I Love A Mystery (Climate Change Division)

I love a mystery!  This is not one, but the NY Times is puzzled:

Climate Fears Turn to Doubts Among Britons
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

LONDON — Last month hundreds of environmental activists crammed into an auditorium here to ponder an anguished question: If the scientific consensus on climate change has not changed, why have so many people turned away from the idea that human activity is warming the planet?

Nowhere has this shift in public opinion been more striking than in Britain, where climate change was until this year such a popular priority that in 2008 Parliament enshrined targets for emissions cuts as national law. But since then, the country has evolved into a home base for a thriving group of climate skeptics who have dominated news reports in recent months, apparently convincing many that the threat of warming is vastly exaggerated.

A survey in February by the BBC found that only 26 percent of Britons believed that “climate change is happening and is now established as largely manmade,” down from 41 percent in November 2009. A poll conducted for the German magazine Der Spiegel found that 42 percent of Germans feared global warming, down from 62 percent four years earlier.

Gosh - I am not an international sleuth for the NY Times, but I would cite ClimateGate (where Britain was Ground Zero), the IPCC debacles in the Himalayas and elsewhere, the collapse at Copenhagen where it finally became obvious that China and India would not play along, and the ghastly global economy which makes sacrifices now for the benefit of those living in 2010 seem a bit misdirected (Call it the "What have my great-great grandchildren done for me lately?  Or ever?!?" syndrome).

After many paragraphs of headscratching, the Times finally hits upon ClimateGate and the IPCC.  They also note the cold winter in Europe, which I missed.

Here in Britain, the change has been driven by the news media’s intensive coverage of a series of climate science controversies unearthed and highlighted by skeptics since November. These include the unauthorized release of e-mail messages from prominent British climate scientists at the University of East Anglia that skeptics cited as evidence that researchers were overstating the evidence for global warming and the discovery of errors in a United Nations climate report.

Two independent reviews later found no evidence that the East Anglia researchers had actively distorted climate data, but heavy press coverage had already left an impression that the scientists had schemed to repress data. Then there was the unusually cold winter in Northern Europe and the United States, which may have reinforced a perception that the Earth was not warming. (Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a United States agency, show that globally, this winter was the fifth warmest in history.)

We get reassurance that properly earnest libs are still on board:

It is unclear whether such actions are enough to win back a segment of the public that has eagerly consumed a series of revelations that were published prominently in right-leaning newspapers like The Times of London and The Telegraph and then repeated around the world.

As long as it is just right-wing papers!

In January, for example, The Times chastised the United Nations climate panel for an errant and unsupported projection that glaciers in the Himalayas could disappear by 2035. The United Nations ultimately apologized for including the estimate, which was mentioned in passing within a 3,000-page report in 2007.

Then came articles contending that the 2007 report was inaccurate on a host of other issues, including African drought, the portion of the Netherlands below sea level, and the economic impact of severe storms. Officials from the climate panel said the articles’ claims either were false or reflected minor errors like faulty citations that in no way diluted the evidence that climate change is real and caused by human activity.

No, the fact that they hype the evidence and fail to review critically their own work doesn't reflect on their credibility at all.

Neither Copenhagen nor the economy get a mention.  Why not?  Now that is a mystery.

Comments

[Clarice]

Even if you just read the Daily Mail, it has been two very cold winters in a row in the UK and after a while the whinging seems preposterous.

[Threadkiller]

Phil Jones steps down, as the savior of the known heated world, and is quoted as saying:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6940704.ece "> "What is most important is that CRU continues its world-leading research with as little interruption and diversion as possible,"

How noble to not let an investigation interfere with the function of the CRU.

Unless you are Sarah Palin,

You can say:

">http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/03/palin-quits-alaska-governor/"> "For my state and for my family to progress ... I will not seek re-election as governor," she said, voicing confidence that her successor would "continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success."

and still be a quitter.

Media fairness.

[eaglewingz08]

The 'fifth warmest in history'? So we have temperature records going from 8,000 BC to the present that can document that this was the fifth warmest? And what temperature manipulations are they subjecting the data to, in order to massage the readings into the 'fifth warmest'? Given the fact that two thirds of the climate recording stations have been shut and a vast majority of the open ones are located in hot zones and given the fact that even with this inherent bias the computer programs of the global warming zealots adds degrees to the temperatures recorded, I doubt that this winter was anywhere near the fifth warmest 'in history', or even since thermometers were invented.

[BobDenver]

eagle - wholeheartedly sgreed. The records are so compromised at this point, they have no credibility. And yet the MSM continues to treat the CRU as if it's the second coming of the Oracle at Delphi.

[glasater]

From the Gang Who Can't Shoot Straight or begin to figure out how to stop an oil leak one mile down on the ocean floor comes this:

Obama climate adviser open to geo-engineering to tackle global warming

[gus]

The LEFT lies for power and money.

Always.

If a Leftist tells you the sun is shining, it is probably raining.

[Thomas Collins]

Let's hope Algore doesn't attend the Super Bowl held in 2014. It could be a cold Super Bowl even without his presence. See LUN.

If the NFL were going to hold a Super Bowl in non-Dome stadium in a cold weather clime, I would have preferred Green Bay as the site. Still, if we're lucky, New Jersey could provide us with that frozen tundra of NFL lore.

[matt]

it is in the high 80's in southern England today, I was informed. It's global changing...gee, what a concept....

according to Algore, Green Bay should be in the mid 70's in late January 2014.

[Melinda Romanoff]

TC-

You are now a mortal enemy for that comment. I don't care what PD says to comfort you. The fount of the NFL, Chicago, is ignored by you? (and matt, you ain't far behind...)

[peter]

Unfortunately, it takes many years to discredit fraudulent scientists, and even more to undo the damage they cause. LUN

[Thomas Collins]

But, Mel, I was cheering for the Blackhawks in a prior thread. And just last night I was playing the Bulls introduction song. As the Chairman of the Board says in the LUN, it's my kind of town!

[Thomas Collins]

OK Mel, here it is in the LUN. The most one-sided Super Bowl ever (not by margin of victory, but by pure combined defensive and offensive domination).

[Melinda Romanoff]

Ah, mushing me up with sentiment, that might get you close.

And I was told by my employer that if I went to the game with my father, I would be fired.

But I could sell them.

To him.

At face value.

He was fired and stripped of his "book" five years later.

And he asked me to be a customer of his two years ago, couldn't fathom why I said "I'm tied up right now, but promised to call him as soon as something changed".

I'll never forget the man, nor the man who fired him when he heard my story. That individual was a friend of my disabled father and took the SEC and, then, NASD rules to task on my former boss, who by then had fired me (With cause, I make no bones about my blame in that).

I only went to one more playoff game with my dad after that.

But we played the tape often together, until his passing.

So, I'm not that bitter at you, just some of the memories.

And Walter fumbled for the first time that year. Do you have any idea how scary that felt, that early in the game? McMicheal fixed that pretty promptly. Heh.

No need to layer it on. I did solely to add the thought of Soldier Field in February.

Heh.

[Good Morning Mefolkistan.]

There's no mystery to climate. The science is settled.
==================

[Ann]

OT

T.C.:

Glad to hear your commentary on 24. I can only speak for myself but there is something compelling about watching 24 after a week of MSM carp. The last four episodes were politically incorrect, terrific!

I just like to see bad guys get their due after watching real life bad guys get away with everything. I think that is why we keep watching and hoping that 24 imitates life.

I almost gave up on the entire series when Jack's daughter cried that she wouldn't see her father again.... really silly when you realize it was only for 24 hours. ;)

Yes, there were ridiculous themes, characters, yada yada but when you are mad at the government there is something gratifying watching the Logans and Taylors go down.

Probably the closest will get to it.

[Thomas Collins]

Mel, I remembered that you weren't able to go to SB XX, but I figured you'd enjoy the clip of Monsters of the Midway highlights.

Some of my fondest memories of my late father involve football. He was a big Giants fan (CBS pumped the Giants games into the Providence area in the 50s and early 60s), so if I wanted to spend time with him on Sunday afternoon, I had to become a Giants fan. We also went to Providence Steamroller (Atlantic Coast Football League) games in Providence. Joe Bellino, Heisman winner from Navy, played for the Steamroller. Tom Kennedy (who did a stint with the LA Rams) was a Steamroller quarterback.

Later in life he switched to the Pats. We got to watch the Pats victory over the St. Louis Rams in 2002 together and he passed away a few months later.

[Next best the Kansas Comet.]

The best Bear sang the Piccolo.
=============

[Melinda Romanoff]

TC-

Simple ties that bind. "No risks in the love of the game."

I never knew which game though...

(kim- They Were roomates, even though the survivor got a big head.)

[Sonicanuckistan.]

Mebbe he got a big head, but my son got an ortograf and dint haf ta pay.
==========

[cathyf]

I worked on the 11th floor of the Board of Trade when the Bears won the super bowl. We were on the side of the building, overlooking Financial Place, where the parade formed up. We spent the day finding stuff to shred -- by the end of the day the drifts of shredded paper were 10-15 feet high in places! We were in the old building, where the windows opened, and it was COLD! About 5 below if I remember. The parade ended up just being them driving the buses with the players down LaSalle St.

It's a good thing that there was no big proctological audits right after the super bowl win, because I suspect that we weren't the only firm that got overly enthusiastic with the shredder that day. BoTCC was up on the 14th floor directly above us, and we were so jealous of them. They still used punch cards, and they threw out what looked like 100 lbs of tiny rectangles that we would not know were called "chads" for another 16 years.

[daddy]

"this winter was the fifth warmest in history."

This year in ">http://www.nenanaakiceclassic.com/"> The Nenana Ice Classic, the Tripod placed in the middle of the frozen Nenana River near Fairbanks did not cross the finish line until April 29th. The contest is a bet on when the river ice will melt and the ice Tripod will float across a finish line.

28 previous times the river ice has melted and the tripod has floated across the finish line on the same or earlier dates, so obviously the Nenana Ice Classic was not incorporated into their warming data.

Just for instance, since these guys seem to be so specific, anyone know what years they are saying were supposed to be the 4 previous warmest years in the last 8,000?

I was kinda' thinking 5,912 BC, 3,471 BC, 844 BC,
and 1,311 AD. It'd a been lot easier if they'd allowed me to go back 14,000 years, as obviously who can forget those unforgettable heat waves of 12,714, 12,711, 12,707, and especially 11,988 BC. Whew, makes me sweat just thinking about it.

[Captain Hate]

The fount of the NFL, Chicago, is ignored by you?

I can remember when the Cardinals, an original NFL franchise, were in Chicago and their fans called the Bears "the football Cubs". I'm not saying the Cards have been historically inept but Kurt Warner has been involved in the majority of their playoff wins; keep in mind they've been playing since the 19th century.

[lois vuitton]

Mey be he got a big head, but my son got an ortograf and dint haf ta pay
.