Life on Earth is proving to be so uncannily adaptive to climate change, you’d almost think that a half a billion years of climate change mattered. Perhaps the precambrian clutter is not just junk, but handy tools from past lives that we may or may not need to use. Last week it was salt-water fish that got cast out of the sea by an Earthquake, and adapted to fresh water.
Stick male guinea pigs into a zone a full ten degrees hotter, and after a couple of months, his future sons and daughters will be better adapted to hot weather. Thank epi-genetics: the genes don’t change, but some get labelled “hot”, some not. Dad’s body sticks methyl groups on choice genes which upregulates them, and the pattern of activation gets passed on in genes. It’s a way of taking his lessons in life and giving his offspring a head start.
In any case, it appears in guinea pigs that there not only can this mammal cope with changes in the climate on a daily and seasonal basis, but the machiney is in place to cope with longer term changes too.
Like father like son: Epigenetics in wild guinea pigs
Fathers are able to adjust to increasing temperatures within their own lifetime and do transmit this information to their offspring. This has now been shown for the first time in a wild animal. The findings were the result of a project within the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation and have been published in the scientific journal Molecular Ecology.
Male wild guinea pigs respond to increasing temperatures with biochemical modifications attached to their genome and pass this “epigenetic” information to the next generation, and most likely even the following one.
“We believe that the transfer of epigenetic information from father to sons prepares the latter for changes in environmental conditions such as a rise in temperature. This is particularly important with regards to a possible adaptive response to climate change. Epigenetic mechanisms could therefore be crucial for the fitness and survival of the offspring,” says Alexandra Weyrich, researcher at the IZW.
The point of this is just that biology is adaptable. That doesn’t mean that all the individuals in a given species (or every species) will survive when Armageddon comes, but it does poke a stick at the ambulance chasers who are tracking every possible lost species as a source of media juice and chanting “Extinction.Extinction.”
[h/t Science Daily]
Wonder what pops up after several generations with a wide spread of individuals?
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Woo Hoo! It’s been a long time since I got the coveted first post 🙂
That Biology is able to adapt quickly should be intuitive. Many species live in temperature ranges that vary considerably.
The tactic of trying to scare us is wearing thin.
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Darned it. too slow at typing……..
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What a Crock eh?
Just when you’re all fired up to be first someone pips you at the post…. Jo, we need more first comments per post please 😛
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Yeh Bobl, I’ve been scarce here at Jo’s place and I thought I stumbled upon a rare chance.
More first posts: a NOVA-L idea!
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Like the calander without Mondays and end of the months?
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Yeah bad luck. What is not so intuitive is that there is a mechanism to prime the next generation and working out how it works could well be very important.
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Gee, so we need to understand it in order for it to work? Kinda contrary to “survival of the fittest” no?
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I think I said we “work out how it works” as it could be applied to medical and agriculture applications. Was yours a knee jerk vexatious comment?
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You are the one using apparently ambiguous terms. Try better.
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Wait, these findings can’t be true! They conflict with the narrative!!
Setting the sarcasm aside, I am glad to see that other branches of science can get on with their work without fearing interference from the high clergy of CAGW. Maybe some of their knowledge and commitment will rub off.
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Stuart – this isn’t the only narrative they conflict with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamarckism
Jean-Baptiste was ahead of his time by 200 years!
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Thnks Diogenese2,
Lamark’s theories have been ignored and set aside and positively lampooned for 200 years.
However it unwise to say never and impossible about anything, especially science. It has always been assumed that genetic variation can only occur through random changes, without much evidence.and that such changes must necessarilly occur slowly, over long periods of time. Now it seems that there might be more rapid and direct ways in which populations can evolve. That more or less turns Darwinianism on its head.
As yogi Beera said – it is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.
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It doesn’t turn Darwanism on its head. Lamarck was still wrong just not as wrong. Epigenetics is still a minor contribution to evolution as its more about activating parts of the genetic code rather than changing it.
The randon mutation happened long ago so it would be interesting to understand how it could be wide spread throughout the species (or genus). Thousands of years of climate change?
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Actually Darwin relied a lot on Lamark’s theory as a mechanism to explain why changes didn’t just get blended away. It was the (re)discovery of Mendel’s work which was used to modify Darwin’s idea that revitalised evolutionary theory.
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I thought about writing something along the lines that it is something like recessive genes where the mutation doesn’t have to change the phenotype straight away. It can show up with change in ecology or finding a new niche where a small population of the species that shows the trait then thrives.
But this seems to be common in the species so its a little different. It suggests that the natural selection picked out ones that could adapt to rapid climate change. Now why would that happen?
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Come back Jean-Baptiste – all is forgiven!
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Yes Stuart, but they must have got “climate” funding as they worked in a reference to “adaptive response to climate change”. Cunning Devils!
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Scientists discover possible benifit of sexual reproduction adopted by multicellular eukaryotes. 🙂
Adaptation is the key to survival. Human miticondria types are traceable by their ability to adapt to colder climates by producing more heat rather than ATP. There’s a wonderful section in this paper.
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_A_Mitochondrial_Paradigm_of_Metabolic_and_Degenerative_Diseases_Aging_and_Cancer_A_Dawn_for_Evolutionary_Medicine
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this link. I’ll get the hang of this eventually.
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Helping Rob out, here is a par from the abstract.
‘The variation in the individual and regional predisposition to degenerative diseases and cancer may result from the interaction of modern dietary caloric intake and ancient mitochondrial genetic polymorphisms. Therefore the mitochondria provide a direct link between our environment and our genes and the mtDNA variants that permitted our forbears to energetically adapt to their ancestral homes are influencing our health today.’
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And sometimes it seems like those mt genes are battling the nuclear genes. Co adaptation and outbreeding depression etc.
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The western world isn’t adapting very well to an over supply of highly processed food. At this rate the obese might become extinct, while the malnourished could reign supreme and breed in abundance.
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Or cancer.
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Yes!
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“Future generations of guinea pigs won’t know what a fossil fuel powered laboratory looks like….”
Another 3 generations will see a doubling of the catastrophic hiatus though….
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Even domestic guinea pigs adapt to weather extremes. A few years ago got my daughter a couple of the beasts as a birthday present. The things were kept outside in the heat and cold of the winter. One lived for 7.5 years. Another 18 months and it would have been in Guinness – the book not the beer. Even survived the winter of 2010 outside when temperatures plunged to -17C. Its hutch was well packed with sawdust and hay though, and it had warmed water in a well-insulated water bottle.
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Evidence of semi-Lamarckism? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamarckism
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Life will find a way to survive if it can.
Nasty bacteria eventually develop immunity to antibiotics, if they are allowed the opportunity.
The snouts of ‘Climate scientists’ grow bigger as they learn to live with the ever increasing amounts of funds in their troughs.
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“Life uh finds a way” Dr Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Parfk by Michael Crighton
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Even usually progressive Wikipedia has some reservations about the hypothesis of epigenetics: “These alterations may or may not be heritable, although the use of the term “epigenetic” to describe processes that are not heritable is controversial.”
Furthermore, Wkipedia cautions: “Due to the early stages of epigenetics as a science and to the sensationalism surrounding it, surgical oncologist David Gorski and geneticist Adam Rutherford caution against the drawing and proliferation of false and pseudoscientific conclusions from new age authors such as Deepak Chopra and Bruce Lipton.” More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics
In other words, there is no corroborating evidence that permits anyone to claim with justified confidence that the hypothesis of epigenetics is a substantiated theory.
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Professor Tim Spector’s book”Identically Different” covers epigenetics via studies of identical twins. I get the impression there is little doubt in his mind the concept has merit.
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Yes, it’s not even controversial anymore.
At least, as I understand it, in the sense that heritable phenotypes in some organisms can be transmitted over many generations without changes to the DNA base-pair sequences, and that these changes can be induced by changes in the environment of the adult/parent.
The real questions are who, when, where, how much, etc.
Nothing changes much 🙁
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that is, changes in heritable phenotypes can be transmitted over many generations without changes to the DNA base-pair sequence.
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Do you mean that because Wikipedia has some doubts the hypothesis must fail?
Perhaps you are giving Wikipedia a little more weight than it deserves.
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Rely on Wikipedia at your peril.
As a useful, unbiased source of objective information, which wikipedia clearly is not, (try getting an intelligently objective overview of global warming for example) why not try instead: “What is epigenetics?”
The evidence is substantial for the influence of epigenetic factors in human and animal physiology.
There’s also a nice article at ‘Science Based Medicine’.
Then there’s ‘Epigenetic Fundamentals‘
and the all essential DNA Methylation
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Wikipedia is usefully for settling pub arguments and doing crosswords.
It also makes it easy to find references but take what is written with a pinch of salty stoat.
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It is well noted that even within the strict confines of genetically manipulated laboratory animal lines,
adaptation variability remains. It appears to be ingrained within the animal kingdom.
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/01/23/ije.dyr221.full
Translation: Even clone mammals are unique individuals.
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So why don’t we get the following in Wikipedia?
“Due to the early stages of climate modelling as a science and to the sensationalism surrounding it, sceptical scientists caution against the drawing and proliferation of false and pseudoscientific conclusions from eco activists.”
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It sounds a bit like animals that grow a Winter coat for Winter and then lose it come Summer. Or dogs that live indoors, just stay the same and lose fur all year round.
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Altogether much faster than even father to son intergenerational epigenetics, aka, the facts of life…
“Now son, you’ve heard all about that climate change stuff at school haven’t you?”
“Yes Dad.”
“It’s bollox.”
“What’s bollox Dad?”
“Climate change.”
“You see son, it’s called a circular argument from authority. Now, let me explain…”
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Well exactly, they are like a tree full of guinea fowl at dusk. A chorus of confirmation of who is in the tree with them.
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With the UN worrying about windmills and carbon dioxide and the impact of 0.5C in an average at some latitudes and talking about survival of the species, the UN Security Council, the real UN, is discussing what to do about a rogue state with a hydrogen bomb. Talk about species extinction when you are discussing a change in temperature of 10,000C in your neighbourhood. Try adapting to that. Now who would buy this technology from North Korea? Surely not Iran?
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Otherwise it is very interesting to see the development of ideas and evidence about previous adaptions already coded into the genes and the concept of passing on the need to adapt to the next generation. This is as apposed to adaption by selection alone. This has always been a hot debate.
Too bad it doesn’t happen with intelligence though although being really dumb can get you into the Australian Senate. Sarah Hansen Young and Jackie Lambie spring to mind as survivalists who seem to have an extreme trade off between intelligence and survival cunning. Can politicians develop as a separate species or it there a political gene which maximizes political survival and personal prosperity over survival of the species or are some politicians already a separate species?
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opposed
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The Grand Master of this hereditary type that lacks any form of intelligence but makes up for it in survival skills would have to be Christine Milne.
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Good question TdeF.
From observing life over quite a few decades I am now of the firm opinion that a good level of intelligence is not necessarily a prime requisite to a very successful level of achievement in many of our pursuits in life.
A long time ago a study was done by a university group to try and ascertain the common characteristics of the small percentage of citizens who had accumulated immense wealth so rapidly in their lifetimes.
They found nothing.
There were no common to all, identifiable characteristics that could define this small group as the potential and real accumulators of immense wealth.
In fact a comment from the university group which stuck in my mind was that some of the very wealthy individuals they studied and interviewed were just plain downright dumb.
As for intelligence being needed to be politician!
Nope!
And I am not being facetious here.
Al Grassby of the Hawke era of politics, of the loud ties and the very dubious affiliations with certain prominent “persons of interest” was reputed to never forget a face or a name.
A huge advantage when one is a politician and a characteristic which has almost nothing to do with the levels of intelligence, not that the intelligence factor or lack of have ever bothered the Al Grassby’s of politics .
How does one define Charisma, that quite extraordinary characteristic that makes every one turn to look when a charismatic individual walks onto the scene?.
And a characteristic that is of inestimable value to any budding or well established politician
Yet a few individuals, not necessarily politicians, who are of often of just average intelligence do have “charisma” in spades.
Yet that “Charisma makes them appear much more intelligent and knowledgeable than many actually are.
My father, a quite good farmer for his era of the 1940’s and 50’s was blessed with “luck”.
He repeatedly won lotteries to the point where he stopped entering lotteries as it became all to embarrassing.
We could never figure out what he had that made him so lucky, nor could he.
We could ask why there are so few if any engineers, geologists, physicists and technically trained proffessions in our current political system.
In our current western political cultures we are now overloaded with lawyers and academically trained individuals with an increasingly number of quite manipulative individuals of very dubious ethics and morals in positions of power and influence.
Most of these putative and often manipulative power seeking politicians [ see the current Union Royal Commission for some outstanding and classic examples of this deliberate manipulation of entire groups by a few ethics and morality free politically based power seeking individuals. It is becoming increasingly obvious that a modest level of intelligence is not a basic characteristic of these individuals ] who even though they are quite clearly of no better than average intelligence and often prove to be somewhat lower than average intelligence, have set their sights very early using their ability to manipulate people and groups and who lacking any depth in their own personal ethics and morality, to advance themselves and their associates over whom they have a manipulative hold into positions of power and influence in our political systems.
.
There is a deeper depth than just intelligence as to why we are what we are in life .
And I have no doubt that it is closely related to the individual genetic structures we each possess as we instinctively seek out in life that role we are genetically structured /programmed to try and achieve.
Our individual Intelligence has very little to do with where we go and what we do in life as there are so many other undefined and often unknown and unrealised personal characteristics which also play a major part in the type of life we lead and the heights or otherwise we advance to and achieve in our society during our lifetimes.
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There are many ways to get ahead other than merit and traditional hard work and real qualifications or any knowledge of hard sciences. You can even get to Australian of the year through football or dead kangaroos. However politics is top of these and religion second. Luck is an important aspect too.
The Rev Jim Jones of Ghana fame tried communism and failed and switched to religion. So did L. Ron Hubbard. Both found religion worked and wrought their devastation on many lives. So did the failed Communists after the collapse of the Soviet Union, then the lawyers and bankers who took over Greenpeace and opened the way for Green parties packed with so many people who would fail in any other profession. One standout in Australia is Senator Lee Rhiannon who has spent a lifetime denying her communism but was trained at the Lomonosov university in Moscow and had an ASIO file at 7 years old.
Enough busy people vote for the opportunistic Greens to allow them to control the balance of power in many countries. So communist and science ignorant Greens ban everything they can with devastating results, milling millions as with DDT and chlorine and now fossil fuels and even force countries to turn food into fuel, starving more. Whether such skills are heritable, taught in infancy by parents or an opportunistic accommodation to situation is debatable.
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Killing millions, not milling. Also traditional religions are dying, apart from one standout which wants a return, like the Green religion and Climate Change religions, to the Dark Ages which were actually quite cold. However the big new religion is the Green one and sustainability smacks of both the live forever and armageddon cults. Outrageously, the Greens just want low CO2 in their neighbourhood, low pollution where they live and windmills out in the country side, far from the inner city. Perhaps new windmills should be built in the inner city. Now that would be interesting.
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But amazingly it’s even possible to survive that 10,000 degrees, if you make like a troglodyte and dig a hole deep enough. (See had to sneak that genetic trogladitic linkage in there to be on topic – Hi Mod)
Headline
Trogladytes survive 10,000 degree fusion explosion – but die from CO2 climate change of 1 degree, news at 11
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It’s good to see that there is some real science still being done in fields outside Climatology and Grant-Fundology. I am sure that some of the High Priests of Warmism/CAGW are casting a vengeful eye on this research already. It all makes sense by explaining how creatures survived some of the really rapid and great climate changes in Earth’s past and how some bacteria can develop immunity to antibiotics. It also shows why we can ignore Earth’s present trivial variations.
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It seems that Alberta is not adapting well to Socialist Hoards and Green Glob seizure of the reins of power. Readers here will for the most part be aware of the upset in the last provincial election, when Albertans woke to the news they had elected the NDP (Greens on steroids).
Here is an op-ed in this morning’s Calgary Herald that I suspect will tickle your fancy.
From the Calgary Herald Opinion page this morning.
By Barry Cooper
In the federal election last fall, 60 per cent of Albertans voted Conservative. Twelve per cent voted NDP.
The provincial NDP were unimpressed. They have continued to govern as if they actually won the election last spring, not that the PCs lost it.
Alberta now enjoys a $3-billion carbon tax, which was unmentioned in the NDP election platform and is opposed by two out of three Albertans. Premier Rachel Notley initially said it was revenue neutral, when clearly it was not. Now, she calls it “recycling,” because the taxes will be raised and spent in Alberta. Where else would she spend tax revenue — New Brunswick?
Following the advice of Rick Smith of the deeply anti-Alberta Broadbent Institute, Notley called for coal-generated electricity to be extinguished. The cost of doing so is between $4 billion and $12 billion. But there was nary a mention that we are sitting on an 800- to 1,000-year supply of the stuff, nor that Alberta is a leader in, and has quick access to, clean-coal technologies and smokestack scrubbers.
We are promised petroleum royalty regime change at a low point in the price cycle. Energy Minister Margaret McCuaig-Boyd said the industry “will welcome” the change. That “will” is to be read as an imperative, not the use of the future tense.
Subsidies to so-called green technologies promise salvation. This has eluded the Germans, the Americans and the British. Chasing this chimera has cost Ontario its future prosperity.
Recently in Paris, where Notley was not actually at the negotiating table, but simply there to “support” the federal government, she hinted at a “climate leadership plan” that would appeal to “global stakeholders and experts.” She has plans “to bend the curve on emissions in a way that no one ever expected to see coming out of Alberta.”
As the director of the alarmist Pembina Institute, Ed Whittingham, said, Alberta is “back in the climate game.” Game indeed.
The NDP has also developed a “negotiating model” for dealing with teachers’ unions. The other day, Herald columnist Don Braid reported it was “routine” for union bosses to be appointed to public bodies. The triumph of public-sector unions is at the heart of the longevity of the Ontario Liberal party and of the ruin of the Ontario economy. Clearly, we are next.
More recently, the premier announced with great satisfaction that Alberta is no longer an “outlier,” which was more polite than her saying earlier that we are “an embarrassing cousin no one wants to talk about.” The meaning is the same: Notley’s Alberta is just a normal, boring, socialist place where governments rule sheep and the main concerns are affordable housing, health care governance, and, as Shannon Phillips, minister for the status of women, put it, “building feminism,” whatever that might be.
Well, no one can say we haven’t been warned. To paraphrase Karl Marx, the NDP has become the executive committee of a coalition of radical enviros and social activists peddling ideological nostrums of a generation ago.
Fortunately for normal Albertans, the outside world has noticed.
In 2014, Alberta was the 16th most attractive place in the world to invest in oil and gas developments. In 2015, it was 38th. Over half the respondents to this survey cited political uncertainty. Saskatchewan was ranked eighth. No wonder our credit rating was downgraded.
Meanwhile, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean was working to create a “consolidated conservative coalition.” This helpful activity was immediately seen as a unite the right initiative. Given how radical the NDP has shown itself to be, Jean needs to unite the centre. After all, that’s where 60 per cent of Albertans are.
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It was especially sickening to watch them clapping wildly as they announced the largest deficit budget in Alberta history, which produced an immediate drop in the province’s credit rating. It was almost as bad watching them laugh while mentioning the widespread rural opposition to a bill that would impose overtime restraints on family farms.
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Oh, yes. Ms Snotley referred to that as “her favourite bill”.
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Rod
Who was it who said?
“When will thy ever learn, when will they ever learn.”
The politics of Hugo Chavez and his successor Maduro guarantee only two things: i) Lots of socialist psychobabble, and ii) severe economic decline. Canada’s NDP clearly has a lot to learn, namely that these are not desirable goals.
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Peter, the left doesn’t learn, it regards setbacks as merely the underhand tactics of it’s foes. It is hidebound to not actually think as to whether it needs to change. Change is failure. Change is the recognition of a life wasted defending everything it stands for. Pity it/they chose a dog to pin their integrity on. I say pity because there are things that the old fashioned lefty stood for that I think were entirely reasonable. All of that is now wasted and destroyed by crap, shallow epistemology. They have no leaders, no thinkers of any serious merit. The attention they are given is almost exclusively apologetic and fawning by people who were trained to do just that.
We shouldn’t be surprised at the ascendancy at the likes of a Trump, he is the entirely predictable response to a media that has the arrogance and temerity to think it can reframe common sense. Trump is a protest vote against the system itself.
I sincerely believe that.
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Tyor 3rd para – “machinery”
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Oh well – should have read “typo” – Mods please correct.
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Guinea Pigs seem cleverer compared to the passing on of ‘climate stupidity’ by some humans to more gullible humans:
Walter Cronkite, 1972 warns of a new ice age (youtube)
Walter Cronkite, 1980 warns of Global Warming (youtube)
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I have to hand it to JoNova. It is one of the best skeptical blogs in the world. I know that WUWT is the most visited, and I read Anthony’s stuff all the time. However, JoNova articles are mostly written by Jo or her husband. Lots of WUWT is guest posts, which is a good thing.
This last year JoNova had some really good stuff, and I enjoyed Dr Evans posts even though I didn’t understand most of the math. Still, great stuff.
This article with the epigenetic information is a great example of the breadth of the information on the blog.
Thanks for a great job, Jo.
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Adaptation has been around for millennia. It is how life on this planet has survived changes in climate and geography. The Plant and Animal Kingdoms have done this since the beginning of time. So it should not come as a surprise to anyone who possesses even a lick of common sense. Speaking of adaptation and survival, may I direct everybody to polarbearscience.com which has some interesting articles about the state the polar bears. Thanks goes to Susan Crockford. Worth the read to dispel many myths and misinformation
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So true and logical. I think if we didn’t have such adaptive mechanisms, life would not have survived for so long.
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Just an OT question of interest. Hows the whole Force X , significant cooling sometime in the next couple of years hypothesis going??
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Looking good. (unfortunately)
“A number of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) indicators suggest that the 2015-16 El Niño has peaked in recent weeks. Tropical Pacific Ocean temperatures suggest this event is one of the top three strongest El Niño events of the past 50 years. Climate models suggest the 2015-16 El Niño will decline during the coming months, with a return to ENSO neutral likely during the second quarter of 2016.”
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/index.shtml
Similar reports on “notalot…
“There are various signs, including SST’s, upper ocean heat content and winds, but the most telling comment is:
Sea surface temperature across the equatorial Pacific basin have cooled roughly one-half a degree over the last four weeks. At the same time, a large pool of cold water beneath the surface in the western Pacific has been expanding eastward, nearly doubling in size over the past two months.
ESRL’s MEI Index also confirms this, dropping from 2.308 in November to 2.123 last month. This is the lowest value since last July.
It could come back for seconds in the next month or so, as it did in 1998, but the consensus is against this.”
PDO, AMO have both turned to the cold part of their cycle, and the solar cycle looks like going into hibernation.
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I’m hoping he gets to the chase, time is of the essence.
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I guess we’re all keen to hear but it is not a task to take on in haste as it could have multiple repercussions not just to science but to so many other facets of the proponents lives. The work already presented by David Evans was refreshing and important as a critique of the “prior art” by presenting an alternative which in my view is more credible. With force X it seems (not wishing to be presumptuous) that David will try to tease out what forces bring about a cloud response or equivalent cooling from the solar cycle. This is quite seperate to the previous work and he would need to be as sure as he can be that he has all the elements. In the end slower might be quicker. Jo did say more was comming soon so we’ll just have to be patient……anti-cip-ation.
I take my hat off to David and Jo for giving it their all.
No doubt a slug of cash would speed things up, unfortunately I’m of modest value there but try to do my bit.
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Without the built-in ability to acclimatise, the human species would have become extinct very quickly. It was the ability to acclimatise that allowed settlement in the face of seasonal change; and long-term climate change.
Some individuals have trouble acclimatising. I know one Finn who simply cannot deal with the hot summers in Perth. Those genes aren’t activating for him; even after decades. Perhaps he’s too much of a “polar bear”. 😉
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His grand-kids could do better.
As I understand it, epigenetic environmental factors may come into play in a male prior to puberty influencing his future progeny and in a pregnant female during in the first trimester, the off-spring being affected.
There is uncertainty around precise elucidation of mechanisms that potentially play a role in the more immediate genotypic responsiveness and modulation associated with environmental influence.
Interesting article:
‘Epigenetics: The sins of the father. The roots of inheritance may extend beyond the genome, but the mechanisms remain a puzzle.‘ at Nature (March 2014).
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The wide ranging and highly variable adaption traits that are an essential part of our very survival as species are built into each and every one of us provided we are exposed to the new regime to which we have to adapt to very early in our life cycle.
Again some research from shortly after Noah’s progeny left the Ark or so it might seem to some of the younger ones here.
Possibly some four decades or so ago now I came across research project where a small cohort of identical twins who had been separated at birth, not unusual in those days of large families of a century ago and had each individually been brought up in different regions where there were a very marked differences in the average climate and temperatures,
The cold northern european climate in the case of one half of the identical twins being compared to their identical Twins who had been bought up in the much hotter regions, where I don’t recall, were studied to try and find how the human body adapted to the different climates and temperatures.
Nor after all these years do I know or remember the actual numbers of pairs of identical twins involved in the study.
It was found that the Twin of each set of those identical Twins who grew up and matured in the colder northern regions was shorter and bulkier in body with shorter and heavier limbs than their taller and thinner in body, identical Twin who had grown up in the hotter regions closer to the equator.
A shorter bulkier body type of course with its higher ratio of bulk to skin surface area being far better at body heat retention that is a part of survival in the colder northern climes than the taller long limbed body type with a much greater skin surface area per body bulk from the hotter regions where dissipation of any excess body heat is often required for survival.
So like just about every life form existent, we can and do adapt within and during a single generation particularly when that adaption begins in the first few weeks at the latest after we are born.
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Ok, if Guinea Pigs can adapt why have they not adopted decimal currency?
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I view epigenetics as the environmentally induced fine gain adjustment capable of producing a less-stressed phenotype, one a little more resilient in the extant environment. If the environment changes too abruptly either by time or magnitude, a coarser genotypic adjustment may be required, this being expedited by random selection of the fittest. However, if the required phenotypic adjustment to envrironment is too great, eg. pandemic with viral pathogen having a 100% mortality rate; all guinea pigs suddenly need wings to escape a predator or a need to use decimal currency in order to survive, the genome will by unable to rapidly deliver the naturally resistant or enduring phenotype (survivor), the winged or the Einstein guinea pig.
It’s all over in other words.
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Manfred, what the flock are you on about?
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They use bitcoins.
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They did use the old Guinea (coin), Hamsters are more skittish and more akin to BITcoins…..
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The decimal system leads to the dumbing down of the mind, a system of base 60 as used in the past gives creative minds a chance to develop into maths wizards.Alas the only remaining remnant of the base 60 system we have is the 360 degrees in a circle. Even the base 12 system of our old money made you mind work better.
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(SNIPPED)
(Doug, You have been warned several times now, do not spam threads) CTS
[edited for accuracy]
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That has to be a serious transgression. Mods here are really fair. That said I’d love to know what that person said, if only just to respond.
[It’s Doug Cotton repeatedly spamming threads to advertise his web site. He is breaking the rules by posting off-topic, purposely diverting traffic, changing his name in an attempt to get around moderators.] ED
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Over reaction
You can read it here for $4.69
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Its-Carbon-Dioxide-After/dp/1478729228
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Really? He reviewed his own book on Amazon? Are you even allowed to do that? ‘I award my book my 5 stars. Buy it already!’
I agree with Doug wholeheartedly, but I won’t be buying it.
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No Richard – I merely copied and pasted a genuine review sent by email from someone in another city whom I have never met or spoken to. His name and qualifications are at the end thereof.
No more off topic comments. Thanks. End it now. – Jo
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Richard said: “I agree with Doug wholeheartedly”
Thanks Richard. You don’t need to buy it as the 2013 paper on which it is based is on my website.
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There are copies of similar comments here.
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o/t
was completely surprised to come across the this big story today (perhaps someone posted about it on an earlier thread, but I didn’t see it):
16 Dec: SMH: Angela Macdonald-Smith: China State Power Investment snaps up Pacific Hydro
Pacific Hydro’s broad portfolio of wind farms and hydropower projects in Australia and overseas has been snapped up by China’s giant State Power Investment Corporation, which beat a number of local and overseas rival bidders in a hotly contested sales process.
In a deal thought to be worth more than $3 billion including debt, the Chinese state-owned firm will buy Pacific Hydro from fund manager IFM Investors, which had owned the business since trumping Spain’s Acciona in a $725 million takeover deal in 2005…
The transaction counts among the largest acquisitions in Australia’s energy sector by a Chinese government entity, alongside State Grid Corporation’s purchase last year of a majority stake in gas pipeline owner Jemena…
This sale has however already been approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board, according to sources…
IFM put Pacific Hydro up for sale earlier this year after taking a $685 million write-down on the business in 2014 to account for the uncertainty that had engulfed the renewable energy sector amid the review of the 2020 renewable energy target. The business owns 900 megawatts of generation capacity across 19 hydropower dams and wind farms in Australia, Chile and Brazil, as well as a significant pipeline of wind projects and potential wind sites in Australia, which have a better chance of going ahead after a revised renewable energy target was finalised earlier this year…
For SPIC, which owns some $US113 billion of assets in 25 countries, including over 100 gigawatts of generation capacity, the acquisition is relatively small. The firm, formed from the merger of China Power Investment Corporation and State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation, is not thought to have any other interests in Australia…
The Chinese player won Pacific Hydro over rivals including Pacific Equity Partners, Norway’s Statkraft and New Zealand’s Morrison & Co…
http://www.smh.com.au/business/energy/china-state-power-investment-snaps-up-pacific-hydro-20151216-glp7cg.html
what amazes me is the usual Fairfax CAGW gate-keepers didn’t write up the story, and “their ABC” has not even mentioned it!
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That dog won’t hunt. Renwables are financial losers, and facing fast.
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renewables
(stroke exacerbates typos. Could methylation help?)
00
meanwhile, despite numerous articles listed at Wind-Watch showing much disquiet over turbines:
Jan 6, 2016: Wind-Watch.org Latest News
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/
we have this:
6 Jan: Mudgee Guardian: Farren Hotham: Uungula wind farm plan revived
The Uungula project, which includes a projected 249 turbines between Wellington, Mudgee and Gulgong, north of Lake Burrandong, will be looked at again by European company Wind Prospect CWP.
Head of development Ed Mounsey, who is also in charge of the Crudine Ridge Wind Farm project 40km west of Mudgee, said the Uungula farm had been on hold because of the political situation in Australia.
But now its prospects look strong…
“In operation, the Windfarm would also need about 25 people. The construction phase will employ a few hundred…
The Uungala project is being developed by CWP Renewables, on behalf of Uungula Wind Farm Pty Ltd and CWP Renewables.
Wind Prospect’s 77-turbine Crudine Ridge Wind Farm has been referred to the Planning Assessment Commission for final determination, with a recommendation for approval.
http://www.mudgeeguardian.com.au/story/3642419/uungula-wind-farm-plan-revived/
1 comment: by mvr: So, now we can have more expensive power AND a toxic waste dump !
Why all in this region?
and this:
6 Jan: EnergiasRenewables: Andrew Spence: Major win for South Australian wind farm
The 270 MW Hornsdale Wind Farm under construction about 220km north of Adelaide has won a contract to deliver an additional 100 megawatts of power to the Australian Capital Territory.
Developed by leading French company Neoen, in partnership with Megawatt Capital Investments, Hornsdale’s latest success came in the ACT Government’s second large-scale wind reverse-auction process.
Hornsdale was also awarded a contract to deliver 100 MW to the territory last February as part of the first reverse auction…
South Australian Investment and Trade Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith said Hornsdale could achieve Australia’s lowest known contract price for renewables at $77 per megawatt hour…
Hamilton-Smith said the Hornsdale project reinforced South Australia’s reputation as the nation’s leader in wind energy investment having attracted about 40 per cent of Australia’s installed capacity.
http://www.energias-renovables.com/articulo/major-win-for-south-australian-wind-farm-20160106
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Pat
Also on power – Scotland and renewables
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2016/01/we-dont-need-no-559.html
and link
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Another Ian –
thanx for the link.
Mearns asks:
“It is astonishing that the Scottish Government is taking risks with the well being of the Scottish people and economy in pursuit of renewable energy dogma.”
that’s how I feel about various Govts, including our own.
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270MW Hornsdale Wind Farm. According to the South Australian Investment and Trade Minister 200 of the 270 MWs are already sold to the Australian Capital Territory.
So if 270MW is the Nameplate and the average Capacity Factor is around 16% (43.2MWs) where does the extra 156.8MWs come from? Or am I wrong to assume that the 200MWs is an annual commitment instead of the total over a longer period?
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“…an annual commitment…” should be “a daily commitment”
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with only 11 months to go before Andrew Simms’ world is doomed by CAGW, he comes up with a champagne story:
6 Jan: Guardian 100 months to save the World: Andrew Simms: Let’s drink to being a champagne environmentalist
11 months and counting
Protesters standing in floodwaters hold a sign that reads: “Can we talk about climate change now?” Scant media coverage of the link between increasing weather extremes and a warming world suggests it’s a conversation still seriously waiting to begin…
Don’t put your glasses raised to new year down yet, the day of the champagne environmentalist may have arrived, in a good way.
The world of wine, and especially the sparkling kind, can seem frivolous. But shifting patterns of global production are becoming a bellwether for climate change…
The UK’s changing climate, with warmer summers and milder winters, has presided over a boom in the production of high-quality sparkling wines and a flourishing of small-scale producers, especially in the southwest…
Though still modest internationally, they are part of a surge of production which has seen the area under production in England double in seven years…
“People laughed at first. But long summers are good for us. We don’t have the problem of extreme heat. It’s a young industry in the UK, with small areas and experimental,” explains Stafford….
The UK has, for the moment, won the climate lottery for producing some wines. But success could be short-lived. As temperatures continue to rise, one projection suggests that by 2080 the south-west will only be good for growing raisins…
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/05/lets-drink-to-being-a-champagne-environmentalist
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I would be preaching to the converted if I said to you all that actual observed data in the real world is more important than using models to extrapolate lab discoveries.
Lab discovery about CO2, then model it and come up with a hypothesis about global warming versus the observed real world pause.
Lab discovery of heat tolerance due to epigenetic transmission in lab Guinea pigs, apply a model and extrapolate to the real word claim that it pokes a stick at some group of straw man greenies shouting “extinctions”, versus the real world observation that organisms are becoming extinct at a great rate in complex ecosystems.
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Oi, Gee Aye, what is needed is an unbiased (ie one that is blind to causes) estimate of historic extinction and speciation rates using actual independent data (ie data unaffected by current rates), because we could then compare that with the observed rate.
Have you read this paper? http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12380/epdf
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Gee Aye Aye Aye.
What is really needed is some intellectual honesty when presenting these scary bits of information. For example why don’t you include the annual number of new-found species and explain how extinction rates could even be determined?
We don’t even know how many species the earth holds so how could a strong claim of extinction rates even be known?
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I don’t think you read the paper
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Does that price include the REC? If not as expected that would be $152 per MWh, v’s brown coal at $30-32.
If the REC is included then the price falls to around $2 per MWh. Ridiculous.
The extra capacity will be a “great help” next summer when the Pt. Augusta stations are no longer producing and the wind doesn’t blow.
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6 Jan: BBC Future: Georgina Kenyon: The man who studies the spread of ignorance
***How do people or companies with vested interests spread ignorance and obfuscate knowledge?
Proctor (Robert Proctor, science historian, Stanford University) explains that ignorance can often be propagated under the guise of balanced debate. For example, the common idea that there will always be two opposing views does not always result in a rational conclusion. This was behind how tobacco firms used science to make their products look harmless, and is used today by climate change deniers to argue against the scientific evidence.
“This ‘balance routine’ has allowed the cigarette men, or climate deniers today, to claim that there are two sides to every story, that ‘experts disagree’ – creating a false picture of the truth, hence ignorance.”…
Proctor found that ignorance spreads when firstly, many people do not understand a concept or fact and secondly, when special interest groups – like a commercial firm or a political group – then work hard to create confusion about an issue. In the case of ignorance about tobacco and climate change, a scientifically illiterate society will probably be more susceptible to the tactics used by those wishing to confuse and cloud the truth.
Consider climate change as an example. “The fight is not just over the existence of climate change, it’s over whether God has created the Earth for us to exploit, whether government has the right to regulate industry, whether environmentalists should be empowered, and so on. It’s not just about the facts, it’s about what is imagined to flow from and into such facts,” says Proctor…
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160105-the-man-who-studies-the-spread-of-ignorance
***re the author, Georgina Kenyon, or how BBC/Kenyon with vested interests spread ignorance and obfuscate knowledge?
LinkedIn: Georgina Kenyon, NSW
Georgina Kenyon, Senior Science Writer at Australian Institute of Marine Science
September 2013 – Present
Editing and writing for online, print, film and radio – for a scientific research organisation on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia…
Journalist and Editor
BBC, The Guardian, NGOs
August 2011 – September 2013…
Head of Editorial
The Climate Group
2010 – 2011.
Edited and commissioned reports on climate change: liaised with private sector and offices in Asia to create reports on climate change financing, mitigation and adaptation…
Content Editor
Worldwide Fund for Nature
2007 – 2009…
Journalist
BBC, Guardian Media Group, Lancet titles
2006 – 2007…
Communications Officer
World Health Organization
2002 – 2003
Wrote articles about communicable diseases, including TB, HIV/AIDS and malaria for UN agency. Also worked with the media to place articles and sell stories to editors and journalists…
https://au.linkedin.com/in/georgina-kenyon-a8a9903b
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Re-writing some of it…
“This has allowed the … climate activists today, to claim that there are not two sides to the story, that ‘experts agree’ – creating a false picture of the truth, hence ignorance.”
ignorance spreads when firstly, many people do not understand a concept or fact and secondly, when special interest groups – like a political group – then work hard to create confusion about an issue. In the case of ignorance about climate change, a scientifically illiterate society will probably be more susceptible to the tactics used by those wishing to confuse and cloud the truth.
It’s not just about the facts, it’s about what is imagined to flow from and into such facts,” says Proctor.
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Pat, saw your link to the story of beeb editors, notice how BoM and auntie are holding back on their AGW agenda.
‘The BoM said the rainfall had broken weather records.
“In Newcastle, Nobby’s [weather] station recorded the wettest three-day rainfall total for January, and that’s records going back to 1862,” senior climatologist Agata Imielska said.
“They had 273.4 millimetres for the last three days.
“In fact, the wettest day was 200.6 millimetres and that was recorded over 24 hours to 9:00am to January 6 this year (today) — so that’s the wettest January day on record there.”
ABC
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Oh good,
The BoM people have found some records from prior to 1910! I wonder where they were? Perhaps there’s some temperature data there also…
Cheers,
Dave
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el gordo –
it would be welcome if the two Aunties were toning down the CAGW rhetoric, but I am doubtful. meanwhile…
6 Jan: Discovery: John Upton: Earth Is Experiencing a Global Warming Spurt
Cyclical changes in the Pacific Ocean have thrown Earth’s surface into what may be an unprecedented warming spurt, following a global warming slowdown that lasted about 15 years.
While El Nino is being blamed for an outbreak of floods, storms and unseasonable temperatures across the planet, a much slower-moving cycle of the Pacific Ocean has also been playing a role in record-breaking warmth. The recent effects of both ocean cycles are being amplified by climate change…
What’s Ahead For Climate Change In 2016?
The effects of the PDO on global warming can be likened to a staircase, with warming leveling off for periods, typically of more than a decade, and then bursting upward.
“It seems to me quite likely that we have taken the next step up to a new level,” said Kevin Trenberth, a scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research…
Trenberth is among an informal squadron of scientists that in recent years has toiled to understand the slowdown in surface warming rates that began in the late 1990s, which some nicknamed a global warming “pause” or “hiatus.”…
“The slowdown was not statistically significant, I suppose, if you properly take into account natural variability, which includes the PDO,” Trenberth said. “That’s sort of the argument that people have been making; that even if it was a little bit of a slowdown, or pause, or call it what you will, it’s not out of bounds, and as a result we shouldn’t really put a label on it.”…
READ ON FOR MICHAEL MANN, ETC.
http://news.discovery.com/earth/global-warming/earth-is-experiencing-a-global-warming-spurt-160106.htm
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Well, if the “slowdown” was not out of bounds, due to “natural variability”, I guess you could say the same about the the 0.3C warming in (dubious) surface records between 1970 and 1979.
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Drat – between 1970 and 1997!!!!
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Somehow I read what you meant!
00
no-one doubts approval will be forthcoming. Guardian brings up how last year, the EC gave approval to German energy conglomerate RWE to undertake a similar conversion at its coal plant in Lynemouth:
5 Jan: UK Telegraph: Emily Gosden: Blow to Drax biomass plan as EC launches state aid investigation
European Commission raises concerns that proposed subsidies for biomass conversion may be too generous
Drax’s hopes of securing lucrative subsidies for its biomass conservion have suffered a setback after the European Commission launched a full state aid investigation over concerns the payments may be too generous.
The Yorkshire-based power plant is in the process of switching from burning coal to biomass, and was awarded a £1.7bn Government subsidy contract in April 2014 for the third of its six units – subject to state aid approval.
***The contract would see Drax paid a fixed price of £105 for every megawatt-hour (MWh) of biomass-fired power the unit generated until 2027 – well over double the current market price…
Green subsidies
Owners of wind turbines, solar panels and biomass power plants are paid subsidies for the electricity they generate. The subsidies are funded by levies on consumer energy bills.
The total cost of subsidies was supposed to be limited to £7.6 billion in 2020 but is now on track to hit £9.1 billion…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/12082623/Blow-to-Drax-biomass-plan-as-EC-launches-state-aid-investigation.html
6 Jan: Quartz: Cassie Werber: One UK power station is planning to burn so much, it could skew the world’s wood market
Investigations are routine—they take place when large power stations are awarded a certain kind of subsidy. What’s unusual is that the Commission mentioned worries that Drax, formerly the largest coal-fired power station in Europe and still an energy behemoth, would require so many wood pellets that the global market could be affected. It would need 2.4 million tonnes of extra wood pellets a year for the project…
Drax argues there’s plenty of wood in the US, from which it sources most pellets. A spokesman for the company told Quartz that US Department of Agriculture data showed an annual surplus of about 50 million tonnes of material from forests in the southeast United States alone…
Overall, it does want power stations to convert from coal to biomass if possible. The danger is, there won’t be enough to go round.
http://qz.com/587435/one-single-power-station-is-planning-to-burn-so-much-it-could-skew-the-worlds-wood-market/
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Any one who moves from a colder climate. To a warmer place
Feels the heat at first then adapts
40
some may have read this thread:
15 Dec: WUWT: Anthony Watts: New research shows Earth’s tilt influences climate change
From the LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY and the department of tilt-a-whirl, comes this Milankovitch moment…
comment by Hot under the collar: As they blame ‘climate change’ for everything these days I wonder when we’ll see the well funded ‘peer reviewed’ research paper proving that the Earth’s tilt is caused by ‘climate change’?
comment by MyView1872: I saw a ‘report’ stating just that. According to the ‘scientist’ all those melting glaciers are speeding up the earth’s tilt. Don’t ask me for link, as I ignored it as quickly as I read it.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/12/15/new-research-shows-earths-tilt-influences-climate-change/
???
6 Jan: SMH: Dr Karl Kruszelnicki’s science conundrums: Why is the world’s spin axis shifting?
We are only a little way into the 21st century, and the signs of global warming are clear. Even so, the latest finding really surprised me. By burning huge quantities of fossil fuels, we humans have actually tipped the Earth off its axis by a tiny amount.
Each year since 2005, our global warming activities have shifted the spin axis from its previous path (by centimetres)…
However, they do have a good answer for the tipping of the spin axis. Rapid melting of ice on land turned it into water, which then relocated everywhere across our planet – changing its balance…
It’s hard to imagine something so small as us humans being able to shift something as massive as our whole planet. But we used global warming as a force multiplier…
This is an extract from Dr Karl’s Short Back & Science by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, Macmillan Australia, RRP $32.99
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/dr-karl-kruszelnickis-science-conundrums-why-is-the-worlds-spin-axis-shifting-20151113-gky7or.html
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Use your brains to post ON TOPIC most of the time instead of continually pushing of your own singular idea on, and on, and on, and on and on…….. ad infinitum.
That way people won’t get totally sick of you.
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Speak for yourself. Is this comment of yours on the topic of animal adaption?
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retiredphysicseducator:
The real reason you have been banned is that you are boring.
So you have discovered Loschmidt’s atmospheric paradox, so what? That doesn’t prove your theory; try giving a logical explanation not just ranting about how wrong everybody else is.
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In reply to Graeme No.3, you are way off track with your reference to Loschmidt’s paradox. The proof of the hypothesis (complete with the only necessary computations in the February 2013 paper.
[The rest removed because it is off topic. Please feel free to take it up in the next “weekend unthreaded” not here] ED
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In a warming world they imagined Scottish plants would be over run by Sassenach varieties, but it isn’t happening.
http://www.co2science.org/articles/V19/jan/a3.php
Perhaps it hasn’t warmed sufficiently or maybe the plants have adapted extremely well.
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Joanne:
Twelve of your readers have viewed my blog so far today, so apparently they are more interested than yourself in finding the correct physics that explains temperatures in tropospheres, surfaces, crusts, mantles and cores of all planets and satellite moons.
You would be welcome to a post article I would write for you on this breakthrough science, and thus you would have the opportunity to lead the world with an explanation of this major breakthrough in atmospheric physics. You can publicise the $10,000 reward also if you wish, which nobody who has read and understood the “heat creep” hypothesis has even attempted to refute. There is just so much empirical evidence supporting it now, Joanne, that it is about time you looked into it. I am in Sydney you know, if you want to discuss anytime.
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No, I was puzzled and didn’t think it was a Nigerian money scheme. However I could find no physics, just words. Physics is not about words but mathematical models. Rules are expressed as equations and the elegance of mathematics. Where were they? Or is it just waffle? How do you get to be a Physics educator with waffle?
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(not for publication)
Then delete TdeF’s and AndyG55’s comments! I should have right of reply to such cynicism. See my message to you on Unthreaded which was not intended for publication, but got through without moderation somehow.
My interest is only to get the message out about what is the correct science, my motive being to save lives and reduce poverty. My time is unpaid, and my book COST me money (US $3,000) which will never be returned in royalties. I’m not selling anything: there is no potential financial gain on my part.
Links to the full explanation in my website are the only feasible way, because I am not going to reproduce several pages of text (complete with the necessary “heat creep” diagrams) in comments here or on any climate blog.
But if people write comments that are “selling” the AGW radiative forcing fictitious, fiddled physics, I will point out the errors in such which my hypothesis proves.
[This was a fair request to clear the air but rather than delete posts, some of Doug’s reply comments were let through with links removed. This will be the last word on the subject in this thread and post.] ED
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TdeF wrote: “However I could find no physics, just words. Physics is not about words but mathematical models. Rules are expressed as equations and the elegance of mathematics. Where were they?”
Where were they? All the necessary computations deriving the temperature gradient from the state of thermodynamic equilibrium were in the 2013 paper (and in my book) which you obviously did not read.
01
omg!!! so insecure you even track where people come from… Its getting very sad.
[ He is here thread bombing, we are watching closely.] ED
[My comment edited and an update below.]ED
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Probably not. He has only had twelve visitors in history.
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No, there have been over 360 visits to the blog in the last week, plus others to the main website where the hit counter shows over 14,850 in exactly a year today. Previous websites, blogs and videos bring the total to over 115,000.
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RPE
Give me 600 words and a simple graphic on my desk by tomorrow morning.
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You can have it today in the blog, coupled with the diagrams in the 2013 paper that is linked from my website.
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Too many words, I need a brief overview of 300 words.
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You could read just the sections on heat creep in the blog – but don’t blame me if there is then insufficient explanation. Physics is a precise subject and I spare no words at the expense of ambiguity or lack of clarity or cogency. So I make no apology for the video being 43 minutes or the paper 18 pages.
01
And you could read this brief comment. But if you address the issue with preconceived ideas that it is all wrong and write comments to the effect without making a genuine effort to study it all, bear in mind that hundreds have “taken me on” on various climate blogs and nobody has proved me wrong. If you think someone has somewhere – anyone reading this – then link me to the relevant comment.
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It maybe a paradigm shift but its only of academic interest, global cooling is upon us and there is no plan B.
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Yes it’s just of “academic interest” that the whole carbon dioxide hoax has been proven wrong because greenhouse gases can only cool.
The problem is, el gordo, that between about 2028 and 2058 there will be more warming and each year.
Meanwhile, about $200 billion will be wasted on the hoax each year, thousands of lives lost and millions suffer due to poverty.
Just “academic interest” el gordo. /sarc
01
Yes it’s just of “academic interest” that the whole carbon dioxide hoax has been proven wrong because greenhouse gases can only cool.
The problem is, el gordo, that between about 2028 and 2058 there will be more warming and each year.
Meanwhile, about $200 billion will be wasted on the hoax each year, thousands of lives lost and millions suffer due to poverty.
Just “academic interest” el gordo. /sarc
01
the Chinese and epigenetics .
if good genes and thus adaptation and survival are passed down by the father then the Chinese are definitely bucking evolution.
The Chinese are suspending their stockmarket circuit breakers. 😮
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It appears that its not only greedy governments around the world getting on the band wagon of the Obama’s sleazy slimy imaginary ‘global warming’ but a lot of scientists are chasing after after any government subsidies also. Obama’s very dangerous idiotic imaginary ‘one world government’ where the world is populated with generic unmotivated & easily controlled people is to me frightening. The knowledge that human nature would cause scattered areas of civil war to break out seems beyond the concept of these selfish but dangerous idiots in government controlled by people lacking the brain power to limit & control wars already in progress causing death by starvation of millions. The seemingly easy approach of appeasement is an utter failure, but not only does the US lack the combined IQ to change but we now have an appointed waffling appeaser for a PM who is quite prepared to go along with the filthy expensive scams. We had an elected PM who achieved more for Australia within a year than any previous government for at least the previous forty years but his brainless idiot team sacked him because he seen right through the dangerous global warming scam. Even our foreign minister who appeared capable of one day becoming an Australian PM has shown herself up to be nothing but a sniveling dill. A return of the 1970’s ice age no doubt will be next. Its roughly fifty years since Australian governments discouraged fire fuel load reduction in an effort to save grasshoppers & the lazy mongrels now are prepared to accept a number of Australians being cruelly burned to death needlessly with only a gutless offer of tea & sympathy for survivors. From observation it appears those with influence are simply also only to offer suggestions of bigger watering cans.I grew up n a country I was proud of the ingenuity of only to suffer my old age in utter embarrassment
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The British Spectator carried a piece (12th December, 2015) by somebody called Simon Barnes, in which he extolled the new possibilities in British birdwatching, thanks to “climate change”. He identified four species supposedly hitherto unknown to winter in the UK: the Little Egret (Egretta garzetta), the Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus), the Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) and the Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla).
The Blackcap and Marsh Harrier have been wintering in Britain for as long as anyone (although not Simon Barnes, presumably) has been paying attention. The Chiffchaff has long been known as the hardiest of the migrant warblers, always the first to arrive, so it’s not especially amazing that it has started to stay through the winter. The Little Egret was once hunted for its feathers. Now protected, it has extended its range, as herons are adept at doing, given benign conditions.
Wikipedia claims that the Little Egret is absent from South-east Asia. I was in Cambodia quite recently and so were lots and lots of Little Egrets. This is a species which can cope with the tropical temperatures of Cambodia and the decidedly non-tropical temperatures of northern Lancashire. The only meteorological phenomenon that Cambodia and north-western England have in common is a heck of a lot of H20.
I don’t find anything surprising in the ability of species to cope with a wide variety of temperatures.
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Basic genetics 1, 2, 3. Do people get paid for this research?
Look at European stature. In the 1950s the average was about 175 cm for men, and then in a generation it went upto 180 or more. Same genes, different stature, due to a better diet. The difference in Russia was even greater, following the many privations there, while the US and Oz were always considered tall by UK standards, until now.
And there is an evolutionary reason for such adaptions, because stature is a double-edged sword. When times are good, the taller man gets the girl. But in the Jap concentration camps there was only one factory that decided who lived ot died – size. On the same megre diet, the bigger the man, the faster he fell.
R
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I think there’s a very simple way that species as a whole adapt – those individuals who can tolerate the change or are more inventive will reproduce more than those who can’t or aren’t.
Local populations may die out, the species will probably survive.
Examples:
– gray whales have trouble because most in the eastern Pacific feed only in the Bering Sea, which has been ice-clogged every few years, mortality rate of nursing females and offspring is high on the trip north. But a few hundred feed off the BC coast and a few thousand skip the commute from Baja and stay off the OR coast.
– there’s a baby boom in orcas who mostly stay in the straits off of southern Vancouver Island and Puget Sound, because of a couple of years of higher populations of their favourite food, Chinook salmon. But other orcas move around the coast much more, some eat sea mammals, some near Norway figured out how to corral herring and gulp several at once. Chinook are large and easier to find by echo-locating, and available much of the year whereas the large Chum salmon only when returning to rivers to spawn. So family lines of the “southern resident” population will probably die out, the “northern resident” population may survive, but the transients and Norwegian ones will carry on the species for sure.
There are many adaptive strategies that probably help a family strain or species survive. A key one is the balance between protecting offspring and protecting the parent who can survive to produce more offspring. A few examples:
– wolverines breed early but the result inside the female does not grow much until later in the spring, and will be absorbed/discarded if food is short.
– great blue herons’ defense of the nest intensifies as weeks progress, as more is invested in the offspring (on the wet coast they can try again once or twice in the same season)
– wildlife experts claim that in the case of baby seals people think are abandoned the mother may be afraid of the humans so stays out of site (I say of their gorram dogs too). Of course often the mother is out foraging and the baby isn’t yet ready to accompany her).
– OTOH deer in the Tongas National Forest don’t venture far, which hurts their resistance against wolves. (But besides running speed, they are agile and have hard hoofs to defend themselves, in urban areas they really hurt dogs when surprised or harassed with fawns hidden nearby.)
Of course animals and birds aren’t thinking conceptually, but they do learn.
Orcas around southern Vancouver Island have learned to take salmon off of fishing lines – probably teaching others, wildlife authorities don’t like that for some reason. (Of course there are human Darwin Candidates like the person who whacked an orca with a boarding net when it took a salmon he’d caught, fortunately for he and partner in the very small boat the orca just banged the boat once, not bothering to really attack.)
00