by Judith Curry
Uncertainty abounds in issues related to climate science and climate changes, the impacts of those changes, and the efficacy of strategies that might be used to mitigate or adapt to change. There are, however, a few things about which we can be quite certain. There are also a number of things about which many people are certain, but should not be.
Posted in Uncertainty
Posted in History
by Judith Curry
One hundred years ago, a popular theory contended that various aspects of climate determined the physiology and psychology of individuals, which in turn defined the behavior and culture of the societies that those individuals formed. As the ideological wars of the twentieth century re- shaped political and moral worlds, environmental determinism became discredited and marginalised within mainstream academic thought. Yet at the beginning of a new century with heightening anxieties about changes in climate, the idea that climate can determine the fate of people and society has re-emerged in the form of ‘climate reductionism’.
Posted in Climate change impacts
by Judith Curry
the emerging links between climate, conflict, and national security are far from being thoroughly understood
Posted in Climate change impacts
by Judith Curry
how building new capacity, tools and partnerships between disaster risk managers and climate information providers can lead to improved disaster risk management, including prevention, preparedness and response.
Posted in Climate change impacts, Policy
by DocMartyn
This is the first of a three part presentation where I will attempt to explain the climate of the last 800,000 thousand years, drawing on the role of the biosphere’s response to interstellar dust.
Posted in Attribution
by Judith Curry
Here is a synopsis of some recent papers and other issues in the Arctic
Posted in Polar regions
by Judith Curry
Posted in Uncertainty
Climate Etc has discussed the IPCC’s new protocol for alleged errors and an error found by Nic Lewis regarding climate sensitivity. This post discusses another error in IPCC AR4, one that has been around for some time but has only recently been reported to the IPCC.
Posted in Sensitivity & feedbacks
by Judith Curry
From the latest UNFCCC press release:
Countries meeting in Durban, South Africa, have delivered a breakthrough on the future of the international community’s response to climate change
Posted in Policy
by Judith Curry
Producing energy uses water, and providing freshwater uses energy. Both these processes face growing limits and problems. In most power plants, water cools the steam that spins the electricity-generating turbines. Refining transportation fuels requires water, as does producing fuels—for example, mining coal, extracting petroleum, or growing crops for biofuels. Using water in our homes and businesses requires getting it there, treating it, heating it, and more.
Posted in Energy
by Judith Curry
Last week, over 20,000 scientists met in San Francisco at the annual Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
Posted in Uncategorized
by Judith Curry
Gail Tverberg writes:
In a recent post, I discovered something rather alarming–the fact that in the last decade (2000 to 2010) both world energy consumption and the CO2 emissions from this energy consumption were rising as fast as GDP for the world as a whole. This relationship is especially strange, because prior to 2000, it appeared as though decoupling was taking place: GDP was growing more rapidly than energy use and CO2 emissions. And even after 2000, many countries continued to report decoupling.
Posted in Policy
by Judith Curry
A June 22, 2010 article in the New Republic provides one of the most sensible analysis of global warming policy that I’ve seen (h/t Roger Caizza). It is particularly relevant in light of the current negotiations at Durban
Posted in Policy
by Judith Curry
In 2010 a cluster of United Nations and pan-African organizations released a little book entitlted “Climate Smart Agriculture.” Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) “seeks to incease sustainable productivity, strengthen farmers’ resilience, reduce agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration.” The little book and the concept are getting a lot of attention here at COP17. [link]
Posted in Climate change impacts
by Tony Brown
A warming trend can be observed from 1659, the start date of Central England Temperature (CET)- the oldest instrumental record in the world- to today. It would be a notable coincidence if the warming started at the exact point that this record began. The purpose of this paper is to reconstruct CET from its current start point, through the use of diverse historical records, to 1538, in order to see if the commencement of this centuries long warming trend can be identified from within this time frame.
Posted in Data and observations, History
by Judith Curry
“The fuss over climategate showed that the world is increasingly unwilling to accept the message that “we are scientists; trust us”. Other people want to join the scientific conversation. Good scientists, interested in finding truth, should want to encourage them, not put up the shutters. The wider world instinctively knows to distrust those in all walks of life who reject openness.”
Posted in Open knowledge
Recent studies of observational climate data have shown that Earth’s climate system: has many abrupt climate shifts; is phase locked to an annual cycle of Solar origin; and is chaotic. These phenomena are related and are summarized below.
Posted in Uncategorized
by Judith Curry
Its a busy week in the climate blogosphere, reacting to the emails and also the UNFCCC Conference in Durban.
Posted in Uncategorized
Posted in Sensitivity & feedbacks
by Judith Curry
Ross McKitrick writes:
I am pleased to announce the publication of a report I have written that provides systematic detail on the procedures of the IPCC and makes the case for reforming them. My study, called What is Wrong With the IPCC? A Proposal for Radical Reform, was published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation in the U.K., and includes a foreword by the Hon. John Howard, former prime minister of Australia.
Posted in IPCC
by Judith Curry
Two years ago on Thanksgiving, I was working on my Climategate essay An open letter to graduate students and young scientists in fields related to climate research. It was a topic of family discussion, and my 4 nieces and nephews (high school and college age) were all discussing and commenting on my essay. I was also involved in extensive e-discussions with Joe Rom and Andy Revkin, who were hosting my letter on their blogs.
Posted in Ethics
by Judith Curry
I have been pondering how to best teach research ethics to incoming graduate students and to meet the new NSF guidelines. While googling around, I found an interesting document from the Department of Meteorology at Penn State.
Posted in Ethics
by Judith Curry
Richard Feynman has famously stated: “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”
Posted in Sociology of science
by Judith Curry
I now have some of the presentations from the Santa Fe Conference posted on a web site.
Posted in Uncategorized
