Climate Lynx

                               OMG, more numbers! For you who hate numbers please bear with me. As a retired helicopter pilot, I have a certain respect for numbers. Engine performance, maximum and minimum airspeeds, payloads, weather, maximum range performance, nearly everything comes down to numbers. Every time you get on a plane, you entrust yourself to the numbers scientists, engineers, test pilots, and the pilots up front have painstakingly derived and put into print. Climate science is no different. Scientists have crunched the numbers and have committed them to print. They delivered them to our international leaders at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. Those leaders are our pilots. What our leaders must do is find a way to keep earth from crashing. What are the challenging numbers? They are 50 billion tons, 1.5C, and 27%. Mankind is discharg...

  Then you don’t. One of the advantages of living in the middle of a continent is, as oceans rise, we stay dry. That is not to say we won’t be affected, especially economically, by climate change but we are not faced with the morbid challenge hundreds of millions of people face as rising temperatures drive oceans up. The challenge being, “When do we move?” How many people will be forced to high ground? How high will the waters rise? This number is what shore front property owners, port authorities, seaside power plants, city water and sewer planners, road commissions, and landfill operators need to know to meet the threat. Scientists are confident they can calculate how high the oceans will rise but there is one variable, one factor, they cannot figure out. Perhaps this variable is one only psychologists and sociologists can make an educated guess at. One factor only God knows. It is the warming limit being hashed out in Glasgow by the world’s nations. Will it be 1.5 C, 2 C, or...

  They Knew is a book printed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. The author is James Gustave Speth. If you have any interest in the modern history of determined scientists versus ineffective, irresponsible, and often hypocritical politicians, this is your book. Neither political party is spared but you can determine which party bears the greatest guilt. If you have a kindle, the digital version has the advantage of being able to bring you quickly to reports and references via links. The printed version is fine and the graphs will be easier to read.   If your budget precludes purchase, ask your local library to buy, “They Knew”. Today, more than ever, this book is of critical importance. We are 50 years behind on climate action. For the last 50 years US scientists have delivered report after report to the legislative and executive branches of government telling them we must quickly wean ourselves off coal, oil, and gas. Today, in a reversal of 50 years of ine...