Here are some interesting links that I’ve come across in the past few weeks regarding climate change.

1. Skeptic finds he now agrees global warming is real:
   

   A prominent physicist and skeptic of global warming spent two years trying to find out if mainstream climate scientists were wrong. In the end, he determined they were right: Temperatures really are rising rapidly.

   The study of the world’s surface temperatures by Richard Muller was partially bankrolled by a foundation connected to global warming deniers. He pursued long-held skeptic theories in analyzing the data. He was spurred to action because of “Climategate,” a British scandal involving hacked emails of scientists.

   Yet he found that the land is 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) warmer than in the 1950s. Those numbers from Muller, who works at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, match those by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.

   He said he went even further back, studying readings from Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. His ultimate finding of a warming world, to be presented at a conference Monday, is no different from what mainstream climate scientists have been saying for decades.

   The best part:

   One-quarter of the $600,000 to do the research came from the Charles Koch Foundation, whose founder is a major funder of skeptic groups and the conservative tea party movement. The Koch brothers, Charles and David, run a large privately held company involved in oil and other industries, producing sizable greenhouse gas emissions.

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2. Of course, “Climate Skeptics Stay Unswayed” even thought a new study confirms that the Earth is warming:
   

   A new study designed to address critiques of climate science by skeptics has confirmed that “global warming is real” and that the world’s average land temperature has risen by about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since the mid-1950s.

   The findings, released on Thursday by a group of scientists and statisticians at the University of California known as the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, were welcomed by climate scientists and advocates of climate policy action, who had hoped that skeptics would finally have to cry uncle.

   At least one of those skeptics, Anthony Watts, had written in March on his climate-themed blog, Watts Up With That, “I’m prepared to accept whatever result they produce, even if it proves my premise wrong.”

   But neither Mr. Watts nor other longtime critics of climate science seemed satisfied with the report. Mr. Watts contended that the study’s methodology was flawed because it examined data over a 60-year period instead of the 30-year one that was the basis for his research and some other peer-reviewed studies. He also noted that the report had not yet been peer-reviewed.

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3. Big business, investors urge tough climate action:
   

   U.N. climate talks in South Africa next month must make meaningful progress or governments “risk permanent damage to their credibility”, a group of global businesses warned on Thursday.

   At the Nov. 28-Dec. 9 summit in Durban, governments should try to adopt measures to ensure poor nations will have $100 billion in annual climate aid by 2020 and to pave the way for low-carbon investments, said a communique from over 175 companies including Tesco and Nedbank Group .

   Major emitting nations must also cut their carbon emissions deep enough to contain global warming, the statement said.

   “If we do not act, climate change risks seriously undermining future global prosperity and inflicting significant social, economic and environmental costs on the world,” the companies said.

   “Without this agreement, business lacks the clarity and certainty needed to invest to its fullest potential.”

   The companies also encouraged countries to forge bilateral and multilateral agreements to form financing partnerships and to tackle particular problem areas such as deforestation and emissions from international shipping and aviation.

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4. SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Who’s behind the ‘information attacks’ on climate scientists?
   

   This week, in a courtroom in Prince William County, Virginia, a hearing will take place that could have implications for the privacy rights of scientists at colleges and universities across the country.

   It’s part of a lawsuit brought by the American Tradition Institute, a free-market think tank that wants the public to believe human-caused global warming is a scientific fraud. Filed against the University of Virginia, the suit seeks emails and other documents related to former professor Michael Mann, an award-winning climate scientist who has become a focus of the climate-denial movement because of his research documenting the recent spike in earth’s temperature.

   By suing the university, the American Tradition Institute wants to make public Mann’s correspondence in an effort to find out whether he manipulated data to receive government grants, a violation of the state’s Fraud Against Taxpayers Act.

   But a Facing South investigation has found that the Colorado-based American Tradition Institute is part of a broader network of groups with close ties to energy interests that have long fought greenhouse gas regulation. Our investigation also finds that ATI has connections with the Koch brothers, Art Pope and other conservative donors seeking to expand their political influence.

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