“It’s official: Polar bear not an endangered species“. Didn’t Anthony Watts make this claim this a few days ago? Is it truer now? Does the corrupt and evil Obama administration continuing a noble and glorious Bush administration policy mean that maybe Obama isn’t as partisan as Anthony asserts? Don’t worry, Anthony won’t make that mind-blowing leap.
“Confirmation of Solar forcing of the semi-annual variation of length-of-day“. December 23rd gave us Anthony Watts’ first Christmas Guest, and Paul Vaughn (M.Sc.) served up a delightful slice of Dunning-Kruger pudding. There’s nothing a denialist likes more than a new and obscure correlation to (briefly) divert the conversation… Causation is for sissies.
Paul wants to show that Earth’s Length of Day is influenced by cosmic rays, which slightly affect atmospheric density. Hence, using the power of wishful thinking, all Global Warming is natural and will reverse itself. Eventually. Paul gives us lots of cluttered stock promoter-style charts, spreading a tiny proportional change over a full chart range. You’d think an analytical genius like, perhaps, Steve McIntyre would call him to task on it wouldn’t you?
Yes, atmospheric and oceanic angular momentum impacts Length of Day. Trivially. This influence, measured as being on the order of one millisecond out of 86,400,000 over a period of months, is significant? Try again. Cue the ignorant arguments about magnetic fields in the comments.
“Call for guest authors“. Anthony Watts wanted his readers to take over misrepresenting and misunderstanding climate science for a week as Christmas loomed. Doesn’t seem that hard; copy and paste a few spin-able press releases, repost another denialist’s article, get some scraps from various conservative think tanks, check the in-basket for missives from Dunning and Kruger.
Looks like I’ll have some even more entertaining posts than usual to digest as I catch up! I wonder if any of these new authors will affirm mainstream climatology or if they’ll be the same rants we get from Anthony and his team members?
“The Madden – Julian Oscillation“. Anthony Watts discovers that our atmosphere sloshes! There are currents everywhere! This means that there is no Global Warming, it’s all natural oscillations!
Anthony pastes in a 1998 atmospheric science web textbook chapter to show his new knowledge, in particular about the short-period (40-50 days) tropical Madden – Julian Oscillation. But he must have choked on this sentence, unless he never read it:
Notwithstanding its complexity and dependence on convection, the essence of the MJO (its periodicity, structure and zonal asymmetry) can be simulated in a GCM.
That sounds like a vindication of Global Circulation Models… They’re evil, corrupt, and always wrong!
“NASA gets CREAMed“. Yeah! Anthony Watts has found another NASA fraud! Oh, wait, he’s just referring to the Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM VI) balloon experiment. It’s just another dumb, misleading, Watts headline. Thanks for copy-and-pasting a press release.
“Heading for half a million comments“. Yes Anthony, you have a small devoted flock of believers who spend every spare minute defending “skepticism”, promoting conspiracy theories, denigrating trained scientists, and resenting Al Gore. Enjoy!
“Cryosat ice mission returns first science data“. Yes, Cryosat, which measures sea-ice thickness using synthetic aperture radar, has started returning usable data. Strangely, Anthony Watts directs his readers to the disgustingly “alarmist” BBC for more information.
Now I suppose we simply have to wait 30 years for Anthony to begin to accept that the disappearing Arctic Sea Ice is statistically meaningful. After-all, this is “just the first data”!
“Red Faces At The Met Office“. Yes, the UK was in the midst of an unexpected snowstorm just before Christmas 2010, with big impacts on air travel. But Anthony Watts wants you to know that the “Global Warming Policy Foundation” thinks that every weather forecast that isn’t 100% correct is an embarrassment for the UK Met Office. Even more-so for long-term weather projections which are, somehow, politically motivated. They’re easier, right?
Wait, does the expression 20% chance of rain mean something? Or should we be hanging on the pronouncements of an Irish postman? Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it…
The “Global Warming Policy Foundation” is just taking cheap potshots at and misrepresenting a professional service that deals in a field where pinpoint accuracy is nearly impossible. Dirty pool.
Want some science with that? Try Real Climate’s discussion of this never-ending denialist talking point.
“SORCE’s Solar Spectral Surprise – UV declined, TSI constant“. Could it be that measurements of Solar UV and Irradiance show enough variability to be a factor in climate trends? Anthony Watts wants you to think so. There’s a NASA news report about the SORCE spacecraft’s Solar Irradiance Monitor (SIM) results that can be spun that way, so he pastes it in.
Decrease in Solar ultraviolet radiation, 2004 - 2007. Source: Joanna Haigh/Imperial College London
Too bad that:
“I strongly suspect the SIM trends are instrumental, not solar,” said Lean, noting that instrumental drift has been present in every instrument that has tracked ultraviolet wavelengths to date.
“If these SIM measurements indicate real solar variations, then it would mean you could expect a warmer surface during periods of low solar activity, the opposite of what climate models currently assume,” said Gavin Schmidt, a climate modeling specialist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City.
Still, NASA scientists are simultaneously assessing the accuracy of the measurements and considering what this apparent information might suggest for solar models. The rigid mainstream scientific consensus strikes again?
“Quote of the Week – Total Ecplise of the Moonbat“. Right-wing libertarian blogger Richard North pontificates that any cold weather anywhere is proof that there is no Global Warming and that George Monbiot is somehow foolish, stupid and loathsome for not understanding that. Giving him a mocking nickname, “Moonbat”, certainly caps the argument.
Anthony Watts’ nomination of EU Referendum as a well-argued denialist website is deeply educational… Yeah, nothing like cherry-picking weather news reports to try to dismantle a journalist’s climate story. It definitely proves that the mainstream climatologists are scheming liars!
Wott's Up With That? 