Posted on 6 April 2014 by John Hartz

SkS Highlights

Howard Lee's Alarming new study makes today’s climate change more comparable to Earth’s worst mass extinction attracted the most comments of the articles posted on SkS during the past week. Earth has a fever, but the heat is sloshing into the oceans by John Abraham garnered the second highest number of comments. Dana's IPCC report warns of future climate change risks, but is spun by contrarians was the third most commented upon.

Toon of the Week

h/t to I heart Climate Scientists

Quote of the Week

“The issue is not a lack of scientific evidence, the issue is the unwillingness of people and governments to act,” says oceanographer Ken Denman, a former federal scientist now at the University of Victoria who was a lead author on previous IPCC reports.

“It seems to defy logic,” Denman said in an interview Tuesday.

“But a lot of addictions defy logic,” he says, suggesting that is the root of the problem. “Our society is completely addicted to cheap power.”

B.C. climate change expert sees ‘brighter, smarter’ future for planet by Margaret Munro, The Vancouver Sun, Apr 1, 2014

SkS in the News

Blaine Skrainka interviewed John Cook for his The Wild blog post article, The Contrarian Complex. Here's the operative paragraph:

John Cook, the author of Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand, and founder of SkepticalScience.com, a blog dedicated to exposing climate myths, tells me that because of continued public confusion, it’s important to provide “coverage of climate contrarians [that] places them in [a] broader context.” Skeptical Science has an entire section dedicated to countering the inaccuracies preached by Christopher Monckton, but Cook says that they have “paid less attention to Monckton over time, as he has become more marginalized and extremist in his views. He is notorious for promoting extreme and bizarre conspiracy theories.”

Juan Cole reposts Howard Lee's SkS article, Alarming new study makes today’s climate change more comparable to Earth’s worst mass extinction on his Informed Comment blog.

In his Slate article, Unnatural Disaster, David Auerbach references and links to the SkS article, Cherry picked and misrepresented climate science undermines FiveThirtyEight brand and to Dana's FiveThirtyEight undermines its brand by misrepresenting climate research posted on The Guardian.

Dana's Guardian article, IPCC report warns of future climate change risks, but is spun by contrarians is cited and linked to in:

• The Neverending ‘Wakeup Call’ by David Cromwell and David Edwards, Media Lens
• Famine and Water Riots Are Coming, Warns New Intergovernmental Report by Annalee Newitz, io9

SkS Spotlights

The Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) is Australia’s largest centre of Antarctic and Southern Ocean climate change research. Our research extends to include climate change impacts in Australia and Pacific. We have national and international extent and reach.

Antarctica and the Southern Ocean influence both the regional and global climate in profound ways. These vast areas will experience significant change as the world warms, and in turn those changes will impact on the global climate. Many of the impacts of climate change will be seen in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica before anywhere else on Earth.

It  is ACE’s role  to investigate the critical scientific uncertainties that limit the way Australia and the global community can respond to the impacts of these changes.  

SkS Week in Review 

• 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #14B by John Hartz
• The climate change uncertainty monster – more uncertainty means more urgency to tackle global warming by Dana
• Video: Climate science crash course by Dana Nuccitelli with Citizens Climate Lobby by Dana
• Earth has a fever, but the heat is sloshing into the oceans by John Abraham
• 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #14A by John Hartz
• Alarming new study makes today’s climate change more comparable to Earth’s worst mass extinction by howardlee
• 2014 SkS News Bulletin #2: IPCC Report by John Hartz
• Skeptical Science Widget Hacked by Bob Lacatena
• IPCC report warns of future climate change risks, but is spun by contrarians by Dana

Coming Soon on SkS 

• IPCC says adapt and mitigate to tackle climate risks (Roz Pidcock)
• Fox News climate change coverage is 28 percent accurate – believe it or not that's an improvement (Dana)
• If growth of CO2 concentration causes only logarythmic temperature increase - why worry? (Marcin Popkiewicz)
• The 'pause' in global warming is not even a thing (Graham Readfearn)
• New Video: Abrupt Climate Change, and the Expected Unexpected (Peter Sinclair)
• 2014 SkS Weekly News Roundup #15 (John Hartz)