Industrial Warmth

2001 to 2011
hottest decade

source

The report, The Global Climate 2001-2010, A Decade of Climate Extremes, analysed global and regional temperatures and precipitation, as well as extreme events such as the heat waves in Europe and Russia, Hurricane Katrina in the United States of America, Tropical Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, droughts in the Amazon Basin, Australia and East Africa and floods in Pakistan.

There must have been some decades hotter than that, don't you think so? But then, may be that was before mankind? About three thousand generations of home sapiens ago? Fact is the above has happened in parallel to what is called the industrial revolution, its derivatives and septupling ourselves from 1bn to more than 7bn (if not more) today; now the questions are, what is the time delay between cause and consequence and what kind of point(s) of no return have we crossed already that could cause sudden death(s)?

Carpe diem!

Sceptic Doubts

Scepticism's expertise...




... going down the up escalator!

That does remind me of Escher's staircase...

 


Carpe diem!

We will adapt to that...

...a nice, comforting line:

Carpe diem!

smoke gets in your eyes

"Deniers are the messengers of the good news."

Worthwhile listening to Professor Naomi Oreskes on "The Merchants of Doubt" and her comments on Climate Change and why we all rather hear the good news.

So, there ain't no easy way out; this time.

Carpe diem!

a must-watch video: 4:11...

... minutes, only.

"Caution...





(Open Mind)

Have a nice day and think! Think independently, make up your mind, don't just follow but follow your common sense. Don't just believe, think! Don't just follow the Attenboroughs or Hessels, think and then think further.

Ideas such as the Euro, Globalism, IT or war come and go; the essentials stay the same.

Carpe diem.

an unacceptable risk

...getting smaller doesn't mean they are melting!?

John Ralston Saul on the climate change gamble.

I couldn't agree more: we are facing severe changes from gas levels to weather extremes and from the number of people to the peaks of most resources but still discuss who threw the ball into the water - or what ball into whose water?

Carpe diem!

perspectives

energy, EURO, warming, snow
and other gates and crunches

The snow has piled up higher than ever during our years here in the Scottish Highlands; yet, its sheer mass and the fact that it came in just one 36 hour blizzard inspires to go back and dig out the experts' headlines about the North Atlantic Drifts slowing down etc. Together with that impressive photo documentary on ICE it could make sense. "Could" because it certainly needs more scientific background and evidence than what one lay man can deliver.

However, while I rather stick to the "collecting" of evidence and perspectives I found the below links interesting:

Bill Gates on energy






Al Gore's opinion: NYT OP-ED Contributor


Kate Sheppard: Most Credible Climate Skeptic Not So Credible After All


BBC's Robert Peston: Why withdrawal of Rock guarantee matters


CrisisMaven: The Euro as a Basket Case



Nice views.


Carpe diem!

more data: more thermal energy

The British Med Office has released the latest data on global surface temperatures based on now more than 3,000 land stations; there is no room for scepticism unless it is based on better, i.e. more and more reliable data; anything else is gobble-di-goo.

There are three independent sources that pretty much match:

• Met Office, in collaboration with the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UK)
• Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is part of NASA (USA)
• National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (USA)

Carpe diem!

postponing and impeding...

Copenhagen certainly is needed but to my mind it is missing the point; tackling "global warming" alone is like trying to get rid of a cough while the heart is under attack.

Like the raindrops fill the oceans it needs pouring thoughts to describe and understand our problem.

There are some elements of our human tradition worthwhile remembering which listening to independent, experienced and potentially wise people is one of. So don't think you waste your time following (possibly a second time) Sir David Attenborough and his Horizon Special on BBC; or click your way through below YouTube feeds.



Remember... "getting bored is postponing but impeding the answer ".

Carpe diem!

Obama

The Telegraph: Barack Obama given powers to cut GHGs

EPA Press release

During the last weeks mainstream media driven by the wave of tuned e-mail messages on climate figures built up the idea of Obama (and Gore) not making it to Copenhagen; he'd fail to set ambitious targets; he and his fellow citizens would not care less. There were voices that wanted Gore and Obama return their prices to Oslo. Well, now Barack Obama gives the answer, again and against all odds.

The news dramatically improves the prospects of reaching a new agreement to combat global warming at the climate summit which opened in Copenhagen on Monday.

His administration formally declared that the gases "endanger the public health and welfare of the America people" empowering its Environment Protection Agency to regulate them across the country under the country's Clean Air Act, without having to get a hotly-contested climate bill through the US Congress.

I believe, if it is man made, man can reverse it; if it is not man made, man must take the necessary precautions; common sense dictates that; it includes discussion, scepticism and passion.

Carpe diem!

knowledge, faith and scepticism

MetOffice

Imagine, you sit in your car driving pretty fast up the autobahn; your cooling water temperature gauge moves closer and closer towards the red sector; you feel uneasy and after first ignoring it as casual as possible you are now tempted to stop and take a look; but then ‘what do I know’, so you consider to take the car into the next possible gas station to ask for advice, help... a solution.

This describes what an average reasonable intelligent person would go through watching that temperature gauge. But then there are those that travel with faith; they might make it! Same for the ones deciding this stupid gauge to be the problem; the practical ones wished they had two or three measuring systems, preferably independent and separated from each other. That can be helped:

To understand changes and variations in our climate it is essential to know how the surface temperature changes — from month to month, up to decade to decade. Global-average temperature records provide this vital information.

From these records we can see how warm specific months, years or decades are, and we can discern trends in our climate over longer periods of time. Global records go back about 160 years, giving a long period from which to draw conclusions about how our climate is changing.

There are three centres which calculate global-average temperature each month.

• Met Office, in collaboration with the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UK)
• Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is part of NASA (USA)
• National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (USA)

These work independently and use different methods in the way they collect and process data to calculate the global-average temperature.

So, they are lucky, those sceptics, here is what one gauge and two more indicate:

…, the results of each are similar from month to month and year to year, and there is definite agreement on temperature trends from decade to decade (Figure 1). Most importantly, they all agree global-average temperature has increased over the past century and this warming has been particularly rapid since the 1970s.

Well, no!

I don't want to discuss what makes it warmer; we have masses of highly trained and paid scientists to do that; should they take bribes, fail, err or cheat: fire them, head first! There are more waiting for a chance, a job...

The gauge still climbs; the problem remains unsolved; there is a possibility that the trip on the autobahn might end early.

Carpe diem!

Fox - no Bush-News

Well, I think it was called: Propaganda!

Carpe diem!!

and what...?

telegraph:Global warming will bring killer heat, floods and storms to Britain

source

1972: our biology prof introduces a new book to us: "This is going to be part of your life, read it!". We read it, we discussed it and read it to others, we were heavily impressed; it made sense and set the goals; ever since then I wait to see and live the consequences of "The Limits to Growth". The Club of Rome started the discussion - but nothing happened except we came up with different names for basically the same problem: "climate catastrophe" or "climate change", "global warming" and "green house gases", "peak-oil" or "carbon society".

The effects of the temperature rise would also be seen in food shortages in the short term in many areas of Europe, especially the south. Droughts in East Anglia would make wheat more difficult to produce, although it would be possible to grow more Mediterranean fruits and vegetables in the south of England.

Although climate change has in the past been seen as potentially positive for northern Europe, because more crops could be grown in cooler areas, the new predictions found this would be balanced out by significant losses in commercial forestry and livestock because of the threat of pests and plant disease.

John Mitchell, director of climate science at the Met Office, said that the research highlighted the importance of a global deal on climate change. “This latest research emphasises the necessity to make drastic cuts in emissions as quickly as possible if we are to avoid dangerous climate change. It highlights the importance of the negotiations that will take place in Copenhagen in December,” he said.

Is this part of our lives ever going to be addressed like it should? With common sense and human intelligence?

Carpe diem!

sunday's final!

Guardian: “Ravaged by drought, Madagascar feels the full effect of climate change”

Friends of mine wanted to visit Madagascar by boat; they were told not to do so as the country is in a “state of instability”; this happened three weeks ago.

Three forces are combining with deadly effect on the Indian Ocean island, which is incalculably rich in wildlife but impoverished in basic infrastructure. Climate change is widely blamed for playing havoc with the seasons and destroying agricultural harvests.

This is exacerbated by local deforestation, which has altered the microclimate and reduced rainfall. Finally, a bloody political coup earlier this year paralysed essential services and led to the crippling suspension of several foreign aid programmes. The UN says that nearly half of households in the south have severe food shortages.

It is all man made, isn’t it?

Carpe diem!

P.I.C.N.I.C.

The Picnic Party Poster

Man tries to copy nature; swim like a shark, clean with Lotus or learn from birds' wings how planes can save energy (e.g. winglets). No harm in copying, but why do we only do this half-heartedly?

P.I.C.N.I.C. stands for Produced In Carbon Neutral Integrated Cycle and as such follows nature's rule where nothing is waste but everything is energy. While the manmade definition of waste allows wasting, our globe's logic is to keep things in balance; life incorporates death in form of new life; same as any product recycles to product(s), leaves no room for waste.

Let’s have a party: let's have a P.I.C.N.I.C.!

Carpe diem!

Climate Crunch Scepticism

nature.com

Change, Crunch or Challenge

The above article on the overall climate situation makes really heavy, hard and tough reading. We might be closer to a drastic climate change than we have so far been told.

While this might be dramatic, indeed, it makes me think about the many articles I have come across during the past weeks on "climate sceptics"; the ones that vehemently try to tell everybody what nonsense this global warming and its man made cause is and how much we are all taken by the nose not noticing this conspiracy of tax men and other dubious powers. Moon landing and 9/11 send their regards.

We all know something is changing; flora and fauna and precipitation patterns are changing, CO2 levels are currently rising fast. Yet, these changes have occurred ever since this planet became habitable. Today we all are part of the vast number of people on this globe, growing and growing; so does our energy consumption, our food and fresh water demands, the way we eat up land and species; we are producing historic amounts of waste including all kinds of emissions, not just CO2.

During my life span the World population has more than doubled; all happening within what makes our planet the blue one; the atmosphere, and here the lowest layers, defined and limited space for unlimited growth?

To understand more about our play room go here (interactive animation).

Of course, there is room left for all kinds of conspiracy theories; one ought to be headlined "Let's test its limits!", another one may be "How bad before it get's better?" or "How stupid?".

In medicine it is secondary to argue about who caused the flu while the prime task is to make sure the patient gets better; in other words we need to take action, more and faster to address the problems - then we need to know what caused the disease and only then we might want to know who caused it.

Governments tried to bail out banks; had they waited until they fully understood the "what?" and had addressed the "who?" those banks would be history by now.

But then, may be that would have been the better solution.

Carpe diem!