Muller Backtracks on Warming Claims

Published November 3, 2011

Climate Change Weekly #26

Georgia Tech climate professor Judith Curry, coauthor with Richard Muller of the University of California, Berkeley temperature reconstruction that has been dominating global warming media attention for the past two weeks, has posted a summary of a discussion she had with Muller about his Wall Street Journal article and other media claims regarding the temperature reconstruction. Muller had told the media that as a result of his team’s reconstruction of land-based temperature measurements there is no longer justification for global warming skepticism. Curry, however, reports Muller acknowledged to her caveats and concessions that are not apparent in Muller’s statements to the press.

According to Curry, Muller told her he intended his Wall Street Journal article to be a “conciliatory” article regarding how the data set could be used to settle some of the debates surrounding the land temperature record.

Also according to Curry, “Re[garding] the recent trend, Muller reiterated that you can’t infer anything about what is going on globally from the land data, but the land data shows a continued increase albeit with an oscillation that makes determining a trend rather ambiguous.”

Muller’s concession that “you can’t infer anything” from the land data and his caveat that any trend is “rather ambiguous” contradict media coverage claiming Muller’s reconstruction is the smoking gun that renders continued skepticism ridiculous. Perhaps Muller will issue a press release emphasizing these concessions and caveats so the media will cover the temperature reconstruction more accurately.

SOURCE: Climate Etc.


IN THIS ISSUE

Muller interview continues retreat … Forests not shifting as alarmists models predicted … Alarmist bird claims contradict one another … Associated Press blames early snow on global warming … Snowstorm disrupts NYC Climate Justice Day … IPCC committed gross errors reporting on tropical cyclones … ClimateWiki update


MULLER INTERVIEW CONTINUES RETREAT

In an interview with Capitol Report New Mexico, Richard Muller backed off from his claim in the Wall Street Journal that “you should not be a skeptic, at least not any longer.” Said Muller to Capitol Report, “I never said you shouldn’t be a skeptic. I never said that.” Muller also acknowledged that most of what Al Gore alleges in An Inconvenient Truth is “absolutely either wrong, exaggerated, or misleading.”

SOURCE: Tom Nelson Blogspot


FORESTS NOT SHIFTING AS ALARMIST MODELS PREDICTED

Tree species in the eastern United States are not shifting their ranges in a manner consistent with global warming computer models, report scientists at Duke University in a just-published study in Global Change Biology. Only 21 percent of tree species appear to be shifting northward as predicted, while 16 percent of tree species are shifting their ranges southward.

SOURCE: EurekAlert! and Global Change Biology


ALARMIST BIRD CLAIMS CONTRADICT ONE ANOTHER

Researchers at San Francisco State University report global warming is causing birds to grow larger, contradicting much-publicized assertions two years ago that global warming is causing birds to become smaller.

SOURCE: EurekAlert! and The Christian Science Monitor


ASSOCIATED PRESS BLAMES EARLY SNOW ON GLOBAL WARMING

Associated Press writer Seth Borenstein has published an article saying global warming may be to blame for the earliest significant snowfall in New York City history. The weather system that produced the New York City snowfall set dozens of additional records for early snowfall in the eastern United States and is typical of “freakish weather disasters” being made more common by global warming, writes Borenstein.

SOURCE: Associated Press


SNOWSTORM DISRUPTS NYC CLIMATE JUSTICE DAY

Has Occupy Wall Street usurped the Gore Effect from the former vice president? On October 30, a day set aside by Occupy Wall Street protesters to call attention to allegedly catastrophic global warming, the protesters were hit with the earliest significant snowfall in New York City history.

SOURCE: Watts Up With That?


IPCC COMMITTED GROSS ERRORS REPORTING ON TROPICAL CYCLONES

A paper by hurricane expert William Gray reports presents “observational and theoretical evidence to show that rising levels of CO2 have not had any observable association with increases in global tropical cyclone frequency and intensity,” despite assertions to the contrary by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). According to Gray, IPCC’s most recent report is inaccurate and riddled with gross errors.

SOURCE: Science and Public Policy Institute


CLIMATEWIKI UPDATE

The Heartland Institute has created a Web site, ClimateWiki.org, 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 questions, suggestions for new pages, or improvements to current ones to John Monaghan at [email protected]. And if you have new research to share, ClimateWiki.org is the perfect place.

An example from ClimateWiki, Floods in North America, reads in part:

“A report released by the US Geological Survey in October 2011 (Hirsch and Ryberg 2011) found, ‘in none of the four regions defined in this study is there strong statistical evidence for flood magnitudes increasing with increasing [global mean carbon dioxide concentration].” The study actually showed a statistically significant negative relationship with CO2 in the Southwest, where flooding has become less severe with increased greenhouse gas concentrations.

“Taken together, the research described in this section suggests North American flooding tends to become both less frequent and less severe when the planet warms, although there have been some exceptions to this general rule. We would expect any further warming of the globe would tend to further reduce both the frequency and severity of flooding in North America.”

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.