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Joy plots for climate change

22 Jul 2017 by Gavin

This is joy as in ‘Joy Division’, not as in actual fun.

Many of you will be familiar with the iconic cover of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures album, but maybe fewer will know that it’s a plot of signals from a pulsar (check out this Scientific American article on the history). The length of the line is matched to the frequency of the pulsing so that successive pulses are plotted almost on top of each other. For many years this kind of plot did not have a well-known designation until, in fact, April this year:

I hereby propose that we call these "joy plots" #rstats https://t.co/uuLGpQLAwY

— Jenny Bryan (@JennyBryan) April 25, 2017

So “joy plots” it is.

[Read more…] about Joy plots for climate change

Filed Under: Climate Science, Communicating Climate, Instrumental Record

The climate has always changed. What do you conclude?

20 Jul 2017 by Stefan

Probably everyone has heard this argument, presented as objection against the findings of climate scientists on global warming: “The climate has always changed!” And it is true: climate has changed even before humans began to burn fossil fuels. So what can we conclude from that?

A quick quiz

Do you conclude…

(1) that humans cannot change the climate?

(2) that we do not know whether humans are to blame for global warming?

(3) that global warming will not have any severe consequences?

(4) that we cannot stop global warming? [Read more…] about The climate has always changed. What do you conclude?

Filed Under: Climate Science, Communicating Climate, Paleoclimate, skeptics

Red team/Blue team Day 1

15 Jul 2017 by group

From Russell Seitz:

Filed Under: Climate Science

Climate Sensitivity Estimates and Corrections

12 Jul 2017 by Gavin

You need to be careful in inferring climate sensitivity from observations.

Two climate sensitivity stories this week – both related to how careful you need to be before you can infer constraints from observational data. (You can brush up on the background and definitions here). Both cases – a “Brief Comment Arising” in Nature (that I led) and a new paper from Proistosescu and Huybers (2017) – examine basic assumptions underlying previously published estimates of climate sensitivity and find them wanting.

[Read more…] about Climate Sensitivity Estimates and Corrections

References

  1. C. Proistosescu, and P.J. Huybers, "Slow climate mode reconciles historical and model-based estimates of climate sensitivity", Science Advances, vol. 3, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1602821

Filed Under: Carbon cycle, Climate modelling, Climate Science, Greenhouse gases, Instrumental Record, Paleoclimate

Unforced variations: July 2017

1 Jul 2017 by group

So, big news this week: The latest update to the RSS lower troposphere temperatures (Zeke at Carbon Brief, J. Climate paper) and, of course, more chatter about the red team/blue team concept. Comments?

Filed Under: Climate Science, Open thread

What do you need to know about climate?

14 Jun 2017 by rasmus

What do you need to know about climate in order to be in the best position to adapt to future change? This question was discussed in a European workshop on Copernicus climate services during a heatwave in Barcelona, Spain (June 12-14).

[Read more…] about What do you need to know about climate?

Filed Under: Climate impacts, Climate modelling, Climate Science, Communicating Climate, downscaling, Scientific practice, Solutions

Why global emissions must peak by 2020

2 Jun 2017 by Stefan

(by Stefan Rahmstorf and Anders Levermann)

In the landmark Paris Climate Agreement, the world’s nations have committed to “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels”. This goal is deemed necessary to avoid incalculable risks to humanity, and it is feasible – but realistically only if global emissions peak by the year 2020 at the latest.

Let us first address the importance of remaining well below 2°C of global warming, and as close to 1.5°C as possible. The World Meteorological Organization climate report[i] for the past year has highlighted that global temperature and sea levels keep rising, reaching record highs once again in 2016. Global sea ice cover reached a record low, and mountain glaciers and the huge ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are on a trajectory of accelerating mass loss. More and more people are suffering from increasing and often unprecedented extreme weather events[ii], both in terms of casualties and financial losses. This is the situation after about 1°C global warming since the late 19th Century. [Read more…] about Why global emissions must peak by 2020

Filed Under: Climate Science, Greenhouse gases, Solutions

Unforced Variations: June 2017

1 Jun 2017 by group

Absolutely nothing of consequence happening today in climate news. Can’t think of what people could discuss…

Filed Under: Climate Science, Open thread

Nenana Ice Classic 2017

2 May 2017 by Gavin

Translations: (Español)

As I’ve done for a few years, here is the updated graph for the Nenana Ice Classic competition, which tracks the break up of ice on the Tanana River near Nenana in Alaska. It is now a 101-year time series tracking the winter/spring conditions in that part of Alaska, and shows clearly the long term trend towards earlier break up, and overall warming.

2017 was almost exactly on trend – roughly one week earlier than the average break up date a century ago. There was a short NPR piece on the significance again this week, but most of the commentary from last year and earlier is of course still valid.

My shadow bet on whether any climate contrarian site will mention this dataset remains in play (none have since 2013 which was an record late year).

Filed Under: Climate impacts, Climate Science, Instrumental Record

Unforced Variations: May 2017

1 May 2017 by group

This month’s open thread. Topics this month? What should a conservative contrarian be writing op-eds about that avoids strawman arguments, and getting facts wrong? What do you really think about geoengineering? Tracking the imminent conclusion of the Nenana Ice Classic (background)?

Usual rules apply.

Filed Under: Climate Science, Open thread

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