Quote of the week

ABC's James Glenday:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a media outlet fighting for readers must be in want of a clickable headline quote."

Could not have described ABC News more succinctly. Its mediocrity is palpable.

great journalism

No, it's not at the Abc. The Australian’s Graeme Lloyd has an excellent piece in today's weekend edition that ticks all the boxes. ABC "journo's " could learn a thing or two.

15-year warming pause is ‘settled’

THE existence of a more than 15-year “pause” in average global surface temperatures has been “settled” but scientists remain split on what it means for the future.

While the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has continued to rise, global surface temperatures have not increased at the same pace, causing speculation over what has happened to the “missing heat”.

Some leading climate scientists claim the missing heat has been absorbed by the world’s oceans and will return with rapid future warming. But new research has found the Earth’s climate is much less sensitive to carbon dioxide than previously thought.

Michael Asten from Monash University’s School of Earth ­Atmosphere and Environment said that, while opinions on causes differed, the existence of the pause was settled.

“Only activists dare claim the pause in global temperature does not exist,” Professor Asten said.

surprising consensus on those 17 flat years

From an ABC report covering a recent presentation by climate rationalist Lord Christopher Monckton:"Despite an overwhelming majority of climate scientists reaching consensus on human-induced climate change, Lord Monckton says he does not believe there has been any evidence of global warming for 17 years."

From a recent interview in The Australian with IPCC head Rajendra Pachauri:

THE UN's climate change chief, Rajendra Pachauri, has acknowledged a 17-year pause in global temperature rises, confirmed recently by Britain's Met Office.

ABC continue:
He said his research shows 'extreme weather events' cannot be blamed on climate change.

Seems it's not only "his" research...

From the IPCC's recent report into extreme weather (via Roger Pielke Jnr):

A few quotable quotes from the report (from Chapter 4):

• "There is medium evidence and high agreement that long-term trends in normalized losses have not been attributed to natural or anthropogenic climate change"
• "The statement about the absence of trends in impacts attributable to natural or anthropogenic climate change holds for tropical and extratropical storms and tornados"
• "The absence of an attributable climate change signal in losses also holds for flood losses"

Seems Monckton, Pachauri, the IPCC and the British Met Office are reading off the same teleprompter! All hail the new consensus! ABC's activist reporters wouldn't have a clue!

:

Before the ABC: When weather equals climate change

Earlier this month ABC reported on warmer than average August temperatures in South Australia and managed to drag the specter of global warming into the story.
Looking over a few past headlines from an era prior to the ABC at the National Library's newspaper archive, it seems they have confused the weather and the climate.

The Advertiser - 29 August 1928: A hot day, record August Temperatures.
Kalgoorlie Western Argus -15 August 1911: Hot Weather in Adelaide.
The Advertiser - 27 August 1914: Breaking Records, Exceptionally dry August

Before the ABC: an occasional snapshot of news in the days BABC

Missing News: the (little) ice age returns

With the tumbleweeds rolling down the corridors at ABC news and its staff locked in a Groupthink hugfest wrapped in the warm blanket of so called settled science, the sun shines in:


Science reports:

End of the Sunspot Cycle?

Things may be about to get very dull on the sun. Three different measurements of solar activity, reported by scientists at a press conference today, suggest that the next 11-year-long solar cycle will be far quieter than the current one. In fact, it may not happen at all: Sunspots, the enormous magnetic storms that erupt on the sun's surface as the cycle builds, might disappear entirely for the first time in approximately 400 years.

The Register explains...

Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade

What may be the science story of the century is breaking this evening, as heavyweight US solar physicists announce that the Sun appears to be headed into a lengthy spell of low activity, which could mean that the Earth – far from facing a global warming problem – is actually headed into a mini Ice Age.

The Christian Science Monitor expands... 

A sun with no sun spots? What that could mean for Earth and its climate.

A long quiescent period also could provide an unexpected, natural laboratory for investigating often-discussed but poorly explored links between sunspot activity and global climate.

The most oft-cited example of a shutdown in sun spots is the so-called Maunder Minimum, a 70-year period that began around 1645. Sun spots virtually vanished from the sun's surface. The decline coincided with a climate period known as the Little Ice Age, when temperatures fell substantially in various locations around the globe and different times during the time span.

Researchers have been looking at this correlation with an eye toward figuring out whether and to what extent seemingly small fluctuations in sunlight that come with changes in the sunspot cycle may affect Earth's climate.

Update: ABC post this story written by AFP...(note the slant, they could have asked a real solar physicist)