Our Oceans are Under Attack

http://www.livescience.com/47487-new-theory-global-warming-pause.html

"So how does the Atlantic cool an entire planet? The likely culprit is a natural climate cycle linked to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) current, Tung said. The AMOC is part of a worldwide ocean conveyor belt. Here's how the AMOC works: In the North Atlantic, salty tropical water flowing north cools off and sinks. This water, dense because it is cool and salty, heads south toward the equator, then eventually rises again in the South Atlantic. When the water sinks, it traps heat in the ocean depths. Ocean surface temperatures drive the current: fast when cold, slow when warm.

Between 1945 and 1975, the cycle was in a cool phase, sucking up atmospheric heat at a rapid pace. Toward the end of this cycle, in the 1970s, scientists noticed a suspected "global cooling" that was touted as the beginning of a possible Ice Age. But then the AMOC flipped to warming, corresponding to the rapid uptick in global temperatures. Finally, in 1999, the current switched back to a cold, speedy plunge into the ocean depths, taking extra heat along with it.

Such natural cycles make global warming look more like a staircase than a steady rise in temperatures, Tung said. "Right now, we're on the flat part of the staircase. We still have a few more years of the hiatus."
'
Article says not only are the oceans responsible for recent 15 years of global warming pause, but were RESPONSIBLE for HALF of the temperature RISE during the previous decade or two. Wasn't all man made, huh?
AND was responsible for the cooling between 1945 and 1975.
"Optimistically" they conclude there'll be a FEW more years of GW hiatus.
I would call it "begrudgingly" allow might be.
I think true optimism would suggest maybe we are headed for another 30 year cooling period like 1945 to 1975. The past 15 years may be transitional like the years 1930 to 1945.

The good earth is resilient. Wonderfully designed.
We should be okay untill the asteroid shower (like a meteor shower but bigger rocks) arrives. They're out there.

When will they arrive? If they know, they ain't saying.
Imagine everybody going on vacation, withdrawing all their bank funds for a last party. Retiring early en masse, everybody quitting school, or mass panic?

The US government IS spending money like there is no tomorrow!

WISE Spacecraft Reactivated to Hunt For Asteroids
August 21, 2013

The WISE spacecraft that discovered and characterized tens of thousands of asteroids throughout the solar system before being placed in hibernation will return to service for three more years starting in September, assisting NASA in its effort to identify the population of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects, as well as those suitable for asteroid exploration missions.

Something got their attention.


http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/meteor-shower/perseid.html
http://www.spaceweather.com/meteors/lyrids/lyrids.html
http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/august/nasas-spitzer-telescope-witnesses-asteroid-smashup/
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

 

The odds of an asteroid strike.

You probably know that the dinosaurs were taken out by an asteroid or comet about 10 kilometers wide. Happily, those events are extremely rare, occurring on a timescale of tens of millions of years.

The odds of a nuclear war.

During the Cuban missile crisis, President Kennedy estimated the odds of nuclear war as being "somewhere between one out of three and even."

So the Cuban missile crisis was equivalent to nuclear roulette - a version of pistol roulette in which the entire world is at stake - with a two- or three-chambered revolver.

Inevitability

Every day, the United States depends on 30,000 nuclear weapons for its security.

Every day, the Soviet Union depends on 20,000 nuclear weapons for its security.

In the metaphor of nuclear roulette, every day, we pull the trigger of the many-chambered nuclear gun pointed at the head of civilization every day, there is a small chance that one of the forty conflicts going on in the world will escalate

Every day, there is a small chance that a Third World hot spot will escalate and push the interlocking command and control systems of the US and the USSR into instability.

Each time the far-flung military forces of the two great powers go on alert, the trigger is pulled in nuclear roulette.

Every day, there is a small chance that failures in high technology military equipment will start an accidental nuclear war.

Every computer error, every false alert, every test missile that goes off course, pulls the trigger.

 

You are dragging it out of me. I have been avoiding explaining my optimism for sake of forum policy. With reluctance, Higher authority assures me, man won't destroy earth or himself or all the other life on the planet.
shhh! (HE is going to destroy heaven and earth in the fullness of time, leaving no doubt it was HIM not man.)
Might be soon. Asteroids are arriving thicker and thicker, more numerous, and whizzing by closer and closer.
Nasa can't count them all.
When is the fullness of time? it's not the beginning or end. Must be exactly in the middle.
At this moment, we are precisely centered between eternity past and eternity future.
Caught exactly in the middle of all time.

 

I admire your scrupulous concern for forum policy, and I hope the staff will too, but I have to say that I am amused once again.

Let's be quite clear on this: you are convinced, as one of your incontestable preconceptions, that humans cannot screw things up too much. You also claim you are not against science, except when it comes with an agenda. However, you have absolutely no qualms about basing your assessment of science on your own preconceived agenda. I'm sure I'm not the only one who can see the humour in this.

To be honest, this is why it's simply not worth debating climate science with hardcore deniers: they aren't amenable to evidence if it contradicts their ideology. Trying to debate climate science in that situation is much like trying to debate evolution or radiometric dating methods with a Young Earth Creationist. Nothing you say will ever get through the ideology filter, so you might as well not waste your time. It would be better spent talking to people who are ignorant but not obstinate.

Anyway, have a nice day Yobarnacle.

 

What's that all mean? All the asteroid scare posts mean?
WORRY is the USURY (interest payments) we pay on TROUBLE before the principal (actual event) is called due (arrives)!
Worry wastes energy, time, resources, and focus.
Why worry? Live, think, love, and be kind and go boating. The universe is unfolding as it should.

 

Thanks, you too.
And your own precepts are malleable? and change depending upon from which quarter the wind blows?
How do you discern truth from fiction? What standards do you measure by? If you aren't loyal to your convictions, you have none.
My rigid precepts are content with empirical sciences. The untestable sciences don't deserve the label.

 

“Indian scavengers look for coins and other valuable items from among the offerings of devotees in the Ganges.
More than 400 million people live along the Ganges River. An estimated 2,000,000 persons ritually bathe daily in the river.
While the Ganges may be considered holy, there are some problems associated with the ecology.
It is filled with chemical wastes, sewage and even the remains of human and animal corpses which carry major health risks by either direct bathing in the water (Bilharziasis infection), or by drinking (the Fecal-oral route).”

 

I would certainly hope so. I'd hate to be condemned to dogged inflexibility in the face of new information.

Good question. I can't, in any ultimate sense. I have to make the best assessment I can under the current circumstances. I try do this by weighing up the information available to me, whether I happen to like it or not.

I think this is the best approach. The trouble with being loyal to convictions is that is prevents updating those convictions. In other words, it prevents learning new things. Tell me, at what age should I stop updating my convictions? At 5? At 15? At 25? At 50? When?

Ah. Good. So your precepts are ok with climate science. Glad we cleared that up.

And if something is untestable in principle, it is not science.

 

I'm fairly certain, we aren't using terms the same way. Precepts are morals, ethics, religion, philosophy about value and quality of life, perception (how we see things), judgment (learned), and a healthy dose of attitude. I can adjust the attitude albeit with difficulty. the others are pretty fixed.

Those precepts explained in greater depth above, enable us to filter right and wrong, truth and fiction, honesty from deception.

Always keep learning. Convictions aren't something I'd give up.
Those without them are sometimes referred to as "spineless".

Climate science is not empirical. The data doesn't support the model predictions. And we can't afford expensive experiments that MAY show a result in 50 years, but we'd have no controls. Whatever 50 years later looks like, we can't say, this OTHER scenario is what we would have if we did it different.

Climatology AGW version is all or nothing. and NO guarantees.
You buy it and want draconian measures or you don't buy it, and urge "Don't mess with nature" caution.
AGW fans really don't want to mess with nature, just government!
Hands off!

 

Oh, is THAT what's happening with AGW fans regarding the stalled temperatures during the recent 15 years?

 

The oceans,etc,will long be dead before worrying about nuclear strikes.
Once you nuke a location, it will not be usable,period.
So the nuke is a deterrent only.

 

Agreed except for this photo of Hiroshima today (recent days/years).
But I agree on the deterrent part.

 

Downtown Pripyat 25 years after Chernobyl.
Yes the water is radioactive.
Yes it is not safe for human habitation.
Yes it is the largest animal preserve in the Ukraine and now the site of largest forest.

 

Beautiful isn't it?
It's the most polluted place on earth, pumped full of over 100 ton of high grade radioactive waste over the last 40 years of the USSR's nuclear weapon program.
An hour on any of its beaches will kill you dead.
You don't even have to touch the water.