How much are we warming our planet ?

I've added a new feature to this website, and though it upsets Anthony Watts and other climate science denialists to no end, it should be pointed out that comparing the energy release of the Hiroshima bomb has been used countless times when trying to put energy release of various events into a more tangible perspective.  In other words, Anthony's whining is yet another phony dodge to waste time and avoid learning.

As for respecting the Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims of the Bomb - I would turn that around and ask what about respecting the future and the lives of our children and their children ? !  

Can Cyclone Phailin, or Usagi, or Sandy, or Katrina be blamed on Climate Change?

{edited 10/17/2013}

That's the wrong question.  

We need to first consider the basics of our planet and global climate system's job of moving heat around.

Think about it in terms of a nearly closed system holding in more heat... energy - than it is radiating out into space.  Will that system not become more energized and active?

The basic facts are: 

We ARE adding heat to our life sustaining 'global heat distribution engine' - aka Climate System. 

>>> means more energized and active  

... means more wind and rain and storm surges interspersed with extending "doldrums" (heat and drought), thanks to Jet Stream disruption which is being driven by our Arctic Ice Cap's solar-reflector being transformed into a

solar heat collecting medium... 

and water evaporator... 
and convection current driver...
and higher altitude atmospheric mixing and warming... 
and so on and so forth.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Cascading Consequences.

It seems simple self-evident physics. . . . . . . .  

Yet, that geophysics based appreciation seems so distant from the current public way of thinking.  With many demanding abstract statistical certainty above geophysical common-sense.

I fear a big part of the blame can be laid at the feet of the very human, but still child-like "Faith" thing and believing we can understand God and reduce our planet to God's toy, created six thousand years ago for some heavenly entertainment and pretending that "my" mind and petty human ego can actually understand "The Will Of God" - OK that's a pretty harsh perspective of the whole thing, but so be it.

Considering that at the root of the denialist attitude is a "Faith" that desire can be stronger than down to Earth physics.

~ ~ ~

There is no rational disputing that over the past century:

Our atmosphere's moisture holding ability has increased by 3-5%, due to increased CO2...

Our oceans are warming...

Our cryosphere is melting away...

Global temperatures have risen ~1°C...

Judith Curry and the Global Heat Distribution Engine

One thing that confuses me about Judith Curry is how she can co-author a paper like this

Impact of declining Arctic sea ice on winter snowfall

1. Jiping Liu
, 
2. Judith A. Curry, 
3. Huijun Wang, 
4. Mirong Song, and 
5. Radley M. Horton

http://www.pnas.org/content/109/11/4074 

Abstract:
While the Arctic region has been warming strongly in recent decades, anomalously large snowfall in recent winters has affected large parts of North America, Europe, and east Asia. 

Here we demonstrate that the decrease in autumn Arctic sea ice area is linked to changes in the winter Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation that have some resemblance to the negative phase of the winter Arctic oscillation. 

However, the atmospheric circulation change linked to the reduction of sea ice shows much broader meridional meanders in midlatitudes and clearly different interannual variability than the classical Arctic oscillation. 

This circulation change results in more frequent episodes of blocking patterns that lead to increased cold surges over large parts of northern continents. 

Moreover, the increase in atmospheric water vapor content in the Arctic region during late autumn and winter driven locally by the reduction of sea ice provides enhanced moisture sources, supporting increased heavy snowfall in Europe during early winter and the northeastern and midwestern United States during winter. We conclude that the recent decline of Arctic sea ice has played a critical role in recent cold and snowy winters.

Also see the story at: http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/arctic-ice-decline/ 
Unusual Weather: Arctic Sea Ice Decline May be Driving Snowy Winters Seen in Recent Years

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And then she writes a dressed up op-ed like "No consensus on consensus" that totally skirts what is known, instead getting lost in a wormhole of rhetoric and misdirection.

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Here you can find a lecture by Jennifer Francis another scientist who has studied this area extensively.  It's talks like her's that offer a chance to better appreciate how our planet operates and to come to grips with all that is known by climatologist, instead of allowing politically motivated folks to distract us with flimflam.

The Weekend Wonk: Jennifer Francis on Arctic Sea Ice

September 22, 2012

Here's how Peter Sinclair introduces it:

Dr. Jennifer Francis of Rutger’s Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences is featured in my sea ice wrap video, which should be out early in the week. 

Here is a lecture she gave in January of 2012. Longish, but worth dipping into, as  she summarizes some of the most recent research in regard to the effects of shrinking arctic ice on weather and climate in the temperate latitudes – the so-called “arctic paradox” so beloved by Fox News – “if there’s global warming, why are we having this record snow storm?”. 

What she told me in a recent interview was that the sea ice record is not something that we just pay attention to in September – there will, in fact, be reverberations that will make fall and winter “very interesting” around the globe.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Interestingly  Dr. Francis wrote an op-ed of her own in the Washington Post.  I found it much more enlightening that the jibber-jabber in "No consensus on consensus."

Washington Post ~ 09/21/2012

Shrinking Arctic ice and the wicked backlash on our weather

By Jennifer Francis

Guest Op-ed

Heat waves. Drought. Flooding. Cold spells. Wildfires. The climate system is changing before our very eyes, and there is no more glaring proof than the record-shattering loss of Arctic sea ice this summer. 

The National Snow and Ice Data Center announced Wednesday that the sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean has smashed the previous record minimum extent set in 2007 by a staggering 18 percent. The impacts of rising temperatures and melting ice extend beyond the far north to us in the United States, as we are poised to feel the weather-related backlash. 

The ice cover, only half of what it was only a few decades ago, is a stunning visual demonstration of the effects that increasing greenhouse gases, and resulting warming of the Earth, are having on the climate system... 

{...} 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/shrinking-arctic-ice-and-the-wicked-backlash-on-our-weather/2012/09/21/253aea6c-03f8-11e2-8102-ebee9c66e190_blog.html