Posts

5 min. video. Climate Change Moved the North Pole

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The idea that the North Pole can move is nothing new, but the findings of a recent study suggest that Santa might need to pack up and find a new apartment. Hosted by: Hank Green I was able to deduce (hopefully correctly) that you were referring to true north, rather than magnetic north (which also has been known to drift) but it would have been helpful to have mentioned this at the beginning, so I would not be left wondering.

12 min. video. Arctic Methane. Has 2020 triggered a tipping point?

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The summer of 2020 saw record breaking heatwaves across the Arctic region resulting in the lowest ever recorded October sea ice levels. Those persistently warm temperatures also caused the thawing of permafrost and sediment on the seabed allowing the release of very high concentrations of methane - in some cases up to 400 times normal levels. So, have we now reached the long anticipated tipping point? Never have such alarming news been delivered so calmly. I'm 63yrs old so I suspect I'll be dead before the worst effects are experienced, but the human race is pathetic. Faced with total disaster we're more concerned with losing " money" than our descendants.

50 min. video.Columbia at Home: The Antarctic Ice Sheet | Past, Present, and Future with Jonny Kingslake

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Glaciologist Jonny Kingslake, an assistant professor at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, leads a family-friendly program, sharing insights and photographs from his research trips to Antarctica. In language aimed at younger attendees, he explains how the study of past and present ice flow in the Antarctic ice sheet is key in predicting sea-level rise.

14 min. video. Introduction to the permafrost climate feedback

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This is a short lecture on how climate change is affecting Arctic and Boreal Ecosystems, and how the response of those ecosystems is starting to influence the global climate system. Reminds me of Walter Jen and his talks about soil and hydrology. The most important point you raised there was how not all models have the data or possibilities considered, I've long held the view that serious "super computer power" be tasked with the most comprehensive modelling to ensure we are getting the best possible predictions. If we have under stated serious climate shift then the consequences could be devastating if the rate of change is too great for our food agriculture systems. Imagine food and water shortages on a global scale just because we underestimated the size of the problem. To clue people in, the entire jetstream circulation has changed from oceans too warm to allow Siberian cold to cross the N.Pacific turns it north with heat & moisture near BeringStrait a low point i...

20 min. video. My polar vortex PhD thesis: explained

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In this video I briefly explain, in some detail, my PhD thesis in atmospheric physics, specifically looking at the dynamical coupling of the stratosphere and troposphere. I had a great time doing this work at the University of Exeter, as documented in my vlogs, and so I wanted to once and for all show you what I accomplished! There is an awful lot in my thesis that I didn't mention in this video, mostly to keep things simple and to keep the running time down. Most notably I don't critique or really statistically verify a lot of the assumptions I made and methods I used in the thesis. I also completely ignore the difference between Ertel and QG PV.

22 min. video. W5: What happens when the permafrost thaws?

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Almost half of Canada sits on permanently frozen land called permafrost, but climate change is causing it to thaw and erode rapidly. W5's Avery Haines investigates a looming ecological disaster that poses a threat to the entire world.

9 min. video. What's hidden under the Greenland ice sheet? | Kristin Poinar

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The Greenland ice sheet is massive, mysterious -- and melting. Using advanced technology, scientists are revealing its secrets for the first time, and what they've found is amazing: hidden under the ice sheet is a vast aquifer that holds a Lake Tahoe-sized volume of water from the summer melt. Does this water stay there, or does it find its way out to the ocean and contribute to global sea level rise? Join glaciologist Kristin Poinar for a trip to this frozen, forgotten land to find out. "The aquifer water drives the crevasse all the way to the base of the ice sheet, a thousand meters below". "The Greenland ice sheet is huge, the size of Mexico. And it's ice from top to bottom is two miles thick". So...is the ice sheet thickness a thousand meters, or two miles??? BIG difference! (Unless the snow {aquifer} is over seven thousand feet.) A much simpler and more accurate method of determiming the amount of glacial loss is the hundreds of millions of years of...

Helpful comments on Arctic climate crisis

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The earth has enough for every man's need, but not for every mans greed." - Gandhi Comments on sea level rising Sea level rise might take a while, but we already feel the effect of changing weather patterns resulting in forest fires etc. The domino effect is in full motion.  https://arctic-climate-crisis.blogspot.com The sea level is also rising by the fact that water expands the hotter it becomes. When the ocean's waters heat up this phenomenon adds to the overall height of the increase. Comments about politicians Never confuse politicians with leaders. If doing nothing could lead us to a solution, the US senate would be the perfect organization to lead mankind there. Politics is why we are where we're at. Same with the pandemic. Keeping the corporate profit machine going is all that matters to politics. Nice talk won't get us nowhere, it never did. It's called PR, aka marketing. See "the Century of the self", an old but excellent BBC documentary. ...