Monthly Archives: November 2017

Going Nuclear

Posted on November 29, 2017 by Willard

An epic tweetspat with pseudo-modern engineers made me think of the following confutation of the Breakthrough playbook: First, nuclear energy needs to compete with fossil fuels, not renewables like wind or solar. This point rests on the basic observation that the … Continue reading →

Posted in economics, GRRRROWTH | Tagged , , , | 188 Comments

Combining different ECS estimates

Posted on November 25, 2017 by ...and Then There's Physics

I wanted to briefly highlight a new paper by Nic Lewis and Peter Grünwald called [o]bjectively combining AR5 instrumental period and paleoclimate climate sensitivity evidence. You may want, however, to be cautious of the term objective. As the title indicates, … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Climate sensitivity, Research, Science | Tagged , , , , , , | 133 Comments

Carbon budget constraints

Posted on November 23, 2017 by ...and Then There's Physics

I’d been meaning to highlight a statement from Kevin Anderson for quite some time. A brief lull in postings gives me a chance to do so. It relates to the Paris goal of keeping global warming below 2oC. I haven’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ethics, Global warming, Policy, Politics | Tagged , , , , | 26 Comments

Climate communicators in Edinburgh

Posted on November 20, 2017 by ...and Then There's Physics

It was a bit of a weekend of climate communication in Edinburgh. Yesterday morning I went along to Dynamic Earth, where the Natural Environment Research Council was hosting an event called UnEarthed. Ed Hawkins was there with a display about … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Science, Scientists, The philosophy of science | Tagged , , , , , | 112 Comments

Mertonian norms

Posted on November 17, 2017 by ...and Then There's Physics

There are a set of norms of science, first presented by Robert K Merton and known as the Mertonian norms. I found what seems to be a good description of them here. There are four Mertonian norms, called universalism, communalism, … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Roger Pielke Jr, Scientists, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , | 69 Comments

A real time global warming index

Posted on November 16, 2017 by ...and Then There's Physics

This is a guest post by Karsten Haustein, a researcher in the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford. The post is about a new paper that discusses their real time global warming index. Have you … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Global warming, Research, Science, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 56 Comments

I’m confused….

Posted on November 14, 2017 by ...and Then There's Physics

Recently, Warren Pearce and colleagues published a paper called [b]eyond climate consensus which I wrote about here. There was a response from John Cook, one from Naomi Oreskes, and a Guardian article by multiple authors. Pearce et al. have now … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Global warming | Tagged , , , | 130 Comments

If it’s a fight?

Posted on November 11, 2017 by ...and Then There's Physics

I’ve had very little to say recently, and still don’t have much to say. However, just to keep things ticking over, I thought I would highlight this David Roberts article called [c]onservatives probably can’t be persuaded on climate change. So … Continue reading →

Posted in advocacy, Climate change, ClimateBall, Policy, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , | 155 Comments

Jordan Peterson speaks the truth

Posted on November 4, 2017 by ...and Then There's Physics

I may, justifiably, be accused of this post having a clickbait title. What it refers to, though, is a youtube debate between Philip Moriarty (a Physics Professor at the University of Nottingham) and Fred McVittie (whose credentials I, unfortunately, do … Continue reading →

Posted in ethics, Philosophy for Bloggers, Pseudoscience, Research, Science, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , , , | 405 Comments