The left is claiming that so much ground water has been pumped out of the Earth, that it is causing the planet’s rotational axis to tilt and is contributing to global warming/climate change. This is absurd, for multiple reasons.
First, the amount of water humans have pumped out is claimed to be 2.15×10^12 tons. The entire planet has a mass of 5.97×10^21 tons. The mass pumped is equal to 0.00000000036% of the mass of the planet, or 3 parts in 10 billion.
However, that mass didn’t simply disappear- the water is still here. In fact, with the exception of a couple of thousand gallons that went into space on spacecraft, man hasn’t removed any water from the planet. That isn’t what the idiots interviewed for CNN had to say:
In 2016, another team of researchers found that drift in Earth’s rotational axis between 2003 and 2015 could be linked to changes in the mass of glaciers and ice sheets, as well as the planet’s reserves of terrestrial liquid water.
In fact, any mass change on Earth, including atmospheric pressure, can affect its axis of rotation, Seo told CNN in an email.
The water that has been pumped out of the ground, the ice sheets, the glaciers, all of that mass is still here. It didn’t disappear.
The redistribution of groundwater tilted Earth’s rotational axis east by more than 31 inches (78.7 centimeters) in just under two decades, according to the models. The most notable driver of long-term variations in the rotational axis was already known to be mantle flow — the movement of molten rock in the layer between Earth’s crust and outer core. The new modeling reveals that groundwater extraction is the second most significant factor, Seo said.
31 inches in 20 years. That works out to 1.55 inches per year, with the circumference around the poles of about 15,800 miles, or just over 1 million billion inches. This means that the “shift” in the rotational axis is one part in a million billion. They use the position of Quasars to measure the position of Earth’s rotational axis. (this paragraph was edited to correct the error you see as a strikethrough)
The current gold standard for measurements of Earth’s rotation vector comes from very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), which involves radio receivers around the world. The receivers use the slight differences in the times at which they detect sudden changes in the microwave emissions from very distant quasars to precisely determine their own positions. This information allows them to monitor small changes in Earth’s orientation with respect to these far-away objects. But it can take days to translate VLBI observations into the final, useful results. A rotation sensor at a single location could provide an independent measurement and could allow the data to be available continuously.
It’s a pretty precise measurement. They claim that they can use that to determine shifts in the rotational axis going back to the 1800’s.
Future models can use observations on Earth’s rotation to illuminate the past, Seo added. “The data is available since the late 19th century,” he said. With that information, scientists can peer back in time and trace changes in planetary systems as the climate warmed over the last 100 years.
Since quasars weren’t discovered until 1960, the means of measuring the rotational axis were limited until that time, and precise measurements of the Earth’s rotational axis were impossible to within 1 part per million, which is the precision needed to detect a 1 inch per year shift. In fact, the first measurement of the change of the rotational axis of the planet wasn’t made until 2011.
This is junk science.
19 Comments
Joe Blow · July 6, 2023 at 5:55 am
Of course its preposterous. Anyone with a high school understanding of science knows its bunk. Sadly thats only about 15% of the population (the rest are ignorant AND stupid).
However actual water conservation isn’t the point. Gawd people just don’t see how the left kicks our ass this way every fucking time…
Its bullshit. The whole idea, comically farsical. Right? So here comes the internet arguing ad nauseum how bunk this whole premise is, completely missing the fact that its intended purpose is to reinforce the climate change narrative. They have you fighting the wrong fight! Its like when a general makes a diversionary attack to distract from the real one. You fell for the head fake!
Its the same with gun control. Get all wrapped up in magazine size and hand grips, ignoring the whole ‘shall not be infringed angle, and guess what – you lost the debate!
So go ahead, rail on about how stupid missing water is, you just reinforced the climate change agenda!
Argue instead that climate change is natural and not man made, you win both arguments.
Argue instead the government has no right to regulate arms, and you win both arguments.
You are being splintered off, divided and conquered, and you don’t even see it.
The left does this to our side every friggin time and we fall for it like charlie fucking brown.
(Hint: the CO2 the cows are farting isn’t about climate change, they’re after the food supply!)
People need to wake the fuck up, and get smart, or we don’t have a fucking chance.
Big Ruckus D · July 6, 2023 at 6:01 am
This reminds me of the time that moronic baboon predicted (amusingly) that Guam would tip over.
Aesop · July 6, 2023 at 6:12 am
This what happens when the paste-eaters and kids who ran with scissors try to report on actual science. It’s on a level with the jackass Democommunist who suggested, in all seriousness, that Guam would tip over if we put any more military facilities on it.
BTW, current theory has it that ground water is many times the weight of water on the surface, including all the oceans, it only moves a fraction of distance even when it’s pumped to the surface by human activity, and self renews.
So “moving” ground water to any great degree beyond fractions of a percent is functionally impossible.
But that would require jurinalists who passed middle school science one year out of three.
You’ve got better odds for winning Powerball with one ticket.
Matthew W · July 6, 2023 at 6:58 am
“Models say”……..
Yeah, we’re done taking them seriously.
“2.15×10^12 tons. The entire planet has a mass of 5.97×10^21 tons.
99.99999999999999% of people can’t conceptualize the size of those numbers.
Maybe we should pump MORE water in during more fracking……….
dc · July 6, 2023 at 8:26 am
Models were hotter when they were posed for the public in magazines!
Noway2 · July 6, 2023 at 6:59 am
“ This is junk science.”
Yes it is, but oh look, squirrel, er I mean climate change. (insert eye roll emoji).
Craig · July 6, 2023 at 7:00 am
I remember watching a climatologist debunking all the rising sea levels, man made global warming and the rest of the weather gift. A point he made was that the north and south poles have swapped in tha past, long before any pumping of ground water. Wish I a link to his video, interesting and eyeopening.
it's just Boris · July 6, 2023 at 8:21 am
When he was talking about pole swapping, did he mean the magnetic poles flipped polarities? That we can say with confidence has happened multiple times in the past. If he meant the physical axis either flipped, or the earth started rotating the other direction … that’s a much harder sell.
Lord of the Fleas · July 6, 2023 at 8:23 am
In addition to their scientific dishonesty, these window-lickers can’t even express their idiot ideas in any coherent way.
“The redistribution of groundwater tilted Earth’s rotational axis east by more than 31 inches…” What the hell is that supposed to mean? East and west only have meaning *on the earth’s surface*, and are in fact defined by the existence of a rotational axis. If the axis shifts, the planet shifts, and east and west shift with it. You can say the axis has shifted relative to the solar ecliptic, or even the galactic ecliptic, but not relative to itself. And if you do, that shift would be measured in an angle, not a distance. Gaaaagh…
(And BTW, the grammar nazi in me will point out that “data” is the plural of “datum”, so it’s “data ARE”, never “data IS”.)
Chris · July 6, 2023 at 8:25 am
Anything …to keep the Scam in the news being yapped about.
it's just Boris · July 6, 2023 at 8:25 am
This reminds me of the furor created when somebody finds some trace contaminant in ground water or the like.
On the one hand, our diagnostics capability has become pretty incredible, if we can start picking out parts-per-billion; for scale, that’s around 10 people out of the entire population of earth.
On the other hand, the downside is that, at some level, it just doesn’t matter in a practical sense. If human health problems start at, say, 100 parts per million, and the test is saying 10 parts per billion, the contamination is a factor of 1000 times lower than the point where we need to start getting concerned. (Assuming we start worrying at 1/10 the “problem” level.) The reporting always seems to miss that last bit; and this axial tilt seems to be in the same vein.
Jonesy · July 6, 2023 at 9:09 am
Just remember that climate change is a grift industry. Money has to leave your hands and go to the government so they can save us. The climate will continue on its own, with any hiccups or burps being interpreted by paid shamans to guide our allocation of funds.
Science has nothing to do with it. Seriously, there is a story circulating out there “experts” want to release aerosols into the atmosphere to block solar radiation. How that helps isn’t clear, but the quickest way to fuck up our planet would be to mess with the engine that drives everything- the sun.
Pat H. Bowman · July 6, 2023 at 9:26 am
It may be junk science, but just like junk bonds, there’s a LOT of money in it.
Brutus · July 6, 2023 at 9:32 am
Your math is off. 1,000,000 inches*(1ft/12inch)*(1 mile/5280ft) = 15.8 miles, not 15.8 thousand miles.
Divemedic · July 7, 2023 at 6:18 am
You’re right, it’s one billion inches, not 1 million. That’s what I get for looking at the calculator right before bed.
Grumpy51 · July 6, 2023 at 3:01 pm
As I taught my off-spring- ya can’t have a logical (rational, intellectual) conversation with an illogical (irrational, emotional) person.
Phil B · July 6, 2023 at 6:11 pm
No, I believe it all. And to make my contribution to saving the planet/the Whales/elephants and little fluffy kittens, not another drop of water will pass my lips.
Instead, I’ll rely on whisky and beer. I’ll need it to drown out and mask the stupidity.
Jester · July 6, 2023 at 7:17 pm
Of course this is junk. I mean we could postulate perhaps more successfully that all the space dust and material that lands on earth would effect the tilt/axis/polar shifting more than pulling ground water out. Ground water is not nearly deep enough to have any effect on -anything-. Perhaps the plate tetonics has a lot to do with any “shifts” but nope. Humans are killing everything.
But this stuff sells and i’m sure the some of the powers that be will gladly use this as a reason for more regulations in the West. Meanwhile China’s doing whatever they please with out anyone blinking an eye
Han Shot First, He Was No Fool · July 8, 2023 at 6:58 pm
It’s also junk astrophysics.
Yes, quasars are relatively fixed radio astronomy distant objects … but the Earth and the solar system aren’t fixed objects.
The entire solar system moves toward the Hercules star cluster (Abell 2151) at 20 km/s (which is not a typo, that’s 72 000 km/h).
And of course this is moving within the Hercules supercluster, the Great Wall filaments, and even larger structures.
So how much could you be off when you’re not taking any of these movements into account?
Probably roughly a metre over the course of twenty years.
Like all of the junk science with an agenda, this particular kind of junk science gets perpetuated by people profoundly ignorant of what is actually “the science”.
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