Author Archives: gymnosperm

Dark Energy, Plasma, and the Whedefugawe Effect

Posted on May 30, 2015 by gymnosperm

Early in the twentieth century, even as emergent nationalism made the world pregnant with a half century of mechanized war, the greatest advances in physics since Isaac Newton were taking place. Relativity and quantum redefined the universe as a dance … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Physics, Plasma | Tagged | Leave a comment

Doubling the Carbon Cycle

Posted on May 7, 2015 by gymnosperm

In the last post we had set out to model geological isotope excursions and found that our conception of the current Carbon cycle is so messed up that any venture into deep time hopeless. Specifically, when d13C values are integrated … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon Cycle | Tagged | Leave a comment

Cycling the Isotopes

Posted on April 26, 2015 by gymnosperm

We have long been interested in Carbon isotope “excursions” and took a notion to integrate isotope ratios into a simple box model of the Carbon cycle with an eye to replicating these excursions. The initial result was surprising and it became … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon Cycle, Carbon Dioxide Loves to Swim, Climate | Tagged | 2 Comments

The Plankton and The Nebulae

Posted on April 18, 2015 by gymnosperm

Deep space from the Hubble by NOAA Plankton.

Posted in Climate | Leave a comment

History on Ice

Posted on April 5, 2015 by gymnosperm

, This graphic of Greenland ice core temperature based on data by Alley has been making the rounds. I took a notion to plot human history against it and don’t know who to credit for the base graphic, but grateful acknowledge it as not … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate and Civilization, Climate Change, Geography, History | Tagged | Leave a comment

Hydrocarbon Combustion Water Vapor and it’s Greenhouse Effect on Surface Thermometers

Posted on March 29, 2015 by gymnosperm

Nobody ever thinks about this, but when you drive your car down the street, when David Crosby drives his Tesla into a pedestrian, when solar cells wrought with energy from fossil fuels produce energy for the grid; twice as many … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate | Leave a comment

Truckin’

Posted on March 21, 2015 by gymnosperm

My son, having graduated from UCLA in Math/Econ and worked for a year at a bank, took a notion to try his hand at long haul trucking. We parents were not particularly thrilled with this move, but having personally abandoned my … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Geography | Tagged | Leave a comment

Oil and the Devil

Posted on March 8, 2015 by gymnosperm

  The concept of the devil in the Judeo-Christian/Muslim tradition seems to have its roots in an older Persian and possibly Indo-European notion of opposing forces of good and evil. The Christian conception developed into the elaborate scheme described by  Dante which was integrated into … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Climate, Geology, History, Religion | Tagged | Leave a comment

California Drought Update February 2015

Posted on March 1, 2015 by gymnosperm

It seems from the great wailing and moaning that we have arrived at a new definition of drought. The new definition is whatever is inconvenient for 30 million people regardless how much rain falls. I am a big fan of … Continue reading →

Posted in California Drought, Climate, San Francisco Rainfall | Tagged | Leave a comment

The New Ptolemy

Posted on February 15, 2015 by gymnosperm

The evolution of consciousness since the Enlightenment can be thought of as the progressive, and unwelcome realization of human insignificance. We inhabit this rock, spinning in infinity*, the center of nothing, outweighed in biomass by ants. God still loves us, … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropocene, Anthropology, Climate Change, History, Metaphor | Leave a comment