Category Archives: Climate change

On baselines and climate normals

Posted on January 17, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

Mike Hulme, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Cambridge, has a somewhat bizarre article published in Academia Letters called Climates Multiple: Three Baselines, Two Tolerances, One Normal. It’s basically a discussion of the recent World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Philosophy for Bloggers, Politics, Science | Tagged , , , | 81 Comments

Warming commitments

Posted on January 8, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

There’s been quite a lot of recent discussion about warming commitments. It started with an article by Bob Berwyn called Net Zero Emissions Would Stabilize Climate Quickly Says UK Scientist, followed soon after by one saying [w]arming already baked in … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Climate sensitivity, Global warming, Research | Tagged , , , , , , | 38 Comments

Have CO2 emissions peaked?

Posted on January 2, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

I noticed, as has Stoat, that Ken Caldeira and Ted Nordhaus have a bet about whether or not we’ve reached peak CO2 emissions. Specifically, the bet is Between 2021 and the end of 2030, annual fossil fuel emissions (excluding carbonation) … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ethics, Global warming, Philosophy for Bloggers | Tagged , , , , | 91 Comments

Where have all the STS’ers gone?

Posted on December 21, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

There’s a recent paper in Science and Technology Studies by Jaron Harambam called The Corona Truth Wars: Where Have All the STS’ers Gone When We Need Them Most? The topic is, fairly obviously, the current coronavirus pandemic, and the abstract … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Environmental change, Philosophy for Bloggers, Policy, Research | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments

Societal collapse

Posted on December 14, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

A couple of days ago, a letter was signed by a group of academics suggesting that People who care about environmental and humanitarian issues should not be discouraged from discussing the risks of societal disruption or collapse. I largely agree … Continue reading →

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

Climate change doesn’t work like that

Posted on November 17, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

A couple of years ago I wrote a post where I tried to explain why I thought climate change was a different kind of problem when compared to most of the other issues we might face today. I find it … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Environmental change, ethics, Policy, Science | Tagged , , , , , | 69 Comments

A little domain knowledge can go a long way

Posted on November 14, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

A rather bizarre paper has been published in Scientific Reports (yes, that Scientific Reports) claiming that [an] earth system model shows self-sustained melting of permafrost even if all man-made GHG emissions stop in 2020. One immediate problem is that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Global warming, The philosophy of science, The scientific method, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 24 Comments

Honest brokering

Posted on October 13, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

I thought I might follow up on my previous post, with a brief discussion of an article by Sonia Sodha called [t]he anti-lockdown scientists’ cause would be more persuasive if it weren’t so half-baked. I found it interesting partly because … Continue reading →

Posted in advocacy, Climate change, ClimateBall, Roger Pielke Jr, Scientists | Tagged , , , , , | 87 Comments

Understanding methane

Posted on September 26, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

There was a recent Conversation article about methane called Climate explained: methane is short-lived in the atmosphere but leaves long-term damage that caused a bit of a stir on Twitter. One way people assess the significance of different greenhouse gases, … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Global warming, Policy, Research, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , , , | 40 Comments

Evidence-led?

Posted on September 19, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

I was blocked on Twitter by Zion Lights after I, somewhat snarkily, retweeted one of her tweets. Zion Lights is the UK director of Michael Shellenberger’s organisation, Environmental Progress. Zion Lights has had a bit of a rough week, having … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Philosophy for Bloggers, physicists, Research, Science | Tagged , , , , , | 158 Comments