Category Archives: fossil fuels

Exxon-Mobil digging its own grave

Climate Denial Crock of the Week features the latest revelation from Inside Climate News. It features former federal chief scientist for global warming research, Michael MacCracken, and physicist and climate scientist Gilbert Plass. Also featured is an open 2002 letter … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, capricious gods, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, climate change, climate disruption, denial, ecology, energy, energy utilities, environment, Exxon, forecasting, fossil fuels, games of chance, geophysics, global warming, humanism, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, meteorology, methane, natural gas, obfuscating data, rationality, reasonableness, science, sustainability, UU Humanists | Leave a comment

“… [A] fair, legally binding and truly transformational climate agreement …”

Bishops from around the world have appealed to the COP 21 meeting in Paris to create a “fair, legally binding, and truly transformational” climate agreement. That’s from Vatican Radio which has the full statement. There is more coverage from the … Continue reading

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Rabett Run reprises the Carbon Cycle … and very well, too

Eli condenses the problem with the Carbon Cycle and excessive emissions of fossil fuel CO2 to a few paragraphs, a great figure, and a trio of linear differential equations.

Posted in astrophysics, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, climate, climate disruption, conservation, differential equations, diffusion, dynamical systems, ecology, environment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, meteorology, oceanography, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, science, time series | Leave a comment

The Koch brothers are afraid, very afraid … and should be

And, accordingly, the Koch brothers are turning their attention to spreading misinformation about solar power, through their Taxpayers Protection Alliance, which is publishing silly stuff in things like a report, Filling the Solar Sinkhole. See the link, from the Solar … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, Cape Wind, carbon dioxide, citizenship, clean disruption, climate justice, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, denial, ecology, economics, efficiency, energy, energy utilities, environment, Exxon, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, obfuscating data, physics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, selfishness, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, sustainability, the right to know, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, transparency, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Climate Disruption and Carbon Taxes: That ‘outlandish lefty plot’

Uh, in case the climate science deniers carbon worshipers of the world haven’t noticed, there’s an open letter out, directed to the UNFCCC. It says, in part: We recognize the rising environmental, social, economic, and security risks posed by climate … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, COP21, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, ecology, energy utilities, engineering, environment, Exxon, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, meteorology, mitigation, oceanography, physics, planning, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“Too late to prevent climate change: Here’s how we adapt” (Alice Bows-Larkin)

Here’s how we adapt.

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, astrophysics, bridge to nowhere, capricious gods, carbon dioxide, chance, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, ecology, economics, environment, ethics, forecasting, fossil fuels, games of chance, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, mathematics, maths, meteorology, mitigation, oceanography, physics, planning, prediction, probability, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, statistics, sustainability, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Carbon Worshipers and Worship

There’s agitation and angst in some circles regarding the proper term to dub individuals who, however technical their training, reject the conclusions of climate science, physics, and even Exxon from the 1970s. (Graphs are from Greg Laden’s blog.) There’s denial, … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, atheism, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, chemistry, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate data, climate models, Cult of Carbon, denial, energy, environment, Exxon, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, IPCC, meteorology, oceanography, physical materialism, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, UNFCCC, UU Humanists, zero carbon | 3 Comments

Exxon knew, in detail

The Exxon Corporation (XOM) turned its back on its own evidence-based, scientific culture when it came to climate change. It’s a very sad story. There are now more parts available. (The above letter is reproduced from The New York Times … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, civilization, climate change, climate disruption, denial, ecology, economics, environment, ethics, Exxon, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, physics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, sociology | 3 Comments

No turning back: On the effectiveness of artificially removing emitted CO2 from atmosphere for remediating climate disruption

A new paper, by Tokarska and Zickfeld, just published in the Institute Of Physics (“IOP”) Environmental Research Letters examines the question of what happens to climate change and disruption should, at some time, we collectively decide it’s too bad and … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, denial, diffusion processes, dynamical systems, environment, ethics, forecasting, fossil fuels, games of chance, geoengineering, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, James Hansen, oceanography, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, scientific publishing, sea level rise, statistics, sustainability, the right to know, thermodynamics, zero carbon | 2 Comments

Foul concerns (UPDATE: 14th September 2015)

Updated, 14th September 2015 I submitted a Letter to the Editor of The Westwood Press last week, one which was published in Friday’s paper edition. It did not/has not yet made it online. It was in response to an article … Continue reading

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“Natural Gas Pipeline Replacement Programs Reduce Methane Leaks and Improve Consumer Safety”

Update, 2018-11-19 Pipeline replacements, yes, assuming they are done correctly. Otherwise, strand them. See “NTSB faults NiSource for deadly Massachusetts gas explosions“. NiSource is the parent company of Columbia Gas of Massachusetts. Here are the NTSB recommendations and report. Natural … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, citizenship, climate, climate change, climate disruption, consumption, economics, energy utilities, environment, fossil fuels, fracking, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, methane, mitigation, natural gas, pipelines, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, sociology, spatial statistics, the right to know | Leave a comment

“Dismantling the Utility Model is the Fastest Path to a Cleaner Electricity Infrastructure”

Dismantling the Utility Model is the Fastest Path to a Cleaner Electricity Infrastructure, by Thomas Conroy.

Posted in Cauchy distribution, clean disruption, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, economics, efficiency, EIA, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, investment in wind and solar energy, maths, mitigation, natural gas, optimization, pipelines, politics, public utility commissions, rationality, reasonableness, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Tony Seba, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Locally generated solar PV will destroy America’s electric utilities: Barclays

We fully expect utilities and regulators to make a good faith effort to preserve the status quo “regulatory compact,” whereby the monopoly utility provides a safe and reliable service and regulators allow it to earn a reasonable low-risk return. However, … Continue reading

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Leaks in Westwood: Natural Gas — a bridge to nowhere

These are ongoing leaks of natural gas in the Westwood area. They are reported, as required by law, by Eversource, the local utility, to Massachusetts government authorities, along with an indication of Eversource’s estimate of the severity of the leak. … Continue reading

Posted in bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, ecology, energy reduction, energy utilities, environment, fossil fuels, fracking, global warming, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, methane, natural gas, open data, pipelines, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rationality, reasonableness, risk, spatial statistics, sustainability, the right to know, zero carbon | Leave a comment

A new site in favor of climate disruption

It’s the Coalition to Lower Energy Costs. At the expense of our children’s and grandchildren’s fortunes and sometimes lives, of course. Read on.

Posted in clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate education, fossil fuels, global warming, methane | Leave a comment

“Allocating a 2° C cumulative carbon budget to countries”: Gignac and Matthews

Abstract Recent estimates of the global carbon budget, or allowable cumulative CO2 emissions consistent with a given level of climate warming, have the potential to inform climate mitigation policy discussions aimed at maintaining global temperatures below 2° C. This raises … Continue reading

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Utilities for dummies: How they work and why that needs to change (from grist.org)

“Utilities are shielded by a force field of tedium.” “Solar panels could destroy U.S. utilities, according to U.S. utilities.” Utilities for dummies: How they work and why that needs to change“, a compact introduction, from grist.org. And there’s an additional … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, bifurcations, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, conservation, consumption, corruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, disingenuity, dynamic linear models, dynamical systems, ecology, economics, education, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, environment, ethics, exponential growth, finance, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, mathematics, maths, meteorology, methane, microgrids, natural gas, optimization, physics, pipelines, politics, prediction, public utility commissions, PUCs, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, solar power, statistics, sustainability, taxes, temporal myopia, the right to know, time series, Tony Seba, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Solar installation progress, courtesy of MacSolarIndex.com

The MAC Solar Index tracks a set of solar manufacturing and installation companies. It is also the basis for the Guggenheim Investments “TAN” Exchange-Traded Fund (“ETF”, *). They recently published a progress report on global solar installations, which I wanted … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, dynamic linear models, dynamical systems, ecology, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, environment, exponential growth, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, meteorology, microgrids, open data, optimization, physics, politics, prediction, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, solar power, sustainability, the right to know, time series, Tony Seba, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Alice Bell’s “A very short history of climate change research”

“A very short history of climate change research“, by Alice Bell. The story of scientists discovering climate change is longer than many of us tend to imagine. We’ve had a sense that what humans do might effect the climate since … Continue reading

Posted in astronomy, astrophysics, biology, carbon dioxide, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate models, dynamical systems, ecology, environment, forecasting, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, IPCC, James Hansen, meteorology, Neill deGrasse Tyson, NOAA, oceanography, physics, population biology, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sea level rise, spatial statistics, statistics, sustainability, temporal myopia, UNFCCC, WHOI | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Pathetic Politics and Lies: “Am I The Only One Who Noticed” (from Dan’s Wild Wild Science Journal)

Am I The Only One Who Noticed.. – Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal – AGU Blogosphere. As Dr Neill deGrasse Tyson is fond of saying, you — and politicians — are entitled to their beliefs, but not to claim things … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, citizenship, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, environment, ethics, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, IPCC, meteorology, Neill deGrasse Tyson, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, science, science education, temporal myopia, zero carbon | 1 Comment

California solar users already affecting per-residence rates of non-solar utility customers

Lead article in the San Francisco Chronicle today addresses how non-solar customers of Pacific Gas & Electric are already carrying a larger burden of the network costs for that utility, costs which are reflected in their rates. This is the … Continue reading

Posted in bifurcations, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, differential equations, dynamical systems, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, environment, exponential growth, finance, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, maths, microgrids, natural gas, pipelines, politics, rationality, reasonableness, solar power, statistics, temporal myopia, Tony Seba, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Atmospheric concentration of CO2 as a function of altitude

Note that water vapor is essentially at zero concentration above the tropopause, which is at most 16 km high (it varies with latitude and season) because it is too cold for water to survive as gas, or even as liquid. … Continue reading

Posted in carbon dioxide, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, environment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, IPCC, meteorology, open data, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, science, science education, the right to know, time series | 2 Comments

The United States Clean Power Plan … It’s time.

“There is such a thing as being too late.”

Posted in Anthropocene, astrophysics, bifurcations, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate justice, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, ecology, economics, energy, engineering, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, meteorology, oceanography, physics, politics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, sea level rise, statistics, sustainability, Tamino, temporal myopia, the right to know, time series, UNFCCC, UU Humanists, Westwood, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Hausfathers “Climate Impacts of Coal and Natural Gas”

(Updated below, 21st June 2018.) Zeke Hausfather published “Climate Impacts of Coal and Natural Gas” on the BEST project site. He makes a close analysis of the relative benefits of coal and natural gas, considering the subtleties and pitfalls of … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, climate, climate change, climate disruption, consumption, COP21, ecology, energy, energy reduction, environment, forecasting, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, James Hansen, methane, natural gas, physics, pipelines, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, risk, statistics, the right to know, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“Where most of us live (with apologies to southern-hemisphere readers)” [reblog of Tamino]

Love the comparison with Berkeley Earth Surface Temperatures.

Posted in Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, citizen science, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, denial, ecology, education, environment, forecasting, fossil fuels, geophysics, hiatus, Hyper Anthropocene, IPCC, mathematics, maths, meteorology, NOAA, open data, physics, prediction, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, statistics, Tamino, time series, Uncategorized, Wordpress | Leave a comment

WHT’s “Climate Sensitivity and the 33C Discrepancy”

I happened across a blog post (from 2013) by the mysterious blogger known as WHT (*) titled “Climate Sensitivity and the 33C Discrepancy“. If I could, I’d reblog it here, but their blogging site is not WordPress-friendly. WHT is now … Continue reading

Posted in astrophysics, carbon dioxide, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate models, dynamical systems, ENSO, environment, forecasting, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, mathematics, maths, meteorology, oceanography, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, WHT | 1 Comment

CO2 experiment: fooling with Earth

Professor Richard D Schwartz wrote, in 2012, a nice article succinctly summarizing the scientific basis for climate change and global warming. Called “An astrophysicist looks at global warming”, he pithily summarized: “Greenhouse gas” warming occurs because the collisional de-excitation time … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, astrophysics, bifurcations, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, chance, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, dynamical systems, ecology, environment, forecasting, fossil fuels, games of chance, geophysics, global warming, ignorance, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, meteorology, oceanography, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, science, science education, temporal myopia, the right to know | Leave a comment

Professor James Hansen responds and explains:

The recent paper by Hansen, Soto, and others has caused a stir, as I suspect it was intended to do so. I posted about this paper earlier. Now Professor Hansen has responded to the critics of his team’s work and … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, arXiv, astrophysics, bifurcations, biology, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate models, COP21, denial, disingenuity, dynamical systems, ecology, education, environment, ethics, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, James Hansen, maths, meteorology, NASA, NCAR, new forms of scientific peer review, NOAA, oceanography, open source scientific software, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, probability, rationality, reasonableness, science, science education, sea level rise, temporal myopia, the right to know, time series, WAIS, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Tea Party member Debbie Dooley on solar power (from The Guardian)

I support solar energy because of my Tea Party beliefs — not despite them (From Debbie Dooley, in an article at The Guardian, one of the 22 founding members of the Tea Party.) I am a lifelong conservative and, also, … Continue reading

Posted in bifurcations, carbon dioxide, citizenship, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, economics, efficiency, energy, ethics, finance, fossil fuels, global warming, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, maths, microgrids, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, solar power, statistics, Tea Party, time series, Tony Seba, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

References Regarding the 450 ppm CO2 Ceiling

Updated 23rd July 2015 J. Hansen, M. Sato, P. Hearty, R. Ruedy, M. Kelley, V. Masson-Delmotte, G. Russell, G. Tselioudis, J. Cao, E. Rignot, I. Velicogna, E. Kandiano, K. von Schuckmann, P. Kharecha, A. N. Legrande, M. Bauer, and K.-W. … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Antarctica, Anthropocene, Arctic, arXiv, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate models, compassion, conservation, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, ecology, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, engineering, environment, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, oceanography, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, risk, science, sea level rise, solar power, statistics, sustainability, the right to know, WAIS, wind power, zero carbon | 2 Comments