From Unleashed

Science is debate.

Whether at conferences or in the peer-reviewed literature, scientific debates are a crucial part of the error prevention and correction process that has served science and the public well for centuries.

Tellingly, so-called climate "sceptics" refuse to participate in scientific debates: by and large, they do not contribute to the peer-reviewed literature and they do not present their views at scientific conferences - such as the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) General Assembly, which attracted 3,200 of the world's leading experts to Melbourne earlier this month to debate the state of the planet and its future.

Vaudevillian climate "sceptic" Lord Monckton, who is currently scouring Australia for venues for his theatrical performances but has given wide berth to the IUGG meeting, has a life-long record of refusing to enter a scientific debate, not having published in the peer-reviewed literature.

The public suffers when good science is replaced by voodoo artists who shirk debate, as the tragic South African experience demonstrates, when president Thabo Mbeki fought AIDS with garlic and beetroot rather than antiretroviral drugs, thus contributing to the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Likewise, the global public will suffer for many years to come if the views of people who refuse to enter a scientific debate on climate lead to delayed action on climate change.

Notwithstanding their refusal to participate in scientific debate, so-called climate "sceptics" crave attention and want to engage in phoney talkfests, preferably with real scientists, at their public showings.

Scientists simply live up to their responsibility to the public when they decline to participate in such charades, or when they consider Mr Monckton's rhetorical exhibitions to be unworthy of an invitation by a university.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2798990.html

The British House of Lords has taken the extraordinary step of publishing an open letter reiterating that high-profile climate change sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton is not a member of the UK's Upper House.

The House of Lords published a "cease and desist" letter on its website demanding that Lord Monckton stop claiming to be a member of the Upper House.

It comes after Lord Monckton told ABC Radio's Adam Spencer that he is a member of the House of Lords, but that he does not have the right to sit or vote.

The author of the letter, Clerk of the Parliaments David Beamish, writes to Lord Monckton: "I must therefore again ask that you desist from claiming to be a Member of the House of Lords, either directly or by implication, and also that you desist from claiming to be a Member "without the right to sit or vote".

The letter says Lord Monckton is not and never has been a member of the House of Lords.

It says that no-one denies Lord Monckton is a peer, but that is an entirely separate issue to membership of the House.

Lord Monckton will address the National Press Club in Canberra later today.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-19/monckton-letter/2799750

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So is the National Press Club ready then to have scientists talking about the reality of climate change and global warming due to CO2, as their next 95 presentations? I don't think so... Thus the NPC is horribly biased by numbers crunching and are doing the bad bad bad Lord Monckton's work. He is very clever in manipulating idiotic fake facts into convincing stupid arguments... The NPC should NEVER give that lying trickster any credence by having him to speak one word — let alone take the floor.

Now the bad Lord has tweaked his tune for the intelligence of the dung beetles in Canberra (see press club address by the bad lord if you wish, I won't give the link to his diatribe)... His latest offering to the scribes of the National Press Club is to DO NOTHING ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING... because he says it will best to deal with it when it comes, SHOULD IT COME... rather than pay an exhorbitant price before hand. Silly mad man. But the scribes and important news makers report this in a manner in which the bad lord's word are 60 per cent of the content while a sensible scientist opposing this stupid view only makes 40 per cent of the news... SEE HOW IT'S DONE?  It's the easiest form of trickery but it works...

One of the main problem, here, is that not before 2032, can any bad climatic events be attributed directly to global warming. By then there is a possibility that for a country like Australia, global warming influence will cost about 10 to 20 per cent of the nation's budget... But who in the Canberra dung beetle dug out will be alive then? Or which of them cares about whatever more than five minutes from now?... so the beetles push the dung — uphill... while farting the illusive gases of "balanced" news... Rot.

Lord Monckton shared his fondness for the gas [CO2] which the Government wants reduced, saying that on any view, carbon dioxide was not a pollutant but would help produce better food crops.

"It  is plant and tree food," he said to instant applause from a large group of supporters at the NPC.

"If we were able to manage  a doubling of CO2 concentration this century, which is what I expect to happen regardless of the carbon tax, then what we would find is that at the end of the century the yield of certain staple crops would rise by up to 40 per cent.

"And they would be able to survive on less water as well.

"The greening of the planet in the 30 years since satellites have been watching, as a result of what is known as CO2 fertilisation is absolutely wonderful."

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/lord-christopher-monckton-and-dr-richard-denniss-address-national-press-club/story-e6frfkvr-1226097675186#ixzz1SXc1k0on

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Let me cry at this major "absolutely wonderful" lie... In many places on earth, water has become scarce while in some other it rains so much that the top soil gets washed into torrents... Most of the "greening" is actually forests being replaced by crops such as palms for palm oil. The only place there could be a greening "gain" is in northern Russia where the ice is melting. The Chinese have major problems managing water resources and Australia is rarely ahead in this department.
Furthermore, the Lord claimed that Australia overseas was now considered a sovereign risk - that it would default on its debts.
What a lot of rot! The ABC, blessed it's biased soul, had a graph on the news tonight with Alan Kholer (slightly right wing financial presenter) showing that Australia was the safest country for cash, ahead of china, while Japan and the US were top of the list of possible risks. Greece was still behind these two despite the problem faced by the lazy tax free Greeks...
Lord Monckton is a fake, a liar, a con-man and a phoney...
Some crops yeild would rise by 40 per cent, says he? What the bad lord is not telling you is that some other crops might fall far short of expectency and total crop value may fall below today's figures... Of course the natural environment will take a king hit as well but who cares?... Some crops might be hit by floods others by drought in ways never see before...
Lord Monckton is a fake, a liar, a con-man and a phoney...

NOAA has upped its peak heat index prediction for D.C. Friday to a stunning, sweltering 116 degrees. Remarkably, it predictsNOAA was predicting a maximum heat index of 109 Friday. there is a 90 percent chance it will reach at least 110 and a 100 percent chance of at least 105. Earlier today,

And poor Richmond, Va.! NOAA projects its heat index will soar to a stifling 118 degrees.

The picture above says it all. Just look at how much of the country is poised to reach heat index values of at least 100. (Remember that the heat index measures not the actual air temperature, but rather what it “feels like” due to the added influence of humidity).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/shock-forecast-noaa-predicts-heat-index-of-116-in-washington-dc-friday/2011/07/19/gIQAB3kWOI_blog.html

 

As mentioned before on this site, carbon dioxide modifies the behavior of water vapor in the atmosphere and global warming has a tendency to increase humidity in the air (more evaporation from the sea). This heat wave of course cannot be directly attributed to global warming, but there is a good chance that it could be... if you see what I mean.

The wave of intense heat that has enveloped much of the central part of the country for the past couple of weeks is moving east and temperatures are expected to top the 100-degree mark with hot, sticky weather Thursday in cities from Washington, D.C., to Charlotte, N.C.

Temperatures will remain very hot and the humidity cloying for at least a few days. Boston is expected to reach 99 degrees on Friday, and Philadelphia, Newark and New York are forecast to hit 101 degrees.

Friday’s highs in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., are predicted to be 103 degrees. On Thursday, the National Weather Service issued an “excessive heat warning” for New York and all of northeast New Jersey starting at noon — a warning the service issues only when the combination of heat and humidity cause temperatures to feel at least 105 degrees.

The weather service also issued “excessive” heat watches for Massachusetts, North Carolina and Virginia, and said that “above normal” temperatures could last at least two more weeks over much of the eastern half of the United States.

The heat is not through with the central part of the country, either: Chicago is forecast to be 95 degrees on Thursday, and Cincinnati and St. Louis are expected to hit 99 degrees.

At least two dozen people have died of heat-related causes this week as the heat fixed itself over the Great Plains, transforming a large area of the nation’s midsection into a sauna.

On Tuesday, at least 17 states reached 100 degrees — a result of high pressures compressing and cooking the air.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/22/us/22heat.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

Plants and animals migrating upward as climate changes

By Brian Vastag,

Across the globe, plants and animals are creeping, crawling, slithering and winging to higher altitudes and latitudes as temperatures climb.

Moreover, the greater the warming in any given region, the farther its plants and animals have migrated, according to the largest analysis to date of the rapidly shifting ranges of species in Europe, North America, Chile and Malaysia.

“The more warming there’s been in an area, the more you would expect a species to move, and the more they have moved,” said Chris D. Thomas, a conservation biologist at the University of York in England, who led the work published Thursday in the journal Science. “This more or less puts to bed the issue of whether these shifts are related to climate change. There isn’t any obvious alternative explanation for why species should be moving poleward in studies around the world.”

The new analysis reexamined more than 100 previous studies to give a global picture of altitude shifts in 23 groups of plants and animals and latitude shifts in 31 groups.

Although Thomas and colleagues found great variation in how far individual species had shifted over the decades, a trend was clear. On average, species migrated uphill 36 feet per decade and moved away from the equator — to cooler, higher latitudes — at 10 miles per decade. These rates are two to three times faster than those estimated by the last major migration analysis, published in 2003.

“The bottom line is the same point we’ve been making for more than a decade,” said Camille Parmesan, an ecologist at the University of Texas at Austin who has documented the northward shift of butterflies in Europe but was not involved in the new study. “There is a very consistent response globally across groups of species. And the rate of this movement is probably accelerating.”

For some species, warming opened up new zones to colonize. For others, warming drove them to seek cooler climes. Plants and animals tend thrive in a narrow temperature range, said Thomas, so they seek cooler ground when temperatures rise.

The mountain-dwelling pika of North America is a prime example. For most of the 20th century, these rodents moved upslope at an average of 43 feet per decade, historical surveys show. But since the late 1990s, the critters scurried upward far faster, climbing 475 feet per decade, researchers at the University of Nevada and elsewhere reported this year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/up-and-up-plants-and-animals-migrating-as-climate-changes/2011/08/18/gIQAzlTxNJ_print.html

 

1105: 

Good facts from the Weather Channel's Twitter feed: Apparently Irene is the first hurricane to make landfall in New Jersey since 1903. And New York City has had its wettest month ever, breaking the record of 1882, for those of you with long memories.

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14694087