The Antarctic Peninsula, regarded as a “global warming hot spot”, has been cooling for almost 20 years. Natural variability was responsible both for the decades-long warming since the 1950s and more recent cooling, according to research published today in Nature. The research, led by John Turner from the British Antarctic Survey, said while the start of Antarctic Peninsula cooling in 1998 had coincided with the so-called “global warming hiatus”, the two were not connected. Prior to the paper’s publication, science media organisations around the world were ready with quotes from climate scientists to ensure the Turner paper was not misinterpreted. –Graham Lloyd, The Australian, 21 July 2016
Ms Zharkova, a professor in the department of mathematics, physics and electrical engineering, says this regular heartbeat of the sun is subject to predictable fluctuations of its magnetic field, and over the next few years as it enters a lull temperatures, here on earth, will plummet. This time last year Prof Zharkova announced she had discovered a key solar event which determines magnetic field variations over time. And she ‘confidently’ predicts we will be heading to another ‘Solar Grand Minima’ in solar cycle 25, beginning in 2020 and lasting until 2053. –Peter McCusker, Newcastle Chronicle, 13 July 2016
Lord Lawson of Blaby said a drive to cut CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 had done “no good to anybody” and was pushing up bills for cash-strapped working households. And he hailed Theresa May’s decision to scrap the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in her Cabinet reshuffle, describing the move as “the end of a miserable chapter”. Praising the new Prime Minister Theresa May, he said: “She has made an excellent beginning with the abolition of the Department of Energy and Climate Change. That is not going to transform everything overnight but it is clearly a step in the right direction.” –Nick Gutteridge, Daily Express, 20 July 2016
The recent trend of increasing Antarctic sea ice extent — seemingly at odds with climate model projections — can largely be explained by a natural climate fluctuation, according to a new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The study offers evidence that the negative phase of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), which is characterized by cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific, has created favorable conditions for additional Antarctic sea ice growth since 2000. The findings, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, may resolve a longstanding mystery: Why is Antarctic sea ice expanding when climate change is causing the world to warm? —National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, 4 July 2016
The warming El Ni√±o weather phenomenon has been history since June 2016. The cool La Ni√±a started in mid July 2016. —No Tricks Zone, 20 July 2016
Belief in climate catastrophism is a social phenomenon, and requires an explanation in terms of the social sciences. While a psychological analysis may explain why certain people choose to be environmentalists, it can never explain how environmentalism ‚Äì and in particular its most acute form, climate catastrophism ‚Äì came to conquer the world; how, in other words, belief in climate catastrophism managed to attain a critical mass that permitted it to impose itself as a consensus belief, or ideology. Only a sociological explanation can do that. And a sociological explanation must account for a unique event ‚Äì the rise of climate catastrophism ‚Äì in terms of unique, or at least rarely repeated, social phenomena. –Geoff Chambers, Climate Scepticism, 20 July 2016
