Re: Skeptical Science Translations: Roll call and setting the stage for 2014

[Jan Hollan <hollan@mail....cz>]

Hallo Bärbel,

ich habe etwa 20 Argumenten teilweise fast bereit. Sie waren von unseren 
Studenten irgendwie übersetzt und bei mich grob korrigiert, so dass ich 
konnte die Marken geben. Ich hoffe diese Koncepte bis April publizieren.

Mehr kann ich leider jetzt nicht machen.

Alles grüne im 2014 wünscht

 Jenik

PS
 There is one tumblestone in understanding emissions and mitigation - 
the horrible GtC and GtCO2 "unit". There are no various kg for water, 
wheat, coal or aluminium. All gigatons are equal, if considered units of 
mass. One could just speculate, if GtC is meant as a novel unit of
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoffmenge - equal to 1/12 Pmol. Then GtCO2 would 
be equal to 1/(3.67*12) Pmol...

It's a real tumblestone, as I observed many times. At the end people think 
wrongly that it means 3.67x more than it really does, or 3.67x less.

An example in Czech, how it could be handled properly, is my translation 
of SPM.10, at 
http://amper.ped.muni.cz/gw/ipcc_cz/ar5/Fyzikalni_zaklady/figures_cz/

The bottom axis should not read

"Cumulative total anthropogenic CO2 emissions from 1870 (GtC)"

but

Cumulative total anthropogenic emissions of oxidized carbon since 1870 / Gt

or even more simply

Cumulative total anthropogenic emissions of carbon since 1870 / Gt

as non-oxidized soot is just 1/1000 of them.


Other consequences of using such stupid "unit", a mixture of true unit and 
a chemical symbol, are misleading formulations like "emissions of fossil 
CO2" - in a sense not speaking about volcanism, but about fossil 
fuels.

I have a long experience that not adhering to NIST recommendations leads 
to misunderstanding and is a obstacle to education, sometimes 
unsurmountable.

Maybe this nonsense common in IPCC documents, and even in journals, might 
be discussed at sks - especially if another people feel like me. I'll send 
you a copy of a letter, which I send in various versions to IPCC TS teams 
since years, apparently with no reaction from them.

> Hi Folks!
>  
> Before 2013 comes to a close, I'd like to touch base with you to find
> out if you are still interested in and able to help with the
> translation activities at Skeptical Science. We are trying to find