Guardian Writer Currently Trapped In Ice Believes Global Warming Has 50/50 Chance Of Killing Him

ScreenHunter_878 Dec. 26 07.04

Warming could wipe out half of all species | Environment | The Guardian

How many Guardian journalists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

ScreenHunter_879 Dec. 26 07.09

h/t to Kent Clizbe

About Tony Heller

Just having fun
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22 Responses to Guardian Writer Currently Trapped In Ice Believes Global Warming Has 50/50 Chance Of Killing Him

  1. Fred from Canuckistan says:

    Really, just one if the lightbulb is one of those Eco friendly twisty thingies and it wants to be screwed.

  2. It’s true. Warming will cause mass extinction and cooling will increase biodiversity.

    That’s why there is so much biodiversity in Antarctica and why there are so few species in the Amazon or the Great Barrier Reef.

    • Jimbo says:

      I hear you my friend. And here is the evidence.

      Abstract
      Carlos Jaramillo et. al – Science – 12 November 2010
      Effects of Rapid Global Warming at the Paleocene-Eocene Boundary on Neotropical Vegetation
      Temperatures in tropical regions are estimated to have increased by 3° to 5°C, compared with Late Paleocene values, during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, 56.3 million years ago) event. We investigated the tropical forest response to this rapid warming by evaluating the palynological record of three stratigraphic sections in eastern Colombia and western Venezuela. We observed a rapid and distinct increase in plant diversity and origination rates, with a set of new taxa, mostly angiosperms, added to the existing stock of low-diversity Paleocene flora. There is no evidence for enhanced aridity in the northern Neotropics. The tropical rainforest was able to persist under elevated temperatures and high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, in contrast to speculations that tropical ecosystems were severely compromised by heat stress.
      doi: 10.1126/science.1193833

      —————-

      Abstract
      Carlos Jaramillo & Andrés Cárdenas – Annual Reviews – May 2013
      Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
      Global Warming and Neotropical Rainforests: A Historical Perspective

      There is concern over the future of the tropical rainforest (TRF) in the face of global warming. Will TRFs collapse? The fossil record can inform us about that. Our compilation of 5,998 empirical estimates of temperature over the past 120 Ma indicates that tropics have warmed as much as 7°C during both the mid-Cretaceous and the Paleogene. We analyzed the paleobotanical record of South America during the Paleogene and found that the TRF did not expand toward temperate latitudes during global warm events, even though temperatures were appropriate for doing so, suggesting that solar insolation can be a constraint on the distribution of the tropical biome. Rather, a novel biome, adapted to temperate latitudes with warm winters, developed south of the tropical zone. The TRF did not collapse during past warmings; on the contrary, its diversity increased. The increase in temperature seems to be a major driver in promoting diversity.
      doi: 10.1146/annurev-earth-042711-105403

      • Jimbo says:

        Here is some more disaster.

        Abstract
        Alexander W. Cheesman & Klaus Winter – Journal of Experimental Botany – July 19, 2013
        Growth response and acclimation of CO2 exchange characteristics to elevated temperatures in tropical tree seedlings
        ….. Seedlings of 10 neo-tropical tree species from different functional groups were cultivated in controlled-environment chambers under four day/night temperature regimes between 30/22 °C and 39/31 °C. Under well-watered conditions, all species showed optimal growth at temperatures above those currently found in their native range. While non-pioneer species experienced catastrophic failure or a substantially reduced growth rate under the highest temperature regime employed (i.e. daily average of 35 °C), growth in three lowland pioneers showed only a marginal reduction….
        doi: 10.1093/jxb/ert211

        • Jimbo says:

          More calamity. I don’t know how much more of this trace rise of carbon dioxide and heat we can stand. The end is nigh.

          Letter To Nature
          Stephanie Pau et. al. – Nature Climate Change – 23 May 2013
          Clouds and temperature drive dynamic changes in tropical flower production
          …..Here we quantify cloudiness over the past several decades to investigate how clouds, together with temperature and precipitation, affect flower production in two contrasting tropical forests. Our results show that temperature, rather than clouds, is critically important to tropical forest flower production. Warmer temperatures increased flower production over seasonal, interannual and longer timescales, contrary to recent evidence that some tropical forests are already near their temperature threshold4, 5. Clouds were primarily important seasonally, and limited production in a seasonally dry forest but enhanced production in an ever-wet forest. A long-term increase in flower production at the seasonally dry forest is not driven by clouds and instead may be tied to increasing temperatures. These relationships show that tropical forest productivity, which is not widely thought to be controlled by temperature, is indeed sensitive to small temperature changes (1–4°C) across multiple timescales.
          doi:10.1038/nclimate1934

  3. Andy Oz says:

    A poisonous mercury filled light bulb or a noble gas filled one? The Greens forced a ban on the non hazardous benign globes and advocated the toxic globes. Betcha Guardian journos are too chicken to change a mercury filled globe.

  4. The article talks at length about a six-year-old paper by Peter Mayhew. Not the Chewbacca actor, the other one.

    That article is interesting. It is here:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2562410/

    It is amazing how many different ways that the author had to smooth, detrend, adjust, rescale, spline, and add or drop components of the data before he was finally able to get something that sort of demonstrated what he wanted … even though the effects were sometimes neutral, sometimes reversed, and sometimes lagged by ten million years before producing the effect he wanted to see.

    The notion that an “icehouse” is a rich abode of new life and a tropical “greenhouse” is a dying environment losing biodiversity is a curious one. I’ll bet that tinkering with his “robust” assumptions would produce wildly different graphs — though these are not at all compelling as they are.

    ===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle

    • Jimbo says:

      Never worry my friend. Co2 is the Earth’s friend and is a friend to biodiversity. No need for any panic.

      Abstract – 31 May, 2013
      CO2 fertilisation has increased maximum foliage cover across the globe’s warm, arid environments

      [1] Satellite observations reveal a greening of the globe over recent decades. …….Using gas exchange theory, we predict that the 14% increase in atmospheric CO2 (1982–2010) led to a 5 to 10% increase in green foliage cover in warm, arid environments. Satellite observations, analysed to remove the effect of variations in rainfall, show that cover across these environments has increased by 11%.…..
      http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/grl.50563/abstract
      _____________________________

      Abstract – May 2013
      A Global Assessment of Long-Term Greening and Browning Trends in Pasture Lands Using the GIMMS LAI3g Dataset

      Our results suggest that degradation of pasture lands is not a globally widespread phenomenon and, consistent with much of the terrestrial biosphere, there have been widespread increases in pasture productivity over the last 30 years.
      http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/5/5/2492
      _____________________________

      Abstract – 10 April 2013
      Analysis of trends in fused AVHRR and MODIS NDVI data for 1982–2006: Indication for a CO2 fertilization effect in global vegetation

      …..The effect of climate variations and CO2 fertilization on the land CO2 sink, as manifested in the RVI, is explored with the Carnegie Ames Stanford Assimilation (CASA) model. Climate (temperature and precipitation) and CO2 fertilization each explain approximately 40% of the observed global trend in NDVI for 1982–2006……
      http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/gbc.20027/abstract
      _____________________________

      Abstract – May 2013
      The causes, effects and challenges of Sahelian droughts: a critical review
      …….However, this study hypothesizes that the increase in CO2 might be responsible for the increase in greening and rainfall observed. This can be explained by an increased aerial fertilization effect of CO2 that triggers plant productivity and water management efficiency through reduced transpiration. Also, the increase greening can be attributed to rural–urban migration which reduces the pressure of the population on the land…….
      doi: 10.1007/s10113-013-0473-z
      _____________________________

      Abstract – 2013
      P. B. Holden et. al.
      A model-based constraint on CO2 fertilisation
      Using output from a 671-member ensemble of transient GENIE simulations, we build an emulator of the change in atmospheric CO2 concentration change since the preindustrial period. We use this emulator to sample the 28-dimensional input parameter space. A Bayesian calibration of the emulator output suggests that the increase in gross primary productivity (GPP) in response to a doubling of CO2 from preindustrial values is very likely (90% confidence) to exceed 20%, with a most likely value of 40–60%. It is important to note that we do not represent all of the possible contributing mechanisms to the terrestrial sink. The missing processes are subsumed into our calibration of CO2 fertilisation, which therefore represents the combined effect of CO2 fertilisation and additional missing processes.
      doi:10.5194/bg-10-339-2013

  5. NikFromNYC says:

    It’s a good time of year for skeptics to thank their lucky stars for NYC, as the mealy mouthed white guilt intellectuals of the Upper West Side are further eclipsed by Fox News six blocks from Times Square on the Avenue of the Americas, now exposing 2.5M people at a time to direct skeptical attacks on the Greenpeace mothership, competently informed by this blog and Morano’s daily distillation of it:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLN5_NBawoo

    Greg Gutfeld here drags the Drug War too onto the chopping block of junk science skepticism, echoing good old Bill Buckley who featured Tim Leary himself on Firing Line, as Buckley became one of the biggest critics of it, more so than the Puritanical grandpas of Sarah “Fruit Fly Research In Paris, France” Palin’s Tea Party.

    • Dear NikFromNYC,

      That dig at Sarah Palin surprised me. I don’t know if you are aware of the specific research she was talking about — it was a study funded by the US government on olive tree pests in France, identified as wasteful government spending. She was not talking about chromosome research. This funding was apparently something of a sop to a California olive business, but I do not know the details.

      As to “Puritanical” … I’d take Palin as a role model for women over Miley Cyrus, I think. And Palin as a role model for politicians as well. Her actual career in Alaska, before the engines of media destruction focused on her, was quite impressive.

      The Puritans had a rather different approach; I’ve not heard Palin or anyone associated with the Tea Party recommend it. But perhaps you had something specific in mind there.

      The video was interesting … through the “Drug War” got only a bare mention. The Greenpeace commercial was astoundingly atrocious. Ludicrous, even.

      ===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle

      • Colorado Wellington says:

        Obsession with Sarah Palin is a fascinating phenomenon. I know, living as I do among the obsessed where discussions of unrelated subjects habitually end with a variation on a classical ancient theme:

        “Ceterum censeo Palinem esse delendam.”

      • NikFromNYC says:

        I certainly hope I stand corrected about Palin’s outlook, and indeed I was unaware of the details of the study involved.

    • Colorado Wellington says:

      Bob Beckel on climate change: “… and part of the reason why it’s changing is because we’ve thrown all the carbon monoxides up there.”

  6. Kepler says:

    How many Presidents does it take to screw a lightbulb factory worker?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Ilk1Tlfj8

  7. Don says:

    Incandescent bulbs still being made in the USA. Not associated in any way with the company or the owner.

    http://www.newcandescent.com/store/customer/

  8. Hrm, given that there are 3600 seconds per hour, I think that makes it (by Peer Reviewed Global Warming Maths™) a 2^3600 against that he’ll survive any given hour. It’s only a matter of time!

  9. higley7 says:

    It takes no Guardian journalists to put in a light build as they voluntarily banned all electric lights in an effort to be the dumbest rocks on the planet.

  10. Andy Oz says:

    These guys are doing the same as the Arctic Joule did for Mainstream Windpower.
    Except they’ve only raised $490 so far for “research”.
    http://www.spiritofmawson.com/#

    Chris Turney is tweeting while they are stuck:
    “Unfortunately Snow Dragon can’t get through. It’s standing by & waiting on another vessel to help. Everyone well. #spiritofmawson”

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