Met Office, do I see a prediction?

Prof Sutton said: “Blocking episodes can persist for several weeks, leading to extended cold periods in winter.

“As well as such natural processes, we know that weather across the UK and Europe is being affected by higher levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. For example, rainfall events have become more intense and this is quite likely linked to a warmer climate. There is also some evidence linking the record low amounts of Arctic sea ice to UK weather, but this evidence is not yet conclusive either way.”

– The Scotsman “Stand by for 10 years of rain-soaked summers”

IS?

The much talked about Met Office one day ramble through the brambles was yesterday, media are bleeding little scratchings.

Well Mr Sutton, blocking can occur any time and that is not your field.

Caption Competition: Cook, Mann and Lewandowsky

Catastrophic CO2 Warming propagandist John Cook, Hockey Jockey Michael Mann, and trick cyclist Stephan Lewdandworkshy meet at a conference after some co2 spewing airline flights. A Talkshop prize will be awarded to the poster of the best caption submitted by Wednesday night:

Quote of the week: Pachauri on Planes

Rajendra Pachauri, head of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC) doesn’t think efforts implemented by the European Union (EU) to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in European airspace should apply to Indian jet airliners:

This from the Indian business standard website via Tom Nelson:

Under the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), the EU has threatened to fine Air India and Jet Airways (India) for not sharing their emission data. The two Indian airlines were staring at a fine of  30,000 Euro (Rs 22.60 lakh on Sunday) after the ETS.ETS, which came into effect in 2012, requires airlines to report emission data on an annual basis for flights within and to/from Europe and purchase credits in case the emission exceeds capped limits.

“We are taking up the issue first with the UNFCC, followed by ICAO rather than the other way round,” said V Rajagopalan, secretary in the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF).

Asked whether the ministry was in favour of domestic aviation emission norms for airlines, Rajagopalan said, “There are a lot of discussions going on. It’s too early to say anything.” Natarajan had even termed the EU step as a deal-breaker as far as global efforts for climate changes were concerned. However, experts are not in favour of any domestic actions.

Ed Davey plays the 97% consensus trick on BBC R4 in front of Lawson

At about 22:30 BST, 4th June 2013 on BBC Radio 4, Davey and Lawson were together with the subject, well, you can guess.

Ed Davey has his knickers in a twist about climate sceptics

Ed Davey chooses the route taken by Gordon Brown, who famously dubbed sceptics ‘Flat earthers’ before losing the 2010 election. I wonder if the ‘list of 55′ will be revealed:

From the BBC

Energy Secretary Ed Davey is to make an unprecedented attack later on climate change sceptics.

In a speech, the Lib Dem minister will complain that right-wing newspapers are undermining science for political ends.

He is set to accuses climate sceptics of nimbyism, publicity-seeking, and “blinkered… bloody-mindedness”.

The speech at a Met Office event in London takes place as 55 organisations from green groups to manufacturing bodies issued a joint statement calling on MPs to vote in favour of the 2030 decarbonisation amendment.

The list of signatories includes SSE electricity, the Royal Society of Arts and Commerce; Dong Energy; Renewable UK; the Carbon Capture and Storage Association; the Solar Trade Association, the Renewable Energy Association; Business in the Community; the Church of Scotland; the National Farmers Union and the TUC.

Tim Yeo: About Turn – Straight Face

Heh, Tim ‘Trougher’ Yeo seems to be backpedalling furiously. “Did I say Global Warming is nearly all human caused? What I meant, of course, is that it could mostly be ‘natural phases’”. H/T @Sourmanarti.  From the Telegraph:

He’s having a Giraffe

The chairman of the Commons Energy and Climate Change committee Tim Yeo MP said he accepts the earth’s temperature is increasing but said “natural phases” may be to blame.

Such a suggestion sits at odds with the scientific consensus. One recent [bogus] survey of 12,000 academic papers on climate change found 97 per cent [of 32% of the biased sample] agree human activities are causing the planet to warm.

Mr Yeo, an environment minister under John Major, is one of the Conservative Party’s strongest advocates of radical action to cut carbon emissions. His comments are significant as he was one of the first senior figures to urge the party to take the issue of environmental change seriously.

He insisted such action is “prudent” given the threat climate change poses to living standards worldwide. But, he said, human action is merely a “possible cause”.

Asked on Tuesday night whether it was better to take action to mitigate the effects of climate change than to prevent it in the first place, he said: “The first thing to say is it does not represent any threat to the survival of the planet. None at all. The planet has survived much bigger changes than any climate change that is happening now.

Chris de Freitas: Rebuttal of Jim Salinger’s wild Alarmist Claims in the NZ Herald

From the New Zealand Herald

Several aspects of Jim Salinger’s op-ed “Climate hurtling towards a hothouse Earth” (Herald 24/5/13) are quite misleading.

It is true most climate scientists would agree that rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to fossil fuel use could affect global climate. The basic physics is there to support this view. But there is no evidence that the putative change would be large or damaging. Output from computer models is not evidence unless model performance has been validated. So far, it has not.

The so-called evidence of minor human-caused climatic change can also be attributed to causes or processes other than those related to the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

What is rarely mentioned by climate alarmists is the incontrovertible fact that adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere has an ever-decreasing effect on global temperature. To illustrate this, compare covering a glass window with very thin paint. The first coat of paint cuts out some light, the second some more; but each subsequent coat has an ever decreasing effect on light shining through.

Ed Davey: Committing Britain to unilateral cuts in GHG emission of 40% by 2030

From EUactiv:

Under the new proposals, to be unveiled by climate and energy secretary Ed Davey today (27 May), the UK would call on the EU to commit to carbon dioxide reductions of 40% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels, rising to 50% if other countries join in with more stringent targets on emissions. World governments are engaged in negotiations on a global climate change deal to replace the Kyoto protocol, with a new agreement to take effect by 2020. The proposals would make the UK the first country to set out its stance on emissions cuts before the next round of talks, in November.

Davey said: “The UK is a global leader in tackling climate change … That is why we will argue for an EU-wide binding emissions reductions target of 50% by 2030 in the context of an ambitious global climate deal and even a unilateral EU 40% target without a global deal.

“This 2030 target is ambitious, but it is achievable and necessary if we are to limit climate change to manageable proportions.”

Prof. Roger Pielke Jr: A Handy Bullshit Button on Disasters and Climate Change

Reposted in full (I hope Roger P doesn’t mind) from his excellent blog, a brief synopsis of the SREX section of the new IPCC report, which confirms that there is no proven link between extreme weather events and longer term temperature trends or co2 levels.

The full IPCC Special Report on Extremes is out today, and I have just gone through the sections in Chapter 4 that deal with disasters and climate change. Kudos to the IPCC — they have gotten the issue just about right, where “right” means that the report accurately reflects the academic literature on this topic. Over time good science will win out over the rest — sometimes it just takes a little while.

A victory for Climate sceptics and common sense: EU forced to backpedal

From globalPost
The European Union, which has spearheaded efforts to curb global warming, is set to adopt a change of focus in response to concerns over costs and the impact on companies in economically depressed Europe. Under the change, the European Uniln will prioritize the supply of energy at affordable prices over cutting greenhouse gas emissions which impose burdens on industries, in a turnaround of the region’s energy policy, an EU official said Saturday.