Climate science
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There has been a lot in the news recently about how carbon emissions would be drastically reduced if we just stopped eating red meat (or in some cases, any meat at all). I get questions from extension agents and producers about the impacts that producing animal protein has on the increase in carbon dioxide in…
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In general, television meteorologists have been the most skeptical of all atmospheric scientists about global warming and climate change. There are a variety of reasons for this, including lack of training in climatology, most of their time spent looking at short-term weather models, and working for television stations which run conservative programming. This is changing…
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Even though most of the Southeast has been dry lately, we’ve had our share of wet conditions and floods in the not-too-distant past. This article from Bloomberg News describes why experiencing a 100-year storm event does not mean you will never see one again in your lifetime. You can read it at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-22/surviving-the-100-year-flood-doesn-t-mean-99-years-of-safety.
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Two studies published this week highlight the impact that volcanic eruptions may have on climate, both on short (a few years) and long (millions of years) time scales. BBC posted an article on some recent research by Dutch scientists suggesting that an eruption of Mt. Chichon in Mexico in the 6th century can be linked…
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Last week in many news feeds there was a fascinating story about how the North Pole is moving due to changes in the distribution of weight around the world from melting ice. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab scientists showed that the axis of rotation around which the Earth spins is moving towards the east (I do…
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According to a recent article in USA Today, the hotspot for lightning in the United States is located in Orangetree, Florida, a few miles southeast of Fort Myers on the southwest coast of the peninsula. This is based on a new satellite study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Globally, the most…
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Every child I know likes to draw raindrops with a bulbous bottom and a point on the top. This may be in part due to the path of water droplets on glass, which do tend to have that shape due to surface tension and friction between the water and the glass surface. But what shape…
Posted in: Climate science