Stumax.com

Today’s answer: By studying “paleoproxies” such as ocean sediments and sedimentary rocks, we can study ocean and atmospheric temperature from as many as tens of millions of years ago. 1/4

Sooo… How far back can we measure ocean and atmospheric temperatures? a) Hundreds of years b) Thousands of years c) Hundreds of thousands of years d) Millions of years

Climate.gov has a great dashboard of climate indicators so that you can check out some of this evidence for yourself. Just take a look at some of the trend snapshots. The trends are… not great. https://www.climate.gov/climatedashboard

3/3

… more things you can measure to look for evidence of climate change: 6. Strengthening mid-latitude westerly winds 7. Fewer extreme cold events / more extreme heat events 8. Increased precipitation events 9. Biological and ecological changes

2/3

Things you can measure to look for evidence of climate change include:

1. Surface, oceanic, and atmospheric temperatures
2. Ice melt
3. Sea level rise
4. Storm frequency and intensity
5. Reduced snow cover … 1/3

Next question: What types of physical evidence could you look at to understand whether climate is changing? What could you measure?

Okay, let’s check your answers: Aside from methane and carbon dioxide, natural greenhouse gases include: water vapor, nitrous oxide, ozone

Synthetic greenhouse gases are: chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs)

Okay, next climate question: Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, obvs. Methane is another. Name a third.

By the way, if you want to read a really good book about the role of Carbon Dioxide in climate change, I highly recommend CO2 Rising, by Tyler Volk. Volk traces the lives of CO2 molecules from various sources to show how they interact with the environment. It’s a great read. 3/3

Basically, putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is like putting a blanket on the Earth. The more of those gases are in the atmosphere, the thicker the blanket, and the more the Earth will heat up. 2/3

The greenhouse effect is the overall warming of the Earth’s lower atmosphere mainly due to carbon dioxide and water vapor, which permit the sun’s rays to heat the Earth, but which then block some heat energy from escaping back into space. 1/3

Next question: What’s the greenhouse effect?

Again, the point is to answer these without looking anything up. It’s interesting to see what facts or “facts” have stuck in your brain over the years from various sources. Be wrong. It’s cool. We’re all learning together.

Note that all the answers I’ll provide are my interpretation of material compiled by my instructor, Therese Zarlengo, for the course “Climate Change, Energy, and the Environment”, which I’m taking through UCLA Extension. Any errors in fact have likely been introduced by me. 3/3

The American Meteorological Society defines climate as “the slowly varying aspects of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, land, and surface systems.” Climate measurements are typically taken over a month or more, considering the variability over time of these averaged quantities. 2/3

Okay, y’all are smart. Lots of good answers to the difference between climate and weather. I think everyone got that weather is what’s happening now (or relatively soon), and climate is what tends to happen over time. 1/3

First question: What’s the difference between climate and weather?

I had to write a climate quiz for a class project. The small group I gave it to did pretty well, so I thought I’d ask the questions here, too. I’ll post one question per day, and post answers the next day. You’re on your honor to answer without looking anything up.

I’m almost 4/5 of the way through my Sustainability Certificate, and have hit on a new way to process and review the instructor’s weekly lectures. I’m recording the audio of the lectures from Safari using Audio Hijack, and then converting speech to text using MacWhisper. I then re-read the transcribed lecture and take notes.

MacWhisper has become astonishingly good. In the first few weeks of class, the text output was pretty accurate, but it was delivered as just a bunch of lines of about the same length, with no regard for where sentences began or ended. I needed to paste the MacWhisper output into BBEdit, strip all the line endings, and then parse through the text manually to break up the sentences and paragraphs and correct (usually a very few) errors. This week, though, I just copied the MacWhisper output and pasted it straight into my Craft note and didn’t have to change a thing. The sentences were broken out separately and names and other content were captured almost perfectly. Just remarkable.

Now I have a searchable text archive of the course lectures and my notes, which will make referencing these in the future much easier. Wish I had this system in place for previous classes.

The Climatebase Fellowship is accepting applications to their 3rd cohort. As a 2nd cohort fellow, I can recommend the experience wholeheartedly. You’ll get excellent instruction in all aspects of sustainability and meet some of the nicest and most dedicated professionals around.

♻️ If this pans out, it would be a big deal. Wind turbine blades wear out and need to be replaced periodically. They’re made of epoxy, which means they’ve been going to the landfill… until now.

electrek.co

A Danish wind turbine giant just discovered how to recycle all blades