Climate and weather
Category archives for Climate and weather
Blockading A Coal Plant in Massachusetts (Breaking news)
Posted by Greg Laden on May 15, 2013 
Environmental activists have just taken up a position off shore of the Brayton Point coal plant, near Fall River Massachusetts, in an effort to block access by a ship attempting to deliver coal there. THIS is their web site, where there is a live Ustream. One of the activists, Jay O’Hara, is tweeting from here:…
Crowdfunding the Dark Snow Project
Posted by Greg Laden on May 14, 2013 New research indicates that the reflectivity of the surface of the Greenland Glacier is decreasing due to the deposition of dark particles from fires on the surface of the ice. This phenomenon is contributing to unprecedented melting of the ice sheet. This is a huge concern. One of the most significant outcomes of global warming…
Climate Scientist Mann on 400 ppm CO2
Posted by Greg Laden on May 13, 2013 Climate Scientists Michael Mann, author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, interviewed on Democracy Now:
Dear [Elected Official] Please Note the 400 ppm benchmark!
Posted by Greg Laden on May 11, 2013 Here’s a template for a letter I hope you will consider sending/emailing to all of your elected representatives at the municipal, state, and federal levels, if you are in the US. Thanks Dear [elected official] I am writing to ask you to join the very small but hopefully growing number of elected representatives and executives…
Fancy Greenhouse Gas Demonstration
Posted by Greg Laden on May 9, 2013 Experiment showing the absoption of infrared radiation by carbon dioxide. From the BBC 2 program “Earth: The Climate Wars”
Greenhouse Gas Demonstration
Posted by Greg Laden on May 8, 2013 Simulate the ruination of the planet using common household ingredients!
Bill O’Reilly, you are ON NOTICE
Posted by Greg Laden on May 8, 2013 Stop lying to your fans. They are beginning to figure it out. Watch: Here is some background.
Genie Scott: Denialism of Climate Change and Evolution
Posted by Greg Laden on May 7, 2013 
Here is a presentation by Genie Scott of the National Center for Science Education. Far more people are climate change deniers than evolution deniers, but both camps use similar strategies to promote their views. Genie Scott explores the connections, the similarities, and the divergent ideologies. Where: New York. When: 10/23/2011. Hosted by the New York…
Putting the 400 ppm CO2 thing in perspective
Posted by Greg Laden on April 30, 2013 Before the release of vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere mainly through the burning of fossil fuels, the atmospheric concentration of this gas was about 300 ppm or a bit more. Soon, that number will be 400 ppm. How soon? Let’s see … it is now Tuesday at about 7pm. Maybe mid morning tomorrow?…
The National Center for Science Education and Climate Change
Posted by Greg Laden on April 30, 2013 
Published on Apr 30, 2013 Science education is under assault again. Not just evolution education, but climate change education. NCSE policy director Dr. Minda Berbeco traces the history of science denial, the links between evolution- and climate change deniers, recent legislation targeting both, the role of the Next Generation Science Standards, and more. Where: East…
UFO’s, Climate Change, Child Abuse
Posted by Greg Laden on April 29, 2013 
What do UFO’s, the belief that magnetism causes climate change but atmospheric gasses are not related, child molestation, and academic sock puppeting have in common with sea level rise? To find out, set aside some time to carefully read this: UFOs, Sea Level Rise And The Magnetism Of Climate Science Denial and then click on…
Bangladesh and Sea Level Rise
Posted by Greg Laden on April 29, 2013 
You’ve all heard about the horrible tragedy in Bangladesh, still unfolding. Not to distract from that event, or diminish its importance, I thought it would be interesting to have a look at that low lying country in relation to long term sea level rise caused by climate change. I am making no claim here about…
James Hansen’s Legacy
Posted by Greg Laden on April 29, 2013 
James Hansen, author of “Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About The Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity“, recently announced his retirement from his position as director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. My friend John Abraham write’s about Hansen’s retirement in his inaugural* post in the new blog “Climate…
The Truth About Global Warming’s Famous Slowdown
Posted by Greg Laden on April 24, 2013 Dana Nuccitelli writes: The rate of heat building up on Earth over the past decade is equivalent to detonating about 4 Hiroshima atomic bombs per second. Take a moment to visualize 4 atomic bomb detonations happening every single second. That’s the global warming that we’re frequently told isn’t happening. That’s Dana’s opening paragraph in the…
Does last Saturday’s record low at MSP signal the end of global warming?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 23, 2013 No, it does not We’ve had a winter-like spring here in Minnesota, and it was darn chilly on Saturday. In fact, we had a record low of 21F. Paul Douglas, of Weather Nation did some digging: He tells us that while that was the first record low since 2004, there have been 42 record highs…
Arctic Sea Ice Loss Due to Global Warming
Posted by Greg Laden on April 23, 2013 Andy Lee Robinson’s latest visualo-info-graphico-depiction of the loss of Arctic Sea Ice:
“Denialism on a Large Scale”
Posted by Greg Laden on April 16, 2013 “Denialism on a Large Scale” Greg Laden on Atheists Talk #214, April 14, 2013 I was interviewed on Minnesota Atheists Talk Radio about climate change and climate change denialism last Sunday AM. Since you were in church, I’m sure you missed it! But you can catch the podcast HERE.
Why is winter not ending?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 15, 2013 
Why is it snowing so much in the Northern US States this Spring? Two words: Global Warming. Let me ‘splain. Weather is all about air and moisture. The distribution of air is uneven, with some places having more air in big piles, other places having less air, into which the extra air from the big…
The Link Between Climate Change Denialism and Fundamental Christianity
Posted by Greg Laden on April 12, 2013 I think the primary political framework for climate change denialism is Libertarianism, with a lot of overlap with Tea Partiers, who are essentially Libertarians Without Brains. Libertarians can’t live with the fact that their philosophy guarantees the misery and horrors of climate change so most of them (but not all) exist in full denial. At…
Climate Scientist James Hansen’s Retirement
Posted by Greg Laden on April 12, 2013 The famous climate scientist James Hansen, author of Storms of my Grandchildren, has just retired from his senior position at NASA. I’ll be the climate science denialists are breathing a sigh of relief to have Hansen, who has been instrumental in developing our current understanding of climate change and who has been repeatedly attacked by…
What is climate sensitivity, why does it matter, and who’s got what wrong and why?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 11, 2013 
Climate sensitivity is the number of degrees C that the earth’s average temperature (of the atmosphere air and water on top of the “earth” per se) will increase with a doubling of “pre-industrial CO2″ in the environment. This is an important number … and it is a number, and to save you the suspense, the…
Do the math: A climate movie coming out soon
Posted by Greg Laden on April 11, 2013 
Here’s the trailer: The web site including information on screenings, is here.
Will there be a lot of hurricanes in 2013?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 10, 2013 
Probably. The Tropical Meteorology Project at Colorado State University makes annual predictions of hurricane season activity, and they released one of these predictions today. This particular group has a good track record, although I would worry that they tenaciously hold to the idea that global warming is not a factor in hurricane development despite the…
Climate Change: Radio update on science and denialism
Posted by Greg Laden on April 9, 2013 
I’ll be interviewed by Stephanie Zvan regarding the current status of climate change research, what’s happening in the climate these days, with a special focus on climate change denialism, this coming Sunday morning on Minnesota Atheists Talk Radio. There are a lot of interesting things going on with the science as well as the politics.…
The Science of Climate Change
Posted by Greg Laden on April 9, 2013 A lecture by Professor Paul Valdes, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol.
Global Warming Skepticism In Decline
Posted by Greg Laden on April 9, 2013 There is a new Gallup poll that together with earlier data from Gallup provides some interesting information about attitudes in the US about global warming. Earlier polls have shown increase and decrease in concern about global warming, and changes in what people think of news about climate change and the severity of the problem. Recently,…
Arctic Sea Ice Update
Posted by Greg Laden on April 8, 2013 Time to start watching the Arctic Sea Ice breakup. This happens every year, but as you know, the total amount of ice left each summer has been reducing, and the “old ice” which forms a basis for the arctic ice refreeze is disappearing. The result of this change in arctic ice patterns has been a…
“It is not my job to learn the science. It is my job to call for the execution of scientists”*
Posted by Greg Laden on April 7, 2013 … James Delingpole’s Hate Speech in the UK Telegraph This is James Delingpole demonstrating his prowess when it comes to understanding and commenting on climate science. Dellingpole is the one on our right: OK, now that we’ve established Delingpole to be a misinformed misguided intellectual lighweight, let’s look at his latest piece from the UK…
Treatment of Climate Change and Hockey Stick Controversy in Wikipedia
Posted by Greg Laden on March 31, 2013 The current Wikipedia entry for Climate Change has about 7000 words on that one page (including notes, all the other words that show up on Wikipedia pages). The current Wikipedia entry for the Hockey Stick Controversy has about 25,000 words in all. The controversy over one aspect of climate change, the basic observation of temperature…
Climate Change Denialism
Posted by Greg Laden on March 27, 2013 There are two very important posts out there that I’d like to make you aware of related to climate change denialism. Here’s the teasers, please click through and read them. If you like them, tweet them! First, from The Scientist, an opinion piece by Michael Mann, author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars:…
, which is now available for the 
