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« Holthaus thoroughly maued and knappenburgered | Main | Gong with the wind »
Thursday
Dec312015

Splitters, deniers, and circular firing squads

A couple of weeks ago, we were treated to the sight of Naomi Oreskes badmouthing a variety of climate scientists for having the temerity to support the expansion of nuclear power. Her use of the d-word caused shock among some parts of the green fraternity, who like to reserve it for people who disagree about the value of climate sensitivity. Oreskes' great contribution to uncivil society has been to apply this unpleasant term of abuse to those who disagree on policy measures too. Splitters, I tell you! Splitters!

And in an amusing development yesterday, we got a strong hint that this application of the d-word is expanding still further. The BBC's Matt McGrath did a piece on the UK's recent floods and failed to dwell with sufficient loving attention on the possible contribution of global warming. For this egregious sin against the faith he was roundly taken to task by carbon rentier Anthony Hobley.

 

 

If this really is the beginning of a trend then it's probably time to lay in supplies of popcorn. It's going to be like the green movement forming itself up into a circular firing squad. 

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Reader Comments (80)

Greenpeace just tweeted that koala bears have been seen on the arctic ice sheet for the first time since the medieval warm period.

Jan 1, 2016 at 12:09 AM | Unregistered Commenteresmiff

Dodgy Geezer, vvussell was trying too hard to start 2016 on a low note, so no one would notice any change since 2015.

How long he is able to maintain this unprecedented track record in 2016 is unclear.

Jan 1, 2016 at 12:12 AM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

Yes, esmiff, turf war between koalas
and a haul of walrus ...Marsupials
lead by three ter nil due to alleged
decline of walrus from lack of ice ledge
jump off facilities. Climate Etc tells the
tale.

Jan 1, 2016 at 12:23 AM | Unregistered CommenterBeth Cooper

esmiff, is it known what Frost Bite Factor their Sun Tan Lotion is? I think that is why the Medieval Arctic Koala Bears became extinct. That and the lack of Eucalyptus flavoured cocktail mixers to sip on their sunloungers.

Jan 1, 2016 at 12:29 AM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

It is evident that many things were better in the Roman Empire than now, like architecture, town-planning, public spectacle and entertainment, free food, and now the weather too.

Jan 1, 2016 at 12:31 AM | Unregistered Commenternicholas tesdorf

hee hee I love the British slang insults like tossers, whingers, wankers, splitters. I think whinger is a variation of whiner. Can anyone expound on the roots of these terms?

Dec 31, 2015 at 10:31 PM | Mickey Reno
================================================================================
Suggest the Urban Dictionary!

Jan 1, 2016 at 12:36 AM | Unregistered CommenterJeremy Poynton

Happy new year Geezer- whatever the GMT, the upated temperature two months into the circumpolar night has risen above freezing in January -

Frozen cherry pickers should beware of thin ice, as the warm front has passed 86 North and is gyring in poleward at 40kmph.

Jan 1, 2016 at 12:43 AM | Unregistered CommenterRussell

...Happy new year Geezer- whatever the GMT, the upated temperature two months into the circumpolar night has risen above freezing in January -...

And Happy New Year returns to you , too, Russell. Has anyone found the tropospheric hot-spot yet?

Jan 1, 2016 at 12:55 AM | Unregistered CommenterDodgy Geezer

nicholas tesdorf, the Romans had a low tolerance for failed soothsayers, and others who made false predictions based on examining some unfortunate's entrails.

There is no shortage of hungry lions or fraudsters today, but the Coliseum needs a new arena floor.

Jan 1, 2016 at 12:57 AM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

The hot spot can be found separating the hemispheres of every fevered brain trying to think up new reasons not to believe in radiative forcing.

Jan 1, 2016 at 1:04 AM | Unregistered CommenterRussell

40kmph?

Jan 1, 2016 at 1:07 AM | Unregistered Commenterclipe

42 kmph to be exact, those images are not from a model- it's the real time satellite data feed from NOAA, which includes the doppler wind field.

Jan 1, 2016 at 1:11 AM | Unregistered CommenterRussell

Much further south...

Snowball isn't melting.

Jan 1, 2016 at 1:13 AM | Unregistered Commenterclipe

It has been said the left will eat itself,this is proof of the pudding so to speak.

Jan 1, 2016 at 1:16 AM | Unregistered Commentermarc

Russell

The temperature in the arctic has reached a high of around 46f in December on a number of occasions.

The notable winter warmimg was well documented back in the 1920's and continued through the 1940's


This item from 1949 refers to page 3 of this document;

http://www.thearcticcircle.ca/pdf/Arctic%20Circular%20Volume%202%201949.pdf

“During the last three decades there has been a marked change in the climate of the Arctic which is being felt throughout the northern hemisphere where, especially, the mean temperature of the winters has increased considerably. In the North American sector this change is perhaps best understood and also most marked in Greenland, where long meteorological records exist from a number of points on the west coast, Thus at Jakobshavn, in latitude 690 13 North, the mean winter temperature for the years 1913-1922 was about 5 degrees F above the mean of 50 years and that of 1923-1932 almost 10.0 degrees F. above. In 1935-1936 the mean for the winter at Godhavn was 13.40 higher than the normal at the end of last century, that of Godthaab 7.60 and at Julianehaab 9.8oF. Increasing temperatures are not limited to the air; sea temperatures also have increased and while the amplitude is not so great, the result is even more profound and far reaching.”

Tonyb

Jan 1, 2016 at 1:16 AM | Unregistered CommenterTonyb

40kmph?

The passing of Lemmy came as quite a shock I know. But Hawkwind lyrics were not peer-reviewed.

Jan 1, 2016 at 1:37 AM | Unregistered Commenterclipe

No dice, Tony- records happen:

The two temperatures noted in the two recent satellite frames at

http://vvattsupwiththat.blogspot.com/2015/12/santas-warm-welcome-home.html

are respectively from 85.43 and 85.74 N-- 1000 nautical miles north of Jakobshavn

AFAIK the latter datum marks the first time postitive January temperatures have been recorded anywhere near this close to the pole--

Jan 1, 2016 at 1:51 AM | Unregistered CommenterRussell

And I do mean January- that green spot is three time zones ahead of Zulu

Jan 1, 2016 at 2:03 AM | Unregistered CommenterRussell

vvussell why should anything be believed if you are involved? Have you donned a cloak of uncredibility?

Jan 1, 2016 at 2:22 AM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

" The hot spot can be found separating the hemispheres of every fevered brain trying to think up new reasons not to believe in radiative forcing. ."

Says a man, mainline addicted to the radiative forcing effects of water vapour!

And therefore contributes about as much to this life as the next drop of rain.

Jan 1, 2016 at 2:25 AM | Registered CommenterGreen Sand

"Says a man, mainline addicted to the radiative forcing effects of water vapour!"

Are you referring to Prince Albert ,
or John Tyndall FRS ? --

http://vvattsupwiththat.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-very-large-grain-of-salt.html

Jan 1, 2016 at 7:45 AM | Unregistered Commenterrussell

FFS, whatever is not, or will happen in the polar regions, there is no need of panic. In the NH above 80ºN latitude; it is ferking cold. And then, no matter how the idiots of warmunism try to spin it, whether the sea ice in the Arctic basin is vast, small, non existent - it mattered not in the, Minoan, Roman and the Mediaeval Warming and it doesn't now - "the Arctic sea ice"......it's an indicator of the square root of jack s**t.

Then, rumours of the demise of the Greenland ice sheet are just that: warmunists claptrap.

But anyway, the sea ice anomaly is nicely in balance it always is, Gaia loves equilibrium and equilibrium is what we will get no matter how much CO₂ we or Gaia pumps into it, yer sees Mama earth self regulates her own thermostat.

for your delectation

And here.

Jan 1, 2016 at 8:26 AM | Unregistered CommenterAthelstan.

Funny that Russel thinks that after that utter disaster in the comments below the Seitz article anybody here takes anything he says seriously. It was really a pathetic response for a professor of his supposed stature, resorting to ad homs in response to Steve's very simple and polite question.

I for one will skip any future comment by vvussel from now on.

Jan 1, 2016 at 9:48 AM | Unregistered CommenterWijnand

@russell

...The hot spot can be found separating the hemispheres of every fevered brain trying to think up new reasons not to believe in radiative forcing....

As far as I know, the tropospheric hot-spot was the only unequivocal testable prediction that the 'dangerous AGW' hypothesis made. It has not been found. According to scientific method, the hypothesis fails.

Working in other fields, such as politics, religion or marketing, of course, you may simply wave your hands, utter a few smears, and move on. But not, I suggest, in science...

Jan 1, 2016 at 10:29 AM | Unregistered CommenterDodgy Geezer

As always, this is claimed to be "unprecedented", but it never is.

The Top of the World: Is the North Pole Turning to Water? http://john-daly.com/polar/arctic.htm
by John L. Daly

"It will without doubt have come to your Lordship's knowledge that a considerable change of climate, inexplicable at present to us, must have taken place in the Circumpolar Regions, by which the severity of the cold that has for centuries past enclosed the seas in the high northern latitudes in an impenetrable barrier of ice has been during the last two years, greatly abated.

(This) affords ample proof that new sources of warmth have been opened and give us leave to hope that the Arctic Seas may at this time be more accessible than they have been for centuries past, and that discoveries may now be made in them not only interesting to the advancement of science but also to the future intercourse of mankind and the commerce of distant nations."

President of the Royal Society, London, to the Admiralty, 20th November, 1817

"The last time scientists can be certain the pole was awash in water was more than 50 million years ago." proclaimed the New York Times in an article entitled `The North Pole is melting' (August 19, 2000).

Seems not:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/04/26/ice-at-the-north-pole-in-1958-not-so-thick/

Not quite the North Pole, but the NW Passage is often reported in the same vein.

THE NORTH WEST PASSAGE BEING THE RECORD OF A VOYAGE OF EXPLORATION OF THE SHIP "GJOA” 1903 - 1907 BY ROALD AMUNDSEN
http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/IPY/ipy_009_pdf/G6501903A71908v1.pdf

"We encountered no ice with the exception of a few narrow strips of old sound ice, carried by the wash. Of large Polar ice we saw absolutely nothing.

Between the ice and the land, on either side, there were large and perfectly clear channels, through which we passed easily and unimpeded. The entire accumulation of ice was not very extensive. We were soon out again in open water.

Outside the promontories, some pieces of ice had accumulated; otherwise the sea was free from ice.The water to the south was open, the impenetrable wall of ice was not there.

‘The next doubtful point was Bellot Strait, where McClintock lay for two years waiting for a chance to get through. But the fairly heavy swell indicated an open sea for many miles to the south, and as Bellot Strait was not far ahead, our anxiety was not very great. At 8 A.m.we passed through the strait. The only thing we met was a very narrow strip of broken land ice. The strait itself was densely fog bound. Outside the sea was clear.

At 5.30 P.M. we met a quantity of ice off Cape Maguire,a fairly broad strip of loose ice. Beyond this we could see clear water. Captain Knowles reports the season the most open he has ever known. He entered the Arctic on the day we left Sari Francisco, May 22, and thinks the straits were open even earlier than that."

THERMAL PATHS TO THE POLE,THE CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN, .
BY SILAS BENT, SAINT LOUIS: 1872.

"Just as the work was completed upon these currents in the North Pacific, in 1855, the news was received in the United States that Dr. Hane had discovered an open sea near the Pole, and people began to ask how that could be possible....."

Jan 1, 2016 at 11:27 AM | Registered Commenterdennisa

vvussell - a question for you, as clearly you are an expert. Not that long ago, if one of us skeptical thinkers suggested that an anomalous or extreme weather event implied CAGQ was a pile of steaming dung, we were told in no uncertain terms that weather IS NOT climate. Now, as you have demonstrated so laudibly, it is clear that weather IS now climate.

Please explain to me when this happened and how? Peer reviewed papers explaining the phenomenon to be cited, etc. etc., and - thanks in advance.

Jan 1, 2016 at 12:22 PM | Unregistered CommenterJeremy Poynton

Has Geezer mistaken Christopher Monckton for a climate scientist? Someone has taught him to believe:

" As far as I know, the tropospheric hot-spot was the only unequivocal testable prediction that the 'dangerous AGW' hypothesis made. It has not been found. According to scientific method, the hypothesis fails."

Which is complete balderdash- here's remedial lesson courtesy of the JPL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM_sKZCv26A

Jan 1, 2016 at 7:45 PM | Unregistered Commenterrussell

russell

tut, tut

NOT a JPL video then ...

- and ultimately spoiled by referencing John Cook
- and actually being a product of the SKS group of dubious aluminii.

WUWT piece on this "project"

I have long followed JPL and respect what I see as their hard nosed professional take on things - for the most part letting observation and careful analysis speak for themselves - and.. crucially - being open and less prone to the flights of fancy and overtly political interpretation that infect their colleagues in Gavin's crew on the East Coast - 'pon occasion - I think I've heard / seen them say "we don't know".

The fact that comments are disabled is telling - what possible purpose might that serve ?

I'd be more interested to hear Mark's take on one of his day job duties - looking at OCO-2 data. ....

Jan 1, 2016 at 11:32 PM | Registered Commentertomo

wassup russell? - no stomach for defending SKS crew?

Jan 2, 2016 at 2:19 PM | Registered Commentertomo

This thread now seems to be about temperatures at The North Pole. Could anyone provide a link to actual thermometers on the ground that show these alleged high temperatures?

I have looked through various websites with links to Arctic buoys and cannot find any such high temperatures (but maybe I was not looking hard enough?).

Jan 2, 2016 at 10:19 PM | Unregistered CommenterJ Calvert N

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