Climate Articles
Climate of Change: Be part of the solution.
Climate of Change Academy Award® winner Tilda Swinton narrates this documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Brian Hill (Songbirds) focusing on the efforts of everyday people all over the world who are making a difference in the fight against global warming. From Indian middle school students organizing demonstrations and major recycling efforts to a London PR executive helping companies to become more environmentally responsible to citizen lobbyists in Appalachia protesting the strip-mining that is destroying their communities and livelihood to Papua New Guineans who refuse to allow commercial logging on their rainforest land to one man in Togo intent on teaching his nation's young people to respect and replenish the gifts of the Earth, these are stories of ordinary humans doing extraordinary things by finding solutions to help save the planet.
Read More...
Will a ballot initiative overturn California's climate law?
The battle to delay enforcement of California's sweeping global warming law, the toughest in the nation, is heating up. Oil companies -- along with an obscure Missouri conservative action group -- injected a new infusion of cash into signature gathering for a November ballot initiative -- reporting the contributions late Friday night to the California secretary of State. That brought the total behind the initiative to $1.9 million so far. Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum came on board with $300,000 to battle AB 32.
Meanwhile, San Francisco's Green Tech Action Fund, an offshoot of the nonprofit Energy Foundation, cut a check for $500,000. Along with contributions from the Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Fund, that brought the total spent so far to fight the initiative to $637,500. Google, Applied Materials, and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, representing the tech industry, have signed pledge cards to join the campaign against the initiative. The National Venture Capital Assn., representing 400 firms, announced its opposition last week, saying any delay in enforcement of AB 32, the climate law, would mean that "promising companies will either move elsewhere or fail for lack of market traction."
Read More...
Over 100,000 rally for climate and clean energy action
Washington Post downplays this amazing show of support
In its main environmental story today – "On climate bill, Democrats work to overcome Graham's immigration objections" - the WashPost said:
In some ways, the problem that proponents of climate legislation face is that they're pursuing a policy goal that is not much of a hot-button political issue. Environmental activists had a well-attended event Sunday on the Mall, with musical stars Sting and John Legend, but immigration reform advocates are likely to dwarf that turnout with dozens of rallies across the country Saturday.
Yes, the biggest single climate rally in U.S. history is dismissed by comparison with the hypothetical cumulative turnout of dozens of future rallies on immigration. Who says the media isn't fair? Apparently preserving the health and well-being of countless future generations isn't "hot-button" enough for the media to be interested [kind of an ironic phrase, considering the rally was for action of global warming].
Read More...
Pre-Earth Day
WASHINGTON – Pollution before the first Earth Day was not only visible, it was in your face: Cleveland's Cuyahoga River caught fire. An oil spill fouled 30 miles of Southern California beaches. And thick smog choked many cities' skies.
Not anymore.
On Thursday, 40 years after that first Earth Day in 1970, smog levels nationwide have dropped by about a quarter, and lead levels in the air are down more than 90 percent. Formerly fetid lakes and burning rivers are now open to swimmers.
The challenges to the planet today are largely invisible - and therefore tougher to tackle.
"To suggest that we've made progress is not to say the problem is over," said William Ruckelshaus, who in 1970 became the first head of the Environmental Protection Agency. "What we've done is shift from the very visible kinds of issues to those that are a lot more subtle today."
Issues such as climate change are less obvious to the naked eye. Since the first Earth Day, carbon dioxide levels in the air have increased by 19 percent, pushing the average annual world temperature up about 1 degree Fahrenheit, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Read More...
Global warming means local (super) storming
The Earth Day rally was incredible. Well over 100,000 people were in the crowd, well over 10x what the Tea Partiers delivered on tax day, so you can figure out which event the media fawned over.
I ended up spending a lot of time chatting with James Cameron, and I'll do a separate post on what he's like in person. I also chatted with a few people in the know about inside-the-beltway climate politics who were relatively optimistic that the climate bill can be put back on track. We'll know more in a day or two. New WashPost story here.
I'm hoping that the Earth Day folks put together individual video clips that I can post later. I had been scheduled for three minutes and ended up with only getting a little over one minute, so I had to gut my carefully crafted talk.
But there was one science-meets-rhetoric riff that I mostly kept, which I thought was a useful rhetorical device: Global warming means local storming. Here's what I had written:
Global warming means local storming. Global warming makes storms like Katrina more fierce. Record wild-fire-storms in the West, Record dust-storms in Australia, record snowstorms and rainstorms here on the East Coast. Global warming set the table for those local superstorms.
Read More...
Volcano emitting tonnes of CO2 daily
Iceland's Eyjafjoell volcano is emitting between 150,000 and 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per day, a figure placing it in the same emissions league as a small-to-medium European economy, experts said on Monday.
Assuming the composition of gas to be the same as in an earlier eruption on an adjacent volcano, "the CO2 flux of Eyjafjoell would be 150,000 tonnes per day," Colin Macpherson, an Earth scientist at Britain's University of Durham, said in an email.
Patrick Allard of the Paris Institute for Global Physics (IPGP) gave what he described as a "top range" estimate of 300,000 tonnes per day.
Both insisted that these were only approximate estimates.
Extrapolated over a year, the emissions would place the volcano 47th to 75th in the world table of emitters on a country-by-country basis, according to a database at the World Resources Institute (WRI), which tracks environment and sustainable development.
Read More...
Geologists Drill into Antarctica and Find Troubling Signs for Ice Sheets' Future
New sediment cores from an Antarctic research drilling program suggest that the southernmost continent has had a more dynamic history than previously suspected
ERICE, Italy - If you think of Earth's poles as fraternal twins, the Arctic has been the wild one in recent years, while the Antarctic has been a steady plodder. Withered by summer heat, Arctic sea ice has shrunk to record low coverage several times since 2005, only to rebound to within 95 percent of its long-term average extent this winter. By comparison, Antarctica, with some 90 percent of the world's glacial reserves, has generally shed ice in more stately fashion.
However, emerging evidence from an Antarctic geological research drilling program known as ANDRILL suggests that the southernmost continent has had a much more dynamic history than previously suspected-one that could signal an abrupt shrinkage of its ice sheets at some unknown greenhouse gas threshold, possibly starting in this century. Especially troubling, scientists see evidence in the geological data that could mean the vast East Antarctic Ice Sheet, which holds at least four-fifths of the continent's ice, is less resistant to melting than previously thought.
Read More...
Royal Society Stunner: "Observations suggest that the ongoing rise in global average temperatures may already be eliciting a hazardous response from the geosphere."
Top scientists call for research on climate link to volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides and tsunamis
Periods of exceptional climate change in Earth history are associated with a dynamic response from the solid Earth, involving enhanced levels of potentially hazardous geological and geomorphological activity. This response is expressed through the adjustment, modulation or triggering of a wide range of surface and crustal phenomena, including volcanic and seismic activity, submarine and sub-aerial landslides, tsunamis and landslide 'splash' waves glacial outburst and rock-dam failure floods, debris flows and gas-hydrate destabilisation. Looking ahead, modelling studies and projection of current trends point towards increased risk in relation to a spectrum of geological and geomorphological hazards in a world warmed by anthropogenic climate change, while observations suggest that the ongoing rise in global average temperatures may already be eliciting a hazardous response from the geosphere.
Read More...
Global warming reduces grain output
BANGALORE: Rising temperatures and inadequate rainfall are causing grain output to stagnate in India, threatening food security in the world's second-most populous nation, according to a weather scientist.
In the past decade, average temperatures have increased by 0.25 degree Celsius when the monsoon crops are sown in June, and by 0.6 degree Celsius when winter crops are planted in October, said Krishna Kumar, a senior scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, a state-owned researcher.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is counting on a bigger harvest to tame inflation from a 17-month high and to meet an election promise of ensuring food security for the poor by providing rice and wheat at below market prices. India's economy slowed in the quarter ended December after a drought last year ravaged crops and pushed global sugar prices to a 29-year high.
Read More...
Denis Hayes on Earth Day: We Need Big Steps, Strong Stances and Hardball Politics
This month marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, an event that has attracted millions to environmental causes. But in the United States, winning passage of meaningful legislation on climate change requires more than slogans and green talk - it demands intense, determined political action.
Size doesn't matter.
Or at least, size is not the only thing that matters. In 21st century American democracy, massive public support is certainly desirable, especially over the long run. But what really counts with Congress is intensity.
A huge majority of Americans favor gun control, for example. According to the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, four out of five believe a police permit should be required for the purchase of a firearm.
But a small, intense set of Second Amendment absolutists will vote against any politician who favors such an approach. In most elections, a dedicated group of 10 percent, or even 5 percent, of voters can tilt the outcome. So politicians cater to the position whose supporters are most intense - who make sure a politician aligns with them on a single issue before they even examine the rest of his record.
What does this have to do with Earth Day?
Read More...
Aerosols: From Ash in the Wind to Smoke from the Stack
When we hear the word "aerosol," most of us think of spray cans and perhaps the ozone hole. But spray cans are just a very small part of the story. Any airborne solid particle or liquid droplet -- whether it comes from a pressurized canister, the smokestack of a factory, or a dust storm -- is technically an aerosol.
Because of their diminutive size -- most individual aerosol particles are invisible to the human eye -- it is easy to overlook them. Yet collectively, they have a dramatic impact, affecting our health, our weather, our climate -- even the color of sunsets and the brightness of clouds. And, as we saw this week, they can even snarl air traffic and shut down airports.
Aerosols, or the gases that lead to their formation, come from vehicle tailpipes and desert sands, from sea spray and fires, volcanic eruptions and factories. Even lush forests, soils, or communities of plankton in the ocean can be sources of aerosols. These ubiquitous particles fall on our skin, layer the surfaces of our food, and linger in our air. No matter how much we scrub, vacuum, or clean, we'll never be able to seal ourselves off from them.
Read More...
NASA Scientist Publishes Book on Climate Change
In the midst of seemingly unending questions about climate change, a new book by Claire L. Parkinson, a world-renowned climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., can provide some answers.
The book, entitled "Coming Climate Crisis? Consider the Past, Beware the Big Fix," will be published this week by Rowman & Littlefield.
Parkinson explains why global warming is such a big deal, summarizes 4.6 billion years of climate change on Earth, including periods when Earth was much warmer than now (and others when it was much cooler), and addresses and explains various 'geo-engineering' schemes being proposed to intentionally modify future climate.
The book includes a brief history of human impacts and predictions of what might occur in the near future. The bleak nature of some of the predictions, along with the knowledge from climate history that the Earth system is capable of abrupt climate change, make it understandable why geoengineering is being considered. However, Parkinson also explains many limitations of our computer models and potential dangers of unintended consequences, concluding that massive geoengineering "could backfire to become a greater disaster than the one we are trying to correct." She describes some of the alternatives to geoengineering that could more safely reduce the unwanted changes.
Read More...
Food Vs. Fuel: Growing Grain for Food Is More Energy Efficient
ScienceDaily (Apr. 20, 2010) - Using productive farmland to grow crops for food instead of fuel is more energy efficient, Michigan State University scientists concluded, after analyzing 17 years' worth of data to help settle the food versus fuel debate.
"It's 36 percent more efficient to grow grain for food than for fuel," said Ilya Gelfand, an MSU postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study. "The ideal is to grow corn for food, then leave half the leftover stalks and leaves on the field for soil conservation and produce cellulosic ethanol with the other half."
Other studies have looked at energy efficiencies for crops over shorter time periods, but this MSU study is the first to consider energy balances of an entire cropping system over many years. The results are published in the April 19 online issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Read More...
Spring comes 10 days earlier in changed US climate
* Spring creep means green comes sooner to U.S.
* Earlier season creates ecological mismatches
* Roses and lilies are losers in Thoreau's territory
WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - Spring comes about 10 days earlier in the United States than it did two decades ago, a consequence of climate change that favors invasive species over indigenous ones, scientists said on Tuesday.
The phenomenon known as "spring creep" has put various species of U.S. wildlife out of balance with their traditional habitats, from the rabbit-like American pika in the West to the roses and lilies in New England, the environmental experts said in a telephone news briefing.
"The losers tend to be our native plant species," said Charles Davis of Harvard University, who studied plant changes in Concord, Massachusetts, where American conservationist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau lived a century and a half ago.
Read More...
Green groups point to ash cloud silver lining
LONDON/OSLO (Reuters) - Iceland's erupting volcano has spewed plenty of ash but far less greenhouse gas than Europe's grounded aircraft would have generated.
Carbon dioxide emissions totaled 150,000 tonnes a day in the early days of the eruption, according to Durham University. That compares with 510,000 tonnes per day emitted when planes are flying as normal over the continent.
But experts cautioned it was hard to draw conclusions about the overall impact of pollution because more cars and buses were on the roads to help stranded travelers and the volcano is emitting a nasty cocktail of toxins.
Europe's skies were open for business on Wednesday after an ash cloud wrecked timetables for six days, stranding passengers and costing the airline industry $250 million a day. Ash can scour and even paralyze jet engines.
Planes add to global warming through emissions of carbon, other chemicals and their vapor trails, scientists say.
They also produce pollutants and noise around airports.
The first analysis of air quality around London's two busiest airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, showed that pollutants which can causes respiratory problems had plummeted, said the London Air Quality Network.
Read More...
"Missing" Heat May Affect Future Climate Change
Current observational tools cannot account for roughly half of the heat that is believed to have built up on Earth in recent years, according to a "Perspectives" article in this week's issue of Science. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) warn in the new study that satellite sensors, ocean floats, and other instruments are inadequate to track this "missing" heat, which may be building up in the deep oceans or elsewhere in the climate system.
"The heat will come back to haunt us sooner or later," says NCAR scientist Kevin Trenberth, the lead author. "The reprieve we've had from warming temperatures in the last few years will not continue. It is critical to track the build-up of energy in our climate system so we can understand what is happening and predict our future climate."
The authors suggest that last year's rapid onset of El Nińo, the periodic event in which upper ocean waters across much of the tropical Pacific Ocean become significantly warmer, may be one way in which the solar energy has reappeared.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, NCAR's sponsor, and by NASA. A Science Perspectives piece is not formally peer-reviewed, but it is extensively reviewed by editors of the journal. Science had invited Trenberth to submit the article after an editor heard him discuss the research at a scientific conference.
Trenberth and his co-author, NCAR scientist John Fasullo, focused on a central mystery of climate change. Whereas satellite instruments indicate that greenhouse gases are continuing to trap more solar energy, or heat, scientists since 2003 have been unable to determine where much of that heat is going.
Read More...
Professors warn of climate change perils
Global warming, however slight the temperature difference, is swaying the area's ecosystem out of its natural order.
Local college Professors Mel Zimmerman of Lycoming College and Rob Colley of Pennsylvania College of Technology said climate change is affecting plants, animals and their environment here.
Conducted three years ago by the Union of Concerned Scientists and collaborators, the Confronting Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast study led to an October 2008 report that localized global warming issues for Pennsylvania, Zimmerman said.
Citing the report for a variety of topics from farming to forestation, Zimmerman said the state's average temperature has risen by about one-half degree the past 50 years.
Noticeable environmental shifts already have occurred and could get more dramatic.
The degree of warming the scientists expect over the next few decades is another 2 1/2 degrees statewide.
"It affects a lot of different things," Zimmerman said of local global warming.
Residents can expect 90-plus degrees more frequently, according to Zimmerman.
Read More...
Did Someone Say 'Pacific Decadal Oscillation'?
Earlier this month, The New York Times ran a front-page story looking into why climatologists and TV meteorologists are at odds over global warming. (In terms of full disclosure, one of the authors of this blog – Dr. Heidi Cullen – was quoted in the Times story). The article pointed out that while climate scientists almost universally agree that human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, are warming up the planet, a significant percentage of TV meteorologists do not. In fact, a recent study from George Mason University and the University of Texas at Austin showed that out of 571 TV meteorologists surveyed, only about half believed that global warming was happening and fewer than a third accepted the proposition that climate change was "caused mostly by human activities." The survey also suggested that TV meteorologists view climate change as mostly a natural phenomenon.
Read More...
'Safe' offshore oil rig explodes, 12 missing, seven critically hurt
The dangers of the fossil fuel industry have sadly come into focus again, after an "explosion and fire on an offshore drilling platform" off the coast of Louisiana left "least 12 people missing and seven critically injured." Wonk Room's Brad Johnson has the story in this repost.
The explosion on the rig Deepwater Horizon occurred at about 10 PM Tuesday, about 52 miles southeast of Venice on Louisiana's tip. The rig is still "burning pretty good and there's no estimate on when the fire will be put out," a Coast Guard official said. The rig is leased by BP Exploration & Production from Transocean, a Houston-based company.
Offshore drilling advocates from Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to state Sen. Frank Wagner (R-VA) have repeatedly promoted the false notion that the practice is safe - for its workers and for the environment. The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, was a particular booster:
Read More...
Oil leak from sunken rig off La. could foul coast
NEW ORLEANS – Crews raced to protect the Gulf of Mexico coastline Monday as a remote sub tried to shut off an underwater oil well that's gushing 42,000 gallons a day from the site of a wrecked drilling platform.
If crews cannot stop the leak quickly, they might need to drill another well to redirect the oil, a laborious process that could take about two months while oil washes up along a broad stretch of shore, from the white-sand beaches of Florida's Panhandle to the swamps of Louisiana.
The oil, which could reach shore in as little as three days, is escaping from two leaks in a drilling pipe about 5,000 feet below the surface. The spill has grown to more than 1,800 square miles, or an area larger than Rhode Island.
Winds and currents can change rapidly and drastically, so officials were hesitant to give any longer forecasts for where the spill will head. Hundreds of miles of coastline in four states are threatened, with waters that are home to dolphins and sea birds. The areas also hold prime fishing grounds and are popular with tourists.
Read More...
Katrina Storm Surge Led to Over 200 Onshore Releases of Petroleum and Hazardous Materials, Rivaling Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
ScienceDaily (Apr. 22, 2010) - Scientists call for more risk-based facility design and improved prevention, response planning Hurricane Katrina was the cause of more than 200 onshore releases of petroleum and other hazardous materials, a new study funded by the National Science Foundation has found.
According to comprehensive research using government incident databases, about 8 million gallons of petroleum releases were reported as a result of Katrina hitting the U.S. Gulf coast in 2005, nearly 75 percent of the total volume of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. The releases were largely due to storage tank failure and the shut down and restart of production processes. Storm surge floods were the primary cause, but some incidents occurred as a result of hurricane and tropical storm strength winds where no surge was present, according to the authors.
Read More...
Despite Attacks from Critics, Climate Science Will Prevail
The chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acknowledges it has been a rough few months for his organization. But, he argues, no amount of obfuscation and attacks by conspiracy theorists will alter the basic facts - global warming is real and intensifying.
Science thrives on debate. Only by challenging scientific findings do we expose weak arguments and substantiate strong ones. But the process relies on the debate being devoid of political taint and grounded in sound scientific knowledge. Sadly, that has not been the case in the recent barrage of criticism leveled against climate science.
The readers of Yale Environment 360 are by now familiar with recent questioning by some of the validity of the widely accepted science of climate change. The release of emails stolen from the University of East Anglia was used just prior to the Copenhagen Climate Summit to project an unflattering portrayal of climate scientists in general and to voice allegations that climate science was deeply flawed. (It is significant that the U.K. House of Commons Science and Technology Committee last month issued a report essentially exonerating the researchers involved of any ill intent or wrongdoing, as did an independent panel established by the university.) This episode was followed by accusations that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which I chair, had exaggerated the severity of climate change.
Read More...
ANOTHER CONSPIRACY THEORY BITES THE DUST
Late last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit against Goldman Sachs, alleging fraud. Congressional Republicans and their allies aren't exactly defending the Wall Street powerhouse, but they're complaining about the timing.
Starting Monday, the conservative line took shape -- the Obama administration went after Goldman to make Wall Street look bad, which in turn might help generate support for the financial regulatory reform bill pending in the Senate. The right has trumpeted the argument all week.
On its face, the conspiracy theory is pretty silly. Putting aside the fact that there's literally zero evidence that political considerations influenced the SEC move, it's also worth keeping in mind that the fraud investigation began before President Obama even took office. What's more, the SEC warned Goldman nine months ago that charges were likely, and SEC officials could not have known last July the probe might have a political impact now.
But the Republican Attack Machine keeps repeating the claim, which means major media outlets keep spreading the nonsense. It led SEC chair Mary Shapiro and President Obama to both categorically dismiss the conspiracy theory as baseless.
Read More...
NOAA stunner: Climate change "largely irreversible for 1000 years," with permanent Dust Bowls in Southwest and around the globe
Important new research led by NOAA scientists, "Irreversible climate change because of carbon dioxide emissions," finds:
…the climate change that is taking place because of increases in carbon dioxide concentration is largely irreversible for 1,000 years after emissions stop…. Among illustrative irreversible impacts that should be expected if atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increase from current levels near 385 parts per million by volume (ppmv) to a peak of 450-600 ppmv over the coming century are irreversible dry-season rainfall reductions in several regions comparable to those of the "dust bowl" era and inexorable sea level rise.
I guess this is what President Obama meant when he warned today of "irreversible catastrophe" from climate change. The NOAA press release is here. An excellent video interview of the lead author is here.
Read More...
Tim Ball in Concert: Battered by the Facts
Canadian denier-in-chief, the retired geographer Dr. Tim Ball, got seriously (though not physically) roughed up last week in a presentation to the University of Victoria Young Conservatives Club.
Apparently expecting a room full of docile Stephen Harper fans, Ball found himself instead in front of a group of burgeoning climate scientists - young people who were quick to challenge him when he said things that were pointedly untrue.
For example, after describing the effect of Milankovitch cycles on climate, Ball told the students (at 56:24) that these predictable changes in Earth's orbit and tilt are not included in modern climate models.
"None of this is included in the computer models that are used to tell you that the climate is changing. It's not even included. The models they're doing here on campus. They're not in there. Sorry."
But at 1:01:25, a student responds: "We do include it, though. I am with the UVic climate lab and we do include it in our models. It's a standard parameter."
Read More...
Climate Scientist Sues National Post
Suit Could Hold Paper Responsible for Comments and Internet Repetitions
Dr. Andrew Weaver, one of the most respected climate scientists in Canada and one of the best climate modellers in the world, has launched a libel suit against the National Post newspaper and its publisher, editors and three writer: Terence Corcoran, Peter Foster and Kevin Libin.
In the words of a news release broadcast today, the suit is for "a series of unjustified libels based on grossly irresponsible falsehoods that have gone viral on the Internet."
The 48-page Statement of Claim (download the PDF version here) sets out a National Post pattern of reporting critical and erroneous material about Weaver and, in recent times, refusing to retract or correct when inaccuracies are brought to the paper's attention. An obvious example was an allegation that Weaver had (or was about to) quit his Nobel-winning role in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - an allegation Weaver dismissed out of hand.
Read More...
CO2 As A Greenhouse Gas
A greenhouse keeps an air volume warm mainly by enclosing it as fixed volume of air. From that perspective, the term 'greenhouse gas' is a somewhat unfortunate choice of term. But we seem to be stuck with it.
Obsolete books and web site pages continue to describe the atmosphere in terms of 'well-mixed gases'. That is counterfactual. Gases entering the atmosphere from whatever source can take a very long time indeed to become well distributed even even within a single hemisphere. Or even within a single atmospheric layer.
Figures cited for CO2 such as 389 ppm are global average distributions. This average figure is an artificial construct. Any attempt to disprove the global warming effects of anthropogenic CO2 based on the tacit assumption that the ppm figure applies to a well-mixed gas is a fallacy of the average.
Read More...
Arctic Tipping Points - #1: Background And Recent History
It is Spring, and with each passing day a greater area of Arctic sea ice has 24 hours of - albeit weak - sunshine every day. It is not surprising to see ice melting in these Lands Of The Midnight Sun. What is surprising to many is the current extent of ice, and rate of loss, compared with past records.
"Every school boy learns that at the two ends of the earth the year is composed of one day and one night of equal length, and the intervening periods of twilight; but the mere recital of that fact makes no real impression on his consciousness. "
Robert E. Peary - The North Pole - 1910
Studies of paleoclimate, together with our knowledge of the Earth's Dynamic Equilibrium and the dynamics of systems generally, suggest that the earth's overall climate is subject to extreme changes on geologically short time scales. The earth's climate system has always shown moderate fluctuations of average annual temperatures for long periods. From time to time, the range of annual temperatures shows a sudden and dramatic shift. It appears that if average global temperature shifts beyond some specific range, then the system reacts by accelerating the shift. The differences between climates either side of such a 'tipping point' can be extreme.
Read More...
Arctic Tipping Points - #2: Some Feedback Mechanisms
Tipping points
A stable dynamic system may react in opposition to a disturbing force, tending to bring the system back into the original stable regime. Alternatively, the system may amplfy or augment the disturbing force, thus bringing the system more rapidly into a new, different stable regime. For any given system, the point at which the system begins to move into a new stable configuration is commonly known as the tipping point. It frequently arises that as a tipping point is passed, the force needed to reverse the trend is greatly amplified.
As an instance of a dynamic tipping point, consider a truck going down a steep grade, or a lorry going down a steep hill if you speak the other brand of English. There is no need to continually apply the brakes if a low gear is selected. If low gear is not selected and the vehicle ends up going too fast then applying the brakes will just burn them out. At this point the vehicle is virtually unstoppable while it remains on the slope. If the driver is skilfull enough, the vehicle will come to rest on the flat. Otherwise ...
Read More...
Arctic Tipping Points - #3: More About Feedback
Simple feedback mechanisms in melting ice.
A thought experiment. A sheet of ice completely covers a bay, lake or pond. To avoid edge effects, let us consider a small area within the main ice cover, which has formed in Winter. At first, the ice absorbs only about 30% of the solar heat. Open water will absorb 94%. The sun begins to melt small pockets of water, which percolate through the ice. Once the ice comprises 90% ice cover and 10% open water, the area in question absorbs 36.4% of available heat. At an ice to open water ratio of 50:50 the area is absorbing 63% of available heat energy. At a ratio of 85% to 15% - a figure often cited for sea ice extent - the area will absorb 83.4% of the incoming solar radiation.
The reflected insolation must not be neglected. Having travelled through the air and warmed it, insolation now makes a return journey albeit with a lowered ability to heat the air. But it all adds up.
Cloud formation from the melting ice will reduce direct solar heat absorption but will also tend to reduce thermal losses from the water. Above the Arctic circle, 24 hour days will accelerate the ice loss as compared with what would happen in temperate latitudes.
Read More...
Arctic Tipping Points - #4: The Broken Bridges Of Nares
In this current article I am going to show what is happening in the Nares Strait and Lincoln Sea area North of Greenland. The ice in that area is showing signs of very early melting and dispersion.
The Arctic Ocean is the world's cooler. If it switches from mainly reflective ice to mainly absorptive water it will be as if the human race has switched off the cooling fan and switched on the room heater. In the height of Summer, that is not a rational thing to do.
Deny what you will, the Arctic is not behaving normally. A few paragraphs being quoted out of context are doing the rounds of the deniersphere:
Read More...
Report: Ocean acidification rising at unprecedented rate
WASHINGTON -- With the oceans absorbing more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide an hour, a National Research Council study released Thursday found that the level of acid in the oceans is increasing at an unprecedented rate and threatening to change marine ecosystems.
The council said the oceans were 30 percent more acidic than they were before the Industrial Revolution started roughly 200 years ago, and the oceans absorb one-third of today's carbon dioxide emissions.
Unless emissions are reined in, ocean acidity could increase by 200 percent by the end of the century and even more in the next century, said James Barry, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California and one of the study's authors.
"Acidification is changing the chemistry of the oceans at a scale and magnitude greater than thought to occur on Earth for many millions of years and is expected to cause changes in the growth and survival of a wide variety of marine organisms, potentially leading to massive shifts in ocean ecosystems," Barry told the Senate Commerce Committee's Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee on Thursday.
Read More...
Fungal Disease Spreads Through Pacific Northwest
A rare and dangerous fungal infection named Cryptococcus gattii has been quietly spreading from British Columbia southward to the U.S. Pacific Northwest. And it's changing as it goes.
Researchers have discovered that a unique strain of the bug has emerged recently in Oregon and already spread widely there, sickening humans and animals.
So far, over the past 11 years there have been about 220 cases reported in British Columbia. Since 2004, doctors in Washington and Oregon have reported about 50 cases. Among the total 270 cases, 40 people have died from overwhelming infections of the lungs and brain.
Public health officials aren't calling it a public health emergency. The fungus can't be spread from person to person, and there doesn't seem to be any prospect of an explosive epidemic. But they do want doctors to be on the lookout for cases, because early diagnosis and proper treatment is vital to prevent deaths.
Read More...
The Birds And The Bees Thrown Off By Early Spring
Scientists who study the world's climate have predicted that global warming could cause spring to start earlier. And that appears to be what's happening, at least in some places.
The signs vary, but you don't have to look around to see them -- you can rely on your nose.
"Our noses start running earlier in the spring than they used to," says David Schimel, a scientist who runs the National Ecological Observatory Network, or NEON.
Now, noses aren't exactly scientific instruments, and it's not just pollen that can make them run. So scientists look for other markers of spring. Schimel looks for them in the Rocky Mountains.
Snow Melts Earlier
"One of the most reliable ones is the timing of snowmelt," he says. "Looking back over those records retrospectively, one can see a very steady, progressive change towards earlier snowmelt and earlier runoff."
There are other signs, too: lilacs or dogwoods are flowering earlier in many places, for example. Scientists who study how seasons affect plant and animal life cycles -- it's called phenology -- say that on average, spring comes several days earlier now than it did a few decades ago.
They've collected years of data that show it's not just an odd year now and then, but something persistent -- and something climate scientists say is a sign of a warming world.
Read More...
Sheryl Crow Tells Why She Became a Green Advocate
Last week, I had the honor of presenting the NRDC's Forces for Nature Award to Sheryl Crow, the Grammy-winning artist and environmentalist, at NRDC's benefit in New York City.
It was a pleasure to celebrate Sheryl's commitment to the environment. She has tapped her passion and expertise to promote green solutions.
As a global warming advocate, took a model she is deeply familiar with--hitting the road in a tour bus--and joined NRDC Trustee Laurie David in a barnstorming campaign through Southern college towns to educate students about climate change.
She was able to attract people who might not have been concerned about the issue, and then she mobilized them to take positive action.
And that is one of the things I admire most about Sheryl. An air of optimism animates her work. She believes that given the right information, more and more Americans will embrace sustainable practices.
Read More...
Ocean Acidification Hits Northwest Oyster Farms
Mark Wiegardt and Sue Cudd have each dedicated about 30 years of their lives to bringing oysters to our tables. Now the two have found themselves in the forefront of one of the newest, most pressing environmental issues of our time: ocean acidification.
It all began with the oyster larvae at their Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery in Tilamook, Ore.
"It first started in 2007. We had a situation here when all of a sudden, our larvae started dying," said Wiegardt.
"At first we started wondering, what is wrong? Bacterial problems? What are we doing wrong?" Cudd said.
Desperate, Wiegardt and Cudd turned to expert oceanographer Burke Hales and his team from Oregon State University to study the new and alarming enigma. They learned that the Pacific waters piped into their hatchery from nearby Netarts Bay were the cause of the dying
Read More...
Blue Man Group in 'Earth to America'
The Blue Man Group, founded in 1987 by New York performing artists Phil Stanton, Chris Wink and Matt Goldman, has taken up a new message, releasing a video on YouTube warning of inaction in the face of global climate change.
The group, which today features numerous productions in various cities dedicated to creating "excitement-generating experiences," has long colored shows with various themes - forcing audiences to chose between reading three simultaineous information streams as example of information overload, or feigning innocence while staging an elegant dinner consisting of nothing but Twinkies.
The Blue Man Group, famous for building shows around themes such as information overload and innocence, has taken on climate change with a two-minute YouTube clip warning against inaction. As of Saturday 3.5 million viewers have watched.
Read More...
FIRE AND ICE: AN EARTH DAY WARNING.
The eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano was an act of nature, correct?
Think not. It was an act of man.
Who can forget Jules Verne's book "A Journey to the Centre of the Earth?" In this always considered fictitious work Professor Lidenbrock discovers directions to the center of our planet written in code by Icelandic scientist Arne Saknussemm. Lidenbrock, nephew Axel and Icelandic hunter Hans Bjelke set off on an expedition to the bowels of the Earth. Entering a cavern in the dormant volcano SnĘfellsj–kulla they descend perilously to find a deep subterranean ocean which they cross on a raft made of giant mushroom stalks. Clueless as how to find their way back to the surface, miraculously the three are ejected from the earth's core by riding a column of water and lava within active volcano Mt. Stromboli near Sicily in the Mediterranean.
The trouble is the book is not fiction but fact. A route to the very core of our planet was found in 1863. If Jules Verne envisioned a trip to the moon in "From the Earth to the Moon"(1865) and nuclear submarines "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (1869–1870), why wouldn't we believe a trip to the earth's center?
Read More...