Penguin Poop Might, Maybe Helping Slightly In Fight Climate Change

This tasteless penguin photograph illustrates how
"buttloads of penguin guano" as the Washington 
Post put it, could be affecting climate change a little. 

 You read the headline correctly. Scientists are studying whether penguin poop is having at least a tiny effect on climate change.  

Sounds like something Republicans would use as example of ridiculous government spending, but hear me out. (And it looks like very little, if any American taxpayer money is being used to study this).

The story, of course, takes us to Antarctica, where, of course, you will find penguins. Lots of penguins. Who really know how to take a crap, apparently. 

Per the Washington Post:

"As millions of penguins eat and breed in Antarctica, they leave behind buttloads of guano. Given that they mainly feast on fish and krill, their excrement contains large amounts of nitrogen waste that breaks down into ammonia. 

Scientist found that incredible amounts of ammonia left behind combine with sulfur compounds from the ocean and grow clouds within hours."

By the way, I love the phrase "buttloads of guano."  It should be the name of a punk rock band.

Anyway, preliminary work involving computer models suggest that clouds that the penguins help produce have a cooling effect on parts of Antarctica. But that conclusion is, well, inconclusive and complicated.

More often than not, clouds reflect the sun's heat back to space, so they have a cooling effect on the Earth. In fact, an overall decline in low clouds over the Earth in recent years partly explain why 2023 and 2024 were the two hottest years on record for the globe.

Ice reflect more sunlight than clouds do.  So in the penguin cloud poop from over the oceans surrounding Antarctica, that would help blunt climate change. If they form over Antarctic ice fields, then it might just worsen climate change a tiny bit. 

Past studies suggest that the penguin crap producing clouds have an overall benefit in the fight against climate change. 

Per Washington Post again:

"...computer models from previous studies hint that the net effect would likely cool the surface. A study in 2016 looked at clouds over the Arctic from seabird guano and showed a cooling effect over the region - exceeding 1 watt per meter square near the large seabird colonies. The study's computer models showed the clouds consisted of more droplets, but smaller ones, which reflected more sunlight back to space."

Of course, pooping penguins won't be our savior from climate change. Their effect on it is minuscule, at least in the large scheme of things. 

But it's still important to consider.  WaPo one more time as they quoted Ken Carslaw, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Leeds who was not involved in the research.

"It's vital to understand these natural environments are the baseline from which we quantify and understand human effects on climate,' (Ken) Carslaw said. 'These observations are another piece of the puzzle that will help to improve how clouds are represented in climate models'"

 

Believe It Or Not, Another Climate Change Danger: Domestic Abuse

A recent Washington Post article said climate change can
exacerbate domestic violence. 

 It seems like climate change is blamed for just about anything that could possibly go wrong. 

The Washington Post recently brought us another societal ill made worse by climate change:
Domestic violence. 

The link between climate change and such violence would seem like a stretch, but the Washington Post makes a compelling case that this is a thing. 

As Wapo reports:

"A 2021 study of extreme weather events in Kenya by researchers at St. Catherine University of Minnesota found the economic stresses caused by flooding and drought or extreme heat exacerbated violence against women in their homes. The research, which used satellite and national health survey data, showed that domestic violence rose by 60 percent in areas that experienced extreme weather."

If that link could be established in Kenya, it could well apply anywhere. And sure enough, a few dozen other studies came to the same conclusions. 

Think about it in terms of your own life. I would hope that none of my married or partnered readers are violent against their spouses.  But you know you are more stressed when things go wrong. 

In my blessedly nonviolent marriage, I'm supremely lucky that my husband and I never come close to hitting each other. Our relatively rare arguments are quite tame. But when I'm stressed, I'm unfortunately much more likely to snap at my husband (and regret it afterwards).

I remember one of our brief and amicably resolved arguments in the past had to do with minor damage to our house after an extreme 2019 storm (that was probably made worse by climate change.)

Now picture not the marital bliss between my husband and I, but instead a household in which at least one member is prone to violence when angry. Then imagine, instead of minor damage to a lovely Vermont home occupied by a friendly version of Statler and Waldorf,  but a drought that wipes out all of a family's crops and livestock, leaving them destitute. Or a storm that washes away an uninsured home.

Those disasters afflicting violent homes is like pouring gasoline on a fire.  

The Washington Post gives us this sad example of what can happen:

The post introduces us to a Kenyan woman named Pilot Lenaigwanai, who covers her mouth as she speaks. She does so because she's embarrassed by a missing tooth, removed during violence against her by her husband. 

She showed up at a shelter for abused women in northern Kenya. As the Post reports: "Her husband was abusive even before the drought that's now ravaged Kenya's arid north, the worst in decades. When the family's 68 cattle - their only means of survival - died, the abuse became impossible to bear. 

'He was visibly frustrated and turned the heat o me and my children,' she says. 'I just think he wanted us out, because he could not provide for us anymore.'"

In one way, the woman in Kenya was lucky: She was able to escape her abuser. 

Many women don't have that option, especially in patriarchal nations and societies, where women have few options in a world controlled by often abusive men. Many of these nations are especially afflicted by climate change.

The Washington Post offers up an example of a woman with seemingly no escape in India. This woman's husband is violent, especially during the annual monsoon when flooding hits their property. With climate change, the monsoons - and the abuse - are getting worse. 

It's not like climate change causes domestic abuse. In almost every, case, that's pre-existing. But the stresses of climate change make it worse. This is an awful way to put it, but a women who has to deal with abuse is better off with occasional violence than constant violence. Though, to be clear, NO woman deserves any kind of violence.  

The issue of domestic violence and climate change is of course not limited to third world countries. I'm sure it's happening here in the grand old U.S. of A. 

Predictably, the Washington Post article about climate change and domestic violence got instantaneous backlash from climate deniers and, for the lack of a better word, "conservative" media. 

Fox News pooh poohed the Washington Post article, claiming it "undermined its warnings of climate change fueling abuse because it wasn't totally scientific."

In its article, WaPo said, "Unlike the hard science of climate change....the complex drivers of violence cannot be easily captured in numbers."

What the Post was trying to say, was that it's easy to measure, say the temperature. There are instruments and tools for that. The human psyche, on the other hand, is not easily measured by some sort of thermometer or other measuring device. 

Fox New also criticized the Post for noting that the link between domestic violence and extreme weather needs more research. Which is true. But the fact that more research should happen doesn't mean the idea is false. It just means we need to know more about it. 

Fox also implied that the fact Wapo said that climate change does not cause domestic violence, but exacerbates it means their thesis is wrong. 

Um, no. 

As anyone who actually reads the article, which of course is linked several times in this post, The point is, climate change can make existing ills worse. 

Sure, more study is needed on the climate change/domestic violence link. It needs to be better understood so it can be hopefully prevented or at least mitigated. What's wrong with that?

 

Football Workout Got Snowed Out, Or Did It? A Nice Coaching Story

Members of the Bethel Park, Pennsylvania in the midst
of "Workout Monday," which consisted of clearing snow
from neighbors' driveways. Photo from Bethel Park
School District via the Washington Post. 

 An elderly woman in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania was at first a bit puzzled when two teenagers wielding shovels showed up on her front porch during that big snowstorm last week. 

The two teens were there for football practice. There is now football field or workout room at the woman's house. But she did have a driveway with 11 inches of snow on it. 

It turns out the teens' football coach had a creative way to compensate for a team workout being canceled because of the snowstorm.  As the Washington Post tells us in a very nice story, the coach sent this email and Tweet:

"Due to expected severe weather, Monday's weightlifting workout has been cancelled. Find an elderly or disabled neighbor and shovel their driveway. Don't accept any money - that's our Monday workout."

This is one of the most creative and best ways I've ever seen to work around an inconvenience. Just turn bad weather into something great.

The elderly woman at the top of this story was certainly grateful.  She recently had shoulder surgery so she couldn't clear her driveway. She had no relatives close by who could swing by and shovel. So the football players were a godsend. 

It turns out this is a tradition in Bethel Park when it snows.  If the storm is a biggie, the high school football team comes to the rescue.

As the Washington Post describes it, the football players liked the assignment, too. One of the football players, David Shelpman, 16, grabbed some teammates and were outside for eight hours shoveling. They even forgot to stop for lunch.  

"It was a fun way to spend the day...We just kept going until we'd done six houses," Shelpman told the Washington Post. "It made me feel like I was a part of something bigger than myself."

I really hope this idea for a high school team "workouts" spread

Read the entire Washington Post article here.