Climate Change
gregladen | September 26, 2012
Bacon. Photograph by Flickr User Kentbrew
It appears that there is going to be a bacon shortage. It is estimated that the total amount (in poundage, I assume) of swine that will be produced next year will be several percent, about 10% most likely, less than expected. It is said that there will be an approximate doubling of the cost of pork production, not necessarily doubling the cost of bacon and other products at the consumer end, but certainly squeezing the farmers and raising costs in the grocery store significantly. Presumably this will mean a shortage of all pork products, and quite…
gregladen | September 25, 2012Al Gore announces an online event taking place on November 14: 24 Hours of Reality: The Dirty Weather Report:
gregladen | September 17, 2012Michael Mann is reporting this on his facebook page:
Breaking: A victory for science! ATI loses ATI/UVa FOIA case. Judge issues final order. Affirms the university's right to withhold scholarly communications and finds that the documents & personal emails of mine demanded by ATI were indeed protected as the university had contended.
I am gratified for the hard work and vigorous defense provided by the university to protect scholarly communications and raw materials of scholarship. Fortunately Virginia has a strong exemption in the public records act that protects research and scholarly…
gregladen | September 12, 2012Katherine Bagley of InsideClimate News has an interesting commentary on the idea that only in America do climate scientists face organized harassment.
She notes:
The harassment faced by U.S.-based climate scientists has been well documented in the media—but not the harassment of scientists in Europe, Canada or the rest of the world.
That’s because there hasn’t been much to report.
While outspoken scientists of human-caused climate change in the United States endure torrents of freedom of information requests, hate mail and even death threats from skeptics, their counterparts abroad have…
gregladen | September 6, 2012Global Weirdness: Severe Storms, Deadly Heat Waves, Relentless Drought, Rising Seas and the Weather of the Future is a new book on global warming produced by Climate Central which contains ...
...Sixty easy-to-read entries tackle such questions as: Is climate ever “normal”? Why and how do fossil-fuel burning and other human practices produce greenhouse gases? What natural forces have caused climate change in the past? What risks does climate change pose for human health? What accounts for the diminishment of mountain glaciers and small ice caps around the world since 1850? What are the…
gregladen | August 23, 2012There is a relationship between how much CO2 is in the atmosphere and sea level. More CO2 means a warmer atmosphere and that means less long term (glacial) ice and that means more sea water. Also, a warmer planet means the ocean water is warmer, and thus it expands, and that also contributes to sea level rise.
However, there is something of a falsehood generated when we read estimates of sea level rise. The straight forward link between CO2 and sea level (via heating oceans and melting ice) leads to estimates that are very small for sea level rise. We see things like “1.8 mm per year” which…
gregladen | August 18, 2012You all know about CONvergence, and by now you've probably heard about or even seen or heard on the Internet one or more of the many panels that were done this year. But those recordings were impromptu and while useful, they are unpolished.
Also, the panels at CONvergence themselves tend to be informal, unmoderated or moderated by helpful volunteers, and everyone has a hangover. People attending the panels drew on important expertise and experience, but most panels were casual, with little preparation.
But a couple of the panels were different, most notably two panels on Climate Change.…
gregladen | August 15, 2012We are becoming aware of two very important changes in the Arctic that you need to know about. These are separate thing but related, and both are almost certainly the outcome of anthropogenic global warming (AGW). They are:
The sea ice that covers much of the Arctic Sea during the winter is normally reduced during the northern summer, but this year, the reduction has been dramatic. There is less sea ice in the Arctic Circle than recorded in recent history.
The massive continental glacier on Greenland, the largest glacial mass in the Northern Hemisphere, has undergone more melting this…
gregladen | August 4, 2012I'd like to give you a very small selection of references and discussions about the link between global warming and drought.
Global warming probably has two major effects. First, more moisture gets into the atmosphere because warmer air passing over the oceans can take in more water. This can cause more rain and possibly more severe storms and flooding. But the atmospheric system also changes in another way. The hydraulic cycle, as it is called, intensified in both directions, wet and dry. If you live on the East Coast of the US and you move to where I live in the upper Midwest, you'll…
gregladen | August 2, 2012The worst drought in a long time, which is a result of anthropogenic global warming, has caused barges to run aground in Arkansas and Wisconsin shutting down barge traffic at those two points along the enormous inland waterway.
As reported:
It was unclear when the key shipping waterway might be reopened to commercial traffic...
Low water has restricted barge drafts to a lighter-than-normal nine feet and limited barge tows to fewer barges on numerous sections of the Mississippi River.
But even as vessels have lightened their cargo loads, numerous boats have run aground in recent weeks,…
gregladen | July 28, 2012This video looks at the scientific research to answer three basic questions: 1) Was the Medieval Warm Period global? 2) Was it warmer than today? 3) And what does this all mean anyway? I examine the internet feud over the hockey stick and the various myths and misinterpretations about the Medieval Warm Period that seem to be rife on the Internet. My sources for the myths are blogs and videos; my sources for the facts are scientific papers.
gregladen | July 24, 2012I have always felt that sea level rise would be quicker and higher than my colleagues in climate science have suggested. My reasoning for that is simple. Sea level rise has in the past not followed overall climate change in a perfectly simple manner such that the present era has lower sea levels than it should. When this was noticed in the mid 20th century up through the 1970s, in the form of high wave cut benches along various rocky shore lines, the explanations usually invoked moving land masses, such as a continent buoying upwards as it eroded, so the same sea level would cut benches that…
gregladen | July 24, 2012In 2008, John O'Sullivan wrote a novel called "Vanilla Girl," which is actually a big giant blog post on blogger.com, about "A teacher's struggle to control his erotic obsession with a schoolgirl."
Blogger "About" Page of John O'Sullivan, "Vanilla Girl" author and climate change denialist. O'Sullivan was acquitted of sex related charges with exculpatory testimony supplied by his 17 year old step-daughter.
A few years earlier, it appears, the same John O'Sullivan, who was a teacher, was cleared of charges that he had sent 36 "sex txts" to a 16 year old girl within a three week period,…
gregladen | July 20, 2012Joe Romm of Climate Progress gave testimony to the US Congress on the relationship between the release of long-trapped Carbon into the atmosphere through the use of fossil fuels and drying conditions that lead to an increase in wild fires. Joe notes "... we're already topping Dust Bowl temperatures in many places -- and the Earth has warmed only about 1 degree Fahrenheit since the 1930s Dust Bowl. Yet we are poised to warm some 10 degree Fahrenheit this century if we stay on our current path of unrestricted carbon pollution emissions."
Here's the testimony:
gregladen | July 19, 2012In June.
Bill McKibben has an important piece in Rolling Stone about climate change: Global Warming's Terrifying New Math
We probably are having the warmest year ever recorded by science, and one of the warmest years in a couple/few hundred thousand years as recorded by proxyindicators. Bill's piece talks about three "terrifying" numbers: 2 degreec Celsius, 565 Gigatons, and 2795 Gigatons.
And there are other numbers too:
...The week after the Rio conference limped to its conclusion, Arctic sea ice hit the lowest level ever recorded for that date. Last month...Tropical Storm Debby dumped more…
gregladen | July 17, 2012The following letter to Secretary Clinton was released a short while ago. It will be delivered later on this week. Also later on in the week, there will be a place where you can add your comments. Also, there will be a related piece in Rolling Stone's next issue (this week). I imagine there may even be a petition or two! Also, you will find more discussion and other relevant links HERE.
The 350.org web site will have more, and I'll pass on anything I get.
Dear Secretary Clinton,
We are writing to ask that the State Department conduct, as part of its evaluation of the Keystone XL pipeline…
gregladen | June 28, 2012We expected increasing wildfire activity with global warming, and we've got it.
The Waldo Canyon Fire has been burning since June 23rd and as of this writing is essentially out of control, with about 5% of it "contained." Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated. A friend of mine is on house watch as we speak, as various members of her family and her friends from the region have fled the area and are scanning news images for evidence of anything standing (or not) in their neighborhood. Approximately 300 homes are reported to have been burned down yesterday, I have not herd any…
gregladen | June 7, 2012Peter Gleick has been reinstated in his position as president of the Pacific Institute.
The Pacific Institute is pleased to welcome Dr. Peter Gleick back to his position as president of the Institute. An independent review conducted by outside counsel on behalf of the Institute has supported what Dr. Gleick has stated publicly regarding his interaction with the Heartland Institute. This independent investigation has further confirmed and the Pacific Institute is satisfied that none of its staff knew of or was involved in any way.
Dr. Gleick has apologized publicly for his actions, which are…
gregladen | May 21, 2012Peter Gleick has been cleared of faking a key memo. Who is Peter Gleick, and what is this memo of which we speak? Here is a refresher of events over the last 3 1/2 months:
You will recall that last February 14th, we were all given an interesting Valentine's Day present: A cache of documents had been acquired from the Heartland Institute, and these documents revealed important details about Heartland's effort to interfere with science education and otherwise agitate and lobby to promote climate science denialism. The documents were released to the public by an as then unknown activist, and…
gregladen | May 8, 2012... and it is starting to look like they are mainly tilting at windmills, but still:
Confidential memo seen by Guardian calls for climate change sceptics to turn American public against solar and wind power...
A network of ultra-conservative groups is ramping up an offensive on multiple fronts to turn the American public against wind farms and Barack Obama's energy agenda....
A number of rightwing organisations, including Americans for Prosperity, which is funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, are attacking Obama for his support for solar and wind power. The American Legislative Exchange…