In the Times Online, historian of science Naomi Oreskes and Jonathan Renouf recount how a group of “elite special forces of the scientific world”, who called themselves Jason, produced a report about global warming. It was 1979.

Four years later, a group commissioned by the Reagan administration and [added: this has been disputed] headed by William Nierenberg published their own report. Oreskes and Renouf claim that the message was to “calm down, everybody”. Global warming wouldn’t be a problem; that “the synopsis emphasised the positive effects of climate change over the negative”.
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It’s that time of month again. The monthly temperature anomalies are soon to be publicized. I’d usually ignore them, but I’ve had this (simple) script hanging around for about a month now, so I thought I’d use it. With UAH releasing their August temperature datum, and temperatures plunging in 2008 it seemed like a good opportunity to look at what the monthly changes in temperature anomaly mean (or don’t mean).

What this post will attempt to do is show the effects of instrument noise on the global mean temperature anomaly time series. I’m going to assume that anyone reading this has seen at least one of the temperature anomaly time series. Pick your favorite - it doesn’t really matter which one. I chose the GISTemp anomaly from 1880.
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I needed a quick reference to see how much sea levels would rise if the West Antarctic ice sheet melted. Wikipedia should do the trick, right?

Below is what someone managed to slip in quite a while ago. They included a reference to icecap.us no less.
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As I was browsing web pages of past instructors (Dr. Rabbit’s post got me all nostalgic), I came across a link to this interesting simulation of U.S. oil policy. It’s a bit old, 2005, but it still provides a decent method of estimating how specific policy initiatives might affect oil demand.

It provides a way to select specific policies, and dates for their onset that will affect oil demand in the United States. It then tells you if your specific policies will meet your goal for reducing oil imports. I’ve included below the specific policies that would be needed, according to this simulation, to reduce oil imports by 90% by 2025. The format for the input is in the form of a section of the State of the Union. The parts that could be changed I’ve highlighted. In his 2006 State of the Union, President Bush set the goal of reducing our oil imports by 75% by 2025.

Inset image credit: user jasonskinner on Flickr.
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