Diary Of The Last Age

They keep trying . A few months ago, the world’s largest private sector coal company went to court, made its best scientific case against the 97% expert consensus, and lost . One of coal’s expert witnesses was University of Alabama at Huntsville climate scientist Roy Spencer Last week, Spencer wrote a white paper for the Texas Public Policy Institute (TPPI) outlining the contrarian case against climate concerns. TPPI is part of the web of denial , having received substantial funding from both the tobacco and fossil fuel industries , including $65,000 from ExxonMobil and at least $911,499 from Koch-related foundations since 1998, and over $3 million from “dark money” anonymizers Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund. Spencer’s arguments should of course be evaluated on their own merits, regardless of who commissioned them. However, it turns out that they have little merit on which to stand. The white paper is a classic example of a Gish Gallop – producing such a large volume o...

Of course, everyone who follows this blog knows of the importance I place on fighting global warming.  There can't be any more contrast between the Parties than on this issue.  And this issue completely dominates my decision, and it should be the same for millennials who will have to deal with its consequences. The Democratic Platform calls for great efforts Democratic Platform Calls For WWII-Scale Mobilization To Solve Climate Crisis The platform makes for the starkest possible contrast with a party that just nominated Donald Trump — a man who has called climate change a hoax invented by and for the Chinese, who has denied basic reality such as the drought in California, and who has vowed to (try to) scuttle the unanimous agreement by the world’s nations in Paris to take whatever measures are necessary to avert catastrophic warming and keep total warming “well below 2°C.”  "We believe the United States must lead in forging a robust global solution to the clima...

Alaska is baking.   I've talked about this before , that the Arctic (and not the Antarctic) responded the most sensitively in the last global warming event, the PETM .  And it's happening again. Alaska reached temperatures in the 80s, with Deadhorse reaching a record-high temperature of 85 degrees on Wednesday evening. Other cities including Bettles and Eagle reached 85, Fort Yukon hit 84, and Nenana reported 87. “A pulse of warm air invaded the North Slope of northern Alaska on Wednesday, bringing some of the warmest air ever recorded there,” meteorologist Jeff Masters explained on his blog, Weather Underground. “Even with the 24-hour sunlight it receives during most of July, the North Slope typically experiences highs only in the 50s and lows in the 30s.” Fairbanks also officially reported 87, but one record showed Fairbanks’ airport reaching 96 degrees Wednesday. Meanwhile hundreds of miles south in Orlando, Fl., temperatures reached 94 degrees, according to ...

We just broke the record for the hottest year, nine straight times. June 2015 through May 2016 was the hottest 12-month period on record. That was also true of May 2015 through April 2016, and the 12 months ending in March 2016. In fact, it’s true for every 12 months going all the way back to the period ending in September 2015, according to  global surface temperature data  compiled by  Kevin Cowtan and Robert Way . We just set the record for hottest year in each of the past 9 months. Running 12-month average global surface temperature using data compiled by Kevin Cowtan and Robert Way. Illustration: Dana Nuccitelli The impact of the El Nino is evident for 2015, but note that this is on top of a clear rising trend.  Compare 2015 with the the 1998 El Nino.  Both of them spike above the trend, but the trend in 2015 is significantly higher than the trend in 1998.  This will clearly continue.  The next El Nino will produce global temps that no g...

In a blunt letter to Congress, 31 leading scientific societies reaffirmed the reality that humans are causing climate change and only we can stop it. “To reduce the risk of the most severe impacts of climate change, greenhouse gas emissions must be substantially reduced,” they write. It says something about Congress that it can utterly resist Science. I find it baffling. I have no theory for it. Something maybe about their joining the 21st Century and acknowledging the Enlightenment.

My wife of 50+ years passed away this last week after a long struggle with cancer, so it's hard for me to think about global warming right now.  Go here for her obituary.