‘Climate’ Archives
Congressman Says Defunding Climate Science is a Priority for GOP
What’s an anti-science politician to do when even a Koch-funded researcher says that human activity is causing global warming? Well, you could just stop all scientific endeavors in the field all together. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference yesterday, Colorado Republican Congressman Cory Gardner explained to attendees [...]
2011 Updates to model-data comparisons
And so it goes – another year, another annual data point. As has become a habit (2009, 2010), here is a brief overview and update of some of the most relevant model/data comparisons. We include the standard comparisons of surface temperatures, sea ice and ocean heat content to the AR4 and 1988 Hansen et al simulations. First, a graph [...]
Bombshell Study: High Methane Emissions Measured Over Gas Field “May Offset Climate Benefits of Natural Gas”
Air sampling by NOAA over Colorado Finds 4% Methane Leakage, More Than Double Industry Claims Natural-gas operations could release far more methane into the atmosphere than previously thought. How much methane leaks during the entire lifecycle of unconventional gas has emerged as a key question in the fracking debate. Natural gas is mostly [...]
Must-See Video: Steroids, Baseball and Climate Change
Readers asked what a good extended metaphor was for global warming. Here’s one, courtesy of the National Center for Atmospheric Research: AtmosNews takes a lighthearted look at an unexpected analogy, explaining why some people call carbon dioxide (and the other greenhouse gases) the steroids of the climate system. Statistics and extreme [...]
In Praise of Clint Eastwood’s Metaphorical “Halftime in America” Superbowl Ad
I’d love your comments on Clint Eastwood’s awesome ad for Obama Chrysler: Seriously, though, I’m not going to spend much time on the rather absurd issue of whether Clint’s gritty optimism means he is channeling Obama’s gritty optimism, as the Washington Post and conservative commentators claim: An an ad touting the [...]
Santorum’s Incoherence: Manmade Global Warming Is a “Hoax” But Using “Science and Discovery” Makes Us Better Stewards
GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum doesn’t mince words when it comes to his energy plan: humanity’s purpose is to dominate the environment. Speaking at an energy summit in Colorado yesterday, the former Pennsylvania Senator explained his belief that humans were “put on this earth … for our benefit, not for the [...]
Global Temperatures, Volcanic Eruptions, and Trees that Didn’t Bark
My co-authors and I have just published an article in Nature Geoscience (advance online publication here; associated press release here) which seeks to explain certain enigmatic features of tree-ring reconstructions of Northern Hemisphere (NH) temperatures of the past millennium. Most notable is the virtual absence of cooling in the tree-ring [...]
NASA: Human Activity, Not Solar Activity, Drives Global Warming and Returning to 350 ppm Is Needed to Stop It
Earth’s Energy Budget Remained Out of Balance Despite Unusually Low Solar Activity Adam Voiland, NASA’s Earth Science News Team, in a repost. The research brief by Hansen et al is here. A new NASA study underscores the fact that greenhouse gases generated by human activity — not changes in solar activity — are the primary force [...]
Will Global Warming Ruin Football in the South?
Football’s heartland will become dangerously hot Back in November, GE’s TXCHNOLOGIST blog pointed out that climate change “could ruin Texas football,” indeed all southern U.S. football: The effects of climate change, so far, have been most noticeable in Texas, where a terrible drought has dried up football fields in small towns that [...]
So What’s A Teacher to Do?
Guest Commentary by Eugenie Scott, National Center for Science Education Imagine you’re a middle-school science teacher, and you get to the section of the course where you’re to talk about climate change. You mention the “C” words, and two students walk out of the class. Or you mention global warming and a hand shoots up. “Mrs. Brown! My [...]
