Meteorologist Takes Down Newsweek science writer

By Chief Meteorologist Craig James,
of a Michigan NBC TV affiliate

Meteorologist Takes Down Newsweek science writer for Shoddy Climate Reporting
(By Chief Meteorologist Craig James, of a Michigan NBC TV affiliate)

Excerpt: In the May 5, 2008 edition of Newsweek, there is an article by science writer Sharon Begley trying to convince us that “global warming isn’t good for crops after all”.

 

Her first example is that a glacier in the Himalayas called the Gangotri glacier. She writes that over the last 25 years the glacier has shrunk about half a mile, “a rate three times the historical norm”. The implication is, of course, that this was caused by increasing atmospheric CO2 produced by human activities.

Since this glacier supplies 70% of the flow to India’s Ganges River during the dry season, loss of the glacier would cause great harm to India’s crop irrigation.

However, this article in the Times of India, contains the following quote: According to Geological Survey of India data, between 1935 and 1996, Gangotri glacier receded at an average 18.80 metres per year. Studies by other institutions show that yearly recession dropped to 17.5 metres during 1971-2004 and further to 12.10 metres in 2004-05. The river flow may be falling and the glacier retreating, but is it really three times the historical norm? The Indian government calls it a “natural phenomena” that may have been exacerbated by the building of four dams.

[…] Her next example is that of a diminishing snowpack in the United States, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. Was she out of the country this winter? [However,] snow depth comparisons from the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center in Seattle, Washington [show] that this year’s snow pack in the Northwest was between 133% and 330% above normal. In many locations in the central Rockies, the midwest and northern New England, the highest snowfall amounts of any year were recorded.

Of course, one year does not make a trend, but since the Pacific Decadal Oscillation has gone negative, this may indeed be the beginning of a trend.

http://blogs.woodtv.com/?p=3578

For a complete report on Begley’s embarrassing climate reporting see:

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=38D98C0A-802A-23AD-48AC-D9F7FACB61A7

The average temperature in April 2008 was 51.0 F. This was -1.0 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average, the 29th coolest April in 114 years. The temperature trend for the period of record (1895 to present) is 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit per decade.

Can’t get much more official than this:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/na.html

 Thanks to Joseph E Rubenstein for this link