Canon EOS 5D
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As I was shooting out the window, the flight attendant looked forlorn. She has been on this route for many years and offered that it used to stay white.
20 responses to “Over Hudson Bay”
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@biotron:
circular pattern is as much a result of what is going on beneath the surface as it is from above. If we assume relatively uniform surface heating, the active layer thickness is partially a function of soil type, heat from below, etc.. Central melting points are where we find the least resistance for heat to escape, and therefore larger circular pattens = more heat looking for a place to go.@nhr: you touched upon what I have been dropping in my talks as the ‘mother of all climate black swans’. while all of the focus is on CO2, when permafrost melts at northern latitudes, there is a boatload of methane just waiting to be set free. so whatever the mechanism of surface warming is, melting permafrost will allow significant quantities of methane to be released to the atmosphere, and as far as greenhouse gases are concernced, CH4 has a much higher capacity to trap heat than CO2. log scale positive feedbacks are an understatement.
in a world full of black swans, the only certainty is change. adaptation is key.
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eat lower on the food chain ; )
there are also some promising synbio efforts in this area (the names of the labs involved escape me). (1) artificial ‘anti-flatulence’ enzymes (not bean-o) are being experimented with to decrease CH4 output per organism. Also, (2) new breeds of pigs that don’t ‘off-gas’ .
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When I see on television images of the melting arctic ice and channels opening up for the first time, it truly gives a sense of urgency to wake up to our reality.
It is a beautiful scene. I would still prefer to see it all white.
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My Dad is a pathologist…he has let me look at a lot of cool slides through his high-end Leica optical microscopes over the years. The lower part of this image (pinkish, circular formations, agitated, distressed, striated, almost boiling) reminds me of badly diseased tissue images seen at high magnification…something here is NOT right…this is koyannisqatsi…life out of balance…broken golden-ratio symmetries all over the place…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koyanniqatsi
BTW: the link above is first time I’ve found a wikipedia URL that is misspelled (missing the s before the q)…out of balance indeed – I wonder if this was intentional 😉 taxonomy police alert!!
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4.28 billion year old rocks – the most ancient yet – discovered on shores of Hudson Bay
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Regarding methane… the methane that is released by animals, is irrelevant… it is part of nature’s cycle… it is irrelevant that cattle, sheep, pigs, etc. release more methane than other species… Because, what the cow does not release… we will release when we eat the cow… and what we don’t release, will be released by the worms and bacteria, that consume the rest… It makes no difference what we eat !!!
The point is, that all the methane contained in bio-matter, will be released back into the environment at some stage in the cycle… It is therefore a complete waste of time, resources and effort to try and modify this cycle in any way, shape or form.
What is a problem however, is the extra methane that is released from the permafrost and especially the accelerated release of methane from methane hydride deposits at the bottom of our oceans… Which, if not stopped in time, will result in the biggest mass extinction in the history of our planet.
The only way to prevent this cataclysm… is, to cool the planet !!!
Unfortunately, it will take a thousand years or much longer to stop global warming by reducing emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases !!!
However, we can stop global warming and climate change in less than 20 years… by stopping excess heat being generated on Earth, in the first place !!!
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jurvetson, thank you for your interest… The following is an extract of a letter that I wrote to the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr. Kevin Rudd…
Stopping excess heat being generated on Earth by the sun and by us is the only solution!
Here in south-east Queensland, Australia, August 2008, has been the coldest August for more than 30 years… it has also been the wettest August… and the August with the greatest number of days and hours of cloud cover (as far as I have been able to determine)…
In a period of "global warming"… this seems to contradict all our theories "that atmospheric carbon is the principal cause of global warming"…
However, this event indicates… that whilst there may be no doubt that carbon is a significant contributing factor… It is trumped by the heat being generated by the sun, due to all the physical changes that we have made to our planet… like:- deforestation, land clearing, buildings, structures, roads, mining, farming, etc. etc… Human activities, that have all contributed to the increase of surface areas that are simply heated by the sun… surfaces that generate the heat that produces global warming and climate change… The carbon, simply acts as an insulating blanket that traps this heat here on Earth.
The events of August 2008 would indicate that the ability of clouds to reflect sunlight and reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface to generate heat… could be the key to combating global warming… Our best option for stopping global warming and bringing about rapid global cooling… may be as simple as – generating massive amounts of water vapour, in order to dramatically increase global cloud cover… and reduce temperatures… This may also be a much safer option than to release sulphur in the upper atmosphere, as proposed by Tim Flannery.
The water vapour can be generated in several ways…
1. By pumping sea water into dry salt lakes and salt flats and setting up containment levies, to prevent any leakage, where necessary.
2. Building numerous coastal evaporation pans, for producing sea salt.
3. Fitting ships and boats with devices that would produce a very fine mist of sea water.
4. Cladding all houses, buildings and structures with solar panels… This would produce an electricity generating capacity that is equal to at least 4 times our total current energy requirements from all sources… This would enable us to generate all our domestic and commercial electricity… Enable us to split water into hydrogen and oxygen and replace all fossil fuels with hydrogen (even though we would get back less energy when burning hydrogen, than what was required to produce the hydrogen)… When hydrogen is burnt, water vapour is produced… And we would still have enough electricity left to desalinate sufficient water to meet all our water needs…
5. Building large numbers of floating islands out of bamboo, covered with a strong, durable, black, fluffy and highly absorbent material and securely anchoring these islands out on the ocean… the bamboo keeps carbon sequestrated even after the bamboo has decomposed… the highly absorbent material would ensure that the surface of the islands are kept moist, through capillary action… the fluffy, black material would speed evaporation, both by the sun and the wind, without heating the ocean…
6. Periodically wetting our towns and cities and all other land surfaces that are prone to being heated by the sun…
We need to compensate for all the physical changes that we have made to the Earth… The resulting additional rainfall could enable us to replant the vegetation that we have foolishly stripped from our planet… For this we need to use all the land that is still available, plus all our deserts (land that is not used or required for other purposes)… and we need to capture the rain where it falls… and pipe it to where it is needed…
We can also help to cool the Earth by painting everything that can be painted – WHITE… this will help to reflect more sunlight back out into space, before it is converted into heat here on Earth…
Adopting the strategy outlined above, will cool the Earth and buy us the time to address the carbon issue and other environmental issues that are contributing to global warming and climate change.
To help sequestrate the excess atmospheric carbon… we need to select the plants that sequestrate the carbon for the longest period… See the following report –
Scientists uncover key to boosting carbon capture. Sugar cane and bamboo have been identified as prime candidates for carbon capture.
Based on a story by Matt Peacock for The 7.30 Report
See Report at:- http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/2352913.htm
Posted Tue Sep 2, 2008 10:44am AEST -
aeroculus: Rapid global cooling, is not only preferable, but it is absolutely essential, if we wish to stop the rapidly escalating release of methane from methane hydride’s lying in near zero (Celsius) temperatures at the bottom of the ocean.
If the release of methane keeps escalating at the rate that it has done over the past 16 years, then we will reach the tipping point in 20 to 25 years, where we will no longer be able to prevent the extinction of 98% of all life on Earth.
It is imperative that we stop the heating of the ocean in the polar regions, where most of the heating is occurring and from where the cold, deep ocean currents are emanating.
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@infinity.club: I am not necessarily disagreeing that cooling would be helpful right now. But as I stated, the potential feedbacks associated with abrupt changes, particularly at the poles, are not very well understood. Climate has whip-sawed into negative territory very rapidly in the past (which I am sure you are aware) without any human interference. Given the nature of the global resource supply chain (including water), that might not be such a good idea in today’s world.
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aeroculus: I agree that we do not know all the consequences of geoengineering a halt to global warming on the scale that I propose… and I understand your concerns… I also very much appreciate your feed-back, because it enables me to re-evaluate my position and take into account any possible problems that I might have missed.
The problem, is that we do not have the time to engage in extensive modelling, in order to discover all the possible consequences… What I am most concerned about, is that the greatest mass extinction event that has ever occurred in the history of this planet, was brought on by a massive release of methane… just as the one that is in progress now… and that the window of opportunity for stopping the destabilization of the Earth’s methane hydride deposits, is very small !!!
I however do not have the same concerns as you have, regarding cooling the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans… By floating artificial islands and pontoons, I only envisage that we could halt some of the warming that is now occurring in the polar regions, as a consequence of the accelerated melting of sea-ice… I envisage that these island and pontoons, will shade the water underneath and prevent excessive heating of that water, by the sun… I also envisage that these islands and pontoons, will provide the framework, on which the ice-shelf can re-establish itself… Furthermore, because these islands and pontoons float, we can set a boundary for the ice-shelf and we could tow away, any islands and pontoons that lye beyond this boundary.
In the polar regions, I cannot see any results other than the re-establishment of the lost ice and the maintenance of the flow of cold ocean currents and the stabilization of the methane hydride deposits !!!
Regarding past events of global warming and the Earth’s ability to recover without human intervention… We need to keep in mind, that there has NOT been a global warming event like the present, since the appearance of mankind on this planet… and we also need to keep in mind that we have destroyed several of the mechanisms by which the Earth can regulate it’s temperature and climate… and that the Earth may no longer have the ability to cool itself and recover.
On the current resources and economic issue… one thing is certain… that if we don’t resolve the global warming / climate change issue… we will never even get the chance to resolve any other issues in the future !!!
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