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Pearl Harbor sucked and I miss you

Posts tagged with "global warming"

季节性预测范例

科罗拉多大学的气候学家Roger Pielke Sr. 12月11日发布的blog文章谈论了一则《卫报》的新闻——就是土摩托同学在暖化问题上“愿意相信”的媒体之一。

《卫报》的新闻大意有这么几点:

  1. 2008年是2000年来最冷的一年,但是这不是暖化减速的证据,根据英国气象局人士的说法要看长期趋势。牛津大学教授表示担心降温这一事实被质疑暖化的人过度诠释。
  2. 英国气象局曾预测气温的降低是由于La Niña现象造成的。
  3. 基尔大学有研究人员预测自然变化将“掩盖”IPCC预测的0.3摄氏度的暖化。
Pielke首先针对《卫报》的文章本身发表了几个看法:

  1. “近年的相对低温并不是全球暖化减速的证据”混淆了区域和全球的气温变化,实际上至少近4年已经没有全球暖化url
  2. 所谓基尔大学研究人员认为自然变化会“掩盖”IPCC预测的暖化是科学性错误。变暖怎么被“掩盖”?
接着,Pielke对英国气象局过去的一些和季节性预测有关的新闻稿做了摘录:

  1. 2007年4月11日发布的消息称07年1月份和东安格里亚大学联合发布的预测认为2007年将超过1998年而成为1850年以来最热的一年。而事实证明这个“最热”并没有发生。
  2. 2008年4月3日发布的消息称根据长期预测,即将来临的夏季降雨接近或超过夏季三个月的平均水平;但是在8月29日又发布消息称本夏季是一个全英降水最多的夏季之一。
  3. 2008年9月25日发布消息称暖冬将继续,他们的预测显示08年冬天将暖于平均水平。而11月25又称他们12月很可能比“正常”水平更冷。在12月9日则又表示他们有证据显示El Niño现象导致了欧洲冬天的寒冷。
Pielke认为,英国气象局的新闻稿说明季节性的预测就非常不准确,而跨度达数十年的预测必然更加不准确。我个人也很想知道那种认为虽然短期预报不太准,但是对长期预测很信任的人是怎么把自己的信任给予出去的。

要理解暖化,就不能听土摩托的

补充:

看了土摩托的《什么是“科学界的主流意见”?》颇为失望——通篇是报机构名字、报杂志名字,还不如climateaudit的退休商人——人家仔细看过IPCC的报告、参与评论IPCC的报告、对IPCC报告的内容和流程提出过批评,牛博网上的“专家”则到引用big name为止,关于IPCC,一篇旧文值得一看:

EMOTIONALIZING CLIMATE CHANGE: Is the IPCC Doing Harm to Science?

关于在哪里发表你的研究,Roy Spencer采访有一段(注:我不反对任何科学杂志):

Do you ever try to get your research published in Science and Nature?

Not anymore. Their editorial policy basically won't permit stuff like this. If they don't find an excuse to object outright, all it takes is them sending it to a reviewer like Kevin Trenberth who will say "This is garbage," and come up with some obscure, non-reason why. And then they don't have to deal with it. So I don't deal with them any more.

With the current attitudes toward skeptics, then, can such viewpoints still get published in major climate and science journals?

We're finding, the only place I'm submitting right now is Geophysical Research Letters. The American Geophysical Union is still kind of open minded. They've come out with a policy statement that goes along with the IPCC, but it seems like their editorial policy for their journals is still pretty flexible. But again I don't think there's that much good skeptic science going on right now. There's a lot of good ideas, but nobody's funded to do anything.

Is it simply a funding issue, then?

I think that's a huge part of it. Congress gives money to study problems. If manmade global warming is a problem, that's what the money goes to. If manmade global warming isn't a problem there's a risk of losing a lot of funding.
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土摩托最近又对怀疑暖化的人发飙,要求别人“听从科学界的主流意见”。

如果你不懂科学、不会数学,觉得自己的最高智力层次是被“科普”,那么听他的没错;如果你是政策决策人,认为自己的一举一动会影响多人未来的命运,听这个说法也没错。但是如果你真想知道暖化理论究竟对不对、解释能力多强,那么请把土摩托说的当风筝放掉。

因为暖化理论和已经“搞掂”的理论不同,至今这还是一个基于模型的、充满争议的领域。按照土摩托的逻辑,70年代时候我们就应该动员起来,防止全球冷化(当时的说法)、第一次海湾战争以后我们就应该听卡尔萨根的去防止火烧油田可能导致的生态环境危机。我在想,如果当年真这么做了,我们可能现在会对暖化理论更加小心一点。

我记得(不太确切)土摩托以前驳斥过气象预报不准不能说明关心长期趋势的气候变迁模型不准,好像他还要具体解释,不知道现在解释了没有。研究了一辈子飓风预报的Joanne Simpson倒是告诉我们:“However, the main basis of the claim that man’s release of greenhouse gases is the cause of the warming is based almost entirely upon climate models. We all know the frailty of models concerning the air-surface system. We only need to watch the weather forecasts.”

现在这一领域盛行的批评通常是政治正确式的:如果你质疑AGW理论,那么马上就会被指为和big oil有关系,著名的反派科学家Roy Spencer甚至不得不在amazon.com卖自己的书的地方参与评论(url,第一条评论),为自己研究的清白辩护:“The very first review of my book to appear here claims I (the author) am funded by Exxon-Mobil, which is totally false. Apparently, people can say whatever they want on the internet, spreading rumors, and this is the eventual result. My research has always been 100% U.S. Government-funded. No oil company has ever even ASKED me to do anything for them, let alone paid me. I have written on this issue for 15 years, and am supportive of the oil and coal industries simply because of the huge benefit to mankind that has resulted from access to abundant, affordable energy. ”

那么“主流”是啥样呢?主流的代表、AGW理论的最重量“泰斗”、超级明星——NASA GISS的汉森,去英国为几位绿色和平人士破坏燃煤电厂的恐怖主义行为辩护,挑唆陪审员同志们作为“普通人”和“开奔驰的律师”的关系,最终6位破坏电站的人被无罪释放([1][2])。

但是在“主流媒体”上,我们总是看见对非主流意见有猫腻的暗示,主流代表的这种超人救世情节则是不会影响研究的。

正因为暖化的研究基于模型和统计,所以http://www.climateaudit.org/这样的学数学的退休商人主持的网站也可以成名,请在上面检索“Mann 2008”,看看“主流”的另外一位明星的最新研究是怎么“选择数据”的,Mann也是Gore小电影中hockey stick的作者。

至于土摩托自己说的“作为科技记者,我的原则是:如果是我熟悉的领域,那么我一定会有自己的判断,不会轻信任何采访对象。如果是我不熟悉的领域,那么我只相信科学界的主流意见。如果有时我觉得有必要写一写非主流意见,一定在文章里明确地写出来,让读者自己判断”,我来随便问一下:

常常看土摩托博客的读者,你们看过土摩托在“觉得有必要”时“明确地写出来”这个老研究新闻和这个新研究新闻么?上述对Mann et al 2008的纯技术性批评他报道过么?或者,他报道过另外一位要人Gavin Schmidt的评论为什么常常失真么?(在牛博另外一位“科普作者”笔下,Gavin Schmidt说什么就类似科学说什么)

也许这些都是你们不“必要”知道的,所以他未必会“写一写”。

p.s.: 顺便说一个有趣的现象,也许正是由于对自己常接触的气象预报模型不信任,所以媒体气象员团体中有很多对AGW持怀疑态度,最著名的如Anthony Watts——值得一提的是他主持的一个项目http://www.surfacestations.org/。不知道这是什么“势力”支持的?

p.s.2: 即使要通过减少温室气体的方式拯救地球,也是工业上的事情,请诸位注意“从我做起”、“从小事做起”在减少温室气体问题上作用有限,您完全不必有那个负罪感。

基本转贴

Jennifer Marohasy(澳大利亚人,生物学博士)今天在blog上谈到了The Guardian一篇评论引起争议的Channel4节目The Great Global Warming Swindle文章,卫报的文章写道:

In the programme, the concluding voiceover from the climate change sceptic Fred Singer claimed "the chief scientist of the UK" was "telling people that by the end of the century, the only habitable place on Earth will be the Antarctic and humanity may survive thanks to some breeding couples who moved to the Antarctic ... it would be hilarious if it weren't so sad".

King has never made such a statement and it is believed Singer confused his views with those of the contrarian scientist James Lovelock. King did once say that "the last time the Earth had this much C02(为什么把O写成了0?), the only place habitable was the Antarctic".


Marohasy发现 The Independent 2004年的一篇报道中,King的确说过此话:

Antarctica is likely to be the world's only habitable continent by the end of this century if global warming remains unchecked, the Government's chief scientist, Professor Sir David King, said last week.


hackerteen

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昨天翻了一遍O'Reilly出版的Hackerteen系列第一本Internet Blackout,这套书是青少年教育漫画,绘画一般(可以接受),教育内容比较老套,少年层次中:黑客少年在超市偶遇去买webcam的富家美少女,告诉她要买有linux驱动的产品,富家女被坏黑客敲诈,黑客少年英雄救美…… 成年人层次中,一看就知道是在说美国的电子选举系统,总之美国政府、美国议员、美国公司都是贬义词(如果附有解释,可能算是教育,但是没有解释,就是灌输)。当然,也教育了孩子们要诚实、要把在游戏中耗费的时间拿点出来学知识。

派系斗争遍布的今天,如果我有孩子,会“在父母指导下”带他去看这本书。

去订了一本Roy Spencer的新书Climate Confusion,我记得Spencer就是英国channel4的片子The Great Global Warming Swindle中那位带手下放气球的NASA科学家,这个片子颇具争议,西方MSM、包括牛博网写手在内的人士都希望把该片描写为欺骗了一些科学家、歪曲了他们的本意后捏造出来的片子。但是Spencer的书显然说明了并不是那样。

从amazon网页中还可以看见对AGW持怀疑态度的科学家Fred Singer写的Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years,没有看过。Singer应该不陌生,他就是当年和卡尔萨根辩论科威特油井大火是否会导致生态灾难的那位,后来的事实证明萨根的灾难警告是错误的(他自己也在《魔鬼出没的世界》中承认了自己的失误,不过似乎没提到Singer)。

听说台湾最近和大陆有什么善意表示(通航?),和爱国青年对青天白日异常敏感相反,我对台湾的新闻一向不太关心。据我所知当年有不少人因为在尚列在国民党党章中的蒋总统统治下做事,受到了中共的清算,军管时期的案件也不“平反”(多么恶心的词汇)。如果我是国民党首脑,就会至少在精神上表达歉意和关心——当然不用太指望中国或者台湾的政党在Cartman当上三好生之前做出类似的事情。

异教徒过世

现代气候学奠基人之一、对AGW持怀疑态度的Reid Bryson于周三(6月11日)去世,异教徒又少了一个。

http://news.wisc.edu/15316

Update:

这个网站有点意思 http://mapofscience.com/

How do we “know” that 1998 was the warmest year of the millennium?

How do we “know” that 1998 was the warmest year of the millennium?(PDF文件)。

Stephen McIntyre最近在俄亥俄州立大学的演讲稿。“外行搅局”的故事,很有意思。

对一则重大科研成果的现实思考

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最近网上流传一则重大科研成果: Fat is an environmental issue

我对此的思考是:为了人类的未来、为了我们的蓝色星球、为了北极的熊熊,是不是从Al Gore和Michael Moore两个胖子开始,对“肥胖人问题”搞个final solution?

上次还有一英国"top scientist"的高见,借用别人一搞笑的标题就是young women can fight global warming by realizing Ferraris don't make a guy sexy。参考链接

他们并不能解决问题,但是可以在生活琐事上搞出点制造良好的感觉的玩意,就像流行时装。

对比一下不怎么popular的Freeman Dyson的话:

In the modern world, science and society often interact in a perverse way. We live in a technological society, and technology causes political problems. The politicians and the public expect science to provide answers to the problems. Scientific experts are paid and encouraged to provide answers. The public does not have much use for a scientist who says, “Sorry, but we don’t know”. The public prefers to listen to scientists who give confident answers to questions and make confident predictions of what will happen as a result of human activities. So it happens that the experts who talk publicly about politically contentious questions tend to speak more clearly than they think. They make confident predictions about the future, and end up believing their own predictions. Their predictions become dogmas which they do not question. The public is led to believe that the fashionable scientific dogmas are true, and it may sometimes happen that they are wrong. That is why heretics who question the dogmas are needed.


not settled

今天有人“搞了个大新闻”: Hurricane expert reconsiders global warming's impact, 里面提到的论文是Hurricanes and Global Warming: Results from Downscaling IPCC AR4 Simulations

新闻摘要:"The results surprised me," Emanuel said of his work, adding that global warming may still play a role in raising the intensity of hurricanes but what that role is remains far from certain.