There is no reasoned debate in the forums of/. anymore (it was rather sparse to start with). Everyone is either a climate Nazi or fucking stupid, depending on which side you are on. I give up on humanity, or at least the nerd subbranch represented here.
For a summary of the "debate" linking Sandy to global warming see: http://theresilientearth.com/?q=content/scientifically-ignorant-tabloid-climatologists-blame-sandy-climate-change
In a mad rush to prove who can put out the most inane press release, various warm-mongers, news hacks and climate alarmists have gone on a predictable spree, trying to blame Hurricane Sandy and the resulting disaster in the US Northeast on CO2 levels. Who are these clowns? Even the IPCC issued a statement saying that global warming was not to blame. Have none of these empty headed blatherskites noticed that it has been more than seven years since a major hurricane struck the US, the longest such period since the Civil War? Evidently not, since they continue to spew unscientific twaddle and the news media continues to lap it up like a dog eating its own vomit.
Actually, there have been a number of scientific papers that find similarities between the current interglacial and one ~400,000 years ago. That one lasted more than 28,000 years, so we may have another 15,000 years of good weather left in the old Holocene. Of course, another 15,000 years of warm weather and all those pesky glaciers will melt, raising the level of the ocean, without any help from SUV drivers.
There are good, species preserving reasons to continue developing our launch capabilities. As I said in my blog: One of the things that has been obscured by all the hand wringing and arm waiving about global warming is the existence of a threat to our planet that is very real and could arise suddenly. That threat is from non-planetary bodies within the solar system: asteroids, comets and other celestial wanderers. While the world's politicians and tree-hugging blowhards rail about the damage climate change might cause, a symposium was held in San Francisco to address a problem that actually could end life on Earth. For the full story see http://theresilientearth.com/?q=content/forget-global-warming-sky-really-could-fall
Hoffman is a PhD computer scientist with a lot of interdisciplinary work and modeling experience (all of the IPCC climate predictions are from computer models, not hard science). Simmons worked on satellite remote sensing of CO2, quite applicable to the field. Besides, "climate science" covers a wide range of disciplines: atmospheric physics, geology, oceanography, biology, etc. If you know anything about science you would know that people often change fields and work across field lines. A PhD says you know how to do science, it doesn't limit the type of science you can do. If you do your homework you can contribute to any field.
Historical records for the western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) show that it is particularly prone to rapid climate change--change that occurs in cycles of ~200 years and ~2500 years. By studying major transitions in plankton productivity in the western Antarctic, scientists have shown that "spectacular" ice-cover losses have happened many times in the past. In other words, the "unprecedented rapid loss of ice" from parts of Antarctica that global warming alarmists make so much of are a normal part of nature's cycles. What else would you expect during the peak of an interglacial warming period? This is from a paper titled "Recent Changes in Phytoplankton Communities Associated with Rapid Regional Climate Change Along the Western Antarctic Peninsula," by Martin Montes-Hugo, et al, in Science. For more see
http://theresilientearth.com/?q=content/melting-antarctic-ice-part-natural-cycle
For the world to truly end, as in no more planet Earth, scenario 4 is most probable in the near term and scenario 1 inescapable in the long run. If you are defining âoeend of the worldâ as in a major extinction event, with Homo sapiens in a staring roll, then there are a bunch of options. The ones suspected of causing or contributing to major extinction events in the past are outlined in chapter six of my book, The Resilient Earth (shameless plug). Here are the main ones from the book.
Extraterrestrial Impacts — asteroids or comets striking Earth.
Massive Volcanoes — in particular the effect on climate.
Moving Continents — destruction of habitat due to continental drift.
Ice Ages — glaciation, global cooling, lowered sea levels.
Disappearing Oxygen — deep water overturn or methane ice.
Cosmic Peril — impact of cosmic rays and supernovas.
Coincident Causes — the âoemurder on the orient expressâ model. (all of the above).
Our planet's past is filled with extinctions,some large, some small, some solitary. All the ages in the fossil record chronicle the departure of species from this Earth. The sweep of geologic time, comprising more than 90 recognized time periods, is partitioned by changes in the fossil record. What is most amazing is how gigantic an event has to be to be recorded in the strata. Visit theresilientearth.com for more information including pdfs of the book chapters and a link to Amazon for purchase of the paperback version.
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There is no reasoned debate in the forums of /. anymore (it was rather sparse to start with). Everyone is either a climate Nazi or fucking stupid, depending on which side you are on. I give up on humanity, or at least the nerd subbranch represented here.
For a summary of the "debate" linking Sandy to global warming see: http://theresilientearth.com/?q=content/scientifically-ignorant-tabloid-climatologists-blame-sandy-climate-change In a mad rush to prove who can put out the most inane press release, various warm-mongers, news hacks and climate alarmists have gone on a predictable spree, trying to blame Hurricane Sandy and the resulting disaster in the US Northeast on CO2 levels. Who are these clowns? Even the IPCC issued a statement saying that global warming was not to blame. Have none of these empty headed blatherskites noticed that it has been more than seven years since a major hurricane struck the US, the longest such period since the Civil War? Evidently not, since they continue to spew unscientific twaddle and the news media continues to lap it up like a dog eating its own vomit.
If you want to find out the real story on wind reliability and peak power read this: http://theresilientearth.com/?q=content/energy-answer-not-blowin-wind
Actually, there have been a number of scientific papers that find similarities between the current interglacial and one ~400,000 years ago. That one lasted more than 28,000 years, so we may have another 15,000 years of good weather left in the old Holocene. Of course, another 15,000 years of warm weather and all those pesky glaciers will melt, raising the level of the ocean, without any help from SUV drivers.
There are good, species preserving reasons to continue developing our launch capabilities. As I said in my blog: One of the things that has been obscured by all the hand wringing and arm waiving about global warming is the existence of a threat to our planet that is very real and could arise suddenly. That threat is from non-planetary bodies within the solar system: asteroids, comets and other celestial wanderers. While the world's politicians and tree-hugging blowhards rail about the damage climate change might cause, a symposium was held in San Francisco to address a problem that actually could end life on Earth. For the full story see http://theresilientearth.com/?q=content/forget-global-warming-sky-really-could-fall
Hoffman is a PhD computer scientist with a lot of interdisciplinary work and modeling experience (all of the IPCC climate predictions are from computer models, not hard science). Simmons worked on satellite remote sensing of CO2, quite applicable to the field. Besides, "climate science" covers a wide range of disciplines: atmospheric physics, geology, oceanography, biology, etc. If you know anything about science you would know that people often change fields and work across field lines. A PhD says you know how to do science, it doesn't limit the type of science you can do. If you do your homework you can contribute to any field.
Historical records for the western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) show that it is particularly prone to rapid climate change--change that occurs in cycles of ~200 years and ~2500 years. By studying major transitions in plankton productivity in the western Antarctic, scientists have shown that "spectacular" ice-cover losses have happened many times in the past. In other words, the "unprecedented rapid loss of ice" from parts of Antarctica that global warming alarmists make so much of are a normal part of nature's cycles. What else would you expect during the peak of an interglacial warming period? This is from a paper titled "Recent Changes in Phytoplankton Communities Associated with Rapid Regional Climate Change Along the Western Antarctic Peninsula," by Martin Montes-Hugo, et al, in Science. For more see http://theresilientearth.com/?q=content/melting-antarctic-ice-part-natural-cycle
For the world to truly end, as in no more planet Earth, scenario 4 is most probable in the near term and scenario 1 inescapable in the long run. If you are defining âoeend of the worldâ as in a major extinction event, with Homo sapiens in a staring roll, then there are a bunch of options. The ones suspected of causing or contributing to major extinction events in the past are outlined in chapter six of my book, The Resilient Earth (shameless plug). Here are the main ones from the book.
Our planet's past is filled with extinctions,some large, some small, some solitary. All the ages in the fossil record chronicle the departure of species from this Earth. The sweep of geologic time, comprising more than 90 recognized time periods, is partitioned by changes in the fossil record. What is most amazing is how gigantic an event has to be to be recorded in the strata. Visit theresilientearth.com for more information including pdfs of the book chapters and a link to Amazon for purchase of the paperback version.