NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth’s atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less global warming will occur in the future than United Nations computer models have predicted and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed.
Study co-author Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite, reports that real-world data from NASA’s Terra satellite contradict multiple assumptions fed into alarmist computer models.
“The satellite observations suggest there is much more energy lost to space during and after warming than the climate models show,” Spencer said in a July 26 University of Alabama press release. “There is a huge discrepancy between the data and the forecasts that is especially big over the oceans.”
In addition to finding that less heat is being trapped than alarmist computer models have predicted, the NASA satellite data show the atmosphere begins shedding heat into space long before United Nations computer models predicted.
The new findings should dramatically alter the global warming debate.
SOURCE: Forbes.com
IN THIS ISSUE
Bast responds to Nature feature, editorial … Curry addresses Nature critique of Heartland conference … U.S. temperatures return to normal … Tree-ring widths more affected by sheep than temperatures … Human climate impact reported at 0.66 degrees Celsius per century … Gingrich regrets filming commercial with Pelosi … Government funding skews climate science … Paper documents shortcomings of “renewable” power … ClimateWiki update
BAST RESPONDS TO NATURE FEATURE, EDITORIAL
Nature, the widely respected science journal, has a feature story and an unsigned editorial in its latest issue addressing The Heartland Institute’s contribution to the global debate over climate change. The articles can be read (for free) at the following links: http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110727/full/475440a.html and http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v475/n7357/full/475423b.html.
Heartland President Joseph Bast has written a reply to both of those articles, pointing out some errors and omissions and calling Nature to task for its role in suppressing debate and publishing misleading editorials on climate change. We hope you can spare a few minutes to read it, and consider posting comments on the Nature articles. A lively conversation is already underway on their site. This is a great opportunity to call positive attention to the efforts of many scientists who are speaking out against the fake “consensus” that Nature has done so much to promote with its coverage of climate change.
SOURCE: Heartland Replies to Nature
CURRY ADDRESSES NATURE CRITIQUE OF HEARTLAND CONFERENCE
Dr. Judith Curry, a moderate “warmist” who is professor and chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has written an outstanding article addressing a just-published Nature critique of The Heartland Institute’s Sixth International Conference on Climate Change. Curry praises much of Climate Change Reconsidered: The Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change and emphasizes that skepticism sharpens the scientific debate and is important in the discovery of scientific truth.
SOURCE: Climate Etc.
U.S. TEMPERATURES RETURN TO NORMAL
Halfway through 2011, the year-to-date (January–June) average temperature for the United States is just 0.15°F above the long-term (twentieth century) average. There is a good case to be made that when the final numbers are in at the end of December, 2011 will go down as another in a recent string of rather unremarkable years when it comes to the national annual average temperature. The current run of near-normal years is growing evidence that the collection of relatively warm years experienced in the U.S. from 1998–2007 represented neither a new climate state in the U.S. nor a sustained uptick in the rate of warming that could be reliably extrapolated into the future.
SOURCE: World Climate Report
TREE-RING WIDTHS MORE AFFECTED BY SHEEP THAN TEMPERATURES
Sheep grazing can have a greater impact on the width of tree rings than climate, new research has found. The study, published in the British Ecological Society’s journal Functional Ecology, support criticisms of Michael Mann’s infamous “hockey stick,” which alleged tree-ring widths show past temperatures were cooler than previously believed.
SOURCE: Watts Up With That?
HUMAN CLIMATE IMPACT REPORTED AT 0.66 DEGREES CELSIUS PER CENTURY
Dr. Nicola Scafetta, research scientist at the Duke University Physics Department, and Craig Loehle, principal scientist at the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, have written a new paper calculating that over the past 60 years humans have caused planetary warming at a pace of 0.66 degrees Celsius per century.
SOURCE: Watts Up With That?
GINGRICH REGRETS FILMING COMMERCIAL WITH PELOSI
Republican presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has expressed regret for filming a commercial in 2008 in which Gingrich and Pelosi agree “our country must take action to address climate change.” Gingrich joins Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney as Republican presidential candidates who are backtracking on prior global warming alarmism.
SOURCE: The Daily Caller
GOVERNMENT FUNDING SKEWS CLIMATE SCIENCE
The U.S. government spent more than $32.5 billion on climate studies between 1989 and 2009, not counting the $79 billion more spent for related climate change technology research, foreign aid, and tax breaks for “green energy.” This mountain of funding has skewed research and reporting on global warming, leading to a deceiving number of studies claiming a global warming crisis.
SOURCE: Forbes.com
PAPER DOCUMENTS SHORTCOMINGS OF ‘RENEWABLE’ POWER
Kimball Rasmussen, president and CEO of Deseret Power, has written an outstanding 21-page paper documenting the inability of wind and solar to power to provide dependable, affordable electricity. Rasmussen documents the intermittency of these power sources, their mismatch with peak demand, their high economic costs, and their limited impact on carbon dioxide emissions.
SOURCE: Kimball Rasmussen
CLIMATEWIKI UPDATE
The Heartland Institute has created a ClimateWiki Web site to help everyone – from high school students to scientists working in the field – quickly find the latest and most reliable information on climate science. Please send your suggestions for new pages or improvements to current ones to John Monaghan at [email protected]. If you have new research to share, ClimateWiki.org is the perfect place.
An example from ClimateWiki, The Heidelberg Appeal, reads in part:
The Heidelberg Appeal, authored by Michel Salomon and signed by a large number of scientists, is a statement decrying “an irrational ideology which is opposed to scientific and industrial progress, and impedes economic and social development.” Issued to coincide with the opening of the United Nations-sponsored Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the appeal stated that its signers “share the objectives of the ‘Earth Summit'” but advised “the authorities in charge of our planet’s destiny against decisions which are supported by pseudo-scientific arguments or false and non-relevant data. … The greatest evils which stalk our Earth are ignorance and oppression, and not Science, Technology and Industry.”
If you have questions about the ClimateWiki or about The Heartland Institute, contact Jim Lakely, director of communications, at [email protected] or call 312/377-4000.
RECOMMENDED SITES AND NEWSLETTERS
Power for USA
Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
ClimateWiki
Master Resource
The Climate Bet
International Climate Science Coalition
Climate Scientists’ Register
Science and Public Policy Institute
Climate Depot by Marc Morano
World Climate Report by Dr. Patrick Michaels
E-FACT Report by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)
Global Warming Policy Foundation by Benny Peiser
Biweekly Updates from the Cooler Heads Coalition
Climate and Environment Review by the Center Science and Public Policy
Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change by Craig Idso et al.
Watts Up With That? by Anthony Watts
ICECAP by Joseph D’Aleo
Climate Audit by Steve McIntyre
Climate Science by Roger Pielke Sr.
Junk Science by Steve Milloy
The Heartland Institute is a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization whose mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. The Heartland Institute publishes the monthly newspaper Environment & Climate News and sponsors the International Conference on Climate Change, the largest regular gathering of global warming experts challenging the notion that humans are creating a global warming crisis. James M. Taylor is senior fellow for environment policy at The Heartland Institute and managing editor of Environment & Climate News.
