{edited for typos 4/26/14 pm}
Jim Steele made the following comment at my post regarding a new documentary "Years of Living Dangerously - facing what's happening"
"Since Citizenschallenge is the only one who comments on this blog, perhaps I am wasting my time. But for those who want an objective skeptical opinion from an avid evironamentalist regards the fear mongering in this documentary, please read my analysis "Exploiting Human Misery and Distorting the Science: An environmentalist’s critique of “Years of Living Dangerously” at WattsUpWithThat.com - 2014/04/14
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At the time I was occupied and it's taken a while to finish a thorough 'analysis' of Jim Steele's "Exploiting Human Misery, Distorting Science…"
Yup, it's another marathon, though I plan to do a condensed version also. It seems to me, sometimes there's no choice but to do a sentence by sentence review in order to reveal the various tactics and tricks contrarians such as this Jim Steele employ.
I do this because there needs to be some source of information available to counter such astro-turfing.
I'm also hoping to inspire a few students out there to go after such articles of nonsense. It's not tough, the information is out there and the scientific case has become overwhelming, just takes time and a willingness to do some research, plus you'll learn a lot along the way.
Fabricating Climate Doom: Parmesan's Butterfly Effect condensed… just the science - 3/28/2014
Fabricating Climate Doom - Steele's Extreme Weather Extinctions Enron Style - examined - 3/30/2014
Fabricating Climate Doom: looking at Jim Steele’s deception - 3/19/2014
Jim Steele's words are unaltered and in Courier font, I've added some red highlights.
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Posted on April 14, 2014 by Anthony Watts
Guest essay by Jim Steele,
Director emeritus Sierra Nevada Field Campus,
San Francisco State University
¶1 In “Years of Living Dangerously” Hollywood’s Don Cheadle partners with Christian climate scientist Katharine Heyhoe {that would be Hayhoe PhD} to convince fellow Christians that they should trust the climate scientists who blame the misery brought by a Texas drought on rising CO2. Indeed in times of natural climate calamities, people suffer and become insecure as they confront nature’s awesome power.~ ~ ~
Notice Jim Steele's disregard for detail -
the man can't even be bothered to get the spelling of Dr. Katharine Hayhoe's name correct.
But, his first sentence dismisses Cheadle and Hayhoe outright, then he goes on to imply climatologists (that would be the experts) should not be trusted.
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¶2 Unfortunately that is when charlatans exploit their misery, making it truly a time of living dangerously.~ ~ ~
Seems a twisted conception of "Respectful Debate" calling Hayhoe and other climatologists "charlatans."
For the record Katharine Hayhoe has a B.Sc. in physics and astronomy from the University of Toronto and an M.S. and Ph.D. in atmospheric science from the University of Illinois. Her work has resulted in over 50 peer-reviewed publications. (http://www.katharinehayhoe.com/bio.php)
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Quick interviews with ranchers who still believe the drought was caused naturally or by God was a feeble attempt to suggest it is religion that has blinded ranchers to the purported “science” of catastrophic climate change.~ ~ ~
Instead the documentary evoked memories of the 1956 movie “The Rainmaker.” Rancher Noah Curry tells Burt Lancaster (who is playing the Bill Starbuck the rainmaker), “We don’t believe in rainmakers!” Lancaster snaps back, “What do you believe in mistah? Dyin’ cattle?” Cheadle and Heyhoe {that would be Hayhoe PhD} were employing the age old rainmaker’s trick of exploiting natural catastrophes and human misery. I have documented similar ploys here, here, here, here and here.
Here Steele drifts off into a rhetorical distractions that has nothing to do with assessing how a warming world is impacting our global climate.
The Climate System - General Circulation and Climate Zones.
http://eesc.columbia.edu/courses/ees/climate/lectures/gen_circ/
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Papers on Hadley Cell expansion
http://agwobserver.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/papers-on-hadley-cell-expansion/~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
¶3 The ranchers’ belief in natural drought cycles actually grew from life long experiences, and most will tell you the 1950-1957 drought was likely much more devastating. Even Heyhoe {that would be Hayhoe PhD} admits the cycle of floods one year and droughts the next is the norm for Texas. The research by ten NOAA climate scientists also supports the ranchers’ belief, and their climate models indicated that at least 80% of Texas’s drought was due to the cooling of the eastern Pacific Ocean associated with La Nina and the natural cycles of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.1 In fact most climate scientists have shown that droughts and floods in the American southwest are the result of ocean cycles,2,3,4,5 but Cheadle and Heyhoe {that would be Hayhoe PhD} did not share such research.~ ~ ~
This was a short documentary, they could not touch on every aspect in detail. No climatologist disputes the ENSO connection.
Steele grossly misrepresents Hayhoe's position.
Here's a talk were Hayhoe has the time to give a more complete description to a lay-audience:
Dr. Katharine Hayhoe: A Climate for Change
http://youtu.be/MB1X4UTjsLY?t=22m
23:00 sun
23:30 natural cycles, NAO, ENSO,
24:00 explains how scientists test for fingerprints (sources)
25:00 ocean warming- - -
What Steele doesn't share is that all of these ocean and atmospheric cycles are pushing around warmer water; and warmer air masses that are holding more moisture; some migrating into new positions on the globe. This is important stuff, yet Steele ignores it.
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Climate Dynamics
By Zack Guido | The University of Arizona
http://www.southwestclimatechange.org/climate/global/dynamics?page=1~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Climate models driven by CO2 had predicted extreme drying in the southwest during the 80s and 90s. But those model predictions failed due to misunderstanding ocean cycles.2 Actual observations revealed a trend of increasing precipitation during the 80s and 90s due to more El Ninos. The most recent drought has occurred as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) reversed again to its cool phase, just like devastating Texas droughts of the 50s that happened when the PDO entered its cool phase and promoted more La Ninas.~ ~ ~
Vague hand waving about old climate models is a "below the belt" distraction. We're supposed to be talking about current observational evidence of a radically changing climate system.
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¶4 The NOAA’s models did suggest that perhaps 20% could be blamed on human caused climate change but researchers warned:“There are various difficulties in interpreting such an analysis and assessing its relevance to understanding observations. First, no summertime warming over Texas in the long historical record has been detected, and we emphasized in this paper that the CMIP5 model-simulated Texas warming over the last century is inconsistent with observations…based on CMIP5 experiments, these estimates of changes in event probability drawn solely from CMIP5 must be viewed with great caution.”1 [emphasis added JM]~ ~ ~
Considering we are at the early stages of our geophysical experiment - 20% is significant and worrisome.
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¶5 Instead of driving to west Texas, Cheadle merely had to look at the Plainview TX temperature trends found online from the US Historical Climate Network to confirm that had been no climate warming.
A) It's one small town in Northern Texas,
B) Graph is for Max temps only,
C) Jim's solid line is raw uncorrected data, in keeping with Jim's dependence on "conspiracy ideation"
D) Extensive irrigation of surrounding area makes this a poor proxy for AGW trends.
Link to this Google image of Plain View, Texas:
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.161711,-101.696187,20785m/data=!3m1!1e3
Irrigating started there in the 1930s. Steele ought to know that increasing irrigation impacts on local temperatures making Plain View an impossible area to look for a clean global warming signature.
"Did irrigation impact 20th century air temperature in the High Plains aquifer region?"
R. Mahmood, T. Keeling, S. A. Foster, K. G. Hubbard | 2012 - Applied Geography
http://watercenter.unl.edu/ResearchDB/publications/Hubbard_Irrigation_Temperature.pdf- - -
What about the whole state?
https://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/drought/
State Climatologist John-Nielsen Gammon has warned that Texas’ could be in the midst of a drought worse than the drought of record in the 1950s. 2011 was the driest year ever for Texas, with an average of only 14.8 inches of rain. 2011 also set new lows for rainfall for March through May, and again from June through August. The high summer temperatures increased evaporation, further lowering river and lake levels. ...
"... In February 2013, the state climatologist told the Texas Legislature that high temperatures related to climate change have exacerbated the drought. He said that the state’s average temperature has increased by an average of about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1970s. ..."- - - "Temperature and Precipitation Changes in Far West Texas: Models vs. Observations"
John W. Nielsen-Gammon Texas State Climatologist
http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/waterplanning/rwp/climate/doc/03-Nielsen-Gammon.pdf
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"Digital Climatic Atlas of Texas"
https://www.twdb.state.tx.us/groundwater/docs/Texas_Digital_Climate_Atlas.pdf~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
¶6 Instead, to counter the beliefs of those Christian ranchers who had actually experienced those natural drought cycles, Heyhoe {that would be Hayhoe PhD} and Cheadle highlighted a statistical virtual reality – a “hockey-stick graph” of global warming. But the global average temperature is a chimera of many different climate dynamics and artificial adjustments.~ ~ ~
This is a baffling claim.
Steele is being plain contrarian and disconnected from the evidence and reality.
Here are some good sources if you want more details:
The Hockey Stick: The Most Controversial Chart in Science, Explained
Chris Mooney | May 10 2013,
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/the-hockey-stick-the-most-controversial-chart-in-science-explained/275753/
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Hockey stick or hockey league?
http://www.skepticalscience.com/Hockey-stick-or-hockey-league.html
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The Heat is On: U.S. Temperature Trends | June 23rd, 2012
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/the-heat-is-on/
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PAGES (Past Global Changes) is a scientific network confirms "hockey stick"
http://www.skepticalscience.com/pages2k-confirms-hockey-stick.html~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Droughts and heat waves are not global, but regional phenomenon.~ ~ ~
That's a hugely simplistic view which ignores that global circulation patterns are the drivers of local weather events.
Here's an excellent introduction into what our global climate engine is all about. These basics are essential learning for anyone hoping to make sense of changing "local" weather patterns.
"Earth From Space - NOVA HD"
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It is disturbing that Heyhoe {that would be Hayhoe PhD}, who has been hailed as a Christian committed to the truth in both science and faith, committed major sins of omission. The truth is there has been no climate warming in Texas. If Heyhoe {that would be Hayhoe PhD} was truly promoting objective climate science, she should have included the science of natural cycles and addressed why Texas had been getting wetter in the 80s and 90s and why it had not warmed during the 20th century.~ ~ ~
As for Steele's "truth" we have seen the state meteorologist expose Steele lie, when he claims Texas shows no warming.
Hayhoe does discuss natural cycles!
Don't believe me?
Why not listen to her?
Dr. Katharine Hayhoe: A Climate for Change
http://youtu.be/MB1X4UTjsLY?t=22m
23:00 sun
23:30 natural cycles, NAO, ENSO,
24:00 explains how scientists test for fingerprints (sources)
25:00 ocean warming~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
¶7 But perhaps her misleading presentation was not all Heyhoe’s {that would be Hayhoe PhD} doing. One of the chief science advisors for this fearful climate documentary is the rabid CO2 advocate Joe Romm. Romm has previously teamed with the advocacy journal Nature to publish opinion pieces that CO2 is causing global “Dustbowlification”. Romm also uses his blog ClimateProgress to attack those scientists who have demonstrated that in fact natural ocean cycles have driven most droughts. That would explain the slanted drought presentation.~ ~ ~
Here we have Mr. We Need Respectful Debate Steele labeling Joe Romm PhD a "rabid advocate." Why would Jim do that when, in fact, Joe Romm has a formidable background and is a recognized expert by all rational sides.
Romm attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1982 and a Ph.D. in 1987, both in physics.[13][14] He pursued part of his graduate work at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.[15] In 1987, Romm was awarded an American Physical Society Congressional Science Fellowship for the U.S. House of Representatives, where he provided science and security policy advice on the staff of Representative Charles E. Bennett.[14]
From 1988 to 1990, Romm worked as Special Assistant for International Security at the Rockefeller Foundation. From 1991 to 1993, he was a researcher at the Rocky Mountain Institute. He co-authored the 1994 Rocky Mountain Institute Report, Greening the Building and the Bottom Line: Increasing Productivity Through Energy-Efficient Design.[16] For the Global Environment and Technology Foundation, he performed the first environmental analysis of a system integrating cogenerating fuel cells, fly wheels, and power electronics aimed at achieving very high-availability power.[17] In 1990 and 1991, Romm taught a course entitled "Rethinking National Security" at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.[18] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_J._Romm)It's one thing to not like him or to disagree with the man - but calling him a "rabid advocate" is a tad "rabid" in itself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_(journal)
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¶8 It is also the only reasonable explanation for the outlandish attempt to marry the civil war in Syria to rising CO2. Natural climate change does create insecurity.~ ~ ~
Here Steele ignores the fact we are way past the "natural" climate change question - we do indeed have evidence of a significantly mankind driven altered climate system.
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However Romm’s concern about the Dustbowlification proves slightly schizophrenic. While climate scientists have shown that the ocean surface temperatures are the best predictor of regional droughts, the extremes of the American Dust Bowl can only be explained when degradation of the landscape is also taken into account.6~ ~ ~
Romm does not dispute the influence of ENSO and other circulation patterns!
The Dust Bowl is no comparison to today's situation!
Steele is also very behind on his science seeming to prefer old data to new insights. Here's something recent.
Leading Scientists Explain How Climate Change Is Worsening California’s Epic Drought
Joe Romm January 31, 2014
also http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/03/07/3370481/california-drought/~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Likewise the drought in Syria can not be understood without understanding how politics have altered the Syrian landscape. I thought NY Time’s journalist Thomas Freidman who has studied Middle East conflicts for decades would provide that historical background. But Freidman’s role was to marry the current Syrian drought to the simplistic notion that CO2 had caused climate change and thus the war, and landscape and political causes of stressed farmers were never brought to light.~ ~ ~
Escalating his war of words, Steele now implies Romm is "schizophrenic" and accuses Thomas Freidman of being simplistic for his "outlandish attempt" to marry environmental conditions... with human conditions... with political conditions... with human conflict.
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¶9 The Syrian revolution has indeed been led by hungry displaced farmers. But to blame CO2 is simply climate fear mongering.~ ~ ~
"to blame CO2" ?
Doubting the unassailable basics of CO2 and other greenhouse gases and their global insulating properties is beyond disconnected, it's the most malicious kind of crazy-making.
IPCC, Working Group 1, Assessment Report 5
http://www.climatechange2013.org/images/report/WG1AR5_FAQbrochure_FINAL.pdf~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
To understand the enormous complexity of the problem I suggest reading “Unsustainable land use in Syria: Drivers of Unsustainable Land Use in the Semi-Arid Khabur River Basin, Syria”7 by Yale University’s Dr. Frank Hole. Scientist know this region’s climate is highly variable and we know from “archaeology and history that settlements in this semi-arid steppe have expanded on cycles of 200–300 years of good weather and retreated on cycles of 1000 or more years of poor weather and political instability.” Recently multiyear droughts happened in 1968–1971, 1997–1998, 1999–2000 and 2000–2001. “A drought in 1961 resulted in the loss of 80% of the camel population and nearly50% of sheep.” 7~ ~ ~
Steele plays a game where if he can point at human causes he believes he can ignore climate driven influences. Yet, Hole's own list starts with "climate".
Drivers of Unsustainable Land Use in the Semi-Arid Khabur River Basin, Syria
FRANK HOLE
"… The major factors are: climate; quality of the physical resources, including soil, water and vegetation; history of land use; social, economic and political factors; government policies; infrastructural developments; interstate impacts, and legacies of past history."
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¶10 “In 1940, the Khabur could be considered a self-sustaining steppe [a semi-arid grass and shrub land] for the pasturing of camels and sheep, with highly productive rain-fed agriculture, and equally productive gravity irrigation along stretches of the river. Fishing and hunting of wild gazelle were important contributors to the diet. Both are now extinct, with no foreseeable possibility of regeneration.” 7~ ~ ~
Right, and rather than seeing such examples as reason for handling our global heat distribution engine with utmost respect and an increased desire to understand it better, Steele counsels contempt for rational learning.
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¶11 A dramatic drying of this region began during the Little Ice Age, forcing many tribes to abandon fixed settlements and adopt a nomadic lifestyle. The vast steppe then became controlled by migratory tribes who pastured camels and sheep seasonally, holding the land in common according to well-established customary tribal law. The tribes migrated with sheep and camels to fresh pastures on an annual cycle, which allowed vegetation to regenerate and also support herds of gazelle. The closing of the border between Syria and Turkey in the 1940s curtailed some of the traditional movements of Syria’s nomadic tribes, which once migrated into the pastures of Turkey’s Taurus Mountains during summer.~ ~ ~
No one claims problems aren't political and the result of many bad decisions over the years.
But, that reality doesn't disqualify climate change as a major multiplier of these and other pre-existing tensions.
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¶12 The American DustBowl had been created in part when the government subsidized wheat prices to meet the demand during World War I. This resulted in a loss of native buffalo grass that sustained the semiarid American west. An area the size of state of Ohio was quickly ploughed to plant wheat. When prices fell and governments no longer guaranteed farmers a high price, many abandoned the land. Without natural vegetation to hold the soil, when the natural cycle of droughts began the Dust Bowl ensued. Similarly the “demand for grain during the Second World War encouraged expansion of Syrian agriculture. In the early 1950s, when the new Syrian State abolished tribal land tenure, that agriculture, supported by mechanical ploughs, expanded on to virgin steppe but most proved to be unproductive.” Much of the land degradation has been the result of deep that ploughing that removed native vegetation and exposed soil to wind and water erosion, as well as destroying much of its organic content. It is no coincidence that many of Syria’s revolutionary leaders are failed cotton farmers who once depended on the whims of government subsidies.7~ ~ ~
Another disingenuous smoke-screen. It would have been more constructive for Steele to focus on the lesson the documentary was trying to convey. Namely, that "down on the farm" conditions have profound political impacts.
NOAA study: Human-caused climate change a major factor in more frequent Mediterranean droughts | October 27, 2011
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2011/20111027_drought.html
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Drought helped cause Syria’s war. Will climate change bring more like it?
BY BRAD PLUMER | September 10, 2013
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/10/drought-helped-caused-syrias-war-will-climate-change-bring-more-like-it/
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The Arab Spring and Climate ChangeA Climate and Security Correlations Series
Edited by Caitlin E. Werrell and Francesco Femia February 2013 Preface by Anne-Marie Slaughter
http://climateandsecurity.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/climatechangearabspring-ccs-cap-stimson.pdf
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¶13 Syria’s Khabur River is a principal tributary of the Euphrates and flows entirely within Syria. However it is largely fed from limestone springs that are recharged by precipitation that falls in the adjacent Turkish mountains. Huge increases in the use of groundwater for irrigation in both Turkey and Syria have left the fields dry that depended on drawing irrigation water from the springs and upper course of the Khabur River. Furthermore recently built dams in Turkey now control the flow of water into Syria and the amount of water allowed to reach Syria and Iraq is now wielded as a political weapon. 7~ ~ ~
In other words, there is an already untenable situation being made worse by climate change.
Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture in Turkey.
Prof. Dr. Levent Saylan on Agricultural Meteorology
Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Department of Meteorology, Maslak, Istanbul, Turkey
http://www.cost734.eu/reports-and-presentations/7th-management-commitee-meeting/potential-impacts-of-climate-change-on-agriculture-in-turkey
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¶14 As refugees dramatically increased Syria’s population, they added greater and greater stress on a landscape already in serious decline. While regional strife increased the flow of refugees into Syria, it also limited the flow of incoming water. “In 1987, Turkey guaranteed a minimum water flow of 500 cubic metes per second and Syria, in return, promised to cooperate in security matters. A few months later, Turkey complained about terrorist activities and accused Syria of supporting. Turkey allegedly hinted at a cut in the flow of Euphrates water to Syria over Syrian support for Kurdish terrorists. In January 1990, Turkey completely stopped the flow of the Euphrates [emphasis added]. The official justification for the interruption was to fill the lake behind the Ataturk Dam and the interruption was intended to be only for one month. Behind the scenes, this interruption was an indirect threat to Syria for its continued support of the PKK. Turkey did not care about Iraq’s reaction as Syria and Iraq were bitter enemies; however, Turkey’s actions united both Iraq and Syria against it.”10~ ~ ~
¶15 The myriad of factors stressing the revolutionary farmers is very complex. Obviously blaming Syria’s water woes on CO2 is a simple-minded ploy.
Ignoring the immense political importance of crop nurturing weather patterns is itself a simple-minded ploy to ignore the dangers of a changing climate.
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http://climateandsecurity.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/climatechangearabspring-ccs-cap-stimson.pdf
Syria’s current social unrest is, in the most direct sense, a reaction to a brutal and out-of-touch regime and a response to the political wave of change that began in Tunisia in the early months of 2011. But this is not the whole story. The past few years have also seen a number of significant social, economic, environmental, and climatic changes in Syria that have eroded the social contract between citizen and government in the country, strengthened the case for the opposition movement, and irreparably damaged the legitimacy of the Assad regime.
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Global and Local Economic Impacts of Climate Change in Syria and Options for Adaptation
http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/ifpridp01091.pdf
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But one could still argue that “unprecedented climate change” had exacerbated any problems created by bad government and landscape abuse. However as in Texas, there are no unprecedented climate trends other than those created locally by landscape abuse.~ ~ ~
This is Steele's own uninformed opinion, shear nonsense actually.
Drought Called a Factor in Syria’s Uprising
http://www.voafanti.com/gate/big5/www.voanews.com/content/drought-called-factor-in-syria-uprising/1733068.html~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Historical records of droughts in Turkey’s Anatolia and neighboring countries corroborate the data furnished by tree-ring widths to indicate that cycles of major droughts and famine events have occurred in 1725, 1757, 1887, 1890–1891, 1893–1894 and 1927–1928, long before rising CO2 could play a role. As seen in Fig. 5 the lack of recent precipitation is a minor bump in the road when compared to records over the past 350 years.9
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¶16 And as in Texas, based on proxy data there has been no “global warming” in this region either. Tree ring researchers striving to put recent temperatures into a historical context concluded, “Low-frequency variations, which were associated with the medieval warm period and the little ice age, were identified in the winter-to-spring temperature reconstruction, however, the twentieth century warming trend found elsewhere could not be identified in our temperature proxy record.”8 [emphasis added] This is~ ~ ~
Please notice the study ends 2001, it is now 2014, and the global warming trend continues. Steele's fixation on the rearview mirror ignores today's reality.
"World Food Security in the Cross Hairs of Human-Caused Climate Change: Mangled Jet Stream, Ocean Heat and Melting Sea Ice to Deliver 500 Year Drought to California? Brazil, Turkey, Australia and More to Follow?"
http://robertscribbler.wordpress.com
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As for up to date reports on the situation in that part of the world see:
Drought Bulletin for SE Europe
http://www.dmcsee.org/en/drought_bulletin/?Fstran=1
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http://www.cost734.eu/reports-and-presentations/7th-management-commitee-meeting/potential-impacts-of-climate-change-on-agriculture-in-turkey
- - -https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/div/ocp/drought/PDFS/Kelley_etal_GRL_2012.pdf
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 39, L21703, doi:10.1029/2012GL053416, 2012
Mediterranean precipitation climatology, seasonal cycle, and trend as simulated by CMIP5
C. Kelley, M. Ting, R. Seager, Y. Kushnir
"...The atmospheric response to the Hoerling et al. [2012] Indian Ocean differential warming experiment has a zonally symmetric expression resembling an expanding Hadley Cell and poleward migration of the storm tracks. Because the eastern Mediterranean is also a region of great water stress, for example in Turkey, Syria and Iraq, and because the future drying due to greenhouse warming will inevitably further deteriorate water availability, it is of vital importance to understand the mechanisms which govern the precipitation change there. ..."
¶17 The third segment of the documentary exposed how government corruption was destroying the Indonesian ecosystem.~ ~ ~
Another over-simplification with malicious intent.
View the documentary for yourself:
"Years of Living Dangerously Premiere Full Episode"
However anyone concerned about deforestation should ask why Harrison Ford failed to mention the most powerful driver of Indonesia’s disappearing rain forests and the endangerment of the Orangtuans. It is not climate change, but climate fear mongering. Politicians have used climate fear to justify government handouts in the form of subsidies for planting more corn in America, sugar cane in Brazil and palm oil in Indonesia.~ ~ ~
These subsidies have upset world food markets and destroyed efforts to protect wild lands. In the 2013 research article “The EU Biofuel Policy and Palm Oil: Cutting subsidies or cutting rainforest?” by The International Institute for Sustainable Development, they report the European Union alone has provided $11 billion dollars in biofuel subsidies and the bulk of that has subsidized palm oil for the biodiesel industry. I loved Harrison Ford for his ability to provide such gripping Hollywood illusions as Indiana Jones, but I am deeply troubled by his current role in distorting climate reality.
All this hand waving has nothing to do with addressing the issue of dealing with the physical implications of changing global weather patterns on local drought patterns.
Jim Steele is a fine example of the neo-Republican PR campaign based on misdirection, deception and avoidance of the actual issues.
Sadly our children are depending on Steele's sort of right-wing neo-Republican denialism to out-grow its anti-science war footing.
We don't need more dishonest debate.
We need a constructive learning processes using the insights and skills of everyone in a coordinated outcomes oriented manner.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~¶18 The emotional, virtual realities created by modern technology can indeed be dangerous. The speed of modern communication and the ease by which our fears can be exploited demands that we become better critical thinkers. The baby boom’s motto of the 60s to question authority is more important now than ever.~ ~ ~
Dear reader, excuse me a moment: Bull Shit on you Mr. Steele!
That "dangerous emotional virtual reality of modern technology" is brought to us by Hollywood and the Reaganomics mentality of "too much is never enough" - coupled with the modern right-wing media's willingness to endlessly repeat known lies and refusal to learn from mistakes.
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We all can fall victim to our own predilections and be blinded by our beliefs. Only respectful debate can free us from our illusions.~ ~ ~
What a tragedy Steele doesn't heed his own words.
along with a willingness to be shown to be wrong and to learn new lessons based on new information.
Respectful debate also demands an admission that there are limits on this planet which we can be sure our children will pay the price for us disregarding.
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Unfortunately people like Joe Romm who are pushing climate catastrophe, also argue that the debate is over.~ ~ ~
The geophysical basics of our "global climate system" are settled and there is a significant "trend" underway.
Climate change: How do we know?
http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence
- - -
Human Caused Global Warming
http://ossfoundation.us/projects/environment/global-warming/human-caused
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Increasingly alarmists demand that skeptics should be banned from public forums and seek to “deny the deniers the right to deny”.~ ~ ~
Lets be clear, Steele is demanding the right to continue lying about what scientists are actually telling us. That sort of unmitigated crazy-making should be roundly rejected.
In summary Jim Steele's brand of one directional skepticism and contrarianism has nothing to do with honestly learning about our planet's geophysical processes.
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They want us to only believe that the Hollywood illusions presented in “Years of Living Dangerously” are the real truth. Yet their sins of omission and the distortion of published science illustrates why, now more than ever, more climate debate is needed.~ ~ ~
Oh the irony of those words. As I have shown Steele's arguments are based on withholding important information, misrepresenting information, spreading lies and simply dismissing acknowledged experts with the wave of his sanctimonious pen.
What we actually want, is for denialist types to recognize bad information. To learn from their mistakes and to stop believing that endlessly repeating false information and lies is an OK part of the public dialogue regarding such a critically important topic as our planet's changing climate.
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1.Hoerling et al (2013) Anatomy of an Extreme Event. Journal of Climate, vol. 26
2. Dai (2012) The influence of the inter-decadal Pacific oscillation on US precipitation during 1923–2010. Climate Dynamics,
3. Seager, R. et al. (2008) Drought in the Southeastern United States: Causes, Variability over the Last Millennium, and the Potential for Future Hydroclimate Change. Journal of Climate, vol. 22, p. 5021-5047.
4. Cook, E., et al., (2004) Long-Term Aridity Changes in the Western United States. Science 306, 1015-1018.
5. Herweijer,C., et al., (2007) North American Droughts of the Last Millennium from a Gridded Network of Tree-Ring Data. Journal of Climate, vol. 20, p. 1353-1376.
6. Cook, B., et al., (2011) Atmospheric circulation anomalies during two persistent North American droughts: 1932–1939 and 1948–1957. Climate Dynamics, vol. 36, p. 2339–2355
7. Hole (2009) Unsustainable land use in Syria Drivers of Unsustainable Land Use in the Semi-Arid
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Jim Steele commented at 9:05 PM - 4/25/2014
Citizenchallenge is the only one capable of distorting the truth and denigrating the truth in my critique odf episode 1. Read my debunking of episode 2, Taking liberty or artistic license? {DELETED LINK by pm} I have debunked the claim"s made in the film that almost nobody watches, and now shouldn’t even take seriously. But Citizenschallenge's proclivity for fascism predicts he will delete the truth. on Years of Living Dangerously - facing what's happening
And yes, I have removed the link he shared - if he doesn't have the integrity to respond to the valid points made in this critique, I can refuse to link to his next piece vicious misinformation.
In effect as with many other denialist, Steele feels that insults and ridicule is all he needs to make his case.
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