13 thoughts on “The Weekend Wonk: Richard Alley on Ice Sheet Stability”


  1. I wish I’d had more profs like him when I was in university. Great talk, and too much to absorb in one viewing for someone not an ice sheet expert.

    I would say that I appreciate his conservatism in deferring to the IPCC estimates but so far it seems that those estimates have been too cautious by far. And as he points out, we can’t afford to be wrong.


  2. Of course, folks who missed it the first time around should definitely check out this video that you put up here previously — namely the one that shows the intrepid Dr. Alley giving his best shot at teaching science to one of the dumber animals in the GOP barnyard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2m9SNzxJJA

    Folks should take note of the C-average business-major fratboys-in-training sitting behind said stupid barnyard animal. That scene definitely has GOP written all over it.


      1. Re: “You can’t paint all Republicans with the same brush – Dr. Alley is a registered Republican. ;-)”

        Ha ha. I wonder if Alley’s reasoning here is similar to mine for continuing to be a registered Democrat when my real views are better espoused by George Hayduke? [wink]

        In order to salvage some purpose to this post, here’s Episode 1 of “Earth: The Operator’s Manual”. I frankly do not see Alley as a Tea Bagger. RINO maybe. Rockefeller relict, perhaps.


  3. What an amazingly articulate fellow. Like you Peter, I’m going to watch this a second time. To say the least, Dr. Alley packs more content into 44 minutes than most people do in a month; or in the case of Anthony Watts, Joe Bastardi or Lord Monckton in a lifetime. 🙂

    I’ve taken the liberty to mirror the video here:

    http://www.occupybendor.org/news.php?1548


  4. No discussion of ice phase changes at pinning points. The melting point of ice can be as low as minus twenty Celsius, but as pressures not found on earth yet. But when an ice sheet moves, even slightly, the pressure on the ice at those pinning points will be immense.

    But as soon as the pressure comes off the refreeze will be almost instant, so it is all way too complicated for me.


  5. Here’s three other great talks given recently by giants in field of climate science:

    Prof. John Holdren, Obama’s chief science advisior, with some very scary graphs on tempreature extremes…
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUNXeBAgUcg&feature=player_embedded

    Prof. Bob Watson, former co-char of the IPCC, with a very rapid paced overview of the latest climate science, conaining some very scary graphs about impacts to crop yields…
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yaf0DGVAJAg

    And Prof. Kevin Anderson, former dirctor of the Tyndall centre for climate research, on why we’re headed for 4C warming not 2C….


    1. Thanks for the videos! The first one leaves out some slides (around 40 mins) that would have been useful to see. I’m in the middle of the second one now, but it time that I get myself to bed…

      Neil

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