iowaclimatescienceeducation--2020-04-29--BREAKING: Link between COVID-19, warming of the environment finally identified

The Second Day of Thunberg Four nights ago their time , Americans sat enthralled by a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing that ’ s only just begun ( my time ) .
WHCTFBs are now the highlight of my existence , and I hope the tradition carries on after the pandemic is extinguished .
Like any serious Faucista I self-isolate to avoid exposure to the kind of spoilers currently spreading like Spanish flu across Portugal and other nations where Thursday ’ s press conference is already finished ( their time ) .
Besides , as my gammy always said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ until you hear about it in your non-accelerating reference frame.
” As a raging solipsist , Gammy would have loved web video .
( She just lived long enough to permit technologies like MP4 and Quicktime to be invented , but died before she could experience the joy of making the tiny people in her monitor strut and fret their hour upon the stage at the click of a button . )
I find myself bethinking me of her as I sip my Horlicks and play the video .
Bill Bryan , Department @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and will be ably assisted later by the President himself .
Bryan is just getting warmed up .
But he ’ s already shown Americans a graphic so game-changing it demands immediate livebloguery : Like all scientific advice , this is based closely on evidence discovered in a table .
Make no mistake : the public-health benefit of a few degrees ’ warming is devastating news for the climate movement , making it much harder to pretend they ’ re anti-death when they agitate for a cooler atmosphere .
( For medical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anti-death—having historically been some of the staunchest critics of viruses and other diseases—it ’ s not really news at all . )
Establishing a correlation in the public mind between the pandemic ’ s severity and global temperatures has been a wet dream for activists ever since plague masks and mobile morgues first became fixtures of contemporary life , sometime in March this year .
But if the correlation is a negative one , their wet dream come true looks less like a holy grail than a poisoned chalice .
So it begins @ @ @ @ @ @ @ must do everything in its power to cloud the science , change the subject and confuse the public .
These chores have now become so second-nature that the average believalist—is there another kind ?
—can fight several facts at a time without even glancing down at his dog-eared playbook , Oreskes & Conway ( 2010 ) .
But the truth—like Microsoft Office Suite 2018 , or the heaving qualifications of an intern in Return to Almora—longs to be free .
No prison made of wire , or lace , or Cuportiv microcotton can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 32GB of memory fabric ; it shall not avail you .
Those puppies will out .
And it ’ s a joy to see the facts already going bacterial on the Internet .
It ’ s all the sweeter because our opponents can barely hide their malthusiasm about the implications .
Let ’ s take a random or , as they say in science , scientific biopsy of the buzz buzzing around GlobalWarmingSavesLivesGate .
It is of course Twitter , the wet market of the debatosphere , where the outbreak has its nest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reference the explosive finding .
Within minutes it had attracted tens of eyeballs , and is currently on track for its second Like in as many hours .
In no time the news had crossed the new-old mediaphragm .
On Web 1.0 , the most popular and hated blog in the climate space was covering a ‘ Plan by UK & German Governments to Turn Covid-19 into a Climate Action Opportunity.
’ Far below the line and easily missed by the untrained eye , this comment punctuates the irrelevantia : I foresee a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s predicated on fulminant science-denihilism , like most ideas that pop into the skulls of our opponents .
You can fight global warming , or you can fight SARS-CoV-2 particles , but you can ’ t do both .
I tried to get this dead-simple grade-school fact through to Bob Ward—the glabrous guard-poodle of the politics of misanthropy—with all the success you ’ d expect .
The Belligerent Ignorance is strong with the anti-science crowd .
The comment closes with a link .
Contact tracing takes us back to the New World @ @ @ @ @ @ @ confirms that the meme has high social-to-legacy-to-social transmissibility ( if not Earth-to-idiot communicability ) .
But by now independent mentions were also popping up on Twitter .
For instance , in a case of Six Degrees of Percolation , the finding had bubbled all the way up to the attention of Naomi Oreskes .
( This high-ranking climate macherin is also known as “ the Adolf Hitler of evil ” to her legions of defenders ) .
Oreskes , after twatting one of the lazy partisan attacks she likes to tack on to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in fact , that , It ’ s not every day you see everyone talking about scientific data .
I ’ m well-known for an abhorrence of exaggeration which is , in my analysis , one of the principal components of the longevity and credibility I ’ ve earned as a commentator on the frontline of the Climate Wars .
So you know I ’ m telling the truth , or at least mine , when I say that when the DHS prescribes warming of the entire ( inside plus outside ) world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it ’ s a turning-point with the potential to out-kick the ass of the First Day of Thunberg .
I refer , of course , to the kick-assest moment of last year : those 240 deathless seconds when a virgin saint stood before the flower of the classe climatique and m*therfucked them in the face with their own phoniness , greed and indifference to sentient suffering .
It could hardly have happened to a more deserving audience .
( A friend of a friend in ASIO assures me there were “ some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evilest believalists conceivable ” in attendance at the rally . )
How dare you , demanded Greta Beata , Virgo Gloriana , and it was glorious because they had no explanation , and they knew it , and we knew it , and as the awkward glory dragged on you could actually see on the face of the simple peasant girl that she too was starting to realize she ’ d just asked a question nobody in that room could ever answer without first answering the Problem of Evil .
She had the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but she was seconds away from drawing the right conlusion about the inhuman sea of sub-scum lolling greasily at her feet .
And then , as soon as it began , the glory died .
It was a glorified rat—a squirrel of the Look !
A Squirrel !
family ( sciurus obscurans ) —that deglorified the world again .
During her transfiguration that day , at that lectern in New York , the child had held her audience captive , pinned down under the crosshairs of a velociraptor glare .
This isn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Something had gone very wrong .
Did they really raise this bitch-child up from nothing , only to be repaid for their favor with thinly-veiled accusations of genocidal depravity ?
It must have felt like four hours to those fat frauds , as they squirmed and sweated like undocumenteds at a police station .
Only one thing could save them at that point .
A diversion .
Any diversion , any excuse to switch narratives .
That ’ s all they needed .
The media would know what to do—it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ desire to answer Greta ’ s question either .
No left-wing newspaper editor in America ( but I repeat myself ) could possibly have savored the prospect of running an Explainer column telling their readers ‘ How They Dare ’ in five to 10 paragraphs .
The moderatorial staff at Quora was hardly looking forward to a flood of variations on ¿Cómo se atreven ?
and Where do they get off daring ?
But unless something big and shiny moved in the periphery of the public ’ s vision before the start of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going to start asking questions .
Or more to the point , one question .
That ’ s when this—meaning , the broader social phenomenon for which this was metonymous or microcosmic—happened : Pictured : the cruel Tweet which drew condemnation from mad-rights advocates , environment reporters and charities that work with mental kids .
At first the significance of Trump ’ s remarks was almost entirely lost on the non-elect .
Large swathes of the world had no idea there was a story here , let alone what the story was .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ President had simply said how nice it was to see Greta , describing her as a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future .
And the tragedy of intellectual stratification in the US today means that when FOX News says something , flyover Americans have no way of knowing different .
( And they never will , not until the legitimate media crack the conundrum of how to speak down to their level—yet without being inauthentic .
Less sophisticated , salt-of-the-earth types are well known to have a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like blind people have slightly-improved hearing . )
I have to admit I was suckered too .
In my defense , though , I ’ ve lived most of my life in Australia , a nation that ’ s never really outgrown the irony-deficient , literalist genes we inherited from Britain .
How was I to know that Trump , the most American man in America , was just practicing America ’ s national pastime : biting sarcasm ?
In retrospect , of course , it ’ s pretty obvious .
He was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at at the expense of a deeply insane young girl .
Once you ’ ve seen through the First Tweet you can ’ t un-see through it .
Still , I vividly recall the man or woman who was his Press Secretary that week valiantly trying to paint Trump as a kind of guileless , stream-of-consciousness blabbermouth who had no idea how touched the teen was in the head when he fired off his mentally-incorrect comments .
But nobody—from Miss Thunberg ’ s own entourage to the IPCC to the Guardian—was having a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did Trump think the climate world was ?
I mean , for fuck ’ s s*ke , wrote someone like George Monbiot , look at the kid : does she strike you as particularly compos mentis ?
But what even the most astute reader may not have noticed is that we ’ re no longer talking about how they dare .
A minute ago , the climate movement was being torn a new ozone hole by the 16-year-old genetically-dehanced supersoldier who was supposed to be its salvation .
It was designer Frankenchickens come @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fear-mongering globalist fuckoffracy was eating its young !
Or being eaten thereby , I should say .
So what happened ?
When did we start talking about that time the Denier-in-Chief made fun of a young female of disability whose only crime was to Believe ?
I ’ m not really sure myself—my segue was way too slick for me .
But the point is , squirreling works .
Trump ’ s Tweet , and a small handful of similar ( if nowhere near as drolly brilliant ) gibes about the precocious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , were more than excuse enough for the skalds of the storytelling professions to reactivate their lazy , old , familiar , comforting schema : deniers and their war on kids .
Even Thunberg ’ s own message was retconned to fit this new/old narrative frame .
Greta has never been at war with the Climate Hypocritocracy .
Greta has always been at war with the Deniers .
I once tried to locate anything nasty the Swedeling had said about Our Side .
I couldn ’ t .
But that hardly matters any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Schema now , so she might as well hate us , because nobody will ever believe she doesn ’ t .
Her admirable , if not astonishing , ability to get through four continuous minutes of climate dysangelism without once blaming skeptics for any of the world ’ s ills ( real or hallucinated ) was tracelessly effaced from most of the media ’ s memory—not overnight , but before the sun had even set on the First Day of Thunberg .
And that ’ s how the bastards slipped the noose they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did it with our help .
They urgently needed a diversion , we heard their prayers , and they snatched retreat from the jaws of defeat .
They ’ ll never be able to answer Greta ’ s question , of course , and they ’ ll never have to—it exists only as a GIF now .
And 50 kronor says not one monger in a hundred of said meme can say what the meme means .
How dare they what ?
I doubt the LOL-lard armies of 4chan even know her name @ @ @ @ @ @ @ day to dwell on past glories .
All my body is still a-tingle with the after-glory of those warmth-versus-virus slides .
I ’ m almost at the halfway mark in the video , and nothing else has happened to blow a glory-hole in the back of my skull , not like those two graphics .
And that ’ s OK—once you ’ ve scored a hit as palpable as that , there ’ s no glory in trying to top yourself .
The first Rule of Effectiveness is don ’ t steal your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the President is on in a minute .
This is just terrific , tremendous news .
If anyone knows the hard way not to ruin a perfect moment with careless talk , it ’ s Donald Trump .
As long as the leader of the Free World ( or whatever the cliché is in these times of house arrest ) can get through ten or 15 minutes of questions from the press corps without embarrassment , we ’ re home free .
Then they ’ ll never be able to bury tonight ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inject that light or hope or change or whatever it is into the national COVID19 conversation , and get out , Mr President , for the love of God .
UPDATE : Apparently not everyone is taking the same message away from this conference as ‘ ClimateNuremberg.
’ Overheard at WUWT itself was this , er , novel take on the findings : Even the mildest global warming scenario is expected to significantly raise the extinction risk for SARS-CoV-2 ; the White House itself ( hardly a bastion of “ warmism ” ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the DHS publicly confirmed fears that a rise in environmental ( “ indoor and outdoor ” ) temperatures would violate the virus ’ right to a stable climate—a right it enjoys as a living , reproducing thing under international treaty .
Even the average WUWT reader , who thinks mankind has a sort of custodial duty to the world ’ s biota ever since we were deputized by our invisible space-daddy or whatever , should be able to grasp the theological implications of the graphic below .
If this doesn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ urgent downward correction in global temperature , I ’ ll condescendingly repeat myself until it does : Sure , maybe SARS-CoV-2 isn ’ t the most charismatic mascot in the battle for diversity and equity in our biosphere .
But science is about looking past the superficial , seeing what ’ s underneath the capsid .
Homo sapiens sapiens has been encroaching on the habitat of viruses just like this since prehistoric times , if not earlier , displacing and decimating them with the smallpox-tainted blankets of our destructive genius .
Yet science @ @ @ @ @ @ @ faith says it ’ s never too late to mitigate .
We just need to find the courage to dial the global thermostat slightly to the left .
Or do you want to look your kids ’ kids ’ kids in the eye and explain why kids soon aren ’ t going to know what COVID-19 is ?

or
The Second Day of Thunberg
Four nights ago their time, Americans sat enthralled by a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing that’s only just begun (my time). WHCTFBs are now the highlight of my existence, and I hope the tradition carries on after the pandemic is extinguished. Like any serious Faucista I self-isolate to avoid exposure to the kind of spoilers currently spreading like Spanish flu across Portugal and other nations where Thursday’s press conference is already finished (their time).
Besides, as my gammy always said, “it’s breaking news until you hear about it in your non-accelerating reference frame.”
As a raging solipsist, Gammy would have loved web video. (She just lived long enough to permit technologies like MP4 and Quicktime to be invented, but died before she could experience the joy of making the tiny people in her monitor strut and fret their hour upon the stage at the click of a button.) I find myself bethinking me of her as I sip my Horlicks and play the video. Bill Bryan, Department of Homeland Security, is up first, and will be ably assisted later by the President himself.
(Yesterday a thoughtless co-worker let slip, among other things, something along the lines of Trump having “injected humungous amounts of light into the [whole coronavirus] topic.” I’m just glad she was mumbling into a mask and this water-cooler meta-briefing was as unintelligible as it was unwanted.)
Bryan is just getting warmed up. But he’s already shown Americans a graphic so game-changing it demands immediate livebloguery:
Like all scientific advice, this is based closely on evidence discovered in a table.
Make no mistake: the public-health benefit of a few degrees’ warming is devastating news for the climate movement, making it much harder to pretend they’re anti-death when they agitate for a cooler atmosphere. (For medical researchers and practitioners, who actually are anti-death—having historically been some of the staunchest critics of viruses and other diseases—it’s not really news at all.)
Establishing a correlation in the public mind between the pandemic’s severity and global temperatures has been a wet dream for activists ever since plague masks and mobile morgues first became fixtures of contemporary life, sometime in March this year. But if the correlation is a negative one, their wet dream come true looks less like a holy grail than a poisoned chalice.
So it begins. Yet again, the climate community must do everything in its power to cloud the science, change the subject and confuse the public. These chores have now become so second-nature that the average believalist—is there another kind?—can fight several facts at a time without even glancing down at his dog-eared playbook, Oreskes & Conway (2010).
But the truth—like Microsoft Office Suite 2018, or the heaving qualifications of an intern in Return to Almora—longs to be free. No prison made of wire, or lace, or Cuportiv microcotton can hold it. Spring for the extra 32GB of memory fabric; it shall not avail you. Those puppies will out.
And it’s a joy to see the facts already going bacterial on the Internet. It’s all the sweeter because our opponents can barely hide their malthusiasm about the implications.
Let’s take a random or, as they say in science, scientific biopsy of the buzz buzzing around GlobalWarmingSavesLivesGate.
It is of course Twitter, the wet market of the debatosphere, where the outbreak has its nest.
This wisecrack was the first to reference the explosive finding. Within minutes it had attracted tens of eyeballs, and is currently on track for its second Like in as many hours.
Humans like warm weather. Viruses (like SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19) don’t. ∴ climate activists are a virus. Discuss, with particular reference to the unimpeachability of my logic. You may refer to the science. The science is attached. pic.twitter.com/pzaBll5idc — Climate Nuremberg (@BradPKeyes) April 26, 2020
In no time the news had crossed the new-old mediaphragm. On Web 1.0, the most popular and hated blog in the climate space was covering a ‘Plan by UK & German Governments to Turn Covid-19 into a Climate Action Opportunity.’ Far below the line and easily missed by the untrained eye, this comment punctuates the irrelevantia:
April 25, 2020 at 7:32 pm
I foresee a minor hitch in this agenda: it’s predicated on fulminant science-denihilism, like most ideas that pop into the skulls of our opponents.
You can fight global warming, or you can fight SARS-CoV-2 particles, but you can’t do both.
I tried to get this dead-simple grade-school fact through to Bob Ward—the glabrous guard-poodle of the politics of misanthropy—with all the success you’d expect. The Belligerent Ignorance is strong with the anti-science crowd.
The comment closes with a link. Contact tracing takes us back to the New World, where a futile Tweet to Ward confirms that the meme has high social-to-legacy-to-social transmissibility (if not Earth-to-idiot communicability).
But by now independent mentions were also popping up on Twitter. For instance, in a case of Six Degrees of Percolation, the finding had bubbled all the way up to the attention of Naomi Oreskes. (This high-ranking climate macherin is also known as “the Adolf Hitler of evil” to her legions of defenders). Oreskes, after twatting one of the lazy partisan attacks she likes to tack on to her climate schtick, was told, in fact, that,
It’s not every day you see everyone talking about scientific data.
I’m well-known for an abhorrence of exaggeration which is, in my analysis, one of the principal components of the longevity and credibility I’ve earned as a commentator on the frontline of the Climate Wars. So you know I’m telling the truth, or at least mine, when I say that when the DHS prescribes warming of the entire (inside plus outside) world we inhabit as a public health measure, it’s a turning-point with the potential to out-kick the ass of the First Day of Thunberg. I refer, of course, to the kick-assest moment of last year: those 240 deathless seconds when a virgin saint stood before the flower of the classe climatique and m*therfucked them in the face with their own phoniness, greed and indifference to sentient suffering. It could hardly have happened to a more deserving audience. (A friend of a friend in ASIO assures me there were “some real nasty customers—30, 35 of the evilest believalists conceivable” in attendance at the rally.)
How dare you, demanded Greta Beata, Virgo Gloriana, and it was glorious because they had no explanation, and they knew it, and we knew it, and as the awkward glory dragged on you could actually see on the face of the simple peasant girl that she too was starting to realize she’d just asked a question nobody in that room could ever answer without first answering the Problem of Evil.
She had the reasons all wrong, of course, but she was seconds away from drawing the right conlusion about the inhuman sea of sub-scum lolling greasily at her feet.
And then, as soon as it began, the glory died. It was a glorified rat—a squirrel of the Look! A Squirrel! family (sciurus obscurans)—that deglorified the world again.
During her transfiguration that day, at that lectern in New York, the child had held her audience captive, pinned down under the crosshairs of a velociraptor glare. This isn’t what the climate cacarchy was expecting. Something had gone very wrong. Did they really raise this bitch-child up from nothing, only to be repaid for their favor with thinly-veiled accusations of genocidal depravity? It must have felt like four hours to those fat frauds, as they squirmed and sweated like undocumenteds at a police station.
Only one thing could save them at that point. A diversion. Any diversion, any excuse to switch narratives. That’s all they needed. The media would know what to do—it’s not as if they had any great desire to answer Greta’s question either. No left-wing newspaper editor in America (but I repeat myself) could possibly have savored the prospect of running an Explainer column telling their readers ‘How They Dare’ in five to 10 paragraphs. The moderatorial staff at Quora was hardly looking forward to a flood of variations on ¿Cómo se atreven? and Where do they get off daring? But unless something big and shiny moved in the periphery of the public’s vision before the start of the next news cycle, people were going to start asking questions. Or more to the point, one question.
That’s when this—meaning, the broader social phenomenon for which this was metonymous or microcosmic—happened:
Pictured: the cruel Tweet which drew condemnation from mad-rights advocates, environment reporters and charities that work with mental kids.
At first the significance of Trump’s remarks was almost entirely lost on the non-elect. Large swathes of the world had no idea there was a story here, let alone what the story was. FOX even promoted the myth that the President had simply said how nice it was to see Greta, describing her as a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. And the tragedy of intellectual stratification in the US today means that when FOX News says something, flyover Americans have no way of knowing different. (And they never will, not until the legitimate media crack the conundrum of how to speak down to their level—yet without being inauthentic. Less sophisticated, salt-of-the-earth types are well known to have a ‘nose’ for authenticity, much like blind people have slightly-improved hearing.)
I have to admit I was suckered too. In my defense, though, I’ve lived most of my life in Australia, a nation that’s never really outgrown the irony-deficient, literalist genes we inherited from Britain. How was I to know that Trump, the most American man in America, was just practicing America’s national pastime: biting sarcasm?
In retrospect, of course, it’s pretty obvious. He was clearly having some tasteless and heartless yuks at at the expense of a deeply insane young girl. Once you’ve seen through the First Tweet you can’t un-see through it.
Still, I vividly recall the man or woman who was his Press Secretary that week valiantly trying to paint Trump as a kind of guileless, stream-of-consciousness blabbermouth who had no idea how touched the teen was in the head when he fired off his mentally-incorrect comments. But nobody—from Miss Thunberg’s own entourage to the IPCC to the Guardian—was having a bar of this excuse. How gullible did Trump think the climate world was?
I mean, for fuck’s s*ke, wrote someone like George Monbiot, look at the kid: does she strike you as particularly compos mentis?
But what even the most astute reader may not have noticed is that we’re no longer talking about how they dare. A minute ago, the climate movement was being torn a new ozone hole by the 16-year-old genetically-dehanced supersoldier who was supposed to be its salvation. It was designer Frankenchickens come home to roost. At last, the fear-mongering globalist fuckoffracy was eating its young! Or being eaten thereby, I should say.
So what happened? When did we start talking about that time the Denier-in-Chief made fun of a young female of disability whose only crime was to Believe? I’m not really sure myself—my segue was way too slick for me. But the point is, squirreling works.
Trump’s Tweet, and a small handful of similar (if nowhere near as drolly brilliant) gibes about the precocious mystic and her lifelong struggle with lunacy, were more than excuse enough for the skalds of the storytelling professions to reactivate their lazy, old, familiar, comforting schema: deniers and their war on kids.
Even Thunberg’s own message was retconned to fit this new/old narrative frame.
Greta has never been at war with the Climate Hypocritocracy.
Greta has always been at war with the Deniers.
I once tried to locate anything nasty the Swedeling had said about Our Side. I couldn’t. But that hardly matters any more. She’s in the Schema now, so she might as well hate us, because nobody will ever believe she doesn’t. Her admirable, if not astonishing, ability to get through four continuous minutes of climate dysangelism without once blaming skeptics for any of the world’s ills (real or hallucinated) was tracelessly effaced from most of the media’s memory—not overnight, but before the sun had even set on the First Day of Thunberg.
And that’s how the bastards slipped the noose they’d tied for themselves. They did it with our help. They urgently needed a diversion, we heard their prayers, and they snatched retreat from the jaws of defeat.
They’ll never be able to answer Greta’s question, of course, and they’ll never have to—it exists only as a GIF now. And 50 kronor says not one monger in a hundred of said meme can say what the meme means.
How dare who?
How dare they what?
I doubt the LOL-lard armies of 4chan even know her name.
But this isn’t a day to dwell on past glories. All my body is still a-tingle with the after-glory of those warmth-versus-virus slides.
I’m almost at the halfway mark in the video, and nothing else has happened to blow a glory-hole in the back of my skull, not like those two graphics. And that’s OK—once you’ve scored a hit as palpable as that, there’s no glory in trying to top yourself. The first Rule of Effectiveness is don’t steal your own Thunberg.
Oh, OK, the President is on in a minute. This is just terrific, tremendous news. If anyone knows the hard way not to ruin a perfect moment with careless talk, it’s Donald Trump. As long as the leader of the Free World (or whatever the cliché is in these times of house arrest) can get through ten or 15 minutes of questions from the press corps without embarrassment, we’re home free. Then they’ll never be able to bury tonight’s story.
Just get up, inject that light or hope or change or whatever it is into the national COVID19 conversation, and get out, Mr President, for the love of God.
I can’t watch. ■
UPDATE: Apparently not everyone is taking the same message away from this conference as ‘ClimateNuremberg.’ Overheard at WUWT itself was this, er, novel take on the findings:
Even the mildest global warming scenario is expected to significantly raise the extinction risk for SARS-CoV-2; the White House itself (hardly a bastion of “warmism”) admits this!
Last week—his time—Bill Bryan of the DHS publicly confirmed fears that a rise in environmental (“indoor and outdoor”) temperatures would violate the virus’ right to a stable climate—a right it enjoys as a living, reproducing thing under international treaty. Even the average WUWT reader, who thinks mankind has a sort of custodial duty to the world’s biota ever since we were deputized by our invisible space-daddy or whatever, should be able to grasp the theological implications of the graphic below.
If this doesn’t convince you of the need for an urgent downward correction in global temperature, I’ll condescendingly repeat myself until it does:
Sure, maybe SARS-CoV-2 isn’t the most charismatic mascot in the battle for diversity and equity in our biosphere.
But science is about looking past the superficial, seeing what’s underneath the capsid. Homo sapiens sapiens has been encroaching on the habitat of viruses just like this since prehistoric times, if not earlier, displacing and decimating them with the smallpox-tainted blankets of our destructive genius. Yet science is also about faith, and my faith says it’s never too late to mitigate. We just need to find the courage to dial the global thermostat slightly to the left.
Or do you want to look your kids’ kids’ kids in the eye and explain why kids soon aren’t going to know what COVID-19 is?


iowaclimatescienceeducation--2020-04-29--Chinese virus drives a startling increase in Europe’s excess mortality #coronavirus

The scale of the Chinese-virus pandemic is now beginning to become visible .
Yesterday , the death toll of 59,000 in the United States exceeded the 58,000 in the Vietnam war .
In Europe , 488,764 people died of all causes in the six weeks to mid-April , according to an analysis of data from the European mortality monitoring agency carried out by Sky News .
That is 117,641 , or 32 % , above the 371,302 deaths that would be expected over those six weeks in an average year .
Sky comments that while these excess deaths are not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the majority are likely to have been caused by it .
Across Europe , weeks 14 and 15 were the worst for excess deaths , with 64 % above the average in both weeks .
In normal times , even a 15 % excess-death figure is regarded as exceptionally severe .
In most European countries , excess mortality ( gray in Fig .
1 ) has greatly outstripped reported deaths from the Chinese virus ( blue ) .
It is likely that most of the additional excess deaths are also attributable to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ such .
As Fig .
2 shows , the four countries with the greatest peaks in excess deaths are England , Spain , Belgium and Italy .
England recorded the highest number of excess deaths anywhere in Europe for three consecutive weeks ( 14 to 16 ) .
For the past two weeks , England is alone in having scored more than 40 % above the average : it did so in two successive weeks .
Sky News also reports that England has had more excess deaths per head of population than Scotland @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most likely reason for this high mortality is England ’ s high population density , which increases the transmission rate of the virus , aggravated by the Government ’ s month of dithering before locking down the country , which allowed unchecked exponential growth every day .
Fig .
2 .
Mortality z-scores ( % ) for various European countries , weeks 1-16 of 2020 .
Lack of sunshine contributing to widespread Vitamin-D3 deficiency among the large elderly population is another possible factor : of all the various nostrums for reducing the probability @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the one that has been demonstrated by a meta-analysis of clinical trials involving at least 10,000 patients to be efficacious against respiratory viruses is daily supplementation with 10,000 units ( 25 micrograms ) of Vitamin D3 .
The darker the skin , the more likely is Vitamin D3 deficiency in sunless , northern climes .
The large immigrant population in Britain has proven more susceptible to the Chinese virus than the Caucasian population – another reason why the UK figures are so bad .
Finally , the Government failed to provide clear , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , where there have been thousands of hitherto-unreported Chinese-virus deaths .
The Netherlands , France and Switzerland also saw a steep rise in excess deaths .
In Scandinavia , not so much .
In Denmark and Norway , the deaths so far are what would be expected in a normal year .
However , no-lockdown Sweden shows a small but significant excess already , and , based on the date of the tenth Chinese-virus death , which in Sweden was March 18 , against March 7 in Spain , March 12 in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the next few weeks will reveal whether the no-lockdown strategy has been a success .
Even then , the greater severity of the pandemic in territories where population densities are a lot higher than in Sweden would not have allowed those territories safely to avoid lockdowns altogether .
England will be the worst-affected country in Europe .
In one recent week , 22,351 deaths were recorded : more than in any other week since modern records began ( Fig .
3 ) .
In England , as in the other worst-affected countries , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ excess deaths is substantial ( Fig .
4 ) , suggesting that thousands more may have died of the virus than official death-counts show .
Notoriously , HM Government has until now excluded deaths outside hospitals from the daily counts it announces .
From today , however , under pressure from the news media , it will count the deaths properly .
Fig .
4 .
Chinese-virus and “ other ” deaths against mean all-cause mortality , England & Wales .
Sky News has commented that were it not for the lockdown in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have ended up in the hundreds of thousands .
Sir David Spiegelhalter , the Professor of the Public Understanding of Statistics at Cambridge , said on All Fools ’ Day that , since the Chinese virus chiefly strikes the aged and infirm , many of them would soon have died in any event – a viewpoint that has hitherto been echoed , regrettably , by some commenters here .
Now , just four weeks later , the very sharp increase in excess deaths not only in Britain but also in other European countries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virus are dying significantly sooner with the virus than without it .
Our daily graphs show that the daily compound growth rate in estimated active cases remains positive in some of the countries we are tracking – notably the United States , England and Sweden .
In Britain , at any rate , the lockdown will not be ended until the rate is well below zero .
The Prime Minister has been quoting Cicero : salus populi suprema lex .
As today ’ s graphs ( Figs .
5-6 ) show , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ active cases – the key indicator of how bad the pandemic will eventually prove to be , and of whether ending lockdowns will be a prudent step – is zero in the world excluding China and occupied Tibet , where the numbers are fictitious .
Tomorrow I shall provide a simple mathematical wrinkle that will allow anyone to convert any compound active-case growth rate below 0 % into an estimate of the total cases that would eventually arise if that negative growth rate were to persist .
Fig .
5 .
Mean compound @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of COVID-19 for the world excluding China ( red ) and for several individual nations averaged over the successive seven-day periods ending on all dates from April 1 to April 28 , 2020 .
Fig .
6 .
Mean compound daily growth rates in cumulative COVID-19 deaths for the world excluding China ( red ) and for several individual nations averaged over the successive seven-day periods ending on all dates from April 8 to April 28 , 2020 .

By Christopher Monckton of Brenchley
The scale of the Chinese-virus pandemic is now beginning to become visible. Yesterday, the death toll of 59,000 in the United States exceeded the 58,000 in the Vietnam war.
In Europe, 488,764 people died of all causes in the six weeks to mid-April, according to an analysis of data from the European mortality monitoring agency carried out by Sky News. That is 117,641, or 32%, above the 371,302 deaths that would be expected over those six weeks in an average year. Sky comments that while these excess deaths are not necessarily all caused by the pandemic, the majority are likely to have been caused by it.
Across Europe, weeks 14 and 15 were the worst for excess deaths, with 64% above the average in both weeks. In normal times, even a 15% excess-death figure is regarded as exceptionally severe.
Fig. 1. All-cause excess mortality and Chinese-virus mortality to early/mid April 2020.
In most European countries, excess mortality (gray in Fig. 1) has greatly outstripped reported deaths from the Chinese virus (blue). It is likely that most of the additional excess deaths are also attributable to the virus but have not been reported as such.
As Fig. 2 shows, the four countries with the greatest peaks in excess deaths are England, Spain, Belgium and Italy. England recorded the highest number of excess deaths anywhere in Europe for three consecutive weeks (14 to 16). For the past two weeks, England is alone in having scored more than 40% above the average: it did so in two successive weeks.
Sky News also reports that England has had more excess deaths per head of population than Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. The most likely reason for this high mortality is England’s high population density, which increases the transmission rate of the virus, aggravated by the Government’s month of dithering before locking down the country, which allowed unchecked exponential growth every day.
Fig. 2. Mortality z-scores (%) for various European countries, weeks 1-16 of 2020.
Lack of sunshine contributing to widespread Vitamin-D3 deficiency among the large elderly population is another possible factor: of all the various nostrums for reducing the probability of infection and severity of symptoms, the one that has been demonstrated by a meta-analysis of clinical trials involving at least 10,000 patients to be efficacious against respiratory viruses is daily supplementation with 10,000 units (25 micrograms) of Vitamin D3.
The darker the skin, the more likely is Vitamin D3 deficiency in sunless, northern climes. The large immigrant population in Britain has proven more susceptible to the Chinese virus than the Caucasian population – another reason why the UK figures are so bad. Finally, the Government failed to provide clear, timely instructions to care-homes for the elderly, where there have been thousands of hitherto-unreported Chinese-virus deaths.
The Netherlands, France and Switzerland also saw a steep rise in excess deaths. In Scandinavia, not so much. In Denmark and Norway, the deaths so far are what would be expected in a normal year. However, no-lockdown Sweden shows a small but significant excess already, and, based on the date of the tenth Chinese-virus death, which in Sweden was March 18, against March 7 in Spain, March 12 in the UK and February 25 in Italy, the next few weeks will reveal whether the no-lockdown strategy has been a success. Even then, the greater severity of the pandemic in territories where population densities are a lot higher than in Sweden would not have allowed those territories safely to avoid lockdowns altogether.
England will be the worst-affected country in Europe. In one recent week, 22,351 deaths were recorded: more than in any other week since modern records began (Fig. 3).
Fig. 3. Weekly all-cause mortality, England & Wales, 1970-2000.
In England, as in the other worst-affected countries, the discrepancy between Chinese-virus deaths and total excess deaths is substantial (Fig. 4), suggesting that thousands more may have died of the virus than official death-counts show. Notoriously, HM Government has until now excluded deaths outside hospitals from the daily counts it announces. From today, however, under pressure from the news media, it will count the deaths properly.
Fig. 4. Chinese-virus and “other” deaths against mean all-cause mortality, England & Wales.
Sky News has commented that were it not for the lockdown in the UK the death count might well have ended up in the hundreds of thousands.
Sir David Spiegelhalter, the Professor of the Public Understanding of Statistics at Cambridge, said on All Fools’ Day that, since the Chinese virus chiefly strikes the aged and infirm, many of them would soon have died in any event – a viewpoint that has hitherto been echoed, regrettably, by some commenters here.
Now, just four weeks later, the very sharp increase in excess deaths not only in Britain but also in other European countries shows that the victims of the Chinese virus are dying significantly sooner with the virus than without it.
Our daily graphs show that the daily compound growth rate in estimated active cases remains positive in some of the countries we are tracking – notably the United States, England and Sweden. In Britain, at any rate, the lockdown will not be ended until the rate is well below zero. The Prime Minister has been quoting Cicero: salus populi suprema lex.
As today’s graphs (Figs. 5-6) show, the global daily compound growth rate in estimated active cases – the key indicator of how bad the pandemic will eventually prove to be, and of whether ending lockdowns will be a prudent step – is zero in the world excluding China and occupied Tibet, where the numbers are fictitious.
Tomorrow I shall provide a simple mathematical wrinkle that will allow anyone to convert any compound active-case growth rate below 0% into an estimate of the total cases that would eventually arise if that negative growth rate were to persist.
Fig. 5. Mean compound daily growth rates in estimated active cases of COVID-19 for the world excluding China (red) and for several individual nations averaged over the successive seven-day periods ending on all dates from April 1 to April 28, 2020.
Fig. 6. Mean compound daily growth rates in cumulative COVID-19 deaths for the world excluding China (red) and for several individual nations averaged over the successive seven-day periods ending on all dates from April 8 to April 28, 2020.


iowaclimatescienceeducation--2020-04-29--Whaley Bridge Dam Collapse Due To Poor Design & Maintenance, Not Climate Change

You will no doubt recall the Whaley Bridge dam collapse last summer , which Sir James Bevan , Chairman of the Environment Agency , predictably blamed on climate change : We are seeing impacts on national infrastructure as it comes under greater pressure from climate change .
A few weeks ago Toddbrook Reservoir in Whaley Bridge nearly failed after heavy rainfall .
A disaster was narrowly averted – and the Environment Agency was at the heart of that operation .
But like Toddbrook , much of our infrastructure is Victorian : it ’ s aging and it wasn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ change is causing .
That is bringing greater and greater risks Well , it appears that Bevan and his chums at the EA were asleep at the wheel , because a full independent review into the near catastrophe , published a couple of months ago but seemingly not well publicised , puts the blame firmly on a combination of poor design , exacerbated by inadequate maintenance .
The Report by Sir David Balmforth finds that the rainfall , though extremely heavy , was a 1 in 100 year event , and was well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ able to accommodate .
Also that it had dealt with significant floods in the past : Balmforth goes on to describe the design failures Overall responsibility for the safety of England ’ s reservoirs lies with the Environment Agency .
Perhaps the clown Bevan should concentrate on his day job , instead of pontificating about climate change .
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood
h/t John Cooknell
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-49189955
You will no doubt recall the Whaley Bridge dam collapse last summer, which Sir James Bevan, Chairman of the Environment Agency, predictably blamed on climate change:
We are seeing impacts on national infrastructure as it comes under greater pressure from climate change. A few weeks ago Toddbrook Reservoir in Whaley Bridge nearly failed after heavy rainfall. A disaster was narrowly averted – and the Environment Agency was at the heart of that operation. But like Toddbrook, much of our infrastructure is Victorian: it’s aging and it wasn’t designed for the more extreme weather climate change is causing. That is bringing greater and greater risks
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-climate-emergency-this-year-the-answers-are-different
Well, it appears that Bevan and his chums at the EA were asleep at the wheel, because a full independent review into the near catastrophe, published a couple of months ago but seemingly not well publicised, puts the blame firmly on a combination of poor design, exacerbated by inadequate maintenance.
The Report by Sir David Balmforth finds that the rainfall, though extremely heavy, was a 1 in 100 year event, and was well within what the spillway should have been able to accommodate. Also that it had dealt with significant floods in the past:
Balmforth goes on to describe the design failures
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/872769/toddbrook-reservoir-independent-review-reporta.pdf
Overall responsibility for the safety of England’s reservoirs lies with the Environment Agency. Perhaps the clown Bevan should concentrate on his day job, instead of pontificating about climate change.
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April 29, 2020 at 11:21AM


iowaclimatescienceeducation--2020-04-30--Gridwatch’s Leo Smith On Renewable’s Instability

Leo Smith , who runs the Gridwatch website left this comment on WUWT the other day , following up on John Constable ’ s article here .
Being an engineer , Leo knows his stuff inside out , and his comment is worth reposting in full : This is a good article but from the comments it seems that some of the important detail has not been fleshed out enough .
First of all let me say something about solar power in the UK.There is quite a lot of it , but none of it is metered centrally by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I know none of it is under central control .
If you look at the demand curve graphs you will see that there is a big midday notch .
I have been monitoring , via my website , Gridwatch , ( https : //gridwatch.org.uk ) the same data as is used here , since 2011 .
There never was a midday notch until solar power came along , and this ‘ notch ’ is actually the effect of millions of domestic solar panels and a few commercial solar farms kicking in and feeding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ central monitoring is concerned this represents a fall in ‘ seen ’ demand and so ‘ the notch ’ .
A couple of years back Sheffield University , in a zeal for all things renewable , starting publishing their estimate of total GB solar power , based I think on sampling a few sites who agreed to share their output figures .
I now incorporate that data with suitable caveats on the same website and database .
This solar power is absolutely ‘ wild ’ on the grid .
As far as domestic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way to control the output centrally at all .
I am less sure about the few commercial solar farms as to what their contractual arrangements are and whether ( like wind ) they can be ‘ constrained off the grid ’ .
Wind farms are similarly wilful in their output , although both solar and wind are reasonably predictable to within a couple of GW several hours ahead , and a couple of GW is something the grid should be able to cope with – typically , if there is a massive and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out , the pumped hydro at Dinorwig and the small hydro sets get an alarm and can be up to power in seconds .
So long as they can ‘ hold the fort ’ for half an hour or so without running out of water , that is enough to get the gas sets up and running .
Similarly a sudden drop in demand is catered for by the inverse – hydro stops and then gas sets are shut down .
Contrary to popular belief not much ‘ spinning reserve ’ is kept @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happens is that the hydro plants are used to modulate very small and rapid fluctuations in demand over the timescale of minutes .
This however is not the instability which is the matter of concern here , what is a matter of concern is the grid frequency – nominally 50Hz± not a lot .
Traditionally this was held to 50Hz exactly on average over the day so that synchronous electric clocks kept proper time , but minor fluctuation was tolerated .
And a major part of that stability was inherent in the design @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and rotors in the alternators held to 3000rpm ( for 3 pole designs ) represent a surprising amount of stored kinetic energy .
More than the average battery installation for sure , and in the case of – say – lightning striking a main grid link and shorting it – this is what supplies the overload current until the arc self extinguishes .
Then of course we have electric trains which are constantly stopping and starting with power flows to and from the grid ( most these days push braking energy back into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well and good until – because renewables have priority on the grid – there is hardly any conventional generation on the grid at all .
Peak solar and a bit of wind is capable of putting over 16GW onto the grid and typically when Europe has a surplus in summer , we will be importing another 4GW via the undersea high voltage DC links .
So that ’ s 20GW of ‘ unconventional ’ generation on a grid whose maximum total demand is in the middle of the day scarcely 30GW .
Typically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ burners at Drax plus about 6-8GW on nuclear power on the grid .
And all the coal , gas and hydro shut down .
And this is where the problems start to get nasty .
All those renewables , and the DC power under the sea , feeds the grid via inverters .
Electronic circuits that chop the DC and shove it through high frequency transformers to generate an approximate 3 phase sinusoidal waveform that is fed to the grid via chokes and capacitors to improve the waveform .
And this has to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ locked to its frequency .
How do they know what the frequency is ?
They monitor it of course .
And what happens if the frequency , now hardly controlled by spinning turbines , drops due to a temporary overload ?
THEY SHUT DOWN AND DISCONNECT THEMSELVES !
And instead of 2GW lost from the grid , because a reactor has tripped , that ’ s 20GW , and a total cascading blackout across the entire country .
That is the problem that is concerning engineers , myself included .
You may recall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , arguably the biggest problem was how embedded renewable generation suddenly dropped off , as the system frequency fell .
It would appear from John Constable ’ s analysis of the official investigations that this sudden loss of generation was never fully explained .
What we do know though is that problems of this nature will become progressively worse as more and more renewable energy comes on board .
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood
h/t Douglas Brodie
Leo Smith, who runs the Gridwatch website left this comment on WUWT the other day, following up on John Constable’s article here.
Being an engineer, Leo knows his stuff inside out, and his comment is worth reposting in full:
This is a good article but from the comments it seems that some of the important detail has not been fleshed out enough.
First of all let me say something about solar power in the UK.There is quite a lot of it, but none of it is metered centrally by the grid, and, as far as I know none of it is under central control. If you look at the demand curve graphs you will see that there is a big midday notch. I have been monitoring, via my website, Gridwatch, (https://gridwatch.org.uk) the same data as is used here, since 2011. There never was a midday notch until solar power came along, and this ‘notch’ is actually the effect of millions of domestic solar panels and a few commercial solar farms kicking in and feeding local demand. As far as the central monitoring is concerned this represents a fall in ‘seen’ demand and so ‘the notch’. A couple of years back Sheffield University, in a zeal for all things renewable, starting publishing their estimate of total GB solar power, based I think on sampling a few sites who agreed to share their output figures. I now incorporate that data with suitable caveats on the same website and database.
This solar power is absolutely ‘wild’ on the grid. As far as domestic panels go, there is absolutely no way to control the output centrally at all. I am less sure about the few commercial solar farms as to what their contractual arrangements are and whether (like wind) they can be ‘constrained off the grid’.
Wind farms are similarly wilful in their output, although both solar and wind are reasonably predictable to within a couple of GW several hours ahead, and a couple of GW is something the grid should be able to cope with – typically, if there is a massive and sudden shortfall if a power station trips out, the pumped hydro at Dinorwig and the small hydro sets get an alarm and can be up to power in seconds. So long as they can ‘hold the fort’ for half an hour or so without running out of water, that is enough to get the gas sets up and running. Similarly a sudden drop in demand is catered for by the inverse – hydro stops and then gas sets are shut down.
Contrary to popular belief not much ‘spinning reserve’ is kept online. I suspect that what actually happens is that the hydro plants are used to modulate very small and rapid fluctuations in demand over the timescale of minutes.
This however is not the instability which is the matter of concern here, what is a matter of concern is the grid frequency – nominally 50Hz± not a lot. Traditionally this was held to 50Hz exactly on average over the day so that synchronous electric clocks kept proper time, but minor fluctuation was tolerated. And a major part of that stability was inherent in the design of the generating plant – massive turbines and rotors in the alternators held to 3000rpm (for 3 pole designs) represent a surprising amount of stored kinetic energy. More than the average battery installation for sure, and in the case of – say – lightning striking a main grid link and shorting it – this is what supplies the overload current until the arc self extinguishes. Then of course we have electric trains which are constantly stopping and starting with power flows to and from the grid (most these days push braking energy back into the grid) .
This is all well and good until – because renewables have priority on the grid – there is hardly any conventional generation on the grid at all. Peak solar and a bit of wind is capable of putting over 16GW onto the grid and typically when Europe has a surplus in summer, we will be importing another 4GW via the undersea high voltage DC links. So that’s 20GW of ‘unconventional’ generation on a grid whose maximum total demand is in the middle of the day scarcely 30GW. Typically there will be a 3GW of wood burners at Drax plus about 6-8GW on nuclear power on the grid. And all the coal, gas and hydro shut down.
And this is where the problems start to get nasty. All those renewables, and the DC power under the sea, feeds the grid via inverters. Electronic circuits that chop the DC and shove it through high frequency transformers to generate an approximate 3 phase sinusoidal waveform that is fed to the grid via chokes and capacitors to improve the waveform . And this has to be in phase with the grid and locked to its frequency.
How do they know what the frequency is? They monitor it of course.
And what happens if the frequency, now hardly controlled by spinning turbines, drops due to a temporary overload?
THEY SHUT DOWN AND DISCONNECT THEMSELVES!
And instead of 2GW lost from the grid, because a reactor has tripped, that’s 20GW, and a total cascading blackout across the entire country.
That is the problem that is concerning engineers, myself included.
You may recall that during last summer’s blackout, arguably the biggest problem was how embedded renewable generation suddenly dropped off, as the system frequency fell.
It would appear from John Constable’s analysis of the official investigations that this sudden loss of generation was never fully explained.
What we do know though is that problems of this nature will become progressively worse as more and more renewable energy comes on board.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
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April 30, 2020 at 05:39AM


iowaclimatescienceeducation--2020-04-30--Endangered bumblebee sees population bounce back thanks to the revival of lost flower meadows by the

Endangered bumblebee sees population bounce back thanks to the revival of lost flower meadows by the National Trust

How many times have we been told that bees are dying out because of climate change , when it was obvious that loss of habitat and modern farming methods were to blame ?
An endangered bumblebee has seen its population bounce back at a country manor thanks to the National Trust creating flower meadows .
The shrill carder bee flitted dangerously close to extinction , as 97 per cent of its habitat has been lost in the last 70 years .
Carder bees , which are worth over £400m to the UK farming industry because of their pollinating power , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made way for agricultural fields and home building in recent decades .
Once widespread , they are now limited to five small areas in the UK .
The National Trust decided to help bring the bees back from the brink of extinction and created habitats for the insect at one of its sites .
While the loss of flower meadows impacts all bee populations , carder bees are particularly impacted , as they do not travel far from the nest .
This means they need long-flowering vegetation close by as well as an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s Lytes Cary Manor and estate in Somerset has been designated as one of two exemplary sites in England for the endangered Shrill carder bee .
It is used for mixed farming , and they have designated flower meadows for the bee .
The other site where the bee is doing well is the RSPB ’ s Rainham Marshes site in Essex .
Sinead Lynch , Conservation Manager at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust , said : “ With the National Trust being one of the largest landowners of flower-rich grasslands , its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recovery of the species.
” Mark Musgrave , the National Trust ’ s Lead Ranger at Lytes Cary Manor added : “ The work we did with volunteers included the planting out of hundreds of plugs of white dead nettle and comfrey by volunteers .
“ We have been propagating white dead nettle as it ’ s an important nectar source for adult bees .
Over the winter our volunteer planted hundreds of white dead nettle and comfrey as well as a mixture of wildflowers from seed which will act as a wider @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worker bees , including yellow rattle and black knapweed . ''
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood
How many times have we been told that bees are dying out because of climate change, when it was obvious that loss of habitat and modern farming methods were to blame?
An endangered bumblebee has seen its population bounce back at a country manor thanks to the National Trust creating flower meadows.
The shrill carder bee flitted dangerously close to extinction, as 97 per cent of its habitat has been lost in the last 70 years.
Carder bees, which are worth over £400m to the UK farming industry because of their pollinating power, thrive in flower-rich meadows, which have made way for agricultural fields and home building in recent decades.
Once widespread, they are now limited to five small areas in the UK. The National Trust decided to help bring the bees back from the brink of extinction and created habitats for the insect at one of its sites.
While the loss of flower meadows impacts all bee populations, carder bees are particularly impacted, as they do not travel far from the nest. This means they need long-flowering vegetation close by as well as an undisturbed nest site.
The National Trust’s Lytes Cary Manor and estate in Somerset has been designated as one of two exemplary sites in England for the endangered Shrill carder bee. It is used for mixed farming, and they have designated flower meadows for the bee.
The other site where the bee is doing well is the RSPB’s Rainham Marshes site in Essex.
Sinead Lynch, Conservation Manager at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, said: “With the National Trust being one of the largest landowners of flower-rich grasslands, its involvement is crucial for the conservation and recovery of the species.”
Mark Musgrave, the National Trust’s Lead Ranger at Lytes Cary Manor added: “The work we did with volunteers included the planting out of hundreds of plugs of white dead nettle and comfrey by volunteers.
“We have been propagating white dead nettle as it’s an important nectar source for adult bees. Over the winter our volunteer planted hundreds of white dead nettle and comfrey as well as a mixture of wildflowers from seed which will act as a wider source of nectar and pollen for foraging worker bees, including yellow rattle and black knapweed."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/27/endangered-bumblebee-sees-population-bounce-back-thanks-revival/
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April 30, 2020 at 05:15AM


iowaclimatescienceeducation--2020-04-30--How’s a Mann get into the NAS?

How’s a Mann get into the NAS?

Am I the only one outraged ?
Every once in a while , I go through Michael Mann ’ s tweets in an incognito window .
Most recently , I just hit a few minutes behind him crowing about being elected , inducted , or something , into the National Academy of Sciences .
This looked like a bombshell to me—a real scoop .
I made sure to shoot off a few fiery tweets , like this one : Then I had to get some fresh air .
I went and got a few groceries and stomped and muttered around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ When I came back to start wading through the thermonuclear fallout , I was surprised to find their was hardly any .
Well , you never know what will and won ’ t make a splash .
Mark Steyn was worried that his lawsuit battle with Mann might not get much attention , and had to brace himself for a flood of amicus briefs supporting Mann .
I suppose most people aren ’ t all that attuned to the goings on of the National Academy of Sciences .
I know I ’ m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going to include someone like Mann .
I ’ m actually rather attuned to someone they didn ’ t include , Carl Sagan .
Though I didn ’ t agree with a lot of his politics , I was a big fan of Carl Sagan .
His books always seemed to have stuff that was fresh and new .
When a couple of biographies of him came out , at about the turn of the millennium , I rushed to the library to check them out .
One of the more interesting sagas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inclusion into the NAS .
His first wife , Lynn Margules , a renowned biologist , was a member .
Back then , being an acclaimed science popularizer and a celebrity was considered perhaps , uncouth .
Of course some of it undoubtedly had to do with big egos , who were not acclaimed , popular celebrities .
Now days we seem to be living in the age of the science communicator .
Search for “ Michael Mann ” at the NCSE site , and you get 6 pages of hits with lots @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 2018 Public Engagement with Science Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science , in recognition of his “ tireless efforts to communicate the science of climate change to the media , public [ , ] and policymakers .
… the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication for 2017 .
… the James Shea Award for 2017 .
Presented by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers , the award honors “ exceptional contributions in the form of writing and/or editing of Earth science materials ( broadly construed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ general public and/or teachers of Earth science.
” … the 2018 Climate Communication Prize from the American Geological Union .
… the Louis J. Battan Author ’ s Award ( K-12 ) for 2020 for their book The Tantrum that Saved the World Mann is a communicator ?
The only thing I find notable about his writing is that it ’ s whiny and ranty .
Otherwise , it ’ s mostly bland talking points .
It ’ s certainly not not like reading Richard Feynman or Stephen Jay Gould !
The only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his , other than MBH ’ 98 ( Uncle ! )
, is his comparison of his short modern centered PCA to Gould ’ s analysis , in his book , The Mismeasure of Man .
Gould was no longer alive to provide clarification or extrication .
Well , if he ’ s not an impressive communicator , maybe it ’ s “ what ” he ’ s communicating .
Other than the same old talking points , all the other activist/scientists have , he does have this unique narrative .
He ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this rising temperature graph and then gets attacked by right wing politicians and the fossil fuel industry .
His unimpressive communication skills actually help with this narrative , along with the fact that he ’ s short , fat and bald .
The actual supposed science behind the hockey stick is so bad , extensive and arcane , that these charges seems implausible to the casual observer ( they did to me ) .
He looks like a scapegoat being made into a cardboard villain , when in fact , on closer examination @ @ @ @ @ @ @ !
Add to that , he ’ s a ridiculous intellectual narcissist and very vindictive towards critics .
Do honors , like being in the NAS , really matter ?
They didn ’ t to Richard Feynman in his great YouTube video : Feynman actually resigned from the NAS .
He describes physicists sticking together to block a chemist .
He exclaims , “ The whole thing was rotten !
” For better or worse , we do give awards for achievement and put our best and brightest in prestigious organizations .
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lauded as such .
This should be one of those times .

Guest post by Canman (aka Mike Dombroski)
Am I the only one outraged?
Every once in a while, I go through Michael Mann’s tweets in an incognito window. Most recently, I just hit a few minutes behind him crowing about being elected, inducted, or something, into the National Academy of Sciences. This looked like a bombshell to me—a real scoop. I made sure to shoot off a few fiery tweets, like this one:
https://twitter.com/DombroskiMike/status/1255237937148592130
Then I had to get some fresh air. I went and got a few groceries and stomped and muttered around the parking lot for a while. When I came back to start wading through the thermonuclear fallout, I was surprised to find their was hardly any. Well, you never know what will and won’t make a splash. Mark Steyn was worried that his lawsuit battle with Mann might not get much attention, and had to brace himself for a flood of amicus briefs supporting Mann.
I suppose most people aren’t all that attuned to the goings on of the National Academy of Sciences. I know I’m not, except for when they are going to include someone like Mann. I’m actually rather attuned to someone they didn’t include, Carl Sagan. Though I didn’t agree with a lot of his politics, I was a big fan of Carl Sagan. His books always seemed to have stuff that was fresh and new. When a couple of biographies of him came out, at about the turn of the millennium, I rushed to the library to check them out. One of the more interesting sagas, was when he was rejected for inclusion into the NAS. His first wife, Lynn Margules, a renowned biologist, was a member. Back then, being an acclaimed science popularizer and a celebrity was considered perhaps, uncouth. Of course some of it undoubtedly had to do with big egos, who were not acclaimed, popular celebrities.
Now days we seem to be living in the age of the science communicator. Search for “Michael Mann” at the NCSE site, and you get 6 pages of hits with lots of awards, such as:
… the 2018 Public Engagement with Science Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in recognition of his “tireless efforts to communicate the science of climate change to the media, public[,] and policymakers. … the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication for 2017. … the James Shea Award for 2017. Presented by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, the award honors “exceptional contributions in the form of writing and/or editing of Earth science materials (broadly construed) that are of interest to the general public and/or teachers of Earth science.” … the 2018 Climate Communication Prize from the American Geological Union. … the Louis J. Battan Author’s Award (K-12) for 2020 for their book The Tantrum that Saved the World
Mann is a communicator? The only thing I find notable about his writing is that it’s whiny and ranty. Otherwise, it’s mostly bland talking points. It’s certainly not not like reading Richard Feynman or Stephen Jay Gould! The only challenging thing I’ve read of his, other than MBH’98 (Uncle!), is his comparison of his short modern centered PCA to Gould’s analysis, in his book, The Mismeasure of Man. Gould was no longer alive to provide clarification or extrication.
Well, if he’s not an impressive communicator, maybe it’s “what” he’s communicating. Other than the same old talking points, all the other activist/scientists have, he does have this unique narrative. He’s a nerdy scientist, who discovers this rising temperature graph and then gets attacked by right wing politicians and the fossil fuel industry. His unimpressive communication skills actually help with this narrative, along with the fact that he’s short, fat and bald. The actual supposed science behind the hockey stick is so bad, extensive and arcane, that these charges seems implausible to the casual observer (they did to me). He looks like a scapegoat being made into a cardboard villain, when in fact, on closer examination, he really is a cardboard villain! Add to that, he’s a ridiculous intellectual narcissist and very vindictive towards critics.
Do honors, like being in the NAS, really matter? They didn’t to Richard Feynman in his great YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f61KMw5zVhg
Feynman actually resigned from the NAS. He describes physicists sticking together to block a chemist. He exclaims, “The whole thing was rotten!” For better or worse, we do give awards for achievement and put our best and brightest in prestigious organizations. We do push back when questionable people get lauded as such. This should be one of those times.


iowaclimatescienceeducation--2020-04-30--Mann elected to National Academy of Sciences

Michael Mann , distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences and director of Penn State ’ s Earth System Science Center at Penn State , has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences , recognizing distinguished and continuing achievements in original research .
Membership in the NAS is one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States .
NAS is a private , nonprofit institution established in 1863 by a congressional charter signed by former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln .
It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership , and — with the National @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Medicine — provides science , engineering , and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations .
This year , the academy elected 120 members and 26 international members to its membership .
Mann ’ s election brings Penn State ’ s representation to 16 members , and total membership in the academy to 2,403 active members and 501 international members .
Mann conducts research and publishes on his areas of interest in climate science , including climate change , sea level rise , human impact on climate change , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He is an acknowledged leader in the climate change community .
His work in the area of climate change science , especially the reconstruction of global temperatures over the past 1,000 years , has advanced the field .
Current areas of research include model/data comparisons aimed at understanding the long-term behavior of the climate system and its relationship with human climate forcing .
Other areas of active research include climate simulation using theoretical models , development of statistical methods for climate signal detection , and investigations of the geophysical and ecological system @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of climate change on tropical storms and extreme weather events .
Mann has been recognized for his scientific work with the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 2019 .
He received the Hans Oeschger Medal from the European Geosciences Union in 2012 and contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize .
He is the author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications .
He is a fellow of the Geological Society of America , the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry , the American Association @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union .
Mann has received many awards for science communication .
In 2018 , he received the Climate Communication Prize from the American Geophysical Union and the Award for Public Engagement with Science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science .
In 2017 , he received the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication from Climate One .
Mann was elected an AAAS fellow in 2015 .
Mann communicates about the effects of climate change through a variety of media , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Predictions : Understanding Climate Change , ” “ The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines , ” and “ The Madhouse Effect , ” for which he teamed up with Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Tom Toles to explore public perception of climate change .
Mann also collaborated with author and illustrator Megan Herbert on a children ’ s book titled “ The Tantrum that Saved the World.
” He completed his doctorate at Yale University in 1998 .

Penn State
Michael Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences and director of Penn State’s Earth System Science Center at Penn State, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, recognizing distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Membership in the NAS is one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States.
NAS is a private, nonprofit institution established in 1863 by a congressional charter signed by former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and — with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine — provides science, engineering, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.
This year, the academy elected 120 members and 26 international members to its membership. Mann’s election brings Penn State’s representation to 16 members, and total membership in the academy to 2,403 active members and 501 international members.
Mann conducts research and publishes on his areas of interest in climate science, including climate change, sea level rise, human impact on climate change, climate modeling, and the carbon budget. He is an acknowledged leader in the climate change community. His work in the area of climate change science, especially the reconstruction of global temperatures over the past 1,000 years, has advanced the field.
Current areas of research include model/data comparisons aimed at understanding the long-term behavior of the climate system and its relationship with human climate forcing. Other areas of active research include climate simulation using theoretical models, development of statistical methods for climate signal detection, and investigations of the geophysical and ecological system responses to climate variability and the impacts of climate change on tropical storms and extreme weather events.
Mann has been recognized for his scientific work with the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 2019. He received the Hans Oeschger Medal from the European Geosciences Union in 2012 and contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He is the author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications.
He is a fellow of the Geological Society of America, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union.
Mann has received many awards for science communication. In 2018, he received the Climate Communication Prize from the American Geophysical Union and the Award for Public Engagement with Science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2017, he received the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication from Climate One. Mann was elected an AAAS fellow in 2015.
Mann communicates about the effects of climate change through a variety of media, including his books, which include “Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change,” “The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines,” and “The Madhouse Effect,” for which he teamed up with Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Tom Toles to explore public perception of climate change.
Mann also collaborated with author and illustrator Megan Herbert on a children’s book titled “The Tantrum that Saved the World.”
He completed his doctorate at Yale University in 1998.
###
From EurekAlert


iowaclimatescienceeducation--2020-04-30--4 New Studies: High Mountain Asia Glaciers Are Advancing, Surging…And This Is A ‘Natural Phenomenon’

Glacier surges of 100s of meters within mere months have been occurring throughout High Mountain Asia ( the Karakoram region , especially ) for decades , even centuries .
It ’ s the Karakoram “ anomaly ” , and it ’ s thought to be “ natural ” .
So why are the regions where glaciers are retreating thought to be responding to unnatural climate changes ?
“ The January 2018 to September 2019 surge of Shisper Glacier , Pakistan , detected from remote sensing observations … The glacier surface velocity profiles indicate that the ablation zone of the glacier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ phase resulting in advance of the snout and expansion of the ice-dammed lake .
Surface glacier velocities are as high as 48 m d−1 .
Between 18 December 2018 and 8 May 2019 , the glacier snout advanced at ~6 m d−1 with a total overall advance of 860 m. The lake formed due to damming of an outflow stream from Mochowar Glacier expanded to its maximum area ( 29.69 ha ) in May 2019 before drainage started on 23 June 2019.
” “ In 2017–2019 a surge of Shispare Glacier , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Glacier ( Hunza region ) , dammed the proglacial river of Muchuhar Glacier , which formed an ice-dammed lake and generated a small Glacial Lake Outburst Flood ( GLOF ) .
Surge movement produced the highest recorded Karakoram glacier surface flow rate using feature tracking ( ~18 ± 0.5 m d−1 ) and resulted in a glacier frontal advance of 1495 ± 47 m. The surge speed was less than reports of earlier Hasanabad advances during 1892/93 ( 9.3 km ) and 1903 ( 9.7 km ) .
Surges also occurred in 1973 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Karakoram region occurs in natural cycles 3 .
The “ Karakoram Anomaly ” – where some glaciers in the Western Himalayas surge and advance as other regional glaciers retreat – has been cycling for at least 200 years .
The last glacier advance/surge cycle occurred in the 1950s to 1960s .
“ A major outcome of this analysis is that most of the glaciers that have surged recently , have also surged in the 1950 to 1960s as surge cycles are often in the 40 to 60 year range .
Combined with further @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the so-called ‘ Karakoram Anomaly ’ is around since at least 200 years .
It is also shown that two glaciers that are listed as surging are only expanding , that flow blocking of tributaries plays an important role for several surges , that surging glaciers are mostly free of debris , and that surges show a great variability in regard to surge durations ( from 2 to 50+ years ) and surge cycles ( from 20 to 80+ years ) .
” “ The contrasting hydroclimatic changes in the Karakoram region @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the glacier mass balance data , are based on the observations of the past few decades .
However , our study shows the persistence of contrasting hydroclimatic variability over the past millennium ( Figure 3d and 3e ) , which indicates that the ‘ Karakoram anomaly ’ is part of natural variability .
… This study indicates that the ‘ Karakoram anomaly ’ is a natural phenomenon and is probably caused by spatially varying hydroclimatic trends in HMA [ High Mountain Asia ] .
” Glacier advance – and retreat – cycling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trigger ” If glacier advances occur in cycles and are considered natural , this begs the question : Why are the cycles or trends of glacier retreat considered to be an unnatural result of human-induced climate change ?
The answer may be that neither glacier retreat nor advance is a consistent consequence of an “ external climatic trigger ” after all ( Brinkerhoff et al.
, 2017 ) .
Instead there may be a “ cycle of advance and retreat in the absence of externally imposed climate change ” because… “ …interactions between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sediment transport drive these cycles , which occur independent of climate variations .
Water availability controls cycle period and amplitude , and enhanced melt from future warming could trigger advance even in glaciers that are steady or retreating ” The lack of a clear climate change signal could explain why , in a study of 50 Alaskan glaciers from 1972-2012 , researchers ( McNabb and Hock , 2014 ) found there was… “ …no corresponding change in the number of glaciers retreating nor do we see corresponding acceleration of retreat rates .
To @ @ @ @ @ @ @ region have advanced… ” South of Alaska are three of the United States ’ largest glaciers in one single location : Mount Rainier , Washington .
One glacier is retreating , another is stable , and the third glacier has thickened and advanced .
“ The north and east slopes of Mount Rainier , Washington , are host to three of the largest glaciers in the contiguous United States : Carbon Glacier , Winthrop Glacier , and Emmons Glacier .
Each has an extensive blanket of supraglacial debris on its terminus , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century climate changes in a different way .
While Carbon Glacier has thinned and retreated since 1970 , Winthrop Glacier has remained steady and Emmons Glacier has thickened and advanced.
” It is not reasonable to conclude a retreating glacier is responding to human-induced warming , whereas stable and advancing glaciers are responding to natural variability .

Glacier surges of 100s of meters within mere months have been occurring throughout High Mountain Asia (the Karakoram region, especially) for decades, even centuries. It’s the Karakoram “anomaly”, and it’s thought to be “natural”. So why are the regions where glaciers are retreating thought to be responding to unnatural climate changes?
The advancing glaciers of High Mountain Asia (HMA)
1. A Pakistan glacier advanced 860 meters in 6 months during 2018/19.
Rashid et al., 2020
“The January 2018 to September 2019 surge of Shisper Glacier, Pakistan, detected from remote sensing observations … The glacier surface velocity profiles indicate that the ablation zone of the glacier continues to be in an active surge phase resulting in advance of the snout and expansion of the ice-dammed lake. Surface glacier velocities are as high as 48 m d−1. Between 18 December 2018 and 8 May 2019, the glacier snout advanced at ~6 m d−1 with a total overall advance of 860 m. The lake formed due to damming of an outflow stream from Mochowar Glacier expanded to its maximum area (29.69 ha) in May 2019 before drainage started on 23 June 2019.”
2. A Karakoram glacier advanced 1495 meters from 2017 to 2019.
Bhambri et al., 2020
“In 2017–2019 a surge of Shispare Glacier, a former tributary of the once larger Hasanabad Glacier (Hunza region), dammed the proglacial river of Muchuhar Glacier, which formed an ice-dammed lake and generated a small Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF). Surge movement produced the highest recorded Karakoram glacier surface flow rate using feature tracking (~18 ± 0.5 m d−1) and resulted in a glacier frontal advance of 1495 ± 47 m. The surge speed was less than reports of earlier Hasanabad advances during 1892/93 (9.3 km) and 1903 (9.7 km). Surges also occurred in 1973 and 2000–2001.”
Glacier advance in the Karakoram region occurs in natural cycles
3. The “Karakoram Anomaly” – where some glaciers in the Western Himalayas surge and advance as other regional glaciers retreat – has been cycling for at least 200 years. The last glacier advance/surge cycle occurred in the 1950s to 1960s.
Paul, 2020
“A major outcome of this analysis is that most of the glaciers that have surged recently, have also surged in the 1950 to 1960s as surge cycles are often in the 40 to 60 year range. Combined with further evidence of previous surges, it seems that the so-called ‘Karakoram Anomaly’ is around since at least 200 years. It is also shown that two glaciers that are listed as surging are only expanding, that flow blocking of tributaries plays an important role for several surges, that surging glaciers are mostly free of debris, and that surges show a great variability in regard to surge durations (from 2 to 50+ years) and surge cycles (from 20 to 80+ years).”
4. The “Karakoram anomaly” is a “natural phenomenon”.
Managave et al., 2020
“The contrasting hydroclimatic changes in the Karakoram region and the western Himalaya, as inferred from the glacier mass balance data, are based on the observations of the past few decades. However, our study shows the persistence of contrasting hydroclimatic variability over the past millennium (Figure 3d and 3e), which indicates that the ‘Karakoram anomaly’ is part of natural variability. … This study indicates that the ‘Karakoram anomaly’ is a natural phenomenon and is probably caused by spatially varying hydroclimatic trends in HMA [High Mountain Asia].”
Glacier advance – and retreat – cycling may occur without an “external climate trigger”
If glacier advances occur in cycles and are considered natural, this begs the question: Why are the cycles or trends of glacier retreat considered to be an unnatural result of human-induced climate change?
The answer may be that neither glacier retreat nor advance is a consistent consequence of an “external climatic trigger” after all (Brinkerhoff et al., 2017). Instead there may be a “cycle of advance and retreat in the absence of externally imposed climate change” because…
“…interactions between ice flow, glacial erosion, and sediment transport drive these cycles, which occur independent of climate variations. Water availability controls cycle period and amplitude, and enhanced melt from future warming could trigger advance even in glaciers that are steady or retreating”
The lack of a clear climate change signal could explain why, in a study of 50 Alaskan glaciers from 1972-2012, researchers (McNabb and Hock, 2014) found there was…
“…no corresponding change in the number of glaciers retreating nor do we see corresponding acceleration of retreat rates. To the contrary, many glaciers in the region have advanced…”
South of Alaska are three of the United States’ largest glaciers in one single location: Mount Rainier, Washington.
One glacier is retreating, another is stable, and the third glacier has thickened and advanced.
Moore et al., 2019
“The north and east slopes of Mount Rainier, Washington, are host to three of the largest glaciers in the contiguous United States: Carbon Glacier, Winthrop Glacier, and Emmons Glacier. Each has an extensive blanket of supraglacial debris on its terminus, but recent work indicates that each has responded to late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century climate changes in a different way. While Carbon Glacier has thinned and retreated since 1970, Winthrop Glacier has remained steady and Emmons Glacier has thickened and advanced.”
It is not reasonable to conclude a retreating glacier is responding to human-induced warming, whereas stable and advancing glaciers are responding to natural variability.
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April 30, 2020 at 03:51AM


iowaclimatescienceeducation--2020-04-30--(Un)-Natural Disaster: Industrial Wind Power Wiping Out What’s Left of America’s Wilderness

Producing electricity at the whims of mother nature means wind power has absolutely no commercial value , at all : @ @ @ @ @ electricity as and when they need it , not just when the wind happens to @ @ @ @ @ and endless subsidies , there would be no wind industry .
Period .
But it @ @ @ @ @ ]

Producing electricity at the whims of mother nature means wind power has absolutely no commercial value, at all: strangely, power consumers want electricity as and when they need it, not just when the wind happens to be blowing. Absent massive and endless subsidies, there would be no wind industry. Period. But it gets worse; […]
via STOP THESE THINGS
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April 30, 2020 at 02:31AM