Real Climate Science

First Solar Restructuring Leads To Loss Of $449M

NEW YORK (AP) — A shakeout that is rattling the solar panel industry has sent First Solar, once among the industry’s biggest and strongest companies, to a big quarterly loss.

First Solar Inc. said Thursday that it lost $449 million in the first quarter, mostly due to a restructuring announced last month that will eliminate 30 percent of the company’s workforce

First Solar Restructuring Leads To Loss Of $449M | News | Manufacturing.net

h/t to Dave G

Dinosaurs’ Gaseous Emissions Warmed Earth?
Giant sauropods produced huge amounts of greenhouse gases, study suggests.

Charles Choi
for National Geographic News
Published May 7, 2012

Dinosaurs may have helped warm ancient Earth via their own natural gaseous emissions, a new study says.

Living about 150 million years ago, giant plant-eating dinosaurs called sauropods were ruminant, meaning they had a digestive process that gave off large amounts of methane—a potent greenhouse gas even more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.

Dinosaurs’ Gaseous Emissions Warmed Earth?

Utter flaming stupidity. Methane quickly oxidizes to CO2 and H2O in the atmosphere. The amount of greenhouse gas emitted is identical whether a leaf falls to the ground and rots, or if it is digested in an animal’s stomach. The CO2 then gets absorbed back into growing vegetation.

These morons should probably learn how to balance an equation.

Additionally, the absorption bands of methane completely overlap with H2O. Methane (at 0.000002 mole fraction)  is only a significant greenhouse gas in the absence of water vapor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaNr0Qq5txM&feature=relmfu

Last summer, Jr. Dessler declared the Texas drought to be permanent.

Eight months later, all that is left of the permanent drought is southwest Texas ….

with heavy rain on the way.

Weather Street:Clouds and Precipitation Forecast Movie

Bill McKibben is convinced that he sees terrifying trends, but the data says that he is just imagining things. Some years are wet, some years are dry, but there are no trends evident.

The only thing obvious from the graph below is that the 1930s and the 1950s were very dry. We are fortunate that the climate is so much better now than it was in the 1930s.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/service/drought/wetdry/bar-mod-110-00/190001-201202.gif

Alarmist trends typically range from one data point, up to a time series of no more than 40 years. For alarmists, time simply did not exist before 1970.

CryoSat shows that Arctic sea ice averaged 2.0 meters (6.5 feet) thick in February, 2012.

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cryosat/SEMU55NW91H_0.html

In February 1940, Arctic ice also averaged 6.5 feet thick. Ice thickness is the same as it was 72 years ago.

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

Much of the US was enjoying Jeff Master’s “whole new atmosphere” for a few weeks, but the old atmosphere has returned and it is cold and wet again.

ssmi1_ice_area.png (1667×1250

In 1901, a theory of Antarctic ice sheet collapse became popular.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/64027823

There is no evidence that this is occurring, or that London or New York are in any danger of drowning. The IPCC forecasts only 18-59 cm of sea level rise this century, yet the MSM has picked up Hansen’s wildly ridiculous claims of “dead certain multi-metre sea level rise.”

The consensus of scientists say that Hansen’s recycled 110 year old paranoia is incorrect, but the press is only interested in consensus when it supports alarmism.

Yelling fire in a crowded theatre is not acceptable.

15 Jul 1936 – MANY DEATHS IN AMERICAN HEAT WAVE WIDESPREAD DES…

Sea level rise brings to mind the threat of coastal flooding from menacing storm surges, with growing risks to shore-based infrastructure — but a new study indicates there’s another sea level rise-related threat that has so far slipped under the radar.

According to the study, as sea level rises, so will groundwater levels, and since underground infrastructure —  including sewer pipes and utility equipment  — was built with historical groundwater levels in mind, this could lead to expensive headaches for coastal communities.

A projection for what New Haven would look like after three feet of sea level rise. Blue areas are at or below three feet in elevation. Click on the image for a larger version, or explore the interactive maps from Climate Central’s Surging Seas project.
The study, by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Yale University, looks at the threat to New Haven, CT, Yale’s home city. Sea level rise may indeed raise groundwater levels significantly underneath the city, according to the study, leading to problems not just with pipes and pumps and buried cables but also with the arch-nemesis of many New England homeowners — basement flooding.

“Scenarios for the resulting higher groundwater levels have the potential to inundate underground infrastructure in lowlying coastal cities,” the study states.

Since the 1960s, sea level has risen by about 0.38 feet, at a rate of about .008 feet per year, at Bridgeport, CT, about 20 miles southwest of New Haven. Because the land in this area is slowly sinking at the same time the sea is rising, the amount of local sea level rise is expected to be greater here than in some other parts of the country. According to the study, some climate change scenarios show that sea level may rise by nearly three feet above current levels by 2080.

Why Groundwater is Another Sea Level Rise Concern | Climate Central

Satellites show almost no sea level rise around New Haven over the last 15 years- see the CU graph below. The perceived sea level rise is due to subsidence caused by groundwater pumping. If the groundwater was replaced, the land would stop sinking and the perceived sea level rise would stop. He has his thinking cap on exactly backwards.

All of the other crap in this article is mindless speculation. The IPCC forecasts only 18-59 cm of sea level rise this century. Freedman is pulling alarmist numbers and logic out from where the sun never shines, and not checking his facts.

h/t to Marc Morano