Mike Smith wrote:
"If you go to
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/ and page down you will see that Tuesday, Aug. 7, Hansen revised his U.S. temperature graph to conform to the numbers I linked to earlier from climateaudit.org (which is currently down). Hansen's enlarged graph is here:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.D_lrg.gif . "
I haven't had time to study these pages completely, but since you're lecturing about the scientific method, this might be a good time to remind you the science undergoes constant revision and modification as new information becomes available. If anyone is expecting all results ever written by the AGW side to never be modified in any way, and then throw out their entire efforts when any correction is ever made, they are fundamentally ignorant about the scientific process or are just being plain dishonest.
On the other hand, the deniers side has been backpeddling like mad the last few years, first saying there was no GW at all, then that there is GW but it's not anthropogenic, and now saying there is AGW but it's "no big deal". Yet the same people who expect perfection from the AGW side give the deniers a free pass on absolutely ridiculous past statements and a cowardice in publishing their "findings", relying on newspaper articles and blog comments. Sad really.
Funny thing is a quick browse of the data on Mike's NASA site and related links reveals marked and obvious warming in the past 100 years of the climate record globally from multiple sources, and not just the USHCN, as I've been stating. This site and its links seem to do nothing but bolster my case. Mike, are you willing to go on the record here and now that the idea the globe is currently undergoing significant warming is a hoax? I'd love to see that in writing.
"And, based on the USHCN surveys done so far (
www.surfacestations.org, which is also down), it appears obvious that there is a significant warm bias in that data set based on the MMTS siting. So, it is reasonable to conclude the numbers for the last 10 or 15 years may have to be revised downward still."
Cant say much since the site is down, but I'll choose to wait to actually see a published study before making such an assumption and jumping to such conclusions. i.e., I'll wait to let the scientific method run its course. (Guess it's my turn to lecture...lmao.)
"The fact that the U.S. graph is so unremarkable, given the warm bias in recent years' measurements, should be a big yellow "caution" sign."
Caution signs are all good, but throwing out everything as a hoax based on this is really reaching. Again, US =/= world, and we're talking about global climate change here.
"I am not an expert in polar ice. However, research I have read says Antarctic ice is growing and that Greenland's ice, while melting on the edges, is actually getting thicker in the middle and growing in net mass."
My understanding is this is expected phenomena, with thickening ice at the center of some land masses but significant reduction in sea ice, which is also being observed. Again, all in the literature if you wish to have a look. It's worth noting the Arctic sea ice is reaching its most reduced levels in recorded history, such that oil exploration (naturally) is possible for the first time ever in the high latitudes above Russia.
"When it is contended that solar flares, etc., "cannot" be the cause of the observed warming, those contentions are largely based on the IPCC's models. As I posted earlier, some the IPCC's strongest supporters are now backing away from those models."
Of course the models aren't perfect, and no one is claiming they are, but some choose to hold them to an unreasonably high standard, so there's really no point in arguing it. Again, submit your contentions to the journals, or at least point me to the articles that exist.
"The Financial Times of London, certainly no fan of President Bush, a supporter of carbon taxes, etc., wrote a blistering article about the IPCC just last week. It is here:
www.ft.com/cms/s/39463a34-40a3-11dc-9d0c-0000779fd2ac.html ."
It's worth noted this is an editorial written by a partisan, not a scientist, and has been effectively responded to here:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/08/transparency-of-the-ipcc-process-2/#more-463
"Experiments are conducted to test the hypothesis. This would be the global trend upward trend in temperatures (now discredited in the U.S. for reasons cited above; elsewhere ???), realistic pastcast model results (not achieved), model accurately models current climate (not achieved) and consistent forecast model results (not achieved). "
Actually your paranthetical remarks are flat wrong, and I'm not relying on simply the IPCC documents in saying that. The major recent upward trend in the global temperature record has not been discredited, and reasonable pastcasts and accurate current climate models have been achieved, but since you've made up your mind to dismiss them out-of-hand, I'm just wasting my time referring you to the literature. I invite you to submit to a peer-reviewed journal your rejection of these results so I can have a look, of course.
Mike Gribble: your link to the AGU abstract appears to be to a conference abstract, which I don't believe is peer-reviewed. But no one is claiming there is NO impact on global climate from solar cycles. What I'm saying is that actually observed solar cycles cannot explain the magnitude of the warming actually observed, according to everything we can gather to this point. I can't access the full text so not a lot else I can say about the abstract.
Won't be able to follow this thread the next few days due to some holiday time (stormtrack is not on my reading list while out having fun!)
But I don't think it matters, since I find these things have little history in actually changing people's minds. The upshot on what I'm saying is that it's clear there is a global upward trend in temperature the last ~100 years, which certainly seems to be accelerating, and there are numerous sources to back it up. But the attempts to use silly quotes in popular media articles, or poke holes in one of the myriad of data sources to try to impugn ALL the data, are dishonest.