Brekkestø: The Rise and Fall of Civilizations in a Climate Perspective
Civilizations flourished during the warm periods, such as the Bronze Age, the Roman era, and the medieval times, when weather conditions were relatively stable with more precipitation in the tropic and subtropical areas. Civilizations experienced decline or succumbed during the cold periods, such as 1 200 to 500 BC, 300 to 700 AD and the…
Nordin: The Role of Science in Climate Politics
I gave a short introduction to the climate conference in Mölndal 26-27 October 2024. The theme of the conference was “Science and Politics” so I picked up a couple of basic philosophical words of wisdom for this occasion. The first sentence comes from the 18th century philosopher David Hume with the following logic statement:¬ (Is…
Koutsoyiannis: Relative importance of carbon dioxide and water in the greenhouse effect
Using a detailed atmospheric radiative transfer model, we derive macroscopic relationships of downwelling and outgoing longwave radiation which enable determining the partial derivatives thereof with respect to the explanatory variables that represent the greenhouse gases. We validate these macroscopic relationships using empirical formulae based on downwelling radiation data, commonly used in hydrology, and satellite data…
