A Few Things Ill Considered

Another Week of GW News, July 12, 2009

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:01:21 -0800

Sipping from the internet firehose...

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

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Open Thread on Plimer

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:20:30 -0800

Some comments came up about Ian Plimer`s recent fiction novel "Heaven and Earth".

They were off topic for that thread so I have moved them here and any discussion can follow below.

Thanks.

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Breaking news from Marc Morano

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:24:58 -0800

Marc Morono (sick) breathlessly announces that Gavin Schmidt has finally admitted that weather is chaotic and GCMs can not model it.

And yes, that is about as shocking an admission as water is wet.

Here is the incriminating quote:

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Another Week of GW News, July 5, 2009

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:45:05 -0800

Sipping from the internet firehose...

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

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How does this fit?

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:30:11 -0800

Just wondering how the conspiracy theories about the climatological-industrial complex handle this:
Funding cut for UK climate research?

Hadley's climate research was not alarmist enough?

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Life's little ironies

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:55:24 -0800

(The following is offered as an amusing example of how reality sometimes seems to have a sense of homour:)

My wife is from the Czech Republic and was mentioning to me her family's worries about the recent flooding (they are not in immediate danger). I google-news'ed it and went to the first hit, an AP article, that mentioned among the rest of it that there have been several major floods in the last 10 or fifteen years.

She mentioned that Czech never had these kids of events when she was growing up. I mentioned that increased flooding is an expected consequence of climate change in many regions. I also mentioned how Vaclav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic, is a prominent global warming sceptic (of the same caliber as Christopher Monkton). Then I noticed the listing of related news article offered by the AP website:

Results for "czech floods"

Czech floods widen, death toll rises to 13 Saturday, 27 Jun 2009 08:00pm EDT

Eight die in Czech floods, central Europe on alert Wednesday, 24 Jun 2009 08:00pm EDT

Six die in Czech floods in northeast of country Wednesday, 24 Jun 2009 08:00pm EDT

Don't endanger free markets, Czech president warns Sunday, 8 Mar 2009 08:00pm EDT

Disclaimer: I am not implying that this most recent flood is attributable to global warming, nor do I know if this region of Europe is in fact one of those expected to experience flooding. I am also not specifically denying that the free market is in fact endangered

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Another Week of GW News, June 28, 2009

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:12:36 -0800

Sipping from the internet firehose...

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

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A tale of two interviews

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:27:16 -0800

This has been an open tab in Firefox for a long time now, so I figure I had better just point people to it and be done with it...

James Hrynyshyn (love that last name, but only because computers have copy and paste!) has an interesting comparison of two interviews on Island of Doubt (note to self: add this to the blogroll). The first is Gavin Schmidt of RealClimate fame (oh yeah, he also works for some outfit called NASA GISS or something) being interviewed at Salon a few weeks ago. The second is an interview with Freeman Dyson on Yale's Environment 360.

Go have a look for some excerpts and commentary.

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Hansen arrested in coal mining protest

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:48:07 -0800

James Hansen was arrested today for trespassing at a protest against mountaintop removal coal mining in Coal River Valley, West Virginia.

Today Top Climate Scientist James Hansen and Actress Daryl Hannah were Arrested in Effort to Stop Mountaintop Removal
Also arrested was former Representative Ken Hechler, Michael Brune of Rainforest Action Network, Goldman Winner Judy Bonds and more than a dozen Appalachian residents and allies

Protest on the heels of Obama administration's new policy on the destructive coal mining practice

The question is: does this diminish his scientific integrity or credibility and will this be on balance a good thing for the public battle to bring about effective global warming policy?

The story, received via email is below:

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Open thread

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:53:00 -0800

As per a request from comments here is an open thread for whatever might be on your minds. The request came when once again touching on the issue of 21st century temperatures. I have tried once, twice, three times in posts and so many others times in comments but this argument will likely not die until we get the next record breaking high. GISS thinks this will likely come in the next year or two if the El Nino they predict comes.

Here is an opportunity for other approaches on this, or any other issue...

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New Science Confirms Refrigerant Gases Pose Grave Warming Threat

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:07:07 -0800

This press release was forwarded to me:

WASHINGTON-- A new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) shows that refrigerant chemicals, so called F-gases, are a more dangerous global warming threat than previously predicted. The study was authored by scientists from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, United States government agencies NOAA and EPA, along with a scientist from the chemical company Dupont.
The paper projects that HFC (hydrofluorocarbon) emissions will rise
rapidly in coming years and decades, threatening to effectively cancel out
some of the hard fought greenhouse gas reductions made through energy
efficiency and clean energy deployment. Scientists have projected that we
need to cap greenhouse gas emissions now and rapidly reduce emissions by mid
century to stabilize the atmosphere and avoid dangerous climate change.
Uncontrolled HFC consumption and emissions growth would make it more
difficult to reach those goals.

The rest is quoted in full below and offered on an FYI basis. I have not seen the study discussed. I also find it a little frustrating that there are very few numbers in there, but oh well...

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Another Week of GW News, June 21, 2009

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:53:29 -0800

Sipping from the internet firehose...

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

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Where are they now?

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 08:40:05 -0800

Remember back in May and early June when the denialists were gleefully proclaiming arctic sea ice had recovered to the 1979-2000 average, and by induction global warming must be over?

Well, gee, I wonder where they are now, now that arctic sea ice this month is near the June 2007 mark. 2007 was of course an historic low, and a dramatic one at that.

This month's numbers reveal nothing about climate change, of course. It does however reveal something about climate denial.

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Know the Number

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 08:03:22 -0800

Just like those national debt clocks showing you dollar by dollar how high it is, this site has a "Carbon Counter" showing how many metric tons of carbon have been released into the atmosphere.

As I post this, we are at 3,642,255,344,781. No wait, now its 3,642,255,367,521...no, it's 3,642,255,381,988...well, you get the picture!

They have some other interesting resources there as well.

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From a Failed Growth Economy to a Steady-State Economy

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:16:45 -0800

Via MT, I came across a most excellent and interesting essay by Herman Daly on the Oil Drum (one of those great and meaty blogs that I only wich I had the time to read everything on!)

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