Global Warming
Category archives for Global Warming
Congratulations to Michael Mann
Posted by Greg Laden on January 24, 2013 Michael Mann is one of the key climate scientists of the day. History will crown Mann as one of the great heroes who defended the freedom to do science rationally despite constant attacks from mean spirited and ignorant, self interested, politically motivated, oil-money-soaked climate science denialists. You know of Michael Mann as the coiner of…
2012 Was The Hottest Year on Record (NOAA)
Posted by Greg Laden on January 23, 2013 NOAA says 2012 was the hottest year on record. According to the National Climatic Data Center of NOAA, 2012 was the hottest year on record in the US lower 48: According to NOAA scientists, the average temperature for the contiguous U.S. for 2012 was 55.3°F, which was 3.2°F above the 20th century average and 1.0°F…
We’re gonna do the climate change thing
Posted by Greg Laden on January 21, 2013 Some may deny the science of climate change, but we’re not listening to them any more. Hat tip to Peter Sinclair for this clip:
Seven Lessons To Learn In Order To Save The Planet (Updated)
Posted by Greg Laden on January 15, 2013 
I was a graduate student in Harvard’s Anthropology Department, which meant I had no funding. I was in the final writing stage of my thesis, and the problem I had was that teaching interesting biological anthropology (which I could do full time if I wanted) was too distracting from the mundane yet mentally challenging task…
An Assessment of Climate Under Global Warming
Posted by Greg Laden on January 14, 2013 
A Draft National Climate Assessment has been released by the “National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee.” You can download it here … warning: it is a PDF file way over 100 megabytes The report affirms that climate is changing and that this change is primarily caused by human activities, mostly the release of fossil…
So, is global warming stopping all of the sudden? (No)
Posted by Greg Laden on January 12, 2013 
The UK Met Office, a climate agency, released some information about the immediate future, based on modeling. Briefly, it notes that natural cooling effect may temporarily ameliorate the increase in temperatures caused by global warming in some locals; it does not say that global warming is attenuated in any way whatsoever. It is more of…
NOAA: 2012 Warmest Year on Record for the US 48
Posted by Greg Laden on January 9, 2013 
Looking just at the contiguous 48 states of the US, NOAA has determined that 2012 was the warmest year on record. It was also ranked second in “extreme” weather events including fires, major storms, and drought. Tornado activity was less than average. The report came out yesterday and states: In 2012, the contiguous United States…
Australia’s BoM no AGW, Tasmanian Fire Video, and a Koala. #BigAussieHeat
Posted by Greg Laden on January 8, 2013 
First, a word about the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s position on climate change, heat, and fires. It has been suggested (by a commenter here) that the BoM is claiming that the current heat wave is not related to climate change, but rather, a matter of natural variability and a late arriving monsoon. But that is…
The Australian Heat Wave
Posted by Greg Laden on January 7, 2013 
Australia is experiencing a heat spell. The Climate Information Services of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has issued a special statement (I’ll provide some details below). This is not unexpected, since over the last few years global warming due to the human release of large amounts of fossil Carbon into the atmosphere has been heating…
Global Warming Moves South #BigAussieHeat
Posted by Greg Laden on January 7, 2013 
Summer is coming on strong south of the Equator, and in Australia this has meant unprecedented record high temperatures, and in the state of Tasmania, severe brush fires that have destroyed numerous homes, adding to the bad news from fires in the southeastern mainland. Prime Minister Julia Gillard said “And while you would not put…
The Downfall of Climate Change Denialism
Posted by Greg Laden on December 28, 2012 Apropos this, and this, we have this:
Top (mostly climate change related) Science Denialist Books
Posted by Greg Laden on December 28, 2012 Top “Ten” Recent Books (focusing on 2012 but including the last few years) on Climate, Science denialism, Energy, and Science Policy are (including one Post Warming novel) are: Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us by Maggie Koerth-Baker Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand by Haydn Washington and…
Top Climate Stories of 2012
Posted by Greg Laden on December 28, 2012 A group of us, all interested in climate science, put together a list of the most notable, often, most worrying, climate-related stories of the year, along with a few links that will allow you to explore the stories in more detail. We did not try to make this a “top ten” list, because it is…
Climate Change Denialists Scolded by IPCC
Posted by Greg Laden on December 14, 2012 But not as severely as they should have been. The IPCC, as you know, comes out with a set of reports every five years. The reports are written by groups of experts. Draft reports are widely accessible to people who register themselves as “experts” and there is no quality control in that process, in order…
Major weather in the American West?
Posted by Greg Laden on November 29, 2012 
There are these things called “Atmospheric rivers.” They are big long things up in the air that are loaded with water vapor, and much of the rain and other precipitation we experience comes out of them. This is notable when one of these rivers is extra wet, and there is an extra wet one out…
Ice Loss at Poles Is Increasing, Mainly in Greenland
Posted by Greg Laden on November 29, 2012 
From NASA: PASADENA, Calif. – An international team of experts supported by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) has combined data from multiple satellites and aircraft to produce the most comprehensive and accurate assessment to date of ice sheet losses in Greenland and Antarctica and their contributions to sea level rise. In a landmark…
Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs
Posted by Greg Laden on November 28, 2012 
You all know Don Prothero. He is an active member of the Skeptics and Science Blogging community. He is the author of several books, one of which you are totally supposed to own and if you don’t it’s kinda lame: Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters, which I review along with some…
New CDCOTW Video on Sandy and Superstorms
Posted by Greg Laden on November 28, 2012 Climate Denial Crock of the Week gives us this new video. Details here. We are not yet where we need to be with this “when did you stop beating your wife” question sometimes in the form of: “Can you REALLY attribute ANY storm to Global Warming, really? No? Then is global warming really real? Really?”)…
A probabilistic quantification of the anthropogenic component of twentieth century global warming
Posted by Greg Laden on November 21, 2012 A probabilistic quantification of the anthropogenic component of twentieth century global warming is a paper just out that examines an important conflict in the conversation about climate change and global warming. Before getting to the details, have a look at this graph from the paper: This is temperature increasing on the earth over a century…
Success of Climate Science Denialism
Posted by Greg Laden on November 21, 2012 One of the reasons that we have not, as a species, as a group of nations, dealt effectively with Anthropogenic Global Warming is the effectiveness of climate science denialism. There are denialists in Congress, on the Internet, and everywhere. They have not succeeded in making a valid scientific argument regarding Global Warming, but they have…
Greenhouse Gas Levels Reach New Record High
Posted by Greg Laden on November 20, 2012 You may have heard that the release of greenhouse gases has recently gone down, to match levels of several years ago. Why, then, do we have someone saying that greenhouse gasses have reached a new record high? There are two, maybe three, reasons. First, even though CO2 release from the US may be lower now…
I didn’t realize the New Scientist was a tool of climate science denialism: The question of drought
Posted by Greg Laden on November 14, 2012 I would almost count it unethical that the New Scientist has a thing that looks like a blog post (an article you can comment on) that has some science in it, but that you have to be a paid subscriber to comment on. WTF New Scientist? What are you trying to pull? But that’s OK,…
Increase in Antarctic Sea Ice
Posted by Greg Laden on November 13, 2012 One of the most commonly winged-about facts of Earth’s climate change we hear from science denialists is that sea ice in the Antarctic is increasing, therefore, there is no global warming. The fact that every other measurement of temperature and ice-osity indicates warming and melting would make a normal person think of the Antarctic situation…
October was cold. So, Global Warming isn’t real right?
Posted by Greg Laden on November 11, 2012 Wrong. October was, nationally in the US, kinda cold. Not record cold, but colder than average. However, as Jeff Masters at Weather Underground has calculated, we would have to have some kind of Snowball Earth scenario kick in for December in order for 2012 to not be the warmest year on record in the US.…
Science Debate 08 12 14 16?
Posted by Greg Laden on November 10, 2012 I am sure that by now you know about ScienceDebate Dot Org. It was set up for the 2008 US presidential election by a bunch of people including my friend Shawn Otto. The idea is to simultaneously push for an actual debate focussed on science and science policy as part of the presidential election process,…
Hurricane Sandy’s Double Whammy
Posted by Greg Laden on November 5, 2012 A bunch of climate people talking about Sandy:
The War on Science: Interview
Posted by Greg Laden on November 5, 2012 This is an interview at Atheists Talk (TV), an update on the war on science, and a rare opportunity to see me wearing a suit. The first few seconds are sound free; do not adjust your television set. I mentioned the NCSE, here’s their web site. Here’s a couple of books related to the topic:…
Peer Reviewed Research Predicted NYC Subway Flooding by #Sandy
Posted by Greg Laden on October 31, 2012 Earlier this year a paper was published in the journal Nature in which a team of scientists looked at changes in storm surge potential under conditions of global warming, and they used the New York City area in their modeling. Combined with resent research adding to the growing body of data and studies that show…
What you need to know about Frankenstorm Hurricane Sandy
Posted by Greg Laden on October 28, 2012 If you are in the path…the thousand mile wide path…of Hurricane Sandy, a.k.a. Frankenstorm, then you should make sure you know what the storm could do in relationship to where you are. If you are in or near an area with mountains, look for very serious flash flooding. The winds will be strong everywhere. If…
Breaking: Michael Mann Suing National Review and Competitive Enterprise Institute
Posted by Greg Laden on October 23, 2012 My friend and colleague Michael Mann just released the following information: Lawsuit filed against The National Review and the Competitive Enterprise Institute 10/22/12 Today, the case of Dr. Michael E. Mann vs. The National Review and The Competitive Enterprise Institute was filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Dr. Mann, a Professor…
, which is now available for the 
