Posted on 5 January 2014 by John Hartz

SkS Highlights

Methane emissions from oil & gas development by gws generated the most buzz (as measured by number of comments) of the articles posted on SkS this past week. The article is the scond in a series about the impacts that the current natural gas boom is having on the Earth’s climate.

Toon of the Week

h/t to I Heart Climate Scientists

Quote of the Week

Chris Turney, head of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, says in an article in the Observer that despite the rescue of those on board the Akademik Shikolskiy, the expedition's research ship that has been trapped in ice since Christmas Eve, there was a "growing sense of frustration over what appears to be a misrepresentation of the expedition in some news outlets and on the internet".

Antarctic leader defends expedition against critics of its scientific value by Mark Townsend and Alok Jha, The Observer, Jan 4, 2013

The SkS Week in Review

• 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #1 by John Hartz
• Hockey sticks to huge methane burps: Five papers that shaped climate science in 2013 by Roz Pidcock
• Methane emissions from oil & gas development by gws
• Your chance to make a difference: Join the SkS-Translator team! by Baerbel W
• 2013 in Review: a Productive Year for Skeptical Science by Dana
• Provisional Statement on Status of Climate in 2013 by John Hartz  

Coming Soon on SkS

• The Weekly Standard's Lindzen puff piece exemplifies the conservative media's climate failures(Dana)

• Talking Trash on Emissions (jg, Andy Skuce)
• New Study Suggests Future Global Warming at the Higher End of Estimates: 4°C Possible by 2100 (Rob Painting)
• Global warming is being caused by humans, not the sun, and is highly sensitive to CO2, new research shows (Dana)
• 2013 was Australia's Hottest Year, Warm for Much of the World (Rob Painting)
• 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #2 (John Hartz)

In the Works 

• Mitigation Mosaic: How small steps can make a difference (BaerbelW)
• It’s all a Question of Balance (Glenn Tamblyn)
• Comments on the Purpose of Privacy (Rob Honeycutt)
• Rebuttal to the myth 'CO2 is saturated' (Glenn Tamblyn & jg)
• Saving the Keeling curve (Doug Bostrom)
• Thirteen Years of Moths and Flames (jerryd)
• Honey, I mitigated climate change (Ari Jokimaki)

SkS in the News

In his SouthernCrossroads (The Guardian) blog post, Should Australian newspapers publish climate change denialist opinion pieces?, Alex White references two SkS articles:

• The Year After McLean - A Review of 2011 Global Temperatures
• McLean, de Freitas and Carter rebutted... by McLean, de Freitas and Carter

Joe Romm cites the SkS Intermnediate Rebuttal article, Is Antarctica Gaining or Losing Ice? and Cowtan & Way (2013) in his Climate Progresss blog post, Donald Trump’s Hair, The End Of Global Warming And Other Things That Aren’t Real.  

Cowtan & Way (2013) was referenced at the end of Nathan Currier's Happy New Warming Year (Part I) posted on The Huffington Post. 

SkS's Arctic Sea Ice Escalator was prominently featured in the article, Climate Change Misinformer Of The Year: The Daily Mail by Denise Robbins & ShaunaTheel posted on Media Matters. 

Andy Skuce sets the record straight about the TCP in his Letter-to-the-Editor (LTE), Getting It Right, posted by the Galgary Herald. Skuce's was responding to a previously posted LTE.  

SkS Spotlights

California Climate Change Portal

California's unique geography and economy will yield unique challenges and opportunities from climate change. While much research is global or national, studies that focus on California people, landscapes, and economic sectors are essential to understanding climate change impacts and informing policies to reduce greenhouse gases, adapt to changing environments, and create clean energy jobs and growth.

California state agencies have a long tradition of supporting such research.  See a searchable catalog of sponsored research projects. Summaries and syntheses of research are integral parts of the Climate Action Team reports to the Governor and Legislature. The Climate Action Team's Research Working Group works to ensure coordination among the state agencies performing and sponsoring research, to avoid duplication and find opportunities to collaborate.  See five case studies of collaborative research efforts.

Additional Information

• Catalog of State-Supported Research
• Research Bibliography
• Cal-Adapt
• Adaptation Research Information and Resources
• CCST California Climate Change Research Database
• California Climate Assessments

Note: The above text is from the Home page of the California Climate Change Portal  website.