Real Climate Science

http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/products/maps/acis/YearTDeptUS.png

The volcano/CO2 story flip-flops depending on what the agenda for the day is. Some days it is convenient to blame past climate change on volcanic CO2.

Multiple phases of carbon cycle disturbance from large igneous province formation at the Triassic-Jurassic transition
M. Ruhl and W.M. Kurschner, Palaeoecology, Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, NL-3584 CD Utrecht, Netherlands; doi: 10.1130/G31680.1.
The end-Triassic mass extinction event (~200 million years ago) is one of the Big Five mass extinction events in earth history. It is marked by global extinction of up to 50% of all species living in the oceans and by large changes in ecosystems on the continents. The cause for the extinction event is related to strongly intensified volcanic activity and deposition of the largest basalt deposit on Earth, the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province. Recent studies show that the end-Triassic mass extinction event directly coincided with the onset of this volcanic period that lasted for ~600,000 years. The release of massive amounts of carbon dioxide from volcanism triggered a strong change in the global carbon cycle and likely had a strong impact on global climate. M. Ruhl and W.M. Kurschner of Utrecht University show, however, that a strong increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide of up to 1000 parts per million (today’s values are ~350 parts per million) and a strong change in the global carbon cycle already occurred ~100,000 years before the onset of intense volcanism. This suggests that large amounts of carbon dioxide were already released by the thermal heating of organic-rich sediments by intrusion of magma bodies from the mantle on their way to Earth’s surface.

http://www.physorg.com/

On other days, they want to prove that volcanoes aren’t major contributors of CO2.

The burning of fossil fuels and changes in land use results in the emission into the atmosphere of approximately 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year worldwide, according to the EIA. The fossil fuels emissions numbers are about 100 times bigger than even the maximum estimated volcanic CO2 fluxes. Our understanding of volcanic discharges would have to be shown to be very mistaken before volcanic CO2 discharges could be considered anything but a bit player in contributing to the recent changes observed in the concentration of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere.

http://www.skepticalscience.com/

http://www.weatherstreet.com/CloudsPrecip.htm

Americans’ Belief in Global Warming Up Slightly
By Jon E. Dougherty at 12 Apr 15:40

(Newsroom America) — The number of Americans who believe global warming is occurring is up slightly after significant declines over the past three years, a new study shows, though the level is still far below pre-2008 peaks.

The study, by the Brookings Institute’s National Survey of American Public Opinion on Climate Change, also found that Americans are divided politically on the issue of climate change, with “significantly” more Democrats than Republicans believing in the phenomenon.

Of those who do, “there is general belief that this constitutes a very serious problem,” the study said, adding that “most believers [point] to both human activity and natural factors as contributing to increasing world temperatures.”
The study was done in comparison with Canada, where attitudes towards global warming are generally more favorable.

For instance, the study said that while belief among Americans may be rising, “belief in climate change among Canadians substantially outpaces belief in this phenomenon among residents of the United States.”

http://www.newsroomamerica.com/

Joe D’Aleo sent this over. Someone at NOAA is pulling facts out from where the sun never shines.

http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov

The Arctic actually had record low ice loss in March – i.e. zero.

http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icecover.uk.php

Klaus Wolter at NOAA said last week :

Stay tuned for the next update (by May 7th, or earlier) to see where the MEI will be heading next. While La Niña conditions are guaranteed for at least a few months more, it remains to be seen whether it will indeed last into 2012, as discussed eight months ago on this page. I believe the odds for a two-year event remain well above 50%, notwithstanding the possibility of temporary weakening during boreal summer.

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

UAH reports that sea surface temperatures were 0.12C below normal.

http://vortex.nsstc.uah.edu/data/msu/t2lt/uahncdc.lt

http://www.witn.com/

A few months ago, Nunavut was all the rage for alarmists. They thought they had found another poster child.

http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/71082.html

The entire country is running more than 10C below normal.

http://www.wunderground.com/global/GL.html

http://wxmaps.org/pix/temp2.html

http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/

CO2 is a calamity!

Mount Carroll, Ill. —
The air is filled with a cacophony of gibberish: Everyone shouting at once trying to get the nation’s attention and distracting the country from the one real issue facing the nation. No, it’s not unemployment and jobs or deficits and budgets, it’s not unions and pensions, it’s not schools or gays or abortion or guns, nor is it the status of immigrants or even the Humane Society. All these issues are relatively minor. And if Americans can’t solve any of these less important issues, some that we have been debating and arguing about ad nauseam for years, how will we ever get our act together to finally deal with climate change?

While Americans ignored global warming and now climate change, we have wasted twenty years — years we could have used to do something about the ever-growing calamity. Instead, we simply made it worse by creating more CO2.

http://www.journalstandard.com/