Category Archives: Paleoclimate

Entropy and the Grand Canyon

Posted on June 20, 2018 by gymnosperm

It has been our good fortune to row 280 miles of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon twice in the last seven months. This is rare for private boaters limited to one trip per calendar year and subject to … Continue reading →

Posted in Geology, Grand Canyon, Paleoclimate, Paleogeography | 1 Comment

Paradise to Ice

Posted on May 27, 2017 by gymnosperm

There are Edens on earth today. They are not found toward the North and South Poles today, but for most of earth history they were.  What causes the planet to transition from paradise to ice? This is a matter of considerable … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Paleoclimate, Paleogeography | 4 Comments

The end of the Hollowscene

Posted on December 11, 2014 by gymnosperm

The concept of the Holocene epoch is a 19th century notion developed when the preceding “ice age” was thought of as a monolithic block of ice extending back to the end of the Pliocene. In this context it made sense … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropic interglacial, Anthropocene, Climate, Geology, Holocene, Paleoclimate | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Pause That Refreshes

Posted on April 11, 2014 by gymnosperm

We hear more and more about the Pause. This pause refers to a hiatus in lower atmospheric warming for a human generation since 1997. This “pause” by its very name implies that warming will resume sometime soon. Only zealots will claim … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Global Warming, Paleoclimate, the "Pause" | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Large Igneous Provinces, Temperature, Sea Level, and Extinctions

Posted on March 25, 2014 by gymnosperm

We had been looking at the stuff one can easily google regarding global temperature and large igneous provinces (LIP’s) and it seemed there might be something, so we dug in. There is an organization, largeigneousprovinces.org, that has excel data in … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Cretaceous normal superchron, Extinctions, Geology, Large Igneous Provinces, Magnetic Reversals, Paleo Sea Level, Paleoclimate | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Some Things We’ve Noticed About the California Drought

Posted on January 17, 2014 by gymnosperm

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 →

Posted in California Drought, Climate, Geography, Oceanography, Paleoclimate, Relationship of SST and 200hPa Anomalies, San Francisco Rainfall | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

YGBFkiddinme, Low Emissions Grass?

Posted on September 18, 2013 by gymnosperm

From Nature Magazine this pearl of pulchritude: “The solution, says Michael Peters, an agronomist at CIAT and leader of the team that has developed the low-emissions grass, is to encourage ammonium to persist in the soil for longer, by suppressing microbial … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Carbon Cycle, Climate, Climate Change, History of Life, Microbial Dark Matter, Paleoclimate, Salvation from Cows, What's going on here? | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dude, It’s Not About Carbon Dioxide

Posted on August 25, 2013 by gymnosperm

We know a lot about Carbon dioxide in a jar. We know the wavelengths it prefers to absorb and emit photons. We know it tends to mix efficiently with other gasses. We know it has a nearly magical affinity for … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon Cycle, Carbon Dioxide Loves to Swim, Climate, Climate Change, Global Warming, Paleoclimate | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Climate, Climate Change, Global Warming, Paleoclimate | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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