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Full download Less Heat, More Light: A Guided Tour of Weather, Climate, and Climate Change John D. Aber file pdf all chapter on 2024
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Less Heat, More Light
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L E S S H E AT
MORE LIGHT
A GUIDED TOUR OF
WEATHER, CLIMATE, AND
CLIMATE CHANGE
JOHN D. ABER
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedicated to Kyla, Nolan, and John
You are the future
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Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
A Note on Units xv
RO O M O NE
RO O M TW O
RO O M TH RE E
RO O M FO U R
viii
Preface
I have always been a climate geek. This may sound strange for a
boy who grew up in a place some would say has no climate. As a child
in Los Angeles, I was always wishing for more rain, more storms,
more weather. The one time it did snow at our house, I was outside in
a flash making a snowball that was stored in the freezer until it evapo-
rated (sublimation being the technical term). In an area averaging
less than 14 inches (35 cm) of rain a year, and often receiving
much less, I put a rain gauge in the backyard and kept wishing for
something besides spiders to fall into it.
Had there been a meteorological major in the college I attended,
that would have been my choice, but liberal arts colleges aren’t known
for their applied fields of study. Still, as my career in environmental
science has unfolded, climate and weather have always been a part of
my research and teaching and a never-ending source of fascination
and intellectual challenge. Every semester I have taught classes that
included updates in how we measure, study, understand, and predict
both weather (with a time frame of hours to days) and climate (years
to centuries).
In the twenty-first century, immersion in weather information
has become commonplace. Is there any other topic in daily conversa-
tion for which we have instant access to such amazingly detailed
images, driven by a process that ingests such huge amounts of
data instantaneously? I suppose the stock markets also provide instant
ix
P R E FA C E
x
P R E FA C E
There is not a lot of new science here. In fact, one of the central
themes of this book is that we have known most of the important facts
about weather and climate for a long time. The analogy of a museum
with thematic rooms comes to mind, and I propose to be your guide
through four of these rooms focused on historical context, the basics
of weather and climate, how environmental research is carried out and
applied, and how this all relates to our changing climate system. A
guide can add value to the works on display by enriching the stories
apparent in the works themselves. My role here is to dovetail different
parts of the weather/climate story into a single coherent canvas.
More specifically, I hope to convey three central ideas.
The first is that the basic science behind both weather and climate
is well known, and has been for decades. Although there are remain-
ing mysteries, especially around the role of clouds, the dynamic future
of ice, and the impacts of climate oscillations such as El Niño, there is
more than enough known to understand the basic patterns and pro-
cesses, and to predict where we are headed. We also understand how
we can predict changes in climate over the coming decades even
though the accuracy of weather forecasts fades rapidly more than a
week or two ahead. Beyond the cold, hard facts, I also try to commu-
nicate some of the fascination I feel watching weather and climate
unfold with some basic understanding of why and how we see what
we see.
The second central idea is that there is pattern and structure to
how we increase our understanding of the workings of the Earth as a
single, integrated system through a unique field of research now called
Earth system science. The pattern is similar whether answering the
big, basic questions about the history and workings of our planet, or
how those answers can be applied to environmental concerns.
There really are few if any “aha” or epiphanic moments in science
at this level. Major questions are resolved through a long period of
xi
P R E FA C E
xii
Acknowledgments
xiii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
special thank-you to Bill Peterjohn for a critical look into the origin of
the formulation that I have called the Second Arrhenius Equation.
Darrell Ford and Jim Lewis took the time to read the entire man-
uscript and provide the additional perspective of educated readers
from outside the sciences. Caitlin Aber contributed a historian’s per-
spective and a very careful reading of the entire text.
While working on this book, I was also posting essays on similar
topics at Substack.com. Many colleagues and friends commented on
these essays, and our conversations helped sharpen both the content
and the writing of those essays and this book. My thanks to Susan
Antler, Liz Burakowski, Alix Contosta, Mark England, Thomas
Frederikse, Joe Hendricks, Nicholas Herold, Richard Houghton,
Matthew Huber, Brian Jerose, Norman Loeb, Chuck McClaugherty,
Bill Munger, Knute Nadelhoffer, William Putman, and Jonathan
Thompson.
The idea of simpler explanations of climate change was part of a
webinar at a recent class reunion, and thoughts and comments shared
by Lupi Robinson, Frances Beinecke, Walter Minkeski, and Meridith
Wright provided valuable direction.
Many thanks to Jean Thomson Black at Yale University Press,
who has provided support and guidance throughout the project. Her
professional experience has been crucial in expanding the scope of re-
views of the manuscript and in shaping the title and the structure of
the book. It has been a pleasure to work with her again. Thanks also to
Elizabeth Sylvia and Hannah Alms for providing expertise on text and
figure logistics. Otto Bohlmann assured consistency and accuracy of
the text, and Joyce Ippolito found many ways to improve the structure
of the work and provided many insights on best ways to tell this story.
And finally, thanks to all the family, especially Lynn, Patrick, Col-
leen, Caitlin, Jin, Kenny, Alexandra, and of course, Kyla, Nolan, and
John, for listening to weather and climate stories for so many years!
xiv
A Note on Units
Most of the countries in the world, and all of the scientific orga-
nizations and publications, use metric or SI units to express weight
(kilograms), distance (meters), temperature (degrees Celsius), and
other variables. The United States is essentially alone in using impe-
rial units (pounds, miles, degrees Fahrenheit) for both public and pri-
vate communications. U.S. agencies like the Weather Service, NOAA
(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and NASA
carry out their business in metric units but often report publicly in
imperial units. I use metric units throughout this book but also give
imperial units in a few places where the numbers will be more familiar
to many readers or where graphics embedded in the text use that
system. For temperature, F stands for degrees Fahrenheit and C for
degrees Celsius.
xv
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ROOM ONE
Weather and Climate
SIMPLE OR COMPLEX?
❂
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1
Was Svante Right?
3
W eather and C limate
4
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Phalaropus fulicarius, II 192.
Phanaeus, 559.
Philodromus, 525.
P l a a t k i e u w i g e W e e k d i e r e n , zie Lamellibranchiata.
P l a c e n t a l e Zoogdieren, 278.
P l a g i o s t o m e n , II 1.
Platalea, II 57;
wisseling van gevederte bij —, II 170.
Platyblemnus, 549.
Platyrrhinae, 273.
P l a t w o r m e n , zie Planariae.
Plecostomus, voelers aan den kop van het mannetje van een soort van —, II 9.
P l e v i e r , Morinel-, II 192.
Ploceus, II 52.
Polyzoa, 513.
P o w e r , Dr., over de verschillende kleuren der seksen bij een soort van Squilla,
524.
P r a c h t z a n g e r s , zie Maluridae.
P r i ë e l v o g e l s , II 98;
levenswijze van de —, II 108;
lustpriëeltjes van de —, 143;
opsiering der priëelen door de —, II 65, 108.
P r i m a t e n , 268;
seksueele kleurverschillen bij de —, II 280.
Primula, betrekking tusschen het aantal en de grootte der zaden van —, 483.
P r o m i s c u ï t e i t , II 355.
P i j l s t a a r t r u p s , 600.
Q.
Q u e c h u a -Indianen, 62;
geen grijs haar bij de —, II 367;
haararmoede der —, II 317;
lange haren der —, II 340.
R.
R e g e n b o o g v l i e s , zie I r i s .
R e g e n s c h e r m v o g e l , II 56.
R e g e n t v o g e l , II 108.
R e p t i e l e n , II 25;
— en vogels, verband tusschen —, 228.
R e u k , zie G e u r .
R h a m s e s II, 332.
R i n g w o r m e n , zie Annelida.
R i v i e r p a a r d , zie H i p p o p o t a m u s .
R o b b e n , betrekkelijke grootte der seksen bij de —, II 244, zie Z e e h o n d e n .
R o e s t v o g e l s , zie Insessores.
R o g g e n , grijporganen der —, II 1.
R o m e i n s c h e cijfers, 258.
R o o f w a n t s e n , zie Reduvidae.
R ö s s l e r , Dr., over de gelijkenis der ondervlakte van het lichaam der vlinders op
de schors der boomen, 580.
R o t s h a a n , II 97.
R u d i m e n t a i r e organen, 18;
oorsprong der —, 32.
R u d o l p h i , over het gemis van verband tusschen het klimaat en de kleur der
huid, 362.
R u i i n g , onvolkomen —, II 78;
dubbele —, II 172;
dubbele jaarlijksche — der vogels, II 77.
R u i t e r s , zie Totanus.
Rupicola crocea, vertooning van het gevederte door het mannetje van —, II 84.
Ruticilla, II 171.
S.
S a â m g e s t e l d b l o e m i g e p l a n t e n , zie Compositae.
S a b e l s p r i n k h a n e n , zie Locustidae.
Salmo eriox en S. umbla, kleur van het mannetje van — gedurende den rijtijd, II
12.
Salmo lycaodon, II 5.
Salmo salar, II 3.
Salmo umbla, kleur van het mannetje van — in den rijtijd, II 12. [469]
S c h a a l d i e r e n , zie Crustacea.
S c h i l d e r e n , 344.
S c h i l d l u i s , zie Coccus.
S c h i l d w a c h t e n , 184, 191.
S c h r i j f k u n s t , 258.
S c h r i j v e n , erfelijkheid van den aanleg om goed te leeren —, 139.
S c h u b v l e u g e l i g e i n s e k t e n , zie Lepidoptera.
S c o t t , J., over de kleur van den baard bij den mensch, II 315.