A government probe of ExxonMobil, which authorities say is aimed at finding out if the energy giant misled the public about the threat of global warming, is really an attempt to scare companies into silence, according to critics… Alan Robock, a meteorologist who signed a petition by 20 scientists in September calling for a federal investigation, explained his reasoning to FoxNews.com… “Exxon, which funded climate change research decades ago and understood the science, chose instead to fund a disinformation campaign to confuse the public… so as to continue to sell their products and make money,” Robock said, pointing to apparently-leaked Exxon documents which show that, at times, Exxon employed scientists who did worry about man-made warming, but that later on some of their scientists said the models had too much uncertainty to be relied on.
Powerful El Niño Could Mean Fewer Atlantic Hurricanes, Experts Say
Scientists are carefully monitoring the development of El Nino, noting that the Pacific Ocean phenomenon could keep Atlantic hurricanes in check this year… David Robinson, the New Jersey state climatologist at Rutgers University, told FoxNews.com that the Middle East heat wave is one of a number of notable weather events occurring at the moment. “Right now the biggest anomaly out there is with the El Nino event in the tropical Pacific,” he explained in an email. “However, there is also the warm pool of water persisting in the NW Pacific, a large area of low pressure that has been soaking Southeast Asia and the unusually strong and persistent dome of high pressure over the Middle East.”… So-called “dust veils” coming off the African coast across the Atlantic could be influenced by the Middle East heat dome, according to Robinson, further reducing the hurricane risk.
Olive Oil May Prevent Cancer, Study Finds
Olive oil, a staple of the Mediterranean diet and long hailed as a cardiovascular health enhancer, is now showing promise as a cancer preventive. That’s the exciting news from a recently published study in the scientific journal Molecular & Cellula…
New York Dodges Blizzard Bullet, But Weather Models Under Scrutiny
The record snow storm that was expected to pummel the Northeast on Tuesday failed to live up to its epic billing in the New York/New Jersey region- though it did hammer much of New England- putting the weather models used to predict the blizzard into question… “There were errors in the forecast and it was significant enough that it impacted the major metropolitan area in the country — therefore, there’s going to be a lot of scrutiny,” Professor David Robinson, the New Jersey state climatologist at Rutgers University, told FoxNews.com. “This is an imperfect science that is being done better than ever, but, occasionally, things aren’t going to work as accurately as forecast.”