Crying wolf after the sheep are dead: A message to journalists

I want to talk about the reporting on a paper that was recently published in Earth System Dynamics, and about the “act now before it’s too late” message. The paper reports on some work done modeling our climate’s behavior, how it might respond to different scenarios, and what has to be achieved to avoid the 2 Degree mark. Most of the paper is over my head, so I’m not going to try to pick it apart, but the way it’s being talked about seems like a problem to me.

For anybody who has spent time following the talking points and strategies of climate deniers, anything published these days with an “x years left before it’s too late!” model headline should raise at least an eyebrow, if not an alarm bell. We’ve been hearing these stories for a long time now, and that’s a problem. I get why individual politicians, pundits, and reporters might think it’s a good line, but it has been over-used.

We don’t have 10 years to stop the planet from passing 2 degrees Celsius. I don’t think we had 10 years in 2008. 1998? Probably.

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Visualization: Ocean currents

A couple days ago I shared some research indicating that some of the heat absorbed due to the loss of Arctic sea ice is pooling mid-column under the arctic ocean. One of the questions that came up was – how can wind drive sub-surface currents? I think it helps if you can see all the currents as connected, so if the wind creates a surface current, the momentum of those vast amounts of water can help push it down when it reaches the fringes of the ice melt. This is the animation that runs in my head when I’m thinking about the oceans, so I figured I’d share it for those that might find it useful. Note: No sound or text in the video, description below the fold. 


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Video: The philosophy of Antifa

This video by Philosophy Tube is one of the best breakdowns of the Fascism/Antifa issue I’ve seen. It covers the basics of Fascism, how it’s different from other kinds of authoritarianism, and what it means to oppose or not oppose the growth of Fascism.

It also goes into the nature of different kinds of antifascist action, what causes it and what makes it go away, and much, much more. The video is broken down into sections with timestamp links in the description, so you can watch it in sections pretty easily.

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Thorium – the kinder, safer nuclear power?

My problems with nuclear power are more or less the standard worries about meltdowns and waste. In my opinion, those problems will get worse as the planet warms. I also think that we can’t afford to discard nuclear power out of hand. There are some versions of it that seem better than what we have now, including Liquid Fluorine Thorium Reactors(commonly referred to as LFTR):

If you found this post useful or enjoyable, please share it, and please consider becoming a patron over at my Patreon page. Your donations make this blog possible, and even as little as one dollar per month adds up to make a difference. If you feel you can afford more than that, you can get access to all sorts of other content and perks! Your patronage allows me to put more of my time and energy into making this blog a useful resource. Thanks for reading!

 

How we know what we know: Ice ages

This isn’t a new video, but it’s a good one for people looking for better understanding of ice ages:

If you found this post useful or enjoyable, please share it, and please consider becoming a patron over at my Patreon page. Your donations make this blog possible, and even as little as one dollar per month adds up to make a difference. If you feel you can afford more than that, you can get access to all sorts of other content and perks! Your patronage allows me to put more of my time and energy into making this blog a useful resource. Thanks for reading!

 

The loss of ice is accelerating Arctic warming

It may come as a shock to some, but as the global temperature has been rising, ice has been melting. In the Arctic ocean, this has meant a decline in multi-year sea ice. While conservatives have been busy pretending that the ice totally isn’t melting, climate scientists have been looking into what follows as the ice recedes. The news isn’t good:

Arctic sea ice isn’t just threatened by the melting of ice around its edges, a new study has found: Warmer water that originated hundreds of miles away has penetrated deep into the interior of the Arctic.

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Reminding police to prevent crime rather than baiting children into committing it

I really don’t understand why it’s so difficult for police to think of ideas that don’t seem calculated to punish poor people for being poor and living in poor areas. In this case, police literally targeted poor children by parking fake Nike trucks with shoes in them near places like basketball courts, and leaving the doors open. ‘Cause we all know that children always fully understand the ramifications of their actions, and are known for their self control, so only the really bad ones will take something they want when it’s just sitting there!

Fortunately, people caught on and organized a “counter-sting”:

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By the hoarders, for the hoarders: Billionaires are incompatible with a democratic society

I spent most of the last six years or so helping conduct experiments in science education. To get funding, we had to show evidence supporting our techniques and expectations. During the work we had oversight from both our company and experts at the NSF. This wasn’t just making sure that the grant money wasn’t being misused, it was also to ensure that the children on whose classrooms we were experimenting were not harmed by our experiments. These students are real people, and their schooling, good or bad, has ripple effects that will last for their entire lives. [Read more…]

Climate change and zombie evolution

It’s no secret to fans of biology and of excellent video games that zombies are real. There are a few different versions of zombie infection that have different effects depending on the zombifying organism and its host. In this case, we’re talking about zombie ants and the Cordyceps fungi that prey on them.

The image is a silhouette of a

For those who need a refresher, Cordyceps spreads through spores, which attach to the species they specialize in, and grow into its body. Mycelium – the root-like structures that make up most of a mushroom’s body – grows into the host and feeds on it, growing to replace the host tissue with more fungus. As this happens, the host is compelled to change its behavior. It is forced to seek out a good location to die. This means gaining elevation, and clamping onto a twig or a leaf. The ant then dies, and the Cordyceps puts out a “fruit body” like the various toadstools we eat. Spores are released, and drift around until they land on a new host and the cycle can begin again.

So where do climate and evolution come in? [Read more…]

Past is Prologue: Keystone brutality was allowed under Obama, but is encouraged under Trump

The Keystone pipeline has not gone away; nor has the mortal danger to all of us it represents. The constant shitstorm from the Republican Party has made it difficult to keep focus on any one issue, and the media has been largely complicit in creating that problem and in making it worse. Keystone is Old News, and the most immediate danger it presents is to poor people. American Tradition dictates that “their” problems be ignored if there’s more potential for profit elsewhere.

The announcement of Kennedy’s retirement, combined with the theft of a Supreme Court nomination, and the rest of the Republican campaign to take over the the Judicial Branch, means that we can expect any and all challenges to the fossil fuel industry to be crushed by the courts. Case in point, South Dakota’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal against a regulator’s approval of the pipeline.

This fight will not go away because for a lot of people, it’s literally a fight for survival. To crush any efforts toward actual justice, the biggest fossil fuel companies have budgets surpassing those of many nations, and they can afford to buy as many mercenaries as they think they need. The Oil Must Flow, and countless millions have been and will be killed to support that fanatical ideology.

Under Obama, mercenaries and police waged war on behalf of Enbridge. They set dogs on peaceful protestors, beat people, shot them with rubber bullets, sprayed them with water in sub-freezing temperatures, used tear gas and pepper spray, and even explosives that nearly blew off an arm of one of the protesters. And under Obama, they got away with it.

How long is it until ICE decides they have jurisdiction over Native Americans? Reservations are technically sovereign territory after all (not that we’ve ever respected that), so there are borders around them that just HAVE to be patrolled by trigger-happy white supremacists!

It might not be this year or next, but we’re going to see an increase in clashes between the interests of the super-rich, and the interests of humanity. Both major parties have a record of siding with money and power against people, but today’s Republicans won’t just “regretfully” allow companies to do what they want – they’re going to actively cheer on escalating brutality, and the more cruelty and sadism they show, the more the Republican base will love them.

I’ll try to keep my readers up to date on this, but you should also follow Dallas Goldtooth on Twitter, and keep an eye on the Indigenous Environmental Network.

If you found this post useful or enjoyable, please share it, and please consider becoming a patron over at my Patreon page. Your donations make this blog possible, and even as little as one dollar per month adds up to make a difference. If you feel you can afford more than that, you can get access to all sorts of other content and perks! Your patronage allows me to put more of my time and energy into making this blog a useful resource. Thanks for reading!