Sep 1, 2007

Religious War over Global Warming


Source:
warwickhughes.com

For over a decade the IPCC has published global temperature trends distorted by purely local warmth from Urban Heat Islands (UHI's).


This is not the statement of just another global warming sceptic blog. It is the conclusion according to a paper published online by Warwick Hughes, a freelance earth scientist from Australia.

Urban Heat Islands (UHI)

In the above map, the areas with significant warming throughout the last hundred years show a large red dot. The larger the red dot, the more regional warming has occurred on the respective station. The big cities on the U.S. East coast show significant warming. Around Greenland, blue (cooling) dots are close to red dots. In Russia, Central Asia and China, large areas show warming of up to 4 degrees C. Very few stations measure sea surface temperatures and hardly any are located in the hot and cold deserts of this planet.

So where is the warming? Mostly over growing heat islands which were supposedly taken into account when calculating the adjusted global temperature record. Hughes' paper focuses on Russian datasets which lack credibility in his opinion. Hughes is not the only one who questions the claims of Jones et al. and Hansen et al. that growing urban heat islands have been taken account of completely in the global avarage temperature history. Namely the U.S. datasets were corrected recently just because a blogger had proven that there were inconsistencies, (e.g. the temperature of one particular station was flawed by used air from a huge newly built airconditioning system. A picture of this station went around the world with mocking comments). Since said blogger, Steven McIntyre, found out that 1998 is no longer the hottest year in the United States but 1934 is, those of us who doubt the magnitude of CO2 induced global warming should no longer feel persecuted as "deniers". Although GISS NASA boss James E. Hansen, who has become increasingly political (understatement) as a scientist, may still roar like a lion towards "deniers", they are in good company now since more and more scientists join the bandwagon of AGW sceptics.

What about the Chinese datasets? Like many other scientists, statistician McIntyre doubts the credibility of the heated up red dots in China (see above grid) and has already digged deeper there. Douglas J. Keenan, another mathematical researcher meanwhile has published a report entitled Wey-Chyung Wang fabricated some scientific claims. Again, it is all about growing UHI's. And - look at that!! He joined forces with Hughes and McIntyre questioning the data used in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4).

Conclusion

There are voices like this: Hey, what if it turns out that all our efforts to lower the world's average temperature are good for nothing? So what? Are all these efforts like carbon trading schemes, carbon taxes and new renewable energy sources not beneficial to the environment whatsoever? Well personally, I am still convinced that only the truth and nothing but the truth will set us free, no manipulation please! Let us simply be good stewards of our resources even if the world starts to cool down again. This would not come so much as a surprise to me...

1 comment:

Climate Patrol said...

Thanks Michelle for your visit,comment and link. I've visited the nicely layed out "global warming news" as recommended by you. I understand your concern. Like you, I am a layman dependant on "facts" and news releases of scientists. I think it is all a matter of faith.