Comments on: Climate Rorshach Test as News

By: GRIST – The Climate Post: Insider baseball on Waxman-Markey, outsider baseball on Hawaiian solar power « Global Political Study

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:40:00 +0000

[...] across the U.S. might be slowing. Roger Pielke Jr. takes a bite out of the finding at over at Prometheus, and Gavin Schmidt and Michael Mann parse the question at Real [...]

By: The Blackboard » Effect of 10% drop in wind speed on wind power.

The Blackboard » Effect of 10% drop in wind speed on wind power. — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:09:53 +0000

[...] Some of you may have learned of a report indicating a 10% drop in wind speeds across the US. It appears different scientists may have different points of view on aspects of the report. One of the important consequences would be the impact of lower wind [...]

By: Julian Flood

Julian Flood — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:43:25 +0000

I’ve spent two days trying to find a set of graphs that show windspeed variation over the oceans, divided into north and south, Atlantic and Pacific. No luck — they’re a gif, I think, and something to do with ocean productivity. No luck, but…

If one strips out the Folland and Parker correction from the SST record, then the temperature bump from ‘39 to ‘45 matches nicely with a wind excursion at the same time — it was, IIRC, 7 m/sec up at the peak. So I would expect higher temperatures to be associated with higher windspeed unless there is another mechanism in play which is disengaging the wind from the ocean surface — if that were the case then it should show up in cloud data.

By: Celebrity Paycut - Encouraging celebrities all over the world to save us from global warming by taking a paycut.

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:10:22 +0000

[...] of you may have learned of a report indicating a 10% drop in wind speeds across the US. It appears different scientists may have different points of view on aspects of the report. One of the important consequences would be the impact of lower wind [...]

By: An eye-popping thrill ride! « THE CLIMATE POST, a service of the Nicholas Institute at Duke University

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:14:16 +0000

[...] across the U.S. might be slowing. Roger Pielke Jr. takes a bite out of the finding at over at Prometheus, and Gavin Schmidt and Michael Mann parse the question at Real [...]

By: archtop

archtop — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:31:57 +0000

# Les Johnson Says:

“1. While Mann accepts the measured data, Gavin rejects it, BECAUSE IT CONFLICTS WITH HIS MODELS. Models are better than measurements? ”

As someone who does CFD modeling for a living, I can say it is easy for numerical analysts to construct a “virtual world” for themselves, where their virtual environment substitutes for the real environment. This disconnection from reality I believe is very similar to what is experienced by people addicted to online computer games. Of course, the “computer game” in this case is a poorly documented AOGCM written in very obtuse FORTRAN. See for yourself:

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/modelE/modelEsrc/

By: AGWnonsequitur

AGWnonsequitur — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:05:25 +0000

The lower wind speed observation is quite likely correct, but the attribution is wrong. If global warming has been winding down, as it appears to be from the climate data of the last few years, then the atmosphere obviously would have less energy, which translates into lower wind speed (as oppose to AWG proponents’ prediction of higher wind speed with increased AGW).

You have to give Michael (the Hockey-stick) Mann credit for at least acknowledging the data. Gavin Schmidt, meanwhile, is obviously still busy burying all contrary data in his file cabinet under “bad dreams.”

By: Les Johnson

Les Johnson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:39:45 +0000

2 things I take from this study:

1. While Mann accepts the measured data, Gavin rejects it, BECAUSE IT CONFLICTS WITH HIS MODELS. Models are better than measurements?

2. Reduced average and peak wind speed, would also suggest reduced storm intensities.

By: Roger Pielke, Jr.

Roger Pielke, Jr. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:52:55 +0000

-6-John

I think a big mistake made in this field is that many people assume that science “moves forward” from uncertainty to certain, so a study like this one is just an early indication of what later will become certain.

Of course, as you well know, science moves forwards, backwards, sideways, all at the same time.

By: jfleck

jfleck — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:34:14 +0000

My take on the ink blot is the way it shows the impedance mismatch between science and journalism. At command of an editor looking for “news” I gave it a quick look. It’s a neat piece of work, suggesting interesting issues worthy of further examination. Most science is like that – inching forward tentatively. Turning the paper into “news”, however, necessitates a hardening of conclusions and implications that this paper simply cannot provide.