(Update-8/4/16) Help Stop Larry Marshall from gutting Australia's CSIRO's climate science program.

Update August 3rd, 2016 Breaking News!

It's not great news, but it is pretty good.  CSIRO has been spared the most draconian cuts and their climate science mission appears to have enthusiastic backing from the newly elected Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Trunbull.

Turnbull government orders CSIRO U-turn towards 
climate science

AUGUST 4 2016 - 10:58AM (their time)

By Nicole Hasham and Peter Hatcher  -  The Sydney Morning Herald 

New Science Minister Greg Hunt has ordered a major U-turn in the direction of the CSIRO,

reviving climate research as a bedrock function just months after the national science agency 

slashed climate staff and programs. ...

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Also:

Michael Slezak, August 3, 2016 | The Guardian

Only 20 climate science positions will be lost from the CSIRO, down from an initial 96, 

after the Turnbull government intervened, issuing a ministerial directive to the independent 

agency. ..

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In an echo of Canada's Harper Administration's vicious war on science that destroyed science libraries, facilities, programs and scientists careers, Australia seems ready to follow suit.  

Venture capitalist Larry Marshall (one time cadet scientist at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation). who's now in charge of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has announced intentions to gut its climate research programs because he believes they are no longer needed.  

I dare say, this is a direct result of Marshall and his backers having sequestered their minds within a fantasy that the gogo, consume everything you can grab, economic growth model that was so viable a hundred years ago and up to quite recently - remains viable today.  

This self-certain Faith of their's, when looked at from the perspective of what's been physically happening to our life sustaining planet these past couple centuries and in particular the past couple decades - is nothing less than insane.  

Yet, they are willing to defend their antiquated mindset with a ruthlessness decent people can't imagine.  When it comes to recognizing the physical realities of our planet, they just don't want to know.  Burn The Books!  

Now we find ourselves as witnesses to the start of crippling yet another one of the world's premiere climate science gathering and understanding organizations.  Make no mistake it is nothing less than dismantling humanity's best last-chance at understanding and confronting the brave new world barreling down upon us all.

Only a strong international backlash against this myopic self-destructive plan might mitigate the intended destruction.  Towards that end CSIRO's scientist have been putting together a letter and are looking for scientists from around the globe to support them and perhaps join them in signing the letter.  Please read the following for more information and a link to their draft letter.  

Following that, I share excerpts and links to a number of recent articles that provide more details regarding Marshall's actions:

Climate science to be gutted as CSIRO swings jobs axe

Peter Hannam | February 4, 2016 | Sidney Morning Herald

CSIRO boss’s failed logic over climate science could waste billions in taxes

February 5, 2016 |  The Conversation

CSIRO head Larry Marshall defends climate research cuts as angry scientists protest in Melbourne

February 8, 2016 | Sidney Morning Herald

CSIRO climate cuts attack a national treasure when we need it most

Michael Slezak | February 8, 2016 | The Guardian

Australia to be 'isolated' from global research after CSIRO climate cuts: WMO

Peter Hannam | February 9, 2016 | Sidney Morning Herald

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Australia's Climate Research Is Far From Done 

{But it sure needs some help in defending itself!}

The recent announcement of devastating cuts to the Australian CSIRO’s Oceans and Atmosphere research program has alarmed the global climate research community. CSIRO’s decision to decimate a vibrant and world-leading research program that is tackling Australia’s toughest climate problems shows a lack of insight into the depth and significance of Australian contributions to global and regional climate research. For the last 79 years, this research has demonstrated how vulnerable Australia is, and will continue to be, to climate change. 

The capacity of Australia to assess future risks and plan for climate change adaptation crucially depends on maintaining and augmenting this research capability.

Considering the Republican/libertarian need to slander intellectual opponents

In musing on recent rabid (I used that word deliberately) attacks on me, I can't help but think about that Republican/libertarian passion for transforming every 'opponent' into some target for the most underhanded, grade-school level, personalized, totally distracting and irrelevant attacks.  

I've watched impeccable scientists and politicians and spokespeople trashed with the most demeaning garbage, all intent on keeping our eye's off the prize. 

Unfortunately their audience accepts and endorses such behavior and want to see issues melodramatized.  It's literally like our collective moral fiber has dissolved taking with it peoples' curiosity to understand their world.

In the past decades special-self-interest groups have calculatedly worked very hard to suppress that good old American awareness and impulse towards respect and friendship with diverse individuals.  Tragically, seems they've succeeded.

What's up with that?  Why that constant obsession with stripping us of our humanity?

It's important because after decades of increasingly better understanding, including improvements in teaching climate science, not to mention the changes being documented throughout our biosphere - that political/ideological barrier hasn't soften a bit.  

It's as though the concept of Enlightened Self Interest has never occurred to them.  Either that or their own short term self-interest eclipses everything.  I don't believe it's possible to make any significant dent without first figuring out how to grapple with that most fundamental emotional problem out there: 

The Republican/libertarian inability to recognize and acknowledge the humanity in their opponents and enemies.

{5b} Earth's Earliest Climate - By Angela Hessler

I believe unfamiliarity with our planet's life story is at the root of society's inability to grasp serious climate science.  This in turn makes people frighteningly gullibility when it comes to falling for the most pathetic of con jobs that the Republican/libertarian PR Machine keep producing and broadcasting.

Listen to them deny basic Earth observations and geophysical fundamentals, or that favorite, denying the science by attacking messengers in order to ignore the scientific information.   It's like the Inhofes and Kochs and Christies and Lindzens, all them, possess a mind's eye concept of our planet with the depth of a post card.  

No appreciation whatsoever for the complexity of what we have here, or the eons of evolutionary "tinkering" that created this fantastic planet we were born into.  Nor any conception of the massive momentum that goes into our weather systems and global circulation patterns.  All they can see from within their protective bubble is resources to consume, power and money.  That their attitude is infantile and suicidal don't seem to matter.

That's why I started this project , because I wanted to share some of the learning process that's gone into building my own understanding and appreciation of evolution and in turn our climate system.  Admittedly I'm no scholar, but I sure am a student of my Earth and have some valuable information to share.  I challenge you to try and do a better job.  Please!

In this fifth installment I rely on an expert to present an excellent summation of the state of our understanding regarding the evolution of our climate system.  Ironically, after I finally finished working on condensing Dr. Angela Hessler's paper, (not an easy task for such a compactly written report), I started researching getting permission to post this, only to find the following:

TERMS OF USE - You may reproduce this material, without modifications, in print or electronic form for your personal, non-commercial purposes or for non-commercial use in an educational environment.

Well, okay if that's how it's got to be, he says with a smile, I wasn't feeling that good about my trimming anyways.  I did venture to highlight key sentences.  With no further ado, here's Dr. Angela Hessler's informed grand tour of the evolution of our climate system.

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Earth's Earliest Climate

By: Angela M. Hessler | now with the Deep Time Institute  

(Chevron Energy Technology Company) © 2011 Nature Education 

http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/earth-s-earliest-climate-24206248

Citation: Hessler, A. M. (2011) Earth’s Earliest Climate. Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):24

When we discuss climate change today, we are mostly concerned with how such change will impact our environment and our lives. We look to the past to help understand climate cycles and how our current anthropogenic changes fit into natural change. Even more, we look to the past to help us find solutions.

Perhaps the most compelling reason to understand “deep-time” climate change is in how it relates to the origin and evolution of life on Earth, and possibly beyond. Despite the stark differences between today’s world and that of the Archean, it is clear that at both times, climate has impacted — and been impacted by — life on Earth.

This paper will take you as far back in the climate record as is currently possible, to the Archean Eon, from 3.9 to 2.5 billion years ago (Bya) (Figure 1). Peering so deeply back in time, far beyond the resolution of many isotope analysis methods, we invariably lose the details about climate and atmosphere chemistry that we can achieve — for instance, analyzing 500,000 year-old gas bubbles in Antarctic ice cores. Instead, we must ask fundamental questions: What was Earth’s surface like? Was its climate hot? Was it icy? Was there a greenhouse effect? For answers, we look to three far-flung Archean terranes.

Isua in West Greenland, Barberton in South Africa, and Pilbara in Western Australia.

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Return of Lord of the Flies (#10…)

Oh dear, my ol pal AL can't leave it be.  

He again provides me with such an excellent example of what the Republican/libertarian PR Machine is all about and the tactics they are reduced to, I'm not letting it go to waste. 

It is posted with his words unaltered, no courtesy spell correction here.  I carry on a rhetorical conversation with AL, since he never listens to what his 'opponents' are trying to explain.  I figure it might help some appreciate what is going on out there in the Republican/libertarian alter-universe, since this is the way they go after any messenger of climate science education.

It's worth making a big deal out of, because this is how they keep us away from addressing the real issues, instead we continue wasting yet more precious irreplaceable time.

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Arne wrote - February 6, 2016, 6:15 PM 

+Dave Smith Jesus, you're retarded. Just go back and read you own wall of text you have posted here. But I'm not surprised if you won't, since they are just dishonest ramblings.  (If you take the time to scroll up the interminable thread, you'll notice that Dave knows very well how to read scientific papers and respond to challenges in a even toned, polite, informative, I dare say, constructive, manner.)

{5a} The Most Beautiful Graph on Earth - A. Hessler

I've been sporadically working on my next post regarding the "Evolution of our Atmosphere," but it's challenging, I can't find a nice clean presentation to work with.  Excellent bits and pieces, none of it specifically what I'm looking for.

My favorite lead is a paper by Angela Hessler "Earth's Earliest Climate" which I'm trying to summarize -  but days are crowded and surprises may lay in wait, making it impossible to write for a while and it's been so long since my last installment I at least want to share the gold nugget I found in her paper, the following graph.

It's a wonderful collection of our planet's geophysical vital signs.  Okay, I'm not positive it's the "most" beautiful graph on Earth, beauty is in the eye of the beholder - but I am sure it's a fantastic window into the physical reality of our Earth and how the pageant of time has created the biosphere we humans take oh so for granted.  Hope to be back soon.

Earth's Earliest Climate

By: Angela M. Hessler (Chevron Energy Technology Company) © 2011 Nature Education 
Currently director of the  Deep Time Institute

thin red line, that drops dramatically and then has a couple spikes = Impact rate

doted red line = Solar luminosity

dark green line = CO2 

light green line = CH4 (methane)
red line = O2

blue line = Ocean surface temperature

Two vertical bands, in the Archean = earliest sedimentary rock formation (continent building)

Dark gray vertical bands = glacial episodes

(The moon would have formed shortly after accretion ended (the white bar), early in the Hadean)
(The reign of humanity would fit within tiniest vertical sliver at the far right end of this graph)

EARTH'S CLIMATE: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

Citation: Hessler, A. M. (2011) Earth’s Earliest Climate. Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):24   
Lead Editor:  Figen Mekik

http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/earth-s-earliest-climate-24206248

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Index:

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

{1} Our Global Heat and Moisture Distribution Engine

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2016/01/earths-heat-moisture-engine.html

Saturday, January 9, 2016

{2} Co-evolution of Minerals and Life | Dr Robert Hazen

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2016/01/2-coevolution-of-minerals-and-life.html

Thursday, January 14, 2016

{3} Evolution of Carbon and our biosphere - Professor Hazen focuses on the element Carbon

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2016/01/3-evolution-carbon-biosphere-hazen.html

Saturday, January 23, 2016

{4} Evolution-Considering Deep Time and a Couple Big Breaks

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2016/01/4-evolution-deeptime-moon-geomagnetic.html

Saturday, February 6, 2016

{5a} The Most Beautiful Graph on Earth - A. Hessler

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2016/02/most-beautiful-graph-on-earth.html

Sunday, February 7, 2016

{5b} Earth's Earliest Climate - By Angela Hessler

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2016/02/earths-earliest-climate-by-hessler.html

Sunday, February 14, 2016

{6} Evolution of Earth's Atmosphere - easy version

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2016/02/6-evolution-earths-atmosphere-easy.html

Thursday, February 18, 2016

{7} Our Global Heat and Moisture Distribution Engine, visualized

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2016/02/7-global-heat-moisture-distribution.html

Friday, February 19, 2016

{8} Atmospheric Insulation Explained - appreciating our climate engine

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2016/02/8-atmospheric-insulation-explained.html

Mr. Landscapesandcycles, Jim Steele weights in (#9 ...)

Every time I think I'm done with this, there's another surprise waiting.  This morning I woke to this comment from my old pal Jim, who's claim to legitimacy comes from his years as San Francisco State University, Sierra Nevada Field Campus nature trail guide, caretaker/director, and bird watcher Jim Steele, before he became spokesman for climate science denial industry.

Jim Steele said...

My experience has been that poptech is far more honest than citizenchallegne/meisler . Meisler is just experiencing the time honored truth, What goes around comes around!

Jim has made quite the reputation himself.  He demands we debate climate science but then runs from anyone willing to debate him on the nonsense he's spewing out.  Then back within the confines of his protective echo-chamber, boy can he blast me.  It's no wonder he feels such a kinship with Poptech.  I don't have any more time for him today - but his comment has inspired me to share a couple lists of detailed reviews and the itemizing of his many lies and theatrical manipulations:
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Monday, January 12, 2015

INDEX - Jim Steele's climate science horror collection, Landscapesandcycles, 2014

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2015/01/steeles-horror-collection-2014.html

This blog has been a personal learning process and I'll admit some posts are duds, others aren't all they should be, but then, a few hit the nail.  

Since the past decade has taught me that climate science denialism is an insuperable ideological point of faith with many - I've switched my focus to the few who want to study the tactics and dynamics that climate science denialist types employ in order to misrepresent and distort the science.  These tactics are dedicated to confusing and misleading people.  

Thereby turning what should have been a sober learning process into a contorted dishonest political farce.  A farce forced on us by special-interests employing disingenuous jokers such as the "Lord" Monckton or this current rising star Mr. Jim Steele.  

Steele's message: 

A)  Local landscapes are drivers of global climate change. 

B)  Internal cycles are more powerful drivers than the atmosphere that envelopes our planet

The way I see his tactics:

    Obsessive focus on flaws in extremely challenging wildlife population studies.

    Misrepresent the scope of those flaws and the learning process. 

As an excuse to:

     Ignore the physics of atmospheric greenhouse gases.

     Ignore the fact that industrialized society has increased our planet's atmosphere's insulation medium (GHGs) by 30%.

     Ignore the fact that our climate system is a global heat and moisture distribution engine.

     Ignore the overwhelming observational evidence of continued global warming.

Employing:

    Political theater to dismiss well established science.

    Slander to disparage dedicated professional scientists.

    The magician's tactic of distraction and rhetorical sleight of hand.

    The Serengeti Strategy which is explained here and here.

(updated 3/7/16 - to reflect a recent dialogue with Jim Steele and to repeat my acceptance of Jim's repetitive insistence that there must be debate, but that he keeps hiding from.)

Lord of the Flies (#8 Poptech's Truth)

(did some morning touch up edits 2/2/16)

I thought I could avoid Anthony Watts and Poptech's attack piece on me, figuring I'd get to it later.  But my old pal AL (a debate mate from this past November 23 to December 13th in the "debating sock-puppet" series.) just couldn't resist rubbing it in my face, and since his link went to Poptech's post, I figured, OK in for a nickel, in for a dollar.  

AL writes Sunday, January 31, 2016 - 1:19 citizenschallengeYT Hahahahaha…:P  http://www.populartechnology.net/2016/01/the-truth-about-whatsupwiththatwatts-et.html?m=1

Oh boy, talk about desperation to dig up shit, well they dug and they dug and oh the facts and links they've unearthed. But, even more impressive than what they unearthed - is the bizarre theatrical spin they put on everything.

All dedicated to maligning me and ignoring the evidence and the ideas I challenge them with.  What they deliberately ignore is that I'm just a messenger talking about the science and I am always ready to support my claims with references back to the authoritative science I learned from.  If you don't believe me, try me.

On the other hand these clowns spend all their effort putting their fantastical labels on people and spinning hallucinatory yarns while claiming superiority and victory... as though it's their's to claim.  They make lots of noise about the science, yet they never produce any serious science when they are challenged.  Instead it always reverts to a malicious mud fight.  It's worth making a big deal about because powerful leaders like Inhofe and Barton and the rest hide behind this sort of insanity to justify doing nothing and wasting precious time.

I've copied Poptech's "Truth about WUWTW" and pasted it below and diluted the 'horror' with some more facts and commentary.  I eliminated some links, but I kept most, to be honest it was cool revisiting some of those pages.

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The 'poopie' color Comic San font seemed appropriate for Poptech's words.  

Saturday, January 30, 2016

The Truth about What'sUpWithThatWatts, et al. according to Andrew Poptech.

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"Your resident dummy reviewer... [referring to himself]"

- Peter Miesler, Skeptical Science Forums

{What's wrong with that?  
At least I don't take myself so seriously, nor do I have illusions about being smarter than actual scientists.  Yo, poppy do you have any sense of humor, or self-skepticism?}