Climate of Extremes: Patrick J. Michaels

Patrick J. Michaels: Cato Institute

This article appeared in National Review Online’s Planet Gore page (Jan 30, 2009)

Al Gore’s Climate of Extremes [Patrick J. Michaels]

Ho-hum. On January 28, in the midst of a pelting sleet storm, Al Gore told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the end is nigh from global warming.

He told the Senate that “some scientists” predict up to 11 degrees of warming in the next 91 years (while failing to note that the last 12 have seen exactly none), and that this would “bring a screeching halt to human civilization and threaten the fiber of life everywhere on earth.” Hey folks, this is serious!

Besides having a remarkable knack for scheduling big speeches on remarkably cold or snowy days (it’s known as the “Gore Effect” in journalistic circles), Gore has been incredibly ineffective in bringing his message home.

According to the New York Times, Gore told the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco last November, “I feel, in a sense, I’ve failed badly. . . . [T]here is not anything anywhere close to an appropriate sense of urgency [about global warming]. This is an existential threat.”

And fail he has. The Pew Foundation recently asked Americans to choose which of 20 prominent issues is of most importance. They included the economy, crime, education, and, of course, global warming, which came in dead last….(read the rest here)

The video above is part 1 of 3 (be sure to watch all three parts) in which scientist Patrick J. Michaels is interviewed by Jon Caldara, president of The Independence Institute, a Colorado think tank. Patrick J. Michaels and Robert C. Balling, Jr. are the authors of Climate of Extremes, published by The Cato Institute in Jan 2009. Patrick J. Michaels is Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies at The Cato Institute in Washington D.C. Michaels is a research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and visiting scientist with the Marshall Institute in Washington, D.C. He is a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists and was program chair for the Committee on Applied Climatology of the American Meteorological Society. Michaels is a contributing author and reviewer of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change….

In the Preface to Climate of Extremes former Virginia State Climatologist Michaels describes how he and other state climatologists were stripped of their titles, and jobs, and told by their governors to “shut up” about the global warming hoax. Something about, in the case of Oregon’s Climatologist, contradictions interfering “with the state’s stated goals to reduce greenhouse gases.’’

Continuing from the Preface:

David Legates, at the University of Delaware, was told by Governor Ruth Ann Minner (D) that he could no longer speakon globalwarming as State Climatologist. His faculty position is a regular tenured line in the geography department. He’s free, as State Climatologist, to say anything about the weather, so long as there’s no political implication…..

Out West, things got even uglier. The Assistant State Climatologist for Washington, Mark Albright, was fired because, despite his boss’s orders, he refused to stop e-mailing—to journalists, to inquiringcitizens, to anyone—the entire snowfall record for the Cascade Mountainsrather than the cherry-picked one. For e-mailing that record,the assistant state climatologist in Washington lost his job.What had started with Oregon’s George Taylor had migratedacross the Columbia River.

For a further account of these shenanigans see NBC & Global Warming Jihad

Patrick J. Michaels and Jon Caldara

For some comic relief listen to Paul Shanklin as Algore singing “Ball of Fire” (courtesy Rush Limbaugh show:

Global Cooling in the Offing?

A new book, Sun Cycle 24, just out by Australian scientist David Archibald

“….details how the Sun, not carbon dioxide, controls climate and predicts a significant cooling for the next two decades. At the same time, the heating effect of carbon dioxide will be minuscule. Combined with its positive effect on plant growth, increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is shown to be wholly beneficial….

Source: John Ray-Stop the ACLU

In a 2008 paper,Warming or Cooling?, Archibald writes:

“If carbon dioxide didn’t cause the warming of the 20th century, what did? Well, a good place to start is the sun. In the 20th century, the sun was more active than at any time inthe previous 8,000 years…..The way that Solar Cycle 23 is declining, combined with the very weak ramp-up of
Solar Cycle 24 sunspot activity, suggests that the month of solar cycle minimum will be July 2009. If that transpires, the cooling will amount to over 2 degrees….

That last time that something like this happened was a period called the Dalton Minimum from 1796 to 1820.”

Ken Tapping, a Canadian scientist writes in Popular Mechanics:

“If the sun remains this quiet for another a year or two, it may indicate the star has entered a downturn that, if history is any precedent, could trigger a planetary cold spell that could bring massive snowfall and severe weather to the Northern Hemisphere..”

David Archibald and Prof, David Bellamy

Global Warming News, Or is It Cooling?

The Jonah Center for Earth and Art will be hosting a public meeting Tuesday evening Dec 9, 2008, at 7PM in the Memorial Room at First Church, 190 Court St, Middletown. The subject: “What You Can Do About Global Warming and Energy Policy in Connecticut“. The speaker:

Roger Smith, Coordinator of the Connecticut Climate Coalition and Campaign Director of Clean Water Action will tell us what energy- and climate-related legislation is coming up in the January 2009 session of the Connecticut General Assembly. Roger has a wealth of information and experience in this area.

In what will certainly be another tough budget year, citizen action will be critical in order to pass progressive energy-related legislation and help consumers hurt by high fossil fuel prices. This is your opportunity to help shape our energy future and slow global warming.

A slight shift of gears is called for here as we mention one of our favorite bloggers on the subject of climate change; Gateway Pundit. Their post today presents a huge array of sources and stats that gives credence to the notion that the earth is cooling not warming. Read about it here…..

Of course cooling has been mentioned before; remember Newsweek from April 25, 1975? (PDF)

Finally, we couldn’t resist….

Farmer's Almanac Says It's Global Cooling

Old Farmer’s Almanac Latest Prediction for 2009 and beyond (video)

Obama Here: More Hope, Change, Not Much Else

This will be a blog posting on the fly today. First a photo essay (a beautiful day for photography by the way) from Obama’s appearance at Wesleyan University in Middletown to give the 176th annual commencement address in place of the ailing Ted Kennedy. Following the photos there will be an 8 minute video of the event and later I will add some comments about the address and also about remarks by President Michael Roth.

Funny, Obama thought he was at Wellesley; listen at around 6:10 in the video. (Omitted from the Obama campaign official You Tube video posted on Wesleying blog) And the Courant’s blogger Melissa Pionzio thought she was at Palmer Field instead of Andrus Field (“Well, I’m here sitting under the trees on the side of Palmer field where the Wesleyan Commencement ceremonies will begin in about 45 minutes.”) She also seems alarmed by the obvious presence of heavily armed security agents:

“There appears to be sharp shooters of some kind atop the glass connection between the campus chapel and I think Judd Hall (home of the psychology dept.) They are in black, with their arms folded – looks like there are about four of them. A woman with binoculars behind me confirmed that they have rifles up there, yikes!!

The following video runs a little over 8 minutes:

Tags: barack obama at wesleyan,barack obama,ted kennedy,wesleyan university,middletown ct,wesleyan commencement,global warming,climate change,progressive politics,michael roth,wesleying,

This blog also appears today at http://conservacity.blogspot.com
and http://middletown.ctlocalpolitics.net

Great Tits Cope Well with Warming….

The blog title above is the actual headline from a BBC News article. The discussion is about how some British birds are coping (or not coping for that matter) with climatic changes. The Great Tit, for example is doing quite well, adapting to the earlier arrival of its Winter Moth caterpillar food by laying its eggs earlier. Thus the chicks have abundant food when they hatch. (from the article, emphasis added)

At least one of Britain’s birds appears to be coping well as climate change alters the availability of a key food.

Researchers found that great tits are laying eggs earlier in the spring than they used to, keeping step with the earlier emergence of caterpillars.

Writing in the journal Science, they point out that the same birds in the Netherlands have not managed to adjust.

Understanding why some species in some places are affected more than others by climatic shifts is vital, they say.

Just When You Thought….Yep, More Sharks!

Chalk another one up for Global Warming: An increase in world-wide shark attacks on human beans. At least that’s how the Guardian U.K. sees it. The headline screams: Surge in Fatal shark Attacks Blamed on Global Warming.

When you actually read the article you find more compelling reasons for the alleged surge: i.e. increased numbers of peeps recreating in ocean waters and/or overfishing depleting shark food stocks. Finally the money line: “Another contributory factor to the location of shark attacks could be global warming and rising sea temperatures.”

Btw, I would recommend staying out of the water at New Smyrna Beach FL which is called, ” the shark attack capital of the world. It has had more recorded incidents per square mile than any beach on Earth….It’s more like a vicious dog bite, half a dozen stitches, a few bandages, that sort of thing,” said an observer referring to the common 2-3′ black tip sharks doing most of the nipping.

Photo Notes:

Top-Great White and Kayacker

Bottom-Fishing for Black Tip Sharks

Postscript:

Friend Shane writes: “I live in the desert I should be ok unless there are any land shark sightings”

I replied: ” No land sharks, but there are sand sharks. Actually they’re real and lifeguard rescues one.”

Another friend: “Sharks are evil creatures. They do not sleep and a few species have been known to replicate by self induced cloning, if they ever figure out a way to breath on land I say we give up and submit to our new hammerhead masters.”

Me: Evil creatures, nay!

…everyone talks about sharks, not only in connection with shark fin soup and potency products but also because of their mostly predatory habits and their alleged bloodthirsty character. In the process it is forgotten that almost 70% of all currently living sharks are intensely engaged in caring for their young and practice a form of brooding which we usually connect with mammals: To be precise the female keeps her developing eggs in the final section of the oviduct, called the womb or uterus, and following a long gestation period gives birth to fully developed, extremely independent pups, in other words, sharks give birth to living offspring. to be precise, many sharks are viviparous.
Source: Shark Info

Here is a hammerhead female with 15 well-developed pups which were removed from the uterus.

Climate Facts to Warm To….

Read our new posting today on the page Global Warming Hoax (see sidebar)

Excerpt here:

“There’s been a lot of talk about the impact of the sun and that maybe we’re going to go through or are entering a period of less intense solar activity and this could be contributing to the current cooling.”

Duffy: “Can you tell us about NASA’s Aqua satellite, because I understand some of the data we’re now getting is quite important in our understanding of how climate works?”

Marohasy: “That’s right. The satellite was only launched in 2002 and it enabled the collection of data, not just on temperature but also on cloud formation and water vapour. What all the climate models suggest is that, when you’ve got warming from additional carbon dioxide, this will result in increased water vapour, so you’re going to get a positive feedback. That’s what the models have been indicating. What this great data from the NASA Aqua satellite … (is) actually showing is just the opposite, that with a little bit of warming, weather processes are compensating, so they’re actually limiting the greenhouse effect and you’re getting a negative rather than a positive feedback.”

Duffy: “The climate is actually, in one way anyway, more robust than was assumed in the climate models?”

Marohasy: “That’s right … These findings actually aren’t being disputed by the meteorological community. They’re having trouble digesting the findings, they’re acknowledging the findings, they’re acknowledging that the data from NASA’s Aqua satellite is not how the models predict, and I think they’re about to recognise that the models really do need to be overhauled and that when they are overhauled they will probably show greatly reduced future warming projected as a consequence of carbon dioxide.”

Duffy: “From what you’re saying, it sounds like the implications of this could be considerable …”

Marohasy: “That’s right, very much so. The policy implications are enormous. The meteorological community at the moment is really just coming to terms with the output from this NASA Aqua satellite and (climate scientist) Roy Spencer’s interpretation of them. His work is published, his work is accepted,