Some call me a 'climate scientist'. I'm not. What I am is an 'Earth systems generalist'.
Born in 1939, I grew up with passionate interests in both science and engineering. I learned to read from my father's university textbooks in geology and paleontology, and dreamed of building nuclear powered starships. Living on a yacht in Southern California I grew up surrounded by (and often immersed in) marine and estuarine ecosystems while my father worked in the aerospace engineering industry.
After studying university physics for three years, dyslexia with numbers convinced me to change my focus to biology. I completed university as an evolutionary biologist (PhD Harvard, 1973). My principal research project involved understanding how species' genetic systems regulated the evolution and speciation of North America's largest and most widespread lizard genus. Then for several years as an academic biologist I taught a range of university subjects as diverse as systematics, biogeography, cytogenetics, comparative anatomy and marine biology.
In Australia, from 1980, I was involved in various activities around the emerging and rapidly evolving microcomputing technologies culminating in 2 years involvement in the computerization of the emerging Bank of Melbourne.
In 1990 I joined a startup engineering company that had just won the contract to build a new generation of 10 frigates for Australia and New Zealand. In 2007 I retired from the head office of Tenix Defence, then Australia's largest defence engineering contractor, after a 17½ year career as a documentation and knowledge management systems analyst and designer. At Tenix I reported to the R&D manager under the GM Engineering, and worked closely with support and systems engineers on the ANZAC Ship Project to solve documentation and engineering change management issues that risked the project 100s of millions of dollars in cost and years of schedule overruns. All 10 ships had been delivered on time, on budget to happy customers against the fixed-price and fixed schedule contract.
Before, during, and after these two main gigs I also did a lot of other things that contribute to my general understanding of complex dynamical systems involving multiple components with non-linear and sometimes chaotically interacting components; e.g., 'Earth systems'.
Earth's Climate System is the global heat engine driven by the transport and conversions of energy between the incoming solar radiation striking the planet, and the infrared radiation of heat away from the planet to the cold dark universe.
As Climate Sentinel News Editor, my task is to identify and understand quirks and problems in the operation of this complex heat engine that threaten human existence, and explain to our readers how they can help to solve some of the critical issues that are threatening their own existence.
The rising sea-level has two sources: runoff from the land (mostly glacial melt water) and thermal expansion of the ocean itself due to warming from excess solar energy accumulating from the global warming process.
The melt water in the rising sea-level comes from two primary sources, melting glaciers and ice cap on Greenland that has increased 6-fold over the last couple of decades; and melting glaciers and ice cap on Antarctica which has more than doubled over the same time. This is measured by the loss of mass variable – representing the weight of the water that has been added to the oceans.
As described in the feature article below, the melting rate of a glacier is determined by its speed as it is creeping/sliding down the continental slope into the ocean. This in turn is determined by a complex set of interacting factors, e.g., temperature, angle of slope, width and roughness of the bed, how much meltwater is in the bed to lubricate/float the ice, where and how the ice may crack and crumble, how many bends there are in the valley, ocean conditions at the foot, whether and to what extent warm and salty (salt lowers the melting temperature of ice) ocean water penetrates into the glacier bed under its foot, thickness and extent of the floating ice shelf at the glacier’s foot and so on. Simply stated, melt rates are inherently unpredictable. However, one thing we can be sure of is that the melt rate will speed up as ambient temperatures increase the rate of ice melting, and rain replaces snow as the main form of precipitation.
The geological record provides good evidence that episodes of abrupt ice melting can cause raise sea-levels a lot faster than they are now, perhaps even showing large changes in rate over a few decades.
There may well be enough ice in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet — especially if combined with an equally rapid melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet to support an equivalent amount of melting to the Meltwater Pulse 1A. It is notable that the land surface underlying very large areas of both West Antarctica and Greenland are below sea level – giving ample opportunities for warm ocean water to help speed the melting and collapse of the ice sheets.
Why Melting Ice in Antarctica is Making Waves: Scientists recently discovered that the Thwaites Ice Shelf, a floating ice shelf that supports the Florida-sized Thwaites Glacier, could collapse in as little as five years because of global warming.
Climate Reality Project, 28/01/2022
This past December, the massive Thwaites Glacier in Western Antarctica made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Specifically, because new research revealed that the ice shelf preventing it from sliding into the ocean and drastically raising sea levels could collapse well within the next decade.
This Florida-sized glacier had already worried experts for years, going as far as to regularly be called the “Doomsday Glacier”. And yet, this update from the scientific community was still groundbreaking.
It’s news that the world — particularly low-lying island and coastal communities — should understand and act on. So, what exactly is Thwaites Glacier, what does the latest research about it say, and what consequences could come from its decline?
FIRST THINGS FIRST, WHAT IS THWAITES GLACIER?
Thwaites Glacier is a massive body of dense ice located in Western Antarctica. Measuring about 80 miles (120 km) across, it’s the widest glacier on Earth.
Thwaites Glacier in Western Antarctica. Credit: NASA
The glacier has an ice shelf — a permanent piece of floating ice connected to it — that branches out into the Amundsen Sea. Now, understanding what exactly an ice shelf does is crucial.
Read the complete article….
As long as the world continues to warm and large amounts of snow and ice remain lying on the land, sea levels will continue to rise. The risk of an abrupt sea-level rise is real. The human and economic costs of such an event would be catastrophic if it happens. It therefore makes very good sense that mitigation works should begin soon with planning in place at federal, state and local levels to accelerate the work if we have any clear early warning signs that abrupt melting is actually beginning.
Also, from the official transcript dated 20/12/2019 from the PM’s own office, Scotty made it abundantly clear to John Stanley on 2GB Radio that HE doesn’t fight fires… “But I know Australians understand… that, you know, I don’t hold a hose, mate, and I don’t sit in a control room. That’s the brave people who do that are doing that job. But I know that Australians would want me back at this time out of these fatalities. So I’ll happily come back [from his secret holiday in Hawaii] and do that.”
Sixteen year-old Greta tells us and everyone at the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos how we and our governments should actually respond to the climate emergency:
In other words, smell the smoke, see the reality, and fight the fire that is burning up our only planet so we can give our offspring a hopeful future. This is the only issue that matters. All Capt. Humbug and his troop of wooden-headed puppets are doing is rearranging the furniture in the burning house to be incinerated along with anything else we may care about. In Greta’s words, “even a small child can understand [this]”. People hope for their children’s futures. She doesn’t want your hope. She wants you to panic enough to wake up and fight the fire…. so she can have some hope for her future. Vote Climate One’s Traffic Light Voting System will help you use your vote wisely on behalf of our offsprings’ futures.
Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.
Record high mid-winter temps from 28 to 31 °C and wildfires hit Southern California suggesting drought may continue for another year
By Jan Wesner Childs 11/02/2020 in The Weather Channel: Homes Burned, Evacuations Ordered Amid Southern California Wildfires: Southern California is experiencing unusually hot weather, combined with Santa Ana winds and an ongoing drought. Temperatures soared into the mid- to upper 80s in some areas Thursday with daily record highs noted by the National Weather Service in Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles counties.
See also: By Madeline Scheinost 09/02/2022 in The Weather Channel Does California’s Dry Start to 2022 Mean the Drought Is Locked in Until Next Winter?: California started the year with a dent in a multi-year drought thanks to a wet December, but a dry spell to start the year threatens to counteract the progress that was made and prolong the drought well into 2022.
Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.
Biden’s new climate incentives have a good chance to pass Congress, to work in practice, and to give great value for money
by Robinson Meyer 10/02/2022 in The Atlantic
Biden’s Biggest Idea on Climate Change Is Remarkably Cheap: It’s one of the most cost-effective climate policies the U.S. has ever considered, according to a new analysis…. The researchers’ study, which has not been peer-reviewed, finds that the policy’s benefits will be three to four times larger than its costs, creating as much as projected $1.5 trillion in economic surplus while eliminating more than 5 billion tons of planet-warming carbon pollution through 2050.
Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.
Shows capacities for high CO2 capture under power plant operating conditions, minimizing energy-intensive temperature swings of other techs
by Mohen S. Yeganeh, et al. 11/02/2022 in Science Advances Solid with infused reactive liquid (SWIRL): A novel liquid-based separation approach for effective CO2 capture: Economical CO2 capture demands low-energy separation strategies. We use a liquid-infused surface (LIS) approach to immobilize reactive liquids, such as amines, on a textured and thermally conductive solid substrate with high surface-area to volume ratio (A/V) continuum geometry…. [The technology] shows stable, high capture capacities at power plant CO2 concentrations near flue gas temperatures, preventing energy-intensive temperature swings needed for other approaches.
VC1 Editor’s comment: The science behind this technology appears to be valid, but implementing it will be too costly and engineering intensive for applications other than mitigating already concentrated carbon emissions from power plant flue gases and other large-scale industrial emitters. However, in this application the technology described here would seem to have significant advantages over other proposed technologies.
Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.
Amazing breakthrough technology: cover ice and snow with ‘green’ radiative cooling foil to slow/stop melting and even help freezing
by Jinlei Li et al. 11/02/2022 in Science Advances Protecting ice from melting under sunlight via radiative cooling: Here, we demonstrate that a hierarchically designed radiative cooling film based on abundant and eco-friendly cellulose acetate molecules versatilely provides effective and passive protection to various forms/scales of ice under sunlight. This work provides inspiration for developing an effective, scalable, and sustainable route for preserving ice and other critical elements of ecosystems.
VC1 Editor’s comment: The cost-effectiveness of this technology remains to be proven in practice. However, the the science appears to be sound, cooling effects of ultra-white paint have been proven in shopping center-scale commercial application, and the acetate film is made from renewable materials and should be safely biodegradable in application.
Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.
ANU experts say continuing climate change increases bushfire threats of more than ‘worst case’ scenarios to never before (NB4) seen levels
by Michael Mazengarb 10/02/2022 in Renew Economy Australia’s bushfire threat already beyond worst-case scenarios, thanks to climate change: Australia will continue to experience more extreme impacts of climate change, with the bushfire threat already exceeding the ‘worst case’ scenarios, experts have told the Australian National University’s 2022 Climate Update event.
Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.
ANU experts say continuing climate change increases bushfire threats of more than ‘worst case’ scenarios to never before (NB4) seen levels
by Michael Mazengarb 10/02/2022 in Renew Economy Australia’s bushfire threat already beyond worst-case scenarios, thanks to climate change: Australia will continue to experience more extreme impacts of climate change, with the bushfire threat already exceeding the ‘worst case’ scenarios, experts have told the Australian National University’s 2022 Climate Update event.
Views expressed in this post are those of its author(s), not necessarily all Vote Climate One members.