The Strange Reality of Climate Change

Joe Lizura's Blog on October 1, 2013.  I saw a story today, and you'll see the link to it below, and it struck me a little more than most climate change stories I run across on a weekly basis.  For those


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who may know, as an actual Meteorologist, I tend to look at global climate change with a little more of a scientific viewpoint and a little less of an emotional viewpoint.   So to that end, let me just say that global climate change is definitely going on -- but then again it always has been.  Take for example the very ground I walk on every day in San Diego it's covered with Rocks -- round smooth rocks and when you get into the inland valleys, those smooth round rocks (about the size of a softballs) grow larger and larger until they are the size of small bolders and then larger and larger until they are big bolders.  the odd part about the boulders and the rocks is that they are smooth, very much like the kind that you would find at the bottom of a river.  So the question begs: How did about a million round river rocks wind up in San Diego?  Is it from the ocean from way back when this part of the continent was under water?  Nope -- true, it's where the sand came from and the shells that you can dig up in the inland valleys, but that's not where the rocks and boulders came from.  So where then?  The answer is a little surprising, it's from the end of the last Ice Age as this very southwestern part of the land mass is the farthest extreme expansion of the ice.  The rocks and boulders left everywhere are actually rocks and boulders that the ice sheets pushed for a thousand miles, making them smoother and smoother as they slowly got pushed and tumbled and pushed again by the moving ice sheets, until nature smoothed them out like they were forever in a river (which I guess a river of ice would qualify). 

So what's the point?  Just that climate change is ALWAYS going on, and in the scheme of hundreds of millions of years, our mankind is just a blip of a factor in creating or perhaps enhancing a climate change that has most likely been going on for ten thousand years.

That's why you'll never hear me argue that there isn't global climate change, because there is - there always has been - places like the Sahara Desert were once lush landscapes of vegetation and life but are now endless miles of nearly lifeless sand - not because ancient man did anything, but because it was a much longer scale climate change that mankind just happens to have found itself in the middle of. 

That doesn't mean that we aren't making it worse, or making it happen faster, because we are, we definitely are exasperating the problem and rather than waiting ten thousand years to feel the effects, we are likely to feel the effects in 50 years - that's pretty amazing.  So is this story below about what is happening in Alaska - check this out.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An estimated 10,000 walrus unable to find sea ice over shallow Arctic Ocean water have come ashore on Alaska's northwest coast.
Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Friday photographed walrus packed onto a beach on a barrier island near Point Lay, an Inupiat Eskimo village 300 miles southwest of Barrow and 700 miles northwest of Anchorage.

 

The walrus have been coming to shore since mid-September. The large herd was spotted during NOAA's annual arctic marine mammal aerial survey, an effort conducted with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency that conducts offshore lease sales.

An estimated 2,000 to 4,000 walrus were photographed at the site Sept. 12. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that manages walrus, immediately took steps to prevent a stampede among the animals packed shoulder to shoulder on the rocky coastline. The agency works with villages to keep people and airplanes a safe distance from herds.

Young animals are especially vulnerable to stampedes triggered by a polar bear, a human hunter or a low-flying airplane. The carcasses of more than 130 mostly young walruses were counted after a stampede in September 2009 at Alaska's Icy Cape.

The gathering of walrus on shore is a phenomenon that has accompanied the loss of summer sea ice as the climate has warmed.
Pacific walrus spend winters in the Bering Sea. Females give birth on sea ice and use ice as a diving platform to reach snails, clams and worms on the shallow continental shelf.

As temperatures warm in summer, the edge of the sea ice recedes north. Females and their young ride the edge of the sea ice into the Chukchi Sea. However, in recent years, sea ice has receded north beyond continental shelf waters and into Arctic Ocean water 10,000 feet deep or more where walrus cannot dive to the bottom.

Walrus in large numbers were first spotted on the U.S. side of the Chukchi Sea in 2007. They returned in 2009, and in 2011, scientists estimated 30,000 walruses along one kilometer of beach near Point Lay.

Remnant ice kept walrus offshore in 2008 and again last year.
The goal of the marine mammals survey is to record the abundance of bowhead, gray, minke, fin and beluga whales plus other marine mammals in areas of potential oil and natural gas development, said NOAA Fisheries marine mammal scientist Megan Ferguson in an announcement.

"In addition to photographing the walrus haulout area, NOAA scientists documented more bowhead whales, including calves and feeding adults in the Beaufort Sea this summer compared to 2012," said Ferguson. "We are also seeing more gray whale calves in the Chukchi Sea than we have in recent years."

Environmental groups say the loss of sea ice due to climate warming is harming marine mammals and oil and gas development would add to their stress.


Well, as I said, global climate change goes on, with or without us, but with us it is going on at a rate that is unprecedented.  There's no doubt that we are going to see the changes in our lifetime - we already are, but I just don't think that we are going to like what we see.

Thanks for reading my blog!  Joe Lizura
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Here Comes the Swarm

Get Ready East Coasters, here comes the swarm_April 7, 2013.  What kind of swarm?  The swarm of Cicadas that will pester the eastern coast for the summer.  If you've never had the experience of the swarming Cicadas, I can't say you've missed out that's for sure.  When I was a kid, I remember one of the years (usually once every 17 years) of the Cicadas, where there were tens of thousands of these grasshopper-like critters all over the place!

Here is the story from National Geographic - Published March 29, 2013

Periodical cicadas (Magicicada septendecim), the cousins of katydids and crickets, have a unique breeding schedule, and after 17 years of living underground, a large group of them are preparing to fill the skies along the U.S. East Coast, from North Carolina up to Connecticut.

Normally, periodic cicadas spend their lives in complete darkness underground, sucking the fluid out of the roots of trees and shrubs. At the end of their life, they emerge, breed, and almost instantly die, completing a lifecycle that humans have studied for centuries.

 

In the process, however, they annoy millions of people with their constant chirping and, of course, the piles of dead cicada bodies on the ground. While some areas may see no cicadas at all, others in the past have seen millions of cicadas in a single acre. (Listen to the cicada’s love song.)

"It can be like raking leaves in the fall, except instead of leaves, it’s dead cicada bodies," said Dan Mozgai, a cicada researcher who keeps a clearinghouse of cicada information and breeding schedules at cicadamania.com.

 

Cicadas are easy to anticipate because of their extremely consistent mating behavior. Every 13 or 17 years, depending on the population, species of periodic cicadas will emerge as part of a specific brood in order to look for a mate.

The group expected this spring, known as Brood 2, are the offspring of cicadas last seen in 1996. If they follow the same tracks as their parents, they'll emerge in Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

The genetic mechanism that prompts periodical cicadas to emerge kicks in every 17 years (or every 13 years for other broods) when the ground warms up to 64°F (18°C).

Some researchers think the timing of a brood’s emergence is a defensive mechanism—appearing at infrequent intervals means that it’s harder for would-be predators like birds and squirrels to anticipate when the insects will be available to eat.

 

Others suggest that the 13- and 17-year cycles, prime numbers in mathematics, help cicadas avoid parasites. A 2004 study from the University of Campinas in Brazil suggested that a cicada with a 17-year cycle and a parasite with a two-year cycle, for example, would meet only twice each century.

But not all cicadas breed on this multiyear cycle. Some, like the tibicen cicadas, work on an annual rotation, leaving them more susceptible to predators like the cicada killer wasp (Sphecius speciosus).

The wasps know exactly when to expect the annual cicadas in late summer or early fall. The wasp lays its eggs on the cicadas, and the larvae slowly kill the cicada and feed off its carcass.

 

For the periodical cicadas, their temperature thresholds for emergence are getting harder to anticipate. During mild winters, like in 2012, cicadas from Brood 1 appeared in mid-April. Scientists think that this year, Brood 2 cicadas could wait until early May or even later

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last appeared when Bill Clinton was President will soon be making their presence very well known.

 

So, needless to say, it should be an interesting start to the Summer.

 

Joe Lizura

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Andy Williams R.I.P.

Joe Lizura San Diego, California. September 26, 2012.  Well, it's late in the day here and before I go to bed I wanted to share a few thoughts about the passing of Andy Williams.  It's been sad lately with the number of very talented actors, singers, songwriters and comedians passing away - It's almost as though the "old guard" of entertainment, whom we usually forever remember as young, are slowly leaving us with memories that will never take the place of the real thing. 

Andy Williams is someone whom I always admired and respected as a very talented singer, actor and performer.  His musical work was second to none with 18 gold records and countless television episodes and specials.  I can remember very clearly the sounds of Andy Williams playing on my parents record player even though I was just a little boy. 

His Christmas specials and albums were wonderful and two of my favorite songs - Moon River and The Theme From "Love Story" will always be remembered as though I was still a youngster.  Yes, it was a bit of a sad day for me knowing that the world lost such a talented man.


Here is big part of the story from the San Francisco Chronicle that mentions just a few of his accomplishments:

With a string of gold albums, a hit TV series and the signature "Moon River," Andy Williams was a voice of the 1960s, although not the '60s we usually hear about.

The singer known for his easy-listening style and his wholesome, middle-America appeal was the antithesis of the counterculture that gave rise to rock 'n' roll.

"The old cliche says that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren't there," he once recalled. "Well, I was there all right, but my memory of them is blurred - not by any drugs I took but by the relentless pace of the schedule I set myself."

Mr. Williams' plaintive tenor, boyish features and clean-cut demeanor helped him outlast many of the decade's rock stars and fellow crooners such as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. He remained on the charts into the 1970s, hosting hugely popular Christmas television specials and becoming closely associated with the holiday standard "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year."

Mr. Williams, who continued to perform into his 80s at the Moon River Theatre he built in Branson, Mo., announced in November that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer and vowed to return to performing the following year, his 75th in show business.

The 84-year-old entertainer died Tuesday night at his Branson home, his Los Angeles publicist, Paul Shefrin, said Wednesday.

He became a major star in 1956, the same year as Elvis Presley, with the Sinatra-like swing number "Canadian Sunset." For a time, he was pushed into such Presley imitations as "Lips of Wine" and the No. 1 smash "Butterfly."

But he mostly stuck to what he called his "natural style" and kept it up throughout his career. In 1970, when even Sinatra had temporarily retired, Mr. Williams was in the top 10 with the theme from "Love Story," the Oscar-winning tearjerker. He had 18 gold records, three platinum and five Grammy nominations.

Mr. Williams was also the first host of the live Grammy Awards telecast and hosted the show for seven consecutive years, beginning in 1971.

Movie songs became a specialty, including his signature "Moon River." The longing Johnny Mercer-Henry Mancini ballad was his most famous song, even though he never released it as a single because his record company feared such lines as "my huckleberry friend" were too confusing and old-fashioned for teens.

"The Andy Williams Show," which lasted through the 1960s and into 1971, won three Emmys and featured Williams performing his stable of hits and bantering with guest stars.

He was born Howard Andrew Williams in Wall Lake, Iowa, on Dec. 3, 1927. In his memoir, Mr. Williams remembered himself as a shy boy who concealed his insecurity "behind a veneer of cheek and self-confidence."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/Andy-Williams-Moon-River-singer-dies-3897683.php#ixzz27eJZiCSl

 

- Yes, we lost a good one today, but we get to keep the memories.  R.I.P. Mr. Williams.

 

Joe Lizura

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Bear with a Beer problem

What a funny story!  Check out this story about a family of bears who break into a cabin and drink over 100 beers! Here is the story -

A family of bears has broken into a holiday cabin in Norway and consumed more than 100 cans of beer.

A mother bear and her three cubs broke into the wooden lodge in the north of the country by ripping off a wall, according to Norway's Finnmarken newspaper, and went on to eat and drink nearly all its contents.

The cabin’s owner, Even Borthen Nilsen, told reporters that over 100 cans of Norwegian beer - stored in the hut in preparation for the autumn hunting season - had disappeared.
Bear excrement and footprints – and an awful stench – left him in no doubt that it was the animals that had trashed the place during a night of revelry.

The carnage was discovered by Mr Borthen Nilsen’s mother and grandmother when they returned to the family-owned 26-square foot hut in Jarfjord in Finnmarken.
The bears had also polished off their store of marshmallows, chocolate spread and honey.
Mr Borthen Nilsen, who has studied natural resource management and bears, said: "They had a hell of a party in there.

"The entire cabin was destroyed. The beds and all kitchen appliances, stove, oven and cupboards and shelves were all smashed to pieces.
"They have bitten into the cans and drunk the beer.
"It's almost like taken out of Goldilocks and the three bears."

He added that now that the mother had shown her cubs how to get into the cabin and given them a taste for beer, he feared they might come back for more.

Definitely something to watch out for!

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Joe_Lizura - Lochness Monster Story

August 8, 2012 Joe Lizura San Diego, CA.  So I stumbled upon this interesting story about the latest sighting of the "Nessie" more formally known as the Lochness Monster.  Here is a link to the story from the MSN homepage.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48496067/ns/technology_and_science-science/

What's interesting about the story is not so much the fact that there is another claim of a sighting of the Lochness Monster itself - it's interesting, but because of its distance from the shoreline and lack of other objects to be used as a reference point to the size of the "hump" thought to have been photographed, it's more likely not the monster at all.

But that wasn't what was of interest to me.  What really caught my eye was the Castle in the background of the picture, which doesn't look too spectacular in the photo.  I saw the name of the castle was the Urqhart Castle.  Just for fun, if you want to read a great story about the castle, click here on the Urqhart Castle link - it turns out that in it's day it was one of the largest castles in all of Scotland!  It's history is also well documented, so in a kind of nerdy way, it's a fun little read - check it out!  Oh, and as for the photo of the monster in the lake - is it just me or is there nothing in the water to see at all???

Have a great weekend!

Joe Lizura
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Joe Lizura's thoughts on the drought

Joe Lizura's thoughts on the drought - July 13, 2012.  Here is the latest article on what has now become the largest drought declaration in U.S. history.  http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/12/12703598-exploding-hay-watering-bans-are-latest-signs-of-worsening-drought?lite

There are currently more than 1,000 counties in the United States covering 61% of the U.S. land mass (including Alaska and Hawaii).  This is a phenomenal issue for this country.  As a Meteorologist, I have lectured on the subject of water on multiple occassions and my message has always been the same; our country has done a terrible job of planning the most important resource of all - water.

The ability to move water from one place to another is one of the most crucial capabilities a nation must have, yet our country has only a limited capability on the west coast.  The success and survival of countries is not measured by hundreds of years, but by thousands of years, and places on our planet that were once lush with vegetation are not deserts.  Take Ethiopia for example, more than 2,000 years ago it was a lush and fertile country that was so powerful that even the Egyptian army would not fight against it, and now, 2,000 years later it cannot even feed its own people.

World climates change and weather patterns come and go, the "have's" can easily become the "have not's" and no matter how technologically advanced you are, socially advanced, and even militarily advanced you are - it will all come crashing down if there is ever a 10 or a 20 year drought over your region - something which has happened thousands of times throughout history.

Well, those are just my thoughts, we need to make moving water around this country as easy as it is to move freight around on the railroads.

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