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Same Ordinary Fool at 09:00 AM on 22 September 2017It takes just 4 years to detect human warming of the oceans
1. I don't like, but can understand, some of the reluctance of video media (we'll exclude FoxNews) to mention "global warming" during hurricane coverage, because the complexity of the attribution would require too much explanation:
Not 'cause'...The ocean temperature...the frequency of all hurricanes, or just the 4's and 5's...rain and water vapor...wind shear...stalling, with speculation about jet streams... ...
2. They could alternatively emphasize the synonym of GW, 'higher temperatures'.
In partial compensation, the coverage could could increase the existing mention of Sea Surface Temperatures, beyond the existing color coding. As by mentioning the actual temperatures (does 30C correspond to category 5?). And maybe showing past smaller hurricanes' tracks with their cooler temperatures. Just saying 'hot' or 'hottest' doesn't fully describe the situation.
3. Heat content/temperature below the surface sometimes gets mentioned, but I've never seen it shown.
For today's hurricane Maria track, follow Google's "RSMAS Ocean Heat Content North Atlantic."
For some other examples, see the Google images at 'hurricane ocean heat content'.
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Scott0119 at 08:44 AM on 22 September 2017Climate's changed before
Please answer this hypothetical for me. If we stop all human CO2 emmisions tomorrow would the temp at some point warm the earth to the critical stages it has done in the past? Am I right to understand that the polar caps have for the most part melted in the past?
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Scott0119 at 08:29 AM on 22 September 2017CO2 lags temperature
As this is my first post on this site I will explain that I am not yet convinced of human caused global warming. I am on this site to gain knowledge so that I can make an informed decision.
i noticed a couple of you discussing the subject of how to label those of us who have not been convinced and those of you who are. To be blunt, labels tick people off! Why do we need them. Call them for what they are...convinced and not yet convinced or some benign variation. What the situation tells me is that this community has done a terrible job of explaining the issue. Katharine Hayhoe is an exception. She and I have tweeted back and forth on this subject and she has never made me feel stupid for asking questions. Not to mention some great videos she has posted. All should learn from her example.
Moderator Response:[PS] Welcome to skeptical science. We hope that you find the resources useful. While we discourage labels, there is a distinction between those weighing the evidence to understand scientific conclusions and those who ideological convictions cause them to deny scientific evidence altogether. If someone is skeptical about peer-reviewed science but swallow without question some garbage on a website that fits their convictions then they are well described as a pseudo-skeptics.
Please read and ensure you comply with the comments policy and you will find people here happy to answer questions. Dont make assertions without referencing evidence.
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NorrisM at 07:29 AM on 22 September 2017New paper shows that renewables can supply 100% of all energy (not just electricity)
Moderator and michael sweet
I have not had any reponse from michael sweet on my post on this thread on September 12, 2017 referencing the paper published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in June 2017 which is severely critical of the Jacobson paper which was the subject of this blog originally created by an article on the Jacobson study posted by michael sweet in August 2015. I have only recently realized that michael sweet has indicated that he is not prepared to respond to any of my posts. I am not completely clear why.
I think in the interests of balance that SkS should acknowledge the criticisms that have been made by the NAS paper. I have now read that paper which is available publicly at http://www.pnas.org/content/114/26/6722.full.pdf
Although the 23 scientists, headed by Christopher Clack (of NOAA), are in complete support of effective ways to wean our society from fossil fuels by a combination of solutions (which would include a large solar and wind component), this paper effectively states that the Jacobson study is so full of modelling errors and implausible assumptions that it cannot credibly be used in any way to advance the questions that need to be answered to move this examination of alternatives (and their costs) forward.
I have recently praised the SkS website (agreeing with Joe Romm on a Sam Harris blog following Harris' interview of Romm on climate change) that the SkS website does a good job of providing valuable information. I may not agree with (or understand) some of it but I find it reasonably balanced.
In the spirit of providing balanced information, I would hope that SkS would make its readers aware of the serious criticisms that have been levelled by eminent scientists at the Jacobson 2015 study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
I do not think the Jacobson study should ever be referenced by any contributor to this blog without a caveat pointing the reader to the criticisms presented by this paper in June 2017.
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nigelj at 06:24 AM on 22 September 2017It takes just 4 years to detect human warming of the oceans
Swayseeker @5
The evaporative coolers use fans to induce a cooling effect, so I dont see how a mist comes into things or relates to evaporation as such.
I also don't see how you would apply such devices to the oceans in a practical way and you dont describe how. It looks very difficult.
You also need to provide calculations to show how many you would need at what cost. It would clearly be huge numbers probably staggering as you have thousands of square kms, even within the limited area that generates hurricanes like Irma, and you would need to cool pretty much all those oceans.
It could also have unintended negative consequences.
However wave powered pumps have been suggested to drive warmer surface water deeper down as below. These sorts of ideas arent new but have many difficulties in application.
www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/8/16264376/stopping-a-hurricane-science
But this is not really the right website to float such ideas, this is a science website not a technology forum. It kind of really distracts me from the article above, and climate science. But Im not knocking novel ideas, but you must think them through.
Why not get involved with some website that deals with engineering ideas and get some feedback from the real experts on practicality and costs?
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One Planet Only Forever at 03:44 AM on 22 September 2017Australia's Transition to Renewable Energy
A serious problem is the popularity of the "continuity of affordable electricity supply" portion of the following part of the OP.
"... it is necessary to point out the fallacy of arguments put forward to justify future use of so called ‘clean coal’ fired ultra-supercritical power stations as the best means of ensuring emissions reduction and continuity of affordable electricity supply."
And the biggest part of the problem is people competing to Win Leadership deliberately making Poor Excuses for unjustified understandably unacceptable behaviour in the hopes that doing so will increase their popularity, increase their chances to win political leadership and Win the ability to get away with 'more profitable/less acceptable' ways of doing things.
Unjustifiably 'affordable/cheaper' energy supply should not be allowed to be excused just because 'it is what people have developed a taste/preference for'.
The 'undeniably less acceptable but cheaper' electricity supply over-developed in well developed places like Australia should have been ended a long time ago. The basis of that understanding was internationally established in the 1972 Stockholm Conference (more damage than the CO2 impacts, and ultimately unsustainable - not ways of living that the entire global population can develop to enjoy forever).
And the scientific basis for that understanding has steadily strengthened since that time. The current best understanding of the required chnages is presented in the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (with the Paris Agreement being an important step toward achieving the climate action goal).
A Good Reason for continuing CO2 production from electricity generation wold be as a transition step for the 'sustainable' development/advancement of less fortunate people to better lives. However, nations with more than enough wealth to have their entire populations live decently, like Australia, have no legitimate justification to continue benefiting from burning fossil fuels. They certainly should not be able to excuse building new fossil fuel burning capacity. Those nations need to be reducing the benefit they get from creating any additional CO2 from burning fossil fuels rapidly to 'zero', even if doing so means that their electricity costs go up significantly (And the existence of less fortunate people due to inequity of distribution of wealth within such a nation would not justify that nation collectively being allowed more CO2 emissions. And that evaluation of inequity of wealth also needs to be applied to limit what is allowed in the developing nations).
The higher cost of electricity is what such 'supposedly more advanced nations' should have adapted to long ago. It would motivate the reduction of 'less necessary' electricity use and the development of lower cost 'acceptable' ways of generating electricity.
That understanding of the unacceptability of 'Ways of Winning' that the currently perceived to be more fortunate people have developed popular regional support for is very important. The related understanding that clearly has to become 'more common knowledge' is that 'it is undeniably easier to regionally temporarily drum up popular support for beliefs that excuse less acceptable attitudes and actions than it is to properly raise awareness and understanding'.
As an engineer, applier of science - constantly improving awareness and understanding of what is going on, my job is to first exclude unacceptable alternatives from consideration regardless of the desires of clients and those higer up in my work organization for things that were cheaper or quicker - never allowing cheaper or quicker to be considered to justify a less acceptable option, cheaper and quicker to achieve the required objective was all that was allowed. And if it was ever discovered that a previous way of doing things was actually producing an unacceptable result then nothing new would be done that way and previously done things would 'get corrected' no matter how unpopular or unprofitable that 'change' would be.
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Swayseeker at 23:55 PM on 21 September 2017It takes just 4 years to detect human warming of the oceans
Talking about the air temperatures fluctuating, my idea to cool oceans would cause havoc with readings, but would cool, I believe. If one has mist evaporative cooling ( see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler ) with an efficiency of 80%, then sea surface temperatures of 27 deg C or so could drop below surface temperatures of 26 deg C or so needed for hurricanes. https://www.seatemperature.org/caribbean-sea says, "The water of the Caribbean is warm, clear and has lower salinity levels than the neighbouring Atlantic. The average water temperature is around 27°C (80°F) and varies as little as 3°C (37°F) throughout the year." Now 27 deg C is sufficient for hurricanes to form. The temperature also does not change much, so in future, sea temperatures could be high enough throughout the year for hurricanes to form. Example. Air temperature is 33 deg C (dry bulb temperature). The humidity is 70%. Calculation: The wet bulb temperature is 28.31 deg C and therefore an 85% efficiency evaporative cooling would cause the air temperature to drop to 29 deg C. Surface temperatures could be altered by these means
Moderator Response:[JH] Excessive repetiton deleted.
Please note that posting comments here at SkS is a privilege, not a right. This privilege can be rescinded if the posting individual treats adherence to the Comments Policy as optional, rather than the mandatory condition of participating in this online forum.
Please take the time to review the policy and ensure future comments are in full compliance with it. Thanks for your understanding and compliance in this matter.
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jenna at 22:07 PM on 21 September 2017It takes just 4 years to detect human warming of the oceans
Is there a problem with the SKS website? I see only this one article when I go to the home page.
Moderator Response:[BW] The homepage display should be fixed now.
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Ken in Oz at 17:26 PM on 21 September 2017Australia's Transition to Renewable Energy
scaddenp - seems to me the building of new coal plants "anyway" is a serious mistake. Any appearance that they are cost effective are based on an enduring amnesty on the externalised costs.
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Riduna at 14:45 PM on 21 September 2017Australia's Transition to Renewable Energy
Given the high capital and recurrent costs of a USC power plant, how will it be able to generate electricity at a price which (a) does not put upwards pressure on the price of electricity and (b) how will it contribute to meeting our (modest/inadeqwuate) obligations under he Paris Accord by redcing our CO2 emissions? A USC power plant may result in (30%?) lower emissions but solar/wind generators result in 100% lower esmissions.
What investor in his right mind would invest in a hugely expensive USC power plant when far greater 'bang for the buck' can be obtained by investing in solar/wind supported by pumped hydro or battery storage?
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scaddenp at 12:01 PM on 21 September 2017It takes just 4 years to detect human warming of the oceans
Roger was only looking at 0-700m. You get heat loss from upper ocean to atmosphere in an El nino. He stopped beating that drum when OHC marched on upward. OHC is another important metric for quantifying climate change but I think it is too early for calling it the "standard" metric. Because the surface is where we live, surface temperature is what matters to us humans. My understanding is that it is not a trivial thing to extract OHC from models so dont know how climate modellers would feel about both their modelling skill in oceans and using OHC for validation.
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barry1487 at 08:51 AM on 21 September 2017It takes just 4 years to detect human warming of the oceans
“Ocean Heat Content” should become a standard metric not only for measuring climate change but for testing our computer models that are used to predict the future climate.
Roger Pielke Snr will feel vindicated by this conclusion. He's been saying the oceans are the best metric for many years.
https://pielkeclimatesci.wordpress.com/2006/08/30/mismatch-btween-models-and-observations/
By coincidence, in the 1st article, he notes that OHC had not risen by.... 4 years.
Is the corrollary here that we will not see another 4 years of no OHC rise as long as we're emitting CO2 at present rates? And should that happen, won't the contrarians point at this article to say global warming is over?
[BTW, wen clicking on the SkS home link, this article is the only one that appears. It's all blank below. I cleared the cache, but no result. Something's up with the site]
Moderator Response:[BW] Thanks for the heads-up, Barry. The homepage display should be fixed now.
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scaddenp at 08:00 AM on 21 September 2017Australia's Transition to Renewable Energy
Ken, well I realize it is PR, but the super-critical plants do have lower emissions per kWh of electricity produced than subcritical plants. If you are going to build a coal plant anyway, then I much prefer it is USC than convential cycle. Of course, it might be good to ask some hard questions about whether they are working as designed and what the actual heat rate from the plants are.
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Riduna at 07:33 AM on 21 September 2017Australia's Transition to Renewable Energy
Queensland, Victoria and South Australia do have plans for transition to renewable energy generation which involve provision if targets, provision of back-up (diesel generators, gas fired peaker stations) and energy storage (pumped hydro, batteries). Oz has over 20,000 sites suitable for pumped hydro with pumping powered by solar or off-peak existing coal-fired.
The Federal Government also has a plan, based on building additional coal-fired power stations and Snowy Scheme pumped Hydro. By the time these measures become operational, in 5-7 years time, battery and solar technology will have advanced to make coal fired power generation uncompetitive with renewables and overcoming present capacity limitations on electricity storage.
Recent calls by the National Party and right wing Liberals for all subsidies for renewables to be withdrawn, simply adds to investment uncertainty – a problem which State governments are overcoming by supporting the best renewable energy proposals. It’s a shame the Feds are so ideologically committed to coal. However, market forces will ensure a renewable future.
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ubrew12 at 04:18 AM on 21 September 2017It takes just 4 years to detect human warming of the oceans
Abraham: "ocean heat content is the key to quantifying how fast the climate is changing" Arguing online, I tell people that while global warming causes climate change, they aren't exactly the same thing. A useful proxy for 'climate change' is the surface temperature record. But when deniers note that that proxy hadn't changed temperature much for 12 years after 1998, they said 'global warming' had stopped. No, the proxy for 'global warming' is ocean heat content. I try to explain that, since the ocean is 200 times more massive than the atmosphere, trying to measure 'global' warming without it is like trying to discern the direction of a hurricane by measuring a pocket of air in its SW quadrant.
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Tom13 at 00:37 AM on 21 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
Moderator Response:
[PS] Discussion of Hansen 1988 goes here.Hansen's 1988 prediction is covered in four (4) paragraphs of this article - should be appropriate to respond in this thread
Moderator Response:[PS] Skeptic talking points about Hansen however are best discussed on the indicated thread where more context is available. I am concerned to ensure any wide ranging discussion of Hansen is in a more appropriate place as it is not the main point of this topic.
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Ken in Oz at 21:21 PM on 20 September 2017Australia's Transition to Renewable Energy
I find it very disturbing that super-critical coal plants have been renamed as "low emissions" - and much of the media in Australia have gone on to take up that deceptively misleading terminology without objection. Worse is that the definitions of "low emissions" under which support for emissions reductions are based are under threat of being rewritten by an openly pro-fossil fuels government to include such coal generation. Generation that in no respect is actually low emissions.
The Orwellian doublespeak in Australian public discourse is getting so commonplace that it actually appears to be successfully changing the fundamentals of the debate away from climate responsibility; energy policy is about cost and reliablity and on the rare occaisions gov't spokespeople mention emissions reductions at all it is in ways that imply those are entirely about kowtowing to international agreements, not about achieving climate stability.
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Digby Scorgie at 17:20 PM on 20 September 2017Australia's Transition to Renewable Energy
There's no bloody master plan in New Zealand either. Is there anybody with a master plan?
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Eclectic at 10:47 AM on 20 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
Thanks for that, OnePOF @16 .
It is worth re-emphasizing the bigger picture [as touched on, in post #4]
That is — until such time as a real pause can occur in nett radiational energy inflow at the planetary level [at Top Of Atmosphere], it remains impossible for any actual physical pause in global warming to occur. Essentially, a real pause or warming-trend slowdown can only occur after the atmospheric CO2 level has stopped rising. And there is no sign of that happening within the next 3 decades.
Sure, there will always be brief fluctuations in "trend", from minor natural variations in ocean currents and/or volcanic eruptions — but no pause is possible in real terms. To suggest otherwise is to commit obfuscation [to put it politely!] .
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nigelj at 10:37 AM on 20 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
Getting back to the article, picking just one of Hansen’s predictive scenarios was far too “selective” (choosing my words carefully) but I would go further and say its rather selective to focus just on Hansen. It would have been more representative to pick an average of all projections made at the time for "business as usual"
I say this with huge respect for Hansen who is quite possibly some kind of genius, but the world doesn’t revolve entirely around him and Al Gore. A lot of people have concluded we are warming climate going right back to Arrhenius a century ago.
Moderator Response:[PS] You said it. Hansen had his sensitivity too high in 1988 for reasons that are actually interesting. You dont see pseudo-skeptics giving much attention to the oldest quantitative estimate for global warming - Broecker's paper of 35 year ago.
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One Planet Only Forever at 10:01 AM on 20 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
Tom13,
I have used the SkS Temperature Trend Calculator with the 15 year rolling average (180 months) the Met Office used. The 15 year average would show some of the variability of global averages that does not appear in longer roling averages.
I do indeed see a levelling off of the trend line in the teperature data sets when looking at that 'shorter-term trend line'. The leveling-off occurs in the early 2000's not at 1998. And the level period is quite short with a clear return to the rate of rise that was occurring before the brief leveling off.
It is harder to see the change of short term trend in the satellite data sets. But the satellite data are not surface temperature so the less noticeable change of trend in those data sets are not really a relevant issue.
Note that using a shorter term rolling average would show an even 'noisier' trend line. Using a 60 month average makes it very difficult to see the actual trend in any of the data sets (lots of ups and downs). And using a 13 month rolling average is almost useless for appreciating what is actually going on in terms of the long-term.
Moderator Response:[PS] This is straying offtopic. If want to talk more about models reliability, then the "Models are unreliable" thread is more appropriate. And Tom13, note models have no skill at decadal level prediction and dont have claim to have any so no sloganeering around that please.
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John Hartz at 07:59 AM on 20 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
Tom 13 @10:
If you read the Met Ofice news release, A Pacific flip triggers the end of the recent slowdown, and watch the two short videos embeded in it, you will learn that PDO and ENSO are two different cycles.
Two key paragraphs from the news release...
Prof Stephen Belcher said: “After a period during the early 2000’s when the rise in global mean temperature slowed, the values in 2015 and 2016 broke records and passed 1 °C above pre-industrial levels. Data from the Met Office shows that the long-term rate of global warming has now returned to the level seen in the second half of the 20th century.”
Although there has been scientific debate about the exact framing of the so-called ‘slowdown’, by looking at rolling 15-year trends, the Met Office confirmed that while the globe remained at near record warmth, the rate of global warming did slow between 1999 and 2014, but now this rate has picked up once more.
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nigelj at 07:23 AM on 20 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
Even 2015 - 2016 would not normally prove anything or indicate fundamental change. It's too short and mixed in with some natural variation, and some agw.
2015 - 2016 is significant mainly because it clearly ended the pause, and this is indeed significant as it shows models are not "broken" and never were.
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One Planet Only Forever at 07:15 AM on 20 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
Tom13,
I am not sure what you are talking aboutregarding trends around 1998.
When I review any of the temperature data sets using a rolling 30 year average (what you would look at to see a 'trend') I do not see any marked change of the slope/trend at 1998. (The exercise I refer to is simple using the SkS Temperature Trend Calculator, just set the moving average to 360)
In the surface temperature data sets there is a flattening in the 50s and 60s. But since then the trend line has just been up. Other than that clear trend change, all I see is a momentary blip in the data line that may disappear if 1998 is igonored as an aberrant value (such a large departure from the other data it is to be excluded from the evaluation).
The satellite data sets are not really the surface temperature, are manipulations of satellite data that are still being adjusted in attempts to get reasonable results, and have too short of a time frame to meaningfully see the trend. But if you set the duration to 25 years (300 months) there is still no sign of a change of trend around the time of 1998 in any of the satellite data sets.
So to be clearer, please explain what you mean when you refer to trends around 1998. Providing mark-ups of the charts of temperature data history that can be generated using the SkS Temperature Trend Calculator would be helpful from my perspective.
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nigelj at 07:12 AM on 20 September 2017Australia's Transition to Renewable Energy
There seems a lack of a master plan here. They appear to be making it up as they go along. I appreciate its partly politics, but its chaotic and a bit scary.
Say for example if Australia has total reliance on a mix of solar and wind (which seems the sensible thing given their climate) then you will need "x" quantity of gas fired backup, or alternaively "y" quantity of surplus solar and wind as a backup, or alternatively "z" quantity of storage. Or some combination of these. Surely someone has some sort of master plan and calculations? I would be interested if anyone knows and can point me at specific information.
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nigelj at 06:50 AM on 20 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
Tom 13 @5
"The rate of warming since the end of the 2015/2016 El Nino has been very similar to the rate of warming post 1998 El Nino."
Why would you even focus on changes of less than even one year? Its at least partly natural variability, so doesn't indicate anything much about agw. It may continue at a slower rate for a few years as you say, for what its worth but so what?
We are more interested in long term trends. We have an obvious global warming trend over particularly the last 50 years that stands out clearly compared to data over the last 2000 years as in link below. No real sign of last 50 years slowing.
Theres no sign of things fundamentally slowing from 1998 - 2017 either. There was a slowdown from about 2002 - 2010 in the trend line as in the link below from NASA, but it was within realms of natural variability.
I mention all this because you claim to be interested in "historical trends".
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Tom13 at 06:28 AM on 20 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
Nigelj #9
read my post at 10
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Tom13 at 06:01 AM on 20 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
One planet - not sure what you asking -
1998 was a big el nino year and subsequent to the 1998 el nino, the rate of warming slowed considerably until the 2015/2016 el nino. My comment was only that the rate of warming after the 2015/2016 el nino has reverted back to a similar rate of warming that was observed after the end of the 1998 el nino. That slower rate of warming is likely to continue at least in the short term (3-5 years).
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nigelj at 05:55 AM on 20 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
Tom13 @5
"My basis - Historical trends - always a good place to start."
Then follow your own advice. Look at the overall global temperature trend for the last 150 years, a clear historical trend. Theres no sign of a slowdown here.
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One Planet Only Forever at 05:43 AM on 20 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
Tom13,
Just to be clear, are you referring to the temperature trend that can be seen to have been happening around 1998 if the extremely aberrant 1998 temperatures are ignored? Looking at any of the surface temperature data histories 1998 sticks up/out like a sore thumb.
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Tom13 at 05:27 AM on 20 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
A Pacific flip triggers the end of the recent slowdown, News Release, Met Office, Sep 18, 2017
Thats what normally happens after an el nino. though eclectic was the one who questioned the reversion back to a similar warming trend that was in play after the 1998 el nino.
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John Hartz at 05:25 AM on 20 September 2017It's Pacific Decadal Oscillation
Recommended supplemental reading...
Following three record years for global surface mean temperature in 2014-2016, the observed recent slowdown in average global temperature has ended.
A Pacific flip triggers the end of the recent slowdown, News Release, Met Office, Sep 18, 2017
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John Hartz at 05:07 AM on 20 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
Tom 13 @5: Per the Met Ofice...
Following three record years for global surface mean temperature in 2014-2016, the observed recent slowdown in average global temperature has ended.
A Pacific flip triggers the end of the recent slowdown, News Release, Met Office, Sep 18, 2017
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Tom13 at 01:21 AM on 20 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
Eclectic -
Tom13 @3 : quite so — though you are bold to predict a flattening of the rate of warming (for 2017 onwards). Do you have any reason for suggesting that?
My basis - Historical trends - always a good place to start. The rate of warming since the end of the 2015/2016 El Nino has been very similar to the rate of warming post 1998 El Nino.
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Eclectic at 01:06 AM on 20 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
Tom13 @3 : quite so — though you are bold to predict a flattening of the rate of warming (for 2017 onwards). Do you have any reason for suggesting that? After all, there has been no reduction of the rate of heat energy accumulation (i.e. no reduction of the rate of nett energy inflow at Top Of Atmosphere).
The "geoethic" reference you supplied, is a link to a determinedly foolish denial of the physical processes that are causing the ongoing global warming (as evidenced by recent years' observations of surface temperature and ocean heat content). It's a case of denialism both stubborn and foolish.
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Tom13 at 23:06 PM on 19 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
I agree that it is inappropriate to only compare Hansen's A scenario against actual observed temps.
Hansen had three basic scenarios A: increase in CO 2 emissions by 1.5% per year, B: constant increase in CO 2 emissions after 2000, C: No increase in CO 2 emissions after 2000.
Through 2013, the observed global temps were slightly under the C scenario while the emissions were running slightly ahead of the projected A scenario. Then in 2015& 2016, with El Nino, the observed temps are running slightly under the Scenario B projected temps. So far in 2017 (after the 2015/2016 El Nino), the temps appear to be reverting back to the rate of warming observed since the 1998 El nino. (it is premature to reach a conclusion as to whether the slower rate of warming will hold since we only have 8 month of data.)
geoethic.com/2015/11/27/james-hansens-climate-models-versus-observations-1958-%C2%AD2015/
Moderator Response:[PS] Discussion of Hansen 1988 goes here.
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nigelj at 15:46 PM on 19 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
Moderator, ok I should not have implied dishonesty. My bad.
But your own article above said and I quote "In his testimony, Michaels essentially committed perjury in a reprehensibly dishonest effort to discredit Hansen’s 1988 global warming predictions."
So you see how I was tripped up? You have a problem with consistency somewhere here. Its very confusing the mixed signals.
I stand by all the rest of what I said. I cant see how any of it infringes comments policy and you don't say. I quoted his wikipedia profile all of which include original source material referenced in a bibliography. I dont have all day to do more. And I wont be doing more.
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scaddenp at 13:36 PM on 19 September 2017How much does animal agriculture and eating meat contribute to global warming?
Thanks very much. That is the general gist that I wanted. And plantago cultivars is what is being pushed.
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nigelj at 13:28 PM on 19 September 2017Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too
My personal view is P Michaels has no scientific integrity at all. It's lies by omission, with huge implications. Its just not something that can be brushed off lightly.
The guy has very little actual climate expertise. His degree is in biology. Quite why politicians listen to a biologist on predicting climate trends is beyond me, as its a question of atmospheric physics, climate history and processes, and computer modelling.
From Michaels wikipedia page:
"Climate scientist Tom Wigley,[33] a lead author of parts of the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has stated that "Michaels' statements on the subject of computer models are a catalog of misrepresentation and misinterpretation … Many of the supposedly factual statements made in Michaels' testimony are either inaccurate or are seriously misleading."[34]"
"Michaels acknowledged on CNN that 40 per cent of his funding came from the oil industry.[39]"
Moderator Response:[PS] Time to have another look at the comments policy.
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RedBaron at 12:56 PM on 19 September 2017How much does animal agriculture and eating meat contribute to global warming?
@ scaddenp,
Well there are a lot of considerations my friend. Not sure exactly what you are getting at.
The general rule of thumb is that carbon improves the cation exchange capacity of soil, which makes for more efficient use of all nutrients including Nitrogen.
Black Carbon Increases Cation Exchange Capacity in Soils
One of the benefits of mycorrhyzal fungi symbiosis is a far more efficient use of nitrogen. The fungi trades this for sugars that ultimately become part of the LCP (Liquid Carbon Pathway).
So over fertilizing with nitrogen means the plant has no need for the symbiosis. Less carbon gets sequestered by the LCP. It's even worse with phosphorus cycle. That will shut down the LCP completely even in some cases killing off the AMF. Once they are gone the nitrogen and phosophorus will leach rapidly. Lower carbon lower cation exchange capacity, lower efficiency of use of fertilizers, more being applied and more leaching. It is a downward spiral until the soil essentially gets beat to death so badly it is no longer arable.
But there is a different side to it as well. Carbon will hold nitrogen and help prevent its leaching too. But if the carbon is the labile fraction of soil carbon, then the effect is both temporary and will eventually result in excess CO2 production. It can in certain cases even cause well stabilized humus to break down into CO2 too.
I hope that gives you a general gist and for more details, just be more specific and I will reply with references in greater detail too.
PS You mean plantains like bananas? Or plantains like genus Plantago?
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nigelj at 11:54 AM on 19 September 20172017 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #37
Chriskoz @2
I agree with several of your criticisms! There was some obvious"hype" in Tonys presentation and he's not a scientist, engineer or inventor as such.
I just thought the video was interesting and well worth time spent. It was quite interesting even on just progress to date, which is more than I realised.
But you are right its very danagerous taking a past trend and projecting the trend forever. Moores law has run out of steam and drifted sideways into multiple computer cores.
Solar panels will drop more in price, but won't decrease in price forever or even that much hugely more, especially as they use a significant volume of raw material, unlike a microprocessor or smartphone!
His revolution will take longer than five years (or whatever it was). But that doesnt make it a failure.
Batteries. Theres enough lithium in known reserves for a billion cars from some calculations I saw, and that's before more reserves are found or its recycled. So I dont think he was unrealistic on lithium power.
Other battery technologies are quite well advanced like aluminium batteries. Im a dry old realist, but I do think its basically looking promising.
What am I saying? Tony is over optimistic and naieve on some things, but the total picture still looks pretty good.
Another thing. Convergent technology is a valid factor but half the reason the Iphone took off was probably sexy looks, reliability, pocket size. Theres more to it than Tony thinks.
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scaddenp at 10:28 AM on 19 September 20172017 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #37
While I certainly dont believe in limitless growth, I think EV and solar can expand massively. As far as I know Li-ion batteries dont use any rare earth minerals (which as has been pointed out are neither rare nor earth) though NiMh used by Prius does. Various rare earths are very useful for making powerful magnetics and certainly are heavily used by EV. But is this necessary for the tech or simply a good economics at the moment? Turbines are also big users of RE for the exactly the same reason. However, you dont need RE for a turbine. Enercon have 40% of market for wind turbines in Germany and dont use any.
While there are environmental impacts from solar cell production, I am far from convinced that they are larger than the other forms of generation that they are replacing.
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chriskoz at 08:45 AM on 19 September 20172017 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #37
Nigel, let me criticize Tony's talk.
He introduces the technolog adopting curve as an "s-shape". Then focuses on the assending part of the "s" only for trhe rest of his talk. I.e. he assumes that his exponential, even more than exponential, growth in adoption of solar, battery storage, EV and AV (authonomous vehicle) will continue unconstrained.
He does not even considers the known limits of expensive rare earth mineral mining needed for production of batteries and environmental impact of solar cell production and keeps counting the years till solar energy doubling every year becomes so cheap that it disrupts not just utilities but the whole buseness model.
To that bunkum, I can respond: you don't need to fly to the Moon just keep folding a piece of paper until you manage to fold it 50 times. After 50 doublings, a 0.1mm think piece of paper becomes 500,000 km those reaching the Moon. Here is your space trip! It puts the entire NASA program obsolete and all world space agencies of of business. My example is of course sarcastic but logically there is no deifference between it and Toby's talk.
Obviously, Tony's bunkum is a typical application of a pyramid scheme without any considerations of physical resource limits while scaling his ideas to the level of "global disruption". In order to be more realistic, he must show that there is enough resources on the planet for his disruption to be physically possible. Certainly there is enough sunshine, but I'm not so sure about batteries though and speed of battery recharging. There are just basic things. Maybe he explains it a bit in his book and someone who read it can convince me his ideas are a bit more than just pramid scheme, because just listening to him talking, I'm just skeptical and don't even want to waste money on this book.
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scaddenp at 08:10 AM on 19 September 2017How much does animal agriculture and eating meat contribute to global warming?
Calling Red baron - what do you about the relationship between nitrogen utilization by plant and effects on soil carbon? Nitrogen leaching into waterways is big issue here and there has been some trumpeting over a strain of plantain that can halve nitrogen leach rates. I was wondering what effect that might also have on carbon pathways since I remember a talk which linked the two.
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william5331 at 06:16 AM on 19 September 20172017 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #37
To the deniers, I say, Forget Climate Change
http://mtkass.blogspot.co.nz/2010/10/forget-climate-change.html
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Breakyerself at 05:30 AM on 19 September 2017There's no empirical evidence
A lot of the links to sources on the intermediate section are dead links or just go to a top level domain. I've found new links for a few if you want to update them. It's probably not all of them. Just the ones I was looking for anyway.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2003GL018765/abstract(Philipona 2004)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2009JD011800/abstract (Wang, 2009)LINK (Chen, 2007)
http://spie.org/Publications/Proceedings/Paper/10.1117/12.556803(Griggs, 2004)
LINK (Harries, 2001)Moderator Response:[PS] Sadly, an endless problem. Thanks for those. I have converted to links.
[RH] Shortened links.
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Tom Dayton at 00:20 AM on 19 September 2017Water vapor is the most powerful greenhouse gas
MartianSky: The CC relation by itself applies if all else is equal. But Earth's atmosphere is very diverse, so the CC relation applies in very local conditions. For example, when rain forms in the atmosphere, relative humidity is 100% at that precise spot at that precise time. But even as those raindrops fall, often they pass through air of such different pressure or temperature that the rain evaporates before hitting the ground. The atmosphere varies dramatically and dynamically in pressure and temperature at scales from tiny to huge, so the CC relation can be perfectly valid in each of all those locales, but the availability of water in a given piece of air at a given moment can be inadequate for the water to fully fulfill that role. The availability of particles that act as condensation nuclei also affect the ease of condensation; ultra clean and unmoving air can have relative humidity of more than 100%, similar to a supersaturated solution. In short, the CC relation is not the only thing relevant to relative humidity, and it applies only in approximation at scales larger than micro in the real atmosphere, due to the inhomogeneity of the real atmosphere.
But none of that matters for the purpose of figuring out whether water vapor is a feedback or a forcing of temperature in Earth's conditions. What matters is that, all else being equal, water vapor injected into air at a given temperature and pressure will condense out--in 10 days as a global average.
Moderator Response:[DB] This is yet another iterative sock puppet of serial spammer cosmoswarrior. Leaving the interchange up for edification purposes and transparency.
[PS] Wont do anything to edify our sockpuppet master based on past ironclad ability to miscomprehend anything that contradicts his/her denial.
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RedBaron at 21:56 PM on 18 September 2017Exit, Pursued by a Crab
Andy,
I suppose I have delayed posting simply due to the subject cutting a bit too close for comfort. I just lost my Dad this year after a decades long struggle with congestive heart failure. But I wanted to show my appreciation for all you have done in the fight to educate and mitigate AGW.
Indeed we don't agree often. I don't see us needing to sacrifice to mitigate AGW. The opposite in fact. We are spending billions making sure it does happen...foolishly. Your comments on Geoengineering seem crazy to me. Completely ignoring that 1 we are geoengineering now, and 2 the LCP works because the fossil carbon has to oxygen attached, not in spite of it. Though we disagree on a few thing I still count you as an important ally though, especially your vids.
Keep up the good work.
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John McKeon at 21:03 PM on 18 September 2017Exit, Pursued by a Crab
My post is too late to speak to Andy, but I want to say anyway how much I appreciated watching and listening to him on video talking about climate change along with its social context & problems. My best wishes to those closest to him.
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Rovinpiper at 20:34 PM on 18 September 2017IPCC admits global warming has paused
I strongly recommend you have a read of the paper.
Thanks. I'll do that.
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