
The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 34
Table of Contents
Chapter 36
Chapter 35
Prometheus, March 8, 2056
To be honest, the Group 2 debacle was more of a public relations disaster than an ecological one. The damage was dramatic, but relatively restricted. Within 48 hours someone leaked the hazmat team video on the internet and all hell broke loose. The media were all over us.
Rhamaposa survived only with the intervention of the Secretary General and several heads of state, including the Asian Union and the USSA. I have no proof, but I'm sure they knew of the pressure exerted by…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
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Information Overload is Pattern Recognition
April 7, 2013
Chuckles, Fools, COP19+, MDGs, Critical Decade, Bintanja, Marcott, Warnings
Subsidies, World Bank, WTO, Cook
Fukushima: Note, News, Related Papers
Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
Food Crisis, Fisheries, GMOs, Food Production
Hurricanes, Notable Weather, Extreme Weather, New Weather, GHGs,…
The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 33
Table of Contents
Chapter 35
Chapter 34
Group 2 Disaster, February 17, 2056
At the next UNGETF conference, we were given an interim report on Corella Corporation activities on behalf of Group 2. They were using balloons to hoist tons of sulphur pellets for release in the stratosphere. It was fully automated. No people went aloft. The cargo was dispersed from a series of vents along the bottom of a V-shaped gondola. When the drop was complete, the balloon turned on a transponder and vented hydrogen to drop lower in the atmosphere.
The…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck YearsThis weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
skip to bottom Sipping from the Internet Firehose...March 31, 2013 Chuckles, COP19+, North Korea, WSF, PES, Sensitivity Missing Heat, Marcott, Warnings, Subsidies, HSBC, Cook Fukushima Note, Fukushima News Melting Arctic, Megafauna, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food Crisis, Fisheries, Food vs. Biofuel, GMOs, Food Production Hurricanes, Notable Weather, Extreme Weather, New Weather GHGs, Carbon Cycle…
The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 32
Table of Contents
Chapter 34
Chapter 33
Jon Visits, January 27, 2056
On Sunday Jon called to say he would be dropping around to visit next week. The Senator was scheduled to hold a series of meetings with Provincial and First Nation leaders. He didn't know when he would be free, but he would make a point of seeing us.
I felt a little odd being just another scheduling point in my brother's busy life, but I resolved not to let it put me off. Anna was running a fever and Edie was tired, so I didn't have time to dwell on it.
On Tuesday, when I…
Jeff Masters reports on these studies:
Grinsted, A., J. C. Moore, and S. Jevrejeva, 2012, "A homogeneous record of Atlantic hurricane surge threat since 1923," PNAS 2012, doi:10.1073/pnas.1209542109
Grinsted, A., J. C. Moore, and S. Jevrejeva, 2012, "Projected Atlantic hurricane surge threat from rising temperatures" PNAS March 18, 2013 201209980, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1209980110
There is a press release here.
And apparently this is on top of the effects from sea level rise, of which rises measured by metres are not out of the question. I believe that a 1 cm rise in sea level equates to a…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
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Another Week of Climate Chaos News
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
March 24, 2013
Chuckles, Equinox, COP19+, WWD, Earth Hour, Marcott, Grinsted
World Bank, Cook, Weathermen
Fukushima Note, Fukushima News
Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Geopolitics, Antarctica
Food Crisis, Fisheries, Food vs. Biofuel, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production
Hurricanes, Monsoon, Notable Weather…
The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 31
Table of Contents
Chapter 33
Chapter 32
One Thing After Another, December 14, 2055
The next few days were just one damned thing after another. On Monday, when I walked into Ecology 550, a spontaneous wave of applause broke out.
I held up my hands. "Okay. Okay, listen I'll make you a deal. Hold the applause until after we fix this problem and then we'll all celebrate. We still have a lot of work to do." My statement had just the sobering effect I wanted.
As I looked around the room, I noticed a few faces that didn't belong. Officially the…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
skip to bottom
Another Week of Climate Instability News
Information is not Knowledge...Knowledge is not Wisdom
March 17, 2013
Chuckles, COP19+, CITES, JOGMEC, Marcott
Bottom Line, Subsidies, Cook
Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Anniversary, Nuclear Policy
Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
Food Crisis, Fisheries, Food Prices, GMOs, Food Production
Hurricanes,…
What do they have in common? Apparently some methodologies, uncovered by the hacktivist group Anonymous.
Details can be found in an interesting, if dense, article at The Nation, which describes how Anonymous revealed dealings the Chamber of Commerce was having with a Cyber Security firm that did not limit itself to defensive measures.
Attorneys for the Chamber were caught negotiating for a contract to launch a cyber campaign using practically identical methods to those attributed to the Chinese, which reportedly could be used to cripple vital infrastructure and plunder trade secrets from…
While this is not strictly relevant to climate (nor a new story), it is a very compelling and interesting illustration of why corporate media in general, and Fox in particular, can not be trusted with news stories where science intersects with an industry's profitability.
As mentioned in the video, this is the incident which prompted Fox News to argue in court that they have no obligation to tell the truth, an argument they won. Also, keep in mind the small percentage of people who would actually choose to lose their jobs and careers rather than just go along and how many buried and…
The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 30
Table of Contents
Chapter 32
Chapter 31
A Convention of Idiots, December 12, 2055
Reality landed right on my shoulders with a thump that evening. I was at home in the library categorizing and prioritizing the Ecology 550 students' geoengineering ideas, when the phone rang. It was from Sri Lanka.
"I'll get it!" I called out.
"Luc."
"Yes. Hello Peter. What's up?" I turned the lights down and sat back in the half light of the video to talk.
"I'm just trying to get a handle on the big picture. I don't know what to think anymore."
He slurred…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
skip to bottom
Another Week of Climate Instability News
Information Overload is Pattern Recognition
March 10, 2013
Chuckles, COP19+, CITES, Angry Summer, Marcott, DLST, Maldives
Bottom Line, Subsidies, Cook, Meteorologists
Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
Food Crisis, Fisheries, Food Prices, Food vs. Biofuel, Land…
(image info and credits)
Fake skeptics of anthropogenic global warming love to set up the straw man that mainstream climate science believes that CO2 is the one and only driver of climate change. They can then use it in many different attacks, such as gee whiz isn't it stupid that they haven't even thought of the sun's influence. This is of course patently false as even the most cursory survey of actual scientific content will quickly reveal. This straw man is also an implicit part of the argument that the "16 year pause" in global warming proves that CO2 is not a climate driver. If CO2…
Headline of the week from NPR. It is worth noting that even if the Republican representative has now apologized for his remarks and admitted they were stupid either because he realizes it or because he has to, he has not changed his position on a special tax on bicycles.
(h/t willard)
The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 29
Table of Contents
Chapter 31
Chapter 30
Platonic Lust, December 12, 2055
Some women engineer their faces. They have studied celebrity, looked at the beautiful and followed the dictates of fashion. Their faces are uniformly flawless. Eyebrows are perfectly plucked to the prescribed trace. Their eyes are highlighted to take advantage of their natural colouration. Their skin is so smooth it could be plastic. In fact, they have turned themselves into living dolls.
The point of the exercise is to raise their market value in the ceaseless and…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
skip to bottom
Another Week of Climate Instability News
Sipping from the Internet Firehose...
March 3, 2013
Chuckles, Sensawunda, COP19+, CITES, Petoukhov, Vaks
Bottom Line, Subsidies, Thermodynamics, Cook
Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
Food Crisis, Fisheries, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production
Hurricanes, Notable…
The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 28
Table of Contents
Chapter 30
Chapter 29
On the Home Front, December 8, 2055
When I got home that afternoon, Edie was in a bit of a state.
"Luc, what is going on?"
"What do you mean?"
"There was a phonecall for you a while ago...from the United Nations!"
I had told her nothing of what I was doing. "Oh. It was probably something to do with the Task Force."
No sooner had I said that than the house phone rang again. I checked the caller ID and it was from the UN.
"Mr. Fontaine? Luc Fontaine?" said a female voice. It was audio only.
"Yes."
"…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup
skip to bottom
Another Week of Climate Disruption News
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
February 24, 2013
Chuckles, JODTAA, COP19+, Bowman vs. Monsanto, Vaks, Warnings, Maldives, Tesla
Bottom Line, Subsidies, WB, Pricing Nature, Thermodynamics, Cook, Meteorologists
Fukushima Note, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy
Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Geopolitics
Food Crisis, Fisheries, SRI,…
The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 27
Table of Contents
Chapter 29
Chapter 28
UNGETF, December 8, 2055
I looked forward to the first meeting of Group 7 with some trepidation. According to my email update it was on the seventh floor of the MacDonald building which housed the municipal offices downtown. I had been there to pay taxes and once to attend a city council meeting, but I had never been above the second floor.
I was required to submit to retinal and DNA scans, on top of which my padd told me the elevator had a built in terahertz scanner. I restrained myself from waving…