‘Climate’ Archives
How Time-of-Use Electricity Pricing Can Boost Distributed Solar
by John Farrell, cross-posted from Energy Self Reliant States What if electricity cost more when the sun was shining? Many utilities are using new electronic “smart meters” to adjust the price of electricity as often as every 15 minutes, to reflect supply and demand. And charging more when electricity is in short supply can be [...]
The dog is the weather
A TV series that ran on Norwegian TV (NRK) last year included a simple and fun cartoon that demonstrates some important concepts relative to weather and climate: In the animation, the man’s path can be considered as analogous to a directional climatic change, while the path traced by his dog’s whimsical movements represent weather [...]
MIT Climate Scientist’s Wife Threatened in a “Frenzy of Hate” and Cyberbullying Fomented by Deniers
JR: Cyberbullying of climate scientists is on the rise, thanks to the hard-core deniers (see “UK Guardian slams Morano for cyber-bullying and for urging violence against climate scientists“). MIT climatologist Kerry Emanuel, whose family is the target of the latest attacks, writes me, “I had heard about the hate mail and [...]
James Bond Villains Harm Nuclear Power’s Public Image, Top UK Scientist Tells BBC. I say No, Dr. No.
James Bond villains blamed for nuclear’s bad image The evil villains in James Bond movies are being blamed for casting a long-lasting shadow over the image of nuclear power, says the president of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Prof David Phillips says that Dr No, with his personal nuclear reactor, helped to create a “remorselessly grim” [...]
Seven National All-Time Heat Records Set in 2011
Seven countries and one territory set all-time hottest temperature records in 2011, and one nation set an all-time coldest temperature record. Image credit: Ilissa Ocko, Princeton University. By Dr. Jeff Masters, in a Wunderblog repost The year 2011 was the tenth warmest year on record for the globe, but the warmest year on record when a La [...]
NY Times Dialogue on Human Violence Omits Climate Change
by Felix Kramer Last week, the New York Times published a provocative letter in its weekly “Invitation to a Dialogue,” and, as usual, invited comments to be published in its Sunday Review. The letter, by Robert J. Lifton, critiqued popular Harvard Professor Steven Pinker’s recent book, The Better Angels of Our Nature. Lifton, [...]
NY Times Public Editor Asks If Paper Should Publish Uncorrected Lies or Be a “Truth Vigilante.” Seriously.
No, this absurd piece is not (intentional) satire. But the “headline could just as well be found at the Onion,” as one of the many exasperated New York Times readers puts it. Obviously any paper, but most especially the New York Times, has little value to society if it knowingly prints lies — or if it fails to do the minimal [...]
Gaming for Good: Al Gore Brings Climate Reality to Video Games
by Zachary Rybarczyk Is Al Gore a secret gamer? Known for advocating climate protection measures through books, movies, TV shows and concerts, the Nobel Laureate is venturing into a new medium to spread his message: video games. Gore’s nonprofit climate education and advocacy organization, the Climate Reality Project, recently teamed up with [...]
A Pipeline of Oil Dollars Flowing to Members of Congress Pushing Keystone XL Decision
by Stephen Lacey and Zachary Rybarczyk The House of Representatives under the 112th Congress has been dubbed “the most anti-environmental House in history.” From a refusal to give up on styrofoam in the congressional cafeteria to the push for more uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, this House has an astonishingly deep resume of bad [...]
Must-Read on 2011′s Unprecedented Rains and Wet-Dry Extremes, Just What You’d Expect From Global Warming
Remarkably, more than half of the country (58%) experienced either a top-ten driest or top-ten wettest year, a new record. Percentage of the contiguous U.S. either in severe or greater drought (top 10% dryness) or extremely wet (top 10% wetness) during 2011, as computed using NOAA’s Climate Extremes Index. Image credit: NOAA/NCDC. by [...]
