Global Warming Science Updates

Dispatches from the UN Climate Conference

jplichta — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 23:00:00 -0800

CEI's team (Marlo Lewis, Richard Morrison, Isaac Post, and I) arrived in Montreal at 8:35 this morning and, after checking in to our hotel, reached the Palais des Congres just after 10. After registering, we immediately went to an NGO side event held by the Pew Center of Global Climate Change to discuss their report on the results of their "Climate Dialogue at Pocantico."

The Abdication of Oversight

jplichta — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 23:00:00 -0800

Rep. Dennis Kucinich's (D-OH) recently made statements implying that the President hid evidence linking hurricanes to global warming, but a leading hurricane researcher calls this "playing politics with climate science."

Scientists Recent Comments on Global Warming and Hurricanes

jplichta — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 23:00:00 -0800

"Scientists' Recent Comments on Global Warming and Hurricanes" examines recent claims that hurricanes are becoming dramatically worse, and that global warming is influencing the numbers, frequency and intensity of recent hurricanes in the busy 2004-2005 seasons. One focus is recent controversy over papers by Webster and Curry (Science, 2005) and by Kerry Emanuel (Nature, 2005), claiming a positive connection.

"This paper is a bit different," says Ferguson, "because it presents the discussion directly from the participating scientists via popular press commentaries and unedited internet blogs. It makes for some highly interesting reading." The paper demonstrates how disputes over the science of the hot topics of global warming and hurricanes are spilling over into the public arena.

Climate Change and the Insurance Industry A Critical look at the Ceres report: Availability and Affordability of Insurance Und

jplichta — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 23:00:00 -0700

The Ceres report fails to make the case that the impacts of climate change to events such as floods, windstorms, thunderstorms, hail storms, ice storms, wildfires, droughts, and heat waves are already being felt in the United States and that their impacts will grow into the future in a scientifically defensible manner. Its analyses are inadequate and ill-formed, and it ignores a large, robust body of literature on the subject whose conclusions run opposite to those found in the Ceres report.

Using global warming to create conditions for life on Mars

jplichta — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 23:00:00 -0800

Injecting synthetic "super" greenhouse gases into the Martian atmosphere could raise the planet's temperature enough to melt its polar ice caps and create conditions suitable for sustaining biological life. In fact, a team of researchers suggests that introducing global warming on the Red Planet may be the best approach for warming the planet's frozen landscape and turning it into a habitable world in the future.

Detecting secondary aerosols

jplichta — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 23:00:00 -0800

COPAP has developed a new detection device that will aid research into global climate change, environmental studies, life-science research and environmental monitoring and improve understanding on aerosols.

2500 minus one

jplichta — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 23:00:00 -0800

Dr. Christopher Landsea of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administrations Hurricane Research Division at NOAAs Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, has withdrawn as an author of the Fourth Assessment Report under preparation by the UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for release in 2007.

Science archive: Solar variations and climate

jplichta — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

GlobalWarming.org science archive

Carbon sequestration archive

jplichta — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

Pachauri must resign as head of UN climate panel

jplichta — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

The Competitive Enterprise Institute today called on Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri to resign as chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the grounds that his political activism fatally compromises his IPCC responsibilities.

JunkScience: Antarctic warming

jplichta — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

While the enhanced greenhouse hypothesis insists the Antarctic should demonstrate the most dramatic response to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels due to its cold, dry atmosphere, the simple fact is the Antarctic is not cooperating.

Sarewitz says global warming not to blame for tsunami

jplichta — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

Some quickly suggested that an increase in the frequency of natural disasters such as the tsunami were a harbinger of what we have in store because of the increase of Earths greenhouse gases resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. Nothing could be further from the truth, says Daniel Sarewitz, a professor of science and society and director of the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at ASU.

U.N.: No 'natural' disasters?

jplichta — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

The United Nations is trying to blame natural disasters on, of all things, people. President Bush, however, is standing in its way.

CEI comments on proposed New Jersey CO2 rule

jplichta — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

The proposed rule is a conceptual muddle. Logically, DEP cannot classify CO2 as an air contaminant unless it is prepared to apply the same designation to water vaporthe atmospheres main greenhouse gas. Presumably, DEP has no intention to cap steam from nuclear power plants, or evaporation from public green spaces, but it should be aware of the regulatory folly that its argument implicitly demands.

Stratospheric cooling?

jplichta — Sun, 16 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

One of the more interesting "Sky Is Falling" postulations made in recent years has been the claim that the apparently cooling stratosphere is masking observation of anticipated warming in the troposphere. Quaintly, such claimants point to satellite MSU (Microwave Sounding Unit) stratosphere data suggesting such cooling to try to invalidate satellite MSU troposphere data, data which obstinately declines to demonstrate the trend Big Warming requires to maintain the scare and nurture the cash cow.

Arctic warming update

jplichta — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

Once again claims are flying thick and fast regarding dramatic, in fact, unprecedented Arctic warming. Once again, we look at the available data, now updated to the end of 2004. Once again, we find the claims to be dead flat wrong.

Consensus, truisms and straw men

jplichta — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

An examination of the form the much-touted scientific consensus actually takes reveals that it does not mandate policy choices.

"Global Warming" at a glance: December 2004

jplichta — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

As determined by NOAA Satellite-mounted MSUs

Tsunami of the absurd

jplichta — Sun, 09 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

One has to assume that respectable academics who talk about tsunamis know these numbers, and the nugatory nature of global warming compared to seismic inundations. So, why argue the sky is falling?

Environmentalists dispute tsunami quotes

jplichta — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0800

Last week's column cited quotes from the British branches of two environmental groups, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, blaming the Indian Ocean tsunami on global warming. Both groups have disputed the quotes.