Arguments
2013 SkS Weekly Digest #22
Posted on 2 June 2013 by John Hartz
SkS Highlights
The 5 characteristics of global warming consensus denial by John Cook and Dana created a buzz on the comment thread and was the most-viewed this past week. The folks in Deniersville are definitely not happy campers about any SkS article (or non-SkS article) that presents the findings of The Consensus Project in a positive light.
Global warming is here to stay, whichever way you look at it by noted climate scientist Kevin Trenberth was the second-most popular article posted. If you have not yet read it, you will want to do so It's comment thread also contains some valuable supplementary information.
Toon of the Week
H/T to RealClimate
Quote of the Week
"The whole climatalogical system is being disrupted," said Shafqat Kakakhel, former deputy executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme and a leading voice on climate change in Pakistan. As temperatures continue to rise, he said, "you will either have monsoons too early or too much. It's happening in India, and it's happening in Pakistan."
Can Pakistan survive climate change? by Lisa Friedman, EnergyWire, E&E Publishing, May 28, 2013
Report of the Week
The first Global Tracking Report was released on May 28, 2013 at the Vienna Energy Forum. Compiled by experts from 15 organizations and led by the World Bank and the International Energy Agency, the report provides a comprehensive snapshot of the energy status of countries with respect to access, action on energy efficiency and renewable energy, as well as energy consumption.
Note: This report is part of the UN initiative, Sustainable Energy for All
SkS Week in Review
- New Climate Magazine Launched - ClimateState by Dana
- Video: Lake El'gygytgyn, Pleistocene super-Interglacials and Arctic warmth by John Mason
- 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #22B by John Hartz
- Will Tropical Forests Remain Carbon Sinks? by AlexanderAc
- 2013 SkS News Bulletin 14: Alberta Tar Sands and Keystone XL Pipeline by John Hartz
- Global warming is here to stay, whichever way you look at it by Kevin Trenbeth
- 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #22A by John Hartz
- The 5 characteristics of global warming consensus denial by John Cook & Dana
- Uncertainty no excuse for procrastinating on climate change by dkarolay
SkS Rebuttal Articles Updated
Dana updated the rebuttal article, What do the CERN experiments tell us about global warming? by inserting a recent quote by Kirby and two relevant paragraphs from by Erlykin et al. (2013).
Dana also updated the article, What's the link between cosmic rays and climate change? by inserting a quote from Erlykin et al. (2013).
Coming Soon on SkS
- Imbers et al. Test Human-Caused Global Warming Detection (Dana)
- Communicating climate change at the Maths of Planet Earth conference (John Cook)
- 2013 SkS News Roundup #23A (John Hartz)
- Scientists use crowd-sourcing to help map global CO2 emissions (John Hartz)
- 2013 SkS News Bulletin #15 (John Hartz)
- New study by Skeptical Science author finds 100% of atmospheric CO2 rise is man-made (MarkR)
- More pieces of the global warming puzzle assembled by recent research (Dana)
- 2013 SkS News Roundup #23B (John Hartz)
In the Works
- Is More Global Warming Hiding in the Oceans? (Jeff Nesbit)
- A tale told in maps and charts: Texas in the National Climate Assessment (Dana)
- Climate for the Trees (jg)
- How did Ancient Coral Survive in a High CO2 World? (Rob Painting)
- Agnotology, Climastrology, and Replicability Examined in a New Study (Dana)
- Weathering of rocks: guide to a long-term carbon-sink (John Mason)
- Update on GISP-2 temperature record (Alexander Ac)
SkS in the News
The Consensus Project continued to be featured in many media articles, surpassing a total of 200 stories.
Climate Crocks also featured John Mason's Video: Lake El'gygytgyn, Pleistocene super-Interglacials and Arctic warmth and The last time carbon dioxide concentrations were around 400ppm: a snapshot from Arctic Siberia.
Several SkS resources were also featured in the maiden issue of the new climate magazine, ClimateState.
SkS Spotlights
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is leading a global initiative on Sustainable Energy for All to mobilize action from all sectors of society in support of three interlinked objectives to be achieved by 2030: providing universal access to modern energy services; doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency; and doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.
The objectives of the Sustainable Energy for All initiative are threeold:
1. Ensure universal access to modern energy services.
2. Double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency.
3. Double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.
The target year for attaining these objectives is 2030.
To learn more about the objectives, click here.
The denialists are acting far more strangely than usual. They seem to have a consensus that consensus does not matter! Bert
I had a conversation about climate change with a friend recently, and the topic of CO2 drawdown came up. My explanation was that roughly 50% of the CO2 emitted by humans is absorbed by natural carbon sinks, thus leaving the remainder in the atmosphere as the "airborn fraction". My confusion started setting in when asked at what level of anthropogenic CO2 emissions can we expect to see no further accumulation in the atmosphere. Is there a level of human emissions that will allow us to cease the upward trend in the Keeling curve? Is it as simple as saying that cutting our emissions in half will suffice? And if the answer to that question is yes, does it follow that any level of emissions below that point will allow for (very, very) gradual drawdown? If there is an appropiate thread for this discussion, I will gladly take it there, but a quick search did not show any results.
SeaHuck5891 @2, if all CO2 emissions were to cease tomorrow, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 would gradually decline to about 340 ppmv over a couple of centuries or so as the partial pressure of CO2 equalized between the deep ocean and the upper reaches of the ocean. (That ignores, or course, the production of CO2 by the oxidation of methane; but it is a reasonable approximation.) Based on this, if we were to reduce emissions to the equivalent of 0.3 ppmv per annum, ie, about 6% of current emissions we would stabilize CO2 concentration rather than gradually reduce it. Anything more than that would result in a continuing increase in atmospheric concentration.
It should be noted that, first, the 6% figure is a ball park figure only; and second, that there are very good policy reasons to prefer the draw down in CO2 to the constant concentration. Consequently I consider that figure to be largely academic.
@ Tom Curtis
Thank you for the response.