It's all over but for the sweating?

[TheEnemy]

State of the Climate | Global Analysis | Annual 2012

•The year 2012 was the 10th warmest year since records began in 1880. The annual global combined land and ocean surface temperature was 0.57°C (1.03°F) above the 20th century average of 13.9°C (57.0°F). This marks the 36th consecutive year (since 1976) that the yearly global temperature was above average. Currently, the warmest year on record is 2010, which was 0.66°C (1.19°F) above average. Including 2012, all 12 years to date in the 21st century (2001–2012) rank among the 14 warmest in the 133-year period of record. Only one year during the 20th century—1998—was warmer than 2012.

•La Niña, which is defined by cooler-than-normal waters in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific Ocean that affect weather patterns around the globe, was present during the first three months of 2012. The weak-to-moderate La Niña dissipated in the spring and was replaced by ENSO-neutral conditions for the remainder of the year. When compared to previous La Niña years, the 2012 global surface temperature was the warmest observed during such a year; 2011 was the previous warmest La Niña year on record.

[TheEnemy]

Neil: Could you past a link to the source of your graphs and charts, I like to be able to see the context and not just the chart.

[NeilBlanchard]

NOAA And NASA: 2012 Warmest 'La Niña Year' On Record, Sustaining Long-Term Climate Warming Trend | ThinkProgress



http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cmb-faq/globalwarming.html#top

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

http://www.c2es.org/facts-figures

[TheEnemy]

Much better thank you.

To be honest I trust the NOAA data, particularly from their state of the climate reports significantly more than the NASA data.

Here are a few other sights that you might find informative.

Polar Sea Ice Cap and Snow - Cryosphere Today

Sea surface temperature anomalies (links to others at the bottom)
Current Operational SST Anomaly Charts - Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution

TSI Data

Something I found while looking for one of my other sites, it looks like its worth a read.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news...an_sunclimate/

[TheEnemy]

RealClimate: The Greenland melt

Ice cores dated 125,000 years ago, during the last interglacial reveal that greenland didn't melt as bad as models predict, and that it was 8C warmer then than now.

[Arragonis]

Never mind, Panasonic have solved the problem - and its all good news !!!!!

Electronics giant Panasonic is showing off its ambitious attempt to slow global warming – with a plant-like machine that uses light to scrub CO2 from the atmosphere.

The Japanese biz's Artificial Photosynthesis System, which turns the greenhouse gas into organic material, differs from other attempts to mimic the behaviour of vegetation thanks to its ability to efficiently convert carbon dioxide.

Panasonic claimed that at efficiency levels of 0.2 per cent – that is, the energy proportion of synthesised materials to input light – the system is on a par with real plants.

Diginfo.tv has a handy video showing the boffinry in action.

The two-stage process begins by filling a nitride semiconductor photo-electrode with water and then exposing it to sunlight or artificial light. This light is absorbed and the water molecules react to free electrons, oxygen molecules and hydrogen ions.

The use of a nitride semiconductor is crucial as it is apparently able to excite the electrons to the high-energy state required to react with CO2.

The electrons then flow through wires to a metal catalyst. Here, they react with CO2 and hydrogen ions in a reduction reaction that produces mainly formic acid and other organic materials.

Panasonic chief researcher Satoshi Yotsuhashi told Diginfo that his team is able to conduct eight experiments at once, and is trying different materials and reactions with the aim of a more boozy outcome.

"When carbon dioxide reacts, the organic substances produced are of various kinds,” he said.

“Currently, the main substance produced is formic acid, but in the future, we'd like to produce even more useful substances, such as hydrocarbons or alcohol.”

The plan is to stick these machines in the vicinity of factories and power plants to absorb the waste carbon dioxide and turn it into ethanol. ®

[freebeard]

Anecdotal statement:

The Telegraph: It’s snowing, and it really feels like the start of a mini ice age

Arragonis -- Is this consistent with what you see out your window?

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Anecdotal statement:

The Telegraph: It’s snowing, and it really feels like the start of a mini ice age

Arragonis -- Is this consistent with what you see out your window?

Hello M. "Barbe Liberte"

Yes and No.

Yes in that it has snowed over the past few weeks and been cold in the UK in different places but not everywhere - we have a lot of "weather" in the UK and it is not consistent even though this Island (which used to be "Top Nation") is only about 900 miles from end to end. We are at the top end tip of the gulf stream so when it sways north or south we get different weather*.

No in that I don't think it indicates any kind of trend - it has been this cold inside of living memory, even colder in some years - e.g. 1963, 1947. I'm an equal opportunity sceptic.

(*There is no trend in the gulf stream path driving by AGW - this is not the evidence you might be looking for )

Edit - M'learnd friend 320Touring states a little snow (2 inches) in the West of Scotland which faces the Atlantic here. Only rain here (in the East) just now.

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by freebeard

...Richard Buckminster Fuller is *the* most inspiring hero. ...

Start with Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, or Utopia or Oblivion. Move on to Your Private Sky [Lars Muller Publishers]. Once you 'grok' Bucky's syntax, there's always Synergetics.

Thanks for asking.

Apologies I forgot to acknowledge this post (back to work blues...) - thanks.

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by niky

RE: Kids. A married couple having two to three kids is sustainable practice, considering that in any given population, there are people who won't have any.

The problem with "overpopulation" is that poor third-world families have several to a dozen children at one go. That is not sustainable. Our politicians are pointing to the benefits in terms of exportable labor this grants, but that's pure BS. ...

I agree with most of your post, but to expand - "they" have these kids for 2 reasons :

1. A lot of them die when young (so have more to ensure some survive)
2. They support their parents (have more so you have an easier retirement)

Sort out 1 by better healthcare. Sort out 2 by better pension provision, either by individual and private savings and investment or state provided. Sort those out and the population level stabilises.

How to do those things remains a challenge, notably not addressed here - development means growth, growth needs energy.

So the fundamental here is energy. Expensive, unreliable and unsustainable renewables don't cut it. Deal with that