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New Research Forecasts Global 6C Increase By End of Century

jamie writes with this snippet from the UK's Independent: "The world is now firmly on course for the worst-case scenario in terms of climate change, with average global temperatures rising by up to 6C by the end of the century, leading scientists said yesterday. ... [The study] found that there has been a 29 per cent increase in global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel between 2000 and 2008, the last year for which figures are available. On average, the researchers found, there was an annual increase in emissions of just over 3 per cent during the period, compared with an annual increase of 1 per cent between 1990 and 2000. Almost all of the increase this decade occurred after 2000 and resulted from the boom in the Chinese economy. The researchers predict a small decrease this year due to the recession, but further increases from 2010."

746 comments

  1. How can they tell... by Quantos · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How do they know if the CO2 is from fossil fuels or from natural sources, is there actually a test for this?

    --
    Some people are only alive because it's against the law for me to hunt them down and kill them.
    1. Re:How can they tell... by IWannaBeAnAC · · Score: 5, Informative

      CO2 is a molecule, containing one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. One CO2 molecule is indistinguishable from another[*], so in principle no there is no test to determine whether any particular CO2 molecule coems from a fossil fuel or from another source.

      The obvious thing to do however is to measure and estimate the amount of man-made CO2, by summing up the CO2 emitted by smoke stacks, agriculture, forest clearing etc. Given this, I don't think anyone denies that the CO2 increase in the atmosphere comes from any natural source. In fact, so far the inceases in CO2 in the atmosphere has been less than humans have been emitting, due to some natural carbon sinks. For example, small amounts of carbon (but huge on a planetary scale) get dissolved in the oceans. These sinks have limits though, when the natural carbon sinks start to saturate it will only make the problem worse.

      [*] Ok, a pedant might argue that it has some internal degrees of freedom, nuclear hyperfine levels etc, that are irrelevant here.

    2. Re:How can they tell... by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 4, Informative

      [*] Ok, a pedant might argue that it has some internal degrees of freedom, nuclear hyperfine levels etc, that are irrelevant here.

      Actually, you needn't look to such minute differences. Different isotopes do react at slightly different rates, so biological processes often enrich molecules in one isotope over another. I don't know of any way to use this to trace CO2's source, but it has been used to chemically trace the earliest appearances of photosynthesis on Earth, for example.

      That said, your post is right: you can reasonably accurately measure and sum the man-made carbon sources.

    3. Re:How can they tell... by wakaranai · · Score: 5, Informative

      You can measure the ratio of different types of carbon in tree rings.

      What has been found is that 13C/12C ratios are the lowest they've been for 10000 years, and that there is a sharp decline starting in 1850.

      http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/how-do-we-know-that-recent-cosub2sub-increases-are-due-to-human-activities-updated/

      RJ Francey et al, Tellus 51B, pp.170-193, 1999

    4. Re:How can they tell... by Rising+Ape · · Score: 3, Informative

      Isotopic composition is a good test. For fossil carbon, all of the C-14 will have decayed, so if the fraction of C-14 has gone down over time then that's a good indicator that the increase is from a fossil fource.

    5. Re:How can they tell... by bunratty · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, they can measure the concentration of the isotope carbon-14. But even if we couldn't do so, what else do you think would make the concentration of carbon dioxide increase from about 285 ppm to about 385 ppm in just over 100 years?

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    6. Re:How can they tell... by NeverVotedBush · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think they are basing the CO2 increases on fossil fuel use increases. I don't find the methodology in the article, but by looking at the number of new power plants going on line, and the number of existing ones, it should be pretty easy to get a fairly accurate number.

      Regardless, it's a pretty depressing article. And it doesn't mention the methane hydrates that are starting to thaw and bubble up in the northern latitudes. That has the potential to push warming even higher and what is being forecast is already going to be disastrous to every living thing on the planet.

      People around now are going to have things bad enough after the next few decades. After that, well, I hope you like Mel Gibson Road Warrior movies...

    7. Re:How can they tell... by zach_the_lizard · · Score: 1

      what else do you think would make the concentration of carbon dioxide increase from about 285 ppm to about 385 ppm in just over 100 years?

      I vote for legislatures releasing CO2.

      --
      SSC
    8. Re:How can they tell... by AnotherUsername · · Score: 2, Informative

      One thing to remember, however, is that the carbon that is being dissolved into the oceans is doing huge amounts of damage to the ecosystems there. While the oceans have always pulled carbon into it, the vast increase in CO2 has led to the oceans becoming more acidic, which can cause the coral reefs to dissolve, which will lead to the destruction of the habitats of thousands of kinds of oceanic creatures, doing massive damage to the global ecosystem.

      --
      I don't like Linux. This doesn't make me a troll.
    9. Re:How can they tell... by NotBornYesterday · · Score: 1

      Isn't that how long we've been drinking carbonated Coca-Cola? It's all coming from the soda, I tell you! ;)

      --
      I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
    10. Re:How can they tell... by cmdr_tofu · · Score: 1

      No you have been letting your soda go flat! Next time drink it faster! And don't burp ;-)

    11. Re:How can they tell... by commodore64_love · · Score: 1

      Burning dead plants of course. i.e. Fossil fuels. Nobody denies that.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    12. Re:How can they tell... by NotBornYesterday · · Score: 1

      And don't burp ;-)

      Then how am I supposed to sing the alphabet?

      --
      I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
    13. Re:How can they tell... by pydev · · Score: 1

      Two simple ways. First, we know a pretty good lower limit on how much fossil fuel humanity actually burns, because it's accounted for in commodities markets. Second, they have different isotopic signatures: fossil fuel doesn't contain C14, while CO2 generated from biomatter does (in known quantities).

    14. Re:How can they tell... by Gorobei · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Global Average Temperature often fluctuates by over .2C year on year. This is more a question of weather than climate. Cherry-picking various number over short term periods is more a sales job that a serious data point (Wall St excels at doing this.)

      Note that increasing CO2 and smog output may even lower temperatures in the short-term. Then the smog settles out, while the CO2 remains the gift that keeps on giving in terms of planetary warming.

      Who knows what world leaders will do? Cheapest thing is probably just to beef up their militaries and shoot incoming refugees.

    15. Re:How can they tell... by pydev · · Score: 2, Informative

      I suggest you first look up Isotopic signature. Then, you might have a look at the article on the Dunning-Kruger effect.

    16. Re:How can they tell... by fireball84513 · · Score: 1

      farting livestock!

      --
      "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
    17. Re:How can they tell... by ehrichweiss · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "Cherry-picking various number over short term periods is more a sales job that a serious data point (Wall St excels at doing this.)"

      Short term? Like trying to base our entire climatological forecasts on our little blip here on the timeline? Even the climatologists see this as troublesome.

      --
      0x09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
    18. Re:How can they tell... by TeethWhitener · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How come the world temprature has dropped half a degree since 2000?

      Could be lots of reasons. For instance, we've witnessed accelerating melting of the Antarctic ice sheet. Melting ice absorbs a lot of heat. More heat being used to melt large ice sheets means the temperature increase may stall until the ice sheets are fully melted. Also, 10 years worth of stalled heating isn't necessarily indicative of anything. It could just be natural climate fluctuations superimposed on a large slow rise in temperature. The five-year average shows little to buck the warming trend.

      Even the Climate Change Congress now acknowledges this (quote: "temperature has plateaud"). Why?

      Because its main motivation is to understand exactly what's going on with the climate. It doesn't have a political agenda. The best data right now suggests that the climate is getting warmer and that a probable reason for that is anthropogenic CO2. If new data comes in that suggests this is not the case, the IPCC and other climate change panels will have to acknowledge it.

      And how are world leaders likely to respond if the temperature drops during the 2010s?

      You say that as if they've responded thus far. As far as I can tell, the developing world is completely exempt from any decision on climate change, and various other efforts to get world leaders to acknowledge and act on climate change have garnered meager changes in policy at best. Face it: if the world is in danger and we're looking to our leaders to save the day, we're screwed. The best bet on climate change is to alter the individual consumer's behavior.

    19. Re:How can they tell... by IWannaBeAnAC · · Score: 1

      Right, but as I understand it, the total exchange of CO2 in the global carbon cycle is much bigger than the total atmospheric CO2. Each year a large fraction of the atmospheric CO2 is absorbed by vegetation and a similar amount is released by decaying biomass and burning fossil fuels, of which I think somewhat less than 10% can be attributed to human activity. The increase of atmospheric CO2 per year is a small faction of the overall cycle, so this would tend to overwhelm any attempt to trace the source of CO2.

    20. Re:How can they tell... by Silvrmane · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Prove it. Since CO2 levels have been higher in the past, it stands to reason that sealife is already adapted to higher levels of dissolved CO2 in seawater. Experts on the subject see no damage being specifically caused by CO2 in seawater. This is not to say that there is no pressing need for action on what happens in the ocean - pollution and fishing practices (like dredging and drag nets) are causing uncountable damage.

    21. Re:How can they tell... by Silvrmane · · Score: 0

      Why? Because the effect of CO2 in the atmosphere is already at saturation. Doesn't really matter how much you blacken the windows in a house - once they hit "black" you're not adding any more to the effect. Same with CO2 absorption and re-emission of specific infrared wavelengths - it's already at saturation, and adding any more CO2 will have no effect. What we have left is natural variation in the Earth's temperature budget - changes in incoming energy (solar irradiance, solar wind, effect on cosmic ray cloud nucleation, changes in Albedo) are showing up as a decrease in overall thermal budget. Don't worry, it'll warm up in a few years. And then get cooler again. And then warmer again. Some call it a cycle. ;)

    22. Re:How can they tell... by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 1

      Well, not necessarily. Even at a few percent, I would think it might be measurable.

      Still, that's as may be. Point is, we have good reason to think that the CO2 is anthropogenic, as you said. :-)

    23. Re:How can they tell... by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 4, Informative

      +1 informative. Next question:

      How come the world temprature has dropped half a degree since 2000?

      Look at the data.

      Here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Instrumental_Temperature_Record.png,
      or here
      or here.

      Examine the data, and get back to me with the answer to this question: based on the data (and not on the opinions of some pundit telling you what to think), would you personally sign on to a statement that the global average temperate is dropping?

      --
      http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    24. Re:How can they tell... by IWannaBeAnAC · · Score: 1

      Yes, actually since posting off that reply, I found a link on skepticalscience that does exactly that, it is a small effect but quite measureable. But yeah the whole thing is silly, I don't think anyone is arguing that the CO2 is not antropogenic, the 'argument' is elsewhere.

    25. Re:How can they tell... by daveime · · Score: 1

      It's amazing how easily they manage to attribute the extra carbon to emissions, while perhaps neglecting that maybe, just maybe, the carbon sinks have decreased over the same period, i.e. deforestation etc.

      And when we recently saw snow in India, how can anyone take a 6oC *rise* seriously. Some places are getting hotter, some are getting colder, nature will adjust itself as always.

    26. Re:How can they tell... by Afforess · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Have they factored in Global Dimming though? As the pollution increases, the extra particulate matter in the atmosphere relects sunlight away from the earth. This process is one of the few negative feedback loops that occurs when we increase pollution.

      I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but if we increased the amount of particulate matter in our pollution, we could reverse the warming trend.

      --
      If our elected representatives no longer represent us, do we still live in a Democracy?
    27. Re:How can they tell... by commodore64_love · · Score: 1, Troll

      Yes. Here's what the earth looks like over 65 and 500+ million years. Both graphcs show that we are actually in a COOL period and have been for some time:

      http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:65_Myr_Climate_Change.png

      http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phanerozoic_Climate_Change.png

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    28. Re:How can they tell... by AnotherUsername · · Score: 5, Informative

      How about http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8233632.stm

      Or maybe http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=a5LmlZgQzoPQ&refer=australia

      And http://www.azocleantech.com/details.asp?newsID=3740

      Then there is http://ecobridge.org/content/g_evd.htm#Disintegration

      Also http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/07/29/coral-reefs-glue.html

      Of course there is also the http://www.coral.org/resources/about_coral_reefs/threats_to_coral_reefs

      I could go on, but I have a feeling that it still wouldn't convince you. Global Warming is not a myth. True, the Earth does go through cycles. I don't dispute that. However, the rate of climate change is far faster than previous cyclic rates. The rate now versus that of the pre-industrial age is much, much faster. The global ecology cannot adapt fast enough to the change. What used to take thousands of years now takes hundreds, and increasingly, decades. There is plenty of research all around to find. Pretty much the only studies that disagree with the idea of global warming are those that are done by the oil companies and their allies.

      --
      I don't like Linux. This doesn't make me a troll.
    29. Re:How can they tell... by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      According to a documentary I've once seen on TV, the oil has formed in a time where exactly this happened. There was too much CO2 in the air, due to increased vulcanism at that time, causing a major disruption of sea life. That caused the organic material sinking to the ground not be normally destroyed, so it could accumulate and form oil. Since this process also removed carbon from the atmosphere, the conditions eventually normalized (but a lot of species had died up to then), the ocean's ecosystems recovered, and the oil production stopped.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    30. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Plant more trees.. most new housing development barley have any plants around there house. Plants use CO2 and produce oxygen. Watch the old Bill Nye episodes. If all of the enviromentalists want to do something about it, they can come plant a couple of trees in my back yard. I like the privacy from the neighbors.

    31. Re:How can they tell... by JasonTheBold · · Score: 1

      Carbon circulates as both C12 and C13 as naturally produced isotopes. Simply due to the lighter mass allowing it to explore a larger diffusion volume per unit time, biological processes are slightly more likely to incorporate a C12 into a reaction than a C13 relative to their natural abundance. This leads to biological material being slightly C12 rich compared to the environmental C12/C13 ratio at the time the carbon was "fixed". Clever use of these isotope ratios is allowing scientists to investigate lots of interesting relationships both in paleontology and current research on photosynthesis. A google scholar search for carbon isotope ratios will explain it better than I can.

    32. Re:How can they tell... by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      How come the world temprature has dropped half a degree since 2000? Even the Climate Change Congress now acknowledges this (quote: "temperature has plateaud"). Why?
      More pirates.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    33. Re:How can they tell... by commodore64_love · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes. But then I'm looking at this chart: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:65_Myr_Climate_Change.png

      And this chart shows the Earth is at its coldest point in the last 500 million years:
      http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phanerozoic_Climate_Change.png

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    34. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Disastrous for the individuals but beneficial for evolution. Stop being so damn egocentric, think of the future.

    35. Re:How can they tell... by Artifakt · · Score: 5, Informative

      How does it stand to reason?
      Methane and cyanogen levels were enormously higher during the immediate post Hadean era, and remained somewhat high all the way to the precambrian. Does that say anything about modern life-forms tolerances for Cyanide? Oxygen levels were lower in the Cambrian, does that mean that modern life could get by just fine on 11% atmospheric O2? They reached 24% or so during the Jurassic. Does that mean modern forests wouldn't have massive wildfire problems if they rose that high again in your lifetime?
            If you're going to throw around nebulous terms such as "the past" and "higher", don't you think you should know how long in the past, or how much higher, before you try to reason about it.

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
    36. Re:How can they tell... by ScreamingCactus · · Score: 1

      So, this is the oil companies' way of ensuring future income? Perhaps they will use this to argue that oil is, in fact, a renewable resource.

      --
      The path to enlightenment is truly through homemade drugs!
    37. Re:How can they tell... by mikael · · Score: 1

      There were proposals back in the 1980's to pump sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere in order to reflect back sunlight. One of the disadvantages was that this would turn the sky white everywhere and would make it impossible for astronomical observations to be made from the ground.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    38. Re:How can they tell... by negRo_slim · · Score: 1

      Both graphics show that we are actually in a COOL period and have been for some time:

      Regardless of what type of period the earth is having you cannot deny the rapid increase in atmospheric CO2 since the beginning of the industrial revolution, that's fact. Now are you going argue it's going to have no impact on global systems?

      --
      On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
    39. Re:How can they tell... by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Perhaps they will use this to argue that oil is, in fact, a renewable resource.

      Well, it is. Just not at the rate we are using it up.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    40. Re:How can they tell... by demonlapin · · Score: 1

      Indeed, the global cooling scare that reached its peak around the early 70s attributed the cooling to particulate emissions in the atmosphere. We cleaned up our particulate emissions quite a bit after that.

    41. Re:How can they tell... by Shark · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      On the time frame your data presents, it appears to be rising. Why did you pick such a short data set however? If you go back far enough, temperatures have been far warmer than this and humanity survived. The argument now is that CO2 is causing this increase and as such, we are orchestrating our own doom... What caused it back then? Could the factor that caused such a rise in global temperature back in the days before SUV or even coal be what is affecting us now? Do we know as a scientific fact that CO2 is the driving factor here or is it more of an hypothesis? Before you go "Of course it is CO2!" how about you follow your own advice and look at the data? You'll find studies that say yes, and studies that say no... And eventually you'll remember the good old "correlation vs causation" thing with no clear answer. Heck, if you want an interesting story in terms of correlation, we've had a decrease in solar activity since about 2002, that means more cloud cover which tends to correlate with less warming. So hey, it might also be possible the the sun has something to do with global temperature. As far as CO2 (and some say greenhouse effect in general) goes, the truth is that we have a lot of educated guesses but we don't actually *know*. What we know for a fact is that politics got involved and they all have a very good idea what guesses about climate scientists ought to make if they want grant money. This is true for both sides of the debate and this will lead to the side with the most money winning the debate, regardless of them being scientifically accurate or not.

      --
      Mind the frickin' laser...
    42. Re:How can they tell... by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      However, since the pollution has other negative impact on the environment, modern cars and power plants emit much less dirt for the same amount of CO2, therefore the global dimming is reduced.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    43. Re:How can they tell... by dr2chase · · Score: 1

      No, we've got to get better leaders, and not just the official leaders -- we need an opposition that is at least anchored in reality, even if their biases are different.

      Individual action fails, because it's a global problem. Without international agreements, treaties, and laws (setting emissions targets, taxing carbon, changing existing subsidies away from fossil-fuel-friendly), individual actors are chumps. Individual action doesn't shift electrical generation away from fossil fuels, and individual action doesn't build electrical grids on a scale that would allow us to put nuke plants where they didn't make people nervous, or that would allows us rely on locally unreliable sources like wind and solar.

      That said, I'm a chump, and I'm still not doing enough. 1992 Honda Civic when I drive, but bicycle commute not less than 2x/week. The default meat is now poultry. Switching our home's heat from fuel oil to almost anything else would be an improvement (coal and resistive electrical heat would be worse), but that sort of change is generally much more expensive than changing diet or transportation.

    44. Re:How can they tell... by catman · · Score: 1

      Actually, burping livestock ...

    45. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People around now are going to have things bad enough after the next few decades. After that, well, I hope you like Mel Gibson Road Warrior movies...

      ...because the only cable channel in the years to come will be G4.

    46. Re:How can they tell... by pckl300 · · Score: 1

      While I'm no expert, surely the complex reactions inside an engine or other man-produced CO2 maker attach other things to the CO2 that give it away as man-produced CO2 rather than naturally occurring CO2. Can anyone confirm?

      --
      In the beginning, there was null.
    47. Re:How can they tell... by HiThere · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's a theory, and not the only one. Seeing something in a documentary isn't proof. Many "documentaries" are fictions arguing for a particular fact. This isn't reprehensible if they are clear about what they're doing, but they should almost never be accepted as fact. In this case probably at the time the documentary was made that was the only respectable theory, or at least so dominant that it was reasonable to ignore competing theories. But times change, and I believe that now the two respectable competing theories argue origin from protozoa vs. from largely inorganic processes (starting with larger chunks of organics). (All current theories derive the origin via a mixture of organic and inorganic processes...but they vary a lot on the details. E.g., one theory finds the origin in subduction trenches.)

      So don't set your mind in stone based on a current belief at any one time. What that is is a measure of probability based on known current information, and that changes over time.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    48. Re:How can they tell... by maxwells+daemon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The CO2 dissolved in the ocean reacts with water and lowers pH. Also with consequence. Yes a sink, but we are not doing this sink any favors.

    49. Re:How can they tell... by commodore64_love · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I have no idea what impact +100 ppm CO2 will have on the planet, and neither do most people.
      I still remember sitting in school and being lectured about Global Cooling, and how we needed to stop driving cars to reduce the amount of "dust" in the air.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    50. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes. Here's what the earth looks like over 65 and 500+ million years. Both graphcs show that we are actually in a COOL period and have been for some time:

      Oh good, cold blooded animals will be fine. That's comforting.

    51. Re:How can they tell... by commodore64_love · · Score: 3, Insightful

      +1 informative. Next question:

      How come the world temprature has dropped half a degree since 2000? Even the Climate Change Congress now acknowledges this (quote: "temperature has plateaud"). Why?

      And how are world leaders likely to respond if the temperature drops during the 2010s?

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    52. Re:How can they tell... by isa-kuruption · · Score: 0

      All of the graphs that I saw from your three sources, except for one, only date to 2000. How can you argue about post-2000 data by showing pre-2000 data? That doesn't make sense. Are you just ignoring the last 8 years because that data contradicts your false ideas about climate change? It sure seems that way to me.

      According to reputable news sources like the BBC (they are reputable, right?)... their chart shows a 0.2C difference between 1998 (hottest on record) and 2008. This shows a definite trend towards cooler temperatures.

    53. Re:How can they tell... by phoenix321 · · Score: 1

      That would make for an increase of around 35 percent, ignoring for a while that this is still parts per million, - do you know how to tell an increase in released CO2 (ie. through gas-guzzlers) from from a decrease in absorbed CO2 (ie. through deforestation)?

      I would argue that we cannot know if a given amount of CO2 is released or just not absorbed.

    54. Re:How can they tell... by HiThere · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you go back far enough, there aren't any people to survive.

      To be moderately serious, people are tropical apes. People can survive much warmer weather. It's not at all clear that the same is true of civilization. If sea levels rise, coastal cities will have problems, but not as much as the folk living in low-lying internal areas. Like the San Joaquin Valley, the Mississippi Valley, central South America, central Siberia (is that the Volga? I can't keep my Asiatic rivers straight), Around the Caspian Sea, and on islands. That's just a top of my head list of places where people live that have in past times been under water. Probably Greenland melting wouldn't be enough to submerge all of them. Most of Antarctica would. And I probably missed a lot.

      OTOH, it would solve the problems in Israel. Being underwater would do that. (Well, it wouldn't ALL be under water. Probably places with names like "The Golan Heights" would be out of water. And as I recall, Jerusalem itself is also on high ground. But it would be an island. (Probably a rather largish island, but an island. Could be that 1/3 of Israel would remain above sea level.) And the Suez would stop being a Canal. Most of the Sinai desert would be under water. So would the Nile Valley. the Yangtze Valley, the Ganges Valley, etc.

      Actually, large sections of India heading under water might threaten civilization all by itself. They've got nuclear weapons, and they'd be rather desperate. (China would be a lot less desperate. They've got lots of unseated land. Not currently arable, but I'm sure that the increased water surface would increase rainfall everywhere. [No, I didn't model this assumption.])

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    55. Re:How can they tell... by Timothy+Brownawell · · Score: 1

      As far as I can tell, the developing world is completely exempt from any decision on climate change, and various other efforts to get world leaders to acknowledge and act on climate change have garnered meager changes in policy at best. Face it: if the world is in danger and we're looking to our leaders to save the day, we're screwed. The best bet on climate change is to alter the individual consumer's behavior.

      I'd say the best bet is to alter the individual inventor's behavior, such that coal and oil become generally obsolete as energy sources.

    56. Re:How can they tell... by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Seeing something in a documentary isn't proof.

      I didn't say so. There's a reason why I qualified the statements as "according to a documentary", as opposed to e.g. "As shown by a documentary"

      I cannot tell how much of that documentary is true facts, speculation, or even plain wrong, because it's my only source on that matter (I don't have the time to research every documentation I view). However it is a fact that this documentary exists, and this is an indication that the content might be true, and therefore it's relevant to the discussion. And again, I explicitly qualified the information as "according to a documentation" so that everyone knows that it's only stating what I got from a single source of unknown reliability.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    57. Re:How can they tell... by drmerope · · Score: 1

      The question here is: "how can they tell that the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere is due to CO2".

      Yes they can measure carbon ratios; no, the data does not necessarily mean what they claim it means. Yes, the changes are consistent with burning fossil fuels, but that does nothing on its own to explain why the equilibrium level of CO2 in the atmosphere is higher today than before.

      Let me illustrate this:

      Bin(t) - Biological intake of CO2
      Bout(t) - Biological emission of CO2
      Oin(t) - Inorganic absorption of CO2
      Fout(t) - Burning fuel emissions of CO2

      CO2 = \int (Bout(t) - Bin(t) + Fout(t) - Oin(t)) dt

      All four terms are time varying. Isotope ratios only indicate that Bout/Fout are higher than before. They cannot explain why the CO2 in the atmosphere is rising which necessarily requires understanding the other terms as well.

      Don't link to realclimate.org; its heavily partisan and apologetic for even bad science and outlandish claims.

    58. Re:How can they tell... by pkphilip · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What are you basing your statements on? Can you cite some research which isn't based on CRU's Hockey Stick graph which has been debunked and which clearly indicates that global warming is happening and it is not due to any natural geological cycle?

      I am asking for research which indicates clearly that global warming is occurring due to humans and this research must not be based on CRU's data.

      No, I am not quoting some idiot paid by oil companies to distort science, I think it is perfectly reasonable to cite researchers who have:

      a) Placed their data online
      b) Placed the source of the programs they have written to arrive at the results
      c) Placed their detailed findings online

      http://forkbomb.org/~ml/cmail/mail/1254751382.txt

      If you would rather believe a bunch of "scientists" who claim to have lost their raw data but who seem to have retained all the results data, then please go ahead.

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/13/cru_missing/

      Just a few questions for you:

      1. Do you think that it is even remotely possible that all of CRU's data was stored on a single storage medium and that ALL scientists who ever worked on the data, worked on this single storage - that too on the only master storage of data without ever taking any copies of this data?

      2. Do you think that it is even remotely possible that all of CRU's data was lost despite the fact that the email log released yesterday includes emails even from the mid 1990s. Why is that email was backed up while the rest of the data was lost?

      3. Why is that even reputed magazines such as Nature and Science who have policies on data retention for all articles published in them didn't either a) Get the data from CRU or b) Retain this data - despite it being their own policy?

      4. Why isn't CRU releasing the raw data even now - despite all the controversy and wide-spread feeling that the research is flawed?

      Also, I would be interested in hearing a response from CRU on the email sent to CRU by Fred Pearce from New Scientist as early as 1996.

      http://forkbomb.org/~ml/cmail/mail/0845217169.txt

    59. Re:How can they tell... by Russ+Nelson · · Score: 3, Interesting

      However, the rate of climate change is far faster than previous cyclic rates.

      There have been at least 60 previous cycles, ranging between 500 and 2500 years. How do you know that the rate is "far faster" than the rate in any previous cycle? I mean, c'mon, pull the other one -- it's got bells on.

      So, if you were to do some research that went against the religion of anthrogenic global warming, exactly WHO is going to pay for it? You're not going to get it published anywhere, because it's heresy, so you can't use it towards getting tenure. You've GOT to get it paid-for by somebody, and the only people willing to fund such research are the oil companies and their allies. So the fact that science that contradicts AGW is paid-for by them in NO WAY undermines the quality of the research. Find another reason to dismiss it (like that it goes against your religion to believe that man isn't responsible for the warming).

      --
      Don't piss off The Angry Economist
    60. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      While I'm no expert, surely the complex reactions inside an engine or other man-produced CO2 maker attach other things to the CO2 that give it away as man-produced CO2 rather than naturally occurring CO2. Can anyone confirm?

      Nope. "C" means one carbon atom; "O2" means two oxygen atoms.

      "Attaching things" to CO2 makes it a molecule of something other than CO2.

    61. Re:How can they tell... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Individual action fails, because it's a global problem.

      We still haven't demonstrated that CO2 emissions are a problem or that in current concentrations, they measurably affect climate (in the form of global warming). I recent the appeals to group action in the absence of significant evidence.

      Current research isn't always helping either. For example, this paper commits an obvious flaw in that it extrapolates from a few years of carbon emission growth to a whole century. China isn't always going to grow at its current rate nor will coal remain the only energy source of choice for them.

    62. Re:How can they tell... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Sorry, "resent" not "recent".

    63. Re:How can they tell... by Stephan+Schulz · · Score: 1

      Prove it. Since CO2 levels have been higher in the past, it stands to reason that sealife is already adapted to higher levels of dissolved CO2 in seawater.

      ...because sea life today is the same as it was about 20 million years ago, probably the last time when CO2 levels were as high as they are today? Good thing evolution stopped back then - I would really miss Megalodon, Gavialosuchus and the Phorusrhacidae (Terror birds). Megatherium probably was a figment of my imagination, as was Glyptodon and the Woolly mammoth...

      It is clear that sea life can adapt to such high concentration - if given enough time. But the current increase in CO2 is unprecedented in speed. Evolution will eventually catch up, but that does not mean that we will not have a major ecosystem crash if we continue as we do currently. It's probably great consolation to T. rex that life did not end 65 million years ago, but I'd rather not life through an even more massive mass extinction event than we are currently experiencing anyways.

      --

      Stephan

    64. Re:How can they tell... by Vintermann · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "I don't think anyone is arguing that the CO2 is not antropogenic"

      Oh yes, there are. The much quoted Australian denialist Ian Plimer, for instance, claimed very recently that "we cannot stop carbon emissions because most of them come from volcanoes". That is contradicted by isotopic evidence as well as emission accounting, but that doesn't stop him from saying it.

      Some deny that CO2 causes warming. Some deny that temperatures are rising. Some deny that CO2 is a greenhouse gas. Some deny that humans emit significant CO2. Some deny that CO2 levels are rising. But AGW deniers quote each other for support even when their respective reasons for denial are totally incompatible. They are allied in the fight against their "establishment", just like IDers and young earth creationists are allied, and various conflicting theories of alternative medicine.are allied - and that's something that should set off people's bullshit detectors.

      By comparison, on the other side of the fence... There was a well-published spat between Mann and Von Storch about climate sensitivity a few years back. There were quite harsh words used, and for a while, Von Storch (unwillingly) became a denialist darling. But when Balunias and Soon managed to get a denialist paper published in Climate Research, Von Storch was among the editors that resigned from that journal in protest. He's not quote-mined much today.

      --
      xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
    65. Re:How can they tell... by dr2chase · · Score: 1

      There's simulations, vs observations. Observations (Mauna Loa CO2 records, melting icecaps, glaciers, and permafrost) suggest that we've got some non-trivial warming going on. CO2's a greenhouse gas, so is CH4 (this is not something you can dispute, and have me think you are anything but a nut -- it's an optically transparent gas that blocks re-radiated IR), there is nothing surprising in the observation that it is getting warmer, and no other large enough cause is popping out of any other data. Notice I'm not working with all this other massaged data -- we know that these gasses should tend to warm things, we know we are putting more of them in the air, and we know (using heat-island-insensitive measures) that it is warming.

      My default assumption is that we've got the burden of proof backwards -- namely, that anyone in favor of the current increasing CO2 trajectory, needs to "prove" (with simulations?) that it's ok. We're seeing effects now, we have every reason to believe that the oceans are acting as an enormous thermal buffer, which means that the CO2 we've already put in the air will continue to increase heat for some years. I find it somewhat interesting that there are few-to-zero competing simulation results.

      I have one friend who works in climate modeling, and what he told me, years ago, is that climate models are good enough to be worth a lot of money to some of the very some companies that question them in public.

      I'm also not too well disposed to believe in the wonders of negative feedback, or that it will make things turn out nice. A little delay in your negative feedback, is what converts a regulator, into an oscillator, and if there's one thing we know this system has got, it's delays.

    66. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Man I'm sick to death of this pointless argument. Fact, fossil fuels contain large amounts of CO2. Fact, they have been one source the planet uses to store excess CO2 and the process has gone on for 100s of millions of years. Fact, we have released a significant amount of this CO2 and we are on track to release a large percentage of this CO2 over the next few hundred years. Do the math. It took the Earth hundreds of millions of years to store it and we are releasing a big chunk of it over a few hundred years. Can you see a problem with this??? I've heard this natural warming trend argument droned on for years. Before that they denied any trend warming or cooling. I also lately have heard the argument made by the same groups that it's a cooling trend. Okay you only get to pick one natural trend at a time to support your argument. They cherry pick data to "discount" global warming. The natural trend for the last 1,000 years was towards cooling. We are supposed to be headed back into an ice age. That trend reversed once the industrial revolution started and now it's a warming trend, we are supposed to be cooling so the warming trend by definition is not natural. There hasn't been an excess of volcanic activity which does cause sudden increases. It's all been within normal ranges. We do release billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere and it does have an affect. The environment absorbed most of it but studies are showing the planet can't keep up and the oceans are maxing out.

      It's funny how on a computer/science geek site that scientists are being attacked and data and journal papers are being blasted. Peer review papers used to be sacred but not where climate change is concerned. All data showing climate change is considered suspect. Why? If you publish a paper about a new subatomic particle people don't start screaming liar even though none of us will ever see it. I'm pushing 50 and I've seen a massive change in the climate and world around us. I don't even need data to prove to me that the Earth is warming and that we are at least partly at fault. People forget that the reason a lot of this country was explored was to find a northwest passage. Even in the summer there was too much ice to cross in the Arctic Sea. Now ships casually can count on yearly summer crossings and they can see soon ice free summers. That's a massive difference! Something changed and Occam's Razor says it's us.

    67. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only problem is that the results of their studies support their bottom line. Profit. Therefore none of it can be trusted. I mean come on, seriously? You want us to accept their research that just happens to find exactly what they need to support their business model? I know people are dumb and all that but what you posit is just ridiculous. I would maybe accept what the oil and gas industry has to say IF it could be shown that they hired teams of independent scientists to do studies, and could prove that the findings were not "encouraged" in any way. Good luck with that.

    68. Re:How can they tell... by BlackSabbath · · Score: 1

      > Who knows what world leaders will do? Cheapest thing is probably just to beef up their militaries and shoot incoming refugees.

      Precisely.
      http://securityandclimate.cna.org/report/SecurityandClimate_Final.pdf

      "By 2025, 40% of the world's population will live in areas suffering severe water shortages"

    69. Re:How can they tell... by khallow · · Score: 1
      The problem with your evidence is that it doesn't tell us the extent to which human activity is responsible. We just know (and I grant this) that there is some effect from human activity. How am I to do a proper cost/benefits analysis?

      My default assumption is that we've got the burden of proof backwards -- namely, that anyone in favor of the current increasing CO2 trajectory, needs to "prove" (with simulations?) that it's ok. We're seeing effects now, we have every reason to believe that the oceans are acting as an enormous thermal buffer, which means that the CO2 we've already put in the air will continue to increase heat for some years. I find it somewhat interesting that there are few-to-zero competing simulation results.

      Unless there's convincing evidence to the contrary (not alarmist garbage like the CRU article that this slashdot story is based on) or serious carbon emission reduction regulation is implemented, we'll find out naturally. That's good enough for me.

    70. Re:How can they tell... by Ian+Alexander · · Score: 1

      Nature will adjust. The question is: will it adjust in such a way that's amenable to human civilization? After the Sumerians' unsustainable irrigation techniques turned their fields to salt pans and ruined agriculture, they had no choice but to abandon the cities. Lucky for them, there were other cities they could flee to. Where exactly are we going to flee to when every ecosystem on earth is disrupted by climate change?

      And, not that it necessarily matters because nobody is denying that some places on Earth are getting colder (only that the number of places which will get warmer significantly outnumber the places that will get colder - hence, /average/ rise in temperature) where exactly in India did we see snow? The north is not particularly warm. If you see snow in north Uttarakhand that's one thing. Snow in Kerala is another thing entirely.

    71. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, there's a ton of money in climate research and money always corrupts.

    72. Re:How can they tell... by jcr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The only problem is that the results of their studies support their bottom line. Profit.

      So do the studies on the other side, with the difference that the profit is taken from the taxpayers. If that's your criterion for dismissing research, then you have to dismiss both sides.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    73. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I should point out that I was being sarcastic in the parent, before anyone on the correct side of this issue wastes their time replying.

    74. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yet, I personally STILL don't care!

    75. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Didn't ever take a chemistry course or ever hear about carbon-14 dating have you. There is a difference between CO2 molecules. Natural sources of CO2 produce more of the Carbon-12 isotope, while Carbon-13 is produced by burning fossil fuels. The ratio of Carbon-12 to Carbon-13 is changing at the same rate as is the earth's temperature.

    76. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't link to realclimate.org; its heavily partisan and apologetic for even bad science and outlandish claims.

      Maybe, but in this case they have science on their side. See section 2.3.1 from the IPCC Working Group I report. For example, page 139:

      Measurements of both the 13C/12C ratio in atmospheric CO2 and atmospheric O2 levels are valuable tools used to determine the distribution of fossil-fuel derived CO2 among the active carbon reservoirs, as discussed in Section 7.3. In Figure 2.3, recent measurements in both hemispheres are shown to emphasize the strong linkages between atmospheric CO2 increases, O2 decreases, fossil fuel consumption and the 13C/12C ratio of atmospheric CO2.

    77. Re:How can they tell... by Dan667 · · Score: 1

      there are offsetting problems from the pollution (like smog preventing light from penetrating the atmosphere, etc). Eventually, it will run away in one direction or the other.

    78. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also another question I have is it up 28% because of an actual increase? Or more/better testing methods over 8 years? A peer/method review is in order whenever I see a hockey stick graph...

    79. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What are you fucking talking about? "Can you cite some research which isn't based on CRU's Hockey Stick graph"?!? Are you saying that climate scientists aren't researching climate, but the tens of thousands of them around the world are just looking at a graph one person did a decade ago and nodding their heads? This is beyond ridiculous. Who mods this shit up?

    80. Re:How can they tell... by drmerope · · Score: 1

      Again, you don't get the logic. The core science is right; yet, the conclusion being drawn does not follow. The people blogging at realclimate are the same ones monopolizing the lead author positions at the IPCC. So there is no independence here and no meaning to the repetition.

    81. Re:How can they tell... by Eravnrekaree · · Score: 1

      Answer: nothing. There were no complex lifeforms in the precambrian, until the very end. The increase in the complexity of life in the Cambrian is attributed to higher levels of oxygen, it was quite a sudden increase in life complexity after 4 billion years in which very little happened. So it does seem like there were finally a threshold that was met at that time when the oxygen levels had gotten high enough.

        We are destroying our planets rainforest which generates the oxygen we breath, and dumping huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. Its not a very good combination.

    82. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Look at your sources. Folkbomb and theregister vs bbc news and bloomberg. You're a joke.

      Care to cite some sources for gravity that AREN'T based on it being a force?

      Yes. That's how fucktarded you are.

    83. Re:How can they tell... by sams67 · · Score: 2, Informative

      There is a natural variability that correlates to several known processes. There have been dips and peaks of greater magnitude since the start of the industry and beyond. The long term clear is very though; http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2008/ and fits well with the increasingly accurate climate models that have been refined over time to include these know processes.

    84. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You'd say it's dropping when looking at a scale on the order of millions of years? How about on a scale of 500 years? Or 100 years?

    85. Re:How can they tell... by St.Creed · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So if we have no idea what will happen, is it really such a great idea to run an experiment on a planetary scale with no safeties, backups or fallbacks?

      --
      Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
    86. Re:How can they tell... by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      Oh are those the ones from the "hottest tree on earth"? Sorry realclimate has no leg to stand on with their data manipulation.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    87. Re:How can they tell... by sams67 · · Score: 1

      "Can you cite some research which isn't based on CRU's Hockey Stick graph which has been debunked" Can you cite some research about atoms that isn't based on the 'plum pudding' model of atoms, which has been debunked? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plum_pudding_model The point is that the climate models evolve over time. The word "based on" that you use is ambiguous - we must assume you mean 'refined/evolved from'. Example of an improved climate model: http://www.ornl.gov/info/press_releases/get_press_release.cfm?ReleaseNumber=mr20091009-00

    88. Re:How can they tell... by chickenarise · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When heat enters a system temperature will not change until the phase change is complete. Once our icecaps have melted, temperature will start rising more dramatically.

      --
      One convenient locations...in Africa.
    89. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And when we recently saw snow in India, how can anyone take a 6oC *rise* seriously. Some places are getting hotter, some are getting colder...

      Really? You think some localized are representative of the entire planet?

      Global warming affect the polar regions first, because they are the coldest and heat flows from warm regions to cold regions. You would not expect the equatorial regions to get significantly warmer until the poles have warmed up. Indeed, if our warming was due to solar variations, we would expect warming to affect the equatorial regions first, and possibly only. The poles are cold because they don't get much sunlight. The poles are warming because "hot air" (really, just a few degrees hotter than usual) is flowing into them.

      Global warming has unpredictable effects on the weather. These heat flows I described, from the equator to the poles, drives the weather, like an engine drives a car. Consider the effect of the Gulf Stream on European climate: England and Scotland are at the same latitudes as Canada, Finland, Siberia. Only two of these are not frozen wastelands for 3/4 of the year. The Gulf Stream pumps hot, wet air onto the island, which leads to a tempering effect. The Gulf Stream is "climactic".

      So what's going to happen when other jet streams flow a little hotter and wetter than usual? It depends on whether the stream is taking moisture and heat from your geographical area, or dumping it.

    90. Re:How can they tell... by budgenator · · Score: 1

      Why? Because the effect of CO2 in the atmosphere is already at saturation. Doesn't really matter how much you blacken the windows in a house - once they hit "black" you're not adding any more to the effect. Same with CO2 absorption and re-emission of specific infrared wavelengths - it's already at saturation, and adding any more CO2 will have no effect.

      You are saying that because of bad analogies crafted by some AGW as a religion types, name the greenhouse analogy, to sway a bunch of brain-damaged morons. In reality the effect is more like an insulating blanket than a window, the more CO2 in the atmosphere, the thicker the blanket is as the CO2 is heavier than air and stays closer to the ground. As CO2 increases the saturation point increase in elevation, and the warmer the air temperatures at the ground will be on an average.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    91. Re:How can they tell... by Xyrus · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I would think someone with such a low UID would have better critical thinking skills.

      CRU did not produce a hockey stick graph. That was Mann et. al. and has been verified by many researchers. If people like youw ould spend your time actually reading the science journals instead of torching them as "conspiracy" you may learn something.

      "I am asking for research which indicates clearly that global warming is occurring due to humans and this research must not be based on CRU's data."

      How about GISS for starters.

      Oh I see. You're one of those idiots who have selectively read the hacked emails instead of all of them. You've already jumped to your conclusions, in spite of the fact that there's really nothing in those emails nor are they even remotely complete. You've already thrown out the decades of research because you've already developed your pre-conceived notions abou what the CRU hack actually reveals. Which is actually nothing. Read all the emails.

      It's completely pointless to respond to people like you, because you won't listen. But why not:

      1. Do you think that it is even remotely possible that all of CRU's data was stored on a single storage medium and that ALL scientists who ever worked on the data, worked on this single storage - that too on the only master storage of data without ever taking any copies of this data?

      No, and only a complete asshat would interpret the emails that way.

      2. Do you think that it is even remotely possible that all of CRU's data was lost despite the fact that the email log released yesterday includes emails even from the mid 1990s. Why is that email was backed up while the rest of the data was lost?

      No, and now you're expanding your asshattery by mixing up issues.

      3. Why is that even reputed magazines such as Nature and Science who have policies on data retention for all articles published in them didn't either a) Get the data from CRU or b) Retain this data - despite it being their own policy?

      The data distributed and retained by any institution is subject to any IP and contractual obligations that are in place on that data. CRU (along with many other institutes) often get data from several sources, a chunk of which is proprietary and have strict rules about distribution. Unless you have a justifiable reason for getting that data (like being a peer reviewer) then chances are you won't get it. You are free, however, as an individual to go to the data provider and buy the data yourself.

      You, and other ignoramuses like you seem to gloss over the fact that THIS IS ALL DOCUMENTED IN THE FUCKING PEER REVIEWS.

      4. Why isn't CRU releasing the raw data even now - despite all the controversy and wide-spread feeling that the research is flawed?

      Are you illiterate? Can you not read the emails? Can you not read the peer-review arcticles? They are not allowed to distribute some of their data by law and/or contractual obligations.

      And the only controversy is caused by the armchair climate Ph.Ds like yourself. Your personal feelings mean jack shit to climate science. What matters is the research and the results of that research, which is very much indicating the current warming trend is our own doing.

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
    92. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uhm, no. If we wanted oxygen we would cut all the tropical forests and replace them with grasslands which are a lot better at that.
      Downing trees basically guarantees that CO2 and methane will be generated. Which is what we are worried about.
      Still, IMO runaway climate change proponents are as crazy as climate change deniers. Mass extinctions will likely happen, but Earth is not becoming Venus 2 because we released a bit of CO2. As with all mass extinctions before, many species will survive. And CO2 is basically plant food. Which means food for all survivors.

    93. Re:How can they tell... by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      If you meant the past several thousand years where humans managed to thrive, then yes because that's all that matters. A climate that significantly deviates away from what we are used to in a short time period would not exactly be a load of fun.

      We depend on the current climate to survive. Turning the midwest US into a desert over the span of 10 years, for example, would have serious repercussions.

      Longer term, paleoclimatolgists use multiple proxies to establish what long term climates may have looked like. Of course, they don't have nearly the granularity we have now ut it yields a pretty good idea of what things were like.

      Climate changes happen. Climate changes can be good/bad/neutral. But rapid climate changes are bad for current life forms because it gives them no chances to adapt.

      The current research is indicating the climate is changing rapidly. We can prepare and maybe mitigate it or we can ignore it and hope for the best.

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
    94. Re:How can they tell... by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      You're missing the point.

      The point isn't whether or not the globe has been warmer or colder. The point is that on the average changes to climate happens relatively slowly and that apparently we've kicked things into high gear. Given the fact that we are still highly dependent on the climate to sustain ourselves, any sudden change should give people some pause.

      Even if you don't think anthropogenic forcings are contributing, the rapid rise in temperatures should at least get people thinking about what the effects of rapid climate change on our lives. Turning food production areas into deserts and having pest show up in areas where there are no natural predators are just two problems that could happen (hence the research into the consequences).

      No doubt the planet has been warm or colder in the past. But what's important is how a warmer planet will impact our livelihood in the immediate future.

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
    95. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Again, you don't get the logic. The core science is right; yet, the conclusion being drawn does not follow.

      I suppose I don't. I understand the "core science" to refer to the fact that the increase in CO2 are consistent with burning fossil fuel as you said.

      I don't understand what conclusion is being drawn that you feel doesn't follow. If you can articulate what conclusion you are referring to, we can have a discussion.

    96. Re:How can they tell... by phantomfive · · Score: 0

      You know, I've wondered about that, and I could be wrong, but it seems there is LESS smog and pollution now than there was 30 years ago. So in fact, the earth should be getting even warmer because of changes in pollution.

      --
      Qxe4
    97. Re:How can they tell... by Capsaicin · · Score: 1

      How do they know if the CO2 is from fossil fuels or from natural sources, is there actually a test for this?

      We are able to distinguish CO2 from biogenic sources (ie fossil fuels and burn off of vegetation) by its distinctive C12/C13 isotope ratio. So yes, there is is test for this. It's the smoking gun.

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    98. Re:How can they tell... by Capsaicin · · Score: 1

      Isotopic composition is a good test.

      True.

      For fossil carbon, all of the C-14 will have decayed, so if the fraction of C-14 has gone down over time then that's a good indicator that the increase is from a fossil fource.

      Forget about C14 decay for a moment and consider C12 and C13. It's well established that vegetation preferrentially absorbs the lighter isotope and that the carbon in plants therefore has a lower C13/C12 ratio than the air in which they are grown, and consequently so do fossil fuels. Thus if the observed increase in atmospheric CO2 were due to ultilmately biogenic sources (ie. fossil fuel consumption and land clearing), as opposed to coming say from volcanos, we would expect the C13/C12 ratio to drop over time. Dendochronological research (ie examining the gasses trapped in tree-rings) shows that such a shift in C13/C12 ratio began to be noticiable towards the end of C19th, accelerating in line with our increased use of fossil fuels (some of this use being to clear land at historically unprecedented rates).

      We convict for murder with less compelling evidence than this.

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    99. Re:How can they tell... by MrHanky · · Score: 1

      There was a glacial period that ended only 10,000 years ago. The reason why the "current" temperature looks so low on those graphs is that the current interglacial period is too short to be noticed on a scale that shows 10M years as 78 pixels.

    100. Re:How can they tell... by finarfinjge · · Score: 1

      >>Why? Because the effect of CO2 in the atmosphere is already at saturation. Doesn't really matter
      >>how much you blacken the windows in a house - once they hit "black" you're not adding any more to
      >>the effect. Same with CO2 absorption and re-emission of specific infrared wavelengths - it's
      >>already at saturation, and adding any more CO2 will have no effect.

      >You are saying that because of bad analogies crafted by some AGW as a religion types, name the
      >greenhouse analogy, to sway a bunch of brain-damaged morons. In reality the effect is more like an
      >insulating blanket than a window, the more CO2 in the atmosphere, the thicker the blanket is as
      >the CO2 is heavier than air and stays closer to the ground. As CO2 increases the saturation point
      >increase in elevation, and the warmer the air temperatures at the ground will be on an average.

      No: The OP is correct. It is NOT like a blanket. It is like a marker. Also, CO2 concentration measured in PPM is very consistent throughout the atmosphere. Your thing about "saturation point increasing in elevation" is also off.

      The total radiant heat loss from surface to space is determined by the product of concentration and distance. Once the absorbance reaches the maximum (atmospherically, this is somewhere between 50 to 100 ppm) further increases in CO2 concentrations have NO impact on radiant heat loss. The climate calculations are a special, though in no way unusual, case of a very common type of calculation. In ALL other cases, this "point of saturation" thing is already accounted for. You are double counting the impact of CO2 if you add this in.

      What you are roughly saying is that a slice of atmosphere will radiate heat at the same rate as the surface of the ground. That is, that a slice of atmosphere has the same heat capacity as the surface of the ground. Which it obviously does not. Air being about 2,000 times less dense than ground, 1 meter of ground will have as much heat as 2,000 meters of atmosphere at the ground. A whole lot more than that if you consider dropping pressure with altitude.

      Cheers

      JE

    101. Re:How can they tell... by TapeCutter · · Score: 0

      I'm dissapointed jcr your posts are normally better than that. Taking money from taxpayers is not profit for anyone but the taxpayer when it's plowed into research and I have never met a scientist who is "in it for the money" although I'm sure they exist somewhere.

      The point is research should be independent, ie: you pay for the study not the answer. Do you think AGW research done under the Bush Administration came up with the answer the Bush Administration wanted to see? - No it came up with the same answer it did under poppa Bush, Clinton and Now Obama, why? - because the research was independent.

      What the OP was alluding to are places that run deliberate misinformation campagins such as the heartland institute with whom Watt's is affiliated, there is no possible way a "reasonable person" can call the heartland institute either scientific or independent. It is basically a think tank full of well paid and skillfull bullshitters who lobby for the FF and tabacoo industry by filling the mass-media with red-herrings and myths. They are not interested in anything but delaying action, so far they have been very successfull. However like the tabacoo scam where they played a similar psuedo-scientific role in the 90's, it can't last forever, personally I predict another mass show trial in the next decade where the FF CEO's are slapped on the wrist for "misleading" their mates in congress.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    102. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, it seems there is enough money in climate research for a whole community to live on quite comfortably just sitting behind a desk, punching keyboards, and having Russians scouring the taiga, cutting trees and counting tree circles for a quarter what a researcher in the West gets in a month per annum.

      Also, it seems that most of that money comes from one source - the government. It is hard to imagine a source of finance more pre-disposing to corruption.

      Being a hobby woodworker I am envious and I wouldn't mind a piece of that cash. Too bad I have this slight distaste for ass-licking not related to enjoyable sex that pervades the "academia".

    103. Re:How can they tell... by siddesu · · Score: 1

      You sure carbon sinks are decreasing? Cuz the so-called "science" says the opposite. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8352469.stm

    104. Re:How can they tell... by siddesu · · Score: 1

      You're not linking to data, you're at most linking to a graphical representation of it.

    105. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So do the studies on the other side, with the difference that the profit is taken from the taxpayers

      Ah yes, that old chestnut, the one that assumes the government wants to fund studies that prove the existence of Global Warming, you know, the one that conveniently forgets the fact that we had an anti-science, pro-big-oil, rightist government for eight years from 2001 until the start of this year.

    106. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      can you say standard deviation?? +/- the average.....I'm glad I an stupid in math

    107. Re:How can they tell... by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      "Face it: if the world is in danger and we're looking to our leaders to save the day, we're screwed. The best bet on climate change is to alter the individual consumer's behavior."

      Yes, whenever I see a coal fired plant I'm reminded of the statues on Easter Island.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    108. Re:How can they tell... by Silvrmane · · Score: 1

      The Mann "hockey stick" graph has been thoroughly debunked. This is old news, and I'm surprised it even has to be mentioned again. It was based on a poor subset of data, on flawed assumptions as to how trees respond to temperature in their growth patterns, and the data was subject to flawed use of statistical methods. The hockey stick is totally off the table as proof of any unusual recent warming. What else have you got?

    109. Re:How can they tell... by R2.0 · · Score: 1

      "If new data comes in that suggests this is not the case, the IPCC and other climate change panels will have to acknowledge it."

      Why? They don't "have to" do any such thing. That phrase implies some force or coercion - who is going to pressure the IPCC to acknowledge contrary evidence? They report to no one in particular, and they have reached a consensus. There is no reason for them to change their minds.

      If "new evidence" contradict that consensus, it will be rejected as tainted, political, flawed, or irrational. Why? Because it contradicts the consensus. First it will need to get published, before which it will be peer reviewed by other scientist in the field, almost ALL of whom are part of that consensus. Why wouldn't they see it as poppycock? So it gets submitted to other journals, and by the time it gets published, it becomes "that paper that was rejected by all those journals".

      I am not proposing a conspiracy, rather acknowledging that science is as much about agreement and consensus as thermometers and ice cores. That is data. But there is no such thing as an absolute "fact" in the sciences.

      --
      "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
    110. Re:How can they tell... by The+Shootist · · Score: 1

      Even the Climate Change Congress now acknowledges this (quote: "temperature has plateaud"). Why?

      Because its main motivation is to understand exactly what's going on with the climate. It doesn't have a political agenda. The best data right now suggests that the climate is getting warmer and that a probable reason for that is anthropogenic CO2. If new data comes in that suggests this is not the case, the IPCC and other climate change panels will have to acknowledge it.

      No political agenda? Paint you naive.

      They have but one purpose: To control the means of production, if not outright, then by regulation and taxation.

    111. Re:How can they tell... by destrowolffe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If you read the emails you would see that:

      (1) internally they disregarding the hockey graph as inaccurate as early as 2004 (almost 6 years ago!)

      (2) the small group had a list of "known quantities" that peer reviewed each other's papers (i.e., groupthink with no outside influences).

      (3) they actively worked to sabotage skeptic papers and journals that published skeptic papers because of "backlash that could hurt the community".

      (4) the emails very clearly say that they will not release their data to skeptics under any circumstances regardless of FOI requests that they are legally mandated to respond to. One goes so far as to ask his colleagues to delete emails that deal with the subject being discussed. (that is real scholarly and scientific of him)

      (5) One also says that he would "delete the data before handing it over" to a skeptic.

      If that is how you view science and the scientific method than I weep for science.


      I just want good science. I don't care what the results say to confirm or deny AGW, but the "scientific" methods revealed in the emails boggles the mind and is very disheartening, to say the least. The only loser in this whole episode is science.

    112. Re:How can they tell... by Kingrames · · Score: 2, Informative

      http://www.tmgnow.com/repository/solar/lassen1.html

      http://www.junkscience.com/GMT/index.html

      http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.global-greenhouse-warming.com/images/AR4WG1GlobalMeanTemp.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.global-greenhouse-warming.com/global-temperature.html&h=384&w=567&sz=86&tbnid=ZkCq3VjJqZA8xM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dglobal%2Bmean%2Btemperature&usg=__5O0QbT0FvssTY0dQkkMAt750tg8=&ei=vfcJS-jjMqGNtgennMj-Bw&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=4&ct=image&ved=0CBgQ9QEwAw

      There are other graphs that show more data, if you actually want to look. The sun's activity is directly linked to the drop you're talking about, but the global daily mean temperature over the last few decades shows that it keeps climbing upwards, accounting for drastic spikes that correspond directly to solar activity.

      So yes, it's a very serious man-made threat. Unless there's some invisible pink unicorn farting out heat in an amount that would be more influential than the sun. Note that the junk science link shows data for a whopping 3 years and concludes its hypotheses based on that, whereas the NASA link shows data for hundreds of years, with obvious cycles present, which correspond to the first graph.

      --
      If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
    113. Re:How can they tell... by narcberry · · Score: 2, Funny

      Puny humans increase their CO2 emissions from itty bitty, to teeny tiny over the last 8 years; temperatures during this period continue to drop.

      In other news...

      --
      Modding me -1 troll doesn't make me wrong.
    114. Re:How can they tell... by destrowolffe · · Score: 1

      You're missing the point.

      The point isn't whether or not the globe has been warmer or colder. The point is that on the average changes to climate happens relatively slowly and that apparently we've kicked things into high gear. Given the fact that we are still highly dependent on the climate to sustain ourselves, any sudden change should give people some pause.

      Even if you don't think anthropogenic forcings are contributing, the rapid rise in temperatures should at least get people thinking about what the effects of rapid climate change on our lives. Turning food production areas into deserts and having pest show up in areas where there are no natural predators are just two problems that could happen (hence the research into the consequences).

      No doubt the planet has been warm or colder in the past. But what's important is how a warmer planet will impact our livelihood in the immediate future.

      ~X~

      I think you are missing the point with this post. Your previous posts have been highly in favor of AGW, which is simply me stating a fact, not a pejorative.

      However, now you are claiming that even if he doesn't believe in AGW he should be concerned about the effect of warming on our survival. While that is a very valid point, if he doesn't believe in AGW then cap and trade/carbon offest/economic reorganization to the tune of Trillions of Dollars is not in his best interest of preparing for a warmer planet.

      If humans are not contributing to warming (a big if) then what good will altering manufacturing/production/energy patterns have in a newly warmed world?

    115. Re:How can they tell... by narcberry · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually, it's ridiculous to believe that scientists have done their due diligence. Science is not a belief system. The scientific method requires rigorous scrutiny, not your kind of blind faith. Being told that thousands of scientists have reached consensus is not science.

      GP asked some very good questions. Answering them would give credibility, ad hominem will only get you mod points.

      --
      Modding me -1 troll doesn't make me wrong.
    116. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't believe you're using 500 million years as your standard. Are you a fucking idiot? As has been pointed out already, the reason it's so low is that the scale is such that you can't distinguish between modern temperatures and temperatures of the last ice age. Besides, even if we were to knock temperatures back up to what they were on your chart 20 million years ago, that's a period in which there WERE NO HUMANS, and many ecosystems were entirely different. You're a fucking moron.

    117. Re:How can they tell... by JWW · · Score: 1

      I'd say the best bet is to alter the individual inventor's behavior, such that coal and oil become generally obsolete as energy sources.

      What the hell is that supposed to mean?? Damn do you think you can centrally plan how all the inventors act? Dammit invention is not some great communal game where we all hope and pray for the inventors to find the right solution.

      Necessity is the mother of invention, not the state. The inventors behavior is not altered by policy. Inventor's behavior is determined by the impact their invention may have.

      No matter how much you hate coal power generation, the inventor of a new way must create something cheaper than coal and as productive as coal. The rest, the replacement of coal, is just economics. Inventors know this, they are trying to create new power generation capabilities to beat oil and coal, because the inventions that aren't cheaper and better will NOT replace coal and oil no matter how much we want them to.

    118. Re:How can they tell... by jcr · · Score: 1

      Taking money from taxpayers is not profit for anyone

      Of course it is. The money isn't just taken from us, it's given to someone else. The person it's given to has profited. QED.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    119. Re:How can they tell... by Timothy+Brownawell · · Score: 1

      What the hell is that supposed to mean?? Damn do you think you can centrally plan how all the inventors act?

      Sure. Tax credits for R&D in certain fields, prizes, etc. Basically anything that makes the risk/reward more favorable.

      Necessity is the mother of invention, not the state. The inventors behavior is not altered by policy. Inventor's behavior is determined by the impact their invention may have.

      The state has the ability to increase the impact that favored kinds of inventions would have on the inventor's pocketbook.

      No matter how much you hate coal power generation, the inventor of a new way must create something cheaper than coal and as productive as coal. The rest, the replacement of coal, is just economics.

      Yes, exactly.

      Inventors know this, they are trying to create new power generation capabilities to beat oil and coal, because the inventions that aren't cheaper and better will NOT replace coal and oil no matter how much we want them to.

      Yes. So how do we encourage people to spend less time trying to invent new banking scams and more time trying to invent better solar cells and working fusion reactors and such?

    120. Re:How can they tell... by pkphilip · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Thanks for the name calling. I guess people like you out there are getting a little concerned now that your schemes are coming out to the open.

      Question for you:

      1) To use your capitalization PEER REVIEW doesn't mean squat if the PEERS don't have the data that you did your research on.. Or by PEER REVIEW does it mean reviews by those who agree with you on anything and won't need any RAW DATA to arrive at their findings? Are you saying that these PEERS were actually given the DATA? How is that possible? Wasn't the DATA protected by the frigging IP laws that you keep spouting about?

      2) Why is that the IP laws suddenly didn't apply when the Royal Society of Biological Sciences forced Briffa to release the data after he published an article in their journal? This data was analyzed to obtain quite a different result from what Briffa published.. Also this data clearly indicated that Briffa had used data from very few cores and there was indication that the data had been massaged to arrive at a pre-determined result.

      3) Why should I give a rats ass about your IP rights and take your word for it when you publish a "finding"? Give me the data and the methodology that you used to arrive at the finding.. but don't give me this BS that I am supposed to accept their findings because they *said so*.

      Would you be ok with the Election Office claiming that the election data cannot be released but this Candidate A did actually win the election?

      4) This is publicly funded research. If that doesn't imply that the data should be available, what does?

      5)

      1. Do you think that it is even remotely possible that all of CRU's data was stored on a single storage medium and that ALL scientists who ever worked on the data, worked on this single storage - that too on the only master storage of data without ever taking any copies of this data?

      *No, and only a complete asshat would interpret the emails that way.*

      http://constitutionclub.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/10095/

      Phil Jones specifically claimed to have LOST ALL DATA. Perhaps you are the illiterate one here.

      See a full rebuttal to your comments without resorting to name calling and abuse. Perhaps there is something you can learn here.

    121. Re:How can they tell... by Nazlfrag · · Score: 0, Troll

      In short, because 10 years ago was the peak of the 'super El Nino' heat wave event.

      This site has a neat analysis by a guy who is a critic of the status quo climate change science. It shows fairly unequivocally that the last 10 years has been fairly steady. Note the typical time scale used by climate scientists for measuring trends is usually 30 years, not 10.

      Don't forget to look at the first graph showing the last 150 odd years and the undisputed fact that warming is happening over a long term scale.

    122. Re:How can they tell... by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

      Yes. But then I'm looking at this chart: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:65_Myr_Climate_Change.png

      And this chart shows the Earth is at its coldest point in the last 500 million years: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phanerozoic_Climate_Change.png

      Absolutely true!

      The planet, for the last few million years, has been much cooler than it is in dinosaur times. In fact, ice caps are an unusual phenomenon for Earth, at least for that period since life left the oceans.

      This has nothing to do with the anthropogenic global warming (non)-controversy, but it is a true thing.

      If you like to put it that way, the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are, crudely, returning the planet to the climate it had millions of years ago.

      But this is a different point, of course. Saying "the Earth used to be much warmer" falsify the discussion "the emissions of carbon dioxide are currently warming the Earth."

      --
      http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    123. Re:How can they tell... by inviolet · · Score: 1

      I could go on, but I have a feeling that it still wouldn't convince you. Global Warming is not a myth. True, the Earth does go through cycles. I don't dispute that. However, the rate of climate change is far faster than previous cyclic rates. The rate now versus that of the pre-industrial age is much, much faster. The global ecology cannot adapt fast enough to the change. What used to take thousands of years now takes hundreds, and increasingly, decades.

      Liar.

      --
      FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE
    124. Re:How can they tell... by pkphilip · · Score: 1

      Nice try. Get an education and come back.

    125. Re:How can they tell... by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

      On the time frame your data presents, it appears to be rising. Why did you pick such a short data set however?

      Because I am addressing the statement "the fact temperatures have been falling for the last eight years mean that anthropogenic greenhouse effect emissions do not cause global warming." Since the statement was about the last few years, that's why I "picked such a short data set" covering the last few years.

      This statement only sounds plausible if you don't actually look at the data.

      If you go back far enough, temperatures have been far warmer than this and humanity survived.

      True. So?

      The argument now is that CO2 is causing this increase and as such, we are orchestrating our own doom..

      Sorry, but you just made two different assertions. The first one "CO2 is causing this increase" is correct. The second one, "we are orchestrating our own doom" is something so vaguely-worded as to be hard to parse, but if by "doom" you mean "this will cause the extinction of humanity," then, hell no, that's silly.

      However, the chorus of ignorant people shouting out that carbon dioxide emissions have nothing whatsoever to do with climate rather drown out any discussion of what effects rising temperatures actually do have.

      But, overall, no, the planet's been much warmer in the past. We may like it the way it is, but, as an overall thing for life on Earth, it's been warmer before. This is not "doom" in some global sense.

      What caused it back then?

      You know what, that's exactly what paleoclimate researchers study. Why don't you do a little searching, and see what the current research is? Of course, if your basic belief is that all scientists are idiots, all data is unreliable and all computer models are unbelievable, then you won't believe any of it anyway, so I'm not sure why you'd bother.

      Could the factor that caused such a rise in global temperature back in the days before SUV or even coal be what is affecting us now?

      Sigh. Climate researchers have never claimed that human carbon dioxide emissions are the only thing that has ever caused any change in the atmosphere. It is just one thing that effects climate. It does happen to be the one that is, right now, increasing temperatures.

      And it happens to be causing changes on a scale that is very fast in geologic terms.

      But, no, it's only one of many factors that change climate over scales of millions of years.

      Do we know as a scientific fact that CO2 is the driving factor here

      Yes

      or is it more of an hypothesis?

      it is a very well-substantiated hypothesis. It happens to be one that we can characterize very very well, because we have very good measurement techniques, and it's one that's very well understood right now, because a lot of people have studied it in great detail.

      Before you go "Of course it is CO2!" how about you follow your own advice and look at the data?

      I have. I see little evidence that you have.

      [snipping a bunch because it gets tedious]... What we know for a fact is that politics got involved

      If you only look at research done before 2000, or whenever it is that that silly movie by Al Gore came out, it is remarkable how consistent the consensus was on carbon dioxide effects-- it wasn't at all controversial until politics got involved. I'm perfectly happy to use the models from back then-- they were crude by numerical computation standards of today, but you know what? Turns out that the sophisticated models come up with more or less the same overall results as the old crude models. Greenhouse gasses cause global warming.

      and they all have a very good idea what guesses about climate scientists ought to m

      --
      http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    126. Re:How can they tell... by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      Since scientists are paid a wage then technically that's true but it's a red-herring, the point is research should be independent and IMHO you are being deliberately obtuse by ignoring the obvious distinction between paying for a study (science) and paying for a conclusion (marketing).

      Disclaimer: I have no problems with corporates supporting science, in fact I would like to see more of it, for example Shell have been very generous sharing their data with scientists as well as regularly loaning their deep sea submersibles to oceanographers.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    127. Re:How can they tell... by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

      All of the graphs that I saw from your three sources, except for one, only date to 2000.

      I don't know what files you looked at, but I just checked again, and all three of the links I posted graphed data up through either 2007 or 2008. (2009 data isn't done yet, of course).

      --
      http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    128. Re:How can they tell... by narcberry · · Score: 1

      Based on the correlation between heat and atmospheric CO2, I'd guess an alternate theory would be that temperature affects the rates of plant respiration and photosynthesis to net a greater output of CO2 than O2.

      --
      Modding me -1 troll doesn't make me wrong.
    129. Re:How can they tell... by lonecrow · · Score: 1

      Except that the oceans are reaching their limits. In fact according to the NOAA the oceans may stop being a sink soon and start releases CO2 back out into the atmosphere. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090127163403.htm *warning do not read if you possess a handgun or large bottle of sedatives.

    130. Re:How can they tell... by Dan667 · · Score: 1

      i believe that the way it works is that the pollution offsets until it reaches a tipping point. Smog (colder) and CO2 buildup (hotter) for instance would offset each other. Once there is too much CO2 or what ever else it would run away hotter or colder.

    131. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A spurious argument.

      Climatologists and other scientists have been studying these trends for decades without having political pressure to conjure up results out of thin air. More importantly, it's been studied all over the world, effectively negating any bogeymen of the American left which some find necessary to explain away science. Other nations do not have our petty problems, but rather they have their own. Despite this blazing difference, they've reached consensus on the science -- politics be damned.

      Get it right. The only tampering of government funded research came from the Oil President of the US a couple years back. That's it.

    132. Re:How can they tell... by jcr · · Score: 1

      It's not a red herring at all. Climatology was a backwater with very little funding compared to many other areas of scientific research, until this doomsday scenario got picked up and repeated by politicians and the press. Now, right or wrong, there's a hell of a lot more money going into climate research.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    133. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There have been at least 60 previous cycles, ranging between 500 and 2500 years. How do you know that the rate is "far faster" than the rate in any previous cycle?

      Data. E.g. from the Antarctic ice cores.

    134. Re:How can they tell... by Alioth · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Don't be distracted by absolute quantities. A non-car analogy. Imagine you have a funnel - 1 litre per second of water can pass through this funnel. Indeed, 1 litre per second is passing through it. Call that "nature". The level in the funnel remains the same, since it's draining at the rate that it's being filled. Then comes a human, and adds just 1ml per second (i.e. 0.1%). As surely as night follows day, the funnel begins to fill up until it eventually overflows.

      Except in this analogy, not only do humans add 1ml extra input, they also reduce the exit of the funnel by 1ml/sec (reducing the "sink", in the real world, deforestation etc.)

    135. Re:How can they tell... by vegiVamp · · Score: 1

      As far as I know, the whole issue is not that the planet is in danger, but that we as a species are about to be subject to another dramatic change in the environment. In other words, nothing to worry about on a planet-wide scale, but rather cause for concern if you've got some nice real estate at the coast (humans have always tended to settle around water) or an economy that is highly parasitic on the current environment.

      --
      What a depressingly stupid machine.
    136. Re:How can they tell... by Lars+T. · · Score: 1

      Prove it. Since CO2 levels have been higher in the past, it stands to reason that sealife is already adapted to higher levels of dissolved CO2 in seawater.

      Prove it. Since CO2 levels have been lower in the recent past, it stands to reason that sealife that was adapted to higher levels of dissolved CO2 in seawater has vanished.

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    137. Re:How can they tell... by Lars+T. · · Score: 1

      If Earth is at its coldest point in the last 500 million years, why was it colder 200 years ago?

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    138. Re:How can they tell... by danbert8 · · Score: 1

      [citation needed] oh, and bonus points if it's from experimental data and not a forecasting computer model.

      --
      Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
    139. Re:How can they tell... by danbert8 · · Score: 1

      Actually, to be a little pedantic, climate cycles in the past are not "thousands of years". That's stupid human race time scale interfering. According to historical climate data, the "natural" cycle of ice ages is on the order of 100,000 years. So if we do your same 2 orders of magnitude differential, we are only down to 1000 years until our doom comes from global warming. What was the earth like in 1009? Did we even have reliable records?

      --
      Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
    140. Re:How can they tell... by danbert8 · · Score: 1

      Wow, where are my mod points. This was the most intelligent response I have ever read on Slashdot. I bow to your wisdom sir.

      --
      Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
    141. Re:How can they tell... by danbert8 · · Score: 1

      You're right, any research paid for by someone who stands to profit should be ignored. So don't take any medical drugs, don't use hybrid engines, and don't trust the government (who stands to profit immensely from global warming scaremongering).

      --
      Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
    142. Re:How can they tell... by Lars+T. · · Score: 1

      Have they factored in Global Dimming though? As the pollution increases, the extra particulate matter in the atmosphere relects sunlight away from the earth. This process is one of the few negative feedback loops that occurs when we increase pollution. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but if we increased the amount of particulate matter in our pollution, we could reverse the warming trend.

      Apart from direct health implications, this would lead to disrupting the role of photosynthesis as a carbon sink. Not to mention a source of food.

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    143. Re:How can they tell... by commodore64_love · · Score: 2, Funny

      >>>So if we have no idea what will happen, is it really such a great idea to run an experiment on a planetary scale

      If we have no idea what will happen, is it really such a great idea to enslave the populace like serfs and tell them, "No you can't watch TV. No you can't run a car. No you can't heat your house." I'd rather live in a hot planet with freedom, than a cool planet with modern-day feudalism

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    144. Re:How can they tell... by Xest · · Score: 2, Interesting

      LOL did you really just post a link to an Andrew Orlowski article as backing evidence whilst simultaneously talking down other sources?

      You do realise that Orlowski goes as far as outright lying in his articles yes? It's not like he just twists the truth, he outright lies where it suits his agenda.

      There is a good reason he is the only author on The Register who consistently has comments disabled on his articles you know and as someone who has sent corrections to him via e-mail when he's made what I initially put down to mistakes I can assure you he also outright ignores them and will not correct those mistakes. The guy is borderline crazy, if you're read some of his articles he often self-praises himself, there was one not so long ago where he suggested he was the only person out of a set of speakers who got an applause. He's possibly the biggest joke in IT journalism nowadays.

      I'm not saying you're wrong, but sorry, it's hard to take your post seriously with that kind of non-source. Do you have any more serious sources than the single other site you listed? I ask because there's very little information about what that site is- it's base and home directories just provide blank pages so it is impossible to judge the authenticity, or validity, or whether the site has any specific bias or anything. But then, as you're lecturing people on well sourced original data then you know all this I guess.

    145. Re:How can they tell... by commodore64_love · · Score: 1

      >>>If Earth is at its coldest point in the last 500 million years, why was it colder 200 years ago?

        The earth was also experiencing a heatwave during the late Roman times (they grew grapes as far north as Scotland). It's just natural fluctuations. The 500 million year graph looks at *long term* climate changes, not localized short-term weather cycles

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    146. Re:How can they tell... by Skip666Kent · · Score: 1

      Well said. My guess is that the AGW data follies will continue in much the same way that the videos damning ACORN did. One batch of data is released, creates a small furor which the AGW fanatics scramble to contain and explain. A little while later another batch will magically appear, contradicting directly much of what the fanatics said previously in their defense. Lather, rinse, repeat.

      Whether this will do any good or not remains to be seen. The entire mass media and university and public education crowd are in with the fanatics, hook line and sinker, but the playing field is changing more quickly than anyone can effectively keep up with.

      Interesting times!

      --
      **>>BELCH
    147. Re:How can they tell... by ultranova · · Score: 1

      How do they know if the CO2 is from fossil fuels or from natural sources, is there actually a test for this?

      Yeah. Someone could be releasing it as a part of a huge multinational colossal conspiracy of meteorologists aimed at conquering the world.

      Or did you just have a brainfart ?-)

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    148. Re:How can they tell... by ultranova · · Score: 1

      The level in the funnel remains the same, since it's draining at the rate that it's being filled. Then comes a human, and adds just 1ml per second (i.e. 0.1%). As surely as night follows day, the funnel begins to fill up until it eventually overflows.

      Actually, no, because as the water level rises, so does the pressure at the bottom of the funnel, which increases flow, which eventually (given a high enough funnel) will balance the increased inflow, and the water level stabilizes at a new neight. Not that that's much of a consolation to anyone who lived above the old but beneath the new level...

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    149. Re:How can they tell... by IndustrialComplex · · Score: 1

      Don't be distracted by absolute quantities. A non-car analogy. Imagine you have a funnel - 1 litre per second of water can pass through this funnel. Indeed, 1 litre per second is passing through it. Call that "nature". The level in the funnel remains the same, since it's draining at the rate that it's being filled. Then comes a human, and adds just 1ml per second (i.e. 0.1%). As surely as night follows day, the funnel begins to fill up until it eventually overflows.

      Except in this analogy, not only do humans add 1ml extra input, they also reduce the exit of the funnel by 1ml/sec (reducing the "sink", in the real world, deforestation etc.

      Bad analogy.

      You are suggesting that the funnel can only support 1 l/s based on the fact that it is supporting 1 l/s.

      Imagine a funnel with a a large spout capable of supporting 30 l/s. You could pour 1 l/s through that spout, and humans could add an additional 29 l/s without causing any backup.

      That's the problem with your analogy, you haven't established that 'nature' can only handle the amount that 'nature' is currently producing. You haven't shown that your funnel can only handle 1 l/s.

      --
      Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
    150. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can't you use the ratio of C14/C12 in atmospheric CO2 to estimate the proportion of CO2 derived from fossil fuel? The half-life of C14 is ~5730 years so million-plus-years-old petroleum (etc) contains essentially none. Assume the neutron-nitrogen interaction in the upper atmosphere that generates C14 has been constant throughout history. You could then compare the C14/C12 ratio in today's atmosphere against CO2 from ancient sources like Greenland ice cores to get a pretty good estimate of how much of today's CO2 is from fossil fuel.

    151. Re:How can they tell... by ultranova · · Score: 1

      And when we recently saw snow in India, how can anyone take a 6oC *rise* seriously.

      Seeing how Himalaya (parts of it, anyway) is in India, I fail to see much shocking in this.

      Some places are getting hotter, some are getting colder, nature will adjust itself as always.

      Indeed. And that means that previously fertile areas will dry out as climate patterns shift, infrastructure designed for warm/cold climate will become unsuitable for the new conditions, and coastal areas - which are the most heavily-populated pretty much everywhere - flood as the sea level rises due to melting icecaps and expanding (heat expansion) water.

      It's not that global warming spells the end of our planet, biosphere, human race or even human civilization; in fact we could even conceivably end up benefiting in the long run. It's simply that the cleanup required to adapt our societies to their new surroundings will be massive, and that makes them expensive. And of course the societies which can't perform them fast enough due to political or resource issues will end up having massive problems, possibly leading to mass deaths and major wars.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    152. Re:How can they tell... by St.Creed · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'd rather live in a hot planet with freedom, than a cool planet with modern-day feudalism

      You just upgraded the old saying "I'd rather reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven" - congratulations :)

      Other than that, it's a strawman argument because you present two choices that are both false. Well done! :)

      --
      Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
    153. Re:How can they tell... by sac13 · · Score: 1

      When heat enters a system temperature will not change until the phase change is complete.

      Why was all this talk about the temperature changes we had experienced since the 1930's being discussed as such important data before then?

      This whole thing is starting to sound too much like the creationists moving the goal posts on evolution. Every time something doesn't fit their model of the world, they just change the model to ignore the discrepancy rather than re-evaluate their potentially flawed assumptions like a real scientist would.

    154. Re:How can they tell... by ehrichweiss · · Score: 1

      "If you meant the past several thousand years where humans managed to thrive"

      Really? So we've had accurate temp, CO2 and oceanic temperature data for the past several thousand years? No I didn't mean that and no, we haven't had data for that long, we've barely had semi-accurate data for the past 30 years and everything else is completely guesswork, even if you prefer to call it "inferring". The thing with an inference versus observed data is that the inference has much higher odds of being absolutely wrong and groupthink doesn't make it any more right. If you want to see the whole groupthink + inferences thing going totally wrong, you only have to look at most of the conspiracy theories where "scientists" infer that since steel doesn't melt at 1100C that a steel building can't possibly collapse from fires burning at that temperature, or that since your child got a vaccine and later was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder that the thimerosal was to blame. All have one common element: not enough observed data. So why should I believe a bunch of scientists who don't have enough observed data to cover 10% of the past 300 years much less 3000 or 15000 or more, and many apparently don't agree there is an issue in the first place? That'd be like many of the "troofers" saying they think Al Qaeda did it with 2 airplanes and that explosives/thermite was not involved.

      --
      0x09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
    155. Re:How can they tell... by hrimhari · · Score: 1

      The 500 million year graph looks at *long term* climate changes, not localized short-term weather cycles.

      The point that you seem to miss (or intentionally ignore) is that we're talking about climate variations within 100 years. If you put that into the 50 million year perspective, it will disappear in the graph. It doesn't disappear because nature has a lot more impact than human beings. It disappears because the 50-million year perspective is irrelevant to the human race as we know it today.

      Meanwhile, your grandsons may visit what today is our coastline if they know how to scuba dive.

      I'd certainly prefer a future where AGW is not a reality. But instead of just hoping for it and shout phony at it like you insist in doing with your blind defense of "freedom" (your freedom now, screw the rest), I prefer the idea of avoiding the worst case scenario by replacing insensitive development with a responsible one. It's not like it kills progress. It just demands a little more effort.

      --
      http://dilbert.com/2010-12-13
    156. Re:How can they tell... by Lars+T. · · Score: 1

      So? They grow grapes in Schotland today. How can it be colder now than 200 or 2000 years ago? Are you even trying to make sense? What was the reason it was so warm then. and what is it now? Can you even answer question or just repeat what your overlords from the denier sites tell you to say?

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    157. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, no, because as the water level rises, so does the pressure at the bottom of the funnel, which increases flow, which eventually (given a high enough funnel) will balance the increased inflow, and the water level stabilizes at a new neight. Not that that's much of a consolation to anyone who lived above the old but beneath the new level...

      Wow, according to you, it's never possible to overflow a funnel then? Take some fluid mechanics and you'll learn a little about how pipe flow rates are a function of the diameter of the pipe, the length of the pipe, the viscosity of the fluid and the pressure differential. If the pipe diameter is narrow, the fluid is moderately viscous and non-compressible (i.e. a liquid and not a gas), then to increase the flow rate would require far more pressure than the increased hydrostatic pressure from the increased fluid height in the funnel. But hey, if you don't believe me, try changing the oil in your car with a funnel with an exit nozzle narrower than your oil can's lid (not much point in using a funnel otherwise, but the point is that you need a bigger inflow pipe than outflow). Instead of carefully tilting your can to limit how much you pour into the funnel, upend the oil can into your funnel so it empties smoothly as fast as possible and see if you don't overflow the funnel and get oil all over your engine block (after all you say that can't happen). Or if you know PDE's, just solve the appropriate fluid mechanics equations.

    158. Re:How can they tell... by ppanon · · Score: 1

      We're currently at a low in the "11 year" solar cycle. You can think of it as a small periodic wave fluctuation in the solar output. That can easily be superimposed on an increasing trend from other factors (like the greenhouse effect). You can have a number of the lows in the zig-zag pattern being lower than previous highs, but in the long run, the highs keep getting higher. The test will be if we get new record-high average temperatures in another couple of years when the solar sunspot activity increases again (just as highest solar exposure is at noon and temperatures max out in the mid-afternoon, there is a lag between longer period solar flux changes and average global temperature changes). Solar activity does play a factor in fluctuations, but it's extremely likely an underlying trend is pushed up by increased CO2 and other GHG.

      The problem is that once you admit that solar activity cycles are a factor in global temperature fluctuations, you get the deniers claiming that solar activity therefore also must be the source of all global temperature changes and that none of it is anthropogenic. To me, that's like claiming that the WWI soldiers in the winter of 1918 shouldn't have worried about bullets killing them because the bad hygiene conditions in the trenches were likely to kill them naturally through infection with seasonal flu or pneumonia.

      --
      Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
    159. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, not true. If the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is from fossil fuels, it can be carbon dated and shown to be getting older and older, sine we are dumping old carbon which was trapped in old sources (prehistoric plant life mostly). Of course that depends on how much we added. (and remember that about half of what we add comes from literally cooking fossils or limestone to produce cement.)

      Yet it might not work if we added very little percentage wise, then it would be too small to detect. But then again if it is too small to detect, then why are we thinking that the rise in CO2 is from human sources?

    160. Re:How can they tell... by budgenator · · Score: 1

      CO2 concentration measured in PPM is very consistent throughout the atmosphere.

      Some would disagree, and unlike the GW Alarmists these people used real hard science to do it and described their methodology well enough that anyone with the resources can repeat the observations and either confirm or refute their results.

      The observed CO2 concentration is generally high in low altitude and low in high altitude. High CO2 concentration relative to the average CO2 distribution is sometimes observed during the flights. Its difference is about 8 ppmv at most. Trajectory analysis suggests that the observed air with high CO2 concentration is often affected by continental outflow. The averaged CO2 vertical distribution shows seasonal difference. The CO2 concentration decreases with altitude in winter at all latitude, however the CO2 concentration observed over 2.0 km at north of 25 north latitude in spring is almost constant. These differences are considered to be principally induced by phase delay of atmospheric CO2 change from the boundary layer to upper troposphere. Spatial Distributions of Tropospheric Carbon Dioxide Over the Western North Pacific During Winter and Spring.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    161. Re:How can they tell... by Dread_ed · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The problem with your analogy is that "nature's funnel" is known to have operated at anywhere from, say, 0.1 liters to 4.0 liters in the past without any influence from mankind at all. Not only that, but logic dictates that it will continue to fluctuate with or without mankind digging his carbon stained fingers into it.

      Consider that the world is nowhere near the coldest or warmest it has been. Another way to look at that factual statement is this: one day mankind will have to face not only global warming, but also global cooling. Therefore, if we want to maintain our present level of civilization, we should pursue a policy of adaptation to extreme (compared to today's rather mild climate) temperatures. Consider the irony of spending the next 50 years reducing mankind's carbon emissions to zero and then blammo, the climate changes 10 degrees because of natural cycles that have been happening since the earth cooled. Without preparation our survival as a species is in question.

      So, the writing is on the wall, and the script is so large it fills the entirety of Earth's history. We can be sure beyond any doubt that the climate is going to change...ALOT. And, as the most technologically advanced species ever observed by humankind, we are our own best hope of saving ourselves from a return to the brutal, short, pointless lives of our ancestors (or worse!) In light of this our leaders have decided to...hmmm what is it they are doing again? Ahh yes, they are, as a whole, trying to pass the largest global tax increases in history, signing treaties could inhibit technologically advanced nations from continuing their development, rewriting laws to circumvent our rights, and crowing at the top of their lungs about how bad it is going to get if we don't "do something about it." None of that will save even one of our asses when the earth gets its next fever.

      Trying to change the global temperature by reducing emissions is wasted effort. Its going to change anyway. Punishing the most advanced societies on Earth for industry (CO2) is counterproductive. "Going green" is tantamount to moving from the straw house to the one made of sticks. Asking our governments to "save us" is, apparently, a solution worse than the problem. Figuring out how to cope with and preparing for long-term, immutable, and extreme climate change is the proper, and the only intelligent, course of action at this point. Letting our politicians use the inevitable and inescapable fact of climate change as a means to restructure our lives, economies, and liberties as they see fit shows how incredibly fearful, stupid, weak, and shortsighted mankind can be. Also evident on the part of our governments is an avarice for power that is so consuming it would rather sacrifice our species' future than miss an opportunity to cash in.

      The climate models, scientist's "consensus," green energy movement, tainted intentions of climate researchers and energy companies alike, and everything else being discussed now regarding the climate controversy is just bullshit. It really doesn't matter. What we do about climate change matters, and I don't mean reducing emissions. How we think about it matters, and I don't mean feeling good about recycling or guilty about driving an SUV. The only reason people are arguing about climate change is the proposed "solutions" are meaningless. Deep down, where truth and fear sleep, we know just how incredibly fucked we are when the change finally comes. The really tragic and horrible part is everyone is so preoccupied with human power struggles that no one is doing anything worthwhile about it.

      Here's MY analogy: Mankind is standing on some train tracks. There is a giant train coming towards us from the north at 250 mph. Unfortunately, we lost the schedule so we don't know when it will arrive but we know its coming because we can feel it through the rails. You motherfuckers are arguing whether the best survival strategy is to run south down the tracks away from the train or pretend the train doesn't exist!

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
    162. Re:How can they tell... by ppanon · · Score: 1

      Unless there's convincing evidence to the contrary (not alarmist garbage like the CRU article that this slashdot story is based on) or serious carbon emission reduction regulation is implemented, we'll find out naturally. That's good enough for me.

      Ah, the "Hopefully I'll be dead before we find out incontrovertibly that it's a critical problem" approach. AKA the Ostrich stance. I guess either you don't want/have kids, or you dislike the ones you have. Here's a hint: many articles about climate change are alarmist because, as simulation capability has improved and models improved in complexity and predictive accuracy, they've been predicting increasingly dire scenarios. Part of that increase in alarm has been due to an increase in the rate of fossil fuel consumption over time, as has the resulting amount of CO2 released, and the CO2 content in the atmosphere. We're not just ignoring the problems ahead, we're accelerating towards them. At this point we've got enough trend line data that you don't need a model to predict if the consequences are going to be bad if we keep along the same path, the modelling at this point just gives us better estimates of how bad it's going to get.

      --
      Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
    163. Re:How can they tell... by ppanon · · Score: 1

      Yeah. On the bright side, if you do wind up getting Dust Bowl II for a decade or more, it would heavily affect the purchasing power of the agrobusiness lobby. Eventually, you might actually get a chance to get some reasonable legislation/trade treaties happening with respect to agricultural subsidies like those on corn. The idiocy of corn-based ethanol for transportation will get an overdue death. In addition, that Republican heartland might get a bit of an overdue insight into the applicability of social support policies (it worked in the 30s at least). Property values in California might go back up to 2006 levels in constant dollars and stay there (not so much for Florida if sea levels rise). Those are about the only silver linings I can see though (the last one is pretty debatable), and the rest is pretty bleak.

      --
      Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
    164. Re:How can they tell... by ultranova · · Score: 1

      Wow, according to you, it's never possible to overflow a funnel then?

      Given a high enough funnel, no it isn't.

      Take some fluid mechanics and you'll learn a little about how pipe flow rates are a function of the diameter of the pipe, the length of the pipe, the viscosity of the fluid and the pressure differential. If the pipe diameter is narrow, the fluid is moderately viscous and non-compressible (i.e. a liquid and not a gas), then to increase the flow rate would require far more pressure than the increased hydrostatic pressure from the increased fluid height in the funnel.

      Indeed. And if the liquid level increases without limit (as it does in a high enough funnel), so does the pressure differential, and consequently the flow rate. That was my point. A pretty simple one, I thought; that, and the fact that you're posting anonymously make me think that you're trolling, but what the heck: an article like this is bound to bring 'em out anyway.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    165. Re:How can they tell... by bhiestand · · Score: 1

      Well, one method would be to measure CO2 levels around cities and industrial areas and compare them to CO2 levels elsewhere... 500 ppm CO2 around cities and 200 ppm CO2 around oceans and forests would be a pretty damned strong indicator.

      But even if I couldn't think of that as a possible solution, it doesn't mean there's a hole in the argument for anthropogenic CO2 rise. Simple math will tell us how many million tonnes of coal, oil, and natural gas are burned every year, and we can then easily calculate how much CO2 we are putting into the atmosphere assuming average combustion efficiencies.

      I would argue that we cannot know if a given amount of CO2 is released or just not absorbed.

      You'd be quite wrong. We can figure out exactly how much CO2 is being released, and we can figure out the absorption of that CO2 by monitoring changes in both global and local CO2 levels. What we can't do (yet) is figure out exactly what future carbon sink activity will be. We're not sure when the oceans will be CO2 saturated, for example, or precisely how some large CO2 sinks will respond. We can say, with certainty, that we're releasing more CO2 than the environment is currently absorbing. And we can say with very high confidence that this will affect the climate unless something changes.

      --
      SWM seeks new sig for a brief fling
    166. Re:How can they tell... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Ah, the "Hopefully I'll be dead before we find out incontrovertibly that it's a critical problem" approach.

      NO. It's the "let's get some evidence before we do something vastly stupid" approach. Even the people that claim we must do something now have admitted that even early changes will take decades for their effects to show. To be blunt, that means we need to wait those decades in order to see for ourselves that these predictions are correct.

      At this point we've got enough trend line data that you don't need a model to predict if the consequences are going to be bad if we keep along the same path, the modelling at this point just gives us better estimates of how bad it's going to get.

      NO. If that were true, then we wouldn't be having this debate. The modeling simply has not been tested on a piece of the future. That's why I propose the wait. We have the time and we need to know if the models work before we make costly and impoverishing decisions about the future.

    167. Re:How can they tell... by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      "Really? So we've had accurate temp, CO2 and oceanic temperature data for the past several thousand years?

      Define accurate. We are not talking about weather, we are talking about climate. There are proxies that paint a relatively accurate picture of the planet over longer periods time. For example, weather is like a playing a single game of craps. Climate is how is how the whole casino is doing after a year.

      If you want to see the whole groupthink + inferences thing going totally wrong, you only have to look at most of the conspiracy theories where "scientists" infer that since steel doesn't melt at 1100C

      Steel doesn't melt in a fire of that temperature. But fires burning in confined spaces won't be burning at that temperature. You can roast a steel bar in an open flame of 1100C untile the cows come home and the steel won't melt, but if you add in a bellows effect, that fire won't be burning at 1100C, it will be burning hotter all by using the same fuel.

      So why should I believe a bunch of scientists who don't have enough observed data to cover 10% of the past 300 years much less 3000 or 15000 or more, and many apparently don't agree there is an issue in the first place?

      Because:

      1. They have a lot more data than that. Do not confuse meteorological records with climate records. Tree rings, ice cores, sediment cores, etc. all contain good information in regards to past climate. More recently, scientists have been able to use meteorological records to verify the climate record and corroborate it with the proxies showing very good matches.

      Also, do not confuse climatology with paleo-climatology.

      2. Many do agree there is a problem, hence the scientific consensus. Most of the debate now is determining the extent and effects of the change.

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
    168. Re:How can they tell... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Here's a hint: many articles about climate change are alarmist because, as simulation capability has improved and models improved in complexity and predictive accuracy, they've been predicting increasingly dire scenarios.

      As part of the CRU "hack", code to some part of the climate modeling software was released. Here's an early review of the code:

      Actually I'm going to stop here. I've examined two files in some depth and found (OK so Harry found some of this)

      • Inappropriate programming language usage
      • Totally nuts shell tricks
      • Hard coded constant files
      • Incoherent file naming conventions
      • Use of program libray subroutines that appear to be
        • far from ideal in how they do things when the work
        • do not produce an answer consistent with other way to calculate the same thing
        • but which fail at undefined times
        • and where when the function fails the the program silently continues without reporting the error

      The author above cites numerous incredibly bad pieces of code and coding practices. There's no way such code can have a valid use in scientific work due to its near complete irreproducibility and inscrutability. As far as I know, this is the code for the model used in the 6C temperature increase paper just released. Do you really want to gamble the future of mankind on this code?

    169. Re:How can they tell... by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the name calling. I guess people like you out there are getting a little concerned now that your schemes are coming out to the open.

      It's called frustration. It happens sometimes.

      My schemes? I have no "schemes". I follow climate science research.

      1) To use your capitalization PEER REVIEW doesn't mean squat if the PEERS don't have the data that you did your research on...

      This is why I get frustrated. The data IS available. The only time it isn't PUBLICLY available is when there are contracting, licensing, or confidentiality restrictions on the data. The peer reviewers STILL get the data, but Joe Sixpack won't.

      This has nothing to do with "evil" climate scientists. This is the way it's done in all branches. For example, scientists working on stealth technology don't release their data to the public for security reasons. The NWS doesn't release come of their data to public for confidentiality reasons. There are also several companies who specialize in processing/providing various data an analysis products that must be bought or licensed that don't allow free distribution.

      There is nothing nefarious about this. And as I said, the peer reviewers still get the data. You may not be able to get it, but your are not a peer reviewer.

      Or by PEER REVIEW does it mean reviews by those who agree with you on anything and won't need any RAW DATA to arrive at their findings?

      You're starting to sound like the wild-eyed conspiracy skeptics.

      Articles are peer reviewed by an anonymous selection of peers in your scientific field. You seem to think that all climate research is focused on climate change. It isn't. In fact, a fair portion of climate research is about how different parts of our climate interacts and affects other aspects, such as atmospheric chemistry.

      If your specifically focusing on the singular topic of climate change then, given the consensus, you're most likely to be reviewed by people who share the same point of view. But here again, you're implying that all climate scientists agree on the amount and the impacts. They don't. There may be a consensus on climate change but that hardly means that they all agree on what that may imply. From that perspective, it is unlikely you will get all your reviewers agreeing with what you have to say.

      Are you saying that these PEERS were actually given the DATA?

      Uh...yeah. It would be kind of difficult for the peer reviewers to ascertain the accuracy of the research without the data to examine. But if you're part of the wild-eyed skeptic crowd, then I guess you believe that the peer-review process is a farce.

      How is that possible? Wasn't the DATA protected by the frigging IP laws that you keep spouting about?

      You're a bizarre individual. Perhaps you've never worked in an industry where this would come up, but exceptions can, and are, made in regards to contracts and licenses. Had you read any of these research papers they even mention this. For example, an exception can be made to allow peer reviewers access. That doesn't mean they've suddenly been given permission to distribute proprietary information all over the internet.

      Why is that the IP laws suddenly didn't apply when the Royal Society of Biological Sciences forced Briffa to release the data after he published an article in their journal?

      Did he use restricted or proprietary information in his research? It doesn't appear so, but I haven't read that paper so I don't know what his sources are. I'd also be reluctant to respond to someone who has made completely baseless accusation against me (Steve McIntyre) who isn't a scientist in my field. People usually don't like dealing with hostile people. That might be considered a "waste of time" (which in the current set of emails, that's what he's classified as).

      Back to your question though, the hacked emails were in regards to other requests, not Briffa's. BTW, McIntyre's so called "findings" in regards to the Briffa/Yamal matter hav

      --
      ~X~
    170. Re:How can they tell... by ppanon · · Score: 1

      Actually there's been plenty of evidence collected over the last 20 years. The models may not be perfectly accurate in predicting specific regional changes, but they've been good enough to get the broad brush strokes correct (globally increasing temperatures, particularly in the arctic). The broad brush strokes for the future say we're in going to be in big trouble. So yeah, what you and my other respondent wrote are exactly the Ostrich stance I'm talking about.

      --
      Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
    171. Re:How can they tell... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heh, I've seen comparable errors on some important custom apps that a companies (attempted to) depend on. I've also seen some 25 year-old Fortran code from nuclear physics simulations that I wouldn't want to have to maintain. These guys unfortunately are climate researchers and not software engineers and few have both skill sets.

      Some of those things also could be in portions of rarely executed stuff that don't significantly affect results; the authors might have generated profiling data to show that was the case and decided their time was better spent elsewhere than trying to clean those areas up. The "random dump" seems to have been cherry picked and there's no reason to believe it's not the same case with this. Yes, it would be nice if that stuff got cleaned up since it might fix some of the prediction errors these systems have, but it also might not.

      That said, even the very crude models from 20 years ago have had some general predictions since confirmed. You're right that I wouldn't want to rely on these models to predict whether we might be pushing the climate from one zone of stability to another, hotter zone. But there's enough insight into current processes that's been gleaned over the last 20 years to know that we are heating up the planet, with significant consequences for our ability to sustain current population levels. You can bury your head in the sand about that as much as you want, it won't save your tail.

    172. Re:How can they tell... by UBfusion · · Score: 1

      If the level of water in the funnel rises due to AGT (Anthropogenic Global Tampering), the water outflow will simply increase, and the water level in the funnel will rise a bit as the system reaches a new dynamic equilibrium. The water will overflow only at large AGT levels. This system is very deterministic and predictable.

      If the mathematics of global warming were that simple, there would be no global debates. Unfortunately for us non-climate scientists, we are condemned to live in a State of Fear.

    173. Re:How can they tell... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Actually there's been plenty of evidence collected over the last 20 years. The models may not be perfectly accurate in predicting specific regional changes, but they've been good enough to get the broad brush strokes correct (globally increasing temperatures, particularly in the arctic).

      Cite. Point to the model that was used 20 years ago and validated by the evidence of the past 20 years. What I'm hearing is that they're still improving their models, so they don't have such a model. Further, why should we expect a mere 20 years to be enough data unless the warming trend is very obvious (which last I've heard, it's not).

    174. Re:How can they tell... by khallow · · Score: 1

      That said, even the very crude models from 20 years ago have had some general predictions since confirmed. You're right that I wouldn't want to rely on these models to predict whether we might be pushing the climate from one zone of stability to another, hotter zone. But there's enough insight into current processes that's been gleaned over the last 20 years to know that we are heating up the planet, with significant consequences for our ability to sustain current population levels. You can bury your head in the sand about that as much as you want, it won't save your tail.

      Where's the insight? Tell you what. I'm going to keep as you put it, "bury my head" in the "sand" of reason. You can't even put forth a rational reason why I should consider your viewpoint. To put it bluntly, I'm not going to damage or destroy society on your hearsay or on a Rube Goldberg model put together by inept code monkeys that claims to show global warming, but nobody really understands what it is doing. I think we'll just have to wait a few decades and see what happens.

    175. Re:How can they tell... by ppanon · · Score: 1

      Further, why should we expect a mere 20 years to be enough data unless the warming trend is very obvious

      Let's see, retreating claciers all over the world, melting in the Greenland central glaciers, melting arctic ice pack leading to opening of the Northwest Passage, collapse of antarctic ice shelves. So change is happening in macroscopic telltales that have been around for at least tens of thousands of years. If those don't don't qualify, just what exactly would you require for an "obvious" warming trend?

      --
      Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
    176. Re:How can they tell... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Let's see, retreating claciers all over the world, melting in the Greenland central glaciers, melting arctic ice pack leading to opening of the Northwest Passage, collapse of antarctic ice shelves. So change is happening in macroscopic telltales that have been around for at least tens of thousands of years. If those don't don't qualify, just what exactly would you require for an "obvious" warming trend?

      Last I checked, tens of thousands of years is not the last 20 years. And the problem is that duplicating existing results is not a genuine test. There are plenty of ways to backfit that are useless for extrapolating to the future.

    177. Re:How can they tell... by ppanon · · Score: 1

      Hmmm. I agree that there are some poor design decisions but people that are in the physical sciences tend to only know Fortran because most of what they do is number crunching and, until recently, the Fortran compilers where the ones that got the best performance on any kind of numerical computation, and there's also 40+ years of libraries that they can draw upon. At least it's Fortran90.

      However all the references in the linked article appear to be data preparation and not the actual modeling. Now certainly GIGO can be a problem. It does sound like CRU should hire somebody with a Data Warehouse background to do some decent conformal mapping and set up a data quality management framework. Actually it sounds like something the whole climate research community should get together and do. But while I haven't seen the code and only have the followed the link you point to, it's not clear to me that it applies to the actual computations doing the climate modelling simulations, which is where they would presumably primarily focus their attention. Again data quality could be a problem but, since it's for a large stretch of consecutive years, I would expect its main function is to compare with retrospective predictions. In that case the researchers may have considered this a necessary distraction from what was really important: the actual modelling. This may be prototype-quality code that they felt didn't need to be polished because it wasn't time-critical and provided sufficiently accurate results given some statistical analysis of the results. The real question is what does the production simulation code, the stuff that needs to be fast and right because it's iterated millions of times, look like?

      --
      Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
  2. re Increase or decline? by jelizondo · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline. source

    For many years to come one will wonder if the data presented to support claims such as this has been "tricked" to conform to someone's belief instead of representing reality.

    --
    Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. - Cardinal Wolsey
    1. Re:re Increase or decline? by WiFiBro · · Score: 2, Informative

      "For many years to come one will wonder if the data presented to support claims such as this has been "tricked" to conform to someone's belief instead of representing reality."

      No, for many years the oil industry will keep paying supposed grassroot organisations to spread uncertainty and doubt about this issue. Especially in the US many non-climate-specialists want to believe it or they Way of Life (TM) would be seriously modified.

      The trick is just a word used in a private mail to indicate a nice method. It is not meant to indicate faking.
      The way they cherrypicked these mails, they must have been studying the way of creationists...

    2. Re:re Increase or decline? by IWannaBeAnAC · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Try reading that again: "adding in the real temps [...] to hide the decline."

      So, it is some kind of proxy for measuring the historical temperatures (in this case, tree rings), and this proxy data, for some completely different reason (pollution affecting the tree growth, for example??), shows a decline in the last couple of decades.

      The real temperatures (ie, the ones that are actaully measured, like with a thermometer) show an increase, so use the real measurements for the final 20 years of the data.

      There would be more of a problem if this wasn't disclosed somewhere. But even then, it is an argument about how the proxy data is presented. The real temperature data doesn't show a decline.

    3. Re:re Increase or decline? by Laxitive · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Response from the RealClimate website, here (http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/11/the-cru-hack/#more-1853):

      No doubt, instances of cherry-picked and poorly-worded “gotcha” phrases will be pulled out of context. One example is worth mentioning quickly. Phil Jones in discussing the presentation of temperature reconstructions stated that “I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.” The paper in question is the Mann, Bradley and Hughes (1998) Nature paper on the original multiproxy temperature reconstruction, and the ‘trick’ is just to plot the instrumental records along with reconstruction so that the context of the recent warming is clear. Scientists often use the term “trick” to refer to a “a good way to deal with a problem”, rather than something that is “secret”, and so there is nothing problematic in this at all. As for the ‘decline’, it is well known that Keith Briffa’s maximum latewood tree ring density proxy diverges from the temperature records after 1960 (this is more commonly known as the “divergence problem”–see e.g. the recent discussion in this paper) and has been discussed in the literature since Briffa et al in Nature in 1998 (Nature, 391, 678-682). Those authors have always recommend not using the post 1960 part of their reconstruction, and so while ‘hiding’ is probably a poor choice of words (since it is ‘hidden’ in plain sight), not using the data in the plot is completely appropriate, as is further research to understand why this happens.

      This will indeed cause certain people to "wonder". Especially people who do not have the faculties to properly understand the idiomatic uses of the English language, and people who are willing to take words and phrases of out of context, as well as people who are willing to formulate their opinions without considering the actual analysis and instead relying on secondhand hysteria generated by others who are also not willing to consider the actual analysis.

      So it goes.

      -Laxitive

    4. Re:re Increase or decline? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 3, Informative

      Only those who read one sentence, and never bother to read anything else. Some of the data from a previous paper was found to be faulty, and a method of adjusting to show a longer term trend based on several data source was required. Not only is this not unheard of, it is a routine technique in studies where some data cannot be duplicated -- such as a temperature reading.

      Speaking of warping science to conform to a belief, why is it that so many people are so eager to believe global warming skeptics? Methinks it is because they do not want to believe that something as innocent as driving a car could be a problem.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    5. Re:re Increase or decline? by Rising+Ape · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not that suspicious in itself - I've often used the word "trick" to refer to a clever shortcut with no deception whatsoever. A quick search of my email shows several uses of it in this way.

      I don't know enough about this to say whether there's anything dubious or not, but that quote by itself doesn't say much.

    6. Re:re Increase or decline? by lumbricus · · Score: 1
      It's been http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1451926&cid=30176822said before but maybe it has to be said again:

      No doubt, instances of cherry-picked and poorly-worded "gotcha" phrases will be pulled out of context. One example is worth mentioning quickly. Phil Jones in discussing the presentation of temperature reconstructions stated that "I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline." The paper in question is the Mann, Bradley and Hughes (1998) Nature paper on the original multiproxy temperature reconstruction, and the 'trick' is just to plot the instrumental records along with reconstruction so that the context of the recent warming is clear. Scientists often use the term "trick" to refer to a "a good way to deal with a problem", rather than something that is "secret", and so there is nothing problematic in this at all. As for the 'decline', it is well known that Keith Briffa's maximum latewood tree ring density proxy diverges from the temperature records after 1960 (this is more commonly known as the "divergence problem"-see e.g. the recent discussion in this paper) and has been discussed in the literature since Briffa et al in Nature in 1998 (Nature, 391, 678-682). Those authors have always recommend not using the post 1960 part of their reconstruction, and so while 'hiding' is probably a poor choice of words (since it is 'hidden' in plain sight), not using the data in the plot is completely appropriate, as is further research to understand why this happens.

    7. Re:re Increase or decline? by aurispector · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The politicization of climate data will prove to be a disaster in the long run. Everyone has an axe to grind.

      Here's a link to some NASA data about temperature:

      http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2008/

      Do we believe NASA when they say 2008 was the coolest since 2000? Is that just a tooth in the saw? Which trend to you believe? The one that shows temperatures generally increasing since 1880? Are the relatively flat temperatures between 1950 and 1980 an anomaly? Is it really correct to even assume the overall trend is anthropogenic? Or do we need to do some fancy footwork to make the data fit the hypothesis?

      What we don't have is good, healthy debate.

      --
      I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
    8. Re:re Increase or decline? by cheesybagel · · Score: 5, Informative
      What I do understand is that he is comparing things that aren't comparable. He inferred temperatures using one measurement metric and, since that measurement metric wasn't convenient in a specific interval, mixed that data with data from a completely different measurement method in that interval. Then he uses that to extrapolate global trends based on inconsistent data.

      What makes him think that since the measurement method is unreliable for the last 20 years, it is reliable for the rest of the time period hundreds of years back? It throws his entire theory out of the window. He is doing specious reasoning by cherry picking the results that fit his theory better.

    9. Re:re Increase or decline? by NotBornYesterday · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What we don't have is good, healthy debate.

      If anything, that's the real black eye that the recent data swipe reveals. The emails between AGW scientists specifically mention bullying publications into not accepting/publishing papers that don't support AGW, and subsequently use the lack of published, peer-reviewed articles against those scientists whose conclusions differ from their own.

      --
      I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
    10. Re:re Increase or decline? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      People are eager to believe global warming skeptics for several reasons. One is that all the supposedly evil coal and petroleum we are burning, that supposedly will make life on Earth unbearable, consists of remains of dead plant and animal matter. Which means the biosphere actually had that carbon in it at a point and life didn't end as a result. So how come it will end now?

      All the animals that we are supposed to have displaced and eliminated because of our evil human ways, did those not emit CO2 or methane either? This has got to the point people contemplate regulating cow farts! Perhaps we should regulate earthworm farts as well.

      Another is that this is the same science profession that warned us of global cooling and impending ice age doom. A couple of decades ago. Now they are claiming the opposite. They cannot make accurate predictions for a decade, and we expect their predictions to be accurate for the next century?

      Then there is the fact that they are mixing data measured from several disparaging sources, using different measurement techniques into the same chart and extrapolating trends from it. To add insult to injury it now transpires that they cherry picked measurement data in order to fit their theory rather than fitting their theory to the data. If this isn't damning evidence that the whole thing stinks, I dunno what is.

    11. Re:re Increase or decline? by Laxitive · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In experimental science, this is not uncommon. Using different methods of analyzing the same subject is, in other words, using (relatively) independent methods to analyze that subject. Using multiple independent methods and combining their results is a good thing, because it avoids experimental error and potential systemic biases that exist in every observational setup.

      That said, I don't want to get into an actual discussion about the actual paper in question because I have not read the relevant hacked personal e-mails with their full context and interpreted their significance (and I likely won't have time in the near future given the pressures of day to day life). I am not particularly inclined to start implying conclusions and accusations based off of an incomplete and shoddy reading of a few out-of-context paragraphs. I am neither willing to vouch for or defend, or attack a particular piece of research until I am reasonably well informed about how that research was conducted.

      There seem to be many people, however, who are willing to do exactly that.

      -Laxitive

    12. Re:re Increase or decline? by Neon+Aardvark · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Not that suspicious in itself - I've often used the word "trick" to refer to a clever shortcut with no deception whatsoever.

      Yeah, I think the "hide" part is the suspicious bit.

      It's hard to think of cases where hiding what your results are saying is still doing science.

      --
      Azural - instrumentals
    13. Re:re Increase or decline? by Metasquares · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Though a bit uglier than usual, that type of behavior is fairly prevalent in the scientific community. Articles in "unpopular" topics have always tended to get sidelined (reviewers can reject papers simply on the premise that they're not on a topic a journal would wish to publish, for example), and it's easy to see how this can progress to choosing a side in a scientific debate.

      Though a model more in-line with arXiv might mitigate this, I think it represents a fundamental flaw in the currently-used system of peer review: it's essentially a binary threshold. Either your paper is accepted and you have a voice in the scientific community, or it's rejected and you have none. Something along the lines of a Slashdot or Digg-style moderation may work much better: other researchers can mod you down all they wish and send it to the last page of a query, but they can't actually make your work disappear. And since the ranking is relative to other relevant papers, unpopular topics and positions would not be penalized relative to each other using such a system.

      You could even generate confidence intervals for the rankings based on the number of reviews. Right now a decision on a paper is based on 2 or 3 reviews at most, and it would be difficult for a more open system not to exceed this.

    14. Re:re Increase or decline? by Snocone · · Score: 1

      Here, try this one. Read the email,

      http://www.anelegantchaos.org/cru/emails.php?eid=146&filename=939154709.txt

      examine the effect on the reporting.

      http://i49.tinypic.com/mk8113.jpg

      As this archive has only been out for a couple days, it's probably safe to suspect that's not the most dubious thing to be found.

    15. Re:re Increase or decline? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or the mere fact that the existing models used don't conform to the reality of the data. Just saying...

    16. Re:re Increase or decline? by vsage3 · · Score: 3, Informative

      This isn't a case of correlating multiple measurement techniques that suggest the same thing. In fact, it was quite the opposite: the authors stitched together data that showed what they wanted it to show and threw out the rest.

    17. Re:re Increase or decline? by drsquare · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      The problem is that very few people are actually qualified to debate climate change. Not even NASA. Especially not people who think that a short term cooling precludes overall AGW.

      I blame the Internet, it makes the ignorant, knuckle-dragging, unqualified masses think their views actually count for anything.

      If you actually looked at the graph you linked to, you'd see that annual mean temperature varies by up to 0.2 degrees year by year, but has an overall upward trend. So what if 2008 is the lowest since 2000? It's still higher than 2000, and higher than anything before 1990.

      See what I mean? You can't even interpret a basic line graph and you're trying to debate climate change, disbelieving all the people who actually know something about it.

    18. Re:re Increase or decline? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only those who read one sentence, and never bother to read anything else. Some of the data from a previous paper was found to be faulty in that it didn't support our preconceived notions regarding our religious belief in AGW, and a method of adjusting to show a longer term trend based on several data source was required to support our religion. Not only is this not unheard of, it is a routine technique in studies where some data cannot be duplicated so we have to make something up that supports our beliefs -- such as a temperature reading.

      Speaking of warping science to conform to a belief, why is it that so many people are so eager to believe global warming doomsayers, who even today refuse to release their raw data because "they have so much time invested in it? Methinks it is because they do not want to believe that something as evil as a human driving a car and polluting precious Gaia could be in any way innocuous.

      FTFY

    19. Re:re Increase or decline? by Snocone · · Score: 1

      "why is it that so many people are so eager to believe global warming skeptics? Methinks it is because they do not want to believe that something as innocent as driving a car could be a problem."

      Because when you've just had the third coldest October in 115 years of organized records -- 4 degrees below average -- as part of a year which so far is ranking 43rd in that 115, the thermometers are looking pretty darn skeptical?

      http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=national&year=2009&month=10&submitted=Get+Report

    20. Re:re Increase or decline? by quickOnTheUptake · · Score: 1

      The trick is just a word used in a private mail to indicate a nice method. It is not meant to indicate faking.

      Except that 'trick' came with a purpose:

      “I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.”

      Excuse me if I'm dubious of your assertion. The author of the email didn't even have an explanation for this phrasing.

      Jones told TGIF he had no idea what me meant by using the words “hide the decline”.

      I'm not saying you're wrong, just that your assurance seems naive.

      --
      Mod points: Guaranteed to remove your sense of humor.
      Side effects may include gullibility and temporary retardation
    21. Re:re Increase or decline? by Mikkeles · · Score: 1

      'Which means the biosphere actually had that carbon in it at a point and life didn't end as a result. So how come it will end now?'
      It won't, but we don't really care that algae and pond scum will have a more wonderful life at our expense.

      'All the animals that we are supposed to have displaced and eliminated because of our evil human ways, did those not emit CO2 or methane either?'
      Sure they did; we have just increased dramatically the biomass of ruminants (in particular) using methods of intensive agriculture.

      'Another is that this is the same science profession that warned us of global cooling and impending ice age doom. A couple of decades ago.'
      No, they didn't. There was some speculation on this (known as raising an hypothesis and then testing it), blown out of proportion by the popular press.

      'Then there is the fact that they are mixing data measured from several disparaging sources, using different measurement techniques into the same chart and extrapolating trends from it.'
      Standard methods used in analysis of historical data available from multiple sources using multiple techniques; and identified as such.

      'To add insult to injury it now transpires that they cherry picked measurement data in order to fit their theory rather than fitting their theory to the data.'
      No, they didn't.

      You are one of ignorant, being deliberately obtuse, or lying, the first of which can be corrected if you are willing.

      --
      Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
    22. Re:re Increase or decline? by Rising+Ape · · Score: 1

      What do you make of that? I just see a load of data for two different analysis techniques. Since no background information is provided as to each technique, I can't very well judge which is valid. Clearly one of them can't be, as they disagree.

      A clue might be in the statement "we usually stop the series in 1960 because of the recent non-temperature signal that is superimposed on the tree-ring data that we use.". I don't know what that is, but if there's something that makes the post-1960 data invalid than there's an obvious reason why they didn't use it.

      Again, much more background is needed to judge. Science isn't as straightforward as people seem to think - understanding the subtleties of data is much harder and requires a much deeper background knowledge than most "sceptics" (and indeed engineers and computing people on Slashdot) appreciate.

    23. Re:re Increase or decline? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing serious will be done to stop global warming until the, "All I know is that it's colder this year than it was last year why should I pay more to try to make it cooler" crowd is marginalized or educated well enough, which pretty much means our future generations are doomed because of our ignorance today.

    24. Re:re Increase or decline? by Recovery1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      And you're more qualified then most other people to be able to interpret a basic line graph?

      I'm just putting this out there because you slamming a very large and ever growing crowd by calling them ignorant, unqualified and knuckle-dragging. You also go further and tell them their views don't count in this debate. And yet I don't see why I should value your views and opinions any more then I should theirs. What makes you so much better?

    25. Re:re Increase or decline? by bartwol · · Score: 1

      This will indeed cause certain people to "wonder". Especially people who do not have the faculties to properly understand the idiomatic uses of the English language

      I possess faculties to understand idiomatic usage.

      The fact is that climate modeling and prediction is built upon theories that are built upon other theories. Some of those theories are concrete and deterministic in nature, while others are much less certain and non-deterministic.

      The emotional conundrum for so many climate scientists is their desire to express confidence and specificity in their conclusions. And yet, the accumulated uncertainty of the underlying theories naturally erodes the certainty of the conclusions.

      Idiomatic usage comes to the rescue. The "trick" is to create a clear picture where things are not so clear.

      The science is in the data, the correlations, and the known measures of error and noise. But the conclusions...them's a lot of politics. And idiom.

    26. Re:re Increase or decline? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      No, they didn't. There was some speculation on this (known as raising an hypothesis and then testing it), blown out of proportion by the popular press.
      So in a couple of years I will hear you say that global warming was also a speculation blown out of proportion by the popular press? What a bunch of malarkey.

      Standard methods used in analysis of historical data available from multiple sources using multiple techniques; and identified as such.
      This is empty rhetoric. Many words without actually saying anything. They did deliberate biased sampling leading to contradictory results with the original sample results. Why do you think they don't want to reveal their data or their algorithm under a Freedom Of Information act request? A hallmark of experimental science is that you need to have reproducible results. They should have done that even without the law explicitly requiring it.

      No, they didn't.
      Yes they did. :-)

      How about the Vikings settling North America (Canada) and calling it Vinland because you could grow grapes in it around 1000 AD? Or settling areas of Greenland that were later covered by ice and only now being uncovered?

      Is this muddy grounding a sound basis for making erosive governmental policy? The "anti-global warming" people merely state it isn't.

    27. Re:re Increase or decline? by daveime · · Score: 1

      Take a close look at that NASA graph.

      See, the problem is that the AGW crowd will quite happily cherry pick the period from about 1980 to 2008 and then extrapolate the sky-is-falling scenario to suit their agenda / funding.

      But, consider the period 1920 to 1940 ... pretty much the same dramatic upward trend as in the 1980 to 2008 period ... and look what happened next between 1940 and 1980 ... an actual decrease in temperature.

      The question is, what happened between 1940 and 1980 ? Did we decrease our carbon emissions ? Hell no. Did we suddenly reforest half the planet ? Don't think so. So why did the temperature behave in that way during a pretty recent *industrialised* period of humanity ? Inconvenient huh ?

      If they'd present their work honestly then maybe I'd have a bit more respect for them. But they all too easily discount or often simply omit any data that doesn't suit them.

       

    28. Re:re Increase or decline? by zippthorne · · Score: 1

      If the proxy data isn't valid *now*, how do we know it was valid during the time period it was used?

      --
      Can you be Even More Awesome?!
    29. Re:re Increase or decline? by WiFiBro · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Allow me to extensively quote John Cook (http://www.skepticalscience.com/What-do-the-hacked-CRU-emails-tell-us.html), as he is closer to the topic than I am.

      What do the suggestive "tricks" and "hiding the decline" mean? Is this evidence of a nefarious climate conspiracy? "Mike's Nature trick" refers to the paper Global-scale temperature patterns and climate forcing over the past six centuries (Mann 1998 http://www.elmhurst.edu/~richs/EC/FYS/Mannetal.OriginalPaper.pdf), published in Nature by lead author Michael Mann. The "trick" is the technique of plotting recent instrumental data along with the reconstructed data. This places recent global warming trends in the context of temperature changes over longer time scales.

      The "decline" refers to the "divergence problem". This is where tree ring proxies diverge from modern instrumental temperature records after 1960. The divergence problem is discussed as early as 1998, suggesting a change in the sensitivity of tree growth to temperature in recent decades (Briffa 1998 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1692171/pdf/43XA8LK6PCMVMH9H_353_65.pdf). It is also examined more recently in Wilmking 2008 ( http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/4/741/2008/cpd-4-741-2008.pdf ) which explores techniques in eliminating the divergence problem. So when you look at Phil Jone's email in the context of the science discussed, it is not the schemings of a climate conspiracy but technical discussions of data handling techniques available in the peer reviewed literature.

      In the skeptic blogosphere, there is a disproportionate preoccupation with one small aspect of climate science - proxy record reconstructions of past climate (or even worse, ad hominem attacks on the scientists who perform these proxy reconstructions). This serves to distract from the physical realities currently being observed. Humans are raising CO2 levels ( http://www.skepticalscience.com/human-co2-smaller-than-natural-emissions.htm ). We're observing an enhanced greenhouse effect ( http://www.skepticalscience.com/empirical-evidence-for-co2-enhanced-greenhouse-effect.htm ). The planet is still accumulating heat ( http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-cooling.htm ). What are the consequences of our climate's energy imbalance? Sea levels rise is accelerating ( http://www.skepticalscience.com/sea-level-rise.htm ). Greenland ice loss is accelerating ( http://www.skepticalscience.com/greenland-cooling-gaining-ice.htm ). Arctic ice loss is accelerating ( http://www.skepticalscience.com/Arctic-sea-ice-melt-natural-or-man-made.htm ). Globally, glacier ice loss is accelerating ( http://www.skepticalscience.com/himalayan-glaciers-growing.htm ). Antarctic ice loss is accelerating ( http://www.skepticalscience.com/antarctica-gaining-ice.htm ).

      When you read through the many global warming skeptic arguments ( http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php ), a pattern emerges. Each skeptic argument misleads by focusing on one small piece of the puzzle while ignoring the broader picture. To focus on a few suggestive emails while ignoring the wealth of empirical evidence for

    30. Re:re Increase or decline? by Artifakt · · Score: 1

      Right, because all that carbon was laid down from sources that were all in the atmosphere at the exact same time. Those coal seams weren't laid down over millions of years, they were all built in an hour and fifteen minutes out of CO2 that was all in the air at the same time. I bow before your brilliant argument.
           

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
    31. Re:re Increase or decline? by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 1
    32. Re:re Increase or decline? by bjourne · · Score: 1

      How about the Vikings settling North America (Canada) and calling it Vinland because you could grow grapes in it around 1000 AD? Or settling areas of Greenland that were later covered by ice and only now being uncovered?

      The grapes were likely Vitis riparia which still grows in Canada. The name Greenland was the name given to the island by its discoverer Erik the Red who wanted to persuade others to settle there. As opposed to the name "Iceland" which was given by the original inhabitants to discourage others from settling there. This is all covered in Wikipedia and you can yourself fact check it in 5 minutes using google. And it is very dishonest of you to bring up the same discredited bullshit that always comes up when GW is being discussed.

    33. Re:re Increase or decline? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Trick" is indeed a common alternative word for "technique". The word simply implies that it is somewhat less obvious than other techniques. Sometimes this becomes even established terminology for certain techniques, e.g. the "kernel trick" in machine learning.

    34. Re:re Increase or decline? by Graff · · Score: 2, Informative

      Using multiple independent methods and combining their results is a good thing, because it avoids experimental error and potential systemic biases that exist in every observational setup.

      This is definitely not a good thing.

      Yes, it is good to validate one group of results gathered through one method by comparing them to another group of results gathered by another method. The problem is when you combine the two sets of data together. It is very easy to produce odd artifacts that way and it should be avoided at all costs. Differences in sample sizes, data collection methods, instrumentation, and other unknown and unintended introduced variables means that the combined data set is often much less accurate than the individual data sets.

      The correct thing to do is to take each data set, analyze them separately, do your best to characterize the sources of error in each set of results and THEN compare the two sets. Then you can at least have a proper understanding of the strength and weaknesses of each data set with less hidden sources of error.

    35. Re:re Increase or decline? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      This is also covered in Wikipedia:

      It is also possible that grapes did in fact grow in Newfoundland (4640 - 5135N) in the past. The first recorded grapes were grown 2002, when a successful vineyard was established in Gambo, Newfoundland, 4850'N.[14] The time period of the Vinland settlement corresponds with the Medieval Warm Period (from about the 10th century to about the 14th century). Water temperatures in the northern hemisphere during this time were up to 1C warmer, allowing the planting of vineyards as far north as the coastal zones of the Baltic Sea (ca. 56N) and southern England (ca. 51N). There are vineyards at 54N in Lancashire and Yorkshire, northern England.

    36. Re:re Increase or decline? by HiThere · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The one I find convincing is the melting of the ice. It's a crude kind of measure, lacking in detail, but any explanation that doesn't account for that is obviously unacceptable.

      The North-West passage is currently open to ice-breakers, and it is projected to be open to normal passenger liners soon. This doesn't give me many data points, but the ones it give are irrefutable.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    37. Re:re Increase or decline? by cheesybagel · · Score: 2, Informative

      There was 4.7 times more CO2 in the atmosphere during the Jurassic period than now. Besides most CO2 does not come from fossil fuel burning. Natural sources are 20 times greater than sources due to human activity. CO2 is not poisonous. We are at a greater risk from an impact event such as the one at Tunguska than something like this.

    38. Re:re Increase or decline? by evanbd · · Score: 1

      It's not as simple as using one data set before a specific point, and one after. Modern temperature measurement extends to periods before the divergence began. There's an overlap period that can be used to calibrate the tree growth method.

    39. Re:re Increase or decline? by quickOnTheUptake · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm not taking up the questions of whether global warming is a fact, or whether it is primarily caused by CO2, or whether human activity is directly responsible.
      I was making an ad hominem, and questioning whether certain scientists are credible. It was not directly about whether their conclusions happen to be accurate, but about whether we can trust them on face-value.
      This was, I believe, also the OP's point: Can we trust this report or is it spun to fit an agenda.
      The fact is that global warming has unfortunately become a highly politicized issue (not NPOV). There is a tremendous amount of government money to be had in the field, and the people writing the checks expect certain results.
      Some of the stolen emails are quite frank in speaking about systematically discrediting and silencing scientists who doubt some or all of the accepted account. That isn't the method of cold objective science (where people are silenced by being refuted, and discredit themselves when they write bad papers), that is the method of politics or ideology.
      Once a topic becomes politicized I think it is perfectly reasonable to question the authority of the authorities, and give a fair hearing to dissenters. In fact, I think it would be irresponsible not to.

      --
      Mod points: Guaranteed to remove your sense of humor.
      Side effects may include gullibility and temporary retardation
    40. Re:re Increase or decline? by amorsen · · Score: 1

      What happened between 1940 and 1980? The great dimming happened, that's what.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    41. Re:re Increase or decline? by Fish+(David+Trout) · · Score: 1

      It's amazing how much misinformation is being spread on this subject.

      (Or rather I should say it's amazing how well the average citizen is being brainwashed into believing the current political agenda on the issue.)

      The issue is NOT whether the globe is getting warmer or not, but whether manmade CO2 is the CAUSE of it. The controversy is NOT whether the climate is changing, but whether humans are driving climate change.

      The planet IS getting warmer. There is no controversy over that.

      The climate IS changing. There is no controversy over that.

      That humans are causing the global climate change IS the controversy.

      That manmade CO2 is responsible for global warming IS the controversy.

      Available evidence does NOT support the claim that man is responsible for global warming.

      Atmospheric CO2 levels are indeed increasing, but available evidence does NOT support the claim that manmade (human produced) CO2 emissions the driving cause of global climate change.

      To believe otherwise is to buy into the current propaganda.

      It's all political and it's all complete bullshit.

      --
      "Fish" (David B. Trout)
    42. Re:re Increase or decline? by Russ+Nelson · · Score: 1

      The time for debate is over. Scientists have spoken. It's now time for the technocrats to take over, decide what human behavior is needed for us to survive, and then control us so that we comply with that behavior. If you don't want to do that, well, there's always the final solution. It worked for Hitler. He killed off most of the Jews within reach, and look at Germany now. It's a prosperous country without the Jews. Well, we can equally do without the climate deniers. Time to line 'em up and start shooting.

      Doin' my best to move this discussion to its logical conclusion!

      --
      Don't piss off The Angry Economist
    43. Re:re Increase or decline? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The "decline" refers to the "divergence problem". This is where tree ring proxies diverge from modern instrumental temperature records after 1960. The divergence problem is discussed as early as 1998,

      Which is to say, for the fifty years where we have the best instrumental data on temperature, the tree ring proxies show no correlation at all to temperature. Yet, despite knowing since at least 1998 that the tree ring data was accordingly worthless as a proxy for temperature, climate scientists continued to publish for public consumption as if the tree ring data told us what past global temperatures were. That is, they engaged in deliberate fraud by presenting as fact data they knew was garbage.

      So, have the persons who engaged in this fraud been fired? Have they been denounced by the community of climate scientists? Have their other papers been deliberately re-reviewed for any signs of scientific dishonesty? Has climate science driven out the liars in the name of scientific dedication to truth and honesty?

      Or are the climate scientists acting like a group of political activists, rallying around their own even if they engaged in misconduct, saying the misconduct was unimportant, and shouting that the other side is even more in the wrong?

      Because, you know, the more climate scientists act like political activists instead of objective custodians of truth, the less the public is going to believe them.

    44. Re:re Increase or decline? by WiFiBro · · Score: 1

      Until this line: "Available evidence does NOT support the claim that man is responsible for global warming." you made sense.

    45. Re:re Increase or decline? by Mikkeles · · Score: 1

      No, they didn't. There was some speculation on this (known as raising an hypothesis and then testing it), blown out of proportion by the popular press.

      So in a couple of years I will hear you say that global warming was also a speculation blown out of proportion by the popular press? What a bunch of malarkey.

      No, I shan't because I think there is a fair bit of hysteria already in the popular press and that this theory is supported by the work of the scientific community, unlike the Great Freeze. Personally, I don't believe that the problem can be tackled at all without a drastic reduction in population.
      Should there be a radical rethinking of AGW, there will certainly be some 'splainin' to do by the scientists.

      Standard methods used in analysis of historical data available from multiple sources using multiple techniques; and identified as such.

      This is empty rhetoric. Many words without actually saying anything. They did deliberate biased sampling leading to contradictory results with the original sample results. Why do you think they don't want to reveal their data or their algorithm under a Freedom Of Information act request? A hallmark of experimental science is that you need to have reproducible results. They should have done that even without the law explicitly requiring it.

      I fail to see any deliberate biased sampling. I definately do agree that the raw data; as well as the algorithm, should be exposed.

      No, they didn't.

      Yes they did. :-)

      You'll have to provide more evidence than selective quotes taken out of context to convince me. What I find more unsettling is the hint that there may have been some concerted effort applied to filtring out papers that did not support (or at least seriously questioned some of the conclusions of) AGW. That I would find unacceptable.

      How about the Vikings settling North America (Canada) and calling it Vinland because you could grow grapes in it around 1000 AD?
      I have never read of a definitive answer for this. Certainly I never saw grapes at L'Anse aux Meadows :) The various explanations I have read include using berries for wine and Vinland actually refering to New England or Nova Scotia; both ares supporting grapes and NS does have a wine industry. The Vikings, after all, would not have a good idea of wines unless from Normandy.

      Or settling areas of Greenland that were later covered by ice and only now being uncovered?
      Well, that would indicate having cooled (perhaps mediaeval cooling period finally reaching Greenland) and now, 1000 years later, warming up, wouldn't it?

      Is this muddy grounding a sound basis for making erosive governmental policy? The "anti-global warming" people merely state it isn't.
      Muddy or not, reducing pollution and more efficient use of resources is surely better for our health and well-being, no? In any case, as indicated above, I believe that all this is useless as there are too many people. Crunching the numbers: bringing everyone up to half the West's living standard, even with multiple increases in efficiency, is not possible whilst simultaneously reducing energy use, crap pumped out, and destruction of habitat.

      --
      Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
    46. Re:re Increase or decline? by NotBornYesterday · · Score: 1

      If I hadn't already posted here, I'd give you points for that. Who thinks this is off-topic? It has everything to do with the debate (such as it is) over AGW. For crying out loud, stop modding down stuff you don't agree with.

      --
      I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
    47. Re:re Increase or decline? by izomiac · · Score: 1

      Speaking of warping science to conform to a belief, why is it that so many people are so eager to believe global warming skeptics?

      I figure it's because the AGW non-scientists (and some scientists apparently) exaggerate to the point of dishonesty in the hopes of making people act. The skeptics also lie, but since they mostly just rebut AGW stuff it's less obvious. If one were to believe the bigots of each camp you'd think that the other group didn't have a shred of evidence and was intentionally misleading the public out of private interests.

      There's also the sad state of research in this day and age, where statistical errors are abundant and you can't find someone without a conflict of interest. Most studies won't stand up to close scrutiny. If you point out research errors to a layman he'll believe that the researcher is either incompetent or deceptive.

    48. Re:re Increase or decline? by Falconhell · · Score: 1

      Or when we here in South Australia have an unprecedneted heatwave in Novenmber, the highest temps and longest run of 38C +-10 days and its not even summer yet. This comes on top of a 10 year drought.

    49. Re:re Increase or decline? by router · · Score: 1

      Yes but see, that's a problem because the AGW cheerleaders have already discounted the influence of the sun on the temperature of the earth.

      All temperature increases are the direct result of human activity.

      And if you are a climate scientist, you went from competing with Kelly Bundy to be a TV weatherperson to saving the fucking planet. Anything to keep the big S on your chest.

      So the reports will just get more alarming, the predictions more dire. Now its 6C. Next it will be 12C. Until the dire predictions diverge from reality so far that the whole thing goes away.

      But not until the Nobel Prize winners, and their cap and trade companies, have gotten richer, and we, all, have gotten a little poorer.

      andy

    50. Re:re Increase or decline? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Especially people who do not have the faculties to properly understand the idiomatic uses of the English language, and people who are willing to take words and phrases of out of context, as well as people who are willing to formulate their opinions without considering the actual analysis and instead relying on secondhand hysteria generated by others who are also not willing to consider the actual analysis.

      In other words Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and their mindless followers?

    51. Re:re Increase or decline? by aurispector · · Score: 1

      And exactly what qualifies you to judge my ability to evaluate the data? My point is that there are small spikes and there are larger spikes and everyone keeps extrapolating to support their favorite conclusion. You illustrate the point by claiming that the 2000 - 2008 data is irrelevant which is like saying black is white. The data is the data. The temperature dropped. Want to place bets on where it goes from here?

      There have clearly been periods in history where global temperatures were far warmer than they are now without any help whatsoever from humanity. But the subject is so emotionally charged, a situation willingly exacerbated and exploited by those that buy into AGW. It isn't even a remotely rational argument anymore.

      --
      I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
    52. Re:re Increase or decline? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do realize that "v" and "f" are pronounced the same in Scandinavian languages, yes? It has nothing to do with "vino", the Latin word for wine (which was pronounced with a "w" sound anyway. "Weeno")

      The Vinland maps have been discredited as forgeries for quite a while now anyway.

    53. Re:re Increase or decline? by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      Debate about what exactly? The science is very well established. Feel free to fill your cranium with the hundreds of peer reviewed articles on the subject.

      The "debate" is mainly from armchair climatologists who expect that find singular statistical anomalies that have negligible impact on conclusions is cause for a paper and a Nobel Prize. A debate could be had if the skeptics were putting forth anything that could get past a peer review. Instead of addressing shortcomings in their research, the skeptics seem for more comfortable performing ad hominem attacks and painting themslves as victims of a great Climate Conspiracy.

      Why not believe that 2008 is the coolest since 2000? Just because temps are warming imply it's a straight uptrend. Other factors come into play that can affect the short term trend. For example, the flat temperatures between 1950 and 1980 was a result of the increased sulfates due to pollution. Ironically, once acid rain legislation kicked into gear the sulfates reduced by quite a bit and the temps started rising again. There's a couple of papers on the subject if you want to look it up.

      "Is it really correct to even assume the overall trend is anthropogenic?"

      The current consensus shows a confidence that the warming is a result of anthropogenic causes. Again, you can search the published research on the subject. There is A LOT.

      "Or do we need to do some fancy footwork to make the data fit the hypothesis?"

      Not really. At least, not in any of the research I've seen.

      "What we don't have is good, healthy debate."

      On the contrary, climate researchers are constantly debating various aspects of their research.
      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
    54. Re:re Increase or decline? by phantomfive · · Score: 1
      Check it again. The northern passage opened up for a bit, but it has closed again. The amount of polar ice actually fluctuates quite a bit. Good information here.

      Anecdotal evidence can be deceiving, check out this quote:

      The Arctic ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consul Ifft, at Bergen, Norway. Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers, he declared, all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone. Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met with as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes. Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm. Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared. Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts, which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.

      That one sounds bad, but it comes from Monthly Weather Review for November 1922.

      --
      Qxe4
    55. Re:re Increase or decline? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      not much... Sought by explorers for centuries as a possible trade route, it was first navigated by Roald Amundsen in 1903-1906. (wikipedia)

    56. Re:re Increase or decline? by RageBot · · Score: 0

      No we are not in a deep solar minimum. The Maunder Minimum was a deep solar minimum, and most solar guys think the Ort, Wolf, and Spoor minimums were longer and deeper than our current mini minimum.

      --
      Those who forget history are condemned to go to summer school.
    57. Re:re Increase or decline? by turkeyfish · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Unfortunately, the science paradigm doesn't conform well to your notion of "a fundamental flaw" in the system that makes a "Slashdot or Digg-style" moderation appealing. Science is about establishing how we know something. It is emphatically NOT a system whereby 9 million wrong, but highly popular interpretations are more valuable than one correct one. Its a bit like finding a counter example in mathematics. All it takes is one example to disprove a hyothesis. Obviously, few "tests" in experimental or comparative science are so cut and dried that they will be easily established on the basis of a single "counterexample" or "test", but the principle is the same.

      Science is not simply a bunch of "experts" making "assertions", from which a consensus then emerges about the truth, even though it may appear that way to the poorly initiated. Although this does happen and science has a strong probabilistic element, the reasons stem from the fundamental conceptual relationships between theory and subsequent "prediction" or "observation" that inform as to the correctness (or incorrectness) of ideas and not what individual scientists (or laypersons) may think (or not think) about such ideas.

    58. Re:re Increase or decline? by R2.0 · · Score: 1

      Everything you just said is attractive, logical, and wrong. "Science" as it is actually practiced really is a bunch of experts making assertions.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_science gives a start. Look especially at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_science#Sociology.2C_anthropology_and_economics_of_science. The process from "data" to "fact" isn't nearly as simple, or objective, as we were taught in school.

      --
      "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
    59. Re:re Increase or decline? by sycodon · · Score: 1

      So would these modern temperature measurement be the ones from stations placed near air conditioners, parking lots, etc?

      That the stations that record these temperatures are in violation of their own guidelines is well documented at http://www.surfacestations.org/.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    60. Re:re Increase or decline? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      He is not using multiple data sets independently (good science), he is combining different data sets and treating them as one good data set (very bad science). This greatly increases the margin for error.

    61. Re:re Increase or decline? by turkeyfish · · Score: 1

      I don't think there is anything in what you said that shows how I am wrong. While it is true that many scientists make assertions, its how those assertions are tested and understood that makes it science, not the fact that they are "scientists".

      BTW I am familiar with the philosophical angle of science, having minored in it in college. However, there is a very big difference between science and the philosophy of science, although admittedly the concept of falsification is central tenant to both. If one wanted some rigor in understanding science examining economics and sociology would probably not be the best places to start. Its much better to go directly to the source: mathematics.

    62. Re:re Increase or decline? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why should anyone have to convince you of anything? You are just a punk ass chump who's part of the crowd that ALWAYS believes humans are going to destroy the planet in one way or another.

      Although it might stop you from posting you pedantic crap all the time.

    63. Re:re Increase or decline? by pkphilip · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This is not experimental science. Experimental science involves performing an *experiment* with varying initial parameters, measuring the results and then arriving at a correlation.

      In this specific case, we are talking about measuring tree rings in Yamal - this is purely an *observational* science as the scientist isn't actually performing any experiment but just documenting observed trends.

      When you are observing trends, it is disingenuous, to include readings from a completely different set of subjects in a study which does not reference them so that the results tie into a specified hypothesis.

      This is deliberate mangling of data to serve an agenda. Let us not grace this by calling it a science - and especially not an experimental science

    64. Re:re Increase or decline? by R2.0 · · Score: 1

      You are still missing the point. This whole discussion has been ABOUT scientists, and how they "perform" science. If there is an ideal to which "Science" aspires, it is necessarily influenced by those who actually practice it. Feynman said that the philosophy of science is as useful to a scientist as ornithology is to a bird, but it can be damned useful for those who act on the conclusions of those scientists.

      As for mathematics, the source of what? The source of science? Hardly. "Science", and the practice thereof, existed before mathematics; while it is debateable if mathematics exists outside of the "real" world, inquiry, theory, and prediction have existed since the cavemen noticed that their women were really bitchy around a certain phase of the moon.

      --
      "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
    65. Re:re Increase or decline? by bzipitidoo · · Score: 1

      Yes, and the Jurassic was much warmer. Also, that long ago, many things were very different. You really should stick to the most recent 20 million years.

      We have dug up billions of tons of coal and pumped out billions of barrels of oil. Where do you think all that carbon went, if not into the atmosphere? CO2 in the air used to be 280 ppm from 20 million to as recently as 100 years ago, today it is 380 ppm, and rising. The rise of civilization is an event without precedent in the history of the Earth. Massive change has happened before, and while the present change is not perfectly analogous to past changes, every one of those in the past was disastrous to the existing way of life. Have you given these facts any thought? Life may recover from the changes we are causing, but we might not. Oxygen levels dropping below 18% might kill us all, and would certainly make any survivors miserable. Or, a huge release of hydrogen sulfide could suffocate and poison us all in an instant. Now, perhaps those two aren't in the cards, but this one is: desertification and flooding could greatly reduce cropland, and many of us would die in vicious fights over the shrinking food supplies, or slowly starve. Civilization might not be able to stand the strain. Civilizations have fallen many times, for many reasons, and some of them were self inflicted. It could certainly happen again, and it could certainly be more severe than any previous fall. Why take a chance on scenarios of that sort when it is so very much less painful to change our ways?

      Many of the proposals are highly beneficial to us whether or not climate change exists or is a problem. Why on earth would anyone say no to a new car that does everything their old one does, but does it with less fuel consumption? If engines could shut off instead of idling at red lights, and it cost only a little more, why the hell wouldn't we do that? Another way to reduce consumption is to cut back on traffic lights, and make them smarter. I cannot imagine why anyone would not want better traffic control. Do you like breathing more fumes than necessary? But we can do far more than those little changes-- we can move our economies away from fossil fuels entirely, within 30 years, and at great net benefit to us all.

      But I'm certainly not waiting around for the likes of you to be convinced. I want to be healthier and wealthier and have more time at my disposal. You keep your head firmly stuck in the sand if you want. Me, I switched nearly every one of my lights to CFL years ago, put in a more efficient air conditioner, made minor modifications to improve the fuel economy of my already relatively efficient cars, and more. And I'm always keeping an eye open for more things I can do. I am ready and eager to embrace more significant change, for both my own sake and for us all.

      --
      Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
    66. Re:re Increase or decline? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      What you don't say is that the natural sinks are roughly equivalent to the natural sources and they pretty much balance out in a yearly cycle. In fact natural sinks absorb enough CO2 that less than 50% of human emissions remain in the atmosphere after 5 years. The rest goes into acidifying the oceans, plant growth and other geologic processes.

    67. Re:re Increase or decline? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      That report only covers the continental United States. It's called global warming for a reason. If you dig a little deeper you'll see that Alaska had the 10th warmest October on record. In South Australia they've had 3 record heat waves in the past 2 years.

    68. Re:re Increase or decline? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      The sun is of course the primary source of energy to earth's climate. It's discounted as a cause of climate change because the observed fluctuations in its output aren't big enough to account for the observed climate change.

    69. Re:re Increase or decline? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Oh, you young guys. What happened between 1940 and 1980 was a rapid increase in industrialization with largely unrestrained emissions of pollution, in particular SO2 and aerosols that had a cooling effect. In the 1970's we got serious about cleaning up that pollution so it no longer masked the warming signal.

    70. Re:re Increase or decline? by daveime · · Score: 1

      So all we need to do to counteract all this Carbon Dioxide is to pump more Sulphur Dioxide out.

      Problem solved ;-)

    71. Re:re Increase or decline? by Lars+T. · · Score: 1

      People are eager to believe global warming skeptics for several reasons. One is that all the supposedly evil coal and petroleum we are burning, that supposedly will make life on Earth unbearable, consists of remains of dead plant and animal matter. Which means the biosphere actually had that carbon in it at a point and life didn't end as a result. So how come it will end now?

      It's life Jim, but not as we know it.

      Not to mention that you are burning a strawman.

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    72. Re:re Increase or decline? by 1800maxim · · Score: 1

      Well, don't know about driving the car being harmless... I mean, it does emit gases.

      However, what I DO have a problem with is when cars are vilified as the evil in this world, but the biggest, baddest sources of pollution are ignored.

      To clarify - I support cleaner environment. I want to do my part. I drive less, I bike more, I walk. I would even use public transit more if there was one that worked in Toronto (Canada).

      However, when you have bonehead politicians crying how evil the car is, and then they put 450 diesel trains per day along a corridor that links downtown and the airport, don't talk to me about pollution. Why not make those trains electric, like in Europe? Are we taking carbon emissions seriously, or are we not?

      Or, putting nonsense traffic lights where they do not belong. We are going to be the worst city for traffic congestion because there are lights every 200 metres on a major street, why? Because there is a driveway from a hotel, or a parking lot or a shopping plaza. THAT will cause more traffic, more angry drivers and more pollution. So the solution (according to city politicians) is to take a bicycle or public transit. Fine. But the city bus is still stopped at those intersections unnecessarily, and for me as a cyclist, it is very annoying to have to stop and start frequently. Nobody really wins.

      Bottom line - the war on the car has begun, but this war has next to nothing to do with the war on climate change. Consumers, people, peons, taxpayers are hit left right and centre, while areas where it REALLY MATTERS are ignored because, face it, that's the nature of capitalistic dictatorship (when policy, laws are dictated by corporations).

    73. Re:re Increase or decline? by Lars+T. · · Score: 1

      You know, if many of the graphs made by AGW deniers didn't have much more convenient cut-off points or even outright mislabeling, I would actually give a damn about their damnations.

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    74. Re:re Increase or decline? by Lars+T. · · Score: 1

      Nice try, but "the AGW crowd" actually keeps pointing at the whole picture, it's you guys cherry picking small time periods.

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    75. Re:re Increase or decline? by HiThere · · Score: 1

      You referenced the Wikipedia. Here is a part of what it has to say:

      There has been speculation that with the advent of global warming the passage may become clear enough of ice to again permit safe commercial shipping for at least part of the year. On August 21, 2007, the Northwest Passage became open to ships without the need of an icebreaker. According to Nalan Koc of the Norwegian Polar Institute this is the first time it has been clear since they began keeping records in 1972.[4][13] The Northwest Passage opened again on August 25, 2008.[14]

      About Amundsen is says:

      Amundsen expedition
      Main article: Roald Amundsen

      The Northwest Passage was not conquered by sea until 1906, when the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who had sailed just in time to escape creditors seeking to stop the expedition, completed a three-year voyage in the converted 47-ton herring boat Gjøa. At the end of this trip, he walked into the city of Eagle, Alaska, and sent a telegram announcing his success. Although his chosen east–west route, via the Rae Strait, contained young ice and thus was navigable, some of the waterways were extremely shallow making the route commercially impractical.

      Note that he didn't traverse the North-West passage by ship, but rather by a boat. At that date a Herring boat would be a relatively small boat. (Well, compared to a ship.) This would mean that it could go through very shallow water. As it took him three years, I'd wager that he was frozen in during parts of the trip. This isn't what I mean by a North-West Passage, though I grant that he did make the trip by water.

      However, it's also worth noticing that the Arctic Ocean has always had open water during the summers, so any vessel that could endure being frozen in the ice over winter, spring, and fall has always had a route. True, it's a chancy route, and most that try it will die, but it's an existing route. (You've got to gamble that when the ice breaks up in summer, you'll be near enough to the edge of a flow to get loose.)

      As I said, this isn't what I mean by a North-West passage. And this isn't what the cruise liners mean either.

      This is much closer to what I mean:

      2008 sealift

      On November 28, 2008, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the Canadian Coast Guard confirmed the first commercial ship sailed through the Northwest Passage. In September 2008, the MV Camilla Desgagnés, owned by Desgagnés Transarctik Inc. and, along with the Arctic Cooperative, is part of Nunavut Sealift and Supply Incorporated (NSSI),[54] transported cargo from Montreal to the hamlets of Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk, Gjoa Haven and Taloyoak. A member of the crew is reported to have claimed that "there was no ice whatsoever". Shipping from the east is to resume in the fall of 2009.[55] Although sealift is an annual feature of the Canadian Arctic this is the first time that the western communities have been serviced from the east. The western portion of the Canadian Arctic is normally supplied by Northern Transportation Company Limited (NTCL) from Hay River. The eastern portion by NNSI and NTCL from Churchill and Montreal.[56][57]

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    76. Re:re Increase or decline? by sac13 · · Score: 1

      I'm more concerned with this misconception that CO2 increase causes temperature increase. The data clearly indicates that CO2 increases AFTER the temperature. There definitely seems to be a correlation between temperature and CO2 levels, but the true direction of that relationship seems to be widely misunderstood. Most people don't even know that the coldest period in the last half-billion years had CO2 levels that were 10 times what they were today.

      I've yet to hear any logical explanation as to why the climate change hysteria is diametrically opposed to the facts with respect to CO2. You seem interested in the subject. Maybe you know.

    77. Re:re Increase or decline? by RJBeery · · Score: 1

      Agreed! In another email, Phil Jones writes "I'm going to kill my wife tonight and make it appear as an accident so as to collect money from her insurance policy". Clearly, only those small-minded people that take words in a very literal sense would find anything nefarious in this out-of-context comment. In the CRU culture, "kill my wife" simply means "mow the lawn", while "as an accident" means "freshly groomed". Lastly, "so as to collect money from her insurance policy" is another way of saying "then I'm going to make a ham sandwich". Isn't it funny how dim-witted people can twist what is being read into exactly what they wish it to read??

    78. Re:re Increase or decline? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Well, then we would still have to deal with acid rain and ocean acidification. The cure is probably worse than the disease.

    79. Re:re Increase or decline? by ppanon · · Score: 1

      Eh, frankly I wish that serious medical researchers in the 70's had been a bit more aggressive about countering the bogus results from tobacco industry shills. Yep, including the exclusion of publication of the results of reports commissioned by the tobacco industry that were significantly divergent from those of independent researchers without some darn good explanation for the divergence. There's a precedent for this kind of activity and these scientists don't want their scientific discipline tarnished by whores paid off by industry to muddy the waters. I don't think they initially had problems with genuine criticism. However there's the once, is an accident, twice a coincidence... when it comes to bogus papers, they're well into enemy action.

      --
      Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
    80. Re:re Increase or decline? by daveime · · Score: 1

      Calcium Carbonate should fix that ;-)

      It's like when I was 11 and got a Chemistry Set. I followed all the experiments to the letter, observed the fizzy bubbles and pretty coloured flames, and then did what any inquisitive boy does.

      Dumps every compound into a big beaker and see what happens.

      It usually ends up grey, goopy and smelling of rotten eggs.

    81. Re:re Increase or decline? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, we'll just spread lime over the whole world, that'll be nice. Better start buying up lime stocks.

    82. Re:re Increase or decline? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People are eager to believe global warming skeptics for several reasons. One is that all the supposedly evil coal and petroleum we are burning, that supposedly will make life on Earth unbearable, consists of remains of dead plant and animal matter. Which means the biosphere actually had that carbon in it at a point and life didn't end as a result. So how come it will end now?

      Nobody ever did say life will end, except you and other "sceptics" who apparently have to exaggerate so as to make the other side sound unreasonable. Figures. Still, lots of things WILL die, just not all. Previously when that carbon was in the biosphere, it slowly built up over a loooong time, giving life chance to adapt, now all of it has been pumped up in a few hundred years, and evolution of long-lived critters can't cope with that kind of rate of change. If you can't see the difference, then sorry, but you're a moron.

    83. Re:re Increase or decline? by sac13 · · Score: 1

      Speaking of warping science to conform to a belief, why is it that so many people are so eager to believe global warming skeptics? Methinks it is because they do not want to believe that something as innocent as driving a car could be a problem.

      It's most likely because most of the loudest voices in the discussion (on both sides) are those of politicians. If you want a sure sign there's a lack of truth in a discussion, take a look at how many politicians are involved.

      Also, there's a serious lack of science understanding in the general population. Most people don't even understand the basics of the scientific method, never mind something as complex as climate science. So, it's no surprise when people believe politicized junk science.

      It's amazing how people just listen to the politicians instead of the scientists. Take the CO2/warming link. The data clearly shows that CO2 rise increase FOLLOWS temperature increase, not the other way around as is commonly asserted. Even John Houghton, who was co-chair of the IPCC and is a supporter of the idea of antropogenic global warming, admits "Carbon dioxide content and temperature correlate so closely during the last ice age is not evidence of carbon dioxide driving the temperature but rather the other way round... I often show that diagram in my lectures on climate change but always make the point that it gives no proof of global warming due to increased carbon dioxide." But, has that, along with the fact that the coldest temperatures in the last half billion years were also accompanied by CO2 levels 10 times what they are today, been heard by anyone in the discussion?

      Politics and truth are like oil and water. As soon as something becomes a political issue, propaganda takes over. Real science doesn't captivate like a good argument. So, guess which side is winning the climate discussion. Politicians - on both sides. And the masses on both sides are following the politicians that they agree with. NO ONE seems to be listening to the scientists.

    84. Re:re Increase or decline? by sac13 · · Score: 1

      Though a bit uglier than usual, that type of behavior is fairly prevalent in the scientific community.

      Amen to that brother. Just look back to Isaac Newton and what he did to his scientific rivals and you can see why I cringe everytime I hear the phrase "scientific consensus."

      Scientists are people just like everyone else. They want prestige and recognition. And when the politicians (or oil companies for the other side of the coin) get involved and start throwing money at them, like it or not, they're serving a master with an agenda. And if you want to claim that serving either one of those compromises your integrity, then you have to admit that serving either does. The compensation and incentives work exactly the same. If you think a scientist will compromise themself for funding from one source, why wouldn't they do it for another?

      Be very careful when politicians get involved. They're black holes that suck the truth out of any discussion.

    85. Re:re Increase or decline? by sac13 · · Score: 1

      The one I find convincing is the melting of the ice. It's a crude kind of measure, lacking in detail, but any explanation that doesn't account for that is obviously unacceptable.

      The North-West passage is currently open to ice-breakers, and it is projected to be open to normal passenger liners soon. This doesn't give me many data points, but the ones it give are irrefutable.

      Yesterday, the high temperature where I am was 51F. Today, it will be 57F. That indicates that within a week the high temperature should be 99F.

      Sure, I don't have many data points, but the ones I have are irrefutable.

    86. Re:re Increase or decline? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trains to the airport in Toronto? I wish.

    87. Re:re Increase or decline? by Straif · · Score: 1

      No matter how many times people like you or the people involved keep trying to claim that a "trick" is not a trick, in this case it meets the textbook definition: "a cunning or deceitful action or device". The sole purpose of the "trick" in question was to remove data that directly contradicted expected results.

      So instead of trying to properly explain the difference or reevaluate the use of tree rings as proxies they merely cut off the tree ring data at the point it became inconvenient and then substituted another set of data to fill in the gaps. That allowed them to create extended timelines to try and prove their point, knowing full well that almost all their historical data was questionable since it was based off a proxy that their own measurements showed to be faulty. Even with a explanation for the divergence all they would have shown was that their proxy was subject to external pressures independent of the temperature, greatly reducing it's use with regards to temperature studies.

      This divergence problem is not something that can simply be passed over by merging two completely different records and then claim everything is ok, as Mann, Jones and any number of scientists basing their work off these datasets either knowingly or unwittingly did. If you use a proxy for temperature readings in years with no instrumental record (the tree ring data) you do not simply get to stop using that proxy at a time of your choosing when it's data doesn't match actual measurements. You either have to come up with a completely solid explanation for the divergence, something that is measurable, repeatable and able to be cleanly factored into the measurements or simply discontinue use of the proxy. The fact they chose to simple make it disappear using selective merging of unrelated data sets speaks volumes as to their intellectual honesty in this matter. The fact you dismiss it as simply a poor choice of words speaks volume of yours.

      --
      Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
    88. Re:re Increase or decline? by Straif · · Score: 1

      1960 was the period in which the tree ring proxy indicated a cooling of temperatures. The problem was actual direct temperature measurements showed an increase. So instead of spending too much time studying why the two values started going in opposite directions Mann simply proposed (and later Jones adopted) the process of simply merging the two sets of measurements, with the tree ring data stopping at 1960, and direct measurements taking over. There was still tree ring data available for post 1960, but as it was clearly not moving in sync with recorded temperatures it was no longer convenient to use.

      The problem with this is that they continued to use tree rings as accurate proxies for times in which direct measurements did not exist even though their own data showed that the use of tree rings as a proxy for temperature was not accurate. While it is not uncommon to merge two related data sets to fill in gaps when trying to create a more complete picture, once it can be shown that the sets you are using have the ability to wildly fluctuate away from each other in times where you have overlap, it is no longer valid to attempt to create a single picture using selective data from each set.

      So they ran with the hypothesis that tree ring data was a accurate method to determine temperatures during periods that direct measurement was not possible and when faced with direct evidence that that was not the case they did not change their hypothesis, they simply switched to the more convenient metric for the times when the tree rings and actual temperature diverged. Without a proper explanation for the 1960 divergence, it would be hard for any unbiased scientist to continue to use tree rings as an accurate proxy for temperature.

      --
      Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
    89. Re:re Increase or decline? by Rising+Ape · · Score: 1

      I haven't looked at the details sufficiently to make my own judgement on that issue. But the point is that all that stuff was out before in the published literature, so it's irrelevant to the question over the leaked emails, which add nothing new to this area.

    90. Re:re Increase or decline? by Straif · · Score: 1

      It was NOT just emails that were leaked but more importantly the code used for the CRU climate models; models which are (probably should be past tense now) considered one of the most important indicators of future events. They are one of the key components of the IPCC reports.

      It's actually the code that is the most damning. Throughout the code there are manipulations and "fudge factors" applied to the input data sets to manipulate the models to ensure the result the scientists wanted always appears. Most have no justification and even the actual programmer seems mystified as to what is being done in many cases.

      It all goes hand in hand with this type of cherry picking of values. You either have to use entire data sets or give rational and defendable reasoning for why you are only using portions. So far the only justification from the scientists involved seems to be that they simply didn't like the numbers they were getting at certain times so they just chose to exclude them.

      --
      Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
    91. Re:re Increase or decline? by Rising+Ape · · Score: 1

      While it may be *possible* that they're doing that, it isn't the only explanation at all. It's almost always necessary to apply manipulation to data to correct for various errors, especially if the data was collected for an entirely different reason and so won't have been done with your analysis in mind.

      For details of this we really need to look at the published literature rather than an inherently incomplete document that wasn't even written by the person who first did the analysis anyway. But the fact that the explanation/justification isn't in the *code* is hardly surprising - not very well documented code seems to be standard practice in science.

    92. Re:re Increase or decline? by Straif · · Score: 1

      You seriously need to read the commented code. This wasn't just some off the street code monkey writing this stuff and putting comments like:

      I am very sorry to report that the rest of the databases seem to be in nearly as poor a state as Australia was. There are hundreds if not thousands of pairs of dummy stations, one with no WMO and one with, usually overlapping and with the same station name and very similar coordinates. I know it could be old and new stations, but why such large overlaps if that's the case? Aarrggghhh!
      There truly is no end in sight.

      or

      Back to the gridding. I am seriously worried that our flagship gridded data product is produced by Delaunay triangulation - apparently linear as well. As far as I can see, this renders the station counts totally meaningless. It also means that we cannot say exactly how the gridded data is arrived at from a statistical perspective - since we're using an off-the-shelf product that isn't documented sufficiently to say that. Why this wasn't coded up in Fortran I don't know - time pressures perhaps?
      Was too much effort expended on homogenisation, that there wasn't enough time to write a gridding
      procedure? Of course, it's too late for me to fix it too. Meh.

      or

      OH FUCK THIS. It's Sunday evening, I've worked all weekend, and just when I thought it was done I'm hitting yet another problem that's based on the hopeless state of our databases. There is no uniform data integrity, it's just a catalogue of issues that continues to grow as they're found.

      This is one of the key scientists at the CRU and these are all comments about the state of the computer model that is often sited as one of the flagship models for future predictions, as well as their input data sets. It's not pretty stuff.

      --
      Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
    93. Re:re Increase or decline? by Rising+Ape · · Score: 1

      It doesn't look nice, no. But it also looks like they're making an honest effort to sort it out, which would go against the "fraud" allegations.

        Some of the data I've had to deal with has required a lot of head-scratching to understand what's going on, with seemingly conflicting results from different parts of it. At different stages I've thought similar things to this if not written them down. Since this "documentation" is someone's private notes, it's not going to paint a *complete* picture and so we can't say whether these issues were resolved. I had to deal with confusing and conflicting data and results before - the middle stages looked very nasty but I made sense of all the discrepancies and sources of error in the end. This looks like an unusually bad case, but who's to say they didn't manage it? I don't know. No matter what, there's no evidence of deliberate fudging in what you've quoted.

      Anyway, according to RealClimate there's a new version of the database so presumably they made sense of it all. It's not as if it's the only one, either - other people have come to similar conclusions with different analyses of different data sets.

    94. Re:re Increase or decline? by Straif · · Score: 1

      Making an honest effort would mean at least acknowledging these problem BEFORE issuing reports to the IPCC and NOT hiding data for years to prevent secondary verification. In fact, everything about the CRU's actions in this situation is about not being honest.

      And I would take anything at RealClimate with a very heavy grain of salt as they are tied up neck deep with the CRU. Simply because the people who perpetrated this fraud, and fraud is what this was, say "hey now we're all good" is hardly a comfort.

      An honest effort would have involved a report clearly marked as preliminary with references to the difficulties they were having in gathering and analyzing the data from various recording sites. In two words "Full Disclosure". Instead they issued reports and models that were used as the basis for the IPCC report, and did everything in their power to prevent anyone from outside their clique from gaining access to their data or collection methods all the while pushing the silly 'the science is settled' mantra; a drastic departure from the scientific methodology they claimed to be proponents of.

      Observe, Hypothesize, Verify became Observe, Hypothesize, Obfuscate.

      For definitive proof of their dishonesty all you have to do is look at Jone's emails requesting the other researchers delete an entire email chain from their systems so that it would not be available for a FOIA request, which is a violation of the FOIA itself.

      Your feigned ignorance of the situation does not change the facts that these are not simple one or two isolated incidents. The emails and code just help give an inside look into issues that many outside scientist have had with the CRU and their international counterparts for years; their complete lack of transparency.

      --
      Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
  3. Seriously??? by Xeleema · · Score: 1

    29 per cent increase in global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel between 2000 and 2008

    You have *got* to be kidding me? What about all this emissions stuff they've been strapping to my engine?

    Those crappy "Eco-Friendly" disposable cups and cutlery my employer's been stocking up on?

    The recycled-paper-everything?

    The ethanol they've put in my gas?

    Those tiny cars I have to dodge around the highways?

    All this has been for naught?

    To hell with the hippies and their soy meat, time to go light some tires on fire or something....

    --
    "When I am king, you will be first against the wall..."
    1. Re:Seriously??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It says "global..." but specifically, look in the general direction of China.

      So no, it has not all been for naught, it's just been much less of a reduction relative to others (and much larger people group) increase.

    2. Re:Seriously??? by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 0, Troll

      What about all this emissions stuff they've been strapping to my engine?

      Won't help much if the Chinese make 10 cars for every car we make "green".

      There was an article on here (or digg?) which showed photographs of the incredible water and air pollution in China. It looked worse than a third world country. I can believe they are responsible for most of the CO2 increase.

    3. Re:Seriously??? by bunratty · · Score: 1

      All this has been for naught?

      No, it hasn't been for naught. Just think about what the emissions would have been if we haven't been trying to reduce emissions. What we need to do is much more to reduce emissions. We really haven't done much so far.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    4. Re:Seriously??? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 1

      "All this has been for naught?"

      Well, keep in mind that over the past decade, there has been a tremendous growth in the number of automobile and computer owners, and that an enormous number of cell phones have been manufacture. Just producing enough cars, computers, and phones to keep up with demand probably knocked the CO2 emissions up a few notches.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    5. Re:Seriously??? by Pyrion · · Score: 0, Troll

      The problem with China is that it's a country that is run like a corporation, with the party officials the management (and the executives), the citizens the employees, and the corporations both domestic and foreign as shareholders. And like any big corporation, they generally believe they're infallible, too big to fail, always right, etc. Questioning them is like telling your boss that you know more about how to do his job that he does. Imprisonment is akin to being transferred to a dead-end position in a department nobody knows or cares about, and terminations are rather quite literal.

      So for China to be the one major polluter, sure, look in their general direction, but don't expect to change their minds anytime soon, since they're not beholden to you, or anybody for that matter, except their profit margins and their shareholders.

      As for us, or more specifically the United States, it isn't as much "blaming ourselves for this mess" even if we're largely responsible for creating the initial conditions that snowballed into the present mess, as it is a form of preventative maintenance to try to stem the flow even as China fucks it up for everybody, and we can't really do anything about it because China has our governments by the balls and isn't planning on letting go anytime soon.

      --
      "There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell.
    6. Re:Seriously??? by Stormwatch · · Score: 1

      There was an article ... which showed photographs of the incredible water and air pollution in China. It looked worse than a third world country.

      And who said being a second world country was any better than being a third world one?

    7. Re:Seriously??? by Rising+Ape · · Score: 1

      They may be responsible for most of the increase, but their per-capita emissions are still well below those of the west - half of Europe's and a quarter of the USA's.

      As others have pointed out, the emissions equipment on cars isn't for reducing CO2, and probably increases it slightly due to loss of efficiency.

    8. Re:Seriously??? by NotBornYesterday · · Score: 1

      The point is that even if we re-engineered every American and their car to breathe in pollution and CO2 and breathe out minty-fresh O2, that wouldn't be enough to counter-balance the massive ramp-up of CO2 and pollution production going on in China, and projected to grow by ginormous amounts over the 100 year span TFA mentions. (Please excuse the hyperbole. I'm not always this snarky.)

      Perhaps instead of saving the planet by driving little tiny cars, we could achieve the same result by purchasing less el cheapo crap from China.

      --
      I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
    9. Re:Seriously??? by bunratty · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Exactly. That's why countries are trying to agree to cut emissions. It needs the cooperation of at least China and the U.S. That's why the climate bill that's before the U.S. Senate is such a big deal. Without a climate bill, the U.S. cannot commit to cutting emissions, and so other countries aren't willing to do so either.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    10. Re:Seriously??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I remember that on a trip to Saudi Arabia (for those who don't know much about geography, it's the largest country in the middle east and it has a quarter of the world's oil) they were just burning up excess gas on a top of a tower. Even if the west reduced its emissions, it's things like this that we have to worry about.

    11. Re:Seriously??? by Lars+T. · · Score: 1

      I remember that on a trip to Saudi Arabia (for those who don't know much about geography, it's the largest country in the middle east and it has a quarter of the world's oil) they were just burning up excess gas on a top of a tower. Even if the west reduced its emissions, it's things like this that we have to worry about.

      Actually, we would have a bigger problem if they just released the Methane into the air instead of turning it into CO2 by burning it.

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

  4. 6C ? by jdb2 · · Score: 3, Informative

    For those to lazy to multiply, that's a 10.8 degree Fahrenheit increase in the mean global temperature.

    Sounds pretty alarming.

    jdb2

    1. Re:6C ? by santax · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yes, but what does that mean for the people who aren't to lazy to learn Celsius?

    2. Re:6C ? by whoda · · Score: 1

      It means they still might be too lazy to figure out what the change was in Fahrenheit.

    3. Re:6C ? by santax · · Score: 0, Troll

      Sir... pssst...

    4. Re:6C ? by santax · · Score: 0, Troll

      Just to make it more obvious i was only kidding, the article is in Celsius ;)

    5. Re:6C ? by mister_dave · · Score: 2, Informative
    6. Re:6C ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes but the ENTIRE concept of global warming has completely and utterly failed to gain public mainstream acceptance. You can't tell people exactly how it will affect them today in a 15 second soundbite, so they think you're either a) full of shit (most of them) or b) talking about things that won't affect them except to require them to give up luxuries NOW for some nebulous future problem. I'm tired of hearing about global warming, and I feel that it has a modicum of truth to it.

      I think this should all be taken in a completely different direction: pollution and its local effects. ALL the things we worry about: cars, factories, generators, bovine emissions. ALL of them have immediate, quantifiable, testable, and most importantly VISIBLE to the untrained eye effects. Instead of taking the long view in the press and in front of the public, and appearing like wild eyed prophets of the end of the world, the scientific community needs to COMPLETELY retool their message and focus on killing the problem points by looking at pollution's immediate effects as the reason to change.

      You show people 3 legged frogs, dead fish by the thousands, dying corral reefs... and you tie all that to man kind's activities with proven chemical science (and visuals of all the things causing this destruction) and people start to listen. Nobody argued about acid rain. Nobody argues about pollutants dumped in rivers. Nobody argues about the BROWN DOME you can see above cities like Houston or Detroit on a clear blue day when you're 30 miles out. These are ALL quantifiable things the public can touch, caused by the SAME MAN-MADE INPUTS in to the biosphere.

      Scientists have proven to be piss poor publicists. They need to completely rethink how they're talking to the public. I agree with all the problems they want to solve. Every one of them. It's just that to get the public behind them, they've got to step back and really honestly assess how they're going about it.

    7. Re:6C ? by pitchpipe · · Score: 1

      Yes, but what does that mean for the people who aren't to lazy to learn Celsius?

      It means you are free to focus your vast intellect to learning other things! ;-)

      --
      Look where all this talking got us, baby.
    8. Re:6C ? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Or 24 meV.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    9. Re:6C ? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Oopps, sorry, got fooled by Google calculator. It's 0.52 meV.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    10. Re:6C ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not lazy, and I use Centigrade, you inconsiderate clod.

    11. Re:6C ? by Kingrames · · Score: 1

      Dude, nobody cares about those temperature scales.
      We need to know how many Kelvins that is.

      (do not be alarmed, the joke was intentional)

      --
      If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
  5. The hack by santax · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I sort of believe in climate change, but at this point in time, a day after we all got to learn that the top-institute for climate-change knowingly and willingly changed the numbers, lied... I can not take this serious. First I want to know how much has been fabricated and lied. After that, I might support this type of research again, but only after all the liars are banned from 'research'.

    1. Re:The hack by inthealpine · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't think Global Warming (as it was sold to us, no bait and switch Climate Change) is poor science at best. Too much money and politics are involved; when Al Gore and Goldman Sachs agree on something you know it's very very bad. GOOD SCIENCE is all I ask for, which mean never hear the words ''the debate is over''. Here is a link to an article from the WSJ on hacked emails showing scientists deliberately manipulating data to get results they want. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125883405294859215.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

      --
      "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash"
    2. Re:The hack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      climate-change knowingly and willingly changed the numbers, lied

      Having read that story, I saw no evidence that they lied or changed number. They discussed how to spin their results so as their findings wouldn't be used by the opposition to score political points and they discussed politics (including how to marginalize an opponent). But nowhere did I see evidence that they lied or fabricated numbers. Do you have proof that they did?

      After that, I might support this type of research again, but only after all the liars are banned from 'research'.

      Did you even support it in the first place? Your tone makes me suspect not and that the above sentence is a rhetorical flourish to make your refusal sound more reasonable.

    3. Re:The hack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jesus, you effing idiot. Look up a few posts where it is nicely explained that those quotes were out of context, not meant in any way to hide contrary data, and don't mean in any way that the data these predictions are based on is falsified.

      Learn something, you moron. Go read about how CO is a strong infrared absorber. Read about the actual mechanisms of greenhouse warming.

      The data makes complete sense. The mechanisms make complete sense. You are just looking for an excuse to carry on.

    4. Re:The hack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      According to your logic, we should still be arguing over geocentrism. Science is about data, not debate. No reason in arguing over something well established by data.

    5. Re:The hack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And again, I see nothing in your link that says a word about fabrication or lying. (And the WSJ would certainly have gleefully said if there had been a whisper of fraud.) Spinning, yes. But does that surprise you? Scientists are people, not machines. This is precisely why a conspiracy to commit fraud is so unlikely.

    6. Re:The hack by saltydogdesign · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's not what we "learned." The information coming from the hacked emails is ambiguous at worst and probably tells us nothing more than that scientists are humans. There's no serious evidence of falsifying data. If you believe there is, out with it, please.

      --
      // This is not a sig.
    7. Re:The hack by drooling-dog · · Score: 3, Funny

      Scientists, schmientists. It's all a big conspiracy by liberal scientists who foolishly rely on reason and observation, renouncing all faith in our energy industry, the Republican Party, and God Himself. Don't tell me what these idiot climatologists say; they are far too tainted by having studied this stuff for much of their adult lives. When Rush, O'Reilly, Hannity, and Palin speak, we'll finally know the truth!

    8. Re:The hack by commodore64_love · · Score: 5, Insightful

      >>>when Al Gore and Goldman Sachs agree on something you know it's very very bad.

      Not really. Both Gore and Sachs will get rich off the carbon-credit trading market. It's no surprise they're on the same side. Now if you said Al Gore and Ron Paul agree, then you'd scare me.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    9. Re:The hack by commodore64_love · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A partial review of the emails shows that in many cases, climate scientists revealed that their own research wasn't always conclusive. In others, they discussed ways to paper over differences among themselves in order to present a "unified" view on climate change.

      On at least one occasion, climate scientists were asked to "beef up" conclusions about climate change and extreme weather events because environmental officials in one country were planning a "big public splash."

      Wow. The scientists are acting like politicians.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    10. Re:The hack by commodore64_love · · Score: 4, Insightful

      More recent exchanges centered on requests by independent climate researchers for access to data used by British scientists for some of their papers. The hacked folder is labeled "FOIA," a reference to the Freedom of Information Act requests made by other scientists for access to raw data used to reach conclusions about global temperatures.

      Many of the email exchanges discussed ways to decline such requests for information, on the grounds that the data was confidential or was intellectual property.

      And people claim copyright/IP laws cause no harm. Science is worthless if you can't have review of the data and verifiability

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    11. Re:The hack by scamper_22 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As a Canadian I say...

      If it is not true... wonderful climate change is not that bad.
      If it is true... wonderful... no more snow in winter!

      Sorry to any part of the world negatively affected by global warming. Where I live (away from the ocean, in a cold climate), a degree warming can only be a good thing.

    12. Re:The hack by Cedric+Tsui · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't know... To me, that article just says that there are a lot of e-mails going back and forth between climate scientists. Which makes sense. The hacked e-mails are between co-workers after all. It says they disagreed with each other, but that the disagreements were small enough that they could agree on a common message.
      It says that one scientist was asked to beef up his conclusions to aid in making a bigger public splash. There's nothing wrong with that. A paper is like an essay. You make different points with different amounts of stress depending on what message you're trying to convey and what you can back up by reference or evidence.

      What the article does NOT say is that there is any proof of people tampering with results. The article also doesn't say that anyone over-stated or exaggerated anything. Though, it sounds like Santax might have read another article that does have stronger proof? (Can you post that? I haven't read it)

      I believe the climate change scientists know what they are doing. Group-think does exist, and entire groups of scientists have been shown to be wrong. But this is the exception, not the rule. I want to present another anecdote.
      The surgeon general first announced that smoking had negative effects on health in 1964. It's the surgeon general's job to announce some semblance of a consensus of the opinions of all the medical researchers in the United States. How long did it take before the majority of people believed in this message? How many decades were there doctors actively trying to 'disprove' the link between smoking and lung cancer? And, we're talking about something that's easy to prove. The effects of one object on an individual organism. There's almost no wiggle-room to throw in a wrench of doubt into that picture.
      It doesn't take very many people to throw mud at a consensus of ten thousand scientists.

    13. Re:The hack by Sollord · · Score: 1

      Save for the whole deleting email related to a FOI request and purposefully removing references from data to make it worthless for the people who made FOI request

    14. Re:The hack by DynaSoar · · Score: 1

      GOOD SCIENCE is all I ask for, which mean never hear the words ''the debate is over''. Here is a link to an article from the WSJ on hacked emails showing scientists deliberately manipulating data to get results they want.

      There was the link to the WSJ article with supposedly hacked emails manipulated to show what [WSJ/hackers/you] wanted them to show.

      You can't tell what [evidence/data] was manipulated by whom and why, yet you're willing to assume one assertion true and another false. Until you're willing to reject irreplicable and unsupportable assertions generated by anyone suggesting any point they wish to make from these, there's no point in trying to evaluate the science.

      You can, however, evaluate evaluations of the science involved using the above paragraph as an example. If someone says something is wrong, do they simply repeat that from another unverifiable source, or can they actually take issue with the data as presented and the methods by which is was obtained? In the weekly circle jerk here on this subject I rarely see a single instance of anyone going any deeper than an appeal to authority (that's an error in logic) quoting a particular assertion that happens to fit their viewpoint. That's from both sides, and it's only mostly due to inability of the respondents to evaluate the actual work. When it says what someone wants it to say, we entirely fail to see any of the otherwise ubiquitous "not peer reviewed" flags. Lest it need be said, WSJ is never peer reviewed, so both its assertions and any conclusions to be drawn from the data presented (or presented as tainted) is invalid.

      "Most people think they are thinking when what they are really doing is rearranging their prejudices." -- William James

      Oh, and although I quote a particular post and reply with "you" I do so taking the former as an example of many such posts and the latter as a generic plural.

      --
      "I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
    15. Re:The hack by khallow · · Score: 3, Informative

      How about this story. The emails hint at two crimes, tax evasion in Russia and deleting data to dodge a freedom of information request (Jones did happen to "lose" the data and was unable to fulfill a freedom of information request. If the email is true, he discussed deleting the data prior to the "accident").

      Moving on there are several instances where the emails imply manipulating the data to reduce undesired features like the Medieval Warm period or recent cooling. And they of course attacked several journals that published certain rivals.

      If these emails turn out correct, it shows a serious disregard for the scientific process among a number of top researchers in the field, opens up a void in historical world temperature measurements (Jones and Mann apparently owned most of the data for that), and perhaps even jail time for someone.

    16. Re:The hack by Russ+Nelson · · Score: 1

      If they're not falsifying data, why do they need to hide it from freedom of information requests? If you're not guilty, why are you hiding?

      --
      Don't piss off The Angry Economist
    17. Re:The hack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      tax evasion in Russia

      The Russian government these days is controlled by gangsters anyway -- they're just getting into the spirit of things.

    18. Re:The hack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Since all of the data, the model source code and documentation as well as the analysis software and documentation is freely available for download and has been reviewed and verified by even the deniers where is the problem? Don't quote Briffa as example of not sharing the data as Steve McIntyre made the libelous claim that Briffa would not share the tree ring data with McIntyre when in point fact McIntyre had had the data for more than five years and just "forgot" he already had the data

    19. Re:The hack by KitsuneSoftware · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you're not guilty, why are you hiding?

      Rough guess, data awaiting publication — If I understand correctly, that's the academic equivalent to keeping things secret until you patent them. The more raw data you have to yourselves, the more papers you can write about that data set before other academics get there, and that's what your promotion prospects are based on. If you stall on a FOIR, you get richer.

    20. Re:The hack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Did you even support it in the first place? Your tone makes me suspect not and that the above sentence is a rhetorical flourish to make your refusal sound more reasonable."

      Your tone makes me suspect that you want only the data that supports your cause, so much so you've used rhetorical flourish to admonish a doubter while condoning and even justifying politicization of research data by the same scientists handling it.

      Hell, the latter in itself is bias enough to throw it out. To use your petty tactics, prove what you (aren't) hiding. Have Al Gore, Soros, and research scientists separate their economics and their family economics from their political views and data. That's what should be done anyways.

      btw, I believe global warming is real. Always have, and more so nowadays given the ocean acidity data has been getting stronger. I just have my doubts about the solutions and the "economy" of those hamming it up--people like yourself.

      Because real global warming believers tend to a) attack their own data to correct it and b) don't attack but educate, i.e. the research data of those researchers is probably good but let's pretend we ignore them and point them to other good data instead of "doubting" their questioning.

      After all, you don't know if he is or isn't a real doubter, but you believing he isn't a real doubter sidetracked you, probably pissed him off and others looking for info. It's hard to back people when they are jackasses to everyone that they don't agree with. You can attack those in your own camp though; you'll quickly find who really understands and who is in it for political or socialization reasons only.

    21. Re:The hack by deacon · · Score: 4, Informative

      # Michael Mann discusses how to destroy a journal that has published sceptic papers.(1047388489)

      # Tim Osborn discusses how data are truncated to stop an apparent cooling trend showing up in the results (0939154709). Analysis of impact here. Wow!

      # Phil Jones describes the death of sceptic, John Daly, as "cheering news".(1075403821)

      # Phil Jones encourages colleagues to delete information subject to FoI request.(1212063122)

      from here:

      http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2009/11/20/climate-cuttings-33.html

    22. Re:The hack by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      It's not tampering with the results, it's the tampering with the scientific process. For science to work well, there needs to be open discussion of the issues. Scientists don't try to push a viewpoint, they try to figure out what is really happening, and they are willing to hear any and all evidence.

      In this case, there is evidence of 'scientists' actively trying to suppress evidence they don't like. For example, one guy says, "Kevin and I will keep [these papers] out somehow -- even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!" (read here to get the full context). How is that in any way scientific? There is no one who denies that global warming has become politicized, but these emails show the depth to which it goes. They are literally trying to get people they don't like fired. This isn't about 'finding the truth,' it's about pushing a viewpoint.

      We need to get back to science.

      --
      Qxe4
    23. Re:The hack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A consensus of ten thousand scientist doesn't mean *anything* if it s not falsifiable.

      That was the problem from the beginning, we were all asked/manipulated to trust them.

    24. Re:The hack by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      They are suppressing data. They aren't falsifying data, they are tampering with the scientific process.

      Science needs to be open.......all the evidence needs to be there for anyone to examine, otherwise it's not science anymore. In this case, they are actively working to get people fired when they disagree with them. Quote: "I will be emailing the journal to tell them I'm having nothing more to do with it until they rid themselves of this troublesome editor" (source). There are more examples in that article of how they tried to block any opposing views, including redefining peer review.

      That's bad stuff. That's not scientists being humans, that's scientists being dumb.

      Now, you might say, "OK, but that isn't evidence against global warming" and you are right, but maybe you would have heard the evidence against global warming if they hadn't been working so actively to stifle opposing opinion. The water has been tainted.

      --
      Qxe4
    25. Re:The hack by WiiVault · · Score: 1

      Bravo. You were eerily close to replicating the phrases of the typical anti-science beanbag.

    26. Re:The hack by WiiVault · · Score: 1

      I know you were kidding, but large displaced populations moving in would certainly bother you.

    27. Re:The hack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FOIA/mail/1256765544.txt
      FOIA/mail/1168356704.txt

    28. Re:The hack by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      I sort of believe in climate change...

      We are not talking about religion. Belief has no place in science. ...but at this point in time, a day after we all got to learn that the top-institute for climate-change knowingly and willingly changed the numbers, lied...

      Which is horseshit.

      *sigh*

      Honestly, is that what you think? Have you even read through the emails? And I don't just mean the cherry picked emails and quotes that the frothing skeptics have fed you.

      Almost all the emails pertain to science discussions. Analysis of data, discussion of data sets, the merits of various proxies, etc. . If anything, the emails reveal an insight into the typical discussion that go on behind the scenes when attempting to perform and validate research. There's nothing nefarious about any of it.

      If you can't understand the basics of the subject, then you have no grounds upon which to base your claims and you sound like an idiot when you do. Any fabrications would have have collapsed quite quickly in the face of peer review, which is the whole point for having peer-reviewed research to begin with.

      Your claims are especially hollow when you're basing you're claims on incomplete email threads that lack the full context of the discussion.

      I can not take this serious.

      Yes, because as we all know one incident invalidates the decades of climate science. Grow up.

      First I want to know how much has been fabricated and lied.

      None. This has been blown completely out of proportion by people who don't understand (or don't want to understand) what they're looking at.

      After that, I might support this type of research again, but only after all the liars are banned from 'research'.

      There are thousands of climate researchers. Do you honestly think the CRU could have fabricated all of it's research and not have been discovered? Or are you one of those nut jobs that believes there is a worldwide climate conspiracy?

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
    29. Re:The hack by Xyrus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't think Global Warming (as it was sold to us, no bait and switch Climate Change) is poor science at best.

      You would, you know, being an expert in the field and such. There was no "bait and switch". Global warming implied rising temperatures everywhere which, of course, is not what would happen. Climate change was a better term to use as it implies a changing climate which more precisely encompasses what's going on.

      Climate science is very well established and has tons of published peer reviewed articles. If you have some amazing research that discredits all of this, then by all means produce it as it would easily get you a Nobel Prize.

      Too much money and politics are involved...

      Certainly you can't be referring to the climate scientists with this remark?

      The average climate researcher (Ph. D) earns about $75K. Hardly big money. Most grants for the research come from government institutions, which must be accounted for (i.e, no dumping a million bucks in your own personal piggy bank). The climate science budget in the US is a little over $2 billion, which is pocket changed compared to everything else. Now take that $2 billion and remove almost all of it. Why? Because almost all of it is going to building, launching, and maintaining new satellites. Actual climate researchers receive a small fraction that budget.

      You're not going to get rich from being a climate researcher unless you head off into the private sector (and then you'll need some clout).

      Politics? What politics? Climate researchers do not factor into the power structure in any meaningful way. They have to beg congress for the money they get. They have nowhere near the clout of the energy lobbies (big oil and the like). ...Al Gore and Goldman Sachs agree on something you know it's very very bad.

      Ad hominem and has nothing to do with climate research. Al Gore is not a climate scientist, and GS is desperate to show some good will to get the lynch mobs off their backs. Neither one contributes to the annals of climate research, though they may support it.

      GOOD SCIENCE is all I ask for, which mean never hear the words ''the debate is over''.

      Does that include your own side, which has been saying it for years now?

      No respectable climate scientist says the debate is over. However, a debate is requires logical points backed up by facts and research. The skeptics are seriously lacking in this regard, and hence the only real debates on the topics are between the scientists themselves.

      Here is a link to an article from the WSJ on hacked emails showing scientists deliberately manipulating data to get results they want. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125883405294859215.html?mod=googlenews_wsj [wsj.com]

      No, the WSJ is deliberately showing you cherry picked quotes taken even more out of context than the incomplete email threads. If you want to make your case, don't rely on questionable reporting. Download the archive and read the emails yourself. There is nothing nefarious going on.

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
    30. Re:The hack by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      And your opinions are worthless when you jump to conclusions.

      If you would just GO AND READ THE FUCKING RESEARCH ARTICLES IN QUESTION you will see that it's all there and explained, including the LIMITED DISTRIBUTION OF VARIOUS DATASETS. Seriously, it is. There just isn't a conspiracy about this. There isn't. No matter how much you want believe there is one, there isn't. Go to any of the reputable journals and the subject. See for yourself.

      With that being said, some of the RAW data has not and cannot PUBLICLY be released because of contractual or other obligations with third party providers. Limited releases can be done for reviews and such. Special exceptions can be made. Or you can go and buy the data from the provider if you so wish. But the institution itself is not at liberty to disseminate the data. This is no different than a licensing agreement for software. You are not allowed to redistribute copies of Windows without express permission to do so, for example, though you are free to use your copy.

      Just because the data isn't available to every TD&H doesn't mean it was not peer-reviewed and validated by other members of the research community.

      Or are you going to operate under the assumption that all science is invalid unless you personally can view everything? Good luck with that.

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
    31. Re:The hack by dachshund · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This data dump has been out for a week or so, and here's the damning evidence:

      # Michael Mann feels that a journal has published a sub-par paper, for reasons that are highly political, and wants other scientists to consider not submitting there. He doesn't destroy the journal or force anyone not to submit there. (1047388489)

      # Tim Osborn uses a known, published technique --- that has been widely discussed in the literature --- to deal with the fact that one (of many) datasets is inconsistent. (0939154709).

      # Phil Jones discusses his role in the assassination of skeptic John Daly!! (Just kidding, this email is tactless but has no impact on the science, and you know that perfectly well.) (1075403821)

      # This FOI stuff does sound "awful" out of context. But here's the thing --- a hacker just stole their entire database, so who needs FOI requests? I mean, if they're avoiding FOI requests to hide some malfeasance, I'm sure you guys'll find it now. But instead of finding a smoking gun, all we get are a bunch of silly emails. (1219239172)

    32. Re:The hack by pkphilip · · Score: 1

      How does disagreeing with other scientists and deliberate deleting of emails to cover tracks add up?

      Search for "Delete" here:
      http://www.anelegantchaos.org/cru

    33. Re:The hack by Kingrames · · Score: 1

      Al Gore and Ron Paul both agree, Cheney is a Dick.
      There you go.

      --
      If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
    34. Re:The hack by Abcd1234 · · Score: 1

      Sorry to any part of the world negatively affected by global warming. Where I live (away from the ocean, in a cold climate), a degree warming can only be a good thing.

      Fuck no. Assuming you, like I, live in the prairies, then I hope you understand that a) long, cold winters are vital to protect our pine forest from the pine beetle, b) long, cold, snowy winters are very important for the following growing season as they provide much-needed spring-time moisture, and c) changes in temperature also mean changes in rainfall patterns, making drought conditions *far* more likely, something that would be devastating for a region, and a country, strongly dependant on our bread baskets.

    35. Re:The hack by Snocone · · Score: 1

      Having read that story, I saw no evidence that they lied or changed number.

      Here you go. Found in comments in the Mann code:

      "shouldn't usually plot past 1960 because these will be artificially adjusted to look closer to the real temperatures."

      Yep, that's lying.

      http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/22/cru-emails-may-be-open-to-interpretation-but-commented-code-by-the-programmer-tells-the-real-story/#more-13065

    36. Re:The hack by Snocone · · Score: 1

      Having read that story, I saw no evidence that they lied or changed number

      Here you go. Found in comments in the Mann code:

      "shouldn't usually plot past 1960 because these will be artificially adjusted to look closer to the real temperatures."

      That's not just evidence, that's actual proof.

      http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/22/cru-emails-may-be-open-to-interpretation-but-commented-code-by-the-programmer-tells-the-real-story/#more-13065

    37. Re:The hack by santax · · Score: 1

      Yes i did read the emails. All of them. That's why. Have you seen the news from Dr Tim Ball? Not the least to say... He agrees with me. So take your horseshit and your other insults and go away so that we can speak here like grown-ups. Thank you very much.

    38. Re:The hack by khallow · · Score: 1

      Fuck no. Assuming you, like I, live in the prairies, then I hope you understand that a) long, cold winters are vital to protect our pine forest from the pine beetle, b) long, cold, snowy winters are very important for the following growing season as they provide much-needed spring-time moisture, and c) changes in temperature also mean changes in rainfall patterns, making drought conditions *far* more likely, something that would be devastating for a region, and a country, strongly dependant on our bread baskets.

      Prairies don't have pine forests by definition. Winter doesn't protect against pine beetles, it merely slows them down (and since it's also slowing down the pine trees, I see no inherent advantage to pine forests). And Canada is indeed one of the winners in the global warming game. Global warming isn't a strictly bad thing.

    39. Re:The hack by commodore64_love · · Score: 1

      >>>If you would just GO AND READ THE FUCKING RESEARCH ARTICLES IN QUESTION

      Yep.

      And then I read the emails behind the papers, which indicate some of the data was thrown-out or altered to make it fit a preconceived theory, so it makes the paper essentially worthless

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    40. Re:The hack by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      No, the FOI stuff sounds awful in context. How can you possibly defend any scientist who is against openness? Openness is the CORE of science. If you don't have that, you don't have science.

      They were literally deleting emails related to the topic, in order to hide it. Hard to say exactly what they were deleting; guess they should have deleted the ones instructing each other to delete the emails, as well.

      --
      Qxe4
    41. Re:The hack by dachshund · · Score: 1

      No, the FOI stuff sounds awful in context. How can you possibly defend any scientist who is against openness? Openness is the CORE of science. If you don't have that, you don't have science.

      As a scientist, I can tell you that there's a lot of information I prefer to keep to myself. For example, my draft papers --- those are confidential until I'm ready to publish them. Otherwise somebody else publishes my results and my career is substantially harmed. Doesn't mean that I'm hiding anything from anyone (in my field, that's hardly a possibility).

      And let's not kid ourselves: the response to this data dump so far does kind of make the scientists' case. There are clearly a lot of people who are just out to make it look like the scientists are being nefarious (as in the "hiding" comment), not actively seeking out source data to confirm/deny the observations. If someone with no scientific background asked for my email archive, for example, I would damned well resist the FOI request. It's my personal correspondence and I don't want someone dribbling it all over the Internet.

      Until someone shows me that these scientists are hiding data, all of this is just tin foil hat bullshit. The availability of a hacked data should up the ante on the accusers --- after all, if there is a conspiracy you should be able to prove it now. Give me something real, anything real, rather than FUD and you'll have my respect.

    42. Re:The hack by sac13 · · Score: 1

      I sort of believe in climate change...

      This is our real problem. We talk about it in terms of "belief." That's a religious term, not a scientific one. That makes the discussion a religious one. And, there's no such thing as a religious discussion, there's only holy wars.

    43. Re:The hack by sac13 · · Score: 1

      Wow. The scientists are acting like politicians.

      Maybe it's actually the other way around...

    44. Re:The hack by sac13 · · Score: 1

      Or are you going to operate under the assumption that all science is invalid unless you personally can view everything? Good luck with that.

      Actually, that's part of the scientific method, sharing your research. So, if you're not doing that, then you're not really practicing science. You're just issuing position papers like any other politician.

      Should public policy be made using "science" that can't be validated? How much money would we have dumped on cold fusion if that was standard practice?

    45. Re:The hack by sac13 · · Score: 1

      They discussed how to spin their results so as their findings wouldn't be used by the opposition to score political points and they discussed politics (including how to marginalize an opponent).

      And you don't find that disturbing? And if you don't, how would you feel about someone on the other side of the issue from you doing the same thing?

      That clearly illustrates we're dealing entirely with a political issue here masking itself as a scientific one. Even the "scientists" are acting and scheming like politicians.

    46. Re:The hack by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      You've got to be kidding me.

      The data does not have to be made available to YOU. It IS made available to the peer-reviewers.

      Would you also like to have just anyone review papers on nuclear research? If you were a company providing LIDAR data services, would you want researchers freely giving it away?

      YOU are free to go to the scientists and convince them that you are a legitimate reviewer who needs the data. In MOST cases, the data is available freely. However, if the data used in research is from a proprietary third party then the researcher will not be able to distribute the data freely. This should not come as any surprise.

      If you think this should be changed so that all data is freely released, then convince your politicians to make it so that scientists are not allowed to use classified, confidential, or proprietary data sources in their research.

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
    47. Re:The hack by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      Which proves either:

      1. You did not read the emails.

      2. You did not understand what was in the emails.

      Like any research, you come across bad data. For example, a temperature reading of -120C over California is probably not a realistic piece of data. Sometimes an entire data set has to be thrown out because, when compared to other regional or proxy data it doesn't make any sense.

      For example, in one of the emails they're talking about data from a tree ring proxy. The proxy was useful up until about 60 years ago. At that point, the proxy started diverging from the instrumental record (the deviation was caused by pollution).

      So, do you use the proxy data anyway or do you use the instrumental record instead? Pretty obvious that you'd want to ditch the proxy at that point.

      And if you did read the papers associated with this, you'd see that it actually is mentioned.

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
    48. Re:The hack by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      No you didn't. It's pretty clear from what you have said that you didn't. It is clear that you have read only what you've wanted to read though.

      Of course Dr. Tim Ball agrees with you. He's been agreeing with you since the whole "Friends of Science" debacle. He's hardly a person I would go to for an unbiased interpretation considering his history of climate research misrepresentation. You might as well go to the tobacco companies for lung cancer studies.

      I think I will continue to rely on the PEER-REVIEWED science being done by the vast majority of the climate community. Thanks.

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
    49. Re:The hack by sac13 · · Score: 1

      You've got to be kidding me.

      Nope. I'm not.

      The data does not have to be made available to YOU. It IS made available to the peer-reviewers.

      That's fine. But, don't use my money for anything or compel me to behave in any particular manner based on "evidence" that I'm not allowed to see.

      Would you also like to have just anyone review papers on nuclear research? If you were a company providing LIDAR data services, would you want researchers freely giving it away?

      Yes. I would. It's the same argument as which is more secure, open or closed source code. Environments that are open to the light tend to require much less disinfecting.

      YOU are free to go to the scientists and convince them that you are a legitimate reviewer who needs the data. In MOST cases, the data is available freely. However, if the data used in research is from a proprietary third party then the researcher will not be able to distribute the data freely. This should not come as any surprise.

      That's fine. While I do dispute the notion of "proprietary" data, if we do allow for it, it should not be allowed to affect any policies other than those that are proprietary. Public policy should be based on public information.

      And as far as the person doing the research deciding if someone is a "legitimate" reviewer, that sounds a bit dubious. So, the person that will get the credit and prestige for the results of their work decides who is "legitimate" to check their work? I wish I could have done that through college. I'd have had a 4.0 at graduation.

      REAL science isn't proprietary. And, it doesn't fear who will be reviewing results. Anything that acts in a contrary manner is not real science. It's think tank propaganda.

      If you think this should be changed so that all data is freely released, then convince your politicians to make it so that scientists are not allowed to use classified, confidential, or proprietary data sources in their research.

      The scientists can do what they like. If the politicians are using the information to decide public policy, the public which is subject to that policy should be able to review it. Otherwise, we're being asked to take the word of politicians and those in their employ. Do you really want to live somewhere where all the policies are set based on data and analysis that no one except those in power are allowed to see?

      Sounds extremely dangerous to me...

    50. Re:The hack by santax · · Score: 1

      You do realize that they have confirmed the emails are true? And please feel free to do so, I will do the same. I still believe in the changing climate. But I just don't believe the steep curve anymore. I can't. Screwing with numbers is something one should have to expect from this institute. And yet they did. And trust me, i downloaded the whole 61mb. But I don't think you did.

    51. Re:The hack by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      (Sorry for the late reply....I got distracted by Thanksgiving).

      These guys are making an active effort to prevent the works of others from being published, and are trying to manipulate the system to push their viewpoint. From my readings, I think they are sincere and think they are doing good science, so I don't think you can call it a conspiracy. Rather, I'd say it's just bad science. For example, as a scientist, do you actively try to prevent other's papers from being published by threatening the editors at a journal? Have you ever considered changing the definition of peer review, with the specific intent of keeping out certain papers (if you've merely thought of changing peer review because parts of it suck, I won't hold that against you)?

      I think a problem with a lot of the emails isn't so much that they are unusual, but rather they have revealed some of the weaknesses in the system to people who otherwise trusted in it completely. For example, this one talks about finding people to stack the peer review board in the submitter's favor. It sounds horrible, but I suspect it is not uncommon for such things to happen. But if you are the kind of person who thinks peer review establishes truth, then you are going to be surprised.

      For me, it is just another level of what already seems apparent to me: that the science is being distorted for political purposes. People talk about the scientific consensus about global warming, and then say if we don't do something the earth could heat as much as 6 degrees, and ice caps melt, etc, but there is no scientific consensus about ice caps melting, or the earth heating 6 degrees, that is sensationalistic. If you read the actual surveys of scientists, the only consensus that exists is that the global temperature record is roughly correct, and that adding CO2 to the atmosphere will contribute to the greenhouse effect. There is no consensus about the amount, or feedback mechanisms, or that the computer models are correct.

      Good scientists try to dispassionately find the truth, whatever it is. They don't try to push their viewpoint. Admittedly that is hard. These emails provide evidence that at least a few climate scientists have failed at that attempt, or have not even attempted.

      --
      Qxe4
  6. Because we all know.... by nscott89 · · Score: 1

    that the weather forecast is always right.
    Oh wait, I thought it was supposed to be raining today?!?

    1. Re:Because we all know.... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Because we all know that forecasting local changes in a chaotic system is easier than forecasting global trends.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    2. Re:Because we all know.... by Alioth · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You're confusing weather forecasting and climatology. They aren't the same thing. An analogy (not using cars this time): imagine you have a pot of water on the stove, and the temperature turned to a certain point. The weather forecaster is the person who predicts where the eddies and bubbles will be in this pot of water. Obviously this gets incredibly difficult for predictions more than a few seconds in the future. The climatologist, however, says "after X time, the temperature will have changed to Y", or "Put the lid on the pot, and the temperature will increase to Z".

      Two quite different disciplines.

    3. Re:Because we all know.... by ciaohound · · Score: 1

      Hey, even if he is confusing them, weather forecasting has gotten much more accurate in our lifetimes. If you routinely use the weather forecast to plan an outdoor activity -- say, a daily bike ride, or a fishing trip, or whatever you as a unique individual care about in the great outdoors -- you must have noticed this improvement. I'm in my forties now and there are days when the weather forecast is so right on the money it is astounding.

      --
      Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
    4. Re:Because we all know.... by WoodstockJeff · · Score: 0, Troll

      Except the climatologist doesn't know how much heat is being added to the pot, what the composition of the fluid is within the pot, or even how much fluid is there... and still claims to make precise predictions based upon the imprecise data.

      Or, more correctly, makes predictions like, "If nothing changes...." when, in fact, things are always changing. Increased CO2 in the atmosphere leads to increased plant growth, which decreases atmospheric CO2. Solar radiation changes in intensity. Changes in temp and amount of foliage change the level of water vapor in the atmosphere, changing the planet's reflectivity.

      Tying a prediction like this to "just" an observed short-term increase in CO2 emissions (which, by the way, isn't a 29% increase in the amount of CO2, but the amount being emitted... without taking into account the amount being absorbed by other players in the ecosystem) ignores 99% of the data.

    5. Re:Because we all know.... by ryanjsull · · Score: 1

      In your example the system's chaotic features can be neglected as you increase the length scale. I haven't seen anything that shows that this applies to modeling of the earth... Also chaotic systems become increasingly difficult to predict as the time scale increases... especially global trends. The problem with climate is that we are dealing with high order non-linear differential equations with very many terms. The ignorance of even a few of these terms can completely invalidate any predictions of future events and trends. In the book Chaos Making a New Science it mentions that many attempts at climate models have found only one stable solution and that is a frozen earth that reflects all energy out. It mentions that people who tried could not find a "normal temperature" for the earth. Warming trends and ice ages could just be products of the chaotic system we live in... sure adding CO2 might raise temperatures in the short span of a few decades but what will be the result in a few hundred years? Also, I remember hearing somewhere that water vapor contributes to the greenhouse effect by many orders of magnitude more than CO2... does anybody know how much truth is in this?

  7. That's all different by tjstork · · Score: 1

    All the emissions stuff they have strapped to your engine are to control particulate emissions. The combustion, or the operation of the engine itself, is what they are after. IF anything, cleaning up the soot from your engine probably made asthma sufferers worse and also increased the planetary temperature because nature can deal with larger particulates better than it can the really tiny aerosols. So basically, in order to be able to have motive power and not have all of our buildings and trees stained black, we've torched the planet. The hippies screwed up, but so did we.

    Woops.

    --
    This is my sig.
    1. Re:That's all different by Xeleema · · Score: 1

      The hippies screwed up, but so did we.

      So...basically...we're all going to die, and take the planet with us, right?

      That's deep, almost makes me want to find a quack doc and become "clinically depressed", maybe even start collecting payments, seeing as how I won't be able to work.

      After all, I've got a *lot* more tires to burn now than I thought....

      --
      "When I am king, you will be first against the wall..."
    2. Re:That's all different by Pyrion · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So...basically...we're all going to die, and take the planet with us, right?

      It's certainly a given that we're all going to die, sometime. Hopefully not all at the same general time, but who knows.

      My impression from this whole "climate change" thing is that coastline dwellers are screwed, as is anyone who lives on a floodplain (but that's usually an annual given), weather patterns are going to change dramatically enough that our capacity for predicting it will suffer (as if to say weathermen now have a bona-fide excuse for being shameless liars), and perhaps most importantly, regional "climate change," again from the change in weather patterns. What doesn't get flooded over with the melting of the ice caps will likely not bear much resemblance to what we know now. Deserts may become lush grasslands, while lush grasslands now might become deserts, simply due to changing weather patterns.

      I can't claim to understand the specifics, but if a consensus of scientists are saying "we are fucked," then we are fucked, either because they're right, or because they're wrong and we'll base future decisions on faulty data and proclamations of doom.

      --
      "There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell.
    3. Re:That's all different by tjstork · · Score: 1

      That's deep, almost makes me want to find a quack doc and become "clinically depressed", maybe even start collecting payments, seeing as how I won't be able to work

      I see a great opportunity for a web site that diagnoses climate change depression and pays for the disability with a tax on liberal industries such as record companies, tv, and movies.

      --
      This is my sig.
    4. Re:That's all different by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, catalytic converter has nought to do with that. It's about carbon monoxide, unburnt hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides. And it does in fact increase CO2 production. Now a particulate filter on a diesel wil temporarily cut down the particulates but once again it's biggest influence is increasing your fuel consumption and thereby your CO2 emission.

    5. Re:That's all different by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      So...basically...we're all going to die, and take the planet with us, right?
      Not even close. We MAY kill ourselves (not likely, but possible), BUT the planet will continue. In fact, I imagine that some future race of lizards (or aliens) running around exploring our areas and commenting on how a toilet seat is actually a necklace, and the toilet is where we sacrificed to the gods (and when I was in my teens, that is pretty much what I did, like others).

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    6. Re:That's all different by Bartles · · Score: 1

      Oh noes! Sea level rose 0.1 cm last year. I hope we can outrun the tidal wave. Ma, load up the truck, we're headin for the hills!

    7. Re:That's all different by Pyrion · · Score: 1

      If that was all there was to it, I wouldn't be worried either. Normal coastal erosion should be a far greater concern to coastline dwellers than the sea level rising to a relevant degree within their lifetimes, if this was all there was to it.

      The climate change part resulting in economic devastation of areas completely reliant on stable and predictable weather patterns, of course, is likely the real source of worry. Just one example: the capsizing of fishing industries due to a change in migration patterns resulting from a change in weather patterns (like El Nino, but on a more permanent scale) or a drastic change in water temperature from the melting of the ice caps... that'd be something coastal dwellers would really have to worry about.

      --
      "There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell.
    8. Re:That's all different by Bartles · · Score: 1

      Oh noes! The fish migration patterns have shifted over the last 50 years. Ma, load up the truck, we're adapting and moving up the coast so we can catch more fish.

  8. Register story by Dartz-IRL · · Score: 2, Informative
    --
    So there I was, scribbling down some notes off the PC screen by hand, when I reached for the keyboard and Ctrl-S'd.
    1. Re:Register story by WiFiBro · · Score: 1

      That might not have been a "hack", see 'Stolen CRU emails: Who are the criminals behind the conspiracy theorists?' at http://www.desmogblog.com/stolen-cru-emails-who-are-criminals-behind-conspiracy-theorists

    2. Re:Register story by Dartz-IRL · · Score: 1

      It's an interesting thing alright.

      There're a lot of people who stand to lose a lot of money if climate change is proved to have non-anthropogenic origins.

      This makes me think of the flooding in Ireland happening right now... a once-in-a-hundred-years flood which was quickly blamed on global climate change. When asked when the last such flood was, the answer was 'about 90 years ago'.

      It's all so alarmist, so much like those fake antivirus programs that tell your all your secret info is being stolen by Russian crackers unless you pay Russian crackers for protection that will never work... it just grows less and less credible in my mind.

      --
      So there I was, scribbling down some notes off the PC screen by hand, when I reached for the keyboard and Ctrl-S'd.
    3. Re:Register story by Rising+Ape · · Score: 1

      There're a lot of people who stand to lose a lot of money if climate change is proved to have non-anthropogenic origins.

      And a hell of a lot more people who would gain a lot of money. How big is the fossil fuel industry in comparison to anyone who might benefit from anthropogenic climate exchange?

      I very much doubt that a climate scientist would blame an individual flood on climate change. Maybe, at most, he'd say that climate change may make such things more common. Got a source for that?

    4. Re:Register story by WiFiBro · · Score: 1

      "There're a lot of people who stand to lose a lot of money if climate change is proved to have non-anthropogenic origins."

      The money is in the other camp, silly.

      And I agree that many people shout 'see! [no] Climate Change' at every snowflake in summer or heatwave in spring. That's why we have statistics and long term monitoring.

    5. Re:Register story by tsm_sf · · Score: 1

      There're a lot of people who stand to lose a lot of money if climate change is proved to have non-anthropogenic origins.

      I see this floated around as one of the reasons scientists might have for cooking the books. In fact, I think it's the main reason.

      It always strikes me as an odd thing to say about a group of people who have literally placed their professional reputation above their income in terms of priority. Yes, you do read about the occasional researcher who is caught out. It does happen. However, this is usually followed by ostracism and the loss of an entire career, not to mention the tainting of their previous body of work.

      I believe that it's always important to ask yourself 'who benefits' and 'what's the motivation', which you apparently are doing here. I would, however, invite you to apply the same process to the people giving you this information.

      --
      Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
    6. Re:Register story by SockPuppet_9_5 · · Score: 1

      For those who want a summary of some of the emails, go read http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2009/11/20/climate-cuttings-33.html
      Where you can read that the person most responsible for the famous Hockey Stick graph discusses how to destroy a journal that has published skeptic papers.
      Yes, it's a political thing that has corrupted the scientific process. Who would'a figured?

    7. Re:Register story by Dartz-IRL · · Score: 1

      RE: All three above.

      I do apply the same motivations. 'Big oil' or what have you has much less to loose right now, especially considering that oil reserves *are* dwindling. Oil will have to be replaced pretty quickly, or climate change or not, we're going to be in a right little pickle.

      How much money is invested not in AGW research as such, but in Green Technology? Wind turbines, carbon scrubbers etc.... How many people are employed by this 'green boom'? How many politicians elected on the promise of green politics? How many products marketted as being greener than last years thing? 'Greenness' has become such a big marketting force now it's staggering.

      It's worrying.

      I see the real problem not as being Co2 of AGW. These are things we can live through, provided we have technology. In fact, it seems to me that AGW is a smokescreen for a much larger problem. What I think our main problem is, is the accelerating depletion of natural resources, in part being fuelled by planned obsolescence driving this newer-greener marketing machine. A lot of older, perfectly functional goods are being thrown out based on the perception that buying something new is somehow environmentally friendly. It is horrifically innefficient.

      The thing with science on this subject, is that a lot of people stand to loose money, either way you split it. And researchers will always give results that pay the bills, can't blame them for that. The sheer marketing force behind this now though, is bothering me.... it's taken on such a force that anyone who doubts or raises skepticism is burned at a carbon neutral stake.

      Even 'big oil' companies are jumping on the 'green' bandwagon.

      --------------------->

      Source was RTE news lunchtime broadcast. Unfortunately I didn't record it.

      --
      So there I was, scribbling down some notes off the PC screen by hand, when I reached for the keyboard and Ctrl-S'd.
    8. Re:Register story by hoover · · Score: 1

      Sorry to see my mod points just expired a couple of days ago... good post.

      --
      Ever wondered whats wrong with the world? http://www.ishmael.org/
  9. The poor will die and the rich will go sailing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unfortunately that's the way it looks from here, Vietnam a developing country which is almost all coastline.

    Well as long as the methane clathrates don't thaw releasing their gigatons of methane we won't kill off ALL of the rest of the biosphere. (At least that's what my scientist friends are saying, we're far from that doomsday scenario). Still millions will die and millions of species will go extinct but most of us rich northern hemispherians (N. America, Europe, E. Asia) will do okay.

    Glad that Florida will be underwater though. I guess Walt Disney knew better than all of us when he put the Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow there. Now I know why he predicted we'd be living underwater!

    1. Re:The poor will die and the rich will go sailing by NeverVotedBush · · Score: 1

      The methane clathrates are melting and methane is actually bubbling up in places in the oceans. One notable source is north of Japan.

      As the oceans warm, that rate of release also increases.

  10. Re:Falsibility. by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IF the forecast temperature rise is 6C per century, then it is .6C per decade

    Nonsense. This is only true if it's a linear relationship. Given that the greenhouse effect involves a complex feedback cycle, that is not a valid assumption.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  11. Re:Falsibility. by PiSkyHi · · Score: 1

    Assuming linear interpolation. I think you may well be on your own there.

  12. Environmal Economists? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    he researchers predict a small decrease this year due to the recession, but further increases from 2010.

    So now our environmental scientists are making economic forcasets

  13. Re:Falsibility. by eldavojohn · · Score: 1, Insightful

    They DO report a current trend of .15K per decade. This is far lower than the forecast.

    Is there some reason you picked the Channel TLT data and not the, say, Channel TLS data which reports a negative 0.325 K/decade?

    I'm no expert in any of this but the site you linked to seems to be satellite data for atmospheric temperatures. Not temperatures at the surface (which is really what we're concerned about, right? I have no doubt that the average temperature of the entire atmosphere of the earth has changed minimally -- if not been lowered erratically. The effects of what is happening on the ground are severely diluted when you include such a large volume.

    Tell me, if you wanted to measure the temperature outside your house, would you consult a satellite measuring microwave transmissions or a thermometer adjacent to your house?

    --
    My work here is dung.
  14. 6C by the end of the century! by Ekuryua · · Score: 0

    And by the way, let's jump to conclusion, blame the chinese, after all, they love eating dogs who poop a lot, and that has to produce a lot of methane! Also as we all know, since 2000 all of china got big cars, and huge freezers, and use 250L of water per day.
    It's also a known fact that since the advent of fuzzy computers, scientists have been able to run models so good they can predict climatic trends on a century basis. Now I even know where to be for my 50th birthday to see snow.(the last snow on earth apparently, because by then it'll be so hot even the poles will look like hell)

  15. Re:Falsibility. by RealGrouchy · · Score: 1

    Apply heat to a glass of ice and the temperature will continue read 0 degrees C until all the ice has turned to water. That doesn't mean there's more energy (heat) in the system.

    - RG>

    --
    Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
  16. Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain... by littlewink · · Score: 1

    nor to the statistician modifying data values.

  17. What's a Farenheit? by Gonoff · · Score: 2, Interesting

    We think it might be the multiple of a groat, furlong and an acre foot.

    I wonder whether there is correlation between those who still use Fahrenheit exclusively and those who pretend that there is no such thing as man made climate change...

    --
    I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
    1. Re:What's a Farenheit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you honestly believe that whole "man made" climate change shit then why don't you do us all a favor in reducing your "carbon footprint" and here is how you can do it fuckwad. Go find a cliff or a bridge somewhere, then take your entire fucktarded family. Have all of them jump off to their deaths, and after that jump to yours. Then you will have achieved your so called goal and we won't have to put up with stupid little fucktards like you polluting the gene pool or whining about how captilaism is not fair and communism is fair.

    2. Re:What's a Farenheit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wonder whether there is correlation between those who still use Fahrenheit exclusively and those who pretend that there is no such thing as man made climate change...

      As someone who thinks Fahrenheit and only learned a few everyday Celsius reference points like 24C == air-conditioner setting when living in the tropics, I am an existence proof invalidating your exclusive theory. I can also tell you that I met quite a few native Celsius thinkers who are just as innately conservative and anti-climate-change as people I've met in the US with the same affliction. They were mostly Brits and Aussies, but that may have had more to do with the holiday destination than anything else.

    3. Re:What's a Farenheit? by pkphilip · · Score: 1

      Nice attack there. Would you feel better if I told you that I don't use Fahrenheit, am not from the US, have no ties with any oil companies and still find CRU's claims to be suspect?

  18. Re:Falsibility. by Palpatine_li · · Score: 1

    but it is a negative feedback, do some research.

  19. Re:Falsibility. by WiFiBro · · Score: 0, Troll

    "Is there some reason you picked the Channel TLT data and not the, say, Channel TLS data which reports a negative 0.325 K/decade? "

    Actually the greenhouse gas theory does indicate a higher insulation value of the atmosphere, which logically means cooler temperatures at higher altitudes.

  20. Re:Falsibility. by tjstork · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is there some reason you picked the Channel TLT data and not the, say, Channel TLS data which reports a negative 0.325 K/decade?

    The TLT channel is for lower troposphere and it is, indeed, the closest to ground level.

    Satellite temperatures are better for climate purposes because ground stations temperatures also pick up heat radiated from the ground and other buildings. Indeed, one of the great points of criticism made about global climate is weather or not the current level state of ground measuring statements is both consistent and accurate. I'd assume that they are not.

    The satellite, because it is the same instrument and same methodology, is consistent, and so in my lay opinion, is the more reliable source of information when considering global climate trends.

    --
    This is my sig.
  21. University of East Anglia by cirby · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's even better - the source cited in the story above is the CRU (funny how "University of East Anglia" started being the source when everyone found out that CRU was more than a bit corrupt) - the same people who just got busted with all of that leaked data and incriminating emails just this week.

    So they apparently decided to double down on their predictions, instead of trying to pretend nothing happened - but hiding the provenance.

    Anyone want to bet the lead author on the paper wasn't the lead author last week, and got "promoted" when the real researchers' names were tainted?

    1. Re:University of East Anglia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure, I'll take that bet... I'd also like to see some of this ``incriminating e-mail''. Having read through some of it, I think I need a lot more tin-foil to put any of it into the ``incriminating'' category. I suggest, as others have done elsewhere, that if you're actually interested in this story, rather than parroting what others with an agenda have written, that you do a bit more investigation...

    2. Re:University of East Anglia by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      There were no incriminating emails, as is apparent to anyone who has actually read through them all. Only an idiot would get there talking points on this matter from a skeptic blog or an MSM article.

      The emails and everything else are available on bit-torrent. Read them yourself. It may help you from getting whiplash by jumping to unsubstantiated conclusions based on partial or no context email quotes.

      You'd think people on slashdot would know better than this.

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
  22. Re:Falsibility. by MrHanky · · Score: 1

    Yes, and that's 0.06 per year or 0.06/365 per day. Sorry, but your "test" is simply not credible at all. There will always be natural variation on top of everything else.

  23. Re:How can they tell.. isotopes by kholburn · · Score: 1

    This is complete rubbish. Carbon has 3 naturally occuring isotopes. There are differences based on the ratio of carbon isotopes.

  24. Re:Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain. by WiFiBro · · Score: 1

    If this refers to the 'triks' dug out in private mails from so-called hack in the mailsystem of CRU -which actually shows signs of an inside job-, check the response at http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/11/the-cru-hack/ . Hint: quotemining.

  25. Re:How can they tell.. isotopes by IWannaBeAnAC · · Score: 1

    See my previous reply. True, I had completely forgotton about isotopes. But I'm doubtful that you could turn this into a useful test of atmosphereic CO2 composition. Even if you can, does anyone argue about the source anyway? I don't see anyone arguing this point.

  26. I'll be dead by then... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But assuming I could live until the age of a thousand, what's the worst case scenario assuming things continue as they are? Since oil and coal came from living things, it seems there's a limit to how much burning it all could affect our atmosphere. I'm guessing most of it came from the atmosphere in the first place, and that living things were not combining carbon and oxygen from geological sources. Are we in for a doomsday scenario that wipes out all life? It seems, at worst, things will get a bit warmer, and perhaps a bit wetter.

    1. Re:I'll be dead by then... by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      But assuming I could live until the age of a thousand, what's the worst case scenario assuming things continue as they are?

      The global ecosystem getting out of balance, causing mass extinction of species (which probably would include the humans). Mass extinctions have occured naturally in the past, and usually there's no known external event (the end of the dinosaurs is an exception), so it's certainly something which in the worst case would happen.

      Now this certainly wouldn't mean the end of life on earth. But it might be the end of humans on earth.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  27. Re:Falsibility. by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 1

    It is not linear, which was the point. A temperature change over a century is not necessarily proportional to a temperature change over a decade within that century. The temperature change of two decades in that century are not necessarily equal.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  28. Re:Falsibility. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Given that the greenhouse effect involves a complex feedback cycle, that is not a valid assumption.

    I suggest everyone reads about ClimateGate (http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-25061-Climate-Change-Examiner~y2009m11d21-ClimateGate-emails-provide-unwanted-scrutiny-of-climate-scientists) and then provides his/her own
    analysis that fits best with what you believe.

    Science has become politics and hence can not be trusted anymore.

    As to why etc. I'll leave that to some else.

  29. Reduced CO2 correlated with recessions by Hal_Porter · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The researchers predict a small decrease this year due to the recession, but further increases from 2010. "

    Interesting that a historically rather serious recession can only cause a small decrease. It seems like cutting CO2 back to the levels needed to stop global warming would require or cause a much more serious recession.

    In fact it's very noticable that now everyone is worried about a 30's style global depression pretty much everyone has stopped talking about cutting CO2 emissions in a follow up to Kyoto.

    Not that Kyoto cut CO2 of course

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol#Increase_in_greenhouse_gas_emission_since_1990

    World CO2 emissions went up by 38% from 1992 to 2007. The US refused to sign, India and China were exempt and in the EU

    As of year-end 2006, the United Kingdom and Sweden were the only EU countries on pace to meet their Kyoto emissions commitments by 2010. While UN statistics indicate that, as a group, the 36 Kyoto signatory countries can meet the 5% reduction target by 2012, most of the progress in greenhouse gas reduction has come from the stark decline in Eastern European countries' emissions after the fall of communism in the 1990s

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    1. Re:Reduced CO2 correlated with recessions by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 1

      "It seems like cutting CO2 back to the levels needed to stop global warming would require or cause a much more serious recession."

      Cause and effect fail? A recession forces people to reduce emissions, but it is not the only way to do so...

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    2. Re:Reduced CO2 correlated with recessions by Ambitwistor · · Score: 2, Informative

      Interesting that a historically rather serious recession can only cause a small decrease.

      That's because recessions are not economically efficient ways to lower carbon emissions. They don't address the energy sector specifically, they don't specifically target low-emissions technology development or efficiency measures, etc. They just indiscriminately suppress economic activity, and obviously have effects far beyond the carbon-related sector.

      For more on the economics of climate policy, see here and here.

      It seems like cutting CO2 back to the levels needed to stop global warming would require or cause a much more serious recession.

      That's probably true, which is why nobody is proposing to cut CO2 levels to stop global warming. Or at least, not stop it at current temperatures. Most want to stabilize it at 2 C above pre-industrial. That will still have serious costs (as would unstabilized climate change), but if appropriately designed to specifically promote low-carbon activity, it's not going to create a severe recession; see the above links.

  30. Wake me when a prediction comes true by hedgehogbrains · · Score: 5, Insightful

    'Climate models predict disaster' is not news. Climate model always predict disaster.

    '1999 climate model validated by 10 years of actual data'. *That* would be news.

    1. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by bunratty · · Score: 1

      If we're trying to prevent the disaster, it had better be news and we had better wake up well before is happens so we can prevent it. As for data validating climate models, that has been happening for decades. Remember? It's been in all the papers for many years. We've seen an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since that 1950s, and the warming that was predicted to cause since the 1970s. That's why we're trying to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    2. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by hedgehogbrains · · Score: 1

      Could you add a link to the 1970s prediction please?

    3. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by bunratty · · Score: 5, Informative

      The prediction of an increase in concentration in carbon dioxide predates the 1970s. Arrhenius first predicted it in the 19th century. That's why Keeling started measuring the concentration on carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the 1950s. In 1979, the Jason Committee predicted a doubling in the concentration of carbon dioxide and a warming of several degrees Celsius by 2035. At this point, we have decades of data confirming these predictions.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    4. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by hedgehogbrains · · Score: 1

      The discoverers of the greenhouse effect predicted that temperature would rise as carbon dioxide concentrations rose. Carbon dioxide concentrations rose and temperatures have indeed risen. The prediction has held up well.

      Computer modelling has added nothing to this. No computer model had produced better results than simply drawing a straight line through the graph.

      The fact that temperatures are rising is not not news. We have known this for a while.

      The fact that yet another untested model has made a quantitative prediction is not news. It is not even informative.

    5. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by tbannist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The story you were looking for was "1999 climate model wrong: Global temperatures increasing faster then predicted".

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    6. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by bunratty · · Score: 5, Informative

      Computer modelling has added nothing to this. No computer model had produced better results than simply drawing a straight line through the graph.

      What computer modeling has added is that there are not subtle effects that were not in the simpler models that will significantly alter the warming. For example, it has been hypothesized that certain types of clouds will cancel out most of the warming, or that other types of clouds will cause even more warming that previously predicted. The newest models and data show that the previous predictions are pretty accurate.

      As far as your assertion that these models are untested, you completely wrong. These models have predicted warming for over a century, and we've been seeing that warming since the 1970s. We have decades of evidence that confirm the models. The fact that people continue to say the models are "untested" is why we need to have more stories about the matter.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    7. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by Ironsides · · Score: 1

      Did these models predict the warming accurately or did they say that the warming was going to be 10x what it actually was? Did the models predict the cooling over the past decade or did they fail to actually predict anything other than warming? If I gave the model the data for 1950 through 2000, would it be able to predict what happened in 2005?

      --
      Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
    8. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by Russ+Nelson · · Score: 1, Troll

      Except that everyone acknowledges that there's been no warming since 2000.

      I'm sure that 10,000 years ago, the hominids were worrying about the end of the ice age. Consider that most people's sense of "normal" extends from whatever conditions existed when they were 18 years old. Since rap music didn't exist when I was 18, all rap is completely worthless in my mind, and needs to go away for the world to be restored to the conditions when I was 18. Oh, the music those young kids listen to! (excepting of course that people now my age were saying the same thing back then.)

      Basically, all this worrying about AGW is simply overwrought Christian guilt. "Oh noes! We've changed the world! We're guilty, God, punish us!" The sensible thing to do is to carry on and keep calm, and address problems as we find them ... just like we've always done. But that would disappoint a lot of people, because it's fun to be in crisis mode.

      --
      Don't piss off The Angry Economist
    9. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by HiThere · · Score: 1

      Well, there are always new pieces being added to the models, and those pieces haven't been tested, so the model as a whole hasn't been tested.

      Yeah, it's a silly objection. But if you want a factual objection, you need to go in the direction of silly.

      What was left out is that some models have been proven wrong!! Horrors!! Yet is happens all the time. Somebody produces a new model and it's tested against the current best model, and one of them is better than the other. If it didn't happen, I'd have suspicions about the science in general rather than about one cluster of researchers.

      (OTOH, as I said earlier, my signpost is the ice melting. It's independently measurable by several different parties, and has been independently measured. And even distant observers can see that it's real. E.g., just recently an icebreaker became the first ship to ever navigate the North-West passage. And shipping lines take it seriously enough that they're making plans for a cruise ship to go along that route in a few years. Now that's readily observable evidence.)

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    10. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by jpmorgan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Except the real story is '1999 climate model wrong: Global temperatures unchanged over past decade.'

    11. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      In the 1990s it was Global warming. Since this did not happen it is now Climate Change.

    12. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by jpmorgan · · Score: 1

      Hear-hear.

      I do a lot of modelling (mostly electromagnetics, not climate), but the first thing that pops into my head every time is 'how did they validate the model?' And as far as I can tell, they don't. At least, not to what I would consider a scientifically acceptable standard. Hell, give me a couple of days, and the data, and I'll come up with a model that predicts past climate to within 0.1C every year and predicts that next year will be the sudden start of a new ice age.

      Oh wait, I can't. These researchers won't give anybody else the data.

    13. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by jpmorgan · · Score: 1

      Models don't show anything until you have validated that they are accurate.

    14. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by ralphbecket · · Score: 1

      Lucia Liljegren has shown that the IPCC's 2'C/century prediction (sorry, "projection") is statistically rejected as too high. This number was published in 2000, IIRC. It has not changed in the more recent IPCC report. It gets worse if you consider the global mean surface temperature calculations may be biased upwards.

      6'C/century is right out according to the measurements. But it makes for a good (i.e., scary) headline.

    15. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by dachshund · · Score: 1

      Did the models predict the cooling over the past decade or did they fail to actually predict anything other than warming?

      I found this AP story interesting. They gave a number of statisticians the temperature data for the last few decades (without telling them what it was) and asked them to identify a trend. All found an increase, and determined that the tail end -- the "cooling" -- was statistical noise consistent with noise from earlier periods in the data set.

      http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/ap-impact-statisticians-reject-174088.html

      My point is that models don't predict every nook and cranny in the temperature map, since a lot of the noise is based on unpredictable events. (As an example, if you pour cold cream into hot coffee, you can't model the precise distribution of the two substances after one second, but you can predict the temperature of the mixture after a minute or two.) To the best of my knowledge, the models are consistent with recent trends.

    16. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, but Da Vinchi invented the tank and helicopter. You give enough monkeys a type writer... now you give enough (but still few than monkeys) humans a typewriter you get the same effect mostly because you don't have to sort out the completely incoherent bs and are stuck with what is for the most part coherent and grammatically correct bs to find the truly helpful bits.

    17. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by SetupWeasel · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The models were coded using assumptions, and we are talking about a chaotic system that is difficult to predict 7 days in advance let alone 70 years. In fact many of these models are based on models of ocean currents recently shown to be wrong. Not that anyone seems to care.

      Then, of course, is the question of other factors that might be understated. Solar activity increased in the past 50 years too, but now we have had 18 months and that activity has vanished. Temperatures have historically increased and decreased with the increase and decrease of solar activity. It is an accepted factor in global warming, but looking at Mars and Jupiter it is strange how much extraterrestrial climate change is happening at exactly the same time. Maybe they have underestimated the Sun's importance.

      My problem is this: "Climate change" is no longer a real science. The one thing that the hacked emails proved is that Climate Change has become far too political to be called a science. You don't need stolen emails to prove that proponents of the current climate change theory are doing what they can to stifle debate. When the debate is gone, there is no science.

      I am willing to admit when I am wrong, but it is not time for that yet. Solar activity may be approaching a minimum, and if it does, it will prove me right or wrong. But I am sure-- damned sure --that if global temperatures fall with the solar activity, a good many of the current scientists echoing the conventional wisdom will adjust their models to prove that they were right all along.

    18. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by bugnuts · · Score: 1

      Mars has gotten warmer, but since we were measuring the sun's output from the 1970's, it has not gone up. There's nothing "unseen" about the sun's output, since if it were putting out more energy we'd not only sense it, but ALL the solar system would be getting warmer. Not just Mars. You can't point to a single planet and claim that shows it's a normal thing, unless all the planets/moons/everything are likewise doing the same, which they are not.

      My problem is this: "Climate change" is no longer a real science. The one thing that the hacked emails proved is that Climate Change has become far too political to be called a science. You don't need stolen emails to prove that proponents of the current climate change theory are doing what they can to stifle debate. When the debate is gone, there is no science.

      That's my problem, too.

      But poster boy Gore refusing to measure his penis with a heckler doesn't somehow mean "debate has been stifled". That's BS. Lomborg can challenge the science himself -- nobody had anything to gain with Gore debating him, and refusing the debate has nothing to do with trying to stifle all dissent. If I challenged Gore to debate me on the merits of virus scanning, he'd scoff at me, too.

    19. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by Ironsides · · Score: 1

      And that validates the models that claim to predict the future how?

      --
      Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
    20. Re:Wake me when a prediction comes true by sac13 · · Score: 1

      Climate model always predict disaster

      That's because we don't have many witch doctors around these days...

  31. Timing by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

    I can't help but wonder why this report surfaced just before the Copenhagen talks.

    It's almost like someone was trying to influence the outcome of those talks by dropping in a really dire prediction of the results if the talks didn't come out the way they wanted them to.

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    1. Re:Timing by narcberry · · Score: 1

      Like the e-mails say, we need to beef up our conclusions for a big public splash.

      --
      Modding me -1 troll doesn't make me wrong.
  32. Not only the estimates are increasing... by perrin · · Score: 5, Informative

    It is not only the estimates of temperature increase that are rising, but so are the uncertainties. We know very little about how the feedback cycles work once the temperature changes so many degrees, and we know next to nothing about how they work when faced with such quick changes. We do not know how much methane hydrate there is stored on the ocean floor, but we do know there is a lot of it and that an eruption of it 55 million years ago was at least in part responsible for a 6 degree C rise in global temperatures. It is also thought that the biggest mass extinction event ever was caused by massive volcanism and methane hydrate release. There is plenty of evidence that large parts of the ocean can and have previously become anoxic during climate changes. This is really bad news not only for everything that lives in the ocean, but also for us since a large part of our food supply comes from the ocean.

    Basically, we are getting into a territory where all bets are off, and it is not good news for humanity. I am linking to wikipedia since that is good place to start to read up on this stuff and find links to the actual research.

    1. Re:Not only the estimates are increasing... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Basically, we are getting into a territory where all bets are off, and it is not good news for humanity. I am linking to wikipedia since that is good place to start to read up on this stuff and find links to the actual research.

      Are we? What evidence backs up this claim of a 6C rise in global temperature? Looks to me like we can still wait a few decades to see if this global warming appears. If it's going to rise that much, we should see some effect in that time period. The problem is that we're being asked to spend at least a trillion dollars a pig in a poke. There are other problems that we know will get worse, if we do that. It is reasonable then to get better evidence (like actual evidence for 6C global warming, carbon sink exhaustion, or tipping points), before we commit to such a huge restructuring of society.

      Just to address a tiresome accusation that I repeatedly receive, I do pay attention to the research in this area. But the confidence in the research and the consequences of global warming are both vastly overstated. For example, the Independent story linkage between human produced CO2 and global warming, and the consequences of global warming are exaggerated. For example, the Independent discusses at the end an unrealistic doomsday scenario that supposedly results from a few degree rise in global temperature. No value was added by that.

      I'm tired of the irrational responses to global warming. The research is not definitive enough. The proposed solutions (like restricting carbon emissions to 1990) are unrealistic and ignore the benefits of the human activity that generated the CO2. We don't even know if carbon emissions will go down naturally by fossil fuel energy sources replaced by more efficient sources.

      Global warming might be a problem, but if it is, it is only one of many problems. My view is that waiting, for example, 40 years to do anything would be superior. We'd be wealthier, the evidence would be much stronger, and we'd have developed to an even greater degree the technologies to replace fossil fuels. That's assuming CO2 emissions don't decline on their own and rendering meaningless the entire issue of global warming.

    2. Re:Not only the estimates are increasing... by nomadic · · Score: 1

      Are we? What evidence backs up this claim of a 6C rise in global temperature? Looks to me like we can still wait a few decades to see if this global warming appears. If it's going to rise that much, we should see some effect in that time period. The problem is that we're being asked to spend at least a trillion dollars a pig in a poke. There are other problems that we know will get worse, if we do that. It is reasonable then to get better evidence (like actual evidence for 6C global warming, carbon sink exhaustion, or tipping points), before we commit to such a huge restructuring of society.

      Ridiculous. First of all, a trillion dollars is not that much money in terms of the global economy, and it's a hell of a lot less than the damage that would be caused by shore regions where 70% of the earth's population live suddenly being uninhabitable. Secondly, by the time we get that evidence you're waiting for it might be way too late. I don't know why all the global warming skeptics are perfectly willing to gamble with humanity in order to save a few percentage points of an economy.

    3. Re:Not only the estimates are increasing... by mr+exploiter · · Score: 1

      It is not only the estimates of temperature increase that are rising, but so are the uncertainties. We know very little about how the feedback cycles work once the temperature changes so many degrees, and we know next to nothing about how they work when faced with such quick changes. We do not know how much methane hydrate there is stored on the ocean floor, but we do know there is a lot of it and that an eruption of it 55 million years ago was at least in part responsible for a 6 degree C rise in global temperatures. It is also thought that the biggest mass extinction event ever was caused by massive volcanism and methane hydrate release. There is plenty of evidence that large parts of the ocean can and have previously become anoxic during climate changes. This is really bad news not only for everything that lives in the ocean, but also for us since a large part of our food supply comes from the ocean. Basically, we are getting into a territory where all bets are off, and it is not good news for humanity. I am linking to wikipedia since that is good place to start to read up on this stuff and find links to the actual research.

      This sounds very bad for civilization... but it may be an answer to Fermi paradox. When a civilization reaches certain energy consumption level it may trigger a weather feedback loop that destroys it thus preventing it from reaching other systems

    4. Re:Not only the estimates are increasing... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Ridiculous. First of all, a trillion dollars is not that much money in terms of the global economy, and it's a hell of a lot less than the damage that would be caused by shore regions where 70% of the earth's population live suddenly being uninhabitable. Secondly, by the time we get that evidence you're waiting for it might be way too late. I don't know why all the global warming skeptics are perfectly willing to gamble with humanity in order to save a few percentage points of an economy.

      That trillion dollars is in today's money. At a time value of money of 2% a year, that's roughly $2.6 trillion in inflation adjusted dollars in 2050 and $7.2 trillion in 2100. If we use the stock market return of roughly 4% after taxes, that's $7.1 trillion in 2050 and just over $50 trillion in 2100. In other words, not doing anything now leaves the world richer and more able to help anyone who needs help to move.

      Further, there's no realistic global warming scenario that has 70% of the world's population living in suddenly "uninhabitable" land. Not even if we count the 6C scenario as realistic.

      I don't know why all the global warming skeptics are perfectly willing to gamble with humanity in order to save a few percentage points of an economy.

      I don't know why you refuse to see the other side of the "gamble". It's a case of Pascal's wager except that there isn't an infinitely bad outcome. Even moving 70% of the world's population just isn't that serious, if you don't have to do it until say 2500 AD. As I see it, correcting for global warming in the absence of evidence of serious harm is an even worse gamble. We need serious risk analysis not "this could be very bad maybe so let's neuter our society on the off chance we're right."

  33. Re:Falsibility. by azgard · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Great analogy, but you wanted to say:

    That doesn't mean there's not more energy (heat) in the system.

  34. Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by Eukariote · · Score: 1, Interesting

    A predicted 6 degrees Celsius rise in a century? Oh, how scary! Let's introduce onerous carbon-curbing measures.

    But wait, the models that make these predictions all have CO2 as the driving factor behind climate change. The historical record shows, however, that the atmospheric CO2 concentration follows changes in global temperature instead of leads it. Not surprising: higher temperature -> oceans heat up -> less dissolved CO2.

    Moreover, there is a perfectly plausible alternative explanation for what is causing the rapid climate fluctuations (historically going both up and down on a fairly short timescale): the sun. If you include the EUV and X-Ray bands of the spectrum, it becomes obvious that the sun's output changes much more than it is being given credit for: http://www.usc.edu/dept/space_science/sem_data/SEM%20Data%20Graphs/SEM_1996-2009.jpg

    1. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by bunratty · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes, in the past, the increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere lagged behind temperature increases. But that does not mean that an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide cannot cause an increase in temperatures now. After all, digging up billions of tons of fossil fuels and burning them is not something that has happened in the past. And we know it's not an increase in solar output causing the warming we've observed.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    2. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 1

      "A predicted 6 degrees Celsius rise in a century? Oh, how scary! Let's introduce onerous carbon-curbing measures."

      I take it you've never tried to grow your own food? A few degrees can mean the difference between getting a juicy tomato or just a leafy vine.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    3. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by Dunbal · · Score: 1, Interesting

      It's a new form of taxation. How dare you argue against taxation! Surely you are no patriot, you must hate the Earth (and coming soon) you will be arrested and processed for daring to speak against what is obviously yet another way to reach into our pockets and waste our money on frivolous projects that employ people in useless jobs.

      As the owner of a managed forest, I have seriously looked into being paid (yes PAID) over a million euros per year to NOT cut down my trees. There is a HUGE market for carbon offsetting, and it's growing yearly. The sad thing is, it's all a scam. Since I'm not a scammer I haven't moved ahead with this.

      However what I've discovered through my own research and what my engineers have told me, is that METHANE from decomposing leaves poses a far greater "greenhouse" risk than any CO2 my trees are likely to absorb. Oh dear. But the EU pays (and taxes) based on CO2, not methane. Could it be that the government(s) are simply interested in taxing the most COMMON pollutant, and not the most HARMFUL? After all, everyone produces CO2 - industry, farmers, transportation, cows, humans. Not everyone produces methane (cow farts/burps aside).

      Climate change is REAL. Yet the recently disturbed atmosphere of Jupiter (you've heard about the NEW Red Spot, right?) and the melting martian polar ice caps (oh yeah, it's because Mars is "wobbling" but HEAVEN FORBID that Earth can be wobbling, no - it's SUV's that are to blame here on Earth!) should alert any rational person to the fact that special interests have led politicians down a path they want to go - a path that leads to more revenue for the government, in the name of man-made "global warming".

      It's amazing for me to think that even when they tax anywhere from 3 to 15% of EVERY SINGLE TRANSACTION MADE (sales/VAT taxes) AND tax your income, tax your fuel, tax your capital gains, and yes, in some places, your death and your estate - GOVERNMENTS ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE PISSING OUT MONEY. WTF? When does it stop? What am I getting for my money? Roads with potholes in them? Bridges that collapse? Brown outs and water shortages? Monopolies in everything from utilities to software? Justice that fails to prevent crime, feeds criminals for life in jail (that is, when they don't get released), and makes me wonder if I will get TASERed the next time I get pulled over for speeding? Oh and governments that are willing to pay people like me (only with less morals) to not cut down my forest? Hell I don't want to cut it down, imagine what 2000 acres of 80 year old teak will be worth to my great-grandchildren...

      Heh, what a world. But by all means, believe what governments tell you. After all, they're right about so many things. /cynicism

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    4. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 2, Informative

      Uh, what does that fluctuation in that plot prove? The change is less than a W/m^2, if I'm doing my math right (out of a total insolation of 1300 W/m^2) and x-rays and EUV don't make it to the surface of the Earth anyway. (This is why astronomers keep launching those telescopes into space, remember.)

    5. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by Eukariote · · Score: 2, Interesting

      And we know it's not an increase in solar output causing the warming we've observed.

      Sorry, we do not know that. The conclusion that it cannot be because of the sun is based on space-based measurements of the total solar irradiance (TSI). These found a fairly stable 1365 W/m^2 (see for example here). But these measurements are wrong! Why? Because the EUV and X-ray part of the solar spectrum is not included.

      Take for example ACRIMSAT. It is sensitive only down to 200 nm and as such it wholly misses out on the EUV and X-Ray bands. Moreover, to properly observe the whole x-ray flux you have to capture a fairly wide field of view that includes the corona as this X-ray image of the sun shows.

    6. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by canajin56 · · Score: 1

      Global warming is hardly unprecedented. Things get warmer and warmer and plant life spreads. Eventually the entire world is dense dense jungle, like you imagine when you think of dinosaurs. Then something happens. Scientists don't agree on what. Some say global cooling is caused by all that plant life pulling most of the CO2 out of the air. Some say it's due to the orbit of the earth. Some say volcanos cloud the sky with dust on a clockwork schedule. Either way, global cooling leads to ice age. Ice ages are positive feedback. As it gets colder, more ice, higher albedo, more light reflected, colder temps. So once again, scientists disagree on why ice ages end, but they eventually always do. Some say it's the sun again. Some say all the dead plants rotting eventually release enough green house gases to get the ball rolling again. Some say volcanoes again.

      The important part is that global warming of intense amounts has happened several times before, its what pulls us out of ice ages. Scientists don't know why, the models are far too complex, they tell us. Only now they're not complex? We can't even predict that past using the powers of hindsight, and we can predict the future? Anywho, the highly advanced science of "it happened 4 times at least so it should happen 5" tells us that temperatures should continue to rise for another 1-10 centuries, then we'll plunge into another ice age. The question isn't "Global warming?" it's "Anthropomorphic Global Warming?". We KNOW temperatures will almost certainly increase until we hit the next ice age causing event, and we KNOW they occur like clockwork with stunning precision. The real question, always ignored, is how much are we altering things? Pro and anti global warming "sides" both seem to agree on the patently false assumption that the environment is static without human intervention.

      --
      ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
    7. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by jcnnghm · · Score: 1, Troll

      How fudged are those numbers? The global warming alarmists have had their hand caught in the cookie jar. Until they release all of their data for outside audit by dissenting scientists, their findings are worthless.

      --
      You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. - Winston Churchill
    8. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by Eukariote · · Score: 1

      Uh, what does that fluctuation in that plot prove?

      It proves that the solar output in that band of the EUV varies by over a factor of three during the solar cycle. That is a huge variation and as such should be included in the measurements of the total solar irradiation. But it is not. For example, ACRIMSAT measures only the 2000 nm to 200 nm window.

      x-rays and EUV don't make it to the surface of the Earth anyway

      True, they get absorbed in the very upper layers of the atmosphere. However, roughly 50% of the energy does reach the earth's surface through secondary effects such as fluorescence, ionisation-recombination emission, heating and conduction, heating and thermal emissions, and so on. The physics behind this is perfectly analogous to why of the infrared radiation captured by greenhouse gases about half the energy still ends up in space instead of being reflected back to earth.

    9. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 1

      Did you read my post at all? A factor of 2 variation in 0.1% of the Sun's total power is irrelevant. You're quibbling about an immaterial detail in the hopes of distracting attention from the main show.

    10. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by Eukariote · · Score: 1

      I take it you've never tried to grow your own food? A few degrees can mean the difference between getting a juicy tomato or just a leafy vine.

      Don't worry, the models are bunk, CO2 is not the driving force behind temperature change. But what the rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration will definitely do is be a great benefit to plant growth. Plants are starved for lack of CO2.

    11. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 1

      "Don't worry, the models are bunk, CO2 is not the driving force behind temperature change."

      Explaining, of course, why we continue to see verification of those models.

      "But what the rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration will definitely do is be a great benefit to plant growth. Plants are starved for lack of CO2."

      This is a poor generalization -- increased levels of CO2 in a climate controlled greenhouse do not generalize to a global increase. Plants may grow faster, or they may deplete the soil faster and destroy ecosystems. Dominant plant species may suddenly be displaced by species that can better utilize the increased carbon dioxide. Increasing numbers of plants may cause an increase in animal populations, which could upset well established ecosystems in unknown ways.

      There are too many factors to say for sure that increased CO2 is a good thing. Yes, it is also difficult to say what effect the rise in CO2 will have on temperature, or what effect a change in average global temperatures will have on the world. The rise in temperatures is increasingly supported, much more so today than at the time of the article you cited (which was written when Al Gore was a senator).

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    12. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by Eukariote · · Score: 1

      A factor of 2 variation in 0.1% of the Sun's total power is irrelevant.

      Is it? Earth's average surface temperature is 285K or so. Vary the solar output by 0.1% and you can expect an effect of roughly 0.07K (taking into account the T^4 dependence of the earth's black-body flux). That is already significant.

      Now consider that we are talking about only a small 260-330A slice of the combined EUV and X-ray bands. The solar emissions in those bands are not determined by the thermal spectrum of the solar surface. Most of the EUV and X-ray emissions are from the corona which is much warmer (1-2 million Kelvin) and as a consequence the peak of those emissions is to markedly shorter wavelengths than the linked graph shows.

    13. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by Eukariote · · Score: 1

      Explaining, of course, why we continue to see verification of those models.

      No, why we continue to see "verification" of these models was explained in 1993 when members of the Club of Rome published the book "the First Global Revolution". In it, they give the reasons for why the environmental agenda has to be pushed at all cost. Quoting:

      "It would seem that humans need a common motivation...either a real one or else one invented for the purpose....In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself."

      There are too many factors to say for sure that increased CO2 is a good thing.

      There are many factors indeed. However more CO2 is of benefit to agriculture. This is not theory: many greenhouse proprietors inject CO2 in order to speed the growth of their crops markedly.

      It has been determined that down around 150 PPM CO2, plants can no longer cope. The low CO2 concentration in the (geologically speaking) modern era is the result of plants and algae having depleted atmospheric CO2 (the concentration used to be much higher millions of years back) down to a level where photosynthetic biomass started to reduce, thus establishing the modern low equilibrium.

    14. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by amorsen · · Score: 1

      Are you saying that a significant fraction of the Sun's energy output is at EUV or X-ray wavelengths? If so, you'll need to provide some evidence for that. Stars have so far been pretty well modelled as black body radiators, and a black body radiator at just 6000K isn't going to have X-rays as its primary radiation.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    15. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by Eukariote · · Score: 1

      Are you saying that a significant fraction of the Sun's energy output is at EUV or X-ray wavelengths?

      Yes I am.

      a black body radiator at just 6000K isn't going to have X-rays as its primary radiation.

      True, but the Sun is not just a black body radiator at 6000K. The solar corona has a temperature of 1-2 million degrees Kelvin. Though the corona is not really a black body radiator either, it definitely has massive short-wavelength emissions as evidenced by the X-ray image I linked before. Just look at the solar surface in that image: it is relatively "dark".

      The coronal emissions vastly outweigh the surface emissions already at 171 Angstrom as can be seen here.

    16. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by HiThere · · Score: 1

      CO2 is a relatively persistent pollutant. Methane recycles more quickly.

      OTOH, the CO2 window is practically closed, and the methane one is still open. Perhaps at this time methane *is* more significant. I don't know, and I doubt that the engineers you consulted know either. But you're right to the extent that you accept that both are important. And that the laws aren't written to optimize climatic impact. (We probably *couldn't* write the laws that way, but we could certainly come a lot closer than we have.)

      OTOH, if you go back 40 years, CO2 was considerably the more significant pollutant.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    17. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Instead of parroting misinformation from ClimateAudit and Watt's up with that, you could try these data (for example)

      http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/ccr/ammann/millennium/CODES_MBH.html

      http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/pubs/mann2008/mann2008.html

      Good luck with that paper...

    18. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by amorsen · · Score: 1

      Are you saying that a significant fraction of the Sun's energy output is at EUV or X-ray wavelengths?

      Yes I am.

      This is simply not something that can be kept secret or which isn't studied. Can you provide a link to such a study? The images don't say anything about the Sun's energy output at various wavelengths.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    19. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by hazem · · Score: 1

      The real question, always ignored, is how much are we altering things? Pro and anti global warming "sides" both seem to agree on the patently false assumption that the environment is static without human intervention.

      I don't think any reasonable person thinks the climate is static. But as the human population grows and we alter many aspects of the planet, it becomes even more important to consider the impact we are making on the planet. We're well on the way down the road of doing things that cannot be undone. Maybe those have no impact, but if they do, it's a problem that will only get harder to address as time goes on. Considering we only currently have one habitable planet, it seems the prudent course of action is to try and minimize the alterations we do to the environment until we really understand what the consequences are.

      Another big part of the climate science going on is not just determining the cause of change in the climate, but also trying to understand the effects of climate change. Man may not have an effect on changing the climate, the but the changing climate will certainly have an effect on man. Even if we decide nothing we do will have an effect on altering the course of the changing climate, it would be pretty stupid to not try to figure out the possible outcomes of the changing climate and figuring out how to respond to it.

      Or, I can just say, f*ck it... I'll be dead soon enough and someone else can deal with it, whether I caused any of it or not. At that point it's not my problem... just my legacy.

    20. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by misterpies · · Score: 1

      ANot surprising: higher temperature -> oceans heat up -> less dissolved CO2.

      Next time you go to the kitchen, do a little experiment with the sugar: does it dissolve more easily in hot water, or in cold water? I think you'll find it's the same with CO2. Better find another explanation.

      --
      The author of this post asserts his moral rights.
    21. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by Timothy+Brownawell · · Score: 1

      ANot surprising: higher temperature -> oceans heat up -> less dissolved CO2.

      Next time you go to the kitchen, do a little experiment with the sugar: does it dissolve more easily in hot water, or in cold water? I think you'll find it's the same with CO2. Better find another explanation.

      CO2 becomes less soluble in water at higher temperatures.

    22. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by turkeyfish · · Score: 1

      In any event, your calculation even using the higher "solar ouptut" number, pretty much proves his point, an 0.1% increase will only increase temperatures by 0.07K. That is negligible compared to the 6K/100 yrs being talked about by climatologists. It seems your alternative theory just doesn't account for the facts and is largely irrelevant to the discussion, unless of course its a harbinger of vastly different solar behavior.

      The more relevant aspects of the debate are actually what biological and ecological consequences can be expected from global mean temperature rise and its rate of acceleration. Non-biologists have little appreciation of the magnitude of the changes that can be expected. Many foolishly think jungles will sprout everywhere. Actually, given the rates of change now being measured, its much more likely that we can instead expect biological deserts, both among terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

    23. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by Eukariote · · Score: 1

      This is simply not something that can be kept secret or which isn't studied.

      It is surprisingly tricky to study these short wavelengths. You must be in space, and you cannot use normal mirrors or lenses to focus this radiation onto a detector since those will absorb it. But in recent years a smattering of satellites have been sent up that contain the special optics (grazing angle reflectors etc.) needed.

      But there is a very good reason for the fact that the results have not been given much exposure. It has to with the mechanism that keeps the solar corona so hot. The corona is mostly a hydrogen/helium plasma. If you study those under laboratory conditions, strange things happen.

      The images don't say anything about the Sun's energy output at various wavelengths.

      Actually, the 171A image allows you to make a guesstimate. You can calculate the black body flux at that wavelength from Planck's law and the surface temperature. That should give you a number for the output of the surface at that wavelength. It should be uniform across the surface. From the image you can estimate how many times larger the non-uniform corona-based intensity is. The energy output at that wavelength will then roughly be that many times the 6000K black body body output at 171A.

    24. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by Eukariote · · Score: 1

      Next time you go to the kitchen, do a little experiment with the sugar: does it dissolve more easily in hot water, or in cold water? I think you'll find it's the same with CO2. Better find another explanation.

      No it is not the same for dissolved CO2: the solubility of gases in water decreases with increasing temperature. My explanation stands.

    25. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by Eukariote · · Score: 1

      an 0.1% increase will only increase temperatures by 0.07K. That is negligible compared to the 6K/100 yrs being talked about by climatologists. It seems your alternative theory just doesn't account for the facts

      You are calling that 6K/100 years fact? Don't be silly. It is just a figment of a highly politicized set of models. The IPPC is claiming a trend of 0.2K per decade. However the actual temperature measurements only support something like 0.11K per decade for the rise between the 70s and 90s. The solar flux changes we have been discussing happen on a timescale of roughly half a decade...

      The more relevant aspects of the debate are actually what biological and ecological consequences can be expected from global mean temperature rise and its rate of acceleration.

      Not relevant at all because in the last few years the global temperature has been dropping markedly. The reason that that does not show up in the official data sets being foisted on us is because they have been busy hiding the decline.

    26. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      But what difference does it make that they don't include x-ray and EUV output in TSI if they are cycling in conjunction with the 2000 nm to 200 nm window anyway? In order for them to be a factor in climate change they would have to be monlithically increasing over time. Do you have evidence that is happening?

    27. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by Eukariote · · Score: 1

      But what difference does it make that they don't include x-ray and EUV output in TSI if they are cycling in conjunction with the 2000 nm to 200 nm window anyway?

      The big difference is that it allows people to reject the sun as causative. The relatively minor variations in the TSI measurements that do not include EUV+X-rays (1365 W/m^2 plus or minus 0.5W/m^2) suggest a global temperature effect of only +/- 0.03K or so. This is markedly less than the 0.1K-0.2K (depending on whom to believe) per decade global temperature rise measured during the 1970-2000 period. That, plus the fact that most of the variation is short-term (goes with the solar cycle) has led people to ignore the sun.

      In order for them to be a factor in climate change they would have to be monolithically increasing over time. Do you have evidence that is happening?

      Yes, see this paper. Quoting from the conclusion of that paper:

      "This finding has evident repercussions for climate change and solar physics. Increasing TSI between 1980 and 2000 could have contributed significantly to global warming during the last three decades [Scafetta and West, 2007, 2008]. Current climate models [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007] have assumed that the TSI did not vary significantly during the last 30 years and have therefore underestimated the solar contribution and overestimated the anthropogenic contribution to global warming."

    28. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Well, there have been other papers that come to different conclusions than Scafetta and West, 2009 so choose your poison I guess. I find it hard to believe that the effect of EUV & X-ray radiation from the sun can be many times greater than the effect from the 2000-200nm window in order to cause the observed warming.

    29. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by Eukariote · · Score: 1

      If you consider the sun in conventional terms, that is, energized by fusion in the core with a 6000K surface temperature then yeah, it is hard to believe. But observations indicate that the sun is rather different.

      Take for example the factor-of-three variation in the 260-330 Angstrom window during the solar cycle (see the graph I linked earlier in this thread). The conventional model says nothing about that.

      And why the 1-2M degree hot solar corona? It cannot be thermal heating from the surface as heat flows from warm to cold. There are some hand-waving hypotheses about ions surfing magnetic waves, but these models cannot provide for the high energy flux needed to deliver compensation for the massive coronal emissions.

      Then there are the relatively dark sunspot umbra. They are 1000-2000K cooler than the rest of the surface. How can that be if all the energy is supposed to come from the inside?

      If you consider the x-ray image I linked earlier, you'll notice that it looks as if energy is being produced in the corona. And anomalous energy production is exactly what is being found in laboratory experiments of hydrogen/helium plasmas. The catalytic mechanism referred to in the referenced paper lacks a good theoretical description, but it definitely explains the hot corona, the variability of the coronal emissions, and some other oddities such as the strong dependence of the solar wind on Helium

      .

    30. Re:Prediction depends on an unproven thesis by sac13 · · Score: 1

      Yes, in the past, the increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere lagged behind temperature increases. But that does not mean that an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide cannot cause an increase in temperatures now.

      So, what you're saying is that just because the data we have indicates one type of relationship, it doesn't mean that it can't work in the other direction. That must be a model created with some new strange form of regression I'm not familiar with. Or, we're just ignoring the data that doesn't fit our preconceived conclusions.

      All the climate data suggests that CO2 increase does not lead temperature increase, but follows. Even John Houghton, who was co-chair of the IPCC and is a supporter of the idea of antropogenic global warming, admits "Carbon dioxide content and temperature correlate so closely during the last ice age is not evidence of carbon dioxide driving the temperature but rather the other way round... I often show that diagram in my lectures on climate change but always make the point that it gives no proof of global warming due to increased carbon dioxide."

      Can't we stop arguing our political positions and just look at the science? I realize it's hard to do because politicians on both sides have hijacked the discussion, so it's difficult to find the real facts through all of the noise that has been created on the subject. But, both sides need to just shut up and learn how to analyze data instead of issuing talking points that twist the truth into propaganda.

  35. !Relevant by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 1

    There was no lying. People who already doubt the results pull a sentence out of context, demand that we all forget normal idiomatic uses of English words in that sentence, and then claim that it is an indication of falsified data. That is all, nothing to see here, move along.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  36. Sulphur Dioxide to the rescue by assemblerex · · Score: 1

    20 million tons generates approximately 0.5 degrees of cooling when in the upper atmosphere.
    We'd have to loft 240 million tons of SO2, which could buy us time to clean up the CO2
    Of course one would want some safety measure in case an actual volcano erupted.
    So loft 200 tons.
    Hot sulfuric acid and copper shavings, you could make it at home.

    1. Re:Sulphur Dioxide to the rescue by mehrotra.akash · · Score: 1

      and the acid rain would then destroy the power plants, vehicles and homes, so that new ones can be built which would use only clean energy, utilize space efficiently and also, the population would have reduced by a lot..

      soon after that we could transform to a star trek like society with infinite energy and no concept of money..

    2. Re:Sulphur Dioxide to the rescue by assemblerex · · Score: 1

      You can't save the ponies AND the whales. Sometimes you have to choose the most edible one.

  37. It doesn't add up... by raengler · · Score: 1

    I have a couple of issues with the article (actually more, but this is for starters...)
    1. If the vast majority of increases is due to Chinese economic expansion, why are we targeting USA and EU for further cuts in emissions...ever heard of Pareto's law? Oh, yeah...the point of the Copenhagen meeting is to extract more wealth from the "rich" nations to give to the poor dictatorships...
    2. If the melting of all the polar ice is going to occur, and sea levels will rise that much, seems to me the "highly desirable" location of the British Isles will be underwater...or is it going to preferentially not rise there? I note the cover of Algore's new book which was photoshopped to add four hurricanes (one of which is rotating the wrong direction) and the polar ice cap all "melted" in spite of snow and ice cover in extreme northern Canada, and finally Cuba completely submerged...(can't believe Algore would do that to his commie buddies)

    How stupid do they think we are?

    1. Re:It doesn't add up... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "How stupid do they think we are?"

      Going by your post there seems to be no limit on your stupidity.

    2. Re:It doesn't add up... by Alioth · · Score: 1

      The British Isles aren't a set of lowlands barely above sea level. Most of the British Isles is significantly above sea level, and indeed there are mountainous regions. Bits of it (East Anglia, the flood plains around the Thames and other major estuaries) would get swamped, but most of it is sufficiently high above sea level.

  38. Re:Falsibility. by capnkr · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Karma be damned...

    I've submitted the 'Climategate' story twice (1, 2, and it gets pushed down in the firehose. Why? It has "hackers", tech, science, controversy... All the ingredients of a good topic. So - why vote it *down*?

    It's evident there is a 'leftwards' lean in a large part (if not the majority) of the subscribers of this site. So what does the unwillingness to discuss this story indicate - Denial? Suppression? A real 'inconvenient truth'? I don't know. Seems to me that it is a great Slashdot story, but here as elsewhere, certain partisans are doing what they can to make science more and more just an arm of politics and their particular belief system. That sickens me.

    I think objectivity should be THE concern when it comes to an issue which is potentially as important as this one, where the stakes are so high. Not so, apparently, among a majority of other Slashdotters. :/

    --
    "...there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight. Awkwardness and stupidity can." ~ Mark Twain
  39. Re:Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And yet another idiot proves he can take quotes out of context and is too lazy to educate himself on what was actually being discussed.

    See the posts above linking to the response from the people involved. Moron.

  40. Clarifications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The century ends after 23:59:59 on December 31, 2100AD (not the year before as some think)
    2100 ad is not a leap year

    6C is 108 decimal or l in ascii

  41. Wine production by ProteusQ · · Score: 1

    Then maybe England and Sweden will be able to resume their wine production as they did before the Medieval ice age.

    1. Re:Wine production by digitig · · Score: 1

      England already produces wine -- some decent stuff, too.

      --
      Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
    2. Re:Wine production by daniel.waterfield · · Score: 1

      Well in England at least, we have a pretty good set of vineyards already thanks.

      --
      i know not what weapons the next world war will be fought with, but world war IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
  42. Do the science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Make a chart yourself.
    Chart the increase in Carbon Dioxide
    and the temperatures you can get from Hadley CRU

    If you make this chart, you'll find a poor correlation over the last decade, where this 28% increase in carbon dioxide occurred.

  43. Re:Falsibility. by tsm_sf · · Score: 1

    Satellite temperatures are better for climate purposes because ground stations temperatures also pick up heat radiated from the ground and other buildings.

    Sigh.

    --
    Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
  44. Re:Falsibility. by capnkr · · Score: 1

    And if using the one at your house, would you put the thermometer in the middle of the driveway, or right where the heat pump blasts out the exchange air? Wouldn't make sense to do that, would it?

    Nonetheless, that is exactly the kind of environment where a lot of the Surface Stations are located. Makes me question the data...

    --
    "...there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight. Awkwardness and stupidity can." ~ Mark Twain
  45. some insights by anonieuweling · · Score: 1

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYLmLW4k4aI yes, all that. and then our magical input with just a few parts of a million.

  46. !Science by ShakaUVM · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >>Nonsense. This is only true if it's a linear relationship. Given that the greenhouse effect involves a complex feedback cycle, that is not a valid assumption.

    Yes, as we all know from Al Gore's memorable definition of what a "non-linear system" is: "It's a fancy way they have of saying that the changes are not all just gradual. Some of them come suddenly in big jumps."

    I used to work doing modeling of both ocean seawater and other things (like heart cells or full cardiac cycles) which attempted to accurately simulate whatever ODE or whatever it was we were simulating. These models were incredibly sensitive to the various constants used, and what the starting assumptions were. They'd fly off into incoherent-land if these values were not very precise, or if the constants didn't match each other. The only way we could calibrate or test our simulation was by, say, pulling out a rabbit's heart, wiring it up, flooding it with some solution, and having the severed heart beat for us when driven by impulses at different frequencies and amplitude. Testing and experimentation is the only way to truly know something, as Feynman said. If we just relied on the models without doing followup experimentation with them, we'd have gotten wildly inaccurate results.

    Climatology, on the other hand, is "science-y", but not really science. It wants to be science, it really does - and goes through the window dressings of having peer reviewed journals and conferences and all of that - but ultimately it is not science. There is no experimentation involved (or if you will, there is one large experiment running all the time), and there is no control for the experiment. Forgive me if I do not allow your models to substitute for actual experimentation, for the reasons listed above.

    As one of my professors once said, never listen to anyone who claims to be really accurate over the sample data set. It's real easy to be accurate on a sample data set. Hell, you can always just spit back out the original numbers if you want - for my neural net spam filter, we could have just returned the classifications of each email and claimed 100% accuracy, for example. If you don't think that climate researchers actually make bullshit claims like this, check out the wikipedia page on global climate modeling, and look at, say, this graph: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GCM_temp_anomalies_3_2000.jpg There's charts like that everywhere on wikipedia, showing how accurate the climate models are, even back in 1930, decades before the models were created.

    What is important is the accuracy going forward into new data, and as they do, they've found numerous glaring problems with the predictive ability of climate models (such as rainfall changes being 25% of what is expected). (For some fun laughs, read predictions of what life would be like in 2010 written 10, 20 or 30 years ago.)

    The simple fact of the matter is, I don't believe any (self-described) scientist who claims he knows how much temperature will move in the next 100 years, unless he says it will range somewhere between absolute zero and the temperature of the sun.

    And if it sounds like I'm picking on climate "scientists", well, I am, but I had a number of friends who worked in the field at SIO, and they're generally smart and nice guys, and think there's a serious problem. Their problem lies in claiming more knowledge than they actually know. (Again, this is not how actual science works.) And it's not like other fields have looked enviously at the tremendous success of real scientific fields, like physics, over the last hundred years. Psychology, sociology, hell even scientology and philosophy have tried to co-opt the patina of science for themselves. (Nearly every modern philosopher since Wittgenstein calls themselves an analytic philosopher, which was a movement to directly make philosophy more "scientific" and less heads-in-the-cloudsy.)

    1. Re:!Science by Shark · · Score: 1

      Amen... You make me wish I had mod points for you are the voice of reason in this forum.

      --
      Mind the frickin' laser...
    2. Re:!Science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, right. Because no one in the climate sciences has heard about Cross validation ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-validation_(statistics) ).
      And btw, if a model predicts the 1930's accurately [b]and theses years were not part of the sample set[/b], that is pretty good cross validation in my book.

    3. Re:!Science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There may be more than one way to model the climate such that it is consistent with the past data, especially as this is CLIMATE change, and there isn't much data available as records have not been kept ( except where it is possible to glean data from natural records ) very long. If there is more than one model that fits the data then climate scientists can cherry pick ones that exhibit response to human produced CO2 from amongst them, so as to avoid having to defend an alternate model that while every bit as good as one that does exhibit response to human produced CO2, is also no better than one that does exhibit response to human produced CO2. It's impossible to say that your model is better than everyone else's when it really isn't, it's just a possible alternate explaination. And your alternate model although it cross validates as well as the consensus model, but probably not better ( and maybe even a bit worse since you don't have all the climatologists in the world tweaking it for you ) can't prove itself to be better than the consensus model until more data comes in which will take your whole lifetime or longer. And the alternate models, since they are no more or less proven than the cherry picked ones have no better or worse chance of being correct. It may in fact turn out that climatology's consensus best guess is correct. But it shouldn't carry weight until borne out by sufficient data postdating the creation of the model. That at least would rule out cherry picking.

  47. Kill the heretic! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is an absolutely classic post that represents everything that is wrong with AGW believers. The biggest scientific fraud of the century, and all you do is hurl insults.

    If the data shows AGW, then it's correct. If the data doesn't show AGW, then the research is funded by the oil industry.

    If the scientists say they are fabricating data, then they're not fabricating data, because their AGW theories already prove that the data is correct. Clearly the quote is taken out of context.

    The fabricated data makes complete sense. The fabricated data matches the theoretical mechanisms. You are just looking for a way to defend your religion against evidence and facts. Now please take a deep breath and call us all denialists and Nazis.

  48. A total farce by kgroombr · · Score: 1

    And I can find a study that says the world will be colder in a century. It all depends on the agenda I want to push.

    1. Re:A total farce by bunratty · · Score: 2, Informative

      The consensus among climatologists is that we'll see warming over the next century. You can see the results of Peter Norvig's experiment to determine if there is a consensus on global warming and a survey which shows that 97% of active climatologists agree humans are causing warming.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    2. Re:A total farce by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      Why are you misrepresenting the consensus you have as one that predicts a catastrophe?

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    3. Re:A total farce by bunratty · · Score: 1

      Where did I say that anyone predicts a catastrophe? Ironically, I think it is you who are misrepresenting what I said.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    4. Re:A total farce by gordguide · · Score: 1

      " ... The consensus among climatologists is that we'll see warming over the next century. You can see the results of ... a survey which shows that 97% of active climatologists agree humans are causing warming [cnn.com]. ..."

      The "survey which shows 97% of active climatologists agree humans are causing global warming" ... says that 82% of those polled agreed with the second question in the poll: " has human activity been a significant factor in changing mean global temperatures?". Climatologists were a subset of those polled, as were meteorologists.

      The first question refers to temperature rise since some time before 1800 (" ... Have mean global temperatures risen compared to pre-1800s levels? ...") 97% of those polled agreed.

      And they should ... the climate models show the rise trend began more than 200 years ago; most of those same scientists would place the start date of temperature rise more than 300 years ago, which is what the long term data says. I would suggest that the vast majority agree that the long term data is correct; I know of no significant objections to that data from any scientist, including those who agree with the IPCC conclusions and those who do not.

      As always, there is a story in the gap between the 97% of climatologists and the 64% of the meteorologists who agreed with question two. What is it that differentiates Petroleum geologists, where a slight majority disagreed with question two, from those two? You of course can assume they are in the pocket of the oil companies. The CNN reporter does, making the simplest leap, as the modern Journalism School and his Sound-bite driven employer encourage him to do.

      One pines for the day when a journalist might probe the obvious, but un-investigated story staring them in the face there, but alas, this is the modern world. Modern Journalists are a pale shadow of their former clever and inquisitive selves.

      Scientists are a funny lot, compared to the average Joe. They go by exactly what you ask, and reply with the exact answer to the very question you pose. Had the first question not said "significant factor" I would bet you could have gotten a higher response in the affirmative, but it did, and being the kind of folk they are, they read the question carefully and responded to the exact question asked of them with what they believe is the best answer.

      Nobody asked what any other possible "significant factor" might there be. If you did form the question, you would get a reply from many that they think that there is another "significant" factor involved, and that factor might be described as "that's just the way the world works, and we happen to be living in the warming trend of the cycle".

      Why the sudden jump in the last 50 years or less? They might respond, again going back to the long term data, that suggests in the past there was always a slow rise or fall, and then a sudden jump, lasting less than 50 years, whenever the climate changed since humans began migrating out from Africa. This is followed by an equilibrium period and then the opposite trend begins, marked towards it's end by another sudden jump, an equilibrium .... and so on.

      I suggest that the few Petroleum engineers who are not complete sell-outs beholden to their masters, in contrast to Climatologists, who obviously have nothing to gain by promoting Global Warming and thus are beyond reproach, are in the business of studying long term trends in climate and are more familiar with all the other times the earth rose or fell in average temperature. Thus, they have doubts about human intervention being able to prevent what they see is a normal, long term trend.

      Personally, I don't have much doubt that human activity has played a role in the current warming trend; count me as agreeing with the 97% of Climatologists. Where I agree with the others, however, is that the rise is a natural long term tren

  49. Global Warming is a stupid term by Azureflare · · Score: 3, Informative

    Why do people use the term Global Warming. It is a misleading term that does not properly identify what is happening to our planet. The fact is that the atmosphere is variable and will continue to fluctuate in terms of average temperature.

    The real problem we are facing is rising sea TEMPERATURES. Here's just one technical article that studies the effects of rising sea temperatures on phytoplankton on Australia's coastline: http://www.int-res.com/articles/feature/m394p001.pdf If you search the http://www.int-res.com/ site you'll find a lot more really technical research articles that are great reads if you like this stuff :)

    Rising sea temperatures mess up the sea currents and make fish search out better habitats (or die), perhaps because of the rising temperature itself, or maybe because their food supply is damaged (due to phytoplankton dieoff). If something doesn't change soon, we are in danger of losing vast populations in the ocean. This will have huge repercussions on our global food supply.

    In the end, it doesn't matter if we are the ones causing it, or the sun is. Who cares. It is a complex system, and you can prove, through science, that carbon emissions directly affect sea temperatures. Maybe it's miniscule. Maybe it's not, but we have to do something or we are in severe danger of entirely losing our oceans.

    Imagine if the seafood industry went belly up. It would cause a worldwide depression the likes of which we have not seen or dreamed of, especially for areas that depend heavily on the ocean for their nation's food supply.

    AT THE VERY LEAST, if we are not going to reduce carbon emissions or whatever we can to reduce the effect on oceans, we need to have an actionable plan for what to do once the oceans die. Because it will happen if this trend continues. Having a plan doesn't mean it's going to be used, but we need to be able to continue functioning as a species if it does!

    1. Re:Global Warming is a stupid term by khallow · · Score: 1

      Why do people use the term Global Warming.

      Because that term most accurately describes the key worry from human induced climate change. Rising sea temperatures simply are a secondary effect.

      In the end, it doesn't matter if we are the ones causing it, or the sun is. Who cares. It is a complex system, and you can prove, through science, that carbon emissions directly affect sea temperatures. Maybe it's miniscule. Maybe it's not, but we have to do something or we are in severe danger of entirely losing our oceans.

      If the first statement were true, then it wouldn't matter what, if anything we did about it. Hence, no reason to reduce carbon emissions or make other corrective measure.

  50. Mod Parent Flamebait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mod parent Troll or Flamebait. For reason, see the reply below by Laxitive (10360). Basicly quoting something from a study with no context. And then taking this no context sentence to make some sort of statement about the data used by professionals in global warming analysis.

    **Disclaimer, I am not for or against the existence of global warming. I have not studied it enough to form my own view, based on fact. But I am strongly against people fucking with science and its credibility, unless there is a valid argument being made, in which case I am for it. There is no valid argument here. And I'm AC because I already moderated.

  51. Hoax? by AmonTheMetalhead · · Score: 1

    Honestly, i don't get the 'hoax' tag, the doom&gloom tag or even fear mongering could be seen as appropriate, but hoax?

    Based on the knowledge we have, there isglobal warming going on, you can argue all you want, but temperatures are going up regardless of what you say about that.
    However, these are conclusions based on our limited knowledge of the world & how it's climate works completely, it's possible that global warming is part of a normal cycle, it's possible it's due to sun output (although very unlikely, we should've detected that already), and yes, it's possible that mankind is contributing to the problem.

    Given that we have measured & observed temperature rise, and given that we know pollution & CO2 emissions have a negative effect on the climate, why shouldn't we do our best to limit both pollution & emissions? Regardless of the question if we are solely to blame for the problem?

    Hell, it's the air we breathe in, the water we drink, and the food we eat, why do we as a species insist on 'peeing in the pool we drink from'?

    1. Re:Hoax? by SockPuppet_9_5 · · Score: 1

      Forgetting for the moment that the recently hacked and released emails from one section of the warming folks illustrates the political nature of the "butcher's thumb on the scale"...

      I believe the claim of "6deg of warming" is _STILL_ based on a projection of "runaway" conditions unrelated to mankind's emission increases.

      I personally haven't gone in and checked these latest claims, but most claims above 3deg warming haven't stood up to serious challenges.
      This is why they're seriously considered in the IPCC reports.

      I seriously doubt the study linked to at the top of the thread has uncovered any new information or model that wasn't already considered by the IPCC for their AR4.

    2. Re:Hoax? by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      Based on the knowledge we have, there isglobal warming going on, you can argue all you want, but temperatures are going up regardless of what you say about that.

      Not according to the leading climatologists when they talk in private. Instead they discuss how worried that they have no explanation for why real world temperature measurements are going down, rather than up.

      Models are for suckers compared to the value of real world measurements.. and these guys are trying to come up with something, anything, that will explain the global decrease in MEASURED temperatures over the last decade in the context of maintaining the global warming theory.

      And I quote an email from Kevin Trenberth to Michael Mann in August of this year:
      The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't. The CERES data published in the August BAMS 09 supplement on 2008 shows there should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong. Our observing system is inadequate.

      CERES is a project to measure earths radiative output... that is.. how much energy is leaving the system.

      This is an admission that (a) its not warming, and (b) we dont have a fucking clue how much radiation leaves the system, or even how it is doing so.br

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    3. Re:Hoax? by meringuoid · · Score: 5, Informative
      Honestly, i don't get the 'hoax' tag, the doom&gloom tag or even fear mongering could be seen as appropriate, but hoax?

      Some emails were leaked on Friday from the climate research unit at the university of East Anglia. In about 150 megabytes of text, it turned out that in one of the emails, one of the researchers used the word 'trick' to describe some unspecified method of statistical analysis he had used on some dataset, and mentioned that it would 'hide the decline'. Everyone immediately saw that obviously this trick was dishonest and the decline in question was a real decline in temperatures, and it means that the entire field of climate science has been perpetrating a decades-long hoax on the world, and Al Gore should be tried for treason. Because you don't need any kind of context to know exactly what the word 'trick' refers to and what 'decline' is being hidden and why; your pre-existing political beliefs tell you all you should need to know.

      That's why articles about climate change can expect to be tagged with such things for quite some time into the future.

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
    4. Re:Hoax? by stevelinton · · Score: 1

      the global decrease in MEASURED temperatures

      What decrease -- citation please?

    5. Re:Hoax? by Silverhammer · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      That's the one email you're going to rest your case on, out of the entire data dump? Silly me, you made up your mind early and you've completely ignored all of the other news that's come out since the initial announcement. Sort of like the AGW advocates themselves...

    6. Re:Hoax? by AmonTheMetalhead · · Score: 1

      First thing i hear about this too, without any factual data i'm going to ignore that though

    7. Re:Hoax? by AmonTheMetalhead · · Score: 1

      The politics are completely besides the point if you ask me, regardless of what you believe reducing pollution is a goal to strife for, denying that pollution is bad is completely irrationally stupid.

    8. Re:Hoax? by Russ+Nelson · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's a lot more than that. You can see people conspiring to delete data which might impugn their conclusion, and they're trying to do it before they can be hit by a freedom of information request. Criminal conspiracy to hide publicly-funded data by destroying it, hmmmm? Prosecutors in the UK should definitely be hitting these folks with an order not to destroy any data nor to delete any emails, and then they should be seeking a copy of the emails directly from the site.

      --
      Don't piss off The Angry Economist
    9. Re:Hoax? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      when a professor is conspiring with another professor to falsify data, that is a problem. When a professor pressures a scholarly organization to not publish a diversity of viewpoints, that is a problem. There should be a review of the research and publications of all involved, and a criminal fraud investigation due to the misuse of public funds.

    10. Re:Hoax? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And well deserved it would be.

      In the financial sector, mis-selling and misleading statements has made it one of the most tightly regulated sectors in the world. Breaches of the laws, even with regards to disclosure of data to competent authorities, are punished with heavy fines and prison.

      Much like people rely on financial advisors for their choices, so do they rely on scientists for their choices.

      To me, it looks like scientists have had it far too good for far too long. Enforced transparency, ultra-tight regulation and prison sentences for misleading statements would serve them extremely well.

    11. Re:Hoax? by AmonTheMetalhead · · Score: 1

      And well deserved it would be.

      In the financial sector, mis-selling and misleading statements has made it one of the most tightly regulated sectors in the world. Breaches of the laws, even with regards to disclosure of data to competent authorities, are punished with heavy fines and prison.

      Much like people rely on financial advisors for their choices, so do they rely on scientists for their choices.

      To me, it looks like scientists have had it far too good for far too long. Enforced transparency, ultra-tight regulation and prison sentences for misleading statements would serve them extremely well.

      Well, that'll take care of alot of the creationists aswell i guess...

    12. Re:Hoax? by destrowolffe · · Score: 1

      The "trick" email is only one such email and flippantly dismissing it does you no credit. The significance of the leaked emails is not the claim that AGW is a hoax. That is nonsense. The significance of the emails is that they demonstratively prove that a small subset of scientists from leading universities have perverted the scientific method to promote their own eco-warrior beliefs about global warming. I would sincerely hope that Slashdot readers would defend the scientific method first and foremost above dogma.

      Here is the shortlist:
      (A more complete list can be found at: Bishop Hill) or (you can search the emails yourself at: An Elegant Chaos )

      (1) Regarding the "trick" that you are so quick to dismiss. The quote below was taken from this thread at RealClimate.org)

      "Whatever the reason for the divergence, it would seem to suggest that the practice of grafting the thermometer record onto a proxy temperature record – as I believe was done in the case of the ‘hockey stick’ – is dubious to say the least.

      Mike Mann’s response speaks for itself. (by the way RealClimate.org is run/moderated by Mike Mann --not the most reliable source given these emails).

      "No researchers in this field have ever, to our knowledge, “grafted the thermometer record onto” any reconstrution. It is somewhat disappointing to find this specious claim (which we usually find originating from industry-funded climate disinformation websites) appearing in this forum."

      Now go re-read the email about the "trick". email in question

      (2) Purposefully denying, lying, and deleting emails and information that were requested in a Freedom of Information Act request. Hiding information on the grounds that the other party only wants to find faults with it.???? Really? What about the idea behind repeating results and falsifying hypothesis. Isn't that what science is all about.

      (3) Calling contacts at the BBC to find out why a skeptic article was allowed to be published.

      (4) Basing the "hockey stick" graph on 14 hand picked tree samples as proxys to 1960 and smoothing the average flat, then using real temperature data forward in time with padding to project an upward trend, but not the same smoothing used on the pre-1960 numbers. (by the way trees only cover roughly 15% of the earth. Taking 14 samples from that already small sample area does not make for "global" evidence)

      (5) Revkin quotes von Storch as saying it is time to toss the Hockey Stick back in 2004.

      (6) Truncating data to stop an apparent cooling trend showing up in the results.

      (7) Admitting to each other that they cannot account for the lack of warming in recent years.

      (8) Funkhouser says he's pulled every trick up his sleeve to milk his Kyrgistan series. Doesn't think it's productive to juggle the chronology statistics any more than he has. Wigley discusses fixing an issue with sea surface temperatures in the context of making the results look both warmer but still plausible.

      (9) Only having papers reviewed by a list of "known quantities" that will give favorable reviews. At the same time making sure that skeptical papers cannot get published in legitimate journals. So, they say publicly that if skeptics were practising "real" science they would be peer reviewed, but behind the scenes they were doing everything in their power to prevent published of any skeptic papers. For a scienti

    13. Re:Hoax? by destrowolffe · · Score: 1

      I am not a denier, but I do tolerate pervasion of science for political goals --least of all when the scientists are the ones responsible. If AGW is real then these people have done a huge disservice to the entire global community.

      Whoops. Should read...I do not tolerate perversion of science for political goals --least of all when the scientists are the ones responsible for the perversion.

    14. Re:Hoax? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Honestly, i don't get the 'hoax' tag, the doom&gloom tag or even fear mongering could be seen as appropriate, but hoax?

      Some emails were leaked on Friday from the climate research unit at the university of East Anglia. In about 150 megabytes of text, it turned out that in one of the emails, one of the researchers used the word 'trick' to describe some unspecified method of statistical analysis he had used on some dataset, and mentioned that it would 'hide the decline'. Everyone immediately saw that obviously this trick was dishonest and the decline in question was a real decline in temperatures, and it means that the entire field of climate science has been perpetrating a decades-long hoax on the world, and Al Gore should be tried for treason. Because you don't need any kind of context to know exactly what the word 'trick' refers to and what 'decline' is being hidden and why; your pre-existing political beliefs tell you all you should need to know.

      That's why articles about climate change can expect to be tagged with such things for quite some time into the future.

      One email used the word 'trick' and it proves the 'entire field of climate science has been perpetrating a decades-long hoax on the world, and Al Gore should be tried for treason'? Maybe you need to take a look at your own 'pre-existing political beliefs'.

    15. Re:Hoax? by R2.0 · · Score: 1

      "Some emails were leaked on Friday from the climate research unit at the university of East Anglia. In about 150 megabytes of text, it turned out that in one of the emails, one of the researchers used the word 'trick' to describe some unspecified method of statistical analysis he had used on some dataset, and mentioned that it would 'hide the decline'. Everyone immediately saw that obviously this trick was dishonest and the decline in question was a real decline in temperatures, and it means that the entire field of climate science has been perpetrating a decades-long hoax on the world, and Al Gore should be tried for treason. Because you don't need any kind of context to know exactly what the word 'trick' refers to and what 'decline' is being hidden and why; your pre-existing political beliefs tell you all you should need to know. "

      Oh, irony. The example you cite, that one email and the "reaction" to it, was ITSELF cherry-picked by RealClimate. It was put forth as a preemptive strike, basically saying "This is what the denialists will try to do, and this is why they are wrong." From a PR standpoint, such a preemptive strike is a good idea. But in order to do that, RealClimate had to carefully select something that could be readily explained, while ignoring the other bits in the data dump that are not so easily explainable. They figure if they can put words in the denialists mouths, and then refute them, they will have won the overall argument. Sort of like a red herring embedded in a classical Scholastic type argument (thesis/antithesis/synthesis).

      Or, in more contemporary terms, some AGW scientists got caught acting just like they accuse others of doing, and RealClimate is trying to spin it. Whatever you may think about motives and politics, the moral high ground claimed by the Nobel winning Gore and IPCC has just been exploded out from under their feet.

      --
      "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
    16. Re:Hoax? by pkphilip · · Score: 1

      I suppose all the emails from Phil Jones explicitly requiring emails to be deleted in response to a FOIA request for the same information constitutes perfectly legal behaviour?

      I suppose it is also alright that Phil Jones and his ilk write about their attempts to discredit and fire the editor of a peer-reviewed journal for posting articles they didn't agree with.. while at the same time these very same people discredit any articles critical of their findings because these articles have purportedly not been published in peer-reviewed journals?

      Face it - the emails are very, very damaging. At best it indicates that these scientists at CRU are paranoid crazies worried that their precious data would land up in the hands of competing scientists.. at worst they are charlatans who have wantonly manipulated science for their own ends and have deliberately and maliciously censored / discredited all criticisms even valid ones.

      But let us stop pretending that this sort of behaviour is even remotely acceptable.

      CRU has also claimed to have lost data. Would you be ok with an Election Office claiming that they have lost all the votes, but yes, we should take their word for it - Candidate A did actually win?

      Thank you very much, but we may be better off believing witch doctors and mediums than these 'scientists.'

  52. The actual paper referred to in the Parent Post by gordguide · · Score: 1

    " ...
    Trends in the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide
    Corinne Le Quéré, Michael R. Raupach, Josep G. Canadell, Gregg Marland et al.24

    Abstract
    Efforts to control climate change require the stabilization of atmospheric CO2 concentrations. This can only be achieved through a drastic reduction of global CO2 emissions. Yet fossil fuel emissions increased by 29% between 2000 and 2008, in conjunction with increased contributions from emerging economies, from the production and international trade of goods and services, and from the use of coal as a fuel source. In contrast, emissions from land-use changes were nearly constant. Between 1959 and 2008, 43% of each year's CO2 emissions remained in the atmosphere on average; the rest was absorbed by carbon sinks on land and in the oceans. In the past 50 years, the fraction of CO2 emissions that remains in the atmosphere each year has likely increased, from about 40% to 45%, and models suggest that this trend was caused by a decrease in the uptake of CO2 by the carbon sinks in response to climate change and variability. Changes in the CO2 sinks are highly uncertain, but they could have a significant influence on future atmospheric CO2 levels. It is therefore crucial to reduce the uncertainties. ..."

    Not a word in the abstract about 6 degrees of anything.

    1. Re:The actual paper referred to in the Parent Post by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      Efforts to control climate change require the stabilization of atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

      Yeah... there can't be any other way.. right? Its got to be through the largest system of kickbacks and back scratching ever devised.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    2. Re:The actual paper referred to in the Parent Post by stevelinton · · Score: 1

      Don't know about kickbacks etc., but do you have an alternative to stabilizing atmospheric CO2?

    3. Re:The actual paper referred to in the Parent Post by dr2chase · · Score: 1
      The proposed solution, championed by the proven-flaky (see discussion of solar panel "darkness" contributing to GW, if you can avoid buying the book) authors of SuperFreakonomics, is to inject SO2 into the air. History suggests that this will lower temperatures, and cause nasty droughts in China and India (if I recall correctly), and would not avoid acidifying the ocean.

      The discussion in this country is largely influenced by our fossil-fuel and auto industries; people in Japan, England, and Europe live perfectly acceptable lives with half the per capita emissions that we in the US and Canada produce. That's still double China's per capita emissions, and that's not a lifestyle a care to adopt if I can possibly avoid it. The trick is to figure out how to live well without so many emissions. The basic recipe is something along the lines of (1) solar heat wherever possible (relatively cheap, could be deployed with decades-old technology, no weird side-effects), (2) switching the electrical grid away from CO2 sources (using nukes AND solar AND windmill, unless you are really comfortable with all eggs in a single basket), (3) much smaller and more efficient cars, electric and/or hybrid, (4) much more use of bicycles, especially in the US (5) much less dead mammal in our diet, and somewhat less meat overall, (6) improved building construction -- more insulation, better control of air circulation, designed for LED lighting. You may have noticed a distinct lack of rocket science in these proposals. The only places where technical improvements would help boatloads, are in the nuke plant design (safer, breeder, maybe thorium-cycle), solar cell efficiency (it's still coming up), and improvements in LED price/performance.

    4. Re:The actual paper referred to in the Parent Post by Rockoon · · Score: 1
      --
      "His name was James Damore."
  53. Re:Falsibility. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Why? It has "hackers", tech, science, controversy... All the ingredients of a good topic. So - why vote it *down*?

    Having read your submissions, the fault, dear brutus, lies not in the stars but yourself. Your submissions are horribly written.

    Just because you are being shot down does not imply conspiracy, hard as that is to believe.

  54. How do they calculate this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I haven't seen anyone mention this yet...how can they say the temperature is going to rise 6C based on these CO2 levels? Do they have a working simulation of the global climate? As far as I know, they don't even have conclusive evidence that CO2 causes warming yet. The global climate is far too complex to predict to that degree of accuracy, especially when we're adding factors to it that can't be modeled based on historical trends.

    1. Re:How do they calculate this? by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

      I haven't seen anyone mention this yet...how can they say the temperature is going to rise 6C based on these CO2 levels? Do they have a working simulation of the global climate?

      Yes.

      This is a complicated problem, but it turns out that it is one amenable to numerical integration. There are now very good simulations.

      (As there should be. A lot of people have been working on this at a lot of different institutions for a long time, and computers are just getting better and better.)

      As far as I know, they don't even have conclusive evidence that CO2 causes warming yet.

      Sure there is. The fundamental physics is known, and has been known (and not controversial) for a century. There has been some controversy about how much-- this needs to be calculated numerically, incorporating all the feedback loops-- but the basic fact that carbon dioxide causes warming is not controversial (in fact, it's well proven on other planets, not just Earth).

      The global climate is far too complex to predict to that degree of accuracy,

      No, it's not. You just need enough nodes in the simulation. All of the fundamental physics is well known.

      especially when we're adding factors to it that can't be modeled based on historical trends.

      The infrared absorption (and emission) properties of carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gasses, are experimentally measured. This is physics, not history.

      --
      http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    2. Re:How do they calculate this? by Burnhard · · Score: 1

      This is a complicated problem, but it turns out that it is one amenable to numerical integration. There are now very good simulations.

      This is rubbish. The numerical problem is confounded by the gridded nature of most model simulations, with grid resolution being too low to effectively model natural processes such as turbulence, which, by the way, completely alter the outcome. Moreover, not enough is known about things such as cloud formation, the sun or the oceans to generate plausible models. The models we do have use hind-casting techniques to calibrate their output to recorded temperature history and are then run forward, in a kind of curve fitting excersise. This is, frankly, about as naive and silly a way of predicting the future as I can imagine.

    3. Re:How do they calculate this? by turkeyfish · · Score: 1

      The confounding ( actually lack of resolution) caused by griding turns out to be small relative to the measurement error of the predictions, so despite your reservations, the models perform extremely well and the past 10-20 years show that the models do make adequate predictions. Unfortunately, the inaccuracies have so far been in failing to predict even greater warming trends than are in fact being observed (ie its getting hotter faster than predicted by many earlier models that did not take into account oceanographic effects.

    4. Re:How do they calculate this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually this is not the case. The models may give the impression they match temperature, because they are calibrated to it. If the curve turns upwards, for example, it will appear to match rising temperatures. When the temperature stops rising, the model curve will diverge from it (and does so since 1998). This is only a temporary problem however, because the models are "re-calibrated" to match and so always give the impression they're a good fit.

      In other areas of research, turbulence and "micro-effects" do change the outcome considerably. I see no reason why climate should be any different.

  55. Matrix revisited by gmuslera · · Score: 1

    With current advancements in internet and virtual reality, maybe a way to stop polluting/emiting greenhouse gases and/or survive to global heathing is to attach ourselves to machines and live a virtual life there, with minimal energy requirements, low pollution, letting the planet heal itself. And tell the machines that guard us to tell anyone who asked that they are dominating and using us to generate energy to not blame the human architects that designed that brilliant plan.

    The only problem could happen is if some idiots want to keep screwing our climate funding a polluting underground city and driving around ships, but we can build an alternate virtual reality s specifically for them, with gateways with the main one.

  56. Re:Falsibility. by Alef · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's evident there is a 'leftwards' lean in a large part (if not the majority) of the subscribers of this site.

    It sounds like you are suggesting that global warming is a matter of opinion. Why would people on the left want there to be global warming? If there were any compelling arguments against global warming I would celebrate (you would probably call me a leftie -- I am European).

    It is also interesting that in almost all of the world, this issue doesn't have the political dimension it seems to have in the USA. Parties are discussing how to deal with global warming. The right wing generally wants do to slightly less, the left and greens more. But they all agree that this is a reality we need to do something about.

  57. Re:Falsibility. by fotbr · · Score: 4, Informative

    Or it might be because it already hit the front page on Friday:
    http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/11/20/1747257

  58. Re:Falsibility. by LurkerXXX · · Score: 2, Informative

    Really it's all negative? So when it gets warmer and the snow near the poles melt, reflecting less light and heating the earth, that's negative?

    And when the permafrost melts on all the bogs over in old soviet and china territories, releasing tons of pent-up greenhouse gasses, that's negative?

    Do some research.

  59. Re:Falsibility. by Rockoon · · Score: 1

    You do realize that the location of these things is near building and stuff, so pretty much not representative of even local temperatures?

    Yeah.. about that sigh of yours

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  60. Re:Falsibility. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >>It sounds like you are suggesting that global warming is a matter of opinion. Why would people on the left want there to be global warming?

    Because Al Gore will be the first green billionaire? Or because they love the sense of control that comes from telling people what they can do, what kinds of cars they can drive (ever wonder why we don't have station wagons any more?), while being blissfully hypocritical about the whole thing.

    Or maybe they just want to make gas so expensive it clears out some of the traffic on the horrible LA interstates. That, I actually kinda believe.

  61. Inconvenient Truth Analysis by thepainguy · · Score: 1

    For those who are interested in how climate change is being marketed, a while back I wrote a piece called "An Inconvenient Truth?" that is an analysis of some of the charts and diagrams in Al Gore's book and movie from an information design perspective. The bottom line is that Al Gore used every trick in the book to try to strengthen his case.

    The recent CRU e-mails explain some some of the things I point out in the piece.

    1. Re:Inconvenient Truth Analysis by Russ+Nelson · · Score: 1

      Of course he has to sell the idea. How else will he make money without carbon credits? We're talking about millions of dollars for Al Gore. Why would anybody expect him to argue against his own business's interests?

      --
      Don't piss off The Angry Economist
  62. here, negative feedback = bad by pydev · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes, and while that's good in the short term, that's not a good thing in the long run. Why? Because the negative feedback pushes us back towards a lower temperature stable state for now. That means we see only limited changes for now. People think nothing is happening and don't change their behavior.

    But at some point, we will be in the attractor for a different stable state, and then positive feedback will rapidly move us to a stable state at a higher temperature. That's mathematically and physically inevitable; the only unknown is the point at which that happens.

    There's also likely to be hysteresis, meaning that we won't be able to get back to our current state easily.

    1. Re:here, negative feedback = bad by Artifakt · · Score: 1

      To put it more simply. The icecaps can only melt until we are all out of ice. If they are absorbing some of the temperature rise, when they are all gone, the rise accelerates. The rain forests can only absorb some of the CO2 until we cut them all down, then it's oceanic algae blooms have to absorb it all, or maybe they can't.

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
    2. Re:here, negative feedback = bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you talk about specific mechanisms, people quibble. It's a deeper mathematical and physical fact that, no matter what the mechanism, negative feedback simply can't save us if CO2 concentrations keep going up.

  63. Why does this need to be explained once again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/11/the-cru-hack/#more-1853

    No doubt, instances of cherry-picked and poorly-worded “gotcha” phrases will be pulled out of context. One example is worth mentioning quickly. Phil Jones in discussing the presentation of temperature reconstructions stated that “I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.” The paper in question is the Mann, Bradley and Hughes (1998) Nature paper on the original multiproxy temperature reconstruction, and the ‘trick’ is just to plot the instrumental records along with reconstruction so that the context of the recent warming is clear. Scientists often use the term “trick” to refer to a “a good way to deal with a problem”, rather than something that is “secret”, and so there is nothing problematic in this at all. As for the ‘decline’, it is well known that Keith Briffa’s maximum latewood tree ring density proxy diverges from the temperature records after 1960 (this is more commonly known as the “divergence problem”–see e.g. the recent discussion in this paper) and has been discussed in the literature since Briffa et al in Nature in 1998 (Nature, 391, 678-682). Those authors have always recommend not using the post 1960 part of their reconstruction, and so while ‘hiding’ is probably a poor choice of words (since it is ‘hidden’ in plain sight), not using the data in the plot is completely appropriate, as is further research to understand why this happens.

    There hasn't even been a hint in the emails about any data being falsified. If there had been, the "climate change sceptics" wouldn't try to use quotes such as that one. Now, however, they simply have nothing real to show us.

  64. The study findings vs the conclusion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The real science in the article is the measurement of the CO2 levels and their trends. Taking this information and extrapolating it to temperature changes is conjecture. You can call it SWAG (Scientific Wild A** Guessing), but it is still a guess until they can put together a mathematical model for global temperature prediction that is open, peer reviewed, and tested with control data to confirm it is accurate. Let's look at this information and instead ask, if we think CO2 is warming the planet and we want to avoid that, what can be done to contain the meteoric rise of CO2 from China and India? This is an engineer's point of view, but it seemed pretty short sighted to take good raw data and obscure it by presentation with an unproven conclusion. Split your actual data from your speculation and you help the community out a lot more than this does.

  65. Coldest not warmest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gosh and to think all the stats and indicators show we're about to enter one of the coldest times in the last 200 years, not warmest. Great going CO2 folks!

  66. This Decade? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Almost all of the increase this decade occurred after 2000..."

    Is anyone else as confused by this statement as I am? I'm pretty sure *everything* that's happened this decade has happened after 2000 ...

    1. Re:This Decade? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Depends how you define the decade. If you define the decade as 2000 to 2009, some of it has happened in 2009 instead of after 2009.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    2. Re:This Decade? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Oops, the end of the sentence should of course have been: "... in 2000 instead of after 2000."

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  67. Re:Falsibility. by ShakaUVM · · Score: 1

    Satellite temperatures are better for climate purposes because ground stations temperatures also pick up heat radiated from the ground and other buildings. Indeed, one of the great points of criticism made about global climate is weather or not the current level state of ground measuring statements is both consistent and accurate. I'd assume that they are not.

    Indeed - the Heat Island Effect. Interestingly enough, this was the major premise of State of Fear, that the Heat Island Effect was causing much of the measured temperature gain - that it was being underestimated by climatologists, therefore resulting in perceived global warming.

    Real Climate.org did a long blast on State of Fear, but interestingly enough, their response on the HIE was real weak, which essentially said "We know about it and are already compensating for it". Well, yes... he said so. Why not just ignore stations within heat islands entirely (like he did in several charts)? RC.org's response? Silence. And moderation of comments asking that question, too, interestingly enough. They like a little bit of criticism on the site, but not a lot. (Even if you ask it as nicely as I just did.)

    Michael Crichton also theorizes there is peer pressure in the field to keep global warming dissent out of peer reviewed journals. ("Preposterous!" Real Climate.org claimed.) Of course, with the Climategate emails leaked out, we now see compelling proof that Crichton was actually right on the money with this - with a climate journal which promoted a single GW skeptic to the editorial board being pressured to fire him, and lacking that, for everyone to boycott the journal, take their papers elsewhere, and to refuse to cite any articles in that journal.

    It's all very interesting. I find RC.org informative, though obviously biased - when a British judge ruled that An Inconvenient Truth could be shown in classrooms, but only with a teacher guide explaining that it is a polemic, NOT a documentary, RC.org conveniently left out this latter bit, making it appear Al Gore was completely vindicated in the courtroom.

    I'm giving a guest lecture on global warming next week, and used mainly RC.org, in conjunction with a mix of Green and government information sources to prepare the lecture.

  68. It's hopeless... Humans will destroy themselves by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is just sad. I think it's pretty much certain at this point that humanity is going to destroy itself. We clearly don't have the will or foresight to do anything about stopping a run away green house effect on Earth that will end life as we know it, all because we'd rather be able to do our daily 60 mile commute to the exburbs in our SUB and pay a few dollars less for crappy electronics from China, than do something that benefits the survival of those who will live after us. Like the numerous pacific island civilizations that destroyed themselves hundreds of years ago by over consumption of resources on their island, it seems inevitable now that the same fate awaits the rest of civilization. Whether ignorance or just not caring, the politicization of global warming is going to be the end of all of us. It defies all rational, intellectual thought. If we do manage to somehow stop it, I have no doubt that the right wingers that are stopping climate change today will be remembered in history with about as much respect as the right wingers of the Middle Age who denied the Earth orbited the sun.

  69. This is being cause by politicians by WindBourne · · Score: 0, Troll
    Seriously. They have an EASY answer, but do not want to take. China wants the ability to pollute at will until they are the largest superpower. India is in the same boat (though it really is about bringing their ppl up to a higher standard, not about being a superpower). America does not want to give up its position by doing the largest cuts (for starters, it would likely not be allowed by voters in light of China). Europe, Japan, and Canada are all cutting corners and trying to blame the other guy. Most of the Asian, African and Latin American countries simply want a free hand-out (which is why their focus on lots of money to them, rather than on dropping their own emissions).

    So, how can we solve it?
    1. Have the nations that are concerned (I wish that it was all, but it is not) put a cap based on current emissions. IOW, you will not raise the CO2 at all. To get a handle on things, we need to stop the growth first.
    2. Then put a tax on ALL GOODS, INCLUDING IMPORTS, based on the CO2 emissions from the region where it was built AND where the primary component comes from AS WELL as the CO2 cost of shipping.

    The 2'nd above requires that it be a percentage based on how much CO2 is from your area based on sat measurements ( and skip the garbage about population; that is about spreading responsibility; it will not happen). In addition, it has to be known that the base amount will grow. BUT, by allowing other nations to clean up their act, they can lower the amount that they pay.

    This is probably the ONLY fix for all this. WHy? Because it prevents politicians from cheating. It keeps pols from claiming that another nation is emitting more, and they will. The reason is that this is measurable by sats, it can be easily seen by all.

    In addition, it takes into account ALL EMISSIONS. Want to lower it, but can not cut back on CO2 right now? Plants trees. Route the CO2 from cement and power plants to algae and greenhouses.

    Until a nation has the courage to do this, nothing will change. It is only when ALL NATIONS have to partake, will it change things.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re:This is being cause by politicians by mehrotra.akash · · Score: 1

      "India is in the same boat (though it really is about bringing their ppl up to a higher standard, not about being a superpower)"

      a problem with this statement is that according to "An Inconvenient Truth", the CO2 emissions per capita, and even on a total basis in India are much lower that those of the US

      IIRC, there was a difference of 10 times in the per capita emissions b/w US and India

      Ideally, shouldnt all the countries have similar per capita emissions??

      US should reduce theirs to Indian levels and then help India to use the same tech it used (possibly with the sharing of research costs, maybe not) to increase the standard of living here without impacting the CO2 levels..

      I am using India and US as examples cause they are the only 2 I remember from the film, as US was one of the highest emitters, and India one of the lowest.
      same can be applied for other countries having a large diff. in CO2 o/p

    2. Re:This is being cause by politicians by dr2chase · · Score: 0, Troll

      And China's counterargument is that they have one quarter the US per capita CO2 emissions, and they've had a draconian national policy of limiting family sizes to cut population growth. Is the US doing anything comparable? I think they can make a pretty good case for applying those tariffs to US.

    3. Re:This is being cause by politicians by amorsen · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So Africa doesn't get to industrialize, because the Western world polluted too much before they got their chance? Right.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    4. Re:This is being cause by politicians by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      a problem with this statement is that according to "An Inconvenient Truth", the CO2 emissions per capita, and even on a total basis in India are much lower that those of the US
      IIRC, there was a difference of 10 times in the per capita emissions b/w US and India

      Except of course you are looking at per capita emissions, which is a worthless way of looking at things. The reason is that CO2 emissions is not just humans, but it is GDP, plants, etc.

      IIRC, there was a difference of 10 times in the per capita emissions b/w US and India
      Ideally, shouldnt all the countries have similar per capita emissions??

      It would be nice, but that is not the 'fair' thing. I think that all countries should have similar per sq km emissions. Look at it this way. China is hurting for water, and it is about to hurt more. OTH, Russia is sitting on the LARGEST AMOUNTS of fresh water in the world. In fact, they have more than all of North America. And yet, Russia has a fairly small population. Should they be required to give up that water to China and India? Likewise, should the middle east be required to give up their oil? It is a small amount of ppl that own it. These would be fair in the same way. Likewise, China emits well over 1/2 of the mercury in the world (no pollution control and some of the worst coal in the world). The same is true of Sulfur oxides, etc. Far far more than their "fair share". SHould they be required to drop it all right now?

      It gets better. There is ZERO chance of being able to get everybody to agree to any of this. So the answer is absolutely no.

      Instead, max emissions should be tied to simply seeing how much emissions come from a region. And how to control it? Other nations are taxing your goods based on the CO2 from your air. Period. Then it is up to each nation to decide exactly how they want to control it. There can be no cheating on this.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    5. Re:This is being cause by politicians by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Why would you say that? Most nations of Africa are some of the lowest emitters. Right now, most would have little to no tax applied to their goods.

      However, do you want them to industrialize with coal, and oil making things worse or do you want to use Nukes and Alternative Energy?

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    6. Re:This is being cause by politicians by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      First, this is not a tariff. A tariff is something is applied to IMPORTED GOOD ONLY.
      Secondly, I WANT THEM TO APPLY IT TO US (would not matter; China's imports from Western nations is pretty much resources only); Heck, I want to see ALL NATIONS APPLY IT ALL GOODS. I would esp. like to see it applied to China AND America. We are the worst on this. America has 48% of electricity from coal and 18 % from Natural Gas (both are dropping). China has nearly 80% from Coal (and climbing fast) and 10% from Natural Gas (again climbing fast ). Likewise, Countries in EU are fighting emissions such as Germany and Poland. Apply this and EVERYBODY (politicians, Business, and citizens) have a strong incentive to drop their CO2.

      But good luck getting the forced per capita emissions garbage. If you take that route, it will NEVER solve a thing, and the CO2 will continue. In fact, it will make things worse in the same way that Kyoto does. Right now, if everybody emitted at the same rate as what China PER CAPITA does, the world would have nearly 20% more CO2.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    7. Re:This is being cause by politicians by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Also, India is a MAJOR emitter (in total quantities and in terms of per sq km). It is only when looking at per capita that they are low.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    8. Re:This is being cause by politicians by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      So Africa doesn't get to industrialize, because the Western world polluted too much before they got their chance? Right.

      That is a stupid argument by any measurement. Africa doesn't get to industrialize while polluting like mad bastards would be much better. Ditto for China. Guess what? Emissions controls won't stop industrialization, the worst they can do is slow it down a little. Permitting developing nations to repeat our mistakes unnecessarily is not going to help anyone. You have presented a false dichotomy, which is of course a logical fallacy.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    9. Re:This is being cause by politicians by amorsen · · Score: 1

      You are saying that no nation is allowed to raise its CO2-emissions. I am saying that will mean no industrialization in Africa.

      I'd prefer them to go for alternative energy, but it's certainly ridiculous for us to tell them that they have to make EVERYTHING without fossil fuels, whereas the Western world is allowed to continue polluting. As for nuclear: Look how happy the rest of the world is when Iran tries for nuclear energy.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    10. Re:This is being cause by politicians by amorsen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If an African nation is permitted emission levels of ~zero (because they aren't emitting anything right now) while a Western nation is permitted to emit say 20% less than what they emitted in 1990, which one will win in the global economy? If the rich Western countries can't afford to use green technology, how can a poor African nation afford them?

      Africa doesn't get to industrialize while polluting like mad bastards would be much better. Ditto for China.

      China isn't polluting, compared to Europe or USA. Its per capita emissions are 1/4 of those of the US. When the US has cut its emissions in half it can start talks with the rest of the world.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    11. Re:This is being cause by politicians by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Iran is not trying for Nuclear Energy. They are working on Nuclear bombs. BIG difference.

      As to capping low end countries, ok, that makes sense to allow them to go up (i.e. those that are at ~0 Co2 / sq km should probably be allowed up). When I was thinking of the cap, I was thinking of Developed nations and those like China, Brazil, etc (which IS developed in terms of jobs, simply not of infrastructure).

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    12. Re:This is being cause by politicians by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      If an African nation is permitted emission levels of ~zero (because they aren't emitting anything right now) while a Western nation is permitted to emit say 20% less than what they emitted in 1990, which one will win in the global economy?

      Life is not a zero-sum game. If an African nation is permitted emission levels like the USA and China, then we'll all suffer that much more, that much quicker. It will NOT help Africa, or Africans.

      China isn't polluting, compared to Europe or USA. Its per capita emissions are 1/4 of those of the US.

      You're not really this stupid are you? You could say "Chinese people aren't polluting" reasonably, but there's more pollution coming out of China now than out of the USA.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    13. Re:This is being cause by politicians by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Wow. What a warped perception of life. Not everything is based on per-capita. In fact, far far from it. If it is, please go to China and tell the leaders there to give up their mercedes and other items. Likewise, you need to quit emitting so much. Germany is still a VERY large polluter in the world. In fact, it is more than double China. So, why do you not quit living like you do, and give it to CHina?

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    14. Re:This is being cause by politicians by amorsen · · Score: 1

      Iran is not trying for Nuclear Energy. They are working on Nuclear bombs. BIG difference.

      How do you know? So far there is no proof that they have created weapons-grade uranium. Obviously a uranium refinement plant can create it, but you need a refinement plant for nuclear power too, so that is neither here nor there.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    15. Re:This is being cause by politicians by amorsen · · Score: 1

      You're not really this stupid are you? You could say "Chinese people aren't polluting" reasonably, but there's more pollution coming out of China now than out of the USA.

      And there's more pollution coming out of North America than of China. Why are national borders significant? Splitting China is 10 doesn't change the emissions.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    16. Re:This is being cause by politicians by amorsen · · Score: 1

      Likewise, you need to quit emitting so much.

      Absolutely, and it will happen.

      Germany is still a VERY large polluter in the world.

      True. I don't live in Germany.

      So, why do you not quit living like you do, and give it to CHina?

      That is exactly what we will have to do.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    17. Re:This is being cause by politicians by WindBourne · · Score: 1
      Actually, that is false. First, CO2 emissions is not pollution. If we were talking pollution, China is by far the biggest and the worst out there. They account for far more than 1/2 of all mercury emissions. In fact, they own #1 on nearly all transportable pollution. The reason is that China refuses to buy pollution controls or even use ones that they own, but it would bump the resource cost to implement. A truly immoral gov.

      Now, as to BURNING CO2 emissions, in 2007, NA emitted 6,780 million tonnes, with America at 5769.3. China emitted 6,071 million tonnes. So, yes, in 2007, China DID emit less, though not by much. The problem is that NA has pretty much quit increasing, while CHina (and a number of smaller countries) continue to increase in massive amounts. For example, over the last 5 years, how much did China increase by?
      • 1997 @ 3 132.9
      • 3 197.1
      • 3 090.2
      • 3 077.6
      • 3 124.8
      • 3 348.3
      • 2005 @ 3 871.8
      • 2006 @ 4 586.4
      • 2005 @ 5 099.1
      • 2006 @ 5 645.2
      • 2007 @ 6 071.2

        If you look at the last few years, they have increased by more than 500 million tonnes EACH Year, and we know that it is increasing. THere is LITTLE doubt that last year that China DID pass North America's total. In addition, in another 2 years, they will have more emissions than all of NORTH AMERICA, Europe and latin america COMBINED. Finally, if they simply slow down 400 million tonnes increases, by 2016-2017, they will have accounted for about 1/2 of all CO2 emissions by man. And yet, if you want to hold it in per capita, they do not account for 1/2 of the world's population.

        Basically, CHINA is the one responsible for taking the world into fast global warming. AND it is ppl like you that push this insane approach by arguing that China has the RIGHT to emit large CO2 as well as heavy pollution. China's Action are not just irresponsible, but are the actions of a nation that is in a cold war.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    18. Re:This is being cause by politicians by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Why are they not working hard at getting the power plant going? If they really wanted power and not nukes, they simply would have built the plant, and then bought processed uranium on the open market. At this time, it is DIRT DIRT cheap. After a few years, THEN they could have done the processing. In fact, the size and number of their refinement plants, as well as having been started BEFORE the power plant and being hidden, says that it is NOT about a civilian program.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    19. Re:This is being cause by politicians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why should it be per capita emissions? The US and China has about the same land available for their populations. Why should one country with a higher density of people be allowed to emit more? Controlling population growth and size is much more important than reducing per capita emissions in the long run. If people choose to have a lot of children they cannot support and the land they inhabit cannot support then there is no automatic "holy" rule that transmits this load onto the rest of the worlds land areas. I am not willing to live in a cave because other people are using their population size as an instrument to control others. China has a huge problem supporting it's large population and they should reduce it (along with several other countries).

    20. Re:This is being cause by politicians by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Why are national borders significant?

      Another staggeringly stupid question. Sanctions are placed against nations, not continents.

      Please think before posting.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    21. Re:This is being cause by politicians by khallow · · Score: 1

      When the US has cut its emissions in half it can start talks with the rest of the world.

      You really haven't thought through the implications of using per capita pollution. One way the US could do this is by doubling its population. And only an idiot thinks it's a good idea to "start talks" after a problem (real or imagined) has been solved.

    22. Re:This is being cause by politicians by thickdiick · · Score: 1

      That's such a stupid thing to say. China is polluting absolutely, and just because it's less per capita doesn't mean it's any less damaging.
      The crucial point that is missing your rat brain is the quality of life that results from the pollution. We are here to live a good life, and pollution will always be a factor. China's pollution is much less efficient at creating that quality of life we enjoy in the 1st world.

    23. Re:This is being cause by politicians by amorsen · · Score: 1

      You're still arguing that China is the problem, when the US emits just as much and is just 1/3 the population.

      Yes, if we're to combat global warming, China needs to help too. But the excuse that they have to cut emissions first is ridiculous, when we have been emitting CO2 for 150 years.

      Either way it doesn't matter. Emissions aren't going to get cut, except for the limits imposed by the difficulties of fossil fuel extraction.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    24. Re:This is being cause by politicians by amorsen · · Score: 1

      So because we live longer happier wealthier lives, we are permitted to emit more CO2?

      We have definitely reached the "battle of wits against an unarmed opponent" stage here.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    25. Re:This is being cause by politicians by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Yes, if we're to combat global warming, China needs to help too. But the excuse that they have to cut emissions first is ridiculous, when we have been emitting CO2 for 150 years.
      Please, show me where I have suggested that China needs to cut theirs first. I have said that they are the monster on the block (they are) and that ALL OF US need to cut emissions. BTW, China will surpass America in total emissions in the next 3 years. And from most ppls POV, population REALLY DOES NOT MATTER. Heck, the vast majority of emissions is not related to population, but to industry and development. That is what needs to change.

      Actually, I like to think that emissions WILL be cut all over. The simple fact is the one or more countries will soon take the approach that I espouse. It is the ONLY possible solution to get a nations emissions down and not watch industry move to a place that emits and pollutes more.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    26. Re:This is being cause by politicians by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      No. But rather than see China go above our levels, we need to get BELOW china's CURRENT LEVELs. That is why I keep pushing the tax on all goods. It makes EVERYBODY pay attention.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  70. world leaders by zogger · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "World leaders" are puppets of their various central banksters and traders. I think this is beyond obvious now, not even debatable. Now those guys *want* carbon credits trading, it is a way for them to make huge sums gambling without doing any actual work themselves, and being bankrolled by everyone else who *are* working, (about the same as now, just a new direction and game to play).. They tell the "world leaders" the tradeoff for getting them this new lucrative game is they get a slew more laws to pass to use over the heads of their serfs and subjects.

    So, to answer your question "And how are world leaders likely to respond if the temperature drops during the 2010s?"..they will ignore it if this happens, say it is just a temporary condition, etc. Because they want and are getting those credits for the new market, plus they want even more centralized power.

    note: the above has nothing to do with any scientific reality of ratio from naturally occurring co2 or "man made", etc, or the climate, I'm not making this a stance one way or the other on the subject, just saying what will happen with the world leaders. Climate change is irrelevant to the two top new things they-"they" being the puppets and their puppet masters- *always* want, more money and more power.

  71. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere [Re:How can they] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How do they know if the CO2 is from fossil fuels or from natural sources, is there actually a test for this?

    CO2 is a molecule, containing one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. One CO2 molecule is indistinguishable from another

    Not at all. Carbon has three major isotopes. Carbon-14 is produced by nuclear reactions in the atmosphere, but decays with a half life of 5730 years, so fossil carbon has zero carbon-14. So, actually, all carbon dioxide molecules are not identical, and, in fact, you can tell which ones come from fossil sources.

    However, if you look at the graphs of carbon dioxide concentation in the atmosphere, it's pretty hard to come up with any explanation other than that the carbon dioxide change comes from human activity.

    (I'm sure the fringe can come up with some explanation. When you don't have to worry about plausibility or data, there's always some explanation to come up with.)

  72. Re:Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere [Re:How can th by IWannaBeAnAC · · Score: 2, Informative

    Right, I also found http://www.skepticalscience.com/human-co2-smaller-than-natural-emissions.htm which contains a good explanation of isotopic measurements of atmospheric carbon.

  73. Re:Falsibility. by Alef · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Or because they love the sense of control that comes from telling people what they can do, what kinds of cars they can drive (ever wonder why we don't have station wagons any more?), while being blissfully hypocritical about the whole thing.

    Yeah, it's easy to put stupid ideas into your opponents mouth and attack them.

    You can drive whatever car you like for all I care. But you better compensate the rest of us if you damage our mutual environment. That has nothing to do with control and all to do with common sense. Unfortunate as it may be, this world isn't big enough for everyone to do as they please. Had we been 10 million humans we probably could, but now we are 6.8 billion.

    As for Al Gore, he hasn't been relevant over here. Except indirectly in being "the guy that opened the eyes of many Americans". If he makes money out of it, good for him. I can only hope he puts them to good use.

  74. Re:Falsibility. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The models are fantasy, of course. I have no idea why obviously daft predictions such as this get air-time.

  75. Re:Falsibility. by gorgonite · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you look at the temperature from outer sky you might measure the heat emission from earth to outer space. The higher the temperature, the higher the heat emission. If a greenhouse effect is effective, it reduces the heat emission and thus the temperature. In this scenario there would be a lower temperature in the upper atmospheric region as long as until a new equilibrium is reached, with higher temperatures at the surface of the earth.

  76. Re:Falsibility. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Why would people on the left want there to be global warming?

    Because left-wing ideology, from Marx and Mussolini to the present day, is about State control and limits on individual freedom. Irrespective of their accuracy, the theories of AGW are an excuse for a State power grab, complete with the introduction of new taxes and new laws to control how we all live.

    You remember the Patriot Act and how most of us didn't like it? AGW laws are similar: created on equally specious grounds, and with the identical aim of removing our freedoms and strengthening the state.

    Let me add, AGW does have a political dimension here in Europe, but big media does not report dissenting (skeptical) views. Big media sides with Government propaganda, especially in Britain, where the Government is constantly broadcasting commercials with our tax money: "Act on CO2" or the Green God will flood this land and drown your puppies and kittens. No, seriously.

  77. Tiny Tim knew by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 1
    forty years ago that the ice caps are melting. If it was obvious to him then, what's the damn problem? I mean - TINY TIM...

    By the way - no amount of steel wool will clean the image of that video from your retinas. It's wonderful and terror inducing at the same time.

    RS

    --
    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
  78. Re:Falsibility. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It seems odd that the slashdot majority favors the cathedral of enviroreligion to the bazaar of science.

  79. Re:Falsibility. by Burnhard · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure why this was modded "insightful". The assumption isn't whether it's linear or non-linear, it's whether feedbacks are net positive or negative. There are reasons to believe they are negative and that the models are wrong. There is no evidence for the kind of strong positive feedback this prediction requires. Indeed positive feedbacks are rare in nature, exhibiting as they do greater instability. But anyway, the idea that this "complex feedback cycle" is understood well enough to provide any predictive power through modelling is, to be frank, laughable. Karma be damned indeed ;).

  80. Re:Falsibility. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am reminded of Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles whenever these polemical global climate discussions spring up.

    In Chronicles, the martians had a small problem with accepting the Earthling visitations as physical reality. Rather, they would lock up the mentally 'infected', and an occasional real visitor as well, in an asylum for the insane. The doctor would terminate the 'incurably ill', and himself too, when the 'imaginary' rocketship failed to disappear.

  81. Re:Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain. by Rockoon · · Score: 1

    For the record, realclimate is run by one of the very people with emails in the liberated data, and he is very very worried.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  82. Anthropogenic Global Warming is not Science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Science is defined by the scientific method. You put forward theories, work out predictions based on those theories, and then test those predictions. Then -- and this is the important part -- if the predictions of your theory fails to meet the facts, YOU DISCARD THE THEORY.

    The simple fact is that the climate models used to predict catastrophic global warming are not predictive. Their predictions have not matched reality to date -- for example, none of them predicted the mild cooling of the last 10 years -- and so these models and the theories behind them can now be considered falsified. Clinging to a belief in the face of contrary evidence is the hallmark of religion, not science.

  83. Re:Falsibility. by tjstork · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yes, and that's 0.06 per year or 0.06/365 per day. Sorry, but your "test" is simply not credible at all. There will always be natural variation on top of everything else.

    Dude, that's a stupid argument.

    At the end of the day, if you make predictions that can be interpolated, using some linear or non-linear function, you have science. If you cannot, you don't.

    So, do you mean to tell me that this 6C cannot be tracked until we magically arrive at 100 years from now? I think unless you give me an F(X) for temperature, you do not have science. You have religion. I'm assuming that the 6C is the basis of some F(X). If it cannot be, then, all you have is religion and 6C is crap.

    --
    This is my sig.
  84. Re:Falsibility. by jbengt · · Score: 1

    but it is a negative feedback, do some research.

    but there are many negative and positive feedbacks, . . .

  85. You speak of religion. by tjstork · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Nonsense. This is only true if it's a linear relationship. Given that the greenhouse effect involves a complex feedback cycle, that is not a valid assumption.

    So it can be an exponential function, whatever, but you can either give me intermediate steps of some kind between now and 6C, perhaps by year, or certainly by decade, or you cannot. If you cannot, then quit trying to pretend that 6C actually means something because it means your number is crap. If you want me to believe in it, then that's fine, but you are making a religious argument, not a scientific one. Science is for things that you can test, and the moment you told me you cannot test 6C, you told me that it wasn't science.

    --
    This is my sig.
  86. Re:Falsibility. by jbengt · · Score: 1

    It has been a front page story already. After all, we wouldn't want any dupes

  87. Re:Falsibility. by Ambitwistor · · Score: 1

    Warming rates are projected to increase over time as more CO2 is added to the atmosphere, for obvious reasons; the 21st century average rate is not the same as the current rate. The 6 C by 2100 projections are the product of very large emissions projections toward the end of the century. Current warming projections are for about 0.2K/decade, IIRC.

  88. Nonsense by FallLine · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Try reading that again: "adding in the real temps [...] to hide the decline."

    So, it is some kind of proxy for measuring the historical temperatures (in this case, tree rings), and this proxy data, for some completely different reason (pollution affecting the tree growth, for example??), shows a decline in the last couple of decades.

    The real temperatures (ie, the ones that are actaully measured, like with a thermometer) show an increase, so use the real measurements for the final 20 years of the data.

    There would be more of a problem if this wasn't disclosed somewhere. But even then, it is an argument about how the proxy data is presented. The real temperature data doesn't show a decline.

    Virtually everyone admits that temperatures have increased substantially over the last ~100 years. The entire point of these reconstructions is to demonstrate that this rise is unprecedented over the past ~2K years and follows a certain pattern. If the same methods on the same species of tree in the same area in the same study not only fail to accurately replicate the thermometer record over the last several decades but also actually diverge substantially, this calls into question the entire pursuit.

    In other words, if your methodology suggests that it couldn't have been warmer from 0 BC to 1900 because tree rings were not statistically larger, but the rings actually fail to increase as predicted in recent history when we know it has warmed, then this strongly indicates that we also cannot rely on warmer past temperatures to be accurately reflected in increased tree ring size either. Of course you can speculate that pollution may be playing a role, but it is still just speculation and there are better documented conclusions one could draw from this, e.g., that tree rings do not correlate linearly with temperature, that changes in moisture content, sunshine, CO2, etc play an equally large role, etc.

    Good non-politicized science should: pick a methodology; show how it correlates with the actual thermometer record; then document it clearly for better or worse over the entire course, i.e., actually show the divergence (and make the data and methods available for all for review). These so-called "scientists" actually went to the other extreme by trying to hide the divergence and present a view that was not supported by their actual research. Many of these same scientists have gone further still by refusing reasonable requests for the raw data and further information on their methods.

    This is politicized "science" at its very worst.

    1. Re:Nonsense by IWannaBeAnAC · · Score: 5, Insightful

      These so-called "scientists" actually went to the other extreme by trying to hide the divergence and present a view that was not supported by their actual research.

      That is BS. If you bothered to read the refutations, the divergences are themselves a subject of many publications, and this has been out in the open forever.

      I do agree that access to the raw data could be better, and even that some of the statistical methods etc have been applied poorly (or even incorrectly). You might even find, somewhere in the stack of tens of thousands of climate science publications, some that misrepresent the data, perhaps even deliberately. Not all scientists are as expert as they should be in statistics, and scientists are human and have human frailties (although that doesn't excuse anything). But this does not appear to be one of those cases. You are reading far too much into one email, and you clearly are not aware of the context.

      If all of the science of global climate change depended on a single set of proxy data, then you would have a point. But it doesn't, and you don't.

    2. Re:Nonsense by FallLine · · Score: 1

      That is BS. If you bothered to read the refutations, the divergences are themselves a subject of many publications, and this has been out in the open forever.

      My point is that this study and several others have deliberately used this 'trick' in their presentations and that this behavior is dishonest and anti-scientific. There is no excuse for it, period. Your excuse in the prior post that the actual temperature record reflects an increase is misleading and amounts to sophistry.

      I do agree that access to the raw data could be better, and even that some of the statistical methods etc have been applied poorly (or even incorrectly). You might even find, somewhere in the stack of tens of thousands of climate science publications, some that misrepresent the data, perhaps even deliberately. Not all scientists are as expert as they should be in statistics, and scientists are human and have human frailties (although that doesn't excuse anything). But this does not appear to be one of those cases. You are reading far too much into one email, and you clearly are not aware of the context.

      There are only a handful of published reconstructions that show 'hockey stick' shapes stretching over ~2K years and most of these rely on a small set of similar raw data, similar statistical methods, and are authored by a small circle of scientists at even fewer institutions. Many of these studies have already been largely discredited. Furthermore, expecting that every study should be immediately shot down if it is bad is unrealistic given the biases of the climate science community and their complete lack of openness on critical issues.

      You need to have a great deal of faith in their particular peer review process to believe this issue is anywhere near settled given how reluctant they have been to allow any sort of dissent by barring access to data, methods, black-balling people from journals, etc. Many reasonable people look at the facts and believe that there is a need for skepticism.

      Given:

      1) Emails like this (clear conspiracy to mislead, hide embarrassing facts, hide & delete data, etc).

      2) The small size and incentives within the climate science community

      3) Numerous fundamental documented errors in many of these studies (bad statistics, poor quality data collection, etc)

      I simply have little faith in the quality of the peer review going on.

      If the climate science community wants to convince more people of the need to act, to spend many many trillions of dollars in the near term, then they MUST be far more open and honest at the very least. There is no excuse in this day and age not to share data and methods freely given the fact that almost all of these people work for publicly funded institutions and are collectively asking society to turn itself upside down to fix the alleged problem.

      If all of the science of global climate change depended on a single set of proxy data, then you would have a point. But it doesn't, and you don't.

      I never claimed that the entire science of global climate change relies on a single set of proxy data. Even if the science is correct and the model forecasts are 100% accurate, this behavior is still bad and inexcusable, i.e., my point still stands. That said, even though I acknowledge that the earth has warmed over the last century and that CO2 does act as a greenhouse gas, there is: a great deal of unsettled science in exactly how unprecedented today's temperatures are; exactly how sensitive the climate is to CO2; the behavior and extent of feedback effects; what will happen in the future given certain CO2 levels; not to mention the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and further order impacts of warming (if it happens as predicted).

      This issue is too politicized and too important to leave to the typical academic process.

    3. Re:Nonsense by pkphilip · · Score: 1

      Access to raw data, you say? Well, Phil Jones, Mann, Briffa have all refused requests for data to be released - even from Journals with data retention policies.

      The only time Briffa was forced to release the data was when he published an article in the Royal Society of Biological Sciences refused to allow Briffa to stall them on the data request. This data was analysed to get quite a different result from Briffa's findings.

      So yes, a lot of the so-called climate research out there relies on the same set of proxy data which has now been discredited.

    4. Re:Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "This issue is too politicized and too important to leave to the typical academic process."

      Yes, clearly this is something that is better handled by lawyers, business people and their assorted paid off goons.

    5. Re:Nonsense by FallLine · · Score: 1

      Yes, clearly this is something that is better handled by lawyers, business people and their assorted paid off goons.

      I said nothing of the sort. I merely suggest that the academic process is wholly inadequate given the cost of the measures that are being proposed today and the alleged risks. We should not be making multi-trillion dollar decisions based on the output of a handful of academics following the usual insular peer review process which was never designed to do this sort of thing.

      We can fund and construct a far more open and rigorous process if the science is truly "settled".

      Want more reliable proxy records? Gather a team of experts to determine the best proxies to examine, clearly state the assumptions and reasons for choices, then fund this research directly so that it can be used freely by all. This data should be as complete as possible, i.e., do not do what Briffa did with his Yamal paper by just including 13 trees to represent the last 100 years while using many many more in prior years.

      Want to produce reconstructions that will convince a lot more people? Surely these scientists can collectively decide on the best most defensible way to produce a limited number of reconstructions, then they can document their exact methods and explain their rationale for outside review and commentary. Demand thorough independent analysis by one or more 3rd parties, don't just wave your hand at it and say it roughly agrees with my beliefs about AGW and looks OK on paper. Allow people with expertise in relevant fields to produce relevant criticisms, e.g., statisticians, dendros, etc. Do not allow artificial hurdles to be constructed like those which exist in academic journals (e.g., commentary can only be made X days after publication, can only be Y words long, etc).

      Want to produce climate model that will attempt to predict future temperatures? Share the f'n code. Document it well. Explicitly state your assumptions and defend them. Allow people to see how it fairs against the instrumental record in detail, both past and future. It's not as if the only meaningful output is what happens with average temperature. These models make all kinds of assumptions about various phenomenon, particularly with respect to positive and negative feedback effects (esp. cloud cover)... well the outputs can be documented to so how well they hold up. If CO2 output deviates substantially from projections, fine, then run it with the actuals and see how it changes...

      All of this data can be archived in one place for all to see at the click of a mouse. The Whitehouse spent $18,000,000 to re-design recovery.gov. Certainly we can spend money to have one definitive source for OPEN research on the settled science of AGW. I would gladly see my tax dollars be used for the goverment to set aside, say, 10 billion dollars to assemble a panel of leading scientists from a variety of areas of expertise to manage this process, direct research funds, etc. If the science is truly settled, it shouldn't take very long to make a compelling case for AGW and dispel mainstream concerns of bias and manipulation.

  89. Re:Falsibility. by Ambitwistor · · Score: 1

    TLS is the lower stratosphere, which is not where we live. (We don't live in the entire lower troposphere, either, but its average temperature trend is much closer to the surface trend than is anything which happens in the stratosphere.)

    Note, by the way, that an enhanced greenhouse effect predicts lower tropospheric warming and lower stratospheric cooling. Which is in fact what is observed.

  90. Re:Falsibility. by tjstork · · Score: 1

    Nonetheless, that is exactly the kind of environment where a lot of the Surface Stations [surfacestations.org] are located. Makes me question the data...

    Or not even that. It could be that 50 years ago, or 100 years ago, nobody really gave a shit about making the measurement super accurate because it didn't need to be at that time. It kinda needed be in the ballpark, so if it was off, who really cared. Now people are looking at the data and cooking it in a bunch of different ways to try and make it "good", with statistical tools, but sometimes, when you are giving a dead guy CPR, he's gonna stay dead. The only thing we have that's credible and consistent is the satellite. Woodshole plunging a thermometer into a bucket of water it pulled from the ocean or a guy with a thermometer attached to his shed just doesn't cut it any more.

    --
    This is my sig.
  91. But the environment is mine by tjstork · · Score: 0, Troll

    You can drive whatever car you like for all I care. But you better compensate the rest of us if you damage our mutual environment.

    So, what gives you the right to say that the environment is yours? If you can claim a right to say how it should be disposed, then, I have the same right too.

    But...I say the atmosphere is mine, and really, you ought to be mailing me a check for even breathing.

    --
    This is my sig.
    1. Re:But the environment is mine by Alef · · Score: 1

      No, I'm not saying the environment is mine. I'm saying it is ours.

      By your logic, it would be ok for me to for example dump toxic waste in a river. Hey, it's my environment as well! Why are we not dumping toxic waste? That's right, because it would be incredibly stupid. It makes no difference if one person does it, but if everyone uses the same logic we are all dead.

      As long as we share the environment I am going to insist that we find rules to use it on equal terms without destroying it.

      If you live in a society what you do affects others, and you're going to have to adapt to some degree. Deal with it.

    2. Re:But the environment is mine by tjstork · · Score: 1

      If you live in a society what you do affects others, and you're going to have to adapt to some degree. Deal with it.

      We plan on it. There's more than one way to settle a territorial dispute.

      --
      This is my sig.
  92. Alternatives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Considering that our only real alternatives (Nuclear, solar farms, on/off shore wind farms) are being blocked by aging liberal hippie douches, we are most assuredly screwed.

    1. Re:Alternatives by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Really? Please show me where "aging liberal hippie douches" are blocking Solar Farms or WInd farms. So far, about the ones that I have seen blocking these are those opposed to AE (under a pretext of caring about the environment). Now, a small minority do object to individual projects, but that is about certain locations. In general, the vast majority of the protesters against these projects are ppl like you; AC that lie.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    2. Re:Alternatives by Russ+Nelson · · Score: 1

      Northern NY has had MANY people come out against wind farms.

      --
      Don't piss off The Angry Economist
  93. Re:How can they tell.. isotopes by Stephan+Schulz · · Score: 3, Informative

    True, I had completely forgotton about isotopes. But I'm doubtful that you could turn this into a useful test of atmosphereic CO2 composition

    Well, you can. Fossil fuel has (nearly) no C14, as C14 is generated in the atmosphere and decays quickly. Fossil fuel has very little C13, as biological processes in most plants prefer C12 to C13, and fossil fuels are created from previous animal (i.e. recycled plant) and plant matter. Yes, the total carbon flux is much bigger than the human contribution, but we can measure isotope ratios very precisely. This was predicted and measured quite a while before global warming became a significant concern, as it also puts C14 ages off if not corrected for. See Suess effect, named after the chemist who described this in the 1950s.

    --

    Stephan

  94. Re:Falsibility. by capnkr · · Score: 1

    Missed it then, obviously, but am glad to see that it did make the front page.

    Thanks for pointing that out.

    --
    "...there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight. Awkwardness and stupidity can." ~ Mark Twain
  95. Everyone will die! by mveloso · · Score: 1

    My population model shows that in 100 years, 98% of everyone on earth right now will be dead. Obviously, we need to stop all human activity before this event!

  96. Zero credibility by amightywind · · Score: 0, Troll

    Of course the global warming hysterics true tyrannical intentions have been unmasked. Stories like this have zero credibility and do not belong in the politics not science section. How about a story about a space elevator?

    --
    an ill wind that blows no good
    1. Re:Zero credibility by DynaSoar · · Score: 1

      Of course the global warming hysterics true tyrannical intentions have been unmasked. Stories like this have zero credibility and do not belong in the politics not science section. How about a story about a space elevator?

      Oh heck no, I want to see more of this stuff. It's got to be better than science coming from an unbiased source. You can tell it's the truth because it has an actual email in it. When we're done here, I'd like to see the absolute, inarguable proof that Pope John Paul II was a bigot by reproducing the email from him to Yassir Arafat telling the joke about black (Nelson Mandela), the redneck (George W. Bush) and the jew (Menachem Begin) going into the bar and arguing about who's going to pay for the drinks (Mandela won't drink anything until they've all paid the same amount; Begin won't pay anything unless he gets to drink the most and Bush gives him the money; Bush drinks all the drinks, shoots the bartender, and tells the other two they had all agreed the bartender WMDs behind the bar even though they turned out to be those little umbrellas he likes so much in his drinks). If you like, I can help with the headers to make it even more true than the email in the blog post by making them all accurate including IP numbers, even if the headers say it was sent after both were dead.

      I'm just kidding, the pope didn't tell that joke. I just made that joke up. He told the one about "Peter, I can see your house from up here."

      --
      "I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
  97. If you're worried about your children by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Then you're part of the problem.

  98. Re:Falsibility. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    The thing is, there's no 'scientific consensus' to support the idea of a feedback cycle magnifying the CO2 greenhouse effect by that much. When people talk about scientific consensus, look at the questions they've ask scientists. The scientific consensus basically amounts to the fact that CO2 in the atmosphere has an effect on global temperatures. There is no consensus on many other things that are claimed.

    Even if you look at what these guys are actually claiming, they didn't actually say that the earth is on track to rise 6 degrees in the next century. What they actually said was that society is releasing CO2 into the atmosphere at a rate that some people (IPCC) predicted would cause a rise of 6 degrees. They didn't affirm that the IPCC prediction was correct in any way. It's sneaky language.

    Getting back to your point, Richard Lindzen, a climate professor at MIT, claims that there is a diminishing feedback effect, in which adding CO2 to the atmosphere has a cumulatively smaller effect the more you add. He also claims that there is no evidence for a 'tipping point' where warming rapidly increases, and that in fact the evidence suggest there will be no tipping points. He shows that most climate simulations have been based on assumptions that have turned out to be false.

    Now, you may disagree on his conclusions and points, and that's ok, that is science, we can debate it; but at least he is making actual points instead of making a bunch of noise that amounts to nothing.

    --
    Qxe4
  99. to all you nonbelievers by ILuvRamen · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    If you don't think it's real, what did bleach all the coral then? Why is that entire country sinking into the sea and buying other land to move to? Magic? The new Twilight movie? This is the same idiotic non-believer crap as the "we didn't land on the moon" theory. Hey, get out your telescope, look up at the moon, and see the laser-bouncing we put there. How did it get there? Hmmmm.

    --
    Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
    1. Re:to all you nonbelievers by Bartles · · Score: 1

      Entropy?

  100. Re:Falsibility. by mc6809e · · Score: 1

    Nonsense. This is only true if it's a linear relationship. Given that the greenhouse effect involves a complex feedback cycle, that is not a valid assumption.

    Yeah, but it's an assumption used by climate scientists that combine a predicted exponential increase in CO2 with logarithmic response in temperature.

    Anything less than exponential increase in CO2 actually implies sub-linear increases in temperature with respect to time.

    Oh, and that's assuming the theory is even correct.

  101. Re:Falsibility. by Alef · · Score: 1

    I think you are misrepresenting left-wing ideology, but I'm sure someone else can give you a better response to that than I since I don't consider myself particularly left oriented.

    Regardless, the emission trading being implemented in Europe is designed to limit our freedoms as little as possible and focuses right on the problem. Cap the total emission levels and let people trade with certificates (using the market handle allocation and costs). You can still drive your huge car, but if it emits a lot of fossilized carbon you'll pay for it accordingly (indirectly through the petrol cost). Run it on electricity and you pay nothing.

    The government has no control at all other than setting the cap, which is exactly the one thing we should decide democratically.

    The only problem is they set the initial cap so high above the actual emission levels that the price for carbon emissions dropped to zero.

  102. Am I the only person on Earth who thinks... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That whatever climate change is supposed to be, the proper way to deal with it is observe how the climate is changing, then adapt to a changing environment?

    Where where all the climatologists when humans learned agriculture and started wantonly destroying the existing habitats wherever they lived?

  103. Almost all of the increase this decade after 2000 by mano.m · · Score: 1

    Would that be because almost all of this decade was after 2000? Who comes up with these brilliant insights, I wonder.

    --
    Karma fed to this user will be promptly burnt. Be warned; be wary.
  104. Re:Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain. by WiFiBro · · Score: 1

    Rockoon, yes he is actually spending a lot of time on clarifying the issue against a shitload of thugs like you that try to distract us from the real problem.

  105. New research with what data? by pkphilip · · Score: 1, Troll

    Given the happenings of the past couple of days, I think it is pertinent at least at this time for the University of Anglia to release the data that was used in the study and the algorithm used to calculate the 6c/century figures. Let independent scientists verify that the algorithm actually works and does give the purported result.

    Or are we still expected to believe the 6c figures because they said so?

    1. Re:New research with what data? by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      You could try reading the actual research, but that would be too much work and goes against your preconceived notions.

      Independent scientists have looked at the research. That's the whole point of peer review.

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
    2. Re:New research with what data? by pkphilip · · Score: 1

      Xyrus, name a few "independent" scientists who have done this peer review. Also, do let me know if they had access to the data to do this review, because from what I can make out, UAE does not give out data to independent scientists who may disagree with them.

      Also, for the idiots who modded my post as a troll - what about my post makes it a troll? because you disagree with it?

    3. Re:New research with what data? by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      You got modded troll because you made wild ass accusations based on nothing. The emails do not contain anything nefarious. They don't. You can get them from bittorrent and read them yourself. Nothing like taking an incomplete set of emails and pulling quotes completely out of context to make yourself look good.

      The other reason you're modded a troll is because you appear to have no idea how the peer review process works. When a researcher submits an article to reputable journal, the journal sends the article out to a group of reviewers. The reviewers are other scientists in the field, and they remain anonymous to the submitter.

      During the peer review process, the reviewers read the paper, and based on the data and the methods laid out in the paper, attempt to reproduce the results. Although sometimes it doesn't get that far if an error is found in the data and/or the methods.

      This process usually takes a while (unless the paper is short/simple) with several rounds of submission, critiquing, fixing, and resubmitting. After all the reviewers finally sign off on it, then it gets published.

      And you are 100% wrong about UAE. They do release data, especially to reviewers. What they DON'T release is data that they don't have the right to release, such as third party proprietary data. The data is always released to peer reviewers, but they don't release to any TD&H who suddenly thinks they are climate scientist. You CAN make a formal request or you can negotiate with the data provider yourself if you really want the data (in the papers, they mention who the providers are) but it may not come cheap.

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
  106. Anonymous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If this study were accurate,

    Temperatures would have been 30C higher in the distant past when CO2 levels were 4,500 ppm for example. What did we have at this time period instead, one of the biggest ice ages ever.

    You can not believe this people. It has always been extreme exagerration.
       

  107. Yeah right by andsens · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah... I'm gonna have to call bullshit on this one. That outcast is way beyond the capability of the climatemodels we have today.

  108. Time by BradleyUffner · · Score: 1

    I thought we were running out of coal and oil. Won't the problem sort of solve it's self once that happens?

    1. Re:Time by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 1

      Oil yes, coal no. We have several centuries of coal left. Not to mention tar sands, oil shale, methane clathrate, natural gas and so on.

    2. Re:Time by Russ+Nelson · · Score: 1

      Yes. Well, of oil, anyway. We have lots and lots of coal left. But coal is dangerous to mine (it's killed 1000x as many people as nuclear power), dangerous to transport, and dangerous to burn (coal ash is radioactive).

      --
      Don't piss off The Angry Economist
    3. Re:Time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, it's only hundreds of years if it's not used to replace oil which it will be of course.

      You get wild variations because some people are fearmongers who like to generate the most eyegrabbing headlines, but are likely overly pessimistic, some others have an interest in calming fears, even ones that are justified, other people just like to draw straight lines when extrapolating from data which is good except that a little common sense can do better ( such as taking into account the certainty that coal will substitute for oil to an extent in the future ) however by how much is anyone's guess. Alternative energy will also substitute for both coal and oil. How much is anyone's guess. Also the Economy and myriad other factors will come into play. Attempts to integrate common sense so as to hone an estimate is an art, which is another way of saying it's just more wild ass guessing.

  109. Re:Falsibility. by tjstork · · Score: 1

    Warming rates are projected to increase over time as more CO2 is added to the atmosphere, for obvious reasons;

    But they can't, because there's not enough shit to burn.

    --
    This is my sig.
  110. Re:don't you read the newspapers? by Plunky · · Score: 1

    Global Warming is a fraud, designed to gain tax free government grants.

    Yeah, see also Michael Chrichton's novel "State of Fear", wherein he presents that argument.

    Understandably though in my opinion, because where government grants exist, there will be people conniving to take advantage of them. Where there is any money to be made, there will be people climbing over each other to get the most. However, this doesn't mean that the message is invalid! It just means that some people are greedy..

  111. Being Pro Dinosaur by duckbillplatypus · · Score: 1

    I welcome the return of the Mesozoic temperatures. A worldwide reptile paradise.

    1. Re:Being Pro Dinosaur by turkeyfish · · Score: 1

      Yes the old dinosaurs of the US Senate should fit right in.

  112. Bird poop! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do you know how much the sea level rose in the twentieth century? 8 cm. almost nothing.

    If an island is sinking below the sea, it is because it is literally sinking. There are islands where people can't live any more because they basically mined the island away. The islanders that were there were brought in to mine the guano (bird poop) around a century ago and their job is now done.

  113. Re:don't you read the newspapers? by dr2chase · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And no greedy people in the fossil fuel industry? There's boatloads more money there, so that's where any thinking greedy person would go.

  114. peer reviewed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the quality of peer reviewed depends on the ... peers.

    the fan boys don't understand how dark the 'scientific society' is. ordinarily they are just producing garbage papers in exchange for a living. that is harmless, until a few of them decides to change the world.

    the reliability of climate models is less than economic models, and the latter is pure nonsense.

  115. Mod parent up by catman · · Score: 3, Insightful
    However, the rate of climate change is far faster than previous cyclic rates. The rate now versus that of the pre-industrial age is much, much faster.

    And almost everyone who says "but it's been hotter before" miss this crucial point. Thank you.

  116. This will impact on *your* life by Bozovision · · Score: 1

    If you are reading this, then you are probably under 45 years old.

    I think the average life expectancy is rising - currently 75 years old or so in most Western countries - for men.

    But more importantly medicine is going through an exponential increase in its abilities. It hasn't yet reached microprocessor rates of doubling every 18 months, but we certainly have learned more in about the last 20 or 30 years about how the human body works than we learned in all of history before that.

    This strongly suggests that the average life expectancy will start rising exponentially too, with a lag to account for the development of applications from the basic discoveries.

    So it is not unreasonable to expect some of you reading this to live to 150, barring any nasty accidents. And that means that climate change will have a direct impact on your life. You may have to live through mass starvation, wars fought over resources like water, extinction of once common species and the rise of diseases once only found in the tropics.

    So, whether or not it's a totally proven phenomenon is irrelevant - _you_ personally can't afford to act as if it is unproven: you need to take personal action now, in the hope that it will help to mitigate the consequences.

    We as a species need to learn the lessons of all the previous civilisations that have managed to extinguish themselves through resource starvation; don't spend time arguing that it may not be happening - act as if it is while hoping that it's not. Definitely carrying on with research at the same time. Maybe we will show that it's not happening, and that would be fantastic, but we can't wait for that.

    1. Re:This will impact on *your* life by Russ+Nelson · · Score: 1

      Climate change is a fact. What is up in the air is whether we caused it or not. And it's certainly not decided whether the best course of action is to try to stop the climate from changing (think King Canute), or whether it's better to mitigate the bad effects of climate change. Unfortunately, some people try to tie these last two issues together.

      --
      Don't piss off The Angry Economist
  117. Re:Falsibility. by Timothy+Brownawell · · Score: 1

    Unlike Hadley, RSS uses satellite data, is consistent, and is open. They DO report a current trend of .15K per decade. This is far lower than the forecast.

    I got the impression that the forecast is assuming that economic growth will lead to higher greenhouse emissions in later years, and accelerating temperature increases. So current trends not matching a simple linear path to their endpoint doesn't really mean much.

  118. No! by woolio · · Score: 1

    So it is not unreasonable to expect some of you reading this to live to 150, barring any nasty accidents.

    You do realize that there are health and life insurance industries that will do everything they can to prevent this?

    1. Re:No! by bnenning · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You do realize that there are health and life insurance industries that will do everything they can to prevent this?

      Life insurance companies will be very much in favor of longer lifespans. For health insurance companies it depends on whether you're in good health for the extra years; if so, it will benefit them as well.

      --
      How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
  119. Help, I'm being oppressed! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you keep saying stupid things, people are going to call you an idiot. Deal with it.

  120. Re:Falsibility. by Ambitwistor · · Score: 1

    They're not going to increase without limit forever, but there certainly is enough remaining fossil fuel for CO2 to increase beyond today's levels, and thus for warming rates to accelerate.

  121. Dinosaurs? by woolio · · Score: 1

    Mass extinctions have occured naturally in the past, and usually there's no known external event (the end of the dinosaurs is an exception)

    Ah yes, that class of animals that had large bulky bodies, ate huge amounts of food, and had relatively small brains with primitive instincts... No wonder they were vulnerable to extinction.

    Oh, I got carried away -- you were talking about the dinosaurs, not humans.

    1. Re:Dinosaurs? by filesiteguy · · Score: 1

      Um, what about the mass extinction that pre-dated (and even ushered in) the dinosaur era - some 350 M years ago? IIRC, those critters that died out - some 90% of the Earth's population - were pretty small.

      I'm not sure if SUV's had any contribution.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Devonian_extinction

  122. Re:Falsibility. by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

    I can't see any wizards, gnomes or similar in them. Did you perhaps mean Science Fiction?

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  123. Re:don't you read the newspapers? by Plunky · · Score: 1

    And no greedy people in the fossil fuel industry? There's boatloads more money there, so that's where any thinking greedy person would go.

    Yes, there are boatloads of greedy people there already and the competition is harder. As with any business, find yourself a niche and occupy it well

  124. A Scientific Protest by phoenix321 · · Score: 2, Informative

    The first chart is nice, but it tells only a litte, because we don't have an absolute scale. It shows an increase, but I'd rather like to see it unnormalized - on the *Kelvin* scale, I might add.

    Fact: Celsius and Fahrenheit are convenience units only, because they cannot show any ratio at all. A room temperature of 20 degrees Celsius is NOT the double of 10 degrees Celsius. Boiling water (1 liter at 100 C) does not contain 5 times the energy of the same amount of water at room temperature (1 l at 20C) - this is often overlooked when using Celsius or Fahrenheit based units.

    Since the graph shown is normalized but conspicously omits its average or center. Now I assume the world average temperature is somewhere in the range of 10 to 20 degrees Celsius, but the exact value doesn't really matter as we will see right now.

    We have a delta-t = 1 Kelvin with a base average of t-0 = [258; 268] K over a solid 100 years. If the world temperature average was 258 Kelvin in 1880, it is 259 Kelvin in 2000.

    Fact: That means we have, on average, a temperature increase of 1K per 100 years, or an increase of 0,39 percent over ONE HUNDRED years.

    Fact: Every year, the temperature rose on average 0.01K or 0.0039 percent.

    Fact: Temperature differences of less than 0.01 K require very sensitive equipment to be measured correctly.

    Question: did we had such sensitive equipment deployed worldwide back in 1880 or in 1960?.

    Fact: For the age 1880 to 1960, all temperature gauges had to be read optically and written down manually.

    Error range estimate: assuming we had 200 worldwide temperature stations with each of them submitting 365 daily averages to be computed into one year's average. (for a limited temperature station coverage in 1880-1960, before mass production of electronics made that point moot) - so we get 73'000 temperature values to calculate the yearly average temperature.

    Let's imagine that out of 73000 temperature readings only 3 values were only 1 degree Celsius off. The person reading the temperature scale made an error and incorrectly reported 21 degrees when the true daily average was 20 degrees.

    If we have 3 erroneous readings out of 73000, the error is 50% higher than the assumed increase in global temperature.

    73000 readings throughout one year, distributed around the globe, done by lab assistants, students using whatever equipment they have. I would be highly suprised if more than 70000 of them are within a 1 degree range of errors.

    So we have another
    Fact: for all years up until around 1960, the margin of error is at least 50% higher than the presumed signal.

    Only one single reading being off only one single degree could account for half the yearly's supposed temperature increase. With the signal being equal to an of 2 degree error in 73000 readings, all statistical and scientific results are to take with a very large grain of salt.

    A temperature increase of 0.01K is probably less than the radiated body heat of a small bird resting somewhere near the sensor.

    1. Re:A Scientific Protest by Viadd · · Score: 1

      Fact: Every year, the temperature rose on average 0.01K or 0.0039 percent.

      Fact: Temperature differences of less than 0.01 K require very sensitive equipment to be measured correctly.

      ...

      Let's imagine that out of 73000 temperature readings only 3 values were only 1 degree Celsius off. The person reading the temperature scale made an error and incorrectly reported 21 degrees when the true daily average was 20 degrees.

      If we have 3 erroneous readings out of 73000, the error is 50% higher than the assumed increase in global temperature.

      Fact: 3 measurements out of 73000 being 1 degree off is an error of 0.00004 degrees. This is 1 day's worth of global warming.

      If we thought we were able to predict when a specific global warming event would occur, and we we were actually wrong by an entire day, then obviously global warming is a crock.

    2. Re:A Scientific Protest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The first chart is nice, but it tells only a litte, because we don't have an absolute scale. It shows an increase, but I'd rather like to see it unnormalized - on the *Kelvin* scale, I might add.

      When you find complex Earth life living at temperatures significantly below the freezing point of water, I'll take your suggestion seriously (note that the body temperature of polar bears, penguins, and whales is significantly higher than 0C). Until then or until downloading into electronic processors actually is possible and makes low temperatures on the Kelvin scale desirable, personally I'll find a graph normalized on the freezing point of water more than satisfactory. In addition, that freezing point and the boiling point of water are actually pretty useful as a calibration points. The heat necessary for the phase change from ice to liquid is a significant discontinuity in enthalpy making a Kelvin-based scale nonsense for the purpose you ascribe to it.

      Distill water for purity and then perform your freeze/boil calibration at sea level. I think we did that experiment in grade 10 science and it was well within the capabilities of the early 19th Century, whereas the Kelvin scale wasn't proposed until 1848. As long as you have the calibration apparatus and can reproduce the procedures, you can adjust for any systematic changes in measurements that have happened between now and then. Those low error bars in those early measurements don't seem that much of a stretch to me and your argument seems like a deliberately misleading straw man.

      Fact: That means we have, on average, a temperature increase of 1K per 100 years, or an increase of 0,39 percent over ONE HUNDRED years.

      Until the majority human race can sustain itself in a world that's got an average temperature significantly below 0C, I'm going to argue that the fact that the temperature range can go from 0C to 0K is meaningless. Really the question is: what is the variation in average world temperature which can still support human population in sufficient numbers to maintain our modern civilization? (Although certainly not all the people we have now would be required, it would probably still require around 1/2 billion). Anyways that number is certainly a lot less than 100C, and (since the last few ice ages with large ice sheets involved average temperature drops of less than 10C) the livable range may be less than 20C. If so, that 1C change may be as much as 5% of the change that can be supported before the irreversible collapse of modern civilization. That makes your relevance estimate off by an order of magnitude.

      As for the last part, you seem to be confusing the effect of systematic errors with those of random errors. The thing is that if the reading errors are random, they will tend to balance each other out, with some high and some low readings. So statistically, the error will be less pronounced over the long term, so trends will still show up on regression analysis. Systematic errors are more of a problem, such as replacing one grad student who tends to record high with another who records low. However systematic errors would not show up over the short term and could be more readily identified and accounted for over the longer term. That said, your count of 200 measuring stations seems low since the US weather service established measuring stations in each county in PA in the 1830s. While other states were slower to adopt similar measures, since John Dalton started making observations as far back as 1787, it's reasonable to believe that the number of measurements available in NA and Western Europe in total would have been significantly higher than 200, even as far back as the 1870s when the US National Service was created.

    3. Re:A Scientific Protest by phoenix321 · · Score: 1

      Do what you like, but the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales are completely arbitrary. They are very convenient and I would absolutely detest weather reports or anything for day-to-day life listed in Kelvins.

      But Celsius is not an absolute scale and therefore prohibits a real comparison between temperatures. 40 degrees Celsius is not double the warmth of 20 degrees Celsius and never was.

      Using the Celsius scale for anything scientific is bound to produce artifacts, errors and misconceptions. Kelvin scale is required even for high school-level science, when i.e. caluclating the mixing temperature of hot and cold water, which is also relevant for discussions around Global Warming.

      Therefore, when doing anything scientific, use the Kelvin scale. Using Celsius is probably appealing to the masses, but misleading.

  125. You think like a ReThuglican Jew by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You think like a ReThuglican Jew

    1. Re:You think like a ReThuglican Jew by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Well at least I think.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  126. Re:Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think you owe Rockoon an apology for calling him a thug.

    Especially as it is the environmentalists who are making demands, giving orders and suppressing dissent...

  127. Correlating CO2 levels with temperature by n2rjt · · Score: 0

    It is interesting that they measured an increase in CO2 levels and conclude that temperatures will rise by 6C in a century. The correlation between CO2 levels and temperature, however, might want to be investigated yet again. The period 2000 - 2008, when the increase in CO2 levels took place, experienced a steady drop in global temperatures. That in itself suggests a negative correlation. Don't get me wrong; I don't believe that temperatures will tend to fall as CO2 rises, but instead they should definitely rise. I'm just suggesting that world climate is an incredibly complex system, and we can't accurately estimate future temperatures without understanding how all of the variables contribute to the system.

    We have a problem, but not an emergency.
    Let's work to cut emissions and (more importantly IMHO) conserve our limited fossil fuel resources.
    But let's not panic about global warming.
    After all, the science is still fairly immature.

    1. Re:Correlating CO2 levels with temperature by turkeyfish · · Score: 1

      Rapid melt of polar caps, especially in the Arctic where the seas are relatively shallow and there are very large stores of methane (a much more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2), are largely responsible for the cooling. As Arctic ice and the Greenland icesheets permanently disappear, prepare for dramatic increases in temperatures.

      We not only have a problem, WE HAVE AN EMEGENCY. The rate at which the change is occurring is MUCH GREATER (nearly two orders of magnitude) than at any time in earth history.

      Don't for one minute lull yourself into the complacency of what the biological consequences will be. They will be dramatic, most notably the collapse of most tropical marine ecosystems (due to rapid ocean acidification and sea level rise. Corals can not tolerate high temperatures and low pH and collapses of most high latitude fisheries, as cold adapted species have nowhere to go and their early life history stages are extremely susceptible to such rapid warming. Terrestrial ecosystems will be stressed by dramatically reduced availability of water from glacial and snow melts that tend to dampen periods of intense warm season dryness.

    2. Re:Correlating CO2 levels with temperature by n2rjt · · Score: 1

      That is one hypothesis.
      My point is that the science behind global warming theory is immature: mostly at the level of untested hypothesis. As a scientist, I don't want to ignore the danger or claim it isn't there, but I want to explore other hypotheses as well, especially when the temperatures for the past decade don't fit any of the global warming models.
      Specific to your point, the melting of the polar ice indeed is occurring, and it is absorbing some heat in the process. But not enough to account for the drop in temperatures we have been seeing. Also, it just doesn't make sense that ice is melting because of increased greenhouse gasses and the result is cooling. Back to my original point, that the ecosystem is far too complex for a single factor to have a huge impact.

    3. Re:Correlating CO2 levels with temperature by turkeyfish · · Score: 1

      There certainly is a lot of things we don't know, such as the magnitude of the influence of oceanic circulation in the high Arctic. It would only take a small amount of change in circulation to move heat elsewhere out of the into the system being studied, particular given pronounced oceanic acidification now being observed globally. Consequently, I really don't see ANY observed significant "DROPS" in temperatures being observed that are outside the bounds of measurement error, although I would love to be corrected by pointers to the literature (science) that suggests it.

      As for complex ecosystems, they may be complex but that does not mean they are not easily perturbed by subtle changes. You only have to look at the increases in in mean low temperatures in recent years and the effects such a small shift can have on pine-bark beetles, which are dramatically altering large temperate forest ecosystems over the course of less than a decade. Indeed, much in the biological world is well modeled by dynamic systems operating at the boundaries of order and chaos. In any event, the evidence from coral bleaching seems to provide much more direct evidence of increasing temperatures. If a single factor were to have wide ranging effects, wouldn't we naturally consider temperature as a common explanation. After all, the fundamental building blocks of ecosystems are composed of molecules and atoms, whose behavior relative to temperature is largely well-understood?

      At this point in the debate, the onus is on climate change (global warming) deniers to account for the loss of polar (and glacial) ice, if it is not due to temperature and CO2 forced increases (that are nearly coincident with climatic models based on CO2 forcing). Measures of ice loss, as well as sea rise that are based on gravitational measurements, not on temperatures. Since there appears to be no increases in atmospheric pressures, it would seem logical to conclude that temperatures are rising. The most convincing culprit so far is CO2 increases, which just happen to be readily accounted for by the historical record (measurement error and climatic variability not withstanding).

      As for waiting for "scientific uncertainty" to become certainty or for total consensus among scientists before acting is a recipe for disaster. If quantum theory teaches us anything, it is that there are probably no certainties, just measurable probable outcomes.

      So the question remains, if its not CO2, what is the forcing mechanism?

  128. Re:Falsibility. by dr2chase · · Score: 1

    Consider this result, and the data it references. A few rogue emails are just noise, not signal.

    The result in the Nature letter, which I recall appearing in some other form a few years earlier, is the first information that made me go "oh shit" -- it's based on a long record of observations designed to minimize local effects, and it shows both CO2 increase, and evidence of warming. (And the whole crowd that's blathering on about water vapor and solar cycles and failure to measure X-rays and Mars and Jupiter -- sorry, that's been looked at, you guys are nuts and seriously in denial. Most of this shit can be checked with a few mouse clicks nowadays.)

  129. Unit conversion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The hard part of unit conversions is not the multiplication. This temperature conversion is one of the only unit scales with different zero points that come to my mind--and it's one that people use all the time. Every unit conversion that's just a multiplication is abjectly trivial no matter how esoteric. This one is slightly more complicated and that seems to cause trouble.

    If more people were more familiar with unit conversion in general, the world would be a slightly better place. It's an easy, ten-minute process to learn, and it makes you so much less afraid of math and physics.

  130. Re:Falsibility. by dr2chase · · Score: 1

    I don't think you understand "the left" much at all, and the favored solution from most of "the left" that I know -- a CO2 ("carbon") tax -- has the property that it only addresses the claimed problem, while saying nothing at all about the way that we ultimately deal with it. It's explicitly not telling us how to cut CO2 emissions, but merely seeks to assign them a price, so that "the market" will then set about reducing CO2 emissions in whatever way we find most economical and suitable.

    I'm also a little unclear on how the left ended up with Mussolini. I thought he was a fascist.

  131. Re:Falsibility. by dr2chase · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty happy with this result: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v382/n6587/abs/382146a0.html

    CO2 concentrations measured at the middle of the ocean, and changes in the yearly duration of photosynthesis, works for me.

  132. Re:Falsibility. by Shark · · Score: 1

    Tell me, if you wanted to measure the temperature outside your house, would you consult a satellite measuring microwave transmissions or a thermometer adjacent to your house?

    I thought the argument was that there is greenhouse effect. I'm not a climatologist but as far as I've studied, greenhouse effect happens in the upper atmosphere first (unless you're at the poles). If surface temperature is rising faster than atmospheric temperature, what you have isn't greenhouse effect.

    --
    Mind the frickin' laser...
  133. Re:Falsibility. by Burnhard · · Score: 1

    Much as projections of the height of horse manure in New York said that you'd all be up to your waists in it by the year 2,000? There's so much more to a projection than simply extrapolating a curve.

  134. Re:6C ? Ho Hum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So what is the average temperature of the Earth? And what is the Standard Deviation? I'm too lazy to look it up, and you are being so kind and considerate to do the multiplication, I thought you can do my look up for me. Luvya dear

  135. Re:don't you read the newspapers? by Vintermann · · Score: 1

    And why do you suppose it's only climate scientists who do this? How can you rely on any kind of science at all? After all, they may be just making it up in order to gain research grants. </ sarcasm>

    --
    xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
  136. I kew it was a UK post before looking at the body by peter303 · · Score: 1

    We get the most extreme 'end-of-world' slashdot posts from the UK.

  137. Re:Falsibility. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mussolini started his political life as a socialist. This fact has emboldened many right-wing revisionists to try and portray fascism as a leftist movement.

  138. Re:Falsibility. by Timothy+Brownawell · · Score: 1

    Much as projections of the height of horse manure in New York said that you'd all be up to your waists in it by the year 2,000? There's so much more to a projection than simply extrapolating a curve.

    I'm not saying the prediction is any good or not, just that that particular complaint probably isn't valit.

  139. Alarming is An Understatment! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most who are unfamiliar with the biology of most "higher" organisms are woefully unprepared to image the consequences of such a profound temperature increase. If this pace goes on for only a couple of centuries, it would largely wipe out most vertebrate and plant species, which do not evolve fast enough to alter their basic ecological requirements. A 6 degree C change per 100 years, would change underlying ecological communities so fast, most species would die out, most likely because they would not be able to survive during vulnerable portions of their life cycles. This will be especially true for many vertebrates and plants that are unlikely to survive the challenges of being able to find sufficient water for lengthy periods as water scarcity grows more acute. With a 6 degree rise in global mean temperatures there would be almost no glaciers outside of the poles and a dramatic reduction of winter ice everywhere, hence dramatic reductions in melt water in virtually all rivers. Coupled with competition from burgeoning human populations and you can just about kiss most large species good bye.

    If the present trend continues for a couple of hundred years, those of our descendants surviving are likely to look back nostalgically on the past and for the yearn for the elatively merciful ending of the world portrayed in the movie 2012.

  140. The Climate Hacks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Global Warming Deniers are great at hurling insults, discovering conspiracies, and suggesting we should abandon science and return to the age of enlightenment of 7th century, but they have yet to come up with an explanation as to why all the world glaciers are disappearing.

  141. Ocean As Carbon Sink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seawater does act as a CO2 sink and the rate of C02 uptake and consequent acidification has marine biologists and fisheries biologist alarmed. Seawater everywhere is becoming more acidic and pH's are dropping. This has immediate effects upon most marine invertebrate species that must produce sufficient exoskeleton to survive and upon larval fishes that must calcify their vertebrae quickly to "grow out of" especially vulnerable periods in their life cycles, when they can not out-swim predatory species, or move into habitats essential for subsequent survival during limited "windows" of opportunity, when currents may be favorable.

  142. Re:Falsibility. by MrHanky · · Score: 1

    No, I mean we need to use averages over some time period. You pretend we don't, so that you can easily 'falsify' predictions using a metric you pulled out of your own arse.

  143. Yeah, right... by TaleSpinner · · Score: 1

    Like anyone is going to believe that, now.

  144. Release the data! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Release the data so we can all have a look and verify those conclusions independantly. Without the raw data its just hear-say. Anyone can look at anything and come to their own conclusions.

    As demonstrated with the CRU email leak from the weekend, there are many ways to look at data and there are ways to hide behind Freedom of Information laws while calling out doom on top of a soap box.

  145. I call bs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Give it a rest, it's over. Climate change was debunked the other day. Can't you report on something real?

  146. The truth is global warming has stalled out by rubycodez · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I submitted article with the real truth, wonder if slashdot will post it?

    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,662092,00.html

    1. Re:The truth is global warming has stalled out by Timothy+Brownawell · · Score: 1

      I submitted article with the real truth, wonder if slashdot will post it?

      http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,662092,00.html

      If you look here it seems temperatures have been alternately going up and staying flat (or even cooling slightly) for 30 years or so, and we're about at the end of 30 years of "going up". Maybe the warming is on hold until around 2040?

      Hey, that could mean that 2038 really is the end of the world -- the 2012 people have the right idea, they've just been working from the wrong calendar.

    2. Re:The truth is global warming has stalled out by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      If you'd like to see the data from the sceptical view, check out Lord Christopher Monckton Speaking in St. Paul on YouTube.

      I think he raises several valid points that are not getting fair coverage in the debate. At worst, you'll learn something about how to give a great presentation and the proper use of slides.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  147. The Hoaxsters by turkeyfish · · Score: 1

    "your pre-existing political beliefs tell you all you should need to know. "

    And from this we can conclude that the Climate Deniers, like Nixon, have only one tool left in their quiver. If one can't come up with any rational scientific explanations to counter the findings of climate scientists that mean global temperatures are in fact rising as the result of burning of fossil fuels, turn to burglary to dig up "dirt" on your opponents, as if somehow the consequence of the entire debate rested upon how it is portrayed in the media. The entire debate if stalled and manipulated may well further enrich a few oil industry titans, but it won't do much to lower the temperature of what is going to be a much hotter world.

    Personally, I would prefer that we stop burning fossil fuels and start burning oil company executives, but I suspect it will take a few more degrees of global warming before that solution becomes a widely accepted approach to dealing with a very serious crisis facing humanity.

  148. Think positive! by stalky14 · · Score: 1

    Isn't the bright side of this lots more arable land in places like Canada and Russia? Seems like we'll need it if the population keeps going up.

    1. Re:Think positive! by bunratty · · Score: 1

      Yes, there will be some positive effects due to global warming, such as more arable land in the high latitudes. On the other hand, there will also be negative consequences, such as drought and desertification in other areas, and rising sea levels which will cause millions of people to have to relocate. There is general agreement among world leaders that warming over 2 degrees Celsius would result in overall negative consequences, so they're trying to limit the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 450-550 ppm to limit the effects.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  149. Truth is the "stall" is expected as temps rise. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is not at all unexpected based on current climate models. Global mean temperatures are rising so fast that they are kicking polar ice melts into overdrive.

    When vast quantities of ice melts it produces a lot of cooling. Once the Arctic ice has largely melted (already there is very little ice older than 1 year for much of the Arctic) expect to see the rise in global mean temperatures to return, except at a much accelerated pace. There will be an acceleration because the melting and warming will ultimately begin to unlock the large methane stores in a relative shallow Arctic Sea and because the ice pack, which reflects back much energy back into space will be gone and that energy will instead be absorbed by open water. Although there is considerably more ice in the Antarctic, the sea bed is deep and contains relatively little methane stores. In the Antarctic we will see a continuing calving of ice sheets and an then eventually a rapid rise in global sea levels. These won't become dramatic until about the 23rd Century, when we will see, cities like New York, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, Osaka, Sydney, Mumbai,begin to be inundated with 10-20 m of seawater, in centimeter increments (note that the population of Venice, which has long had problems with rising water is now only a small fraction of what it used to be just 10-15 years ago).

    That the Arctic melts are accelerating is seen in the increasingly irregular fluxations of the jet-stream, which is influenced by ocean current temperatures as warmer tropical waters converge with colder polar water in high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere.

    The big immediate problems with global warming won't be the temperature rise per se, as annual fluctuations are much larger, the most immediate problems for humanity and other animal and plant species will be the unprecedented rapid and locally unpredictable changes in available sources of freshwater.

    1. Re:Truth is the "stall" is expected as temps rise. by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      actually, the stall would be BEFORE big ice melts as heat capacity of ice is much higher, to say nothing of the huge amount of energy it takes to make the phase change to liquid water. so the stall should have been much earlier, not now!

    2. Re:Truth is the "stall" is expected as temps rise. by Timothy+Brownawell · · Score: 2, Interesting

      actually, the stall would be BEFORE big ice melts as heat capacity of ice is much higher, to say nothing of the huge amount of energy it takes to make the phase change to liquid water. so the stall should have been much earlier, not now!

      The heat capacity of water is about 2x that of ice, and melting ice takes ~80x the energy of heating water 1C. So any stall should happen while the ice is melting, which is apparently now.

    3. Re:Truth is the "stall" is expected as temps rise. by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      the biggest rate of ice loss was years ago though

  150. Re:Falsibility. by tsm_sf · · Score: 1

    You do realize that the location of these things is near building and stuff, so pretty much not representative of even local temperatures?

    Pencil tapping on desk. Looking out a window.

    --
    Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
  151. Re:Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain. by Rockoon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You don't even want to hide how incredibly dumbfuckingblindedly biased you are?

    Heres a tip. Stop paying attention to sites that moderate content by deleting dissenting opinions, run by people who delete data in order to hide problems with their work, and even plots to ruin the credibility of peer reviewed journals that publish articles with dissenting views.

    When was the last time any of these guys actually performed the scientific method? Instead of doing science, they fuck around in another discipline (statistics) which they arent properly schooled in.. and who do they hide their methods from? People with math degrees.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  152. Warmists expose themselves. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "It says that one scientist was asked to beef up his conclusions to aid in making a bigger public splash. There's nothing wrong with that. A paper is like an essay. You make different points with different amounts of stress depending on what message you're trying to convey and what you can back up by reference or evidence."

    There is a world of wrong with that. People go to prison for that.

    Did you hear about the Iraq War? Did you hear about the calls for public trials for so-called "sexing up" of dossiers? You are batshit insane, a lunatic.

    "I believe the climate change scientists know what they are doing. Group-think does exist, and entire groups of scientists have been shown to be wrong."

    They have made sure that no scientist would claim otherwise, without the knowledge that the rest of the community would drink champagne the day they die and speak about how they would like to give them a few baseball hits in a dark alley. That sounds like a systemic inducement to not contradict to me, which is significantly greater than what "groupthink" implies.

    The fact that nobody on the climate-change side sees anything significant in what has been exposed makes them out to have a cult mentality.

  153. Re:don't you read the newspapers? by poopdeville · · Score: 1

    He didn't say that at all. You put words in his mouth.

    You fail at debating.

    --
    After all, I am strangely colored.
  154. Seriously .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who gives a flaming fuck?

  155. Not just climate "scientists,"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    there are some others who call themselves "scientists," who do similar things.

    Real scientists, however, use the Scientific Method. Climatologists are generous with hypothesis, but not so much with testable ones, and zero experiments. They jump directly from hypothesis to conclusion, avoiding the science part.

  156. Those who bear false witness by turkeyfish · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Those who bear false witness and say the mean world temperature is not rising have one more fact that they seem unable to explain to account for:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/22/east-antarctic-ice-sheet-nasa

    If is not getting warmer, why is ice melting everywhere at accelerated rates and bringing local temperatures in various places temporarily down with it?

    1. Re:Those who bear false witness by destrowolffe · · Score: 1
      I see your guardian article and raise you with this NASA image of average land and ocean temperatures. Image.

      You will please take note that since about 2003 the graph is trending down meaning decreasing temperatures.

      Does this prove or disprove AGW? of course not! I'm not a denier; I just don't like to see people cherry picking a result and claiming that we face economic DOOM (anti-AGW) or day after tomorrow DOOM (AGW).

      AGW proponents are quick to point out local and hemishpereical weather variations that do not apply to a global mean, but then turn around and point to the southern hemisphere ice pack as spelling doom for the world. Even while different parts of both antarctic and arctic icepack are thickening.

      To diverage off topic a bit --several small islands around Greenland in 1950 were not connected to the mainland via ice. Between 1960 and 2003(?) the islands were covered and connected by ice. Now once again they are not covered by ice and that is evidence of DOOM? No.

    2. Re:Those who bear false witness by he-sk · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The claim that the graph you linked to trends down after 2003 can only be supported by a very superficial reading of it. Note that there many local lows in the data stretching over 120 years, but so far the temperature has always rebounded and the next local peak was (usually) higher than the peak before it.

      Nothing in this graph suggests that the trend is reversing. For the current downward slope there simply isn't enough data to evaluate it.

      One more thing: The absolute temperature values oscillate within a single year. I believe this is caused by the seasons and vegetation patterns. The latest data point in the graph shows yearly lows for the northern and southern hemisphere. I bet the next yearly high will higher then the last peak and the downward trend you're seeing in the mean values will vanish.

      --
      Free Manning, jail Obama.
    3. Re:Those who bear false witness by TapeCutter · · Score: 2, Informative

      "Even while different parts of both antarctic and arctic icepack are thickening."

      Yes, the ice is thickening anywhere around the poles with an altitude greater that 3000 meters, ie: central Greenland and the Antartic ridge. Everywhere else the ice is shrinking in both area and volume (including temprate glaciers above 3000 meters such as those that feed the great river systems of India and southern china). this is inline with model predictions going back to the late 80's. Another phenomena that was predicted by models in the 80's and has since been observed is a phenomena called "polar amplification", ie: the poles warm up faster than the rest of the planet.

      "To diverage off topic a bit --several small islands around Greenland in 1950 were not connected to the mainland via ice. Between 1960 and 2003(?) the islands were covered and connected by ice. Now once again they are not covered by ice and that is evidence of DOOM? No."

      Of course not but that's because your story is an irrelevant anecdote, NASA (the organisation, not just one of it's scientists) are now predicting an ice free artic sea to occur in summer of 2012-13, so we don't have to wait long to find out. If as I suspect NASA's observations and models are correct then an ice free Artic goes hand in hand with dustbowl conditions in the midwest.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    4. Re:Those who bear false witness by bhiestand · · Score: 1

      Of course not but that's because your story is an irrelevant anecdote, NASA (the organisation, not just one of it's scientists) are now predicting an ice free artic sea to occur in summer of 2012-13, so we don't have to wait long to find out. If as I suspect NASA's observations and models are correct then an ice free Artic goes hand in hand with dustbowl conditions in the midwest.

      Sadly, they still won't admit we were right. They'll simply blame it all on "those damned liberals and their government programs" and "those damned liberals allowing gay marriage", and once again their failures will be reinterpreted to reinforce their beliefs.

      --
      SWM seeks new sig for a brief fling
  157. Re:Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain. by Mashiki · · Score: 1

    The thug is the guy who is abusing their position to block open debate. In other words the guys at realclimate who can't take any form of debate what so ever. To the point where they bully and pressure those with dissenting pov's out of the circle. If you're so ignorant to think it doesn't happen, you need to expand your circle of friends.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  158. Re:Falsibility. by tjstork · · Score: 1

    They're not going to increase without limit forever, but there certainly is enough remaining fossil fuel for CO2 to increase beyond today's levels, and thus for warming rates to accelerate.

    not really actually. ok in the case of natural gas, there's a lot of it, but that's methane and burning it is actually almost better because methane is terrible..

    coal, despite its supporters, is actually running out. Used to be all coal was really hard anthracite.. now we're onto cheaper coals. Germany is practically out of anything but lignite, which is pretty shitty coal.

    dick cheney himself said repeatedly in late 1990s that the world was screwed for oil.

    --
    This is my sig.
  159. Timing of this new information is too convenent by dila813 · · Score: 1, Troll

    I have to dismiss out of hand because of the timing. This is political and not scientific. Any press release right before a summit on climate that makes such disastrous claims has to be assumed to be demonstrably false.

    1. Re:Timing of this new information is too convenent by Sulphur · · Score: 1

      I have AlGoreophobia.

      I think global warming is caused by Al Gore farts (political and not scientific).

      --

      BTW it is surprisingly easy to write bad eigenvector programs that badly condition the matrix and don't work,

      but it is even more so if someone has their thumb on the scale.

    2. Re:Timing of this new information is too convenent by turkeyfish · · Score: 1

      Most of this information has been embedded in scientific journal articles for months and years. Its just that the news media and the lay public are periodically focusing on the topic because of the Copenhagen meetings. Consequently, recent publications and refinements of the subject are getting much press.

      Rest assured, the science predicts much warmer weather ahead, regardless of what the politicians might do or what the global warming deniers might get the masses to believe, or how oblivious to the overall problem the public is or remains.

  160. Warming may have stalled out? Not likely! by turkeyfish · · Score: 1

    If global warming is now slowing down then those who like to bear false witness about global warming have even more serious explaining to do:

    Rates of ice sheet melting in Greenland and the Antarctic are accelerating (as is the disappearance of terrestrial glaciers). Since these are based on measures of gravity rather than temperature, the global warming nay-sayers have to account for why the ice is melting more rapidly if the temperature is not going up?

    Well whats the answer for this anomaly? Cooler temperatures cause ice to melt more rapidly? If so, how?

  161. The Register? by WiiVault · · Score: 1

    Is the Register a relevant source for anything? Not in my experience.

  162. Re:Falsibility. by budgenator · · Score: 1

    The angle of incidence at the poles is pretty low, and so is the effect on insolation is too. The potentially not-so-pemafrost might be more of a problem.

    --
    Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  163. 6C Increase By End of Century by hisstory+student · · Score: 1

    Interesting. Good to know we have so many climate experts here in Slashdot. Not that it means anything. WAKE UP people!

    --
    Heard any good sigs lately?
  164. Silly question by Capsaicin · · Score: 4, Informative

    How come the world temprature has dropped half a degree since 2000?

    It hasn't.

    It is highly questionable whether this "pause" is even real. It does show up to some extent (no cooling, but reduced 10-year warming trend) in the Hadley Center data, but it does not show in the GISS data, see Figure 1. There, the past ten 10-year trends (i.e. 1990-1999, 1991-2000 and so on) have all been between 0.17 and 0.34 C per decade, close to or above the expected anthropogenic trend, with the most recent one (1999-2008) equal to 0.19 C per decade - just as predicted by IPCC as response to anthropogenic forcing.*

    According to the GISS data (which takes the polar temperatures into consideration) the decadal trend over 1998-2009 is +0.19C! In light of the fact that the largest increases in temperatures have been observed at the poles, can you understand how a methodology which ignores polar temperatures might not give an accurate global picture of warming?

    More importantly do you understand why your question, were it even true, is largely meaningless? If you don't yet understand that comparing the temperatures over a very few of the hottest decades on record (the 1990s and 2000s) has no significant bearing over a record stretching back a century and a half, I suggest you compare the last two decades to the 1890s and 1900s.

    And how are world leaders likely to respond if the temperature drops during the 2010s?

    Sadly the science tells us that is extrememly unlikely happen. But even if it did, world leaders should respond by accepting the advice of those who understand the statistical significance of any observed falls in trends as against the entire instrumental record. Perhaps you should work at gaining some such understanding yourself?

    --
    Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    1. Re:Silly question by JWW · · Score: 1, Troll

      You're quoting GISS data??

      The same people who did this?? http://globalwarmingquestions.googlepages.com/giss

      Now you can say that that was just a simple error. But what an error it was! And it worked extraordinarily in their favor.

      Many other areas of science falsifying data at this level would be ridiculed mercilessly. But when climate scientists make "errors" that heavily bias things in their favors its waved off and we just move along with the next dire announcement of the next set of data.

      The political agenda of so many in the AGW debate is so powerful that, yes, I really do believe them capable of lying to support their positions.....

    2. Re:Silly question by Capsaicin · · Score: 1

      You're quoting GISS data??

      Apparently.

      The same people who did this??

      Nope not the same people at all. GISS were downstream recipients of the data.

      Now you can say that that was just a simple error.

      Data for 90 out of 908 stations was corrupted. After the problem was noticed the error was repaired.

      But what an error it was! And it worked extraordinarily in their favor.

      "Extraodinarily?" It was up for what? Less than 24 hrs. Gimme a break! This is hardly the most serious problem that has been found in the data, but like other problems, it gets repaired.

      Ain't science great? If you can prove something is wrong, you win the argument, and the other side has to go back to the drawing board. What you point to is the fundamental difference between climate scepticism and climate denalism. Scepticism engages with the actual science, it points out the flaw and by doing so constructively moves science towards the direction of greater accuracy. Denialism is based on non-scientific FUD arguments in the form of "The same people who did this" etc. It is not constructive it is simply time wasting, and, when time if of the essence, it ought not be tolerated.

      Many other areas of science falsifying data at this level would be ridiculed mercilessly.

      Falsifying? Don't be absurd! There was a reporting error in one month between reporting stations and the NOAA, which was promptly corrected. If you can think of any other area of science where an error of this nature has ever attracted as much overinflated ridicule as this let me know.

      The political agenda of so many in the AGW debate is so powerful that, yes, I really do believe them capable of lying to support their positions...

      I agree, you do believe that and I would add that no one could reasonably come to that conclusion based on this event. The issue here is not why you want to convince yourself that climate scientists are involved in a giant conspiracy to deceive the public, it's what steps you have to take to get well.

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    3. Re:Silly question by rubycodez · · Score: 0, Troll

      I have a hard time accepting data from 80 years ago from lip blown hand shaped thermometers as equivalent to today's, and with one qualified measuring station per state to today. There is no basis whatsoever for claiming a temperature rise of 1 degree over a time span of a century. And the probable error increases to many degrees from alternative natural indicators of temperature. cooked books.

    4. Re:Silly question by Capsaicin · · Score: 1

      I have a hard time accepting data from 80 years ago from lip blown hand shaped thermometers as equivalent to today's, and with one qualified measuring station per state to today.

      Sounds like healthy scepticism, mixed perhaps with a little modern arrogance (our forebears were not as unskilled at instrumentation as you might believe).

      Do you think, however, you are the first to question the reliability of the instrumental record? Did you not follow this debate 20 years ago? Have you any idea at what steps were taken to account for any inadequacies in the data?

      There is no basis whatsoever for claiming a temperature rise of 1 degree over a time span of a century.

      Having a hard time accepting some data is one thing. Making a bare faced statement which flies in the face of scientific orthodoxy, based on this is another. What consideration have you give to temperature records derrived from ice-core samples and dendochronology?

      cooked books.

      Accusations of fraud require very strong evidence. You have none. Nor can fraud be established merely by virtue of the putative difficulties in the data you raise, (even putting to one side the way science has actually accounted for these difficulties). Case dimissed.

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    5. Re:Silly question by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      as an engineer, I happen to know thermometers accurate even to within a degree are a very recent invention,and even today the correction scales provided with say a $700 laboratory grade mercury thermometer go more than half a degree plus and minus from 0 to 100 degrees C.

      What consideration have you give to temperature records derived from ice-core samples and dendochronology? Those would be the records that show the average temperature of the earth has been much higher and lower than today, more than 2 degrees C even within the past thousand years. The time when Greenland was green instead of Iceland II. There's some evidence for you that maybe we are becoming hysterical over what might be termed "weather" rather than "climate".

  165. Re:Falsibility. by tjstork · · Score: 0, Troll

    No, I mean we need to use averages over some time period. You pretend we don't, so that you can easily 'falsify' predictions using a metric you pulled out of your own arse.

    you: 100 years from now, the earth will be 6C warmer
    me: linear interpolates to this year.
    you: says y=mx+b is not shape of curve.
    me: what is shape then?
    you (and everyone else): well its some magical thing...

    I'm just asking, what's the function of prediction?

    --
    This is my sig.
  166. Re:Falsibility. by MrHanky · · Score: 1

    1) You'll have to use average temperatures over some time period. NASA seems to prefer the fiveyear mean. As you can expect, it's not linear, and it never will be.
    2) The prediction says "up to 6C"
    3) This depends on the trends of fossil fuel consumption staying the same. They won't, but you're free to extrapolate from there.

  167. SlashDot Wankfest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Asshole alarmists citing other asshole alarmists and then calling anyone who doesn't agree with them the equivalent of Climate Nazi's.

    Please do come and try to take my car, raise my taxes, etc.. The earth will cool somewhat because there won't be any more hot air coming from your pie hole.

  168. Shoot the messenger by Capsaicin · · Score: 1

    Don't link to realclimate.org; its heavily partisan and apologetic for even bad science and outlandish claims.

    Oh please, what complete FUD! The guys who run real climate are actual climate scientists working for credible institutions whose science and maths are about as rigorous as you will find on any blog. Yes they have disagreements with others working in the field and they're not afraid to pull punches. But "bad science"? "Outlandish"?!!

    C'mon, what you get on realclimate.org is the mainstream science. Cut out the cheap propaganda dude.

    --
    Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    1. Re:Shoot the messenger by destrowolffe · · Score: 1

      The realclimate.org moderators/article authors are th same ones implicated in the CRU email scandal.

      It's not cheap propaganda when their internal emails reveal that they (1) manipulated their own data to justify their results (and publicly denied it I might add); (2) discussed ways to prevent skeptics from publishing in peer reviewed journals; (3) denied FOI requests;(4) asked colleagues to delete emails containing information requested in FOI requests; said they would rather delete their data then give it to a skeptic for an audit;*5) internally knew that the hockey stick graphs was bogus and saying as much as early as 2004; (6) making sure that only "approved" individuals would peer review their papers to assure the message would remain unchallenged; (7) purposefully withholding information from the IPCC that didn't match their published data.

      The list goes on and on. Yes, I did spend all weekend reading through the emails, and what I found was disgusting.

      The emails do not disproves AGW. They simply demonstrate that a small subset of eco-warriors perverted the scientific method to advance their own beliefs and successfully controlled what information was presented to the public through the peer review process.

    2. Re:Shoot the messenger by drmerope · · Score: 1

      Take a breath. Think about what I said. I didn't say they weren't scientists working for important climate research institutions. They are, but somehow you think your assertion of those facts cuts against what I said. It does not.

      The problem with realclimate is not they don't have some good, accurate, etc information. The problem is that when someone from their 'tribe' is caught doing bad science they don't play the honest broker. They man the fences, truth be damned--no matter now glaringly in the wrong they are.

      So I stand by my claim. realclimate is too partisan and too dogmatic to be used as a reliable source of information.

    3. Re:Shoot the messenger by Capsaicin · · Score: 1

      Think about what I said.

      "Bad science", "outlandish claims"

      [S]omehow you think your assertion of those facts cuts against what I said.

      Accusing bloggers of "bad science" might be taken to imply that they are not serious scientists doing rigorous science. Does to me.

      The problem is that when someone from their 'tribe' is caught doing bad science they don't play the honest broker.

      No the problem is your tribalism, which being non-American is somewhat difficult for me to understand I must confess. Clearly fairly mainstream science (an I haven't seen claims on realscience that match those in TFA for instance) is challenging to you. So much that you would forbid it being quoted.

      They man the fences, truth be damned--no matter now glaringly in the wrong they are.

      Might I suggest to you that when you find something someone quotes from them to be demonstrably wrong, you demonstrate that it is in fact wrong. This is much more pursuasive to those of us who aren't divided into your tribes than an argument of the form. [source-of-information] says my tribe is wrong, therefore [source-of-information] is not credible, especially when the source of information has high credibility, as realclimate actually does.

      So I stand by my claim. realclimate is too partisan and too dogmatic to be used as a reliable source of information.

      Which evidences your partisan position far more than the reliability of realclimate as a source of credible information.

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    4. Re:Shoot the messenger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The realclimate.org moderators/article authors are th same ones implicated in the CRU email scandal.

      And might I add that they are directly involved. To quote from one email: "You're also welcome to do a followup guest post, etc. think of RC as a resource that is at your disposal to combat any disinformation put forward by the McIntyres of the world.".

      So there you have it! The are letting other scientists use their blog to put forward their theories.

    5. Re:Shoot the messenger by drmerope · · Score: 1

      Next time try reading whole sentences. Then you might actually understand what you're being told.

      I see that you ask: Might I suggest to you that when you find something someone quotes from them to be demonstrably wrong, you demonstrate that it is in fact wrong. Here is one vein:

      Back in December 2004 John Finn asked about the divergence in "Myth vs. Fact Regarding the Hockey Stick"--a thread on realclimate.

      Whatever the reason for the divergence, it would seem to suggest that the practice of grafting the thermometer record onto a proxy temperature record - as I believe was done in the case of the 'hockey stick' - is dubious to say the least.

      This drove a response from realclimate team (M. Mann):

      No researchers in this field have ever, to our knowledge, "grafted the thermometer record onto" any reconstrution. It is somewhat disappointing to find this specious claim (which we usually find originating from industry-funded climate disinformation websites) appearing in this forum.

      With some effort, the methodologies were reproduced and it became clear that MM was not be entirely truthful.

      But RC has stuck its party line--even now after some of the leaked emails from CRU show us that this particular fudging technique was quite common and applied to manipulate data more than once.

  169. the world leaders? by freshfromthevat · · Score: 1

    I think they will find something else to scare us with. They will have to in order to further increase the percentage of our earnings they can control and further increase the percentage of the population that is dependent on government for life.

    --
    .. Blub falls right in the middle of the abstractness continuum. -- Paul Graham
    1. Re:the world leaders? by Skip666Kent · · Score: 1

      If / when the AGW scare tanks, the greens will go back to moaning about the dangers of overpopulation. Stop having children, for the children's sake, and so on.

      --
      **>>BELCH
  170. If you didn't study this in a reputable grad progr by dkoulomzin · · Score: 1

    ...am, please shut up. You're making us all dumber.

    --
    Thou shalt not begin a subject line or post with the word "Umm".
  171. MODS by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

    +5 informative? - When did the average slashdotter lose the ability to read a graph?

    Those charts do not show what the GP is claiming. In fact 20th century tempratures do not even appear on the chart!!! For one thing 100/500,000,000 is way too small to discern on the graph but the real reason is that the nature of moving averages is such that the last 100yrs is statistically unknowable on such a long timescale. Further, according to the text of these well known graphs the intervals used for the short and long term moving averages are 3Myr and 15Myr, in other words not only does it not show the 20th century, mathematically it CANNOT say anything about the trend over the last 3 million years!

    I don't know if the GP pulled his conclusion out of his own arse or that of a lobbyist but the style of misdirection is typical of the disinformation that flows like sewage across the internet.

    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    1. Re:MODS by commodore64_love · · Score: 1

      Wow. Way to miss the point.

      Is there ice on the poles of this planet? Yes? Then this planet is *cooler* than when Homo sapiens was born, because at that point there was NO ice on the poles. There was no ice on the poles during the age of dinosaurs either. Ice on the polices indicates the Earth is in a cold state, relative to the previous 500 million years of ice-free existence.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  172. That light at the end of the tunnel by turkeyfish · · Score: 1

    Although it will becomel warmer at higher latitudes, don't jump to the conclusion that gardens will just pop up everywhere. High latitudes will still have very little daylight during about half of the year not to mention incredibly poor soils. This alone will preclude growing many kinds of plants.

    As for world "leaders", they have just been informed that a rise of 6 degrees Celsius is in all likelihood to be expected REGARDLESS OF WHAT THEY DO and they have yet to have ANY MEANINGFUL response to the problem, perhaps other than to wait for scientists to tell them that its soon to get a lot warmer.

    So while it may be fun to be Pangloss reincarnate, you better plan for some seriously warm weather!

  173. Re:Falsibility. by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    Yes the angle of incidence at the poles is low but it's still enough that with the difference in albedo between ice and open water it has a noticeable effect.

  174. Re:Falsibility. by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    You do realize that a comparison of the record from the 70 weather stations that surfacestations.org marked good or best to the complete weather station network record revealed the urban heat island effect has little or no effect on the measurements. Read about the study here (PDF).

    When you're measuring trends it doesn't matter so much what the absolute temperature is but how it's changing over time.

  175. Re:Falsibility. by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    The greenhouse effect starts at the surface and gets smaller as altitude increases and air density decreases.

  176. You've never read the IPCC reports, have you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You've never read the IPCC reports, have you.

    There's an entire chapter on attribution. And the models include things like solar changes and though the extent and depth of this solar minimum wasn't forecast ***by an earth climate model and ***NOT*** a solar physics model*** the models when given the fact of the depth of this solar minimum agrees with the observations.

    But nevertheless, the IPCC reports you don't believe in say that the sun has a large effect, though small compared to human influence accrued over the century and a half. And not knowing this shows you don't believe the IPCC reports because you've been TOLD not to believe in them. You have obviously not read them.

  177. And I quote: by rickb928 · · Score: 1

    "Almost all of the increase this decade occurred after 2000"

    And how much of the increase this decade would have occurred BEFORE 2000?

    Honestly, sometimes the global warming crew just makes me weep. Can they at least start thinking again?

    ?

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  178. The siren song of unreason by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

    I don't see a problem with spending money on Earth sciences, matter of fact I think it's a benifit to understand the planet I find myself living on. I do however see a problem with people deliberately peddling dangerous disinformation for profit, I don't care if the disinformation relates to medicine, evolution or climate science. The trend toward "wishfull thinking" and "equal weight to unequal sources" over the last decade reminds me of Sagan's nightmare...

    "I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudoscience and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before? Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around us - then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls. The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir" - Sagan, Demon haunted world (Science as a candle in the dark).

    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  179. Re:Falsibility. by fulldecent · · Score: 1

    Here's is news from today that would not get accepted to Slashdot front page:

    Hackers Prove Global Warming Is A Scam
    http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/11/hackers-prove-global-warming-is-scam.html ... Thanks to hackers (or an insider) who broke into The University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) and downloaded 156 megaybytes of data including extremely damaging emails, we now know that data supporting the global warming thesis was completely fabricated. ...

    --

    -- I was raised on the command line, bitch

  180. So long, suckers! by thickdiick · · Score: 1

    While you're all arguing about the INEVITABLE, i'm buying up farmland in Canada. If this all pans out, my dynasty will be a rich and powerful one, commanding great swaths of fertile Canadian farmland that will be ripe when the climate warms up. Canadian oranges, anyone?

  181. Re:Sinks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Suppose the oceans sink 60% of the CO2 emmited by humans per year leaving a 40% airborne fraction. Suppose this goes on for 10 years. Now there is 4 years worth of emmitted CO2 in the atmosphere. If emmission stops then it will take 6 2/3 years for the CO2 levels to return to normal.

    I wonder how much more fossil fuels we can burn even if we try. Sure we could keep extracting fossil fuels as prices rise to keep doing what we have been doing, but maybe the things that have been being done with fossil fuels just aren't worth the price such fuels will command - at least most of the current uses for fossil fuels. There may not be demand for $200/barrel oil. If not enough people will pay for $200/barrel oil ( or alternatives equivalent in price to that ) then there may not be the scale to justify offering it at all.

    Fossil fuel use could severely slow largely for economic reasons. Soon the sinks will aborb the excess.

    And why might people choose not to pay for resources at high prices, when those resources are absolutely necessary? Only if they are UNABLE to pay for them. It would seem that the rich will keep buying the resources and the poor and unvaluable will do without. It may be that prices for fossil fuels don't change as much. It may be that more and more people cease to be able to find the means to pay the same prices they once paid as the fossil fuel dependent economy unravels ( maybe slowly over many years ). At some point once available economies of scale go away and formerly affordable things become prohibitively expensive and the world sinks into a dark age.

  182. You must be kidding, right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A short while after this story

    http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/11/20/1747257

    We get this one. (and I down loaded the data and perused it, the e-mails really are pretty damning)

    I'm sorry, but as I always told my children and staff, trust is a precious commodity. DON'T lie to me, because if you do it will be found out and it will take YEARS for you to fully regain my trust.

    Guess what all knowing and self appointed paleoclimate experts who portray they know what is best for the unwashed masses, the e-mails which leaked indicate you have effectively lied to me, my children, and marketed your position to governments and politicians like some cheesy multinational.

    Collectively you are now no better than any of the self serving, politician buying scum running many of the largest corporations. How many of you will skew your findings to in hope of snaring that next big grant?

    Sorry, but your credibility is gone. If the GW crowd is right, your unethical behavior has doomed man-kind as you blew your credibility. If you're wrong, well being outed may have saved us the trouble of descending into the economic and social abyss you would have guided us too. /rant

  183. Re:Falsibility. by RJBeery · · Score: 1

    I'm surprised I need to explain this to you, but the reason AGW is so politicized is because it basically criminalizes consumption and gives a moral high ground to the unproductive nations. It's a gigantic opportunity for a power grab and a redistribution of wealth all wrapped in to one. NO ONE wants the Earth to "die a heat death" but the reality is that the data is not indisputable (yet) and the motivations of those leading the charge are frequently suspect, as the CRU data hacking episode proves.

  184. Re:Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain. by WiFiBro · · Score: 1

    You might also consider that I know what I am talking about. If you look at the average posting on realclimate it is polite, clearly worded, based on facts.
    If on the contrary you look at the climate skeptics' sites, they mostly consist of slander, fake facts, and the like.

    About the plot you assume: you are currently basing your opinion on material coming from anonymous hackers with a climate-skepticism agenda. Way to go, Rockoon.
    Check http://greenfyre.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/cru-hack-time-to-hit-back-hard/ for a response, I don't even want to bother with slander.

    We have a future to save.

    On your statistics claim: statistics are a part of science, it's a fact, face it. If you think realclimate does not understand it, make your case.

    You are standing in the way of a better future.

  185. Re:Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain. by WiFiBro · · Score: 1

    Mashiki, just comment on their site politely and they will respond. Or what did you post that got blocked?

  186. Re:Falsibility. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's like the Berlin Wall. People know the news from the Internet now, not from the "OFFICIAL" media. I had left Slashdot a year ago, but came back today to see if it had this news. Not having it by now, I'll never be back...
    FG