James Hansen

One of them is missing

Bad Actors and their enablers have been pushing a particular spin on the climate debate: it has "two sides," the denialists and the alarmists. What can wise people above it all in the center do but roll their eyes at the grubbiness of it all? I’d like to introduce you to one side of the […]

Opinions on the Fourth Assessment Report

Ahem, Scientific American, a few days ago: Global warming skeptics are already gearing up to deconstruct the IPCC report, whatever its conclusions. The Fraser Institute — a Canadian think tank devoted to denying climate change — plans to release its own independent summary on February 5, and conservative Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) has decried the […]

The heat is still on

Perhaps the most rewarding moment I witnessed at Sundance last week, after watching several post-screening Q&A’s with Everything’s Cool directors and stars, came on my last night in Utah. They’d just finished the film’s only screening in Salt Lake City, and the packed house had nearly all stayed for the rap session, armed with questions […]

The year, alphabetically

When it comes to global warming and the environment, everything seemed to change in 2006 -- at least in terms of public awareness. Here's an A-to-Z accounting of just some of those changes:

A is for An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's scientific but surprisingly human documentary on the threat of climate change, which was expected to take in at most $6-7 million at the box office but went on to gross over $45 million, the biggest documentary of the year and the third-largest of all time.

B is for biofuels, which went from becoming a hippies-only fringe product to a highlight of the State of the Union address. To date, Washington has been focused mostly on ethanol, but other fuels requiring much less fossil energy to produce are coming to the fore and proving surprisingly popular. Or as the bumper sticker says: "Biodiesel: No war required."

C is for California, which set a new standard for pollution control by passing a bipartisan package of bills designed to cut tailpipe greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 percent by 2016 (and many other measures). For this, Iain Murray, a fossil fuel-funded think tank writer for the far-right National Review, declared: "It is hard to escape the conclusion ... that what California has done is to decide to join the Third World."

‘Hansen has been wrong before’–Maybe, but not about the climate!

(Part of the How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic guide)

Objection: In 1988, Hansen predicted dire warming over the next decade -- and he was off by 300%. Why in the world should we listen to the same doom and gloom from him today?

Answer: While in some instances it is ignorant repetition of misinformation, at its source this story is a plain lie.

And I’m checking it. Twice.

People like to number things. They like to make lists. But I'm always impressed by the seeming randomness with which organizations decide to publish decisive lists. Why choose Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2006 to publish your top 100 green campaigners of all time? Why not?!

Not quite at the end of the year and a little late for the turn of the millennium, the U.K. Environment Agency released their "Earthshakers" list today, just in time for ... well, I'm sure it's in time for something.

Oceanographer Tim Barnet reveals the dollar amount, and other fascinating points

Tim Barnett, a leading oceanographer who just retired from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, this Monday gave a talk called Future Climate of Earth: A Sneak Preview [PDF] to a convention of fire ecologists in San Diego.

Barnett began by saying that he had seven grandkids, and he didn't like to think about the world they were going to inherit from us. He then went on to succinctly explain why we know global warming is human-caused.

Tipping points

RealClimate has a great post up on climate "tipping points," a notion that has been used and abused with great frequency lately by laymen and journalists -- including yours truly. It goes into detail picking apart positive feedbacks, tipping points, and points of no return.

The most valuable bit for me was clarifying what James Hansen has in mind when he says that we have ten years to fundamentally change course:

Hansen on 60 Minutes

A while back, famed NASA climatologist James Hansen appeared on CBS' 60 Minutes to talk about global warming and the Bush administration's attempts to suppress climate-change science. Now Crooks & Liars has the video. Check it out.

(via A Few Things Ill Considered)

Update [2006-3-23 10:28:46 by David Roberts]: That reminds me: Rick Piltz, who worked for years coordinating climate research programs at NASA, the U.S. EPA, and the National Science Foundation, quit last year and started talking to the press about administration interference in science. He's interviewed in the 60 Minutes piece, and has also started a fantastic blog about media-related climate science issues. Bookmark it.