The big news in climate this week was the publication of a study by Susan Solomon, who testified before Congress on climate change about this time last year, on irreversible climate change. Even if we ceased emitting carbon dioxide today, Solomon and her coauthors show that we will be dealing with a thousand years ofContinue reading “Irreversible Climate Change and Drought in the Southwest”
Category Archives: climate
Drought in the Southwest Can Last for Decades — or Centuries
One of the interesting reports coming out of the American Geophysical Union conference this year was on "abrupt" climate change. For a long time the Dust Bowl droughts of the l930's, which were indeed severe, were considered the worst the Southwest could expect. But now, based on tree-ring and pollen "proxy" studies, scientists can withContinue reading “Drought in the Southwest Can Last for Decades — or Centuries”
Climate Change in CA: What Has Happened Already
From the California Department of Water Resources White Paper, pdf, dated 10/08: While the exact conditions of future climate change remain uncertain, there is no doubt about the changes that have already happened. Analysis of paleoclimatic data (such as tree-ring reconstructions of streamflow and precipitation) indicates a history of naturally and widely varying hydrologic conditionsContinue reading “Climate Change in CA: What Has Happened Already”
Methane Time Bomb — Ticking Louder
At a press conference Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, a Russian scientist who has spent the last fifteen years tracking the release of methane from Siberia was asked if a huge surge he and his team detected this summer constituted "a global emergency." Igor Similetov did not say no, and didContinue reading “Methane Time Bomb — Ticking Louder”
Global Warming: Good News for California Coast?
Four weeks ago in Southern California, Santa Ana winds threatened to drive two fires in Simi Valley — the Porter Ranch and the Sesnon Fire — on a path through the sun-baked hills towards the ocean. But instead of building in strength and destructiveness, as the winds often have in the past, the Santa AnasContinue reading “Global Warming: Good News for California Coast?”
Global Warming Quote of the First Millenium
We can change our skies but not our nature. –Horace [Found this in a recent book of fiction, so I can't reference it. Nor can I find it on-line, as of yet. But it's so good I am going to read into Horace and look for it…how could he have known?] Pic from sumthingdifferent onContinue reading “Global Warming Quote of the First Millenium”
Good News Friday: Global Warming Lessening Santa Ana Wind Conditions
Don't have time to get into the nitty-gritty of the details today, but here's the gist: a team of researchers at UCLA led by Professor Alex Hall is reporting that anthropogenic global warming is reducing by about one-third the pressure in the Great Basin that builds every year and leads to dangerous Santa Ana windContinue reading “Good News Friday: Global Warming Lessening Santa Ana Wind Conditions”
Meanwhile, Back on Earth…
What is happening with carbon emissions is genuinely scary (and here we’re talking about the known risks, not the unknown risks). Here are the conclusions of the just-released Global Carbon Project report for 2007: —Anthropogenic CO2 emissions are growing 4x faster since 2000 than during the previous decade, and above the worst-case emission scenario ofContinue reading “Meanwhile, Back on Earth…”
Global Warming Helps Cool CA Coast, Study Finds
In a story that has yet to be covered by the San Diego Union-Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, or even the Los Angeles Times, this week the Ventura County Star featured on the front page (see here) a story about a San Jose State researcher, Robert Bornstein, who has found substantial evidence that global warmingContinue reading “Global Warming Helps Cool CA Coast, Study Finds”
Climate Change: No Moderates Allowed
As Martin Parry, who supervised the impacts and assessments section of the massive Climate Change 2007 (Physical Science edition) IPCC report writes (here) in this weekend’s Guardian, it’s shockingly difficult to find moderates on the subject of climate change. One tends to have scientists and advocates warning that if we don’t take drastic action immediately,Continue reading “Climate Change: No Moderates Allowed”
Kit Stolz 