Interesting Websites, Webcasts and PDF reports on science topics I work
in:
FIRST: Information related to ClimateGate (December 2009)
Vituperative
letter regarding my latest
paper in Geophysical Research Letters, name suppressed to
protect the writer's privacy.
Many critics of the CRU emails have complained that the writers of the
CRU emails were not sufficiently respectful of scientists that they
disagreed with. One paper in question was Soon and Baliunis
(2003). If you google "Soon and Baliunis," the Wikipedia pages
that emerge will help explain, though not excuse, several of the CRU
emails that grumble about ways to discredit this particular paper by
those particular scientists. (Note that the Soon and Baliunis (2003)
paper was, in fact, included as part of the 2006 IPCC Report.)
More humorous: For insight into how top scientists truly react to
criticism, watch this
YouTube
clip. Although the scene is preposterously
exaggerated for humor, the words in each of the subtitles have probably
emerged from the lips of most Yale senior science faculty at one time
or another. That is why all my professor friends like the clip.
General blog on current controversies in climate science, maintained by
practicing climate scientists
http://www.realclimate.org
Specific posts related to ClimateGate
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/11/the-cru-hack/
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/11/the-cru-hack-context/
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/12/cru-hack-more-context/
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/11/wheres-the-data/
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/11/something-is-x-in-the-state-of-denmark/
Webcast of the lecture "The American Denial of Global Warming" by Naomi
Oreskes, Professor of History of Science, UC San Diego, and 2009 Zucker
Environmental Fellow at Yale (Google the title if the YouTube link goes
stale.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T4UF_Rmlio
Prof Oreskes describes the tactics of what I would label "asymmetrical
scientific warfare" as they were articulated by many prominent
climate-change skeptics, at the time when these "climate experts" were
in the employ of the US tobacco industry as "medical experts."
The premise of asymmetrical warfare is that a combatant cannot defeat a
superior opponent on a level battleground, and must resort to sabotage,
trickery, misinformation and confusion. Oreskes outlines
the actions behind this strategy regarding global warming.
2006 Report of the National Research Council that exhaustively examines
the data and analysis of the famous "hockey stick" temperature graph.
The original paper:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/pubs/millennium-camera.pdf
Mann, M. E., R. S. Bradley, and M. K. Hughes (1999), Northern
hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: Inferences,
uncertainties, and limitations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 26(6),
759-762. (Google the title if the link fails)
commentary on the NRC report
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/06/national-academies-synthesis-report/
The NRC report itself
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11676
BACK TO MORE GENERAL INFO:
ENERGY
A webcast of a lecture on Energy:
2008 Regents' Lecture by Dr. Steve Koonin, Chief Scientist of BP Oil
"Energy Trends & Technologies" -- Koonin is now DOE Undersecretary
of Science
http://physics.berkeley.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=200&Itemid=523
Koonin's abstract: The world's demand for energy will grow by some 60%
in the next 25 years. Satisfying that demand in an economical and
environmentally acceptable manner is one of the most significant
challenges facing society. New technologies will play a central role in
meeting this challenge, albeit conditioned by the economic, social, and
political contexts in which they are developed and deployed. The
presentation will focus on the major forces shaping the World's energy
future and the technologies required to respond to them.
The McKinsey Group report on energy efficiency investments and
climate-change mitigation strategies
http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/publications/Curbing_Global_Energy/index.asp
http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/publications/Investing_Energy_Productivity/
http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/ccsi/pathways_low_carbon_economy.asp
Climate change information:
http://www.unep.org/
United Nations Environment Programme
http://www.unep.org/compendium2009/
The Climate Change Science Compendium 2009 is a review of some 400
major scientific contributions to our understanding of Earth Systems
and climate that have been released through peer-reviewed literature or
from research institutions over the last three years, since the close
of research for consideration by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.
http://www.ipcc.ch
The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change is the leading body for
the assessment of climate change, established by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization
(WMO) to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current
state of climate change and its potential environmental and
socio-economic consequences.
The "IPCC Report" is actually several reports, one focussed on the
scientific study of climate change, a second on climate-change impacts,
and a third report on strategies for the mitigation of climate
change. These reports are updated every few years. Each
starts with a "Policymakers Summary" that hits the most relevant
conclusions. The latest full report was released in 2007, and
summarized published scientific results up to mid-2006.
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_ipcc_fourth_assessment_report_wg1_report_the_physical_science_basis.htm
WG1 is the "Working Group 1" report. You can download the entire
report in PDF format, or selected chapters. Chapter 4 covers ice sheets
and climate change.
Time Magazine article on rapid climate changes in the Antarctic
(9/25/09).
Fast Antarctic Ice: Go, Speed Glacier, Go!
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1925723,00.html
NASA Article that tries to estimate what Atmospheric CO2 level should
be targeted for the future
http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abstracts/2008/Hansen_etal.html
DATA Sets and Visualization
Tools:
CarbonTracker
A system to keep track of carbon dioxide uptake and release at
Earth's surface over time.
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/carbontracker/
GLOBALVIEW data products are designed to enhance the spatial and
temporal distribution of atmospheric observations of CO2, CH4 and other
related atmospheric measurements. GLOBALVIEW-CO2, 2008 is the 13th
annual update of this product. Since 1996, GLOBALVIEW-CO2 has been
accessed more than 12000 times by users from over 70 countries.
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/globalview/co2/co2_intro.html
The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) is the primary
climate-change data and information analysis center of the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE).
http://cdiac.ornl.gov/
NASA GISS (Goddard Institute for Space Studies) Surface Temperature Data
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/
The British Met Office Hadley Centre makes the vast majority of its
data sets freely available (for academic and personal use only).
Climate monitoring and data sets:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climatechange/science/monitoring/
Slow Earthquakes and the
Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest Geodetic Array, Central Washington University
http://www.geodesy.cwu.edu/instruments/tilt/explanation_ETS.html
CWU researchers with the continuous GPS network Pacific Northwest
Geodetic Array discovered periodic slow-slip across the Cascadia
Subduction Zone. Previously undetected by seismic networks, these slip
events exhibit regular recurrence intervals thus changing current
understanding of earthquake behavior.
Real-Time GPS Data Analysis
http://www.geodesy.cwu.edu/realtime/
Geological Survey of Canada: Episodic Tremor and Slip (ETS)
http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/geodyn/ets_e.php
The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (http://www.pnsn.org/)
--
Interactive
Tremor
Map
http://earthweb.ess.washington.edu/~wech/tremor/
The PNSN operates seismograph stations and locates earthquakes in
Washington and Oregon. Its web site provides information on Pacific
Northwest earthquake activity and hazards. It is based at the
University of Washington in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences,
operated jointly by several northwest institutions. PNSN is funded by
the US Geological Survey (USGS), the Department of Energy, and the
State of Washington.