- Author: Carole Hom
Bill Blakemore, a blogger at the ABC news website, recently posted a column about global climate change and extreme weather. He observed that scientists sometimes confuse the public with statements that carefully qualify cause and effect. Blakemore wrote,
Is manmade global warming responsible for the surge in severe heat events we’re seeing in recent years around the globe?
The world’s climate scientists have a clear answer:
Yes. It is.
“It’s about as solid as science ever gets,” climatologist James Hansen tells ABC News.
But climate scientists often add a different and sometimes confusing answer to a slightly different question:
Is manmade global warming to blame for any one of those extreme weather events?
No, they say — or rather, that’s a somewhat meaningless question if you mean that too literally, since nothing ever happens for any one reason — not anywhere, not ever, though there are of course “main causes” or “triggering events,” factors that may increase the probability of any one event happening; but any one event still happens only because various conditions are right at the same time, so you can’t say, exactly, that any one event is “caused by” manmade global warming — or any other single cause — not exactly…
Huh. Clear as mud.
Blakemore then presented four "scientist-approved" explanations -- and a few one-line explanations -- that pass the middle-school-kid test: middle schoolers understand them in a flash and give you an eyeroll.
Check them out and see if you agree.
- Author: Carole Hom
The Voice of America, Russia, interviewed Mark Lubell about the weather of summer 2012 and climate change. James Tailor, from Environment and Climate News, provided an opposing view.
- Author: Carole Hom
National Geographic just posted a blog by Jay Famiglietti, a hydrologist from UC Irvine. One of Jay's opening statements:
A critical problem that we face in the U.S. is that as a country, we lack the vision and leadership to clearly articulate our fundamental water issues, and to implement a comprehensive plan to tackle them.
Jay outlines a national strategy for improving our ability to monitor and predict water availability. You can read his challenge here.
But that's not all.
CCWAS PI Graham Fogg points out that we don't know how much water gets transferred between the atmosphere and surface, either as precipitation or evapotranspiration.
And co-PI Mark Lubell chimed in with his blog about the pressing need for social scientists to collaborate with physical and natural scientists to tackle the human dimensions of what to do after we figure out how much water we have.
Both blogs are well worth reading.
- Author: Carole Hom
Environment & Energy News today published a fascinating article that described recent research on the credibility of climate scientists who also act as advocates. The research, done by social psychologist Jon Krosnick of Stanford University, suggests that scientists' move into the policy sphere may lead to a substantial drop in their credibility among some members of the public.
See the article on Greenwire for the full story.
- Author: Carole Hom
Take a look at Mark Lubell's blog.... he wrote about the current wildfire in Colorado that threatens his childhood home.
update, 6 July 2012: Mark's blog has been published by the Los Angeles Times as an op-ed.
update, 13 July 2012: Mark's blog made The Atlantic Wire's "Five Best Friday" list.
