climate science
The Sting of the Long Tail: Climate Change, Delayed Harm, and Backlash
In the comments to Ann’s earlier post, the question was raised as to why global temperatures haven’t declined in response to the decline in carbon dioxide emissions from Europe in the past year. I made a quick response to this question in the comments, but I wanted to elaborate on that response here. What follow …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy Doesn’t Anyone Care When IPCC UNDER-Estimates Climate Impacts
A major mistake by IPCC. Why hasn’t anyone ever heard of it? Because it underestimated the seriousness of climate change!
CONTINUE READINGThe Anti-Science Lobby Strikes Again
Apparently, the anti-evolution forces have joined up with the climate denialists. The NY Times reports that state governments are already taking action to ensure that their students remains as ignorant about climate science as evolution. The Times explains: In Louisiana, a law passed in 2008 says the state board of education may assist teachers in …
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CONTINUE READINGEarth’s Climate: The Owner’s Manual
If you want an authoritative source on climate science, of course you could go to the IPCC Reports. That assumes, of course, that you’re willing to plow through hundreds and hundreds of pages of detailed information. Now, there’s a good alternative. The Climate Crisis is a clear, accessible introduction to everything we know about the …
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CONTINUE READINGAnswering the Climategaters
Want to create a scandal? Just add “gate” to the end of any noun. Climategate is a good example. Real Climate ha an excellent post dissecting the charges of error in the IPCC report, which turn out to be quite insignificant (and some of them not even errors at all.) Of course, if you come …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Models Still on Track
As this graph from RealClimate shows, temperature trends are well within the envelope of model predictions, and not too far off the average of the predictions. Even during the recent temperature dip that has received so much attention, temperatures stayed inside the envelope. No evidence that the models are missing something fundamental at this …
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CONTINUE READINGAn Unhappy Update on Climate Science
The Copenhagen Diagnosis updates the last IPCC report. Most of the news isn’t encouraging: Global ice-sheets are melting at an increased rate; Arctic sea-ice is disappearing much faster than recently projected, and future sea-level rise is now expected to be much higher than previously forecast, according to a new global scientific synthesis prepared by some …
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CONTINUE READING101 (Or So) Useful Responses to Climate Skeptics
I know a lot of people who have occasion, for one reason or another, to deal with climate skeptics. Sometimes this happens at public events, sometimes at Thanksgiving dinners. There are a lot of arguments that skeptics use, and it’s hard to carry around the responses to all of them in your head. I’ve just …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental “Poetry” (Yet Again)
There once was a coal company, Which fought cap-and-trade mightily. “Costs too much,” they complained, “Emissions can’t be contained, Or our profits will face jeopardy.” There once was a scientist (or two), Whose work couldn’t pass peer review: “It’s all cosmic rays, Or perhaps high-level haze, Or something else besides plain CO2.”
CONTINUE READINGIt’s Déjà Vu All Over Again
Since opponents can’t seem to come up with any new arguments against climate change legislation, they seem determined to recycle the old, discredited ones. Here’s today’s example, straight from the GOP press release: Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif, today urged the Environmental Protection Agency to include several relevant studies in its …
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