Archive by category | Daniel Cressey

Picture post: ‘hottest April ever’

Picture post: ‘hottest April ever’

Cross-posted by Daniel Cressey on The Great Beyond April this year was the hottest on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has announced. The combined surface temperatures on land and at sea averaged 14.5 °C, some 0.76 °C above the 20th century average. Average ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for April and the global land surface temperature was the third warmest on record for the month. NOAA also says that Arctic sea ice was “below normal for the 11th consecutive April” while “based on NOAA satellite observations, snow cover extent was the fourth-lowest on record” since  … Read more

New, ‘relentlessly pragmatic’ approach to climate change needed?

New, ‘relentlessly pragmatic’ approach to climate change needed?

Cross-posted from Daniel Cressey on The Great Beyond The collapse of UN-led international efforts to combat climate change means a new approach that is “politically attractive and relentlessly pragmatic” is required, according to a new report. The 14 authors of a new report on climate policy describe themselves as “an eclectic group of academics, analysts and energy policy advocates”. They say the Kyoto Protocol style approach “crashed” last year with the perceived failure of the Copenhagen meeting. A new approach, focusing on human dignity, is required, they argue in their ‘Hartwell Paper’ – named after the house in Buckinghamshire where  … Read more

‘Stop McCarthy-like attacks on climate science’

‘Stop McCarthy-like attacks on climate science’

Daniel Cressey; cross-posted from The Great Beyond Over 250 members of the US National Academy of Sciences have hit back at global warming deniers, warning that attacks on climate science are being mainly driven not by intellectual inquiry but by special interest and dogma. In a letter published in Science the researchers compare the recent furore around the so-called ‘climate-gate’ stolen emails to the Communist witch hunts of the 50s led by Joseph McCarthy “We urge our policy-makers and the public to move forward immediately to address the causes of climate change, including the un-restrained burning of fossil fuels,” they  … Read more

CRU inquiry: science solid despite lack of statistical know-how

CRU inquiry: science solid despite lack of statistical know-how

Cross-posted by Daniel Cressey on The Great Beyond The integrity of research by the ‘climate-gate’ scientists has been upheld by the latest report into the email theft affair, despite the inquiry team expressing surprise that few professional statisticians were involved in work that is “fundamentally statistical”. This inquiry, headed by Ron Oxburgh, is one of a number into the aftermath of emails leaked from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. It was established to consider allegations that papers emanating from CRU had manipulated data dishonestly to support pre-determined conclusions on climate change. “We saw no evidence  … Read more

Parliament committee calls for more transparency in climate science

Parliament committee calls for more transparency in climate science

Cross-posted from Daniel Cressey on The Great Beyond The scientist at the centre of the ‘climate-gate’ emails has escaped censure from a Parliamentary inquiry into the affair, but his university and the field of climate science in general have not. “Climate science is a matter of global importance. The quality of the science therefore has to be irreproachable,” says Phil Willis, chair of Parliament’s Science and Technology Select Committee. “What this inquiry revealed was that climate scientists need to take steps to make available all the data that support their work and full methodological workings, including their computer codes. Had  … Read more

Another day, another ‘climate-gate’ inquiry

Cross-posted from Daniel Cressey on The Great Beyond The University of East Anglia has announced details of the team that will be looking into the scientific papers produced by its Climatic Research Unit, following last year’s email theft and subsequent controversy. Furious rows ensured after emails from the CRU published on the internet were taken by some as showing that Global Warming was a huge conspiracy. A number of inquiries have followed. This particular inquiry is investigating the scientific publications of the CRU, which have been questioned by a number of climate sceptics as some of the emails published contained  … Read more

Climate Change in Quotes

Cross-posted from Daniel Cressey on The Great Beyond It’s been a busy week for climate change watchers. We had the British parliamentary hearing into climate-gate, the IPCC announced it was reviewing its procedures, American politician James Inhofe waded in with his own report, and then there was the usual plethora of yes-it-is, no-its-not back and forth. In case you missed any of it. Here’s the point/counter point. Parliamentary Engagement Written evidence from the Institute of Physics to the parliamentary inquiry is critical of the scientist at the centre of the affair – Phil Jones of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU).  Read more

How a computer expert corrected the Met Office

Cross-posted from Daniel Cressey on The Great Beyond Another day, another fault discovered in the climate change catechism? This time it’s not the usual suspects claiming a grand global conspiracy though. It’s a bit more interesting than that. At the heart of this story is professional computer programmer John Graham-Cumming, who decided to write some software to number crunch temperature data released by the UK’s Met Office. “I thought it would be a fun hobby project to use those records to reproduce the worrying charts that show the increase in global temperatures,” he wrote on his blog last week. “Because  … Read more

Nature editor resigns from ‘climate-gate’ review

Nature editor resigns from ‘climate-gate’ review

Cross posted from Daniel Cressey on The Great Beyond Nature’s editor in chief has stepped down from the Russell Review inquiry into aspects of the ‘climate-gate’ emails, just hours after the inquiry team was unveiled. Philip Campbell stood down after it emerged he told a Chinese reporter last year that the scientists at the centre of the climate-gate row “have behaved as researchers should”. A key aspect of the review headed by Muir Russell is whether scientists at the University of East Anglia followed proper scientific procedures. In a statement released to the media yesterday, Campbell said “I made the  … Read more