Real Climate Science

“Arctic sea-ice decline is perhaps the best evidence around that something truly unusual is happening to our climate,” Ted Scambos, another NSIDC scientist, said in an e- mail. “Historical records and changes in high Arctic coastal areas that have been icebound for several thousand years indicate that this is not just ‘a bad decade to be ice,’ but something outside the normal range of climate.”

The lowest ice extent recorded in data dating back to 1979 was the 4.1 million square kilometers posted on Sept. 16, 2007. This year’s lowest point will probably be 4.3 million to 5.3 million square kilometers, according to Scambos, who said it was a “personal estimate.”

Almost a 25% spread!

The latest melt is in part a result of temperatures in May through July that were 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) to 2.5 degrees higher than average, according to Scambos. The most recent daily data, for Aug. 3, show ice covering 6.57 million square kilometers, putting it back above the equivalent level in 2007, he said.

Antarctic sea ice, which is much more driven by the wind, is “slightly” below the average for this time of year, according to Scambos.

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Arctic ice is almost completely driven by the wind. What does that mean?

August 6, 2011 2:29 PM EDT
[MUST READ] Scientists: We Live in a Bubble Inside a “Multiverse”

Dark lines discovered on Mars by a search algorithm shows indications of flowing water on the surface.  The discovery announced by NASA officials could be a huge breakthrough in the search for whether or not liquid water ever existed on the surface of Mars.

http://www.ibtimes.com/

Mars surface has erosional features which could only have been formed by water. Are they completely daft? Anyone with one semester of physical geology would immediately recognize the dendritic drainage patterns.

Here is one on Earth

Continue reading →

 December 21, 2009

Mr. Obama campaigned as a centrist who would bring bipartisanship and responsibility to Washington. Instead, we have seen him lead a year of irresponsible spending and wildly increasing government intrusion in the lives of Americans. Mr. Obama has pushed ahead with his Big Government agenda, heedless of the wishes of the American people, and people with dissenting viewpoints have been told to shut up and rudely shut out of the process. Mr. Obama does not have a bipartisan bone in his boney body.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/

August 06, 2011
Obama: US ‘Must Do Better’ After Credit Downgrade

http://www.voanews.com/

No matter how many speeches he makes, the conclusion is clear: Obama’s greatest failure is spending America into enormous deficits, and being clueless about how to get the economy to recover.  His speeches, riddled with “I” and “We” are mostly serving to indict him for his failings.  Appearing on TV more than any other sitting president, Barack Obama is constantly “explaining” why things aren’t working, when he should be working on what to do different and better.

Instead he is “campaigning,” which is the only thing he knows how to do reasonably well.  But he can’t fix the economy; he has neither the experience nor the knowhow to do it.  His failed, misguided policies have only exacerbated the size of his mistakes and shortcomings.

http://blogs.forbes.com/

Carter was capable of taking responsibility for his failures.

“The responsibility is fully my own.” Carter said

http://news.google.com/newspapers

Christina Romer, the former chair of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers on Friday offered a rather strong opinion concerning the announcement by Standard & Poor’s that the credit rating agency downgraded America’s debt to AA+.

Appearing on HBO’s “Real Time,” Romer said we’re “pretty darn f–ked”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2759427/posts

h/t to Dave G

How Similar is Water On Mars To Water On Earth?

New evidence suggesting the existence of water flowing on Mars indicates the possibility for life to exist on the Red Planet.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have taken images and videos of dark, finger-like features running down a number of Martian slopes in the middle latitudes of the Planet’s southern hemisphere. The lines become more visible in the warm season, suggesting that they could have been created by the flow of certain volatile chemicals which boils at low temperatures.

These flows then dry up in colder seasons. The strongest candidates are water and carbon dioxide, according to a study by planetary geologists at the University of Arizona.

http://newyork.ibtimes.com/

Atmospheric pressure on Mars (or Earth) is much too low to have liquid CO2. What are they talking about?

I’m pretty sure too that H2O is H2O, whether it is on Mars or Earth.

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3b19254/

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3b33747/

Reader “Independent” raises a good point. Gavin complains that he prefers paleo data over satellite observations, yet the hockey stick was created by throwing out the inconvenient paleo data and replacing it with observations.

Why are these jokers still being funded?

BAGHDAD — The security situation in Iraq is more dangerous than it was a year ago, according to a government watchdog report issued Saturday that cites more attacks on U.S. troops, a continuing wave of assassinations targeting Iraqi officials and a growing number of indirect rocket strikes on Baghdad’s Green Zone.

“Iraq remains an extraordinarily dangerous place to work,” Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the U.S. special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, wrote in his quarterly report to Congress and the Obama administration. “It is less safe, in my judgment, than 12 months ago.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/