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This Week in SCIENCE, Volume 327, Issue 5967, Food Security dated February 12 2010, is now available at:http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol327/issue5967/twis.dtlStanding High (requires free registration to view)***************************snip********************************Sea-level rises and falls as Earth’s giant ice sheets shrink and grow. It has been thought that sea level around 81,000 years ago—well into the last glacial period—was 15 to 20 meters below that of today and, thus, that the ice sheets were more extensive. Dorale et al. (p. 860; see the Perspective by Edwards) now challenge this view. A speleothem that has been intermittently submerged in a cave on the island of Mallorca was dated to...

I am proud to add Dr. Jan Zeman’s authoritative addendum to substantiate the claims made in my Czechgate article. With Dr. Zeman’s permission I have edited and revised his paper slightly for publication. THE KLEMENTINUM RECORD – UHI AND LOCAL WARMING by Jan Zeman The “global warming agencies” literally raped the data from Prague Klementinum. On the graph we see the data from GISS although the NOAA and CRU versions are very similar. What has been stripped out from the record is the most valuable part going from the 1770’s to the latter half of the 19th century. Thereafter, it...

A key component of the scientific argument for anthropogenic global warming (AGW) has been disproven. The results are hiding in plain sight in peer-reviewed journals. Politicians and scientists still cling to the same hypothesis: Increased emission of CO2 into the atmosphere (by humans) is causing the Earth to warm at such a rate that it threatens our survival. The reality of our global temperatures, the failure of these catastrophic predictions to materialize, and the IPCC scandals all continue to cast serious doubt on that hypothesis.  The only rebuttal given by AGW proponents is that the scandals of the IPCC don't...

The latest round of "Climategate" and several states bailing out of regional climate agreements are a sign that climate change fears don't pass the smell test. Too Bad, Commies: Global Warming is Done So, a bunch of states in the western U.S. are bailing out on regional climate agreements to burn less of this or do less of that. Congrats this week to Utah and Texas and Arizona and whomever else rebukes tyranny before this paper prints Wednesday night. Texas is to be lead plaintiff along with energy industry groups in suits to stop the U.S. EPA and its use...

The other day, I asked Phil Jones and other climate scientists to rebuke some of their foaming-at-the-mouth colleagues for their inappropriate use of language. While I’m still awaiting a response—it should come soon, surely—I cannot neglect Mr Jones’s return challenge. He doesn’t like that people are picking on him about the data he lost, nor does he enjoy upstarts critiquing his conclusions. Rather than squabbling and nyah-nyah-nyahing, Jones asked of critics, “Why don’t they do their own [temperature] reconstructions?” Here is an open letter to Mr Jones. Dear Phil, I accept! The chance to sort out the global temperature record...

CLIMATE RESEARCH Clim Res Vol. 23: 89–110, 2003 Published January 31 1. INTRODUCTION Are the Little Ice Age and Medieval Warm Period widespread climatic anomalies? Lamb (1965) wrote, ‘[M]ultifarious evidence of a meteorological nature from historical records, as well as archaeological, botanical and glaciological evidence in various parts of the world from the Arctic to New Zealand . . . has been found to suggest a warmer epoch lasting several centuries between about A.D. 900 or 1000 and about 1200 or 1300. . . . Both the ”Little Optimum” in the early Middle Ages and the cold epochs [i.e. ”Little...

According to Rutgers University Global Snow Lab, last week’s Northern Hemisphere snow extent was the second highest on record, at 52,166,840 km2. This was only topped by the second week in February, 1978 at 53,647,305 km2. Rutgers has kept records continuously for the last 2,227 weeks, so being #2 is quite an accomplishment. Daily Snow – February 13, 2010 (Day 44)Source : Rutgers University Global Snow LabAccording to Rutgers University data through mid February, Northern Hemisphere snow extent has been increasing at a rate of over 100,000 km2 per year.As discussed on WUWT, the implication is that Northern Hemisphere snow...

SUMMARY FOR POLICYMAKERS 1. Instrumental temperature data for the pre-satellite era (1850-1980) have been so widely, systematically, and unidirectionally tampered with that it cannot be credibly asserted there has been any significant “global warming” in the 20th century. 2. All terrestrial surface-temperature databases exhibit very serious problems that render them useless for determining accurate long-term temperature trends. 3. All of the problems have skewed the data so as greatly to overstate observed warming both regionally and globally. 4. Global terrestrial temperature data are gravely compromised because more than three-quarters of the 6,000 stations that once existed are no longer reporting....

Climate alarmists conjured a world where nothing was certain but death, taxes and catastrophic global warming. They used this presumed scientific certainty as a bludgeon against the skeptics they deemed "deniers" -- a word meant to have the noxious whiff of Holocaust denial. All in the cause of hustling the world into a grand carbon-rationing scheme. Any questions about the evidence for the cataclysmic projections, any concerns about the costs and benefits were trumped by that fearsome scientific "consensus," which had "settled" the important questions. A funny thing happened to this "consensus" on the way to its inevitable triumph, though:...

It has been a bad—make that dreadful—few weeks for what used to be called the "settled science" of global warming, and especially for the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that is supposed to be its gold standard. First it turns out that the Himalayan glaciers are not going to melt anytime soon, notwithstanding dire U.N. predictions. Next came news that an IPCC claim that global warming could destroy 40% of the Amazon was based on a report by an environmental pressure group. Other IPCC sources of scholarly note have included a mountaineering magazine and a student paper. [snip]

Three article excerpts... From JunkScience.com: So, greenhouse [effect] is all about carbon dioxide, right? Wrong. The most important players on the greenhouse stage are water vapor and clouds [clouds of course aren't gas, but high level ones do act to trap heat from escaping, while low-lying cumulus clouds tend to reflect sunlight and thereby help cool the planet -etl]. Carbon dioxide has been increased to about 0.038% of the atmosphere (possibly from about 0.028% pre-Industrial Revolution) while water in its various forms ranges from 0% to 4% of the atmosphere and its properties vary by what form it is in...

Corrected online: 16 February 2010 Climatologist Phil Jones answers his critics in an exclusive interview with Nature. Phil Jones holds himself defensively, his arms crossed tightly in front of his chest as if shielding himself from attack. Little wonder: Jones has spent the past three months being vilified for his central role in what is now called 'climategate'. Jones was director of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, when, last November, more than 1,000 e-mails and documents were illegally... --snip-- Jones says that he is unconvinced that the MWP was a global...

Three Major Firms Pull Out of Climate Change Alliance ConocoPhillips, BP America and Caterpillar pulled out of a leading alliance of businesses and environmental groups pushing for climate change legislation on Tuesday, citing complaints that the bills under consideration are unfair to American industry. The sudden pullout of three corporate giants from a leading alliance of businesses and environmental groups could be the death knell for climate change legislation languishing on Capitol Hill. ConocoPhillips, BP America and Caterpillar's announced Tuesday they will pull out of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, citing complaints that the bills now in Congress are unfair...

Here’s why it’s possible that doubling CO2 won’t make much difference.The carbon that’s already up in the atmosphere absorbs most of the light it can. CO2 only “soaks up” its favorite wavelengths of light and it’s close to its saturation point. It manages to grab a bit more light from wavelengths that are close to its favorite bands but it can’t do much more, because there are not many left-over photons at the right wavelengths.The natural greenhouse effect is real, and it does keep us warm, but it’s already reached its peak performance. Throw more carbon up there and most...

HOUSTON, Feb. 16, 2010 -- ConocoPhillips [NYSE: COP] today announced that it will not be renewing its membership in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP). This action enables the company to better focus its efforts on ensuring fair and equitable treatment of the transportation sector and its consumers and on expanding opportunities for greater near-term GHG reductions through increased use of natural gas. "As an active member of USCAP, we owe a great deal of credit to our colleagues, both companies and non-government organizations alike," said Jim Mulva, ConocoPhillips chairman and chief executive officer. "USCAPÂ’s diverse membership and high-level commitment...

Proponents of global warming in the U.K. can't seem to decide whether or not global warming is real. From the Telegraph.co.uk Prof Peter Liss, acting director of the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU), said sceptics were endangering the lives of generations to come by making unsupported claims. "The evidence is hugely for there being substantial climate change due to man's activities and if you want to argue against that case you have to produce some evidence." Prof Liss spoke after the Norwich-based UEA launched an independent review of the CRU~s work. An international furore erupted up after...

IPCC head Rajendra Kumar Pachauri must be scared to get out of his bed in the morning. During the past few weeks, the reputation of his agency, has fallen off a cliff. There was that humiliating retraction after it emerged that statements about the melting of Himalayan glaciers were inaccurate. But that was only the start: * Their claims about disappearing mountain ice was based on anecdotal evidence in a student’s dissertation and an article in a mountaineering magazine. * The IPCC’s panel had wrongly reported that more than half of the Netherlands was below sea level because it had...

Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995By Jonathan Petre Last updated at 5:12 PM on 14th February 2010 - Data for vital 'hockey stick graph' has gone missing - There has been no global warming since 1995 - Warming periods have happened before - but NOT due to man-made changes The academic at the centre of the ‘Climategate’ affair, whose raw data is crucial to the theory of climate change, has admitted that he has trouble ‘keeping track’ of the information. Colleagues say that the reason Professor Phil Jones has...

Yet again,  we have a situation where the data doesn’t match the full-gloss coloured graphs produced by the PR agency for global warming called the IPCC.Frank Lansner and Nicolai Skjoldby have started a new blog Hide The Decline, and posted that Scandinavian data shows clearly that temperatures got markedly cooler from 1950-1970, before they began rising again, and even after the warming, they only appear to be back where they were. But, all the IPCC graphs minimize the cooling. It would be reasonable to conclude from the data that the temperature today in Scandinavia is roughly similar to that of the 1930’s....

This weekend top global warming expert Professor Phil Jones admitted that global warming was a fraud. * Data for vital ‘hockey stick graph’ has gone missing * There has been no global warming since 1995 * Warming periods have happened before – but NOT due to man-made changes Jones admitted this weekend that there has been no significant global warming in the last 15 years. But, that didn’t stop these fraudsters from bilking the EU and US for £800,000 ($1,253,624.84) annually for the last 20 years. EDP24 reported: Over the last 20-year period, CRU’s budget has been an average of...