Climate Climate & Energy

More fun with analogies!

I commend everyone to this article by Ben Adler on American Prospect, which addresses a perpetually overlooked strategy to reduce oil use and combat global warming: With all the focus on … “alternate energy programs,” too many [politicians] are ignoring a long-existing technology that, unlike, say, ethanol, already has the power to radically reduce our […]

Gore launches massive effort to combat climate change

Breaking news: Al Gore (along with Pharrell Williams, Cameron Diaz, and others) today officially launched Save Our Selves (SOS) – The Campaign for a Climate in Crisis. (Watch the live news conference here.) The campaign begins with concerts on seven continents — including one broadcast from Antarctica (not sure how that will work or how, […]

I’m Rich, Beach

Oil lobbyist, former U.S. officials combat rumors of unethical real-estate deal We would never engage in idle speculation about the allegedly unethical relationship between a ConocoPhillips oil lobbyist, a former U.S. Interior top dog, and the Justice Department’s freshly resigned lead eco-prosecutor. But the big boys would, and we consider it our duty to share. […]

Tune in Tomorrow

Leaders around the world leap into the climate-promise arena Today we bring you another edition of Leaders Making Big Climate Promises! In New Zealand, Prime Minister Helen Clark announced a goal to make her country the world’s first carbon-neutral nation. Zowie! British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell says he’ll set up a climate team to cut […]

More buzz about the Live Earth concerts

Buzz about the global-warming-focused concert series expected to “dwarf” Live Aid is continuing to, well, buzz. Speculation about who will perform has begun — with U2, Coldplay, Madonna, and Kylie Minogue topping the list. (There are even rumors of a Spice Girls reunion.) Though most sources are calling the series “Live Earth,” one whisper site […]

See, We’ll Be Fine

Research shows carbon dioxide sinks deeper into oceans than estimated Researchers have long known that the world’s oceans absorb some of the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It’s a boon and a bane, helping to stem the tide of climate change while causing acidification that hurts Nemo and friends. But new research shows that […]

Oceanus is for more than just middle-schoolers

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has an online magazine, Oceanus. Over the past few years, they've published many stories (at the middle school level and up) on numerous aspects of the ocean/climate system. There's some great material there (e.g., this article on solar effects on climate or this one on the oceanic sink for carbon dioxide). Check it out here.

A guest essay from Environmental Defense

The following is a guest essay from Bill Chameides, the Chief Scientist at Environmental Defense. He maintains a blog on global warming at climate411.org. —– Some folks think global warming is best fought through a federally-imposed tax on greenhouse gas emissions — often called a carbon tax. The government would use the additional tax dollars […]

Just as misleading as the old round

Because of the enormous credibility of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's reports, and because they suggest that human-induced climate change is a very real risk, opponents of action on climate change must attack the IPCC or completely cede the scientific high ground in the debate.

With the release of the latest IPCC report, a whole new crop of specious skeptical arguments has arisen. Here's a good example, which appeared in this week's Weekly Standard:

One possible reason for the timing is that there appear to be some significant retreats from the 2001 IPCC report. The IPCC has actually lowered its estimate of the magnitude of human influence on warming, though we shall have to wait for the full report in May to understand how and why. Only readers with detailed knowledge of the 2001 report would notice these changes, which is why most news accounts failed to report them.

As with most skeptical arguments, there is a grain of truth here, sitting under a mountain of deception.

Op-ed on the IPCC and climate change

An op-ed I wrote with my colleague Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech appeared last Sunday in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The editorial can be found here.

Update [2007-3-16 11:55:39 by Andrew Dessler]: The link no longer appears to work. The text of the op-ed is reproduced below: