Real Climate Science

About 80 House members wrote a letter to President Obama Wednesday urging him to renew enforcement against the import of military-style, semiautomatic firearms.

Under the 1968 Gun Control Act, they write, the president has broad authority to prohibit guns and ammunition from being imported into the country unless they are “generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/9/obama-urged-enforce-ban-import-military-style-fire/?page=1

On April 10, 1963 Rio Grande City, Texas reached 112 degrees. This year it was 25 degrees cooler at 87 degrees.

China had many massive floods during the 1930s. One of the 1933 floods covered a larger area than the state of Arizona, and led to starvation and cannibalism.

http://query.nytimes.com/

I attended a presentation this afternoon in Boulder by Judy Curry and Kevin Trenberth.

First Judy presented a very clear, calm, concise scientific explanation of why the science wasn’t settled, and why the 97% consensus was a meaningless number. It was obvious that she had put a large amount of thought into a way to present it in a way that any educated but non-technical person could understand.

Then Trenberth had his turn, and immediately launched into a 15 minute rant how Fox News and Republicans were going to cause the climate to be destroyed (and kill us all.) You might think that I am exaggerating about this, but I am not.  Those were almost his exact words.

The good news is that Trenberth’s rant was so ugly, so political, and so opposite Judy’s soft spoken and well measured presentation – I imagine that most of the audience left a little more skeptical than they came in.

I’m curious if anyone is familiar with the legal implications of a civil servant launching a political attack in a public forum, while on the job and presenting himself as a representative of the government?

https://twitter.com/SteveSGoddard/status/454640930880892928

http://query.nytimes.com

http://trove.nla.gov.au/

Global Warming Scare Tactics

OAKLAND, Calif. — IF you were looking for ways to increase public skepticism about global warming, you could hardly do better than the forthcoming nine-part series on climate change and natural disasters, starting this Sunday on Showtime.

http://www.nytimes.com/

Climate experts tells us that the Arctic is melting at unprecedented rates, while NSIDC maps show that the amount of 4/5 year old sea ice in the Arctic is 310% of what it was in 2011.

ftp://ccar.colorado.edu/pub/tschudi/iceage/gifs/

Arctic experts used to describe the amount of MYI as the key metric of “Arctic sea ice health” – but right now they are focused on the nearly meaningless metric of maximum ice extent.

Wisconsin HCN stations have already recorded 828 nightly readings below 0F, the most ever for this early in the year.