Friday 30 September 2011

Which is the blip, this summer or this autumn?

"Last night on Twitter, noting that according to the Met Office this summer is one of the coolest in decades. Guido mocked Global Warming Theory"(from Guido Fawkes on August 31). On the brink of what is predicted to be the warmest October 1st on record - in parts of Wales, at least - has he commented on climate change again?

As he virtually admits later in the article, extreme weather events are seized on by partisans on either side of the global warming argument. What counts is the run of climate statistics over a period.

He also mocks a paper of 2000 which claimed that winter snowfall in the UK would be a thing of the past. On the other hand, I can remember an earlier study (unfortunately, too early for the Web) which predicted that, as ice south of Greenland receded, the warm North Atlantic Drift would tend to flow further to the west, reducing the warming effect on the British Isles.  Also, as this official Scottish-Norwegian educational briefing explains, when snowfalls do occur they will tend to be heavier.

And why is Chinese billionaire Huang Nubo buying land adjacent to northern sea-lanes, which would become more heavily used as circumpolar passages open up? Follow the money.

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