climate:
Is putting real money on something as consequential as a computer model of climate trends consistent with the professional detachment that's supposed to accompany honest research?
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Posted on May 16, 2008 3:46 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is all angels-on-pinhead philosophy. The real question is, would are the real consequences of an ESA listing?
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Posted on May 15, 2008 9:27 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Word is the U.S. Interior Department, after much delay, is going to list the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) "as a threatened species because of declining Arctic sea ice," according to major news service alert. Marvelous. Now all we have to...
Posted on May 14, 2008 2:41 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The free market is no more capable of reorganizing the industrial engines of civilization — which is what an effective response to the climate crisis will require — than is McDonald's capable of supplying a healthy diet to the billions and billions it serves.
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Posted on May 13, 2008 11:44 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Fewer than half of those who aren't embarrassed enough by the current president's record to hide their party affiliation believe the bloody obvious.
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Posted on May 12, 2008 5:02 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Got the Monday blues? Then find five minutes to brighten your day by playing what I call spot-the-slander on the Heartland Institute's list of "500 Scientists Whose Research Contradicts Man-Made Global Warming." The rules are simple:...
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Posted on May 5, 2008 10:06 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Climatologists probably need to take a stiff drink before they open the papers (or fire up their web browsers) the morning after their studies appear in print or online. Two if the studies involved say anything interesting about global warming....
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Posted on May 1, 2008 8:51 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
By 2008 what we were uncertain about wasn't whether the climate was changing for the worse, but just how bad things were.
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Posted on April 30, 2008 9:35 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Just how much of the stuff is left may be irrelevant.
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Posted on April 23, 2008 11:31 AM • 22 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It is hard to think of a better example of doublespeak. Yesterday's Wall Street Journal editorial on George W's climate change speech and came to the exact opposite conclusion of what really happened. I know the WSJ editorial page has...
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Posted on April 18, 2008 11:19 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I don't see as how anyone can rationally argue against a plan that calls for both immediate implementation of existing technology and radically increased spending on research and development of new technology.
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Posted on April 17, 2008 10:19 AM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I'm sure James Hansen has better things to do with his NASA paycheck than hire a lawyer to sue a 16-year-old over a libelous statement on her website. Give the amount of time he's spent crafting public letters to governors,...
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Posted on April 15, 2008 11:59 AM • 66 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
"It is hoped that the debate is over."
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Posted on April 14, 2008 1:19 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Once Kerry Emmanuel was the go-to guy for the notion that global warming is making hurricanes worse. Three years later, he's the one warning that may not be true.
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Posted on April 13, 2008 9:22 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
"It's important to change the light bulbs, but we also have to change the laws."
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Posted on April 9, 2008 10:23 AM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Sooner or later, every major city will have downtown traffic toll. We all know that.
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Posted on April 8, 2008 9:44 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The fundamental question facing climate crisis activists is how to go about convincing the world to change its energy production and consumption habits. I still haven't found good answer to that. But Joe Romm has produced a magnificent primer on...
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Posted on April 1, 2008 12:27 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It's important to call out the CEI whenever they engage in such mendacious behavior.
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Posted on March 31, 2008 3:56 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It cannot be comforting to the researchers in the scientific community that the more trust people have in them as scientists, the less concerned they are about their findings
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Posted on March 28, 2008 8:30 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It is simply not credible to argue that the CEI team did not know about the discrepancy between their ad's claim and the truth.
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Posted on March 14, 2008 8:20 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
If their calculations are correct we have 10 years to start chopping emissions by a mere 1 percent each year. Any further delay, and we're doomed.
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Posted on March 10, 2008 7:45 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Let's not equate the scientists who have devoted their lives to understanding an incredibly complex and challenging with those who get their news from Rush Limbaugh.
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Posted on March 5, 2008 9:44 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Further to recent chatter about how silly it is to mistake blasts of cold weather for a reversal of long-term climate change, here's the latest missive from James Hansen:...
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Posted on March 4, 2008 4:00 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Even those who have made non-CO2 forcings their focus aren't necessarily willing to state that the IPCC overstates the threat posed by climate change.
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Posted on March 3, 2008 3:54 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Even the travel writer, who actually walked on the tell-tale evidence himself, knew better than to equate the current weather conditions on the mountain with long-term trends in global temperature averages
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Posted on February 29, 2008 2:58 PM • 24 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The IPCC consensus is not particularly useful to those hoping to draw attention to the actual severity of the problem, but it's still useful in drawing attention to the existence of a consensus, which is very real.
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Posted on February 27, 2008 9:59 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
One of the most unambiguous denunciations of an entire body of scientific knowledge ever uttered by an American corporate executive.
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Posted on February 26, 2008 7:42 AM • 80 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Significant progress remains before such a tax leads to more investment in clean alternatives.
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Posted on February 20, 2008 11:51 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It's kind of like sneaking a climate change program through the back door of wildlife conservation
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Posted on February 19, 2008 12:16 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I see no reason not to start referring to the climate crisis instead of mere climate change or global warming
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Posted on February 18, 2008 9:44 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Yet another example of a politician putting the cart before the horse.
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Posted on February 15, 2008 3:18 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
What I find fascinating are the authors' references to shortcomings in the IPCC reports, and their ability to generate their predictions anyway.
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Posted on February 13, 2008 7:52 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
We need a candidate for the White House who understands both the nature of the challenge of climate change and the opportunity it presents.
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Posted on February 11, 2008 7:46 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It's not academic credentials and expertise that matter in the debate. It's the evidence.
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Posted on February 1, 2008 9:01 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Speculation is waste of time. Running sophisticated climate models on supercomputers is better use of same.
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Posted on January 29, 2008 12:18 PM • 34 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The CEO of Royal Dutch Shell says "after 2015 supplies of easy-to-access oil and gas will no longer keep up with demand." This in an email from Jeroen van der Veer to his staff. Hmmm....
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Posted on January 25, 2008 10:27 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Will a warmer world mean fewer hurricanes hitting American soil? Nobody really knows. But a study just published in Geophysical Research Letters is bound to provide fodder for those who enjoy heralding every little morsel of evidence to support their...
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Posted on January 23, 2008 10:08 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
"Trust no one" makes for a fine motto if you're Fox Mulder. But in the real world, it would be suicide.
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Posted on January 22, 2008 11:18 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The only way you're going to survive is if you manage to pull a rabbit out of the hat in the next few years and find a way to cheaply and efficiently capture and store the CO2 you pump out.
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Posted on January 19, 2008 7:48 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
So, there's this town in Montana, see. Name of Choteau. And seems that science ain't so popular in those parts......
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Posted on January 18, 2008 2:09 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
2008 or possibly 2009 could the last year for a while in which we enjoy a break from rising temperatures.
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Posted on January 15, 2008 10:04 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
First, let's see what other observations and other models have to say, and let's see if we can't look a bit further back in time,
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Posted on January 14, 2008 9:07 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
When it comes to climate change, the only way we're going to come to a consensus on what to do about it is to ditch the holier-than-thou attitude and play up the win-win scenarios.
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Posted on January 12, 2008 4:46 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
We may never live it down. The sight of George W. Bush traipsing about his ranch in Texas, extolling the virtues of switchgrass-derived ethanol as a replacement for gasoline generated more than a few chuckles among scientifically literate environmentalists. Yet...
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Posted on January 10, 2008 7:49 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
"At the end of the day, you can be 90% confident of something, and all people will hear is that you aren't certain about what you are saying."
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Posted on January 9, 2008 8:57 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Instead of debating what's feasible, we're quibbling over just how low CO2 levels needs to be.
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Posted on January 1, 2008 4:00 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It's is a dangerous and perhaps even disingenous question.
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Posted on December 24, 2007 7:27 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Matt Nisbet once again points out that nobody in America cares about climate change. With all due respect to the Pew survey gang, I doubt things are really that bad. Consider a recent poll of Canadians that puts the environment...
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Posted on December 21, 2007 9:17 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
To abandon any thought of mitigating climate change, to quit now while we can, at least in theory, head off the worst of what's to come, strikes me as a lazy and cowardly approach
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Posted on December 16, 2007 10:47 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Roger Pielke Jr. asks why almost every media outlet ignored a new paper in Nature that says "global warming may have a minimal effect on hurricanes" when comparably respectable papers arguing the opposite get oodles of attention. Good question. I'll...
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Posted on December 14, 2007 2:23 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Just how out of touch with science is Bush's science adviser? Ray Pierrehumbert, a University of Chicago climatologist, bring us a report on a speech by John Marburger at the current meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Unfortunately there are...
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Posted on December 12, 2007 10:18 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Get ready for the climate change pseudoskeptics to exploit to their own disingenuous ends the inevitable disagreement among climatologists over just where the latest 12 months falls in the list of warmest years on record. See? they'll argue, the science...
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Posted on December 12, 2007 8:24 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I don't know how many hours and dollars were spent by this hot-off-the-presses official government duplication of what Chris Mooney laid out two years ago in The Republican War on Science, but I suppose it's always good to have confirmation...
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Posted on December 11, 2007 4:02 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Today we hear about a new study suggesting the north pole's summer ice will be gone within seven years. Not, 40, not 30, not even 13, but seven. I can't find any information from the actual study. All that we...
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Posted on December 10, 2007 12:11 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
"In order to stay below 2 °C, global emissions must peak and decline in the next 10 to 15 years, so there is no time to lose." --
Bali Climate Declaration
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Posted on December 7, 2007 7:44 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Any scheme that doesn't try to apportion emission rights fairly is doomed to failure because the developing world -- i.e., China -- will ignore it.
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Posted on December 4, 2007 7:44 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Geoengineering is a win-win scenario if there ever was one. If you're a corporate CEO, that is.
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Posted on November 30, 2007 12:12 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It all makes complete sense. From a Vulcan's point of view.
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Posted on November 28, 2007 9:30 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Hold on a sec ...
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Posted on November 19, 2007 7:43 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The NZ Business Roundtable would probably find a lecture from his daughter more informative, as Nigella "
Domestic Goddess" Lawson at least has experience with the physical effects of real temperatures.
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Posted on November 17, 2007 9:10 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Nature's editors have written an excellent summary of the state of climate politics in anticipation of the Bali negotiations on a post-Kyoto regime. Despite recapping all the daunting challenges, including the technological hurdles facing those interested in carbon capture and...
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Posted on November 15, 2007 8:20 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
If praying for rain actually worked, why not use it for all our weather and climate woes?
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Posted on November 12, 2007 1:37 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Anyone who remembers Bob and Doug MacKenzie's attempts on Second City TV to convert two pounds of back bacon into 32 kilos can smile knowingly.
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Posted on November 12, 2007 8:49 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
By now you may of heard of a fictional paper in a fictional peer-reviewed journal that claims to prove that bacteria, not humans, are to blame for climate change. Here's a link to "Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria: the...
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Posted on November 8, 2007 11:53 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
There are lots of reasons to treat such a goal as wildly unrealistic.
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Posted on November 8, 2007 8:46 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
They're still needed in the Amazon, of course, but not so much in Ontario.
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Posted on November 2, 2007 10:00 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
All those positive feedbacks will accelerate not only global warming, but also increase the uncertainty involved in making predictions about just how warm it will get.
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Posted on October 26, 2007 8:36 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
"Where they got it really wrong was the argument about whether or not the greenhouse effect was actually happening
at the time."
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Posted on October 26, 2007 8:05 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist based in western North Carolina, where he tries to put degrees in marine biology and journalism to good use.
