Month: March 2017

Week in review – science edition

Week in review – science edition

via Climate Etc.https://judithcurry.com

by Judith Curry

A few things that caught my eye this past week (well actually, the past month).

Very good overview on the Madden Julian Oscillation and its implications for rainfall  by Carl Schreck [link]

NOAA’s atmospheric river information page [link]

Assessing temperature patterns projections made in 1989 [link]

NASA study improves forecasts of summer Arctic sea ice [link]

Pacific Ocean Heat Content During the Past 10,000 Years [link]  … Important research that Medieval warming Period was global.

Forget climate change: Human-started wildfires expand the fire niche across the United States [link]

New temperature record from China gives no hint of any recent warming that can be attributed to atmospheric CO2 [link]

Declining Arctic sea ice influences European weather—but isn’t a cause of colder winters [link]

Counterintuitive claim: Slower snowmelt in a warming world [link]

Review article: Abrupt climate changes of the Holocene [link]

A “chaotic solar system” is the root cause of #ClimateChange  [link]

Climatologists say Labrador Sea could cool within a decade before end of this century, leading to unprecedented disruption [link]

The ‘bootstrap’ philosophy of nature: Physicists have found evidence of a mathematical structure that encompasses all quantum theories: [link]

Revolutionary Power Plant Captures All Its Carbon Emissions, At No Extra Cost [link]

A role for tropical forests in stabilizing atmospheric CO2: [link]

Heavy snowfall in Greenland [link]

Study shows China’s severe weather patterns changing drastically since 1960: substantial decrease of severe weather events  [link]

“Scientists uncover huge 1.8 million square kilometers reservoir of melting carbon under Western United States” [link]

Don’t expect media focus when comprehensive analysis of sea-bed methane release points firmly away from alarm. [link]  …

Scientists Solve Ocean ‘Carbon Sink’ Puzzle [link]

“Regional variations in the ocean response to tropical cyclones: Ocean mixing versus low cloud suppression” [link]

Now in NatureClimate – Snapshot: Extreme Arctic heat [link]

Powerful new tool from NOAA to indicate possible location of life-threatening storm surge. [link]…

Historical carbon dioxide emissions caused by land-use changes are possibly larger than assumed [link]

Social science and policy

Why Some of the Worst Attacks on Social Science Have Come From Liberals [link]

Meta-analysis finds abstracts in climate research papers to be “sensationalized” compared to text, like other fields [link]

Science curiosity  trumps politically biased information search [link]  …

New article published by Andrea Saltelli “What is wrong with evidence based policy , and how can it be improved?” [link]

Ideological science: BeeGate illustrates how science, activism and politics mix to produce unsound policy. [link]

Industry sponsorship and research outcome [link]

Thoughtful paper on conflation of science & values: The Biodiversity Conservation Paradox [link]

New study: Climate scientists engaging in advocacy have latitude to do so without harming scientific credibility: [link]  …

Preparing for disruptions [link]

Long but fascinating read:  An epidemic of unnecessary treatment [link]

Labels like “climate denier” undermine civil dialogue & increase destructive polarization around issues. [link]

Is the American elite really elite? [link]

How arguments about nuclear weapons shaped the climate debate [link]

Important & interesting: Motivated Responding in Studies of Factual Learning [link] …

How to Embrace Uncertainty in Participatory Climate Change Risk Management—A roadmap [link]

‘Alternative facts’: A psychiatrist’s guide to twisted relationships to truth [link]

Looks like warming has been a net good: Global economic impacts of climate variability and change during the 20th century [link]

About science and scientists

The lure of rationality: Why does the deficit model persist in science communication? [link]

Restoring Trust in Expertise Requires That Those Describing Themselves as “experts” Embrace Uncertainty [link]

Interesting essay on the history of technology and innovation [link]

History: Interview with Nikola Tesla [link]

Interview with Manabe [link]

A history of Joseph Fourier’s ‘political science’ [link]

Top U.S. scientific body not disclosing conflicts of interest on #GMOs. [link]

Where it is argued that “Galileo’s vast reputation, & the hyperbolic accolades that go with it, are not justified by the real history.” [link]

How policies designed to improve academia are actually messing it up [link] …

Treating science with the respect it deserves [link]

The History of Zero: How Ancient Mesopotamia Invented the Mathematical Concept of Nought and Ancient India Gave It Symbolic Form [link]

Researchers do a good job of estimating the size of errors in measurements but underestimate chance of large errors [link]

Certainty in complex scientific research an unachievable goal [link] …

Some provocative comments on communicating climate science & echo chambers [link] …

 

 

 

via Climate Etc. https://judithcurry.com

March 4, 2017 at 07:55AM

A Climate Story That Must be Told

A Climate Story That Must be Told

via Watts Up With That?http://ift.tt/1Viafi3

Guest Opinion: Dr. Tim Ball Emotionally, it is almost impossible to walk a mile in another person’s shoes. It is particularly true when the other person is of a different sex. I say this because I believe a climate science story that must be told is the degree of difference in nastiness directed at those […]

via Watts Up With That? http://ift.tt/1Viafi3

March 4, 2017 at 05:57AM

Sheffield’s Waste Incinerator

Sheffield’s Waste Incinerator

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAThttps://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com

By Paul Homewood

 

 

Looking down Burngreave Road with Bernard Road incinerator (Sheffield Heat and Power) and Wybourn in the distance, Sheffield S3/S4/S2

Bernard Road Waste Incinerator, Sheffield

 

Continuing the theme of CHP plants, Sheffield has had its own in the form of the Bernard Road Waste Incinerator since the late 1980s.

At the time it seemed tick all of the green boxes:

  • Reducing landfill
  • Producing electricity from waste
  • Providing district heating from waste heat.

The plant was developed and run by Sheffield City Council, in conjunction with Sheffield Heat and Power Ltd.

Unfortunately it did not take long for things to go wrong.

 

 

The basic problem was that the incinerator was built bang in the middle of Sheffield, within a few hundred yards of residential areas.

Concerns were soon raised about the effect of smoke and emissions on local health. Greenpeace were at the forefront of objections. In 2001 they occupied the Bernard Road incinerator and painted “Toxic Crime” on the chimney. At that time the incinerator was the most polluting in the country and there were grave concerns about the health effects. The emission of dioxins  were known to cause cancer, heart disease, liver damage, hormonal disruption, reproductive disorders and much more.

 

In 2001, the City Council was forced to privatise the plant, as it was unable to pay for the necessary upgrades to meet pollution standards. Onyx were awarded a 35- year contract worth £1.3bn to run it. Onyx (now Veolia) quickly realised that the old plant would have to close, and replaced with a new one, commissioned in 2006.

 

Despite much better pollution controls, complaints are still being made about smoke. I can actually vouch for this, as I could see the chimney from the top of the hill everyday on the way to work. On still days, white smoke could be seen spreading out over the nearby area.

 

 

Houses in Wybourn downwind of Bernard Rd

Houses in Wybourn downwind of Bernard Rd

Eventually in 2012, Public Health England (PHE) were pressured into setting up a study into the effects on health of 22 waste incinerators up and down the country, including the Sheffield one.

The report was due to be available by 2014, but has still to be published.

We await the results, but what is known is that these plants do emit a range of toxic substances, such as dioxins and mercury, gases such as nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide, as well as particulates. The only question is whether the quantities involved are deemed “safe”.

 

A further issue has also arisen with Bernard Road. There is now not enough rubbish generated in Sheffield to meet the plant’s demands for energy. This is due to the fact that more waste is being recycled nowadays.

Veolia have therefore had to submit a planning application to import waste from a very wide region around Sheffield – effectively across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

It was estimated that an extra 15000 tonnes of rubbish would need to be shipped into Sheffield, in addition to 50000 tonnes which is already transported in from outside of town.

Sheffield residents are naturally up in arms that they will get the fumes from burning other towns’ waste. Not to mention the problems arising from all of the lorry journeys involved.

 

Through all of this, government has appeared to ambivalent, trapped between landfill and recycling targets, not to mention decarbonisation ones.

When attempting to justify the closure of coal power plants, politicians invariably play the pollution card.

Yet they seem to be perfectly happy to see waste incinerators belching out probably much more real pollution, and in the middle of towns to make matters worse.

All in the name of the great god, CO2!

Looking back, I find it incredible that it took so long to set up the PHE study, or that a full embargo was not put on new incinerators many years ago until all of the facts were known.

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT http://ift.tt/16C5B6P

March 4, 2017 at 05:45AM

Weekend Unthreaded

Weekend Unthreaded

via JoNovahttp://joannenova.com.au

Sorry I am a bit distracted with other things this week. Light postings.

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via JoNova http://ift.tt/1hXVl6V

March 4, 2017 at 02:31AM