Category Archives: greenhouse gases

Bill Nye’s “Global Meltdown”: Climate grief in 5 steps

Postscript, 2nd April 2016 I’ve been asked offline whether I buy McPherson’s catastrophic warming scenario. I don’t, or at least I wouldn’t bet on it. Each of the components of Professor McPherson’s scenario are based upon solid science. But in … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, AMETSOC, Anthropocene, Arnold Schwarzennegger, Bill Nye, bridge to nowhere, Carbon Cycle, Carbon Worshipers, climate, climate change, climate disruption, denial, Eaarth, Earle Wilson, energy, environment, Florida, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, physics, planning, rationality, reasonableness, science, selfishness, zero carbon | 4 Comments

It’s hotter than you think

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, atheism, Bill Nye, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, civilization, climate change, climate disruption, environment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, Guy McPherson, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, James Hansen, Kevin Anderson, meteorology, methane, mitigation, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, sustainability, zero carbon | Leave a comment

The rationale for reducing Net Metering is based both on unsound math and unsound physics

News on the diddling-with-metering front. I argued in a comment today that the standard rationale for a change in net metering is based upon accounting and legal contract which is both unsound physics and unsound mathematics. Recall that that rationale … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, bollocks, citizenship, clean disruption, climate disruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, disingenuity, distributed generation, economics, efficiency, EIA, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, extended supply chains, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, local generation, Mark Jacobson, microgrids, mitigation, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, Sankey diagram, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, zero carbon | Leave a comment

seek the beautiful, and avoid “climate justice”

Some people along the coast of Massachusetts are missing out. No matter. After the homes are flooded and razed, because their parents and grandparents were too foolish and short-sighted to see what should be done, the kids will turn the … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, Canettes Blues Band, Cape Wind, capricious gods, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate justice, coastal communities, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, denial, destructive economic development, disingenuity, ecology, economics, electricity markets, energy, energy utilities, engineering, environment, extended supply chains, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, liberal climate deniers, living shorelines, local generation, meteorology, microgrids, rationality, reasonableness, regime shifts, risk, Sankey diagram, Scituate, sea level rise, selfishness, sociology, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, T'kun Olam, temporal myopia, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

I ask again: Does Massachusetts have a share of the clean energy future?

Or is Governor Baker and the Massachusetts House going to subcontract that to other states, like Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New York? They are coming. Update, 2016-02-23 Where does Massachusetts get its energy now?

Posted in Anthropocene, Cape Wind, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, ecology, EIA, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, environment, exponential growth, extended supply chains, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investment in wind and solar energy, Mark Jacobson, methane, municipal solid waste, natural gas, optimization, pipelines, planning, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, Sankey diagram, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 3 Comments

Twila Moon, glaciologist

Twila Moon, University of Oregon, and, soon, University of Bristol, “Face to face with climate change, in Greenland”. Her research concerns ice interface dynamics, principally concerning glaciers.

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Arctic, climate, climate change, climate disruption, coastal communities, ecology, environment, fossil fuels, geophysics, glaciers, glaciology, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, ice sheet dynamics, icesheets, physics, planning, rationality, reasonableness, the right to know, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Bernie. Bernie. BERNIE. 2016.

I’m a one issue voter: Climate disruption. Minimizing it. Little else matters. “All the good that you have done, all the good you can imagine doing, will be wiped out by floods, by fires, by superstorms, if you fail to … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate models, coastal communities, compassion, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corporate supply chains, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, Eaarth, ecology, economics, environment, exponential growth, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, liberal climate deniers, meteorology, physical materialism, physics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, T'kun Olam, temporal myopia, the right to know, the value of financial assets, zero carbon | Leave a comment

That two degree limit is closer than it appears

The UNFCCC’s COP21 concluded goals which aimed for limiting global warming to C, and certainly keeping it below C, both measured with respect to pre-industrial temperatures. Bad news. According to the United States National Center for Atmospheric Research (“NCAR”), in … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Worshipers, chaos, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, complex systems, COP21, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corporate supply chains, critical slowing down, differential equations, Eaarth, ecology, environment, evidence, exponential growth, extended supply chains, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geoengineering, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, IPCC, James Hansen, meteorology, mitigation, NCAR, NOAA, oceanography, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, temporal myopia, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the value of financial assets, Wally Broecker, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Tesla. No, not the car.

From Climate Denial Crock of the Week. THE PROBLEM OF INCREASING HUMAN ENERGY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCES TO THE HARNESSING OF THE SUN’S ENERGY (Excerpt) THE SOURCE OF HUMAN ENERGY—THE THREE WAYS OF DRAWING ENERGY FROM THE SUN First let us … Continue reading

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Underestimated Rates of Sea Level Rise

Posted in adaptation, Antarctica, Anthropocene, Arctic, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, coastal communities, ecology, floods, Florida, fossil fuels, geophysics, glaciers, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, icesheets, IPCC, James Hansen, John Englander, Richard Alley, Scituate, sea level rise, Stefan Rahmstorf, temporal myopia, the right to know, Wally Broecker, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Techno Utopias

Professor Kevin Anderson on Techno Utopias. The Paris “COP21” agreement is/was not only expecting miracles, it was counting on them. Y’think climate disruption causes ecosystem disruption: Try geoengineering. Well the answer was simple. If we choose to continue our love … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, bollocks, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, coastal communities, complex systems, consumption, COP21, corporate supply chains, denial, disingenuity, economics, environment, ethics, evidence, exponential growth, extended supply chains, FEMA, finance, fossil fuels, games of chance, geophysics, glaciers, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, Hyper Anthropocene, icesheets, ignorance, IPCC, James Hansen, Kevin Anderson, Lenny Smith, liberal climate deniers, living shorelines, MA, meteorology, Neill deGrasse Tyson, oceanography, physics, planning, population biology, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, regime shifts, Sankey diagram, science, sea level rise, selfishness, silly tech devices, Techno Utopias, the right to know, the value of financial assets | 1 Comment

Causal Diagrams

Like Sankey diagrams, causal diagrams are a useful tool to assess and communicate complicated systems and their intrarelationships: It’s possible to use these for analysis and prescription: Here is the (promised) presentation on reenforcing loops: So how can these techniques … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, bridge to nowhere, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, Carbon Worshipers, causal diagrams, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate models, demand-side solutions, differential equations, dynamical systems, ecology, economics, energy utilities, environment, exponential growth, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, Hyper Anthropocene, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, methane, mitigation, natural gas, planning, prediction, rationality, reasonableness, recycling, Sankey diagram, sustainability, the right to know, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Massachusetts Solar Suburbs (a Google group)

I have just created the Massachusetts Solar Suburbs Google group. It’s Welcome Message reads: Welcome to the Massachusetts Solar Suburbs! This group exists to provide a forum for owners of solar installations, typically residential, or serving residences, to share their … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Carbon Tax, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, diffusion, diffusion processes, economics, education, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, environment, ethics, fear uncertainty and doubt, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, Google, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, MA, meteorology, microgrids, optimization, physics, planning, politics, public utility commissions, rationality, reasonableness, risk, Sankey diagram, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, sustainability, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

On friction and the duplicity

(Hat tip to Peter Sinclair at Climate Denial Crock of the Week.) Has Senator Cruz called Dr Carl Mears (video) of Remote Sensing Systems, the maker and interpreter of the sensor Senator Cruz used for his Spencer-Christy-Curry carnival? No. Of … Continue reading

Posted in AMETSOC, anemic data, Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, BEST, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, confirmation bias, corruption, denial, disingenuity, ecology, evidence, fear uncertainty and doubt, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, hiatus, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, meteorology, model comparison, NCAR, NOAA, obfuscating data, oceanography, physics, rationality, reasonableness, statistics, time series | Leave a comment

“Causal feedbacks in climate change”

Today I was reviewing and re-reading the nonlinear time series technical literature I have, seeking ideas on how to go about using the statistical ensemble learning technique called “boosting” with them. (See the very nice book, R. E. Schapire, Y. … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, boosting, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, cat1, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, complex systems, convergent cross-mapping, denial, differential equations, diffusion processes, dynamical systems, ecology, Egbert van Nes, empirical likelihood, ensembles, environment, Ethan Deyle, Floris Takens, forecasting, fossil fuels, geophysics, George Sughihara, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hao Ye, machine learning, Maren Scheffer, mathematics, maths, meteorology, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, state-space models, Takens embedding theorem, time series, Timothy Lenton, Victor Brovkin | 2 Comments

After the Decade of Dithering, the Deadly Twenties

In a recent post, after reviewing the extreme Arctic warming event of late 2015, Professor John Baez quotes an earlier interview with Dr Gregory Benford, who is arguing for a geoengineering effort to restore the frozen Arctic. I do not … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, AMOC, Arctic, chance, changepoint detection, climate, climate change, climate disruption, critical slowing down, ecology, engineering, geoengineering, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, James Hansen, MIchael Mann, mitigation, oceanography, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, regime shifts, science, science education, state-space models, statistics, the right to know, thermohaline circulation, time series | Leave a comment

Hunt and Anderson discuss climate change

50% of the emissions come from the richest 1% of people on the planet. Actually, I disagree with them a bit … I suspect Western societies are much more fragile than Hunt & Anderson and most people think, in terms … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, civilization, climate disruption, COP21, demand-side solutions, denial, destructive economic development, ecology, environment, exponential growth, extended supply chains, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geoengineering, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, rationality, reasonableness, Sankey diagram, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Not too shabby: “What’s warming the world” (Bloomberg Business), and “The siege of Miami” (The New Yorker)

What’s warming the world Infographic allowing the visitor to overlay time series of candidate causes for global warming, and thereby permitting them to draw their own conclusions. And Elizabeth Kolbert’s piece in The New Yorker, brings home the contradictions and … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, business, climate change, climate data, climate zombies, complex systems, critical slowing down, denial, disingenuity, economics, environment, evidence, fossil fuels, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, mitigation, model comparison, time series | Leave a comment

About that “hide the decline” thing …

(Hat tip to Climate Denial Crock of the Week) It’s amazing what you can do when you take words out of context. Watch The Daily Show some time. But that’s entertainment, not governance. Hide the decline? The email doesn’t say … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, climate, climate data, climate disruption, denial, environment, ethics, evidence, fear uncertainty and doubt, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, meteorology, oceanography, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, science, temporal myopia | Leave a comment

“Richard Lindzen: limited understanding?” (Tamino)

Posted in Anthropocene, climate, climate change, climate disruption, denial, floods, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, Kerry Emanuel, meteorology, NCAR, Neill deGrasse Tyson, NOAA, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, Tamino, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Paris’ COP21: Great cheerleading from the diplomats, but … +ENSO is here

This target is, however, extremely demanding. Climate researchers have explored only a few scenarios that limit warming to 1.5 °C. They show that global emissions of greenhouse gases must be between 70% and 95% lower in 2050 than they were in … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, climate, climate change, climate disruption, COP21, Eaarth, ecology, economics, El Nino, ENSO, environment, forecasting, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, La Nina, meteorology, NCAR, NOAA, physics, planning, rationality, reasonableness, science, science education, sustainability, Svante Arrhenius, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Climate Conclusions: The American Petroleum Institute (1980)

The following are excerpted from a memorandum quoted by the Inside Climate News team, documenting the minutes of a 29th February 1980 of a task force on climate change at the American Petroleum Institute. Hat tip to Climate Denial Crock … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, American Petroleum Institute, AMETSOC, Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, Chevron, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, climate models, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, denial, ecology, economics, environment, ethics, evidence, Exxon, fear uncertainty and doubt, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, Gulf Oil, Hyper Anthropocene, meteorology, natural gas, open data, physics, pipelines, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, science, selfishness, Standard Oil of California, sustainability, Texaco, the right to know, the value of financial assets | Leave a comment

“That time has come and gone.”

Lonnie Thompson, PhD,Byrd Polar Center, Ohio State University: “When I first started working on this and seeing the system change, I think it was 1992 when I first testified at U.S. Senate on climate change. Back then I talked about … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, climate, climate change, climate disruption, environment, geophysics, glaciers, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, icesheets, IPCC, meteorology, NCAR, NOAA, oceanography, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, sea level rise, Spaceship Earth, temporal myopia, UNFCCC | Leave a comment

“No – no words. No words to describe it.”

Some celestial event. No – no words. No words to describe it. Poetry! They should’ve sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful… I had no idea. (From Carl Sagan’s Contact, the movie version.) Hat tip to Climate Denial Crock of … Continue reading

Posted in AMETSOC, Anthropocene, astronomy, astrophysics, Bill Nye, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, Carl Sagan, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, COP21, Disney, ecology, education, energy, environment, ethics, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, James Hansen, meteorology, NASA, NCAR, NOAA, oceanography, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, science, science education, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, Walt Disney Company, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“Wealthy nations spend 40 times as much money subsidizing fossil fuel production as they contribute to the Green Climate Fund”

The next time you hear or read some wag, random solar-hater, or shill for a dirty fossil fuel company (like “natural gas”, really, explosive methane), or the likes of Spectra Energy bemoan the subsidies states like Massachusetts and New York … Continue reading

Posted in Cape Wind, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, disingenuity, efficiency, energy, energy utilities, environment, fear uncertainty and doubt, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, investment in wind and solar energy, methane, microgrids, mitigation, pipelines, planning, politics, public utility commissions, rationality, Sankey diagram, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, sustainability, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Same Old, Same Old (“I’m your puppet”)

Posted in Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate zombies, denial, environment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, meteorology, obfuscating data, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, zero carbon | Leave a comment

On infrared radiation and Earth temperature

Good to review the basics once again. Professors Dave Archer and Ray Pierrehumbert do, in my opinion, some of the best introductions: Infrared radiation and planetary temperature.

Posted in astrophysics, carbon dioxide, climate, climate change, climate models, David Archer, differential equations, diffusion, diffusion processes, environment, evidence, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, meteorology, methane, oceanography, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, science, Svante Arrhenius | Leave a comment

Southern Oscillation (SOI) correlated with Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR)

To the climate community this is nothing at all new, but I spotted these time series today and thought they would make a nice exhibit on how something people have direct control over, greenhouse gas emissions, affect a “teleconnection mechanism” … Continue reading

Posted in AMETSOC, bifurcations, carbon dioxide, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate models, Dan Satterfield, differential equations, dynamic linear models, dynamical systems, ENSO, environment, forecasting, generalized linear models, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, IPCC, Mathematica, mathematics, maths, meteorology, NCAR, NOAA, numerical software, oceanography, open data, physics, population biology, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, science, Spaceship Earth, state-space models, thermodynamics, time series | Leave a comment

“It’s real. There’s nothing we can do about it.”

Posted in Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, climate, climate change, climate disruption, environment, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, meteorology, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, reproducible research, risk, science, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, Svante Arrhenius, the right to know | Leave a comment