Oceans are at the 'edge' of losing all oxygen: Event could lead to mass sea life extinction that will last a MILLION years

I could spend time pointing out the leaps of logic committed below but I will simply look at a conventional commentary on the Toarcian event. They predict a repeat of that event

Quote 1:  "The T-OAE has been extensively studied in the past three decades although there is no general consensus about the causes or triggering mechanisms behind this event"

Quote 2: "Results from the Paris Bassin as in other localities indicates that the increasing greenhouse conditions may have caused acidification in the oceans, hampering carbonate bio-mineralisation, and provoking a dramatical loss in the CO2 storage capacity of the oceans."

Quote 2 is very confused.  The statement, "increasing greenhouse conditions may have caused acidification in the oceans' is the opposite of what happens.  Warmer oceans outgas CO2, leading to a reduction in carbonic acid and increased ALKALINITY of the oceans. But from that illogic they do in fact somehow come to a correct conclusion, that warmer oceans carry less CO2.

So, basically nobody understands what caused the Toarcian event and others like it and the degree of confusion in the thinking about it offers little hope of any increased understanding.  We would have to understand the causes of such events to predict them.

The thing that seems to have sent the galoots below off into their voyage of non-sequiturs is the finding that oceanic oxygen content has decreased slightly in the last 50 years.  But that is no surprise.  There was a slight temperature rise over the early  part of that period so we expect the oceans to outgas some O2 over that period.  So the non sequitur indulged in there is to expect that the O2 would continue to fall, which in an extreme would one day give a Toarcian-like end point.

But will it continue to fall?  Nobody knows.  What we do know is that global temperatures have shown no significant net movement for nearly 20 years, despite a considerable CO2 rise over that period. NASA/GISS Tell us that the global December 2016 temperature anomaly was .77, which was DOWN on December 2015 (1.10)and even slightly down on 2014 (.79).  So the recent trend is downwards, for what that is worth.

In all the circumstances, then, there is NO WAY we can link Toarcian-like events to anything in the present time.  The scare is nonsense


University of Exeter scientists fear the modern ocean is 'on the edge of anoxia' - when the oceans are depleted of oxygen. And while this dramatic drop in oceanic oxygen comes to a natural end, it takes about a million years.

Scientists believe the modern ocean is 'on the edge of anoxia' - and the Exeter researchers say it is 'critical' to limit carbon emissions to prevent this.

A study last year by researchers from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, showed that while the levels of carbon dioxide are increasing, the concentration of oxygen in the oceans is decreasing.

Researchers analysed over 50 years’ worth of data looking at a range of parameters from ocean salinity to temperature. From this, they calculated that over this period, the world’s oceans have lost an average two per cent of their oxygen.

The main process through which the oceans are losing their oxygen is the heating of the water. As oceans warm, they lose their ability to trap dissolved oxygen.

And because the warming is normally contained to the upper levels of the water, it decreases the density of the surface water, preventing it from dropping to the depths and taking oxygen with it.

Studying what happened during the Jurassic period, they found the drop in oxygen causes more organic carbon to be buried in sediment on the ocean floor.

This eventually leads to rising oxygen in the atmosphere which ultimately re-oxygenates the ocean. But it took a million years to get the balance right again.

Lead researcher PhD student Sarah Baker said it was now 'critical' for modern humans to limit carbon emissions to prevent this. She said: 'Once you get into a major event like anoxia, it takes a long time for the Earth's system to rebalance.

'This shows the vital importance of limiting disruption to the carbon cycle to regulate the Earth system and keep it within habitable bounds.'

The researchers studied the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event, which took place 183 million years ago. This was characterised by a major disturbance to the global carbon cycle, depleted oxygen in Earth's oceans and mass extinction of marine life.

Numerical models predicted that increased burial of organic carbon - due to less decomposition and more plant and marine productivity in the warmer, carbon-rich environment - should drive a rise in atmospheric oxygen, causing the end of an anoxic event after one million years.

Testing the theory they examined fossil charcoal samples to see evidence of wildfires - as such fires would be more common in oxygen-rich times.

These were taken at Mochras in Wales and Peniche, Portugal.

They found a period of increased wildfire activity started one million years after the onset of the anoxic event, and lasted for about 800,000 years.

Ms Baker added: 'We argue that this major increase in fire activity was primarily driven by increased atmospheric oxygen.

'Our study provides the first fossil-based evidence that such a change in atmospheric oxygen levels could occur in a period of one million years.'

The increase in fire activity may have also helped end ocean anoxia by burning and reducing the amount of plants on land.

This is because plants can help to erode rocks on the land that contain nutrients needed for marine life - therefore with fewer plants, fewer nutrients are available to be carried to the sea and used to support marine life in the oceans.

Less marine life - that would use oxygen to breathe - would mean less oxygen being used in the oceans, and could therefore help the oceans to build up a higher oxygen content, ending anoxia.

It may therefore be essential to maintain the natural functioning of wildfire activity to help regulate the Earth system in the long-term.

SOURCE



Donald Trump targets the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt

TR was a bit of a nut so that is no offence.  Trump recently signed an executive order directing Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to reassess the size of national monuments designated under the Antiquities Act of 1906. No president has ever reversed another president’s designation of an American national monument. But Trump is threatening to do just that.

I can't tell you how excited I am about this. Many if not most of the problems we have trace their lineage back to PROGRESSIVE Theodore Roosevelt, and in particular, Theodore Roosevelt's abuse of executive orders to get around congress and enact his conservation agenda.

All this Bundy Ranch stuff? Thank you Theodore Roosevelt.  All the land grabs over the last few years? Thank you Theodore Roosevelt. "I gots my pen and my phone, I don't need congress" - Obama. Thank you Theodore Roosevelt.

He was the first one. TR had his pen and phone too. Conservation was arguably the biggest piece of TR's huge government agenda, and he was the first president to issue over 1000 executive orders. No president prior to TR comes even close.

Enter the announcement of Trump's executive order regarding the Antiquities Act. Quick little fact: Who are the two presidents who used (abused) the Antiquities Act the most? FDR and Obama, of course. If only we could get a full-scale repeal of the Antiquities act, that is exactly what we need. With the Antiquities Act, there is no baby in the bathwater, so it is safe to chuck it out the window. The states are more than capable of this work.

I'm not a fan at all of executive orders, they smack of monarchist decrees and we separated away from King George precisely because the "King Thing" is a proven failure. However, we have to recognize the position we are in: much of the garbage of progressivism was born of executive orders, so for the most part only executive orders are going to undo other executive orders. That's just how to get progressivism from our current position.

Hopefully, we see more of this. The sooner we can overturn much of this Theodore Roosevelt-era garbage, the sooner we can put an end to progressivism once and for all. The fact is that we cannot rid ourselves of big government progressivism(in part), until we get past the Antiquities Act and the notion that only big national government is sufficient. I trust the state of Arizona with the Canyon. I trust Tennessee, North Carolina with the Smokies. I trust the state of Oregon with Crater Lake. I trust New York with Niagara. I trust Texas with the Sabine and Crockett forests. I trust Florida with the Everglades. I trust Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, etc etc with the Great Lakes. We do not need big daddy big nanny to do it. Big government does more harm than good. Always.

(As an aside note, I wish I had my own cartoon of a guy with a jackhammer going after the foundation, because that's the proper imagery needed to convey here. TR is the deepest foundation of big government progressivism.)

Politico has this headline: "Teddy Roosevelt Is Rolling Over in His Grave" [Politico describes TR as a conservative.  He was not.  He was for a time a member of the progressive wing of the Republican party but later left to form his own "Progressive" party, popularly known as the "Bull Moose" party]

Good, I want to make them roll more frequently and roll faster. If more progressives are rolling in their graves, that means we're moving toward smaller government. When government loses, the people win.

There's nothing better than that. Progressivism has destroyed way too many people's lives, enough is enough.

SOURCE





Climate – conflict link debunked

The Oxford Martin School hosted a talk yesterday, “Climate violence?” presented by Professor Clionadh Raleigh from the University of Sussex. There is an introduction to her talk here, and the whole thing is available on YouTube:

Andrew Montford (now Deputy Director of GWPF) has a report on the talk.

The talk is about 35 minutes long and is followed by questions and discussion.

Near the beginning she gives her conclusion:

“There is very little evidence to suggest that the conflict and protest patterns that we see across developing countries is in any way correlated to climate change.”

A bit later she says that there is a widespread assumption that conflict occurs naturally under adverse weather conditions, but in fact the opposite occurs – cooperation is far more likely in difficult conditions. But cooperation doesn’t make headline news, so we don’t hear about it in the media.

For similar reasons, I think it is unlikely that the Guardian or the BBC will report on Prof Raleigh’s lecture.

SOURCE




Windmill opposition in Scotland

Anti-windfarm campaigners have warned of a legal challenge if a slimmed-down scheme near Beauly is approved.

The 10-turbine proposal for Kiltarlity follows the Scottish Government’s rejection of a previous 23-tower plan for the same site at Blairmore Farm.

Druim Ba Sustainable Energy’s latest design has been the subject of a public inquiry over the past fortnight after its rejection by Highland Council planners on the grounds of visual intrusion.

The first proposal triggered one of the strongest campaigns of opposition mounted against a Highland windfarm plan.

Objectors said yesterday a judicial review would follow if government ministers consented the new proposal.

They echoed inquiry evidence from a planning expert that it would breach the council’s recently adopted onshore windfarm guidelines because the site is within a no-go zone for large or medium turbines.

Ian Kelly also advised that “approval would severely undermine the public’s confidence in what’s meant to be a plan-led system.”

If the reporter Robert Seaton recommends approval, turbines up to 414ft high could be built barely a mile from homes.

An expert witness for DBSE argued that the structures would not be “overbearing or dominant.”

No-one from DBSE could be contacted yesterday for comment.

Beauly-based anti windfarm campaigner Lyndsey Ward, an observer at the inquiry, said: “There should be no Druim Ba or Cnoc an Eas windfarm. No amount of spinning can alter guidelines that state ‘no scope for medium or large scale turbines’.

“Approval of either would give objectors a secure route to a judicial review.”

SOURCE





Australia: Wood heating contributes to worsening air quality in Melbourne

People are forced to heat their homes in a way they know causes air pollution but are forced to by the high cost of Federal & State climate policies

On Friday morning, air quality tracker AirVisualEarth showed that Melbourne's PM2.5 levels (smoke particles) were higher than those in Shanghai, China.

The EPA issued the warning, saying there would be poor air quality in  with a band of haze over parts of Geelong, Melbourne and the Latrobe Valley.

People at risk include those over 65, children 14 years and younger, pregnant women and those with existing heart or lung conditions. People with asthma should follow their asthma management plan, the EPA said. It warned those at risk to reduce prolonged or heavy physical activity and, where possible, limit the time spent outdoors.

EPA group manager of applied sciences Dr Anthony Boxshall said the plummet in air quality was a result of combination of factors including current weather conditions and an increase in people sparking up wood fire heaters due to the chilly weather.

Stable weather conditions, namely a lack of wind, has resulted in a build-up of PM2.5 in the atmosphere, Dr Boxshall said.

"Our environmental conditions are a combination of everything the environment throws at us and what we throw at the environment," he said.

"Any city produces pollution from cars, factories, homes, trucks and open fires... but we are not seeing any unusual increase in pollution it's the weather system, including the stillness of climate conditions, which are causing the changes in air quality."

In Victoria in November nine people died and thousands were hospitalised due to the world's worst recorded thunderstorm asthma event.

However, Dr Boxshall said this weekend's conditions were completely different to thunderstorm asthma.

"Thunderstorm asthma was pollen which of course isn't a pollutant it's a naturally occurring event this is way less dramatic than that," he said. "That event was an unprecedented and unusual event."

"But we still urge asthmatics to be vigilant and and follow their asthma management plan."

Dr Boxshall added health authorities and hospitals had so far not recorded an increase in people presenting with respiratory problems.

However, smoke from household wood heaters, motor vehicles and other urban sources have worsened conditions.

PM2.5 particles are tiny fragments, which are up to 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

The EPA has advised anyone with a heart or lung condition to take their medication as prescribed by their doctor.

SOURCE

***************************************

For more postings from me, see  DISSECTING LEFTISM, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. Home Pages are   here or   main.html or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here.  

Preserving the graphics:  Most graphics on this site are hotlinked from elsewhere.  But hotlinked graphics sometimes have only a short life -- as little as a week in some cases.  After that they no longer come up.  From January 2011 on, therefore, I have posted a monthly copy of everything on this blog to a separate site where I can host text and graphics together -- which should make the graphics available even if they are no longer coming up on this site.  See  here or here

*****************************************