Climate Change
gregladen | November 21, 2007This is the sixth in a series of reposts from gregladen.com on global warming.
In the last post in this series I talked about two aspects of large scale climate change: Milankovitch orbital geometry and the cycles of glaciation this effect causes, and the role of plate tectonics and related changes in altering sea and air currents, which in turn determine a great deal about climate change as well.
Now I want to have a quick look at a single glacial cycle (the most recent one of many), and one way in which the cycle is observed in the ancient record, identified, measured, and described.
As…
gregladen | November 20, 2007This is the fifth in a series of reposts from gregladen.com on global warming.
During the 1970s and 80s, creationists had a long list of reasons to doubt evolution, and every one of those reasons was wrong. But they had so many reasons, and it was so hard to keep track of them all, each with various versions, that a creationist that was trying to not live a lie could convince themselves that they had an honest dispute with evolutionary biology. But if you sat down and looked at every detail, "creation science" could be shown to be nothing more than a big bag of falsehoods. So to continue…
gregladen | November 19, 2007This is the fourth in a series of reposts from gregladen.com on global warming.
"Climate Studies" is a "causal" science. Most sciences are "causal" in nature, which is why the sciences and scientists are often loathed and distrusted by people in the humanities and some of the soft sciences. There is not the time or space right now to address this issue, but I'll just say this: People who criticize science for its interest in causality usually do not understand what scientists are talking about. I think this is partly because people in the humanities and social sciences have gone gaga…
gregladen | November 18, 2007This is the third in a series of reposts from gregladen.com on global warming.
Why It Matters What you Burn and When you Burn It
Carbon Dioxide is a deadly poison. It is about 50% heavier than air, so where it occurs in density, in mines or certain natural vents associated with volcanics, it can accumulate in low spots. There are places in the Western Rift Valley where puddles of Carbon Dioxide form overnight while the air is still. These gas puddles can occur over puddles of water. When animals (such as antelopes) put their head down to the water to drink, they take a few whiffs of the…
gregladen | November 17, 2007A few tidbits -- just to give a flavor -- from the Summary for Policymakers, which is available here. (Good luck downloading this file! You may want to wait until everyone is asleep...)
1. Observed changes in climate and their effects
Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level
...
There is observational evidence of an increase in intense tropical cyclone activity in the North Atlantic since about
1970, with limited evidence…
gregladen | November 17, 2007This report covers six topics:
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission trends
Mitigation in the short and medium term, across different economic sectors (until 2030)
Mitigation in the long-term (beyond 2030)
Policies, measures and instruments to mitigate climate change
Sustainable development and climate change mitigation
Gaps in knowledge.
This link will eventually get you to the PDF file of the summary for policy makers.
The full report is here.
gregladen | November 17, 2007The following is quoted from the Working Group I report
In the six years since the IPCC's Third Assessment Report (TAR), signifi cant progress has been made in understanding past and recent climate change and in projecting future changes. These advances have arisen from large amounts of new data, more sophisticated analyses of data, improvements in the understanding and simulation of physical processes in climate models and more extensive exploration of uncertainty ranges in model results. The increased confi dence in climate science provided by these developments is evident in this Working…
gregladen | November 16, 2007This is the second in a series of reposts from gregladen.com on global warming.
Why Greenhouses have nothing to do with the Greenhouse Effect, and more importantly, why CAN'T I microwave toast?
A greenhouse is a glass house that is sealed to keep air in and insulated to keep heat in but at the same time allow sunlight in. This sunlight contributes to the heat in the greenhouse by warming the ground or other material in the greenhouse, and of course the light energy is used by the plants. But the point of a greenhouse is to keep air that is warmed, by the sun and/or heaters that may be…
gregladen | November 16, 2007Here are the first three working group reports:
Working Group I Report "The Physical Science Basis"
Working Group II Report "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability"
Working Group III Report "Mitigation of Climate Change"
The fourth report is said to be completed but is not yet posted. Likely, tomorrow.
gregladen | November 16, 2007Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum are saying that it is now time to start plugging for donations for relief for Bangladesh in the wake of Sidr. I mildly disagree. Let me explain.
At this moment, I have yet to find a single on line secular vehicle for donating to this particular issue. If you go to the UN, for instance, there is a button you can press on a site that discusses Sidr to give WFP money, but there is nothing indicating where this money goes once you've pressed it.
Just as the world's press was unready and apparently still is unable to deal with a major disaster in remote and…
gregladen | November 16, 2007Do you remember the Christmas Tsunami? I remember well that it was a good example of the public's demand for knowing the death toll and the press's demand to feed that need interacting with a crappy network of information flow, to the extent that the early death tolls counts were utterly absurd and the rate of climb of this estimate was astounding.
Will this be the case with Sidr?
A couple of hours ago the death toll was 200. Within the last half hour, there were counts of 450 and 500. Just now the numbers have topped 1000, to reach, in fact, 1,100 killed (thousands missing, displaced).
I…
gregladen | November 15, 2007Look at this. See, mangrove swamps don't slow you down. Sidr has been over "land" for hours and it is still a Cat-3 storm. And heading for much more populated areas.
gregladen | November 15, 2007The Eye of Sidr has crossed the coast as expected.
BBC World News web site has yet to mention the event. I guess the Brits are really pissed off about the whole post-colonial thing.
CNN has this:
Tropical Cyclone Sidr swept in from the Bay of Bengal packing winds of 149 mph (240 kilometers per hour), buffeting southwestern coastal areas within a 155-mile radius of its eye with heavy rain and storm surges predicted to reach 20 feet high.
Sidr's eye crossed the Khulna-Barisal coast near the Sundarbans mangrove forests around 9:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. ET), the Bangladesh Meteorological…
gregladen | November 15, 2007Storm Tracking on the Weather Underground
Check the most current post on Chris Mooney's site.
Jeff Master's Blog at Weather Underground (Comprehensive information posted at least daily)
A blog from Bangladesh
Other Science Blogers and Commentaries:
A Blog Around the Clock
Pharyngula
News: Bangladesh News (the site is currently down...)News: Daily StarNews: BBCNews: Al JazeeraNews: CNN
gregladen | November 15, 2007This is the first in a series of reposts from gregladen.com on global warming.
The IPCC report is out, "An Inconvenient Truth" has been honored by the academy, a sea change is happening in the way that climate change news is being reported, and you can bet the Right Wing and the Ree-pubs are as we speak working up new Talking Points and Spins to deflate the urgency of the issue. It is an axiom that in reporting science, there are two (not one, not three or four, just two) sides to every issue, and one side is the plank nailed to the Democratic Party Platform, and the other side is the…