All posts filed under: Climate Change

Reevaluating some global warming claims (polar bears probably not going to drown)

August 4, 2011
by Nicholas Knisely
Climate Change

There’s a group that’s been looking at driftwood dispersal as a measure of the historic extent of the ice sheets in the northern hemisphere. It’s interesting right now because there’s been a series of claims that we’re close to or have crossed the tipping point where we are about to lose all of the northern ice cap. That would create a huge problem as the oceans suddenly receive a huge supply of cold fresh water […]

Global “cooling” due in large part to coal plant increase

July 5, 2011
by Nicholas Knisely
Climate Change / Science

Why is the Earth so different than Venus? Both planets are roughly the same size, and both exist within what is known as the “Life Zone” in the solar system. (The Life Zone is the region of solar space where it’s possible for liquid water to be found on the surface of a planet.) I used to ask that question every semester when I got to the section on planetology in an Astronomy course, and […]

Climate change God’s judgement not Man’s fault?

January 5, 2010
by Nicholas Knisely
Climate Change / Swaziland / World Mission

The BBC has a report this morning on a growing sentiment in parts of the developing world that the climate change that they are witnessing is not due to the actions of humankind. They are a result of God’s judgement upon us. And as such, there is nothing we can change that will have any effect on the situation other than pray for help. From the end of the article: “Climate change is a global […]

Climategate and the Irish Church scandal

November 30, 2009
by Nicholas Knisely
Climate Change / Religion / Science

Last week, while most of us here in the states were busy spending time with family and friends, the ongoing scandal of “Climategate” took a couple of new turns. Climategate is the popular term referring to the release by a computer hacker of a large body of private emails written by climate researchers. As people have combed through the emails they’ve found a number of questionable statements regarding the data the researchers have been citing […]

Global warming: no turning back?

November 23, 2009
by Nicholas Knisely
Climate Change

So okay, the headline is a little alarmist. I should probably say “Rising C02 levels” rather than “global warming” and “rising in spite of any efforts to stop them” instead of “no turning back”. But that will hardly make people read about this new study. Tim Garret, a physicist specializing in Atmospheric research, has created a new model predicting the amount of C02 that civilization produces. He models it on some specific and mostly obvious […]

Overuse of natural resources ’caused Nazca collapse’

November 3, 2009
by Nicholas Knisely
Climate Change / Peak Oil

Back when I was in High School and the works of Eric Von Daniken were still new and popular, I was fascinated by the mysterious works of the Nazca people in Peru. Von Daniken claimed that the giant figures that the Nazca people carved into the plateaus of Peru were meant to be seen by alien spaceships. (A bit of a reach perhaps, but if you know Von Daniken’s work, exactly what you’d expect.) But […]

Study: Wealth buys rescue from urban heat island

September 20, 2009
by Nicholas Knisely
Climate Change / Science

News of a study linking death rates caused by the weather to the mean income of a neighborhood was just published here in Arizona: “[The] link between money and the ability to cope with extreme weather emerged clearly in the research. Among the startling revelations: For every $10,000 an area’s income rises, the average outside temperature drops one-half degree Fahrenheit. ‘It’s an environmental-justice issue,’ said Darren Ruddell, a geographer who led the study. ‘The people […]

Supernova event recorded in the Earth’s ice

February 23, 2009
by Nicholas Knisely
Climate Change / Science

Neat! New details about a claim I remember being made at the beginning of this decade: “Chinese and Arabic astronomers left historical documentation of a supernova that occurred in our own galaxy in the year 1006 (SN 1006), and another one 48 years later (SN 1054). Some of the writings about SN 1006 say there was a visual explosion half the size of the moon, and it shone so brightly that objects on the ground […]

Return to Virtue

November 14, 2008
by Nicholas Knisely
Climate Change / Religion

I just posted an article over at the Episcopal Cafe pointing to this wonderful lecture by the Abbot of Worth. It’s the inagural Noah Lecture (a british charity) and deals primarily with finding a theological basis for sustainable living. The good Abbot finds his foundation in a call for all of us to return to the cardinal virtues – especially and more importantly – the prime virtue of Temperance. From his lecture: “So how does […]

Culture Change: You. Will. Not. Be. Able. To. Get. Food.

June 23, 2008
by Nicholas Knisely
Climate Change / Peak Oil

Ugh and Ugh. A article that points out that the Peak Oil situation combined with the observed undergoing climate change may be creating a much more immediately dire situation together than on their own. Maybe not so quickly in the developed world as in the developing, but according to the article it’s a matter of time. (Says your writer who lives in the US’s 5th largest city, in the middle of huge desert.) “You. Will. […]