science

BMW is working on a new concept called GINA (Geometry and function In N-Arrangements). Check out the new concept car:

John Houghton was one of the chief science editors for the IPCC for the first 3 assessments. He is a devout Christian and is now giving lectures on why Christians should care for the environment (and that they are lagging behind other groups).

Houghton is one of the most respected climatologists alive today. He feels that all people have a responsibility to the wellbeing of the planet, and calls on Christians, especially, to help reduce the impacts of climate change. Here's a quote:

"Well, Christians believe that we have been put into the world to look after it and to care for the whole of creation. That's a message presented very early on in the Bible. Adam and Eve were put into a garden and they were told to look after that garden. That garden is Earth.
"Because of the enormous population we now have and the rapid development of technology, we are putting pressure on resources, and our care of the Earth is very far from what it should be. We should pay much more care to looking after the Earth in a sustainable way. The simplest definition of sustainability that I know is not cheating on our children, not cheating on our neighbors, or the poor people in the world, who stand to be very disadvantaged by things like climate change. And also not cheating on the rest of creation. We are in danger of losing thousands, if not millions, of species because of climate change.
"Of course, it's a very broad human responsibility, not just a Christian one. But on the whole, Christians have been lagging behind many other groups in their concern for the environment, care for the Earth, and care for poor people. And Christians, because of their beliefs, should really be out in front."

Read the full article and interview of John Houghton.

Research that I've been involved in on the Greenland Ice Sheet was featured in NASA's Earth Observatory this week. The story provides an overview of recent melting on the ice sheet, the warming that is causing it, and the projected resulting sea-level rise. Photos highlight some of the magnificent and also daunting conditions that we face on the ice sheet.

Read the article here.

What is surprising is that this new record comes a month early. The ice is still melting! The frozen layer of sea ice that covers much of the Arctic Ocean, including the North Pole, expands and contracts with the seasons in the Northern Hemisphere. In Winter, the ice cover grows dramatically, reaching a maximum extent in early Spring. In the warmer months, however, the over-extended ice cover retreats to cooler climes, reaching it's smallest extent in mid-September, as show by the solid black line in the chart below.

Arctic sea ice, unfortunately, is one of the major victims of global warming. On August 9^th, 2007, a record low in the extent of Arctic sea ice was recorded (cyan line above), beating out the previous record low of 2005 (dashed green line above). This is not surprising in light of the Arctic's unfair share of climate change. What is surprising is that this new record comes a month early. The ice is still melting!

Below are two images comparing sea-ice concentrations (denser sea ice has fewer leads, or breaks in the ice, and is usually thicker) from the minimum extent in 1979 to the extent on August 9^th.

The trend in Arctic sea ice has been dramatic, as illustrated in the following chart.

Finally, the map below shows the sea-ice extent in August (white) compared to the median Julie sea-ice extent (magenta line).

All of this is in the context of rapid climate change. One measure of global temperatures, produced by NASA GISS, was recently updated and, unlike other similar records, includes the Arctic. The figure follows.

In order for tropical storms to strengthen into hurricanes, they need two main ingredients -- warm water and moderate upper-level winds. Satellite imagery provide excellent measures of sea surface temperatures, indicating how the region of hurricane formation in the North Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico are at ideal temperatures for storm formation.

Of course, the Atlantic isn't the only region susceptible to tropical cyclones (we just don't call them "hurricanes" elsewhere). The map below shows additional warm areas of water, ideal for the formation of these storms. Too close to the equator, though, the storms won't form because of the weak Coriolis effect there.

Note the unusually cool water along the equator in the eastern Pacific, off the coast of South America. This cold water allows penguins to thrive in the Galapagos Islands and also controls global climate in many ways. When this water warms, we call it an El Niño event.

The new Creationist Museum, it turns out, was actually built on famous layers of fossil-rich limestone and shale. Those fossils provide clear evidence of evolution the age of the Earth. Hmmmmm . . . is that ironic enough for you?

Here's a video discussing this irony:

That's right. Fox news is helping to cause global warming by continuing to blow hot air!

Fox news is helping to cause global warming by continuing to blow hot air! Alright, so I am trying to sound funny, but the truth is that we need to act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Why aren't we? One main reason is doubt. Why do so many doubt that global warming is a real issue that needs immediate action? They are having hot air blown in their faces by every news program they watch -- all owned by Rupert Murdoch, who is promoting the lie that global warming is a hoax.

Watch this footage from Fox:

I'm not sure if this is hilarious, cool, or just plain disturbing. You decide. Check out the Robocup 2007 at Georgia Tech:

Let me know what you think!

My research of the Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru, the world's largest tropical glacier, took a strange twist in the past few years. While every image I had collected of the ice mass showed considerable retreat since the late 1970s, from 1999 to 2001 there was no discernible retreat when viewed from satellite imagery. Anxious to see what the future would hold, I have feverishly been searching for more recent imagery which contain no clouds and no seasonal snow cover. Getting these data turned out to be much more difficult than I expected, as the fickle climate of the Cordillera requires extreme patience.

...the fickle climate of the Cordillera requires extreme patience. My waiting has finally paid off. I have just procured more recent images of the ice cap from 2004 and 2006. While I am waiting to analyze the images and quantify the retreat since 2001, a quick glance at the 2006 image reveals that the melt that Peruvian glaciers were experiencing until 1999 is back. Stay tuned for more details!