July 2019 – Hottest July Ever?

News Brief by Kip Hansen   The press is again awash with the latest hysterical news that July 2019 was the hottest July ever!  NOAA Data Confirms July Was Hottest…

How’d They Calculate That?

News Brief by Kip Hansen   There are two recent stories in the NY Times that bring up a curious seemingly inconsequential oddity of mathematical computing.  They are both written…

Why You Shouldn’t Draw Trend Lines on Graphs

Guest essay by Kip Hansen What we call a graph is more properly referred to as “a graphical representation of data.”  One very common form of graphical representation is “a…

Climate Disaster Confusion

  Guest Essay by Kip Hansen   Since May of 2019,  Christopher Flavelle, has been covering “climate adaptation for The New York Times, focusing on how people, governments and businesses…

Sarewitz Validated

Guest Essay by Kip Hansen   A week ago I wrote an essay titled “Sarewitz’s Science Smörgåsbord” which was received here with varying degrees of acceptance, resistance and dismay.  It…

Is Historic Newport, RI Threatened by Sea Level Rise?

Guest Essay by Kip Hansen   The New York Times has treated its readers to an in-depth piece in the Science section with the provocative title: ‘We Cannot Save Everything’:…

Sarewitz’s Science Smörgåsbord

Guest Essay by Kip Hansen   What is a smörgåsbord? And who is Sarewitz?  From the top, a smörgåsbord is “a buffet meal of various hot and cold hors d’oeuvres,…

ZIKA: Climate Change Threat?

Guest Essay by Kip Hansen   ZIKA!  A frightening new disease that burst onto the front pages in 2016 as “linked to thousands of babies being born with underdeveloped brains.” …

The Pipers of Fire Island

News Brief by Kip Hansen   The Piping Plover, a tiny little sea bird,  has been struggling to survive in modern times as beaches are developed for tourists with houses…

Mad Dogs and Americans

News Brief by Kip Hansen   The U.S. CDC has issued one of its Vital Signs press releases that readers in the United States should be aware of, especially those…

A National Narrative for Media on Climate Change

Guest Opinion by Kip Hansen   Those of you who closely watch the media — newspapers, broadcast & streaming  news, national magazines, national public radio — may have noticed that…

Buggy Weather Radar

Guest Essay by Kip Hansen   Weather radar is a wonderful thing — and many of us depend on it to know such important facts such as “When will that…

Could Dengue Spread in a Warming World?

Guest Essay by Kip Hansen A new paper in nature microbiology makes the following statement: “Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection that has spread throughout the tropical world over the…

Not Threatened By Climate Change: Bengal Tigers

Guest Essay by Kip Hansen   The Big Cats — lions, tigers, panthers, cougars, leopards —  have always fascinated and frightened mankind.  Tales of tigers and lions — once they…

Not Threatened By Climate Change: Canada’s Maple Syrup

Guest Essay by Kip Hansen   In its continuing advocacy of calamitous climate change stories, the New York Times runs a piece titled: “Syrup Is as Canadian as a Maple…

Fake Academe: Fined $ 50.1 Million

News Brief by Kip Hansen News Flash: “U.S. judge rules deceptive publisher should pay $50 million in damages”. Appearing yesterday in Science magazine online is the news that “A U.S.…

Model-land, Butterflies and Hawkmoths

Guest Essay by Kip Hansen   Welcome to Model-Land, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls!  “Model-land is a hypothetical world in which our simulations are perfect, an attractive fairy-tale state…

Not Threatened By Climate Change: Galápagos Islands

Guest Essay by Kip Hansen   Rightfully famous for its strangely different flora and fauna, the products of ages of isolation from the mainland of South America and the  maybe…

Not Threatened By Climate Change: Orkney Islands

Guest Essay by Kip Hansen   Way up at the northern tip of Scotland, and a short ferry ride away, one finds the magnificent, bleak, intriguing islands of Orkney. Signs…

Doing a Good Thing

Guest Opinion by Kip Hansen   There are a lot of good things that you can do in your life.  In fact, doing good things is one of the greatest…