Week in review – science edition

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

North American mega droughts in the Common Era [link]
Ice sheets interact with the atmosphere, ocean, lithosphere, sea ice, and biosphere. How does it all work? Via @AGU_Eos  [link]
A fresh take on ancient climate change in the North Pacific [link]
New Science Affirms Arctic Region Was 6°C Warmer Than Now 9000 Years Ago [link]
Evaluating the accuracy of seasonal forecast predictions [link]
Collection of Nature papers on forests and climate [link]
The impact of stratospheric circulation extremes on minimum arctic sea ice extent [link]
John Kennedy blog post on sea surface temperature measurements [link]
Choice of a priori aerosol-forcing time-series has a strong effect on the estimated climate sensitivity [link] 
A new study finds that the ground underneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet region is rebounding, or rising, at an extraordinarily rapid rate.[link]
“Land Surface Air Temperature Data Are Considerably Different Among BEST‐LAND, CRU‐TEM4v, NASA‐GISS, and NOAA‐NCEI” [link] …
Embracing an uncertain future: importance of natural internal variability [link]
Investigating the transient response to Arctic sea ice loss in a coupled atmosphere-ocean model. Ocean dynamics are important in evaluating the response. [link …
It’s challenging to represent natural climate variability in regional model projections. [link] …
“Effect of recent minor volcanic eruptions on temperatures in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere” [link] …
New study assessing the projected narrowing and less-wavy North Atlantic wintertime jet. This results from the tug-of-war between upper-troposphere tropical warming  and Arctic amplification . [link] …
Previously unsuspected volcanic activity confirmed under West Antarctic Ice Sheet at Pine Island Glacier [link]
Planting carbon storage [link] 
New  paper on climate modes and sea level  [link]
Influence of radiative forcing factors on ground-air temperature coupling during the last millennium: implications for borehole climatology [link] …
US landfalls “a statistically significant downward trend since 1950, with the percentage of total Atlantic ACE expended over the continental U.S. at a series minimum during the recent drought period” [link] …
How many water droplets are in a cloud? And why it matters.  [link]
This paper is a nice example of why climate modeling is so hard. The fact that most ice-crystals have complicated structures means they have more than 1 Wm-2 greater cooling than if they were symmetric [link]
When environmental forces collide:  multiple factors in extreme weather events [link]
The land ice contribution to sea level during the satellite era [link]
New study finds volcanic activity under the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.  [link]
What can the internal variability of climate models tell us about their sensitivity? [link]
Sunlight, clouds, sea ice, albedo, and the radiative budget: the umbrella versus the blanket [link]
Arctic warming hotspot in the northern Barents Sea linked to declining sea-ice import [link] 
Atlantic impacts on the tropical Pacific on multidecadal timescales. [link]

Impact of aerosol and water vapour on SW radiation at the surface: Sensitivity study and applications [link]

On the mechanisms of warming the mid-Pliocene and the inference of a hierarchy of climate sensitivities with relevance to the understanding of climate futures (link)

Social science and policy
Not perfect – but lots of good: What we can learn from China’s fight against environmental ruin [link] …
Pielke Jr: Climate denial of the second kind. How UN climate policies are inducing myopia in terms of actually dealing with the issue. [link]
Water scarcity in Pakistan: conspiracy or mismanagement? [link]
Google.gov:  the quiet alignment  between “smart government” and the information engine [link]
The problem with solving problems: causes people to redefine problems as they are reduced [link]
Building Back Better:  How to reduce global disaster losses by 31 percent?? [link] …

Benefits of Silvopasture: healthier animals, better soil, less pest control and mowing, and climate change mitigation [link]

Nordhaus:  The Earth’s carrying capacity is not fixed [link]
Heuristics and public policy. [link] …
Perspective: The ability of societies to adapt to twenty-first-century sea-level rise [link]
If we want to overcome the systemic issues behind today’s problems, we need to change the thinking that led to them.” [link] …
Rethinking the river [link]
About science and scientists
Cargo-cult statistics & scientific crisis [link …
The slippery math of causation [link]
Daniel Sarewitz on the scientific method [link]
How to use behav sci to work with people and tell stories that open minds, rather than reinforce certainty. [link]
Cmmemoration of Keith Briffa’s contributions to Dendroclimatology published online in The @HoloceneJ  [link]
Bonfire of the academies: two professors on how leftist intolerance is killing higher education [link]
This is a long read. But what a cesspit academic existence has become. A truly depressing tale [link]
Wow, using a weather ballon to make a suicide look like a homicide. [link]

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