Allie Wilkinson writing in ArsTechnica brings us some bad news: Evidence from caves in Siberia indicates that a global temperature increase of 1.5° Celsius may cause substantial thawing of a large tract of permanently frozen soil in Siberia. The thawing of this soil, known as permafrost, could have serious consequences for further changes in the... Continue Reading →
Another pipeline proposal
In my recent post on the Keystone XL pipeline I mentioned that until digging up the bitumen becomes unprofitable there will be an endless parade of proposals to ship the bitumen to markets around the world. TansCanada (which is also behind the Keystone XL pipeline) has just announced a proposal to convert an existing natural... Continue Reading →
Thinking beyond pipelines: A rebuttal
My latest post on the Keystone XL pipeline was, unsurprisingly, not well received by some of the Planet3.0. I argued that I don't think the fighting the Keystone XL pipeline is the best use of our limited resources. In the comments Andy Skuce provided a rebuttal that deserves to be promoted to its own post.... Continue Reading →
Thinking beyond pipelines
The Keystone XL pipeline proposal, which would transport diluted bitumen from the Alberta tar sands to refineries on the gulf of Mexico coast, is in the news again because of the recent protests outside the White House and the because of the recent appointment of Senator John Kerry to the position of Secretary of State... Continue Reading →
Canadian Environmental regulations are falling behind
Scott Vaughan, Canada's departing Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, released his final report. In it he describes how the development of Canada's natural resources is running dangerously ahead of Canada’s laws and policies to protect the environment. The Pembina Institute highlights the clearest example: Right now, the absolute (“no fault”) limit that oil... Continue Reading →
Jon Foley on why environmentalists disagree with each other
I think a lot of debates we see in the environmental community boil down to people having different "theories of change". A theory of change is simply that: a theory about how you think the world changes for the better. Some people think the world changes because of political movements. Others think it takes cultural... Continue Reading →
Confused?
via XKCD
Obama on Climate
Having the leader of the free world state so clearly that we must respond to the threat of climate change is absolutely a good thing. Having him state that the path is both long and difficult is even better. But forgive me for being cynical; haven't we heard all of this before? I truly hope... Continue Reading →
Aaron Swartz, 1986-2013
This past weekend open-access advocate and activist Aaron Swartz sadly took his own life. He was 26 years old. Aaron accomplished more in his 26 years than most people do in a lifetime. At the age of 14 he co-authored the RSS 1.0 specification (RSS is what powers the Planet3.0 blogs section). He became friends... Continue Reading →
The colour of hot or inadequate heatmaps
The recent Australasian heatwave has been so unprecedented that the Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has had to add a new colour (purple) to represent the hottest region: But the Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology new colour is not unprecedented. In 2010/2011 the arctic got so hot that James Hansen was forced to add the colour pink... Continue Reading →
Calamari!!!
The first ever video of a Giant Squid in its deep-ocean habitat.
Richard Alley: Ice sheets and sea level in a warming world
(h/t Peter Sinclair)
Santa’s regret
via Skeptical Science
Bah Humbug!
Physicists who want to protect traditional Christmas realize that the only way to keep from changing Christmas is not to observe it. (via xkcd) That is all.
The relativity of wrong
A recent comment on Planet3.0 gave me an excuse to post a link to Isaac Asimov's excellent essay on the Relativity of wrong, and I realized that I had never posted it here. So here it is for the record: The Relativity of Wrong By Isaac Asimov The Skeptical Inquirer, Fall 1989, Vol. 14, No.... Continue Reading →
The web we lost: XKCD edition
XKCD sums up the problem perfectly:
Ready for the end
Frankly I don't understand what all the fuss is about
The web we lost
I might sound old when I start rambling about the way things used to be, but Anil Dash's post about how the web used to be before the rise of walled gardens like Facebook is definitely must read: So here's a few glimpses of a web that's mostly faded away: Five years ago, most social... Continue Reading →
About that IPCC cosmic rays game changer…
... or nothing to see here. Move along folks. All of this cosmic nonsense was pre-debunked by Richard Alley in his great AGU talk from 2009 titled: The Biggest Control Knob: Carbon Dioxide in Earth's Climate History (starting at about 42 minutes): So despite what you might have read at some less-than-reputable publications, the recent... Continue Reading →
The largest iceberg break-up ever filmed
I find it hard to fully comprehend the scale of it
Quote of the day
We all know what to do, we just don’t know how to get re-elected after we’ve done it. -Jean-Claude Juncker Talking about financial reforms, but the exact same situation applies to climate/sustainability.
TEDx on spotting pseudoscience
TEDx has recently been used as a platform for pseudoscience, and in response they have published an open letter full of good advice on how non experts can spot pseudoscience. The letter makes it clear that there are some usually visible differences between good science and pseudoscience: Marks of good science: It makes claims that... Continue Reading →
How many gigatons of CO2?
Check out the Guardian Data Blog for the whole infographic
The consensus visualized
via James Lawrence Powell
Successful Predictions
This talk, by Ray Pierrehumbert, is an excellent response to Naomi Oreskes' observation that: "climate scientists are so busy talking about stuff they don't understand that they never get around to taking credit for what they got right." UPDATE: Steve Easterbrook has compiled a helpful list of the successful predictions in Ray Pierrehumbert's talk: Here... Continue Reading →
Everything that is wrong with Instagram in one horrible video
... and this doesn't even include the Twitter cards issue.
The History of Climate Change Negotiations in 83 seconds
Or why I don't expect much progress from the current meeting in Doha h/t New Anthropocene
A lack of interest in Doha
Perhaps you have heard that delegates from around the world have gathered in Doha to discuss what to do about the climate problem. Perhaps you hope that something worthwhile will come out of the negotiations. While I certainly do hope that something worthwhile is achieved by the delegates at Doha, I can't seem to garner much interest... Continue Reading →
The world is neither black nor white
I am tired of the fact that the vast majority of the opinionated reporting on the situation in Gaza portrays it as a simple good vs evil fight, with the roles of good and evil cast predictably by the writers political affiliation. Reality is not usually that simple and the situation in Israel and Gaza... Continue Reading →