Posts

April 28, 2013

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12:00 AM | Not-so-Serious Sunday 45: Imploding turbines

By Kelly In another tribute to the wonders of slow motion video I present Veritasium‘s detailed look at imploding metal drums, by condensing water from vapour inside a sealed vessel. But it’s more than just cool footage, it demonstrates the importance … Continue reading →

April 27, 2013

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3:48 PM | 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #17A

An interview with James Hansen As wheat yields fall in Kenya, farmers turn to beans Burn our planet or face financial meltdown Carbon credits could finance improved cookstoves in Mexico Climate change is very real and is affecting children's lives Climate inaction likely to deepen EU divisions Hockey stick scores another point in climate study New fossil fuel frontiers pose threat to global recovery Obama-allied group enters the Climate Wars Sea ice loss could alter Arctic air chemistry Slow […]

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9:34 AM | The climate scientist whose world spun on through war

Milutin Milanković calculated his way through imprisonment and bombings to show how Earth’s movement helped drive ice ages, revealing how far we’ve strayed from the path we should be following into the next global freeze.

Petrović, A. & Marković, S. (2010). Annus mirabilis and the end of the geocentric causality: Why celebrate the 130th anniversary of Milutin Milanković?, Quaternary International, 214 (1-2) 114-118. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2009.10.031

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April 26, 2013

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8:22 AM | 2013 SkS News Bulletin #9: Alberta Tar Sands and Keystone XL Pipeline

Adrian Dix casts doubt on plans for Kinder Morgan expansion Crude-by-rail no substitute for Keystone XL Environmentalists applaud opposition to Kinder Morgan expansion EPA balks at State's 'insufficient' review of Keystone XL route Houston’s most polluted neighborhood draws the line How much does EPA’s objection to Keystone XL matter? How safe will the Keystone XL pipeline really be? Keystone criticism misplaced, TransCanada CEO insists Obama set to okay pipeline, former insider […]

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1:50 AM | Faster than the sound? Our velocity due to Earth's rotation.

We all have heard about relative motion and about relative velocity. "The continuous change of position of a body with respect to a second body or to a reference point that is fixed". Since the Earth is always moving, we can say that we are always at relative move with respect to a reference fixed point. This post presents a simple estimation of the relative velocity of a person located at the Earth's surface with respect to the rotation axis of the Earth. We need two data in order to get […]

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12:00 AM | PhD Golden Rule #1: Backup your work!!!

By Claire Now before anyone starts to panic, it’s ok. I haven’t lost anything. But I was reminded of the importance of backing up your thesis work when I saw this twitter post via Linkedin (shown to the right). This … Continue reading →

April 25, 2013

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7:25 AM | Be part of a landmark citizen science paper on consensus

Over the past year volunteers here at Skeptical Science have been quietly engaged in an landmark citizen science project. We have completed the most comprehensive analysis of peer-reviewed climate science papers ever done. Some 21 years worth of climate papers – more than 12,000 in all – have been carefully ranked by their level of endorsement of human-caused global warming. We also invited thousands of the authors of these papers to rate their own papers. Earlier this […]

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1:39 AM | Monckton and the big waka

Monckton tried to blink. His eyes were gritty and he could barely focus on the scribbled formulae on the pad before him — his crucial contribution to the redesign of Britain’s nuclear deterrent. The tiny screen of his Osborne transportable computer blinked lazily at him. His back was sore. The air in No 10 was [...] [Get the full story at Hot Topic...]

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12:00 AM | I’m sorry. Does my science offend you?

By Claire Undoubtedly, the sexiest palaeoclimate proxy are ice cores. Most people have heard of them, most people believe them and they form an important foundation for our understanding of the natural variability of the Earth’s climate in the past. … Continue reading →

April 24, 2013

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3:02 PM | New insights: global warming drivers in the 20th century and beyond

Laura Nielsen for Frontier Scientists Researchers have combed through the last 2,000 years of climate records. Their assessment affirms that a persistent long-term cooling trend concluded in the late 19th century, reversed by global warming. The study was performed by members of the "2K Network" of the International Geosphere Biosphere Program (IGBP) Past Global Changes (PAGES) project, supported by both the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation. The […]

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8:27 AM | Announcement: New Guardian Blog by Dana Nuccitelli and John Abraham

I'm very pleased to announce the launch of a new blog at The Guardian Environment. This blog is a collaboration between myself (Dana Nuccitelli) and John Abraham. Back in December 2012, the Guardian announced that they would be establishing a page of environment blogs, following the successful example set by the Guardian Science Blogs. This of course was a tremendous opportunity, as The Guardian is one of the world's premier newspapers, already with among the best environment and […]

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12:00 AM | Ocean, olives, and ophiolites

by Leo Pure For those that don’t know me, I’m a third year RSES Geology kid currently on exchange to the University of Leeds. Each year Leeds runs a 2-week field class to Cyprus during the Easter break to check … Continue reading →

April 23, 2013

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12:12 PM | Malaria: biting into the climate change debate

This article was written by a student in the Science Communication program at the University of Western Australia. In the unit, Introduction to Scientific Practices, students learn how to effectively present scientific information for different audiences. As part of the process of learning to distil complex science into simple, engaging formats, structured tutorials are given on how to use The Debunking Handbook. This article was submitted as part of an assignment on writing an engaging article […]

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9:30 AM | Was ESMR screwy?

A reader here also asked about the pre-1979 satellite data over at my question place. The thing is, we do have pre-1979 satellite sea ice data -- the ESMR (Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer) 1973-1976. It was a much simpler instrument than the SMMR, SSMI, SSMI-S, and AMSR which started flying in 1978 and since. The more recent ones have two very important improvements over the ESMR -- they use multiple channels (think of it as colors) and they use both horizontal and […]

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7:28 AM | Anthropocene Borders

Geographer Reece Jones discusses his recent book “Border Walls,” examining the history of how and why societies have chosen to literally wall themselves apart. He gives a brief history of political maps, how international lines reshape landscapes, and how the … Continue reading →

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4:11 AM | Earthquakes

Last days there were many news about earthquakes at different locations: China, Russia, Mexico and more. There are even articles suggesting explanation a new theories about earthquakes. This blog presents a brief introduction about earthquakes. Further blogs will provide deeper information, but basic concepts are important in order to fully understand deeper information.What is an earthquake?An earthquake is a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves, which in […]

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12:02 AM | Visual Edutainment: What makes you listen?

By Ali “Climate Change Real & Gorgeous” – this title stopped me in my web surfing tracks. Climate change is indeed real, but to think of it as gorgeous seemed a tad disturbing to me. Of all my readings and … Continue reading →

April 22, 2013

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9:00 AM | Forecast Contests

I'll invite your suggestions for forecast contests to hold. In the mean time, some results from forecast contests at my work. The winter contest was to predict the date of the first 2 inch (5 cm) snowfall at our official weather station. It never happened. I came close to predicting the date, sort of. Since we've had some memorable storms on or near President's day (February 18th this year), I went with that. Nothing noteworthy that day this year. But […]

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6:23 AM | Major PAGES 2k Network Paper Confirms the Hockey Stick

PAGES (Past Global Changes) is a scientific network which supports research aimed at understanding the Earth’s past environment in order to make predictions for the future. It's funded by the U.S. and Swiss National Science Foundations, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Over 5,000 scientists from more than 100 countries subscribe to PAGES, which is essentially an organizational group to bring international scientists together. In 2006, […]

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12:00 AM | Implementing the science: A National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility Report

By Kelly I am quite sure that I am not the only student that has felt a disconnect between their science and its application to the real world. Which is why it is so stimulating to hear what is happening … Continue reading →

April 21, 2013

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11:55 PM | Thin Ice: the inside story of climate science

Now showing at an Antarctic base near you (and quite a few places elsewhere), a documentary about climate science, filmed and put together by VUW geophysics professor Simon Lamb. The idea for Thin Ice – the inside story of climate science was born over a cup of tea in Wellington in 2006, when Peter Barrett [...] [Get the full story at Hot Topic...]

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3:25 PM | 2013 SkS Weekly Digest #16

Be sure to check out the Face of Climate Change posted on the website of the Earth Day Network. Click here to access. SkS Highlights Most of the comments on articles posted this past week were fairly evenly distributed among three articles: Global Warming: Not Reversible, But Stoppable by Andy Skuce, Climate Sensitivity Single Study Syndrome, Nic Lewis Edition by Dana, and Global Warming is Accelerating, but it's Still Groundhog Day at the Daily Mail by Rob […]

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12:00 AM | Not-so-Serious Sunday 44: The Science of Soap

By Kelly I don’t actually have anything sciencey to say about soap, except perhaps that the chemical process that produces soap is called saponification*. Rather, I have another visual feast for you today, as Kim Pimmel puts together the common sud, … Continue reading →

April 20, 2013

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10:48 PM | 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #16B

Break the deadlock on carbon pricing in Canada Climate change is urgent 'Today' problem EPA faces lawsuit threats over blown climate rule deadline Europe faces a crisis in energy costs Global vegetation change How the old Amazon may help explain the new People’s movements give “Earth Day” a new name Saving our ravaged planet... and ourselves South Florida assessing climate change impacts Time to step up and speak out against Big Oil U.S. Coastal cities ponder how to prepare […]

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11:36 AM | 2013 SkS News Bulletin #8: Alberta Tar Sands and Keystone XL Pipeline

Cooking the books Dilbit or not? Wabasca crude is the question GOP still pushing false Keystone job numbers How the Keystone XL pipeline would hasten climate change Keystone opponents deepen criticism Keystone pipeline hearing in Nebraska Keystone XL oil pipeline exacerbates climate change Keystone XL pipeline press conferences Tar sands is worse than you can imagine U.S. House tries again to force Keystone pipeline approval Why Tar sands pipelines guarantee disaster Cooking the […]

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7:17 AM | Probabilities reveal shape of climate change

David Stainforth from the London School of Economics and his colleagues have developed a new way to analyse weather data and understand whether temperatures have warmed evenly on a local level, showing European trends with less than a 2% chance of happening at random.

Chapman, S., Stainforth, D. & Watkins, N. (2013). On estimating local long-term climate trends, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 371 (1991) 20120287-20120287. DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2012.0287

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April 19, 2013

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4:58 PM | Boston

Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco. I left mine in Boston. I lived there nigh on 30 years, most of my adult life. The first day I got there, I took a room at the YMCA, then went … Continue reading →

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2:01 AM | Monckton misfires on Radio New Zealand: a baker’s dozen of errors and deception

Last night Radio New Zealand’s Nights programme — a show with a long-standing commitment to excellent coverage of science and scientists — for some strange reason decided to broadcast an interview with Christopher, Viscount Monckton of Brenchley. Quite why they bothered to give him a platform remains to be seen, but as you might expect, [...] [Get the full story at Hot Topic...]

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12:00 AM | Are there too many people on this planet?

By Claire The issue of global population growth is hugely controversial. People that explicitly state that the world’s population is too large and should be reigned in are often compared to Communist China’s “One Child Policy” and all the negative … Continue reading →

April 18, 2013

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3:06 PM | Climate Sensitivity Single Study Syndrome, Nic Lewis Edition

Nic Lewis has written a paper on the subject of the Earth's climate sensitivity (how much surface temperatures will warm in response to the increased greenhouse effect from a doubling of atmospheric CO2, including amplifying and dampening feedbacks) which has been accepted by the Journal of Climate. First of all, we would like to offer kudos to Lewis for subjecting his analysis to the peer review process, which is something few climate contrarians are willing to do. The paper is an […]