Here's a statement from a UK scientist, made after 5 climate protesters were sent to prison for years. It's long. I’m Dr Tristram Wyatt, Senior research fellow in Biology at the University of Oxford. I’m here on behalf of scientists outraged by this trial. I’d like to begin by reading you Professor Bill McGuire’s response to Judge Hehir’s rulings in the case. He’s not pulling his punches: ● “My name is Bill McGuire and I'm Professor Emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards at UCL. ● I provided the expert testimony in support of the defendants in last week's conspiracy 5 trial. ● It goes without saying that the trial and the verdict were a farce, marked a low point in British justice, and were an assault on free speech. ● The judge’s characterisation of climate breakdown as a 'matter of opinion and belief' is completely nonsensical and demonstrates extraordinary ignorance. ● Similarly, to suggest that the climate emergency is 'irrelevant' in relation...
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Some key climate science concepts, with links.
In science correlation + mechanism = evidence of a causative relationship Is there a correlation between CO2 levels and global temperatures? Here is a 500 million year correlation https://media.springernature.com/.../426313_1_En_1_Fig1... Is there a correlation between anthropogenic CO2 and global temperatures. Here is a 250 year correlation between the two. http://berkeleyearth.org/.../03/results-plot-volcanoes.jpg What is the mechanism for CO2 a a greenhouse gas? That mechanism has been known for 2 centuries. https://history.aip.org/climate/index.htm Here is an explanation of the mechanism of the "greenhouse effect". https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/.../intro_atmo_chem... How do we know the increase in CO2 is anthropogenic? Carbon isotope analysis of the ratios of C14, C13 and C12 traces the 50% increase in CO2 since the mid 18th century to the burning of fossil fuels https://www.climate.gov/.../how-do-we-know-build-carbon... What about natural forcings? Natural forcings wou...
CLIMATE WATCH - Arctic Sea Ice
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From https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ Arctic sea ice area changes with the seasons, but there is a long-term decline*, caused by global warming. Most scientific sources suggest there might be a few days of "ice-free" conditions in the Arctic Ocean one summer around mid-century. Ice-free sea (being darker) absorbs heat, while ice reflects heat. Progressively over time, more "ice-free" days are likely, on average. But what exactly does an "ice-free Arctic Ocean" mean? For measurement purposes, researchers divide the ocean up into small cells. The data cells are 25 km by 25 km. If there is more than 15% ice on a cell, it counts as an "ice-covered" cell. If there is less than 15% ice on a cell, it counts as "ice-free". At some time, the Arctic Ocean one September will meet the 'ice-free' criterion - each cell will be counted as ice-free as long as there is less than 15% ice in the cell. But an 'ice-free' Arctic Ocean ...
CLIMATE WATCH - The IPCC Synthesis Report (2023, AR6)
Useful graphics From the following source, where there is plenty of additional material: https://www.wri.org/insights/2023-ipcc-ar6-synthesis-report-climate-change-findings Also: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/20/humanity-at-climate-crossroads-highway-to-hell-or-a-livable-future IPCC links..... (1) Press Release: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/downloads/press/IPCC_AR6_SYR_PressRelease_en.pdf (2) Headline Statements: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/resources/spm-headline-statements (3) Slide-show: https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6syr/pdf/IPCC_AR6_SYR_SlideDeck.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1FD9sBJGgFBiDgC_ioAoM2t8qGqj4XktnYP4nwMY1IlLVNfGrxHPrF5Qw
CLIMATE WATCH - An Outline of the History of Climate Science
1800-1870 Level of carbon dioxide gas (CO 2 ) in the atmosphere, as later measured in ancient ice , was about 290 ppm (parts per million). Global temperature for 1850-1870 was about 13.6°C. 1824 Jean-Baptiste Joseph F ourier calculated that the Earth would be far colder if it lacked an atmosphere. 1856 Eunice Foote describes filling glass jars with water vapour, carbon dioxide and air, and comparing how much they heated up in the sun. “The highest effect of the sun’s rays I have found to be in carbonic acid gas,” “The receiver containing the gas became itself much heated – very sensibly more so than the other – and on being removed, it was many times as long in cooling.” 1859 John Tyndall discovered that some gases block infra-red radiation. He suggested that changes in the concentration of the gases could bring climate change . 1896 Arrhenius published the first calculation of global warming from huma...
CLIMATE WATCH - 1816 - The Year Without A Summer
The climate can react to sudden shocks. The weather in 1816 was very strange. Spring arrived, but then everything seemed to turn backward, as cold temperatures returned. The sky seemed permanently overcast. T he lack of sunlight became so severe that farmers lost their crops. Food shortages were reported in Ireland, France, England, and the United States. 1816 became known as "The Year without a Summer" or "18-hundred-and-frozen-to-death". It was over 100 years before anyone understood the reason for this weather disaster. The eruption of an enormous volcano on a remote island in the Indian Ocean a year earlier had thrown enormous amounts of volcanic ash into the upper atmosphere. The dust from Mount Tambora , which had erupted in early April 1815, had shrouded the globe. With sunlight blocked, 1816 did not have a normal summer. In Switzerland, the dismal summer of ...
CLIMATE WATCH - Carbon Burps in the Geological Record
"Carbon Burps" ?? What are Carbon Burps? They are sudden releases of carbon from ancient rocks. They show up in the geological record as changes in geochemistry (so they are found by using fairly complex laboratory tests on rocks) They are associated with extinction events, but the scale of extinction varies a lot. The most extreme geological example of events like this is the end-Permian , when igneous activity broke through coal seams in Siberia. The interaction of hot magma and coal produced lots of CO2. The end-Permian event reduced oceanic biodiversity by about 92%. Recovery of biodiversity took about 10 million years - the fossil record from the next part of geological time, the early Triassic, is very thin. Messing with planetary systems isn't wise. One event with possibly closer similarities to what we are doing was about 56 million years ago, the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum . The PETM mechanism (according to some good research) involved volcanic action bre...