Climate science key to survivable planet
Global R&D expenditure $1.8 trillion, US climate research peaked 1995 at $2.4 billion
Last call for climate action commission
Dr Jan Wright’s last report is also her least likely to ruffle feathers. Until now, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s refreshingly evidence-based reports have probably unsettled more Green Party supporters than the balance of…
After 26 years of climate inaction pull plug on IPCC
It is unstoppable, and it has possibly doubled. And while that is only the disintegration of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet, the same is probably true for global warming generally. Three years of the most detailed satellite measurements yet, to the end…
Renewable energy, nuclear power and Galileo
Climate scientists have long warned of potential catastrophic effects of unchecked fossil fuel use. Public awareness of the climate threat has increased. Yet growth of carbon dioxide in the air, the main driver of climate change, has accelerated…
Manifest evidence suggests science not an option
When Professor Sir Peter Gluckman recommends a title with such seemingly marginal appeal as The Geek Manifesto, it’s a sure bet rather more New Zealanders will be inclined to give the book a second glance than would otherwise have been the…
CO2 psychology not rocket science
As I said at the time, the psychology of climate change isn’t rocket science; it is far more complicated than that. At December’s Mahurangi Club, I shared a few ideas around psychology, climate change, and climate change denial. Here I will share a bit more…
100% pure space mission or motorway madness
It would cost about 7% of the planned Pūhoi–Wellsford motorway. But rather than generate more greenhouse gases and trust to luck that its ministers will never have to face an international climate court, the government could fund an urgently…
No reason to distrust scientist as opposed to politician
Every catchment issue is set to become more acute. Scientists and economists are warning us with increasing urgency of impending environmental and social calamities—damage, ozone depletion, and energy depletion caused by humanity’s excesses. Politicians…
Paleoclimate implications for human-made climate change
Paleoclimate data help us assess climate sensitivity and potential human-made climate effects. We conclude that Earth in the warmest interglacial periods of the past million years was less than 1°C warmer than in the Holocene. Polar warmth in…
Planet doomed but save the sea and sky
The phrase ‘save the planet’ grates for good reason. Nothing that humankind can currently throw at it, greenhouse gases included, can affect the existence of planet Earth. Even if every nuclear weapon were detonated simultaneously for good…
Science ‘globalisation’ is the future
The greenhouse gas consortium is the centrepiece of a major New Zealand commitment to take its global citizenship obligations seriously with respect to those issues associated with climate change. It of course has multiple dimensions. As a…
Climate camps and the world’s shortest year
And the prize for the most foolish first line goes to: “Climate change advocates will be buoyed by data which has emerged from the US today.” Admittedly, the New Zealand Herald is not alone in using the ludicrous phrase ‘climate change…
Anthropocene ensures Holocene has had its day
Geology was one of Ronald Locker’s abiding passions. In his chapter Laying the Foundations, Jade River : A History of the Mahurangi’s author succinctly explains the processes that gave rise to the Mahurangi—how this landscape of outstanding natural beauty…
co2 can come before and after warming
It’s a perfectly reasonable question. If, following ice ages, a rise in carbon dioxide followed global warming, why is the scientific consensus that the current rise is causing global warming? The short answer is that increased levels of carbon dioxide can both cause, and…
Preventing climate confusion raining
Regular readers will be aware that my goal of a new page published every day has gone up in CO2. The reason is that I have an additional job, as a subeditor for Fairfax Media. Taking up a new job at 61 years has proved to be both exhilarating and exhausting. Some…