On September 8, 1900 the Texas coast was hit by a category 4 hurricane which killed more than 10,000 people and destroyed many cities.

10 Sep 1900, Page 1 – The St Louis Republic at Newspapers.com

The storm continued across Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario and Quebec.

12 Sep 1900, Page 1 – The Brooklyn Daily Eagle at Newspapers.com

via The Deplorable Climate Science Blog

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September 3, 2017 at 01:23PM

Open letter on behalf of the worldwide Catholic and Orthodox lay faithful in response to Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew on climate change by Christopher Monckton of Brenchley A FALSE BALANCE is abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight (Prov. XI:1). Your Holinesses’ recent admonition to your flocks about climate and … Continue reading Pope and Patriarch, hear the cry of the poor! (because of climate change)

via Watts Up With That?

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September 3, 2017 at 01:00PM

Electric car proponents keep insisting that breakthroughs in electric car battery technology are just around the corner, and that soon electric cars will no longer be hampered by limited range and long charging times. Thus we should start banning internal combustion cars soon.

Leading experts, on the other hand, are far less optimistic about the prospects of battery powered vehicles. For example, the online Badische Neueste Nachrichten (BNN) here presents an interview with Prof. Albert Albers, Director for Product Development at the German Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), where he researches vehicle and machinery drive systems.

Too much green populism

Albers says he is annoyed by media and policymakers who insist electric batteries are feasible, and who cite “phony experts” who do not know the subject material very well. The result he tells the BNN:

For this reason the citizens instead get too few facts and too many populist opinions.”

Battery’s huge ecological fingerprint

On the subject of electric cars and batteries, he notes that the ecological fingerprint of an e-car with battery “is not so good at all“, reminding readers that after everything gets calculated, “the ecological expenditure is 60 percent higher than that of a combustion engine auto.”

According to Albers, the driver first has to run the vehicle 80,000 km before it catches up to the internal combustion engine, a point where the lifetime of the battery is pretty much exhausted, he says.

No manufacture today is ready to guarantee a battery for 200,000 km (10 years) which is what is normal for regular combustion engines.”

Pleads for a return to sobriety

On the future for electric mobility, Albers pleads for a return to sobriety, saying that by 2030 there’s going to be “significantly more internal combustion vehicles on the roads than today”, and that for this reason “it is highly dangerous when policymakers villainize a technology.”

Despite all the anti-diesel rhetoric now being loudly expressed in Germany, Albers thinks the diesel engine still has a future, because there is still room for much improvement in diesel combustion technology.

“Considerable” fire and short circuit risks

The Karlsruhe researcher doesn’t believe there is future for batteries as a widespread solution, citing that the infrastructure challenges are too great and that there’s a “considerable risk” of short circuits involved with the use of lithium cells.

Overall Albers believes that “we have to remain open” to all solutions, for example synthetic fuels, power-to liquid-technology, or hydrogen gas powered engines. He does see a use for battery technology, but  in certain niche markets.

Albers says a more rational solutions-oriented discussion needs to take place, and there’s a need to get away from the generation of attention grabbing “populist headlines”.

800,000 German automotive jobs at risk

We must not discuss the issue in a state of daily panic and campaign populism and put the 800,000 jobs of the German automobile industry at risk.”

via NoTricksZone

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September 3, 2017 at 10:56AM

The image above shows ice extents for yesterday, day 244, from 2007 to 2017.  Particularly interesting is the variation in the CAA (Canadian Arctic  Archipelago), crucial for the Northwest Passage.  (The region is located just north of the word “Extent” in gold.)  While 2016 was a fine year for cruising with the passage completely open at day 239 that was not the case in 2014, and this year also had places frozen solid. By September 1, ice is still clogging some channels.

The graph of August NH ice extents shows 2017 has remained above the decadal average in recent days. (Ten-year average is for 2007 to 2016 inclusive).

This year is now 600k km2 greater than 2016 and exceeds the 10 year average by 50k km2.  SII (Sea Ice Index) 2017 is closer now, only 200k km2 lower.  2007 is running 400k km2 lower.  A previous post Beware the Arctic Storms of August discussed how late summer storms have dramatic impacts, and the graph shows both 2012 and 2016 plummeting in late August.  Note that just 2 weeks ago 2012 was tied with 2017, and then lost 1.6M km2.  2016 lost 1.3M km2 in the same period.

The table below compares 2017 with 2007 and the 10-year averages for Arctic regions.

2017 has deficits mainly in BCE, especially Beaufort Sea, but those are more than offset by surpluses in Central Arctic and CAA (Canadian Arctic Archipelago).  As shown in the post Arctic Heart Beat Central Arctic and CAA are the two regions providing most of the ice extent at annual minimum.

Footnote

Some people unhappy with the higher amounts of ice extent shown by MASIE continue to claim that Sea Ice Index is the only dataset that can be used.  This is false in fact and in logic.  Why should anyone accept that the highest quality picture of ice day to day has no shelf life, that one year’s charts can not be compared with another year?  Researchers do this, including Walt Meier in charge of Sea Ice Index.  That said, I understand his interest in directing people to use his product rather than one he does not control.  As I have said before:

MASIE is rigorous, reliable, serves as calibration for satellite products, and continues the long and honorable tradition of naval ice charting using modern technologies.  More on this at my post Support MASIE Arctic Ice Dataset

via Science Matters

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September 3, 2017 at 10:29AM