Author Archives: ...and Then There's Physics

Economics and Values

Originally posted on …and Then There's Physics:
Michael Tobis has a post in which he argues that what we are doing to the climate will persist for many generations and, consequently, that it is immoral to continue what were’e…

Posted in Uncategorized | 51 Comments

RCP8.5 and net-zero

There’s a narrative that seems to be developing that suggests that the requirement to reach (net) zero emissions is largely based on the high-emission RCP8.5 scenario. Since this is (according to some) no longer plausible, we should give up on … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, Global warming, Policy | Tagged , | 30 Comments

Clintel report Bingo.

Clintel, a group who thinks there is no climate emergency, and whose name – rather ironically – stands for Climate Intelligence, has published an analysis of the IPCC. You can download it here, if you’d really like to read it. … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, Climate sensitivity, ClimateBall Bingo, Global warming | Tagged , , , | 115 Comments

Tropospheric temperature trends

Roger Pielke Jr appears to have been pondering why it is that discussions, on social media, about the physical science of climate change (WG1 in IPCC-speak) has dissipated in recent years. There are probably many reasons, but amongst them might … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Contrarian Matrix, Roger Pielke Jr, Science | Tagged , , , | 104 Comments

10 Years

I’ve just realised that this is the 10th anniversary of me starting this blog. We have family visiting, so am too busy to write anything substantive, but thought I would just highlight the anniversary.

Posted in Personal | 14 Comments

How we frame extreme weather events

To maybe move the discussion on from the origins of Covid, I thought I’d write a post about detection and attribution. It is somewhat motivated by a brief dicsussion withTed Nordhaus, from the Breakthrough Institute, who suggested that a good … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Gavin Schmidt, Global warming, Philosophy for Bloggers | Tagged , , , , , | 162 Comments

The origins debate

I’ve mostly tried to avoid the Covid origins debate, but I listened to a very good Guruspod episode, where they covered this. It was an interview with Eddie Holmes, Kristian Andersen, and Michael Worobey, and was partly intended as a … Continue reading

Posted in Scientists, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , | 507 Comments

Methane, again.

I ended up in quite an interesting Twitter discussion about methane and CO2. I got involved when someone mentioned this thread from Ken Caldeira. The point being made is that because CO2 has a long atmospheric lifetime, and because methane … Continue reading

Posted in Climate sensitivity, Environmental change, Global warming | Tagged , , , , , | 61 Comments

Conflicts of Interest

Since I have little (no?) self-control, I sometimes find myself checking what RPJ is up to. I mostly find it worth ignoring, but I found myself considering one of his recent posts on [w]hen scientific integrity is undermined in pursuit … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Philosophy for Bloggers | Tagged , , , | 22 Comments

Escape from model land

I listened to an interesting podcast that some of the regulars may find interesting. It was on the Volts podcast and was on the abuse (and proper use) of climate models. It is an interview with Erica Thompson, who has … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, Research, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , | 25 Comments