climate change

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 Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years October 6, 2013 Chuckles, COP19+, WG1-AR5, AR5 Comments, ASEAN, IPSO, Crux, Fergus Bottom Line, Big Banks, Thermodynamics, Cook Fukushima: Note, News, Policies, Related Papers Melting Arctic, Megafauna, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Land Grabs, GMOs, GMO Labelling, Production Hurricanes, Extreme Weather, New Weather, GHGs, Carbon Cycle,…
The fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was released last week, saying that global warming is occurring without a doubt, and human activity is extremely likely to be the cause.  Greg Laden shares a number of graphics from the report, summarizing "It is getting hotter. It is getting wetter, or dryer, depending on where you are. And the big ice hat our planet wears is falling off."  Peter Gleick collates a number of excerpts related to water on Significant Figures, which say that there are likely more regions getting more rain than less; the frequency of…
The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 59 Table of Contents Chapter 61 Chapter 60 L1 Roustabouts, February 15, 2058 The L1 crew were not like the moon colonists. They were cowboys. We didn't get up-close and web-personal with them. The corporate imagery around them played up rugged individualism and avoided any mention of colonization. They were all young men, no women, no families. Anytime we saw them they were sparring, jousting and joking with each other in good natured bonhomie. Or acting like boy scouts. It was all completely phony. Arguably what the L1 astronauts were doing…
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 Information is not Knowledge...Knowledge is not WisdomSeptember 29, 2013 Chuckles, COP19+, IPCC - SPM, IPCC - Reactions, IPCC - Buildup UNGA CE&C, MDGs, Maldives, Potash, Energiewende Bottom Line, Subsidies, World Bank, Pricing Nature, Cook, ShrinkologyFukushima: Note, News, Policies, Related Papers Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Methane, GeopoliticsFood: Crisis, Fisheries, Land Grabs, GMOs, Production Hurricanes,…
An interview with Michael Mann on metastable shifts in climate: Published on Sep 24, 2013 In recognition of climate week, Thom talks with renowned climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann about the dangers of global warming. Dr. Mann in concerned we may be running out of time to rein in global temperatures.
I've been a guest or interviewer on Minnesota Atheist Talk radio a number of times. I never talk about atheism because I'm nothing close to an expert on that or related issues (though I do have a chapter in a book about it, here!). And, of course, I'm very involved, professionally, in certain church-state separation issues (like this and this). But on Atheist Talk Radio I mainly engage in either science (lately climate change science but also evolution) or the afore mentioned church-state separation issues vis-a-vis the evolution-creationism "debate." Anyway, I've been meaning to finally…
The latest in a long series of science summaries on climate change from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just been released. While the report has a massive amount of information in it, related to a wide range of geophysical implications of climate change, here are some of the key water-related findings for precipitation, evaporation, glaciers, ice mass, and more. While many other findings are reported that have hydrologic implications (such as all the findings related to temperature and warming), I have not usually included them here. Definitions of the confidence of…
The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 58 Table of Contents Chapter 60 Chapter 59 Asteroid Disaster January 27, 2058 Last week I got a late night call from Rhamaposa. He was stone cold sober and didn't waste time with preliminaries. "We've lost contact with the Daedalus group." "What happened?" "We're not sure. We're waiting for the 24 hour summary." Because of the distance and the danger involved, UNGETF had insisted on an automated video summary which would be transmitted by the computer every 24 hours. It was basically a compressed stop-frame video record. The algorithm tracked…
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 Information Overload is Pattern Recognition Equinox Edition September 22, 2013 Equinox, COP19+, IPCC, HMNDP, MDG, EDF, Potash, Maldives, Energiewende Bottom Line, Pricing Nature, Cook, Shrinkology Fukushima: Note, News Melting Arctic, Megafauna, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food: Crisis, Land Grabs, GMOs, Production Hurricanes, Notable Weather, Extreme Weather, New Weather GHGs, Aerosols, Volcanoes,…
The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 57 Table of Contents Chapter 59 Chapter 58 Ecology 110 - Water Vapour, January 6, 2058 Occasionally I am caught flat-footed by questions from students. It is one of the hidden benefits of teaching --- being kept on your toes. Theories of education differ, but generally I aim for the broad middle band. I know there are some impatient, high percentile types who think my lectures slow and pedantic. Just as there is a segment of determined plodders who get through more by hard work than brainpower. Between them ranges the middle group who will…
(Featured image from http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2013-09/14/c_132720300.htm) 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.  I am late because I am traveling.  Normality should resume before next Monday's posting... skip to bottom Sipping from the Internet Firehose... September 15, 2013 Chuckles, COP19+, G20, XPrize, CDP, Germany, Potash Bottom Line, EBRD, Cook Fukushima: Note, News, Policies Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food: Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel,…
The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 56 Table of Contents Chapter 58 Chapter 57 Moonchild, December 11, 2057 The moon consists primarily of iron, aluminum, silicon and manganese, with some calcium and oxygen. Some areas have concentrations of titanium. That was why the Hipparcus crater had been chosen. Once the smelter was set up and they had full power, the mining began in earnest. It was all open pit. They used a large wheeled dragger to scoop up the material. They wanted aluminum and titanium. The lack of free oxygen on the moon made steel production problematic, but aluminum…
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 Chronicling a new Age of Consequences September 8, 2013 Chuckles, COP19+, Guyana, G20, PIF, A Plan, Hiatus, Maldives, Potash Bottom Line, A Change?, Big Banks, Cook Fukushima: Note, News, Related Papers Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, Land Grabs, IP Issues, GMOs, GMO Labelling, Production Hurricanes, Weather Machine, Notable Weather, Extreme Weather Carbon Cycle,…
The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 55 Table of Contents Chapter 57 Chapter 56 Petrov, October 19, 2057 The Daedalus reached Petrov in late September. On the internet a coterie of space enthusiasts and the climate concerned had followed their reports religiously, but until then there was little coverage in the corporate media. For twenty-four hours they were media stars again. The trip had been uneventful, which in the tech-besotted, bloodless language of the space agencies and corporations meant there were no major accidents and nobody died. The asteroid was less than a…
"Being told about the effects of climate change is an appeal to our reason and to our desire to bring about change. But to see that Africans are the hardest hit by climate change, even though they generate almost no greenhouse gas, is a glaring injustice, which also triggers anger and outrage over those who seek to ignore it." -Sigmar Gabriel With all of the scientific issues subject to politicization in this world, there's arguably none that raises such strong emotions as the issue of global warming and climate change. This is the final installment of a three-part series on how one could…
"We make the world we live in and shape our own environment." -Orison Swett Marden If you had never heard of global warming before, how would you figure out whether it's real or not? And if it is real, how would you figure out what humanity's role in it is? To answer this, I've decided to do a three-part series on how you'd go about figuring this out, putting aside all politics, economics, opinion and any other non-scientific factors. If you missed part 1, you can check it out here; today we're going to build on that and talk about what determines the temperature of a planet with an…
The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 54 Table of Contents Chapter 56 Chapter 55 Spacemen, September 11, 2057 From my vantage point in UNGETF, I was able to monitor the activities of the various groups. All year, I heard about rocket launches, mostly by the Swiss-German consortium Brahmaputra, but the odd one was by the L1 construction group Carillon. The Group 6 cloudmakers had their first batch of ships sailing for Antarctica. More of the old tankers were being refurbished weekly. The target number of vessels for north and south had been raised to 600. Sometimes when things don…
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 Information is not Knowledge...Knowledge is not WisdomAugust 25, 2013 Chuckles, COP19+, Overshoot, AR5, Potash Bottom Line, Thermodynamics, CookFukushima: Note, News, Policies, Related Papers Melting Arctic, Harp Seals, Methane, Geopolitics, AntarcticaFood: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, Land Grabs, GMOs, GMO Labelling, Production Hurricanes, Monsoon, Weather Machine, Notable Weather, Extreme Weather, New Weather…
The Bottleneck Years by H.E. Taylor Chapter 53 Table of Contents Chapter 55 Chapter 54 Greenhouse, May 31, 2057 Things were not looking good. At UNGETF, we were all too aware of of the unfolding disasters. The storms and wildfires, the floods and droughts were bad enough, but food production was down again. The methane levels kept rising. Nothing we were doing seemed to have any effect. I left the meeting with a heavy heart. As I headed for home, it was already hot. This was May. When spring starts in February, the season seems to go on forever. Calling April the cruellest month seemed…
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 Overloadis Pattern Recognition August 18, 2013 Chuckles, COP19+, Texas Water, Yasuni, Soot & Methane Bottom Line, GFIs, Thermodynamics, Cook Fukushima: Note, News, Policies, Related Papers Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Food & Revolution, GMOs, Production Hurricanes, Monsoon, Notable Weather, Extreme Weather, New…