global warming
Tag archives for global warming
Why Global Warming’s Effects Will Be Worse Than You Were Thinking
Posted by Greg Laden on May 20, 2013 
The story of climate change has always been more of worst-case, or at least, worser-case scenarios developing and less about good news showing up out of nowhere and making us unexpectedly happy. A few decades ago, it became clear that the release of fossil Carbon into the atmosphere primarily as CO2 was going to cause…
The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism: Mankind and Climate Change Mania
Posted by Greg Laden on May 20, 2013 
There is a book called “The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism: Mankind and Climate Change Mania” produced by the Heartland Institute. The Heartland Institute is famous for doing all that work to prove that smoking is not bad for you, and more recently, that climate change is not real or is not important or…
Correcting BBC’s Lousy Journalism
Posted by Greg Laden on May 18, 2013 Again and again. Do you have to take a stupid pill every day to be a reporter? Or are reporters like this one speaking down to their audience. Either way, it’s shocking.
Global Warming Consensus: We can haz it!
Posted by Greg Laden on May 16, 2013 
An important study has just been published1 examining the level of consensus among scientists about climate change. The issue at hand is this: What is the level of agreement in the scientific community about the reality of climate change and about the human role in climate change? The new paper, Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic…
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:
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?…
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…
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…
Arctic Sea Ice Cracking Thing (Updated)
Posted by Greg Laden on March 23, 2013 It is important to get this right. There is something interesting happening in the Arctic right now, and some people are pointing to it and jumping up and down and yelling about how it is a major climate change event. But it may very well not be. Or it could be. The thing that is…
The Climate Hockey Stick is Wrong!
Posted by Greg Laden on March 22, 2013 This is a hockey stick: This is the Grim Reaper’s Scythe: This is global temperature over the last 10,000 years projected into the immediate future using good scientific estimates: You decide. Should the Hockey Stick be replaced with the Grim Reaper’s Scythe? More information on the climate change graphic HERE. See more climate change graphics…
This could be HUGE: Obama Will Use Nixon-Era Law to Fight Climate Change
Posted by Greg Laden on March 15, 2013 From Bloomberg President Barack Obama is preparing to tell all federal agencies for the first time that they have to consider the impact on global warming before approving major projects, from pipelines to highways. The result could be significant delays for natural gas- export facilities, ports for coal sales to Asia, and even new forest…
Obama’s decision on the Keystone Pipeline IS a legacy making or breaking thing.
Posted by Greg Laden on February 24, 2013 
Is there a problem with John Abraham’s argument about Obama’s Legacy? John Abraham wrote a piece in the Guardian titled Keystone XL decision will define Barack Obama’s legacy on climate change: Does the president have courage to say ‘no’ to a project that will lock us into decades of dependency on this dirty energy? in…
Climate Change vs. Global Warming
Posted by Greg Laden on February 20, 2013 This is being discussed here, thought I’d show you this:
Charge of the Lite Brigade
Posted by Greg Laden on February 18, 2013 
On February 17th, some 40,000 people showed up at an event in Washington DC in order to draw attention to the most pressing issue of our time: Climate Change. Another group of people also attended that rally. They represented the Climate Science Denialists, which in the US overlaps considerably with the Tea Party. They wore…
Minnesota Moose
Posted by Greg Laden on February 6, 2013 Minnesota has two populations of moose, one in the northwestern part of the state, one in the northeastern part of the state. Both are in decline. The decline seems to be mainly due to disease, which in turn, seems to be exacerbated by the occurrence of shorter, warmer winters and longer summers. Today, the Minnesota…
How much can the sea level go up with global warming and how fast will it happen?
Posted by Greg Laden on February 6, 2013 
According to some estimates, if sea levels rose one meter, Boston would lose 3% of it’s land surface, Washington DC a mere 1%. Tampa and Miami would lose 18% and 15% respectively. New Orleans would lose 91%. A six meter rise would result in much larger losses. Norfolk, Virginia and Miami Florida would be essentially…
Are we having more forest fires in the US?
Posted by Greg Laden on January 30, 2013 
I’m not sure about the NUMBER of fires. That might be hard to count. If five small fires emerge and are put out, there are five fires. If five fires emerge, join into one configuration, and wipe out a handful of mountain villages in the Rockies, that’s one fire. It might be better to look…
Jennifer Francis at the Weather and Climate Summit
Posted by Greg Laden on January 27, 2013 Published on Jan 25, 2013 Session 6: Dr. Jennifer Francis – Rutgers University Topic: Wacky Weather and Disappearing Arctic Sea Ice: Are They Connected?
2012-2013 climate review and outlook
Posted by Greg Laden on January 25, 2013 With Masters, Mann, Hayhoe and Douglass. From Climate Denial Crock of the Week.
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:
Anthony Watts is threatening to sue me
Posted by Greg Laden on January 18, 2013 As I mentioned, I’m busy, so I’ll just do this in pictures, kinda like a cartoon: There was no “walk back” by Joe. He merely added some links. The results of the poll so far: Personally, I’m hoping for “Force him” … that would be fun to watch. Meanwhile, there is a lesson here. Science…
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…
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…
Debunking climate change denialism
Posted by Greg Laden on January 9, 2013 
Climate change science denialism has pretty much run its course. We’ve been experiencing a large number of climate change related events (see this list for a brief summary) lately. It may well be that the number per year of such alarming events will go down and up over time. It may be that we will…
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…
Is Greenland’s Ice Melting Way Fast, and Why? You can help.
Posted by Greg Laden on January 6, 2013 
You know about Albedo. No not Libido, Albedo. Sunlight is to varying degrees reflected off the surface of the earth more or less back into space. That is Albedo. The vast regions of snow and ice covered glacial surfaces in the northern and southern Polar regions contributes to a good amount of the Earth’s Albedo.…
, which is now available for the 
