Tag Archives: climate science

Yarns From the Farm — Climate Basics

Nan Bray is an oceanographer and climate scientist
who has farmed superfine merinos near Oatlands since 2000

Note to my readers: This is a series I’m writing on climate change for our local monthly newspaper this year. I wanted to go back to the basics of the science behind climate change.
I’ll post them in coming Yarns.
Cheers, Nan


Leading Australia’s
Antarctic Program

A Climate Basics Series

  1. Carbon dioxide: nature’s tiny solar panels
  2. Take a deep breath
  3. Galileo Fixes Everything
  4. A Silver Lining
  5. If You Don’t Like the Heat,
    Get Out of the Kitchen

New yarns about Climate early each month

The terrible truth, in one graph

2050 is a generation too late. That would be unforgivable, and very likely utterly catastrophic.

Extinction Rebellion: “The Emergency”

If you let this graph sink in, you’ll understand why so many are turning out in the streets to demand a halt to business as usual and the most massive turnaround of the world’s economy we’ve ever seen. If you need more background, go here.

Just an environmental issue? Not!

Where will we find the political will to do what we know needs to be done in the time we have? Here’s an essay in the Sequim Gazette by OCA board member Ann Soule, who also serves as Resource Manager for the City of Sequim:

In our small corner of the globe, the biggest threats are drought, wildfire, and severe storms. . . . Like all wicked problems, solutions to climate change won’t be pretty, fun, or quick. But it will be much easier if it is recognized as a “quality of life” and a “community health” issue, and not strictly an “environmental” issue.

http://www.sequimgazette.com/opinion/water-matters-climate-meltdown/

Arctic warming is worse than we thought

 

Climate hope lectures

The Climate Reality Project: Hope for the Future

Thursday, March 1, 6-7 p.m., Peninsula College – Port Townsend

Thursday, March 15, 6-7 p.m., Sequim Public Library, south meeting room

Wednesday, April 18, 6:30 -7:30 p.m., Peninsula College –  Forks

Cost: Free, registration not required. Open to the public

“We’re going to win this thing, but first we have to understand what it is.” With seas rising, global heat records falling, and storms becoming more and more devastating, the reality of climate change has never been clearer. With clean energy solutions like wind and solar getting more affordable, batteries getting better, and buildings becoming more efficient every year, we can see the way forward. The good news doesn’t end there. Thanks to 195 countries signing the historic Paris Agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions planet-wide, the world is united in working for a safe and sustainable future with net-zero carbon emissions by the second half of this century. Climate Reality is working to accelerate the global shift from activities driving climate change to renewables so we can power our lives and economies without destroying our planet. But we can only do it together with a deep understanding of the current global situation and the science behind it.

Presenter: Dr. Adelia Ritchie

Sponsored by Western Washington University & Sierra Club

Climate Science Special Report

Credit Jonathan Alcorn/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“WASHINGTON — Directly contradicting much of the Trump administration’s position on climate change, 13 federal agencies unveiled an exhaustive scientific report on Friday that says humans are the dominant cause of the global temperature rise that has created the warmest period in the history of civilization.”

“Despite the scientific consensus presented in the report, the Environmental Protection Agency has scrubbed references to climate change from its website and barred its scientists from presenting scientific reports on the subject.”

“The E.P.A. administrator, Scott Pruitt, has said carbon dioxide is not a primary contributor to warming. Rick Perry, the energy secretary, asserted Wednesday that “the science is out” on whether humans cause climate change.”

Link to the New York Times article (11/3/17).

Link to the government report itself, the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4), Volume I.

 

 

Climate-related podcasts

Here’s a list of some good ones, which you should be able to access through collector services such as iTunes, Pocket Casts, or Stitcher:

  • Warm Regards
  • Stepping Up
  • Generation Anthropocene
  • Climate Conversations
  • Trump on Earth
  • Terrestrial

Think about it: heating up?

Column in the Sequim Gazette by local columnist Bertha Cooper:

http://www.sequimgazette.com/opinion/think-about-it-heating-up/

Hitchhiker’s Guide to Climate Change

An artistic tour-de-force by local family physician Ned Hammar (notes here):

hitchhikersguidetoclimatechangep2

Back

hitchhikersguidetoclimatechangep1

Front

Let’s not waste our time on deniers

“Science is real and verifiable,  With the health of our families and our futures at stake, the American people expect us to act on the facts, not spend precious time and taxpayer money refuting manufactured uncertainties.”  EPA administrator Gina McCarthy speaking before the National Academies of Science, 4/28/14

Bold words from climate scientists

The International Panel on Climate Change (a body of the UN) today released their summary of the entire science underpinning climate change. This summary is aimed at policymakers.

“The IPCC called the evidence of climate change “unequivocal” and that the “human influence is clear” and goes a step further to endorse “substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.”

Let’s make sure this latest report encourages our elected leaders to make good choices based on scientific consensus on what causes global warming.

climate scientists consensus

Illustration of the scientific consensus that 97 out of 100 actively publishing climate scientists agree with the overwhelming evidence that humans are causing global warming. Courtesy of Skeptical Science.