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Bruce Melton PE

Melton is a professional engineer, environmental researcher, author, filmmaker and front man for the band Climate Change.

Early Spring Drives Butterfly Decline

By Impacts

Reposted from NSF Press Release: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=123520&org=NSF&from=home Early snowmelt caused by climate change in the Colorado Rocky Mountains snowballs into two chains of events: a decrease in the number of flowers, which, in turn, decreases available nectar. The result is decline in a population of the Mormon Fritillary butterfly, Speyeria mormonia. Using long-term data on date…

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Thoreau’s Woodland Is No More

By Impacts

March 21, 2012: — Henry David Thoreau, Concord Massechusetts, Walden Pond. Among temperature and non temperature dependent flowering species, climate change has affected and will likely continue to shape the pattern of species loss in Thoreau’s woods. Species that have decreased greatly in abundance include anemones, buttercups, asters, campanulas, bluets, bladderworts, dogwoods, lilies, mints, orchids,…

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Climate Change Cues: Politics and Economics

By Psycho

In a paper in Climatic Change, Researchers from Drexler University, the University of Montreal and Ohio State have found that politics and economics (unemployment) are the most important things that shape our thoughts about climate change. When the economy is tight and or when our politicians are actively advocating for or against climate change science,…

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Welcome to Climate Change Texas Part “Extra”: The Worst-Case Scenario is Happening

By Abrupt changes, Climate Catastrophes, Deniers and Delayers, Extreme Weather, Impacts, in-depth and Popular Press, Temperature

                (This article is an expansion of and provides technical backup for Bruce Melton’s three-part series, “Welcome to Climate Change in Texas,” published in December 2011 and January 2012 on The Rag Blog.) Read More — Extra:  Welcome to Climate Change Texas: The Worst-Case Scenario is Happening (expansion and backup) Part…

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Welcome to Climate Change Texas Part 3: Have we crossed a threshold?

By Agriculture, Deniers and Delayers, Drought, Extreme Weather, in-depth and Popular Press, rainfall, Temperature

The Texas Forest Service tells us that a half billion trees have died. The first of this series of droughts in 2005/6 was just classified as extreme. The last two have been one category worse than extreme — the exceptional category. The last 12 months were drier than the worst 12 months of the great…

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Welcome to Climate Change Texas Part 1: What Can Be Done About Climate Change in Texas?

By Abrupt changes, Agriculture, alternatives, Climate Catastrophes, Deniers and Delayers, Drought, forest health, Forest Mortality, Impacts, in-depth and Popular Press, rainfall, Solutions

As I have been saying in the first two installments of this series, climate change is already much more extreme than most scientists have been predicting. This is mainly because the majority of predictions are based on the “most likely” emissions scenario and because we have not reduced our emissions like climate scientists told us…

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Climate Change Jokes

By Climate Change Jokes

Happy New Year! I take no responsibility in reporting the following (Ha-Ha-ha-ha): How many climate scientists does it take to screw in a light bulb?  None – There is no known evidence that light bulbs burn out. Ha-Ha-ha-ha! How many climate scientists does it take to screw in a light bulb?  None – The human…

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12-30-2011: Bruce Melton on the Real World Effects of Climate Change.

By Podcasts

Rag Radio 2011-12-30 – Bruce Melton on the Real World Effects of Climate Change by Rag Radio with Thorne Dreyer Podcast – https://archive.org/details/RagRadio2011-12-30-BruceMelton Bruce Melton is a professional engineer, environmental researcher, filmmaker, writer, green builder, and front man for the band, Climate Change. His main mission is filming and reporting on the impacts of climate…

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Welcome to Climate Change Texas Part 2: Drought and wildfires

By Abrupt changes, Drought, Extreme Weather, in-depth and Popular Press, rainfall

AUSTIN — If this is not climate change, then this is exactly what climate change will be in as little as a decade. What has been happening in Texas, with these unprecedented (in time frames that matter) droughts and wildfires, is exactly what the climate scientists have been warning us about for over 20 years….

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A Half Billion Trees May Have Been Killed by Drought in Texas

By Drought

Update: The final count is 301 million, right in the middle of the 100 to 500 million estimate. See October 24, 2012 discussion https://climatediscovery.org/final-count-for-2011-drought-tree-kill-in-texas/ In a preliminary report, the Texas Forest Service says that 100 million to 500 million trees have been killed across Texas. A more detailed evaluation is due out in the spring….

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Twelve-month Average Temperature Reaches All Time High

By Temperature

The latest analysis of global temperature from GISs looks at the 12-month running average global temperature. Using the twelve month average smoothes out the chaos of monthly weather changes. The running average averages successive twelve month periods: March through February, April through March, May through April, etc. It’s a little different way of looking at…

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Scientific American Says (Erroneously) Atmospheric Capture Infeasible: Handing a Huge Piece of Pie to the Denying Delayers

By Uncategorized

I am talking about climate science business as usual.  As in: classic conservative science. The scientists responsible for this report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences are stuck inside of their science as usual box. This a long a ridiculous debate where the “air capture” of CO2, in the world of industrial…

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Globally, Wind Energy to Be Cost Competitive by 2016

By Uncategorized

Already competitive with subsidies in many places, already competitive in several places without subsidies, Especially to natural gas, wind energy will be competitive world-wide with gas, oil and coal in five years. Bloomberg New Energy Finance issued a statement on November 10 with this news. Wind energy will drop 12% in the next five years…

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IPCC Special Report SREX, Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation

By Drought

A classic report, full of conservative information created by committee. Not that the IPCC does not represent the best science that we have. It’s just that these guys do things by enormous committees and compromise is the standard operating procedure when creating policy, or anything really, by committee. So what does this report mean? Honestly,…

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