by Judith Curry
America is growing more skilled – and getting better fast – at emergency response to disasters of growing geographical reach, cost, and complexity. But we can and should do more. America needs a comparable national effort and accompanying long-term investment in reducing the need for emergency response on such a grand scale. – Bill Hooke
Posted in Hurricanes, Policy
by Judith Curry
The demand for climate information, with long observational records spanning decades to centuries and the information’s broad application for decision making across many socioeconomic sectors, requires that geophysicists adopt more rigorous processes for the sustained production of climate data records (CDRs). Such processes, methods, and standards are more typically found in the systems engineering community and have not generally been adopted in the climate sci- ence community. – John Bates and Jeffrey Privette
Posted in Data and observations
by Judith Curry
Hurricane Sandy is the largest Atlantic hurricane on record in terms of diameter of the storm. Sandy was associated with an estimated 13 foot storm surge in areas near New York City.
Posted in Hurricanes
by Judith Curry
The manufactured consensus of the IPCC has had the unintended consequences of distorting the science, elevating the voices of scientists that dispute the consensus, and motivating actions by the consensus scientists and their supporters that have diminished the public’s trust in the IPCC.
Posted in Consensus, Scientific method, Sociology of science
by Judith Curry
With efforts to halt climate change on life support, scientists are looking at some radical options to save our planet. But could the cure be worse than the disease? – Gernot Wagner and Martin Weitzman
Posted in Geoengineering
by Judith Curry
Six Italian scientists and an ex-government official have been sentenced to six years in prison over the 2009 deadly earthquake in L’Aquila. – BBC
Posted in Communication, Ethics, Uncertainty
by James Stafford of Oilprice.com
We were fortunate enough to speak with the well known economist Ed Dolan on various energy and economic issues.
Posted in Energy
by Judith Curry
The MSM and blogosphere are still roiling over David Rose’s article last Sunday, here is the latest, including a new article by David Rose.
Posted in Attribution, Communication, Data and observations
by Judith Curry
So, what do you think climate science and policy would look like if the IPCC worked for the World Bank, instead of the UNFCCC?
Posted in Policy
by Judith Curry
The recent articles in the Daily Mail and the Guardian are generating heated reactions – more heat than light. Lets break down the arguments on both side and assess them systematically.
Posted in Attribution
by Judith Curry
At one level, analyzing climate risks is a matter of due diligence, given mounting scientific evidence. However, there is no consensus about the means for doing so nor about whether climate models are even fit for the purpose. An alternative to the scenario- led strategy, such as an approach based on a vulnerability analysis (“stress test”), may identify practical options for resource managers. – Brown and Wilby
Posted in Policy, Uncertainty
by Judith Curry
Everyone applauds the idea of critical thinking, and liberal arts colleges often make their ability to teach critical thinking a key selling point. But no one seems to define what they mean by that term. – Paul Gary Wyckoff
Posted in Scientific method
by Judith Curry
Posted in Communication, Uncertainty
by Judith Curry
Don’t think you need to teach the public a lot of science facts. Instead, show what science is, what it means, why we need it. Find a way to have a presence. Choose what to comment on, how to be involved, and what actions and issues to engage in. Be a source of wisdom. – Carl Safina
Posted in Communication
by Judith Curry
Until recently, there was little recognition within Japan’s science policy circle of the need to discuss the role of science in government policy-making. A rather innocent notion that the established knowledge and wisdom of scientists would ensure proper decision-making was prevalent. – Arimoto and Sato
Posted in Ethics, Policy, Sociology of science
by Judith Curry
Later this week, the Royal Society is hosting a Workshop on Handling Uncertainty in Weather and Climate Prediction, With Application to Health, Agronomy, Hydrology, Energy and Economics.
Posted in Prediction, Uncertainty
by Judith Curry
In pondering the challenges of climate change (both science and policy), it seems that academics have different perspectives from many other people, with a discriminator being professional decision making experience.
Posted in Sociology of science
by Judith Curry
We are starting to see blog discourse making it into academic papers, being the subject of presentations and conference sessions, and the development of blogs specifically to analyze the dynamics of other blogs. So, lets address the question raised in the recent presentation by Franziska Hollender:
What are blogs good for anyways?
Posted in Communication, Open knowledge, Sociology of science
by Judith Curry
Two new workshop reports provide insights into what we know and don’t know about the effects of solar variability on climate.
Posted in Solar
by Judith Curry
From an article in the New Scientist by Fred Pearce, written in Sept 2009:
One of the world’s top climate modellers said Thursday we could be about to enter one or even two decades during which temperatures cool.
“I am not one of the sceptics,” insisted Mojib Latif of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at Kiel University, Germany. “However, we have to ask the nasty questions ourselves or other people will do it.”
Posted in Prediction, Skeptics
by Judith Curry
A segment on climate change last Monday evening produced a storm of protest from critics who felt the program mislead viewers — by a faulty application of journalistic balance — about the very real threat of global warming and man’s contribution to it, as well as a sprinkling of support from those who think that threat is overstated and that balance was just the right touch for the NewsHour. – Michael Getler, PBS
Posted in Skeptics
by Judith Curry
Better models are needed before exceptional events can be reliably linked to global warming. – Nature
Posted in Attribution
