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Bishop Hill Apr 9, 2010 Climate: other Education Greens There has been some interest expressed in the idea of doing some more digging into the extent of green propaganda in schools. If anyone wants to get involved please could they drop me a line.
Bishop Hill Apr 9, 2010 Climate: other Reader Dreadnought has been moved to poetry:
I met a traveller from a distant shire
Who said: A vast and pointless shaft of steel
Stands on a hill top… Near it, in the mire,
Half sunk, a shattered turbine lies, whose wheels
And riven blades and snarls of coloured wire
Tell that its owners well their mission read
Which did not last nor, nowhere to be seen,
The hand that paid them and the empty head.
And scrawled around the base these lines are clear:
‘My name is Millibandias, greenest Green.
Look on my works, ye doubters, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round this display
Of reckless cost and loss, blotless and fair,
The green and pleasant landscape rolls away.
Bishop Hill Apr 7, 2010 Climate: other David Henderson has a letter in the Financial Times:
In an area of policy where so much is at stake, and so much remains uncertain and unsettled, policies should be evolutionary and adaptive, rather than presumptive as they are now; and their evolution should be linked to a process of inquiry and review that is more thorough, balanced, open and objective than has so far been the case.
Bishop Hill Apr 6, 2010 Climate: other Greens Daniel Henninger has an interesting op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, looking at post-modern science, the precautionary principle and how scientists are going to get themselves out of the pickle they are in.
Bishop Hill Apr 1, 2010 Children Climate: other Journals Nature is launching a new cross-disciplinary climate change journal.
Nature Climate Change will publish original research across the physical and social sciences on a monthly basis and will strive to forge and synthesize interdisciplinary research. As such, it will be the first Nature branded journal to publish peer-review content from the social sciences community.
I've left a comment asking if they are going to require authors to submit data and code with their manuscripts.
Bishop Hill Mar 31, 2010 Climate: HSI Climate: Parliament Climate: other Media I will be on the BBC World Service at 14:05 today. The internet link is here.
I was rather nervous, and I don't think I came over very well, but I managed to get a couple of key messages over:
Bishop Hill
That was better than I thought. I think they cut out a bit where I burbled, and I didn't sound as angry as I worried I might.
Bishop Hill Mar 26, 2010 Climate: other Education Readers who have expressed concern over the use of green propaganda in schools will be interested in this, a report on the Climate Change Schools Project.
The students really benefitted from the experience and really seem more aware of the different issues connected to climate change. They often now come to school in the morning to ask if I have heard the news and telling me we really do need to do something- Last week it was the fact that 1 in 6 houses are going to be at risk of flooding in the later part of this century.’
Bishop Hill Mar 26, 2010 Climate: other Journals New Scientist in 2005:
Failing ocean current raises fears of mini ice age
The ocean current that gives western Europe its relatively balmy climate is stuttering, raising fears that it might fail entirely and plunge the continent into a mini ice age.
The dramatic finding comes from a study of ocean circulation in the North Atlantic, which found a 30% reduction in the warm currents that carry water north from the Gulf Stream.
The slow-down, which has long been predicted as a possible consequence of global warming, will give renewed urgency to intergovernmental talks in Montreal, Canada, this week on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.
The American Geophysical Union press release 2010
New measurements of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, part of the global ocean conveyor belt that helps regulate climate around the North Atlantic, show no significant slowing over the past 15 years. The data suggest the circulation may have even sped up slightly in the recent past.
The findings are the result of a new monitoring technique, developed by oceanographer Josh Willis of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., using measurements from ocean-observing satellites and profiling floats. The findings are published today in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Bishop Hill
Doug Keenan in the comments gives some of the backstory to the Bryden paper that was the source of the original New Scientist piece:
A scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory noticed that the paper had a simple error in arithmetic—and that when the error was corrected, there was no evidence of slowing circulation. The scientist, Petr Chylek, published his criticism of the paper in the popular journal Physics Today [2007]. I asked Chylek why his correction was not published in Nature. Chylek replied: "Although they [Nature] did not deny that my criticism was correct, they decided not to publish as being of no great interest to Nature readers".
Bishop Hill Mar 24, 2010 Climate: other Media Chris Rapley used to be the director of the British Antarctic Survey, a position he used to great effect as part of the campaign to scare us all into believing in global warming.
He now runs the Science Museum in London and seems to have altered his views somewhat:
The Science Museum is revising the contents of its new climate science gallery to reflect the wave of scepticism that has engulfed the issue in recent months.
The decision by the 100-year-old London museum reveals how deeply scientific institutions have been shaken by the public’s reaction to revelations of malpractice by climate scientists.
The museum is abandoning its previous practice of trying to persuade visitors of the dangers of global warming. It is instead adopting a neutral position, acknowledging that there are legitimate doubts about the impact of man-made emissions on the climate.
What is more, he has come over all reticent about his own views on global warming, refusing to offer an opinion one way or the other.
The times they are a-changing.
Bishop Hill Mar 23, 2010 Climate: other Greens Media I'm grateful to reader, Cumbrian Lad, who has pointed out something rather interesting.
The seminar mentioned in the previous post is being organised by the Science Media Centre, an organisation we have met before, since they also organised the "what shall we do about the sceptics" meeting reported here the other day.
Bishop Hill Mar 23, 2010 Climate: other Media If anyone is going to a seminar called Climate Science in the Media I'd be interested to have a report on the proceedings. Details of the meeting, which are shown below, were apparently distributed by email only:
Bishop Hill Mar 20, 2010 Climate: other The Geological Society is going to prepare a position paper on climate change and wants your input:
The Geological Society has decided to prepare a position statement on climate change. A drafting group has been convened, which will prepare a document summarising the geological evidence. The resulting document will aim to provide a clear and concise summation, accessible to a general audience, of the scientific certainties and uncertainties; as well as including references to further sources of information.
The drafting group met on 18 February, and are currently working on finalising a draft statement. This will be discussed, revised and agreed by the External Relations Committee, and by Council, prior to publication.
Fellows wishing to contribute comments for consideration by the drafting group are invited to send their thoughts to Sarah Day at sarah.day@geolsoc.org.uk.
Please note: the deadline for receipt of comments has now been extended to 15 April.
