Monthly Archives: August 2013

Ice sheet collapse?

Posted on August 30, 2013 by | 243 comments

by Rud Istvan

One of the catastrophes associated with anthropogenic global warming (CAGW) is a rising sea.     Is the projected rise and rate unprecedented? Will it be catastrophic?                                   

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243 Comments

Posted in Climate change impacts, Data and observations

Pause politics

Posted on August 30, 2013 by | 250 comments

by Judith Curry

U.S. and European Union envoys are seeking more clarity from the United Nations on a slowdown in global warming that climate skeptics have cited as a reason not to “panic” about environmental changes, leaked documents show.

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250 Comments

Posted in Attribution, IPCC, Politics

Inadequate uncertainty analysis in climate change assessments

Posted on August 30, 2013 by | 95 comments

by Judith Curry

Use of state-of-the-art statistical methods could substantially improve the quantification of uncertainty in assessments of climate change.

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95 Comments

Posted in Uncertainty

What is internal variability?

Posted on August 29, 2013 by | 379 comments

by X Anonymous

According to the IPCC, “climate variability refers to variations in the mean state and other statistics (such as standard deviations, the occurrence of extremes, etc.) of the climate on all spatial and temporal scales beyond that of individual weather events. Variability may be due to natural internal processes within the climate system (internal variability), or to variations in natural or anthropogenic external forcing (external variability).”

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379 Comments

Posted in Attribution

Pause tied to equatorial Pacific surface cooling

Posted on August 28, 2013 by | 492 comments

by Judith Curry

Update:  New comment from Xie

My mind has been blown by a new paper just published in Nature.

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492 Comments

Posted in Attribution, climate models

Overestimated global warming over the past 20 years

Posted on August 28, 2013 by | 283 comments

by Judith Curry

Recent observed global warming is significantly less than that simulated by climate models. This difference might be explained by some combination of errors in external forcing, model response and internal climate variability.

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283 Comments

Posted in Attribution, climate models

I know I’m right (?)

Posted on August 26, 2013 by | 495 comments

by Judith Curry

A behavioral view of overconfidence.

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495 Comments

Posted in Uncertainty

Who is on which ‘side’ in the climate debate, anyways?

Posted on August 24, 2013 by | 1,148 comments

by Judith Curry

Well, if you judge ‘sides’ by what climate scientists have to say about the science, it is getting difficult to tell.

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1,148 Comments

Posted in Consensus, Skeptics

JC on NPR

Posted on August 22, 2013 by | 719 comments

I have an interview tonite on NPR’s All Things Considered.

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719 Comments

Posted in Communication, Policy, Politics, Uncertainty

Arctic sea ice and extreme weather

Posted on August 21, 2013 by | 172 comments

by Judith Curry

Is the dramatic decline of Arctic sea ice, spurred by manmade global warming, making the  weather where we live more extreme?  Several recent studies have made this claim.  But a new study finds little evidence to support the idea that the plummeting Arctic sea ice has meaningfully changed our weather patterns. 

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172 Comments

Posted in Polar regions

Scientists and motivated reasoning

Posted on August 20, 2013 by | 758 comments

by Judith Curry

Motivated reasoning affects scientists as it does other groups in society, although it is often pretended that scientists somehow escape this predicament.

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758 Comments

Posted in Ethics, Scientific method

Proactionary principle

Posted on August 19, 2013 by | 410 comments

by Judith Curry

Between no action and precaution.

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410 Comments

Posted in Ethics, Policy

Available evidence: surface temperatures

Posted on August 18, 2013 by | 412 comments

by Steven Mosher

Some updates from the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project.

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412 Comments

Posted in Data and observations

Climate model simulations of the AMO

Posted on August 16, 2013 by | 343 comments

by Judith Curry

What are the implications of climate model deficiencies in simulating multi-decadal natural internal variability  for IPCC’s climate change detection and attribution arguments?

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343 Comments

Posted in Attribution, climate models

So what is the best available scientific evidence, anyways?

Posted on August 14, 2013 by | 465 comments

by Judith Curry

Is “best available evidence” a new, improved “reframing” of the so-called “consensus” (that is not really holding up too well, these days)? Is it simply a way of sweeping aside the validity of any acknowledgement/discussion of the uncertainties? Or is it something completely different?! – Hilary Ostrov

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465 Comments

Posted in Communication, Scientific method

Impact of climate, population and CO2 on water resources

Posted on August 13, 2013 by | 326 comments

by Judith Curry

Increasing CO2 may actually help relieve the water stress associated with increasing global population.

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326 Comments

Posted in Climate change impacts

Climate Science & Sociology

Posted on August 11, 2013 by | 500 comments

by Johanna

The politicisation of climate science is perhaps best illustrated by the emerging role of the social sciences in placing interpretations on human perception of, and responses to, “the science.”

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500 Comments

Posted in Sociology of science

After Climategate . . . never the same (?)

Posted on August 8, 2013 by | 759 comments

by Judith Curry

Has Climategate been a good thing? – Mike Hulme

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759 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Himalayan melt impacts

Posted on August 7, 2013 by | 197 comments

by Judith Curry

A new publication in Nature Geoscience projects an increase in runoff from Himalayan catchmants during the 21st century, despite a decline in glacier size.

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197 Comments

Posted in Climate change impacts, South Asia

Conflicts between climate and energy priorities

Posted on August 7, 2013 by | 757 comments

by Judith Curry

The world’s poor need more than a token supply of electricity.  The goal should be to provide the power necessary to boost productivity and raise living standards.  – Morgan Brazilian and Roger Pielke Jr.

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757 Comments

Posted in Energy, Ethics, Policy

(Ir)responsible advocacy by scientists

Posted on August 6, 2013 by | 409 comments

by Judith Curry

Advocacy by scientists seems to be the issue of the week.  What (if anything) constitutes responsible advocacy by scientists?

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409 Comments

Posted in Ethics

AGU Statement on Climate Change

Posted on August 5, 2013 by | 300 comments

by Judith Curry

Human induced climate change requires urgent action. – AGU

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300 Comments

Posted in Consensus

Bouncing forward (not back)

Posted on August 4, 2013 by | 235 comments

by Judith Curry

Forget resilience — its about thrivability.

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235 Comments

Posted in Policy

FT on the IPCC

Posted on August 2, 2013 by | 168 comments

by Judith Curry

Pilita Clark has written a thoughtful post  at the Financial Times entitled What climate scientists talk about now, with subtitle “As the IPCC prepares to release its latest report, Pilita Clark meets some of the key scientists behind it.”

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168 Comments

Posted in IPCC

Ehrlich & Ehrlich: Can a global collapse of civilization be avoided?

Posted on August 2, 2013 by | 315 comments

by Judith Curry

Earlier dire predictions have been made in the same mode by Malthus  on food security, Jevons on coal exhaustion, King  & Murray on peak oil, and by many others. They have all been overcome by the exercise of human ingenuity just as the doom was being prophesied. – Michael Kelly

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315 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized