Climate science back in the news

One thing that is sure to get lost in the months ahead is the science of climate change. Here’s a collection of recent stories about climate science and scientists.

• The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, Michael Mann (Columbia U Press, 2012) (reviewed in Science, 20 July 2012). The author is a co-developer of the “hockey stick,” the graph that shows a recent rapid rise in N. Hemisphere temperatures. If you’re looking for some comprehensive information on climate science, this book may be your best one-stop shopping opportunity.
• Global Warming Punched Up Some 2011 Extremes (News of the Week, Science, 20 July 2012) and Global Warming Makes Heat Waves More Likely (NY Times, 10 July 2012).  Scientists are working hard to determine which weather events might be rooted in global warming and which might have other causes. These news stories profile some of the results from a new report (Explaining Extreme Events of 2011 from a Climate Perspective, eds. Peterson et al) that appeared in the July issue of the Bulletin of the American Meterological Society. Stay tuned for another “prompt analysis of extreme climate and weather events” next year.
• A Climate Scientist Battles Time and Mortality (NY Times, 2 July 2012). Dr. Lonnie Thompson, Ohio State University, has spent decades collecting and analyzing ice cores from all over the world. The greatest risks he faced on most of those expeditions were of the type familiar to any field scientist working a challenging environment, but just last October Dr. Thompson woke up in a Columbus hospital room to discover wires coming out of his chest.

Advertisement