John McLean: Forcing through the Fairfax Fog (and UPDATE)

John Spooner (of Taxing Air)

The Australian Climate Sceptics congratulate John McLean.

John has been running an exposé of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for years. John is part of the ICSC Advisory panel:

John McLean is an Information Technology specialist who has made an intense study of climate matters since 2003.  He brings skills in analysis and data processing to a data-intensive subject.  His critical review of CSIRO climate reports, published in Energy & Environment, was a first for Australia and his analysis of the peer review of the latest IPCC assessment report has been raised in the US senate.  His website http://mclean.ch/climate/global_warming.htm contains a number of articles about climate, with emphasis on data rather than opinion.

It was with great delight that we saw he had managed to penetrate the fog that the Fairfax Press has created around the Catastrophic Man-Made Climate Change (CAGW) debate and had an opinion piece published in the Age and the SMH.

Lack of accountability clouding the climate change debate

The world's so-called authority on climate change engages in exaggerated science and has become a political tool.

It was also great to see that the article was illustrated by John Spooner who was a co-author with, inter alia Professor Bob Carter of the interesting and informative book Taxing Air.

John, in his typical analytical way, starts:

We've recently seen comments about climate matters from Maurice Newman, the chairman of the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council, and David Karoly, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Melbourne and a member of the Climate Change Authority. 

Newman wasn't completely correct about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Karoly failed to mention some critical issues about the IPCC's operation and function.

John then goes on, understatedly,  to say that the IPCC has a narrow charter.

The IPCC's charter from the outset has been ''to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation''.

From it's inception, the IPCC, born out of the UNFCCC, could only look at "human-induced climate change" with specific reference to man's emissions of (vital-to-life) carbon dioxide.

John:

The IPCC's focus is therefore very specific - any human influence on climate. It has no mandate to examine other causes of climate change. IPCC assessment reports claim that the human influence is significant but look closely and we find the claims are based on the output of climate models that the IPCC admits are seriously flawed, that the IPCC often asserts a level of certainty that the data cannot sustain and that as ''Climategate'' showed us, a clique of scientists has in the past sought to control the material cited by these reports.

In other words:

 If it's the Sun, we are not interested.

Do clouds affect climate change? Not our problem.

Is it natural sources of essential to life carbon dioxide? Not our brief!

Is the world cooling? Hey, we're only here for the warming...er the man-made CO2 emissions causing warming.

If the IPCC reports were accepted for exactly what they are - exaggerated science with a large dollop of politics - this would be the end of the matter. Unfortunately, various bodies actively encourage us to believe the reports are entirely scientific, accurate and completely authoritative on all climate matters, this despite the IPCC's charter and the political interference. (ACS emphasis)

Read more of John McLean at Fairfax here but even better at mclean.ch/climate/global_warming

UPDATE:

There are some very erroneous comments on the Fairfax article and I wanted to comment/correct the errors but, guess what? Fairfax had the comment open at Midday and close before 1PM.

I wonder how many comment revealed the B/s of the one's let through and revealed too many facts about the falsified CAGW hypothesis?

Global Warming - only Down-under? UPDATED

Rescue Ice Breaker Aurora Australis: 1/4 knot  in heavy ice

We are just getting over the "Ship of Fools" in Antarctica and are now confronted with the "BullShip" of fools from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM).

It was just twelve months ago when the BoM announced Temperatures off the charts as Australia turns deep purple.  Joanne Nova commented:

You could almost be forgiven for wondering if the Bureau of Meteorology is a science unit or a PR agency. They seem professionally adept at getting headlines, but not so hot at predicting the weather.  ....it was awfully hot for a couple of weeks. Birdsville got to 49C on Jan 13th.  Moomba 49.6C on the 12th. But even these temperatures are not “a new climate”. How many people around the world realize that 50C plus days have occurred many times before across Australia? Even if it had got to 51C,  there are many approximate equivalents in the last 180 years. It’s like trying to rewrite history. The BOM were probably 100 years too late in adding colors to the scale. They should have been there all along.

Undaunted, this land based "Ship of Fools" are at it again. They have issued a report saying that

2013 was hottest year on record in Australia (link)

which has been lapped up by the Alarmist media, by the "We don't believe in our Charter" ABC, and by the Fairfax Press.

What has happened to responsible Journalism? What has happened to

Journalists are skepticalJournalists are taught to question everything, and with good reason. There’s no shortage of people who fabricate stories.....

Most of the Main Stream Media and especially the Fairfax/ABC AGW Propagandists definitely fail Journalism 101. Should we we invent a new word for these failures: Reportagandists? Propajournos? Journaliars?

Or should we resort to older words, eg Shills

shill
A person engaged in covert advertising. The shill attempts to spread buzz by personally endorsing the product in public forums with the pretense of sincerity

Did any of the shills question anything from the Bureau's BoomT!sh? Did they question why the BoM started their comparison from 1950? Did they question, eg this statement:

The Australian region warming is very similar to that seen at the global scale, and the past year emphasises that the warming trend continues. 

Really: Global Scale? Trend -0.01ºC/century

Graphic: Lord Christopher Monckton

 Or From the Alarmists Propaganda site (UN)Skeptical Science: Trend -0.049ºC/decade.

Whatever! No way can the BoM BoomT!shers say there is warming on a global scale.

In the US, 2013 set more new COLD records than hot records:

For the first time in 20 years, the USA saw more record cold temperatures than record hot temperatures in 2013.

In Jerusalem a 134 year record was broken:

Jerusalem breaks 134-year-old snowfall record  

The blizzard cut Jerusalem off and almost completely paralyzed life in the city as of Thursday, December 12, 2013.

In Cairo, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon:

Snow shocks Cairo for first time in 100 years  

A severe Middle East winter snowstorm has left a blanket of snow on Cairo, Egypt for the first time in over 100 years. The freak storm also caused Middle East Mayhem in Jordan and Jerusalem, where snowfall levels were recorded reach as much as half a meter in many places. The Land of the Nile was not the only place to see snowfalls as snow also fell in unlikely places like Saudi Arabia, where even rainfall is a rarity.

In other parts of the Middle East, the severe winter weather has caused problems to parts of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon where thousands of refugees from the ongoing Syrian civil conflict are living in refugee camps and makeshift shelters. 

Whether this severe winter weather has any connection to Middle East climate change is still not certain. After all, this is the region where scientists have been saying that some of the most extreme summer heat waves have been occurring with record high temperatures . Some of those high temperatures might be welcomed now.

What about the Rescue of the "Ship of Fools?"

Ship with 52 rescued Akademik Shokalskiy climate scientists and tourists is only able to make 1/4 knot (0.29 mph) in heavy ice towards open water. Latest webcam views show all ice all around the ship and no open water ahead.  (link)

The Aurora Australis will now start heading towards open water. The ship is currently travelling at a quarter knot in heavy ice towards open water. It will take until late evening to reach open water. 

The Aurora Australis will then head towards the Casey base to complete a resupply before heading to Australia. The Aurora Australis is not expected to arrive in Australia until mid-January.

Who are these fools trying to fool?

University of New South Wales climate expert Dr Sarah Perkins

"Australia has always been a country of extremes; we're no strangers to tropical cyclones or heatwaves or anything of the like, but it's the time they're occurring, particularly the start of the bushfire season this year. It was the earliest on record. That's what we're worried about."

But Sarah! You call yourself an expert? It was not the earliest on record! Not even the second earliest. Are you ill-informed or are you mendicating?

From Andrew Bolt:

In fact, of 48 major bushfires in NSW between 1926 and 2006, 11 occurred in October or earlier:

North-Western NSW: Bushfires – 01/09/84 deaths – 4

Western Sydney and Central Coast, NSW: 16/10/91 deaths – 2

Hunter Valley, NSW: 01/09/96

Central Coast/Hunter Valley/south coast. 15/08/96

NW NSW : Bush Fire 30/10/01

Sydney, NSW: Bushfires 09/10/02

Northern NSW: Bushfire 27/09/02

Central Coast, QLD/NSW: Bushfires 27/09/02

Cessnock, NSW: Bushfire 19/10/02 deaths – 1

NSW Bushfires 24/09/06

Bushfires: Sydney and South Coast, NSW 24/09/06

UPDATES

More from the Bureau of Mediocrity Meteorology

http://jennifermarohasy.com/2013/03/cooking-books-for-hot-summers/

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has “confirmed” that it is been the hottest summer on record in Australia. But I’m sceptical. 

The “record breaking hot summer” is apparently a statistical fact derived from simply averaging across 104 or 112 localities – depending on who at the Bureau is providing the information.  No mention is made of how the temperatures for all of these localities have been “corrected” over recent years through the ACORN program.

And Two posts from Warwick Hughes:

http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=2603

 2013 was hottest year on record in Australia, Bureau of Meteorology says –Most of us have little idea of the extent to which the BoM ACORN SAT temperature series has older data adjusted cooler to increase the warming trend.This chart shows the monthly mean temperature ACORN SAT data that the BoM rely upon for their statements and shows the strongly cyclic nature of the 12 month average.

http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=2605

Brisbane tipped to hit 41° on 4 Jan 2014 but reality was 38°

Should we still pay for these clowns who are working against us?

Ice, Newman and Climate Loons

by Anthony Cox

Cartoons by Josh

Some recent events have synchronised the absurdity of AGW and the utter foolishness of its disciples.

Firstly, in an almost perfect example of irony, Professor Turney, a climate scientist from NSW, and his band of fellow AGW believers have been trapped in ice on their way to the Antarctic to duplicate Mawson’s landing on East Antarctica 100 years ago.

The purpose of Turney’s quest was to show how little ice there was at the Antarctic compared to when Mawson was there. The closest Turney got to Mawson’s position was 71 kilometers.

Many other ironies have been manifest in Turney’s ice-truncated quest. They include asking and receiving weather reports from sceptic meteorologists, preventing genuine science from occurring because of diversion of resources to rescue Turney’s happy alarmists, not to mention the escalating cost of the trip and rescue which is likely to shatter even the icy heart of any accountant.

Further irony is drenched in the media coverage of the bizarre expedition with blanket coverage of Turney’s intentions before the expedition to show that AGW is affecting the Antarctic and no mention of AGW after the ship of fools got stuck in the non-existent ice.

This media black-out or ice-out hasn’t stopped the tour leader, Turney still claiming that AGW is present down at the Antarctic. Turney says:

Sea ice is disappearing due to climate change, but here ice is building up,

https://vine.co/v/hVHrJdVWAV7 

This is true denial. The Antarctic has seen sea ice growing to record levels for over a decade and even the Arctic is showing more sea ice this year. So Turney should be asked where exactly sea ice is disappearing.

Turney also claims that the increased sea ice at the Antarctic is due to the sheet ice on the continent itself melting and falling into the sea where AGW takes over and breaks it up:

Turney later told FoxNews.com the ice surrounding his ship is old, rather than recently formed, and likely from a particular 75 mile-long  iceberg that broke apart three years ago. Climate change may have prompted the iceberg to shatter and float into the previously open sea where the mostly Australian team finds itself stranded, Turney said.

This is unmitigated garbage. The sheet ice in Antarctica, particularly on the Eastern side is increasing as Zwally et al show.

In addition the Antarctic atmospheric temperature and sea temperature are both declining, markedly so in the case of sea temperature:

There is no way the sea ice Turney and his fools were trapped in is due to AGW because there is no AGW occurring at the Antarctic.

A final irony in Turney’s expedition was in his interview with media twit, Wendy Harmer. Showing an amazing lack of self-awareness Harmer tweeted:

Told Prof Turney on radio this A.M. his trapped ship being touted as evidence of no global warming. Oh how he laughed at the “loonies”.

This is the point; Harmer and Turney are loons who lack any sense of irony and awareness of their own “looniness”. They personify the mentality [sic] of the AGW alarmist.

Not to be outdone David Karoly and Tim Flannery also entered the fray. Flannery is beyond parody, a hypocrite and loon who believes in Gaia to an alarming extent.

Karoly is a different kettle of fish with serious academic and scientific credentials. I have written about him here.

Both Karoly and Flannery came out all clichés firing against Maurice Newman who had the temerity to say ordinary sensible people were sick of AGW.

Karoly’s piece in Fairfax is particularly egregious. Karoly begins by calling Newman a flat Earther and degenerates from there.

Demonstrating an astounding lack of irony Karoly describes Newman’s motivation:

As Upton Sinclair wrote, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"

This from a man who has received $millions of grants and a large annual wage to promote AGW. Newman gets nothing for opposing AGW and must be assumed to do so out of common sense and an appreciation of the evidence against AGW.

For Karoly however there is no doubt about AGW. He asserts:

There is no doubt that the climate system has warmed over the past 100 years and continues to warm.

This both a lie and subreption, lying through omission. No-one disputes that there has been warming since about 1850, the end of the Little Ice Age, when solar activity increased. The warming throughout the 20thC however, as with every time span has no connection with CO2:

No relationship between CO2 and temperature over the whole 20thC:

No relationship between CO2 and temperature since 1960, the period of alleged greatest AGW:

As for continuing warming as claimed by Karoly, this is manifestly wrong:

Werner Brozek in a series of articles shows that for all the temperature indices, land based and satellites, temperature has been paused for up to 23 years. Brozek has either been ignored or had claims of cherry-picking levelled against him. But this is nonsense; he has used criteria to establish the trends showing no temperature increase which is used by the Climate Research Unit, which is the mainstay of IPCC science and NASA.

Karoly should know this because he is part of the IPCC establishment. His claim that temperature is still rising is therefore all the more reprehensible.

Again the MSM, or parts of it, are unstinting in their support of AGW scientists like Karoly. Harmer again:

Maurice Newman is the enemy of my children’s future. A dangerous and delusional man.

Newman is an honest man and those to the likes of Harmer and Karoly are indeed dangerous because they reveal the dishonesty and intolerance of their position. They are loons and are in spirit on the doomed boat with Turney and the rest of his fools.