Sir Mark Walport’s demand that climate-change sceptics ‘grow up’ only reveals his ignorance about the climate debate. According to an article in The Times (London) earlier this week, the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Mark Walport, is about to start a...
The Sleeping Dragon… Sleeps
"The sleeping dragon has awoken", says Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). CHINA’S 12GW SOLAR MARKET OUTSTRIPPED ALL EXPECTATIONS IN 2013 23 January 2014 Last year was a record year for PV installation worldwide, with a rush of activity in China on the back of a...
Science and Anti-Science. Again.
Michael Mann is denying the debate again, arguing in the New York Times, 'If You See Something, Say Something'. THE overwhelming consensus among climate scientists is that human-caused climate change is happening. Yet a fringe minority of our populace clings to an...
Buy a Newspaper, or the Planet Dies…
Over at the Guardian, Professor of Journalism and former editor of the Daily Mirror, Roy Greenslade observes that... The Independent is up for sale. The paper's founder, and current chairman of its publishing company, Andreas Whittam Smith, has been authorised to seek...
Re-Writing Mission History?
Stephan Lewnadowsky has an article at The Conversation, saying that sceptics are wrong, in their pointing and mocking of the failed Spirit of Mawson expedition. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and by now you might have seen dramatic images of...
Science, Advocacy, Politics, Technocracy
Judith Curry and Brigitte Nerlich have been focussing on some interesting questions about scientists and advocacy. Judith Curry has quite a series on the subject, but the two posts linked to seem to have been provoked in part by Kevin Anderson's comments urging...
The ‘green crap’ hits its fans
Sorry, David Cameron - you're now stuck with the green policies you yourself advocated. Last week, the Sun and the Daily Mail reported a Downing Street insider’s claims that David ‘vote-blue-go-green’ Cameron now wants to ‘get rid of all the green crap’. Whether this...
What is Science?
The previous post here made the point that the IPCC serves much less to inform debate than as a vehicle for any number of political ambitions or prejudices, few of which can be justified on the basis of the IPCC's reports -- assessments of what 'science says'. The...
What is the IPCC?
Apparently some scientists have written some kind of 'Assessment Report'. There's lots of comment about it all over the web, media, and politics, and this probably the last climate blog to comment on the story. But perhaps there has not been as much comment as there...
Battling the Environment
The Institute of Ideas' annual Battle of Ideas meets again next weekend, at the Barbican Centre in London. On the Sunday, I'll be discussing 'What is Environmentalism' with Mark Lynas, Joe Smith, and Caspar Hewett, and with Timandra Harkness in the chair. What is 'new...