Climaye change denial specialists – the American Tea Party Republicans
Tea party Republicans are biggest climate change deniers, new Pew poll finds WP, BY JULIET EILPERIN AND SCOTT CLEMENT November 1 Tea party Republicans are now the only group of Americans who think the Earth is not warming, according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center, with just 25 percent of tea party Republicans saying global warming is happening. By contrast, 67 percent of all Americans say there is evidence climate change is underway, including 61 percent of non-tea party Republicans.
Democrats and independents are more confident about global warming: 88 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of independents say there is solid evidence climate change has taken place over the past few decades.
Despite broad belief in warming overall, fewer than half the public believes human activity is to blame (44 percent), a number hardly changed from last year (42 percent). That’s despite a significant rise in the share of Americans who believe scientists generally agree the Earth is getting warmer because of human activity, from 45 percent last year to 54 percent now…….http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/11/01/only-tea-party-members-believe-climate-change-is-not-happening-new-pew-poll-finds/?tid=hpModule_ba0d4c2a-86a2-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394
Geoengineering – a risky way to approach climate change problem
Should we give the green light to geoengineers?http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22029412.200-should-we-give-the-green-light-to-geoengineers.html#.UngInHBwo7p 02 November 2013YOU might think that giving people free rein to experiment with technologies that could cool the planet is a recipe for chaos. But as things stand, pretty much anyone could carry out field tests at will. Most geoengineering exists in a legal void (see “Geoengineers are free to legally hack the climate“).
Should we let tests go ahead? Our copious emissions of carbon dioxide, among other things, mean we are already carrying out huge, unplanned experiments with the climate. Letting a few more proceed, particularly ones intended to improve matters, might be more pragmatic than waiting the decades it might well take to agree international treaties that set out what is acceptable.
But such tests are likely to have unintended consequences, maybe including damage to health or ecosystems across international boundaries. They could even be weaponised – by creating acid rain, say, or killing fish stocks.
So some degree of oversight is desirable. It would be good to notify the neighbours when tests are about to begin. And some monitoring, perhaps through the UN or its Framework Convention on Climate Change, would be well advised. Vigilance, after all, is the price of freedom.
West Coast of USA and Canada lead the charge on climate change action
Climate change pact sends a message SF Gate, , October 29, 2013 Climate change may still be a taboo topic in Congress. But the West Coast of the United States – and Canada – is leading the charge to tackle the issue. The landmark climate change pact signed by the governors of California, Oregon and Washington, along with a representative of the premier of the province of British Columbia, may matter more as a political statement than hard policy statement.
But it’s an important statement nonetheless, and it lays the groundwork for the region to create the kind of tough policy that we’ll need to create in order to have an impact on global warming.
Crucially, it also lays the groundwork for regional policy – the kind of coordinated effort in which the U.S. has proved unwilling to join at the global level. This region is no slouch at the global level, either – combined, these three states and British Columbia represent the fifth largest economy in the world, with 53 million people and a combined annual GDP of $2.8 trillion. Under the Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy, the four governments have agreed to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions. They’ve also agreed to use similar rules for encouraging the adoption of electric cars and the development of alternative fuels. Sea acidification, another symptom of rising carbon dioxide levels, will also be studied and addressed……… If the region is successful in overcoming political obstacles and making a serious, sustained effort against climate change, that will inspire others to do the same. The impact of this plan would then become exponentially greater. http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/editorials/article/Climate-change-pact-sends-a-message-4937510.php
Public opinion misled on global warming, by biased mainstream media
Media false balance as illustrated in the IPCC reporting by outlets like the BBC, Wall Street Journal, and Fox News is largely to blame for this “consensus gap.” This practice of false balance misinforms the public and does us all a disservice.
Conservative media outlets found guilty of biased global warming coverage http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/oct/11/climate-change-political-media-ipcc-coverage by John Abraham and Dana Nuccitelli
New studies show conservative and politically neutral media outlets are creating false balance in climate change reporting There’s a 97 percent consensus on human-caused global warmingin the peer-reviewed climate science literature and among climate experts. There’s a 96 percent consensus in the climate research that humans are responsible for most of the current global warming. The 2013 IPCC report agrees with this position with 95 percent confidence, and states that humans are most likely responsible for 100 percent of the global warming since 1951.
Yet a new study conducted by Media Matters for America shows that in stories about the 2013 IPCC report, rather than accurately reflect this expert consensus, certain media outlets have created a false perception of discord amongst climate scientists.
Background of guests who accept and reject human-caused global warming in IPCC media stories, courtesy of Media Matters.
The 19 percent of guests classified as ‘climate scientists’ in the above graphic is also very generous to the conservative American media outlets. Continue reading
The slow poisoning of our oceans
We could act radioactive pollution to this” deadly trio”
The oceans are heating, acidifying and choking New Scientist, 04 October 2013 by Fred Pearce We know the oceans are warming. We know they are acidifying. And now, to cap it all, it turns out they are suffocating, too. A new health check on the state of the oceans warns that they will have lost as much as 7 per cent of their oxygen by the end of the century.
The cascade of chemical and biological changes now under way could see coral reefs irreversibly destroyed in 50 to 100 years, with marine ecosystems increasingly taken over by jellyfish and toxic algal blooms.The review is a repeat of a study two years ago by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), a coalition of scientists. It concludes that things have become worse since the first study.
“The health of the oceans is spiralling downwards far more rapidly than we had thought, exposing organisms to intolerable and unpredictable evolutionary pressure,” says Alex Rogers at the University of Oxford, the scientific director of IPSO.
Deadly trio
Rogers describes a “deadly trio” of linked global threats. The first is global warming: surface sea water has been warming almost as fast as the atmosphere. The second is acidification – a result of the water absorbing ever more CO2 from the atmosphere. The third is deoxygenation…….http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24351-the-oceans-are-heating-acidifying-and-choking.html#.UlByOdJwonE
Climate Change – what the Insurance Industry thinks
For his own part, Muir-Wood puts his money where his mouth is. “I personally wouldn’t invest in beachfront property anymore,” he says, noting the steady increase in sea level we’re expecting to see worldwide in the coming century, on top of more extreme storms. “And if you’re thinking about it, I’d calculate quite carefully how far back you’d have to be in the event of a hurricane.”
How the Insurance Industry Is Dealing With Climate Change Smithsonian 25 Sept 13 When it comes to the calculating the likelihood of catastrophic weather, one group has an obvious and immediate financial stake in the game: the insurance industry. And in recent years, the industry researchers who attempt to determine the annual odds of catastrophic weather-related disasters—including floods and wind storms—say they’re seeing something new.
“Our business depends on us being neutral. We simply try to make the best possible assessment of risk today, with no vested interest,” says Robert Muir-Wood, the chief scientist of Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a company that creates software models to allow insurance companies to calculate risk. “In the past, when making these assessments, we looked to history.
But in fact, we’ve now realized that that’s no longer a safe assumption—we can see, with certain phenomena in certain parts of the world, that the activity today is not simply the average of history.”This pronounced shift can be seen in extreme rainfall events, heat waves and wind storms. The underlying reason, he says, is climate change, driven by rising greenhouse gas emissions. Muir-Wood’s company is responsible for figuring out just how much more risk the world’s insurance companies face as a result of climate change when homeowners buy policies to protect their property………
The fact that the frequency of some catastrophic weather events may be changing due to climate change makes the problem even more complex. Continue reading
Big corporate money funding climate sceptics
The Competitive Enterprise Institute has in the past received funding from Exxon Mobil, the oil company, and the American Petroleum Institute, Texaco, General Motors and the Koch Family Foundations, controlled by the Koch brothers who made their fortune from fossil fuels.
Big business funds effort to discredit climate science, warns UN official http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/20/big-business-funding-climate-change-sceptics Climate change summit braced for counterblast from sceptics as report warns greenhouse gas emissions still increasing Fiona Harvey and Graham Readfern The Guardian, Saturday 21 September 2013 Big companies are paying contrarians to undermine the work of climate scientists, according to a top UN official speaking before the release of a landmark review of climate science this weekby international researchers next Friday.
Halldór Thorgeirsson, a director who reports to the head of the UN body that governs the on-going high level international climate negotiations, said that scientists would need to be prepared for a counter-blast from sceptics.
“Vested interests are paying for the discrediting of scientists all the time. We need to be ready for that,” he said……..
His outspoken views will set the tone for a fractious meeting of the world’s leading climate scientists, kicking off on Monday in Stockholm, that will set out the evidence that the world’s governments use when formulating policies to deal with global warming for decades to come. More than 800 scientists have contributed to the report, the final details of which will be hammered out in a gruelling four-day session next week.
According to a draft of the “Summary for Policy Makers” dated June , seen by the Guardian– the most important part of the document – the scientists will argue that the evidence points to 95% certainty that climate change is occurring and is caused mainly by greenhouse gases released by humans – up from 90% certainty in the previous 2007 report. Continue reading
Europe considers cutting carbon emissions by 20%
Europe weighing 40 percent 2030 carbon-cutting goal: EU sources By Barbara Lewis BRUSSELS | Thu Sep 19, 2013 (Reuters) – European Union regulators are considering doubling the bloc’s target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and setting a tougher binding goal for renewable energy use, EU sources said…… If agreed, the new European goals would be more ambitious than other nations have managed…..http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/19/us-eu-climate-idUSBRE98I0RP20130919
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confronts anti science campaign
IPCC chairman dismisses climate report spoiler campaign Rajendra K Pachauri says ‘rational people’ will be convinced by the science of the forthcoming blockbuster climate report Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent the guardian.com, Friday 20 September 2013 The chairman of the United Nations‘ climate panel has dismissed a contrarian spoiler campaign targeting next week’s blockbuster report, saying “rational people” will be convinced by the science.
In his first public comments on the organised effort to discredit the major climate change report ahead of its release on 27 September, Rajendra K Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said he was confident the high standards of the science in the report would make the case for climate action.
“There will be enough information provided so that rational people across the globe will see that action is needed on climate change,” Pachauri told a conference call.
“I really wouldn’t want to say anything about any perceived effort for a pushback,” he went on. “We are doing our job and we are reasonably confident that rational people in government and all over the world will see the merit of the work that has been done.” Continue reading
Climate denialism in 5 easy stages, and with Rupert Murdoch’s blessing
The 5 stages of climate denial are on display ahead of the IPCC report, The Guardian, by Dana Nuccitelli Monday 16 September Climate contrarians appear to be running damage control in the media before the next IPCC report is published The fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report is due out on September 27th, and is expected to reaffirm with growing confidence that humans are driving global warming and climate change. In anticipation of the widespread news coverage of this esteemed report, climate contrarians appear to be in damage control mode, trying to build up skeptical spin in media climate stories. Just in the past week we’ve seen:
- The David Rose Mail on Sunday piece that treated scientific evidence in much the way bakers treat pretzel dough.
- Dr. John Christy interviewed by the Daily Mail;
- Christy’s colleague Dr. Roy Spencer in The Christian Post;
- Andrew Montford in Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian;
- Matt Ridley in Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal; and
- Bjorn Lomborg in The Washington Post.
Interestingly, these pieces spanned nearly the full spectrum of the 5 stages of global warming denial.
Stage 1: Deny the Problem Exists.……..Most climate contrarians have come to accept that the planet has warmed significantly. Unfortunately many have regressed back into Stage 1 denial through the new myth that global warming magically stopped 15 years ago (most recently exemplified by David Rose in the Mail on Sunday). The error in that argument involves ignoring about 98 percent of the warming of the planet, most of which goes into heating the oceans. When we account for all of the data, global warming actually appears to be accelerating………
Stage 2: Deny We’re the Cause Continue reading
“Dealing in Doubt” – new book exposes the climate scepticism industry
Report offers field guide to the climate change denial industry, Guardian, Graham Readfearn, 13 Sept 13, Greenpeace report documents the who, what, when and how of a long-running campaign to block action on climate change It writes boilerplate legislation, runs extensive PR campaigns, puffs CVs with fake credibility, facilitates or promotes the intimidation of climate scientists and advocates, publishes books, organises speaking tours and conferences, gets on the telly and radio a lot, uses Freedom of Information laws as a surveillance tool, pays scientists to speak and – crucially – it manufactures doubt and confusion among policy makers, politicians and the public about climate change.
To get this work done, it has accepted many millions of dollars from fossil fuel interests or ideologically-driven conservative donors who funnel their cash through anonymous trust funds because they are too cowardly to put their mouths and their money in the same place.
We’re talking about the international climate science denial industry. Now it has a field guide, of sorts, courtesy of researchers at environment group Greenpeace.
Published this week, Dealing in Doubt: The Climate Denial Machine Vs Climate Science recounts the history of efforts to underplay the risks of human-caused climate change, to deny the scientific evidence and to misrepresent the state of the collective knowledge of genuine scientists on the issue.
Oh, and it comes with fun little caricatures of some of the key characters in the denial industry.
The title of the report “Dealing in Doubt” comes from a tactic employed and articulated by tobacco industry executives in a 1969 memo, which read: Continue reading
Pacific Islands Forum supports Marshall Islanders call for justice about climate change, and nuclear bomb tests
VIDEO Marshall Islands gains Pacific Islands Forum support for US nuclear legacy http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-06/an-marshall-islands-gains-pacific-islands-forum-support-for-us-/4942154 By Pacific correspondent Sean Dorney 6 Sep 2013, The annual Pacific Islands Forum has wrapped up in the Marshall Islands with relations between the host nation and two of its largest aid donors, the US and Taiwan, under some strain.
Along with keynote support for the Majuro Declaration for Climate Leadership which commits the countries to increasing their efforts to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions by turning to alternative, sustainable energy resources, the US announced a new aid injection for the region.
“We’re announcing today a new Pacific American Climate Fund that’s going to be administered through the USAid where support will be provided to the Small Island Developing States with a focus on adaptation,” said Sally Jewell, the United States Secretary for the Interior. Meanwhile, the official forum communique stated its support for the Marshall Islands in its dispute with the United States over more compensation for nuclear contamination.
In a joint news conference with the US interior secretary, Marshall Islands’ President Christopher Loeak restated the sensitivities around the issue.
“The Republic of the Marshall Islands and the United States have a unique and deep friendship even though we may have our differences including on high sensitive, highly sensitive issues,” he said.
So highly sensitive, the interior secretary referred the nuclear contamination issue to the US Ambassador to the Marshall Islands, Tom Armbruster…….. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-06/an-marshall-islands-gains-pacific-islands-forum-support-for-us-/4942154
“Earthmasters”- new book on geo-engineering
CLIVE HAMILTON: – One thing I noticed while doing this research and looking at scientists involved was the density of the linkages with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. So I investigated further and thought it’s really quite astonishing the extent to which many, if not most, prominent scientific researchers in geoengineering in the U.S. worked at Livermore or have close links with people there now or those who used to work there.
Then when I read Hugh Gusterson’s book on Livermore and it’s role in the cold war and nuclear weapons development, I started to think much more carefully about the type of mindset that is especially drawn to geoengineering as a technological response to global warming. I think it’s quite alarming in its implications.
Climate Change’s Silver Bullet? Our Interview With One Of The World’s Top Geoengineering ScholarsBY ARI PHILLIPS ON SEPTEMBER 6, 2013 MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — SINCE COMING TO AUSTRALIA ALMOST TWO MONTHS AGO I’VE HEARD ABOUT CLIVE HAMILTON IN THE PROCESS OF REPORTING JUST ABOUT EVERY STORY I’VE DONE. THEN I PICKED UP HIS NEW BOOK EARTHMASTERS: THE DAWN OF THE AGE OF CLIMATE ENGINEERINGAND NOW I SEE WHAT ALL THE FUSS IS ABOUT.
In all of the debates over how to address climate change, climate engineering — or geoengineering — is among the most contentious. It involves large-scale manipulation of the Earth’s climate using grand technological interventions, such as fertilizing the oceans with iron to absorb carbon dioxide or releasing sulfur into the atmosphere to reduce radiation. While its proponents call geoengineering a silver bullet for our climate woes, its skeptics are far more critical. Joe Romm, for one, likens geoengineering to a dangerous course of chemotherapy and radiation to treat a condition curable through diet and exercise — or, in this case, emissions reduction.
According to the cover of Hamilton’s new book, “The potential risks are enormous. It is messing with nature on a scale we’ve never seen before, and it’s attracting a flood of interest from scientists, venture capitalists and oil companies.” Continue reading
New report on the extent of human influence on climate change
Climate Change May Have Impacted Half of 2012′s Extreme Weather WIRED< BY CAROLYN GRAMLING, SCIENCENOW 09.06.13 2012 was a rough year around the globe, and not for any of the Planet X/Mayan calendar doomsday reasons people feared. Instead, it was a year of extreme weather: drought and heat waves in the United States; record rainfall in the United Kingdom; unusually heavy rains in Kenya, Somalia, Japan, and Australia; drought in Spain; floods in China. And of course there was Superstorm Sandy.
One of the first questions asked in the wake of such an extreme weather event is: “Is this due to climate change?” In recent years, a brand of research called “climate attribution science” has sprouted from this question, examining the impact of extreme events to determine how much—often in fractional terms—is related to human-induced climate change, and how much to natural variability (whether in climate patterns such as the El Niño/La Niña-Southern Oscillation, sea-surface temperatures, changes in incoming solar radiation, or a host of other possible factors).
In a report published online today in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (PDF), scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tackled this question head-on. The report—the second such annual report—analyzes the findings from about 20 scientific studies of a dozen or so extreme weather events that occurred around the world last year, seeking to parse the relative influence of anthropogenic climate change. The overall message of the report: It varies.
“About half of the events … reveal compelling evidence that human-caused change was a [contributing] factor,” said NOAA National Climatic Data Center Director Thomas Karl today at a press conference accompanying the release of the report. In addition, noted climate scientist Peter Stott of the U.K. Met Office, these studies show that in many cases, human influence on climate has increased the risks associated with extreme events.
Below, some highlights from the report:……. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/climate-change-extreme-weather/
AUDIO: Ocean acidification a factor in global warming
AUDIO: Researchers identify new factor in global warming http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-26/researchers-identify-new-factor-in-global-warming/4912664 26 Aug 2013, 2:26pm AEST Researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology in Germany have studied a factor in climate change which has not been included in previous climate change projections. They say that as the oceans take in more CO2, they will produce less of a sulphur compound which blocks radiation from the sun.
Source: The World Today | Duration: 4min 21sec
Topics: climate-change, earth-sciences, research-organisations, germany
SCOTT BEVAN: A scientific study released today highlights a factor in global warming which has not previously been taken into account – and the news is not good.
It shows that, as the acid levels in sea water change, oceans will release less of a gas which protects against climate change.
It comes as another study on ocean acidification warns that ocean ecosystems will be in for substantial change as climate change strengthens its hold. Continue reading
1 This Month
22 June – Virtual Event –Climate Change: New Data, New Debate
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Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
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