Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1092

Friedman: "The totally bogus 'discrediting' of climate science has had serious implications" — loss of clean energy leadership and jobs to China

What a contrast. In a year that's on track to be our planet's hottest on record, America turned "climate change" into a four-letter word that many U.S. politicians won't even dare utter in public. If this were just some parlor game, it wouldn't matter. But the totally bogus "discrediting" of climate science has had serious implications. For starters, it helped scuttle Senate passage of the energy-climate bill needed to scale U.S.-made clean technologies, leaving America at a distinct...

Lindsey Graham drinks the tar sands Kool-Aid: "It is less carbon intensive than oil we find in California," extraction "really blends in with the natural habitat."

Who are you going to believe:  Lindsey Graham or your own lyin' eyes?

In an amazing interview with Canada's The Globe and Mail, "U.S. senator sold on the oil sands," the once-serious, but now utterly incoherent Senator from South Carolina visits what some have rightly called the "biggest global warming crime ever seen," and pronounces it A-OK:

Why are you here?

LG:  Just do the math. There is more oil received from the oil sands region than Saudi Arabia and Iran combined. So from an energy...

A detailed look at climate sensitivity - Debunking the dangerous anti-science fantasy of the 'lukewarmers'

The amount of warming we are going to subject our children  and countless future generations to depends primarily on three factors:

The sensitivity of the climate to fast feedbacks like sea ice and water vapor (how much warming you get if  we only double CO2 emissions to 560 ppm and there are no major "slow" feedbacks).  We know the fast feedbacks are strong by themselves (see Study: Water-vapor feedback is "strong and positive," so we face "warming of several degrees Celsius" and detailed...

Stop the presses! Arctic melt ain't over 'til it's over.

So the fat lady sang, but I guess she hit just the right note and  shattered some more ice.  Or it could be those pesky greenhouse gases, which  always seem to be causing trouble….

That plot is from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (click to enlarge), whose latest value for sea ice extent (yesterday) is 4,832,813 km2.  There  appears to be a real chance JAXA's extent will drop below the 2008 level.

Their data for the last ten days shows how sharp this new downturn is:

09,07,2010: ...

Bewitched: Tea Party's Christine O'Donnell "electrifies social conservatives" at "values" summit, but turns out she once "dabbled into witchcraft" - She disputed evolution because it contradicts the Bible, but told Bill Maher, "One of my first dates with

You just can't make this stuff up.  Christine O'Donnell — the anti-science, pro-Bible, Tea Party darling who won the Delaware Republican Senate primary — was "the ingénue sensation and the It Girl of the Values Voter Summit, the Family Research Council's annual gathering of roughly 2,000 social conservatives from across the country."

Back in 1996, O'Donnell was actually spokeswoman for a conservative Christian policy organization Concerned Women of America, which is "built on prayer and...

Bewitched: Tea Party's Christine O'Donnell "electrifies social conservatives" at "values" summit, but turns out she once "dabbled into witchcraft" - She disputed evolution because it contradicts the Bible, but told Bill Maher, "One of my first dates with

You just can't make this stuff up.  Christine O'Donnell — the anti-science, pro-Bible, Tea Party darling who won the Delaware Republican Senate primary — was "the ingénue sensation and the It Girl of the Values Voter Summit, the Family Research Council's annual gathering of roughly 2,000 social conservatives from across the country."

Back in 1996, O'Donnell was actually spokeswoman for a conservative Christian policy organization Concerned Women of America, which is "built on prayer and...

Bewitched: Tea Party's Christine O'Donnell "electrifies social conservatives" at "values" summit, but turns out she once "dabbled into witchcraft" - She disputed evolution because it contradicts the Bible, but told Bill Maher, "One of my first dates with

You just can't make this stuff up.  Christine O'Donnell — the anti-science, pro-Bible, Tea Party darling who won the Delaware Republican Senate primary — was "the ingénue sensation and the It Girl of the Values Voter Summit, the Family Research Council's annual gathering of roughly 2,000 social conservatives from across the country."

Back in 1996, O'Donnell was actually spokeswoman for a conservative Christian policy organization Concerned Women of America, which is "built on prayer and...

Bewitched: Tea Party's Christine O'Donnell "electrifies social conservatives" at "values" summit, but turns out she once "dabbled into witchcraft" - She disputed evolution because it contradicts the Bible, but told Bill Maher, "One of my first dates with

You just can't make this stuff up.  Christine O'Donnell — the anti-science, pro-Bible, Tea Party darling who won the Delaware Republican Senate primary — was "the ingénue sensation and the It Girl of the Values Voter Summit, the Family Research Council's annual gathering of roughly 2,000 social conservatives from across the country."

Back in 1996, O'Donnell was actually spokeswoman for a conservative Christian policy organization Concerned Women of America, which is "built on prayer and...

Bewitched: Tea Party's Christine O'Donnell "electrifies social conservatives" at "values" summit, but turns out she once "dabbled into witchcraft" - She disputed evolution because it contradicts the Bible, but told Bill Maher, "One of my first dates with

You just can't make this stuff up.  Christine O'Donnell — the anti-science, pro-Bible, Tea Party darling who won the Delaware Republican Senate primary — was "the ingénue sensation and the It Girl of the Values Voter Summit, the Family Research Council's annual gathering of roughly 2,000 social conservatives from across the country."

Back in 1996, O'Donnell was actually spokeswoman for a conservative Christian policy organization Concerned Women of America, which is "built on prayer and...

Bewitched: Tea Party's Christine O'Donnell "electrifies social conservatives" at "values" summit, but turns out she once "dabbled into witchcraft" - She disputed evolution because it contradicts the Bible, but told Bill Maher, "One of my first dates with

You just can't make this stuff up.  Christine O'Donnell — the anti-science, pro-Bible, Tea Party darling who won the Delaware Republican Senate primary — was "the ingénue sensation and the It Girl of the Values Voter Summit, the Family Research Council's annual gathering of roughly 2,000 social conservatives from across the country."

Back in 1996, O'Donnell was actually spokeswoman for a conservative Christian policy organization Concerned Women of America, which is "built on prayer and...