Environmental News

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by tochatihu, Oct 22, 2015.

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  1. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    #3021 bisco, Jan 11, 2026 at 1:19 PM
  2. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    #3022 Trollbait, Jan 11, 2026 at 3:51 PM
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  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i think i recently read a book like that. i wish i could remember the name, but it wasn't the one that sued the movie for stealing their idea.
    i can't find it, so i must be misremembering
     
    #3023 bisco, Jan 11, 2026 at 9:38 PM
  4. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    "As an observer and operations engineer at the Catalina Sky Survey, a NASA-funded planetary defense program that utilizes the telescopes atop the Santa Catalina Mountains, he [David Rankin] spends hours looking for dangerous rocks that could cause catastrophic damage to Earth."

    Yes, the Catalina Sky Survey has been the greatest producer in the search for Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs), though a separate group named Pan-STARRS has also been a major producer over the past decade:

    Screenshot 2026-01-12 210855.jpg

    Though the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory might soon take the lead.

    Total known NEAs have been growing exponentially for a long time, but the discovery rate of the really big ones, over 1 km size, has dropped very sharply, from a peak of 79 in year 2000, to just 2 each in 2024 and 2025, statistically suggesting that most have already been found. The rate for rocks in the range of 140-1000 m, also quite serious, still appears stable, suggesting lots more to be found. The major growth now is in finding the little ones, under 140 meters.


    Screenshot 2026-01-12 210946.jpg

    Screenshot 2026-01-12 210920.jpg


    I just might get a chance to stop by the Mt. Lemmon observatory later this month. Original planned to ski there while in town for an unrelated event, but snow is seriously lacking, as in totally absent. So instead, make some Lemmonade . . .
     
    #3024 fuzzy1, Jan 13, 2026 at 12:21 AM
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2026 at 12:28 AM
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  5. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    I didn't know where to drop this, so feel free to move it to an appropriate thread. As an old timer, I thought I was just cynical - didn't think I was correct?? But who knows; It's YouTube.....
     
    #3025 BiomedO1, Jan 13, 2026 at 2:02 PM
  6. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Vera Rubin Observatory is in instrument startup phase and is already finding new rocks out there. It will indeed bust this field wide open.

    @fuzzy1 second image above reminds me of a procedure that arises in sampling for many areas of ecology. When the graph is still rising to the right, one's sampling remains incomplete.

    --
    If he can talk about Lemmonade, I can suggest that new observatory can bring Veracity to this field.
     
    #3026 tochatihu, Jan 13, 2026 at 5:11 PM
  7. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    #3027 tochatihu, Jan 14, 2026 at 3:35 PM
  8. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    As a teen in the late '60s & loving scuba, friends & i went diving off a Palos Verdes area in Calif - closed off due to land & streets sinking & shifting. It appears it continues to this day
    Rancho Palos Verdes landslide moves as much as 4 inches a week, new NASA data shows | FOX 11 Los Angeles

    Nature; it likes taking back where we live our footprints. It'll be no surprise how quickly PCH again starts facing the same effects.
     
    #3028 hill, Jan 14, 2026 at 3:52 PM
  9. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    #3029 tochatihu, Jan 15, 2026 at 7:13 PM
  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    oh well, at least they didn't fudge the data
     
    #3030 bisco, Jan 15, 2026 at 8:14 PM
  11. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    1. GISS people are serious scientists.

    2. How ya gon na fudge with many independent groups also looking? There are more than these 3 efforts - they simply don't show up in media today with new annual updates.

    --
    My favorite second-tier global climate analysis is by Japan Meteorological Agency. Definitely punching above their weight. Or maybe they are Sumos.
     
    #3031 tochatihu, Jan 15, 2026 at 8:25 PM
  12. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    you're such an innocent :p
    fudging has proven relatively easy in the last year
     
    #3032 bisco, Jan 15, 2026 at 8:44 PM
  13. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    That's right - for every 10 on one side, the other can come up with 100, & vice versa
     
    #3033 hill, Jan 15, 2026 at 9:40 PM
  14. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Years ago here, people claimed that persistent temperature increases (since 1970s) came from global tampering with station records. Implying that such tampering could happen and persist.

    If not that, people claimed that persistent temperature increases arose from solar cycles, or anything else they were told to promote. Above all else they were told to dismiss atmospheric CO2 increases as forcing. Any year now, they told us, T would decreases and CO2 would vanish from physical reality.

    Told to say so by whom? You'd need to ask them.

    Meanwhile here in reality, T increases and several inter-related matters interfere with our future human enterprise. Estimates abound for what it might cost all of us to burn less CO2 into atmosphere. The burn industry has been much improved human enterprise in previous 2 centuries, and profited well therefrom. Their influence continues, and brains they control will continue to message.

    --
    In my view, nobody anywhere provides a comprehensive plan for responding to +CO2 problems while extending human enterprise good run. Great Thinkers have narrower focus. Meanwhile others funded by burn industry look backward. Less meaningful but still active, anti-CO2 enthusiasts throw soup at paintings and glue themselves to roads or whatever.

    From this muddle, I expect a few ineffective decades followed by better later. Younger people will live to see that :)

    If they take care of themselves in a rational public-health sense :)
     
    #3034 tochatihu, Jan 15, 2026 at 11:56 PM
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