A new movie about the folks who’ve brought you climate disinformation for the last 30 years.
The title warms the cockles of my heart – but will sound pretty mild to our grandchildren.
Month: March 2013
Trouble Maker of the Year: Zack Kopplin
Climate Deniers and Creationists are anti-science comrades in arms. The very same laws that climate deniers have been pushing to suppress climate science (also known as “science”) in public schools, are designed to impose theistic dogma on students as well. Zack Kopplin is a 19 year old college student who has been pushing back against the creationist tide in the south, since he was in high school.
Meanwhile, science educators are being given new tools and programs to make earth’s climate a larger part of the school curriculum.
New national science standards that make the teaching of global warming part of the public school curriculum are slated to be released this month, potentially curtailing climate skepticism in the nation’s classrooms.
The Next Generation Science Standards were developed by the National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the nonprofit Achieve and more than two dozen states. They recommend that educators teach the evidence for man-made climate change starting as early as elementary school and incorporate it into all science classes, ranging from earth science to chemistry. By eighth grade, students should understand that “human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (global warming),” the standards say.
They’re “revolutionary,” said Mark McCaffrey, programs and policy director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), a nonprofit that defends evolution and climate education and opposes the teaching of religious views as science.
The 26 states that helped write the standards are expected to adopt them. Another 15 or so have indicated they may accept them—meaning climate change instruction could make its way into classrooms in 40-plus states.
James Taylor, a senior fellow at the conservative Heartland Institute, which is developing a school curriculum that promotes climate skepticism, said the standards’ stance on climate change is based on “unscientific speculation and hype.” But he also said the group has no plans to fight their adoption by the states.
Music Break: Huey Lewis and the News – “Perfect World”
Had not heard this one till today, I don’t think.
Anyway, what a tight, smart, professional band.
Making the Connection: Did Ice Loss Amplify Sandy?
Watch above, my interview with Jennifer Francis, when, on September 18, 2012, she predicted “a very interesting fall”, due to changes in northern sea ice, more open water, and more heat and moisture entering the atmosphere.
Now, in an article with Cornell researchers, Francis further explores the reasons why Hurricane Sandy may have taken that final, nasty, and very unusual left turn…
If you believe that last October’s Superstorm Sandy was a freak of nature — the confluence of unusual meteorological, atmospheric and celestial events — think again.
Cornell and Rutgers researchers report in the March issue of Oceanography that the severe loss of summertime Arctic sea ice — attributed to greenhouse warming — appears to enhance Northern Hemisphere jet stream meandering, intensify Arctic air mass invasions toward middle latitudes, and increase the frequency of atmospheric blocking events like the one that steered Hurricane Sandy west into the densely populated New York City area.
The article, “Superstorm Sandy: A Series of Unfortunate Events?” was authored by Charles H. Greene, Cornell professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and director of Cornell’s Ocean Resources and Ecosystems program; Jennifer A. Francis of Rutgers University’s Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences; and Bruce C. Monger, Cornell senior research associate, earth and atmospheric sciences.
The researchers assert that the record-breaking sea ice loss from summer 2012, combined with the unusual atmospheric phenomena observed in late October, appear to be linked to global warming.
A strong atmospheric, high-pressure blocking pattern over Greenland and the northwest Atlantic prevented Hurricane Sandy from steering northeast and out to sea like most October hurricanes and tropical storms from the Caribbean. In fact, Sandy traveled up the Atlantic coast and turned left “toward the most populated area along the eastern seaboard” and converged with an extratropical cyclone; this, in turn, fed the weakening Hurricane Sandy and transformed it into a monster tempest.
Superstorm Sandy’s extremely low atmospheric pressure and the strong high-pressure block to the north created violent east winds that pushed storm surge against the eastern seaboard. “To literally top it off, the storm surge combined with full-moon high tides and huge ocean waves to produce record high water levels that exceeded the worst-case predictions for parts of New York City,” write the researchers.
Greene, Francis and Monger add: “If one accepts this evidence and … takes into account the record loss of Arctic sea ice this past September, then perhaps the likelihood of greenhouse warming playing a significant role in Sandy’s evolution as an extratropical superstorm is at least as plausible as the idea that this storm was simply a freak of nature.”
My video on Sandy below speaks to the freak left turn, and its causes, starting at about 4:00
Continue reading “Making the Connection: Did Ice Loss Amplify Sandy?”
Spring Back, Fall Forward
For more details: State-by-State Look at How Early Spring Has Arrived.
Last year’s “June in March” spring weather caused chaos in the upper midwest as buds burst into bloom only to be frozen by the inevitable April frosts that followed. For some reason, increased atmospheric CO2 did not help the apple crop. Weird.
This occurrence will become more common in coming decades, and agriculture will be hard pressed to adapt.
While spring comes sooner, you may have noticed that Fall is coming later as well. Further research called for.
The biological onset of spring could arrive up to five weeks earlier by 2100 in the northern U.S. than it does today, and more than a week earlier in the South, a change that could significantly alter ecosystems from Florida to Maine, according to a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters.
“This is a big deal,” said lead author David Medvigy, an ecologist at Princeton University, in an interview. The reason is that ecosystems have evolved over thousands of years, so that different species live more or less in balance with each other. If spring comes earlier, some species will adapt more easily than others, throwing that balance off by, for example, disturbing the relationship between animals and their food sources.
As with so many disruptions to natural systems, including rising seas, more frequent and intensedroughts and heat waves, and more torrential downpours, this projected rollback in the onset of spring — measured in this case by “budburst,” or the annual emergence of leaves on deciduous trees like maples, poplars and birches — is tied to global warming caused by heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
The Handy Dandy Climate Conversation Cheatsheet
Angry Summer Downunder Sparks Disinformation and Spin
Climate Commission chief Professor Tim Flannery says that while Australia may have always been a land of drought and flooding rains, the nation is now experiencing a “climate on steroids”.
“I think one of the best ways of thinking about it is imagining that the baseline has shifted,” he said.
“If an athlete takes steroids for example… their baseline shifts, they’ll do fewer slow times and many more record-breaking fast times.
“The same thing is happening with our climate system. As it warms up, we’re getting fewer cold days and cold events and many more record hot events. In effect, it’s a climate on steroids.”
..the summer was remarkable in almost every respect, as the Australian continent smashed records for heat intensity, geographic scope, and duration. Moreover, the heat continued a recent trend toward much warmer summers in Australia, and climate models show that, depending on global emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases, Australia’s summer of 2012-2013 could be the norm by the 2040s, the BOM said.
The record warm summer adding another data point to a spate of recent extreme heat events that some scientists say are becoming more common as a result of manmade emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide.
A 2012 study by NASA scientist James Hansen and others found that a new category of extremely hot summers, such as events that occurred in Russia in 2010 and Texas in 2011, has become far more common than would ever have happened without global warming.
Here are some of the sizzling data points:
- The average summer temperature for Australia was 83.5°F (28.6°C), which was about 2°F (1.1°C) above average. That exceeded the previous record, set during the summer of 1997-98, by about 0.2°F.
- A new national daytime maximum temperature record was set at 96.3°F (35.7°C).
- The highest temperature recorded during the January heatwave was at Moomba, in South Australia, with a high of 121°F (49.6°C). All-time record high temperatures were also set in Sydney and Hobart. The temperature in Sydney climbed to a stifling 114.4°F on Jan. 18.
- A record was set for the number of consecutive days when the average daily high temperature for Australia exceeded 102°F (about 39°C), with seven such days between January 2-8. The previous record was four days in 1973, according to BOM data.
- January was Australia’s hottest month since recordkeeping began in 1910.
- At one point during the January heat wave, meteorologists had to add a new color to the weather map as temperatures climbed off the standard charts.
The summer heat wasn’t confined to the Australian continent, either. Southern Hemisphere land areas had their hottest months of December and January on record, as parts of Africa and South America also saw above-average temperatures.
Naturally, Aussie climate deniers have gone on the offensive, once again, against reality.
Continue reading “Angry Summer Downunder Sparks Disinformation and Spin”
New Research: Volcanoes May be Slowing Warming
Well, not much, really. Certainly not enough to keep sea ice melt, ice sheet loss, glacier melt, and extreme weather events from accelerating beyond projections. Useful input to the discussion in any case. Implications for geo-engineers?
A team led by the University of Colorado Boulder looking for clues about why Earth did not warm as much as scientists expected between 2000 and 2010 now thinks the culprits are hiding in plain sight — dozens of volcanoes spewing sulfur dioxide.
The study results essentially exonerate Asia, including India and China, two countries that are estimated to have increased their industrial sulfur dioxide emissions by about 60 percent from 2000 to 2010 through coal burning, said lead study author Ryan Neely, who led the research as part of his CU-Boulder doctoral thesis. Small amounts of sulfur dioxide emissions from Earth’s surface eventually rise 12 to 20 miles into the stratospheric aerosol layer of the atmosphere, where chemical reactions create sulfuric acid and water particles that reflect sunlight back to space, cooling the planet.
Neely said previous observations suggest that increases in stratospheric aerosols since 2000 have counterbalanced as much as 25 percent of the warming scientists blame on human greenhouse gas emissions. “This new study indicates it is emissions from small to moderate volcanoes that have been slowing the warming of the planet,” said Neely, a researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, a joint venture of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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The new study relies on long-term measurements of changes in the stratospheric aerosol layer’s “optical depth,” which is a measure of transparency, said Neely. Since 2000, the optical depth in the stratospheric aerosol layer has increased by about 4 to 7 percent, meaning it is slightly more opaque now than in previous years.
“The biggest implication here is that scientists need to pay more attention to small and moderate volcanic eruptions when trying to understand changes in Earth’s climate,” said Toon of CU-Boulder’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. “But overall these eruptions are not going to counter the greenhouse effect. Emissions of volcanic gases go up and down, helping to cool or heat the planet, while greenhouse gas emissions from human activity just continue to go up.”
Reality Drop. The Game Where You, Reality, and the Climate Win
Al Gore’s Climate Reality group has a new series of easily accessible rebuttals to climate denial nonsense, bundled in a game-style web project that seems unique.
One of the more disturbing elements of misinformation is summarised by a pithy quote from Winston Churchill: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on”. Even more perturbing is the fact that Churchill’s quote came before the Internet and the age of Twitter, when a lie can take wings in the time it takes to tap 140 characters. However, the Climate Reality Project have just released a new website Reality Drop, that hopes to give truth a leg up.
Here’s how it works: Reality Drop rounds up the latest climate news and lets users know where climate misinformation is posted. Then users can drop some reality into the conversation. Doing so earns them points, climbing the leaderboard and earning higher rank.
Reality Drop’s version is much cooler than anything I had in mind so perhaps it was for the best! The website provides several valuable features. It empowers people who are passionate about the climate issue by giving them a way to communicate the realities of climate change. It provides the facts in plain language. The social media aspect with points and ranking make the process interactive and engaging.
The website borrows much content from Skeptical Science’s rebuttals and acknowledge so on their About page (in fact, our content is creative commons licensed so all communicators are very welcome to use our rebuttals). If you peruse the climate myths at Reality Drop, you’ll see they’re sorted into a familiar taxonomy. The rebuttals to a specific myth sometimes include the more detailed SkS rebuttal. But importantly, each page also includes a short, plain English version of each rebuttal which is a valuable resource for people engaging with climate misinformation online.
Sign of things to Come. In China – Wind Surpasses Nuclear in Energy Production.
Did you ever notice that, when nuclear advocates give out examples of countries that are “ahead of us”, or, “moving ahead”, or “successful examples” of nuclear energy, they always cite countries with tightly controlled socialist planned economies, like Russia, China, France and Japan?
Well, not so much Russia, since Chernobyl anyway – but China, Japan, France commonly come up. Well, not so much Japan since Fukushima. And with France, well, you got yer Freedom Fries and all that. And not so much Iran and North Korea.
Well, ok. China.
But you know what I mean.
Now, news out of China shines a light on progress in that country’s all-out assault on the renewable energy revolution. Wind has surpassed nuclear in power generation.
Wind has overtaken nuclear as an electricity source in China. In 2012, wind farms generated 2 percent more electricity than nuclear power plants did, a gap that will likely widen dramatically over the next few years as wind surges ahead. Since 2007, nuclear power generation has risen by 10 percent annually, compared with wind’s explosive growth of 80 percent per year.
Before the March 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan, China had 10,200 megawatts of installed nuclear capacity. With 28,000 megawatts then under construction at 29 nuclear reactors—19 of which had begun construction since 2009—officials were confident China would reach 40,000 megawatts of nuclear power by 2015 and perhaps 100,000 megawatts by 2020. The government’s response to the Fukushima disaster, however, was to suspend new reactor approvals and conduct a safety review of plants in operation and under construction.
Continue reading “Sign of things to Come. In China – Wind Surpasses Nuclear in Energy Production.”