Posted on 16 November 2014 by John Hartz

SkS Highlights

Speaking at the University of Queensland, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, reminded his audience of college and high school students that he had tweeted about The Consensus Project (TCP) last year. Here are the President's words:

This university is recognized as one of the world’s great institutions of science and teaching.  Your research led to the vaccine that protects women and girls around the world from cervical cancer.  Your innovations have transformed how we treat disease and how we unlock new discoveries.  Your studies have warned the world about the urgent threat of climate change.  In fact, last year I even tweeted one of your studies to my 31 million followers on Twitter.  (Laughter.)  Just bragging a little bit.  (Applause.)  I don’t think that’s quite as much as Lady Gaga, but it’s pretty good.  (Laughter.)  That’s still not bad.

Remarks by President Obama at the University of Queensland, White House Briefing Room, Nov 15, 2014

Click here to access a video of President Obama's address.

Toon of the Week

h/t to I Heart Climate Scientists

Quote of the Week

"For the third month in a row, global temperatures reached record territory according to newly available data from NASA. And if one global temperature record isn’t enough, the Japanese Meteorological Agency also provided new data on Friday that showed the warmest October on record.

"Data from NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) show this October was 1.4°F above the 1951-1980 average they use as their baseline. That didn’t set a monthly mark, as did August and September, but rather tied 2005 as the warmest October since 1880. That keeps 2014 on track to be the hottest year on record.

"While individual hot years or months don’t necessarily stand out, it’s notable that all 10 of the warmest years on record have all come since 1998, one of the clearest signs that the climate is warming due in large part to greenhouse gas emissions."

NASA, Other Data Show Globe Had Warmest October by Brian Kahn, Climate Central, Nov 14, 2014 

SkS in the News

John Cook was interviewed by the University of Queensland's Global Campus Network reporter Ruth McCosker as part of her news segment, Addressing climate change at the G20 Leaders Summit appears to be an afterthought. 

Dana Nuccitelli was interviewed as part of the Al Jazeera news segment, Republicans protest US-China carbon emissions reduction pledges.

In his Neurohacks/BBC blog post, How to debunk falsehoods, Tom Stafford begins by citing and drawing from The Debuunking Handbook.  

SkS Spotlights

Piers Forster's bio page

Coming Soon on SkS

• How ‘Sapiens’ in the world of high CO2 concentration? (Marcin Popkiewicz)
• Why we need to talk about the scientific consensus on climate change (John Cook)
• 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #47A (John Hartz)
• Climate Models Anticipated Human-Caused Warming in the North Pacific (Rob Painting)
• China's Role in Solving Climate Change (John Abraham)
• Forget ‘saving the Earth’ – it’s an angry beast that we’ve awoken (Clive Hamilton)
• 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #47B (John Hartz)

Poster of the Week

SkS Week in Review

• 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #46B by John Hartz
• Fact check: China pledged bigger climate action than the USA; Republican leaders wrong by Dana
• New study shows warm waters are melting Antarctica from below by John Abraham
• 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #46A by John Hartz
• Remote-control robots reveal why the Antarctic ice sheet is melting by Robert McSweeney
• More research confirming large methane leakage from shale boom by gws
• We must manage global warming risks by cutting carbon pollution, top scientists conclude by Dana
• 2014 SkS Weekly Digest #45 by John Hartz