climate change
dolittle | October 22, 2010Blair Wolf is an associate professor of biology at the University of New Mexico. Research in the Wolf lab focuses on the natural history and ecophysiology of desert animals. He agreed to blog with Dr. Dolittle on the topic of birds. Here is the final excerpt from their exchange.
PHOTO: Budgerigars keeping cool under the shade of a patio during an Australian heat wave, courtesy of Dr. Blair Wolf.
Dr. Dolittle: Would you predict that with global warming, the average body size of birds will increase in hotter areas like the southwestern United States and Australia? Why? What will this mean to…
dolittle | October 21, 2010Blair Wolf is an associate professor of biology at the University of New Mexico. Research in the Wolf lab focuses on the natural history and ecophysiology of desert animals. He agreed to blog with Dr. Dolittle on the topic of birds. Here are excerpts from their exchange.
Dr. Dolittle: What made you interested in studying the effects of Australian heat waves on bird populations?
Dr. Wolf: Australia has a very challenging environment, with a great expanse of hot desert and seems to be THE poster child for the bad things that are associated with climate warming. The continent has recently…
illconsidered | October 21, 2010The sorry saga continues...
WASHINGTON (October 21, 2010) - Yesterday, the University of Virginia made two court filings in its fight against Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's politically motivated investigation of climate scientist Michael Mann.
In its most strongly-worded court filing to date (pdf), UVA characterized Cuccinelli's investigation as "an unprecedented and improper governmental intrusion into ongoing scientific research" and said that Cuccinelli is targeting Mann because he "disagrees with his academic research regarding climate change."
UVA also argued that Cuccinelli'…
sastyk | October 21, 2010Robyn's Adapting In Place Blog has a really great sermon she gave about teaching kids about the environment. I really like her points both about multiple environmentalisms, and also about the way kids react to empty nonsense like "101 ways you can save the planet." The whole thing is well worth a read! Robyn is one of the most intelligent and passionate advocates of good education of all kinds I know, and this is her stuff at its best!
I also discovered that I was under a double whammy with kids when teaching conventional environmentalism. First, as I already said, kids can smell a lie, so…
dolittle | October 20, 2010Blair Wolf is an associate professor of biology at the University of New Mexico. Research in the Wolf lab focuses on the natural history and ecophysiology of desert animals. He agreed to blog with Dr. Dolittle on the topic of birds. Here is an excerpt from their exchange.
Dr. Dolittle: Much of your recent research has taken place in the southwestern United States. Do you predict that similar heat waves will occur in this region? Why?
Dr. Wolf: The most current climate research suggests that the southwestern United States is going to get quite a bit hotter and dryer in the next 80 or so years…
dolittle | October 19, 2010Blair Wolf is an associate professor of biology at the University of New Mexico. Research in the Wolf lab focuses on the natural history and ecophysiology of desert animals.
Preface: Dr. Blair Wolf's research discussed in a previous blog released August 13, 2010 on what causes the mass deaths of budgerigars (small birds in Australia) during heat waves sparked much discussion.
PHOTO: Budgerigars killed by a heat wave near a dried-up pond courtesy of Dr. Blair Wolf.
PHOTO: Budgerigars killed by a heat wave in Australia courtesy of Dr. Blair Wolf.
As a result of this discussion I decided to…
illconsidered | October 18, 2010If you have a spare couple of hours, I am sure the YouTube below is well worth the time. I don't, so I can't comment on anything but my expectations and the approval of Dessler's performance from Eli Rabett and Deltoid.
Thanks, Eli, for the link.
illconsidered | October 18, 2010Okay, so this one is a bit of a tear-jerker and I usually like to avoid mixing sentimentality with environmentalism, but it is very informative and interesting if sad. It is greenman3610's Climate Crock of the Week from about three weeks ago and as usual well worth watching.
I tend to be skeptical about anthropomorphizing our fellow earthlings, but I'll be damned if that wasn't a very affectionate mama walrus hugging her baby! If walruses weren't so ugly they just might top polar bears in terms of public concern...
illconsidered | October 18, 2010No, not how much I will write now, but the approximate value of the two pictures I will post, using standard conversion rates.
(see Eli's place for source and commentary)
(this one from Global Warming Art)
But don't let your lying eyes and faculties of reason fool you, we are on the cusp of a new ice age!
illconsidered | October 12, 2010Okay, the main page for How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic has over 500 comments now, so as I should have done long ago, I am closing comments there.
Please post any miscellaneous comments that don't fit better elsewhere on this site here on this thread, thanks!
illconsidered | October 11, 2010 Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
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 Instability News Information overload is pattern recognitionOctober 10, 2010 Chuckles, Tianjin, Copenhagen Accord, COP16+, ASEM, Syed, Haigh, Pakistan Bottom Line, Carbon Tariffs, Finance, No Pressure, Cook, Post CRU Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food Crisis, GMOs, Food Production Hurricanes, Monsoon, GHGs, Temperatures, Feedbacks Aerosols,…
illconsidered | October 9, 2010It seems that substantial evidence compiled by John Mashey has helped lead to an investigation into Edward Wegman's possible academic misconduct in the production of his very prominent report to Congress [PDF] on the Hockeystick.
See DesmogBlog for background, USA Today for the story, and Deep Climate for the details.
I will only add a couple of brief comments. Firstly, although the media buzz will be largely about the plagarism charges (and the apologists will focus there as well - copied doesn't mean wrong), there is much more to John's detailed evidence than this. Citations were not just…
illconsidered | October 4, 2010 Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
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 Global Warming News Sipping from the internet firehose...October 3, 2010 Chuckles, COP16+, Tianjin, Right Livelihood, Loopholes, IUCN, Royal Society, Collisions, Pakistan Carbon Tariffs, Subsidies, IP Rentiers, Bin Laden, No Pressure, Cook, Post CRU Melting Arctic, Geopolitics Food Crisis, Food Corps, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs,…
sastyk | September 27, 2010Every so often someone comes up to me with fiery eyes and raring for a battle and says "I don't believe in Peak Oil" or "I don't believe in Climate Change." When this happens, I think they expect me to argue with them, and I do. But isn't the argument they expect - my standard response, correct almost 100% of the time is not to make the case for peak oil or climate change, but to argue "Yes, you do, in fact, believe in them."
Telling other people what they believe is a chancy business, but I feel reasonably confident in doing so, because when someone says they don't believe in peak oil or…
illconsidered | September 27, 2010The title is of course a reference to Alice in Wonderland, and particularily to the quote about believing 6 impossible things before breakfast (which Eli Rabbet upped to ten) and, again, of course applies so nicely to the climate contrarian community.
But I guess it is not quite a perfect fit for what I am posting about now, which is rather believing contradictory things, before, during or even after breakfast.
(cartoon source)
[Note: we could make this cartoon a perfect fit for Monckton just by adding another panel where the scientist suddenly turns to the Galileo-wannabe saying "WTF!? I…
illconsidered | September 27, 2010 Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
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 Instability News Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck YearsSeptember 26, 2010 Chuckles, Equinox, COP16+, MDG, FAO, MEF, CGI Thompson, Big Picture, Pakistan, Subsidies, Cook, Post CRU Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food Crisis, Food Weapon, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production Hurricanes, Monsoon, GHGs, Temperatures, Feedbacks, Aerosols Ozone, Solar…
sastyk | September 24, 2010I probably should have waited a little longer to steal this from Greenpa, until it was colder, but I couldn't.
sastyk | September 23, 2010A couple of years ago, George Monbiot wrote a column in the Guardian arguing with me. He was responding to an essay that I'd written arguing that there was no good evaluation of the potential climate impacts of a rapid build-out of renewable energies, and that it was possible that given the short time frame, that even if we were to actually get the political and social will to do so, we might cross critical tipping points in our attempt to save ourselves. Monbiot argued that this was indeed a real possibility, but that we had to try it anyway, since the stakes were so high. I responded…
illconsidered | September 20, 2010 Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
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 Instability News Information overload is pattern recognitionSeptember 19, 2010 Chuckles, COP16+, WEF-Asia, WEC, MDG, MEF, Bug, Pakistan Bottom Line, World Bank, Ecuador, Cook, Post CRU Melting Arctic, Megafauna, Arctic Lows, Geopolitics Food Crisis, Pavlovsk, Higher CO2, AgroBiz, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Riots, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production Hurricanes…
hrynyshyn | September 14, 2010I am taking a break from blogging. My reasons are personal. I do not know how long the break will last.
In the meantime, I reproduce a note from the editorial board of Climatic Change. It takes the form of a letter to the late, great Stephen Schneider. I hope they provide some inspiration for those who, like me, are finding the task of thinking about climate change every day a little too much to bear.
Dear Steve:
Many people have been offering chronicles of your amazing life, but it will take
an historian to put all of your accomplishments and contributions into their proper
context. When…