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Comments 35601 to 35650:

35601. wili at 00:09 AM on 15 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       The last word of the first paragraph should be 'companies' not 'countries.'

35602. wili at 00:08 AM on 15 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       Rob, thanks again for thoughtful comments. I would think that broadly applied moratoriums on certain activities would not leave some companies at a competitive disadvantage vis a vis other countries.

       Again, our ideas of realities are clearly different. You put forward mortgage payments as if that is some kind of solid reality that must be addressed. You may recall that not so long ago the government threw hundreds of billions of dollars at banks whose essentially criminal activities had destabilized the entire banking system. The gov could just as easily have forgiven all mortgage debts to the same companies, or made this a condition of the grant. Money is just information that can be changed massively at any moment. The ice caps, on the other hand, can not be so easily manipulated--once they're gone, we can't maneuver 0s and 1's on a computer to get them back.

       "we need to shut everything down and start over"
        I did not say that, and I would encourage you not to put words in my mouth, though perhaps for you fundamentally altering much of business as usual is 'shutting everything down,' perhaps.

       As for scientists', consider this quote from Gavin Schmidt, newly appointed director of NASA's Goddard Center: "f you ask a scientist how much more CO2 do you think we should add to the atmosphere, the answer is going to be none. " The previous director, Jim Hansen, has said similar things. And then there's Kevin Anderson, director of the Tyndall Center: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RInrvSjW90U

       This paper and others point out that, even if we stop all further CO2 emissions today, atmospheric levels would stay at current levels or go higher due to feedbacks already in place (see especially the first graph under figure 3)...

       http://www.skepticalscience.com/Macdougall.html

       You may like to tell yourself conforting stories about how there is still time for incrimental change. But they are just stories.

       Let me end by reaffirming our point of agreement. A higher price on carbon is necessary. It is just clear to me that it is also no where near sufficient at this point. 

       This is already too long, but perhaps you hadn't noticed that we are in the midst of the sixth great Mass Extinction event. It was already well underway before the effects of GW really started showing themselves. So we are adding a Mass Extinction on top of a Mass Extinction, probably leading to the greatest extinction event since the beginning of complex life. The Great Dying, the previous largest one, saw some 95% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species go extinct. We are likely to surpass this, particularly with BAU. Elizabeth Kolbert has a recent book on this, and the great biologist E.O. Wilson and many others have written and spoken about it frequently. Most people, though, aren't listening.

35603. MA Rodger at 20:47 PM on 14 July 2014
       Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
       

       Asteroid Miner @48.

       It is perhaps difficult to immediately grasp the massive size of the Greenland ice sheet and that it will not melt away in the twinkling of an eye when temperatures rise. For Greenland to melt away will take many many centuries, even when temperatures rise further.

       It's best to look at the numbers. To melt ice takes energy and to melt a lot of ice takes a lot of energy. There is 2.9 million cu km of ice on Greenland which would require 1,000ZJ for the latent heat to convert it from ice to water (and perhaps 100ZJ to heat it up to melting point).  But Global Warming s almost entirely about heating the oceans (which are even more massive than the polar ice sheets - 1.34 billion cu km). AGW has added 250 ZJ to the oceans over the last 5 decades, an average of 5ZJ/year. In comparison, very little energy has been added to Greenland ice. Even today with the dramatic levels of ice loss, the extra energy into Greenland melting ice is only about 0.2ZJ/year.

       Perhaps another indicator of the massive size of the ice sheet on Greenland is the work of Dahl-Jensen et al (1998). They produce a temperature history for the summit of Greenland by measuring the internal temperature of the ice sheet. The changing heat flux through the ice caused by temperature changes at the summit over past millennia can still be detected as they continue to flow down into the ice sheet.

       The graph below is from the paper. Figure 3a in the paper is perhaps even more telling as it plots temperature back 100,000 years.

       

35604. John Michael Carter at 19:47 PM on 14 July 2014
       It's albedo
       

       I think in general this site does a fantastic job, and fully support it. Though I struggled with this article a little bit, I also thought it was informative, and for the issue of cloud cover albedo, linked to it here. 

       But, though I know this is an old post (though I don't think that makes it or comments in it have any less value) I have a question on this article as well.  It reads "Overall, the Earth's albedo has a cooling effect."  

       Has a cooling affect relative to what? Doesn't the earth have to have some level of albedo? So the albedo can't cool or heat, but only cool or heat relative to a higher or lower albedo??

       I also wonder, since the myth is supplied by Anthony Watts, who seems to have gotten a lot of fairly central stuff incorrect, if the end of that statement supplied at the outset "the albedo forcings.. seem to be ...larger than that of all manmade greenhouse gases combined."

       Again, doesn't this have to be relative to some baseline, such as a marked and precise change in albedo over a specific time period? It's also unclear from the myth quote whether he is talking about the allleged "decrease in albedo" over some set of years prior to '97 (followed by a "lull," which presumable means no change from the prior year?) or the alleged increase in albedo after '97. And is the statement of total affect even accurate? And again, relative to what (not Watt) specifically?

       Ned, comment 7 above:   Helpful comment.  It also says "So, a change in the earth's albedo can increase or decrease the amount of energy that is absorbed, without necessarily increasing or decreasing the amount of energy that is emitted." 

       I want to make sure I understand this correctly, as I'm also unclear on this as well.  A higher albedo will reflect more radiation away from the surface, which has not affected the amount of energy the surface is emitting, but is affecting the energy absorbed by increasing (in the case of a higher albedo) the amount simply reflected away (like a white shirt) and thus decreasing the amount not reflected, but simply absorbed. Making high (versus low) albedo huge, because much of it then goes back into space, instead of heating the surface it hit, and then adding to overall thermal emittance from that warmed surface.  I botch anything major there?

       (Maybe this is going too far afield, and also showing whatI need to learn about the changing wavelengths, but if it is simply reflected and the wavelengths stay the same, then it won't be much impeded by atsmopheric gg gas absorption and re radiation - but, if it is not reflected, but aborbed (say into warmer water) not only does it heat the surface (or water) but when some of that energy is released as heat, in longer thermal radiation form, more of it is then trapped, and re radiated in all directions, by the gg gases in the atmosphere, then otherwise would have been had it been bounced back originally in its original shorter wavelength (and thus not, or less? gg gas absorbable) and less goes back out into space, yet again.  ?? )

35605. Rob Honeycutt at 14:26 PM on 14 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       Wili...  Hm, "...ending most complex life on earth." I'm not sure I would be able to find any research that supports that position. I wouldn't disagree that we are in the process of dramatically impacting natural systems which we rely on to support the human population levels we've seen over the past century. But, really, life on earth is highly resilient. Eventually, given a few million years, the planet would be perfectly happy without homosapien sapien running around mucking things up.

       My own concerns are much more immediate. On a business-as-usual path things are likely to be very very bad. Bad as in, WW2 would seem like a leisurely stroll in the park, bad. We need to address worsening the crisis that we leave for the next generation or two.

       All those friend whom I mention, they all want to do the right thing. These are all people who understand the climate change problem and want to do whatever they can. In fact, many are actively doing things about climate change. But, they have mortgages and kids and they have to get their respective jobs done each week in order to keep paying their mortgages and supporting those kids. No one can change careers mid-stride and expect to make ends meet if there's a moratorium on some critical aspect of their work. These are just the fundamental constraints involved in solving the problem. 

       All I'm trying to portray here is the fact that we have to take a step-by-step approach to getting this job done. We clearly have to get to zero emissions by 2050. We don't have to get to zero emissions by 2018. We have to bend the curve of emissions. Zero carbon emissions tomorrow or next year or even in 10 years is impossible. Working to bend the curve today and next year... that is something that actually can be accomplished.

       Banning "non-essential" avaition in the near term just isn't going to happen (and who would even determine what is essential or not?). Nor does this even need to happen. There are far easier problems to solve this decade. The tougher nuts are better left for later.

       "Climate scientists are saying that we have to stop emitting anymore carbon essentially ten years ago. That's who I'm listening to."

       Yes, it would have been far better if we'd gotten a quicker start on this problem. But I'm listening to climate scientists too. I don't hear anyone saying we need to shut everything down and start over. I hear scientists, though frustrated with the FF industry efforts to scuttle every good effort, saying that this is not game over yet. 

       We have an enormous task before us. Lots of good people are working hard to rise to that challenge. All I'm saying is, let's let them do their work.

35606. scaddenp at 13:49 PM on 14 July 2014
       Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
       

       Ateroid Miner - are you referring to Fig 3? It is a temperature anomaly graph (with respect to mid-20th C temp), not absolute temperature. Local absolute temperature would be in the negative 20-30s. And yes, multiple dating tools have been used on ice core.

35607. Tom Curtis at 13:43 PM on 14 July 2014
       Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
       

       Asteroid Miner @48, I am unsure as to which graph you are discussing, but presume it to be one of the many graphs of the GISP2 icecore.  If you look at the first such graph (at the top of the OP), you will see that the temperatures vary between -32.5 and -28.5 centigrade, sufficiently cold to keep the ice frozen.  That is slightly misleading due to the low resolution of the graph.  Ngheim et al (2012) document approximately 65 ice melt events at that site in the last 10,500 years, however some years are missing from their documented periods so that the number may be greater than that, but certainly less than 100.   The melt layers are very shallow, representing single seasons and in the 2012 season, just two days in July.  There is a possibility but no reason to expect that several years data could be melted in particular cases.  This presents no major problem because of the low resolution of the records, and because layers deeper in the core are cross correlated with datable events due to volcanic ash in the ice cores. 

35608. wili at 13:40 PM on 14 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       Hi Rob, thanks again for your thoughtful comments. I was thinking about the basis of my disagreement with you (and many others, of course), and I think it boils down to this.

       Modern industrial culture is in the process of ending most complex life on earth. You seem to think that this is some minor, incidental, minor flaw in an otherwise just fine system, needing some tweeking around the edges to fine tune the otherwise well running machine.

       I happen to think the problem goes a bit deeper.For example, there will be advantages and disadvantages for your friends' firms to have a less global reach. But you portray it as an absolute and vital necessity to continue this part of global (or even broadly regional) business, vital enough to risk the future habitability of the planet for. I don't.

       We are likely to be mostly talking past each other when we speak of specific desirable actions since our basic perceptions of the situation are so fundamentally different. But please do correct me if I have mischaracterized your position.

       Best, wili

       PS. "No one who is seriously looking at this issue is suggesting we do anything like this." Perhaps no one that you take seriously. Probably very few economists are thinking this way. That doesn't mean they are right. Climate scientists are saying that we have to stop emitting anymore carbon essentially ten years ago. That's who I'm listening to.

35609. Asteroid Miner at 12:58 PM on 14 July 2014
       Crux of a Core, Part 1 - addressing J Storrs Hall
       

       The graph looks like that particular spot in Greenland should have melted away and not been there several times in the past 8000 years. Have the top few feet of ice core been dated by some method other than by counting layers?

       Did the altitude change? I think I missed something. Why does the graph have those peaks above the present? It couldn't have gotten that hot in central Greenland. Too much ice would have melted, throwing off your dates.

       Greenland ice should have melted completely between 8000 and 6000 years ago, leaving no ice sheet. There must be a correction factor somewhere. Otherwise, how could you have such a deep core?

35610. Rob Honeycutt at 10:55 AM on 14 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       wili...

       First off, you've completely misinterpreted my metaphor. I wasn't suggesting air travel is the life blood of our economy. But, unfortunately at this point, fossil fuels very much are. 

       I would suggest that much (not all) of the air travel that happens today is very much essential. For instance, a good friend of mine is a lead partner in an architechure firm that does major projects all over the world. He has to fly around the world on a monthly basis. I'm sorry, but it would be utterly impossible for him to do these projects via Skype. I have a number of other friends who are product designers and they frequently have to fly to Asia to work through new products with factories. That just can't be done via Skype. 

       Trust me, all these folks are using telepresense on an almost constant basis, but there are just things that cannot get done without being there to work on a face-to-face basis.

       There's going to be a transition off of fossil fuels. It's abolutely necessary. It's imperative. We need a price on carbon. We need a strong focus on efficiency. We need to keep investing in new technologies. A carbon tax will help to drive these forward faster. Luckily the aviation industry is actively working on solutions very much because the long term health of their industry requires big solutions from them.

       "Direct resrictions, bans and rationing are now imperatively needed."

       We're going to have to disagree on that point. These are the sort of actions that would actually make the situation worse. No one who is seriously looking at this issue is suggesting we do anything like this.

       There are a lot positive things happening right now. I found it incredibly encouraging to recently hear Elon Musk saying that he believes solar will be a plurality of the energy mix in the next, I think he said, 20 years. That's major. And there's a ton of venture capital money out there right now looking for climate change solutions.

       My sense is, when we really start bending the curve on carbon emissions, it's all going to start moving much faster than most people think. The last thing you want to do is pull the rug out from under the people who are creating solutions.

35611. wili at 07:53 AM on 14 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       Oh, and from page viii of the executive summary:

       "The IPCC AR5 Working Group 3 (WG3) calculates that in the absence of additional commitments to reduce GHG emissions, the world is on a trajectory to an increase in global mean temperature of 3.7°C to 4.8°C compared to pre-industrial levels. When accounting for full climate uncertainty, this range extends from 2.5°C to 7.8°C by the end of the century."

       That highest level would certainly put large parts of the many of the most populated areas of the world into unsurvivable 'wet bulb temperatures.'

35612. wili at 07:49 AM on 14 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       Ashton, sorry if this offends you, but the answer to your question is a couple clicks away--you can easily access the study and find answers, such as on page 2:

       "food production, human health and productivity, and safety from extreme storms and other climate disruptions. Rising sea levels would overtake many of the world’s largest urban agglomerations and low-lying countries, such as Bangladesh and small island states. Many threatened regions in today’s poor world, particularly the tropics, drylands, forests, and alpine regions, may become uninhabitable, leading to mass migration
       and suffering"

       Were you just too lazy to do this simple ten-second search? Or are you actually not interested in an answer?

       Hurricanes may not become more frequent, since high level wind sheer that can interupte hurricane formation is also increasing (ain't climate complex? Who'd a thunk it??), but those that do form can be very big monster, fueled by hotter oceans, much more humid air, and higher sea levels. They are also more likely to come at times and places where we don't expect them (cf. Arthur and Sandy), steared by an ever more eratic jet stream. I haven't seen the recent study on Malaria you seem to reference without citing, but diseases like West Nile and others are certainly spreading far beyond their expected areas, and more will follow.

       A few hundred words later, on the next page, we find:

       "Not only could a increase in temperatures by 2°C bring untold suffering in many parts of the world from severe climate disruptions such as heat waves, droughts, floods, and intense tropical cyclones, but a rise in temperature of 2°C or more threatens many positive feedback loops that could push the global climate system into runaway and irreversible disruptions"

       And of course if we blow way past 2 degrees C, we get into conditions where humans just won't be able to survive the heat & humidity (so called wet bulb temperature). Does that sound dangerous to you?

35613. scaddenp at 07:41 AM on 14 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       Ashton, please see here for a quick overview of climate impacts. See the IPCC WG2 for more detail. Rising sea level (your counter argument that people are doing irrational things is ... well odd), threatening the heavily populated delta areas with flooding and salt invasion; and disruptions to hydrological cycle are the main issues (eg see here). "Dangerous" doesnt necessarily mean dangerous to you personally. Hopefully you are not comfortable with the idea that some people might enjoy the benefits of fossil fuels while other people pay the price.

       If you want to discuss the idea that climate change is not dangerous, please do so the appropriate thread (as pointed to above). Discussion here would be off-topic and thus in violation of the comments policy.

35614. wili at 07:28 AM on 14 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       Rob, thanks for your thoughtful response. I have to agree with you that it was a 'lousy metaphor'--specifically because, unlike blood, most airtravel is not absolutely vital to global economic functioning. If you want to preserve some air travel, how about things like medical emergencies and fire fighting. These seem more like the kind of vital functions we may want to allow to happen.

       I also agree that a price on carbon is needed and would go some way in the right direction. But, as with everything else it seems, there are two damning problems: 1) We are politically light years away from instituting any such tax; 2) Such a tax alone is now far short of what is needed.

       We now know that every day, CO2 (and other GHG) emissions are the equivalent of nearly half a million Hiroshima atom bomb blasts of energy exploding into the climate system. If you someone was building actual bombs and you knew they were planning to drop them on you, would you merely discourage them by moderately incrteasing the tax on fissionable materials?

       Direct resrictions, bans and rationing are now imperatively needed. There really is no 'carbon budget'; we busted that budget long ago.

35615. Ashton at 06:45 AM on 14 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       In the piece under discussion the phrase "dangerous climate change" is used  But what is it that is dangerous about climate change?  Rising sea levels?  The prospect of that doesn't seem to stop people building in areas that may be flooded.  Drought?  Floods?  Both are attributed to climate change.  Hurricanrs?  The incidence, given the better reporting, is now lower than for several years.  Malaria?  That seems to have  been debunked. What is it exactly that constitutes the "dangerous" adjective?  

35616. Rob Honeycutt at 04:06 AM on 14 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       wili...  I think a price on carbon would go a long way toward bringing long distance travel down quite a lot by raising the cost. But I would have to suggest that we're not quite to the point where we need to declare a moratorium on long distance travel. We need to rapidly decarbonize but it's going to require a vibrant economy to accomplish this.

       This might be a lousy metaphor but think of it like a blood transfusion. The worst way to accomplish this task would be to suck all the blood out of the patient before replacing it with new blood. We need to replace the old blood with the new blood, but the only way to do that without killing the patient is to do it carefully and methodically. 

       We're going to continue to burn fossil fuels for a while. There's no way around that. We need to dig in and first make changes that have the biggest effect for the least amount of money, like efficiency. Then, surface transportation change over is going to take 20-30 years. Aviation is a tough nut to crack and is likely to take closer to 50-80 years to really get carbon-free. But in the meantime aviation is likely to continue to make significant improvements in carbon intensity along the way.

35617. wili at 03:43 AM on 14 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       "And already, for long distance travel, aviation has a low carbon footprint compared to other forms of suface transportation. (You have to remember, there is no surface infrastructure required; e.g. roads, rail lines, etc.)"

       
       But Rob, how many of those trips just wouldn't have been taken if there was not a fast, cheap way to do it. We have to make flying, driving and most other forms of carbon-based travel _less_ convenient, so people think twice about doing them and think instead of alternatives...skipe for meetings, local bike tours for tourism...

       Relatively few long distance trips, flying or otherwise, are absolutely essential. We're talking about an existential threat here, people. Shouldn't all non-essential use of CO2 producint activities be getting very close scrutiny and huge doses of skepticism, rather than rationalizing a way of continuing such mostly frivolous activity?

35618. Rob Honeycutt at 02:50 AM on 14 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       On the aviation issue...  The nice thing about this one is, the aviation industry doesn't deny the problem. They are embracing the problem and are working on solutions. They know fuel prices are going up and the major cost driver is fuel costs. The industry has every incentive to work really hard to try to use fuel as efficiently as possible. And already, for long distance travel, aviation has a low carbon footprint compared to other forms of suface transportation. (You have to remember, there is no surface infrastructure required; e.g. roads, rail lines, etc.)

       Aviation moves very slowly but their engineers do freakishly amazing stuff. There's some wild stuff on the drawing boards right now that look to address fuel source issues, like superconducting ducted fan designs. It's just not stuff that's going to flying by 2050. 

35619. MThompson at 22:18 PM on 13 July 2014
       The power of pie-charts to communicate consensus
       

       Thanks for the other parries, but it is chrisd3 that exhibits integrity that builds solid science. We must not allow inaccurate renditions of key propositions to go unchallenged. Are we not rebutting global warming misinformation herein?

       I hold the work of Cook et al. in higher esteem than published surveys of related propositions precisely because it is an analysis of data (i.e. published abstracts) rather than the shifting sands of surveys. Yes, such overwhelming consensus is notable, and whether it is 97 percent or 99.9 percent is unimportant. It is elimination of the all-important qualifiers on the proposition that justifiably incites our critics. A survey of scientists would likely provide a very high consensus that “Gravity is an attractive force between massive bodies.” Restrict that survey to physicists and there should be found strong disagreement.

35620. WRyan at 20:06 PM on 13 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       @Paul W

       The BREE modelling you quoted is for hypothetical nuclear power in Australia. I find it difficult to believe that the construction and operating costs of a nuclear reactor in Australia is half of that of a real reactor in the UK, which is what that model implies.

       The OECD modelling that article quoted is based on there being close to zero storage. This scenario is based on basically maintaing an entire separate electricity generating system to replace power lost if close to all renewable systems in a network closed down because of lack of sunlight, wind, etc at the same time and for an extended period (days). I question how realistic this view is. Storage technologies are likely to became considerably cheaper as a market is established and the technlogies go into mass production. As they become cheaper, they will greatly reduce the costs of renewables stated in your linked articles.

       The nuclear batteries you quoted are currently extremely expensive (and of course impossible to obtain outside of strictly regulated government environments.) This may change in the future, but then again it might not.

35621. Paul W at 18:23 PM on 13 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       @WRyan 5.

       A study that includes all the hiden costs tells a different story.

       http://bravenewclimate.com/2013/03/22/counting-hidden-costs-of-energy/#more-6088

       There is a very big difference between cost of production and the delivered costs. The referenced study showed nuclear as lower at delivered costs in an Australian context.

       I did discuss nuclear batteries which is a small scale low cost nuclear technology that runs for 15 tp 20 years between refueling un attended.

       It is designed to replace the coal burning part of a coal power station while leaving the rest of the station. It's to fast track shut down of coal to use existing infrastructure.

       It can also be mass produced which is quite unlike the large one off nukes you refer to.

       All large power generation uses government subsidies.

35622. WRyan at 16:02 PM on 13 July 2014
       El Niño in 2014: Still On the Way?
       

       With regard to my previous post, I've thought of a 5th possible mechanism for warming.

       5. A decrease in cloud cover over land results in more sunlight being absorbed by land surfaces. This results in an increased amount of IR radiation entering the atmosphere, which causes the temporary warming.

35623. WRyan at 15:54 PM on 13 July 2014
       El Niño in 2014: Still On the Way?
       

       I've never been able to find a good explanation of why El Nino events cause temporary atmospheric warming. There are 4 factors I can think of:

       1. Increased volume of warm surface water increases the amount of IR radiation entering the atmaosphere, and so causes increase warming.

       2. Increased evaporation causes a higher humidity and therefore increased absorption of IR radiation ( a temporary enhanced greenhouse effect).

       3. Incresed eveaportaion of warm water carries energy into the atmosphere which is transferred to the rest of the lower troposphere by conduction and convection.

       4. Increased evaporation causes an increase in humidity which results in more cloud formation. As the vapour condenses, the production of latent heat involved in the phase transition is transferred to the surrounding air by conduction.

       Are any of these mechanisms responsible for the increased temperature? If so, which ones and to what degree does each contribute to the warming?

       I think this would be a good topic for  short article.

35624. WRyan at 15:08 PM on 13 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       @Paul W

       New nuclear power is generally very expensive. The new reactor being built in England is priced to generate electricty at around 17c/kWh. The reactor is only being built through a  very large government subsidy. New wind power costs less than half that amount and new utility scale PV can be much cheaper than the price of nuclear, depending on the proposed site. (Proposals for new PV farms in Texas and California are pricing generation at around 6-7 c/kWh.)

       As for air travel, it isn't necessary to completely stop the burning of fossil fuels to stabilise the climate. It is only necessary to substantially reduce it (maybe by 80-90%). So it is possible that the  highest priority uses of fossil fuels could continue. For this reason, the aim of the decarbonising studies tends to focus on reducing CO2 sources from the easiest targets first - switching electricity generation to renewables, and then switching land transport to electrical vehicles, trains, cars and, eventually, trucks.

       The real challenge of reducing fossil fuel use is to make it happen quickly. The faster the reductions occur from sources like electricity generation, the more time people will have to work on the hard targets like airline travel.

35625. Paul W at 13:51 PM on 13 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       @Larry E 3.

       It's seems that they have chosen a global approach. It has some limitiations but the one that you mention I dont see as being absolute.

       If very cheap power were available then the route from sea water for jet fuel costs 90 cents USD on land and 1.20 USD on the ocean capital costs) according to the US navy. They have very cheap power on their nuclear powered ships.

       We could have that on land during storms with losts of wind power when power costs go negative or with advanced nuclear. The ARC nuclear battery technology puts fuel at a fixed price for 15 to 20 years.

       That means that we could keep on with air travel growth and not blow out CO2 emmisions. We just need non fossil jet fuel.

       Could we get the anti nukes to relent? I'm more skeptical about that issue.

       Could we get onging support for wind with out attacks from fossil fuel intersets under cutting their supports?

       I see those as more difficult than non fossil fueled air travel.

       Progesss forwards is a lot easier technically than getting the extrems in politics to agree and work together. I think that is the rate limiting step to limiting global temperature.

35626. Ken in Oz at 11:36 AM on 13 July 2014
       Today’s Solar Power ‘Revolution’: Powerful Insights from Energy Experts
       

       I actually find it a postive that a relatively small amount of solar PV is making fossil fuels more expensive - by shaving the lucrative peak off daytime demand. A relatively small amount of storage will shave the lucrative peak off evening demand. (Isentropic's PHES is aiming for an initial, most lucrative, 3 hours worth of storage) Ultimately a 'free' - or at least an open - energy market will see fossil fuels forced into intermittency and, already bearing a burden of costs from having overcapitalised for demand that never eventuated, they will cost more again from the losses of their most profitable demand periods - enough to become the carbon price signal that Cap and Trade, Carbon Tax or other pricing mechanisms have been resisted so strongly, have so far failed to be. The value and cost of that shrinking, intermittent output will rise to compensate, but the value of energy storage options will become increasingly apparent, especially if the climate consequences of emissions are no longer ignored on an 'out of sight, out of mind' basis.

       A broad acceptance that emissions from fossil fuels represent an unacceptable burden of consequences and costs has to underpin energy policy and energy research and energy investment. Using lowest cost fossil fuels as the benchmark and constraining limit on energy prices, when those costs do not include that externalised burden of consequences means those constraints are false and deceptive. Yet, regionally, periodically and with a large measure of predictability, they are no longer the lowest cost option; something that should have been foreseen, had  low cost enewables not been dismissed out of hand as an impossibility.  

       The least emissions - rather than simply the least cost - options for dealing with intermittency will still require preferential policy assistance but there may be, ironically, some requirement to assit power companies to retain some interim fossil fueled backup capacity whilst staving off untimely bankruptcy.

35627. Larry E at 09:10 AM on 13 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       The report does not give any consideration to long-distance travel, and without limitations on that we cannot succeed — even with the inadequate 2oC guardrail that the study relied on.

35628. chrisd3 at 22:08 PM on 12 July 2014
       The power of pie-charts to communicate consensus
       

       @MThompson: The literature supports both claims. Doran & Zimmerman find, by direct poll, that 97% of the scientists who are most expert in climate science support the theory.

       Now, bloggers and others (including both Obama and John Kerry) do go wrong when they say "97% of scientists agree." That is not true. The percentage is very high (e.g., 82% of Earth scientists, according to the D&Z survey), but it's not 97%.

       The most accurate phrase is probably something like "97% of climate science experts."

35629. scaddenp at 15:14 PM on 12 July 2014
       El Niño in 2014: Still On the Way?
       

       wwysim - for what fairly spare information I can find, the volume of ejecta from the recent Indonesian eruptions is far below Pinatuba and unlikely to affect weather.

       While volcanoes undoubtedly cool the climate, I am unaware of evidence that they can affect the ENSO cycle. Do you have a reference?

35630. PluviAL at 14:55 PM on 12 July 2014
       Today’s Solar Power ‘Revolution’: Powerful Insights from Energy Experts
       

       Tom Curtis and From Peru, well made points; however, you fail to grasp the fact that civilizations actual use energy load is miniscule. 15 TW vs 174,000 of incoming radiation. Climate change is orders of magnitude greater, because it takes place at the planetary scale. Albedo from PV is insignificant as Tom argues well. The big thrust should be to come up with solutions that allow for economic growth without damaging the environment. One way is for our energy regime to improve the environment. The most successful life forms improve the environment with their life processes. We can do the same. Pluvinergy is my prior argument for that, but only a few hundred copies sold. Now I take great hope in article such as this, or the really excellent news about hydrogen storage in Ammonia, ianw01 provides.

       There are technical solutions, and going to zero growth sounds good, but it is not. Environmental improvement can be defined as and result in economic growth. Putting insulation in my house and adding solar lighting and heating have huge energy and comfort returns. If we design from that starting point, the world can be really lovely. We must design from that point of view.

       Now I am working on controlling sea level. It is not as impossible as it seems. It is a modification of Pluvinergy, but it makes the task quite doable, to the point that one realizes, that is the real challenge; there is no way to turn back the clock on the 40 year lag in climate change that is already in the atmosphere. The cryosphere will melt, we either do something about it or suffer the consequences.

       This kind of article is just what the doctor ordered to give us curage to confront the problems head on instead of with denial or other forms of burying our heads in the sand.

35631. One Planet Only Forever at 13:04 PM on 12 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       Another action the global coimmunity must take is the evaluation of all known fossil fuel resources and agree which ones must be left in the ground unburned. The rational approach would be to use the ones that will produce the least amount of unacceptable consequences per unit of useable enegry obtained.

       The current approach is bound to fail. It is based on expecting self-serving national leadership to willfully stop promoting the maximum benefit they can get away with from unacceptable economic activity that they see as benefiting their national interests.

       It is clear that such self-serving nations are the reason we face the bigger challenge today. What needs to be accomplished would have been far easier to accomplish starting 20 years ago.

35632. Composer99 at 11:56 AM on 12 July 2014
       The power of pie-charts to communicate consensus
       

       MThompson: Other surveys producing 97% (± 1-2%) levels of agreement are surveys of scientists' opinions themselves. Indeed, Cook et al 2013 mentions Zimmerman & Doran 2009 and Anderegg et al 2010 as just such surveys.

       And those surveys conclude, as Anderegg et al put it in their abstract:

       97–98% of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field surveyed here support the tenets of [anthropogenic climate change] outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

       In other words, your assertion that the infographics shown are "troubling" is shown to be incorrect: they both relate substantiated conclusions from the published literature.

35633. KR at 06:10 AM on 12 July 2014
       The power of pie-charts to communicate consensus
       

       MThompson - Do you think there is any evidence supporting a drastically different opinion distribution for those scientists whose paper abstracts didn't mention the causes of recent climate change? Note that about the same percentages apply to the self-ratings by authors for their papers, including many whose abstracts were rated by Cook et al as neutral, indicating that the ~97% consensus carries through to all. Barring evidence to the contrary, such an objection is rather irrelevant. 

       Cook et al 2013 states their methods and the first assertion you quote; anyone interested in the topic can read the (open) paper themselves. Conversational shorthand descriptions (i.e., in common English) of the conclusions are just that - details get dropped, particularly when there is shared knowledge. I have seen 'skeptic' arguments along those lines, and they are just semantic quibbling. 

35634. MThompson at 04:35 AM on 12 July 2014
       The power of pie-charts to communicate consensus
       

       Embedded in this post is an example of one of the troubling tendencies in popular climate science blogs. The graphic first indicates:

       “97% of climate papers stating a position … agree ...”

       Then just below that image:

       “97% of climate scientists agree …”

       Are these logically the same proposition? I think not. What scientist would defend such bastardization?

35635. wili at 04:34 AM on 12 July 2014
       Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) Presents Interim Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
       

       Well, at least they admit that many consider two degrees to be too high. But then they go ahead and set that as the guardrail--go figure. At one point in the main article, they give the following equation:

       CO2 emissions = Population x (GDP/Pop.) x (Energy/GDP) x (CO2/Energy)

       
       Unfortunately, they only concentration on the last two, assuming the first must go up by about 2 billion before starting to decline by around 2050. And of course, since the whole thing is lead by an economist, they see an net increase (presumably for eternity) in the second as not only necessary but highly desirable, their central goal, in fact. But percapita GDP has not been shown to be a good indicator of human happiness beyond a certain minimal point. Why should this be left off the table of things we have to decrease dramatically and quickly? And this is the only element that can be reduced very quickly. And quickly versus slowly, in this case, makes all the difference, well, in the world.

       Continued rise in CO2 emissions spell global ecocide. Why should the best and fastest way to avert it be taken off the table just because of the blind and misguided ideology of a few economist.

       (Note Herman Daly's definition of economics: "An ideology parading as a discipline.")

35636. Roger D at 03:29 AM on 12 July 2014
       The power of pie-charts to communicate consensus
       

       As explained in this piece, the graphics of the pie charts showing actual expert consensus or expert vs public consensus are great at showing these things. It seems to me though that the climate change-denier slide would be useful for its intended purpose too. To facilitate the chronic "skeptic's" avoidance of the reality of the seriousness of global warming. Although very busy, and probably needing a walkthrough by the “skeptic” presenter to get full benefit, the denier slide makes the valid point that "ghosts of doubt" will always be "in the game". And just speaking from my personal experience, I think many of the "skeptics" I know and love would place great weight on that fact. Their thinking process apparently approximates this: Ghosts of doubt = those scientists don't know everything = there could be factors they are completely unaware of = why, maybe there are huge unknowns = no need to act yet, what with the huge unknowns. In other words, they smoothly think themselves from a premise that is true (but oversimplified and without context – like most skeptic arguments themselves), to what they want to keep believing. It's a tough nut to crack but it seems a shift is hopefully underway. I appreciate SKS for their part.

        

35637. KR at 02:13 AM on 12 July 2014
       Global warming conspiracy theorist zombies devour Telegraph and Fox News brains
       

       DB - I would suggest reading Surface Temperature Measurements: Time of observation bias and its correction. This issue is primarily seen in the US, as volunteer temperature measurements have shifted to a different time of day over the years, station by station, hence an increasing TOBS correction. Other countries don't rely as much on volunteers. Other items in the correction list include the progressive station change from mercury to electronic thermometers, which read a bit cooler. 

       The TOBS correction is discussed in detail by Karl et al 1986, referenced on the very USHCN page you linked to. See the proceeding graph of the effect of individual adjustments - the sum of these is an increasing adjustment over time, quite justified by demonstrable bias changes over the US historical record. 

       Note that these adjustments are fairly small compared to overall temperature changes in the last century, affect only the US, and are lost in the noise for the global temperature record. Pseudo-skeptics harp on the shape of the adjustments, but fail to point out that they really make no significant difference in our understanding of global climate change. 

35638. DB at 01:21 AM on 12 July 2014
       Global warming conspiracy theorist zombies devour Telegraph and Fox News brains
       

       Part of what is causing confusion is, I think, this graph from the NCDC discussion on USHCN adjustments. Can someone please explain why the adjustment is increasing over time and why the increase looks so much like the overall temperature increase? I can't understand the reasons based on the discussion on that page or elsewhere. Thanks.

35639. Composer99 at 23:35 PM on 11 July 2014
       The power of pie-charts to communicate consensus
       

       CBDunkerson:

       Yes, apparently only 3 centuries (the original Star Trek TV series, is, canonically, set in the 2260s) need to pass for humans of the mid-20th century to be "Early Earthmen": Paleolithic humans and previous members of genus Homo need not apply.

35640. Mark Andrews at 22:38 PM on 11 July 2014
       El Niño in 2014: Still On the Way?
       

       I like your piece, Rob, but you say "the substantial reduction of the warm water volume anomaly (thankfully) diminishes the odds of a powerful event rivaling that of 1997-1998 from taking hold." We will be thankful in one way — from potentially less drought and other extreme weather conditions than otherwise — but in another way it would be good to have an El Nino as strong or stronger than the one in 1997-1998 because then many more people may wake up to the reality of global overheating, like many did when 1998 became the hottest year in the instrumental record at that time, and be inspired to take climate action.

       Moderator Response:

       (Rob P) - I understand the sentiment, but there are no guarantees that another record-breaking warm year will sufficiently shift public opinion. The last one came only 4 years ago (2010), and yet here we still are.

       The level of greenhouse gases - predominantly carbon dioxide - in the atmosphere is what counts and so far that just continues to climb. You will note (below) what happened to CO₂ levels after 1998 - they kept increasing. As long as that continues, the oceans and atmosphere will only grow warmer and the oceans will continue to acidify. 

       

        

35641. CBDunkerson at 21:21 PM on 11 July 2014
       The power of pie-charts to communicate consensus
       

       Pac-man was popular with "Early Earthmen"?

       Yikes! Have they dropped the 'age of the Earth' from 6000 years to just 60?

35642. wwsyim at 18:57 PM on 11 July 2014
       El Niño in 2014: Still On the Way?
       

       The Indonesian eruptions of the Kelut volcano and Sangeang Api volcano on February 13 and May 30 respectively may already have switched the Pacific Ocean back into a more La Nina mode. The eruption clouds of both eruptions penetrated well into the stratosphere.

35643. rocketman at 14:01 PM on 11 July 2014
       The power of pie-charts to communicate consensus
       

       Amusing that the Republicans were most influenced by the pie chart.  Apparently they were fuzzy on the meaning of 97% until it was shown graphically.

35644. ubrew12 at 13:18 PM on 11 July 2014
       The power of pie-charts to communicate consensus
       

       When looking at more than two options, a bar chart is better than a pie chart.  But if you only have two options, a pie chart makes it quite plain who is 'winning' (the 'pac man' metaphor is apt here).  A line chart is most useful if the x-axis represents the quantity of a single presumed causal factor (boundary condition).  But if, in a line chart, the x-axis does NOT represent such, but instead represents several competing causal factors, then a line chart is the worst way to present that information (a bar chart is much better).  Hence, the only 'crime' in this article is your first chart.

35645. Composer99 at 12:08 PM on 11 July 2014
       The power of pie-charts to communicate consensus
       

       You can see the difference between professional and amateur communication in the graphics created for the Consensus Project website/sharing (clean, uncluttered, easy to read, simple language and message) compared to the hash of a slide created by the climate denier group (cluttered, sizing and backgrounds make it difficult to read, white text on black background!, complex language and message).

       And that's before we get to the scurillous attempt to equate The Consensus Project with Pac-Man (my reaction, if you'll pardon the Internet slang, was definitely "lolwut") and the questionable vocabulary (I mean, "Early Earthmen"? What is this, Invasion of the Saucer-Men?).

       

       I suppose that it really does show up the difference between attempting to properly communicate the science to the public, and attempting to obfuscate the science.

35646. Timothy Chase at 09:33 AM on 11 July 2014
       El Niño in 2014: Still On the Way?
       

       Joe T

       The monthly Pacific Decadal Oscillation inde is available here.  I would also strongly recommend the Australian Government's Bureau of Meteorology's ENSO Wrap-Up which gets updated roughly once every two weeks.  The latter includes multiple tabs: Overview / Sea surface / Sea sub-surface / SOI / Trade winds / Cloudiness / Outlooks / Indian Ocean / Effects. Indian Ocean focuses on the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) also known as the Indian Ocean Dipole Mode Index (DMI) with recent data and basic explanations.

35647. shoyemore at 07:33 AM on 11 July 2014
       The power of pie-charts to communicate consensus
       

       I forget to add: Good post, and thanks for the reminder about simple, direct visuals.

35648. shoyemore at 07:31 AM on 11 July 2014
       The power of pie-charts to communicate consensus
       

       Edward Tufte in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (p.178):

       A table is nearly always better than a dumb pie chart; the only thing worse than a pie chart is several of them ....

       The effectiveness of these pie charts comes their big, red (or blue) in-your-face, single number or statement, almost like shouting it out loud.

       The two side-by-side pass muster because they are of equal size. Whoever created the denier slide never read Tufte, who warns against asking a viewer to compare pies of different sizes. And who stuck the sun in there, and what does it mean?

       The moral is when you use pie charts, use 'em mostly one at a time and Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS).

35649. scaddenp at 07:17 AM on 11 July 2014
       Volcanoes emit more CO2 than humans
       

       Logan, the article has been noted as needing update but it will sit in the queue with many others. As Tom points out, a good literature review of both volcanic and anthropogenic estimate papers is needed for such an update. Note though that while it is good to put emissions in a context, it is worth noting that no revision of estimates is going get humans off the hook. As Rob points out, FF and volcanoes have different isotopic signitures. Almost all of the increase in CO2 since pre-industrial is of human origin.

35650. scaddenp at 06:10 AM on 11 July 2014
       It's cooling
       

       Jetfuel.

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