rachel.blog

Tag: global warming

  • 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…

  • When is it ok to discuss climate change?

    I just watched this speech by the Philippine Climate Change Commissioner, Yeb Saño, at the UN climate conference in Warsaw. He pleads for action on climate change with passion, breaking down in tears at one point. It’s well worth watching. Yeb Saño makes a direct connection between climate change and the tragedy unfolding in the…

  • Wind farms: love ’em or hate ’em?

    I promised one of my commentators that I’d write a blog post about wind farms. This is perhaps against my better judgement since there is sure to be a heated discussion in the comments but I am not usually one to shy away from a good debate.  So here goes. Why do wind farms generate…

  • 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…

  • More excrement from James Delingpole

    There’s nothing quite a like an article written by James Delingpole to spoil my evening and incite anger. His articles are almost always inflammatory, biased, full of inconsistencies and quite often wrong. I just read his latest turd in the Telegraph and with each line I felt my blood pressure rising and my anger escalate.…

  • Be prepared!

    Be prepared! that’s the boy scout’s marching song, Be prepared! as through life you march along. Be prepared to hold your liquor pretty well, Don’t write naughty words on walls if you can’t spell. Read more: Tom Lehrer – Be Prepared Lyrics | MetroLyrics I was never a Boy Scout, for obvious reasons, but nor was…

  • 25 years of the IPCC

    In anticipation of the release of the IPCC assessment on climate change next week, I thought I’d post this video from Nature.com about the final report. Scientists are now 95% sure that the climate is warming and that we’re largely responsible. There’s also a good summary at Nature.com, The Final Assessment. Note: If you’re having…

  • Women and scientists threats to society

    Australian politics has become so extreme that it is now bordering on funny. Australians have shamelessly elected someone who not only thinks coal and cars are king but who also inexplicably once said, I think it would be folly to expect that women will ever dominate or even approach equal representation in a large number…

  • Don’t believe what you read in the Daily Mail

    It goes without saying doesn’t it? But judging by the comments on a couple of recent climate change articles by Daily Mail journalist David Rose here and here, people will believe anything. Last week, David Rose wrote an article telling us all that the we are headed for global cooling. This week, he has an…

  • Why isn’t it getting colder?

    Most people in New Zealand and Australia will be familiar with the terms El Niño and La Niña which describe the Pacific ocean-atmosphere oscillation and which influence local temperature and rainfall. For Australia, El Niño events tend to bring warmer temperatures and drought while La Niña often brings widespread rain and flooding. The floods of 1973-1974 occurred…

  • Backwards reasoning

    George Monbiot wrote an article this week which has struck a chord with me called Backwards Reasoning. It is something we all do – reason backwards. If we’ve already made up our minds about something, then we reason with ourselves to justify that conclusion. If we don’t like a particular conclusion, we reject the premise.…