This is a continuation of the previous (and now unwieldy) post on the current Arctic situation. We'll have a proper round up in a few weeks. Share This

Geoengineering is increasingly being discussed (not so sotto voce any more) in many forums. The current wave of interest has been piqued by Paul Crutzen's 2005 editorial and a number of workshops (commentary) and high profile advocacy. But most of the discussion has occurred in almost total ignorance of the consequences of embarking on such [...]

The International Geological Congress (IGC) is sometimes referred to as the geologists' equivalent of the Olympic Games and is an extremely large gathering of geologists from all over the world, taking place at 4-year intervals. This time, the IGC took place in Lillestrøm, a small place just outside Oslo, Norway (August 6-14). The congress was [...]

What is the actual hypothesis you are testing when you compare a model to an observation? It is not a simple as 'is the model any good' - though many casual readers might assume so. Instead, it is a test of a whole set of assumptions that went into building the model, the forces driving [...]

Recently we received a request for setting up a glossary-only search mechanism, or perhaps one web page with a long list of glossary entries with hot links to full explanations. The glossary that we already have is a good start, but we are all busy and it's hard to find the time for extending [...]

We often discuss the issues that arise in doing interdisciplinary work in climate science, and Liz Moyer and I have a commentary on that just out in Nature Reports Climate Change. Normally I don't mention these kinds of pieces on the blog, but in this case the editors commissioned a nice cartoon (from Mark Roberts) [...]

Andy Revkin has a good article in the Science Times today on the problem of journalistic whiplash in climate change (also discussed here). This phenomena occurs with the more uncertain parts of a science that are being actively researched and where the full story is only slowly coming together. In such cases, new papers often [...]

We are a little late to the party, but it is worth adding a few words now that our favourite amateur contrarian is at it again. As many already know, the Forum on Physics and Society (an un-peer-reviewed newsletter published by the otherwise quite sensible American Physical Society), rather surprisingly published a new paper by [...]

Everyone can probably agree that the climate system is complex. Not only do the vagaries of weather patterns and ocean currents make it hard to see climate changes, but the variability in what are often termed the Earth System components complicates the picture enormously. These components - specifically aerosols (particulates in the air - dust, [...]

A few interesting pieces from around the web relevant to some previous postings: The latest satellite imagery from the Wilkins Ice Sheet (discussed recently) is not looking good. And most curiously the collapse is happening in winter. The Weather Channel "Forecast Earth" team make a valiant attempt to explain the problems and promise for [...]

The Onion last week had a great (recycled) spoof on the various 'green' special issues being published but, not to be outdone, the contributors to RealClimate have also been busy producing paper products about the environment. Surprisingly perhaps, as well as having day jobs and writing for this blog, collectively we have written a number of [...]

The title here should strike a familiar theme for most readers. Climate forcings do not just include CO2 (other greenhouse gases, aerosols, land use, the sun, the orbit and volcanoes all contribute), and the impact of human emissions often has non-climatic effects on biology and ecosystems. First up last week was a call [...]

It's long been known that El Niño variability affects the global mean temperature anomalies. 1998 was so warm in part because of the big El Niño event over the winter of 1997-1998 which directly warmed a large part of the Pacific, and indirectly warmed (via the large increase in water vapour) an even larger region. [...]