Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

New studies throw cold water on warming theory



Comments???

>
> Environment & Climate News
> March 2002
> Contents
>
>
> New studies throw cold water on warming theory
> by James M. Taylor
>
> http://www.heartland.org/environment/mar02/warming.htm
>
> Two major new studies, as well as temperature readings from precise
> satellite measurements, have produced strong new evidence the Earth is not
> warming. The new information has sent global alarmists into confusion and
> has vindicated prior studies long ignored by the mainstream media.
>
> Nature study shows dramatic Antarctic cooling
>
> On January 14, Nature magazine published the results of a comprehensive
> study, involving all regions of the Antarctic continent, revealing that
> Antarctica has been cooling, dramatically, for the past 20 years.
>
> Prior reports of an Antarctic meltdown had been largely based on
> temperature readings on a small peninsula where most Antarctic science
> stations are located. However, the new study's authors began to suspect
> warming on the peninsula was a localized phenomenon, caused by a recent
> change in regional wind and sea patterns, when visits to other parts of
the
> continent showed no sign of warming.
>
> "A lot of people [co-authors] in the paper have been working in the
valleys
> since the mid-'80s, and at first it seemed that lake levels were going
up,"
> reported Peter Doran, a University of Chicago at Illinois scientist and
> lead author of the study.
>
> "But two or three years ago, when we were waiting for the big summers, we
> noticed that they didn't come. We were thinking that warm summers were the
> norm, and we were saying, 'It's going to get back to normal,' but it never
> did."
>
> The authors then began analyzing long-standing temperature data recorded
> throughout the continent, weighing all areas equally, rather than giving
> undue weight to the temperatures on the isolated peninsula, as had been
> done in the past. The results showed that as a whole, Antarctica is
cooling
> rapidly.
>
> Just how much, and just how rapidly, has Antarctica been cooling? The
study
> found that temperatures across the continent have dropped an average of
> 0.125 degrees Fahrenheit per year, or 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit per decade,
> since 1978.
>
> The data are particularly stunning in that the rate of cooling dwarfs the
> rate of global warming predicted by even the most alarmist advocacy
groups.
> Moreover, all computer models loaded with global warming assumptions agree
> the polar regions should warm much more rapidly than the rest of the
globe.
>
> "A drop in Antarctic temperatures is a puzzle because most climate models
> suggest that polar regions should respond first and most rapidly to
> worldwide temperature changes," explained science correspondent David
> Derbyshire of the London Telegraph.
>
> The study noted a cascade of ecological problems triggered by the
> pronounced cooling. The number of small organic soil organisms is falling
> by 10 percent every year. Biological productivity in ice-covered
freshwater
> lakes is declining at 9 percent per year.
>
> "The decline is alarming," said study coauthor Diana Wall of Colorado
State
> University. "These cooling repercussions may have a long-term effect.
There
> is very little diversity here and the life cycles of these invertebrates
is
> very slow."
>
> Science reports Antarctic ice sheet growing
>
> Just three days after the Nature study was released, Science magazine
> published results of a study concluding that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
> has not only stopped melting, but is growing again.
>
> Using precise satellite measurements, a team of California Institute of
> Technology scientists working at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory found
> "strong evidence of ice-sheet growth."
>
> The Ice Sheet has been steadily melting since the end of the last ice age
> roughly 10,000 years ago. Although very little of the overall melting has
> occurred since the dawn of the industrial age, a flurry of news reports in
> recent years has speculated that human-induced global warming will cause
> the thinning Ice Sheet to break off from the Antarctic continent and
> inundate the world's shorelines with a drastic rise in sea levels.
>
> The thickening represents a reversal of the Ice Sheet's longstanding
> retreat, say researchers Ian Joughin and Slawek Tulaczyk, who authored the
> study. The thickening also throws cold water on the findings of British
> researchers, widely reported last December in the mainstream media, that
> the Ice Sheet has a 5 percent chance of breaking off in the next 200
years.
>
> "Perhaps, after 10,000 years of retreat from the ice-age maximum,
> researchers turned on their instruments just in time to catch the
> stabilization or re-advance of the ice sheet," observed Pennsylvania State
> University's Richard Alley, who wrote an accompanying commentary to the
> Science article.
>
> Once again, the Joughin/Tulaczyk findings are particularly noteworthy
> because global warming alarmists agree the polar regions will be the first
> to see pronounced heating in a global warming environment. The thickening
> of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet confirms the findings of the Nature study,
> reported above, that Antarctica is not only failing to warm, but is in
fact
> cooling at a significant rate.
>
> Global satellite readings report a very average year
>
> Even as the Nature and Science studies were being released, data from
> precise satellite readings of the Earth's lower atmosphere showed the year
> 2001 was a very average year for global temperatures.
>
> In mid-December, the United Nations weather agency reported 2001 was the
> second-warmest year since global records began being kept 140 years ago.
> The news was trumpeted by the mainstream media as still further evidence
of
> global warming.
>
> However, the temperature readings were collected from ground stations,
> located in or near growing cities. The more cities grow around temperature
> reading stations, the more the stations produce false warming data.
>
> The precise satellite data, collected from the entirety of the Earth's
> lower atmosphere, showed 2001 was only the 9th warmest (and also the 15th
> coolest) year since satellite measurements began in the 1970s. Moreover,
> the 2001 readings confirmed prior satellite data indicating no appreciable
> warming has occurred since the 1970s.
>
> With all the new data directly contradicting global warming theory, Nature
> study author Peter Doran summarized the global warming alarmists' state of
> mind. "We've sort of hit a point where we're a little confused."
>