Sea-Ice Growing But Reports Continue Negative; Northeast Passage Opens Up September 15, 2009

US Summer 2009 Temp Ranks

While many people in the US may have wondered this summer what happened to Global Warming, other parts of the world showed some new affects of rising temperatures.  In the US, the map shows that Texas was the 8th warmest on record, Florida was at the fourth highest average temperature for any summer since 1895 and Washington had it 7th warmest summer.  But, other parts of the country were decidedly colder.  Michigan went through the 5 coldest summer on record and a number of other states in the Northern Plains came in with the 7th coolest summer.  The US was determined to have gone through the 34th coolest summer on record.

As for the Arctic Ice extent, which many use as a bellweather for Global Warming analysis, the ice extent is growing for the second consecutive year.  Back in 2007, the ice extent fell to its lowest levels, which prompted media outlets to trumpet some scientific speculation that perhaps the north pole would become devoid of ice for a time.  Of course, these media reports neglected to mention that the scientific probability was well less than 50% and instead made it sound like it was a hard-fast prediction. 

Aug Arctic Sea Ice Graphic

Anyway, the Sea-Ice at the North Pole did not decrease in 2008 but instead increased.  Instead of reporting that the ice grew, the headlines said it was the sccond lowest in recorded history, which only goes back to 1979.  So far, in 2009, the ice continues to run above the 2008 levels.  So, do the headlines say that the sea-ice has grown for the second consecutive year?  Of course not.  Instead the headline say that the “Arctic Ice Meltdown Greater Than Average Again in 2009.”   On the flip side, there is another story afoot that Global Warming may be the reason behind future cooling of the North American continent in the future!  Now, that would cause quite a problem politically.  If the rest of the world gets hotter but Americans feel cooler, then that would probably cause a very large chunk of the American population to oppose any political efforts to curb Global Warming.  See additional Sea Ice Data from Sea-Ice News.

Now, the ice growth seems to fly in the face of global warming advocates and I do not believe that the increasing of ice over two consecutive years made it into the presentation of Al Gore’s movie.  Nor do I think it was part of any solution posed by climate modeling data on which speculation has been based.  But,  it’s happened.  Then again, the fact that a Northeast Passage has opened up in the sea-ice for a couple of ships kinda fits the whole notion that North America might get colder when everyone else gets warmer.  While one year does not a trend make, it would seem we saw it this year.  This all fits into my contention that no one knows.  We as humans think we have all the answers when in fact, there are no absolutes.  So far, the overall predictions of Mr. Gore’s movie and even the IPCC report are not going as planned.  Arctic Sea Ice is growing over the past two years and much of the United States is cooler.  But, on the other hand, other parts of the world are warming and there is that little issue of the Northeast Passage. 

Don’t believe the hype either way and encourage your politicians to allow the scientific process to conclude in a normal, academic fashion, instead of the current trend of allowing political gamesmanship and opportunism to corrupt the proper methodology.

Global Warming Goof: IPCC Can’t Verify Data? Herbert Hoover a Socialist? Ozone Hole Spin? Smoking Ban Lifted? November 17, 2008

00Z 1117 NAM 60 Hr. Wed AM Surface

Look for a front to move through on Monday. There may be some sunshine just after the front moves through but the clouds should return late Monday.  After a blustery and brisk Monday, a very isolated chance of a flurry but really the story is the mercury.  Tuesday morning mid to upper 20′s.  Tuesday afternoon probably not out of the 30′s despite sunshine.  Wednesday morning low to mid 20′s.  We don’t see any 50′s until next weekend.

IPCC Can’t Verify it’s Data? Back in July I posted articles that questioned the veracity of the research

What Happened To This Graph From the 1990 IPCC Report?

used by the United Nations and its International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  In that post (here) you find that there were many people who questioned the infamous “hockey stick” graph that showed a relatively steady temperature throughout the time frame until you get to the 20th century at which time temperatures go straight up.  I wondered about where the “mini-ice age” was from about 1350 to about 1850 and also the previous time from around 1000 to 1300 in which the Vikings were runnnig around Greenland raising crops and sheep.  As it turns out, more learned people than I asked the same question and the IPCC was forced to capitulate and admit that their hockey stick graph was false.  Now it seems that the data from at least one month was corrupted and after saying that October was the hottest on record, the IPCC has had to back track again and admit that their data was wrong.  In fact, circumstantial data so far indicates that October may be the exact opposite of the initial erroneous report.  Two aspects of this latest fiasco concerns me.  One is that the people in charge admit that they do “not have the resources

IPCC Has Revised Forecast Downward

to exercise quality control” over the data that it collects!!!  So, now we find out that the International Panel on Climate Change has no way to monitor the veracity of their data collection.  Yet, these are the people controlling the information that governments around the world are basing thier future policies and economies.  The other thing that troubles me is that THIS REPORT comes to my attention via the London Telegraph.  I can’t find any American media outlets that have brought this to the attention of the people of the United States.  Mr. Gore told us that the debate was over, yet he based his movie and this statement on a bunch of people who admit that the have no quality control over the data.  Doesn’t the American public have the right to know such reports and the explanation?  The IPCC reports were top of the newscast stories on the national networks…but this one gets buried.  Why do you think that is so?

Revised Ozone Report  If you recall, a few days ago I brought to you a report that said that the ozone hole was the 5th largest ever recorded.  I suppose others had a similar reaction to what I had which was that there was legislation that was supposed to cure the ozone hole and everything was fixed and we could feel safe.  Well, it looks like to me that someone high up the chain didn’t like the headline and ordered someone to make a revision because here is the new, revised report, that opens by saying that the US has reduced its ozone depleting substance production by over 97%!!!  Amazing how you can spin one story.  Here is the latest version.  Compare it with the old version which was just a few days old.

Herbert Hoover Bashing  In these economic times, we’ve heard that we face the worst crisis since Herbert Hoover.  In the 1992 election cycle we were told that it was the worst economy since Herbert

Misunderstood? A Socialist?

Hoover.  Of course, if a Democrat was in office during the election-time downturn, the cry would be that its the worst economy since Jimmy Carter.  Anyway, this past election we heard charges of socialism.  Did you know that in the 1932 one of the candidates was charged with having socialistic policies because of his desire for government intervention in the economy?  It’s true and the charge was made against Herbert Hoover by Franklin Roosevelt.  We have always been taught in school that Hoover just sat back and wanted to let the market place take care of the problem.  In truth, Hoover was seen as an interventionist because of all of the pumping of governmental dollars into the system.  After he lost the election, Franklin Roosevelt did the same thing but on an even grander scale.  There are historians who, in this time of Hoover bashing, want to give the reputation of Herbie a makeover.  Here is the story from the Wall Street Journal that appeared in the election day edition.  It accurately points out that Hoover was a man of many great accomplishments before and after his term in office…it’s just that things didn’t go so well during that one term and that has been his legacy. And that’s a shame because he was in many regards a great man.

Fire It Up!

Smoke’em If You Gottem:  And finally, again from our friends at the London Daily Telegraph…seems that several months ago a smoking ban was put into effect on the casinos at Atlantic City.  Casino owners argued that business would suffer because other casinos in the country didn’t have smoking bans.  Business would suffer, they said. The Atlantic City city council said nonsense.  Now that revenues are down at area casinos, and therefore tax revenues, the city council apparently agrees with the casino owners because the smoking ban has been lifted.(video story)  Light’em up and head to Atlantic City!