Global warming: Liberals dispute Russian scientists

I wouldn’t normally create an entire post out of a comment I receive, but this one stoked my fire. I’ve been seeing this kind of stuff all over the Internet, and it deserves to be answered because it’s exactly the sort of pile-on liberals have been doing to crush dissent from the global warming program.

The comment in question is in response to my post last week, Fight global warming now (before it goes away), which discussed a Russian scientist’s belief that the globe is entering a cooling period. I won’t bother paraphrasing the comment; I’ll let you read it yourself. My response is below in bold type.

From Tededdy:

Sorry everybody …but this article by Sorokhtin about global cooling has some major problems that seriously undermines it credibility. Look at this for example:
“….and no such thing as the hothouse effect.”

Dah….” ..hothouse effect” ? Doesn’t he mean the greenhouse effect? Who of any authority gets this term wrong?

And:

“As we know, hothouse gases, in particular, nitrogen peroxide, …”

What?! Nitrogen peroxide?! …hothouse gas …This has to be an early April Fools Joke?

Get your BS antennas on!

If the supposed author, Sorokhtin, is referring to NO2 – then that’s not even a minor greenhouse gas!

What’s going on here?

Also who is this?:

“..The latest data, obtained by Habibullah Abdusamatov, head of the Pulkovo Observatory space research laboratory, say that Earth has passed the peak of its warmer period,….”

Having done a net search on this guy, the only reference to “Habibullah Abdusamatov” is in regards to this article, that’s posted verbatim all over the net. He certainly has no other braod-based net profile.

And also …it seems that there is no scientific paper presenting this so-called “..data..” !?

Come on …here we have a major announcement that global cooling will soon kick-in …but the researcher cited is totally unknown; a scientific paper presenting the information is absent; …and …there are major factual errors in this opinion piece article written by a so-called “..Merited Scientist..” from Russia who announces this groundbreaking research ?!

I seriously wonder if this article is a hoax. I don’t think anyone with scientific credibility could write an article like that.

Geez, do you Algorites just put some stock phrases on your computers and let them post automatically on all the blogs? I swear I’ve read bits and pieces of this comment on at least two dozen different blogs.

I don’t know Dr. Sorokhtin, and I can’t personally vouch for his veracity, but I can point out where your comment is less than truthful or beside the point.

1) Hothouse effect: For the diversity crowd, this is funny. Believe it or not, “greenhouse effect” is not a universal phrase. There are entire parts of the globe, such as Europe and Russia, where it’s called the “hothouse effect” and the chemicals responsible are called “hothouse gases.” This is just stupid.

2) Nitrogen peroxide: No, it’s not likely that NO2 is a greenhouse gas, but the professor in his haste could easily have transposed something in his notes and meant N2O, nitrous oxide, which is, in fact, the No. 3 greenhouse gas on the IPCC’s list. All that means is that the professor made a typo. It doesn’t invalidate anything else he says. Go thump your Chem 101 book elsewhere.

3) Habibullah Abdusamatov: “Having done a net search on this guy …” You should leave it to the professionals. I found him in about two minutes. According to the observatory, the proper spelling is Habibullo I. Abdussamatov, which could be a problem of translating from Russian to English letters, or it could be a symptom of Dr. Sorokhtin’s typo-prone fingers. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess English is not Dr. Sorokhtin’s first language. That doesn’t discount anything he says.

4) The “missing” data: Couldn’t find the study? Honestly, do I have to do everything for you people? I found it in National Geographic, among numerous other references to Dr. Abdussamatov. Here’s a link: Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says. (I’ve also sent an e-mail to Dr. Abdussamatov. If he responds, I’ll post his answer.)

So your entire dispute boils down to a couple of typos and your poor Web search skills.

Like I said, leave Web searches to the pros. And perhaps leave comments on global warming to scientists.

Global warming: Don’t sell the beach house yet, Barbie

It’s been known for some time among scientists that the many dire predictions about rising sea levels to come because of global warming were overstated, because the evidence shows clearly that the Antarctic ice sheet is growing, obviously taking up much of the moisture being lost elsewhere on the planet.

Add to that the fact that the Arctic ice sheet is essentially a big ice cube whose even total melting would be a net zero gain as far as sea level (due to water displacement by the current ice), and the threat to the world’s coastlines is clearly drastically less than the “Waterworld” scenarios of the most fervent Algorites would paint it.

Now comes research from scientists in the U.S., UK, Germany and Netherlands that found evidence that ice caps existed in Earth’s past even when the planet was much, much hotter than it is now or is likely to be in the future, reports the Telegraph. (The study is reported on page 189 of this week’s Science. The link is here, but you’ll have to be a member or pay for the article to read it online.)

According to the researchers, at the height of the Cretaceous “hothouse,” there were still massive ice sheets up to 60 percent the size of the modern Arctic ice cap.

The researchers’ evidence supports previous studies that concluded the sea level actually DROPPED 25 to 40 meters during this period, about 90 million years ago, when crocodiles swam in the Arctic and the tropical oceans were reportedly as warm as human blood.

According to the Telegraph, Dr. André Bornemann, who led the research at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California, said, “This study demonstrates that even these super-warm climates were not warm enough to always prevent ice growth. However, paradoxically past greenhouse climates may actually have aided ice growth by increasing the amount of moisture in the atmosphere and creating more winter snowfall at high elevations and high latitudes.”

Wonder if these researchers will ever get a Nobel prize?