A Change in the Wind
A week ago tonight, NASA put about a half a billion dollars on a chip fired into space. The mission for the OCO-2 satellite? To find out where the carbon dioxide we emit is coming from, exactly, and where it is going, exactly, and why the uptake varies so enormously from year to year.
It’s one of the biggest questions in climate science.
A cow is not Bigfoot. Nor is a wolf, a bear, or a racoon — but all of these creatures were given to an pair of academics looking for the truth behind the Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Yeti legend.
Wish I could be there: Twas the night before launch… #OCO2 is ready for its 5:56am ET launch! Watch live: http://t.co/1mKUqiX0S4 — NASA (@NASA) July 2, 2014 Will do my best to cover, as I did once before – even if it meaning staying up to all hours.
For The Wilderness Act, this September marks the Big 5-0, its biggest birthday to date. This should be a celebratory moment, as the Wilderness Act has for many many years been considered the high water achievement of the environmental movement in America, the legislative flowering of the vision of great American nature thinkers such asContinue reading “Wilderness is where the hand of man has not set foot: Brower”
On the front page last Sunday the LA Times ran a story about how the drought — three years old in California, and now rated "severe" or worse in 100% of the state — had led to an upsurge in gold panning in streams and rivers. Such as the Kern River. Researchers said last week thatContinue reading “Harvesting the California drought: gold and wood”
That's the suggestion from an environmental law blog forwarded by the able, thoughtful attorney Brian Segee of the Environmental Defense Center. According to the post by attorney Mike Mills, Fran Pavley's AB 4, approved by the mostly Democratic legislature last year and signed by the Governor in January was clearly not intended to halt fracking.Continue reading “Has regulation halted fracking in California in 2014?”
On the front page of the Los Angeles Times, Melissa Healy tells a story of a huge study in Scandanavia that shows that the active ingredient in Tylenol and Excedrine and many other over-the-counter medicines is an endocrine disruptor plausibly linked to hyperactivity and other developmental disorders. Healy makes a strong case simply by quoting theContinue reading “Hyperactivity linked to moms taking Tylenol-type painkilers”
Particuarly Dangerous Situation. For example, from today, via Jeff Masters: A dangerous day in ChicagoMost of Illinois, including Chicago, has been placed under a special "PDS" Tornado Watch: a "Particularly Dangerous Situation." Severe thunderstorms spawning tornado warnings have already erupted over Southern Wisconsin and Western Illinois as of 10:15 am CST. Severe thunderstorms are likely to sweepContinue reading “New National Weather Service term for extreme weather”
After the strongest hurricane ever hits, it's natural to ask what happened. What made this storm so strong? Climatologists have ideas on the subject. Eli Rabbet looks at a graph from the NOAA Environmental Visulaization Lab. Darkness indicates warmth in the ocean, fuel for a potential hurricane. Here's the commentary from the lab at the time: TheContinue reading “What the heck happened with Super Typhoon Haiyan?”
PRISM, which graphically displays climate data as part of a new "risk management' effort from the USDA, has introduced a new site that allows us amateurs to see what is going on, including (if so chosen) anomalous climate behaviors. Here's this month's anomalous precipitation, charted: SoCal had a smidge of rain, but so far doesn'tContinue reading “A look at precipitation anomalies from this month’s data”
Kit Stolz