Skeptical Science New Research for Week #29, 2019

A relatively small haul of 42 articles.

The usual proportion of climate-related research domain output is notably reversed this week. Knock-on effects of climate change and how to deal with them dominated the raw feed of articles.

The physical science of climate change remains fascinating in itself as a matter of pure abstract curiosity. We could wish we only were witnessing a scientific phenomenon as a matter of pure science but with stakes at risk rising in scope and urgency, research focused on mitigation, adaptation and cultural impacts of climate change is burgeoning.

Unlike the study of cosmology or mantle convection, in this broad arena of science we're the central player and can write our script. And— let's not forget— we've previously successfully or at least forthrightly negotiated unintended outcomes of our prowess. For instance after a brief period of unalloyed delight the emergence of automobiles focused attention on outcomes of relatively simple physics producing complicated, painful and expensive effects. Momentum, inertia, 1/2MV², human skulls, hard unforgiving objects and nasty, sad permutations of these things inexorably led to research on improvements. It's just so with the climate change we know we're causing— we've identified problems and now we figure out how to fix those problems. We get to shape our future for the better.

It's not complicated, not in principle. When with our clever brains we unleash forces unaddressed by our anatomy— or the normal functioning of the planet— we survive and thrive by further extension of our intelligence, not by pretending to be stupid and ignorant despite evidence to the contrary.

In short, research "ancillary" to the physical science of climate change is the smartest and arguably best side of our behavior on display, enlightened self-interest at work.

Another lesson to be drawn from our weekly research synopsis is more centrally germane to the mission of Skeptical Science. As inquiry extends from physical principles of climate change and workers in other domains inevitably assess conditions in the light of new information we find ever more confirmation of what the physical science of climate change tells us is to be expected. This week's biology section is rife with examples. The intellectual bankruptcy of denial of anthropogenic climate change is becoming ever more obvious as the acuity and breadth of our accountancy improves.

Physical science of anthropogenic climate change
Freshwater requirements of large-scale bioenergy plantations for limiting global warming to 1.5 °C

Contrasting responses in dissolved organic carbon to extreme climate events from adjacent boreal landscapes in Northern Sweden

Estimating power plant CO 2 emission using OCO-2 XCO 2 and high resolution WRF-Chem simulations

A 40-y record reveals gradual Antarctic sea ice increases followed by decreases at rates far exceeding the rates seen in the Arctic

Enhanced flood risk with 1.5 °C global warming in the Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna basin

Changes in the thickness and circulation of multiyear ice in the Beaufort Gyre determined from pseudo?Lagrangian methods from 2003?2015

Turbulence Observations beneath Larsen C Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Extratropical Cyclone Clouds in the GFDL climate model: diagnosing biases and the associated causes

The relevance of mid-Holocene Arctic warming to the future

Towards monitoring localized CO2 emissions from space: co-located regional CO2 and NO2 enhancements observed by the OCO-2 and S5P satellites

Research on how to cope with the anthropogenic climate mess we're making

Spatio-temporal trend in heat waves over India and its impact assessment on wheat crop