clair031

  T he city of Oakland California has unanimously turned down permitting of a large coal transshipping terminal on its waterfront.   Earlier, an even larger terminal project in Washington State was rejected because it would have infringed Native American rights. In view of the undisputed and urgent need to limit the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide, governments at all levels, local, state or provincial, and national, must act to limit greenhouse gas emissions.   The action by Oakland is fully consistent with, indeed was driven by, this necessity for action.   Oakland , California .   Development of an export terminal in the city of Oakland, California for the shipment of American coal to China and other overseas users was unanimously rejected by the Oakland City Council on June 27, 2016 ( The New York Times , June 29, 2016 ).   The coal is being mined in Utah and other western states. A principal reason for voting the terminal down was that it,...

Virtually Complete Unanimity of Acceptance of Man-Made Global Warming .   James Lawrence Powell recently published an article ( Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society  1–4, 2016; DOI:10.1177/0270467616634958 ) which found that during 2013 and 2014 only 0.0058% of authors of peer-reviewed journal articles rejected the reality of man-made global warming.   Of the almost 70,000 authors of those articles only 4 reached that conclusion, giving a ratio of 1:17,352.    Powell writes “The extent of the consensus among scientists on [man-made] global warming [(MGW)] has the potential to influence public opinion and the attitude of political leaders and thus matters greatly to society.   [The results developed here show] the consensus on [MGW] among publishing scientists is above 99.99%, verging on unanimity.” Powell screened peer-reviewed articles found in the Web of Science Core Collection database over 2013-2014, using the search terms “global warming” or...

Representative Lamar Smith of Texas , in a speech in the U. S. House of Representatives, lamented the widespread press coverage of a scientific publication last year showing that global warming had not stopped since about 2000.   He then decried the lack of press coverage for a new article that he wrongly claims “refutes” the earlier work. In truth, both articles find that warming has continued during this period, contrary to Rep. Smith’s characterization of this period as a “halt” in global warming.   The new article finds that the warming during this period is a “slowdown” (compared to predictions from climate models), but not a “halt”, and thoroughly analyzes the reasons for the slowdown.   An important contribution comes from the decades-long cyclical operation of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation. Representative Smith is wrong in saying that global warming has halted.   The newest global annual average temperatures for 2014 and 2015 have resumed increasing...

The annual World Communication Forum in Davos, or #WCFDavos, that took place on 8-9 March, 2016, once again united top PR & communications' executives from all around the world and engaged thousands on social media to discuss the Global Communications' Agenda for 2016. On March 8th 2016, the International Women's Day (such a special day!), I had the honour to moderate the panel entitled "PR Associations: the future of the profession". In the round-table, global PR gurus: Yogesh Joshi (President of ABCI, India), Stanislav Naumov (President of RPRA, Russia), Maxim Behar (President of ICCO, Bulgaria) and Andrea Corneli (President of PR-Hub, Italy), whom discussed the future of PR profession and how Associations will play a key role in the process. The event held annually in the Davos Congress Centre, Switzerland, is a global meeting point for like-minded PR & Communications leaders that believe our profession is not a service, but a mission. Once again, the F...

The public, when contemplating global warming, includes those who question whether warming underlies the occurrence of extreme weather and climate events.   The U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine recently issued a report, “Attribution of Extreme Weather Events in the Context of Climate Change”.   It emphasizes that the appropriate format for questions concerning this issue can be phrased in terms such as “Are events of this severity becoming more or less likely because of climate change?”   The report emphasizes that because of rapid advances in data analysis and climate modeling the severity of many extreme events can be attributed to contributing factors arising from warming.   It includes a schematic image, shown here, characterizing how the increasing degree of understanding of various types of events leads to increasing confidence in the degree to which we can attribute severity to contributions from global warming. This post conclud...

A Fable Paris is sparing no extravagance for the centennial celebration of the 2015 climate agreement, themed “ Paris 2115”.   The Eiffel Tower is decked out with the newest efficient lighting fixtures, highlighting the sky blue of the United Nations flag, intermingled with the Tricouleur, the red, white and blue of the French flag.   Laser light shows projecting these colors playfully pierce the air around its spire. The Étoile and Arc de Triomphe are adorned with exotic vegetation brought from far reaches of the planet, symbols of the preservation of the environment resulting from one hundred years of sustainable climate policies resulting from the agreement. The most striking aspect of the celebration is that several hundred thousand people from all around the world have descended on The City of Light, to mark the centennial of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agreement limiting emissions of greenhouse gases.   The 2015 agreemen...