Climate Lynx

While many of us feel emotional and physical stress due to challenges of the virus, many of us have time to read* and think undistracted. It is a time we can contemplate our way of life and be grateful for many brave people who fight to keep us safe. It is also an opportunity to re-evaluate our priorities and a time to steel our resolve, changing the arc of progress towards a safe future for our young. The news, though often dreadful, reveals sectors of our society I took for granted. Not only did I not fully appreciate our health-care workers, but also our grocery store cashiers, and folks we never think of like workers in the meat and poultry plants. The list goes on and on. Another realization for people in urban areas is realizing how nice it is to have clean air. For seven years I flew medical helicopters out of Minneapolis-St. Paul, a city considered clean.  As a pilot, I saw the veil of health threatening yellow-brown pollutants hanging over the city from...

I hope you have enjoyed the background history of climate science. It becomes, for me, even more captivating to know the histories of our “philosophers of nature”, or scientists as we know them today. Their lives, driven by curiosity and dedicated to understanding God’s creation, are stunning examples of human persistence and determination.  Today’s scientists are no less motivated. Today I will plagiarize one of our current scientists who I listened to speak at Michigan Tech. Retired Rear Admiral David Titley, Professor of Meteorology and Director of the Center for solutions to Weather and Climate Risk at Penn State, told us we can understand the veracity of climate science via the metaphor of a three-legged stool. To be stable a stool needs at least three legs.  Here are the legs: Leg 1. Through scientific method scientists understand the physics that govern our atmosphere.   Of course, I cannot understand in depth all the chemistry and physics about cli...

Dear Readers of the Climate Column. Heaven to Betsy, here we are on climate column number 12. As you know the first columns had little to do with climate science, but with the psychology and how we form, or do not form, “informed” opinions. Then we shared the stories of climate scientists in a few history columns. Soon we will examine why 97+% of climate scientists are in near violent* agreement that climate change must be addressed.  You may have wondered if I am just “inflating” my coverage area so I will not run out of something to write about. No, there are 26,500 scientifically verified lines of evidence describing climate change. There is plenty of information. Running out of interesting information does not worry me. I do not blame you for worrying, since this means you just might have to endure at least 26,500 more columns. For those of you disinterested in the climate column there is reason for optimism. I may finally give up writing because I am horrible at it...