Category Archives: Climate

The Duty of Truth

Posted on March 17, 2013 by gymnosperm

Those who work at public institutions owe the public, their patrons, a duty of truth. Private citizens are free to engage in any foolishness that suits them, but public servants must be held to a higher standard. The graph above … Continue reading →

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Here’s the Beef, Or the World Economy Explained by a Billion Cows

Posted on March 9, 2013 by gymnosperm

Grasses coevolved with ungulates (we can call them cows). About 30 million years ago due to declining temperature, humidity, and atmospheric Carbon dioxide a bunch of plants including grasses evolved a more efficient form of photosynthesis called C4. This allowed them … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Climate, Climate Change, Economics, Geography, History, History of Life, Paleoclimate, Salvation from Cows | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Nano Carbon Cycle

Posted on February 13, 2013 by gymnosperm

We live in a world of wee beasties. Microbes here, microbes there, microbes in every breath we take, microbes on every bite we eat. They digest the food in our bellies, they create our food and drink. They make us … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon Cycle, Climate, Geography, Geology, Oceanography | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Reversals and the Carbon Dioxide Wind.

Posted on February 7, 2013 by gymnosperm

The most astonishing lesson in physics gained from floating rivers is the inclination of water to reverse direction and flow back into a “hole”. Even in the steepest rapid and in spite of its tremendous weight and momentum, when an … Continue reading →

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Study in Science Magazine Shows Strongest El Ninos in 7000 Years Were During Little Ice Age

Posted on February 3, 2013 by gymnosperm

Kim Cobb and others published January 3 in Science Magazine a paper exploring 18Oxygen in coral cores as old as 7000 years. Living coral was not drilled. While showing some increase in amplitude since 1970, the strongest El Ninos in … Continue reading →

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Structural Similarities Observed in ENSO Neutered Atmospheric Temperatures and Ocean Enthalpy

Posted on February 2, 2013 by gymnosperm

Signal lies in structure. Atmospheric temperature for the last decade and a half has made it abundantly clear that there is much more going on than the optical and radiative properties of carbon dioxide. The converse possibility that oceans, which … Continue reading →

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Loose Fire Hose and the Aborted Nino

Posted on January 26, 2013 by gymnosperm

The Antarctic vortex is a whirling dervish that extends from the stratosphere to the deep ocean. Inside the steep gradients that drive this circulation everything is reflected inward and contained. Outside the dervish everything that contacts it receives angular momentum. … Continue reading →

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Global Average Temperature and Whirled Peas

Posted on January 21, 2013 by gymnosperm

Can you visualize whirled peas? Yes, unfortunately. And what do whirled peas mean? Both the mean and the average and everything else.. Everything is nothing. So what if the diurnal temperature spread were the difference between a snowcone and a snowfree … Continue reading →

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Carbon and Freight Trains

Posted on January 13, 2013 by gymnosperm

Everyone seems to think that carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere and sort of sits there like some invisible smoke, trapping outgoing IR like our automobile windshields and heating us up. Carbon dioxide is more like a freight train. Humans … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate Change, Geography, Oceanography | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Global Warming and Prohibition

Posted on January 3, 2013 by gymnosperm

We like to think we live in an enlightened era, but even modern history keeps reminding us that a rigid and intolerant side of human nature lies just beneath the surface. It is ironic that Prohibition, and a corresponding amendment … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Carbon Theology, Climate, Climate Change, Global Warming | Tagged | 6 Comments