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The following question (or variants thereof) have come up so many times in the comments on this blog that I think the answer deserves a post in its own right: If we had thousands of nuclear power stations, the heat they produced would cause significant global warming — as such, nuclear power is not a […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Nuclear | 46 Comments »
Guest Post by Dr Paul Babie. Paul is is Associate Dean of Law (Research), Adelaide Law School. He holds a BA in sociology and politics from the University of Calgary, a BThSt from Flinders University, a LLB from the University of Alberta, a LLM from the University of Melbourne, and a DPhil in law from […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Future | 54 Comments »
This is the second of a two part post by Geoff Russell. Part I sketched the quantitative features of the global fire regime, biomass flows, while this part looks primarily at Africa. Boverty was defined in the previous post as the human impact of too many bovines overwhelming the local biosphere’s ability to feed them […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Emissions, Impacts | 26 Comments »
I’m sometimes asked to describe what science is. Well, there are many definitions and philosophical positions which cover this question, but to me, as a working scientist, one stands out above all others as relevant to what I do. Science constrains uncertainty. Or, to put it in a slightly longer form, science is the method […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Impacts | 67 Comments »
I was recently alerted to a brilliant post on the blog WAG. It’s called “Climate of Hypocrisy“. I’ll quote the lead in… For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him? -Job 27:8-9 Deniers of climate […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Nuclear | 157 Comments »
Here is an incomplete list of the sustainable energy and climate change books I read in 2009 (actually, a few also scraped in from late 2008). I’ve provided a 2 — 3 sentence summary of each book (from my perspective) and a Rating out of 5. Some books have been reviewed in more detail on […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Emissions, Future, Impacts, Nuclear, Renewables | 28 Comments »
As the end of 2009 approaches, I have many BraveNewClimate blog posts that are developing behind the scenes — more from the IFR FaD and TCASE series, a guest post by Tom Blees on the natural gas ‘game’, a guest post by a new BNC writer on wind farm planning problems, a report about my upcoming […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Hot News, Sceptics | 39 Comments »
Three new things to report to BNC readers. First, on 11 November, the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute will host the 2nd Dunstan Environment Dialogue, entitled “Power and the People“, featuring yours truly. Here’s the promo: The Dialogues are a series of public meetings to stimulate debate on how to better manage our environmental resources, […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Nuclear, Renewables | 25 Comments »
Guest Post by Tony Kevin. Tony holds degrees in civil engineering, and in economics and political science. He retired from the Australian Foreign Service in 1998, after a 30-year career during which he served in the Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister’s departments, and was Australia’s ambassador to Poland and Cambodia. He is currently an honorary […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Emissions | 23 Comments »
Like most interesting things in life, blogs are dynamic beasts. They are a reflection of the personality of their writer(s), projected into cyberspace. They evolve, as the opinions of their writers are shaped by new or unappreciated knowledge, commentary, feedback, and changing circumstances. My blog, Brave New Climate, is no different. After a little over […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Nuclear, Renewables | 126 Comments »
Guest post by Blair Trewin. Blair is a senior climatologist at the Bureau of Meteorology’s National Climate Centre. He recently took the lead in writing the Special Climate Statement, Exceptional winter heat over large parts of Australia, issued 26th August 2009, updated 1st September 2009. ————————————- Australia has just experienced an exceptionally warm August. Almost […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Hot News | 27 Comments »
Here are two useful items I want to highlight. The first is a policy and review paper on climate change written by Katherine Wells, entitled “Recent Climate Change Science, Global Targets and the Global Climate Emergency“. Katherine, a lawyer, is a former Chair of the South Australian Premier’s main environmental advisory board, the Premier’s Round […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Emissions | 16 Comments »
Below I reproduce a fascinating analysis, which attempts to classify people’s ‘belief systems’ in sustainable energy and climate change into four broad categories, types A, B, C, and D. (Note that this is only an excerpt from the introduction of a larger report that Gene is currently writing) It is written by Dr Eugene Preston, who […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Nuclear, Renewables | 64 Comments »
The two main reasons why 2008 was the coolest year since 2000 was that the Pacific ocean was in its La Niña phase, and the sun was remarkably inactive and showed us a blank face for essentially the whole year. Both of these factors (oceanic and solar) exert a mild to strong influence on year-to-year […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Hot News | 71 Comments »
‘Solar variability does not explain late-20th-century warming’, says the title of a short paper published earlier this year by Philip Duffy, Ben Santer and Tom Wigley in Physics Today. The reason I bring up the topic of the sun and climate now is that an Australian Senator, Stephen Fielding of the Family First party, has […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Sceptics | 53 Comments »
In a recent post, I directed BraveNewClimate readers to a couple of excellent information websites, which are designed explicitly to answer/rebutt all of the common ‘arguments’ (for want of a better word) that are recycled by climate change pseudo-sceptics. Those two websites, Global Warming Debate and Skeptical Science, along with other excellent anti-denial sites like […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Sceptics | 158 Comments »
Simple messages, which make headlines and create doubt amongst the laity, are an easy sell in the pseudo-sceptical world of climate science contrarianism. Many sound (kind of) plausible, and so gain an undue amount of traction among the general public and non-science decision-makers. Ian Plimer’s recent book capitalises on these themes to full advantage, and, […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Sceptics | 79 Comments »
[BWB Note: I’m a bit tight for time right now, but Andrew Glikson saves the day with another great post, this time elaborating on some of the ‘options’ we made need to face if we delay too long in cutting carbon emissions. For earlier discussions of this topic on BraveNewClimate, see here and here.] Guest […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Future | 29 Comments »
Guest post by Andrew Glikson (Andrew is an Earth and paleo-climate scientist, Australian National University who has contributed regularly to Brave New Climate). The state of the terrestrial atmosphere over the last ~10,000 years (Holocene), when conditions became amenable for agriculture and civilization, and over the preceding ~5 million years (Pliocene-Pleistocene) when prehistoric humans evolved, was constrained by a CO2 range […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A | 30 Comments »
Recently, a Senate Economics Committee was established to investigate the current emissions trading legislation. Tim Kelly and I prepared a submission, which has now been posted on the senate website. It builds usefully on Tim’s earlier post: Carbon tax or cap-and-trade? The debate we never had, which prompted a lot of discussion in the BNC comments. So, […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Emissions | 26 Comments »
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