Monckton's non-pause goes into quantum of solace superposition

For many moons now, Christopher Monckton has been touring the denial blogs with his well worn routine: no warming since....  Unfortunately for him, events, dear boy, have resulted in a new act.  The pause that never was is going.

That's because, as Monckton says:

The start-date is not “cherry-picked” so as to coincide with the temperature spike caused by the 1998 el Niño. Instead, it is calculated so as to find the longest period with a zero trend.

But, and here's an important point, the 1997-8 El Nino is part of the hidden cherry pick and so is using the RSS database.  UAH data explodes the non-pause.  Myth busted.

The elephant in the Jacuzzi

What can you make of a statement like this:

The satellite datasets are based on reference measurements made by the most accurate thermometers available – platinum resistance thermometers, which provide an independent verification of the temperature measurements by checking via spaceward mirrors the known temperature of the cosmic background radiation, which is 1% of the freezing point of water, or just 2.73 degrees above absolute zero.

Is it a lie?  Pretty much so, because the satellites are not measuring temperature but radiance and require a whole lot of adjusting to come up with a temperature.   And, for good measure, does the bit I've picked out in bold actually mean anything?  Wiki doesn't list resistance thermometers being used on satellites but Roy Spencer says they are.  Qu & al Satellite Bassed Applications On Climate Change gives details, including the models needed to convert radiance to temperatures and the methods needed to callibrate the instruments.

As you might expect, Monckton thinks he knows more than the experts.

The non-ticking non-time non-bomb

Finally, how long will it be before the Freedom Clock (Fig. T12) reaches 20 years without any global warming? If it does, the climate scare will become unsustainable.

Just in case you want to know the answer to this imponderable question, I'll tell you in a minute.  But first, a pointless graphic from Monckton's article:

18 years 8 months takes us to June 1997.  That pause beginning has changed again but you knew that by now, didn't you?  What you are bursting to know is the answer to Monckton's question: when will the non-pause reach twenty years and thus the entire edifice of modern civilisation climate science collapse in an endless series of fraud trials?  I've searched high and low and found this:

The sharp el Niño spike is just about to abolish the long Pause in global temperatures

So now we know.   We know because the authority is impeccable.  It's from Monckton's own article.  Do you think he reads his own stuff?  Sometimes I wonder.

The Stig

 

Ed Mitchell Dies - Now Just 7 Moonwalkers Are Left

One day there will be no one left alive who stood on the Moon and experienced the sight with their own eyes.  Sadly, this Thursday, the sixth man to walk on the Moon passed away, Ed Mitchell.  Unlike all of the other famous names that have left us so far this year, Bowie, Rickman and so on, I did at least get to meet Ed Mitchell.  At least I said hello to him and he responded.

Long term readers of my intermittent post might remember that I became interested in science when I watched Apollo 8 lift off.  By the time Ed Mitchell made his flight, in February 1971, I was a total and utter space nerd and could have bored for England on the subject, at my age group of course.  I was eight then and, for an obscure reason that I never quite lived down, I missed the launch of Apollo 14 live but I do have a recollection of following the landing a few days later, on a dark morning when breakfast TV was a rare treat.

At least I thought I did.   BBC Genome, that invaluable site giving details of BBC programmes over the years, lists the touchdown of Apollo 14 on the lunar surface as being on at 9.45, well after I had gone to school.  My memory must be getting dodgy.

More certainly, I watched the Saturday moonwalk with enthusiasm, as Shepard and Mitchell struggled to find the rim of cone crater, before Shepard hit his two golf shots and they closed out to come home.   He returned a hero.

He did not live the rest of his life as much a hero.  News emerged of his poorly designed experiment into ESP and his interest in UFOs and his long term, well intentioned but ultimately fruitless investigations into the consciousness of the universe, did not put him high up on my list of scientific heroes.  I felt that was such a shame as there was so much good he could have done and of all the Moon walkers I have met, Mitchell was the least approachable (and I've met the legendarily moody Buzz Aldrin).  He had, by that time, good reason.  The idiotic Moon landing conspiracy meme had probably worn him down but the illness and death of one of his sons gave him much sadness.  I am truly sorry Mitchell has now died and I hold in great regard his astronaut accomplishments and respect his sincerity.

Mitchell's passing leaves just seven of the twelve Moon walkers alive:
James Irwin (Apollo 15) died in 1991
Alan Shepard (Apollo 14) died in 1998
Pete Conrad (Apollo 12) died in 1999
Neil Armstrong (Apollo 11 and the first Moon walker) died in 2012

Those left are
Buzz Aldrin
Al Bean
Dave Scott
John Young
Charlie Duke
Gene Cernan
Jack Schmitt