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Reader Comments (47)
I missed that on the beeb this morning becos I was cowering under my duvet with my electric blanket on!
Now I know why I was feeling so warm!
Good on ya Dr Liz for clarifying the point so succintly.
Peter
On the TV news in NZ they had a piece about how a retreating glacier had uncovered a Viking settlement in Greenland. The studio team were discussing this ...
TV man: [with gravitas] that underlines the serious effects of climate change
TV blonde Do the scientists know why the Vikings were trying to farm underneath a glacier ?
Thanks to Dr Liz i inhaled my coffee this morning (messy:)
And thanks to Jacks comment i nearly did it again,very funny mate! TV blondes eh?
Maybe the vikings were farming under the glacier to avoid sunburn ;)
i wish i had her email...i`d suggest it to her.
JOSH MATE!! Vikings farming under the glacier!! get yer pen out:)
Sir, I protest strongly. Who is she and why does she look so pretty?
Thanks for that Josh. I saw it too. But did you notice Bill Turnbull glance towards his co-presenter in what appeared to be disbelief, as the good doctor reiterated that the cold was because of the warming. I think it was just after she explained that it was all because the arctic is melting.
Awww, BBC light entertainment, gotta luv it.
Did Dr Liz get her performance bonus this year do you think ?
PS - I Missed it, anyone got a video link ?
Yet, on a weather report this morning a presenter told us the sea is warmer than usual, slightly mitigating the white,wet.cold global warming we`re enjoying at the moment.
Madness, no consistency even in their stupidity.
I`ve concluded that (dis)honours are evenly shared between the ippc and the msm with the bbc getting a chocolate medal(which they will, no doubt report is melting ).
Dr Liz was probably referring to this new paper:
http://eprints.ifm-geomar.de/8738/1/2009JD013568-pip.pdf
It's mostly speculative and doesn't pretend to be able to split out the effects of reduced sea-ice north of Russia from those of a weak NAO, but it's not implausible
I saw this this morning on the BBC and laughed out loud. A lot! I just came online to complain to the BBC and saw the excellent cartoon by Josh.
Dr Liz made two classic (and absurd) statements. The first was in response to the long range prediction that this winter would be mild (again! Ha Ha!). She said that maybe we were just getting the cold weather out of the way early and that it would warm up in January / February sufficiently that the average would be a mild winter. Lets hold her to that one, shall we?
The second statement was the one caricatured by Josh and was in response to Bill Turnball's gentle question that how did these last few very cold winters fit with the climate change predictions that we would experience progressively milder winters. Her reply was that some new research had suggested that we might get colder winters for a few years due to melting of arctic ice and then it would get milder as predicted.
Dr. Liz, if by some chance you are reading this perhaps you could say why:
(a) Why does it sound like special pleading - the predicted outcome (milder winters) has not materialised so we need a special exemption to explain - reference would be appreciated please.
(b) You now appear to have a theory of climate change that is confirmed by our winters getting both cooler and getting warmer. This must be the so-called "have your cake and eat it hypothesis (HYCEIH)". Under this hypthesis of climate change can Dr Liz please explain the falsification criteria for the climate change hypothesis that will allow us to see that this really is science and not phenomenology?
Otherwise perhaps we should just go back to traditional practices such as blaming and then burning witches for causing climate change and giving us cold winters. After burning the witch and it still gets cold, rather than entertain the possibility that the "witches cause cold winters and crop failure" hypothesis might be wrong, instead we conclude that we simply didn't burn enough of them. Look...there's another witch, quick burn her...
Further to my last post my lawyers and agent have said I must point that:
(a) I don't believe in or wish in any to promote the idea that witches exist
(b) I intended no offence or malicious action against any person, alive, dead or undead and in no way wish to denigrate or undermine deeply held beliefs of those who may think they are witches. For witch also read any other gender or orientation as appropriate.
(b) Even if witches were real I utterly condemn the burning of witches under any circumstances
Apologies again: in my previous posts I meant to write "Climate Change Deniers" not witches.
Sorry!
Is this "Dr Liz" referred in the cartoon really Dr. Liz Bentley - Head of Communications of Royal Meteorological Society? Or are they different persons?
Actually, it could be I meant "Global Warming Alarmists" not "Climate Change Deniers", depending on the context.
sHx
I saw the lady this morning,she is indeed as fit as a butchers ***** ,but what could one possibly do to stop her talking constant drivel?;)
"Dr. Liz Bentley - Head of Communications"
Ah, so like Bob Ward then, except that she completed her thesis, presumably.
This could be her from the subject matter, ... http://www.facebook.com/theweatherclub
I also found a quote on google "Liz Bentley is a sit down comedienne working on the comedy, cabaret and poetry circuit."
Which could also be her from the subject matter, one is a Dr. One has MS, but both appear to be comediennes
"Dr Liz made two classic (and absurd) statements. The first was in response to the long range prediction that this winter would be mild (again! Ha Ha!). She said that maybe we were just getting the cold weather out of the way early and that it would warm up in January / February sufficiently that the average would be a mild winter. Lets hold her to that one, shall we?"
Thinking Scientist - Joe Bastardi also thinks this for the UK winter.
However, Joe would call BS on the second claim.
'Mild Winter'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-11896191
Nottinghamshire's coroner has urged carers and neighbours to check up on elderly people after seven cold-related deaths in the county in the past week.
The RMS is a hotbed of alarmists from Hardaker downwards; no doubt it is reliant on government (sorry, taxpayer) funding.
It provides a link to the SkepticalScience site to repudiate sceptics.
For those who remember the imposition of variable speed limits on the western section of the M25 near Heathrow, the DOT's phrase of the moment much repeated by Terry Wogan was "drive slower, get there faster" (and no we did'nt)
Oi, lay orf. She's a sweet-natured girl, my Liz.
Just that she's 'ad 'er 'ead turned by all these Profs.
Obviously she needs some exorcising then Ma Bently
Hi, very funny, Jack - that should be cartooned.
And, yes, it is Dr Liz Bentley. Actually I added her full name to my website - the Bish is just going to add the link...
Also her first statement about it being a mild winter was fun too, but of course she may be right. Piers Corbyn doesn't think so tho'. He thinks it going to be a real Al Gore.
;-J
I see George Monbiot has gone batty again.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2010/dec/02/cancun-climate-change-summit-monbiot#start-of-comments
Quote, George Monbiot, "While the rich parts of the world are covered in snow and ice, the rest of the world cooks"
As an example the world cooking George highlights the current temperature in Narsarsuaq in Greenland in Greenland. George calls 12C "basking."
Unfortunately George confuses weather with climate. The reason why Narsarsuaq is experiencing so called basking temps is due to the well known weather phenomenon the Greenland Block.
http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/why-so-cold-greenland-block_2010-01-11
.... but then again could the current temps be higher than normal. Unfortunately for George the source he quotes has only records that go back to 1996. 14 years of temperarure records cannot be said to indicate any change in climate. As fas as we know the basking temps at Narsarsuaq are perfectly normal.
The fact that George is reduced to grasping at straw highlights how this cold winter is damaging the cause that George holds dear to his heart.
(...) is indeed as fit as a butchers ***** (...)
A butcher's dog?
"a real Al Gore."
Of course - it's not real, it's allegorical!
I have been fortunate enough to take on a wide range of jobs within the world of
meteorology. After completing a PhD in applied mathematics at the University of
Manchester, I applied for job with the Met Office. I was due to start work on Monday 13th
December 1993 – a date that sticks vividly in my mind – heavy snow on the Sunday
prevented me from travelling South and it was 2pm on the Monday afternoon before I
arrived in Bracknell – just in time for the office Christmas Party!
http://www.metlink.org/pdf/careers/bentley.pdf
Steve lewis, I like the last bit:
What skills are going to be developed even further one wonders.
Dear Dr. Liz, would an ice age make the UK warmer?
There is potential for a short (and boringly repetitive) comedy skit with everything being blamed on global warming. (This may be what the BBC are up to). "And in other news, scientists at the University of Camden have determined that dandruff, dyslexia, depression, and dimples are caused by CO2 induced climate change."
Not develop skills Phillip, diversify. As in, 'spread more thinly.'
Monbiot has a frankly bizarre collection of words at The Guardian:
"Cancún climate change summit: Is God determined to prevent a deal?
While the rich parts of the world are covered in snow and ice, the rest of the world cooks"
Sorry Mac - just noticed that you got there well before me.
For ZT @ 6.59pm -
See this for a list caused by Global Warming.....
beats your 4 of a kind - ;-)
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm
You can understand Monbiot's ignorance on the Greenland Block but not someone like Dr. Liz Bentley who as an employee of the Met Office should know all about this most natural of weather phenomena.
It just show how global warming produces such utter rubbish by those he should know better but act in the opposite.
On the BBC website today we have Paul Hudson producing the latest in a string of blogs about the record breaking cold and record breaking snow depths,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulhudson/
while our friend Richard Black triumphally extols the warmest? ever year (before its over).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11903397
She brings a whole new insight into Trenberth's Missing Heat. The heat goes missing which makes it feel cold but that is illusionary as the heat is still here somewhere.
Reprise time; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=868nr1Pgxw0
;-)
2010 was an El Nino year but even that could not upstage the El Nino of 1998. Now that La Nina has kicked in the world has entered a prolonged cooling phase. Another cold winter coupled with dropping global temps means that world-wide scepticism of CAGW will accelerate.
ThinkingScientist said:
"Otherwise perhaps we should just go back to traditional practices such as blaming and then burning witches for causing climate change and giving us cold winters. After burning the witch and it still gets cold, rather than entertain the possibility that the "witches cause cold winters and crop failure" hypothesis might be wrong, instead we conclude that we simply didn't burn enough of them. Look...there's another witch, quick burn her..."
Excellent! Reminds me of some advice for Alternative Medicine Practitioners I once read (written cynically by a skeptic): "Always choose patients who are getting worse." That way no matter what happens, it doesn't falsify the effectiveness of your treatment, i.e.:
1) patient starts to improve--"I told you treatment works!"
2) patient doesn't improve but stops getting worse--"We've managed to halt the progression!"
3) patient keeps getting worse--"It's too bad you didn't come to me in time."
Weather is not climate.
Enough of it is.
I agree.
Well just picked this up from the current Ashes cricket match
1976 England v West Indies
See if you can notice something about that summer...
Arizona State University professor James Elser said he has spent years telling students that phosphorus was a necessary part of DNA.
"The idea that I am sitting here today discussing the idea that this is not true is shocking," said Elser, a panelist at a NASA press conference on the discovery.
Caleb Scharf, a Columbia University astrobiologist, told The New York Times he was amazed.
"It's like if you or I morphed into fully functioning cyborgs after being thrown into a room of electronic scrap with nothing to eat," he said.
NASA has conducted numerous probes at eastern California's Mono Lake, an unusually salty body of water with high arsenic and mineral levels, as it is likely to reflect conditions under which early life evolved on Earth, or perhaps Mars.
"Sometimes you think something is not going to work, but then you go looking for it and sometimes you may find it," said Anbar.
"And then you realize, oh, I didn't understand things quite as well as I thought I did before. And that happens all the time in science. That's part of what makes it fun."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20101203/tsc-nasa-finds-new-form-of-life-on-earth-e123fef.html
Isn't it strange how we (humans) always think we have it cornered ... right up to the point that something strange is identified and we have to re think the whole thing again ... and then we think we have it cornered again and it's a consensus ... again
"And that happens all the time in science."
In real science, that is.
Yes - I saw that interview - you couldn't make it up, could you..? It ought to be on Harry Hill's 'TV Burp' - or maybe part of the interview with the barmy politician on 'Bird & Fortune'......