Posted on 31 July 2016 by John Hartz

SkS Highlights

These are the best arguments from the 3% of climate scientist 'skeptics.' Really. by Dana Nuccitelli (Climate Consensus-the 97%, Guardian) attracted the highest number of comments among the articles posted on SkS during the past week. 

Toon of the Week

Hat tip to I Heart Climate Scientists

Quote of the Week 

The global battle against climate change has passed a historic turning point with China’s huge coal burning finally having peaked, according to senior economists.

They say the moment may well be a significant milestone in the course of the Anthropocene, the current era in which human activity dominates the world’s environment.

China is the world’s biggest polluter and more than tripled its coal burning from 2000 to 2013, emitting billions of tonnes of climate-warming carbon dioxide. But its coal consumption peaked in 2014, much earlier than expected, and then began falling.

The economists argue in a new paper on Monday that this can now be seen as permanent trend, not a blip, due to major shifts in the Chinese economy and a crackdown on pollution.

“I think it is a real turning point,” said Lord Nicholas Stern, an eminent climate economist at the London School of Economics, who wrote the analysis with colleagues from Tsinghua University in Beijing. “I think historians really will see [the coal peak of] 2014 as a very important event in the history of the climate and economy of the world.”

China's coal peak hailed as turning point in climate change battle by Damian Carrington, Guardian, July 25, 2016

Graphic of the Week

Check out Scientists have found a perfect illustration of how the climate is spiraling ‘out of control’ by Chelsea Harvey, Energy & Environment, Washington Post, July 28, 2016 

He Said What?

Sen. James Inhofe  says school children are being “brainwashed” into believing in climate change and that parents need to “un-brainwash” them.

Inhofe, an outspoken climate change skeptic and chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said he came to the realization when his granddaughter challenged him on his denial of the science behind global warming.

“Our kids are being brainwashed,” the Oklahoma Republican told conservative radio host Eric Metaxas on a recent appearance reported by the liberal blog Right Wing Watch.>

“My own granddaughter came home one day and said … ‘Popi, why is it you don’t understand global warming?’ I did some checking, and Eric, the stuff that they teach our kids nowadays, they are brainwashed — you have to un-brainwash them when they get out,” Inhofe said.

GOP chairman: Kids are ‘brainwashed’ on climate change by Timothy Cama, The Hill, July 27, 2016

Coming Soon on SkS

• A climate scientist and economist made big bucks betting on global warming (Dana)
• As nuclear power plants close, states need to bet big on energy storage (Eric Daniel Fournier & Alex Ricklefs)
• New research shows penguins will suffer in a warming world (John Abraham)
• Six charts show UK progress towards low-carbon energy (Simon Evans)
• Climate-related disasters raise conflict risk, study says (Robert McSweeney)
• 2016 SkS Weekly News Roundup #32 (John Hartz)
• 2016 SkS Weekly Digest #32 (John Hartz)

Poster of the Week

SkS Week in Review

• 2016 SkS Weekly News Roundup #31 by John Hartz
• Sizzling Midwest Previews a Hotter Future Climate by Bob Erwyn (InsideClimate News) 
• Analysis: How UK leaving the EU would increase climate targets for others by Simon Evans (InsideClimate News)
• Climate models are accurately predicting ocean and global warming by John Abraham (Climate Consensus-the 97%, Guardian)
• More CO2 won’t help northern forests or stave off climate change by Noah Charney (The Conversation US)
• These are the best arguments from the 3% of climate scientist 'skeptics.' Really. by Dana Nuccitelli (Climate Consensus-the 97%, Guardian)
• 2016 SkS Weekly Digest #30 by John Hartz

97 Hours of Consensus: Katharine Hayhoe

Katharine Hayhoe's bio page & Quote source

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