Jet Stream – Sea Ice + Polar Vortex = ???

A fascinating idea has emerged, that when heat waves or cold waves happen, global warming might make them last longer. Some think that this has already begun, an idea suggested by the recent long-lasting cold wave to hit the eastern U.S. It has also been implicated in some recent extreme hot times, such as the Moscow heat wave in 2010, notable not just for its extremity but for its long duration.

Too important not to go off topic

I received an email from Angus King, U.S. Senator from the great state of Maine. It has nothing to do with climate change, but I think it’s so important that any help I can provide is time well spent. Please read, please share, please help.

Friend, even in this partisan political climate, there used to be issues on which we could all come together to do what’s right – such as protecting health care for children. Somehow, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

Congress had a September 30, 2017, deadline to renew funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) – which has a two-decade history of bipartisan support – and we blew right through it. We allowed the program to expire. CHIP helps nearly 9 million children get access to health insurance ­­– including more than 23,000 in Maine. Families count on it to pay for checkups, chronic care and emergency health services.

While we continue to talk about how to fund CHIP, states are running out of money. Parents are opening letters warning them that their kids’ coverage is in limbo. And soon, states could stop enrolling new kids in the program while they wait on us to get our act together.

This is shameful. I venture to say that if the children of senators were covered by CHIP, we would have found a way to meet that September deadline. Fortunately, we can still make this right. Will you join me in calling on Congress to fund CHIP immediately?

Add your name to tell Congress: Fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program today.

The expiration of CHIP is not something that snuck up on us. We could see this coming, and we don’t know anything now that we didn’t know in the middle of August or September. But during the months when we should have been acting to pass funding for CHIP, congressional leadership was consumed with pushing through a partisan $1.5 trillion tax cut. CHIP funding would cost just a fraction of that. This is an outrage entirely of our own making.

Parents of sick children should not have to spend their time and energy coming to Capitol Hill and begging their representatives to do the right thing. We were elected to stand up for all kids and families in this country. The kids covered by CHIP are our kids. Each day we fail to fund these essential services, we are abdicating our responsibilities and failing children across our country.

We can fix this if we act quickly – and I’m hoping you’ll join me in speaking up on behalf of kids covered by CHIP.

Please sign the petition to tell Congress to fund health care for kids today.

This couldn’t be more important. Thank you for adding your voice.

Angus

Sheldon Walker and the non-existent “pause”

Sheldon Walker seems to be desperate — desperate to believe that global warming exhibited a “slowdown” recently. His latest attempt to prop up his faulty belief is a new post at WUWT titled “Proof that the recent global warming slowdown is statistically significant (at the 99% confidence level)“. He mainly demonstrates that he has a lot to learn about statistics, but isn’t learning and doesn’t know how inadequate is his own knowledge.

2017: Hottest Year with No el Niño

Last year (2017) will not be the hottest year on record; it’s likely to be 2nd-hottest. But it will be the hottest which was not enhanced by el Niño conditions.

El Niño is the “warm phase” of a natural oscillation of wind patterns over the Pacific ocean, which increases the amount of heat transferred from ocean to atmosphere. When that happens, there’s more heat in the atmosphere so surface temperatures increase (actually, temperature of the air near the surface, which is what matters for land-based living things). When El Niño subsides, the warming subsides too. The opposite face of the coin is la Niña, when heat tends to go from atmosphere to ocean and surface temperatures tend to be cooler. Together, they make up the el Niño southern oscillation (ENSO).

Oprah 2020

https://www.oprahforpotus.org/

Newborn

Rising Sea

Not long ago Watson et al. compared satellite sea-level data to estimates from tide gauges. They concluded that the satellite data show systematic drift, which is satellite-specific, most strongly affecting the first six years’ observations.

Enlightening

We have met the climate champions, and they are young

Chloe Maxmin began climate activism at the age of 12. She formed a Climate Action Club in high school. Later, as a college student, she co-founded Divest Harvard, to persuade Harvard University to divest its endowment from fossil fuels. And she founded First Here, Then Everywhere for youth climate activists.

Houston

…
Back in 1836, Houston said to Travis
“Get some volunteers and go, Fortify the Alamo.”
Well the men came from Texas, And from old Tennessee
And they joined up with Travis, Just to fight for the right to be free.

Those who defended the Alamo didn’t fight for their own freedom; they were free already. They fought for the right to be, for the right of others to be free. They died for that right.