{"id":28803,"date":"2017-12-13T07:22:25","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T12:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=28803"},"modified":"2017-12-13T07:22:25","modified_gmt":"2017-12-13T12:22:25","slug":"natural-variability-isnt-the-final-word-on-climate-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=28803","title":{"rendered":"Natural Variability isn\u2019t the Final Word on Climate Science"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"headline\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2017\/12\/13\/natural-variability-isnt-the-final-word-on-climate-science\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Natural Variability isn\u2019t the Final Word on Climate Science<\/a><span style=\"color: #333333; font-size: 16px;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<div class=\"post_content\">\n<div id=\"attachment_98231\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-98231\" src=\"https:\/\/uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/dropzone\/2017\/12\/Screen-Shot-2017-12-12-at-9.50.10-PM.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/dropzone\/2017\/12\/Screen-Shot-2017-12-12-at-9.50.10-PM.png 510w, https:\/\/uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/dropzone\/2017\/12\/Screen-Shot-2017-12-12-at-9.50.10-PM-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/dropzone\/2017\/12\/Screen-Shot-2017-12-12-at-9.50.10-PM-768x434.png 768w\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"288\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by NASA Goddard Space | <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\">CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Politicians recently visiting western Montana\u2019s Lolo Peak fire tried to put the blame for the fire on lawsuits filed by environmentalists. Montana\u2019s US Senator Steve Daines did mention the role of climate change, but quickly went on to say that the climate has always changed.<\/p>\n<p>Well, yes, for sure. Changes in Earth\u2019s temperatures and resulting climate have often been driven by forces beyond human control, and many such changes occurred well before humans existed. These familiar natural forces have changed the climate from hot to cold and from cold to hot, all without a lick of help from man, woman or child.<\/p>\n<p>For example, it\u2019s become plain that large volcanic eruptions can cast killing chills across the planet, crushing crops and making people miserable. For another example, El Ni\u00f1o\u2014perhaps the most widely known expression of natural variability\u2014periodically releases ocean heat that has a rippling effect across much of the planet.<\/p>\n<p>So, yes, Daines\u2019 remark wasn\u2019t entirely hot air. Natural forces are clearly capable of changing the climate.<\/p>\n<p>A recent attention-getting study turned up evidence that an earlier planetary hot spell was driven by volcanic magma under an extensive Siberian coalfield. Geologists put that initial study to the test and have twice confirmed that the hot magma scorched the coal above, thereby releasing lots of carbon into the atmosphere, which then increased atmospheric and oceanic temperatures. The resulting heat created extinctions long before there were humans to blame.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the real world out there, with more than one thing going on at a time, so it\u2019s no shocker that the forms of natural variability don\u2019t always act alone.<\/p>\n<p>One recent study cites evidence that natural variability in the form of a sulfur-loaded volcanic eruption may have had its cooling influence on North America complicated by the warming influence of another natural variation, El Ni\u00f1o.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Natural Variability isn\u2019t the Final Word on Climate Science\u00a0 Photo by NASA Goddard Space | CC BY 2.0 Politicians recently visiting western Montana\u2019s Lolo Peak fire tried to put the blame for the fire on lawsuits filed by environmentalists. Montana\u2019s US Senator Steve Daines did mention the role of climate change, but quickly went on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[140,141,2956,5493,17474,17475],"class_list":["post-28803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-science","tag-counterpunch","tag-lance-olsen","tag-natural-variability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28804,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28803\/revisions\/28804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}