Climate Model Predictions On Rain And Drought Wrong, Study Finds

Astronomers From India, China and Japan

See Evidence For New ‘Little Ice Age’

Predictions that a warmer ­climate will lead to more rain for some but longer droughts for others might be wrong, according to a study of 12 centuries worth of data. The study, published today in science journal Nature, found there was no difference between 20th-century rainfall patterns and those in the pre-­industrial era. The findings are at odds with earlier studies suggesting climate­ change causes dry areas to become drier and wet areas to become wetter. --Graham Lloyd, The Australian, 7 April 2016

A changing climate may not necessarily lead to more floods and droughts according to Swedish researchers who have reconstructed weather patterns over the past 1,200 years. Scientists used data collected from tree rings, marine sediments, ice cores and mineral deposits to examine the interaction between water and climate in the northern hemisphere over the centuries. Using this to create a 'spatial reconstruction of hydroclimate variability', they found no evidence to support simulations that showed wet regions getting wetter and dry regions drier during the 20th century. --Russ Swan, Daily Mail, 6 April 2016

Our blazing sun has been eerily turning quiet and growing less active over the last two decades. Scientists and astronomers from Physical Research Laboratory in India and their counterparts in China and Japan are now relying on fresh evidence to indicate that we may be heading for another “little ice age” or even a more extended period of low solar activity – a Maunder Minimum – by 2020 as indicated by the lower than average sunspot number count. --Paul John, Times of India, 6 April 2016

The warming pause didn’t make climate change any less of a long-term threat, but it did expose how little we know about it, and how faulty our best models are. That hasn’t changed, and in fact the debate over how significant this pause really was only serves to underscore the lack of consensus within the scientific community over the specifics of the effects of climate change. Scientists will continue to refine their models and explore new avenues of research into climate change, and as they do we’ll get a more complete picture of what’s happening. But when environmentalists overstate the certainty of the science, they set themselves up to look like fools when their doomsaying prophecies are proven wrong. --The American Interest, 1 April 2016

Scientific integrity took another hit Thursday when an Australian researcher received a two-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to 17 fraud-related charges. The main counts against neuroscientist Bruce Murdoch were for an article heralding a breakthrough in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. And the judge’s conclusions were damning. Since 2000, the number of U.S. academic fraud cases in science has risen dramatically. While criminal cases against scientists are rare, they are increasing. Jail time is even rarer, but not unheard of. Last July, Dong-Pyou Han, a former biomedical scientist at Iowa State University, pleaded guilty to two felony charges of making false statements to obtain NIH research grants and was sentenced to more than four years in prison. --Amy Ellis Nutt, The Washington Post, 2 April 2016