A Clue for Willis

We already called out Willis Eschenbach for his impudently wrong claim that last summer in Australia was “nothing at all unusual.” Evidently he wants you to believe that the hottest summer on record, the hottest month on record, the hottest day on record, and the longest national scale heatwave on record, all add up to “nothing at all unusual.” Not too bright.

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Candy from a Baby

A new paper by Lewis and Karoly (2013, GRL, doi: 10.1002/grl.50673) concludes that man-made global warming has increased the odds of hot summer weather such as Australia suffered recently. The paper states, “The human contribution to the increased odds of Australian summer extremes like 2013 was substantial, while natural climate variations alone, including El Niño Southern Oscillation, are unlikely to explain the record temperature.”

This last summer saw Australia’s worst heat wave ever, but that was only the worst of the sizzling temperatures that have plagued the continent since November of last year. You can find some of the details here. The heat was astounding. There’s no denying it.

Shooting from the Hip

Anthony Watts noticed that the NOAA/NCDC global temperature for May 2013 was touted as the 3rd-hottest May on record. He didn’t like that, so he decided to call it into question. In fact he refers to the NCDC reported value as “irreconcilable.”

Bangs and Smoke

… Harry had long since learned that bangs and smoke were more often the marks of ineptitude than expertise.

— J.K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

In my opinion, that quote describes Christopher Monckton to a “T”.

GWPF

The “Global Warming Policy Foundation” has released a GWPF Background Paper by Benny Peiser.

Honesty

When discussing evidence about man-made climate change, it’s important to give an honest portrayal of the facts. Just about any set of data can be twisted to give the impression one prefers, right or wrong. One of the main ways this is done is “cherry-picking,” in which one presents only part (sometimes a very tiny part) of the evidence but either ingores or hides the evidence contrary to one’s preference. This is fundamentally dishonest. But it happens a lot these days. When those who deny reality about global warming discuss the facts, honest portrayal be damned.