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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 76051 to 76100:

  1. Michaels Mischief #2: Opposing Climate Solutions
    False analogy Ken, who were the Wright brothers competing with? Marconi? The system isn't working because it is destroying the natural environment, exterminating species and making human survival, in the future, less likely. It's also subsidizing the richest collection of individuals in the entire history of human civilization. What's up with that? At some point the irrational notion of infinite economic growth will dawn on most people. I would have thought the economic events of the past few years might open a few more eyes, but apparently not yet. As for the Spain green energy meme, see SkS post: Carter Confusion #2: Green Jobs
  2. Michaels Mischief #2: Opposing Climate Solutions
    Does anyone remember, if you ever knew, that the Wright Brothers, Douglas, Ford, Marconi, Edison, et al, developed needed products without government subsidies. Yes, early models will cost more, but if the eventual payoff is apparent to the public, they will buy the products and free-enterprise moves on. We need to stop playing with a system that works. Ask the Spain how green-energy and employment is working out.
  3. Spencer's Misdiagnosis of Surface Temperature Feedback
    18, Dikran, I'm sure he's well aware that 2/3s of his visitors don't even bother to read and will only look at the pretty pictures. Disinformation mission accomplished, and it's not his fault, is it? Just like it's not his fault that his paper got published and grossly misinterpreted by Forbes or that the reviewers didn't do a good job or...
  4. Michaels Mischief #2: Opposing Climate Solutions
    #15: Trains you say? I've heard stories about those. Must be nice living in some sort of futuristic utopia. I'd be happy with bus routes that didn't have a 40 minute detour and two different freeways to go 10 miles across town. I really like the vehicle-to grid ideas I've seen. Ignoring entirely the efficiency gains in swapping over to electric vehicles, our current power distribution and (complete lack of) storage system is getting a bit dated. #16: Excellent idea. One of Brammo's bikes may well be my next vehicle purchase... Unfortunately, all my errands are right next to my office. What I actually end up doing is taking a motorcycle on days when I'm not picking anything up, and a car on days when I'm grabbing groceries or the like on the way home. Swapping my current bike out for an Enertia Plus, or better yet, one of the new Empulse models coming out next year though, sounds... appealing.
  5. Dikran Marsupial at 06:01 AM on 3 September 2011
    Spencer's Misdiagnosis of Surface Temperature Feedback
    Sphaerica The "for entertainment purposes" is very dissapointing. You have to be a real geek to find fitting a polynomial entertaining (and have a poor grasp of the statistical issues), so it can't be that. Surely he must know that there will be some out there that will take it seriously even with the caveat. Now making a semi-serious attempt at a prediction and seeing if it pans out, that would be entertaining.
  6. The Climate Show 18: The Big Chill & The Big Fracking Issue
    Camburn#1: "Fracking has been used for over 20 years " The volume of frac fluid in shale gas wells is far greater than in frac jobs for tight gas sands that were done years ago. Pressures up to 15000 psi were used then as now, but the shale gas wells being drilled now turn horizontal. That requires much larger volumes of fluid to stimulate - upwards of 2500000 gals in the Marcellus shale play as an example.
  7. Spencer's Misdiagnosis of Surface Temperature Feedback
    As expected, Dr. Spencer flavored this month's temps by pointing out a drop in sea surface temperatures, complete with a non-scientific downward trend line that he includes, but warns is only for "entertainment purposes." He further adds a polynomial fit to the tropospheric temperatures, purely for "entertainment," the implies that we have entered a cooling phase. Go see. It's great denial fun. While you are there, you can look at his response to the resignation.
  8. Spencer's Misdiagnosis of Surface Temperature Feedback
    The UK Guardian has an article too, and John Abraham's quotes are well worth a read here
  9. Tar Sands Impact on Climate Change
    jyushchyshyn @64 You said earlier that " they do not "give a damn about the environment." They do what they think is necessary to maintain a veneer of credibility. In reality they are very far from perfect when it comes to their environmental policies. I do agree that flaring is a problem, especially in regions like Nigeria. But this post this about the tar sands and the damage that they are doing and will continue to do, so can we please limit our discussion to the tar sands and its environmental, societal and ethical consequences. I'm afraid the rest of your posts @64 and @65 do not make much sense to me.
  10. Spencer's Misdiagnosis of Surface Temperature Feedback
    14, muon, Of course. He is clearly stepping down because he was unable to squelch this landmark paper before publication. In fact, he's probably not even really resigning. He's probably being forced out because his bosses know how hard he did try to squash it. Clearly, the peer review process is broken. At the same time, last month was again one of the top 3 or 4 Augusts on record. I wonder if Roy will do what he did in July on his site, which is to spin things to completely ignore the troposheric record in favor of pointing out how cool the oceans appear on average compared to the previous decade. Can you pick up that other end of the goal post and help me move it a little further?
  11. The Climate Show 18: The Big Chill & The Big Fracking Issue
    Typos? ... The Climate Show has released... ... to fill Gareth's shoes...
    Response: [JC] Fixed, thanks
  12. Spencer's Misdiagnosis of Surface Temperature Feedback
    Sphaerica, You mean like this? With this step I would also like to personally protest against how the authors and like-minded climate sceptics have much exaggerated the paper’s conclusions in public statements ... Unfortunately, their campaign apparently was very successful as witnessed by the over 56,000 downloads of the full paper within only one month after its publication. But trying to refute all scientific insights into the global warming phenomenon just based on the comparison of one particular observational satellite data set with model predictions is strictly impossible. -- emphasis addded Yep, I think that's a keeper. Bet this poor guy gets some heat from the 'skeptic' crowd.
  13. The Climate Show 18: The Big Chill & The Big Fracking Issue
    Camburn: if I remember right, he mentions there are such problems in 5% of the sites, which is a pretty high rate given the consequences.
  14. Spencer's Misdiagnosis of Surface Temperature Feedback
    11, muon, A very interesting article (readers should note that it is not behind a paywall, so go ahead, click the link, and read it all... it's not long, and has some interesting insights).
  15. Lessons from Past Climate Predictions: IPCC SAR
    Dana- I've done a reasonably simple exothermic reactor model and simulation that turned out to be extraordinariy accurate in a full scale production environment. So I can imagine in that circumstance (the reactor) a statement about how many Kcal produce what delta T in a reactor location at steady state operation. For reactor modeling that's not a particularly useful thing to know. You can extract the knowledge but it's not really telling you as much as other outputs from the simulation. The real issue is not to offer model exlanations that falsely imply that the models aren't physical and in fact rely on fitting fudge factors to make the model work. -Dave
  16. Spencer's Misdiagnosis of Surface Temperature Feedback
    Yes -- the whole thing's worth a read. How will Roy and company spin this one?
  17. The Climate Show 18: The Big Chill & The Big Fracking Issue
    Fracking has been used for over 20 years where I live with no water issues as of yet.
  18. Spencer's Misdiagnosis of Surface Temperature Feedback
    This certainly deserves a "Wow!" or even three. Taking Responsibility on Publishing the Controversial Paper “On the Misdiagnosis of Surface Temperature Feedbacks from Variations in Earth’s Radiant Energy Balance” by Spencer and Braswell the paper by Spencer and Braswell that was recently published in Remote Sensing is most likely problematic in both aspects and should therefore not have been published. After having become aware of the situation, and studying the various pro and contra arguments, I agree with the critics of the paper. Therefore, I would like to take the responsibility for this editorial decision and, as a result, step down as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Remote Sensing. -- emphasis added H/t to Michael Tobis for finding this.
  19. Trenberth on Tracking Earth’s energy: A key to climate variability and change
    DB#201: "Earth will be ripped apart ..." ... making climate change look like a walk in the park. Oddly enough, the expanding earth hypothesis lives on - but alas, does not have consensus. the scientific community finds no evidence to support the expansion of the Earth theory, and uses the following arguments to dismiss it Drat those scientists with their fancy-pants 'measurements' and 'evidence-based arguments.' Who needs consensus anyway? This doesn't phase those dedicated workers who hold to this view: ... the earth's core is a nuclear furnace like the Sun's and it was a critical mass attained in this thermal nuclear reaction around 200 million years ago that started to increase the volume of the earth's core, cracking and expanding the continent shell ... Being a core like the sun, there are well-known processes make larger and large atoms with immense heat and pressure inside the earth. Water, methane, and oil are produced inside the earth over time so there was less water 200 million years ago and lots of shallow lakes. This solves the big problem with plate tectonics of where water came from on earth - not from comets (which some say are fiery), but from within. Both larger and large atoms! They have a website; a blog will soon follow. Perhaps a petition as well. Someone should start a list of peer-reviewed papers.
  20. Dikran Marsupial at 03:06 AM on 3 September 2011
    Mythic Reasoning about Climate Uncertainty
    Jonathon GISS is not the only surface temperature dataset that compensates for urban heat island effect, all of the major surface temperature datsets do this. Assessing and compensating for these sort of non-climatic issues are probably 95% of the work involved in generating the datasets. Just computing the area-weighted averages from the data from the global historic network is about a mornings work for a competent programmer. Whether something is a forcing does not depend on whether it will even out in the long run - it is a matter of the physical nature of the process. ENSO has a short enough period that it has fairly little effect beyond 30 years or so; that is why climatologists use 30 years as the default period for computing trends etc. it is long enough not to be too strongly affected by internal variability, but short enough to detect the effects of changes in the forcings. See KRs excelent explanation about the solar forcing.
  21. Trenberth on Tracking Earth’s energy: A key to climate variability and change
    DB: "One wonders how much longer before the Earth will be ripped apart from the convective temperature stresses induced upon it." 2012 -- duh! Mayans, etc. etc.
  22. Mythic Reasoning about Climate Uncertainty
    Jonathon - "The solar influence seems awfully small compared to other sources." That's because the forcings listed in that table are the changes in forcings that are then changing the climate. Solar energy is the driving force of the climate, but because it has not appreciably changed since the start of the industrial era, it isn't appreciably responsible for the changes in global temperatures over that period. GHG levels, on the other hand, have changed a lot, and those are the dominant influences on changing global temperatures.
  23. Mythic Reasoning about Climate Uncertainty
    Thank you Dikran, While urban heat islands are a small portion of the Earth's surface, they have an area-weighted averages (as you pointed out) much higher. GISS attempts to remove these effects from their temperature data, but I have not seen others to likewise. ENSO is not a true forcing in that it will even out in the long run. However, it can have large short-term effects in the temperature record. I probably shoudl have re-worded my question to the observed warming during the industrialization era (1880 - present). The solar influence seems awfully small compared to other sources.
  24. Trenberth on Tracking Earth’s energy: A key to climate variability and change
    Mr. Cotton would have us believe many fallacies about ocean heat content (OHC) and sea surface temperatures (SSTs), like SSTs are interchangeable with OHC, for one. Or that SSTs have declined since 2003. Since that first is patently rubbish, let's examine the second claim, shall we? First up, SST anomalies from 2003-2010 relative to 1951-2002 (from GISS/NASA): As expressed in zonal means: [Source] Mr. Cotton would have us then believe, logically, that the warming present in the data (as represented by the above graphics) comes outward from the core through the Earth's crust inequally. Note the special emphasis the Earth pays on preferentially delivering warmth to the North Atlantic specifically... One wonders how much longer before the Earth will be ripped apart from the convective temperature stresses induced upon it. Those wacky Pellucidareans need to turn down their thermostats...
  25. Dikran Marsupial at 01:59 AM on 3 September 2011
    Mythic Reasoning about Climate Uncertainty
    Jonathon I see little reason* to depart from the forcings and uncertainties given by the IPCC: BTW, ENSO is not a forcing, it is an element of internal variability and if by "urbanisation" you mean the urban heat island effect, then urban areas are such a small proportion of the Earths surface that their effect on actual (rather than as estimated by raw area-weighted averages of surface station data) global surface temperatures is essentially insignificant. * There are other forcings not mentioned in the table, e.g. the GCR theory, however the current level of scientific undersdtanding (LOSU) and observational evidence do not suggest that they will substantially alter the overall picture.
  26. Trenberth on Tracking Earth’s energy: A key to climate variability and change
    Wow. As I read #193 I found myself wondering what part Pyramid Power and Hagbard Celine had to play in this hypothesis. Doug, you are attempting to overturn 100+ years of science without showing a single equation or data point. That might get you a special on the (now ruined) History Channel following Ancient Aliens but the scientific community is not going to take you seriously.
  27. GHG emission mitigation solutions - a challenge for the Right?
    KR, that makes sense. What I was thinking of was the processed silicon that companies like Solyndra needed to buy. But now it looks like I could soon be wrong: http://www.solarpoweradelaide.net/the-end-of-the-silicon-shortage.html and that would be a very good thing.
  28. Trenberth on Tracking Earth’s energy: A key to climate variability and change
    Cotton: "In effect, the empirical data debunks the concept that climate is forced by factors involving solar insolation and atmospheric gases." Long-term orbital cycles, then, should have very little effect on temps, and certainly not the effects shown in the established long-term temperature record. Low-latitude glacial deposits should be impossible, despite the historical evidence. And stratospheric cooling with tropospheric heating -- well, it must just be a long-term cycle with some other explanation. Locked in, this one.
  29. Mythic Reasoning about Climate Uncertainty
    I am curious as to what everyone would say is the contribution to the industrial-era warming and uncertainties from the following forcings: CO2, urbanization, solar, ENSO, volcanic activity, and albedo (feel free to add others as deemed appropriate).
  30. Lessons from Past Climate Predictions: IPCC SAR
    Correct Dave. Model inputs are things like changes in GHGs and solar irradiance, and the physics of how much of a radiative forcing these cause. The resulting temperature change, and thus the climate sensitivity, are outputs of the model. Or I guess more accurately, the sensitivity is built into the model, and can be determined by seeing how much the temperature changes in response to a given forcing. That's my understanding anyway - I'm no climate modeler.
  31. Trenberth on Tracking Earth’s energy: A key to climate variability and change
    DougC#193: "There is further empirical support ... empirical data debunks the concept that climate is forced by factors involving solar insolation" Your conclusions based on this very limited empirical exercise were shown to be completely incorrect the last time around on this very thread. On further inspection of #193, your earth-heat-lunar-tides idea is utterly unsubstantiated as well (and in my opinion, patently absurd). The challenge made there still stands: show data and research from credible sources - peer reviewed whenever possible - that support your 'diffusion will prevail' model. Until you can meet that challenge, your ideas remain merely your personal opinion. Until you can meet that challenge, all of your pronouncements must be read with the preface, 'in my opinion.'
  32. Mythic Reasoning about Climate Uncertainty
    scaddenp#63: "Uncertainty cuts both ways." Would that it did, but 'skeptics' have absolute belief in their myths. They know that natural cycles, for example, are more important than greenhouse gases could ever be. How they know this is of course unclear, but it doesn't seem to matter. The skeptical 'its a natural cycle' must therefore be met with a resounding 'how do you know that?' and 'what is your uncertainty?' If there could be a rational answer to those questions, then we could have a slightly more level playing field.
  33. Venus doesn't have a runaway greenhouse effect
    Again, a Climastrology button is needed for Rosco. These sorts of creative science perception discussions need a thread of their own, because they really don't belong anywhere, and hence tend to wander about willy-nilly. Rosco barely met the requirements of this thread by rather randomly throwing the word "Venus" into his post. This sort of Alice-through-the-looking-glass discussion has been happening just far too often in recent months.
  34. Trenberth on Tracking Earth’s energy: A key to climate variability and change
    Again, a Climastrology button is needed for Mr. Cotton.
  35. GHG emission mitigation solutions - a challenge for the Right?
    Eric (skeptic) - "Silicon for solar does not have economies of scale as far as I can see. What does have economies of scale is large FF and nuclear power plants (perhaps unfortunate but it is a fact)." From what I understand, Eric, the economy of scale for solar power (PV at least) is in the production of the solar panels. A number of commentaries on the recent Solyndra bankruptcy (here, for example) noted that they just couldn't reach the production numbers required for their panel prices to be competitive. I can't find the reference right now, but they had recently dropped production levels, and saw their panel prices double to ~$3.80/watt - when $2.00/watt was their break-even price. Low production numbers for solar panels just aren't economically viable. Meanwhile, Chinese panels (slightly less efficient than Solyndra, but...) were coming in at a price of $1.20/watt. Solyndra just got out-priced.
  36. Venus doesn't have a runaway greenhouse effect
    Rosco, did you read the paper I linked to? Did you? I recall you saying, "I'm more than open to listen." Reading is "listening" when writing is the primary means of communication. You are not arguing from a physical model. You're arguing from what seems to be right to you. If you accept "seems to be right" as an argument, then we are at an impasse, because then my word becomes as good as yours, and we're all right. If you don't accept "seems to be right" as an argument, then start describing your physical model. Everything you've said so far suggests that you don't believe that CO2 absorbs and emits at specific frequencies (broadened by pressure). That might be a good place to start understanding. What are the emission/absorption spectra of Earth's (or Venus') ten most populous atmospheric gases? If you don't know, then you're not prepared to enter the discussion. While some here might tell you to go away (either directly or in tone), I won't.
    Response:

    [DB] "While some here might tell you to go away (either directly or in tone), I won't."

    I think you speak for everyone in that our sincerest wish is for Rosco to be able to express himself more ably by addressing the science directly, uncomplicated by feelings and fuzzy thinking.

  37. Trenberth on Tracking Earth’s energy: A key to climate variability and change
    To both: I assumed you knew where to find NASA data at http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/ where you can select "Sea Surface," then tick 2003 and 2011 and 'redraw." The above borehole plot over hundreds of years is irrelevant because it was probably at shallow depths where solar insolation had an effect. Note the yellow linear trend line on this, the deepest (9,000 metre) borehole, and note the intercept at the surface around 10 to 12 deg.C.
    Now you can see similar plots for hundreds of other boreholes using the link in (d) at (-link snipped due to antivirus security threats-) Suppose (-Off topic Gish Gallop snipped-)
    Response:

    [DB] Last warning about being off-topic.

    BTW:  Borehole data is at depth to avoid surface temp contamination of the data.  Which you would know if you had bothered to actually look at data that might confound your perambulations and not just cherry-pick the little data which may through happenstance support you.

  38. Venus doesn't have a runaway greenhouse effect
    30, Rosco,
    There has never been any demonstrated mechanism of trapping heat
    False.
    Even the stars have an energy input through gravity
    Misleading or misunderstood. See Kelvin-Helmholtz timescale. See nuclear reactions, the true source of energy in stars. But in a nutshell, for the potential energy of gravity to be converted to another form, work must be done, meaning the object must compress, which it cannot do indefinitely (for a star, it would "burn out" in mere 18 million years). Otherwise it is a perpetual motion machine that is creating energy and violating the First Law of Thermodynamics.
    ...there must be some source of heat that we don't know about.
    False
    I think...
    Fuzzy thinking of no value. What you think does not make it true. It does not create facts or truths, and is not a valid argument.
    We would still have the sun's input...
    Yes, about 241 W/m2 of solar input, which would bring the planet to 255K, when it is in fact at 288K. The question is how do we get that extra 33K? Answer: The Greenhouse Effect This is all very, very basic science. Please follow the links and read before posting further comments.
  39. Lessons from Past Climate Predictions: IPCC SAR
    Dana- So sensitivity is something models calculate...rather than being an input into the model. I can't see a reason offhand why I would need sensitivity as a term in a model...what I need is the solar in, IR out and terms for where the heat goes.. ( so much for ice melting, so much for heating the oceans, so much for heating the near surface air, accounting for water vapor movement and circulation and so forth) and at the end what is left shows up as an increased global average temperature... from which you can calculate "a" as a convenient understandable number?
  40. Trenberth on Tracking Earth’s energy: A key to climate variability and change
    Fourier already knew of the internal heat of the earth and noticed it was negligible. Two centuries ago.
  41. Trenberth on Tracking Earth’s energy: A key to climate variability and change
    DougCotton @193, the frictional heat generated by lunar tides has been well quantified. The energy dissipated by the M2 tide is approximately 2.4 Terrawatts. Assuming energy dissipation scales with the magnitude of the tide, that means the total energy dissipated by all tides is around 6 to 6.5 Terrawatts at most. In other words, the energy dissipated by tides averaged over the Earth's surface is at most 0.013 W/m^2. From there, a quick calculation with the Stefan-Boltzmann Law shows that at most, tidal energy could raise the Earth's temperature by only 22 degrees K above absolute zero, or raise the temperature by 0.0025 degrees K above the current Mean Global Surface Temperature of 288 degrees K. Of course, anyone who gave this casual thought already knew that the combined energy from tides and radioactive decay cannot significantly contribute to the Earth's surface temperature. If they did, it would be impossible for -89.2 degrees C (as it has in an Antarctic winter). Indeed, as the heat from the core is conducted equally in all directions, the necessary consequence of its being the major source of surface warmth would be that the surface would be nearly equally warm at all locations - ie, the tropics and poles would have similarly balmy (or frigid) conditions. But by all means, go ahead and believe the 0.013 W/m^2 of tidal energy is far more important than the (average) 240 W/m^2 of solar energy. Please do not let any fact checking disturb you from the fantasy land you are so keen on inhabiting.
  42. GHG emission mitigation solutions - a challenge for the Right?
    Scaddenp, I for one appreciate your efforts to elicit solutions to the political and philosophical questions. Far too often there is a presumption that those can be ignored. In your hypothetical we require state and federal support for lots of things like basic research, retraining for low power industry, adjustments for regions with transition difficulties, etc. Contrary to some, I don't see a more general federal role except for something as simple as possible, like the Hansen tax. It should take 5 minutes to figure out and pass the Hansen tax, instead there would be 5 months of wrangling producing a compromise that would not be pretty. But for the source changes you describe, the federal government has to be involved. The Hansen tax seems to be the least likely to get turned into a plate of sausage and beans. It also gives people the resources to becomes self sufficient It takes away incentives for "showcase" solar projects that don't work but do drive up prices. Silicon for solar does not have economies of scale as far as I can see. What does have economies of scale is large FF and nuclear power plants (perhaps unfortunate but it is a fact). Here's a quote attributed to Eclectic Magazine: "There are three kinds of people in the world, the wills, the won'ts, and the can'ts. The first accomplish everything; the second oppose everything, the third fail in everything" Most people are in the first category, but politicians are often in the third and push voters into the second. But high electric rates and a rebate offer certain opportunities for people. A smart grid offers others since preferential sources will be much cheaper. But local control and local entrepreneurship would put a very large number of people in the first category and away from the whims of the federal level politicians.
  43. Trenberth on Tracking Earth’s energy: A key to climate variability and change
    Trenberth's curved trend line for sea surface temperatures can now be extended with NASA data available to the end of August 2011. The trend passed a maximum a few years ago and has been declining since. That is why NASA data currently shows virtually all of 2011 below 2003 - the year 2003 was on the way up and 2011 on the way down. This is just one piece of empirical data which is in accordance with my group's theory that it is crust temperatures (themselves controlled by core temperatures) which are forcing climate, not solar insolation. Over the last two weeks I have been doing calculations on borehole data and this very convincingly supports the theory. We see different underground temperatures which are related to latitude, thus confirming that frictional heat (due to the moon) is being generated in the core, more at the equator than at the poles. There is further empirical support in the fact that, on the days when the sun is directly overhead in the tropics, whether 23 deg latitude or at the equator, the temperature varies with latitude. This would not be the case if solar insolation were the only factor. The variations with latitude correlate with the underground temperatures. Associated variations in the angle of the sun at different latitudes are not sufficient in themselves to explain the empirical data. In effect, the empirical data debunks the concept that climate is forced by factors involving solar insolation and atmospheric gases. Yes, indeed, it is the sun's heat which causes what is only temporary warming each day. Solar heat flows into the surface and back out again. The net flow is small, but the absolute flow each way is quite significant as you should know if you've ever burnt your feet on hot sand. Because that flow in and out is far greater than the net flow, equilibrium can be and is achieved between the surface and the first 1mm or so of the atmosphere. From there up, convection takes over. So, whilst core heat has helped build up the temperature of the atmosphere over billions of years, it now plays a supporting role, making it easier for the sun to warm the air when the surface is warmer, and harder when it is cooler. Some heat is retained in the surface, and especially the oceans, from local summer to winter. Our group's theory explains all the physical observations, including the extending of the day's warmth into the early evening and the warmer ocean in local summer. It takes only a very small percentage change in the temperature of the liquid core (~5700 deg.K) to give rise to the kind of variation we have seen since the Little Ice Age. And that is perfectly possible (and probable) due to the variation in total gravitational force from the moon plus the major nearby planets. Our theory is supported by the physically observed facts. The "consensus" theory is not supported by Trenberth's trend, nor by the magnitude of the variation in temperatures with latitude, nor by the very significant correlation between the extrapolation of underground temperatures (using only data from 200 metres or deeper - beyond the influence of solar insolation) to the surface and the local above surface stable base temperatures.
    Response:

    [DB] I'm not going to even begin to address all the nonsense presented here, but just some of the egregious:

    1. Provide a link to the specific NASA data which you claim supports your Sea Surface Temperature (SST) claim
    2. Provide a link to a reputable source showing that your use of the word "theory" instead of "hypothesis" can be supported
    3. As for latitudinal variations in the angles of the suns rays being insufficient to explains measured temps: get a grip.  The Earth has a large, moving body of water with a gaseous envelope surrounding that called the atmosphere.  They do stuff like rearrange heat within the system.  Get used to it.  Or prove that they don't.  The empirical data strongly supports the radiative properties of the atmosphere powered by the sun as being the thermostat regulating global temps.  It's just physics.
    4. Global borehole data, like SST data, does not support you:


    Global surface temperature change over the last five centuries from boreholes (thick red line). Shading represents uncertainty. Blue line is a five year running average of HadCRUT global surface air temperature (Huang 2000).

    Mr. Cotton, playing make-believe is all well and good when writing stories.  But for things in climate science the accepted practice is to use physics.  And here at Skeptical Science participants use the language of science and physics to explain climate science. 

    And it is those selfsame physics, based on more than 150 years of study and research (upon which our civilization is built) that says that your pet hypothesis (which is all that it is, not a theory) which you ignore.

    So by all means, play a 21st Century Don Quixote and tilt at windmills.  But unless you can express your points in cogent scientific fashion, which involves using physics to explain why those processes and metrics we can empirically see and measure work so well for everything our civilization depends upon, but do not apply to controlling global temps.  And the onus is on you to do it in step-by-step fashion on appropriate threads, or those comments deemed off-topic will be deleted.

    Until then the participants here will rightfully ignore you.

  44. Tar Sands Impact on Climate Change
    a sign of how truly addicted we are to FFs The fact that we blame the supplier rather than the person in the mirror is a sign of how truly addicted to FFs.
  45. Tar Sands Impact on Climate Change
    Albatross The Alberta government is not perfect. I never said it was. But flaring is a huge source of Greenhouse gas emissions. To thumb our nose while willing filling our gas guzzling SUVs with OPEC oil does absolutely nothing to stop global warming. None.
  46. SkS Weekly Digest #13
    Thanks Paul, It would be good to get a considered legal opinion on this (or are you qualified?) but I can understand the issue you raise. I do however see a potential solution. If the issue is "intention" as conveyed by context, presentation and impression as you argue then tt may still be possible to have all the toons grouped together under a single heading provided there was a suitable explanation which made it clear that the intent was not to promote any copyright infringement. This could be further enhanced by making the thumbnails on such a page link to the original source material rather than to the image itself. Up to the moderators to work it out I suppose but seems a pity not to provide such an excellent source to useful material.
  47. Venus doesn't have a runaway greenhouse effect
    DSL - point taken! Word-play is always dangerous ground. #30: Estimates of Earth's temperature without GHG's come in at well below freezing (IIRC ~-18C), mentioned in Chris Colose's article. The Sun does not provide enough energy this far away from it.
  48. CO2 is just a trace gas
    @Pete Dunkelberg #34: Other SkS authors are crafting the Intermediate and Advanced versions of this rebuttal argument. I'm not certain when they will be posted. The person behind the screen of the Science of Doom's website delves into this matter in excrutiating detail. Some readers of this comment thread may find the information posted on it to be of interest. The comment thread exchanges are also very illuminating.
  49. Venus doesn't have a runaway greenhouse effect
    Heard of insulation? Plain ordinary convention physics with 100 of years of experimental evidence has no trouble calculating the temperature on the surface of venus without any mysterious energy source. By contrast, your misunderstanding has a problem. If you look at the energy diagram you see the breakdown, but most importantly, this energy flows are measured. In your understanding, you could not account for these measurements. Do you agree that the test of whether the science is right is measurement? By all means come up with alternative physics but your alternative theory in which the GHE is missing must be able to account for what we actually observe.
  50. Venus doesn't have a runaway greenhouse effect
    There has never been any demonstrated mechanism of trapping heat - it is the engineer's dream to achieve this and increase efficency of machines. Even the stars have an energy input through gravity and if the assertions about Venus albedo being so reflective that almost no radiation reaches the surface there must be some source of heat that we don't know about. I think Earth's temperature would be about what it is plus or minus a degree or two. We would still have the sun's input and water.
    Response:

    [DB] "There has never been"

    Never?  In over 150 years of scientists researching the greenhouse effect?

    Honestly, you betray your extreme lack of knowledge with comments like this.  You are not doing well, here.

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