hrynyshyn | September 5, 2008Two new studies on sea level rise appearing this week deserve our attention, one in Nature Geoscience, the other in Science. Both conclude the IPCC's estimates of no more than 59 cm of rising waters by 2100 should be tossed out the window. We've been hearing this since early 2007, when the latest IPCC reports were released ;;;; specifically, complaints that the cut-off point for research that could be considered was early 2006, and so much has come out since then that we really shouldn't be paying too much attention to IPCC numbers. But most of those comments were based on observations that…
hrynyshyn | September 4, 2008As of 1700 UT on Sept. 4, 2008, Sam "The End of Faith" Harris had attracted 986 comments to a piece on Sarah Palin he wrote for the LA Times. I guess I need to write a bestseller attacking religion if I want to draw that kind of traffic. And imagine how long ago ScienceBlogs would have celebrated our millionth comment if Sam were writing for us.... But I digress. it was a good little essay, one that has more to say of note about the political zeitgeist in the U.S. than it does Palin, actually. Here's the nub of his argument:
Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to…
hrynyshyn | September 2, 2008We still aren't going to get a presidential debate devoted to science. So far, though,we have the Democratic nominee's elaborated responses to 14 questions put to him and his Republican counterpart by the Science Debate 2008 group. Here's two of Barack Obama's responses, with italicized annotation from me, on the subject of climate change and energy, which really should be considered one topic.
2. Climate Change. The Earth's climate is changing and there is concern about the potentially adverse effects of these changes on life on the planet. What is your position on the following measures…
hrynyshyn | September 2, 2008If you've ever wanted to know what ScienceBloggers are like in the real world, and you're going to be in the general vicinity of Asheboro, North Carolina (that's halfway between the mountains and the ocean), drop by the NC Zoo on Saturday, Sept. 20, where most of the state's ScienceBlog contigent will be celebrating the millionth comment on our collective blogs. Other parties are scheduled across the country, but the NC gathering should be the biggest. Read more here. We'll post more details as they become available.
hrynyshyn | August 29, 2008Sarah Palin. Huh. Who would have thunk it? On the upside, I had but a few waking hours of moping over Barack Obama's failure to do more than give climate change a single passing reference and again champion the delusional notion of "clean coal" in his otherwise impressive acceptance speech last night before the Republican nominee reminded me just how little he really cares about the subject.
Now, I know vice-presidential choices never make a measurable difference in the election. But let's face it, the probability that McCain will not be able to complete one term in office is considerably…
hrynyshyn | August 28, 2008As far as I can tell, North Carolina's no different from the rest of America when it comes to religion. About a tenth of the population is free of religious conviction. That's not a big slice, but it could, in theory, be big enough to cost Sen. Elizabeth Dole her re-election this November, if enough free-thinkers learn that they're not welcome at her dinner table. Thanks to PZ's outrage, we learn that Dole is outraged that her Democratic challenger, Kay Hagan, is hanging out with ;;;; horror of horrors ;;;; Boston atheists.
From Dole's website:
Salisbury, N.C. - On September 15th, Kay Hagan…
hrynyshyn | August 28, 2008The We Can Solve It campaign has a new ad. Subtle it is not.
One could argue that clean electricity in 10 years is far too ambitious a schedule, but you know what they say about a journey of 10,000 miles.
hrynyshyn | August 27, 2008I know I'm probably beginning to sound a like a broken record (does anyone remember what that sounds like?), but I'd like to draw your attention once again to the plight of the planet's coral reefs. Today we have the Honolulu Declaration, in which a dozen leading reef researchers make a plea for stabilization of greenhouse-gas emissions. Will it do any good?
Probably not. While a few hundred thousand scuba diving enthusiasts, myself included (although I don't get down much, living as I do in the mountains of western North Carolina), and ecologists who understand corals' significance as marine…
hrynyshyn | August 26, 2008We all make mistakes. And even the most humble among us can be a little self-righteous when it comes to our pet projects. But when was the last time you came across a self-righteous pseudo-skeptic who had the decency to admit to getting it completely wrong? Meet Steven Goddard of The Register, a peculiar little news outlet published in London. Sort of. Goddard wrote a piece that appeared on Aug. 15 under the bold headline "Arctic ice refuses to melt as ordered." As anyone who has been following the plunging arctic sea-ice extent graphs at the National Snow and Ice Data Center can attest, this…
hrynyshyn | August 22, 2008If you need to kill some time while you wait for word on who Obama has chosen as running mate, check out this transcript of a radio debate on climate change. Canadian PR agent Richard Littlemore takes on British journalist Christopher Monckton on the Roy Green Show on Hamilton, Ont.'s CHML. The sad affair was presciently summed up 500 years ago by Michel de Montaigne: "No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately."
Monckton, who most recently embarrassed the American Physical Society by convincing one its online editors to post an error-ridden paper on…
hrynyshyn | August 20, 2008The news department of the journal Nature has just published an impressive round-up of all the major clean energy technologies ;;;; installed and theoretically capacity, prices, challenges, everything you need to know. Plus an inspiring editorial. A must read for anyone interested in the subject. And it's all free access. For now.
hrynyshyn | August 19, 2008Word is Al Gore is getting a prime speaking slot on the final night of the Democratic Convention. Those of us concerned about climate change, or even the role of science in presidential politics and governance in general, should welcome this news, right? Maybe not, if you pay attention to the polls. At least, that's Matt "Framing Science" Nisbet's contention. I would like to disagree with him, but want to spend a few minutes examining the issues, because I think it's an important one.
Matt's point is that, no matter how much good Gore has done in his campaign to enlighten the world about the…
hrynyshyn | August 15, 2008Jim Hansen wants to see all coal-fired plants shut down by 2030. Except for any plants that employ carbon-capture and sequestration. Al Gore wants to see the United States generate all its electricity from renewable sources by 2018, which means shutting down all the coal-fired plants. Except for any plants that employ carbon-capture and sequestration. Princeton University's Pacala and Socolow of the "wedge" strategy make CCS an integral part of their future clean energy portfolio. Everybody who's crunched the emissions numbers pretty much agrees that coal has got to go. Unless we can capture…
hrynyshyn | August 13, 2008I spent five years of my life in Canada's Arctic and not a day goes by that I'm not reminded just how powerful an impression those years left made on me. When I read the latest news on arctic sea-ice extent, I wish more people would recognize just how important what happens up there is to the rest of the planet. Now, I know fellow ScienceBlogger William Connelly is convinced "nothing much going on with sea ice at the moment." But that's not what I see in the latest graphs from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Just a couple of years ago, the scientists who study such things thought it…
hrynyshyn | August 12, 2008Looks like we won't be needing a team of aging, time-traveling Starfleet officers to save the humpbacks after all. The IUCN has downlisted (I hate that word!) (Megaptera novaeangliae) from Vulnerable to Least Concern. Only took 25 years of keeping the whalers at bay to do it. But I'll take the good news when I can get it. (At right are animatronic members of the species.)
Of course, other member of Cetacea are still in trouble. The vaquita of the Gulf of California is on the way out . The baiji of China's Yangtze River is probably already gone. And while the southern right whales were also…
hrynyshyn | August 10, 2008By now we've all seen the John McCain ad that juxtaposes Paris Hilton and Britney Spears with Barack Obama. Most of us probably recognize it as disingenuous use of imagery to make a flawed argument. Sadly, the same technique is being used by one of our own here on ScienceBlogs. The culprit is Matt "Framing Science" Nisbet. Take a look.
Matt is off on yet another crusade against the "new atheists" as represented by fellow SciBlogger PZ Myers. His post is full of nonsense, and I don't say that lightly. But what really annoyed me is his choice of photographs to illustrate his point. At the top…
hrynyshyn | August 8, 2008So the other day I found myself on a conference call with James Hansen, who is just back from a European trip during which he tried to convince environment ministers that we should stop burning coal. I was given the opportunity to put one question to the guy. So, referring to his many public letters that deal with the need to focus on coal, I asked if that means all the squabbling over whether the U.S. should lift the moratorium on offshore drilling is missing the point?
Before I get to his response, a little background. Hansen has been writing to heads of state and state governors for months…
hrynyshyn | August 6, 2008Every corner of my regular morning stroll through the internet is littered with references to coal. One could say that coal is in the air. And it doesn't smell good. First, there's this depressing news from British Columbia:
Teck-Cominco's eye-popping, $14-billion purchase of Fording Canadian Coal this week sends a clear signal that coal will play an important role in the future of British Columbia. The deal makes Teck-Cominco the world's second-largest producer of metallurgical coal -- the kind used in steelmaking -- and solidifies its status as Canada's largest diversified mining company.…
hrynyshyn | August 5, 2008It's finally time to comment on Gore's Law: "As an online climate change debate grows longer, the probability that denier arguments will descend into attacks on Al Gore approaches one."
I don't know why this is. I remember the first bumber sticker I saw after crossing the NC-Tennessee border during my first trip into Nashville, Tenn., for my training session with Gore and his Climate Project. It was a 2000 campaign leftover reading "A Gore-free Tennessee." What Gore did to warrant such antipathy is beyond me. I wasn't living in the U.S. during his tenure as vice-president, so maybe I missed…
hrynyshyn | August 4, 2008It is easy to be disappointed with Barack Obama's recent reversal on the acceptability of new offshore drilling. But unless this is your first presidential election, then you shouldn't be too surprised. Fans of any candidate have to be prepared for a long list of compromises as the November vote approaches and the two sides do what they think they have to do to win over those who don't share their core principles. But I am disappointed nevertheless. Especially as Obama seems to have given his energy policies a fair bit of thought.
The fact remains that no new offshore oil will be available…