In a recent edition of EOS (newspaper of the American Geophysical Union), a provocatively titled piece by Roger Pielke Sr. and Robert Wilby, “Regional climate downscaling: what is the point?”, questions the information contained in regional climate model projections for use by the impacts community. Following a description of the various types of downscaling approaches,… Read more »
CSAG Blog
Another negative impact we could all do without
As an Englishman I do enjoy a good cup of tea. In the UK I was an occasional drinker of rooibos but now that I live in South Africa it is becoming a daily ritual. In fact, I am gradually migrating away from “normal” tea (at least that’s what we English call it) towards rooibos… Read more »
Climate change is an initial condition problem too!
In my experience, when scientists talk about climate change, many distinguish between weather and climate as noise about a trend; the noise being the weather and the climate being the trend, the signal hidden in the noise. I have a fundamental dislike for this treatment of weather as “noise” (see also blog by Roger Pielke… Read more »
Getting the right people in the room
I start with an open question. Is the UNFCCC the appropriate forum to address climate change adaptation? Following a very interesting dissection of the COP 17 outcomes at an ACDI event held earlier this week at UCT, one of the apparent successes of the Durban meeting was the progress made on adaptation. The UNFCCC is… Read more »
What is in store for 2012?
You cannot claim to be interested in global warming unless you are fascinated by a rather obscure climate variable. No, not the climate sensitivity (that comes in at a close second place) but the Global Mean Temperature (GMT). This variable has come to define the science of climate change and although no one can actually… Read more »
Results of the CSAG COP 17 Decision Game
The Context CSAG participated in a number of side events at the recent COP 17 meeting in Durban. A climate change decision game featured in three of these side events. Although each event had a different focus, the outline of the game remained consistent for each audience. The game relied on the active participation of… Read more »
When are climate model predictions good enough?
As evident in the excruciatingly slow progress of the UNFCCC annual COP meetings, there is a tendency for climate policy discussions to become entangled in a web of procrastination. Often, though not always, policymakers seeking to address the threats posed by climate change look towards the climate science community for guidance. Given the wealth of… Read more »
Balancing climate change adaptation and maladaptation
Perhaps I am in the minority but I enjoy planning. In fact sometimes I prefer planning to do a fun activity, and anticipating how much fun that activity might be, than actually doing the activity when the time comes. Yet I thoroughly dislike planning for the possibility of something bad happening. I recently had to… Read more »
Welcome to the new CSAG climate blog!
The climate blogosphere is becoming increasingly crowded but at CSAG we feel that there is room for a blog dedicated to discussing issues relevant to researchers, professionals and individuals interested in the effects of climate variability and climate change in developing countries, with a particular emphasis on Africa. In the coming months, the folk of… Read more »