It’s Gettin Hot in Here: ‘Chasing Ice’ (Official Trailer)

From Chasing Ice via YouTube:

In the spring of 2005, National Geographic photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment: to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth’s changing climate. Even with a scientific upbringing, Balog had been a skeptic about climate change and a cynic about the nature of academic research. But that first trip north opened his eyes to the biggest story in human history and sparked a challenge within him that would put his career and his very well-being at risk.

Chasing Ice is the story of one man’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers.

As the debate polarizes America and the intensity of natural disasters ramps up globally, Balog finds himself at the end of his tether. Battling untested technology in subzero conditions, he comes face to face with his own mortality. It takes years for Balog to see the fruits of his labor. His hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking rate. Chasing Ice depicts a photographer trying to deliver evidence and hope to our carbon-powered planet.

Much more here. Definitely looking forward to watching this one!

Related:

• TED Talk: James Balog: Time-lapse proof of extreme ice loss (Video)
• ‘Arctic ice melt ‘like adding 20 years of CO2 emissions’ (BBC)

(Photo source: James Balog Photography)

‘What do you think our most powerful renewable resource is?’ 

This is one of 12 editorial cartoons being considered by the Union of Concerned Scientists in their annual calendar contest. You can check them out and vote on your favorite here.

Related:

• Naomi Oreskes: ‘The verdict is in on climate change’ (Los Angeles Times)
• ‘Fear of climate change may finally be trumping ideological denial’ (Huffington Post)

“Don’t Connect the Dots” 

Related:

• ‘The media covers Kardashians, not climate change’ (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• ‘This summer is ‘what global warming looks like, climate scientists say’ (Detroit Free Press)

(Source: Go Comics)

Climate change denial explained… in three short minutes

In this video clip science historian Naomi Oreskes talks with skeptic Nick Minchin about the driving force behind climate denial:

aversion to the political and economic implications of climate change leading to a rejection of the science. 

Oreskes is co-author of the must-read book ‘Merchants of Doubt’ and recipient of the 2011 Climate Change Communicators Award.* Minchin served as a cabinet minister and senator in Australia from 1993 to 2011.

(*H/T Climate Adaptation) 

(Source: Skeptical Science via YouTube)

Worth Watching: ‘Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Opportunity and Inaction’

A few weeks ago the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions hosted another edition of their thought-provoking and solutions-focused series of talks. This time around it featured Mike Hulme, Professor of Climate Change at the UK’s University of East Anglia, tackling one of the key questions of our time:

Scientists worldwide agree about the main causes of climate change, so why can’t the international community come to consensus on workable solutions?

Hulme explains that the answer requires that we:

look beyond science and to connect with “people’s worldviews, beliefs and values” in the search for policy and societal solutions.

His book, ‘Why We Disagree About Climate Change’, was recognized as one of the top science and technology books of 2009 by the Economist magazine.

More here.

(Image credit: Wikipedia)

From The Guardian:

The inner workings of a libertarian thinktank working to discredit the established science on climate change have been exposed by a leak of confidential documents detailing its strategy and fundraising networks.

Desmogblog, which broke the story, said it had received the confidential documents from an “insider” at the Heartland Institute, which is based in Chicago. The blog monitors industry efforts to discredit climate science.

…

The papers indicate that discrediting established climate science remains a core mission of the organisation, which has received support from a network of wealthy individuals – including the Koch oil billionaires as well as corporations such as Microsoft and RJR Tobacco.

The documents confirm what environmental groups such as Greenpeace have long suspected: that Heartland itself is a major source of funding to a network of experts and bloggers who have been prominent in the campaign to discredit established science.

Heartland is anxious to retain its hold over mainstream media outlets, fretting in the documents about how Forbes magazine is publishing prominent climate scientists such as Peter Gleick. “This influential audience has usually been reliably anti-climate and it is important to keep opposing voices out,” Heartland documents warn.

Heartland operates on a range of issues besides the environment. But discrediting the science of climate change remains a key mission. The group spends $300,000 on salaries for a team of experts working to undermine the findings of the UN climate body, the IPCC.

Check out the rest of the article here. 

(Cartoon credit: Tom Toles via Go Comics)

From The Economist:

A new analysis of the temperature record leaves little room for the doubters. The world is warming.

Check out the article here. For more on the story check out the AP’s ‘Skeptic finds he now agrees global warming is real’.

(Image credit: The Economist)

From Reuters:

More Americans than last year believe the world is warming and the change is likely influenced by the Republican presidential debates, a Reuters/Ipsos poll said on Thursday.

The percentage of Americans who believe the Earth has been warming rose to 83 percent from 75 percent last year in the poll conducted Sept 8-12.

Republican presidential candidates, aside from Jon Huntsman, have mostly blasted the idea that emissions from burning fossil fuels and other human actions are warming the planet.

The current front-runner, Texas Governor Rick Perry, has accused scientists of manipulating climate data while Michele Bachmann has said climate change is a hoax.

As Americans watch Republicans debate the issue, they are forced to mull over what they think about global warming, said Jon Krosnick, a political science professor at Stanford University.

And what they think is also influenced by reports this year that global temperatures in 2010 were tied with 2005 to be the warmest year since the 1880s.

…

This year has been a record year for the kind of costly weather disasters — including Hurricane Irene, which raked the East Coast — that scientists have warned would be more frequent with climate change.

The United States suffered 10 natural disasters in 2011 with economic losses of $1 billion or more, according to the National Weather Service.

Check out the rest of the article here.

(Image credit: NOAA)

The Seattle Post Intelligencer’s Pulitzer-winning cartoonist David Horsey takes on climate change denial.

Some climate humour from the great Marc Roberts.