tagged w/ Reality
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The record loss of Arctic sea ice this summer will echo throughout the weather patterns affecting the U.S. and Europe this winter, climate scientists said on Wednesday, since added heat in the Arctic influences the jet stream and may make extreme weather and climate events more likely.
The “astounding” loss of sea ice this year is adding a huge amount of heat to the Arctic Ocean and the atmosphere, said Jennifer Francis, an atmospheric scientist at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “It’s like having a new energy source for the atmosphere.” Francis was one of three scientists on a conference call Wednesday to discuss the ramifications of sea ice loss for areas outside the Arctic. The call was hosted by Climate Nexus.
The extent of Arctic sea ice on Aug. 26, 2012, the day the sea ice dipped to its smallest extent ever recorded in more than three decades of satellite measurements. The line on the image shows the average minimum extent from the period covering 1979-2010. Click on the image for a larger version. Credit: NASA/JPL.
On August 26, Arctic sea ice extent broke the record low set in 2007, and it has continued to decline since, dropping below 1.5 million square miles. That represents a 45 percent reduction in the area covered by sea ice compared to the 1980s and 1990s, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), and may be unprecedented in human history. The extent of sea ice that melted so far this year is equivalent to the size of Canada and Alaska combined.
The loss of sea ice initiates a feedback loop known as Arctic amplification. As sea ice melts, it exposes darker ocean waters to incoming solar radiation. The ocean then absorbs far more energy than had been the case when the brightly colored sea ice was present, and this increases water and air temperatures, thereby melting even more sea ice.
Peter Wadhams, the head of the polar ocean physics group at the University of Cambridge in the U.K., told BBC News on September 6 that the added heat from sea ice loss is equivalent to the warming from 20 years of carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas that is causing manmade global warming.
During the fall, when the sun sets once again and the Arctic Ocean begins to refreeze, the heat in the ocean gets released back into the atmosphere. Since the jet stream, which is a corridor of strong winds at upper levels of the atmosphere that generally blows from west to east across the northern mid-latitudes, is powered by the temperature difference between the Arctic and areas farther south, any alteration of that temperature difference is bound to alter the jet stream — with potentially profound implications. It just so happens that the jet stream steers day-to-day weather systems.
Francis published a study last year in which she showed that Arctic warming might already be causing the jet stream to become more amplified in a north-south direction. In other words, the fall and winter jet stream may be getting wavier. A more topsy-turvy jet stream can yield more extreme weather events, Francis said, because weather and climate extremes are often associated with large undulations in the jet stream that can take a long time to dissipate.
“We know that certain types of extreme weather events are related to weather that takes a long time to change,” Francis said.
While there are indications that the jet stream is slowing and may be more prone to making huge dips, or “troughs,” scientists have a limited ability to pinpoint how this will play out in the coming winter season.
“The locations of those waves really depends on other factors,” Francis said, such as El Niño and a natural climate pattern known as the Arctic Oscillation. “I can only say that it’s probably going to be a very interesting winter,” she said.
Francis’ work has linked Arctic warming to the unusually cold and snowy winters of 2009-10 and 2010-11, during which the U.S. East Coast and parts of Europe were pummeled by fierce winter storms and experienced cooler-than-average conditions. The winter of 2011-12 was much milder, by comparison, but Francis said it, too, was consistent with her research. Not all meteorologists agree on the Arctic connection theory, but that may change with time.
Jim Overland, an oceanographer at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, said the inconsistency of the past three winters doesn’t mean the Arctic connection hypothesis is invalid.
More at the linkThe record loss of Arctic sea ice this summer will echo throughout the weather... more
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On Earth Day I wrote a story for a blog post in Minnesota. The Huffington Post picked it up. A Republican concerned about climate change? Rare as a two-headed frog. And I can tell you, I got plenty of negative mail from conservatives. But here’s the thing: this isn’t a popularity contest. There’s too much on the line. Some in the GOP mock climate science, but most voters under the age of 30 take the subject very seriously. Dismissing it out of hand is not only disingenuous, but politically short-sighted, and is a failure to care for our children as our parents cared for us. Your kids are following this issue closely. They vote.
“The weather has always been extreme. Why is this any different?” There’s no denying the trends. Actions have consequences. Releasing 90 trillion tons of greenhouse gas, 90 trillion hot air balloons of CO2 and methane in just the last 50 years, is spiking our weather extremes like never before. So rather than focus on the green skin of the messenger, put your ear up to hear what he’s saying.
Paul Douglas’s Top Ten Reasons to Accept Reality on the Climate
Here’s my Top Ten Reasons Why This Isn’t Business as Usual for the Climate – things that convince me — and should convince you too.
10). Shifting Weather Patterns – The jet stream is shifting north over time. I’m seeing things on the weather maps every other day that can’t be explained away as “normal extremes”.
9). Rising Sea Levels – whatever your skeptical uncle Joe says, seas are warming, and as they warm, they expand and sea level goes up. Most scientists predict 3-4 feet in the next 80 years or so. Think twice about buying that retirement condo right on the beach. Find something 4 blocks inland, and be patient.
8). Warmer, More Acidic Oceans – if you scuba dive, you’ve probably noticed that corals reefs aren’t what they used to be. That’s ocean acidification from absorbing carbon dioxide. It’s radically changing the ocean ecosystems and fisheries right now.
7). Straining Water Resources – water for drinking, “fracking”, farming, ethanol production, soda pop, or energy generation – whatever your flavor, it’s getting scarcer. That affects all of the above.
6). Dying Forests – not just by massive, historic wildfires, but by pests like the pine beetle that no longer gets killed off in the warmer winters, turning entire rocky mountains brown with dead pine trees.
5). Extreme Rains and More Severe Local Storms. 4-5% increase in atmospheric moisture – warmer air holds more moisture. That means it gets drier on the ground because more is absorbed by the atmosphere. But it also means when it rains, it rains harder as that higher water content rains out. But dry soil and heavy rains equal floods, and that means more damage and more water lost to runoff.
4). Spike in Wildfires – less water plus pine beetles and other crawly critters that kill trees plus drier soil means more wildfires.
3). More Drought — more water in the atmosphere means less on earth and thus more drought.
2). Superheated summers — the above combine to create hot, hot, hot summers. Drier air is hotter without water to moderate it. Hotter air absorbs even more, even quicker. And hotter air means more air conditioners, means more carbon going back into the atmosphere.
And the number one reason:
Arctic Sea Ice Monitor. The latest value: 3,593,750 square kilometers on September 9, 2012. A new record minimum of Arctic sea ice extent was set on August 24, 2012. The four lowest values of Arctic sea ice have been observed since 2007. Source: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Earth Observation Research Center.
1). Record Arctic Ice Loss. As I said, less ice reflecting means more water absorbing. We used to say the Arctic might be ice free by the middle of the century. Now scientists are saying it may happen as early as 2015. That’s in three years, people. The ice is melting this year at an unprecedented rate, and if we have another warm winter, it won’t be replenished. This could tip the scales for a lot of larger climate changes to come. A comprehensive article in the Wall Street Journal on September 7 summarized “…the six lowest Arctic sea ice levels on record all occurred in the past six years.”
How Mitt Romney can really help you and your family
With the problems facing America today, from record deficits to stubborn unemployment to Iran and The Bomb, why fixate on climate change? Because this will impact all our families; your kids and mine, as well as America’s competitive footing in the 21st century. If Mitt Romney is genuine about his promise to “help you and your family,” he needs to acknowledge this, and work for a solution that will solve both the economic and the climate crisis. He needs to help America to innovate our way into a new energy paradigm, one that will fuel growth, add jobs, and launch new companies focused on cleaner, more sustainable American energy sources.
Will the GOP rise to the occasion, or bet the farm on carbon, and ask our grandkids to deal with the mess? It’s time for bold leadership. Climate change is a threat, but it is also an opportunity to transition to a cleaner, greener, more sustainable economy. American Exceptionalism shouldn’t stop when it comes to innovating new energy sources. We have the technology and entrepreneurial DNA to mitigate climate change, foster innovative, job-producing clean energy technologies, and reinvent America’s economy. Let’s put it to work, Governor Romney. As one prominent supporter said at the convention: “Go ahead, make my day!”
Paul Douglas is Founder and President of The Media Logic Group. Minnesota’s first Certified Broadcast Meteorologist, Douglas writes a daily print and online column for the Star Tribune. This piece was originally published at Neorenaissance and was reprinted with permission from the author.
More at the linkOn Earth Day I wrote a story for a blog post in Minnesota. The Huffington Post picked... more
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CEO Tillerson of EXXON thinks, " We'll adapt to that." Easy to say when you are a rich man making money off the chaos. Patently immoral.CEO Tillerson of EXXON thinks, " We'll adapt to that." Easy to say... more
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Every single American should watch this video and pass it on to every person until the entire county understands that we are presented with an illusion of choice. Both Obama and Romney are funded by same lobbyists. Both have the same exact views on all topics of significance. Both blatantly lied to the public for years and have gotten away with it. Both will drive our great country into the ground if elected. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PaKlE-KQ_FU#!Every single American should watch this video and pass it on to every person until the... more
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As the northern summer draws to a close, two milestones have been reached in the Arctic Ocean — record-low sea ice extent, and an even more dramatic new low in Arctic sea ice volume. This extreme melting offers dramatic evidence, many scientists say, that the region’s sea ice has passed a tipping point and that sometime in the next decade or two the North Pole will be largely ice-free in summer.
NASA and U.S. ice experts announced earlier this week that the extent of Arctic sea ice has dropped to 4.1 million square kilometers (1.58 million square miles) — breaking the previous record set in 2007 — and will likely continue to fall even farther until mid-September. As the summer melt season ends, the Arctic Ocean will be covered with 45 percent less ice than the average from 1979 to 2000.
NASA On August 26, Arctic sea ice reached a new record-low summer extent.
Even more striking is the precipitous decline in the volume of ice in the Arctic Ocean. An analysis conducted by the University of Washington’s Pan Arctic Ice Ocean Model Assimilation System (PIOMAS) estimates that sea ice volumes fell in late August to roughly 3,500 cubic kilometers — a 72-percent drop from the 1979-2010 mean.
Peter Wadhams, who heads the Polar Ocean Physics Group at the University of Cambridge and who has been measuring Arctic Ocean ice thickness from British Navy submarines, says that earlier calculations about Arctic sea ice loss have grossly underestimated how rapidly the ice is disappearing. He believes that the Arctic is likely to become ice-free before 2020 and possibly as early as 2015 or 2016 — decades ahead of projections made just a few years ago.
Mark Drinkwater, mission scientist for the European Space Agency’s CryoSat satellite and the agency’s senior advisor on polar regions, said he and his colleagues have been taken aback by the swiftness of Arctic sea ice retreat in the last 5 years. “If this rate of melting [in 2012] is sustained in 2013, we are staring down the barrel and looking at a summer Arctic which is potentially free of sea ice within this decade,” Drinkwater said in an e-mail interview.
More at the linkAs the northern summer draws to a close, two milestones have been reached in the... more
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Two new research papers published today improve our understanding of the planet's methane emissions, and might raise worries about the role of the gas in warming the planet. The first suggests that there may be extensive methane deposits under the Antarctic ice sheets. Meanwhile, the second concludes that emissions of the gas from Arctic permafrost have been underestimated.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas - accounting for around 14 per cent of the warming effect of current man made greenhouse gas emissions. Recent research has focused on measuring emissions from methane sources, both natural and manmade.
Antarctic methane reservoirs
Scientists have been particularly interested in methane emitted from the Arctic. This is because the region is warming particularly rapidly. In addition, methane released from melting permafrost and escaping methane hydrate deposits could exacerbate climate change. But research published today in the journal Nature suggests for the first time that there might also be large stores of methane at the other end of the planet, under the Antarctic ice sheet.
Plants thrived on Antarctica before the continent was covered by ice some 35 million years ago. Lab experiments show that microbes living beneath the ice are able to convert plant remains into methane, and scientists calculate that half of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (1 million square kilometers) and a quarter of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (2.5 million square kilometers) could cover carbon-rich sediments containing up to 4 billion metric tons of methane in the form of methane hydrates. These are an ice-like substance formed when methane and water combine.
The researchers suggest methane could be released if ice sheets retreat as global warming continues. According to study co-author Slawek Tulaczyk, professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz, the findings underline "the need for continued scientific exploration of remote sub-ice environments in Antarctica, because they may have far greater impact on Earth's climate system than we have appreciated in the past."
Media outlets have reported the findings widely, with most headlines focusing on potential impacts of escaping methane. For example, Reuters headlines the story ' Antarctic methane could worsen global warming - scientists', while the UK Press Agency goes for ' Methane fear beneath Antarctic ice'.
So how realistic is the prospect of enough of the Antarctic melting to release methane that might be beneath the ice?
The study's authors highlight that "significant uncertainty exists" in their estimates of methane reservoirs beneath Antarctic ice. But they calculate that Antarctic ice sheet retreat at the rate of 1,000 square kilometres per year - comparable to previous episodes of ice sheet collapse - could result in enough methane release to affect atmospheric methane levels.
At the moment, this isn't happening. The West Antarctic ice sheet is losing ice mass, but slower than an ice sheet which is collapsing. And with most of the potential methane under the East Antarctic ice sheet, it looks unlikely that there will be significant methane release from Antarctica soon.
Arctic methane underestimated
What about Arctic methane sources? Another new Nature paper finds ten times more carbon than previously thought is escaping from coastal permafrost in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf - an amount that dwarfs emissions from land and submarine permafrost in the region.
The escaping carbon has been trapped for tens of thousands of years, but with summer sea ice declining, Arctic coastlines are becoming more vulnerable to erosion from waves and storms. With roughly three-quarters of the Arctic coastline made of permafrost, it is perhaps not surprising that the crumbling coastline is releasing more methane and carbon dioxide than previously estimated.
The scientists warn that erosion of permafrost coasts might worsen as the Arctic warms, and that this will have "consequences for the temperatures all over the world."
More at the linkTwo new research papers published today improve our understanding of the planet's... more
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The Climate Reality Project training session in San Francisco this past week that I attended as a trainee was an amazing event for all. It was a life changing event for me. I arrived early the first day excited about the prospect of learning new things and understanding in more depth what I already knew. I was not disappointed. Our first day we were greeted by Maggie Fox, President and CEO of the Climate Reality Project. The day was interesting as we delved into the intracacies of the technological strategies used to bring awareness to a cause and the many ways we can use them to our advantage by Aaron Dignan, CEO of Undercurrent and Rob Schuman, CEO of Action Marketing. There were also discussions about having discussions with Joan Blades, founder of Livingroom Conversations and relating to climate change in our daily lives by crossing political barriers and seeing our commonalities as humans. We were also treated to a performance and presentation by Kathy Matea, Grammy award winning artist and climate/coal leader and activist. Her presentation was remarkable and heartwrenching as it hit home about the devastation of coal on the soul of our land and ourselves. Her interweaving of music with it left me truly wanting to tell my own personal story and I will be doing that. Thank you for that inspiration, Ms. Matea.
The second day was for me one I will never forget. Larry Schweiger, President and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation delivered an informative presentation on how climate change affects species and Former Vice President and Nobel laureate Al Gore delivered his slideshow to us and explained the context and corrolation of the science of climate change and its corrolation to extreme weather events and what we can do to address it along with Dr. Michael McCracken. I actually had the pleasure of having Dr. McCracken sit next to me at breakfast by chance and we had a conversation about current conditions in the Arctic, Greenland and extreme weather. At the end of it he told me to never stop asking questions and anyone who knows me knows I certainly won't stop doing that. I thought to myself, imagine that- me an average citizen sitting with an IPCC scientist at breakfast discussing this important crisis. It made it all the more clearer to me the importance of all of us seeking to arm ourselves with knowledge because it does make a difference.
What can I say about Al Gore that I have not already said over all these years of following his endeavors? Prescient, incredible, amazing, informed, intelligent and a great teacher. Being trained by him was a dream come true. Just being in the same room with the man who was my president and who should have been our president was an honor I will not soon forget. His depth of knowledge, his humor and his courage were and are inspiring. To him I say, thank you from the bottom of my heart for this honor.
That evening we were also treated to a reception with photographs with Mr. Gore and a special 'Nashville style guitar pull' with Kathy Matea, her husband songwriter Jon Vezner and guitarist Bill Cooley that was fantastic. The music, being with a room full of people who shared a unified cause and seeing Al Gore listening to it all as he sat on the floor like the down to Earth man he is solidified for me that I was where I belonged-here in this movement doing this work. It was a great end to an inspiring day. And while I really didn't get a chance to talk personally with Mr. Gore because of security I hope he got the message I sent him.
The last day of training was about presenting, presenting, presenting. Afterall, standing up in front of an audience to deliver any message can be daunting. Standing up in front of an audience to talk about climate change is like entering the arena to face the lions. That requires a bit more armor and the presentations that day provided it in spades. Andy Goodman, Director of the Goodman Center and Anthony Wilson, Director of Executive Influence Pty Ltd. showed us ways to change the story to change the world and to face our audience with confidence. Very, very helpful.
These three days of intense informative training gave me the inspiration and hope I need to now go out into my community and spread the truth- the simple truth of the Reality of the world we are now living in and making with the hope that working together we can prevail in addressing it. And I was one of many. People came from all over the world to be part of this training event: 57 countries and 47 states. I had conversations with people as close to me as the Jersey shore and as far away as Indonesia. I talked to people about GMOs in India and solar energy in NJ as well as the plight of indigenous people in Borneo. So in my detailing the presentations we had that were informative, helpful and amazing I cannot leave out the people who attended this event with me. They are people like all of us: Mothers, fathers, students, youth, workers. People with the passion to do what is right for our planet, our present and our future and I was and am truly humbled to be part of it all with them.
I'm also proud to be a Climate Leader determined to spread the Reality of our world situation in the hope that we can in our presenting the truth arm people to fight the misinformation that has only led to the steady deterioration of our ecosystems which now threatens our survival. I have every confidence we will prevail and bring our children the future they deserve. No doubt it is a daunting task based on the current Reality and one that can bring despair. However, human spirit and will are in great supply and after this training event I know that better now than I ever did.
Thank you to Climate Reality Staff, Maggie Fox, all the presenters and Al Gore, a man of humbleness, passion and perseverence. I will never forget this and I will not falter in my journey as a citizen of the world to bring Reality with confidence, love and hope.The Climate Reality Project training session in San Francisco this past week that I... more
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By Michael E. Mann
For the Daily Climate
The first scientist to alert Americans to the prospect that human-caused climate change and global warming was already upon us was NASA climatologist James Hansen. In a sweltering Senate hall during the hot, dry summer of 1988, Hansen announced that "it is time to stop waffling.... The evidence is pretty strong that the [human-amplified] greenhouse effect is here."
Given the prescience of James Hansen's science, we would be unwise to ignore his latest, more dire warning.
At the time, many scientists felt his announcement to be premature. I was among them.
I was a young graduate student researching the importance of natural – rather than human-caused – variations in temperature, and I felt that the "signal" of human-caused climate change had not yet emerged from the "noise" of natural, long-term climate variation. As I discuss in my book, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars, scientists by their very nature tend to be conservative, even reticent, when it comes to discussing findings and observations that lie at the forefront of our understanding and that aren't yet part of the "accepted" body of scientific knowledge.
Dire warning
Hansen, it turns out, was right, and the critics were wrong. Rather than being reckless, as some of his critics charged, his announcement to the world proved to be prescient – and his critics were proven overly cautious.
Given the prescience of Hansen's science, we would be unwise to ignore his latest, more dire warning.
In a paper published today in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Hansen and two colleagues argue convincingly that climate change is now not only upon us, but in fact we are fully immersed in it. Much of the extreme weather we have witnessed in recent years almost certainly contains a human-induced component.
Hansen, in his latest paper, shows that the increase in probability of hot summers due to global warming is such that what was once considered an unusually hot summer has now become typical, and what was once considered typical will soon become a thing of the past – a summer too improbably cool to anymore expect.
The time for debate about the reality of human-caused climate change has now passed.
We need to view this summer's extreme weather in this wider context.
Not random
It is not simply a set of random events occurring in isolation, but part of a broader emerging pattern. We are seeing, in much of the extreme weather we are experiencing, the "loading of the weather dice." Over the past decade, records for daily maximum high temperatures in the U.S. have been broken at twice the rate we would expect from chance alone. Think of this as rolling double sixes twice as often as you'd expect – something you would readily notice in a high stakes game of dice. Thus far this year, that ratio is close to 10 to 1. That's double sixes coming up ten times as often as you expect.
So the record-breaking heat this summer over so much of the United States, where records that have stood since the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s are now dropping like flies, isn't just a fluke of nature; it is the loading of the weather dice playing out in real time.
More at link
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Many of us as well have known and cared about this for many years as we sit out here crying in the wilderness. However, as long as people sit silent allowing Obama, Romney and other politicians to remain silent the status quo will remain silent as well because they use our silence as an excuse to sit and do nothing. Anyone write to Obama yet about his silence on climate change in this campaign?Romney? Running against avowed Koch backed deniers is something Obama needs to take to heart if he really cares in light of the Reality and hold a press conference to let people know about this instead of running ads saying he has a better record on coal. Oh, but I forgot , he can't because he just approved the Southern leg of the Keystone pipeline to pipe toxic Tarsands from Canada and vowed to make fracking part of his "All of the Above" energy policy. Making it easier for Republicans and deniers is tantamount to being one of them yourself and you as well are complicit in the outcome. It's time to listen to those who have been out here for decades telling us the truth. Political expediency is dooming us.By Michael E. Mann
For the Daily Climate
The first scientist to alert Americans to... more
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The relentless, weather-gone-crazy type of heat that has blistered the United States and other parts of the world in recent years is so rare that it can't be anything but man-made global warming, says a new statistical analysis from a top government scientist.
The research by a man often called the "godfather of global warming" says that the likelihood of such temperatures occurring from the 1950s through the 1980s was rarer than 1 in 300. Now, the odds are closer to 1 in 10, according to the study by NASA scientist James Hansen. He says that statistically what's happening is not random or normal, but pure and simple climate change.
"This is not some scientific theory. We are now experiencing scientific fact," Hansen told The Associated Press in an interview.
Hansen is a scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and a professor at Columbia University. But he is also a strident activist who has called for government action to curb greenhouse gases for years. While his study was published online Saturday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, it is unlikely to sway opinion among the remaining climate change skeptics.
However, several climate scientists praised the new work.
In a blunt departure from most climate research, Hansen's study — based on statistics, not the more typical climate modeling — blames these three heat waves purely on global warming:
—Last year's devastating Texas-Oklahoma drought.
—The 2010 heat waves in Russia and the Middle East, which led to thousands of deaths.
—The 2003 European heat wave blamed for tens of thousands of deaths, especially among the elderly in France.
The analysis was written before the current drought and record-breaking temperatures that have seared much of the United States this year. But Hansen believes this too is another prime example of global warming at its worst.
The new research makes the case for the severity of global warming in a different way than most scientific studies and uses simple math instead of relying on complex climate models or an understanding of atmospheric physics. It also doesn't bother with the usual caveats about individual weather events having numerous causes.
The increase in the chance of extreme heat, drought and heavy downpours in certain regions is so huge that scientists should stop hemming and hawing, Hansen said. "This is happening often enough, over a big enough area that people can see it happening," he said.
Scientists have generally responded that it's impossible to say whether single events are caused by global warming, because of the influence of natural weather variability.
However, that position has been shifting in recent months, as other studies too have concluded climate change is happening right before our eyes.
Hansen hopes his new study will shift people's thinking about climate change and goad governments into action. He wrote an op-ed piece that appeared online Friday in the Washington Post.
"There is still time to act and avoid a worsening climate, but we are wasting precious time," he wrote.
The science in Hansen's study is excellent "and reframes the question," said Andrew Weaver, a climate scientist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia who was a member of the Nobel Prize-winning international panel of climate scientists that issued a series of reports on global warming.
"Rather than say, 'Is this because of climate change?' That's the wrong question. What you can say is, 'How likely is this to have occurred with the absence of global warming?' It's so extraordinarily unlikely that it has to be due to global warming," Weaver said.
For years scientists have run complex computer models using combinations of various factors to see how likely a weather event would happen without global warming and with it. About 25 different aspects of climate change have been formally attributed to man-made greenhouse gases in dozens of formal studies. But these are generally broad and non-specific, such as more heat waves in some regions and heavy rainfall in others.
Another upcoming study by Kevin Trenberth, climate analysis chief at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, links the 2010 Russian heat wave to global warming by looking at the underlying weather that caused the heat wave. He called Hansen's paper an important one that helps communicate the problem.
But there is bound to be continued disagreement. Previous studies had been unable to link the two, and one by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration concluded that the Russian drought, which also led to devastating wildfires, was not related to global warming.
White House science adviser John Holdren praised the paper's findings in a statement. But he also said it is true that scientists can't blame single events on global warming: "This work, which finds that extremely hot summers are over 10 times more common than they used to be, reinforces many other lines of evidence showing that climate change is occurring and that it is harmful."
Skeptical scientist John Christy of the University of Alabama at Huntsville said Hansen shouldn't have compared recent years to the 1950s-1980s time period because he said that was a quiet time for extremes.
But Derek Arndt, director of climate monitoring for the federal government's National Climatic Data Center, said that range is a fair one and often used because it is the "golden era" for good statistics.
Granger Morgan, head of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, called Hansen's study "an important next step in what I expect will be a growing set of statistically-based arguments."
In a landmark 1988 study, Hansen predicted that if greenhouse gas emissions continue, which they have, Washington, D.C., would have about nine days each year of 95 degrees or warmer in the decade of the 2010s. So far this year, with about four more weeks of summer, the city has had 23 days with 95 degrees or hotter temperatures.
Hansen says now he underestimated how bad things would get.
More at the linkThe relentless, weather-gone-crazy type of heat that has blistered the United States... more
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The globe we live on is changing in ways that the human species has not experienced. Global temperatures have risen 1.3 degrees in the past century and the emissions that are driving that increase further are continuing to increase to a point where positive feedback loops leading to that tipping point are now occurring. This is and will have consequences regarding the human species' ability to grow food, maintain biodiversity, preserve water sources and stave off diseases. And though there are interests that would have people believe this is either not happening, not pushed by man or made up to institute some worldwide tax slave state the reality and the facts behind climate science reveal that to be rhetoric contrived by a network of politically and ideologically slanted think tanks that deal in propaganda and misinformation in order to support their profit driven benefactors.
Since the 1930s scientists had begun questioning whether man's behavior and habits on this Earth post Industrial Revolution had amplified the natural carbon cycle and atmospheric composition of our planet. Thousands of studies and peer reviewed papers have been published with over 98% of climate scientists publishing stating and agreeing that humans are indeed changing the face of the Earth and pushing the natural processes that we have come to rely on for centuries to a place beyond their natural ability to sustain us. We do not live in a linear system and are now seeing clearly globally that pushing the natural variables of climate are now causing those systems to push back.
The question we should now be asking ourselves is just what are we prepared to do to deal with the changes taking place. The changes we have precipitated by continuing to remain closed off from reality listening only to those voices telling us everything is OK in order to preserve the status quo that benefits the few at the expense of the many. It surely may be hard to accept that man has such an influence on this planet, but ever since man began changing the face of Earth thousands of years ago through agriculture and deforestation we have been setting the scene for the future.
Climate had remained basically stable up to that point with interglacial and glacial periods happening on a time scale of thousands of years. What we are seeing now is a pace and severity of change faster than ever before due to the time lapse feedbacks of the concentration of greenhouse gases put up into the atmosphere by humans from this past century and even before that which have pushed those natural cycles. Continuing this same behavior only increases exponentially the chances of our world being an even more unstable place for our children.
I say this because I love this planet and I care about its future: This is real and it is affecting places globally now with rapid melting of glaciers particularly in the Arctic where warming has been twice as fast than anywhere on the globe. Places worldwide are now seeing changes in weather patterns that due to this melting and other factors and forces on the atmosphere are jeopardizing their ability to farm, to maintain adequate and healthy water sources and to maintain health due to extreme drought, deluges and storms that are becoming more common and damaging. We can no longer afford to treat this as some distant event we do not have to worry about. It is a present danger to our way of life precipitated by us and the only way to address it is to look in the mirror.
Please, those who read this, look beyond the political walls, ideological barriers and human frailties that in the past have inhibited us as a species from achieving our true potential. The current world situation is of our making and the good news of it all is that we do still have time to change it. Our children and theirs will remember our actions and choices made now. How do you wish to be remembered?
More at the linkThe globe we live on is changing in ways that the human species has not experienced.... more
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Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found that greenhouse gases were responsible for warming oceans, further strengthening the claim that climate change is human-made.
"The bottom line is that this study substantially strengthens the conclusion that most of the observed global ocean warming over the past 50 years is attributable to human activities," said study author and climate scientist Peter Gleckler, according to Live Science.
It is estimated that the oceans account for 90 percent of the heat accumulated on Earth over the past 50 years, the study said.
Read more on GlobalPost: Climate change will produce more wildfires in the US
The research used computer models to test a variety of situations that could have caused ocean warming – a phenomenon that has not been contested.
When greenhouse gas emissions were added to the model, the temperature fluctuations began to make sense.
Indeed, the team of researchers from the US, Australia and Japan found that natural fluctuations by themselves do not explain warming in the ocean’s upper layers, said Discovery.
The study was published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
More at the linkResearchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found that greenhouse gases... more
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Sockeye salmon populations have diminished due to changes in climate, a decrease that could affect food security throughout the Pacific Northwest and threaten native fishing communities, experts say.
The salmon industry in Alaska alone is worth about $603 million, providing almost 18,000 jobs in 2010, according to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Sockeye salmon make up about half the market. Salmon fishing also makes up a significant portion of the Canadian fishing business in British Columbia, which produces about 100,000 metric tons annually, according to 2010 data from Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
"Climate change is causing coastal oceans to be warmer in the summers," said Randall Peterman, a researcher with the Fisheries Science and Management Research Group at Simon Fraser University in suburban Vancouver. "The decline in [sockeye salmon] productivity is more pervasive, and it's much more pervasive than we expected."
In 2009, British Columbia, the center of Canada's salmon industry, had the lowest abundance of sockeye salmon on record for the last 50 years.
Peterman studied data tracking 37 sockeye salmon populations since 1947 in a 1,200-mile area, stretching from Seattle to southeast Alaska. The downward trend was apparent in most populations, he said in a study published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.
Although scientists have noted the recent dip, it doesn't appear to have significantly affected commercial U.S. fisheries, says Tyson Fick, spokesman for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. However, sockeye salmon often don't spawn until they reach 5 years of age, so any issues in juvenile populations will not likely become apparent until years afterward. And because of the sockeye's unique freshwater-to-saltwater life cycle, it is impractical to try breeding them in hatcheries.
Subsistence fishermen in British Columbia such as David Cobb, who has been in the fishing business for 50 years, say the decrease in supply has become a serious problem for their communities.
"Every one of the small communities has been negatively affected by the gross decline in the sockeye populations, some more deleteriously in others, but there's not a community that depends on fishing that hasn't been touched," he said.
Stress from competitors and diseases
Some fishermen, like Cobb, must rely more heavily on other types of salmon like pinks.
"The pink [salmon] runs seem to be much larger in numerical terms, and the cycles are not boom and bust," Cobb said.
Rising temperatures in the Pacific Ocean create a better environment for pink salmon, which thrive in slightly warmer climates and are moving northward, invading habitats usually belonging to the sockeye, Peterman said. Pink salmon compete with sockeye salmon for a common food source: zooplankton.
The size and number of these plankton play a crucial role in the sockeye life cycle. In 2008, cool Northern Pacific currents resulted in fatter plankton. The abundant supply generated a record-high salmon run in 2010, said Rick Swart, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Northwest region. Currents have since warmed.
Increased temperatures and reduced food supply put sockeye salmon at greater risk for contracting diseases, said Jim Winton, chief of the Fish Health Section at the U.S. Geological Survey's Western Fisheries Research Center in Seattle.
There is no conclusive fish pathogen research, so scientists can only hypothesize the extent they harm populations. However, Winton says his fieldwork, while not definitive, points to temperature increases as a significant problem for the fish.
"All fish have a temperature range that they prefer," Winton said. "At temperatures above that range, they tend to be stressed, and below that they tend to be lethargic, and their immune system doesn't work very well."
Higher temperatures often allow bacteria to grow faster. They also make it difficult for fish to regulate their own body temperatures, which makes them more susceptible to pathogens.
"In the case of fish, we always have to remember the temperature," Winton added. "If you're a human, you care more about the strain of virus than whether you got it in Miami or New York. If you're a fish, you care a lot about whether the temperature is a lot like Miami or New York."
Rising acidity may impair navigation
Ocean and stream acidification is also a source of stress for sockeye populations -- which are listed as endangered or threatened in two watersheds in the United States -- and could be contributing to their decline.
Runoff from agricultural fields often alters the pH balance of a stream, causing acidification of waterways, which disrupts alarm cues warning fish of a predator's presence, said Grant Brown, a professor of biology at Concordia University in Montreal. Without these cues, fish have a much higher mortality rate, according to a study published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.
More at the linkSockeye salmon populations have diminished due to changes in climate, a decrease that... more
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When writing The dark side of Greenland, a recent blog post on decreasing reflectivity of the Greenland ice sheet with images comparing the southwest of Greenland with satellite images from previous years, I of course realized that when that ice sheet becomes less reflective, it will soak up more solar energy and thus melt faster. But the practical aspect of this theory never really dawned on me, until I saw this video:
Levels in the Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua river, also knows as the Watson river, have reached such heights that they have smashed the two bridges connecting the north and south of Kangerlussuaq, a small settlement in southwestern Greenland, located at the head of the fjord of the same name. The river water stems from different meltwater outflow streams from Russell Glacier (an outflow of the Greenland ice sheet), and is a tributary of Qinnguata Kuussua, the main river in the Kangerlussuaq area.
Of course the local media are covering the story. Here are a few excerpts from different news articles from Sermitsiaq (via Google translate):
What has happened in detail over the inland ice, which caused this incident, is not yet known, but the fierce heat has certainly been an important player. And unfortunately it looks like the weather will not come to the Greenlanders' rescue, as the air temperatures over the ice sheet are expected to remain warmer than normal at least the next 7-10 days, writes Greenland meteorological Jesper Eriksen at dmi.dk.
However, it's not only hot on the icecap at Kangerlussuaq. Deep in the ice, there are also plus degrees:
In Greenland, it has been very hot over the inland ice in comparison to normal conditions. On July 11th at 15 UTC the recorded temperature at the Summit Camp weather station, which is located at the ice cap's highest altitude (3200 metres), was 2.2 degrees Celsius. That is quite high for this height, particularly in light of the fact that ice has a relatively high albedo.
Just 2.2 °C doesn't sound like much (although it looks to be a new record for July), until one realises that we are talking Summit Camp here. At an altitude of 3200 metres. In the middle of the Greenland ice sheet. Nothing but ice.
3.5 million liters of water pressed through the narrow river every second. It's almost a doubling of previous records. It's no wonder that a 20 ton wheel loader was torn away from the bridge in Kangerlussuaq like a toy.
It's difficult for me to assess whether this is correct, flipping through this research paper by Van As et al.: Large surface meltwater discharge from the Kangerlussuaq sector of the Greenland ice sheet during the record-warm year 2010 explained by detailed energy balance observations. I'll get back on this.
Quote from the conclusion:
"Due to the early onset of melt in 2010, combined with lower winter accumulation, surface albedo was below the 2000–2010 average as determined from calibrated MODIS imagery. This in turn allowed for larger solar radiation absorption, resulting in higher melt (melt-albedo feedback). As a consequence, energy available for surface melt was larger in 2010 than in 2009, particularly in the upper ablation zone. While the warmer atmosphere caused increased melt over the entire elevation domain, in the upper ablation zone the relatively low albedo allowed for higher solar radiation absorption rates, contributing over half to the melt increase."
During warm episodes in the future, a melt response of at least this magnitude should be expected unless large wintertime snowfall offsets the melt-albedo feedback.
Albedo of the Greenland ice sheet wasn't so great this year, judging from these regularly updated graphs on the Meltfactor blog, particularly at higher elevations:
More at the linkWhen writing The dark side of Greenland, a recent blog post on decreasing reflectivity... more
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Eleven people were killed, at least 18 others were missing and tens of thousands were ordered evacuated Thursday as downpours lashed Kyushu and other areas in the southwest, police and firefighters said.
High, wet: A person calls for help from a half-submerged home in the city of Kumamoto early Thursday. KYODO PHOTOS
The Meteorological Agency said rainfall in parts of Kumamoto and Oita prefectures reached levels that have "never been experienced before."
The agency meanwhile forecast heavy rain and landslides in other areas of Japan, including the west and northeast.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, speaking during a Diet committee session, said he had received a report on the unprecedented rainfall and vowed his administration would make every effort to address the situation. The government set up a liaison office within the crisis management center at the prime minister's office.
Among the 11 victims, four were identified, including Kesato Fujii, 78, Shachi Ichihara, 81, Misako Yamabe, 78, all from Aso, Kumamoto Prefecture, and Masakazu Hasegawa, 74, from Taketa, Oita Prefecture, police said. In the two prefectures, 18 people remained missing.
In addition, evacuation orders remained in place as of Thursday evening for some 33,000 people in Kumamoto and Oita prefectures.
In the city of Kumamoto, the municipal government at one point ordered about 48,000 people to evacuate but later lifted the order for some areas after the water level of the Shirakawa River went down.
In Taketa, Oita Prefecture, 15,000 people in 6,600 households were ordered to evacuate.
In Shikoku, meanwhile, heavy rain in Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture, caused landslides that cut off some 100 people, prefectural officials said. No casualties were reported there, the officials added.
The Meteorological Agency said hourly rainfall through 6 a.m. Thursday topped 120 mm in Aso and 120 mm in the village of Ubuyama, northeastern Kumamoto Prefecture.
More at the linkEleven people were killed, at least 18 others were missing and tens of thousands were... more
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NBC Meteorologist Bill Karins said on Friday , “We’ve never really seen a heat wave like this in the month of June.”
How hot is it? It’s so hot that all-time records are being set in June: “Nashville has reached its hottest temperature on record…109 degrees at 314 pm. The previous all time record was 107 from July 27th and 28th of 1952.”
How hot is it? It is so hot that NBC Washington’s Chief Meteorologist, Doug Kammerer, explained on air “If we did not have global warming, we wouldn’t see this.”
As Climate Central explains in its post, “Scorching June Heat Wave Puts 50 Million in U.S. on Alert”:
“During the June 22-to-28 period, there were 2,132 warm temperature records set or tied in the U.S., compared to 486 cold temperature records. This includes 267 monthly warm temperature records, and 54 all-time warm temperature records.
"For the year-to-date, warm temperature records have been outpacing cold temperature records by about 7-to-1.
"In a long-term trend that demonstrates the effects of a warming climate, daily record-high temperatures have recently been outpacing daily record-lows by an average of 2-to-1, and this imbalance is expected to grow as the climate continues to warm.
"According to a 2009 study, if the climate were not warming, this ratio would be expected to be even. Other studies have shown that climate change increases the odds of extreme heat events and may make them warmer and longer lasting.
"All-time records set Thursday included several in Kansas, where Norton Dam recorded a high of 118°F, beating the old record of 113°F set just a few days earlier. Dodge City, Kan., set a daily high temperature record with a mark of 108°F. That came one day after that town recorded its all-time highest temperature of 112°F, breaking the old record of 110°F, which had been recorded just two days earlier, on June 26.”
Since the science of attributing extreme events to global warming is still emerging, scientists still disagree to what extent a specific event like this heat wave is driven by global warming. But two of the leading experts explain at RealClimate why even small shifts in average temperature mean “the probability for ‘outlandish’ heat records increases greatly due to global warming.” Furthermore, “the more outlandish a record is, the more would we suspect that non-linear feedbacks are at play – which could increase their likelihood even more.”
More at linkNBC Meteorologist Bill Karins said on Friday , “We’ve never really seen a... more
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Most people go through life simply repeating what they are told to believe. Watch as author David Icke illustrates how the elites design our reality through an intricate system of controlled mass communicationsMost people go through life simply repeating what they are told to believe. Watch as... more
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An historic heat wave that has helped create tinderbox conditions in Colorado and other Western states is moving east, with record-breaking temperatures expected in at least 13 states Thursday, from Oklahoma to Ohio. Already during the past seven days, 1,701 warm temperature records had been tied or set across the U.S., compared to 401 cool temperature records during the same period.
As occurred during the March 2012 heat wave, some of the records that have fallen eclipsed readings not seen since the Dust Bowl-era of the 1930s. The National Weather Service is describing the heat as “debilitating,” warning millions of Americans affected to take precautions against heat-related illness.
The heat in the West has helped fuel the devastating wildfires in Colorado, where the Waldo Canyon Fire burned hundreds of homes in Colorado Springs on Tuesday and Wednesday. Now that the heat is moving east, it is prompting concerns about the U.S. corn crop, which is particularly sensitive to dry and hot conditions at this time of year.
Benkelman, Neb., set a monthly high temperature record on Wednesday, when the temperature hit 114°F, breaking the old mark of 111°F set in 1936. Dodge City, Kan., set an all-time high temperature record of 111°F, beating the previous mark of 110°, which was set just a day before. (Track record temperatures using Climate Central's Record Tracker.) As The Weather Channel noted, at least 10 cities in the Rockies and High Plains had high temperatures that were hotter than Death Valley, Calif. on June 26.
More at the linkAn historic heat wave that has helped create tinderbox conditions in Colorado and... more
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Western wildfires, record-setting temperatures, devastating floods, and other extreme weather made more extreme by global warming have welcomed us to summer 2012. Yesterday’s solstice — marked by 66 high scorching records across the Eastern Seaboard — should serve as yet another reminder that it’s time to seriously address the carbon pollution.
Here are the top five extreme weather disasters in the U.S. for June:
1. Colorado Wildfire Blazes: This month, wildfires in northern Colorado forced thousands of families to evacuate their homes. Fueled by 40-to-50-mph winds and dry brush left after a particularly hot spring, the flames have destroyed at least 181 homes with 2000 firefighters deployed.
2. Zoo Animals Drowned in Minnesota Floods: Heavy rain in Duluth, Minnesota flooded two-thirds of the Lake Superior Zoo, drowning at least 11 animals in the process. Sinkholes and mudslides ravaged the rest of Duluth, flooding homes and shutting down roads. The flood also swept up an 8-year-old boy who luckily survived with just a few cuts.
3. Flooding in the Florida Panhandle: Earlier this month, torrential rains damaged homes and forced evacuations in the Florida Panhandle. The downpour cut power in the Escambia County jail and sent more than 100 residents to spend the night in Red Cross shelters, with 40 homes flooded in the city of Gulf Breeze.
4. Summer 2012 Poised for Record Low Sea Ice: Satellite observations analyzed by the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center show that this summer looks likely to bring unusually ice-free Arctic waters. The NSIDC predicts a low-ice year, the lack of white ice allowing more heat to be absorbed into the Arctic, an amplifying feedback that further accelerates warming and ice melt.
5. California Wildfire Prompts Evacuation: A San Diego County wildfire necessitated the evacuation of 150 homes. Over 500 firefighters were dispatched to attack the 907-acre blaze, which was fanned by strong gusts of wind and sent flames burning along the highway.
According to an NOAA analysis, the Northern Hemisphere land and ocean average surface temperature for last month was the all-time warmest May on record, at 0.85°C (1.53°F) above average. And as Amanda Staudt notes, it’s time for policymakers to start connecting the dots on carbon pollution. The recent influx of western wildfires — not to mention flooding, record heat, and the like — is extremely unlikely to occur under otherwise natural conditions.
Some states and insurance companies are beginning to recognize this, and regulators in California, Washington, and New York recently announced that insurance companies will be required to assess and disclose climate-related risks they face.
More at the link
I do this every few months to give perspective to the totality of what we face. I hope it gives some a clearer and total picture of just what is now happening due to anthropogenic climate change. And this is just a couple of months and just covers the US, and isn't even all of it. If I covered the entire globe I would need another whole thread. And again, not a peep about this from the "presidential" candidates who supposedly care about the people.
Just to add I also want to thank members posting these stories and tagging them in the Climate Extremes Group. We are the media on this it would seem.
Disclaimer: I no longer respond to anthropogenic climate change deniers nor their rehashed, unsourced, unlinked, crayon drawn propaganda from skeptic blogs and cherrypicking. I have been here for years posting articles, studies, comments and information on climate change/science that are available in many tags on the site.There is no need to continue to banter back and forth with these same people as I did for months here any longer since the only purpose is to continue this type of behavior to appease their own political and ideological biases. Thanks.Western wildfires, record-setting temperatures, devastating floods, and other extreme... more
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I came across this BUTTON http://make-everything-ok.com/ the other day while posting on StumbleUpon, upon clicking it and seeing the below message, I thought it quite funny.
{{{Everything is OK now. If everything is still not OK, try checking your settings of perception of objective reality.}}}
But then I pondered, what exactly is this thing called objective reality? I knew, simply put, that our perception of things around us is not reality based but is defined by our brains, using past experiences.
After reading this wordpress blog http://benafia.wordpress.com/my-pages/conservative-reality-avoidance-necessity-appearance-reality/ I found out ONE AMAZING FACT (which I believe I already knew but not in, oh so, accurate phrasing) The GOP/TP Republican Conservatives have a Gargantuan Disdain for Objective Reality.
Of course they do, they would not win or be allowed to steal elections if the populous was even partially aware of this cognitive philosophy. This Party of NO, must dumb down its voters, or they won’t have a chance in any election. But, I believe an odd (maybe a better word would be LIKELY) consequence occurs when they attempt to stifle good judgment, they themselves become ignorant to the realities of life. Their focus thus becomes clouded with money, power, arrogance, and greed; their attitude towards others is of indifference, believing all other humans beings (along with every other form of life) exist solely to make them materialistically superior, and nothing else. They are a very dangerous entity, not upon reality because reality will always prevail, it is beyond the scope of mere mortals but the Republican mindset will be lethal to us who live in this time and space. If they succeed in winning the election, come November 2012 another generation will suffer their disastrous hegemony for years to come; And that in very plain language… STINKS! thinkingblue
Click Button
What is objective reality?
Over on The Motley Fool atheist board, someone recently posted the question: "Could somebody please explain the term 'objective reality' to me?"
We don't view the world as it really is; we interpret it with our senses and filter it through existing patterns in our brains. For instance, when I think that I see a blue racquetball, I am not really perceiving the ball directly. White light is striking the surface of that ball, all the wavelengths are absorbed except for those that we recognize at the color blue, and then the light bounces back to the surface of our eyes. The cells in our eyes transmit the pattern of photons back to our brain, which then looks at the pattern of light and dark shading, interprets the slightly different information from each eye to estimate distance, and then creates sort of a computer simulated model of a ball. Your brain tells you "That's a blue ball!" and that's what you think you see.
But senses can be fooled or misled, and your brain's program can screw up and misinterpret what it's reading. Then you can get a false impression of what you are seeing in the world.
Furthermore, you interpret a lot of things based on your memories of things that have happened to you in the past. If you see or hear about something that conflicts with the world model that was already in your head, you might reject the new information or file it wrong in your memory, because your brain doesn't like to completely reorganize its existing patterns every time it sees something a bit odd.
So there's a "real world" out there, outside your brain; and then there's the "virtual world" that has been built inside your brain. The real and the virtual world never match up completely, but they can correspond to a greater or lesser degree. When you see a blue ball, you can be pretty confident that there really is a ball and it really has the property of being blue. The color blue is not really a "thing"; it is just a word that we use to label light at a certain wavelength. But there really is light, and it really has different wavelengths, and it really does bounce off of things like balls to show you the color blue.
When we talk about "objective reality", we are talking about the world that's really there, unfiltered, outside your mind. Our beliefs do not change the world, except to the extent that they lead to actions that alter reality. So I can, if I try hard enough, go around all day sincerely believing things like "That blue ball is actually an orange artichoke"
or
"There's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day" http://www.rense.com/general69/obj.htm
or
"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A46957-2003Jun11?language=printer
Why Does The Right Wing Need Reality Unhinged?
Essentially for the same reason the round earth reality was opposed by authorities, or the sun as center of the solar system was opposed; to keep control of the authority paradigm under their thought control, is a conservatives first imperative. For that they will deny evidence from observed reality that seems to constrain their authority. They are then compelled by emotion, to demean new or opposing information, particularly by shaming the messengers of contradiction and their message. We can be most passionate over that which we least know as fact.
They right wing often seeds irrationalism into the national dialectic to keep corralled, those dependent upon blind forms of trust, as opposed to more verifiable scientific analysis. We are figuratively then cast into the debate between the right wings modern versions of an obviously flat earth (appearance’s) , and the intellectual elites ideas of a round world which requires thought and rational interpretation. The conservative right spends much time on shame, blame, and attacks on science and intellectualism in general (their own excepted). Ignorance becomes the prime conservative currency they can take to the bank, made by trust in their authority and its “invincible” ideology.
This opens the door to proselytizing demagogues from soapboxes in the mass media. READ MORE HERE: http://benafia.wordpress.com/my-pages/conservative-reality-avoidance-necessity-appearance-reality/
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Is There a Difference Between Memory and Imagination?
If you remember something wrong, is the label “memory” still accurate? Does the label of memory necessitate a 1:1 correspondence with the past? If not 1:1, how much correspondence with the past is necessary for us to still be comfortable using the label of memory? More importantly, if we can talk about a memory being in error, or even completely fabricated (i.e. – “false memories”), then at what point can we then say there is a meaningful difference between memory and imagination? READ MORE HERE: http://cognitivephilosophy.net/consciousness/is-there-a-difference-between-memory-and-imagination/I came across this BUTTON http://make-everything-ok.com/ the other day while posting... more
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