Category Archives: history

“Same Old Same Old” (Tamino)

Originally posted on Open Mind:
Here’s temperature anomaly in the USA (yearly averages for the “lower 48”) since 1880, according to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration): Kinda looks like it’s heating up, doesn’t it? Of course the USA isn’t…

Posted in Carbon Worshipers, climate data, environment, geophysics, global warming, hiatus, history, meteorology, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, Tamino, temporal myopia, time series, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Mad Unscience (humorous, if it wasn’t so pathetic)

(Hat tip to Tamino‘s posting of this.) This is priceless.

Posted in capricious gods, carbon dioxide, citizenship, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate zombies, denial, global warming, history, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, obfuscating data, politics, rationality, reasonableness, science, science education, Tamino, UU Humanists | Leave a comment

Draft elements of COP21 agreement for Paris

There is a revised text now available which provides elements of a draft for the COP21 agreement in Paris. The context of this document and what it contains is provided by a news story at RTCC (“Responding To Climate Change”), … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate justice, compassion, consumption, COP21, environment, ethics, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, history, humanism, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, IPCC, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, UNFCCC, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“Why Using El Nino to Forecast the Winter is Risky” – Dan’s Wild Wild Science Journal

Why Using El Nino to Forecast the Winter is Risky – Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal – AGU Blogosphere.

Posted in chance, climate models, differential equations, dynamical systems, ensembles, ENSO, environment, forecasting, geophysics, history, mathematics, meteorology, NCAR, NOAA, nor'easters, oceanography, physics, risk, science, statistics | Leave a comment

Science Deniers

A good term, science denier, by Dan Satterfield. And assuredly the WUWT crowd is part of them.

Posted in Bill Nye, Boston Ethical Society, Carl Sagan, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, climate change, climate zombies, disingenuity, education, environment, geophysics, global warming, history, humanism, ignorance, investing, meteorology, natural philosophy, obfuscating data, rationality, reasonableness, reproducible research, risk, science, science education, sociology, temporal myopia, the right to know | Leave a comment

Links explaining climate change Kevin Jones liked

Kevin Jones asked me if I could put the links in a Comment on a post I made at Google+ in a collection or something for reference. I am therefore repeating the Comment with these details below. No one simple … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, astrophysics, bifurcations, biology, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, chance, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate models, climate zombies, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, dynamical systems, ecology, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, environment, exponential growth, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, history, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, living shorelines, mass extinctions, mass transit, mathematics, maths, meteorology, methane, microgrids, model comparison, NASA, natural gas, NCAR, NOAA, oceanography, physics, politics, population biology, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, science, science education, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sea level rise, sociology, solar power, statistics, temporal myopia, the right to know, Tony Seba, WHOI, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

disruption to global electricity production during the next 25 years

I am a huge fan of Tony Seba’s writings and work, primarily because I am an engineer, and I simply cannot accept that the situation with the impending climate catastrophe is hopeless. Engineers are eternal optimists. Not everyone will be … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, dynamical systems, economics, energy, engineering, environment, ethics, exponential growth, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, global warming, history, investment in wind and solar energy, mathematics, maths, methane, microgrids, natural gas, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, sociology, solar power, statistics, stochastics, sustainability, taxes, the right to know, Tony Seba, transparency, wind power, zero carbon | 6 Comments

Excellent. With musings on religion and mass extinctions.

And sometimes, just sometimes, I can feel the same way about some religions. Now, it’s not that many aren’t doing good, and many aren’t getting people to realize that we have painted ourselves deeply into a climate corner, but it … Continue reading

Posted in art, atheism, Bill Nye, Boston Ethical Society, bridge to nowhere, Carl Sagan, citizenship, climate, climate change, climate education, climate justice, climate zombies, Darwin Day, denial, ecology, environment, ethics, fossil fuels, games of chance, geophysics, global warming, history, humanism, mass extinctions, Neill deGrasse Tyson, physical materialism, politics, population biology, rationality, reasonableness, science, science education, sociology, temporal myopia, the right to know, UU Humanists | 1 Comment

‘Weather by Icon’ Is A Bad Way To Get an Accurate Forecast – Dan’s Wild Wild Science Journal – AGU Blogosphere

'Weather by Icon' Is A Bad Way To Get an Accurate Forecast – Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal – AGU Blogosphere.

Posted in dynamical systems, ensembles, environment, forecasting, geophysics, history, hurricanes, maths, meteorology, NCAR, NOAA, nor'easters, physics, probability, rationality, science, science education, statistics, temporal myopia | Leave a comment

Climate Justice

December 2015 will see the definitive meeting of the UNFCCC COP 21 intended to set targets and commitments under the UN treaty establishing UNFCCC and the IPCC, one approved and ratified by the United States (*). Before then, a good … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, bifurcations, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate justice, compassion, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, dynamical systems, economics, education, energy, energy reduction, environment, ethics, fossil fuel divestment, games of chance, geophysics, global warming, history, humanism, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, NOAA, oceanography, physics, politics, population biology, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, sociology, temporal myopia, Unitarian Universalism, UU Humanists, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Destroying the Most Persistent Scientific Myth In America – Dan’s Wild Wild Science Journal – AGU Blogosphere

Destroying the Most Persistent Scientific Myth In America – Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal – AGU Blogosphere.

Posted in Bayesian, biology, carbon dioxide, chance, citizen science, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, denial, ecology, education, ensembles, environment, forecasting, geophysics, global warming, hiatus, history, IPCC, meteorology, NCAR, NOAA, obfuscating data, physics, probability, rationality, reasonableness, science, science education, spatial statistics, statistics, temporal myopia, time series | Leave a comment

Brian Swett discusses Boston’s climate future | NOAA Climate.gov

Brian Swett discusses Boston’s climate future | NOAA Climate.gov.

Posted in Boston, climate change, climate disruption, ecology, economics, environment, forecasting, geophysics, global warming, history, investment in wind and solar energy, living shorelines, mass transit, meteorology, NOAA, oceanography, physics, politics, population biology, Principles of Planetary Climate, public transport, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, sea level rise, sociology, statistics, temporal myopia, the right to know, time series, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

The ShoutROC action on the climate rally, Concord, MA, 19th April 2015.

Album available. Y’think this is play stuff? These start slow, but, in the end, they are overwhelming. Go ahead, try to say “No, we’re gonna consume all we want, and what’s left is YOUR problem” to this citizen:

Posted in Boston Ethical Society, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, compassion, conservation, ethics, fossil fuel divestment, history, humanism, reasonableness, the right to know, Unitarian Universalism, UU Humanists | 1 Comment

Earth Day, my hope

Posted in carbon dioxide, Carl Sagan, Charles Darwin, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate education, compassion, conservation, Darwin Day, demand-side solutions, ecology, economics, education, efficiency, energy reduction, environment, ethics, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, history, humanism, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, mathematics, maths, meteorology, NCAR, NOAA, oceanography, open data, open source scientific software, physics, politics, population biology, Principles of Planetary Climate, privacy, probit regression, R, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, reproducible research, risk, science, science education, scientific publishing, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sociology, the right to know, Unitarian Universalism, UU Humanists, WHOI, wind power | Leave a comment

“This planet comes with limits”

Carl Safina elaborates on the limits of exploitation. It’s consistent with what David Suzuki conveys in his succinct presentation, linked below: As Suzuki says, this isn’t politics or opinion, or even biology, it’s just math.

Posted in Anthropocene, biology, carbon dioxide, citizenship, climate change, ecology, environment, forecasting, history, humanism, physics, population biology, rationality, reasonableness, risk | Leave a comment

“Where is the horse?” Tony Seba

“Choosing to wait is choosing to be disrupted.”

Posted in citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, decentralized electric power generation, demand-side solutions, economics, energy, engineering, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, history, investment in wind and solar energy, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, wind power | 3 Comments

Retro news: Cronkite’s 1980 global warming alert. — The Daily Climate

Retro news: Cronkite's 1980 global warming alert. — The Daily Climate. Yes, people have been warning about this for quite a while. This is also why I doubt the delay can be blamed upon energy company misinformation and obfuscation — … Continue reading

Posted in carbon dioxide, Carl Sagan, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, ecology, environment, history, meteorology, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, sea level rise | Leave a comment

“Gray matters [not much, truly]” (Christian Robert)

Gray matters [not much, truly].

Posted in atheism, Boston Ethical Society, capricious gods, citizenship, civilization, education, ethics, history, politics, rationality, reasonableness, the right to know | Leave a comment

“Human activity has nothing big enough to affect Earth”

“Human activity has nothing big enough to affect Earth.” That’s disingenuous and, usually, the speaker knows better but is trying to dissuade an audience from thinking human activity does. Or they parrot someone who is trying to do that. But … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, biology, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, consumption, ecology, economics, energy, energy reduction, engineering, environment, ethics, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, history, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, meteorology, methane, natural gas, notes, open data, physics, politics, population biology, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, solar power, statistics, the right to know, time series, wind power | Leave a comment

“Merchants of Doubt: What Climate Deniers Learned from Big Tobacco”

Posted in carbon dioxide, climate, climate change, climate education, ecology, economics, education, environment, ethics, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, history, humanism, investing, IPCC, meteorology, new forms of scientific peer review, obfuscating data, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, scientific publishing, sociology | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Christian Robert on Alan Turing

Alan Turing Institute. See Professor Robert’s earlier post on Turing, too.

Posted in Bayes, Bayesian, citizenship, education, ethics, history, humanism, mathematics, maths, politics, rationality, reasonableness, statistics, stochastic algorithms, stochastic search, the right to know, Wordpress | Tagged | Leave a comment

“Barking mad”

Today was a big day at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (“NAS”). The Academy released two important climate reports, each dealing with one of two categories of global countermeasures for the effects of dumping unprecedented amounts of carbon dioxide … Continue reading

Posted in astrophysics, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, demand-side solutions, diffusion processes, ecology, economics, engineering, environment, ethics, forecasting, games of chance, geoengineering, geophysics, history, humanism, IPCC, meteorology, NCAR, NOAA, oceanography, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, science, science education, sea level rise, the right to know | Tagged | Leave a comment

It’s the Trend, Stupid

Originally posted on Open Mind:
Both NASA and NOAA report 2014 as the hottest year on record. Despite the new #1, neither the news itself nor the response to it has surprised me. The news that last year was so…

Posted in carbon dioxide, citizen science, climate, climate change, climate education, ecology, energy, environment, forecasting, geophysics, history, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, meteorology, NOAA, obfuscating data, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, science education, statistics, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Codium fragile, for Saturday, 17th January 2015

With today’s post, I’m beginning a new tradition at 667 per cm, posting a potpourri of short observations collected during the week, not necessarily having dense citations to work which inspired them. (Although if interested, please do ask and I’ll … Continue reading

Posted in art, arXiv, astronomy, astrophysics, atheism, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, Carbon Tax, Carl Sagan, chemistry, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, demand-side solutions, ecology, economics, energy, engineering, environment, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, geoengineering, history, humanism, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, meteorology, methane, microgrids, NASA, Neill deGrasse Tyson, new forms of scientific peer review, NOAA, notes, nuclear power, oceanography, open data, open source scientific software, physics, politics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, reproducible research, science, science education, scientific publishing, sociology, the right to know | Leave a comment

State governments for sale

A New York Times article, with copies of letters between state attorneys general and energy utilities and companies documenting collusion on matters of energy regulation, and opposing federal EPA emissions constraints, has been posted today. One correspondence is shown below:

Posted in carbon dioxide, citizenship, climate, energy, ethics, history, methane, politics, rationality, reasonableness | Leave a comment

“I very much enjoy taking those people on, but, meanwhile, it breaks my heart”

Amen, brother Bill. I very much know what you mean. It really hurts.

Posted in astrophysics, atheism, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, Carl Sagan, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate education, compassion, ecology, economics, education, engineering, environment, forecasting, geophysics, history, humanism, mathematics, maths, meteorology, methane, Neill deGrasse Tyson, oceanography, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, solar power, wind power | Leave a comment

Superstorm Sandy, in New York City

http://nyti.ms/1ruDF81, at The New York Times.

Posted in climate, climate education, economics, energy, environment, forecasting, history, meteorology, privacy, rationality, reasonableness, risk, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Yep, that’s about the size of it: “If the science is true, their whole ideological project falls apart”

Part 1 of Democracy Now interview with Naomi Klein. Part 2 of that interview. And Professor Hansen, like Dr Klein, accuses “Big Green” environmental organizations as cooperating with fossil fuel companies rather than opposing them. Democracy Now has a transcript … Continue reading

Posted in climate, climate education, conservation, economics, environment, history, investing, politics, rationality, reasonableness, science | Leave a comment

“Expectations for a new climate agreement” (Jacoby, Chen, MIT, 2014)

Professors Jacoby and Chen have issued a report as part of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change which handicaps the outcomes of the negotiations which, by international agreement, need to take place in 2015 … Continue reading

Posted in carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate education, consumption, demand-side solutions, ecology, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, environment, forecasting, geophysics, history, investing, meteorology, oceanography, physics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, solar power, wind power | 1 Comment

“People are too insignificant to affect climate”

Setting aside outright fabrications (1) such as those promulgated by the Representative Lamar Smith (R-Texas), laughingly selected as the Chair of the House Committee on Science, a common claim in the Comment sections at The Hill and elsewhere is that … Continue reading

Posted in biology, Boston Ethical Society, carbon dioxide, citizenship, civilization, climate, conservation, ecology, environment, history, humanism, rationality, reasonableness, science, Uncategorized, Unitarian Universalism | 1 Comment