According to the UK’s Independent, we’ve passed the point of doing anything about global warming….We’re Doomed:

Scientists have found the first unequivocal evidence that the Arctic region is warming at a faster rate than the rest of the world at least a decade before it was predicted to happen.

…The phenomenon, known as Arctic amplification, was not expected to be seen for at least another 10 or 15 years and the findings will further raise concerns that the Arctic has already passed the climatic tipping-point towards ice-free summers, beyond which it may not recover. (Emphasis Mine)

An explanation of why this find is sooooooo very important, and proves global warming, once and for all, is given by Julienne Stroeve of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC):

“The observed autumn warming that we’ve seen over the Arctic Ocean, not just this year but over the past five years or so, represents Arctic amplification, the notion that rises in surface air temperatures in response to increased atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations will be larger in the Arctic than elsewhere over the globe.”

Um, wait, what?   NOTION?

notion"‚  

–noun 1. a general understanding; vague or imperfect conception or idea of something: a notion of how something should be done.
2. an opinion, view, or belief: That’s his notion, not mine.
3. conception or idea: his notion of democracy.
4. a fanciful or foolish idea; whim: She had a notion to swim in the winter.

Notice the definition doesn’t include “fact,” “proven” or replicated.   “Notion,” by definition, isn’t even as substantive as “theory.”

Alright, it’s easy to pick on the poor ladies words.   Perhaps she had no notion what she was really saying when she used the word “notion!”

The article goes on to lay out the “facts” used to make the determination that the world is coming to an end:

Temperature readings for this October were significantly higher than normal across the entire Arctic region – between 3C and 5C above average – but some areas were dramatically higher. In the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, for instance, near-surface air temperatures were more than 7C higher than normal for this time of year. The scientists believe the only reasonable explanation for such high autumn readings is that the ocean heat accumulated during the summer because of the loss of sea ice is being released back into the atmosphere from the sea before winter sea ice has chance to reform.

Hmmmmm, October, October.   Wasn’t there something special about global warming in October?   Oh yeah, I remember.   October was the hottest October ever on record…Oh, no, my bad.   As I noted here, it wasn’t.   In fact, part of the “error” for October created the appearance of a hotspot in the Artic:

The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs – run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious “hockey stick” graph – GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new “hotspot” in the Arctic – in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.

Is it just me or does anyone else notice that Ms. Stroeve’s “doom data” looks an awful lot like the data the number one global warming acolyte had to retract?

I’m sure Ms. Stroeve didn’t use the incorrect data to create her alarm.   It would seem like data integrity would be the first thing that any scientific claim or theory would want to insure and verify.   I’m sure the “error” of the GISS data was just that, an “error” and the global warming community  have implement rigorous standards to ensure that something like that never happened again…or maybe not!

On a related note, Minneapolis is forecasted to have the third coldest temp ever for December 16th tonight.   Maybe I should move to the Arctic!

I’m beginning to wonder who has more credibility, the global warming faithful or Britney Spears…Oops, I did it again!

(H/T – Josh Schroeder)

The Portage Daily Register reports on the use of Santa Claus and his friends to indoctrinate the young skulls full of mush at Lewiston Elementary School in Portage, Wisconsin. From thin snowmen to Coppertone-spreading elves to Rudolph’s new LED nose, the “Santa Goes Green” holiday program was dripping with every cliche from the Religion of Gorebal “Warming”. At least the color-blind who don’t have green can still wear red.

According to the UK Independent, we no longer have to fear global warming….we’ve found a solution!   All we have to do is 1. Grow a bunch of trees, 2. burn them without releasing the CO2 they’ve absorbed, 3.   Burn them without using more energy than they create in the burning process and 4.   Bury the ashes in the soil.

Sounds simple; well, except that whole burning them without releasing the C02 and not using more energy than they create part!   But, hey, let’s not be negative.   After all, as Big G points out regularly to me, no one thought we could go to the moon but we did!   It does sound simple except for a minor detail.   In order to do this, we would need to grow and burn forests that are the equivalent of 2.5% of our productive land.

2.5%, doesn’t sound like much does it?

The World has approximately 33 Million sq. Mi. of productive land.   2.5 % of that would be approximately 835,600 sq. miles that would be needed for our carbon tree farm.   So far so good.

I think it’s safe to assume that planing our Carbon tree farm willy nilly around the world isn’t what these folks have in mind.   I think it would be safe to assume that they would determine that the tree farms should be where the carbon dioxide is.   After all, you’ll want to soak it up right after it gets produced so that the carbon dioxide doesn’t get a chance to further warm the world right?

According to this chart by the World Bank, the US, Saudi Arabia, Canada and Australia have the highest carbon dioxide per capita.   It would seem to make sense to plant the bulk of the trees in those countries.

The US has about 1.5 million sq. mi. of productive land, Canada has a little over 100,000 sq. mi. and Australia has about 138,000 sq. mi.   That’s a total of about 1.74 million sq. Mi. of productive land in the most offensive (carbon dioxide wise) countries.   If I take it one step further, of the US’ productive land, only 58% of it is in crop or forest land.   I suspect a similar number would be found in Canada and Australia, the balance of the land is pasture.

The reason that I raise the US, Canada and Australia is that with their productive lands account for over 70% of the world’s wheat exports, over 60% of the world’s corn exports and even 13% of the world’s rice exports.

Remember what was happening to the price of corn this past spring as energy prices were rising and the US was forcing more production into creation of ethanol?   Just to remind you, corn went from a recent average of less than $3/bushel to nearly $8 bushel.   Do your remember the stories about how the increased price of corn was increasing the cost of tortillas in Mexico?     Do you remember how the increased price of corn was being blamed for people starving in developing countries?

The additional corn production required to make our expected ethanol mandate this year amounted to less than .75% of our total productive acres.   Only .75% yet, it over doubled our price of corn.   The Carbon Tree Farms are expected to need 2.5% of all our productive acres.

Does anyone else see a problem?

I wrote a couple of weeks ago that responding with money to email solicitations from Mr. Morgan Smith of Nigeria, was not a good investment. In fact, I heard recently that a second person responded to Mr. Smith and she was now short nearly $400,000!

Yes, you have to be careful what you invest in.   Along with land in Florida and bridges in either San Francisco or New York, comes the next perilous investment opportunity, The Northern Passage.

McClatchy is reporting the possibility of commercializing the ice free Northern Passage. I mean gee, this is actually the third time in the last 110 years that it has become passable, must be a trend!

While commercialization of the Northern Passage would be a good thing, I wouldn’t be investing with anyone who was suggesting that they didn’t have a plan to work in really challenging, thick ice conditions! McClatchy seemed to miss a couple of details from the last few weeks like:
October 2008, Fastest Ice Growth Ever and 200 Whales trapped in Canadian Artic Ice.

Still thinking you want to get in early on the “Next Great Thing?”   You may want to take a look at one of these historical views of arctic ice coverage first.

Still think the ice is going away? Well than “Spin the wheel and take your chances!”

But don’t say I didn’t warn you!

5The Telegraph reports today  that what had been reported as the warmest October on record turns out to be not even in the top 50% of warmest! How would such a discrepancy occur? Can you say “data manipulation?”

Originally, Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore’s chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen reported that while many of us had experienced unusual cold in October, areas of Russia were 10 degrees above average. However, when reviewed by a couple of official “deniers,” it was determined that GISS merely copied September’s information across into October for the Russian readings!

Oops, our mistake….or maybe not!

Instead of admitting their mistake, GISS said, “Oh no, um, that wasn’t it. There was unusual warmth in the Arctic!” The problem with this is that the Arctic has been cooling so fast that the ice (remember all the screams about the melting ice this spring?) that was melting and about to flood Florida off the map, has been reforming so fast that it is now 30% larger than last year at this time.

Again, our mistake….um nope!

I’ll just cut and paste this because it is the epitome of truth being stranger than fiction:

Another of his (Dr. Hansen’s) close allies is Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, who recently startled a university audience in Australia by claiming that global temperatures have recently been rising “very much faster” than ever, in front of a graph showing them rising sharply in the past decade. In fact, as many of his audience were aware, they have not been rising in recent years and since 2007 have dropped.

Dr Pachauri, a former railway engineer with no qualifications in climate science, may believe what Dr Hansen tells him. But whether, on the basis of such evidence, it is wise for the world’s governments to embark on some of the most costly economic measures ever proposed, to remedy a problem which may actually not exist, is a question which should give us all pause for thought. (emphasis mine)

Huh, What?   A railroad engineer?   This guy is only smart enough to drive a vehicle on a track?   We’ve got a person who’s only qualified to  drive the Jungle Cruise at DisneyWorld telling us that man is ruining the earth?

I was thinking the other day, when I heard that Al Gore had turned down the offer to be “Global Warming Czar” from Barack Obama, “Why would he do that?”   Honestly, if the guy is as concerned as Gore claims to be about global warming, why not take the role that would undoubtedly set direction and precedent for at the the US and possibly the world?

Yeah, I thought about it for about 5 seconds and  the answer was  obvious.   If Al became the Czar he’d actually have to answer questions, come up with facts, be subject to scrutiny.   On top of that, he wouldn’t be able to charge ridiculous amounts of money as the “Johnny Appleseed” of global warming!   No, none of that would do.   Why would Gore want to subject himself to all of that when with the election of Barack Obama, he got another four year lease on fleecing of the gullible public.

Near-record cold, and mountain snow

Temperatures that are more than 15 degrees below normal for this time of year, combined with strong northwest winds, are making today uncomfortably chilly in the Charlotte metro region.

And

Expert Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson says, “This is a big storm by October standards.” More a foot of snow will fall in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania and the Adirondacks in upstate New York.