Our story so far.

The anti-science crowd pushed the nonsensical meme that a big snowstorm in winter is somehow counter-indicative of human-caused climate change.   I then discussed the actual science, which makes clear that is, in fact, nonsense, and, if anything, such a storm is consistent with climate science, though you “can’t make a direct association between any individual weather event and global warming” (see Was the “Blizzard of 2009″³ a “global warming type” of record snowfall “” or an opportunity for the media to blow the extreme weather story (again)?).

That post incited the anti-science crowd at Newsbusters and elsewhere to do their misinformation thing, falsely asserting that I blamed the story on global warming, which I expected.  But I was surprised that Newsbusters’ Noel Sheppard apparently doesn’t know the difference between wind speed and precipitation, apparently believing that all big snowstorms are blizzards, which they are not.  Worse, if you read the comments to my original post, the anti-science crowd apparently believes that any extreme weather event that happens during the winter must be evidence against human-caused global warming.

UPDATE:  Turns out Noel Sheppard is an economist who wrote a “special report” for Business & Media Institute on November 30, 2005 titled, “Media Myths: The Housing Bubble Is Bursting,” attacking Krugman and others for warning of the dangers of a housing bubble!  I’m so reassured that “no housing bubble” guy now says we needn’t fret over climate change either…. h/t Krugman via Douglas in the comments.

And so we come back to a question I’ve asked many times, “Why do the anti-science disinformers try to shout down any talk of a link between climate change and extreme weather?”

After all, the science is crystal clear that many extreme weather events have increased in recent years “” and that there is a link to climate change. The point is such well-established science that even that bastion of denial, the Bush Administration, acknowledged it in a major 2008 report, Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate.  Yes, alarmists like Bush’s Commerce Sec. Carlos Gutierrez, Energy Sec. Samuel Bodman, and Science Advisor John Marburger III, signed off on the conclusion that:

Heavy precipitation events averaged over North America have increased over the past 50 years, consistent with the observed increases in atmospheric water vapor, which have been associated with human-induced increases in greenhouse gases.

And they signed off on the conclusion that those “Extreme precipitation episodes” now “account for a larger percentage of total precipitation. The most significant changes have occurred in most of the United States.”

Yet the disinformers and their allies try to attack, mock or shout down any talk of such a link whatsoever.

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“If black-carbon emissions from aircraft could be reduced 20-fold, warming [from plane-created vapour trails] would be halted”

Nature (subs. req’d) reports on an analysis presented by Stanford’s Mark Jacobson to the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting last week:

The first analysis of emissions from commercial airline flights shows that they are responsible for 4-8% of surface global warming since surface air temperature records began in 1850 “” equivalent to a temperature increase of 0.03-0.06 °C overall.

The analysis, by atmospheric scientists at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, also shows that in the Arctic, aircraft vapour trails produced 15-20% of warming.

This study is yet more strong evidence that we need a high priority global strategy to sharply reduce black carbon:

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“The science now convinces us that calls for immediate action are warranted to avoid the worst consequences of global warming on Wisconsin’s economy and environment, including the Great Lakes.”

This is a guest post by Peter Gray of the Environmental Law and Policy Center, “the Midwest’s leading public interest environmental legal advocacy and eco-business innovation organization.”

This month, 113 Wisconsin scientists joined together to urge Wisconsin’s senators to enact strong federal policies to combat climate change. A letter signed by the scientists was delivered December 8 to Senators Kohl and Feingold.  It explains the specific ways that climate change threatens Wisconsin’s economy and public health and how Wisconsin stands to benefit from climate change solutions:

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What You Need to Know Following the International Climate Change Summit