Climate Lynx

My appreciation for the plumber came to me from opposite directions. As a semi-successful do-it-yourself plumber, I slowly learned a bit about the trade. I learned that when the sewer starts to backup plumbers should be reached by dialing 911.   Sorry Plato, you lose round one. But, what about the history of plumbing and its importance to human civilization? Plumbing history came to me accidentally.    While employed by the Military Sealift Command, I was “stuck” on the Island of Crete. Being stuck on Crete is not a hardship. In fact, you might pray that you suffer this fate one day. Before docking, I read in National Geographic, about an ancient civilization on Crete called the Minoan. In its heyday, young nimble girls would leap over charging bulls at festivals. In a way it was like modern Olympic gymnastics springboard competition between the horns. The article said there were frescos on preserved walls of the ancient Palace of Knossos depicting the event. ...

Recently a friend threw me a link.   It was a link to a digital political rag I will simply refer to as Bull Art News. The article, critical of climate science, was written by an English Literature graduate.   I will name him Bean Pole. He claims to know climate science but references only an anonymous blogger.   It is shocking what passes for journalism on the Web. Bean Pole was angry. I suspect he takes exception with all the great scientific organizations like the UK’s Royal Society, our National Academies of Science, or the American Meteorological Society or any of the other 200 topped ranked reputable science institutions on our planet. The target in his column was one documentary and one man. Bean Pole focused his ire on the collaborative documentary by Netflix and the British Broadcasting Corporation venture called “Our Planet”. Bean Pole went to town attempting to vilify Sir David Attenborough. That was certainly audacious.   David Attenborough was no...

  To describe global warming, I use two analogies. One is the carbon bathtub to describe life’s carbon cycle, another the earth as a house. Global warming, or cooling, is the result of an increase or decrease of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The average temperature of the earth rises and falls with the natural rise and fall of carbon dioxide over ten of thousands of years. It is governed by the carbon cycle. The carbon cycle comprises a sequence of events that are key to make Earth capable of sustaining life. These include plant photosynthesis, how our soil and the microbes in it respirate and decompose thereby   sequestering (trapping) carbon;   and how the ocean’s phytoplankton photosynthesize and eventually die and sequester carbon at the bottom of the ocean.                                   ...