Monday, October 24, 2016

A Whole Dog Pile of Articles on Climate Change Starting with Denial

Senator Ron Johnson spoke out regarding climate change and used the standard litany and, also to standard, he omitted any money which is not spent on the military is wasted.  (Seattle Times:  Wisconsin US Sen. Ron Johnson downplays climate change)

Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is downplaying concerns about climate change, saying “civilization thrives” in warmer weather and people will adapt.

- AP via Seattle Times

Right, the same simplistic obtusity which has been repeated many times.


Here's what scientists do to obtain their climate data:

Gordon Hamilton was described as fun but he died doing his research on climate change.  (ABC:  Researcher Killed in Icy 100-Foot Plunge Was 'Smart,' 'Fun')

"You knew that if Gordon came into the tent, that things were going to be fun and pleasant," said Paul Mayewski director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine.

Hamilton, 50, was riding a snowmobile in a treacherous section of ice while identifying dangerous crevasses when one of them swallowed his snowmobile Saturday, killing him.


- AP via ABC

That his work was dangerous doesn't give it any more validity but he's doing vastly more to get it than reading some speech someone else wrote for him.

He spent much of his time in Greenland and Antarctica studying the movement and melting of glaciers and how that contributes to rising sea levels.

"Ice sheets are the biggest potential contributor to rapid sea level rise," Hamilton said in a video created by the University of Maine.  "If we want to know how much sea level is going to rise in the coming century, we need to understand how ice sheets behave."


- AP via ABC

That's what he gave and we're sorry you're gone, Researcher Guy.


Increasing levels of CO2 are one of many things the estimable Senator Johnson ignores and it applies to increasing acidity in the oceans which consequences sciences are also measuring.  (Science Daily:  Globally Averaged CO2 Levels Reach 400 parts per million in 2015)

The steadily increasing levels of the gas have reached a significant milestone and now exceeded it.

CO2 levels had previously reached the 400 ppm barrier for certain months of the year and in certain locations but never before on a global average basis for the entire year. The longest-established greenhouse gas monitoring station at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, predicts that CO2 concentrations will stay above 400 ppm for the whole of 2016 and not dip below that level for many generations.

- Science Daily

Continuing inaction based on simplistic excuses is not acceptable as 'it's only natural' or 'it will happen anyway' do not excuse the deliberate and cynical lethargy on the matter.


As science will, research is being pursued in every possible direction with some going back three hundred million years.  (Science Daily:  What the ancient carbon dioxide record may mean for future climate change)

The repeated restructuring of tropical forests at the time played a major role in driving climate cycles between cooler and warmer periods, according to a study led by the University of California, Davis and published today in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Using fossilized leaves and soil-formed minerals, the international team of researchers reconstructed the ancient atmospheric carbon dioxide record from 330 to 260 million years ago, when ice last covered Earth's polar regions and large rainforests expanded throughout the tropics, leaving as their signature the world's coal resources.

The team's deep-time reconstruction reveals previously unknown fluctuations of atmospheric carbon dioxide at levels projected for the 21st century and highlights the potential impact the loss of tropical forests can have on climate.

- Science Daily

Hat tip to UC Davis, another of my ex-hometowns but likely my favorite, as they made the game again and for some highly esoteric research.

It would be stupid and arrogant to editorialize the work when it speaks for itself in the need for continued research and understanding notwithstanding any stones thrown by those with less than noble motives.


Sorry if I sounded like Preacher Joe but it does torque my goznitch when the reality of a situation is ignored.  When a simple stoner can see it, how can it be so difficult?

(Ed:  money)

Roger that, Cap'n.

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