A Critique of the Fourth National Climate Assessment

By Robert W. Endlich

In describing the errors in the Fourth National Climate Assessment, ‘NCA4’, I’ll use the words from the Executive Summary which purport to link climate changes in the USA to global climate change.

Photo by Pixabay

The first claim, “The last few years have also seen record-breaking, climate-related weather extremes,“ is shown to be false, simply by examining climate records, some from the National Climate Data Center.

Tornadoes have been decreasing over the past six decades as temperatures moderate from the significant cooling of the 1940s to 1970s.  As a basic knowledge of meteorology teaches, it is the pole to equator temperature difference that drives the intensity of cold Continue reading “A Critique of the Fourth National Climate Assessment”

A story of Vibro-Acoustic Disease, VAD

By Robert W. Endlich

This is a story of the discovery of a new effect of sonic vibrations, Vibro-Acoustic Disease, but it is a far cry from the sounds of human voices, birds, or the rustle of breezes through leafy trees. It is the story of discovery of dangerous low frequency infrasound, frequencies below what humans normally hear and measure for protection from deafness. It is the story of low frequency infrasound causing debilitating effects on humans and other forms of animal life.

A Portuguese Doctor finds problems with Aircraft Maintenance Workers

This story starts in 1980 when Dr. Nuno Castelo Branco was assigned as chief medical officer at OGMA, the Portuguese Air Force Aeronautical Plant near Lisbon, and his visits to his workers while at their work sites; one such occasion occurred during an aircraft engine run-up. One of the maintenance workers on duty during the run-up wandered towards the turbine engine exhaust, seemingly without purpose, and a colleague grabbed him before he was injured. Dr. Castelo Branco observed this abnormal behavior, called “automatism,” and, after examining medical Continue reading “A story of Vibro-Acoustic Disease, VAD”

Drought, Climate, Elephant Butte Water Storage

and the future of water storage for the lower Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico.
By Robert W. Endlich
Elephant Butte Dam and Landscape in New Mexico. Photo by U.S. Army Corps

Laura Paskus’ 3-part series on the current drought, its effects on farmers and residents, and the coming US Supreme Court decision, starts with a question, ”Elephant Butte is at 3 percent capacity; what happens next?” Let me introduce measurements, missing from Paskus’ series: Elephant Butte Lake levels, temperature, rainfall, and climate patterns. My analysis: nothing in the current meteorological/climatological situation is worse than the past century. History and study show that either water availability must increase, or water costs will increase.

Paskus’ sense of alarm with recent Elephant Butte Reservoir capacity falling to 3% implies impending catastrophe, but historic data show frequent episodes where the reservoir capacity in the 1950s, 60s and Continue reading “Drought, Climate, Elephant Butte Water Storage”

Systematic Temperature Error in the Climate Change Discussion

by Bernie McCune

This whole discussion began with a posting on Watts Up With That by Hartmut Hoecht posted on July 11, 2018.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/07/11/bucket-list-historic-global-ocean-temperature-data-the-missing-pedigree-is-a-comedy-of-errors/

EnclosurePic UofNeb.jpeg
Temperature measurement systems comparison test layout.

It is worth reading the whole thing but I will summarize it here. Various ways of measuring ocean temperatures from long ago until present times are discussed and questions of uncertainty and errors are raised. Recent and even very old reports on sea surface temperature (SST) values are often given in fractions of a degree. In reality, until very recently, the collection process had obvious errors that were greater than one degree.

Cooling periods in the SST records seen in the 1940s and 1970s of 0.3º C were noted in the data with some concern about collection methods but this period is known to be a AMO[efn_note]Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation (AMO) is a climate cycle index that has a roughly 60 year period.  The natural variation of the average sea surface temperature of the North Atlantic Ocean basin from the equator to 80o N is used to produce this index.[/efn_note] (and with less influence PDO[efn_note]Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) is another climate cycle index that also has about a 60 year period.  It is related to the El Nino Southern Oscillation  (ENSO) and is a robust, recurring pattern of ocean-atmosphere climate variability centered over the mid-latitude Pacific basin. The PDO is detected as warm or cool surface waters in the Pacific Ocean, north of 20°N.  It was named by biologist Steven R. Hare in 1997 when he noticed it while studying salmon production pattern results in the North Pacific Ocean. This climate pattern also affects coastal sea and continental surface air temperatures from Alaska to California.[/efn_note]) 30 year cooling period. In order to discern these 0.3º C changes in the data, instruments with an accuracy of 0.1º C must be used. The rule of thumb noted that the instrument must have better than three times the accuracy of the targeted Continue reading “Systematic Temperature Error in the Climate Change Discussion”

An Analysis of the Grisham Energy Plan

by David Tofsted
Candidate NM House, District 36

[David Tofsted, CASF member and a candidate for the NM House of Representatives in NM District 36, has also posted a similar analysis of the Grisham Energy Plan on his own web site at this link. Ed.]

SUMMARY:

Contained herein is a preliminary attempt to bound the cost of the proposed Grisham Energy Plan. This plan calls for renewable power in New Mexico to account for 50% of all electrical power used by 2030, and increases that to 80% by 2040. The current document attempts to assess the costs of the Grisham plan by three different methods, and by employing two sets of

Photo by Pixabay

assumptions for one of the methods. The metric used for assessing cost was the surcharge to the average NM household yearly electric bill. In each case the cost per household was found to be on the order of just over one thousand to several thousands of dollars of added expense per year over the full 20 years of the plan.

The lowest estimate obtained was $1,500. The high estimate was  approximately $6,653. The remaining two estimates were $3,200 and $6,000. Based on the variability of assumptions and range of estimates it is Continue reading “An Analysis of the Grisham Energy Plan”