Academia’s institutional culture fails to reward the critical work of tailoring climate science to the people who most need to understand its implications, according to a fascinating new paper by Kristen Averyt, in press at the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Averyt is deputy director of the Western Water Assessment, a University of Colorado-based …
Continue reading ‘Toward a More “Patient-Centered” Climate Science’ »
One of the things my colleagues and I found when reviewing the history of the ’70s global cooling myth was the consistent way alleged evidence was recycled through the literature by those perpetuating the myth. It was easy to verify the recycling in two ways. First, there were characteristic mistakes and elisions introduced early that …
Writing in the latest issue of Skeptical Inquirer, physicist Mark Boslough argues that scientists are being held to a higher standard in the media and political debate over climate change than those who oppose them: Denialists have attempted to call the science into question by writing articles that include fabricated data. They’ve improperly graphed data …
Continue reading ‘Boslough in SI: Playing By Different Rules’ »
Over on the work blog, I’m hosting an impromptu exchange between Cristina Archer and Roger Pielke Sr. over the question of the extent to which the jet stream is moving north, potentially drying out the southwest, and the implications of the current year’s southern storm track for thinking about that hypothesis. (comments off here, comments …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: On Weather and Climate’ »
The Bureau of Reclamation has tuned up its estimates of the chances of release of extra water to help Lake Mead, now putting them at one in four this year, according to an update published today (Wed. 2/10). The jargon here is “equalization,” which happens when there is enough extra water upstream in Lake Powell …
Continue reading ‘Chances of Extra Water for Mead Remain Low’ »
As a native Southern Californian with a deep attachment to its deserts, this paper is just heartbreaking. Lesley DeFalco of the USGS and colleagues describe the effect of variable climate extremes and wildfire in the last decade on populations of desert plants, most especially Yucca brevifolia – the Joshua Tree: Accentuated ENSO episodes and more …
The median forecast for flows on the upper Colorado River, out this morning, is 5.8 million acre feet, 73 percent of normal. That is down 400,000 acre feet from a month ago, and represents a continued reduction in the probability that there will be extra water upstream to pass down to replenish Lake Mead. Flows …
With a half an inch of snow in the back yard this morning, I’m reminded of one of my favorite bits of data-gathering described in my book. In addition to the stories of scientists who study western climate, we included activities for young people to do for themselves. Weather and climate are the most accessible …
From this morning’s Albuquerque Journal, a story (sub/ad req.) about new research suggesting that, in the past, the jet stream moved north and what is now the southwestern U.S. dried out when the world was warmer: For 45,000 years, the drips built stalactites and stalagmites in Fort Stanton Cave. The minerals in the rocky deposits …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: The Drying of the Southwest’ »
In my book, The Tree Rings’ Tale, in addition to sharing the stories of scientists I tried to give young readers examples of science they can do themselves. As a science journalist, I got hooked on weather years ago because the sciency bits connect so nicely to readers’ everyday experience. It’s just one short step, …