Posts Tagged ‘increase’

Question: Should we increase research into new areas of climate science?
It appears that recent earthquakes and Iceland’s volcano are prompting researchers to say it may be prudent to look further into a climate/geological activity connection.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/19/climate-change-geological-hazards

Should this research be supported and if so should it be supported with extra funding or a shift of funding from current existing climate research grants?

Answer:

Answer by jim z
quiote
Richard Betts, a climate modeller at the Met Office Hadley Centre in Exeter, said: “This is a new area of academic research with potentially interesting implications. It was previously assumed there was no link at all between climate change and these events, but it is possible to speculate that climate change might make some more likely. If we do get large amounts of climate change in the long term then we might see some impacts.”
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Notice Betts is a climate modeler. He shouldn’t pretend to provide expert opinion on things he obviously knows nothing about. We might have a sudden increase in rabid unicorns too. Should we investigate that as well.

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“He said there was no evidence that current levels of global warming were influencing events such as last week’s earthquake in China that killed hundreds of people and the volcanic eruption in Iceland that grounded flights across Europe.
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That is correct. There is no evidence. There is more evidence of the unicorns.

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Experts say global warming could affect geological hazards such as earthquakes because of the way it can move large amounts of mass around on the Earth’s surface. Melting glaciers and rising sea levels shift the distribution of huge amounts of water, which release and increase pressures through the ground.
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So what. It isn’t like glaciers have never melted before. I am waiting for an alarmists to provide any example of an earthquake greater than 4.0 magnitude caused by isostatic rebound. They won’t come up with it either. I have yet to hear from a reputable geologist that would dare put up with this nonsense but when you drag money through a university such as Berkeley, you never know what might take the hook.

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These pressure changes could make ruptures and seismic shifts more likely. Research from Germany suggests that the Earth’s crust can sometimes be so close to failure that tiny changes in surface pressure brought on my heavy rain can trigger quakes. Tropical storms, snowfall and shifting tides have all been linked to shifts in seismic activity.
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Are you sure this isn’t from the National Enquiror. Heavy rains can cause earthquakes. Show me where. Tropical storms and snowfall. These people are a joke. I half suspect the article is from April 1. These people must believe in fairy dust and unicorns.

I won’t go on. They say there is no evidence and of course there is no evidence. I think the money would be better spent vacinating the unicorns.

Note: I have no problem with funds going to study isostatic rebound but it shouldn’t be funded under the false shadow of AGW. Earthquakes in general are far more important to study than minor settling (and that is what isostatic rebound is) from melting ice.