Posts

March 15, 2013

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4:25 AM | Pi-ku

It is real. Yes! global warming, yes! And it’s caused by man atmospheric carbon dioxide In honor of “pi day” (3/14) my wife conceived the idea of a “pi-ku” poem, in which the number of syllables in each line is … Continue reading →

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3:36 AM | Garbage Patch in the Oceans

One of the problems of not considering the territorial distribution based on basins, is that we create the idea that we can solve problems by getting rid of them. For instance, we clean by throwing garbage (e.g. a plastic bottle or drinking straw) to the river without considering the effects downstream. Our location may be clean, but we just passed the problem (garbage) to the ones downstream. Something like sweep under the carpet.I chose the example of plastic objects, since they are the main […]

March 14, 2013

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10:58 PM | New York, New York!

By Claire Tomorrow, I’m off to New York! It will be my first time to the USA and I’m so excited!! I’m heading over to NASA GISS in NY to collaborate with world-class scientists in palaeoclimate modelling. I’ll be in NY for … Continue reading →

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5:16 PM | Arctic Sea Ice Loss, part 3

Having looked at extent, area, and volume of Arctic sea ice, then at its thickness, let’s examine some other derived variables. There are (at least) two derived variables we can construct from extent and area. One, which I’ve called “spread,” … Continue reading →

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2:44 PM | How do we evaluate the impacts of climate change?

Working on a malaria model, where one of the abilities is to evaluate the impact of climate change, I have twisted my brain to understand how we should evaluate the impacts of a warmer planet. Sea level rise, fair enough; low lying land might potentially become flooded; the nature of precipitation might influence energy production; [...]

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8:15 AM | Watts Interview – Denial and Reality Mix like Oil and Water

A website called Oil Price recently conducted an interview with climate contrarian Anthony Watts. In the interview, Watts tries to portray himself as the reasonable skeptic in the middle of the climate 'debate'. Watts claims that he's a "lukewarmer" (a term which frankly just refers to people who ignore inconvenient evidence), trying to position himself between the denialists and the climate scientists. However, as Richard Alley has explained, in reality climate scientists are the […]

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6:14 AM | Satellite detected Japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami

Last March 11 the world remembered the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on 11 March 2011. New studies have revealed that this massive quake was also felt in space by ESA's satellite GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer).GOCE was launched in 2009 with the main objective of mapping Earth's gravity, the fundamental force that pulls mass. In order to achieve its very challenging mission objectives, this slender, five-metre long satellite is designed to orbit at a […]

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1:40 AM | Bill English’s weasel words on weather, climate and drought

Occasionally — but only occasionally — the political pantomime that is parliamentary question time throws up something interesting. Yesterday, NZ’s deputy prime minister Bill English managed to dig himself into a drought-ridden hole, only to emerge looking like a climate denier. Green Party co-leader Russel Norman tried to get English to expand on his earlier [...] [Get the full story at Hot Topic...]

March 13, 2013

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11:00 PM | Time to get creative

By Kelly For the last 2 1/2 weeks I have been back in Hobart at the nation’s marine science hub. For the last 2 1/2 years we have been trying to do some rather fancy measurements on my coral samples … Continue reading →

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10:31 AM | State Department Downplays the Climate Impact of Keystone XL

The US State Department has released a draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project which was immediately subjected to harsh criticism from scientists and environmental groups. The primary objection to the SEIS has been to this statement in Section ES.6.2: "Approval or denial of any one crude oil transport project, including the proposed Project, remains unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the oil sands, or […]

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6:01 AM | Arctic Volcanism Helps Date Ancient Archaeological Sites

By Liz O'Connell for Frontier Scientists “By dating ash,” said Richard Vanderhoek, “an archaeological site in Alaska, can be placed on a chronostratographic timeline.” Or in other words: the chemical makeup of the ash, matched with a volcano eruption, will provide an approximate date of the site. Archaeologists worldwide have dated ancient sites for the last half century in this manner. Vanderhoek wants to consider not just the timing of the catastrophic event, but the ecological […]

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12:36 AM | Arctic Sea Ice Loss, part 2

In the last post we looked at the extent, area, and volume of Arctic sea ice. We also mentioned that we can derive other quantities from these, namely the average thickness as the volume divided by area, and what I … Continue reading →

March 12, 2013

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11:10 PM | The argument for life on Mars strengthens

By Claire New analyses carried out by the Curiosity Rover on Mars provides more evidence that conditions on Mars were suitable for life. The Curiosity Rover has been working in an area known as “Yellow Knife Bay”, which has been … Continue reading →

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6:30 PM | 2013 SkS News Bulletin #3: Alberta Tar Sands and Keystone XL Pipeline

25 Keystone XL protesters arrested at TransCanada office Canadian oil, the Keystone pipeline and the Chinese Critical part of Keystone report done by firms with deep oil industry ties Keystone pipeline decision may influence oil-sands development Keystone rejection wouldn’t harm US-Canada relationship Keystone XL pipeline path marks new battle line in Oklahoma No, Minister Oliver, the oil sands have not become 'green' The climate scientist and the pipeline When to say no Will […]

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11:18 AM | Does Norway lack political commitment to renewables?

NOTE: The article below first appeared in the University of Oslo's quarterly research magazine Apollon, written by Trine Nickelsen, and published online 21 February 2013. It was translated with the help of Google Translator, corrected for grammar, and adjusted for clarity by gws. Links inserted by gws. It is posted here with permission of Apollon and the author. Link to original posting in Norwegian is here. Weak political commitment to renewable energy sourcesNorway spends nearly half a […]

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12:44 AM | More Monckton madness: Agenda 21 means concentration camps for all

Christopher “I could be the next Pope”1 Monckton is no stranger to outrageous overstatement, but on his current tour of Australia he’s really been pushing the boat far out onto the sea of craziness that passes for his political philosophy. As well as his usual climate nonsense, he’s been telling his Aussie audiences all about [...] [Get the full story at Hot Topic...]

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12:33 AM | Arctic Sea Ice Loss, part 1

Although it’s useful and sometimes interesting to refute silly ideas about Arctic sea ice loss (such as the claim that it is “stabilizing” or even in “recovery”), it’s far more interesting scientifically to consider what available data actually tell us … Continue reading →

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12:01 AM | Chasing Ice

Director Jeff Orlowski takes us behind the scenes of his widely praised documentary Chasing Ice, which captured stunning time lapse images of retreating and melting glaciers. He discusses the public reaction to his film, what it’s like working in harsh … Continue reading →

March 11, 2013

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11:00 PM | Yeti!

By Kelly There is a creature on this great planet of ours that I dearly love. I can’t say it’s always been my favourite because it was only discovered ~8 years ago. OnCirculation readers I would like to introduce you … Continue reading →

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9:09 AM | Till your well runs dry: NZ drought hits record levels

Australia may have had an extraordinary “Angry Summer“, but New Zealand’s been having a bit of a cracker too. Prolonged warm and sunny weather over much of the country has driven North Island soil moisture deficits to levels not seen for at least 70 years (see map at left). Official drought status — which means [...] [Get the full story at Hot Topic...]

March 10, 2013

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11:02 PM | The driest place on Earth

By Claire Last Monday, I told you all about a really great documentary I had watched on Sunday about the Mariana Trench. It just so happens that yesterday I was also bored and channel surfing and managed to catch the … Continue reading →

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6:53 AM | 2013 SkS Weekly Digest #10

SkS Highlights Dana's Cherrypicking to Deny Continued Ocean and Global Warming and Rob Painting's Carbon Dioxide the Dominant Control on Global Temperature and Sea Level Over the Last 40 Million Years caused commentors juices to flow. The ensuing discussions covered a lot of terrotry and are instructive in their own right. Contrary perspectives serve a useful purpose by challenging SkS authors to better explain the science of climate change. Toon of the […]

March 09, 2013

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11:00 PM | Not-so-serious Sunday 38

By Kelly Normally I favour something a little silly on a Sunday, but today I am going for something a little more meditative, or creepy depending on how you feel about jellyfish. Underwater photographer Sarosh Jacob describes the location “Palau … Continue reading →

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8:45 PM | Ice Cover is Not “Stabilizing”

Real data are the combination of signal and noise. By noise I don’t just mean measurement error. I mean the stochastic part of the process. That includes naturally occuring noise in the system itself — those ubiquitous wiggles up and … Continue reading →

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4:37 PM | 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #10

Australia links 'angry summer' to climate change Climate change as history's deal-breaker Climate change dates back to dawn of first farmers, Climate change poses threat to Scotland's future oil revenues Colombia's glaciers could disappear in 30 years Hicks nix climate fix Insurers unready for climate change-related disasters Obama’s ‘all of the above’ energy and environment nominees Pakistan launches first national climate change policy Shareholders file first-ever 'Carbon […]

March 08, 2013

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11:03 PM | New bacterial life discovered under 4km of ice

By Claire Russian scientists have claimed to have found a new form of bacterial life in a sub-glacial lake under the Antarctic ice sheet. Last year, a team of Russian scientists successfully drilled through 4km of ice to collect samples … Continue reading →

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2:34 PM | The educational opportunities in addressing misinformation in the classroom

An interesting discussion arose in Tom Farmer’s latest blog post about our textbook Climate Change Science: A Modern Synthesis. One of the commenters questioned whether certain sections should have been included in the textbook. The two chapters he referred to were Chapter 23: Understanding Climate Change Denial and Chapter 24: Rebuttals to Climate Myths. I would argue that not only are such chapters appropriate, they are essential to a comprehensive climate education. In fact, I […]

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3:27 AM | It’s 2013. Why is science still institutionally sexist?

Nature’s current special issue is a “Women in Science” issue which asks: why is science institutionally sexist? and what is being done about it?. In this issue is a news story called “Inequality Quantified: Mind the Gender Gap”, and … Continue reading →

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1:24 AM | Back to School

Much of what’s wrong with the online discussion of global warming is revealed by a recent reader comment on RealClimate. Greg Goodman thinks that he’s taking climate scientists to school — he actually “lectures” the RealClimate readership about their supposed … Continue reading →

March 07, 2013

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11:00 PM | Too many papers!!

By Claire No matter how many papers I read, the pile of literature that I “should” read never seems to get smaller. I am currently preparing for a trip overseas to collaborate with some palaeoclimate modellers. In preparation, I need … Continue reading →