editorial

I will allow comments through by default for repeat commenters again, first time commenters will still need an initial approval. I will however now be a more active moderator and delete things that are useless or unnecessarily personal from now on, except on this thread. This is unavoidably subjective but I will try to err on the side of permissiveness. The goal will be controlling the tone more so than the content. Readers should keep in mind the fact I am in an Australian time zone, so doomed comments may be visible for many hours. I expect this blog will remain pretty quiet for the time…

August 13th was Earth Overshoot Day. The correct date, if calculated precisely, would come earlier and earlier each year, the current choice is just an approximation. This year, the year 2015, by sometime around August 13th, humanity had consumed as much of what we require from the lands and seas as our planet can sustainabley provide in an entire year. That is another way of expressing the fact that at current consumption rates, humanity requires 1.6 planet earth's worth of fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, wood and other organic materials. It is a remarkable annual deficit, and if it is…

A gentle reader recently asked for a "status of the blog" report. As the two week delay between ask and answer can attest to, things are rather slow moving around here at the moment and I am mainly just my own lurker.  I do have some new content that I will offer very shortly and a post or two in the slow cooker. I guess in general I have been feeling like I have over the years said what I needed to say and was now only repeating myself.  This is despite quite a few interesting developments over the past year ranging from juicy insider-blog gossip to political theatre to remarkable…

A very good video on the gulf that exists between the climate science experts and the general population in terms of awareness and alarm regarding anthropogenic climate change: (from a comment on a P3 thread) The essence of this impending calamity is, more than anything else, a story of betrayal: betrayal of a naively trusting population by its political leaders and even more by its news media.   When the denial of this crisis is finally seen to be as implausible and ludicrous as it already is, it may be too late.  It may be too late already to avoid truly terrible consequences, but we must…

Via un-climate-related readings, I came across this gem (from the victim article of the link): My job is to assess not the rightness of each argument but to deal in the real world of campaign politics in which perception often (if not always) trumps reality. I deal in the world as voters believe it is, not as I (or anyone else) thinks it should be. And, I'm far from the only one. This is from the mouth of one of the Washington Post's political mouthpieces, Chris Cillizza.  Readers here will be more than familiar with the fundamental problems with this attitude.  I just wanted to note that the…

Okay, sorry about that title...it is an actual quote from a History Channel documentary on, well, the universe.  I nearly spat out my cool beverage with laughter when I heard it the first time and have really wanted to share it since then.  I have yet to finish watching that series on the huge DVD disk set I bought because, despite the fascinating topic and the decent information content, they tried so hard to be dramatic in every aspect it just became tedious.  Every topic seemed to turn into some new graphic simulation of Planet Earth being devoured, exploded, ice-balled, drowned, bombarded…

Via MT at Planet3, we have a nice quote from FAIR: This is what I like to describe as the difference between objectivity and "objectivity." Objectivity is the belief that there is a real world out there that's more or less knowable; the "objectivity" that journalists practice holds that it's impossible to know what's real, so all you can do is report the claims made by various (powerful) people. The topic at hand is of course electoral politics and political reporting in general, but it has very clear relevance to climate science reporting and science reporting in general.  While we are…

What do they have in common?  Apparently some methodologies, uncovered by the hacktivist group Anonymous. Details can be found in an interesting, if dense, article at The Nation, which describes how Anonymous revealed dealings the Chamber of Commerce was having with a Cyber Security firm that did not limit itself to defensive measures. Attorneys for the Chamber were caught negotiating for a contract to launch a cyber campaign using practically identical methods to those attributed to the Chinese, which reportedly could be used to cripple vital infrastructure and plunder trade secrets from…

So it is about one year ago that Peter Gleick exposed the too-ashamed-to-admit-it donors of the science denialist industry flack Heartland Organization.  Michael Tobis has a very comprehensive run-down and analysis of the event over on P3, I recommend it, especially if you need to get up to speed on what I am talking about. My only comment on the whole morality play aspect of it is that the question "do the ends justify the means" does not have a one size fits all answer.  I have always been a bit puzzled by the seemingly unquestioned moral hammer that question gets used as.  Clearly we all…

Just thinking about a previous look at Roy Spencer: We believe Earth and its ecosystems—created by God’s intelligent design and infinite power and sustained by His faithful providence —are robust, resilient, self-regulating, and self-correcting, admirably suited for human flourishing, and displaying His glory.  Earth’s climate system is no exception. in the context of this recent post of his that finishes with this similarly fact-free gem: It’s time for the 99% to start supporting the 1% a little better, because in the end it is the 1% who enables the 99% to maximize their standard of living…

BOZEMAN, Mont. – Late in the afternoon earlier this month Charles Worth was hiking with his dog, Brownie, down Deep Creek Trail in Montana, toward the Yellowstone River, when he noticed a churning column of smoke in front of him. Only a mile from the trailhead and his truck, he stopped to weigh his chances. The fire was heading toward him up the drainage. A thick stand of dry timber stood between him and the smoke. He retreated to a boulder field and watched. The fire moved fast. Suddenly it was burning in the close timber. Worth had to make a move. He decided to run for it, back up the trail…

POTSDAM – In 1845, Captain Sir John Franklin of the British Royal Navy led 128 men on two iron-plated steam ships, Erebus and Terror, into the Arctic, where they eventually disappeared. The voyage was the culmination of four centuries of failed attempts to navigate the Northwest Passage – a direct route from Europe to Asia across the Arctic Ocean – and remains one of the greatest tragedies in the history of polar exploration. Today, a far greater Arctic tragedy is unfolding: the Arctic sea-ice cap is melting. Last month, an unprecedented new low was reached after decades of decline. Indeed,…

Owing to past neglect, in the face of the plainest warnings, we have entered upon a period of danger.  The era of procrastination, of half measures, of soothing and baffling expedience of delays, is coming to its close.  In its place we are entering a period of consequences.  We cannot avoid this period, we are in it now Not originally spoken about climate change, but I don't think a better expression of today's reality could be found.  Go to Peter Sinclair's piece "9/11, Climate Change and Why Facts Matter" to read a great article and at the same time see who said the above and when. (Oops,…

It is by now old news that George Zimmerman has finally been arrested for the unprovoked killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, 17 yr old African American teenager on his way home from the store with a bit of junk food. It took over a month and huge public outcry to get even this small step towards justice but it is the right first step. But in case you need something new to get outraged about I would like to call your attention to the equally, if not more, outrageous case of Kenneth Chamberlain's murder at the hands of Whiteplains NY police officers. Police were summoned to the scene for a…

Did you ever wonder just how it can be possible that the same, thousand times debunked, climate "skepticisms" keep re-emerging, month after month, year after year? Obviously, there are those individuals (like Singer and Soon), organizations (like HeartlessLand), and media outlets (like Faux News) who deliberately lie and misinform with no concern for scientific or journalistic ethics whatsoever, but how is it they are so successful? Well, it seems simple human nature, of the sort the most earnest and conscientious of us all possess, lends itself to being deceived by whomever yells loudest,…

"Coolest Billboard Ever?" asks a HuffPost article posted a couple of days ago. The billboard certainly seems "greenie". I mean come on, it is not just made out of renewable resources, it is one! It's alive. It breathes. It photosythesizes. Photosynthesis is the essence of "Green". So what's the problem? The problem is that this typically elaborate and ultimately meaningless gesture really epitomizes what is wrong with corporate politic's view of and use of the green movement. It is not the essence of green it is the essence of greenwashing. Coca cola is no friend of the environment.…

Forced climate change causes global warming as a response, not the other way around. We all focus on globally and seasonally averaged mean temperature, and though it is a very coarse measure, there are some justifiable reasons. But as a general focus for those concerned about the human influence on our planetary life support system, is it right? Michael Tobis has a great essay on why it really isn't. If the sentence above doesn't quite get the point across, from the same paragraph: It takes a hell of a kick to move global temperature as much as we are moving it, and the climate system is…

There is a very interesting article on Nature.com that provides an example of something a bit uncommon in the climate wars: an intelligent and well reasoned disagreement with the IPCC. (h/t to Climate Etc.) The article is well worth the read in its entirety, but its central point is a relatively straightforward one. The smaller the portion of the earth's surface (or time period for that matter) you are examining, the more difficult and less useful it is to consider attribution of climate change. And yet, the IPCC, according to this article, is seeking research that specifically attributes…

The Egyptian dictator, Hosni Mubarak, has resigned, finally relenting to weeks of massive protests. Is he the latest casualty of climate change? This is a provacative question, but I believe one worth discussing. Obviously, there are always many factors in a people's uprising, the precise balance of which will always be subjective and varied from protestor to protestor. But that doesn't mean said factors can not be isolated and examined each on their own. Like any extreme hot weather event, it is not possible to attribute this directly to a change in global climate, but like said weather…

Judith Curry has become quite a blog sensation, and did so long before starting her own. I have expressed my frustration with her in the past for a seemingly reckless affinity for "hit and run" postings. I will appreciatively grant that she comments alot, and engages many conversants extensively, but she has posted many very inflammatory or technically flawed diatribes in the past, the kind sorely needing defending or ammending, and left the clear and substantive rebuttals unanswered or inadequately answered. Frequently interested readers were left with only vague promises of "more on that…