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Earth System Science

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_system_science

Earth system science (ESS) is the application of systems science to the Earth sciences. In particular, it considers interactions between the Earth's "spheres" — atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, geosphere, pedosphere, biosphere, and, even, the magnetosphere — as well as the impact of human societies on these components.

The Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College, offers the following description: "Earth system science embraces chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics and applied sciences in transcending disciplinary boundaries to treat the Earth as an integrated system. It seeks a deeper understanding of the physical, chemical, biological and human interactions that determine the past, current and future states of the Earth. Earth system science provides a physical basis for understanding the world in which we live and upon which humankind seeks to achieve sustainability".

(Via Wikipedia)

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November 2018

Only shifts commensurate with the scale of our existential crises have any prospect of averting them. Hopeless realism, tinkering at the edges of the problem, got us into this mess. It will not get us out.

Public figures talk and act as if environmental change will be linear and gradual. But the Earth’s systems are highly complex, and complex systems do not respond to pressure in linear ways. When these systems interact (because the world’s atmosphere, oceans, land surface and lifeforms do not sit placidly within the boxes that make study more convenient), their reactions to change become highly unpredictable. Small perturbations can ramify wildly. Tipping points are likely to remain invisible until we have passed them. We could see changes of state so abrupt and profound that no continuity can be safely assumed.

Only one of the many life support systems on which we depend – soils, aquifers, rainfall, ice, the pattern of winds and currents, pollinators, biological abundance and diversity – need fail for everything to slide...

Radical action needed to confront climate change by George Monbiot @TheGuardian

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You can manage only what you can measure Dr David Crisp, OCO-2, June 2014 m.jpg

Atmospheric Science

Measure to Manage: The Critical Importance of Atmospheric Science

2019 / 2018

Op-ed: The story behind the satellite that Trump wants dead

It’s difficult to describe all the ways this is stupid

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory's primary job is to see what's happening to the carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere.

There were plenty of striking things about February 12th's budget news, given that it contained lots of draconian cuts that were simultaneously restored because Congress had boosted spending the week before. But perhaps the most striking among them was an item in the proposed budget for NASA: Trump wants to block the follow on to a highly successful NASA mission.

To truly appreciate just how awful this is, you have to understand the history of that satellite and what it means to the scientific community as a whole. So let's step back and take a look at why the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (or OCO) exists in the first place. It turns out it was built specifically to handle some outstanding questions of the sort that people in the administration say are important, and killing its successor would mean the existing mission never lives up to its full potential.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/02/op-ed-the-story-behind-the-satellite-that-trump-wants-dead/

CO2 Molecule