Climate Change

Global Warming is back on the agenda, with a team from America saying their findings confirmed those made previously, that there was a trend for average temperatures to rise. Since the 1950s temperatures have risen by a bit less than 1deg C. This doesn't really address the issue, which is whether this was caused by man, and whether there is anything we can do about it. Just to put it into perspective I have two homes less than 200km apart and the temperature difference is usually 5 deg C.

Anyway the BBC has leaped on this, so here, in the interests of even-handedness, is the reaction by Marc Morano of Climate Depot:

The scientific reality is that on virtually every claim -- from A-Z -- the scientific case for man-made climate fears has collapsed.

The Antarctic sea ice extent has been at or near record extent in the past few summers, the Arctic has rebounded in recent years since the low point in 2007, polar bears are thriving, sea level is not showing acceleration and is actually dropping, Cholera and Malaria are failing to follow global warming predictions, Mount Kilimanjaro melt fears are being made a mockery by gains in snow cover, global temperatures have been holding steady for a decade or more, deaths due to extreme weather are radically declining, global tropical cyclone activity is near historic lows, the frequency of major US hurricanes has declined, the oceans are missing their predicted heat content content, big tornadoes have dramatically declined since the 1970s, droughts are not historically unusual nor caused by mankind, there is no evidence we are currently having unusual weather, scandals continue to rock the climate fear movement, the UN IPCC has been exposed as being a hotbed of environmental activists and scientists continue to dissent at a rapid pace.

PS you can read the evidence for each of these statements here

You didn't know?

The Meteorological Office says we are having cold winters because of global warming.

Of course, of course. Why didn't I realise when I took that plastic bag away from the supermarket that it would cause freezing weather?

My fault, sorry.

The Met Office

The British Meteorological Office, a largely discredited body ripe for cost savings, has predicted that this year will be the warmest on record. They may be right – a broken clock is right twice a day – but I would point out we are still in November and the snow has arrived earlier than for many years.


The Met Office predicted that 2003 would be the hottest ever (and of course it wasn’t) then that 2007 would be (nope). The hottest year on record is still 1998. Twelve years ago.

As Michael O’Leary of Ryan Air pointed out: " it is absolutely bizarre that the people who can't tell us what the ******* weather is next Tuesday can predict with absolute precision what the ******* global temperatures will be in 100 years' time."

Quote of the day

Michael O'Leary of RyanAir on anthropogenic Global Warming

"I mean, it is absolutely bizarre that the people who can't tell us what the ******* weather is next Tuesday can predict with absolute precision what the ******* global temperatures will be in 100 years' time. It's horse ****."

Global warming news

From the BBC:

A number of ships, including ferries with thousands of passengers on board, have become stuck in ice in the Baltic Sea, officials say.

The vessels are grounded in the waters between Stockholm and the Aland Islands, Radio Sweden reports.

Many of the vessels are not likely to be freed for hours, Swedish maritime authorities were quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

It is reportedly the worst Baltic freeze for 15 years.

Well well. What I am saying is not that this disproves the idea of man made global warming, it is that it gives rise to doubts, and that the burden of proof is now with them.

More on global warming

From the Corriere della Sera: the CTMA Vacancier, a ship with 300 passengers on board, is stuck in thick ice at the mouth of the St Lawrence river. Even an icebreaker from the Canadian coastguard failed to cut a passage through to the stranded people. Also the steamer Georges-Alexander-Lebel is stuck outside the port of Matane, 600km east of Montreal, which is completely iced in.

‘We’ve not seen a layer of ice this thick at the start of the year for a long time’ commented the general manager of one of the shipowners.

UK: global cooling

From the BBC's environment correspondent (I'll repeat, that's the BBC)

"The world in 2008 has been cooler than at any time since the turn of the century, scientists say.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) notes that temperatures remained about 0.3C above the 1961-1990 average.

One recent analysis suggested there may be no warming for about the next decade.

What is beyond dispute is that 2008 saw temperatures a shade below preceding years"

Could we please, therefore, have less of this stuff about global warming? Could we start telling the truth, however un-trendy it may sound? Please? Isn't that what independent news services are there for?