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All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

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Comments 51951 to 52000:

  1. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    No, AndersMI. You assume that the energy is uniform across the system: Sandy was huge because of AGW; therefore, all storms should be huge because of AGW. No. The elements that form and develop hurricanes are dynamically generated and those conditions (not their specific values) are not generally a feature of rapid climate change. Some of those conditions may be available for longer periods of time in a rapidly warming world. Some conditions may, at certain places and times, help intensify a storm that happens to form when the other conditions are right. The bottom line, though, is that all conditions must be right for a Sandy to form and track the way it did. Under the AGW regime, some of the conditions are more persistent. Some are less persistent. No storms form under precisely the same conditions as any other storm. Is anything unusual? Yes. Increased SSTs, the unusually strong blocking high, and the weakened jet. Three conditions necessary for Sandy. Do those three conditions interact with every tropical system? No. One or two might at the same time (SSTs and the jet, specifically), if a storm happened to benefit from the right conditions in the first few weeks of its formation. If, if, if. What the IPCC is saying is that link between GW and specific hurricane development (not formation) is not well understood, because the conditions for development are dynamic, and the circulation of additional energy is dynamic, affecting every part of the conditions for development. Give it a few years, and the science--if not shut down by a Monckton-informed Congress--will have a better grip. It already has a much better grip than it did a decade ago.
  2. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    Further, AndersMI, the language of the SREX--"low confidence"--does not mean "is not happening." It means that the level of uncertainty for the proposition is significant. The negative hypothesis would not necessarily warrant the same level of confidence. Sandy should not be used as evidence of anthropogenic global warming. AGW needs no more evidence than the basic, well-tested, observation-confirmed physics. Global warming was responsible for Sandy in that all weather everywhere is fundamentally different as a result of Earth's continued increase in stored energy. With no AGW, it's almost certain that Sandy does not form at that time in that place. Maybe earlier, maybe later, maybe not at all. Maybe two Sandys go back to back, killing tens of thousands. The bottom line, though, is that if it sprinkles on you as you walk from the car to the store, global warming is responsible. Global warming is not responsible for sprinkling or hurricanes in general, but it would be pure coincidence for the sprinkling event or hurricane to have taken place at the same time and place in a world with and without AGW. If anyone wants to claim that AGW is not responsible for Sandy or any other specific weather event of the past fifty years, falsify the greenhouse gas theory. Then I'll believe you. Climate is what weather does over a long period of time (30+ years). Weather is not affected by climate change. Weather is climate change. There is no additional or intermediary component. The additional energy immediately and continually enters the general circulation system, with all its specific manifestations of what we call weather.
  3. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    Sphaerica, thank you for your reply. So, if storms are not more frequent or stronger, that means that if climate change is to blame for THIS specific storm presence or intensity, then climate change must be also responsible for the absence or low intensity of some other storm, so that, as IPCC says, overall there is no discernible trend in storms frequency and intensity. Right? It's true that, as you say in your comment, we can't prove a causation link between a particular storm and climate change. That's why we have to look at statistics, and statistics tell us that nothing abnormal is happening. You say that I am in denial.. but in this case it appears that the one in denial is you, as the one refusing to acknowledge what the official science says about hurricanes and tropical storms.
  4. The View from Germany: Tackling the real questions
    Good discussion, glad we had this posted. jyushchyshyn @7: I did not put up a strawman, and in fact I do strongly agree with the notion that it is not an either/or question between nuclear and renewables. But, come on, there are plenty of folks who argue pro nuclear and against renewables, e.g. most nuclear lobbyists do so, citing the "base load" problem. "Anyways, the question is not whether to phase out coal, but when and how fast." Indeed. Better to phase out coal much faster than currently pursued. The limit should be the fastest growth rate of renewables that can be accomplished. And for that, Germany and other countries have pioneered the feed-in-tariff among other things. IMHO, first forecasted by Hermann Scheer, the development just needed to get started, then becomes unstoppable as prices for fossil fuels keep rising, while those for renewables keep falling. Time to get on the bandwaggon ... Nuclear? Currently stuck in old, intrinsically unsafe technology, only getting worse with reactor age. So phase-out is inevitable and needed. Unless the industry demonstrates that its new, supposedly intrinsically safe, reactor designs are viable, both environmentally and economically, see my comment above. Aka I will not comment on this thread on nuclear again. I wrote this to demonstrate that Germany (one could also pick Denmark for instance) is a country that does tackle reality, and that, despite obvious challenges, shows both political and private will to make a difference. Thank you Jonas!
  5. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    AndersMi, You have entirely missed the point of the post. There is no contradiction. This post does not say or imply that storms are at this point in time more frequent or stronger. This post does not say or imply that the storm occurred because climate change is already making more storms occur (although that does seem to be happening, we need a longer period to ascertain it). This post does not say or imply that the storm was stronger because climate change is making all storms stronger. This post does say that several unusual aspects specifically and strongly tied to climate change (blocking patterns, higher sea levels, warmer ocean waters) can be directly tied to the formation and path of this specific storm. So in this case, "weather" is "climate" because we can directly tie a very unusual confluence of factors to causing weather which is itself extreme, and those factors are directly tied to climate change. QED. Can anyone exactly, unarguably prove the causation? No, of course not. That's why deniers will have a field day saying "but, but, but..." That shouldn't, however, stop an intelligent person from looking at the facts, drawing conclusions, and taking action. You appear to be right that Sandy was actually second in low pressure, although the total kinetic energy metric is, to me, far more important. It's also of little consolation to the people living in NY and NJ. Your comment smacks of typical denial... i.e., try to find anything you possibly can to help comfort yourself with the idea that maybe this isn't climate change at all, maybe it's just a natural even that would have happened no matter what, so you can go back to ignoring the consequences of your actions for at least a few more years.
  6. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    It seems to me that this post contradicts the latest IPCC report on extreme events, SREX, published in March 2012, where it says: "There is low confidence in any observed long-term (i.e., 40 years or more) increases in tropical cyclone activity (i.e., intensity, frequency, duration), after accounting for past changes in observing capabilities." Obviously this was written before Sandy, but as you know, "weather is not climate". Also, I checked but didn't find the source for the claim of "record breaking pressure" on the link given. There is another link in the linked page, which points to a different post, stating that the Sandy's low pressure is tied up with that of Great Long Island Express Hurricane of 1938.
  7. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    So I've been playing with NOAA's online IKE calculator and data here and here for typhoon Tip: Rmax: 20 nm (size of the eye of the storm?) Vmax: 140 kt radius 34kn: 474 nm (highest allowable value) radius 50kn: 200 nm radius 64kn: 90 nm (no observation in the data I think, so just a guess) Assuming symmetric windfields I get 647 TJ. When reducing the 64 kn radius to 50 nm I get 587 TJ. Very crude numbers but 2 to 3x more kinetic energy then Sandy.
  8. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    Gordon D - "If the Sea level did not rise, where did all that water go?" See this SkS post for further explanation: Sea Level Isn't Level: Ocean Siphoning, Levered Continents and the Holocene Sea Level Highstand "Maybe the Woods Hole studies are all wrong, and 95% of the rising happened in just the past 100 years?" No. You just fail to understand why the sea level trend in a subsiding region of the world is different to the global average. Relative sea level, i.e what would be observed in a subsiding region, will rise even when the global ocean volume is unchanging. This is because the land is sinking. When global ocean volume began to increase, as it did after the Industrial Revolution, then the rate of sea level rise off the eastern coast of the USA increased further again.
  9. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    @40 Dana, I value your posts and work highly, but simply liking to a blog which states something that cannot be verified is not 'a source'. If I would trust that level of information then I could simply go to WUWT for my daily climate info. I expect SkSc to do better. @41 DSL, thanks! I'll have a play with the numbers.
  10. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    Thank you for the Link to Dr Mitrovica Video, it had some very good theories. His off hand comment that coral 3M above the water was proof enough of no rise in pre-recorded history, is not backed with any studies. This is a classic fitting of observations to a theory, and not forming a theory from the data. In the video he says never to use tide guages near 'faults' But yet the area of italy/grease the fish tanks are in, are known for volcanic upheaval. He did not mention when the tanks were built, but late roman era would be 200AD? Less than 2000 years of rising IN THE mederterianian may be less than significant. [SNIP] As far seas not rising, as I understand it, the last major Ice age the glaciers were south of Ohio and very thick. Over the past 30,000 years the ice has melted. If the Sea level did not rise, where did all that water go? Maybe the Woods Hole studies are all wrong, and 95% of the rising happened in just the past 100 years? But I have my doubts. For the record, I belive the climate is changing, and has always been changing, and the change in rate maybe anthropogenic in nature. The strengh of storms are effected by the heat of the air and oceans. But the media pushes activist theories that mankind is the sole cause and we need to stop the global climate change (as if we could), and at what lost oppurtunity costs. Anyways, I will keep my mind open about climatology theories. Please keep your own minds open about mans effects on the world, is no greater than the worlds effect on man. Thank you and Good bye.
    Moderator Response: [d_b] Lots of interesting things here to discuss without veering into pure imagination; implication of deception deleted.
  11. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    KR - A lot of commenters get confused over the global sea level trend, and the trend around areas such as the eastern coast of the US, which was uplifted by the presence of the gigantic Laurentide ice sheet during the last ice age, and which has subsided ever since the ice sheet began to disintegrate. The US is still slowly sinking even though the ice sheet has long disappeared. Therefore the two trends will be somewhat different. Gordon's confusion probably runs a bit deeper than that though.
  12. The View from Germany: Tackling the real questions
    That second video is crying out for some perspective on PV. There is, as I understand, about 70 GWp of PV installed around the world. There is about 60 GWe of new nuclear power under construction. Assuming average worldwide capacity factor of about 13% for PV and 90% for nuclear, world PV capacity will need to expand by a factor of 5-6 times to match new nuclear capacity. All of these things need to be seen from a perspective of where we need to be and how fast we need to get there.
  13. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    GordonD - I'm afraid that the sea level has not been rising for 7000 years. And current rise at many times recent historic rates is entirely due to global warming, driven primarily by anthropogenic factors. You are not supporting your argument with your first link, incidentally, which notes recent high rates of sea level rise - and says nothing about attribution. I suggest you take a look at Jerry Mitrovica's video - he shows rates of sea level rise over the last few millennia quite clearly. Pay attention to the Roman fishtanks, coral heads, and dates for solar eclipses as direct evidence. --- Sandy may or may not have occurred without global warming. However, the quite warm sea surface temperatures and higher total humidity made it stronger, and the blocking patterns driven by Arctic warming directed it to our coast - without global warming Sandy could not have been so damaging.
  14. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    The sea level has been rising for over 7000 years and since 1400AD the sea coast of the NY Harbor (Barn Island,CN) has lowered my 100 CM. Less than 5% could be caused by human activity. http://www.whoi.edu/science/GG/coastal/research/sealevel.html Yet alarmist repeatedly decree its all manmade activity and the end of civilzation is near unless we ALL do somthing drastic. http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2012/10/28/what-you-need-to-know-about-frankestorm-hurricane-sandy/ 95% of the issue is natural, why do some insist we are the masters of the domain and we can stop climate change with tea leaves and Co2 absorbing herbs. A skeptic who walks intp a den of "scientists" expects to be bitten,
  15. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    Btw, I've asked AOML if they can update the example set with a Sandy entry.
  16. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    cynicus, you can figure it yourself here.
  17. The View from Germany: Tackling the real questions
    Some personal notes: I'm from Germany. Interesting to get an outside view. There is a lot of fighting about these issues internally, about price of course, about speed, need, feasibility ... I would like us germans to go much faster. I do my best, to productively use every possibility I have, to bring forward the issues of climate change, resource depletion, biodiversity, fairness (both now geographically and towards future generations) and change options. There are SUV cars, holiday flights, non vegetable food, etc. in big proportions here as well. The people need to be made sensible for these issues and trained. Sks does a pretty good job in one specific area for this (I posted the escalator graphics on dozens of sites and linked to them at every possible occasion: this is the kind of thing that sticks, even with people driving an SUV: they will of course continue to do it, but it will bring a little nagging piece of science in their mind (I have seen this effect coming up in one face: since then I am sure it works to some (big) degree). We are a global community supporting the sustainability issue: fairness now and with future generations. This is not a socialist european idea, it does not oppose the american dream, it supports it: equal opportunities for all. --- Three notes on nuclear: 1) Many Germans don't like nuclear, because we were a lot nearer to Tchernobyl, than you americans, australians, british ... were: in Munich/Bavaria, where I live, you could no longer buy milk, cheese, ... because they were heavily contaminated: the cloud was raining off right here. In school, we were told not to sit in the grass (Cäsium, Strontium and the like). Lobbyists who gain millions from outdated nuclear plants lobbied to forget the threat. Fukushima brought back the frightening past. You still have to be careful with mushrooms, deer and the like in this area ... Just imagine to be next door to Fukushima, say your neighbor town (you cannot, but you may try). 2) Nuclear hinders the renewables from growing, because it has a tendency to deliver all the time and cannot be easily be turned on/off for balancing the grid. 3) We already have enough of the nuclear waste, which lasts ten thousands of years and more: in Germany, there is a nuclear dump, which is threatened by break down and severe leaking ("Asse") and costs billions in urgency redrawing of the wastes. I don't know where the deadly waste is kept elsewhere in the world. If Germany could be an example of replacing both coal and nuclear at the same time, I think it would be worth a lot of short term investment, which would pay off many times, because the oil/coal/gas bill will go away ... And it would be worth the thing: the world needs proof of concept. --- Two notes on storage: they currently start "wind gas": storing of wind electricity surplusses as methane, in the already existing gas network (you already can buy that, if you are an advanced consumer willing to pay for progress). This still needs time for scaling up. Electric vehicles (+grid) could be another surplus option: charge them only if there is surplus. This asks for consumption pattern changes however (not be able to use the car if there were no surplusses or pay a lot for charging).
  18. The View from Germany: Tackling the real questions
    It is instructive to read the UK government's Climate Change Committee The Renewable Energy Review. Page 75 shows scenarios for decarbonized electricity supply in 2030 with a highest renewables scenario of 65% which they consider to be the limit of technical feasibility by 2030. All scenarios contain substantial amounts of nuclear generation. The required build rates for nuclear in any of the scenarios are considered feasible and less than what has previously been achieved in France. The UK has superior wind resources to Germany with on-shore wind achieving a capacity factor of 26-27% compared to about 18% in Germany. There is a very strong argument for decarbonization of electricity supply at the earliest opportunity with high priority, not only for emission reductions in that sector but as an enabler to achieve most benefit from the displacement of fossil fuels by electricity in transport and heating. Cost of electricity is important as lowest cost will provide more incentive in the displacement of fossil fuels in these sectors. In the context that full decarbonization of electricity supply by 2030 or so looks infeasible without large contributions from nuclear or hydro, current UK policy of support for new nuclear would seem to offer more potential to achieve what needs to be done. How that pans out in practice remains to be seen.
  19. The View from Germany: Tackling the real questions
    I agree that ditching nuclear power on the basis of single or multiple failure modes is hasty and premature. The overarching problem with nuclear power isn't technical, it's to do with innate human nature. We're terribly fallible even when trying to do the right thing. Chernobyl failed because of a botched safety test; lousy though the particular reactor design was, no samples failed spectacularly because of a technical failure. Fukushima failed not because of a technical fault but because of human wishful thinking about construction budgets versus the odds of natural disasters. Read NRC incident reports and you'll find a litany of sloth and complacency, the same sliding habituation to compromised behavior Feynman identified at NASA. The passage of time without routinely having the holy c--p scared out of us inevitably causes this to happen. After the first shuttle loss NASA headed down the same road again, leading to a another entirely novel but in hindsight avoidable disaster. In a way the very fact that so many nuclear plants have not conspicuously failed despite being attended to by primates with a limited attention span is a tribute to their designers. However, careful attention to documentation of our many modes of monkey misbehavior clashing with the extraordinary complexity of these machines should tell us we're not quite up to snuff in their proper implementation despite being able to design and build them.
  20. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    cynicus @39 - the basis of the claim is the link embedded in the text!
  21. The View from Germany: Tackling the real questions
    Perhaps one-off isn't the best term, but what I mean is that I think it's wrong to oppose nuclear power on the basis of an accident at a shoddily designed Soviet plant which couldn't have happened at a modern reactor, or one involving a 1-in-1000 year tsunami (or whatever it was).
  22. The View from Germany: Tackling the real questions
    Don't get me wrong-- we're truly in "all of the above" mode when it comes to modernized post-caveman energy systems (and some of my best friends are nuclear plants)-- but virtually all accidents are "one-offs." From the paltry total collection of nuclear power generation plants on the planet we can see the emergence of a standard rate of messy failure, each failure being unique. There are many unexplored failure modes available. Scaling up nuclear deployment will result in more messes, each accompanied by acute 20-20 hindsight. Whistling past this graveyard of future demises is silly; better to confront 'em rather than pretend they won't happen.
  23. New research from last week 43/2012
    It is expected that somewhere there will be hydrate resources close to the pressure/temperature boundary. A small increase in temperature can have a large impact in such resources. But because this local section is on the threshold does not mean the rest is too. The question is whether Archer was specifically mentioning this area or that he mentioned hydrates in general (or the large Arctic continental shelf)?
  24. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    I'm curious for the basis of the "the most kinetic energy of any tropical cyclone on record" claim. Any pointers would be appreciated. The 'kinetic energy' term makes me think it is based on this, but that data goes only back to 1994. Before that the data is sporadic and missing monster hurrican's like Typhoon Tip. So is Sandy really the most energetic storm in history? Thanks.
  25. The View from Germany: Tackling the real questions
    It's a pity Germany is so (over)sensitive to nuclear that they prefer to build new coal-fired power stations. The public don't seem to grasp that the two major nuclear accidents (Chernobyl and Fukushima) were essentially one-offs. Chernobyl was due to a combination of an inherently unsafe Soviet reactor design that was never used in the West together with reckless management. One can question the wisdom of building nuclear plants on a tsunami-prone coast, but with many thousands of people drowned and whole towns washed away the damage to the power stations seems rather small. I would suggest that if a disaster big enough to compromise a nuclear power station was to happen in Europe, the nuclear aspect would be the least of our worries.
  26. The View from Germany: Tackling the real questions
    gws Yes, Germany is like a ship that does not easily change direction. The same can be said of the United States of America, a hot bed of global warming denial. Do you take global warming seriously or not? The notion that we have to choose between nuclear power and renewables is a straw man argument. No proponent of nuclear power is against renewables. Some question whether renewables can provide baseload power. If you can prove such concerns to be unwaranted, more power to you, no pun intended. Anyways, the question is not whether to phase out coal, but when and how fast. You can replace coal in half the time frame using both nuclear and renewables than you could using renewables alone or nuclear alone. And then, if it looks like renewables could provide all of our power needs, then we can consider phasing out nuclear power, without hoping that Roy Spencer and Richard Lindzen are right.
  27. Global Surface Temperature: Going Down the Up Escalator, Part 1
    Markx - you might ask the same question of the surface temperature record. Surely we arent measuring temperatures back a century to 0.01C? No, the instuments are not. However, the precision of the average is not the same as the precision of an individual measurement. This is fundamental statistics. For detailed discussion about how accurately can you measure anything from Argo, see Von Schuckmann and Le Traen 2011 .
  28. The View from Germany: Tackling the real questions
    Germany is phasing out nuclear power because while coal kills you continually, nuclear plants are perfectly fine until they melt down and you have to evacuate a small city for a century or two. The tradeoff sucks, and we can argue which way it goes, but both technologies are very dirty.
  29. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    Thanks for the rapid response, Dana! Chris Colose has a technical discussion of the climate connection behind Sandy and megastorms in general.
  30. Global Surface Temperature: Going Down the Up Escalator, Part 1
    Markx - what makes you think the extra heat, which has accumulated in the top 2000 metres of ocean, has been evenly distributed? The flaw in your argument is rather easy to spot, but I'd be genuinely interested in your justification for making this claim. And on the buckets & ropes comment, maybe you're thinking of something else. How do you measure ocean temperature down hundreds of metres with a bucket?
  31. Global Surface Temperature: Going Down the Up Escalator, Part 1
    Markx, the short answer is yes; statistically reliable, useful and significant measurements can be assembled from the plethora of data sources available to oceanographers. A longer answer-- typical and one of many describing specific methods-- can be found here: Improved Analyses of Changes and Uncertainties in Sea Surface Temperature Measured In Situ since the Mid-Nineteenth Century: The HadSST2 Dataset As always, follow references to drill into the whole story. These people have really powerful senses of curiosity and are extremely stubborn in their pursuit. Same deal as with many other amazing human endeavors.
  32. Global Surface Temperature: Going Down the Up Escalator, Part 1
    What intrigues me about Levitus et al: Levitus etal show a dramatic chart of escalating oceanic heat content. But water has a huge heat holding capacity. If converted to the units measured (heat increment, in degrees centigrade) we find the top 2000 meters of the entire world’s oceans has risen 0.09 degrees C over a period of 55 years. 0.09 degrees C over 55 years? Can they really measure the temperature of the whole world's ocean to that degree of accuracy even now, with the Argo floats? And could they measure to that level of accuracy 55 years ago, with buckets and ropes?
  33. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    FYI, the Pielke Jr. response blog post is now drafted up and undergoing internal review. Look for it around Tuesday of next week.
  34. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    But it's not a "classic and unambiguous case of financial conflict of interest" for Pat Michaels and some of the other climate change troglodytes to take money from the fossil fuel industry? I know it's been a tough week for them....too bad, they've earned it.
  35. Pete Dunkelberg at 13:01 PM on 2 November 2012
    Climate of Doubt Strategy #1: Deny the Consensus
    My attention has been on elections, not climate, for a while. I just want to show you denial. And I do mean show. http://johnsvor.blogspot.com/2012/11/heckler-interrupts-romney-with-question.html
  36. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    Thank you OregonStream. I really don't understand Trenberth taking this line. There's no need to claim that the whole SST anomaly was due to warming. Equally, there's no basis to claim that 0.6C was the warming ocean's only contribution. This should have been a teaching moment about averages. If the average warming is 0.6, then there must be, by definition, areas of water both above and below that average. Therefore a good starting point for an area that is way, way over its 'normal' temperature for a specified period could be to consider that this particular part of the ocean is one of those above average areas.
  37. Hurricane Sandy: Neither weather nor tide nor sea level can be legislated
    Paul Magnus, If links to such information are easy to come by, and plentiful, it would be tremendously useful if you could post two or three, since you have already vetted them. Once I see one article, I would have some better idea what kind of search words and phrases to use, to find more. But it is not helpful when you offer a whole book, and slam the person who asked for references. This is science, why ask others to reinvent a wheel that you have at your fingertips? Just post links, make it easy for others to see what you see.
    Moderator Response: There does not seem to be an appropriate topic at SkS connecting SLR with seismic activity, this thread included. Please arrange another location for continued discussion of the topic.
  38. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    "However, note that during the hurricane event, SSTs along the coast were approximately 3°C above average, whereas global warming has increased SSTs by closer to 0.6°C. Thus as Kevin Trenberth notes, while global warming contributed to the hurricane intensity, so did natural variability". And can't natural variability regionally amplify a forcing? That 0.6 C isn't exactly evenly distributed, and future warming won't be either. As the NERC/Met office/Royal society statement put it, "We expect some of the most significant impacts of climate change to occur when natural variability is exacerbated by long-term global warming, so that even small changes in global temperatures can produce damaging local and regional effects".
  39. Antarctica is gaining ice
    While not directly related to this article, it is always worth keeping in mind that the loss of Arctic sea ice is far bigger than the gain of Antarctic sea ice.
  40. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    Pielke's the same fellow down on record claiming the head of the IPCC is corrupt. Pielke was wrong but I don't recall him public retracting his remark that Pachauri was guilty of "a classic and unambiguous case of financial conflict of interest." Why would anybody listen to somebody so gullible as to repeat fabrications and also so sloppy as to not apologize when it turned out he was spreading slander? Is Pielke only imagining what he says in this op-ed? How are we to know, without diligently verifying his claims? If we have to double-check what Pielke says, of what use is he as a thought leader?
  41. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    Well, RP JR has posted the WSJ editorial on his blog, along with a follow-up post, and unlike his dad, comments are open if anyone wants to pursue the generally fruitless diversion of rebutting him in the commetns ...
  42. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    When asked by people I've been summing up the influence of climate change on Sandy with the following analogy. It's like rain on the highway: it might not actually cause an accident but it 1) reduces visibility, 2) reduces grip, and 3) will likely mean that any accident that does occur will have a greater impact.
  43. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    Wow, that WSJ opinion piece by Pielke Jr. is quite the exercise in cherry picking and spin, not to mention ignoring inconvenient facts. But I suppose one should not expect much from an opinion piece in the opinion pages of the WSJ, the same section that people like Lindzen and deniers have used to spread their ideology and pseudo-science. Roger Pielke Jr. is now playing the same game as the other contrarians and obfuscators and delayers who have exploited the very same opinion pages of the WSJ-- a paper that sadly seems only too happy to uncritically promulgate misinformation. Ultimately it boils down to this, Roger Pielke Jr. is entitled to his misguided opinions, but he is not entitled to his own facts. In this case, as in many others, the facts do not agree with his (overvalued) opinion.
  44. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    Addicted @24, the recent sea level rise began about 1800, based on data from Jevrejevya: The initial increase was due to the end of the Little Ice Age, brought about by a period with unusually few large equatorial volcanoes, a slight increase in solar radiation, and (almost certainly) a reduction in the Earth's albedo due to black carbon from the rapidly ongoing industrialization of Europe and America. (It must be remembered that in the 19th and early 20th century, trees in Europe and the NE US were so blackened with soot that the normal light form of the Peppered Moth was almost entirely replaced by the black form.) However, the ongoing rise in sea temperatures is undoubtedly due to the onging rise in temperatures which is almost entirely due to anthropogenic factors.
  45. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    Dana @25, the mid-century cooling is distinctly a NH phenomenon. Except for a slight blip coinciding with WW2, the SH warming has been continuous since 1920: As most of the Earth's ocean surface lies in the Southern Hemisphere, SH temperatures would be a better predictor of sea level rise due to thermal expansion. SH temperatures would also be a better predictor of glacial retreat in the Andies, NZ and or course Antarctica as well. Having said that, the rate of sea level did peak during the warm years of of the 30s and 40s, indicating that the NH roller coaster in temperature did have some impact.
  46. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    Dana @25 - Thanks for your response. Regarding your point about the lack of decline in the mid 20th century, as far as I can tell, local warming should not have made a difference to sea levels. Or am I wrong there?
  47. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    Re: the BW article, Ive not checked yet but the mention of "climate deniers" in the *first* 'graph, of this *particular* publication, must be making spleens hemorrhage on WUWT et al, ad nauseum. Appreciate the link and as I stated before, we in the rationalist camp have a huge job ahead and this gift of time (the silver lining of the dark cloud that is Sandy's dire effects) to reframe the conversdation is short. I know it must be doing a little something, because some who I've contacted over the past few months are now asking me about this issue, in the new light in which it exists. Keep up the unending and largely thankless job, SkSers! We've got a biosphere to save!
  48. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    Addicted @24 - there was both global and local warming in the early 20th Century. I'd be more curious as to why local sea level rise continued during the mid-century 'cooling', though looking at local temp data, the mid-century cooling isn't easy to spot in the NY area.
  49. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    In fig 1, could someone explain what explained the sea level rise in the early part of the 20th century (although it does appear that the trend line is slightly misleading, in that, the real rise only seems to have begun in the 1930s). Is this just because of local factors (being Manhattan, there was probably some reclamation work being done in the early 20th century) or just random variation?
  50. Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Connection
    See Tamino's newest post for an alternate view from the business world!
    Moderator Response: I linked directly to the Business Week article that Tamino highlights.

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