President of the AGU: clear analysis and assessment

The president of the AGU (American Geophysical Union), Mike McPhaden, has issued this statement, and sent to all AGU members. I welcome this statement very much, as it is withstanding the temptation of giving up "principles of scientific integrity" for obtaining short-term advantages in gaining public attention. Science is a process with long-term perspectives, a social asset with value beyond the heat of the day. I value this statement in particular after having seen knee-jerk apologetic assertions, following the concept that "the opponent of my opponent is my friend". The assertion "In doing so he compromised AGU’s credibility as a scientific society weakened the public’s trust in scientists, and produced fresh fuel for the unproductive and seemingly endless ideological firestorm surrounding the reality of the Earth’s changing climate." explains the situation well.

Will climate change trigger mighty earthquakes?

Bill McGuire, a volcanologist from University College London, claims that climate change will lead to more, and more violent earthquakes. Here are a few quotes from an article in the Guardian. This is the headline:

Climate change will shake the Earth

A changing climate isn't just about floods, droughts and heatwaves. It brings erupting volcanoes and catastrophic earthquakes too

Hans von Storch: Sustainable climate science

To do climate science sustainably, a number of constraints in practicing research and communicating science need to be implemented. Among them are the admission of uncertainty and the possibility for future revision, the recognition that scientific knowledge is challenged and influenced by cultural constructions, and the usage of accurate language, which is not conflicting with every-day language. That scientific knowledge does not directly lead to political conclusions must also be recognized. A few elements needed for a successful science-public dialog are listed and discussed in the forthcoming article
von Storch, H., 2012: Sustainable climate science, In: M. Reckermann, K. Brander, B. MacKenzie and A. Omstedt (eds): Climate Impacts on the Baltic Sea: From Science to Policy, 201-209 in press

HeartlandGate?

In a previous thread, we were discussing the claims of desmoblog.com, which presented leaked e-mails and documents supposedly originating from the US Heartland Institute. That thread has now been closed for further commenting (refer to "addition" in http://klimazwiebel.blogspot.com/2012/02/climate-gate-of-skeptical-site.html).

Reports indicate misconduct by an activist climate scientist (see below). We consider this case a very exciting demonstration of the situation the issue and science of climate finds itself in, and invite readers for discussion, also how this case compares with ClimateGate.

For Peter Gleick

Loriot - kannte er die Klimazwiebel?

Offenbar hat Loriot seinerzeit den zivilisierten obschon antagonistischen Umgang der Akteure auf der Klimazwiebel vorweggenommen - wie diese Filme zeigen:

Herren im Bad, 1 und 2

Man fragt sich natürlich, wer sich die Aliase Müller-Lüdenscheidt und wer Dr. Klöben benutzt. Auch die Bedeutung der Ente wird zu entschlüsseln sein. Aber die Drohung des Ablasses des Badewassers steht m Raum!

Climate-Gate of a Skeptical Site?

The blog desmoblog.com reports under the headline

Heartland Institute Exposed: Internal Documents Unmask Heart of Climate Denial Machine

about internal processes within the Heartland Institute (such as funding by whom and of whom). For details see http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/2012 Climate Strategy.pdf.

If true, the details of the report are highly relevant and point towards a larger, coordinated activity on the side of many visible US skeptics. The blog does not refer to a source, as in case of the Climate-gate affair with the CRU mails - are the claims trustworthy?

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Addition 21 February 2012

The Heartland Institute has declared that material presented by desmoblog.com is false. Reports from other sources, such as http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-h-gleick/-the-origin-of-the-heartl_b_1289669.html or http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com indicate that among the leaked "real" e-mails a document provided by unknown, questionable origin has been placed by Peter Gleick. Quotes from this questionable document has been discussed at some length in this thread (below).


An analysis Leaked Docs From Heartland Institute Cause a Stir—but Is One a Fake? of the text supports the understanding that the document would not be authentic.

We are now closing this thread; as Klimazwiebel is legally responsible also for readers comments, we are prepared to delete comments which would constitute "falsche Tatsachenaussagen" (cf. Rahmstorf verdict). Thus, if somebody considers some comments as such, please contact us, and we will check.

A new thread will be opened soon - as the affair is evolving into a another chapter of post-normal science.

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For legal reasons we add

Haftungshinweis: Trotz sorgfältiger inhaltlicher Kontrolle übernehmen wir keine Haftung für die Inhalte externer Links. Für den Inhalt der verlinkten Seiten sind ausschließlich deren Betreiber verantwortlich.

Noch mehr Sturmflut-Kommunikation

Eine Presseerklärung:

Sturmfluten: Nur jeder Zweite fühlt sich bedroht – Sensibilität für Klimawandel nimmt ab

Wie sicher fühlen sich die Menschen hinter den Deichen? Das Institut für Küstenforschung des Helmholtz-Zentrums Geesthacht befragt seit 2008 jährlich die Hamburger zum Klimawandel und den möglichen Folgen. Ein Ergebnis: Nur jeder Zweite fühlt sich persönlich bedroht. Für ein reibungsloses Risikomanagement ist es wichtig, wie die Menschen Gefahren einschätzen und ob sie auf einen Ernstfall vorbereitet sind.

voll Presseerklärung

Neues Produkt des Norddeutschen Klimabüros

Das Norddeutsche Klimabüro des Instituts für Küstenforschung in Geesthacht hat eine
neue Webseite geschaltet, und dazu eine Presseerklärung herausgegeben:

"Klimawandel und Küstenschutz im Internet. Neue Webseite des Norddeutschen Klimabüros informiert über Sturmfluten, Klimawandel und Küstenschutzbedarf - heute und in Zukunft

Wenn man in Norddeutschland nach den Gefahren des Klimawandels fragt, werden oft die Sturmfluten als erstes genannt. Aber neben diesem allgemeinen Problembewusstsein ist praktisch anwendbares Wissen unverzichtbar: Entscheidungsträger, Planer und Bewohner müssen wissen, wie der Klimawandel den Küstenschutzbedarf in ihrer Region verändert. Nur mit diesem Wissen können wirksame Schutzmaßnahmen entwickelt werden. Das Norddeutsche Klimabüro am Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht hat eine neue Webseite entwickelt, die über das Zusammenspiel von Sturmfluten, Klimawandel und Küstenschutzbedarf informiert:

www.norddeutsches-klimabuero.de/kuestenschutzbedarf

How to convince creationists, climate sceptics, ...

Despite the best science, and good arguments, sometimes people don't listen. In the climate change debate this has annoyed many people so they seek examples for inspiration. One is the fight against tobacco, where sound health advice seems to have won against the industry (and addicted smokers). Behaviour change is possible,  and powerful vested interests can be fought back through campaigns, or so the message goes.

deep-freezing identity

climate, weather & culture

 In the following, you will find some quotes from an article in the New York Times from February 2009, with the headline "A rare deep freeze warms the Dutch soul". Please take your time and consider each of the statements thoughtfully. It seems to be a good exercise to find out what we talk about when we talk about the weather and / or climate change. 

Having done so, maybe you have some time to go out for a walk. In Hamburg, nearly everybody is out on the frozen Alster lake today - maybe to find out how it feels to be Nordic and to warm their Hamburg soul. Try yourself, wherever you are.

A skeptic lacking skepticism: Fritz Vahrenholt

Fritz Vahrenholt and Sebastian Lüning, both from RWE (1), have published a book "Kalte Sonne - Warum die Klimakatastrophe nicht stattfindet", which claims that greenhouse gases would play only a minor role in changing climate, while solar activities would be dominant. He goes so far to explicitly predict a cooling – of 0.2 to 0.3 C until 2035. “That the sun and its impact on Earth will present us cooler times in the first half of the present hundred years, is … certain.” (my translations; p. 35)

Another survey ... about communication

Colleagues from Hamburg’s KlimaCampus – social scientists Mike Schäfer and Monika Taddicken – are currently conducting a survey about on-line and off-line communication about climate. It takes approx. 15 minutes to fill in the questionnaire (which is only available in German). If you are interested to participate, here is the link to the survey: http://online.tns-global.com/wix/p1155419371.aspx?b=22

Flashmob against Climate Change

Germany's most politically correct family soap, Lindenstrasse, features in its latest edition a teenage protest action against climate change. Using the new opportunities offered by Facebook, a young female protagonist mobilizes a nation wide flashmob. You can watch it here (the action starts around 22mins into it)
http://www.ardmediathek.de/ard/servlet/content/3517136?documentId=9451936

I think this clip reflects Germans' mood about the issue pretty well.

No news is good news

Readers of Klimazweibel might be interested in the posting at the following link concerning declining attention to climate change in the media.

http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/down_but_not_out.php

As one person commented, it is likely because the media is supposed to report news, hence they are just doing their job.

Gekaufte Wissenschaft?

 Das Wissenschaftsjahr 2012, so erfährt man in dem Artikel  "Umweltschützer sehen unabhängige Wissenschaft in Gefahr", steht unter dem Motto "Zukunftsprojekt Erde". Der BUND weist nun darauf hin, dass die Forschung selbst keineswegs nachhaltig und einseitig ausgerichtet sei: "Aufgrund der zunehmenden Orientierung der Forschungseinrichtungen an Drittmitteln und der Exzellenzinitiative werde die Perspektive der Wissenschaft enger und technikorientierter", und "für unkonventionelle und kritische Wissenschaftler sei im derzeitigen Wissenschaftssystem nur wenig Platz". Besonders kritisiert werde der Zwang vor allem für Exzellenzzentren, Forschungsmittel einzuwerben, die, so der BUND Vorsitzende Hubert Weiger, zumeist "Industriegelder" seien.  Zur Untermauerung bringt er Beispiele aus der Ökonomie und der Umweltforschung - polemisch, parteiisch, und vielleicht doch auch einen Nerv treffend in einer sich atemlos und oft auch chaotisch transformierenden  Universitätslandschaft.

Slaves of Crude

It seems to be a little off-key to compare the similarities (and differences) between slavery and the use of fossil fuel, but nonetheless we can gain a lot from doing so. "Once men abused slaves, now we abuse fossil fuel" is the title of a piece by Jean Francois Mouhot in the Guardian (based on an article in climate change - free pdf available!). 
The basic argument is as sharp as a razor blade:

Why is all of this relevant for climate change policy? Our contemporary economies have become extremely dependent on fossil fuels, just as slave societies were dependent on their slaves – indeed far more than the latter ever were. As one scholar remarked: "That US Congressmen tend to rationalise fossil fuel use despite climate risks to future generations just as southern congressmen rationalised slavery despite ideals of equality is perhaps unsurprising."

was denken Skeptiker? - eine Umfrage

Daniel Tamberg "verfolgt seit Jahren als fortgeschrittener Laie die Klimawandeldebatte. Er hat nun bei der Umfrage-Community pollphin.de eine Umfrage eingestellt, mit der er gern ermitteln würde, welches die wichtigsten/häufigsten Argumente der Klimawandel-Skeptiker sind." Ich persönliche finde, dass es nur nützlich sein kann, wenn die verschiedenen Gruppen sich besser kennenlernen, und bitte daher die Skeptiker unter unseren Lesern und Diskussionsteilnehmern, an der Umfrage teilzunehmen. Auf der Klimazwiebel wird nach Beendigung der Umfrage ein Link zu den Ergebnissen veröffentlicht werden - Hans von Storch
 

Siehe hier:
http://www.pollphin.de/poll/Wissenschaft-Technologie-Klima/F%C3%BCr-Klimaskeptiker-Welchen-Einwand-gegen-die-Theorie-des-menschengemachten-Klimawandels-halten-Sie-4356972