What does NASA GISTEMP Data for May 2017 tell us?

NASA maintains the GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP) data set, and so on a monthly basis there is an update. What exactly is GISTEMP? GISTEMP is an estimate of global surface temperature change. They collect raw data files from NOAA GHCN v3 (meteorological stations), ERSST v4 (ocean areas), and SCAR (Antarctic stations). This is all then combined. … Read more

Climate Change: Filling the political and financial funding abyss

The Trump Administration’s principle weapon of choice for attacking climate science is not melodramatic announcements such as the one concerning US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, nor is it the appointment of individuals such as Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA, but instead is firmly rooted in federal finance. The proposed budget for 2018 will, … Read more

Trump’s Climatic decision on the #ParisAgreement – #climate

When it coms to all things Trump, I keep grasping for the “Nobody would do something that stupid” thought, and yet time after time he does something that completely resets such expectations. The announcement that the US will withdraw from the Paris Agreement is a classic example of just that, and so his unofficial title of … Read more

Great Barrier Reef can no longer be saved

The UK’s Independent reports the rather dire news that the Great Barrier Reef is in trouble due to climate change. Back in April I was writing about how vast back-to-back mass coral bleaching events had hit the Great Barrier Reef, and so what is motivating this posting is the fallout from that as various experts ponder over … Read more

US Interior Department has no idea why sea level is rising

As yet another data point on the chart of the disconnect between the new US Administration and reality, there was a recent press release that highlights how the frequency of US Coastal flooding will double in the next decades. That risk is of course quite distinctly real. What is absent, the elephant that has apparently stepped … Read more