I finally got to watch "
Thin Ice - The Inside Story of Climate Science" last night, at a
Free Cinema Exeter event at the
Bike Shed theatre.
I also found myself giving an ad hoc introduction to the movie. Stuart assured the restive audience that "Jim will speak for 2 minutes max". He lied, but I nonetheless received a round of applause as I sat down. I introduced myself as an "
Arctic sea ice nutter" and "
The world's leading Arctic surfing expert". I pointed out that, in my view at least:
"The Arctic is the canary in the climate coal mine".
There is a brief report on last night's event over on the "
The Mail's Great White Arctic Sea Ice Con" thread, but here I'd like to discuss the film itself.
I was impressed. It didn't tell me a whole lot I didn't already know, but it seemed to me to put the story across well to those not already as obsessed with the cryosphere as yours truly. It was obviously filmed over a considerable period of time, showing Phil Jones pre "Climategate" and looking more like an absent minded professor than an evil conspirator. Phil's desk is even more cluttered than my own!
I was particularly pleased to see that the basic physics featured prominently. Ray Pierrehumbert was there looking very furry whilst getting the message across effectively:
whilst amongst other things Myles Allen had this to say:
There was also an animation of increasing global temperatures which finished up with the Arctic looking very red indeed, and please note that there's a whole host of other interesting videos over on the Thin Ice
YouTube channel and also
on Vimeo. Last, but not least, is Simon Lamb's recent TEDx presentation:
Here's a few resources related to things that cropped up in the post movie discussion:
"
Infrared radiation and planetary temperature" by Ray Pierrehumbert in Physics Today
"
Coverage bias in the HadCRUT4 temperature series and its impact on recent temperature trends" by Kevin Cowtan & Robert Way
"
Is Antarctica losing or gaining ice?" at Skeptical Science, and the ASIF
Antarctica section.
Has anybody else watched the film? If so what did you make of it?