Climate Science Glossary

Term Lookup

Enter a term in the search box to find its definition.

Settings

Use the controls in the far right panel to increase or decrease the number of terms automatically displayed (or to completely turn that feature off).

Term Lookup

Term:

Settings

Beginner Intermediate Advanced No Definitions Definition Life:

All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

Recent Comments

Comments 14701 to 14750:

Alchemyst at 11:28 AM on 31 March 2018

Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States

My claims are sustansiated.

http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/79069/1/jeeva%20jothi%20thesis%20final.pdf

Moderator Response:

[GT] Link corrected. Please use the linking tool in the toolbox

michael sweet at 10:32 AM on 31 March 2018

Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States

Alchymst,

Philippe Chantreau has noted that your reference does not support your false claims. Please link a reference that supports your claims. It is not my responsibility to search for support for your false claims.

Your claims at 15 are also false. You have provided no references to support your wild claims. It is sloganeering to make unsupported claims. The moderators wil start to delete your posts if you continue to refuse to support your wild claims.

Alchemyst at 09:26 AM on 31 March 2018

Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States

nigelj at 6:02 an 28 march.

You are correct at the moment we can only use wind power to supplement other generating systems. the problems are in transmission and stability (not just power but synchronising every windmill in the grid and making sure that they don't operate ot 60.01 Hz instead of 60Hz which the author has not touched on). This brings us to storage which strongly aids stabilty. This technolgy is not currently proven and in itself with its own set problems and costs. With current resources and technology a conventional baseload is essential

Philippe Chantreau at 08:58 AM on 31 March 2018

Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States

This is from Alchemyst's link and contains the gist of the story:

"In a paper published in the American Institute of Physics' Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, researchers propose a new strategy to optimize power-generation efficiency and so better control wind farms."

More detail: "The new strategy is based on continuous predictions of how fluctuating winds affect each turbine's maximum generation capacity. It also incorporates factors missing in other wind-farm control strategies, including differing power generation between turbines, actual fluctuations in power generation capacity, errors in prediction, communication disruptions preventing active control, and even turbines without the capacity for continuous active control."

So, as Alchemyst shows us, there are ways to optimize generation that have not yet been implemented at large scales.

It goes on to say :"To demonstrate the feasibility of the new strategy, the researchers compared their predictions to raw data from a single wind turbine. The team then further refined their calculations and simulated a control operation with data from a wind farm of 33 turbines.The results suggest that wind-farm managers can improve their power-generation efficiency with the new strategy." Rather encouraging I'd say. And it took only a few seconds to find that reference. There is a wealth of knowledge about renewables out there.

John Hartz at 08:54 AM on 31 March 2018

Web of Power: Cambridge Analytica and the Climate Science Denial Network Lobbying for Brexit and Trump

A follow-up article by Mat Hope of DeSmog UK...

Mapped: Cambridge Analytica’s Ties to the Fossil Fuel Industry by Mat Hope, DeSmog UK, Mar 29, 2018

Philippe Chantreau at 08:45 AM on 31 March 2018

Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States

Alchemyst, from what can be reached through the link you provided, your referenc does not treat of the use of baseload power. It explores ways to optimize the use of wind by doing short term, high accuracy projections of demand vs production capability. There was nothing I saw in it about baseload. The intermittency of the renewables considered in the article referenced in the OP is well known and has been well known for a long time. The intermittency is the very reason for the study. The entire point of the study is to determine the region size and relative capacity necessary to afford not only 100 % renewable but 100% from wind and solar. You seem to not have read the OP and followed the links. Your own reference is from 2013 and, if anything, makes the 2018 study by Kaldeira and others more relevant, as the methods described in your study could in fact reduce the region size and overcapacity necessary for the goal of 100% wind/solar.

Alchemyst at 07:52 AM on 31 March 2018

Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States

Sweet

it is this simple 10 seconds to find a reference. Please stop being abusive

Windmill produced electricity is not stable it needs a baseload or stabilisers.

currently using a baseload is the only proven method of stabaising the current parameters.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130325101529.htm

Moderator Response:

[GT] Link established. Please use the linking tool in the toolbox.

nigelj at 05:40 AM on 31 March 2018

Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States

Michael Sweet @9, new article you and others may be interested in:

"Stunning drops in solar, wind costs mean economic case for coal, gas is ‘crumbling"

william5331 at 05:33 AM on 31 March 2018

Climate scientists debate a flaw in the Paris climate agreement

Sorry to say but the campaign against climate change and all the other campaigns we are involved in are bound to fail or at best result in very poor partial solutions. Any bright high school student could tell the politicians what is necessary. The technology is not the problem. If we want to make traction we must all unite behind solving the core problem.

http://mtkass.blogspot.co.nz/2018/01/wasted-effort.html

John Wise at 04:20 AM on 31 March 2018

Climate scientists debate a flaw in the Paris climate agreement

"The latest IPCC report considered 116 potential scenarios for staying below 2°C, and 101 of those scenarios (87%) included negative emissions in the form of carbon capture and storage." And that seems to be the elephant in the room. While it is (barely) conceivable that we could get down close to zero emissions in the coming decades, it seems unlikely, barring some breakthrough, that we could sequester enough CO2 to match those IPCC assumptions. I recall Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre saying we would have to capture and store something in the order of 30 billion tonnes a year.

Eclectic at 23:53 PM on 30 March 2018

Was Greenland really green in the past?

In the Greenland section of Jared Diamond's book "Collapse", he describes the Norse settlements in Greenland as failing owing to cultural factors rather than climate.

The rise & spread of Muslim power (in Africa and the Middle East) blocked or impeded the European import of elephant ivory. Consequently the Norse Greenlanders initially became quite wealthy by harvesting and exporting walrus ivory to Western Europe. But that trade later altered as "geopolitics" changed.

Some aspects of Norse farming methodology were not well suited to Greenland conditions, and there was necessarily a swing to more reliance on wildlife hunting and especially the harvesting of seals.

The Norse despised the aboriginal Inuit as heathen & uncivilized. Intermarriage with Inuit and prudent diplomatic relations with Inuit did not happen. The reverse — there were increasing hostilities with the Inuit, skirmishes and even some pitched battles (casualty numbers small but of course higly significant for such a small population of Norse. *IIRC*, Diamond equated the Norse warriors lost in the worst battle, as representing the U.S. Army losing 3 million men in a single battle).

In short, the Norse failed to live with their Inuit neighbours and failed to make full use of the "technology" which had sustained the Inuit in Greenland over thousands of years. A lesson for us all.

Even today, the 60,000 Greenlander population is 90% Inuit — though the economy is supported by fishing using modern technology. And, as in northern Canada, there is a high level of demoralization, suicide & alcoholism — a result of the social climate, not the physical climate.

Daniel Bailey at 20:53 PM on 30 March 2018

Was Greenland really green in the past?

"Greenland used to be green. When Greenland has discovered and named by Erik the Red about 1,000 years ago, it will be different from now. If there is no any evidence that show Greenland was green, he would not name this place as Greenland"

The climate was already cold in Greenland at that time. In fact, the climate was so inhospitable that the few survivors of the Viking settlements left rather than die there.

The Vikings did farm, but they farmed in two settlements in limited coastal fringes, and it was worse-than-subsistence farming (because the farming and building eroded the fragile top-soil). The same sort of farming seems to have been possible for much of the intervening time, therefore the farming cannot be taken as direct evidence of warmer conditions. The Vikings did so well at farming that they died doing it while the local Inuits still thrive today.

The Viking settlements did not get buried under glaciers (Google Hvalsey Church). One got buried under wind-blown sand. Thus the failure of the settlements cannot be taken as direct evidence of cooler conditions. The portions of Greenland not immediately adjacent to the ocean have been continuously covered in ice sheets for tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands to millions of years.

If you want further proof and readings about what the Viking settlements failed, read Jared Diamond's "Collapse". Diamond refers to several book-length accounts, but a shorter older account is Magnus Magnusson's "Vikings" (1980).

Evidence exists of an ice sheet of at least some extent in a Greenland for at least 2.7 million years.

Further, recent research confirms that the Vikings’ mysterious abandonment of Greenland was not due to climate change.

And then there's this:

"the Greenland Norse were "not a civilization stuck in their ways." To NABO archaeologist George Hambrecht of the University of Maryland in College Park, "The new story is that they adapted but they failed anyway.""

And

"Despite the signs of crisis at a few Western Settlement sites, those in the Eastern Settlement show no sign of a violent end. Instead, after farmhouses collapsed, remaining settlers scavenged the wood from them, suggesting a slow dwindling of population. The challenge for the average Greenlander to survive drove "a constant emigration" back to Iceland and Europe, Fitzhugh hypothesizes, "which could bring the Eastern [Settlement] to a close peacefully, without starvation or death by Inuit.""

As for this question of yours:

"is it true that Greenland now is greener than in the past"

It is likely true that Greenland is now greener than it has been for some 4,000 years. Because the warming of the past 100 years (driven by human activities) has erased a natural cooling of some 4,000+ years:

NH Temperatures

Legend

Larger image here.

DPiepgrass at 16:33 PM on 30 March 2018

How could global warming accelerate if CO2 is 'logarithmic'?

jef, it was necessary to leave out some issues to keep the post short (I was actually told I shouldn't post some of my previous material directly on SkS because it was too long). The TCR and ECS estimates come from scientists who have already included all feedbacks including water vapor. (see here for TCR and ECS estimates from various studies.) I don't see how "plotting CO2 and announcing future warming is [...] dishonest".

I didn't mention water vapor because it is a short-term feedback, as you can see on this illustration from AR5 SYR:

Although it is a short-term feedback, it acts indirectly as a long-term feedback because future committed warming (caused by long-term feedbacks) will be amplified by the water vapor feedback. But I didn't think it was necessary to lengthen the post by explaining this fact.

DPiepgrass at 15:57 PM on 30 March 2018

How could global warming accelerate if CO2 is 'logarithmic'?

Tminus, that's interesting. I suppose it makes intuitive sense that heat added at the ocean surface would take a long time to leave, because the heat can migrate downward and stay deep for a long time before radiating from the surface eventually. On the other hand, 70-75% of sea level rise is due to ice melting so that's a larger concern. Here too, methane will help ice melt earlier. Clearly methane is a problem, but in this context it's a question of how big the problem is relative to CO2. Since CO2 causes ocean acidification and methane doesn't, on the whole I'm still inclined to think CO2 is much worse. But I'm not opposed to removing the word "much" in "much less serious".

DPiepgrass at 14:47 PM on 30 March 2018

Was Greenland really green in the past?

randman, your comment doesn't make sense to me. The map comes from a peer-reviewed scientific paper by a team of 9 scientists. Are you accusing the scientists of fraud...? The paper says it used a "diverse multiproxy network" documented in Dataset S1 of the Materials and Methods supplement associated with the paper. That'll be the observations, or in other words, evidence, upon which the map is based.

michael sweet at 12:13 PM on 30 March 2018

Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States

Alchemyst,

All those considerations are included in the study. Large areas average out the wind. The article discusses storage. Base load is not needed to stabilize the grid.

Please provide a citation for your false claims or withdraw your argument.

If you do not know what you are talking about you should remain silent.

Alchemyst at 10:59 AM on 30 March 2018

Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States

the power from a windmill is not stable enough to be used solely on the grid, due to flucuations and needs some means of stabalsing the electric parameters and needs a base load which needs to be provided by fossil or nuclrear or say some storage scheme. this report does not address ths matter

Alchemyst at 10:38 AM on 30 March 2018

How could global warming accelerate if CO2 is 'logarithmic'?

nijel j

its the beer lambert law basiclly

One Planet Only Forever at 08:14 AM on 30 March 2018

Climate scientists debate a flaw in the Paris climate agreement

John Hartz,

Thanks for another good pointer to more recent better understanding.

I remember hearing about another reason the IPCC Reports are 'behind the times', especially the Summaries for Policymakers. In addition to the delays in getting to a consensus statement, the process requires all parties to agree to the wording. The only restriction is that the final wording has to be scientifically supportable (scientifically representing the available evidence).

Governments that wish to diminish or delay corrective climate action can abuse that process to push for the least disastrous presentation that can be supported by the available information. They can push as hard as possible to the 'feel good news' side of how bad things will be.

As more information is obtained it gets harder to push that low. Therefore, each subsequent report is highly likely to ratchet up 'how bad things could be', even without a significant development of new learning indicating more negative future results, just an increase of information supporting the previous report's median, rather than best case, scientific understanding of how bad things could be.

The discussion of how to measure the 2 C limit of the Paris Agreement really is a side-show. The main event is getting all the wealthiest, not just the portion caring to be helpful, to lead the way to rapidly reduce all of the negative impacts from the unsustainable bad habit of trying to benefit from the burning of fossil fuels (not just the excess CO2).

SirCharles at 07:11 AM on 30 March 2018

Students from KMIDS college in Bangkok posting comments

One of the best ways to learn English (I'm talking from experience).

John Hartz at 06:54 AM on 30 March 2018

In court, Big Oil rejected climate denial

More supplemental reding:

How Do Big Oil Companies Talk about Climate Science? Four Takeaways from a Day in Court by Kristina Dahl, Union of Concerned Scientists, Mar 22, 2018

The Climate Is Changing For Climate Skeptics by Amy Westervelt, Environment, Huffpost, Mar 23, 2018

Chevron just agreed in court that humans cause climate change, setting a new legal precedent by Umair Irfan, Energy & Environment, Vox, Mar 28, 2018

John Hartz at 06:28 AM on 30 March 2018

Climate scientists debate a flaw in the Paris climate agreement

Suggested supplemental reading:

Climate science’s official text is outdated. Here’s what it’s missing. by Eric Holthaus, Grist, Mar 22, 2018

Anne-Marie Blackburn at 06:25 AM on 30 March 2018

Arctic was warmer in 1940

Hello Napin, welcome to Skeptical Science! Your question is an interesting and important one because what we choose to do as a society depends on our understanding of the problem we’re facing. If we don’t understand the problem properly we might make decisions that fail to address it. So how can we make sure the information we’re given is correct?

One of the first steps we can take is to check the source of the information. In the case of the claim that Arctic temperatures were warmer in the 1940s, the author is Christopher Monckton and his article was published on the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI) website. Christopher Monckton is not a climate scientist and the SPPI is not a scientific publication. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the information is incorrect but it does mean we have to evaluate his claims carefully. If we look at his graphs on Arctic warming we notice a few things. First, there is no reference given for the graphs so it’s not possible to check whether they’re reliable. Without access to the data so that we can produce our own graph, we can’t say that this graph is accurate.

In the case of the second graph, it seems that Monckton is only looking a small selection of weather stations. It’s hard to tell because he hasn’t provided a reference to the data in question. As Robert writes in his article, Monckton doesn’t seem to an analysis that covers the whole of the Arctic. In other words, Monckton has cherry-picked a few weather stations that support his argument rather than looking at all the evidence. In the case of the third graph Monckton once again fails to provide a reference so we face the same problem as with the two other graphs. Also the graph ends just after the year 2000 so it misses out a lot of the recent warming.

So I think we have good grounds to question Monckton’s claims at this point, especially as no scientific institution agrees with him. But more broadly there are things we can do to protect ourselves against misinformation. This is important because it can help us assess the validity of all claims made about a scientific topic. Skeptical Science has produced an online course which highlights the ways in which misleading arguments are constructed. Once we understand what to look for it becomes easier to spot misinformation. For instance, Monckton implies that since Arctic temperatures have changed naturally in the past, then current warming must also be natural and we don’t need to worry about CO2 emissions. This is not a scientific position. Climate has changed in past because of a number of factors - variations in solar activity, the Earth’s orbit around the sun, volcanic activity, changes in atmospheric composition, including CO2 levels, etc. We can only understand current and future climate change by looking at what’s happening now. Past climate change can help us make predictions about what will happen in the future, but it tells us nothing about the causes of current change.

If you’d like to learn more about the various ways misleading information is used, you might be interested in our online course, which can be found here. Week 1 and Week 6 are particularly useful. Also John Cook and some fellow scientists have published a recent handbook in which you might find useful information. I hope I have answered your question and if there's anything else I can help you with, please let me know.

bruceparker at 05:26 AM on 30 March 2018

Skeptical Science now an Android app

What happened to the app on Google Play?

nigelj at 05:14 AM on 30 March 2018

How could global warming accelerate if CO2 is 'logarithmic'?

Well written comprehensive post quoting many sources, but didn't seem to have one on background information on why CO2 has logarithmic growth.

Alchemyst at 04:35 AM on 30 March 2018

Explainer: The polar vortex, climate change and the ‘Beast from the East’

Daniel Baily at 11 54 16 march

It appears that there is an explanation for the cold winters in western europe and it appars to be linked to sunspots, or their abscence

https://phys.org/news/2011-10-link-solar-winter-weather-revealed.html

Scientists have demonstrated a clear link between the 11-year sun cycle and winter weather over the northern hemisphere for the first time.

They found that low solar activity can contribute to cold winters in the UK, northern Europe and parts of America. But high activity from the sun has the opposite effect.
The study helps explain why the UK has been gripped by such cold winters over the last few years: the sun is just emerging from a so-called solar minimum, when solar activity is at its lowest.
'Our research establishes the link between the solar cycle and winter climate as more than just coincidence,' says Dr Adam Scaife from the UK's Met Office, one of the study's authors.
The findings, published in Nature Geoscience also raise the tantalising possibility that the regularity of the solar cycle might help weathermen predict cold winter weather over the northern hemisphere.
'We've been able to reproduce a consistent climate pattern, confirm how it works, and quantify it using a computer model. This isn't the sole driver of winter climate over our region, but it is a significant factor and understanding it is important for seasonal to decadal forecasting,' says Scaife.
Up until now, researchers have only managed to see a weak link between solar activity and winter weather: when the sun is less active, we're more likely to see weak westerly winds during the winter in the northern hemisphere. This pattern suggests that easterly winds could bring cold weather from the continent to the UK.
But scientists have struggled to incorporate these ultraviolet (UV) signals into climate models.
Now, new satellite measurements from NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) have revealed that differences in UV light reaching the Earth during the 11-year solar cycle are larger than previously thought. The satellite, launched in 2003, is the first ever to measure solar radiation across the entire UV spectrum.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2011-10-link-solar-winter-weather-revealed.html#jCp

william5331 at 04:32 AM on 30 March 2018

How could global warming accelerate if CO2 is 'logarithmic'?

Factor 5 is tipping points. As stated, carbon sinks are expected to take up less Carbon dioxide as they saturate so this will push up atmospheric CO2. Add to this, for instance, the possibility of huge burps of Methane from the various sources of Carbon dioxide clathrate. Despite the short life of Methane in the atmosphere, it could shoot up global warming to a point that the existing sinks loose more of their power to absorb the gas while at the same time pushing us over other tipping points such as a sudden complete melt of Arctic floating ice for a much longer part of the year. We are taking a giant step in to the unknown with our eyes closed.

One Planet Only Forever at 04:09 AM on 30 March 2018

Stop blaming ‘both sides’ for America’s climate failures

People can better appreciate how unhelpful Pinker's "Enlightenment Now" actually is by reading books like Naomi Klein's "No is Not Enough". It has been recommended by many people including Noam Chomsky (a far more relevant judge of what helps raise awareness and better understanding than Bill Gates) whose simply stated evaluation is "Urgent, timely, and necessary".

In "No is Not Enough", the section of Chapter 4 (The Climate Clock Strikes Midnight), titled "What Conservatives Understand about Global Warming - and Liberals don't", includes the following: "... when hard-core conservatives deny climate change, they are not just protecting the trillions in wealth that are threatened by climate action. They are also defending something even more precious to them: an entire ideological project - neoliberalism - which holds that the market is always right, regulation is always wrong, private is good and public is bad, and taxes that support public services are the worst of all."

Pinker may not be a fanatical promoter of neoliberalism. But I do not see him bluntly criticizing the current day threat that its promotion by people calling themselves Conservative is. And he certainly does not appear to tell Conservatives that they need to act aggressively against neoliberals rather than uniting with them (and the less tolerant among us) in the hopes of Winning.

Pinker's presentation of criticisms by Klein and the Kochs of the Washington State Carbon Tax proposal does not distinguish the different motivations of Klein and the Kochs. It is either poorly informed or deliberately misleading.

One Planet Only Forever at 03:13 AM on 30 March 2018

Stop blaming ‘both sides’ for America’s climate failures

I find “Enlightenment Now” to be heavy on sales pitches defending people who have Private Interests that are contrary to more rapidly achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, people inclined to want to believe that 'future generations will figure out amazing solutions to whatever problems current day people create' or 'deny that the systems that have developed create unsustainable and harmful results and need to be corrected'.

The end of chapters that relate to the SDGs consistently make claims that what has developed so far is Good that can be expected to get Better (Feel Good Claims), with implications that the Good and Better are natural expected outcomes of the systems that have developed. The reality is that any Good has actually been 'corrections of identified harmful unsustainable developed activity that occur because of raised public awareness and better understanding of the incorrect popular and profitable developments in the developed socioeconomic-political systems'.

Within those chapters Pinker often criticizes people who try to raise public awareness and better understanding of the harmful unsustainable things that have developed because such 'efforts to better educating of the public' likely upsets people who consider themselves to be Conservative. Making people with Private Interests contrary to achieving the SDGs learn to change their minds is a challenge. Helping enough Other people become more aware and better understanding is a solution.

To be helpful, Pinker could have focused on his linguistics and cognitive specialization to develop and present an evaluation of why misleading marketing in support of Private Interests that are understandably contrary to the achievement of the SGDs are so successful and what can be done about that undeniable developed problem.

Onpimon at 01:40 AM on 30 March 2018

Increasing CO2 has little to no effect

I agree with the statement that CO2 is one of the main driven of climate changes. But it’s not the only one. There are some other things or other gases that can cause climate changes. Actually it’s no matter what can cause climate change more or less we have to prevent it. However, we have to concern on what can cause climate change the most. So, we can find a way to prevent it.

Moderator Response:

[TD] You are correct that there are other drivers of climate change, but human-caused increase of CO2 is the most important cause of the current warming. Please read the post "CO2 Is the Main Driver of Climate Change."

Onpimon at 01:37 AM on 30 March 2018

Was Greenland really green in the past?

Thank you for posting.

I agree with the topic, Greenland used to be green. When Greenland has discovered and named by Erik the Red about 1,000 years ago, it will be different from now. If there is no any evidence that show Greenland was green, he would not name this place as Greenland. The DNA is proof that sometime between 450,000 and 800,000 years ago, much of Greenland was especially green and covered in a boreal forest that was home to alder, spruce and pine trees, as well as insects such as butterflies and beetles (From: https://www.livescience.com/7331-ancient-greenland-green.html). And from the map, like Google map or map in Wikipedia we can see that the edge around Greenland is still green. Greenland ice sheets is between 400,000 and 800,000 years old. So, Greenland today will maybe different from the past. Because of the global warming. Global warming not just changing Greenland, but it affects all over the world. One of the main driven of global warming is from human activities. We have to cooperate together, help each other to reduce global warming before it too late. And I also have some questions. As you can see in the map that at the edge of Greenland is green, I want to know why it’s not cover of ice? And is it true that Greenland now is greener than in the past?

Onpimon at 01:35 AM on 30 March 2018

Antarctica is too cold to lose ice

I agree with this article.I also had read an article from Boston globe, it’s an article about severe melting of ice sheet that is found in Antarctica. It’s said that a team of European scientists has found some ice sheet melting in East Antarctica during the summer months, in an area that is supposed to be too cold for perceptible ice loss. The ice sheets is weak throughout its structure. The glaciers is a large mass of ice, so it’s very hard to melt or it will take a long time to melt. But now it not take long time as in the past to melt. The glaciers are melting because of warming ocean water. Warming ocean water is caused by global warming. We have to solve this problem straightforward. In this article it’s said, we should all now at least remotely understand that mass balance changes in Antarctica aren’t reliant on surface melting but rather depend on dynamic responses such as the 2ndmechanism. I also have a question. Is it possible for melted ice to form its original ice form again?

jef12506 at 00:13 AM on 30 March 2018

How could global warming accelerate if CO2 is 'logarithmic'?

Very carefully considered post but you left out as much or more than you include.

There are dozens of feedback mechanisms that are kicking in and really need to be included in the warming graphs. What about water vapor for one, the biggest one at that? Just plotting CO2 and announcing future warming is less than useless it is dishonest.

Also there is plenty of documented cases of natural sinks absorbing less and even starting to become emission sources such as forests.

The over all message of this post is that it is bad but not that bad and we have time so don't worr too much. I understand not wanting to upset people too much or cause panic but I believe that mentality is more harmful that good.

We need to state how bad it really is and that chanses are it is happening faster than expected using the same clear, considered, scientific evidence and let the public have the knowledge they need to make the right decisions.

Science does not get to decide how much truth we get to have.

citizenschallenge at 23:33 PM on 29 March 2018

How could global warming accelerate if CO2 is 'logarithmic'?

DPiepgrass nicely written article. I'm looking forward to your future posts.

Eclectic at 19:36 PM on 29 March 2018

Great Barrier Reef is in good shape

Ping34 @ post #2 , you are correct. The Great Barrier Reef has suffered much damage from (mostly) the increasing water temperatures. And it will get worse, because global warming is continuing, and the politicians of the world are making only minor effort to counter the effects of CO2 emission.

The GBR is large — about the size of Italy — and not all of its beauty has been destroyed (so far). The local tourist industry does not like to mention the damage, or that the damage will almost certainly increase over the next decades. And Australians do not like to think about the situation. Also, other coral reefs in other places, are being damaged. But the GBR is the most important and beautiful of them. Ping34, if you wish to see the GBR, you should visit it as soon as you can. Do not wait for 10 or 20 years.

There is one hope. Scientists are studying ways of selective breeding of corals which are more resistant to high temperatures. It is uncertain how much success they will have; or how well they can re-populate such a large reef in just a few decades; or if they can re-create the numerous varieties of corals which give the reef its beauty and provide the habitat for the many beautiful varieties of fish.

Tminus at 18:22 PM on 29 March 2018

How could global warming accelerate if CO2 is 'logarithmic'?

Thank you for your article. Your mention of Methane in your second point might need revising: "...but what's really important here is that it has a short lifetime of only about 12 years before it is destroyed in the methane cycle. That makes the methane problem much less serious, as we expect nature will clean up the mess when we eventually reduce our methane output."

At least one study I've read about recently shows we've greatly underestimated methane's role. In the PNAS paper "Centuries of thermal sea-level rise due to anthropogenic emissions of short-lived greenhouse gases" (http://www.pnas.org/content/114/4/657), its authors state, "We show that short-lived greenhouse gases [e.g., methane] contribute to sea-level rise through thermal expansion (TSLR) over much longer time scales than their atmospheric lifetimes."

And "...at least half of the TSLR due to increases in methane is expected to remain present for more than 200 y[ears], even if anthropogenic emissions cease altogether, despite the 10-y[ear] atmospheric lifetime of this gas."

Eclectic at 17:27 PM on 29 March 2018

No warming in 16 years

Pacharaporn K @ post 15 , the article indicates that our planet continued to warm during the "16 years" (16 years up to May 2013).

Please note that the article is now nearly 5 years old. The SkepticalScience website is managed by a small group of volunteers (and is not supported by money from governments or even the Oil Industry). So the large numbers of articles here are often not kept up-to-date. However, you will keep up-to-date about climate news, if you frequently view the Home Page, where new articles and news links are mentioned daily or weekly.

The evidence for the continued warming of our planet (even during the "16 years") is :-

(A) measurements show that the ocean continues to warm, as shown by the continued increase in OHC [Ocean Heat Content],

(B) the continued presence of excessive CO2 gas in the atmosphere, is showing that there is no reduction in the Greenhouse Effect (and so there cannot be a real pause in short-term and long-term warming),

(D) the continued rising of sea-level (from melted land ice, and from thermal expansion of sea water),

(E) the important "surface temperature" (where we humans and animals and plants are living) shows continued warming during every 30-year period [climate changes are measured over a 30-year minimum period]. Therefore any short-term period (such as 8 or 16 years) with a pause or decline in surface temperature . . . is not important and does not show any significance — unless a real cause is found for reduced warming (for example: a very large volcano eruption, or a sudden very large rise in industrial aerosols which reflect sunlight).

You will notice that after 2013 came the much hotter years 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 . . . where global land and ocean surface temperatures were very evident (as measured by the American NASA and NOAA [U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] and by the Japan Meteorological Agency and by many other national agencies around the world).

The planetary surface temperature has reduced very slowly over the last 5,000 years. But it has not reduced as fast as expected, because humans have caused a small amount of warming force by clearing forests for cereals agriculture and also by (methane gas production from) rice paddies. And now for the past 100 - 200 years, the burning of coal and petroleum oil has produced a strong and rapid reversal of the long-term natural cooling cycle. Big changes are coming — and most of them will be bad for the world and human societies.

Pacharaporn K. at 17:22 PM on 29 March 2018

It's not happening

I like that you devide and explain each indicator clearly. Every evidences are really make sense follow your claim, but I just wondering how can it happen because the weather is become really hot nowadays and seems going to be hotter and hotter? Also ice ages are become smaller than what it was. How can the result be the opposite with the indicators? Is it because of there areb still many factors going on?

Thank you XD

Ping34 at 17:20 PM on 29 March 2018

Great Barrier Reef is in good shape

In the article, it mentioned that CO2 dissolves in water and causes ocean acidification. Therefore, the CO2 amount are highly found in both atmosphere and ocean? If so, then GBR is really in big trouble because this is a big synergy caused from both the global warming and ocean acidification. Am I understand correctly?

One Planet Only Forever at 05:25 AM on 29 March 2018

Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States

shastatodd@2,

An understanding that is related to my previous comment is: If the 1% of the total current population (about 75 million people) that 'per-capita causes or personally benefits (profits) from the highest levels of consumption, waste and negative impacts' became Zero contributors to the problem there would be a far greater than 1% reduction of the problem.

And the actions of those 75 million would provide education and leadership toward ways of living that the other 99% could sustainably develop to also enjoy.

The only potential problem is that those 1% would no longer be able to appear to be, or put on a show of appearing to be, the Biggest Winners. However, any perceptions that are not the result of living/acting in ways that are truly sustainable and helpful to others will only be temporary delusions of grandeur and superiority.

gws at 03:55 AM on 29 March 2018

In court, Big Oil rejected climate denial

I find it remarkable to argue that

"... climate change is caused 'largely by economic and population growth' ",

since that is only the case because of fossil fuel use. Both economic or population growth can of course occur as a result of energy availability (as a proxy) from other sources. And that qualifies the quote/argument above squarely as a non-sequitor fallacy.

Thanks for the links JH !

One Planet Only Forever at 02:08 AM on 29 March 2018

Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States

shastatodd@2,

I agree that high levels of consumption and waste are a serious concern.

My recommended solution is to demand/require the wealthiest and most powerful to lead the develpment of 'low consumption, no-negative-impact, zero-waste' ways of living that the entire population can develop to enjoy virtually eternally on this, or any other, amazing planet.

The Winners are the ones who can afford to behave better. And they are the ones who should not be allowed to claim that 'they did not know better'.

It boils down to correcting the incorrectly developed socio-economic-political systems to restrict the freedoms of people to 'believe what they want and do as they please', with more restrictions as people become wealthier and more influential. The wealthiest and most influential should only be allowed to properly increase the awareness and understanding of the entire population about how to develop sustainable ways of living.

Allowing Winners to do as they please, the standard Libertarian argument, is undeniably a recipe for disaster. It has been proven to develop self-reinforcing systems that are certain to result in the development of more damaging irresponsible undeserving Winners, unless those type of winners get caught/penalized/restricted.

Pacharaporn K. at 02:08 AM on 29 March 2018

Climate scientists are in it for the money

Wow, thank you for posting this wonderful article. For me, scientists are playing really important roles. Without them, how can we know what is going on in this world. Especially about climate change which we should concern the most. If be a scientist is that easy and rich, it is going to have a billion of scientists out there! It is a really hard job. I appreciate all of them a lot. Thank you for hard working! Anyway, I still have a question;

Do scientist need to belong to a company?

Pacharaporn K. at 00:51 AM on 29 March 2018

No warming in 16 years

The article claims that the temperature of this blue planet has not increased for the past 16 years. Also they came up with some evidences to shows what has influenced the recent temperature trend like less solar energy and the El Niño oscillation. All evidence looks to flow in the same direction......good claims and perfect evidence, but it is opposite with what I have learned to be so far. I thought human activities should be the primary causes that have led this world to what we are experincing nowadays?

(p.s. I'm just a high school student so, sorry for my doubt XD)

Thank you for your respond!

John Hartz at 00:02 AM on 29 March 2018

In court, Big Oil rejected climate denial

Climate Science Glossary

Term Lookup

Settings

Term Lookup

Settings

Latest Posts

Recent Comments