Natural sources of methane are far more likely to contaminate groundwater than hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, according to a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded study published Monday. 

The study examined methane levels in groundwater supplies going back 25 years and determined that biologically generated methane and naturally occurring coal were the primary sources of methane in groundwater.

The research also disproves environmental claims that methane from fracking causes tap-water to flame.

“This latest study is another blow to the credibility of anti-fossil fuel activists have made water contamination a central claim in their case against fracking despite being consistently debunked by science,” Randy Hildreth, the Colorado Director of the pro-industry group Energy In Depth, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “None of the cases of contamination researchers looked at in Colorado’s DJ Basin were attributed to wells using hydraulic fracturing and modern horizontal drilling techniques under today’s regulations.”

C. Sutcliffe (Weather and Climate) wrote:  “It was from the study of the prevailing winds as they were observed, especially the surface winds from the days of world exploration in sailing ships, that the concept of the general circulation of the atmosphere, the most important concept in the whole of meteorology, arose.”

And, “If the general circulation is, by definition, a matter of average winds of the world it immediately embraces all the other major physical quantities and physical processes.  One cannot go far in the study of winds without introducing the driving force, the pressure; and one cannot go far in the study of pressure without introducing air density and air temperature for the pressure of the air above.  Again the study of temperature introduces energy and its transformation, the absorption and emission of radiation, evaporation and condensation and the conversion of latent heat:  vertical motions introduce clouds and rainfall, and so on until the whole of weather science is drawn into the argument.  Thus, a complete understanding of the general circulation of the atmosphere implies a complete understanding of every process in world climatology and it is for this reason that it may justifiably be called the central problem of the science.”

If I were to ask—What is the prime mover of this atmospheric circulation?, what might one answer?  In C. Donald Ahrens very popular meteorology textbook—Meteorology Today 9^th Ed—I find the statement:  “We know the primary cause of the atmosphere’s general circulation is the unequal heating that occur between tropical and polar regions.” 

Satellite temperatures show no statistical difference with June 2016 temperatures and 1998’s, showing a steep drop in global temps once El Nino ended.

According to the now-finalized RSS satellite-derived June 2016 temperatures, measurements show that the global warming pause (or hiatus) is on track to resume with a prediction for even lower temps this winter. For June 2016, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) RSS satellite record showed Earth was only 0.46 degrees Celsius (0.84°F) above the 30-year average, a marked decline since its peak in February 2016.

They also show worldwide temperatures dropping a full half a degree Celsius since their peak and are actually below 1998 levels for the past three months. The RSS data is also on par with the UAH satellite dataset (see graph above). Once the El Niño in the tropical Pacific Ocean officially stopped, NOAA also showed a precipitous decline in temperatures using land and sea-based measuring systems.

The sun defines the climate, not carbon dioxide. So says eminent Russian space scientist, Habibullo Abdussamatov (Dr. Sc. – Head of Space research laboratory of the Pulkovo Observatory). Also Head of the Russian/Ukrainian joint project Astrometria, Abdussamatov (pictured) is featured on page 140 of the 2009 U.S. Senate Report of More Than 700 Dissenting Scientists Over Man-Made Global Warming. 

Below Dr Abdussamatov explains why carbon dioxide is “insignificant” in climate change (translated from Russian by Lucy Hancock).

Key Excerpts: Observations of the Sun show that as for the increase in temperature, carbon dioxide is “not guilty” and as for what lies ahead in the upcoming decades, it is not catastrophic warming, but a global, and very prolonged, temperature drop. […] Over the past decade, global temperature on the Earth has not increased; global warming has ceased, and already there are signs of the future deep temperature drop. […]

In a response to Dr. Tim Ball’s article—John L. Daly: A Giant of Early Climate Skepticism—I closed my comments with the following.

“Richard Feynman has proposed a scattering theory of solar radiation by cloud droplets that I seldom, if ever, read as being considered.  Feynman and other theoretical physicists have proposed that a general rule is that a good absorber is a good reflector.  In the context of meteorology and climate I have seldom, if ever, read this rule being considered.  And according to Feynman:  “Einstein assumed that there are three kinds of processes:  an absorption proportional to the intensity of light, an emission proportional to the intensity of light, called induced emission or sometimes stimulated emission, and a spontaneous emission independent of light.”  In the context of the ‘greenhouse effect’ I have seldom, if ever, read about this assumption of Einstein’s.

“Why?  My answer is too many people enjoy debating the intelligence of others than in doing good science themselves.”

Global human population is on the decline. The fertility of half of the world’s population is already below the replacement ratio, according to a new study from the University of Oxford. The latest facts run counter to the traditional story of an out of control soaring world population.

In a comprehensive data study entitled ‘Fertility’ found in full at OurWorldInData.org researcher Max Roser reports, “The decline of fertility is one of the most fundamental social changes that happened in human history.” He adds, “The richer the people, the lower the fertility.”

Below are selected extracts:

The first chart shows the total fertility rate for the entire world population at 5 different points in time. The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman. More specifically, it tells you the average number of children that would be born to a woman (who would live until the end of her childbearing years) if she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates through her lifetime.

Just hope you don’t need to replace the spark plugs of any internal combustion engine-driven implement (like lawn mowers, weed cutters, or chain saws) that may be a few years old. You could be in for a rude surprise. 

The model number found on your old plug type has likely changed – repeatedly – regardless of its age and manufacturer. That’s when your replacement needs start to become a problem. The same type of plug may still be manufactured and even in stock at the store. However, trying to find the current replacement model-number is akin to finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. In addition, there are more manufacturers of such things now, each using their own and frequently changing numbering systems (an updated version will be available soon).

It’s more than five years since the earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan caused a huge leak of radioactive material into the world’s oceans.

Workers battled to prevent the Fukushima nuclear plant going into complete meltdown and radiation levels rose by a factor of tens of millions.

However, a new report by Australian scientists has revealed that radiation in the Pacific Ocean is rapidly returning to normal and should be at its previous level by 2020. So what does this say about radiation and us?

Time has stood still around the Fukushima nuclear plant, with homes and possessions abandoned – perhaps forever.

A cloudy day here on Earth might be a sign for gloom, but elsewhere in the universe, to behold one is a scientific achievement.

In this case, a team of researchers from UC Santa Cruz announced that they have detected water clouds for the first time outside our solar system on a brown dwarf known as WISE 0855, which is around 7.2 light-years away from Earth.

Once again last week we saw Dame Julia Slingo, the Met Office’s £240,000-a-year Chief Scientist, lecturing a conference of “50 experts” on the dire effects of “climate change and extreme weather on health and well-being”. This might have seemed timely. 

Since last December, Dame Julia’s computer models were predicting that 2016 would be the hottest year since records began in 1850. It is true that even the satellite temperature records showed last year as being unusually warm. But this was due not so much to “man-made climate change” as the natural effect of an exceptionally strong El Nino: the warm phase of that Pacific current which raises temperatures all over the world.

We saw much the same natural effect in 1998, 2006 and 2010, when thanks to strong El Ninos, global temperatures spiked. But on each occasion this was followed by a La Nina, giving the opposite effect, such as the dramatic cooling of 2007/8, which lowered global temperatures by 0.7 degrees C, equal to their entire net rise over the past century. Much the same is now happening again.

Throughout history, humans have cautioned each other to prepare for winter, both literally and figuratively.  Harsh climates can be very dangerous, and hard times fall on us all.  Globally, that warning can again be given literally as temperatures are dropping – winter is coming! 

The latest temperature records indicate a massive drop in the global temperature levels during the past two months, helped by the receding El Niño and the fast-approaching La Niña.  In fact, the 2-month drop of 0.37˚ C (0.67˚ F) in global average temperature May-June was the second largest in 37 years of recorded history.

If the approaching La Niña is strong, it will drive the temperature further downward.

And this recent drop in global temperature levels only reiterates the importance of relying on accurate satellite-based temperature measurements for our assessment of climate change.

These current real-world temperature levels are already lower than the faulty computer model temperature projections used by the IPCC to guide global energy and developmental policies.

Scientists announced Friday they’ve successfully attached biologically active “living metal” to titanium, which could revolutionize how doctors create artificial joints and other implants.

Titanium is used by doctors to create implants because it is extremely strong and not harmful to human tissues, but the metal lacks beneficial biological properties of natural tissues like bone or natural teeth. “Living metal” created via the research combines the biological benefits of proteins with the physical strength of titanium.

Do scientific papers ever seem like unreadable gibberish to you? Well, sometimes they really are.

Some 120 papers published in established scientific journals over the last few years have been found to be frauds, created by nothing more than an automated word generator that puts random, fancy-sounding words together in plausible sentence structures. As a result they have been pulled from the journals that originally published them.

Two continent-size blobs of hot — and possibly molten — rock can be found deep underground, about halfway to the center of the Earth, according to a new study. These curious structures — each of which is so large that it would be 100 times taller than Mount Everest — could be made up of materials that may shed light on how the Earth formed, the researchers said. 

One of the blobs is located beneath the Pacific Ocean, and the other can be found beneath the Atlantic. These underground structures start where the Earth’s mantle meets the core, but they send “plumes” up through the rock like a Lava Lamp, the researchers said.

In 1999, NASA showed no net global warming from 1876 to 1976. This wrecked their hockey stick plans, so NASA erased all of the inconvenient pre-1880 data and cooled 1880 temperatures by about 0.2C.

This abuse of science is atrocious, but it gets worse. The NASA data had already been highly corrupted in 1999. In 1974, the National Center For Atmospheric Research (NCAR) showed 0.4C cooling from 1940 to 1970, and no net warming from 1870 to 1970.

Boulder — The recent trend of increasing Antarctic sea ice extent — seemingly at odds with climate model projections — can largely be explained by a natural climate fluctuation, according to a new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

The study offers evidence that the negative phase of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), which is characterized by cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific, has created favorable conditions for additional Antarctic sea ice growth since 2000.