@ CCv3,
This may be of interest
Robots are branching out. A new prototype soft robot takes inspiration from plants by growing to explore its environment.https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/science-ticker/robot-grows-plant
what should be done to address AGW?The absolute minimum requirement before anything of real substance can happen, is for people to stop pretending it's not happening. Human's have an incredible ability to meet huge challenges if they put their collective minds together and go after a common goal. Instead, most of our population is going about their lives as thought nothing hugely fundamental has been altered in our planet's geophysical processes while lallygagging and pretending that creating terrorists and fighting terrorists and creating yet more terrorist is our highest duty. Too many tipping points have been passed. The physics allowed us a few decades to cut back GHG injections into our atmosphere, while we learned more about our Earth's systems and the seriousness of what's heading our way. instead we didn't want to know, still don't. Nothing, nothing, nothing of genuine substance will happen as things stand. And humans don't change, I'm told. Honestly, we are heading into a territory that will feel more and more like hell. Though we Americans glibly laugh it off because we aren't at the receiving end as badly as the god forsaken poor in those shit nations around the 'third world' we love to ignore. But you can be sure it will be coming to a coast and a forest and a farmland, and a city near you, before you know it.. As the next years and decades go by, we'll be on our own death watch. Speeded up by utter egomaniacal morons linked the Kochs', Murdocks', Trump, etc. Along with the collective Willfully Ignorance of so many of our leaders and their subjects. Wish I had more time for writing something a bit better, but gotta run.
Awesome video, thanks Doug. It definitely belongs in with this collection!
Though I’m a bit irritated that after the various evenings I’ve spent looking for good YouTube video on the subject and never quite finding the right tone, most are too childish and gloss over important details - thanks to you I find this one and it’s been around for three years.
Hands down the best video explaining GHG physics I’ve seen.
As I said, just as there is a quantum mechanical basis that modern electronics are entirely reliant on to work there is also a quantum mechanical basis that entirely underlies the science of human forced climate change.Well done DC.How quantum mechanics explains global warming - Lieven Scheire https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-quantum-mechanics-explains-global-warming-lieven-scheireAnyone using transistor based communications to claim that there is no firm science supporting climate change is also stating that there is no firm science supporting the very platform they are using to make that claim. Do I really need to state how completely irrational that position is?
Here’s one for the collection.
On its 100th birthday of the American oil industry in 1959, Edward Teller warned the oil industry about global warming Benjamin Franta, Jan 1, 2018 - The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/jan/01/on-its-hundredth-birthday-in-1959-edward-teller-warned-the-oil-industry-about-global-warming The year: 1959. … … (Teller) was a guest of honor for a grand occasion: the centennial of the American oil industry. Over 300 government officials, economists, historians, scientists, and industry executives were present for the Energy and Man symposium – organized by the American Petroleum Institute and the Columbia Graduate School of Business – … … Four others joined Dunlop at the podium that day, one of whom had made the journey from California – and Hungary before that. The nuclear weapons physicist Edward Teller had, by 1959, become ostracized by the scientific community for betraying his colleague J. Robert Oppenheimer, but he retained the embrace of industry and government. Teller’s task that November fourth was to address the crowd on “energy patterns of the future," and his words carried an unexpected warning:Ladies and gentlemen, I am to talk to you about energy in the future. I will start by telling you why I believe that the energy resources of the past must be supplemented. First of all, these energy resources will run short as we use more and more of the fossil fuels. But I would [...] like to mention another reason why we probably have to look for additional fuel supplies. And this, strangely, is the question of contaminating the atmosphere. [....] Whenever you burn conventional fuel, you create carbon dioxide. [....] The carbon dioxide is invisible, it is transparent, you can’t smell it, it is not dangerous to health, so why should one worry about it? Carbon dioxide has a strange property. It transmits visible light but it absorbs the infrared radiation which is emitted from the earth. Its presence in the atmosphere causes a greenhouse effect [....] It has been calculated that a temperature rise corresponding to a 10 per cent increase in carbon dioxide will be sufficient to melt the icecap and submerge New York. All the coastal cities would be covered, and since a considerable percentage of the human race lives in coastal regions, I think that this chemical contamination is more serious than most people tend to believe.How, precisely, Mr. Dunlop and the rest of the audience reacted is unknown, but it’s hard to imagine this being welcome news. After his talk, Teller was asked to “summarize briefly the danger from increased carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere in this century." The physicist, as if considering a numerical estimation problem, responded:At present the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 2 per cent over normal. By 1970, it will be perhaps 4 per cent, by 1980, 8 per cent, by 1990, 16 per cent [about 360 parts per million, by Teller’s accounting], if we keep on with our exponential rise in the use of purely conventional fuels. By that time, there will be a serious additional impediment for the radiation leaving the earth. Our planet will get a little warmer. It is hard to say whether it will be 2 degrees Fahrenheit or only one or 5. But when the temperature does rise by a few degrees over the whole globe, there is a possibility that the icecaps will start melting and the level of the oceans will begin to rise. Well, I don’t know whether they will cover the Empire State Building or not, but anyone can calculate it by looking at the map and noting that the icecaps over Greenland and over Antarctica are perhaps five thousand feet thick.And so, at its hundredth birthday party, American oil was warned of its civilization-destroying potential. Talk about a buzzkill. ...