BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes - Uncertain Climate, Episode 1

Just six months ago, public trust in climate science looked assured as nations moved towards the climate summit in Copenhagen. Now a recent BBC poll suggests that less than half of the British populace accepts that humans are changing the climate - the fundamental premise of government policy on energy, transport, planning, construction; and a major influence on policy in taxation, agriculture and foreign affairs.

This first programme in the series examines what happened to cause this swing in public sentiment.
It asks whether the scientific reviews underway - two down, two to go - will restore public faith in climate science.

It examines the sceptics' argument that mainstream scientists have under-estimated the role of natural cycles in the recent warm period. And it considers whether changes in the output of the sun might even be leading the Earth into a period of cooling.

Pakistan floods: Deluges after the deluge | Jeremy Hunt | Comment is free | The Guardian

How does climate change help explain this? First, the warming in temperatures leads to less snow.

Flashback: It's not just hot air; climate change could also mean more snow

Experts caution that there may be more winters like this, where snowfall has so far nearly doubled the norm. But that would be only until it gets too hot to snow, they added.

“l n the simulations I’ve analyzed, you can get some quite big blizzards up until the year 2040,” said Raymond Pierrehumbert, professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago. “But between 2040 and 2080, it starts to get too warm to have much snow at all and it gradually sort of peters out.”

Twitter backfires for Climate Camp | James Randerson | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Climate Camp had its own Twitter feed of course, but anyone browsing through the #climatecamp hashtag would probably not have got the impression of the day's events that the spinsters at Climate Camp wanted. Supportive texts were swamped by tweeters ridiculing the activists or even pretending to be them.

[Graham Wayne discovers a Christian alarmist, decides that in this instance, Christianity is acceptable]  | Why would a solar physicist embrace the non-rationality of religion? | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Talk about unexpected – faith is hardly the de rigueur mindset in scientific circles, particularly when it is so frequently associated with US right-wing Fox punditry, anti-science rhetoric, creationism and – bizarrely, in the case of climate change – the Rapture. [Among climate realists, how much time is spent talking about the Rapture?] But in Cook's case, it made sense. If I had a model in my head of what a proper Christian ought to be like, John Cook would fit the template pretty well.
...There's nothing wrong with the tenets of Christianity. Cook demonstrates this: his faith seems to work the way faith is supposed to. His actions speak of considerable commitment, and the work continues unabated. After the excellent (and free) iPhone app, which also available for Android and Nokia phones, his latest initiative is to write new, simplified versions of the rebuttals. These are designed to complement the more technical explanations already on offer.

I don't know if there is a Heaven, but if there is, Cook's ticket is probably half paid for already.