Sorry to hear about your “father-in-law” – why the quotes?
At any rate, the game of nit-picking things Dr. Curry DIDN’T say is small beer. She doesn’t censor you, so if you feel there was something she didn’t say that you would like to bring to our attention, you have every opportunity. The nit-picking game of “inconsistency” is also small beer. It almost always ignores context, new knowledge, etc.
Debate is good. I would rather be wrong than delusional – wrong can be righted.
Rls
It seems Wethersfield is still there.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDPGA_Wethersfield
So you were stationed there?
My first job straight from school was with Americam Express at RAF greenham common which eventually became a base for the cruise missiles.
Tonyb
It will be interesting to see the effect of a cold winter in Great Britain. So many amazing outcomes had their origin in GB.
Unfortunately I agree with your assessment of Obama Tony. He is the secmost no coming of the ineffectual Jimmy Carter. But worse. It is what happens when the people elect an individual who has never run or led anything in his life. Good news is whomever comes next has a high likelihood of being better.
Fox is a centrist to slightly liberal news outlet. It isn’t conservative.
The author who called Fox “conservative” also included the following statement:
“To be sure, the strong reliance by conservatives on Fox News will continue to be a major obstacle to progress on climate change and should be a subject of extreme concern.”
The author is pretty clearly a lefty and centrist looks “conservative” from his viewpoint.
Exactly. A country that enforces uneconomic unreliable energy on its people and industry becomes uncompetitive with those that don’t. Since there is sufficient fossil fuel for many decades, if technology doesn’t come through to make non-fossil energy economically competitive then the non-fossil-fuel-mandating countries will be virtually bankrupted (it’s happening right now). If the technology does come through, then there was no need for those countries to become non-fossil-fuel beforehand. If the technology doesn’t come through, then eventually the price of fossil fuels will make non-fossil fuels economically competitive. Basically, countries that have mandated non-fossil fuels had better hope for the that new technology to appear very quickly indeed, or they are stuffed.
alpha2actual,
I agree regarding biofuels, algae and hydrogen. But synthetic hydrocarbon liquid fuels from seawater may be a different story altogether. When powered by cheap virtually unlimited nuclear fission or in future nuclear fusion energy we’d have unlimited liquid transport fuels. The US Navy research estimated a cost of $3 to $6 per gallon using currently available technologies. They are already making the fuel and powering model aircraft, but not at industrial scale of course.
Enter your comment here…
Richard and Tony thanks for the links
October 1805 (battle of Trafalgar) was much colder than the recent years
1805 – 8.2 C
2013 – 12.5 C
2014 – 12.5 C
This whole model thing is getting tiresome.
We need a 10 year moratorium on CO2 studies and Climate models. For the next decade only grants related to studying climate cycles and natural forcing should be allowed.
Until we have a batter understanding of climate, the models will continue to be wrong. Models are only as good as the understanding of the actual system being modeled. Lack of understanding appears to be a hindrance to development of good models, few scientists (and no “global warmers” as far as I know) predicted the pause..
Rob Ellison: “Molecules have a kinetic energy far in excess of the gravitational potential at 273K.”
When the molecule travels a vertical distance dz, the variation in kinetic energy just is the variation in potential energy. They’re identical. You aren’t entitled to consider only the effect from one and neglect the effect from the other on the velocity distribution at given heights.
“A *factoid* that the environmental lapse rate refutes.”
The environmental lapse rate is affected by radiation, convection, horizontal winds, and latent heat releases. The tropospheric columns are very much out of equilibrium. So, the ELR doesn’t have any bearing on the present problem.
“So unless you have an actual treatment [...]”
Pekka provides an “actual treatment.” He demonstrates that the stationary density gradient of the barometric formula *derives* from — and hence is consistent with — the conditions of local thermodynamic equilibrium (Maxwell speed distributions depending only on temperature) for the isothermal case. The mathematics is very simple and only involves partial derivatives of simple products and exponential functions.
The conclusion is: “The equations (1), (2) and (3) represent the stationarity requirement that particles located in certain volume with certain velocities will at a later moment be replaced by an equal number of other particles which have the same velocities when the influence of gravity on velocity is taken into account. It’s shown that the isothermal atmosphere with Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution and barometric vertical density profile
satisfies this requirement.”
The American Journal of Physics article provides three more derivations of the same result. You can’t just hand-wave away mathematical results that you don’t like.
Another reply moved up:
http://judithcurry.com/2014/10/21/ethics-of-communicating-scientific-uncertainty/#comment-643617
And how is it that we became affluent, i.e. not in need.
P-N: “Pekka provides an “actual treatment.” He demonstrates that the stationary density gradient of the barometric formula *derives* from — and hence is consistent with — the conditions of local thermodynamic equilibrium (Maxwell speed distributions depending only on temperature) for the isothermal case.”
This sentence should be taken out and shot. I meant to say that the barometric density formula derives from (1) Maxwell distribution of speeds (local thermodynamic equilibrium), (2) the stationarity condition on the vertical density profile and (3) the assumption that the column is isothermal.
If follows trivially that those four conditions are consistent.
Tony
There is also a nearby and lovely village of Wethersfield; had a friend who lived there in a centuries old home, thatched roof and a windmill in the back yard, a mind boggling experience for a young man.
Richard
The CO2 from fossil fuels has increased plant growth in last one hundred years.
The temperature hasn’t shown a trend for 17 years.
The claims of crisis appear to be based on inadequate or outdated information.
Decarbonization has no apparent benefit and would reduce plant growth and increase water requirements. Capping CO2 will actually increase fossil fuel consumption if we are indeed entering LIA II as some predict.
RGates,
“The the data tell us the climate is changing rapidly and the science tells us that humans are most likely the primary cause (especially in the past 50 years) of this change. The majority of climate scientists agree with this assessment. How much more evidence do we need to take some action? The problem is, the longer we wait, the more severe the changes will be for generations to come and the harder to undo, if we can.”
Are you sure of this? If not, then, you can accept that there is too much uncertainty, why do you say :
“The rate of change is not constant (it is accelerating in a non-linear way, and hence, the latest IPCC report represents a watered-down consensus undershoot) as the system is seeing the largest forcing since at least humans became humans.”
Again, are you sure of this? If not, then adaptation should be the only prudent course of action in the most economically viable and humane ways possible. All the big money used to control the climate could be used to take care of actual and urgent problems (you know them) instead of an trying to tackle a pseudo problem that might happen in an unknown long term futur.
From the site:
…
One of the most difficult survival situations is a cold weather scenario. Remember, cold weather is an adversary that can be as dangerous as an enemy soldier. Every time you venture into the cold, you are pitting yourself against the elements. With a little knowledge of the environment, proper plans, and appropriate equipment, you can overcome the elements. As you remove one or more of these factors, survival becomes increasingly difficult. Remember, winter weather is highly variable. Prepare yourself to adapt to blizzard conditions even during sunny and clear weather.
Cold is a far greater threat to survival than it appears. It decreases your ability to think and weakens your will to do anything except to get warm. Cold is an insidious enemy; as it numbs the mind and body, it subdues the will to survive.
Cold makes it very easy to forget your ultimate goal–to survive.
…
