Sunday, September 14, 2014

Science denier Bob Carter comes out as an ice age comether


Bob Carter, one of Australia's own climate science deniers, has written a letter to The Australian (h/t MB). Extract follows:

Heading for ice age
...we have a report by Sue Neales that the size of our grain harvest remains in doubt following severe frosts in southern NSW killing large areas of early wheat crops and also damaging wheat and canola crops in South Australia and Victoria (“Trifecta of calamities to deplete. crop harvest”, 12/9)
See below for more on the frost damage.

Is it unreasonable to be surprised that none of your writers, much less the government, has noticed that leading solar astrophysicists, such as Habibullo Abdussamatov from Pulkovo Observatory in St Petersburg, have for years been commenting on the declining activity of the sun?
Not true. In May last year Graham Lloyd wrote about the ice age comether, Habibullo Abdussamatov, with derision from anyone who read it. Graham Readfearn tells all.


These scientists are projecting a significant cooling over the next three decades, and perhaps even the occurrence of another little ice age.
Bob only mentions one "solar astrophysicist". Who are the others? Where are they hiding? Why can't Bob name any? Maybe because reputable solar researchers know that a dip in solar activity won't herald an ice age, little or big.


Obsessed as they are with a gentle global warming trend that stopped late last century, should the expected solar cooling eventuate, policy makers will rue the day they failed to heed the advice of independent scientists on climate change issues.
Bob Carter, Townsville, Qld

Habibullo Abdussamatov is a government scientist who heads up a space research division in Russia. It seems he favours lesser scientific "journals". Bob Carter used to be a researcher at a university, paid by government funding. He's paid a stipend by the Heartland Institute and is affiliated with a number of climate science denying groups. He's not an independent scientist.

Neither of them are climate scientists.

Both of them are "ice age comethers".

Both of them are in a tiny minority of scientists who deny climate science and not on any scientific grounds. The overwhelming majority of climate scientists know that humans are causing global warming. Whose advice should policy makers take?


Frost damage to winter crops in part because of the mild winter!


This is from an article by Lisa Castleman, Riverina Local Land Services (NSW Government)

...The occurrence of ‘Stem Frost’ in cereal crops such as wheat, barley, oats and triticale or pulse crops such as lupins, field peas and faba beans is rare but not impossible. Stem Frost can occur when a severe frost (less than -2°C) occurs shortly after a rainfall event and water has settled inside the boot only to be frozen by the frost which then damages the sensitive stem tissue in close proximity....  
...Frosts in winter are not unusual but an early sowing window this season and milder temperatures through winter has meant that many crops have developed quickly, making them more vulnerable to severe frost events. “Advanced crops with a run of severe frosts coinciding immediately after rainfall events is a combination that we rarely experience” said Ms Castleman who is based in Wagga Wagga.  

So the reason the winter frosts wrought such devastation is because the milder temperatures in winter (consistent with global warming, you'll note) meant that the crops were more developed when the frosts hit. The rain made the damage worse.

Bob Carter is not only not a climate scientist, he's not an agricultural scientist either.


10 comments:

  1. Oh what a surprise it isn't: another one long past the normal age of retirement.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He retired and became a full time shill for the IPA, Heartland or any other group that would give him a quid for spruiking climate science denialism.

      Discount Bob is one of the more venomous turds on the denier speaking circuit. He compared James Hansen to Trofim Lysenko the Stalinist crank agronomist who used state power to silence his critics. The irony of course is that the Bush Administration tried to silence Hansen, something Carter would have no doubt applauded.

      Here is an account of his recent tour of NZ

      "At Tuesday’s public lecture he was not given an easy ride, as an on-the-spot reporter confirmed to Hot Topic. Carter was welcomed by the local branch of the Flat Earth Society. Every five or ten minutes there were cries of “We love you Bob Carter” (in a West Indian accent, my source confides) from outside the lecture theatre."

      and

      "Carter — a proven plagiarist who never saw an argument against action on climate change that he wasn’t willing to promote if paid enough — [has] lived up to expectations."
      http://hot-topic.co.nz/carter-in-dunedin-otago-uni-provides-platform-for-climate-crank-plagiarist


      Delete
    2. My hopelessly ambiguous comment was referring to the Russian the other gomer was referencing.

      Delete
  2. "Gentle global warming trend", "These scientists are projecting a significant cooling " - weasel words.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Us old farts are not all so weak that we ignore the science and our principles to gain some sort of last grasp at material wealth in return for our integrity.
    I would rather die on my feet poverty stricken, than on my knees in comfort! Bert

    ReplyDelete
  4. Colder overnight temperatures are also associated with clear skies (greater radiative heat loss from Earth). So if there is less rainfall in an area, more frosts can be expected. It's another example of cherry-picking the measurements - in this case, the colder nights, not the warmer days that also occur with clear skies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do not know how many times I have explained why telescopes get condensation on their optical elements even though there is no condensation on anything else close by. It is called super cooling when the optical element 'sees' a very cool sky that is at some temperature far below ambient. The optical element i.e. a lens will radiate to this far cooler sky temperature and then cool below local the dew point. This is why frost can occur even though air temperature is just above freezing. Bert

      Delete
    2. Well, I'm glad you took the time to explain it again - I'd not come across that before (although I've had it happen to my 'scope).

      As I find with a lot of science, that was interesting, logical and odd, all at the same time.

      cheers!

      Delete
  5. Isn't predicting a coming ice age rather... 'alarmist'? Yet another contradiction amongst the denial arguments.

    ReplyDelete

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