gregladen | January 29, 2014There are a number of arguments against building the Keystone XL Pipeline, but there is only one that counts. We have to keep the carbon in the ground. Building the pipeline is not that.
We've discussed this before.
There is now short video ad from Keystone Truth that makes a more specific argument. It isn't really an argument against building it (see above for that) but rather, a more detailed look at what Keystone XL involves, putting a finer edge, perhaps, on why it should be opposed by Americans. The ad, titled "Sucker Punch - Keystone Truth," is designed to inform Americans that they…
gregladen | January 28, 2014The Wayzata High School Science Bowl Team was acknowledged today in the Congress of the United States of America:
Yes, that "Amanda" is my Amanda!
gregladen | January 27, 2014I'll admit right away at being cynical about the chemical industry, so I look suspiciously at information sent to me by the American Chemical Society. (Something comes from them every day.) But chemistry is science, and you need to know more about it and to see how it relates to your day to day existence. In this case, "Without Chemistry The Middle Class Lifestyle Would Possibly Be A Little Less Good ..."
What am I talking about? Have a look at this interesting video, the first in a series of chemistry life hacks, from the American Chemical Association:
"Without chemicals, you are less…
gregladen | January 27, 2014First, we had giant catfish eating pigeons (remember this?). Now, we have scientifically confirmed reports of tiger fish eating swallows on the wing. The pigeons were just standing around on the beach, but these swallows are fast moving birds in flight being snatched out of the air as they forage over the lake's surface. Please visit my latest post on 10,000 Birds, where I write a monthly thing: Swallows, Swallowed.
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Photo Credit: brian.gratwicke via Compfight cc
gregladen | January 26, 2014I had heard it was warm in Alaska, but holy moly, I didn't know it was THIS warm. Above is an anomaly map showing the Drunken Arctic Air in central and eastern Canada and the US in contrast with the very (relatively) warm air over western Canada and Alaska. Remember, these are anomalies, not absolute temperatures. But still, it is warm enough in at least parts of Alaska that lakes that are normally well frozen by now are not frozen at all and may not even freeze this winter.
Here are photographs taken by A.M.Mueller on January 25th 2014 in Skilak Lake, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and passed…
gregladen | January 26, 2014First, there is no hiatus. Climate science skeptics claim that warming stopped in 1998. It didn't. Stefan Rahmstorf has a nice post placing 2013 in context with the most recent data, HERE. Just click the "translate" button to read it in your favorite language.
UPDATE: Stefan's post is now HERE on Real Climate, in English.
Stefan has a bunch of great graphics that you will enjoy. Following his lead I've decided to make a graphic or two myself.
First, the data. NASA has this data to which people often refer when discussing global warming. I took that database and fixed it up a bit. I…
gregladen | January 26, 2014Bill Gates has this thing called Gates Letter addressing three myths:
Poor Countries Are Doomed To Stay Poor
Foreign Aid Is A Big Waste
Saving Lives Leads To Overpopulation
That these are myths is discussed in detail HERE.
In a related project, Bill Nye has made this video dispelling an overlapping set of myths:
And here's Bill Gates' "Viral Video"
Important cause. Not sure if that video is going to go viral, though.
gregladen | January 25, 2014Paul Douglas from Weather Nation on weather whiplash, the latest on the Polar Vortex, Sochi weather problems. And, the 30-30-30 rule, which is good to know.
Published on Jan 24, 2014
"It seems like the weather, increasingly, is getting stuck." Meteorologist Paul Douglas explains this weather pattern that seems to be stuck in a rut. Swells, drought and a polar vortex! Learn how it is impacting everywhere from Hawaii/Alaska all the way to Europe. The Winter Olympics may feel more like the Summer Olympics!
gregladen | January 21, 2014Look at the rock on the right, and the lack of rock on the left. (Our left.) It is being reported that this jelly-donut size rock appeared out of nowhere on the Martian surface between photographs.
There are several possible explanations for this.
1) It grew there.
2) It was ejected from a steam vent or something and flew there.
3) This is what a Martian looks like. It will eventually move on.
4) The robot that took the first picture tossed the rock up while driving by.
5) It is a jelly donut.
6) The rock was placed there to cover up a footprint.
What do you think?
I love it when stuff…
gregladen | January 19, 2014Published on Jan 17, 2014
Meteorologist Paul Douglas looks at the most expensive weather disasters of 2013. Internationally we saw an all-time high for billion dollar weather events.
While we're on the topic of weather:
gregladen | January 18, 2014Copernicus Publications is an Open Access enterprise that provided the ability for an academic entity of some sort or another to create a new Open Access journal. In March 2013 the journal “Pattern Recognition in Physics" was started up and added to the Copernicus lineup. The journal apparently put out a few items, and then, recently, produced Special Issue 1, called “Pattern in solar variability, their planetary origin and terrestrial impacts." The special issue editors were Nils-Axel Mörner, R. Tattersall, and J.-E. Solheim. Readers of this blog will recognize R. Tattersall as TallBloke,…
gregladen | January 16, 2014Published on Jan 8, 2014
President Obama's Science and Technology Advisor, Dr. John Holdren, explains the polar vortex in 2 minutes—and why climate change makes extreme weather more likely going forward. Learn more at http://wh.gov/climate-change. January 8, 2014.
gregladen | January 15, 2014The Most Impressive Comeback Story You Haven’t Heard
By Ross Chanin & Emilee Pierce
If you read the tech press, you know the scoop: Google just bought Nest Labs (the maker of smart thermostats and smoke detectors) for $3.2 billion. For context, that’s more than three times the amount that Facebook paid for Instagram in last year’s blockbuster deal and Google’s second largest acquisition to date.
What you probably haven't heard is what this megabuy says about the cleantech industry. In fact, you probably haven’t heard that it involves cleantech at all. That’s because the vast majority of…
gregladen | January 15, 2014During the northern Winter, much of the Arctic is covered with sea ice. Some of this ice melts during the summer, then it regrows. Over recent years, the amount of ice loss in the summer has tended to increase, almost every year, year after year. In 2012 the loss of sea ice was extreme, falling for much of the melting and re-freezing cycle below any year seen before.
The year 2013 was also extreme, with more ice melting away in the summer than almost every previous year, but not to the extent seen in 2012.
Climate science denialist used this fact to make up a story. In this case, the word…
gregladen | January 13, 2014This is an interesting interview with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, writer/producer Ann Druyan, and Cosmos Studio president Mitchell Cannold about the new series Cosmos 2014. I am very much looking forward to this series, and it is very much time to make a new Cosmos, and entirely appropriate to do so.
I pretty much agree with everything they say, and I especially like the fact that cosmos 2014 is being produced in part as a reaction to three decades of anti-science activism and propaganda.
I was very disappointed with one thing Ann Druyan said. She made the unqualified (and undocumented) claim that…
gregladen | January 13, 2014UPDATE (March 27 2015): US gives Texan rhino hunter an import permit
A Texan who won an auction to shoot an endangered black rhino in Namibia has been given a US permit to import the trophy if he kills one.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service said hunting an old rhino bull helps to increase the population.
There was an outcry when Corey Knowlton won the auction last year, with animal rights activists decrying it. It's not yet clear when the hunt will happen.
Namibia is home to some 1,500 black rhino, a third of the world's total.
The US agency issuing the permit said that importing the carcass…
gregladen | January 13, 2014Tonight, at 7:00 PM, I'll be giving a talk at the Stillwater Critical Thinking Club on climate change, focusing on sea level rise and weather whiplash. We'll be discussing the Arctic Vortex as part of that.
The Global and Local Impacts of Climate Change
Anthropogenic Climate Change, also misleadingly known as "Global Warming," has emerged as a significant reality affecting societies and economies around the world and at home. In this talk we'll examine the contentious questions of changes in weather patterns and sea level rise. Both of these effects of warming have already had impacts and…
gregladen | January 12, 20144-methylcyclohexane methanol is a chemical used to clean coal before it is burned. As you know a region of southern West Virginia where upwards of 100,000 people live has been affected by a spill of this chemical; the water supply in this area has been made unavailable for human use. A 48,000 gallon storage tank for 4-methylcyclohexane methanol has been leaking the chemical into the Elk River, which is part of the municipal water supply in the area.
Apparently there isn't a lot known about this particular chemical. It's chemical name is scary looking, and resembles the names of other better…
gregladen | January 9, 2014Huh.
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Tattersall, I (2013). Higher taxa: Reply to cartmill Evolutionary Antropology, 22 (6), 293-293 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21393