Geohashing

Today’s xkcd comic is just ingenious – maybe I will try this next Saturday (location will be known on Friday morning). His friend Dan created a convenient google map interface. Today, my destination would be in the wilderness near Livermore, which is reachable I guess, but may not be easy (especially when it’s hot). The previous two days give much easier destinations.

Comments on xkcd can usually be found on reddit.

Melting Ice

From time to time I see clueless people writing that the melting polar sea ice increases sea level, and sometimes that it would decrease it. Fact is that it remains the same melting sea ice does not contribute to seal level rise. I am so glad someone made this video to demonstrate it, so I don’t have to:

The reason is that a floating piece of ice displaces exactly as much water as it weighs. It neither gains nor looses mass during melting, so the water from the ice replaces exactly as much as it had displaced.

The rise of the sea level expected from global warming comes from the melting ice on land, from the ice shields of Greenland and Antarctica, and to a lesser extent from the ice of mountain glaciers and thermal expansion. That ice is not floating on the oceans.

Update: rephrased, and added thermal expansion. Changes in italics.

Stop the Denialists before it’s too late

Well, just paraphrasing the title of this piece of crap at the Telegraph. Christopher Booker writes:

But the highlight of our visit was dinner with Dr Fred Singer, a distinguished US scientist, formerly professor at two universities, and founder of the US satellite weather service. He has done more than anyone in the scientific counter-attack against the ruthless promotion of global warming orthodoxy by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Fred Singer has probably also collected more than others from the tobacco and oil industry. Which might be the reason why he makes shit up.

The pattern actually shown by balloon and satellite records is so dramatically different that, even on the IPCC’s own evidence, the report concludes, “anthropogenic greenhouse gases can contribute only in a minor way to the current warming, which is mainly of natural origin”.

I cannot find this quote in the IPCC report. It almost certainly is quoted out of context, or maybe fabricated. The temperatures in the different layers of the atmosphere are a very good confirmation of the greenhouse effect. If anyone knows where that quote comes from, let me know in the comments.

See also Tropical tropospheric trends on realclimate.

One of the central flaws in the IPCC’s case is its reliance on computer models, based only on those parts of the evidence which suit its chosen “narrative”, omitting or downplaying hugely important factors which might produce a very different picture. These range from the role played by water vapour, by far the most important of the greenhouse gases, to the influence of solar activity on cloud cover.

Obfuscation again.

Water vapor is indeed a very important greenhouse gas, see here for more. It is included in the models, of course.

However, since there is no link between cosmic rays and climate, these are not included. Because that would be silly.

There is another good take on the article at The Myron Ebell Climate.

Earthquake

A little more than an hour ago we felt an earthquake. It’s the first time ever I felt one (outside of a simulator). But we live for just a little more than 3 years here in the San Francisco Bay Area. The epicenter was in the hills near San Jose, that is about 15 miles from here, and of 5.6 magnitude. It seems it was along the Calaveras fault, which stretches relatively near to our home. So far, no major damages have been reported, except a few broken pipes and cracks, and items falling from the shelves in stores in San Jose.

Update: it happened again a few minutes ago, at the exact same location. This time only 3.7, but I am currently at work, and much closer (~ 8 miles or so). I did not feel it very strong, but heard the rattling noises of the blinds at the windows.

I hope these are not precursors to something bigger. There are worries that this increases stress on the Hayward fault.