If we are to make sound decisions, there is little room for anecdotal evidence or knee-jerk responses guided by personal philosophy. - Ed Yong
In defence of DeSmogBlog
Many progressive types have been attacking DeSmogBlog for its stance in the BC election. The folks over at DeSmogBlog have come out strongly against the proposed BC NDP GHG reduction plan (as have I and many others). But is this really a shock to anyone? But if carbon taxes are popular among economists, they are... Continue Reading →
On small cars, safety and externalities
News that small cars are more dangerous has been everywhere since the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety issued a report that said: That crash dummies in all three models tested — the Honda Fit, the Toyota Yaris and the Smart Fortwo — fared poorly in the collisions. By contrast, the midsize models into which they... Continue Reading →
The problem with judging an argument by its merits
As a matter of logic, of course judging an argument by it’s merits is the only way to go. There is one major problem however, most of us simply aren’t in a position to judge an argument by its merits, and given a skilled peddler of horseshit, attempting to judge an argument by its merits... Continue Reading →
Arctic sitting on thin ice… literally
Usually stories about arctic sea ice don’t pop up until the end of the summer melt season, but thanks to a relatively warm winter (at least in the arctic) this year we are already inundated with stories about the sorry state of the arctic sea ice. Arctic sea ice younger, thinner as melt season begins... Continue Reading →
On geo-engineering
Sparked by John Holdren’s comments in regards to geo-engineering: There is a lot of skepticism- much of it well-founded, some of it hysterical and unreasoned- surrounding geo-engineering. Many view it along with CCS as nothing more than a more sophisticated attempt to move the goal posts on emissions reductions further still into the future even... Continue Reading →
George Will debunked not once, not twice, not even three times, but four times by WaPo articles
George Will’s recent articles on climate change In the Washington Post have been thoroughly debunked, despite this no correction has been issued. We have, however, gotten the next best thing, four Washington Post articles calling out George Will for the blatant falsehoods in his articles. This first article is by Chris Mooney, who does a... Continue Reading →
Global warming deniers getting stupider
Yes stupider is a word. Don’t believe me? Look it up. Lately global warming deniers have been really scraping the bottom of the barrel with their arguments. Sadly none of this is an April fools joke. First up to bat is William Happer who argues that really the earth is in a CO2 famine because... Continue Reading →
How to assassinate the truth
The Gravityloss blog has an excellent post on how deniers can, and do, effectively assassinate the truth. The First Phase: Get a media channel. This is usually a columnist in a large newspaper. Might also be a web news site reporter. Or a celebrity. Call this person X. X writes or says something completely false,... Continue Reading →
It’s OK, if you are a climate change denier
Remember the outcry when Micheal Tobis merely asked the question ‘is unfairly criticizing those pushing for action on climate change and thus delaying action morally equivalent to killing people’? And then answered only by saying “It's not all that obvious to me that it isn't.” Deniers like Marc Morano instantly claimed that: “Scientists claim that... Continue Reading →
Why the fairness doctrine is a stupendously bad idea
Just in case you still weren’t convinced:
Canada’s creationism problem
Gary Goodyear, the federal Minister of State for Science and Technology (who was already on shaky grounds with scientists), recently caused quite a stir when he refused to say whether or not he accepted evolution. “I'm not going to answer that question. I am a Christian, and I don't think anybody asking a question about... Continue Reading →
Good news from the Greenland ice sheet, bad news from elsewhere
From Climate Feedback: Jonathan Bamber of Bristol University was talking about the stability of the Greenland ice sheet at a session on tipping points. There was a widely cited Brief Communication in Nature that came out just after the Exeter meeting and was discussed there which suggested that if global temperatures rose above 3 degrees... Continue Reading →
An illustration of the climate change debate
Is it any wonder why a disconnect exists between the public and the scientific positions in regards to climate change? Graph created by Michael Tobis The horizontal axis above refers to an unconstrained emissions ("business as usual") scenario. The vertical axis is roughly proportional to the probability of finding that an expert's opinion is matched... Continue Reading →
Oregon Coast Pictures
The best of my pictures from my recent trip to the Oregon Coast:
Monckton’s silly graph: Part 3
Monckton just can’t help himself. Monckton has updated his silly graph, and now the Cuffey and Clow graph (correctly cited this time around!), has been adapted from the original which represented temperatures in Greenland, to represent Antarctic temperatures. How exactly did he accomplish this impressive feat? The same way he took the original and made... Continue Reading →
Why I accept the scientific consensus on global warming, and what would change my mind
It will come as no surprise to those who read my blog, that I fully accept the scientific consensus on climate change. The question is why? And what would cause me to change my mind. No matter what your position on this issue, I think everyone can agree that people who are unwilling to change... Continue Reading →
Al Gore vs George Will
Two recent events have provided us clear view of the difference between those who wish to communicate clearly the science of climate change and those wish to deny it. The first instance come to us courtesy of Al Gore. Now as pretty much everyone is aware Al Gore gets a lot of flack, some of... Continue Reading →
Unprecedented global warming in past year! Warming 20 times greater than predicted! Oceans to boil any day now!
The rate of warming for the past year is far greater than even the most crazed alarmists predicted. We are all doomed! From January 2008 to January 2009, the planet warmed a remarkable 0.37°C (see data here). This is 20 times (!) the annual rate of warming in recent decades and 20 times what most... Continue Reading →
Deniers aren’t skeptical, they are gullible
I’ve written about the difference between skeptics and deniers before, but I think I missed the most obvious reason why deniers are not, and cannot be called skeptics. Deniers simply aren’t skeptical; in fact they are completely gullible. This can be seen over and over again as deniers willingly accept ‘theories’ that fall apart under... Continue Reading →
Why we all need to care about future generations
(h/t A Few Thing Ill Considered)
Back from the Oregon Coast
I am back from a wonderful week on the Oregon coast. I promise to post some pictures as soon as I can go through the hundreds of pictures we took. On another note I realized something as I was driving home yesterday. Our trip to the Oregon coast may have included driving for almost 2000... Continue Reading →
I’m getting the hell out of dodge…
… and going to the Oregon coast for a week. Be back soon, hopefully with some pretty pictures I can post.
Where is the debate on climate change taking place?
Whenever I mention the scientific consensus on climate change I get plenty of people pointing to opinion pieces or blog posts written by people who clearly do not agree that a consensus exists. Of course it is obvious that not everyone accepts the consensus, but it is clear that within the scientific community there is... Continue Reading →
The 1998 cherry pick
One of the common threads of most denier rants on recent temperature change is cherry picking 1998 as the start of their analysis. This is a dead giveaway that they either are clueless about basic statistics or are being dishonest. The fact is that 1998 was a highly anomalous year. A strong el Niño effect... Continue Reading →
Antarctic warming derangement syndrome
Recently an article was published in Nature which came to the conclusion that despite an earlier belief Antarctica has not been cooling, but rather warming. Given that deniers use the possibility that Antarctica may have been cooling as ‘proof’ of that climate change is a farce, many now predictably refuse to accept the results of... Continue Reading →
How real people (aka non-cranks) debate science
In reading up for an upcoming post on the recent paper in Nature I came across a simple 4 point list showing how real people aka non-cranks/denialists/deniers debate scientific issues. Not knowing everything is not a synonym for not knowing anything; Listing things one doesn’t know in no way negates what you do know, especially... Continue Reading →
Global Warming is over! once every decade or so …
Given the recent spade of ‘global warming is over’ articles over the past few months I figured this article by Greenfyre is particularly relevant. It’s true, just like the Deniers say, Global Warming is over … again, and again, and again. Not as often as they claim it is, but pretty often! Global Warming ends... Continue Reading →
Clean Coal
(h/t Greg Laden) There is no such thing as clean coal.
Good news regarding climate change and the use of coal?
As unlikely as the title of this post seems, there may actually be come good news regarding the use of coal and climate change. The first part of this news is something that is mostly obvious, and at first brush doesn’t seem like good news at all. New climate change scenarios quantify the idea that... Continue Reading →
Monckton’s silly graph: Part 2
It seems one silly graph isn’t enough for the great Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley. Behold his latest folly: At first brush this may appear to be an entirely sensible graph, but take a closer look. What do the vertical numbers in the middle of the graph represent? Are they just a misplaced... Continue Reading →
Monckton’s silly graph
This is the crux of Monckton’s latest anti-science, climate change denier rant. Bellow the graph was this text: Figure 3 shows two things very clearly. First, carbon dioxide concentration is rising, and will continue to rise, in a more or less straight line; secondly, there is no correlation, and hence necessarily no causative connection, between... Continue Reading →