A quick update for sea ice extent for day 115 of 2014:
NOAA Data here and here here. Graphs below. Click for bigger.
Poland is suggesting that coal make a big comeback in the European Union in order to thwart Putin’s use of Natural Gas as a weapon.
“Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says the country’s giant coal fields should become a cornerstone in Europe’s defense against a newly aggressive Russia.”
(Too bad the EU has fought against fracking to the point of insanity)
But the sentence that jumped out at me is
“Poland burns over 50 million tons of coal a year, more than any European nation other than Germany, “
Wait! I thought Germany was the poster boy for green energy!
Yes indeed. BP Statistical Review of World Energy says Germany burned more coal than any other European nation and it burned 3.9% more coal in 2012 than it did in 2011.
Why? The shutdown of some of its nuclear power plants.
| Country | 2012 | Change |
| Austria | 2.0 | -23.8% |
| Azerbaijan | ^ | 3.8% |
| Belarus | ^ | 1.2% |
| Belgium | 3.0 | -9.5% |
| Bulgaria | 7.0 | -13.4% |
| Czech Republic | 16.6 | -7.8% |
| Denmark | 2.5 | -23.4% |
| Finland | 2.9 | -15.1% |
| France | 11.4 | 20.1% |
| Germany | 79.2 | 3.9% |
| Greece | 7.5 | -0.5% |
| Hungary | 3.0 | -1.9% |
| Republic of Ireland | 1.5 | 16.9% |
| Italy | 16.2 | 0.3% |
| Kazakhstan | 35.0 | 2.6% |
| Lithuania | 0.2 | -5.5% |
| Netherlands | 8.5 | 8.2% |
| Norway | 0.7 | -0.5% |
| Poland | 54.0 | -4.0% |
| Portugal | 2.9 | 31.4% |
| Romania | 6.7 | -9.5% |
| Slovakia | 3.2 | -3.5% |
| Spain | 19.3 | 24.2% |
| Sweden | 1.5 | -25.7% |
| Switzerland | 0.1 | 6.5% |
| Turkey | 31.3 | -5.6% |
| Turkmenistan | – | – |
| Ukraine | 44.6 | 6.9% |
| United Kingdom | 39.1 | 24.0% |
| Uzbekistan | 1.2 | -0.3% |
| Other Europe & Eurasia | 22.2 | -1.7% |
A quick update for sea ice extent for day 113 of 2014:
NOAA Data here and here here. Graphs below. Click for bigger.
I’ve taken enough potshots at Andy Revkin. It’s only fair I give him credit when looks deeper past the alarmism for more information.
He takes a good look at claims that natural gas drilling is responsible for huge methane leaks and finds that the methane most likely came from coal mines in the area.
It is worth a read.
If oil is moving around North America, the best way to do it is via pipeline, not via railroads (which is happening). The latest delay in Keystone XL is disgusting.
“Republicans are denouncing President Obama’s latest delay on the Keystone XL pipeline, six long years after it was proposed. But for cold political fury they have nothing on Terry O’Sullivan, who runs the Laborers’ International Union that represents a half-million construction workers.
“This is once again politics at its worst,” Mr. O’Sullivan said in a public statement that deserves to be quoted at length. “In another gutless move, the Administration is delaying a finding on whether the pipeline is in the national interest based on months-old litigation in Nebraska regarding a state level challenge to a state process—and which has nothing to with the national interest. They waited until Good Friday, believing no one would be paying attention. The only surprise is they didn’t wait to do it in the dark of night.
“This is another low blow to the working men and women of our country for whom the Keystone XL Pipeline is a lifeline to good jobs and energy security.”
The pipeline is expected to create some 2,000 new jobs from construction and thousands more related to the project. Many of those jobs would go to Mr. O’Sullivan’s union members, who do not live on San Francisco’s Pacific Heights like billionaire donor Tom Steyer who opposes Keystone.”
We don’t want this:
“We found organic soil that has been frozen to the bottom of the ice sheet for 2.7 million years,” said Dr Paul Bierman, a geologist with the University of Vermont and the lead author of the paper appearing online in the journalScience.
“The ancient soil under the Greenland Ice Sheet helps to unravel an important mystery surrounding climate change – how did big ice sheets melt and grow in response to changes in temperature?” said co-author Dr Dylan Rood from the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Center and the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The discovery indicates that even during the warmest periods since the ice sheet formed, the center of Greenland remained stable.“
“Greenland really was green! However, it was millions of years ago. Greenland looked like the green Alaskan tundra, before it was covered by the second largest body of ice on Earth,” Dr Rood said.
http://www.sci-news.com/geology/science-forested-landscape-greenland-ice-sheet-01861.html
Embed from Getty Images(h/t IceCap)
A quick update for sea ice extent for day 111 of 2014:
Data here. Graphs below. Click for bigger.
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) ]](https://sunshinehours.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/cag_-statewide-temperature-anomalies-feb-1936.jpg)
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.
In North Dakota, February 1936 was –26.0°F below the 1901-2000 average. The whole month averaged -14.1°F below 0.
In comparison, lets take a look at Feb 2014:
![cag_[ Statewide Temperature Anomalies (Feb 2014) ]](https://sunshinehours.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/cag_-statewide-temperature-anomalies-feb-2014.jpg)
Happy Easter!
A quick update for sea ice extent:
Data here. Graphs below. Click for bigger.
March 1910 (Before Global Warming) 7.94°F Above the 1901-2000 Average
![cag_[ Divisional Temperature Anomalies (Mar 1910) ]](https://sunshinehours.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/cag_-divisional-temperature-anomalies-mar-1910.jpg)
Some of those divisions are 16F above normal.
March 2014 (After Global Warming) -0.99°F Below the 1901-2000 Average
![cag_[ Divisional Temperature Anomalies (Mar 2014) ]](https://sunshinehours.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/cag_-divisional-temperature-anomalies-mar-2014.jpg)
http://gis.ncdc.noaa.gov/map/cag/#app=cdo
PS I just randomly picked 1934 without checking. And then I noticed 1910 … but I’ll post the 1934 map so it doesn’t go to waste.
March 1934 (Before Global Warming) 1.28°F Above the 1901-2000 Average
![cag_[ Divisional Temperature Anomalies (Mar 1934) ]](https://sunshinehours.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/cag_-divisional-temperature-anomalies-mar-1934.jpg)
sunshine hours 