The state of ClimateGate today, Dec 10 2009. [krakatoa]

(A series of daily-ish roundups of the day's Climate news and commentary.)

This is by no means a comprehensive recap. The stories come from a variety of sources, and I highly recommend exploring the linked sites for more breaking news.

Today's episode brought to you by Deutsche Bank, who has submitted the following statement from honcho Kevin Parker for the most over-the-top AGW statement sweeps.

“People often ask about the costs. But the figures people tend to cite don’t take into account conservation and efficiency measures that are easily available. And they don’t look at the cost of inaction, which is the extinction of the human race. Period.”

To which I say, wash your unterwäsche, fraulein, and rest easy: It appears the science is about as unsettled as your bladder.

(after the break...)

WUWT stories:

A guest post by the founder of Weather Channel, John Coleman. John describes the battle for climate truth as one between David & Goliath.

A debate on CNN between ClimateGate lead Apologist, RealClimate's Gavin Schmidt, and University of Alabama, Huntsville climatologist Jonh Christy.

Gavin tries to square this circle on the actual observed climate data:

"The issue is not whether these things [droughts, hurricanes, etc..] have never happened before, but whether we are causing them. We can still attribute our role in climate change even though, you know, back in the cretaceous period it was much warmer than it is now."

Really, Gavin? Can you really do that? I'm no sciencytist like yourself, but don't you sort have to explain why the "much warmer" Cretaceous period was due to natural phenomena, as opposed to the much less warm present?

Gavin probably wins the debate in perception terms, simply due to the fact that he was allowed to speak much longer, particularly when discussing the leaked emails.

Wolf did about as well as we could hope for a CNN Q&A, but he did his part for his team by allowing Gavin to speak at length, and by opening and closing on the shrinking Arctic icecap, and flatly ignoring the response that the Antarctic ice sheet is growing.

At Climate Audit, Hugh McCulloch deconstructs one of Al Gore's many Invonvenient Errors.

The NYT (apologies for the link) announces that the Skeptics have invaded Copenhagen.

See if you can discover the subtle way the Times lets you know if they can be trusted.

“They’ve got us outnumbered,” said Ian Plimer, an Australian geologist, who has interests in several mining operations. “But we’ve got them outgunned.”

And apparently the Times has trouble believing the following, judging from the verbs they use:

One presentation contended that volcanoes emitted far more carbon dioxide than human activities like the burning of fossil fuels. Another presentation disputed data suggesting that sea levels were rising. Still another asserted that solar activity caused climate shifts.

Of the three, the only one that's at all questionable is the sea-level rise. It is a very tricky thing to measure, and indeed, appears to be falling in some areas while rising in others.

The poster child for rising sea levels, the Maldives, is not cooperating. Indeed, the cheeky island nation seems to have a declining sea level.

Furthermore, Dr Nils-Axel Mörner in 2007 picked apart some of IPCC's raw data on sea-rise.

So, for example, those people in the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change], choose Hong Kong, which has six tide gauges, and they choose the record of one, which gives 2.3 mm per year rise of sea level. Every geologist knows that that is a subsiding area. It's the compaction of sediment; it is the only record which you shouldn't use.

Mörner has a big ego, but he backs it up with some sweet science, such as using Earth's rotational velocity as a measure of sea level change.

Here's another way of checking it, because if the radius of the Earth increases, because sea level is rising, then immediately the Earth's rate of rotation would slow down... So you can look at the rotation and the same comes up: Yes, it might be 1.1 mm per year, but absolutely not more. It could be less, because there could be other factors affecting the Earth, but it certainly could not be more. Absolutely not! Again, it's a matter of physics.

From Climate Depot:

One of the newest claims from the AGW Choir is that the Oceans have become saturated with CO2, and have lost the ability to sequester any more.

Well, a new study has examined that claim, and determined that the oceanic CO2 absorption has remained constant since 1850. Ed Begley jr will be pleased to find that this study is even peer-reviewed.

And another physicist calls for ClimateGate consequences.

...Thus, two of the three pillars of the global warming and carbon dioxide paradigm are open to reinvestigation... The public trust in climate science has been eroded... We cannot blame it on a few irresponsible individuals. The entire esteemed climate research community has to take responsibility...

So what comes next? Let us stop making unjustified claims and exaggerated projections about the future even if the editors of some eminent journals are just waiting to publish them. Let us admit that our understanding of the climate is less perfect than we have tried to make the public believe. Let us drastically modify or temporarily discontinue the IPCC. Let us get back to work.

When asked for a comment, the CRU AGW pimps exclaimed:

"Work? WORK!? Who dat, sayin' I don't work. Lawd knows I do. Lawd knows, pimpin' ain't easy!"

Disclaimer: I might have homogenized that quote.

CNN continues allowing a vigorous debate, and huge props to them for doing so.

Here, Campbell Brown has Bill Nye the Science Guy on to debate Pat Michaels of the Cato Institute. I think Michaels definitely comes away from this having made several excellent points that Nye couldn't quite counter. What I found most entertaining was that about halfway through, they started ignoring Brown and managed to have a very polite and mostly intelligent conversation without her.

The state of ClimateGate today, Dec 10 2009. [krakatoa]&bodytext=(A series of daily-ish roundups of the day's Climate news and commentary.) This is by no means a comprehensive recap. The stories come from a variety of sources, and I highly recommend exploring the linked sites for more breaking news....&topic=world_news"> posted by xgenghisx at 09:17 PM

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