Category: This is Not Cool

A viewer writes:

“Peter,
After debating with a denier in youtube for a couple weeks, I showed him your videos and he’s done a complete 180. Now he believes global warming denial is quite absurd given the science/facts. I was kind of shocked and elated to witness this happen, though I’m sure you’re used to it, but go ahead and pat yourself on the back for it. :D”

This wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened. It’s exactly what’s intended for this series, and I hear accounts like this every week.

If you’ve just come away from holiday dinner frustrated at having to listen to Aunt Teabag and Uncle Dittohead’s anti-science rants, wishing you had just the right Climate Crock video to send them, your problem is now solved.

Now Climatecrocks.com has an “Overview” page, which you can access in the menu on the right. There are links to each video organized by topic, as well as additional resources. With luck, you’ll be able to find exactly the right video, if not to completely turn deniers around, at least get them to shut up.

Take a look at the list, and see if your favorite video is there, or if your topic of interest is addressed. Let me know in comments if there’s a way to make it more useful.

Having visited Growing Power in Milwaukee this past summer while my son interned there, I’ve been sensitized to the exploding number of experiments in food systems designed for a future that is energy efficient, climate constrained, yet healthier, happier, and more prosperous.
Watch for more experiments like this one – if you see something in your area, let me know.

Continue reading “Building a Sustainable Society – Urban Aquaculture”

From Abstruce Goose.

Reuters posted the first of what will probably be a spate of articles following the last month of the global temperature record, as 2010 is in a “dead heat” to become the hottest year ever.

Even with a possible cool end to the year, 2010 is expected to be no lower than third in a record where 1998 and 2005 are warmest. The U.N. panel of climate scientists says higher temperatures mean more floods, heatwaves and rising sea levels.

CRU’s Phil Jones says it’s currently in second place, NASA’s James Hansen says the temps through October put 2010 in the lead.
There are subtle differences between the measurements by CRU, NASA and the other global temperature datasets, which allow for CRU to name 1998 as the hottest year, with NASA claiming 2005 – by a few hundredths of a degree.

And for deniers out there, be advised that Dr Roy Spencer also has 2010 as one of the hottest years.

We’ll never know how long Anthony Watts would have let the stench of his summer arctic ice predictions hang in the air, had I not prodded him with the most recent video.

Within 24 hours of the video upload, Watts finally found the time to admit that he and trusty sidekick Steve Goddard might have been a little too “ebullient” about the sea ice.

There are some interesting comments, this one from “Bill the Frog” caught my eye.

It is intriguing to observe the continually developing meme that, prior to 1979, no reliable information was available relating to the extent of Arctic sea ice. This must certainly be perplexing for the scientists at the University of Illinois, many of whom have been at the forefront of polar research for decades.

As many readers will know, a considerable portion of the work done by the Polar Research Group at UIUC is publicly available on Cryosphere Today. One of the many datasets easily available from UIUC is the Walsh and Chapman Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice Data Set. This displays the extent of Arctic Sea Ice since 1870,(emphasis mine – Peter) and, at 141 years and counting, is certainly long enough to show up any significant multi-decadal trend.

Continue reading “Lively Times at WUWT”

In early summer 2010, the pseudo science blog Watts Up With That informed it’s discriminating readers that this summer would decisively show that northern polar ice had ended a long term decline.
They guaranteed it.

The numbers are in.

Science Debate is the organization that speaks to what a lot of us have realized – that the forces of reason are under attack – uniquely and unexpectedly, in the world’s most technologically advanced nation.

Acting on the maxim that we get more of what we celebrate, Science Debate is joining in celebrating the rollout of Rockstars of Science, pairing rockstars with science stars. I’d like to see more of this.

It’s been a year now, come wednesday, since the online publication of stolen
CRU emails.
For a quick recap, if you can stand it, of the humongous nothing-burger that denialists would like to call climate gate, you can review these videos.

and

I have a theory that right wingers who were in their formative years during the original Water gate scandal have grown up desperately searching for some kind of equivalent criminal activity among their political opponents – and lacking any evidence for that, have had to content themselves with the occasional stained dress.

Thus the continued need to apply the “gate” suffix to anything that could possibly be negatively spun.

Sunday’s New York Times published an article that might indicate a sea change in journalistic coverage of climate change.  The tone of the article, “As Glaciers Melt, Science Seeks Data on Rising Seas”, in contrast to way to much in the mass media, is not “whether”, but “when”.

Quote:

“As a result of recent calculations that take the changes into account, many scientists now say that sea level is likely to rise perhaps three feet by 2100 — an increase that, should it come to pass, would pose a threat to coastal regions the world over.

And the calculations suggest that the rise could conceivably exceed six feet, which would put thousands of square miles of the American coastline under water and would probably displace tens of millions of people in Asia.”
—

Climate scientists readily admit that the three-foot estimate could be wrong. Their understanding of the changes going on in the world’s land ice is still primitive. But, they say, it could just as easily be an underestimate as an overestimate. One of the deans of American coastal studies, Orrin H. Pilkey of Duke University, is advising coastal communities to plan for a rise of at least five feet by 2100.”

The video above debunks some of the most common denier myths about sea level. Joe Romm has more over at climateprogress.