Energy

Global Warming Bombshell

(Page 2 of 2)

  • October 15, 2004
  • By Richard Muller

McIntyre and McKitrick sent their detailed analysis to Nature magazine for publication, and it was extensively refereed. But their paper was finally rejected. In frustration, McIntyre and McKitrick put the entire record of their submission and the referee reports on a Web page for all to see. If you look, youll see that McIntyre and McKitrick have found numerous other problems with the Mann analysis. I emphasize the bug in their PCA program simply because it is so blatant and so easy to understand. Apparently, Mann and his colleagues never tested their program with the standard Monte Carlo approach, or they would have discovered the error themselves. Other and different criticisms of the hockey stick are emerging (see, for example, the paper by Hans von Storch and colleagues in the September 30 issue of Science).

Some people may complain that McIntyre and McKitrick did not publish their results in a refereed journal. That is true--but not for lack of trying. Moreover, the paper was refereed--and even better, the referee reports are there for us to read. McIntyre and McKitricks only failure was in not convincing Nature that the paper was important enough to publish.

How does this bombshell affect what we think about global warming?

It certainly does not negate the threat of a long-term global temperature increase. In fact, McIntyre and McKitrick are careful to point out that it is hard to draw conclusions from these data, even with their corrections. Did medieval global warming take place? Last month the consensus was that it did not; now the correct answer is that nobody really knows. Uncovering errors in the Mann analysis doesnt settle the debate; it just reopens it. We now know less about the history of climate, and its natural fluctuations over century-scale time frames, than we thought we knew.

If you are concerned about global warming (as I am) and think that human-created carbon dioxide may contribute (as I do), then you still should agree that we are much better off having broken the hockey stick. Misinformation can do real harm, because it distorts predictions. Suppose, for example, that future measurements in the years 2005-2015 show a clear and distinct global cooling trend. (It could happen.) If we mistakenly took the hockey stick seriously--that is, if we believed that natural fluctuations in climate are small--then we might conclude (mistakenly) that the cooling could not be just a random fluctuation on top of a long-term warming trend, since according to the hockey stick, such fluctuations are negligible. And that might lead in turn to the mistaken conclusion that global warming predictions are a lot of hooey. If, on the other hand, we reject the hockey stick, and recognize that natural fluctuations can be large, then we will not be misled by a few years of random cooling.

A phony hockey stick is more dangerous than a broken one--if we know it is broken. It is our responsibility as scientists to look at the data in an unbiased way, and draw whatever conclusions follow. When we discover a mistake, we admit it, learn from it, and perhaps discover once again the value of caution.

More in Energy

Letters

Read More »
Print

Close Comments

To comment, please sign in or register

Forgot my password

Guest (David Herweyer)

  • 2197 Days Ago
  • 02/08/2006

Global Warming

Would you program your articles so they could be forwarded on the net. Kunstler would be very interested, as would Michael Crighton. Thanks

Reply

alex75

2 Comments

  • 1841 Days Ago
  • 01/30/2007

http://www.globalwarming-awareness-may.com/

Global warming awareness 2007 - this is the year dedicated to Global waring and the fight against it!

Reply

Guest (John Paul Jones)

  • 2196 Days Ago
  • 02/09/2006

Myth vs. Fact Regarding the Hockey Stick

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=11

Reply

Guest (http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=11)

  • 2142 Days Ago
  • 04/04/2006

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=11

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=11

Reply

roncram

1 Comment

  • 1891 Days Ago
  • 12/11/2006

Current understanding of temperature changes

Muller has written a solid piece up to a point.  He accepts the findings of McKitrick and McIntyre showing the hockey-stick is not valid.  In 2005, McKitrick claimed to have performed his own reconstruction and concluded that 20th century temperatures are unexceptional. I have not found any public remarks by Muller on this claim.  I have to wonder if Muller is still concerned about global warming.  Muller has commented on the recent work of Henrik Svensmark claiming that most 20th century warming is a result of fewer low-level cosmic rays reaching sea level and causing low-level clouds.  Muller has said that all of the global warming scenarios assume low-level clouds have been constant.  For Muller's exact comments, see http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2006/10/the_cosmic_climate_connection.php?page=2

Reply

alex75

2 Comments

  • 1841 Days Ago
  • 01/30/2007

Re: Current understanding of temperature changes

Year 2007 is dedicated to Global warming awareness - this is the web http://www.globalwarming-awareness2007-may.com/ you can see her how importan is Globalwarming awareness2007

Reply

roldan_sibayan

1 Comment

  • 1835 Days Ago
  • 02/05/2007

Global warming



WATCH OUT! now what! storm are coming... sea is rising... abnormal climate oohh my! now they are going to get us alive.. OOOHH! God what have we done!.. WAKE UP! WAKE UP! we are close too late.. make up your mind ... cure the invironment fast.. 

Reply

Advertisement

Pete357

1 Comment

  • 1254 Days Ago
  • 09/08/2008

Random?

The author wrote towards the end of this article:

"If, on the other hand, we reject the hockey stick, and recognize that natural fluctuations can be large, then we will not be misled by a few years of random cooling."

Thanks for that little editorial comment on "random cooling."

As it appears likely the earth is indeed in a cooling period and may well be for the next ten to  twelve years, who says global cooling is at all random?

Reply

branwenn

1 Comment

  • 805 Days Ago
  • 12/01/2009

Climate Gate eMails and Programs.....

I found on the web the compressed files containing all the eMail of prof jones. This compressed file also contains programs. More precisely Prolog routines. I am a software developer for 20 years and had a look at the code of these programs. In the module called briffa_sep_98_d.pro, one can read these  lines of code:
.....
yyy=reform(compmxd(*,2,1))
;mknormal,yyy,timey,refperiod=[1881,1940]
;
; Apply a VERY ARTIFICAL correction for decline!!
;
yrloc=[1400,findgen(19)*5.+1904]
valadj=[0.,0.,0.,0.,0.,-0.1,-0.25,-0.3,0.,-0.1,0.3,0.8,1.2,1.7,2.5,2.6,2.6,$
  2.6,2.6,2.6]*0.75         ; fudge factor
if n_elements(yrloc) ne n_elements(valadj) then message,'Oooops!'
;
yearlyadj=interpol(valadj,yrloc,timey)
......


Please note the remark in the code :'Apply a VERY ARTIFICAL correction for decline!!'

Note also:

valadj=[0.,0.,0.,0.,0.,-0.1,-0.25,-0.3,0.,-0.1,0.3,0.8,1.2,1.7,2.5,2.6,2.6,$
  2.6,2.6,2.6]*0.75         ; fudge factor


This lines might seem cryptic but they clearly indicate that the program used to analyse the temperatures has been modified in order to produce results showing temperature increases instead of declines. Basically a fudge factor is applied to temperatures that do not agree with the global warming religion.
It is clear that this demonstrates a total lack of ethic.

Gross!

Reply

ZAPHBEEBLEBROX

1 Comment

  • 805 Days Ago
  • 12/01/2009

cLIMAT cHEMISTRY

The Truth About  Climate Heating.

The simple truth about climate change is that it is due to our use of energy of all sorts, from Coal and hydrocarbons, hydro electricity, nuclear fission, solar panels for electricity or heating, wind power, hybrid cars, electric cars, battery operated devices. All forms of energy used by man , eventually put that energy into the atmosphere and heat it.
The most used energy sources are coal and hydrocarbons , about 80 percent  , all the other forms  make up the rest.
If one does simple calculations, as I have done , one finds that the hydrocarbon usage  has heated the atmosphere by 1.68 deg K, over the past 210 years. If we divide the 1.68 by 0.8 we get a temperature rise of 2.1 deg K. (Which is the claimed rise experienced  to date)
Now if one subtracts that value from the rise in temperature experienced over the same time period  the result is 0 .
What this means for climate modelers and alarmists is truly devastating as it means all their modeling work is incorrect, as there is no " greenhouse " effect.; rather it is just a purely chemical effect due to the release of energy.
The earth's atmosphere can be considered a closed system to a great extent.
The atmosphere has an average temperature, which is contained in the bulk of the gases.
The only way for the earth to lose heat is by radiation from the top of the atmosphere.
Now if the top of the atmosphere consists of only 1 percent of the atmosphere and is quite cold it radiates heat  based on its temperature .
Now if the bulk atmosphere temperature rises by 2. 1 degree K this does not mean that the temperature rises by 2.1 deg K everywhere.
The bulk  will contain enough energy to give an average temperature which is 2.1 degrees higher, however the cold radiative surface temperature will only increase slightly.
Without doing any mass and heat transfer equations , my estimate is that the radiative surface temperature will only  rise by 0.01 deg. K.
The heat  loss will merely increase by 0.14 percent., which is within the error of measurement for heat loss.
This therefore means that while there is a climate warming effect, it is due simply to the combustion / energy use  values and to a radiative altering "greenhouse" effect.
The current heating rate works out to be 0.8 deg. K per century. So it will take another 200 years before we get to a level of 4 deg. k higher than it was in 1800.
Sure the ice cap in the arctic is melting and polar bears are threatened in some locations, but there is very little we can do about the heating process other than to stop using any form of energy, which means going back to pre- industrial revolution activities, and which of us , especially the elite of Hollywood and Congress , is willing to do that.
There are some benefits of more CO2 in the atmosphere. Better crop yields, faster tree growth, a shorter route to Europe from Asia, therefore less energy expended shipping goods, lower heating costs offset by high cooling costs, although to feel cool we only need to lower the temp by 10 deg K in the summer, but to feel warm we need to raise the temp by 20 deg K in the winter.
Here are the numbers I have used in my calculations.
It's our lifestyle not  a Greenhouse effect
Some scientists do not take the time to do the basic science related to climate heating.
I have and this is the result
I use
C = 7 Gigatonnes of Carbon/year = 7e12 kg Carbon/year burned to CO2
E = 678kJ/(0.014kg of (Carbon + H2))=56500000 J/(kg of Carbon)  energy released to heat the atmosphere.
C_p = 1000 J/(K * kg of dry air)
M = 5e18 (kg of dry air) (total mass of atmosphere; you can also use (area of earth)*(surface pressure)/(gravity))
so
(dT/dt)=[(7e12 kg Carbon/year)*56500000 J/(kg carbon)]/[1000 J/(K * kg of dry air)*5e18 (kg of dry air)]=8e-2 K/year=0.008 K/year=0.8 K/century. so over 2.1 centuries this is  1.68 K

Simply put this means that for every kg of coal or oil burned  we heat  56,500 kgs( about 56 tons) of air 1 degree Kelvin / centigrade or 1.8 degrees F. This and this alone can account for the rise in temperature that has occurred over the past 210 years.

Selwyn Firth
Toronto.
Dec 1, 2009.

Reply

ftwilliams

1 Comment

  • 77 Days Ago
  • 11/29/2011

Re: cLIMAT cHEMISTRY

I have not checked all of your calculations on atmospheric warming, but I note that 8e-2K/year in your dT/dt calculation comes out to 0.08K/year=8K/century, an error of one order of magnitude.  Any comments?

Reply

trspeaker

1 Comment

  • 785 Days Ago
  • 12/21/2009

7 gigatonnes every year for 210 years?

Reply

beggarz

1 Comment

  • 764 Days Ago
  • 01/11/2010

    Al Gore – Sun God Shaman?


Al Gore – Sun God Shaman?

If you actually read the science, you’ll find it to be well known that the Earth experiences 30-35 year temperature cycles. Thus any ‘climatologist’ who supposedly didn’t know this would be considered a fool amongst their colleagues.

In fact, if this is your job, you can’t NOT know about Earth’s 30-35 year temperature cycles!

Thus many scientists have been waiting for this latest warming ‘wave’ within the greater ‘tide’ to break, which is very likely what we are seeing right now with all of this record winter weather around the world. It snowed last year in Baghdad, for crying out loud – first time in 100 years!! And now England is snowed in, and the fraudsters have not-so-subtly changed their rhetoric from ‘Global Warming’ to ‘Climate Change Crisis’.

But this is only a re-branding of their fraud. Al Gore and crew attempted to use an upward fluctuation in this cycle to spread terror for power and profit, just as Inca and Mayan Priests once used their knowledge of eclipses to intimidate their populations, and pretend a direct connection to God.

The motives of this are plain : Al Gore has a Carbon Credit Exchange waiting in the wings, developed with David Blood and, early in its development, Ken Lay of Enron. These two crooks have already played key roles in collapsing our economies, in their quest for profits under the new 'Scarcity Capitalism' Lay was so fond of, and we are about to hand over our economies to their sinister, vile, greedy machinations.

If you look back at the only really solid data we have, which of course only covers the last 100 years or so – you will see the two previous cycles were a little longer than this one. If you go long range, you see that overall, we ARE in a warming cycle. It’s been warmer centuries ago, it’s hardly a bad thing, there’s nothing we can do about it anyway, so we prepare, is all. Big deal.

But this game plays out like this – it’s not ’settled science’, but it is still fairly well known that the latest upward swing would lead to a dip – and we would have a carbon tax imposed just in time for a 35 year downswing in temperatures, when our energy needs would skyrocket. The payout would go beyond bags of money. It would be Global Fascism at it’s purest and finest.

Thus they started to go into the schools in the 90’s, to indoctrinate a generation of children in their fraudulent cult – it’s easy to see that it’s been nothing less than timed, if you just do a little 'hindcasting of your own. If this natural upward fluctuation in temperature cycles were to have lasted an extra year or two – assuming we are looking at the onset of the dip we should be and would be expecting if we had honest leaders who weren’t trying to enslave us with phony science – there would be an army of self-hating eco-police coming out to do battle against evil polluting humanity over the next decade and all the laws would have been in place.

It is nothing less than FOOLISH to abandon one source of energy without first developing another. To attempt to force the issue with a blatant scientific fraud destroys any alleged value in such an effort - in case you forgot, Stalin taught us the true meaning of "The End Justifies The Means".

What Al Gore and the rest of the Climate Clown Cabal did – and are still trying to do! – is TREASON. Anybody remember what that is? Well, I’ll give you a hint – before there can be treason, you need to still have a country first.

http://beggarz.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/al-gore-sun-god-shaman/

Reply

Legion5

1 Comment

  • 724 Days Ago
  • 02/20/2010

What I know


Global warming or not, pollution produced by burning coal etc is real and has health costs and I would rather find a way to avoid it where possible.

I would also like to reduce our energy dependence on countries and regions that have a high degree of nastiness associated with them. Anyone care to debate this ?

Reply

Advertisement

MAGAZINE

Can We Build Tomorrow's Breakthroughs?

Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.

Videos

Printing Parts

More

Advertisement

Technology Review Lists

TR50

Our list of the 50 most innovative companies, including the following:

Cellular Dynamics International

1366 Technologies

SpaceX

Toyota

More

Advertisement

Facebook

Advertisement