Wordology, Resilience

A new non-dictionary political term for Climate Change. To be resilient now means to encompass all previous climate change strategies: to resist, to mitigate, and to adapt. Its use in climate research and US academic papers has multiplied over time.

The 2015 US PREPARE Act, a bill to help the federal government recover from extreme weather events, does not mention climate change or global warming, but it uses the term 'resilience' 40 times. The word has also begun to show up in individual state plans to 'mitigate flooding' rather than to 'deal with sea level rise affects of climate change'. A rose by any other name. . .

Climate Change

Clothing could reflect 90 percent of body heat by dipping clothes in a solution made of AgNW, also known as silver nanowire. Regular clothing only reflects 20 percent of body heat back at your skin, making nanowire-coated clothing much more energy efficient. The study was conducted by Professor Yi Cui of Stanford University and his team of researchers. Since metal nanowire coating can conduct electricity, all you would need to do is connect a battery to the clothing.

They see metal-coated clothing as a way to combat the rampant energy demands of the winter months. They report that "47 percent of global energy continues to be spent simply on indoor heating." We are told global warming is caused by energy use. Now we find half of that is caused by trying to keep us warm. Hmmm

Global Warming, Global Cooling

It appears to me that long term climatologists may be suffering from the same afflictions as local weather celebrities, "It may be warmer tomorrow unless it gets cooler".

Attached is an interesting article from 1975 decrying the various governments for not getting ready for the impending global cooling. The chart is interesting because it is markedly different from global warming charts for the same period. Change the word 'cooling' to 'warming' and we have the same dystopian rhetoric used in any number of articles from recent years. . . until this year.

Seems some may be changing their minds again. Here is an April 2013 article from Forbes. LINK

NASA Satellite Data

Remote Sensing Journal reports that NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist models have predicted. Dr Roy Spencer, who works on the space agency’s temperature-monitoring satellites, claimed they showed ‘a huge discrepancy’ between the real levels of heating and forecasts by the United Nations and other groups. He used data from the satellite to dispute the notion of global warming. He says his data indicated that far less future global warming will occur than United Nations models predicted.

Related news - A federal wildlife biologist whose observation in 2004 of presumably drowned polar bears in the Arctic helped to galvanize the global warming movement has been placed on administrative leave and is being investigated for scientific misconduct, possibly over the veracity of that article.

Death Valley

In July 1913, the highest temperature ever recorded in the continental United States was 134 degrees which melted thermometers that day in Death Valley, California. I thought it was cooler before global warming started.

Warming Thought

According to a September ScienceDaily, the first eight months of 2010 tied the same period in 1998 for the warmest combined land and ocean surface temperature on record worldwide. Meanwhile, the June-August summer was the second warmest on record globally after 1998, and August was the third warmest August on record. Separately, last month's global average land surface temperature was the second warmest on record for August, while the global ocean surface temperature tied with 1997 as the sixth warmest for August. What all that means is that global warming (now politically called global climate change) has caused the world to be almost as warm as it was about twelve years ago.

Solar Power and Heat

Solar power panels trap heat along with making electricity. Global warming activists are facing a conundrum trying to reconcile reducing global warming by eliminating other fuels and increasing global warming by their own solution.

Climate Change

It sure shows that scientists are flexible. First it was Global Cooling, then Global Warming, now the buzzword is just Climate Change. Personally, I prefer Change Happens.

Global Warming Explained

Finally we have a simple explanation of a global warming cause. The following is from then US Department of State Report - KEY UNCERTAINTIES AFFECTING PROJECTED GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

"Any projection of future emissions is subject to considerable uncertainty. In the short term (less than 5 years), the key factors that can increase or decrease estimated net emissions include unexpected changes in retail energy prices, shifts in the competitive relationship between natural gas and coal in electricity generation markets, changes in economic growth, abnormal winter or summer temperatures, and imperfect forecasting methods.

Additional factors may influence emission rates over the longer term, notably technology developments, shifts in the composition of economic activity, and changes in government policies." My summary, they still have no idea.

Oyster Herpes

Is nothing free from the effects of global warming? True - National Geographic has found that a new strain of herpes in oysters is supposedly caused by global warming.

The new strain, which is named Ostreid herpesvirus 1 μvar, was first detected in 2008 among breeding Pacific oysters in France. Since then, the virus has wiped out 20 to 100 percent of oysters in the French beds, and this year it appears to have spread to United Kingdom waters too. They say it infects the shellfish during breeding season.

Although reasons behind the recent emergence of herpes in oyster beds across Europe are still a mystery, many researchers have not been surprised to find a correlation with global warming. Hmmm. Does that mean the 20% that didn't get infected were ugly. And what the heck are Pacific oysters doing in France? Maybe those Pacific oysters that caught herpes were just too promiscuous.

ECO Myths

Here are some eco myths to think about.
Myth: The Earth is warmer than it was 100 years ago.
Truth: At most it’s risen by 0.3 Celsius, less than 0.003 degrees annually.

Myth: Global Warming must be happening, it’s warmer here in Small Town.
Truth: It is global averages that matter (see above)

Myth: Carbon dioxide levels and average global temperatures are at a record high
Truth: No, they are among the lowest determined over the last few million years.

Myth: Rising carbon dioxide levels are directly linked to rising global temperatures.
Truth: Not necessarily, there is a 400-4000 year timelag

Myth: Receding ice sheets prove anthropogenic (man made) Global Warming is happening
Truth: Some ice is melting, other areas are actually growing

Myth: Carbon dioxide is the most potent greenhouse gas
Truth: No, that would be water vapor of which there is an abundance in the atmosphere, then there is methane, and nitrogen trifluoride used in the manufacture of flat screen TVs.

Myth: If we accept it as real, we can do something about it.
Truth: We cannot even control local weather, what makes us think carbon sequestration and seeding the oceans, etc. will allow us to affect the climate. These come from a science web site.

Warmest Year Ever

What is globally the warmest year on record? 1998. It has been cooler every year since then and many scientists are predicting it to continue. Seems that 98% of the earth's warmth comes from the sun, not man. Hmmm!