Climate Lynx

  Here is a message to those who love our planetary home, Earth. You are not alone, nor are you a radical. This is our only planet home; there is no "Planet B" even remotely as beautiful and nurturing to life as this one. If you feel an attachment to it, you are demonstrating admirable respect for Holy Ground. When I say you are not alone, a recent Pew survey noted that 60% of U.S. adults are concerned that climate change will adversely affect them and 74% are willing to change their lifestyles to address climate change. In this coming election, environmentally aware voters have the potential to make the difference. The Yale Climate Communications Center summarizes their latest report: "A significant proportion of American registered voters (37%) are pro-climate voters. According to the most recent data available from the Census Bureau, there are more than 161 million registered voters in the United States. This suggests there are nearly 60 million pro-climate vote...

Research, think, act has been my modus operandi ever since I was directed to do research papers at the Air Force Academy. Climate-wise, I have taken this seriously, and in the last decade, my living room has accumulated a few science magazines. Only magazines with climate articles make the cut. There are over 600 in my living room.   One of the goals I set for myself five years ago was to ensure I was giving you accurate information. But, just as important, I have been encouraging you to research on your own through annotated references.   More than ever, today is the time to make a research effort. It is time to identify our most pressing dangers. You may want to list your concerns. Nuclear war and climate change top my list. When comparing the threat of nuclear war and climate change the time element are the opposite but the result is the same. Nuclear war would be immediate and total, like being shot by a firing squad. In contrast many say climate change is like the...

Scientists have been befuddled by us. Since the Renaissance, Science and Scientists have been listened to. Our longer life expectancies, light bulbs, refrigerators, airplanes, and cell phones all trace their origins to the scientific community.  That is nearly 1000 years of science serving us and us listening. But something has changed in my lifetime and the scientists know it too. The age of reason has ended. This is especially true in regards to climate science. At first, the science community believed the American Citizen's inability to understand science was their fault. And, indeed, they could have got the physics to us sooner and better. But, to be sure, there is plenty of information, a mountain of peer-reviewed information, out there for anyone to find with a little effort. The latest slick scientific explanation of how carbon is central to life and the climate comes in an off-beat documentary by a dozen top scientists, including Neil de Grasse Tyson and Katherine Hayho...

In 2011, Robert Gifford, a professor at the University of Victoria, wrote about the psychological barriers to accepting that rapid climate change is happening, that humankind is responsible for most of it, and that we need to work diligently to cease making it worse. He called them the "Dragons of Inaction." He identified numerous psychological barriers hindering individuals from engaging in pro-environmental behaviors. Scientists knew that vested interests in the fossil fuel industry were massively funding deniers, but they thought the common man would rise to the occasion if the science was made available. Humankind would, they believed, act on their extensive research. They were naïve. And so was I. Gifford, trying to do his part, identified many of the psychological barriers that make it challenging to accept well-founded science rather than well-funded denialists. We have not been successful in large part because billionaire-owned social media, with its perverse al...

The science world has been defending itself from deniers for years. For over a decade, scientists who study psychology and sociology have been baffled by the ability of falsehoods to outperform scientific facts in the American Mind. I went back to 2009 and examined what a prestigious European Health Journal had to say about science denial. The article discussed the phenomenon of denialism, which involves rejecting the scientific consensus on major issues like HIV/AIDS, climate change, evolution, and smoking-related diseases—unfortunately, our inability to recognize that we were being deceived results in fatal consequences. Denialism thrives through tactics that distort scientific understanding and sow doubt about established facts, influencing public perception and policy. Denialism has led to tragic outcomes. For example, former South African President Thabo Mbeki denied that HIV causes AIDS. This resulted in thousands of preventable HIV transmissions to children. This stance co...

We may think the local weatherperson controls our weather at 10 PM each evening, but they do not. It is controlled primarily by massive ocean currents, which transport heat away from the equator. Conversely, cold water flows along the ocean floor towards the equator, which evens our temperatures out a bit. The amount of water transporting heat is massive and has its own mathematical term, a Sverdrup, which is 1 million cubic meters of water moving per second. You can use a square yard instead of a square meter and be close enough when attempting to visualize this volume of movement. Oceanographers and climate scientists have been raising the alarm that one of the ocean currents is getting squirrely. It is the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Its rate varies from 30 to 150 Sverdrups per second. To give some perspective of how much water is moving, at 100 Sverdrups per second, it is over 35,000 times more water than what goes over Niagara Falls.   The (AMOC...

On the third of December, I watched the news. I do not often watch the news on TV because I do not have a TV. The news was on PBS. At the very end of the program, Amna Nawaz reported in one sentence, "China has prohibited the export of five critical metals to the United States." Knowing this could have grave implications for our clean energy industries, I said, "What? That is all you have to say!"    After some research, it turns out that the five metals are gallium, germanium, antimony, tungsten, and graphite. It should be noted that this prohibition is in response to the United States' prohibition on exporting high-tech chips to China.  Gallium is used in semiconductors, LEDs, and solar cells. China mines 98% of the world's gallium. Germanium is important for fiber optic cables, infrared optics, and solar cells. China mines 93% of the world's germanium. Antimony is used in flame retardants, batteries, armor-piercing ammunition, night-visio...

Given the new administration will purge the oversight of government agencies of "elitists," there is no telling what our energy future, climate future, or our future in general will look like. To set the record straight, in most parts of the world, elitists are not called elitists but are known as dedicated experts, professionals, and scientists. In the quest for non-carbon emitting electric energy, one energy source may reemerge in our new political climate. It is nuclear with a new face, called SMRs. \ Nuclear Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are designed to be smaller, safer, and more flexible than traditional nuclear reactors. SMRs typically produce up to 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity per unit, compared to traditional reactors that often exceed 1,000 MW. Their modular design allows components to be factory-built and transported to the site for assembly, reducing construction times and costs. The SMRs require a smaller physical footprint, making them suitable for re...