Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Global Warming Fear Mongers: Oh, H-E-Double Hockey Sticks!


Michael Asher at Daily Tech reports that temperature monitors are reporting widescale global cooling. In fact, the drop in worldwide temperatures over the last 12 months has wiped out a century of warming.

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.

No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.

Meteorologist Anthony Watts compiled the results of all the sources. The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to erase nearly all the global warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year time. For all sources, it's the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down.

Scientists quoted in a past DailyTech article link the cooling to reduced solar activity which they claim is a much larger driver of climate change than man-made greenhouse gases. The dramatic cooling seen in just 12 months time seems to bear that out. While the data doesn't itself disprove that carbon dioxide is acting to warm the planet, it does demonstrate clearly that more powerful factors are now cooling it.

Let's hope those factors stop fast. Cold is more damaging than heat. The mean temperature of the planet is about 54 degrees. Humans -- and most of the crops and animals we depend on -- prefer a temperature closer to 70.

Historically, the warm periods such as the Medieval Climate Optimum were beneficial for civilization. Corresponding cooling events such as the Little Ice Age, though, were uniformly bad news.

Won't it be deliciously ironic if the only thing that saves us from the ravages of a new Ice Age are the people driving their big-ass SUVs while eating Quarter Pounders on the way to the sprawl-malls to buy their cheap Chinese crap? God does have a sense of humor.

11 comments:

Bruce Heimbigner said...

Well, I'll say it one more time, weather and climate are two different things. A one year cooling is not global climate change. So I wouldn't get too excited. Perhaps we are headed for global cooling (or warming) no one knows. For sure: "more powerful factors are now cooling it."

From my Avista bill, draw your own conclusions:
DEC 14 2007 TO JAN 17 2008 THIS YEAR 29.0 LAST YEAR 26.0
JAN 17 2008 TO FEB 15 2008 THIS YEAR 26.0 LAST YEAR 30.0

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

This sucks! I WANT GLOBAL WARMING! Screw the cold! Seasons are overrated. They call it global disaster, I call it paradise in the making.

Michael said...

I agree with Paul. This winter made a great case in favor of global warming. I will vote for any candidate who promises to subsidize Hummer purchases. If I were president, I would ban any vehicle that gets more than 15 mpg.

Michael said...

Oh, and Paul, wouldn't your business benefit if we had giant Burmese pythons slithering around for you to exterminate?

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

Michael -

Probably would. I've already been putting the word out that if anyone sees one in their backyard, they should call me first, even if another tech in the company is closer. I want to be the first in the company to bag one so I can secure the bragging rights. :)

But as a backup plan, got any good tips on equatorial real estate? I'm not confident that the "Pro-carbon vote" is going to save the day for us.

Michael said...

Now that you mention it, I could put you onto some very nice property in El Salvador or Costa Rica. I have friends down there who've been trying to entice me to buy a vacation home. Prices are great compared to the US. You can get a beach front homes for less than the down payment on a house in Pullman.

Satanic Mechanic said...

Paul,
Since were talking about exterminating, what was the name of the spray you mentioned to me about getting rid of wasps? Tempo was it?
I already have enough glyphosate and 2-4-D to battle weeds but I would like to hit those S.O.B's before they become a problem this summer.

Michael said...

S&M,
Here's a tip. To really make a dent in your yellowjacket population, get yourself a few of those green and yellow wasp traps.
Put them out in late April through May and keep the bait fresh. Put them on boundaries between sun and shade and with a water source. Depending upon the weather, the queens emerge from hibernation about that time and they're hungry as hell.
Every queen you catch in your trap in April and May means that there will be about 5000 fewer wasps in your vicinity by the end of the summer.

Bruce Heimbigner said...

I've always wanted to retire somewhere warm enough that I could grow bananas - maybe I won't have to move.

Satanic Mechanic said...

Michael,
I do have eight traps around the property but I will begin baiting them early. Thanks for the tip.
I usually use a piece of hot dog with some Wal-Mart cola to bait the traps. Even the wasps like Wal-Mart!

I wonder if I could scale up a wasp trap to capture members of PARD? It would be too expensive to bait it with all that organic food and Starbucks coffee.

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

Mr. Mechanic -

You are correct, Tempo is the stuff (specifically Tempo WP for this particular job). We generally use it at a rate of 40 grams per 100 gallons of water in our power sprayers. It is typically mixed with 3/4 of 1 pound of Orthene, too.

My favorite baiting method for paper wasps and yellow jackets: a gatorade bottle hung from a tree limb full of wet cat food mixed with a micro-encapsulated insecticide. If done right, it draws the little devils right in and gives them something poisonous to eat that won't kill them before they bring it back to the nest and share. Once the queen gets a few mouth fulls, buh bye!