Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on December 6, 2009

H/T to Sister Toldjah:

Meanwhile, did you hear that global warming invaded Houston this week?

A dog tries to lick the snow off its nose Friday, Dec. 4, 2009 in Houston. Snow is rare for Houston. In the past 15 years, it has snowed four times, including Friday. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

From Houston Chronicle: Snow drops in for a visit:

However, the fun turns into worry as drivers confront icy, dangerous roads
By Mike Tolson, Eric Berger, Mike Glenn, Cindy George
Dec. 5, 2009

Houston’s rare snowfall led to slippery conditions overnight that forced road closures and contributed to several serious accidents, including one that killed a driver and another that injured a Houston police officer.

[...]

Houston’s snowfall this year was unprecedented. It beat the previous record for earliest snowfall of Dec. 10, set in 1944 and 2008, by nearly a week. It also was the first time accumulating snow has fallen in consecutive years.

Snow has been falling in Houston increasingly earlier over the years.

From 2008, photo credit kitchenkam, at Flickr:

Houston Texas area saw record setting snow 12-10-08. Earliest snowfall for this area since 1940’s.

From 2004, photo credit Oregeny, Canon Digital Photography Forums :

These aren’t great shots, but this is incredibly rare. Snow has never been recorded in Houston on Christmas. We missed it by one day.

So how does this all tie-in with ClimateGate?

In the video below, retired climatologist Dr. Tim Ball discusses the significance of the recently leaked emails and documents from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University which expose deceit, duplicity, and active collusion between climate researchers to maintain the fraud of the manmade global warming theory.

These emails reveal stunning behind-the-scenes details about how this fraud has been developed and perpetuated, and Dr. Ball shares his insights and concerns on what they show. The fringe media is not reporting this.

Climategate: Dr. Tim Ball on the Hacked CRU Emails | November 2009

With the international interest growing about the manipulation of data exposed in ClimateGate, global warming enthusiasts are dropping in numbers. The screaming gurus of CO2 taxation can’t answer the mounting questions surrounding the record-breaking cold spells and snowfall around the world. Some, though, resort to the silly poppycock rhetoric that global warming causes global cooling. Yeah, and it also causes acne and drives prostitutes to work much harder, too. Maybe Tiger Woods can blame global warming on his marital infidelities…

So, what precisely IS global warming? Dr. Roy Spencer, Ph.D., has tried to simplify it for those of us who are skeptical about the Al Gore/East Anglia/hockey stick graph claims that man is creating a death trap for Earth.

Quick bio on Dr. Spencer:

Roy W. Spencer received his Ph.D. in meteorology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981. Before becoming a Principal Research Scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2001, he was a Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where he and Dr. John Christy received NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for their global temperature monitoring work with satellites. Dr. Spencer’s work with NASA continues as the U.S. Science Team leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite. He has provided congressional testimony several times on the subject of global warming.

Dr. Spencer’s research has been entirely supported by U.S. government agencies: NASA, NOAA, and DOE. He has never been asked by any oil company to perform any kind of service. Not even Exxon-Mobil.

Written by Dr. Roy Spencer, Ph.D., Global Warming 101: Global Warming Theory in a Nutshell:

Every scientific theory involves assumptions. Global warming theory starts with the assumption that the Earth naturally maintains a constant average temperature, which is the result of a balance between (1) the amount of sunlight the Earth absorbs, and (2) the amount of emitted infrared (”IR”) radiation that the Earth continuously emits to outer space. In other words, energy in equals energy out. Averaged over the whole planet for 1 year, those energy flows in and out of the climate system are estimated to be around 235 or 240 watts per square meter.

Greenhouse components in the atmosphere (mostly water vapor, clouds, carbon dioxide, and methane) exert strong controls over how fast the Earth loses IR energy to outer space. Mankind’s burning of fossil fuels creates more atmospheric carbon dioxide. As we add more CO2, more infrared energy is trapped, strengthing the Earth’s greenhouse effect. This causes a warming tendency in the lower atmosphere and at the surface. As of 2008, it is believed that we have enhanced the Earth’s natural greenhouse effect by about 1%.

Global warming theory says that the lower atmosphere must then respond to this energy imbalance (less IR radiation being lost than solar energy being absorbed) by causing an increase in temperature (which causes an increase in the IR escaping to space) until the emitted IR radiation once again equals the amount of absorbed sunlight. That is, the Earth must increase its temperature until global energy balance is once again restored. This is the basic explanation of global warming theory. (The same energy balance concept applies to a pot of water on a stove set on “low”. The water warms until the rate of energy loss through evaporation, convective air currents, and infrared radiation equals the rate of energy gain from the stove, at which point the water remains at a constant temperature. If you turn the heat up a tiny bit more, the temperature of the water will rise again until the extra amount of energy lost by the pot once again equals the energy gained from the stove, at which point a new, warmer equilibrium temperature is reached.)

Now, you might be surprised to learn that the amount of warming directly caused by the extra CO2 is, by itself, relatively weak. It has been calculated theoretically that, if there are no other changes in the climate system, a doubling of the atmospheric CO2 concentration would cause less than 1 deg C of surface warming (about 1 deg. F). This is NOT a controversial statement…it is well understood by climate scientists. (As of 2008, we were about 40% to 45% of the way toward a doubling of atmospheric CO2.)

BUT…everything this else in the climate system probably WON’T stay the same! For instance, clouds, water vapor, and precipition systems can all be expected to respond to the warming tendency in some way, which could either amplify or reduce the manmade warming. These other changes are called “feedbacks,” and the sum of all the feedbacks in the climate system determines what is called ‘climate sensitivity’. Negative feedbacks (low climate sensitivity) would mean that manmade global warming might not even be measurable, lost in the noise of natural climate variability. But if feedbacks are sufficiently positive (high climate sensitivity), then manmade global warming could be catastrophic.

Obviously, knowing the strength of feedbacks in the climate system is critical; this is the subject of most of my research. Here you can read about my latest work on the subject, in which I show that feedbacks previously estimated from satellite observations of natural climate variability have potentially large errors. A confusion between forcing and feedback (loosely speaking, cause and effect) when observing cloud behavior has led to the illusion of a sensitive climate system, when in fact our best satellite observations (when carefully and properly interpreted) suggest an IN-sensitive climate system.

Finally, if the climate system is insensitive, this means that the extra carbon dioxide we pump into the atmosphere is not enough to cause the observed warming over the last 100 years — some natural mechanism must be involved. Here you can read about my favorite candidate: the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.

Must-read articles: Watts Up With That?: UK Met office announces a do-over: entire global temperature series – 160 years worth and If I had a subscription to Nature, I’d cancel it

From GayPatriot, In wake of Climategate, we’re beginning to learn just how much global warming alarmists have been keeping us in the dark:

This failure to release the data shows to what extent so many such alarmists have been going on faith. And reminds me of a challenge I have occasionally made over the past four or five years to friends convinced about the reality of the AGW hypothesis, asking them, based on the global warming “science,” to predict what temperatures will be five or ten years hence. If the earth warmed as per their predictions, then I would join them in supporting drastic carbon-reducing measures.

Instead of taking me up on my challenge, they respond that in five (or ten) years, it will be too late, that we need to act now. Like those withholding the data, they too refrained from giving me figures. And anyway, from what I’ve been reading in recent days, it seems had any of them taken up my challenge, well, they’d have to explain why temperatures these past few years have, instead of increasing, been decreasing.

So, yes, let’s look at the data. And in the three years it was supposed to take to reexamine them, if we see a warming trend, I might be less of a skeptic than I now am, but given what we’ve learned in the past two weeks, global warming hypothesists have a lot more to do to convince me (and a lot of others) of the merits of AGW than they did a few years back.

From Times Online:

Consider the following scenario: Person A kicked up some dirt, leaving an indentation in the ground into which a rock fell, and B tripped on this rock and bumped into C, who was carrying a carton of eggs that dropped and broke. Would any rational person conclude that the best way to prevent this would be to prohibit kicking dirt? Yet this is precisely the “logic” that will dominate Copenhagen.

From Hot Air:

Do scientists routinely get “petty and defensive”? Probably. Do they routinely “cheat around the edges” and still maintain credibility? I would consider that a strange argument. If science cheats, it ceases being science. And in this case, it was hardly “cheating around the edges.” It was a full-bore effort to professionally ruin anyone who challenged their imposed orthodoxy while conspiring to hide contradictory data and flat-out make up numbers to artificially support their case. And the CRU destroyed their raw data, which for any scientific endeavor isn’t at the “edges” of their work, but is the central core to their work.

More on ClimateGate and the criminal global warming scam:
JunkScience: Feature: Checking their homework and Are we really sure the world is too warm? and Welcome to a Short Course on “Junk Science Judo”
VotingFemale Speaks!: Saudi Arabia drops ClimateGate Bomb on Copenhagen
GOP Exiles: IPCC Climate Change scientists lied
Watts Up With That?: American Thinker: Understanding Climategate’s Hidden Decline
Per Strandberg, Global Warming And The Climate: The causes of global warming and climate change and Facts About Global Warming!
Politiken.dk: Parliamentary Speaker: Climate debate derailed?
DoomDaily: 12 Days, 3 Networks and No Mention of ClimateGate Scandal
Weasel Zippers: Copenhagen Climate Summit: 1,200 Limos, 140 Private Jets…Only 5 Hybrid or Electric Vehicles….
Wizbang: Einstein and Climategate
Greg Gutfeld, Big Hollywood: Daily Gut: I Can’t Copenhagen
Gateway Pundit: Danish Speaker Warns About Global Warming Junk Science and Sarah Palin Tells Obama to Boycott Copenhagen in Light of Climategate and Man Crashes TV Shot to Call on Media to Cover Climategate (Video) – Winter Storm Dumps Snow In Houston and Climategate: Mann Throws Jones Under the Bus and Barbara Boxer: “You call it Climategate — I Call it E-Mail-Theft-Gate” (Video) and White House Still Believes In Non-Existent Global Warming and “Hockey Stick” Graph Creator Mann to Be Investigated by Penn State and Obama to Attend International Junk Science Meeting on Non-Existent Global Warming and Media Ignores Climategate Even as NASA Is Dragged Into the Scandal and Senator Inhofe Will Call For Investigation Into Global Warming Email Scandal
EUReferendum: The Tiger Woods Index
The Foundry, Heritage.org: Climategate: From Skepticism to Investigation
Planet Gore, National Review: Tipping Point for the Climate Horror Show?
Another Black Conservative: Sarah Palin To Obama: Boycott Copenhagen
Green Hell Blog: Skeptics winning in UK and India rejects global warming junk science and Electricity projected to skyrocket in Georgia under carbon law
John A, Watts Up With That?: A devastating response to “There’s nothing to see here, move along”
World Climate Report: Where Are All The Drowning Polar Bears?
FOX News: Copenhagen Climate Conference to Create ‘Huge’ Carbon Footprint
GayPatriot: Ma’am Tries to Change Climategate Narrative and Hide the Decline
Frugal Café Blog Zone: “It’s My Nation’s Carbon Footprint, and I’ll Enlarge It if I Want To…” Copenhagen Attendees Ignore ClimateGate Scandal, Will Negatively Impact World’s Environment & Don’t Care and Uh, Oh… Jon Stewart Mocks Al Gore and ClimateGate Liars (video) and Shaky House of Cards… Australia Parliament Has Voted “NO” on Global Warming/Cap and Trade Bill and ClimateGate Fraud Phil Jones Slinks Away in Disgrace from CRU… Should Be Tossed into Jail for His Global Warming Hoax and ClimateGate’s Lies and Deception to Hide the Decline: The Heat’s On, Dump the Data! and Global Warming Scam: Scientific Data in “Hockey Stick” Graph Bogus, Uh, ‘Fudged’ (video) and The Embarrassing Global Cooling Cover-up… Obama & “Climate Gurus” Still Going Full-Speed Ahead (video) and Climategate: Rush Limbaugh on Global Warming Hoax & Three Siberian Tree Rings… There Is No Global Warming
Energy Tribune: The End of Global Warming

Times Online: Climate change data dumped
Climate Change Fraud: Climategate: how the Copenhagen Grinches stole Christmas
Mark Steyn, NRO: The Dog Ate My Tree Rings
Climate Skeptic: A Total Bluff and Missing the Main Arguments and
Cognitive Dissonance
Daily Mail: Scientist in climate change ‘cover-up’ storm told to quit
P.J. Gladnick, NewsBusters: Polar Bear Testimony Suppressed Due to ‘Inconvenient’ Truths and U.S. Media Ignoring About Face by Leading Global Warming Proponent
Palin Twibe Blog: Phil Jones Says Warming Not Based on Temperatures
Motor City Times: Obama Spokesman Robert Gibbs Say’s “There’s No Real Scientific Basis” Refuting Global Warming
Andrew Marcus, Big Government: ClimateGate Is Not The First Time Progressive Scientists Have Lied To The World
Chris Horner, American Spectator: Pass the Gravy and Hide the Baloney
Media Research Center: NYT Tackles Damning Global Warming Emails, But Reveals Own Hypocrisy
Andrew Bolt, PA Pundit International: IPCC Too “Politicised” To Survive
Christopher C. Horner, Big Government: Pollster Opposites: Greens Try to Cope With ClimateGate and Lindsey Graham: For Cap and Trade, Except When He’s Not and AstroTurfing and Global Warming: The Testimony You’re Not Supposed to Hear and What’s It All About, Albert? and First They Came For the “Climate Criminals” and Climate Change: The ‘Planned Recession’ Strategy
New American: IPCC Researchers Admit Global Warming Fraud
Climate Realists: The Realists Take on Climate Change

Categories: Environment and Earth, Government, Media & Communication, Social and Political Climate, Technology
Tags: AGW, anthropogenic global warming, Barack Obama, cap and tax, cap and trade, carbon credit, carbon credits, carbon footprint, carbon tax, climate change, climate change lies, climate gate scandal, Climate Research Unit, Climate-Gate, Climategate, Copenhagen, CRU, debunking climate change, debunking global warming, Democrats, Dr. Roy Spencer, Dr. Tim Ball, email, emails, energy bill, fringe media, global warming, global warming hoax, hoax, hockey stick, hockey stick graph, Houston, Houston snow, humor, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, James Sensenbrenner, John Holdren, journalism bias, junk science, liberals, media bias, Michael Mann, mocks ClimateGate, myth, parody, Penn State, Phil Jones, polar bears, political, politics, POTUS, Pres. Obama, record snow in Houston, scam, scandal, scientific data, socialist, taxation, taxes, Team Obama, Texas, University of East Anglia, video, YouTube