Odyssey

This week marks the death at 98 years of George Blake, one of the notorious Soviet spies within Britain’s Cold War spy establishment. For a decade in the 50’s to 60’s he passed information to the Soviets leading to the capture of more than 40 spies behind the iron curtain. The England Game Blake was […]

Suzanne Moore Why I had to leave the Guardian reblogged from Nov 25, 2020 It is March 2020. For several months now I have been trying to write something — anything — about the so-called “trans debate” in my Guardian column. But if I ever slip a line in about female experience belonging to people […]

Originally posted on NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT:
By Paul Homewood ? ? You won’t see this reported by Roger Harrabin! ? ? IMPROVED late-season yield prospects in greater Europe and Australia have lifted the estimate for global wheat production by 5.9 million tonnes (Mt) from the previous Agricultural Market Information Systems (AMIS)…

This palaeo climate reconstruction of the interglacial before our own Holocene – the one called the Eemian – obtained identical results in the Caribbean and in Australia showing a remarkable warming peak at the very end of that interglacial. Link (remove spaces): http : //350.me.uk/TR/Hansen/GlobalSeauow045009 . pdf Even more strikingly, this warming was accompanied by […]

This nice paper from 2020 by Marcantonio et al shows – perhaps paradoxically – from meticulous sediment isotope data over nearly 200k years, that higher atmospheric CO2 results in higher deep ocean oxygenation. They found that deep ocean anoxia, indicated by the presence of a chemical form of uranium, was associated with glacial periods of low atmospheric […]

Not surprisingly, increasing CO2 in the air is greening the earth due to enhancement of photosynthesis. It’s self-evidently obvious as CO2 is the foundation of plant-based ecosystems. (So yes – if you’re a denizen of an ocean floor hydrothermal vent community, this won’t apply to you, but otherwise – pay attention!) Our current glacial period, […]

In the background behind the ongoing drumbeat of global warming doom, evidence is accumulating of Southern Hemisphere ocean cooling centered, of course, on Antarctica. The frigid Antarctica is hugely important in the global ocean system and dominates climate, leading glaciation and deglaciation transitions for instance. Think of it as the “Grand Central Station” of the […]

Fanny Monteiro wrote a lovely review of the life history of the coccolithophore plankton, some of the most beautiful microscopic creatures that fill our oceans with photosynthetic CO2-loving life. It’s here: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/7/e1501822?intcmp=trendmd-adv In her words, “Calcifying marine phytoplankton—coccolithophores— are some of the most successful yet enigmatic organisms in the ocean… To better understand [them], we […]

Some years ago while washing the dishes and listening to Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata (movement 1 for piano)  – the instrumental ensemble version by Global Journey in the album “Deep Blue Rhapsody”, it occcured to me that – will very little adjustment, the words of the “Lord’s Prayer”, our father, could be fitted to the music […]

The simplistic story of CO2 from fossil fuel emissions causing global warming is based on the ability of the CO2 molecule to interact with infrared (IR) light and thus “trap” heat in the atmosphere. The reason for this we are told is that gas molecules with three or more atoms such as CO2 and H2O […]