Goodbye Hockey Stick, hello Burning Embers? A paper published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences resurrects and updates a fancy graphic published in the IPCC's TAR in 2001, but which was omitted from AR4 in 2007, and finds - guess what - that...
A Crisis of Faith in Crisis Politics
Two Popes, two statements, two apparent U-turns: 1. The Vatican declares that evolution by natural selection is not incompatible with its teachings and that Intelligent Design is a 'cultural phenomenon' rather than a scientific or theological one. 2. Dr Vicky Pope,...
Cut and Paste Journalism
BBC bosses today tried to make excuses for the cut-and-paste job by BBC science journalist, Susan Watts, as discovered by Tony at Harmless Sky recently. Answering criticism on Watts' blog, Newsnight Editor Peter Rippon said: We did edit sections of the speech to...
Only Four Years Left to Save Environmentalism
Another sure sign that environmentalists are struggling to sustain a rational basis for their influence emerged last week. The pages of the Observer featured the opinion of NASA activist/scientist James Hansen in two articles [1 , 2] and an editorial. Barack Obama has...
Pick a Number – Any Number
Worldwatch, which aims to 'empower decision makers to build an ecologically sustainable society that meets human needs' have upped the stakes: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - To avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change, world carbon emissions will have to drop to...
Prosperous New Fear
Before we get stuck into 2009, we missed a spillage from the festive period that needs mopping up... In a remarkably gullible news item, the BBC covered a new report revealing that 2008 was a 'Huge year for natural disasters': The past year has been one of the most...
BBC On Bad Acid Trip
The merest sniff of an environmental problem can go straight to the heads of the soberest of science reporters and leave them mumbling jibberish about the imminent end of the world as we know it. Take last Thursday's edition of BBC Radio 4's normally excellent...
"I'm Dreamin' of a White Easter"
It's spring. And you can tell, not by the chirping of birds in the trees, or the frolicking of lambs in the fields, but by the whining and bleating of journalists in the Independent and Guardian newspapers about how spring is coming earlier every year, and how this...
Vote For Me – Or Get Cancer
Dr. Caroline Lucas - Green Member of the European Parliament for Southeast England - continues to peddle scare stories to generate political legitimacy. From a press release carrying the dramatic headline "CANCER 'CAUSED BY POLLUTION', MEP LUCAS TO TELL BRIGHTON...
Climate Extreme Same As 100 Years Ago – Due to Climate Change. Part II.
We reported last month how the weather in Iraq was the same as it was 100 years ago, due to climate change. According to Planet Ark - "your daily guide to helping the planet" - people in China are also suffering from harsh winter weather, the likes of which have not...