A Few Things Ill Considered

How does this fit?

Category: news

Just wondering how the conspiracy theories about the climatological-industrial complex handle this:
Funding cut for UK climate research?

Hadley's climate research was not alarmist enough?

Posted by coby at 5:30 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Life's little ironies

Category:

(The following is offered as an amusing example of how reality sometimes seems to have a sense of homour:)

My wife is from the Czech Republic and was mentioning to me her family's worries about the recent flooding (they are not in immediate danger). I google-news'ed it and went to the first hit, an AP article, that mentioned among the rest of it that there have been several major floods in the last 10 or fifteen years.

She mentioned that Czech never had these kids of events when she was growing up. I mentioned that increased flooding is an expected consequence of climate change in many regions. I also mentioned how Vaclav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic, is a prominent global warming sceptic (of the same caliber as Christopher Monkton). Then I noticed the listing of related news article offered by the AP website:

Results for "czech floods"

Czech floods widen, death toll rises to 13 Saturday, 27 Jun 2009 08:00pm EDT

Eight die in Czech floods, central Europe on alert Wednesday, 24 Jun 2009 08:00pm EDT

Six die in Czech floods in northeast of country Wednesday, 24 Jun 2009 08:00pm EDT

Don't endanger free markets, Czech president warns Sunday, 8 Mar 2009 08:00pm EDT

Disclaimer: I am not implying that this most recent flood is attributable to global warming, nor do I know if this region of Europe is in fact one of those expected to experience flooding. I am also not specifically denying that the free market is in fact endangered

Posted by coby at 9:55 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Another Week of GW News, June 28, 2009

Category: roundup

Sipping from the internet firehose...

This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup

Read on »

Posted by coby at 8:12 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

A tale of two interviews

Category: editorial • other blogs

This has been an open tab in Firefox for a long time now, so I figure I had better just point people to it and be done with it...

James Hrynyshyn (love that last name, but only because computers have copy and paste!) has an interesting comparison of two interviews on Island of Doubt (note to self: add this to the blogroll). The first is Gavin Schmidt of RealClimate fame (oh yeah, he also works for some outfit called NASA GISS or something) being interviewed at Salon a few weeks ago. The second is an interview with Freeman Dyson on Yale's Environment 360.

Go have a look for some excerpts and commentary.

Posted by coby at 9:27 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Hansen arrested in coal mining protest

Category: Announcements • news • politics

James Hansen was arrested today for trespassing at a protest against mountaintop removal coal mining in Coal River Valley, West Virginia.

Today Top Climate Scientist James Hansen and Actress Daryl Hannah were Arrested in Effort to Stop Mountaintop Removal

Also arrested was former Representative Ken Hechler, Michael Brune of Rainforest Action Network, Goldman Winner Judy Bonds and more than a dozen Appalachian residents and allies

Protest on the heels of Obama administration's new policy on the destructive coal mining practice

The question is: does this diminish his scientific integrity or credibility and will this be on balance a good thing for the public battle to bring about effective global warming policy?

The story, received via email is below:

Read on »

Posted by coby at 1:48 PM • 29 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Open thread

Category: general

As per a request from comments here is an open thread for whatever might be on your minds. The request came when once again touching on the issue of 21st century temperatures. I have tried once, twice, three times in posts and so many others times in comments but this argument will likely not die until we get the next record breaking high. GISS thinks this will likely come in the next year or two if the El Nino they predict comes.

Here is an opportunity for other approaches on this, or any other issue...

Posted by coby at 6:53 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

New Science Confirms Refrigerant Gases Pose Grave Warming Threat

Category: papers • tecnology

This press release was forwarded to me:

WASHINGTON-- A new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) shows that refrigerant chemicals, so called F-gases, are a more dangerous global warming threat than previously predicted. The study was authored by scientists from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, United States government agencies NOAA and EPA, along with a scientist from the chemical company Dupont.

The paper projects that HFC (hydrofluorocarbon) emissions will rise
rapidly in coming years and decades, threatening to effectively cancel out
some of the hard fought greenhouse gas reductions made through energy
efficiency and clean energy deployment. Scientists have projected that we
need to cap greenhouse gas emissions now and rapidly reduce emissions by mid
century to stabilize the atmosphere and avoid dangerous climate change.
Uncontrolled HFC consumption and emissions growth would make it more
difficult to reach those goals.

The rest is quoted in full below and offered on an FYI basis. I have not seen the study discussed. I also find it a little frustrating that there are very few numbers in there, but oh well...

Read on »

Posted by coby at 6:07 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Another Week of GW News, June 21, 2009

Category: roundup

Sipping from the internet firehose...

This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup

Read on »

Posted by coby at 7:53 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Where are they now?

Category: cryosphere • debunking

Remember back in May and early June when the denialists were gleefully proclaiming arctic sea ice had recovered to the 1979-2000 average, and by induction global warming must be over?

Well, gee, I wonder where they are now, now that arctic sea ice this month is near the June 2007 mark. 2007 was of course an historic low, and a dramatic one at that.

This month's numbers reveal nothing about climate change, of course. It does however reveal something about climate denial.

Posted by coby at 8:40 AM • 29 Comments • 0 TrackBacks