Comments on: Roger Pielke Sr on The Political Issue of Global Warming

By: Ian Gordon

Ian Gordon — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 08:20:04 +0000

It’s kinda funny watching people argue over whether some place is getting warmer or getting cooler. Climate science continues to defy the world’s supercomputers and still we have some bloke sitting on a fence saying “well it’s cooler here”.

Climates go through cooler and warmer spells, periods of droughts and periods of floods. Some place might be warmer than usual while another place is cooler. You can’t examine climate data from a fence.

What is less contentious and what should worry us all is that there’s less ice and snow in the Himalayas. That’s the water that produces food in India and China. Consider that Australia’s boom times come from China and what will happen when China’s grain regions turn into dust bowls.

That’s the global economy for you. It will bring China’s environmental problems right to your door and your bank account. Sit on your fence looking at the sky if you want to but don’t expect problems in other parts of the world not to affect you. Yours is a primary producer economy.

By: Ian Gordon

Ian Gordon — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 08:19:10 +0000

By: gavin

gavin — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:33:24 +0000

chrisgo: 34C today at the airport, thats half a degree up on my place.

By: SJT

SJT — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 05:44:00 +0000

“Only since 1966 eh – that’s not long ago. Anyway La Nina’s all over now.”

Is that so? The drought down here is only getting worse.

By: gavin

gavin — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:48:00 +0000

sid: check out sst @ lat 40 http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sst_anom.gif

By: Luke

Luke — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:43:01 +0000

Only since 1966 eh – that’s not long ago. Anyway La Nina’s all over now.

By: Sid Reynolds

Sid Reynolds — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:02:40 +0000

So Gavin hails the heatwaves while dismissing the cold Feb. as ‘abnormal’.
Well, he’s not the only one. One only has to look at his beloved ‘data adjusters’ at the BoM.
And haven’t they been quiet about this Feb! David Jones on this Blog, in answer to a question on Feb. 2nd about how quickly they came out with the “hottest January on record caused by ‘global warming’ ” stated that the Bureau was so automated that they could press a button as soon as the month ended, and provide the data. And wasn’t he crowing about January!
Well, we’ve waiting for him to ‘press the button’ at 1 min. past midnight on Mar. 1st., to produce the Feb. data!!.. and waiting..and waiting.. and still waiting on Mar. 13th.
But of course February could be dismissed as “abnormal”; so why bother?
And of course, the bitter NH winter which has smashed countless records, and produced the heaviest hemisphere-wide snow cover since 1966, is just a ‘one off abnormality.’
Bet the ‘data adjusters will be getting to work there too..

By: gavin

gavin — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:06:57 +0000

Yes Tilo; we had another 33C + day at 600m and it’s a whole day’s travel from our hapless folk in Adelaide. Bit of a habit isn’t it? BTW; I’ve been on the same issue almost every month since the January 2003 fire storms.

Chrisgo: When I posted those links to current BoM sources I expected others on here to look well beyond our immediate weather info. Trend data is deliberately not up for geeks. Those who have no idea on how to use it after a quick glance at daily max / min will be at some loss. Compiling meaningful charts over time is a specialist job, getting a feel for it likewise requires familiarity with stations and regions.

Drought that destroys life is a lot more than the absence of rain over a season. Discussion about climate restricted to zealous interpretation of temperature will get us nowhere. Air without water behaves quite differently to that with a higher humidity. Due points and wind speeds come with BoM temperatures. Hop into those hey

By: chrisgo

chrisgo — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:09:34 +0000

Paraphrasing Tim Blair today, barely mentioned on last night’s 7.30 Report is that Hare is a veteran Greenpeace activist, http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/greenpeace_blasts_climate_negotiators_137305 who formerly was billed as Greenpeace International climate policy director, http://archive.greenpeace.org/pressreleases/climate/2001mar22.html and who currently holds the title Greenpeace political advisor on climate change. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/greenpeace-launches-landmark-p As Tim Blair so laconically put it, "Greenpeace is now evidently perceived as an embarrassment".

By: chrisgo

chrisgo — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 06:58:37 +0000

There’s nothing like a heat wave somewhere in the world to put the shine back in the eyes of a true believer.