Here in North America, we are surrounded with rhetoric denouncing the feasibility of climate change mitigation. It’s not possible to reduce our emissions, people say. It’s not worth it. The situation in the U.S. Congress regarding this issue is becoming so bizarre that hopes for an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have grown [...]
Posts Tagged ‘politics’
The Rest of the World
Posted in Mitigation and Policy, tagged australia, canada, carbon dioxide, climate change, copenhagen, environment, EU, global warming, greenhouse gases, japan, norway, politics, risk management, Stephen Harper, uk, united states on April 6, 2011 | 16 Comments »
Ozone Depletion and Climate Change
Posted in Science Lessons, tagged carbon dioxide, CFCs, climate change, copenhagen, education, environment, global warming, greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases, HFCs, kyoto, montreal protocol, ozone depletion, politics, risk management, science, sustainability on March 30, 2011 | 18 Comments »
“Global warming…doesn’t that have something to do with the ozone?” Well, no. Environmental issues are not all the same. It’s common for people to confuse climate change and ozone depletion, but they are separate issues – although they are indirectly connected in some interesting ways. Ozone, which is made of three oxygen atoms stuck together [...]
Legislating Scientific Truth
Posted in Mitigation and Policy, tagged climate change, denial, global warming, greenhouse gases, Indiana, inhofe, Montana, pi, politics, Read, republican, science, united states, Upton on March 24, 2011 | 22 Comments »
Cross-posted from NextGen Journal Scientific statements rely on uncertainty and error bars. If our understanding changes, the scientific consensus changes accordingly, in a more or less implicit manner. There’s no official process that needs to be followed to update our knowledge. Laws passed by governments work in the opposite way. Official technicalities are paramount, and [...]
Climate Scientists Out in the Cold
Posted in News and Reports, tagged canada, carbon dioxide, CFCAS, climate change, congress, denial, environment, global warming, greenhouse gases, IPCC, luetkemeyer, NSERC, politics, republican, science, Stephen Harper, united states, waxman on February 24, 2011 | 35 Comments »
Cross-posted from NextGen Journal In the current economy, it’s not surprising that many countries are reducing funds for scientific research. It’s necessary to cut spending across the board these days. However, North American governments are singling out climate science as a victim – and not just reducing its funding, but, in many cases, eliminating it [...]
The Pendulum
Posted in Mitigation and Policy, tagged al gore, an inconvenient truth, arctic, canada, carbon dioxide, climate change, climategate, copenhagen, debate, democrat, denial, environment, global warming, greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases, human rights, hurricane katrina, journalism, kyoto, media, obama, politics, republican, risk management, science, skeptic, Stephen Harper, sustainability, swifthack, united states on January 31, 2011 | 7 Comments »
Cross-posted from NextGen Journal A few years ago, climate change mitigation became a major political issue. Before 2005, governments certainly knew that human-caused climate change was a serious problem – but the public knew next to nothing about it, so there was no incentive to act. However, between 2005 and 2007, a perfect storm of [...]
The Unofficial Climate Change Book Awards
Posted in Reviews, tagged canada, carbon dioxide, climate change, communication, copenhagen, denial, education, environment, global warming, greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases, journalism, media, politics, science, Stephen Harper, sustainability, united states on January 19, 2011 | 17 Comments »
Cross-posted from NextGen Journal As an aspiring climate scientist, I have read dozens of books about climate change over the past few years. Here are my all-time favourites, which I present with Unofficial Climate Change Book Awards. (Unfortunately, the prizes consist entirely of bragging rights.) Best Analysis of Future Scenarios Climate Wars, by Gwynne Dyer View [...]
Merchants of Doubt
Posted in Reviews, tagged acid rain, bill nierenberg, climate change, cold war, conway, DDT, denial, environment, frederick seitz, global warming, greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases, media, oreskes, ozone depletion, politics, robert jastrow, s. fred singer, science, SDI, secondhand smoke, smoking, star wars, tobacco, united states on January 9, 2011 | 2 Comments »
I waited a long time to read this book – in retrospect, too long. I have long been a fan of Naomi Oreskes; I believe she is a brilliant and sensible scientist with a compelling way with words. On the other hand, nothing depresses me more quickly than reading about those who deliberately spread confusion [...]
Storms of my Grandchildren
Posted in Reviews, tagged al gore, cap and dividend, cap and trade, carbon dioxide, carbon tax, climate change, climate sensitivity, communication, environment, global warming, greenhouse effect, james hansen, nasa, obama, permian extinction, PETM, politics, risk management, science, united states on December 28, 2010 | 6 Comments »
I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing Christmas. Here’s a book I’ve been meaning to review for a while. The worst part of the recent book by NASA climatologist James Hansen is, undoubtedly, the subtitle. The truth about the coming climate catastrophe and our last chance to save humanity – really? That doesn’t sound [...]
The Nature of Scientific Consensus
Posted in How Science Works, tagged agreement, cancun, carbon dioxide, climate change, copenhagen, credibility, environment, global warming, greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases, media, politics, risk management, science on December 1, 2010 | 24 Comments »
Cross-posted from NextGen Journal It is common for one to fail to grasp the difference between “consensus” and “unanimity”. A consensus does not require agreement from absolutely every member involved. Rather, it is a more general measure of extremely high agreement, high enough to accept and base decisions on. It’s stronger than a majority-rules style [...]
The Real Story of Climategate
Posted in Media and the Public, tagged al gore, anthony watts, carbon dioxide, censorship, climate change, climategate, communication, copenhagen, credibility, CRU, cuccinelli, debate, denial, education, environment, global warming, greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases, hockey stick, inhofe, journalism, media, nasa, politics, republican, risk management, science, skeptic, sustainability, swifthack, united states on November 17, 2010 | 145 Comments »
A year ago today, an unidentified hacker published a zipped folder in several locations online. In this folder were approximately one thousand emails and three thousand files which had been stolen from the backup server of the Climatic Research Unit in the UK, a top centre for global temperature analysis and climate change studies. As [...]
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