Monthly Archives: August 2019

High emission scenarios

Posted on August 23, 2019 by

I thought I might briefly reflect, again, on the whole RCP8.5 discussion. In case anyone missed it, there has been a lengthy online discussion about RCP8.5, which is a concentration/forcing pathway that leads to a change in forcing of 8.5 … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Climate sensitivity, ClimateBall, Severe Events | Tagged , , , , , | 60 Comments

This. Is. Not. Science’s. Job.

Posted on August 16, 2019 by

My title is a paraphrase of something Michael Tobis said during the marathon Twitter discussion about RCP8.5, which I thought I would use to discuss something about science communication that I’ve mentioned a number of times before. During the RCP8.5 … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Research, Scientists, The philosophy of science | Tagged , , , , | 83 Comments

A thin bench

Posted on August 15, 2019 by

A Nature Communications paper came out yesterday called Discrepancy in scientific authority and media visibility of climate change scientists and contrarians. It generates a list of what they call climate change contrarians and a list of climate change scientists and … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Contrarian Matrix, Global warming, Scientists | Tagged , , , , , | 396 Comments

Sigh

Posted on August 11, 2019 by

There’s been a rather contentious Twitter thread about RCP8.5, a concentration/forcing pathway I’ve discussed before. It started with a claim that it was “bollox” followed by a suggestion that it was mainly used for generating headlines, scaring gullible folk and … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon tax, ClimateBall, Policy, Scientists, Sound Science (tm) | Tagged , , , , , , | 99 Comments

A little knowledge

Posted on August 7, 2019 by

There is apparently a paper from a couple of years ago that is currently doing the rounds and that argues that the Molar Mass Version of the Ideal Gas Law Points to a Very Low Climate Sensitivity. The suggestion is … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate sensitivity, Greenhouse effect, Pseudoscience, Science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , | 26 Comments

The Popper Ratio

Posted on August 3, 2019 by

I hereby propose the Popper Ratio – (n.) Unit obtained by calculating the number of “popper” in a long-form text compared to the number of times Sir Karl is really cited. By “really cited” I mean (a) a quote and … Continue reading →

Posted in Freedom Fighters, Philosophy for Bloggers, SpeedoScience, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , | 18 Comments