Real Sceptic

Earth Hour

Today is the 6th time Earth Hour will be held to raise awareness about the need for action on global warming. Considering this event started in just one city the current number of participants is a testament to how effective this awareness campaign is:

Earth Hour is the single, largest, symbolic mass participation event in the world. Born out of a hope that we could mobilize people to take action on climate change, Earth Hour now inspires a global community of millions of people in 7,001 cities and towns across 152 countries and territories to switch lights off for an hour as a massive show of concern for the environment.

A campaign so effective that it has become the focus of a lot of the so-called sceptics, who are currently attempting to reframe the message of Earth Hour. Read more

Stephen Schneider: Science and Distortion

Stephen Schneider was a professor of Environmental Biology, a great scientist and one incredible science communicator.

The short below was made by Stephen Thomson, a  year in the making, and pays tribute to this scientific and academic important figure.

Professor Schneider will be missed.

Stephen Schneider: Climate Science and Media Distortion

A year in the making, this video pays tribute to a critical scientific and academic figure in postmodern history: the late Climatologist and Stanford Professor Stephen Schneider (1945-2010)

This video was screened before a live audience by Climate One of the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on Dec 6, 2011 as the introduction to an event honoring Stephen Schneider and presenting an award in his name to Richard Alley, Professor of Geosciences and Associate of the EMS Environment Institute.

This video will be presented again tomorrow at the AGU (American Geophysicists Union) Conference currently being held in San Francisco.

A Look Into Our Climate: Past To Present To Future

Almost everyone who follows the climate change ‘debate’ has heard of Michael Mann, and if not would have in the very least heard about the “hockey stick graph” he produced.

This graph is the result of extensive research about temperature trends over the last thousand years, and shows that the current warming is unprecedented for at least the past thousand years. It was, and still is, heavily criticized by opponents. Although over the years other teams have confirmed that this graph is correct and have even extended our knowledge about how unprecedented current temperature trends are. Read more

Greenhouse Gas Concentrations Continue Climbing

The following is a reprint of a news release issued by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Nov 21, 2011

The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a new high in 2010 since pre-industrial time and the rate of increase has accelerated, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. It focussed special attention on rising nitrous oxide concentrations.

Between 1990 and 2010, according to the report, there was a 29% increase in radiative forcing – the warming effect on our climate system – from greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide accounted for 80% of this increase.

“The atmospheric burden of greenhouse gases due to human activities has yet again reached record levels since pre-industrial time,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. “Even if we managed to halt our greenhouse gas emissions today – and this is far from the case – they would continue to linger in the atmosphere for decades to come and so continue to affect the delicate balance of our living planet and our climate.” Read more

Energy Efficiency – Part 2

Using less energy, and generating with renewables, is easier, cheaper, and more effective than a lot of opponents would like you to think. Greenman3610 has released another excellent video on the subject: