Peter Sinclair (environmental activist)

Last updated
Peter Sinclair
Born
Alma materB.F.A. at University of Michigan
Occupation(s)Blogger, Videographer, Explorer

Peter Sinclair from Midland, Michigan (born 1953), is an environmental activist whose focus is on climate change. He is a YouTube blogger, explorer and founder of the ClimateCrocks.com website. Together with climate researchers he's traveled to hot spots of climate change, for instance to Greenland as part of the Dark Snow Project. [1] [2] Sinclair is perhaps best known for producing the Climate Denial Crock of the Week series on his YouTube channel. Videos have received praise from climate scientists such as Gavin Schmidt, Michael E. Mann, and the late Stephen Schneider. [3] In 2012, he launched another YouTube series, entitled This is not Cool, for the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.

Contents

Life and work

Sinclair is the son of Mary P. Sinclair, He lives in Midland with his wife, Sandy, a teacher, and has stated that his concern about global warming results from concerns about the future of his children. He graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. [4] In the 90's he worked as a graphic artist, is the author of Alex's Restaurant, which was picked up by King Features Syndicate in 1990, after which it appeared in about 50 newspapers. [5]

Sinclair has given a number of public speeches on climate change, such as one on January 23, 2013 at Michigan State University entitled The Ultimate Injustice. [6] Sinclair gave another talk at the Ross School of Business on September 11, 2013, co-sponsored by the Erb Institute. The talk was entitled Communicating Climate Science in the Disinformation Era. [7]

Interviews

For his videos, Sinclair regularly interviews climate scientists. He has also interviewed Marc Morano at the 2012 International Conference on Climate Change. Later that year, his video Welcome to the Rest of Our Lives was featured in Mother Jones . [8] In January 2014, he posted an interview with Jeff Masters of Weather Underground addressing arguments about cold temperatures disproving global warming, [9] which was covered by the National Journal. [10]

Expeditions

In 2012, he successfully crowd-funded via a Kickstarter campaign for an expedition with the climate researchers Jason Box and Maurio Pelto, to assess the state of glaciers around Mount Baker, an active glaciated stratovolcano. [11] [12]

In 2013, he went to Greenland with members of the Dark Snow Project and Bill McKibben, as their videographer, to document Greenland's surface melting. [13]

Awards and grants

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glacier</span> Persistent body of ice that is moving under its own weight

A glacier is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as crevasses and seracs, as it slowly flows and deforms under stresses induced by its weight. As it moves, it abrades rock and debris from its substrate to create landforms such as cirques, moraines, or fjords. Although a glacier may flow into a body of water, it forms only on land and is distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill McKibben</span> American environmentalist and writer

William Ernest McKibben is an American environmentalist, author, and journalist who has written extensively on the impact of global warming. He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College and leader of the climate campaign group 350.org. He has authored a dozen books about the environment, including his first, The End of Nature (1989), about climate change, and Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? (2019), about the state of the environmental challenges facing humanity and future prospects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ice sheet</span> Large mass of glacial ice

In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi). The only current ice sheets are the Antarctic ice sheet and the Greenland ice sheet. Ice sheets are bigger than ice shelves or alpine glaciers. Masses of ice covering less than 50,000 km2 are termed an ice cap. An ice cap will typically feed a series of glaciers around its periphery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenland ice sheet</span> Vast body of ice in Greenland, Northern Hemisphere

The Greenland ice sheet is an ice sheet about 1.67 km (1.0 mi) thick on average, and almost 3.5 km (2.2 mi) at its thickest point. It is almost 2,900 kilometres (1,800 mi) long in a north–south direction, with the greatest width of 1,100 kilometres (680 mi) at a latitude of 77°N, near its northern margin. It covers 1,710,000 square kilometres (660,000 sq mi), around 80% of the surface of Greenland, and is the second largest body of ice in the world, after the East Antarctic ice sheet. It is sometimes referred to as an ice cap, or inland ice or its Danish equivalent, indlandsis. The acronyms GIS or GrIS are also frequently used in the scientific literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glacial motion</span> Geological phenomenon

Glacial motion is the motion of glaciers, which can be likened to rivers of ice. It has played an important role in sculpting many landscapes. Most lakes in the world occupy basins scoured out by glaciers. Glacial motion can be fast or slow, but is typically around 25 centimetres per day (9.8 in/d).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melt pond</span> Pools of open water that form on sea ice in the warmer months of spring and summer

Melt ponds are pools of open water that form on sea ice in the warmer months of spring and summer. The ponds are also found on glacial ice and ice shelves. Ponds of melted water can also develop under the ice, which may lead to the formation of thin underwater ice layers called false bottoms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley</span> British peer (born 1952)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate change in popular culture</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">350.org</span> International environmental NGO

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petermann Glacier</span> Glacier in Greenland

Petermann Glacier is a large glacier located in North-West Greenland to the east of Nares Strait. It connects the Greenland ice sheet to the Arctic Ocean at 81°10' north latitude, near Hans Island.

<i>Chasing Ice</i> 2012 documentary film directed by Jeff Orlowski

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Orlowski</span>

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Natural News is a far-right, anti-vaccination conspiracy theory and fake news website known for promoting alternative medicine, pseudoscience, disinformation, and far-right extremism. The website began publishing articles in 2008 and is based in the United States.

The Dark Snow Project is a field and lab exploration to measure the impact of changing wildfire and industrial soot and snow microbes on snow and ice reflectivity.

Jason Eric Box is an American glaciologist who is professor in glaciology at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. For 10 years (2002-2012) he worked at Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University, eventually a tenured physical climatology and geography associate professor in the department of geography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josh Willis</span>

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Jacob Sebastian Haugaard Mernild is a Danish professor in climate change, glaciology and hydrology, who is the pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Southern Denmark. Mernild has been an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) author for the United Nations since 2010. Initially a contributing author on the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, he was lead author on the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.

References

  1. Greenman3610 (2 July 2012). "Help Send Peter Sinclair to the Mt. Baker Glacier". Skeptical Science . Retrieved 21 August 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. Joe Romm (14 May 2013). "Help Crowdfund The Dark Snow Project Research Trip To Greenland, As McKibben And Sinclair Join Jason Box". ThinkProgress . Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  3. Michael Mann: The Hockey Stick and Climate Wars (YouTube video). 7 March 2012.
  4. Miserandino, Dominick (1 September 1999). "Peter Sinclair Interview". Thecelebritycafe.com. Archived from the original on 23 February 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
  5. Guyette, Curt (September–October 1999). "Cartoon Commentarian". Utne Reader . Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  6. "MSU Events Calendar - Peter Sinclair on Climate Change: The Ultimate Injustice".
  7. "Details – Communicating Climate Science in the Disinformation Era". Erb Institute. 6 August 2013. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
  8. Sheppard, Kate (10 July 2012). "You Look Out the Window and You See Climate Change in Action". Mother Jones . Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  9. If There's Global Warming ... Why Is It So Cold?. 28 January 2014.
  10. Flores, Reena (30 January 2014). "The One Video to Shut Down All of the Climate-Change Deniers". National Journal . Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  11. Greenman3610 (2 July 2012). "Help Send Peter Sinclair to the Mt. Baker Glacier". Skeptical Science . Retrieved 21 August 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. "Climate Crocks on Ice". 2012.
  13. Roush, Matt (14 May 2013). "Michigan Videographer, Climate Activist To Document Greenland Ice Study". CBS Detroit . Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  14. "Peter Sinclair named winner of Herbert L. Munzel Award for Environmental Activism". Ecology Center. Archived from the original on 22 August 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
  15. "Climate Denial Crock of the Week won the Brighter Planet Competition". 2010.