Diary Of The Last Age

A few months ago someone and I had a discussion about Arctic Sea ice.  He was claiming that the Arctic ice coming back but I argued there was no reversal in trend .    At that time the plot of sea ice was The that person was arguing that the 2014 uptick was part of a reversal beginning in 2010.   My argument was based on my background in finance where there was no one I know would make a bet that the trend was reversing on that data.  Well new data is out and it shows he would have certainly lost his bet. The vertical scales are different in to the two graphs, but the conclusions are clear, the Arctic Sea ice has further declined.  There is no pause, no reversal in the underlying trend.  The bet is lost. Global warming deniers seem to be able to supply endless reasons why global warming isn't happening, but in my view they need to explain the loss of Arctic ice or nothing else they are saying matters.  The deniers are at a disadvantage. ...

This post was inadvertently posted here and has now been moved to the appropriate blog .

When has a country voluntarily given another country a piece of its territory?  Well, now, not never. I am mostly Norwegian, and certainly is a large part of my kids and grandkids.  Well, I'm proud of my heritage today.  One problem Finland has is that most of the one mountain in their country is in Norway.  Well, Norway wants to give that mountain to Finland as a 100th birthday present . A group of Norwegians has launched a campaign to shift their country's border by 200 metres to bring the peak of the Halti mountain into Finnish territory as a gift to their mountain-deprived neighbour for the 100th anniversary of its independence. I'm all for it.

Climate Activists Announce Global Campaign of Civil Disobedience to "Break Free From Fossil Fuels" Climate justice and environmental campaigners announced plans today at COP 21 in Paris to escalate the number of non-violent civil disobedience actions against fossil fuel projects over the next year. The groups are planning a concentrated week of global actions in May of 2016. So far, events are being planned in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Nigeria, Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, and the United States. Additional countries under consideration include Ecuador, India, and the UK . The organizing website is breakfree2016.org   May 2016: We’re mobilising to shut down the world’s most dangerous fossil fuel projects and support the most ambitious climate solutions. Actions are being planned at locations all over the world, and plans are coming together quickly — be a part of it from the very beginning. You can go there and sign up for ...

Ted Cruz invited a conservative radio host to testify about climate change.  As one of the members of that Committee, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), noted,   “The only thing that requires a serious scientific investigation is why we are holding today’s hearing in the first place,”  Why indeed is a radio host testifying on climate change?  At an earlier convocation of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Sen. Cruz pressed upon the President of the Sierra Club about the evidence for a hiatus, i.e., no change in global temperatures over an 18 year period.  Mr. Mair is not a climate scientists, but Sen. Cruz took that opportunity to press for the conclusion of a hiatus on essentially a defenseless man without the scientific background to counter Sen. Cruz's conclusion. Sen. Cruz is almost certainly getting his information from a blog publication by the 3rd Viscount Brenchley, a British public speaker and hereditary peer. that is someone with no tr...

 From the Washington Post Editor, Fred Hiatt : What is the reason for “the know-nothingism of today’s Republicans”? Hiatt offers a partial explanation: “Some of them see scientists as part of a left-wing cabal; many of them doubt government’s ability to do anything, let alone something as big as redirecting the economy’s energy use.” But he misses a key element — namely the deafening echo chamber of the right wing’s media and think tanks. As David Brooks — who is often, but not always, part of that echo chamber — explained last week , on the climate change issue: [T]he G.O.P. has come to resemble a Soviet dictatorship — a vast majority of Republican politicians can’t publicly say what they know about the truth of climate change because they’re afraid the thought police will knock on their door and drag them off to an AM radio interrogation. To understand how dangerously extreme the Republican Party has become on climate change, compare its stance to that of ExxonMobil. ...

The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by Matt Ridley and Benny Peiser as a salvo in the debate about global warming.  Twelve scientists responded at ClimateFeedBack.Org  in great detail.  It is very worthwhile reading the discussion.  The main issues are in common with all published denials of global warming, cherry picking.  For example, they mention the finding that East Antarctica is gaining in ice, an issue about which I've posted .  But they neglect to mention that something different is happening in West Antarctica, not to mention just about everywhere else there is land ice.    The claim that Antarctic ice is increasing is based on an isolated paper that has numerous uncertainties associated with it and is contradicted by many other observations. But more importantly, everywhere on Earth, it is clear we are losing ice and that we have likely already entered a period of major ice shelf retreat, with no mechanisms in sight to stop thi...