Category Archives: Weather/Climate

How to Lie With Statistics: Climate Change addendum

According to the U.S. Senate’s “Update On The Latest Climate Change Science,” 98 percent of scientists “agree” that global warming is occuring and that humans are the cause.

In fact, according to WeatherBell’s chief meteorologist Joe Bastardi, the “update” should be an addendum to the classic book “How To Lie With Statistics.”

Bastardi says the 98 percent should be 97.4 and it’s based on the responses of “0.75% of [10,272 earth scientists] polled, just 77 to 79 scientists, certainly a minute fraction of [the world’s] 5.8 million scientists.”

Such incredible mendacity by the U.S. Senate should not really be a surprise, of course, as our politicians lie about everything else, so why not this subject as well? It is odd that they can’t correctly round 97.4 but they were probably in a rush to go pick up their latest bribe from the climate-change lobby—the folks who will be spending our tax money to, um, “change” the climate.

Meanwhile the American Meteorological Society (whose AMS seal you will often see flash on the screen as your local forecaster begins his thing) recently issued a similar pronouncement, that CO2 is driving the climate, and purporting to have the backing of its 11,000 members in saying so.

On the contrary, Bastardi, a society member, asserts, there are many society dissenters whose views that the sun and the oceans should have at least equal standing as climate drivers are being ignored. Thus, don’t be surprised to hear that your local forecaster (whose knowledge of climate science is minimal) supports CO2 as the source of “climate change.”

What we have here is the science version of the Military Industrial Complex, which everyone has heard of. In which the military and defense industries work to promote tax-supported development of more and more weapons which has the effect of promoting more wars.

In the science version, the government is corrupting science to promote a political agenda. Academic scientists (which are most scientists) cannot keep their jobs, much less be promoted, without research, which cannot be done without money and most of it comes from the feds. Want funding? Get on the CO2 political bandwagon. Don’t and you will suffer.

Writes Bastardi: “The AMS has advocacy of public policy as one of its primary goals. When I was a councilor in the 2000s I argued that the society ought to advocate good science and not policy. There are already many organizations dealing with policy. [B]ut the society is catering to its many academics who have never had such a windfall of grant money.”

And what a windfall: “It has been estimated $10 Billion [tax] dollars has gone to fund this one sided science. The US government shells out $7B of your tax dollars each year to its agencies to study and develop policy about global warming.”

Right now, all of this is supporting the views of Obysmal and the Democrats. If Romney is elected, it will be supporting the views of Republicans. How convenient for the politicians (regardless of party) whose proposed “solutions” involve many more taxes, less oil development leading to higher gasoline prices and gradually eliminating coal which will mean higher electricity prices, and as a corollary to these changes, fewer travel options.

For us, the hapless taxpayers, that is. For themselves, well, the pols often exclude themselves from the laws they pass by providing themselves either outright exemptions or else subsidies of one kind or another.

They are our “servants” in name only. We are, increasingly, theirs and nothing illustrates it better than their lying about climate change.

The grasshoppers are back

Not that they ever really go away entirely, but they tend to swarm in the heat and drought. And we’re going through a triple-digit warm spell that could last a while and, of course, we’re still pretty dry.

Haven’t seen more than a piddling few hoppers here at the rancho, but a fellow I know out in Red Rock, southeast of Austin down around Cedar Creek, who grows organic veggies for market, says they are “grazing on everything like a herd of a thousand cattle.” They have been even worse.

Issac catch up

Very amusing to watch the, ahem, so-called mainstream media play catch up on Issac’s many feet of rain, after slamming Weather Bell for alleged hyping of the storm which turned out to be “only” a Category 1.

Joe Bastardi, the alleged chief hyper, and his pal Dr. Dewpoint of WB called the heavy rains long before Issac hit southeastern Louisiana. People in NOLA who paid attention to them (instead of, say, CNN) got out before they had to wade out, Bangladeshi-style. Way to go, WB!

When Issac hits New Orleans today

Well, I’m sure we won’t be hearing about how President Obozo hates black people.* Although his feckless economic policies certainly have raised their unemployment level sky high.

It’s going to be comical to watch FEMA fall all over its own feet again despite its incentive to be efficient for the fellow Democrat in the White House. What will be different this time is the media won’t be screaming bloody murder and Sean Penn and his Hollywood pals won’t be paddling into Sin City on canoes for some cheap angst and, oh, BTW, publicity. NOLA will be on its own. Good luck, folks. Irony is about to blow into town.

As for Tampa, which Issac missed, Ellen Barkin is still barkin’, a hasbeen actress whose violent leftist rhetoric makes her pro-life targets look benign by comparison. What is it about celebrity that makes celebrities think we care about their politics? Go down to the Gulf and soak your head, Ellen.

* This time Romney got the blame for “partying while black people drown” from a Yahoo News guy who, surprise, surprise, later got fired for the remark. That’s progress, I suppose.

More federal bull: Hottest July on record

First of all the federal RECORD only goes back to 1895. Some record. But there’s more doubt than that for this political ploy to raise taxes (and quash production of electricity by destroying coal) to “combat climate change.”

WeatherBell meteorologist Joe Bastardi:

“NOAA put out what many of us say is a false statement on July being the Hottest on record. The first thing to point out is we have many more thermometer sites than we did in the 1930s and if we just used the same sites, IT WAS BELOW THE RECORD!

“The second thing is that most of these sites are not regulated with the kind of vigilance they need, and many of them are in areas where they have a tendency to read higher ( site location.. for instance, near a parking lot or an air conditioning outlet).

“The third is the affect of a more built up nation, more concrete. A station in the middle of nowhere 75 years ago may be in the heart of a city now. Las Vegas, a classic example. In the 1940s the airport was in the middle of nowhere relative to now. Land in Vegas sometime, you will see what I mean.

“Finally one has to ask, well if it got that hot back then, why cant it get hot now? And in addition why has it been so long—actually it hasnt, the summers in the 50s were as warm…52,53,54 and 10,11,12 look very much alike…except [those]  in the 50s were actually warmer altogether.”

Via WeatherBell where there’s charts and more on this subject.

UPDATE:  July was not even the hottest on record by NOAA’s own—apparently unconsulted—data.

Greenland Icecap Melt: Media B.S.

The latest example of media ignorance (there are so many) is the reporting of a NASA sat finding that, due to an unusually warm summer, Greenland’s icecap has undergone some melting. The media, ever in search of another “proof” of AGW blew up the melting to “massive” proportions.

WeatherBell’s Dr. Dewpoint (Joe D’Aleo) points out that the “warmth” has been in the 34 degree (F) range and the icecap is two miles thick. “…a 34F day or two is not going to make it vanish overnight. You can see the webcam [above] today [Aug. 1] shows the ice and snow at the summit is intact.”

Texas flood

Waterfall at the rancho, where the ground is saturated after almost ten inches of rain this month. Hence when it rained again yesterday, this is what we got: a waterfall off the stone steps leading to the back forty.

Typical Texas drought buster: a flood. In the making, anyhow. Time will tell.

UPDATE:  The rain quit for a week. The ground is drying. The grass is tall, but there’s no more risk of flooding, much less another waterfall like this one.