There is much joy in teaparty-ville that Arctic ice loss may fall short of a new minimum this year. Back in the reality-based world, there's not much in the way of good news to celebrate:
Prof Andy Shepherd, from Leeds University, said: "Now that we have three years of data, we can see that some parts of the ice pack have thinned more rapidly than others. At the end of winter, the ice was thinner than usual. Although this summer's extent will not get near its all-time satellite-era minimum set last year, the very thin winter floes going into the melt season could mean that the summer volume still gets very close to its record low," he told BBC News.
- The beginnings of a vaccine for HIV may finally be on the horizon.
- Climate Progress has an update on rainfall totals and other info afflicting Colorado.
- No word on whether or not the frog survived.
- They're right back at it in Texas again, pressuring textbook publishers to play down climate change and hype creationism:
“The arguments in these reviews are the same discredited claims anti-science activists have pushed for years,” said Josh Rosenau, Programs and Policy Director at NCSE. “This is scary because of Texas’ big influence on publishers and on textbooks used across the country. Publishers should listen to real experts, not unqualified reviewers who don’t seem to understand even basic scientific terms.”