by Judith Curry
A few things that caught my eye this past week.
Several papers of fundamental importance:
*Important new paper by Peter Minnett: The response of the ocean thermal skin layer to variations in incident infrared radiation [link]
*A provocative paper with many implications: Increased atmospheric vapor pressure deficit [link]
*Does Surface Temperature Respond to or Determine Downwelling Longwave Radiation? [link]
*Reframing the carbon cycle of the subpolar Southern Ocean [link] Synopsis [link]
Something new and interesting from Russian scientists. A new approach to local climate dynamics, integrating bifurcation analysis, control theory and climate theory. Start with Section 7 for an overview https://worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/S0218127419300131
Climate change is altering winter precipitation across the Northern Hemisphere [link]
The influence of weather regimes on European renewable energy production and demand. [link]
Hemispheric Asymmetry of Tropical Expansion Under CO2 Forcing [link]
How predictable were this summer’s European temperature records? [link]
New paleo proxy: The dawning of the age of old aquifers [link]
Changes in atmosphere, not sea ice, behind bizarre winter weather [link]
For years, scientists have tried to pinpoint which volcano caused a spell of global cooling in the 6th century A.D. They’ve finally found the culprit. https://nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/08/colossal-volcano-behind-mystery-global-cooling-found/…
Internal variability and regional climate trends in an observational large ensemble [link]
Good explainer from Zeke on RCP8.5 [link]
Antibiotics Are Flooding Earth’s Rivers.” [link]
new paper reports a 1500-year record of flooding from northwest Britain [link] Periods of frequent flooding lasting several decades are common
The North Pacific pacemaker effect on historical ENSO and its mechanisms [link]
A process study of thinning of Arctic winter cirrus clouds [link]
New Eocene pCO2 estimates from stomata https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/573071/Moderate-levels-of-Eocene-pCO2-indicated-by
Microplastics appear in considerable quantities in the #Arctic. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/8/eaax1157…
Stefan Rahstorf: The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is melting and has probably passed the tipping point to its complete demise, causing a long-term sea-level rise of 3 meters. But is that our fault? That has long been unclear, but now a new paper in NatGeo finds: yes, it is. [link]
Prediction of Northern Hemisphere Regional Surface Temperatures Using Stratospheric Ozone Information [link]
A century of reduced ENSO variability during the Medieval Climate Anomaly https://eartharxiv.org/yp49u/
Inducing Factors and Impacts of the October 2017 California Wildfires https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2019EA000661
Understanding negative subtropical shallow cumulus cloud feedbacks [link]
Using a new ice core record, Shackleton et al (2019) found the ocean warming rate during the Younger Dryas interval was comparable to today’s warming rate, challenging an earlier finding that the oceans warmed about 3x as fast during that period. #AGUPubs https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082971…
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Policy and technology
V. insightful: Climate change uncertainty from ‘above’ and from ‘below’: perspective from India [link]
Elizabeth Warren’s Green Manufacturing Plan for America [link]
Good overview on the Amazon fire issues [link]
Another good article on the Amazon fires [link]
A Harvard study found that increased wind power could mean more climate warming than would be caused by the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity. [link]
Experts Say Sea Level Rise May Kill the 30-year Mortgage in Florida https://miamibeachtimes.com/real-estate/experts-say-sea-level-rise-may-kill-the-30-year-mortgage-in-florida/…
“The United States is the largest source of public funding for clean energy RD&D in absolute terms, investing about $6.8 billion, more than Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom combined” [link] to report
Industry guidance touts untested technologies as climate fix [link]
‘Plastic recycling is a myth’: what really happens to your rubbish? [link]
Why climate change is an existential threat to the Middle East [link]
World Bank: tradeoffs among climate policy instruments [link]
Costs for the U.S. to transition to 100% renewable energy [link]
Longterm macroeconomic effects of climate change [link]
Big wind’s big headwinds (challenges to wind energy) [link]
Recycling is in crisis. Could these innovations be the answer? [link]
How China is feeding its population. Major innovations [link]
About science and scientists
Must read: Upgrade your cargo cult for the win [link]
This is very interesting about Will Happer and Princeton scientists, and sociology of climate science: Princeton climate scientists tried to ignore a campus skeptic. Then he went to Washington [link]
V. interesting essay by Andrea Saltelli: A short comment on statistical vs mathematical modelling [link]
Sabine Hossenfelder: About peer review and its discontents [link]
Roy Spencer: How the Media Help to Destroy Rational Climate Debate – http://drroyspencer.com/2019/08/how-the-media-help-to-destroy-rational-climate-debate/
The twisted way educators are seeking diversity in education [link]
Is science political? The political history of science [link]
Yet another Professor has been fired for tweets, supporting Antifa [link]
“Academics respond to incentives like the rest of us. The moment they start to self-censor out of fear of social and professional ostracism, they cease to do their job properly.” https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducation/2019/08/23/what-ive-learnt-about-controversy/
The shaping of science by ideology [link]
The Bigotry of Environmental Pessimism. https://quillette.com/2019/08/15/the-bigotry-of-environmental-pessimism/
The Anthropocene is an idea that needs to go away [link]