Category Archives: Uncategorized

Declaring a climate emergency?

Posted on June 6, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

Matthew Nisbet, Professor of Communication, Public Policy, and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University, has a new article called Manufacturing Consent: The dangerous campaign behind climate emergency declarations. It makes similar arguments to those made by Mike Hulme in an article … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Philosophy for Bloggers, Policy, Politics, Science, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 57 Comments

Did a physicist become a climate truth teller?

Posted on April 18, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

Steven Koonin, a theoretical physicist, has been profiled in a recent Wall Street Journal article that suggests he’s become a climate truth teller. If you’re aware of Betteridge’s Law of Headlines you’ll already have worked out that I think this … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 25 Comments

Agricultural emissions

Posted on February 7, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

There’s a really nice recent paper by John Lynch, Michelle Cain, David Frame and Ray Pierrehumbert on Agriculture’s Contribution to Climate Change and Role in Mitigation Is Distinct From Predominantly Fossil CO2-Emitting Sectors. It’s largely discussing why there are important … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 179 Comments

The impact of climate change, and the cost of climate policies

Posted on December 27, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

There’s been a reasonable amount of discussion about Bjorn Lomborg’s fairly recent paper [w]elfare in the 21st century: Increasing development, reducing inequality, the impact of climate change, and the cost of climate policies. A key part of the paper is … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 64 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

Tropical cyclones and climate change

Posted on August 30, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

Michael Shellenberger has a recent Forbes article on [w]hy Deaths From Hurricanes And Other Natural Disasters Are Lower Than Ever. The article is based quite strongly on the work of a friend of this blog. The basic argument being that … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 65 Comments

Outgoing longwave radiation

Posted on April 30, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

Something that often strikes me is that when I think I understand something quite well, there often turns out to be an aspect that I haven’t understood particularly well. I sometimes think that this is can be an important thing … Continue reading →

Posted in Global warming, Greenhouse effect, Philosophy for Bloggers, The philosophy of science, The scientific method, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 40 Comments

A physicist for president?

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

Jim Al’Khalili has an article in Scientific American called [a] physicist for president? Jim is a physicist, so he’s probably being somewhat provactive. Also, he’s mostly arguing for someone who applies the scientific method to thinking and decision-making and is … Continue reading →

Posted in economics, physicists, Politics, Scientists, The scientific method, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 51 Comments

Debate about communicating tipping points

Posted on February 23, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

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

feedbacks, runaway, and tipping points

Posted on February 1, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

There’s been some discussion on Twitter about feedbacks, runaways, and tipping points. The issue is that some seem to confuse these and sometimes imply that we could cross thresholds where we’ll undergo a runaway. I thought I would briefly try … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Climate sensitivity, Global warming, Severe Events, The scientific method, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 214 Comments