Gore Effect Strikes Keystone XL Pipeline Protesters! ‘At 37 degrees with a major snowstorm headed Wichita’s way, it was a cold day to protest global warming’
http://www.kansas.com/2014/02/03/3265947/marchers-through-downtown-wichita.html…
Salon Mag: ‘The media’s apocalypse problem: How do you report on the end of the world?’-‘ Why journalists appear ill-equipped to cover climate change’s massive global stakes’
The media’s apocalypse problem: How do you report on the end of the world?
Why journalists appear ill-equipped to cover climate change’s massive global stakes…
U.S. Dec/Jan Temperatures 3rd Coldest in 30 Years
U.S. Dec/Jan Temperatures 3rd Coldest in 30 Years
http://www.drroyspencer.com/2014/02/u-s-decjan-temperatures-3rd-coldest-in-30-years/
NOAA image of minimum temps on Jan. 6, 2014.Yes, Virginia, it really has been a cold winter.
The winter months of December 2013 and January 2014 averaged over the contiguous 48 United States were the 3rd coldest Dec/Jan in the last 30 years.
The analysis is based upon ~350 NOAA/NWS stations that measure temperatures every 6 hours (or more frequently), many located at airports. This is different from the official NOAA temperature product (update not yet available), which is based upon daily max/min temperatures measured at 1,000+ co-op stations. Those stations have had large adjustments made due to (among other things) changing time of observation (TOBS) over the years.
Here’s a plot of the Dec/Jan averages for the last 41 years (click for large version):
An interesting feature is that 5 of the last 7 years have been below the 41-year average, which has happened only one other time in the 41-year period.
The data I use are adjusted for average spurious urban heat island (UHI) warming that increases with population density around the thermometer site. That relationship is shown at the end of this article. The analysis starts in only 1973 since that is the first year with a large amount of quality-controlled 6-hourly temperature data archived at NOAA.
So, does the cold winter disprove global warming theory? No more than an unusually warm winter proves the theory. It’s just what we used to call “weather”.…
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: ‘Is Keystone the Biggest Green Defeat Ever?’
http://www.the-american-interest.com/blog/2014/02/03/is-keystone-the-biggest-green-defeat-ever/
The American Interest
ANALYSIS BY WALTER RUSSELL MEAD & STAFF
ENVIRO-MENTAL
Is Keystone the Biggest Green Defeat Ever?
The long-awaited State Department report on Keystone XL was released last Friday, and it confirmed what common sense already told us: building this pipeline won’t significantly affect emissions. The oil in Canada’s tar sands will make its way to market one way or another—whether by rail, truck, or some other pipeline. Given that, whether or not Keystone is built will have no bearing on the thing environmentalists are so upset about here, which is the actual extraction and consumption of the heavy Albertan crude.
This wasn’t a surprise decision. In fact, it was a confirmation of an earlier draft report that sketched a very similar picture. Michael Levi calls this final version a “stress test” of that earlier report. He further notes that for Keystone to make or break tar sands production would require an incredibly specific set of circumstances: the price of oil would need to hover above the breakeven price for tar sands production but below the price at which producers could profitably bring crude to market by rail or truck. So if President Obama intends to nix the project on green grounds, “he’ll need to thread a very small needle.”
In a speech on climate change this past June, Obama said he would permit Keystone “only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution.” This latest report shows that the pipeline passes that test, and not only that—it’s the greenest option we have in this situation. Scientific American reports:
[T]he State Department finds in the new assessment that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline is the most environmentally friendly option compared to other transportation alternatives, such as railroads and tanker ships. Despite the significant (and unique, due to the oil’s characteristics) risk of spills, a pipeline like Keystone XL is a safer, cheaper and more environmentally benign way of transporting oil, the assessment concludes.
For greens, this should be a gut check—though already we’re seeing that it isn’t. Erich Pich, president of Friends of the Earth, called the report a “farce,” saying that ”the oil industry…had a direct pipeline into the agency” and the findings were a result of “collusion between the State Department, oil industry and the Canadian government.” But the hard truth here is that when Obama approves Keystone—and he now has every …
Sec. of State John Kerry: ‘Energy Policy’ Will Solve Climate Change and Create ‘Mother of All Markets’
…Flashback 1970 Washington Post: ‘Colder winters herald dawn of a new ice age’
…Flashback 1871: Three consecutive years of drought ‘absurdly’ blamed on ‘the operation of men’
…Meteorologist Joe D’Aleo: ‘The last refuge of anthropogenic global warming theory fails to stand up to scrutiny’ ‘They have created an unfalsifiable hypothesis’
Meteorologist Joseph D’Aleo served as the first Director of Meteorology at The Weather Channel and was the Chief Meteorologist at Weather Services International Corporation and served as chairman of the American Meteorological Society’s (AMS) Committee on Weather Analysis and Forecasting. D’Aleo founded the website International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project at Icecap.us – Mr. D’Aleo is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin BS, MS and did his doctoral studies in Air Resources at NYU. Mr. D’Aleo is currently co chief Meteorologist at Weatherbell.com.
Excerpts:
By Joseph D’Aleo, CCM (Certified Consulting Meteorologist)
wqeIn the United States, the number of high heat extremes have been declining since the 1930s. 23 of the 50 state all time heat records occurred in the 1930s and 39 before 1960. More cold than heat extremes have been set since the 1940s. The claims to high temperature months and years is with “adjusted” (manipulated) data. The actual heat and cold records are unadjusted.
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Sea level rise has slowed dramatically from the 20th century, and there is no upward trend in incidents of droughts and floods. Hurricane activity globally is at a 34 year low. “Superstorm” Sandy was a borderline Category 1 storm. Eight Category 3 or greater storms hit the Atlantic coast from 1938 to 1960. The total tornado count this year was over 140 incidences less since records started in 1953. The number of wildfires are the lowest since modern records began in 1985.
The arctic ice cover bounced back over 50% with one of the coldest arctic summers on record while new records for ice were set in Antarctica, even trapping a research ship this past month, during the Antarctic summer.
Snow was supposed to become increasingly rare. Instead as this week will reinforce, it is increasing. 4 of the top 5 snowiest years for the northern hemisphere have been in the last 6 years. In just 4 years, we have had more east coast snowstorms this decade than any in history.
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