A Climate Grab Bag

19th November 2007

posted in Global Warming, Science by themaiden |

I was asked by my girlfriend to put together a kind of list of global warming resources so that she can email it to some skeptical friends and associates. I might as well make that list do double duty.

The best single source on the web for global warming information is Realclimate. You can search the site for just about anything relevant to climate change and find articles ranging from ‘layman’ to ‘very technical’ but not quite ’science journal technical’. I realize that the mere mention of RealClimate makes skeptic neck hair stand on end. I can hear the cries of ‘bias’ already. I don’t care. I’ve been reading RealClimate for quite some time now and I am quite convinced that for a layman targeted site, that is where you get the most honestly evaluated analysis of the data.

DeSmogBlog is another good source.

It is always good to check the IPCC.

For a quick and dirty overview– I stress ‘overview’– of just about anything, you can’t beat Wikipedia. Strat with the page on Climate Change. Read the page on Global Warming. Don’t miss the controversy page, or its list of scientific organizations who’ve taken positions on climate change, or its list of dissenting voices. Then look at the bottom of damn page and read the bloody references. Wiki is a start, not a finish.

Probably the most popular, most cited, and possibly the most convincing ’skeptic’ site on the web is Climate Audit, primarily the work of Stephen McIntyre, a ‘minerals consultant’ with no advanced degree, ties to oil and gas, and a few published articles in Energy and Environment a journal known for publishing shoddy work.

Which brings me to a list of global warming skeptics along with their ‘connections’. Browse the list. You’ll find such shining examples of honest intellect as Fred Singer, having made a name debunking nonsense about smoking for the tobacco companies, moved on to debunk global warming for the oil companies. Also check DeSmogBlog’s Denier Database.

My stuff on Bob Carter, and a general recap of climate stuff.

Nexus6 has a good series on Ray Evans.

Tim Lambert has a lot of great stuff on the issues.

I should probably mention Dr. Klaus-Martin Schulte and his survey of climate change research, summarized in a piece published by the Heartland Institute. The Heartland Institute decided to publish the summary perhaps because the infamous Energy and Environment would not publish it? That in itself ought to raise red flags. The article in question is a response to a paper by Naomi Oreskes in which “she evaluated 928 scientific papers that dealt with global climate change and found that none disagreed about human-generated global warming. The results of her analysis were published in a 2004 essay in the journal Science.“. Why is it trash? Well… Oreskes responds to Schulte.

I could go on like this all day, but that ought to get you going.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 10:25 am and is filed under Global Warming, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On November 19th, 2007, John Cook said:

Might I suggest http://www.skepticalscience.com/ which lists all the major global warming skeptic arguments (ranked by how often they’re used) and what the peer reviewed scientific literature has to say about each argument.

2 On November 19th, 2007, Jeff said:

I give IPCC all the credit in the world for at least making fence sitters take notice. Every environmental cause should have such a mechanism for churning out science to overcome and overwhelm the skeptics. I noticed that this past weekend the biodiversity camp is getting closer to its own version of IPCC, only they call it IMoSEB. I’ve summarized the report in my frog blog, and the link to the report is in there, too: Can This Acronym do for Biodiversity what IPCC has done for Global Warming?

3 On November 19th, 2007, themaiden said:

John,

Thanks for dropping by.

I apologize but I’d not come across your site or I would have included it. That list of arguments you’ve got is pretty nifty.

4 On November 21st, 2007, heather said:

Excellent post. Makes a welcome change after reading so much climate change denial elsewhere.
Thanks for the useful links.

5 On November 21st, 2007, themaiden said:

Hi Heather,

Thank you. Don’t miss John Cook’s SkepticalScience.com. It is really very good and probably too fair to the skeptics– which is honorable I suppose but not something I am likely to emulate. I try for fair but not more.

6 On November 23rd, 2007, Jeff said:

I came across this story that has a skeptical look at the prospects for the IMoSEB group I talked about a couple of days ago — the group that would be for diversity what IPCC has been for climate change. Biodiversity’s Equivalent to IPCC gets Grim News Report

7 On November 23rd, 2007, themaiden said:

Jeff,

Too bad. That had potential.

8 On November 26th, 2007, Carnival of the Green | Great Green Goods said:

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9 On November 27th, 2007, Frugal For Life » Blog Archive » Topical Carnivals November 26-27 said:

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10 On February 27th, 2008, Warhammer Online said:

I really hate that a big number of people deny human effects on climate. We all need to start thinking about the future and our behavior towards nature.