Climate cuttings 48

Still lots of interesting stuff around, so...

First up is the news that even though the legal wranglings over Cuccinelli's attempt to get the Mann emails continue, it is likely that they will be revealed by another route. Christopher C. Horner of the American Tradition Institute’s law center, David W. Schnare, a federal attorney and Bob Marshall is a Virginia Republican delegate have requested the same information as Cuccinelli, but under FOIA, which has few get-out clauses for the university. A response should be swift.

Also interesting is an article in Forbes magazine by Larry Bell, author of a forthcoming book called Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind the Global Warming Hoax.

Click to read more ...

The Royal Society and alarmism

A very interesting essay on the Royal Society and its sudden change from a body that promoted science as the antidote to apocalyptic vision, to one that used the same tool to promote the idea of disasters.

It is true that the Society’s president is not proclaiming divine direction and screaming fire-and-brimstone from a high pulpit. Yet behind the sober and reasonable façade there is the horror of imminent annihilation.

H/T GWPF

Quote of the day

Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by the Met Office computer.

Phillip Bratby, in the comments.

Big freeze in Guizhou

The BBC report that that big freeze has spread to southern China:

Freezing temperatures in south-western China have forced the evacuation of 58,000 people from their homes, according to the Chinese authorities.

Ice and snow have closed roads, leaving thousands of motorists stranded.

This is all happening in Guizhou province, which I visited in the 1990s. Guizhou is subtropical - right down on the border with Vietnam - so this must be pretty unusual.

Climate cuttings 47

There is still quite a lot of new material around on the climate front, so once again, here are the links catching my eye this morning.

Steven Hayward notes climatologists' recent explanations of the factors that are (allegedly) making global warming cause so much cold weather in parts of the northern hemisphere. If this is so, he asks, why didn't they include these factors in their original models?

Tom Crowley has issued an apology for misrepresenting his early correspondence with Steve McIntyre. Five years after the event is a long delay, but the correction is welcome nevertheless. I will have to add a footnote to future printings of the Hockey Stick Illusion.

Paul Hudson notes that in the UK, December was the second coldest since 1659. Things are not looking so hot in the USA either, according to Steven Goddard. Or Asia.

Roger Pielke Jnr notes the continuing failure of the disaster records to pick up a global warming signal. With weary inevitability, Joe Romm is unimpressed.

One for the statisticians among you - Barry Brook looks at Phil Jones' claim that there has been no significant warming since 1995.

Chris de Freitas looks at public understanding of climate science.

Much fun is still being had at the expense of the Met Office. Anthony Watts has a round-up here. Matt Ridley thinks the weather guys at the Met Office would be better off separating themselves from the climate people.

Better propaganda

Nature wonders how to make green propaganda more effective.

Josh 64

Planning for power cuts

Commenter Lord Beaverbrook has asked if we can have a thread to discuss solutions to the power cuts that so many are predicting now that successive governments appear to have saddled us with a power generation system that will not provide sufficient power.

I think we should consider two issues - firstly whether there is a genuine need for households to get back up power supplies and secondly, if backup power is required, what form it should take.

Climate cuttings 46

There are quite a few climate-related stories doing the rounds today, so here is something of a New Year's roundup.

Der Spiegel looks at the failures of scaremongering tactics and wonders if maybe the environmental groups shouldn't adopt the quiet tactics of Amnesty international. Similar thoughts, including some academic research on the subject, are discussed at Collide-a-Scape.

Politico notes that contrary to common perceptions, Republicans are much keener on global warming than they are letting on.

The cost of CFL (low-energy) lightbulbs is set to soar, as subsidies designed to soften the blow of their introduction are removed.

Tropospheric temperatures are dropping sharply, with the current anomaly only 0.180 degrees above its long-term average.

Matt Briggs has been much amused by his elevation to "villain of the day" by the Global Warming Superheroes site. One of his commenters, writing from Spain, notes that the Iberian Peninsula has a similar group called Ecoheroes.es, whose antics included getting college students to generate electricity from static bicycles hooked up to generators. As Briggs puts it:

The only point of bringing this up is to offer one more (minor) piece of evidence that the fight about “climate chance” is an ideological and not a scientific one. Evidence has little to do with it, belief is everything.

Some frightening stuff from Germany. First Haunting the Library discusses a climate change conference at which putting an end to democratic government is once again proposed as part of a solution to global warming. Almost as bad is the news from P Gosselin that Germany appears to have put in place legislation that will permit energy rationing as a means to save the planet. This is apparently a response to an EU directive, so similar legislation will be coming the way of all readers in the EU soon.

And lastly, as an antidote to all this pessimism, Matt Ridley looks at reasons to be cheerful.

Met Office privately predicted cold winter

The Mail has a story that the Met Office told the cabinet to expect a cold winter. This was back in October apparently. However, as we know, the public were not told of this, apparently because the Met Office's research had suggested that there was no demand for seasonal forecasts. I'm sure most readers think their reticence was more to do with the fiasco over  2009's barbeque summer.

The story, which was sourced from Roger Harrabin at the BBC, seems to tally with the claim in the Quarmby audit that a Met Office forecast about the cold winter was issued at the end of October. However, as we also know, the Met Office website at the time seemed to be suggesting a warm winter, and nobody has actually seen the cold forecast.

All very intriguing.

In related news, RP Jnr considers the Met Office's attempts to make assessment of its forecasting ability harder.

Update on Jan 4, 2011 by Bishop Hill

Autonomous Mind has further thoughts.

Bob Carter on carbon tax

In the same issue of Quadrant as the Walter Starck article I mentioned in the last post comes a piece from Bob Carter on the Australian government's hopes for a carbon tax. Bob is not impressed.

Bob has also sent me the following letter, which he submitted for publication in the Australian. It wasn't published.

Combet's hot air tax: no seasonal break for the climate commissars

To the degree that statements such as those made by BMO’s Dr. Sligo represent the views of the professional meteorological community, that community has now moved beyond parody and demands to be ridiculed. Can it really be the case that amidst the hurricane of Green spin about global warming, not a single bureaucrat or government politician in Canberra has retained a functioning bullshit detector? 

Remarkably, in enunciating their “eleven principles”, the Canberra MCCC managed to evade entirely any mention of the underpinning scientific justification for introducing a tax on carbon dioxide. That is, of course, because there is none (which is doubtless why only one, tame, scientist was included as a member of the committee in the first place). 

As the government will discover from its focus groups over the next few months, no matter how hard Mr. Combet tries to spin it as beneficial, they will introduce a carbon dioxide tax at their considerable electoral peril. 

For where global warming alarmism is concerned, the good news is that the bullshit detectors of the Australian electorate are both alive and activated.

Starck message

Walter Starck surveys the global economy and wonders about the focus on climate change.

All over the developed world, governments have committed to unfunded liabilities and fostered a proliferation of bureaucracy which their increasingly uncompetitive productive sectors cannot sustain. Most are now running on empty with no credit left, no plan B and no apparent recognition that the path they are on leads only to the edge of a cliff.

Cuccinelli appeals

I have covered the ongoing back and forth between the University of Virginia and VA Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, as the latter tries to obtain Michael Mann's emails to further the investigation into grant applications made by the hockey stick maestro.

I'm slightly confused by all this toing and froing. Last I heard, Cuccinelli had applied for the release of the emails once again - this was back at the end of September - with the university applying to have the demand set aside in mid-October.

Click to read more ...

More wind

Apparently the Times has a story on the continuing failure of windmills to deliver sufficient energy. It's not online, but this looks like the key excerpt (H/T Philip Bratby)

Concern over huge fluctuations in the supply of electricity from Britain’s 3,000 wind turbines has prompted National Grid to begin detailed forecasts of wind strength.

The turbines have delivered well below their usual output this winter and in the 24 hours to 5pm yesterday contributed only 0.5 per cent of the country’s power. Parts of the day were so still that wind power’s contribution fell below 0.2 per cent. On the windiest days, the turbines deliver about 8 per cent. A record of 10 per cent over a 24-hour period was set on September 6 last year.

But since the beginning of December, turbines have been operating at only 20 per cent of their maximum capacity compared with an annual average of about 30 per cent.

Supercomputers

Autonomous Mind has interviewed Joe Bastardi and Piers Corbyn about the use of supercomputers in long-range weather forecasting. I liked Joe's last word on the subject:

It’s not the computer, it’s the limits of the computer in  trying to adjust to what only men can understand and use. I dont think you need more money to arrive at the wrong answer faster. Should put it into fighting hunger, or giving men a chance to be free enough to dream and pursue that dream… much better causes in my opinion.