Phytoplankton Bloom off New Zealand

I recall the question being asked if major coccolithophore blooms occurred in the Southern Oceans. Well here is your answer, and down there spring is in progress. Source: NASA Earth Observatory.

El Niño, La Niña, and Rainfall

This link is to some excellent graphics and a clear explanation from NASA Earth Observatory.

Oct 24 is "350 ppm day"

  INTERNATIONAL DAY OF CLIMATE ACTION

All I can say is that I am very impressed with the magnitude of this, like 5200 events in 181 countries. See the above link for many amazing photos from around the world. 


For what is happening locally, see Rehoboth.

Engineering a Cooler Planet

This link is a long, but very well thought out blog post by Eric Etheridge. It deals primarily with adding sulfur to the atmosphere to counter CO2 induced global warming. To me the scariest scenario arises if we implement the sulfur addition approach, and then discover it has serious adverse side effects. In this scenario, we will not have been doing all possible to reduce carbon emissions, and if we decide we must  stop sulfur addition, global warming will basically explode as the sulfur quickly disappears from the atmosphere.

A recommended post if you have time to read it, and ponder over it.

5 Technologies....Wall Street Journal

Here is the on-line version of the article Keith brought in to class today. My favorite is the algae biofuel technology. "Algae grow fast, consume carbon dioxide and can generate more than 5,000 gallons a year per acre of biofuel, compared with 350 gallons a year for corn-based ethanol."

RE space-based solar power,  I don't want the microwave receiver anywhere near my backyard (even though the microwaves are reportedly safe).

Thanks Keith!

Copenhagen Prospects Grim

"History suggests that transformative moments in global policy making usually come only "in the moments after disaster," Philippe Sands, a leading expert in environmental law, told a crowd in London Thursday night at a forum exploring the prospects for Copenhagen."

I,  unfortunately, also think this is correct. So which, of the many possible disasters, will be the first and deciding one? I think it will probably be the Maldives going under.

Arctic Sea Ice Decline Details

This article in the Oct 15 TimesOnline provides many interesting details about the trends and implications in the loss of Arctic sea ice. The loss has been measured not only in extent by satellite, but also in average thickness by hands-on measurements:

"Mr Hadow and his two team members spent 73 days between March 1 and May 7 this year walking 280 miles (450.6km) across the Arctic while taking measurements. They drilled 1,500 holes and found that the average thickness of ice floes was 1.8m (5.9ft)."

For an answer to - Why was sea ice extent in 2009 only the 3rd lowest ? - see this NSIDC press release which contains the following quote: "The cooler conditions, which resulted largely from cloudy skies during late summer, slowed ice loss compared to the past two years (Figure 4). In addition, atmospheric patterns in August and September helped to spread out the ice pack, keeping extent higher. "

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

I continue to be very skeptical about CCS. The economics of capturing CO2 from coal power plant emissions, transporting it to a suitable sequestering site, and then keeping it safely stored for thousands of years, seems unrealistic. I personally would much rather put my money to solar, wind and wave power generation.

Anyway, in sorting my bookmarked web pages, I came upon the above link, which is detailed and  relevant to what we discussed in this morning's class.....and Keith, I know you'll love all the $ figures.

NRDC Ocean Acidification Video

The above link is to the NRDC video Acid Test. It is a very well done 21 minute video with excellent graphics, including close-up photos of terapods.

Sorry we did not have this for class this morning, but I just came upon it.

'Scary' new historical CO2 data and high sea levels

From the above linked BBC article: "Researchers used ocean sediments to plot CO2 levels back 20 million years.  Levels similar to those now commonly regarded as adequate to tackle climate change (read 450 ppm) were associated with sea levels 25-40m (80-130 ft) higher than today."

The science is based on "the ratios of boron and calcium in the shells of tiny marine organisms called foraminifera. The ratio indicates the pH of sea water at the time the organisms grew, which in turn allows scientists to calculate the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere. The shell fragments came from cores drilled from the floor of the Pacific Ocean."

A second linked  article in Reuters uses a comparable approach by different scientists to arrive at similar conclusions. In this study they went back further in time to when CO2 levels were 750 ppm. Both articles were based on results published in the journal Nature.

Pyron Solar - High Efficiency Solar Power

This is a 2nd "Less Dumb Global Warming Solution" from Spencer's book, Climate Confusion. The following quote from the above treehugger article caught my attention as almost too good to be true:

"With the size, price, and efficiency of the system, it has been calculated that, with a piece of land measuring 50 square miles in the desert southwest, the Pyron system could provide all the electricity consumed by the entire US."

Then again, the technology seems sound and proven, and I hope it is true.  There are also a lot of good related references in the above link.

Solar Tower Electricity Generation

A solar (updraft) tower generates electricity by combing the chimney effect, the greenhouse effect and wind turbines. Air is heated by the sun in a greenhouse-like enclosure, and then passed through turbines and up a very tall tower, or chimney.

A prototype was operated in Spain for several years. Currently there are plans to build a commercial facility in Australia (above link, also see Wikipedia). Such power plants are best suited for areas with low land costs, and high solar radiation input . Once constructed, they are very easy to operate, and thus also well suited for undeveloped regions of the world.

I have included this post because the information was new to me. I came upon it in Roy Spencer's book, Climate Confusion, in the chapter, "Less Dumb Global Warming Solutions".

Updated Syllabus

An updated climate class syllabus is available at this link.

Maldives Underwater Cabinet Meeting

With an average elevation above sea level of only 1.5 m, the Maldives face the most serious threat of any country in the world from rising sea levels. To highlight their plight, their new President has called an underwater cabinet meeting, and pledged to have the nation carbon neutral by 2020. They are also investigating purchase of land in India, Sri Lanka and Australia, where they could move their 330,000 residents if needed.

NASA Data: Greenland, Antarctic Ice Melt Worsening

I will of course cover this in the next class on Arctic and Antarctic, but I thought you might like to read this article beforehand. One quote from the referenced article stands out:

"To some extent it's a runaway effect. The question is how far will it run?" said the study's lead author, Hamish Pritchard of the British Antarctic Survey. "It's more widespread than we previously thought."

Must Reads for Copenhagen

Whew! This is one heck of an assignment. Gordon, think you can finish all these by December?

Seriously, it is great to have a summary by a climate expert for each of these recommended books, and scanning through these summaries, I see several books I will be reading.

Also, Gordon and I will also be happy to make class time available to anyone who wants to read and present their summary of one of these books. Bill

In a New Climate Model, Short-term Cooling

Natural climate changes can outweigh global warming from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. In this May, 2008 New York Times article by Andrew Revkin, he refers to work done by researchers from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, in Kiel, Germany. "We're learning that internal climate variability is important and can mask the effects of human-induced global change," according to the lead author of a paper published in the May 1, 2008 journal Nature, Noel Keenlyside. This study looked at the relationship between currents in the Atlantic Ocean called the meridional overturning circulation, which undergo periodic changes, and global climate trends. The result of their computer simulation based on ocean temperatures indicate a slight cooling of Europe and North America in this coming decade.

Also, as pointed out in Revkin's article, researchers, including NASA scientists reported that a slowly fluctuating oscillation in Pacific Ocean temperatures had shifted into a cooling phase that is expected to exert an overall cooling of global climate.