Week in review – science and policy edition

by Judith Curry
A few things that caught my eye this past week.

Ancient warm period things at bigger than expected sea level rise.  I think they might be drawing the wrong conclusion here? [link]
AGU: EXTREME SPACE WEATHER-INDUCED ELECTRICITY BLACKOUTS COULD COST U.S. MORE THAN $40 BILLION DAILY [link]
“Periods of Greater Atlantic Hurricane Activity Linked to Weaker U.S. Landfalls”  [link] …
A rather strange special issue on climate uncertainty by Lewandowsky, Oreskes, etc. [link]  …
New paper finds fossil fuels in the ground are insufficient to raise CO2 level higher than 610ppm. [link] …
The sea isn’t actually ‘level’: Why rising oceans will hit some cities more than others [link]
The irony of the Anthropocene: “Despite humans’ pervasive influence on the planet, our actual control over natural systems remains limited.” [link]
AGU:  How darkness and dust killed the dinosaurs [link]
Nature: Climate science must sharpen its view. Climate science needs to define its next frontiers [link]
New paper finds sea level in Israel was 1m higher than present during the last interglacial ~200K years ago [link]
The global distribution and dynamics of surface soil moisture [link] …
AGU: “This may come as a surprise, but 90% of cow methane comes from their front ends.” [link]
An Ice Shelf Is Cracking In Antarctica, But Not For The Reason You Think [link]
The 1953 floods, #climatechange science & public policy in UK. [link]
The hermit who inadvertently shaped climate-change science [link]
Cold Comfort: A History of Firewood, Ice Storms, and Hypothermia in Canada [link]
Cliff Mass: Make U.S. Numerical Weather Prediction Great Again [link] …
New study in PNAS shows heat absorbed from short-lived methane raises sea level for centuries [link]
New outlooks suggest the next #solarcycle could be as weak as the current one–the least active in more than 100 yrs [link]
New paper finds the warmest periods past 800 years in Scotland were in 1300’s, 1500’s, and 1730’s, NOT 20th century [link]
NatureClimate – Review: IPCC reasons for concern regarding climate change risks [link]
Social sciences and policy
Trump administration: Is climate ambiguity the new denial? [link]
When social scientists try to hide politically inconvenient facts, they cause larger problems later. [link] …
David Rose: Growing crops to make “green” biomethane gas is an environmental scandal costing taxpayers £216m a year [link]
.@BarackObama wrote this month’s Policy Forum in @sciencemagazine. [link]
Lomborg:  Geoengineering Climate Change [link]
Impact of political and economic barriers for concentrating solar power in Sub-Saharan Africa [link]
Aid in reverse: how poor countries develop rich countries [link]
Decentralize Everything: How To Avoid the Technocratic Nightmare [link] …
The difference between persuasion and manipulation [link]
Seattle kills bikeshare program. One problem: lots of bikes at bottom-of-hill stations, not at top. Go figure. [link]
The Trump effect: geoengineering research “once verboten in the climate science community” now included in plan [link]
About science and scientists
Twenty Dogmas That Keep College Students From Learning How to Think [link]
Journalism under attack: the hazards of uncovering evidence of scientific distortion that upsets activists [link]
Bias, ignorance and reality in climate science. Refusal to own up to the distortions of climate science is a costly mistake [link]
A Heated Debate: Are Climate Scientists Being Forced to Toe the Line?  About Lennart Bengtsson. [link]
Scientists have a word for studying the post-truth world:  agnotology [link]
Barack Obama has been immortalized by scientists: Antarctic Station Obama [link]
Who gets to be an intellectual?  Article about David Gerlenter, candidate for Trump’s Science advisor [link]
How statistics lost their power – and why we should fear what comes next [link]
Read this Classic Review of Uncertainty in Data Visualisation [link]
Article about Will Happer, apparently under consideration for a position in the Trump administration [link]
How can we get the public to trust scientists in an age of false certainty? [link]
The great potential of citizen science: restoring the role of tacit knowledge and amateur discovery. [link]
Kevin Folta: People love farmers & scientists, but they don’t trust farming & science [link]
Physicians fail to diagnose accurately through biases & premature closure of the decision-making process. [link]
BBC:Really interesting interview of Tamsin Edwards on sci comm, uncertainty & philosophy of science [link]
Is logical thinking a way to discover or to debate? Answers from philosophy and mathematics define human knowledge: [link]
 Filed under: Week in review

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