Hogwash!

At one of my regular blog stops, Watts Up With That, its most recent entry explores the surprising role that diatoms play in regulating the temperature of our planet. This was discovered at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Germany. This gist of the article is in the first paragraph:

Diatoms play an important role in water quality and in the global climate. They generate about one fourth of the oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere and perform around one-quarter of the global CO² assimilation, i.e. they convert carbon dioxide into organic substances. Their light receptors are a crucial factor in this process. Researchers at the Leipzig University and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research have now discovered that blue and red light sensing photoreceptors control the carbon flow in these algae. These results have been recently published by the scientists in the well-known online trade journal, PLOS ONE

For the scientifically inclined, to explore the details of this new discovery further see: Watts Up With That.

Moreover, there is one comment on this post that I found particularly interesting and it was written by Willis Eschenbach. He stated on October 20, 2014 at 3:59 pm:

A most excellent post, Anthony. I’ve long held that the ocean conditions don’t determine life, it works the other way around—life determines the ocean conditions.

In addition to making lots of oxygen, phytoplankton (microscopic floating ocean plants) have some hidden effects. 

First, where there is no phytoplankton, the water is clear, and all of the absorbed solar energy is converted into heat. But when there is a lot of phytoplankton, much of the absorbed solar energy is not converted into heat. Instead, it is used in the making and breaking of chemical bonds, and in growing plant mass. 

Now, to be sure, this energy is eventually reconverted into heat, it’s the nature of entropy … but that may not happen at the surface of the ocean. It may happen, for example, in the abyss. In the abyss, there is a constant rain of organic stuff, bits and pieces of everything from phytoplankton to zooplankton to small fish to whales. When this organic detritus decomposes, it releases the energy it contained, energy it absorbed near the surface … but it releases it at the bottom of the ocean. In addition, some of the energy is used to create gases (including both oxygen and CO2) that leave the ocean entirely. So when that oxygen rusts a bit of iron at a later date, the energy is released on land rather than in the ocean. 

Next, phytoplankton significantly change the vertical thermal structure of the ocean. Phytoplankton are plants, so as one might expect, they are all in competition for the light. As a result, they are thickest right at the surface. This means that instead of the solar energy warming the lower part of the mixed layer, it is absorbed right at the surface. So plankton make the surface warmer and the subsurface cooler. 

Next, he ability of ocean diatoms to utilize both red and blue light, while surprising, is logical. Every diver knows that the blue light penetrates deeply, but the red light is absorbed nearer the surface … so much so that if you cut yourself at depth, you bleed green. Since the competition is at the surface, we’d expect to find the diatoms using the abundant red light. But of course they need to be able to survive the times when they are deeper and get only blue light. The article says that in blue light they photosynthesize but they don’t grow … so they are “hibernating” when they are down deeper. Another unknown aspect of this marvelous world. 

Finally, an oddity. Plankton emit dimethylsulfide (DMS). This, in turn, forms cloud condensation nuclei, which favors the formation of clouds … how curious, that the smallest plants in the ocean should be able to affect the rate of cloud formation. And of course, the more light striking the surface, the warmer it is, the more DMS is produced … another lovely example of thermal regulation by emergent phenomena, in this case the emergent phenomenon we call “life”. There’s a good discussion of DMS and plankton here. To me, this is the best part of the extremely young and unsettled science of climate. There is something new to be learned every day. 

My best to all, w.

And for those climate prelates among us who are constantly proselytizing and who usually start their sermons by saying that climate change is “settled science,” I have but one word.

Hogwash!

Sea Levels

The Obama administration has started its all-out press to once-again kowtow Americans into fiscal submission on the question of global warming … aka, climate change … and now being called “climate disruptions.” (How can anyone debate “climate disruptions?”) This is a semantic dance by our ever-intrusive government to find the right wordings to stampede us stupid non-scientists into acceding to more regulations, more taxes, and more crony capitalism. The mantra that is being ballyhooed now is increasing sea-levels … which, of course, are going to cause economic havoc and loss of lives along all the coastlines of the world. Unless you live miles back from the shore, you are doomed! Yikes!

Well, as it turns out, sea levels are rising … and they are falling … as they have been doing for eons. It all depends on where you are located … see: SPPI Analysis. The rationale for this "predicted" catastrophic rising of sea levels is centered on ice melting at the poles and in Greenland … which has pretty much stopped … if not reversed … see: Skeptical Science. So the polar bears are not in imminent danger of disappearing and the Emperor penguins should survive another winter in Antarctica.

But the arm-waving climate-frauds‘ claims that gall me most are that this is all "settled science" and that 97% of scientists agree that we are doomed by our rising CO2 levels.  This is all  hogwash.  There is no such thing as "settled science" and the following is but a small list of eminent scientist who are global-warming skeptics (from Wikipedia). There are many many others:

Scientists questioning the accuracy of IPCC climate projections 

Scientists in this section have made comments that it is not possible to project global climate accurately enough to justify the ranges projected for temperature and sea-level rise over the next century. They may not conclude specifically that the current IPCC projections are either too high or too low, but that the projections are likely to be inaccurate due to inadequacies of current global climate modeling. 

Freeman Dyson, professor emeritus of the School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study; Fellow of the Royal SocietyRichard Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan emeritus professor of atmospheric science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and member of the National Academy of Sciences 

Nils-Axel Mörner, retired head of the Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics department at Stockholm University, former chairman of the INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution (1999–2003) 

Garth Paltridge, retired chief research scientist, CSIRO Division of Atmospheric Research and retired director of the Institute of the Antarctic Cooperative Research Centre, visiting fellow ANU 

Peter Stilbs, professor of physical chemistry at Royal Institute of Technology, StockholmPhilip Stott, professor emeritus of biogeography at the University of London 

Hendrik Tennekes, retired director of research, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute 

Fritz Vahrenholt, German politician and energy executive with a doctorate in chemistry 

 Scientists arguing that global warming is primarily caused by natural process 

Scientists in this section have made comments that the observed warming is more likely attributable to natural causes than to human activities. 

Khabibullo Abdusamatov, mathematician and astronomer at Pulkovo Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences 

Sallie Baliunas, astronomer, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for AstrophysicsTim Ball, professor emeritus of geography at the University of Winnipeg 

Robert M. Carter, former head of the school of earth sciences at James Cook University 

Ian Clark, hydrogeologist, professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa 

Chris de Freitas, associate professor, School of Geography, Geology and Environmental Science, University of Auckland 

David Douglass, solid-state physicist, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester 

Don Easterbrook, emeritus professor of geology, Western Washington University 

William M. Gray, professor emeritus and head of the Tropical Meteorology Project, Department of Atmospheric Science,Colorado State University 

William Happer, physicist specializing in optics and spectroscopy, Princeton University 

Ole Humlum, professor of geology at the University of Oslo 

Wibjörn Karlén, professor emeritus of geography and geology at the University of Stockholm 

William Kininmonth, meteorologist, former Australian delegate to World Meteorological Organization Commission for Climatology 

David Legates, associate professor of geography and director of the Center for Climatic Research, University of Delaware 

Anthony Lupo, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Missouri 

Tad Murty, oceanographer; adjunct professor, Departments of Civil Engineering and Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa 

Tim Patterson, paleoclimatologist and professor of geology at Carleton University in Canada 

Ian Plimer, professor emeritus of Mining Geology, the University of Adelaide 

Arthur B. Robinson, biochemist and former faculty member at the University of California, San Diego

 Murry Salby, former chair of climate at Macquarie University 

Nicola Scafetta, research scientist in the physics department at Duke UniversityTom Segalstad, head of the Geology Museum at the University of Oslo 

Fred Singer, professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia 

Willie Soon, astrophysicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 

Roy Spencer, principal research scientist, University of Alabama in HuntsvilleHenrik Svensmark, Danish National Space Center 

George H. Taylor, former director of the Oregon Climate Service at Oregon State University 

Jan Veizer, environmental geochemist, professor emeritus from University of Ottawa  

Scientists arguing that the cause of global warming is unknown 

Scientists in this section have made comments that no principal cause can be ascribed to the observed rising temperatures, whether man-made or natural. 

Syun-Ichi Akasofu, retired professor of geophysics and founding director of the International Arctic Research Center of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. 

Claude Allègre, politician; geochemist, emeritus professor at Institute of Geophysics (Paris). 

Robert Balling, a professor of geography at Arizona State University. 

John Christy, professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, contributor to several IPCC reports. 

Petr Chylek, space and remote sensing sciences researcher, Los Alamos National Laboratory. 

David Deming, geology professor at the University of Oklahoma. 

Ivar Giaever, professor emeritus of physics at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 

Vincent R. Gray, New Zealander physical chemist with expertise in coal ashes 

Keith Idso, botanist, former adjunct professor of biology at Maricopa County Community College District and the vice president of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change 

Antonino Zichichi, emeritus professor of nuclear physics at the University of Bologna and president of the World Federation of Scientists.  

Scientists arguing that global warming will have few negative consequences

Scientists in this section have made comments that projected rising temperatures will be of little impact or a net positive for human society and/or the Earth's environment. 

Craig D. Idso, faculty researcher, Office of Climatology, Arizona State University and founder of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change  

Sherwood Idso, former research physicist, USDA Water Conservation Laboratory, and adjunct professor, Arizona State University 

Patrick Michaels, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and retired research professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia

QED

Afterthought: Why does no one ever point out that there are clearly a few instances of the land sinking (or uplifting) ... due to the Earth's plate tectonics shifting ... instead of the sea level rising (or falling)?  EXTRA: I found a reference ... the term for this land sinking is "subsidence" and can occur for other reasons too. To read more on this process see: Norfolk, VA Investigation.

Afterward: Read what happens to a distinguished climatologist who has second thoughts about global warming ... see: Breitbart Story.

More Afterward: Here is an interesting take on the 97% claim: Powerline Revelations.