The science of science is to robustly challenge the science, and not to just blindly accept it. Climate and energy news from Germany - by Pierre L. Gosselin
Radiative forcing imbalances are predominantly elicited by anomalies and trends in surface solar radiation, which is modulated by aerosol and cloud albedo.
New research indicates that from 1750 to present there was a total net -10.95 W/m² surface radiative forcing (RF) over South Asia. This negative radiation imbalance – a cooling effect – has been primarily attributed to aerosol/cloud interactions.
This surface RF value includes a +8.99 W/m² increase in shortwave absorption over this 275-year period.
The study thus highlights the “dominant role of aerosol/cloud interactions in cooling at both the TOA [top of atmosphere] and surface.”
Compare these RF values linked to aerosol/cloud interactions to the five times smaller +1.82 W/m² total forcing said to be derived from CO2 increases since 1750 (Feldman et al., 2015).
Globally, the increase in absorbed solar radiation due to aerosol/cloud interactions was estimated (Ohmura, 2009) to be +12 W/m² from 1920s-1950s, -8 W/m² from the 1950s-1980s, and +8 W/m² from the 1980s to 2000s.
The magnitude of these surface RF values relative to that alleged for CO2 forcing underscores the the dominance of decadal trends in surface solar radiation in shaping climate.
Munich’s first ever water restrictions ever (by its first-ever Green mayor)… €50,000 fine if kids caught cooling themslves under a garden hose!
Real or feigned emergency?
Germany’s online BILD reports on drastic water bans just implemented by the city of Munich due to what he dubiously claims to be “an ongoing water shortage.”
Following a dry winter and spring, Munich’s water supply is repoorted to be “under severe strain”. Potable water consumption has spiked to over 360 million liters (compared to the usual 300 million liters). Since voluntary appeals to the public to save water were unsuccessful, the city is now cracking down on wasteful Munich citizens.
The following bans are effective immediately, according to BILD:
Car washing is only allowed at professional commercial car washes.
Watering lawns is completely banned. Watering gardens, flower beds, and ornamental plants is only permitted overnight and in the early morning (between 7:00 PM and 9:00 AM)—unless a water-saving drip irrigation system is used.
Filling private pools (including small inflatable ones used by children), fountains, and water features is prohibited.
Pressure washers to clean private terraces, walls, streets, and roofs is banned.
Pumping water from public lakes, rivers, or streams is strictly forbidden.
The city of Munich is also cutting back on its own water usage, which includes shutting down ten public fountains.
Munich’s first water consumption restriction ever – by its first ever Green mayor
This is the first time in Munich’s history that the city administration has issued such an extensive public emergency decree (Allgemeinverfügung) restricting domestic water use.
The decision was officially enacted by the city administration, spearheaded by Munich’s Lord Mayor (Oberbürgermeister), Dominik Krause, alongside the city’s Department for Climate and Environmental Protection (Referat für Klima- und Umweltschutz). Dominik Krause belongs to the green political party Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance 90/The Greens). He assumed office as the Lord Mayor of Munich on May 1, 2026, after winning the runoff election in March 2026, making him the city’s first-ever mayor from the Green party.
Fines of up to €50,000 for violations
Violating these new regulations can result in fines of up to €50,000. The restrictions are currently set to remain in place until August 1, but could be extended if the situation does not improve.
Harsh criticism – needless drama
The draconian green water restrictions have been met with sharp criticism as Munichs’s water supply is claimed by others as not being acutely short. German blogger, Kolja Barghoorn here, for example, suspects the drastic water restriction measures are more about green drama-making and not a real water shortage.
At X, Thomas Woelfer shows that the water level from the city’s biggest source, the Mangfall, is at near normal levels — and is higher than it was last year at this time. Here is the water level since April 2025:
“You can clearly see from the trend that the panic spread by the Green mayor is entirely justified,” writes Woelfer at X.
Kolja Barghoorn feels the restrictions have nothing to do with an actual crisis, and everything to do with wanting to create one in order to spread panic.
Barghoorn wonders if Munich’s emergency decree also bans the watering or wetting of construction sites and access roads to suppress dust, he mockingly suggesting that people should ask the local CSU (the Christian Social Union party in Munich) if they have “any leftover COVID masks”. The dust levels in the city are likely to be much higher than usual in the coming weeks due to the water rerstrictions.
“Slight warming of the air is also observed with [100,000 ppm] CO2 but is close to the temperature resolution of the sensors with ±0.1°C. Given an approximately 400 times lower CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, this warming is likely negligible.” – Schnell and Harde, 2026
New lab experiment research shows that the addition of 100,000 ppm (10%) CO2 – a volume orders of magnitude greater than today’s 425 ppm (0.0425%) – leads to a temperature change of about 1.0°C.
(Interestingly, the experiment shows this magnitude of temperature change can also be accomplished by adding argon (Ar), a non-greenhouse gas, and hydrocarbon gas (HCG), a propane/isobutane mixture.)
“With an initial temperature of the earth plate of +30°C, a temperature increase of 1.0°C can be observed after adding [100,000 ppm] CO2.”
But this CO2-induced (or Ar or HCG) temperature change (~1.0°C) is accomplished when assessing only radiation heat transfer effects and excluding the effects of convection. In the real world, heat is not transferred solely via radiation. In fact, convection, not radiation, dominates the heat transfer process here at the surface and throughout the lower troposphere.
So when convection is included as a contributing factor in these lab experiments (see also Wagoner et al., 2010 or Seim and Olsen, 2020), the temperature effect of adding 10% CO2 is reduced to just 0.1°C. This temperature change is so negligible that it is effectively below the resolution of the measurement sensors.
The real-world atmosphere has convective heat transfer dominating and 100s of times smaller CO2 concentrations than in this lab experiment. Thus, it can be concluded that the climate sensitivity to even a massive CO2 increase is effectively zero.
“HCG [hydrocarbon gas] causes a cooling of 2.5°C without convection, compared to only 1.3°C with convection; CO2 [100,000 ppm] leads to a cooling of 0.8°C compared to 0.1°C with convection. This shows that convection is a dominant heat transport mechanism that reduces the radiative effect.”
“When convection is allowed, greenhouse gases only slightly reduce the radiation reflected from the dome to the warm plate, causing a slight cooling, and correspondingly, only a slight decrease in the radiation emitted to space.”
In his blog post “Pas de climatisation, s’il vous plaît ! Nous sommes Français!“ (Please, no air conditioning! We are French!), Nicolas Lecaussin discusses an ironic editorial from The Wall Street Journal that mocks the French government’s reluctance to embrace air conditioning.
He notes that French authorities seem to prefer seeing citizens suffer through heatwaves approaching 40°C rather than utilizing modern air conditioning. Lecaussin highlights guidelines from ADEME (the French Agency for Ecological Transition) that discourage general AC use. The agency states AC should only be used as a last resort for vulnerable people (like the elderly or pregnant women), and even then, only in a single room with the temperature set no lower than 26°C (approx. 79°F), due to high energy consumption and climate impact.
Lecaussin ridicules official government and healthcare service advice on staying cool without AC. These tips include wetting one’s face and arms, eating cold soup, covering windows with homemade cardboard protectors, and turning off computers and hair dryers to limit indoor heat. Lacaussin argues this forces citizens to live abnormally rather than taking real steps against the heat.
The Climast et Verité post points out that even though public health agencies acknowledge a major surge in heat-related emergency room visits and hospitalizations, many French buildings (which it calls “thermal kettles”) and even hospitals themselves remain without air conditioning.
France’s climate is known for its warm and sunny summers – especially southern France – and has always experienced heat waves. Yet, despite its aging population, the country refuses to install air conditioners. Instead, it allows thousands of elderly to die prematurely and blames the heat waves on fossil-fuel-generated prosperity.
Lecaussin concludes that prioritizing “ecological virtue” over practical cooling has turned into a public health hazard, asserting that France has nothing to be proud of regarding this stance.
If a prize were ever awarded for obstinate stupidity, some French officials would certainly win it.
Today’s climate models are so inaccurate they must be improved a hundredfold just to detect a CO2 signal in climate change.
Though clouds “are the largest moderator of Earth’s radiation budget and their absorption of solar radiation directly influence our understanding of climate change,” NASA’s models of the cloud capacity to alter solar radiation diverge from satellite observations (MERRA2) by 18.8 W/m² (Fu et al., 2026).
“…the NASA MERRA2 modeled value [of the cloud capacity to absorb solar energy] is less than one-quarter of the observed.”
To put this in perspective, the reported models-versus-observations discrepancy (18.8 W/m²) is 94 times larger than 10 years of accumulated clear-sky-only CO2 impacts (0.2 W/m² per Feldman et al., 2015).
NASA has previously admitted cloud impacts are so large and uncertain models “must be improved about a hundredfold in accuracy” to detect a human or CO2 impact on climate.
Highest level in 13 years… Higher than the 1980s average!
The analysis by the Canada Ice Service (chart below) shows that on July 6, 2026. sea ice extent in the Western Arctic, including the Northwest Passage, reached approximately 1.29 million km². That’s higher than the average of the 1980s.
This marks the second-largest extent of this century (since 2001) and the fourth-largest since measurements began in 1981. The ice areas (right) consist of thick first-year ice (dark green >15 cm) and old ice (dark brown >15 cm). Source: Canada Ice Service Sea Ice Extent in the Western Arctic with additions.
Proponents of the energy transition often ignore or conceal the negative local climate impacts of wind turbines. Report24 references a 2012 study published in Nature Climate Change by Liming Zhou and his research team, which investigated the impact of large wind farms on land surface temperatures in Texas.
Researchers analyzed satellite data from 2003 to 2011 covering an area in Texas that hosts four of the world’s largest wind farms. In the areas with wind farms, nighttime surface temperatures in summer increased by up to 0.65 °C more than in comparable areas without turbines. The calculated warming trend was up to 0.72 °C per decade.
Why do turbvines cause warming? At night, the ground cools down, making the air near the surface colder than the layers above. The turbine rotors disrupt this natural stratification, mixing the layers and forcing warmer air down to the surface, which warms and dries out the ground. Germany is plastered with circa 30,000 turbines spread across the country. In addition to the growing urban heat island (UHI) effect, Germany’s local climate is being disrupted by its widespeard use on wind turbines.
Politicians and mainstream media of deliberately ignoring these facts since 2012. It argues that the local warming caused by wind farms is falsely blamed on CO₂-driven climate change in order to maintain the narrative of “saving the climate.”
Also, deforestation is underway in Germany in order to clear the way for largescale windparks, severely damaging a natural ecosystem that acts to cool the local climate,
The data show flat trends in shortwave radiation, longwave radiation, and radiation balance for the global ocean since 1970 despite a 100 ppm increase in CO2.
An unheralded 2025 study uses long-term observed cloud cover data over oceans to uncover trends in radiative fluxes from 1900 to 2020.
Trends in the subtropics (15-40°N, 45-65°W) indicate a +1 W/m² per decade increase in both shortwave (SW) radiation and radiation balance over the 120-year period, amounting to 13 W/m² in overall ocean heat gains that were not offset by modest trends in longwave (LW) radiation.
On the other hand, the SW radiation fluxes over mid-latitude oceans (40-50°N, 10-30°W) indicate -0.5 W/m² per decade decreasing trends since 1900, and even a slight decline in radiation balance (-0.18 W/m² per decade) during this period.
Interestingly, the global ocean radiation data indicate there have been no obvious trends in SW, LW, or radiation balance since about 1970 despite the nearly 100 ppm rise in CO2 concentration (from 325 to 420 ppm) over this 50-year period.
This does not support the contention that CO2 is a driver – let alone a significant contributor – to the radiative fluxes affecting ocean heat content.
Global artificial impervious surface area is as large as Spain, Germany and France combined … adding up to 25°C to surface temperatures
The intensity of the recent heat waves has had a lot to do with the widespread urban heat island (UHI) effect. Surface temperatures vary widely, depending on the surface properties.
Near surface temperatures. The surface temperature of an urban parking lot can easdily reach 50°C, while – for the same weather – the surface of a rural grass field will reach only 30°C. Under the canopy of a forest, the surface temperature will remain near 25°C. Image: NoTricksZone/Grok.
When we look at microclimates and the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, the type of ground cover changes everything when it comes to absorbing and radiating solar energy.
When the surface of a grass field sits at 30°C, the difference in temperature compared to the temprature under a forest canopy and the temperature just above a paved parking lot is profound.
According to studies, that difference is up to 25°C.
The more urbanized the earth’s surface becomes, the warmer the surface measuremnts will be.
UHI: Global impervious surface area growth is accelerating
So how fast has the global surface area of concrete, asphalt, and steel become?
In the field of satellite remote sensing and global geography, the surface area covered by asphalt, concrete, buildings, and other man-made structures is referred to as Artificial Impervious Surface Area (ISA).
According to high-resolution global satellite mapping data, approximately 1.3 million to 1.35 million square kilometres of the Earth’s land surface was covered by these artificial, heat-absorbing materials in 2020:
This represents an area that is three times greater than it was in 1950 and an area that is roughly as large as the combined size of France, Spain, and Germany. This is having a major impact on global surface temperature measurement and urban heating.
To understand why, it’s important to look at the profound differences between surface types. Assune a warm summer day where the near surface temperature of a rural grass field is 30°C:
1. Under a deciduous tree canopy
The corresponding near surface temperature would be ~23°C to 26°C (4°C to 7°C lower than the grass). Trees are nature’s air conditioners. They cool the ground via two main mechanisms:
Shading: The canopy intercepts up to 80–90% of direct solar radiation, preventing the soil from heating up.
Evapotranspiration: Trees actively pump water from the soil and release it through their leaves. This phase change from liquid water to vapor absorbs latent heat, cooling the surrounding microclimate.
2. In the middle of an urban asphalt parking lot
Research shows that the corresponding near surface temperature would reach ~45°C to 55°C (15°C to 25°C higher than the grass) under the same sunny weather.
Dark, dry and dense materials like asphalt are incredibly efficient at turning sunlight into pure thermal energy. Asphalt absorbs roughly 85–95% of the solar radiation that hits it.
Unlike the grass or trees, there is zero moisture to evaporate, meaning all absorbed energy goes directly into raising the surface temperature. Asphalt acts like a giant battery, storing immense amounts of heat and continuously radiating it back into the immediate air layer. This is why nightime low temperatures in cities remain stubbornly high.
With temperature hundreds of stations sited within or near urban areas and huge manmade infrastructure, it’s no wonder that heat waves have been breaking temperature records over the past decades. It’s the growing heat absorption.
Sources:
1. Asphalt vs. Grass Surface Differences
Armson, D., Stringer, P., & Ennos, A. R. (2012). “The effect of tree shade and grass on surface and globe temperatures in an urban area.” published in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. This study explicitly found that open grass surfaces reduced maximum surface temperatures by up to 24°C compared to bare artificial surfaces (concrete/asphalt) under identical sunny conditions.
2. Tree Canopy Cooling Capacity
Rahman, M. A., et al. (2018). “Vertical air temperature gradients under the shade of two contrasting urban tree species during different types of summer days.” published in Science of The Total Environment. This research details the precise temperature declines under tree canopies. It highlights that the combination of deep shade and active transpiration creates a microclimatic buffer that drops air temperatures nearest to the ground surface by 3°C to 7°C compared to open unshaded areas, directly mitigating the near-surface heat.
3. The 5 cm Near-Ground Gradient
Source: Jenerette, G. D., et al. (2016). “Microclimate Variation among Urban Land Covers: The Importance of Vertical and Horizontal Structure in Air and Land Surface Temperature Relationships.” published in Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology.
Findings: This study measured microclimatic conditions at the near-surface boundary layer (0.1 meters / 10 cm and below) across multiple land covers including asphalt, turf grass, and tall trees. It confirmed that the correlation between land surface temperature (LST) and near-ground air temperature is hightest at the 10 cm layer for asphalt and bare surfaces, proving the existence of the massive, localized near-ground temperature spikes (exceeding 20°C variations horizontally across land types) that dissipate rapidly as you move higher into the ambient air.
Here is historical footage from the German Federal Archives showing the Rhine River during a severe drought in 1949.
Months of persistent drought caused the Rhine River’s water levels to drop to historic lows, exposing wide sandbars and rocky riverbeds that hadn’t been seen in decades.
The low water level made the river incredibly difficult for ships to navigate. In the ports of the Lower Rhine, cargo ships and barges had to lighten their loads by half just to safely pass through the narrowing shipping channels.
Water level gauges along the river stood 1 to 2 meters above the actual water surface because they were never designed for a drought this severe. Shoreline ferry ramps became steep and difficult to traverse. Standard boats anchored along the banks were left completely grounded on the dry riverbed.
Rhine 1921
The severe drought of 1949 officially surpassed the previous historic dryness records set in 1921:
Dresden 1904
Also back in July, 1904, the Elbe River at Dresden saw its lowest level since 1811:
Germany’s Saarbrücken alltime record high temperature measurement was recoded at a station located at a sewage treatment facility in the middle of a commercial district.
Since the extreme heatwave has begun to grip Europe, media and alarmists have been falling over each other proclaiming proof of the manmade climate catastrophe.
Headlines about Germany’s new alltime record high, set yesterday in Saarbrücken, are every where. But already doubts are swirling about the station’s measurement intergrity due to its alleged poor siting – right at a large sewage treatment facility in the middle of a commercial district!
The red marker above pinpoints the address. Everywhere, we find steel and concrete buildings, asphalt surfaces. From the image, the station’s exact placement cannot be determined.
However, an online article in the Saarbrücker Zeitung reveals a troublesome history regarding the Saarbrücken-Burbach station and its latest “record”. Firstly, the announced figure is still strictly preliminary and has not been officially certified as a national record by the DWD German national weather service, which must first conduct a thorough quality check. This investigation will verify whether local microclimate factors—such as heat accumulation from poor air circulation, nearby reflective structures, or specific equipment exposure—might have artificially inflated the reading. This verification process typically takes several days to weeks.
Poor station siting
The Saarbrücken site has a history of measurement controversy. The Saarbrücker Zeitung reports that even the mayor has expressed doubts about the station’s recordings. While the exact quote from the mayor is currently behind a paywall, the station’s placement has long since been considered less than optimal for establishing clean, regional records. There are three reasons for cited this:
For an official weather station to provide accurate regional data, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) states it should ideally be located on a flat, open space (like a large lawn) away from direct artificial heat sources. This record setting station does not even come close to fulfilling this requirement.
The Burbach station is nestled within a relatively dense urban and industrial environment in Saarbrücken-West, surrounded by asphalt roads, rooftops, and concrete structures. These materials act like a thermal sponge—absorbing massive amounts of solar radiation during the day and radiating it back out as heat, which can artificially inflate local temperature readings during extreme heatwaves.
Because it is located in a built-up area, natural wind circulation is restricted. Without a steady breeze to mix the air, stagnant pockets of extreme heat can build up directly around the measuring sensor, causing sudden, localized spikes.
This is not the first time that media-hyped temperature records have been found to be totally erronenous.
More observational evidence emerges showing CO2’s effects are too small to drive climate.
The oft-cited Feldman et al. (2015) paper proposes to isolate the CO2 impact by only considering a “clear-sky” atmosphere at two sites: the North Slope of Alaska and the Southern Great Plains (USA). In other words, that study can only claim to assess what occurs in an imaginary atmosphere where clouds do not exist – even though clouds are present about 60-70% of the time in the real-world atmosphere.
Results indicated that CO2 enhances the downwelling longwave radiative forcing (DLRF) trend, the greenhouse effect, by just 0.2 W/m² per decade (accompanying a 22 ppm CO2 increase from 2000 to 2010).
But a 2025 paper quietly published in Nature also assessed the contributors to the DLRF trend from 1996-2018 at the Southern Great Plains, even extending their measurements to all land surfaces across the globe from 60°S to 60°N.
But instead of employing only a simulated atmosphere where clouds do not exist, Liu and colleagues provided the all-sky values. So, unlike the Feldman paper, they employed the real-world atmosphere which have clouds contributing to (and dominating) the DLRF trend.
They found observed trends in downwelling longwave show the cloud DLRF contribution actually serves to reduce the greenhouse effect impact by -0.77 to -1.77 W/m² per decade.
Since the CO2 contribution enhances the trend by only 0.2 W/m² per decade, clouds therefore have been observed to easily outclass and even nullify (net) the effect of CO2 increases.
The tiny “finger printed” (FP) decadal effect of CO2 in a real-world, all-sky atmosphere is illustrated (red bar) in the DLRF trend (W/m² per decade) graph. Notice how insignificant the CO2 contribution is compared to the effect of clouds (gray bar).
Perhaps this is why Feldman and colleagues chose to use an imaginary-world, clear-sky-only atmosphere instead of a real-world, all-sky atmosphere.
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