65 Million Years

Joanne Nova says our current “record heatwave” is far cooler than normal.

Of course she is talking about a time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and our distant ancestor hadn’t even evolved. The planet and the life on it now are quite different – something climate scientists are well aware of.

Nova continues …

But, in terms of homo sapiens civilization, things are cooler than usual, and appear to be cooling.

No they’re not. Nova fails to get the basic facts right.

Homo Sapiens evolved about 250,000 years ago, during a glacial period when temps were several degrees colder. Since then the planet warmed, cooled and warmed again and on larger timescales where the rate of temperature change was far slower than rate of warming expected over the next century.

Only in the last few thousand years, when temperatures have been relatively stable, have homo sapiens flourished.

Sea Level Rise – A global conspiracy unfolds – or not

Science should be unbiased and supported by the evidence alone, devoid of all politics. The source of Nils-Axel Mörner’s latest self-published “paper” is the “Centre for Democracy and Independence“. The aim is clear; a politically motived piece attempting to discredit sea level rise.

For sea level NOT to be rising would require that the ocean is NOT warming, that glaciers are NOT melting, that subsequent data from Jason1 & Jason2 satellites are also being tampered with, gravity data from Grace is also being modified, along with hundreds of tidal gauges all in a concerted effort to fool people. This is either a conspiracy bigger than anythig this planet has seen before, or it’s complete utter bullshit.

Nova’s Dryspot

Recent research by Fasullo and Trenberth (covered here by SkS) showed that climate models that do a better job at reproducing observations of humidity, are also forecasting a higher sensitivity (greater warming).

Models that better simulate humidity near the infamous hotspot that Nova harps on about, suggest that the warming will be at the higher end of current estimates.

Joanne Nova wants nothing more than to discredit the models, and finds opportunity in John Christy’s blog post. Yeah it’s not peer-reviewed science, of course, but let’s take a look anyway at Christy’s folly.

Modellergic

Modellergic – The reaction experienced by climate denialists whenever they encounter science containing the word ‘model’.

Nova rejects almost any science if it involves a “climate model”; a computer application performing billions of calculations in order to simulate how the planet responds to various scenarios such as increased greenhouse gases. Her “strawman argument” is that the models don’t get everything 100% correct, therefore they can’t ever be trusted. That’s an expectation that no climate scientist shares and even the great Deep Thought never stood a chance.

So are computer models good for anything?