27 July 2019
New Research Confirms It: The Warming is Us
Posted by Dan Satterfield
The leading climate myth going around these days (I see it a lot on social media) is that the record global warmth is just part of a natural cycle. It’s been shown in many ways that this is not possible for quite some time, but some people (not the science community) have held onto the “Little Ice Age” as evidence that the warming planet is from only natural oscillations.
New research this week has put a sword through the heart of that myth.
From the Abstract in NATURE:
Another paper, in NATURE GEOSCIENCE, is a second confirmation to research published by Dr. Michael Mann in 2009 showing that the so-called “Little Ice Age” was not a global phenomenon. If you want to claim that the warming we have seen is part of a natural cycle, you have a lot of science that says you are wrong and none that supports it. Don’t even think of claiming that the Earth is still coming out of the ice age. That one is laughably wrong as well.
Instead, perhaps you should consider that you are wanting this to be true because the science conflicts with your political or religious worldview. If you’ve never had a course in climate science and are claiming every major scientific body on Earth is wrong, then it’s something you should ponder.
Cognitive dissonance causes people to accept flimsy evidence while disregarding a mountain of high-quality documentation. Understanding this is actually one of the keys to science literacy. If you have friends who are suffering in this regard, then I suggest a quote by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman:
“Science is what we do to keep from lying to ourselves”.
Yet another confirmation of Dr. Michael Mann’s famous Hockey Stick.
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.
I gave a paper in San Francesco on training in the post TMI accident era and had the pleasure of hearing Washington state governor, Dixie Ray Lee speak. She was a PhD nuclear physicist who spoke about the social challenges of electricity being produced by commercial nuclear power. The key take away was the fact that 50 million Americans read the news from two super market tags touting things like actresses giving birth after encounters with aliens. She said these people believed these “fake” articles, how were we supposed to explain a complex social & technical issue like commercial nuclear electricity generation? This is our current challenge in addition to what you described Dan.
Thank you
On climate change
The more I speak with experts on the subject I hear this:
Climate change is real. It has never stopped changing. The last ice age ended about 15,000 years ago and has been warming slowly since some 2.5 million years ago. The hockey stick theory suggests that global temperatures have seen a steeper increase in the past 50 years. Though accurate records on the subject are also about that old. The hundred dollar question- has human activity caused global warming?
Everyone I’ve spoken to (scientists, naturalists, park rangers etc) shrug a bit and say they think it probably has had some effect. The main thing noted from human activity is the CO2 levels in the atmosphere have been measured at 200 to 300 parts per million for many decades. They’ve risen to around 400 ppm in the past 20-30 years.
Interestingly, as an aside, global temps hit a peak in 2016. They’ve come down in 2017, and again in 2018.
Not sure if heat wave in Europe is related, or cold snap in Midwest USA last winter is either.
My question: how come science hasn’t been able to control climate. Make it rain where there’s drought. Turn mounting hurricanes to tropical storms. Make pretty weather girls right all of the time? Lol
Look up the amount of heat released by one thunderstorm. Now, convert that to Watts. Now, look up how many watts every power plant in Maryland produced in the last 24 hours. That will answer your question. If not, look up how many watts of power it will take to heat the Chesapeake Bay by one degree, and compare that with the power output of Virginia power plants last month.