serendipityoucity

BBC: Study examines scientists’ ‘climate credibility’

Some 98% of climate scientists that publish research on the subject support the view that human activities are warming the planet.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: Expert credibility in climate change

1. William R. L. Anderegga, Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;
2. James W. Prallb, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S
3. Jacob Haroldc, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Palo Alto, CA 94025; and
4. Stephen H. Schneidera, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 Contributed by Stephen H. Schneider, April 9, 2010 (sent for review December 22, 2009)

Although preliminary estimates from published literature and expert surveys suggest striking agreement among climate scientists on the tenets of anthropogenic climate change (ACC), the American public expresses substantial doubt about both the anthropogenic cause and the level of scientific agreement underpinning ACC. A broad analysis of the climate scientist community itself, the distribution of credibility of dissenting researchers relative to agreeing researchers, and the level of agreement among top climate experts has not been conducted and would inform future ACC discussions. Here, we use an extensive dataset of 1,372 climate researchers and their publication and citation data to show that (i) 97–98% of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field support the tenets of ACC outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and (ii) the relative climate expertise and scientific prominence of the researchers unconvinced of ACC are substantially below that of the convinced researchers.

My friend’s Dale, Mark and I are going to see this space weapons documentary at the Mayfair next week!

Here is a new post w/updates on the National Digital Strategy Consultation.

Open Data – Vote & Submit

this time from David Byrne - in this case it is probably, infrastructural influences!

The infrastructure always ends up shaping people more than they think it will. Modern big city people tend to think and act like big-city people anywhere. A big-city New York guy sleeping in bus stations is as poor as his brother, some Deep South sharecropper. But the social chasm between those two people is immense.

Here come infrastructure determinism, 2, and out goes the agency and back come the social shaping argument, the possibilism and the arguments I have had with myself and michael over this!

dam!

via: Interview with Bruce Sterling at BoingBoing

Negative Theatre presents the world premiere of

multinational gRape corporations

Written and directed by: Ozgur Cinar and starring: Chara Berk & Ozgur Cinar

@2010 Ottawa Fringe Festival Venue#4—Academic Hall 133 Seraphin-Marion Private, University of Ottawa, (map)

YOu can get tickets online!

yup!

Looks like it starts around 2PM at Confederation Square and the ride starts at 3PM!

via Metro by Tracey Tong

People without clothes always draw a crowd, but organizers of the World Naked Bike Ride in Ottawa believe the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will bring even more people to Saturday’s event. “People are really concerned,” said organizer and Ottawa ride founder Jenn Farr. “People are paying attention and realizing that it’s going to affect everybody. “This is just the latest example of how oil dependency ravages our planet.” Farr expects more than 150 people to gather at Confederation Park Saturday afternoon, where they’ll strip down to their skivvies, and in many cases, their birthday suits. Then at 3 p.m., they’ll bike, rollerblade and skateboard around the city to protest oil dependency. The nudity symbolizes the vulnerability of cyclists on the road, said Farr. The ride will pass major landmarks including the ByWard Market, the Supreme Court of Canada and Parliament Hill. Everyone is welcome to participate with the “level of nudity they’re comfortable with,” Farr said. “We’ve gotten gawkers,” said Farr, “and you never know who’s taking photos and where they’re going to end up, so if you’re not comfortable, don’t go naked. Wear a wig, but just don’t come in your street clothes. This is a party.”

Please vote - Open Access to Canada’s Public Sector Information and Data. This is part of the Industry Canada Digital Economy Consultation.

Please take some time to vote and distribute within your networks and institutions! It just takes a few seconds. This is also posted at datalibre.ca

We are at a tipping point on this issue in Canada and your few seconds of your time could open up our data resources. You will also see a complimentary Research Data and improved access to publicly-funded data submissions that could also use some votes while you are at it!

Below is the text. If you have ideas that can be added for a formal submission, I would be really glad to hear from you!

Create a data.gc.ca for Canada’s public sector information (PSI) and data in parallel with the excellent NRCan GeoConnections model (e.g. GeoGratis, GeoBase, Discovery Portal).

These PSI & data should be shared at no cost with citizens, be in accessible and open formats, searchable with standard metadata, wrapped in public domain or unrestricted user licenses, delivered within an an open architecture infrastructure based on open standards, specifications and be interoperable. It should be governed with open government principles whereby data & PSI are shared first and arguments to restrict are made only for legitimate privacy and security reasons which should also be disclosed. It should have a permanent home and include both the right combination of multi-departmental (e.g. CIC, INAC, HRSDC, NRC, NRCan, etc.) inputs, trans-disciplinary human resources (e.g. Librarians, archivists, scientists) along with IT specialists & engineers. It should be built in consultation with Canadians to ensure it is designed with user needs and useability in mind. (This is how the GeoConnections program built the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure).

The Government of Canada produces administrative data for the purpose of program delivery (e.g. Canada Student Loan, location where new Canadians land, the number and location of homeless shelters, etc.), and it produces data for the purpose of governing for example: the data collected by Statistics Canada (e.g. Census & Surveys, National Accounts); Environment Canada (e.g. air & water quality, location of brown sites); Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (e.g. satellite and radar imagery); Industry Canada (e.g. corporate registry); Canada Revenue Agency (e.g. Charities dbase); National Research Council (e.g. Scientific data); SSHRC (e.g., social science research data) and more. These data have already been paid for by Canadians via taxation, and the cost of selling these data back to citizens on a cost recovery basis is marginal or more expensive (e.g. Cost of government to government procurement, management of licences, royalties, government accounting and etc.) relative to the benefits & reduced overhead of delivering these data at no cost . Furthermore, Canadians often pay multiple times for the same data, since each level of government also purchases the same data, federal departments purchase these data from each other and there are examples where a municipality purchased the same data multiple times from Statistics Canada. This is not only a waste of taxpayer money it goes against the principle of create once and use many times and avoid the duplication of effort.

Data & PSI are non rivalrous goods where sharing and open access to these does not impede other from doing so. Open access stimulate research and IT sectors who will have the resources they need for the creation of new data R&D products (e.g. Applications) and services (e.g., web mapping), evidence based decision making (e.g. Population health), and informing public policy on a number of key Canadian issues (e.g. Homelessness, housing, education). In addition, evidence from Canadian City Open Data Initiatives (e.g., Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, and Ottawa) have demonstrated that the cost and time to find and access data & PSI within government have been greatly reduced since finding these are easier and negotiating access becomes a non issue, which in turn brings savings to citizens and greater efficiencies within these institutions. Finally, participatory and deliberative democracies include active engagement and inputs from citizens, civil society organizations, the private sector, and NGOs along with their government. Making these data available increases the collective knowledge base of Canadians and stimulates public engagement, improves efficiencies, and stimulates innovation.

These are already our (citizen’s) data & PSI, why not share share them with us and to enable citizens and the government to work together to stimulate Canada’s economy, create innovative industries and formulate evidence based public policy

In light of the BP oil disaster…

RALLY FOR MINING JUSTICE

Join us on Parliament Hill Tell the Government to pass Bill C-300!

Bill C-300, is an act to push for Corporate Accountability for the activities of mining, oil or gas corporations in developing countries. This bill represents the best chance we have to assure that Canadian extractive companies follow human rights and environmental best practices when they operate overseas.

It assures that government financial and political support will not be provided to companies that breach human rights and environmental standards.

Show your support for Bill C-300.

EVENT DETAILS:

RALLY FOR MINING JUSTICE Parliament Hill, Ottawa June 15 4:30pm

is not the territory!

This is a great example of the power of maps and maps as the social shaping of space!

Check out this piece on Who really owns the Gulf of Mexico at Mother Jones.

via BoingBoing.