on-climate.com

on February 17, 2010

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ar4-synthesis traveltex_thumb From Gautam Naik and Keith Johnson in The Wall Street Journal:

The spate of recent controversies about climate research has given fresh voice to a group of scientists who question the mainstream view that human activity is warming the planet to dangerous levels.

Very few scientists disagree that the earth’s climate has warmed since 1850. But some have long argued that there are too many uncertainties about man’s role in the warming, and that other factors, such as solar activity and the greenhouse effect of clouds, could account for a large part of the observed warming trend. Among this group are researchers who have criticized the limitations of past temperature records and mathematical models used to forecast future effects.

Such views are getting a fresh airing on the heels of two recent controversies dogging climate researchers. A United Nations group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, has been heavily criticized for publishing an unsubstantiated claim that Himalayan glaciers would entirely melt away by 2035. A recent report also included several other claims later found to lack a scientific basis, including predictions of the impact of climate change on agriculture in Africa and the retreat of Amazonian rain forests, among others.

…

The political fallout from the IPCC’s mistakes was evident Tuesday when Texas authorities announced the state was taking legal action against the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to curb greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. In its filing, the state argued that the information the EPA used to make its decision is based on data from the IPCC. Alfredo “Al” Armendariz, EPA regional administrator for Texas and other nearby states, said he expected the agency’s efforts to withstand a court challenge.

For the article…

No Slowdown of Global Warming, Agency Says

Published

on December 17, 2009

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From Andrew C. Revkin and James Kanter, The New York Times.

The decade of 2000 to 2009 appears to be the warmest one in the modern record, the World Meteorological Organization reported in a new analysis on Tuesday.

The announcement is likely to be viewed as a rejoinder to a renewed challenge from skeptics to the scientific evidence for global warming, as international negotiators here seek to devise a global response to climate change.

The period from 2000 through 2009 has been “warmer than the 1990s, which were warmer than the 1980s, and so on,” Michel Jarraud, the secretary general of the international weather agency, said at a news conference here.

To Read More…

Lies and the Lying Lies about Science, and Also, the Lies

Published

on December 15, 2009

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From firedoglake

It should be bizarre, but is in fact grimly typical, how the whole phony “climate-gate-scandal” has played out so far. Hundreds of emails between climate scientists were hacked — stolen — from servers at East Anglia University. The stolen materials were then misrepresented, distorted, and lied about, and the scientists involved abused, insulted, and accused of everything from deliberate fraud to acting as the willing dupes of the shadowy liberal-fascist “global warming industry.”

The bizarre part is that the only people being asked to Seriously Question Their Motives and Practices, or who are facing scrutiny for what they did, are the climate scientists who just got robbed, even though there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that they have actually done anything clearly unethical. (The worst bit is the suggestion as to deleting emails, something that everyone concedes is pretty bad and nobody is defending, though there’s no proof anything was ever deleted.) More important, nothing in all this nonsense even approaches a challenge to the science that shows the reality of global climate change, at least to a reasonable person.

To Read More…

Copenhagen Dispute Over IP

Published

on December 10, 2009

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From Leah Germain, University World News.

Proposals from China and India for the Copenhagen climate change conference that patent protection should be weakened for green inventions have generated significant concerns in universities, colleges and research centres.

Pro-intellectual property activists argue that a patent for their invention could mean the difference between a marketable, successful product and an interesting idea. Intellectual property rights or IPR and patent protection laws are coveted since they protect an innovator’s right to their hard work.

But developing country governments have noted that licences to reproduce a product can be expensive. China and India, along with 77 other developing countries, have set out a proposal for discussion at Copenhagen to liberalise global intellectual property rights for new innovations designed to reduce carbon emissions.

To Read More…

The Hacked Climate Change Emails: What They Do And Don’t Show

Published

on December 8, 2009

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climategate-cropped-proto-custom_21

From Zachary Roth, TPM.

So, what to make of those emails, stolen from a top climate research center in Britain, that conservatives are excitedly touting to argue that the science of climate change is fatally flawed?

The Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Henninger calls the episode “an epochal event” that shows “science is dying.” But underneath the bombast, the key question is whether the emails — hacked from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU), and indexed here — actually undermine the case, now settled, that man-made warming is happening. And despite the claims of the New York Post, among others, they don’t come close to doing so.

Exhibit A for conservatives has been the revelation in the emails that, back in the 1980s, CRU discarded a set of data on raw surface temperature. The Post argues that that means “it’s now impossible to check the CRU research,” and adds “So much for settling questions and resolving debates with science.”

Copenhagen Climate Change Conference: ‘Fourteen Days to Seal History’s Judgment on This Generation’

Published

on December 7, 2009

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From The Guardian

This editorial calling for action from world leaders on climate change is published today by 56 newspapers around the world in 20 languages.

Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.

Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year’s inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world’s response has been feeble and half-hearted.

Climate Breakthrough: Obama and China Commit to Change

Published

on December 6, 2009

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From Mark Hertsgaard, Vanity Fair.

You wouldn’t know it from the coverage in the mainstream media, but last week may go down as a turning point in the history of the climate crisis. After months of putting health care first, President Obama finally stepped up the plate and, amazingly, secured what has long been the Holy Grail of climate diplomacy: a U.S.-China climate deal. Speaking in Beijing on November 17 alongside Chinese president Hu Jintao, Obama said he hoped the U.S.-China accord would “rally the world” toward solutions at the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen, December 7 to 18. After months of Obama’s aides lowering expectations for Copenhagen, and even suggesting that he would not attend the summit, the president signaled that climate change is a top priority and that he is prepared to spend real political capital to achieve a breakthrough, both in Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill.

Global Warming is Still the Most Important Environmental Issue

Published

on December 6, 2009

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Poll by Roy Morgan Research

The most important environmental issues facing the World today are Global warming related issues (52%, down 1% from May 2009), ahead of Pollution (19%, down 5%), Water management and Drought (19%, up 6%) and Depletion of Resources (12%, down 5%).These are the results of a recent telephone Roy Morgan Survey on the most important environmental issues facing the World and Australia conducted in November 2009.

The most important environmental issue facing Australia today is Water management & Drought (45%, up 9%) ahead of Global warming related issues (34%, up 7%), Natural disasters (29%, up 9%) and Pollution issues (16%, down 3%).

World Environmental Issues

The precise environmental issues to increase since May this year are led by Climate change (21%, up 6%), now only just behind Global warming (23%, down 1%), Water conservation, Water management (11%, up 3%), Drought (8%, up 4%) and Famine (4%, up 3%).

Australian Environmental Issues

Since May several related environmental issues have increased significantly led by Water conservation, Water management (25%, up 5%), Drought (23%, up 7%), Climate change (16%, up 9%) and Bushfires (9%, up 5%).

When asked specifically about Global warming and the associated problems, 34% (up 11%) of Australians mentioned Rising sea levels, 27% (down 3%) cited Climate change, 17% (down 2%) said the Melting of polar ice caps and 13% (up 4%) mentioned the Greenhouse effect, Heating up of planet, Thermal blanket as a problem related to Global warming.

A slightly reduced majority of Australians aged 14+ (57%, down 1%) believe “If we don’t act now it will be too late” in relation to Global warming compared to 26% (unchanged) that say about Global warming that “Concerns are exaggerated.”

Slightly more Australians (13%, up 1%) say about Global warming that “It is already too late” while just 4% (unchanged) can’t say.

Businesses in U.S. Brace for New Rules on Emissions

Published

on December 4, 2009

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articlelarge By Jad Mouawad, in The New York Times.

The nation’s corporations have long been bracing for the day when they would be required to carry out sharp cuts in the emissions that cause global warming. That day seemed to move a bit closer on Wednesday, when President Obama outlined a national target for such reductions.

Much of corporate America has already been thinking about how to comply. Many businesses concluded years ago that such limits were inevitable, and they have been calling on Congress to define the exact rules they will need to follow.

Already, many companies are recording their emissions and analyzing the results. Some have set voluntary targets for reductions and are claiming substantial progress in meeting them. Sustainability — a notion mostly heard in environmental circles only a decade ago — has become a mainstream idea to which some companies are committed and many are paying lip service.

Major corporations, including General Electric, the Ford Motor Company and PepsiCo, have teamed up with environmental groups to set up the United States Climate Action Partnership, a wide-ranging coalition trying to find ways to cut emissions throughout the economy.

To read more…

Fuelling Fears: A Uranium Shortage Could Derail Plans to Go Nuclear to Cut Carbon Emissions

Published

on December 2, 2009

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climate From Economist.com

There is an awesome amount of energy tied up in an atom of uranium. Because of that, projections of the price of nuclear power tend to focus on the cost of building the plant rather than that of fuelling it. But proponents of nuclear energy—who argue, correctly, that such plants emit little carbon dioxide—would do well to remember that, like coal and oil, uranium is a finite resource.

Some 60% of the 66,500 tonnes of uranium needed to fuel the world’s existing nuclear power plants is dug fresh from the ground each year. The remaining 40% comes from so-called secondary sources, in the form of recycled fuel or redundant nuclear warheads. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is a United Nations body, and the Nuclear Energy Agency, which was formed by the rich countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, both reckon that, at present rates, these secondary sources will be exhausted within the next decade or so.

Warming Diagnosis: Beyond Worst Case

Published

on November 25, 2009

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From Adam Morton, in The Sydney Morning Herald.

KEY climate change measures are tracking near or beyond worse-case scenarios predicted just two years ago, according to a science update drawing on more than 200 recently published studies.

Co-authored by 26 climate scientists, The Copenhagen Diagnosis reports that melting of summer Arctic sea ice, loss of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and projections of the rise in sea levels have accelerated dramatically since 2007.

It finds the statistical global warming trend has continued over the past decade, contradicting assessments by some scientists - including Copenhagen Climate Council chairman Tim Flannery - that there has been a recent cooling.

The review cites NASA data that shows a trend of a 0.19-degree increase over the past decade despite short-term fluctuations due to El Nino, solar variability and volcanic eruptions.

Matthew England, co-director of the University of NSW Climate Change Research Centre, said the world’s three leading climate data series showed claims of temperatures cooling were ”patently untrue”.

”These are the data set even the sceptics go to, and they show that the last 10 years has been one of warming even if you start in [the particularly hot] 1998,” Professor England said.

”Since 2001, every year has been among the top-10 warmest on record. I don’t think that is cooling.”

The diagnosis is billed as a supplement to the 2007 report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and aimed at influencing debate at next month’s Copenhagen climate summit. Most of the scientists behind it are intergovernmental panel authors.

Not-so-wonderful Copenhagen: A Forthcoming Climate-change Summit Will Not Produce A Binding Deal On Emissions

Published

on November 24, 2009

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climate From The Economist.

Expectations for the Copenhagen climate conference, held next month in Denmark, have been steadily dwindling. On Sunday November 15th, as Barack Obama toured Asia, he and the Danish prime minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, quietly agreed what many had anticipated—that no binding agreement would be reached at the conference. There is now no hope of new legal targets for emissions-reductions to replace those set out in the Kyoto Protocol and which will lapse in 2012. Instead the pair suggested that the best to be expected is a political deal on cutting emissions.

Some of the blame for this must be directed at Capitol Hill. Not only will Mr Obama now not sign a cap-and-trade bill before Copenhagen; the Senate is not even expected to pass one. The House of Representatives passed in June its version of cap-and-trade but the Senate, preoccupied by a debate over the reform of health care, has left climate talks to inch along slowly behind. John Kerry, one of the Senate’s cap-and-trade champions, now says he hopes for a vote on the bill only in the spring.

But American congressmen are not alone in shouldering responsibility. Each tortuous round of negotiations ahead of Copenhagen has lengthened the list of issues up for debate. The negotiating text is now a snarl of material that few parties can agree upon. And big developing countries have been almost as immovable as America, at least publicly. China’s president said in September that his country would in time cut the amount of carbon dioxide it emits per unit of GDP by a “notable amount”. But Sun Guoshun, a Chinese diplomat in Washington, says that a figure is unlikely to emerge before Copenhagen. India (a much smaller polluter) has steadfastly resisted binding targets for poor countries. Many in Washington believe that America, just as it did at Kyoto, will not accept a deal that requires nothing concrete on emissions from the developing world.

No Sign Yet of Himalayan Meltdown, Indian Report Finds

Published

on November 24, 2009

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Hanging tough. Gangotri glacier, source of the Ganges River, retreated a few dozen meters from 2004 to 2008—"hardly an abnormal retreat" that would have been expected from rising temperatures, states a provocative new report. CREDITS (TOP TO BOTTOM): IIT MUMBAI; ISHWAR SINGH (PROVIDED BY V. K. RAINA)

From Pallava Bagla in Science.

Are Himalayan glaciers beating a rapid retreatin the face of global warming? That would seem to be the case,according to a flurry of recent reports by BBC and other massmedia. But the picture is more complex—and poses scientificpuzzles, according to a review of satellite and ground measurementsreleased by India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests earlierthis week.

The report, by senior glaciologist Vijay Kumar Raina, formerlyof the Geological Survey of India, seeks to correct a widelyheld misimpression based on measurements of a handful of glaciers:that India’s 10,000 or so Himalayan glaciers are shrinking rapidlyin response to climate change. That’s not so, Raina says. Evenif it were, other researchers argue that severe loss of icemass would not entail drastic water shortages in the Indianheartland, as some fear. Both concerns were cited in the Asiachapter of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s(IPCC’s) 2007 Working Group II report, which asserted that Himalayanglaciers “are receding faster than in any other part of theworld and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood ofthem disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is veryhigh if the Earth keeps warming at the current rate.”

Obama Hobbled in Fight Against Global Warming

Published

on November 16, 2009

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From John Broder, in The New York Times.

President Obama came into office pledging to end eight years of American inaction on climate change under President George W. Bush, and all year he has promised that the United States would lead the way toward a global agreement in Copenhagen next month to address the warming planet.

But this weekend in Singapore, Mr. Obama was forced to acknowledge that a comprehensive climate deal was beyond reach this year. Instead, he and other world leaders agreed that they would work toward a more modest interim agreement with a promise to renew work toward a binding treaty next year.

The admission places Mr. Obama in the awkward position of being, at least for now, as unlikely to spearhead an international effort to combat global warming as his predecessor — if for different reasons.

In Mr. Bush’s case, he remained skeptical about the science of global warming until near the end of his presidency and dubious about the need for concerted global action.

And his reluctance was echoed by a Congress that wanted to see clear commitments from developing countries like China.

To read more…

A Chip Off The Old Block

Published

emily

on September 4, 2009

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kuch-ferguson

“Dynastic ALP politician Martin Ferguson is one piece of the puzzle of what’s stalling energy and climate policy in Australia…”

Declan Kuch from newmatilda.com writes:

Kevin Rudd might have been elected on a wave of resentment about Howard’s recalcitrant industrial relations and climate policies, but the mythical split between economy and environment has been perpetuated within his administration.

Whereas attempts to reconcile economy and climate have been undertaken in the UK by integrating the Energy and Climate Change ministries, and in the US by appointing a Climate and Energy Czar, Australia has set itself up for failure with two ministers with entirely opposing worldviews — Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson and Environment Minister Peter Garrett — pulling in different directions. More…

New delay on US climate legislation

Published

emily

on September 1, 2009

. 0 Comments

reid_harry

Marianne Bom for COP15 News:

The Democrats first planned to unveil their legislation in July, then it was delayed to early September, and now the Senate Democrats announce legislation to be ready ”later in September”.

With the new deadline it is unclear if the legislation will be ready before important climate negotiations at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh on September 24 and 25 and UN climate negotiations in Bangkok starting on September 28. It is also uncertain if President Barack Obama will have the US climate legislation approved before the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December. More…

Policy Prospects for Controlling Carbon

Published

on August 27, 2009

. 0 Comments

Aristides A. N. Patrinos, and Richard A. Bradley have a Perspective article entitled “Energy and Technology Policies for Managing Carbon Risk” in Science for 21 August 2009. They describe the state of play and discuss the prospects for control of global carbon emissions.

Despite some uncertainties, today’s scientific and political consensus is that the level of global emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) needs to lead to atmospheric concentrations somewhere between 450 and 500 parts per million (ppm) (1) to avoid serious, if not catastrophic, effects on life and property. Achieving this goal poses some formidable challenges. There is inertia in the climate system (GHGs survive for generations), as well as in GHG-emitting capital investment. Furthermore, every economic sector and country emits. To meet these challenges, a broad range of actions will be required.

Note that downloading the full text of the article requires payment or a subscription.

“The Next Climate Deal: How Big is the Battle for Cleantech IP?”

Published

phillip

on June 6, 2009

. 0 Comments

Late last month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce pulled together a small, motley crew of companies with a stake in upcoming climate policy to launch its Innovation, Development & Employment Alliance — a group trying to ensure that an international climate deal doesn’t weaken rules about who can profit from cleantech innovations. As we’ve noted before, the V-P of the Chamber of Commerce’s intellectual property center called the UN climate negotiations taking place in Copenhagen this December “the IP battle of the year.” More…

“How Obama Made Energy Platform ‘Pop”

Published

phillip

on May 31, 2009

. 0 Comments

After a long day of campaigning on July 8, candidate Barack Obama arrived at his Chicago headquarters for a three-hour brainstorming session about a suddenly hot issue: energy and climate change. He had summoned a cross section of experts, including top executives from three utilities and two oil companies, the chief energy economist of an investment bank, a climate scientist, a California energy and environment expert, an oil consultant-historian, and several campaign staffers. Despite the late hour, one participant recalled, “He walked in as if he had just gotten up after a refreshing night’s sleep to lead a class. He was clearly there to harvest information and then do something with it.” More…

Learning about Rapid Climate Change

Published

on May 6, 2009

. 0 Comments

In a Perspective article, Shifting Gear, Quickly (Science, 24 April 2009), E. G. Nisbett and J. Chappellaz describe research on the methane contained in the Greenland ice to learn about past climate changes, some of which may have occurred very swiftly.

Earth’s climate can change gear very quickly, either sharply warming or fiercely cooling (1). Past shifts of this kind were massive, and some took place within a few years (2). About 11,600 years ago, at the end of the Younger Dryas cold period, the planet warmed very suddenly, with strong increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases, especially methane. On page 506 of this issue, Petrenko et al. use radiocarbon (¹⁴C) data to identify the sources of the additional methane (3).

A Design for Climate Change

Published

admin

on March 17, 2009