Real Climate Science

One Sunday afternoon in 1969 the filthy, oil-coated Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire and quickly became a potent symbol of industrial pollution, helping galvanize public opinion and set the stage for passage of national environmental laws the following decade.

The combination of Hurricane Sandy and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s announcement that he was endorsing President Obama largely because of Obama’s actions on global warming could do the same thing for climate change, say scientists and political observers.

“This may be that sort of Cuyahoga River moment for climate change,” said Michael Mann, a leading climate scientist and Penn State University professor. “It has galvanized attention to this issue and the role that climate change may be playing with regard to the intensification of extreme weather.”

Coming on the heels of this summer’s crop-withering drought in the Midwest and destructive wildfires in the West, Sandy provided a glimpse of what scientists say the nation can expect with global warming.

Sandy a galvanizing moment for climate change? – latimes.com

This has nothing to do with science, and everything to do with superstition. Historical records show that none of the issues described above are either unusual, or getting worse.

The US had the fewest fires in over 20 years.

National Interagency Fire Center
National Interagency Fire Center

The US is experiencing the longest period without a major hurricane strike since the Civil War.

www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hurdat/ushurrlist18512009.txt

The US is getting wetter, with fewer droughts.

Contiguous U.S., Palmer Modified Drought Index (PMDI), August-July 1896-2012 

Climate news is dominated by superstition rather than science. Not a recipe for societal success. Bad weather has always happened, and pretending that we can do something about it is as stupid as humans get.

Bloomberg said earlier this week that burning fossil fuels caused New York’s problems, while residents of New York are dying for lack of fossil fuels.

Storm-ravaged and weary Rockaways residents cornered Mayor Bloomberg yesterday to angrily demand more aid for their devastated neighborhood.

“When are we gonna get some help?” blasted one desperate woman, who had to be held back by the mayor’s security detail as Bloomberg stood by with a deer-in-the-headlights look.

“When are we gonna get some f–king help?” she demanded.

“There’s old ladies in my building that don’t got nothing,” lashed out a man on video caught by a NY1 reporting crew.

“I spoke to many people who were worried, frustrated and cold,” Bloomberg said. “There’s no power there and temperatures are dropping. Even those who have generators are having a hard time getting fuel.”

Devastated Rockaways residents lash out at Bloomberg during unannounced visit – NYPOST.com

h/t to Dave G

A massive storm surge killed thousands of people in England and Wales in 1607.

The authorities predictably responded by blaming the flood on English sins.

Gods Warning to his people of England.

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English football has completely sucked this weekend.

West Ham got cheated out a win by the linesman, and City was unable to get a decent shot off the entire match.

Arsenal swooned over RVP, gave him a free goal, and put MU at the top of the tables. It reminded me of Obama’s visit with Chris Christie.

Chelsea went to sleep in the 89th minute, and dropped out of the top of the tables. Does Ramires get paid to ball watch at the top of the 18? Without Mata on the pitch, Chelsea sucks.

Spurs couldn’t score at home against Wigan. (November 25 will feature Lennon vs. McCartney, when West Ham comes to White Hart Lane.)

QPR and Reading remain winless and neither could even manage to beat the other.

Liverpool is losing again at Anfield.

Most devastating is that Shrewsbury lost their FA cup match, despite their excellent football venues (seen below.)

This Guy Wanted To Be The GOP Candidate For President | Real Science

Chris Christie (a man who obviously has a huge amount of self respect) swooned over Obama and probably gave him four more years in the White House.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll – Rasmussen Reports™

Obama did heal the planet, but he forgot to take care of New Jersey.

New England has been hit by four major hurricanes since the end of the Civil War, with the most recent one in 1954. From 1938 to 1954, three major hurricanes struck New England.

On September 7 1869, three ships observed hurricane force winds over the western Atlantic Ocean, between the Bahamas and Bermuda. The storm moved northward, impacting several other ships as it paralleled the east coast of the United States; one of them reported a pressure of 956 mbar (28.24 inHg), which indicated the system was an intense hurricane.^[2] Late on September 8, it reached a peak intensity of 115 mph (185 km/h) with a pressure of 950 mbar (28.05 inHg). After brushing Long Island, the hurricane weakened slightly and made landfall on southwestern Rhode Island at peak intensity.^[6]It was one of four hurricanes, along with the 1938 New England hurricane, the 1944 Great Atlantic hurricane, and Hurricane Carol in 1954, to strike New England as a major hurricane, or Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale.^[7]

1869 Atlantic hurricane season – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ed Markey wants the government to stop hurricanes.

Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey is calling on Congress to take action to protect the Northeast and other regions from the effects of climate change, in response to Superstorm Sandy.

Mass. Rep holds climate change meeting after Sandy – News – Boston.com

I hate cold weather, and would love to see Barack Obama sign a law banning winter.

The US fire season has nearly ended, with the fire count being the fourth lowest on record since 1960. The only years with fewer forest fires were the wet years after the eruption of El Chichon.

National Interagency Fire Center
National Interagency Fire Center

In 1939, there were 185,000 fires, compared to 50,000 in 2012.

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

I live three miles away from the High Park Fire, which the experts said in June would burn until the snows came in October. The fire was out the next week.

An 1898 fire in Colorado was about 100 times larger than the High Park Fire, so the experts pretend that time began in 1970.

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Greens tell us that our lives would be better without readily available fossil fuels. Obama’s science advisor said that the US is threatened by too much energy.

http://news.google.com/newspapers

Greens shut off the lights in New York and bragged about their ability to survive an hour when they had to rely on their phones for electronic entertainment.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/

A couple of recent events put this theory to the test. An earthquake in 2011 gave Japan the opportunity to experience the joys of living without an adequate supply of fossil fuels.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/

New York is currently experiencing a similar opportunity at green joy.

New York City authorities say a motorist was arrested after he tried to cut in line at a gas station in Queens early Thursday and pointed a pistol at another motorist who complained.

Drivers in parts of New York and New Jersey lined up Thursday for hours at gas stations that were struggling to stay supplied. The power outages and flooding caused by Superstorm Sandy have forced many gas stations to close and disrupted the flow of fuel from refineries to those stations that are open.

New Yorker Sean Bailey accused of pulling gun in gas line – CBS News

Pretending that we don’t need fossil fuels is fun for complete morons like Bill McKitten and Barack Obama, but without fossil fuels society would collapse into a Mad Max state in a matter of days.

We can’t say for certain that Andrew Freedman wouldn’t be clueless without his CO2 paranoia, but it almost certainly has made his condition worse. He rants about Sandy without checking his facts.

Scientists cannot yet answer the specific question of whether climate change made Hurricane Sandy more likely to occur, since such studies, known as detection and attribution research, take many months to complete. What is already clear, however, is that climate change very likely made Sandy’s impacts worse than they otherwise would have been.

There are three different ways climate change might have influenced Sandy: through the effects of sea level rise; through abnormally warm sea surface temperatures; and possibly through an unusual weather pattern that some scientists think bore the fingerprint of rapidly disappearing Arctic sea ice.

The most damaging aspect of the storm was the massive storm surge that struck the coastline from Massachusetts to Maryland. Global warming-related sea level rise gave the surge a higher launching pad than it would have had a century ago, making it more damaging than it otherwise would have been. This is only going to get worse as sea level rise continues as a result of warming ocean waters and melting polar ice caps and glaciers.

The storm surge at The Battery in Lower Manhattan was the highest ever recorded at that location. It surpassed even the most pessimistic forecasts, with the maximum water level reaching 13.88 feet above the average of the daily lowest low tide of the month, known as Mean Lower Low Water, including a storm surge component of 9.23 feet. That broke the official record of 10.5 feet above Mean Lower Low Water set in 1960 during Hurricane Donna, as well as a record set during a hurricane in 1821.

How Global Warming Made Hurricane Sandy Worse | Climate Central

Manhattan has been steadily subsiding for thousands of years due to post glacial rebound. Tide gauge records show no global warming footprint.

Data and Station Information for NEW YORK ( THE BATTERY)

The 1821 storm which he casually mentions was nearly identical to Sandy, and actually split Manhattan into two islands – despite the fact that the island was nearly two feet higher in 1821 as it is now. It came from  a category four hurricane.

Sandy’s storm surge was largely driven by the fact that it was a full moon high tide, which raised tides almost a foot higher than the date of the 1821 storm.

As far as sea surface temperatures go, there is no indication that global warming had anything to do with it. Sandy hit an anomalously warm spot, but sea surface temperatures over much of the globe are anomalously cold. Freedman is using water temperature off New Jersey as a proxy for the planet, putting him on a par with one-tree Briffa for scientific malfeasance.

sst_anom.gif (800×600)

Sandy was largely powered by unusually cold inland temperatures. There is absolutely no reason to believe that global warming either caused or exacerbated Sandy’s storm surge.

Freedman has no idea what he is talking about.

Wind farm noise does harm sleep and health, say scientists – Telegraph

Wind farms may drive you insane – but are worth it because they are ugly, unreliable and environmentally destructive.

Swathes of British countryside are being sacrificed

Too much faith – and subsidy – is ploughed into wind power when there are alternatives to butchering Britain.

We know all about life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness, but what of beauty? This week hundreds of marchers have converged on Cardiff from the west Midlands and mid-Wales in a desperate bid to halt what, on any showing, is an aesthetic travesty. By what right?

The protested plan, which has seen the Welsh marches in uproar for six months, is to erect 800 more wind turbines across the Cambrian Mountains and build a 100-mile network of 150ft pylons over the Powys hills, down the upper Severn valley into Shropshire. It will turn the largest wilderness area of Britain outside a national park into hundreds of square miles of power station. There is no market demand for this and the electricity generated will be less than one conventional power station. It is all political. The entire project is financed by the taxpayer in grants and by a compulsory levy on electricity bills.

http://www.guardian.co.uk