Remember how during the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020 Australia seemed like it was entirely on fire? Record wildfires spread throughout much of the continent, turning the skies red. In fact, at some point, it even rained fire. Then, back over in the United States, there were massive wildfires in Oregon, California, and Colorado. These also turned the skies red and I even saw video of a fire tornado. Yes, a fire tornado. It looked like something out of a movie. It also put enough smoke into the atmosphere that affected the color of the sunrise and sunset as far away as Michigan for a week. I don’t care who you are, that’s impressive.
Fortunately, there are some ways to bring at least a sliver of good out of all those fires. Researchers took advantage of the situation and studied how the smoke affected the light reaching the earth. Naturally, it was less. What was more surprising though was that the smoke didn’t so much absorb the light and thus keep the heat in the Earth’s ecosystem as much as it scattered the light. That allows the heat to dissipate, with some of it even going off into space. The net result of all those wildfires is therefore actually a net drop in temperature.
One of the really interesting things that the researchers found was that fires in different areas of the world created different kinds of smoke and therefore different scattering effects. For example, the fires in Oregon created darker smoke that scattered more light than the fires in Australia which was mostly burning dry brush.
This data is important in that it helps us refine our climate models. The net cooling effect was something that was unexpected, meaning that our climate models were off and needed to be refined based on the new data.
That discovery points to one of the more important philosophical underpinnings of science in general – the concept that we should question what we think we know, that we should always be searching for better data to improve our understanding. Perhaps that is nowhere more important than in the realm of climate since we are basing policy off of our climate models. Given the importance of government regulation to the environment and to the economy it is imperative that they continue to question what they think they know. In doing so, more research happens and people are able to find unexpected things, both good and bad, leading to models that more accurately reflect reality.
In other news on improving our data sets, a different group of researchers were having a problem tracking smelt populations. As scientists tend to do when they want to track animal movements and populations they tag the animals. The problem was, when they would check up on their tagged tiny fish, they found there were far more of them gone than they had predicted, without a corresponding population decrease. They were puzzled until they looked in the belly of a heron and found some of their tagged smelt. It turns out herons love the little fish and don’t discriminate based on whether or not the critters have a tag. The discovery solved the mystery of the missing tagged fish and helped the scientists better understand the local ecosystem.
What does all of this have to do with TARTLE? What is something that both anecdotes have in common? They both involve researchers solving a problem by getting as close to the source of the information as possible. That’s exactly what we advocate here at TARTLE. We want people to be able to get to the data’s source, you. That way, they can correct whatever assumptions and biases they might be starting out with and in the end make decisions that will actually make things better for everyone.
What’s your data worth? Sign up and join the TARTLE Marketplace with this link here.
Record wildfires spread throughout much of the continent, turning the skies red. In fact, at some point, it even rained fire. Then, back over in the United States, there were massive wildfires in Oregon, California, and Colorado. These also turned the skies red and I even saw video of a fire tornado. Yes, a fire tornado. It looked like something out of a movie. It also put enough smoke into the atmosphere that affected the color of the sunrise and sunset as far away as Michigan for a week. I don’t care who you are, that’s impressive.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to TARTLE Cast with your hosts Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby, where humanity steps into the future and source data defines the path.
Alexander McCaig (00:25):
Welcome back to TARTLE Cast. We need to relax from those previous two episodes on reports. We don't like crap reports. We're data-focused over here. And if you don't have a balance in the dataset by frankly getting your data from all sides, then it's just immediately biased.
Jason Rigby (00:40):
Well, yeah, I know. And it's a part of our big seven in what we're working towards together, collectively of all of humanity coming, I think we're in 170 some countries now. And number six is government and corporate transparency. So whenever these reports come out, whether they're from a corporation or not-for-profit or a government, and they're bogus-
Alexander McCaig (00:59):
Well, you got to call that out.
Jason Rigby (01:00):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (01:01):
This is a collective effort about truth, right? And if you don't really have a balanced dataset, there's not a real truth of what's going on, or you can't fundamentally come to some sort of idea about how you should move forward if you haven't really thought about all the things that interact in that system. Okay, I'm done. I'm done with that.
Jason Rigby (01:18):
Yeah. I know, but I mean, this is a prime example. Here's what the title is on this one. And I think this is good. This is a good example.
Alexander McCaig (01:23):
I like this one.
Jason Rigby (01:24):
New wildfire smoke research improves climate modeling accuracy. So now we're taking in a new form of data. We're bringing it in to create more accurate data.
Alexander McCaig (01:33):
Yeah, which is cool. So what they realize is that the scattering of light from smoking in the atmosphere has a different net cooling effect. So it's worse for the earth, with this scattering, depending on what type of biomass is actually being burned.
Jason Rigby (01:51):
Yes. It's almost like the same thing that we-
Alexander McCaig (01:53):
Darkening of the ocean is.
Jason Rigby (01:54):
The darkening of the ocean. Yeah.
Alexander McCaig (01:55):
Right? And so what they found out, if the ocean gets darker in some areas and it has a more negative effect, well, the density in darkness of smoke is also going to have an effect. So actually, a tree burning releases a different color and density of smoke than actual brush, like brush on the ground.
Jason Rigby (02:12):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (02:12):
Like brush that they have specifically in this article, dealing with Australian brush fires.
Jason Rigby (02:16):
Yeah. And they call it biomass burning aerosols are produced.
Alexander McCaig (02:20):
Biomass.
Jason Rigby (02:21):
Which form these smoke clouds. And then what happens is how much the smoke clouds observe and scatter the solar radiation.
Alexander McCaig (02:28):
Yeah. Right. So instead of letting it come into the earth, the keyword needs to be, it's just like poof, sending it back off. Bye.
Jason Rigby (02:34):
But look how many wildfires. And I don't know the data in this, but it seems like we're having a lot more. I mean, the Australian one, was it last year, 2019?
Alexander McCaig (02:42):
A huge number of the kangaroos and [crosstalk 00:02:43] and sloths.
Jason Rigby (02:44):
Oh, millions. They said millions of animals were killed in that.
Alexander McCaig (02:46):
Yeah, that was bad.
Jason Rigby (02:47):
It was real tragic. And then in California you see wildfires, just like crazy.
Alexander McCaig (02:51):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (02:51):
I mean, these multimillion dollar homes in Malibu getting burned next to the ocean.
Alexander McCaig (02:54):
Well, the data just shows us that these things are increasing at accelerated rate. You can't ignore it.
Jason Rigby (02:58):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (02:58):
It's just what's happening. And it's affecting not only the plant life, but also the animal life. And then after those things have been affected, it affects your life indirectly because it's scattering these rays. That indirect scattering is indirectly affecting you.
Jason Rigby (03:15):
Yeah. And he said, "Smoke from forest fires in wetter climates, such as Oregon," you know, the Pacific Northwest is wetter, "tends to be brighter and have more of a cooling effect on the climate than smoke coming in from dry brush fires," like in Australia.
Alexander McCaig (03:27):
Yeah. That's that weird net-cooling effect. And those things are going to have a different effect on that climate in general.
Jason Rigby (03:32):
Yeah. And he said, "We collected field data from across the globe," which I love this. They're collecting field data from across the globe. Field data is first source data.
Alexander McCaig (03:40):
That's what I'm talking about.
Jason Rigby (03:41):
It's like sensors on the ground right there.
Alexander McCaig (03:43):
Yeah. It's like, go talk to the tree-
Jason Rigby (03:45):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (03:45):
... which is what they're doing, but if you talk about a World Bank report that we've been reading, they never once talked to the tree.
Jason Rigby (03:51):
So up in the Pacific Northwest, I'm from Washington State and we used to go smelt fishing. And you would take a big net and a little salmon, the smelt and you could scoop them up and then you would get all these little fish, just tons of them. And then you could make like anchovies and stuff like that, put mustard in them and eat them and all that.
Alexander McCaig (04:08):
Interesting.
Jason Rigby (04:09):
So they were trying to find out, they put these little, little tiny tags on these little smelt at the salmon hatchery. And then they couldn't find the tags anywhere. They weren't going out into the ocean or whatever. And like 50% of them were disappearing and gone. So this one guy... This is a really cool article. We may have to talk about this, because I was reading because you know, I'm all about the ocean.
Alexander McCaig (04:30):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (04:31):
I'm a crab water sign. So, who knows?
Alexander McCaig (04:33):
You want to get into this? Lobster.
Jason Rigby (04:35):
Yeah. Scorpion moon. I'm fading fast. I had the COVID-19 second shot and I am not feeling well, guys.
Alexander McCaig (04:44):
All right. Let's let's keep going here. Tell me about the smelt.
Jason Rigby (04:48):
No. No. No. So this guy, he slept in his truck at night and for a whole summer was basically collecting data. And he would go and try to find... He would go near the shores, the bank everywhere else because he's like, "Obviously something's probably eating these smelt and then I should be able to find basically in their waste, their dung... I love that word.
Alexander McCaig (05:10):
Yeah. Dung.
Jason Rigby (05:12):
Wasn't there a country Brooks and Dung?
Alexander McCaig (05:14):
No, Brooks & Dunn.
Jason Rigby (05:16):
Oh.
Alexander McCaig (05:16):
Brooks & Dunn.
Jason Rigby (05:18):
I knew it was something like that.
Alexander McCaig (05:20):
Red Dirt Road.
Jason Rigby (05:21):
Yeah, exactly.
Alexander McCaig (05:21):
Yeah, Read Dirt Dung.
Jason Rigby (05:24):
So they were like checking where the otters are. They have little slides where the otters see, they couldn't find them. He couldn't find these tags anywhere. Finally they found a shitload of them.
Alexander McCaig (05:34):
No pun intended.
Jason Rigby (05:35):
Yeah. Oh, that's so great. In heroin.
Alexander McCaig (05:40):
I'm sorry. This is the most insane turn. I was not expecting that.
Jason Rigby (05:48):
No, not heroin. H-E-R-O-N.
Alexander McCaig (05:51):
Not herring?
Jason Rigby (05:52):
Not herring.
Alexander McCaig (05:52):
Heroin?
Jason Rigby (05:53):
No, not heroin.
Alexander McCaig (05:53):
Wait a minute.
Jason Rigby (05:54):
They found them in drug dealers.
Alexander McCaig (05:57):
You're joking, right?
Jason Rigby (05:58):
No. No. I said it wrong.
Alexander McCaig (06:02):
Wait, wait-
Jason Rigby (06:02):
I meant to say-
Alexander McCaig (06:02):
I don't even know where this is heading.
Jason Rigby (06:03):
I meant to say the bird, but I said heroin.
Alexander McCaig (06:08):
Herring or heroin?
Jason Rigby (06:10):
H-E-R-O-N, a bird that eats these.
Alexander McCaig (06:14):
Oh, heron.
Jason Rigby (06:15):
Yeah, heron. Yeah. Not heroin. But I'm gone, bro.
Alexander McCaig (06:19):
They found the smelt and heroin. And I'm like [crosstalk 00:06:23]
Jason Rigby (06:22):
He stumbled across... And then in there was all the tags.
Alexander McCaig (06:25):
Piles of heroin and smelt.
Jason Rigby (06:27):
But they found up to 6%-
Alexander McCaig (06:29):
Oh gosh.
Jason Rigby (06:30):
... of these tags were in... Because there was like 250 heron adult birds and they found most of the tags there. I mean, he was just finding them everywhere. And he was finding tags as far back as like 2016, 2017.
Alexander McCaig (06:43):
So they've been active users.
Jason Rigby (06:45):
Yeah, they've been active users. But I mean, this is when you dig deep and you get good field data and then the outcome is radically different than what you've assumed-
Alexander McCaig (06:56):
What you thought.
Jason Rigby (06:56):
... or did a hunch.
Alexander McCaig (06:57):
Correct. Your data hunches.
Jason Rigby (06:58):
Yeah. And then that's what TARTLE's all about.
Alexander McCaig (07:00):
[crosstalk 00:07:00] the data hunch.
Jason Rigby (07:00):
We want to go to the heroin. This is a funny one today.
Alexander McCaig (07:06):
I still don't know what you are pronouncing, whether it's heroin or heron.
Jason Rigby (07:10):
Heron. Yeah. The bird, the big tall bird with the big long beak. Yeah. So when we look at field data, I think it's important when we get this first-party data and that we collect it and they collect it across the globe. If they'd had just collected data on wet forests, it would have totally changed the whole outcome.
Alexander McCaig (07:29):
Again, biased. Right?
Jason Rigby (07:31):
Yes. Yes.
Alexander McCaig (07:31):
It's an unbalanced view. So now with TARTLE, you have the power of collection everywhere. That's the beauty of it. These scientists have the ability to share these data sets everywhere across the globe through one major marketplace that everybody can interact with. That's what we're looking for. We're looking for the heron, not the heroin, the heron.
Jason Rigby (07:50):
Yeah, the heron. And seeing what the outcome based off of what the people's... Because their perception is their reality. And you can't collect that in bias and you can't collect that off of assumptions and you can't collect that in this passive aggressive way that they try to collect data.
Alexander McCaig (08:06):
No.
Jason Rigby (08:07):
It's like yesterday's... We always talk about this. And it's so true. I am getting inundated by Pamper commercials on my YouTube.
Alexander McCaig (08:15):
Why? Why?
Jason Rigby (08:15):
It's like, every time I come on YouTube, it's Pamper. Now I got upset at myself yesterday because I wasn't feeling well. And I was just laying there and I didn't even think about it. And I let the whole Pamper commercial play. So I'm like-
Alexander McCaig (08:26):
And you know what Pampers is like?
Jason Rigby (08:29):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (08:29):
Yeah, we got a conversion on the way. That's all they're thinking.
Jason Rigby (08:32):
We've been hammering them enough.
Alexander McCaig (08:34):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (08:34):
Finally, we've got a conversion.
Alexander McCaig (08:36):
This guy's going to be in our diapers in no time.
Jason Rigby (08:36):
Well, they didn't know that I'm super sick with flu-like symptoms from COVID-19 and I've been skipping every single one because I hate... There is no. That is so far removed from me, that commercial. I'm a 47-year-old single male.
Alexander McCaig (08:52):
Yeah. Why do you get the Pampers [crosstalk 00:08:54].
Jason Rigby (08:53):
With a vasectomy.
Alexander McCaig (08:54):
Yeah, like why is the Pampers commercial... And this is the problem. They don't have first-party data from you. They don't have your surgical history. They don't have these things. But with TARTLE, you have the ability to share that. So you frankly would never receive another Pampers commercial.
Jason Rigby (09:08):
But what would be the cost savings from Pampers-
Alexander McCaig (09:10):
Enormous.
Jason Rigby (09:11):
... to be able to use... Not to back their campaigns with TARTLE?
Alexander McCaig (09:13):
Well, think about it. Think how much they're spending right now on a campaign, a hunch campaign.
Jason Rigby (09:17):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (09:17):
And imagine if you really have something that's truly targeted and accurate, that's the difference.
Jason Rigby (09:22):
Yes. Yeah.
Alexander McCaig (09:22):
Now you've figured out where all those ID tags are. Right?
Jason Rigby (09:25):
Yeah, exactly. That's what I was saying.
Alexander McCaig (09:27):
Find your heron.
Jason Rigby (09:28):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (09:28):
Okay? Look at the brush fires. Speak to the weeds. All right? Don't just look at one tree in one isolated area and then sum that up for your climate model. Look at everything.
Jason Rigby (09:38):
Yeah. And I want to ask you this because I think this is really important. And speaking of wildfires, why is TARTLE growing so fast? Why is it just like that all-consuming wildfire?
Alexander McCaig (09:47):
Yes. We are an all-consuming wildfire.
Jason Rigby (09:51):
Yeah.
Alexander McCaig (09:52):
This is a really interesting question. I would have to assume here and I'm not making any sort of thing on a hunch here. I'm not making the decision, but I've ruminated on this. I really think it's the fact that we've taken the approach of education. We're really teaching people and meeting them where they are and in doing so we've seen such a fast spread, people adopting the system all over the globe. 170-plus countries, come on, are you kidding me? We're a young company. And I think that's just like amazing that taking an educative approach first, meeting people where they are-
Jason Rigby (10:32):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (10:32):
... respecting the choice and the free will, giving them a tool to economically empower themselves, that's contagious.
Jason Rigby (10:39):
Yes, it is. Yeah.
Alexander McCaig (10:40):
That's spreading like a wildfire.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Thank you for listening to TARTLE Cast with your hosts, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby, where humanity steps into the future and source data defines the path. What's your data worth?
