Author Archives: gymnosperm

Wild Rogue

Posted on June 25, 2014 by gymnosperm

It had been fourteen years since last running the wilderness section of the Rogue river with my two younger kids then chest high. The first June of the new millennium saw very high flows and few other boaters. The river … Continue reading →

Posted in Geology, Metaphor, River, Rocks, Wilderness | Tagged , | Leave a comment

What Climate Sensitivity Should We Expect?

Posted on June 6, 2014 by gymnosperm

The great failing of climate science has been the inability to constrain the range of climate sensitivity to human CO2. The possible range remains from slightly negative to +5 degrees for a “doubling”. The concept emerged when the atmosphere was … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, climate sensitivity, Dud PDO, Energy of Photons | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Homo erectus and the Climate Scientist.

Posted on May 15, 2014 by gymnosperm

Habilis probably had fire, but Homo erectus definitely had fire and he would have been around at the last glacial maximum to discuss with a climate scientist the dangers of burning a lot of campfires. He does not look impressed. … Continue reading →

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Pressure Broadening

Posted on May 14, 2014 by gymnosperm

In a recent blog post Dr. Roy Spencer took the skeptical community to task for a list of arguments he considers to lack merit. One of these was the argument that the CO2 absorption bands are saturated. He stated that … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, climate sensitivity, Optical Material Properties, Photon, Pressure Broadening, Spectra | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

The Dud PDO Index of Climate Sensitivity

Posted on May 12, 2014 by gymnosperm

Climate sensitivity is the response of the climate system to a given increment of CO2. It is often expressed as the response to a “doubling” of this gas from a pre industrial level. Estimates of climate sensitivity are all over … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate Change, climate sensitivity, Dud PDO, Global Warming, PDO | Tagged | 1 Comment

On Being a Sheepherder and an Ignoramus

Posted on May 11, 2014 by gymnosperm

Most of us these days have never herded sheep. It is an ancient human occupation that afforded lots of time for contemplation and gazing at the stars. The reverie was punctuated by emergencies and predators and the mystique of living … Continue reading →

Posted in Metaphor, Sheepherders and ignoramuses, Wilderness | Tagged | Leave a comment

California Drought Update 4-14

Posted on April 27, 2014 by gymnosperm

For some reason the validated CDC data for March in San Francisco have been excruciatingly slow, and judging from local data will be revised down slightly. This is peculiar because it was raining hard as March came to a close … Continue reading →

Posted in California Drought, Climate | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Everyone Loves Lists, Should We Worry or Not?

Posted on April 26, 2014 by gymnosperm

Take a big leap back in time. It is 1974, forty years ago. The planet has been cooling for thirty years. There is very real concern about this. The Pentagon is making Ice Age contingency plans. The scientific community is agnostic. … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate Change, Cold is the New Hot, Global Warming, Greenhouse Effect, Greenhouse Spectra, Large Igneous Provinces, Photon Food Fight, Spectra, the "Pause" | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Pacific Doughboy and the Core

Posted on April 22, 2014 by gymnosperm

Here at the Trunkmonkey Research Institute we’ve been possessed of late by the Doughboys. This representation is not really very good. It is a plate carree projection extruded as a box. Trouble is, when you bend it round like our … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Geoid, Geology, LLSVP, LLSVP's are Doughboys, Seismic Tomography | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Doughboys

Posted on April 13, 2014 by gymnosperm

I have seen the following attributed to Ritsema and van Heist but have not found it in any of their papers. People with no sense of verbal aesthetics have named the red things LLSVP’s for Large Low Shear Velocity Provinces. Sometimes they … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa Keystone of Pangea, Asthenia, Geoid, Geology, Large Igneous Provinces, LLSVP, LLSVP's are Doughboys, Moho, Seismic Tomography | Tagged , , | 1 Comment