Written by AFP | 27 August 2010

The sun's energy output dropped to unusually low levels from 2007 to 2009

The upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere are unexpectedly shrinking and cooling due to lower ultraviolet radiation from the sun, US scientists said Thursday.

The sun's energy output dropped to unusually low levels from 2007 to 2009, a significantly long spell with virtually no sunspots or solar storms, according to scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.

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Written by Keith Sherwood & Craig Idso, CO2 Science Magazine | 25 August 2010

In a paper recently published in AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, Mulder et al. (2010) assess the connection between water and energy production by conducting a comparative analysis for estimating the energy return on water invested (EROWI) for several renewable and non-renewable energy technologies using various Life Cycle Analyses. This approach mirrors the energy return on energy investment (EROEI) technique that has been used to determine the desirability of different forms of alternative energy, with the technique's most recent application being adjusted to also consider the global warming potentials of the different forms of non-fossil-fuel energy and the greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere in the process of obtaining them and bringing them to the marketplace.

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Written by Dr. Roy W. Spencer | 23 August 2010

Aqua Satellite

I’m getting more and more questions about the daily global temperature updates we provide at the NASA Discover website. I suppose this is because 2010 is still in the running to beat 1998 as the warmest year in our satellite data record (since 1979).

But also we have made a couple of significant changes recently, and there continue to be some misunderstandings of the data that are posted there.

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Written by Dr. Roy W. Spencer | 19 August 2010

Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) measured by the AMSR-E instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite continue the fall which began several months ago. The following plot, updated through yesterday (August 18, 2010) reveals the global average SSTs continue to cool, while the Nino34 region of the tropical east Pacific remains well below normal, consistent with La Nina conditions. (click on it for the large, undistorted version; note the global SST values have been multiplied by 10):

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Written by CO2 Science Magazine | 19 August 2010

As the atmosphere's CO2 content continues to rise, the pH of the world's oceans is expected to decline, driving a phenomenon described by climate alarmists as ocean acidification, to which they are already ascribing a host of imminent catastrophic consequences. Writing in Marine Ecology Progress Series, however, Vézina and Hoegh-Guldberg (2008) state that "without an understanding of how such a slow and continuous decline in pH is likely to affect ocean ecosystems, we may miss important aspects of this global ocean pH change," and that "to compound this uncertainty, recent research reveals counter-intuitive, positive/neutral effects of acidification on some organisms and processes." In what follows, therefore, we review a few of these "counter-intuitive, positive/neutral effects," primarily as they apply to sea urchins.

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Written by Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog | 19 August 2010

I was intrigued to see the following in a Swiss Re press release a reader sent to me this morning (thanks FN):

Climate change could significantly increase the risk of hurricanes and storms in the Caribbean and threaten future development in the region, concludes a new study released by the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF). Damage from wind, storm surge and inland flooding already amounts to 6% of GDP per year in some countries, according to the study’s preliminary results. Under a high climate change scenario, annual expected losses could rise by another 1 to 3% of GDP by 2030.

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Written by Luboš Motl, physicist, reference frame | 17 August 2010

The short answer is Yes. What about the long answer?

Roger Pielke Jr wrote a text about rare weather events that I completely agree with:

Why rare events are a certainty

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Written by Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog | 13 August 2010

I wrote the following last winter when there were big snowstorms hitting the US.

Let's see if I can make this simple.

What happens in the weather this week or next tells us absolutely nothing about the role of humans in influencing the climate system. It is unjustifiable to claim that a cold snap or heavy snow disproves or even casts doubts predictions of long-term climate change. It is equally unjustifiable to say that a cold snap or heavy snow in any way offers empirical support for predictions of long-term climate change. This goes for all weather events.

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Written by World Climate Report | 10 August 2010

We are sure you’ve heard that sea level is rising? We conducted a web search on “Global Warming and Sea Level” and nearly 3.5 million websites are immediately located. And before you conduct the search yourself, you already know what you will find. The earth is getting warmer due to the buildup of greenhouse gases, the warmer sea water expands causing sea level to rise, and most of all, you will read all about the ice melting throughout the world pouring fresh water into ocean basins causing sea level to rise far more.

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Written by Dr. Tim Ball, Canada Free Press | 09 August 2010

On August 3rd and 4th a solar flare erupted from the surface of the Sun coincident with a sunspot equal in area to the Earth. Many people saw the associated increase in aurora visible in western North America as far south as Iowa. They were most visible in the auroral belt shown on the left, which is well north at this time of year.

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