For anyone who has been stuck in a
conversation with someone who passionately says something about climate
change that is utterly uninformed, you’ll know how nice it is to not
only be able to talk about the science that proves them wrong, but now
you can actually show them research on it right there in the middle of
the moment.

Thanks to an Australian solar physicist John Cook, you can access via an iPhone app skeptics’ arguments, and then get the science-based counter-arguments in the palm of your hand.

From treehugger.com:

When you turn on the app, you can look at the top 10 most used
arguments, or search through three main argument categories – including
‘It’s not happening’, ‘It’s not us’, ‘It’s not bad’. As you search, you
can pull up a skeptic argument (there are 90 arguments listed in the
app with their rebuttals so far), then a summary of what the science
says. It even includes graphs and links to scientific papers and other
sources.

Sounds nifty! Too bad I don’t have an iPhone…

News emerged this week that Yvo de Boer, the United Nations top climate official, is giving up his post this come July.

Yvo, the relentless executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is said to be frustrated over the debacle of the Copenhagen conference which failed to produce binding emission cut controls on greenhouse gases, and understandably so.

“Copenhagen did not provide us with a clear agreement in legal
terms, but the political commitment and sense of direction toward a
low-emissions world are overwhelming,” Boer said, who held the position since 2006.

Yvo’s departure certainly comes as a blow to the ongoing climate negotiations under the auspices of the UN.  From my own experience at the UN conferences, Yvo was a highly respected figure amongst both country negotiators and members of civil society, and worked tirelessly to bring negotiators to the table to come to an agreement.

“With Boer, the
great steersman of the climate proceedings is abandoning ship,” said
Greenpeace’s head of climate change policy, Martin Kaiser. US Senator
John Kerry, who has been leading negotiations on climate legislation in
Congress, credited de Boer with bringing the world’s major polluters to
the table in Copenhagen and said he was hopeful a final deal was still
possible by the Mexico summit.




“The fanatics, naysayers, and science deniers will not derail the
global community from doing what’s right to secure the future of our
planet, and in that, our commitment has never been stronger,” Kerry
said in a statement.

I almost spit out my coffee this morning as I was reading my copy of Toronto Star over breakfast.

Neatly inserted behind all the usual sections was one called "New Energy Future – The Energy Challenge and Environmental Responsibility". The first headline claimed to provide us with a ‘reality check’ on climate change, and scattered throughout the section are smiling feel good stories of employees of the tar sands with little myth buster boxes on tar sands production. 

The entire section? Sponsored by Shell Canada.

I’m so glad the Star thinks that its okay to distribute oil company propaganda to millions of Canadians as a supplementary section to inform Canadians with reality checks and myth busters about climate change and the oil sands industry. 

Remember Star, when you devoted your entire front page on December 1 arguing that the world needs to unite in the face of climate change at the beginning of the Copenhagen conference?

This move for the Star (obviously because Shell was able to provide the $$$) seems highly antithetical, and has made this blogger extremely disappointed. 

I wonder if I had enough money, I can buy a section in the Star devoted to arguing to the existence of unicorns?

This was mentioned as a link in my previous post, but I feel it deserves more attention given the way climate skeptics seized on the incident of leaked emails from the University of East Anglia that seemed to suggest that climate scientists at the university were falsifying data and that climate change wasn’t really happening – otherwise known by the media-friendly term ‘Climategate’.

An inquiry panel was set up earlier in January to look at the allegations against Penn State University climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann relating to the contents of emails stolen from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in London.

Penn State University has concluded that there is no evidence to substantiate the claims made against Dr. Mann.

"While a perception has been created in the weeks after the CRU emails
were made public that Dr. Mann has engaged in the suppression or
falsification of data, there is no credible evidence that he ever did
so, and certainly not while at Penn State," said the inquiry report,
published by the university on Wednesday.

The panel of senior administrators at the university recommended that one of the four allegations made against Dr. Mann ( that Dr. Mann "engaged in, directly or indirectly, any actions that seriously
deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for
proposing, conducting or reporting research or other scholarly
activities") be further investigated.

Mr. Mann released a statement:

"I am very pleased that, after a thorough review, the
independent Penn State committee found no evidence to support any of
the allegations against me.

Three of the four allegations have been dismissed completely.
Even though no evidence to substantiate the fourth allegation was
found, the University administrators thought it best to convene a
separate committee of distinguished scientists to resolve any remaining
questions about academic procedures.

This is very much the vindication I expected since I am confident I have done nothing wrong.

I fully support the additional inquiry which may be the best way
to remove any lingering doubts. I intend to cooperate fully in this
matter – as I have since the beginning of the process."

The full report of the inquiry panel can be found here: Concerning the Allegations of Research Misconduct Against Dr. Michael E. Mann

A recent report released yesterday has found that if fighting climate change was an Olympic sport, the organizing committee for this month’s Vancouver Winter Games would have won a bronze medal.

According to the David Suzuki Foundation, the Olympic organizers in Vancouver have done poorly in areas as offsetting carbon emissions despite building energy-efficient sports venues. 

When Vancouver won the bid to host the games, it made a series of environmental commitments. The IOC, despite promoting the idea of protecting environment for the games, in fact does very little to make sure local organizers follow-up on their promises. 

The Olympics games begins on February 12.

Other interesting climate news for today:

The Obama Administration’s Nuclear Give-away: Buried in the budget is a plan to underwrite the nuclear industry’s revival (Mother Jones)

Climate Skeptics Try to Spin Penn State Exoneration of Dr. Michael Mann Into "Whitewash"

Penn State University’s inquiry into climate scientist Dr. Michael
Mann’s conduct surrounding the emails stolen from the Climate Research
Unit at East Anglia University concluded there is no evidence to substantiate the claims made by the right-wing media against Mann. (Desmogblog)

Minister of Environment Jim Prentice publishes a letter defending his government’s climate policy (Edmonton Journal)