Bill Pugsley, CACOR member, writes:
This is the best down to earth explanation of climate change that I’ve seen or heard on the media in a long time by someone who knows his stuff. I hope that he is understood by others who might not have as much science background
I especially like the way he distinguishes between what is known – basic laws of physics – and what is harder to model – the processes such as clouds which are finer than the grid scale of the models – typically 10 km – and the fine art of parameterization that is done to approximate these small scale processes. And how this depends on better supercomputers faster and more memory which would allow for smaller grids. Canada since 1984 has been in the lead worldwide because of our govt’s investment in world class computers in the 80s from the Cray 1 in 1984 to the NEC in 1989 to the IBM used today in the Cdn Met Centre in Dorval in the western end of Montreal island (where we have the advantage of selecting the best not necessarily one made in Canada which is different than the USA’s Buy America approach which held their climate scientists back for at least a decade when the best technology was not American (even if the quality of their post graduate institutions in atmospheric physics was/is world-class and as good as the UKs)
Also the challenge of estimating extremes and how that depends on a better way of getting exact surface conditions right and how this is linked to estimating smaller scale processes within the grid boxes etc etc
And why political action to cut emissions is needed now, not when technology might suck the CO2 out in 20 years or more
Highly recommended if you have 30 minutes
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