Category Archives: Environment

Climate Cycles-Part 1 Glacial Periods

Posted on July 16, 2013 | 2 comments

Climate cycles are continuously happening on Earth since its beginning estimated to be some 4.5 billion years ago. Detailing the earliest climate cycles can only be done by painting with the broadest of brushes.  In more recent times, proxies, such as ice cores and oxygen isotope measurements are available for use in reconstructing these cycles. The globe has experienced glaciers in relatively recent times and in the not too distant future will surely experience glaciers again. The profound changes that take place resulting in glacial periods are of great interest.

greenlandglacierhelheim533

Greenland Glacier–NOAA

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Posted in AGW, Environment, glaciers, Global Temperatures, Greenland, Ice Melt, Interglacial periods, Sea Ice, Solar System, Sun, sun and climate

Gasland Part II Reviewed

Posted on July 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

Gasland Part II, a sequel to “Gasland “, was released 28 June (a limited release according to Rotten Tomatoes).  It carries the same theme that fracking is bad. The documentary “stars” are Josh Fox, the director and Dennis Kucinich, former US Representative from Ohio. Can’t imagine that Kucinich is going to bring people into the theater.   The documentary has not yet appeared in the “Box Office” top 50 grossing films.  TheAmericanInterest.com reviewed the documentary with it’s posting “Gasland II: Muddying a Fractured Debate”.   The reviewer tries to play it down the middle saying that the movie and the movies critics tend to go over the top.  But he writes this:

Gasland II is chock-full of errors and falsehoods. Some might be unintentional (Fox readily admits that he’s a “theater guy,” not an engineer or chemist), but at least one seems to be a case of deceit. At one point, Fox throws up a graph purportedly showing the high rate of cement casing failures in fracking wells. Its steeply ascending red bars make for an alarming picture, and as he triumphantly explains, “[gas companies’] own documents showed that cement encasings failed in five percent of wells immediately upon drilling, and that the failure rate increased over time; that over a thirty year period, fifty percent of wells failed.” But the caption to the graph, barely visible in the film explains that it’s showing sustained casing pressure (SCP), a condition that can lead to cement casing failure. Worse, the graph showed the SCP only for offshore wells, explicitly stating, “[t]hese data do not include wells in state waters or land locations,” a fact conveniently left out of the film.

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Posted in AGW, Alternative Energy, Climate Alarmism, Coal, Electricity, Electricity from Coal, Environment, EPA, fossil fuels, Fracking/Shale Gas

June 13 Global Temperature Anomaly Update

Posted on July 11, 2013 | Leave a comment

The UAH satellite June 2013 global temperature anomaly increased 0.2°C over the May anomaly.  The Northern Hemisphere anomaly was up as would be expected as summer is underway and it is similar to the anomaly 12 months ago.   The big jump was in the Southern Hemisphere that seems odd in that it is winter there.   Remember,  what is significant is the long term trend.

satellitetempsjune13UAH_LT_1979_thru_June_2013_v5.6

YR     MON  GLOBAL  NH        SH     TROPICS

2012    1      -0.145   -0.088  -0.203    -0.245

2012    2      -0.140   -0.016  -0.263   -0.326

2012    3     +0.033  +0.064 +0.002   -0.238

2012    4     +0.230  +0.346 +0.114   -0.251

2012    5     +0.178  +0.338  +0.018  -0.102

2012    6     +0.244  +0.378  +0.111  -0.016

2012    7     +0.149  +0.263  +0.035  +0.146

2012    8     +0.210  +0.195  +0.225  +0.069

2012    9    +0.369   +0.376  +0.361  +0.174

2012   10 +0.367   +0.326   +0.409  +0.155

2012   11 +0.305   +0.319   +0.292  +0.209

012     12   +0.229   +0.153   +0.305  +0.199

2013    1   +0.497   +0.512     +0.481   +0.387

2013    2    +0.203  +0.372   +0.034  +0.195

2013    3   +0.200   +0.333   +0.068  +0.243

2013    4   +0.114    +0.128    +0.101    +0.165

2013    5   +0.083   +0.180    -0.015   +0.112

2013    6   +0.298   +0.337   +0.259  +0.221

Satellite Temperature Anomalies, °C 

cbdakota

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Posted in AGW, Environment, Global Temperatures, IPCC, UAH Satellite Temps

Finally–Prominent Global Warming Scientist Expressing Doubts About Climate Models’ Forecasts

Posted on July 11, 2013 | 1 comment

Man-made global warming forecast of high temperatures and high sea levels, for example, that indicate global catastrophes to come are the product of computer models. That the projections of the future by these models do not match reality has not escaped the skeptics.  Up until now, this fact has been ignored by most of the warmers.  However, a posting in “Nature, International Weekly Journal of Science” published 10 July 2013 quotes leaders of the man-made global warming theory casting doubts on the products of these models. Gavin Schmidt, Kevin Trenberth, Doug Smith, Stefan Rahmstorf, and Noel Keenlyside are expressing doubts.  If you actually follow the science and not the press releases, you know that these scientists are solidly in the warmer category.

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Posted in AGW, cap and trade, carbon tax, Climate Alarmism, Climate Models, CO2, Environment, fossil fuels, Global Temperatures, IPCC, Sea Ice

President Obama’s Climate Change Fantasies

Posted on July 7, 2013 | Leave a comment

The noted environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg thinks that President Obama has some fantasies about climate issues.  Lomborg posted on usatoday.com “Obama should confront climate change fantasies”.  In reviewing the President’s recent speech on his new climate policies, he lists these four:

  • Renewables are a major part of the solution today. No, they are almost trivial. Today, the world gets 81% of its energy from fossil fuels – by 2035, in the most green scenario, we will still get 79% from fossil fuels. Wind and solar will increase from 0.8% to 3.2% — impressive, but not what is going to matter.

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Posted in AGW, CO2, Coal, Domestic Energy, Electricity from Coal, Environment, fossil fuels, Fracking/Shale Gas, solar cells, Windpower

Environmentalist’s War On Poor People

Posted on June 26, 2013 | 3 comments

The site WUWT has a posting by Willard Eschenbach titled “How Environmental Organizations Are Destroying The Environment”.  Eschenbach relates some of his experiences living on the volcanic island of Vella Lovella in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands where he worked with the islanders to save their natural resources.

He says this:

Let me start with the two most important facts in the discussion about the global environment. First, half the people on the planet live on less than $2 and change per day.   People living on $2 per day don’t have house mortgages—most of them don’t own houses, or much of anything beyond a few rags of clothing.

Second, only developed countries have ever cleaned up their own environment. Only when a country’s inhabitants are adequately fed and clothed and sheltered from the storms can they afford to think about the environment. And far from cleaning up the environment as wealthy countries can afford to do, people in poor countries are very destructive to the environment. Folks in poor countries will burn every tree if they have to, and you would too if your kids were crying. They will eat every monkey and consume the chimpanzees as the final course, and you would too if your family were starving. They will bemoan the necessity, they don’t like doing it any more than you or I would … but they will do it.

Here’s the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic:

borderdominicanrepublichaiti-and-dr

Figure 1. Border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Guess which country contains eco-criminals that can afford to use fossil fuels, and which country contains nature-lovers who are dependent on natural renewable organic biomass for energy …

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Posted in AGW, Climate Alarmism, Environment, EPA, etc, Famine, NGO's eg Greenpeace/WWF

Climate Scientists Know Big Scarry Words

Posted on June 21, 2013 | Leave a comment

A conference of national forecasters was held this week in Exeter to discuss the future of the British climate following the spate of harsher than expected winters, and unusually wet summer since 2007.  Their forecasts of these events missed the mark almost entirely.

Sean Thomas posted on the Telegraph.Co.UK interviews he had with the Met (UK) Office in England.  He says that although he could not attend the meeting,”….. I had direct access to the meteorologists concerned, as I was in Exeter in spirit form, and I managed to speak to the principal actors”.   We hear by the grapevine that the principal actors are denying that they said what Thomas relates in his posting.   I leave it up to you to determine if the following are true and factual transcriptions.

First, I asked Stephen Belcher, the head of the Met Office Hadley Centre, whether the recent extended winter was related to global warming. Shaking his famous “ghost stick”, and fingering his trademark necklace of sharks’ teeth and mammoth bones, the loin-clothed Belcher blew smoke into a conch, and replied,

“Here come de heap big warmy. Bigtime warmy warmy. Is big big hot. Plenty big warm burny hot. Hot! Hot hot! But now not hot. Not hot now. De hot come go, come go. Now Is Coldy Coldy. Is ice. Hot den cold. Frreeeezy ice til hot again. Den de rain. It faaaalllll. Make pasty.”

Thomas moved on to Professor Rowan Sutton, Climate Director of NCAS at the University of Reading.

When pressed on the particular outlook for the British Isles. Professor Sutton shook his head, moaned eerily unto the heavens, and stuffed his fingers into the entrails of a recently disembowelled chicken, bought fresh from Waitrose in Teignmouth.

Hurling the still-beating heart of the chicken into a shallow copper salver, Professor Sutton inhaled the aroma of burning incense, then told the Telegraph: “The seven towers of Agamemnon tremble. Much is the discord in the latitude of Gemini. When, when cry the sirens of doom and love. Speckly showers on Tuesday.”

Well it is obvious the Met forecasts are being managed carefully.

The interviews somehow got garbled somewhere in the spirit world but, you have to admit Thomas can write a pretty funny story loaded with irony.

cbdakota

h/t to WUWT

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Posted in AGW, Climate Models, CO2, CRU Temps, Environment, Global Temperatures

May 2013 EV Sales Update and Price-Cutting Is The New Normal

Posted on June 21, 2013 | Leave a comment

Yes, I am really late in posting this info.  None-the-less, here is the data.

Nissan Leaf had a big May selling 2,138 vehicles. Their second best month all time behind March’s 2,236 Leafs sold.  Year to date sales are 7,614.

Volt May sales were 1,607 with year to date sales of 7,157 putting Volt in second place behind the Leaf.

It is reported that Chevy dealers have more than 9,000 Volts in inventory.  With the 2014 soon to be in the show rooms, the dealers need to sell the 2013 model inventory.

Price-cutting going on across the board

Fewer sales than needed and California’s requirement that all major makers must offer a minimum number of “zero emission vehicles” are pushing the manufacturers to cut prices.

Nissan reduced the price of the Leaf by 18%, or $6,000, when it launched a new, stripped-down model at the beginning of the year.

The Detroit Bureau.com says:

A California buyer can now purchase a Chevrolet Volt for as little as $28,495.  The base price for the plug-in is $39,995 but all buyers qualify for $4,000 off on a 2013 model and $5,000 off for a 2012 Volt. They also can get an extra $1,000 if they are currently leasing a non-GM vehicle. Meanwhile, the federal government provides a $7,500 tax credit while the state kicks in another $1,500.

Chevrolet also is now reducing lease pricing for the Volt to $269 a month for 36 months, with a $2,399 downpayment. 

Recently, a posting maintained that GM had to sell the Volt for about $75,000 to break even.  How long can they keep the Volt line going at this rate?

Detroit Bureau also reports that the Honda Fit EV’s will reduce the lease pricing from $389 to $259 a month, and customers will no longer face mileage limitations.

Clearly the price-cutting reflects the lack of enthusiasm by the US population for these vehicles.   The manufacturers of the vehicles are likely to be operating at a loss on each car.  The government (and thus the average tax payer) is spending a lot of money on an idea that is not showing signs of capturing the public’s imagination.

cbdakota

 

 

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Posted in Batteries, Electric Vehicles, Environment, EPA, fossil fuels, Government Regulations, Personal Automobiles, US Auto Manufacturers, US Manufacturing Companies

“Ensemble Of Climate Models Is Statistically Meaningless”

Posted on June 19, 2013 | 1 comment

A new posting on WUWT titled  “The “ensemble” of models is completely meaningless, statistically” by Robert G. Brown, Duke University Physics Department is getting a lot of favorable  attention.  He says that if you know statistics, you would recognize that the 73 CMIP models grouped together has no meaning.(See my posting here for more info on CMIP models.)

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Posted in AGW, Climate Alarmism, Climate Models, Environment, Global Temperatures, IPCC, United Nations

Chinese Academy Of Science Adopt Heartland’s “Climate Change Reconsidered”

Posted on June 13, 2013 | Leave a comment

The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) books, Climate Change Reconsidered and Climate Change Reconsidered: 2011 Interim Report published by the Heartland Institute has been translated from English to Chinese by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).  These books “..present a sweeping rebuttal of the findings of the United Nations’ controversial Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose reports were widely cited as the basis for taking action to stop or slow the advance of climate change”.

According to the Heartland Institute:

“The Chinese Academy of Sciences is the world’s largest academy of sciences, employing some 50,000 people and hosting more than 350 international conferences a year. Membership in the Academy represents the highest level of national honor for Chinese scientists. The Nature Publishing Index in May ranked the Chinese Academy of Sciences No. 12 on its list of the “Global Top 100” scientific institutions – ahead of the University of Oxford (No. 14), Yale University (No. 16), and the California Institute of Technology (No. 25).

The first 856-page volume of Climate Change Reconsidered, published in 2009, and its follow-up, the 430-page Climate Change Reconsidered: 2011 Interim Report,were produced by a team of scientists originally convened by Dr. S. Fred Singer under the name of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC).

chinaccrcoverclimatechangereconsidered

                  Climate Change Reconsidered is translated into Chinese

 

Jim Lakely, director of communications at the Heartland Institute told Breitbart  News:

“Translating and publishing nearly 1,300 pages of peer-reviewed scientific literature from English to Chinese is no small task, and indicative of how important CAS considers Climate Change Reconsidered to the global climate change debate. That CAS has invited the authors and editors of Climate Change Reconsidered to a conference this Saturday in Beijing to introduce the studies is yet another indicator of how important it is to get this information out to a wider audience.”

Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast added:

“A December 2012 UN meeting designed to provide climate change regulations ended in failure after China refused to sign a global climate change treaty. China was joined by the United States, as well as Canada, India, Japan, Russia, and Brazil. “Opposition to a new climate treaty is justified based upon the real science presented in Climate Change Reconsidered.”

Hopefully,  the mainstream media will take note.

cbdakota

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Posted in AGW, cap and trade, carbon tax, China, Climate Alarmism, Climate Models, CO2, Environment, IPCC, Kyoto, Renewable Energy, Sea Ice, Sea Level