Global Warming
gregladen | March 12, 2014We are reaching the point where Arctic Sea ice tends to max out, in terms of extent (I will not be talking about volume here, though that is vitally important). Using data provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, I ran an informal "Science by Spreadsheet" analysis and came up with a prediction for the minimum extent of sea ice this year, which would be some time in September.
This is mostly a seat of the pants analysis and don't take it too seriously, but feel free to put your bets in the comments section.
The data over the last few decades shows a generally declining extent of…
gregladen | March 12, 2014Daphne Wysham and Daniel Weiss interviewed on Real News about the event of two nights ago.
gregladen | March 10, 2014A bunch (maybe 30 or more) of US Senators are going to talk all night tonight about climate change. This will happen on the Senate floor. So far all or most of them are Democrats. Here is a list of who is doing it, with their twitter handle. Also on the list is who is not doing it. And, there are phone numbers too.
Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to tweet or call those who are doing it and thank them, and tweet or call those who are not and tell them that they should.
I'm pretty sure this list, at Dail Kos, will be updated dynamically throughout the process.
Go.
gregladen | March 10, 2014Neil DeGrasse Tyson on CNN:
And while we are on the topic, Carl Sagan, of the original Cosmos, on climate change:
See also this from Chris Mooney at Mother Jones.
And just for the heck of it, here's my interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson from 2011.
gregladen | March 6, 2014Third warmest in Alaska since records began. Hot in China. Also, we may have a nut shortage. Video from WeatherNation:
gregladen | March 6, 2014Yes. Not only that, but we can't separate climate change from any single weather event that ever happens, anywhere, no matter what. So just stop saying that we can't. Here's a thought experiment to explain why this is true.
Imagine that climate science is like it is today with a few significant exceptions. First, humans never messed with fossil fuel, using only solar energy. If you need to, you can add in that there are only a half billion humans on the planet because birth control was discovered and implemented earlier in human history and everybody has Obamacare. Second, the climate…
gregladen | March 4, 2014Who What When Where
Nic Lewis, an unaffiliated self described climate scientist, and a journalist, Marcel Crok, also unaffiliated, are known climate science denialists. The two of them have an objection to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) conclusions regarding an important thing called "Climate Sensitivity." Perhaps unable to get their work in the peer reviewed literature, the two of them wrote "a report" titled "OVERSENSITIVE: How the IPCC hid the good news on global warming," that is available here. They make a claim which is totally incorrect but if it was correct it…
gregladen | March 4, 2014Very nice piece on MSNBC's The Reid Report. Spread this around.
Nice job, Michael Mann and Bill Nye.
gregladen | March 4, 2014There are few different, related, ways in which climate change, including anthropogenic global warming, can cause extreme weather events. One is that climate zones move. This may result in "normal" weather for a different location occurring elsewhere. For example, if southern warm air system shift north, than the frequency of low and high temperatures, and their distribution throughout the year, can change. Another is the rise of entirely new conditions that were previously either rare or virtually unknown. One example of this might be the steering of Hurricane Sandy into the northeastern…
gregladen | March 1, 2014Nice coverage of climate change that is NOT A "DEBATE" ASSUMING SOME KIND OF DUMB FALSE BALANCE. Way to go, MSNBC. Thank you.
Summer weather in Sochi, a record-drought in California and a polar vortex. The evidence for climate change is all around us. Bill Nye and Jeffrey Sachs talk about the climate debate and need for energy research.
See also this guy:
It is funny that this guy got two people who are also not climate change scientists, but whatever.
gregladen | March 1, 2014The following is also found HERE on the White House web site. I provide it here without comment because it speaks for itself. But if you want more, check out "Global warming action: good or bad for the poor?" by John Abraham, and "Keeping The Carbon In The Ground Elsewhere: Developing Nations" by me.
Drought and Global Climate Change: An Analysis of Statements by Roger Pielke Jr
John P. Holdren, 28 February 2014
Introduction
In the question and answer period following my February 25 testimony on the Administration’s Climate Action Plan before the Oversight Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate’…
gregladen | February 27, 2014The famous Polar Vortex has come and gone in North America. Then, it came back. What a jerk.
As I write this the outside temperature is 13 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, and tomorrow morning’s Bus Stop Temperature promises to be about –25F windchill here in central Minnesota. Meanwhile my Twitter stream is polluted with climate science denialist tweets pointing out that it is too cold outside to believe in global warming, even though the entire land area of the United States, where this cold is being experienced as a cultural and physical phenomenon, is about one and half percent of the…
gregladen | February 25, 2014I generally ignore climate change denialists on Twitter. I use The Zapper to do that, and it works great, better than blocking. But sometimes I check my Twitter feed on something other than Chrome on my own desktop or laptop and then I see them, and occasionally engage. When I do, I often see troubling or annoying visual tropes that seem to go along with this breed. Guns, exploitative photos of women, flag-draped symbols, and Nazis. That sort of thing.
So, this morning I put together a collage of images off the Twitter home pages of just the last handful of Denialists who were obsessively…
gregladen | February 22, 2014This search engine will scan a large number of sites known to have good climate change related information on them.
Below is a list of sites scanned. If you know of a site that is not included here but that should be, please put a link in the comments. Don't bother with climate science denialist sites, they will not be added.
Also note that many sites are parts of larger domains. So if the site you suggest is already part of, for example, Scienceblogs, The Guardian, etc. then it is already on the list by default. This, of course, means that some of the hits from this search…
gregladen | February 22, 2014 Paul Douglas send me this photo: "Check out the piles of melting slush in the foreground; looks like half a foot (?) of dirty snow in that one clump. This takes weather whiplash to a new (and ridiculously jaw-dropping) level. Photo courtesy of Dana Cottingham Fricke, from Concord, Illinois."
The biggest loss of containers from a container ship (that didn't just plain sink) happened a few days ago as the Svendborg Maersk was battered with hurricane like conditions including Waves Of Unusual Size generated in the Global Warming Enhanced megastorm, while at the same time tornadoes, some…
gregladen | February 21, 2014Mother Jone's Climate Desk has an excellent and important interview with Jennifer Francis and Kevin Trenberth. I can't really comment on it now due to lack of time but I think it is time for me to update my AA->QR->WW linkage post based on this discussion. I'll also bring this into my next talk on Climate Change, possibly in Plymouth sometime during the next couple of months (still being arranged).
Anyway, CLICK HERE to get the blog post by Chris Mooney which includes the stream of the Inquiring Minds Podcast.
Also, thanks to Chris for asking the question I suggested. Very…
gregladen | February 20, 2014I'd love to describe the details to you but I don't think I can ever do as good a job as Representative Henry Waxman and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. They wrote a letter to McCain and Gingrich. Gave 'em a good shellacking, they did. I love this letter so much I'm giving it to you three times. First, as a picture of the letter because it is so cool looking. Then, as a transcript so it is searchable. Then, as a link to a PDF file.
And now, here is the text, from here:
February 20, 2014
The Honorable John McCain
241 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Newt…
gregladen | February 19, 2014The BBC stepped in it. First, they engaged in a totally absurd "false balance" presentation regarding climate change, then in response (link below) they aired very reasonable complaints by listeners, and to this, they responded officially that everything is fine, you can go home and lock your doors and windows, nothing to see here, our balance is in balance, thank you very much. Or words to that effect. If I was British I would be ashamed of the BBC for this, but since I'm not British I'm peeved.
Should the Today programme have invited Lord Lawson, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer and…
gregladen | February 19, 2014Last night I attended a talk by meteorologist Paul Douglas, at the Eden Prairie High School. The talk was “Weird Weather: Minnesota’s New Normal? Our Changing Climate and What We Can Do About It,” and it was sponsored by Environment Minnesota, Cool Planet, and the Citizens Climate Lobby. I didn’t count the number of people in the audience but it was well attended (over 100, for sure). Extra chairs had to be brought in.
You probably know of Paul Douglas either because of his own fame or because I often link to (or facebook-post) his blogs at Weather Nation or the Star Tribune, and I…
gregladen | February 18, 2014It has become difficult to rely on natural cold and snow even in traditional winter sports venues. This is because of increased temperatures caused by global warming. This may not be the biggest problem caused by climate change, but it is one that has attracted a certain amount of helpful attention. Perhaps the North American visitation of the Arctic Vortex, which has made some people think that climate change is not real, is partly offset by a Winter Olympics with more than its share of problems, including injuries and lost medals, caused by crappy snow conditions.
Also, it is kind of a…