Category: Humor

Climate Change Makes Better Wine

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Good news on the climate front!

The doom and gloom surrounding global warming tends to offer a depressing picture of the future, but there may be a small glimmer of hope.

Scientists have discovered climate change may actually be making wine taste better.

They have found the conditions typically associated with high-quality wines have altered in recent years as temperatures have risen, resulting in consistently better vintages.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3507836/Is-climate-change-making-wine-taste-BETTER-Rising-temperatures-causing-early-harvests-high-quality-vintages.html

I usually laugh at these stories when they show the opposite. So I’m going to highlight 2 things.

CO2 is never mentioned in the story. Yet its easy to find research showing higher CO2 increases grape yields.

Their “temperature reconstruction” splices 100 years of thermometer data  onto 300 years of tree ring data (which they claim tells you what the temperature and precipitation is).Thats pretty bogus “science”.

 

 

Goats are SHRINKING because of climate change (or not)

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“Goats are shrinking as a result of climate change, researchers have claimed.

They say Alpine goats now weigh about 25 per cent less than animals of the same age in the 1980s.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2802123/goats-shrinking-climate-change-researchers-find.html

Shocking if true!

 

However, lets get to the important line:

The team delved into long-term records of Chamois body weights provided by hunters in the Italian Alps.

Wait!

Hunters have been shooting the goats? And the “scientists” have been in fact measuring only the dead goats? Well. Not measuring. Passing on the claims of hunters.

Could it be the hunters have been shooting the bigger and slower goats?

Resulting in smaller goats being the survivors?

 

I wonder how many are being hunted?

“There are also concerns about the relative over-harvesting of older males (e.g. Zeiler et al., 1990, 1992). Although not threatened overall in Germany, the small sub-alpine populations are vulnerable to poaching and stochastic events, and possibly to inbreeding depression. Disturbance acts as a major threat to small populations and has caused declines in some. Unless steps are taken to reverse this threat, declines will continue and most small populations are on the verge of extinction. Even large populations face threats. Numbers in the Bavarian Alps are currently decreasing due to sharply increased harvest rates. Tourist development has also affected many subpopulations negatively (e.g., disturbance, habitat isolation). In Italy, competition with introduced mouflon may cause problems for Alpine chamois in some parts of its range.”

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/39255/0

over-harvesting of older males

sharply increased harvest rates

What a shocker.

 

 

Indian Village Demands Real Electricity, Not Solar Gimmick

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This is very funny:

“Former Chief minister met by village youngsters carrying placards demanding “real source of energy”, and “not the fake solar powered” one.

The least you would expect when you bring electricity to an entire village, ending over three decades of darkness, is a ‘thank you’ from its residents. But no such niceties here in Dharnai, a nondescript village tucked away in the Naxal heartland of Bihar.

The residents of Dharnai are far from satisfied to see lights for the first time in 33 years, courtesy a solar-powered micro-grid set up by the environment watchdog Greenpeace India. They now want asli bijli (real electricity) from the government.”

http://www.thegwpf.org/indian-village-demands-real-electricity-not-solar-gimmick/

 

Global Warming Causes ‘nearly ideal conditions’ For Growing Corn

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If  “global warming” causes drought or floods then certainly when the weather is perfect that too is caused by global warming … right?

“In a typical growing season, at least some corn-growing states would have experienced drought or other production problems. But the 18 states that grow 91 percent of the nation’s corn have experienced nearly ideal conditions this year, as adequate rain fell when plants emerged and cooler summer temperatures minimized heat stress.”

 

(h/t Suyts)

Leaking methane from coal-seam gas wells … about the same as four cows

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I love the idea of using a cow as a unit of measure.

“Leaking methane from coal-seam gas wells was not as high as feared, with each well emitting about the same as four cows, a CSIRO study has found.”

“A review of 43 CSG well sites in Queensland and NSW undertaken for the federal environment department found leaking from the Australian industry was much lower than in the US.

All of the methane leaks were from equipment and none due to the release of gas from outside of the well casing. The worst leaks were from well sites that were under pressure after being put out of production.”

http://www.thegwpf.org/new-study-leaking-methane-from-gas-wells-not-as-high-as-feared

NRDC Recommends Gas Dryers

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The National Resources Defense Council went on a little rant about clothes dryers in the USA.

A couple of items stood out:

“natural gas dryers typically cost 50 percent to 75 percent less to operate.”

“A typical household pays over $100 in annual utility bills to operate an electric dryer and $40 for a gas dryer.“

Clearly, to me, the NRDC is telling people: Buy A Gas Dryer!

“If all of America’s electric dryers were updated to the most efficient models sold in other parts of the world, U.S. consumers would not only save $4 billion worth of energy per year”

The NRDC are certifiably insane. An “Eco-Dry” dryer costs 1,199$.  There are 89,000,000 dryers in the USA. That would cost 107 billion dollars to save 4 billion dollars. Does that make sense?

And if the USA did have a spare 108 billion dollars to send to Korea or China or Europe for new dryers:

” it would prevent roughly 16 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, equivalent to the pollution from three coal-fired power plants””

Or one natural gas power plant. Unless the 107 billion dollars was spent on gas dryers (as the NRDC recommends) in which case it would probably increase the amount of CO2. Just kidding. Gas dryers produce less CO2 than electric ones because a large portion of US electricity comes from coal.

“How a consumer uses a dryer is almost as important as which dryer is purchased. Choosing a lower operating temperature can slow the drying process a little, but it cuts energy use significantly. Stopping the dryer before all of the clothes are bone-dry saves time and energy, while reducing wrinkles and helping clothes last longer.”

Sure. Lets spend 107 billion, burn more natural gas (actually I like that recommendation) so we can have slow drying wet clothes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DUH!!! ( Animals and Plants are Learning to Adapt)

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“As the planet warms, animals and plants are learning to adapt to their new environment by either migrating or evolving, new research has revealed.”

http://www.thegwpf.org/scientists-have-underestimated-ability-to-adapt-to-climate-change-new-studies-say/

Michelle-Tanner-Sarcastic-Duh-Gif-On-Full-House

 

 

What kind of idiots didn’t think plants and animals couldn’t adapt?

Could Climate Change Have Caused the Polar Vortex?

Published on by sunshinehours13 Comments

According to Time Magazine: “Climate change skeptics are pointing to the record cold weather as evidence that the globe isn’t warming. But it could be that melting Arctic ice is making sudden cold snaps more likely—not less”

Do you want to see what a cold snap really looks like according to the NOAA?

February 1936 – Coldest Month in USA History (click on the image for the full effect)

cag_[ Statewide Temperature Anomalies (Feb 1936) ]

 

In 2014, Feb was -1.69°F below the 1901-2000 average. In February 1936 the USA was -8.59°F below average. Big difference.

NOAA_Feb_1936_Lower_48

 

In North Dakota, February 1936 was –26.0°F below the 1901-2000 average. The whole month averaged -14.1°F below 0.

NOAA_Feb_1936_North_Dakota

In comparison, lets take a look at Feb 2014:

cag_[ Statewide Temperature Anomalies (Feb 2014) ]