Arguments
2014 SkS Weekly Digest #42
Posted on 19 October 2014 by John Hartz
SkS Highlights
Another "lightening rod" article by Dana, Dinner with global warming contrarians, disaster for dessert, drew the highest number of comments of the articles posted on SkS during the past week.
If you have not already done so, be sure to check out Rob Paining's original SkS article, Ocean Warming has been Greatly Underestimated. It's a real "eye opener".
Toon of the Week
h/t to I Heart Climate Scientists
Quote of the Week
Increasingly, arguments against climate mitigation are phrased as “I accept that humans are increasing CO2 levels and that this will cause some warming but climate is so complicated we cannot understand what the impacts of that warming will be.”
This argument is incorrect – uncertainty does not imply ignorance. Indeed, whatever we don’t know mandates caution. No parent would argue “I accept that if my child kicks lions, this will irritate them, but a range of factors will dictate how the lions respond; therefore I will not stop my child from kicking lions.”
The deeper the uncertainty, the more greenhouse gas emissions should be perceived as a wild and poorly understood gamble. By extension, the only unequivocal tool for minimising climate change uncertainty is to decrease our greenhouse gas emissions.
Why climate ‘uncertainty’ is no excuse for doing nothing by Richard Pancost and Stephan Lewandowsky, The Conversation UK, Oct 16, 2014
SkS in the News
In his Huffington Post article, Curry Advocates Against Action on Climate Change, Michael Mann links to the SkS Escalatar graphic contrasting how realists and "sceptics" view global warming.
The YouTube video of John Cook's Cabot Institute lecture is linked to in Sou's Hot Whopper post, Cabot Institute talks: Michael Mann - The Hockey Stick and the climate wars and John Cook.
Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature, Cook et al, 2013, Environmental Research Letters is cited and/or linked to in:
- How to get Republicans to stop using the “I’m not a scientist” dodge by Ben Adler, Grist
- The Unseriousness of Republicans on Man-Made Climate Change by David A. Graham, The Atlantic
In his Sodahead blog post, Do you realize how much conservatives are lying to you?, CallOBooty cites and links to the SkS website.
Recursive fury: Conspiracist ideation in the blogosphere in response to research on conspiracist, Lewandowsky et al, 2013, Frontiers in Science, is cited by Paul Rosenberg in his Salon article,Climate change, Benghazi, the Fed: The science behind the right’s irrational obsession with conspiracies.
SkS Spotlights
Coming Soon on SkS
- From Pole to Pole - a climate-themed tour through a zoo (Baerbel W)
- 2014 Arctic sea ice extent - 6th lowest in millennia (Dana)
- 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #43A (John Hartz)
- Scientists to Explain 'Climate at Your Doorstep' at New Online Hub (Lisa Song, InsideClimate News)
- Guest Post (John Abraham)
- Forget ‘saving the Earth’ – it’s an angry beast that we’ve awoken (Clive Hamilton)
- 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #43B (John Hartz)
Poster of the Week
SkS Week in Review
- 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #42B by John Hartz
- Why ice sheets will keep melting for centuries to come by Eelco Rohling
- 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #42A by John Hartz
- Scientist in focus – Arctic adventurer Will Steger by John Abraham
- Ocean Warming has been Greatly Underestimated by Rob Painting
- Dinner with global warming contrarians, disaster for dessert by Dana
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