Earth ChangesS


Chess

Climate 'denial' is now a mental disorder

How odd that, last Monday, none of our media global warming groupies should have bothered to report what was billed to be "the largest ever demonstration for civil disobedience over climate change". There was talk of hundreds of thousands of protestors converging on Washington to hear Jim Hansen, the scientist who talks of coal-fired power stations as "factories of death", call yet again for all coal plants to be closed. Perhaps the lack of coverage was due to the fact that, before Hansen arrived to address a forlorn group of several hundred hippies, Washington was blanketed in nearly a foot of snow.

It was generally another bad week for the warmists. The Met Office, which has been one of the chief pushers of the global warming scare for 20 years, had to admit that this has been "Britain's coldest winter for 13 years", despite its prediction last September that the winter would be "milder than average". This didn't of course stop it predicting that 2009 will be one of "the top-five warmest years on record".

Alarm Clock

Climate hockey stick is broken

It has been shown in many contexts and has been the icon of where things have gone wrong with the climate since the pre-industrial times. This is known as the Mann curve or 'hockey stick' curve that shows the development of the Northern Hemisphere surface temperature over the last 600 years. A new Danish study breaking foundation of the curve.

"Hockey stick curve does not," says klimaforsker Bo Christiansen from Denmark's Climate Center and add. "That does not mean that we cancel the anthropogenic greenhouse effect, but the foundation has become more nuanced."

It caused great sensation, as Michael Mann and several others in 1998 published a curve of temperature evolution over the last 600 years in the northern hemisphere. The curve shows a steady, almost constant temperature of the first five centuries, interrupted by a sharp increase after 1900. It can be interpreted as if the natural variations are small compared to the anthropogenic warming. There followed a heated debate both inside and outside professional circles - a debate that will run yet.

Researchers at DMI now shows that the mathematical methods that are used for climate reconstruction, has serious limitations.

Bizarro Earth

Namibia declares emergency in areas hit by floods

Windhoek - Namibia's president on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in areas hit by what he said could be some of the worst floods in recent memory.

"It is with a heavy heart that I declare an emergency for the north-central and north-eastern parts of Namibia," President Hifikepunye Pohamba told reporters.

Frog

Irish Frogs Survived Ice Age

Ireland is not known for its wildlife, as much of it was wiped out in the Ice Age. But the single species of frog that lives on the Emerald Isle apparently toughed it out during that extreme climate event while the same type of frog back on the British mainland retreated.

Research by scientists at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Queen Mary, University of London, suggests that so-called common frogs (Rana temporaria) on Ireland survived by hanging out in a small ice-free refuge there, while those in Britain hit the high road.

Igloo

Scientists Claim Earth Is Undergoing Natural Climate Shift

University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee Study Could Realign Climate Change Theory

The bitter cold and record snowfalls from two wicked winters are causing people to ask if the global climate is truly changing.

The climate is known to be variable and, in recent years, more scientific thought and research has been focused on the global temperature and how humanity might be influencing it.

However, a new study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee could turn the climate change world upside down.

Scientists at the university used a math application known as synchronized chaos and applied it to climate data taken over the past 100 years.

Bizarro Earth

US: 2 minor earthquakes rattle Oklahoma

Two earthquakes were recorded within about 20 minutes of each other early this afternoon in northwest Del City. The first quake at 12:24 p.m. rated a 2.7 on the Richter scale, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The second quake at 12:41 p.m. rated a 2.5. The epicenters were near SE 18 between Bryant and Mansfield avenues.

Several workers at Wickline Methodist Church, about 3 miles east of the epicenter, felt the quakes. "It was just a mild vibration. The second time we heard something. It was a little bit stronger Nothing came off the walls," Judie Webb said. "The first time I barely felt it. I thought it was my imagination. The second time there was no doubt about it.

Bell

6.4 quake hits E Indonesia

An earthquake with magnitude of 6.4 rocked eastern parts of Indonesia on Monday evening, meteorology agency said here.

The quake struck at 21:15 Jakarta time (1415 GMT) with epicenter at 52 km southeast of Melonguane in North Sulawesi and at 26 km in depth, an official of the agency said.

Two minutes later an aftershock with magnitude of 5.3 occurred with epicenter at 72 km northeast of Melonguane and at 98 km in depth, the official said.

Target

5.0 earthquake strikes off New Zealand coast: USGS

A moderate 5.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of New Zealand Sunday, geologists said, but there were no reports of casualties or damage.

The US Geological Survey said the epicentre was about 148 kilometres (92 miles) northeast of Rotorua and 223 km east of Auckland.

The quake, which struck at 5:38 am (1738 GMT Saturday) was located around 184 km below sea level.

Target

5.1 earthquake hits W Papua, Indonesia

A tectonic quake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale hit Southwest Monokwari, West Papua, Indonesia, on Sunday, but there was no reports of casualties and material losses.

The quake, which occurred at 4:54 a.m. local time (21:54 GMT)), had no potential to trigger a tsunami, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) in Bandar Lampung said.

Target

4.7 quake jolts Mindanao, Philippines

An earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale jolted Mindanao Sunday afternoon, the United States Geological Service reported.

The quake was recorded at 03:54 p.m. local time (0754 GMT), and the epicenter was 55 km east northeast of Surigao, Mindanao, or 745 km southeast of Manila at a depth of 105.8 km, according to the report.

No casualties or damage has been reported.