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Author Archives: gymnosperm
Carbon and the Second Coming
Why do we yearn the judgment day? Why is there always, on some street corner, somewhere, somebody proclaiming that the end is near? One must learn from their weaknesses, if possible. But this yearning keeps returning, again, and again. We … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Climate, Human need for Judgdment, Shamanism
Tagged Judgment Day, Second Coming
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Ah, the Frogs
Almost forgot about the frogs. It has been dry, desert dry, in California for so long. They are tiny creatures, like what we used to call “tree” frogs, but they live in the grass. You can never imagine there would … Continue reading
Posted in Biology, California Drought, Climate
Tagged Frog Patience, Frogs on the plain
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The Pacific Triangle Revisited, The Impact, The Wave
We have explored the Pacific Triangle and the Ring around Antarctica in prior posts. It just seems so outrageous that three spreading ridges would suddenly emerge from a single point in the Panthalassic Ocean 170 million years ago and begin migrating away in … Continue reading
A New Feature of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation?
We learn about things in mundane ways. Our conception of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) began with fish. Salmon are absolutely delicious. Tough handed people venture into dangerous conditions to catch them for us. It became apparent to the tough … Continue reading
Posted in California Drought, Climate, Geography, San Francisco Rainfall
Tagged pacific decadal oscillation
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Some Things We’ve Noticed About the California Drought
California is a drought state. Our so called “Mediterranean” climate falls in a global zone just poleward of the great deserts and along the western continental margins that is characterized by winter rain and summer drought. Should we be surprised … Continue reading
Carbon Dioxide, the Wimp
It is pretty well-known that CO2 represents only one part in 2500 in the atmosphere. Water vapor represents one part in 40. Not only is CO2 a wimpy constituent of the atmosphere, it is also a wimpy constituent of the … Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Global Warming, Optical Material Properties
Tagged CO2, Greenhouse gas, the Wimp
16 Comments
A Very Dry Season in California
The pre-Columbian California native people had a mystical and cultural relationship to the climate that did not involve measuring rainfall. The Franciscan fathers were on their own spiritual quest, and while they sometimes recorded wine production at the missions, they didn’t record … Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Geography, San Francisco Rainfall
Tagged California, California Drought, rainfall data, rainfall measurements, San Francisco
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Photon Food Fight
The fact that more energy cycles between the surface of the earth and the atmosphere than the earth receives from the sun strikes me as one of the great marvels of nature. This is the earth’s energy budget according to … Continue reading
Paving It Won’t Save It (The Planet, That is)
The oceans are the energy bank for the planet. They receive energy to great depth from the sun. Continents cool the planet. Daedalus suggested in jest that if we increased the area of the continents 5%, we could reverse the … Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Geography, Geology, Global Warming, Plate Tectonics, Serpentine
Tagged Eocene, Prescribed Pavement, Proterozoic
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Science and Government
We have become so accustomed to science by public institutions of higher education, and publicly funded science at private institutions , we easily forget that a century and a half ago this practice was unheard of. Charles Darwin was a … Continue reading
Posted in Beggaring Science, Climate, Government Industry
Tagged Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, Peer review, Science as government industry, The Voyage of the Beagle
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