In Christmas, a denial

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My Christmas present to the world: Kurt Cobain’s great anthem revitalised by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Listen to the lyrics, and imagine them being sung by Monckton. I am about to disappear into the kitchen to dismember a turkey, prior to its reassembly for tomorrow’s lunch. Bryan promises some posts over the holiday period, and I will contribute the odd (possibly very odd) item from time to time, but do not expect diligence in a period of indolence. Compliments of the season to all our readers from the Hot Topic & Climate Show team.

[PS: I think I’ve used this video (from a Jules Holland New Year show a few years ago) on HT before, but for the life of me I can’t find the original post. However, I went to see the UOGB in Christchurch at the beginning of the month and their performance was so — moving — that I just had to give it another airing.]

A Christmas cracker for the cranks

The National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) released details of its recalculated New Zealand temperature series last week and in the last couple of days Richard Treagold and the Climate “Science” Coalition have issued statements in reply. And what a contrast they provide: Bryan Leyland for the NZ C”S”C is all bluster, demanding the resignation of the NIWA chairman and a declaration that the new series is “not valid” (whatever that means). Treadgold, meanwhile, describes the NIWA study as a vindication of his original “report”. One hopes they attend different carol services, because they’re clearly singing from different hymnals.

Lets review events to date, and see what the latest NIWA report really demonstrates…

Continue reading “A Christmas cracker for the cranks”

The Climate Show #4: Peter Gleick, the AGU, and climate sensitivity

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Our last show for 2010, and it’s over an hour of podcast/video goodness: featuring Peter H Gleick of the Pacific Institute discussing the news from the Fall AGU conference in San Francisco last week, John Cook discussing how we work out how sensitive the climate system is to the addition of heat, plus a roundup on Cancun, how French vignerons are looking to old vines to help them adapt to a warming climate, and London’s black cabs set to go electric.

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Show notes below the fold.

Continue reading “The Climate Show #4: Peter Gleick, the AGU, and climate sensitivity”

Wake Up, Freak Out – then Get a Grip

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Excellent animation by Leo Murray explaining climate system feedbacks and the potential for us to pass “tipping points” that could make our efforts to reduce emissions completely redundant. More information (including script and references) at wakeupfreakout.org. Hat-tip to Peter “Crock of the Week” Sinclair for finding it

NIWA’s new NZ temperature series: plus ça change…

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Earlier this afternoon NIWA released its recalculated NZ temperature record [full report], and as expected the changes from the “old” seven station series are more or less negligible. The trend over the last 100 years is identical, 0.91ºC per century, as the graph above shows. There are minor differences in some years, and larger ones at some stations, but the net effect to is confirm what we already knew: New Zealand warmed significantly over the last century. Commenting on the new report, NIWA CEO John Morgan said:

“I am not surprised that this internationally peer reviewed 2010 report of the seven station temperature series has confirmed that NIWA’s science was sound. It adds to the scientific knowledge that shows that New Zealand’s temperature has risen by about 0.9 degrees over the past 100 years”.

I’m not surprised either. But I confidently predict that the NZ Climate “Science” Coalition and Richard Treadgold will still find something to whinge about. After all, they’re trying to sue NIWA to have the original seven station series declared invalid. Now it’s been replaced — by something that looks rather similar. Which just confirms how shonky their original complaint and their subsequent silly suit really were. (More on this later, when I’ve had a chance to read the report in detail).