This is mesmerizing and rather frightening. The animation shows how temperatures in various countries and continents have heated up since 1900. By the time we get to the present day, all of the lines are some shade of red.
Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
Thursday, August 3, 2017
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Throwback Thursday: Volcanoes and the little ice age
I've been battling a minor health issue for the past few days, so if you are a regular visitor here, you might have noticed my absence. Or not!
Just to ease back into blogging, here's a placeholder for you from five years ago. This blog started out as mostly my commentary on issues of the day before I folded in the two other blogs I was writing at the time, one about birds and one about gardening, and also decided to include reviews of the books that I read. At that point, it became truly eclectic and I could write about whatever was on my mind on any given day.
One thing that has been on my mind pretty constantly over many years is climate change because it affects all of the things that I care about. I've probably written more words on that subject than I have any other, and I was writing about it five years ago when a new study came out about the effect of erupting volcanoes on the climate.
This is a perilous time in the history of our country and the world, not least of all because the anti-science know-nothings will soon be in charge of all branches of our government, including most likely the court system. This does not bode well in the short term for us, the country, or the larger environment. But in the long term?
In the long term, as someone has wisely said, we'll all be dead, but Earth and physics will continue, because the truth is Nature doesn't give a damn whether we believe in science or not. Science exists. Human-aided climate change exists; the planet is heating up. Your opinion on the subject doesn't matter. Physics is inexorable.
The effect of volcanoes on the climate was an example of that. Their eruptions helped to cause a "little ice age" and drastically affected the course of human history. It was exactly the opposite effect of what is happening now - an anti-greenhouse effect. It was in the news five years ago and here is what I wrote about it.
~~~
January 31, 2012
Volcanoes and the little ice age
Earth's climate and the cycles of warming and cooling that it goes through is one of the more fascinating subjects in earth science. It's a subject that has become fraught with passion in recent years as climatologists have repeatedly tried to warn us that humans are upsetting Earth's cycles and science deniers have done their best to shout them down. But looking back at the historical data is perhaps a little less controversial.
Scientists have recently been doing research on the period from the 1200s to the 1900s, a very cold time in the northern hemisphere that has come to be known as the "little ice age." There have been many theories over the years about what might have caused this prolonged cold period which, in many ways, shaped the culture of Northern Europe, Asia, and North America. At the time it was happening, some people blamed witches. The ignorant always find a scapegoat. But this new study may give a definitive answer to the question of why it happened. The answer, the scientists postulate, is volcanoes.
The researchers have found evidence that there was a 50-year period just before the beginning of the little ice age during which several volcanoes were very active. They repeatedly erupted, shooting ash and debris into the atmosphere where it reflected sunlight back out into space, thus the warming rays of the sun could not reach the planet and Earth cooled off. They believe this caused a chain reaction which redounded for centuries during which the northern hemisphere, in particular, shivered and seldom saw a real summer.
This is just the opposite of what is happening now as humans send pollutants into the atmosphere which create a barrier - a greenhouse cover - that traps heat back on Earth. And so the planet heats up.
Whether heating or cooling, the laws of physics apply. We cannot escape them. The prime causal factor may be volcanoes or human beings or asteroids, but however these factors present themselves, Nature's laws will prevail and Earth will again find an equilibrium. Whether there are any humans who survive to witness it is really irrelevant to Nature.
Just to ease back into blogging, here's a placeholder for you from five years ago. This blog started out as mostly my commentary on issues of the day before I folded in the two other blogs I was writing at the time, one about birds and one about gardening, and also decided to include reviews of the books that I read. At that point, it became truly eclectic and I could write about whatever was on my mind on any given day.
One thing that has been on my mind pretty constantly over many years is climate change because it affects all of the things that I care about. I've probably written more words on that subject than I have any other, and I was writing about it five years ago when a new study came out about the effect of erupting volcanoes on the climate.
This is a perilous time in the history of our country and the world, not least of all because the anti-science know-nothings will soon be in charge of all branches of our government, including most likely the court system. This does not bode well in the short term for us, the country, or the larger environment. But in the long term?
In the long term, as someone has wisely said, we'll all be dead, but Earth and physics will continue, because the truth is Nature doesn't give a damn whether we believe in science or not. Science exists. Human-aided climate change exists; the planet is heating up. Your opinion on the subject doesn't matter. Physics is inexorable.
The effect of volcanoes on the climate was an example of that. Their eruptions helped to cause a "little ice age" and drastically affected the course of human history. It was exactly the opposite effect of what is happening now - an anti-greenhouse effect. It was in the news five years ago and here is what I wrote about it.
~~~
January 31, 2012
Volcanoes and the little ice age
Earth's climate and the cycles of warming and cooling that it goes through is one of the more fascinating subjects in earth science. It's a subject that has become fraught with passion in recent years as climatologists have repeatedly tried to warn us that humans are upsetting Earth's cycles and science deniers have done their best to shout them down. But looking back at the historical data is perhaps a little less controversial.
Scientists have recently been doing research on the period from the 1200s to the 1900s, a very cold time in the northern hemisphere that has come to be known as the "little ice age." There have been many theories over the years about what might have caused this prolonged cold period which, in many ways, shaped the culture of Northern Europe, Asia, and North America. At the time it was happening, some people blamed witches. The ignorant always find a scapegoat. But this new study may give a definitive answer to the question of why it happened. The answer, the scientists postulate, is volcanoes.
The researchers have found evidence that there was a 50-year period just before the beginning of the little ice age during which several volcanoes were very active. They repeatedly erupted, shooting ash and debris into the atmosphere where it reflected sunlight back out into space, thus the warming rays of the sun could not reach the planet and Earth cooled off. They believe this caused a chain reaction which redounded for centuries during which the northern hemisphere, in particular, shivered and seldom saw a real summer.
This is just the opposite of what is happening now as humans send pollutants into the atmosphere which create a barrier - a greenhouse cover - that traps heat back on Earth. And so the planet heats up.
Whether heating or cooling, the laws of physics apply. We cannot escape them. The prime causal factor may be volcanoes or human beings or asteroids, but however these factors present themselves, Nature's laws will prevail and Earth will again find an equilibrium. Whether there are any humans who survive to witness it is really irrelevant to Nature.
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Throwback Thursday: Global warming is causing four foot snow drifts!
In December of 2010, I wrote this post about the complicated effects on weather that the warming of the planet generates in various places. Those effects continue and are intensifying as the underlying causes of global warming continue to go unchecked.
The effects on the deniers of global warming seem to be intensifying as well. Thus, every winter, as soon as the first snow falls, we can count on the usual suspects to start chortling about all those "liberal lies" about Earth getting hotter, and we can expect some of our elected representatives to throw snowballs around on the Senate floor, claiming that that proves that "global warming is a hoax."
Of course, these are the deniers that live in the northern hemisphere. They never mention what's going on in the other half of the planet, the southern hemisphere, when there is snow on the ground in Washington. But then perhaps the southern hemisphere doesn't exist in their world - at least not in their consciousness.
As we continue to set records for global high temperatures every month and as 2015 seems certain to become the hottest year on Earth since we started keeping records, here's a blast from the past, something to keep in mind as our half of the planet begins to cool down and edge its way toward winter.
*~*~*~*
Global warming is causing four foot snow drifts!
Much of the East Coast is struggling to dig out from under four foot snow drifts. Much of Northern Europe, too, has been stopped in its tracks by giant storms and in some areas people have died as a result of the cold weather.
At the same time, the World Meteorological Organization has just released a report showing that 2010 will be among the three warmest years on record - possibly the warmest on record. Moreover, the decade ending with 2010 will be the warmest decade on record.
How does one resolve the seeming dichotomy between the fact of four foot snow drifts and the fact that the world will be setting a record for heat this year? According to Judah Cohen, writing today in The New York Times, it is all due to the topography of Asia.
And so we get the Metrodome in Minneapolis collapsing under the weight of snow, people dying in Poland due to subzero temperatures, and New York shut down for days because of four foot snow drifts. Even here along the humid Gulf Coast, we are not totally immune. We had our first frosts in November, almost three weeks ahead of schedule this year.
But all of this cold weather is not a contradiction of global warming. It is, in fact, confirmation of it. If we don't begin to take steps to walk back our human influence on the climate, we can expect to experience even more severe extremes in weather - both hot and cold - in the future.
At the same time, the World Meteorological Organization has just released a report showing that 2010 will be among the three warmest years on record - possibly the warmest on record. Moreover, the decade ending with 2010 will be the warmest decade on record.
How does one resolve the seeming dichotomy between the fact of four foot snow drifts and the fact that the world will be setting a record for heat this year? According to Judah Cohen, writing today in The New York Times, it is all due to the topography of Asia.
The high topography of Asia influences the atmosphere in profound ways. The jet stream, a river of fast-flowing air five to seven miles above sea level, bends around Asia’s mountains in a wavelike pattern, much as water in a stream flows around a rock or boulder. The energy from these atmospheric waves, like the energy from a sound wave, propagates both horizontally and vertically.
As global temperatures have warmed and as Arctic sea ice has melted over the past two and a half decades, more moisture has become available to fall as snow over the continents. So the snow cover across Siberia in the fall has steadily increased.
The sun’s energy reflects off the bright white snow and escapes back out to space. As a result, the temperature cools. When snow cover is more abundant in Siberia, it creates an unusually large dome of cold air next to the mountains, and this amplifies the standing waves in the atmosphere, just as a bigger rock in a stream increases the size of the waves of water flowing by.
The increased wave energy in the air spreads both horizontally, around the Northern Hemisphere, and vertically, up into the stratosphere and down toward the earth’s surface. In response, the jet stream, instead of flowing predominantly west to east as usual, meanders more north and south. In winter, this change in flow sends warm air north from the subtropical oceans into Alaska and Greenland, but it also pushes cold air south from the Arctic on the east side of the Rockies. Meanwhile, across Eurasia, cold air from Siberia spills south into East Asia and even southwestward into Europe.
And so we get the Metrodome in Minneapolis collapsing under the weight of snow, people dying in Poland due to subzero temperatures, and New York shut down for days because of four foot snow drifts. Even here along the humid Gulf Coast, we are not totally immune. We had our first frosts in November, almost three weeks ahead of schedule this year.
But all of this cold weather is not a contradiction of global warming. It is, in fact, confirmation of it. If we don't begin to take steps to walk back our human influence on the climate, we can expect to experience even more severe extremes in weather - both hot and cold - in the future.
Friday, May 10, 2013
The gas that will kill us all
More bad news from the global warming front. It seems that there is never any good news to report from this front.
Scientists report that this week, for the first time, their sensors have measured a daily average of more than 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the primary fuel that is heating up the planet.
Now, if you are like me, that figure by itself may mean nothing to you. But prior to the industrial revolution, the proportion of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere hovered around 280 parts per million. As late as 1958, when scientists began measuring average carbon dioxide levels at an observatory on Mauna Loa in Hawaii, the figure was around 320 ppm. This means that in the last 50 years we have added more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than in all the 100 years prior.
Scientists say that the last time carbon dioxide levels were this high was about 4 million years ago while Australopithecus still walked the Earth. We are well on our way from the pre-industrial carbon-dioxide levels toward an upper limit of 450 ppm that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned is necessary to have any significant hope of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. If we continue to heat up as fast as we have over the last fifty years, we will blow right past that dangerous limit within the next fifty and may reach the point of no return for the human race.
This chart from Slate.com today shows our progress toward the limit that climate scientists warn against.
At some point, it seems likely that Mother Nature will correct this problem if we fail to, at which time, as George Carlin used to say, she may "shrug us off like a bad case of fleas." There are limits beyond which the human race will not be able to survive, but the planet will go on and perhaps life in another more benevolent - dare we hope wiser? - form will continue.
Scientists report that this week, for the first time, their sensors have measured a daily average of more than 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the primary fuel that is heating up the planet.
Now, if you are like me, that figure by itself may mean nothing to you. But prior to the industrial revolution, the proportion of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere hovered around 280 parts per million. As late as 1958, when scientists began measuring average carbon dioxide levels at an observatory on Mauna Loa in Hawaii, the figure was around 320 ppm. This means that in the last 50 years we have added more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than in all the 100 years prior.
Scientists say that the last time carbon dioxide levels were this high was about 4 million years ago while Australopithecus still walked the Earth. We are well on our way from the pre-industrial carbon-dioxide levels toward an upper limit of 450 ppm that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned is necessary to have any significant hope of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. If we continue to heat up as fast as we have over the last fifty years, we will blow right past that dangerous limit within the next fifty and may reach the point of no return for the human race.
At some point, it seems likely that Mother Nature will correct this problem if we fail to, at which time, as George Carlin used to say, she may "shrug us off like a bad case of fleas." There are limits beyond which the human race will not be able to survive, but the planet will go on and perhaps life in another more benevolent - dare we hope wiser? - form will continue.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Biologists consider the consequences of a warm winter
All across North America, the adjective that has most often been used to describe the winter we are currently experiencing is "mild." January and February which often bring the harshest winter weather with plenty of snow and ice and below-freezing temperatures have been unusually warm this year. Although there have been isolated snow storms and some periods of cold weather, they have been few and far between and of short duration.
Scientists considering the implications of these weeks of relative warmth in what is usually the coldest part of winter speculate that when all the data is collected, this winter may be close to an all-time record breaker. While a mild winter in North America is still considered a rare event, it is likely that such winters will be much less rare in the future. And that has serious consequences for plants and animals whose lives are bound to the cycle of seasons.
Plants are flowering earlier than ever and, while it is a boost to the spirits to see these bright colors in the middles of a season that is usually mostly brown, since most places in the country still have the possibility of a freeze for several weeks yet, if a freeze does occur, it could destroy those early blooms and, with them, the hope of any fruit from those blooms. This, of course, is of particular concern to farmers, horticulturalists, and home gardeners who grow fruit trees and vines. If an apple tree flowers early and then gets hit by a frost, there goes any possibility of an apple crop this year.
It's not only plants that are affected. Plants and their pollinators - bees, moths, birds, etc. - are normally in sync. The pollinators show up just as the appropriate plants are blooming and they do their jobs. But if the plants bloom early, the pollinators may or may not be there at just the right time and the job of pollination may not get done.
Moreover, animals such as birds time their breeding to occur at a time of plenty. Birds' migration patterns are related to the time of hatch of their prey insects or to the production of the particular plant on which they feed. Early warming throws all of that carefully calibrated mating dance into chaos.
Climate scientists always say that they cannot draw conclusions on the basis of one season or one weather event, but as unusual and downright freakish weather events continue to happen with increased frequency right around the world, the conclusion seems inevitable to me. The climate is warming and we are the ones who lit the fire. Of course, that won't convince the dedicated deniers who just stick their fingers in their ears and shout, "La, la, la, la, la, la!" But denying what's happening won't stop it from happening.
Scientists considering the implications of these weeks of relative warmth in what is usually the coldest part of winter speculate that when all the data is collected, this winter may be close to an all-time record breaker. While a mild winter in North America is still considered a rare event, it is likely that such winters will be much less rare in the future. And that has serious consequences for plants and animals whose lives are bound to the cycle of seasons.
Plants are flowering earlier than ever and, while it is a boost to the spirits to see these bright colors in the middles of a season that is usually mostly brown, since most places in the country still have the possibility of a freeze for several weeks yet, if a freeze does occur, it could destroy those early blooms and, with them, the hope of any fruit from those blooms. This, of course, is of particular concern to farmers, horticulturalists, and home gardeners who grow fruit trees and vines. If an apple tree flowers early and then gets hit by a frost, there goes any possibility of an apple crop this year.
It's not only plants that are affected. Plants and their pollinators - bees, moths, birds, etc. - are normally in sync. The pollinators show up just as the appropriate plants are blooming and they do their jobs. But if the plants bloom early, the pollinators may or may not be there at just the right time and the job of pollination may not get done.
Moreover, animals such as birds time their breeding to occur at a time of plenty. Birds' migration patterns are related to the time of hatch of their prey insects or to the production of the particular plant on which they feed. Early warming throws all of that carefully calibrated mating dance into chaos.
Climate scientists always say that they cannot draw conclusions on the basis of one season or one weather event, but as unusual and downright freakish weather events continue to happen with increased frequency right around the world, the conclusion seems inevitable to me. The climate is warming and we are the ones who lit the fire. Of course, that won't convince the dedicated deniers who just stick their fingers in their ears and shout, "La, la, la, la, la, la!" But denying what's happening won't stop it from happening.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Texas is burning
As the Great Texas Drought continues unabated, many Texans are facing another horror arising from the drought. Wildfires are raging right across the state and more than 1,000 homes have been lost. More importantly, at least two young lives, a mother and her baby, have been lost.
The worst of the fires have been in the Hill Country around Austin, but here where I live in Southeast Texas, we are being touched by the flames as well. Montgomery County (where I live) and adjoining Grimes and Waller Counties have been hit by big fires in the last couple of days. The fires were made worse by the strong winds that we received as a result of Tropical Storm Lee. All we got was the wind - no rain.
Although climate scientists continually warn that we should not ascribe any single weather event to the phenomenon of global warming, it is very difficult not to conclude that our more than year-long drought is not at least exacerbated, if not entirely caused, by the heating up of the planet. Furthermore, this drought and its attendant wildfires will have long-term effects on our environment and the ecology of our state. Wildlife have already suffered greatly and many animals have been lost. More will die before this is over.
The fall migration for birds is now under way. Texas is an important stopover for many species on their way south. Furthermore, it is the winter home of millions of water birds and shorebirds. All those birds now winging their way here will arrive to find ponds, rivers, streams, and lakes dried up and food in short supply. If we don't get rains soon, this could well be devastating to some of these species.
These are the kinds of effects that climate scientists have predicted and warned of and tried desperately to get us to take seriously and start doing what we can to ameliorate our impact on global warming. Still, our militantly ignorant and proud-of-it political "leaders" make jokes about the whole idea of global warming and refuse to take any sensible steps to stop or slow it. Perhaps when their states are burning, they might begin to think in a more serious way about it.
Or maybe not. It sure hasn't worked for Rick Perry.
The worst of the fires have been in the Hill Country around Austin, but here where I live in Southeast Texas, we are being touched by the flames as well. Montgomery County (where I live) and adjoining Grimes and Waller Counties have been hit by big fires in the last couple of days. The fires were made worse by the strong winds that we received as a result of Tropical Storm Lee. All we got was the wind - no rain.
Although climate scientists continually warn that we should not ascribe any single weather event to the phenomenon of global warming, it is very difficult not to conclude that our more than year-long drought is not at least exacerbated, if not entirely caused, by the heating up of the planet. Furthermore, this drought and its attendant wildfires will have long-term effects on our environment and the ecology of our state. Wildlife have already suffered greatly and many animals have been lost. More will die before this is over.
The fall migration for birds is now under way. Texas is an important stopover for many species on their way south. Furthermore, it is the winter home of millions of water birds and shorebirds. All those birds now winging their way here will arrive to find ponds, rivers, streams, and lakes dried up and food in short supply. If we don't get rains soon, this could well be devastating to some of these species.
These are the kinds of effects that climate scientists have predicted and warned of and tried desperately to get us to take seriously and start doing what we can to ameliorate our impact on global warming. Still, our militantly ignorant and proud-of-it political "leaders" make jokes about the whole idea of global warming and refuse to take any sensible steps to stop or slow it. Perhaps when their states are burning, they might begin to think in a more serious way about it.
Or maybe not. It sure hasn't worked for Rick Perry.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)