ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL BLOGS

Climate scientists struggle to explain warming slowdown

(Reuters) - Scientists are struggling to explain a slowdown in climate change that has exposed gaps in their understanding and defies a rise in global greenhouse gas emissions.

Often focused on century-long trends, most climate models failed to predict that the temperature rise would slow, starting around 2000. Scientists are now intent on figuring out the causes and determining whether the respite will be brief or a more lasting phenomenon.

See story at http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/16/us-climate-slowdown-idUSBRE93F0AJ20130416.

Global warming, the tool of the West - English pravda.ru

For years, the Elites of the West have cranked up the myth of Man Made Global Warming as a means first and foremost to control the lives and behaviors of their populations. Knowing full well that their produce in China and sell in the West model and its consiquent spiral downward in wages and thus standards of living, was unsustainable, the elites moved to use this new "science" to guilt trip and scare monger their populations into smaller and more conservatives forms of living. In other words, they coasted them into the poverty that the greed and treason of those said same elites was already creating in their native lands.

via english.pravda.ru

Who' a thunk it--writer in Russia criticizing a Leftist movement in the West; a famous French actor fleeing to Russia to avoid socialists in France. To anyone over 40, it's like things are upside down

Global warming stopped 16 years ago, reveals Met Office report quietly released| Mail Online

The world stopped getting warmer almost 16 years ago, according to new data released last week. 

The figures, which have triggered debate among climate scientists, reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012, there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures.

This means that the ‘plateau’ or ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996. Before that, temperatures had been stable or declining for about 40 years.

via www.dailymail.co.uk

    Food for thought-this article is getting wide play on the Internet and is, of coruse, provoking a questioning reaction from the University of East Anglia (Britain), where the chief proponent of the warming theory (Prof. Phil Jones) resides.

    

From Ann Arbor.com: Generation X ambivalent about climate change, study shows

A new study by a University of Michigan professor shows Americans between the ages of 32 and 52 - a group referred to as Generation X - have said they don’t really care when it comes to matters of climate change and the environment.

...

Out of the 2,924 people that responded, 41 percent said they were “disengaged” when it came to matters of climate change. Ten percent of them said they were dismissive or doubtful about the climate issue as a whole.

From Ann Arbor.com  http://www.annarbor.com/news/generation-x-ambiguous-about-climate-change-study-shows/

Antarctic ice shelves not melting at all, new field data show | The SPPI Blog

Twenty-year-old models which have suggested serious ice loss in the eastern Antarctic have been compared with reality for the first time – and found to be wrong, so much so that it now appears that no ice is being lost at all.

“Previous ocean models … have predicted temperatures and melt rates that are too high, suggesting a significant mass loss in this region that is actually not taking place,” says Tore Hattermann of the Norwegian Polar Institute, member of a team which has obtained two years’ worth of direct measurements below the massive Fimbul Ice Shelf in eastern Antarctica – the first ever to be taken.

According to a statement from the American Geophysical Union, announcing the new research:

It turns out that past studies, which were based on computer models without any direct data for comparison or guidance, overestimate the water temperatures and extent of melting beneath the Fimbul Ice Shelf. This has led to the misconception, Hattermann said, that the ice shelf is losing mass at a faster rate than it is gaining mass, leading to an overall loss of mass.

The team’s results show that water temperatures are far lower than computer models predicted …

via sppiblog.org

Mississippi Court Ends Global-Warming Suit - Forbes

Plaintiff lawyers have tried various ways to fit global warming into conventional tort law, where they can construct a case showing industry executives were aware of the threat of CO2 emissions and did nothing about it. That would allow them to make the argument that the industry exposed others to “unreasonable” risks. The evidence would be memos and other material showing they were aware of scientific links between CO2 and global warming, regardless of whether they believed them, much as the states pursued lawsuits against the tobacco industry by uncovering evidence executives were aware of research showing links to cancer and addiction.

Guirina wasn’t buying it, saying global warming was too complex an issue to ask a court to decide: “The plaintiffs are asking the Court, or more specifically a jury, to determine without the benefit of legislative or administrative regulation, whether the defendants’ emissions are `reasonable,’” he said.

via www.forbes.com

The case is Comer v. Murphy Oil.

Forget global warming - it's Cycle 25 we need to worry about (and if NASA scientists are right the Thames will be freezing over again) | Mail Online

The supposed �consensus� on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.

The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.

Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.

via www.dailymail.co.uk

Offsetting global warming: Molecule in Earth's atmosphere could 'cool the planet'

ScienceDaily (Jan. 12, 2012) — Scientists have shown that a newly discovered molecule in Earth's atmosphere has the potential to play a significant role in off-setting global warming by cooling the planet.

via www.sciencedaily.com

Ford Motor withdraws from climate change group | Campaign 2012 | Washington Examiner

The National Center for Public Policy Research is claiming a scalp today after Ford Motor Co. formally withdrew from the liberal U.S. Climate Action Partnership. The conservative non-profit announces today that Ford has withdrawn from the organization, which uses corporate support form management to work against shareholders' interests by promoting a cap-and

via campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com

CO2 climate sensitivity overestimated http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15858603

Global temperatures could be less sensitive to changing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels than previously thought, a study suggests. The researchers said people should still expect to see "drastic changes" in climate worldwide, but that the risk was a little less imminent. ------------- My comment: The problem is, we don't know the real extent of what we don't know.