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 »
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 »