Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

A very interesting article in the Telegraph:

The world has never seen such freezing heat - Telegraph
The world has never seen such freezing heat


By Christopher Booker

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 16/11/2008



Have your say Read comments

A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.
A sudden cold snap brought snow to London in OctoberThis was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.
So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.
The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.
A GISS spokesman lamely explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from another body, and that GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with. This is an astonishing admission: the figures published by Dr Hansen's institute are not only one of the four data sets that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relies on to promote its case for global warming, but they are the most widely quoted, since they consistently show higher temperatures than the others.
If there is one scientist more responsible than any other for the alarm over global warming it is Dr Hansen, who set the whole scare in train back in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Again and again, Dr Hansen has been to the fore in making extreme claims over the dangers of climate change. (He was recently in the news here for supporting the Greenpeace activists acquitted of criminally damaging a coal-fired power station in Kent, on the grounds that the harm done to the planet by a new power station would far outweigh any damage they had done themselves.)
Yet last week's latest episode is far from the first time Dr Hansen's methodology has been called in question. In 2007 he was forced by Mr Watts and Mr McIntyre to revise his published figures for US surface temperatures, to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s, as he had claimed, but the 1930s.
Another of his close allies is Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, who recently startled a university audience in Australia by claiming that global temperatures have recently been rising "very much faster" than ever, in front of a graph showing them rising sharply in the past decade. In fact, as many of his audience were aware, they have not been rising in recent years and since 2007 have dropped.
Dr Pachauri, a former railway engineer with no qualifications in climate science, may believe what Dr Hansen tells him. But whether, on the basis of such evidence, it is wise for the world's governments to embark on some of the most costly economic measures ever proposed, to remedy a problem which may actually not exist, is a question which should give us all pause for thought.

Leslie

Yes that is interesting and I heard some time ago that global temperatures have not increased over the last ten years and as was said have actually decreased. It has also been reported that Arctic ice has been increasing too.

I think it does indicate a great con for the convenience of the politicians since it a heaven sent excuse for them for their policies.

I wonder why this bunch are supporting a third runway at LHR in order to double air passengers carried when they are jumping up and down over greenhouse gases!

Les

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

The big issue I have is the sheer evangelism being demonstrated by the people pushing the whole "mankind created global warming" agenda.

As more facts become available the whole idea is losing its credibility... not that it appears to have any in first place (IMHO)

hodgy0_2

look -- that fact is that the phrase "save the planet" is totally redundant

the planet doesn't need saving -- in 100 thousand years it will be "what it will be" -- whatever we do to it in the meantime

we should concentrate on saving people imho - the planet will be here long after we've pissed our existence up the wall

and the fact is climates change and species get extinct -- otherwise wed be sharing the planet with dinosaurs and palm trees

stilover

Before all the "Global Warming" came around, they always talked of Global cooling, and how the Earth was going to plunge into another ice age.

It was sh*te then, and it's sh*te now. Global warming is just a fantastic excuse by governments around the world to raise taxes.

Also gives the Enviromentalists something to do through the day.

Truth is, when the sun gets hotter, we get hotter. When the sun gets cooler, we get cooler. End of day, over time the sun will get larger and hotter until our whole planet is molten rock, then eventually swallowed up by the sun itself.

Biggest con going this Global warming rubbish.

Well, apart from Man landing on the Moon, and Alkieder being responsible for 9/11

r32

Its all a big con................

Tam the bam

The latest GW taxing campaign on TV just now seems to be targeting motorists (again ) leaving their car idling, they have even set up a phone number for the gullible busy bodies to phone if they spot a car idling!

jimmyv

Hah, what an absolute crock of ****.

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

Just to add in my tuppence worth.

I genuinely have no issue with people saying that the Climate is changing. What I do have a major issue with is: using spurious 'scientific' methods, decrying ANYONE that shows the slightest degree of skepticism (all, and please note ALL scientific advancement is achieved through skepticism), or just knee jerk blaming the wrong thing!

If we spend billions and billions solving the 'wrong' problem, the effect on the Global economy and subsequently the lives of every person in World will be negatively affected.

ilogikal1

Government bodies have realised this "Global Warming" thing doesn't really exist; it's "Climate Change" now. Same cause, different effects... obviously

GC8

The climate is constantly changing. Tudors ice skated on the frozen Thames and the Romans grew grapes in Northumberland.....

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

The Vikings called the new found country Greenland... because it was GREEN.

There are Viking farms now being exposed that have been covered in ice for centuries. They farmed there and successfully too.

All these historical facts are conveniently forgotten by the evangelists, as is always the case

stilover

Why let the truth get in the way of a money making Tax policy?

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

but it isn't just the Tax is it? It also impinges upon our personal liberties... people are being treated like pariahs because of life-style choices or simply by mixing up their recycling!

GC8

Their motivation isnt revenue generation either: thats just the appeal to the less zealous. The true believers are the Green, 'get death off the road', pedestrianise everywhere, no more roads brigade. I honestly dont understand their motivation. I understand why theyve zealously jumped on this bandwagon as it it gives them power and influence, as well as credibility: what I dont understand is what motivated their type initially.

MrRA

Didn't the last Ice Age only end around 10,000 years ago?? In terms of the chronology of the Earth that isn't so long ago.

What caused the Earth at that time to cool down? Subsequently, what then caused it to warm back up?

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

In respect to the present global 'debate'. It's more relevant to ask ' what didn't cause the warming / cooling cycle'

It sure as heck wasn't man.

We're actually in what is called an 'inter-glacial'. A warm period between Ice Ages... it's a natural cycle

Martin2005

Well I'v e got some news for you guys. We have a new president and he is going to committ the US to dramatically cut down emissions. At long last the worlds biggests populter is going to act.

More news for the left behind, head in the sand SN massive, the debate has moved on, no serious body is having the debate about causation anyomore, the game has moved on. We are hopefully in solution mode now.

Obama brings US in from the cold - Climate Change, Environment - The Independent

GC8

Good: America is like a pig at the worlds trough. That doesnt validate the doom-laden theories though...

Martin2005

Neither does it invalidate them

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

Martin, with all due respect I hope you're being sarcastic with that post, because there are no circumstances under which I could take the comments seriously.

TelBoy

What about circumstances that showed unequivocal proof that mankind was to blame for current climate change, Kieran? What then?

Geezer

Indeed, but seeing as our governments pedalled out bullsh*t about WMDs so they could invade Iraq, you can't really help doubting their motives.

Geezer

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

None have been provided... this is the whole point.

hodgy0_2

people just dont get it

I would not deny people are having a causal affect on the earths climate -- for the worse

But the Earth will take WHATEVER we can throw at it and in 100 thousand years will be in exactly the same condition even if we had not existed -- therfore it cannot be about "saving the planet"

Whatever the USA does is irrelevant -- there are 2 billion people in India\china -- they all aspire to the same prosperity levels as people in the west -- and they are entitled to arn't they? Aircon Cars etc etc, why should we in the west have some sort of preferential access to the worlds natural resources

getting an old lady in a tower block in Glasgow to switch to low energy light bulbs is going to make f*ck all difference to our Global situation.

in short -- its gonna take more than Obama to do anything about it -- and in my personal opinion, in a world were we can sit by and watch 500 thousand humans get machetted to death in Africa is a world were people are not going to care to much about a glacier retreating 2 feet a year -- especially when it hits them in the pocket -- as we are seeing right now

Coffee, Wake, Smell

TelBoy

Not reading any more, not when assumptions of this magnitude are being made.

At the end of the day, YOU DO NOT KNOW FOR SURE THAT THIS IS TRUE. You just believe the "political scam/taxation" side of the story. Fair enough, but don't start stating "facts" like the above with absolutely zero foundation.

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

especially as the Ice Shelves are INCREASING in size.... why should people take any of this seriously when the supposed disasters AREN'T actually happening?

Has anyone heard of the hole in the Ozone layer for any time? this is because it's shrunk. That will be GOOD news about the environment, so they won't mention that one.

TelBoy

Kieran, how many millions of pounds would you like to bet that the ozone hole is, on average, bigger this year than last year (but not at 2006's peak)? I'll do five million if you like?