At http://calderup.wordpress.com May 5th ... Nigel Calder takes up the article on blips in monsoons in recent history (see earlier post in In the News) that includes some severe famines in India, China, and SE Asia (as previously noted). What he adds to the story are solar influences on the monsoons, based on The Chilling Stars hypothesis.
Climate change news
The Jordan River
At www.physorg.com/print192044027.html May 2nd ... the Jordan river is nowadays little more that a polluted stream a few metres wide that is on the verge of drying up according to environmentalists. Although it is easy to say this is another example of the dripping effect of AGW alarmist stories it is not strictly climate change - but pollution. Mind, they do pull the correct strings as they use Christian pilgrims to milk the apocalyptic tenor of the alarmist preacher.
The Science of Doom
At http://climateaudit.org May 3rd Steve McIntyre tells CA readers to look at the blog Science of Doom (see earlier posts on In the News for this interesting site) at http://scienceofdoom.com . It policy, as Steve notes, unlike that of Real Climate or Climate Progress and other sniffy pro AGW blogs, is not to criticise the heretics (or even pensioners) or use vacuous venom against sceptics, but it is committed to engaging with the general public.
Rainforest regeneration
Will Gosling of the Open University (talk at Aylesbury Museum) says recent research into past climate change in the Amazon basin via ancient pollen preserved in lake sediments, has shown that climate differed in the Ice Ages - and the rainforest was not as extensive as it is now. Pollen analysis also showed the extent of human impact on the rainforest in the 1000 years preceding Columbus - and it was considerable. There are distinct layers of charcoal in lake sediments which appear to denote human activity - as well as evidence humans worked soils (agriculture).
Oysters, MWP and the Romans
At http://wattsupwiththat.com April 20th ... we have a report from 'C02 Science' of a paper on temperature reconstruction from plankton shells in a sea bed core off Sulawesi in Indonesia - and the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) is clearly distinguishable, as well as the Little Ice Age (drop in global temperatures). For years, climate scientists in Europe and North America have been insisting the MWP and LIA were regional and local phenomenons of not much consequence. This new paper suggests it was global.
Solar flares and climate
At www.physorg.com/print189845962.html a new study has debunked a previous hypothesis suggesting the existence of a link between solar flares and changes in the earth's global temperature. Between 2003 and 2008 Scafetta and West analysed data that seemed to show solar flares influence temperature (published in Physical Review Letters) but the new research, published in the same journal, re-examined the data and found shortcomings.
Ocean Heat
www.physorg.com March 4th ... a study by Raffaele Ferrari and two students (published by Geophysical Research Letters) has shown that the role of hurricanes has been over-estimated simply because previous studies have not taken into account the seasons. Most of the heat from warm water that hurricanes mix deep into the oceans during the summer and autumn periods is returned to the atmosphere during winter. This indicates that 'warm anomalies' do not affect long term ocean temperature.
Permafrost
www.physorg.com February 17th ... the southern limits of the permafrost zone, frozen ground, is now said to be 130km further north than it was 50 years ago. This actually applies to the area studied, the James Bay locale. It is being predicted that permafrost will disappear in the near future - releasing dangerous amounts of methane. However, although AGW is fingered the researchers admit a lack of long term climatic data in the region and in fact the study involves just the last 20 years - not the 50 years in the blurb.
Chiefio
www.climategate.com/czechgate-climate-scientists-dump-worlds-second-oldest-record.html John O'Sullivan says a sceptic blogger known as Chiefio - who is in fact computer specialist EM Smith (see earlier posts) claims the Global Historical Climatology Network has cynically dumped the world's second oldest and reliable climate record at Prague for no obvious scientific reason.
Ice Age Anomalies
Science News February 11th ... coastal caves on the Ballearic Islands just off the coast of Spain (including Majorca) have produced some very surprising evidence of sea level rise and fall during the last Ice Age, a finding that might cast some doubt on just how long such cold spells may actually last, develop, and remain. The theory is that during the Ice Ages immense volumes of water are locked up in land based ice sheets. In that situation sea levels would fall, revealing large areas of what is now the submerged coastal shelf system.