Tag Archives: Press Release

Scripps plans for saving the planet

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“Scripps plans for saving the planet“. Anthony Watts posts a Scripps Institute press release about a proposed approach to limiting global warming.

Recommended steps include stabilizing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, and fashioning warming-neutral pollution laws that will balance the removal of aerosols that have an atmospheric cooling effect with the removal of warming agents such as soot and ozone. Finally, the authors advocate achieving reductions in methane, hydrofluorocarbons and other greenhouse gases that remain in the atmosphere for short periods of time. The authors write that aggressive simultaneous pursuit of these strategies could reduce the probability of reaching the temperature threshold to less than 10 percent before the year 2050. [Quote from original press release, italics mine.]

These proposals outrage Anthony’s readers, who pick through it for sentences they can pour scorn on. The best solution is, of course, to do nothing.

Climate Craziness of the Week – MSM jumps on alarming headline

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“Climate Craziness of the Week – MSM jumps on alarming headline“. Anthony Watts dismisses a University of Leeds report that the melting of floating ice, mainly because of salinity and temperature differences, can make a small contribution to sea-level rise. And the “MSM” are talking about it! Shocking. The paper is Recent loss of floating ice and the consequent sea level contribution by Shepherd, et al. 2010 in Geophysical Research Letters.

Nothing like mocking new knowledge because it isn’t significant enough. That’s anti-science I guess. The general opinion was that the melting of floating ice would have no impact on sea-level because of Archimedes’ principle, but it turns out that the estimated volume difference is 742 km²per year! A large number to be sure, but spread over the entire ocean very modest.

Anthony mocks this because the calculated annual contribution is an almost unmeasurable 49 micrometers (0.000049 m). But what would his position be if this hadn’t been calculated and included? Undoubtably outrage.

Study: Melting sea ice major cause of warming in Arctic

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“Study: Melting sea ice major cause of warming in Arctic“. Anthony Watts tries to distract from a Nature climate paper [update: PDF here.] by muttering about transient temperature recording errors that never actually enter the climate data.

Dr. James Screen of the University of Melbourne reports that Arctic climate change is driven more by declining sea ice than by warmer air circulating up from lower latitudes.

Sea ice 2007 minimum. NASA

New ground truth: soil microbe negative feedback

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“New ground truth: soil microbe negative feedback“. Another month, another “game-changer” claim from Anthony Watts. Yes the denialist “game” does indeed keep changing.

In this case, Anthony has found a press release from the University of California, Irvine titled Soil microbes produce less atmospheric CO2 than expected with climate warming. Here’s a quote that sums up the findings:

The new simulations suggest that if microbial efficiency declines in a warmer world, carbon dioxide emissions will fall back to pre-warming levels, a pattern seen in field experiments. But if microbes manage to adapt to the warmth – for instance, through increased enzyme activity – emissions could intensify.

Fungi to the rescue! We’re saved, Anthony! Saved! Saved… Saved?

Anthony’s grasping at straws again. Yes, microbial contributions to the carbon cycle are significant. No, their potentially steady-state contribution isn’t going to magically offset human CO2 production.

Next “game-changer” coming in… one month.

Who says asphalt isn’t natural?

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“Who says asphalt isn’t natural?” Why is it that when scientists report something surprising Anthony Watts has to sneer? Here Anthony posts a University of California, Santa Barbara press release titled “Scientists discover underwater asphalt volcanoes“.

I guess Anthony sees it as a chance to build on the theme that scientists don’t know nuthin’. It’s especially hard for him to resist when it gives him an incidental chance to pump his discredited “analysis” of US weather stations. Today he includes a cherry-picked Utah “climate monitoring station” that has its temperature sensors in a paved parking lot. Is this station used for climate data? Who knows.

Asphalt volcano schematic. Source: University of California, Santa Barbara.

Quite interesting actually. Natural oil seeps are well-known, but this an unusual kind of deposit. By chance I have a natural “asphalt” specimen of my own, collected from a small High Arctic tar sand deposit.

New book from Dr. Roy Spencer

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“New book from Dr. Roy Spencer“. Anthony Watts gives us the press release for Dr. Roy Spencer’s new book entitled (with great hubris) “The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled the World’s Top Climate Scientists“. Dr. Spencer is widely known as an enthusiastic denialist whose own blunders are well recorded.

The press release is a comically amateur effort at convincing and not describing. Get a load of this random unsubstantiated bunk (italics mine):

Believe it or not, this potential natural explanation for recent warming has never been seriously researched by climate scientists. The main reason they have ignored this possibility is that they cannot think of what might have caused it.

There are tens of thousands of papers discussing natural forcings in climatology. Here’s another juicy bit (italics Dr. Spencer’s):

But in Blunder I address what other scientists should have the courage to admit: that maybe putting more CO2 in the atmosphere is a good thing.

Man, that’s so 2008.

You have to love headings like “NATURE’S SUNSHADE: CLOUDS” and “CARBON DIOXIDE: FRIEND OR FOE?” too. I’m having flashbacks to my Grade Eight science project.

Solar Dynamics Observatory first light images to be released today

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“Solar Dynamics Observatory first light images to be released today“. A NASA press release. The denialist line will undoubtably be to only trust observations from this new satellite, so we’ll have to wait for at least 100 years before we can have enough information to act.

Here’s the SDO’s dedicated NASA website.

Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite subsystems. Source: NASA.