What's not at WUWT

Update: I've added some data from Munich Re below. [Sou 3:53 pm 17 March 2015]


There is a lot of rubbish posted on denier websites like Anthony Watts' WUWT. What is even more telling is what you don't see at WUWT.

Tropical Cyclone Pam

First of all, there has not been a single WUWT article on the massive disaster of the last few days, Tropical Cyclone Pam. According to Jeff Masters at WeatherUnderground, after Cyclone Zoe in 2002, Pam was the next most intense cycle in the South Pacific basin. Its central pressure got as low as 896 millibar. Almost certainly it would have been the worst cyclone in recent history in Vanuatu.


The small island nation of Vanuatu was devastated by the cyclone. The ABC reports that there is not a single school left undamaged. There will be few buildings anywhere that will have not been damaged. So far there have been 28 deaths reported, and the death toll may well rise as more reports come in from isolated places.

(At this point let me thank reader cRR Kampen for keeping me up to date with regard to Pam. I've been busy travelling and working, so not on top of everything.)

And to contradict the denier falsehood about extreme events, from the Sydney Morning Herald:

If it seems to you that major humanitarian emergencies are happening more often, you're right. Extreme weather events like the one that devastated Vanuatu on Saturday are on the rise. Since 2000, the average number of climate-related disasters each year has been 44 per cent higher than between 1994 and 2000 and well over twice the level during the 1980s, a data-based managed by Brussels-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters shows.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a disaster risk reduction conference in Japan on Saturday that climate change is making extreme weather events the new normal.

"Over the last two decades, more than four out of every five disasters were related to the climate change phenomenon," he said. "The economic toll is as high as $300 billion every year."

You can read the rest of the article here (h/t PG).

Addendum: Munich Re latest data

Marke commented that the numbers of humanitarian emergencies are not the best metric. Unfortunately there are not as many observations of incidents where no-one lives. Anyway, I've done the next best thing and dug out the latest data from Munich Re. It is of loss events. This is not the same as insured losses - it includes all events that "either resulted in direct property damage and/or at least one fatality". And it's a number, not a dollar value. Last year, there were a "record number of almost 1,000 catastrophe events". The growth was mostly hydrological (flood, mass movement) - not geophysical (earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis). The report is available here, but you'll need to register (it's free).

Source: TOPICS GEO Natural catastrophes 2014, Munich Re (2015)

I've written before about other reports on weather and climate related disasters.

Second hottest February on record

After the hottest year on record (2014) and the second hottest January on record, the world has just had the second hottest February on record. It's also just had the second hottest summer/winter on record (DJF). Even though there was a WUWT article (from tedious Bob Tisdale) reporting the latest monthly temperature data, neither of those points rated a mention, not surprisingly.

Data Source: NASA

Australia also had the second hottest February after 1983.  It also had a couple of cyclones, including Olwyn in WA which caused a lot of damage in and around Carnarvon. Assessments report this year's banana planting was totally ruined, along with the avocados.

Extremes in the USA

There's not been a lot of talk at WUWT about the records being broken in the USA, either. At Weather Underground, Jeff Masters and Bob Henson have written about a very warm spell in the west.  You'd think that Anthony Watts lived in Timbuktu for all the attention he gives his home state. And you'd never know that he used to be a weather announcer. California has had two remarkably hot winters. If you thought that the last winter in California was extraordinary (it was), then you'll have run out of superlatives to describe this latest winter.

Data source: NOAA

Flat Earthers at WUWT

So if the warming world isn't of interest to deniers, then what is? They are still stuck in denial, from the look of things.

Tim Ball is apparently not just a climate science denier, he's admitting to being a member of the flat earth society. He's complaining that John Kerry doesn't want to waste time on him and the other conspiracy nutters that hang out at WUWT. Tim wrote:

Kerry displays further ignorance by marginalizing those who question the science. “We don’t have time for a meeting anywhere of the Flat Earth Society.”

These are frightening words and a disturbingly narrow position from one of the most powerful statesmen and diplomats, in the world. 

 Yep, Tim wants John Kerry to waste his time meeting the Flat Earth Society.

Chaos at WUWT

Kip Hansen was given the space to tell WUWT readers that the times tables are "a linear system".  He carefully explained to WUWT readers that:

Because linear equations and relationships are proportional, they make a line when graphed.

Kip drew lots of straight line graphs. I think he also equated non-linearity with chaos. This article was apparently one in a series he's working on, leading up to an article about non-linear systems and chaos. I bet you just can't wait.

His article drew some deep metaphysical discussions such as how:

"Chaos does not exist in the real world because the real world has no initial conditions to which it might be sensitive. "

 A lot of people seemed to be confused about the difference between weather and climate, particularly the virtual impossibility of predicting weather beyond a few days. Many of them seemed to think this means that it is pointless to try to work out changes in climate. They are probably wondering how much snow will fall this summer, or how many heat waves will occur come winter time.

Catching up

This was a catch up article. I've been busy elsewhere and missed out on a few things in denierland. Not that there was anything startling to report. Mostly just the same denial as usual.