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Citi report: slowing global warming would save tens of trillions of dollars by Dana drew the highest number of comments of the rticles posted on SkS durig the past week. Attacting the second highest number of comments was Denial101x MOOC - Full list of videos and references at your fingertips by by Larry M & Baerbel W.
A mature and strong El Niño is now present in the tropical Pacific Ocean and is likely to strengthen further. This year’s El Niño event is the strongest since 1997-1998 and is potentially among the four strongest events since 1950, according to the latest Update from the World Meteorological Organization.
The peak strength of this El Niño, expected sometime during October 2015 to January 2016. Its impacts are already evident in some regions and will be more apparent for at least the next 4-8 months.
El Niño expected to be strongest since 1997-98, WMO Press Release, Sep 1, 2015
ANCHORAGE — President Obama on Monday issued a global call for urgent action to address climate change, declaring that the United States was partly to blame for what he called the defining challenge of the century and would rally the world to counter it.
“Climate change is no longer some far-off problem; it is happening here, it is happening now,” Mr. Obama said here at an international conference on the Arctic. “We’re not acting fast enough. I have come here today, as the leader of the world’s largest economy and its second-largest emitter, to say that the United States recognizes our role in creating the problem, and we embrace our responsibility to help solve it.”
Obama Makes Urgent Appeal in Alaska for Climate Change Action by Julie Hirshfeld Davis & Steven Lee Myers, New York Times, Aug 31, 2015
"We all would want to see this baby born," Christiana Figueres, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said of the U.N. agreement meant to chart ways to fight global warming beyond 2020 by almost 200 nations.
"Of course we are all impatient, of course we are all frustrated," she told a news conference, referring to efforts to pin down emissions cuts to limit heatwaves, floods and rising sea levels. "We are ... on track with the Paris agreement."
At UN climate talks, growing frustration at "snail's pace" by Alister Doyle, Reuters, Sep 4, 2015
Appearing on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum doubled down on his skepticism of man-made climate change.
Santorum made two claims to back his point. First, in a large survey of climate scientists, "57 percent don’t agree with the idea that 95 percent of the change in the climate is caused by CO2," according to Santorum. (We found that claim False.)
Second, Santorum said that a widely cited figure of scientific consensus on climate change — 97 percent — has been debunked by the "head" of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he said.
"The 97 percent figure that’s thrown around, the head of the UN IPC (sic) said that number was pulled out of thin air. It was based on a survey of 77 scientists," he said on Aug. 28. "Not even 97 scientists responded to that survey."
Santorum: UN climate head debunked widely cited 97% climate change consensus figure by Linda Qiu, Politifac, Sep 2, 2015
The following paragraphs are excerpted from Linda Qiu's Politifact article, Santorum: UN climate head debunked widely cited 97% climate change consensus figure:
Tol was specifically referring to a 2013 survey by John Cook, who studies climate communication at the University of Queensland.
Cook’s study found that among over 4,000 studies that took a position on man-made climate change, 97.1 percent "endorsed the consensus position that humans are causing global phase" and 97.2 of 1,300 authors who responded agreed with the position.
Tol takes issue with Cook’s methodology. By his analysis of Cook’s data, the real figure is around 91 percent. (Cook replied critiquing Tol’s methodology and standing by his survey’s original finding of 97 percent.)
Lindsay Thurman begins her Plos blog post article, Getting the [Climate Change] Story Straight with:
With the recent publication of the 2014 IPCC report on Climate Change, the 2014 US National Climate Assessment, and the upcoming Paris 2015 UN Climate Conference, it’s no surprise that the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change has reached approximately 97%.
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Hat tip to Oil Change International
Marcia McNutt's bio page & Quote source
Posted by John Hartz on Sunday, 6 September, 2015
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