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.
Every year tourists flock to Brussels to sample its world renowned chocolate, beer, waffles and sprouts, but this fine city is also at the heart of European politics and business. As the effective capital of Europe, Brussels houses the European Commission (EC) where decisions are made every day on legislative issues, such as trade and… Read more »
A recent article in The Economist titled ‘How science goes wrong’ got me thinking about what their assertions mean to Climate Science as we know it. In summary, the author of the article argues that the great success of the scientific method has bred complacency such that scientific hegemonies are rarely addressed. I guess we… Read more »
(Feature image: Female Anopheles Freeborni (a species of mosquito responsible for malaria transmission) drawing blood from a human host; from Gathany, 2004) Last week Chris wrote a really interesting blog in which he drew particular attention to the defensibility of the actions of climate change scientists in light of their intimate knowledge of the… Read more »
Why is there such apparent disinterest and even apathy amongst people when it comes to responding to messages about climate change? Is “climate change fatigue” a real phenomena? This post is based on an email I contributed to an internal CSAG discussion. The discussion was prompted by a journalists comment that there is a real… Read more »
The Green Flash The green flash or sometimes referred to as Neptune’s Wink has inspired literature, artwork and myths. In the 1882 novel “Le Rayon Vert” Jules Verne describes the phenomenon as “a green which no artist could ever obtain on his palette, a green of which neither the varied tints of vegetation nor the… Read more »
This year the South African Society for Atmospheric Sciences (SASAS) conference took place in Durban at Salt Rock Hotel, hosted by the University of Kwazulu Natal under the Theme “Towards Quantifying And Qualifying The Earth’s Atmosphere”. The conference brings together a diverse research communities every year. It covered a wide range of topics including meteorology, agrometeorology, climatology,… Read more »
Since the late 1980s the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been releasing an annual report with a summary of the state of the global climate and this year was no exception. The release of this publication coincides with the American Geophysical Union (AGU) position statement on climate change entitled ‘Human-induced climate change… Read more »
A paper titled ” Evaluation of the JULES land surface model in simulating catchment hydrology in Southern Africa” by N. C. MacKellar, S. J. Dadson, M. New, and P. Wolsk. Currently under review, comments are welcome here.
A new paper titled “On predicting climate under climate change” has been published in Environmental Research Letters. The paper, co-authored by myself and David Stainforth from the London School of Economics, suggests that current approaches to climate modelling are inadequate for providing probabilities of future climate change. While ensemble climate prediction methods are becoming more commonplace,… Read more »