Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Bali Hoo Is Calling

Some updates from the excellent Global Warming Politics blog of Phillip Stott.  First is a comment on the next UN Climate Conference which is upcoming soon in Bali.  (Notice these shindigs never take place in less exotic locales like Flin Flon, Barnsley or Newark: wonder why?).
 
Second, is a comment on climate science as it relates to sun spot activity as a proxy indicator for climate variability.  And, third, is a summary of a recently published paper that reviews climate data for the past 2000 years using proxies other than tree-rings.  These data clearly show both the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age, and the paper's authors conclude by pointing out that the data  indicate the Medieval Warm Period was indeed warmer than present temperatures by 0.3 C.  Today's temperatures are neither abnormal nor unprecedented.
 
And this concludes today's lesson on the global warming myth and its slow demise as the dominant environmental narrative of out time.
 
Wonder if this is the message the vacationers (sorry, conventioneers) will conclude in Bali.  Perhaps their air travel emissions are a last gasp attempt to get present day temperatures to peak: "if the world doesn't have a crisis, we will create the appearance of one with our actions!"