Opine away. Or pine away. Or pie away? Or pi away? Or….
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“Freedom is the recognition that no single person, no single authority or government has a monopoly on the truth, but that every individual life is infinitely precious, that every one of us put in this world has been put there for a reason and has something to offer.” Ronald Reagan
I am putting together an information page on my site with a working title, “Knowledge in support of action”. I have identified 9 different categories and have begun collecting links for each. The purpose is to provide information to visitors who are new to middle range in terms of knowledge about AGW and offer a range of actions in which an individual can participate. I was wondering if some of the readers at CP might be kind enough to visit the site and offer their favorite links, blogs, books, etc. My goal is to create a serious, one-stop reference which will be kept current moving forward. Your help would be much appreciated. Thank you http://www.stockbridgegreen.com/learnmore.html
I was a bit late to last week’s party so I’m reposting this from last week’s open thread.
Here’s my translation of a good article that appeared on Thursday on the website of a Belgian newspaper.
My favorite bit is where it says: “Scientists agree that the warming arctic ocean has already altered the climate system.”
How a warming north pole sends us freezing cold
To some it’s hard to believe in a warming climate when they’re confronted with persistent freezing temperatures and blizzards. But the warming of the climate, on a global scale, is precisely causing those cold snaps and snow records, locally. What’s more: winters in the northern US and in Europe will only become more severe because of the warming of the planet and more specifically the arctic.
Take the blizzard that paralyzed an area 3000 km across in Canada and the US: 10,000 cancelled flights, hundreds of thousands stuck in airports and traffic jams, 250,000 hit by black-outs, about 100 million people are said to have been affected by the storm.
20 degrees above normal
According to scientists the record snowfall is related to the warming of the arctic. Large amounts of warm water flow into the arctic ocean and accelerate the melting of sea ice. Consequence: a warm north pole. Currently, it’s even over 20 degrees warmer than normal up there.
“During the first week of January, we could still circumnavigate Baffin Island”, says David Phillips, a climatologist at Environment Canada. Baffin Island is located about 2000 km north of Montreal. It’s supposed to be 25 to 35 degrees below freezing there, but on some days in January the mercury rose above zero.
Unsafe ice
“For the second winter in a row, it’s not safe for people in the eastern arctic to go on the ice to hunt.” Anyone flying over northern Canada these days will be surprised by the traces of water in what should normally be a white plain.
Warmer water, melting ice
The consequences are immediately clear: the temperature of the water flowing through the strait between Greenland and Spitsbergen has risen by two degrees while it had been virtually unchanged for 2000 years. Another consequence: the polar ice cap is shrinking.
Some experts predict the arctic ice will be all but gone in august in 5 years. Just a few years ago, it was still believed this would be around 2060 at the earliest.
Important factor
The arctic ocean’s area is about 14 million square km, the same size as Russia. When an area of that size warms, it has consequences for the entire globe. Together with the south pole, the north pole is one of the most important factors in climate change.
Scientists agree that the warming arctic ocean has already altered the climate system. One of the consequences is that North America and Europe get more snow.
Wind patterns
How come? When polar ice melts, a larger surface is exposed to accumulate the summer’s sunshine. From October till January, that part of the arctic ocean releases the extra heat, instead of refreezing. That in turn influences wind patterns on the northern hemisphere, making the polar region relatively warm and bringing cold and snow to southern regions.
High precipitation
In the future, cold, snowy winters could become the norm in Europe and the eastern US. Until now, increased winter precipitation had only been predicted for western Europe. With these new findings, that looks like a correct prediction, but with the precipitation falling under the form of snow.
Polar bear
So, that’s bad news for us, but also for the polar bear. Because of the melting ice in the arctic, it will now become even harder for the bear to survive and produce offspring. Thus, this already threatened species is now really on the verge of extinction.
http://www.demorgen.be/ dm/ nl/ 5396/ Extreem-Weer/ article/ detail/ 1217123/ 2011/ 02/ 03/ Hoe-de-opwarming-van-de-Noordpool-ons-vrieskou-geeft.dhtml
The same article followed by a parade of denialist comments:
http://www.hln.be/ hln/ nl/ 5096/ Cancun-2010/ article/ detail/ 1217123/ 2011/ 02/ 03/ Hoe-de-opwarming-van-de-Noordpool-ons-vrieskou-geeft.dhtml
The Economist: “Why Don’t Americans Believe in Global Warming?”
hhttp://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/02/climate_change
And the Sierra Club’s summary of the same article, with comments and links to related content:
http://sierraclub.typepad.com/sierradaily/2011/02/why-dont-americans-believe-in-global-warming.html
This past week a number of releases have discussed the “cost benefits” of proposed EPA GHG regulations. Typically these studies address the growth of clean energy technologies and jobs. Rarely do I see the measurement or impact of increased revenues for clean energy production over a twenty or twenty five year period being addressed. I was wondering if anyone addresses the multiplier effects of clean energy production to local economies.
For instance, NY Times reported yesterday that Kenedy Wind Farm in SE Texas provides its profits to charity. Where I live in Northern NJ, many local governments are installing solar panels to generate revenues and reduce local taxes. Wind farms in upper NY state are keeping many farm communities viable. Local homeowners with solar panels on the roof often place their revenues in local banks and pay income taxes. On the other hand, fossil fuel generation is managed by major corporations- often out of state and definitely out of the local community. These power companies disseminate revenues to share holders including foreign investors.
Joe, I take that as an invitation to be irrational and transcendental.
[Heard off-mike]
Honey, where did you put my Bill the Cat costume?
Peak oil means the coal will be burned…..Nicole Foss….
http://www.thenation.com/video/157648/nicole-foss-we-need-freedom-action-confront-peak-oil
So what’s your take on “The Twentieth Century Reanalysis Project” study, with initial findings, published last month, showing “no evidence of an intensifying weather trend”. I received a link to the WSJ online editorial page regarding this story and it took me by surprise. I thought I’d just read something days before, somewhere, that pretty much made it clear that globally, extreme weather events have increased. What’s up?
[JR: The literature has been posted on the World Bank thread. I'll do another post.]
Here is the whole series….which includes our Magnificent Bill…..
http://www.thenation.com/article/157434/peak-oil-and-changing-climate
No end in sight. Or may be the end is in sight…
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/greenhouse-emissions-to-double-unless-action-taken-20110211-1aqnb.html
An easy action we can all take to improve the messaging over climate science is to punish the companies that advertise on the most egregious sources of confusion. As Joe has pointed out, MSM has done a poor job, but Fox goes further and deliberately sows doubt.
Here’s a list of advertisers that placed national ads with Fox during the latest Super Bowl. (You can also find lists (and the ads, some of which are fun to watch) at http://superbowlads.fanhouse.com/2011/ and http://www.superbowl-commercials.org/.)
Food and Dining
Budweiser
Brisk
Coca-Cola
Mars (Snickers and so on)
PepsiCo (Pepsi, Doritos, and many other brands)
Stella Artois
Wendys
Automobiles
(Most of the big names except Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. Ford ran before kickoff.)
Audi
BMW
Bridgestone
Chevy
Chrysler (best ad?)
Hyundai
Kia
Mercedes-Benz
Mini
VW
Dot Coms
Cars
Carmax
Careerbuilder
Chatter
TheDaily
eTrade
GoDaddy
Groupon (The Tibet/Rain Forest campaign has been pulled)
HomeAway
Others
Best Buy
Motorola
Sketchers
Sony
Verizon
If you can replace any of these things with a competitor’s equivalent, why not? Then let the company know why advertising on Fox is driving you away from the product.
As with the Chevy Volt, there may be overriding considerations, but we can still let Chevy know that their placing ads with Fox makes us more likely to consider, say, Nissan.
If anyone knows of a group organizing around this, post a link!
Something to cheer us up on the w/e…
The dog goes to washington
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fil.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DP0pjm40RxEw%26feature%3Drelated&feature=related&v=P0pjm40RxEw&gl=CA
Re 12′
Oops….here is the correct link…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0pjm40RxEw&sns=em
I’m also curious about the Twentieth Century Reanalysis, but it looks like the WSJ got it totally wrong.
The IPCC report acknowledges where the models are weak in predicting NAO, for example, early re-analysis showed a trend, and the more detailed analysis showed no trend. So it’s a “look we have removed certainty. Nope, maybe not” situation. Hardly a big deal.
Algerian protesters clash with police
Thousands of people defied an official ban on demonstrations in the Algerian capital and gathered in the city center for an pro-reform protest, the day after weeks of mass protests in Egypt succeeded in toppling the president.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/algeria/8320273/Algerian-protesters-clash-with-police.html
9 years in Afghanistan, 7 years in Iraq and we are still there trying to bring about “democracy” … guess what, 2 and 1/2 weeks of protests in Egypt changed history. War is no solution. Congrats Egypt. http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/fjzph/9_years_in_afghanistan_7_years_in_iraq_and_we_are/
I have not yet seen a concise summary of trends in extreme weather events (asking for help, not denying that there is one).
Here is my take on it. Would appreciate any help that can be provided.
There is no statistical evidence that if I ignore stop signs that I will regret it. Because I have never tested the hypothesis. It’s OK to use common sense in addition to statistics!
There might be no statistical evidence that global warming (taken as a fact) has caused an increased trend in extreme weather. And I would rather not test the hypothesis. I’d prefer to get the best predictions possible from modeling and take action as recommended by the experts.
That said, the following facts look like either a trend or at least an ominous reminder of what to expect if we continue with business as usual:
2005: Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster, killing at least 1,836 people with damages estimated at $81 billion
2007: Frequency Of Atlantic Hurricanes Doubled Over Last Century, Climate Change Suspected sciencedaily
2007: Tropical storms doubled due to global warming, study says – CNN
2008: Natural Disasters Up More Than 400 Percent in Two Decades
2009: Georgia floods ‘epic’: According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the floods were a “once in 500 years flood,”
2009: Death Toll Rises to 222 in Indian Floods -1.5 million have been displaced – CBS
2010: Tornado record blown away
2010: Deadly China floods called worst in decade – At least 700 people have been killed and millions displaced. Well over half of China’s provinces are now enduring monsoon-like downpours, flooding and landslides¬.
2010: The worst floods in Pakistan’s history have affected 14 million people, with floodwater reaching Sindh province, officials say.
2010: Russia’s record heat wave may already have taken 15000 lives and cost the economy $15 billion as fires and drought ravage the country
2010: Calif. rain shatters records, and more is coming – FOX
2011: Mudslides in Brazil
2010: Floods in Germany
2011: Evacuations continued in Australia today as a flood of “biblical proportions” continued to assault the northeastern part of the country
2011: One of the most powerful cyclones on record slammed into Australia’s northeast coast on Thursday
2011: (Reuters) – World food prices hit a record in January and recent catastrophic weather around the globe could put yet more pressure on the cost of food
Drought in China: NYT
The flooding that began last September in many parts of the Southern Hemisphere continued into the new year, and January was a particularly bad month for severe floods. In the past month, heavy rains have led to devastating floods in a number of countries:
• Following their third wettest year on record (2010), record rainfall continued in parts of eastern Australia in early January, causing severe flooding. Damages are estimated to top $30 billion.
• Heavy rains in the first week of January left many regions of the Philippines underwater. During two weeks of floods, the death toll rose to 57 people.
• Sri Lanka suffered record high rainfall in the first two weeks of January; over one million people were displaced from their homes during the subsequent floods, and as many as 40 people were killed.
• An intense bout of rainfall in Southeast Brazil in early January led to flooding and deadly mudslides. With a death toll of nearly 1,000, the floods are considered the worst natural disaster in Brazil’s history. Floods were also recorded in both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
• Serious floods in January were also recorded in Malawi, Malaysia, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
OK, there’s a list. Help me understand the long-term trend. Or is it “just weather”? (not denying, just asking for help)
Active in the 1920′s and 30′s, Berlin based Dr. Fritz Kahn illustrated this image of the human body as if it were composed of machinery http://www.dephx.com/2010/11/active-in-1920s-and-30s-berlin-based-dr.html
Since the MSM is so averse to fact check stories about climate change, why don’t we try to form an organization which I like to call Open Source PR. This would try to get PR professionals who are concerned about the the failure of science messaging to step up in their spare time (like open source hackers who volunteer to help their favorite open source project — eg. Firefox, Apache…) to help communicate the messaging from the science communities to the MSM. PR professionals are used to influencing the MSM and now the tools and techniques to use to be effective. They could act as a bridge between scientists and the MSM.
Every day, there are reports that come out concerning climate science that could be the basis of press releases and could be incorporated into PR campaigns. Also beyond studies, there are events happening that could be highlighted in a way that puts the focus on our changing climate and our effect on it. For example, every time there is a weather catastrophe, there is a great opportunity to educate people on the very real effects of climate change. Imaging an ad campaign with a message like:
[Video of devasting effects of extreme weather event -- deluged streets, wrecked homes, homeless people]
You think addressing climate change is expensive, take a look at what it costs not to address it.
Most people still get their news from local TV. Spots like this on local TV could have a big effect on the average person’s perceptions.
What do people think of these ideas? Do you know PR professionals who would be interested in this? Please comment on this.
Today’s No.1 Story at Digg
Former Fox News employee: ‘Stuff is just made up’ | Raw Story http://digg.com/news/politics/former_fox_news_employee_stuff_is_just_made_up_raw_story
U.S. State of the Climate National Overview
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/2011/1
Globally, January 2011 ranks as the 11th warmest January on record according to NASA.
Global map showing temperature anomalies relative to the 1951-1980 January climatology or climatological average (30 year period).
(greens/blues = cooler than average and yellows/reds = warmer than average)
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/do_nmap.py?year_last=2011&month_last=01&sat=4&sst=1&type=anoms&mean_gen=01&year1=2011&year2=2011&base1=1951&base2=1980&radius=1200&pol=reg
Climate change keenly felt in Alaska’s national parks
Thawing permafrost is triggering mudslides onto a key road traveled by busloads of sightseers. Tall bushes newly sprouted on the tundra are blocking panoramic views. And glaciers are receding from convenient viewing areas, while their rapid summer melt poses new flood risks.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/02/12/us-alaska-climate-idUKTRE71B23320110212
Thawing permafrost is triggering mudslides … Can you Say Clathrate Gun?
New Report Assesses Climate Change In Wisconsin
A statewide collaborative of scientists and diverse stakeholders is proposing a multitude of measures to help protect and enhance Wisconsin’s natural resources, economic vitality, and public well-being as the state’s climate becomes warmer and wetter.
Their report, Wisconsin’s Changing Climate: Impacts and Adaptation, was released this week by the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts. It is available online at http://www.wicci.wisc.edu.
“This report is the first comprehensive survey of climate change impacts in Wisconsin, and it provides information that will help decision-makers begin to plan for the kinds of changes we’re likely to see in the years ahead,” says Lewis Gilbert, associate director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of the initiative’s science council.
Public officials, resource managers, business owners, and farmers are among the many groups expected to draw upon the new report’s recommendations as they anticipate and address the impacts of current and future climate change across the state.
“We need to think about what climate change could mean for our natural resources and actively plan to address the issue,” says Jack Sullivan, director of science services at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Sullivan coordinates efforts within the agency to evaluate how a changing climate may alter its management responsibilities and how to minimize negative impacts. http://ashlandcurrent.com/article/11/02/11/new-report-assesses-climate-change-wisconsin
Like Egypt and the Civil Rights movement, we have to create a groundswell of support for a single simple change (e.g. Mubarak goes; end of Apartheid) Presently we do not do that. We argue for LOTS of things, or a goal of 350 ppm, without supporting the vehicle. Congress believes there is no support for carbon pricing.
And in fact, there is no clear support for it.
A simple campaign, a la the Tea Party, where we say that a clear statement on climate change and support for carbon pricing will be a litmus test for our votes for future candidates will do it.
This builds upon the advice of Jacques Cousteau that I described in my guest essay here in June last year.
A simple example of a petition is at climatelobby.com
Phil (#16)
I’d love to see a roster of extreme weather events that is not limited to those with impact on human beings. Even if it is only 50 years long.
The EMDAT, International Disaster Data Base (http://www.emdat.be/), is a global collection of reports, going back a century, and sorts by several types of disasters, as well as distinguishing between mortality and economic impacts.
But by definition, “natural disasters” are measured in terms of human impact, so it misses events like extreme temperatures where no human is living. Your event list is all human impacts, and can be compared to the EMDAT data base. One Denier view is that with the explosion of human population, more people are going to be affected by a natural event than if there were fewer individuals.
What needs to be really carefully articulated is the extremity of the physical event (square kilometers affected, time interval extent, centimeters of precipitation, extreme temperatures) as compared to its impact on human population.
For a fuller list of extreme events, we are time-limited by the short history of satellite data on uninhabited areas, and financially limited by the labor-intensive process of reconstructing event information from geologic and ice formation. Really huge events like the K-T boundary extinction or the ice-plug breaks at the end of the last Pleistocene glacier in New York State show up in the physical record. But it’s a major accomplishment to derive the information.
Best wishes and if you find anything reliable on extreme weather events, please post, as I for one would love to see it.
As promised a workable plan
Acknowledging first that the solution is far more complex then this limited post contains. We need to understand that the governments is not the solution. You, me, this web site or many like this one, will be the only solutions we have. This solution will look something this.
A group with a purpose, a site for promotion, and two states for implementation. This group must present a viable plan, Then a site must be enacted to advertise that plan and fund the required action that needs to be implemented. Finally the method need to be determine to enact said plan. When you find those people to form the nuclease to devise that plan. The web site to promote and fund determined plan, did I forget to mention that it will cost you $$$ (things like that slip my mind at times). So what is this plan.
The foundation is a nonprofit organization that will over see the operation. This Organization will act as a Investment capitalist seeking new environmental projects. The initial funding will have to come from individuals as you and I. Then hopefully profit sharing plans from the supporter new environmental products. The core is maintained as a web based business, taking all that the web has to offer, E-mail’s, web conferring, sharing of secured information etc. This sites main goal is to secure funding through donations, business advertisements and other sources of income generation. Including licensing and patents procurements, with the intent of manufacturing.
There is not any lack of products for development. For you tube is full of pie in the sky inventions. Most are just that ‘pie in the sky’, a few however ?? Except how can you determine the shells from the nuts. It would be almost impossible and that is why all nuts, after a stringent review must be supported. The question then arises how can that be possible with hundreds of individuals with any number of ideals. That where the Organization comes in. They will bring all like products together through our web site. Instead of one hundred people working on a bedini circuits, for example. We would have these hundred people collaborate to produce a workable product, if one can be produced.
All struggling geniuses have one thing in common. They almost always need some financial and technical help. That is where our site will be exceptional. We can supply them with the expensive materials they may need to complete the projects. Also include some off sit manufacturing and machine as specified by potential inventor. Our network should find engineers that can go over plans and make recommendations. Finally since we will be pear-reviewing many products, dead ends and waste can be eliminated.
JR and all in this site, The EARTH, NEEDS YOU (finger pointing). This is only the beginning of what is needed to take the environment seriously. That first step is for you JR to start the ball rolling with a non profit web site (name suggestions are now being taken). If you JR determine that this is something that you fill is good, let us know. Then set up a fund through pay pal or some payment method and take some token collection. We who believe that the environment is important should have no problem of sending you $10-100 or so. After a week let us know if you have enough to set up this new site, file for nonprofit status, and pay off the lawyers.
This is important after a week, everyone should stop funding JR, just incase he’s a crook (sorry JR)
Missing in this over view, is a great deal. We never discussed the CEO, the board of directors, Board of Engineers and the steering committee. Never discussed how funds are distributed, pay for personnel, personnel are all volunteer in the beginning (hope you like the extra work JR).
First motion: All in favor of JR receiving a token pay for all this work that will be required.
That’s the basic to get a ground floor movement started, for environmental solutions.
I will be interested to see the direction this post takes.
My nephew is a beekeeper, in the Central Valley of California.
His business has declined drastically, due to the drought of several years ago, and many farmers going out of business due to that. His business has also been decimated by Sudden Colony Collapse Disorder.
He says it’s not unusual, these days, to put out 1,000 hives of bees, and only get 500 functioning hives back at the end of the season.
During Sudden Colony Collapse Disorder, what apparently happens is that most of the worker bees fly away, or get lost, and don’t return to the hive. A small core of live workers is left attending a live queen, generally. There are stores of honey and pollen left in the hive, so apparently starvation is not the cause.
I’m no expert on this, and perhaps other CP readers know more. But, I keep suspecting that climate change is implicated, myself.
For one thing, growing seasons have been changing, and wild bee (bumblebee) populations have also been declining, apparently at least partially due to a mismatch between the bee life cycle and the new growing seasons. A recent study puts decline in bumblebee populations…at 96%:
Bumblebees: 96% Decline
A study from last year implicates climate change and an increased mismatch between growing seasons and bumblebee hibernation and lifecycles:
The Heat is Online…17 year study documents change in growing season and bumblebee population decline
Scientists keep proposing different explanations for Sudden Colony Collapse disorder, talking about viruses and mites.
This decline in bee populations may be a global phenomenon. Certainly, there are anecdotal reports from many locations around the world.
Bees have very complicated connections to their environment- worker bees for example convey the location of food sources by a “waggle dance”. Both honey bees and bumblebees do some sort of waggle dance.
Now, we’re changing the environment, to which the bees are very intimately connected, by global warming.
Are we disrupting the complex interactions of the bees with their environment? Certainly, there are life cycle interruptions, due to changing growing seasons.
Bees navigate by using visual maps of polarized light, and they see that polarized light using specialized receptors.
Could increased CO2 concentrations be changing the polarization of the sunlight, somehow?
Whatever is going on, we may be losing the bees and it may be a global phenomenon. :(
To readers of Climate Progress, though, it all sounds pretty familiar, and pretty sad, though, doesn’t it?
Data Storm: What To Do With All This Climate Information?
“One of the reasons storage technology has advanced so rapidly in recent years is because the massive amounts of data being collected around the world every day demand it. Today’s issue of Science devotes a special section to the abundance of data generated in all scientific disciplines and how it is being used to push scientific boundaries. One commentary, co-authored by Jonathan Overpeck, Gerald Meehl, Sandrine Bony and David Easterling, points out the challenges that come along with the vast quantity of climate data, including how best to use all the data and how to make sure uncertainties are properly communicated when the data is made open for everyone to use.”
http://www.climatecentral.org/blog/data-storm-what-to-do-with-all-this-climate-information/
Republicans and trying to cut funding to the EPA and have threatened to block funding for the healthcare law. It is an old tactic.
In the Civil Rights era conservatives fought desegregation by cutting off funds to public schools. Dozens of laws were passed to avoid desegregation: measures authorized school closures, repealed mandatory attendance and cut off funds to integrated schools. The Southern Manifesto assailed the Supreme Court’s “clear abuse of judicial power” and pledged “resistance” to desegregation by all “lawful means.” [Paraphrased: From Jim Crow to Civil Rights, http://books.google.com/books?id=NytV-qWjSBcC&pg=PA390&lpg=PA390
The point is not that deniers are racists, but that when conservatives can’t win the battle of ideas, they resort to such measures. And there is a psychological connection between willful ignorance or denial and bigotry. Part of the mind is shut off from reality and extreme emotional defense mechanisms emerge to the fore. Progressives too young to remember that era would do well to study it.
Anyone saw this movie yet?
Climate As the New Dirty Word
A new movie on climate change, called Carbon Nation, debuts this week. It’s positioned as the anti-Al Gore climate change movie. Basically, you don’t have to believe in the science of climate change to watch the movie and want to support clean power and greener transportation.
The movie features interviews with former CIA, now VantagePoint Venture Partner, James Woolsey, as well as the New York Times‘ Thomas Friedman and Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers. Will the movie catch on in circles where An Inconvenient Truth hasn’t? http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/11/idUS35191439520110211
Carbon Nation Trailer
Here it is – the official theatrical trailer for Carbon Nation. Come out and support the film when we open in theaters this February! http://www.carbonnationmovie.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLs73KJI36w
A dedicated post would be great …
Last year report
Carbon Nation
Peter Byck, producer/director of “Carbon Nation,” discusses his film which he says is not about global warming; it is about “global warming solutions.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckNuWfDntLY
Climate change keenly felt in Alaska’s national parks
(Reuters) – Thawing permafrost is triggering mudslides onto a key road traveled by busloads of sightseers. Tall bushes newly sprouted on the tundra are blocking panoramic views. And glaciers are receding from convenient viewing areas, while their rapid summer melt poses new flood risks.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/02/12/us-alaska-climate-idUKTRE71B23320110212
Making the Tough Choices: Overcoming the Fear That Holds American Energy Policy in Neutral
Surprise
Every year, in a tradition dating to the 1940s, thousands gather in the Spanish town of Buñol for La Tomatina, a giant “food fight,” in which participants gleefully pelt each other with tomatoes and get very, very messy. There’s blood in the streets, but it belongs to the tomatoes.
However, according to a study in the prestigious journal, Science, and two in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we are about to experience food fights of a very different, more deadly way.
One group of researchers examined the historic links between climate change and incidents of war in Europe and Asia. Going back a millennium, they uncovered a “strikingly high” correlation between temperature variation and the number of wars. Their explanation? Climate change has “significant direct effects on land-carrying capacity” which in turn “affects the food supply per capita.” In their words, “the paths to those disasters operated through a reduction in agricultural production.” As one might guess, these researchers, working from institutions in China, the US, and UK, found that the highest correlation between climate change and war occurred in arid regions, precisely the areas where food supplies were must vulnerable to climatic perturbations.
Another group of researchers based at Berkeley, NYU, Harvard and Stanford focused on Africa. They too found “strong historical linkages between civil war and temperature… with warmer years leading to significant increases in the likelihood of war.” What might we then expect to happen in Africa in the future? The researchers point out:
“When combined with climate model projections of future temperature trends, this historical response to temperature suggests a roughly 54% increase in armed conflict incidence by 2030, or an additional 393,000 battle deaths if future wars are as deadly as recent wars.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cary-fowler/avoiding-a-global-food-fi_b_820072.html
50 million climate refugees in 2011 according to documentary.
Has anyone seen this?
Any comments?
http://www.climaterefugees.com/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28MH3jZlucc
Rain in Saskatchewan, revolution in Egypt: How soaring food prices helped topple dictator
Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/Rain+Saskatchewan+revolution+Egypt+soaring+food+prices+helped+topple+dictator/4268846/story.html#ixzz1DmBIoiy0
Recent Gas Explosions Raise Questions of U.S. Pipeline Safety
A series of natural gas explosions has raised questions about the safety of the nation’s aging pipeline system.
http://newyorkcity.injuryboard.com/toxic-substances/recent-gas-explosions-raise-questions-of-us-pipelines-safety.aspx?googleid=288342
Federal Regulators Find Alaska Pipeline Safety Flaws
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703786804576138524017057638.html
QUETTA: Unkown militants blown up four major gas pipelines by installing explosive material with them in Sui and Peerkoh areas of Dera Bugti, Balochistan on Saturday.http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/12/gas-pipelines-blown-up-in-dera-bugti.html
It seems mostly what we here do is:
1. Bitterly complain and attack attempts to distort climate facts by media and politicians.
2. List new dire indicators of global warming as noted by scientists and others.
3. Say how worried we are for our children and grandchildren.
Is there any work being done on coping with complete failure to curb CO2 and other green house gas emissions?
I strongly suspect deep in the bowels of the Department of Defense and the intelligence agencies some good and serious work is being done. But of course that is all super secret from taxpayers who financially support it.
A strong attempt by high profile people in climate affairs (e.g., officials at Climate Progress) going through a sympathetic Senator might pry something out to educate all of us on advanced thinking about what is coming and the thinking on what will be done.
I urge Climate Progress readers to make this request to Climate Progress officials.
China bids to ease drought with $1bn emergency water aid
World’s biggest wheat producer resorts to desperate measures in attempt to protect harvest from worst drought in 60 years
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/11/china-drought-emergency-water-aid
Prokaryotes (21), Colorado Bob (32): time for a new Alaska reality tv-show?
William P., it is offical, just follow the news at google for example. Atm some Republicans try to axe some of these crucial work. Yesterday i posted yet another risk assessment released by the Pew Center.
It is high time, the most important assessments in decision making, for the future of the entire race. The bell curve! Risk Managment Expert, Stephen Schneider would have had a special report right now on the frontpage of CP and possible over at he NYT, Rip.
Take a page from the military: Risk management could reboot climate change debate
http://www.pewclimate.org/blog/gulledgej/take-page-military-risk-management-could-reboot-climate-change-debate
Frequent, Severe Fires Turn Alaskan Forests into a Carbon Production Line http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2011/february/story36692.html
A 1 billion pound gorilla waking up.
There are two new reality shows out of Alaska right now. 1) is about bush pilots 2) is called Gold Rush neither shows or addresses any change in the climate there, in fact they go out of their way to not by limiting comment an any weather/climate change and portray the whole state as never changing. In Gold Rush you are presented with backhoes and dreg equipment tearing up a stream bed and driving heavy equipment through it. The work sight looks like a mountain top coal minning nightmare.
i was disappointed in the show on Science Friday 12/4 As i remember it Ira Flatow asked his guest if he thought the Christmas storm on the East coast and the melting Atctic were caused by Global warming…and the answer was “NO” we had al kinds of record breaking events here in Oklahoma the past 2 weeks.Looked at my favorite sites for back up and found non.but I posted remarks several times in local papers how so many record breaking events just are not normal ,etc…I was pleasantly surprised to see other commentators agreeing
RE # 39
William P, you suggest,
“A strong attempt by high profile people in climate affairs (e.g., officials at Climate Progress) going through a sympathetic Senator might pry something out to educate all of us on advanced thinking about what is coming and the thinking on what will be done. ”
I know you were referring to the inner working of the Defense Department.
I’d like to know more about the inner workings of our domestic environmental organizations.
We need to pry something out of them “”to educate all of us on advanced thinking about what is coming and the thinking on what will be done. “”
We might be surprised to hear they have no clue either.
John McCormick
As we are subject to our local weather, a group
Could design a virtual pc based Global Warming
Theme Park to educate the viewer with the
probable local ramifications of living in a warme
location of sea flow to the porch and lightening
and thunder in the distance. Oh, and very hungry
dogs swimming toward etc. It would be educational
and scary too.
Climate change themes feature in this sculpture exhibition downunder, on Waiheke Is, near Auckland:
I visited this last week & was impressed with the way powerful statements about AGW were made in a number of the works, especially in ‘Collapse’ by Fletcher Vaughan, seen here:
http://blogs.aucklandnz.com/isiteonauckland/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/sculpture22.13.jpg
In his artist’s statement Vaughn says
“The second half of the twentieth century was a wild party – gas-guzzling cars, cheap energy & vast personal wealth from booming industry. But now we are waking up to the nasty hangover & facing the consequences of last night’s excess. ‘Collapse’ represents the precarious balancing act we are performing with our planet. We’ve been building layers upon layers and each new layer only makes the collapse more likely. Now we’ve reached the point where the house of cards can’t go any higher.
The scuplture site is directly exposed to the forces of nature, elements that are becoming more unpredictable & extreme due to climate change & global warming. Although firmly fixed, the illusion that ‘Collapse’ could be toppled at any moment by a breath of wind represents the fragility of our planet & its inhabitants in the present day”.
(Actually this house of cards held up well during the recent storm after Cyclone Wilma, some of the other works were damaged)
More details (the playing cards have witty details, spades became trees felling by bulldowers, oil dripped, the queens held coke bottles, clubs as stealth bombers etc etc), of this & views of some other works:
http://heathercrawcour.blogspot.com/2011/02/headlandsculpture-on-waiheke-island_12.html
http://heathercrawcour.blogspot.com/2011/02/headlandsculpture-on-waiheke-island.html
http://www.sculptureonthegulf.co.nz/
Feb. 12 guest opinion: Protecting EPA’s authority is imperative, especially now
The congressional obstructionists who last year blocked energy and climate legislation are back — and so is their blithely dismissive view of the scientific consensus on climate change.
This time, Republicans and a handful of Democrats are targeting the federal Clean Air Act and the Environmental Protection Agency that is charged with enforcing the three-decades-old law.
Last week, Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) announced plans to introduce legislation that would block the EPA from considering greenhouse gases a pollutant under the terms of the Clean Air Act.
Meanwhile, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) has proposed an even more sweeping plan to prevent action on climate change, and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) has introduced a bill that would delay federal enforcement of any greenhouse gas limits for two years.
In a landmark 2007 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Clean Air Act gives the EPA not just the authority but the obligation to regulate greenhouse gases. Nothing happened until the Obama administration entered office, and since then the agency has responsibly moved forward to fulfill its legal mandate.
After reviewing research compiled by organizations ranging from the National Academy of Sciences to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the EPA issued an endangerment finding in 2009, declaring that greenhouse gases pose a significant threat to human health.
Last month, the agency enacted the first regulations of major stationary sources of greenhouse gases (think power plants, refineries and factories). The new rules will be modest at first, affecting only a few hundred new plants or existing facilities that are undergoing major upgrades.
Unless Congress awakens from its climate slumber and approves legislation limiting greenhouse gases, the agency eventually will provide the only federal action to control U.S. carbon emissions. http://www.newberggraphic.com/news/2011/February/11/Opinion_Guest.Opinion/feb.12.guest.opinion.protecting.epas.authority.is.imperative.especially.now/news.aspx
Memo to Fox News: Science and Politics Don’t Mix
This piece was co-written by Ryan Koronowski, Alliance for Climate Protection Research Director and Josh Nelson, Alliance for Climate Protection Director of Online Communications and New Media.
Former oil and energy trader Eric Bolling, a financial news personality on Fox News, often gets on television to talk about climate change. On Tuesday, Media Matters published research on Bolling’s program and uncovered a history of claims that are demonstrably false:
Bolling Hosted Skeptic To Claim “There Is No Global Warming.” Bolling hosted Brian Sussman, radio host and author of Climategate: A Veteran Meteorologist Exposes The Global Warming Scam, who asserted that “there is no global warming.” Sussman claimed that the “hottest decade in history was the 1930s.”
Bolling: “I think We Warm And We Cool. It’s The Globe.” Discussing a Rasmussen poll asking respondents “how likely is it that some scientists have falsified research data,” Bolling stated: “Listen, you know where I stand on this. I’m not — I think we warm and we cool. It’s the globe.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 12/4/09]
Bolling Falsely Suggested Snow Disproves Global Warming. On Fox & Friends, referring to the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Bolling stated: “I think, a couple of years ago, they were in Washington. It was snowed out. The global warming issue wasn’t, I guess, a factor there. But they solved that problem going to Cancun.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 12/9/09]
In fact, the decade from 2001-2010 was the hottest on record, and as Alliance for Climate Protection Chairman Al Gore explained in a recent blog post, extreme weather events — including heavy snow — are entirely consistent with climate science.
So why would Bolling repeatedly push these discredited ideas? One possibility is the fact that the managing editor of Fox News specifically instructed the network’s on-air personalities to do just that.
This unfortunate myopia extends beyond Fox’s news and opinion programming — it affects the advertisements that Fox viewers are permitted to see. Last May, VoteVets.org ran an ad on cable that made “the familiar case that climate legislation would have national security benefits by reducing the oil profits of hostile Middle Eastern states.” CNN and MSNBC aired the ad. But Fox viewers weren’t allowed to see the ad because it was “too confusing.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-nelson/memo-to-fox-news-science-_b_822162.html
New York City January mean surface temperature anomaly compared to the January global mean anomaly from 1950-2011:
http://www.columbia.edu/~mhs119/Temperature/T_moreFigs/global+NYC.Jan.pdf
Updating the Climate Science: What Path is the Real World Following?
http://www.columbia.edu/~mhs119/
How do trees and forests relate to climate change?
This question and answer is part of the Guardian’s ultimate climate change FAQ
Deforestation, and especially the destruction of rainforests, is a hugely significant contributor to climate change. Scientists estimate that forest loss and other changes to the use of land account for around 23% of current man-made CO2 emissions – which equates to 17% of the 100-year warming impact of all current greenhouse-gas emissions.
As children are taught at school, trees and other plants absorb CO2 from the air as they grow. Using energy from the sun, they turn the carbon captured from the CO2 molecules into building blocks for their trunks, branches and foliage. This is all part of the carbon cycle.
A mature forest doesn’t necessarily absorb much more CO2 that it releases, however, because when each tree dies and either rots down or is burned, much of its stored carbon is released once again. In other words, in the context of climate change, the most important thing about mature forests is not that they reduce the amount of CO2 in the air but that they are huge reservoirs of stored carbon. If such a forest is burned or cleared then much of that carbon is released back into the atmosphere, adding to atmospheric CO2 levels.
Of course, the same process also works in reverse. If trees are planted where previously there weren’t any, they will on soak up CO2 as they grow, reducing the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. It is thought that trees, plants and other land-based “carbon sinks” currently soak up more than a quarter of all the CO2 that humans add to the air each year – though that figure could change as the planet warms.
Unsurprisingly, the relationship between trees and local and global temperature is more complicated than the simple question of the greenhouse gases they absorb and emit. Forests have a major impact on local weather systems and can also affect the amount of sunlight absorbed by the planet: a new area of trees in a snowy region may create more warming than cooling overall by darkening the land surface and reducing the amount of sunlight reflected back to space.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/11/forests-trees-climate
A neighboring county has an old, covered over, landfill that is leaking methane gas. In the newspaper article it mentioned that methane is inflammable in concentrations greater than 5% and explosive when it collects in voids.
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/021111/new_783891006.shtml
When the permafrost really starts letting loose of its stored methane in a few years, is it possible that the concentrations of methane can exceed 5% or collect in voids?
How One Person Might Slash His or Her State’s Emissions (and Expenses)
If my interrogations of startled passersby reflect reality, huge numbers of us are frightened of climate change but do little about it.
We almost always give one of two reasons:
1. The problem’s huge. I’m tiny. Effort’s pointless.
2. I don’t know what to do.
We’ll call these groups the Tinies and the Baffles, respectively. This post is for the Baffles. The Tinies are tougher, requiring for inspiration oratory that’s hard to muster unless you’re named King or Gandhi. Maybe someday I’ll try to lob something inspiring at the Tinies, but not today.
Back to the Baffles. I have 2 ideas for you. I’ll lead up to them:
The ideas came from pondering the Return-On-Investment (ROI) of different climate actions. ROI, used in business and everywhere piles of money gather, requires us to answer: how much effect will we have for each dollar spent?
We can use ROI to understand how to reduce our carbon emissions. For example, if you’re a state with limited funds (redundant!), where should you direct money: Solar Panels or Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs? ROI analysis reveals that every dollar spent on CFLs saves 50 times more CO2 than every dollar spent on electric solar panels. Likewise CFLs turn a profit after a few months, while solar panels do so only after many years. The choice is clear: forget solar panels until you’ve replaced all your state’s CFLs.
CFLs are good, but I’m on a quest for the best. What energy policy is the ROI champ? I recently discovered what I believe is a contender for the crown. It comes from Elton B. Sherwin, a venture capitalist whose book Addicted to Energy drips with golden ideas. This particular idea, which is directed toward state governors, has two parts:
1. Print “Grades” (A,B,C,D or F) on every building’s utility bill. A building’s grade will reflect its carbon footprint per square foot. In addition, on each bill, print the money that would have been saved if the building were as efficient as the highest-scoring buildings of similar size in the same area.
2. Make all buildings’ utility bills and grades publicly available online.
The benefits of this policy:
1. It’ll reduce the energy used in buildings by making us aware of how much we can save (that is, a lot).
2. It’ll give builders feedback (which they don’t often get now), and help them build better in the future. BTW, how dumb is it that builders don’t automatically get performance reports on their buildings already? What if airplanes were made this way? We’d all be dead is what.
3. Buyers will be able to better know expected utility costs when deciding which buildings to purchase and how much to offer.
4. Energy-efficiency businesses will be able to spot the prospects they can most help (owners of the least efficient buildings), and offer services.
5. Once the data is available to third parties, new businesses and applications will be invented around it.
6. It’ll create a buzz. Over time, it’ll lead to permanently heightened energy awareness.
http://climatepirate.com/how-one-person-might-slash-his-or-her-state%E2%80%99s-emissions-and-expenses/
There are natural gas detectors that just plug
Into an outlet (electrical) to tell if methane is
entering into foundation cracks of buildings?
Of all the things the Tea Partiers have floated out so far, Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer’s reintroduction of a bill prohibiting the United States from contributing to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) blows my frigging mind.
Supplement to (#24), comment to Phil (#16)
Science News (Feb 12, 2011. Environment) has drawn attention to work by Carl W. Ebeling and Seth Stein who evaluated Hurricane Andrew’s seismic signature. Seismic records go back further in time than hurricane monitoring, so this new technique may help expand the data base of extreme event records.
C.W. Ebeling and S. Stein. Seismological identification and characterization of a large hurricane. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. Vol. 101, February 2011, p. 399. doi:10.1785/0120100175
Raul M. @55 — Domestic natgas has a dsitinctive smelling chemical added to it so that even the tiniest concentrations will alert you to the fact that you need to immediately inform your natgas utility company.
Catman, this movie explains current methane observations and mentions amounts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25BE42PzZZc
Note the movie is almost 45 minutes long, for instance google “Mega disasters Methane explosion x264″. If someone knows similar movies, please post.
The EPA really needs our help! I attended the Good Jobs Green Jobs Conference in DC last week and ran into an EPA employee who writes rules. She said the EPA is overwhelmed with anti GHG regulation comments, particularly the 5 to 10 page comments made on each rule proposal.
She (an environmentalist too) said the EPA need to receive stronger support in all forms – letters, emails, LTEs, and multi-page professional comments, and even more click the box submissions from environmental groups.
I also spoke with the staffs of five Democratic Senators and Representatives who also said the same – negative comments they receive outnumber those supporting stronger EPA rules.
We must do more at all levels and quickly encourage supportive institutions and corporations to use their big clot as well.
I think of the enormity of the convergence we face (food, oil, population, weather), all related to AGW, and arriving within decades. As I understand it, this situation is the consequence of irreversible changes presently in train, which would be subject to positive feedback even if we relinquished fossil fuel tomorow. Add to that the corruption of governments by vested interests and their compliant media, and it starts to look like the game is just about over.
So if the continuation of humanity must now depend on Lockwood’s ‘few mating pairs round the Arctic’, and their progeny, how and where will we preserve for them, perhaps for the next several thousand years, a legacy of plant and animal DNA, and a sufficient account of basic science for them to start again? And in what language will we write that, and upon what medium?
Re: Frank Zaski | Post #61
Thank you, Frank. That’s good information.
You may be aware of this but there is a group called The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project which aims at making a new temperature data set (http://www.berkeleyearth.org/objectives
Sounds good right? However a few ‘warning bells’ sounded when I had a closer look:
- Judith Curry is on their team
- one of the donors is the Charles Koch Foundation (yep that Koch)
- Richard Muller, the head of this project, wrote an oped for the WSJ saying:
“Another option is that we could learn to live with global warming. Despite claims to the contrary, storms aren’t increasing. The rate of hurricanes hitting the U.S. coast has been constant for a century, and the number of damaging tornadoes has been going down. Will Happer, a former director of research for the Department of Energy, argues that additional CO2 may have helped the agricultural revolution. And chilly Berkeley might be nicer with a few degrees warming.”
(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703514404574588673072577680.html)
- this one from Muller states that the ‘hockey stick is broken’
http://www.mullerandassociates.com/pages/articles/32-Global_Warming_Bombshell.htm
Hmmm.
Prok – re the net albido effect of forest expansion -
During the snows of last December, when we had about 15″, a friend & I surveyed several local woods with this question in mind. Some rule-of-thumb conlcusions were very obvious.
1/. Under snow, deciduous trees give a far lighter image than do coniferous due to the latter’s retention of large areas of visible dark green needles.
2/. Without snow, deciduous may or may not offer a darker image than other land uses, but are always lighter than most conifers (the larches in autumn colours being an exception).
3/. Assessing the net sequestration effect of additional forestry options has to include measures both of species’ albido effects and root-to-twig carbon accumulation curves and also of their soil-building capacities. Deciduous are generally far better at this than conifers, but this capacity declines towards the tropics – for example the Amazon rainforest is around 60 million years old and has only about a foot of soil under it.
Regards,
Lewis
Asia’s New Arms Race
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704881304576094173297995198.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond
Resource wars, anyone?
When my father sends me articles like this (brief extract below)-full of what I believe to be untruths-how do I respond? Where do I find the facts? FYI He lives in upstate NY and claims to be all for green energy-just not wind turbines that kill lots of birds, are eyesores and make lots of noise.
THE GREAT WIND SCAM
Written by Jack Kelly
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
England is experiencing its coldest winter in a century. The cold has been all the more biting for some because many of the 3,150 wind turbines Britain increasingly depends upon to generate electricity haven’t been working.
“With demand for power at record levels because of the freezing weather, there have been days when the contribution of our forests of wind turbines has been precisely nothing,” wrote Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail Dec. 27.
“It gets better,” Mr. Littlejohn continued. “As the temperature has plummeted, the turbines have had to be heated to prevent them from seizing up. Consequently, they have been consuming more electricity than they generate.”
Personally I think that it would be easy to mobilise populations, as was done during the Second World War, to fight the good fight against the climate disruption enemy. In the USA FDR was able to simply order GM and Ford etc to turn to wartime production, because the Presidency still held prestige. Today that kudos is all imaginary and propagandistic and the Republicans commit acts of sabotage that could have been construed as treachery in Roosevelt’s day. They certainly amount, in my opinion, to complicity before the act in turning our childrens’ lives toward horror.
During the war, in every country, even Japan and Germany under hideous bombardment (and in an ignoble cause) or in the Soviet Union where atrocities and the level of carnage were unprecedented in human history, camaraderie and group support were unprecedented. People enjoy acting collaboratively, working with one another, not against each other, seeing other people as comrades not competition. After all, group solidarity and co-operation have been our species’ preferred methods for 99% of our history as a species. If we could harness this group identity and strength, we could do anything. And the group in question this time is not one nation, or one tribe, under attack, or even a coalition, it is the whole of humanity. We have an opportunity to leave behind the history of human contention and havoc, in the face of a common threat to all humanity. This must be the great turning-point in humanity’s history, or the beginning of its end. Arrayed against us now are not external enemies bent on conquest and subjugation, but a tiny global elite of greedy plutocrats, who despise the rest of humanity and put their wealth and power before mankind’s future. We can beat them, but not through violence, which is their strong suit and preferred method. We must simply get together, organise non-compliance, by reducing consumption, by sharing, by downsizing, by installing renewable power sources, by planting tress, growing our own food and sharing it and by teaching our children to respect life and despise greed. Sure we can vote as well, as long as the plutocrats allow that luxury, but never, ever, for the plutocrats’ stooges, who we must reject absolutely. We have no other choice, but I guarantee it will leave us feeling empowered for once in our lives, making our own decisions, not those imprinted on our souls by the MSM and the advertising Moloch. Even if we fail, we’ll go down swinging.
Does anyone know, in this “bitter cold and snowy” Winter, how Climate Doves explain all 5 Great Lakes being open? I mean, if it was abnormally cold wouldn’t they freeze over?
David B. Benson #58 yes the utility companys
have taken steps to prevent harm from that
source but melting methane from the permafrost
has none.
Also survivalists would like a pc based
Global Warming Theme Park that rewards
with survival the longer one could stay
alive moving through the increasing
consequences of weather chaos.
Dear Jack Kelly,
The air is to frigid cold because it comes from the polar region. And latest science is that this anomaly is connected with the sea ice loose.
Modern wind blades have heating capabilities and fossil generated machines face the same obstacles and need more energy to function in cold temperature scenarios too. In fact fossil energy is harder to supply during cold periods because it requires heavy machinery to transport it, hence less energy security. Modern electric vehicle and decentralized energy generation, with i.e. wind turbines, solar, geothermal is the answer. And in region with cold spells they need upgrades for anti freeze.
The bird story is a myth, put out by the fossil companies, in fact bird death linked to wind blades is statistical not relevant. Affected are small turbines and the trend is for bigger devices and you just need to attach a predator image to the top of the turbine to keep birds away.
In the United States, cars and trucks wipe out millions of birds each year, while 100 million to 1 billion birds collide with windows. According to the 2001 National Wind Coordinating Committee study, “Avian Collisions with Wind Turbines: A Summary of Existing Studies and Comparisons to Other Sources of Avian Collision Mortality in the United States,” these non-wind mortalities compare with 2.19 bird deaths per turbine per year. That’s a long way from the sum mortality caused by the other sources. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/04/common_misconce.php
Upon closer look one will realize that this is not a simple black and white issue, but rather one with many grey areas. For example, scientists were able to explain the mysterious deaths of 200 bats at a wind farm in Brandenburg: While using the enclosure of a wind turbine blade as a roost, the bats ended up dying of starvation rather being killed by the rotor blades .
Sometimes in a community the protection of birds is the only argument available to opponents of wind energy, even when the relevant laws on construction and emission control are not on their side. But that does not have to be the case.
The German branch of Friends of the Earth (BUND) estimates an annual average of 0.5 bird deaths per wind turbine, which currently equals around 8,000 deaths per year. Similar findings can be found in an aggregate study by the German Society for Nature Conservation (NABU) that analyzed 127 case studies: Only 269 dead birds have been found at wind power turbines across Germany since 1989 and only 245 dead bats since 1998. By extrapolating these figures, NABU estimates that around 10,000 birds and bats die each year. In comparison, the BUND states: “One can assume that approximately 5-10 million birds die because of road traffic and the same number are killed by high voltage masts in Germany each year” .
http://www.wind-energie.de/en/topics/protection-of-birds/
Paul R. Ehrlich: Saving Earth
For a scholar who traffics in some of the more dispiriting elements of modern biology, ecology and demographics, Paul R. Ehrlich is a remarkably funny guy. His caption for this picture? “A living Neanderthal” contemplating the skull (a replica) of an extinct one. Maybe his humor is a coping mechanism for the parlous state of the planet; maybe it’s the result of more than 50 years as a Stanford University researcher, professor and author.
However you draw the map of this melting, freezing world, Ehrlich is on it. He got there in 1968, with the sizzlingly, and to Ehrlich’s mind now, regrettably titled book “The Population Bomb.” It is replete with “ifs” and “whens” about the catastrophic collision of population versus resources, some of which have come to pass and some of which haven’t — yet. On that score, Ehrlich is as gleeful at attacking his critics as they are at going after him.
In his latest book, “Humanity on a Tightrope,” coauthored with Robert E. Ornstein, the tightrope could still turn into a lifeline if humans choose the right balance. Before he’s off to Costa Rica to pursue his first academic love, butterflies, he’s looking the planet, and humanity, in the face.
One thing I draw from your new book is that you’re now calling on individuals to do what institutions have failed to when it comes to saving the planet and ourselves.
That’s part of it. We now know more than enough about what the hell is wrong with the world. The climate, the toxification of the planet, the epidemiological environment, the chances of plague, losing biodiversity, the rate of extinction of species — and we’re doing nothing about it. We’ve had 10 failures now on international attempts to do something about climate change. If we don’t figure out how to change human behavior toward sustainability, we’re basically screwed, I think is the technical term.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-morrison-ehrlich-021211,0,413002.column
New House Energy Chair: Global Warming Not Man-Made
370 comments
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20031180-501465.html
Elite group of yacht owners help scientists study global warming
SeaKeepers, a group of yacht owners, has taken aboard an innovative new option: a specially designed sensing system for helping to measure changes in the sea.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/10/2060678/yacht-owners-do-good-for-the-planet.html
Sri Lanka needs US$600 million for flood damage
http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report_sri-lanka-needs-us600-million-for-flood-damage_1507390
Raul M.: yes, such detectors are available.
See
http://www.amazon.com/Combustible-Detector-Natural-Methane-Propane/dp/B0017Z5DZO/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt
Green Smoke Screen
Supporters of “green energy” like to say it will create more jobs. They’re wrong.
By Bjørn Lomborg
http://www.slate.com/id/2284634/
The dilemma of qld, flush or flood…..
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/flooding-threat-triggers-dam-spill/story-e6frg6n6-1226005410385
Or maybe it’s Damed if u do & Damed if u don’t.
The Copenhagen Consensus Center asked Gürcan Gülen, a senior energy economist at the Bureau for Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin, to assess the state of the science in defining, measuring, and predicting the creation of green jobs. Gülen concluded that job creation “cannot be defended as another benefit” of well-meaning green policies. In fact, the number of jobs that these policies create is likely to be offset—or worse—by the number of jobs that they destroy.
” Bureau for Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin ”
This reads like an old Soviet moniker . But these days it’s a fossil powered hand puppet .
#70, not all the Great Lakes normally freeze over in a typical winter. In addition, only in the southern sections has this winter been abnormally cold. In the case of Lake Superior, they had a cold January but a mild December thus the delay there. For Lake Michigan only the shallow areas typically freeze over which is what has happened now. For Lake Huron, it rarely freezes over completely but ice coverage in the southern parts is above normal while below normal in the northern parts and this winter its mostly in the southern areas that have been abnormally cold. Lake Erie is pretty much frozen over as it usually does since it is the shallowest lake. Lake Ontario is the deepest lake so almost never freezes over, not even during the harsh winter of 1994 did it freeze over which was much colder than this one. If you want to look at sea or lake ice, you have to look at how much there is relative to normal. There are also other factors too. In the case of Hudson Bay it is frozen over now, but due to the unusually mild past few months it froze over two months later than normal while the Gulf of Bothnia (separates Sweden from Finland) froze over early due to an abnormally cold November and December but despite a mild January is still frozen over as temperatures even though above average were below freezing still.
NATURAL disasters are fast becoming a key risk that Australian miners need to plan for, following the recent damaging floods and category five cyclone in resources-rich Queensland.
The risk of natural disasters now ranks in the top three for miners, with flooded pits and damaged infrastructure having the biggest impact on operations.
Major investments in flood protection following floods in January 2008 meant miners were better prepared for last year’s event, but levies and prevention work were said to be “sorely tested” at the height of the recent heavy rains.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/miners-on-guard-in-their-battle-with-nature/story-e6frg8zx-1226004685936
Tropical Cyclone 13S (Bingiza) is about to cross northern Madagascar. For weeks Madagascar has been mentioned in the flood reports in southern Africa. Another poor country getting smacked .
http://www.usno.navy.mil/JTWC/
More on the food story -
Australian feed wheat supply is unusually large this year after rains and floods damaged crops. Around half of Australia’s 2011 crop of 22 million to 26 million tonnes is likely to be downgraded to feed grade, much more than the 4 million tonnes of feed wheat a year it typically produces for domestic consumption.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/11/us-china-wheat-idUSTRE71A1JE20110211
While they had a record crop, they experienced a 25% drop in the amount of food grade wheat grown.
But then came Saskatchewan’s record-setting rains, preventing farmers from even planting wheat on millions of acres of drenched agricultural land.
“What is typically the driest province was never wetter,” Environment Canada noted in its year-end review of the country’s Top 10 weather stories of 2010, which placed Saskatchewan’s “Summer of Storms” at No. 6.
http://www.canada.com/news/Rain+Saskatchewan+revolution+Egypt+soaring+food+prices+helped+topple+dictator/4268846/story.html#ixzz1DmBIoiy0
Chile drought looms as La Nina takes its toll on farm output
La Nina is complicating government efforts to regulate the economy. Hydroelectric power generation has suffered as low rainfall has begun to empty the reserves. Chile produces about half of its energy though hydroelectric power. Officials said the shortfall was already estimated to be about 10 percent of the total hydroelectric production feeding into the grid.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2011/02/10/Chile-drought-looms-as-La-Nina-takes-its-toll-on-farm-output/UPI-65921297382836/#ixzz1DrTqApdo
A SEVERE drought is threatening the wheat crop in China, the world’s largest wheat producer, resulting in shortages of drinking water for people and livestock.
China has been essentially self-sufficient in grain for decades, for national security reasons. Any move by China to import large quantities of food in response to the drought could drive international prices even higher than the record levels recently reached.
”China’s grain situation is critical to the rest of the world – if they are forced to go out on the market to procure adequate supplies for their population, it could send huge shockwaves through the world’s grain markets,” said Robert Zeigler, the director-general of the International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, Philippines.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/when-china-goes-hungry-the-world-shakes-20110211-1aqgl.html
Global 2010/11 corn production was lowered 1.8 million tons with reductions for Argentina and Mexico. Argentina production was lowered 1.5 million tons as continued dryness through mid-January further reduced yield prospects in the country’s central growing areas.
http://www.feedstuffs.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=F4D1A9DFCD974EAD8CD5205E15C1CB42&nm=Breaking+News&type=news&mod=News&mid=A3D60400B4204079A76C4B1B129CB433&tier=3&nid=51FD030A8D004A6EB5D2A44B1792927B
Mod: Is there an issue or problem with my post #36 (aside from typos)? It is still in “moderation.”
LA PAZ, Bolivia, Feb. 11 (UPI) — Bolivian President Evo Morales canceled an appearance at a public event amid fears that protests over food prices and availability will spark riots in the country.
Morales has been battling with an endemic food crisis, exacerbated by opposition anger over his style of government.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/02/11/Morales-aborts-visit-amid-fears-of-food-riots/UPI-56061297458214/#ixzz1Drb5nrao
Six-month rainfall anomalies for Australia
http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/awap/rain/index.jsp?colour=colour&time=latest&step=0&map=anomaly&period=6month&area=nat
Colorado Bob (92) -
If you look at rainfall deciles, even when you go back as far as 36 months, there are areas that have been the wettest on record, with most of the eastern half of the country well above average. The drought in SW Australia is also very evident with areas in the driest deciles.
The 1/2/3 year rainfall difference maps are equally as impressive with differences for all three periods up to 1,200 mm or more.
What are your thoughts on this genetically modified corn? It has the disadvantage of possible cross polination but the advantage of reducing the overall carbon footprint of ethanol.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/business/12corn.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
There was, in a recent post here, a wonderful statement concerning the certainty of the science of climate change. I’ve seen it before also. I can’t find it. I’d appreciate a reference.
It was something to the effect that when a hypothesis/theory reaches a certain level of certainty it becomes as close to a fact as is possible. And that climate change was at that level.
I’m trying to assemble a set of key information so don’t have to depend on memory in discussions and think this is a very important one.
Massimo Pigliucci
Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk
Univ. Chicago Press, 2010.
The following link leads to an article on the front page of the Boston Globe today, Sunday, February 13, 2011, headed “Deep thinking on snowy spells: Scientists study North Atlantic weather system for clues to patterns of miserable winters”:
http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2011/02/13/researchers_try_to_decipher_patterns_of_super_snowy_spells/
This article is puzzling and annoying because it quotes people at institutions that appear respectable but does not mention climate change. It deals largely with the North Atlantic Oscillation, about which I know nothing; in fact the printed article has a sidebar explaining the positive and negative phases of that oscillation.
Maybe someone that understands this article can comment about it. Did the writer seek out the wrong people to interview, did she just ask the wrong questions, or was she deliberately trying to rule out climate change by not mentioning it? The article is prominent and certainly gives the impression that global warming has nothing to do with the “super snowy spells” it mentions.
Hipparchus @97 — In general, climate change will cause increased droughtss punctuated by ever more and more severe extreme precipitation events. Check what meteorologist Jeff Masters has to say on his Weather Underground climate blog.
Michael @ 93 -
I have been looking at the coal story and floods . The business writers all are calling them 50 year floods or stating the the rain is more common than once thought. But with the cores taken from the reef, mentioned in the study last week, these are at least greater than a 300 year event.
Queensland Floods Spur U.S. Coal Exports to Highest in 15 Years
Demand for the fuel is part of a wider trend, said David Khani, an analyst at FBR, whose ratings on eight coal companies earned investors a 52 percent return in a year.
“We like to call it ‘coalbilization,’” Khani said. “All of these things that are out of the norm are just exacerbating the underlying trend, which is supply can’t keep up with demand. What’s going on in Australia impacts what’s going on in Central Appalachia and Northern Appalachia.”
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-13/queensland-floods-spur-u-s-coal-exports-to-highest-in-15-years.html
Queensland’s summer of 2010-2011 will be long remembered for its widespread flooding and the impact of Cyclone Yasi, but it may not be an isolated occurrence for the state.
Research from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) shows the frequency of extreme rainfall events has been increasing since the late 19th century.
Dr Janice Lough has presented a paper in the prestigious scientific journal Paleoceanography, explaining how her latest research supports predictions that tropical rainfall will become more variable in a warming world.
http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-national/more-qld-extreme-rainfall-events-expected-20110209-1amdu.html
The record she cored starts in 1639, 371 years ago. 73-74 was the wettest in the record.
“These coral samples, which date from 1639 to 1981, suggest that the summer of 1973-74 was the wettest in 300 years,” Lough said in a statement released by the American Geophysical Union, which will publish her study in an upcoming issue of the journal Paleoceanography. “This summer is now being compared with that record-settling one,” she said. The current La Niña is the strongest it has been since 1974. ”
http://news.discovery.com/earth/australia-corals-predict-more-rains.html
Every record report I’ve seen this winter , smashed 73′- 74′, but I’ve yet to see what the Australia Met Office says.
AUSTRALIANS should brace themselves for more heavy rain and flooding.
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2011/02/14/294251_latest-news.html
Colo. renewable energy rules survive GOP offensive
Democrats weren’t persuaded. Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins, said he could not support changes that wouldn’t confront the prospect of irreversible climate change.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9L9UHQG0.htm
Re 94 Thoughts on genetically modified corn: This is a site that prides itself on relaying the latest science related to climate change. Any discussion of GM agriculture pro- or con- should also be science-based. Any technology may have a mix of risks and benefits-the policy decision whether the benefits outweigh the risks sufficiently to allow commercialization must be based on the best available scientific research as well as a consideration of the alternatives.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/02/state-spending-gdp-levels&h=e7b7e
Big government is back