The Climate System Analysis Group at the University of Cape Town is a unique research group within Africa. We have an eclectic mix of specialties, but most importantly we put the needs of developing nation users at the forefront of everything we do. As a result, CSAG seeks to apply our core research to meet the knowledge needs of responding to climate variability and change.
The recent slowdown in global warming is becoming a hot topic among climate scientists, skeptics of human caused global warming and policy makers. Recent analyses indicate that the rate of warming in observed global temperatures has not been as high in the last decade as it was in the previous two decades. Following this, climate… Read more »
Members of CSAG have been involved in a study investigating how different visualisations of historical and future climate information are interpreted. The research, led by Joseph Daron, used an online survey to gather data from the climate scientist and practitioner communities, with a focus on those working in the African vulnerability, impacts and adaptation communities…. Read more »
Participatory games are a novel way to engage people in discussions around complex problems. Researchers at CSAG have been working with the Red Cross / Red Crescent Climate Centre to develop a game exploring the ethics of climate services. A news article on the Climate Centre website documents the experience of running this game at… Read more »
So it’s the carbon-footprint season… First Smaug the dragon, then CSAGer, the climate scientist. Time for another monster – the cyclist. Why? I cycle to work. And nothing makes one’s day better than an opportunity to feel smug about his or her contribution to resolving one of the most daring challenges that society faces today…. Read more »
At the end of last year I decided it would be interesting to calculate CSAG’s annual carbon footprint. Though it is simple enough to do a back-of-the-envelope calculation, I wanted to be a little more accurate and, as I soon discovered, it is by no means a straightforward task. Anyhow, after persistently emailing CSAG staff… Read more »
December 2013 saw the release of the second instalment of the film adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien novel, The Hobbit. The events of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug are set some 60 years prior to Lord of the Rings, and chronicles the quest of Bilbo Baggins and Co. to rid Lonely Mountain from the dragon… Read more »
I hope you all had a merry Christmas and that you are starting a happy/fulfilling new year. I spent Christmas in France (yes I am still French, for those who cannot detect my accent any more 😉 ) and it happens that among my nieces and nephew, two are getting ready for matric next year,… Read more »
A new paper titled “Interrogating empirical-statistical downscaling” has recently been published in Climatic Change. Click here to access the paper – it is open access and available to download for free. The paper, led by Bruce Hewitson, examines the conceptual foundations and assumptions of statistical downscaling methodologies, and articulates a framework for evaluating and integrating… Read more »
“So what are you going to do after your studies?” is a question I am often faced with as a Ph.D. student nearing the end of my degree. It’s most certainly not an easy one to answer. The longer I take in a conversation to articulate it, the more concerned the person asking me generally… Read more »