Scientist Warwick Hughes debunks ‘NOAA’s claim that May and June were hottest evah for our globe
…NOAA’s claim that ‘June was the hottest month’ clashes with satellite temps! Satellite’s reveal ‘it wasn’t even close to hottest’
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2014/07/22/more-on-the-noaa-june-fraud/…
Satellite data reveals ‘claims of record heat are incorrect’
AP’s Seth Borenstein: ‘WORLD BREAKS MONTHLY HEAT RECORD 2 TIMES IN A ROW’
Global Warming Is Making Australian Red Wine (Shiraz) Less Alcoholic, Winemaker Says
Global Warming Is Making Australian Shiraz Less Alcoholic, Winemaker Says
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/14/3459651/climate-change-shiraz/
CREDIT: Shutterstock
Reuters has a feature story up this week on how climate change is impacting shiraz — Australia’s world-famous red wine — and the details are sobering.
Reporter Jane Wardell spoke with Australian winemaker Nick Glaetzer, who has moved his shiraz operation to the southern state of Tasmania — a region that is about 38 percent cooler than in the traditional grape-growing region Barossa Valley in southern Australia. The reason Gleatzer did it, he said, is because increased heat and dryness in the Barossa are impacting the quality of grapes, making it difficult to produce wine.
And Glaetzer is not alone. Currently, the Tasmanian shiraz industry is growing at a rate of close to 10 percent per year, while Australia’s wine industry has steadily shrunk 1.9 percent annually for the last five years. And the shiraz produced in Tasmanian is less alcoholic, Glaetzer said — about 15-20 percent lower in alcohol content than the shiraz produced in the Barossa.
At the same time, winemakers are funding a government-backed experiment to simulate how global warming will impact the Barossa vineyards in 30-50 years, and trying to figure out how to successfully produce shiraz in those drier conditions. What they’re finding is that, if the shiraz is able to be produced, it will likely be unrecognizable.
“If the projections are right, a shiraz in the Barossa in 50 years’ time may well taste totally different to what it does at the moment,” Michael McCarthy, an Australian government scientist studying the wine industry, told Reuters.
According to the Tasmanian Climate Change Office, temperatures in Australia’s main wine regions are projected to increase by between 0.3 and 1.7 degrees Celsius by 2030 because of global warming. Scientists predict the area will get dryer, too, with a recent U.S. study showing the area’s autumn and winter rainfall may drop by up to 40 percent by the end of the century.
Because of this, the Reuters report said 73 percent of Australian land currently used for winemaking could become unsuitable by 2050, citing a study by the U.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings stand to have a big impact on the economy too, as Australia’s wine industry is worth about $5.3 billion.
Despite this, Australia’s government — headed by prime minister Tony Abbott — is one of the least climate …
Claim: ‘6 ways climate change is ruining summer for everyone’ – ‘It’s about to get really ugly out there, everyone’
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/13/6_ways_climate_change_is_ruining_summer_for_everyone/…
Hospitals at increasing risk of overheating due to climate change
Where is the heat? Boston & NYC could see their first 90°F day of the summer — ‘unusually, if not unprecedentedly, late into the season’
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/90-degree-days-late-arriving-for-boston-nyc-17716…
NOAA Reinstates July 1936 As The ‘Hottest Month’ On Record – Replaces July 2012
…Statistician chills warming fears: The ‘reduction in cold-related deaths actually dwarfs the rise in heat-related deaths!’
http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/06/media_misleads_on_statistics.html
Let’s look at another headline, this one from February:
Yowza. Stay inside, stock up on ice cream, and blast the air-conditioning!
But lost in the rush to predict dire consequences from global warming, were two key nuggets of information: 1. There will be more deaths anyway as the population of the United Kingdom grows older. 2. The reduction in cold-related deaths actually dwarfs the rise in heat-related deaths!
Take a look at the original graphs from the research showing off heat deaths and cold deaths. Notice anything misleading? (Hint: take a look at the vertical axes.)
The axes on both plots had been arranged to make the numbers look more comparable than they really are!
On his blog, Spiegelhalter remade the graphs and combined them to more accurately reflect the data.
Looking at these graphs leads one to a different conclusion. “Overall, for any individual in the UK, the risk of a temperature-related death is expected to fall steadily due to climate change,” Spiegelhalter wrote.
Anytime you read an alarming headline where assessments of risk are involved, be skeptical. There could be a more nuanced story buried in the details.
(Image: Shutterstock)…