Tuesday, January 07, 2014

ARCTIC

Intense cold, currently experienced by many parts of the USA, has brought forth a new (to me) term: "Polar Vortex". In reading about it I came across the excellent videos linked below.

David Wasdell explains the situation in a clear concise way in the two approx. 20 minute videos. If you, like me were aware but somewhat confused, please do take the time to watch this important explanation.


8 comments:

mike said...

I'm very cold here in the deep south...brrrrrrrr! Probably 30 degrees here this morning...very warm compared to your temperatures and other places north and east of here. Historically, we had a record low of 11 degrees back in 1911.

I'm always fascinated by the conservative pundits...they must sit around in their spare time drinking martinis (maybe smoking pot, too) on the beaches of exotic locales making lists of outrageous statements to captivate their audiences. Their outrageous down-with-science-statements bring-in big dollars. Rush Limbaugh proffers this and more: 'Limbaugh noted that media outlets have created a "polar vortex" to exaggerate the harsh weather conditions by publishing "fraudulent pictures," including photographs of the North Pole "melting" in order to convince people that 'we're responsible -- we're causing it.'"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/06/rush-limbaugh-climate-change-media-global-warming-polar-vortex_n_4549803.html

I think we humans are analogous to viruses. Many of us believe that the human race's destiny is to leave Earth and seek-out new planets...to infect...LOL! Of course, we have to leave Earth, because we will have depleted all life-force out of her. Perhaps it is best that we are eliminated, so that life can continue on Earth. It's interesting to note that the more that humans cause Earth-changes, the more we are susceptible to the changes we created. Introductory microbiology courses teach that microbes have four distinct growth phases. After the lag and growth phases comes:
"The stationary phase is often due to a growth-limiting factor such as the depletion of an essential nutrient, and/or the formation of an inhibitory product such as an organic acid. Stationary phase results from a situation in which growth rate and death rate are equal. The number of new cells created is limited by the growth factor and as a result the rate of cell growth matches the rate of cell death. The result is a “smooth,” horizontal linear part of the curve during the stationary phase.
At death phase,(Decline phase) bacteria run out of nutrients and die."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacterial_growth

Twilight said...

mike ~ We're promised slightly better temps today here - up to a balmy 46 - it's still around freezing at the moment though. Yesterday was frigid....all day, but dry so no dangerous ice around.

These cold (or hot) "fronts" when they are strong affect me via nasty migraine-like headache - pressure change I suppose, and similar feelings to allergic reaction to pollens etc. I've had a horrible headache since around Sunday afternoon, can't shift it with anything....should be some relief soon I hope.

As to climate change, deniers will deny, and are best left to stew in their own juice in my opinion - there's just no arguing with 'em.

An important, and to me new, point made by David Wasdell in the videos linked in the post was that the process is now past the point where man's input or reduction of it will make a difference, the process is now, in effect, self-progressing (can't remember the term he used).
:-(

I'm glad I didn't have children, and feel for today's young people who will have to face what's coming.

Sonny G said...


3 degrees here in clemmons nc this morning.

Annie I too have heaadaches in too cold or to warm temps.
feverfew will help as it causes the restricting blood vessels to open -- also just a tiny dot of any muscle rub on your temples and at the bridge of our nose/ between the eybrows..

feel better soon.

ex-Chomp said...

Climate **has changed** and will continue to shift.

I also find some conservative narratives absolutely deprived of any value, though much much supported by the media, so they are dangerous notwithstanding their martini drinkings on exotic locals... Possibly surrounded by some attractive girls though blaming to the ones who ’subverted’ the family values...

Much in their style, isn’t it, pretending others to do what they won’t ever do.

They will always deny what is evident and plain, for their interests.

Climate has definitely and definitively changed and shifted.

Not toward mere heating but towards upredictability inside a general tendency to increase of **average** temperatures, which does not at all mean that we see the past continue as such with merely higher degress of temperature only.

It doesn’t function so.

Unpredictability and extreme events will increase, extreme of cold and heat, too rainy or too dry, changes are sudden and abrupt, too abrupt if one has a historical memory of how the seasons were. And not centuries ago but inside an average span of life in an average human life.

And people have been acclimatated to this New Climate, by means of denial.

So denial has and had ist reason.

I also read somewhere that the Gulf Stream weakened and this is due to the excessive heating of the average heat in the oceans.


Twilight said...

Sonny ~ Wow! That was frigid indeed!
I hope it's less intense today. It's not as cold here at present, 41*.

Thank you for the tips on pressure headache remedies. I'll buy some feverfew next time we're out - and some muscle relaxing cream. The headache is still hovering around but I'm hoping it'll go gradually as the weather front effects fade. Aleve might knock it on the head today. :-)

Twilight said...

ex-Chomp ~ Agreed - climate deniers remind me of naughty children having tantrums, holding their breath in temper.

I began noticing climate changes back in the UK - very subtle changes though. I grew up in towns near the sea, and in my childhood and youth it was bone-chillingly cold there in winters, and never very hot in summers. When I returned to the same area after I retired I noticed a big difference - no more bone-chill, more heat in summer. Not dramatic, but noticeable in my circumstances.

Now things have progressed from subtle to - Wow! - at times, here in the US anyway.

Mr Wasdell, in the videos above, mentioned that the Gulf Stream will eventually be affected.

mike (again) said...

Take advantage of the next vortex and make ice cream:

http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/2014/1/8/if-the-polar-vortex-was-an-ice-cream-what-flavor-would-it-be

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ And shivering ice cream shakes too? :-)