The extent of the dreaded “hole” in the Earth’s ozone layer over Antarctica is the smallest it’s been since government scientists began monitoring it nearly three decades ago.

Some attributed the shrunken ozone layer to the ratifying of the Montreal Protocol in the 1980s. In that agreement, countries agreed to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals over time.

Fission tracks are minute damage trails, or tracks, left by fission fragments in certain uranium-bearing minerals and glasses.

The linked article speaks of fission tracks observed in minerals from the PreCambrian Era (2.5 billion to 500 million years ago). Furthermore, the linked article speaks of fission tracks in enantiomorphic minerals as a key to the emergence of homochirality.

DWD: For the past there is no clear evaluation showing change in the strength and intensity of storms over Germany

Keeping tabs on carbon dioxide emitted from volcanoes can be valuable, both for forecasting potential eruptions and for determining how much deep carbon the volcano releases to the atmosphere. Some volcanoes, however, release more carbon dioxide as diffuse degassing along the flanks than through the main plume of the volcano. These volcanoes are difficult to study using a single monitoring station, complicating scientists’ attempts to monitor the “state and evolution” of volcanoes.

A new peer-reviewed paper by two highly-qualified Australian scientists shows official government predictions of extreme weather are being exaggerated by local panels. Professors Cliff Ollier and Albert Parker identify evidence from real sea level measurements that discredit UN IPCC climate models. [1]

Greetings to you, with my hope that you are doing well! According to public records, most of you are. That’s good!

The whole U.S. produces somewhere around 15 billion bushels (BB) of corn a year at a rate of ca. 145 bushels per acre. Roughly, that’s 1/3 of the entire world production. Nearly ½ of the entire U.S. production comes from Iowa (2.7 BB), Illinois (2.3 BB), Nebraska (1.7 BB), Minnesota (1.5 BB), and Indiana (0.9 BB). Of that bountiful harvest, in the order of 25{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} are being converted via fermentation and distillation into ethanol, resulting in ~2.9 gallons of ethanol per bushel of corn.

A series of new studies on everything from errors in calculating sea temperatures to the Earth’s ability to adapt in assimilating carbon dioxide has sent climate scientists scrambling to readjust their predictions concerning climate change.

An essay in the current issue (Oct. 2017) of Eos, the house organ and newsletter of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), is titled “Red, Blue – and Peer-Review” (P.R.).

Jørgen Randers, professor of climate strategy at BI Norwegian Business School: “If people don’t want my preferred solution, then people are stupid, shouldn’t be allowed to decide their fate, and we should install a climate dictatorship instead.” – “The advantage is that once decision is made, everything goes quickly. There is no opposition fighting back” is representative of Jørgen Randers’ argument, but actually comes from the same article from Anders Wijkman, who’s spokesperson for the Club of Rome, of which Randers is member of their executive committee.

In recent years, particularly in the United States, we have seen a substantial change in public opinion regarding the production and distribution of energy, as well as its associated costs in the marketplace.

The HadCRUT4.5 temperature anomaly for September is 0.54C, a fall of 0.17C since August. Temperatures have seemingly returned to a long trend after the 2016 El Nino. —Clive Best blog, 29 October 2017

Image copyright: GETTY IMAGES

Over-reliance on and misuse of antibiotics has led to warnings of a future without effective medicines. Why is it so difficult for scientists to discover new drugs?

It’s a tale of scientific discovery taught the world over: the serendipitous find of a mould that revolutionised modern medicine.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has touched its drill to the ground for the first time in 10 months, after a mechanical fault brought drilling to an abrupt halt at the end of last year.

This is just publicity seeking — but as long as the papers keep printing it, some galoot will keep churning it out and enjoy seeing his name in the papers.

Maybe the biggest of all the lies put out by the global warming scaremongers is that the science is on their side. No, it isn’t. And if you’re in any doubt at all you should read this interview with the brilliant scientist István Markó. It tells you all you need to know about the science of global warming.

Claiming to speak for science, Seth “Arctic will be ice-free by 2012” Borenstein says the first fall freeze is coming later in the US since the 1980s.