[TheClimate.Vote] March 13, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News for All - 3rd year of weirdly warm

Richard Pauli richard at theclimate.vote
Mon Mar 13 12:01:13 EDT 2017


/March 13 , 2017        Weirdly warm for the 3rd year  -- and why facts 
don't matter. /

https://climatecrocks.com/2017/03/12/weirdly-warm-2017-could-we-set-another-record/
*"Weirdly Warm" 2017.  Could we Set another record? 
<https://climatecrocks.com/2017/03/12/weirdly-warm-2017-could-we-set-another-record/>*

    2017 has been weirdly warm so far despite a lack of El Nino
    conditions. If Jan/Feb temps were representative it would end up
    surpassing 2016

        Zeke Hausfather @hausfath
        <https://twitter.com/hausfath/status/840763945183019008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> 
        2017 has been weirdly warm so far despite a lack of El Nino
        conditions. If Jan/Feb temps were representative it would end up
        surpassing 2016

        Robert Rohde @rarohde
        <https://twitter.com/rarohde/status/840639650557485057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> 
        With both January and February 2017 being warmer than the 2016
        average, the odds of 2017 finishing warmer than 2016 continues
        to increase.

    Both (Zeke Hausfather and Robert Rohde), have been members of the
    Berkeley Earth Surface Temperatures group, formed by climate skeptic
    physicist Richard Muller - significantly, with funding from the Koch
    Brothers - that closely examined surface temperature records to
    finally settle, (at least in Muller's mind), what every major
    scientific group has known for 40 years...
    Yesterday, both of them tweeted observations about how global
    temperatures are playing out.
    Normally, following a giant El Nino, such as we saw in 2015-16, we
    would expect a temporary drop in global temps, possibly with a
    complimentary, cooling La Nina event.
    That is not what we see.
    The question arises - will we set new global temperature records 4
    years in a row?


    iPhones and*global warming*: Dispatches from a Siberian husky in the
    45th Iditarod
    <https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/iphones-and-global-warming-dispatches-from-a-siberian-husky-in-the-45th-iditarod/2017/03/12/21313c04-06ec-11e7-b9fa-ed727b644a0b_story.html>

Washington Post 	 -‎11 hours ago‎ 	

	
	
	

They're running out of snow, so "The Last Great Race on Earth" might be 
down to its last race soon. As the 45th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race 
treks on, Couch Slouch is pleased that Tuffy the Snow Prince, the 
outspoken 55-pound Siberian husky on musher ...

https://theconversation.com/curbing-climate-change-has-a-dollar-value-heres-how-and-why-we-measure-it-70882


    Curbing*climate change* has a dollar value — here's how and why we
    measure it
    <http://theconversation.com/curbing-climate-change-has-a-dollar-value-heres-how-and-why-we-measure-it-70882>

The Conversation US 	 -‎3 hours ago‎ 	

	
	
	

    President Trump is expected to issue an executive order soon to
    reverse Obama-era rules to cut carbon pollution, including a
    moratorium on leasing public lands for coal mining and a plan to
    reduce carbon emissions from power plants...
    Trump and his appointees argue that these steps will bring coal
    miners' jobs back (although coal industry job losses reflect
    competition from cheap natural gas, not regulations that have yet to
    take effect). But they ignore the fact that mitigating climate
    change will produce large economic gains...
    While burning fossil fuels produces benefits, such as powering the
    electric grid and fueling cars, it also generates widespread costs
    to society – including damages from climate change that affect
    people around the world now and in the future. Public policies that
    reduce carbon pollution deliver benefits by avoiding these damages...
    The social cost of carbon represents the damages of one ton of
    carbon dioxide emitted into the air. To estimate it, economists run
    models that forecast varying levels of carbon dioxide emissions.
    They can then model and compare two forecasts – one with slightly
    higher emissions than the other. The difference in total climate
    change damages represents the social cost of carbon...
    Carbon pollution can remain in the atmosphere for up to 200 years,
    so these models are run over a century or more in order to account
    for long-term damages that carbon emissions impose on society.
    https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24651/valuing-climate-damages-updating-estimation-of-the-social-cost-of
    *Valuing Climate Damages:  Updating Estimation of the Social Cost of
    Carbon Dioxide (2017)
    <https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24651/valuing-climate-damages-updating-estimation-of-the-social-cost-of>*
    The social cost of carbon (SC-CO2) is an economic metric intended to
    provide a comprehensive estimate of the net damages - that is, the
    monetized value of the net impacts, both negative and positive -
    from the global climate change that results from a small (1-metric
    ton) increase in carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions. Under Executive
    Orders regarding regulatory impact analysis and as required by a
    court ruling, the U.S. government has since 2008 used estimates of
    the SC-CO2 in federal rulemakings to value the costs and benefits
    associated with changes in CO2 emissions. In 2010, the Interagency
    Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (IWG) developed
    a methodology for estimating the SC-CO2 across a range of
    assumptions about future socioeconomic and physical earth systems.


http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/why-facts-dont-change-our-minds
*WHY FACTS DON'T CHANGE OUR MINDS 
<http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/why-facts-dont-change-our-minds>*

    New discoveries about the human mind show the limitations of reason.
    *By Elizabeth Kolbert*
    Even after the evidence "for their beliefs has been totally refuted,
    people fail to make appropriate revisions in those beliefs," the
    researchers noted. In this case, the failure was "particularly
    impressive," since two data points would never have been enough
    information to generalize from....
    Reason developed not to enable us to solve abstract, logical
    problems or even to help us draw conclusions from unfamiliar data;
    rather, it developed to resolve the problems posed by living in
    collaborative groups....
    If reason is designed to generate sound judgments, then it's hard to
    conceive of a more serious design flaw than confirmation bias...
    Steven Sloman, a professor at Brown, and Philip Fernbach, a
    professor at the University of Colorado, are also cognitive
    scientists. They, too, believe sociability is the key to how the
    human mind functions or, perhaps more pertinently, malfunctions.
    ...Sloman and Fernbach see this effect, which they call the
    "illusion of explanatory depth," just about everywhere..
      If your position on, say, the Affordable Care Act is baseless and
    I rely on it, then my opinion is also baseless. When I talk to Tom
    and he decides he agrees with me, his opinion is also baseless, but
    now that the three of us concur we feel that much more smug about
    our views. If we all now dismiss as unconvincing any information
    that contradicts our opinion, you get, well, the Trump Administration...
      ... they, too, dedicate many pages to confirmation bias, which,
    they claim, has a physiological component. They cite research
    suggesting that people experience genuine pleasure - a rush of
    dopamine - when processing information that supports their beliefs.
    "It feels good to 'stick to our guns' even if we are wrong," they
    observe...
      These days, it can feel as if the entire country has been given
    over to a vast psychological experiment being run either by no one
    or by Steve Bannon. Rational agents would be able to think their way
    to a solution. But, on this matter, the literature is not reassuring.


http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ucsd-20170311-story.html


    UCSD scientists worry Trump could suppress *climate change*data
    <http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ucsd-20170311-story.html>

Los Angeles Times 	 -‎10 hours ago‎ 	

	
	
	

    UC San Diego may accelerate plans to preserve its climate data due
    to growing concerns among faculty members that the Trump
    administration could interfere with their work...
    UC San Diego, one of the nation's 10 largest research universities,
    sharpened its focus on climate data 18 months ago after learning
    that the federal government is trimming support for archiving such
    information...
    But the apprehension about Trump's views on climate change have
    given a sense of urgency to that project, said those involved with
    the undertaking...
    "It is a reaction to the concerns of the scholarly community and the
    scientific research community about the effect that the new
    presidency has vis-à-vis climate change, vis-à-vis any other of a
    number of things," said Brian Schottlaender, the university's head
    librarian. "The stakes are up. The stakes are high. There's more at
    risk now."


http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a53805/climate-skeptics-trump-administration/


    It's the Golden Age of*Climate*Denial
    <http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a53805/climate-skeptics-trump-administration/>

Esquire.com 	 -‎8 hours ago‎ 	

	
	
	

    In Trump's America, more CO2 in the atmosphere is actually good.
    In fact, it does not contradict the scientific consensus on climate
    change, which holds that higher carbon dioxide levels lead to warmer
    temperatures and, in turn, among other things, to melting sea ice
    and rising sea levels...
    Of course, some of the largest multinational corporations in the
    history of the world have spent decades disputing the effects of
    carbon dioxide production to protect vested interests. ExxonMobil,
    for instance, first became aware of the threat in 1981, but spent 27
    years funding denial of it. That climate science is the real big
    business, crushing the little guy whose work just happens to help
    the fossil fuel industry, is the kind of delusion that pervaded the
    seminars at CPAC, and that infects this movement generally...
    In our conversations, both Happer and Morano said Secretary of State
    Rex Tillerson, who left his post as CEO of ExxonMobil to take the
    job, could be the biggest obstacle to their agenda in the White
    House. (That ExxonMobil has donated over half a million dollars to
    Morano's organization over the years doesn't seem to complicate
    things for him. Happer, whose organizations have also received
    funding from large fossil fuel companies and prominent conservative
    donor networks like the Bradley Foundation, described a "David and
    Goliath" scenario where the Sierra Club is Goliath.) Happer also
    identified ExxonMobil as an enemy of his movement. If you're keeping
    score at home, the former CEO of the world's fourth largest oil and
    gas corporation is now, in the estimation of some skeptics, the most
    prominent advocate for combatting climate change in the executive
    branch...
    Morano wants the president to "unleash" fracking, oil drilling, and
    coal production, the latter of which he somewhat agreed was no
    longer even competitive due to the rise of cheap natural
    gas...Strange: a climate skeptic who isn't just interested in
    disputing the science, but who also openly advocates for more
    expansive use of fossil fuels, including economically inefficient
    ones. It's almost like these things are connected.


//https://soundcloud.com/smerconishshow/dr-michael-mann-the-hockey////
/*(audio) This Day in Climate History March 13, 2012 
<March%2013,%202012:%20Climate%20scientist%20Michael%20Mann%20discusses%20his%20book%20%22The%20Hockey%20Stick%20and%20the%20Climate%20Wars%22%20with%20nationally%20syndicated%20talk%20radio%20host%20Michael%20Smerconish.,,https://soundcloud.com/smerconishshow/dr-michael-mann-the-hockey> 
-  from D.R. Tucker*
/Climate scientist Michael Mann discusses his book "The Hockey Stick and 
the Climate Wars" with nationally syndicated talk radio host Michael 
Smerconish./(15 minutes)

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