Climate Change is NOT Being Nice to Mother Nature – Overview

This is the first part of a series of blog posts that summarize some of the negative effects of climate change on the world’s ecosystems.

“Observed recent changes in climate, especially warmer regional temperatures, have already had significant impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems, including causing changes in species distributions, population sizes, the timing of reproduction or migration events, and an increase in the frequency of pest and disease outbreaks.  By the end of the century, climate change and its impacts may be the dominant direct driver of biodiversity loss and changes in ecosystem services globally.  The balance of scientific evidence suggests that there will be a significant net harmful impact on ecosystem services worldwide if global mean surface temperature increases more than 2^o Celsius above pre-industrial levels or at rates greater than 0.2^o Celsius per decade”  (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Reid et al., 2005)

Fred Singer is a lot like George Costanza

One of my favorite Jerry Seinfeld episodes is the one where George Costanza tells Jerry that every decision he has ever made has turned out to be wrong.  Jerry suggest that George should then “do the opposite” and maybe his luck would change.  When George does the opposite, he begins dating a beautiful woman and lands a job with the New York Yankees.

S. Fred Singer is a lot like George Costanza.

Turn the Tables on Monckton

Update (July 18, 2011): Monckton told he’s not member of House of Lords. Clerk of parliaments publishes letter on Lords’ site saying peer is not and has ‘never been a member of the House of Lords’.

Christopher Monckton and other deniers get far more press coverage than they deserve.  Journalistic false balance has caused the public to be confused on climate change – the greatest threat to humanity this century.  Worse, these deniers have used mainstream media to attack climate science and the scientists who pursue the truth.  Let us now turn the tables.

Monckton has been exposed by Dr. John Abraham and instead of hiding his tail and whimpering away, Monckton has gone on the offensive by attacking Dr. Abraham and asking his followers to essentially “email bomb” Dr. Abraham’s university president.  We need to alert the media to this story.

I have assembled a list of media contacts in the hopes that my readers will follow my lead and send letters asking for an investigation of Monckton and his attack on Abraham.  Please feel free to use the letter I sent below as your own or to modify as you see fit.  I have placed mailto links that will make it easy to send letters to several contacts at once with a single click.

In the thread comments, please suggest other contacts in the US and from abroad.  This blog thread can then be used in the future to alert the media to denialist activity.

No, This Weather Really Blows

I have been teaching introductory meteorology and climatology courses for 23 years.  Read on for the most common misconceptions that my students have regarding science:

 

I am Tired of Being Charlie Brown. Are You?