Jun 11 2007
Blinded By The (lack of) Heat
As Denver sees its coldest summer in 50 years (defying the global warming theories) it is also embarking on how to make things even colder:
Denver is gearing up to fight global warming, and residents may soon be asked to make personal sacrifices to help save the planet.
The new plan is aimed at making Denver a national leader in reducing gas emissions that have been linked to global warming, giving a major push to alternative energy, stepping up recycling and changing building codes to encourage energy conservation.But the proposal also contains some ideas that may be unpopular, such as penalizing heavy users of electricity and natural gas and basing auto insurance premiums on the number of miles traveled.
The ambitious goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 4.4 million metric tons by 2020, the equivalent of eliminating two small coal-fired power plants or taking 500,000 cars off the road.
And while Denver’s residents are paying the exhorbitant price to save the planet based on unproven theories, the Chinese and Indians will be undoing all their efforts by 5-1 or more. What people forget is it was very warm on this planet prior to the Little Ice Age of the Dark Ages (around 1100-1300). So for some time it will warm, and then it may cool off, and then warm. And there is nothing Denver can do to stop this, anymore they can stop a tornado from forming (a much, much smaller natural phenomenon).
The historic record shows CO2 levels in the atmoshere trail the global warming. It is a product of the effect, not a cause. If this is in fact true today as it has been for millennia, then Denver is about to poor a lot of money down the CO2 drain, which could have been used to save some lives (instead of the arrogant concept it can save the planet from being…., well, … a planet).
There is recent evidence that “global warming” stats are artificial in many cases. It seems that the sites where many temperature recording stations are located are, shall we say, “suboptimal” for that purpose. Some of the recording stations having trash incinerators, barbeques, and building air conditioner exhaust right next to the recording station. Also, some of the stations have been repainted with latex paint instead of the prescribed whitewash. This changes the infrared absorption of the wooden screen around the temperature recorders. In addition, when some stations went from mechanical to electronic recorders, the power supplies, batteries, chargers, controllers, etc. were placed INSIDE the shelter with the recording devices.
There is an effort underway to survey these stations and record the environment around them and the conditions inside them. It is a community project. You can find recording stations near you and take part:
There is more information here:
http://www.surfacestations.org/
The Chinese have come out and said that if they have to make the choice between growth and cutting emissions, they are going with growth. I would like to see the globaloney people try to make the Chinese feel guilty.
Crosspatch,
What an interesting site. I visit Pielke Sr.’s site from time to time, but this is the first I’ve seen of this effort. The nearest recording site to me is about 30 miles away. Unfortunately, I don’t have the requisite GPS device to participate. I’ve bookmarked this, though, and intend to check on the progress regularly. Wouldn’t it be a hoot if much of the hysteria about temperature icreases was due to faulty recording sites?
There is another issue looming that could be causing stations to report warmer temperature that has nothing to do with climate. Since the 1970’s or so, the wooden “Stevenson Screens” that act as a shelter for the temperature probes have been painted with latex paint instead of the prescribed whitewash. Latex paint is transparent to IR radiation and so the wood of the shelter heats up more. Anthony Wats has done some measurements and made his results available here.
So it looks like we have a combination of faulty site location AND faulty shelter coatings combining to create an artificial increase in recorded temperatures. Note that sites in “good” rural locations with the proper coating show no significant late 20th century warming with the highest recorded 20th century temperatures in the 1930’s dust bowl years.