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Showing posts from December, 2016

Arctic Temperatures

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My initial start on global warming was due to the work of climate scientists in the 90's.  But one event had a very large impression on me, the Paleocene/Eocene Boundary Thermal Maximum.  At this time 56 million years ago, methane and carbon dioxide bubbled up out of the ocean dramatically increasing atmospheric temperature and acidifying the oceans producing the largest loss of sea life in the history of the planet.  One striking feature of this time was dramatic warming of the Arctic where daytime summer temperatures reached 75 degrees Fahrenheit.  The climate was tropical as far north as Oregon. It was another 200,000 years before the planet completely recovered from this.  But the most frightening thing is that we are pouring 10 times the greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than what happened then.  And look what is happening to the Arctic. Spiking Temperatures in the Arctic Startle Scientists In mid-November, parts of the Arctic were more than 35 degrees Fahrenheit wa

Categorical Evidence of Climate Change

A new study published in Nature Geoscience present retreating glaciers as categorical evidence of climate change. Using only meteorological and glacier observations, and the characteristic decadal response time of glaciers, we demonstrate that observed retreats of individual glaciers represent some of the highest signal-to-noise ratios of climate change yet documented. Therefore, in many places, the centennial-scale retreat of the local glaciers does indeed constitute categorical evidence of climate change. Discussion can be found here and here . Using records of glacier length that go back over 400 years, the researchers show that shrinking of mountain glaciers in five continents could almost certainly not have happened if the Earth wasn’t warming up. Here is an interactive map. Using the long-term records, the researchers estimated how glacier lengths have varied in response to the yearly ups and downs of temperature and snowfall. They then compared these natural fluctuati

What Can We Do? What Must We Do?

Let's compare two scientific studies, one seized upon the climate deniers and another by climate scientists.  The climate denier uses a study (not yet published) showing that some of what looks like increasing sea level is actually land subsidence. These results look good, local overuse of underground water has lowered coastal land causing seawater to rise locally. At least for the Chesapeake region, Houston-Galveston, Texas area, Santa Clara Valley, California and other places around the globe, the primary cause of seawater intrusions is not rising oceans – but  land subsidence  due to groundwater withdrawal from subsurface shale and sandstone formations. He fails to mention Florida , New Orleans , or the Arctic Coast in Alaska . Now let's look at a climate change article. In a massive new study  published Wednesday in the influential journal Nature, no less than 50 authors from around the world document a so-called climate system “feedback” that, they say, could make g

Global Warming Discombobulates Polar Vortex

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An ironic effect of global warming is that while the Arctic warms, the cold air that's usually there is headed south.  Alaska will have record warm temperatures while the Pacific Northwest experiences record cold. Then later it will switch around with the Pacific Northwest getting the warm temperature, and the East Coast getting the brutal cold. Siberian air Will Blow to U.S. as Polar Vortex Breaks Down & Jet Stream Crosses North Strong winds at mid-atmospheric levels are blowing warm air from the subtropical Pacific east of Japan towards the north pole. Then the winds bend down from the pole back towards Alaska and western north America. This extreme blocking high pattern will heat up Siberian and polar temperatures while brutalizing north America with Siberian and polar air. Something is wrong in the Arctic. Winter just can’t establish itself over the Arctic ocean. In late November cold air finally started to build up over the American side of the Arctic ocean but

Climate Change Denial: Official White House Policy

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Priebus confirms that climate denial will be the official policy of Trump’s administration It is set in stone, the official Trump position is denial.   And not to be left behind, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, tweeted   Sci,Space,&Tech Cmte . @ BreitbartNews : Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence from Climate Alarmists  http:// bit.ly/2gINZNf   That's supposed to hurt, I guess.  However, all it does is reveal their ignorance.  I like Bernie's response best: Bernie Sanders ✔ @SenSanders Where'd you get your PhD? Trump University? https:// twitter.com/HouseScience/s tatus/804402881982066688  … The Committee quoted news reports from Breitbart.com, an unassailable source on climate change data (Not).   Their basic argument is that recent heat records are due to El Nino, not climate change.  It apparently doesn't occur to them that it could be both.  My own explanation can be found here .