Friday, May 01, 2009

Climate Change Update

There have been several developments on the climate change front.

First, the Department of Climate Change and Energy in the UK has been named as having the worst CO2 emissions for a UK government building. As part of a general review, which observed that the government cannot even meet its own targets for buildings it controls, the Department responsible for moralizing and preaching cant even follow its own strictures. “Do as I say, not as I do” seems to be the government mantra.

Second, the good news. The Antarctic ice shelf is getting thicker. The sea ice around the continent is far above average. Also, note the colder than average sea surface temperatures around Antarctic (according to NOAA). If the media is going to discuss the Wilkens Ice Shelf, they should also discuss these other data. The expansion of the sea ice coverage implies a significant cooling.

Third, more good news. The Rector of the University dedicated to climatology in Russia (St. Petersburg Hydrometeorological University, a regional educational hub of the World Meteorological Organization / WMO) has concluded that the period of cooling we are now experiencing will return the pattern of climate change to its more normal seventy year cycle. He said that in "three or four years, all these factors have subsided after a few years the trend of global warming on its way to a gradual cooling. There is every reason to assume that the projections of future warming are not justified: in the next decade, we go to the climatic norm, which was 70-years", - assured Professor Lev Karlin , the Rector of the University of Hydrometeorology.

Fourth, the current global cooling is now in its 8th year. The declining ocean heat content is at least in its 5th year. Sea level rises have slowed or stopped. Record rising Antarctic ice extent and rapidly recovering arctic ice since the 2007 cycle minimum indicates that, while changes are taking place at the poles, both are cooling. The sun is in a deep slumber. All of this despite increases in CO2 emissions. You would think that the emperor has no clothes argument would started to be heard, but instead we have legislators and UN officials, spurred on by gallant and increasingly chthonic and vociferous NGO’s, hell bent on destructive legislation aimed at increasing energy poverty, disrupting industry and causing job loss. Go figure. Time for a really cool look (sorry for the pun) at actual data rather than models. Even James Lovelock is concerned about models shaping policy when there is evidence to be had.

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