Al Is Back

I can't deal with Al Gore today, but Jules Crittenden can and does.

BUT IN THE COURSE OF NOT DEALING WITH HIM:  Some stray thoughts:

1.  The ReliaPundit, one of the Astute Bloggers, is confusing the stratosphere with the troposphere, and who among us has not made a similar mistake?   Tropospheric drying is scored as a big "Maybe" over here.

2.  Possibly my most startling insight of the day, and I can only hope it will come back to me...

3.  While Al rants about lack of action in Washington and Copenhagen, do consider this Reason article, which notes that China and India will never get on board, which means Al really only plans to bail water from the front of the Titanic.

And we may as well quote President LeBron on compliance with Kyoto:

“Kyoto was legally binding and everybody still fell short anyway.”

Everybody?!?  Thank heaven it wasn't Bush the Cowboy or Sarah the Moron that said that!  C'mon - Europeans have been cooking the boks like crazy and several countries, including France, Germany and the UK, have an excellent shot at achieving Kyoto compliance (which won't be settled until 2012).  Now a quick glance at the chart on p. 12 of 18  helps explain why 1990 was set as the baseline for a protocol endorsed in 1997; the US was in a recession, so our emissions were a bit below trend, and European countries had already taken steps to cut their emissions by 1997 (e.g., the UK switched to natural gas, Germany adopted the collapsed East Germany).

So Europe started with a bit of a lead, but they may still get there.

Comments

[Old Lurker]

NOT gonna read it.

Nope.

Not.

[Jim Ryan]

Let's hope Graham and Kerry push hard on this idiocy and Nancy pushes the health care idiocy.

If congressmen like Perriello vote for either they're toast in November.

Push that Perriello hard, y'all! Come on, now, let's give him a choice of losing because he was for it before he was against it and losing because he was for it twice!

[reliapundit]

thanks for the link!

Gore doesn't distinguish between the tropo- or strato- spheres in his defense of eco-alarmism. so why should I!?

he doesn't even mention either of the words in his op-ed.

can you please furnish me with links to scientific articles which do mention stratospheric humidity AND discount lack of humidity in the tropospheric and argue that both are due to anthropogenic CO2!?

(with all due respect: you cannot; i think you are bluffing.)

the climate models which generated the hockey-sticks didn't even take into account clouds.

FACT: water vapor is a much more efficient conductor than CO2. there is a varying amount of it in different levels of the ENTIRE ATMOSPHERE, and it varies by location: sometimes NYC is humid, and sometimes it is not.

Gore's argument - that humidity has gone up overall - in the atmosphere - or in the stratosphere - and that this is causing more extreme weather -- is propaganda: there has been NO INCREASE in extreme whether: no increase in global cyclonic activity and no increase in blizzards.

Tom: I respect you tremendously, but you have led this post with a cheap "dig" which is NOT fact-based and which only aids Gore and the alarmists.

[Link to article re: no change in cyclonic activity here: http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2010/02/study-there-has-been-no-increase-in.html]

[reliapundit]

the article you link to actually agrees with my position: the decrease in humidity has kept us cool.

Gore is arguing that AGW has led to an increase in humidity and that this increase has led to more snow.

IT'S SIMPLY NOT TRUE.

[larry]

O T: Sen (D) Conrad, Chair of Budget Committee, said a short time ago on Face the Nation the Senate cannot use reconciliation to pass the "big" health care bill. It can only be used to address budget-related items, such as, increased funding for Medicaid expansion. This is big.

[Jim Ryan]

a cheap "dig"

Switch to decaf, dude.

[reliapundit]

the DISCREDITED CRU and the Met Office published something on this in 2007:

Global warming causes humidity levels to rise
Esther | Oct 11 2007

http://m.greendiary.com/entry/global-warming-causes-humidity-levels-to-rise/

"Global warming is making our earth not just warmer but more humid too, according to a new study reported in the journal Nature. This could have widespread implications for weather conditions especially in tropical regions. Increased humidity would mean more rainstorms and fiercer cyclones. The study corroborates earlier findings of increased humidity levels.

In this study, researchers from the University of East Anglia and the UK Met Office’s Hadley Centre analyzed a dataset of humidity measurements made across the world. Data was collected from weather stations, ships and buoys. One of the researchers, Nathan Gillett, from the University of East Anglia, says the humidity is increasing in line with predictions.

“Over the 27-year period that we looked at, the increase is about 2 per cent in the actual amount of water vapour in the atmosphere,” he said.
“Looking into the future, we can expect much larger increases as the temperature continues to increase.”

A significant point made by the study is that most of it can be attributed to human activity. Human-induced changes, they calculate, have been the bigger factor behind the global humidity increase seen since 1975."

THIS MAKES NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN TROPO- AND STRATO SPHERES.

INN FACT; IT HAS GOTTEN COOLER SINCE 2007 - AND EVERY YEAR SINCE 1998 HAS BEEN COOLER THAN 1998.

THEIR MODELS DON'T WORK.

Humidity is local, not global - justy like temperature.

TOM:

Global average temperature is a construct, a HEURISTIC DEVICE.

Treating "global temperature" as if it was real is committing a FALLACY - what AN Whitehead called THE FALLACY OF THE MISPLACED CONCRETENESS.

DITTO "atmospheric humidity".

I suggest you and your readers read Spencer's latest at WUWT for the initial analysis he's doing comparing the alarmists constructs to actual satellite readings and his analysis of weather stations.

It indicates that the global mean temperature number the eco-alrmists have concocted are NOT ACCURATE AT ALL.

HERE:

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/27/spencer-spurious-warming-demonstrated-in-cru-surface-data/

LUVYA!

ALL THE BEST!

[Harry Reid]

How do you solve a problem like Senator Conrad?

[Jim Ryan]

LUVYA!

ALL THE BEST!

Now that's a quick switch to decaf.

[Clarice]

That is BIG,larry. Thnx.

[Tom Maguire]

In this study, researchers from the University of East Anglia and the UK Met Office’s Hadley Centre analyzed a dataset of humidity measurements made across the world. Data was collected from weather stations, ships and buoys.

All located in the troposphere.

Look, showing us a paper or two showing the troposphere is drying would be fine. Strictly speaking, I suppose relative humidity could fall while total evaporated water rose, if temperature rose enough, but whatever.

But snow falls from the troposphere, so saying Al is wrong about his home in the stratosphere doesn't really work.

[Gore will skate by saying he ingenuously trusted the scientists.]

Yeah, the lack of rise of water vapor is a death blow to the idea that water vapor feedback is large and positive to the initial forcing by CO2.

The bit about India and China and poor people and coal was why I was able to predict a year and a half ago that Copenhagen would crash in an attempt by the undeveloped nations to shakedown the developed ones over carbon guilt.

Copenhagen was dead even without the ClimateGate email release. ClimateGate just shakes the foundations of science, such that the Demon Princes of the IPCC and their kind, the Masters of the Carbon Universe, will have just that much more difficulty satisfying their gluttony for power and treasure.
=====================

[reliapundit]

YOU:

snow falls from the troposphere

THAT IS PRECISELY WHERE HUMIDITY HAS DECREASED THE LAST DECADE.

[MarkO]

Big headline yesterday was "Is Nature Out of Control?"

It strikes me that only city kids can even wallow in these arguments. But, go at it.

When I send you to get the cows, they will come back with you and you will think you brought them.

[reliapundit]

BTW:

THE GLOBAL HUMIDITY INDEX IS MADE BY THE CRU AND IS PROBABLY AS RELIABLE AS THEIR TEMP INDEX.

WHICH IS TO SAY: IT IS UNRELIABLE.

BTW: NONE OF THE CLIMATE MODELS CITIED BY GORE & COMPANY PREDICTED THIS WINTER WOULD BE COLDER AND SNOWIER. THEY ALL PREDICTED AS MILD WINTER.

[It's hard to believe that this thing is actually cracking up. It's a behemoth of deluded persuasion.]

Read the communication from the Institute of Physics to the committee looking into the East Anglian mischief for the lowdown on the perversion of the scientific process that happened to allow the phenomenon of mass acceptance of the Doctrine of AGW to occur. Though the committee and its investigation is designed to be a whitewash, it is not going to wash, as the deliberations are in a fishbowl of skeptical criticism. The IoP letter is at Steve's in the LUN.

Also there is Steve's own unique outlook on the mess, since he's a principal in the affair. Curious too, if you'd like to look, is Benny Peiser's story about the fraudulent Jones and Wang paper about UHI.
==============================

[Cecil Turner]

Heh. I was doing pretty well until I got to this part:

Personally, once they’re done failing to accomplish the health care thing, I have to say that if they fail to accomplish nothing else, I’d like to see them fail to accomplish the warming thing.

but then I was laughing too hard to focus on the rest of it. Luckily I wasn't drinking coffee. Speaking of which:

Switch to decaf, dude.

Word.

THAT IS PRECISELY WHERE HUMIDITY HAS DECREASED THE LAST DECADE.

Your posting still refutes Gore with an SA article discussing water vapor in the Stratosphere. TM's right, it doesn't work. And see the decaf thing above . . . it's well meant.

[reliapundit]

A MAJOR REASON TO IGNORE GLOBAL HUMIDITY DATA: IT'S FROM THE CRU:

Global warming driving up humidity levels, says study

(AFP) – Oct 10, 2007

PARIS (AFP) — Man-made global warming is driving up humidity levels, with the risk that rainfall patterns will shift or strengthen, tropical storms intensify and human health may suffer from heat stress, a study released on Wednesday said.

From 1976 to 2004, when the world's average surface temperature rose 0.49 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit), global levels of atmospheric water vapour rose 2.2 percent, according to the paper by British scientists.

By 2100, humidity levels could increase by another 10 percent, lead researcher Nathan Gillett of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, eastern England, told AFP.

[reliapundit]

ANOTHER MAJOR REASON:

IT WAS BY PHIL JONES!

http://www.int-res.com/articles/cr/2/c002p001.pdf

[If there hadn't been caffeine, y'all would be bowing to your new climate overlords. And liking it.]

Heh, Relia; just show 'em Ryan Maue's graph of Accumulated Cyclone Energy, now at a 30 year low. Wierd indeed.
==========================

[reliapundit]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,300877,00.html

2007

With global warming, the world isn't just getting hotter — it's getting stickier, due to humidity. And people are to blame, according to a study based on computer models published Thursday.

The amount of moisture in the air near Earth's surface rose 2.2 percent in less than three decades, the researchers report in a study appearing in the journal Nature.

"This humidity change is an important contribution to heat stress in humans as a result of global warming," said Nathan Gillett of the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, a co-author of the study.

CRU - CRUD IN = CRUD OUT.

[Theobromine, the Food of the Gods.]

Tom, the whole scam depended upon water vapor being a large and positive feedback to the forcing of CO2. This figure was determined from modeling and the reasoning was circular because they could find no other reason for the rise in temperature in the last quarter of the last century. But the water vapor rise is not happening, the temperature rise is not happening, and the circularity of the models is exposed as the fallacy it is.

The snow in the east is from more Nor'Easters, from the Jet Stream diverted south, from the Pacific being in El Nino mode. It's weather. Period.
=========================

[reliapundit]

HERE ARE SOME FACTS:

Page 1
Recent Climatology, Variability, and Trends in Global Surface Humidity
AIGUO DAI
National Center for Atmospheric Research,* Boulder, Colorado
(Manuscript received 20 July 2005, in final form 22 November 2005)
ABSTRACT
In situ observations of surface air and dewpoint temperatures and air pressure from over 15 000 weather
stations and from ships are used to calculate surface specific (q) and relative (RH) humidity over the globe
(60°S–75°N) from December 1975 to spring 2005. Seasonal and interannual variations and linear trends are
analyzed in relation to observed surface temperature (T) changes and simulated changes by a coupled
climate model [namely the Parallel Climate Model (PCM)] with realistic forcing. It is found that spatial
patterns of long-term mean q are largely controlled by climatological surface temperature, with the largest
q of 17–19 g kg 1 in the Tropics and large seasonal variations over northern mid- and high-latitude land.
Surface RH has relatively small spatial and interannual variations, with a mean value of 75%–80% over
most oceans in all seasons and 70%–80% over most land areas except for deserts and high terrain, where
RH is 30%–60%. Nighttime mean RH is 2%–15% higher than daytime RH over most land areas because
of large diurnal temperature variations. The leading EOFs in both q and RH depict long-term trends,
while the second EOF of q is related to the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). During 1976–2004,
global changes in surface RH are small (within 0.6% for absolute values), although decreasing trends of
0.11%
0.22% decade 1 for global oceans are statistically significant. Large RH increases (0.5%–2.0%
decade 1) occurred over the central and eastern United States, India, and western China, resulting from
large q increases coupled with moderate warming and increases in low clouds over these regions during
1976–2004. Statistically very significant increasing trends are found in global and Northern Hemispheric q
and T. From 1976 to 2004, annual q (T) increased by 0.06 g kg 1 (0.16°C) decade 1 globally and 0.08 g kg 1
(0.20°C) decade 1 in the Northern Hemisphere, while the Southern Hemispheric q trend is positive but
statistically insignificant.

NOTE:

Statistically very significant increasing trends are found in global and Northern Hemispheric q
and T. From 1976 to 2004, annual q (T) increased by 0.06 g kg 1 (0.16°C) decade 1 globally and 0.08 g kg 1
(0.20°C) decade 1 in the Northern Hemisphere, while the Southern Hemispheric q trend is positive but
statistically insignificant.

YET TEMPS WENT DOWN FROM 1998 TO NOW.

HMMMM....

CO2 WENT UP... AND HUMIDITY (AS MEASURED FROM THE GROUND) WENT UP...

BUT TEMPS DID NOT:

1998 WAS THE WARMEST YEAR OF THE LAST 15. EVERY YEAR SINCE HAS BEEN COOLER THAN 1998.

ERGO" NEITHER CO2 OR HUMIDITY CAN EXPLAIN CLIMATE CHANGE OR CASUE IT.

TOM... GUESS WHAT CAN? GUESS WHAT SKEPTICS USED TO PREDICT THIS WINTER?

THE SUN.

DETAILS HERE:

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/27/archibald-on-stellar-to-climate-linkage/

EXCERPT (SANS CHARTS AND GRAPHS AND LINKS):

If climate is not a random walk, then we can predict climate if we understand what drives it. The energy that stops the Earth from looking like Pluto comes from the Sun, and the level and type of that energy does change. So the Sun is a good place to start if we want to be able to predict climate. To put that into context, let’s look at what the Sun has done recently. This is a figure from “Century to millenial-scale temperature variations for the last two thousand years indicated from glacial geologic records of Southern Alaska” G.C.Wiles, D.J.Barclay, P.E.Calkin and T.V.Lowell 2007:

http://icecap.us/images/uploads/Archibald1sun.JPG

The red line is the C14 production rate, inverted. C14 production is inversely related to solar activity, so we see more C14 production during solar minima. The black line is the percentage of ice-rafted debris in seabed cores of the North Atlantic, also plotted inversely. The higher the black line, the warmer the North Atlantic was. The grey vertical stripes are solar minima.

As the authors say, “Previous analyses of the glacial record showed a 200- year rhythm to glacial activity in Alaska and its possible link to the de Vries 208-year solar (Wiles et al., 2004). Similarly, high-resolution analyses of lake sediments in southwestern Alaska suggests that century-scale shifts in Holocene climate were modulated by solar activity (Hu et al., 2003). It seems that the only period in the last two thousand years that missed a de Vries cycle cooling was the Medieval Warm Period.”

The same periodicity over the last 1,000 years is also evident in this graphic of the advance/retreat of the Great Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland:

http://icecap.us/images/uploads/Archibald2sun.JPG

The solar control over climate is also shown in this graphic of Be10 in the Dye 3 ice core from central Greenland:

http://icecap.us/images/uploads/Archibald3sun.JPG

The modern retreat of the world’s glaciers, which started in 1860, correlates with a decrease in Be10, indicating a more active Sun that is pushing galactic cosmic rays out from the inner planets of the solar system.

The above graphs show a correlation between solar activity and climate in the broad, but we can achieve much finer detail, as shown in this graphic from a 1996 paper by Butler and Johnson (below enlarged here)::

Butler and Johnson applied Friis-Christensen and Lassen theory to one temperature record – the three hundred years of data from Armagh in Northern Ireland. There isn’t much scatter around their line of best fit, so it can be used as a fairly accurate predictive tool. The Solar Cycle 22/23 transition happened in the year of that paper’s publication, so I have added the lengths of Solar Cycles 22 and 23 to the figure to update it. The result is a prediction that the average annual temperature at Armagh over Solar Cycle 24 will be 1.4C cooler than over Solar Cycle 23. This is twice the assumed temperature rise of the 20th Century of 0.7 C, but in the opposite direction.

To sum up, let’s paraphrase Dante: The darkest recesses of Hell are reserved for those who deny the solar control of climate.

[matt]

So THAT'S why we're having all those droughts! Of Course! Global humidification!

If you will excuse the pun, Al has condensed it into one simple explanation. Again.

[Mike Myers]

Ah Al Gore--the Simpleton with the simple explanations. Sometimes Al is not just a simpleton, but a thundering bloviator.

Ann Althouse also read Al's piece. She cuts him a new one in her comments today.

[reliapundit]

LAST COMMENT.

PROMISE!

humidity is local. it is not global.

it differs from one place to another - within miles.

it differs based on altitude.

the effects of changes of the sun's output correlate to earth's climate changes very consistently, and changes in atmospheric co2 and atmospheric h2o (whether in the strato- or tropo- spheres) do not.

the cru generated the global average temp and humidity for most of the ipcc reports and the cru has been completely discredited.

therefore, using cru data is idiotic.

let's use data which is incontrovertible.

it's here. and it point to the sun.

leftists don;t like this because there's no way for leftists to tax the sun.

btw: lindzen has argued very effectively that some warming of the earth's climate would be a GOOD THING not a thing.

so there's absolutely no reason to be alarmed or to listen to the alarmists.

end of story.

[And yet, that same steadiness of the sun may explain 4.5 billion years of climate steadiness such that life could evolve.]

Sure, relia, I think it's the sun, too, but the mechanism and the data are not there. Leif Svalgaard is happy to point out that the total output of the sun only varies a half percent from maximum to minimum, far smaller than the variance needed to explain climate change.

There are many people trying to correlate other manifestations of the sun with temperature cycles on earth, so far without success. Leif's point that these other things are all second order, with much less energy in them, is a good one. He also wants an explanation for how a magnifying mechanism might avoid a runaway effect, and I've yet to hear an answer for that one.

It's clear to me that the temperature record of the last century and a half represents the coupling and uncoupling of natural cycles, mostly oceanic oscillations. The big mystery for me is how the sun drives the oceanic oscillations. I even have a mechanism, but Leif pooh-poohs it.

Humidity has not risen as has been predicted by the models. It's the signpost to the fault.
===============================

[boris]

"refutes Gore with an SA article discussing water vapor in the Stratosphere. TM's right, it doesn't work"

IMO the Institute of Physics (mentioned by kim) has it about right. There isn't enough real science here to draw conclusions one way or the other. Nevertheless, the SA article reads ...

That temperature does seem to correlate, however, to sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific that, of course, follow El Niño–La Niña cycles, along with other trends.

A new El Niño cycle—warmer surface waters—began last summer, which may mean that stratospheric water levels could change again.

ISTM a reasonable inference from this claim would be that humidity of the lower stratosphere is dependant on sea-surface temperatures which implies the water vapor levels come by way of the troposphere.

[Danube of Thought]

Larry, there are other senate Dems who agree with Conrad. I've seen suggestions that, like Pelosi, Reid doesn't have the votes either.

[It takes a free imagination to enslave all the people.]

And you miss a point badly, relia; once carbon is no longer demonized, the left will switch to declaiming about 'energy footprint' and they will seek to tax the sun and the wind. Those 'sustainable' energy sources are not without their problems, too, which must be regulated.
=======================

[Ignatz]

A lot of the money, power and esteem Algore acquired is slipping through his fat little fingers at the moment, so expect much more bloviating from the blow hard.
There are few things as pathetic or as loud as a false prophet revealed.

[Pops]

I think the most important question for all the politicians who want to curtail the US lifestyle and energy use is are you prepared to also cutail it in other countries?

Will you ban the export of coal and other pollutants like Natural Gas and only export wind and solar power?

[sylvia]

" Man-made global warming is driving up humidity levels,"

Well I am not a GW believer. However, if one were to go with their theory, I would think warming would lead to more humidity. If all the ice melts, that will release more water into the ocean. More water and higher temps would lead to more water vapor. More water vapor means more snow and rain.

On the other hand, there could be feedback loops. Feedback loops are why GW is not so easy as they make it seems. Would more water vapor in the air cool the earth? As it would increase cloud cover and block some sun from getting in? So who's to say.

[sylvia]

"Europeans have been cooking the boks like crazy "

Well I don't blame them Tom. A little bok choy with some soy sauce. Delicious.

[And it's just begun.]

Yeah, Ann Althouse tears into the creeping authoritarianism of Al Gore and his Acolytes. It's a bad, bad, mess, and just as evil as can be.
=======================

[Rob Crawford]

Ah Al Gore--the Simpleton with the simple explanations.

He flunked out of divinity school, and has now become prophet to people who consider religion a primitive atavism.

[Billions for gigabytes, and not a scientific thought underlying it.]

sylvia, you are thinking better than the global climate modelers did.
=================================

[Charlie (Colorado)]

You know, I'm actually pretty skeptical myself (go read my last 20 articles at Pajamas Media if you question this) but you'd be just one hell of a lot more convincing if you didn't get some pretty basic things wrong. Like, for example,

the climate models which generated the hockey-sticks didn't even take into account clouds.

See, the "climate models" that generate hockey sticks aren't climate models, first of all, The hockey sticks of Mann, Briffa, Jones te al are temperature reconstructions from tree rings. They don't take into account clouds because, see, clouds are big fluffy things in the sky, and trees are green plants living on the ground. Trees don't have clouds, and the temperature reconstructions are average temperature on a time scale of years, which may be affected by clouds but in which the influence of clouds is in the neighborhood of 10^-3 shorter than any effect that can be observed in the rings.

And lay off the capital letters, for Gods' sakes. That way lies madness.

[WE ARE ALL YELLING BLOODY MURDER NOW.]

Well, Charlie, that's a decent point, but the GCMs also predicted hockey stick like temperature rises, and the GCMs do poorly model clouds. So his points stand.
=======================

[boris]

Well it depends on whether a "temperature reconstruction" is a better fit to the term "climate model" than the computer simulations ... which don't accurately account for the chaotic nature of cloud formation. Pretty sure some of those computer simulations were fudge factored into reproducing the hockey-stick also. While it is not incorrect to refer to a proxy reconctruction as a "model" it is not the first thing that comes to my mind.

Anyway the continuous and accelerating increase in temperatures they predicted failed to happen.

[PaulL]

I saw a cloud yesterday and it looked like spilt milk.

[PaulL]

Algore: [T]he crisis is still growing because we are continuing to dump 90 million tons of global-warming pollution every 24 hours into the atmosphere — as if it were an open sewer....

Althouse: The "pollution" is carbon dioxide, which is what flows out of our noses and mouths when we exhale. Do you think of your breathing passages as spewing shit? There's nothing dirty or toxic about carbon dioxide. The problem has only to do with the greenhouse effect. But isn't it so much more effective — i.e., scarier — to make people think we're still talking about filth?

[Boatbuilder]

The one "feedback loop" that seems to be functioning as predicted is that involving the warmerists and the media.

[We've got to get rid of the Medieval Warm Period.]

And thanks, Charlie, for leading me to another insight. It might well be said that the 'hockey sticks' of the scientific literature, from tree rings, and lake sediments, and cave structures, have been identified, that is 'cherry picked', or selected via bias, in order to validate the warming projected by the climate models.

Nice, huh? and thanks; it helps illustrate the perversion of the field by the politics.
======================

[sbw]

I believe the hockey stick argument is going to be settled this afternoon on the ice.

[Carol Herman]

Excuse me, but this has been in the oven a very long time! There were not enough votes! PERIOD. Even though the democraps own the TRIFECTA, their horse has only 3 legs. And, isn't up to racing forward.

[Unsound in wind and limb.]

I bet on the Stick Mann. I bet on the Jones.
If I'd bet on 'Ol McIntyre, I'd be a free man today.
=========================

[daddy]

In this goofy story about an environmental moron ">http://www.alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/news/4051-braving-the-bering"> trying to drive Jeeps across the Bering Strait from Russia, we get the following:

"Bering Strait ice has covered more area than normal this year, according to Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center."

Anyhow, I've been trying to keep updated on this guy's progress and will let you know when and if he puts peddle to the medal for Gaia and tries to drive across the ocean.

[PDinDetroit]

"I believe the hockey stick argument is going to be settled this afternoon on the ice."

WORD. Go USA!

BTW - I never would have thought that Brian Rafalski would be leading in points, but he seems to be a better "second half" of the season player. Time to go pick-up some Red Wing Tickets!

[bgates]

if he puts peddle to the medal

That's what John F'n Kerry did, trying to profit from his phony awards.

[Old Lurker]

When my daughters were little, even they knew Care Bears live in clouds. Not in trees.

[larry]

DoT @12:10- I have a very uneasy feeling about it, like Charley Brown kicking with Lucy holding.

[Clarice]

OT: Some contradictions in the Dubai murder mystery reports gathered together:
[blockquote]It began with a leak that on Mabhouh's body there were signs of brute force that were evident that he was tortured before he was killed. There was even a report that his assassins tied him up with wire. In fact it turned out that for 10 days the Dubai police thought he had died of natural causes, so clearly had he not been tortured.
But then we get a lot of contradicting facts:
Initial medical reports stated that the cause of death was due to an increase in blood pressure on the brain.
I am not sure how it's done, but it's probably some devilish chemistry at work.
A local autopsy detected burns from a stun gun on his chest, under his ear and in his groin...
So it's taser or another similar electric gizmo. This version is strengthened by the following quote:
Mahmoud's brother told AFP by telephone, that an investigation showed Mahmoud was killed by an electrical appliance held to his head.
But, on the other hand:
...local doctors diagnosed a heart attack, induced by a drug injected by the hit squad.
Curiosier and curiosier. And it doesn't let up as we continue:
On January 31, Emirati Law reported that the Dubai Police Chief said that forensic examination showed Mabhouh was suffocated with a pillow by a professional criminal group. He made no mention of electrocution nor blood.
The list includes another curious mention:
The Indian Siasat Daily reported that the Dubai Police Chief told Gulf News that a Hamas member had played a significant role in the killing.
But I think we shouldn't include the Hamas member in the list of the ways and means, unless he is to be considered a blunt instrument.

There is, however, another element of the mystery that I've intentionally left for the end, for real connoisseurs of murder thrillers: the locked room mystery :
On Wednesday the 20th January 2010 at 1.30 pm, Al Bustan Hotel's administration opened the door to the victim's hotel room, which was locked from the inside with the latch and chain in place...[/blockquote]
http://simplyjews.blogspot.com/2010/02/mahmoud-al-mabhouh-assassination-plot.html

[PaulL]

Interesting that Algore shows up only after the Mabhouh death. Coincidence?

[Pops]

Saw a recent scientific show that showed Sahara Warming takes place over 20 - 50,000 thousand years nd is due to the wobble of the Earth. Who ae these scietists kiddin that they have any dataset on temperature that has any meaning.

[daddy]

If you're looking for the missing mention of Carbon in Al Gore's interview, perhaps its in the ">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8538033.stm"> "forests of the ocean", otherwise known as whales.

This BBC story says a scientist is proposing a Marine Animal Carbon Scheme to go along with Gore's plan, and in the story, after he explains whales as carbon traps by relating them to Chihuahua's and dog food, it all becomes clear.

"This is so obvious, why didn't we think of this before?" says an unnamed scientist after hearing of this exciting new Carbon Credit scheme.

[narciso]

So is this fellow Rasputin, that would be the only thing that explained that result, or is
the Dubai medical examiner, really that incompetent

[Clarice]

narciso, it obviously was a final exam for this year's Mossad graduates--the idea was to see how many disguises the entire class could pull off, how many different ways they could kill the guy and the winning team got a free trip to Iran.

[Mike Myers]

Poor old Al Gore: he's talking about 90 million tons of pollution (CO 2) being poured into the atmosphere like it was an open sewer every day.

Has he considered the methane in sheep and cow flatulence? I'd be willing to bet that exceeds 90 million tons a day--not to mention the CO 2 they exhale. How could he leave the sheep farts out?

He's got to get his "pollution" figures straight. But of course Al Gore's "pollutant CO 2" looks like a meal to a photosynthesizing plant.

[daddy]

"Israeli Mossad, you've just won the SuperBowl of assassinations."
"So tell us, where are you guys going to go to celebrate? Disneyland?"

"Why no Larry, we're going on vacation to that delightful and fun haven for Zionists of all colors, Iran!"

"And there you have it ladies and Gentlemen. This is Larry King reminding you that for all your vacation pleasures this Passover, it's hard to beat the Mullahcracy of Tehran.

[Rob Crawford]

Via Jonah at the Corner, a quote from Algore's piece:

From the standpoint of governance, what is at stake is our ability to use the rule of law as an instrument of human redemption.

WTF? Why isn't he being savaged for confusing his religion and politics?

Looks like Florida, by putting Bush over the Electoral College hurdle, saved us from having a dangerous religious fanatic in the White House.

[Clarice]

Heh, Rob and Daddy.

Actually, the escaping team made it to Iran just in time for Purim..which celebrates events there appropriately enough.

[daddy]

"Has he considered the methane in sheep and cow flatulence? I'd be willing to bet that exceeds 90 million tons a day--not to mention the CO 2 they exhale. How could he leave the sheep farts out?"

Mike the answer, according to my BBC whale link above, is to dump sheep carcasses into the ocean:

"...this marine system is unique because when whales die [naturally], their bodies sink, so they take that carbon down to the bottom of the ocean.
"If they die where it's deep enough, it will be [stored] out of the atmosphere perhaps for hundreds of years."

Might even work for human disposal too!

[Clarice]

here-Daddy so you don't have to look up Purim:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/14/opinion/14goldberg.html?pagewanted=all
I love this (very true) description:

Purim is the ne plus ultra of the "They Tried to Murder Us, They Failed, Let's Eat" subcategory of Jewish holidays

[DrJ]

dump sheep carcasses into the ocean

Oh good heavens! Think of the lamb shanks that would be wasted!

In any event, tonight we will do our role to save the planet by eating some of said shanks. With a good Zin.

[daddy]

Grazie, Clarice,

Thankfully I wasn't wearing my "Go PLO" T-shirt last week in Dubai, or I too could have been swimming with the fishes.

[Clarice]

MMM lamb shanks.. I think I've still got some in my freezer..

[Cecil Turner]

OT: Some contradictions in the Dubai murder mystery reports gathered together:

Geez Clarice, don't you start now. And seriously, does anybody really care who killed the scum-of-the-earth terrorist? (I mean, other than to know where to send the cards and letters of appreciation.)

[daddy]

On Climate-Gate, the BBC's Environment Correspondent, Richard Black now thinks it's a good idea to have ">http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/2010/02/forget_the_norfolk_polices_cri.html"> an investigation of the IPCC.

He suggests some conclusions we might expect once that completely independent investigation is completed, the first and foremost being:

"unequivocal backing for the overall conclusion that anthropogenic greenhouse warming is happening and does present real dangers to some societies."

Commenters are less intelligent than Richard however, and generally seem to think the conclusions should be announced after the investigation of the science is concluded, not beforehand. Imbeciles.

[Hamana, Hamana, Hamana.]

My hat it has three corners, three corners has my hat. And if it has not three corners, then it is not my hat.
===================================

[DrJ]

Mein hut, der hat drei ecken, drei ecken hat mein hut...

[Janet]

From Al's article -
"Of course, we would still need to deal with the national security risks of our growing dependence on a global oil market dominated by dwindling reserves in the most unstable region of the world, and the economic risks of sending hundreds of billions of dollars a year overseas in return for that oil."

Why is this? Because the kook leftists and radical environmentalists won't let us develop our own resources! It is insanity that we cannot drill for oil and develop our resources.

[Extraneus]

It's almost as if they don't really care that much about the national security part, isn't it?

[PD]

Now don't go questioning their patriotism.

[Janet]

The crazy spending along with not rolling back some of the extreme enviro. stuff, and not stopping illegal immigration are 3 of the big issues that made me so disappointed in the Republicans.
Think of how much of our tax dollars go to this environmental crap. I don't want to pay for it. I give to charities and things I'm interested in, but through taxes I'm also made to support all the leftist groups.
I don't want to pay for environmental groups, or Planned Parenthood, or the ACLU, or PBS, or ACORN, or.....

[Extraneus]

Ace put it succinctly.

Al Gore on ClimateGate: "The issue here is not whether we broke a few rules or took a few liberties with our female guests. We did. (Wink.)"

[Roux]

Rush is going to have fun with this tomorrow.... I can't wait.

[mockmook]

I saw a cloud yesterday and it looked like spilt milk.

Posted by: PaulL | February 28, 2010 at 12:45 PM

Did you cry? ;-)

[Extraneus]

It's not just tax dollars, either, Janet. You'd be amazed to know how much money has already and been and continues to be spent by private industry on schemes to limit CO2 "emissions," sequester CO2, and any number of other high-tech so-called "green" initiatives related to global warming. It's mind-boggling, and they know it has nothing to do with science, and doesn't need to.

[mockmook]

Is there some way, like shining a certain wavelength laser into space and measuring the reflection, to measure humidity in the entire atmosphere at one point?

[srp]

And please--if I hear one more time about "green jobs," one of the most economically illiterate and empirically falsified ideas ever to cross my retinas, I shall have to reach for my revolver.

[So it's all controversial; but humidity is not rising as expected by the models.]

I don't think so, mm. Albedo, or the earth's reflectivity, is being measured, and outgoing long wave radiation. Two algorithms, RSS and UAH, are using microwave radiation detected by satellites to determine tropospheric temperatures, but I've not read of humidity detection by those satellites.
===============================

[mockmook]

I don't see how humidity is relevant (as a proxy for warming) if you can't measure/calculate the amount of total water vapor in the entire atmosphere.

Local conditions don't cut it.

[Cyclops sees all.]

I dunno, mm. Temperature itself has certainly been attempted to be calculated from aggregating local conditions, and you see the mess we have; satellite measurements are trumping the land-based series, but even the satellites scan one part of the globe at a time.
=============================

[matt]

so now "it's the clouds, stupid" is their rallying cry. This is getting weirder and weirder.

Al should invest in sheep and cattle methane collection systems, after which he can boil enough hot water to make his own clouds. Then he can fly away with Tipper to cloud cuckooland.

[DrJ]

MMM lamb shanks

And yummie they were. With a wonderful pan gravy, creamy mashed potatoes, and cucumbers in yogurt, garlic and dill. With a Boeger Walker Zin.

I'm just doing my part for global warming. We must all sacrifice, after all.

[Jim Ryan]

When I fart I feel guilty. "Dang. That's one more child that will have to die in an AGW-induced global catastrophe."

[fdcol63]

The whole AGW hoax has been an attempt to create a global crisis, requiring a global solution, from a global government.

Although it's now unraveling, the hoaxers have been very successful in brainwashing people for the past 20+ years into adopting many of the tenets of their "Global Consciousness" and Green Movement BS, to the extent that it has become a pseudo religion for many of these secular humanists who still crave to believe in something larger than themselves.

Their deeply-held faith will not allow them to readily accept that their world view is the result of a Big Lie.

The other negative aspect of all of this is the loss of credibility in the scientific community.

This is yet another example, along with the Tea Party Movement and the loss of trust in our politicians and our political systems, combined with cratering public trust in the news media and the crippling of the economy, of the Left's use of Antonio Gramsci's "Plan B" - his "long march through the culture" strategy of undermining Western institutions, values, and foundations so they can come to the rescue and fill the void with totalitarian socialism.

None of this is happening by coincidence. There is ... and has been .... a plan all along, and things are moving rapidly in their direction.

[Jim Ryan]

President of the United States of America Al Gore.

Boo!

[Jim Ryan]

But fdcol63, they didn't plan for reality to refute their "science" because the fact that reality can do that sort of thing is not something they are aware of, believe in and understand. Modestly to await the verdict of reality is a modernistic and conservative stance. But they are postmodernistic and totalitarian. They didn't plan for this. They simply didn't plan for mother nature to falsify their science because they don't understand or value science.

But you're right that they have dumbed down so many of the electorate with their ideology that this flaw in their plans may not matter. I doubt it though. Look at the approvals of the Dems and of the rising skepticism of AGW.

[Janet]

How sad fdcol63...I think you are right though. Even when the "big plan" doesn't work out the left continues to whittle away at our constitution and our traditional values.

[fdcol63]

Well, when we talk of "they" and "Leftists", I think there are various subgroups within these broad generalizations, and certainly not all are in on the Grand Conspiracy. LOL

There are those that are simply the "useful idiots" or "true believers" - the genuinely good, caring, compassionate people who really do want world peace and who like holding hands and singing kumbaya, yet who have a tenuous grip on reality and prefer to live in a utopian fantasy land.

But there is also a cadre of leadership who know human behavior and nature all too well, and who know this utopian fantasy is impossible to create, but who use the "useful idiots" and "true believers" to help them achieve the totalitarian state they want to enslave the rest of us in.

[PD]

OT:

'Harry Potter' star Daniel Radcliffe detests homophobia; the actor says, "I have always hated anybody who is not tolerant of [the gay community].

He gets my vote for this week's Self-Contradictory Award.

[Ann]

None of this is happening by coincidence. There is ... and has been .... a plan all along, and things are moving rapidly in their direction.

This is interesting:

Health Bill Elevates Senate Bureaucrat to Starring Role

Senate Parliamentarian Alan Frumin decides whether the Byrd rule has been met. (Who the hell is Frumin?)

Last paragraph:

White House officials say they are well aware of Mr. Frumin's influence.

"That was certainly a factor that went into how we put this proposal together," White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said in a conference call introducing the administration's latest health-care plan.

[PD]

Pelosi: Lawmakers Should Sacrifice Jobs for Health Care

Lawmakers sometimes must enact policies that, even if unpopular at the moment, will help the public, Pelosi said in an interview being broadcast Sunday the ABC News program "This Week." "We're not here just to self-perpetuate our service in Congress," she said. "We're here to do the job for the American people."

[Ann]

My other question is:

Where the hell is Sen. Robert Byrd, Senator of West Virginia?

I would of thought, if he was alive, that he would of been on all the Sunday shows explaining the reconciliation rules and procedures.

Call me cynical but we need to ask:
Where is the bird?

[Clarice]

He was quoted as saying this would be a misuse of the reconciliation process.

[bgates]

Lawmakers Should Sacrifice Jobs for Health Care

It's only fair, their plan will sacrifice a lot of jobs in the rest of the country.

[Ann]

Clarice:

He was quoted in the past as saying that but now advises that "the solution to the Senate's impasse would be to force Republican senators to actually filibuster — that is, continually talk and debate on the Senate floor without yielding.

When was the last time that happened?
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington???

More:
"Senators are obliged to exercise their best judgment when invoking their right to extended debate," Byrd said. " They should also be obliged to actually filibuster — that is, go to the floor and talk, instead of finding less strenuous ways to accomplish the same end."

Sen. Byrd calls proposed Democratic changes to filibuster rules 'misguided'

I want a live T.V. interview. Because I don't believe in just letters:

In a "Dear Colleague" letter dated Tuesday, Byrd, the longest-serving member of the Senate, said that the Senate's rules on ending debate shouldn't be changed, but he encouraged forcing senators to actually sustain debate in a real, live filibuster.

[RichatUF]

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington???

Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act had some long ones. I think Fulbright and Byrd might have filibustered one of them for more than 12 hours. Thurmond has the record at 24 hours and change (during the 50's).