Climate Files 68 / Climate Scientists Conquer a Lord
Diagram from the testimony of Dr. James Hurrell (click to enlarge)
Real climate scientists smack down a gecko-like climate denier operative named Lord Christopher Monckton. Or to put it nicely, for purposes of educating the public about climate change, real climate scientists update us on climate science and correct climate denier operative named Lord Christopher Monckton at a May 6th global warming hearing. Monckton is a poser and a favorite of the right-wingers in the climate denial movement. After you get past the frustration of being fed lies by Mr. Monckton about climate change, it’s highly entertaining — especially when a congressman decides he’s had it with the bull. This all took place on May 6th in a congressional hearing, but this so-called debate was just made for TV! But here you have it in podcast form, in nearly its entirety — and all of Mr. Monckton in his ridiculous glory. If you want to watch this presentation you can view the video by downloading it at this link. This Climate Files podcast contains only the audio.
The hearing was sponsored by Rep. Edward J. Markey and held by his Select Committee on Global Warming, a hearing he called “The Foundation of Climate Science”.
Climate Scientists who testified last week:
- Dr. Lisa Graumlich, Director at School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona
- Dr. Chris Field, Director, Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, and co-chair of “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” portion of new IPCC report due in 2014
- Dr. James McCarthy, Professor of Biological Oceanography, Harvard University, past President and Chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, co-chair of “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” portion of IPCC report published in 2001
- Dr. James Hurrell, Senior Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research, contributor to IPCC reports
And for some reason the guest (their “expert) of the GOP minority: Lord Christopher Monckton, a British consultant, writer and journalist — not a scientist. He argued with the real scientists that were present, and basically made a fool of himself. If you click on the names of the scientists at the hearing listed above, you can download their statements that contain loads of climate science facts and figures. See more at the website for the hearing. Lord Monckton and his charts have been thoroughly debunked by scientists, and one place with a good debunking is here on RealClimate.org.
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Climate Files 67/ Corporate Oil Terrorism
Gulf Stream Currents -- from NOAA
The Gulf Oil spill is nothing short of catastrophic. It will take months to clean up the oil and that’s only possible if the oil stops gushing from the 3 mile-deep oil well leaks! There is a lot of blame to go around — first of all BP and the operators of the oil rig who tried to save money and not install adequate safety equipment. Also blame the Bush administration and Dick Cheney and their anti-environmental energy policy. Finally, blame Halliburton because they did not install the safety checks that could have possibly prevented this horrendous leak. This is corporatist greed, forming our energy policy, taking what they want of our natural resources and leaving the environment decimated. It’s a form of terrorism. But even these entities are not the real culprit. The final blame should lie on the American people and our insatiable, endless taste for oil.
This episode of Climate Files contains some news on the spill, some background on past BP spills, an interview with one of the survivors of the oil rig explosion last month, and a clip of Mike Papantonio from the Mike Malloy radio show.
Skytruth is an activist blog that lobbies against offshore drilling. Their website is blog.skytruth.org
Just five months ago, SkyTruth’s President testified to Congress about the risks posed by offshore drilling. SkyTruth testified at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on November 19. You can read the entire testimony by John Amos here (pdf download). The general subject of the hearing was Federal stewardship of offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters.
If anyone has any doubt who is determining our energy policy, watch this video from the Energy and Natural Resources hearing last November 2009. It’s clear that the American people are not the people Congress is representing on energy policy. There was a similar blowout in Australia that was a bit smaller and still took 10 weeks to control.
Ring of Fire’s website is here.
Two additional ProPublica.com stories about further leaks and more chemical spills is here.
BP Ready to Pay “Legitimate” Oil Spill Claims, says their ‘generous’ CEO. “BP is ready to pay all legitimate claims tied to the oil spill caused by the accident at its Gulf of Mexico undersea well, Chief Executive Tony Hayward told National Public Radio on Monday.” This is after they tried to get away with limiting all claims to $5,000!
The interview with the oil rig worker is from Drillingahead.com, a site that is not environmentally aware or sympathetic.
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Climate Files 56 / Answering Skeptics
Dead coral and sea shells washed up on beach, Mexico, 2007.
We know that CO2 causes climate change, but how? Believe it or not, credit card debt can help explain how CO2 causes global warming, even if the graphics show CO2 kind of non-synchronized with temperatures, at times. Hear Richard Alley talk about CO2 causing global warming at the AGU Annual Meeting. (Full video with graphics is here)
Also hear Stephen Colbert talk about mountaintop removal with Dr. Margaret Palmer, and the latest crock of the week, the claim of a petition with 32,000 signatures on it from scientists. It’s a hoax, of course. From Peter Sinclair of the Greenman’s Climate Crock video series. Sinclair is a longtime advocate of environmental awareness and energy alternatives and he runs Greenman Studio from his home in Midland, Michigan.
Richard Alley is an American geologist and Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at the Pennsylvania State University. He has authored more than 170 refereed scientific publications about the relationships between Earth’s cryosphere and global climate change, and is recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information as a “highly cited researcher.” (wikipedia)
More information on how to speak to deniers and skeptics that should be useful to everyone is here and here.
New climate change meetings/conferences after COP15:
In Abu Dhabi, the World Future Energy Summit.
Another climate change meeting is coming up on January 24th. Read about it here.
“…key groups of developing countries will meet to try to explore ways to get to agree a legally binding final agreement. As the dust settles on the stormy Danish meeting, environment ministers from the so-called “Basic countries” – Brazil, South Africa, India and China – will meet on January 24 in New Delhi. No formal agenda has been set, but observers expect the emerging geopolitical alliance between the four large developing countries who brokered the final “deal” with the US in Denmark will define a common position on emission reductions and climate aid money, and seek ways to convince other countries to sign up to the Copenhagen accord that emerged last month.”
You have to wonder what the carbon footprint is of all these meetings, especially given what they accomplish.
Transportation emissions information from Science Insider:
“. . . . projections spelled out in a new report reviewing the issue by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change suggests that by 2050 the total amount of carbon pollution from these sources could increase tenfold, depending on population, economics, and technology trends. Were that to happen, emissions would be as high as the entire transportation sector, which takes up 14% of global greenhouse emissions, currently dominated by pollution from cars and trucks.
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Music dedicated to all skeptics and deniers at the end: Pants on the Ground, by ‘General’ Larry Platt.
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Climate Files 55 / Drop the Nuke Bias
Being antinuclear is like a religion to many environmentalists. But solving climate change will be a compromise of what is possible and needed. We are not going to get a green utopian world to emerge and solve climate change with windmills. Even environmentalists want to be able to charge their cell phones and laptops. Should we throw it all away, or find out a realistic way to power it all once the coal plants are gone? We should be supporting nuclear plants over CCS any day. The last thing we want to do is spend billions locking in coal for another 50 years, something that could kill us all.
The Clean Air Act is under attack by Republicans with new legislation trying to block EPA again again. You can help save it by contacting your Reps. here.
Some news discussed in this episode includes information on and quotes from the books Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen and the Vanishing Face of Gaia by James Lovelock. Hansen’s letter to Obama is here (PDF). The UK must raise its CO2 emissions target to a 42% cut, says a new report. Read why our endless consumerism needs to be replaced with sustainable living here. The story about Bell Labs greening the internet by 2015 is here. There is a lot more in this episode including an audio description of what a thorium reactor is and how it works.
Read another interview with Stewart Brand, whose interview is played in this episode, here at e360.
More info on thorium reactors:
- How a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) works
- Energy from Thorium blog
- Uranium is so Last Century
Contact CF using the contact form at the top or email CF at news @ climatefilesradio (dot) com
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Music at end: Nuclear Power Plant by Zen Eyes
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Climate Files 53 / COP15 Not a Failure
How did Copenhagen go? To hear some tell it we are now doomed, but don’t believe it. A COP15 accord was agreed upon by about 190 countries, and was impressive for many reasons, with COP15 bringing together leaders from all over the world in an unprecedented marathon work session. It was not a failure, but the Copenhagen Accord was also not legally binding. (Download the accord here. PDF ) Does the accord have to be legally binding?
Expectations (including my own) were far too high, so the conference seemed like a failure to many who were disappointed that super-human feats were not accomplished. These are human beings we are dealing with, after all, not Hollywood movie characters. In addition, many countries tried to stop the proceedings from reaching an agreement entirely.
In this episode, hear the final press conference which was an assessment of the entire COP15 by the executive secretary of the UNFCCC, and also hear a skeptics presentation (humorously done) by the Age of Stupid’s Franny Armstrong with George Monbiot. Armstrong broadcast the Stupid Show from Copenhagen every day the last week of the conference.
Enormous negativity from some activists, some media and some environmental groups who expected too much from the conference should not be taken seriously . . . it’s counter-productive and it discourages people from getting involved. We need more people involved doing more than ever. The next COP is in Mexico, next November, and there is one after that, and one after that, already planned. Hysterical pronouncements of doom are premature! Bill McKibben’s sad article is here.
Ed Miliband accuses China and other countries of trying to prevent an accord agreement.
US Airlines are already suing the UK, read here . . . and so it starts.
Global warming temperatures have been grossly underestimated.
Happy Holidays — and re-subscribe to the new podcast feed on the right-hand column.
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Climate Files 51 / The Geek Files
Sea level rise in Australia, happening now.
This episode contains talks by the delegates from Stanford University and a talk by Steven Chu, a pretty geeky guy, from last weekend. Monday was Oceans Day at Copenhagens COP15, and the guys from Stanford discussed the health of the oceans and why that 350 number is so much better than that 450 number that Todd Stern seems to think is OK.
It’s impossible to keep up with everything that is going on in Copenhagen. There are groups doing interviews everywhere, press conferences, side events, Youtube debates and lots more. My hope is that everyone is keeping informed by going to the COP15 website, or the ENB report.
Presented Monday: New estimates of sea level change including the dynamics of the big ice sheets are way higher than the IPCC 2007 estimate.
Also discussed: UN Carbon-Capture Decision Faces Delay to Next Year.
Coal gassification explained.
Remember: 350 ppm is OK, 450 ppm is not OK. Bill McKibben and Al Gore also spoke, and now the heads of state are beginning to arrive. Even Prince Charles already spoke too. You could listen to speeches all day and still not hear them all.
Music at the end is a fun song by that guy from Minnesota, Bob Dylan.
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Climate Files 50 / Climate Files
Here is your Copenhagen climate summit summary from Week 1.
Recorded clips include Naomi Klein, Nnimmo Bassey from Klimaforum09, and James Hansen from an interview with The Guardian on December 2nd. Hansen discussed nuclear power and how this climate summit isn’t going to be adequate. Naomi Klein discusses mainly the same things, but from her economic justice perspective. Bassey is a well-known Nigerian climate activist.
Here is the main, official Copenhagen draft text as of December 11th,(PDF) and here is the (better) Klimaforum Declaration (opens new page).
Climate Files is the new name of this podcast and it will be gradually changing to that in the next week or two. Mainly it needs the word “climate” in it because that’s what it’s about, climate and politics, so that people can more easily find it, and it more accurately reflects what it is. Also, I need to get it consolidated with the articles website, which will also be renamed Climate Files, and get them off the old podcastliberally domain name. Yes, the RSS feed will change so you will have to change your subscription, sorry about that. Please come back to check on when this will happen. (The old RSS feed will be rerouted for a month after the new one is made.) Please stay subscribed or I have no way of knowing how many people are tuning in. The new websites are called Climate Files Radio and Climate Files, but at this point, there is nothing there. Links and much of the info that is now on FN will be there eventually. All FN podcasts will be migrated to the new site.
Also, send comments to news @ climatefiles.com from now on.
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Climate Files 47 / Are We Lemmings?
Are we climate lemmings?
It was announced this morning that President Obama will attend the climate summit in Copenhagen, and he also announced his emissions targets: in the range of 17% by 2020. This is great news! It’s also bad news. Is this the best America can do? This response to climate change is not adequate for the U.S. when other countries are doing more. There is a phenomenon at work here. Two recordings in this episode address expectations at Copenhagen and why people believe what they believe about global warming, and how to possibly change how the public thinks about it. Maybe we can even influence our politicians.
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), speaks with correspondent Miles Benson in an interview from Earth Focus, discussing UNEP’s sobering recent report that says we will feel the consequences of climate change soon. Are we lemmings, or why don’t we act more decisively on this issue?
The public opinion talk is from the American Meteorological Society, from an Environmental sciences Seminar Series, and it’s on Public Attitudes, Perceptions, and Concerns about Global Warming, evidence from a survey. This survey is not new, it’s actually from late last year. It was presented in Washington DC by Jon Krosnick, PH.D., Stanford University.
The Krosnick talk has been split into two parts and this episode contains the first part. If you want to hear part two and an additional talk by Jon Krosnick you can find that here.
Are we lemmings refers to a question Achim Steiner was asked during his interview. It doesn’t mean we don’t believe in global warming, (75% of Americans do, down from 85% of 3 years ago) it refers to the fact that Americans don’t want to change the status quo or make lifestyle changes unless everyone else in the world does it first.
Other news discussed: Chris Hedges wrote: Refuse Allegiance to Coal. Read it here.
More news: Latest Science Shows Climate Change Outpacing Previous Projections
United Nations program on Climate change is here. The Climate Change Science Compendium is on this page.
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Climate Files 45 / Peak Oil and IEA Report
The new 2009 World Energy Report shows a decline in oil, but did the U.S. interfere in the final report to avoid a panic in the markets? The IEA denies the pressure.
Many experts think Saudi Arabia and other countries are inflating the numbers reflecting what oil they have left.
This was NaPodPoMo episode 11 of the November podcast marathon. (FN is now ending its involvement in NaPodPoMo.)
Many energy experts also think we have started peak oil already, and everything from here on is a decline. Worse, the US doesn’t want anyone else to know this, and has pressured the IEA to soften its language on peak oil and oil decline to prevent panic.
The November 10 IEA press release is here. Story about U.S. pressure on the IEA from The Guardian is here. The IEA has denied the claims that appeared in the Guardian from the anonymous whistleblowers. You can read what they said here.
The IEA book site is here, and here are the available downloads of the World Energy Report 2009.
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Climate Files 41 / The Brutal Truth
Let's hope there are a lot of planets out there that will support human life and that we can get to them in about 10 years. Could someone please invent long-distance teleportation by then?
The Brutal Truth about climate change is this: it’s much worse, and much more threatening to our future, than the public thinks it is. In fact, it has scientists scared. Yet the political response is to “work with business” and “work with Republicans” and conservative Democrats like Joe Lieberman to get a passable bill that is so watered down it won’t solve any of the problems of climate change nearly in time. It seems pointless.
What can we make of this? I don’t know. ‘Cap and trade’ mostly solved a sulfer dioxide problem years ago, but it isn’t going to solve this enormous problem. It’s a totally inadequate solution to a monumental problem.
The brutal truth about climate change is that it could be the end of all future generations unless extremely aggressive actions are taken now. If you’re not worried, you should be. Mainly because we aren’t taking action to stop it that is adequate! This episode includes testimony before the EPW by Senator John Kerry and an article about this existential threat known as global warming. This is NaPodPoMo #7.
Here is John Kerry planning to further weaken the bill. What is he thinking?
The article by Jeff Goodell that I read, Warming Gets Worse, is not found online. It appeared in the November 12th issue of Rolling Stone magazine.
“The science is more definitive than ever. The science is screaming at us.” says John Kerry. “A voluntary approach just doesn’t work.”
He’s right about that. So how could he in good conscience expect us to support what he’s doing?
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Climate Files 39 / Science & Tech News
Robot Fish?
This was NaPodPoMo5, the fifth installment of this podcast’s marathon.
Covered in this episode: Deep-sea Ecosystems Affected By Climate Change.
Trees in the desert, maybe the Sahara, might solve climate change? Well, it’s a plan.
Liquid Granite and the hunt for a carbon-neutral cement, Foldable 3D Solar Cells, robot fish and more, in some science and tech news for this episode.
Some Futurism in this interview at CleanTech, too.
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Climate Files 38 / Climate News Update
News from Futurism Now, and episode #4 of the NaPodPoMo podcast marathon.
What are Senators up to on the climate bill? Senate Republicans Stall Climate Legislation! Story here.
Panic at 2:00 am! Where is the ice?
Utilities Drop Plans for Big Stone II Coal Plant, clearing the way for wind power. Great news!
Al Gore chats about his new book on the MSNBC show Morning Joe. Mika says his new book is a “must read.” Hear this and much more in this episode.
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Listen to the rest of the NaPodPoMo podcasts too. For the RSS feed for the whole shebang, subscribe to this.
Support podcasters — we work hard so you can work even harder.
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