Syria is certainly a complicated region, one where many factors have come together to produce the first-class genocidal mess now in progress. But one of those factors illustrated above might surprise you, and if it’s accurate, it should even worry you: [Read more…]
Scientists refer to this period as the Younga-Dryas, named after a tell-tale flowering plant that flourished in colder conditions. The prime suspect was the melting of ice sheets in North America leading to a release of fresh water in the North Atlantic causing a temporary shut down in the top of Atlantic conveyor. A new study turned up another possible factor, a big rock from space: [Read more…]
A 3-D view of the subglacial canyon, looking northwest from central Greenland. Source J. Bamber, University Bristol
Trick question: what planet has a canyon grander than the Grand? Answer: if the science denier wing has their way, it may be coming soon to a continent near you:
The age of discovery isn’t over yet. A colossal canyon, the longest on Earth, has just been found under Greenland’s ice sheet, scientists announced Thursday in the journal Science.
“You think that everything that could be known about the land surface is known, but it’s not,” said Jonathan Bamber, lead study author and a geographer at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. “There’s still so much to learn about the planet.”
To someone who does not know anything about modern issues or parties, I might appear to be a raging lefty. But what I really am is anti-idiocy, anti-dishonesty, anti-stupidity, and pro-science, pro-fact, pro-reality. Forty years ago, at the dawn of my political consciousness, that made me a centrist to a middle of the road conservative. Today it makes me some kind of Marxist-socialist progressive. Even though the years have barely changed me, the primary difference being politics made my eyes glaze over then, but I have more patience for them now.
It turns out that former Secretary of George Shultz who served under Ronald Reagan isn’t just anti-idiocy, he’s non believer, too. At least according to the last post. Egad, the man even has solar panels on his house and recommends them for everyone! [Read more…]
Update: Former Secretary of State George Shultz must be one of us! Hail & welcome to the non-believers sir!
Outside of the implausibility of religious claims about magic floods and rising from the dead, there is also the day-to-day ugliness that turns many off like a light switch. Racism, sexism, intolerance, a long history of brutal acts and justifying the most un-Christ-like behavoir imaginable, all given religious cover. And then there is the sheer mendacity. Take it away Rush! [Read more…]
Four former GOP EPA heads have jointly written an op-ed in the NYT addressing the reality of climate change. Excerpt below: [Read more…]
Texas, August. There are many cruel days in the southwest, but these are the worst. It’s going to be hot, then hotter, followed by blazing hot. AC’s will fail, automobile radiators will blow out, power grids will brown out, some people will end up in the ER or the morgue because of it.
One thing we don’t need here in Texas is more heat and more drought. If you happen to live on or near the east or Gulf Coast, you might want to bookmark this page: National Weather Service Tropical Cyclone page.
Our local lake is still — barely — capable of supporting wakeboard boats, something I tested out yesterday in the photo above. It won’t be much longer, Lake Travis will simply dry up into Baked Mud Canyon if we don’t get a veritable deluge of rain in the next few months. But if present trends continue there could be plenty of water. Scientists working with Antarctic sediments have found a disturbing signal: the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, the largest ice sheet on earth today, melted partly or wholly during the Pliocene. And that pushed global sea levels up almost 200 feet (65 m), the only thing between us and the kind of rise is time, the GHG concentrations are about the same [Read more…]
Growing up it was common here in Texas to hear someone say “It’s gonna be a hot summer!.” It was a set up for sarcasm of all ages. This is Texas! It’s blazing hot every summer. But there is some relief afforded by the mild eccentricity of the earth’s orbit today: [Read more…]
Most accounts have the SCOTUS letting democracy down today. But a decision back in 2007 may provide some relief for the planet by giving President room to enact meaningful change despite conservative obstruction. A centerpiece of the plan will rely on a ruling giving the EPA the power to regulate carbon dioxide [Read more…]