Paul Lentz, Author
  • Blog
  • Authors of Note
  • Contact

Squid and Chips?

1/14/2017

 
​One of my correspondents recently told me she had seen Carolina Blue Birds and Golden Finches at her feeders much earlier (January) than she remembered ever before. A journal article a few days before that had reported migrating birds being spotted in Chicago (of all places) weeks earlier than normal. One can find (an easy Google search) reports of many other species including butterflies and reindeer migrating earlier and moving higher in mountains. There are also reports of tree lines on mountains rising to higher elevations. (Except, perhaps in Queensland, where abnormally high temperatures and drought are destroying the rainforests. Rainforests in Australia? Who’d a thunk it.)
 
Perhaps more important, The British Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), which monitors fish populations in the North Sea, reports that squid and other warm water fish (sardines and anchovies, e.g.) are flourishing in the once-cold waters of the North Sea. CEFAS also reports that cod, a common part of fish and chips, are migrating northward, toward Norway. It has been suggested that Britain’s signature dish may become squid and chips.
 
All of these migrations are evidence of global climate change. There can be no question that climate change is a fact. The only areas that can be open for discussion and questioning are (1) what will the future bring, and (2) what have humans done to cause this and what must we do to ameliorate it?
 
The unusual weather being experienced in the US and Europe is further evidence of climate change. The North American Continent is presently under the influence of a La Niña event, one aspect of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Georgia is experiencing an unusually warm and dry winter. Temperatures in the Atlanta area are predicted to break 70 degrees F, today, for example. *
 
Storms get their energy from heat, and Earth is warming. That's the simple explanation. True, but not complete. For example, the ENSO is driven by heat and has a tremendous effect on weather in North America. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) also called the “thermohaline circuit” and which includes the Gulf Stream, is a huge ocean current that is driven by differences in temperature between the Atlantic Equatorial Current and the waters of the North Atlantic, cooled by the Greenland and Labrador Currents. The AMOC has a lesser effect on our weather, but could have catastrophic effects on both North America and Europe if it ever failed.
 
A recent peer-reviewed prediction suggested that the AMOC could fail in 300 years. For a nation which seems to be unable to think beyon the next presidential election, that’s probably much too far away to even think about. Certainly none of this is important to Trump or Trump’s Chumps, to the point that they would endanger not only this country but the world in their pursuit of wealth and power.
 
* Temperature of a single day is an anecdote, and the plural of anecdote isn’t data (despite what too many politicians seem to believe, but that’s another subject).
 
 
References (Google anything else that you question.):
 
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/1/e1601666 [2017-01-12]
 
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38265395 [2017-12-12]

Comments are closed.

    Author

    Registered Curmudgeon, scientist, skeptic, humanist, and writer.

    Archives

    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016

    Categories

    All
    1984
    2016 Election
    2016 Presidential Campaign
    9th Circuit
    Afghanistan
    Aleppo
    Alien And Sedition Acts
    Alternative Facts
    Alt-right
    Antifa
    Anti-Semitism
    Arms Trade
    Baasad
    Barrel Bombs
    Bigotry
    Biodiversity
    Black Baby Deaths
    Black Lives Matter
    Boko Haram
    Border Wall
    Carrying Capacity
    CFCs HFCs HFOs
    Charlotte Riots
    Clean Coal
    Climate Change
    Climate Denier
    Cognitive Dissonance
    Collapse Of Civilization
    Crumbling Infrastructure
    Daesh (ISIS/ISIL)
    Dark Mountain Manifesto
    Dean Spicer
    Democratic Party Platform
    Donald Trump
    Doublethink
    Down Syndrome
    Duerte
    Dystopia
    Economics 101
    Election 2016
    Equifax
    Evolution
    F-35
    Fake News
    Fallacies Of Logic
    Federal Trade Commission
    First Amendment
    Flag Burning
    Football CTE
    Foxprop
    Fundamentalism
    Gary Johnson
    GBU-43
    Georgia Gasoline Crisis
    Georgia Gasoline Pipeline
    GHG
    Global Climate Change
    Global Warming
    God
    Government Bureaucracy
    Government Shutdown
    Graven Images
    Greenhouse Gas
    Greenhouse Gasses
    Group Think
    Gunboat Diplomacy
    Hacking
    HADO Water Crystals
    "Happy Holidays"
    Harvey
    Hillary Clinton
    Homophobia
    Hurricane Harvey
    Hurricane Irma
    Hurricane Katrina
    Incest
    Income Inequality
    Infant Mortality
    Integration
    Internet Bullying
    Internet Gatekeepers
    Internet Trolls
    Internment Camps
    IPCC
    Irma
    Iron Dome
    ISIS
    Israel
    Jared Diamond
    Kaka
    Katrina
    Kigali Amendment
    Law Of Unintended Consequences
    Leni Riefenstahl
    Libertarian
    Logical Fallacies
    Loose Cannon
    Lynching
    Malthus
    Malthusian Solution
    Marine Corps
    Marriage
    Masura Emoto
    Methane Emission Rule
    Milancovic Cycles
    Misogyny
    MOAB
    Montreal Protocol
    Mt. Pinatubo
    Mt. Tambora
    Muslim Ban
    Nazis
    Neo-Nazi
    Newnan
    Newspeech
    News Sources
    Nuclear Arsenal
    Nuclear Warfare
    Obama
    Opiate Of The Massives
    Organized Religion
    Orwell 1984
    Out Of Africa
    Ozone Hole
    Perceptual Filters
    Peter Abelard
    Pity The Children
    Politcal Correctness
    Polygamy
    Prisons Of Our Minds
    Propaganda
    Proxy War
    Putin
    Qatar
    Rally In Newnan
    Recycling
    Red Herrings
    Republican Convention
    Republican Party Platform
    Righteous Right
    Robert Mercer
    Russian Cyber Attacks
    Russian Hacking
    Russian Internet Trolls
    Scorched-earth
    SCOTUS
    Scotus Nominee
    Sexual Dimorphism
    Social Media
    Solar Eclipse
    Stream Protection Rule
    Sunspots
    Syria
    Tardisboy
    Teflon Don
    Ten Commandments
    Terrorism
    The Coming Collapse
    Third Presidential Debate
    Trigger Warnings
    Trump
    Trump 2020
    Trump Ad Hominem
    Trump And Climate
    Trump And EPA
    Trump Cabinet
    Trump China Policy
    Trump Executive Order
    Trump Legacy
    Trump Lies
    Trump's Chumps
    USMC
    War On Drugs
    War On Poverty
    Wealth Inequality
    Whale Song
    White Supremacists
    White Supremacy
    WikiLeaks
    Willing Suspension Of Disbelief
    Writing Fiction
    Young Earth Creationism
    Zero Tolerance
    Zero-Tolerance
    Zika Virus

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Blog
  • Authors of Note
  • Contact
✕