Climate Lynx

Math, yuk! But making science discoveries, thus making sense of nature, is wed to our ability to describe what we observe in mathematical equations. In 1896, the Godfather of climate science Svante Arrhenius, gave us our first global warming equation. It took him a whole year of meticulous math equating. Computers now reign supreme, but this is a recent phenomenon.   The movie “Hidden Figures” is based on the fact that our mercury astronauts depended on female human computers for the successful completion of their flights. This was while, in 1961, electronic computers were literally making human computers obsolete.   Science, flying, and the fairer sex…. what more could one want in a great movie? Now, I am going to digress to criticism of “Hidden Figures”.   In my time, in fact in 1961, math computations depended on the slide rule. Hollywood probably could not find enough slide rules today to use them in Hidden Figures, and the producers probably would not have reco...

Teri and I traveled to Colorado where we enjoyed the company of old friends and then pedaled our way through, more accurately, up and over, 200 miles of the Rocky Mountains. We had a dicey start as the deluge that cut Highway 2 West of Ashland made navigating West a challenge. With last minute diverts and a lot of luck we made it to Minnesota.   But, Colorado was not very hospitable. One of the darkest and nastiest thunderstorms I have endured, pounced on us from the Rockies. It hid in the mountains until evening and then launched itself East to meet us. We spent our first hours in Colorado under I-90 overpasses avoiding the worst of the hail storm. The next day, by sheer luck, we made it to Del Norte, Colorado with-out encountering one of many forest fires afflicting the state. To give you an idea of our luck, our mountain highway route in, # 285, would later be cut by fire. Everywhere in Colorado are signs telling people fires are prohibited and if you want to smoke, do i...

To recap last week’s Climate Column, the way to promote modern energy production is to put a price on carbon pollution.   Since fossil fuels are heavily subsidized and are not penalized for polluting the air, Citizen’s Climate Lobby cure for this market failure is to pass corrective legislation. This legislation is called a Carbon Fee and Dividend or, “CF&D”. How would this help us in the U.P.? There are three ways and the third one is exciting. First, to stop rapid climate change we must slow and reverse the irresponsible pollution of our atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. If a CF&D is enacted, it will be the best and first step forward solving this urgent problem. Second, Citizen’s Climate Lobby hired a consulting firm, Regional Economic Models, Inc. to examine how each region of the country will be impacted by a carbon fee and dividend. Our region will do well. Our residents are projected to have more money in their pockets at the end of the year when CF &D ...

In the fossil fuel-based energy versus modern clean energy debate I often hear two counter arguments. One is “It will be too expensive.” and the other is, “What about the Chinese?” Even though we know failing to repair the climate today will cost our kids 4 to 6 times the current cost of intervention, many people consider it too expensive to implement adaptation and mitigation measures. The second counter argument is, “Are China and India doing their share?” This reasoning brings to mind the protests I made to my dad when I was a kid. “But why should I have to do that? Johnny doesn’t have to.” In other words, when doing something irresponsible, point out someone else who is worse. If there was any merit in either of these arguments, they are now meaningless beyond redemption. Dr Drew Schindell, Professor of Environmental Science at Duke University, with colleagues at NASA have evaluated the fossil fuel health penalties and enormous costs we endure today by burning coal, oil and ...