Tag: Climate Change

Dominic Lawson : Sussex Farmhouse

Post author By Jo
Post date January 12, 2010
No Comments on Dominic Lawson : Sussex Farmhouse

Once again, Dominic Lawson fails to realise that many of his readers will simply not connect with him :-

https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/dominic_lawson/article6982310.ece

Only a very marginally low proportion of the British population can identify with, or only hope to aspire to, his perilous predicament.

Stuck down a snowy country lane and running out of heating oil ? Look, mate, you can afford to live in a “Sussex farmhouse”. Isn’t it about time you took your finger out and wrote a fat cheque to get connected to the gas mains ?

Tags Climate Change, denial, denier, Global Warming, sceptic, skeptic, Wind Power. NIMBY

Climate Change Media

Mojib Latif : Old, Non-News

Post author By Jo
Post date January 12, 2010
1 Comment on Mojib Latif : Old, Non-News

https://mediamatters.org/research/200909240021

The Climate Change Denialists have been trying to resurrect a non-story from Autumn of 2009 – claiming that Professor Mojib Latif is predicting Global Cooling.

He is not, OK ?

Mojib Latif is merely saying that there is some variability, but that the long-term trend is warming. Warming. That’s right. Warming.

Here’s just a selection of the Media and Web Log reaction to this “viral” lie from the denier bloc :-

Tags Climate Change, denial, denier, Global Warming, sceptic, skeptic

Climate Change Media

Richard Betts : Communicating Science

Post author By Jo
Post date January 12, 2010
No Comments on Richard Betts : Communicating Science

Yes, we’ve all been there. Just idly chatting to someone in the pub, office or outside the school gates, and they say “I don’t rate that Global Warming thing. Look how cold it is today.” Or like a family friend said, on his own, un-tutored authority a couple of months ago, “I don’t think it’s warming up as much as they say it is”.

Don’t fret, Climate Changers, it happens to us all.

The main source of this dissonance between Truth and Deniership is the mainstream media, I’m sorry to say. They really haven’t improved things, when, with just a little more care and attention, they could have done so much to help comprehension of the scale and might of the risks of dangerous Climate Change.

Tags Anthropogenic Global Warming, Climate Change, Climate Change Science, Climate Science, denial, denier, Global Warming, Man-made Global Warming, Manmade Global Warming, sceptic, skeptic

Climate Change Media

Rod Liddle : Gutter Press

Post author By Jo
Post date January 12, 2010
No Comments on Rod Liddle : Gutter Press

There’s something that’s been threatening to keep me awake at night, and it’s not drinking too much coffee. I don’t drink coffee, normally, by the by. No, it’s this : why does Rod Liddle’s photograph on the The Spectator website look remarkably unlike the way he looks in realtime, that is, today ? Here’s what I mean :-

Tags Climate Change, denial, denier, Global Warming, Media, sceptic, skeptic

Climate Change Media

Daily Telegraph Makes Mistake

Post author By Jo
Post date January 11, 2010
1 Comment on Daily Telegraph Makes Mistake

The Daily Telegraph newspaper, the grand uncle of the broadsheets, allows through a little slip-up. I am sure it will get corrected tomorrow, so I’ve kept a copy, just in case anyone challenges what I can see on the page right now :-

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/6952220/Why-were-in-the-grip-of-medieval-mania.html

“…In the climate change debate, both sceptics and proponents have spent a lot of time debating the significance for our own times of two parts of the period. The first is what has been termed the Medieval Warm Period, from between 800 to 1300, the second the Little Ice Age that followed it. Those in the Christopher Booker and George Monbiot camp, one which blames humans for climate change, have spent a lot of heated discussion dwelling on these facts, and the debate has found its way into creative works in surprising ways…”

Last time I looked, Christopher Booker was being awarded a special prize for Global Warming “scepticism” (denial) :-

https://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/02/06/the-christopher-booker-prize-for-climate-change-bullshit/

Poor Philip Hensher, who wrote the article. How could he get so confused ?

Or have I missed something ? Has Christopher Booker repented of all his seemingly misguided hackery, read some Climate Change science, recanted of his mission to promote what appears to be sensationalist nonsense, and become an acolyte of the Church of Global Warming ?

Somebody should find out, I think.

Tags Christopher Booker, Climate Change, Daily Telegraph, Global Warming

Climate Change Political Nightmare Protest & Survive

Anthony Giddens : Demonising Environmentalism

Post author By Jo
Post date January 10, 2010
No Comments on Anthony Giddens : Demonising Environmentalism

The further I read into Anthony Giddens’ “landmark study” on Climate Change politics, the more I want to offer it to a fuel-poor elderly neighbour :-

https://www.metro.co.uk/news/807821-pensioners-burn-books-for-warmth

“Miles Erwin – 5th January, 2010 : Pensioners burn books for warmth : Hard-up pensioners have resorted to buying books from charity shops and burning them to keep warm. Volunteers have reported that ‘a large number’ of elderly customers are snapping up hardbacks as cheap fuel for their fires and stoves…”

I have taken a fat orange highlighter pen to his more tendentious and incensing statements, and am scratching comments in the margins to indicate my extreme displeasure.

What is it about Anthony Giddens’ phraseology that so irritates me ? I’ll pass over the more nebulous, inaccurate rubbish like his mention of “political scientists” – politics is no more science than the study of fine art. And I’ll try really hard not to call him ideologically-challenged, based on his references to unproven economic theories as if they were axiomatic facts.

My key dislike to his approach seems to be crystallising around his dismissiveness of other peoples’ points of view; his loose, callous talk is likely to alienate a good many people, and he needs repudiation.

Tags Climate Change, ecology, economists, Economy, environment, environmentalism, environmentalist, green, Green Movement, politicians, politics

Climate Change Extreme Weather The Data

Extreme Weather : Global Warming style

Post author By Jo
Post date January 8, 2010
4 Comments on Extreme Weather : Global Warming style

“You still get cold days…People say ‘what’s happened to Global Warming ?’…that’s just the weather”, says Gerald Meehl.

Tags Climate Change, Global Warming

Bad Science Climate Change Media Non-Science

Daily Express : Unreliable Sources

Post author By Jo
Post date January 8, 2010
No Comments on Daily Express : Unreliable Sources

Another pretty poor headline from the Daily Express (and we all know that outrageous headlines sell newspapers), but the majority of the article is OK, until the almost inevitable signs of “balance” by quoting Piers Corbyn and Christopher Booker :-

“…Long-term forecaster and trends analyst Piers Corbyn, of WeatherAction, said: “Global warming is a failed science built on falsified data. It is a sham to say that man has caused it.”…”

Most serendipitously, the Global Warming Science that the genuine research community have been slaving away at for the last, ooo, 25 years, has not been undermined by one freakily cold Northern Hemisphere Winter, or they’d all be out of jobs pretty sharpish.

“…Christopher Booker, author of The Real Global Warming Disaster, said: “It is amazing how this scaremongering from climate change lobbyists keeps arising even though they are constantly being proved wrong. Last year there was snow in Saudia Arabia and still they persist in saying the temperature is going up.”…”

As time goes by, and more evidence is collated and analysed and more theoretical branches are investigated, the more Climate Change Science is shown to be accurate, both in projection and qualitative prediction.

Tags Climate Change, Climate Change Science, Climate Science, denial, denier, Global Warming, Global Warming Science, sceptic, skeptic

Bad Science Big Picture Climate Change Media Non-Science The Data

The Spectator’s Rod Liddle Fabricates

Post author By Jo
Post date January 7, 2010
No Comments on The Spectator’s Rod Liddle Fabricates

https://www.spectator.co.uk/rodliddle/5688478/questioning-the-climate-change-establishment.thtml

“Questioning the Climate Change Establishment : ROD LIDDLE : THURSDAY, 7TH JANUARY 2010 : So, this is now the coldest winter for thirty years and the snow is likely to hang around for two weeks, maybe three. How does this square with last year’s prediction from eminent scientists – the Met, the UAE change-the-numbers-monkeys, Marcus Brigstocke etc – that 2010 was going to be the hottest year on record? It could still be, of course – but it will have to go it some. Let’s keep an eye on the figures – so far, coldest for thirty years, remember. December was cold too, if you remember – yet apparently not included in the figures for 2009 which, if you recall, were jubilantly announced as being the fifth hottest since records began in the middle of November – ie when there was still 11 per cent of the year to go, the coldest bit…”

You’re entirely mistaken, Rodney.

All the data from 2009 for the Central England Temperarture, for example, was used in the calculation of the yearly mean. And all the data is available on the Hadley Centre website, and pictures too :-

https://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadcet/cet_info_mean2009.html

https://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadcet/data/download.html

It’s true that NASA GISS and NOAA are a bit slow in publishing their data and charts, but in a short week or so, they’ll be posted.

Please check your facts before splurging. And that means all of you, respectable authentic journalists, opinion-formers and shock jocks alike.

Tags Central England Temperature, CET, Climate Change, Global Warming, Hadley Centre, Met Office, Meteorological Office

Bad Science Bait & Switch Climate Change Media Non-Science Public Relations Social Change

The BBC Reviews Its Trust

Post author By Jo
Post date January 7, 2010
No Comments on The BBC Reviews Its Trust

The BBC Trust are to review the BBC’s treatment of Science in the BBC Media. I can’t say for sure whether that’s going to result in anything helpful or not, since it’s going to be effectively an “internal inquiry”. Their quest for objectivity may end up in compromise and playing to the heckling balconies :-

https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/06/bbc-trust-science-impartiality-review

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/6941616/BBC-to-launch-review-into-allegations-of-bias-in-its-science-coverage.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1241209/BBC-probes-bias-science-coverage.html

Tags Balance, BBC, Bias, Climate Change, Climate Change Science, Climate Science, Global Warming, Objectivity, Public Trust

Bad Science Climate Change Non-Science

Sceptics Have Infected The Guardian

Post author By Jo
Post date January 7, 2010
No Comments on Sceptics Have Infected The Guardian

It looks like The Guardian newspaper has been infected with Global Warming scepticism.

I thought the paper was supposed to have some decent editorial process on Science ! But, sadly, clearly, not.

Here are the main problems with the article :-

https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jan/07/religion-climate-change

1. The author does not understand the processes that govern the accumulation of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere.

2. The author appears to have no knowledge of how the Earth system as a whole regulated Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere in the distant past within certain limits of extent.

3. The author does not recognise that the current level of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere is much higher than in the distant past. Neither does he offer any explanation for why the level should have strayed outside the long-term boundaries.

4. The author accepts that periods of Earth History with more Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere were warmer than periods with less Carbon Dioxide, but fails to offer a possible mechanism that could draw down Carbon Dioxide from the Atmosphere now to the regulated boundaries of the distant past.

5. The author does not appear to appreciate that the Younger Dryas cooling event was almost certainly entirely unrelated to Carbon Dioxide levels in the Atmosphere.

6. The author does not appear to appreciate that the Younger Dryas cooling event was not global in scope. Or rather, although there are records of effects almost universally, the effects were not the same everywhere.

7. The author does not recount the extreme warming that ended the Younger Dryas event.

Which is what you would expect, since the main cause of the Younger Dryas event was not the level of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere; and naturally, the levels of Carbon Dioxide still in the Atmosphere caused the temperatures to return to where they were prior to the Younger Dryas cooling event.

The author of the article appears to be a software engineer with an education in biological sciences. I doubt he has ever taken a course in Global Warming Science. I suggest he should. It’s all online if he wants it. Here are David Archer’s lecture videos from the University of Chicago :-

https://geoflop.uchicago.edu/forecast/docs/lectures.html

Tags Carbon Dioxide, Climate Change, CO2, denial, denier, Earth history, Earth system, Global Warming, sceptic, skeptic, Younger Dryas

Climate Change Extreme Weather Meltdown Methane Madness

Arctic Meltdown : Methane Eruptions

Post author By Jo
Post date January 7, 2010
1 Comment on Arctic Meltdown : Methane Eruptions

Video Credit : The Guardian

[ PLEASE NOTE : The animation is dated 6th April 2009, so the text in the sub-titles means the year 2008 when it says “last year”. ]

European Winter 2009-2010 is turning out to be a bit parky – best not to go outside unless you can help it (or you’re under the age of 10 and love snowball fights).

However, wintry as it may be in Europe, the Arctic region is experiencing slush-inducing temperatures, and once-frozen sub-sea permafrost is starting to warm up, rot and give off methane. Lots of it :-

https://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/more-methane-discovered-bubbling-up-arctic-sea-floor.php

Tags Arctic, Arctic Meltdown, arctic sea ice, Climate Change, Global Warming

Bait & Switch Behaviour Changeling Big Picture Climate Change Pet Peeves Social Change Voluntary Behaviour Change

Anthony Giddens : Blaming Consumers

Post author By Jo
Post date January 6, 2010
No Comments on Anthony Giddens : Blaming Consumers

Anthony Giddens, as a “key architect of New Labour”, disappointingly brings to the table a less than razor-sharp understanding of what is responsible for Global Warming Pollution.

He seems to be content to be cynical about the Consumers in the Free Market Economy, without questioning the role of the Producers of the Energy and goods consumed.

Tags advertising, Behaviour Change, Climate Change, coal, Consumer, Consumption, Energy, Free Market Economy, Gas, Lifestyle, Material Resources, Natural Gas, Oil, Petroleum, Renewable Energy, Stuff, Trade, Voluntary Behaviour Change

Climate Change Genetic Muddyfixation

How Many Times Do We Need To Say No ?

Post author By Jo
Post date January 6, 2010
No Comments on How Many Times Do We Need To Say No ?

The Guardian runs with a story on how the UK Government’s Chief Scientist, Professor John Beddington will push the idea of Genetic Modification of Food Crops :-

https://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/06/gm-food-revolution-government-scientist

Plant-breeding down the centuries of agricultural history have given us wonderful natural foods, suited to their growing environments and healthy for human life. The process of selection, inter-breeding and nurturing new variations of plants has involved changes in the genetic code for some lines of species. But this “natural genetic modification” bears no relation to laboratory work to splice and dice genes in food crops across and within families of plants (and even animals).

Tags BioTechnology, Climate Change, Genetic Modification, GM, GMO, Life Sciences

Bad Science Bait & Switch Climate Change Non-Science

Wolfgang Knorr : Denialist Soup

Post author By Jo
Post date January 6, 2010
2 Comments on Wolfgang Knorr : Denialist Soup

The new trend on the wires from the amorphous, shifting pack of wildcards that deny the very science of Global Warming – write the wrong conclusion about a piece of research by Wolfgang Knorr from Bristol University – and then circulate it on the Internet.

The research was published late last year, but it’s only in the last couple of days that the Climate Change Deniers have started a serious viral “Public Relations” campaign to promote their mis-quotation. The “Carbon Capture Report” shows an uptick in popularity of covering this paper :-

https://www.carboncapturereport.org/cgi-bin/biodb?PROJID=3&mode=viewpersonname&name=dr_wolfgang_knorr

Tags Airborne Fraction, Carbon Dioxide Concentration, Climate Change, Climate Change Science, denial, denier, Knorr, sceptic, skeptic, Wolfgang Knorr

Behaviour Changeling Climate Change Pet Peeves Political Nightmare Voluntary Behaviour Change

Anthony Giddens : The Politics of Habit

Post author By Jo
Post date January 6, 2010
No Comments on Anthony Giddens : The Politics of Habit

The habitual trend in politics is to utter without having done sufficient research, just relying on cultural assumptions, watercooler talk, hearsay and what you read in the newspapers, which is dumbed down and always resorts to cultural prejudices.

At least Anthony Giddens in his book “The Politics of Climate Change”, attempts to get beyond that kind of gutter press and move into the heady air of the moral mountain heights. But he takes with him some extraordinarily unhelpful baggage, Classical Economics being part of it. Plus, an inability to see the wood for the trees.

Allow me to quote from his Introduction :-

https://books.google.com/books?id=yXJKxmd2tWgC&printsec=frontcover&cd=1&source=gbs_ViewAPI#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Tags Climate Change, Consumer, Consumer Choice, Consumption, Energy, Manufacturing Regulation, politics, Regulation

Climate Change Contraction & Convergence

Saint Bono Preaches Equality

Post author By Jo
Post date January 6, 2010
2 Comments on Saint Bono Preaches Equality

It’s good to know that a rock star can contribute erudite and/or entertaining opinion to newspapers. Here’s U2’s Bono with a confusing, and internally conflicting, Top 10 for the next decade in the New York Times :-

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/opinion/03bono.html

On the matter of Climate Change (what ? Only at Number 3 ?), he contributes this street-cool support for Contraction and Convergence (C&C), the framework, and the framework-based market of equal global per capita shares of the atmosphere :-

“An Equal Right to Pollute (and the Polluter-Pays Principle) : In the recent climate talks in Copenhagen, it was no surprise that developing countries objected to taking their feet off the pedal of their own carbon-paced growth; after all, they played little part in building the congested eight-lane highway of a problem that the world faces now. One smart suggestion I’ve heard, sort of a riff on cap-and-trade, is that each person has an equal right to pollute and that there might somehow be a way to monetize this. By this accounting, your average Ethiopian can sell her underpolluting ways (people in Ethiopia emit about 0.1 ton of carbon a year) to the average American (about 20 tons a year) and use the proceeds to deal with the effects of climate change (like drought), educate her kids and send them to university. (Trust in capitalism — we’ll find a way.) As a mild green, I like the idea, though it’s controversial in militant, khaki-green quarters. And yes, real economists would prefer to tax carbon at the source, but so far the political will is not there. If it were me, I’d close the deal before the rising nations want it backdated.”

I think you’ll find that Equal Rights in Carbon are pretty hot in “deep green” quarters, actually, Bono; you just haven’t taken the trouble to find out.

https://www.gci.org.uk/briefings/ICE.pdf

https://www.gci.org.uk/contconv/cc.html

https://www.climatejustice.org.uk/about/contractionandconvergence/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contraction_and_Convergence

Tags C&C, Climate Change, Contraction and Convergence

Climate Change

Threats From American Zealots

Post author By Jo
Post date January 4, 2010
1 Comment on Threats From American Zealots

The great thing (not) about trying to get a higher profile for Climate Change is receiving threats, intimidation, criticism and personal abuse by e-mail and in the Comments on this web log. It really gives me joy and confidence (yeah, right) in the humanity of man.

Today I received an interesting little communication that appears to be threatening legal action for having exchanged in e-mail correspondence with Roger Harrabin, a reporter at the BBC.

It suggests that I should recant and repent for having tried to promote Climate Change Science.

It instructs me that Climate Change Science is fraudulent. Oops ! I hadn’t realised ! And there was I relying on the last 120 years of Global Warming Theory and empirical evidence, thinking I was on very firm ground !

Tags Climate Change, denial, denier, Global Warming, sceptic, skeptic

Climate Change Marvellous Wonderful Political Nightmare Public Relations

Gordon Brown Saves The World (2)

Post author By Jo
Post date January 3, 2010
No Comments on Gordon Brown Saves The World (2)

Besides announcing lots of money for Renewable Energy :-

https://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/03/gordon-brown-wind-energy-programme

Gordon Brown is confident that he can steer the international Climate negotiations to a successful, sign-up-to-able deal :-

https://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6021AT20100103

“Brown says climate change agreement possible : Sun Jan 3, 2010 : Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Sunday he believed a global agreement to combat climate change might still be possible despite the limited results of last month’s Copenhagen meeting. “I’ve got an idea about how we can actually move this forward over the next few months and I’ll be working on this,” Brown told the BBC, when asked what came next after the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen. “I think it’s not impossible that the groundwork that was done at Copenhagen could lead to what you might call a global agreement that everybody is happy to stand by,” Brown said. “I’ll be working on that in the next few months and I can see a way forward because what prevented an agreement was suspicion and fear and forms of protectionism that I think we’ve got to get over,” he said, without giving details of his plan…”

Tags Climate Change, Global Deal, Global Warming, International Negotiations

Big Picture Climate Change Extreme Weather

Climate Change : Insurance Warning

Post author By Jo
Post date January 3, 2010
No Comments on Climate Change : Insurance Warning

The giant German Reinsurance company Munich Re has reported that although 2009 was a relatively quiet year for natural disaster losses, there have been increased risks from extreme weather events related to Global Warming :-

https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/98a3ac0a-f4e2-11de-9cba-00144feab49a.html

Tags Climate Change, Climate Change Damages, Climate Damages, Disaster Preparedness, Disasters & Emergencies, Global Warming, Global Warming Damages, insurance, Natural Disaster, Reinsurance

Climate Change Media Public Relations

Central England Temperature 0.63 Degrees C Above Norm

Post author By Jo
Post date January 3, 2010
No Comments on Central England Temperature 0.63 Degrees C Above Norm

The final calculations have been done by the Meteorological Office for the average Central England Temperature in 2009 and shown in a graph online :-

https://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadcet/index.html

Tags Central England Temperature, CET, Climate Change, Climate Change Science, Climate Science, Global Warming, HadCET, Hadley Centre, Met Office, Meteorological Office

Bait & Switch Climate Change Public Relations Social Change

Dude, Where’s My Climate ?

Post author By Jo
Post date January 3, 2010
2 Comments on Dude, Where’s My Climate ?

Some of you are probably thinking, “what a crummy out-of-date cliched non-joke of a title !”, but I’m hoping for some web hits on the basis that corny can be cute, sometimes.

But what on Earth do I mean ? Well, just where is Climate Change in the Media ? It is the Number One story of all human time, so why does it still only occupy so few column inches and Tweets and Press Releases and web logs and TV programmes and printed communications, and why do the Westerner populations still think that money is still more important than an inhabitable Biosphere ?

Don’t know, but it’s bound to have to do with cultural inertia, how very slowly the Press, TV and social communications guys and gals are waking up to the overarching problems of Global Climate Change.

Tags Climate Change, Global Warming, Media, news, Newspapers, Press, Public Information

Bait & Switch Climate Change Public Relations

John Humphrys : An End To Fence-Sitting

Post author By Jo
Post date January 3, 2010
No Comments on John Humphrys : An End To Fence-Sitting

On 31st December 2009, John Humphrys, well-loved BBC radio interviewer and presenter, amongst other things, wrote an opinion piece for the Daily Mail newspaper.

He weaves a careful argument about why he and others should stop fence-sitting on the issue of Climate Change, but he is still in need of an educational experience to help him understand where the power and drive of Climate Change Denial comes from :-

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1239546/JOHN-HUMPHRYS-Noughties-No-Nasties–good-riddance-them.html

Tags Climate Change, denial, denier, Global Warming, sceptic, skeptic

Climate Change

Carbon Dioxide : Global Overheating

Post author By Jo
Post date January 3, 2010
No Comments on Carbon Dioxide : Global Overheating

As time goes by, the Science of Geology becomes more and more convinced that Carbon Dioxide is the major driver in Global Overheating.

It’s not the only cause of Global Warming, but it’s the factor that explains the high swings in warming and cooling, above and beyond any other explanation or cause.

Research is continually being published that confirms the role of Carbon Dioxide in the warming and cooling of the Earth throughout its history.