Category Archives: Climate change

Extreme precipitation events

Posted on July 5, 2020 by

This post is partly motivated by something I think I either heard Michael Shellenberger say, or write, but I can’t find it anymore. I have tried reading some of the articles again, and listening to some of the podcasts again, … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Environmental change, Global warming | Tagged , , , , , | 36 Comments

Apocalypse never?

Posted on July 1, 2020 by

I guess the current entertainment in the climate world relates to Michael Shellenberger’s new book, Apocolypse Never, which is due to come out next month and is already doing well on Amazon. In a somewhat amusing twist, Michael wrote a … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Environmental change, ethics | Tagged , , , , | 194 Comments

The Neoclassical Economics of Climate Change

Posted on June 28, 2020 by

I thought I would advertise a post by Steve Keen, that may be of interest to some of my regular readers. It’s about Neoclassical Economics of Climate Change and is extremely criticial of the assumptions used to drive Integrated Assessment … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, economics, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , | 39 Comments

Extreme event attribution and the nature-culture duality

Posted on June 19, 2020 by

I’ve been reading a paper by Shannon Osaka and Rob Bellamy called Weather in the Anthropocene: Extreme event attribution and a modelled nature–culture divide. I’ve written about event attribution before, and I’m largely in favour of the storyline approach; given … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Environmental change, Global warming, Philosophy for Bloggers, Severe Events, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , | 138 Comments

Can climate sensitivity be really high?

Posted on June 13, 2020 by

The answer to the question in my post title is – unfortunately – yes. The generally accepted likely range for equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) is 2oC – 4.5oC. This doesn’t mean that it has to fall within this range, it … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Climate sensitivity, Research, Science, The philosophy of science | Tagged , , , , | 36 Comments

Mitigation, adaptation, suffering

Posted on June 6, 2020 by

I’ve been struggling, more than usual, to find things to write about. Everything seems to just be a bit of a mess. The pandemic itself, how it’s been handled in some cases, and the protests in the USA, especially how … Continue reading →

Posted in advocacy, Climate change, Climate sensitivity, Philosophy for Bloggers | Tagged , , | 41 Comments

Chanting to the choir?

Posted on April 22, 2020 by

Before I head off to the office (or, more correctly, go from watching the news in the living room, to the dining room table) I thought I would briefly mention a recent paper that has analysed blog comments. It’s by … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Global warming, Philosophy for Bloggers, Scientists | Tagged , , , , , | 70 Comments

Andrew Dessler rebuts Roy Spencer

Posted on March 16, 2020 by

Most of the focus at the moment is rightly on the coronavirus. Since I have no relevant expertise whatsoever, all I’ll say is that I hope everyone is doing their best to stay safe, and listening to the advice that’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Policy, Roy Spencer, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , | 67 Comments

A couple of highlights

Posted on March 8, 2020 by

Since I haven’t had much chance to write anything recently, I thought I would briefly advertise a couple of papers that may be of interest to my regular readers. One is by Clare Marie Flynn and Thorsten Mauritsen and is … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Climate sensitivity, Global warming, Research, Science | Tagged , , , , | 19 Comments

Debate about communicating tipping points

Posted on February 23, 2020 by

The new book about Contemporary Climate Change Debates, that I discussed in this post, includes a debate about whether or not ‘tipping point[s]’ [are] helpful for describing and communicating possible climate futures? James Annan suggests that the answer is “no”, … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Climate sensitivity, Global warming, Policy, The philosophy of science, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 340 Comments