50.39646 -4.20121 NO CIMO Assessment Installed 23/10/2023

It is perfectly reasonable to have a weather station sited alongside a Helipad – pilots need to have good data on the wind and related weather effects. It is actually quite common such as at Almondsbury and in even closer proximity at Battersea. What is questionable, however, is adding readings intended only for immediate aviation advice into the historic temperature record. The case of Kinterbury Point is a curious one not dissimilar to “errors ” such as at Hastings and Edenbridge and who knows how many others.

Installed just over a year ago Kinterbury Point quickly made a starring appearance in the Met Office “Daily Extremes” for 12th June 2024 recording the national highest temperature of 19.1°C. Unfamiliar with the site name, on checking, I could not find it on the Met Office Climate and Synoptic Stations listing. The only Met Office station listing for Plymouth was the Mountbatten site which recorded a maximum hourly reading of 1.5°C lower as below. Was this a case of a new poor site artificially pushing up the temperature record?

I contacted the Met Office enquiries desk to ascertain where this station was, when installed and for its CIMO classification but no immediate response was offered. It was at this time that a senior Met Office manager ( Karl Shepherdson) had just reneged on his offer of a video conference to discuss my concerns over weather station accuracy as detailed in my letter to Peter Kyle MP. Responses to my enquiries were not forthcoming. I asked Paul Homewood of NALOPKT for assistance. He additionally contacted the Met Office to receive the following response on the 18th June.

“Subject: Plymouth Kinterbury

Hi Paul, thank you for your enquiry.

I have checked the weather station you mentioned in your enquiry and it has come to light that an administrative error resulted in data from this site recently making it on to our external website for extremes.

This is a customer-only site and as such is used to inform the customer’s specific decisions rather than being used for public records. As this site is used to provide very specific customer information, which is not climate related, it therefore does not have a CIMO rating and should not be available for our external website for extremes. The issue has now been resolved and will no longer be seen in any of our products.

Thank you for making us aware of this.

Nicky

Nicola Maxey BSc (Hons) Senior Press Officer”

Whilst I can accept that “administrative errors” do occur, it is becoming increasingly evident that the Met Office seems to make rather more than their fair share. The first obvious question is that if neither Paul nor I had raised this matter, would it ever have been resolved and would data from a non assessed site continue potential inclusion in the historic temperature record. A further point worth noting is that prior to the above date, whenever Plymouth recorded a regional or national high, it was always shown as “Plymouth:Mountbatten” {or Plymouth:Kinterbury Point as above} but subsequently it is now only shown as “Plymouth” i.e. with no further identifier. Is the omission of this site specific identification another administrative error or are the Kinterbury Point figures still being used…..who actually knows?

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December 8, 2024 at 08:47AM

Related Links: JAMA Open Network study | UPI article

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December 8, 2024 at 08:32AM

From ClimateREALISM

By Linnea Lueken

A recent article at Vox, titled “Scientists are measuring burps and farts. It could help save the planet,” claims that methane produced by farm animals is causing dangerous global warming, and thus that reducing agriculture-related methane is critical to limiting warming to the 1.5°C target established for political ends in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. This is false. Animal related methane is not a threat to the environment, contributing little if anything to global warming.

The article primarily references research efforts by scientists in Columbia who measured the amount of methane different farm animals produce in their burps and gas depending on what kind of forage they eat, in order to determine the feed that will produce the least methane. Animals are placed in chambers and their emissions are monitored.

Vox writes:

These chambers are part of a multiyear project to lower the amount of methane produced by farm animals. This is important. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, responsible for roughly 20 to 30 percent of global warming since the Industrial Revolution. The bulk of global methane emissions stem from human activities, and the largest single source among them is agriculture — namely, the burps of ruminant animals such as cattle, goats, and sheep, as well as their manure.

Vox cites the International Energy Agency, not a scientific organization by the way, to claim that most methane emissions are due to human activity. This is not an established fact and is likely false. Multiple peer reviewed research papers, here and here, for example have found that natural sources of methane, such as but not limited to releases from wetlands, and other agricultural sources, such a emissions from rice paddies, are the largest sources of methane in the atmosphere. Indeed, recent research indicates that human methane emissions, from oil and gas operations, for example, have declined in recent decades even as production has increased and atmospheric methane in general has grown – suggesting an increase from natural or other human sources

Although methane is, as Vox says, a “powerful” greenhouse gas with much more warming potential per molecule than carbon dioxide, it has a short atmospheric life as so plays a relatively minor role in the atmosphere when it comes to long-term warming. NASA, one source for Vox’s story admits as much. What Vox and NASA neglect to mention, however, is that methane’s absorption bands occur at wavelengths that the most powerful and abundant greenhouse gas, water vapor, making up as much of 97 percent of the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, already covers. Methane, a small trace gas, is a very minor player despite alarmism surrounding it.

With that in mind, it is more useful to look at greenhouse gas emissions in general. Data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) focusing on the United States (since the nation has the best and most easily available data) clearly show that livestock emissions are a small part of human emissions overall. (See figure below)

Vox targets beef production in particular, writing:

“Without addressing emissions from the food sector, it’s impossible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, beyond which climate change will be catastrophic. Lowering meat (and especially beef) consumption is probably the most important part of that effort, but it’s an uphill battle as meat consumption is projected to rise globally over the next few years.”

But beef production only represents 2 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and is beaten out in emissions by crop agriculture, which contributes 10.2 percent of U.S. emissions. These numbers are likely similar in most western countries. Climate Realism has covered these facts multiple times before, here, here, and here, for example. The facts haven’t changed, yet climate alarmists arguments are never revised or improved.

That data supports research done by Prof. Habil Wilhelm Windisch, Ph.D., of the Technical University of Munich, which indicates ruminants’ contributions to greenhouse gas emissions are exaggerated by climate alarmist groups and media outlets like Vox, by a factor of 3 to 4 at minimum.

Further, methane emissions have been steadily dropping in the United States since the 1990s, according to data from the EPA. (See figure below)

It may be worthwhile to run the “livestock gas chamber” experiments for data collection purposes, or to learn more about ruminant digestion and how to improve the efficient digestion of foods livestock consume. Ultimately, though, it is a waste of time and money if stopping the gradual warming of the planet is the goal. All it is likely to accomplish is to drive additional research dollars to scholars who attack modern, high-yield, fossil-fuel-intensive, agriculture, while making meat more expensive, making it harder for the world’s poorest people to afford it. Vox’s own comments clearly indicate they support reducing meat consumption and its projected increase in the developing world – in short, the authors assumed from the outset that livestock methane emissions were contributing to dangerous climate change, which is, in fact, something they should have to prove. As such Vox is willing to mislead and ignore relevant data to make the case for reducing meat consumption as critical to fighting what the authors perceive as dangerous climate change.

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December 8, 2024 at 08:05AM

All that glisters green is not gold…

The electric car market is reeling in Europe…Germany’s electric car ambitions have taken another body blow as Swedish Northvolt declares bankruptcy in USA.

The massively taxpayer-subsidized gigafactory now under construction in Heide is in jeopardy and becoming a huge embarrassment for Germany’s Socialist-Green government. 

Press image Northvolt

Northvolt, a Swedish battery manufacturer, is facing immense financial difficulties and has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States. This filing has raised concerns about the future of Northvolt’s battery plant now under construction near Heide, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Construction of the Northvolt Drei battery factory near Heide began in March 2024 and it was planned to begin production in 2026.

In 2023, the German government and the state of Schleswig-Holstein began to provide significant financial support for the project for the Northvolt plant in Heide, which included a direct grant of 700 million euros and a guarantee of 202 million euros. German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Robert Habeck, (Green Party), called the battery plant “one of the most significant lighthouse projects of the energy and transport transition, which will create thousands of green tech jobs.”

Habeck, who majored in philosophy and has no education in economics, went on to call the Heide gigafactory project “one of the most important industrial investments in Europe in key green technologies.”

Habeck’s lofty dreams have since turned into a nightmare

But since Northvolt has filed bankruptcy in USA, the cash is gone and it’s increasingly likely German taxpayers will be left to pick up the tab as dreams of a flagship gigafactory in Heide disintegrate.

The billion-euro investment in the plant pushed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Economics Minister Robert Habeck was to be supported by public funds, loans and direct subsidies.  According to Blackout News, “The consequences are now hitting German taxpayers with full force.”

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December 8, 2024 at 04:35AM