You are browsing the archive for Climate Change Archives - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
18 January 2017
NOAA/NASA 2016 Hottest On Record- 3rd In a Row.
NOAA released the animation below that illustrates how the planet has warmed over the last 130 years. They also noted: The globally averaged sea surface temperature was the highest on record, 1.35 degree F above average. The globally-averaged land surface temperature was the highest on record, 2.57 degrees F above average. North America had its warmest year on record; South America and Africa had their second; Asia and Europe had …
5 January 2017
House Science Committee Stoops To Name Calling and Fantasy Science
Take a look at the following tweet from THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Science Space and Technology Committee: Actually the very data they linked to shows it DOES fit. Fortunately, some REAL scientists let them know that they are UNQUESTIONABLY WRONG. and some more comments from people living in a world based on fact: Somehow I think the person doing these tweets has ZERO background in science. There are a couple …
30 September 2016
Historic Rainfall Event in Maryland and Delaware
In my last post, I wrote about the possibility of a severe flood/rain event in Eastern Virginia/Delaware/Maryland. Unfortunately my forecast was correct, and in short, it’s still raining. The town of Harbeson Delaware had over a foot of rain in 24 hours! Schools were closed, roads washed out, and many other closed. I mentioned yesterday that the water temps in the Atlantic are at record levels, and it’s hard to …
21 September 2016
From Scientific Skepticism to Conspiracy Theory
Science is all about skepticism. We demand data, and ANY theory must be able to submit itself to an experiment that could possibly disprove it. If it cannot, then it is NOT science. If an experiment disproves it, then the theory is wrong, period. However, when you reach a mountain of well understood evidence, those who refuse to believe it are no longer skeptics. Some folks call them conspiracy theorists or …
8 November 2011
Dispelling An Enduring Myth With One Image
If the Earth’s temperature was the same year after year, then the effects of increasing greenhouse gases would be very easy to spot. Unfortunately, Mother Nature rarely makes things that easy to figure out. Besides the daily and seasonal cycles, we also have decadal temperature swings caused by the sunspot cycle and ocean/atmospheric oscillations. This tends to confuse non scientists, and fools many into believing claims that global warming has …
3 November 2011
The PIG has A Problem- Pine Island Glacier In Antarctica Develops Huge Crack
Big news from Antarctica, where it is very early spring. The Pine Island Glacier has developed a huge crack and is being monitored closely. NASA has a great video with the details: It’s normal for ice shelves break off icebergs as they reach the sea, but the rate they do so is of intense interest to those who are studying the climate of Antarctica. If this crack breaks off, …
27 October 2011
Climate Skeptics Find The Truth Is Getting Ever More Inconvenient
One of U.C. Berkeley’s most popular undergraduate courses is Physics For Future Presidents. It’s taught by Professor Richard Muller who is a very well-known physicist who has worked in nuclear and particle physics at U.C. Berkeley and is a senior faculty member at Lawrence-Berkeley Laboratory. His book, Physics For Future Presidents, is absolutely excellent as well and I highly recommend it, but this is a story about climate change and …
17 October 2011
Developing La Nina Cools The Planet in September
The developing La Nina in the Pacific has brought the global temperature in September down slightly, but it was still the 8th warmest on record. NASA does a separate calculation and ranks Sep. 2011 as 9th warmest. When a La Nina develops the world’s largest ocean sees noticeably cooler surface waters. This chills the air enough to bring the global temperatures down, while El Nino does just the …
11 October 2011
Dissapearing Ice At The Top of The World and The Roof of the World
The news that the Arctic sea ice approached very near the 2007 record is about a month old now, but the NSIDC has a rather amazing graph showing the trend since 1978. This is just one aspect of the ice and perhaps not the most important. The old ice in the Arctic has nearly disappeared in many areas now. Take a look at this video from NOAA and made by …
10 October 2011
The Next Generation Weather/Earth Science Satellite Is Two Weeks From Launch
It’s called NPP and it is part of NPOES but it’s definitely NOT GOES. It is however a big GO (once they fix some leaks on the Delta 2 Rocket), and it will head it into space from Vandenburg AFB in California late this month. Science loves its acronyms but here’s what it all means in plain language. NPOES is the National Polar Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System and it …