The Incredible Shrinking Horse The title of the story was "Watch out: Mammals shrink when Earth heats up, study says." The story reported evidence that, at a period when global temperatures were high, a number of ancient mammals became smaller, by fourteen percent in one case, by four percent in another.
As Mark Twain said, "It's easier to fool people than to convince them they've been fooled." The ordinary reader fails to fact check or be wary of media bias / distortion. So, the authors of these stories, who are indeed trying to sell more copy, can say almost anything without concern that readers would laugh at their their rubbish.
David, BTW not sure that link is working properly at the end of your essay...takes me to blogger.com, not a news story. But I would like to see that news story...
Alas, even the Wall Street Journal carries badly distorted stories. I just read this one (and made several comments) before reading your latest: "Earth Just Had Its Hottest Month Ever. How Six Cities Are Coping." HOTTEST EVAH!
"It may well be true that pteropods function less well when their environment becomes less basic but it is not because they are now in an acid bath."
My understanding is, you need to be in a supersaturation of calcium carbonate to form a shell. If you can't form a shell, you are about as well placed as a human embryo which can't form a skeleton. So if you are a pteropod, an environment which is just alkaline but slightly less so to a human, can indeed be an acid bath. Or if that's an exaggeration, it's a pardonable exaggeration if its effect is to make you extinct.
pH varies through the day. It's lower around river outlets. It get higher when water warms. The water around ocean vents are acidic. pH varies by location as well. pH is lower in the arctic oceans and higher in the tropics.
This is similar to sea level rise, which can be due to land subsidence or rise and varies by location. It also varies in short term intervals so that it can look like it's accelerating or decelerating depending on the time period chosen.
As Mark Twain said, "It's easier to fool people than to convince them they've been fooled." The ordinary reader fails to fact check or be wary of media bias / distortion. So, the authors of these stories, who are indeed trying to sell more copy, can say almost anything without concern that readers would laugh at their their rubbish.
David, BTW not sure that link is working properly at the end of your essay...takes me to blogger.com, not a news story. But I would like to see that news story...
https://www.science.org/content/article/500-million-year-survey-earths-climate-reveals-dire-warning-humanity
Alas, even the Wall Street Journal carries badly distorted stories. I just read this one (and made several comments) before reading your latest: "Earth Just Had Its Hottest Month Ever. How Six Cities Are Coping." HOTTEST EVAH!
"It may well be true that pteropods function less well when their environment becomes less basic but it is not because they are now in an acid bath."
My understanding is, you need to be in a supersaturation of calcium carbonate to form a shell. If you can't form a shell, you are about as well placed as a human embryo which can't form a skeleton. So if you are a pteropod, an environment which is just alkaline but slightly less so to a human, can indeed be an acid bath. Or if that's an exaggeration, it's a pardonable exaggeration if its effect is to make you extinct.
How did they get an average pH for the oceans?
pH varies through the day. It's lower around river outlets. It get higher when water warms. The water around ocean vents are acidic. pH varies by location as well. pH is lower in the arctic oceans and higher in the tropics.
This is similar to sea level rise, which can be due to land subsidence or rise and varies by location. It also varies in short term intervals so that it can look like it's accelerating or decelerating depending on the time period chosen.
>It is possible that I am mistaken
Yeah, I think you are. It is all about "fear sells." It is all for clicks / $, not politics.
IMHO.
Also IMHO, I would cut the horse stuff. The rest of the column is (again, IMHO) much stronger.
I like the shrinking horse anecdote.
Me, too.