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)

Lies of the climate commission: Part 6 no islands evacuated

Climate Commissioner Tim Flannery (who has not published any peer reviewed papers on climate change*), recently stated:
Prof Flannery said while climate change would be a significant issue for the region over the next century, its effects were being felt in other parts of the country today.
“There are islands in the Torres Strait that are already being evacuated and are feeling the impacts."

There are in fact no islands in the Torres Strait that are being evacuated. Another falsehood from the climate commissioner, that has slipped under the ABC's news radar.

We put the following question to the climate commission:

Climate commissioner Tim Flannery is quoted as saying: 
“There are islands in the Torres Strait that are already being evacuated and are feeling the impacts."
LINK: http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/tims-grim-sea-warning/
There are no islands in Torres Strait that are being evacuated due to climate change. Can the commission clarify what the commissioner means by this false statement? Given the commission is supposed to "Explain the science of climate change and the impacts on Australia"; will the commission issue a correction to the commissioner's false and misleading statement? 


*Let us go and explore the Gold standard for collecting and collating peer-reviewed scientific information,Thomson Reuters Institute for Scientific Information, and see how many times that this climate science  ‘expert’ has published on climate change in the expert literature since 1956.  If he were a bone fide expert then he would be listed in the ISI Web of Knowledge many times under papers in which he has tested his ideas with the expert scientific community. Search term author "Flannery T"  and topic  "climate change" reveals one entry, just one! -  A book review! (That misrepresents the book!) So no peer reviewed publications in climate change! Little wonder he keeps telling untruths.

Title: The real environmental crisis: Why poverty, not affluence, is the environment's number one enemy End Game Author(s): Flannery, T Source: NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS   Volume: 52   Issue: 13   Pages: 26-29   Published: AUG 11 2005 Times Cited: 0 Document Type: Book Review

Record low

ABC News make the record books posting just 63 stories to its news archive for Sunday June 12, 2011. The lowest number of stories posted on a Sunday in June in its News archive ever. We have had to amend our y-axis twice in the past week to account for ABC's disastrous productivity decline.
For comparison, the record high for the second Sunday in June, was in 2004 when ABC News posted 169 stories. ABC found over a 100 more stories in 2004 with 225 less staff.
Staff in 2004: 735.04
Staff in 2011: 960.84
ABC News: doing much much less, with much much more of your money.

Missing News: Climate models exaggerate climate sensitivity

Professor Richard Lindzen has documented the path through peer review for his latest paper written with Yong-Sang Choi. The paper titled "On the observational determination of climate sensitivity and its implications" has been accepted for publication in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences.
ABC NEWS once again miss the opportunity to scoop its rivals and have thus far not mentioned the study. The abstract concludes: "The results imply that the models are exaggerating climate sensitivity."

Not like this isn't worth reporting! Richard Lindzen's account of the submission process including links to peer review comments, and the various versions of the paper, including the version accepted for publication can be found HERE.

Seems the influence of ABC's climate Groupthink diminishes in proportion with distance from ABC's Sydney headquarters. Thankfully there are still some independently minded ABC presenters left in the bush, pity this won't be repeated on local radio in Sydney .

Fossils uncover a different take on climate change

Referring to the renowned Vostok ice core graph Dr Deacon explains how "about 800 years ago the sea levels were rising at about 14 millimetres per year."

"Well currently the sea level is rising arguably between one and three millimetres per year, so its rising very very much slower than it was at that time... carbon dioxide wasn't driving the changes in any of those plots and is probably not driving it now."

"So really if you're going to say that we actually have man-made global warming that has a runaway greenhouse where sea levels are rising faster than ever, absolutely not."

Dr Geoff Deacon will be presenting his lecture 'What fossils tell us about sea-levels and climate change' at the WA Museum in Geraldton on Thursday June 9 at 7.00pm and Friday June 10 at 10.00 am.

To read and listen to the rest follow the link above.

H/T Geoff Brown

ABC NEWS Productivity Survey Week 1- the decline continues

ABC's news productivity remains in free fall, with 2011 figures worse than 2010.  In the first week of June 2011 ABC news posted 1622 stories to its online Archive.
For the comparable week in the year 2005, which also started on a Wednesday, ABC produced 1931 stories with 756 staff. This year it was 1621 stories with 961 staff*. That's 309 LESS stories with 205 MORE  staff!

ABC NEWS giving you much much less, for much much more!

(*based on our staffing model. 2010 staffing was 947.36 from the annual report p.192)

Death threats a beat up

Turns out the recent claims aired by ABC news (twice) and others about death threats to Australian Climate Scientists is a beat up, based on just two threats, one posted in 2006-07, and the other an offhand remark made in person, 12 months ago. The threats so innocuous they were not officially reported to police.

Today's Telegraph have the facts. We look forward to seeing ABC's correction, or will they let their audience continue to be mis-informed about the nature of the threats?

Carbon death threats go cold

CLAIMS prominent climate change scientists had recently received death threats have been revealed as an opportunistic ploy, with the Australian National University admitting that they occurred up to five years ago.

Only two of ANU's climate change scientists allegedly received death threats, the first in a letter posted in 2006-2007 and the other an offhand remark made in person 12 months ago.

Neither was officially reported to ACT Police or Australian Federal Police, despite such crimes carrying a 10-year prison sentence.

The outdated threats raised question marks over the timing of their release to the public, with claims they were aired last week to draw sympathy to scientists and their climate change cause.

The university denied it was creating a ruse, maintaining the initial report, in the Fairfax-ownedCanberra Times last week, failed to indicate when the threats were made.Reports also suggested the threats had forced the ANU to lock away its climate change scientists and policy advisers in a high-security complex. The Daily Telegraph has discovered the nine scientists and staff in question were merely given keyless swipe cards - routine security measures taken last year.

Tim Blair has more under the header...False Alarmists

UPDATE May 3, 2012. Claims Debunked!