One of the ~350 or so blogs I subscribe to is Arctic Sea Ice by Neven. Today, he put up a post highlighting new daily data from IARC-JAXA, a collaboration between the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Check it out. Here’s a couple … Read more
Callan reviews two books about climate change: the nonfiction account by Michael Mann, and a fictional thriller set in the warmed Arctic of the future.
Callan has a conversation with Scott Mandia, a community college professor working on the national level to improve the public’s understanding of climate science.
In the interest of conveying a sense of the sort of stuff that goes on a large science conference like the AGU Fall Meeting, I’ll resume my narrative where I left off with yesterday’s description. I began by swinging by the press room where I grabbed a complimentary breakfast, then headed down to the “early … Read more
I got to San Francisco on Saturday afternoon, flying in on the same flight from DC as Rob Simmon and Maria-José Viñas. MJ and I took the BART downtown, and then met up with Jess Ball for Thai dinner and a yummy dessert of banana wrapped in roti with Nutella and coconut ice cream. Then, … Read more
From “Volcanic Versus Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide” by Terry Gerlach in the June 14, 2011 issue of EOS: Human activities emit ~135 times as much carbon dioxide as the world’s volcanoes? Holy cow.
A table from the article “Communicating the Science of Climate Change,” by Richard C. J. Somerville and Susan Joy Hassol, from the October 2011 issue of Physics Today, page 48: There’s a lot to ponder in this table. It strikes me as an important document – a compilation of one of humanity’s most tragic miscommunications. … Read more
I read an article in the current issue of Physics Today with interest. It deals with the nature of scientific controversies, as percieved by the public and by specialists in the field in question. The author, Steven Sherwood, compares the origin of the ideas of a heliocentric solar system, general relativity, and human influence on … Read more
You may have heard that the Republican party has been embracing non-scientific and anti-scientific positions lately. National Public Radio compiled a bunch of quotations reflecting this trend on their website yesterday. I thought I might take a moment here on the blog to critique their statements (both pros and cons), and then reflect on why, … Read more
Yesterday afternoon, I went to the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill to attend a briefing arranged by the American Meteorological Society on the topic of geoengineering as a response to climate change. The two speakers, Ken Caldeira and David Keith, argued that the U.S. should invest heavily in geoengineering research, so we can … Read more
A new poll by Gallup suggests that the proportion of the U.S. population concerned about climate change has dropped to an almost record low (51% of the “polled population worrying about climate change a great deal/fair amount”). The data are interesting to look at: (source) I thought I detected a little pattern here with the … Read more
Callan assesses the quality of the information design displayed in a graphic accompanying a recent article in Science. See if you agree with his critique! Being conscious of our graphic design is important for good science to be unencumbered by gimmicks, propaganda, and layout that obscures meaning.
Links, mostly to Amazon pages for the 6 books mentioned in the video: Thin Ice by Mark Bowen Ice, Mud, & Blood by Chris Turney Turney’s Twitter stream from Antarctica What’s the Worst that Could Happen? by Greg Craven Link to the AGU10 blog post mentioned and to Greg Craven’s response. The Carbon Age by … Read more
My final day at AGU was Thursday, and I spent a lot of it working on school stuff, but I did zip down to the Moscone Center for a session on communicating science to the public in an age of increased public scrutiny. Michael Mann of Penn State was the big draw here, discussing his … Read more
I took a break yesterday morning from nonstop AGU meeting stuff, and got out into the city a bit. A former student of mine, Alan P., lives in San Francisco these days, and works at a local bike shop. So Alan scored us a couple of bicycles and we went for a ride from North … Read more
Man, this meeting is intense. There’s so much going on all the time that for every session or talk you commit to, you’re missing literally dozens of others. This is kind of like going to the library and picking out a book, knowing that there are many other books you’re not reading — but with … Read more
The following letter, signed by 255 members of the National Academy of Science, appears in the current issue of the journal Science. I wholeheartedly concur with the content of this letter, and republish it here in the interest of getting its message out to the world. Please take the next four minutes of your life … Read more
I have a student this semester, Diane, who is a flight attendant. Every weekend, she’s off to some cool European city with her husband, a pilot. Up until now, she’s been bringing me little gifts of beer from each trip. She drops 60 cents in Germany, and then that week I get to taste a … Read more
… So, today is: … and not only that, it’s the 40th anniversary of the first “Earth Day.” Shall we reflect? Yes, let’s shall. My career as a geoscientist was largely inspired by desire to spend time outside, and that in turn was inspired by a lot of positive outdoor experiences as a child and … Read more
Yesterday I attended a climate change briefing hosted by the American Meteorological Society (in conjunction with NSF, AGU, AAAS, and the American Statistical Association). It was in the Hart Senate Office Building, but I didn’t see any senators at the briefing. It was an interesting format: 3 talented speakers giving 3 “fifteen-minute” presentations (really more … Read more