Climate Change

[graniteman]

Not a believer in man made ''climate change''. (They had to change the name after they discovered the globe has actaully cooled since 1990's!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...t-Antarctic-sea-ice-hits-new-record-high.html

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Climate change is getting worse. So why is Antarctica’s sea ice expanding?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/poste...se-so-why-is-antarcticas-ice-sheet-expanding/

This year could well see a new record set for the extent of Antarctic sea ice – hot on the heels of last year’s record, which in turn is part of a puzzling 33-year trend in increasing sea ice around Antarctica. Unsurprisingly, these records have provided fodder for those wishing to cast doubt or resist action on climate change.

But far from waving the white flag, or falling on their ice corers, Antarctic sea ice researchers are relishing this grand puzzle of the Southern Ocean. In terms of natural experiments, they don’t come much bigger or more exciting than those unfolding across the Antarctic climate system right now. What’s more, the science is beginning to yield answers.

 

[graniteman]

I just remember as a youngster being told the next Ice Age was on it's way! lol Thought you may be old enough to appreciate that ?

 

[kawilt]

I just remember as a youngster being told the next Ice Age was on it's way! lol Thought you may be old enough to appreciate that ?

Yea...I think there was a book out "BY ICE NOT FIRE"

 

[Michael Scally MD]

NOW AVAILABLE: Two Advanced Learning Resource Guides on Climate Change Science
http://www.uncclearn.org/resource_guides_climate_change_science

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Methane’s Role In Climate Change
Whether natural gas is a savior or destroyer of climate depends on how much is leaking into the atmosphere
http://cen.acs.org/articles/92/i27/Methanes-Role-Climate-Change.html

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Six things to know about Antarctic ice
http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2012/11/six-things-to-know-about-antarctic-ice/

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Rose-colored glasses: Antarctic sea ice is the Mail on Sunday's latest global warming distraction
http://www.theguardian.com/environm...tic-sea-ice-latest-global-warming-distraction

David Rose and The Mail on Sunday produce the most reliable global warming journalism, in the sense that they can be relied upon to consistently misrepresent climate science. Their latest piece focuses on Antarctic sea ice.

You might wonder why we should particularly care about Antarctic sea ice. The answer is that it provides a nice distraction from rapidly declining Arctic sea ice, glaciers around the world, the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, thewarming oceans, the warming atmosphere, and so on. Antarctic sea ice has bucked these trends by modestly increasing in extent and volume.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Kentucky State Senator: Mars Has the Same Temperature as Earth, so Climate Change is a Hoax
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friend...erature-as-earth-so-climate-change-is-a-hoax/

I didn’t realize Kentucky was holding a contest to replace Rep. Louie Gohmert as the http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/08/louie-gohmert-blasts-800-page-wh-report-this-climate-change-was-global-freezing-in-the-1970s/ when it comes to climate change. But apparently they are and they have a candidate who might defeat him: Republican State Senator Brandon Smith:

“I don’t see you as being one of the enemies. I know you’ve got a very tough job to do. As you sit there in your chair with your data, we sit up here in ours with our data and the constituents and stuff behind us. I don’t want to get into the debate about climate change, but I will simply point out that I think in academia, we all agree that the temperature on Mars is exactly as it is here. Nobody will dispute that. Yet there are no coal mines on Mars. There’s no factories on Mars that I’m aware of. So I think what we’re looking at is something much greater than what we’re gonna do.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Climate sceptics are losing their grip
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/46a65844-05f4-11e4-8b94-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=intl

Conducting irreversible experiments with the only planet we have is irresponsible. It would only be rational to refuse to do anything to mitigate the risks if we were certain the science of man-made climate change is bogus. Since it rests on well-established science, it would be ludicrous to claim any such certainty.

On the contrary, any reasonably open-minded reader of the Summary for Policymakers from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change would reach the conclusion that any such certainty on the science would be ludicrous. It is rational to ask if the benefits of mitigation outweigh the costs. It is irrational to deny the plausibility of man-made climate change.

In these debates and indeed in climate policy, the US plays a pivotal role, for four reasons. First, the US is still the world’s second-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, though its 14 per cent share of the global total in 2012 puts it well behind China’s 27 per cent. Second, US emissions per head are roughly double those of leading western European economies or Japan. It would be impossible to persuade emerging economies to curb emissions significantly if the US were not to join in. Third, the US has unsurpassed scientific and technological resources, which will be sorely needed if the world is to tackle the challenge of combining low emissions with prosperity for all. Finally, the US is home to the largest number of passionate and committed opponents of action.

 

[antipcman]

There are American cars getting 12-25% greater gas mileage in Europe than what their vehicles get here (FORD).

Another thing I want to point out is the sorties our fighters do. They not only kill the environment, they also eat tax dollars. Example: a jet that I know of uses $10,000 fuel (JP8) per flight. There are 6 jets that fly and they go up 2x daily. That's $240,000 per day at one base. They do that 4x per week so thats $960,000 a week which comes out to approx $50,000,000 per year for one small base. The training base is 4x that and does night flying as well. So even if night flying is half of a day flight (which it is about the same but just to be optimistic). You're looking at $300 million in a training base. (X= (50mil *4)) optimistic total = x + (X * .5). What pisses me off is that the consumer gets fucked on gas when the government officials fly private jets, drive in armored suburbans and their family gets the same treatment while the military does their bidding..... All for the sake to acquire more oil which if itself burns a lot of resources, and in the end we get fucked and pay them to fuck us.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Alleging 'Malpractice' With Climate Skeptic Papers, Publisher Kills Journal
http://news.sciencemag.org/physics/...limate-skeptic-papers-publisher-kills-journal

A European publisher today terminated a journal edited by climate change skeptics. The journal, Pattern Recognition in Physics, was started less than a year ago. The editors-in-chief were Nils-Axel Mörner, a retired geophysicist from Stockholm University, and Sid-Ali Ouadfeul, a geophysicist at the Algerian Petroleum Institute.

Copernicus Publications, based in Göttingen, Germany, publishes 25 peer-reviewed open-access journals. It specializes in “trict, but fair and transparent peer-review.” The publisher considers proposals for new journals, and, according to a note on its website:

The journal idea was brought to Copernicus' attention and was taken rather critically in the beginning, since the designated Editors-in-Chief were mentioned in the context of the debates of climate skeptics. However, the initiators asserted that the aim of the journal was to publish articles about patterns recognized in the full spectrum of physical disciplines rather than to focus on climate-research-related topics.

Problems cropped up soon afterward. In July, Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado, Denver, noted “serious concerns” with Pattern Recognition in Physics. As he wrote on his blog about open-access publishing, Beall found self-plagiarism by Ouadfeul in the first paper published by the journal, which Ouadfeul co-authored. “Is this the kind of ‘pattern recognition’ the journal is talking about?” Beall quipped. The first five articles in the journal consisted of a pair by Ouadfeul, another two by climate skeptics, and the fifth article had “a significant amount of self-plagiarism.”

Managing Director Martin Rasmussen, who could not be reached for comment, noted on the Pattern Recognition in Physics website that he was concerned by a special issue in December in which the editors concluded that they “doubt the continued, even accelerated, warming as claimed by the IPCC project.” Rasmussen went on to write: “In addition, the editors selected the referees on a nepotistic basis, which we regard as malpractice in scientific publishing.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

The Latest Climate Change Denial Fact Twisting
http://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2014/07/15/the-latest-climate-change-denial-fact-twisting/

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Environmentalists Decry Repeal of Australia’s Carbon Tax
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/18/w...ts-decry-repeal-of-australias-carbon-tax.html

SYDNEY, Australia — Opposition politicians and environmentalists in Australia reacted with dismay Thursday to the country’s repeal of laws requiring large companies to pay for carbon emissions, saying that it made Australia the first country to reverse progress on fighting climate change.

The Senate voted 39 to 32 on Thursday to repeal the so-called carbon tax after Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s conservative government secured the support of a number of independent senators. The House of Representatives had voted earlier in the week to repeal the unpopular measure, which has been a highly contentious issue in Australian politics for seven years.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Report: Climate changing more rapidly than at any point on record
http://news.sciencemag.org/climate/2014/07/report-climate-changing-more-rapidly-any-point-record

A new look at the “vital signs” of Earth’s climate reveals a stark picture of declining health. As global temperatures rise, so do sea level and the amount of heat trapped in the ocean’s upper layers. Meanwhile, mountain glaciers and Arctic sea ice are melting away beneath an atmosphere where concentrations of three key planet-warming greenhouse gases continue to rise.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Tracking the Footprints of the Arctic Methane Monster: Black Craters in the Siberian Tundra, Methane Lacing 2,500 Mile Wide Smoke Plumes Over Gigantic Arctic Wildfires.
http://robertscribbler.wordpress.co...-smoke-plumes-over-gigantic-arctic-wildfires/

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Bruce Molnia's Repeat Photos of Alaska, and What He Says They Reveal About Our World
http://www.weather.com/news/science/environment/alaskas-glaciers-capturing-earth-changing-our-eyes-20131125

 

[Michael Scally MD]

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
http://www.amazon.com/This-Changes-Everything-Capitalism-Climate-ebook/dp/B00JHIDON6/

The most important book yet from the author of the international bestseller The Shock Doctrine, a brilliant explanation of why the climate crisis challenges us to abandon the core “free market” ideology of our time, restructure the global economy, and remake our political systems.

In short, either we embrace radical change ourselves or radical changes will be visited upon our physical world. The status quo is no longer an option.

In This Changes Everything Naomi Klein argues that climate change isn’t just another issue to be neatly filed between taxes and health care. It’s an alarm that calls us to fix an economic system that is already failing us in many ways. Klein meticulously builds the case for how massively reducing our greenhouse emissions is our best chance to simultaneously reduce gaping inequalities, re-imagine our broken democracies, and rebuild our gutted local economies. She exposes the ideological desperation of the climate-change deniers, the messianic delusions of the would-be geoengineers, and the tragic defeatism of too many mainstream green initiatives. And she demonstrates precisely why the market has not—and cannot—fix the climate crisis but will instead make things worse, with ever more extreme and ecologically damaging extraction methods, accompanied by rampant disaster capitalism.

Klein argues that the changes to our relationship with nature and one another that are required to respond to the climate crisis humanely should not be viewed as grim penance, but rather as a kind of gift—a catalyst to transform broken economic and cultural priorities and to heal long-festering historical wounds. And she documents the inspiring movements that have already begun this process: communities that are not just refusing to be sites of further fossil fuel extraction but are building the next, regeneration-based economies right now.

Can we pull off these changes in time? Nothing is certain. Nothing except that climate change changes everything. And for a very brief time, the nature of that change is still up to us.

 

[kawilt]

"a catalyst to transform broken economic and cultural priorities and to heal long-festering historical wounds. And she documents the inspiring movements that have already begun this process: communities that are not just refusing to be sites of further fossil fuel extraction but are building the next, regeneration-based economies right now."

This really gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling. But...me thinks it's to little to late.