A discussion of Climate Change: Evidence & Causes

"Climate change is one of the defining issues of our time. It is now more certain than ever, based on many lines of evidence, that humans are changing Earth's climate. The atmosphere and oceans have warmed, accompanied by sea-level rise, a strong decline in Arctic sea ice, and other climate-related changes." -- Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, and Dr Ralph J Cicerone, President of the US National Academy of Sciences.

This panel discussion was held to coincide with the release of a joint publication by the Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences: 'Climate Change: Evidence & Causes'.

Thursday 27 February 2014 3:00pm - 4:30pm GMT, at the US National Academy of Sciences.

Hosted by Miles O'Brien, science correspondent, PBS Newshour
Introductions by Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Sir Paul Nurse

Featuring: Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone, President of the National Academy of Sciences and Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society gave brief introductions. Host Miles O'Brien guided the discussion with lead authors, Professor Eric Wolff FRS of the University of Cambridge, and Professor Inez Fung of the University of California, Berkeley.

[BanWolfHunting]

I find it astounding that this crucially important presentation on climate change has only been viewed 499 times at the time of this writing. I've seen videos of cats playing that get millions of views. No wonder global warming isn't slowing down and probably won't until it's too late. What a sad statement of our species.

[liangshang]

I'm practicing my listening, where can I find its transcript?

[SantoAtheos]

Here is a direct link to the report:

[alhassanbukari]

how can I helped reduced climate change in Ghana?

[NhwNews]

It is astounding that the Royal Society could not get their camera/image in the correct aspect ratio. Not very confidence inspiring. Probably the reason why there are so little views (with reference to the comment below).

[PetersJazz]

Now the discussion about "pause" is not so interesting anymore since 2015 is the warmest and 2016 seems to be even warmer.

[grindupBaker]

I'm not following all this babble 32:00ish on about finding some silly staircase analogy that might work with U.S. Americans. Why not simply show them the pictorial Earth globe like the one I saw Dr. Trenberth show of 30 years 1975-2005 with the colour-coded temperature anomalies and point out the glaringly obvious - that GMST is an average so it's a cobbled-together single number of the Earth surface and you can't visualize much of what's happening from it. You can't see the ludicrous imbalance with the eastern 2/3rds of Paciifc Ocean actually unchanged or cooling at the surface (not below) while Canada and Asia are getting 0.6 to 1.0 degrees hotter. They could put a gigantic arrow on it with "America" pointing to U.S. America so's the stupid U.S. Americans can find their bit.

I'm not convinced that Polar ice albedo is a big deal right now because Arctic & Antarctic sea ice changes canel out quite a bit. I found:
         min  max avge            Global sea ice change % from 1979-2003 typical
1982 16.0 22.5 19.25 (very typical ~median example for comparison)

2005 14.7 22.0 18.35 95.3%  -4.7%
2006 14.5 21.8 18.15 94.3%  -5.7%
2007 14.7 21.2 17.95 93.2%  -6.8%
2008 15.6 21.8 18.70 97.1%  -2.9%
2009 15.3 21.0 18.15 94.3%  -5.7%
2010 14.8 21.2 18.00 93.5%  -6.5%
2011 14.5 20.8 17.65 91.7%  -8.3%
2012 14.8 20.6 17.70 91.9%  -8.1%
2013 15.7 22.5 19.10 99.2%  -0.8%
2014 15.1 21.8 18.45 95.8%  -4.2% (21.8 was October 2014)
Average 2005-2014               -5.37%
So 5% change of the polar ice portion area from the .8 to .2 albedo or whatever it is 

The methane guy was not understanding the quantities at all. He thought the trivial 17, 000, 000 tonnes (9.6 ppbv / year) 0.55% / year increase that's causing concern is the catastrophic release starting. It sure isn't. Apparently, there's an estimated 1, 900, 000, 000, 000 tonnes of which 50, 000, 000, 000 tonnes (2.6%) is unstable and a scientific paper said the release of that wouldn't be catastrophic (just bad). The climate scientists didn't twig to that guy's lack of understanding of the quantities. Remember, almost anything that's unquantified is merely babble.

On the socio-political, I think as long as they don't do anything catastrophic such as unleashing Dr. Richard Alley onto the ordinary sane public it should be fine.

[kimweaver]

I guess you didn't do your homework…..again.  Here is a description of the location of Gore's place in Montecito…..
Montecito, located in Santa Barbara County about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, offers stunning hilltop views of the Pacific Ocean. It's one of the wealthiest communities in the United States, and many celebrities have homes there, including actors Michael Douglas and Chritopher Lloyd.

Get that?  "Hilltop views".  Sealevels rising, as they are, will never be a problem for him in his lifetime.

All those Republican climate-denying schmucks in South Florida and the Panhandle?  They won't be nearly as fortunate.