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Andy May 1:50 pm on August 1, 2020  

Greenland Ice CO2 – Chemical Reactions or Natural Variability?

Guest Post By: Renee Hannon

Introduction
This post examines whether CO2 measurements in Greenland ice cores demonstrate natural variability as an alternative hypothesis to in-situ chemical reactions. Twenty years ago, scientists theorized Greenland ice core CO2 data were unreliable because CO2 trapped in air bubbles had potentially been altered by in-situ chemical reactions. This theory was put forward to explain why Greenland CO2 data showed higher variability and higher concentrations when compared with Antarctic ice core CO2 measurements located in the opposite polar region about 11,000 miles away. The theory of chemical alteration has gone unchallenged during the last twenty years. Since then, CO2 data from Greenland ice cores was dismissed and only CO2 data from Antarctic ice cores is currently used as the “gold standard” database. As a result, Greenland CO2 datasets are not used in climate science studies to understand Northern and Southern hemispheres interactions and the sensitivity of greenhouse gases under various climatic conditions.

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Andy May 12:20 pm on July 20, 2020  

The Surface Energy Budget

Guest post by Wim Röst

Abstract

The energy budget for the surface is different from Earth’s energy budget. A look at the surface energy budget reveals that radiation is not the main factor in cooling the surface. The dominant factor in surface cooling is convection, responsible for the removal of more than three quarters of the surface’s energy.

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Andy May 6:30 am on May 27, 2020
Tags: , polar temperatures   

The Yin and Yang of Holocene Polar Regions

Guest post by Renee Hannon

Introduction

The Arctic and Antarctic regions are different and yet similar in many ways. The Arctic has ocean surrounded by land and the Antarctic is a continent surrounded by water. Both are cold, glaciated and located at Earth’s poles some 11,000 miles apart. While sea ice has been retreating in the Arctic, it has been relatively stable in the Antarctic. This post examines surface temperature trends, solar insolation, and CO2 at the polar Arctic and Antarctic regions during the Holocene interglacial period.

Holocene Polar Temperature Trends are Out of Phase

The Holocene interglacial started about 11,000 years ago after termination of the previous glacial period. It is commonly described as consisting of an early Holocene climate optimum from approximately 10,000 to 6,000 years before present (BP, before 1950). This optimum is followed by a pronounced cooling in the mid-late Holocene referred to as the Neoglacial period which culminates in the Little Ice Age (LIA) around 1800 years AD (Lui, 2014).

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#average-global-temperature, #polar-temperatures

Andy May 2:24 pm on May 2, 2020  

Global Mean Temperature Flattens the Past


Guest post by Renee Hannon

Introduction

There have been recent discussions about ‘flattening the curve’ and some curves are easier to flatten than others. The Pages 2K Consortium calculates global mean temperature in a manner that flattens the long-term trend and makes present day temperatures appear warmer relative to past temperatures. Across the globe, temperature reconstructions show cooling millennial temperature trends with one exception, the Pages 2K global mean.

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Andy May 7:04 am on April 27, 2020  

From Green Blindness to a New Reality

Guest opinion by Wim Röst

The Virus

Nature is beautiful, romantic and the best there is on Earth. But, nature is also fully unpredictable, dangerous and deadly. For example, by means of a virus.

Romantically, we want to live close to nature. But the closer we are to nature the more likely diseases will jump from animals to man.

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Andy May 1:49 pm on April 25, 2020  

NIH payments to the Wuhan Institute of Virology

By Andy May

On April 17th, Newsmax reporter Emerald Robinson asked President Trump if the NIH (the United States National Institute of Health) gave a grant of $3.7 million to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2015 during the Obama administration. It turns out, the original grant was given to a non-profit called the EcoHealth Alliance in 2014. It was EcoHealth that gave some of the $3.7 million to the Wuhan Laboratory. EcoHealth is a global environmental organization that is “dedicated to a ‘One Health’ approach to protecting the health of people, animals and the environment from emerging infectious diseases,” according to their website.

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Andy May 10:20 am on April 18, 2020
Tags: #ACRIM, PMOD, TSI   

IPCC Politics and Solar Variability

By Andy May

This post is about an important new paper by Nicola Scafetta, Richard Willson, Jae Lee and Dong Wu (Scafetta, Willson and Lee, et al. 2019) on the ACRIM versus PMOD total solar irradiance (TSI) composite debate that has been raging for over 20 years. ACRIM stands for Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor, these instruments recorded solar irradiance from space for many years. Richard Willson is the principle investigator in the laboratory that studied the results, Nicola Scafetta worked in the laboratory, until he accepted a position as a professor at the University of Naples Federico II.

The paper casts a spotlight on the political problems at the IPCC. In order to properly put the ACRIM vs PMOD debate into context and to show why this obscure and complicated scientific and engineering debate is important, we need to also discuss the messy politics within and between the IPCC and the UNFCCC.

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#acrim, #pmod, #tsi

Andy May 5:28 am on March 29, 2020  

Dutch Cabinet Postpones New Climate Measures because of Virus

Guest opinion by Wim Röst

Introduction

The Dutch government has been in the forefront for ‘Climate Action’. But a remarkable switch in policy has been caused by the economic reality resulting from ‘the virus’.

Postponement of new climate measures

Autumn 2019 the Dutch Parliament asked the Dutch government to take extra climate measures. But in an announcement last Friday the Government stated that no new measures will be taken to diminish CO2 emissions because of the corona virus crisis.

“Many people now have other things to do. So do we.” said minister Wiebes from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy.

This fundamental switch by the Dutch government is quite logical given the recent developments in the economy caused by the corona virus. A real crises asks all energy and money to be directed to other goals than the virtual goal of ‘trying to avoid a possible danger for the year 2100’. Even the internationally well known ‘Urgenda Court Ruling’ does not have any priority. In the words of the Minister: “The court ruling is not off the table, but there are other priorities”.

Urgenda

According to the Urgenda Court Ruling the Dutch government is obliged to do more to achieve the present emission goals. This year many more measures should be taken to reach those goals. Economic reality however puts the climate goals aside. One of the groups that is putting pressure on governments to do so is Clintel which stands for ‘Climate Intelligence’.

Clintel’s letter to World Leaders

Last week a letter co-signed by Professor Richard Lindzen, by The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (and many others) asked world leaders to let the actual virus and economic crisis prevail over climate goals. In the words of Prof. Guus Berkhout, president of Clintel:

“Your Excellencies, compared to COVID-19 climate change is a non-problem! It is based on computer models and looks into the far future. In current health emergency, however, your attention to the peoples’ needs is today! Please, don’t continue pushing your zero carbon emission ambition in a time that the world is dealing with a deadly global crisis. Yes, there is an emergency, but it is NOT the climate.”

A translation of the open letter is available in many languages.

Conclusion

The decision of the Dutch government to postpone new climate measures signals a fundamental change in priorities by a country that has been one of the most committed to achieving climate goals.

Economic reality will urge many governments to follow.

With regards to commenting: please adhere to the rules known for this site: quote and react, not personal.


About the author: Wim Röst studied human geography in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The above is his personal view. He is not connected to firms or foundations nor is he funded by government(s).

Andy May 8:50 am on March 28, 2020
Tags: biofuels, food prices   

Food Prices and Ethanol Mandates

By Andy May

This post is a follow up to my previous post on biofuels, here we discuss the impact of biofuels on food prices in more detail. Ethanol has been produced in large quantities in the United States for fuel since 1978. That was the year the Congress passed the Energy Tax Act (Tyner 2008) which provided for a 40 cent per ethanol gallon exemption to the gasoline excise tax. This tax exemption for ethanol was increased to fifty cents in 1982.

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#biofuels, #food-prices

Andy May 12:12 pm on March 25, 2020  

Polar Push and Pull

Guest post by Renee Hannon


Introduction
This post examines regional temperature reconstructions during the past several thousand years relative to different baselines and the responses of end member deviants, the Arctic and Antarctic polar extremes. And it’s a quite interesting tug of war.

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