Climate drama

Science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson, who wrote a well-regarded trilogy on human colonization of Mars in the 90s, is coming out with the second book, Fifty Degrees Below in a new trilogy set in a warming earth of the near future. I'll plan on reading it. Apparently in this volume he has Europe and northeastern America freeze because the Gulf Stream shuts down, but I'm convinced by the arguments of the oceanographer Carl Wunsch that the strength of the Gulf Stream is unlikely to change much, since that it's mostly due to the Earth's rotation. In the simulations I've seen, any cooling due to ocean circulation changes would only offset greenhouse warming over most of the North Atlantic. RealClimate had a discussion that presents different perspectives on this.

Grist has an interview with the Weather Channel's resident climate change reporter, a PhD climatologist: "In general, it's still somewhat of a luxury to talk about global warming -- it often gets bumped to the back page. Keep in mind that in a regular newsroom, the question is always, What do you need to know immediately? Usually that doesn't include background on the big-picture state of the atmosphere.". She's learning to put in more pop-culture references to get through to viewers better.