Posted on 11 October 2015 by John Hartz

SkS Highlights

The Republican Party stands alone in climate denial by Dana Nuccitelli (Climate Consensus-the 97%, The Guardian) attracted the most comments of the articles posted on SkS during the past week. 2015: Still No Let Up in Ocean Warming by Rob Painting garnered the second highet number of comments.

El Niño Watch

El Niño that is among the strongest on record is gaining strength in the Pacific Ocean, and climate scientists say California is likely to face a wet winter.

“There’s no longer a possibility that El Niño wimps out at this point. It’s too big to fail,” said Bill Patzert, climatologist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge.

“And the winter over North America is definitely not going to be normal,” he said.

Massive El Niño is now 'too big to fail,' scientist says by Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times, Oct 9, 2015

Toon of the Week

Hat tip to I Heart Climate Scientists

Quotes of the Week

“We have had a global temperature rise of almost 1C since the industrial revolution and have already seen widespread impacts that have had real consequences for people,” said climate expert Professor Chris Field of Stanford University. “We should therefore be striving to limit warming to as far below 2C as possible. However, that will require a level of ambition that we have not yet seen.”

World will pass crucial 2C global warming limit, experts warn by Robin McKie, The Observer, Oct 10, 2015

We have lost precious time as a result: decades during which we could have built a smart electricity grid, fostered efficiency and renewables and generated thousands of jobs in a cleaner, greener economy. There is still time to prevent the worst disruptions of human-driven climate change, but the challenge is now much greater than it needed to be, in no small part because of the choices that Exxon Mobil made. 

Exxon’s Climate Concealment, Op-ed by Naomi Orsekes, New York Times, Oct 9, 2015

He Said What?

This isn’t the first time  Cruz* and the climate denier community have focused on a disputed claim that there has been no increase in global temperatures over the last 15 to 18 years, nor is it the first time actual scientists have had to debunk his conclusions. A March 27 Fact Checkercolumn in the Washington Post looked at Cruz’s comment on a late night TV show that “satellite data demonstrate for the last 17 years, there’s been zero warming.” The Post delved into the science behind the issue and gave Cruz three out of four Pinnochios, finding his claim was “mostly false.”

*U.S. Sen, Ted Cruze (R-TX)

Ted Cruz Lies Again About the Science of Climate Change by Denis Dison, NRDC Action Fund/EcoWatch, Oct 11, 2015 

Coming Soon on SkS

• Guest post (John Abraham)
• Understanding climate feedbacks (Eric Wollff)
• Conservative media isoprene misinformation (Dana)
• The pope, climate change and the cultural dimensions of the Anthropocene (Andrew J Hoffman)
• 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #42 (John Hartz)
• 2015 SkS Weekly Digest #42 (John Hartz) 

SkS Spotlights

Exxon: The Road Not Taken

After eight months of investigation, InsideClimate News presents this multi-part history of Exxon's engagement with the emerging science of climate change. The story spans four decades, and is based on primary sources including internal company files dating back to the late 1970s, interviews with former company employees, and other evidence, much of which is being published here for the first time.

It describes how Exxon conducted cutting-edge climate research decades ago and then, without revealing all that it had learned, worked at the forefront of climate denial, manufacturing doubt about the scientific consensus that its own scientists had confirmed.

Poster of the Week

SkS Week in Review 

• 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #41 by John Hartz
• Global warming is shrinking California's critical snowpack by John Abraham (Climate Consensus-the 97%, The Guardian)
• B.C. lowballing fugitive methane emissions from natural gas industry by Andy Skuce
• 2015: Still No Let Up in Ocean Warming by Rob Painting
• Skeptical Science reader survey - thanks for your feedback by Baerbel Winkler 
• The Republican Party stands alone in climate denial by Dana Nuccitelli (Climate Consensus-the 97%, The Guardian)
• 2015 SkS Weekly Digest #40 by John Hartz

97 Hours of Consensus: Dennis Hartmann

Dennis Hartmann's bio page & Quote source