Comments on: India Meteorological Department: “It could turn out to be the coldest Calcutta winter ever.” http://globalfreeze.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/india-it-could-turn-out-to-be-the-coldest-calcutta-winter-ever-%e2%80%9d/ The debate is "over" and the science is "settled", but someone forgot to tell Mother Nature Fri, 17 May 2013 00:11:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Pharynghoula http://globalfreeze.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/india-it-could-turn-out-to-be-the-coldest-calcutta-winter-ever-%e2%80%9d/#comment-520 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:54:26 +0000 http://globalfreeze.wordpress.com/?p=1952#comment-520 it’s all semantics…

]]> By: peter vd berg http://globalfreeze.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/india-it-could-turn-out-to-be-the-coldest-calcutta-winter-ever-%e2%80%9d/#comment-518 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:43:55 +0000 http://globalfreeze.wordpress.com/?p=1952#comment-518 i’m with you there. Wtf is a global temperature? Where i live it’s on average 5°C difference over a distance of 3 miles.
It never freezes here, but in the valley 3 miles up it freezes -5°C. My sister lives 80 miles from me, she has frost all winter every winter. Otoh there it’s up to 40°C in the summer and here it maxes out at 32°C.

So within an 100 mile radius already the temperature differs up too 8°C. So how do you arrive at a global temperature that has any real meaning?

]]> By: Kurt http://globalfreeze.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/india-it-could-turn-out-to-be-the-coldest-calcutta-winter-ever-%e2%80%9d/#comment-517 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:24:27 +0000 http://globalfreeze.wordpress.com/?p=1952#comment-517 jeez, a reasoned, factual, statistically based approach to this?

We can’t have THAT!

Nice try Phillip…but don’t you know that folks like you who have a dissenting opinion, even though obviously thoughtful, are considered ‘mouth-breathers’ who ought not be allowed to propogate.

AFter all, it is the world we MUST save.

]]> By: Philip http://globalfreeze.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/india-it-could-turn-out-to-be-the-coldest-calcutta-winter-ever-%e2%80%9d/#comment-516 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:41:27 +0000 http://globalfreeze.wordpress.com/?p=1952#comment-516 What is the definition of global temperature? If one postulates global warming one needs to know what global temperature is. I remember a couple years back when I became quite suspicious of Global warming when Al Gore wouldn’t shut his yap about it that I tried to ask this question on a different site and was referred to as a mass murderer for trying to define terms. I had hoped for a discussion of different temperature data sets, the understanding that these data sets are only a small sample of the Earth’s temperature at any one time, the limitations, precision and accuracy of the data, how the methodology for sampling temperature may have altered over years, decades, centuries.

Never got that far of course, but even saying one knows global temperature with any degree of accuracy needs to be demonstrated. From there can one determine with any confidence, given changes in methodology, past trends in temperature? From there can one make predictive models of temperature change (and have they been confirmed!!) especially on the scale of decades and centuries, as this seems to be the idea underlying much of “the sky is falling, the sky is falling … give us your money” political discourse of late. If one ever confirmed that future temperature trends were accurately being predicted, would one have any confidence that they understood the underlying causes and from there the necessary changes (ie the “give us your money” part). Funny that the solution proffered to a postulated future trend in global temperature is an attempt at man-made global cooling.

Finally, one should recognize when surrogates are being used in place of actual temperature readings, i.e. tree ring data might reflect not just temperature but for instance CO2 concentration, coral reefs, local predator populations, ice cover, ocean salinity and ice particulate content etc, etc.

I would think given the complexity of the climate the last thing anyone would want is some global treaty to attempt anthropogenic climate change.

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