-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
B.E.S.T., Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature, is the organization, formed by Richard Muller, Professor of Physics at the University of California at Berkeley and self-proclaimed climate skeptic, to analyze temperature data. B.E.S.T. has received a total of $623,087 in financial support, with the largest contribution, $150,000, coming from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. B.E.S.T. directly addressed concerns including urban heat island effect, poor station quality, and data selection bias.
Their results: “Global warming is real.” Before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Muller testified that “we see a global warming trend that is very similar to that previously reported by the other groups.” That similarity can be seen in the graphs below.
The issue of temperature stations in the U.S. located near buildings, in parking lots, or close to other heat sources has been raised by climate change skeptics such as Anthony Watts. Muller testified:
Did such poor station quality exaggerate the estimates of global warming? We’ve studied this issue, and our preliminary answer is no.
The Berkeley Earth analysis shows that over the past 50 years the poor stations in the U.S. network do not show greater warming than do the good stations.
Thus, although poor station quality might affect absolute temperature, it does not appear to affect trends, and for global warming estimates, the trend is what is important.
Regarding the urban heat island effect, the study concludes that:
The urban heat island effect is locally large and real, but does not contribute significantly to the average land temperature rise. That’s because the urban region of the Earth amount to less than 1% of the land area.
Anthony Watts is a weather-caster turned global warming skeptic who stated, “I’m prepared to accept whatever result they produce, even if it proves my premise wrong.” That was in March. Now, Watts “consider[s] the paper fatally flawed.” Watts’ reaction moves him from the category of global warming skeptic to global warming denier. Watts has gained a certain amount of fame by claiming that the temperature data was flawed. If he had accepted the B.E.S.T. results as promised, his celebrity status would be lost.
H/T: Zingularity, LA Times, Brad Plumer, Ron Chusid.
Bron,
Please explain how you believe “recession” is a feedback mechanism. Recession is a type of behavior exhibited by the system which is generally considered undesirable, if perhaps inevitable and/or necessary (or perhaps not). An example of a feedback mechanism would be the pollution tax I suggested — it would provide negative stimuli to polluting entities by assigning a cost to that activity thus distorting the market to make non-polluting solutions more profitable. It’s not really that hard to understand — for most people, anyway…
Your comment reeks of ignorance.
Good public policy includes feedback mechanisms which tend to prevent and/or ameliorate recessions.
My comments indicates understanding (at least in comparison to yours).
Can you tell the difference?
Bdaman,
“Bdaman says climate is weather over a long period of time. Seems to me he has it right.”
Thank you for helping me to make my point. One day of weather does not a climate make. This is what I’ve been trying to get across to you over the course of a number of threads.
🙂
Bron,
“If the fish are having problems, how is it they are making it to market?”
The free market at work?
😉
Bdaman,
I missed reading your comment at 2:12 pm.
“One day leads to two, two days leads to four, four days leads to eight………..”
That’s like saying you actually have $365 on the first day you start saving one dollar a day for a year.
We had a snowstorm in October that wasn’t typical for this area. That was our weather for last night/early this morning. Does that mean snowstorms are typical of the weather we have here throughout the year?
Bdaman,
You didn’t explain to me how one day’s weather is indicative of the prevailing climate where I live. Maybe you and I have different definitions of the word climate.
“Roger,
You wont get anything but bad faith out of Bdaman. He hasn’t engaged in good faith in a single argument in all of the time I’ve been posting on this blog (at least that I’m aware of…). Your posts are appreciated by the rest of us who know that Bdaman is full of it, but have tired of demonstrating that fact.”
Thank you, slarty – appreciated. 🙂
Explain to me how one day’s weather is indicative of the prevailing climate where I live.
One day leads to two, two days leads to four, four days leads to eight………..
Elaine:
““Even though you’ve got a fish that is officially safe to eat, it does not mean that that fish is OK,” said Andrew Whitehead, lead author of the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”
If the fish are having problems, how is it they are making it to market?
Worth repeating
“Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods. Climate can be contrasted to weather, which is the present condition of these elements and their variations over shorter periods.”
from wikipedia
Bdaman says climate is weather over a long period of time. Seems to me he has it right.
I can’t be held responsible for your poor reading and pitiful comprehension skills, Bron.
Why don’t you just make some crap up to fill in the gaps where you fail to understand?
Oh, wait. That’s what you just did. Never mind.
Ms. Elaine here is where you will find this for Boston. Each city has their own. I wonder what a DAILY CLIMATE report is.
Daily Climate Report (CLI)
Preliminary Monthly Climate Data (CF6)
Record Event Report (RER)
Monthly Weather Summary (CLM)
Regional Summary (RTP)
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/climate/index.php?wfo=box
Gene H:
“the disambugation of the collateral collective protogenesis correlates systimatically with Jacobian neoliteration and discountenance of the gyrations of unilateral protagonists.”
You make about as much sense as that statement makes, in fact isnt that from one of your past posts?
Slartibartfast
1, October 29, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Hi Blouise!
I’m insanely busy right now trying to get my company started, but once it’s going and things calm down a bit, I’ll come back to posting here regularly (and I’ll still pop by from time to time for topics like this one until then…).
p.s. I sent you an email a couple of days ago…
—————————————————————————-
Please resend as I can’t find it! I don’t know which address you have but get the one that comes directly to my server from Gene … I don’t like missing emails from you … there are matters which I wish to discuss with you. 🙂
Bdaman
1, October 30, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Bron you take over I’m gonna watch a ball game a through some logs on the fire. It’s quite chilly here today. I had to put my winter jacket on to get the newspaper this morning.
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Southern sissy … 🙂
Slarti:
then what is weather?
“Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods. Climate can be contrasted to weather, which is the present condition of these elements and their variations over shorter periods.”
from wikipedia
Bdaman says climate is weather over a long period of time. Seems to me he has it right.
“Maybe you should read what Bdaman posted? He is posting people with differing positions.
There you again deflecting and changing it up, Dr. Red Herring.”
You’re assuming I didn’t read what was posted. What I saw was people with a minority position against the issue of the reality of anthropogenic global warming and no overwhelming evidence to prove their claims. Extraordinary claims, such as 95% of the scientific climatology community is wrong about AGW, requires extraordinary proof. Look for it. Didn’t see it.
These are the same kind of people who insisted phrenology was real long after it was discredited.
I’m not making a red herring argument against Bdaman’s “argument” (which is in truth little more than propaganda regurgitation since he’s not interested in convincing anyone of the truth of his claims by his own admission).
I’m dismissing it as ill-informed and prime facie substantively insufficient to make his claims reasonably valid in light of the preponderance of evidence to the contrary. It fails because it’s a bad argument in form based on bad information in fact.
Also, you don’t address people with my kind of doctorate as Doctor. There you go again. Thinking you have a clue as to what you’re talking about, Bron. Really, you don’t.
Slarti:
you mean like my thinking that the free market has its own feedback mechanism called recession.
To bad you didnt understand that recession is the limiting event on free markets spinning out of control.
Human interactions are not an engine or an airplane. Free people should be able to purchase what they want and from whom.
And please dont tell me I believe in anarchy, it is getting lame. Since we do have a Constitution which worked pretty well when followed.
Bdaman,
One snowstorm is not indicative of the climate where I live. We have four seasons here. We have hot weather, cold weather, and temperate weather. We have dry days and days with precipitation. Explain to me how one day’s weather is indicative of the prevailing climate where I live.
Bdaman said: “weather is climate”
Hey Bdaman, your ignorance is showing.
Elaine,
Thanks for showing us examples of how naive Bron’s understanding is.
“Too bad for you that Judith Curry isn’t the final arbiter of science.”
and I suppose that bastion of truth and justice [the UN] is? The UN is a political organisation full of bad actors with agendas. I would believe Donald Duck before I believed any science funded by the UN.