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Climate Change: The New York Times is wondering, as are other mainstream media outlets, "What to Make of a Warming Plateau." If the media had a more critical eye, they'd see what they've been expecting is wrong. The Times reported Monday that "The rise in the surface temperature of earth has been markedly slower over the last 15 years than in the 20 years before that. And that lull in warming has occurred even as greenhouse gases have accumulated in the atmosphere at a record pace." The reporter admits the break in temperature increases "highlights important gaps in our knowledge...

As unlikely as this may sound, we have lucked out in recent years when it comes to global warming. The rise in the surface temperature of earth has been markedly slower over the last 15 years than in the 20 years before that. And that lull in warming has occurred even as greenhouse gases have accumulated in the atmosphere at a record pace. The slowdown is a bit of a mystery to climate scientists. The situation highlights important gaps in our knowledge of the climate system

Yes, climate change is happening. But it's hard to say that the tornado that ripped through Moore, Oklahoma -- or any given tornado, for that matter -- was influenced by climate change. Scientific research has not made a clear connection between tornadoes and climate change, said J. Marshall Shepherd, climate change expert and professor at the University of Georgia. There is currently a much better understanding of how climate change increases the risks of droughts, heat waves and precipitation, he said. There are also indications that changing patterns may influence the intensity of hurricanes. But as far as tornadoes: There's...

The Economist and other journalism icons are beginning to reassess their position on global warmingThe overwhelming consensus on global warming among journalists may be cracking. Last week, the world’s most prestigious newsmagazine – The Economist – backed away from its past alarmist position, saying that “If climate scientists were credit-rating agencies, climate sensitivity would be on negative watch.” The Economist now discounts the high-end estimates of warming coming from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as being unlikely if not far-fetched. Carbon taxes offer economic pain for little to no environmental gain Kenneth P. Green: Whether or not one...

5th consecutive week total sea ice has been above the average extent since measured. Please see the attached link from The Cryosphere Today page, published by the University of Illinois. Again...... More polar ice!

The Economist has been fairly consistent in its stand that carbon dioxide emissions from man-made sources are the chief cause of global warming. But in an editorial this week, it sounds less certain. Global warming predictions haven’t panned out as predicted in the past decade, but the why is a bit fuzzy, the magazine admits. Greenhouse gas emissions have soared during the past 15 years, the magazine notes, with 100 billion tons of carbon having been added to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010. Still, both air and ground temperatures during that time have remained virtually unchanged. In fact, the...

Who Is America’s Best Climate Prediction Expert? It’s a fair enough question, given all our government and the mainstream media have been telling us about the threats we all face from climate change (a.k.a. man-made global warming). With twenty five years and tens of billions of dollars spent by the US government alone on understanding what the causes and effects of climate change are, surely someone has risen to the top in terms of making accurate climate change predictions, right?

Sea ice extent has been above average for about three weeks now. No big deal, but worth a mention. Please see the attached link from The Cryosphere Today page, published by the University of Illinois. http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/global.daily.ice.area.withtrend.jpg

Parody or Does She Believe It? CNN Anchor Blames Asteroid on Global Warming By Brent Baker Created 02/09/2013 - 5:41pm CNN anchor Deb Feyerick asked Saturday afternoon if an approaching asteroid, which will pass by Earth on February 15, “is an example of, perhaps, global warming?” Moments earlier, before an ad break, she segued from the Northeast blizzard to a segment with Bill Nye “the science guy,” by pointing to global warming: “Every time we see a storm like this lately, the first question to pop into a lot of people’s minds is whether or not global warming is to...

Blizzard Nemo is bearing down on the Northeast- hence the term nor’easter to describe it- so prepare for the folks at Fashion Week, now being held in New York City, to be out in force battling the storm. “The organizers of New York's Fashion Week,” reports the CSMonitor, “a closely watched series of fashion shows held under a big tent – said they will have extra crews to help with snow removal and will turn up the heat and add an extra layer to the venue.” We can only hope that they wear furs. Because we’ll need blizzards of hilarity...

Climate change itself is already in the process of definitively rebutting climate alarmists who think human use of fossil fuels is causing ultimately catastrophic global warming. That is because natural climate cycles have already turned from warming to cooling, global temperatures have already been declining for more than 10 years, and global temperatures will continue to decline for another two decades or more.

UNION, Conn. (AP) — It's time to add gassy trees to the list of climate concerns. According to a new study by Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, diseased trees may be releasing unusually large amounts of methane gas into the air. If the data holds up, it could alter forest management strategies around the world and change the calculations for how much trees are able to offset carbon emissions. "If we're using forests as a climate mitigation tool, we have to know what we're getting," said Kristofer Covey, a Ph.D. candidate who worked on the study. "Carbon...

The Kyoto Protocol was a scam from the outset, brought into play by Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien to sucker the global warming enthusiasts who thought the sky was melting. And then, just as he planned, he ignored it. And we have this on good authority, straight from Chretien's top adviser at the time, Eddie Goldenberg, who fessed up to the ruse five years after its 2002 implementation. So it was nothing but a smokescreen. Chretien was looking for enviro-hugs. Reports in the media that the Harper government will soon formally withdraw from the Kyoto nonsense is therefore good news...

IT'S one of the hottest feuds in science - climate chance zealots insist that we're still destroying the planet but now another scientist has warned the cast-iron evidence just isn't there. Prof Richard Muller had spent two years trying to discover if the mainstream scientists were wrong but concluded they were right. Temperatures are rising and his results, he concluded, “proved you should not be a sceptic, at least not any longer”. Case closed. But is it? Not according to Prof Judith Curry, a member of Prof Muller’s team, who claims the same findings have shown that global warming has...

A sea-level rise of just a few inches will bring flooding to South Florida cities, contaminate sources of drinking water and lead to sharp increases in utility bills over the next 20 or 30 years, according a study released Wednesday by Florida Atlantic University. The study found that projected sea level increases of 3 to 6 inches by 2030, due to global warming, could overwhelm flood-control systems that in many areas are more than 50 years old. The authors provided a list of steps to be taken in the coming decades, from moving drinking-water wells inland to installing more pump...

Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble like this week’s shots from Joplin, Mo., you should not wonder: Is this somehow related to the tornado outbreak three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, Ala., or the enormous outbreak a couple of weeks before that (which, together, comprised the most active April for tornadoes in U.S. history). No, that doesn’t mean a thing. It is far better to think of these as isolated, unpredictable, discrete events. It is not advisable to try to connect them in your mind with, say, the fires burning across Texas...

So far, Milwaukee is experiencing its coolest spring in the past 15 years. The temperatures are nowhere near the record, according to the National Weather Service. But the average day in Milwaukee this year is 8 degrees cooler than it was in 2010, according to the weather service data. We haven't had a spring this cool since 1996. From March 20 to April 23, the average overall temperature at Mitchell International Airport was 39.2 degrees. That ranks as the 33rd coolest average temperature in the past 141 years of recordkeeping. If only looking at the high temperature each day, the...

Climate change is not only making the planet warmer, it is also making snowstorms stronger and more frequent, US scientists said on Tuesday. "Heavy snowstorms are not inconsistent with a warming planet," said scientist Jeff Masters, as part of a conference call with reporters and colleagues convened by the Union of Concern Scientists. "In fact, as the Earth gets warmer and more moisture gets absorbed into the atmosphere, we are steadily loading the dice in favor of more extreme storms in all seasons, capable of causing greater impacts on society." Masters said that the northeastern United States has been coated...

Gee, we thought the science was settled. But now the U.N. says reducing CO2 won’t stop global warming after all. Who knew? Obviously, the U.N. didn’t. Through its global warming propaganda arm, the IPCC, the U.N. and alarmists worldwide have been screaming that we must reduce CO2 or else we’ll cook in our shoes. Now, like Emily Litella, they say, “Nevermind.” . . .

ASPEN — He may have been preaching to the choir, but former Vice President Al Gore stirred an Aspen audience Friday with a passionate speech about the effects of global warming, at one point pounding his fist on the podium and declaring it “a moral issue.” (snip) It didn't help, Gore said, that the scientific community committed some “self-inflicted wounds.” That was a reference to mistakes and misstatements in an IPCC report four years ago that led to a large amount of political debate and media attention. “I think the mistakes were blown way way out of proportion,” Gore said....