Climate Climate & Energy

A guest essay

A week or so back, climate scientist James Hansen passed this essay along to a few folks. It’s about the need to rein in coal, and the puzzling lack of involvement from young people on the issue. I thought I’d pass it along. —– Scientific data reveal that the Earth is close to dangerous climate […]

Videos for your viewing pleasure, if that’s the word for it

Film director Robert Greenwald has been producing a series of videos exposing Fox News as a propaganda arm of the far right wing (is "exposing" the right word when everyone already knows it?), under the rubric Fox Attacks. The latest in the series is Fox Attacks: The Environment, which is about Fox’s hackery on the […]

A guest essay from Greenpeace scientists

A while back, after some criticisms of his company on this site, I ran an essay by Russ George, CEO of Planktos, defending his work. What follows is a response to that essay from the UK-based Greenpeace Science Unit. —– Russ George, CEO of self-professed ‘ecorestoration’ company Planktos, seems increasingly convinced that opposition to his […]

A guest essay from Geoffrey Holland

This is a guest essay by Geoffrey Holland, co-author (with James Provenzano) of The Hydrogen Age: Empowering a Clean Energy Future, which will be out in the fall. I know there are many hydrogen skeptics in the audience, so remember: keep it civil and substantive. —– Of the vexing challenges humanity faces — and there […]

Malawian man powers village with a $16 windmill

A great story via Inhabitat: With all the sobering news lately about global warming and war, it’s important to remember all the positive things that are also going on in the world at any given time. Case in point: the story of intrepid Malawi youth William Kamkwamba who, despite having no education or training, recently […]

Many offset critics appear to be shadowboxing

I’ve been watching the public debate over carbon offsets out of the corner of my eye for some time, and have formed a general impression, which I would like at long last to get off my chest. Offset critics often strike a moralistic tone, comparing offsets to medieval "indulgences." Let’s be clear: That rhetorical gimmick […]

Climate skeptics lose even more credibility

The first half of 2007 is the warmest Jan-June period on record, +0.79°C above the long-term average (from NASA GISS data, via QuarkSoup.net).

For those who question the consensus on climate change, see the collection of proconsensus statements at Logical Science (hat tip: Michael Tobis). Just recently, my department (the Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University) unanimously adopted a statement endorsing the primary conclusions of the IPCC reports. See the statement here.

In the scientific community, virtually no one believes that solar variations are the dominant driver of climate over the last few decades. However, among skeptics, this has been one of the last remaining shreds of hope for a non-human cause of climate change. New research, however, validates the doubt of the scientific community:

Writing in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, a journal of Britain's de-facto academy of sciences, the team said that the Sun had been less active since 1985, even though global temperatures have continued to rise.

"Over the past 20 years, all the trends in the Sun that could have had an influence on the Earth's climate have been in the opposite direction to that required to explain the observed rise in global mean temperatures," they write.

It’s Not the Sun

Sun is not causing current global warming, researchers confirm Attention all ye who think the sun might be a primary cause of climate change, and all ye who know someone who thinks that: No. It’s not the sun. Researchers have published a study of the last century of solar activity, finding that the sun’s output […]

Frankly, Madeira, We Don’t Want a Dam

Brazil gives go-ahead to controversial dams in Amazon Brazil has given the preliminary OK for two hydroelectric dams to be built on a major Amazon River tributary. Business leaders, who say the dams will provide much-needed energy, are impressed; greens, who see the project as a disaster waiting to happen, are depressed. Proponents say the […]

Crist Almighty

Florida governor to enact big energy and emission plans What’s the greenest state in the U.S.? By Friday, it could be Florida. Republican Gov. Charlie Crist is hosting a two-day climate summit in Miami, and will wrap up the event by signing three sweeping eco-executive orders. His plans include adopting California’s strict vehicle-emissions law, making […]