Climate science is not about 'belief': Chief Scientist

Australia’s Chief Scientist Ian Chubb says teaching the scientific method to secondary school children could shift the discussion on climate change, by ensuring people can distinguish between belief and evidence.
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Professor Chubb said when scientists say ‘It’s highly likely that humans have intervened in the global warming patterns that we are now seeing’, it would be good if people accepted that ‘highly likely’ doesn’t mean ‘we don’t really know’.

“But the shock jocks drive a truck through the fact that people don’t understand what that means,” he said.

“I think it would be good if we infiltrated every corner of our community with people who were educated in the scientific method and end up using that method in a whole variety of careers.”

- Bishop Hill blog - Trouble at the mill

Two years ago, LDK Solar, one of China's largest solar panel makers, built a new, state-of-the-art factory in the central city of Hefei.

Last month, however, 4,500 of the staff were put on gardening leave. They receive 700 yuan a month to stay at home. The factory has shut down 24 of its 32 production lines.

..."There do not seem to be any orders. People are still turning up for work, but mostly just sleeping. The management has not said much, just that the United States has a new policy that is stopping our exports,"

Climate science: Time to raft up : [Paywalled] Nature : Nature Publishing Group

Climate scientists should learn from the naysayers and pull together to get their message across, says Chris Rapley.

Storms, drought overshadow new UN climate talks

"This meeting opens in the immediate aftermath of a deadly typhoon in the Republic of Korea and a hurricane that hit near New Orleans on the seventh anniversary of Katrina - powerful reminders of the urgent need to lower greenhouse gas emissions," said Ms Marlene Moses of Nauru, who chairs the Alliance of Small Island States.

For small islands particularly vulnerable to climate change, "development prospects, viability and survival hang in the balance", she warned.