Summer sea ice has vanished in the Arctic!

Sea ice has disappeared completely during the summer. Intermittent winter ice is all that remains. In response to stratification of the water column, diatom populations have shifted, complicating productivity with possibly profound implications for the ocean’s biological carbon pump in its role in sequestering atmospheric CO2.

While these words might be written about our not so distant future, they actually describe a new window into the Arctic of ~ 70 Mya.  Davies et al. tackle the subject in their paper (or here) “Late Cretaceous seasonal ocean variability from the Arctic” in the current issue of Nature. The climate of the Arctic for this period has been the subject of healthy debate, with previous studies suggesting an average temperature of some 15°C- implying an Arctic devoid of sea ice. The Davies team has produced the region’s first seasonally resolved “paleosediment trap”, which shows evidence of intermittent sea ice and indicates a maximum summer temperature of around 15°C, agreeing with other evidence suggesting winter temperatures would have been much lower.

Their cores display in their own words “superbly preserved diatoms”, and I’d call that an understatement. The image below should click through to a much larger version, so you can see for yourself:

Click to embiggen- it’s worth it.

The seasonality is inferred from a series of layers indicating autumnal (as the thermocline falls off during the transition to the Arctic winter/polar night) and vernal (nutrient limit induced) “dumps” of diatoms, which are clearly visible in the cores. Interspersed layers of poorly sorted terrigenous material (i.e. clays, silts, and fine sands) indicate sporadic sea ice formations which incorporate suspended, fine seds as they form (as frazil and then turbid ice) [corrected and edited for clarity].

In addition to its contribution to the Arctic temperature question for the Late Cretaceous, the Davies paper is notable in that it provides good evidence for a highly stratified Arctic Ocean and associated diatom populations during a known “greenhouse” period. A concern for our current and future greenhouse warming is increased stratification reducing the effectiveness of the oceanic carbon pump, exacerbating the atmospheric CO2 problem- another feedback to worry about. And with the current state of Arctic warming, worry we should.

Ones for the Road

• Smart grid technology would reduce demand by 25% and save hundreds of millions of dollars: “Technology is expensive, but not using it will be even more expensive.” [Via Knowledge Problem]
• Beyond per capita- is there a fairer way to allocate GHG emissions?
• Some reef and climate experts advocate CO2 levels below 350 ppmv in order to save reefs and entertain geo-engineering to get us there
• I didn’t think it was possible to lose more respect for WaPo’s editorial board, but then things like this happen
• Surprisingly, the ROI for creating legions of ninja isn’t all that great

[UPDATE: One more from James Annan: Who named the Maunder Minimum?]

Ones for the Road II

• Waxman-Markey/ACES is already changing global climate legislation dynamics
• Preserving the ecology of deep sea vents only to have industry despoil them later?
• 538 crunches some numbers on a Senate climate bill
• Texas- even more “Doomed!”?
• jfleck notes some choice irony in California’s latest water troubles

Ones for the Road

• Nitrogen fertilizer/oceanic dead zone denialism
• What does the WSJ editorial board actually believe?
• The sun still isn’t driving climate change
• Linking social norms to efficient conservation investment in payments for ecosystem services [PNAS]
• Plastics, the environment and human health [Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B]

Modoki El Niño increasing frequency and North Atlantic tropical cyclones

Place holder: “Impact of Shifting Patterns of Pacific Ocean Warming on North Atlantic Tropical Cyclones”. Abstract here. Paper here.

[Judy isn't being blasted on CA as much as I'd have guessed (with some notable exceptions).]

Ones for the Road

• Committed terrestrial ecosystem changes due to climate change [Nature Geoscience]
• Dinodontology
• Obama, climate legislation, and Abraham Lincoln
• Discounting the Discount Rate [via OIIFTG]
• Goosse H., P.Y. Barriat, W. Lefebvre, M.F. Loutre and V. Zunz – Introduction to climate dynamics and climate modeling

Elizabeth Kolbert’s New Yorker profile of James Hansen

It’s here, and well worth reading. Hardly the zealot the denialists make him out to be, which should surprise exactly no one familiar with his work or public speech.

For me the two key takeaways are Hansen’s unwavering resolution to point out that bills like Waxman-Markey (ACES) are insufficient to the task at hand and perhaps calamitously so, and Kolbert’s point that while politicians seem to willfully misunderstand climate science, Hansen seems to willfully misunderstand politics. I think they’re both correct, and that provides a sobering counterpoint to the jubilation of ACES’s passage in the House.

Fred Hiatt and George Will think Washington Post readers are morons

After firing the only political reporter who actually practiced journalism, Fred Hiatt and the Washington Post seem to be determined to rub everyone’s face in just how much they don’t respect their readers. To that end, they’re  both seeking new sources of metaphorical feces to serve up to the public as well as dusting off some old favorites. An example of the latter is Hiatt letting George Will out of the asylum to continue his Herculean efforts (here,  here,  here,  here,  here,  here,  here) to lie as often and in as many ways as possible about climate change and its possible solutions.

Will’s latest “contribution” to the public discourse on preventing climate disaster is almost pitiable. Where he once took up long-debunked denier myths with a kind of perverse zeal (e.g. the myth of the 70s imminent ice age consensus), his new column limp-wristedly proffers a discredited market fundamentalist “study” alleging that green job promotion wrecked Spain’s economy. Even Will is aware of just how unserious the “study” is (the economic problems in Spain are largely due to their real estate bubble bursting):

It is true that Calzada has come to conclusions that he, as a libertarian, finds ideologically congenial. And his study was supported by a like-minded U.S. think tank (the Institute for Energy Research, for which this columnist has given a paid speech)…

What matters most, however, is not that reports such as Calzada’s and the Republicans’ are right in every particular. …

Still, one can be agnostic about both reports…

Etc. Those looking for a thorough dismantling of the “study” will have to go back a few months, as the rest of the world -including the denialosphere- gave up on it back in May (A. Siegel took aim here, see also here, here, and here).

You can read about the creation of jobs through the promotion of clean energy at NY Times’ Green Inc. here and here. For a comparison of energy sources in terms of their cost and [correction, EROI cost analysis is by Kubiszewski et al. 2009 Meta-analysis of net energy return for wind power systems] ability to curb pollution and climate change, you can read Mark Jacobson’s 2009 paper Review of solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security. Wind, unsurprisingly, does quite well indeed.

Ones for the Road

• Hansen Says He’ll Talk Coal With Blankenship [the story seems to have disappeared from their site, here's the cached version]
• Weighing coal’s costs and benefits
• Coal In A World Of Cheap Natural Gas
• Plan to fight climate change will mean more coal burning
• A Sea Change in China’s Attitude Toward Carbon Capture

Ones for the Road

• The curious history between Japanese and Norwegian whalers
• Who funds Shellenberger’s Breakthrough Institute?
• SEED panel on GM food fears and science
• Why the US should declare a “no first use” nuclear arms policy
• The climate “Pompeii of ancient Mesapotamia”