Recently, respected climatologist Dr. Judith Curry published a new book, “Climate Uncertainty and Risk: Rethinking Our Response.” This book helps us rethink the climate change problem, the risks we are facing, and how we can respond to these challenges. Understanding the deep uncertainty surrounding the climate change problem helps us to better assess what the proper course of action our society should take. This book shows how uncertainty and disagreement can be part of the decision-making process. It provides a road map for formulating pragmatic solutions.
Tune in to the show for a review by the Dr. Curry herself. We’ll also take a look at some of the silliest climate news of the week!
Catch Host Anthony Watts and panelists Linnea Lueken and Andy Singer along with special guest Dr. Judith Curry for episode 69 of Climate Change Roundtable, live every Friday at 12pm CT/1PM ET.
A big question is why aren’t we celebrating warming, if it is warming, instead of spreading fear about warming? The Earth is in a 2.6 million-year ice age named The Quaternary Glaciation(fourth ice age), in a warm interglacial period, that is seldom mentioned in climate change news stories. Twenty percent of the land is covered in glaciers or permafrost. Most places in the US and Europe in the winter it is too cold to go outdoors with few clothes on for any length of time. The Earth will be in this ice age until there is no natural ice on the Earth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternary_glaciation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permafrost
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier
Warming will save lives not cost lives. 4.6 million people die each year from the cold, mostly because of increased heart attacks and strokes, compared to 0.5 million dying from heat.
‘Global, regional and national burden of mortality associated with nonoptimal ambient temperatures from 2000 to 2019: a three-stage modelling study’
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00081-4/fulltext
Over the last 50 years the Earth has received more energy from the Sun than at any other time during the past 500 years. That will increase warming right there.
‘Total Solar Irradiance during the Last Five Centuries’
The Astrophysical Journal, 937:84, 2022 October 1
https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.10115
People dislike the current cold weather more than they do the current hot weather. Over 5 times as much money is spent in the U.S. on heating compared to air conditioning, 43% of the household energy budget is spent on heating versus 8% spent on cooling. The current problem is that it is cold in most places in the U.S. during the year, the average temperature in the U.S. is 52 degrees, which is much colder than people can live at for a long time without lots of technology to shield them from the cold.
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/use-of-energy/homes.php
The warming is predominantly in the northern hemisphere. The Southern Hemisphere south of 45S is not warming. Antarctic and Southern Ocean are cooling. See attached comparing 45-90N with 45-90S.
The NH warming is causing accelerating snowfall and increasing maximum snow extent. This is the early stage of the termination of the modern interglacial. The last 4 interglacials all terminated in the same phase of the precession cycle as now.
The warming that is occurring in the NH is entirely natural with an increasing proportion of the ocean surface reaching the 30C surface temperature limit during boreal summers. This gradual warming of the northern land masses will continue until the ice advances south again – still a century or two away before the permafrost changes from retreating to advancing because melting is still outpacing snowfall. A lot more snowfall yet before that process reverses meaning the northern ocean surface will get a lot warmer.