Posted on 29 May 2016 by John Hartz

SkS Highlights

In-depth: Experts assess the feasibility of ‘negative emissions’ by Carbon Brief staff (Carbon Brief) attracted the highest number of comments of the articles posted on SkS during the past week. Donald Trump wants to build a wall – to save his golf course from global warming by Dana Nuccitelli (Climate Consensus - the 97%, Guardian) garnered the second highest number of comments. 

El Niño to La Niña

After a year of driving global temperatures to unprecedented warmth, the giant El Nino weather event in the Pacific is officially over, raising hopes that drought-hit regions may be in for some relief in Australia and elsewhere.

The Bureau of Meteorology, which was the first to declare the event had begun a year ago, on Tuesday said sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific had dropped back to neutral conditions. Other indicators, such as the resumption of the typically westward-blowing tradewinds, also supported proof of the event's demise.

El Nino bows out after driving year of record heat as La Nina lurks in the wings by Peter Hannam, Sydney Morning Herald, May 25, 2016

Toon of the Week

Hat tip to I Heart Climate Scientists

Quote of the Week 

Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club environmentalist group, was taken aback by Trump’s address.

“I have never heard more contradiction in one hour than I heard in the speech,” he told the Guardian.

“There are pools of oil industry waste water that are deeper than Trump’s grasp of energy.”

Trump gave the speech – which Brune also called “a jumbled collection of oil industry talking points that are devoid from reality in the market place” – in a packed arena that generated an atmosphere more like that of a campaign rally than a staid industry conference.

Donald Trump would allow Keystone XL pipeline and end Paris climate deal by Ben Jacobs, Guardian, May 26, 2016

He Said What?

“We believe that addressing the risk of climate change is a global issue,” Rex Tillerson, chairman, president, and CEO of Exxon, told shareholders during his opening remarks, which were streamed online. Touting his company’s record on the environment, Tillerson said ExxonMobil has invested $7 billion since 2000 to reduce the company’s emissions. He also said the company supports a revenue-neutral carbon price.

“Relative to the understand of the science, there’s no space between us and the IPCC,” he said, but he framed the IPCC’s push to keep climate change below 2°C as a policy issue. He also stressed that the world will continue to need fossil fuels. “Just saying ‘turn the taps off’ is not acceptable to humanity,” Tillerson said.

“It is a judgment of balance between future climatic events which could be catastrophic but are unknown, by the IPCC’s own acknowledgement, and more immediate needs of humanity today to address poverty, starvation, broad-based disease control, and the quality of life that billions of people are living in today, which is unacceptable to many of us,” Tillerson said.

Exxon’s CEO Just Won: His Shareholders Rejected Climate Change Proposals by Samantha Page, Climate Progress, May 25, 2016 

SkS Spotlights

Since its foundation, the Aspen Global Change Institute (AGCI) has been working to facilitate critical scientific discussions on subjects in Earth systems science. Under the direction of its first scientific advisory board, AGCI held its first summer session in 1990. Since that first meeting, AGCI has held over 50 such workshops, gathering more than 1,000 scientists from 35 countries over that time. In addition to furthering research on a specific topic, these workshops benefit the broader community, as scientists who attend the meetings become ambassadors for interdisciplinary science, subsequently helping to break down disciplinary barriers and promoting relevant scientific engagement with the public.

Coming Soon on SkS

• Study Helps Explain Sea Ice Differences at Earth's Poles (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
• Scientists wonder if they should experiment with climate hacking to prevent a catastrophe (Dana)
• Scientists compare climate change impacts at 1.5C and 2C (Roz Pidcock)
• Greenland’s Melt Season Started Nearly Two Months Early (Brian Kahn)
• Development banks threaten to unleash an infrastructure tsunami on the environment (Bill Laurance)
• 2016 SkS Weekly News Roundup #23 (John Hartz)
• 2016 SkS Weekly Digest #23 (John Hartz) 

Poster of the Week

SkS Week in Review

• 2016 SkS Weekly News Roundup #22 by John Hartz
• Meteorologists are seeing global warming's effect on the weather by Paul Douglas (Climate Consensus - the 97%, Guardian)
• Donald Trump wants to build a wall – to save his golf course from global warming by Dana Nuccitelli (Climate Consensus - the 97%, Guardian)
• In-depth: Experts assess the feasibility of ‘negative emissions’ by Carbon Brief staff (Carbon Brief)
• Tracking the 2°C Limit - April 2016 by Rob Honeycutt
• Climate denial arguments fail a blind test by Dana Nuccitelli (Climate Consensus - the 97%, Guardian)
• 2016 SkS Weekly Digest #21 by John Hartz

97 Hours of Consensus: Gifford Miller

Gifford Miller's bio page & Quote source