Posted on 5 June 2016 by John Hartz

SkS Highlights

Using the metric of comments garnered, the two most popular of the articles posted on SkS during the past week were:

• Ten years on: how Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth made its mark by John Cook (The Conversation AU)
• Scientists debate experimenting with climate hacking to prevent catastrophe by Dana Nuccitelli (Climate Consensus - the 97%, Guardian)

El Niño Impacts

El Niño is over, but has left its mark across the world by Andrew B. Watkins, Blair Trewin & Catherine Ganter, The Conversation AU, May 26, 2016

Toon of the Week

Hat tip to I Heart Climate Scientists

Quote of the Week 

Buildings currently being constructed at an increasing rate in developing countries are locking the world into high greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come, the world’s leading authority on energy has warned.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, told the Guardian that the world’s number one priority in tackling climate change must be to ensure those buildings meet higher standards of efficiency and safety.

“This would be the single most important step I want governments to take, and they can take it tomorrow,” he said. Politicians could enact higher standards in regulations immediately, though ensuring they are always enforced might take a little longer and involve cooperation between different authorities.

“There are many economic benefits to mandating standards, and this can be done by governments very easily,” said Birol. “They would have positive effects on growth, improve the conditions of the population [including their safety] and to do it they just need to make different government departments work together.”

Make building standards top priority for tackling climate change, says IEA chief by Fiona Harvey, Guardian, June 1, 2016 

He Said What?

Gov. Paul LePage (R) stepped up his attacks on the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) in dramatic fashion this week by sending personal letters to the environmental group’s donors.

“I would request that you carefully review NRCM’s policy positions before donating to them in the future,” the governor wrote, after directing members of his staff to find addresses of donors posted in the environmental organization’s public documents. “It is an activist group that says ‘no’ to every opportunity to allow Mainers to prosper.”

Unsurprisingly, the group and its donors were outraged.

Governor Sends ‘Threatening’ Letter To Environmental Donors by Smantha Page, Climate Progress, Jun 3, 2016

SkS in the News

Bill Nye, magical as he is, can’t be everywhere he’s needed when it comes to debating climate change deniers. Sometimes that responsibility will fall to you, and when it does, will you be ready?

You sure will if you download Skeptical Science, an app built specifically to give you ammunition to shut down the misconceived arguments that lead a person to stray from the inconvenient truth of global climate change.

The app was conceived by helpful Australian scientist John Cook who drew together peer-reviewed scientific literature to create rebuttals to some of the most common arguments used to deny climate change.

App of the Week: Skeptical Science helps you combat climate change deniers by Rose Behar, MobileSyrup, June 4, 2016

Coming Soon on SkS

• The Value of Daring (Joseph Robertson)
• Scientists: 2016 likely to be hottest year on record despite looming La Niña (Roz Pidcock)
• Trump and global warming: Americans are failing risk management (Dana)
• Ocean Heat Comes Back to Haunt Coral Reefs (Rob Painting)
• Study: Most fossil fuels unburnable without carbon capture (Simon Evans)
• 2016 SkS Weekly News Roundup #24 (John Hartz)
• 2016 SkS Weekly Digest #24 (John Hartz)

Poster of the Week

SkS Week in Review

• 2016 SkS Weekly News Roundup #23 by John Hartz
• Greenland’s Melt Season Started Nearly Two Months Early by Brian Kahn (Climate Central)
• Scientists compare climate change impacts at 1.5C and 2C by Roz Pidcock (Carbon Brief)
• Scientists debate experimenting with climate hacking to prevent catastrophe by Dana Nuccitelli (Climate Consensus - the 97%, Guardian)
• Study Helps Explain Sea Ice Differences at Earth's Poles by Alan Buis (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
• Ten years on: how Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth made its mark by John Cook (The Conversation AU)
• 2016 SkS Weekly Digest #22 by John Hartz

97 Hours of Consensus: Michael Oppenheimer

Michael Oppenheimer's bio page

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