Monthly Archives: December 2015

2015 → 2016

Posted on December 31, 2015 by | 185 comments

by Judith Curry

Ringing in the New Year at Climate Etc.

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185 Comments

Posted in Week in review

Year in review – top science stories

Posted on December 27, 2015 by | 123 comments

by Judith Curry

The ‘best of 2015’ lists are starting to appear.

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123 Comments

Posted in Week in review

Week in review – science and technology edition

Posted on December 26, 2015 by | 242 comments

by Judith Curry

A few things that caught my eye this past week.

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242 Comments

Posted in Week in review

NOAA fails walrus science

Posted on December 25, 2015 by | 190 comments

by Jim Steele

NOAA’s Arctic report card made claims that hinge on the unproven hypothesis that a reduction in sea ice is detrimental by denying walruses access to foraging habitat.

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190 Comments

Posted in Climate change impacts

The Climate of XMAS

Posted on December 24, 2015 by | 155 comments

by Judith Curry

My very best wishes to all of you for the holiday season.

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155 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Busting (or not) the mid-20th century global-warming hiatus

Posted on December 21, 2015 by | 293 comments

by Bob Tisdale

A closer look at the uncertainties in the mid 20th century ocean surface temperatures.

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293 Comments

Posted in Oceans

What is there a 97% consensus about?

Posted on December 20, 2015 by | 388 comments

by Frank Hobbs (franktoo)

At the Senate Hearing on “Dogma and Data”, dogma about the 97% consensus went unchallenged. Democratic Senators constantly recited the phrase “97% consensus”, but it is not clear whether they – or their Republican opponents – had the slightest idea what the phrase meant: 97% of what group support a consensus about exactly what?

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388 Comments

Posted in Consensus

Watts et al.: Temperature station siting matters

Posted on December 17, 2015 by | 885 comments

by Judith Curry

30 year trends of temperature are shown to be lower, using well-sited high quality NOAA weather stations that do not require adjustments to the data.

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885 Comments

Posted in Data and observations

Climate models versus climate reality

Posted on December 17, 2015 by | 244 comments

by Pat Michaels and Chip Knappenberger

Perhaps the most frank example of the growing disconnection between forecast and observed climate change was presented by University of Alabama’s John Christy to the Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on December 8.

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244 Comments

Posted in climate models

The new climate ‘deniers’

Posted on December 16, 2015 by | 396 comments

by Judith Curry

New members of the climate ‘deniers’ club:  James Hansen, Ken Caldeira, Kerry Emanuel, Tom Wigley . . . and Bill Gates.

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396 Comments

Posted in Energy, Uncategorized

Has the intrinsic component of multidecadal climate variability been isolated?

Posted on December 15, 2015 by | 124 comments

by Sergey Kravtsov, Marcia Wyatt, Judith Curry and Anastasios Tsonis

A discussion of two recent papers: Steinman et al. (2015) and Kravtsov et al. (2015)

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124 Comments

Posted in Attribution

Paris: impacts?

Posted on December 13, 2015 by | 191 comments

by Judith Curry

The world’s leaders are touting victory as a result of the COP21 deliberations in Paris.

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191 Comments

Posted in Policy

A closer look at scenario RCP8.5

Posted on December 13, 2015 by | 560 comments

by Larry Kummer

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris climate was preceded by a surge of studies and articles warning of a dismal future if we do not take strong policy action. One scenario in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) provides the basis for these: RCP8.5. Even a casual examination of this shows it to be a useful worst-case scenario, but not “business as usual”.

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560 Comments

Posted in Policy

Scientists & identity-protective cognition

Posted on December 12, 2015 by | 132 comments

by Judith Curry

Dan Kahan has an interesting blog post on scientists and motivated reasoning.

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132 Comments

Posted in Sociology of science

Reactions on the Senate hearing

Posted on December 10, 2015 by | 396 comments

by Judith Curry

I’ve been traveling; first chance I’ve had to collect some reactions to the Senate Hearing.

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396 Comments

Posted in Policy

Senate Hearing: Data or Dogma

Posted on December 8, 2015 by | 474 comments

by Judith Curry

The Senate Commerce Committee Hearing ‘Data or Dogma? Promoting Open Inquiry in the Debate Over the Magnitude of the Human Impact on Earth’s Climate‘ is about to begin.

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474 Comments

Posted in Policy

Can Coal-Fired Plants be Re-Powered Today with Stored Energy from Wind and Solar?

Posted on December 6, 2015 by | 232 comments

by Davis Swan

There is a consensus in many countries that burning coal to generate electricity is something that needs to be phased out as quickly as possible. The Clean Power Plan in the U.S. has that as one of its most likely outcomes and there have been explicit commitments to retire coal-fired generation plants by governments all over the world.

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232 Comments

Posted in Energy

Week in review – science and technology edition

Posted on December 5, 2015 by | 102 comments

by Judith Curry

A few things that caught my eye this past week.

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102 Comments

Posted in Week in review

Bill Gail: Don’t let climate debate hinder the economy

Posted on December 4, 2015 by | 155 comments

by Judith Curry

Nature’s deviations disrupt our lives and businesses more than we should accept. – Bill Gail

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155 Comments

Posted in Communication, Policy

Senate Hearing: Data or Dogma?

Posted on December 2, 2015 by | 387 comments

by Judith Curry

Data or Dogma? Promoting Open Inquiry in the Debate over the Magnitude of Human Impact on Earth’s Climate

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387 Comments

Posted in Policy

German Energiewende – Modern Miracle or Major Misstep

Posted on December 2, 2015 by | 251 comments

by Davis Swan

There is an ongoing debate regarding the value and/or wisdom of the German Government’s implementation of an energy transformation – the Energiewende.

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251 Comments

Posted in Energy