by Judith Curry
A few things that caught my eye this past week.
Runs that reduce sea ice also result in a significant decrease in the frequency and magnitude of extreme warm and cold temperature anomalies”. Reduction in northern mid-latitude 2-m temperature variability due to Arctic sea ice loss: [link] JC note: more on this paper in forthcoming blog post
Role of humans in past hurricane potential intensity is unclear [link]
News from Georgia Tech: Role of soil erosion in carbon budgets [link]
Mike Hulme on climate change and “extinction” [link]
The steady evolution of climate modeling…has led to significant strides in seasonal climate prediction, but forecasting the #climate over decades has proved more challenging.” [link]
Instead of inundation from rising seas, 12 of 15 Florida Bay islands GREW in size during 1953-2014. Zhai et al., 2019 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X1830757X …
Weakening of the teleconnection from ENSO to the Arctic stratosphere over the past few decades: What can be learned from subseasonal forecast models? https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2018JD029961#.XP9Q-rEbx7Q.twitter …
Every few years a giant hole opens up in the Antarctic sea ice. Two ocean drifters caught in a swirling vortex helped scientists figure why this happens:[link]
There really was a hiatus in global warming https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304407619301113 …
Interesting website: Australian indigenous knowledge about the weather [link]
A study of the Yangtze River Delta shows how urbanization dries out the atmosphere. https://eos.org/research-spotlights/the-urban-dry-island-effect …
Sun’s 11 year cycle appears to be driven by alignment of the planets [link]
“Is the Noble Gas‐Based Rate of Ocean Warming During the Younger Dryas Overestimated?”. https://rdcu.be/bFTlr
On the emerging relationship between the stratospheric Quasi-Biennial oscillation and the Madden-Julian oscillation –https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-40034-6 …
The delicate energy balance in the #atmosphere over the #tropics and how #clouds play into it. [link]
Hydrothermal vents trigger massive phytoplankton blooms in Southern Ocean [link]
Rising seas could spur growth of some #reefs, like in the Maldives, that initially formed when sea levels were higher than they are today. [link]
The causes of recent rises in methane: a new science challenge [link]
New radio sounding study finds little evidence of lakes under Antarctica’s Recovery Glacier [link]
AMOC sensitivity to surface buoyancy fluxes–differing response of AMOC to heat loss in winter and summer, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00382-019-04802-4 …
“Our results support the existence of a European Holocene Thermal Maximum and data-model temperature discrepancies.” https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/6/eaav3809?utm_campaign=toc_advances_2019-06-07 …
Response of the Northern Stratosphere to the Madden‐Julian Oscillation During Boreal Winter https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2018JD029883#.XPqOkZmImXE.twitter …
Decadal variability of the Southern Ocean carbon sink, and drivers of change (lots about wind). Carbon sink on the way down since 2011. https://go.nature.com/2IcbLjc
Circulation and temperature in South Atlantic intermediate waters during the deglaciation https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2019PA003558 …
Stratospheric ozone important for understanding the sea-ice impacts on atmospheric dynamics [link]
What is the role of the ocean in Arctic amplification? [link]
Shifting #ocean currents in the past 2 decades might be driving faster #carbon dioxide uptake. [link]
June 6, 1912, the #Novaerupta-Katmai eruption in Alaska was the largest in the 20th century – an entire valley, later named “valley of the 10.000 smokes” was filled by hot, steaming eruption material https://tinyurl.com/y5qbbroy
Roughly 1,500 years ago, the Tierra Blanca Joven eruption blanketed Central America in ash and likely displaced #Maya settlements [link]
Making lives worse – the flaws of green mandates http://www.newgeography.com/content/006312-making-life-worse-the-flaws-green-mandates …
A new paper indicates the 19th century was, on average, ~1.7°C warmer than the 20th century in Northeastern China. https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/10/5/416/htm … Northeastern China was also 7-10°C warmer than today ~9000 years ago. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X1830222X …
Social science, technology & policy
UN agency criticizes carbon offsets [link]
Should we fertilize oceans or seed clouds? No one knows [link]
A rather nuanced study in @Nature is cautioning against the popular claim that #climate change is already causing violent conflicts https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1300-6 …
U.S. Democrats: don’t overthink a climate debate [link]
Why we do nothing to prepare for climate change [link]
“The law of unintended consequences is that actions of people always have effects that are unanticipated. Economists and other social scientists have heeded its power for centuries; for just as long, politicians and popular opinion have largely ignored it” [link]
US Climate Change Litigation in the Age of Trump – Year Two, http://columbiaclimatelaw.com/files/2019/06/Adler-2019-06-US-Climate-Change-Litigation-in-Age-of-Trump-Year-2-Report.pdf …
We all want to change the world, and we often have strong ideas about how to do it. But how good are those ideas? Are we actually willing to test them? [link]
China is cutting back on solar and wind units due to their cost, the ballooning subsidies the state owes the solar and wind power builders, and the lack of grid-connected transmission capacity. [link]
“Evaluating rotational inertia as a component of grid reliability with high penetrations of variable renewable energy” https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1Z5hA1H~c~7Y8K …
Three surprising solutions for climate change – project drawdown [link]
#Fracking with CO2 instead of #Water is greener, say researchers [link]
Desalinating water in a greener and more economical way https://phys.org/news/2019-05-desalinating-greener-economical.html …
The remarkable decline in the US temperature-mortality relationship over the twentieth century. Journal of Political Economy. https://www.nber.org/papers/w18692.pdf …
Juliana vs. U.S. Climate change “game theory” vs. doing what is right? https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/juliana-vs-us-doing-what-right-game-theory-mark-trexler …
The higher cost of electricity reflects the costs that renewables impose on the generation system, including those associated with their intermittency, higher transmission costs, and stranded asset costs assigned to ratepayers. [link]
ENERGY TRANSITIONS: Are old Midwest coal plants pushing renewables offline? https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060544459 …
KILLING THE EARTH TO ‘SAVE’ IT : Rainforest Trees Cut Down To Make Way For Industrial Wind Turbines -[link]
New research suggests nature-based solutions – such as wetland and floodplain restoration—can improve water quality and increase flood resiliency in the Champlain Basin. [link]
Turbocharge plants’ ability to capture and store larger amounts of carbon from the atmosphere in their roots and keep it buried in the ground for hundreds of years. [link]
We need to get serious about critical materials [link]
US DOE: increasing geothermal energy by 26 fold by 2050 [link]
The false enforcement of unpopular norms. “people enforce unpopular norms to show that they have complied out of genuine conviction and not because of social pressure…some groups may be more prone to unpopular norms because of individuals’ anxiety about being regarded as insufficiently sincere” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20614762
About science and scientists
A great questions for journalists to ask when they interview scientists: “What are the wrong conclusions to draw from this study?” How to combat overhyped science news [link]
Alabama’s stand for campus free speech sets an example for the nation [link]
On the scandal at Oberlin college. Gibson’s Bakery, a family-owned business near Oberlin College accused of racism, just won a big payout. [link]
Another interesting perspective on the Oberlin scandal [link]
“This willing constriction of intellectual freedom… corrupts the ability to think clearly, and it undermines both culture and progress. Good art doesn’t come from wokeness, and social problems starved of debate can’t find real solutions.” The unheeded lesson of 1984 https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/1984-george-orwell/590638/ …
Why facts don’t change our minds. New discoveries about the human mind show the limitations of reason. [link]
Big rise in academics mental ill health [link]
On campus, hate speech is an opposing view [link]
Intellectual humility: the importance of knowing you might be wrong [link]
“Campus norms proscribe any discourse that might offend women, minorities, or anyone perceived as a victim of patriarchal white societies. However, this rule, no matter how well intentioned, is harming the very people it aims to protect.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/self-censorship-campus-bad-science/589969/ …
The future for academic publishers lies in navigating research, not distributing it [link]
over 30% of PhD students develop a psychiatric condition. This is a higher rate than for people working in defence and emergency services, which is about 22%’ [link]
Supreme Court Asked To Hear Case Involving Leaked ‘Climategate’ Emails https://climatechangedispatch.com/supremes-climategate-email-case/ …
Interesting survey of AGU members whose research is related to climate change 74% claim to be progressives or very progressive 3% claim to be conservative or very conservative A factor in the pathological politicization of climate? https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-019-02414-9 …