Mar 172008

THIS PAGE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED AS THE NEW STATESMAN BLOG IS NOW CLOSED FOR COMMENTS

At 10am this morning, the New Statesman finally closed the Mark Lynas thread on their website after 1715 comments had been added over a period of five months. I don’t know whether this constitutes any kind of a record, but gratitude is certainly due to the editor of of the New Statesman for hosting the discussion so patiently and also for publishing articles from Dr David Whitehouse and Mark Lynas that have created so much interest.

This page is now live, and anyone who would like to continue the discussion here is welcome to do so. I have copied the most recent contributions at the New Statesman as the first comment for the sake of convenience. If you want to refer back to either of the original threads, then you can find them here:

Dr David Whitehouse’s article can be found here with all 1289 comments.

Mark Lynas’ attempted refutation can be found here with 1715 comments.

Welcome to Harmless Sky, and happy blogging.

(Click the ‘comments’ link below if the input box does not appear)

 

10,000 Responses to “Continuation of the New Statesman Whitehouse/Lynas blogs.”

  1. Should be interesting to see Gavin explain this one away on realcimate when it comes up.

    http://nzclimatescience.net/images/PDFs/mclean_defreitas_carter_jgr_2009.pdf

  2. Government monopsony distorts climate science, says SPPI

    http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=104031&cat=12

  3. Climate IS Weather……..

    22 Jul, 2009 – Fresh Snow in the Alps and the Southern Hemisphere

    * Fresh snow in the Alps.

    * Canada’s summer ski season ends this weekend.

    * Australia’s Perisher ski resort celebrates Christmas on the 25th of the month…

    * Heavy snow in South America and New Zealand

    * More snow in Africa and Australia

    http://www.ifyouski.com/news/newsarticle/?ObjectID=8790516

  4. Barelysane #7026 Gavin’s putative rebuttal at RC Sea ice minimum forecasts #272.

  5. Robin (7023)

    I much enjoyed your hill walking analogy! I was also interested by the suggestion from someone that CO2 had been at a higher level in the 1940. Can anyone corroborate?

  6. If that really is Bob Ward commenting on the Delingpole/Spectator thread then it suggests that Plimer’s book is causing concern in some rather interesting places. And is the spectacularly contrived argument about the ‘n’ warmest year really the best that the cream of the climatista lobby can do?

    Well done Robin and Max.

  7. Jasper Gee reur 7030

    Thanks, first time i’ve seen a peer reviewed study in a noted journal called a “press release statement”. I haven’t read it but love the way his idea of rebuttal is to reference work done a year earlier that is so completely different it isn’t even mentioned in the references of the paper in question.

  8. Is this an example of how to create increased ‘confidence’ from combining two dodgy sets of data?

    Clouds in climate ‘vicious cycle’

    But Science published it anyway.

  9. Climate is weather………..

    NYC ON TRACK FOR THE 2ND COOLEST JULY ON RECORD…

    http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&product=PNS&issuedby=OKX

  10. TonyN (7034)

    Dr Clement described the findings as “almost shocking”.

    They noticed that, in the past 50 years, there had been a “positive feedback” cycle in the low-cloud cover, so when the surface of the ocean was warmer, there had been less cloud cover. (From the BBC item)

    Makes you wonder how the earth’s climate has remained habitable for so long!

  11. And why did the BBC call it a ‘vicious cycle’ when Dr Clement was quoted using the correct version: “a vicious circle”? The only vicious cycle I’ve encountered was one with useless brakes!

    Time they brought back a real science reporter like David Whitehouse.

  12. There is a very interesting exercise going on here in an effort to make the freedom of information legislation work when someone really, really doesn’t want it to:

    http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=6623

    If you feel like lending a hand, then to make sure you fit in with what others are doing be sure to look at the following comments:

    http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=6623#comment-350274
    http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=6623#comment-350329

    As I’m being given the run-around with several requests myself at the moment I think this is very well worth supporting.

  13. James:

    If Dr Clement had data to work with that extended back at least into the 19th century it might be worth taking this paper as seriously as the BBC and Science seem to. It looks like another huge mountain of speculation resting on a tiny molehill of observations covering a very short period.

    And I couldn’t agree more about David Whitehouse!

  14. The book review at http://www.amazon.com/review/RCTB7U6VVYL94/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#RCTB7U6VVYL94 may surprise.

    “A truly disturbing look at why global warming alarmists lie about the science, July 22, 2009”

  15. Jasper:

    An interesting find, but I’d have been happier if Bast had said that he is the president of the Heartland Institute.

    Sceptics won’t win the debate by using the same techniques of dissimulation as warmists, and his first paragraph seems intended to mislead readers into thinking that he is either objective or a wavering supporter of the consensus.

  16. Jasper (7040)

    The review sounds better than the book! I tried to post a comment, but as I have only ever bought from Amazon.co.uk, I wasn’t allowed. I would have said:

    “Prof Hulme appears to damn himself with such admissions as the ‘balance is between being effective and being honest’ but I’ve noticed that climate alarmists are often rather arrogant. I won’t be buying the book!”

  17. TonyN (7038)

    I picked: Laos, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania and Luxembourg.

    Max

  18. So I saw Max. The list is steadily shrinking and I hope that it works out in the end. It is more than time that some light was shone in to this very dark, and probably grubby, corner of climate science.

  19. Good piece here by Richard Lindzen. And I thought this comment (by David Segesta) in WUWT a classic:

    Among climate scientists Richard Lindzen is like the designated driver in a room full of drunks.

  20. HAVE YOU HEARD?
    Mark Serreze was made director of NSIDC on 26/April/2009!
    http://nsidc.org/about/expertise/director.html

    In my long career in just one large international manufacturing company in middle management, I often marvelled at the incompetence of some of the upper echelons of management in that company. (A group that I had no interest in joining, preferring instead job satisfaction, and particularly to enable manipulation of an amazing number of quite unjustifiable long-term trips mainly to England, North America, and Italy, where I had some special non-work interests.)

    Careers in management can of course be manipulated by corporate politics and social networking, and various deceptions, but not necessarily arizing from any relevant job ability.

    I’ve been long-time amused at some of the nonsense that Serreze has issued forth as regular spokesman for NSIDC, but was stunned today to learn that he is now director of NSIDC!

    Do they still have that expression in England, (as I knew thereof prior to 1969, when I Oz’d-off):
    “Bullshit baffles brains”?

    I was going to elaborate on a recent Serreze misinformation cartoon, but I’ve gotta go right now…. maybe will do it tomorrow.

  21. Did you know that:

    The US government has spent over $79 billion since 1989 on policies related to climate change, including science and technology research, administration, education campaigns, foreign aid, and tax breaks.

    Who says AGW isn’t big money for those who are advocates?

  22. More evidence that nature not man is responsible for climate change.

    Influence of the Southern Oscillation on tropospheric temperature

    J. D. McLean

    Applied Science Consultants, Croydon, Victoria, Australia

    C. R. de Freitas

    School of Geography, Geology and Environmental Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    R. M. Carter

    Marine Geophysical Laboratory, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia

    Time series for the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and global tropospheric temperature anomalies (GTTA) are compared for the 1958?2008 period. GTTA are represented by data from satellite microwave sensing units (MSU) for the period 1980–2008 and from radiosondes (RATPAC) for 1958–2008. After the removal from the data set of short periods of temperature perturbation that relate to near-equator volcanic eruption, we use derivatives to document the presence of a 5- to 7-month delayed close relationship between SOI and GTTA. Change in SOI accounts for 72% of the variance in GTTA for the 29-year-long MSU record and 68% of the variance in GTTA for the longer 50-year RATPAC record. Because El Niño?Southern Oscillation is known to exercise a particularly strong influence in the tropics, we also compared the SOI with tropical temperature anomalies between 20°S and 20°N. The results showed that SOI accounted for 81% of the variance in tropospheric temperature anomalies in the tropics. Overall the results suggest that the Southern Oscillation exercises a consistently dominant influence on mean global temperature, with a maximum effect in the tropics, except for periods when equatorial volcanism causes ad hoc cooling. That mean global tropospheric temperature has for the last 50 years fallen and risen in close accord with the SOI of 5–7 months earlier shows the potential of natural forcing mechanisms to account for most of the temperature variation.

  23. The data presented in the presentation linked to this are, detailed, wide-ranging, useful and well worth reading. Unfortunately the presentation itself is a good example of how not to make a presentation. The slides are far too busy and the tone, to my mind, gets close to sounding hysterical. Also I think it’s a good example of how not to present to AGW believers. By giving so much detail, you provide them with ample opportunity to argue about individual items and thereby to bog discussion down in painful wrangle.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

© 2011 Harmless Sky Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha