Arctic Heroes #1 - Alfred Wegener


The history of Arctic and Antarctic exploration and discovery is filled with the names of heroes.  Many of those names get repeated over and over in popular writings on polar exploration.  Other names tend to get forgotten.  Here, in no particular order, I hope to write of some of these heroes, both remembered and forgotten.


Alfred_Wegener is most famous for his Theory of the Drift of the Continents.  He is less widely known for his enthusiastic contributions to climatology and meteorology, which led to his death on the Greenland ice sheet in 1930 under the most heroic circumstances.

Arctic Ice May 2010 - Update


In a recent article - Arctic Ice May 2010 - I predicted that Arctic sea ice would be lower by the end of the month than at the same time in 2007.  The extent as shown by the NSIDC is now touching the 2007 extent line on the graph.


image source NSIDC 20 May 2010.
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

Arctic sea ice is on track to recede to a record low this year, suggesting that northern waters free of summer ice are coming faster than anyone thought.

A global Warming Skeptic Clouds The Issues


This article is written in response to Dr. Roy Spencer's claims about cloud albedo effects in an article by Cameron J English: Interview With A Global Warming Skeptic: Dr. Roy Spencer.


One of the most common arguments used by deniers of AGW is that computer models are unreliable.

Economics And Climate Change

I am confident that global climate change is real.

I am also confident that over-complicated knee-jerk legislation and taxation will make matters worse.  Problems get solved by rational actions, not panic attacks.

Either economics stands on science or it stands on quicksand.

The principles of taxation are not founded in science.  But they could be.


The world is faced with a problem in need of a solution.

The problem is this:

Carbon Fudgeprints


It seems that everyone has a carbon footprint.  The idea is that everything you do puts CO2 into the atmosphere or if it doesn't then it jolly well ought to so let's work out the carbon equivalent by just making stuff up.

No calculation could be simpler.

I go to the shop and I buy a loaf of bread.

The bread was delivered by truck to the shop
from the baker who got the grain by truck from the farm
which got the seed and fertiliser by truck from ...

Stop it, please!  William of Ockham wouldn't like it.