Higher and Higher

It’s been a while since the University of Colorado updated their satellite-based sea level data. But there’s a more recent update from AVISO.

What can one expect to have happened most recently? There’s been a lot of rainfall, which can move water from ocean to land and lower sea level. But there’s also an ongoing el Niño which tends to be associated with enhanced sea level. There’s also the fact that in the last few years, melt from the Greenland ice sheet has taken off like a bat out of hell. Of course, those fluctuations will be on top of the continuing sea level rise due to global warming. Here’s the data:

Not Cool

Hottest Year on Record

Back when Richard Muller announced the formation of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, those who deny the danger from global warming were thrilled. They thought the Berkeley project would prove once and for all just how Earth’s temperature had really changed. More to the point, Muller was skeptical about Earth’s reported temperature history, so they expected it to show that all those other guys — NASA, NOAA, HadCRU — got it wrong. Anthony Watts welcomed it, praised it, and announced that he would accept the results, whatever they were.

When the Berkeley project announced their results, deniers changed their tune. Instead of “showing the love” to Richard Muller and the gang, they turned on them like a pack of wolves. That’s because the Berkeley project showed that all those other guys — NASA, NOAA, HadCRU — got it right.

Dialogue

Salviati: That was delicious! Thank your wife for such a wonderful meal, and thanks again for having us over for the long weekend.

Simplicio: Yes indeed — your wife is such an excellent cook.

Sagredo: It’s my pleasure — I enjoy your company so much. I’m so glad you were both able to visit for a few days. It’s not easy to find such excellent conversationalists. And I have to agree about my wife’s cooking.

Shame on US

Debate REAL Issues

It’s time for presidential candidates — and especially, the moderators of debates — to stop avoiding real issues.

Oxygen

In addition to reporting atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, the Scripps Institute reports measurements of the concentration of oxygen (O₂) in the air. Since carbon dioxide increase comes mainly from burning fossil carbon using atmospheric oxygen, as CO₂ goes up, O₂ goes down.

CO2 Increase

CO₂ in our atmosphere is still increasing. Last year the annual average amount has passed 400 ppmv (part per million by volume) for the first time in a long time — at least a million years.

The reason: we’re burning fossil fuels like oil, coal, natural gas. When we do, it turns that long-buied carbon into carbon dioxide, which ends up in the atmosphere. It’s as simple as that.

Crazy Hot December: USA Edition

This December was crazy hot. And not just in England; it was in the eastern U.S. too.

Crazy Hot December

This December was crazy hot. Most readers are aware of how unusually warm it was last month in the eastern U.S., but it was just as crazy hot — maybe more so — in England.

As a new year arrives, organizations which track climate release complete data for the preceding year. One of the first to do so, and the first I acquired, was daily Central England Temperature. It reports daily mean temperature since 1772, nearly 250 years’ worth.