USA

Mad, bad and dangerous

by Gareth June 7, 2011

Australian climate scientists have been receiving abusive emails — even death threats — from people who mistake violence for political expression. Graham Readfearn provides some examples (not for the squeamish). The Canberra Times broke the story at the weekend and it’s been covered in depth at The Conversation (one, two). Tim Lambert comments on the [...]

14 comments Read the full article →

John Abraham: How to give good radio

by Bryan Walker May 28, 2011

It’s hard to know listening to this recent US radio interview with John Abraham whether to be more admiring of his incisive responses or more astonished at the regularity with which tired old denier claims are put forward by the interviewers. The interview perhaps highlights the extraordinary divergences of American society – home to impressively [...]

8 comments Read the full article →

The Climate Show #12: twisters, Olaf on ozone, and Google in the sun

by Gareth May 5, 2011

Ozone is the centrepiece of our show this week, with Dr Olaf Morgenstern of NIWA’s Central Otago atmospheric science lab (celebrating its 50th birthday at the moment) explaining the ins and outs of the ozone holes north and south, and their impacts on the climate system. Plus tornadoes, heatwaves, UN negotiations at an impasse, more [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Alley’s documentary: upbeat and optimistic

by Bryan Walker April 18, 2011

Richard Alley’s book Earth: The Operators’ Manual, which I reviewed recently, was written as a companion to a PBS documentary of the same name. The documentary has recently screened in the US and is now available for viewing here. The broad themes are the same as those of the book. They’re not complicated: taking our [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

Telling the whole truth

by Bryan Walker April 9, 2011

Not infrequently when reading and reviewing a book I find myself wishing there was some way of lingering longer on what it has to say before the spotlight moves on. David Orr’s Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse, published in 2009 and reviewed here, was one such book, and it was therefore with pleasure [...]

22 comments Read the full article →

Bangladesh: lessons in adaptation

by Bryan Walker March 25, 2011

A basket case” said Henry Kissinger of Bangladesh in 1974 after the civil war that liberated it from West Pakistan (the side he backed). Mark Hertsgaard in Hot (reviewed here) reports a rather different picture. I thought it worth dwelling longer on what he has to say about Bangladesh than was possible in the review [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

Hot: living through the next fifty years on earth

by Bryan Walker March 22, 2011

American journalist Mark Hertsgaard understands what lies ahead for humanity as climate change unfolds, some of it already unavoidable though hopefully manageable, but with outright chaos lurking if we fail to rein in emissions. He harbours no illusions. The fact that his little daughter will be part of the generation living through the coming turmoil [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

Here comes the flood

by Bryan Walker February 16, 2011

News today of interesting new research on the effect of rising sea levels on 180 US coastal cities by the century’s end. University of Arizona scientists will be publishing a paper this week in Climatic Change Letters which sees an average 9 per cent of the land within those cities threatened by 2100. The Gulf [...]

25 comments Read the full article →

Thundersnow is go! (for weather geeks)

by Gareth February 4, 2011

It’s been snowing in America. It snowed quite a lot in Chicago. They even had thundersnow, which is rare enough to have excited Weather Channel presenter Jim Cantore quite a lot. I’ve never experienced thundersnow. I’m almost jealous. Almost. The ripe peaches at Limestone Hills are some compensation… More on American snow at Jeff Masters’ [...]

54 comments Read the full article →

Heart of the city

by Bryan Walker January 27, 2011

We tend to become riveted on the efforts of national governments to address greenhouse gas reductions, so far with dismal results. But as a valuable new study reminds us, city administrations can play a significant role in mitigation and with more immediate effect. Cities and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Moving Forward is to be published in [...]

3 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →