WSJ: ‘Pentagon Goes to Climate War: The principal threats being multiplied here are hype and hysteria’

WSJ: ‘Pentagon Goes to Climate War: The principal threats being multiplied here are hype and hysteria’

http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/2014/10/wsj-pentagon-goes-to-climate-war.html

The Pentagon Goes to Climate War Hagel wants to retool the military to stop glaciers from melting Oct. 14, 2014 7:36 p.m. ET 14 COMMENTS THE WALL STREET JOURNALArmy Chief of Staff Ray Odierno delivered a stark message on Monday, warning that the U.S. Army is shrinking to a dangerously small size even as the threats it faces are multiplying.“We’ve seen Russian aggression in Eastern Europe, we’ve seen ISIS, we’ve seen some increased instability in other places,” the general told a military conference. “So I now have a concern whether even going below 490,000 [troops] is the right thing to do.” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced in February that the Army would shrink to about 450,000 soldiers by 2017. General Odierno’s modest suggestion to the political class: Maybe now is a good time to rethink the cuts. Defense Secretary Chuck HagelHow quaint. As General Odierno was fielding questions about whether ISIS—currently 15 miles from Baghdad airport—could take the Iraqi capital, the Pentagon released its 2014 “Climate Change Adaptation Forecast,” a roadmap for how the Pentagon intends to deal with what Secretary of State John Kerry recently called “the biggest challenge of all that we face right now.”The report contains the usual global-warming platitudes that have become standard government and industry fare. The goal is to “integrate climate change considerations across the Department and manage associated risks,” and “collaborate with internal and external stakeholders on climate change challenges.” In a foreword, Mr. Hagel explains that climate change is a “threat multiplier” that “has the potential to exacerbate many of the challenges we are dealing with today—from infectious disease to terrorism.”The principal threats being multiplied here are hype and hysteria. Current fears about the Ebola virus notwithstanding, the last century of increasing carbon-dioxide emissions has also been the era of the conquest of infectious disease, from polio to HIV. No one has made a credible link between Ebola and climate change, though no doubt somebody will soon try.As for terrorism, the Pentagon’s job is to defeat jihadist forces that are advancing under the flag of Islamist ideology. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan did not murder his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood because the heat got to him, and Americans who might die at the hands of the Islamic State won’t care that Mr. Hagel is mobilizing …

Climatologist Dr. Judith Curry makes predictions on Arctic sea ice: ‘I do not expect continued decline in the coming decade’ – Predicts 2015 ice ‘will be the same or greater than 2014’

New presentations on sea ice

http://judithcurry.com/2014/10/15/new-presentations-on-sea-ice

by Judith Curry I have prepared two new talks on sea ice to present in Nanjing. But first, some recent context on sea ice. 2014 sea ice minima The last several years I have written a post on sea ice around the time of the Arctic sea ice minima Arctic sea ice minima? (2013) Reflections on the Arctic sea ice minimum Part I (2012) Reflections on the Arctic sea ice minimum Part II (2012) Well this year, the sea ice minima was sort of a non event, essentially the same as 2013, with a continued (significant) increase in sea ice volume. Last June, I did a post What can we expect for this year’s Arctic sea ice? Which included my ‘expert’ forecast for the 2014 sea ice minima: “similar to last year.” At the end of this post I’ll make my 2015 sea ice minima ‘forecast’. Royal Society Meeting Last September, the Royal Society hosted a Workshop on Arctic sea ice reduction: the evidence, models, and global impacts. Objectives of the meeting: This meeting explores the recent, rapid Arctic sea ice reduction. We will discuss the evidence for change, the inability of our climate models to predict these changes, the processes responsible for sea ice reduction and improved representation of these processes in climate models, and the impacts of sea ice change on local and global weather and climate. Here is the list of speakers Julienne Stroeve, Reduction of summer sea ice extent Mark Serreze, Changes in Arctic sea ice and the polar atmosphere Peter Wadhams, Sea ice thickness from submarines Ronald Kwok, Satellite observations of sea ice thickness Andrey Proshutinsky, Arctic circulation regimes Helene Hewitt, Using models to understand and predict Arctic Sea Ice John Turner, Why is sea ice increasing in the Southern Ocean? Marika Holland, The capabilities and limitations of Arctic sea ice ocean climate models Daniel Feltham, Sea ice mechanics and the next generation of sea ice physics Dirk Notz, Processes controlling the Arctic sea ice mass balance Don Perovich, Field studies of sea ice melt Professor Grae Worster, Sea ice thermodynamics and brine drainage Gavin Schmidt, Atmospheric composition and radiative impacts of Arctic sea ice loss Jennifer Francis, The impact of Arctic sea ice loss on extreme weather Sheldon Bacon, The Arctic Ocean freshwater budget and implications for climate Unfortunately, the presentations are not publicly available; previously the RS …

Singer Neil Young Disappointed With Obama’s Environmental Policies

Neil Young Disappointed With Obama’s Environmental Policies

http://www.ecorazzi.com/2014/10/15/neil-young-disappointed-with-obamas-environmental-policies/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=neil-young-disappointed-with-obamas-environmental-policies

Neil Young had a few choice words for President Barack Obama”s handling of environmental issues when the music legend appeared on Howard Stern‘s radio show this week. “Our leaders are doing Read MoreThe post Neil Young Disappointed With Obama’s Environmental Policies appeared first on Ecorazzi.

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Expert Blasts Alfred Wegener Institute Ocean Acidification Claim: ‘Clear Falsification Of Scientific Facts’

Expert Blasts Alfred Wegener Institute Ocean Acidification Claim: “Clear Falsification Of Scientific Facts”

http://notrickszone.com/2014/10/16/expert-blasts-alfred-wegener-institute-ocean-acidification-claim-clear-falsification-of-scientific-facts/

Ocean acidification: The terrible little brother of global warming By Dr. D. E. Koelle (Translated/edited by P Gosselin) The alleged global warming, which now has not taken place for 18 years, has just received a “terrible little brother”. It was high time to find such a brother, especially since the older climate sister was becoming so weak. Here that little brother is the not unknown “ocean acidification”, which was recently elevated by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in a press release dated 8 October 2014 to being the new global danger that comes with “dramatic impacts” ,”costs in the billions” and the claim that the pH value today is dropping 10 times faster than in the past. There was no word however that the ocean in fact is not “acidic” in any way. Rather with a pH value of between 7.8 and 8.1 it is clearly alkaline. This is a clear falsification of scientific facts (but the citizens won’t notice at all). If anything, when viewed objectively, a reduction in alkalinity has nothing to do with an “acidification”, which would begin at a pH value of 6.9. Figure: CO2 concentration in the atmosphere over the last 300 million years (Retallack) – completely without any anthropogenic impact. Here the claim of the supposed pH value drop is hardly a serious one because there is no global pH measurement network that would allow such a claim to be backed up. Local datasets show a pH value fluctuation of +/- 0.1 points. What is confirmed is the fact that over 90% of the earth’s history, the atmospheric CO2 concentration was considerably higher than the very modest 400 ppm level we have today. The average over the last 300 million years was near 2000 ppm (see diagram from Retallack, which is based on changes in the stoma pores of Gingko plants). Neither the considerably higher CO2 levels over the earth’s history nor the maximum of 6000 parts per million has ever led to an “acidification of the oceans”. If the claims of a damaging influence on coral reefs were true, then the corals would have died millions of years ago. So just where is this kind of acidification supposed to come from? Approximately 11 Gt of CO2 (a third of the anthropogenic emissions) is taken up by the oceans, but …