2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #09

Posted on 3 March 2024 by BaerbelW, Doug Bostrom

A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, Feb 25, 2024 thru Sat, March 2, 2024.

Story of the week

This week’s big news is close to home for Skeptical Science and comes via UNICEF: Seriously Cranky: the uncle we all have helps build the skills we all need to resist misinformation (pdf). It’s a story spanning an arc of progress beginning with fundamental research by Skeptical Science founder John Cook and ending with operational application of findings from that investigation– now in multiple arenas including and beyond Skeptical Science’s core mission of promoting accurate understanding of the science of climate change.

We’re speaking of Cranky Uncle, a game built on scientifically tested and verified methods of improving critical thinking skills, first deployed to help people avoid being mentally infected with climate bunk transmitted by a veritable zoo of grifters attached to the fossil fuel industry. The same techniques and delivery framework for boosting cognitive competency have now successfully been adopted and adapted for combating vaccination hesitancy and reluctance, by UNICEF and with the assistance of John Cook and Skeptical Science.

Conceptualization, exploration and funding for creating Cranky Uncle came thanks to and via Skeptical Science’s own internal and external contributors. Without Skeptical Science in the picture UNICEF’s successful project to help save lives wouldn’t have been possible. All who assisted may share pleasure plus at least a little pride in this outcome. Our ripples of progress travel far. It’s a great true story!

Stories we promoted this week, by publication date:

Before February 25

• Designing Impactful Climate Literacy Education for Emergency Management-and Beyond, State of the Planet, Olga Rukovets. Emergency managers are tasked with preparation, response, mitigation and recovery from natural hazards leading to disasters and other emergencies—a responsibility that has grown increasingly challenging as climate impacts become more frequent and less predictable.
• Does the ‘drug dealer defence’ still hold up in climate law cases?, Latest business news, Jo Lauder. The Australian federal government is using a ”drug dealer’s defence” and a ”drop in the ocean” argument in its assessment of two coal mine expansions.
• CCS Redux: Capturing CO2 From Exhaust Pipes Is A Bad Idea That Won`t Die, CleanTechnica, Michael Barnard. So here’s an idea. A lot of CO2 comes from cars and light trucks, right? So why don’t we just capture it in the car itself?
• ‘Climate contrarianism’ is down but not out, expert says, Phys.org, Clay Bonnyman Evans, University of Colorado at Boulder. Researcher Max Boycoff finds climate science being added to a stew of reactionary causes.
• Climate books for Black History Month, Yale Climate Connections, Michael Svoboda. ‘In this very political year, the fight for a sustainable future is also a fight for a fair and equitable society.”
• Thrown to the wind’ — are wind farms really killing whales?, potholer54 on Youtube, Peter Hadfield. A video rebuttal to Michael Shellenberger’s video ‘Thrown to the Wind’. It looks at the issue of whether wind farms are killing whales, as the title suggests.
• ‘Blue’ Hydrogen Could Produce 50% More Warming than Burning Fossil Fuels, The Energy Mix, Mitchell Beer.
• Antarctica sea ice reaches alarming low for third year in a row, The Observer, Graham Readfearn. The extent of ice floating around the continent has contracted to below 2m sq km for three years in a row, indicating an ‘abrupt critical transition’
• Are food influencers wrong about climate change?, ClimateAdam on Youtube, Adam Levy. ClimateAdam talks about the connections between food and climate change in his latest video.