rachel.blog

Tag: agw

  • Someone is mean on the internet

    I have not felt like blogging lately. But today I am out of sorts and it is not because of The Franchise, it is because people are mean to each other on the internet. There are not many topics that generate as much vitriol and animosity as climate change does. Why is this the case?…

  • 100% pure?

    There’s a documentary screening in New Zealand at the moment which is about New Zealand’s 100% pure image and how – with the rising pollution of rivers and swimming spots in New Zealand – this is increasingly at odds with reality (h/t to HotTopic for this). Episode 2 of the series is about climate change. Here’s…

  • We are running out of time…

    A friend sent me a link to a good article this morning (thank you!) about climate change and how if we don’t address it soon, it may end up becoming impossible to address. It is based on a leaked IPCC report, working group III – policies to limit damage, which is due for release in…

  • Barracking for the underdog

    [Note: in Australian English, barracking means to shout support for] Everyone wants the underdog to win. At least I do but I think I take this further by also favouring the weak, helpless and those that cannot fight for themselves especially animals and children. They are at our mercy. We are the bullies. Climate change…

  • On blog moderation and dealing with smarm

    If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s when people say one thing and mean another. Everyone does it but some more so than others. I am sometimes guilty of this myself but mostly I prefer to say exactly what I think. When we don’t speak the truth we are being fake and I hate…

  • Earth to warm 4C by 2100 under business as usual

    A new paper by Steven Sherwood et al. published in Nature this week is predicting a higher climate sensitivity of 3°C or more per doubling of CO2. The paper is called Spread in model climate sensitivity traced to atmospheric convective mixing. Current projections of climate sensitivity fall in the range of 1.5-4.5°C. Part of the…

  • Denial Tango 2014

    This is a great song written by the Aussie group Men With Day Jobs. Thanks to Hot Topic for bringing it to my attention.

  • Does climate change need a new agenda?

    I was speaking to some friends of mine recently about climate change (I know what you’re thinking, those poor souls). They understand and accept the science of climate change but were not particularly interested in the topic or its solutions. One thought wind farms were ugly and the other felt the answer lay with reducing…

  • Do climate change policies hurt the world’s poor?

    There’s something about what Bjorn Lomborg writes that makes me cross. He’s got an article on Project Syndicate in which he argues that environmental policy is hurting the world’s poor. He’s specifically referring to climate change policy and he thinks that what the developing world really needs is access to cheap fossil fuels. The article…

  • An atomic bomb analogy

    I want to ask my lovely readers what they think of an analogy which uses atomic bombs to help describe an amount of energy. The graphic below uses Hiroshima atomic bombs to convey the rate at which the Earth is currently accumulating energy, which is a lot. It was created by Skeptical Science – a…

  • Dangerous climate change

    It must be about time I wrote something about global warming again. I want to write about a new paper by James Hansen – the world’s best known climate scientist and former head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. It’s called Assessing “Dangerous climate change”: required reductions of carbon emissions to protect young people,…

  • Climate change: the state of the science

    I’ve just seen this great video about the science of climate change and what we can expect for the next hundred or so years. I think it’s better than the recently released IPCC video which I also posted on my blog. This one is only four minutes and very good. It is produced by a Canadian…

  • Myles Allen’s proposal to bury the carbon problem

    Wottsupwiththatblog has very kindly let me write a guest post on his blog. I am reblogging it here in case any of my readers are interested. Myles Allen's proposal to bury the carbon problem. A guest post by Rachel ———————————— Because Wotts is very busy at the moment and because I’m quite keen for a…

  • Climate change 2013: the physical science basis

    The IPCC have produced a good video about the recently released report of IPCC Working Group I. It explains the physical science basis of climate change in a very simple manner. Think of it as climate science for dummies in 9 minutes. I have to thank Victor for bringing this to my attention. Victor is…

  • It’s not easy being PM

    Tony Abbott is having a tough time. The Indonesians are not doing what they are told, the people smugglers are not doing what they are told and the weather is not doing what it is told. The president of Indonesia, has been tweeting his disappointment with Tony Abbott. I also regret the statement of Australian…

  • Science Fair Nightmare

    This is a funny youtube video about a climate change contrarian Dad at the school science fair. It’s well worth watching especially if you’ve got some contrarians in your family 😉 Thanks to the blogger at I’m not yet dead who brought it to my attention and who has an excellent post today called I…

  • Global warming underestimated

    Three posts in one day! I must be procrastinating. But I just have to share this youtube video which explains some research conducted by someone from the University of York – a very fine institution in a very fine city – as well as someone from the University of Newfoundland. According to their newly published…

  • Climate departure and Daily Mail hyperbole

    There was an article in the Daily Mail last week predicting a global warming apocalypse.  Here’s the headline: Apocalypse Now: Unstoppable man-made climate change will become reality by the end of the decade and could make New York, London and Paris uninhabitable within 45 years, claims new study Read more: Daily Mail The Daily Mail…

  • Has Murry Salby passed his Salby date?

    I really only wanted to create this post so that I could use the title. 🙂 But perhaps I should flesh it out a little bit. People who do not follow climate change news will be wondering who is Murry Salby. Murry Salby was a professor of Environmental Science at Macquarie University in Sydney and…

  • Can science predict the future?

    In 2009, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck L’Aquila, Italy, killing more than 300 people. Six Italian seismologists were later convicted of manslaughter for failing to adequately warn the citizens of L’Aquila of the deadly earthquake. L’Aquila had experienced a series of small tremors in the months leading up to the 6.3-magnitude quake causing the people to…