aerosols

Convective clouds forming over the Amazon in a blanket smoke. Image: Prof. Ilan Koren Horse latitudes, doldrums, calms of Cancer and Capricorn: These are all synonymous names for the forsaken regions of the oceans that sailors of previous eras cursed because the winds that once pushed their sails die out there for weeks at a time. (One suggested explanation for the name “horse latitudes” is that some had to throw the horses overboard there when the supplies ran out.) On land, these subtropical belts – around 30-35° north and south of the equator – help form the world’s deserts. These…
(image info and credits) Fake skeptics of anthropogenic global warming love to set up the straw man that mainstream climate science believes that CO2 is the one and only driver of climate change.  They can then use it in many different attacks, such as gee whiz isn't it stupid that they haven't even thought of the sun's influence.  This is of course patently false as even the most cursory survey of actual scientific content will quickly reveal.  This straw man is also an implicit part of the argument that the "16 year pause" in global warming proves that CO2 is not a climate driver.  If CO2…
by Elizabeth Grossman Why some people who inhaled the airborne contaminants unleashed by the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 became sick for only a short time, why some have become chronically ill, and others terminally ill, may never be known. What is known, however, is that the dust and aerosols released in that disaster contained a potentially treacherous mix of everything that was in those enormous buildings and in those aircraft. What is also known is that, as Paul J. Lioy, professor and vice chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine…
Don't miss April 19th's APOD, a truly awsome sight! And while on the subject of Eyjafjallajokull and my recent post about it, readers should be aware of a correction on the source site. The best estimate of CO2 is in fact 150,000 tons per day, not 7400, with a possible maximum of 300,000 tons per day. So the graphic is much less compelling, but the story of Joe vs the Volcano is not affected.
This is just one of dozens of responses to common climate change denial arguments, which can all be found at How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic. Objection: There was global cooling in the 40's, 50's and 60's even while human Greenhouse gas emissions were rising. Clearly, temperature is not being driven by CO2. Answer: None of the advocates of the theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming claim that CO2 is the only factor controlling temperature in the ocean-atmosphere climate system. It is a large and complex system, responsive on many different timescales, and subject to numerous forcings. AGW…