Perpetual Innovation

Category: global warming

  • WMO Warns Lima Delegates 2014 May Be Hottest Year | Climate Central

    WMO Warns Lima Delegates, 2014 … Hottest Year in History!:-( | Climate Central:

    Ouch, this is really really ugly, the data related to 2014 as the hottest year in modern history.

    Double to the angst is the melt-off of the Antarctic.

    Here’s a discussion about both.

    The period between April and September, according to NASA GISS was the hottest in 120 years. Most (?all?) of the months since April will set all time heat highs, as well.

    Fortunately an El Nino weather pattern did not develop this year or the year-end temperatures would be even higher.

    The consistent march of the oceans to higher temperature is doubly scary. It should take years, if not decades for rising temperatures to make a dent in the ocean temperatures. If the oceans are, on average 2 miles deep, it should take a long time for warming at the surface to permeate down to the depths.

    Thermal expansion is scary. A 1 degree increase in surface temperatures, on average, should eventually result in about 2 feet of rise at the ocean surface due to thermal expansion as water gets warmer. This may take many years, but the increase is “baked in” if surface temperatures stay the same (or continue rising).

    But doubly worrisome are the ice sheets in Antarctica (and Greenland and Iceland) which are ice sheets on top of land. The Arctic in the north is generally ice on top of water, so when the ice melts up there, as it is rapidly doing, it does not affect ocean levels (directly).

    A study accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters found that the Amundsen Sea Embayment in West Antarctica is melting quickly and at an increasing rate. They found that the ice loss was equivalent to the volume of Mt Everest every 2 years.


    The accepted draft of the article is here: paper…

    Too bad. After seeing some encouraging studies that suggested that there might be a bit of a hiatus to the march of global warming, some of the more recent measures are not so good.

    Ouch!:-(

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  • 2014 could become the hottest year on record – CBS News

    2014 could become the hottest year on record – CBS News:
    We should start to find out soon if another El Nino is coming our way. That is the weather formation in the Pacific that changes and directs the worlds weather in a BIG way.

    Apparently if El Nino forms, then this year will blast through all recorded records, and next year should be record setting as well. It offers up massive droughts in some areas and torrential rains in others.

    With several consecutive months (May through September) setting monthly records, El Nino would really push the year over the top of the heat charts.

    El Nino is a warming anomaly; La Nina, is a cooling anomaly. Check out this chart of each, showing the years when they existed as weak, moderate or strong events.  El Nino occurs every 3 to 7 years, But it seems to be happening with increased frequency.

    But at several researchers are reducing the likelihood of the Big El Nino for this year, from very likely down to maybe 58%. So maybe we might be spared of 2014-2015 as epic climate change event.

    Also look at this great graphics from NASA on temperature changes. Climate change and global warming certainly look real from here.

    Read more about El Nino at Wikipedia.
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  • Highlights from the new IPCC report. 10 charts.

    http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2014/11/the-intergovernmental-panel-on-climate-change-top-10-charts/?utm_content=bufferf5770&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

    The new IPCC report on Climate Change. It is a little bit of a long read…
    The report spends some time on probabilities, including what “business as usual” looks. BAU gets ugly, and uglier, and ugliest.
    Starting early, not later, seems to make sense…!!!

  • Visuals of the planet changes

    These visuals of the planet changes over the last 30 or 40 years are impressive, to say the least.
    http://nbcnews.to/1uxF6ZM
    Here are some cool time lapse photography using satellite imagery over the last few decades.
    Check out the Amazon!
    Check out the glaciers!
    Ouch!
    Double ouch!

  • Clean Power Plan | TBO.com, The Tampa Tribune and The Tampa Times

    Why I support the EPA’s Clean Power Plan | TBO.com, The Tampa Tribune and The Tampa Times:

    This July 28, 2014 article by Lynn Ringenberg (Professor Emeritus at USF) discusses the horrible health and wellness impacts of burning coal.

    “There is no such thing as clean coal.”

    The good news is that Natural Gas is so plentiful in the states and so very very cheap, that it is seriously supplanting coal in power plant production. NatGas is so plentiful and contain in oil, that 40% to 50% of all US NatGas produced is flared into the atmosphere as an oil byproduct.

    Of course the EPA is pushing this conversion along to NatGas. In the absence of an energy policy in the USA, the EPA is the very last stop in this decision process as to produce power, short term and long.

    But here is the BIG problem. As we cut back on energy and oil and coal usage in the USA, we move the coal power production to other countries. Our exports are way up. And other countries don’t use the same cleaning technologies as we (scrubbers and such).

    Here’s a great discussion of our coal usage and export-imports at The Energy Collective by Meredith Fowlie on July 29, 2014.

    No matter what you feel about the EPA stepping up and getting involved in coal power, greenhouse gas emissions, etc. The EPA is the last, and arguably the worst way to address energy policy, health issues from fossil fuel consumption and global warming.

    Some would argue, the EPA actions are better than doing nothing at all.

    The EPA is the wrench used to hammer the square nail. Coal has huge impact on health and wellness, so let’s export all we’ve got. We take make the green, they take the black.

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