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All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

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2012 SkS Weekly Digest #24

Posted on 18 June 2012 by John Hartz

SkS Highlights

Over the past few weeks, SkS articles about the "politics" of climate change have generated more comments than article about the "science" of climate change. A case in point is Andy S's Scientific literacy and polarization on climate change. In this article, Andy discusses the findings of the paper, The polarizing impact of science literacy and numeracy on perceived climate change risks by Kahan et al published online by Nature Climate Change on May 27, 2012.

Toon of the Week 2012Toon24

Oxymoron

Source: Stephanie McMillan, Code Green.

Quote of the Week

 “If decision-makers continue to focus mainly on economic growth to address the needs of humanity, rather than taking a range of factors into account in a more sustainable approach, they risk leaving future generations an even more polarised and dangerous world.”  -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Chair of The Elders.

Source: Rio+20: Concrete Goals the Only Recipe for Success by Stephen Leahy, IPS News, June 16, 2012 

Issue of the Week

What is your primary source of information about what's transpiring at the ogoing Rio+20 summit?

Scientific Term of the Week

Aerosols: A collection of airborne solid or liquid particles, with a typical size between 0.01 and 10 μm that reside in the atmosphere for at least several hours. Aerosols may be of either natural or anthropogenic origin. Aerosols may infl uence climate in several ways: directly through scattering and absorbing radiation, and indirectly by acting as cloud condensation nuclei or modifying the optical properties and lifetime of clouds (see Indirect aerosol effect).

Source: Annex I (Glossary) to Climate Change 2007: Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis, IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.

The Week in Review

A complete listing of the articles posted on SkS during the past week.

Coming Soon

A list of articles that are in the SkS pipeline. Most of these articles, but not necessarily all, will be posted during the week.

  • Simply Wrong: Jan-Erik Solheim on Hansen 1988 (Dana)
  • New research from last week 24/2012 (Ari Jokimäki)
  • Adding wind power saves CO2 (MarkR)
  • Arctic sea ice takes a first nosedive (Neven)
  • Christy Exaggerates the Model-Data Discrepancy (Dana)
  • Murry Salby's Correllation Condundrum (Dikran Marsupial)

SkS in the News

Dana's Fred Singer Promotes Fossil Fuels through Myths and Misinformation was re-posted on Climate Progress.

SkS Spotlights: The Alfred Wegener Institute

The Alfred Wegener Institute carries out research in the Arctic and Antarctic as well as in the high and mid latitude oceans. The institute coordinates German polar research and makes available to national and international science important infrastructure, e.g. the research ice breaker “Polarstern” and research stations in the Arctic and Antarctic.

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Comments

Comments 1 to 8:

  1. Hmmm, unlike things like "sustainable growth" , sustainable development is not an oxymoron. Of course if "development" is identified with the economic model that rules the world since the Industrial Revolution, that is, an endless economic growth that depends on the intensive use of limited and non-renewable natural resources, sustainable "development" is an oxymoron. However, if "development" is identified not with identified with things like the GDP growth, but with the quality of life of the common people (health, a purchasing power that permits everyone to cover at least the basic needs, social equality, education, etc) then not only sustainable development isn't an oxymoron, but sustainability becomes a necessary condition for development.
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  2. The thing with "sustainable development" in natural systems, especially if they're living systems, is that at some point the "development" involves a greater or lesser degree of senescence. At the system level, development (which is analogous to complexity) is asymptotically constrained by energetic input into the system.
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  3. Note: This thread is now open to a discussion of the ongoing Rio+20 Conference .
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  4. Feeling so helpless and useless at the moment. Quite depressing. Did you guys read this?? Game Over For The Climate? 'Whatever happened to the green movement? It’s been 50 years since the publication of Rachel Carson’s classic Silent Spring, a powerful book about the environmental devastation wreaked by chemical pesticides. Since then we’ve had the rise and fall - or at least the compromised assimilation - of green groups such as Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Forum For the Future. Last week, the Independent marked the half-century with a well-meaning but frankly insipid ‘landmark series’ titled ‘The Green Movement at 50’. But there’s a glaring hole in such coverage; and, indeed, in the ‘green movement’ itself: the insidious role of the corporate media, a key component of corporate globalisation, in driving humanity and ecosystems towards the brink of destruction" http://www.medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=1&Itemid=50
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  5. what do people think about this?? Billions and billions of trees to solve the problem?? http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1340210498.html
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  6. Here’s an article that ran today and that really raised my ire. Perhaps someone at SkS has the energy to respond to it. Science held hostage in climate debate – a Financial Review article by Garth Paltridge
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  7. Soundoff - I am sick of this line of attack. Garth Paltridge's puff piece shows how capitalists genuinely fear AGW, not because of the devastation that they KNOW is more and more likely to occur the more we pollute, but rather the changes in social relations, hierarchy, decision making and power. Challenging the current economic model is a challenge to neo-liberial laissez-faire capitalists like Paltridge where the principles and laws of science must be bypassed, ignored or even suspended to protect faith based beliefs. A post modernist claiming post modernist science?? Pathetic.
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  8. I've not much to say to someone who frame the discourse politically and then claim that science is held hostage. This is exactly what he's trying to do and what the scientists are fighting against.
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