Earlier this morning, warm winds rushing in from the south ahead of an extensive frontal system draped across central and eastern North America pulled 32 + degree Fahrenheit (0 + C) temperatures into the southern coastal area of Hudson Bay. These temperatures were around 30 to 35 degrees (F) above normal. An odd event to say the least. One that would have been far less likely to happen without the added kick provided by global warming in the range of 1.2 C above 1880s averages.
(Temperatures rose to above freezing at around 4 AM EST along the southern shores of Hudson Bay on January 11, 2017 according to this GFS model summary. Middle and long range forecasts indicate that at least two more such warming events will occur over this typically frigid region during January. Image source: Earth Nullschool.)
Such a kick has been pushing climate zones northward — sparking numerous instances of unseasonable weather. Meanwhile, some researchers have indicated that the Jet Stream has also tended to produce higher amplitude ridges and troughs as the Northern Hemisphere polar zone has warmed faster than the rest of the world. In these more extensive ridge zones, this climate change related alteration to atmospheric circulation provides big avenues for warm air to enter typically frozen regions during winter (please see Arctic Melt ‘Already Affecting Weather Patterns Where You Live Right Now’).
Today’s warming event was driven by a northward extending bulge in the Jet Stream running up over Alberta and on into the North Atlantic near Greenland. Similar ridging in the Jet Stream is expected to occur over Central Canada five to six days from now on Monday and Tuesday of January 16-17, again over extreme southern Hudson Bay on Wednesday, January 18, and once more over the southern half of Hudson Bay on Monday, January 23rd.
Warming during the 16th and 17th is expected to range from 30 to 38 Fahrenheit (17 to 21 C) above average. Meanwhile, the longer range forecast may see temperatures hit near 40 F (22 C) above average for some regions if the model guidance ends up being correct.
(Numerous instances of above-freezing temperatures are predicted for Hudson Bay during mid-to-late January. The most intense warming is showing up in the long range forecast for January 23rd. Image source: Tropical Tidbits.)
It’s worth noting that the five day forecast is rather uncertain and the longer range forecast at this time is highly uncertain. That said, the models do indicate a particularly strong tendency for Jet Stream ridging and associated anomalous warming for this region.
Today’s warming occurred in association with strong frontal storm system anchored by a 976 mb low. This coming Monday’s warming is expected to come in conjunction with a much less stormy warm front. The long range model for January 23rd shows an odd event where another strong frontal storm pulls a curtain of rainfall over much of southern Hudson Bay (which typically receives only frozen precipitation at this time of year).
(Light to moderate rain could fall over a large portion of Hudson Bay during late January as a very extensive frontal system is predicted to pull moisture and warmth from the Gulf of Mexico. An odd winter climate/weather event to say the least. Image source: Tropical Tidbits.)
Over the past two years, large ridges have tended to drive warm air into the Arctic over the Bering Sea, through Alaska and Northwest Canada, and up through the North Atlantic and the Barents. But during early 2017, ridging appears to be setting up for Central and Northern North America — which is providing the warmer middle latitude air mass with an invasion route toward Hudson Bay. And such periods of anomalous warmth will tend to have a weakening effect on sea ice cover in this vulnerable near-Arctic region.
Links:
Arctic Melt ‘Already Affecting Weather Patterns Where You Live Right Now’
robertscribbler 
Greg
/ January 11, 2017Yikes. That’s warm. Dr. James Hansen has a new post regarding his reassessment of how much carbon we now will need to remove from the atmosphere to return to the 350 ppm figure for a Holocene climate. It was 100 gt but is upped to 150 gigatons (from 2013) due to our inability to begin to successfully reduce co2 at 6%/annum as his earlier assessment assumed. Of course, the new US admin figures into this reanalysis. Key appears to be that land use changes will no longer be enough. The work has increased considerably.
http://csas.ei.columbia.edu/2017/01/11/rolling-stones/
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 11, 2017Holy cow! We would be doing amazingly well if we could get to 1 gt per year…
LikeLike
Leland Palmer
/ January 12, 2017First, stop digging.
Second, clean energy.
Third, BECCS (Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage):
Visualize the bottom of the diagram being the earth, and the top of the diagram being the atmosphere. Arrows show flow of carbon from the earth into the atmosphere for fossil fuels, and mostly the opposite flow for BECCS.
BECCS has difficulties…all solvable ones, I think.
It could all happen relatively quietly, if it was done in a regulated fashion with due consideration to environmental concerns, I think. We inject a comparable volume of waste water mostly from oil production operations every year as we would need to deep inject supercritical CO2, and how many of us have ever noticed any effects from that, or seen a deep injection well?
This solution is rate limited, though. The window of opportunity to deploy clean energy and BECCS and return the earth to a state below 350 ppm CO2 is closing, I think. We might need to do sulfate aerosol geoengineering or something similar, to give us a window of opportunity to deploy BECCS.
It’s doable, I think, over a few decades, putting that much carbon back underground. But we won’t do it, probably. The recent advances in solar and wind energy are very encouraging, though.
And maybe somebody will come up with a genetically engineered bacterium that lives in trees and oxidizes methane into CO2, or figure out a way to artificially increase hydroxyl radical concentration in the atmosphere, reducing the risk of a methane catastrophe.
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017Thanks for this, Leland. A rather comprehensive comment on the matter. I think there are a few constraints on the total volume of carbon that could be captured through BECCS. And BECCS would need to be mated with sustainable land use practices in order to help preserve forests and prevent a continuation of clear cutting.
Chemical capture of CO2 from the atmosphere appears to be advancing in the lab. Haven’t yet seen an approach hit wide or even moderate scale in practice.
Sulfate aerosol injection is risky and should be seen as a last resort (or near last resort). And it’s worth noting that aerosol masking is already on the order of about 60 ppm CO2e (negative).
LikeLike
Exposing the Big Game
/ January 11, 2017Reblogged this on Exposing the Big Game.
LikeLike
Suzanne
/ January 11, 2017Here is one take, thus far, at Nature Magazine on what Tillerson had to say at his hearing…
http://www.nature.com/news/trump-nominee-backs-paris-climate-agreement-and-questions-iran-nuclear-deal-1.21291
Rex Tillerson, US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, says that the United States should remain remain part of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
“It’s important that the US maintain its seat at the table,” Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing. The threat of global warming is real and “requires a global response”, he added. “No one country is going to solve this on its own.”
—————————————-
Personally, I am still trying to get a handle on Tillerson’s answers. My first impression of his answers was…”slick” and “evasive”.
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 11, 2017I think that’s a good assessment. I’d add the words deceptive as well. Exxon under Tillerson continued to fund climate change denial promoting organizations. And where they have participated in climate agreements and legislative activities — the primary effort has been to water them down. For a role like State Tillerson is conflict of interest writ large. In many cases, the national policy interests of the US cuts against Tillerson’s private interests as an oil CEO. He just did his best to show a low profile here. He knows his appointment is controversial and likely to draw fire — even from a few republicans.
LikeLike
Suzanne
/ January 12, 2017Shockingly….I thought Rubio (my Senator) actually sounded tough at times when it came to his questions about Russia. I called Rubio’s local office, again, today..and told the person answering the phone that ‘I appreciated Senator Rubio’s tough questions, but it was unacceptable to confirm Tillerson for Sec. of State considering his relationship with Putin”.
I purposefully, did not mention CC in today’s phone call….as I imagined it be ignored any way…so I stayed on the “security” angle which I hope would carry more weight. We will see.
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017I’d say that was probably an effective communication, considering your audience.
The conversation has become rather dynamic lately. I think that there’s more opportunity to discuss climate change than ever. Ironically, there’s a bit of an advantage to being the opposition. People in the US tend to like an underdog.
LikeLike
webej
/ January 12, 2017Tillerson executes a preemptive strike. Trying to knock the weapons out of your hand in advance, by taking over the “other” side’s narrative, but then distorting its substance beyond recognition. He is a poseur acting concerned about poor people in the southern hemisphere who need cheap fossil fuels, casting doubts on the competency of the models and sounding proportional and serious compared to hysterical activists.
LikeLike
Leland Palmer
/ January 12, 2017Yeah, barely admitting the existence of global warming, some lip service to a dead on arrival carbon tax, and green washing natural gas make him a radical leftist in this administration.
This guy is the victor in decades of corporate boardroom battles. But physics and chemistry have no respect for spinning, green washing, and lying. Of course, his personal wealth makes him and his family probably immune from the effects of global warming;
LikeLike
Spike
/ January 12, 2017I appreciate what you say about how the rich are to some extent insulated, but they should consider that isn’t perfect. They may be caught in a devastating flood, forest fire, or high tide with coastal flooding as easily as anyone.Economic impacts may affect their portfolios or businesses. Revolutions may sweep them away, or riots damage their property. The costs of their own personal security may rise, and their kids’ future be damaged. With severe warming nobody escapes the impacts – any wealthy folks who have even basic scientific literacy should be able to see this.
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017Personal wealth is false comfort and no immunity to global warming…
LikeLike
Leland Palmer
/ January 12, 2017Unfortunately, I think that personal wealth can provide at least some protection from the effects of global warming. It probably is false comfort in the long run, but if the rich think it can provide some protection, that’s as bad as if it actually does.
Even worse is excessive pessimism, lifeboat ethics, and social Darwinist or racist motives that seek to use global warming as a weapon. Trump has demonstrated to us that such stupid meanness is alive and well in the U.S.
LikeLike
Leland Palmer
/ January 13, 2017It was a shame, watching Tillerson answer questions about climate change. On most other subjects he seemed candid. But his answers on climate change seemed carefully scripted. He said things like “it’s important we keep a seat at the table” about the Paris Accords, not that he supports implementing them, for example. He said that the CO2 increases in the atmosphere would have some effect, but said that we have a hard time determining what those effects might be – a great many effects could occur. Possibly he was hinting that CO2 fertilization and the greening of the Arctic might save us. He mentioned that climate change action might harm U.S. competitiveness.
A great many climate change deniers have previous involvement with fossil fuel businesses, and I believe that makes it hard for them to believe that their fossil fuel involvement is harmful to the earth.
In Tillerson’s case, ExxonMobil under his leadership did serious damage to the stability of the climate. Even an honest person might tend to have a hard time admitting that he made millions of dollars by destabilizing the climate, potentially killing millions of people.
More than anything, he sounded like an oil corporation engineer, complete with the rationalizations he gained in ExxonMobil’s employ about how it was OK to take the oil corporation money. It’s going to be very hard convincing him that he was involved in an evil enterprise. And ExxonMobil did continue to fund climate change denial, at a lower level, after he took over as CEO.
LikeLike
Leland Palmer
/ January 14, 2017I guess he’s also a Christian. This can also be a problem in admitting the reality of global warming, as we know. “God wouldn’t do that to us” often seems to motivate people to not believe in the reality of global warming. A great many professional climate science deniers have similar backgrounds – Christians who have previous involvement in the fossil fuel industries. Not trying to be judgmental about Christians, but it does seem to be true that a great many Deniers are Christians.
This whole Trump administration so often seems to be engaged in wrong headed actions, like something out of a Greek tragedy performance.
He made said to Senator Barrasso (Republican from oil and coal rich Wyoming) that the decision to supply people with electrical power around the world should be made mostly on cost, even if it means supporting coal fired power plants in poor countries.
The contribution of coal to the gross state product of Wyoming is about 14%. The state of Wyoming receives 1.3 billion dollars in tax revenue from coal.
It was very much like Tillerson was buying Barasso’s vote for confirmation with a pledge to make the decision about coal fired power plants for rural areas around the world solely on the basis of current cost. This means decades and decades of high CO2 emissions, locked in.
LikeLike
mulga mumblebrain
/ January 16, 2017Don’t forget the so-called ‘Christians’ who would quite welcome climate destabilisation and ecological collapse to ‘punish the unGodly’. You know the ‘God sent Noah the rainbow sign, No more water-the Fire next time’, mob.
LikeLike
Shawn Redmond
/ January 11, 2017Been watching Hudson’s Bay as well as other areas this year and things don’t look very good. The ASIF has a lot of buzz about it as well. When the bay finally froze over they were quite happy as it added to the Arctic total. However if you look closely at the ice it has a lot of fracturing. The same for Ungava Bay. This ice helps for global totals but I don’t think it should hold such high value as it melts out every year. No different than lake ice. The Gulf of St Lawrence has yet to make any ice as well. There is some in the Northumberland Straight between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island but thats it so far. Over the past couple weeks we’ve been getting a couple of decent cold days and than a couple of really warm wet days. Not very conducive to decent ice growth. A couple of good months yet for a cold snap to set in though.
Click to access 20170111180000_WIS28CT_0009257633.pdf
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 11, 2017During 2012-2013, we saw similar ridging tendencies for Central North America. What we’re seeing in the models now shows a further northward extent. The way these patterns have set up recently are that they tend to stick. Let’s hope that’s not the case for Hudson Bay this winter.
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 12, 2017Very good update on the current state of the Sun.
As Earth Warms Up, The Sun Is Remarkably Quiet
By: Bob Henson , 8:09 PM GMT on January 11, 2017
If you’re looking toward the sun to help explain this decade’s record global heat on Earth, look again. Solar activity has been below average for more than a decade, and the pattern appears set to continue, according to several top solar researchers. Solar Cycle 24, the one that will wrap up in the late 2010s, was the least active in more than a century. We now have outlooks for Cycle 25, the one that will prevail during the 2020s, and they’re calling for a cycle only about as strong as–and perhaps even less active than–Cycle 24.
Link
LikeLike
climatehawk1
/ January 12, 2017Scheduling tweet on this, thanks.
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017So this is an excellent article by Henson here.
Solar activity hasn’t been this feeble in nearly a Century. The net forcing from the sun is probably now negative when compared to the 20th Century baseline. The skeptical science graph in the article is a helpful illustration:
Note that the 11 year average solar forcing has dropped by about 0.5 Watts per meter squared. Despite this loss, the rate of global warming has continued unabated. It’s worth noting that the net positive radiative forcing from all greenhouse gasses is probably now in the range of +3 Watts per meter squared.
The change in ghg forcing over the 2000 to 2017 interval was probably in the range of +0.7 watts per meter squared. The solar variance, therefore, probably only managed to somewhat dampen the net increase in forcing over this period. It did not generate enough variance to reduce the net heat forcing or the Earth’s energy imbalance — which continued to rise (albeit at a slower rate).
What this means is that the rate of heat accumulation in the Earth System increased despite a relative drop in solar irradiance. Solar variability could, potentially, push lower by another 0.5 watts per meter squared in a more extreme case of lowering activity. However, the forecast is for activity to remain mostly constant at the new lower level or to ebb somewhat — possibly by another -0.1 to -0.2 watts per meter squared. Net gain in ghg forcing over a similar 11 year period would tend to be in the range of +0.3 to +0.6 watts per meter squared under the expected emissions scenarios.
It’s worth noting that the slackening of solar probably did take some edge off ghg related warming. But it wasn’t nearly enough to halt the warming trend or even to slow it down. To this point, any return to more active solar states would tend to accelerate warming somewhat as this natural variability feature flipped toward positive.
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 12, 2017Boston residents are bracing themselves as warnings are issued for a possible tidal surge across the east coast of the country.
Yellow warnings are in place for Friday, January 13, for a combination of high tides, a surge, large waves and strong along the east coast.
It was this combination which led to the devastating 2013 Boston floods. The floods effected 300 homes and businesses.
The Environment Agency’s warning states: “Coastal flooding is possible along the east coast of England from Northumberland to Kent on Friday extending into early Saturday morning along the Kent coast. There is potential danger to life along the east coast from large waves and over-topping of coastal promenades, along with possible flooding of properties and parts of communities including disruption to travel.”
Read more at Link
LikeLike
Spike
/ January 12, 2017The east coast of England is very vulnerable to sea level rise. http://www.coolgeography.co.uk/GCSE/AQA/Coastal%20Zone/Sea%20level%20rise/FloodUK.gif
LikeLike
Spike
/ January 12, 2017I remember 2013 – here’s a report from the time. the guys at the start of the video are really caught out. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25253080
LikeLike
Jeremy in Wales
/ January 12, 2017Some of the 2013 tide/storm surge heights were higher than the devestating floods of 1953, it was only the flood defences installed over 60 years that saved that day.
LikeLike
bostonblorp
/ January 12, 2017Meanwhile in the Boston of US of A it is currently nearly 60F. With the forecast for the next ten days only dipping below freezing on a couple of occasions. “delightful but alarming” as I overhead someone say.
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017Thanks for this, Bob.
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 12, 2017A new study has just revealed a massive peat-filled wetland in Africa’s central Congo Basin — and scientists say the carbon stored there may be equivalent to 20 years’ worth of U.S. fossil fuel emissions. The area is now believed to be the largest peatland system in the global tropics and possibly one of the region’s most important carbon sinks.
Link
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017And right in a region that is expected to dry, one that right now is experiencing some pretty intense wildfire activity according to the MODIS shots.
LikeLike
June
/ January 12, 2017This study looks at ice core evidence from Dansgaard-Oeschger events during the last ice age affecting Southern Ocean winds within a few decades at most.
Rapid Arctic warming has in the past shifted Southern Ocean winds
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170110101622.htm
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017About D-O events, which are also referred to as Bond events during interglacials:
“In the Northern Hemisphere, they take the form of rapid warming episodes, typically in a matter of decades, each followed by gradual cooling over a longer period. For example, about 11,500 years ago, averaged annual temperatures on the Greenland ice sheet warmed by around 8 °C over 40 years, in three steps of five years (see,[3] Stewart, chapter 13), where a 5 °C change over 30–40 years is more common.
Heinrich events only occur in the cold spells immediately preceding D-O warmings, leading some to suggest that D-O cycles may cause the events, or at least constrain their timing.[4]
The course of a D-O event sees a rapid warming of temperature, followed by a cool period lasting a few hundred years.[5] This cold period sees an expansion of the polar front, with ice floating further south across the North Atlantic Ocean.[5]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dansgaard%E2%80%93Oeschger_event
LikeLike
Cate
/ January 12, 2017Well, this is a rather grim assessment from a world expert on the economics of climate change, William Nordhaus at Yale.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/deadly-global-warming-is-inevitable-due-to-inaction-feasible-rhetoric-climate-change-fight-paris-a7521111.html
“Devastating global warming is inevitable due to inaction of international community, says leading economist. Professor William Nordhaus warns even extreme action on a global scale will still see a rise of 2.5C, but a leading climate scientist says an effort on the scale needed to win World War II could still save the day.”
I happen to agree with that leading climate scientist that we CAN save the day, but WILL we, that’s the question. Will we muster the huge courage, good faith, and energy needed for a global climate mobilisation?
LikeLike
Cate
/ January 12, 2017Direct link to Dr Nordhaus’ paper:
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017In order to do this, the fossil fuel special interest influence has to go or become radically altered and reduced. It’s become very obvious in our geo-politics that fossil fuel money has promoted climate change denial, gummed up legislative bodies, stymied helpful laws and regulations, mangled media coverage, and artificially shifted electorates. The CEO of Exxon is now up for Secretary of State, for crying out loud. A more clear instance of ‘the emperor has no clothes’ is difficult to imagine.
But it looks a bit like a last desperate grasping for the retention of power by a failing set of interests. One last gasp to delay the inevitable rise of better, cleaner energy sources.
Remove that harmful influence and self-interest and then the need for action becomes plain as day.
How do we remove it? By promoting the alternatives to fossil fuels. By divesting from their holdings. By boycotting their harmful products. By blocking new coal plants, pipelines and mines. By being good rebels for our Earth.
LikeLike
webej
/ January 12, 2017The green dot on the “southern edge of Hudson’s Bay” is known locally (in Canada) as James Bay
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017Thanks for pointing out that James Bay is a sub-part of the larger Hudson bay estuary, webej. From commons:
“As with the rest of Hudson Bay, the waters of James Bay routinely freeze over in winter, although it is the last to freeze over in winter, and conversely the first to thaw in summer.”
LikeLike
mlparrish
/ January 12, 2017“70 per cent of Japan’s biggest coral reef is dead due to global warming”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/japan-biggest-coral-reef-dead-sekiseishoko-ishigaki-iriomote-islands-global-warming-a7521726.html
The dying continues apace, from the Nov 11, 2016 indialivetoday.com report – 97% bleached, 56% dead, to now 70% dead and 91% partly bleached.
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017Thanks for this, ml.
LikeLike
Greg
/ January 12, 2017Turning Red all over.
LikeLike
Cate
/ January 12, 2017Out here in Newfoundland, I’ve been following night-time temps since last summer. All fall, and so far this winter, night-time temps have not been getting down anywhere near the average. Very strange.
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017It’s worth noting, from the graph, that night time temperatures now exceed even those of the fabled dust bowl years — with more consistent and widespread warmth as well.
LikeLike
climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 14, 2017Ha, I mentioned that in a response tweet to Seth Borenstein this a.m. 🙂 Dust Bowl has nothing to compare with 1998, 2012, 2015, 2016.
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 14, 2017+1
LikeLike
climatehawk1 (@climatehawk1)
/ January 14, 2017Thanks, retweeted this one.
LikeLike
Leland Palmer
/ January 12, 2017This is a scary, scary paper:
http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/33/5/397.full.pdf+html
Massive release of hydrogen sulfide to the surface ocean and atmosphere during intervals of oceanic anoxia:
“Abstract
Simple calculations show that if deep-water H2S concentrations increased beyond a critical threshold during oceanic anoxic intervals of Earth history, the chemocline separating sulfidic deep waters from oxygenated surface waters could have risen abruptly to the ocean surface (a chemocline upward excursion). Atmospheric photochemical modeling indicates that resulting fluxes of H2S to the atmosphere (2000 times the small modern flux from volcanoes) would likely have led to toxic levels of H2S in the atmosphere. Moreover,the ozone shield would have been destroyed, and methane levels would have risen to 100 ppm. We thus propose (1) chemocline upward excursion as a kill mechanism during the end-Permian, Late Devonian, and Cenomanian–Turonian extinctions, and (2) persistently high atmospheric H2S levels as a factor that impeded evolution of eukaryotic life on land during the Proterozoic.”
Oh, great. Now we have to worry about methane concentrations 50 times those of today, due to the impact of hydrogen sulfide on oxidation mechanisms in the atmosphere. Oh, and destruction of the ozone shield.
The sun is 2-3 percent hotter now than it was during the End Permian, and we are just barreling into this possible Mother of all Mass Extinctions.
I guess lemmings don’t really rush into the sea, that is a myth, apparently. It’s hard to admit that the entire human race is not even as smart as a small rodent.
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017“Atmospheric photochemical modeling indicates that resulting fluxes of H2S to the atmosphere (2000 times the small modern flux from volcanoes) would likely have led to toxic levels of H2S in the atmosphere. Moreover,the ozone shield would have been destroyed, and methane levels would have risen to 100 ppm. We thus propose (1) chemocline upward excursion as a kill mechanism during the end-Permian, Late Devonian, and Cenomanian–Turonian extinctions, and (2) persistently high atmospheric H2S levels as a factor that impeded evolution of eukaryotic life on land during the Proterozoic.”
This is one of the suspects in hothouse warming events for a mass extinction kill mechanism. Add too much heat and nutrients to the ocean and it’s a risk. Note that the publication date is 2005.
To this point, ocean stratification would happen first along the path toward a Canfield Ocean state — one that might be capable of producing this kind of event. The current ocean state is still mixed and oxygenated. But it is less mixed and oxygenated than it has been. And the movement is more and more toward a stratified ocean. The primary mechanisms for ocean stratification would be a shut down of the ocean conveyor system. Large glacial outflows would tend to enable this kind of shut down.
Movement from a stratified to a Canfield Ocean has been theoretically proposed due to the mechanism of equatorial warming which would generate deep warm water formation at the tropics — is a reverse to present Ocean circulation patterns. Such deep warm water formation would tend to activate methane seeps and push the chemocline toward the surface while de-oxygenating most of the ocean bottom.
To be very clear, we are still far from a Canfield Ocean type state. That said, a BAU emissions/worst case scenario could get us there on rather short (1-4 Century) timescales. We should also be clear that most ocean extinctions have occurred in conjunction with stratified oceans, low oxygen oceans, and Canfield Oceans. The ocean to atmosphere excursion due to chemocline rise has been identified as the killing mechanism by a number of papers and researchers for mass extinction events like the Permian. In my mind, it is the prime suspect.
This is important to consider because we are on a similar warming path now. That continued fossil fuel burning risks this kind of mass extinction event. In other words, we’re conducting a sick experiment that will prove or disprove the scientists mass extinction theory in the end. It’s not the kind of experiment anyone wants to be living in.
LikeLike
Leland Palmer
/ January 13, 2017Yes Robert, thanks for clarifying that. I hadn’t realized that the Canfield Ocean state would inject heat into the oceans, likely accelerating methane hydrate dissociation, but in retrospect that seems obvious – I just hadn’t made that connection.
Yes, it will take a while to produce a Canfield Ocean state, but what concerns many of us, and you, is that the next few years or decades might put us on an inevitable path to such a state.
There’s going to be a lot of stress on the hydroxyl radical, if things get that bad. Methane itself will also impact the hydroxyl radical. With the impact of the H2S, that further increases methane lifetime in the atmosphere, increasing radiative forcing.
We don’t know that a perfect storm will occur but we at least appear to have the components of perfect storm.
LikeLike
Steven Blaisdell
/ January 13, 2017“It’s hard to admit that the entire human race is not even as smart as a small rodent.’
We’re not. As a species we’re as ‘mindless’ as any other species. The problem is not intelligence; ‘intelligence’ is only the most powerful and quickly evolved survival mechanism in Earth’s history. The ephemeral qualities humans like to valorize as ‘intelligence’ are just incidental effects and capabilities ultimately tangential to the true function of consciousness: the survival and increase of the human genome. As wonderful, amazing, and fascinating as these effects and capabilities can be, consciousness is first, last, and always a tool for survival. Therefore, when we’re talking of humans as a species, and in the case of our effect on the biosphere we must, it becomes not a question of intelligence, or morality, or any other “higher order” quality of human thought or behavior. It’s survive and increase, not because we’re bad or stupid or amoral but because we’re human, all too human.
This doesn’t make things hopeless, not at all. But if there’s to be any chance of avoiding catastrophic collapse of the biosphere we need to clear eyed and honest about what we’re dealing with. Human behavior as a species (or actually in any group of any size) structurally has far more in common with chimpanzees than idealized expectations of who and what we “should” be. Which isn’t to say there aren’t differences; there obviously are. But it’s pretty clear that if you take away the immense resources we’ve torn from the Earth (quickly running out, natch), take away a stable, non-threatening climate, take away the largesse of industrialization and put humans back into conditions of true need and they will revert immediately to survival at all costs. This is obvious. What’s not so obvious is that humans as a species – because there are just too many variables in 7.3b people, or 7.3m, or even 7.3 thousand, and because our forebrains evolved too quickly for the concomitant evolution of ecological constraints – as a species we will consume available resources and increase in numbers at the ultimate expense of the ecology. God’s little joke, I’m sure.
I don’t mean to be negative, and I appreciate Robert allowing my pontificating. But I think the evidence speaks for itself. If we look at the behavior of the human race en toto under conditions of great surplus – which is what we have – while there is historically anomalous (relative) peace and stability, as a species we are still scraping and pumping and killing and digging and cutting and catching and mining every last ounce of exploitable resources from land and ocean. And we don’t do it because we’re “bad” or “stupid”; we do it because we’re “human.” We far, far overestimate and over-valorize our reason and rationality because that is the post-enlightenment lens through which we see the world, itself an extension of a moral codification of the necessary ‘taming’ of our violent hunter-gatherer tendencies in order to successfully maintain settled agricultural community. Which isn’t to say we can’t weight our reason with empathy and action and overcome our most basic, DNA level instincts. But we must be clear what we’re up against – it’s not greed (although we are, of course, up against greed) or sloth or ignorance or any other “sin.” What we’re up against is our own most basic nature, each and every one of us, expressed in an almost infinite number of ways and all to the same effect: the exhaustion of an ecology’s resources.
That’s what climate change is all about, Charlie Brown.
LikeLike
Leland Palmer
/ January 14, 2017Hi Steven-
I’m actually less pessimistic about human nature than you are, I think. I don’t think we’re suffering from a human nature problem so much as we are suffering from a technology and bad government problem.
To me, global warming seems more like a technological problem, than one built into human nature. We just need to change the technology, is all. Solar energy is a huge, huge, gigantic resource, and we just need to bring the price down enough to drive fossil fuels out of competitiveness, and that appears to be already happening. Or, use a carbon tax and subsidies better.
Note that the solar energy the earth receives in a year is maybe 10 times as great as the total energy content in all the fossil fuels combined. I think they left out the thorium / U233 nuclear resources, which are huge, and they also left the methane hydrates out of the diagarm, but it does show how huge the solar energy resource is. Nuclear resources using breeder reactors are also huge.
Human societies are capable of much better government than what we are seeing in the U.S. – look at Germany and the Scandinavian countries, for example. We almost had better government this year in the U.S. – Bernie Sanders was capable of reforming the system to investigate and fix our oligarchy problem, I think. Certainly human beings are capable of reason and logic – look at the vast majority of scientists, for example.
If we were a true democracy, with a truly free press, we would be capable of much better and more reasonable decisions, I think.
LikeLike
mulga mumblebrain
/ January 16, 2017I think that ‘culture’ is at least as important as ‘human nature’. After all, the different cultures that have evolved among humanity share pretty much the same priorities-the need for food, shelter and safety, the drive to reproduce, the familial relations that evolve from that, the extended relations with cousins and neighbours, including co-operation to gather, hunt or cultivate food, and the desire to understand our existence and its significance (if any).
I don’t wish to idealise primitive cultures, and am by no means anything approaching ‘expert’, but most indigenous cultures destroyed by Western colonialism and imperialism, did seem to live in relative and quite long-lived peace with the natural world. There was a lot of practical knowledge of how not to over-exploit natural resources and not over-populate, by methods like infanticide and the use of numerous natural contraceptives and abortifacients.
However, when these cultures became more powerful, extensive, heavily populated and demanding of natural resources, they often caused their own destruction by ecological collapse as with the Maya and Khmers. Climate changes were often too marked and rapid for them to quickly adjust. and collapse ensued.
The globalised Western ‘civilization’ that has dominated and subjugated the rest of the planet, destroying all other ways of being and imposing its greedy, materialistic, neoplastic lust for eternal ‘growth’ on all other populations, enabled a huge growth in human population, despite the numerous wars, famines and genocides it also caused. It did this through a growth in economic output and scientific and technological progress that, at the same time, was rapidly destroying the fabric of Life on Earth. The growth in output, consumption of natural resources and population since WW2 (and particularly accelerating since 1970), has been mirrored by collapse in all measures of biosphere health, eg wildlife population, extent of pristine forests, fisheries, biodiversity etc.
While the world has been warned of this obvious problem for decades (and by the far-sighted for centuries)the powers that be have either ignored the quickly evolving catastrophe, or pretended that technology and ‘Market Forces’ will save us. Now we have reached the ‘Moment of Truth’. Very soon we will need to either brush all the denialist maniacs of every type out of the way and work like mad for centuries to repair the damage, in the manner in which war-time populations were mobilised seventy years ago, or suffer the consequences. Just why NO leading lights in Western politics or academia or the religious or other ‘spiritual’ leaders have yet really put the truth into words and DEMANDED action, or ordered their adherents to rise up and save themselves and our children, is quite beyond my understanding. Here in Australia we are still divided between insane denialist fanatics, impotent and polite ‘realists’ relying on ‘market forces’ and ‘price signals’, and a tiny coterie of Greens more intent at present on internecine purges, to rid themselves of evil ‘Leftists’, lest the Murdoch MSM cancer pick on them. It’s like living a bad dream, day after day.
LikeLike
wharf rat
/ January 12, 2017SFGate
Published on Jan 10, 2017
King Tides along the Embarcadero on Tuesday morning.
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017The stormy pattern out west is helping to drive these tides higher. There’s also a bit of a higher launching pad due to global sea level rise affecting this region. But it’s worth noting that the rate of rise here is so far slower than for the US East Coast:
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 12, 2017A Massachusetts judge has refused to excuse Exxon Mobil Corp from a request by the state’s attorney general to hand over decades worth of documents on its views on climate change, state officials said on Wednesday.
The decision by Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Heidi Brieger denying Exxon’s request for an order exempting it from handing over the documents represents a legal victory for Attorney General Maura Healey, who is investigating the world’s largest publicly traded oil company’s climate policies.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-exxon-mobil-massachusetts-idUSKBN14W04Z
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017Good news here. A stark contrast to the smoke being blown at the confirmation hearing.
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 12, 2017Pressures from grazers hastens ecosystem collapse from drought
Experiments show grazing pressures compound drought stress, delay recovery
Date:
January 11, 2017
Source:
Duke University
Summary:
Ecosystem collapse from extreme drought can be significantly hastened by pressures placed on drought-weakened vegetation by grazers and fungal pathogens, a new study finds. The study’s experimental evidence shows that the natural enemies of plants play a major role in lowering resilience to drought and preventing recovery afterward. The finding may be applicable to a wide range of ecosystems now threatened by climate-intensified drought, including marshes, mangroves, forests and grasslands.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170111184455.htm
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 12, 2017Thirty-six people are confirmed dead and one is still missing in the floods that have hit 12 southern provinces since Jan 1, with devastated communities in many areas struggling to repair damage so they can resume their lives.
The floods have taken their toll on 1.2 million people of 403,478 households in 5,244 villages in 119 districts of the 12 provinces, causing damage to 17 government installations and 592 roads, 106 bridges, Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department chief Chatchai Promlert said on Thursday.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1178808/36-dead-one-missing-in-floods-many-homeless
LikeLike
Shawn Redmond
/ January 12, 2017It’s all good CB. Think of the coin to be made by the multi nationals putting that back together. After all it’s on the other side of the world happening to brown people, their used to hardship. I expect most, if not all, isn’t even insured, so for Wall St. it’s pure profit. Now just sit back and wait for the next atmospheric river to roll through or should I say gravy train. There is loads of money to be skimmed in disasters. It matters not what brings it along. War works equally as well.
LikeLike
Cate
/ January 12, 2017Shawn, sadly, heart-breakingly, disgracefully, true.
LikeLike
Shawn Redmond
/ January 12, 2017Cate as a species we suck. After reading the Flassbeck summary yesterday,
( http://www.flassbeck-economics.com/tales-of-extraordinary-insanity-part-3-in-order-to-solve-the-climate-crisis-the-left-has-to-gain-power/ )which reads like a Cole’s Notes of this entire blogs history, I’m having a bit of difficulty shaking the implications and getting back to the positive. Another day or two should do it and I should calm down. Very unnerving to stare long and hard at the possible reality that awaits us. It would seem we are awash with capitalistic wolves wringing their hands at the imaginary wealth that a broken climate will, in their minds, wash directly to them. It’s a hell of a spot, pass the ketchup.
LikeLike
Suzanne
/ January 12, 2017Shawn..
I appreciated you sharing that link, but boy oh boy…it was a tough read. I have been struggling since November to not succumb to darkness and hopelessness. But I am still glad you shared it..though I have only been able to read it in “short” intervals. 🙂
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017It’s the Climate Shock doctrine… Playing zero sum games with climate change is like doing deals with the devil. The first ante up is your soul, the chips on the table to be collected come at the cost of lives lost and suffering inflicted, and it’s inevitable that you’ll get burned in the end.
LikeLike
Shawn Redmond
/ January 12, 2017Steady on Cate, remember we’re all in this together. Necessity is the mother of invention. I think fear might be the father. Hard to say for sure without a DNA test.
LikeLike
Shawn Redmond
/ January 12, 2017Sorry I meant Suzanne in the above I have to stop reading and typing at the same time.
LikeLike
Cate
/ January 12, 2017Shawn, no apology needed, I’m feeling very much as Suzanne says after reading that link. Whew. Prospects are very grim, are they not?
And yet—and yet. Have you read Paul Mason’s book, “Postcapitalism”? He fleshes out some of the ideas about financial reform mentioned in the Flassbeck link, although I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with Mason’s final vision for the future, which seemed to partake of a little too much blue-sky thinking without a lot of practical direction on the nitty gritty of dealing with climate change, for example (which was, admittedly, not what he was writing about per se). Still, Man’s reach must exceed his grasp…etc.
LikeLike
Shawn Redmond
/ January 13, 2017Thanks Cate just added to the winter list.
LikeLike
Sammy
/ January 12, 2017The jet streams are getting weirder and weirder. The northern and southern parts even seem to be converging somewhat at times in recent weeks (currently there’s a weaker example shown in the forecast animation at http://cci-reanalyzer.org/wx/fcst/#GFS-025deg.WORLD-CED.WS250-SNOWC-TOPO).
If that was a general trend, it spooks me to think what the longer term consequences might be.
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017As the atmospheric circulation pattern changes, the subtropical jet is driven northward. The polar jet is elongated on the north-south vector. As a result, the two tend to converge over the middle latitudes more and more. Such interactions would tend to enhance the powerful storm patterns that are already starting to emerge. Add in the higher atmospheric moisture loading due to warming and it’s a very unstable mix of airs occurring over some of the most highly populated regions of the world.
LikeLike
mlparrish
/ January 13, 2017Sammy
I agree it’s weird. I noticed yesterday and even stronger today an additional branch of the northern jet just at the equator in the eastern Pacific, see the marker at 144kh/hr. It is also seen, though more faintly, on your map.
Would this be a normal easterly tropical jet ? The one I found mention of was the equatorial, or tropical easterly jet (TEJ), but that was in the northern summer near Africa and Asia, not in the eastern Pacific. Maybe this is another normal one, but I’d be interested if you have any ideas.
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/250hPa/orthographic=-112.74,7.17,486/loc=-117.015,-5.882
LikeLike
Sammy
/ January 13, 2017it’s hard to know what to think; according to Roy W. Spencer, equator crossing is not that unusual (http://www.drroyspencer.com/2016/06/climate-system-scientist-claims-jet-stream-crossing-the-equator-is-unprecedented/) but the models seem to reflect what RS says, that the polar and subtropical jets ‘converge over the middle latitudes more and more’. So it may be indication of yet another concerning trend, and thus it might be dangerous to just dismiss it as normal and leave it at that.
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 13, 2017To be clear, the subtropical jet does tend to meander across the Equator from time to time. It’s the high latitudinal variance and strength of atmospheric waves that is the issue at this time. In other words, it looks like there’s quite a lot more interaction between the polar Jet and the mid and lower latitudes and the subtropical jet with the middle and upper latitudes. We should also remain suspect of Spencer’s climate communications. In the past he has worked to cast doubt on legitimate science at the behest of fossil fuel special interests. So, for my part, I’d like to hear from someone else on the topic.
LikeLike
Abel Adamski
/ January 12, 2017One for CB and DT in memory.
http://www.sciencealert.com/these-brazilian-vampire-bats-have-started-feeding-on-humans-for-the-first-time
“As intimidating as they might sound, vampire bats aren’t usually in the business of bothering humans for their blood. In fact, the hairy-legged vampire bat species was thought to feed almost exclusively on birds.
But researchers have discovered that hairy-legged vampire bats in north-east Brazil have managed to kick things up a notch – they’ve been caught feeding on humans by night, and that’s something no one even thought was possible.
“We were quite surprised,” Enrico Bernard from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil told New Scientist.
“This species isn’t adapted to feed on the blood of mammals.”
.
.
Interestingly, the team notes that these bats’ most common prey – the white-browed guan, the yellow-legged tinamou, and the picazuro pigeon – have been disappearing in the area due to deforestation and hunting.
Domesticated birds such as chickens presented an even more tempting option in the face of large wild birds declining, and because many of the locals keep their chickens in close contact, the desperate bats developed a taste for both.”
Loss of habitat comes from may causes including drought, fire, heat etc as well.
Desperate species will change their patterns to survive, in this case the bats are not evolved to digest mammalian blood, but they are trying and will surely succeed over time
The little things and how the changes keep extrapolating and multiplying
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 12, 2017The filth they breathe in China
Winter has returned to northern China. And so has the country’s trademark, deadly smog.
The central government recently declared its first-ever national red alert for air quality, with pollution levels hovering over 12 times the level recommended by the World Health Organization. Indeed, China’s unprecedented growth has come at a horrific social cost that is just beginning to get serious attention. The political leadership of China, like Japan and South Korea before it, put economic growth far above environmental protection or health concerns, and the country now faces a catastrophically polluted countryside. Nearly all aspects of China’s environment are affected, and the true economic and health effects are only now becoming apparent.
Link
LikeLike
Abel Adamski
/ January 12, 2017Carbon capture.
Another new method, as usual discovered by accident. In the same way the hardest material known was accidentally discovered (Gold Tungsten alloy)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2017/01/10/crazy-carbon-crystals-could-combat-climate-change/#4536289a6382
Crazy Carbon Crystals And Other New Ways To Fight Climate Change
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have accidentally stumbled upon a way to capture carbon dioxide from the ambient air, creating prism-like crystals and combating global warming in the process.
“When we left an aqueous solution of the guanidine open to air, beautiful prism-like crystals started to form,” ORNL’s Radu Custelcean said. “After analyzing their structure by X-ray diffraction, we were surprised to find the crystals contained carbonate, which forms when carbon dioxide from air reacts with water.”
What might surprise readers most, though, is that this is just one way researchers have come up with to extract greenhouse gases from the ambient air. Last year I reported on a novel method that uses solar power to transform ambient CO2 into a raw material that can be used to create all sorts of things from aircraft to wind turbines.
There’s also interesting work going on around injecting CO2 into rock and converting it into ethanol.
Plus producing pur atomic carbon which with all the carbon nanotechnology etc would be extremely valuable
LikeLike
Leland Palmer
/ January 14, 2017Hi Abel-
That’s really interesting, the guanidine open air capture of CO2 to make carbonate process.
The fact that the CO2 comes from the air in the first place might make it possible to make a true carbon sequestering cement including these crystals.
One very important thing is that they can apparently recycle the guanidine. That’s really important if you need to capture millions or billions of tons of carbonate.
Just by adding crystals like that to conventional Portland cement as a cement aggregate could make the resulting concrete carbon neutral, I think. A lot depends on what the counter ion is …calcium, magnesium, sodium? That changes the solubility and durability out in the weather.
Trying to gain access to the paper or find out more about this.
LikeLike
Troutbum52
/ January 12, 2017An article by Obama published in Science, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/01/06/science.aam6284.full.pdf+html
awaiting Trump tweet or article in Science as well.
LikeLike
Suzanne
/ January 12, 2017Thanks for the link. I had read several months ago that President Obama was going to make CC a big part of his post-Presidency. I think this paper shows that to be true.
BTW….the Lunatic would be hard pressed to comprehend that paper…let alone write one!
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017It’s a fantastic paper. I could write five articles based on the content Obama provided if I had the time.
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017Well done, Obama. So this is our light in the darkness. If we ignore it, we ignore our best hope out of this mess.
LikeLike
Sammy
/ January 13, 2017brilliant, but the tweet will prove it to be another Chinese hoax no doubt
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 12, 2017NASA Study Finds a Connection Between Wildfires and Drought
Small particles called aerosols that are released into the air by smoke may also reduce the likelihood of rainfall. This can happen because water vapor in the atmosphere condenses on certain types and sizes of aerosols called cloud condensation nuclei to form clouds; when enough water vapor accumulates, rain droplets are formed. But have too many aerosols and the water vapor is spread out more diffusely to the point where rain droplets don’t materialize.
The relationship between fire and the water in northern sub-Saharan Africa, however, had never been comprehensively investigated until recently. A study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, led by Charles Ichoku, a senior scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, seeks to shed light on the connection.
“We wanted to look at the general impacts of burning on the whole spectrum of the water cycle,” said Ichoku.
Link
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017It’s a kind of self-sustaining cycle in which burning preferentially enables drying, which then promotes more burning. There’s your tipping point for tropical forests and boreal forests alike. Once that cycle gets started it’s tough to stop.
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 12, 2017Before-and-after photos show California storm’s insane impact on water levels
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017And this during a La Nina year that would typically promote a drier winter and rainy season. It really shows how dramatic the RRR’s impact was.
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 12, 2017Arctic lakes melting earlier and earlier each year, recent 14-year study shows
‘Without any doubt at all, basically almost all lakes are getting their ice out earlier year after year’
Lakes were analyzed in these five areas: Northern Europe, Northeast Canada, Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain, Central Siberia, and Northeast Siberia.
There were 2,994 lakes observed in Northeast Canada and the majority of them showed a rate of change of 0.3 days earlier per year. That means the ice has been melting about eight hours earlier per year.
But 53 lakes in Canada showed a “really strong trend for earlier (ice) break-up,” melting on average one day earlier per year, said Edwards.
Central Siberia showed the strongest warming trend with a melting rate of more than a day earlier per year for most of its lakes. A third of the lakes broke the highest record in the study with a change of 1.4 days earlier per year.
Link
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017That’s basically 0.3 to 1.4 days less of winter each year on the spring side. And there’s erosion on the fall side as well. For many of these regions, freezing temperatures lasted for six months or more. Now we’re losing up to half a month of that on the spring side every decade.
LikeLike
Shawn Redmond
/ January 12, 2017This article has a few ideas I take exception with, mainly diesel is the only reasonable power supply for trucks in the mining industry, however the general point is on uranium mining and its finite amounts. Just brings the LTG up front yet again.
“It’s true that there are large quantities of uranium in the Earth’s crust, but there are limited numbers of deposits that are concentrated enough to be profitably mined. If we tried to extract those less concentrated deposits, the mining process would require far more energy than the mined uranium could ultimately produced [negative EROI].”
http://energyskeptic.com/2017/peak-uranium-from-ugo-bardis-extracted/
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017It’s worth noting that LTG was a prophetic early push for renewable energy sources. I think they will be proven right in the end.
LikeLike
Shawn Redmond
/ January 12, 2017LTG is another unnerving read at this moment in time. Made all the more so when you realize they didn’t really factor in CC. Only degradation from pollution inputs on health mostly.
LikeLike
Shawn Redmond
/ January 12, 2017That’s one hell of a dog and pony show you guys are running down there:
https://thinkprogress.org/tillerson-pleads-ignorance-on-exxons-russian-sanctions-lobbying-ef089e4232f8#.jw8j9oecv
Perhaps the most jaw-dropping exchange of the day occurred when Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) followed up on Tillerson’s amazing claim that neither he nor Exxon ever lobbied against sanctions against Russia in response to their incursions in Ukraine. Menendez showed Tillerson the documents Exxon filed, which proved they had lobbied on sanctions.
Tillerson then professed utter ignorance of whether Exxon was lobbying for or against sanctions, saying, “I don’t know” twice.
LikeLike
Cate
/ January 12, 2017I laughed out loud when he said that. Is this a farce or a nightmare?
LikeLike
Suzanne
/ January 12, 2017Both. A human tragedy we all have front row seats to…
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017It’s a kind of nightmarish theater of the absurd. All thanks to Sen. Menendez for shining a light in the dark here. I think Tillerson’s communication and responses can best be described as Rumsfeldish. A very CEO-esque manipulation of language that tends to bake out real truth and meaning while avoiding accountability for past actions by generating a pretense of responsibility.
LikeLike
Suzanne
/ January 12, 2017Off topic..but important. Please check out and share…
“Indivisible Guide: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda”
https://www.indivisibleguide.com/web
It lays out, step by step, what effective Resistance can and should be.
LikeLike
robertscribbler
/ January 12, 2017Thanks for this resource, Suzanne.
LikeLike
Spike
/ January 12, 2017East coast of England a blaze of red coastal flood warnings for high tide tomorrow. Barriers going up in some areas https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/map
LikeLike
Jeremy in Wales
/ January 12, 2017The UK Government commissioned report on the Swansea Tidal Lagoon has now been published and appears to be more positive than I thought likely, stressing the potential life of the infrastructure, 120 years and the enviromental benefits. I think he should also have stressed the flood protection element also.
I hope that the scheme can now quickly agree a strike price for the energy and that the larger scheme smove towards development. Hopefully they will add wind turbines to the breakwaters.
While it is bound to have some enviromental impact, eg reduced mudflat exposure and possible fish kill in turbine – although low spreed geared turbines might reduce this – it has to be set against the damage done by coal plants like the nearby Aberthaw 2000MW coal plant and opencast coal mining in S.Wales and Eastern Europe..
Although this conservative government is not entirely pro-green, they like private investment, even more they like private enterprise getting subsidy (eg a higher electricty price), and they try to stick to agreements eg The Paris agreement ,so personally I think this has a good chance of going ahead now.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-38571240
In addition a new pumped storage scheme has cleared the planning hurdle, the draining of water from two quarries at Glyn Rhonwy, Llanberis, Gwynedd to provide 100mw 600mwh of pump storage power. The scheme is on a brownfield site – old slate quarries and RAF bomb store – and will provide additional coverage for intermittancy of renewable sources. There are two current pumped storage scheme in N. Wales, Ffestiniog (300Mw) and Dinorwic 1.3GW.
https://www.theengineer.co.uk/issues/march-2015-digi-issue/pumped-storage-a-new-project-for-wales/
LikeLike
wharf rat
/ January 12, 2017Storms End Drought in Much of Northern California
Story Highlights
Sierra snowpack is now almost double the average for mid-January.
Many reservoirs are now running well above average.
Drought relief has been less in Southern California.
=
This is the first time since Dec. 20, 2011 that all areas north of Interstate 80 in California are completely out of drought.
https://weather.com/climate-weather/drought/news/california-snow-rain-early-january-2017-impact-drought
LikeLike
Sammy
/ January 13, 2017let’s hope it lasts!
LikeLike
Andy_in_SD
/ January 12, 2017Six years ago, Don Cameron, the general manager of Terranova Ranch, southwest of Fresno, Calif., did something that seemed kind of crazy.
He went out to a nearby river, which was running high because of recent rains, and he opened an irrigation gate. Water rushed down a canal and flooded hundreds of acres of vineyards — even though it was wintertime. The vineyards were quiet. Nothing was growing.
“We started in February, and we flooded grapes continuously, for the most part, until May,” Cameron says.
Cameron was doing this because for years, he and his neighbors have been using digging wells and pumping water out of the ground to irrigate their crops. That groundwater supply has been running low. “I became really concerned about it,” Cameron says.
So his idea was pretty simple: Flood his fields and let gravity do the rest. Water would seep into the ground all the way to the aquifer.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/01/12/509179190/as-rains-soak-california-farmers-test-how-to-store-water-underground
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 12, 2017Andy –
Great minds rich discussion going here , right now , about this very thing –
https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=3540#commenttop
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 12, 2017Results of a new study by researchers at the Northeast Climate Science Center (NECSC) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggest that temperatures across the northeastern United States will increase much faster than the global average, so that the 2-degrees Celsius warming target adopted in the recent Paris Agreement on climate change will be reached about 20 years earlier for this part of the U.S. compared to the world as a whole.
http://phys.org/news/2017-01-northeast-temperatures-decades-global-average.html
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 13, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 13, 2017I I have fumbled for this for weeks , I stopped in to see my oldest friend today. He was at work. They cut off the top of his left ear , put in 2 stents, and cut a “lump” out his neck.
He was at work.
Bookends – Simon and Garfunkel HQ
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 13, 2017He looked just like DTL .
A pale old man .
These old hippies are dying ever day. But we ain’t going to build any marble statue to them . And they saw the future. They carried the seeds. They saw a better future , and we still fight that same battle today.
Always , the baby of the future has had the hands of the past creep in , and try to smother it in the crib. One problem now. That baby is a 14 year old ass hole with a Glock.
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 13, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 13, 2017I am completely mad at this point .
( Which is interesting, if that in fact that was true, I couldn’t write poetry, or understand the past , and how much told us.)
48 years ago. .
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 13, 2017I’m freakin’ out , I get to go to Hell’s Breakfast . I take my own medicine. Where is my chin strap?
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 13, 2017LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 13, 2017To cross all this time , to keep all these notes. This is why we fear death.
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 13, 2017The greatest album of the 20th century .
LikeLike
utoutback
/ January 13, 2017Thanks Bob.Hadn’t heard that one in many a year.
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 13, 2017I aint papers on you
LikeLike
coloradobob
/ January 13, 2017Hank Snow – I’ve Been Everywhere
LikeLike
Spike
/ January 13, 2017A bit of light relief – some clever person has set up a paleo tweet account in the style of Trump https://twitter.com/PaleoTrump/status/819209031063601152
LikeLike
Marcel Guldemond (@marcel_g)
/ January 17, 2017lol
LikeLike