This week is the one-year anniversary of Climate Progress, so I’ve been looking at CP’s place in the blogosphere. I wanted an objective ranking, so I decided to use Technorati, which ranks all blogs by “authority” (the number of blogs linking to it). The lower the rank the better.

I have listed only blogs whose primary focus is climate, which excluded favorites like The Intersection. But if I included that one, I’d have to include general environmental blogs like Gristmill and lots of energy-centric blogs, resulting in a not-very-useful list for global warming junkies. I have also omitted the (very few) top-ranked Denyer blogs (sorry Steve McIntrye) — the Denyers get far more attention than they deserve already.

Here goes (recent Technorati rank in parentheses):

10. Accuweather Climate Blog (39,249) — “Global warming news, science, myths, articles.” A good general interest climate blog.

9. Climate Feedback (34,124) — “An informal forum for debate and commentary on climate science.” A useful new blog, sponsored by Nature magazine. On the downside, you’ll have to endure posts by Roger Pielke, Jr.

8. Climate of Our Future (24,327) — “A discussion on climate change.” Another good general interest climate blog.

7. It’s Getting Hot In Here (20,428) — “Dispatches from the youth climate movement.” There is hope for the next generation after all!

6. Climate Progress (16,087) — “An insider’s view of climate science, politics, and solutions.” A fast-rising (relative) newbie.

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A new study by NOAA’s Earth System Research Lab finds:

Greenhouse gases likely accounted for more than half of the widespread warmth across the continental United States last year…. [T]he probability of U.S. temperatures breaking a record in 2006 had increased 15-fold compared to pre-industrial times because of greenhouse gas increases in Earth’s atmosphere.

How did they come to this conclusion?

[T]he NOAA team analyzed 42 simulations of Earth’s climate from 18 climate models provided for the latest assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change… The results of the analysis showed that greenhouse gases produced warmth over the entire United States in the model projections, much like the warming pattern that was observed last year across the country.

The warming pattern did not match that of El Ni±o, which the study found typically cools the country slightly:

For a final check, the scientists compared the observed 2006 pattern of abnormal surface temperatures to the projected effects of greenhouse-gas warming and El Ni±o temperature responses. The U.S. temperature pattern of widespread warming was completely inconsistent with the pattern expected from El Ni±o, but it closely matched the expected effects of greenhouse warming.

When even NOAA scientists attribute recent warming to greenhouse gases, you know it’s time to take action. Let’s see if the media give this important study the same attention they gave to the recent trivial revision in NASA’s U.S. land-based temperature data record.

about global warming Denyers from Nexus 6. Hat tip to Deltoid.

The House Committee on Science and Technology, Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, will hold a hearing entitled “The benefits and challenges of producing liquid fuel from coal: The role for federal research,” on Wednesday September 5 at 10 a.m. in Rayburn 2318. It will be webcast.

This beats a one-sided debate any day. Testifying is one of my favorite activities, and this is one of my favorite committees — since they care about science and technology. And liquid coal is one of my favorite subjects, as readers of this blog know.

I’d love your thoughts on what I should say. Here are some of my posts on the subject:

Some Thoughts on Coal to Diesel

Congress should say NO to coal-to-diesel

Plug-in Hybrids Beat Coal-to-Liquids (Duh!)

And here is one of the best recent charts: