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Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and most other long-lived greenhouse gases (i.e., barring short-lived water vapour), are considered ‘trace gases’ because their concentration in the atmosphere is so low. For instance, at a current level of 389 parts per million, CO2 represents just 0.0389% of the air, by volume. Tiny isn’t it? How could such […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Sceptics | 53 Comments »
The Conversation is a recently established website set up to provide an independent source of information, analysis and commentary from the Australian university and research sector. Over the last few weeks, a group of climate scientists and academics from other relevant disciplines, have been running a series at The Conversation on ‘climate change scepticism’. I’ve been […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Sceptics | 92 Comments »
I was recently invited to provide a response to an opinion article on climate change that was offered to “The Punch” website. The lead article can be read here: It’s just too hard to understand climate change. My response, reproduced below (original here), should be read with this context in mind. It seems that many of […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Sceptics | 232 Comments »
Yes, I’m still on vacation. But I couldn’t resist a quick response to this comment (and the subsequent debate): BBC: Do you agree that from 1995 to the present there has been no statistically-significant global warming Phil Jones: Yes, but only just. Here is the global temperature data from 1995 to 2010, for NASA GISS […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Sceptics | 102 Comments »
Open Thread 4 is about to spool off the BNC front page, after 700+ comments, so it’s time to kick off a new one. The Open Thread is a general discussion forum, where you can talk about whatever you like — there is nothing ‘off topic’ here — within reason. So get up on your […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Open Thread, Sceptics | 240 Comments »
How do you dig down to the core of a person’s beliefs? Can you really hope to influence ‘the unpersuadables’ (a term recently coined by George Monbiot)? Is it worth arguing science and empirical evidence with ‘non-greenhouse theorists’ (you know, the really way-out-there kooks, who won’t even acknowledge that CO2 traps and re-emits infrared radiation)? […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Sceptics | 71 Comments »
This is a Discussion Thread, because I really want your feedback. But first, some context. By late 2008, I was pretty stressed about climate change. Working on the science of climate (and other anthropogenic) impacts on natural systems, as I do, I could foresee potentially insurmountable problems for biodiversity and human civilisation this century. A […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Sceptics | 456 Comments »
I’m in Melbourne today with Tom Blees, and tomorrow we’re heading to Sydney to visit ANSTO. Whilst there, Tom will give a talk; I’m delighted to see that some of the regular commenters on BNC will be there (look forward to meeting you John D. Morgan, Ewen Laver and perhaps some others). Details here. Whilst […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Sceptics | 91 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 »
I’d like to highlight a really useful information document put together by Dr Brett Parris, Chief Economist & Manager, Climate & Natural Resources Team, World Vision Australia. It’s entitled “Responses to Questions & Objections on Climate Change” and has been through some heavy revisions (currently on v3). He has also developed a scenario modeller (see […]
Filed under: Sceptics | 81 Comments »
Okay, so the title of this blog post is rather cryptic, but that’s because I want to quickly talk about three different things. Twittering BNC. Brook v Plimer report back. And the famous disappearing Arctic sea ice. First then, BraveNewClimate is now producing tweets. You can start following here: http://twitter.com/BraveNewClimate. I’ve also fed the latest […]
Filed under: Impacts, podcast, Sceptics | 16 Comments »
A quick post to let you know that I’ll be ‘debating’ Ian Plimer of Heaven & Earth ‘fame’, tomorrow, in North Adelaide. The event is hosted by ‘Engineers without Borders‘. Details below: ——————————- Climate change debate! Barry Brook will be going head to head with Ian Plimer on the topic “Climate change is man made”. […]
Filed under: Sceptics | 49 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 »
All is not as it seems with the world’s most famous hockey stick graph, a new study, to be published in the journal Power and Milieu, has revealed. For decades, school students and the general public have been taught that world human population size has exploded into exponential growth over the last few centuries (see […]
Filed under: Humour, Sceptics | 46 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 »
Update: Prof Ian Enting from University of Melbourne has provided a detailed, point-by-point critique of Heaven and Earth. You can download the 46-page PDF here (version 2.0). Edit: The Australian newspaper has published an article on Brook vs Plimer (see here). Today I attended the formal launch of Professor Ian Plimer’s new book “Heaven and […]
Filed under: Sceptics | 1,050 Comments »
In this series, I aim to teach you to recognise the recycled denialism that is rife in the public arena these days. I don’t refute this nonsense by constructing a new argument each time which, point-by-point, shows why their claims are not supported by the evidence. This is pointless, since the majority of non-greenhouse theorists […]
Filed under: Sceptics | 23 Comments »
The self-proclaimed climate change sceptics (a.k.a. contrarians, non-greenhouse theorists, etc.) are, in the greater scheme of things, really nothing more than a silly diversion. Spending too much time on them only results in a bruised head from excessive banging against recycled walls. But as I’ve pointed out in a few recent posts, it is my […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Sceptics | 8 Comments »
Well, if you’ve been reading the BraveNewClimate blog regularly, then I’m sure you’ve certainly heard quite enough of my opinions on climate science and its policy implications this year! My thanks to all regular and occasional BNC readers for taking an interest in staying up-to-date with the latest issues on global warming — and perhaps […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Sceptics | 10 Comments »
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