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Domain: chooseclimate.org

Stories and comments across the archive that link to chooseclimate.org.

Comments · 7

  1. Download climate data and models by Ambitwistor · · Score: 1 · on James Hansen on the Warmest Year Brouhaha

    Repost of my AC post:

    Lots of data at NCDC.

    Simple interactive Java climate model JCM5.

    3D general circulation model EdGCM (based on NASA GISS Model II, state of the art in 1983 and what James Hansen himself used in his famous 1988 testimony to Congress).

    For more modern and advanced models ... they're not so easy for laymen to run themselves, but ...

    There are a variety of Earth System Models of Intermediate Complexity (EMICs) which are not fully 3D models but represent a lot of physics and don't require a supercomputer. One such is UVic; there are many more (here).

    You can even get full blown state of the art GCMs which run on supercomputers, like NASA GISS Model E or NCAR CCSM, but expect to run them for most of a year to get any kind of result ...

  2. Models by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on James Hansen on the Warmest Year Brouhaha

    I've hit my 30 comment limit so I have to post anonymously, but:

    Lots of data at NCDC.

    Simple interactive Java climate model JCM5.

    3D general circulation model EdGCM (based on NASA GISS Model II, state of the art in 1983 and what James Hansen himself used in his famous 1988 testimony to Congress).

    For more modern and advanced models ... they're not so easy for laymen to run themselves, but ...

    There are a variety of Earth System Models of Intermediate Complexity (EMICs) which are not fully 3D models but represent a lot of physics and don't require a supercomputer. One such is UVic; there are many more (here).

    You can even get full blown state of the art GCMs which run on supercomputers, like NASA GISS Model E or NCAR CCSM, but expect to run them for most of a year to get any kind of result ...

  3. Other methods studied as well by Cy+Guy · · Score: 2 · on Goodbye Global Warming!...Hello Terraforming?

    ChooseClimate.ORG has a article that reviews many alternative climate engineering approaches for either removing CO2, or perhaps more intriguing, reducing the amount of sunlight that gets to planet's surface.

    The article reviews an otherwise unrelated strategy that also involve using quicklime, but notes that burning the fuel needed for quickening the lime produces almost as much CO2 as the lime is able to absorb.

    I think this system will only work if the CO2 absorbent material is produced in way thast doesn't produce any signitficant amount of additional CO2, for example using either nuclear energy, or waste heate from another process, to convert the lime, or finding a material that takes solar energy to produce a CO2 absorber (wait a minute, we already something that does that, its called photosynthesis).

  4. Hey, I didn't say it was a great idea... by paranormalized · · Score: 1 · on A Million Bucks, Mach 7.6, Straight Down
    Just a nifty one, if all worked out perfectly. OTOH, I am well aware that H2O is the biggy of greenhouse gases, so yeah, the venus effect is more likely, given that murphy seems to be the secret ruler of the universe. In any case, cloud heat reflection/retention is only just beginning to be incorporated into climate models AFAIK, so we're probably not going to get a good idea of the real effects any time soon. sigh.

    Climatology is only really beginning as a science, so we're (me especially) all just talking out of our asses, right? It would be nice if we could predict the effects of X, Y, or Z on the planet, and move right along w/ the climate engineering and keep the earth habitable for the next x-thousand years, but that isn't something I expect to see in my lifetime. It would be nice to see those spaceplanes in my lifetime though...

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  5. +3 for article incorporated into /back and quickie by paranormalized · · Score: 1 · on Ask the Man Behind the Legend - Cowboy Neal
    I was at 1 karma,(been making and losing accounts for the past 2+ yrs!) submitted an article on Climate Engineering and got bumped up to 4 karma.

    Since they haven't put my submission onto the front page or the science section yet, I'm assuming its in an upcoming slashback or quickies fix.

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  6. Re:Real life solution to CO2: plankton by paranormalized · · Score: 1 · on Bacteria to Destroy Greenhouse Gases

    Whoops again. The link I gave was the text of the document, but lacks all the nifty diagrams and stuff. This site provides the full article on climate engineering, with the important part about the experiments with iron dust and such. Sorry, impatient to post the idea and didn't play around with the article in my browser enough. I thought cleng.txt refered to the author, and didn't realize it was an abreviation of the phrase climate engineering. I blame the Chinese, cause if they all had ordinary names like John and Isaac, I never would have thought there were even people named 'Cleng', or somesuch.

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  7. Real life solution to CO2: plankton by paranormalized · · Score: 1 · on Bacteria to Destroy Greenhouse Gases
    Quick Quiz: Why are the waters of the North Pacific so fertile?
    Answer: the Sahara Desert. Evidently, dust from the Sahara is carried on the jetstream to the ocean, where the trace iron boosts the nutrient content of the waters, increasing the amount of plankton on the very bottom of the food chain, which we eventually benefit from in the form of salmon and other tasty treats.

    Well, how does that solve global warming? Well, when the plankton die, they fall to the ocean floor, locking up CO2. There are also large 'deserts' of the ocean where there aren't these plankton because they lack the needed nutrients. So, some people have come up with a plan for fertilizing these parts of the ocean with iron dust, sequestering carbon dioxide, as well as possibly creating new fishing grounds, for all I know.

    From the sound of the article, it sounds like they're going ahead with experiments in this vein already. Don't know if the consequences will be all or even mostly beneficial, but what the heck, gotta try something, eh?

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