Climatesight

LATEST ARTICLES ( 57 )

• Then and Now

  Sometimes I look back to 2010 and wonder how we all got through it. I remember the stomachache I’d get every time I opened a newspaper, wondering what awful lie... Read more

  Posted on 25 January 2013 ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, WEATHER

• Counting My Blessings

  

  This is the coldest time of year in the Prairies. Below -20 °C it all feels about the same, but the fuel lines in cars freeze more easily, and outdoor sports ar... Read more

  Posted on 12 January 2013 ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, WEATHER

• Climate Change and the Jet Stream

  

  Here in the northern mid-latitudes (much of Canada and the US, Europe, and the northern half of Asia) our weather is governed by the jet stream. Read more

  Posted on 19 December 2012 ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, WEATHER

• The PETM

  

  Lately I have been reading a lot about the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM, which is my favourite paleoclimatic event (is it weird to have a favourite? Read more

  Posted on 26 November 2012 ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, WEATHER

• Climate Change and Atlantic Circulation

  

  Today my very first scientific publication is appearing in Geophysical Research Letters. During my summer at UVic, I helped out with a model intercomparison... Read more

  Posted on 24 October 2012 ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, WEATHER

• Permafrost Projections

  During my summer at UVic, two PhD students at the lab (Andrew MacDougall and Chris Avis) as well as my supervisor (Andrew Weaver) wrote a paper modelling the... Read more

  Posted on 03 October 2012 ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, WEATHER

• Modelling Geoengineering, Part II

  

  Near the end of my summer at the UVic Climate Lab, all the scientists seemed to go on vacation at the same time and us summer students were left to our own... Read more

  Posted on 16 September 2012 ENVIRONMENT

• Soliloquy at Twilight

  And now for something completely different: this is one of my favourite poems by the brilliant Pablo Neruda, translated from the original Spanish by Alastair... Read more

  Posted on 04 September 2012 BOOKS

• Since I Last Wrote…

  

  Since I last wrote, I finished my summer research at Andrew Weaver’s lab (more on that in the weeks and months to come, as our papers work through peer review). Read more

  Posted on 04 September 2012 ENVIRONMENT

• A Bad Situation in the Arctic

  

  Arctic sea ice is in the midst of a record-breaking melt season. This is yet another symptom of human-caused climate change progressing much faster than... Read more

  Posted on 16 August 2012 ENVIRONMENT

• More on Phytoplankton

  

  On the heels of my last post about iron fertilization of the ocean, I found another interesting paper on the topic. This one, written by Long Cao and Ken... Read more

  Posted on 11 August 2012 ENVIRONMENT

• Feeding the Phytoplankton

  

  While many forms of geoengineering involve counteracting global warming with induced cooling, others move closer to the source of the problem and target the... Read more

  Posted on 27 July 2012 ENVIRONMENT

• A Summer of Extremes

  

  Because of our emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, a little extra energy gets trapped in our atmosphere every day. Over time, this energy builds... Read more

  Posted on 20 July 2012 ENVIRONMENT

• Climate Model Acronyms

  Some climate scientists go overboard when naming their models, in an effort to create really clever acronyms. Here are my favourites. Read more

  Posted on 13 July 2012 ENVIRONMENT

• Modelling Geoengineering

  

  Later in my career as a climate modeller, I expect to spend a lot of time studying geoengineering. Given the near-total absence of policy responses to prevent... Read more

  Posted on 23 June 2012 ENVIRONMENT

• A New Kind of Science

  Cross-posted from NextGen JournalAsk most people to picture a scientist at work, and they’ll probably imagine someone in a lab coat and safety goggles,... Read more

  Posted on 21 June 2012 ENVIRONMENT

• Ten Things I Learned in the Climate Lab

  

  Scientists do not blindly trust their own models of global warming. In fact, nobody is more aware of a model’s specific weaknesses than the developers... Read more

  Posted on 14 June 2012 ENVIRONMENT