Todd Whipple

Civil Engineer, Small Business Owner, Whipple Consulting Engineers, interested in just about everything

[KHQ Local News @KHQLocalNews]

Firefighters' extraordinary efforts saved thousands of structures.

[Todd Whipple @ToddWhipple]

@shannondrayer Shannon, appreciate all you do for the mariners, two things, Cal needs to go back to his old bat and Munoz needs to be optioned and not allowed to close. If Munoz had held his games as a closer, the M’s would be in first.

[Todd Whipple @ToddWhipple]

@MLB Munoz is available free to good home, just keep him off the mound if you want to win … damn!

[Todd Whipple @ToddWhipple]

@engineers_feed My opinion is that string theory is flawed due to missing gravitational constant for the galaxy …

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

A reconstruction of 485 million years of climate history reveals just how unusually rapid Earth’s current warming is.

Scientists have pieced together nearly half a billion years of global temperatures, showing a planet that experienced far more extreme climate conditions than those familiar to humans. Across that span, Earth’s average surface temperature varied from roughly 52°F (11°C) at its coldest to about 97°F (36°C) at its hottest. The planet actually spent more of the past 485 million years in warmer climate states than in colder ones.

The most concerning aspect of modern climate change is therefore not simply the rise in temperature itself. It is the speed at which the change is occurring.

The reconstruction, known as PhanDA, draws on evidence preserved in ancient sediments and fossils, combined with hundreds of climate model simulations. It also demonstrates a remarkably consistent link between atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and global temperature across nearly half a billion years, confirming CO₂ as a primary driver of Earth’s long-term climate.

In the distant past, major climate shifts typically unfolded over thousands to millions of years as volcanoes, shifting continents, evolving ecosystems, and other geological processes altered the atmosphere. Today, humans are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide through the burning of fossil fuels on timescales of mere decades and centuries.

That rapid pace is critical. Forests can migrate, species can adapt, and coastlines can adjust when given sufficient time. Sudden change leaves ecosystems and human societies with far less opportunity to respond.

The record does carry one important limitation. Rocks hundreds of millions of years old cannot capture climate variations year by year in the way modern thermometers do. Scientists therefore cannot use this archive to prove that no brief warming episode in the past 485 million years was ever faster.

What the record does make clear is striking. Earth is capable of becoming dramatically hotter, carbon dioxide has consistently tracked those shifts, and the relatively stable climate in which human civilization developed is by no means guaranteed to persist.

[Judd, E. J., Tierney, J. E., Lunt, D. J., Montañez, I. P., Huber, B. T., Wing, S. L., & Valdes, P. J. (2024). A 485-million-year history of Earth’s surface temperature. Science, 385(6715). DOI: 10.1126/science.adk3705]

[Mike Pompeo @mikepompeo]

81 years ago today, Imperial Japan surrendered and the deadliest war in human history came to an end. We owe everything to soldiers, sailors, and airmen who fought and died to keep our country free & make the world a safer place. #VJDay

[Todd Whipple @ToddWhipple]

@NikkiHaley Send this person to another country where they are not free to do what she thought she was free to do and see how that works out for her. I don't understand why people don't understand how good we have it .. maybe they just need to get out of the Country more and maybe stay out.

[Todd Whipple @ToddWhipple]

Don't wreck your game for 0.1 to 0.2% of the population, just because the issue takes up 30% of the media, it only affects technically a very small percentage of the population. If man at birth you're a man, if a woman at birth you're a woman. After that, and what you do, doesn't change that fact, only externally.

[Todd Whipple @ToddWhipple]

@Graced51l @SciInFocus Crater Lake in Oregon, USA

[Todd Whipple @ToddWhipple]

@SciInFocus

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

Imagine seeing this in ancient times, when people had no idea what was happening

[Todd Whipple @ToddWhipple]

@FoxNews Jail them

[Mark R. Levin @marklevinshow]

So absurd

[Knights Templar International @KnightsTempOrg]

Incredible but oh so true

[Todd Whipple @ToddWhipple]

@DefiyantlyFree @marklevinshow Well said!

[Secretary Kennedy @SecKennedy]

Today, I declared a Public Health Emergency for Washington State, giving hospitals and healthcare providers the flexibility they need to respond to these devastating wildfires and protect lives.

I spoke with @GovBobFerguson and made clear that @HHSGov will work alongside state and local leaders to keep care available, support frontline healthcare professionals, and help Washington communities through this emergency. We stand with the people of Washington, and we will not let them face this crisis alone.

[Todd Whipple @ToddWhipple]

@Rainmaker1973 If this was from the nuclear museum in Las Vegas, go, it’s really interesting, they have a replica of Robbie the robot, Fat Man and Little Boy … it’s a really interesting museum!

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

The blue winged kookaburra is known as the “bushman’s alarm clock”: listen to one 'laughing' 🔊