Happy about the pope's climate encyclical? Not so fast.

In his encyclical on protecting the planet, Pope Francis pushed the idea that climate change is all about industry, selfishness and greed. The elephant in the room, of course, is that he's unwilling to consider the benefits of sensible population control. Women gotta have babies. They gotta, especially if they don't want to. After all, they're just breeding stock, and you don't want them to get uppity by having too much control over their lives. Barefoot and pregnant is how women are supposed to be.

Nick Cohen nails this issue down for you. If you were pleased by the pope's encyclical, do read it. This pope isn't liberal. He's got a few nice ideas but he's bound by inane Catholic dogma -- which pretty much ruins everything.

Where the heat went

People who make a living by pushing the idea that climate change (AKA global warming) is a fantasy are getting a bit of pushback from the data. (Darn that data. It's such a nuisance for wingnuts. Can't they just be left in peace with their fantasies?)

The story goes like this: the Pacific Ocean should be heating up because of climate change...but it's not. "See?" the idiots scream, "I tollja climate change was just a demonic illusion! Praise Jeebus, who will always protect us!"

Alas for the wingnuts, it seems that scientists will have the final say in this matter. Unlike religious fabulists, scientists look for real-life answers to real-life problems in, of all places, real-life data. They knew the heat that should be in the Pacific Ocean had to go somewhere, so they followed its trail. It turns out the heat traveled to the Indian Ocean, where it is waiting patiently for its day on the stage. Read the linked article to find out how it got there. To sum up: mystery solved. But as the article notes:

The finding by the team appears to be both good and bad news. The good news is that it adds credence to global warming theories—the bad news is that it means that it is possible that at some point in the future all that heat in the ocean could be released back into the atmosphere, creating a sudden temperature spike which would almost assuredly cause massive worldwide problems for those of us that caused the problem in the first place.

We are entering a very frightening era and we do not have rational, informed leaders to guide us through the coming crisis. It's not Satan that's coming, as so many gay-hating religious people fear, it's deadly heat. The times, they are a'changing...and we are so unprepared.

The finding by the team appears to be both good and bad news. The good news is that it adds credence to global warming theories—the bad news is that it means that it is possible that at some point in the future all that heat in the ocean could be released back into the atmosphere, creating a sudden temperature spike which would almost assuredly cause massive worldwide problems for those of us that caused the problem in the first place.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-05-global-captured-pacific-ocean-indian.html#jCp

You, hamburgers and the climate: a tale of woe

If climate change disturbs you, as it should, then do one simple thing: stop eating meat. The evidence is in:

Analysis of data received from a satellite in 2004 has shown that at least during that year, livestock in the U.S. emitted more methane into the atmosphere than did the oil and gas industry.

This isn't nonsense, it's a fact. You may have heard of facts. They're the things you must pay attention to.

Don't eat meat. It's not only cruel, it's about to change the world in a really bad way. Why make our kids suffer for our mistakes? Is your steak really so important that you're willing to condemn the children of the world to a hot, inhospitable planet? To you, meat is just a food, right? So give that food up. It's quite possible to do this. There are lots of other things to eat. No human needs meat in his or her diet.

We're killing the Earth and we don't seem to care. We all need to wake up, pay attention and change our habits. It's not that hard. Really.

Carnivorous humans causing climate change

I've been waiting a long time for someone to say this:

Carbon dioxide emissions from the energy and transportation sectors currently account for the largest share of climate pollution. However, a study from Chalmers now shows that eliminating these emissions would not guarantee staying below the UN limit. Emissions from agriculture threaten to keep increasing as global meat and dairy consumption increases. If agricultural emissions are not addressed, nitrous oxide from fields and methane from livestock may double by 2070. This alone would make meeting the climate target essentially impossible.

"We have shown that reducing meat and dairy consumption is key to bringing agricultural climate pollution down to safe levels," says Fredrik Hedenus, one of the study authors. "Broad dietary change can take a long time. We should already be thinking about how we can make our food more climate friendly."

And here's your takeaway:

By 2050, estimates indicate that beef and lamb will account for half of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, while only contributing 3 percent of human calorie intake.

Stop eating meat. It's not only vicious, in that it involves the torture and murder of trillions of innocent animals, it's also going to kill us. Just look at that takeaway: it will cause half of all agricultural greenhouse emissions by 2050 yet only provides 3% of our calorie intake. To continue this is insanity.

But no one wants to hear this critical message. On physorg, where I found this article, readers rated it at 2.6 out of 5. No one wants to hear it. But it's going to kill us anyway. The choice is yours.

More polar vortex talk

Last night, in honor of the bone-chilling temperatures afflicting the US, I watched "The Day After Tomorrow". What can I say? Watching a movie about the world experiencing a new Ice Age just seemed appropriate. We're not exactly freezing in place within 15 seconds, like in the movie. But we're experiencing temperatures that are lower than any I remember in NY history.

At one point in the movie, I heard Dennis Quaid's character say that climate change was shutting down the North Atlantic Gyre, the ocean current that brings warmth up from the tropics. And this is what was causing a new Ice Age.

In recent years, I wondered when and how this idea wormed its way into the American consciousness. It's kind of funny that the source is a Hollywood movie. Turns out, a new Ice Age is not on the way -- at least, on the real Earth that we occupy. And how do I know this? Because NASA told me so.

Predictably, talk of such a scenario has led to some big misconceptions. First, a slowdown or even a stoppage of the meridional overturning circulation would NOT spell the end to the Gulf Stream. Wind and large-scale turbulence drive the bulk of the Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, of which the Gulf Stream is a part. The Gulf Stream would, however, draw significantly less water from the tropics.

Second, unlike during the Younger Dryas, a weakening of the meridional overturning circulation will NOT trigger another ice age. Rising temperatures due to global warming would offset most of the temperature drop. Armadas of icebergs floating off the New Jersey coast are just Hollywood fantasies.

So there you go. No Ice Age. I'm still not thrilled about the Gyre slowing down and possibly stopping. But at least it won't look like the world depicted in "The Day After Tomorrow". Thought I'd share this news with y'all.

A strange possibility lurks out there

The sun is quiet. Too quiet.

The surface of the sun has been surprisingly calm of late—with fewer sunspots than anytime in in the last century—prompting curious scientists to wonder just what it might mean here on Earth.

The anomaly goes back even further than a century:

The number of spots counted since it kicked off in December 2008 is well below the average observed over the last 250 years. In fact, it's less than half.

And y'all remember what happened back then, right?

The last time that happened, during the so-called "Maunder Minimum" between 1650 and 1715, almost no sunspots were observed. During the same period, temperatures dropped sharply on Earth, sparking what is called the "Little Ice Age" in Europe and North America.

As the sunspot numbers continue to stay low, it's possible the Earth's climate is being affected again.

Wouldn't it be amazing if global warming came just in time to save us from an impending ice age? That would be totally bizarre.

And no, this doesn't mean we can forget about cutting our carbon footprint, though the GOP will certainly read it that way. Mindless scum are so predictable.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-11-calm-solar-prompts-impact-earth.html#jCp

The scope of the coming apocalypse

An abrupt halt to fossil fuel use at current levels would limit the period of future climate instability to less than 1,000 years before climate largely returns to pre-industrial norms. But, if fossil fuel use stays on its current trajectory until the end of this century, then the climate effects begin to resemble those of the PETM, with major ecological changes lasting for 20,000 years or more and a recognizable human "fingerprint" on Earth's climate lasting for 100,000 years.

The article has one semi-bright note. It suggests that 56 million years ago, in the PETM (which stands for Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum), life in the oceans was hit hard -- but there were few extinctions on land. First time I ever heard that. So maybe we'll live while the ocean dies off. In other words, the ocean's food web will be the first to collapse.

To be clear, this is no reason to get happy. The sea plays a huge role in our food web. I wish people cared enough to do something about this. If the climate could restore itself within 1,000 years, as suggested in the article, humans might actually survive in the long run. But we'll never get it together. Humans are lemmings. Sorry to be so negative, but you know how we are. Anyone know where I can get some good donuts?

The not-so-great outdoors

I live in a suburban/rural region with lots of trees and occasional areas that can still be called a "forest". I remember exploring areas like this as a kid when my family spent summers on Long Island. In both Long Island and in Dutchess County (where I live now), mega-houses replaced most of the trees, but the forest still exists. It's just been parceled into smaller areas. You only have to wander into the trees to discover this green kingdom (or vestiges of it, anyway).

But I won't be wandering through the trees anytime soon. It was frightening enough to know that deer ticks can transmit Lyme Disease -- but now they've become truly lethal. There's a report today that the virus that causes encephalitis has been found in the local tick population. Dog!

My grandmother had sleeping sickness (another name for encephalitis) and it was a nightmare. After being bitten by a tse tse fly in Italy at the age of 16, she suffered her whole life. Headaches, constant pain and a brain that couldn't function properly -- that's what encephalitis did to her.

I will never let high weeds touch my skin again. And I certainly won't tramp off into the forest to learn what's there. It's sad. It's like the environment itself has become toxic. And I suspect we'll see more diseases move into the area in the coming years.

With climate change increasing the temperature across the US, how long will scourges like dengue fever remain a distant problem that affects only "other people"? Already, the ticks in Dutchess County (where I live) have tested positive for two malaria-like infectious diseases, babesiosis and anaplasmosis.

It's not safe out there anymore.

As tornadoes rock the US, Germany is drowning

Climate change is happening everywhere, not just in the U.S. This season, Germany is learning that it is not immune. After the "darkest winter in decades", the rain arrived.

April showers have only been followed by more showers in May, when 178 percent more rain fell than the year before, according to estimates of Germany's National Meteorological Service (DWD). What's worse, the DWD says that -- except for in a lucky few parts of northwestern Germany -- Mother Nature has no plans to turn off the spigots anytime soon.

(jump)

Similar flooding has been seen in many other German locations, where waters are filling basements, trapping inhabitants, closing small and major roads, and felling trees. "The weakened earth can no longer hold tree roots," said one police spokesman, adding that the rains have caused several landslides that blocked streets.

('nother jump)

In fact, the DWD says that, from Germany's northern coastlines to the Alps, the earth is wetter than it has been in 50 years. This broad swath of muddy soil is causing major problems for the agricultural industry, the DWD reports, making it impossible to drive on 40 percent of fields, use machinery or spray against pests, diseases, molds or weeds.

Vegetable growers are getting the worst of it. In some fields of Lower Saxony, the water almost completely hides the raised rows of dirt in which the country's beloved asparagus is grown. The waters could also severely damage the upcoming harvest of early potatoes. "Even if they haven't already rotted in the ground, now you can't harvest them," said a DWD spokesman.

Imagine what's that like for these farmers. They're experiencing the opposite of what farmers in the dryest sections of the United States are seeing. And yet the world still can't unite to do something about climate change. When governments finally wake up, it will be far too late. Meanwhile, with every day that passes, the weather will become more extreme.

But no worries. Just go shopping and forget all about it! Sorry for interrupting your beautiful day.

Sending heat back where it came from

This scientific advance seems shocking. These days, we're used to seeing solar panels covering the roofs of buildings. Although this new discovery also involves placing panels on a roof, it's an entirely different scheme. Rather than generating power, these panels send much of the sun's heat back into the coldness of space!

"People usually see space as a source of heat from the sun, but away from the sun outer space is really a cold, cold place," explained Shanhui Fan, professor of electrical engineering and the paper's senior author. "We've developed a new type of structure that reflects the vast majority of sunlight, while at the same time it sends heat into that coldness, which cools manmade structures even in the day time." 

This is a whole 'nother thing, people. And it could help even those who live in areas without electrical power. It requires no power other than the sun. Imagine the pleasure of cool spaces in the hottest places on the Earth.

Radiative cooling has another profound advantage over all other cooling strategy such as air-conditioner. It is a passive technology. It requires no energy. It has no moving parts. It is easy to maintain. You put it on the roof or the sides of buildings and it starts working immediately.

This is a game-changer. And though the linked article doesn't mention it, if we've discovered a way to send heat back into space, we have an effective way to address climate change. I'd say that's news.

Lemmings march to sea, pick up pace

Some days it's hard to blog because I'm bone-tired. Not because of anything I've done, but because the world is at least as stupid and blind as it was yesterday. The news tells the tale. As someone who's been waiting since the 1950s for the world to wake up and get sensible...yes, I get bone-tired. And sometimes this makes me feel like there's no point in blogging.

Paul Krugman makes the obvious point today. The United States is worrying about the cost of "entitlements" as the Earth slides into a future that will be inhospitable to life. This future isn't hundreds of years away. It's coming at us full-speed and we're already feeling the effects. "Superstorm" Sandy, anyone?

But we are lemmings. We have important things to do, like watching "American Idol". We can't be bothered with survival. (Just look at the resistance to sensible gun proposals.) Humans must like death, because we're hurtling toward it without a care.

It just takes the life out of me, some days. I think I'll go write a short story where rationality wins the day. At least in fiction, this is possible.

Weird weather across the globe

This Christmas proved to be one of weather extremes across Europe. In neighboring France, summer-like temperatures of 24.3 degrees drew holiday goers out to the beaches. But in Russia, Moscow reported temperatures on Boxing Day of minus 25 degrees Celsius and the Siberia region has reported temperatures in recent days as low as minus 60 degrees Celsius. A wave of extreme cold that began in mid-December has resulted in the weather-related deaths of 120 people in Russia, 80 in Ukraine and around 60 in Poland. 

Even as the evidence for climate change piles up around us, humans are doing absolutely nothing to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, we're fracturing the ground we stand on and poisoning the water table -- to extract more oil. (Okay, Ireland and a few other places are indeed trying to staunch the flow of greenhouse gases. But that's miniscule help in these circumstances. What's needed is massive, global change).

Our descendants are going to hate us, and rightly so. We are world-killers, species-killers. We are death incarnate.

The wisdom of Jan Brewer

Arizona's GOP governor on climate change:

Everybody has an opinion on it, you know, and I probably don’t believe that it’s man made. I believe that, you know, that weather and certain elements are controlled maybe by different things.

I wonder if there are any neurons in a GOP brain. (Hat tip AmericaBlog.)

The heatwave summer

Here's the 10-day forecast for my area:

This is not a typical New York summer, and of course this is happening everywhere in the US right now: heat, heat, heat. I am not pleased and I imagine you're not either, especially if you're a farmer. If the weather doesn't right itself we are in for some awful times. 

For me, the test will come in December. Will there be a winter or will we skip the season entirely, like last year? I swear, if there's no snow this winter, I am going to become unhinged.

No more Winters? Hardly.

Just when you thought it was safe to toss your snow-blower in the trash, scientists say not so fast:

"A lot of times people say, 'Wait a second, which is it going to be -- more snow or more warming?' Well, it depends on a lot of factors, and I guess this was a really good winter demonstrating that," Greene said. "What we can expect, however, is the Arctic wildcard stacking the deck in favor of more severe winter outbreaks in the future."

Good. Well, not if it produces snows that bury entire houses. They're talking about Snowmageddon when they say "severe winter outbreaks". But I'd appreciate a snowfall or two with my Winter, thank you. This gives me hope.

Over 80 degrees in NY tomorrow

Snowflake (Wikipedia Commons)

I can't believe I'm using fans in the house. It should be almost cold at this time of year, out here in the woods where I live in upstate NY.

The weather forecasters are predicting a very hot summer. Alarmingly, they also say the non-winter we just experienced may become the new normal. And they don't pussyfoot around about the reason. What we're seeing is climate change.

There's a song that will seem more poignant with every passing year:

I'm dreaming of a white Xmas

Just like the ones I used to know . . .

It's going to sound different to our ears when snow is just a memory. And still, no one's doing a damn thing about climate change.

Humans: the new lemmings. Dog save us all!

So many people died in yesterday's tornadoes

The devil. Ft, ft, ft, etc.

An article in the LA Times today reports that nearly 200 people died in the 24- to 36-hour span during which tornadoes pummeled the South. Doesn't that figure sound way out of line? This page states that only five tornadoes in the U.S. have ever killed more people than this. So it's happened before . . . yet somehow it feels like we're on a roll. There were 183 deaths in Alabama alone. That's insane. Are more on the way? Is this the new norm?

Floods everywhere, tornadoes killing people with regularity -- these events seem shocking to Americans. But I suspect we'll have to get used to it. Climate change has come home to roost. And yet we continue to do zilch about the problem of carbon emissions. As I often say on this blog, what's wrong with this picture?

Welcome to the new United States: powerless in the face of just about every obstacle. Heck, we can't even pick the right countries to start wars with, so I guess it's not surprising.

PS: Whenever there are reports of widespread tornado damage, I think of the loss of intellectual property. Yes, people lost their homes and communities and in many cases, their lives -- and that's awful. But no one ever talks about how many invisible items were lost. Had someone written a book or two and left it only on the computer, which was destroyed in the storm? Were a team's scientific findings and support materials lost? Was someone's physical collection of historic mementos been lost just before the person finally sat down to write that history book? I wonder why this sort of thing is never mentioned in news stories. Surely it's happened.

I guess we're lemmings

We look at the well-worn image of lemmings running off a cliff and say, "How could they do such a thing?!" Yet we don't notice that our species is rushing toward the cliff right now.

Although I understand that mammals (like us) aren't good at determining future risk and taking steps in the present to avoid it, I still find it shocking. The science is there and the scientists are screaming at us to pay attention. We cannot ignore climate change -- yet that is exactly what we're doing. We may as well start wearing shrouds.

Do you realize there will be worldwide water wars within 30 years? It's that close for so many people. Particularly in areas where the population depends on snow-melt for their water supply, warming will mean a loss of snow and consequent loss of the rivers on which people rely for water. But even if doom was 100 years in the future rather than 30, would that mean we should ignore it because we'll die before that time? What about the human race?

We never think about the future of the human race anymore. In fact, we're not even aware that there is such a thing as the human race because we're so busy separating ourselves into warring clans. We think the only thing that matters is our clan. This myth is at the heart of our inaction. In other words, we're both stupid and cruel: stupid to think it won't happen to our clan, and cruel because we don't care if it happens to others as long as "we" are safe.

Look at the climate agreement that just came into being as a result of a recent world meeting on the topic. It falls far short of what is needed. Apparently there is no hope of an intervention. In fact, it's already too late unless everyone on Earth were to literally stop using oil today -- and even then, we'd face problems.

But we just go on with our lives, shopping and eating and filling our burrows with big-screen TVs. Nothing matters except food and the accumulation of goods. This is what passes for culture in our country today: eating and shopping. That is who we are.

And we just don't care that we're going to make our species extinct. That is of no concern. What a world.

PS: Wikipedia says lemmings jumping off a cliff is a myth. I'm sorry to say that people doing so is the only accurate representation of this previously mythical phenomenon.