Friday, April 25, 2014

News: Republican congressman accepts heliocentrism

Or something like that.

Yes, this is newsworthy for a Republican political leader.

I suppose I should just be happy and cut the snark, but we'll see if his votes accord with what he now accepts is true. He is a youngish guy, so maybe he's setting himself up for the future.

16 comments:

Nick Stokes said...

Something concentrating the mind?

THE CLIMATE WARS said...

The conference center of the heliocentric universe is a lot closer to Obama's political balliwick than Grimm's congressional district.

THE CLIMATE WARS said...

Sorry for the 404: the heliocentroid of the blogosphere

THE CLIMATE WARS said...

has shifted to

http://galileowaswrong.com/category/blog/

Hank Roberts said...

Hey, since you're talking 'epubs:
Charlie Stross writes: "it occurred to me (after my fifth pint of IPA) to spin my speculative political satire around the fact that there is only one man on the global political scene today who has what it takes to be a plausible Republican candidate for President Of The United States at the next presidential election."

Unknown said...

You got it Nick....no coincidence his go-to phrases revolve around evidence and the jury is/is not still out.......he better hope the jury stays out until the next election...

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile, eight years and counting since a major hurricane struck the US.

With an El Nino in the works, do I hear nine?

Perhaps the learned statesman want to reconsider?

Eunice.

Kevin O'Neill said...

Eunice has an odd sense of humor. "Meanwhile, eight years and counting since a major hurricane struck the US."

2012 to 2014 .... hmmmmmm. Oh Sandy how soon we forget you - or at least Eunice does.

chek said...

Eunice opined that the last major hurricane to hit the US was Katrina.

Well Eunice, I was watching (from a safe distance in the UK) on twitter as the Mayor's office was closing bridges as the wind speeds exceeded 100 mph. And experiencing to a certain schadenfreude as portions the West Side Highway sunk below sea level a la Hensen's prophecy.

So despite what you're chosen oracle (I'm guessing that's Williwatt's polymath masseur) told you, Sandy was a multi-billion dollar event.

How many of those per decade do you think even Uncle Sam can afford? (leaving aside the Caribbean and the Philippine events).

I guess denial requires a mandatory short-focus, tunnel vision.

chek said...

Er.. that's meant to be James Hansen's prophecy, as in the climate science dude, not Jim Henson, the muppet puppeteer guy for the benefit of anyone west of Illinois.

exusian said...

Eunice, get your head out of your navel. There's a whole globe out there and the US is not the only place major hurricanes/typhoons strike.

Anonymous said...

"There's a whole globe out there and the US is not the only place major hurricanes/typhoons strike."

True enough.

But the reputed epiphany of the Congress goober in question was his observation of 'Sandy' - is his observation of a single storm in the US somehow pertinent?

Further, were he to base his assessment on the global tropical cyclone energy,
he might examine the data which looks like this.

For that record:
"There is no evidence of a systematic increasing or decreasing trend in ACE for the years 1970-2012."

And the last full year, 2013, indicated the lowest cyclone energy on record.


Eunice.

THE CLIMATE WARS said...

What time does the next Anonymous stop at the weather station?

Flakmeister said...

Too bad the Repub poster boy for sanity just got indicted on 20 counts of campaign finance irregularities....

Turboblocke said...

For Eunice from his link: The caveat to using ACE as a measure of the activity of a season is that it does not take the size of the hurricane or tropical storm into account. The damage potential of a hurricane is proportional to the square or cube of the maximum wind speed, and thus ACE is not only a measure of tropical cyclone activity, but a measure of the damage potential of an individual cyclone or a season.

So total ACE could remain constant but there could be more stronger cyclones and less weaker ones.

Anonymous said...

2013 ACE is 540. Which included the strongest ever recorded landfall wind speed because of a deep pool of warm water (whatever could that have to do with global warming, eh?). Sorry, "Eunice". Perhaps you should take a closer look rather than parrot results you like.

http://models.weatherbell.com/tropical.php

Rib Smokin' bunny