Posted by Bill Kirk, CEO
This weekend the BBC throws more cold water (or should we say snow balls) on the “ClimateGate” scandal and professor Phil Jones (former head of the East Anglia Climate Research Unit (U.K.), lead IPCC author and data provider for the infamous “hockey stick”). The professor admits that ”there has been no statistically significant warming for 15 years” and it’s possible that the Medieval Warm Period (800AD – 1300 AD) was warmer than the 20th century as thousands of climate scientists believe is the case. This is the first time a leading IPCC author admitted that the science is not settled! For the full story CLICK HERE.
The next group of “scientists” that should be investigated are right here in the U.S. at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Penn State’s Michael Mann (Ohh..he’s already under investigation), NASA climate activist James Hansen and Noble Gore. Supposedly, January was the warmest ever for the planet while much of the world was in a Deep Freeze and blanketed in 49 million square kilometers of snow across the Northern Hemisphere (2nd most on record in December, 6th most in January and very likely the most ever in February according to data from Rutgers University’s Global Snow Lab). WTI tracks thousands of weather reporting sites from around the world and those stations show a much colder January across the globe. Supposedly, it was the Oceans that caused the record warm January global temperatures as you and I have no way to validate that data.
Of course “weather” is not “climate” as we’re all reminded, most recently by New York Times reporter John Broden who said in his February 10th, 2010 story Climate-Change Debate is heating up in Deep Freeze. John says “Most climate scientists respond that the ferocious storms are consistent with forecasts that a heating planet will produce more frequent and more intense weather events.” NOT! Over the past 15 years when there has been no significant warming and actually dramatic cooling the past 4 years, we’ve had a dramatic increase in Northern Hemisphere snow cover and earlier than normal snowfall. Rutger’s snow stats show the following:
- October: 7 of the past 10 years above average Northern Hemispheric snowfall
- November: 15 of the past 19 years above average Northern Hemispheric snowfall
- December: 17 of the past 21 years above average Northern Hemispheric snowfall
- January: 6 of the past 8 years above average Northern Hemispheric snowfall
- February: on pace to be the snowiest ever!
In fact, January Northern Hemisphere snowfall has shown a 5 million square kilometer increase in snowfall over the past 20 years going from 1-2 million square KM below average in the 1980s and 1990s to 1-3 million square KM above average in the past 10 years – more similar to the 1970s! So the real data suggests the Winters are getting longer, not shorter and cold and snow are much more frequent further South in recent years.
So, be a skeptic when the media or a politician or academic professor or government agency tells you the debate is over! It’s just getting started! Read up on the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) cycle as it’s very likely the major global factor responsible for the colder and snowier trends the past 4 years and likely to continue for 28 more years while it goes through it’s cold cycle phase.