Sunday, March 31, 2013

Marcott et al. 2013 - Frequently Asked Questions and Answers


Shamelessly copied from RealClimate and reposted for wider circulation:


Response by Marcott et al.

Filed under:
 — group @ 31 March 2013


Readers will be aware of the paper by Shaun Marcott and colleagues, that they published a couple weeks ago in the journal Science. That paper sought to extend the global temperature record back over the entire Holocene period, i.e. just over 11 kyr back time, something that had not really been attempted before. The paper got a fair amount of media coverage (see e.g. this article by Justin Gillis in the New York Times). Since then, a number of accusations from the usual suspects have been leveled against the authors and their study, and most of it is characteristically misleading. We are pleased to provide the authors’ response, below. Our view is that the results of the paper will stand the test of time, particularly regarding the small global temperature variations in the Holocene. If anything, early Holocene warmth might be overestimated in this study.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Anthony, Watts Up With Those WUWT HotWhoppers? AN INDEX

I've spent much of the day putting together an interesting index over at my other site: WhatsUpWithWatts.blogspot.com and since I find Sou's blog interesting and important I'm reposting it over here.  Of course if anyone want's, feel free to copy it {or anything I've posted} and pass it along.



Over the past few days I've been getting acquainted with the blog HotWhopper.com because it has done a good job of tracking Anthony Watts' increasingly irrational assault on the science of climatology.  She's only been at it for a few months, but has produced many posts worth sharing.

Since getting information out there to folks who are being lied to by the well oiled disinformation machine is my main goal ~ of which Anthony Watts is a leading light ~ I have compiled an index with short descriptive teaser quotes.  For your reference as well as for sharing with others.

Sou, at HotWhopper, I tip my hat to all the work you have put into your excellent blog.

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Anthony, Watts Up With Those WUWT HotWhoppers? An Index

Your Climate Change - Sign This Petition


Tip of the Hat to Sou; 
who tips her hat to RealClimate; 
who tip their hats to Professor Ranga Myneni. 

Pssst, pass it along:

Your Climate Change - Sign This Petition

March 8, 2013  |  HotWhopper.com
How about supporting this and passing it along to others.  Sign the petition:


From RealClimate.org:
Folks,
This is Ranga Myneni, Professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University. My research focus is on evaluating climate change impacts to vegetation using satellite data. I have been active in this science for over 25 years. A link to my professional web site is below near my signature.
There is now sufficient evidence that our way of living is causing unnatural changes in climate. Collectively, we own this damage and therefore we need to solve it together. It is YOUR CLIMATE CHANGE also. Twenty five years have passed since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been advising the policy makers regarding the hazards of climate change. Yet, there has been little meaningful action to solve this global problem affecting all life on Earth.
The solution lies in convincing policy makers that this is a priority for all citizens of the World. Therefore, I started an online project to collect one billion signatures by Earth Day 2014 for a petition addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations to act judiciously and expeditiously on anthropogenic climate change.
You can support by:
  1. reading and signing the petition at http://www.yourclimatechange.org/
  2. spreading the word to your (a) family, (b) friends, (c) colleagues and (d) acquaintances through the links on that page, and
  3. composing an email to your trusted circle of family and friends, with the subject “Your Climate Change: http://www.yourclimatechange.org/“, add a short sentence at the beginning of this email (e.g. “I think this may be of interest of you.”) and copy-paste the text of my email
We can easily reach our goal. If I can motivate at least 10 of you to sign the petition, and you in turn can motivate 10 more to sign the petition and they in turn can motivate 10 others … All it takes is 9 such steps, provided that each signee is unique.
Thank You!
Prof. Ranga Myneni (http://cliveg.bu.edu)

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Latest News - Richard P. Allan


After reading Richard P. Allan's article I looked around his website and discovered he's written many informative articles.  And I figured it would be good to share his index over here.

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Latest News - Richard P. Allan

Here is a list of some of my latest news.



  • March 19 2013: Comments on a misleading article in Mail on Sunday
  • 30 January 2013: The increasing risks of floods and droughts: a stakeholder event organised by the Walker Institute as part of the PREPARE project (see blog)
  • January 4 2013: 2012 wettest year on record for England

  • December 21st 2012:Large quantities of moisture directed towards the UK with associatedflooding in South West England and Wales and eastern Scotland (see flood extent on Severn and Thames.
  • November 22nd 2012: More flooding in the UK (see Met Office radar animation | synoptic charts | NCEP precipitation anomalies | geopotential anomalies | ECMWF Stream Function 16-23 Nov | 23-26 Nov | animation ) - see also Met Office Rainfall Totals , University of Reading press release and BBC blog.
  • November 20th 2012: I commented for a CNN article detailing the latest WMO report on greenhouse gases. The report highlights rising Methane concentrations (after a lull in the early 2000s) and also notes increases in other important but less well-known greenhouse gases such as Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6) in addition to the continued increases in CO2 concentrations, close to the IPCC "business as usual" scenario.
  • October 7th 2012: Rivers of the Skies article by Jonathan Leake in the Sunday Times mentions our work on Atmospheric Rivers (see also GRL and JGR articles)
  • September 23/24th 2012: Heavy rainfall over the UK
  • September 2012: Testing simulations of global precipitation variation | See also Article andNCAS Highlight (PDF)
  • June 2012: Flooding in Newcastle | Flooding in Southern England
  • May 2012: Reading's first Weather, Arts and Music Festival begins with the opportunity to be part of a Human Weather Forecasting Factory!
  • Jan 2012: Warming over last decade hidden below the ocean surface (seearticle & blog) | NASA article | Research Highlight

  • Dec 2011: Our colleague and friend, Dr David Grimes, who was dedicated to African rainfall and its importance to society, sadly passed away. He will be sorely missed by a great many people.
  • Dec 2011: Winter floods in Britain are connected to atmospheric rivers
  • Dec 2011: Atmospheric warming & the amplification of precipitation extremes featured as highly cited article by Science Watch
  • Oct 2011: University of Reading join International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC)
  • Sep 2011: Intensified flows of moisture into the tropical rainy belt
  • Sep 2011: Changes in Earth's radiative energy balance
  • Jun 2011: Adapting to the increasing risks of floods and droughts: stakeholders event.
  • Mar 2011: Clouds and the Earth's Radiation balance: Observational Evidence
  • Jan 2011: NERC Changing water cycle projects begin
  • Jun 2010: Focus issue: Anticipated Changes in the Global Water Cycle .

  • source:
  • http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/~sgs02rpa/latest.html#ROSE
  • Wednesday, March 20, 2013

    Global Warming Still Hasn't Stopped. Says who?


    I came across this interesting article, unfortunately, I had a dyslexic moment and mistook the writer for Richard Alley.  To save anyone else the error, I've include some biographical information on Dr. Allan who received his PhD from the University of Reading in 1998.  The man has a very impressive CV and seems like one of those people that regular folks {who haven't spent years learned the science} should be listening to.  

    Professor Allan's comments make a good introduction to the following Repost of a point by point deconstruction by Dana Nuccitelli, John Russel and John Mason over at SkepticalScience.com
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    Wednesday, March 13, 2013

    La Plata County 3/12/2013 Fracking Information Session


    Being out of state I couldn't attend last night's meeting, but thanks to the magic of the internet and the League of Women Voters, I was able to read up on it this morning and share this information.

    Hydraulic Fracturing in La Plata County and Colorado 101

    Sally Bellerue, state co-chair of the LWVCO hydraulic fracturing study, put together a very comprehensive and fair-minded session on fracking in La Plata County and CO for members and a few guests on March 12. The two speakers, Karen Spray, environmental specialist in the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), and Bruce Baizel, Environmental Attorney with Earthworks, an oil and gas accountability project, a nation-wide project headquartered in Durango, kept their presentations candid, fact-based and neutral. 

    Tuesday, March 5, 2013

    LaPlata County meeting March 12 - Fracking moratorium?




    Seems to me this message I received deserves it's own thread:

    Carol Cure said...
    March 12 at 10:00 a.m. is the La Plata County Commissioners' next meeting at which they will discuss a possible moratorium on fracking. 

    It appears from reporting in the Durango Herald that Gwen Lachelt might be leaning toward such a ban, but that Bobby Lieb and Julie Westendorff are not at all convinced. 

    I would urge everyone who cares about our county's environment and our health and safety to attend this meeting and express your views.

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    Further local developments. . .


    The Durango Herald

    Friday, January 25, 2013 

    DENVER – Colorado should use unanticipated tax money to study the effects of gas and oil drilling on air quality, as well as devote more money to public schools and wildfire prevention, Gov. John Hickenlooper told lawmakers Friday.




    The governor’s late-afternoon request outlined his vision for spending about $50 million in additional tax collections that his office didn’t anticipate when it made its formal request to legislative budget-writers in November. 
    Hickenlooper’s $50 million request includes about $1 million to study the drilling practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The Democratic governor insists the procedure is safe, but skeptics remain. . .
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    The Durango Herald

    Article published Feb 20, 2013
    County looks at shale-oil timeout
    Moratorium would allow study of heavy water fracking

    By Emery Cowan Herald staff writer

    http://durangoherald.com/article/20130220/NEWS01/130229965/Commission-ponders-shale-oil-moratorium



    Faced with the possibility that La Plata County could see shale-oil-well development for the first time in the coming year, county commissioners explored the possibility of enacting a moratorium on the practice during a work session Wednesday.
    Commissioners brought up the possibility of a moratorium on shale-oil-well development after Houston-based Swift Energy Resources filed two applications with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to drill two exploratory horizontal wells in western La Plata County.
    Swift’s target is the oil- and gas-rich Niobrara Formation, known in La Plata County as the Mancos Shale Formation.
    Aided by technologies such as horizontal drilling and multistage hydraulic fracturing, energy companies have unlocked millions of barrels of oil from the Niobrara Formation on the Front Range, and now drillers are looking to tap it in other locations.
    A moratorium on shale-oil-well development would allow the county to investigate the potential impacts of this type of development, which has never happened before in the county.
    The majority of the more than 3,000 wells that dot the county are coal-bed methane wells.
    Shale-oil wells extend much farther laterally and are fracked multiple times, requiring much more water than coal-bed methane wells.
    Coal-bed methane wells completed in 2011, for example, required between 200,000 and 250,000 gallons of water, while the drilling and completion process for horizontal shale-oil wells require more than 4 million gallons.
    Shale-oil-well pad sites are about three times larger than those of coal-bed methane wells to accommodate the massive amounts of water, sand and other materials needed to frack the wells.
    All of this could have significant implications for the county from a land-use perspective, Deputy County Attorney Todd Weaver wrote in a memorandum to the county commissioners Wednesday. . . 
    http://www.sanjuancitizens.org/zapn-manager/uploads/docs/In_the_News/2013_2-13_County_looks_at_shale-oil_timeout-DurangoHerald.pdf 

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    Further misc. sources


    FRACKING IS SPREADING IN COLORADO
    http://www.savecoloradofromfracking.org/basics/index.html


    FRACKING COLORADO (just another wordpress.com site)
    http://frackingcolorado.wordpress.com/news-amp-photos/


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