Arguments
2013 SkS Weekly Digest #39
Posted on 29 September 2013 by John Hartz
SkS Highlights
Using the metric of comments posted, Dana's Why is the IPCC AR5 so much more confident in human-caused global warming? and John Mason's Understanding the pre-IPCC Anti-Climate Science Misinformation Blitz created the most buzz of the articles posted on SkS this past week.
The full report to be released tomorrow (Monday in the US) by the IPCC will generate more SkS coverage of these important documents in the weeks and months ahead.
Toon Poster of the Week
This poster, created by EARTH: The Operators' Manual, is based on the article, The 5 stages of climate denial are on display ahead of the IPCC report by Dana Nuccetelli, Consensus-the 97%, The Guardian, Sep 22, 2013.
Quote of the Week
"The important messages are that Earth has warmed significantly, most of the warming has to do with humans, Earth is going to keep warming under almost all future scenarios, and the chances of avoiding the 2-degree danger limits that governments have chosen is small, unless we get out there and develop and implement focused plans to start reducing emissions immediately.
"IPCC reports have been influential in getting governments' attention, even though they lag way behind where they should be. I expect this report to remind governments that they had better find a way to act together and act soon, although it's also true that a lot of governments are going at it on their own. Still, it would be better if they were more coordinated."
- Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University and contributor to previous IPCC reports
IPCC Climate Change Report: Experts React by Denise Chow, Live Science, Sep 27, 2013
SkS Week in Review
- 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #39C by John Hartz
- Secretary of State Kerry and Senator Boxer Remark on the IPCC Report by John Hartz
- 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #39B by John Hartz
- Why is the IPCC AR5 so much more confident in human-caused global warming? by John Hartz
- Understanding the pre-IPCC Anti-Climate Science Misinformation Blitz by John Hartz
- A hotter world is a hungrier world warns Oxfam ahead of IPCC report by John Hartz
- How to use short timeframes to distort reality: a guide to cherrypicking by John Mason
- 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #39A by John Hartz
- Invitation to join second offering of free Climate Literacy course by Sarah Burch, Sara Harris
- Nuccitelli et al. (2013) Debunks Akasofu’s Magical Thinking by Dana Nuccitelli & John Abraham
SkS Rebuttal Article Added
Dana's article, Why is the IPCC AR5 so much more confident in human-caused global warming? has been adapted into a rebuttal of the myth "IPCC human-caused global warming confidence is unfounded". The short URL for this new resource is http://sks.to/ipcc
Coming Soon on SkS
- Public talk explaining our consensus paper & answering critics (John Cook)
- IPCC model global warming projections have done much better than you think (Dana)
- 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #40A (John Hartz
- Why climate change contrarians owe us a (scientific) explanation (gpwayne)
- Residence Time and Prof Essenhigh (Glenton Jelbert)
- Double Standard on Internal Variability (tamino)
- 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #40B (John Hartz)
In the Works
- Time to change how the IPCC reports? (Kevin Trenbeth)
- The components of Earth's Climate System: a primer (John Mason)
- Why trust climate models? It’s a matter of simple science (Scott K Johnson)
- Two degrees: how we imagine climate change (David Holmes)
- The 2012 State of the Climate is easily misunderstood (MarkR)
- How did Ancient Coral Survive in a High CO2 World? (Rob Painting)
- Moncking up the Numbers (Rob Honeycutt)
- Why Atmospheric CO2 matters: The Really Big Picture (Chris Colose)
- The Sun Has Cooled, So Why Are The Deep Oceans Warming? (Rob Painting)
SkS in the News
The Cook et al. (2013) 97% consensus result was referenced by The Independent, the Peterborough Examiner, ABC Media Watch.
ABC Environment published Dana and Mike Mann's IPCC report underlines the need for climate action.
The Financial Post published John Cook's The 97%: We have a climate consensus.
Climate & Capitalism, EcoWatch, America Blog, and Renew Economy referenced Dana's The 5 stages of climate denial are on display ahead of the IPCC report.
Peter Sinclair at Climate Crocks and Stefan Rahmstorf at RealClimate referenced Dana's The Pacific Ocean fills in another piece of the global warming puzzle, and puzzles Curry.
Media Matters referenced The Escalator and Nuccitelli et al. (2012).
Phil Plait at Slate's Bad Astronomy used various SkS resources in debunking the deluge of pre-IPCC climate denial myths. He also used the Escalator and endorsed SkS in general.
Joe Romm and Peter Sinclair referenced Dana's New Research Confirms Global Warming Has Accelerated.
Wotts Up With That Blog referenced the SkS resource on climate sensitivity.
Broad Oak Magazine featured some SkS myth rebuttals.
Salon and Science, technology, space and engineering featured Dana's Arctic Escalator.
Graham Wayne at Small Epiphanies referenced Dana's Nuccitelli et al. (2013) Debunks Akasofu’s Magical Thinking.
Media Matters referenced SkS resources on falling glacier mass balance.
Common Dreams used The Escalator.
Hot Topic referenced Graham Wayne's resource on the IPCC RCPs.
Greg Laden, NYT Dot Earth, and On Earth referenced Dana's Why is the IPCC AR5 so much more confident in human-caused global warming?.
Elizabeth May referenced Graham Wayne's Global Warming’s Missing Heat: Look Back In Anger (and considerable disbelief)…
HotWhopper debunked a plethora of WUWT posts with the SkS rebuttals database.
Fabius Maximus used the SkS debunking of the myth that the IPCC is alarmist.
SkS Spotlights
The Community Climate Change Consortium for Ireland (C4I) Project was established in 2003. Based in the headquarters of Met Éireann, the Irish National Meteorological Service, in Dublin, its main objective is to consolidate and intensify the national effort in climate change research by building a capability for carrying out regional climate modelling in Ireland and to provide assistance to Irish scientists utilizing climate model output for their analyses.
A summary of recent work is available in this leaflet (PDF file, 883K). The full final report can be downloaded from here (PDF file, 6.0 MB).
I guess that makes me a denier, Type 5. Our civilization is in it's end game, doomed. Perhaps something better will rise from the ashes, but the transition is going to be horrendous.
But I might be wrong, perhaps it is not too late. And even if I am not, then I would still prefer not to race to our doom. We spend milllions on a single old person keeping them alive for a few more years or maybe only a few more months. What price then, on all of humanity for a few more decades?
Yes this does become self fulfilling at some stage. Carry on as we are and we will not only see the fall of civilization, but the extinction of man as well.
What we need to do to mitigate what is ahead is in many ways the same as what we need to do to cope with what is ahead. The more we mitigate and prepare the more that can be saved.
We can act. Or we can go extinct.