New Year’s resolution for scientists

Posted on January 3, 2013 by | 552 comments

by Judith Curry

Here’s a New Year’s resolution for scientists, especially in the United States: gain the confidence of people and politicians across the political spectrum by demonstrating that science is bipartisan. – Daniel Sarewitz

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552 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Year in Review

Posted on December 30, 2012 by | 561 comments

by Judith Curry

The end of year provides an opportunity to reflect on significant events of the past year.

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561 Comments

Posted in Week in review

Can we avoid fooling ourselves?

Posted on December 28, 2012 by | 692 comments

by Judith Curry

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool. – Richard Feynman

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692 Comments

Posted in Ethics, Scientific method

How might intellectual humility lead to scientific insight?

Posted on December 26, 2012 by | 404 comments

by Judith Curry

Philosophers known as “virtue epistemologists” claim that the goods of the intellectual life—knowledge, wisdom, understanding, etc.—are more easily obtained by persons possessing mature traits of intellectual character, such as open-mindedness, teachability, and intellectual courage, than by persons who lack these virtues or who are marked by their opposing vices.  – Jay Wood

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404 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Cli-Fi

Posted on December 23, 2012 by | 160 comments

by Judith Curry

There is a fledgling new genre in fiction.

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160 Comments

Posted in Communication

The Goldilocks Principle

Posted on December 22, 2012 by | 271 comments

by Judith Curry

On what we can learn from Goldilocks and The Three Bears regarding our perceptions of climate, climate science, communication and policy.

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271 Comments

Posted in Communication, Sociology of science

Never look a polar bear in the eye

Posted on December 21, 2012 by | 172 comments

by Judith Curry

Advocates and scientists have tied the Earth’s fate to that of the polar bear. But what happens if this lumbering giant proves more resilient than the rest of us? – Zac Unger

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172 Comments

Posted in Climate change impacts, Communication

20th century mean global sea level rise

Posted on December 20, 2012 by | 246 comments

by Judith Curry

On the acceleration of sea level rise, the Gilligan effect, and the garbage solution.

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246 Comments

Posted in Attribution, Data and observations

Climate sensitivity in the AR5 SOD

Posted on December 19, 2012 by | 437 comments

by Judith Curry

By far the most important debate about climate change is taking place among scientists, on the issue of climate sensitivity: How much warming will a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide actually produce?  – Matt Ridley

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437 Comments

Posted in Sensitivity & feedbacks

Limits(?) of green energy: is the Earth f_ked?

Posted on December 17, 2012 by | 575 comments

by Judith Curry

Whether the benefits of alternative energy outweigh its drawbacks depends on the policy context. – Ed Dolan

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575 Comments

Posted in Energy

Stratospheric uncertainty

Posted on December 9, 2012 by | 495 comments

by Judith Curry

The new data call into question our understanding of observed stratospheric temperature trends and our ability to test simulations of the stratospheric response to emissions of greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances. – Thompson et al.

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495 Comments

Posted in Data and observations, Uncertainty

AGU highlights

Posted on December 6, 2012 by | 343 comments

by Judith Curry

This week I am at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

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343 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Multidecadal climate to within a millikelvin

Posted on December 4, 2012 by | 2,430 comments

by Vaughan Pratt

The title of this post is taken from my AGU Fall Meeting poster presentation on the afternoon of Tuesday Dec. 4 (tomorrow).

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2,430 Comments

Posted in Attribution

Clouds and MAGIC

Posted on November 28, 2012 by | 683 comments

by Judith Curry

Ocean clouds obscure warming’s fate, create ‘fundamental’ problems for models. – Paul Voosen
.

683 Comments

Posted in climate models, Data and observations, Sensitivity & feedbacks

Why climate disasters might not increase concern about climate change

Posted on November 23, 2012 by | 494 comments

by Judith Curry

Climate change awareness is complex and strongly mediated by socially constructed attitudes.  It is important to recognise that many of the social and cultural obstacles to belief are not removed by major impacts and may, indeed, be reinforced. – George Marshall

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494 Comments

Posted in Communication

Whither (wither?) climate science?

Posted on November 20, 2012 by | 679 comments

by Judith Curry

The title for this post comes from a recent presentation by Michael Morgan, Director of the Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences Division at NSF.

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679 Comments

Posted in Policy

Future of Arctic enterprise

Posted on November 18, 2012 by | 197 comments

by Judith Curry

As a complement to the discussion on Arctic sea ice decline at Climate Dialogue, lets take a look at the outlook for the development of existing and new economic activity in the Arctic marine region, as a result of this change.

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197 Comments

Posted in Polar regions

Policy, rhetoric and public bewilderment

Posted on November 14, 2012 by | 493 comments

by Judith Curry

Science is the most formidable intellectual force of our age, perhaps any age. The irony is that, without the insights of the humanities, it may still find itself without words. – Mark Thompson

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493 Comments

Posted in Communication, Policy

Should scientists promote results over process?

Posted on November 11, 2012 by | 531 comments

by Judith Curry

Science is the most powerful tool we have for understanding the natural world. Its power stems from the very nuance that forceful slogans typically gloss over. But with this power comes great liability: the potential to be wrong. – Tania Lombrozo

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531 Comments

Posted in Communication

Climate model discussion thread

Posted on November 9, 2012 by | 378 comments

by Judith Curry

My perspective on climate models (uncertainty monster, DOE presentation, RS presentation) have been regarded as outside the ‘mainstream’.  Here are some new papers by leading climate modelers that provide new evidence and arguments on the concerns that I have been raising.

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378 Comments

Posted in climate models

U.S. Presidential election discussion thread

Posted on November 7, 2012 by | 753 comments

by Judith Curry

Discussion of this topic is invading the technical threads, so lets start a new thread on this since people seem to want to discuss it here.

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753 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Uncertainty in observations of the Earth’s energy balance

Posted on November 5, 2012 by | 610 comments

by Judith Curry

This lack of precise knowledge of surface energy fluxes profoundly affects our ability to understand how Earth’s climate responds to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases. – Graeme Stephens et al.

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610 Comments

Posted in Data and observations, Uncertainty

Systemic thinking on causation

Posted on November 5, 2012 by | 225 comments

by Judith Curry

George Lakoff has just thrown  a big can of worms into the global warming debate:

Yes, global warming systemically caused Hurricane Sandy — and the Midwest droughts and the fires in Colorado and Texas, as well as other extreme weather disasters around the world. Let’s say it out loud, it was causation, systemic causation. 

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225 Comments

Posted in Attribution, Causation

Sandy: a wake-up call on our satellite-based weather and climate observing capacity

Posted on November 4, 2012 by | 137 comments

by Marshall Shepherd

Hurricane – Post-Tropical Storm Sandy is one of “those” moments. A moment that rallies the public and policy makers around an issue. Other “those” moments include 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. In the wake of Sandy, an array of issues have surfaced including the role of climate change, vulnerability of urban infrastructure, and how it will effect the U.S. Presidential election. As I write this, another Nor’easter looks to impact the same region in the days after the election.

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137 Comments

Posted in Data and observations, Hurricanes, Policy

Hurricane Sandy: Part n

Posted on November 2, 2012 by | 361 comments

by Judith Curry

Hurricane Sandy is having many repercussions beyond the obvious damage.

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361 Comments

Posted in Hurricanes