Swiss parliament snubs European court climate ruling, dubbed “judicial activism”

Judges trying to punish governments for not controlling present or future weather is an absurdity ripe for knocking on the head. In any case, Swiss glaciers have advanced and retreated in the past with no input from the government or anyone else, so local climate variation is nothing new.
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BERN (Reuters) -The lower house of the Swiss parliament voted on Wednesday to reject a ruling ordering Switzerland to do more to combat global warming in a move that could encourage others to resist the influence of international courts, reports Swissinfo.ch.

In April, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg issued an unprecedented judgment that said Bern had violated the human rights of a group of older Swiss women, the KlimaSeniorinnen, by failing to tackle climate change.

But Bern’s lower house on Wednesday followed in the steps of the upper house and passed a non-binding motion with 111 votes in favour and 72 against blasting the court’s “judicial activism”.

New discovery reveals that ocean algae ‘unexpectedly’ help cool the Earth

A compound found in algae can have a significant role in cloud formation, and is said to be ‘a major source of climate-cooling gases’. A study author suggests a ‘need to rethink’ what the climate impacts are.
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A common type of ocean algae plays a significant role in producing a massively abundant compound that helps cool the Earth’s climate, new research has discovered.

The findings of the study by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Ocean University of China (OUC) could change our understanding of how these tiny marine organisms impact our planet, says Phys.org.

The work appears in Nature Microbiology.

Exploding nova alert

A Nova Will Explode This Summer (Probably)

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“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event,” says Rebekah Hounsell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Bring it on!

Why is June so cold and when will it warm up? Wind direction as usual

When the weather systems reaching the UK are coming from the northerly Icelandic direction instead of from the sub-tropical Azores, no prizes for guessing what happens next. While the UK searches for any signs of summer, Eastern Europe has a heatwave. Sky decides to explain about the jet stream anyway, in case you overdosed on the media’s human-caused warming propaganda and thought you were entitled to expect warmer weather than what’s arriving now.
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June’s wet and grey weather does not feel particularly summery, so what is going on and, more importantly, when will it warm up?

Last month was the UK’s hottest May on record, as higher temperatures during the night and warm weather in Scotland pushed up the temperature to about one degree above average, says Sky News.

But just over a week into June, the mercury has dropped.

UN climate chief claims “the entire carbon budget will be busted before 2030”!

All this soaring, shattering, whirlwind-reaping and climate crunching of hundredths of degrees of manipulated temperature data is not making the impression the UN-led climate alarmist desire. Their endless attempt to hang the whole climate system on the peg of the trace gas CO2 is never going to work. History shows temperature leading CO2 changes, not following, making CO2 variation an effect not a cause. Human activity is a minor sideshow.
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From the LA Times (via Phys.org). Humanity is ignoring major planetary vital signs as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels soar to all-time highs and Earth records its 12th consecutive month of record-breaking heat, international climate officials warned this week.

At 60.63 degrees Fahrenheit, the global mean temperature in May was a record 2.73 degrees hotter than the preindustrial average against which warming is measured—marking an astonishing yearlong streak of heat that shows little signs of slowing down, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

“For the past year, every turn of the calendar has turned up the heat,” António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, said during a speech in New York on June 5. “Our planet is trying to tell us something. But we don’t seem to be listening. We’re shattering global temperature records and reaping the whirlwind. It’s climate crunch time. Now is the time to mobilize, act and deliver.”

New paper makes ‘increasing tropical cyclone frequency’ claim, but contradicted two years ago by NOAA

NOAA July 2022 headline: Research: Global warming contributed to decline in tropical cyclones in the 20th century. Now the same global warming is supposed to be increasing their frequency? Does not compute. NOAA Research said: ‘The annual number of tropical cyclones forming globally has decreased by approximately 13% during the 20th century, and scientists say the main cause is a rise in global warming, according to a new study in Nature Climate Change by a group of international scientists including NOAA scientists.’
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EurekAlert news release: Climate: Increasing tropical cyclone frequency may have deadly consequences for seabird populations

The increase in tropical cyclone frequency and intensity due to climate change could lead to dramatic declines in seabird populations, suggests a paper published in Communications Earth & Environment.

The authors’ conclusion is based on the impacts of Cyclone Ilsa on Bedout Island, after the cyclone killed at least 80% of seabirds nesting on the island when it struck in April 2023.

D-day’s secret weapon: How wetland science stopped Normandy landings from getting bogged down

Beneath the roar of gunfire and the chaos of D-day, an unlikely hero played a vital role—wetland science, says Christian Dunn (via Phys.org).

Often overlooked amid military strategies and troop movements, the study of mud proved critical to the success of the largest amphibious invasion in history.

Much has been written about the events of June 6, 1944, and the extensive planning that led up to Operation Overlord on that pivotal day. The success of the Normandy landings involved expertise from a vast array of military, espionage, engineering and communication groups.

My new report explains how scientists with knowledge of sediments and substrate formation, such as peat found in bogs and fens, were also instrumental in the planning and execution of D-day.
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A daring mission
After training and a test mission, COPP [Combined Operations Pilotage Parties] swung into action. On December 31, two commandos—24-year-old Major Logan “Scottie” Scott-Bowden and 25-year-old Sergeant Bruce Ogden-Smith—were chosen to land covertly on the Normandy landing beach codenamed Gold Beach. Their task was to collect sediment samples.

On New Year’s Eve 1943, Scott-Bowden and Ogden-Smith swam ashore under the cover of darkness, having been dropped off by a small boat 300 meters from the French coast.

Alongside their swimming suits, rather like modern-day dry-suits, they were equipped with a torch, compass, watch, a fighting knife and a .45 Colt revolver. They also took a soil corer, or auger, for taking soil samples and ten tubes for storing the samples.
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The bravery of the COPP commandos and the application of wetland science were instrumental in ensuring the success of D-day. Without their efforts the allies could literally have been bogged down, making them easy targets for German defenses.

Full article here.
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Image: Normandy landings beach

Report: The Importance of Wetland Science for the Success of the D-Day Landings (June 2024)

Rethinking the sun’s cycles: New physical model reinforces planetary hypothesis – HZDR research

Another advance for solar-planetary theory. Some of the previous research of the HZDR group was mentioned in this Talkshop post last year. Our JEV (Jupiter-Earth-Venus) chart shown here covers 90 mean solar cycles, using the tropical orbit periods of the planets (verified on Arnholm’s solar simulator software). One point where we disagree slightly with Stefani’s HZDR group is the idea that the 193-year cycle they find is the de Vries cycle. We think not, because the de Vries cycle has a mean of 208.5~ years as Ian Wilson’s PRP paper on JEV theory explained, and other researchers have also found a similar period (say 205-210 years).
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Press release 27 May 2024: Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the University of Latvia have posited the first comprehensive physical explanation for the sun’s various activity cycles.

It identifies vortex-shaped currents on the sun, known as Rossby waves, as mediators between the tidal influences of Venus, Earth as well as Jupiter and the sun’s magnetic activity.

The researchers thus present a consistent model for solar cycles of different lengths – and another strong argument to support the previously controversial planetary hypothesis.

Serious floods in southern Germany – Chancellor beats his climate drum, ignoring history

Flooding like this has been recorded for centuries, e.g. on the Danube at Passau, Bavaria. Politicians are doing the usual bandwagon-jumping trick by trying to invoke human causes as the problem.
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Floods caused by heavy rain in southern Germany have claimed at least four lives, reports BBC News.

The victims include three people found in flooded basements on Monday. On Sunday a firefighter died while trying to rescue trapped residents.

Thousands of people in the states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg have fled their homes since torrential rains began on Friday.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who visited affected areas, said the flooding was a reminder of critical environmental challenges.

Shape and depth of ocean floor profoundly influence how carbon is stored there, study shows

It was found that in the current geologic era ‘researchers mistakenly attribute changes in carbon sequestration to other less certain factors, such as atmospheric CO2, water column temperature, and silicates and carbonates washed into the ocean by rivers’. They now say “we plan to use new simulations and models to better understand how differently shaped ocean floors will specifically affect the carbon cycle”. But what regulates what still has uncertainties.
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The movement of carbon between the atmosphere, oceans and continents—the carbon cycle—is a fundamental process that regulates Earth’s climate, claims Phys.org.

Some factors, like volcanic eruptions or human activity, emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Others, such as forests and oceans, absorb that CO2.
. . .
A new study finds that the shape and depth of the ocean floor explain up to 50% of the changes in depth at which carbon has been sequestered in the ocean over the past 80 million years.

Climate extremes in Svalbard over the last two millennia are linked to atmospheric blocking, say researchers

Article: ‘Since observational measurements started, blocking in the Arctic has increased, as has Arctic warming.’ When researchers investigated ‘they found a stunning correlation’. No mention of greenhouse gases in the study.
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A team of scientists led by François Lapointe, a research associate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has combined paleoclimatic data from the last 2,000 years with powerful computer modeling and in-the-field research on lake sediments and tree rings to show that an understudied phenomenon, known as atmospheric blocking, has long influenced temperature swings in the Arctic.

As temperatures warm due to climate change, claims EurekAlert, atmospheric blocking will help drive ever-wilder weather events. [Talkshop comment – routine alarmist hype].

The study focused on the Norwegian Arctic archipelago, Svalbard, at the edge of the Arctic Ocean, and was published in Nature Communications.

David Turver: Labour’s Great British Energy Suicide Note

Introduction

This Substack has been highly critical of the Conservative government’s energy policy. However, we are now in an election period, so it is time to subject Labour’s energy plans to some scrutiny. On Friday, Labour announced more details about its plans for Great British Energy.

Their plans include many promises, but precious little detail on how they will be achieved. Labour’s central claim is that they will “cut energy bills for good” and they put some flesh on the bones by claiming in the text of their regional maps their plans will “save £300 off the average annual household energy bill”. Labour’s claim appears to be based upon a report by the energy thinktank Ember. However, it does appear they mean a saving on electricity bills, not overall energy bills.

NASA mission flies over Arctic to study sea ice melt causes – calling ‘settled science’ into question?

NASA says: “There are many different factors that influence the sea ice. We’re measuring them to determine which were most important to melting ice this summer.” Where does that leave so-called ‘state-of-the-art’ climate models? They’re only going to be measuring seasonal factors, not longer-term cycles for example, but it’s at least an attempt to look harder at the whole topic.
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It’s not just rising air and water temperatures influencing the decades-long decline of Arctic sea ice, says NASA (via Phys.org).

Clouds, aerosols, even the bumps and dips on the ice itself can play a role.

To explore how these factors interact and impact sea ice melting, NASA is flying two aircraft equipped with scientific instruments over the Arctic Ocean north of Greenland this summer.