2013 SkS Weekly Digest #9
Posted on 3 March 2013 by John Hartz
SkS Highlights
SkS founder and major domo, John Cook, posted three articles this week: (1) Conspiracy Theorists Respond to Evidence They're Conspiracy Theorists With More Conspiracy Theories, (2) Reality Drop - using social media to rapidly respond to climate misinformation, and (3) Why SkS withdrew from the Bloggies. The article about the Bloggies award garnered the most comments which provides Cook with a new set of behavioral data to analyze and report on.
Toon of the Week
Quote of the Week
"We can bail out banks, we can bail out member states, but you cannot bail out climate," she* said. "If we just say we must extract all the fossil fuels that we can find in the world, then it's clear that it will not be possible to stay below the 2 degrees."
"Nobody is doing enough," added (Connie) Hedegaard. "Europe is not doing enough, the U.S. is not doing enough, China is not doing enough — all of us will have to do more."
Connie Hedegaard, EU Climate Commissioner: Obama Must Act On Global Warming Rhetoric by Lynne Peeples, The Huffington Post, Mar, 2013
The Week in Review
- 2013 SkS News Bulletin #2: Alberta Tar Sands and Keystone XL Pipeline by John Hartz
- Why SkS withdrew from the Bloggies by John Cook
- Living in Denial in Canada by Andy Skuce
- Reality Drop - using social media to rapidly respond to climate misinformation by John Cook
- Living in Denial in NorwayS by Andy Skuce
- George Will - Still Recycling Classic Climate Change Myths for The Washington Post By Dana
- Conspiracy Theorists Respond to Evidence They're Conspiracy Theorists With More Conspiracy Theories by John Cook
- How big is the “carbon fertilization effect”? by
- Did Murdoch's The Australian Misrepresent IPCC Chair Pachauri on Global Warming? by Dana
Coming Soon
- China Takes a Leading Role in Solving Climate Change (Dana)
- Carbon Dioxide the Dominant Control on Global Temperature and Sea Level Over the Last 40 Million Years (Rob Painting)
- Drost, Karoly, and Braganza Find Human Fingerprints in Global Warming (Dana)
- What doesn’t change with climate? (Ari Jokimäki)
- The educational opportunities in addressing misinformation in the classroom (John Cook)
- 2013 SkS News Roundup (John Hartz)
In the Works
- Does Norway lack political commitment to renewables? (gws)
- Death in Jurassic Park: global warming and ocean anoxia (John Mason)
- Cherrypicking to Deny Continued Ocean and Global Warming (Dana)
- New Study, Same Result - Greenhouse Gases Dominate Global Warming (Dana)
- A tale told in maps and charts: Texas in the National Climate Assessment (Dana)
- Residence Time and Prof Essenhigh (Glenton Jelbert)
- New satellite confirms dramatic thinning of Arctic ice (MarkR)
- Lomborg's Irresponsible Conclusions (Agnostic)
- Offline-friendly content added to Skeptical Science emporium (doug_bostrom)
SkS in the News
A new climate change textbook by Charles Fletcher uses several SkS graphics.
John Cook's Reality Drop - using social media to rapidly respond to climate misinformation was re-posted on Climate Crocks. Skeptical Science's contribution to the project was also discussed on Mashable and DeSmogBlog.
Dana's Low emissions are no justification for Kansas scaling back renewables was re-posted on Climate Progress.
Skeptical Science's withdrawal from the Bloggie Awards was discussed by Leo Hickman at The Guardian.
Nuccitelli et al. (2012) was referenced in an article by Andrew Glikson in The Conversation which was re-posted by New Anthropocene and Renew Economy.
John Cook was interviewed by The Conversation about the hottest summer on record in Australia.
Denialism Blog and Huffington Post did nice posts about Recursive Fury.
John Cook's There is no such thing as climate change denial was discussed by the Australian Conservation Foundation.
Life, the Universe & Everything Else referenced the SkS database for Bob Carter.
The US Bureau of Land Management used The Escalator in a presentation at the annual National Western Mining Conference.
SkS Spotlight
The Pembina Institute is a Canadian non-profit think tank that advances clean energy solutions through research, education, consulting and advocacy. We promote environmental, social and economic sustainability in the public interest by developing practical solutions for communities, individuals, governments and businesses. The Pembina Institute provides policy research leadership and education on climate change, energy issues, green economics, energy efficiency and conservation, renewable energy, and environmental governance.
"The article about the Bloogies award"
Typo there, though Bloogies would be a good band name
Another typo seeral => several
I was looking for material on Judith Curry, to counter a comment in another forum, but she does not appear on the 'Climate Misinformers' page (unless I have misread). Any reason for her absence from the rouges' gallery?
Doug Hutchenson:
You can access a profile of Judith Curry at Source Watch by clicking here.
I presume that Curry is not included in the SkS Misinformers section because updating that section has not been a particlarly high priority activity for members of the SkS volunteer author team. I would also note that neither DeSmog Blog nor Real Climate have posted a profile of Curry.
Thanks, John. I found what I wanted at www.skepticalscience.com/Judith_Curry_arg.htm. I was just curious why that page was not referenced along with the other usual suspects.
Doug:
I just flipped a switch and Curry's profile now appears in the gallery of Climate Misinformers. If you have any personal interest in helping us keep this database current, please let John Cook know.
John Hartz, thanks for adding Curry to the list of usual suspects.
As for helping keep the database up to date, I doubt I am a suitable person to be involved in any research sense, as I am not skilled in the science and I don't read the literature widely enough to know when someone is selling a crock. I will, however, be happy to let John Cook know if I look unsuccessfully for someone in the mug shot gallery. It is a great quick-reference resource to access when I am locking horns with obfuscators on other fora.
Perhaps you could add this remarkabe Curry quote to your profile on her (uless it's already in there somewhere and I missed it):
Is it “cherry picking” to start a trend analysis at 1998? No, not if you are looking for a long period of time where there is little or no warming, in efforts to refute Hypothesis I*
*[Hypothesis I = AGW].
(http://judithcurry.com/2012/02/07/trends-change-points-hypotheses/)
The ignorance demonstrated in that single statement really tells me everything I need to know about this woman. Cherry-picking is bad enough, but defending it because, well, you were earnestly trying to pick the bit that was cherry-flavoured... is amazing. And note that this is not a bit of ill-considered daydreaming that popped out when she wasn't paying full attention. It's there on her own blog, in the main post.
I can't see how someone capable of saying this can be employed by a university.