Commentary #6: Global Warming

[Jason Donaldson]

I think us Aussies can go one better than that. Seaweed!

FutureFeed - CSIRO

"Methane, primarily from burps is a greenhouse gas 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide."

Classic use of anchoring - fix the focus on the super lowball number, and it's easy to manipulate the discussion with comparison to that...

[Martin Shenfield]

I still don't understand why they use the word greenhouse and why nobody responds with the fact that greenhouses are used to make things grow. Why would you want to stop a greenhouse gas at all?

[Stump]

Charted: The Hottest and Coldest Temperatures in U.S. History

The dates on the chart (toward the bottom of the article) are interesting.

Also interesting that North Dakota ties for 5th coldest and 5th hottest ever. And in the same year.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Also interesting that North Dakota ties for 5th coldest and 5th hottest ever. And in the same year.

Keeps out the riff-raff.

[Mark Rippetoe]

You are expected to believe this: Monday was the hottest day ever recorded, breaking Sunday'''s record

Monday was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth, breaking the record set the day before.
The global average temperature reached 17.15 degrees Celsius (62.87 Fahrenheit) on Monday, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
In addition to the effects of climate change, this summer has been especially hot because of El Niño.

[mkm5]

Yeah, Global Warming and the Green New Deal.

Once again we're being choked out here from "Canadian Wildfire Smoke."

If the idiots in charge can't put out a forest fire, how are they going to "fix" the climate?

I'm so sick and tired of the climate bullshit.

[Jason Donaldson]

You are expected to believe this: Monday was the hottest day ever recorded, breaking Sunday'''s record

Climate Change: Global Temperature | NOAA Climate.gov

The concept of an average temperature for the entire globe may seem odd. After all, at this very moment, the highest and lowest temperatures on Earth are likely more than 100°F (55°C) apart. Temperatures vary from night to day and between seasonal extremes in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. This means that some parts of Earth are quite cold while other parts are downright hot. To speak of the "average" temperature, then, may seem like nonsense. However, the concept of a global average temperature is convenient for detecting and tracking changes in Earth's energy budget—how much sunlight Earth absorbs minus how much it radiates to space as heat—over time.

If heat is the transfer of thermal energy, and thermal energy is a measure of kinetic energy displayed in the atoms of material, how is energy radiated into space (a vacuum) as heat?

To calculate a global average temperature, scientists begin with temperature measurements taken at locations around the globe. Because their goal is to track changes in temperature, measurements are converted from absolute temperature readings to temperature anomalies—the difference between the observed temperature and the long-term average temperature for each location and date. Multiple independent research groups across the world perform their own analysis of the surface temperature data, and they all show a similar upward trend.

I am told that the fact that the highest and lowest temperatures recorded in the US are mostly from the 30s or so, and none are more recent than well over 30 years ago is not counter to global warming, because we cannot trust those measurements from that long ago with the same precision as we measure now. Yet, that page is supposed to alarm me because of the comparison of the past 30 years to those previous 123 years of (unreliable?) measurements. Huh.

Across inaccessible areas that have few measurements, scientists use surrounding temperatures and other information to estimate the missing values. Each value is then used to calculate a global temperature average. This process provides a consistent, reliable method for monitoring changes in Earth's surface temperature over time.

My emphasis added. It's just asserted: In the absence of actual, you know, DATA, this proxy is consistent and reliable. Because it is... Even though this method of calculating "average global temperature" could describe: everywhere heating up a little every day, everywhere the same except for a bit hotter summers, everywhere getting a lot colder in the winter and a bigger lot warmer in the winter, the hot places getting cooler and the cold places getting temperate, and any number of other scenarios, all of which are markedly different states of affairs.

The two biggest things I think I've gained from these discussions around here are the term innumeracy and the questioning of the assumption that increased global average temperature must be a bad thing.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I am told that the fact that the highest and lowest temperatures recorded in the US are mostly from the 30s or so, and none are more recent than well over 30 years ago is not counter to global warming, because we cannot trust those measurements from that long ago with the same precision as we measure now. Yet, that page is supposed to alarm me because of the comparison of the past 30 years to those previous 123 years of (unreliable?) measurements. Huh.

And as it turns out, placement location of the temperature recording devices is material to the data. Amazing.

[Martin Shenfield]

In Australia, they put a solar panel right next to the measurement device thus artificially increasing the temperature recorded. Got called out on it, and then said solar panel just disappeared.

[Chadillac]

If heat is the transfer of thermal energy, and thermal energy is a measure of kinetic energy displayed in the atoms of material, how is energy radiated into space (a vacuum) as heat?

Radiation heat transfer, e.g., how the Sun transfers heat to the Earth.

Heat can be transferred through solid materials (conduction), liquids and gasses (convection), or electromagnetic waves (radiation). It's through electromagnetic waves that heat can be transferred through a vacuum.