No One Drought…
I know that you can’t blame a single drought, heat wave, hurricane, etc., on climate change. But the current drought in Australia has clearly become part of the political dynamic there. Consider a couple of stories on the wire this morning. First this: Immediate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will not halt the continuing damage [...]
Overnight Storm
An inch of snow when I measured this morning at my house – 0.14 inches of precip when melted. 0.12 at the airport. That’s a total of 0.18 total at the airport this month, as compared to an average of 0.5. It’s been wetter at my house – 0.49 inches. But it shows that a [...]
Government Interference in Climate Science
The folks at the Government Accountability Project have released a report, done in conjunction with the Union of Concerned Scientists, about government interference in climate science: • Nearly half of all respondents (46 percent of all respondents to the question) perceived or personally experienced pressure to eliminate the words “climate change,” “global warming,” or other [...]
Cool New Climate Book
I recently picked up Bob Henson’s Rough Guide to Climate Change, and I must say it fills a great niche. I’m a fan of Andrew Dessler’s book, which is a great primer. But (sorry, Dr. D) it’s a bit on the wonkish side. Henson’s book has a Rough Guide snap to it that makes it [...]
drinkin’ pee
One of the padres in New Mexico sent a letter home back in the 1600s expressing amazement that the residents of Gran Quivira, one of the pueblos near Albuquerque, saved their urine for use in the muds they used in building. It’s a dry place, you do stuff: Residents in tropical Queensland state will soon [...]
The Wisdom of Mac Fans
Nora sends along this Oct. 23, 2001 Macforum discussion of Apple’s big announcement: All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The Reality Distiortion Field™ is starting to warp Steve’s mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off.
Quote of the Week
Let us not gird science to our loins as the warrior buckles on his sword. Let us raise science aloft as the olive branch of peace and the emblem of hope. John Wesley Powell, in an 1882 talk, “Darwin’s contributions to philosophy” update: It’s worth pointing out here that Powell was full of extraordinary amounts [...]
Drought in South Dakota
Western South Dakota is one of those classic drought cases. It was extraordinarily wet there during the 1990s, well above the long term mean. Of the 10 wettest years in a century of records in northwest South Dakota, four came during the 1990s. An astonishing six years during the 1990s were greater than one standard [...]
Famine Response
Drought-induced famine is largely a political rather than climatological disaster, as this account by Teshome Erkineh of response to drought conditions in Ethiopia demonstrates. It happens when societies, for whatever reason, fail to cope with climate variability. A million people died in 1983-84 because of drought. In 2003, under what was a more severe drought [...]
Ionospheric Plasma Blobs
I have absolutely no earthly idea what ionospheric plasma blobs are, but I’m pretty sure they’re a serious threat to life as we know it, or possibly they’re associated with the villain in a 1950s science fiction film, or else I read about them in Zippy the Pinhead. Whatever, I’m pretty excited that Pimenta and [...]
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