The Weekend Wonk: Richard Alley on Ice Sheet Stability
January 5, 2013
Always informative, always amusing, Richard Alley on the big questions about ice sheets and sea level.
Well worth the time, I’m going to be watching this more than once.
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January 5, 2013 at 6:20 pm
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.
January 5, 2013 at 6:27 pm
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.
January 9, 2013 at 12:26 am
You can’t paint all Republicans with the same brush – Dr. Alley is a registered Republican. 😉
January 9, 2013 at 12:38 am
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.
January 5, 2013 at 6:49 pm
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
January 5, 2013 at 10:19 pm
[…] (h/t Peter Sinclair) […]
January 5, 2013 at 10:31 pm
[…] Always informative, always amusing, Richard Alley on the big questions about ice sheets and sea level. Well worth the time, I’m going to be watching this more than once. […]
January 5, 2013 at 11:50 pm
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.
January 6, 2013 at 10:52 pm
Reblogged this on Gra Machree – Heather Brach & John Samuel and commented:
The world is warming, beyond question. The effect on ice and sea level is still under study – will it be slow or will it be abrupt?
January 7, 2013 at 12:05 pm
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…
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…
And Prof. Kevin Anderson, former dirctor of the Tyndall centre for climate research, on why we’re headed for 4C warming not 2C….
January 9, 2013 at 3:27 am
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
January 9, 2013 at 10:39 am
@Neil
Glad you liked them.
The Slides for John Holdren’s talk can all be found here:
https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/climatechange/Public/pdfs/Events/Annual%20Lectures/Coping%20with%20climate%20change%20-%20John%20Holdren%20slides%2013.12.12.PDF
Have a nice day.
January 9, 2013 at 11:02 am
I should also have added that the slides for Kevin Anderson’s talk are here:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/documents/anderson-ppt.pdf
Also, if any one knows where I can find the slides for Bob Watson’s tallk can you please let me know, thanks. Or alternatively, could someone tell me where he get’s the graph’s on cereals production from ~27mins in.