by Judith Curry
In the wake of the breaking announcement that Russia, Japan and Canada told the G8 they would not join a second round of carbon cuts under the Kyoto Protocol at United Nations talks this year and the US reiterated it would remain outside the treaty, it is instructive to took a look at what has been going on in the context of the UNFCCC.
The title of this post comes from a recent hearing from the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Posted in Politics
by Judith Curry
Over at nature.com, Dave Ropeik has posted an essay entitled “Risk Perception.”
“No matter what the hard risk sciences may tell us the facts are about a risk, the social sciences tell us that our interpretation of those facts is ultimately subjective.”
Posted in Policy
by Judith Curry
“So when you take uncertainty into account, it actually leads to the decision that we should take action more quickly.”
I first spotted the statement in the Discover Magazine interview with myself and Michael Mann . I thought it had to be a typo or misquote (note, Mann said this, not me :))
Posted in Policy, Uncertainty
by Tony Brown (tonyb)
This article assesses the impact of UK’s proposed climate change legislation.
“To achieve the target of an 80% reduction in (UK) carbon emissions by 2050 virtually all our electricity will need to come from clean sources.” – Gordon Brown, 2007
“(UK) Families will have to get used to only using power when it is available”-Steve Holliday, Chief Executive of National Grid- Sunday Times of 22 May 2011
Posted in Policy
by Judith Curry
Some interesting issues this week regarding Freedom of Information (FOI), related to Michael Mann and the UVa and also some statements by Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society.
Posted in Sociology of science
by Judith Curry
With the tragic damage and loss of life in Joplin, the tornado madness continues unabated. Here is the latest from Roy Spencer, Bill McKibben, and Joe Romm.
Posted in Attribution
by Judith Curry
This post draws heavily from Bishop Hill’s post with (almost) the same title, related to the Cambridge Workshop discussed on the previous thread. Specifically, this addresses the attempt by Dr. Eric Wolff to find a measure of agreement between the two sides in the climate debate. I attempted something similar on a previous Climate Etc. thread titled What we know with confidence.
Posted in Skeptics
by Judith Curry
A must read article in the Guardian by Jules Boykoff entitled “U.S. Military Goes to War With Climate Skeptics.”
Posted in Skeptics
by Judith Curry
On the politics of climate expertise thread, we discussed Kevin Trenberth’s statement:
Given that global warming is “unequivocal”, to quote the 2007 IPCC report, the null hypothesis should now be reversed, thereby placing the burden of proof on showing that there is no human influence.
Posted in Scientific method
by Judith Curry
Inside Higher Education (UK) has a lengthy article by Darrel Ince entitled “Systems failure”, with the subtitle “A scandal involving clinical trials based on research that was riddled with errors shows that journals, institutions and individuals must raise their standards.” An interview with Ince can be found here. There is discussion of this on two threads at Bishop Hill (here and here). The article and interview are very thought provoking, with relevance to the context of the climate debate.
Posted in Ethics, Scientific method, Sociology of science
by Judith Curry
A comprehensive history of the controversy surrounding tropospheric temperature trends has recently been published in WIRES Climate Change (h/t WUWT and Lorne LeClerc).
Posted in Data and observations
by Judith Curry
This week I am attending a meeting of the Earth Science Subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council. As described in the Public Notice for the meeting, the topic of this meeting is evaluation of NASA’s Earth Science Modeling and Activities.
Posted in climate models
by Judith Curry
A new paper describing the latest version of the NCAR climate model has just been published at the Journal of Climate. This is the version of the model that is being used for the IPCC AR5.
Posted in climate models
by Judith Curry
NoTricksZone reports on an interview (in German) with Hans von Storch on the topic “Scientists request honest dialogue” that addresses the issue of climate skepticism.
Posted in Skeptics
by Judith Curry
There is some “buzz” about a new paper and essay by Timothy Lenton on dangerous climate change.
Posted in Policy
by Judith Curry
“Do not confuse science with scientists, expertise with experts, or intellect with intellectuals. Society is not anti-intellectual or anti-science, it is anti-intellectuals, opposed to the people who claim those credentials, and for excellent reasons. Even those who on any given issue make appeals to the authority of selected scientists or experts will discount or reject equivalent authority when it does not confirm cherished biases.”
Posted in Sociology of science
by Judith Curry
George Monbiot has published an interesting essay in the Guardian entitled “Lets face it: none of our environmental fixes break the planet-wrecking project.” The subtitle to the article is “All of us in the green movement are lost before the planet’s real problem: not too little fossil fuel but too much.”
Posted in Policy
by Judith Curry
I just received the reviews on the manuscript I submitted to special issue of the journal Climatic Change, entitled “Reasoning About Climate Uncertainty.” Overall, the review was pretty mild. One comment from the editor was about my paragraph that mentioned “black swans.”
Posted in Policy, Prediction
