science.

Comment: It's blatantly obvious that global warming data has been manipulated and is deeply flawed, yet these so called scientists are still basing their research on fairy tales.

See:
Scientists in Stolen E-mail Scandal Hid Climate Data

Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn't been verified

More Scandals Implicate Delusional IPCC Climate Scientists

Climategate: CRU Was But the Tip of the Iceberg

First Climategate, now Glaciergate

The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam

IPCC climate gurus apologize for glacier 'error' after being called on their BS

Read More...
Better Earth

Scientists in Stolen E-mail Scandal Hid Climate Data

Ben Webster and Jonathan Leake
Times Online
Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:09 UTC
The university at the centre of the climate change row over stolen e-mails broke the law by refusing to hand over its raw data for public scrutiny.

The University of East Anglia breached the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to comply with requests for data concerning claims by its scientists that man-made emissions were causing global warming.

The Information Commissioner's Office decided that UEA failed in its duties under the Act but said that it could not prosecute those involved because the complaint was made too late, The Times has learnt. The ICO is now seeking to change the law to allow prosecutions if a complaint is made more than six months after a breach.
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Better Earth

Better Food Makes High-Latitude Animals Bigger


University of Chicago Press Journals
Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:00 UTC
New solution to 163-year old puzzle?

New research suggests that animals living at high latitudes grow better than their counterparts closer to the equator because higher-latitude vegetation is more nutritious. The study, published in the February issue of The American Naturalist, presents a novel explanation for Bergmann's Rule, the observation that animals tend to be bigger at higher latitudes.

Ever since Christian Bergmann made his observation about latitude and size in 1847, scientists have been trying to explain it. The traditional explanation is that body temperature is the driving force. Because larger animals have less surface area compared to overall body mass, they don't lose heat as readily as smaller animals. That would give big animals an advantage at high latitudes where temperatures are generally colder.
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Bizarro Earth

A New Kind Of Lightning Discovered

Emilie Lorditch
PhysOrg
Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:00 UTC
Image
© Bretwood HigmanLightning in the ash cloud atop Mount Redoubt from the March 28 eruption.
When volcano seismologist Stephen McNutt at the University of Alaska Fairbanks's Geophysical Institute saw strange spikes in the seismic data from the Mount Spurr eruption in 1992, he had no idea that his research was about to take an electrifying turn.

"The seismometers were actually picking up lightning strikes," said McNutt. "I knew that I had to reach out to the physicists studying lightning."

With McNutt's curiosity about volcanic lightning sparked, he teamed up with physicist and electrical engineer Ronald Thomas and Sonja Behnke, a graduate student in atmospheric physics at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, N.M. for a unique collaboration in order to learn more about volcanic lighting.

When the Mount Redoubt volcano started making seismic noise in January 2009, McNutt alerted Thomas and Behnke that this would be a great opportunity to capture some new volcanic lightning data. By the time the volcano erupted in March, the team had four Lightning Mapping Arrays set up to monitor the lightning from the eruption.
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Life Preserver

7 killed, 2,500 stuck in Peru mudslide


Press TV
Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:44 UTC
Peru mudslide
© unknownMudslide floodwaters trap thousands
Heavy rains accompanied by mudslide have killed seven people while trapping more than 2,500 tourists, who were visiting the renowned Machu Picchu ruins in Peru.

According to emergency services by late Tuesday, the rescue team managed to airlift 125 foreign tourists from the historic site to safer places, leaving back many others in frustration and distress.

Around 1,900 tourists were stranded in nearby Aguas Calientes and 670 more on the Inca Trail, a narrow Andean passage up to Machu Picchu that takes four days to complete and which was cut in several places by landslides.

"People are sleeping in the street square, they are sleeping in gyms, in schools, on trains, in makeshift tents. People are just distressed," Julie Nemcich, 29, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from Aguas Calientes, AFP reported.
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Snowman

US: Winter snow totals trudge deep into records

Tom Alex
The Des Moines Register
Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:00 UTC
Image
© Rodney White
The last time there was more snow in Des Moines in December and January, the world was emerging from a several-hundred-year era of cold temperatures dubbed the "Little Ice Age."

Des Moines received 6.4 inches of snow Monday at the airport, pushing the total snowfall since Dec. 1 in the city to 41.4 inches. That topped the 37.2 inches in Des Moines during the same period in 1897-1898.

The record snowfall for Des Moines in December and January is 50.2 inches in 1885-86. Elwynn Taylor, Iowa State University Extension climatologist, said the world was coming out of the Little Ice Age in the 1880s.
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Newspaper

UN Climate Chief Refuses to Resign Over Glacier Report Error


RIA Novosti
Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:12 UTC
The head of the UN panel on climate change has brushed aside suggestions that he should resign in the wake of a row over a false report on the threat of global warming.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently admitted it made a mistake in its 2007 assessment of the rates of glacier melting in the Himalayas.

"I am not going to stand down, I am going to stand up," the BBC quoted Rajendra Pachauri as saying.

The IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 said that Himalayan glaciers were receding at an unprecedented speed and could melt to a fifth of current levels by 2035. The statement was widely disputed by the global scientific community.
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Igloo

Winter storm closes roads across Canadian Prairies


CTV News
Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:14 UTC
Canada blizzard conditions on Highway 1 wes
© UnknownTruck drivers struggle to navigate through blizzard conditions on Highway 1 west between Winnipeg and Portage-la-Prairie on Monday, Jan. 25, 2010.
A harsh blast of winter weather is wreaking havoc on the Prairies, with high winds and blowing snow making travel treacherous Monday across southern Manitoba -- even stopping snow plows.

Blizzard conditions continued throughout the Southern Red River Valley on Monday afternoon, where Environment Canada weather warnings are in affect.

"Strong north winds" were expected to "reduce visibilities to near zero in blowing snow," the warning said. "Gradual improvement is expected through the afternoon."

"We've got wind gusts of up to 80 kilometres per hour, so there is near zero visibility over parts of Manitoba," spokesperson Sandy Massey told The Canadian Press.

The storm closed the Trans-Canada Highway west of Winnipeg, as well as Highway 75 between Winnipeg and the U.S. border, the provincial government's website said.
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Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 5.8 Earthquake - Peru


US Geological Survey
Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:25 UTC
Earthquake Details
Peru 5.8 Earthquake - USGS
© US Geological SurveyEarthquake Location
Magnitude 5.8 CENTRAL PERU
Monday, January 25, 2010 at 22:52:47 UTC

Magnitude 5.8

Date-Time
* Monday, January 25, 2010 at 22:52:47 UTC
* Monday, January 25, 2010 at 05:52:47 PM at epicenter
* Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 8.546°S, 74.467°W

Depth 153.4 km (95.3 miles)

Region CENTRAL PERU

Distances
20 km (10 miles) SSE of Pucallpa, Peru
230 km (140 miles) WSW of Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil
240 km (150 miles) NE of Huanuco, Peru
485 km (300 miles) NE of LIMA, Peru
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Bizarro Earth

Maximum Height of Extreme Waves Up Dramatically in Pacific Northwest


ScienceDaily
Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Erica Harris/Oregon State UniversityWaves from a powerful storm crash into the seawall at Depoe Bay, Oregon.
A major increase in maximum ocean wave heights off the Pacific Northwest in recent decades has forced scientists to re-evaluate how high a "100-year event" might be, and the new findings raise special concerns for flooding, coastal erosion and structural damage.

The new assessment concludes that the highest waves may be as much as 46 feet, up from estimates of only 33 feet that were made as recently as 1996, and a 40 percent increase. December and January are the months such waves are most likely to occur, although summer waves are also significantly higher.

In a study just published online in the journal Coastal Engineering, scientists from Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries report that the cause of these dramatically higher waves is not completely certain, but "likely due to Earth's changing climate."

Using more sophisticated techniques that account for the "non-stationarity" in the wave height record, researchers say the 100-year wave height could actually exceed 55 feet, with impacts that would dwarf those expected from sea level rise in coming decades.
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