More on that Pesky Single Number

Jim Hansen and buds offer an explanation of the 2005 global temperature numbers, in part in response to last month’s Washington Post story on their data. Money quote: The existing record in the period of instrumental temperature measurements occurred when the 1997-98 “El Nino of the century” occurred on the back of a strong two-decade …

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Environmental Determinism

I’ve been struggling to understand “environmental determinism,” and why some people think it’s so icky. Thanks to Wikipedia, I finally get it. I was stuck on the plain English meaning of the words, and thought I had stumbled down the rabbit hole of some sort of academic argument over the relative importance of environmental boundary …

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Cave Talk

A cool talk tomorrow evening (Thurs. 11/10) in Albuquerque on bats, swallows and the stuff that lives in caves. The speaker is Diana Northup, a cave biologist at UNM and one of my favorite scientists. She’s speaking to the local Audubon Society. From the press release they sent me at work: “Sight Unseen: The Life …

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Kucinich Resolution Defeated

Dennis Kucinich’s wacky “resolution of inquiry” into What the President Knew About Global Warming and When He Knew It (see Prometheus for background) has been defeated. Comments from House Science Committee chair Sherwood Boehlert (he’s an R), as reported in the committee press release: I want to make clear at the outset that any debate …

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Water Vapor Feedbacks in Europe

Given the recent discussions here and elsewhere about the suitability (or lack thereof) of globally averaged surface temperature as a measure of anthropogenic climate change, I note a paper by Swiss climate researcher Rolf Philipona and colleagues that found a positive water vapor feedback responsible for excess warming in Europe:

What Did the President Know, and When Did He Know It?

Roger Pielke Jr. links to an absolutely wacky press release from Dennis Kucinich documenting his request for all documents (including minutes and memos) in his possession relating to the effects of climate change on the coastal regions of the United States produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Weather Service, the National …

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