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Global Cooling? Tell It to the Jellyfish
There are certain newspaper headlines that catch your eye and stop you in your tracks. Like the New York Post's famous "Headless Body in Topless Bar." Or such tabloid greats as "Evil Cows Ate My Garden," "Double Decker Bus Found on Moon," and my personal favorite, "Proof of Reincarnation: Baby Born with Wooden Leg."
Along similar lines, I was startled this week when London's Daily Mail published an article headlined, "Could we be in for 30 years of global COOLING?" Triggered by the unusual cold and snow in the United Kingdom over the last few weeks, the article began, "Britain's big freeze is the start of a worldwide trend towards colder weather that seriously challenges global warming theories, eminent scientists claimed yesterday."
The story went on to reference various researchers and their institutions, including the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder, which reported, according to the Mail, that, "The warming of the Earth since 1900 is due to natural oceanic cycles, and not man-made greenhouse gases."
This was followed by an article on the Fox News Web site with the headline, "30 Years of Global Cooling Are Coming, Leading Scientist Says."
There are only two small problems, as was pointed out by Steve Benen on Washington Monthly magazine's "Political Animal" blog: "First, the National Snow and Ice Data Center said no such thing. The director of the NSIDC said, 'This is completely false. NSIDC has never made such a statement and we were never contacted by anyone from the Daily Mail.'" (Subsequently, both Fox and the Mail removed the reference to the NSIDC in their articles.)
Second, as proof of global cooling, both stories cited research conducted by Mojib Latif, a prominent climate modeler with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Latif's response to their reporting? "I don't know what to do," he said. "They just make these things up."
Latif's work on climatology is complex and often difficult to understand, which is why the Fox and Daily Mail reporters may have his story mixed up -- it wouldn't be the first time journalists have been confused by his findings. But as cogently interpreted by the physicist and climate expert Dr. Joseph Romm of the liberal Center for American Progress, "Latif has NOT predicted a cooling trend -- or a 'decades-long deep freeze' -- but rather a short-time span where human-caused warming might be partly offset by ocean cycles, staying at current record levels, but then followed by 'accelerated' warming where you catch up to the long-term human-caused trend. He does NOT forecast 2 or 3 decades of cooling."
In fact, as Latif told the British newspaper the Guardian, "I believe in manmade global warming... There is no doubt within the scientific community that we are affecting the climate, that the climate is changing and responding to our emissions of greenhouse gases."
And if you don't believe him, ask the jellyfish.
Jellyfish don't lie. Well, sometimes they lie -- deceased and desiccated along the beach, which from strolling along various Eastern Seaboard shores is about the extent of my knowledge of them. That, and that Ogden Nash couplet, the one that goes, "Who wants my jellyfish? I am not sellyfish!"
But according to the Associated Press, the jellyfish population is rising. The news service reports, "Scientists believe climate change -- the warming of oceans -- has allowed some of the almost 2,000 jellyfish species to expand their ranges, appear earlier in the year and increase overall numbers, much as warming has helped ticks, bark beetles and other pests to spread to new latitudes."
This has led to all manner of consequences, some you would expect, others not. A 2008 National Science Foundation study found populations growing along the East Coast -- in the Chesapeake Bay area, people are stung about half a million times a year. In the Middle East and Africa, swarms have jammed hydroelectric and desalination plants, forcing them to shut down. In Japan, the fishing industry is losing up to $332 million a year because jellyfish swarms fill the nets, crowding out mackerel, sea bass and other fish.
The AP reports that in October, off the eastern coast of Japan, "Jelly-filled nets capsized a 10-ton trawler as its crew tried to pull them up. The three fishermen were rescued." I know this all sounds like something out of a Godzilla movie, but it's serious stuff.
And speaking of jellyfish, here's a headline you may not see anytime soon: "Senate Passes Sweeping Climate Bill."
Although in a January 14 speech to the Energy Finance Forum, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, "Taking on the clean-energy challenge... may be the most important policy we will ever pass. And we cannot afford to wait any longer to act," the cap-and-trade climate bill that narrowly passed the House of Representatives back in June malingers in the purgatory of the Senate.
And next week, Senator Reid will allow a vote on an amendment to the legislation lifting the Federal debt ceiling. Proposed by Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, it would block the enforcement funding of the Environmental Protection Agency, giving free rein to the coal industry and other big polluters to ignore the Clean Air Act.
The activist group Credo Action, part of the company Working Assets, warns, "You would think this would be easy to stop, but the vote is predicted to be close with many Democrats considering voting for the bill... The coal industry has been working furiously to close deals with senators across the political spectrum, including those who say they want to protect the environment."
Jellyfish.
- Posted in
70 Comments so far
Show AllSo many lives in the hands of fools.
Liars get all the air time.
Crooks get all the money.
The planet smolders.
But on the bright side; jellyfish and ticks are doing well.
"But on the bright side; jellyfish and ticks are doing well."
You forgot politicians.
Spineless blood suckers that will kill you, ticks, politicians, same thing.
In my state the Bark Beetle killed about 5 million trees.
But we have mandated 20% renewable energy power by 2020
not as wet as jellyfish - but similar theme
millions of GM cattle eating millions of GM seed, excreeting millions of GM patties, sprinkled with millions of tons of chemicals.
Sustainable? Absolutely! sustained into the rivers in runoff, the groundwater, the aquifers, sustaining the dream of Monsanto to have the endless vision of the green desert without a place for the birds, insects, microbial life of natural diversity... sustaining the Monsanto dream
http://www.organicconsumers.org/
millions against monsanto
Cover the World...with Astroturf.
MonINSANEto's going to kill us all. Just what I want to eat: Pesticide leeching bacterial genes spliced into those big bananas and apples you see at the Frankenfood Monster Markets.
MMM, MMM, Good!
I wonder how the North Atlantic Current is holding up? All that fresh water running into the ocean off Greenland may put England in the deep freeze. Without the gulf stream things are going to get frosty fast. Meanwhile, back at the pole, ice is paper thin only part of the year. Supertankers are trucking straight through the middle of Canada via the mythical "Northwest Passageway". You'd think the Media could run a story on that, but, silly me, there is NO Media, just a corporate bullhorn trying to kill us all.
Come to think of it, lots and lots of people are trying to kill us for no reason at all; ala "Catch-22". I'm starting to feel like poor Yossarian in that book! I think I'll walk around naked all day long to protest all this insanity.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
TJ "Catch 22" was my bible when I was back in the reserves back in the Viet Nam error (62-68). One had to complete six years of service with six months active duty (basic and "advanced" training) then 5.5 years of one weekend a month and a two week "summer camp" once a year. I used to leave the days after finals at the the biggest state university and always had a copy of C22 in my duffle bag to keep me sane by learning (from Joseph Heller) how to cope in an insane environment like the military.
Naturally some 40 odd years later that insanity has spread like a contagion into the very core of america and is mutating out across the globe. There's really nowhere to hide any more, one just has to pretend that the vast majority of businessmen, politicians, "religious" leaders, and countless dozens of others are sane and hope they don't poison, shoot, kill or eat you alive just because you don't conform to their fundamentalist fantasy.
The decline of sharks in the oceans due to human consumption of their fins has also contributed to the trebling of the jellyfish population.
Will Viagra aid shipments to East Asia save the shark?
Good One Glenn!
But the jellyfish in congress would never approve it; they can't be seen as caving in to environmentalists.
Cooling in Britain is expected if 'global warming' continues. Melting ice would cool the gulf stream ocean current at its' northern end and stop the 'conveyor belt' which brings relatively warm water past the British Isles. That is one reason for using the term global climate change instead of global warming. Some places actually will get much cooler.
Lovelock says that by the time the Gulf Stream 'conveyor belt' shuts down, Europe will already be so warm that the cooling will be minimal and a relief.
Taking away the Gulf Stream will give Britain and Ireland the climate of Norway or Sweden.
A VERY large drop in food production will result from such a change.
We better HOPE Europe gets as hot as Lovelock postulates by the time the Gulf Stream is interrupted, otherwise its bad news for tens of millions of people.
Cooling is more dangerous than Warming for humanity.
Actually, cooling is far LESS dangerous, because of the fact we ourselves are heat generators. With sufficient insulation, we can survive in glacial conditions on body heat alone (we survived an ice age without any but the most primitive insulation) ---but no amount of insulation will keep us from stroking out as heat rises because in that case our body heat is working against us.
Humans survived the Ice Age, but the population was greatly smaller. Agricultural production would decrease.
Change, certainly. But it's going to have to change anyway, no matter what. And our population will have to decrease by 80% or more, too.
We simply cannot afford to devote so much space to non-forest use, nor arrogate so much of Earth's surface to humans. So farming is going to have to become more intense and complex. And we *must* implement mandatory birth control. If we don't, we win free lifetime tickets on the Fossil Record Express.
Lovelock believes that if we leave the problem to the ruling classes, we'll get our 80% decrease by 2100 via famine, plague, and war. I hope we're smart enough not to let that happen, but it's anyone's guess whether we are.
Melting ice contains no salt and is less dense than seawater. The cooling effect is limited since there is limited mixing. The overlying layer of less dense water forces the salty, denser water to greater ocean depths where it will then cool and start its return to the tropics.
Well, Perfesser, ya better hope yer right about that!
Dang varmints.
Everything Mr. Winship writes about might be true, but there is another truth. We are not experiencing "Global Warming" right now. It is hard to tell people in Florida, where we are having our coldest couple of weeks in decades, that things are getting warmer. The same is true for most of the United States and other parts of the world. What is needed is a new name for the real warming going on.
You should check out -kayaker-'s post from earlier.
That's why "change" is better than "warming".
Because, whatever the cause, it looks likely that in decades and centuries ahead many climatic regions of the globe will be diffeerent from what they have been in the recent past, warmer, cooler, wetter, drier, more seasonal, less seasonal, changing season types, etc.
As far as I am concerned the framing of the issue that focuses on Athropogenic Global Warming has been the worst thing that could have happened to the movement for sustainability and coping with climate change.
As far as I am concerned the framing of the issue that focuses on Athropogenic Global Warming has been the worst thing that could have happened to the movement for sustainability and coping with climate change.
--------------------------------------
Not especially surprising --it was the corpomedia that promoted the nice, pleasant-sounding term 'global warming'. Nothing wrong with a little warming, after all: everyone enjoys the summertime.
Explain to them the difference between weather and climate. The Earth's climate is warming causing shifts in weather patterns.
Exactly, Global warming is causing extremes in weather.
It might be cold in Florida but in the Pacific Northwest we have been having record highs all week, along with plenty of rain.
And on the Canadian Prairies the temps are near zero C. Tanning weather for this time of year. Even the far north isn't as cold as it should be for the season...
Try telling that to the Cubans where the temps have increased like 10 degrees in the past 30 years
Yes, you are. The problem is that you do not know the difference between climate and weather.
In a world with diminishing natural resources and increasing pollution caused by overpopulation pressures and extreme wealth/power concentration, I fear more Haitis on the horizon.
Similar disasters are just waiting to happen in every Slum City in the world.
Ovepopulation looks to be being handled the "laisse-faire" way:
Everybody who can afford it lives, everybody who can't dies buried in rubble.
I don't know----peanut-butter and jellyfish sandwiches sound kind of appetizing.
"I'm pro-jellyfish, and I vote."
But seriously, this article is nowhere near as misleading as the one's it exposes, but it still falls short of giving folks the "whole picture" ecology-wise.
Bark beetles are NOT "pests" in the eyes of Earth (or honest ecology), and neither are jellyfish or ticks. They are just more species of creature participating in the great dance of finding equilibrium, then losing it, then finding it again, while forestalling entropy until the Sun burns out.
IIRC, bark beetles are what we would call "R-Selected" species. Meaning that their strategy, (like fireweed or some other early post-fire plant) is to move into a newly unbalanced system and take it over with exploding population. In doing so, they further tip the scale away from equilibrium (by killing trees for instance) and open the door for other R-Selected species. Eventually the system reaches the point where these "meteoric" creatures are maladapted and "slow-burn" K-Selected species come into things and begin the process of settling the system into a "stable" or "climax" state.
Global Climate Change is a part of this whole process, it is just more dangerous to us than seasonal forest fires because it represents a new instability in a millenial or epochal equilibrium as opposed to merely one measured in decades.
We need to be working at building resiliancy into our systems at the same time that we are struggling to halt our contribution to positive feed-backs in the changing climate.
Someone needs to kick the grenade away, but everybody else needs to TAKE COVER!
-matti.
Indian scientist and activist, Vandana Shiva, refers to the climate changes brought about by human industrial activity "climate instability," which more accurately reflects what we're seeing.
And we could be in for years of cooling as a result of it, since glacial meltwater from the Arctic, the Antarctic, and high mountains is draining into the oceans, which could cool ocean currents and thus effect far-flung parts of the world. Evidence suggests that this happened to some extent at the end of the last ice age, as with the 300-year cold period 8200 years ago that followed the draining of massive glacial lakes in North America, lakes that had formed because of warming temperatures.
Even now, different areas of the world are experiencing different extremes of climate, with some going through droughts, some floods, some extreme heat, and some extreme cold, all outside the bounds of recent norms. Climate instability it is.
"Climate chaos" is shorter & more alliterative.
The more energy you put into a dynamic system the more chaotic it becomes.
Gary
"Evidence suggests that this happened to some extent at the end of the last ice age, as with the 300-year cold period 8200 years ago that followed the draining of massive glacial lakes in North America, lakes that had formed because of warming temperatures."
You said the magic word: "suggests". We know what happened, but we are not entirely sure how.
The way I understand it, the climate of this planet has never been stable, which is perfectly normal. There are no absolutes. We are just another variable in the equation. To think we can control any of this is pure arrogance.
Jellyfish: the stuff from which politicians' spines and brains are made.
Good one.... :)
This reminds me of a restaurant owned by a rabid Right Wing nutjobber that I pass on my way to and from work. The guy has a big marquis outside where he posts the most hateful, racists and stupid messages ever. He changes it every week to go with the theme dujour on FAUX. This week, the sign read: "Global warming, my butt!" A while back, it read "Racism is self-inflicted."
I keep waiting for the day when the place is burned to the ground...with him inside. But, sometimes, I forget that is the prevalent 'mentality' here in the South.
The earth has been cooling for 10 years. The sun's spots have greatly diminished. We are indeed heading for a period of global cooling that may last 20 years on the basis of the sun's behavior. I notice that nobody talks about this. Global warming and cooling are natural phenomena. This whole issue is another made up story with ulterior motives, perhaps even good motives but a false story none-the-less. Believe what you like, I don't care. Suffer and worry if you want. I don't care. You are all so easily fooled. How many of you fell for Obama? Go ahead, continue being like that. I don't care.
I live in north Idaho. We have no snow. None! That must be mean we're back in a warming trend huh?
Shut off your Fox channel and do some research.
I live in north Idaho. We have no snow. None! That must be mean we're back in a warming trend huh?
Shut off your Fox channel and do some research.
The earth has not been cooling for the last decade you blithering idiot! Where the hell do you get your 'information', by pulling it out of the air?
Climate change science has been debating and gathering evidence for the last century, the scientists have reached a consensus that's nearly as certain as the theory of evolution. Yet still there are wingnuts like yourself who argue that there is nothing wrong, you're the inverse chicken little.
For your information there are scientists who do talk about the effect that the sun has on the climate, but they also note that the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are also having an effect on the world's climate. It's not that there is a natural cooling and warming cycle of the earth that has thinking people concerned, it's the unnatural effect that pumping thousands of tons of pollutants into the atmosphere that has us concerned.
Pink 6:30 I guess where you live ice melts when temperatures DECREASE !
Dear pink,
We are lucky that the 11 year sunspot cycle is late. But it will start up tomorrow, any day now, if history is any guide.
Pop Quiz: Since the mythical Northwest passage way opens up for supertankers every year now through the middle of Canada and there is no snow in Idaho, what do you think is going to happen when the hotspots (Sunspots) return?
A: Global Flooding of one billion people due to the tailpipe on your private automobile. You see? Man does have a part in the temperature equation after all.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
"We are lucky that the 11 year sunspot cycle is late. But it will start up tomorrow, any day now, if history is any guide."
History shows prolonged periods with few spots, among all the other possibilities. I think that the sunspot count has historical precedents to rise, and also has historical precedents not to rise, so history is an ambiguous guide. We'll have to see what the Sun actually does going forward ...
RV Polluter:
I guess I wasn't clear on my focal point. The sun is not active (cold) and still the glaciers and sea ice are receding in an accelerated fashion.
This points to man as the primary source of the increased heating, not the sun. True, the oceans act as a heat sink, but there is no question that CO2 is at record levels and accelerating upward during this meltdown. This courtesy of your compulsion to tour the land in a mobile house at 8 mpg.
If sunspots kick in again, do not expect just a historic rise in heat energy. Expect a thermal runaway with seven billion peasants slashing and burning and hard-headed old men driving Gas-spewing RV's for pleasure. Sorry if I was not being clear.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
Your impolite ad hominem attack on RV's assumes short term vacation use and a large amount of traveling. When a small RV is parked, it can use far less energy than a house, and if used fulltime instead of a house, can actually lead to a smaller than average total carbon footprint for its occupant if traveling is very limited, which is how I have used it. Some are even solar powered.
As far as the Sun goes, actual measured solar output hasn't declined by much so far during the current minimum. No one knows if the earlier prolonged Maunder Minimum resulted in a deeper decline in output leading to the little ice age, because we didn't have the instruments available then. We just counted spots.
Anytime you'd like to come slashing and burning this "hard headed old man", I'm ready, jerk ...
What Ridiculous Rationalization!
RV's are horribly inefficient with paper thin insulation and a throw away lifestyle. Since water is limited the trash in plastic plates and connivence items is something to behold. Most RV'ers use charcoal starting fluid and eat beef burning the atmosphere to a cinder. I've owned a number of RV's and Motoryachts and know you are trying to discredit global warming so you can sleep soundly in your rolling pollution machine. The real RV story is that in a small RV, you still run a generator all the time for power and your house is still running back at the home-base anyway because it's too cramped for all your family to be cooped-up that close to a NeoCon polluter all day, so some of them stayed home. Then there's the trips back and forth with other vehicles because you have to play "king-of-the-road". And the plane tickets back and forth because nobody but you can stand it. And then, unlike your house, your RV is not intended for daily use, therefore it will fall apart (just from the leaking roof in the UV sunlight alone) in about five to ten years. Then you'll go out and buy a new one, and start the production pollution cycle at the factory all over again. On the other hand, your house will last forty to sixty years if you would just stay home. RVing is about being selfish and wrecking the environment.
And you just sort of left out the real known reason for the "Little Ice Age" which ice cores and human records verify:
Volcanic activity
Throughout the Little Ice Age, the world also experienced heightened volcanic activity.[47] When a volcano erupts, its ash reaches high into the atmosphere and can spread to cover the whole Earth. This ash cloud blocks out some of the incoming solar radiation, leading to worldwide cooling that can last up to two years after an eruption. Also emitted by eruptions is sulfur in the form of SO2 gas. When this gas reaches the stratosphere, it turns into sulfuric acid particles, which reflect the sun's rays, further reducing the amount of radiation reaching Earth's surface. The 1815 eruption of Tambora in Indonesia blanketed the atmosphere with ash; the following year, 1816, came to be known as the Year Without a Summer, when frost and snow were reported in June and July in both New England and Northern Europe. Other volcanoes that erupted during the era and may have contributed to the cooling include Billy Mitchell (ca. 1580 ± 20 ), Mount Parker (1641), Long Island (Papua New Guinea) (ca. 1660), and Huaynaputina (1600).[10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_little_ice_age
You can always depend on NeoCon polluters to always argue about polite table manners, red Herrings and other trifles instead of the issue raised by the article. Earth is a lifeboat and it is taking on water. Some want to blame it on the sun and argue about politeness as they take a crap in the raft. Me? I want to fix the leak so a few of us will live to see tomorrow.
I apologize in advance, if I've ruined your vacation.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
You're not listening *at all*, which is not surprising for a raving, self absorbed dogmatist. You're resorting to false allegations and cheap smear tactics. The RV has consumed about 400 gallons of gasoline over 5 *years*, total. I've lived in it *full time*, not as a vacation vehicle, and had *no* house elsewhere. It spends 99% of its time parked, operating on plugged in power from the grid, local water, and propane. I drive a compact fuel efficient car (sparingly) most of the time, leading to a total gasoline consumption for the combined vehicles below average, not above. That only leaves the issue of insulation which I've enhanced. I'd prefer better insulation, but the extremely small size of the RV still results in efficient overall energy use compared to a larger standard human dwelling.
There are large numbers of people who live this way all the time, travel little, and probably qualify as living a green life style compared to house dwellers, contrary to your baloney. Many of them are too *poor* to live any other way, or to travel much at all, contrary to your image of the bloated traveling plutocrat that you're hawking.
Sometimes things don't fit your preconceived prejudices. Sometime things aren't what they seem at first sight, but you're such a bullhead, no one needs to confuse you with facts. Your closed, dogmatic "mind" is made up, and worthless.
The article you referenced does not support your claim incidentally. It lists volcanic activity as one of many suggested causes for the Little Ice Age.
At no point have I discussed my support of development of green technology, which I've supported for decades, long before "climate change" became the cause du jour for supporting it. Even if the Sun were to give us a break on heating - which I think would be a blessing (I'm not big on requiring people to suffer for their "sins") - there remain many other good and necessary reasons to go green. But then I wouldn't bother to ask for your support of that project unless you learn to listen to what others are saying. Otherwise, you're no good for any cause ...