The paradox of the climate change consensus

Posted on April 17, 2016 by | 513 comments

by Judith Curry

In our view, the fact that so many scientists agree so closely about the [causes of the] earth’s warming is, itself, evidence of a lack of evidence for [human caused] global warming. – D. Ryan Brumberg and Matthew Brumberg

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513 Comments

Posted in Consensus

Kudos to the AGU

Posted on April 14, 2016 by | 175 comments

by Judith Curry

AGU Board votes to continue relationship with Exxon-Mobil and to accept sponsorship support.

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175 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Twilight of the Climate Change Movement

Posted on April 10, 2016 by | 432 comments

by Judith Curry

Don’t be fooled by the post-Paris fanfare: The climate change movement faces big trouble ahead.

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432 Comments

Posted in Policy

Electricity in China

Posted on April 6, 2016 by | 113 comments

by Peter Davies

China has big plans for low-carbon electricity, primarily to reduce air pollution but also with the intent of reducing CO2 emissions and building a true 21st century power grid. Is it going to succeed?

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113 Comments

Posted in Energy

Controversy over comparing models with observations

Posted on April 5, 2016 by | 326 comments

by Judith Curry

My draft talk elicited an interesting conversation on twitter, that deserves some wider discussion.

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326 Comments

Posted in Communication

Preparing a new talk

Posted on April 2, 2016 by | 280 comments

by Judith Curry

I could use some help pulling together some graphs for a talk I am giving next week.

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280 Comments

Posted in Attribution

Paris agreement: A risk regulation perspective

Posted on March 28, 2016 by | 330 comments

by Judith Curry

The Paris Agreement and, more generally, climate change policy, almost perfectly illustrate the contradictions of the post-modern industrialized world risk society, characterized by perceived threats confirmed by politicized science and governed by sub-politics beyond democratic control. – Lucas Bergkamp

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330 Comments

Posted in Policy

Campus unrest, viewpoint diversity, and freedom of speech

Posted on March 25, 2016 by | 511 comments

by Judith Curry

Campus unrest, viewpoint diversity, and freedom of speech are issues that have been of increasing concern to me.

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511 Comments

Posted in Ethics

New AMS members survey on climate change

Posted on March 24, 2016 by | 349 comments

by Judith Curry

The American Meteorological Society has issued a draft report on the results from a survey of the views of their membership on climate change.

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349 Comments

Posted in Consensus

U.S. Presidential discussion thread. Part IV

Posted on March 23, 2016 by | 772 comments

by Judith Curry

A new thread for this discussion.

772 Comments

Posted in Politics

Energy strategies: horses for courses

Posted on March 20, 2016 by | 279 comments

by Planning Engineer and Rud Istvan

Just because something works in one place’s circumstances does not mean it will work elsewhere under different circumstances.    Continue reading →

279 Comments

Posted in Energy

U.S. Presidential election discussion thread

Posted on March 15, 2016 by | 816 comments

by Judith Curry

Such drama.

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816 Comments

Posted in Politics

Attribution of extreme weather events?

Posted on March 14, 2016 by | 203 comments

by Judith Curry

The National Academies has published a new report:  Attribution of extreme weather events in the context of climate change.

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203 Comments

Posted in Attribution, Extreme events

Nuclear power learning rates: policy implications

Posted on March 13, 2016 by | 283 comments

by Peter Lang

A revolution could be achieved with nuclear power if we remove the factors that caused the large cost increases during and since the 1970’s, i.e. return to the learning rates demonstrated before 1970.

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283 Comments

Posted in Energy

On inappropriate use of least squares regression

Posted on March 9, 2016 by | 256 comments

by Greg Goodman

Inappropriate use of linear regression can produce spurious and significantly low estimations of the true slope of a linear relationship if both variables have significant measurement error or other perturbing factors. This is precisely the case when attempting to regress modelled or observed radiative flux against surface temperatures in order to estimate sensitivity of the climate system. Continue reading →

256 Comments

Posted in Sensitivity & feedbacks

U.S. presidential discussion thread: Part II

Posted on March 8, 2016 by | 686 comments

by Judith Curry

The U.S. presidential primaries continue to heat up.

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686 Comments

Posted in Politics, Uncategorized

End of the satellite data warming pause?

Posted on March 6, 2016 by | 383 comments

by Judith Curry

Ted Cruz’s favorite temperature data set just got a lot hotter.

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383 Comments

Posted in Data and observations

What is Energy Security? Definitions and Scenarios

Posted on March 3, 2016 by | 192 comments

by Evan Hillebrand

Energy security is complicated, and multi-dimensional.  It goes beyond over-simplified notions of energy self-sufficiency or energy independence. It’s about where our energy comes from and its the cost, reliability, sustainability, and scale of our energy use. Technical, economic, geopolitical and other factors all play a role, and one needs to understand how they interact. Energy security is not just a matter of energy; it’s about how energy affects national security.

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192 Comments

Posted in Energy

AGU, Exxon and the corporate funding dilemma

Posted on February 29, 2016 by | 236 comments

by Judith Curry

. . . to assess whether our partner/sponsor statements are in conflict with our position statements and accepted scientific consensus. – Margaret Leinen, AGU President

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236 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Nature: Making sense of the early 2000’s warming slowdown

Posted on February 24, 2016 by | 369 comments

by Judith Curry

It has been claimed that the early-2000s global warming slowdown or hiatus, characterized by a reduced rate of global surface warming, has been overstated, lacks sound scientific basis, or is unsupported by observations. The evidence presented here contradicts these claims. – Fyfe et al.

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369 Comments

Posted in Attribution

Is sea level rise accelerating?

Posted on February 23, 2016 by | 288 comments

by Judith Curry

Estimates of the rate of sea level rise are diverging.

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288 Comments

Posted in Oceans

Arctic winter sea ice puzzle

Posted on February 22, 2016 by | 320 comments

by Judith Curry

Arctic sea ice extent has been anomalously low this winter.

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320 Comments

Posted in Polar regions

Walking the climate talk

Posted on February 21, 2016 by | 324 comments

by Judith Curry

Their [climate scientists] actions may have limited discernible influence in terms of ‘bending the curve’ on emissions, but their efforts to ‘walk the talk’ have tremendous symbolic value – Max Boykoff

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324 Comments

Posted in Ethics

New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision and Environmental Control Initiatives

Posted on February 18, 2016 by | 158 comments

.by Roger Caiazza

The excellent series of posts on energy planning by Planning Engineer and Rud Istavan, a similar series at the Science of Doom and a recent post by Peter Lang all outline the difficulties implementing renewable energy and other components of the so-called energy system of the future.

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158 Comments

Posted in Energy, Policy

Some realism about technological fixes

Posted on February 16, 2016 by | 320 comments

by Judith Curry

Not all problems will yield to technology. Deciding which will and which won’t should be central to setting innovation policy, say Daniel Sarewitz and Richard Nelson.

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320 Comments

Posted in Energy, Policy