This is my link to the Heat Widget, aka the Global Warming Counter. Click on it and it will take you to the Skeptical Science 4 Hiroshimas web site, where you will find – the Widget! It’s a natty way to communicate the science. Each button gives a different way to measure the current buildup of carbon in the atmosphere. The information button gives a fuller description of each measurement. You can even set up your own, with your chosen year, colour and style of buttons. Give it a go!
Earth notes
Notes on the planet
Pictures of You – Epic Photos of Earth from Space
Cross post: http://notesonbeing.com/2014/05/13/weather-report-third-stone-from-the-sun-jaco-pastorius-alien-reveries/
There is nothing that makes me appreciate our planet more than seeing it from space. These photos taken from the International Space Station are breathtaking, depicting Earth from different aspects. We see polar ice caps, glittery lightning storms, the Aurora Borealis, Odyssean land masses and oceans, a brightly coloured-in glacier, the Earth suspended in space surrounded by a spooky moon, bright sun and trippy stars, even Aurora Australis – the crew going about their daily biz. Astronauts are crazy people. Love ’em! How about you? What makes you appreciate the earth most? Is it pictures like these or something else?
You might want to get that breathlessness cured. Post at http://notesonbeing.com/2014/04/26/the-cure-pictures-of-you/
Video link: The Cure – Pictures of You
What do you think of when you think about climate change?
In deciding on a song to attach to this post I could not go past this one; there is no other song that I know of which conveys the sense of the apocalyptic more than The Doors’ “The End”.
What do you think of when you think about climate change? Excellent question. What imagery is most powerful in communicating the science? What is most likely to make people switch off or feel disempowered? Thorny questions to grapple with at a time when the national conversation seems to have taken a
decidedly sinister downturn and many must be feeling a sense of hopelessness. David Holmes, editor of wide-ranging blog The Conversation, examines these questions in “Four Hiroshima bombs a second” and “Two degrees” both subtitled “how we imagine climate change”.
Holmes, Senior Lecturer in Communication & Media Studies at Monash University, receives funding from their Faculty of Arts for research into climate change communication. So glad someone is approaching this with academic rigor. It makes sense to discuss destructive energy, similar to that released by earthquakes, or nuclear bombs, measured by scientists as Joules (the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake & tsunami was 1.1 Joules, the equivalent energy of 26 megatons of TNT) in pictorial terms, or memes, referencing collective experiences of people. Much like the Mercalli Scale in calculating earthquakes, which measures the intensity of physical experiences and observations people share during and in the aftermath of an earthquake. Imagery & analogies from popular culture, such as Terminator 2: Judgement Day can also be useful.
Climate change seem
s more languid than any of these; people’s experiences are blunted by the lifespan creep of it, and insulated because 90% of the energy is absorbed by the ocean and ice which, even at the current rate of acceleration, with energy the equivalent of four Hiroshima bombs a second hitting the Earth, will take decades to warm. Its effects are still a long way from where most people live. Further, it’s a complex picture; some effects could result in cooling at specific global locations.
Similarly confusing, two degrees does not seem significant when measured against normal d
aily fluctuations in temperatures. The problem is that this is an average global temperature and this amount of warming is sufficient to cause extreme weather and ocean rising which will affect the entire population of the globe. It is also a point at which the damage will be irreversible. There will not be another Ice Age. And make no mistake, it is set to be grim in many of our lifetimes. The 2 degree threshold is likely to be reached by 2060.
As Holmes points out however, the mind-numbingly catastrophic potential future picture can be countered by images which make people feel empowered, bringing solutions close to home, such as wind farms and solar panels. The time for safeguarding people’s sensibilities has passed. Again Holmes gives notice, every day is Judgement Day.
http://theconversation.com/two-degrees-how-we-imagine-climate-change-18035
https://theconversation.com/four-hiroshima-bombs-a-second-how-we-imagine-climate-change-16387
Notes on Being 