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In a blind test, economists reject the notion of a global warming pause by John Abraham (Climate Consensus-the 97%, The Guardian) drew the most comments of the articles posted on SkS during the past week. Exxon's Own Research Confirmed Fossil Fuels' Role in Global Warming Decades Ago by Neela Banerjee, Lisa Song and David Hasemyer (Inside Climate News) attracted the second highest.
Hat tip to I Heart Climate Scientists
As the U.S. is the world's second biggest carbon emitter (after China), any hope of preventing the worst effects of climate change must include not only a strong commitment from Washington, but immediate and measurable action. What's exceedingly frustrating is that it can be done. “We have the knowledge and we have the tools for action to try to keep temperature increases within 2°C to give our planet a chance and to give our children and grandchildren a future," said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. "Pleading ignorance can no longer be an excuse for not acting." He's right of course. But try telling that to a Republican.
How Republicans Made Climate Change America's Most Divisive Political Issue by Reynard Loki, Alterrnet, Sep 15, 2015
This story is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
The second Republican primary debate is tonight. It should be fun. It’s supposed to focus on foreign policy, so it could be an excellent opportunity to examine the global implications of climate change. What’s more, three of the show’s biggest stars have been running their mouths about global warming over the last few days.
Guess what? The things they said were dumb and wrong.
First up: The Donald (Trump). During a speech in Texas on Monday, Trump took aim at President Barack Obama’s oft-repeated (and true) claim that climate change is a major threat to America’s national security.
“They changed it to climate change because the word ‘global warming’ wasn’t working,” Trump said. “Then they changed it to extreme weather — you can’t get hurt with extreme weather.”
Actually, there is a ridiculously overwhelming amount of science that shows just that. And fortunately, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) was happy to share all that info with Carson:
Finally, there’s Carly Fiorina, the only candidate to be promoted from the “kid’s table” debate in August, to the grown-up table tonight, thanks to some good polling early in the month. In an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood published today, she trotted out the good old standby line that “a single nation acting alone can make no difference at all,” and that therefore the U.S. needs to stop “destroying peoples’ livelihoods on the altar of ideology.”
I guess she missed the news that the U.S., rather than acting alone, has actually been really successful in convincing China and other major polluters to take action.
Trump, Fiorina, and Carson just keep saying insane stuff about climate change by Tim McDonnell, Grist, Sep 16, 2015
Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature, Cook et al, Environmental Research Letter, 2013 is cited in the following articles:
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Quote derived with author's permission from:
"Carbon dioxide has probably not been this high in the atmosphere for 3 million years. We understand the greenhouse effect, so what more information do people want?"
Posted by John Hartz on Sunday, 20 September, 2015
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