global warming Archives - the patient investor

January 15, 2017

Intent as the enemy of truth | On Line Opinion

From Jennifer Marohasy:

When all 1,655 maximum temperature series for Australia are simply combined, and truncated to begin in 1910 the hottest years are 1980, 1914, 1919, 1915 and 1940.

…..Considering land temperature across Australia, 1914 was almost certainly the hottest year across southern Australia, and 1915 the hottest across northern Australia – or at least north-east Australia. But recent years come awfully close – because there has been an overall strong warming trend since at least 1960, albeit nothing catastrophic.

……there is compelling evidence that the Bureau of Meteorology remodels historical temperature data until it conforms to the human-caused global warming paradigm.

I would like to see more open debate around this issue rather than the typical “trust me I’m an expert” or “the science is settled” response.

Source: Intent as the enemy of truth – On Line Opinion – 9/1/2017

February 24, 2012

Climate change during the Earth’s history ~ Center for Sun-Climate Research

On long timescales the intensity of cosmic rays varies more emphatically because the influx from the Galaxy changes. During the past 500 million years, the Earth has passed through four ‘hothouse’ episodes, free of ice and with high sea levels, and four ‘icehouse’ episodes like the one we live in now, with ice-sheets, glaciers and relatively low sea levels.

Nir Shaviv of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, together with Ján Veizer of the Ruhr University and the University of Ottawa, links these changes to the journey of the Sun and the Earth through the Milky Way Galaxy. They blame the icehouse episodes on encounters with bright spiral arms, where cosmic rays are most intense (diagram 3).

Changes in Tropical Sea-surface Temperatures over the past 500 million years Compared to Cosmic-rays Intensities

3. The red curve shows changes in tropical sea-surface temperatures over the past 500 million years. In the blue curve, drawn upside down to match, cosmic-rays intensities have varied according to our position relative to the Galaxy’s spiral arms. After Shaviv and Veizer

More frequent chilling events, every 34 million years or so, occur whenever the solar system passes through with the mid-plane of the Galaxy.

via Center for Sun-Climate Research.

Comment:~ What does not appear to be adequately explained is the divergence between tropical sea-surface temperatures and cosmic ray intensities in the latest cycle.

February 21, 2012

Concerned Scientists Reply on Global Warming – WSJ.com

Science progresses by testing predictions against real world data obtained from direct observations and rigorous experiments. The stakes in the global-warming debate are much too high to ignore this observational evidence and declare the science settled. Though there are many more scientists who are extremely well qualified and have reached the same conclusions we have, we stress again that science is not a democratic exercise and our conclusions must be based on observational evidence.

The computer-model predictions of alarming global warming have seriously exaggerated the warming by CO2 and have underestimated other causes. Since CO2 is not a pollutant but a substantial benefit to agriculture, and since its warming potential has been greatly exaggerated, it is time for the world to rethink its frenzied pursuit of decarbonization at any cost.

via Concerned Scientists Reply on Global Warming – WSJ.com.