Via a mate who’s just read the new Thatcher biography by Charles Moore. On Thatcher, scientific advice and “the weather”: “Dr John Ashworth, the Chief Scientist, who worked within the Central Policy Review Staff, asked to see Mrs Thatcher shortly after she had arrived at No. 10. As he entered, the Prime Minister said: ‘Who … Continue reading »
Filed under climate …
How to be optimistic about climate change
Climate change is depressing. Really depressing. And yeah, I know the apocalypse is like sex because every generation thinks they’ve discovered it. But it does feel a bit end times. Properly end times. We maybe don’t admit this enough, but it really, really is. I think it is still possible to have hope though. Moreover, … Continue reading »
Energy and Climate Change: Some Good Reads
This post originally appeared on the New Left Project. A friend recently asked me for book recommendations on energy and climate change. “I want books” they stressed, “not policy briefing papers or essays or scientific reports. Something to curl up on the sofa with, something that digests and explains the issues and spins a few good yarns … Continue reading »
Talking about climate change
Future it be now, Vancouver. My column for the December edition of Popular Science UK magazine is online (you have to subscribe to read January’s one, on animal testing). The column first went live just before the Doha climate talks, and focuses on what I see as a lack of government support on communicating climate change. I remembered Mike Shanahan’s blogpost … Continue reading »
The Portslade “Gassie”
In Scotland, it’s traditional to give people coal when first greeting them in the new year. It’s meant to symbolise hope for warmth and light for the future, rather different from the tradition of giving naughty children nothing but coal in their Christmas stocking (from other parts of Northern Europe, I think). I don’t have any … Continue reading »
Should scientists be bolder in public?
I spoke at the London Climate Forum this weekend. This is a rough sketch of what I said. Jeremy Grantham is the investor behind the “Grantham Institute” centres for climate change research at Imperial and the LSE. He recently wrote a provocative opinion piece for Nature, arguing: Overstatement may generally be dangerous in science (it certainly is for … Continue reading »
Engagement with climate science
I was a speaker at yesterday’s Royal Meteorological Society’s meeting on Communicating Climate Science. I was asked to talk about models of science communication in the light of their new report on climate science , the public and the media, in particular the shift from top-down to more discursive approaches. I also took the opportunity to question the applicability … Continue reading »
DECC HULK SMASH DEFICIT MODEL
The Guardian have a big splash today asking questions about climate change minister Greg Barker’s links to the energy industry, based on freedom of information requests. They also found some documents on climate communications which Leo Hickman posted links from his twitter account on Monday night. Amongst them was this speech from an unnamed DECC official. It’s … Continue reading »
Has climate science moved from prediction to explanatory mode?
I have a pair of Narwhal fingerpuppets. I win. After the idea that “academic freedom is bullshit”, another interesting line I heard at SciFoo which has stuck in my mind: ecologist Ken Caldiera remarking that climate science was increasingly moving from prediction to explanatory mode. Today’s editorial in the Independent – suggesting their was a … Continue reading »
Oh, Canada. Oh, Rio.
Rio 1992, by Alice Bell aged 11. No idea why I still have this, somehow got filed with my swimming certificates. I have a post on Comment is Free arguing this week’s protests by scientists in Canada are not just a local issue, but of global concern. Modern science is a global enterprise: people from … Continue reading »
