Wii…

Yes, only in Japan… See James Annan.

Somewhat more seriously, John Fleck praises Benny Peiser (don’t worry folks, its not for his climate-type opinions, which remain junk, but for finding some interesting papers on impacts).

And over at RealClimate, even more seriously, the long-awaiting post pointing out what von S did wrong in Science is now out. Better get editing at wiki…

Phenology (sp?): its been a cold spring here. Despite being unusually far behind with my digging, the weeds haven’t overtaken me yet. And the bees are slow. Sloe in blossom.

As you may have noticed, I don’t have much to say on my own behalf. It seems to be a slow period for climate type news. Or I’m not paying attention.

[Update: I suspect that not all of my readers read CIP, so I point you towards Fearing Truth in particular. But there is lots of other good stuff there -W]

Stupidity from Melanie Phillips this time…

An astute (?) reader points me towards Even greener than he thinks by Melanie Phillips. Apart from starting off with a few good points (why is it “green” to fly by private jet to the Arctic for a photo-op) we are down to the usual tedium (the Hockey stick *isn’t* fatally flawed; GW isn’t based on it anyway (and in a feat of self-contradiction she declares in the next sentence that its also all based on computer modelling, which isn’t true either); the world wasn’t 2 oC warmer in the MWP; feedbacks are as likely +ve as -ve… and so on.

Errr, which is why I didn;t bother to write a post about it :-)))

More junk from Milloy

Sigh. I really shouldn’t fall for this stuff. But its so desperate, its worth pointing out. Ref is http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,192544,00.html (I’ll avoid linking it in the hope you don’t upgrade their hit count). Milloy sez he is debunking two key myths of climate alarmism, including that the Earth’s atmosphere acts like a greenhouse and that reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emission will avert significant temperature change.

The septics are cr*p (part XVII…)

It constantly amazes me how completely cr*p the climate septics are. I dont mean the skeptics – e.g. Lindzen, who is a better met man than me, though he has gone a bit emeritus recently – I mean flacks like Milloy. If you want to be skeptical of GW, then the only real point at issue is “will be be a (very) bad thing”. That encapsulates two points: how large is the climate sensitivity, and how will the balance of good and bad effects work out, regionally and globally (and, in a hat tip to RP, but also to others, how large are climate effects in the face of rapid societal change anyway?) (this isn’t [WP:BEANS by the way; I really wish the septics would learn this).

But one point of GW that is totally rock-solid is that CO2 is rising, which is why fools like Milloy fling themselves at it…

Yet more blogging?

Tim Lambert notes that Science advocates blogging (and since they mention RC and scienceblogs, who can disagree?). They also mention James A; he raises the interesting point about blogs being tolerated rather than encouraged. Certainly I get no work-credit at all for this (not that I was expecting any) but its a fun thing to talk about at conference dinners. James points out Bryan Lawrences blog (which I had on my mustelid blogroll and have just added here) and how nice it is to see someone senior (albeit a bit techy 🙂 blogging.

David King: Death, famine, drought: cost of 3C global rise in temperature

Thats from the Grauniad. Its was on the BBC 10 o’clock news. It was Scientist issues grim warning on global warming in the Times. But why? Thats what I was wondering, as I watched the news (just for once on TV; from my mothers house, on hols for Easter. Very nice too but no wireless connection…). Suddenly we were back to melting glaciers and dry lake beds but I could think of no particular report or reason for it coming out, and the TV gave no clue.

EU CO2 Emission Prices Hit New Record High

The EU has an emissions trading regime (must find out about this sometime), and apparently prices are up… EU CO2 Emission Prices Hit New Record High says Planetark. Higher gas/oil prices makes burning coal more economical, which is more CO2 intensive, so quota prices rise. And its been dry so hydropower is down. Time for the Severn barrage!

Still, I wonder what fraction of the price 30E/tonne is.

Science and Religion

Before the main post, here is Daniels joke of the day: what do you call a fly with no wings? Answer…

EGU: Friday

To start off, an image from the commercial district. Sorry I couldn’t centre myself properly.

EGU: Thursday

A view of the cathedral, which looms up over the streets on my way to the U-bahn.