Opine away. Or pine away. Or pie away? Or pi away? Or”¦.
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So whats up with fracking and radioactive contaminated “waste” water?!
e to the i pi plus one. That’s all I got.
So, D’Aleo claims to have debunked Doran & Zimmerman (2009) over at WUWT. Any thoughts? Seems like handwaving to me. He even stoops so low as to cite ICECAP, SPPI and Lawrence Solomon.
Can’t post links here any more, so the title of the post at Comical Anthony’s is (copy and paste into Google)…
“Weather Channel and Weather.com: the survey says…..”
Joe, having big problems posting here. Any hints?
Update: shale gas probably leads to GHG emissions at least equal to those of coal: http://bit.ly/ShaleC
NASA Climate research satellite plunges into the sea. This is the second climate monitoring satellite to be lost since 2009.
“Years of belt-tightening have left NASA’s Earth-watching system in sorry shape, according to many scientists. And any money for new environmental satellites will have to survive budget-cutting, global warming politics and, now, doubts on Capitol Hill about the space agency’s competence.”
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/04/2097056/nasa-launches-latest-earth-orbiting.html
Malaria, like dengue fever, has spread due to warmer climate conditions that support growth of mosquitoes.
“In Rungwe (Tanzania), a highland district in the south-western Mbeya region bordering Malawi and Zambia, malaria is fast replacing coughs, fever and pneumonia as the most serious local health problem.
The change has taken by surprise the region’s residents, who live
over 1000 metres (3200 feet) above sea level and outside Tanzania’s
traditional malarial zones. A 32-year-old woman of Isebe village had
no idea she had contracted malaria when she was sent to Makandana
District Hospital in late December 2010.”
The full article was included in recent Pro-Med email.
ProMED-mail. Malaria – Tanzania: (MB) climate change. ProMED-mail Archive Number: 20110303.0696. http://www.promedmail.org Accessed 05 March 2011.
Original article link:
Felix Mwakyembe.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/malaria-threatens-tanzanias-highlands-as-temperatures-rise March 1, 2011.
CSI this season episode 8 is called ‘Fracked’ – energy company covers up pollution by murdering witnesses. Good one to watch
Budget cutting? That’s rich. What you are seeing is the corrupt top NASA administrators kow-towing to the ear-tagged’s masters, or are you forgetting Sally Ride’s ride so soon?
Remember, the prime directive no longer is to protect Planet Earth.
10 part reality mini-series on SpikeTV, “COAL” :
http://www.spike.com/articles/7n8hnx/coal-learn-the-truth-about-coal
Will they conclude that the coal industry is not only dangerous for the miners, but for the environment is well? It’s not very likely since to the program will be hosted by the two owners of a mine in West Virginia. Will they even mention climate change or global warming?
When will we see the 10 part reality mini-series “WIND & SOLAR”, and who’s going to front the money for that?
Prokaryotes (#1)
Where do you want to start?
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has a page introducing the topic of radioactive isotopes in the Marcellus shale frack production water. They explain the regulatory concept of NORM, too.
http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/23473.html
ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2011) — As carbon dioxide levels have risen during the last 150 years, the density of pores that allow plants to breathe has dwindled by 34 percent, restricting the amount of water vapor the plants release to the atmosphere, report scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and Utrecht University in the Netherlands in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110303111624.htm
A story in today’s NYTimes–worth reading in its entirety (and filled with ironies)–about David Koch and the David Koch Institute for Cancer Research at MIT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/us/05koch.html?_r=1&hp
A few excerpts:
“But [David Koch} said that he felt he had been vilified for his support of conservative causes." . . .
"I read stuff about me and I say, "God, I’m a terrible guy,'" he said. “And then I come here and everybody treats me like I’m a wonderful fellow, and I say, ‘Well, maybe I’m not so bad after all.’ ” . . .
David Koch: “The National Institutes of Health, and the National Cancer Institute in particular, are facing serious cutbacks in their funding due to the massive deficits the federal government is incurring,” he said in his speech, in a tent outside the seven-story building. “If the cutbacks happen, it will significantly diminish the level of research that can be carried on at the Koch Institute."
BUT further along in the article, Koch says, “Our main interest is not participating in campaigns, the presidential campaign or the Congressional or senatorial campaigns in 2012,” he said. “Our main interest is in policy — in particular, seeing the federal government spending reduced, hopefully in a sustained way, so that our country does not go bankrupt.” . . .
And:
"His gift here means that one of the biggest donors to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, home to some of the top climate scientists in the nation, is an owner of a company that Greenpeace called 'a kingpin of climate change denial.'
"Koch Industries — which owns oil refineries, pipelines and consumer brands like Dixie cups and Lycra — responded that 'it is Greenpeace that is the denier here — denier of any rational and honest dialogue on the underlying scientific debate regarding climate change.'"
And [I LOVE THE IRONY IN THIS PASSAGE]:
“And while he has become a major financier of cancer research around the country, one of his companies, Georgia-Pacific, which produces formaldehyde, has been trying to convince the government not to list formaldehyde as a human carcinogen. Koch Industries said it would respect and comply with any new governmental regulation.” . . .
And:
“Mr. Koch said that he and his brother had not decided how much money to spend to influence the 2012 elections.” . . .
And:
“‘Dr. Jacks said that Mr. Koch’s political activities had not caused much of a ripple on campus.
“‘I think there’s an awareness of David’s interests, but frankly there’s tremendous gratitude for David’s generosity and an appreciation that cancer is an apolitical problem,” he said. “It affects Republicans, it affects Democrats, is affects conservatives, it affects liberals. And so we focus on that problem, and we’re grateful to have the resources that he’s provided us to allow us to find new solutions to that problem.’”
More regarding fracking and radioactivity.
The NYS DEC page is only an intro point. It doesn’t cover the more recent experiences with municipal treatment plants which discharged into the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania, nor does it address huge volumes of production water, or how radioactive isotopes can aggregate at higher concentrations in filters and drilling sludge.
Testing for radioactive isotopes will have to be carefully done with appropriate control samples, as there is some radon from other sources in Pennsylvania.
US Geological Survey paper (2005):
http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1202/summary.htm
Colorado Bob, I caught that too. It proves that there are more things in heaven and earth, Sen. Inhofe, than are dreamt of in you your philosophy.
When science is the best way we have to know the world we live in, it boggles the mind that so many willfully remain ignorant.
Not related to climate science, but this is astonishing.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/05/exclusive-nasa-scientists-claims-evidence-alien-life-meteorite/#
It will probably turn out to be explainable some other way, but the article makes it sound as if a lot of thought has been put into this and no one has yet come up with another explanation. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.
C.B. I read that too. It does not look good for whats left of the rain forests without that moisture being put back into the atmoshpere and pushed by the winds, the downwind side will begin to dry out and what a good excuse to cut it down and sell the timber than turn it into bio-fuel crop land. At least for a few years before the soil wears out than it will turn to savana.
Apparently USAToday is reading my input
Blowouts onshore: Fear, pollution, uncertainty
A gas well blowout in the shadow of Yellowstone National Park spewed a cloud of explosive natural gas, forced evacuations for miles around and polluted the drinking water http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-03-05-onshore-oil-blowouts_N.htm
Wyoming “Not related to climate science, but this is astonishing.”
Maybe it is all a plot from the Aliens, which like to boot the earth and they have infiltrated the decision making brain structure of people like David Koch.
Joan Savage “Where do you want to start? ”
If you look at the recent history of natural gas fracking – world wide, everything is a start to end this what can only be summarized as pure madness.
jcwinnie “Remember, the prime directive no longer is to protect Planet Earth.”
Maybe it is time to clone a shrinked version of earth or maybe it is time to move on and settle on another habitable planet!
Oh, wait a minute …
Isn’t the most intriguing circumstance with “Ice on Fire” … this article from 2005 explains …
Harvesting fire from ice: the next U.S. fossil fuel boom? (Science Friday)
ChevronTexaco, the second biggest US oil and gas company, on Monday vaulted into the top tier of producers and marketers in the Asia-Pacific region with an $18bn cash and shares acquisition of rival Unocal.
The deal is the biggest in the oil and gas industry for three years. It underscores the importance of natural gas to big oil and gas companies, at a time when the clean, more efficient energy source is increasingly becoming the fuel of choice.
I’ve emphasized that sentence in bold because today’s “Science Friday” topic is about a new possible source of natural gas: methyl hydrates.
Roger Higman, a climate change campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said: “The Americans are desperately looking around trying to boost their fossil fuels because they think the oil is going to run out or there’s going to be a scarcity. The actual scarcity is in the space the atmosphere has for taking the carbon dioxide that burning methane produces.”
He added: “We already have enough fossil fuel in the world that, if burnt, will ruin the world’s climate. Rather than look for more, we need to keep the oil, gas and coal we already know about underground and develop alternative sources of energy, principally renewables.”
Paul Johnston, a scientist in the Greenpeace laboratory at Exeter University, warned that disturbing hydrate deposits under the seabed was a risky strategy.
“There are legitimate concerns that attempts to tap into these reserves could cause very widespread destabilisation of the seabed and damage to ecosystems,” he said.
Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, he said, and any released during production would make global warming worse.
The article also mentions that BP and the DOE are investigating methane hydrate deposits below the permafrost in Alaska… specifically, the North Slope, i.e.Area 1002 of the Alaska Wilderness Wildlife Refuge.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/04/08/105375/-Harvesting-fire-from-ice:the-next-US-fossil-fuel-boom-%28Science-Friday%29
and then …
By the late 70s, they were on the brink of winding down the operation. According to their surveys, they had sapped nearly all the methane from the deposit. But despite their estimates, the gas just kept on coming. The field continues to power Norilsk today.
Where is this methane coming from? The Soviet geologists initially thought it was leaking from another deposit hidden beneath the first. But their experiments revealed the opposite – the mystery methane is seeping into the well from the icy permafrost above.
http://www.ocnus.net/artman2/publish/Research_11/Ice_on_Fire_The_Next_Fossil_Fuel_printer.shtml
This amounts to the metaphor, using oil to combat a raging wild “tornado” fire.
Here’s a hopeful climate “tipping point” for a change:
“Drawing on research conducted for the previous government by Lord Stern, Huhne argued that a $100 a barrel price is the exact point at which the economics of climate change pivot so that it becomes cheaper for British consumers and businesses to invest in green technology than remain with the status quo.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/03/chris-huhne-oil-prices-green-economy
Two duds out of two.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jQpC4seNDaRpmMqC_84YTWB4Qa6g?docId=8f184fb6102242bcbe6eb01e78038c8d
Do NASA have some sceptic infiltrators in the design department? Just joking (I think).
Another bright spot on climate is the Terminator coming out swinging as a conservative climate hawk:
“Schwarzenegger: Get real about climate change. It’s time to take real action and quiet the skeptics, former governor says”
“Giving the keynote address at the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit here Tuesday, Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a call to end the false debate over climate science, to stop assuming China will provide new green tech cheaper and faster than the United States and to stop pretending that global warming won’t affect people for decades. ”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41856474/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/
When “Job Creators” Really Are the Villain
A few nights ago a station in Alabama , set a new min. high temperature by 14F. I thought maybe the instrument was off.
FT STOCKTON [PECOS COUNTY], TX 61.0°F 51.0°F 2006 58
FT DAVIS [JEFF DAVIS COUNTY], TX 61.0°F 47.0°F 1995 32
CRANE 2E [CRANE COUNTY], TX 61.0°F 54.0°F 2006 45
MIDLAND 4 ENE [MIDLAND COUNTY], TX 59.0°F 58.0°F 1974 89
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/extremes/records.php?ts=daily&elem=himn&month=3&day=4&year=2011&sts=US&submitted=Get+Records#recs
———–
I find these new records being set in the dark by 10F to 14F degrees very creepy.
Maybe USA has a de facto carbon tax after all:
At $90 a barrel the average American spends $1,000 a year buying imported oil.
Imported oil has grown to nearly half our foreign trade deficit….bringing with it all the costs that come from having to borrow so much to finance all that.
As Globe and Mail reported today: “Typically, economists say a [oil] price increase of the past month would cut U.S. growth by half a percentage point, but the pain could be even greater given the fragile finances of American consumers.”
You can thank the GOP for blocking all efforts to gracefully transition USA off too-expensive oil in time to allow continued prosperity in the lower-carbon future. That lower-carbon future is being brought on by both climate destabilization AND too-expensive oil. Vote for your pocketbook and your planet.
Prokaryotes (#1)
Subsequent to the NYT story a [Science Teacher] friend of ours called the local Landfill (Washington Co, Pa. the heart of so – called “gasland”), and asked them about the drill mud/sludge/filings that they accept. It turns out that EVERY truckload entering the facility passes through a set of Detectors and NO elevated Radiation levels have ever been detected for any of the recovered drill mud being landfilled at this facility. Evidently concentration of undesirables from filtering drilling mud isn’t an issue.
Arctic sea ice extent has increased again. Some people were shouting hooray a few days ago when they spotted a downward ‘trend’. Let’s not fall into the trap of cherry-picking like the deniers do.
Look at the graph again.
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_stddev_timeseries.png
It ain’t over till the fat lady sings.
While on vacation in Florida after I “officially” retired, I watched a MacNeil-Lehrer report one evening when Lehrer asked “a prominent meteorlogist” to explain the current storm patterns. Said meteorologist indicated that we were returning to the normal weather patterns of the 1940s and 1950s. Guess who that was?
I sent them an e-mail, noting that PBS is THE key source for lay exposure to science and to use a climate-change denier on the Newshour wouls send a completely confused and mis-leading message. Hopefully if enought of us responded, they might listen.
CB (#27), those hot temp records at night are obviously caused by the sun being in a minimum. Oh…no wait…it is just because we are coming out of the little ice age when there used to be mile of ice in Alabama, so duh, its warming now. Er…I mean it is because Al Gore’s big house is in a nearby state. Nailed it!
Besides, only 14F? Big deal. It gets way hotter than that on Venus and they don’t even have SUVs there. Now there is a climate open for business.
Lew Johns “It turns out that EVERY truckload entering the facility passes through a set of Detectors and NO elevated Radiation levels have ever been detected”
Isn’t the main culprit with the radioactive substances related to groundwater contamination?
Darwin has had its wettest wet season on record, two months before the wet season officially ends.
Six millimetres was recorded at the Darwin Airport gauge overnight, enough to break the previous record of 2.5 metres of rain that fell during the 1997-98 wet season.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/04/3155030.htm
Some European,
But then there is this which shows a decrease on each of the last 3 days
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/timeseries.global.anom.1979-2008
(though the title says it goes until 2008 it actually is current thru yesterday.)
and here is another that says area has dropped for 3 days in a row.
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/seaice.recent.arctic.png
Are not these just as valid?
Burning Down the House
New Hampshire Public Radio lost it’s feed of Science Friday yesterday due to disturbance from solar activity.
Can anyone tell me what that was about?
This would be OT except that solar storms and CMEs can disrupt the scientific observational satellites and pipeline management.
AURORA WATCH: A coronal mass ejection (CME) is en route to Earth, due to arrive on March 6th. The CME is slow-moving and not especially massive. Nevertheless, its arrival could provoke geomagnetic storms around the Arctic Circle. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.
source: http://www.spaceweather.com/
fr tom,
you are still watching the MacNeil-Lehrer report? i hope you are not making financial contributions to pbs, and have written to them telling them why not. same for science friday on npr
denial has taken over our airways. grassroots action will be our only hope, and we must spend all our efforts there. get rid of your tv, you can watch the daily show and colbert report online.
Finally after all these years!
Consumers add solar panels to shopping lists http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/03/03/uk-sainsburys-solar-idUKTRE72226L20110303
Today ladies and gentlemen marks a turning point, we finally recognize the growing threat of disruptive climate changes and put all our affords to combat emission threats to our habitat.
In what only can be described as an abrupt shift, consumer demands paved the way for large scale deployment of clean technologies.
Journal of Cosmology, 2011, Vol 13, JournalofCosmology.com March, 2011 Fossils of Cyanobacteria in CI1 Carbonaceous Meteorites Richard B. Hoover, Ph.D. NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center
Synopsis Dr. Hoover has discovered evidence of microfossils similar to Cyanobacteria, in freshly fractured slices of the interior surfaces of the Alais, Ivuna, and Orgueil CI1 carbonaceous meteorites. Based on Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and other measures, Dr. Hoover has concluded they are indigenous to these meteors and are similar to trichomic cyanobacteria and other trichomic prokaryotes such as filamentous sulfur bacteria. He concludes these fossilized bacteria are not Earthly contaminants but are the fossilized remains of living organisms which lived in the parent bodies of these meteors, e.g. comets, moons, and other astral bodies. The implications are that life is everywhere, and that life on Earth may have come from other planets.
http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/fxwxt/nasa_scientist_finds_extraterrestiral_microbial/
Now compare this recent news bit
Microorganism creates fuel, company says
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 4 (UPI) — A Cambridge, Mass., company says its genetically engineered microorganism can produce diesel fuel.
In what it calls “liquid fuel from the sun,” Joule Unlimited Inc.’s genetically engineered microorganism, known as cyanobacteria, needs only sunlight, carbon dioxide and water as inputs to “sweat” fuel.
The process can use fresh, brackish or saline water. Unlike biofuels, it doesn’t require biomass feedstock such as corn, grass or algae.
Joule’s technology, known as “helioculture,” relies on solar converter systems that are arranged on open land spaces, similar to solar photovoltaic systems.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2011/03/04/Microorganism-creates-fuel-company-says/UPI-20941299275196
The Secret of all Life at our fingertips …
The latest Climate Show is available:
http://hot-topic.co.nz/the-climate-show-8-kevin-trenberth-and-our-shaky-future/#more-7093
with links & background to all they discuss.
“The Climate Show returns with a packed show, featuring one of the world’s best known climate scientists, NZ-born, Colorado-based Dr Kevin Trenberth — star of the Climategate “where’s the missing heat” emails. He’s been in New Zealand to visit family (experiencing the Christchurch quake in the process) and to attend a conference, and his comments on the state of our understanding of climate change should not be missed. John Cook of Skeptical Science returns with his new short urls and an explanation of why declines have never been hidden, and Gareth and Glenn muse on Arnie “Governator” Schwarzenegger riding to the rescue of climate science, cryospheric forcing and carbon cycle feedbacks from melting permafrost, and a new paper that suggests that current policies are pointing us towards extremely dangerous climate change. All that and hyperbranched aminosilica too…”
Watch The Climate Show on our Youtube channel, subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, or listen direct/download
Great animated graph, cool and appropriately sinister music:
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/84590/history-carbon-dioxide
Sorry I can’t make a link on my browser. Cut and paste.
Maybe Joe did that for me! :]
Welcoming additions to the Wit’s End list of the most conspicuous converging scourges to confront our planet:
http://witsendnj.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-science-became-obsoleteand.html
Fyi, for a future Weekend Focused Thread, David Smith suggests “…discussion of civil disobedience…”
(where should these topic suggestions be going? it’ll likely be overlooked here.)
The Guardian has an an article posted on-line today regarding the panic (my word) efforts by the UK government to reduce oil consumption. It seems there is a knock-on effect from Libya as the country has woken up to the reality of the dependence of the UK’s economy to oil. Below is an extract from the paper.
For those in the US who are feeling left out, there is every indication this will be coming to a gasoline station near you soon, or would it be more accurate to say won’t be coming to you?
===============================================
Ministers will be ordered to adopt urgent measures to wean the country off oil, amid rising concern that the Libya crisis has left the economy exposed to a dramatic rise in fuel prices.
With fears growing that the cost of petrol could hit £2 a litre if instability in the Middle East persists and deepens, every government department will be told this week to comply with a new national “carbon plan” aimed specifically at “getting off the oil hook”.
The energy secretary, Chris Huhne, told the Observer that the UK had no option but to speed up efforts to move away from oil. “Getting off the oil hook is made all the more urgent by the crisis in the Middle East. We cannot afford to go on relying on such a volatile source of energy when we can have clean, green and secure energy from low-carbon sources,” he said. “The carbon plan is about ensuring that the whole of government is engaged in a joined-up effort to lead us into a low-carbon world.”
The transport secretary, Philip Hammond, who has infuriated green groups by floating the idea of raising the motorway speed limit from 70mph to 80mph, will be told he must produce a nationwide strategy to promote installation of infrastructure for electric cars by June.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/mar/05/oil-uk-energy-sources
Queensland’s coal karma continues with yet another round of major flooding events throughout the state.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/06/3156261.htm
Some areas recieved 200mm in the last 24 hours, with further heavy falls expected over the next 24-36 hours.
The town of Sapphire copped 75mm in a single hour, a one in 20-50 year event.
Who would choose to live in Queensland these days ? Who would choose to live in Queensland 4-7 years from now, which is when the next La Nina event is likely to occur and atmospheric moisture and temperature will be even higher than they are today ?
UK news:
Oil prices: Urgent steps needed to wean UK onto other energy sources, MPs say
I understand that the glaciers that link the greenland ice cap to the sea have been speeding up at an alarming rate – currently running at around 13 kilometers a year. The acceleration must be due to gravity and increased meltwater lubricating the base, and it seems to me that the speed can only increase. Does anyone know where to find the reliable data on this?
I ran across this event planned for April.
“This spring, over 10,000 young leaders will converge on Washington, DC to stand up for our future. At Power Shift 2011, we’ll stand together to reclaim our democracy from big corporations and push our nation to move beyond dirty energy sources that are harming the health of people and the planet.”
http://www.powershift2011.org/
It is run by: http://energyactioncoalition.org/
I had never heard of this group before. I could not find as info on their site about who they are.
@Mond
Various estimates of Greenland ice loss
Posted on 28 February 2011 by John Cook
http://www.skepticalscience.com/Various-estimates-of-Greenland-ice-loss.html
Procaryotes “Isn’t the main culprit with the radioactive substances related to groundwater contamination?”
I dunno. What radioactives are we speaking of and by what mechanism will they/are they contaminat/ing groundwater?
Fracwater being dumped into Sewage Plants is a different and separate matter having very little to do with groundwater, isn’t it?
If the drill mud recovered from a Well is NOT radioactive how can the fracwater recovered from that same Well be radioactive?
Wyoming @17 — From FauxNews and you believed it?
I have the solution to any questions about possible contamination of our rivers, and therefore our Municipal Water Supplies, by recovered fracwater going through Sewage Plants: NO FRACWATER DISPOSAL. 100% recycling NOW. All the water recovered from Well A must go back down Well B and so on.
David,
Just read it please. It is a serious article.
See Prokaryotes at #41 for more on the report.
I suspect that Fox published it by mistake as it has negative implications for certain members of the Red Team.
#23 Procaryotes. IMO methane hydrates is truly the gorilla in the room which may make all other discussions moot. If the antics of the Humanoids (Global Warming) tips that balance (significantly disturbs that particular equilibrium) we could have an Amplification (fast feedback) on a larger scale than anyone has actually looked at. That is really scary, what with methane being such a powerful GHG.
Some commenters here fail to appreciate what is required to have reliable electric power 24/7. Here is a small sample which is of interest to follow.
BPA Balancing Authority Load and Total Wind, Hydro, and Thermal Generation, Near-Real-Time
http://transmission.bpa.gov/business/operations/wind/baltwg.aspx
The total generation vastly exceeds the balancing authority load since BPA exports a considerable amount of power to other balancing authorites. [By the way, the thermal includes about 1150 MW from the one nuclear power plant in the region.]
Saw the Adjustment Bureau. Wonderful movie! I was waiting for a mention of climate change, but *sigh*, none was made.
This past winter, it was incredibly mild over the Arctic, but cold over the Eastern US and also in Europe during December (the Dec-Feb average were still quite cold since the seasonal to above seasonal in January and February couldn’t cancel out the cold of December). Once Hudson Bay finally froze over, temperatures dropped back to seasonal in that region while returned to seasonal in the Eastern US and Europe. While we know negative AO and NAO caused the cold to plunge to mid-latitudes, could the lack of sea ice in the Arctic be the cause of AO and NAO being extremely negative or is this just a coincidence. Not many studies on this have been done, but I noticed both NOAA as well as the climate change page on Accuweather (Its hosted by Brett Anderson who unlike Joe Bastardi does belive in AGW) both mentioned this as a possible cause but still hasn’t been fully studied. If proven true, how should this be messaged then since there are more people living in the areas experiencing the cold, despite the fact the positive anomalies in the Arctic are far greater than negative anomalies in Europe and the US and the cold they are experiencing is because of global warming. After all I believe it is possible for global warming to cause some areas to cool (although most areas will warm) due to the circulation of air and interaction between the warm and cold. I would be interested on how many think this is plausible and if proven true how should we message it since no doubt the skeptics/deniers will jump on this despite the fact AGW is still just as big a threat even if true.
No deniers in the plant world.
Colorado Bob @ 13 reports that: “As carbon dioxide levels have risen during the last 150 years, the density of pores that allow plants to breathe has dwindled by 34 percent, restricting the amount of water vapor the plants release to the atmosphere, …”
It looks like plants are evolving faster than humans can learn. Who would of thunk it!
Wyoming @52 — I’ve read something about the paper elsewhere. My reaction is great skepticism regarding the conclusion.
Sorry to double post, but one more thought would be should environmental groups do more to reach out to green Conservatives/Republicans. We have Arnold Schwartznegger who is a strong supporter of climate change and I am sure there are others. In Europe, many centre-right parties are very much for taking action. The more this becomes a left/right, Democrat/Republican the more likely it is to fail. As Al Gore stated it should be a moral issue and thus that means including people on all sides of the spectrum. Also there are ways that don’t involve high taxes or excessive regulation to reduce CO2. For starters lets cut subsidies to the oil companies and maybe give a tax break to those who buy green technology or a lower corporate tax rate to green companies. Also it could be used on import tariffs where tariffs are higher for dirty products while lowered or eliminated for clean products. The WTO does allow for green tariffs to be used as long as they are applied in non-discriminate manner and aren’t used as a form of protectionism in disguise.
TV Shows? Mine is Top Gear, about cars, exotic and expensive as well as “moderately priced”. The ones I will never see never mind actually drive. Very bad for the environment…we all have weaknesses, mine is exotic cars
Iain @63 — Wrong thread.
#s 1,5,8,12,15, etc: word is my local paper’s environmental and some of the business reporters write reasonable environmental/climate stories but the editors seldom print them.
Hey Prokaryotes
I looked into your “CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 4 (UPI) — A Cambridge, Mass., company says its genetically engineered microorganism can produce diesel fuel.” article as it triggerd a memory that I had read about this.
Robert Rapier, an expert in biofuels that I read regularly, says the following
“Been getting lots of inquiries about this. Here is what I have been telling people:
“I was at the Pacific Rim Summit a year ago when Joule announced what they were doing. I was sitting with a number of algae experts, and they were very skeptical. I would also say that they are at a very early stage — still in the lab. Most technologies don’t progress out of the lab, so the best I could say is that it is premature to count on much of anything from them. I look at it as a research project, and most of those do not pan out.”
The truth is, we have heard all of this before. Maybe one day one of these really will be a game changer, but in my view their claims are very premature based on the fact that they don’t yet even have a pilot facility. It may turn out that in fact their claims ultimately pan out, but it is a pretty safe bet that 90% of what looks promising in the lab never makes it to a commercial scale.
RR”
Robert has a great post on TOD right now on the difficulties of scaling up from research projects to commercial plants.
Wyo
@Micky, 63:
Conservatives used to support cap & trade. Right now conservative politicians are terrified of crossing the Tea Party. There is an article on this in today’s NYT Magazine. I cannot fond it on line however.
(Note: the numbering of posts is not always correct because item get held up in moderation. Micky’s post is #63 to me b/c my post #49 is still under moderation for some reason.)
From australian public broadcasting…
China Makes Climate Change Top Priority
Chinese delegates have discussed climate change and economic concerns during the opening session of parliament in Beijing. http://www.newslook.com/videos/295422-china-makes-climate-change-top-priority?autoplay=true
Climate Progress should take on a more serious role. Now we merely wring our hands at how our serious climate future is ignored, denied or avoided. We mock politicians whose ignorance of real climate science astounds.
But aren’t there bigger fish to fry, Dr. Joe?
America suffers from a void of leadership on dealing with climate change and preparing for its inevitable impacts. Capitol Hill does not want to offend powerful oil and coal interests, so avoids or mutes effective climate initiatives. The same can be said for the President who only really pitches a climate softball once in a while.
Readers here know this is all to little and much too late. Could Climate Progress fill this void – at least to some extent?
Can’t this blog structure itself to begin a national agenda to do two things: First, build a program plan that would most effectively mitigate increasing green house gas emissions. Second, and probably most importantly, initiate discussion on dealing with the impacts of failure to curb green house gas emissions.
This latter concept represents a true void. No body is doing this.(yes, intelligence agencies may be doing this secretly. But what good are secret plans?)
Why not Climate Progress? This blog puts out more solid scientific, realistic information on climate and what it will precipitate than anything I have seen anywhere.
I visited our national museum of natural science in Washington and found no mention anywhere of global warming. How’s that for Washington political correctness!
Dr. Joe, you could play a vital role preparing the nation for that inevitable day when it gets blindsided (thanks to the silence and outright misleading news we get) with the full impacts of global warming.
Now the nation has no ideas, no plans of what to do or where to turn when lethal tilting sets in. Climate Progress could change that.
[JR: I'm trying.]
Colorado bob, Perth having similar night time hot records.we in NW have also recently experienced similar.
Creepy is right, you get the feeling that we are transitioning through a state change at the 1998/2005/2010 temps.
We will push right through probably in 2012 which is predicted to be warmest yet.
500 yr events are probably going to be returning on decal scales judging by what happens when we touch these peak temps so far and the current frequency that they have been occurring at.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2011/03/05/calgary-new-oil-boom-alberta.html
Political instability in Africa has brought Alberta’s oil and gas industry roaring back to pre-recession levels, experts say.
Some sense at last! China’s eating everyones lunch…
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=186433308059629&id=139434822741700
Ministers will be ordered to adopt urgent measures to wean the country off oil, amid rising concern that the Libya crisis has left the economy exposed to a dramatic rise in fuel prices.
And in another extraordinary move, non-governmental organisations, including Greenpeace, will be asked to play a monitoring role to ensure progress across each department is maintained.
In a speech last week, Huhne warned that China was pouring money into developing a low-carbon economy while Britain lagged behind. “China will build 24 nuclear power stations in the time it takes us to build one. By 2020, their nuclear capacity will have increased tenfold,” he said. “They will lay 16,000km of high-speed rail track in the time it takes us to go from London to Birmingham.
@30 Some European:
“Arctic sea ice extent has increased again. Some people were shouting hooray a few days ago when they spotted a downward ‘trend’. Let’s not fall into the trap of cherry-picking like the deniers do.
Look at the graph again.
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_stddev_timeseries.png
It ain’t over till the fat lady sings.”
Some European, I’ve checked the graph. One way or the other it’s trivial. The fat lady has been singing for thirty years.
Mickey ” could the lack of sea ice in the Arctic be the cause of AO and NAO being extremely negative or is this just a coincidence.”
Yes.
Cold winter in a world of warming?
…James Overland suggested that there are more cold and snowy winters to come. He argued that the exceptionally cold snowy 2009-2010 winter in Europe had a connection with the loss of sea-ice in the Arctic. The cold winters were associated with a persistent ‘blocking event’, bringing in cold air over Europe from the north and the east.
Vladimir Petoukhov and Vladimir Semenov, argue that Global Warming could cool down winter temperatures over Europe, and a reduced sea-ice extent could increase the chance of getting cold winters. Also they propose that cold winters are associated with the atmospheric circulation (see schematic below), and their press-release was based on a paper in Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR), which may seem to have a serendipitous timing with the cold spell over Europe during the last weeks. However, the original manuscript was submitted in november 2009 (before the statement made by James Overland) and accepted in May 2010. One could regard the paper more as a ‘prediction’ rather than an ‘explanation’.
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2010/12/cold-winter-in-a-world-of-warming/
Glory (not to) be
This morning one of the most important (and most delayed) satellite launches in ages took place. The mission was to launch the Glory satellite into a polar orbit, where three key instruments would have been looking at solar irradiance, aerosols and clouds. Unfortunately, one of the stages failed to separate and the satellite did not make orbit.
The irradiance measurements were to be an important continuation of the SORCE mission results, and are needed to stably continue the Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) timeseries. However the big new measurements were those associated with the Aerosol Polarimeter Sensor (APS). A similar instrument has flown in space twice before (the French-developed POLDER instrument), but unfortunately only for short periods. Its uniqueness lies in its ability to detect aerosols over bright surfaces (like land), and more importantly, to distinguish what kind of aerosols it is seeing. (Update: There is a third POLDER instrument, PARASOL, that is currently in orbit, see comments).
It may seem surprising, but despite many different attempts, almost all remote sensing of aerosols from space is only capable of detecting the total optical depth of all aerosols. MISR can provide some discrimination in special cases (picking out dust via a retrieval of non-spherical particles, or using the single scattering albedo to distinguish black carbon), but overall the estimates mix up sulphates, dust, black carbon, sea salt, nitrates and secondary organics. These originate from different processes, have different properties and different impacts on both radiation and clouds. Sea salt comes from sea spray over the oceans, dust from dry desert areas, black carbon from burning of forests and fossil fuels, sulphates derive from ocean plankton and burning coal, nitrates derive from fertiliser use, car exhausts and lightning, and secondary organics come from the stew of volatile organic compounds from industrial and natural sources alike. There are also pollen, and fat particles from outdoor cooking etc.
Because we can’t easily distinguish what’s what from space, we don’t have good global coverage of exactly how much of the aerosol is anthropogenic, and how much is natural. That uncertainty is a big player in the overall uncertainty in the human caused aerosol radiative forcing. Similarly, we have not been able to tell how much of the aerosol is capable of interacting with liquid or ice clouds (which depends on the different aerosols’ affinity for water), and that impacts our assessment of the aerosol indirect effect. These uncertainties are reflected in the model simulations of aerosol concentrations which all show similar total amounts, but have very different partitions among the different types.
The APS technology is a big step forward on these issues. It turns out that while the reflected SW from many different aerosols is similar, the polarisation of that reflected light depends quite strongly on what kind of aerosol it is. This varies depending on the angle at which the light is shining, So by scanning through the angles and measuring the polarisation, we can get a better constraint on the distribution of key aerosols. Scientists have already been working with aircraft mounted versions of the instrument, and this will continue.
The story of how this launch actually happened is very long and twisted, and needless to say, has taken far longer than anyone envisaged at the start (over a decade ago). With the failure to make orbit this morning, the wait will unfortunately go on.
This is of course a huge setback for the mission team (many of whom I know), and I can only imagine how frustrating this must be. The loss of OCO two years ago was due to a similar problem, though 3 launches since then have been successful (and the same system is being replicated as OCO-2). With the postponement of CLARREO in the proposed 2012 budget, there is a huge hole building in the US contribution to Earth and Sun observing systems.
Working from space is hard, expensive and risky. We cannot take it for granted, and yet we need that information more than ever.
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2011/03/glory-not-to-be/
UK coastline facing problems with anticipated sea level rise reported in The Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/06/climate-change-coastline-joseph-rowntree
#Prokaryotes, “Working from space is hard, expensive and risky. We cannot take it for granted, and yet we need that information more than ever.”
Don’t tell the NASA guys, but you may get some similar information safely and for about ten bucks, by reading Lovelock’s latest book, “The vanishing face of Gaia”…
Fact Free Science, bf Judith Warner, NYT Magazine
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/magazine/27FOB-WWLN-t.html
Some conservatives argue that the Republican war on science is bad politics and that catering to the “climate-denier sect” in the party is a dangerous strategy, as David Jenkins, a member of Republicans for Environmental Protection wrote recently on the FrumForum blog. Public opinion, after all, has not kept pace with Republican rhetoric on the topic of climate change. A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted in January found that 83 percent of Americans want Congress to pass legislation promoting alternative energy, and a recent poll by the Opinion Research Corporation found that almost two-thirds want the Environmental Protection Agency to be more aggressive.
Cemtrails were on hold Friday just in
case Glory made it into orbit?
It was an unusually clear day here.
Why not use this new toy to “deliver” aerosol measurement devices?
X-37B, super-secret experimental Air Force space plane, launches into orbit
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/03/06/2011-03-06_x37b_supersecret_experimental_air_force_space_plane_launches_into_orbit.html
Seriously
Or maybe they already do this, lol?
On the bottom line isn’t it possible to scale a balloon size accordingly to the satellite weight?
Space Balloon – Stratosphere Spacecraft Launched From Newburgh, NY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6ZMscMp8UM
With incompetants like this in charge is it any wonder that green energy faces an uphill battle?
“Grand dream loses sheen in glare of daylight. L.A. community colleges’ green energy plan proves wildly impractical. The blunders cost taxpayers $10 million.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-build6-20110306,0,4909175.story
The limits of evidence-based marketing by Seth Godin (one of my favorite marketing folks)
He has some ideas this morning of how to convince people to change their behavior when they won’t listen to the science or the facts.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/03/the-limits-of-evidence-based-marketing.html
Climate change takes toll on coffee growers, drinkers too
Shifting temperatures and erratic rainfall are taking a toll on the lucrative coffee crop in Costa Rica. Yields are way down, part of the reason coffee drinkers here are paying more for their morning cup.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2014412762_climatechange06.html
Climate is what we expect,
weather is what we get.
-Mark Twain
Climate Hawks should check out ‘The Climate Show’ podcast (you can subscribe through itunes), the last episode was good, they had Kevin Trenberth and John Cook on.
Extremists always forget human nature. That’s why their solutions will never work.
“Extremists always forget human nature. That’s why their solutions will never work.”
That’s why Gaddaffi could rule 42 years?
Breaking!
New Zealand Quake Dominates A Busy Global Catastrophe Month http://www.propertycasualty360.com/2011/03/04/new-zealand-quake-dominates-a-busy-global-catastro
Greenland update for 2010: record melting and a massive calving event
No humans were present on the morning of August 4, 2010, in a remote fjord in Northwest Greenland, when the air vibrated with a thunderous crack as one of the largest icebergs in world history calved from the Petermann Glacier, the island’s second largest ocean-terminating glacier. Where the glacier meets the sea, a 43 mile-long tongue of floating ice existed at the beginning of 2010. On August 4 2010, a quarter of this 43 mile-long tongue of floating ice fractured off, spawning a 100 square mile ice island four times the size of Manhattan, with a thickness half that of the Empire State building. According to Andreas Muenchow, associate professor of physical ocean science and engineering at the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, the freshwater stored in this ice island could have kept the Delaware or Hudson rivers flowing for more than two years, or kept all U.S. public tap water flowing for 120 days. There was speculation that the ice island could find its way into the open Atlantic Ocean in two years, and potentially pose a threat to oil platforms and ships. However, as the ice island made its turn to get from the narrow Petermann Fjord to enter Nares Strait between Greenland and Canada, the mighty iceberg split into thousands of small icebergs that will not pose an unusual threat to shipping when they emerge into the Atlantic.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1757
Study: Most Plastics Leach Hormone-Like Chemicals
Most plastic products, from sippy cups to food wraps, can release chemicals that act like the sex hormone estrogen, according to a study in Environmental Health Perspectives.
The study found these chemicals even in products that didn’t contain BPA, a compound in certain plastics that’s been widely criticized because it mimics estrogen.
The new study doesn’t look at health risks. It simply asks whether common plastic products release estrogen-like chemicals other than BPA.
The researchers bought more than 450 plastic items from stores including Walmart and Whole Foods. They chose products designed to come in contact with food — things like baby bottles, deli packaging and flexible bags, says George Bittner, one of the study’s authors and a professor of biology at the University of Texas, Austin.
Then CertiChem, a testing company founded by Bittner, chopped up pieces of each product and soaked them in either saltwater or alcohol to see what came out.
The testing showed that more than 70 percent of the products released chemicals that acted like estrogen. And that was before they exposed the stuff to real-world conditions: simulated sunlight, dishwashing and microwaving, Bittner says. http://www.npr.org/2011/03/02/134196209/study-most-plastics-leach-hormone-like-chemicals
IS the RACE or even (Entire Earth) ALREADY DOOMED?
JK #14: The NYTimes article also says that David Koch became interested in cancer research when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The problem with MIT/PBS etc. accepting funds from Koch Industries or Stanford accepting funds from ExxonMobil is the stifling of dissent that occurs. Anyone in those institutions vociferously criticizing these “benefactors” will feel the subtle pressure to shut up. Therefore, all corporate donations should rightly be viewed as hush money.
Prokaryotes #93: Thanks for the link to the NPR report. Here’s Manfred Max-Neef on what needs to happen for us to reverse course: it is based on five postulates and one fundamental value principle for the new economy that needs to be built:
One, the economy is to serve the people and not the people to serve the economy.
Two, development is about people and not about objects.
Three, growth is not the same as development, and development does not necessarily require growth.
Four, no economy is possible in the absence of ecosystem services.
Five, the economy is a subsystem of a larger finite system, the biosphere, hence permanent growth is impossible.
And the fundamental value to sustain a new economy should be that no economic interest, under no circumstance, can be above the reverence of life.
More in this Democracy Now interview with Amy Goodman:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/22/chilean_economist_manfred_max_neef_us
Cindy Sheehan lets it rip in her second edition of Myth America:
http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/2010/07/ordering-info-for-myth-america-pdf-file.html
You can preview the first chapter of her book here:
http://www.ipdop.org/myth_america_II_cindy_sheehan_promo.pdf
730 days worth of rain in 2 days.
The town of Bedourie in south west Queensland is likely to be isolated by flood waters for the next six weeks after an amazingly wet weekend in which they recieved twice their average annual rainfall in two days.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/07/3156670.htm
Point #1 – Earth Overshoot day this year will be August 21st. For the remainder of the year we borrow from next year. http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/earth_overshoot_day/ As a planet we first went into debt in 1976. Each recession helps but only marginally, so each year this day keeps getting earlier and earlier. Sounds a lot like the giant Ponzi scheme that is the stock market.
But it seems as if we can’t talk about this stuff now because we have to get our economy back on track. That means moving the ecological debt earlier and earlier in the year.
Point #2 – Too much of government is departmental and doesn’t work together. I think that if people were to get out of their cars and into buses and trains they would walk more. This would improve their health. But that would mean the transporation department would have to talk to the health department and then cross town (in a bus) to talk to the environment department.
Point #3 – Help, my federal government in Ottawa is turning into a petrostate. But lest I forget that my lifestyle is paid for by the tar sands. Help!
According to an article in the latest Sierra magazine, China now burns around 3 billion tons of coal per year.
Does not look good.
Spencer’s satellite temperature page shows sea surface temperatures going straight up, pretty much since the beginning of the year. In fact, 2011 has now reached the warmest day of the year in 2009 (which occurs in March) and will soon be warmer than every year except 2010 (and 1998, which isn’t shown).
http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/amsutemps.html
The trend in equatorial Pacific heat content is also very interesting:
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/intraseasonal/heat_tlon.shtml
Sailesh Rao “Five, the economy is a subsystem of a larger finite system, the biosphere, hence permanent growth is impossible.”
Economy is a subsystem of a the Earth Sphere system, the biosphere, hence permanent growth is very limited there. Growth is possible once you leave the biosphere or when you adjust the value of grow.
Example, you play this civilization evolution game and now is the point to decide to expand or invest into technology upgrades. Because we depend very on earth we have first to advance further, hence upgrades.
11th Hour Time Capsule on Tree Media
and on Utube
gee they know how to talk too.
Raul M and others: The full length documentary “The 11th Hour” is available online at:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/11th-hour/ (albeit with spoken descriptive subtitles for the blind)
The YouTube segments, as far as I can tell, are only for the Time capsules of the scientists/activists interviewed.
I wish CP could be involved in resurrecting interest in this film. We wring our hands and opine that we can’t reach folks with the impending climate chaos predictions, and this immensely well made docufilm sits in warehouses.
The reason I’m primed and pumped to promote it is due to its accessibility to regular folks. No science degree needed to understand it. It has mostly friendly faces and speaking tones, powerful images, plus a nice section on clean tech in the immediate future.
350now-
Thank-you, well said.
JR, yes you are trying – and bringing some excellent material to the attention of readers. Thank you for that. That certainly represents a success.
What I am posing is the next step for Climate Progress to fill the leadership void, particularly in thinking and planning for failure to curb CO2 emissions.
How will the highly likely impacts of that failure unfold? What are the best options for government response? What preparation should begin now to carry out that response?
This sums up the gaping void in thinking and planning. Maybe politics makes this kind of thinking impossible for an American political party or politician.
No such obstacle faces Climate Progress.