Debate Rules

I’m thinking about inviting people to participate in an online debate. This is of course different from a live debate, in which arguments are spoken and the whole thing must be wrapped up in a single session. I actually prefer written rather than spoken, and the possibility to include graphics. This post is a request to readers to submit ideas for debate rules.

Crystal Serenity

In 1981 James Hansen and colleagues published research in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Science titled “Climate Impact of Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide.” They discussed the result of basic physics, that carbon dioxide in the air inhibits Earth cooling off, thus heating the planet. They also reported the results of computer simulations of Earth’s climate in a world with ever-increasing CO₂.

Quick Update Time Series

This is a message to those following the “Time Series” course. We’re not done yet, and there’s more to come, but at the moment life has conspired to draw my attention in other directions. Look for postings to resume in about a week.

Arctic Heat

Lately Alaska has been feeling the heat, particularly in the part of it you’d least expect: the northern part. As many have noted, places like Deadhorse have had heat-wave conditions despite being within 50 mi. of the Arctic ocean, and old records haven’t just been broken they’ve been smashed. It’s not just last week, the whole year (so far) has been unusually warm in our northernmost state.

What phony op-eds about climate change have in common

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has published an opinion piece in the Columbia Journalism Review about the “web of denial” a number of senators have turned their focus on this week. It’s so worth reading, I reproduce it here:

Louder than Words

Lately I’ve been spending more time wondering what we — the common people of the world — can actually do about climate change. My one overriding thought is that we need collective action, things we do as a group. That says to me that we need government action, because government is the way we, as a people, combine our resources and organize our efforts.

My conclusion is that the most important thing for us, as individuals, to do is to get our government on the right track. Because right now, it isn’t.

Time Series Lesson 9

It’s here

Global Warming Wake-Up Call (again!) to Congress

A large consortium of the country’s scientific organizations have sent the following letter to congress:

State of the Climate: Earth’s Temperature

“Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”

That now-famous saying is often attributed to Mark Twain, but in reality he only popularized it when, in a public lecture, he quoted its originator: his friend and sometime co-author Charles Dudley Warner.

Time Series Lesson 8

It’s here. Enjoy!