illconsidered | June 26, 2009This 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…
illconsidered | June 23, 2009James 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…
illconsidered | June 23, 2009As 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...
illconsidered | June 22, 2009This 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…
illconsidered | June 22, 2009 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
skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News Sipping from the internet firehose... June 21, 2009 Chuckle, Top Stories:Solstice, UKCP09, USGCRP, Synthesis Report, GLOBE, Chapman, DB Clock, Desertec Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Honisch, Sol, Sarychev, Late Comments on Bonn Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production Hurricanes, Monsoon, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Aerosols, Paleoclimate, Glaciers,…
illconsidered | June 21, 2009Remember 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.
illconsidered | June 21, 2009Just like those national debt clocks showing you dollar by dollar how high it is, this site has a "Carbon Counter" showing how many metric tons of carbon have been released into the atmosphere.
As I post this, we are at 3,642,255,344,781. No wait, now its 3,642,255,367,521...no, it's 3,642,255,381,988...well, you get the picture!
They have some other interesting resources there as well.
illconsidered | June 17, 2009Via MT, I came across a most excellent and interesting essay by Herman Daly on the Oil Drum (one of those great and meaty blogs that I only wich I had the time to read everything on!)
The subject is how to establish a steady state economy versus the current paradigm based on the fantasy of eternal growth. The reason you should read it is because it is not your usual Utopian hand wave about what a perfect world would be like, it is a specific set of policy prescriptions.
Worth your time!
illconsidered | June 16, 2009Of all the myriad climate skeptic arguments out there, the argument that the current rise in CO2 is not human caused truly is one of the most ridiculous positions one could take.
(Please note, I am not saying it is ridiculous to consider, we should consider everything, but like wondering if the light in the fridge really turns off when you close the door, a quick check with your cell phone video camera really should put it to rest!)
It is of course one of the standard denials in the HTTTACS series.
I am closing comments on that thread and directing them here, as surprising as it is to me…
illconsidered | June 15, 2009 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
skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News June 14, 2009 Top Stories: Bonn, USA & China, REDD, Peru, Over 2C, Upcoming G8 Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Gentle Education, Sol, New Measure Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Paleoclimate, ENSO, Glaciers, Sea Levels Impacts, Forests, Corals, Climate Refugees, Wacky Weather, Tornadoes, Wildfires,…
illconsidered | June 11, 2009I think I will start to close down comments on some of the guide articles as the comment threads get too long and meandering, and instead direct people from there to dedicated "open threads".
So consider this the first implementation of that idea for the article "CO2 Lags, not leads". Comments there are now closed.
The main reason I want to do this article first, aside from the recent explosion of unproductive comments, is because I would like to make a correction and a couple of clarifications based on what came out there. The majority of the comments fall squarely in the "completely…
illconsidered | June 10, 2009Tim Lambert over at Deltoid has a great illustration of how denialists play the telephone game.
It basically goes like this:
NASA: "New study confirms greenhouse gases, not the sun, are causing the current climate change"
Denialist 1: "NASA confirms that the sun is causing the current climate change"
Denialist 2: "NASA confirms that the sun is causing the current climate change and Al Gore is fat"
And then we get to read the cut and paste in the comments here and elsewhere around the blogosphere. But do go read a few more details at Deltoid, it is why the label "skeptic" is just about the…
illconsidered | June 9, 2009 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
skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News Information overload is pattern recognition June 7, 2009 Chuckle, Top Stories:Bonn, UNFCCC Meetings, Ethanol Summit, FAO Meeting, Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica, Open Access, Late Comments Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Nitrogen Cycle, Temperatures, Paleoclimate, ENSO, Glaciers, Satellites Impacts,…
illconsidered | June 3, 2009So nicely coinciding with a period in which I have no time, I have had a burst of over 100 comments in the last week, lately on the temperature record reliability attack article. (Yeah, I know it no PZ Meyers level of activity, but it is all relative, right?)
For the first time in my illustrious blogging career I have not even read them! (which I regret).
Did I miss anything interesting?
illconsidered | June 1, 2009 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
skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News May 31, 2009 Chuckle, Top Stories:MEF, Nobel Laureates, AGU Joint Assembly, WBS, G8, Billionaires Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica, GHF, Climate Gap, Methane, Sol, Late Comments Food Crisis, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Paleoclimate, ENSO, Sea Levels, Satellites Impacts, Forests, Corals, Climate Refugees, Wacky Weather, Tornadoes,…
illconsidered | May 25, 2009 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
skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News May 24, 2009 Chuckle, Top Stories:UNFCCC Negotiating Text, MIT Study, Obama CAFE, US Poll, Biz Conference, C40 Summit Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Conveyor Belt, Food Crisis, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Paleoclimate, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Satellites Impacts, Forests, Corals, Climate Refugees, Desertification, Wacky Weather,…
illconsidered | May 23, 2009By the by, I have another post up on The Energy Grid called The Blame Game.
This week's question is one of finding fault. What brought us to the current confluence of crises? Was it a failure of the political, or the technological?
Unlike the beltway pundits and the political scoundrels they defend, who use the phrase "blame game" to mockingly to retreat from accepting responsibility for, well anything, I don't think blame is just a game. Insanity is sometimes defined as trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well, if you never bother to revisit your…
illconsidered | May 19, 2009I get tons of drive by attacks on the HTTTACS articles and most are pretty thoughtless repetitions of everything we've heard a hundred times before, and often posted directly underneath their own refutations.
But occasionally there are seemingly very sincere and well posed questions or arguments that I have not addressed very thoroughly or very well before. These deserve equally thoughtful answers but I don't always have the time to provide them.
I recently received one such via email from a fellow named Jonathon, which I will present below:
Dear Mr. Beck:
My name is Jonathan [redacted]. I…
illconsidered | May 18, 2009A recent comment, here, questions the AGW prediction of polar amplification. He cites a paper by Polyakov et al that he claims shows temperatures in the arctic were warmer than they are now earlier in the 20th century.
[Update: paper is here[PDF]]
I don't have access to the paper or time to research it well, does anyone else have any comments? My initial impression is that it is about ocean temperatures in one region of the north Atlantic, and I do not trust the numbers he quotes which came from CO2 Science, a site that habitually misrepresents the papers it highlights. But that is hardly…
illconsidered | May 18, 2009 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
skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News Sipping from the internet firehose... May 17, 2009 Chuckle, World Ocean Conference, Ocean Circulation, Sol, Climate Project, Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food Crisis, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures, Paleoclimate Impacts, Forests, Corals, Climate Refugees, Wacky Weather, Tornadoes, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts…