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Comments 9101 to 9150:

  1. Climate Scientist reacts to Donald Trump's climate comments

    Well said. It's sad that time has to be wasted shooting this nonsense down, but its important to do so. Some people like to claim facts don't change people minds, which is absurd when you think about it. Facts change at least some people minds even a few denialists eg Richard Mueller.

    Donald Trumps climate denialism is probably largely or at least partly fake. Hes not a complete moron. By analogy its like a drug addict or criminal knowing they have done wrong and making up any old nonsense in their defence. Trump is used to making money out of business as usual won't like anything changing his world, but any mass infrastructure programme will create jobs, increase wealth,  and stimulate the economy. Look at history, you have the industrial revolution that changed how we did things, the new deal of the 1930's, WW2, the post war years where the highway network was built, mass air travel, the list is endless.

  2. Top 10 most viewed rebuttals in September and October 2019

    Addendum, regarding website activity:

    A year or two back, the website WUWT puffed an announcement that its internet ranking was around  40,000th for popularity as per hits ~ but I am unsure whether that's an American-only or worldwide ranking.

    WUWT sounded pleased with this ranking . . . and perhaps that is justifiable, considering the huge amount of total websites and internet traffic.    40,000th sounds rather poor compared with (the game) Monopoly's "Second Prize in a Beauty Contest" card.   But I suppose that's too much an apples & oranges comparison.

    WUWT was also quick to point out the 60,000th rank of SkS.   At WUWT, the website SkS is much despised, and usually mentioned grudgingly and rarely . . . though I get the impression that WUWT is often looking over its shoulder at the black velvet curtains which conceal its arch-nemesis  SkS.

    I have no idea what the hit-rate popularity difference is, between 60,000th and 40,000th.    But considering that WUWT is the pre-eminent climate-science denialist website, it doubtless attracts the frequent lightning-bolts of venting by large numbers of Anglophone climate-science crackpots and rabid political-extremist "Angries".   And they very much indulge in repetitous venting in the comments columns of each and every article there, regardless of the article's topic.   Quite a fascinating psycho-pathology, IMO.

  3. Top 10 most viewed rebuttals in September and October 2019

    (This post is transferred from an erroneous position in another thread)

    Independently, I can supply a confirmation (semi-quantitative) of a spike in "climate inquiries" in September this year.  Though I wouldn't care to speculate whether the surge of interest comes from the activities of "St Greta of Arc(tic)" or from the Extinction Rebellion actions or from climate action week or whatever.

    I am a fan of the excellent & amusing Youtube video series produced by Potholer54 (science journalist Peter Hadfield).  These debunk climate myths and expose the fabrications and misrepresentations of some of the prominent Denialist propagandists.

    As a little project to engage some of my spare moments, in June this year (and through until today) I jotted down at intervals the cumulative viewing numbers for each of Potholer54's videos.  Now typically, a new video receives a flurry of viewings, presumably mostly from notified subscribers of the series . . . and then the viewing rate decays to a lower level (which might be only 5~10 per day for certain videos, yet over a 100 per day for the more popular videos).

    However, I noticed a surge in viewing rates in late September through to mid October.  The most prominent surges were for about 10 particular videos ~ where the viewing rates rose to around 3~5x the usual background rate.

    So, quite a remarkable increase.  (Numbers have fallen away since then.)

    My record-keeping has been more casual than rigorous, and I don't have a spreadsheet record to permit better analysis.

    Not sure how much more can be teased out of this information: but for those who are interested, these are probably the "most surged" titles :-

    1.     1.Climate Change - the scientific debate

    25.    23-Medieval Warm Period - fact vs fiction

    28.    26-Science vs the Feelies

    33.    Response to "The Global Warming Hoax Lord Monckton & Stefan Molyneux"

    34.    Response to "DEBUNKED : Top 5 "Climate Change" Myths by Louder with Crowder

    35.    Are humans contributing only 3% of CO2 in the atmosphere?

    39.    Top 10 climate change myths

    40.    A conservative solution to global warming (Part 2)

    47.    How accurate are scientific predictions about climate?

    Warning: the left-hand numbers are the numeration used by Youtube for the videos.  But some of the early videos have an older numeration which is incorporated in the video title [as you see, above]. Easy to confuse!

    Science vs the Feelies is a particularly amusing and instructive video, regarding the "intuitive" thinking behind some Denialists.

    Regular readers at SkS may enjoy the videos, and may gain something useful from the comment columns underneath.  Of course I don't mean from the Usual Suspects / the trolls / the loonies etc ~ but I mean that one must admire the deft way Potholer54 responds to them.  He emphasizes that he is not presenting his opinions, but is simply presenting the science (which is found not in newspapers & blogs, but is found in the peer-reviewed scientific papers of respected scientific journals).

  4. Top 10 most viewed rebuttals in September and October 2019

    One of the most prevalent deniers' "arguments" is the bald statement "there's no such thing" - almost impossible to counter this especially when so many websites' comments sections are virtually unsearchable. By that I mean - an example here, the London Telegraph - a post disappears in a blizzard of other ones with no way of easily accessing something one has written as a reply. (The Telegraph used to use an outside company, Disqus, which did enable one to get back to a post and counter another's posts.)

    The result is that, having rebutted a denier's point he often comes back with some other gish gallop issue and when he doesn't receive a rebuttal of THAT posts that I have no argument!

  5. Ynyslas, western Wales – a place made by climate change

    Received my copy signed by the author today. :-)

    John's writeup doesn't quite manage to convey how deftly the book connects specific, appropriate insights our science has to say about climate change with the local context of Ynyslas

    A pleasing addition to our libary. 

  6. Skeptical Science New Research for Week #45, 2019

    Actually as a regular reader of this website, thats quite a good idea. I doubt the website people would have time to answer many but other readers may. It could be a weekly thing.

  7. Michael Whittemore at 03:35 AM on 13 November 2019
    Skeptical Science New Research for Week #45, 2019

    Hi, I was looking at asking some climate change questions on the web and thought it would be nice if the Skeptical Science website had a section where we could ask questions. Let me know what you think. 

     

    That's an interesting idea, and timely as we're (slowly) getting underway with an overhaul of the site.  In the meantime, we do closely monitor input from our contact page and highly encourage directing questions there. Questions are a useful type of feedback— we appreciate all  of them and will always try to answer as best we may. . 

  8. Top 10 most viewed rebuttals in September and October 2019

    "if you'd like to see posts of this type regularly, perhaps once per month?"

    A huge yes to this. Any one out there fighting the misinformation and confusion out there as I do for far too much of my time :( can recognise 'waves' of specific denialist/contrarian memes in Youtube videos and filtering into article comments,  etc. It would be very good to see if and how the 'general audience' reacts when seeing such comments by seeing a quantified graph of their online 'fact checking'.

  9. The Experts Have Spoken: Disbanded Particulate Pollution Panel Finds EPA Standards Don’t Protect Public Health

    Apologies.  Somehow I have posted on the wrong thread.  The above post belongs under the "Top 10 most reviewed rebuttals in September and October 2019" article by BaerbelW & Doug Bostrom.

    Would a Moderator please move it?  Thanks.

  10. The Experts Have Spoken: Disbanded Particulate Pollution Panel Finds EPA Standards Don’t Protect Public Health

    We don't have the means to shift your comment but please feel free to copy and repost it to the appropriate thread. It's certainly congruent with our observations, and worth noting in the right place. 

    Independently, I can supply a confirmation (semi-quantitative) of a spike in "climate inquiries" in September this year.  Though I wouldn't care to speculate whether the surge of interest comes from the activities of "St Greta of Arc(tic)" or from the Extinction Rebellion actions or from climate action week or whatever.

    I am a fan of the excellent & amusing Youtube video series produced by Potholer54 (science journalist Peter Hadfield).  These debunk climate myths and expose the fabrications and misrepresentations of some of the prominent Denialist propagandists.

    As a little project to engage some of my spare moments, in June this year (and through up until today) I jotted down at intervals the cumulative viewing numbers for each of Potholder54's videos.  Now typically, a new video receives a flurry of viewings, presumably mostly from notified subscribers of the series . . . and then the viewing rate decays to a lower level (which might be only 5~10 per day for certain videos, yet over 100 per day for the more popular videos).

    However, I noticed a surge in viewing rates in late September through to mid October.  The most prominent surges were for about 10 particular videos ~ where the viewing rates rose to around 3~5x the usual background rate.

    So, quite a remarkable increase.  (Numbers have fallen away since then.)

    My record-keeping has been more casual than rigorous, and I don't have a spreadsheet record to permit better analysis.

    Not sure how much more can be teased out of this information: but for those who are interested, these are probably the "most surged" ten titles :-

    1.     1.Climate Change - the scientific debate

    25.    23-Medieval Warm Period - fact vs fiction

    28.    26-Science vs the Feelies

    33.    Response to "The Global Warming Hoax Lord Monckton & Stefan Molyneux"

    34.    Response to "DEBUNKED : Top 5 "Climate Change" Myths by Louder with Crowder

    35.    Are humans contributing only 3% of CO2 in the atmosphere?

    39.    Top 10 climate change myths

    40.    A conservative solution to global warming (Part 2)

    47.    How accurate are scientific predictions about climate?

    Warning: the left-hand numbers are the numeration used by Youtube for the videos.  But some of the early videos have an older numeration which is incorporated in the video title [as you see, above]. Easy to confuse!

    Science vs the Feelies is a particularly amusing and instructive video, regarding the "intuitive" thinking behind some Denialists.

    Regular readers at SkS may enjoy the videos, and may gain something useful from the comment columns underneath.  Of course I don't mean from the Usual Suspects / the trolls / the loonies etc ~ but I mean that one must admire the deft way Potholer54 responds to them.  He emphasizes that he is not presenting his opinions, but is simply presenting the science (which is found not in newspapers & blogs, but is found in the peer-reviewed scientific papers of respected scientific journals).

  11. Philippe Chantreau at 04:29 AM on 12 November 2019
    SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Alan Lowey,

    You have this wrong. There is a large, well established body of litterature in astronomy and mathematics, going back well over a hundred years, that shows how planets influence each other's orbits. This body of litterature is full of precise calculations that you have not shown to be wrong. It is incumbent on you to show how all these scientists and mathematicians before you were wrong, not the other way around. You are the one who needs to show some work because you are the one making wild incoherent claims.

    Moderator Response:

    [DB]  That user has recused himself from further participation here, finding the onus of the burden of proof and adherence to the Comments Policy too onerous.

  12. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Alan Lowey @43,

    This is all very simple. Normally I would not expect to have to show the arithmetic.

    Jupiter is 25,800-times the mass of the moon. Its closest approach to Earth is 1,636 further away than the moon is. (Note that your 0.00054% for the ratio of Jupiter's influence on Earth's tides is an approximate value deriving from your LINZ quote [see @33] which said Venus had 0.0054% the influence of the moon and that Jupiter was "ten times smaller than Venus.") If you calcuate 25,800/(1,636^3) the result yields 0.00059%. So it is indeed ten times smaller than Venus.

    So the LINZ value bears out.

    But importantly, this is the effect of Jupiter on Earth's tides. The influence of Jupiter on Earth's orbit and thus its impact on the ice age cycles and the 'glacial tides' that result is an inverse-square relationship not an inverse-cube. The impact is thus greater and thus significant.

  13. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Post#41

    See this paper: A Causality Problem For Milankovitch (Karner, Muller)

    Summary

    According to the Milankovitch theory, changes in the incident solar radiation, called insolation, in the Northern Hemisphere provide the driving force for global glacial cycles. In their Perspective, Karner and Muller discuss recent studies of corals from around the world that shed doubt on the applicability of the theory to the termination of the penultimate glaciation. The authors argue that a fresh, unbiased look at the data is warranted.

    .....

     

  14. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    MA Rodger

    You're missing the point. The issue we're talking about is the gravitational effect of Jupiter on the Earth. LINZ correctly calculates that the gravitational effect is 0.00054% of the effect of the Moon. They correctly state that this is negligible.

    If you think that this is wrong, then you'll need to show your workings.

    ...

    Thank you for the putting the link. It would be great if we could move on to discuss it in more detail.

  15. CSLDF: Here’s How Science Has Suffered During the First 1,000 Days of Trump

    (Doug_bostrom @ 3) Thanks for the “offer”. I am fundamentally a lurker on sites like SkS and RealClimate, with no direct contribution to climate science. My background is physical photochemistry with lots of years of college chemistry teaching and extracurricular hands-on workshops for teachers at all levels advocating and demonstrating activity-based instruction. Over the past decade, I have tried to learn the fundamentals of climate science and climate disruption, so they are incorporated in my workshops. The message now is that familiar activities and concepts are also a part of climate science and can be used to bring it into the classroom without requiring large amounts of extra time (that isn’t available). Preparing materials for these workshops makes me hypersensitive to nuances of presentation, which you have observed. Thank you for your understanding.

  16. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Alan Lowey @39,

    I'm not too sure it takes much thought to grasp the message I present @38. It is true that an inverse-cube effect will reduce with distance quicker than a lower order relationship but the diameter of the moon or the sun is an irrelevance. Thus your eyeball and pea visualisation is irrelevant. Do note that the relative effect of sun & moon on the Earth's tides can be calculated. Relative to the moon, the sun is 389-times more distant but 27-million-times heavier. Thus if, as your LINZ reference notes:-

    "The Earth-Sun system is also subject to similar gravitational and centrifugal forces but due to the Sun's greater distance they have less than half the strength of the lunar-related forces. As a consequence, the solar-related residual forces and resulting bulges are correspondingly smaller."

    If this LINZ statement is correct (and I have no reason to doubt it), it would require an inverse-cube relationship to reduce the sun's tidal influence on Earth to "less than half the strength of the lunar-related forces," indeed down to 45% of that of the moon.

    On a quite seperate matter, the paper referenced @40, Muller & MacDonald (1997), is linked here.

  17. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    A quote from the paper referenced in post#40:

    "We will also show that a previously ignored astronomical cycle, that of the orbital inclination, passes the spectral tests failed by the eccentricity. In addition the cycles precede the effects, and thus have no causality problem. Although the orbital inclination does not affect the insolation and therefore was ignored by previous analysts, the match to the spectrum and bispectrum is excellent, and so a linking mechanism to climate should be sought."

    ....

     

  18. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    With reference to my post#37:

    Please refer to: Origin of the 100kyr Glacial Cycle: Eccentricity or Orbital Inclination (Muller, MacDonald).

    ...

  19. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    MA Rodger

    As I've said before, just quoting without deep thought isn't sufficient.

    The effect your referring to is only relevant when two astronomical bodies are relatively close together. The example of the Earth and Moon is relevant because the scale can be compared to your eye being the size of the Earth and the Moon being a pea held at arm's length. 

    ...

  20. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Alan Lowey @34,

    I'm not totally sure what you are asking of me but the fact that tidal forces are inverse-cube is plainly set out in the Tidal Force Wikipedia page:-

    "The tidal force acting on an astronomical body, such as the Earth, is directly proportional to the diameter of that astronomical body [which for the Earth remains constant] and inversely proportional to the cube of the distance from another body producing a gravitational attraction, such as the Moon or the Sun."

    Is that the sort of justification you were after?

  21. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Also note that Earth has an inclination cycle of exactly 100,000yrs as opposed to two eccentricity cycles which can be averaged to 108,000yrs.

    The inclination cycle is therefore, on the face of it, a better fit of the data.

  22. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    MA Rodger

    Can you provide a link or quote please to justify your assertions.

  23. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Alan Lowey @34,

    If you can accept that tidal effects are a product of the inverse-cubed relationship and the orbital wobbles the product of the inverse-squared relationship, doesn't then your correct/incorrect convert to correct/correct? There is no need for "a new physics with regard to gravity."

  24. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Philippe Chantreau, MA Rodger

    We all need to keep thinking logically for ourselves and not just quote research paper conclusions as if they are fact set-in-stone. All theories are work-in-progress until a Theory of Everything has been established.

    The two UniverseToday articles can't be directly compared as 'evidence'. Let me explain why.

    The Precession cause is given as "by the tidal forces from the Sun and Moon". This agrees with the information from LINZ.

    The Tilt cause is not mentioned.

    The Eccentricity, 100,000yr cycle, cause is given as the planetary influence of Jupiter and Saturn. This doesn't agree with LINZ.

    The second article refers to a 405,000yr cycle, via the gravitational effects of Venus and Jupiter. This doesn't agree with LINZ but at least they have some evidence in rocks that the cycle does exist.

    ...

    The logical conclusion is that LINZ is both correct/incorrect and that the causes of the 100,000yr and 405,000yr cycles are both correct/incorrect.

    This does take some mental agility. The basic law of Newtons gravitational attraction doesn't reconcile with the amount of perturbation required to create such significant orbital changes.

    The only logical conclusion is a new physics with regard to gravity. The issue is solved by the notion of a strong gravitational interaction between the cores of the planetary bodies when on the same plane. We tend to think of planetary motions in two dimensions but it's the third dimension, the inclination, which has been omitted from deep thought.

    I know this sounds as if I must be insane to doubt the entire scientific community but my position is one of logic. 

    I don't expect anyone to leap to my side and accept that I'm making a valid logical point. It takes a lot of time to be able to comprehend the issues I'm raising.

  25. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    In the circumstance, the LINZ webpage being cited @23. 25 & 29 may be worth quoting from.

    "What about the planets? Venus exerts the greatest gravitational pull on the Earth of all the planets but, at just 0.0054% of the effect of the Moon, makes no real impression. Despite being the largest planet, Jupiter's greater distance means that its influence is ten times smaller than Venus. So the Moon and Sun are the only celestial bodies that have any significant gravitational impact on the Earth."

    There is a difference between a planet having a "significant gravitational impact on the Earth" (with respect to tides) and a planet having a significant gravitational impact in the Earth's orbit. It is the tidal influence of Jupiter that is "ten times smaller" than Venus's. A tidal influence is an inverse cube relationship. The orbital gravitational influence is the better-known inverse square relationship. And thus the orbital influence of Jupiter is greater than that of Venus.

    Of course, the complex interaction between the orbiting planets is such that all are part of an orbiting system of significant stability. Moving one of them in its orbit can have unexpected results. Thus you can, for instance, find papers (see article here) describing the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit being most sensitive to the orbit of Saturn even though for Earth, Saturn's gravity varies perhaps 8-times less than Venus's, 13-times less than Jupiter's.

  26. Human CO2 is a tiny % of CO2 emissions

    Scaddenp, thanks. Are you aware of any ongoing monitoring of the ratio of human produced CO2 isotopes vs naturally occuring.   This seems like such a key figure that it is surprising perhaps that there aren't six monthly Internet broadcasts in large neon numbers!!  Clearly though sampling would somehow need to be representative, and I don't understand how that can be achieved.

  27. Human CO2 is a tiny % of CO2 emissions

    Thanks Eclectic, very much appreciate your taking the time to respond so fully and in such a straightforward manner.  Am not aware of any other obvious absorbtion mechanism.  Photosynthetic 'real estate' (leaf area) is surely more important than biomass. (Rain forest culling is bad news.) Got me seriously thinking!

    Also now need to be looking at relationship between CO2 concentrations and reflection of relevant parts of the spectrum (overlap with water vapour etc).

     

  28. Philippe Chantreau at 09:02 AM on 11 November 2019
    SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    For the reader wandering here who is interested and willing to read beyond the 5 year old level:

    https://www.universetoday.com/39012/milankovitch-cycle/

     

    Venus and Jupiter's effect:

    https://www.universetoday.com/139198/jupiter-and-venus-change-earths-orbit-every-405000-years/

     

    Brings to this paper:

    https://www.pnas.org/content/115/24/6153

    Moderator Response:

    [DB] Inflammatory snipped.

  29. Human CO2 is a tiny % of CO2 emissions

    The two strong facts here are:

    1/ CO2 concentrations are rising in the atmosphere and the observed increase in surface radiation is precisely as expected from the math.

    2/ The decrease in O2 and the changing isotopic concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is consistant with the increase being from FF use.

  30. Human CO2 is a tiny % of CO2 emissions

    Kiwironnie, for convenience we probably should revert to using GigatonsCarbon (GtC) rather than CO2 mass.  Particularly so, when discussing the biomass which is absorbing (very roughly!) 25% of the fossil CO2 emissions.

    You will find a vast amount of discussion of the topic of atmospheric residual CO2 emissions and of the oceanic absorption of CO2.

    Absorption of CO2 by rock weathering is far too slow to contribute to the short term (a century or two) picture.

    As you say, that leaves [excuse pun] the increase of plants as the third factor.  Can you think of another factor that would absorb or sequester additional carbon?

    Land-based plants are the predominant biomass; bacteria/ fungi/ animals are only a small contributor to biomass, relatively.  (Note that modern agriculture tends to reduce soil fungal mass.)

    Zaichun Zhu et al., 2016  estimates plant biomass in the region of 450~500 GtC . . . which we must compare with 10 Gtc of fossil carbon emissions as an annual output.

    I have not seen a quantification of the (satellite-observed) "greening of Earth".  Area of leaf (as leaf area index) has increased distinctly over the past 30+ years.  But what about plant biomass ~ which would seem beyond the satellites' capabiity?  Example case: rainforest clearing is presumably a carbon "negative" compared with the establishment of pastures or palm oil plantings, which have lower biomass.

    From all this, it would seem that we should not expect an exponential "absorption feedback" from plant biomass increase.  We will be fortunate if there is a linear biomass increase!  ( I haven't found the source, but I recall a recent report that the observed "rate of greening" is slowing down ~ so I don't know if that was a reliable observation, despite its plausability, and neither do I know the more important relation to actual biomass.)

    Ceiling capacity for plant biomass is a difficult question.  There was a huge plant biomass back in the Carboniferous era.  However, conditions are vastly different in the modern era, for plant biomass is greatly reduced by the presence of vertebrate herbivores nowadays (plus other human actions . . . including the food consumption by that "megafauna" called humans).

    And judging from the long-term upward trend of the Keeling Curve, we cannot expect that a planetary greening will be of major benefit in reducing the CO2 / Global Warming problem.

  31. Philippe Chantreau at 08:48 AM on 11 November 2019
    SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    I suggest you try to read beyond the level of a 5 year old. Then again,m you seem rather refractory to advice, and keep digging...

    Moderator Response:

    [PS] Inflammatory remarks dont help, violate comments policy. Try again (though I know how you feel).

  32. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Multi-body gravitational system are complex and well studied, and the influence of other bodies most certainly affected the orbital parameters of earth when accumulated over billions of years. There is a massive literature of this going back to Poincare if not further. Jupiter and Saturn have no significant effect ocean tides.

    See for instance this paper or this one.

    The wobbles in earth orbit affect climate through the distribution of sun on continents, not via any direct affect on climate.

  33. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Philippe Chantreau

    I understand that the SkS policy is to try to debunk claims made by others which contradict what their bloggers have stated in the articles.

    The LINZ article states that only the Sun and Moon have significant gravitational effects on the Earth. The OP article above, tries to state that the gravitational effect of Jupiter causes "bulges and wobbles in the Earth's orbit around the Sun". This is an incorrect statement based on the information given by LINZ.

    A five year old could tell you that. 

    Moderator Response:

    [DB] The LINZ article is clearly dealing with the effects of the various bodies in the solar system on oceanic tides (liquid bodies of water) on Earth and on short timescales only.  Try reading the article for actual context.

  34. Philippe Chantreau at 04:49 AM on 11 November 2019
    SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    In case anyone is wondering, the LINZ quote cited by Alan in post 23 figures in the section of the LINZ web site titled "The cause and nature of tides"; it treats exclusively of oceanic tides and the comment about gravity of other planets pertains to oceanic tides, not orbital alterations of the Earth.

  35. Philippe Chantreau at 04:38 AM on 11 November 2019
    SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Alan,

    These subects indeed are not easy and that's why you should not meddle with them, since it is painfully obvious that you are unable to comprehend any of it.

    First of all if you are going to use quotation marks, like you did in post # 23, do not include an imaginary statement in them, especially after you really quoted actual words by others. That is a very suspect way of operating, suggesting an intent to deceive.

    Second, you are so obviously out of your depth that not one of your comments is worth bothering with. Your claims about education and training made early in you first comments appear highly dubious in light of all the following: your unability to do even the most basic fact checking before spouting nonsense, comments about gravity that reveal a profound ignorance of the subject, comments about tides shown to be wildly nonsensical, followed by others that do nothing but distract from how inept the original comments were, and an overall lack of scientific literacy, demonstrated by more comments so inane as "water vapor in clouds." 

    You persist in not educating yourself about tides and invoke "new physics" that are unnecessary and that you do not bother to try to explain. 

    Third, just because you do not understand something and are unable to reproduce it does not make it impossible. That logical fallacy is called argument from incredulity. Milankovitch cycles are very real, and astonomical calculations are very precise. Back in the 19th century, Urbain le Verrier caculated the existence of Neptune from variations in the orbit of Uranus, even though they are over 10 AUs apart and Uranus has 27 moons, including some fairly massive ones. Neptune is smaller than Jupiter, Uranus a lot larger than Earth, and they are much farther apart than Earth and Jupiter are from each other.

    Just as you were shown to be completely off on Dansgaard-Oeschger events, you are now revealing yourself too incompetent on this subject to produce any interesting reflection. Fess up and learn. You have a lot of that to do before you can lecture others.

    Your continued persistance in trying to appear as knowing better, combined with comments that can only be possible with a combination of ignorance and incomprehension, make you appear like a complete fool. Every new comment digs your hole deeper. You should stop.

  36. Human CO2 is a tiny % of CO2 emissions

    So Eclectic you are describing a compounding, of 750 (in balance) then 30 + 30 + 30 ... and so on per annum. Consequently double the weight in 25 years, less what can be absorbed.  The next question(s) then is at what are the absorbtion feedback mechanisms (such as planetary greening), how quickly can they react and what is their ceiling capacity?

  37. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Correction: in post#20, I should have said "Spring tide" instead of "King tide".

  38. It's the ocean

    Alexb: How oceans are warmed by atmospheric greenhouse gasses is explained in this post

  39. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Eclectic 

    I have read the OP article thoroughly, many times. It isn't just about reading, it's also about taking time and deep thinking. These subjects aren't easy.

    Could please read my post #23 in the same manner.

    The gravitational influence of Jupiter is 0.00054% of the effect of the Moon. It therefore cannot alter the Earth's orbital dynamics, as claimed.

  40. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Alan , it is there in the OP article, and in the footnotes.  In plain English. Please read through again, with understanding, about the planetary gravities and "glacial tides" connection.

  41. It's the ocean

    Alexb @51 ,

    why are you suggesting that the 15um wavelength is "the only relevant band"  for oceanic heating?

    Rather, the ocean gains heat variously by that old triad: conduction/ convection/ and radiation.

    Admittedly it is only my own personal anecdotal evidence ~ but I can assure you that every time I have swum beneath the ocean surface, or scuba-dived into the depths . . . it was not pitch black, and I could see all around me.  Radiation, presumably, in the 0.4~0.7um band.  From above.

  42. Ynyslas, western Wales – a place made by climate change

    Re #4 - yes another hint at a once-different geographical arrangement!

  43. It's the ocean

    Just one or two problems.. The oceans are warmer than the atmosphere and therefore cannot be heated in this way. The atmospheric Arctic temperatures are always sub zero which prohibits melting. Secondly, the mechanism described for oceanic heating relies on down welling IR. It must be remembered that the only relevant band here is 15μm, which can only penetrate up to 3mm of the ocean surface. The beer analogy is wrong as the beer is cooler than the surrounding environment. This is not the case with oceans. 

  44. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    The author states:

    "Jupiter and Saturn affect Earth's orbital dynamics"

    This is in complete contrast to the professional article "The Cause and Nature of the Tides" by the Land Information of New Zealand (LINZ). This states quite clearly:

    "What about the planets? Venus exerts the greatest gravitational pull on the Earth of all the planets but, at just 0.0054% of the effect of the Moon, makes no real impression. Despite being the largest planet, Jupiter's greater distance means that it's influence is ten times smaller than Venus. So the Moon and Sun are the only celestial bodies that have any significant gravitational impact on the Earth."

    I'm guessing that your reply will be something like:

    "Jupiter's gravity, despite being just 0.00054% of the effect of the Moon, has feedback loops which amplifies this near invisible influence, to create sea level changes of 120m."

    The numbers just don't stack up. Even if they were anyway near close, there's still another logical error. Jupiter's gravitational influence would be acting all the time, not just on a 100,000yr cycle.

  45. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Correction : that should be Alan @19 

  46. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    Alan @20 ,

    the "glacial tides" being influenced by the gravity of Jupiter & Saturn . . . is explained within the text of the OP article.

    It is also explained a second time, in Footnote 1.

    And explained again in Footnote 2.   And also explained in Footnote 6.

  47. Human CO2 is a tiny % of CO2 emissions

    Kiwironnie @334 , adding a new 30 thousand million tons of CO2 quickly and repetitively (= annually) would seem quite a lot, to many people !   With or without knife edges.

  48. Human CO2 is a tiny % of CO2 emissions

    '.. our output of 29 gigatons of CO2 is tiny compared to the 750 gigatons .. it adds up because the land and ocean cannot absorb all of the extra CO2. About 40% of this additional CO2 is absorbed.'

    That CO2 natural sources and sinks are on such a knife edge balance that an additional 4% created by man cannot be fully absorbed strikes me as being either an amazing coincidence, incorrect, or there is some other mechanism creating such a balance that is not described here. 

  49. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    The new physics explanation is that a strong gravitational attraction exists between the inner cores of planetary bodies and the Sun, when they are on the same 'plane of angular momentum'.

    This new physics scenario can then be applied to the Moon orbiting the Earth. The King tides, referred to in the intro text, would therefore be due to the Earth and Moon aligned on the 'local plane of angular momentum'.

    Another way of describing the Glacial tides would be to say that they are caused by King tides due to the alignment of the Earth, Sun and planets on the plane of angular momentum.

    The language makes it sound much more complicated than it really is. A visual simulation model would convey this new physics idea without any problem at all.

  50. SkS Analogy 20 - The Tides of Earth

    There's a logical error given in the intro text of this topic. The author states that 'Glacial tides', referring to the advance and retreat of glaciation on the 100,000yr cycle, is due to the 'orbital influence' of Jupiter and Saturn.

    The explanation given in the LINZ The Cause and Nature of Tides, states that Jupiter and Saturn have a negligible influence on the tides (with respect to 'the standard version of' gravity).

    How can these two opposing views be reconciled without the new physics I'm suggesting?

     

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