climate change
Published 1 year, 9 months ago in My life.I’m reading Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers.
I reckon Flannery’s Australian of the Year award had at least two immediate effects - it pushed sales of his book through the roof and gave John Howard a gastric Ulcer - both good things.
Flannery’s book is at once terrifying and hopeful. It outlines the devastation that could result from human-induced warming of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans but argues that solutions are possible using available technology. What’s more, Flannery argues, the power to act is with the individual, not governments, not corporations.
Some of his suggestions require me to spend more money than I have. Others, like choosing green energy at the cost of $1 extra per week can significantly cut my carbon dioxide emissions. That I can do.
I recommend the book. Who’s read it? Who cares?
Fossil
5 Responses to “climate change”
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According the recorded ocean temperatures since 1860 the temperature has risen and gone down pretty steadily and in all has risen 0.8 degree celsius in total. So, how much of this is us and how much is the natural warming and cooling of the Earth?
Hi Marion, thanks for visiting my lonely nook.
In relation to “how much is us how much is nature?'’ -
I’m no expert, just an interested reader, but the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change consists of the world’s leading climate scientists - hundreds of them. The panel, which was set up in 1988, released its fourth report in February this year. In part, the first section of panel’s report - the bit that considers the physical science of climate change - says this:
“Global atmospheric concentrations of Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial values determined from ice cores spanning many thousands of years. The global increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change, while those of methane and nitrous oxide are primarily due to agriculture.’’
Not a great deal of room there for misinterpretation - its mostly us.
Your point on the oceans, if I understand you, is that 0.8 degrees isn’t very much.
Flannery says two things about that. Compared to the atmosphere, oceans are very big and very dense and very resistant to change: “It takes effort to get the monster moving, but when it does shift there’s little (we) can do to alter its trajectory'’. In terms of climate change, he says, the oceans are still living in the 1970s.
Secondly Flannery talks about the Larsen B ice-shelf - a chunk of sea-ice at the Antarctic Peninsula the size of Luxembourg - that broke up over a matter of weeks in 2002. It was later found, via the study of a decade’s worth of satellite data, that the primary cause for the ice-shelf disintegrating was a 0.32 degree Celsius increase in the temperature of the surrounding ocean. The water was still cold enough to kill a human in minutes, but warm enough to destabilise a 3250 square kilometer block of ice.
Scary
Apart from us humans merrily burning fossil fuels some of the other factors that could affect carbon dioxide levels in the future are, though plants may grow more as the weather warms up and this will help soak up carbon dioxide, also as the soil becomes warmer dead plants & leaves may rot more in winter releasing more carbon dioxide, in addition any heating of the oceans meay cause less absorption of carbon dioxide due to the greater buoyancy of the warmer water inhibiting mixing with deeper level waters.
I have not yet read Tim Flannery’s but have ever intention of doing so. And scary is probably an understatment.
A bit off the subject fossil but I noticed your comment about our boy Johnny getting a gastric ulcer. I’ve never seen a desecrated coconut with a gastri ulcer have you?
:)
Never seen a coconut cough up a fur ball either. I reckon Howard would have had to practice saying “Tim Flannery'’ at least 1000 times before publicly announcing him as Aussie of the year. Would have been like watching the Fonz say sorry.