Climate Crisis

Quote of the Day – 19 January 2010

“… All scientists are, by definition, skeptics. Hence the motto of the Royal Society of London, one of the world’s oldest scientific academies (founded in 1660), Nullius in verba: “Take nobody’s word.” Skeptics and good scientists question and change their minds when presented with competing and convincing evidence. Indeed, scientific reputations are made by identifying flaws in current thinking, developing and testing new hypotheses, and by being right, not wrong. And while all scientists (and all people) make mistakes, good ones acknowledge their mistakes, correct them, and refine our knowledge. Bad ones dig in their heels, defending a faulty paradigm to the bitter end.

While a huge amount of effort is put into debunking the bad science promoted by climate deniers, scientists work to correct errors in understanding about climate on all sides. … “

— Peter Gleick
— “A Brief Lesson in the Integrity of Science: Climate Scientists Challenge Bad Science, No Matter the Source“
— The Huffington Post

www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-h-gleick/a-brief-lesson-in-the-int_b_811295.html
www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-h-gleick
www.huffingtonpost.com/

Quote of the Day — 18 January 2011

The dramatic shrinking of Arctic sea ice and the Northern Hemisphere’s glaciers and snowfields has reduced the radiation of sunlight back into space more than scientists previously predicted, according to a new study in the journal Nature Geoscience.

As a result, the ocean and land mass exposed by the melting ice and snow have absorbed more heat, contributing to global warming.

The “albedo” effect, in which the blinding white cover reflects sunshine, has been calculated in numerous computer-generated climate models. But the new study goes beyond those theoretical calculations. Using field measurements and satellite observations, a team led by University of Michigan researcher Mark Flanner found that the warming effect of the loss of snow and ice is “substantially larger” than was predicted in the estimates of 18 climate models.

— Margot Roosevelt
— “The melting Arctic: a bigger-than-estimated impact on climate“
— Greenspace. Los Angeles Times

latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/01/global-warming-arctic-sea-ice.html
latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace
latimes.com

Quote of the Day —

” Although there is an important role for scepticism in science, for almost 30 years some corporations have supported a disinformation campaign about climate change science.

While it may be reasonable to be somewhat sceptical about climate change models, these untruths are not based upon reasonable scepticism but outright falsification and distortions of climate change science.

These claims have included assertions that the science of climate change has been completely “debunked” and that there is no evidence of human causation of recent observed warming. There are numerous lines of evidence that point to human causation even if it is not a completely settled matter. Reasonable scepticism cannot claim that there is no evidence of causation and some other claims frequently being made by the well-financed climate change disinformation campaign, and they amount to an utter distortion of a body of evidence that the world needs to understand to protect itself from huge potential harms. …

… This might be understood as a new type of crime against humanity. Scepticism in science is not bad, but sceptics must play by the rules of science including publishing their conclusions in peer-reviewed scientific journals and not make claims that are not substantiated by the peer-reviewed literature. The need for responsible scepticism is particularly urgent if misinformation from sceptics could lead to great harm.

We may not have a word for this type of crime yet, but the international community should find a way of classifying extraordinarily irresponsible scientific claims that could lead to mass suffering as some type of crime against humanity. ”

— Donald Brown
— “Is climate science disinformation a crime against humanity?“
— guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2010/nov/01/climate-science-disinformation-crime
www.guardian.co.uk

Quote of the Day — 14 January 2011

How often do you have to get hit on the head before you say “ouch.” Or before you even say “stop hitting me on the head”? For climate deniers, probably forever. We can expect them to talk about how cold the winter is, here or there.But for the rest of us, enough should be enough. The planet has a fever and it’s getting worse.

— Peter Gleick
— “2010 Hottest Year on Record: The Graph That Should Be on the Front Page of Every Newspaper“
— Huffington Post

www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-h-gleick/the-graph-that-should-be-_b_808747.html
www.huffingtonpost.com/

Quote of the Day — 13 January 2011

” … it is not just leading by example that makes a difference. While I have always been wary of the eco-nag as giving us greenies a bad name, there is apparently some research to suggest that a well-placed moan can make all the difference—depending on who is doing the moaning, of course:

“People trust those they know. Our partners have the greatest influence on the decisions we make (so say 58% of people) and their impact is partly due to nagging. Some 69% of men say they are most likely to be influenced by those that nag them. Our friends have a huge amount of sway as well (41% cite their influence). That cuts both ways – that means our friends will listen to us as well as us listening to them. There is well-known psychology behind these results. The simple fact is that we humans generally don’t like to go against the grain. We are social creatures and our social order is constructed out of behavioural norms that – by and large – we sign up to.”

Maybe it’s OK to nag after all. ”

— Sami Grover
— “Celebrity Climate Campaigns Only Go So Far. Your Nagging Girlfriend Matters More“
— treehugger.com

www.treehugger.com/files/2011/01/celebrity-climate-campaigns.php
www.treehugger.com

Quote of the Day — 12 January 2100

” As a leading insurance group we can observe in our data base in some regions a change of loss patterns from weather catastrophes in the past decades. To secure risk transfer to the private insurance sector in the future, the understanding of potential impacts from climate change on losses from atmospheric perils is essential. The relevance of climate data and their interpretation for business purposes will play a more and more important role in the future. “

— Ernst Rauch
Head Corporate Climate Centre at Munich Re
UNEP Press Release, 12 January 2011.

campaign.r20.constantcontact.com
www.unepfi.org
www.sustainable-investment.org
www.cfi21.org

Quote of the Day — 10 January 2011

The climate sceptics have a political agenda rather than a scientific one. They want to defeat the argument that global warming requires action, regulation and legislation. But while they have been emboldened in their attempts to do this over the last year, the case for radical action to tackle climate change has become greater than ever. …

…The picture painted by climate sceptics is not accurate. There is not an equal number on either side of the debate with relatively equally compelling evidence to support theories of global warming and theories that challenge it. …

… Often the world view of many of the new breed of individual bloggers challenging the climate science is one which clearly sympathises with the notion that ideas of global warming have been cooked up by liberal scientists who want to see less individual freedom and more state control in people’s lives. However, more often than not, the attacks come from think tanks and research institutes that are industry funded but present themselves as independent. …

…The climate sceptics do not need to disprove the science or even convince millions that the science is wrong. They simply need to muddy the water and raise doubts. This way they can make climate change seem less of a priority. They can ensure that even if people believe it is happening, they can hope that something can be done about it in the future or another part of the world. Such an approach can be even more persuasive in a recession.

The economic crisis is giving greater weight to those who want as little regulation as possible aimed at cutting carbon emissions.

— Suzanne Jeffery
— “Why we should be sceptical of climate sceptics“
— International Socialism
— www.isj.org.uk

www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=705&issue=129
www.isj.org.uk

Quote of the Day — 7 January 2011

“… So when the new chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee says E.P.A. cannot pass by regulation what Congress failed to pass by law, let me correct him – Congress passed our Clean Air laws, Republican Presidents signed them, and those are the laws the E.P.A. is following… ”

— Barbara Boxer
— United States Senate

green.blogs.nytimes.com
green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/e-p-a-faces-first-volley-from-the-house/

Quote of the Day — 3 January 2011

Drexel University professor Robert Brulle has analyzed nightly network news since the 1980s. Last year’s climate coverage was so miniscule, he said, that he’s doubting his data.

“I can’t believe it’s this little. In the U.S., it’s just gone off the map,” he said. “It’s pretty clear we’re back to 2004, 2005 levels.”

Coverage of December’s United Nations climate talks in Cancun is Exhibit A: Total meeting coverage by the networks consisted of one 10-second clip, Brulle said. By contrast, 2009’s Copenhagen talks generated 32 stories totaling 98 minutes of airtime. “I’m trying to check it again and again,” Brulle said of the 2010 data. “It’s so little, it’s stunning.”

Overall, based on preliminary data, the networks aired 32 stories on climate change last year, compared to 84 in 2009 and 144 in 2007, when former Vice President Al Gore released his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a key assessment on climate change. The two shared the Nobel Peace Prize that year.

“The cycle of media interest in climate change has run its course, and this story is no longer considered newsworthy,” Brulle said

— Douglas Fischer
— “2010 in review: The year climate coverage ‘fell off the map.’,” The Daily Climate

http://www.dailyclimate.org/
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2011/01/climate-coverage

Quote of the Day — 1 January 2011 (New Year’s Day)

” For the artistically minded, the best way to solve a problem is indirectly. How many great discoveries have been accidents? How often do we set out on one course and arrive at an unexpected destination? So, perhaps the best way to address the climate crisis is to address something else. This is why I often say that I’m not interested in solving our climate change crisis. The crisis that needs solving is the crisis of the human imagination….

…The crisis is of imagination. It is the war. “The only war that matters,” as the great poet

Diane DiPrima repeats and repeats.:

There is no way out of the spiritual battle
the war is the war against the imagination
you can’t sign up as a conscientious objector

the war is the war for the human imagination
and no one can fight it but you & no one can fight it for you

… ”

— Carter Brooks
— “Preface,” Who Will Cry for the Ice