Month: February 2017

Uncategorized 15 Feb 2017

NOAA & The Oroville Dam

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAThttps://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com

By Paul Homewood

h/t Oldbrew

NOAA have a good account of what has been going on with the Oroville Dam:

As mentioned previously in the Event Tracker, California is going through one of its wettest water years (October – September) on record. In particular, precipitation so far in 2017 is on a record pace for northern and central California. While the water has been a godsend in reducing and relieving drought conditions, it also has been too much of a good thing as flooding has resulted. One case in particular is the ongoing emergency at the Oroville Dam north of Sacramento. Tremendous amounts of precipitation have led to the Lake Oroville reservoir—the second largest reservoir in the state—to fill past capacity. The need to funnel water out of the reservoir and accompanying complications has led to flooding concerns and evacuations below the dam.

(top) Aerial view of the Oroville Dam on June 23, 2005. Photo Paul Hames, California Department of Water Resources. (bottom) Water gushing through a gully on river left of the primary spillway on February 11, 2017, following severe erosion on the paved portion of the ramp. Photo by William Croyle, California Department of Water Resources

http://ift.tt/2lgRwXG

The whole piece is worth a read as it is short and to the point. But the interesting bit is this graph:

Oroville Dam, reservoir, inflow, rain, flooding

Daily average inflow to Oroville Reservoir from January 1, 1995, through February 13, 2017. Recent inflows were the highest since 1997.

It shows that inflow to Oroville so far this year is far from unprecedented, with a much greater total in 1997.

And we can see from the state rainfall totals that January 2017 was nothing special:

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But none of this stops NOAA from concluding:

Events like this are a reminder that in a warming world, in which heavy downpours are expected to increase (IPCC AR5) as greenhouse gases continue to rise, having resilient infrastructure will become even more important.

Oh well, we can’t win them all!

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT http://ift.tt/16C5B6P

February 14, 2017 at 09:12PM

Uncategorized 15 Feb 2017

U.S. Congress Probes Allegations of Politicization of NOAA Study

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)http://www.thegwpf.com

U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today sent a letter to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Acting Administrator Benjamin Friedman requesting information on the Karl study following reports the study ignored NOAA standards, was rushed to publication, and was not free from political bias.

“Allegations of politicization of government funded scientific research cannot be ignored. The Committee has a constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight in instances of alleged fraud, abuse, and misconduct especially where the government’s scientific integrity is called into question. Dr. Bates’ revelations raise additional questions as to whether the science at NOAA is objective and free from political interference. In light of this new information, the Committee requests the below information to better understand the depth and scope of internal debate at NOAA related to the Karl study,” the letter states.

Today’s letter requests documents and communications related to the release of the Karl study, the datasets used in the Karl study, concerns raised about datasets used in the Karl study, and the scientific integrity of the study. The committee also requested a briefing on the independent experts NOAA is engaging with to review this matter.

The letter can be found here

Background

In the summer of 2015, NOAA scientists published the Karl study, which retroactively altered historical climate change data and resulted in the elimination of a well-known climate phenomenon known as the “climate change hiatus.” The hiatus was a period between 1998 and 2013 during which the rate of global temperature growth slowed.

The committee heard from whistleblowers who raised concerns about the study’s methodologies, readiness, and politicization. In response, the committee conducted oversight and sent NOAA inquiries to investigate the circumstances surrounding the Karl study.

Over the course of the committee’s oversight, NOAA refused to comply with the inquiries. This culminated in the issuance of a congressional subpoena, with which NOAA also failed to comply. During the course of the investigation, the committee heard from whistleblowers who confirmed that, among other flaws in the study, it was rushed for publication to support President Obama’s climate change agenda.

U.S. Congress, House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) http://www.thegwpf.com

February 14, 2017 at 09:05PM

Uncategorized 15 Feb 2017

Europe’s Green Madness: Dieselgate Was A Political Disaster

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)http://www.thegwpf.com

After the Kyoto treaty, Europe’s entire auto industry was led down the primrose lane of adopting a technology that now appears to be a commercial and regulatory dead-end.

Contrary to usual practice, we’ll begin with the punch-line: less than 4/1,000ths of a degree Celsius. That’s how much warming might be spared half a century from now thanks to Europe’s decision, starting after the Kyoto treaty in the late 1990s, to switch more than 50% of its passenger cars to diesel.

For this negligible result, Europe got significantly dirtier air. Paris, on some days, suffers worse smog than Beijing. Though his methodology may be questionable, a U.K. government scientist estimates that thousands of citizens die each year because of increased nitrogen oxide and soot emissions.

The word “microcosm” was invented for Europe’s diesel snafu—a microcosm of the governance failures that are breeding political revolt in much of the advanced industrial world. Europe has gone overnight from pushing and subsidizing citizens to adopt diesel vehicles, to punishing them with taxes and excluding them from downtown areas. Britain is contemplating a scheme to pay owners to scrap their diesel cars.

Europe’s entire auto industry was led down the primrose lane of adopting a technology that now appears to be a commercial and regulatory dead-end. More than 70% of BMW and Daimler cars made for the European market last year were diesel. When honestly tested, one study shows the latest “Euro 6 Standard” vehicles miss their pollution targets by a whopping 400%.

Virtually everyone agrees Europe’s “dash for diesel” was a monstrous policy error, not to mention the proximate cause of the emissions-cheating scandal that has engulfed Volkswagen and other auto makers. Yet the overarching imperative today is to vilify the car companies and insist they do better at achieving meaningless reductions in CO 2 emissions, now by forcing them to build electric cars that customers must be bribed and pressured into buying. Not to be questioned, though, is the green agenda or the competence of Europe’s political class.

When a government conceit goes pop in such a disastrous way, we usually get reform. That won’t be the case here.

But at least, in this maelstrom, Volkswagen’s outside shareholders and German corporate-governance reformers saw a chance to solve one real problem—the excessive influence of government and labor appointees on Volkswagen’s supervisory board, where they work together to inflate employment. It takes VW twice as many workers to build a car as it does Toyota.

And VW reformers looked set to prevail at this past summer’s annual meeting until, at the last minute, the company’s ruling families, the Porsches and the Piëchs, caved to a jigged-up rescue of the status quo.

In place of depoliticizing the company and improving efficiency, Volkswagen adopted a set of faddish promises to invest in electric cars, ride-sharing and the new “mobility economy.” All this was cover for the real agenda—a big pay hike and fresh promises of job security for unionized workers despite the $25 billion (and growing) cost of the diesel cheating scandal.

As a lengthy Reuters report frankly summarized, Volkswagen’s new “strategy” is chiefly a political kludge designed to create a simulacrum of change so real change doesn’t have to happen.

We have here an emblem of the Western world’s infirmity. Multiple irrationality loops have taken over. Climate policy is the primary example—a pure traffic in costly gestures that create no real benefits for the public. In the U.S., the totality of Obama climate policies—his fuel mileage targets, his coal regulations, his wind and solar subsidies—would not make a detectable difference in the earth’s climate even if given a century to work their nonmagic. Yet the cost will be hundreds of billions.

Full story

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) http://www.thegwpf.com

February 14, 2017 at 08:05PM

Uncategorized 15 Feb 2017

Britain’s Energy Policy Thrown Into Disarray As Toshiba Faces Bankruptcy

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)http://www.thegwpf.com

Britain’s nuclear power plans were thrown into chaos last night as problems escalated at Japanese company Toshiba. It marks the latest setback to the Government’s plans to reduce carbon emissions and keep the lights on.

The corporate giant owns a 60 per cent stake in the planned NuGen power plant in Cumbria that is supposed to eventually supply up to 6million homes as a key part of the Government’s energy strategy.

But Toshiba has been rocked by huge losses stemming from a £5billion writedown at its US nuclear unit.

New nuclear: An artists’ impression of how NuGen’s nuclear power station in Cumbria alongside Sellafield will look. Troubled Toshiba has a majority stake in NuGen

The crisis has cast doubt over its plans for the £10billion plant in Moorside near Sellafield which is supposed to provide up to 8 per cent of the country’s energy.

It marks the latest setback to the Government’s plans to reduce carbon emissions and keep the lights on.

Ministers are also facing calls to step in with cash to help Hitachi build a plant at Wylfa in Anglesey while another plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset has been approved but sites using the same reactors abroad are facing serious delays.