Category Archives: science

Update to ‘IPCC systematically low-balling climate estimates?’

Posted on May 1, 2013 by

Four months ago I wrote a post about how several speakers at the AGU 2012 Fall Meeting suggested that the IPCC may be systematically underestimating several key climate change-related parameters (total anthropogenic GHG emissions, Arctic ice melt rates, sea level … Continue reading →

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Quality control in Excel spreadsheets- a serious and universal issue!

Posted on April 18, 2013 by

Via Paul Krugman’s blog, I’ve been following a fascinating online discussion about the importance of spreadsheet error-checking and independent replication of modeling results in the economic research sector: Holy Coding Error, Batman Researchers Finally Replicated Reinhart-Rogoff, and there are Serious … Continue reading →

Posted in policy, science | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

the rebound effect and how energy efficiency may not be the “low hanging fruit”

Posted on February 28, 2013 by

An interesting paradox: as we conserve more energy, we use more. We pointed out some research in the past on this effect, and some debate about the potential impact of this effect has surfaced in a couple places.  First, there … Continue reading →

Posted in energy, science, sociology | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Assisted migration- ecosystem protection versus unintended consequences

Posted on January 21, 2013 by

This morning, just a quick post to highlight some of the work being done over at the Early Career Ecologists blog.  I found their recent entry on assisted migration fascinating: http://earlycareerecologists.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/trees-on-the-move-debating-assisted-migration-in-climate-change-mitigation/ The idea is simple- if climate in many places … Continue reading →

Posted in climate change, science | 2 Comments

Can scientists be simultaneously ‘engaged’ and non-partisan?

Posted on January 9, 2013 by

I find myself very irked reading Roger Pielke Jr.’s take on a recent op-ed piece in Nature on the need for scientists, and more importantly, scientific institutions, to project an image of non-partisanship and being ‘above the fray’ in public … Continue reading →

Posted in climate change, science | Tagged , | 2 Comments

IPCC systematically low-balling climate estimates?

Posted on December 6, 2012 by

I’ve had the great opportunity to spend the week at the American Geophysical Union annual conference in San Francisco.  It’s apparently the largest annual scientific conference in the world (with ~20,000 registered attendees this year!), covering a vast array of … Continue reading →

Posted in climate change, science | Tagged , | 1 Comment

geoengineering news roundup

Posted on November 26, 2012 by

As John mentioned, we are long overdue for an update on geoengineering news. Of course the big story is Russ George dumping iron in the pacific ocean.  It is unclear if this is: A way to generate carbon credits A … Continue reading →

Posted in climate change, policy, science | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

next gen biofuel feedstock also a noxious weed?

Posted on November 19, 2012 by

Sometimes we don’t always think about the weed potential when we are studying potential bioenergy feedstocks and “energy crops”.. Other things that are not mentioned alot are how susceptible to disease and pests these bioenergy crops may be when grown in monocultures.. … Continue reading →

Posted in biofuels, science | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Shifting or stretching the climate bell curve?

Posted on September 5, 2012 by

Just a quick follow-up to the previous post on attributing extreme weather events to climate change.  Joe over at It’s Okay to Be Smart has posted a nice little gif illustrating the trend in summer temperature extremes over the last … Continue reading →

Posted in climate change, science | 3 Comments

Geoengineering success in the ocean

Posted on August 28, 2012 by

A great summary of what appears to be a successful demonstration of geoengineering is linked below.  Basically they dumped iron (a necessary nutrient) into the ocean to stimulate a rapid burst of algae  growth, then tracked the algae bloom as … Continue reading →

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