In as roundtable discussion at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Ken Caldeira argues for a consideration of the need to geoengineer, despite the risks of such an effort. He cites an especially alarming study, Global and Regional Drivers of Accelerating CO2 Emissions, by Michael Raupach, with a particularly vivid graph. Caldeira writes: While we mightContinue reading “What, Us Worry? (Accelerating CO2 Emissions edition)”
Category Archives: climate
The Wets Get Wetter, the Dries Get Drier
So says a new report — Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate — available at the U.S. Climate Change Science Program site. The title could be better, but it’s free. The report points to wetter storms (especially in the Midwest) and more severe droughts (especially in the Southwest). For someone living in SouthernContinue reading “The Wets Get Wetter, the Dries Get Drier”
Chart of the Week
From the scientific global warming report required by a l990 law, belatedly released by the White House, the Scientific Assessment of Global Change on the United States report (via the WSJ)…a graph showing temperature increases by region [pp56].
No More Boiled Frogs! Dragons, Please
James Fallows of The Atlantic has been banging on against the boiled frog metaphor often used to describe the slow public reaction to the threat of climate change. Why? One reason: it’s not true (here). Personally, I’m sick and tired of the canary in a coal mine metaphor, but at least that has a basisContinue reading “No More Boiled Frogs! Dragons, Please”
Graph of the Week
From a just-published study in Nature that divides the globe into cells, and studies the cells for evidence of warming vs. cooling. Surprise, surprise, they find far more warming than cooling. I know this will change the minds of the delayers. It’s another $32 study, but this one looks like a doozy: may have toContinue reading “Graph of the Week”
Critical Habitat for Polar Bears Disappearing, WSJ Shows
A tough story from Wall Street Journal tries to strike a balance in discussing the listing of the polar bear as a threatened species. The first two graphs: Visitors to some of the oil fields that fringe Alaska’s Beaufort Sea get this rather disturbing warning before venturing out into the Arctic cold: Look carefully underContinue reading “Critical Habitat for Polar Bears Disappearing, WSJ Shows”
Deserts Far Better Carbon Sink Than Expected
Some actual good news today, from a research team at one of this countries premier climate research centers, the Desert Research Institute, which reports that unspectacular desert plants may be far better at taking CO2 out of the atmosphere than previously thought. The annual removal of the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere was upwards ofContinue reading “Deserts Far Better Carbon Sink Than Expected”
Methane Levels Jump: AGW to Accelerate?
According to a press release from NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmopheric Association), the percentage of methane in the atmosphere jumped sharply in 2007. Could this be the beginning of the long-feared melting of the methane deposits frozen in permafrost? Methane levels rose last year for the first time since 1998. Methane is 25 timesContinue reading “Methane Levels Jump: AGW to Accelerate?”
Global Warming Moving Jet Streams Northward, Researchers Suspect
Numerous different researchers at different institutions have found that global warming is altering the nature and strength of the the jetstreams that move weather around the planet. At the Carnegie Institute, based at Stanford, Cristina Archer and Ken Caldeira looked at jetstream trends from the years l979-2001. (Some people have all the luck.) In aContinue reading “Global Warming Moving Jet Streams Northward, Researchers Suspect”
When a Nobel Prize on the Mantle Is Really Useful
When is a Nobel Prize truly useful? When you’re confronted in your field by something you don’t understand, and need to say: I don’t get it. Recently a famous economist named Martin Weitzman of Harvard released a paper on "the economics of catastrophic climate change" that has experts around the world scratching their head inContinue reading “When a Nobel Prize on the Mantle Is Really Useful”
Kit Stolz 