MetaFilter posts tagged with climatechange

Who Wants to Be?

yaxu — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:23:18 -0800

Who wants to be? is a democratic game show where the audience pools together prize money, then decides the rules of the game to ultimately decide what to spend the money on. Next week the show travels to the Copenhagen climate forum, and audience members can join remotely.

Dow Jones Index for Climate Change

stbalbach — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 10:03:30 -0800

A "Dow Jones Index for Climate Change". The IGBP Climate-Change Index distills complex climate change factors into a single number, like how the Dow Jones distills the markets to a single number, and visually graphs it over time.

Need ammo?

Neilopolis — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 12:55:38 -0800

How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic: "...a handy one-stop shop for all the material you should need to rebut the more common anti-global warming science arguments constantly echoed across the internet."

The Story of Cap and Trade

symbollocks — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:02:33 -0800

The Story of Cap and Trade (previously by same person)

Climate change FAIL

wilful — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:36:10 -0800

Australia's emissions trading scheme, the "Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme", is being debated in the Senate today. It is deeply flawed, and the Greens will not vote for it. Of more interest is that the Opposition are being torn asunder, exposing massive fault lines between the liberal modernising wing and the conservative agrarian group, who deny the science and have advocated delay for the past decade. Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull's days are clearly numbered, while the Liberal party appear doomed to spend the next decade out of power. A link to Rudd's recent Lowy Institute speech I couldn't fit into the main body.

ClimateGate?

Who_Am_I — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:14:02 -0800

The University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit suffered a security breach this week. Hackers made off with thousands of email correspondences between some of the world's top climate scientists, and posted them to the Internet¹.

Tony Hake has posted an article at The Examiner, highlighting what he feels are the most egregious examples of scientists manipulating and hiding data to support the established theories about Climate Change. Some of the scientists involved counter that the quotes are taken out of context, and that "People are using language used in science and interpreting it in a completely different way".

¹ I'm not going to link to them, but the Examiner article mentions where to get them.

The Economist: The World in 2010

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:09:43 -0800

In 2010, Obama will have a miserable year, NATO may lose in Afghanistan, the UK gets a regime change, China needs to chill, India's factories will overtake its farms, Europe risks becoming an irrelevant museum, the stimulus will need an exit strategy, the G20 will see a challenge from the "G2", African football will unite Korea, conflict over natural resources will grow, Sarkozy will be unloved and unrivalled, the kids will come together to solve the world's problems (because their elders are unable), technology will grow ever more ubiquitous, we'll all charge our phones via USB, MBAs will be uncool, the Space Shuttle will be put to rest, and Somalia will be the worst country in the world. And so the Tens begin.

The Economist: The World in 2010. Previously: 2009, 2008, 2007. How did we do last time around? Guest contributions: President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso lines up Europe's priorities President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev argues for dialogue and cooperation President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed wants his island nation to remain above water President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would like for Islam and the West to live in harmony President of South Africa Jacob Zuma says Africa should rise to the occasion Director-General of the World Health Organisation Margaret Chan predicts the development of the flu pandemic Managing director of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn explains how to prevent another crisis CEO of Yahoo! Carol Bartz believes business leaders should tap into the information flood Chairman of HSBC Stephen Green argues that the financial sector should welcome emerging economies CEO of Fiat Group and Chrysler Group Sergio Marchionne thinks greener cars require bolder action CEO/CTO of SpaceX Elon Musk says the private sector should handle space travel

Environmental Discrimination?

mccarty.tim — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:29:01 -0800

Tim Nicholson, a UK former executive, believes he was fired for his environmental views. He has sued his former employer for discrimination on grounds of the Employment Equality act, which states that employees may not be discriminated against for religious or philosophical beliefs. His former employers argue that his views were political, and thus do not fall under the act. This would not be the first time religion and global warming were compared, but usually the comparison is unfavorable and used to either discredit the science or to imply religious people cannot be environmentalists, as that leads to distracting from their faith for worldly or heretical concerns. This raises a lot of interesting questions about discrimination in the workplace, and what should be considered a religion or philosophical view.

Do oil-exporting nations deserve compensation for carbon taxes?

anotherpanacea — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:44:39 -0800

"If wealthy countries reduce their oil consumption to combat global warming, they should pay compensation to oil producers." Previously.

350 ppm is all we've got

wilful — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:35:06 -0800

350 ppm A new campaign by leading environmental organisations focuses on the simple message of 350, being the parts per million CO2 equivalent that recent science is telling us is the planet's long-term budget to avoid catastrophic human-induced climate change. They're calling for a day of action on 24 October, prior to 'COP 15', the Copenhagen climate change conference from 7 to 18 December this year.

The fake truth

hellbient — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:06:37 -0800

NY Post Special Global Warming Edition (courtesy of The Yes Men). Thousands of hard copies hit the streets of New York at the crack of dawn.

Beyond war and crisis

Abiezer — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:02:06 -0800

Sustainable Security is a website launched this month by the Oxford Research Group "to be an important platform for promoting a better understanding of the real threats to global security in the 21st century and the policies that should be implemented to address those threats at their root cause." It highlights "four interconnected drivers of global insecurity: climate change; competition over natural resources; global militarism; and poverty and marginalisation. Prof. Paul Rogers makes the case for a rethink of the security paradigm.

Pizzly? Grolar Bear? Polargrizz? Polzly? Nanulak?

fourcheesemac — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:04:18 -0800

The Polar Bear/Grizzly Hybrid: The Ursid Hybrid cross has been attested since a hunter (with a Polar Bear license, and yes, they can be had) shot one in 2006 on Banks Island in Canada's Northwest Territories. Climate change may also play a role, causing an increasing overlap in range and mating season. Polar Bears do show a surprising resilience despite the overwhelming , increasing threats to their survival. Hunting policy itself may play a role, reducing the number of males and driving the females to mate out of season and range. The Native Inuit hunters who are permitted to hunt Polar Bears for subsistence (enabling the sport hunt, which may or may not benefit the Native economy, leading many Natives to support sport hunting) have come into sharp conflict with outside environmentalists. Welcome to the new Far North.

Waste heat: the other global warming

stbalbach — Fri, 29 May 2009 06:51:11 -0800

The Other Global Warming. Waste heat (second law of thermodynamics) over the next 300 years could add 3 degrees of warming.

Climate projection roulette wheel

stbalbach — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:35:42 -0800

MIT has completed the most comprehensive computer climate model to date to project how much warming will occur in the 21st century. The biggest unknown is not nature, but human actions to address the problem. To illustrate the results of 400 simulations they use a roulette wheel display - which wheel is spun and where the ball stops no one knows. The simulation uses the MIT Integrated Global Systems Model.

Geoengineering

homunculus — Sat, 02 May 2009 11:27:27 -0800

Geoengineering and the New Climate Denialism. "[S]ometimes the politics around an issue become so twisted that it's necessary to address the politics before we can have a real discussion about the problems and how to solve them. That's the case with geoengineering."

Denial is an increasingly full river in Egypt

Pater Aletheias — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:58:16 -0800

Climate Denial Crock of the Week (YT). Especially good: I Love the 70's! and Mars Attacks!

If you're going to panic, panic constructively.

Doktor Zed — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:51:51 -0800

Bruce Sterling, fresh from his online State of the World 2008 discussion (previously), delivers his succinct prognosis for the new year: 2009 Will Be a Year of Panic. At least it's an opportunity to say good-bye to the 20th century at last. (via)

Arctic icemelt unambiguous evidence

stbalbach — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:57:42 -0800

Arctic Melt update: Scientists now have unambiguous evidence that the theorized phenomenon known as "polar amplification" has in fact been occurring for the past 5 years. It was not expected to be seen for at least another 10 or 15 years. "We're in a vicious positive feedback loop." Has the Arctic melt passed the point of no return?

Although researchers have documented a catastrophic loss of sea ice during the summer months over the past 20 years, they have not until now detected the definitive temperature signal that they could link with greenhouse-gas emissions. However, scientists [now] show that Arctic amplification has been under way for the past five years, and it will continue to intensify Arctic warming for the foreseeable future. Computer models of the global climate have for years suggested the Arctic will warm at a faster rate than the rest of the world due to Arctic amplification but many scientists believed this effect would only become measurable in the coming decades. However, a study by scientists from the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in Colorado has found that amplification is already showing up as a marked increase in surface air temperatures within the Arctic region during the autumn period, when the sea ice begins to reform after the summer melting period.

Petition to recommend Michael Pollan for Agriculture Secretary under Obama

maniabug — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:56:08 -0800

Pollan for Agriculture Secretary? It has been suggested (and previously) that Michael Pollan, author of Second Nature, The Omnivore's Dilemma, might make a good Secretary of Agriculture. This would be a dramatic departure for an office that has a decades-long history of steering US agriculture policy to the advantage of the largest agribusiness corporations. Especially given Obama's potential connections to Big Corn, how silly would we be to anticipate real change in US ag policy, relevant as it may be to the economic, energy, climate, and national security issues he campaigned on? Via the Brian Lehrer Show.

Climate Futures

homunculus — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:12:33 -0800

New Year’s Day 2030. A new report from Forum on the Future, Climate Futures (6.7MB PDF), maps out five possible scenarios for how climate change might affect our collective future by 2030. Meanwhile, the WWF has released a report, Climate Change: Faster, Stronger, Sooner (1.65MB PDF) which claims that global warming is accelerating at a faster rate than climate change experts had previously predicted. [Via Gristmill and Disinformation]

Invading spider is invading.

longsleeves — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:21:00 -0800

Spiders invading Europe. Spiders invading England. Spiders invading Pittsburgh. Spiders invading your produce section. Spiders invading other spiders. Recently I went out in the dark to wheel the trash countainer to the curb for the robotic arm to empty the next morning when I felt a spider web cling to my side. I knew at once that it was a web I had noticed that week, spun between the bin and the pole of our basketball hoop. A large garden spider with a bulging abdomen had been waiting in the middle for insects and I guess for her eggs to ripen. I brushed the web off my clothes as best I could and finished my task and climbed back up the stairs and into the kitchen. I washed my hands and turned around to see the spider crawling accross the floor. I grabbed a towel and killed her/him/it. Then I felt sad. Brown recluse spiders can kill and maim you. Know your poisonous US spiders. And then there's Australia.

Put the gun down, and step away

5MeoCMP — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:15:15 -0800

The clathrate gun hypothesis has been discussed previously, but now might be a good time to start considering it less hypothetical. [via] It's also a great band name, though Single Gun Theory kind of got there first.

Buy yourself a tonne of CO2 emissions

lucia__is__dada — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 04:08:22 -0800

sandbag.org.uk is a not-for-profit website that allows members to buy up surplus "permits to pollute" that form the currency of the European Union's emissions trading scheme (or EU ETSs). Members can then "retire" them so that they cannot continue to be traded between the industrial polluters - cement, steel and car manufacturers etc - forced by EU regulation to operate within the system. "I suppose it's a bit like burning money in front of someone so they can't spend it on something bad," says the founder, Bryony Worthington, to the Guardian. Their site also has a map where you can see the locations of the UK's biggest carbon emitters and their annual allowances. A tonne of carbon is priced at about €25 or £20 or $35.

φαινομαι

KokuRyu — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:29:57 -0800

Weather History Offers Insight Into Global Warming. Weather History Offers Insight Into Global Warming. The problems that often haunt other weather records — the station is moved, buildings are constructed nearby or observers record data inconsistently — have not arisen here because so much of this place has been frozen in time. The weather has been taken (at Mohonk House, [map] ) in exactly the same place, in precisely the same way, by just a handful of the same dedicated people since Grover Cleveland was president... That extremely limited number of observers greatly enhances the reliability, and therefore the value, of the data. The record shows that on this ridge in the Shawangunk Mountains, about 20 miles south of the better-known Catskills, the average annual temperature has risen 2.7 degrees in 112 years. Of the top 10 warmest years in that time, 7 have come since 1990. Both annual precipitation and annual snowfall have increased, and the growing season has lengthened by 10 days.... But what makes the data truly singular is how it parallels a vast collection of phenological observations taken at this same place, and by many of the same observers, since 1925... (In) Project BudBurst.... volunteers record the way 500 native plants are responding to climate change.