Posted on 27 July 2014 by John Hartz

SkS Highlights

Dana's Climate models accurately predicted global warming when reflecting natural ocean cycles examined a new paper by James Risbey et al that takes a clever approach to evaluating how accurate climate model temperature predictions have been while getting around the noise caused by natural cycles. Needless to say, the article generated a lively and enligtening discussion on its comment thread.

El Niño Watch

• El Niño 2014: Weather Phenomenon Will Arrive Later And Be Weaker Than Initially Expected, Forecasters Say by Maria Gallucci, International Business Times, July 25, 2014
• El Nino Seen by Forecasters Weak or Delayed for Months by Ranjeetha Pakiam, Bloomberg News, July 25, 2014

Toon of the Week

h/t to I heart Climate Scientists

Quotes of the Week

"We do not face a choice between protecting our environment or protecting our economy. We face a choice between protecting our economy by protecting our environment — or allowing environmental havoc to create economic havoc. And a major step toward changing the debate is to change the way we measure the health of our economy, our fiscal conditions, and the health of individual companies and businesses to better reflect the world as it will be."

How ignoring climate change could sink the U.S. economy, Op-ed by Robert Rubin*, Washington Post, July 24, 2014

*Robert E. Rubin, co-chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, was U.S. Treasury Secretary from 1995 to 1999.

SkS in the News

The SkS rebuttal article, Why is southern sea ice increasing? is referenced and linked to in Andrew Revkin's New York Times' Dot Earth blog post article, Researchers Question Expansion of Antarctica’s Fringe of Sea Ice. 

In his Mother Jones article, The Strange Relationship Between Global Warming Denial and…Speaking English, Chris Mooney links to the SkS article, Lukewarmerism, a.k.a. Ignoring Inconvenient Evidence.

Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature, Cook et al, 2013, Environmental Research Letters, is referenced in:

• We have a scientific consensus: Humans cause global warming (Poll) by Antoinette Siu posted on Syaracuse.com.
• How to Determine the Scientific Consensus on Global Warming by Gayathri Vaidyanathan, ClimateWire/Scientific American.

SkS Spotlights

The International Glaciological Society was founded in 1936 to provide a focus for individuals interested in practical and scientific aspects of snow and ice.

The objects of the Society enshrined are to:

• stimulate interest in and encourage research into the scientific and technical problems of snow and ice in all countries;
• facilitate and increase the flow of glaciological ideas and information;
• publish
  • the Journal of Glaciology
  • the Annals of Glaciology
  • ICE, the News Bulletin of the International Glaciological Society
  • other appropriate publications, such as books and monographs
• sponsor lectures, field meetings and symposia.

The Society recognizes achievements in glaciology and contributions to the development of the science through the award of the Seligman Crystal, Honorary Membership and the Richardson Medal. Information on recent work in glaciology is submitted periodically to National Correspondents and compiled into reports which are published in ICE.

Poster of the Week

SkS Week in Review

• 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #30B by John Hartz
• 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #30A by John Hartz
• The Dark Snow team investigates the source of soot that's accelerating Greenland ice melt by John Abraham
• New study investigates the impact of climate change on malaria by John Abraham
• Seal of approval - How marine mammals provide important climate data by BaerbelW & Anne-Marie Blackburn
• Climate models accurately predicted global warming when reflecting natural ocean cycles by Dana 

Coming Soon on SkS

• Nigel Lawson suggests he's not a sceptic, proceeds to deny global warming (Dana)
• State Department cuts through the acid political environment on oceans and climate (Sarah)
• A Relentless Rise in Global Sea Level (Rob Painting)
• Updating the 'climate has changed before' myth rebuttal (Howard Lee)
• Harvard historian: strategy of climate science denial groups 'extremely successful' (Graham Readfearn)
• 2014 SkS Eekly News Roundup #31 (John Hartz)