What We Read Today 21 November 2014

Econintersect: Every day our editors collect the most interesting things they find from around the internet and present a summary “reading list” which will include very brief summaries (and sometimes longer ones) of why each item has gotten our attention. Suggestions from readers for “reading list” items are gratefully reviewed, although sometimes space limits the number included.

Japan PM Abe Dissolves Parliament For Snap Election (Mari Yamaguchi, The World Post) The election is expected in approximately 3 weeks. While some are surprised by so quick an election others are suggesting Abe is attempting to short circuit organization efforts by his opponents. See also Election With A Cause: Why Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Must Call General Election Now (Masazumi Wakatabe, Forbes)

Obama, Daring Congress, Acts to Overhaul Immigration (Michael D. Shear, The New York Times) The president said:

“The actions I’m taking are not only lawful, they’re the kinds of actions taken by every single Republican president and every Democratic president for the past half-century,” Mr. Obama said. “To those members of Congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better, or question the wisdom of me acting where Congress has failed, I have one answer: Pass a bill.”

Obamacare Sign-Ups Were Inflated With Dental Plans (Alex Wayne, Bloomberg) When 380,000 dental subscribers are backed out of the Obamacare total for 2014 (as of 14 October) the revised enrollment is 6.7 million. The erroneous inclusion of dental plans was discovered by Republican investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, using data they obtained from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The New Consensus: 100 Percent Of Scientists Agree That Global Warming ‘Stopped’ Or ‘Slowed Down’ (Michael Bastasch, The Daily Caller) This article is 100% true and 100% misleading. See also If 97% of Scientists Say Global Warming is Real, 100% Say It Has Nearly Stopped (Paul C. “Chip” Knappenberger and Patrick J. Michaels, Center for the Study of Science, Cato Institute, Watts Up With That?) Here is a graphical representation from the second article (again the graph is 100% accurate as far as Econintersect has been able to determine).

The following graph was also presented to support the argument that accelerating global warming is not occurring, inferring that the interpretation of the data through 2006 was incorrect:

These authors are not recognizing an obvious pattern in the data (or they do see it but hope that their audience will not?). Econintersect has added additional lines to the IPCC graph above (extending trend lines to 2014 for data not shown since 2006).

And one more pattern not acknowledged by these incomplete examinations of the data:

Instead of the unsupportable contention that the current pause (or down zag) disproves the IPCC finding that global warming is occurring and accelerating, the correct questions would center on why the progression of the trend is happening in fits and spurts. The accumulation of greenhouse gases is a much smoother progression than the observed temperature response. See next two articles. What are the other interactions that modulate the effects of the greenhouse gases if they are behaving as postulated and as data over the past couple of centuries indicates? It is very correct to ask questions, but some questions lead to a progression of knowledge while others can lead to an inculcation of ignorance among the intellectually lazy.

For climate and weather news every week follow climate-economist Sig Silber at GEI News.