BP says Gulf oil spill has been stopped in test

BP says Gulf oil spill has been stopped in test: Anthony Watts posts a link to a Reuters report about an apparently successful capping of the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

Well, every-thing’s OK now I guess. Drill, baby, drill!

Commenters are talking darkly about how a successful cap of the wellhead “will remove a useful ‘crisis’ from the progressive agenda” and that the “catastrophe has largely been one of the Federal Gov’t screwing over us much worse than what BP did.” Of course the claim that “Obama wanted a monumental disaster with maximum damage, in order to advance his agenda” is in the mix too. Mustn’t forget the sullen claim that oil spills are natural and harmless…

Earth’s thermosphere collapses – film at 11

Layers of Earth's upper atmosphere. Credit: John Emmert/NRL.

Earth’s thermosphere collapses – film at 11: NASA releases a news report on how the thermosphere (the top 500K of Earth’s atmosphere) is affected by solar activity. This is Anthony Watts’ excuse to revive the hoary bogus claim that climate change is all driven by the sun and will swing back no matter what humans do. Also, NASA are a bunch of ‘Chicken Littles’, always worrying about things. Don’t ever listen to them!

Too bad these fluctuations (the “collapses” are the result of upper atmosphere cooling triggered by lower solar activity) don’t mirror anything that’s happening to Earth’s climate. If you want to get technical, the historical patterns suggest that last decade of declining solar activity should have been accompanied by minor global cooling, not record warming…

The paper that NASA’s summary is derived from is: Emmert, J. T., J. L. Lean, and J. M. Picone (2010), Record-low thermospheric density during the 2008 solar minimum, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L12102.

Of course Anthony also highlights the NASA author’s e-mail address for easy harassment.

A shift of wind

A shift of wind: Anthony Watts has discovered that wind turbines are noisy and not really appropriate in residential areas. Damn, I guess Nigerian Overlord Obama will have to reconsider his plan to force windmills to be built beside every home in America.

Regarding shifting wind, I though that was closely tied to whether Anthony’s mouth was open or closed.

Comment of the week

Comment of the week: Anthony Watts thinks a goofy comment about the vileness of “academia” is worth making special note of. Note the incorrect punctuation and embrace of stereotype when Alexander Feht says:

I completely understand, why Christopher Monckton felt a need to make an example of a typical reprehensible representative of modern Academia.

So Watts Up With That is now officially anti-academic? An odd perspective for a “science” website.

Funny though, it’s Monckton’s response to Prof. Abraham’s analysis that is full of arm-waving bluster.

Reports from the Guardian Climategate Debate

Reports from the Guardian Climategate Debate: Surprise, surprise. In Anthony Watts’ report of the debate on the Climategate false controversy hosted by the Guardian newspaper, climate scientists are “devious” and “appallingly bad” but denialist Steven McIntyre, who spoke from behind a lectern to give him more ‘authority’, gets “the largest applause”.

Here’s a different view of the panel’s performance:

  • Prof. Davies said the CRU has learned about the need for public engagement in the scientific discussion.
  • Steve McIntyre sidestepped the challenge that “any competent individual could reproduce a temperature series from publicly accessible data”. Slippery as always, but an embarrassing exposure of his grandiose claims.
  • Bob Watson said the reviews had high integrity and robust conclusions, accused the media of getting carried away with “skeptic” allegations.
  • Doug Keenan claimed that “bogus fraudulent research is rife throughout science.” and “AGW is a fraud.” Clinging to his paranoid denialist views I guess.
  • Fred Pearce, looking for a way to climb back down from his gullible reporting, called the  saga is more a tragedy than a conspiracy and said that the CRU inquiries were well conducted.

Nothing like getting the spin in as fast as possible… Three inquiries (four if you count the tangential Penn State inquiry) completely clear the CRU climate scientists of any deception and yet the volume and fervor of the denialist accusations of “whitewash” and conspiracy simply rises.

The louder you say it the righter you are Anthony?

Research suggests that hurricane forecasts on intensity could never be feasible

Research suggests that hurricane forecasts on intensity could never be feasible: Anthony Watts trawls the internet to bring us another single study about something tangential to climate change science that proves everything climate scientists say is wrong.

Spanish researchers investigating hurricane intensity state, in one of their minor conclusions, that the “increase [in the number of hurricanes] cannot be explained solely on the basis of climate change.” Did you read that? Not “solely on the basis of climate change”! Hah! Double hah! Triple hah!

Gotta take what you can get I suppose, eh Anthony?

Polar Bears Survived the Ice Free Arctic

Polar Bears Survived the Ice Free Arctic: Steven Goddard tells us that because ice-free summer conditions existed for at least some time during the period of 15,000 to 5,000 years ago, polar bears will be just fine when Global Warming really kicks in.

Wait! Global Warming won’t ‘kick in’ because it’s not happening! Not. Happening.

Also, CO2 levels were in the thousands of PPM back in the Cambrian, so CO2 can’t be a problem. Wait, there wasn’t any life on land back then. Not such a great comparison after all.

Condensed Monckton

Condensed Monckton: Anthony Watts takes a break from managing Steven McIntyre’s Climate Audit blog to help fellow denialists support “Lord” Monckton’s call for e-mail harassment of Prof. John Abraham of St. Thomas University (which Monckton calls a “half-assed Catholic Bible college”). Condensed in the sense of “no need to think, just click on the handy e-mail links and start ranting!”

So what’s triggered this? Prof. Abraham released a devastating analysis of Monckton’s intentionally misleading arguments against Global Warming. Monckton’s wounded ego has led to a two-pronged response:

  1. A call for denialists to pester St. Thomas University to remove Prof. Abraham’s analysis. So ironic! I thought denialists were in a state of constant lividity over perceived suppression of their arguments and ‘ground-breaking research’…
  2. Releasing a ‘response’ that consists of 84 pages and 466 idiotic questions (5 mb PDF) on that scientific clearinghouse the denialist Science and Public Policy Institute. Yes, 466 of them. Monckton’s massive rant is getting plenty of hilarious dissection. Here are a few:

The University of St. Thomas’ final response to Monckton, after a short e-mail exchange?

We received your email response to our June 25, 2010 letter. The University of St Thomas respects your right to disagree with Professor Abraham, just as the University respects Professor Abraham’s right to disagree with you. What we object to are your personal attacks against Father Dease, and Professor Abraham, your inflammatory language, and your decision to disparage Professor Abraham, Father Dease and The University of St Thomas.

Please be advised that neither we nor the University of St Thomas will communicate with you any further about your decision to sully the University of St. Thomas, Professor Abraham, and others rather than to focus on the scholarly differences between you and Professor Abraham.

Signed: Phyllis Karasov, Moore Costellow and Hart, P.L.L.P.

Denialists are actually casting this as proof that Monckton’s “rebuttal” has won the day!

Anthony; you’re out of your scientific depth (think playground splash pad) and you’re tying yourself to a boat anchor…

Catch-up #2

Climate Craziness of the Week: lighting up your windmill (June 18, 2010): Anthony Watts is giggling because an Australian power-generating windmill is illuminated by electric light!!!! That’s just crazy. Apparently. Why would a place that generates electricity use electricity? This got me thinking about restaurants: why would a place that sells food also buy food? Or how about water treatment plants: why on earth would they have running water in them?

Grave concerns by Pielke Senior: Nature duped with claim of independent surface temp data sets (June 18, 2010): Dr. Roger Pielke (Sr.) accuses Peter Stott and Peter Thorne of deliberately lying about the “independence” of global temperature data in their Nature article How best to log local temperatures? No, the USA doesn’t have their own set of thermometers scattered across Russia. Yes, the centers that generate global temperature analyses use different criteria and corrections. Next outrage please.

Hot Times in Antarctica (June 18, 2010): Time magazine reports that “Over the past 50 years, winter temperatures [on western edge of the Antarctic Peninsula] have shot up by an almost unbelievable 6°C” according to a paper in Science. Adélie penguin populations have plummeted while the chinstrap penguin population has increased. Steven Mosher brings this to our attention so we can all laugh.

Omaha schools pull Laurie David’s AGW book citing “major factual error” and DiCaprio video “without merit”. (June 18, 2010): A denialist worms their way on to an Omaha school board and uses the bogus ancient CO2 lags temperature argument to get a book removed from their schools. And maybe the book author Laurie David kissed Al Gore. Here’s the scoop: in the ancient natural world CO2 didn’t magically increase and cause warming. Something natural caused the initial warming, and when CO2 levels increased sufficiently they began magnifying the warming until the natural trigger faded. Modern warming is the immediate result of human CO2 (and other greenhouse gas) emissions. Same physics, but different trigger. Get it?

Cold Times In Journalism (June 18, 2010): Ooooh, this one’s a laugh! Steven Goddard tries to take on Time’s Hot Times in Antarctica too, but does such an ignorant job of it that even Anthony Watts realises that he needs to pull the plug. “Apologies, but the page you requested could not be found. Perhaps searching will help.

Antarctic Agreements and Disagreements (June 19, 2010): Willis Eschenbach blunders applying his “beginners mind” to try to re-slice the temperature data for the claim of a 6°C rise over 50 years on the Western Antarctica Peninsula cited by Time Magazine. What, the recording stations weren’t all staffed year-round? Toss them!

CSIRO has counter meeting to address “denialism” (June 19, 2010): Australia’s CSIRO hosts a meeting to discuss how to better explain the scientific basis of climate change science. Anthony Watts is annoyed that climate scientists want to communicate clearly.

The Electric Oceanic Acid Test (June 19, 2010): As noted in a comment here by Scott Mandia, Willis Eschenbach gets the science of ocean acidification completely, but confidently, wrong.

Tricky Sea Ice Predictions Call for Scientists to Open Their Data (June 20, 2010): With Arctic Sea Ice trends looking terrible for global warming deniers, they’re suddenly quick to clutch at NSIDC director Mark Serreze’s comments on Wired Science about over-interpreting short-term trends. Ah, hypocrisy.

Cuccinelli tells court former U-Va. professor’s academic freedom not threatened (June 20, 2010): Neo-McCarthyist Ken Cuccinelli is just looking out for everyone’s best interests! He simply wants to have a friendly little root through everything Professor Michael Mann has done as a kind of random inspection. Nothing to do with Cuccinelli’s vehement support for denialist causes. The Washington Post tells us so.

Firms paid to shut down wind farms when the wind is blowing (June 20, 2010): If the Telegraph says so it must be true! Just like “Amazongate”. Oh they still haven’t retracted that yet, have they. What is being “reported” is actually a test of how to manage a power overload.

Quote of the week #35 Nat Geo bangs the drum for the next solar cycle (June 20, 2010): Anthony Watts tells us that National Geographic are worrywarts to talk about how the sun’s electromagnetic storms can damage electronic devices. Nothing can harm us! Just ask solar non-expert David Archibald. But ignore that report from NASA.

Catch-up #1

So while I’ve been “away” the idiocy and outrage at Watts Up With That has continued unabated. It’s too funny to just let it drain away like the sour milk that it fundamentally is though. So I’ll do some one-liners to try to catch up with Anthony’s verbal diarrhea…

Scientists study shifting attitude to climate change (June 15, 2010): Steven Mosher rises up to the level of Grade Nine peanut gallery when describing an Australian Broadcast News radio transcript about Global Warming. Apparently there’s nothing he can do to counter to rational statements. How dare scientists “publicise the facts of climate science”!

Arctic Albedo (June 16, 2010): Deep thoughts from Steven “Shemp” Goddard. Snow is shiny! Until we can precisely predict clouds, we can’t say anything about the Arctic! So forget about Arctic Sea Ice extent, or volume, or… WUWT readers are agog.

Scan of Arctic ice dispels melting gloom: Researcher (June 16, 2010): Steven Mosher wants us to know that an aerial EM survey of one small area last year proves that there’s plenty of thick, thick ice up there in the Arctic. Oh really?

Whale poop fights global warming (June 16, 2010): Whale researchers conclude that sperm whales in the Southern Ocean sequester 400,000 tonnes of carbon a year through iron-rich defecation. Steven Mosher giggles a bit.

Oz report – Footy at least has rules (June 16, 2010): Anthony’s “grand tour” of Australia’s finest empty rental halls was interrupted by confrontation by actual coral reef expert Dr. Hoegh-Guldberg. Anthony and his fellow gypsies agree that the Dr. was mean.

Margaret Thatcher: the world’s first climate realist (June 16, 2010): His Most Royal Majesty Christopher Monckton shows up to explain that he was the genius behind everything Margaret Thatcher did. Also, he walked 5 miles through the snow to school every day (uphill both ways).

Peer reviewed whack a mozzie (June 17, 2010): In a bit of denialist circularity, Anthony Watts pastes in a posting from the “Science and Public Policy Institute” which itself is a paste-up of a “World Climate Report” post (both laughably misnamed). Apparently malaria hasn’t increased even though mosquitos like warmer climates! Therefore, there has been no Global Warming. Assuming, of course, that there hasn’t been any public health efforts to control the disease…

Nasa warns solar flares from ‘huge space storm’ will cause devastation (June 17, 2010): Steven Mosher re-posts a Telegraph article about a NASA what-if presentation at a Space Weather conference. More ignorant “NASA is a worrywart about everything!” nonsense.

An Aggie Joke (June 17, 2010): Steven Goddard falsely pins a incorrect claim that there has been a 3°C increase over the last hundred years on A&M Professor Gerald North, leading to much denialist hate mail, and then tries to imply that the flat temperature trend for just Texas summers invalidates the well-known record of an increase of nearly 1°C (and accelerating) over the last 130 years. Steven says that”Every fact and statistic quoted are suspect” but doesn’t realise that he is self-describing.

How to improve the IPCC (June 17, 2010): Steven Mosher cherry picks a few quotes from a Nature news report about a committee that is considering ways for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to correct errors in their reports in a timely fashion. Denialists have made great hay out of trivial errors in the sections that don’t deal with the physical evidence of Global Warming.

Americans Not Inclined To Pay More To Fight Global Warming (June 17, 2010): Breaking news in Canada Free Press (tagline: “Because without America, there is no Free World.”) – no-one wants to pay for anything! I thought I was the only one.

UK Climate Minister: “Britons Are ‘Inherently Sceptical’ Of Climate Science And Politics” (June 17, 2010): Yes, public opinion polls are what decide whether Global Warming is happening or not.