2017 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #51

Posted on 24 December 2017 by John Hartz

Story of the Week… Toon of the Week… Graphic of the Week… SkS Spotlights… Coming Soon on SkS… Poster of the Week… Climate Feedback Reviews… SkS Week in Review… 97 Hours of Consensus…

Merry Christmas!


Story of the Week…

Macron Tries To Keep the Paris Agreement Alive

One Planet Summit

There was a moment last week—as television cameras showed dozens of heads of state, business leaders, and A-list celebrities filing off a riverboat into the newly completed Seine Musicale venue in Paris’ suburbs—when it seemed as though the international climate process might get the financial help it desperately needs.

In the end, the December 12th event convened by French President Emmanuel Macron to mark the two-year anniversary of the landmark Paris Agreementproduced a flurry of new announcements and initiatives that could eventually shift the world’s economy onto a greener, more sustainable pathway. But the new commitments fall far short of the hundreds of billions—some say trillions—of dollars that must be mobilized in order to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goals of limiting climate change and helping poor countries survive its worst effects.

The big announcements at the summit included the unveiling of the Climate Action 100+ pledge, from 225 institutional investors managing more than $26 trillion, to pressure the world’s 100 largest companies to implement more environmentally sustainable policies. A total of 16 countries, including Brazil and Norway, said they would start adopting policies to make their economies carbon-neutral by mid-century. And 36 countries, including Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, jointly called for the international shipping sector to take on binding climate commitments for the first time.

Macron Tries To Keep the Paris Agreement Alive by Eric J Lyman, Pacific Standard, Dec 19, 2017


Toon of the Week…

2017 Toon 51

Hat tip to Stop Climate Science Denial


Graphic of the Week…

JC's Original Christmas Cartoon

Original cartoon by John Cook


SkS Spotlights…

Climate Liability News Logo

Climate Liability News is a not-for-profit news site dedicated to reporting on the issues at the intersection of climate change impacts and law. Those issues include government and corporate responsibility and accountability for global warming and its consequences across society and around the world. Through hard-nosed, uncompromising journalism, we seek to advance a greater understanding and wider public discussion of the role of the law in addressing the wide-ranging impacts of of climate change.

Climate Liability News is a project funded by donations to Climate Communications & Law, a new 501(c)3 nonprofit. Climate Communications & Law seeks to deepen the public’s understanding of the issue of climate change and how its impacts are being dealt with by the legal system in the United States and around the world.

The editorial content of CLN is not subject to approval or influence by CCL donors. 


Coming Soon on SkS…

  • Some curious things about Svensmark et al. reference list (Ari)
  • The US government’s climate report on the oceans (John Abraham)
  • From the eMail Bag: Carbon Isotopes – Part 2 – The Delta Notation (David Kirtley)
  • To beat ‘alternative facts’, scientists propose ‘technocognition’ (Dana)
  • New research this week (Ari)
  • 2017 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #52 (John Hartz)
  • 2017 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Waming Digest #52 (John Hartz)

Poster of the Week…

2017 Poster 51 


Climate Feedback Reviews…

Climate Feedback 51 

Climate Feedback asked its network of scientists to review the article, Jerry Brown Blames Climate Change for California Fires: ‘The New Normal’ by Joe Pollak, Breitbart, Dec 9, 2017

Five scientists analyzed the article and estimate its overall scientific credibility to be ‘very low’.

A majority of reviewers tagged the article as: Biased, Cherry-picking, Flawed reasoning, Misleading.

Review Summary 

This article in Breitbart criticizes a statement by California Governor Jerry Brown, who said that the recent dangerous fires are “the new normal” for the area. The article correctly lists a number of factors that contribute to wildfires, including weather patterns and the construction of homes in areas at risk of fire. The article represents the contribution of climate change to wildfire trends as unknown, and a matter of debate for climate scientists.

Scientists who reviewed the story found this to be misleading. The article fails to explain the ways in which climate change can clearly influence the factors that control wildfires. A number of published studies have found that climate change is an important contributing factor to wildfire behavior in the western United States.

See all the scientists’ annotations in context

Breitbart article on California fires misleads by omitting explanation of climate’s influence, Climate Feedback, Dec 19, 2017


SkS Week in Review… 


97 Hours of Consensus…

97 Hours: Philip Mote 

Philip Mote’s bio page

Quote derived with author’s permission from:

“Global warming refers to an increase in the planet’s average temperature, and there’s no question that that’s happened over the last 100 years. Over the last 50 years, it’s increasingly clear that that warming, the more recent warming, is because of human activities.And there are other associated changes with climate change, not just changes in temperature but also changes in rainfall patterns and so on that might happen.” 

High resolution JPEG (1024 pixels wide)