Posted on 27 March 2016 by John Hartz

SkS Highlights

How to inoculate people against Donald Trump's fact bending claims by John Cook & Margaret Crane (The Conversation US) attracted the most number of comments of the articles posted on SkS during the past week. Current record-shattering temperatures are shocking even to climate scientists by Dana Nucitelli (Climate Consensus - the 97%) garnered the second highest number of comments. Temperature tantrums on the campaign trail by Andy Skuce collected the third highest. 

El Niño Impacts

One of the strongest El Niño periods on record and a positive phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation were the climate drivers in 2015 that led to an exceptional season of Pacific tropical storms and severe windstorms and flooding in Europe, according to a report published by Guy Carpenter & Co.

Nevertheless, 2015 was a quiet year in terms of global insured losses, which totaled around $30.5 billion, said the report titled “Global Catastrophe Review – 2015.”

2015 Global Insured Losses Lowest Since 2009 Despite El Niño Effects by Guy Carpenter, Insurance Journal, Mar 25, 2016

Toon of the Week

Quote of the Week 

Global investment in coal and gas-fired power generation plants fell to less than half that in renewable energy generation last year, in a record year for clean energy.

It was the first time that renewable energy made up a majority of all the new electricity generation capacity under construction around the world, and the first year in which the financial investment by developing countries in renewables outstripped that of the developed world.

Catherine Mitchell, professor of energy policy at the University of Exeter, said the developments were “extremely significant” and showed a new trend. She said: “We are looking at serious sums of money being invested in clean energy, with the dirtiest forms of fossil fuels the losers. This is the direction of travel that we need to see to have a chance of escaping the worst impacts of climate change.”

Global coal and gas investment falls to less than half that in clean energy by Fiona Harvey, Guardian, Mar 24, 2016

He Said What?

But it is (Donald) Trump’s recent interview with the Washington Post editorial board that underscores how even in his anti-scientific ignorance, Trump is uninformed. In the final seconds of his hour-long interview (when else?), Fred Hiatt, the editorial page editor, asked the New York tycoon, “You think climate change is a real thing? Is there human-caused climate change?” Trump replied:

I think there’s a change in weather. I am not a great believer in man-made climate change. I’m not a great believer. There is certainly a change in weather that goes — if you look, they had global cooling in the 1920s and now they have global warming, although now they don’t know if they have global warming. They call it all sorts of different things; now they’re using “extreme weather” I guess more than any other phrase. I am not — I know it hurts me with this room, and I know it’s probably a killer with this room — but I am not a believer. Perhaps there’s a minor effect, but I’m not a big believer in man-made climate change.

Trump Even Gets Climate Denial Wrong by Joe Romm, Climate Progress, Mar 24, 2016

SkS in the News

How to inoculate people against Donald Trump's fact bending claims by John Cook & Margaret Crane originally published in The Conversation US was republished in: Australasian Science, Business Insider, Raw Story, Econotimes, and Guardian. 

Michael Mann concludes his Letter-to-the-Editor about climate change published in the Columbia Basin Herald with:

"Readers interested in the truth behind the science should consult scientist-run websites like skepticalscience.com, or books on the topic like my own “Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change.” Let’s get past the fake debate about whether the problem exists, and on to the worthy debate about what to do about it." 

SkS Spotlights

Climate Central is an independent organization of leading scientists and journalists researching and reporting the facts about the Earth's changing climate and its impact on the public. 

Climate Central surveys and conducts scientific research on climate change and informs the public of key findings. Its scientists publish and our journalists report on climate science, energy, sea level rise, wildfires, drought, and related topics. Climate Central is not an advocacy organization.   

Coming Soon on SkS

• Consensus among meteorologists on global warming (John Abraham)
• Six burning questions for climate science to answer post-Paris (John Church, Alistair Hobday, Andrew Lenton & Steve Rintoul)
• Why is 2016 smashing heat records? (Karl Mathiesen)
• Global food production threatens to overwhelm efforts to combat climate change (Pep Canadell & Hanqin Tian)
• After COP21: 7 Key Tasks to Implement the Paris Agreement (Eliza Northrop & Melisa Krnjaic)
• 2016 SkS Weekly News Roundup #14 (John Hartz)
• 2016 SkS Weekly Digest #14 (John Hartz)

Poster of the Week

SkS Week in Review

• 2016 SkS Weekly News Roundup #13 by John Hartz
• Dangerous global warming will happen sooner than thought – study by Joshua Robertson (Climate Change, Guardian)
• Temperature tantrums on the campaign trail by Andy Skuce
• How to inoculate people against Donald Trump's fact bending claims by John Cook & Margaret Crane (The Conversation US)
• In-depth: the scientific challenge of extreme weather attribution by Roz Pidcock (Carbon Brief)
• Current record-shattering temperatures are shocking even to climate scientists by Dana Nucitelli (Climate Consensus - the 97%)
• 2016 SkS Weekly Digest #12 by John Hartz 

97 Hours of Consensus: Susan Solomon

Susan Solomon's bio page

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