From Benny Peiser's Global Warming Policy Foundation

German Scientists Predict Global Cooling This Century

Global Sea Ice Extent At Highest Level Since 1994

German scientists contend that two natural cycles will combine to lower global temperatures throughout the 21st Century. The scientists show that there is an approximate 200-year solar cycle, supported by historical temperature data and proxy data from stalagmites in caves. The 200-year solar cycle has just passed its maximum and will decline during the 21^st Century. It is at least in part responsible for the warming of the last decades of the 20thCentury. The AMO/PDO cycle is also beginning its cool phase and will reach a minimum in 2035. The scientists conclude that “the global temperature will drop until 2100 to a value corresponding to the “little ice age” of 1870.” --Jonathan DuHamel, Tuscon Citizen, 4 December 2013

Antarctic sea ice extent continues to set new records, with average extent in November 0.9 million sq km above the long term average. Ice area also remains well above normal, where it has been for most of the last decade. --Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 5 December 2013

Evidence increasingly suggests that man-made global warming may actually be preventing a worldwide calamity, in the form of a new Ice Age. Despite its pejorative image, the “greenhouse effect” of our atmosphere is all that stands between us and our being plunged into the bitter cold of the space around the Earth. Now fresh evidence that we humans are holding off an Ice Age has emerged. All this serves to underline the dangers of simplistic thinking in our approach to climate change. Trying to prevent it through drastic reduction of greenhouse gases may have disastrous consequences. --Robert Matthews, The National, 3o November 2013

The southern hemisphere sea ice areal extent has had quite an amazing run during the past few years from below normal levels to the current well above normal values. On a global basis, sea ice areal extent is currently above normal and, in fact, has now reached levels not seen since around 1994 - thanks in large part to the happenings in the southern hemisphere. The northern hemisphere sea ice areal extent is still below normal for this time of year although it has gained significantly compared to one year ago. Once the northern Atlantic Ocean sea surface temperatures flip back to cooler-than-normal values – perhaps 5 or 10 years from now - the northern hemisphere sea ice areal extent should return to the normal or above normal levels seen prior to the mid 1990’s. --The Si Weather Blog, 5 December 2013

We present a new stable isotope record from Ellsworth Land which provides a valuable 308 year record (1702–2009) of climate variability from coastal West Antarctica. Climate variability at this site is strongly forced by sea surface temperatures and atmospheric pressure in the tropical Pacific and related to local sea ice conditions. The record shows that this region has warmed since the late 1950s, at a similar magnitude to that observed in the Antarctic Peninsula and central West Antarctica; however, this warming trend is not unique. More dramatic isotopic warming (and cooling) trends occurred in the mid-nineteenth and eighteenth centuries, suggesting that at present, the effect of anthropogenic climate drivers at this location has not exceeded the natural range of climate variability in the context of the past ~300 years. -- --E. R. Thomas et al., Geophysical Research Letters 28 October 2013

The government’s erratic changes to the strike price of renewable energy underscore the arbitrary nature of setting prices for renewables. The horse trading over the level of subsidies is also a disastrous move towards a centrally-planned energy economy, with a high level of control over which forms of energy generation will be favoured and which will be stifled. The government now even seeks to regulate the prices and profits of energy generation. That such an approach is a recipe for disaster is becoming increasingly obvious for observers scrutinising developments in Europe. As country after country backtracks on support for renewables, the most expensive forms of energy generation, the question remains how long Britain’s green energy obsession will survive the collision with reality. --Benny Peiser, City A.M. 5 December 2013