Gary Kerkin, a scientist member of the NZ Climate Science Coalition, has released a study of surface temperatures and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels (pdf, 349 KB) over New Zealand during the last hundred years and finds they are unrelated. This is similar, Gary says, to observations around the world, which find “a small increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere but no significant upward trend in temperature.” Continue Reading →
Views: 276
Warwick Hughes came across the highest temperatures recorded in New Zealand and found that they occurred just as a Sydney heatwave came to an end. Continue Reading →
Views: 83
He will ask, quite properly, what’s wrong with you. But he should confirm that scepticism is normal, that if you need to overcome scepticism, evidence works well and, for God’s sake, don’t accuse sceptics of being unbalanced. Oh, wait; that’s exactly what Victoria University plans to do. See this brochure. Continue Reading →
Views: 415
[These comments on the availability of NZ temperature records from the ever-watchful Warwick Hughes in Australia may draw useful information from someone.]
Source: Confused reporting of cold in New Zealand | Errors in IPCC climate science
The headline in The NZ Herald says New Zealand hit by record cold temperatures overnight, yet a reading of the article gives no examples of actual records, only some bone-chilling -20°C overnight lows in the South Island. Hopefully some Kiwis might have better information. Continue Reading →
Views: 90
If you’re thinking of making an off-colour joke in modern Britain you’d be better off joining ISIS writes Douglas Murray in the Spectator. The point he makes is a good one. Whenever some idiot gets it into their head that it’s the right and proper thing to do to go and join an Islamist death cult in Somalia, Syria or Iraq – fully aware of the brutality that this will entail and of the innocents they may well be required hideously and ruthlessly to murder – we are expected to indulge them as hapless, brainwashed victims: nice, warm, caring, wouldn’t-hurt-a-fly types who were just led astray.
So says the wonderful James Delingpole at Breitbart. Source: Welcome to Modern Britain Where Sexism is a Greater Crime Than Violent Jihadism – Breitbart
Losing your job for making a bad joke or an off-colour joke, or even an offensive joke, is an act of oppression. Continue Reading →
Views: 102
The beach at St Clair, Dunedin, in a bit of breeze. Photo ODT
On Monday came a story of blatant disregard of nature’s power. A woman walks a small dog on a beach pounded by violent waves. A large wave swamps them and the dog is swept away.
Source: ‘Rogue wave’ sweeps dog from owner – Otago Daily Times
Passers-by watched in horror as a “rogue wave” surged up to engulf a woman and her dog walking on a Dunedin beach yesterday.
Views: 403
Solar panels in Shanghai installed on a river or canal—plenty of those across Shanghai. Click to enlarge.
Those non-elected, impossible-to-sack bureaucrats who “manage” Europe have lost their wits. While the rest of the world tries to hammer out a global agreement to reduce our emissions and thus “fight” climate change, these thickwits have slapped a 70% anti-dumping tariff on cheap Chinese solar panels. How mad can they get? Continue Reading →
Views: 49
Lucky photo of actual climate caught in the act of changing. Similar catastrophes can be expected in numerous places every summer and during drought. CAUTION: Does not depict all reported effects of climate change, including but not limited to flooding, sea level rise, struggling brothels, ocean acidification, acne, cannibalism, lost fish, rioting and nuclear war, whale weight loss, sexual promiscuity, cockroach migration, shrinking brains nor the extinction of any species.
Media organisations around the world are working together to cover climate change more effectively. — h/t Magoo
So says Stuff, explaining:
Stuff.co.nz has joined 24 other media organisations from around the world in a network that will share climate change stories in the lead-up to a United Nations summit in Paris in December. The 25 founding partners of the Climate Publishing Network were brought together by The Guardian, El Pais and the Global Editors Network.
Views: 89
April 1923 – Flooding on Anzac Avenue, looking towards Harrow Street (DCC archives). Click to enlarge.
These two comments appeared under yesterday’s midnight post Greens blame “climate change” for Dunedin floods and provide all the proof we need that the Green Party is entirely wrong to blame the June 3 Dunedin flooding on climate change. Why? Because they show that the severe flooding two days ago is not new. Unusual, but not unique. A combination of rainfall data and photographs makes these comments as convincing as they were prompt. Continue Reading →
Views: 92
The Royal Society has made a submission to the MfE on Setting New Zealand’s post-2020 climate change target (pdf, 217 kB).
Nine pages of high-powered propaganda, impressive, sciencey-sounding scary stuff from real professors. Let me know what you think of it. Continue Reading →
Views: 224
Dunedin flooding. Apparently all our own work (click to exaggerate, I mean enlarge) – © 2015 Twitter
When I saw this in my inbox after dinner, I couldn’t ignore it. Who cares about sleep (but thanks, Len).
The Dunedin flood is a result of climate change and the Government’s “inaction” on the issue, the Green Party says.
“The flooding in Dunedin highlights that the National Government needs to stop being the problem and start being part of the solution on climate change,” Green Party local government spokesperson Eugenie Sage said. “Since National came to power in 2008, New Zealand’s net emissions have increased by 13 percent; the scientific consensus is that increasing emissions will cause more extreme weather events.” Continue Reading →
Views: 80
Gareth Morgan writes a post that’s, frankly, beneath him.
He rants against those he calls “climate deniers”. Though he’s shown in the past he makes efforts to be informed, in this article he recklessly misrepresents the sceptical position. Well, that’s a charitable interpretation; it’s more likely that he is trying to marginalise the sceptics. It’s pathetically easy to show he’s wrong (give me a minute on that). Continue Reading →
Views: 2951
• Adapted from The Australian (behind paywall) – H/T John McLean
The cost of climate-change-inspired subsidies to boost the installation of rooftop solar systems has forced consumers who don’t have solar panels (the poor people) to pay $14bn to the rich people who do, but the Aussies are coming to their senses.
With 1.4m households having solar panels, Australia has the highest proportion in the world of households with solar panels, but the ill-advised subsidies that allowed them, plus presumably their marketing, outweigh any good they do by $9 billion. Unbelievable. Continue Reading →
Views: 1102
But not in the way the Herald means it.
Phillip Mills and Barry Coates, like good zealots everywhere, loyally maintain the view pushed down our throats by the IPCC that we need to reduce our emissions “to meet the aim of limiting global temperature rise to 2°C.”
They say they can’t stay silent, as the stakes are too high. I actually agree, but they’re thinking nobly of the whole world. I see the stakes a little differently. We’re just a small country and I want to know how much it could cost. Continue Reading →
Views: 68
Sent today, 20 May 2015
It is a great irony that you should call this a “climate change” target, for the science tells us New Zealand doesn’t change the climate. It is a fact that, were we to reduce our emissions even to zero, thus achieving the greatest possible reduction, though destroying our entire productive capacity, there would be no resulting change in the average global surface temperature. Continue Reading →
Views: 471
Government forecasters are apparently from a different planet. They think warm, sunny weather is cause for alarm.
Source: Oh No, the Weather’s Going to Be Superb! | Big Picture News, Informed Analysis Continue Reading →
Views: 67
New Zealand and international news, opinion, and blog articles.
Source: Daily Media Review – New Zealand and International News
I came across this new web site a few days ago. It provides a daily selection of New Zealand and overseas stories that seem intended genuinely to inform rather than merely to entertain—certainly it so far avoids the usual left-wing hysteria on climate change, for example. Continue Reading →
Views: 42
The UNFCCC headquarters in Bonn, Germany, is a large and imposing building constructed with your taxes in the service of mankind in which Miss Figueres spends little time. um… She spends little time in either the building or the service of mankind, on the evidence I have.
Australia shares a similar challenge in moving away from coal as Saudi Arabia does in reducing its economic dependency on oil, the United Nations’ top climate negotiator says. Speaking at a conference in Melbourne on Wednesday, Christiana Figueres drew a parallel between Australia and the oil kingdom as countries that would need to diversify their economies as the world grapples with global warming.
Source: Australia will have to move away from coal, UN climate head says – h/t WUWT
In March she was in the Philippines revving up the troops to fight global warming. Continue Reading →
Views: 313
Heading to Tauranga for the weekend to celebrate my lovely wife’s birthday tomorrow.
Please discourse with untrammelled exuberance, endless curiosity and ready courtesy; may it lead to your everlasting satisfaction.
Views: 414
To the Editor
Climate Conversation
29th April 2015
Modern industrial society commenced with the use of coal and oil to power factories, trains, ships and agriculture and to generate electricity. With abundant energy prosperity increased and people could save enough to support leisure, education, culture and environmental concerns.
But the dark greens have a dream to dismantle all this and return society to the hunter/gatherer era. Continue Reading →
Views: 55
The popular, avuncular Pope Francis. Realistic climate information is almost guaranteed to challenge his open-mindedness. Let us pray he mans up to meet it. Click to enlarge.
The usual dope on climate change is soaked in exaggeration, obfuscation, scare-mongering, twisted statistics and fact-free insinuation, rather than frank, open-hearted science. To counteract this, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences of the Roman Catholic Church is holding a global warming workshop at the Vatican on Tuesday.
In some quarters there is little optimism that the workshop will see through the widespread deceptions in modern climate science, so the Heartland Institute has gone along to assist. Continue Reading →
Views: 349
Professor Terence Kealey.
Source: Inquiry Launched Into Global Temperature Data Integrity
London: 26 April 2015. The London-based think-tank the Global Warming Policy Foundation is today launching a major inquiry into the integrity of the official global surface temperature records.
An international team of eminent climatologists, physicists and statisticians has been assembled under the chairmanship of Professor Terence Kealey, the former vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham.
Further details of the inquiry, its remit and the team involved can be seen on its website at www.tempdatareview.org. Continue Reading →
Views: 365
Julie Anne Genter. One-track little mind: “CO2 bad!”
The Greens newsletter this morning from Julie Anne Genter uses the ‘carbon’ argument, which gets no less ridiculous with repetition.
Get this for crazy thinking. KiwiRail are thinking of switching our clean electric trains for polluting diesel engines.
Julie says we should “develop rail infrastructure that’s fit for the 21st Century.” Whatever that means. Continue Reading →
Views: 105
Professor Michael Kelly last night gave a deeply thoughtful presentation full of insight into what has become the perilous intersection between UK policies on energy and climate change. (Thanks to Bryan Leyland and the Auckland branch of IPENZ for hosting the event at the University of Auckland.) This is a brief note; I’ll be saying more about Michael Kelly’s plain and practical message shortly. Continue Reading →
Views: 98
Professor Michael J. Kelly, Kiwi physicist, elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1993, has been Prince Philip Professor of Technology at Cambridge University since 2002.
Professor Kelly will speak tomorrow evening at the University of Auckland. These are the details as I know them; the room number has not yet been allocated but I presume will be posted at the venue. I’ll post the room number here if I learn it.
Thursday 9th April, 2015, 5:15pm for 5:45pm start
School of Engineering, University of Auckland. Continue Reading →
Views: 496
Will you hear this on our reliable TV news?
A survey commissioned by environmental group Greenpeace has spectacularly backfired as it revealed that more people support fracking than oppose it.
Thus begins an article by A.B. Sanderson, political reporter at Breitbart, who reports a Greenpeace online survey of 2,035 British adults on fracking. Because the survey goes against their anti-fracking campaign, they buried the results in a footnote and spun it their way but then, apparently, removed the entire press release from their website. He puts it this way (emphasis added): Continue Reading →
Views: 111
— by Anthony J. Sadar, American Thinker, 22 December 2014
With the close of another college semester, the long holiday break can give educators a chance to ponder the dismal state of science literacy in the U.S. The sad decline in robust science education is certainly part of the problem and is perhaps most obvious in environmental science classrooms. Contributing to the issue is the skewed content in many college textbooks on the environment and ecology. Continue Reading →
Views: 65
Ross McKitrick. Guelph is in Ontario, Canada.
In 2009 I was asked by a journalist for my thoughts on the importance of Earth Hour. Here is my response.
I abhor Earth Hour. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human liberation in the 20th century. Every material social advance in the 20th century depended on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable electricity. Giving women the freedom to work outside the home depended on the availability of electrical appliances that free up time from domestic chores. Getting children out of menial labour and into schools depended on the same thing, as well as the ability to provide safe indoor lighting for reading. Continue Reading →
Views: 360
Russell Norman, soon to be ex-co-leader of the Green Party. Ah well, never mind.
Russell Norman told me in the Greens newsletter today: “John Key and National aren’t listening to New Zealanders, and what’s worse they are putting Maui’s dolphins at risk of extinction.”
He was talking about the Government’s decision to offer more oil exploration blocks. The connection, of course, is the fairly low possibility of accidental spills from oil drilling, production or transport. In any other industry, they’re happy to put safety regulations in place. For oil drilling, even just exploring, nothing is safe enough.
The Greens love to use it, hate to see it.
You’d think BP or Anadarko want to spend millions to get at it just to spill the stuff and lose it. Continue Reading →
Views: 79
UPDATE 1: 28 Mar 1300 NZDT, see below.
John’s letter refers to the WRR article Human role in climate change is clear. The following are excerpts from the AR5 then the WRR article (emphasis added). Notice the stinging observation that WRR failed to disclose what was inconvenient for the IPCC to say, because it contradicted the alarming sounds of doom. Continue Reading →
Views: 175
Leyland and Carter: the rebuttal that isn’t and the hypocrisy that is featured Gareth Renowden (GR) purporting to rebut Leyland and Carter (L&C) in their article Right of reply – Responding to Hot Topic, which was in turn a response to Renowden’s blog post (mirrored on SciBlogs) containing typically ad hominem-filled attacks on a scientific analysis by one sceptical engineer and a sceptical scientist.
In that “Dom Post failed its readers” blog post GR contributes a vapid series of mis-statements, diversions and lies which I won’t bother with.
But then he quotes L&C in their original Dominion Post article Hypothetical global warming: scepticism needed which got me properly annoyed: Continue Reading →
Views: 92
From left, Drs David Wratt, Andy Reisinger and James Renwick.
Bob Carter and Bryan Leyland published a sceptical article in the Dom Post. Gareth Renowden penned a response which was republished on SciBlogs (run by the Science Media Centre), it’s scatalogical title signalling his customary toxic tone. Continue Reading →
Views: 3186
To the Editor
Climate Conversation
26th March 2015
We should spend Earth Hour giving thanks for warmth.
Just thirteen thousand years ago, Earth was in the grip of a deathly ice age. Sea levels were indeed much lower but much of the land surface was covered by thick sheets of ice. Life struggled to survive and many species were extinguished by the sterile suffocating ice. Continue Reading →
Views: 33
NZ Herald, 10th February, 2015.
The letter at right appeared in the NZ Herald on 10th February and that day I emailed the following letter in response. To the best of my knowledge my letter was not published, so here it is.
Dear Sir,
Your correspondent Philip Jones claims Bryan Leyland’s assertion of ‘no warming’ is incorrect, saying the temperature data do not support it.
He says recent high temperatures prove they have been rising and he’s right. But they haven’t been rising for some time and so he’s wrong. Continue Reading →
Views: 259
A house on Vanuatu destroyed by Cyclone Pam.
Greenpeace lusts after your donations.
Every storm, every flood, every bush fire drags them from the shadows to whine nakedly for your money. Don’t believe them just because they sound altruistic—Greenpeace unfailingly lies about the climate. Why else did they declare years ago they would no longer debate climate change with anyone? If you believe they tell the truth about climate change, try asking for some evidence. Continue Reading →
Views: 81
Weather cloaks our landscapes in an infinite variety of moods. I’ve always thought this blog should showcase their beauty. Continue Reading →
Views: 51
Look at the price of oil! (Right-hand sidebar.)
It’s returning to the levels of two months ago.
Views: 33
Dr Mike Kelly, Kiwi physicist, elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1993, has been Prince Philip Professor of Technology at Cambridge University since 2002.
Professor Michael Kelly has published a stinging indictment in the Daily Mail of the performance of the Royal Society. Refusing to mince his words, he says that the Royal Society scientists have adopted a role of ‘lobbying’ and in doing so ‘they jeopardise their purpose and integrity.’ Continue Reading →
Views: 242
The United Nation’s recent Every despot’s ancient plan to install a worldwide, non-elected government is making progress.
It has only a primitive shape, but possesses all the pieces it needs to become a universal government. In other words, it may be small, but it’s perfectly formed.
So far, the United Nations-led battle to save the climate has damaged only science (which is bad enough). But now it threatens freedom itself. Make no mistake, if this treaty gets through, our international dealings will never be the same again and our liberty within the nation will be circumscribed in unforeseen ways.
The new bureaucracy will be agreed by every country in the world (almost)—all going well—in Paris in December. Continue Reading →
Views: 772
Views: 37
Openly back on the menu—the inimitable taste of butter!
The wonderful James Delingpole ropes two tenaciously resistant problems to the one horse.
Following current revelations that the saturated-fat health scare was based on now-discredited studies and was such very wrong advice that it actually caused the current epidemic of obesity, James discovered the role of compliant scientists, industry, Nanny State politicians and professional societies in the campaign to push the scare of animal fats. Continue Reading →
Views: 64
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Jan Wright, published a report last November, Changing climate and rising seas: Understanding the science (CCRS) (pdf, 2MB). While reading it I marked more than a hundred places where her evidence or reasoning is questionable. Part 1 discussed a first batch of questions; this post discusses another.
The Commissioner for the Environment enjoys a privileged position: the Environment Act 1986 grants the Commissioner wide powers to investigate and engage staff and consultants, along with millions of dollars. The Parliamentary Vote for this financial year permits a departmental expenditure of $3,258,000, including a personal salary of $296,000. The Commissioner enjoys the same powers as a commission of inquiry, and the same immunities and privileges as a District Court Judge. For investigations the Commissioner initiates, she has “such powers as may be necessary” to see them through—extensive powers, for whatever she wants to do, she has the power to do. Continue Reading →
Views: 73
Just three days ago Christopher Booker posted The fiddling with temperature data is the biggest science scandal ever which has collected 21,586 comments (h/t Vincent Gray).
The Article is worth reading but most of the comments are not. They are mostly irrelevant and appear to have been mass-produced by opponents of science in order to sabotage the topic (although, like Vincent, I’m not sure about this, as I’m not about to read them all). Continue Reading →
Views: 298
The Chinese hackers have been battering on the blog door until a couple of days ago but have now given up and gone away. The technical team at the web hosting company (nzwebhosting4u.com) have dealt to them. Turns out the high traffic figures I’ve alluded to over the past months were spurious.
The blog will be moving away from WordShine soon, to climateconversation.org.nz.
This writer is becoming busy with editing work, as the academic year gets under way.
Thank you, my loyal readers and friends, for keeping up the conversation in my frequent absences of late. I especially like the mentions of breaking, noteworthy stories. I’m now catching up and will post new comments shortly.
The unfinished analysis of the report from the Commissioner for the Environment has not been forgotten. It is at the top of the list.
It looks to be an exciting year ahead; my belated Season’s greetings to you all, a Happy New Year and may you each find in it that which opens your heart.
Peace and blessings.
Richard Treadgold.
Views: 227
To the Editor
Climate Conversation
27th January 2015
2015 is the make-or-break year for climate alarmism, with a crucial battle planned for Paris in November, so we can expect regular bursts of global warming propaganda.
The year started on cue with a breathless announcement from the US National Climate Data Centre: “2014 was Earth’s warmest year on record” (their records start in 1880).
The Little Ice Age ended in about 1880, therefore it is no surprise that global temperatures have generally risen since then, and warming reveals nothing about the cause of warming.
Moreover the announcement hides more than it reveals. Continue Reading →
Views: 58
An Argo buoy held by Dana Swift, University of Washington.
The NZ Herald reports that one of the world’s leading oceanographers, Professor Dean Roemmich, is in New Zealand to examine data from the Argo floats.
The Herald reporter directing the public perception of climate science, Jamie Morton, claims:
Hundreds of robotic instruments deployed across the South Pacific have begun to reveal dramatic new insights into the impact of climate change upon oceans in our corner of the world. (emphasis added)
Views: 118
To the Editor
Climate Conversation
6th January 2015
Three centuries ago, the world ran on green power. Wood was used for heating and cooking, charcoal for smelting and smithing, wind or water-power for pumps, mills and ships, and whale oil for lamps. People and soldiers walked or rode horses, and millions of horses and oxen pulled ploughs, wagons, coaches and artillery.
But smoke from open fires choked cities, forests were stripped of trees, most of the crops went to feed draft animals, and streets were littered with horse manure. For many people, life was “nasty, brutish and short” (Thomas Hobbes).
Then the steam engine was developed and later the internal combustion engine, electricity and refrigeration. Green power was replaced by coal and oil. Carbon energy powered factories, mills, pumps, ships, trains and smelters; and cars, trucks and tractors replaced the work-horses. The result was a green revolution—forests began to regrow and vast areas of crop-land used for horse feed were released to produce food for humans. Poverty declined and population soared. Continue Reading →
Views: 89
Giant clam. The scientists drilled tiny, precise holes that exposed daily growth lines and built up a temperature record spanning 2500 years (see below). Click for larger version.
One of the more troubling aspects of the global warming alarm campaign is the claim that modern temperatures are unprecedented. Never before (so the story goes) have temperatures been so high. Those making this claim have striven over many years to ‘get rid of’ the MWP and thus magnify the crisis we face. Continue Reading →
Views: 80
Our hard-won democratic freedoms and our right to self-determination will be substantially restricted by this powerful treaty. So it is wonderful to hear that it faces severe difficulties and won’t be accomplished easily. Here are some brief observations to ensure that unscientific scandal-mongers are not the only voices on the subject and so our leaders might perhaps learn something vital about it. – RT
The Herald recently carried an article from the Independent lamenting the difficulty of getting 192 nations to agree that mankind can control the climate. Of course it comes as no real surprise, as the keenest megalomaniacs—I mean delegates—among them have been striving for such agreement for about two decades. Each year they meet in an exotic location, disagree on a climate-control treaty and then choose an exotic location to host their disagreement for the following year. All of this they do at our expense, not theirs. Continue Reading →
Views: 109
To the Editor
Climate Conversation
23rd December 2014
Are Climatists giving a green tick to diesel power?
Ten thousand professional climate crusaders recently attended yet another Climate Carnival in Lima, Peru. Did they use green power to minimise their carbon footprint? No way; massive diesel generators were trucked in on diesel-powered lorries because the local hydro/solar power could not cope. The delegates were also moved between hotels and the venue in more than 300 diesel buses—few bothered to walk or ride bicycles. Continue Reading →
Views: 73