climate change
illconsidered | April 20, 2010Last week I was interviewed by Ki Mae Heussner for an article on ACBNews.com. That article can be viewed here.
Anyone coming here from there via the "How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic" link, it was incomplete, click here.
I think that in the broader scheme of "science says sky is blue, Republicans disagree" journalistic balance, the article does well enough. It is a big topic to cover well as a one off assignment, which this may have been. I did not find any previous work of Ki Mae's in this area.
hrynyshyn | April 20, 2010The idea that deglaciation could affect vulcanism is not new. For anyone who thinks that linking climate change to volcanic eruptions is a prime example of over-the-top alarmism, consider this look at the subject in New Scientist in 2006:
Although these forces on the Earth's crust are subtly changing all the time, their effects are most obvious at times of major or sudden climate change, such as at the beginning and end of an ice age or during the period of climate change we are expected to experience over the coming centuries. As the balance changes between the stresses acting on the crust…
illconsidered | April 19, 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 Sipping from the internet firehose...April 18, 2010 Chuckles, Copenhagen, COP16, Bonn, Cochabamba, MEF, WHCEM, Missing Heat, Volcano, Lockwood, Endangerment Bottom Line, Carbon Tariffs, Subsidies, Medupi, Krugman, QUB, CRU, Oxburgh Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food Crisis, Land Grabs, Food Production Hurricanes, Monsoon, GHGs…
hrynyshyn | April 16, 2010Another critical mass of climate change pseudoskeptics will be gathering today for an D.C. lunch event titled "The Climategate Scandals: What Has Been Revealed And What Does It Mean?" It features: Pat Michaels of the Cato Institute and Joseph D'Aleo of ICECAP and is being hosted by Ben Lieberman of the Heritage Foundation and Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
More on the speakers and hosts later, but first, let's look at the description of the event, which appears on the invitation reproduced by invitee Sheril "Intersection" Kirshenbaum:
The scientific case for catastrophic…
hrynyshyn | April 15, 2010When I created the Island of Doubt five years ago, I was fascinated by the battle between science and irrationality. I had just moved to the U.S., it would be several months before my work permit would be granted, and I needed an outlet to keep my writing skills sharp. Inspired in no small part by Chris Mooney's Intersection blog, I began posting weekly ruminations on the what I consider to be the "betrayal of the Enlightenment" so evident in my new home and elsewhere. Within a year or so, however, I began to focus almost exclusively on just one species of reality-denial: climate change…
sastyk | April 13, 2010A reader of mine named Aaron emailed me to ask if I'd respond to Alex Steffen's latest piece at Worldchanging. Aaron writes:
I'd be interested to hear what you have to say about Alex Steffen's recent post over at worldchanging.com. I think that it is a well considered and well informed post that addresses many of the things that make me uncomfortable in your writing.
I'm really not interested in criticizing your work, or anything of that sort; I believe that the sustainability movement as a whole needs to have a strong and well reasoned message if it is to take root with the public at large…
sastyk | April 13, 2010To make up for yesterday's frivolity, today I am going to be very, very serious, and deal with weighty serious things. There will be no levity - not from me, and certainly not from my very serious readers. In fact, if I detect signs of levity from any of you, especially those of you with sad proclivities towards levity (Risa, Edson, Lora...I'm talking to you!), you will be publically denounced from my pulpit (I have to go build a pulpit now.)
More practically, I'm going to try and catch up on some things people have asked me to write about, many of which are more serious and require more…
illconsidered | April 12, 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 April 11, 2010 Chuckles, Bonn, COP 15, COP 16, MEF, Cochabamba, Krugman, Ecocide, Tremblor, Barometer, Eli's Expositions Bottom Line, Carbon Tariffs, Medupi, Corporate Coup, Weathermen, Science Bashing, FOI Abuse, CRU Kafuffle Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics of Arctic Resources Food Crisis, Neoliberal Food Policies, Food vs. Biofuel,…
hrynyshyn | April 9, 2010From NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt, in the Washington Post, discussing the value of computer climate models:
If the models are as flawed as critics say, Schmidt said, "You have to ask yourself, 'How come they work?' "
Indeed. Also of note is a comment from someone who doesn't share Schmidt's confidence:
Warren Meyer, a mechanical and aerospace engineer by training who blogs at www.climate-skeptic.com, said that climate models are highly flawed. He said the scientists who build them don't know enough about solar cycles, ocean temperatures and other things that can nudge the earth's…
sastyk | April 9, 2010What I like about Stuart Staniford's work is that he does such a lovely job of offering useful and clear visual descriptors of things that are often otherwise made less clear. The design of a good graph or visual is worth a lot. So I thought this bit about the way sea level rise plays out in the emerging data was very useful.
For the range of climate models used in the IPCC AR4, and for multiple different emissions models, they show the prediction range associated with that model (the different colored bands). The interesting thing that emerges here is that it sort of doesn't matter much…
hrynyshyn | April 8, 2010Paul Krugman's feature in the New York Times covers it all. If you haven't familiarized yourself with the subject, then find 15 minutes to read it. Worth noting: the debate between Krugman and James Hansen over the merits of cap and trade persists, but Krugman appears to at least grant Hansen recognition that burning coal will probably have to be restricted regardless of any market-based approach to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
illconsidered | April 8, 2010Here is a fascinating exchange between George Monbiot and Steve Easterbrook exploring the larger issues behind the recent Swifthacking of CRU email (aka ClimateGate).
Steve makes an excellent presentation of the case for what happens to be my personal view on this mess, namely that the media has failed in a major and tragic way and that this is a tale of a successful propaganda campaign not scientific corruption. In my opinion, Monbiot seems to understand Steve's points but still does not get the real story.
Have a read:
The computer scientist Steve Easterbrook wrote an interesting critique…
grrlscientist | April 8, 2010tags: global warming, climate change, comedy, humor, funny, satire, weird, fucking hilarious, Science Catfight, Climatologists versus Meteorologists, Stephen Colbert, Colbert Report, streaming video
"In an alarming trend, temperatures this spring have risen. Consider this: on February 6, it was ten degrees. Today it hit almost 80. At this rate, by August, it will be 220 degrees!" declares Stephen Colbert. "So clearly folks, the climate debate rages on. Which is great because I like debate, and I love rage."
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor
Health…
illconsidered | April 6, 2010[editor's note: an initial name confusion had the orignal version of this article referring to Jay Rogers instead of the actual author of the AEI piece Jay Richards. This has been fixed and as well a no longer relevant paragraph has been removed. Apologies for any confusion.]
[Preliminary Note: Coby asked me to edit this essay for a guest post on "A Few Things Ill Considered" (AFTIC). The original post is here, but this version cleans up the salty language (I'm kind of a roughneck and freely curse on this forum) and polishes up the content and provides the links to the relevant source…
illconsidered | April 5, 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 recognitionApril 4, 2010 Chuckles, COP15, COP16, Endangerment Comments, Weathermen, Lovelock Bottom Line, UN CFG, IPCC Support, CRU Inquiry, Stickiness of Myths, Mclean, Late Comments Melting Arctic, Geopolitics Food Crisis, Neoliberal Food Policies, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Temperatures…
illconsidered | April 2, 2010One thing the blogosphere is good for is spirited discussion and fast dissemination of news stories. One thing it is not good for is the old addage "where there's smoke, there's fire".
The recent "swifthacking" of CRU email (aka "climategate") is a great example of tremendous amounts of smoke being created out of something statistically indistinguishable from bupkus.
The UK's House of Commons has released a report after weeks of careful investigation into the details and implications of the illegally obtained and distributed emails to and from a handful of East Anglia University climate…
illconsidered | March 30, 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 Sipping from the internet firehose...March 28, 2010 Chuckles, COP15, COP16, WWD, Upcoming Meetings, Oh Oh, Anthropocene, Mitloehner, Mclean, Earth Hour Bottom Line, Carbon Tariffs, Risk, UN CFG, The Race, Lewis, Pro IPCC, CRU SAP, Samanta Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production Hurricanes,…
sastyk | March 29, 2010Passover is a holiday deeply concerned with inclusion - at one point during each seder night, we open our doors and leave them open wide, and call out "let all who are hungry come and eat." One year, teaching Hebrew School to 10 year olds, I asked them what would happen if they called out and a stranger came in and sat down. My students, largely from affluent and middle families in a leafy suburb where most strangers are likely to be much like them, were to a one deeply uncomfortable with the notion. They expressed fear at the thought of the stranger coming to their table, even surrounded…
hrynyshyn | March 24, 2010Fellow Scienceblogger Sharon "Casaubon's Book" Astyk warns us that the latest thinking on proximity to climate tipping points supports the premise that we can't make the transition to a post-carbon economy without surrendering some of that oh-so-sacred American way of life. At least, that the message I get from this:
I have argued for many years that we are going to, in the end, have to turn to the language of sacrifice and selflessness, of unity in the face of potential disaster -- even potential failure -- and that we are better off (because we then achieve at least honesty) choosing that…
sastyk | March 24, 2010Charles Greene and colleagues confirm what the evidence has added up to - that we're probably already too late to avoid crossing major tipping points, and that the scientific consensus has been in error - but not like the right wing wants you to believe. Instead, the compelling evidence for climate change is that even the most rigorous scientists have understated how radically our world is changing.
As one of the authors of "A Very Inconvenient Truth," published in the peer-reviewed journal Oceanography (March 2010), Greene said that he and his co-authors conclude that the United Nation's…