Real Climate Science

The Senate’s top watchdog on government waste, in a new report Thursday, said taxpayer money has gone to fund such programs as Jell-O wrestling at the South Pole, testing shrimp’s exercise ability on a treadmill and a laundry-folding robot, all funded by the National Science Foundation.

Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, said he identified more than $3 billion in mismanagement at NSF, ranging from questionable studies to exorbitant operating costs, and in some cases duplication by the science agency of operations performed by other agencies.

At a time when the federal government is struggling with record deficits and bumping up against its borrowing limit, Mr. Coburn said the agency is a prime example of the kinds of spending taxpayers should no longer tolerate.

“There is little, if any, obvious scientific benefit to some NSF projects, such as a YouTube rap video, a review of event ticket prices on stubhub.com, a ‘robot hoedown and rodeo,’ or a virtual recreation of the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair,” Mr. Coburn said in a letter to taxpayers he wrote introducing the 73-page report, documented by more than 350 footnotes.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/

A reminder that there was a time when climate scientists actually did science.

Continue reading →

Last night’s midnight sun.

Five years from now

This is supposed to be the time of year when skiers and snowboarders are lured to baseball stadiums and golf courses, and seasonal Colorado resort employees are long gone. But with snow still falling well past its closing day in mid-April, Aspen Mountain is reopening 136 acres at the top for Memorial Day weekend, using salaried staff.

http://www.newstimes.com/

Climate models predicted this :

Study: Climate change may force skiers uphill
Tuesday, December 16, 2008

DENVER — A study of two Rocky Mountain ski resorts says climate change will mean shorter seasons and less snow on lower slopes.

The study by two Colorado researchers says Aspen Mountain in Colorado and Park City in Utah will see dramatic changes even with a reduction in carbon emissions, which fuel climate change.

http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/131044

(Queen wonders why this annoying person is standing next to her)

But then again, he doesn’t respect the US national anthem either.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwog6E08CFU]

He probably just wants people to sing hymns to Obama.

Butttt …. Jeff Masters   said that heavy rain is caused by warm temperatures.

Billings (Montana) had already received more than 3 inches of rain Tuesday, setting an all-time daily precipitation record for the city.

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com

http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/products/maps/acis/wrcc/nw/30dTDeptWRCC-NW.png

It has been 27,658 days since the most powerful hurricane to ever hit the US struck. CO2 was well below the safe level of 350 ppm at the time.

It has been 6,849 days since a category five hurricane struck the US.

It has been 985 days since any hurricane hit the US. The longest hurricane-free spell since before the Civil War.

Climatologists have long suspected that the ENSO might shut down as the climate warms, with the Pacific shifting into a permanent El Niño state. This would be bad news for us. Without the periodic upwelling of cold water associated with La Niña, warm water would cover most of the surface of the Pacific, releasing its heat into an atmosphere already warming because of climate change.

Some evidence that a warming climate might shut down ENSO comes from geological studies. For instance, in 2005 Ana Christina Ravelo of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and colleagues said that there had been a fixed El Niño in the Pliocene, 4.5 to 3 million years ago, when Earth’s climate was 3 °C warmer than today (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1112596).

http://www.newscientist.com/

They haven’t yet heard about that radical new idea, called a “cycle.”

http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/people/klaus.wolter/MEI/table.html

Researchers Blame Climate Change For Rise In Allergies

Washington (SmartAboutHealth) – A new study has highlighted the belief that climate change is leading to a rise in allergies around the world.

Researchers from Quest Diagnostics conducted a study that focused on data that consisted of 2 million blood samples.

Each of the samples were from people who sought out a test to see if they indeed suffered from an allergy.

Researchers conducted sampling of this nature over a period of 4-years, and what they found was that allergies are on the rise.

Over the course of the 4-years, overall allergies increased 6%, including a 15% in ragweed allergies.

One other interesting finding was that men were far more sensitive to allergies than women.

http://smartabouthealth.net/