http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-b...-doubt-global-

CBS Ignores Study Casting Doubt on Warming

Two nights after NBC blamed hot summer temperatures on global
warming, and on the very day a new scientific report cast doubt on a
key assumption behind global warming forecasts, CBS on Thursday
evening held global warming culpable for "oppressive August heat" that
killed a man in East St. Louis. For an expert assessment, CBS reporter
Kelly Cobiella turned only to the Weather Channel climatologist who
last year suggested the American Meteorological Society should
withhold credentials from any member who dares doubt the man-made
global warming mantra: "Dr. Heidi Cullen is a climatologist for the
Weather Channel, and sees a definite connection to global warming."
Cullen maintained: "The heat wave that we're seeing now is completely
consistent with what we expect in a warmer world because all of our
models show us that heat waves will become intense, more frequent, and
they'll last longer."

The CBS Evening News skipped, as Rush Limbuagh predicted the
media would, a new study in which, as outlined in a press release,
"the widely accepted (albeit unproven) theory that manmade global
warming will accelerate itself by creating more heat-trapping clouds
is challenged this month in new research from the University of
Alabama in Huntsville." The posting on the university's site
summarized the study published in a scientific journal: "Instead of
creating more clouds, individual tropical warming cycles that served
as proxies for global warming saw a decrease in the coverage of heat-
trapping cirrus clouds, says Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research
scientist in UAHuntsville's Earth System Science Center."

In highlighting the university's findings on Thursday, Limbaugh
noted on his radio show that Spencer had received "no inquiries from
the Drive-By Media" and predicted: "There probably won't be." CBS has
provided early confirmation. RushLimbaugh.com transcript: www.rushlimbaugh.com

[This item was posted Thursday night on the MRC's blog,
NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

On Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, Anne Thompson asserted that
"global land surface temperatures in January and April were likely the
warmest since records began 120 years ago, extremes scientists say are
consistent with an increase in carbon dioxide, man-made global
warming." For more, check the August 8 CyberAlert: www.mrc.org

On her blog back in December, Heidi Cullen created a bit of
controversy when she suggested those who don't agree with her on the
cause and likely acceleration of global warming should be discredited:
"If a meteorologist can't speak to the fundamental science of climate
change, then maybe the AMS shouldn't give them a Seal of Approval."
See: climate.weather.com

For more, check Marc Morano's January post, "The Weather Channel
Climate Expert Refuses to Retract Call for Decertification for Global
Warming Skeptics," on the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee's "Inhofe Press Blog." See: epw.senate.gov

In May, Morano posted "Climate Momentum Shifting: Prominent
Scientists Reverse Belief in Man-Made Global Warming -- Now Skeptics;
Growing Number of Scientists Convert to Skeptics After Reviewing New
Research." See: epw.senate.gov

An excerpt from, "Cirrus disappearance: Warming might thin heat-
trapping clouds," a summary posted August 9 on the University of
Alabama at Huntsville's Web site:

The widely accepted (albeit unproven) theory that manmade global
warming will accelerate itself by creating more heat-trapping clouds
is challenged this month in new research from The University of
Alabama in Huntsville.

Instead of creating more clouds, individual tropical warming cycles
that served as proxies for global warming saw a decrease in the
coverage of heat-trapping cirrus clouds, says Dr. Roy Spencer, a
principal research scientist in UAHuntsville's Earth System Science
Center.

That was not what he expected to find.

"All leading climate models forecast that as the atmosphere warms
there should be an increase in high altitude cirrus clouds, which
would amplify any warming caused by manmade greenhouse gases," he
said. "That amplification is a positive feedback. What we found in
month-to-month fluctuations of the tropical climate system was a
strongly negative feedback. As the tropical atmosphere warms, cirrus
clouds decrease. That allows more infrared heat to escape from the
atmosphere to outer space."

The results of this research were published today in the American
Geophysical Union's "Geophysical Research Letters" on-line edition.
The paper was co-authored by UAHuntsville's Dr. John R. Christy and
Dr. W. Danny Braswell, and Dr. Justin Hnilo of Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, Livermore, CA.

"While low clouds have a predominantly cooling effect due to their
shading of sunlight, most cirrus clouds have a net warming effect on
the Earth," Spencer said. With high altitude ice clouds their infrared
heat trapping exceeds their solar shading effect.

In the tropics most cirrus-type clouds flow out of the upper reaches
of thunderstorm clouds. As the Earth's surface warms -- due to either
manmade greenhouse gases or natural fluctuations in the climate system
-- more water evaporates from the surface. Since more evaporation
leads to more precipitation, most climate researchers expected
increased cirrus cloudiness to follow warming....

The only way to see how these new findings impact global warming
forecasts is to include them in computerized climate models.

"The role of clouds in global warming is widely agreed to be pretty
uncertain," Spencer said. "Right now, all climate models predict that
clouds will amplify warming. I'm betting that if the climate models'
'clouds' were made to behave the way we see these clouds behave in
nature, it would substantially reduce the amount of climate change the
models predict for the coming decades."...

When they tracked the daily evolution of a composite of fifteen of the
strongest intraseasonal oscillations they found that although rainfall
and air temperatures would be rising, the amount of infrared energy
being trapped by the cloudy areas would start to decrease rapidly as
the air warmed. This unexpected behavior was traced to the decrease in
cirrus cloud cover.

The new results raise questions about some current theories regarding
precipitation, clouds and the efficiency with which weather systems
convert water vapor into rainfall. These are significant issues in the
global warming debate.

"Global warming theory says warming will generally be accompanied by
more rainfall," Spencer said. "Everyone just assumed that more
rainfall means more high altitude clouds. That would be your first
guess and, since we didn't have any data to suggest otherwise..."

"Until we understand how precipitation systems change with warming, I
don't believe we can know how much of our current warming is manmade.
Without that knowledge, we can't predict future climate change with
any degree of certainty."

Spencer and his colleagues expect these new findings to be
controversial.

"I know some climate modelers will say that these results are
interesting but that they probably don't apply to long-term global
warming," he said. "But this represents a fundamental natural cooling
process in the atmosphere. Let's see if climate models can get this
part right before we rely on their long term projections."

END of Excerpt

For the summary in full: www.uah.edu

The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against
the video to provide this transcript of the August 9 CBS Evening News
story:

KATIE COURIC: A layer of heat and moisture is hanging like a wet
blanket over the Midwest and South. Heat advisories are up throughout
those regions for what can be very dangerous conditions. We have two
reports tonight, beginning with Kelly Cobiella.

KELLY COBIELLA: For the fifth straight day, Americans from
Orlando to Indianapolis wilted under an oppressive August heat.
Hundreds have been treated for heat-related illnesses since the
weekend. In St. Louis, people are being urged to spend the day in
shelters, a warning that came too late for 87-year-old James Irby, who
died in his home [actually in East St. Louis, Illinois]. He didn't
have air conditioning.
ALVIN PARKS, Mayor of St. Louis: When I got the news, it just hit
me like somebody kicking me in the stomach. I just can't stand the
fact that someone might have been saved.
COBIELLA: In Georgia and Alabama, where the heat index has been
in the 110's, they've also recorded the highest demand for power in
each state's history. Metro trains in Washington, D.C., were slowed
from 59 to 45 miles an hour because of worries the steel tracks would
bend in the heat. And just west of Memphis, hundreds of dead fish have
washed ashore, killed off by a lack of oxygen in overheated lakes.
HEIDI CULLEN, The Weather Channel: There's a poker analogy that
global warming stacks the deck for more extreme events.
COBIELLA: Dr. Heidi Cullen is a climatologist for the Weather
Channel, and sees a definite connection to global warming.
CULLEN: The heat wave that we're seeing now is completely
consistent with what we expect in a warmer world because all of our
models show us that heat waves will become intense, more frequent, and
they'll last longer.
COBIELLA: This heat wave should taper off in the East by the
weekend. But in the Midwest, the misery will continue. Kelly Cobiella,
CBS News, Atlanta.