⟦2/15⟧ There's no evidence that either the very slight warming trend or the very slight reduction in causticness of ocean surface water is in any way harmful. The worry about that is due to a Climate Industry marketing campaign, not because of scientific evidence.
⟦3/15⟧ So-called "ocean acidification" is both a red herring, and a misnomer. The oceans are alkaline (caustic), everywhere. They are not acidic, anywhere (except at some volcanic vents). Ocean chemistry ensures that seawater will never become acidic. molecularmodels.eu/#:~:text=Seawa…
⟦4/15⟧ "Ocean acidification" is a political term, coined by activists, to try to dupe people into thinking slightly reduced causticness threatens to dissolve shellfish. It's nonsense.
Freshwater lakes & rivers are often slightly acidic. So is rain. But never oceans.
⟦5/15⟧ "Ocean acidification" is a red herring because the effect is minuscule & benign.
It's a misnomer because it doesn't even acidify the oceans according to any dictionary's definition of the word:
𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝒗. To make or become acid.
⟦6/15⟧ It's estimated that, as a consequence of 70 years of CO2 emissions, average ocean surface water pH has declined a measly and harmless 0.1 pH point.
⟦7/15⟧ That estimate is from modeling, not measurements, because the trend is too slight & slow to measure with confidence, and because the tiny change is dwarfed by natural seasonal & diurnal pH variation, pH variation with depth, and even pH differences between ocean basins.
⟦8/15⟧ What's more, so-called ocean acidification is confined almost entirely to the part of the ocean which is most caustic (alkaline): the surface layer. That means so-called "ocean acidification" really just reduces the extreme high end of ocean pH variation, slightly.
⟦9/15⟧ The oceans contain about 50× as much CO2 as the atmosphere, and less than 1/3 of mankind's CO2 emissions have found their way into the oceans, so far, so manmade CO2 dissolved into the oceans has little effect (mostly just on surface waters).
⟦10/15⟧ Through >98% of the Earth's history, atmospheric CO2 levels were far higher than they are now. In fact, CO2 levels were far higher than we could ever raise them, now, by burning recoverable fossil fuels.
⟦11/15⟧ During the lush Cretaceous, when complex life flourished, including aquatic life, atmospheric CO2 concentrations are believed to have averaged nearly four times the current level. During the equally lush Jurassic, CO2 levels were even higher.
⟦12/15⟧ Yet, even with those much higher atmospheric CO2 levels, the oceans were still alkaline, rather than acidic, and there's no evidence that the high atmospheric CO2 levels were harmful to marine life.
⟦13/15⟧ The best scientific evidence shows that rising CO2 levels are highly beneficial for both mankind and natural ecosystems.
Who says so? Thousands peer-reviewed studies, over more than a century, and >30,000 American scientists. sealevel.info/learnmore.html…
⟦14/15⟧ The scientific evidence is compelling that CO2 emissions are beneficial, manmade climate changes is modest and benign, and the "social cost of carbon" is negative. Here are some peer-reviewed papers: sealevel.info/negative_socia…
⟦15/15⟧ Climate change is a highly politicized issue, so (as for any politicized issue), to understand it you need balanced information. To learn about the SCIENCE of climate change, instead of political spin & industry marketing hype, start here:
1/4. Rising CO2 levels improve plants' water use efficiency and drought resilience, through reduced stomatal conductance. Simply put, plants need to process less air to get the carbon they need for growth, and thus they lose less water to transpiration. x.com/ncdave4life/st…
That's one of the reasons that catastrophic famines no longer happen. For all of of human history, until recently, famine was one of the great scourges of mankind: the "Third Horseman of the Apocalypse." But widespread famines are fading from living memory, and rising atmospheric CO2 concentration is one of the reasons for that.
That's a very, very Big Deal. For comparison:
● COVID-19 killed about 0.1% of the world's population
● The catastrophic 1918 flu pandemic killed about 2%
● WWII killed 2.7% of the world's population
● But the nearly-worldwide drought and famine of 1876-78 killed about 3.7% of the world's population.
@Panta_Rhei06 @simonmaechling --
2/4. Improved water use efficiency and drought resilience are especially beneficial in arid regions, like the Sahel, which is one of the reasons that region of Africa is "greening" even faster than most other places.
3/4. I asked ChatGPT about that benefit of CO2 emissions and rising CO2 levels:
"With reference to the agronomy literature, quantify how elevated CO2 helps plants use water more efficiently, and increases crops' drought resilience, by reducing stomatal conductance and water loss through transpiration."
ChatGPT replied with a very good answer:
In agronomy, the effects of elevated CO2 on plant water use efficiency and drought resilience are extensively studied. One of the key mechanisms through which elevated CO2 levels improve water use efficiency is by reducing stomatal conductance and, consequently, water loss through transpiration.
Stomata are small pores on the surface of plant leaves that regulate gas exchange, including the uptake of CO2 for photosynthesis and the release of water vapor through transpiration. When CO2 levels are elevated, plants can maintain the same or higher rate of photosynthesis while reducing stomatal conductance. This reduction in stomatal conductance leads to a decrease in water loss through transpiration without significantly affecting CO2 uptake, resulting in improved water use efficiency.
Several studies have quantified the effect of elevated CO2 on stomatal conductance and transpiration. For example, a meta-analysis published in 2013 (Kimball et al., 2013) found that under elevated CO2 levels, stomatal conductance decreased by an average of 22%, while transpiration decreased by only 17%. This indicates that plants under elevated CO2 levels were able to reduce water loss more efficiently than they reduced CO2 uptake, leading to an overall improvement in water use efficiency.
Improvements in water use efficiency due to elevated CO2 levels can increase plants' drought resilience by allowing them to maintain adequate hydration during periods of water scarcity. This can be particularly beneficial in arid and semi-arid regions where water availability is limited.
Overall, the literature suggests that elevated CO2 levels can improve water use efficiency in plants by reducing stomatal conductance and water loss through transpiration, which can enhance their resilience to drought conditions.
1/6》 Marcus, please tell me that you're not fooled by a fake "study" of a three-day-old event, from a climate industry propaganda outlet. Do you know how long real studies take?
1/8. Gov. Newsom's press release falsely blames "a hotter, drier world." In fact, the world is warming only very slightly & slowly, and it hasn't gotten at all drier. Here're the facts: sealevel.info/learnmore.html…
As you can see from the graph, the fraction of the globe in drought has decreased slightly, not increased.
Oh, and BTW, NCA4 (circa 2018) estimated that global average temperatures have risen only 1.14 ±0.13°C since the 1800s, and the warming is disproportionately at chilly high latitudes.
2/8. Also, higher CO2 levels greatly reduce drought impacts, by making plants more drought-resistant and water-efficient, through reduced stomatal conductance. That's very beneficial in arid regions, like the Sahel & much of California. Here's an article. web.archive.org/web/2017061915…
That's is one of the reasons that region of Africa is "greening" even faster than most other places.
@NewScientist reported the "remarkable environmental turnaround," including a “quite spectacular regeneration of vegetation,” and "a 70 per cent increase in yields of local cereals such as sorghum and millet in one province in recent years."
1/8》Doc wrote, "You’re not going to change my mind."
Please do not be impervious to evidence, like trillionofcells. That would make me sad.
2/8》Doc wrote, "Wasn’t Gleick cleared of any wrongdoing?"
No, he was not cleared. That was disinformation from The Grauniad: x.com/ncdave4life/st…
In fact, Gleick eventually admitted the identity theft, and disseminating the forgery & the stolen documents (though only after he was caught & publicly identified).
3/8》Gleick never admitted being the forger, but there can be no doubt of that, either.
It was the incongruous appearance of his name in the document, with the strangely flattering description of him as a "high-profile climate scientist," in a document which said NOTHING positive about ANY other climate activists, which first drew Steve Mosher's attention to Gleick. But it was the idiosyncrasies of Gleick's own writing style, found in the forged document, which Mosher mostly discussed, when explaining why he believed Gleick wrote it.
Note that that was all BEFORE Gleick confessed to being the person who had impersonated the Heartland Board Member to steal the other documents. THAT iced it: there's no question that Gleick was the forger.
1/8. The IPCC authors expect a worsening trend. No such trend is actually detectable, so far.
In fact, here's a paper about the downward trend in hurricane destructiveness, tho I suspect the decrease might be a fluctuation rather than a durable trend. nature.com/articles/ncomm…
2/8. The IPCC authors are sly. They know hurricanes & other tropical cyclones aren't worse, but they dodge & weave to avoid admitting it. Here's a tricky quote from AR6:
"It is likely that the global proportion of Category 3–5 tropical cyclone instances has increased over the past four decades."