illconsidered | November 17, 2008 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(skip to bottom) November 16, 2008 Top Stories:Bailout, IEA WEO, Asian Smog, Next Ice Age Arctic Geopolitics, Antarctica, Arnold's Meeting, Permafrost, Carbon Footprint Labels, Late Comments Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Carbon Cycle, Feedbacks, Paleoclimate, Glaciers, Satellites Impacts, Forests, Corals, Climate Refugees, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts Transportation,…
illconsidered | November 15, 2008I received via unsolicited email a link to a website with an rather interesting video presentation about the recycling process.
So, if you've ever wondered just what happens to all that stuff you spend your time seperating out from the trach and depositing in the recycle bins, have a look at this: RecycleBank.
illconsidered | November 11, 2008How far do you have to lower your standards if you are the Heartland Institute and want four Texans for a list of "experts" on global warming?
Pretty low. Despite "dozens if not hundreds" of working climate scientists in Texas, to get four deniers for their list, the Heartland Institute had to use an energy expert, a policy analyst, an emergency physician and a petroleum engineer!
Like damning with faint praise, that list says alot about the opinions of the actual community of experts.
illconsidered | November 11, 2008Although there was not much buzz about hurricanes this season (which is not quite over yet), this year has in fact set a few records. I guess since New Orleans (narrowly) escaped Gustav there seems so much less to talk about!
Well, New Scientist has an article about some of the things that are worth noticing about the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season.
Perhaps the most notable record is "for the first time major hurricanes formed in five successive months, from July through November." Hurricane Paloma reached category 4 this month (November) and battered poor Cuba for the fourth time this…
illconsidered | November 10, 2008From New Scientist, here is a short article discussing five cases of small populations forced to relocate or plan to relocate due to sea level rise, caused by climate change.
It is a little anti-intuative to think that the 15-25 cm or so rise we have observed on average over the last hundred years could affect an island, even one whose highest point is only 2.4 metres above sea level, like the Maldives.
The relevant thing to remember is that it is not pure and simple submersion of existing land that is at work, rather it is erosion accelerated by both direct and indirect means. As waves lap…
illconsidered | November 10, 2008 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(skip to bottom) Top Stories:Obama, Bailout, 2008 World Energy Outlook, Revised Theory [350 ppm] Melting Arctic, Arctic Geopolitics, Climate Refugees, Climate Models, Late Comments Food Crisis, Food Production Hurricanes, Temperatures, Feedbacks, Paleoclimate, ENSO, Glaciers, Satellites Impacts, Forests, Corals, Tornadoes, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration,…
illconsidered | November 6, 2008Michael Crichton has died of cancer. He was 66 years old.
Climate Progress has a lengthy obituary for those of you unfamiliar with his destructive role in the climate debate.
I enjoyed Jurassic Park.
illconsidered | November 4, 2008 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(skip to bottom) November 2, 2008 Top Stories:Methane, Credit Crunch, Living Planet Report Melting Arctic, Arctic Geopolitics, Antarctica, Magnetic Portals, Late Comments Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Paleoclimate, Glaciers, Sea Levels Impacts, Forests, Corals, Desertification, Wacky Weather, Floods & Droughts Transportation, Sequestration, Geoengineering Journals,…
illconsidered | October 29, 2008Anthony Watts has a post up purporting to show a very large UHI effect in Reno, Nevada.
I will just take his numbers and methods at face value, even though many questions come to mind. After all, 10oF is a big jump from outskirts to downtown, but maybe that is correct and not contaminated from engine heat. Also note this, which is specifically about Reno and shows how the UHI effect is removed from the data.
(pretty convincing, no?)
The problem is the conclusion that is at the very least strongly implied: if Urban Heat Islands are that pronounced, maybe global warming is just an artifact…
illconsidered | October 28, 2008Over at DesmogBlog, I saw an interesting video that covers some of the history of climate change denialism, starting with its roots in tobacco-lung cancer denialism.
Interesting how some of the names are so familiar, such as Steve Milloy and Myron Ebel.
Is "sociopathic whore to industry" too strong a term for those characters? Real people die as a direct result of their actions, and it is next to impossible to believe that they don't know full well of exactly that consequence.
A name missing from that list with Milloy and Ebel is Fred Singer, also very active in the tobacco propoganda wars…
illconsidered | October 28, 2008"Skeptics use a scatter shot approach, using one kind of physics to 'disprove' one aspect and an opposing kind of physics to 'disprove' another. You need to have an internally consistent argument."
As Jen's site [Jennifer Marohasey's site] demonstrates so well, you don't need anything of the sort.
Check out Eli Rabett's post about how climate sceptics have no problem believing any number of mutually exclusive theories at one time, as long as they share the common thread of confirmation bias.
I have been wanting to put together an exhaustive list of all the internal contradictions there are in…
illconsidered | October 27, 2008From the "Laugh, Don't Cry" department, Tamino has a bit of fun at the expense of, well, quite a few!
illconsidered | October 27, 2008 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(skip to bottom) October 26, 2008 Top Stories:Bailout, Green Solutions, WWF, EU Airlines & GHGs, 40 Major Cities, Francophonie Melting Arctic, NF3, Speth, Monbiot, Late Comments Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, The Temperature Record, Temperatures, Paleoclimate, Sea Levels, Satellites Impacts, Forests, Wacky Weather, Floods & Droughts Mitigation, Transportation, Sequestration,…
illconsidered | October 22, 2008"It's not really that hard to understand" is the catch phrase in this YouTube video featuring Herman Daly, the subject is the insanity of the economic cult of perpetual growth:
I got this from the most recent posting at Things Break, which you should read and be sure to follow the links.
I would also offer here the very compelling image from New Scientist that isn't actually clickable from TB's post.
(this image is courtesy of New Scientist and is part of this article)
illconsidered | October 22, 2008At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory there is a news article posted yesterday that discusses "the other carbon dioxide problem." That problem is, of course, ocean acidification.
Ocean acidification is the result of CO2 released into the atmosphere finding its way into ocean waters. Estimates are that around one third of all human emissions of CO2 are currently absorbed this way. While that is good news for the problem of an enhanced greenhouse effect causing global warming, it is not good news for marine ecosystems.
In fact it is extremely bad news, and make ocean acidifications one of the…
illconsidered | October 21, 2008As you can imagine, the How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic guide attracts a lot of comment from people who are less than inclined to agree with the general thrust of the material. Most can be easily answered with a pointer to another article or a rephrasing or expansion on one of the points in the post above it. (I'm not trying to claim that usually satisfies my skeptical visitors, but I don't often go to more trouble than that. I try not to bang my head too hard against any brick walls that come my way!).
But I had one recent commenter who asked a very straightforward question that seemed…
illconsidered | October 20, 2008This is just one of dozens of responses to common climate change denial arguments, which can all be found at How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic.Objection:
We all live on a thin crust that floats on a huge ball of molten iron, and at its core, the Earth's temperature is over 5000oC! It's pretty far fetched to think a few parts per million of CO2 can have a bigger effect that all that heat!
Answer:
Although there is nothing wrong with the statement that the Earth is truly very hot at its center (actually as hot as the surface of the sun) the notion that it is a significant source of heat at the…
illconsidered | October 20, 2008 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(skip to bottom) Top Stories:Canadian Election, Credit Crunch, Melting Arctic, Climate Futures, Sensitivity, Sunspots, Ozone Food Crisis, World Food Day, Global Hunger Index, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production Hurricanes, Temperatures, Feedbacks, Paleoclimate, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Other Planets' Climates Impacts, Forests, Wacky Weather, Tornadoes, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings,…
illconsidered | October 13, 2008 Information overload is pattern recognition...This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H.E.Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundupskip to bottom October 12, 2008 Top Stories:Overshoot, Bailout Blues, YACCC, Grumbine, World Bank, Late Comments Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Permafrost Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Carbon Cycle, Paleoclimate, ENSO, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Satellites Impacts, Forests, Corals, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts Mitigation: Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration,…
illconsidered | October 6, 2008This was Palin's response when asked about climate change in Thursday's vice-presidential debate:
I think the (rather blindingly) obvious point to any with the slightest sincere interest in this issue is that despite what she says the cause of the current climate change is completely central to the question of what to do about it. Real Climate makes this point whether you are wholly in the adaptation camp or wholly in the mitigation camp.
She mentions magical cycles as a possible explanation, one of the standard, easily debunkable lines. But as a young earth creationist, what cycles is she…