On Climate and Dinosaurs

Two interesting stories came out yesterday and today. The first was a major paper that reiterated that it was the impact of an asteroid near the Yucatan peninsula that killed the dinosaurs. The headlines made it seem that no one challenges this view anymore, but that's a bit deceptive. This was a collective summary conclusion by those who favor the impact hypothesis. There are those who still question the timing of the impact and its overall role in the demise of the dinosaurs. There are those who still think that the Deccan traps volcanism was responsible and those who think that the dinosaurs were in decline and that both the impact and the eruptions at Deccan were just nails in an already open coffin. Stay tuned, it's unlikely that this is settled.

On a second note, the story linked here speaks of climate scientists fighting back against all the criticism they've received of late. Good for them, but I hope they can stick to the science while playing politics. This is something that needs to happen, but it's also a dangerous road. If nothing else maybe they can explain the difference between 'weather' and 'climate'. If I hear one more radio talk show host talk confuse the two, I think I'll puke.

Cheers

Joe Meert