 size of an energy flux. Thus your first sentence @24 is either wrong or (more likely) you are using the word "forcing" incorrectly. And "increases" should probably be "maintains."
When you write "Now for their suggested reading........." are you preparing us denizens of this comment thread for some suggestions from you as to what to read? Or are you requesting some suggestions from us as to what you should read?
The subject of the role/mechanism of back-radiation in warming the oceans appears to be what interests you although I would suggest that you have probably fallen short of identifying here "an important gap in our understanding." Perhaps this SkS article 'How Increasing CO2 Heats The Ocean' will assist in identifying the part of the mechanism that puzzles you.
Jim, you state "My concern is that nobody in the climate science community seems to have attempted to quantify the role that CO2 plays in keeping it there"
I am not even sure quite you mean. Personally I would ensure that I had an extremely deep understanding of the physics before I started thinking that there was a gap in the scientists understanding.
One to look at quantifying it is to look at the amount of radiation reaching the ocean surface (including backradiation) Check - do that. See for instance the Trenberth energy balance. Secondly, what portion of the radiation is heating it. Okay, emissivity is measured. If I were you, I would spend a bit of time at Science of Doom getting to grips with the text book physics.
Some things to keep in mind when looking at the temperature records from the early 20th century and before. Station coverage wasn't global. We only had decent station coverage in the Antarctic starting in the late 50's. And most of the Arctic only really started having decent station coverage since the 1920's. So variations in station coverage are a confounding factor for the earlier records. And the Arctic did see a warmer period during the 20's/30's. Not as warm as today but warmer.
The problem with looking at just surface temperatures and expecting them to have a tight correlation with CO2 levels or any other forcing factor is that the surface temperatures alone don't capture what is happening to the system; they can also be significantly influenced by internal variability in addition to the CO2 driven warming. Surface temperature changes only represent about 2% of the total heat being added to the earth and are very much the tail that gets wagged by the dog - the oceans where over 90% of the extra heat is going.
So when we look at old records we don't have any data on what was happening inside the oceans so we shouldn't expect the record to tell us too much. In contrast we now have good data on the oceans as well and know that everything is warming.
You asked how much ocean warming is due to natural mechanisms. We can answer that substantially by asking where the heat that is accumulating in the oceans could have come from. It is the dominant heat accumulation in the climate system. And the answer is that it couldn't have come from anywhere here on Earth.
The largest heat source here on Earth is geothermal heat. And the geologists have been able to estimate how large the heat flow from inside the Earth is - 44.2 trillion watts. (see Pollack et al 1993 here http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/93RG01249/abstract).
In contrast the rate of heat accumulation in the oceans is over 250 trillion watts. 6 times greater. So the only possible conclusion is that the extra heat in the oceans has an extra-terrestrial source. Either more energy is arriving at the Earth from the Sun, or less energy is being radiated to space by the Earth.
And the Sun hasn't been getting warmer. If anything it is on a very, very slight cooling trend.
So this really limits the possibilities for what could account for the amount of heat being added to the oceans. An increase in the GH Effect is really the only explanation that fits the evidence.
I am not even sure quite you mean.
My reading of Jim's comment was that he hoped that adding CO2 to the atmosphere could alter the specific heat capacity of water, and as such really didn't merit consideration.
Cool piece. I thought long and hard about a wheel gun before I got my Beretta instead.

I grew up in Texas and I was more or less used to seeing law enforcement open carry. YEARS later when I bought my first piece I was honestly a little shocked to hear that everyone concealed carry. All the good guys I remember seeing would open carry and, it was in my naive mind, the criminals who concealed their weapons.

I think I would prefer open carry IF a) more people did it b) more people were trained.

I always hear people say that bad guys kill open carriers first. What if there are 4 people open carrying when the criminal walks in? What if most of the people open carry when the criminal walks in?

It used to be a real deterrent no?Our first big energy bill for the summer came this week. The summer is always a killler not just because it’s so hot but also because my wife has stopped working and needs to keep the house cool all day long. We did have the AC tuned up a few months ago so hopefully its running as efficiently as possible.
Although the bills are high, it sure is nice to come in out of the blazing July humidity into a nice cool house. Just like many other personal finance issues, we have to weigh the cost of something vs. how it effects our quality of life. I’m sure we could save $50–$75 a month by turning the thermostat to 80 or even all the way off but it would make for a very sweaty and grouchy family. Here are some other personal finance topics to consider from this week.
– Money, Matter, & More got the car he wanted for the price he wanted.
– I’ve often wondered the effect credit card arbitrage has on your credit history, especially now that I’m going after $125 in bonus money. Five Cent Nickel puts my fears to rest as he discusses credit card bonuses and credit score.
– The Digerati Life discusses how occupation, education, income and net worth determine social class.
– Flexo learns a lesson from the hilarious TV show The Office, “If there’s anything to learn from The Office, it’s not to be a selfish jerk about money“.
– Congrats to Lazy Man on his wedding! Now the party is over and he looks back at the cost of his wedding.
– Free Money Finance asks if you can save $2000 a year buying store brands. I save a good deal of money buying store brand cereal but I don’t know about $2K a year.
– Binary Dollar tells us about Geezo, a social finance website. It’s nice to see Henry back in action!
– Mighty Bargain Hunter has discovered that just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you’re rich.
– Jim has a good list of financial accounts you should and shouldn’t have.
– Sun does double duty telling us about his Zecco surprises and writing a guest post about mutual fund distributions at Gen X Finance while Jeremy is away.
– Raising 4 Boys put together a list of sales tax holidays for back to school shopping. These holidays are one of the ways you can avoid paying sales tax.
– Articles from Money Smart Life were featured on two different sites last week: The Carnival of Personal Finance at BrokeAss Student and in the creative Festival of Frugality at Mr. Credit Card.
Steel sports watches in the luxury men’s timepiece industry are particularly popular now. Big, bold and confident has pushed to the front of the line.
Rolex typically dominates this category with models like the Submariner, Daytona and GMT-Master II. The Nautilus collection from Patek Philippe and Audemar Piguet’s Royal Oak both are iconic steel sports watches designed by the legendary Gérald Genta. Another industry standout is the Omega Speedmaster Professional.
So the new H. Moser & Cie “The Streamliner” flyback chronograph is a bold move into a crowded space. Watch brands work hard to come at watch enthusiasts with something unique that grabs people’s attention. The Streamliner achieves that, with one of the most exciting watch releases in many years.
Priced at $39,900 USD, “The Streamliner” is limited to 100 pieces.
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