climate change
illconsidered | May 8, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 90
Table of Contents
Chapter 92
Chapter 91
Second Tour, August 30, 2060
The second tour was supposed to be primarily photographic. No stopping for samples meant it would be shorter as well, only four or five weeks.
I met my pilot in Churchill again. This time it was a taciturn fellow named Louis Lasseur. He flew the plane and kept his mouth shut. After listening to JJ go on and on about nothing for hours, I didn't mind in the least. I can live with no nonsense.
We encountered the anomaly on the 13th day. It stood out like a sore thumb as we…
pgleick | May 6, 2014Snapshots from the New National Climate Assessment
After three years of intensive effort, research, writing, and review by hundreds of climate scientists, the latest update of the U.S. National Climate Assessment was released today. It includes many long, carefully prepared sectoral and regional studies, and covers the massive range of effects of climate change on the nation, including both changes already observed and expected in the future.
There are hundreds of pages of information, observations, projections, and conclusions to absorb – almost all of it bad news. Here, in short form and in…
illconsidered | May 5, 2014This 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 Disruption News
Information is not Knowledge...Knowledge is not Wisdom
May 4, 2014
Chuckles, COP20+, Post WGx, EGU, Landslide, Energiewende
Bottom Line, Subsidies, Economics, EcoCrime, Cook
Fukushima: Note, News
Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics
Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, Land Grabs, GMOs, GMO Labelling, Production
Hurricanes, Monsoon, Notable Weather, Extreme Weather, New Weather…
illconsidered | May 5, 2014In the video below Gavin Schmidt gives a "TED Talk" on climate models, taking us from an overview of their construction to the resulting emergent processes and their skill at reproducing much more than a global average temperature trend.
Gavin is an excellent communicator and a true hero in humanity's fight against itself over the impending and tragic disruption of our global ecosystem services. Well worth the 12 or so minutes to watch!
illconsidered | May 1, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 89
Table of Contents
Chapter 91
Chapter 90
Ecology 330 -- Extinction, July 7, 2060
I only had time for a few weeks of classes while I was back. The students were eager to hear of my exploits in the North and what I had learned about EF1. I related several tales and then brought them back to course content.
"The subject of this lecture can be disturbing. When I first started to study the patterns of life on Earth, I several times found myself unnerved at contemplating extinction --- the deaths of so many life forms.
"It is important to realize…
illconsidered | April 28, 2014(featured image taken from here)
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 27, 2014
Chuckles, COP20+, Post WG3, Earth Day, Earth Year, Energiewende
Bottom Line, Pricing Nature, Crap Detector, Cook
Fukushima: Note, News, Policies
Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica
Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, Food Riots, Agro Corps, GMO Labelling, Production
Hurricanes, Monsoon, Notable Weather, Forecasts, GHGs,…
illconsidered | April 22, 2014This 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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Sipping from the Internet Firehose...
April 20, 2014
Chuckles, Invective, Pix, COP20+, Post WG3, Wang et al., Murder, Energiewende
Bottom Line, Subsidies, World Bank, EcoCrime, Cook
Fukushima: Note, News, Policies
Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, OSSI, Land Grabs, GMOs, GMO Labelling, Production
Hurricanes, Notable Weather, GHGs, C Cycle, N Cycle, Aerosols,…
illconsidered | April 18, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 87
Table of Contents
Chapter 89
Chapter 88
Going North, June 15, 2060
I was worried about going North and leaving Edie alone while she was pregnant.
She had another opinion. "Don't be silly. I'm a big girl, Luc." She took my hand and held it to her barely showing stomach. "I can take care of myself, besides I have Anna and my friends to protect me. You go and do what you have to do."
She had that look about her. I knew it would be no use arguing. We compromised by arranging for Mark, the share-crop gardener, to check in when he did the garden…
illconsidered | April 15, 2014So, the bad news is that it is looking increasingly likely that the world will experience a very strong El Nino event this 2014-2015 winter (winter in the N. hemisphere, summer down under). There is even talk of a super-El Nino, one to rival 1998's phenomenal event. Lots of good information on that here at P3. Some forecasters are now putting the odds at 70%.
Model ensemble predictions showing a coming El Nino
The repercussions for global and regional weather are very large, there will be winners and losers, though as with climate change impacts in general, the wins are no match for the…
illconsidered | April 14, 2014This 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 Confronting a New Age of ConsequencesApril 13, 2014 Chuckles, COP20+, COP15, WG3 Report, WG3 Comments, WG3 Leaks, WG2 Carbon Limit, Statistics, Energiewende Bottom Line, Subsidies, World Bank, CookFukushima: Note, News, Policies Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Methane, Geopolitics, AntarcticaFood: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, GMOs, GMO Labelling, Production Hurricanes, Notable Weather, GHGs, Carbon Cycle, Aerosols,…
illconsidered | April 10, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 86
Table of Contents
Chapter 88
Chapter 87
The Chinese Girlfriend, April 15, 2060
At the end of an Ecology 110 lecture the other day, Carman unobtrusively entered the back of the room and sat down. I was going through the history of DNA reading devices from Sanger and the discovery of Polymerase Chain Reaction [PCR] through the first microarrays to the terahertz readers and cascades of today.
I finished up by mentioning I would be away for most of the summer trimester on my trip North to document EF1.
After the class, Carman walked up to me. "…
pgleick | April 9, 2014California, and much of the southwestern US, is in a severe drought. Again.
And as appropriate, there is growing debate about what we, as citizens, communities, corporations, and governments should do to tackle water shortages and the bigger question of sustainable water policy. Suggestions range from the large-scale and comprehensive (build more dams, transfer more water from farther and farther away, rethink the entire agricultural sector, use high-quality treated wastewater to meet certain needs) to the small-scale and local (replace your lawns and inefficient water-using fixtures, stop…
gregladen | April 8, 2014Ugo Bardi is a scientist who until a few moments ago served as Chief Specialty Editor at the journal Frontiers. As you know, Frontiers has recently retracted a perfectly good paper, initially indicating that the retraction was due to pressure from the climate science denialist community, who did not like the paper because it was about them. Later, Frontiers changed its tune and claimed that the paper was retracted because of ethical violations of the authors, even though the journal had earlier clearly stated that there were no issues, ethical or otherwise, with the paper. I talk about…
illconsidered | April 7, 2014This 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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Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years
April 6, 2014
Chuckles, COP20+, GCF, WG2 Report, WG2 Implications, WG2 Reactions
WG3, Energiewende, Bottom Line, World Bank, Cook, Shrinkology
Fukushima: Note, News, Policies
Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, GMO Labelling, Production
Hurricanes, Notable Weather, Extreme Weather, New Weather
GHGs, Aerosols, Volcanoes. Weather…
illconsidered | April 4, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 85
Table of Contents
Chapter 87
Chapter 86
And Baby Makes Four, March 18, 2060
At the next UNGETF meeting, Rhamaposa reported that Group 12 was sponsoring an Arctic sunbug project. He didn't have a lot of details, just that Group 12 had contracted with Graves and Lorenz LLC to do the work.
"What you will hear in the media is a dispute with local Inuit over the location of the ground receiving station. Like all colonized peoples, they have a long history of fighting the powers that be."
I had sent Peter a report on my investigation of the…
illconsidered | April 1, 2014This 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 is not Knowledge...Knowledge is not Wisdom
March 30, 2014
Chuckles, COP20+, WG2, Earth Hour, WMO, Ponder
CSLDF, Change?, Energiewende, Bottom Line, Cook
Fukushima: Note, News, Policies
Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica
Food: Crisis, Fisheries, Prices, GMOs, Production
Hurricanes, Notable Weather, Forecasts, Extreme Weather, New Weather
GHGs, Aerosols, Weather Machine, Climate…
illconsidered | March 26, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 84
Table of Contents
Chapter 86
Chapter 85
Tephra, February 3, 2060
I got a late night call from Rhamaposa that shocked me awake. "I just wanted to check how you were coming with that Cambridge Bay inquiry," he said.
With a sinking feeling, I realized that between my funk and the holidays, it had completely slipped my mind.
For a second, I considered a Matt-style gambit, but I opted to come clean. "I'm sorry, Peter. I have been a little overloaded and haven't got around to it yet."
He took this admission in stride and signed off saying, "Okay…
illconsidered | March 24, 2014This 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 RecognitionEquinox EditionMarch 23, 2014 Chuckles, COP20+, WWD, WWK, WG2 Leak, Triage, Warnings, CSLDF, Energiewende, CookFukushima: Note, News Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, AntarcticaFood: Crisis, Fisheries, Svalbard, Land Grabs, GMOs, Production Hurricanes, Notable Weather, Forecasts, New Weather GHGs, Aerosols, Feedbacks, ENSO, Temperatures Paleoclimate, Attribution, Oceans…
dr. dolittle | March 21, 2014 Credit: Image courtesy of Stanford University Medical Center, from ScienceDaily
According to a press release from Stanford University, California sea lions develop epilepsy from exposure to a toxin produced by algae called domoic acid. The animals develop seizures which can result in memory loss, tremors, convulsions and even death. The hippocampal region in the brain of the affected sea lions shows similar damage as humans with epilepsy, with losses of about 50 percent of neurons. Dr. Paul Buckmaster, professor of comparative medicine at Stanford was quoted as saying, "We found there was…
illconsidered | March 19, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 83
Table of Contents
Chapter 85
Chapter 84
The Sorceror's Apprentice, January 27, 2060
A couple of days after the December UNGETF meeting, I got a call from Drew Matheson in Yellowknife. He was a field worker slash forester reporting to Group10. Behind him as we talked I could see great swathes of lichen, covering a stand of pine trees. I assumed it was EF1 --- it was blue-grey.
He wanted to know if I had investigated the interactions of EF1 and northern pine before I released it.
When I admitted that I hadn't, he looked more annoyed than…