Just a quick look back on 2016’s work educating and communicating on global climate change. This year marks a decade that I’ve been bringing the fight to professional Climate Deniers and purveyors of Fake News.
I wanted to share this because so many readers and viewers helped out to make it happen this year with tax-deductible donations to Dark Snow Project – thanks to all who helped out.
The year started out with a bang, when my collection of interviews on satellite temperature measurements (above) was immediately attacked by a (then) little known Neo-nazi website, Breitbart.
It seems Breitbart took exception to my shredding of a favorite climate denial talking point, that satellite temperatures are some kind of gold standard of measure – and they commissioned a quick hit-job by know-nothing denialist James Delingpole – who found my video particularly treacherous for seeming “measured and reasonable”.
Obviously, they’re on to me.
That video was particularly well received by scientists – with Admiral David Titley, former Chief Oceanographer of the US Navy tweeting it as the “best he’d seen on this topic,” and Dr. Ben Santer tagging it “brilliant”.
Not to mention making a star out of atmospheric expert Andy Dessler.
If interested in satellite temperature data for climate, see @PeterWSinclair video. Best I've seen on this topic!! https://t.co/SKiaeYcH69
— David Titley (@dwtitley) January 15, 2016
I showed a director’s cut of that vid in San Francisco in December, to a packed audience of scientists and communicators, at last month’s American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
In the summer, I visited the Greenland Ice sheet for the 4th time, and reaped great benefit from the goodwill and credibility I’ve built over the last decade among scientists and experts. That goodwill got me a couple of helicopter ride-alongs with science teams, and, all told, I visited three sites on the ice sheet where important research is being done, as these videos demonstrate, the first one with Larry Smith’s UCLA team –
and secondly with the Black and Bloom, a project funded by NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) lead by the University of Bristol and including the Universities of Sheffield, Leeds and Aberystwyth, who were camping at the same spot I stayed with the Dark Snow Project in 2014.
I did follow up interviews with the Black and Bloom group in San Francisco last month, so watch for a synopsis of their important research on ice sheet darkening in coming months.
As part of that trip, I stopped into a conference in Lund, Sweden, to interview a dozen scientists who are working on a 5 year update to the Arctic Monitoring and Assessement Program’s (AMAP) look at Snow, Ice and Permafrost. I’ll be completing a set of videos for that group in coming months, to be shown at an Arctic Council meeting in Fairbanks, this spring.
I’ve already released some snips from that, like these interviews with U. of Manitoba expert David Barber.
Fascinating stuff – and I included Barber in my Arctic Sea lce wrap this fall – a story that usually wraps for the year in September, but which has continued even to the present moment, as the arctic moves thru a historically warm winter.
Throughout the year, in addition to video production, I get many requests to give public talks around my state of Michigan, something I consider an important part of the mission. Most of these talks are unpaid, but we try to pass the hat to pay travel expenses when we can.
My fall presentation in Grand Rapids Michigan was recorded and uploaded by an audience member, and it’s gone somewhat viral on Youtube, with almost 17,000 views so far.
Just another way I try to maximize the messaging.
In October, I traveled with Rolling Stone’s Jeff Goodell to Miami, where I got a gobsmacking look at the other side of the ice melt equation – coastal sea level rise that could make South Florida as we know it unliveable in coming decades. One astonished newspaper editor, after looking at my clips, asked, “Why isn’t this being reported?”
Darn good question. For the most part, it’s only scrappy independents like myself who cover the story, with your help. The Miami video, first of several, is here.
You’ll notice the inclusion of my interview with Admiral Titley, who graciously sat for an interview before he spoke at a nearby university in October. I’m determined to keep hammering on this coastal flooding story.
In November, I met once again with the AMAP group in Seattle, and gleaned several more key interviews.
Last month, December, found me in San Francisco, again at the America Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, where I picked up 2 dozen more interviews, which will be key to making the upcoming year’s productions as credible and relevant as I can make them.
Your support has been invaluable in helping me continue educate and inform on climate change.
If you’ve helped in the past, I hope you’ll consider making a tax-deductible contribution again this year, at
If you’ve not contributed before, I hope this synopsis inspires you to get active and help out in this critically important moment.
Be sure to earmark donations for Peter Sinclair Fieldwork 2017.
Thanks for ten years of brilliant work. Good science and cogent argument was never more entertaining.
We’re all in your debt, Peter. I hope the donations pour in to sustain the invaluable work that you do to explain and expose all that needs explaining and exposing in this complex climate mess we’ve created. I’m happy that your carefully researched work is becoming widely recognized. It deserves to be. Thank you for providing the information the rest of us need to help build a livable world in the Anthropocene.
Thanks Peter. I don’t comment often, but I read. Crocks is one of the best, most relevant and accessible science blogs on the internet. I guess 2017 is gonna be busy.