Month: July 2012

We’ve gotten a little rain here in mid-Michigan, and this morning it’s cool and comfortable, more like normal. That is not the case for the more central areas of the midwest bread basket.

ClimateCentral:

While much of the country has had a brief respite from the extreme heat and humidity that has marked the summer of 2012, in the nation’s heartland — including key agricultural areas from Nebraska to Illinois — the heat has proven relentless. When the temperature soared to 105°F at 3:00 pm central time, St. Louis tied its all-time record for the most days in a single year with high temperatures of 105°F or greater. The existing record of 10 such days was set in 1934.

Through July 21, St. Louis and Columbia, Mo., had each set a record for the warmest year-to-date, beating a record established in 1921. The National Weather Service said that by October, the records for the maximum number of days with a high temperature of 90°F or greater, and 95°F or greater, “will also likely be threatened at all three of our official climate locations.”

Further west, it is possible that North Platte, Neb., will wind up with its second-longest streak of consecutive 100°F days, with nine such days if temperatures reach the century mark through Wednesday.

North Platte, which sits along I-80 in the western part of the state, had already seen 16 days this year with temperatures of 100°F or higher as of July 23, including 12 100-degree days in July alone. The all-time record is 29 such days, set during the Dust Bowl year of 1936. Omaha has had its fourth-longest streak of consecutive days with high temperatures of 95°F or greater, and has hit 100°F or higher five times this month. The high temperature on both July 22 and 23 was 105°F, which were record daily highs. Omaha normally averages just two 100-degree days during July.

–

The heat in the Central states is compounding drought concerns, as one of the worst droughts in U.S. history has intensified during recent weeks due to the combination of record warmth and well below-average rainfall.

Further north, though, some beneficial rain is falling in a zone from Minnesota through northern Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. A frontal boundary marking the dividing line between cooler and less humid air to the north, and the extreme heat to the south, has already sparked one round of severe thunderstorms on Tuesday. A long-lasting, fast-moving complex of thunderstorms producing widespread damaging winds (similar to but not quite meeting the official criteria of a “derecho“) — tore through the Chicago area, knocking out power to as many as 175,000 people.

More severe weather is expected during the week, but most of the rain from these thunderstorms is likely to fall to the north of the areas most heavily affected by the drought.

Normally, I try to stay out of the weeds of “inside baseball” conflicts between denialists and, well, sane people, but in this case, given Mike Mann’s recent call-out of the latest lunacy, I think it’s germane to get an update on a related situation that’s been simmering under the radar.

Big City Lib brings us this strange item:

It looks like Tim Ball’s legal defense in the defamation suit brought against him by climate scientist Michael Mann has gone entirely off the rails. Its a long story, and one that I must admit fell off the radar for me to the point where I didn’t realize how weird it was all getting.

It began back in March of 2011, when Ball accused Mann of scientific misconduct for his role in what has come to be known as “Climategate”.  Mann launched a defamation suit, and Ball turned for legal advice to one John O’Sullivan, co-author and driving force behind Slaying The Sky Dragon, a book purporting to “expose the climate fraud”.  You’ve heard it all before; the only thing distinguishing Sky Dragon from other similar titles was its sheer awfulness; not even the skeptic friendly Judith Curry could get behind its theories.

In any case, O’Sullivan went about his duties with great enthusiasm.  Here he is, for example, soliciting funds for Tim Ball’s defense at Anthony Watts blog.  Similar pleas for cash dating from the same time-frame can be found elsewhere.  More recently, O’Sullivan joined the chorus of people who have compared Mann to fellow Penn State luminary  Jerry Sandusky.

However, a couple of days ago, science journalist Andrew A. Skolnick left the following comment on Michael Mann’s facebook page:

It’s depressingly hilarious that one of the loudest-mouthed crackpots “linking” Prof. Mann to “pedophiles” is a former school teacher whose career ended in scandal almost a decade ago following his arrest and trial for sending dozens of obscene text messages to a 16-y-o school girl. Former high school art teacher John O’Sullivan was acquitted after his step-daughter testified she had sent the obscene messages — testimony that the judge said he did not find fully credible. O’Sullivan then published an autobiographical novel (titled “Vanilla Girl”) in which he defends what he called “kiddie fiddling” — I kid you not.*

Now, the thing with it is, he’s not kidding.  Every point in the above has been thoroughly documented, even the last bit.  For example, this series of emails traces the laborious process by which Mr. Skolnick confirmed that O’Sullivan purchased his law degree  from “Hill University”, an on-line diploma mill that sells any degree in any field with a “promised delivery in just 14 days!”  Here is a brief account of O’Sullivan’s trial, and if you are so inclined, Vanilla Girl can be found through Google.But wait!  There’s more!  And it gets even weirder!

Skolnick next took O’Sullivan to The Law Society of British Columbia for representing himself as a consultant with Pearlman Lindholm, Tim Ball’s real lawyers.  The society then opened an investigation into Michael Scherr of Pearlman Lindholm for allowing  an unauthorized person to practice law.  Here’s the result of that investigation;  the society accepted Scherr’s contention that O’Sullivan worked for Ball, not the firm and, well, Scherr just assumed the guy was a lawyer.  I’ll give Mr. Skolnick the last word: I should point out how funny I find Mr. Scherr’s explanation to the Law Society. He admits to having handed out money from Ball’s legal defense fund to O’Sullivan for his “consulting” services, but states that O’Sullivan was working for Ball, not for his law firm and that he “took no steps to investigate Mr. O’Sullivan’s professional status.”  Continue reading “Mike Mann Defamation Update: The Unbearable Weirdness of Denial.”

NASA Jet Propulsion Lab:

PASADENA, Calif. – For several days this month, Greenland’s surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations. Nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its 2-mile-thick (3.2-kilometer) center, experienced some degree of melting at its surface, according to measurements from three independent satellites analyzed by NASA and university scientists.

On average in the summer, about half of the surface of Greenland’s ice sheet naturally melts. At high elevations, most of that melt water quickly refreezes in place. Near the coast, some of the melt water is retained by the ice sheet, and the rest is lost to the ocean. But this year the extent of ice melting at or near the surface jumped dramatically. According to satellite data, an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface thawed at some point in mid-July.

Researchers have not yet determined whether this extensive melt event will affect the overall volume of ice loss this summer and contribute to sea level rise.

“The Greenland ice sheet is a vast area with a varied history of change. This event, combined with other natural but uncommon phenomena, such as the large calving event last week on Petermann Glacier, are part of a complex story,” said Tom Wagner, NASA’s cryosphere program manager in Washington. “Satellite observations are helping us understand how events like these may relate to one another as well as to the broader climate system.”

Continue reading “Image of the Day: Unprecedented Greenland Melt”

Statement from Paul McCartney:

1968. That was a hell of a year. The people were on the streets, revolution
 was in the air, we released the White Album, and perhaps the most 
influential photograph of all time was taken by an astronaut called William 
Anders.

It was Christmas eve. Anders and his mission commander Frank Borman had 
just become the only living beings since the dawn of time to orbit the moon. 
Then, through the tiny window of their Apollo 8 spacecraft their eyes fell
 upon something nobody had seen before, something so familiar and yet so 
alien, something breathtaking in its beauty and fragility.
 
”Oh my God!” Borman cried. “Look at that picture over there! Here’s the 
Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty!”

“You got a color film, Jim?” Anders snapped back. “Hand me that roll of
 color quick, will you…”. 
For a minute or so, two human beings in a tin can nearly 400,000 kilometers 
from home scrambled furiously to fix a roll of Kodak into their camera. Then
 Anders lifted it to the window and clicked the shutter and captured our
 delicate home planet rising slowly over the horizon of the moon. Earthrise. That single image made such an impact on the human psyche that 
it’s credited with sparking the birth of the global environment movement -
with changing the very way we think about ourselves.

Continue reading “Paul McCartney: “You Guessed it. I am the Walrus…””

In response to the latest in vile and disgusting attacks on climate science and scientists, Paleo-Climate expert Mike Mann today served the once-long-ago-useful-now-ridiculous National Review with the letter demanding a retraction and apology.  The letter can be viewed below, or on Mike’s Facebook page, where you may choose to spread it around.

Part of the offensive piece, which compares Dr. Mann to sexual predator Jerry Sandusky,  is reproduced here.

This recent slime fest marks the latest in the long decline of what once was the brave attempt to build a respectable intellectual underpinning for modern conservatism. William F. Buckley, I’m quite sure, would puke.

The letter crafted by Dr. Mann’s attorney promises to “pursue all appropriate legal remedies”.

Get popcorn.

For anyone still not clear on the multiple exonerations of Dr. Mann and his colleagues of anything remotely resembling wrong doing in the trumped up nothing-burger called “climate gate”, video review is below.

Continue reading “Mike Mann Calls Out Slime-Vending “conservatives” at National Review”

Nice video by Cisco illustrating the way telecommunications, cell phone, and internet technology are taking hold in the developing world by the process of “leapfrogging” – no need to wait for 100 years of heavy infrastructure and transmission development – do not pass go, go directly to the 21st century.

What this has to do with climate, is that the majority of the action in the coming century in energy development, will be in the developing world.  Solar energy in particular, as I’ve mentioned many times here, is the ideal, quintessential leapfrog technology. The template is there – it’s happening now.

Bloomberg:

On a January evening, Anand is shelling betel nuts by the light of an electric lamp in Halliberu, his village in India’s Karnataka state.

As his friends gather on the lamp-lit porch to swap stories, children play in the yard, Bloomberg Markets reports in its May issue. Inside, after decades of cooking in the dark, Anand’s mother prepares the evening meal while a visiting neighbor weaves garlands of flowers.

In October, Bangalore-based Simpa Networks Inc. installed a solar panel on Anand’s whitewashed adobe house along with a small metal box in his living room to monitor electricity usage. The 25-year-old rice farmer, who goes by one name, purchases energy credits to unlock the system via his mobile phone on a pay-as-you-go model.

When his balance runs low, Anand pays 50 rupees ($1) — money he would have otherwise spent on kerosene. Then he receives a text message with a code to punch into the box, giving him about another week of electric light.

When he pays off the full cost of the system in about three years, it will be unlocked and he will get free power.

Before the solar panel arrived, Anand lit his home with kerosene lamps that streaked the walls with smoke and barely penetrated the darkness of the village, which lacks electrification. Twice a week, he trudged 45 minutes to a nearby town just to charge his phone.

Continue reading “Leapfrogging Technology: The Telecommunication Model”

ClimateProgress:

Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee. Thank you for inviting me to testify.

Four score and seven years ago our grandfathers and grandmothers were enjoying life in the roaring 20s.

Now imagine you are in Congress back then and imagine that the nation’s leading scientists are warning that human activity – years of bad land management practices – has left our topsoil vulnerable to the forces of the wind. And that the next time a major drought hits, much of our farmland will turn to dust. Dust in the wind.

YOU WOULD TAKE ACTION.

Over the past two decades, the nation’s leading scientists have issued stronger and stronger warnings that human activity – burning fossil fuels and deforestation – will lead to longer and stronger droughts that dry out topsoil and timber, creating the conditions ripe for multiple, multi-decade Dust Bowls and wildfires.

In fact, we’re already topping Dust Bowl temperatures in many places – and the Earth has warmed only about 1 degree Fahrenheit since the 1930s Dust Bowl. Yet we are poised to warm some 10 degree Fahrenheit this century if we stay on our current path of unrestricted carbon pollution emissions.

I repeat, several studies now project the world may warm 10 degree Fahrenheit this century if we don’t act. And that is the average warming of the globe. Much of our country would see far higher temperatures. The recent heat wave would be considered a pleasantly, cool summer.

Another study looked at mid-century warming of just 2 degrees Fahrenheit. It found that wildfire damage in many of your home states — Utah, Colorado, Idaho, South Dakota, Nevada and Washington – would double, triple, even quadruple from current levels.

Imagine how big the government would have to be to deal with rampant wildfires and with a Dust Bowl choking the bread basket of the world. A lot bigger government than today, for sure.

So of course this great deliberative body is debating various bills to avoid this catastrophe by slashing carbon pollution.

Except it isn’t. We are here discussing bills aimed at “fuels treatment” – a euphemism for cutting down trees and using controlled burns.

Ignoring carbon pollution and focusing instead on fuels treatment to address the epidemic of bark beetles, the epidemic of drought, the epidemic of wildfires is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Or, more precisely, it is like burning some of the deck chairs and removing some of the umbrellas on the Titanic. Same outcome, more time wasted.

As I explained in the journal Nature last year, what we are discussing here today is the single most important question facing the nation: Can we prevent the extreme drought and wildfires ravaging the country today from becoming the new normal?

But the real question — and I am addressing myself to the members of the majority now – is how you want to be remembered. Do you want to be remembered as a Herbert Hoover, who sat by and did nothing in the face of obvious calamity, or as Abraham Lincoln, who took every measure to save the Union?

Lincoln said at Gettysburg “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” That of course wasn’t true. But after testifying to Congress nearly a dozen times since 1995, I am quite convinced that nobody remembers what we say here – and in the case of these bills, everyone will forget what you did here.

Are you Nevil Chamberlain — Or will you be Winston Churchill, who worked tirelessly to warn and prepare Britain for what was coming and told the House of Commons in 1936 “The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.”

The consequences are here, now, just as climate scientists predicted.

If we fail to take action, many scientists predict ruin for large parts of this country – ruin for large parts of your districts – ruin that lasts 50 generations. Americans have fought for generations to defend government of the people, by the people, for the people. In the hour of crisis, we need that government to do its job. Now is that hour.

Thank you