97%

97% is a number both praised and criticized concerning the climate change issue.  An article published by Naomi Oreskes in 2004 found that 97% of the papers published by actual climate scientists (those who do research on the phenomenon) agree that the climate is changing and that it is due to human activities.  Oreskes examined 928 papers published between 1993 and 2004l. A more recent study (Cook et al 2013) of over 12, 000 papers agrees with this figure.

There is a good discussion of this issue at https://skepticalscience.com/97-percent-consensus-robust.htm

As Pogo says, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

FUSE Meeting

Last night I gave a presentation on climate to the Friends United for a Safe Environment group.

This is the text of an article printed in the Texarkana Gazette today.

A&M professor speaks about climate change

by Jennifer Middleton

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Climate change is not a hoax and humans are responsible for the majority of the earth's increase in temperature, according to Texas A&M University-Texarkana professor Dr. David Allard. Allard, who is involved with the Climate Reality Project, said humans are dumping 110 million tons of man-made global warming pollution into the atmosphere every 24 hours.
"Most of that is carbon dioxide, but there's also methane, CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) and other things that contribute to that," he said Tuesday during the January meeting of Friends United for a Safe Environment. "If we can control carbon dioxide, then perhaps we'll slow down this process."
He explained how global warming works and said that a large concentration of carbon dioxide prevents the release of infrared radiation the atmosphere has absorbed from the sun.
"More of the outgoing infrared radiation is trapped. It's like a blanket around the planet," Allard said. "The more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the thicker the blanket and the warmer it's going to get." He added that methane from cows and landfills is an even stronger driver of the heating process. Factors that contribute to the carbon dioxide levels include thawing permafrost, air transportation, oil production, crop burning, fertilization, forest burning, coal plants and land transport, along with industrial agriculture and industrial processes.
Gases from each of these has increased global surface temperatures dramatically, he said, with temperatures rising significantly since 2000.
"The hottest year on record was 2016," he said. "When we say that, what they've done is taken temperatures from different places around the world, so they're not talking about the temperature in Texarkana, they are taking about the change in temperature worldwide. They took thousands of readings from different places around the planet and that's how they were able to determine that we have those changes."
The heat and the rise in temperature causes a number of problems, he said, including an increase in heat stroke, storms, wildfires, drought and loss of animal life.
"The ocean is taking in a large amount of this heat," Allard said. "The heat accumulates in the atmosphere, but the ocean picks it up, so they oceans are warming up. That's dangerous for marine life, it's harder on coral reefs, the fishes. Storms are also getting stronger."
In 2015, three category five hurricanes were in the Pacific Ocean at the same time—Kilo, Ignacio and Jimena.
"The number and strength of these storms is incredible," he said. The warming process puts the hydrological cycle in higher gear and creates the stronger storms, he explained.
"The same extra heat that evaporates more water from the ocean causes bigger downpours and floods," Allard said. "It pulls moisture even more quickly from the soil, causing longer and deeper droughts. The earth's balance is off."
The warming has also significantly reduced the size of the glaciers in the Greenland ice cap and increased major cities' risk of flooding due to rise in sea levels. Many around the world are threatened and Miami, Fla. is the one at greatest risk in the United States, he said.
"Climate change is also a medical emergency," Allard told the group. "From a reduction in food supply, to heat stress, it will harm people and it is a real emergency."
Top diseases are also spreading rapidly due to the warming, including the West Nile virus, Chagas disease, dengue fever and the Zika virus.
Animals are also affected by the increase in temperature, with some already having gone extinct because their habitats changed.
"We are now at risk of losing up to 50 percent of all land-based species in this century," he said.
Many climate change deniers simply have not looked at the data, Allard said, adding that 98 percent of research supports the increase of emissions and temperatures over the years.
"How we can not see this is serious and how can we not address it? How can we ignore it?" he asked. "I don't think there's any doubt that we have to change."
Those changes can happen individually by choosing to be more responsible with power, Allard said. For example, using LED bulbs, driving an electric or hybrid car and installing solar panels on homes. Wind power is also being used around the world and Texas is one of the largest states in the production of wind energy.
"Yes, we can change," he told the group. "Will we change? We can only hope."
More information on global warming and how to advocate for cleaner energy can be found at www.climaterealityproject.org.

Jiggers

I had never heard of jiggers until I saw a story in the Texarkana Gazette about students doing a service project to help prevent this infestation. It is causes by species of flea (Tunga penetrans, the chigoe flea or jigger).  This is the smallest species of flea know at about 1mm in size.

"Jiggers is caused by the female sand flea, Tunga penetrans, which burrows into the skin of its host — usually on the feet, but occasionally on the lips, buttocks and even eyelids — and undergoes hypertrophy within a day or two, eventually expanding to the size of a pea (www.cdc.gov/NCIDOD/EID/vol9no8/pdfs/03-0041.pdf). The flea’s hindquarters remain in contact with the air, providing an avenue for breathing, defecating and expelling eggs, while creating a painful lesion on the host’s skin which often serves as an entry point for pathogenic microorganisms. Over the course of about three weeks, the flea will expel as many as 200 eggs into the environment and then die in situ, leaving a black crust covering a lesion containing the dead flea, which is eventually sloughed off from the epidermis. If left untreated, patients can die of secondary infections such as tetanus and gangrene, according to the CDC."  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3017281/

Take a look at this website with a video.  The organzation Sole Hope is fighting this nasty infestation.

Climate change and education

I have recently read some articles about the lack of coverage of climate change in high school curricula and introductory college textbooks in the United States (Meehan et al., 2018 and Yoho & Rittmann, 2018).  I see this as a great problem, especially in light of the recent IPCC report (IPCC, 2018).  We must educate our populace about the dangers of climate change.  These young people are the ones who will be most affected by this phenomenon.  They need to know the science of this and solutions to help mitigate the problem.

Meehan et al, 2018 state the following conclusions concerning the high school curricula:

Findings indicate that (1) about half the curricula portray human activity as a major cause of current climate change, (2) most curricula include information about climatic changes but few details about potentially proximal, near-term impacts of GCC*, and (3) most curricula offer a narrow set of strategies for responding to GCC. These findings suggest that educators should critically examine curricular materials they use to teach about GCC and that scholars should continually examine how GCC is portrayed to youth. *GCC = Global Climate Change

Yoho and Rittmann, 2018 conclude the following when examining introductory college science textbooks:

Energy technologies, climate change, and related environmental issues are found, on average, on ≤4% of textbook pages, and variation is large among individual textbooks. Discipline-based trends exist, especially for the energy technologies presented. Addressed separately as a non-renewable, non-fossil fuel, nuclear energy is found on ≤1% of textbook pages and unfavorably represented. The discussion within these science disciplines has implications for introductory-level education, public perception of science, and informed citizenship.

The recent IPCC report highlights the damage that a 1.5 C increase can produce.  We are actually on track for an even greater increase.  We need to have this information be passed on to the students so that they can make fact-based decisions concerning global climate change and not be influenced by those who are denying the evidence—for whatever reason.

References

IPCC. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2018 Report. Retrieved October 31, 2018, from http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/

Meehan, C. R., Levy, B. L., & Collet-Gildard, L. (2018). Global climate change in U.S. high school curricula: Portrayals of the causes, consequences, and potential responses. Science Education, 102(3), 498-528. doi:10.1002/sce.21338

Yoho, R. A., & Rittmann, B. E. (2018). Climate Change and Energy Technologies in Undergraduate Introductory Science Textbooks. Environmental Communication, 12(6), 731-743. doi:10.1080/17524032.2018.1454337

Letter to the editor of The Texarkana Gazette

This was sent as a response to an oped (a very misinformed one) by Cal Thomas and published in the Gazette.

Climate change

TO THE EDITOR:

I am very disappointed in the Gazette for continuing to publish misleading opinion and information by climate change deniers. I am referring to the recent op-ed by Cal Thomas (June 30, Thirty years of 'global warming' panic). Mr. Thomas writes in a way that will make people think there is doubt about human-induced climate change and he cites material that mainstream climate scientists have refuted.

The facts are that the climate is warming and it is mainly due to human impact. We can see the signs already in rising sea level, heat waves, and many other important climate-related processes. Ninety-seven percent of the scientists who study climate agree that the change is occurring and it is human induced. Thomas writes like there is a debate. There is no debate as far as the science goes.

A good website for people to check is https://www.skepticalscience.com/.  This site shows reliable information that refutes the climate change denial. We must ask ourselves what kind of world are we leaving for our descendants and take action now.

David W. Allard

Texarkana, Texas

Plastics!!!

As Dustin Hoffman was told in "The Graduate", the future is plastics.  Well maybe not.  Plastics are a disaster for the environment. as can be seen by many recent stories.  One example is Henderson Island in the Pacific.  It has become an island of plastic.  I am sure there are probably many more like it.  We know about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch where the plastic is being accumulated by the oceanic gyres.  This is also probably occurring in the other oceans.  We must stop doing this to the environment. 

A recent study points out some alarming facts.

• 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic have been produced since the 1950s--half of it made since 2004
• 12 billion metric tons will accumulate in landfills or in the environment by 2050.
• five million to 13 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean each year.
• about 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic have been thrown away since 1950. 
• About 12 percent of that has been incinerated, which is the only way to permanently dispose of plastic; 
• 9 percent has been recycled, which only delays final disposal; 
• 60 percent — about 4.9 billion metric tons — is in landfills or scattered in the environment. 

Below are some items of interest, if this alarms you.

This Pacific island is covered in 38 million pieces of trash — mostly plastic

On a parasite binge.

Parasites are really fascinating critters.  They continue to amaze me.  I have read one book and am on another.  The current book is Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer.  He is a terrific science writer for the New York Times.  Has written a number of great books.  Check out some of his other works at https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Carl+Zimmer

 

 

 

 

 

The first book was I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong.  He has a great TED Talk below.  He has a number of other talks on YouTube.  Goodreads also has a section on this book. 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27213168-i-contain-multitudes

 

 

 

Ted Talk


Enjoy.