Category Archives: Environmental change

Halting the vast release of methane is critical

Posted on May 1, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

A week or so ago there was a New York Times article called Halting the Vast Release of Methane Is Critical for Climate, U.N. Says. As the title suggests, it was reporting on a United Nations Report that (according to … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Environmental change, Global warming, Policy, Science | Tagged , , , , , | 94 Comments

Some thoughts about net-zero

Posted on April 29, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

There’s been a reasonable vigorous, but pleasant, debate on Twitter about “net-zero”. It was largely motivated by a Conversation article by James Dyke, Robert Watson, and Wolfgang Knorr called Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous trap. The basic … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Environmental change, Policy, Research, Scientists | Tagged , , , , , , | 13 Comments

‘Net zero’

Posted on March 3, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

There’s been some recent debate about the term ‘net-zero’. Just to give some basic background, given that the zero emission commitment is close to zero (i.e., when we get anthropogenic emissions to zero, global surface temperatures should soon stabilise) means … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Environmental change, Policy | Tagged , , , , | 23 Comments

Losing the sky

Posted on February 26, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

Andy Lawrence, who happens to be a colleague, has just published a book called Losing the Sky. Andy also gave a brief presentation about it, which is what motivated me to write this post. The book is very reasonably priced … Continue reading →

Posted in Environmental change, Scientists | Tagged , , , , | 34 Comments

Deferential?

Posted on February 3, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

I was listening to a podcast interview with Steve Keen, whose work I’ve written about before. It was about his paper the appallingly bad neoclassical economics of climate change. I have a lot of sympathy with what he’s presenting. Some … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, economics, Environmental change, physicists, Policy, Scientists | Tagged , , , | 53 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

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 , , , , , | 72 Comments

Cosmopolitan knowledge

Posted on September 12, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

I’ve been reading a recent paper by Sujatha Raman and Warren Pearce called Learning the lessons of Climategate: A cosmopolitan moment in the public life of climate science. I’m always a little uncomfortable writing about climategate, partly because it’s been … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Environmental change, Research, Scientists, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , | 109 Comments

Extreme precipitation events

Posted on July 5, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

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 ...and Then There's Physics

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 , , , , | 198 Comments