Week in review – science and policy edition

by Judith Curry
A few things that caught my eye this past week.
A new mechanism for warm-season precipitation response to global warming [link]
Ocean heat content variability in an ensemble of twentieth century ocean reanalyses [link]
Understanding drivers of past & future #sealevelrise along the northeast US Coast [link]   …
Assessing the climate-scale variability of atmospheric rivers affecting western North America [link]
More evidence for feedbacks between solid earth and surface carbon cycles and climate, mediated by volcanism [link]
Input-driven vs turnover-driven controls of simulated changes in soil carbon due to land-use change [link] 
The role of climate variability in extreme floods in Europe [link] 
Cosmic rays, aerosols, clouds, and climate: Recent findings from the CLOUD experiment [link]
Statistical procedure helps fix multimodel ensemble biases in forecasting precip amounts. [link]   
New paper on Southern Ocean upwelling [link …
NOAA’s NCEI announces an updated dataset of sea surface temperatures: [link] 
NOAA says  Says Natural Wetlands, Tropical Ag Responsible For Methane Increases, Not Oil & Gas [link]
Skillful multi-year predictability of US drought/wildfire [link]
Statistical link between external climate forcings and modes of ocean variability [link]
The Competitive Advantage of Crops Over Weeds at Elevated CO2 Concentrations [link] …
N Hemisphere Winter Warming and Summer Monsoon Reduction after Volcanic Eruptions over Last Millennium [link]
Solar Activity Linked To Periodic Climate Change During The Holocene [link]
Uncertainty information in climate data records from Earth observation [link] …
Might it be possible to predict summer Arctic shipping route availability? [link 
Large-Scale Forcing of Amundsen Sea Low and its Influence on Sea Ice and West Antarctic Temperature [link] 
The ocean warming that’s undercutting West Antarctic ice shelves may be caused by winds thousands of miles away [link] 
Carbon storage in the mid-depth Atlantic during millennial-scale climate events [link]
Coastal waves drive Antarctic ocean warming [link]
Relative Contributions of Atmospheric Energy Transport & Sea Ice Loss to Recent Warm Arctic Winter [link …

Satellite snafu masked try sea level rise for decades [link]
ECMWF Copernicus releases new version of its reanalysis [link 
Record cold July in Greenland [link]
Changes in extreme temperature events over the Hindu Kush Himalaya during 1961–2015 [link] 
Abrupt regime shifts in the North Atlantic atmospheric circulation over the last deglaciation [link]
Weather station data shows one billion chinese are living through a 20 year cooling trend. [link]

Climate change may turn Africa’s arid Sahel green [link]

Climate and energy policy
When it comes to climate, look for vulnerabilities in policy, not science [link]
Paris accord: fact or fiction? Nature article says Paris fosters “paper promises” over real action. [link] …
Robert Stavins: reflections on environmental economics [link]
Matt Ridley: Britain’s Energy Policy Keeps Picking Losers [link …
Uncertainty, Decision Science, and Policy Making: A Manifesto for a research agenda [link]
China establishes one of the largest geoengineering research programs. [link]
New paper on energy modelling and energy access in Africa: [link] …
Report: Advanced Nuclear Energy Could Power America’s Future [link]
Inconvenient: Rebound is likely around 50% The more energy you save, the more you’ll use [link] …
Planet has just 5% chance of reaching Paris climate goal, study says [link] …
For US to reach 90% renewables, need to **double** size of transmission grid.  [link]
New @IPCC_CH expert meeting report on #climate stabilization scenarios, incl. a brief discussion on ‘feasibility’ [link] …
Will Climate Change Cause Conflict in the Arctic? Searching for Answers in the Past. [link]
The IPCC has good news about climate change, but we don’t listen [link …
Importance of defining “pre-industrial” for keeping to the Paris Agreement limits [link 
Roger Pielke Jr:  Climate Politics as Manichean Paranoia  [link]
To meet 2C or 1.5C, we’ll need to remove CO2 from the air. Good  overview on different options [link]
Resilience for the most vulnerable: Managing disasters to better protect the world’s poorest [link] 
“A 100% renewables target confuses means with ends” [link]
Renewable energy sources are facing scrutiny, even within ranks of green activists [link]
Beyond counting climate consensus [link]
About science and scientists
The ever expanding definition of climate denial [link]
The fact illusion: Objective truth is elusive in (climate) science.  Very good read [link]
Mark Jacobsen lawyers up to defend his 100% renewables research against critics [link]
Who’s afraid of Open Data: Scientists’ objections to data sharing don’t stand up to scrutiny. [link]
Interview with Wally Broecker on the worst case scenario for planet earth [link]
Great study of how deliberative rules and facilitators help like-minded groups overcome groupthink. #redteaming [link] 
A very insightful study on the politicization of regulatory science, application to Air Quality Standards [link] 

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