Quotes of the day climate special - October 21, 2009
“In this case the figures mentioned are, in our view, likely to be used by non-expert observers to judge progress in reducing CO2 Emissions within the UK. For reasons including those set out in your correspondence with the Secretary of State we regard the quoted figures (and particularly the percentage change) as unsatisfactory in the context of that use.”
Michael Scholar, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, takes the government to task over their use of statistics on the reduction of carbon emissions.
“It is not just about the issue of climate change in this particular case. We have had a huge number of complaints about the science but also whether the ad itself is scary for children.”
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority says it is investigating a government advert designed to promote awareness of climate change. (BBC, for more on the ad see: Worst. Climate. Campaign. Ever.)
“Our work suggests that while West Antarctica is still losing significant amounts of ice, the loss appears to be slightly slower than some recent estimates. So the take home message is that Antarctica is contributing to rising sea levels. It is the rate that is unclear.”
Ian Dalziel, of the West Antarctic GPS Network, says new ‘ground truth’ measurements suggest we may have slightly overestimated the rate of ice loss in Antarctica (press release).
“We conclude that, based on these new data, there is no evidence to suggest any correlation between the transit of our solar system through the spiral arms of our Galaxy and the terrestrial climate.”
Researchers writing in the Astrophysical Journal say they have taken down a theory linking climate to spiral arm transit.
