June 30, 2010

Waxman/Markey climate regulation

A whopping big error of omission on the Waxman/Markey website. From Willis Eschenbach at Watts Up With That:
Waxman Malarkey 3: Impact Zone Alaska
Once again, I return to that endless font of misinformation, the Waxman Markey website. In this case, I look at their claims about Alaska. This one will be short and sweet.

The Waxman Markey website page on Alaska says:
Over the past 50 years, Alaska has warmed by 4 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit, much more than anywhere in the lower 48 states. This dramatic temperature change is causing the landscape of Alaska to change faster than anywhere else in the United States, threatening infrastructure, wildlife, and Native Alaskan culture.
I fear that these numbers must from the well-known Government Misinformation Agency.
Willis displays the numbers from the website and they do show an overall warming trend from 1974 on up through today. But Wait. There's More...
There are a few things we can see here. First, Fig. 1 clearly shows the dependence of Alaska temperatures on the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). The PDO is a long-term shift in Pacific sea surface temperatures. The PDO has a warm phase and a cool phase, as shown in Figure 3. It shifts from one phase to the other every thirty years or so.

The PDO shifted to the cool phase in the late 1940s. It went back to the warm phase in 1976-77. And recently, it has gone back to the cool phase. This is clearly visible in the Alaska temperatures. As much as Waxman Markey wants to blame the shift in Alaskan temperatures on �global warming�, the science says otherwise. The changes are due to the shifts in the PDO.
The recent shift in the PDO has certainly affected our corner of the world -- crops are about a month late. The corn should be knee-high by the 4th of July -- it's about 4" in most places. Couple this with the very low solar output and we are in for some interesting weather. A hurricane in June is a great rarity too although all major predictions were for a more than normal hurricane season. Posted by DaveH at June 30, 2010 8:23 PM
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