Arguments
2015 SkS Weekly Digest #31
Posted on 2 August 2015 by John Hartz
Contents: SkS Highlights, Improving the Weekly Digest, Toon of the Week, Quote of the Week, They Said What?: GOP Presidential Hopefuls, SkS in the News, SkS Spotlights: Asset Owners Disclosure Project, Poster of the Week, Coming Soon on SkS, and 97 Hours of Consensus: Dr. Pietr Sans
SkS Highlights
Conspiracy theories about Skeptical Science by John Cook drew the highest number of comments of the aarticles posted on SkS during the past week. Coming in second and thrid respectively were:
- 2015 Arctic melting season won't break records, but could wipe the 'recovery' by Neven (Climate Consensus-the 97%, Guardian)
- Climate models are even more accurate than you thought by Dana (Climate Consensus-the 97%, Guardian)
Improving the Weekly Digest
The all-volunteer SkS author team is engaged in finding ways to improve the Wekly Digest in order to make it more attractive and useful to all of our readers. We would like your input and continuing particpation in this effort. In this context:
- If you were responsible for producing the Weekly Digest, what changes would you make to its syle and content?
Toon of the Week
Quote of the Week
Savio Carvalho of Amnesty International (AI), which is part of the UNMG, told IPS the post-2015 agenda has become an aspirational text sans clear independent mechanisms for people to hold governments to account for implementation and follow-up.
“Under the garb of national ownership, realities and capacities, member states can get away doing absolutely nothing. We would like them to ensure national priorities are set in conformity with human rights principles and standards so that we are not in the same place in 2030,” he added.
U.N.’s Post-2015 Development Agenda Under Fire Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service (iPS), July 29, 2015
They Said What?
GOP hopefuls not embracing climate change: Skepticism could prove costly in general election by by Matt Viser, Boston Globe, Aug 1, 2015
SkS in the News
In his op-ed, No Agnostics in the Climate Foxhole, published in Project Syndicate, John Hewson* states:
As Howard and Krauthammer should know, the subject of climate change is not a matter of religion, but of science. According to a 2013 survey of peer-reviewed publications on the subject, some 97% of scientists endorse the position that humans are causing global warming. Anyone familiar with the scientific process is aware that researchers are trained to disagree, to contest one another’s hypotheses and conclusions. A consensus of such magnitude is as close as we ever get to a recognized scientific fact.
*John Hewson, a former leader of Australia’s Liberal Party, is Chair of the Asset Owners Disclosure Project.
SkS Spotlights
The Asset Owners Disclosure Project is an independent not-for-profit global organisation whose objective is to protect asset owners from the risks posed by climate change.
It does this by working with pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, foundations and universities to improve the level of disclosure and industry best practice.
We encourage these investors to redress the huge imbalance in their investments between high- and low-carbon assets, while realigning the investment chain to adopt long-term investment practices.
Key elements of the initiative are:
- Conducting an annual survey and assessment of the world’s 1000 largest asset owners pertaining to their management of climate change risks and opportunities.
- Publishing rankings of the world’s 1000 largest asset owners to allow members, stakeholders and industry to see which funds are better than others at managing climate risk.
- Providing and promoting climate change best practice to drive and improve climate change management and capability of asset owners.
- Developing consumer-facing programs to educate asset owner members or stakeholders of the financial risks associated with climate change.
- Researching trends in climate risk, member behaviour and institutional investment.
- Creating frameworks to encourage active ownership.
Coming Soon on SkS
- Statistics says the long-term global warming trend continues (John Abraham)
- The most influential climate change papers of all time (Roz Pidcock)
- Potentially the largest die-off of coral reefs ever observed (Rob Painting)
- How This El Niño Is And Isn’t Like 1997 (Andrea Thompson)
- The pope as philosopher: faith, climate change and public reason (Lawrence Torcello)
- 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #32 (John Hartz)
- 2015 Sks Weekly Digest #32 (John Hartz)
Poster of the Week
SkS Week in Review
- 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #31D by John Hartz
- Indonesian translation of The Debunking Handbook by BaerbelW
- 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #31C by John Hartz
- Climate models are even more accurate than you thought by Dana (Climate Consensus-the 97%, Guardian)
- 10 Things We Learnt From Reddit About Understanding Climate Change by Kyla Mandel (DeSmog Blog)
- 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #31B by John Hartz
- 2015 Arctic melting season won't break records, but could wipe the 'recovery' by Neven (Climate Consensus-the 97%, Guardian)
- 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #31A by John Hartz
- The Daily Mail and Telegraph get it wrong on Arctic sea ice, again by Dana (Climate Consensus-the 97%, Guardian)
- 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #30D by John Hartz
- Conspiracy theories about Skeptical Science by John Cook
- 2015 SkS Weekly Digest #30 by John Hartz
97 Hours of Consensus: Dr. Pietr Sans
Pieter Tans' bio page and Quote source
Granted it's unlikely to see the light of day, but would a plane releasing emissions from even higher in the atmosphere than the typical airliner be even worse than it is at 30,000ft?